Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Ye Xiaowu merely understood the canon quest progression, and he had thought that Gu Fei and the others would be eager to begin their underwater quest upon obtaining the Magical Air Bubble scrolls, but how was he supposed to know that they would run back and look for Courtney to teach them how to use it? This line of thinking from this sort of player was something that he had completely overlooked, and it was why he ended up making another mistake again. Currently, Broken Water Arrow had no idea that Gu Fei and the others had already circled round to meet Courtney, though he did sense something was off from the expressions of the three guild leaders behind him.

“What happened?” Broken Water Arrow quickly asked. He was also someone who had combat experience, and he could tell that the three guild leaders had their doubts as a crowd of players began to surround him. He could find himself dead any moment if they were to make their move, so when he saw how the situation had taken a turn for the worst, he quickly took the initiative to confront them about it.

“Thousand Miles Drunk has gone back to contact Courtney again. You rascal, did you purposely divert our attention again?!?” The three guild leaders were all extremely furious, raising their hands about to finish off Broken Water Arrow.

“Then where are they now!?” Broken Water Arrow could see that the situation was critical, and there was too much to cover, yet there was no time to explain. As a result, he directly homed in to call the attention of the other party to the critical issue at hand.

The three guild leaders were surprised, and quickly asked their scouts there. They soon reported back that Thousand Miles Drunk and the others were headed in the direction where they had laid their ambush after parting ways with Courtney.

The expression on the three guild leaders softened slightly, and Broken Water Arrow felt relieved when he saw this change. It was a good thing that he had highlighted the key issue to the problem, otherwise, he might very well have found himself spawned back in the encampment.

“They went to look for Courtney probably because they wanted to learn about something from it, but canonically speaking, it is necessary for them. The decisive questline is here, they must come by here to accomplish it.” Broken Water Arrow took this chance to explain things clearly.

“After all, players would always emphasize on quest completion. What I’m telling you is that the next step that Thousand Miles Drunk and the others will need to go through will be a checkpoint. As for where they might run off to fight monsters in between, if they were to log out for a meal or find Courtney to chat, how would I know anything about that?” Broken Water Arrow continued.

Finally, the three guild leaders were completely at ease, nodding their heads as Brave Surge asked, “Then what exactly happened with that other time?”

“That checkpoint before was a point of convergence for the quest, and Thousand Miles Drunk’s action resulted in a misinterpretation of his intention on our part. Perhaps it was their intention to mislead us, but the fact remained that we were ultimately fooled by it,” Broken Water Arrow explained. “But there’s no way that will happen this time; now that the quest had progressed to the current stage, this is the only endgame for them.”

“We really hope you’re correct this time,” Oathless Sword said.

The three guilds present totaled up to 3000 players, and they were all quietly waiting amidst the tall reeds here. Any player who had planned to have an intimate date with their partners today could only consider themselves jinxed for eight generations, for having been chased from the east to the west, west to the south, all these city assaulters had been barreling all over the place, not at all willing to give any of these lovers any place to peacefully canoodle. Seeing all 3000 descend upon Yunjiao Lake, these players could only curse silently in their hearts as they continued to give them all a wide berth.

Gu Fei and his friends were headed to the location where he had previously dove into the lake from. They did not drop their guard at all; even though their use of the teleportation scroll before had thrown off any potential stalkers on their tail, the ultimate destination for their quest was static. Adding to the fact that they had someone like Ye Xiaowu secretly running interference, there was always the risk that the three guilds had an ambush ready for them; anyone with even half a brain could have thought of it. Besides, seeing those indignant couples along the way, they were already made aware of the ambush from the three guilds when they approached to find out more.

There was really nothing the three guilds could do about these players. They could not possibly just eliminate every witness, could they? The influence that they exert was just too great. They could only pray for the understanding of these lovers, at the same time hoping that they would cooperate with them and change the places that they were hiding in. In the end, some of these players were already harboring much resentment and no longer had the heart to fool around anymore. While they were leaving Yunjiao Lakeside and bumped into Gu Fei and the others, Xi Xiaotian’s talent for reading people’s mood easily noted how different their expressions were and she very quickly learned about what occurred when she approached them for details.

“Sure enough, they are already aware of our next step, and they already have that place in lockdown,” Xi Xiaotian said to the others.

Gu Fei was in deep thought, when Svelte Dancer suddenly blurted, “The place we are going to is underwater, right?”

Gu Fei nodded.

“Then why must we walk down into the water from that bank there? We can always take the water route,” Svelte Dancer said.

“We don’t have a boat, and I don’t know how to swim either,” Gu Fei was at a loss.

“I’ll go! Pass the scrolls to me,” Svelte Dancer volunteered.

“You just want to play with the scrolls, huh?” Gu Fei said.

“Only a fool would want to play around with that huge bubble head of yours! Give me a teleportation scroll. I’ll swim out there and note down the coordinates, so you can directly teleport to the spot there when the time comes. That would work, right?” Svelte Dancer detailed.

“Oh, how rare it is for you to show some intelligence,” Gu Fei was pleasantly astonished.

Svelte Dancer’s leg came sailing out, and Gu Fei dodged it with ease, handing her a teleportation scroll.

However, Xi Xiaotian quipped, “Since you’re going to be swimming there, why don’t you just bring him along as well? Since there’s no problem with physical exhaustion in Parallel World, it shouldn’t be too difficult to bring him there in tow, right?”

“But that would still require someone to be very adept when it comes to swimming, no?” Gu Fei was skeptical.

“This madam here had swum from this end of the lake to the other end. How’s that for being very adept?!” Svelte Dancer was angered.

“Are you sure you won’t have a problem?” Gu Fei said.

“If there are any issues, you’ll be the one drowning. I’ll be fine, in any case,” Svelte Dancer replied.

“We’ve got so many scrolls, using one here, and then getting big sister Svelte to swim over; Once she’s done making note of the coordinates there, she can teleport back after, hand Miles the scroll so he can teleport there straight away. It’ll be a lot faster this way,” Royal God Call suggested.

“Teleportation scrolls are 1000 gold coins each... You guys sure are very willing to spend this amount,” Xi Xiaotian commented.

“It’s Young Master Han’s money,” Royal God Call mumbled.

This time, Gu Fei did not actually criticize him for that comment, because he was also in agreement that it was very worthwhile using the teleportation scroll like this, and that means it would not be considered a waste.

“However, I suggest you change the location,” Xi Xiaotian said.

“Why is that?”

“I feel that they must surely have inserted spies and scouts over by Courtney, and so it is not too much of a stretch to believe they have already gotten a good grasp of our movement here. Would they not take preventive measures if they see you swim over and make note of the coordinates?” Xi Xiaotian mentioned.

“Doing it like that is going to be difficult... Considering the manpower from the four large guilds, who knows where they would have planted their scouts. Wouldn’t we end up being observed even if we changed to another location?” Gu Fei asked.

“But at the very least I’m certain we’re already being observed here,” Xi Xiaotian said.

Gu Fei thought about this, and finally nodded, “Let’s change to another spot then! First, we’ll get out from the observable range of those tall reeds, and circle around the long way.”

The four left just like that. Xi Xiaotian was right on the money; the scouts that were positioned to keep an eye on Courtney had followed them this entire time, watching their movement from afar. The moment they saw that the four players had suddenly turned around, they very quickly reported to their guild leaders.

“D*mm*t, just what are they up to this time?” The three guild leaders did not suspect Broken Water Arrow this time, and had discussed the change with him.

“Just what did they come up with this time?”

“What else have they done?” the three guild leaders asked their scouts.

“They exchanged a few words with the players here,” the scouts reported.

“Curse those philanderers!” The three men swore with much vehemence when they realized that the couples that they chased away had given away their ploy.

“After the people learned that we are guarding this spot, they must have intentionally run off to play elsewhere,” Oathless Sword surmised.

“Keep following them!” On the other side, the three guild leaders had sent their Sharpshooters to continue distantly monitor Gu Fei and his friends.

However, this time was different from the last time. The last time, Gu Fei had intentionally wanted their enemy to notice their movement, so he could mislead them accordingly. But this time, they had absolutely no intention of leaking their whereabouts at all, so the Sharpshooters who had to maintain surveillance from a distance of 100 meters would actually find it quite difficult to do so. Several of them had dove into the reeds in their urgency to locate Gu Fei and the others, yet they simply could not spot even the slightest trace of them at all.

“Reporting in. We’ve lost sight of them...” The reconnaissance scouts regretfully reported their failure.

“When all is said and done, they must definitely pass by this location!” Broken Water Arrow reassured those guild leaders.

“We’re aware of this,” The three said. “But the thing is... When will they arrive? If they do not appear, are we supposed to keep camping here till they arrive?”

The ultimate goal of these three guild leaders was the City War event, and they had only come to defend against Thousand Miles Drunk all because they were afraid that the event would end with their complete loss if he were to succeed. Honestly speaking, what they were currently doing was to save all the guilds on the city assaulter’s side in Yunduan City’s City War event, but they do not want other guilds to come in and interfere either, all because they were hoping that they could grab the competitive quest from Thousand Miles Drunk’s hands upon vanquishing him, and lead the city assaulters to victory afterward. Having to cooperate with the other two guilds was troublesome enough as it was; none of them wanted to end up rallying more unnecessary competitors. After Foe-herder got killed by Courtney, the three had very happily ditched him altogether, and that really highlighted just how they shared the same sentiment on this.

They had caught the tiger by its tail. The three were really despondent, however! They had discovered that every time they end up facing Thousand Miles Drunk, they would always be in a dilemma where they found it difficult to do anything about him. Every option they had proved to be difficult.

“Hmm... Thousand Miles Drunk and his friends are just four players, so there’s no need for us to mobilize so much of our manpower, actually. Everyone, leave behind your elite members and you may send the others to go do whatever business you wish to pursue,” Broken Water Arrow suggested.

“That’s easy for you to say. Have you fought with Thousand Miles Drunk before?” The three guild leaders were now regarding Broken Water Arrow, feeling as if he had no idea what he was talking about.

Broken Water Arrow very remorsefully admitted, “I’ve fought with him twice in situations where we had about the same numbers, but lost.”

“Yeah, we don’t find that surprising,” Oathless Sword patted Broken Water Arrow, feeling like he was pretending a bit too much. He even showed them an expression like having a few more men with him would have changed the outcome of the fight. As opponents who had fought Thousand Miles Drunk leading hundreds of players each time, the guild leaders of the three large guilds ultimately felt a great amount of pressure when they still lost.

“I believe given the average gamers’ standards, just 100 men would be more than enough to deal with Thousand Miles Drunk,” Broken Water Arrow said.

“Bro, are you trying to pull our legs?” The three guild leaders were staring at Broken Water Arrow intensely.

“Of course not. But the condition for you to pull this off would require all of you to set up in accordance with my arrangement, and for all of you to completely follow my orders,” Broken Water Arrow continued.

“Just who exactly are you?” Seeing this person putting on such a front, these three guild leaders could no longer hold back and wanted to find out just what was his background.

“Mmm, I am someone who possesses actual combat experience; I’m ex-military,” Broken Water Arrow said.

“Oh?”

“And I’ve fought with Thousand Miles Drunk many times as well, so I have a bit of experience on that regard too,” Broken Water Arrow expressed.

“You previously mentioned that you fought against Thousand Miles Drunk when you had around the same number of men as him. Just what sort of situation was that?” The three guild leaders were suddenly quite interested.

“Oh, that was with me and my fellow war buddies, against Thousand Miles Drunk and his friends, Young Master’s Elite mercenary group. There was also Southern Lone Blade and his squad helping them!” Broken Water Arrow mentioned.

“Do you and your bros have a guild?” Oathless Sword was very friendly all of a sudden.

“So what about your buddies, what are they busy with now?” Brave Surge was quick as well.

“Our guild has plenty of spots open,” Black Index Finger reached out with a substantial offer.

Broken Water Arrow laughed bitterly, “They are all very busy and aren’t around right now.” Broken Water Arrow’s war buddies were all middle-aged men, each of them bearing the noble task of being the breadwinner of their families, so they did not have much time to immerse themselves in the game. Besides, they were not particularly taken by the game, and had only joined because Broken Water Arrow had invited them to do so, putting aside what they had been doing so they could undergo a grueling period of grinding, only to achieve nothing in the end. If they continued playing in such a fashion, they would have to let the game replace their real lives, so of course these adults made the mature decision.

“That’s such a waste. Then what about yourself?” The three guild leaders asked.

“Me... We’ll talk about me later!” Broken Water Arrow ended this line of questioning ambiguously.

“Haha, fine. Bro, you can fight with us for this battle first,” Oathless Sword’s faux magnanimity and valiant way reared its head again.

“So, shall we pick 100 players from our guild and let you take charge?” Brave Surge openly showed his faith in Broken Water Arrow as well.

“The men from my guild are all here, you can have the pick of the litter,” Black Index Finger showed both faux magnanimity and faith in this one move.

Broken Water Arrow nodded and began picking out the job classes that he required from the three large guilds, positioning them all around in the stretch of reeds around them. The three guild leaders were still a little skeptical at the start, but Broken Water Arrow understood their thoughts. He explained what he was doing as he assigned the men to their spots, and the doubt that the three harbored slowly disappeared. Sure enough, they realized that Broken Water Arrow possessed a level of expertise when it came to combat that the average player lacked.

The three were now at ease, and as an additional precaution, they pulled out another 100 players for this. After all, there was nothing bad about having more men around. As for the players that remained, all of them were dismissed to either attack the city or search for missions and quests. Basically, everyone still had not given up on their race to accumulate the contribution scores for this event.

——————————————————————–

Gu Fei, Svelte Dancer, Xi Xiaotian and Royal God Call had taken a huge detour around after losing the players trailing after them, with Svelte Dancer ultimately proposing an idea, “You guys should not head on over. I’ll Stealth my way over and do the deed we previously planned. After I swim my way over, I’ll write down the coordinates on your teleportation scroll. There’s no way anyone would discover us at that point, right?”

“Can you still remain Stealthed while swimming?” Gu Fei asked.

“I’ve never really tried it before,” Svelte Dancer shrugged. “But I can remain underwater for the beginning bit, or perhaps you can hand me a Magical Air Bubble scroll.”

“There’s nothing fun about having that huge air bubble,” Gu Fei said.

“Tsk,” Svelte Dancer clicked her tongue. “Hand over the teleportation scroll.”

Gu Fei took two out, marked the coordinates for where they were at now, and passed them both to Svelte Dancer.

“Wait for me,” Svelte Dancer went into Stealth and quietly crept toward the reeds. Gu Fei and the three did not reveal themselves and hid behind, waiting for her results.

“I’m still Stealth while in the water. Cool!” Svelte Dancer’s first message came after a short while.

“Well, cool lady, hurry up and go!” Gu Fei urged.

“I’ll increase my speed after I’ve covered a bit more distance,” Svelte Dancer replied. While Stealthed in the water, her speed was vexingly slow. Svelte Dancer only canceled her Stealth after leaving the banks for about a 100 meters or so, beginning her swim toward the coordinates that Gu Fei had given her.

It was about half an hour later when Svelte Dancer finally reached her destination. Looking down toward the banks where the reeds were, everything looked exceptionally tranquil.

“I’ve reached the spot,” Svelte Dancer said. “I’m marking the coordinates on the scroll now.” Svelte Dancer said as she pulled out the other teleportation scroll and proceeded to enter the coordinates.

That was when bolts suddenly came flying out from the banks, and it was five in one go. As quick as Svelte Dancer’s reaction was in this instance, it was apparent that her movement in water was not as quick, so all she could do was evade the first bolt as the other four found their targets.

Even more Archers from within the reeds poked their heads out, with some Mages in the mix as well, waving their magic staves though it was incredibly unfortunate that Svelte Dancer was just outside their range of attack. However, there were still quite a few brave souls who jumped right into the lake there and then in an effort to get closer to Svelte Dancer.

Svelte Dancer was hardly about to be insta-killed after taking that series of five bolts, but by the time the second wave of projectiles was released, she had no intention of taking the hit either. Taking in a huge breath, Svelte Dancer daringly dove down to the bottom of the lake.

“She went down to the bottom of the lake,” Shouts were heard all around the banks. Broken Water Arrow was also wiping his sweat at this point, addressing the player beside him, “It’s a good thing you reminded me. I actually forgot that they could go over the water to get here.”

Guzzler chuckled without saying a word. He had only opened his eyes to this possibility due to his own experience with the lake, otherwise, there was no way any normal player would have the intention of engaging on water.

“We need to pursue her,” Broken Water Arrow was also in the process of jumping into the lake by now, as everyone else who knew how to swim did the same.

“Have you guys managed to get the boat over here?” On the other side, Youthful Reflection was in the middle of hurrying some of his men.

“It’s not here yet.”

There were also a few boats available in Yunjiao Lakeside, and it had been inspired by what Traversing Four Seas witnessed when they went by Linshui City. Even though there was no way for anyone to create a seaside marketplace with the muddy banks and tall reeds around Yunjiao Lake, it was still quite an attractive endeavor to row boats by the lake. The lovelorn guild leader of Traversing Four Seas, Oathless Sword, had kept pondering over this matter, before he specifically sought out the shipwright workshop over by Linshui City in the end and hired them to come over and make the boats. Oathless Sword had originally wanted to use it like some sort of big gesture in the pursuit of his love story, but he never did find the opportunity to do so thus far, and he now would end up using it for the City War instead.

However, it was apparent that there were no good boaters among the players from Yunduan City. Men from Traversing Four Seas had gotten the boat over, only for the boat to be stranded after a whole, turning on the spot for a while or finding it list toward the banks. It took them quite the effort to make sense of how to operate it, and they were now presently speeding over as fast as they could.

“I think It’s much faster to just carry the boat over,” Guzzler said.

Youthful Reflection gave him a side glance and ignored him.

The players who jumped into the water were of all different job classes, and those who knew how to dive had all gone underwater to chase after Svelte Dancer. She was someone who was quite skilled when it came to swimming, and the moment she saw all the ripples and wave churn in front of her eyes once she was underwater, she could tell that the enemy was prepared to engage in a water fight. Svelte Dancer was not in the least bit keen to do battle in this instance, so she immediately pulled out the other teleportation scroll and disappeared once the teleportation array had appeared.

The sound of water splash was heard as the teleported Svelte Dancer appeared beside Gu Fei, along with the water that was brought along when the array activated, shocking the other three that they abruptly went diving for cover.

“Okay, hand the teleportation scroll to me and you can go dry yourself in the open air,” Gu Fei called out.

“Don’t be so happy just yet.” Svelte Dancer cautioned. “They have taken precautions with us using the water route. The way I see it, you landlubber will have to deal with them once you teleport over.”

“Is that so? But I am able to stay underwater for 30 minutes. Can they say the same?” Gu Fei asked.

“Then there’s also the fact you’ll be underwater. Can you even still use fire spells like that? Twin Incineration will be rendered useless, and that means your attack power would be greatly reduced,” Royal God Call warned.

“The damage would be reduced even if I could use it; there’s no way I can dish out my 2x attack while underwater,” Gu Fei very matter-of-factly said. His revolving Twin Incineration relied on his tempo and speed, and being underwater would very likely hinder him greatly, making it impossible for him to achieve the speed he required.

“More importantly, it might be possible to burst that Magical Air Bubble; what shall you do when that time comes?” Xi Xiaotian asked.

Gu Fei was stunned. Indeed, this was a very important situation to consider.

“Your target will be huge with that big bubble!” Svelte Dancer was in the process of drying herself as she spat this out.

“The way I see it, you will need to prepare a teleportation scroll for this set of coordinates here first. We can always come back here and regroup if any of us feel something’s off.” Xi Xiaotian said.

“What’s the general situation over there right now?” Gu Fei asked.

“Generally speaking.... There’s not exactly a lot of players, but up on the shore, the Mages are nowhere near enough to attack from range. But when they saw me, many had very bravely stepped forward and jumped in,” Svelte Dancer said.