Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

“Do you get what I"m talking about now?” Gu Fei asked.

“I know what you"re getting at. You"re insinuating that Broken Water Arrow joined the guild to disrupt Deep Freeze"s harmony with his att.i.tude and how he does things, right?” Sword Demon said.

“That"s right. What are your thoughts?” Gu Fei pressed on.

“My thoughts…” Sword Demon was quiet for a while before finally hedging, “Are you perhaps being a little too cynical? It"s just a game; is there a need to go through all this?”

“No, no, no.” Gu Fei shook his head, insisting upon his view. “It is your thinking that is far too obsolete. This is no longer the average game you guys used to play in the past. Our talk with Coco before already touched on the topic of how plenty of specialized businesses and professional services are springing forth in Parallel World, where workshops and the ilk are searching for people with talents in specific areas. You"ve never seen such a phenomenon happening in the MMOs you"ve played before, right?”

“You"re… not wrong…” Sword Demon nodded.

“The activities of these workshops serve as indicators to the benefits that exist in the game. You are still holding on to the thinking that this sort of game serves only as an entertainment for the average happy gamers, but if someone plays this game solely for profits, then there"s nothing they won"t do to achieve their goal. Don"t forget; there"s no such thing as law in this world,” Gu Fei said.

“The more you talk about it, the more implausible it sounds,” Sword Demon said.

“Let"s wait and see, then! The seedling planted has already sprouted. It is my belief that at the end of the day, the strongest guild in Parallel World won"t the one that develops through the banding of a few comrades like what you are used to from before, but the type that has the support of a workshop or other interested parties to capture the hearts of its members by providing benefits, instead,” Gu Fei said.

“What do you mean ‘capture the hearts of its members by providing benefits"?” Sword Demon was perplexed.

“Wages, bro!” Gu Fei clarified.

“Wages… Are you saying that, in the future, the guilds will be like companies and organizations in real life?” Sword Demon asked.

“Not everyone will be like that, but the strongest will definitely be that,” Gu Fei replied.

Sword Demon continued to ponder on this. He had no idea whether Gu Fei"s thinking was noobish or advanced.

“Rice Soup, White Sand!” Onesie hailed the two men at this point.

“Thank you so much for your a.s.sistance,” Onesie said. Everyone could tell that the two were on his side when they stepped forward moments before, so Onesie made it a point to express his grat.i.tude for their aid.

“Heh. It"s nothing much,” the two answered.

“Are the two of you not Hunters?” Onesie asked. He should have already secretly appraised them before; asking them now was nothing more than courtesy.

“a.s.sa.s.sin.”

“Lightning Mage.”

The two introduced themselves accordingly.

“I"ll show Ginkgo Tea what"s up when I next see him,” Onesie declared. He felt he had to give a proper account for what had just happened after that duel from before.

“We"re all comrades at the end of the day; there"s no need for all that. It"s just a game.” Sword Demon was truly the amiable sort. He was actually helping Deep Waters maintain the fellows.h.i.+p within his guild even when he was there acting as a spy.

The rest of Onesie"s party did not say anything and just changed the subject after a brief pause by introducing themselves to Gu Fei and Sword Demon. Except for the two newcomers, all were Hunters and good friends that had been fighting, grinding, and even chasing skirts together this whole time. Having stood up for them in the duel before, these youngsters expressed their willingness for the two to a.s.similate into their group.

“He he. You guys can go ahead and get to know each other better. I"ll be making a move first.” Gu Fei addressed the crowd.

“Making a move? Where to?” Onesie and the others were astonished. Without any issues left, they were prepared to help these newcomers drill the tactics and coordination required for jungle warfare.

“It"s time I go to sleep. I still have work tomorrow morning!” Gu Fei waved to the lot as he took his leave.

Onesie and his men watched him walk away as though he were some sort of aberration. Gamers that had a day job were not exactly uncommon, but since such individuals did not have much free time to spend gaming, it was exceedingly rare to find one that would log out this early when they had the time to play the game at night.

“Are you two friends?” Onesie asked Sword Demon.

“Yeah,” Sword Demon confirmed.

“What time does he log on every day?” they asked.

Even Sword Demon was a little embarra.s.sed to answer that, for the time Gu Fei spent online was almost like a disgrace to hardcore gamers like them.

“I"m gonna log off first. Stay to build rapport and forge relations.h.i.+p with those guys; don"t forget to inquire about Broken Water Arrow"s situation when the opportunity presents itself.” Gu Fei sent this message to Sword Demon.

“Yeah.” Sword Demon was not a man of many words.

Naturally, no one made a fuss over Gu Fei leaving early. Onesie just proceeded to instruct Sword Demon on how their group coordinated. Since Sword Demon was the one who had seen through Ginkgo Tea"s cheating, Onesie of course had quite a favorable impression of him.

“I"ll first give you an overview of our skills,” Onesie said. “The six of us have equipment that focuses on extending the duration, damage, and number of active traps. All of us have a total of 22 possible active traps combined; the five of them use the level 40 Hunter"s Trap, while I am able to place 2 additional Tanglefoot Traps, both of which deal damage.”

“What trap?” Sword Demon had never heard of that skill before.

“Tanglefoot,” Onesie said, proceeding to write it on the ground.

“Aside from damage, does the trap have a special effect?” Sword Demon asked.

“It"s able to reduce the target"s movement speed by 100%, lasting for five seconds,” Onesie said.

“That"s really powerful! It"s far more effective than the Freeze effect from Water Affinity spells,” Sword Demon marveled.

“It only reduces the movement speed; it doesn"t affect the target"s attack speed at all,” Onesie explained.

“Okay, I got it.” Sword Demon nodded.

“Come; let"s get together everyone. We"re going to set up our basic trap formation. Let Sandy see what we can do.” Onesie directed the other five men to get into action.

“Sandy…” Sword Demon had the urge to head to a tree and vomit. Don"t go around giving people nicknames without their permissions, you twerps!

The six swiftly got to work and set up their traps all over. Onesie finished setting up his traps first and quickly made his way back to Sword Demon"s side to indicate the area covered by their trap formation, the parts they were in control, and the s.p.a.ces that were empty. He also pointed out several spots that were heavily laden with traps, where they would be hiding at this time, where they would initiate their attacks, how they would continue to adjust, et cetera.

Sword Demon nodded repeatedly as he listened, for this was an area of expertise he had never involved himself with.

“So what should I be doing?” Sword Demon could not help asking how he could contribute accordingly.

“You should be aware which areas within our trap formation are relatively safe by now, but you know safety doesn"t mean you can just randomly position yourself anywhere, right?” Onesie asked.

“Yup. My position need to coordinate with all of you guys" positions outside the encirclement and shouldn"t affect your line of sight or attack angles.” Sword Demon"s comprehension, which did not leave much else to be desired, drew praises from the rest.

“Since there are plenty of ways that our trap formation can be adapted and many changes to how it can be set up, just like this encirclement we have here, we do have a few templates that we have made sure to number accordingly. We call this encirclement version C.

“Upon hearing version C, you should be aware of where every trap is placed. For us who are ambus.h.i.+ng from the outside, we choose our spots depending on the terrain and situation we are in. Not only do you have to learn how to choose your spot, you must have a good grasp of the trap formation as well. That is because you can only receive the coordinates from your comrades once they get into position. Thus, you must make your own judgement based on the trees, shrubbery, or underbrush that they can be hiding. You need a certain level of understanding of the habits of your teammates to be able to make accurate, snap judgements. It is only through this that we can become a team with a strong level of tacit understanding of one another,” Onesie elaborated.

That makes a lot of sense…” Sword Demon was a little surprised. This was because his words were not something that would usually not come out from the mouth of an easily goaded rascal.

“He he. This is what Old Broken taught us,” Onesie said.

“Speaking of which, it"s a pity that Old Broken chose to become a Sharpshooter. I think with his level of knowledge and skill regarding traps, even Guild Leader Deep Waters won"t be his match,” someone among the six commented.

“Oh, yeah! It took us a lot of playing around before we managed to come up with our trap formation, while Old Broken just casually made a few adjustments, and not only did it become far more effective, we also got three versions of it - ABC for large-, medium- and small-scale encirclements. Truly… I don"t have enough words to praise him,” another said.

“It"s impressive. Downright impressive!”

“Old Broken should be Broken Water Arrow, right? I seem to recall him saying that he has only recently joined this guild.” Now that the topic had s.h.i.+fted toward Broken Water Arrow, Sword Demon figured it would be impolite to decline such an opportunity; he would simply be letting all this toilsome facepaint go to waste if he did not find out more about the man.

“Yeah, it hasn"t been too long ago. We don"t really know the specifics, but he definitely joined earlier than you and Rice Soup,” Onesie confirmed.

“Oh… After being part of this guild these few days, I heard plenty of talks about the man,” Sword Demon added.

“Yeah. Just from the few trap-formation designs, you can tell he is not your average gamer,” Onesie said.

“Such a powerful man; is he someone from Linyin City? Why haven"t I heard of him?” Sword Demon expressed his disbelief.

“I haven"t as well…” everyone agreed.

“There"s nothing strange about that. Although we"ve just recently met Broken Arrow, we can tell that he"s not the type that likes to show off. Do you take him for a silly person like Ginkgo Tea? We really lucked out that guild leader managed to recruit such a person into our guild,” Onesie said.

“There"s surely no one out there worthy of matching with us in this so-called City War now.”

“It"s just that we have no idea when it will begin. I can hardly wait myself.”

“The later the better. We need to train more, so we can improve our chances of success.”

“That"s right…”

“Oh, yeah, Sandy. Let"s add each other as friends! We might need to privately message each other while we engage in jungle warfare sometimes,” Onesie suddenly said.

This was naturally something Sword Demon would not do even if he was coerced to death; thus, he hurriedly replied, “I"m really sorry; my friends list is full at the moment. Plenty of whom are added over these last few days. It"s a little awkward to delete them since most of them are fellow guild members. Wait a few more days, and I"ll make s.p.a.ce for you guys if I see us barely communicating.”

“Oh…” Several of them found this to be reasonable. “Well, in that case, familiarize yourself with this particular trap formation we often use as fast as you can!”

“Of course.” Sword Demon mentally wiped the sweat off his forehead. He suddenly realized that everyone could become really crafty when the need arose. Something like lying was truly an innate ability all humans possessed. All he just did was open his mouth and he managed to come up with the perfect excuse without missing a beat.

D*mn. When did I become such a narcissist? Have I been infected?