Virtual World: Close Combat Mage Chapter 3

I’ve gotten chapters 1-7 from Logaste Translations so I’ve edited the terms used and posting them here for easier reading.

Translated by: Quentin

Edited by: Sietse (Valici)

Chapter 3: Small Test of Skill

Parallel World! After hearing a few male students discussing this VR online game that was about to be released during lessons that day, Gu Fei had suddenly found hope.

He knew what VR technology meant. Even if one was unable to fully display one’s abilities in the real world, all taboos should be off in a game, shouldn’t they? He had bought the entire set of VR equipment on that day and had then locked in his class as a Brawler, a fighter that nimbly utilises every single part of the body when advancing in battle. In view of this class description, Gu Fei had already determined that this was the most suitable class for him.

It was only a pity that due to Ah Fa’s small blunder, he became the weakest and gentlest class in the game as well as the class that was the least suited for close quarter combat: a Mage.

Initially, he was completely disheartened, but after experiencing that scene with the four Knights just now, he had already come to the realisation that the difference in class attributes in the game was only relative to the class skills in the game. To him, he was tantamount to possess a full set of class skills already. As long as he added skill points according to his own skills, it actually did not matter which class he was.

Naturally, if he was a Brawler, the added bonus in attributes from this class would definitely be more suitable in developing his own style of Kung Fu. However, it did not imply that there was not one good point about being a Mage either. Finally, he came to terms with becoming a Kung Fu Mage!

A groan broke his contemplation. That chap in the corner was currently struggling to get up.

“Teacher!” Ah Fa did not dare to advance forward. He raised his head and looked at Gu Fei.

Gu Fei quickly walked over and helped that person up, “How are you feeling?”

“I’m alright! I’m alright!” That person stood up and inhaled deeply. Even though there were injuries on his face, there was a transparently intellectual air about him. It was not surprising that such a refined and gentle person would be chosen as a target to bully. Gu Fei and Ah Fa supported the man all the way to the side of the fountain located at the center of the plaza and sat him down. That person turned around and scooped up the water in the fountain, wiping his face twice after which he seemed to be much more energetic. He then turned his head around and directed a smile toward Gu Fei, “Nice to meet you. I am MortalSmile.”

Gu Fei heard this and immediately understood that this was the other party’s in-game name. Following which, he immediately announced his own ingame name, “ThousandMilesDrunk”. This name was another move made by his student, Ah Fa, and made him look like a drunkard, leaving him slightly depressed. The two of them shook hands and as for Ah Fa, one glance at him and one could tell that he was still a child. Mortal Smile immediately overlooked and disregarded his presence.

“This is the first time that virtual reality technology is used in an online game. We already knew since early on that a few unexpected accidents would occur. However, who would have known that such things would actually happen?” MortalSmile stretched his neck and said.

“Oh? Hearing you speak, you seem like a staff member from the game?” Gu Fei said.

Ah Fa was roused with vigour. He could be considered as a senior online gamer. This name, Game Master (GM), was as though it implied boundless benefits. It could range from as small as revealing some non-public information to as big as helping to get ahold of high grade equipments. If one did not encounter this kind of staff member that was contrary to professional ethics, the players absolutely despised and condemned them; however, once players encountered the GMs, they then wanted to enshrine and worship them like they were their fathers.

MortalSmile nodded toward the sky and said, “The Beta version of Parallel World has barely started and we already received reports today saying that there was such a group of newborn players relying on the game’s disparity in class stats to beat up Mages and other such classes. I then entered the game to take a look myself, but I didn’t expect to be beaten up myself.”

“How are you going to deal with this matter?” Gu Fei asked.

“I still do not know.” Mortal Smile replied. “We have to see how the Technology Team sets things up. The game actually has quite a lot of problems. It seems like we are still a ways away from charging an official operation fee for the game and still need to go through a period of time to fix countless issues before we can do so.”

Seeing as MortalSmile constantly raised his head and looked at the sky, Gu Fei and Ah Fa also followed suit and raised their heads, looking over. It was still drizzling and in the blink of an eye, their faces were wet with rain. “Could it be that this chap is still washing his face?” Gu Fei whispered to himself, hanging his head down.

“What are you two looking at?” Unexpectedly MortalSmile was the first to ask that question.

“What are you looking at?” Ah Fa asked in reply.

“Little brother, I can’t stop my nosebleed!” MortalSmile said.

The duo was speechless. After quite some time, MortalSmile hung his head down and rubbed his nose, saying, “Alright, I still need to stroll about elsewhere. How about you guys?”

“I am going to go and level up!” Gu Fei replied. In that moment, he was already itching to know whether this weak Mage body could bring out his Kung Fu abilities after distributing the skill points gained through levelling up.

Ah Fa, on the other hand, hesitated for a moment before he looked at MortalSmile and said, “I want to follow you for a stroll.”

MortalSmile smiled and said, “Little brother, I am but a self-regulated GM. You should not hope to get any benefits from my end.”

MortalSmile had seen through Ah Fa’s intentions. Which instantly caused the latter’s face to turn bright red from embarrassment while he bashly said, “I don’t have that desire. I only want to follow you in the game to familiarise myself with it.”

“Then, let’s go!” MortalSmile showed an emotionless smile and turned around, asking Gu Fei, “Do you also want to come along and familiarise yourself with the game as well?” He intentionally emphasized the word “familiarise”, causing Ah Fa’s face to turn even redder.

“There is no need to. You guys can go without me!” Gu Fei waved his hand in the duo’s direction.

Gu Fei who had parted ways with the other two could not wait any longer as he rushed out of Cloud City, sprinting straight for the closest levelling area.

The levelling area in the periphery of the city where players spawned were always of the lowest grade and that was in Parallel World no different. Even the monsters were nothing new. They were cats, dogs, rabbits, and etc., that looked very good-natured. All of them looked like the animals that were in reality a human’s best friend. Moreover, due to the utilisation of VR technology, the small animals were made to be even more vivid and realistic and were extremely cute. What made matters worse was that these small low-levelled monsters were unable to fight back and even the small pekingese could only whimper out dejectedly after being slapped once.

After kicking some dog twice, Gu Fei really could not raise a hand against it anymore. He surveyed his surroundings and many players had hesitation filled in their eyes. A few player steeled their hearts and viciously laid a murderous hand on these small monsters. However, after receiving the despicable gazes from everyone in the area, the attacking players also could not help it but to stop. Most of the players in this levelling area were foolishly standing about as they stared at the small animals running and jumping about. The small animals were even rubbing against the leg of the players’ trousers as a show of affection.

“How are we going to level up this way!” A male player threw the small animal in his hands onto the ground and said as he let out a long sigh.

“That’s right, we have no way to level up! They really are too cute.” After a female player put away her weapons, she grabbed a rabbit in her hands and rubbed it against her face. She said in a very angry manner, “How did this game company go about their planning! Why did they make the small monsters in this beginner levelling area so cute!”

Everyone was in a lively discussion, talking all at once as they announced their dissatisfaction toward the game’s production. After Gu Fei grumbled about the same matter along with a few other players beside him for a while, he walked away alone. Even if he was unable to launch an attack here, wouldn’t it be alright if he just changed location?

Honestly speaking, he was also not interested in fighting hand-to-hand with animals. The Kung Fu that he practiced since elementary school was meant to be used against humans. He had also never learned which crucial part he should attack when he encountered a dog. Even though this did not imply that he could not even be compared to a dog, he felt that using the Kung Fu he was so proud of to deal with a dog was really unworthy of his many years of blood, sweat, and tears.

He continued walking along the main road and was gradually getting further and further away from the city behind him. The view before his eyes was already that of continuous and unending mountains that seemed to endlessly extend in the distance. The cute cats, rabbits, and dogs had already vanished from his sight. Eventually, he crossed over the top of a small mountain and looked down. The area below looked like a valley, yet it also looked like a basin. In short, there was a bonfire that was burning with raging flames in the region below the hillside. A few chaps with disgusting-looking faces were surrounding the bonfire as they tried to nap, seemingly feeling bored to death.

At a glance, Gu Fei determined that these chaps were not players, but NPCs. That was because even if they were sextuplets, they would not go so far as to have exactly the same height, build and manner of dressing.

NPCs with human appearances were precisely what Gu Fei was looking for.

“They should be monsters designed as leveling tools for the players, right?” Gu Fei thought to himself while heading toward this small bunch of people.

The six of them were sitting around the bonfire and it was only natural that they were observing the six pathways. Gu Fei should have actually been discovered long ago with him standing atop the hillside. However, the six vagabond NPCs had only jumped up in a rushed and muddled manner after waiting for him to approach them from a certain distance away, as though they had been in hibernation before. Having awoken, they pointed toward him and shouted out in excitement.

Gu Fei clearly heard them say, “Wow! A fat sheep has arrived! Quickly catch him!”

If this was an online game in the past, speech bubbles would be floating above the NPC’s head at this time. However, now that VR technology was being utilised, actual voices had replaced the speech bubbles.

With extremely uniformed movements the six of them rushed up. The speed with which they ran after Gu Fei was also exactly the same, leading to not even the slightest of change in their formation.

They had even stopped talking shit as the one at the forefront stabbed toward Gu Fei while holding a small butchering knife in his hand. Gu Fei dodged out of the way and brandished a fist at him, hitting the NPC straight on.

This time, it was different from the fight with those people in the city. Due to the PK protection, other than the pain experienced from the VR simulation, there was no other gains or losses from punching someone. However, even if the physical attack was from the weakest Mage, this punch would still cause injuries in a battle with monsters.

After eating Gu Fei’s punch, this NPC only swayed before a small butchering knife, that was close to rusting, pierced in Gu Fei’s direction again. He quickly dodged this attack and quickly after sent another fist flying.

The six NPCs launched a besiegement altogether. Gu Fei was handling a butcher’s cleaver with ease as he shuttled amongst them. From time to time his punches and kicks landed on the other party’s body. He did not know exactly how high the levels of these six vagabond NPCs were. However, this battle was even easier and duller than the ordinary brawl with the four players just before.

He was already slightly disappointed with the VR technology. In his opinion, the simulation had now produced a scenario with a very strong sense of reality. However, these kinds of small NPC monsters still possessed that distinctively low AI that other online games had. In his eyes, that repetitive and monotonous method of attacking was practically no different from not attacking at all. Moreover, the NPCs completely did not understand how to actively dodge the player’s attacks, relying only on the statistics of landing a hit on the player and the player dodging their attack to operate.

It was only a matter of time before they were knocked down. Gu Fei started to consciously allocate his punches between the six chaps. After repeating this motion for a few minutes, a NPC finally let out its last bellow that was filled with discontentment and collapsed. Following closely after with three punches and two kicks, the five remaining NPCs were also overturned on the ground. In the meantime, Gu Fei was continuously flashing. Surprisingly, these small monsters of unknown grades had helped him ascend straight to Level 6!