Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Could he have made some sort of arrangement yet again? Gu Fei and Sword Demon looked at each other as they thought of this. It was difficult for anyone to guess what Young Master Han was thinking, but it was far more difficult to get him to elaborate on his true intention outright. The two had no choice but to be on standby by that hole in the wall, taking turns to patiently watch the situation outside.

It was not too long before a change to the situation occurred. The players that were camping out by the firewood shed made more racket than before, as if something were happening.

“Quick; come and take a look!” Sword Demon, who was looking through the hole, hurriedly called Gu Fei over as he gave the latter space to take a peek.

The crowd was visibly clamoring, and plenty of them seemed to be heading back to the courtyard to take up position once again.

“What’s going on?” Gu Fei glanced at Sword Demon with uncertainty.

“This must be the arrangement that Young Master mentioned,” Sword Demon replied.

“What did that guy arrange this time?” Gu Fei scratched his head.

“I don’t know, but he probably anticipated this once more,” Sword Demon said.

“When would that guy make a mistake?” Gu Fei expressed the slightest hint of disappointment. Human emotions were just this mysterious. Even though Young Master Han making a mistake would spell doom for Gu Fei and Sword Demon, the man’s ability to make correct predictions every time made it truly difficult not to instigate the reverse psychology in man. Gu Fei really wanted to see what sort of reaction that man would be making once he made a disastrously fatal mistake, even if it meant putting himself in danger.

“Still, it doesn’t seem that everyone’s moving away,” Sword Demon announced the bad news.

“That’s very common!” Gu Fei said. “No matter what sort of scheme lures the tiger away from the mountain¹, there’s no way they’ll abandon the two of us that they’ve already ensnared within their nets, right?”

“But I’m afraid that this may be the only chance we have,” Sword Demon said.

“That’s why we have to charge!” reasoned Gu Fei.

“Okay!” Sword Demon nodded.

“Don’t get too caught up in the fight. Increase the distance between yourself and the enemy as fast as you can, so that you can have more time climbing over the wall.” Gu Fei was not particularly worried about Sword Demon’s movement speed. Instead, he was fretting over him not being nimble enough to climb the wall and would end up getting attacked off it.

“Got it!” Sword Demon acknowledged.

“Alright!” Gu Fei reached his hand out and pulled open that decrepit door of the shed that they were in.

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At this moment, a huge battle had actually erupted right at the Government City Hall’s courtyard, or to be precise, right outside the entrance to it. This was not any sort of diversion but the real deal. The guilds that were no match for Flowergazing in the Fog had mounted a concerted assault together.

There would always be a Jianghu whenever humans abound; any guild that did not compete or dispute was no more than a pedestrian guild.

For a top guild in Xiawu City like Flowergazing in the Fog, it undoubtedly had rival guilds out there where hostility thrived. Having gotten the relevant information about the ‘ecosystem’ here in the city through Slyris, the plan he had cooked up this time did not require him to spread a wide net just like in Linshui City but, instead, homed in on targets for a precision strike.

The method was similar though, as he still had to mail a gold coin letter to the core members of these rival guilds in order to garner their attention.

Had Young Master Han casually informed them that there was a loophole that they could exploit in the Government City Hall at the moment and opened a general invitation for them to descend on Flowergazing in the Fog, these guilds would have most likely dismissed it as nothing more than a prank. However, the content of the letter Young Master Han had sent was different. Adopting the tone which implied that he was among the men who had been causing trouble the day before, the content of the letter brazenly detailed information about their operation; this made it such that no one could doubt his identity. What followed after was the crux of the message: ‘We are about to cause another commotion; we welcome everyone to join us in this foray, so we can cause some real pandemonium.’

The incident of some players causing quite a disturbance over by the Government City Hall the other day had already spread like wildfire throughout Xiawu City. Young Master Han believed that these rivals of Flowergazing in the Fog were probably regretting that they had not capitalized on this and looted the burning house². Adding the fact that Flowergazing in the Fog had heightened their defenses from that day on, these guilds were surely stewing in remorse at having missed such a wondrous opportunity. Young Master Han’s act of sending a letter their way essentially worked like a healing balm to their sorrow by being given another chance.

Naturally, these distinguished guilds would not simply just launch an attack at the drop of the hat. They had to take time, doing their due diligence, to find out if there was veracity to the claims in the first place. Thus, Young Master Han looked for Slyris and her group of friends to enact the minor part of the show while Gu Fei and Sword Demon performed the majority of the work. Their every action and the ensuing result of the operation just so happened to be witnessed by these guilds.

In their eyes, there was only one truth: The members of Flowergazing in the Fog were once more being harassed.

Their opportunity was here!

People that would seize at an opportunity fast were usually those that missed it out on the first round. With the content of the letter being verified as fact, there was no need to hesitate any longer. Just seize this chance and do it!

Thus, a proper guild assault began to unfold. Flowergazing in the Fog had previously labeled the sneak attacks as mere harassment, but now that they had found themselves the recipient of attacks from various rival guilds, composed of players with job classes at odds with their forces, they could only sigh in astonishment. Since when did these old rivals of ours use their troops so cleverly like this? To mask their true intentions behind ruses...

The guild leader for Flowergazing in the Fog, Three Sighs of Flowing Maple, had yet to finish washing his face, but he could not really be bothered by it the moment he heard the news, and he hurried over to the battlefield. There was not much needed to be said when clashing against the enemies, and everyone just proceeded to engage in battle. A huge portion of the members of Flowergazing in the Fog were still surrounding that dilapidated shed. Considering how terrible the circumstances they were currently in, there was no need for second thoughts with how important it was for them to send men over to assist the frontline.

Hence, the number of players left covering that firewood shed was reduced by a lot…

How would either party, caught up in the huge battle right outside the gates at the moment, ever expect that the purpose of this brutal brawl they had found themselves locked into actually concealed a small yet important objective to certain people?

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The instant Gu Fei pulled open the shed’s door, he brandished out a Twin Incineration with a sword technique. Just as he had expected; there were players that were blocking the way out right outside the door, and that one move of his instantly cleared some space before him. Sword Demon darted out after Gu Fei in a heroic fashion; his overleveled skill Shadowmist Assault provided him with high movement speed, and the ensuing momentum looked to be far more potent than the terrifying Charge skill. The moment he activated his skill, Sword Demon dashed straight ahead and broke through the encirclement in the blink of an eye.

Those players surrounding the shed turned their heads in surprise, but, in the end, what greeted them was a fiery glow! Gu Fei had already Blinked right over to where Sword Demon was, covering his back as they made their way out. Flames blazed past as another swathe of white lights flashed. Gu Fei followed this up by pointing down on the ground and chanting loudly, “Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno! Arise!”

“Run!” The two turned tail and ran.

“D*mn! That’s a bluff.” The four players cried this out loud and gave chase, but only after they dove for cover in their surprise when they heard Gu Fei chant a spell incantation and failed to see any rising embers from the ground.

As how reality had shown time and time again, players that did not have a good grasp of Gu Fei’s spell casting would always end up eating humble pie. Those men who had thought that the spell was a bluff realized this fact the moment they stepped onto the gradually heating ground. The ensuing inferno that grew was far more powerful than what they had ever seen or even experienced before, causing all the players with weak or low HP to immediately dissipate into white lights after they got burned.

Meanwhile, Gu Fei and Sword Demon were two players with high movement speed, and they managed to clear a distance of several meters by this time. Gu Fei pulled out two coils of rope from his dimensional pocket and handed one over to Sword Demon. “Hold it firmly.”

Sword Demon was aware that the time they had just bought would be used for the wall-climbing portion, as it was evident that he would need more time doing this. As such, he did not bother to check how far they managed to distance themselves from their pursuers and merely nodded to Gu Fei when he figured it was about time. “Got it.”

“Here we go!” Gu Fei did not waste even a second as he held onto the grappling hooks. Tossing both hooks out together, he accurately secured them onto the rampart on top of the wall.

“Get up!” Gu Fei shouted as he tugged at the rope and propelled himself up in the air. Sword Demon was not as adept at this, so he conscientiously ran to the base of the wall and used it to climb his way up.

The two scaled the wall, even as the enemies surged toward them like a crashing wave. Gu Fei’s skills when it came to climbing walls was well beyond that of Sword Demon, so now that he was being held back by nothing, he easily made it to the top of the wall just as Sword Demon made it one third of the way up.

Seeing as the enemies below were closing in with each passing second, Gu Fei turned his gaze over to Sword Demon and realized that apex MMO experts like Sword Demon truly had aspects which were far from ordinary, such as the psychological resilience they possessed. Compared to those other players he had teamed up with the other day, almost every one of them became flustered the moment enemies appeared. Gu Fei had no doubt they would have broken if they were the ones facing this situation right now, which was entirely unlike Sword Demon who remained calm as he meticulously focused on climbing the wall.

But staying calm was just that. The enemies grew nearer while Sword Demon remained rather slow in his ascent. Several Archers rushed forward, drawing their bows and beginning to fire their arrows.

“Hold on!” Gu Fei yelled as his two hands flung out.

Two snaps could be heard as two arrows were suddenly struck from mid-flight and clattered to the ground. The Archers below could clearly see that the Mage on the wall had thrown something out and actually managed to intercept their arrows’ midflight.

“Fuck, that’s a little too much!” everyone exclaimed as they stared, dumbfounded.

That was really lucky… To think I managed to hit two… Gu Fei muttered to himself. This was a result that had been beyond his expectations as well. He had thrown a total of five meat carving knives in hopes of trying his luck. After all, the speed of the arrows Archers could fire was amazingly quick, and the fact that the secret throwing weapons Gu Fei had used were comparatively slower only served to increase the difficulty of making the hit. Gu Fei did not really have faith that he would succeed and was merely giving it the old college try, but who would have guessed that he would be so fortunate as to score two hits with the five knives?

As for the remaining three arrows, one of them missed, while Sword Demon managed to dodge another as he ate the last shot. He was no more than just a short reach away from the ramparts at this point. By the time the second wave of arrows were released, the incoming shots were already easily within Gu Fei’s reaching distance.

Sword Demon grabbed the top of the rampart and pulled himself over to safety. Taking out the arrow on his back, he sighed in relief. “That was close.”

“Let’s go!” Gu Fei got the grappling hooks and secured them on the side of the wall facing the outside. Following this, the two calmly slid down the length of the wall with the rope. This attempt to sneak into the Government City Hall had finally come to an end. It was as if the huge guild battle, which was happening over by the courtyard still in full swing, was no longer of their concern.

“What do you think will be inside that cellar?” The two men were currently walking along the street, heartlessly continuing their discussion over this quest, completely unperturbed that almost a thousand people were currently risking their lives due to their actions today; that was truly the cruel fate of the bit characters!

“I don’t know,” Gu Fei replied. What does a cellar have to do with the quest to assassinate Giordano?

“I guess we won’t have any idea what to expect until we open it ourselves,” Sword Demon said.

“But where are we gonna find the key…” Gu Fei mumbled.

“Should we go back and search that Sleeping Assassin again?” Sword Demon asked.

“Do we have any other solutions?”

“Lockpicking skill. I wonder if we know anyone that has learned that skill,” Sword Demon said.