Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

All the players from Yunduan City who were taking part in this City Wars event were agitated. When the 60-second countdown appeared, every change of the digit was like a needle pricking their hearts. The two large guilds, Traversing Four Seas and Carouse, were currently too far away to be of any help. The only thing they could do was listen in on the development through effective channels, but all they heard was how nobody had located their target.

The players were all raging. All of those who were used to conventional MMOs simply could not stand this situation. Without the red nameplates over their enemies as an indicator or any prompts about who they were killable targets, everything depended on the players’ ability to discern the enemy with their own two eyes. But none of these people had even seen Thousand Miles Drunk in person, so how would they be able to differentiate him from anyone else!?

So many of these players were thinking about this, but to no avail. The number of Mages wearing black robes that they had mistakenly slain was up to seven by now, and the players were all despondent to the point they were already at their very limit. They were all simply coming up with random solutions in their panic by this point.

There’s still 30 seconds, yet there’s still no one who has noticed me! Sword Demon continued to feel dejected about this. Actually, he was also wearing a black get-up, and he did not have a guild emblem on him either. In fact, he had been standing still and not moving this entire time, and all these were all very suspicious traits that people should have picked up on, but the problem was that he was not a Mage. Sword Demon appeared to be a little transparent under the glaring halo that was called Thousand Miles Drunk, and he was thus overlooked by all these players.

It was unknown who was the insightful individual at this time who finally recalled that Thousand Miles Drunk was not the only person who was designated by the system to take part on the side of the city defenders for this event, and that Sword Demon was on the opposing force as well.

Sword Demon was a Thief, and upon thinking about this job class, everyone began yelling, “Anyone who is able to detect Stealth? Get all those who can detect Stealth to come out. Our target might currently be in Stealth!”

This was the model example of what it meant to be misled by their own cleverness; Sword Demon was speechless as he watched the people bustle about in a hurry. He had the impulse to just introduce himself to everyone, but he endured it, feeling that he would simply be doing himself a disservice.

There are still 20 seconds, Sword Demon thought to himself. Since everything has gotten to this point, I ought to act the part and finish these last 20 seconds properly.

And so, Sword Demon no longer stood still like the perfect target and began acting like he was one of the players searching for the supposed enemy as well, running around the place.

There are still 10 seconds! Sword Demon had finished counting down the ten seconds previously when he suddenly came face to face with another player as he was running all over the place. Sword Demon ignored him, and just as he turned away to leave, that person suddenly came chasing after him, “Wait a minute. Which guild are you from? Where’s your guild emblem?”

Sword Demon was stirred! Did someone finally notice me? It’s already the final ten seconds of the countdown and I can finally act the role the game expects me to play; I no longer have to maintain my presence by foolishly standing and running about.

Sword Demon slowly turned back, the dagger in his hand gripped tightly.

I’ll finish him off with a Shadowmist Assault! That was the thought that crossed Sword Demon’s mind when he heard someone from a nearby crowd yell, “Thousand Miles Drunk! HE’S OVER HERE!!!”

“I’ll go check it out!” That man who was standing right in front of Sword Demon had cleared two meters with a single leap the moment he turned around and began sprinting toward the direction of the shout at breakneck speeds. Sword Demon remained as forgotten as he was and that only left him in tears.

5 seconds before completion, Gu Fei had been discovered by the border of the encampment.

4 seconds before completion, the players who were assaulting the city quickly came running over to this place.

3 seconds before completion, the players began their attack on Gu Fei.

2 seconds before completion, Gu Fei blinked to avoid this initial attack.

1 second before completion, someone realized that Gu Fei’s position was not within the borders of the encampment.

When the countdown hit 0, someone cried out in dismay, “We’ve been tricked! This was a misdirection.”

Gu Fei was confused? “What misdirection? I just got here…”

The system prompt was announced to the entire city: [Encampment no. 3 for the rebel army assaulting the city has fallen to enemy occupation. The camp is now dismantled. The area still maintains its function for logging in and logging out purposes, but it would no longer serve as a spawn point for players.]

What had once been a simple but nonetheless impressive encampment, was now dismantled with a system refresh in the same instant as the system prompt had appeared. Even though the number of players inside remained the same, the devastation of the place was evident, with the flags tattered, tents skewed and in various states of disrepair. The watchtower and wooden fence were all overgrown with weeds and creepers, with some even having mushrooms growing on them.

This was how the site looked after it was designated as occupied by the system. Be it the victorious Gu Fei and Sword Demon, or the players assaulting the city that had lost their encampment, all of them were admiring the change to the scenery around them. Sword Demon did not care to stay around any longer, as he quietly activated his Stealth and was prepared to slip away. Meanwhile, after Gu Fei had heard the system prompt, a look of glee appeared on his face as he began striding forward into the abandoned encampment site.

“What else is he intending to do!?” A lot of these players still had their eyes on Gu Fei! After their invasion was a success, the camp had already been dismantled, yet this person was still intending on going in. What did he intend to do?

A white light shone.

“Did he kill himself?” Someone exclaimed in surprise.

“Is this the desolation that comes with being an expert?”

“He found nobody to fight with, so he ended up killing himself?”

“Kill your *ss; he logged out…” someone spat in exasperation.

The abandoned encampment evidently no longer belonged to the city assaulters, yet it maintained its function for players to log off. The assaulting forces could utilize it, the same goes for the neutral third party and even a city defender like Gu Fei.

“Why did he log off…” Sword Demon muttered to himself as he sneakily crept away. He had still wanted to discuss with Gu Fei about what they had just accomplished with their occupation of the encampment and what sort of severe impact it would have on the City War here. But how would he have guessed that the first effect it had was for a log off point to appear right before Gu Fei’s eyes, and so he quickly used it.

“G*DD*MM*T!!” Far out in Yunjiao Lakeside, Young Master Han had angrily slammed his fist.

“This can’t be helped. The system provides absolutely no assistance when it comes to identifying potential targets, so just based on the eyes of players, it just isn’t that easy to locate a particular player in 5 minutes, especially in a situation where the target in question could be intentionally disguising himself,” Gu Xiaoshang said.

Young Master Han was expressionless, “That’s not what I’m picking on.”

“Then what is it?” Gu Xiaoshang was lost.

“That d*mn*d Thousand Miles Drunk has actually gone offline. Tell me, what kind of gamer is that? It’s the weekend now, and given just how momentous the City Wars event is, he actually kept to his own schedule and log out in a timely fashion. What sort of idiosyncrasy is that?” Young Master Han vented his outrage.

“Well…” Gu Xiaoshang found it a little hard to understand as well. Take just her fellow guildmates in Colored Clouds. There were a little over a thousand players in it, with almost a good half of them who were gaming fanatics. The remaining half was more moderate, merely treating the game as a pastime that they spent their free time on, not considering it to be of any major importance. Even these people had also demonstrated their unerring perseverance during the City Wars event. Everybody had ensured that their physical needs for eating, drinking and sleeping were all met before getting online to properly immerse themselves in the City War.

“Perhaps he needed to log out and relieve himself…” Gu Xiaoshang hazarded a guess. People could still feel hungry, tried or even feel the urge to empty their bladder even while in the game, and these are things that would require them to log out to resolve. During group activities in Parallel World, the thing that players were most afraid of was when people needed to use the toilet. Being unable to forcefully log off, they would, therefore, have to hurry back to the cities and find a designated log off point so they could do their business offline.

Actually, it was not just for group activities, even players that were playing the game by themselves also hated running into this problem. Using this as an excuse, the players had called for the officials to grant them permission to log out whenever they wished. But it could not be helped; the ability to log off freely was not something that the officials did not wish to grant the players, but it was that the technology behind it was unable to achieve something like this. As a result, the players had no choice but to continue holding back their bodily fluids.

The officials were also quite vexed by this issue and temporarily had trouble finding an appropriate solution to this. They could not possibly tell the players to drink less water for the game, could they? Everyone knew that drinking more water was healthy, and the game company did not dare to make such announcements for the game. Thus, the solution that they had come up with for the moment was to adjust the designated log off points accordingly. They tried their best to design them so that they were available all over the map, and they would not be limited to just the cities.

For this task, the game developers had even privately called it the ‘public toilet construction’ case, and it could not be any bit more on the nose.

Gu Xiaoshang’s guess was not an impossibility, but it was unfortunate that after a dozen minutes had passed, Gu Fei was still nowhere to be found. Young Master Han’s carefully laid out ambush positioning here by the banks of Yunjiao Lakeside looked no more than an utter joke right now.

“That guy is really too much. He still has quests to accomplish! Ignoring this sort of competitive quests, is he not afraid that the other party might accomplish their quest and cause him to fail his quest?” Gu Xiaoshang was also complaining.

“Yeah, he’s not in the least bit afraid, which is why I say that guy is a real scoundrel,” Young Master Han’s aggro had been building this whole time, and Gu Fei’s action of logging out had caused him to lose his aggro target, so he was in an urgent need to find himself a new target.

With Colored Cloud’s positioning becoming no more than a joke, by the time Oathless Sword and Brave Surge came bringing all their man to grandly descend upon the place, the expression that both men shared was of deep anguish. Having lost the encampment only made them feel like the situation had gone from bad to worse. Could this back and forth with Gu Fei during this City Wars event end with the city assaulters failing?

“Xiaoshang!” The moment Oathless Sword saw Gu Xiaoshang, that look of dejection was wiped off as a big grin was plastered all over his face.

“You’re here,” Gu Xiaoshang said.

“I’m here,” Oathless Sword rubbed his hands together, even as he admired the wonderful scene of love in Yunjiao Lakeside, feeling refreshed at the sight.

“Thousand Miles Drunk has logged off,” Gu Xiaoshang told him.

“What? Logged off?” Oathless Sword was delighted. He would find anything that Gu Xiaoshang tell him delightful. By the time his mind finally processed what was being said after the delight passed, he leaped to his feet and cried out, “Wait, what? He logged off?”

Oathless Sword also had Gu Fei on his friends’ list, but a guild leader in charge of a large guild would have tens of thousands of messages crowding his notifications and channels, so something as insignificant as a system message mentioning who was logging in or out would not be noticed. Taking a look now, he indeed saw that Thousand Miles Drunk’s name was darkened.

“Could he have logged out to use the toilet?” Brave Surge was right beside them. Similarly, he had not noticed that Thousand Miles Drunk had logged out. As a serious gamer, they also had problems believing that Thousand Miles Drunk would choose to leave the game during such a time.

“That should not be the case. It’s been over ten minutes by now,” Gu Xiaoshang announced.

“This… Then what are we still doing gathered around here?” Oathless Sword absentmindedly asked.

Gu Xiaoshang helplessly shrugged, “We’ll be taking our leave first!”

This was truly what it meant to arrive in jubilation, only to leave in disappointment. Oathless Sword had nearly said ‘since we’ve come all this way, leaving now would be so pointless. Why don’t we just have a sit by the tall grass over there?’ While this was what he really wanted to say, he simply did not have the guts to utter it out loud. Thus, all he could do was sneak a glance at Gu Xiaoshang, watching as she gathered her men and departed from the area. All he could do was sigh as he proceeded to prepare and lead all his men away from the area as well.

After Traversing Four Seas had that skirmish with Gu Fei the last time, everyone had been feeling a total lack of fighting spirit and vigor. They had finally managed to scrounge up a bit of spirit back for this venture out to Yunjiao Lakeside, only to stumble into such an ending. Many of them had plenty of complex feelings about it, and the guild channel was filled with lamentations, but no amount of complaining would direct them to what they should be doing next. As such, these men could only regret that their participation in the City War had been completely feckless and meaningless.

Oathless Sword could also only watch blankly, not really knowing what else he should say. Head back to the battlefield and paint it red now? The assault on the city was still going on, but it was really just the players dying more and more without anyone making any sort of effective breakthrough. Everyone could tell that the so-called quests that could be found during the City Wars were no more than minor embellishment, and just stubbornly pitting themselves in a head-on clash with the city’s defenses alone would not be enough to succeed. Perhaps they needed to find some particular quest and uncover some sort of plot in order to attain victory.

But the problem was how the quests in Parallel World lacked any sort of hints, which left everyone spinning on their heels and grasping for straws. It was only natural for everyone to become more and more ineffectual with everything going on.

However, Yunjiao Lake had a very vital quest hidden away this time. Beyond Thirty Miles was squatting in a corner of the log cabin, and when he first saw men from his own guild, Carouse, appear, he really wished that he could step out and make his presence known. However, Young Master Han was still in the cabin, showing no signs of going out, so he had no idea what he should do. He had also heard Gu Xiaoshang and Young Master Han discussing the matter regarding Thousand Miles Drunk logging off, and so he drummed up some courage and stepped forward to speak to Young Master Han, “Thousand Miles Drunk has logged off? Then what should we do?”

“What else can we do? We’re leaving, of course!” Young Master Han had drained the bottle of liquor he had in his hand and tossed the empty bottle away as he left.

“You’re all leaving just like that? Then what about me?” Beyond Thirty Miles was stunned. Carefully, looking all around, he slowly stepped out from the cabin as well.

Young Master Han had walked off in the distance, and had completely ignored his existence by now. Beyond Thirty Miles was confused. I still have the quest on me, wasn’t I supposed to be the bait? Why does no one want me anymore?

The players who had been hiding for their ambush were constantly making their way out of the tall grass, all of them heading in a single direction. Beyond Thirty Miles was searching for any signs of his fellow compatriot in adversity, Guzzler, but he did not find him, though Folding Fan Invader did end up spotting him instead.

“Thirty! G*dd*mm*t, where did you run off to? Why didn’t you reply after I’ve messaged you?” Folding Fan Invader had come running over and accosted him.

“It’s a long story!” Beyond Thirty Miles sighed.

“Where’s Guzzler? Weren’t the two of you together?” Folding Fan Invader asked.

“Yeah. I’m looking for him right now!” Beyond Thirty Miles answered.

“Did the two of you start running the moment the battle started?” Folding Fan Invader was visibly incensed.

“Uhh, I heard Thousand Miles Drunk has gone offline,” Beyond Thirty Miles looked to the left and right as he spoke.

“Don’t you evade my question. You two useless oafs!” Folding Fan Invader scorned.

“Let me tell you something!” Beyond Thirty Miles furtively glanced to the left and right before he slid in and whispered to Folding Fan Invader’s ears, “I’ve got a quest on me right now!”

“Quest? What’s the big fuss over that. I’ve got one too,” Folding Fan Invader scoffed.

“Tsk, mine isn’t your sort of fetch quest.” Beyond Thirty Miles said.

“It’s a vital quest?” Folding Fan Invader’s expression changed.

“It’s the quest that Wind Seal and the others had gotten. I got it back,” Beyond Thirty Miles was still whispering.

“You got it back?” Folding Fan Invader repeated.

“Yup. After a series of events, I’ve managed to get it back.” Beyond Thirty Miles was still looking everywhere as he was saying this. He did not see Young Master Han, Gu Xiaoshang or anyone from Colored Clouds anywhere taking not of his own movement. Beyond Thirty Miles finally believed that Thousand Miles Drunk had gone offline. None of them considered him to be of any use any longer, so they were no longer bothered with him.

“If you’ve got a quest, hurry up and tell the guild leader about it! We need to find some way to accomplish it!” Folding Fan Invader urged.

“Don’t be in such a rush; it’s a really long story. Where’s Guzzler? Let’s find that rascal first!” Beyond Thirty Miles said, even as he sent a message out to Guzzler.

Guzzler replied with his coordinates, and the two men began searching for traces of him. Right by the banks where the tall reeds grew, they managed to find Guzzler bounded up tightly and tossed to one side. Folding Fan Invader was so shocked that the color from his face drained. He quickly helped Guzzler with the knots and saw that someone had actually even gagged the man with a piece of cloth.

“What happened here?” Folding Fan Invader simply could not make sense of what he was witnessing.

“Young Master Han that scoundrel!” Guzzler cursed. He looked all around, asking Beyond Thirty Miles, “Is he gone?”

“He’s gone… That guy is truly a man of his word!” Beyond Thirty Miles exclaimed in his shock, at the same time celebrating the fact that he had listened accordingly to what that man had ordered him to do, otherwise he might have also found himself in a similarly compromising state.

“D*mm*t, d*mm*t, d*mm*t!!” Guzzler spat out three mouths of mud as he cursed.

“Just what exactly was going on here?” Folding Fan Invader could not make heads or tails of everything.

And so, the two men took turns to explain everything that had transpired to Folding Fan Invader.

“A blessing in disguise!” Folding Fan Invader was gleeful hearing everything, completely unsympathetic to the miserable experience the two had been through.

“I’ll inform the guild leader,” Folding Fan Invader’s loyalty toward the guild was high, and he immediately reported the matter to Brave Surge.

“Ah? Something like this actually happened?” Brave Surge was immediately elated when he heard about what happened too. He had already made the decision to deal with Thousand Miles Drunk, so now that he learned that this quest had actually serendipitously landed on his lap, he could not be any happier, nor did he bother looking into why the two had attempted to desert from the last battle.

With this quest, Brave Surge was all the more concerned with facing Thousand Miles Drunk, hurriedly asking Gu Xiaoshang, “Guild leader Gu, Thousand Miles Drunk would surely log on tomorrow, so how should we deal with him?”

Even though Oathless Sword was now leading Traversing Four Seas away, his eyes had always been searching for Gu Xiaoshang. He was confused and found it strange when he saw Brave Surge suddenly approach Gu Xiaoshang, so he quickly hurried over as quickly as he could and approached Gu Xiaoshang as well.

Gu Xiaoshang was about to say “We’ll talk about this tomorrow,” when Oathless Sword had cheekily arrived with a wide grin, “What are we talking about?”

Brave Surge did not say a word. He had no doubt that Gu Xiaoshang was aware that his guild had gotten a hold of the quest. In fact, he could even say that it was because the woman had no intention of snatching the quest that resulted in the quest ending up in his lap. However, Oathless Sword was like someone with priors, having previously been uncovered to undermining fellow guilds, so Brave Surge truly had no wish to let the man join in. At the same time, Brave Surge was very afraid that Gu Xiaoshang would not be bothered by this and speak the truth of the matter. With how the woman’s temperament of doing things without any scruples whatsoever, Brave Surge was a little nervous right now.

“We were talking about Thousand Miles Drunk, and how we are going to deal with him tomorrow when he gets online,” Gu Xiaoshang answered.

“Xiaoshang, you can arrange everything. We’ll listen to everything you say,” Oathless Sword expressed his devotion.

“Then we’ll talk about everything tomorrow!” That was still the answer she gave.

“Then what is your guild doing right now?” Oathless Sword was pretty happy when he saw that Brave Surge was not saying a word. Letting me talk to Gu Xiaoshang this whole time will do, you can just stand there foolishly and stay out of this! Oathless Sword thought to himself, ignoring Brave Surge as he continued to chat with Gu Xiaoshang.

Brave Surge let loose a sigh of relief, wishing Oathless Sword would take no notice of him entirely. Thus, he simply left after saying “I’ve other business to take care of” and hurriedly away as far as he could.

Meanwhile, there was a group of men who were even farther away than Brave Surge, hiding from the guilds. Skygazing Under the Tree had been watching this whole time, waiting for a chance for him to swoop in and profit. In the end, he received the news that Thousand Miles Drunk had gone offline, which explained why all the guilds had abandoned their plan.

“What the hell!? What sort of gamer is he, how can he be so unreliable!?” Skygazing Under the Tree wanted to kill with a borrowed knife, but the knife had disappeared, and he was severely upset about this.