Virtual World: Close Combat Mage Chapter 63-64

Chapter 63 – One Truth Prevails

“Did we mistake a regular wolfhound for the Werewolf?” Xiaoyu asked.

“That’s… highly unlikely,” Gu Fei believed that the chain quests’ complex design was something that the developers were very proud; hence, they would never incorporate such a ludicrous concept to any of those quests. Instead of being a real werewolf, it was actually a wolfhound with sentience? That was just plain silly.

“Let’s see if it has left any other trails of blood,” Gu Fei suggested.

“Good idea! We can catch up to it by following the blood trail!” Xiaoyu exclaimed.

“Uhh… It was scratched once on its claw. Wouldn’t it be too far-fetched for it to bleed that much?” Gu Fei rationalized.

“Who knows?” Xiaoyu asked rhetorically, as she began to search around once more.

As for Gu Fei, he stared intently at the few drops of blood on the ground.

The Werewolf was far stronger than what Gu Fei had anticipated. It was unusually fast and possessed high attack power. Gu Fei only managed to block its single attack even though he had tried his best. He had no chance of winning at all if he were to engage the Werewolf in a real fight. Ultimately, it was inevitable for there to be a gap in terms of strength between the bosses and players. Even if Gu Fei wanted to, he had no way of bridging the gap between them with his skills alone. The Werewolf would most likely be done with Gu Fei in just two or three strikes before he could even observe its attack patterns and grasp the loopholes within.

Still, why would such a powerful boss flee? Was a mere scratch on its claw all it took to frighten the ferocious Werewolf? This was far too ridiculous. Or was the Sacred Flames of Baptism that fearsome after being plated with silver? Was the Werewolf so stricken with terror once it noticed that the weapon had been coated with silver?

Evidently, the escape of the Werewolf was not something that it decided on its own. Rather, it was a scenario that the game designers had come up with beforehand. Gu Fei just happened to fulfill the condition that led to the Werewolf’s escape.

The ‘condition’ seemed to be injuring the Werewolf.

Just what kind of message was such a scenario trying to convey? Gu Fei could not fathom it at the moment.

“There’s no other blood trail,” Xiaoyu said disappointedly after searching the nearby surroundings through and through.

“Let’s go to where the village chief is, I have some more things to ask,” Gu Fei said.

“Is that so? Let’s go, let’s go!”

It was quiet over in Yeguang Village under the night sky. The NPCs that had earlier been roaming about were nowhere to be seen; instead, there were now houses with lit windows. Whereas the players were active inside the game twenty-four seven, the NPCs were bounded by their programmed daily schedule: being active at daytime and resting at nighttime. At times like this, telling who the humans and who the NPCs were was amusingly hard.

When they knocked on Chief Edwin’s door, he politely greeted them like how he always did. “Ah, Chosen Hero, you are here again,” Chief Edwin kept on addressing Gu Fei as the ‘Chosen Hero’.

“The Werewolf that killed Murphy… What does it look like? Does it wear anything on its neck?” Gu Fei asked.

“Oh, you’ll have to ask Mr. Adrian about that. He’s the guy who lives near the church, and the sole witness of that past incident. He heard sounds coming from the church that night, so he went over to investigate and witnessed the Werewolf killing Murphy. That poor man; he must have been traumatized,” Chief Edwin said.

“Mr. Adrian…” Gu Fei recalled him as the wealthiest man in Yeguang Village.

“Chief, where’s Murphy house?” Gu Fei asked again.

“It’s the third house by the woods. No one has gone there ever since he died,” Chief Edwin answered.

“Let’s go there for a look,” Gu Fei said to Xiaoyu.

Murphy’s house was actually very easy to find, as it was the only one with no lit windows among the houses. No one lived there ever since Murphy passed away.

As they drew closer to Murphy’s house, Gu Fei gently blocked Xiaoyu, who was behind him, and signaled her to keep quiet. He then carefully walked toward the house as he held Sacred Flames of Baptism in front of him.

Xiaoyu felt so nervous that she dared not exhale, although she was clueless as to what Gu Fei was doing. She only saw Gu Fei walking up to the door, sticking his ear on it as he listened for quite a while, and pushing the door open. Xiaoyu inspected her surroundings nervously before sneakily going inside along with Gu Fei.

Gu Fei had already lit up an oil lamp inside the house and stood near a bed, looking at a parchment in his hand.

“What is it?” Xiaoyu got close to him.

“Seems like a map to me,” Gu Fei answered.

“Treasure map?!” Xiaoyu felt thrilled.

“Too bad there’re no coordinates on it. It might be a little tricky to locate it!” Gu Fei said.

“Let me see it,” Xiaoyu took it.

“This right here is the main street of the village, and over here looks to be the church…” Xiaoyu pointed at the parchment with her quill and started to mumble.

“I know where it is!” Xiaoyu declared happily after a while. But when she turned around, she saw that Gu Fei was standing by the door and peeking outside warily.

“What are you looking at?” Xiaoyu inched closer to him.

“Shhhh…” Gu Fei gestured her to keep her voice down. Even though NPCs were currently outside, Gu Fei was not sure if ‘making too much noise’ would be one of the condition to cancel their current actions.

“Come on, let’s trail after them,” Gu Fei pulled Xiaoyu.

“I found the treasure spot!” Xiaoyu waved the parchment wildly.

“Really nice; we’ll go treasure hunting later. For now let’s trail these four fellows,” Gu Fei said.

“Why? Are they up to something?” Xiaoyu asked.

“Not sure… But I recognized the three among the four as the NPCs that kept on avoiding me. I have never seen the fourth guy before. They are definitely up to something,” Gu Fei said.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Xiaoyu excitedly said.

The four people walked silently on the main street of Yeguang Village, resting on their shoulders were something that seemed like shovels.

“Uh-oh, don’t tell me they’re going to dig treasures! Could they be planning to dig the treasure shown on this map?” Xiaoyu said.

“Didn’t you already figure out the treasure spot of that parchment? See if the path they are taking now leads to that treasure or not,” Gu Fei said.

“It’s not the right way,” Xiaoyu replied.

“Then, let’s keep on trailing them.”

The four NPCs eventually reached a little hill near the village. They disappeared somewhere in the middle of it after pushing away a layer of plants blocking their way.

“Look, what’s that?” Xiaoyu pointed at something.

“That’s a shaft…” Gu Fei answered.

“What are they doing inside?” Xiaoyu asked.

“How am I supposed to know?” Gu Fei replied.

“Shall we take a look?” Xiaoyu suggested.

“Don’t be so hasty! Let’s wait until morning before going in. They’ll surely leave in the morning,” Gu Fei said.

“How do you know that?” Xiaoyu asked.

“These NPCs need to be in their position inside the village during the day,” Gu Fei answered.

Xiaoyu looked at the time, “There’s still more than an hour left!”

“Then, let’s go through the spot that you’ve figured out earlier,” Gu Fei said, “Where is it?”

“The woods behind Murphy’s house.”

The two returned to Murphy’s house and entered the woods behind it. Xiaoyu led the way with the parchment in her hand, looking around and finally stopping under a tree. “It’s here,” Xiaoyu pointed.

“This iron shovel is well worth the money,” Gu Fei mumbled as he took the iron shovel out and began digging.

“Treasure chest! Treasure chest! Treasure chest!” Xiaoyu chanted as she saw the pit got dug deeper and deeper. However, what appeared in the end was not a treasure chest but a burlap sack.

“So heavy!” Gu Fei grabbed the sack with his two hands, yet he was still unable to pull it out from the pit he had dug.

“Allow me,” Xiaoyu came forward. The burlap sack was pulled out from the pit as she lightly grabbed on to it. Once again, Gu Fei felt depressed at the sight.

The two were stunned as they opened the burlap sack and looked inside.

“Gold?” They looked at each other.

Xiaoyu took out the small bag of gold ore from her own quest. She compared a piece of gold from her bag with the one inside the burlap sack.

“They look so much alike!” Xiaoyu remarked.

“Mr. Adrian, huh?” Gu Fei was deep in thought.

“Let’s return this gold to him. There must be a reward,” Xiaoyu felt delighted.

“Did you receive a quest related to this sack of gold?” Gu Fei asked.

“No.”

“Then, why would there be a reward when there’s no quest?” Gu Fei stated matter-of-factly.

“What are these gold ore for, then?”

“I’m thinking that it might be an important aspect of my chain quest,” Gu Fei was feeling vexed, “Things just go on and on. I am tired; let’s take a break!”

“Where to?” Xiaoyu asked.

“The village Inn should still be open for business. Let’s head there to rest and wait until morning,” Gu Fei said.

The two headed to the Inn. It was a game after all, so there was no such thing as ‘closing time’ for the system-operated shops.

“Order any drinks you want. It’s my treat,” Gu Fei said.

“I feel sleepy all of a sudden… I’m taking a nap,” Xiaoyu lay down on the table as soon as she finished speaking.

Gu Fei randomly ordered a glass of drink. While drinking on, he pondered about his chain quest…

Two groups of village NPCs treated him differently;

Traces of a fight in front of the church;

Murphy’s strong yet unknown fighting capabilities;

The missing corpse of Murphy;

The Werewolf that fled from just a light injury;

Murphy’s hidden sack of gold;

And finally, the NPC villagers that went to a shaft late at night.

There must be a story timeline that could explain all these events clearly, which would display the chronological order of the entire storyline behind the ‘Eddie’s Mission’ quest. Gu Fei doubted that everything could be solved by simply finding the Werewolf and killing it. Currently, Gu Fei had an idea of what he was supposed to do. He just needed to wait until morning. The whole thing would be revealed once he made sure of a few crucial things.

Meanwhile, Ye Xiaowu who had been observing Gu Fei as if he was watching a movie was utterly blown away by how Gu Fei carried out his quest.

From what Ye Xiaowu observed, Gu Fei was roaming about in front of the church when he suddenly ran off to unearth Murphy’s grave. Ye Xiaowu still did not know whether Gu Fei had figured something out or simply taken a wild guess.

He actually managed to fend off the Werewolf’s assault… He’s only at level 30! A mere slap from that Werewolf can kill a level 30 player….

If the situation continued to unfold at the current pace, Gu Fei might be able to achieve a completion rating of 90% or above for his chain quest.

Completion rating. This was how the game measured how well a player did for a chain quest; this same criterion was used to determine the value of the final reward for players as well.

Killing the Werewolf? That was only one of the many ways to complete the chain quest. For example, if Ye Xiaowu was the one doing the quest, he could complete it simply by going to where the Werewolf was and killing it with a single blow. This was because he knew the whereabouts of the Werewolf. However, he would get the lowest completion rating and the worst kind of reward.

The way to get the highest completion rating was to unravel the entire storyline behind the chain quest and leave no stone unturned, presenting everything clearly.

This was akin to a standalone game with multiple endings; every ending could be considered clearing the game and beating it, but only one true ending would be considered as the perfect ending.

As the great kid detective Conan once said, “One truth prevails!”

Chapter 64 – Werewolf or Wolfman?

Gu Fei drank liquor all by himself. The sight of Xiaoyu sleeping deeply closeby induced drowsiness in him. Eating and drinking in Parallel World was truly just a sensory experience; the players’ real bodies would not be affected by consuming anything in-game at all. Although sleeping in-game slightly eased the tiredness of a player’s body, sleeping in reality was the only way for a person to recover fully from fatigue. Therefore, sleeping in-game when players were feeling tired was ill-advised, as going offline and simply getting into a real bed would be much better.

Looking around, Gu Fei discovered that the Inn was empty. Yeguang Village not only was far from Yueye City but also lacked any ideal grinding maps nearby. These factors explained why hardly any players could be seen resting in the Inn. Gu Fei and Xiaoyu had made several rounds in the Inn and all they saw coming and going were NPCs and more NPCs.

Sleeping in the game was not a solution, but staying awake was not good either. Out of boredom, Gu Fei stood up and began practicing his bladework in a corner of the Inn. He got out his magic staff and practiced his techniques for it. He ended his practice session with a set of hand-to-hand combat moves upon seeing that the sky had finally brightened.

“Wake up! Wake up!” Gu Fei nudged Xiaoyu.

“Is it already morning?” Xiaoyu still looked somewhat sleepy.

“Yup,” Gu Fei answered.

“Lemme just lay down for five more minutes…” Xiaoyu collapsed back onto the table again.

“Quest,” Gu Fei reminded.

“Let’s go, let’s go! Time waits for no man!” Xiaoyu immediately perked up. She got up from the table and said to Gu Fei, “Look lively!”

The two left the Inn and headed to the hillside where they had ended their tailing last night. Since they had noted the coordinates before, the two managed to locate the shaft easily despite everywhere around them looking identical. Seeing that there was no one around, Gu Fei pushed off the large mound of vegetation that hid the shaft’s entrance.

The shaft’s pathway was not as large or as complex as Oolong Cave. In just a few steps, they found themselves in the deepest part of it in what looked like a big room. Gu Fei picked up the bits of loose rocks on the ground and touched the walls.

This medium-sized shaft was actually a gold mine. The gold ore that Mr. Adrian had given Xiaoyu and the sack of gold ore that they had found behind Murphy’s house seemed to have originated from this place…

This mine shaft and the sack of gold ore at Murphy’s place… Were they all related to Mr. Adrian?

Gu Fei had not forgotten that Xiaoyu’s gold ore quest involving Mr. Adrian was unrelated to his chain quest. Gu Fei and Xiaoyu being together, as well as Xiaoyu obtaining the quest that had led to Gu Fei’s discovery of Mr. Adrian’s secret gold mine, was purely coincidental. If all these serendipitous events had not occurred, Gu Fei would never have connected Mr. Adrian to the gold mine here.

“What’s this?” As Gu Fei was pondering about those events, Xiaoyu found an urn in a corner of the shaft.

By the time Gu Fei walked over, Xiaoyu had already unsealed the urn. She grabbed a handful of the grayish powder within and showed it up to Gu Fei.

Gu Fei narrowed his eyes, “These are bone ashes.”

“Bone ashes?” Xiaoyu felt shocked.

“The cremated remains of a person or animal,” Gu Fei said as he mentally prepared himself for Xiaoyu’s inevitable scream as she threw the urn away.

But Xiaoyu remained unaffected, merely asking, “Whose is it?”

“Only one person is dead in this village,” Gu Fei hinted.

“So this is Murphy’s?” Xiaoyu asked.

Gu Fei nodded his head, “Someone dug out Murphy’s corpse and burned it into ashes.”

“Why would anyone do that?” Xiaoyu asked.

“Maybe… Murphy is a Werewolf,” Gu Fei surmised.

“Ah? So Murphy did not get murdered; he actually committed suicide!” Xiaoyu concluded.

Gu Fei laughed as he shook his head, “Various questions could be answered if Murphy was truly a Werewolf. This would explain how he was able to trade blows with another Werewolf, and why the villagers do not know about his fighting capabilities. This would also explain why his buried remains were dug out to be cremated.”

“What does that mean?”

“According to western folklores, a lycanthrope corpse can transform into a zombie vampire. Someone must have cremated his remains to prevent that from happening,” Gu Fei explained.

“So who cremated him?” Xiaoyu asked.

“His kin. Only a lycanthrope kin would know of Murphy’s real identity and would worry about his corpse transforming,” Gu Fei answered.

“Could that kin be the same Werewolf that had killed Murphy?” Xiaoyu wondered.

“Perhaps. But finding his cremated remains here proves something,” Gu Fei stated.

“What?”

“All those who come to this mine to extract gold ore are Werewolves. I suspect that the villagers that have been avoiding me are actually Werewolves,” Gu Fei deduced.

“Ha! See, I told you!” Xiaoyu said smugly.

Gu Fei showed her a forced smile, “You’re really smart.”

Xiaoyu felt overjoyed, “Told you I’m a quest expert!”

“No kidding!”

“So what’s our next move?” Xiaoyu asked.

“This bunch of Werewolves is living among humans and seems to have no intentions of hurting them. Their goal here seems to be this gold mine. This shaft isn’t large, so it can probably fit in four people at once when they’re mining. I assume that four of them come here to mine gold ore every night. Murphy must have harbored ill-intention that prompted him to secretly stash away some gold ore for himself. The others probably killed him upon discovering what he had been doing. I think that’s the gist of things,” Gu Fei explained.

“Werewolves are truly greedy creatures…” Xiaoyu commented.

“With so many Werewolves, I don’t think this quest wants me to kill all of them off. There must be another way to resolve this,” Gu Fei said as he pondered about it.

“Like what?” Xiaoyu queried.

“I’m not sure yet… We’ll decide our next step after identifying the Werewolf that assaulted us yesterday,” Gu Fei answered.

“You know who it is?”

Gu Fei laughed, “I managed to cut its right hand back then. Since my silver-coated Chinese broadsword has the additional trait of nullifying regeneration, that Werewolf’s wound won’t recover so soon. This must be a method that the system gave me to locate the Werewolf!”

“So anyone whose right hand bears an injury is the Werewolf?” Xiaoyu asked.

“That’s right.”

“Then, let’s go!”

After covering the shaft’s entrance, the duo headed back to the village.

The NPCs in the village were all at their designated positions. Gu Fei hesitated; he did not know how the NPCs would react if he suddenly grabbed their right hands one by one to check for a wound. After a moment of contemplation, Gu Fei decided to be sneaky about conducting his inspection instead. Fortunately, Parallel World’s NPCs had a habit of gesturing with their hands while talking. As Xiaoyu engaged these NPCs in a conversation, Gu Fei used that opportunity to observe their hands from the sidelines.

In the end, the villagers that had been avoiding Gu Fei, whom he suspected to be Werewolves, did not sport a single wound on their right hands.

“How can this be…” Gu Fei was dumbfounded.

“Did we miss anyone?” Xiaoyu asked.

Gu Fei had asked Chief Edwin for the total population of Yeguang Village. By his current estimation, they had not missed anyone. Each of these NPCs was out in broad daylight!

“Let’s go look over everyone, then!” Xiaoyu suggested.

“Looks like that’s the only way,” Gu Fei listlessly accepted Xiaoyu’s dumb recommendation.

The last bunch of villagers responded to Gu Fei. But after going through these NPCs, not one of them had a wounded hand.

“Why is that Werewolf so hard to find?” Xiaoyu asked in frustration.

“Now, only one person is left…” Gu Fei stated.

“Who?”

“Mr. Adrian,” Gu Fei replied. Everyone in the village was bustling about the place, except for Mr. Adrian who had not left his mansion by the church.

“Oh, yeah!” Xiaoyu nodded, “He has gold ore as well. Anyone who has that is a Werewolf!”

“That might not be the case. He’s the wealthiest man in the village. He might just have bought the gold ore from the Werewolves. Let’s go find him before we speak more of this.”

As soon as the two arrived at Mr. Adrian’s mansion, Xiaoyu, who had gotten used to them visiting people’s houses, immediately knocked on the door. However, no one answered.

Is that NPC not at home as well? Gu Fei felt annoyed.

“Maybe he’s in the cellar in the backyard,” Xiaoyu said.

When they arrived in the backyard, they saw that the cellar doors were locked tightly. Mr. Adrian could not possibly be inside.

Just as they were about to return to the front door, Gu Fei and Xiaoyu coincidentally saw Mr. Adrian returning home from being out. Gu Fei hurriedly called his name.

“Oh, Chosen Hero,” The wealthiest person in the village sure was different, treating Gu Fei with utmost respect unlike the other villagers.

“I heard you saw the Werewolf that killed Murphy,” Gu Fei began.

Mr. Adrian’s expression immediately showed fear, “That was truly a terrifying night.” Saying so, he started describing the spine-chilling appearance of the Werewolf.

“Is Murphy dead by then?” Gu Fei asked.

“Yes, that poor lad,” Mr. Adrian sighed.

“Did you see how the Werewolf killed him?” Gu Fei pressed on.

“No. He is already dead by the time I arrived. The Werewolf left very quickly, too,” Mr. Adrian answered.

Gu Fei thanked him, which Mr. Adrian very happily accepted. He stepped aside to let Gu Fei and Xiaoyu be on their way.

“His right hand doesn’t seem to bear any injury,” Xiaoyu said.

“No,” Gu Fei nodded. He was feeling downcast, having not expected this method to fail. Nevertheless, he had gleaned some new information after exchanging words with Mr. Adrian.

Murphy would have to transform into a Werewolf for him to fight with another Werewolf. Therefore, he should still be in his lycanthrope form when he died. Instead, Mr. Adrian and the villagers who hurried over saw a human corpse? No one could cause a Werewolf to change his form besides the Werewolf himself.

Meaning, Murphy had known that he could not defeat the other Werewolf, so he used his remaining strength to turn back into a human being instead. He would rather die than let the villagers find out his identity as a lycanthrope. What was the meaning of this? Was it out of kindness? Was he abandoning his inner darkness? Or was he a wolf with a man’s heart? Did that mean he was actually not a Werewolf but a Wolfman?

“THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING!” Gu Fei bellowed toward the sky. This chain quest had left him mentally exhausted. Just when Gu Fei thought he had made a breakthrough discovery, he realized that he was not on the right route at all.

He looked ahead and saw a lone NPC right before him. It was the same NPC that had sneakily mined gold ore last night. G*dd*mn*t! What’s the point of beating around the bush with a bunch of AIs created by the system? Questing is all about triggering the right condition through repeated attempts, right? At most, I will just die. What’s the big deal about that? With such a thought, Gu Fei stepped forward boldly and pointed at the guy in front of him, “Hey, you!”

The NPC immediately looked as if he wanted to flee.

“I saw you digging gold ore,” Gu Fei went straight to the point.

The NPC’s expression immediately changed and he suddenly turned around to escape.

“Stop!” Gu Fei hollered as he happily gave chase. See? Sometimes, it’s very easy to trigger the next event.