Virtual World: Close Combat Mage Chapter 57-58

Chapter 57 – Escape

Youthful Reflection knew that he had been fooled, yet he did not know when it had started. Had this trap been set up by the Masked Slayer upon entering Oolong Cave and realizing that some players were still after him? Or had he planned to direct pursuers over here from the start?

“Can we push it open?” Youthful Reflection asked.

A Thief, who had already given up on pushing the plate upward, shook his head sadly.

“Who’s left outside?” Youthful Reflection looked at the other four with him.

“Royal God Call. He didn’t jump down,” someone replied.

“He must have been killed off by that guy,” Youthful Reflection assumed as he sighed deeply.

“He’s still killing players despite having 15 PK points?!” someone asked in astonishment.

“It’s PRECISELY because he has 15 PK points that he’s not reluctant to add one more point!” Youthful Reflection replied.

“Something’s off. The guild tab shows that Royal is still at level 30; this means that he hasn’t died,” someone voiced out his discovery.

“Quickly message him!” a few of them shouted.

“I’m not dead. He slashed me once, locked the iron plate, and ran off,” Royal God Call messaged back.

“Locked?”

“Yup. The entrance has a padlock, which he locked. How am I going to open it?” Royal God Call asked.

“Since the Masked Slayer can open this passageway’s entrance, it means that he has the key. Quickly get someone to chase after him!” Youthful Reflection yelled. He then frantically spread the word on the guild channel about the Masked Slayer’s location in Oolong Cave.

At this moment, Gu Fei and Royal God Call just exited Oolong Cave.

“That ‘Ahh!’ you cried out earlier isn’t good,” Gu Fei commented.

“Yeah? I thought so, too. I almost burst out laughing back then, and it nearly turned into ‘Ha!’ You think this is easy for me?” Royal God Call asked cheekily.

The two followed the mountain path leading down and a few figures appeared into view near the forked road.

“How was it?” Brother Assist immediately asked as soon as the two were within earshot.

“Of course everything’s OK!” Royal God Call felt pleased with himself.

“Hmph. Youthful Reflection is still far off from being able to match wits with me,” Young Master Han laughed coldly. His face darkened when he faced Gu Fei, “Why didn’t you follow the exact coordinates I’ve set for you?”

“Are you kidding me? The coordinates you set were either a huge sinkhole or on a stalagmite; how am I going to stand on that? Are you trying to get me killed on purpose?” Gu Fei retorted.

“Alright, there’s no time. Let’s get to the next step of our plan!” Sword Demon interjected.

Once Sword Demon mentioned this next step, Gu Fei became a little teary-eyed, “Can I not go?”

“No. You have to go!” Young Master Han sounded resolute.

“Hey, are you thinking of pranking me once more?” Gu Fei expressed his suspicion.

Young Master Han replied icily, “This is definitely the best method to escape from those who are hot on your heels. Everyone will definitely stop chasing you if you run along this path through the Oolong Mountain Range.”

“How much longer until the coordinates refresh?” Brother Assist asked.

“Nine seconds,” Gu Fei answered.

“Time to go!” Brother Assist patted him on the back encouragingly.

“Good luck!” Sword Demon came forward and patted him as well.

“You can do it!” Royal God Call also joined in and patted him on the back.

“Mhmm!” War Without Wounds did not say a word beyond a purposeful nod.

“Scram!” Young Master Han felt irritated just by looking at Gu Fei’s face.

“I’m off!” Gu Fei saw the coordinates refresh and immediately ran down the mountain path.

“He won’t meet anyone else along that road, yeah?” Royal God Call muttered.

“Definitely not,” Young Master Han said confidently, “The coordinates he left in Oolong Cave fooled everyone into looking for him on the other side of Oolong Mountain Range. They’ll need at least ten minutes to get to our current position.”

“That’s not right,” Royal God Call cried out, “Why will it take them ten minutes? Miles has his coordinates updated every five minutes!”

“Mmhmm. They’ll be searching around the first coordinates for five minutes, before discovering that the coordinates have been updated. And then, they’ll proceed with haste toward the second coordinates. They’ll actually need twelve minutes,” Young Master Han corrected his previous deduction.

Royal God Call felt confused, “And what about the third coordinates?”

Young Master Han had a pained expression, “If they move toward the third coordinates before even reaching the second coordinates, they’ll simply come to the mountain’s dead end after four minutes….”

“And then what’s next?”

“Next? They can only turn back….”

“But by then, Miles will be on his fourth coordinates.”

“Exactly,” Young Master Han nodded, “But they still have to go back to the second coordinates before they can carry on chasing after him. Not even I can calculate how much time it will take them to run back and forth like this. They’ll have my utmost admiration if they still persist on pursuing him at that point.”

“That’s terrible!” Royal God Call sighed.

“Others have it way worse,” Young Master Han lifted his thumb and pointed back to the cave’s entrance some distance away, “Those guys will be looking for Gu Fei using the coordinates in Oolong Cave… You can’t really blame me for being excessive, right?”

They turned and watched the Traversing Four Seas’ reinforcement march under Oathless Sword’s command up the mountain path toward them.

“Oh, yeah! I still have to lead those guys to where the trapped Youthful Reflection and company are and save them,” Royal God Call suddenly remembered.

“Do you have the key?” Brother Assist asked.

“Nope,” Royal God Call answered.

“Then, where’s the key?” everyone asked.

“It’s in the secret passageway,” Royal God Call replied.

“In the secret passageway?” They were all puzzled.

“Yeah… Miles said he had thrown it in there,” Royal God Call said.

“So how are you going to get them out?” Only the honest Sword Demon was thinking about this problem.

“I don’t know… I am only going in there once more because I am kind of obliged to do so. Come to think of it, I think I might have forgotten the way to the secret passageway already,” Royal God Call said as he waved to the four men, “I’m going there now.”

He then rushed down the mountain path after saying goodbye to them. As he ran down the path, he shouted, “Guild Leader! Bad news! Reflection and the rest are trapped in an underground tunnel!”

“Let’s leave, too,” The four began to make their way down as well.

“I wonder where that road leads?” Brother Assist asked inquisitively, referring to the path Gu Fei had just taken.

“You can ask that to Miles when he returns,” Young Master Han said lightly.

“Can Miles bear to stay online for thirty hours? He usually plays Parallel World for three or four hours at most,” Brother Assist asked.

“That’s his problem,” Young Master Han replied.

“Hope there won’t be any issue…” Brother Assist said.

“There won’t be!” Sword Demon was confident.

“Mhmm!” War Without Wounds nodded.

“Our group won’t be accepting any requests until Miles returns. Take a vacation, everyone. You’re on your own for the time being!” Young Master Han said.

Gu Fei was running quickly along the Oolong Mountain Range at the moment. The mountain road was rough and wide, with the mountain sheer on the left and a cliff on the right. A cloud-like mist hung in the air on the road in front and behind him. No monsters for Gu Fei to kill could be seen on this road, making the entire trip rather boring. Gu Fei decided to increase his pace in the hope of immediately reaching a new map where he could grind in.

News spread in Yunduan City an hour later, stating that the various players, groups, and guilds had returned to the city one after another. They all declared their intention to abandon the ‘Bounty Mission’. A lot of these players suffered from short-term trauma as a result of their recent experience. Whenever they heard positions being called out with numbers, they would immediately go catatonic. Some even suffered a more severe case of trauma, where they would snap easily whenever people in the taverns called certain table numbers aloud.

Traversing Four Seas had it the worst. They did not even catch a glimpse of the Masked Slayer after searching all over Oolong Cave and were rather helpless regarding that rusted padlock. Youthful Reflection and the four players with Agility-based physiques, who had been trapped in that cramped tunnel for quite a while, decided to make their way to the other end of the passageway in the hope of finding an alternate exit. What they discovered there was the Mountain Bandit Leader Sooto’s lair, and what happened afterward was more or less expected.

This nightmarish experience was made even more unbearable by the series of events that followed. Just as Youthful Reflection and the four were sent back to the spawn point, Oathless Sword announced on the guild channel: The Henchman guarding the passageway had respawned and was successfully beaten. They now had the key and could free Youthful Reflection and the rest who were trapped inside… Meanwhile, the other guild members searching for the Masked Slayer deep within Oolong Cave were all wiped out by the bandits that Sooto had summoned over upon getting into a fight with Youthful Reflection and company. By the time the players of Traversing Four Seas left Oolong Cave, they were all physically and mentally worn down.

Gu Fei carefully read the news that the other mercenary group members had sent him, while making his lonely way through the mountain range. Suddenly, Gu Fei spotted the blurry outline of a humanoid figure in the fog just ahead.

“Finally! A monster has appeared after walking for so long!” Gu Fei felt excited. He limbered up his body and pulled out Flames of Baptism from his dimensional pocket as he charged forward.

Gu Fei began to see the silhouette more clearly as he drew nearer. He had yet to recognize the figure, but the sack that the person was carrying looked surprisingly familiar.

Gu Fei deduced the person’s identity after getting close enough, and he took the piece of black cloth off his face.

“Xiaoyu?” Gu Fei probed by calling out her name.

The Warrior with the sack turned around. Who else could it be but Xiaoyu?

“Miles!” Xiaoyu was equally shocked,” What are you doing here? Are you on a quest?”

“Uhh… Yes, quest! I’m definitely on a quest!” Gu Fei nodded with relief. He was thinking of how he should answer Xiaoyu’s question, yet she had actually given him the answer to it.

“Oh, are you headed to Yeguang Village?” Xiaoyu asked.

“Yup!” Gu Fei casually replied, all the while wondering inside where in the world that place was.

That’s wonderful! So am I!” Xiaoyu said.

“Is that so? That’s great…” Gu Fei said.

“Shall we go there, together?” Xiaoyu asked.

“Let’s,” Gu Fei answered.

“What quest are you doing?” Xiaoyu asked.

“Oh, ‘Eddie’s Mission’,” Gu Fei replied offhandedly.

“What sort of quest is that?” Xiaoyu felt curious.

“Um, it’s a chain quest,” Gu Fei replied.

“CHAIN QUEST?!” Xiaoyu exclaimed, “You got a chain quest?!”

“Uhhh… I got it by chance,” Gu Fei did not know how to explain properly how he had acquired the quest.

“I’ll help you!” Xiaoyu declared.

“Eh, well… I’m still not sure how to proceed with it, so I’m just trying things out by going to Yeguang Village,” Gu Fei said.

“Of course chain quest won’t be easy to accomplish! But now that I’m here to help you, there’s nothing to worry about! I am a quest expert, after all!” Xiaoyu thumped her chest as she said this.

Chapter 58 – Crossing the Oolong Mountain Range

Gu Fei decided to consult the self-proclaimed Quest Expert, Xiaoyu, “Do you know what kind of quest ‘Eddie’s Mission’ is?”

“Every chain quest is unique. Obviously, I wouldn’t know anything about yours, you dummy!” Xiaoyu said.

Gu Fei felt very aggrieved. Was there anything worse than being called a dummy by such a klutz?

“But I do know of a quest called ‘The Kidnapped Eddie’. Not sure if yours and that are related, though,” Xiaoyu thought aloud.

“Tell me more about it,” Gu Fei requested.

“The wandering hero, Eddie, had been ambushed by the Mountain Bandits while passing through Oolong Mountain and was imprisoned by their Mountain Bandit Leader Sooto. Find a way to save him,” Xiaoyu recited.

“Oh? Have you accepted that quest before?” Gu Fei asked.

“Nope! I just heard about it in passing. No one has managed to finish it because nobody knows where Eddie is being kept!” Xiaoyu said.

“It’s in Sooto’s hut!” Gu Fei blurted out.

“How do you know that?” Xiaoyu questioned.

“The Eddie from my quest is the same Eddie that you just mentioned. Of course, I’ll know where he’d been hidden,” Gu Fei reasoned.

“Oh! New info! I better write this down,” Xiaoyu dropped the sack in an instant and took out a little booklet with a quill pen from her dimensional pocket. Gu Fei moved closer and saw Xiaoyu write on the booklet: Eddie is in Sooto’s hut.

“Uhh… Sooto’s hut. Was Eddie inside his bedroom?” Xiaoyu suddenly turned around to ask Gu Fei this.

“That… Must be!” Gu Fei answered.

“Why did he keep Eddie in his bedroom?” Xiaoyu thought aloud, “Were there some untold secrets between those two?”

“Oh, maybe,” Gu Fei said.

“Something like Brokeback Mountain?” Xiaoyu widened her eyes.

“Perhaps!”

“You think so, too?” Xiaoyu was visibly elated.

Gu Fei did not comment further, as he saw Xiaoyu conscientiously write down another line of sentence at the corner listing Eddie’s information. He noticed that she ended it off with: He has an affair with Sooto.

“Alright! Let’s carry on,” After writing all this, she put away the booklet and lifted the sack once more.

“What’s in the sack?” Gu Fei patted it lightly.

“Food,” Xiaoyu replied.

“Food?” Gu Fei felt shocked.

“I don’t know how long it’ll take to get to Yeguang Village, so I brought some food in case I get hungry along the way,” Xiaoyu stated matter-of-factly.

Players would definitely feel hungry after staying in Parallel World for long periods of time, yet the hunger they felt in-game was actually them feeling hungry in reality. Naturally, one would have to consume actual nourishment – and not in-game food – in reality to satiate this hunger. All the in-game food only served the purpose of recovering HP and replenishing Endurance while a player rested.

And even if the food would come in handy, there was no need to bring a whole sack of it! A whole sack of food… Gu Fei reckoned that the food supplies could last them through an expedition if they were careful with their food consumption. However, he was doubtful that this so-called Yeguang Village would require them to travel as far as twenty-five thousand miles.

“It’s not just food! There’s also water. Are you thirsty? Want to drink some?” Xiaoyu immediately followed up Gu Fei’s query with an invitation, placing down the sack to retrieve some water for him.

“No thanks. I’m not thirsty,” Gu Fei hurriedly stopped her.

In a flash, the two had walked for an hour, and they pretty much exhausted every possible conversation topic out there. Conversing with Xiaoyu was actually difficult. For instance, Gu Fei had to give her three minutes to process a joke he had just told; in that time, he would have already forgotten the point of telling the joke. And when it was Xiaoyu’s turn to tell a joke to Gu Fei, he could not find anything funny about it at all. This was because it would always go along this line: “I have a friend. One day, he walked into a tree—HA HA HA HA HA….”

Xiaoyu would burst into peals of laughter before she even finished telling the joke. Gu Fei could only eke out a fake smile at this.

Nevertheless, no trip, no matter the distance, would be too tiring if a person was accompanied by someone. As long as there was someone to share the experience, foolish or not, it would be comforting enough.

Through their concerted effort, they finally got past the Oolong Mountain Range. Rolling plains, wildlands, hills, and forests were displayed before their eyes, much like what players of Yunduan City would expect to see when they left its borders. Gu Fei looked at the time and realized that it had taken them almost three hours to get through the Oolong Mountain Range. Of course, once he had realized that he was no longer being pursued by people from the city, he matched his pace with Xiaoyu’s and no longer madly dashed forward.

But the sight of monsters ahead was what truly pleased Gu Fei. Young Master Han and the rest’s plan for him was exactly this: escape into a place where there would be monsters but had few players roaming about. Gu Fei would then grind there for up to thirty hours and would only return to Yunduan City once he cleared off all the PK points.

Gu Fei had originally thought that there would be monsters along the Oolong Mountain Range, yet all he encountered were clouds of mist. Although he had the company of a lady through the foggy environment, she was someone who had claimed to be his ‘brother’. Hence, there was not even a hint of romance in the air. Gu Fei truly felt that he had been done some injustice by making him cross the mountain path for three hours.

Gu Fei’s hands were already itching for a fight. He rushed forward after taking out the Chinese broadsword and slashed deeply into the monster, killing it instantly. The monster was obviously low level, as it had been insta-killed by Gu Fei’s attack without the additional fire damage proccing.

“This can’t be right!” Gu Fei muttered to himself. Basic gaming logic dictated that the further players went from cities like Yunduan City, the better the grinding maps would be. And yet, he found himself in the opposite situation in an unknown distant place after spending three hours to pass through the Oolong Mountain Range… Could things GET any more depressing?!

“Why are the monsters over here so low level?!” Gu Fei complained to Xiaoyu.

Xiaoyu did not hear Gu Fei’s words as she was busy looking into the horizon while mumbling, “Where is Yeguang Village?”

“Do you know?” Xiaoyu turned her head and asked Gu Fei.

“I’ll – I’ll help you ask!” Gu Fei felt impressed by Xiaoyu’s boldness to spend three hours crossing the Oolong Mountain Range without knowing her actual destination. Thus, he decided to help her out by asking around.

Gu Fei pulled up his friends’ list. He knew someone who had an even greater information network than Brother Assist – the BONAFIDE Information Expert, Fleeting Smile.

“Are you there? I’ve got something to ask you,” Gu Fei began.

“I am a scrupulous gaming employee…” Fleeting Smile stated immediately.

“Is this an auto-reply?” Gu Fei asked.

“No….”

“Why do you always say that line, then?!” Gu Fei bemoaned.

“Because you know my real identity,” Fleeting Smile answered.

“You revealed it yourself!”

“Should I silence you for good and leave no traces behind, then?”

Gu Fei was left speechless, not knowing how to reply to such a question.

“What’s your question? I’ll tell you if I can,” Fleeting Smile finally relented.

“Oh, do you know the way to Yeguang Village? It’s just pointing out which way, so it’s okay for you to reveal it, right?” Gu Fei asked.

“So you’ve found a clue for that chain quest?” Fleeting Smile remarked.

“What clue?” Gu Fei was puzzled.

“…I didn’t say anything,” Fleeting Smile replied.

“How do I get to Yeguang Village? You can’t even tell me that?”

“It’s pretty far; first, you have to pass through the Oolong Mountain Range,” Fleeting Smile answered.

“I’m past that.”

“Wow. It must have been tough for you to run that far!” Fleeting Smile commended Gu Fei.

“…Where do we go from there next?” Gu Fei asked.

“Next? Find someone and ask that person. The players over there should have an idea!” Fleeting Smile said.

“Players? There are players here?” Gu Fei looked all around him and saw no one.

“You’ve just passed the mountain range, yeah? It’s still far from the capital city. Head in the northwest direction and you’ll reach Yueye City. The players in that city definitely know how to get to Yeguang Village,” Fleeting Smile instructed.

“If it’s this far from this region’s city, why is the monsters’ level so low?” Gu Fei questioned.

“Ornamental; those monsters are just ornamental. Who’d be bored enough to run in that direction?” Fleeting Smile asked rhetorically.

“Alright, thanks!” Gu Fei got the answer he wanted.

“No problem. But I’ll remind you of something,” Fleeting Smile added.

“What?” Gu Fei asked.

“‘Bounty Mission’ is valid throughout the entire gaming server. That means players from Yueye City can see your serial number 27149 on their Wanted Players list. Since it’s indicated that you’re a player in Yunduan City, nobody will bother to accept the mission. But that’s not a guarantee, don’t you think? So try to be careful,” Fleeting Smile warned.

“Aren’t you going against the rule here?” Gu Fei teased.

“This isn’t going against the rule. Anyone who seriously reads the introduction regarding ‘Bounty Mission’ will know of this. Just treat me like a conscientious player,” Fleeting Smile replied.

“Much thanks, then. I’ll treat you to a drink when I get back to Yunduan City,” Gu Fei promised.

“You’re welcome.”

“Alright, that’s all. I’ve to go,” Gu Fei closed the conversation window.

“G*dd*mm*t. My tongue slipped…” Fleeting Smile muttered to himself. He was currently in Yunduan City, having not stopped monitoring Gu Fei’s activities. He had even passionately followed Thousand Miles Drunk’s hunt for No Smile yesterday. Actually, the progress of Gu Fei’s chain quest was what he had specifically been monitoring.

Chain quests were a major feature of Parallel World. The design team had sacrificed a copious amount of their brain cells to conceive, sequence, and create each one of those chain quests. Hence, Fleeting Smile and the rest of the R&D Department considered them as their magnum opus. Just thinking about the potential events and plot twists that could happen in a single chain quest had them beside themselves with anticipation. Upon learning that Gu Fei had gotten a chain quest, Fleeting Smile immediately checked the data files for it and committed the possible permutations this randomly generated quest could have into his memory. However, the actual owner of this quest, Gu Fei, had yet to make any progress on it at all.

The sense of anxiety that gripped Fleeting Smile’s heart was akin to creating a masterpiece that no one could appreciate or care. Therefore, Fleeting Smile had instinctively shown elation upon hearing Gu Fei’s question about Yeguang Village. He assumed that Gu Fei had managed to find the clue to continue the quest. Alas, that was not the case, and his blunder actually provided Gu Fei information instead. Fleeting Smile instantly felt miserable when he recalled this and could only hope that Gu Fei had not noticed.

However, how could the quick-witted Gu Fei not notice Fleeting Smile’s slip of the tongue? As he and Xiaoyu made their way toward Yueye City, Gu Fei carefully digested that bit of information.