Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Nobody really had any words to say about Young Master Han. That man’s devious tendency was truly a work of wonder. Gu Fei had only audaciously made such a wild claim, yet it actually became a prophecy fulfilled. The more they thought about it, the more possible it became, yet no one wanted to confirm this with Young Master Han. This matter had already been resolved many days ago; they would only incur the man’s derision if everyone showed realization now.

“Let’s not talk about the past anymore,” Sword Demon said bitterly.

Gu Fei nodded.

“Especially not to Deep Waters…” Coco added.

Gu Fei and Sword Demon nodded. They recalled Deep Waters mentioning Young Master Han through gritted teeth. They had no idea how the bad blood between the two had reached such a degree, but mentioning this matter to the man would be like adding fuel to the fire and would most likely cause him to erupt!

“Do you think my method will work?” Gu Fei was the first to bring the topic back on track.

“Do you think you’ll discover anything by secretly watching him like this?” Coco asked.

“It will more or less help a little, right, Sword Demon?” Gu Fei nudged him.

“Ah? I guess?” Sword Demon answered hesitantly. He just realized that he had unknowingly been supporting Gu Fei’s idea, which was really a word trap by itself. Gu Fei was pretty sly and cunning himself.

“If that’s the case, I’ll help you two out a bit. I, too, don’t wish to have someone with a questionable character in my guild,” Coco said.

“There’re a few hundred men in a guild; how can you guarantee that everyone has an upright character?” Gu Fei chuckled. This was obviously something impossible. The human heart was unfathomable. It would forever be one of the most difficult things in the world to see through.

“This is but a game, so everything is really simple. Killing people at random, stealing monsters or equipment at their fancy… All are signs of poor character. At the very least, we don’t have anyone in our guild that does those things,” Coco replied.

“Is that so? If that’s the case, we’ll help you examine your friend Broken Water Arrow to find out if he is the sort that kills people at random or steals monsters or equipment at the drop of a hat!”

“Okay; come and change into these.” Coco casually pointed over to the pile of outfits at the side. About ten sets of camouflage outfits were made not too long ago.

“To think we’ll get a chance to try this on as well.” Gu Fei chuckled at Sword Demon. However, he soon felt self-conscious wearing the outfit. As the outfits were handsewn by players, they did not follow any of the game’s tailoring patterns. Moreover, since they did not have any stats or traits, the players would have to wear them on top of their equipment. The outfit just comprised a coat and a pair of pants, but putting it on was a bit difficult. This was because his current attire was a mage robe; its hem reached his feet as it was designed to resemble a full-length windbreaker. There was simply no way the outfit could hide all of it in.

Gu Fei was at a loss and blankly stared at Coco. The lady could not hold in her laughter when she saw him in his embarrassing state. “Wait a moment. We did make an outfit especially set for Mages.” With that, she looked past her shoulder and instructed the players hard at work. “Get me an outfit more in the style of a mage robe. An immediate order!”

That was when he realized that she had been making a fool out of him a little. Still, at least the solution to her prank did not require brainstorming on his part. Gu Fei, thus, sighed in relief.

Tailoring in the game did not take as much time as it would in real life, so that rush order of the camouflage robe was quickly completed. Gu Fei took and donned it accordingly. And as he and Sword Demon stood side by side, they looked just like a pair of soldiers. The two men sized each other up and felt somewhat uneasy at what they saw.

“Add this for the final touches.” Coco pulled out a box from her dimensional pocket and opened it.

Gu Fei came forward and had a look at what was inside. Within the box was a viscous mixture of dark green in color .

“Smear your faces with this!” Coco beamed at the two men.

The two exchanged glances.

“In a harmonious guild like ours, an unfamiliar face is easily identified. Fortunately, we happen to have this special camo face paint, which makes it hard for even acquaintances to recognize each other. You two can’t neglect applying this on!” Coco said.

Gu Fei and Sword Demon thought back, and sure enough, Deep Waters and all his guildmates had this paint on. The fact they had trouble identifying Deep Waters from the others only served to prove Coco’s point about the wondrous effect of this green face paint before them. Helpless, the two could only grab a handful of the green paint and smeared their faces with it accordingly. Gu Fei asked as he applied it, “How did you make this?”

“I don’t really know the details, but it is also something that I specially ordered externally. I just realize that there are many talented players out there; as long as you can think of it, there’s bound to be someone out there with the necessary skill set to make it. Tons of materials for all sorts of things can be found in Parallel World. Many large workshops in this game already have their eye on this avenue of business, and they are currently busy recruiting players with such eclectic talents. This game has truly become a world of its own,” Coco said.

“Oh!” Gu Fei and Sword Demon concurred as they continued to apply the camo face paint on their faces randomly. When they were done, they looked at each other and asked at the same time, “What do you think?”

“Here; let me take a look.” Coco beckoned the two men over. She examined the two all over and finally commented, “I’m not gonna lie. Broken Water Arrow is bound to be suspicious of you two the moment you appear before him.”

“Why?” The two were surprised.

“Does either of you feel that there’s something different between how you two painted your faces and how Deep Waters’ men did theirs?” asked Coco.

The two tried their best to recall.

“Theirs seem to be a little more fanciful?” replied Gu Fei.

“I don’t think there’s a need to be so complex. A simple one will do,” Sword Demon added.

“Yes. That’s right. Just a little bit for show,” Gu Fei agreed.

“All the members of our guild have painted their faces according to Broken Water Arrow’s requirements. With you guys applying a little here and there just for show, won’t you two be bound to be exposed?” Coco asked.

“Requirements? What requirements?” The two were confused.

“Do you two think it’s fine to smear a few streaks of this stuff on your faces and then call it quits? Do you think we’re filming a movie here or something? I don’t know the reasoning myself, but all I know is that Broken Water Arrow has a specific pattern for it, and at the very least, it isn’t as simple as smearing a bit of this paint across your faces. You gotta do up your entire face,” Coco explained.

“This… How do we do this specific pattern?” they asked.

“Wipe your faces clean. I’ll do it,” ordered Coco.

The two proceeded to get a piece of cloth each and wipe their faces clean of the paint. They saw Coco take out several boxes from her dimensional pocket. Opening them all up, they saw face paint of different colors. It was evident that this pattern did not simply use a single color.

“HEY!” Gu Fei was discontented. Apparently, there was clearly a technique for disguising their faces, which was not common knowledge to everyone, yet this lady had not said a word about it and just picked out a single box for the two to do their faces wrongly. Now that she had taken out all the necessary tools for the correct method, it became clear that she had toyed with them again.

“Hey, what ‘hey’?! You guys messed with our guild so badly last time; can’t I avenge my comrades a little? This is still considered rather tamed in terms of revenge. Come take a seat here!” Coco pointed to the bench before her.

Gu Fei had no choice but to sit where she had indicated. Coco then began to paint his face. The man subconsciously ducked his head back. “Ah… How about you tell me how to do it and I’ll put it on by myself?” Gu Fei felt a little awkward at having this lady use her hands to apply the paint on his face.

“Aww! Aren’t you rather old fashioned?! Forget it; who knows how long it’ll take for me to teach you two how to do it? Don’t make things more awkward than it is and just let me do it. And stop fidgeting!” Coco exclaimed.

“Didn’t you learn this from Broken Water Arrow, too?” Gu Fei was dissatisfied with her excuse.

“Women are naturally far more talented than men in this sort of thing. Do you wear makeup regularly like we do?” she asked.

Gu Fei was momentarily stumped by this. With that, Coco continued spreading the paint on his face. Even though he wanted to avoid it, he could only give in once he heard her sternly say, “Stop fidgeting. I’ll have to redo the whole thing if you mess it up.”

Sure enough, Coco was quite consummate at this. It did not take long for her to do the finishing touches on Gu Fei’s face before she shifted to helping Sword Demon. Gu Fei sat at the side and waited. Even his lips were smeared with the green stuff, leaving it dry and astringent, which he found extremely uncomfortable.

Once the deed was done, Sword Demon did not find it any more pleasing as well. The two sized each other up as their eyes went over one another, briefly uncertain of what they should say at this time. Seeing each other’s painted faces, they wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. In the end, all they heard was Coco’s contented voice tinkling. “Not bad. Very good, in fact.”

“All right. Sit still for a bit, you two. We’ll be done once you help me carry all these outfits over to meet up with Deep Waters and the guys,” Coco said. She then collected all the boxes of face paints on the table and left to continue her inspection of those players sewing the outfits.

“Hey…” Gu Fei sent Sword Demon a message.

“Why are you sending me a message when we are sitting together?” Sword Demon asked.

“Don’t you feel that this thing will get in our mouths if we open them?” Gu Fei asked.

“Not really?” Sword Demon sent back.

“Then, why aren’t you speaking?” Gu Fei retorted.

Silence. In a short while, it was Sword Demon who spoke up first. “It should be fine. Deep Waters and the others had no issues talking earlier.”

“You didn’t eat any?” Gu Fei sent a message as a reply.

“Nope,” Sword Demon answered. He could not help marveling in his heart how this slayer of players, who had never once dilly-dallied or even hesitated during fights, would actually be so indecisive about such small things.

“Let me try—” Gu Fei opened his mouth to utter those three words and immediately sighed in relief. He did not eat or even tasted any of the paint.

“This woman…” Gu Fei continued to sigh. He felt as if he had been teased this whole time, yet this plan was his idea to begin with. If he went according to the plan, this would indeed be a portion that they could not skip, yet he had been left exasperated by it.

“He he…” Sword Demon laughed. “I’ve known her for such a long time; this is just how she is.”

“A long time? How long?” Gu Fei was rather curious about the friendship Sword Demon shared with this Coco lady.

“She’s probably the friend I’ve known the longest ever since I started gaming!”

“Even longer than Young Master Han?” he asked.

“Longer,” affirmed Sword Demon.

“More than Deep Waters?” he asked yet again.

“Deep Waters? I’ve only known that man several games after I’ve met Young Master Han,” Sword Demon said.

“So how many games have the two of you been playing together?” Gu Fei asked.

“How many games? I don’t remember the exact number for that!”

“It sounds as if you two have grown up together in the many MMOs,” Gu Fei remarked.

Sword Demon nodded. “That’s one way to put it.”

“How envious.”

“Oh?” Sword Demon gazed at Gu Fei questioningly. The latter, however, did not say anything more. Gu Fei suddenly realized that these bunch of experts had been playing games almost as much as he had been studying kung fu. A game for these people was like a kung fu technique for him. The only difference was that Sword Demon had played every game with his friends, which increased over time; meanwhile, Gu Fei had been training kung fu all by his lonesome self since he was a kid up to now…

Gu Fei could not help but recall the very popular line: ‘Man is not studying the art of kung fu, but he is studying the art of loneliness…’