Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

While Silver Moon continued to slap himself in deep remorse, Southern Lone Blade, who had just heard the news from Glue, immediately furrowed his brows. Ever since their debut, Southern Lone Blade and his men had only ever imagined such a situation happening, but they had never truly experienced it before. Because they were worried about such a matter occurring, they had always been very careful of their true objective getting revealed. However, this time, due to Southern Lone Blade’s team coming across Gu Fei, an enemy who knew them well, they ended up getting exposed in totality, such that Vast Lushness very quickly surmised that the only item worth looting off her was that magic staff she owned.

What should they do in such a situation? Southern Lone Blade and the others once had a serious discussion about this, and they concluded that it would be very troublesome, so they decided that their best bet was to prevent such a problematic scenario from even happening. Furthermore, thinking that they were dealing with top-grade equipment here, they reckoned most people might not be so resolute as to directly give up like this, which was also why they had not been particularly worried about such an eventuality. Alas, right now, they had not expected that a woman like Vast Lushness would be so daring and unwavering to abandon her top-grade equipment just like that.

“What do we do now?” Everyone turned to look at Southern Lone Blade. Evidently, this team of seven had far better cohesion than Blue Ease’s men. Each member turned to their boss when faced with a problem.

“We’ve already gotten his deposit, and even though Silver Moon is a trash bag, what makes me all the more unwilling to give up is the fact that I must pay him back double his deposit if we abandon the assignment right here,” Southern Lone Blade spat.

“Yeah!” everybody agreed wholeheartedly. Southern Lone Blade had told the others about Silver Moon once they returned, and all were unified in their anger and indignance toward him. Their pride was wounded given how the man had actually doubted their team’s professionalism.

“Let’s head over to the Auction House first to take a look,” Flame Singed Clothes suggested.

“Wait!” Southern Lone Blade suddenly paused, causing everyone to turn their attention to him.

Southern Lone Blade nodded his head.

The seven headed back to the city from the grinding map they were in, and along the way, they discovered that there were fewer players out grinding in the various grinding maps today. As they wondered about this, completely lost as to why this was the case, they finally made it to the city gates of Baishi City. It was already midnight now, yet the city gates were surprisingly crowded. It was apparent that something unusual was happening in Baishi City, but as the seven of them took note of these people around them, they soon realized that they were all just unaffiliated players looking to party up and do some level grinding.

Such a situation rarely ever happened, because unaffiliated players did not know each other. If they did not have enough members, they could simply merge two parties into one, three into two; essentially, the problems they faced were easily solved, so there was no need for them to wait too long to form up a proper party. However, right now, there were just so many parties left high and dry out here. Southern Lone Blade and the others carefully observed these players yet again and finally saw that every party present lacked Priests.

“Bro, what’s going on here?” Glue went forward to a nearby player to inquire after the situation.

“D*mm*t. I heard that there’s a top-grade Priest magic staff placed for bidding in the Auction House; all the Priests have ran over there. It’s fine if they have the money to make a bid, but , taking a glimpse of it is more than enough if that’s not the case; what’s the point of those Priests gathering themselves over there, anyway?” This person was complaining endlessly.

“Is that so? How long have you guys been waiting here?” Glue asked.

“Almost half an hour now. M*th*rf*ck*r. There’re still plenty of parties ahead, too!”

Glue took another look around him after hearing this and realized that every party present had actually lined themselves up properly, probably in an effort to coax the Priests that might appear. This was why everybody had harmoniously lined their parties up. For every Priest that arrived, a party would leave. Today was not the day to have the unreasonable dream of having two Priests in a party.

Glue turned to share this information with Southern Lone Blade and the rest, but he instead discovered that they were already mired in a fracas on their end. The players waiting by the city gate for Priests to appear were barely able to contain themselves when the two Priests Paddy Scent Pastures and Verdant Timber appeared; the two were immediately surrounded and wrangled by these parties. Before either could say a word, the other players already started squabbling for them.

“F*ck, what are you snatching for?! Haven’t we agreed to queue in order?!” someone shouted.

“D*mn! There’re two Priests here, so the two parties can get one each. Are you trying to steal them both?!”

“Even if there’s only one, it isn’t your turn for it. It’s our turn!”

“No, ours! Ours!”

It was fine if Priests trickled in one by one as everybody could still maintain a semblance of discipline, but the moment two Priests appeared together at once, the situation quickly descended into an uproar. Paddy Scented Pastures and Verdant Timber had experienced all sorts of situations, but this was actually a first for them. The two men were delighted being fought over by all these players, and neither made any effort to speak up for a good moment. Finally, it was still Southern Lone Blade who stepped forward. “Gentlemen, please calm down. We’re a fixed team.”

“Hey, man. You’ve only got six members in your team. Two Priests is just too much of a luxury. Mind if you yield one to us?” Someone identified Southern Lone Blade to be the leader of the group, so he swiftly came over to negotiate.

“Yield? What a joke! Bro, we’ll hire one of your Priest. 50 gold coins an hour!”

Southern Lone Blade did not know whether he should cry or laugh. “We’ve got something on!”

“What could be more important than level grinding?” These people were unwilling to relent. They were all done foolishly waiting for Priests. Some even approached Paddy Scented Pastures and Verdant Timber directly. “Brothers, I see that the level of the team you’re running with isn’t too high. Some of them haven’t even reached level 40 yet; what’s the point of following them? Come join us, instead. We are a ten-man party, and all are level 41 to boot. You’ll see your experience bar steadily surge upwards.”

Neither Priest said a word, continuing to enjoy this royalty treatment, even as they glanced at Blackwater and Flame Singed Clothes that were standing beside them; They were the two ‘noobs’ who had yet to reach level 40 these surrounding players were talking about and treating like a bad joke.

“Say something, you two b*st*rds!” Southern Lone Blade yelled at the two over the party channel, incensed when he saw the two only staying silent at such a crucial moment.

They no longer had the audacity to drag this matter any further and quickly explained to the players surrounding them. “We’re busy. Really busy.”

Now that the players themselves had spoken, the players around tried to make a few more attempts to further persuade them but ultimately dispersed and left them alone once it was clear that they would still be rejected. Southern Lone Blade and the others did not dare to dawdle as they rushed away from that place, which treated Priests like precious treasures.

“D*mm*t. Isn’t it just a top-grade magic staff being auctioned? Is there a need for all the Priests in the city to get into such a tizzy?” Flame Singed Clothes’ heart shuddered as he said this. The whole lot of men just now had tried to curry favor with Paddy Scented Pastures and Verdant Timber, while he, a Mage that was not even at level 40, had been thoroughly ignored. Some of the players casually slapped him about, with some of the more Strength-oriented players being a little heavy-handed. Flame Singed Clothes felt lucky that he had not been slapped to death by all those hands.

“Top-grade equipment is truly priceless!” Blackwater sighed in awe.

Even Southern Lone Blade nodded. “And this is that magic staff that Vast Lushness has! Imagine if it’s Thousand Miles Drunk’s sword with its unknown traits, or even that scumbag Silver Moon’s King’s Blade, how much of an uproar do you think that would cause?”

“He he! We’ve chosen the right line of work, gentlemen. We’ve really got a bright future ahead of us!” Glue said.

“Oh, yes…” The row of seven men cried tears of joy, proud of themselves for having chosen the life of larceny…

——————————–

“The Auction House is just ahead.” The seven of them were finally nearing the Auction House. While Southern Lone Blade and his team were busy getting themselves out of trouble, Glue had already gathered information about the situation with the magic staff and confirmed it to be the Utopian Magic Staff that they were after. He also found out about the duration of the auction, as well as the fact that the item had no price cap.

The Priests at the Auction House were naturally there to take a look at the stats of the staff, as well as its price, neither of which Southern Lone Blade’s gang was interested in. Now that they were near the establishment, what the seven were more concerned with was the layout of the area around the place.

“This is a trap!” On the way over, Southern Lone Blade suddenly threw out this possibility.

“A trap?” The six furrowed their brows.

“No matter how I look at it, this magic staff is simply causing far too much a stir. A 24-hour auction, and it’s only been seven hours since it was first listed. For it to take the city by storm that even the unaffiliated teams have trouble finding a Priest… Don’t you think that this is a little exaggerated?” Southern Lone Blade asked.

“It may be seven hours now, but I heard that Priests have begun to get anxious around 10 PM last night,” Glue chipped in.

“That only highlights the problem even further. In just a span of two hours, the news of the item had already spread so far and wide. I do believe someone must be intentionally causing this, don’t you?” Southern Lone Blade asked.

“That isn’t exactly difficult to explain away, though. Take the seller as an example; it makes sense for her to spread the news as best as she can to let more people be aware of it,” Flame Singed Clothes considered.

“Yes, I heard that even a post of it appeared on the forums,” Glue added.

“I know that’s a possibility, but considering the relationship the seller has with us, we ought to be all the more wary of it,” Southern Lone Blade reasoned.

“What do you mean?”

“There’re two possibilities,” Southern Lone Blade raised his finger. “First, if the whole city knows, there’s no reason we will not know. Vast Lushness is using this situation to send a message to us, informing us that she no longer holds the magic staff, so we should stop looking for her.”

Everyone nodded.

“That would be fine if that’s the case. What’s problematic is if this is a trap within a trap! If we understand that there’s such a possibility, then we will need to find out just who ends up owning that magic staff. As a result, we will have to keep watch over the NPC in charge of handling the goods over at the Auction House. Since this is a necessity on our part, that will give our enemies a chance to ambush us! That is the second possibility that we need to be worried about,” Southern Lone Blade said.

“Who’s gonna plan things out to such lengths, though…”

“I don’t know. The scariest part of this scheme is that although we suspect that there’s a trap set for us here, we have no choice but to go with the plan and act accordingly. This schemer has homed in on the fact that we might not be willing to risk the possibility of failing in our assignment,” Southern Lone Blade replied.

“Hey, this is all just conjecture! Can you not say it as if it’s a fact?” Glue said.

Southern Lone Blade chuckled bitterly. “That’s precisely the skepticism the schemer is trying to sow in us. It’d be great if it’s all just hot air.”

“Then, what are we going to do? Won’t we be in danger if we head over to take a look now?” Glue asked.

“We’re not going in. Let’s observe the situation from somewhere nearby first,” Southern Lone Blade decided.

At the moment, the seven of them were already close to where the Auction House was, and they walked around the many streets and alleys around the area once over.

“I’ve yet to see anything strange.” They were all veterans when it came to staking out targets, and ambushes were their strong suit as well. After finishing walking that one round, all they saw were Priests running about, and there was nothing else out of the ordinary.

“The terrain here in the heart of the city is wide and open, with plenty of people in various streets and alleys. The most important aspect of ambushing someone here will be the manpower. It’ll take a level 4 guild or above to completely seal this area up. There’re so many different streets here; how are they going to guard them all?” This was the conclusion Glue came to after he finished his observation.