Virtual World: Close Combat Mage Chapter 53-54

Chapter 53 – Slayer!

“Ah! Mr. King of Slayers, you’re back! Please have a seat!” Royal God Call jumped up and offered his seat to Gu Fei.

Gu Fei ruffled his hair and laughed, “That’s a good boy.”

“Oh! That’s quite the pile of coins you’ve got there!” As Gu Fei sat down, he finally noticed the pouches filled with in-game currency on the table.

“How do you think we should split these, Miles?” Young Master Han asked nonchalantly, yet the glint in his eyes betrayed his ulterior motive. All were relatively acquainted with one another by now. Everyone had felt awkward about Gu Fei’s acquiescence to split evenly the reward for the last mission. Right now, however, they had no such qualms and would wholeheartedly accept it if Gu Fei suggested the same thing again. No one sitting in this room was a pushover – well, except for Sword Demon who occasionally displayed naiveté. Very aware of this fact, Young Master Han had been attempting to signal Sword Demon with his eyes of his intentions, yet Sword Demon neither showed any sign of comprehension nor even spoke a word.

“Oh? What do I think?” Under everyone’s gaze, Gu Fei started to count with his raised fingers, “Our target was No Smile, whom we killed ten times. I killed him eight out of those ten times, and Sword Demon killed him twice. I suppose I should get eight out of the ten money pouches, while Sword Demon should get the last two!”

“Mmhmm, not bad. I support this!” Sword Demon nodded sagely.

“Support your mom’s head!” Young Master Han spat.

“Using eye contact to conspire is so passé,” Gu Fei mocked Young Master Han, “We used private chat instead.”

“F*ck! You b*st*rds!” Young Master Han continued to curse at them.

“Alright, calm down. Let’s just split these coins evenly. We’ve all had a long day,” Gu Fei said generously.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Royal God Call pounced like a hungry tiger on its prey, snatching away two pouches of gold coins. The others followed suit as well. Gu Fei felt a great sense of accomplishment once more, as well as astounded by July and the ladies’ affluence to afford such a large payout.

Considering the amount of RMB1 that players had to pay when purchasing goods at the Trade Exchange and the sum that they could earn from the items sold at the Auction House, the price for a single in-game gold coin was about 10 RMB. Since the game was still in the early stages, the amount of gold coins available on the market was relatively low.

It was not easy for pay-to-win players to save up on gold coins either. This was because players would usually sell high-grade equipment at the Trade Exchange. Therefore, players who bought these pieces of equipment with real-world currency would still have a hard time trading them for in-game gold coins due to their high prices.

Reaching 1000 gold coins in savings on such economic market conditions could already be considered as impressive. To do so, players would have to use real-world currency to purchase lower-grade items that others could afford and slowly sell those cheap items in exchange for the in-game gold coins; hence, an awful lot of perseverance was needed to accomplish all the necessary trades.

By the time Gu Fei’s thoughts returned to the present, not one money pouch could be seen on the table.

“Hey, where’s my share?!” Gu Fei slapped his hand on the table.

“That’s weird. Where is it?” someone said.

Brother Assist, the self-proclaimed Information Expert, quipped, “There’re six of us here, and there’re only ten coin pouches—”

“Pour all out and split them evenly!” Gu Fei demanded.

“You can’t completely divide one thousand by six!” Everyone showed an awkward expression. Gu Fei was just about to act when Young Master Han suddenly said, “Nope, everything’s split correctly.”

“Are you kidding me?! How did I end up with not a coin, then?!” Gu Fei demanded.

“Have you forgotten?” Young Master Han unhurriedly explained, “You spent 200 gold coins here drinking last night, which is coincidentally your share of today’s payout. I’ve already footed the bill for you.”

“200 gold coins? Miles, what the heck did you drink?” everyone asked in surprise.

“That’s not right! Brother Assist and I drank four glasses of liquor yesterday. The cost should only be—eh? Where did Brother Assist go?” Gu Fei looked around for him.

“This matter must be settled properly. I’ll go bring him back!” War Without Wounds stood up and left.

Yet nobody returned in the end. Royal God Call slapped his thigh and said, “Ahhhh! Those two sly foxes must have planned this from the beginning! I’ll go and drag them back!”

When Royal God Call exited the room, Young Master Han got up as well, “You guys are far too churlish! Get back here immediately!” He stepped toward the door and was about to leave when a sudden wave of heat seared near his face. Young Master Han immediately dodged backward and saw Gu Fei’s Flames of Baptism blocking the doorway.

“Nice sword!” Young Master Han chuckled.

“Today, I killed No Smile eight times,” Gu Fei stared at his Chinese broadsword and said, “Using NBA terms, not only am I heating up, I’m practically at my peak condition.”

“I don’t believe you would dare kill me,” Young Master Han said nervously.

“Of course, I wouldn’t. But don’t expect to leave today without handing over my portion!” Gu Fei said.

“Fine!” Young Master Han sat back down, “I’m not going anywhere. Do you think my nickname, Drinking Addict, is just for show? Ray, bring me a round!”

“The most expensive one! It’s on Young Master Han’s tab!” Gu Fei added.

“Come at me! Get me two bottles!” Young Master Han hollered.

Ray swiftly swooped by with two bottles of liquor. It was not often that he could get this sort of business.

Two bottles totaled to 240 gold coins at 120 gold coins each. Young Master Han tossed the money pouches and laughed uproariously, “Now I’m poor as well. Let’s see you do something about that! Ha ha ha ha ha! Come, let us go head-to-head without backing down! We’re both paupers now!”

Gu Fei smiled faintly, and reached out swiftly with his hands. The two bottles of liquor, which had just been served on the table, were now tucked close to his chest.

“What are you doing? Take them all for yourself? That’s far too dishonest!” Young Master Han said.

Gu Fei flashed a beaming smile. Ray had already collected the payment and was about to leave when Gu Fei’s hand stretched out to hold him back, “Hey, Ray. How about I sell you these two bottles for 200 gold coins?”

Ray was stunned, and so was Young Master Han.

“Won’t you make such a lucrative deal?” Gu Fei said as he flashed Ray his pearly whites.

Ray smiled back as he dropped two money pouches on the table. Gu Fei deftly caught them and placed the two bottles into Ray’s arms.

“I’m off!” Gu Fei saluted Young Master Han and fled at top speed.

“F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!” Young Master Han cried in anguish, as if he had just awoken from a nightmare. Players outside the room heard his moaning and asked, “Hey, Ray. When did your bar start providing sexual services?”

“Forget about it!” Sword Demon consoled Young Master Han, “Let me buy you a round.”

“That’s my pal!” Young Master Han patted Sword Demon on his shoulder, “Ray, get me your most—”

“Nope! Not the most expensive one!” Sword Demon stabbed his dagger on the table as he slowly said, “Two bottles cost 240 gold coins. I don’t have that much.”

“Get us two bottles of your second most expensive liquor instead!” Sword Demon shouted.

At night, Young Master Han, the legendary Drinking Addict, was alternating between weeping and drinking, as he lamented, “He’s a real slayer, alright!”

Gu Fei went back to grinding levels after leaving the bar. Just like before, his rhythm was heavily affected by the Flames of Baptism’s uncontrollable fire damage proc rate. Since the monsters were different from the people who had been ordered to capture him alive back then, he experienced many close encounters whenever the monsters mobbed him.

Gu Fei only had to change weapon to resolve this issue, yet he did not do so. For him, this was another chance to hone his kung fu further. He did not possess a well-trained body in the game like in reality. Gu Fei’s reaction speed, Strength, and other factors were purely decided by the game’s algorithm, so his training in Parallel World largely focused on the mind.

For instance, what was the ideal course of action when dealing with different fighting scenarios? Should he counter or dodge? If he countered, which opponent should he target? If he dodged, which direction should he go? All of these required Gu Fei to determine the correct path to take in a split second. When provided with a myriad of possibilities, how would he choose the best course of action? Some people would say that it depended on instinct. Although this answer was correct, it was only partly. This was because there were actually two kinds of instinct: innate and acquired.

In any case, Gu Fei would never dare consider himself as a consummate genius. A situation like this was hard to come by in reality as well, so the least he could do was to accumulate all these experiences diligently.

“Eyes on the hands, hands on the eyes.”

The word ‘eyes’ actually referred to instantly perceiving, judging, and deciding the best course of action in a fight. This aspect could be trained in reality and in the game, yet Gu Fei never had many opportunities to experience actual combat in real life.

As for the ‘hands’ aspect, Gu Fei could only continue honing his body in reality. All was truly simpler in games, as everything depended on stat points and equipment.

Gu Fei’s efficiency at killing monsters had dropped right now, so a slight negligence on his part could lead to his death. If this were another player, he or she would most likely stop grinding under such harsh conditions.

But Gu Fei was different. His reason for entering this VRMMO varied from the average gamer after all. For Gu Fei, the value of having high-intensity mental training was greater than leveling faster and acquiring more stat points.

The damage Gu Fei could deal right now was too unbalanced. Thankfully, his past monotonous fighting tempo was adapting little by little to Flames of Baptism’s 30% fire damage proc rate, making his fighting seem more alive, fluid, and unpredictable.

Naturally, such evaluation was just from Gu Fei’s perspective. Instead of continuing to dance with death like Gu Fei, any regular player would have simply chosen to fight the monsters one by one or changed equipment.

Gu Fei grinded like this for an hour or so before ending today’s gaming session.

The legend that he had created lived on, however.

By the time Gu Fei ended his hunt of No Smile, the matter had already made its way to the game forums. Everything had been put onto the forums from the start of his hunt to his last kill. Everyone animatedly discussed the Masked Slayer’s way of hunting his victim and ability to drop his target’s level by ten in just a few hours. Many formed different opinions.

Those fervent PvP fanatics naturally approved of Gu Fei’s actions; their judgment could be summarized into a word: COOL!

As for those worrywarts, they felt immense anxiety about this event. They saw the Masked Slayer as a terrorist that fostered violence, treating the entire game as a PvP field! They were distressing about matters that did not need distressing, such as how the event would cause the game company’s turnover rate to drop.

Of course, a majority of the players were simply joining in on the fun and never truly thought deeply about it. All they knew was that today’s hunt only ended after No Smile had gone offline. Thus, they were waiting with bated breath for the hunt to resume tomorrow.

At any rate, the players were very clear about two facts.

First, the Masked Slayer was immensely formidable. Rumors said that he was a Mage who had used close-combat techniques to kill a Thief – a legendary achievement, indeed.

Second, No Smile was really stupid. Everyone knew that No Smile was being hunted and that he was no match for the killer. But rather than hid offline, he had stubbornly faced the Masked Slayer, causing him to lose ten levels – truly the epitome of stupidity.

Chapter 54 – The Trouble that PvP Brings

Gu Fei was immediately assailed by fatigue after going offline. A regular player would never consider Gu Fei’s daily gaming schedule as tiresome, so it could be said that his time online today had been very fruitful.

The nonstop hunting of No Smile and the Flames of Baptism’s demand for utmost concentration had mentally drained Gu Fei by several folds. He felt spent once he had slightly eased his nerves after leaving the game. It’s truly tough to be an online gaming pro! Gu Fei thought of Sword Demon and the rest who spent most of their time playing the game, regardless of whether it was day or night. Their bodies could not compare to Gu Fei’s since they were all nerds, yet their ability to focus on the game for a whole day was admirably beyond him.

Gu Fei did not rush to get online today after a full night’s rest. Instead, he casually browsed the game’s official forums.

He might be an undeniable combat expert in-game, yet his online gaming knowledge was amateurish at best.

Flames of Baptism effectively boosted his attack power, as well as provided him with an interesting training material, yet its additional fire damage’s erraticity had posed quite a danger to Gu Fei. Hence, he was now searching for a method to raise the trait’s proc rate by 100%. If Gu Fei could do that, he would surely become a consistent, high-attack fighter.

Unfortunately, Parallel World’s players were currently more focused on researching about the traits concerning the status effects, such as the Slow effect of ice damage, Paralysis effect of electric damage, and so on. Not much attention was given on researching a trait that could only cause fire damage. As for equipment traits that dealt additional magic damage, the consensus was for players to choose poison damage instead of fire damage. This was due to the lack of stats that would affect magic for close combat job classes. Poison damage was dependent on the equipment itself instead of a character’s magic affinity, and it had the additional advantage of reducing the target’s HP even after completing the attack. Moreover, a decent weapon with poison damage could easily exceed the potential of a weapon with fire damage.

There was also another important reason: A weapon’s additional magic damage trait could only be activated through normal attacks. Conversely speaking, the additional magic damage on weapons would not proc when a player incorporated skills into his or her attack. While this might not matter during a normal monster grind, it was a different case when it came to PvP or boss battles. This was because skill usage was essential in achieving victory in those fights. Thus, items with only additional magic damage trait had lower market prices, as they were pretty much considered as trash by players.

No one would naturally bother researching about those garbage items. Gu Fei searched pages after pages of the game forums but still came up with no useful information. All he found was that besides weapons with magic damage trait, accessories like rings, necklaces, and emblems had the probability of containing the same trait as well.

The in-game equipment was separated into nine categories: weapon, helmet, body armor, belt, shoes, couple rings, necklace, and emblem.

The fact that Gu Fei’s two fingers and neck had remained empty despite grinding on monsters for this long was proof that the drop rate of these accessories was very low. Gu Fei’s straw hat and shoes were not actually terrible; they were just not suitable for Mages, which was why Young Master Han and company had constantly criticized and pointed their uselessness.

After a quick check, Gu Fei learned that he could buy accessories that increased the proc rate of fire damage. He decided to purchase some at the first opportunity, as well as conventional equipment to remain unnoticeable to others.

Gu Fei left the forums after checking the items he planned to purchase. It was then that he spotted the forums’ sticky thread – Yunduan City’s Close Combat Mage: ‘A few steps to kill a man, and a few miles to pursue a target. Disappearing once everything ended with his name and identity.’

Gu Fei’s heart tightened as he clicked to view the thread. Just as he thought, it was a report about his hunt of No Smile throughout Yunduan City yesterday.

The players, who had kept their ears to the ground, managed to dig out almost all the relevant information about the incident. However, that was not the crux of the matter; the emphasis was on the process in which No Smile had been hunted. All the information was collated from various eyewitnesses’ accounts. As the perpetrator, Gu Fei judged the data to be largely accurate.

There were two main discussions that developed regarding the matter.

The first discussion was about the moral implication of the Masked Slayer’s action. This was a hot topic that had started during the live broadcast of yesterday’s forums. Gu Fei briefly glanced at the various opinions posted on the forums and then dismissed them altogether. He did not feel a shred of guilt toward killing No Smile.

No Smile swindled July first. When he was later defrauded by the professional con-artist Xi Xiaotian, she had done so of her volition and not because of July’s siccing. Later on in Parallel World, the wretched No Smile coincidentally became Gu Fei and the mercenary group’s latest target after he had harassed July. Gu Fei had destroyed No Smile with a clear conscience, so the vitriol about his actions that littered the forums did not affect him at all.

The second discussion was about his fighting prowess. The news that a Mage had hunted and killed a Thief through close-combat techniques was definitely astounding to hear. Naturally, the online players did not idle around once they had witnessed the fight. A link was immediately posted on the forums that directed players to a different thread that focused on analyzing Gu Fei’s expert moves.

Quite a number of players must have used Appraisal on Gu Fei back then, since the post even displayed a complete list of his equipment.

But the thread digressed for a bit, as everyone speculated on where Eddie’s Emblem came from. Its ability to increase each of the five different stats by 6 points for a total of 30 points made it an accessory with the highest stat-point boost out of all the available in-game items.

Gu Fei gulped when he saw this. Thankfully, he had seen this thread; otherwise, the Masked Slayer’s true identity would be discovered with Eddie’s Emblem alone. July and the ladies had probably used Appraisal on him before, so he would immediately be exposed if they stumbled upon this thread.

However, it was unlikely that the girls would divulge this. Gu Fei clung to that thought at this moment. If it is revealed… Gu Fei could not deny how troublesome it would get, as he thought back to the string of players that had chased after him all over Yunduan City.

Gu Fei calmed himself down as he continued to read on. The discussion finally returned back to the thread’s main topic several posts afterward, and the players began to discuss Gu Fei’s battle skills. Through the details provided by the many onlookers, Gu Fei’s online persona was easily deduced: an Agility-based Mage who possessed a weapon with additional magic damage trait. A combination of his swift movements and the said trait had allowed Gu Fei to almost instantly finish off the low HP Thief No Smile.

Many experts analyzed the character in greater detail afterward, resulting in nonstop arguments over their varying opinions. Gu Fei noticed a certain post by a user called Cunning Eye.

This user claimed that Gu Fei had managed to slay No Smile purely by chance. No Smile was a Strength-based Thief, resulting into him losing to the Agility-based Mage Gu Fei. The Thief job class had low HP to begin with, so No Smile had not withstood the physical damage and weapon’s fire damage of the Mage. Had he been someone else with higher HP, stronger defense, or faster speed, the outcome would probably be different. Only a few players wore magic resistant armor right now. If No Smile had had magic resistant equipment at the time, the additional fire damage dealt by Gu Fei would be greatly weakened.

Cunning Eye mentioned a detail that nobody had noticed as well. Although No Smile was killed ten times, No Smile’s first death, when he was still at level 30, had not been witnessed by anyone; his second death, when he dropped to level 29, had actually been caused by a Thief. Meaning, the Mage only started to hunt No Smile after the latter had dropped two levels. Did that mean that the Mage might not have the confidence to kill No Smile off when the latter was at his peak?

This analysis was logical and made complete sense, provided that it was applied to an average player. Unfortunately, Cunning Eye neglected to account for the fact that Gu Fei knew kung fu.

Backed by his kung fu, Gu Fei had made short work of No Smile in every engagement with just two or three slashes. This truth was hardly noticeable to anyone but supreme experts.

After reading all the replies to this post, Gu Fei felt somewhat disappointed. He had originally expected this post to completely research Gu Fei’s character, yet it was just like all the other posts. A discussion that descended into an argument, becoming a match of insults and curses that was ultimately left unsettled. It seemed Gu Fei had to research himself the best way to make the Mage character fit his expectations.

After leaving the forums, Gu Fei went online.

The first thing he did once he had gotten online was to take off Eddie’s Emblem. He had gained too much unwanted attention while assuming his Masked Slayer persona. My identity will get exposed if a bored individual on the street decides to use Appraisal on me, Gu Fei thought. He quickly made his way to the Auction House, intending to quickly buy a new set of equipment to change his image completely.

However, the Auction House was a little strange today. Gu Fei could not use any of the services, and the NPCs working there ignored him completely. Despite repeatedly trying to communicate humbly with the NPCs, they remained oddly indifferent. He felt beleaguered by what was happening. Suddenly, someone tapped his shoulder from behind, “What’s the matter, Miles?”

Gu Fei swiftly turned around and saw Brother Assist. He fortunately came across this expert here. He quickly relayed what had just happened and asked Brother Assist about it.

Brother Assist stared at him in shock, “We’re thinking about how crazy you were yesterday. Don’t tell me you didn’t know about the game’s PvP rules?”

“What is that?” Gu Fei curiously asked.

Brother Assist hurriedly explained, “In Parallel World, anytime you kill a player, you will accumulate one PK1 point. At 1 PK point, only certain NPCs will refuse to service you, and death will result into you dropping two levels. Once your PK value reaches 10 points, NPCs throughout the city won’t do business with you, and death will cause you to drop three levels. If your PK value reaches 20 points, NPC guards and patrolling soldiers will arrest you on sight; death will reduce your level by four, while getting captured reduces your level by two plus jail time. At 30 PK points, NPCs will just execute you on the spot, and death will drop you by five levels.”

“So what should I do?” Gu Fei was stupefied.

“Right now, you should be below 20 PK points. You can just turn yourself in and sit in the jail; every hour you’re jailed will lower your PK point by one! Alternatively, you can drift about outside the city. The PK point will get reduced by one for every two hours you spend outside,” Brother Assist explained.

“Who’s going to choose to stay in prison?! So what if I can’t buy things. That’s no big deal,” Gu Fei said.

Brother Assist nodded, “I’m afraid there’s another important matter you’re not aware of.”

“What?”

“There’s a sort of quest in Parallel World called ‘Bounty Mission’. This mission refreshes daily, and its target is players who have accumulated PK points. It can be done alone or with a mercenary group. They will be rewarded according to the PK points of their target. After your strong display yesterday, there’s no doubt that you will be at the top of the Wanted Players list today.”

Gu Fei was dumbfounded. He did not expect that fighting online would be this troublesome