Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Svelte Dancer was feeling pretty dejected, for truly she had no idea on how to deal with Gu Fei. On second thought, Gu Fei might be indomitable, but he was never unreasonable. While that man loved fighting, he wholly understood what the priority was each time, and Vast Lushness’s wish to get back her Utopian Magic Staff would take precedence, of course. If he had not understood this, he would not have leaped out so grandly back at the Auction House at that time. After all, the man should be clear that revealing his presence to Southern Lone Blade’s team then would do more harm than good.

Thinking of this, Svelte Dancer felt that Gu Fei should not be an obstacle, but who would have thought that when he got online later that night, he actually shook his head vigorously once he was told of the plan?

“How could you do this?” Gu Fei asked. “Southern Lone Blade’s team will be attempting to rob someone else for the magic staff. Never mind that you don’t want us to stop him, isn’t it a little outrageous for you to make us stand by and watch it happen, only to swoop in and reap the spoils after the mess?”

“Yeah. How could you do this?” Eternal Dominion parroted.

Svelte Dancer was tongue-tied. She had not expected such a reaction from the two men. Even though this was not something many people would do just because they coveted another’s equipment, most would not mind resorting to such drastic measures at critical moments, yet Gu Fei consciously objected to it just because of that reason.

Looking around at the others beside her, especially Young Master Han’s knowing look, he made it apparent that he had mentioned this to her beforehand precisely because of this and not because of Gu Fei’s love for fighting. At the moment, he was watching this leisurely, waiting to see just how she would deal with this.

Svelte Dancer was momentarily speechless, especially when she recalled what Gu Fei had once mentioned about the strict code of morality that kung fu practitioners like him adhered to; it was evident that the man was not about to back down from his view.

“So, what do we do?” She did actually not try persuading the man or even got angry about it. Instead, she scratched her head and asked this question, which shocked the whole circle of them greatly. This was definitely a behavior that went against her character.

“Since you have the money to hire Southern Lone Blade for this job, why not just buy the magic staff directly and settle this matter then and there?” Gu Fei asked.

“I’m willing to buy it, but that will require the other party being willing to sell it first!” Svelte Dancer answered.

“So you simply plan to snatch it from the person if they don’t wish to sell it?” Gu Fei asked.

Svelte Dancer was at the end of her rope, so she nudged Vast Lushness over. “You go.”

“That’s the way things go in MMOs; if someone isn’t targeting you for drops, then you’re targeting someone else…” Vast Lushness had no mental barriers over this. No one from Yueye City had that sort of compunction.

“There’s also sequential order to that. If someone doesn’t target me for drops, then I won’t target others,” Gu Fei countered.

Vast Lushness retreated. It was now Royal God Call’s turn to leap out. “Miles, you’re really too much. A babe’s request and you still—uh…” Gu Fei swept a glance over to the twerp and the latter obediently shut his mouth and stepped away. Seeing that Royal God Call was cowed to swallowing the bitter pill, it went without saying that War Without Wounds would not step forth and put himself in the line of fire.

Svelte Dancer turned her gaze on the others gathered who had yet to speak up, hoping that one of them would have the eloquence to persuade Gu Fei. In the end, Brother Assist merely clutched his little booklet and calmly acted as if he had heard nothing, while Sword Demon nodded and coughed once before saying, “Miles’ right.”

“F*ck…” Svelte Dancer was at her wits’ end, looking over at Vast Lushness. The latter sighed in utter disappointment. “Let’s just forget about the whole business with the staff, then!”

“I’ve already spent 1500 of my gold coins,” Svelte Dancer was indignant.

“Then, treat that as a lesson.” Gu Fei was still lecturing the woman. Svelte Dancer could not beat the man, nor could she reason with him, so all she could do was stare daggers at him.

“So, what do you say we do now?” Svelte Dancer asked.

“What else can we do? Find the man and kill him!” Gu Fei replied.

“But if we don’t use this method, how are we gonna lure him out in the open?” Svelte Dancer had footed such a large sum of gold not just to help Vast Lushness retrieve her magic staff, but also to achieve her goal of avenging herself and eliminate Southern Lone Blade.

“Whether you pay them or not, they are still gonna steal that magic staff, so we’ll just keep watch!” Gu Fei replied.

“Then, you go do it!” Svelte Dancer dismissively called out.

“Okay, I’m off!” And just like that, Gu Fei walked off. Eternal Dominion did not follow him this time, at least able to discern who his employer was. He looked at Svelte Dancer and asked, “Then, where do you want me now?”

“Go, go, go! Go and stake them out together.” Svelte Dancer impatiently sent Eternal Dominion on his way as well.

With the two men gone, her foul expression evaporated as she giggled darkly.

Everyone was baffled, wondering if this lady had been angered to the point that she had lost her senses! In the end, they saw Svelte Dancer put her arms around Vast Lushness’ shoulders and say, “Let them go. He’s gonna log off in two or three hours, anyway; we can do whatever we want once they are gone!”

The whole lot of them exchanged glances. This was indeed Gu Fei’s Achilles’ heel. The man only spent three hours a day online, so how could it be so coincidental that something would happen during these three hours? There was no guarantee that the buyer of the magic staff would show up at that time period.

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Over at the Auction House, it was already time for Southern Lone Blade himself to hold the placard he had made. After Paddy Scent Pastures started doing this in the first few hours, the rest of them took turns doing it for two to three hours each. In a case of blessing in disguise, Glue and Flame Singed Clothes managed to dodge this menial work as a result of having been exposed as robbers the night before. Southern Lone Blade was worried that the two would be recognized, which would spoil their whole plan.

Meanwhile, one of the required steps when changing shift was to help the relief, who was wearing another Windchaser’s Emblem, complete the ‘Bounty Mission’ he had picked up. This would give them the chance to check the Bounty Assignment Hall for any ambush while they took a quick peek at the spawn points when they went past them.

Southern Lone Blade became more and more at ease when he saw that there was nothing out of the ordinary. To think that the enemies would underestimate his professionalism and that he would turn one’s coat for money. Still, it worked perfectly; were it not for this underestimation, how would he have the chance to loot the magic staff peacefully after it got retrieved?

Southern Lone Blade was still having this beautiful fantasy when someone came up right beside him without him realizing it. He turned his head to look at this newcomer, and his cold sweat ran free despite knowing that he was in a safe zone. Unbeknown to him, Gu Fei had already appeared right beside him.

With a quick glance at that placard the larcenist had in his hand, Gu Fei spoke, “You’ve got plenty of tricks up your sleeves, huh.”

Both parties had clashed for so long, yet this seemed to be the first time they had spoken to each other in such proximity. Southern Lone Blade’s mind spun as he tried to figure out this one question: Just why is this guy here?

Ultimately, Gu Fei gave him his answer promptly by hollering to the queuing players before them. “Everybody, please be careful! This man is Southern Lone Blade – someone who specializes in larceny in this game. Right now, he is after the buyer of the Utopian Magic Staff. Please take extra care!”

“F*CK!” Southern Lone Blade was astounded. While he could not fathom what Gu Fei’s intentions were when the latter approached him, he thought that, since he knew Svelte Dancer, there was a possibility of him being here to throw out a spiteful word or two to scare him a little. Never would he have thought that Gu Fei would actually verbally expose their plan just like that; just how in the world did Svelte Dancer tell this man?

Gu Fei’s words naturally caused quite a stir in the Auction House. It had only been a day since that last incident with robbers scoping out the place had happened; thus, the word had spread further as a result. It was fine if Gu Fei did not shout it out like that, as before, when the players passing by merely darted their eyes over, all of them merely treated the placard Southern Lone Blade’s gang was holding aloft as a joke, yet at Gu Fei’s reminder, everyone began contemplating over this more deeply.

Not using the simple method of the trade forums to declare their intention to purchase the Utopian Magic Staff was already dubious enough as it was. It was just that everyone present happened to know that the magic staff got sold in this place two days prior and that the buyer had yet to retrieve it, which was why it did not raise any alarm on anyone until now that people were employing such a passive method of keeping watch of the equipment retrieval in this Auction House. However, after hearing Gu Fei’s word, the crowd immediately came to their senses: So, these people aren’t looking to purchase the magic staff but are looking to see who the buyer is instead to target them for looting!

What happened next was like a reenactm ent of what had happened the other day with Glue and Flame Singed Clothes. The crowd, who had gotten all riled up, surrounded Southern Lone Blade, reprimanding the Warrior with relish.

Southern Lone Blade lived up to his title of being the boss, though, for he was far more composed than Glue and Flame Singed Clothes had been. To him, it did not matter just how many players were around him, as none of them could touch or even spit at him, anyway. All Southern Lone Blade did was stash away that placard he had been holding and send calmly a message to his comrades: “Head over to the Bounty Assignment Hall and scout the area; please be extra cautious!”

“Something happened again?” his men hurriedly asked.

“Yeah. Thousand Miles Drunk suddenly came over and exposed our identities. I honestly can’t make sense just what they are trying to achieve, wanting us to retrieve the magic staff yet making a mess of things here for us,” Southern Lone Blade said.

The rest were silent for quite a good while before Glue messaged: “Big South, why don’t we just admit our loss here? Let’s just give up on this assignment.”

“Does everyone have the same idea?” Southern Lone Blade knew that they were all together, and this answer here could very well be the product of a discussion everyone had before getting Glue to be the message-bearer.

“Yes,” Glue affirmed.

“Welp. Wait till I escape before we talk about this further!” Southern Lone Blade had already gotten the bounty he needed to activate the emblem’s teleportation, but he was not about to use it until he was certain that the location was safe. The crowd was chaotic, and Southern Lone Blade could not see where Gu Fei had gone off to, so all he could do was bear his resentment in secret.

Glue and the others gingerly made their way to the Bounty Assignment Hall, not courageous enough to get too close. They circled around the building from various angles, observing everything, before they finally confirmed that there was no one there.

Still, they were only certain that no one was laying an ambush outside; it was entirely possible for there to be players lying in wait inside the Bounty Assignment Hall.

They would die the moment they entered the building if the latter scenario was true, so these men looked at each other, unsure what was the right thing to do. They saw a noob bounding happily as he passed through nonchalantly.

Paddy Scent Pastures hatched a plan when his eyes shifted over. Calling over the noob, he handed over a few gold coins and requested for him to head inside to take a look. He even promised to gift the player a piece of equipment after completing this task.

The noob happily went forth. Exiting from the Bounty Assignment Hall not too long after, he described all the players he had seen inside, as well as their job class.

There was only one player inside the building now, and he was a Fighter.

“Eternal Dominion!” Glue and Flame Singed Clothes immediately cried out. That man stomped them to death yesterday.

“So, there’s an ambush, after all.” Everyone sighed.

“Thank you for your help. We have no need for your services any longer.” Paddy Scent Pastures casually handed the noob a random piece of equipment and dismissed him before they quickly relayed everything to Southern Lone Blade.

“In that case, I’ll just spend some time here. I had to be here with the placard, anyway,” Southern Lone Blade said.

His men were aggrieved. Southern Lone Blade might have said all that in a casual tone, but he must be bearing a thousand fury right now. Glue and Flame Singed Clothes had experienced this themselves, and uncomfortable would be an understatement. However, the problem was that the player they had camped out here, Eternal Dominion, was not just any average gamer; they were no match for him even if the six of them ganged up against him.

“Perhaps, we could lure him away?” Glue and Blackwater, who had job classes with good movement speed, suggested.

“Hmm. That’s one way to do it. No matter how powerful he is, there’s no way he can be in two places at once, and neither can he outrun either of you. That shan’t be a problem!” The others expressed their approval to this idea.