Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“The plan could still be considered as quite a success!” Blue Ease said when he walked up to Young Master Han and Brother Assist. One of his underlings was tasked with purchasing the magic staff. Even though Vast Lushness had informed this person of the time to make a bid right down to the very last second, it was still not particularly easy to achieve this. Moreover, with how the man managed to get an auction panel despite the quandary that they were in, Blue Ease felt that his comrades had done him proud this time, and this thought greatly comforted him. Even though his men were now crowding around Gu Fei, requesting for him to show them that earth-shatteringly powerful sword of his again, which brought Blue Ease some embarrassment, but… Frankly speaking, the stats and traits of Gu Fei’s Moonlit Nightfalls were so certifiable ludicrous even he could not help but hope to admire it a little longer.

“Successful, my *ss!” Young Master Han was livid, and seeing Blue Ease happily run over to praise his plan, it was only natural for him to lash out at the man.

“What’s the matter?” Blue Ease gawked.

“With that guy messing things up, how would Southern Lone Blade fall for the trap?” Young Master Han pointed at Gu Fei, who was currently surrounded by Blue Ease’s men, when he gave this reply. Even Fireball was surrounded by a handful of players after he got lucky enough to use Moonlit Nightfalls once; the kid was beside himself with joy at this.

Blue Ease, of course, knew what Young Master Han meant by ‘messing things up’, so he helplessly answered, “That can’t be helped. It’s actually a good thing that Brother Miles came up with such a plan to divert people’s attention, giving us the chance to snatch a spot by the auction panel. Otherwise, we would’ve gone through all that trouble for nothing!”

Young Master Han patted Blue Ease heavily on his back. “Bro, let me remind you, but what we’re doing now is still for nothing.”

Blue Ease was stunned but then realized that his words made sense. They might have managed to win back the magic staff in all their haste, but they had all seemingly forgotten what their purpose was for putting it up for bid in the first place. From this perspective, not only did they fail to make Southern Lone Blade fall for their trap, everyone had also nearly lost the magic staff by putting it up for auction. All they got from this ordeal was a heart-pounding memory of everything that had happened, and their payment of the handling fee that the system charged for the auction.

“Uhh…” Not wanting to admit that the exciting bid his party had managed to pull off was entirely meaningless, Blue Ease struggled to put a positive spin into this. “At least, we didn’t lose the magic staff!”

“If that’s the goal we had in mind, why even put it up for auction?” Young Master Han asked.

“Uhm… perhaps Southern Lone Blade and the others still fell for it. There’s no telling that they didn’t!” Blue Ease comforted.

Young Master Han looked at the sky. “It’d be great if they were as stupid as you are.”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” Blue Ease was infuriated. He already had his prejudice about Young Master Han, yet for the sake of a pleasant cooperation, he adopted an ‘achieving concord after discord’ sort of mentality. However, it appeared that a happy cooperation was just wistful thinking on his part, since this man evidently believed that this cooperation was a total failure.

“Southern Lone Blade’s not going to fall for it; you guys had better continue protecting Vast Lushness’ magic staff!” Young Master Han said matter-of-factly.

“Do you think we can’t protect her?” Blue Ease seethed.

“You guys?” Young Master Han threw him a contemptuous look before sneering. “Hadn’t it been for Miles, you guys would’ve already auctioned off the magic staff by now. How are you going to protect anything?”

“You’re the one that came up with the plan! Why didn’t you consider that such a situation might occur?!” Everyone had overlooked the possibility of the Auction House filling up to the point there being no space for them to get in. Young Master Han should not be the only one to blame, and Blue Ease had no intention of blaming anyone for it either, but feeling slighted by Young Master Han’s disdainful comments, all he could do was use this very incident as ammunition after failing to find an impactful rebuttal at the moment.

Realizing that the situation was taking a turn for the worse, Brother Assist was about to step forward and mediate between the two when Young Master Han placidly replied, “Why would I have overlooked such an outcome? I was merely using the situation intentionally to get Vast Lushness’s magic staff sold for real, turning the charade into reality to lure Southern Lone Blade out.”

It’s over… Brother Assist sighed to the heavens. The moment he had made sense of Young Master Han’s true plan, he was already carefully thinking of how to hide this from others. Who would have guessed that Young Master Han would just casually reveal this by himself, though? He did not even look like he was forced into making the confession, nor did it seem that it was a slip of tongue in a moment of impulse. Young Master Han revealed it entirely because Blue Ease happened to raise the issue; thusly, he organically told the truth.

“What did you say?” Blue Ease was utterly startled. It was apparent how impactful this revelation was. The contempt that the two had for each other could be written off as mere bickering between compatriots, but Young Master Han’s admittance was severe enough to turn friends into foes.

“Unfortunately, it failed!” Young Master Han shrugged, looking hardly affected. Brother Assist was almost in tears as he stood by watching this; this man’s arrogance was just too abominable. Why must I be the one here at this place?! Why couldn’t it be Sword Demon, Miles, Royal, or Wounds? Why are the whole lot of them not here instead of me?

Before anything happened with either party in the center of the storm, it was the onlooker Brother Assist that got twisted in the wind.

“What you just say… repeat it once more,” Blue Ease spoke haltingly.

Young Master Han turned his head and walked away. It was just like Brother Assist had thought. Young Master Han did not speak all that out of impulse or annoyance. Rather, he simply lacked any sort of empathy for others. He only said everything in accordance to the flow of the conversation. Simply regarding Blue Ease’s ‘repeat it once more’ as a sort of senseless request, Young Master Han ignored it and walked away.

“Stop right there!” Blue Ease stalked after him in his outrage. Brother Assist rushed to interject. “Uhm… hey… uhh…” Brother Assist wanted to say, ‘Don’t be mistaken. He only said all that in spite,’ to help stall for Young Master Han, but he immediately thought of how Young Master Han would just dismiss his good intention. There was even a good chance that that man would stop and turn his head to regard him scornfully, saying something along the lines of, ‘Spite? What are you, an idiot?’ It was with such considerations that Brother Assist continued to be at a loss for words, simply unable to say anything substantial to help alleviate this mess.

A glance from Blue Ease here made it all the more apparent that this was no act, so he called for the man to stand still again, even as he lifted his hand and chanted an incantation. A bolt of lightning came crashing down from the sky and struck the ground before Young Master Han.

Blue Ease was stunned. It appeared that Young Master Han had listened to his second cry to stand still, for he actually came to a stop. Ultimately, he was not struck by that bolt of lightning, but Blue Ease knew that his call for that man to halt was no preemptive warning. He had yelled it just like what people would shout for show when engaging in PvP. Young Master Han coming to a halt obviously meant that he had already expected an attack to come his way, choosing to retreat instead of carrying on his way, which caused the spell Blue Ease had tossed over to miss its target. After all, he had calculated it to factor in the advancing pace of Young Master Han.

“State things clearly before you leave!” Young Master Han’s dodge had caused Blue Ease to calm down a bit. Blue Ease really felt that his personality had changed. Had it been back when he was in Yueye City, he would not have even said anything like ‘state things clearly’ or even call out ‘stop right there’ twice. Instead, he would have sent a Lightning Bolt straight at the target right from the start.

With a spell released and all that yelling, everyone finally realized that something was happening here and soon crowded around the two.

“What happened?” Vast Lushness did not think too much of this altercation. She knew how unlikable Young Master Han was as a person, and given the personality her comrades from Yueye City had, she was already convinced there was no way they would try to communicate things out first without resorting to fighting right away.

“This guy, he knew that the Auction House would be filled with people in the final hour, yet he made no preparations to secure a position to bid for the staff. In fact, he intentionally failed to mention it and made us pool our gold coins at that time to prevent us from positioning ourselves by the auction panels in time. He really intended to sell off the Utopian Magic Staff in hopes of turning the charade into reality all in order for Southern Lone Blade to fall for the ploy.” Blue Ease was no fool, so he even helped Young Master Han fill in a bit more detail.

The complexion of everybody present changed. How Young Master Han had gone about this was utterly callous and far too treacherous. Even Sakurazaka Moony and the others, who considered Gu Fei and his fellow mercenaries as among their brothers-in-arms, also felt that what Young Master Han had done was too much.

Curses rang from every direction, amplified greatly with everyone crowding around him.

However, Young Master Han turned a deaf ear to their shouting as he nonchalantly swept his gaze across everybody. “You’re already like this when the staff is still in your possession. What would you guys do if it really got sold off?”

Nobody could stand the fact that he was still mocking them despite the situation he was facing. The crowd took a step closer, as if they were about to reap his soul. Sakurazaka Moony and his men did not follow suit. They showed no intention of stopping them, either. He and his men merely stood where they were as they showed a troubled expression.

“Can’t you say a few words less…” Brother Assist’s tears were flowing freely when he heard Young Master Han add kindling to the fire, especially since the latter had delivered it with the air of a big boss. At the same time, Brother Assistance might just become the cannon fodder to this mob – a collateral casualty. How could he find this bearable?

“Everybody, don’t panic.” Suddenly, someone came squeezing out of the crowd. Brother Assist looked and indeed saw his savior. The moment this person took a step over, everybody instinctively retreated a few steps in deference.

“Brother Miles, we know very well how indomitable you are, but we’re not afraid of death. If you’re gonna go out of your way for this man, then you’ll have to take us all out as well,” Blue Ease declared determinedly. Coming face to face against an insurmountable opponent, the man was actually surprisingly calm.

“Oh, you misunderstand. I’m here to help you guys,” Gu Fei said as he walked right up to Young Master Han. Gu Fei spoke to the Priest before him, but he was similarly addressing everyone around. “You’ve always been this callous sort!”

“You—”

Young Master Han had just squeezed out that one word when Gu Fei’s fist went flying straight out.

No matter how intelligent Young Master Han was, and how quick his reaction could be, the difference between Gu Fei and him when it came to close combat was like heaven and earth. This single punch Gu Fei had thrown struck him squarely on the cheek – a blow that sounded solid upon contact. While Gu Fei might not have enough Strength to pull this off on most people, it was effective against a Priest like Young Master Han, who had added his stats according to his Golden Ratio. His weak character physique meant even someone like Gu Fei, with the bit of Strength stats that he got from his equipment, would be able to be halfway decent in hurting Young Master Han. Adding his well-honed kung fu skills into the mix, that single punch caused Young Master Han’s face to turn inward – his head buckled to follow as his body inclined while his legs gave way. The man was swiftly floored with that one hit, creating a cloud of dust when he dropped to the ground.

The crowd was quiet. While it was only a punch, that punch from Gu Fei had actually successfully floored the man to such a degree that the average player would be unable to achieve. All they could do was cause their targets turn into a ball of light, yet this punch Gu Fei had thrown made everyone more satisfied than simply slaying Young Master Han where he stood.

“I’ve long since wanted to beat you up!” Gu Fei said as he stared at Young Master Han.

Young Master Han had already picked himself up from the ground and was now wiping the corners of his mouth. Nevertheless, he had the same recalcitrant expression. “You m*th*rf*ck*r.”