Chapter 2 - Kung fu?
Two people beside the leader rushed up, while another backed toward the alley’s entrance to prevent Gu Fei from escaping.
The two arrived before Gu Fei in an instant and threw a punch and a kick, respectively. Gu Fei unhurriedly took a slight step back, completely dodging the attacks from both sides. Raising his left leg, he kicked the guy on his left right in the center of his face. But just as Gu Fei was about to unleash his other leg to the person to his right, he had already retreated to the side out of shock.
Gu Fei smiled wryly. He would have been able to kick not just a single person if this were in reality. Right now, his speed was completely limited by the stats of the Mage’s body in-game, preventing him from completing his move so that he had only used half of it. Furthermore, his power was weakened drastically; after being struck, the person on the left only covered his face, staring at Gu Fei in surprise. Were this in reality, taking a kick from Gu Fei to the face would have knocked him unconscious for at least four or five hours.
“He really does have some moves!” The leader’s expression changed, but he did not become too fl.u.s.tered. Gu Fei’s kick did connect, but his strength was clearly limited. He immediately hollered, “He’s only a Mage! There’s no need to be afraid.” He rushed into the fray to join his group after shouting out.
Gu Fei moved around between the three people. Even though the Mage’s physique severely limited his strength and vitality, he was still in possession of just enough agility; at least the disparity was not too evident under the situation that everyone was still new and had not leveled up. Gu Fei would punch or kick out from time to time, making contact every time due to his rich fighting experience. On the other hand, the three struggled to even make contact with Gu Fei’s clothes. The leader became more and more flabbergasted, This guy has more than just a few moves. If he had a little more strength, the three of us would’ve been knocked down long ago. Thank G.o.d he’s just a Mage.
Gu Fei felt rather dejected right now. Many of his kung fu moves were restrained due to the various limitations of the game. In other words, even if he had chosen Fighter as his job cla.s.s, he would still be unable to utilize his kung fu properly unless he had a.s.signed some of his stat points into Agility, Strength, etc. after leveling up. On the other hand, it meant that as long as he a.s.signed some stat points into those, he had the chance to use his kung fu even though he was a Mage. Gu Fei could not help but feel invigorated when he thought of that.
The three people around Gu Fei soon realized that they could not do anything to him. They also saw Gu Fei becoming more spirited the more he fought, even revealing an extremely satisfied smile, so they all became rattled inside.
In Gu Fei’s eyes, these flashy, street-level techniques were filled with holes. Gu Fei had no intention to tangle with these people any longer, so he found an opportunity to back out from the encirclement. He laughed, “Still want to keep fighting?”
The three had suffered quite a number of punches and kicks from Gu Fei. Although the strength behind those was not staggering, it was still unpleasant as they were repet.i.tively struck mostly in the same spot by Gu Fei. At this moment, the left person sported a blackened left eye, the right person possessed a blackened right eye, and the nose of the leader in the middle bled unceasingly. Afraid that the blood would get into his mouth when he spoke, the leader raised his head and wiped away the blood with his hand. Following this action, he said to his three companions, “Let’s leave!”
“Wait!” Gu Fei said, “You want to leave just like that without even apologizing?”
“Apologize?” the leader laughed, “You couldn’t even beat me to death, so why should I apologize?”
True enough. After fighting for so long, Gu Fei could only give the three some black eyes and a nosebleed. The wounds were not unendurable and critical, and they were even more impossible to cause death. Death would only occur in the game if a person’s HP hit nil. In the current situation, the three were all beaten black and blue, but their HP remained full. This was probably one of the game’s larger bugs.
Gu Fei only chuckled faintly, bending down to pick up a rock. With a sudden stroke of his arm, the rock struck the leader’s head with a thud.
The leader was greatly angered, “You….”
“How would you feel if I had struck your eye just now?” Gu Fei said calmly.
The leader was stunned. He initially thought Gu Fei had simply got lucky with that throw, but the tone of his voice seemed to suggest he had the ability to hit whatever he wanted.
“Your eyes will obviously be fine in reality, but you’ll become blind in the game… Don’t forget, this is a virtual reality game,” Gu Fei said.
The leader retreated a few steps in fright, but he soon thought about whether it was actually possible to hit his eyes just because the person had said he could. Was it possible for it to be so miraculous? He became relieved inside and laughed uproariously, “Kid, who are you trying to fool?”
Without a word, Gu Fei had already picked up a rock by flicking it up with his foot. With a wave of his right hand…
“Arghhhh!” With a sharp scream, the leader clutched his right eye as he collapsed to the ground. He rolled around as he cried out painfully again and again. The pain of being blinded in one eye largely eclipsed being beaten to a blackened eye.
“You’ve still got one eye,” Gu Fei said to the leader. With another flick of his foot, two more rocks flew up, which Gu Fei caught with a wave of his arms. He swept pa.s.sed the other two people beside the leader with his gaze, “I have two rocks in my hand this time.”
“Sor – Sorry!” stammering out an apology, the two of them were utterly frightened by the screams of their leader as he rolled around on the ground.
“Leave!” Gu Fei waved his hand and the two pulled their leader from the ground hurriedly. Clutching his right eye with his left eye shut tightly, he trembled from the pain. He stammered, “Let’s go… Carry me away quickly….” The two were momentarily stunned, before hastily leaving as they supported him. As for the person previously guarding the alley exit, he had already disappeared long ago.
Ah Fa was dumbfounded as he watched everything unfold from his hiding spot near the alley’s entrance. He only returned to his senses after the four people had completely disappeared. Rus.h.i.+ng into the alley, he stared at Gu Fei in shock, “Sir, do you really know kung fu?”
“Of course, I’ve practiced kung fu since young.” Gu Fei’s words were exactly the same as what he normally said back in school; even his tone and expression were hardly different.
Gu Fei really did know kung fu.
He was born into a family of kung fu pract.i.tioners, so he practiced kung fu since he was young. While his family all had their careers and professions outside, they all had one goal inside, and that was for the propagation of Chinese martial arts traditions. However, even though that was the case, Gu Fei was aware that no one really took the matter to heart other than his father and himself.
Unlike his father who had quite a selection of sparring partners since some of his uncles knew a couple of kung fu moves off the top of their heads, Gu Fei did not even have one in his generation. Not only that, everyone else in his generation held contempt toward Gu Fei who zealously practiced kung fu since young, “What century is this? The sky is filled with airplanes and the streets are filled with computers. Kung fu? Can you make a living with kung fu?”
Gu Fei wanted to prove them wrong, but it just led to even more derision.
There was no arguing against the truth. In this day and age, it really was very difficult to put food on the table through kung fu.
Gu Fei had even tried each and every area in the sporting world – probably the domain where the specialty of kung fu could be leveraged the easiest. However, there were some sports that resulted in repeat offenses for Gu Fei due to his failure to grasp the rules, such as kicking people above waist level in soccer and making illegal personal contact in basketball. There were also some other sports where kung fu gave him no advantage, like chess, and even some sports that fell under Gu Fei’s natural weaknesses, like swimming, diving and other water sports – Gu Fei could not swim.
Gu Fei could not manage in actual kung fu sporting events either.
The kung fu Gu Fei practiced focused on exercising the body and various fighting techniques. There were no advantages for him partic.i.p.ating in performance-based martial arts categories. His father also explicitly forbade him from partic.i.p.ating in events with full-contact fighting which he was best at.
“We practice martial arts to train ourselves, to break through the limits of the human body. It’s not for brawling!” his father said earnestly.
“Don’t we break through the limits of the human body to better defeat our opponents?” Gu Fei was puzzled.
“You’re wrong. The best way to defeat your opponent is to shoot them!” said his father.
“Shoot them?”
His father nodded solemnly, “That’s right. Shoot them!”
“But….”
Before Gu Fei could finish speaking, his father threw a fist. They were a family of kung fu pract.i.tioners; if words made no sense, talk with the fist! In the past, his father was still strong and healthy, and his kung fu was better than Gu Fei. Furthermore, Gu Fei obviously could not lay his hands on his father, which resulted in him taking a beating. That was also the same day he went to Yulin Middle School for an interview…
All in all, after being eliminated from all sporting events, Gu Fei still managed to remain in the sporting world – if being a sports teacher counted.
With the footage of him taking a beating from his dad widely spread, he was labeled as shameless whenever he tried to tell people about his kung fu.
Was it really that difficult for kung fu to survive in the current society? Gu Fei was overwhelmed by sorrow. Nowadays, he barely even partic.i.p.ated in his family gatherings. Before, the older generation still believed that Gu Fei persevered with the propagation of kung fu. They considered him as a role model of the family; someone that the other people of Gu Fei’s generation should have looked up to. Yet now, he was reduced to being a P.E. teacher while everyone else would show up to the family gathering in splendid clothes, indicating their successes in life. The older generation also began to hesitate as a result. No one believed that Gu Fei was the most outstanding in his generation other than his father.
However, his father stuck to his belief that “Kung fu is not used for brawling” even more resolutely.
“I will not allow you to harm anyone with kung fu!” his father said firmly.
“Not even bad people?” asked Gu Fei.
Not even bad people!” His father was resolute, “Police are there for a reason! There will be laws to punish them!”
“Then what is the use of kung fu?” Gu Fei was distressing. He hated how he could not understand everything like his father, caught in a dilemma over the purpose of kung fu.