Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Sword Demon had no clue that his words had triggered Gu Fei’s melancholia. With the camo face paint on, the two men could barely make out each other’s expression. Sword Demon decided not to say anything further once he perceived Gu Fei’s reticence. As for the latter, he only sighed heavily again as the loneliness he felt toward kung fu was once more evoked by all this.

“Hey, you two, get ready to leave!” The two men hurriedly got up at Coco’s beckoning.

“Take off your outfits first and cover your faces. Neither of you intends to walk down the street in broad daylight looking like that, right?” She raised a brow at them.

Sword Demon and Gu Fei fitted their outfits into their respective dimensional pockets and proceeded to cover their faces as instructed. They even put hats on their heads; it was not particularly rare to find people wearing hats in game.

“But everyone in this room has already seen everything,” Gu Fei reasoned.

“It’s none of their business. Who’s gonna be that nosy?!” Coco was clearly unfazed by Gu Fei’s claim as she pointed to the two large sacks on the floor. “Take one each; carry it and follow me.”

A player’s dimensional pocket was affected by the number of slots available and the weight of the items put in it; Players would not be able to contain anything that exceeded this limit. Such a large purchase of outfits by Coco meant that they had to carry the items on person. Gu Fei had done such a thing before, having traveled around with a burlap sack slung across his back. At that time, he had carried all the monster drops he had acquired while grinding monsters that could not fit into his dimensional pocket. It was only after he had played the game for a while and learned more about it did he stop collecting all that garbage from monsters. It had been a while since he had last resorted to doing this sort of manual labor.

Without another word, Sword Demon stepped forward, picked up a sack, and followed. Gu Fei went forth and did the same with the other sack. It took plenty of effort on his part to just lift the sack. Finally getting it off the floor, he staggered after Sword Demon.

“Ohhh… The little Strength your Mage has isn’t actually that minute, huh!” Coco mused.

Gu Fei grinded his teeth as he shot Coco a glare. It seemed that this lady wanted him to make a fool of himself again, which just showed how deep-seated her resentment for him. However, continuing endlessly like this was not good, either! Gu Fei pondered on this accordingly. If this woman attempts to prank me again, I’ll find some way to get back at her. It was at this point that he suddenly felt his load lighten. He turned to look, only to see Coco lifting the other end of the sack to help him. “I’ll help you carry it for a bit, but you’ll have to carry this on your own once we enter the jungle. Otherwise, others would think that I’m an idiot. That wouldn’t help your plan in any way, shape, or form either.”

“Okay…” Gu Fei answered. He immediately caught on to what Coco meant. She had helpers to avoid doing such manual labor, but if she ended up finding someone who could barely carry this on his own, what else could she be but an idiot? This act of idiocy would very easily attract unnecessary attention to them, which was the opposite of what Gu Fei and Sword Demon had in mind.

“Oh, yeah. We don’t have any guild emblems. What are we going to do about that?” Sword Demon suddenly asked.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll get two for you guys when I head back,” Coco said.

“How will you get that?” Sword Demon was confused. There was no way either of them could really join their guild, since their names would be instantly exposed from doing so, but the guild emblem was considered to be a restricted item that could not be traded between players; there was simply no way for Coco to take others’ and pass them to the two.

“You should have faith in the counterfeiting business…” Coco replied.

“They can do something like that, too?” Sword Demon was shocked.

“Most people don’t know. For this sort of thing, the composition and design are very complex, and the system won’t provide any aid in the creation process, so the average crafting professionals won’t be able to do it. However, the more difficult it is for people to make, the more business opportunity can spring forth, right?” Coco said.

“Can Remarkable Flair do it?” Sword Demon quickly caught on.

“Nope, but Sincerity can,” Coco replied.

“Oh…” Sword Demon hummed. He was no stranger to this name. Sincerity was another famous MMO workshop with it being a macro business with plenty of standardized online shopfronts. They boasted of good service, a positive attitude, and responsiveness to clients.

“I already contacted them before, but because these things are completely handcrafted, they will require actual time to make, which means it won’t be available anytime soon,” Coco said.

“This… isn’t cheap, is it?” Sword Demon already carried a buttload of debts on his person. The tone of his voice involuntarily dropped to a third when money was brought up.

“Don’t fret so much about that. Consider it as a guild expense,” she assured.

“That’s no good!” Sword Demon showed a serious expression.

“You’re not in charge of my guild.” Coco chuckled.

Sword Demon was speechless facing this rebuttal…

“Do you guys have any questions? You’d better ask me quickly, as we’re about to reach our destination.” Coco looked ahead and reckoned that this area was where they had cordoned off for their drills. They were about to enter it right now.

“I have one,” Gu Fei said.

“Spit it out, then,” Coco said.

“What’s the name of your guild?” Gu Fei asked.

Silence. Extremely disquieting silence. The man before her eyes had time and again foiled their guild’s quest, yet he was unaware their guild’s name. What sort of tragedy was this?

“No one has told me before!” Gu Fei looked very innocent. It was not that he had failed to give his due respect to his opponents; it was just that no one had cared to mention their guild’s name to him before. Given that he did not really care for things like guilds in the first place, the thought of learning the name of Deep Waters’ guild had never crossed his mind until this crucial moment.

“They are called Deep Freeze…” Sword Demon told him, before changing the subject. “Come, quickly. This sack is heavy enough as it is.” Not only is he unaware of their guild name, he even remembers Deep Waters’ name wrongly…Sword Demon thought this to himself, and decided it was best if Coco never found out about this.

“Deep Freeze! Don’t forget it!” Coco wished she could go right up to Gu Fei and give his ear a sharp tug.

“I won’t. I have a very good memory…” Gu Fei said. As Sword Demon helped the man blush with shame, he felt sorry for Deep Waters deep down.

Going forward for a short distance, Coco let go of the part of the sack she was holding. “We’re almost there. Ready your outfit and put more of your back into carrying this stuff.”

“It’s really quite taxing. Do you have some equipment that adds to Strength, Sword Demon? Lend me some for a bit.” Gu Fei started putting on his camouflage outfit.

As a MMO expert, there was no way Sword Demon would have just one set of equipment like Gu Fei. He had a set each for PvPing, questing, grinding monsters, or doing whatever activities… Veterans like Sword Demon were bound to have different sets of equipment sorted into what would be the most useful for whatever tasks they found themselves doing. Sure enough, the man indeed had items on him he did not have on that added Strength to the wearer. He quickly handed some over to Gu Fei.

Gu Fei donned this equipment and had an easier time carrying the sack.

Coco was quite touched upon witnessing their actions and said to Sword Demon, “Looks like you’ve made another good friend!”

Sword Demon chuckled but did not say a word. While what she said was a little misconstrued, it was true that being able to lend and exchange equipment in a game, just like what they had done, meant that there was a deep sense of trust between them. Naturally, that would mean that they were rather good friends to achieve such a level of trust. For any normal human being, even if the recipient was not a black-hearted person, it was extremely difficult to believe what they had just done. It was not easy to gain another person’s trust; thus, the fact that Sword Demon and Gu Fei could have such a level in each other signified that, at least in the field of games, they were friends who trusted each other.

They carried on with their journey and soon entered the area the members of Deep Freeze were training. From time to time, a head would poke out from the foliage looking all sneaky but would lose their wariness the moment they saw that it was just Coco bringing along some men carrying things over. Gu Fei sighed in relief at this as he wondered how he could bear carrying such a heavy load without the equipment that added stat points to his Strength. This would obviously draw attention, and that meant scrutiny, which in turn would lead to apprehension. What came after that… Well, the result would be dire.

“They’re back!” Walking for another short distance, a bunch of men appeared from the trees just ahead of them. Despite meeting not too long ago, Gu Fei and Sword Demon were still unable to pick out all the men before them this time. Only through the man’s voice and build could they determine this person to be Deep Waters. As such, the two became more confident of their disguise.

“I’ve brought another hundred outfits.” Coco gestured for Sword Demon and Gu Fei to set the sacks on the ground.

Placing the sacks on the ground, the two men quietly stood at the side, as if it were none of their business. Everybody’s eyes were focused on the two sacks on the ground, so none minded either of the two.

“The situation is looking good!” Gu Fei privately messaged Sword Demon.

“Yeah, but I don’t see that Broken Water Arrow person.” Sword Demon glanced around them and did not find their target.

“He’s right beside Deep Waters; what sort of eyes are you using?!” Gu Fei replied.

“Ah?” Sword Demon glanced over at the man beside Deep Waters.

“He’s walking over here!” Gu Fei warned.

Sword Demon was sweating. “Sorry. I just can’t recognize him…”

“Of course, you won’t be able to tell from how his face looks. Take note of his build, instead!” Gu Fei said.

“I don’t have the eyes of a professional like you…” Sword Demon said helplessly.

Indeed, the man that had come forward with Deep Waters was Broken Water Arrow. He was now burying his head in the two sacks.

“The fourth set of outfits are here; those without them, come forward and get yours!” Deep Waters announced on the guild channel.

It was as if there were a beast migration happening in the jungle that instant, as the entire place suddenly came alive. Birds were spooked into flying off as human heads popped out from the surroundings. These people that had newly poked their heads all had faces smeared with camo face paint, yet none of them had the outfit to go with it, making them look extremely uncoordinated. These men all rushed forward and snatched these outfits in a disorderly fashion. It was evident that Deep Waters had not organized his men in any arrangement to pick out their respective clothes, so everyone sought to be the first one to obtain their outfit, which quickly became rather chaotic. Deep Waters and others, who had already experienced this, very carefully hid themselves at a corner. Gu Fei and Sword Demon were unprepared for such a scene, so they ended up suffering immensely from being shoved and squeezed among this sea of players.

A hundred outfits were quickly taken. Soon after, their eyes were graced by the sight of these men putting on their pants and tops around them. Sword Demon and Gu Fei suddenly felt as if they had been transported to a poverty-stricken area, watching all of these players seizing clothes for themselves…

“Old Broken, these two men have been running my errands the whole day and have not been properly trained at all. I’ll leave it to you to drill them properly!” Gu Fei and Sword Demon suddenly heard Coco instruct Broken Water Arrow this accordingly as she pointed at the two men.

“What a gutsy woman!” Gu Fei was astonished and instantly thought that they had been betrayed by Coco. Her order would directly send the two men right up to Broken Water Arrow; they would be instantly exposed if he were to add them as friends. While a player’s IGN was not shown above his or her forehead, the moment players were added to the friends list meant there was no way they could hide their true identities.

“Don’t worry; I’ll train them properly. The strength of a guild depends on the effort of each member,” Broken Water Arrow expressed.

“Thank you for your hard work,” Coco said as she waved goodbye to the two men. “Both of you had better work hard in your training!” She winked at Gu Fei and Sword Demon.