Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

In front of this person, Gu Fei had never once shown her face. Conversely, she wanted to react when she saw him move to tear off the cloth covering her face, but she was simply not as dexterous as the man. While she did manage to avoid that initial grab, she nevertheless lost that cloth of hers in the process, so she had no choice but to pout, looking as if she were at his disposal.

“You"re quite the bold one, aren"t you? You even dared to masquerade as me like this!” Gu Fei decisively tossed that cloth she was covering her face with to the ground. Xi Xiaotian"s figure, looks, voice, personality, and job cla.s.s were all totally different from his, yet she still had the guts to cosplay as him. Truly, this woman was bold beyond belief.

“That"s nothing. n.o.body knows how you look like, anyway. In fact, most people probably have no idea if Thousand Miles Drunk"s a male or female,” Xi Xiaotian said.

Just as she finished her words, he heard the players below the rocky outcrop discussing. “Whoa! Turns out Thousand Miles Drunk is a babe!”

“Mother of G.o.d, that"s huge news!”

“Who the heck is that guy? How did he get up there? What is he trying to do?”

Gu Fei was about to faint. After being mistakenly attributed to a demonic existence that would hardly blink an eye when killing, people even believed that he was actually a she. With his resentment intermingling with his open distaste, the look he threw at Xi Xiaotian smoldered with rage. Grabbing a hold of her collar, he thundered, “How much gold have you managed to cheat off these players?!”

“You can"t say that I"ve cheated them this time! I"ve gotten a good grasp of your fighting style – enough that I am able to teach them,” Xi Xiaotian claimed.

“Is that so?” Gu Fei gave a mirthless laugh, letting her go as he stood to one side. “I"d like to see this.” With that said, his right hand delved inside his dimensional pocket to retrieve his Moonlit Nightfalls. Gu Fei had already decided to seize the guilty and to slay her where she stood if she dared to make something up.

Xi Xiaotian beamed cheekily. Moving past Gu Fei to the head of the makes.h.i.+ft platform, she stood at the very front. At the moment, the players below were busy discussing about the newcomer, the actual Thousand Miles Drunk.

“That guy"s so arrogant!”

“Yeah. He"s simply being too bold to dare grab Thousand Miles Drunk by the collar!”

“Thousand Miles Drunk doesn"t seem to have too large a reaction, either. Looks like their relations.h.i.+p isn"t that simple!”

“This is big news! Huge news!”

Gu Fei"s expression was turning uglier by the second. Xi Xiaotian finally made it to the forefront of the outcrop and gleefully requested, “If someone can throw a monster over; we are about to begin the lesson.”

“Oh!” Someone suddenly slapped his thigh in realization. “I know. That guy must be Eternal Dominion!”

“Eternal Dominion?”

“That"s right. Haven"t you heard? This instructional lesson was developed by Thousand Miles Drunk and Eternal Dominion. I heard that it was Eternal Dominion himself who was tossing the monsters up the outcrop yesterday.”

“Yeah. I did indeed hear about this…”

Thus, the whole lot of players looked at Gu Fei and nodded. “So he"s Eternal Dominion. That makes sense.” Following this discussion, they stared at Gu Fei expectantly. “What is he standing up there for? Why isn"t he throwing the monsters up to Thousand Miles Drunk?”

What the man said was far too hurtful, as throwing a monster up was something Gu Fei was more than willing to do, yet incapable of achieving. Furthermore, his lack of strength was something he took to heart quite seriously. No longer able to stand this, he leaped to the front as well and bellowed, “Who says I"m Eternal Dominion?! Did none of you use your Appraisal skill? Can"t you guys even tell through the skill that I"m not a Fighter?!”

The crowd of players was quiet after hearing Gu Fei"s complaint before finally answering, “You"re both so high level; how can we even appraise and find out anything from you?”

Gu Fei was stunned, casually using his appraisal on the players to have a look. Even though his proficiency in the skill was nothing exceptional, he was still able to get a read of their levels, which was how he discovered that the majority of them was at level 40 and under. That was when Gu Fei realized how important this particular point was for Xi Xiaotian to succeed in pa.s.sing herself off as Thousand Miles Drunk. While she could dress just like him, there was simply no way she could falsify her job cla.s.s, which meant that she had to make sure to pick players with lower level than herself, or else she would instantly be exposed with one Appraisal.

Helpless, Gu Fei sighed. “I"m not Eternal Dominion. I"m actually the real Thousand Miles Drunk.”

The crowd immediately broke into a waddle of noise, not subsiding for the longest time. The lot of players gazed at the two similarly dressed people atop the outcrop, never expecting to witness a scene akin to when Sun Wukong met the imposter Monkey King.

“Are there any Fighters down there?! Could someone please execute a Seismic Toss and throw a Campfire Patroller up here?!” Gu Fei yelled.

The players all exchanged glances for a while before a Fighter finally stepped forward and went off to pull a monster over. Bringing it over to the rocky outcrop with a heave of his upper body, the monster ended up cras.h.i.+ng right onto its hard surface.

Gu Fei facepalmed. Yesterday"s experience was being repeated once more before his eyes, and this student was most likely someone whom Xi Xiaotian had lured over from the other grinding maps, so his standard was below those who had been solo grinding in the Wilderness Camp before. Several more Fighters came out to give it a try, but all of them similarly mucked it up with all the monsters they pulled.

“Stop!” This was when a crisp shout sounded from within this crowd, and this speaker was regarding this display with disdain. Everyone followed the voice and saw a Priest emerge from the crowd. The staff in his hand was being held like a teacher"s pointer as he pointed it right at one of the Fighters. “Maintain that posture.”

That Fighter, who was hugging a monster, was about to fling it. He was unable to keep that posture for long as the monster was putting up quite the resistance. He was about to ridicule the man for his unrealistic request when white light was bestowed on him. This Heal from the Priest let him recover the HP he had lost from the damage the monster dealt while it struggled. It took a moment before this person realized that he was not about to die so easily, thus he obediently listened to that Priest"s order and stopped moving.

“A little more to your right… yup… right there… at this angle. Can you see it clearly? Where my staff is pointed at. Look here. I"m telling you to look at my staff; where are you even looking?!” This Priest waved his magic staff right at the Fighter, helping him adjust his direction even as he supplied him with Heals from time to time. Even while helping the man survive the struggling monster, the Priest still managed to take a swig or two from the liquor bottle in his other hand.

“That"s it. That"s the direction and angle. Now, use all your strength and toss it. Don"t deviate.” Young Master Han was finally done adjusting.

The Fighter was a little skeptical, feeling that the angle and direction Young Master Han had adjusted him to was a little ridiculous, but given all the effort they had put into it, he figured that he might as well give it a shot. With a powerful heave from both his arms, that monster followed the trajectory Young Master Han had chosen and sailed outward, forming an accurate parabolic arc before landing firmly atop outcrop.

“WOW!” the crowd exclaimed. Everyone was thinking that the Priest was truly a skilled individual. Upon scrutiny of his looks, though, everybody felt forlorn once more. Just what was the occasion today? They were all unclear whether Thousand Miles Drunk was a male or female, and now this Priest standing before them was yet another androgynous existence that left them scratching their heads. Just what day was today?

This was when Xi Xiaotian, standing atop the rocky outcrop, cleared her throat. “Everyone, please pay close attention!” The crowd quickly perked up, for this was something they had all paid for. No one would be foolish enough not to pay attention.

They watched as Xi Xiaotian stepped forward and gave the monster sprawled on the ground two swipes with her sword, but that monster got up without sparing a glance at Xi Xiaotian. Leaping right off the outcrop, it dove straight for Young Master Han.

Everybody was dumbfounded, wondering to themselves if this was all part of the efficient monster grinding method. As such, all their eyes were on Young Master Han, and not one of them bothered to lend a hand to the Priest. They watched what was happening raptly, intending to commit everything to memory.

Gu Fei was almost out of breath as he laughed uproariously. The reason was very simple: the Fighter had held onto the monster this whole time and never attacked it, while Young Master Han had cast his Heal all throughout, acc.u.mulating plenty of threat as a result. Simply put, the monster had long since OT 1 -ed. When Young Master Han was done instructing the Fighter, and the monster was successfully tossed right up, it became apparent that Xi Xiaotian had quite a bit of issue with her aggro control, which was a rather technical skill by all accounts. As a result, before she could apply the required threat to grab hold of the monster"s aggro, it already got up and targeted the player at the top of its charts: Young Master Han.

“c.r.a.p!” Xi Xiaotian only realized what went wrong after the monster had leaped right off the rocky outcrop, but it was unfortunately too late. Below, Young Master Han was currently running all over the place as the monster gave chase, while all the other players were conscientiously watching the whole ordeal.

“Ha ha ha ha! You"re doing pretty well!” It was not often anyone could see Young Master Han in such a fl.u.s.tered state, and Gu Fei was feeling an immense pleasure from this spectacle.

“Stop laughing and come help me!” Young Master Han bellowed angrily. A mere level 45 monster would not force him to the brink of death, but no matter how much he ran and dodged, he would still have to depend on the pathetic damage a Priest could deal to slowly chip away the monster till it died, and that was a truly ugly fighting style at the moment; all Young Master Han could do right now was awkwardly evade its attacks.

“Coming,” Gu Fei somersaulted down the rocky outcrop. With his sword in hand, his wrist twirled two full circles mid-air, and the flaming glow wreathing his blade circled around that Campfire Patroller"s body sequentially, abruptly instkilling it. Gu Fei was the only one in Parallel World that could deal damage twice with a single spell casting, but the problem was that most players were unable to catch this underlying execution, so all they saw was him using one Twin Incineration to instkill a level 45 monster and immediately cheered to express their exuberance. This was the best proof as to which of the two was the real Thousand Miles Drunk.

After adding everything they had learned thus far, the people finally understood what exactly was going on. Xi Xiaotian, who was still atop the outcrop, was instantly the subject of the crowd"s ire.

“Swindler!” In all the angry voices that sounded, someone picked up a piece of rock from the ground and tossed it over. These were the melee job cla.s.ses; the ranged job cla.s.ses, for their part, all sent their spells or arrows flying to Xi Xiaotian, immediately changing the very look of that 9527 outcrop. Before Gu Fei could even say a word, Xi Xiaotian disappeared from that rocky outcrop.

The players were still dissatisfied, jeering and cursing loudly on their accord. However, these people all soon came to their senses. They, who had all paid that fake Thousand Miles Drunk, actually killed her while not knowing where she went; it was impossible for them to chase that debt any longer. Almost instantly, the crowd began criticizing each other. Lambasting the others for being too quick with their attack, many said that they should have waited till that la.s.s cough up the money they had paid before doing anything else.

After arguing to no end for quite some time, that bunch of players finally s.h.i.+fted their eyes pitifully onto Gu Fei. They looked as if they were thinking of appealing to his compa.s.sion, all in hopes of getting him to honor the transaction they had with the swindler. Before Gu Fei could say a word in edgeways, Young Master Han yelled, “What"s this? Wanna learn, huh? Speak up if you"re interested in learning the routine! How are we supposed to know if you"re not saying a word? Even though you"re all earnestly looking at us, you guys must still tell us whether you intend to learn this or not.”

“Yes, we do!” Everyone nodded vigorously, no one caring to nitpick with the benevolent Young Master Han.

“99 gold coins each.” It was apparent that Young Master Han actually had no room for kindness and compa.s.sion when showing benevolence.

The crowd sighed. Nonetheless, everybody knew that it was far too bold and unrealistic to get Thousand Miles Drunk to bear the cross for that swindler. None of them dared to say anything more as quite a good number of these players began reaching for their money pouches.

Gu Fei glared viciously at Young Master Han. He was just about to say something, when Young Master Han interjected once more. “However, seeing just how unlucky everyone has been today, as well as how tiring this day was, we"ll just teach you all this one time for free!”

Everyone was obviously elated when they heard this as each one of them nodded fervently and expressed their grat.i.tude.

“Just this once! We"ll be charging as per usual the next time!” Young Master Han said.

“Next time?” The people were rather confused. They had not even finished their lesson here; what did he mean by next time?

Young Master Han gave a secretive chuckle. “You guys could not possibly think that our efficient monster grinding routine is only limited to the Campfire Patroller, right? In truth, we"ll be targeting various monsters and developing different efficient monster grinding fighting routines. We"ll be meeting with everybody over the next few days, so everyone should pay close attention to the forums or news via other means in-game!”

“Will there be all kinds of monsters?” The eyes of these players were all wide like saucers.

“But of course,” answered Young Master Han.

“What about that monster?” A player mentioned the name of a monster.

“Yup, all of them,” said Young Master Han.

“Then, I wanna learn that!” This player immediately put forth his name for registration. This one start instantly caused many others to call out the names of the monsters they wanted to learn.

“Everyone, pipe down!” Young Master Han was surprisingly patient. “At the moment, we"re going to be teaching the fighting routine to take on the Campfire Patroller. Please pay close attention to it. As for developing fighting routines for other monsters, we"ll be sure to put out information regarding that when the time comes, so take note of our name if you have any interest in learning those.”

“Who are you people?” someone asked.

“Young Master"s Elite.” Young Master Han chuckled.

All the players quickly remembered this name. While the reputation of Young Master"s Elite preceded itself in Yunduan City, it barely made its name beyond that region.

How vicious! Gu Fei sighed to himself in awe. Young Master Han knew very well that Gu Fei would be willing to cover for the swindler, casually deciding to gift this one lesson for free given his personality. Furthermore, because he was aware that he could not possibly convince Gu Fei otherwise, Young Master Han decided to simply follow along with his wishes and treat this act as a one-time promotion. In any case, their business venture would not hurt if these players before them chose to selfishly keep this news to themselves or loudly and openly promote what had happened. These players could very well turn out to be potential clients in the future or become walking advertis.e.m.e.nts; that was pretty much killing two birds with one stone.

On top of that, Gu Fei further realized a huge selling point for Young Master Han organizing the teaching of every sort of monsters; the players would then be repeat customers to their business. Take for example these players who were all here to learn the fighting routine for the Campfire Patroller; because of the physical limitations of grinding maps, there was no way every player could do their monster grinding here now that the demand outstripped the supply. Thus, the moment a new monster was being promoted, there might actually be a large number of players who had already learned the routine for the Campfire Patroller that would end up learning this newer monster as well. Doing it this way, the players who had learnt another fighting routine would be like gaining access to another resource to tap into. After all, the grinding maps that lacked this fighting routine would no longer be comparable in the eyes of the players. As such, these players would not call it quits after grasping a single fighting routine, and more people would opt to learn two, three, or even all the various fighting routines.

Could it be that when he mentioned his desire to saturate the grinding maps five times their limit, it"s solely to create such an eventuality?

“What are you blanking out there for? Hurry up and teach your lesson already!” Young Master Han yelled at Gu Fei when the former saw how the latter had been standing there in a daze.

“I"ll pull the monster by myself!” Gu Fei said. He left the crowd and attacked a monster. Running back to the side of the outcrop, he Blinked himself right up to the top. Blink was not the only way for someone to make their way to the top, and it was possible for people to climb the outcrop, albeit it looked unsightly and was far more tiresome to do so.

Naturally, a monster would not balk at these. Single-mindedly chasing after Gu Fei, the Campfire Patroller began climbing after its target. This was when Gu Fei took two steps back, tilted his head slightly, and whispered, “You gotta tell me which one I ought to be teaching here, right?”

“You knew that I"m still alive?” The rocky outcrop"s top was oddly shaped, and on a flat rock slanting to the sky formed a crevice against the rocky platform. From there, Xi Xiaotian poked out half of her head from within; she had swiftly sought shelter there when facing the bombardment of attacks before, which was why she had not sustained heavy damage from that attempt.

“What nonsense. You know just how sharp my eyes are,” Gu Fei said.

“Ohhhh… then, by your personality, are you going to throw me down there now?” Xi Xiaotian asked.

“If that"s your wish, I don"t mind granting it.”

“Please, no. I still want to live.”

“Then, you"d better hide yourself in there!”

“The style is single-handed sword without Agility,” Xi Xiaotian told Gu Fei.

The monster had reached the flat part of the rocky outcrop by this time. Gu Fei stepped forward and called out to the crowd below. “I"m about to begin!” before he engaged with the monster.

This fighting routine was developed by Eternal Dominion, and Gu Fei only picked it up from what he saw the other players were doing when he pa.s.sed by. However, his standards were well beyond theirs. First, Gu Fei had already done his research about the Campfire Patroller"s attack patterns, so he easily grasped the fighting routine for it at a glance. In his eyes, every move and technique had a logical progression between them. As such, he did not need to rely on sheer memory, merely needing him to trace along the line of thought behind it, and Gu Fei would be able to produce a routine. Even if there were certain differences or changes from what Eternal Dominion had originally come up with, it was not too large a difference for it to be a problem.

At the moment, Gu Fei was wielding a lousy single-handed sword explaining every move he made to the crowd even as he slowly grinded that monster to death. He did not bother calling on anyone else after either, opting to run off the rocky outcrop before pulling another monster by himself – repeating the process from before.

The bunch of players listened intently to his lecture. Because these players were nothing like Gu Fei"s students, they would come forward with questions after he was done with the lessons. Thus, when Gu Fei killed the second monster and was about to pull the third, he complied with those who approached him. By then, quite a few players already felt that they had a good grasp of the routine and were anxious to try it out for themselves. Gu Fei ignored these people and continued to shave off the third monster slowly, turning to face the people after. ” Have all of you gotten it?”

“Yes!”

“Okay. Then, that"s that.” Gu Fei clapped his hands and leaped off the rocky outcrop.

These players were not in the mood to curry favor and were all too eager to try the routine out themselves. Hurriedly bidding farewell, they rushed toward the monsters out there. In a flash, another group of compet.i.tors for the Campfire Patrollers had descended upon the Wilderness Camp, heralding a litany of curses and swears, which filled the air.

However, Gu Fei was not done yet. Running off, he soon returned with another monster in tow and Blinked atop the outcrop like before. Xi Xiaotian had climbed out of that hiding spot she had been crouched behind by this time. Young Master Han was hardly surprised when he saw her pop out, albeit they were both a little nonplussed as to why Gu Fei continued to pull a monster over.

“Alright. It"s your turn now.” Gu Fei said this to Xi Xiaotian even as he gestured to the monster climbing toward them.

“Ah?” Xi Xiaotian was a little confused for a moment.

Young Master Han ma.s.saged his temples with his fingers, lamenting to the sky above, “Sometimes, it"s frightening just how inflexible this guy is.”