Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Miles is surely in favor of this suggestion, right?” Royal God Call began to rally for supporters, but everyone in the party looked to the left and right and was left nonplussed. “Where’s Miles? Could he have stayed to duel?”

“He logged out when Fleeting Smile and the others went offline,” Brother Assist answered.

“They logged off together? Why would they do that? Could Miles have gone to PK them in real life?” Royal God Call exclaimed in horror.

Everyone looked at him, and Brother Assist slowly explained, “It’s because it’s already past eleven. That’s around the time Miles will log out.”

Royal God Call paused and then his mouth moved, though it was unknown what he was mumbling about. Young Master Han looked at everyone. No one said anything else, so he ignored everything as he continued to lead the team back.

Southern Lone Blade’s team of seven observed these members of Young Master’s Elite with interest. Everyone quickly got to know one another pretty well while playing the game together, and they were no longer considered complete strangers, but Southern Lone Blade and the others were starting to realize that this mercenary group was not a harmonious team. To put it simply, every member of this group had different pursuits. Especially Young Master Han, the plans this man came up with were wonderful, yet were not particularly favorable. Adding to the fact that the man himself was not particularly likeable, coupled with being the mercenary leader… These seven men sweated profusely. No matter how they saw it, this mercenary group should have already disbanded long ago.

Actually, the seven found Young Master Han’s plans to be rather palatable, feeling that it was a pity for him not to be a professional gamer. Wasting his time with all this killing and fighting, it was too luxuriant! Money-making was the true path for the kings! That was what the seven men truly believed.

This bunch continued along their way together and soon caught sight of a tavern ahead of them right by the street. Where else could they end up when Young Master Han was taking the lead? None of them was surprised. Following the man into the tavern, they boorishly ordered a drink from the NPC. Unable to fight, getting a drink or two could also be considered cathartic. Royal God Call originally wanted to head back and have it out with the enemies, but since Gu Fei was not around… Royal God Call wanted to get a straightforward conclusion, but he doubted it could be anything but straightforward without Gu Fei’s presence. There was a good chance that he would just be sending himself to his death, so he had no wish of doing so. It was only a moment of impulse on Royal God Call’s part, and he had no intentions of acting foolishly.

With twelve players, they picked the largest table available in the tavern and managed to squeeze everyone in. Royal God Call did not usually drink, but he was also hugging a bottle today, and it was also the most expensive 200 gold coins a bottle to boot. Now that they were rich, none of them really raised an eyelid on expenditures that amounted under four digits. However, Southern Lone Blade’s team was still as controlled as before, drinking the most common liquor players would usually get in taverns, and it was the seven sharing a single bottle.

The group opened their bottles, poured out their drinks and drank. Still, no one said a word, and the heavy atmosphere was stifling. Flame Singed Clothes looked to his left and right, pulled out his deck of cards, and asked, “Anyone interested?”

Everyone stared blankly at him, including his six comrades. Flame Singed Clothes shrank back and stowed away his cards into his dimensional pocket. He then lifted his glass, “Let’s drink, then.”

Flame Singed Clothes raised his glass in the air for show, and some others raised their glass as well. With him mixing things up a little, the atmosphere seemed to have alleviated somewhat, though the members of Young Master’s Elite were still silent. Southern Lone Blade looked around, helpless, so all he could do was get the ball rolling. “So what do we do next?”

Southern Lone Blade froze up the moment he finished asking his question, and his gaze remained transfixed forward. Everyone noticed this and turned their heads in the direction he was looking. They then pulled out their weapons, as if chancing upon their nemesis.

“Stay your hands, gentlemen. I’m on your side now.” This person hurriedly spread his bare hands out before his chest to indicate that he was unarmed.

“What?” Everyone wrinkled their brows as they looked at this man. No Smile. Everybody did not think that this person would appear so abruptly like he did. Based on what Young Master’s Elite had learned from Dusky Cloud, No Smile disappeared with Silver Moon when Fleeting Smile mounted his rescue, so everyone reckoned that he had absconded with the two. Southern Lone Blade and the others later confirmed this fact after they joined the workshop. However, Southern Lone Blade and the rest had no idea about anything else besides this, only learning that Ye Xiaowu had so many experts on his side after being ambushed by the ex-soldiers this morning. Southern Lone Blade simply did not understand why Ye Xiaowu would be willing to spend such a large sum of gold coins hiring him for help when he already had such a powerful support lying in wait.

The table they were on was already squeezed with all twelve players and it was impossible to make space for another, much less when nobody had any intention of making a spot for No Smile to slide in. No Smile stood by the tableside; some raised their heads to glare at the man, while most of them kept their heads low and treated him as invisible – nothing more than an afterthought. No Smile was not in the least bit awkward, evasively saying, “Uhm… I previously saw you guys go up against Fleeting Smile’s bunch.”

“Oh?” Most of them ignored him, and those who cared to acknowledge his existence only did so with a mere noncommittal harrumph.

“That guy is really quite something else. All he thinks about is rectifying this and rectifying that,” No Smile said.

Everyone raised their heads to look at him, with Young Master Han laughing mirthlessly. “By your words, are you also his target of rectification?”

No Smile had a very sheepish expression on him. “Of course, I’m not qualified, but Silver Moon’s King’s Sword has already been rectified by that man.”

“What!” Everyone was shocked. This was the first time they had heard of this.

“How did he rectify it?” Everyone hurried to ask.

“That guy tricked the two of us to a certain location, and later betrayed us by posting our coordinates on the forums. A large number of players ran over to hunt us down, and Silver Moon was forced to hide in the Trade Exchange platform. He wanted to purchase a Teleportation Scroll and get out, but when he forcefully logged out to get his credit card number, he returned to find that the King’s Blade had been lost in the process,” No Smile narrated.

Everyone was slightly skeptical of this account as No Smile continued, “Thousand Miles Drunk was there as well; didn’t he tell you guys about this?”

“Not at all. When was this?” everyone asked.

“I know! It’s the day when our workshop officially opened!” Brother Assist suddenly blurted out.

Everyone turned to look at him, who quickly explained, “The reporters Dommumudou wrote an article about it, including their interview of Thousand Miles Drunk. Have none of you read it?”

“Miles did an interview with that pair?!” Royal God Call exclaimed.

“That’s right!” Brother Assist replied.

“I haven’t even been interviewed before…” Royal God Call muttered, which drew a bout of chuckle from everyone on the table. They were all big names in the MMO community, so many of them had gotten such interviews before, yet Royal God Call somehow had not gotten any. The fact that the self-proclaimed no.1 Mage had never gotten an interview with any online gaming reporters was something Royal God Call had always taken to heart. To think that the rising star Gu Fei would be interviewed by the famous duo reporters Dommumudou, while Royal God Call was still had not experienced it throughout his gaming career, this brat could not help but feel depressed yet again.

“But there’s no mention of Silver Moon’s King’s Blade dropping upon death; there’s only a mention of him forcefully logging off after he got trapped in the Trade Exchange platform,” Brother Assist added.

No Smile nodded. “Yes, that’s something he told me after.”

“Then, where is Silver Moon now?” everyone asked.

“He’s going to stop playing…” No Smile answered.

“Is that so…” When everyone heard this piece of news, they too felt a sense of loss come over them. As scummy as Silver Moon was, he was one such person whom everyone could unscrupulously eliminate, and they would all feel happy after doing the deed without feeling hardly any psychological burden. Suddenly hearing that this person would quit the game, everyone instantly felt as if they had lost something.

“That’s really strange,” Brother Assist said. “By your words, Fleeting Smile wasted his effort and time getting you two out of Baishi City, only to find some way to set you guys up a handful of days later; what’s he doing? Did he use you two for anything at all?”

“Nope…” No Smile answered.

“He originally rallied the two of you to his side in an effort to take on Thousand Miles Drunk, right?” Brother Assist asked.

“That’s right,” replied No Smile. He involuntarily glanced at Southern Lone Blade’s team. They were originally on the same side.

“In the end, he didn’t get either of you to do anything, got you out of the proverbial frying pan in the process, before tossing you guys right into the flames. Can… Can anyone explain this?” Brother Assist was confused, asking this even as he turned to look at Young Master Han.

Young Master Han was currently sipping his liquor. When he saw that Brother Assist was finally done with his questions, he finally spoke. “Why did Silver Moon end up hiding out in the Trade Exchange platform? Didn’t he think of the fact that he’d be unable to log out if he got trapped there?”

“It couldn’t be helped,” No Smile replied. “He lacked Agility, so if he didn’t choose a location nearby to hide, he was sure to be killed, ending up in the city’s Knight’s Barracks and reliving his days of being trapped in there like before. That’s no better than not playing the game at all.”

“Was the Trade Exchange very near your location?”

“Yup. the street was just a stone’s throw away.”

“Then, where did you run off to?”

“I… well… I had a different method of escape.” No Smile vaguely fumbled through his words. He did not have the face to admit that he too had a hand in Silver Moon’s death peripherally, because he knew that the latter was the more prominent target to the public and could draw away most of the attention.

Young Master Han did not bother to pursue this line of query, either, having already come to the conclusion after hearing everything thus far. “From what we know, it does indeed sound like something Fleeting Smile is capable of orchestrating. He ascertained the terrain there and determined that the only way of escape from that situation was by taking shelter in the Trade Exchange.”

“Was there a need for him to do all that? Actually, it’s really easy if he wanted to eliminate Silver Moon, right?” Brother Assist wondered. Everyone nodded, all thinking of the troop of ex-soldiers he had with him. Silver Moon had no one else to depend on, so if he truly wanted to wipe the man off the face of Parallel World, all he had to do was casually sic those ex-soldiers on him. There was really no need for Fleeting Smile to go through all that trouble for him.

Young Master Han shook his head. “Looking at what happened in the end, it seems his target was perhaps not Silver Moon himself but the King’s Blade in his hand, instead.”

“But didn’t the King’s Blade get eaten up by the system?”

“Perhaps that’s his goal all along?” Young Master Han countered.

Everyone was stunned, recalling the word that they had recently found extremely loathsome: rectify.

“He intentionally planned it such that Silver Moon would be forced to log out, causing the system to confiscate the King’s Blade off him?” Brother Assist furrowed his brows. “How did he know that the King’s Blade would be the casualty once Silver Moon forcefully logged off?”

“Such a question… As an internal game employee, perhaps he had a clear notion of what would happen,” Young Master Han postulated.

Everyone was in a daze. Could that mean that the data lost during forceful log outs were actually subjected to some sort of internal ruleset?

“Don’t forget; if his target was just Silver Moon himself, there’s absolutely no need for him to save him in the first place. Letting him rot in Baishi City’s Knight’s Barracks was a cruel enough punishment,” Young Master Han said.

“But that…” No Smile suddenly interrupted. “After he managed to get Silver Moon out, because his level was too low, he was unable to utilize his King’s Blade. He even put in the time and effort to help Silver Moon get a hold of his Torc of Leadership, and only then was the man able to use his King’s Blade.”

“This Torc of Leadership, did he hand it to Silver Moon in the end?” Young Master Han asked.

“Yup.” No Smile nodded. “On that day when he tricked us, he handed it over to Silver Moon, and he even taught him how to unleash the inlaid skill of the King’s Blade to help kill Thousand Miles Drunk.”

“How to unleash the skill?” everyone curiously asked.

“That party-wide skill he had then can actually be used on a single target like a Knight’s Blessing, and the effect will be all the more pronounced!”

“What’s Silver Moon’s level then?” Young Master Han suddenly asked.

“He just reached level 38,” No Smile answered.

“Just leveled?” Young Master Han asked.

“Yup.”

Young Master Han furrowed his brows as he took a swig from his glass.

Everyone did not dare to make a sound, afraid that they would disrupt the man’s thoughts.

“Did Silver Moon have any money on him?” Young Master Han suddenly asked this strange question.

“Nope.” No Smile very quickly answered this.

“Oh? You seem to know this very well,” Young Master Han deliberately goaded.

“Mhm… The two of us deposited all our coins into the Bank before,” No Smile replied.

“Scared of being hunted?” Everyone laughed.

“No…” No Smile hurriedly refuted.

“Then, what?”

“Because our opponent was Thousand Miles Drunk…”

Everybody wiped their sweat. Thousand Miles Drunk’s prowess could be seen from this statement. Once anyone became his opponent, they would not even dare to have a dime on them.

“Silver Moon had no coin on him, just leveled, and thus could be deemed as having not earned new EXP. By the looks of it, if he were to forcefully log out, he would lose neither his EXP nor coins, so the only thing left to lose was his equipment!” Young Master Han declared.

“Can’t you lose your level? What about skills?” Royal God Call asked.

Brother Assist spoke. “According to a few experiments on forceful logouts conducted by some very bored players, the most likely outcome for a player after a forced logout is the loss of coins, next is EXP, then equipment, and finally skill proficiency. Meanwhile, losing levels directly has never once happened according to those testers. Oh, yeah. There’s a rough breakdown of the statistics here that I wrote down,” Brother Assist said even as he searched through his stack of booklets which held plenty of his notes and records. He flipped through them book after book until he got to the fourth book. “This is the one! I noted the results of the final breakdown. If a player forcefully logs out, there’s a 34% probability of them losing money, 30% EXP, 28% equipment, and only 8% chance of losing skill proficiency. Aside from these four avenues, there’s never been any other record of data loss that happened.”

“Now, let’s compare that with Silver Moon’s situation. He had no coin on him, so he couldn’t drop anything. He just leveled up, and his EXP earned was zero, so he couldn’t lose that, either; All that’s left was equipment and skill proficiency, and the chances of losing the former are much higher than the latter.” Brother Assist excitedly said this discovery.

“Even if that’s the case, for him to lose his King’s Blade so coincidentally just like that, when you include everything he had in his dimensional pocket, as well as what he had equipped, that’s a lot!” Royal God Call exclaimed.

“About that… When the two of us headed out, we emptied our pockets…” No Smile said yet again.

“Why is that?”

“Because our opponent was Thousand Miles Drunk…” No Smile replied feebly.

“Don’t either of you have any common sense when it comes to PK? You should bring a lot of garbage with you in such a situation to prevent yourselves from losing your top-tier equipment!” Royal God Call said.

“I don’t think that’s accurate; to reduce the probability of losing any equipment in the first place, you should bring fewer items with you at such times.” Southern Lone Blade’s team actually had a different take on this matter.