Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Brother Assist, where are you? Go and scout out Oathless Sword a little!” Gu Fei sent Brother Assist a message.

“Hey. Can you not make me live this life of a double agent? I really don’t think I’m up for such a technically demanding role! You guys already know that Young Master is heading over to lay an ambush out for you, so do you think he’ll even let me hang around?” Brother Assist hurriedly replied.

“It doesn’t matter. You won’t lose levels dying anyway,” Gu Fei said nonchalantly.

Brother Assist was in tears. The threat of death was clearly greater coming from Gu Fei while crossing Young Master Han would mean an inhumane and cruel mental assault as well as retaliation that would bring about endless trouble for him! Does Gu Fei even know just what’s at stake for me here?

Meanwhile, Gu Fei was speaking to Sword Demon, “Look, this is the advantage we hold. If we get Brother Assist to make the trip, he would be able to get us information whether he lived or died, but there’s no way for Brother Assist to divulge the situation here on our end.”

Sword Demon sweated, “Has Brother Assist agreed?”

“How could he not agree? He hardly has to do anything!” Gu Fei was saying this even as a message from Brother Assist came flying in, “I quit!”

“Why?” Gu Fei hurriedly asked.

“The other party has blocked all incoming messages.” Brother Assist said.

“What other party? Young Master?” Gu Fei asked.

[The other party has blocked all incoming messages.] Turns out, that was not a message that Brother Assist typed out, but the system’s response. It was now Gu Fei’s turn to be despondent. Brother Assist’s attitude this time round was far too resolute! Immediately blocking all messages showed his wish not to take part in any of this business.

Brother Assist was smart. Since he could not afford to offend either party, would he not just be doing the splits on a sharp knife by being caught in the middle? All it would take was a moment of carelessness and he might very well find himself sliced in half! However, Brother Assist was unwilling to miss seeing such a huge affair go down, so he still inquired about the whereabouts of Traversing Four Seas, intending to watch everything unfold without anyone knowing of his presence.

“That’s it. We’ll have to inquire about their whereabouts ourselves.” Gu Fei sighed.

“What happened with Brother Assist?”

“He immediately blocked all messages.”

“How rare for him to have been so determined!” Sword Demon commended.

“I didn’t take note of where Traversing Four Seas went off too either!” Gu Fei and Sword Demon could still see the separate groups of players in front of them, but with more than a hundred thousand players packed in front of them, locating the group of a thousand-odd players was not going to be easy!

“How about this, Shall we let them lay in wait while we head over to Yunjiao Lake while we go see what that investigation quest I got is all about?” Gu Fei said.

“Let’s go then,” Sword Demon did not mind either way.

And so, the two men temporarily suspended their assassination attempt and changed their focus to the quest that Gu Fei had picked up and needed him over at Yunjiao Lake. In the meantime, Young Master Han, Gu Xiaoshang, and her hundred-odd elites from Colored Clouds had found the Traversing Four Seas’ site.

Everyone in Traversing Four Seas knew of their guild leader’s thoughts and feelings toward Gu Xiaoshang. So when they saw her taking the lead, nobody bothered to ask any further, as they each proceeded to report the happy news to their guild leader, “Guild leader Gu is back!”

“Xiaoshang is back?” Oathless Sword had been listlessly sitting down like hoarfrost this entire time, but he immediately looked like he had just been injected with 200 stimulants all at once when he first heard this news, getting up to ask, “Where is she?!?!”

Someone sent her coordinates over, and Oathless Sword hurriedly cleaned himself up, even as he kept wondering about the reason for her arrival. She had departed with such determination before, so why would she return so abruptly? Heh, Xiaoshang still has feelings for me, after all! Before, her identity as a guild leader impeded her, making it inconvenient for her to bring all her thousand-man strong guild over to console me. But now that she has finished making arrangements with her guild, she immediately came over looking for me. I gotta understand her!

These were the thoughts that passed through his mind as he watched Gu Xiaoshang leading her men over. Oathless Sword pace forward in a hurry and was just about to gush out passionate words of gratitude when he suddenly spotted that one of the men walking next to Gu Xiaoshang was actually Young Master Han. This combination was far too odd, as Oathless Sword had absolutely no knowledge that Gu Xiaoshang had contact with that man.

Could it be… The two words ‘love rival’ floated in Oathless Sword’s mind. The saying about how people who were too submerged in the rivers of love would have their own intelligence lowered rang true. Oathless Sword had not even considered the logic behind such a relationship from existing and had proceeded to harbor such suspicions without any hesitation, immediately conducting a comprehensive comparison between himself and his ‘love rival’.

L ooks? He looks just like a woman. Habits? A huge alcoholic. Personality? Terrible. Status? A mercenary leader of a six-man mercenary group. Skills? Just a Priest, so no matter how good he was, it would be mere child’s play to just cleave him.

Oathless Sword did a detailed cross-examination of each and every attribute of Young Master Han, feeling as if he ought to be better in every sense. But for some inexplicable reason, he felt a huge pressure resting upon his chest, which made him feel as if he did not have much chance of winning. How could this be? I am better than that guy in every aspect! Oh crap, I have forgotten to consider his despicableness…

Oathless Sword was so lost in his own nonsensical thoughts that he had forgotten to say a word until the pair had actually arrived right in front of him.

“Guild leader Oathless,” Young Master Han greeted.

I need to maintain my demeanor, gotta keep my cool. Oathless Sword reminded himself, even as he very warmly laughed, “Brother Han.”

“I’m here bearing both good news and bad news, which would you like to hear first?” Young Master Han asked.

Oathless Sword’s face greened quite a bit. He continued to make random guesses in his heart, even as he replied with the thought of tasting the sweet after bearing the bitterness, “Let’s go with the bad first then!”

“Thousand Miles Drunk and Sword Demon have you as their target for assassination.” Young Master Han reported.

“Ah? Why?”

“That’s the mission they got.”

“But why me?”

“Because you’re powerful and widely acknowledged to be Yunduan City’s most powerful guild leader,” Young Master Han answered.

“Well… Why are they still going after me if they know that?” Oathless Sword was skeptical because this reason did not seem logical at all.

That was when Young Master Han replied, “Because Thousand Miles Drunk is the sort of person whose favorite pastime is to slay the powerful to the point they are just fools.”

Oathless Sword’s face instantly went from green to black, sneaking a glance over at Gu Xiaoshang’s expression. After reminding himself over and over again to maintain his composure, he finally laughed, appearing unperturbed, “So what’s the good news?”

“That’s right, the good news is that yours truly have decided to personally take part in an operation to make them the fools instead,” Young Master Han said.

“Oh?” Oathless Sword was truly surprised by this good news. “But, you guys—”

“We’re friends, which is why I found out that they were going to target you. We are also opponents from opposing camps, so I want to eliminate them as well. Alright, I believe you should not have any doubts any longer. Take care of yourself the best you can then. If you get sacrificed, you can just take joy in imagining me helping you take revenge upon them.” Young Master Han said.

This was the time when Oathless Sword showed a bit of the dignified air belonging to a guild leader as he barked out a laugh, “If I can be so casually killed off in such a fashion, would I still be able to stand here and command a thousand of my comrades to assault the city?”

“It’s Thousand Miles Drunk!” Young Master Han suddenly shouted.

“AH!” Oathless Sword was frightened to the point that he lost the color on his face. He immediately Charged out and moved 3 meters out, following this up with a Cyclone, only to find the whole bunch of people there staring at him blankly.

“I am so relieved that guild leader Oathless is very vigilant. Keep it up!” Young Master Han said warmly.

This time, Oathless Sword was left feeling ashamed to the point that his whole face turned red, especially since Gu Xiaoshang was also standing at the forefront presently, making him wish he could find a crevasse to just dive into. But there was no way for him to retaliate, so all he could do was watch as Young Master Han turn and walk away after making that final derogatory dig at him. Gu Xiaoshang and her men followed in his stead and departed as well, and that was when Oathless Sword realized that he had not spoken a word with Gu Xiaoshang from the start to finish! He was still very concerned as to how she ended up partnering up with Young Master Han for this.

“Xiaoshang!” Oathless Sword could not hold himself back, shouting as he went chasing after her.

Gu Xiaoshang turned around, “Yes?”

“Uhmmm,” Oathless Sword hesitated even as he stood right beside Gu Xiaoshang, speaking to her in hushed tones, “How did that guy end up together with you?”

“He left his guild and came over to help us,” Gu Xiaoshang answered, but she did not match the volume of his voice. Consequently, everyone could hear her words and could naturally guess what Oathless Sword had asked. Oathless Sword was a little embarrassed as he turned his gaze over to Young Master Han, but all he saw was the man holding up his bottle of liquor calling out, “I’m rooting for you.”

What is he rooting for? Oathless Sword was completely confused, only to suddenly realize when he turned back round that Young Master Han was rooting for him and Gu Xiaoshang. He was not a love rival! Oathless Sword was elated deep down. He had no idea why he was actually happy now that he discovered that the rival whom he thought was in every aspect worse than him was not a rival at all.

“Anything else?” Gu Xiaoshang asked.

“Nope. Nothing,” Oathless Sword stepped away, not appearing unhappy at all to let Gu Xiaoshang leave. Actually, Gu Xiaoshang always treated him like a normal friend, and plenty of the minutiae between them was just what Oathless Sword had assumed, a one-sided feeling that the relationship between the two was more intimate than most.

However, Oathless Sword simply could not shake off the sense of uneasiness he felt having someone like Young Master Han hanging around Gu Xiaoshang. But this concern he showed toward Gu Xiaoshang was sincere, which was why he sent her a message, “That Young Master Han has plenty of schemes brewing in him, you gotta keep an eye out.”

“Sure,” Gu Xiaoshang gave this simple reply. She was not someone who did not have a discerning eye. She was aware that Oathless Sword was ultimately sincere, and with that thought in mind, she turned around and specifically bade farewell to Oathless Sword, “I’m leaving!!”

“Take care,” that one look back caused happiness to bloom in Oathless Sword, watching the whole bunch of players slowly leave the location.

“Guild Leader, they’re already gone…”

“Guild leader, your saliva…”

“Guild Leader, is your spirit still with us?”

Many players chuckled as they made fun of Oathless Sword.

“Scram!” Oathless Sword jibed half-jokingly. He was in a great mood, so he was not treating any of this banter seriously.

The ever scheming Youthful Reflection slid up at this moment and consulted, “Could this perhaps be some scheme of Brave Surge’s?”

“If it’s anyone’s scheme, I think it’s far more likely to have been that Young Master. I reckon there’s no way that Brave Surge could even order him around,” Oathless Sword said.

“You’re not wrong there,” Youthful Reflection nodded. “Do you think the information he provided is credible?”

“Of course,” Oathless Sword nodded. “What sort of benefit would he gain providing us with this fake news? Besides, Xiaoshang is together with him, there’s no way Xiaoshang would lie to me.” Oathless Sword said this, pleased with himself, his wishful thinking affliction rearing its ugly head once more.

Could Young Master Han not be in cahoots with Gu Xiaoshang, tricking you together? Youthful Reflection muttered this in his heart, but he did not want to shatter the wonderful fantasy that Oathless Sword had going and simply began to assign men to stay on alert.

A Mage, a Mage with his or her face covered, a Mage wearing black Mage’s robe, a Mage wielding a purple sword or a Mage with his or her face covered, wearing a black Mage’s robe and wielding a purple sword. Any player with these characteristics above would all be singled out, as Youthful Reflection judged that everyone sharing such a description to be high-risk individuals.