Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

While Young Master Han was prepared to throw a whole bunch of things under Gu Fei’s banner, Brother Assist was not about to casually make this rash decision, so he decided to wait for Gu Fei to get online and give the go-ahead before going forward. Thankfully, dawn was arriving, and a night of gaming had ended once more. Southern Lone Blade and the others were getting ready to log out, but because Brother Assist knew that Gu Fei now had the habit of logging on early in the morning, he decided to delay his log off and wait for him to get online and get the go ahead for everything from Gu Fei, personally, before making his move.

Upon further thought, Brother Assist felt that he was really acting like an odd-jobber, worrying over all these miscellaneous matters for the group, while Royal God Call, Sword Demon, and the others lived like they were young masters, grinding when they wanted, questing when they felt like it, and resting when they should be resting. What made this worse was the fact that he was rather happy doing all these odd jobs; Brother Assist was crushed. Was this the life he was destined to lead?

Having nothing to do while waiting for Gu Fei to get online, Brother Assist inadvertently found himself strolling over to the Wilderness Camp. The battle that had raged overnight had yet to settle despite it being the morning now. The struggle for the grinding map continued, except it was unknown just which wave of players was presently fighting it out after a whole night had passed. However, there were improvements from the initial chaos, as a few more powerful parties had already managed to get a footing and segmented an area for themselves. Unless they were newcomers that had no idea of the present situation, no one else would head to these areas and attempt to fight for the land any longer.

Brother Assist no longer dared to keep loitering around the map after taking those handful of steps in, for he soon discovered that plenty of hostile and alert gazes were thrown his way; As such, he did his best to show to everyone that he was only passing by before he circled around and left.

The other half of the map that the three major guilds occupied was a lot more organized in comparison. After a whole night of practice, the members from the three major guilds had already gotten a good grasp of the efficient monster grinding routine, and even though there was definitely not enough room for all 3000 players to utilize the routine, it was not too big a problem for the guilds since they could institute a systematic deployment. There was no way people would be able to grind for twenty-four hours, right? With everyone taking up an eight-hour shift, these players could all be divided into three batches that took turns level grinding. No one would be unhappy with the eight-hour allocation as that was already a lot of time. There was still plenty of other things that everyone could do in-game; leveling was not everything, after all.

Brother Assist was originally hoping that these two separate groups would have players logging off to rest up around this time, giving him a short time to earn a bit of extra by threading the needle and grab a few monsters in between, but seeing how things were set up on this end, he felt that it was better to just perish the thought! Evidently, these players who had successfully held their ground in this grinding map would be unwilling to cough it up, especially those from the other half of the map that had managed to seize their foothold after a whole night of slaughter. Brother Assist started to wonder if these players would end up grinding until they succumbed to exhaustion.

In the end, after making his round of the Wilderness Camp, Brother Assist made his way back to the city. He had barely slept much the day before, so he was already very tired at this point in time, especially since there was nothing left to do now, and the dull waiting only made him feel all the more lethargic. Brother Assist made a mental note to ask for Gu Fei’s real-world contact when he got online, so he would not have to go through this ordeal next time.

Just as he was feeling helpless, the familiar chime of the friends list from the system rang, and Brother Assist saw that it just happened to be Gu Fei who had finally gotten online. Quickly, as if afraid that Gu Fei would run off on him, Brother Assist fired off a message. “Morning!”

“You’ve yet to turn in!” Gu Fei replied.

“I was waiting for you,” Brother Assist said.

“What’s the matter?” Gu Fei asked.

“Give me your phone number!” Thinking from a long-term perspective, Brother Assist decided that it would be prudent to ask this first.

“What for?” Gu Fei found this strange.

“Given how unpredictable your gaming time is and how tiring it is for me to wait here just to get a hold of you, having your number will make things much more convenient for me,” Brother Assist answered.

“Oh.” Gu Fei chuckled before giving Brother Assist his contact number.

Brother Assist felt as if he had just settled something important, before he broached the issue at hand. “I’m about to start the promotion for our workshop, and everyone decided to call it ‘Thousand Miles Drunk Workshop’; do you have any issues using your name?”

“This… Doesn’t that mean that those who have anything to do with the workshop will come contact me? I can’t deal with that!” Gu Fei cried.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll just clarify that we have a separate contact person,” Brother Assist said.

“Oh, then, it’s fine!” Gu Fei said.

“Also, everyone wants you to take charge of collecting fees,” Brother Assist mentioned.

“Why?” Gu Fei asked.

“Everyone feels a bit more at ease having you do it. After all, you’re the one who managed to bring together both groups,” Brother Assist replied.

“Oh.” Gu Fei had yet to give his consent.

“If you don’t have any issues with it, we’ll go ahead and do this,” Brother Assist said.

“No issues here.”

“Alright, then, I shall take my leave.” Brother Assist and Gu Fei said their goodbyes, and the former went offline, eager to craft the post for the forums. The lethargy he had been feeling seemingly disappeared once he had something to do, and his whole body felt invigorated. He had already thought about the content of the post he was going to make, so it did not take him long to type it all out. Brother Assist was of course familiar with which forums he would be posting this, but because he was aiming for a wider audience this time around, he did not limit himself just to the official Parallel World forums. Brother Assist made sure to repost it on a few more popular forums, using his renowned IGN ‘Brother Assist’ to boot, for it was a name whose reputation in the forums that was comparable with Sword Demon’s in MMOs.

“Heh… This is absolutely colossal news. I’m really looking forward to see how players would respond.” After Brother Assist was done with his work, and he took a moment to admire his handiwork, only to realize that there were already replies to some of the posts he had made at the start. There were exhortations, as well as people inquiring after an insider’s look, and even those who were seeking to register. Brother Assist felt a glowing sense of pride grip him before he finally willingly retired for some rest.

Just as Brother Assist had expected, this was indeed colossal news. In the time he was about to fall asleep, the posts he had made were being reposted at an astonishing rate. Brother Assist only posted to the official Parallel World forums and a few well-known online forums, but it has now reached the third-party sites, smaller forums, private spaces, servers, and so on. The netizens were quick to spread this news in every avenue.

Some websites even treated the post as news and reported it, and there were even some web reporters who were already flocking to interview the eponymous person in question!

Regarding the MMO community, it was not the efficient monster grinding routine that caught their eye but the names of Sword Demon, Royal God Call, War Without Wounds, and Brother Assist, who were all considered superstars within the community, and their announcement of opening a workshop together was what really captivated everyone’s attention. To reframe this as entertainment news, it would be as if the Four Heavenly Kings ¹ had gathered and announced that they would be putting on a concert together.

As for the name ‘Thousand Miles Drunk’, only those playing Parallel World were terror-stricken by the news. But since the game was considered as a new rising star in the entire MMO community, people who knew of the name were much less than those who knew of Southern Lone Blade. While Southern Lone Blade was not a particularly famous expert, he had excellent word of mouth among professional gamers and was famed for his honesty and reliability in his line of work. Brother Assist specially used his name in the posts to increase the credibility of their workshop.

With so many big IGNs drawing so much attention, everybody began carefully pondering on just what was this ‘efficient monster grinding routine’, which actually drew these fabled experts to poke their heads out and step into the ranks of virtual money-making. It had just been two days since the advent of this routine, so only an extremely small portion of players in Parallel World were aware of it. Now that it reared its head on the forums, it drew a huge amount of discussion, and information regarding the Wilderness Camp was swiftly leaked.

In the game, even more players began to make a beeline for Baishi City, and the magnitude was many times greater than the last time. Before, it was no more than a bit of word of mouth, and unassuming rumors that were being spread about what was happening, so how could it compare to the announcement that had stirred the entire MMO community now?

Two hours after Brother Assist had made his post, the players over in the Wilderness Camp could clearly feel the pressure increase. This was because there was a seemingly endless number of players surging into the map, and a good portion of these players was not here to kill-steal but to watch and observe, instead. This was something entirely different from the pressure they had felt the night before, and none of them could make heads or tails just what was happening.

Four hours after Brother Assist had made his post, the players in the Wilderness Camp continued to increase, and this time, even the three major guilds there felt the pressure. A huge number of players had appeared all around them, and none of them seemed to care for the fact that they were the three major guilds found in the city. Similarly, none of these newcomers was here to kill-steal but was merely there to watch, which made the three guilds feel as if they were at a loss on what to do. They had already received their orders long ago, and the three guilds were working together to stand their ground, killing anyone who would dare to kill-steal from them. But now that all these people present were not here to kill-steal, how should these players be dealt with? Should they kill them or not?

To make matters even worse, the three guilds’ collaboration was already the top existence in Baishi City, so there would not be any other organization out there that would surpass them. However, the number of players currently gathered around them to watch easily outnumbered them, and there was no telling if those people knew each other or otherwise. In short, they were all observing the players from the three major guilds grinding on the monsters like they were monkeys at the zoo, enjoying the show while they pointed and gawked.

The players from the three guilds were all surprised and felt uneasy, and it just so happened that each of the guild leaders was not online at the time, so there was no one in the know that could give out an order. It was only when the players later ran to inquire after the situation that they slowly got clued in.

At the moment, there was actually a good portion of players present in the Wilderness Camp that were not from Baishi City, so it was no wonder that these people all viewed the members of the three major guilds as if they were nothing. How could outsiders know about them, after all?

Meanwhile, through careful observation, these outsiders had discovered that the ‘efficient monster grinding routine’ truly lived up to its name, and it was indeed as efficient as was promoted, allowing players who had a mastery of the routine to double their rate of leveling at the very least. It was unknown which player it was that suddenly reminded the crowd, causing everyone to recall that the next lesson would not be here in Wilderness Camp but over by the White Mill, instead, so hordes of these players began making their way over with great enthusiasm.

The scene over by the White Mill was nothing like that of the Wilderness Camp. A handful of players, who were clueless about this ‘efficient monster grinding routine’, had been dutifully leveling when they suddenly saw a black shadow descend over the horizon; following which, a stampede of players surged forth around them. No one had ever witnessed such a scene of overwhelming numbers after playing MMOs for such a long time, and these players, who were simply leveling, were each left dumbfounded at the sight. Meanwhile, the players, who had come to watch, began to spread throughout the entire map upon arrival, but Gu Fei and the others had done exceptionally well keeping things under wraps. Having made sure not to reveal any bit of the routine to any outsiders when Southern Lone Blade and the others learned and practiced the routine there, hardly any trace of the efficient monster grinding routine was being used in the White Mill right now, so these players could only invade the map in high spirits, only to leave later in disappointment.

After the first batch of players left crestfallen, there was yet another swarm of players that came in great exuberance. It was like an unending stream of people that started from Baishi City, made their way to the Wilderness Camp, and ended up at the White Mill, transforming it into a path for all these tourists to take. Meanwhile, those players, who had ended up with nothing to show after making it to the White Mill, went a whole round and found their way back to the Wilderness Camp. This time, they did not merely watch; many of them began to learn the routine. Furthermore, these sudden newcomers evidently did not know the rules and did not bother to ask. Watching a player fighting the Campfire Patroller and learning by imitation, just how displeased did these players who had spent good money to learn it feel?

Aside from the friction that came from this, there were also those who had learned a bit of the routine and began to search for monsters to practice with, but because these people had no idea of the bloodthirsty history that had happened across the previous day and continued to treat this grinding map like any other average map, attacking any monster that appeared, these people found themselves on the receiving end of other players’ attacks, instead.

Even so, it was indeed impossible to contain the mass of onlookers. This was especially true for players that were not native to Baishi City and were clueless on the present state of affairs. These people did not even have any regard for the three major guilds as they minded their own business and hunted the monsters that spawned. How could the three guilds compromise so easily like this? Naturally, it was necessary for them to mete out the punishment for these offenders, but the problem was that the kill-stealing had already begun all over their turf, and the thousands of players from the three guilds were having difficulties dealing with them all appearing everywhere. After settling things in the east, there were more incidents sprouting out in the west. Additionally, these interlopers did not know each other, so none of them cared about the death of the others and continue with their own search for monsters to kill. The members of the three guilds found themselves running all over the place, tiring themselves out in the process as they could only spare the time and effort to kill these players rather than the monsters. In the end, that half of the map that they originally occupied got forcefully halved yet again.

The guild members, who found themselves thrust in the core of the map, were completely astounded by what was happening. They were already so busy, yet these players around still harbored no hostility toward them. That was when they realized that these people essentially had no idea that the three guilds had already staked a claim on this part of the map and would kill all who attempted to kill-steal…

They quickly thought to announce this particular information to the people, but upon seeing the sea of players out there, these guilds were too timid to see it through the end. Right now, that half of the map they had given had no fewer than ten thousand players, while these guilds barely had a thousand present. Even if everyone from the three guilds went out in a show of force, they would still have to properly think it through.

At the moment, the number of players present in the Wilderness Camp continued to increase. In the beginning, it was just the locals of Baishi City, but the players from adjacent cities soon made their way over, and those from the further cities followed thereafter…

——————————————-

Gu Fei, who was supervising his students’ leveling at a level 35 grinding map, saw a seemingly unending stream of players make their way down the main road, all in a single direction, not too far from him. Surprise gripped him, as the last time he saw so many players gathering like this was during that PvP tournament.

Gu Fei was watching this caravan of humans trundling along, and one by one, his students also took note of this strange phenomenon. They, too, stopped their leveling and shuffled close to Gu Fei, each of them stretching their necks out in an attempt to inquire about what was going on.

“I don’t know!” Gu Fei exclaimed.

“Shall we go take a look?” a student suggested.

“What’s there to look? Go back and continue your leveling,” Gu Fei rejected.

“Sir,” another student timidly said, “this is a game and not a class…”

Gu Fei was momentarily stunned, realizing that he had truly mixed up his role here. Having spent these past few days supervising his students to learn his efficient monster grinding style, he really got the feel of teaching a class to the point that he actually treated leveling as part of the syllabus.

Gu Fei could not help but let out a self-deprecating laugh at this thought as he quickly corrected himself. “Come; let’s take a look.”

Gu Fei’s students followed him toward the flow of people. Gu Fei, with his students in tow, trailed after the moving crowd, his heart seizing as the 9527 rocky outcrop slowly came into view. He could vaguely sense that, perhaps, what was happening had something to do with the tutoring business venture they were currently setting up.

Just as he was leading his student onward, Gu Fei suddenly felt someone checking him out from within the crowd. Turning in the direction of the sensation, sure enough, he saw a male and female player, whose gazes were on him.

When the two noticed that Gu Fei had discovered them, they did not choose to avert their gazes. Instead, they decisively broke off from the crowd and were walking straight toward Gu Fei.

Gu Fei stood still; one hand of his was already delving in his dimensional pocket, touching the hilt of his Moonlit Nightfalls, while the other extended out to gesture for his students to come to a halt.

“What’s the matter, sir?” a student asked, before realizing that a pair was making a beeline for them.

These two were at least able to observe the mood, and when they saw how Gu Fei was on guard, they immediately stopped their approach. The man smiled before nodding; this was his way of showing that he meant no malice. In the end, the pair saw the look of disappointment on Gu Fei’s face, which left them a little confused. While the two were still a little lost at what had just happened, the two nevertheless continued their way forward, asking Gu Fei once they were standing right before him. “Excuse me, but are you Thousand Miles Drunk?”

“That’s me.” Gu Fei nodded.

“Ah! How do you do?! We are online reporters from Fun Games Network. To think we’d meet you out here!” That calm expression the two had instantly disappeared, as the pair became visibly excited.

“What?” Gu Fei’s eyes widened, thinking that he had misheard them.

“We’re reporters from Fun Games Network. My name’s Dommu, and this lady’s Mudou.” The man introduced himself and his partner at once.

“Reporters?” Gu Fei was still suspicious that there was a problem with his ears.

“Yes, if it’s convenient for you, we hope to be able to get an interview with you.” The male reporter by the name of Dommu showed a very sincere expression, while the lady reporter Mudou looked on expectantly.

“I-Interv-view?!” Gu Fei was still flabbergasted.

Ah Fa hurriedly darted forward. He knew that, even though Gu Fei was an expert, he was actually very unfamiliar with the MMO community as a whole; thus, he came forward to whisper into Gu Fei’s ear. “Fun Games Network is currently our country’s largest online gaming website, and its site can be considered as a media organization, so it naturally has its own reporters as well. As a site specially dedicated to e-sports, they have quite a number of reporters stationed online to make it easier for them to interview some of the more popular players in MMOs. Most of them are part-time.”

“I see…” Gu Fei nodded. He did not have much difficulty understanding all this; it was just that he had never interacted with such circles, so he found everything to be very fresh and new.

“Ahem… so do you have time now?” Dommu and Mudou found Gu Fei’s reaction to be very refreshing just from what they had seen alone. This man was currently the fearsome expert that stirred up huge storms in Parallel World. Could he actually be a novice? Also, just what was going on with the whole lot of children following behind him?

“What do you guys wish to ask?” Gu Fei asked.

“Why don’t we find a quieter location first?” the two suggested.

Gu Fei had yet to say a word regarding this, but the students behind him were already far more animated than he was. They all learned from Ah Fa the intention of these two players for approaching them, so they dragged Gu Fei to the side even as they beckoned the two reporters with great enthusiasm, telling the three adults that they would be bringing them to a ‘quieter location’.

Gu Fei had no choice but to be at the mercy of his students, and the ‘quieter location’ that these students brought them was just under a tree a good distance away from the flow of players on the main road.

“Alright. Ask away!” Gu Fei said.

“Hmm. May we know just who these children are…” Their first question was about this sight before them.