Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

The crowd glared angrily as the two men dragged their idol away from them, but Silver Moon and No Smile could not care less about them, and they pretty much carried Ye Xiaowu away from the mob. The three of them quickly ducked into a corner once they squeezed out of the crowd and exited the building, watching as that bunch of players rush out of the Alchemy Room in the direction of the courtyard entrance. None of them noticed the three figures hiding in that corner. Silver Moon and No Smile were already experts when it came to evading others’ pursuit.

“Bro, don’t you find this tiring.” The two complained at Ye Xiaowu.

“Heh.” Ye Xiaowu did not say a word, taking out the scroll he first made for the two men to take a gander. “The spell that I have just demonstrated is inscribed within this scroll. Using this will allow its user to lock on to the target’s coordinates afflicted by my Inescapable Mark.”

The two strained their necks to have a look. Silver Moon then asked offhandedly, “How do you learn this skill?”

This time, Ye Xiaowu did not change the subject, but what he said made the two drop the thought. “It’s a Priest spell.”

“Hmm. So, when are we gonna act?” Silver Moon asked.

“Old Broken’s still not back from Baishi City, and Cool Apple is a rascal who only acts however he wants, so it’s just the three of us for now,” Ye Xiaowu replied.

“Oh, is that so? Actually, there’s no such hurry. Didn’t Old Broken depart to get me my Torq of Leadership? If he can get a hold of it, our combat strength will increase exponentially,” Silver Moon said, proceeding to brush his hand across the flat side of his King’s Blade as he gesticulated at Ye Xiaowu. This devious person had no wish to become a cannon fodder. Besides, being only at level 36 currently, he could not activate his weapon properly, so he was definitely nowhere strong enough to take on Young Master’s Elite. As for No Smile, Silver Moon exchanged glances with him and knew that the guy shared his same sentiment. Neither was willing to take the risk of confronting that group at their current state. The ideal team composition that these two men were looking forward to was one where others would be doing the killing at the frontline while they safely threw attacks or support from the back. It would be even more perfect if they could loot whatever equipment their enemies ended up dropping upon death.

And how would Ye Xiaowu not know what they were thinking. He was well aware of what sort of character these two men had, but he chose not to point it out and merely nodded. “Then, we’ll wait for Old Broken join us before deciding! Still, we first need to observe and find out if the other party is still together or has gone their separate ways. No Smile, take this scroll and have a look!”

It was not easy to find excuses for every errand coming his way, so even though No Smile was not particularly willing, he had no choice but to accept it. Actually, having the Vanish skill that allowed him to disappear forcefully did indeed make him the ideal candidate for this task, but in the course of him fighting with Gu Fei back then, he had learned that Vanish or even Stealth was useless against the man. This left an indelible shadow in No Smile’s heart. If it was said that every Thief in Parallel World was confident and reliant on the skills that provided them Stealth, No Smile would most definitely be the exception.

Nonetheless, since he had already agreed to help, No Smile could not just mind his own business. Taking the scroll and unfurling it, he bid farewell to the two and left.

“Ahem…” Silver Moon cleared his throat after No Smile left to ask Ye Xiaowu. “How is Old Broken planning to get a hold of the Torq of Leadership in Baishi City?”

“He’s got no choice but to buy it back with a high price.” Ye Xiaowu sighed.

“You’re pretty loaded, huh!” Silver Moon used his lifelong skill in flattery and very naturally complimented Ye Xiaowu without rousing the latter’s suspicions.

“There’s actually another equipment which I feel that we will find very useful,” Silver Moon divulged.

“Oh? What’s that?” Ye Xiaowu asked.

“The Utopian Magic Staff,” Silver Moon divulged.

“Mana Sacrifice…” Ye Xiaowu instantly knew the inlaid skill for that staff.

My conjecture is spot on! Silver Moon confirmed his hunch once more. Everything, thus far had reflected that this Priest had an uncanny familiarity of this game. While he indeed professed of being unaware of some things, he obviously simply did not wish to reveal anything. This person was a treasure-trove of information!

“It is indeed best fit to use the skill of that in conjunction with King’s Command,” Ye Xiaowu nodded.

“It’ll really be a huge help to us if we can acquire that weapon,” Silver Moon added.

“That equipment isn’t a quest reward but a drop from a Wild BOSS, instead. Although the drop rate for it is extremely low, it’s not entirely impossible!” Ye Xiaowu said.

Silver Moon sighed with assurance once more. Sure enough, Vast Lushness’s Utopian Magic Staff was something that dropped when they hunted down a Wild BOSS back in Yueye City.

“I know someone who has it and a channel we can use to obtain it,” Silver Moon said.

“Is that so?” Ye Xiaowu had also heard of Silver Moon’s despicable past, but the part about Vast Lushness owning Utopian Magic Staff was not mentioned in the account, as it was not an important information; thus, it was not something everyone would know. Ye Xiaowu was uncertain if a Utopian Magic Staff had dropped in the game yet, but hearing Silver Moon mention it now, he naturally understood that Silver Moon must have had dealings with someone that owned that staff. Still, Ye Xiaowu would never have guessed that this person would be Vast Lushness.

“This staff, if priced based on the fact that it has that skill, as well as the ordinary stats it has, I believe will fetch 2000 gold coins, but the problem is, will the owner be willing to sell it just like that?” Ye Xiaowu asked.

“There’s a way to get it for 3000; I’ve long had my eye on it,” Silver Moon said.

“Is that so…” Ye Xiaowu was a little hesitant. Sure enough, he did not have a problem with the 3000-gold-coin price tag, but the issue was passing this amount to Silver Moon… Ye Xiaowu did not have much faith in this man.

“If you have that amount, I can contact those people right now and make the transaction once we reach an agreement,” Silver Moon said.

Once Ye Xiaowu heard that he did not have to place his money into his hand for the transaction. He was immediately at ease and nodded. “Then, go do just that!”

“Wait for my news.” Silver Moon turned to leave. Actually, there was no need for him to go away. All he had to do was fire off his message.

Silver Moon’s friends list was originally thriving, but ever since his despicable past had been unearthed, a majority of his friends had deleted him. Nine out of ten names in this list would result in the system prompt: [The player is not accepting messages from anyone not in his/her friends list.]

Still, there were a number of far more unique players that did not really care for a person’s character. Silver Moon was contacting someone precisely like this.

Checking his friends list, he saw that this person was online. Silver Moon hurriedly fired off a message. “Big South, are you there?!”

“Yes.” Impressively, the person Silver Moon wanted to contact was actually Southern Lone Blade.

“How have you been recently? I heard you’ve hit a rough spot!” While Silver Moon was not often online recently, he still spent much of his time browsing the web. Southern Lone Blade’s speedy disappearance from the leaderboards was a hot topic for a time, but because of how low-profile the man acted by only contacting people he wanted to reach out, there was just not much the general public could discuss when it came to that man. Most players did not even know what Southern Lone Blade was actually doing in the game. In Silver Moon’s case, he was among Southern Lone Blade’s list of clients.

“I heard you’ve managed to escape.” Southern Lone Blade ignored Silver Moon’s previous comment.

“You’re rather well-informed!” Silver Moon exclaimed.

“I wonder who’s the deity that managed to pull you out,” Southern Lone Blade remarked.

“He he. Can’t tell you that,” Silver Moon said. When he was still trapped in Baishi City’s Knight’s Barracks, Silver Moon had once tried reaching out to Southern Lone Blade for help, but Southern Lone Blade had picked up a bigger deal involving Gu Fei at that time, so he was unable to accept Silver Moon’s proposal. In the end, the outcome of his struggle with Gu Fei had him suffering major setbacks. Southern Lone Blade even occasionally wondered if the outcome would not have been so tragic had he accepted Silver Moon’s request to perform an extraction mission for him in Baishi City instead of becoming entangled with Gu Fei.

“So, why are you reaching out to me this time?” Southern Lone Blade went straight to the point.

“You still taking assignments?” Silver Moon queried.

“That depends on the job itself,” Southern Lone Blade clarified.

“He he. Oh, dear. Has your confidence dropped after losing those levels? You’ve never once made an attempt to clarify,” Silver Moon said.

Southern Lone Blade was helpless! He truly had no wish to antagonize Gu Fei right now, and he was privy to the hostilities between Silver Moon and Gu Fei. What if the man’s purpose for approaching him was to request taking revenge for him against Gu Fei? Southern Lone Blade did not wish to accept such an assignment – at least, not at the moment.

“Help me loot a piece of equipment from someone,” Silver Moon requested.

“What is it?” Southern Lone Blade decided that, if the other said ‘Moonlit Nightfalls’, he would quickly pretend to be dead.

“Utopian Magic Staff,” Silver Moon said.

Southern Lone Blade was stunned, pausing for a moment before replying, “You’re pretty ruthless.” That staff was in the possession of Vast Lushness. While Ye Xiaowu did not know of this, Southern Lone Blade certainly did. It was their job to know this sort of thing, so they would often pay great attention to such information and data. Across the forums, in the game, and even the players’ chatter – as long as anyone came into possession of any special equipment, Southern Lone Blade’s gang would record it in a notebook so thick, it would put Brother Assist to shame if he ever caught sight of it. That was the speciality professionals offered.

“Are you accepting it or not?” Silver Moon asked.

“1500 gold coins as deposit and 1500 gold upon delivery,” Southern Lone Blade replied.

“No problem.” Silver Moon was no stranger to making deals with Southern Lone Blade, so he knew that the latter would execute the assignment upon payment of the deposit. If he was unable to acquire the requested equipment, he would do a full refund on top of the deposit; if he managed to loot it, but the buyer changed his or her mind about it, then the deposit would be kept. There was no issue of trust with Southern Lone Blade, so Silver Moon was completely reassured. Southern Lone Blade, of course, had his precautions when taking into account Silver Moon’s character, so while he would usually quote a 500- to 1000-gold-coin deposit for other players at most, Silver Moon had to pay 1500 gold coins upfront.

“How many days do you think it’ll take?” Silver Moon asked.

“Can you confirm her current location?” Southern Lone Blade asked.

“Nope.”

“Theoretically speaking, she should be back in Yunduan City…” Thanks to Traversing Four Seas’ damnable guild quest, a whole host of players had forged their way out of their home city, and not many of them were in a hurry to make their way back – just like vagabonds. This ended up causing quite a lot of trouble for Southern Lone Blade and his other colleagues that were in this line of business.

“That’s a problem you’ll need to handle!” said Silver Moon.

“If it’s Yunduan City, I’ll have you add another 1000,” said Southern Lone Blade.

“Why?” Silver Moon was flustered.

“It’s too risky,” Southern Lone Blade replied.

Silver Moon was confused. Yunduan City is risky? Thinking about this, Southern Lone Blade was most likely referring to that lunatic Gu Fei. It seemed that Southern Lone Blade had also run into that headache, which left him so miserable! Silver Moon suddenly felt a wave of schadenfreude come at him. He wished he could just gather everyone in Parallel World who had been on the receiving end of Gu Fei’s sword and rally them to seek vengeance.

“If you’re worried about Thousand Miles Drunk, fret not. He’s now in Linyin City,” Silver Moon assured.