Chapter 232 - Ultimate Cla.s.s 3, set off!
Plenty of people were coming and going under the arch of the city’s north gate around this time, and the scene of a group of players lining up in four neat rows attracted the attention of many of these pa.s.sersby. Gu Fei might be standing before them looking all dignified, yet with how he was regarding this group of students, it was apparent that he was trying his best to appear as if he did not know any of them.
“Just what is going on here?” some of the nearby players whispered to one another.
“I don’t know!”
“Oh, I know! It’s the army! The country finally sent an army into this game. China is beginning to attach importance to MMOs!” someone said excitedly.
“Go to h.e.l.l! You’ve read too many YY novels. They are just a bunch of kids; maybe, they are all boy scouts?”
As the onlookers continued to discuss this matter, Gu Fei decided to make this even more awkward and embarra.s.sing for the students. He looked at the team before him and said, “Anyone in the cla.s.s committee? A cla.s.s monitor?”
A Warrior from one of the neat rows raised his hand and shouted, “Sir, what’s the matter?”
“Since the sports representative isn’t here, you will stand in for now! Come out and take lead; we’re setting off,” Gu Fei replied.
Wow! Teacher is pretty crafty for delegating such an embarra.s.sing thing to me! The cla.s.s monitor was about to faint. Doing this sort of thing in reality was naturally, yet doing it in a game was extremely embarra.s.sing.
“Hurry up! Don’t dawdle. Are you having fun making a spectacle in front of everyone?” Gu Fei urged.
This situation naturally embarra.s.sed all the present students to the point of wanting to dig a hole for them to hide in. Now that they were given a way to escape the curious onlookers, they hatefully glared at their cla.s.s monitor for hesitating and told him, “Get it over with!”
The cla.s.s monitor could feel tears streaming down his cheeks as he said aloud, “Turn to your left and jog!”
All the students synchronized their steps and jogged out of Yunduan’s north gate amid the crowd’s sighs of awe upon witnessing the scene.
“Stay in neat formation when you’re jogging. Why aren’t you shouting your ‘slogan’?” Gu Fei pointed out from behind.
“Spare us, sir!” All the students cried out. The ‘slogan’ that Gu Fei was referring to was of course the ‘one, two, three, four’ cry that they would shout whenever they jogged in an orderly fas.h.i.+on like this. It seemed that they no longer had any way of getting out of this without drawing the attention of everyone around them. Shouting that line was truly embarra.s.sing and attention-grabbing, so everyone began to think to themselves, Was approaching teacher in the game a mistake?
“Fine. Just a simple chant in cadence will do. All your steps are in a mess. Cla.s.s monitor!” Gu Fei shouted.
“One, two! One, two!” the cla.s.s monitor helplessly called out as he became filled with misery internally. It seemed that being a cla.s.s monitor was a mistake, as well.
Heading out from one of the city gates, the students met players along the way no matter which direction they chose to jog. The actions of the students were rigid, and they jogged in sync with one another, yet their heads hunkered lower and lower the more they ran, looking like a troop of headless corpse moving together from afar.
This continued on for an undetermined amount of time until they found themselves in a somewhat desolate and spa.r.s.ely populated area. Some of the students felt baffled as it had been a long time since they heard anything from their teacher.
They turned their heads backward and saw that Gu Fei was about two hundred meters away from them, leisurely pacing behind them as they jogged in the wilderness outside of Yunduan City. All the students stopped jogging and waited for their teacher to catch up.
“Why are you stopping?! You all can’t just stop unless I tell you to do so. Continue!” There were no outsiders around them now, so Gu Fei immediately took charge of commanding them.
The students continued onward as Gu Fei monitored their pace just like in the cla.s.s, waiting for them to coordinate their movements perfectly before calling them to stand at attention.
“Are we there yet?” Gu Fei asked.
“What does teacher mean by ‘there’?” the students asked, baffled.
“If we’re not there yet, why are you all stopping?” Gu Fei asked.
The students looked at one another, “Where ARE we going?”
“How will I know where you all are going?” Gu Fei retorted.
All the students suddenly felt lightness overcome them. They had done all this for nothing! Gu Fei had already found himself a scapegoat for this, “Cla.s.s monitor, where are you bringing the cla.s.s to?”
The cla.s.s monitor was already in tears, swearing to himself that he would drag the sports representative into the game once he returned to reality. In the meantime, he could only say, “I don’t know. I’ve been leading them out here blindly. I’m not even familiar with this map! Oh, that’s right. We should let Ah Fa take the lead. He has been playing the game for the longest, so he should be the most familiar with Yunduan City’s terrain!” The cla.s.s monitor had a ‘eureka’ moment when he realized he needed not to drag the sports representative in the game when they had a savior right here.
Ah Fa was speechless. No one usually paid attention to him, yet they always called for him whenever they were in trouble. He was pretty much the most reluctant guild leader in all of Yunduan City.
Gu Fei did not dwell on this problem for long and just continued to ask, “Then, what did you look for me today for?”
“Sir, join our guild!”
“Sir, bring us to grind levels!”
“Sir, carry us for quests!”
“Sir, I’m very poor. Give me some money!”
“Sir, do you have any equipment you’re not using?”
It was the exactly same questions that they had mentioned this afternoon.
“Alright, calm down!” Gu Fei shouted to get everyone to stop, saying, “Guild? Teacher is already in one; grinding? Teacher usually grinds alone; quests? There are many of you here, so there’s no way I can carry you all; money? Teacher still owes someone 1800 gold coins; as for equipment, I have some, so I’ll give them to you guys once we head back!”
“Yay!” the students cheered. They felt very happy at having achieved one out of their five terms, and it was the most important term, too.
“Now disperse. Do whatever you want. Meet at the north gate when it’s 9 P.M.,” Gu Fei waved his hands to dismiss them.
“Ah, wait! Don’t go off just yet!” Ah Fa hurriedly leaped out from the group. As everyone stared at him, he explained, “I have a quest.”
“Oh. Ah Fa can stay. The rest of you may leave!” Gu Fei changed his order.
“No, don’t! It’s a guild quest,” Ah Fa hurriedly added.
Guild quest… Gu Fei wrinkled his brows. He had experienced a guild quest before, and it was when he had teamed up with June’s Rain. What ensued was an absolutely vexing matter that turned him from being the hunter to becoming the hunted, from him against a city of players to him being part of a city-wide battle. He recalled that that was perhaps the only time he had experienced the most bloodshed and slaughter.
As Gu Fei recalled all this, Ah Fa briefed everyone about the guild quest. Gu Fei listened in and got the gist of it. It seemed that the quest was about vanquis.h.i.+ng a band of Brigands. Besides requiring them to kill one hundred enemies, they apparently had to capture the leader alive as well.
Besides Ah Fa, the other members of Ultimate Cla.s.s 3 Guild only started playing Parallel World after its official release. Since they barely had time to play the game, being middle school students and all, their levels were pitifully low as well. Naturally, the leader of this band of Brigands was a Boss. Given how poorly equipped their guild was, Ah Fa knew that challenging the Boss was nearly impossible for them. With the help of a level 40 Mage like Gu Fei, they might achieve a satisfactory outcome in this guild quest.
“Oh? Boss?” Gu Fei perked up when he heard this. To him, fighting with players was as difficult as taking on the average monsters. Perhaps, a Boss in the game would be a better match for him. Gu Fei recalled his fight with the Mountain Bandit Leader Sooto. Although his method of attack was systematic, Gu Fei at least had to be more cautious and alert when facing him. That was a level of tension he did not often feel. “Where is he? Take me there!”
“This way!” Ah Fa prepared to lead the way.
“Gather up, everyone. Ah Fa is leading the way!” Gu Fei shouted.
Not many people were out here, so the students did not feel uncomfortable to line up once more. They hurriedly returned into their respective rows as Ah Fa led everyone onward with renewed spirit, immensely enjoying the whole process. Why would he not be when he had such a prominent role before everyone?
The group made its way to a certain valley. This area was part of Yunxia Valley, yet it was not frequented by people to grind levels. Some players were around, so the Ultimate Cla.s.s 3’s uniformed arrival attracted these people’s attention and they all stopped what they were doing to watch the strange procession.
The students were focused on their guild quest, so they currently did not care about the strangers’ attention. They could already see their quest target in sight when they entered the valley in neat rows. The guild quest had two parts: first was to kill one hundred Brigands and second was to capture the leader alive.
“Sir, we’ll leave the Boss to you!” The students expected a lot from Gu Fei. This was normal in MMOs; players usually admired those with higher level than themselves until they reached that same level and no longer held the level in high regard. Right now, these students were looking up to their teacher who had a higher level than themselves....
“Sir, you can also help us with the Brigands, but please don’t kill them! Or else, the result won’t be counted in our quest progress.”
Gu Fei was not a member of Ultimate Cla.s.s 3, so he did not have the guild quest in his quest log. Any target he killed would only provide him experience and would of course not be included in the kill count of Ultimate Cla.s.s 3’s guild quest.
“Sir, please cast Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno. Let us see it in action!” Ah Fa was looking forward to this spell as he was currently only at level 34. He needed to reach level 36 before he could learn that spell.
“Lure the monsters first!” Gu Fei did not mind displaying his prowess before these students. Of course, he did not use his Moonlit Nightfalls as this group had requested him to not kill the monsters.
Although these students were young and had low levels, their gaming skills were at least way better than most of the Amethyst Rebirth ladies. While quite a number of them were girls, their coordination was better in almost every aspect than the Amethyst Rebirth ladies after spending many long hours in school and in the game with one another.
Gu Fei had also been spending considerable time every day in the company of top-tier experts inside Parallel World, so his discerning eyes had improved greatly. He could tell that he would have an easier time carrying his students than the Amethyst Rebirth ladies!
Two students that were Archers ran out to pull the monsters over as the rest glanced over at Gu Fei.
Gu Fei calmly pointed his finger forward and chanted, “Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno! Arise!”
“Ah, sir! Why are you using it on us?!” The two students in charge of luring the monsters were momentarily stunned and they started to run left and right in panic.
“Hey! Don’t run off like that!” Gu Fei fumed. Each of them ran left and right respectively, pulling the monsters to two separate directions. Gu Fei had to preemptively cast his spell due to the slow casting time he had. Had the two students continued forward, those monsters would have stepped perfectly into the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno’s AOE; instead, what resulted from this pull was a mess.
The students heard Gu Fei finish his incantation, yet did not see the spell spring forth, which caused them to feel boundlessly disappointed. By the time the two pulled the monsters to the left and right, the raging inferno’s explosion had just sounded. Naturally, not one Brigand was burned off by it.
The students were no experts, so they failed to notice the finer details in this scene. They only thought that Gu Fei’s spell was cast off-target, immediately causing them to chatter about.
“Ah Fa, is teacher even good?” someone softly asked Ah Fa. Ah Fa was after all the most knowledgeable person among them all.
“Uhm… He’s okay, I guess…” Ah Fa was also uncertain himself!