Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Coco and Xi Xiaotian had not been standing out in the open street talking this whole time, of course. The moment Gu Fei left, the two casually found a tavern, sitting in a corner to discuss things in depth.

Even though she had blocked Deep Waters, Coco still had access to her guild channel. She would take note of it from time to time, knowing full well that the channel would burst with activity once Broken Water Arrow became a victim of the assassination.

Unfortunately, the heavens never abided by the wishes of men; anything that someone hoped not to happen would occur, contradicting expectations. Coco waited with trepidation and finally saw the guild channel chat logs surge. She read them as the words passed, learning that Broken Water Arrow had been slain, yet the guild leader ordered the others not to tangle with the two perpetrators…

Who else could those two be? Coco had no idea what happened, but she was infuriated when she thought of how Gu Fei, who had gone searching for the man, ended up helping Sword Demon complete his kill, instead. She then read on and saw Broken Water Arrow take the moral high ground on the guild channel, telling his fellow members not to take things to heart and claiming the need to put the City War as priority. He asked everyone not to make any rash movement out of resentment. Coco was so incensed she had no idea what to say, merely harrumphing as she read on.

Observation was one of Xi Xiaotian’s strong suits, so she could quickly tell that something was wrong from Coco’s expression and immediately thought something had happened. She carefully asked the lady about this and Coco answered with a slap on the table. “Those two guys!”

“What happened?”

“They still managed to kill off Broken Water Arrow,” Coco answered.

“As long as he can get him to admit to his deeds through his words; all these other things don’t matter.” Xi Xiaotian laughed.

“Hmm. That’s true.” Coco nodded. However, in spite of this, the two men still needed to be severely reprimanded for their reckless action. She could immediately tell from reading through the messages over the guild channel that the two had not actually accomplished a covert assassination but a direct assault on Broken Water Arrow. Thankfully, the guild decided to focus on the bigger picture and did not impulsively hunt down the two for their transgression. Otherwise, both parties would end up letting loose a river of blood, and that would just be a terribly difficult mess to clean up! This was especially true for Coco; while Gu Fei and Sword Demon could pat their butts, leave without caring for the aftermath, and avoid contact with the other party until they died, the same could not be said for Coco. She could not possibly run away with the two men. She might have blocked Deep Waters, but she would have to speak to him sooner or later. At the end of the day, Coco was the poor wretch that was stuck in middle without any options, so she was also the person who had the most to look forward to if this matter got a peaceful resolution.

“Don’t be angry.” Xi Xiaotian saw that Coco was still in a huff and quickly consoled the woman. “A lady who’s angry won’t be pretty, and it would hasten aging, creating more wrinkles on the skin. Quick, drink some water and take a deep breath. Think about some happy thoughts!”

“Water? What’s the point of drinking water in the game?” Coco asked.

“You can always log off and drink it in real life!”

“Hmph. I’m not going anywhere. I want to wait for those two idiots and give them a proper tongue-lashing,” Coco said. She reckoned that the two would make their way over to meet them now that they had escaped with their hides intact. She did not bother to message either of the men and continued to sit there, awaiting their return like an empress dowager. Sure enough, in no time at all, Sword Demon’s message arrived. “Where are you?”

“Maple Leaf Tavern.” Coco found it extremely regrettable that her messaging was unable to express the icy tone in her voice.

“Maple Leaf Tavern…” Sword Demon quickly asked people around where this tavern was located and hurried over. Stepping into the establishment, he swept his gaze around the place and saw Coco and the swindler woman sitting together right there in a corner. Sword Demon was about to approach the two ladies, but he saw the clear profile of Coco’s face already turned to the side and immediately realized that something was off. This was clearly the sign of the calm before the storm.

Sword Demon had no wish to become the seagull caught up in the thunderstorm of rage that was Coco, so he decided to avoid it entirely by pretending to have gotten lost, heading back to the door. He planned to blindly go around the room once more before taking his leave while feigning ignorance. But his careful plan of sneaking out had actually been seen through by the swindler, getting Coco’s attention as she twisted her lips in direction of the man.

Crap! The word flashed like a lightning across his sea of thoughts and saw Coco turn her head over. She saw him looking at the door, as if he intended to leave and immediately stood up from the table. “F*ck! Don’t you dare run off!”

As the words left her lips, Coco had already dashed over with Fleetfoot, the dagger in her hands emitting out a chilling gleam as she streaked over. Sword Demon could tell that it was no ordinary item with a single glance. He did not dare dawdle with his actions, either, and swiftly pulled out his dagger to parry the blow. Both of them had the same Agility-based job class, and possessed agile movement. A vigorous fight immediately broke out in that small space of the tavern. Both parties changed positions, rolled about, poked at each other… All sort of skills and methods of attacks were displayed that even the onlookers had trouble keeping up with everything.

Finally, Coco managed to step past Sword Demon with a half pirouette and randomly grabbed a stool to smash right into the back of his head.

“Who told you to run?!” Coco shouted as the stool connected. Sword Demon felt a thud resonate from the back of his head. The blow did not split his skull open, but he was struck by her Bludgeon skill.

“Hmph!” Coco tossed that stool away and came round to Sword Demon’s front with her hands by her waist. Sword Demon flashed her a bitter smile, for he was silenced while Bludgeon was in effect.

“It’s fine it’s fine, please carry on with your business,” Seeing that some players had cautiously been prepared to leave the tavern, Coco quickly smiled sweetly at these people to set everyone’s mind at ease.

It was about this time when the Bludgeon effect ended, and Xi Xiaotian had walked over as well. Coco immediately probed, “Where’s that guy?” She wanted to know where Gu Fei was, for she had no wish to repeat her tirade twice.

“He logged out,” Sword Demon answered meekly.

Coco checked her friends’ list and confirmed he was indeed offline, “what luck.”

“You’re the one who’s lucky…” Sword Demon was being honest. He could already imagine that Coco would most likely find herself flat on the ground in that instant she came charging towards Gu Fei.

“I can attest to this,” Xi Xiaotian said. “That man has no sense of chivalry whatsoever, nor would he care to show moderation just because you’re a woman.”

“Oh? You can tell as well?” Sword Demon was rather surprised just like Coco. When it came to their gaming skills, Coco was at least weaker than Sword Demon by two stages. Even though Parallel World was more subversive as compared to the older MMOs out there, everyone had gotten used to it after playing for such a long time. Neither of them had fought in this game before, but Sword Demon knew Coco was no match for him after a few exchanges and even sensed that the gap between them was wider than before.

There was greater difficulty in this game as compared to the usage of the keyboard and mouse to play games. Sword Demon understood Coco and knew she would not be the sort that would work hard to study the nuances. Her habit was to pick up the attack routines used by the forebearers in these games and adequately practice to reach a semblance of skill, after all. In a game with such a high degree of freedom, it was not enough to depend on this alone, so it was not too odd to see Coco’s standard fall behind like this.

As for Coco, she was all the more aware that she was no match for Sword Demon, but at the same time, she was also keenly cognizant of the fact that Sword Demon would also go easy on her when sparring and would not seek to make her look bad.

Thus, while the fight before looked flashy and cool, the two tacitly understood in their hearts that it was all for show; they simply did not think that Xi Xiaotian would be able to tell as well.

“Amazing,” Sword Demon commended. To be able to discern the undertone in that exchange meant she had a certain level of skill herself. A swindler might be worth disdaining, but they would be well worthy of praise if they had gaming skills as well.

Xi Xiaotian instead chuckled. “That’s nothing. I’m just naturally talented when it comes to sniffing things out if any degree of deception is involved.”

“Come; let’s head back to our table!” Coco patted the two along. Her anger was appeased after having struck Sword Demon with a stool.

Back to their seats in the corner, no one spoke up for a short while. Sword Demon was feeling somewhat uneasy; he felt that it was inappropriate to get a swindler to help, but he sensed that the relationship between Gu Fei and Xi Xiaotian was not that simple, so he did not mention it to the man directly.

“Don’t think too much into things,” Xi Xiaotian suddenly said. “I’m not helping you guys, I simply think that this matter sounds fun and interesting, so I want to play with it a little.”

“Ah…” Sword Demon did not expect his thoughts to be seen through so thoroughly.

“Ignore him; he’s a stubborn fool.” Coco had a good understanding when it came to Sword Demon’s personality, so she was more or less able to guess what he was thinking. She was actually a little afraid that he would foolishly reject getting help from a swindler. Coco had no such scruples, so she casually took a jab at Sword Demon while Xi Xiaotian was coming clean with her position.

Sword Demon had no choice but to follow along with the two ladies, asking, “So how’s the plan coming along?”

“Miles said he got Brother Assist to find out more about the situation with the ‘Memory Blackbox’ spell, and he has yet to return with any information. That item is very important,” Coco said.

Sword Demon glanced at his friends list and nodded. “Brother Assist isn’t back yet.”

“He’s gone for quite some time already…” Brother Assist had left to inquire for more information at about the same time Gu Fei had left to search for Sword Demon. Both men returned, yet there was still no news from Brother Assist.

“Don’t worry! It’s not some rare item, right? Brother Assist is sure to find out more; I reckon he caught sight of a post he’s interested in and couldn’t help himself but join in on the topic for a bit!” Sword Demon assured Coco. He knew how passionate Brother Assist was toward his pastime, so the likelihood of this happening was high.

“I’m so anxious,” Coco said. “I’m gonna head to the market and take a look; maybe, I might stumble on it!”

“But this plan, isn’t exactly urgent, is it?” Sword Demon asked questioningly.

“What do you mean? How long do you want me and Deep Waters to not be on speaking terms with each other?” Coco pointed her finger fiercely toward Sword Demon.

“That’s not what I meant,” Sword Demon hurriedly replied.

“Leave all this to me! Honestly, it’s best if you guys or your friends stay away from every detail of this plan. In the event that Broken Water Arrow and his accomplices are to find out about this, it will certainly heighten the man’s vigilance and this will all backfire spectacularly, instead,” Xi Xiaotian said.

“That’s true…” Coco nodded. She was considered as one of the more popular figures in Linyin City, after all. Thus, she was sure to draw attention or even rumors if she ran around the market searching for something like ‘Memory Blackbox’. It was really a huge risk.

“So what about you, Xiaotian?” Coco asked. “Don’t you have accomplices of your own? A partner perhaps?”

“Nope.” Xi Xiaotian shook her head.

“If it’s usually just you alone… uhh… Don’t you need accomplices when doing things?” Coco probed.

“The most important thing between accomplices is trust, but once two swindlers gain each other’s trust, can you imagine just how dangerous that is?” Xi Xiaotian asked.

“You must decide if the friendship or the profit is more important,” Sword Demon interjected.

“When there’s friendship, there’s sure to be profits; but the moment there’s profit, suddenly, friendship won’t matter. Interpersonal relationships aren’t that simple,” Xi Xiaotian answered.

“But doing so much things by yourself is just so… tiring…” Coco stared at Sword Demon, returning to the subject at hand.

“Not really! If Brother Assist discovers any weird drops anywhere, he’s sure to ask you guys to go slay it. Besides, there’s a portion of this plan that requires you guys to make an appearance.” Xi Xiaotian smiled.