Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

The men from Carouse had a sort of subconscious resentment toward Archers, because their strongest rival was Traversing Four Seas, who was famed for their powerful Archer Formation. This was akin to two superstars dressing the same; the people from Carouse did not like that Archers would be the main power that could decide their victory, as that would evidently make them similar to Traversing Four Seas.

This was why at this moment, when every option had almost been suggested and subsequently rejected, someone finally proposed using Archers… This could also be considered as a sort of guild culture in Carouse. Had it been any other guild, given the situation and the setting they were in, Archers would have long been utilized by this time and point in the fight.

The range of an Archer was further than that of a Mage, and so they would be able to attack Gu Fei from a position where the Mage would not be able to throw any spells in retaliation. Previously, because Gu Fei had realized that the guild’s formation was extended over a large stretch of land, the Archers had been unable to gather and form up into a team. But in their current situation, all the Archers and the other job classes had long since gathered together as a whole massive crowd.

“Archers! Get the Archers!” The entire guild channel was lit up with such cries. In Carouse, when would an Archer ever experience such a sensation of appearing in front of everyone with such wide anticipation? However, none of the Archers had the time or energy to forget the situation that their guild was in despite their joy. Just like the Thieves, the Archers that remained had barely managed to escape with their lives after experiencing the thunder calling Thousand Miles Drunk electrocuting them. Now that they were suddenly being hailed by the entire guild, all the Archers, combined with how they were usually treated in the guild, actually thought the guild had wanted to use them as cannon fodder instead.

All the Archers kept silent. But it was instead the players besides the Archers that immediately nudged the Archer they were next to when they saw them, “Hey, what are you being all dazed for!? The guild’s calling for you!”

“I know, I know,” Each of the Archers were annoyed.

“Archers, gather. Prepare your Arrow Barrage,” Brave Surge had to speak up in the end. The guild channel had been abuzz with activity like it was a bubbling cauldron, and no matter how unwilling Brave Surge was to drag this fight out as the guild leader, he still had to appear and preside over the matter. Furthermore, the prevailing sentiment among the guild members of Carouse wanted to defeat Thousand Miles Drunk. Brave Surge’s heart was aching painfully, yet he cannot go against the majority, so he could only bite the bullet and make the call.

It was good that the guild leader had spoken up at this juncture. The rabble immediately quietened down and maintained a clear channel as they watched Brave Surge send out message after message of orders.

The Archers that were scattered in the crowd finally began to move, quickly gathering together as ordered. Everyone looked and instantly felt sympathetic; Carouse originally had somewhere over a hundred Archers, but only several dozens of them were left after the rest were slain by Thousand Miles Drunk in the attack with the Thieves just a while ago. Actually, the number of losses that the Archers suffered was less than that of the Thieves. After all, they did not have to engage in close combat. Not a single one of the Thieves who had engaged in close combat with Thousand Miles Drunk had managed to survive the ordeal.

“Is just this handful of Archers enough?” Someone could no longer stand it and whispered privately to another.

Even the Archers themselves were not very convinced, and Brave Surge’s attitude toward this as the guild leader only further complicated things. He wished that everyone could realize that there was no way for them to defeat Thousand Miles Drunk, so he was here trying to rush through the process, beginning to shout when he saw all the Archers had more or less gathered, “Get ready, fire!!”

The Archers had indeed gathered, but they still needed to properly position themselves in order to attack. There were plenty of other players right in front of them that blocked their line of sight right now, so how were they even able to get a shot on Gu Fei? When Brave Surge gave the order, some were able to fire, while others were still finding a position to do so. Everything was in a huge mess, and the sparse scattering of arrows went flying out toward Gu Fei.

The only thing Gu Fei had misgivings over was if all the Archers gathered and sent a barrage of arrows at him. He had been finding it strange all this time about why Carouse had not leveraged on the Archer’s advantage in range now that they had everyone gathered together. When the Archers finally began their work, Gu Fei was shocked to find their attack to be so appalling Paltry; Gu Fei felt even Forever In Flowers would be able to come and fire off a stronger volley than this. In any case, Gu Fei dodged and weaved through the arrows with barely a scratch, even taking the time to throw an AoE spell in retaliation. Carouse scattered as they scrambled to avoid it, even as Gu Fei began to target the Archers and happily unleashed his Thunderbolts.

“Don’t avoid it! He’s unable to insta-kill us with a single AoE spell!!” Someone in the guild bellowed.

“One might not be enough, but what if he throws two out simultaneously?” Another questioned.

“Where are the Archers? You guys should be interrupting his spellcasting!”

The Archers were all in tears. Interrupting a spellcasting meant that they had to hit their target in the first place; If they had been able to even do that to begin with, why would they even care to simply just interrupt his cast? They would kill off Gu Fei outright and resolve this entire situation instead!

“Homing Projectile, use your Homing Projectile!” Someone shouted.

Thus, the white glow of Homing Projectiles came flying out from Carouse’s side, seeking their target with the aid of the system. When Gu Fei saw that they were sending out their Homing Projectiles, and so many at once, he turned around and ran. Archers were different from Mages, and the different skills they possessed each had different flight speeds and ranges. Furthermore, the stats distribution that each player possessed would also affect these numbers. But no matter the case, a skill like Homing Projectile, that would always have a 100% hit rate, would honestly suffer serious limitations in its other aspects. Currently, Gu Fei had an advantage that amounts to around 30 meters worth of head start, and with him sprinting away and adding a Blink after, it was only natural for these Homing Projectiles to end up losing their ‘spirit’ and run out of range.

The people from Carouse became listless when they saw that even their Archers were useless against Gu Fei. Thus, someone immediately asked while Brave Surge was still active on the guild channel, “Guild leader, what are we going to do?”

Brave Surge was about to snap. All of these people only knew how to ask ‘what are we going to do?’; in such a large guild, was there not a single one of them who was sensible enough to understand what was happening and help set up their guild leader to give him a chance to step down and back off from this fight? Brave Surge wildly glared at the comrades beside him. This bunch of mongrels usually spend so much time hanging around me, yet none of them even know how to take the fall in my stead. Brave Surge deeply felt that he had failed in terms of grooming his talent. He heard that in Traversing Four Seas, Youthful Reflection would often help Oathless Sword take the blame and such, yet there was no such talent here in his own guild!

Just as Brave Surge was inexplicably staring at all those comrades that surrounded him, someone finally spoke up in the guild. Folding Fan Invader was forever Folding Fan Invader. Without a doubt, that man had a strong sense of loyalty toward the guild, and he would often consider problems with the interest of the guild at heart. He could tell that they were unable to carry on fighting with Gu Fei like this, but he was never able to guess Brave Surge’s intention deep down. Folding Fan Invader had thought that Brave Surge still wanted to continue dragging this fight with Gu Fei, which was why he had privately messaged Brave Surge and attempted to convince him otherwise. Unfortunately, he was unaware that Brave Surge had long since came to the same conclusion as he had, but merely did not wish to lose face rescinding the attack order after being the one who gave the command in the first place.

Folding Fan Invader was truly too selfless to still be so anxious for the guild even after he got blocked by Brave Surge in a fit of anger. But because Brave Surge could not read his private message, Folding Fan Invader had no choice but to openly announce in the guild channel, “Guild leader, we can’t continue on like this…”

Folding Fan Invader repeated everything he had shared with Brave Surge from before on the channel, even phrasing his words more earnestly than before. Brave Surge was elated when he saw this, and while Folding Fan Invader was still consciously repeating everything he had said before, Brave Surge had already messaged his agreement, “What Folding Fan said makes a lot of sense…”

Folding Fan Invader was stunned. What I said makes a lot of sense? But I’ve already said the very same thing before, why did he not react then? Folding Fan Invader was confused. He knew about the situation, weighed the pros and cons, yet he never once considered a person’s heart. As such, he would never understand the ever scheming mind of his guild leader, Brave Surge.

Now that Brave Surge had suddenly endorsed his suggestion, Folding Fan Invader was momentarily stunned before continuing, “I suggest we withdraw from this fight.”

“Thousand Miles Drunk is truly too arrogant. I’m a little unwilling to settle things in this manner if we were to retreat like this,” Brave Surge said.

Folding Fan Invader was flustered and quickly wanted to say something, but Brave Surge had already continued, “However, what Folding Fan Invader has analyzed of the situation makes sense. This time during the City Wars, we need to spend what little time we have and hurry up earn as much contribution points as we can. Wasting our time on Thousand Miles Drunk is not worth it. Let’s just withdraw for now and go back to participate in the City War here. If we have a chance in the future, we’ll be sure to settle this score with Thousand Miles Drunk.”

Folding Fan Invader was rather puzzled. What Brave Surge had just said was similar to what he had thought, yet also different. Folding Fan Invader had indeed raised the importance of the city war, but he meant that the city war was key, and because Thousand Miles Drunk was capable of creating trouble for them in this entire event all by himself, so he was trouble that they could not afford to provoke. Why did it sound like Carouse was the one being magnanimous by forgiving the transgression of the inferior when Brave Surge said it?

But that was not all that Brave Surge’s wordplay had implied. While he pretended to be the bigger man in the situation, he was also expressing that the guild would pursue this matter at a later date, but actually, everyone was wondering just what even is this matter that they were pursuing here? Was Gu Fei not just defending the city as he was assigned for the duration of this city war, and thus had to go against them all? What would be the point of getting revenge for this matter if they had not settled it by the time the City Wars event ended? By that time, we’ll go invite Thousand Miles Drunk to share a round of drinks, hold hands and sing kumbaya with each other… That was what Brave Surge had planned to do once everything was over.

To all the other guild members, Folding Fan Invader’s analysis made was fair and reasonable, plus how the guild leader had voiced his approval with dignity and how everyone could not come up with any solution to deal with Thousand Miles Drunk meant the only thing they could do was quietly agree to this in the end. Despite the case, none of them had the nerve to depart in arrogance, each of them leaving with their heads hanging in shame.

But how would Gu Fei know about all this? He had also chased off those Archers from before, and if Gu Fei had wanted them to continue this pursuit, then he will have to intentionally repeat that old trick of his and increase their battlelines out again. But who would have thought that nobody gave chase, everyone turning around and making their way down the hill. Gu Fei did not understand what happened, tossing several spells by the time he caught up and was just over 30 meters away from them all.

There were also those in Carouse with short tempers, and when these men saw how Gu Fei was still harrying them unceasingly, they bellowed and yelled for his head on a platter. But Brave Surge no longer allowed any of his men to engage in crossfire by this point and requested everyone to stop bothering Gu Fei.

“Are we going to let him electrocute us one by one in we’re all dead?” Someone indignantly complained.

“Do not pay mind to the anomalous, and the anomalous would not pay mind to you,” Brave Surge recited.

In fact, this saying was very applicable to Gu Fei. He continued to harass them for a bit, but once he saw the men from Carouse were completely ignoring him and his attacks without showing any hint of interest in the least, he knew that the enemy has decided to give up on this fight. Was there any point to continue chasing them like this? Gu Fei firmly believed that if he were to continue in this fashion, Carouse would surely reach a point where they could no longer stand him any longer and recklessly retaliate. As enemies that the system had designated on opposing parties, that should have precisely been what they were doing, so there was nothing dishonest and despicable about what he was doing. However, when was Gu Fei ever someone who observed the rules of the game? That was the moment he realized what he was doing was no more than overt bullying, so Gu Fei ultimately came to a stop and watched Carouse slowly leave.

Brave Surge heaved a sigh. He was really afraid that Thousand Miles Drunk would not stop his accumulation of contribution score from them, but it now seemed like if he was someone who would know how to act if nobody sought to agitate him. Seeing how his entire guild was listless, Brave Surge felt he needed to say something to rally their spirits, so he sent a message out through the guild channel, “Thousand Miles Drunk isn’t chasing us any longer, right? Looks like he does not dare to go overboard!”

“Uhm, I think it’s less of a question of dare, but more of having no desire to?” Folding Fan Invader said.

F*CK!! Brave Surge really wanted to choke Folding Fan Invader to death. H ow could I not know that I’m just lying to my men? Do you really think I could not tell the difference between Thousand Miles Drunk having no desire or not daring? Was there a need for you to say that out loud? Why is this person so detestable? Brave Surge ground his teeth and wanted to bite someone.

Gu Fei stood on the hill, sending Carouse off with his eyes as they got farther and farther away, as everyone from Forever In Flowers and Slyris were slowly walking up beside him.

In the beginning, they had planned to hide in that forest up on the hill and make set themselves up to receive the enemy there. But in the end, when they saw how Gu Fei was fighting halfway there, they began to see that something was amiss. They had originally believed that Gu Fei had stayed behind to buy them more time, but the more they looked, the more it seemed like Carouse was really in a terrible state.

This was especially true after they saw how Gu Fei was freely dipping in and out of the Mage’s 30 meters range throwing out spells the entire time. They shared the same thoughts Carouse had at that time: Oh yeah, that guy’s still a Mage!

Everyone walked in closer. Gu Fei turned his head around and pointed behind him as he said off-handedly, “They left.”

Silence. Nobody knew what to say at this moment. Praise him? Envy him? Express shock? It seemed like none of these reactions would sufficiently express their current emotions. In the end, it was still the most shameless Fireball who darted out and hugged Gu Fei’s leg, “Drunk bro, I’ve decided to cut ties with this bunch of reprehensible men. Take me in your mercenary group, and I’ll help hold your equipment and serve you from behind!”

“What nonsense are you spouting? Quick, let me go!” Gu Fei was shaking his leg but was unable to shake him off no matter how hard he tried, even as Fireball kept pleading endlessly.

“Who wants to come out and beat this shameless git to death?” Gu Fei was helpless.

Nobody made a sound. Everyone somewhat shared the same impulse as Fireball, but their shamelessness had not gotten to his level yet! The men from Forever In Flowers each sighed in admiration.

Slyris and the other outsiders saw this entire scene to be both hilarious and piqued. Fireball was still unwilling to let go, so Gu Fei dragged him along and limped to Slyris as he slipped off the two rings and told Slyris, “These are really good.”

“Yup,” Slyris nodded.

Gu Fei was a little unwilling to part with them, but he finally mustered enough courage to ask, “Are you selling them?”

“Nope!” Slyris answered.

Gu Fei had no choice but to hand them back to her, and Slyris did not miss a beat and slipped them on her fingers.

“Where did you get them?” Gu Fei asked.

“Chain quest,” Slyris answered.

Chain quest meant that it would not be repeated, which also meant that there was no need to ask her about the details of the quest any further.

“There’s no such equipment in the market right?” Gu Fei wondered.

“I’ve not seen it,” Slyris was rather serious when it came to how she presented herself.

“Equipment that gives you mana regeneration, eh? We’ll help you take note of things, Drunk bro,” Sakurazaka Moony said.

“Thank you very much,” Gu Fei replied.

“So what are we going to do now?” Vast Lushness asked.

“Oh right! My quest,” Gu Fei slapped his forehead.

“What quest?” Everyone asked.

“I need to look for an NPC. It was all a ruse by the guild Disembodied Spirits Under the Tree previously. They had already moved the NPC to God knows where, so I need to go find it now,” Gu Fei explained.

“Oh, do you need help?” Sakurazaka Moony asked.

“No need,” Gu Fei said. He did not wish to get Forever In Flowers’ help during this time because he was well aware that it would only trouble them further, and the players from all the guilds in Yunduan City would utterly despise them for it. Even though they acted like they did not care about it, this was their business, and Gu Fei did not wish to meddle with them about it.

“Okay, you guys can go have fun by yourselves, I’m leaving now,” Gu Fei called out.

“I’m gonna follow you, Drunk bro!” Fireball was still hugging his leg!

“Let go already! Don’t force me to slay you!” Gu Fei raised his sword.

Fireball knew Gu Fei was a man of action that would do what he said, so he had no choice but to let go. He tried his very best but was unable to squeeze out any tears at all.

———————————

Outside Yunduan City, right by Yunduan Lakeside, a group of players were being vigilant, their anxiety visible on their faces. Even though their movement was neither in a hurry nor too lackadaisical, this pace brought them immense pain.

None of them wanted to be moving at such a nonchalant pace, and all of them wished that they could advance as quickly as they could afford to, but they had no choice. They were moving along with an NPC. It did not care for whatever these men were feeling as it continued that nonchalant pace without a whit of care in this world.

“Elder Guillermo, can you please be a little faster?” players knew beseeching the NPCs was a lost cause, but doing so alleviated a bit of of the frustration they were feeling.

“Wind Seal, how are things over on the other side?” Someone in this group of men asked.

“Everyone there already been vanquished by Carouse,” Wind Seal replied. “However, they don’t seem to have realized that everything set up there was just a ruse.”

“How about Skygazing Under the Tree and the rest?”

“They won’t be coming over as people might have eyes on them. We can only depend on ourselves for the moment, so everyone should take care and be on their guard,” Wind Seal cautioned.

“Haha, as long as no one has seen through our disguise, there’s no one who would discover us, seeing how far away we are from the city war,” someone said.

“Let’s hope that is really the case! This NPC has brought us so far away out here, I wonder where are we headed?” Wind Seal muttered.

“Hey, Yunduan Lakeside. This is a good place! Everyone, be careful you don’t end up treading on people,” one of them cheekily grinned.

Sure enough, there were plenty of people hidden in the tall grass, but as long as they did not create a scene like what Gu Fei had done, none of the lovebirds would care to poke their noses into anyone else’s business. Nevertheless, there were two pairs of eyes staring unblinkingly at these men, and the mouths and noses of the two were gulping huge breaths of air laboriously.

“You rascal. You’ve really run far; do you really plan to run beyond 30 miles?” Guzzler asked.

“Why would I!? This here will do. Say, why were you following me?” Beyond Thirty Miles asked.

“Coincidence,” Guzzler answered.

“Do you see that group of men there?” Beyond Thirty Miles said.

“Yeah.”

“Do you recognize any of them? That one’s Wind Seal.” Beyond Thirty Miles pointed out.

“The Wind Seal who was related to the quest?” Guzzler asked.

“The one and the same. Turns out they are the real culprits here. The set up over by the cavity was all just a misdirection, and they’ve already escorted the NPC out over here,” Beyond Thirty Miles explained. “Hurry up and inform the guild!”

“Are you insane? Inform the guild that Wind Seal is here by Yunduan Lakeside? How did you learn this? You’re not thinking of admitting you saw them, right? But the problem is we seem to have been tasked to hunt down Thousand Miles Drunk. Do you have eyes that could see for miles or something?” Guzzler asked.

“Well…”

“You can go tell them yourself; don’t drag me into this,” Guzzler snapped.

“The quest is more important! The guild leader won’t blame us if we say it’s about the quest,” Beyond Thirty Miles mentioned.

“Heh, if this quest could be snatched over, the guild leader would surely thank you for your efforts, but the problem is that there don’t seem to be such a design for the quest, right? I think the guild leader will just end up eliminating you along with Wind Seal and the others. Do you still want to tell them about it? If you’re gonna do it, I’m just going to take off first.”

“Hmm, let’s just wait and see then…”