Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Having experienced plenty of counter-encirclement skirmishes, Vast Lushness’s senses had essentially been honed to the point that she quickly realized the changes in the people around them. Meanwhile, Svelte Dancer was speaking with a level haughtiness that matched Young Master Han’s disregard for anybody listening, so she did not notice what had just occurred. She was still staring intently at the queuing players that were now hesitating to retrieve their goods, yelling at those staring fixedly at them. “What are you looking over here for?! Haven’t you seen a beauty before? Carry on with your retrieval.”

Just as those words left her lips, Vast Lushness promptly dragged her right out the door. They were two ladies, so most players would instinctively be more accommodating to them. None of them wanted to make any move before they clearly knew what the ladies’ intention was; were Glue and Flame Singed Clothes in their shoes, they would long be surrounded en masse and covered in spittle.

“What are we running for?” Svelte Dancer had yet to realize what was amiss as they made their way out of the Auction House.

“Your voice was too loud; the people there thought that the two of us are looking to rob someone,” Vast Lushness explained.

“Who dares?!” Svelte Dancer had her arms akimbo, glaring threateningly when she turned around. The gazes of more than half of the people inside were still following the two ladies, so Svelte Dancer managed to catch the bewildered suspicion in their eyes.

“We’ll go according to your plan and wait for their reply.” Vast Lushness had no wish for there to be even more trouble, so she hurriedly tugged at Svelte Dancer to leave.

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Southern Lone Blade had already lost count of how many sleepless nights he had suffered. Ever since he began his foray in Parallel World, Southern Lone Blade had been maximizing his time gaming by staying up overnight. Compared to the other players, the hours he spent online were much longer. Today was his first time sleeping like a normal person, yet he ended up tossing and turning in his bed, unable to get a wink of sleep.

He was having trouble with his assignment, and his business was at a bottleneck. This was the problem Southern Lone Blade and his comrades were entangled with right now. None of them was even in the mood to exchange goodbyes before they got offline today, which only went to show how their morale was truly at its pits.

“One magic staff, two magic staves…” Southern Lone Blade’s heart and mind had conjured images of the magic staff, as if he were counting sheep, reaching over a thousand before he finally fell asleep.

———————————————-

The rest of his team were also online when he logged on to Parallel World the next day. Everybody exchanged greetings and did say anything further. No one asked what was in the books today, as if everyone was walking on eggshells.

Southern Lone Blade had nothing to say at the moment as well, so he went to the mailbox as per usual. He would always check his mail every day in-game as there was no way he could be online all twenty-four hours in a day. There would often be business that came in while he was not online.

However, checking the mail daily did not mean that there would be new business every day. The few letters he looked through were all meaningless drivel. It was only when he read the letter from Svelte Dancer did he receive a huge shock, scrutinizing the letter five times over.

If this were before, receiving a chance to do business with MMO community’s number one pay-to-win player would certainly be a cause for celebration for Southern Lone Blade’s gang, which was also why he did not wish to become enemies with Svelte Dancer in the first place. A majority of players who would do business with them were pay-to-win players, and Svelte Dancer was considered to be their dream client.

Now, all Southern Lone Blade could do was sigh heavily, for the letter had come too late. Given the relationship between Svelte Dancer and them, there was only one conclusion he could draw from this letter. It’s a trap. It was another trap to smoke them out.

Southern Lone Blade was about to delete the mail offhandedly when he abruptly stopped himself. This was a trap, but that did not mean that there was nothing he could do to take advantage of this…

With that thought in mind, Southern Lone Blade quickly called the others for a meeting to relay to them in detail all about Svelte Dancer’s letter.

Everyone was silent as the six others were equally transfixed. After hearing this news, all were expressionless and made no sound. It was apparent that this letter had not stimulated any thoughts in them.

Southern Lone Blade sighed and could only voice out, “This letter is a trap, but we can utilize it.”

The six stared soullessly at Southern Lone Blade.

“The way I see it, they intend to lie to us, snatch back the Utopian Magic Staff from us, and then finish us off – killing two birds with one stone – but we happen to be capable of turning this trap right back on them,” Southern Lone Blade continued.

There was still no response. He could not allow this indifference to carry on uninterrupted, so he swept his gaze across the six and asked, “Do you guys have something you wanna say?”

“Big South, you’re still not giving up?” Flame Singed Clothes, who had been struck the heaviest out of them, spoke up first.

“Give up? Do you guys wish to give up?” Southern Lone Blade returned his gaze to the others.

None of them said a word, but he could read their expressions. They did not wish to give up, but they simply had no confidence and were reluctant to act.

Actually, Southern Lone Blade was in the same boat as well. From the time he counted the magic staves to lull himself to sleep last night to the time he saw this letter, he was also in the same state of doubt, lacking any self-confidence. That was until his heart was reignited by this flame of hope in the form of the letter.

“Even if we wish to give up, it’s still not the end right now.” Southern Lone Blade waved the letter to the six.

“How would the letter affect anything?” Sure enough, none of the six men had put any thought into the matter.

“As I’ve said, they’re looking to borrow our capabilities to obtain the magic staff, so they won’t be giving us further trouble while we are still attempting to retrieve it. We should take advantage of this to see how things will pan out after we acquire the magic staff,” Southern Lone Blade said.

“Are you sure? Perhaps, all they want is to make us reveal our whereabouts again.” Blackwater took the letter from Southern Lone Blade in hopes of reading more to it but was disappointed at what he saw. Southern Lone Blade had described a rather complex situation, but there were actually few words on the letter. ‘I’m offering twice the price; I want that magic staff.’ It was signed by Svelte Dancer.

The letter was passed around to the others, and all of them shared the same sentiment. Being rich was wonderful. Just look at how imperious the tone of the letter was! Everybody could not help but think of how strenuous it was when doing business with Silver Moon – how every cent and aspect of the assignment had to be bargained before making a deal. In contrast, they did not have access to such an exceptional client like Svelte Dancer, yet it was for the fulfillment of Silver Moon’s assignment that turned her into their enemy. Fate sure enjoyed making fools of men.

“What a lady!” All of them sighed in awe. Most players would look down upon pay-to-win gamers, but Southern Lone Blade and his men were the sort that loved this particular crowd.

“Even if that’s the case, we have yet to verify whether she really intends to hire us for our services or not!” Glue reminded the others. Considering the conflicting positions they held with one another, they would be being far too witless if they believed this letter at face value, and that this would just be a simple transaction.

Southern Lone Blade nodded in agreement. “Which is why we still need to make the necessary preparations.”

With that, he turned to address Glue and Flame Singed Clothes. “It’s my mistake yesterday. I should’ve taken precautions for the possibility for them to camp out the Bounty Assignment Hall. After all, they also understand how the Windchaser’s Emblem work.”

Southern Lone Blade admitted his blunder in hopes of raising his men’s morale by letting them know that the reason they had been beaten into a retreat was not because of their adversaries’ formidability but, rather, because they had made a mistake. In other words, he implied that they would have succeeded had there not been such a gross oversight.

“That is why we should assign a lookout at the Bounty Assignment Hall first,” Southern Lone Blade said.

“I’ll go!” Blackwater volunteered. Given that Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion had appeared in that place together, the Bounty Assignment Hall would naturally be the most dangerous location. Thus, Blackwater, who possessed Stealth, felt that he would be the most suitable.

Glue sighed. Originally, he would be a very safe choice for this role since he had the ability to keep surveillance from a good distance to the target. Unfortunately, now that he was back to level 39, his Eagle Eye was gone, so he no longer had the ability to keep watch from afar.

“All right. You go!” Southern Lone Blade approved.

Blackwater nodded. “Then, I’ll be off.”

“Take care.” Everyone felt as if they were sending him off into a tiger’s den, wishing the best for him as they watched him make his way down the corner of the street and disappear from sight.

“What are we gonna do over at the Auction House? We still have no idea if anyone has retrieved the magic staff or otherwise,” Glue said.

“You’ll go to the Auction House,” Southern Lone Blade was looking at Paddy Scent Pastures.

“Oh?” Logically speaking, anyone should be able to keep watch of the Auction House, yet Southern Lone Blade had singled out Paddy Scent Pastures, as if there was a deeper meaning to it.

“Things are a little complicated over there; you might be unable to do it if you keep watch like how I and Singed did it yesterday.” Glue’s heart trembled when he thought of the scene where the crowd surrounded them and the mad tongue-lashing they got.

“Indeed, we won’t be doing it like that.” Southern Lone Blade nodded. He pulled out a scroll of paper and placed it on the table. Writing several words in bold letters and large font, he proceeded to take out a wooden board and extend a hand to Glue. “Glue.”

“Eh?”

“I’m asking you to hand me some glue,” Southern Lone Blade clarified.

Glue wiped his sweat and pulled out a bottle of glue from his dimensional pocket and handed it over to him.

Southern Lone Blade pasted the paper onto the wooden board to create a placard and then shoved it to Paddy Scent Pastures’ arms.

Paddy Scent Pastures hugged the placard as he sweated profusely. “Must we do it like this?”

Written in large, bold letters were seven words: ‘Looking to purchase the Utopian Magic Staff.’

Southern Lone Blade nodded. “There shouldn’t be anyone getting suspicious of you this way.”

Paddy Scent Pastures finally understood why Southern Lone Blade had given him this task. A Priest would be the most compatible with making a purchase of the magic staff, and while their team had two Priests, the other Priest Verdant Timber was an extremely honest person. He was the sort who would not even utter a word even when faced with a paddling, so this sort of situation where he must draw the public’s attention would be a fate more painful than death. Southern Lone Blade and the others sometimes even wondered just why such an honest person would end up doing something so nefarious like larceny with them.

“Take the Windchaser’s Emblem and go pick up a ‘Bounty Mission’; we’ll help you finish it before you go,” Southern Lone Blade said.

“Got it!” Paddy Scent Pastures nodded.

“Any other questions?” Southern Lone Blade asked.

“Can I cover my face?”

“No. That will easily raise people’s suspicion.” Keeping his face covered would inevitably make people think that he was up to no good. Thus, from such incident, it could be said that keeping their faces uncovered was actually necessary, just like how Glue and Flame Singed Clothes’s faces were not covered last night.

“No other questions then…” Paddy Scent Pastures was only thinking that he would look a little foolish with that placard raised, so he was reluctant to show his face around others out of embarrassment.

“You’ll go alone to the Auction House. As for the others, do the same as last night; keep an eye on the various spawn points and make sure that all your equipment is in order,” Southern Lone Blade instructed.

The other four men nodded.

“Then, let’s help Paddy Scent Pastures do that Bounty Mission before we begin this operation,” Southern Lone Blade announced.

Paddy Scent Pastures sighed as he fitted the placard into his dimensional pocket. He took the Windchaser’s Emblem Glue had handed to him and equipped it, heading to the Bounty Assignment Hall to pick up a bounty.

—————————————————

Several hours later, a performance artist appeared in Baishi City’s Auction House. It was an expressionless Priest who had a placard raised above his head that said: ‘Looking to purchase the Utopian Magic Staff.’