Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

On his right was Gu Fei holding a raised sword, and on his left was Sword Demon gripping a dagger firmly. Nightmare of Death’s back was against the wall, while his friends lay sprawled on the ground before him after having been pushed off the rooftops. Over a dozen despicable Hunters stood on the rooftops; each acted as if he was a Sharpshooter, arching a bow with nocked arrow at Nightmare of Death. What was even more infuriating, though, was how some of them had the audacity to yawn and say, “It’s boring to just shoot him!”

Nightmare of Death addressed the cheeky Sakurazaka Moony who was among the players on the rooftops, “What’s the meaning of this?!” He currently felt no resentment toward Gu Fei as all his contempt was concentrated on Sakurazaka Moony.

Sakurazaka Moony flashed him a cheeky smile, “Do you now understand what ‘trap’ means? Placing a trap on the ground for a target to step on is just tasteless. As an expert trapper, it is essential for one to have a good grasp the target’s mindset. Placating the person to obediently deliver himself or herself onto the set trap, that is the embodiment of ‘trap’.”

“Shameless!” Nightmare of Death contemptuously spat upon hearing this.

Sakurazaka Moony merely maintained his cheeky smile.

“Drunk bro, what’s this guy’s story, anyway? How did he offend you?” Fireball asked, standing at a distance.

“He’s one of those equipment-looters,” Gu Fei simply explained to everyone.

“Oh!” everyone finally understood the situation. Gu Fei or Sword Demon must have been targeted by this man.

Everyone was immediately up in arms, “Where did you hide the equipment you looted? Get all of them out and we’ll spare your life.”

“Tsk!” Nightmare of Death cared not for his life. Besides, he simply had no way of handing the looted equipment. Adopting a heroic posture, he disdainfully glared at them all.

“Just kill him; I’ll chase after him later to complete my ‘Bounty Mission’,” Gu Fei said.

“Why don’t you head over to the spawn point and wait for him there?” Sword Demon asked.

“It’s fine; I can easily catch up to him, anyway.” The two were clearly disregarding Nightmare of Death’s existence by discussing this matter in front of him.

“Xiaocan¹, have it out with them!” Nightmare of Death’s two friends butted into the scene at this moment. The two, who had also been played like a fiddle, could no longer stand for Nightmare of Death to be treated so lowly by the players around them.

Gu Fei was just about to engage the two into a fight when he heard Nightmare of Death yell out, “They have nothing to do with the matter between us! They’re just some friends I’ve asked for help at the last minute; come at me, instead!”

Gu Fei felt stunned. He did not know if Nightmare of Death was telling the truth, but his two friends were already on them, one targeting Sword Demon and the other striking at Gu Fei. Even if the two were uninvolved, Gu Fei and Sword Demon would not just passively take in their attacks and lifted their weapons to actively defend themselves.

The two’s skills were nothing to write home about, much less to the combat experts Gu Fei and Sword Demon. Sword Demon effortlessly blocked each strike as he glanced over to Gu Fei, searching for guidance on what to do in this situation.

“Don’t bother about me; you guys should run first!” Nightmare of Death tried making his friends flee.

“No! If you die, we’ll go down with you!” the two men answered firmly.

What strong loyalty... all thought to themselves. However, they soon blanched at the fact that such an admirable loyalty was actually found on their enemies, making them seem like the villains here.

“Man, even the bad guys in this day and age have such loyalty toward one another,” Sakurazaka Moony remarked.

This received his brothers’ derision, “Tsk! What are you pretending to be a good guy for?! Who are you trying to fool?!”

“That’s right! Moony doesn’t even have any sort of loyalty to begin with!”

“Hoes before bros!”

“Despicable! He forgoes loyalty as long as he can stand to benefit!”

“F*CK! You bunch of trash!” Sakurazaka Moony cursed. Soon after, the players on the rooftops were all hurling expletives at one another. Sakurazaka Moony was clearly on the losing side since it was him versus everyone else and suffered the unbridled castigations of all. In a bout of anger, he leaped down from where he was and pointed at Nightmare of Death, “Let me deal with this trashy person!”

Since he could not win the verbal war against his guild and mercenary group members, he decided to vent his frustration on the helpless Nightmare of Death. Besides, a target that was only wearing a flimsy shirt and pants was really easy to bully. Sakurazaka Moony had been wanting to try his hands on melee despite being an Archer.

“Look! That’s what I call despicable!” His brothers-in-arms saw through his intention and they began to ridicule him even more.

As Nightmare of Death’s two friends that were fighting with Gu Fei and Sword Demon were feeling unsure on how to proceed with all this, they suddenly heard Nightmare of Death shout, “Why would I let myself die at the hands of a b*st*rd like yourself?!”

With that, white light consumed Nightmare of Death and he instantly disappeared before them all.

Everyone on the rooftops was left mutely stunned by this. Meanwhile, the two pairs stopped their fight as they tried to wrap their heads around Nightmare of Death’s sudden disappearance.

“Eh? A Teleportation Scroll?” Gu Fei guessed from his shallow gaming experience.

“No. That’s not the same light produced by the use of a Teleportation Scroll.” The veteran gamer Sword Demon naturally had a better grasp of what had just happened.

“That... That...” Sakurazaka Moony’s gaming experience was not something to scoff at, either; he stood there unmoving for a while before saying, “That looks like the light produced when someone forcefully logs off!”

“Forcefully logs off?” everyone gasped in surprise.

“Wow. What a real piece of work!” the players on the rooftops began conversing once more.

“This is totally Moony’s fault! That guy would rather risk the penalty for forcefully logging off instead of dying by his putrid hands. He he he!”

“Moony, you should realize by now how much of a b*st*rd you are! You should find a spot to follow suit with him!”

“Without a b*st*rd like you, Yunduan City will become a utopia! Amen!” someone clapped his hands together for dramatic effect.

“F*CK*NG SHUT THE F*CK UP!” Sakurazaka Moony bellowed. He then directed his gaze on Gu Fei and Sword Demon, expressing his wish to inquire further. At the same time, he was feeling quite embarrassed, since Nightmare of Death indeed did shout about his unwillingness to die at his hands!

“Let’s forget about this, then!” With their main quarry evading them through such means, Gu Fei and Sword Demon had nothing left to say.

Nightmare of Death’s two friends were speechless for a while before suddenly launching themselves straight toward Sakurazaka Moony.

Sakurazaka Moony who was clearly taken aback by this sudden turn of events was currently left defenseless. With the two fully geared melee players, only death awaited an Archer like him.

The brothers who had been ridiculing Sakurazaka Moony this whole time shouted their warnings as each of them nocked arrows and fired them toward the two. Nonetheless, Gu Fei was still the quickest to save Sakurazaka Moony. Chanting the incantation for the Blink skill, he appeared before Sakurazaka Moony with his sword placed accurately to receive the two enemies’ attacks.

It all happened so fast that Gu Fei had been unable to employ a clever technique to resolve the attacks. This act of defending was the first time he had directly used his Strength to face against a strike. Gu Fei knew what was going to happen to him. Between his and the enemies’ attacks, his meager Strength would be judged to be on the losing side by Verdict.

Since two people were attacking together, Gu Fei simply had no means by which he could stop their attacks, bumping right into Sakurazaka Moony when he got pushed back by the force of the blows.

Sakurazaka Moony’s build was also one that had meager Strength; the sudden, forceful bump of Gu Fei immediately caused him to lose his footing and fall. This one fall had him grasping wildly in the air to regain his balance, which resulted into him grabbing Gu Fei and bringing the latter down with him as well.

Despite being pulled to the ground, Gu Fei maintained his vigilance for any incoming attacks. In the next instant, however, a rain of arrows peppered the two men to their deaths in a brilliant glow; their last attacks were only centimeters away from Gu Fei and Sakurazaka Moony.

These seasoned gamers naturally did not really feel guilty about killing off the two supposedly innocent players, since they saw their action as merely defending their own. At this point of time, they were looking on the street with worry etched on their faces and were saying to one another, “Moony didn’t seem to have reacted in time; he was totally lost back there.”

“Did today’s matter hurt his weak and fragile heart?”

“Oh, no. That guy’s forceful log off must have been psychologically damaging for Moony.”

“Quick! Find a chick to help mend the knot in Moony’s heart!”

“Ohhhh! Speaking of the devil....”

Once more, silence descended on the rooftops. As Gu Fei was helping Sakurazaka Moony up and asking if the latter was alright, he felt the strange atmosphere pervading the air around them. When he turned his head backward, he saw a lady standing rigidly by a corner and staring at them.

The embarrassment Sakurazaka Moony was feeling evaporated on the spot and got replaced by bliss when he also spotted the lady, happily exclaiming as he darted toward her eagerly, “It’s you! Why are you here?”

“Man, that’s Moony for you. Even his recovery is S-class!” everyone discussed.

“Or you can say that that babe’s a S-class healing salve to Moony.”

“He he he... Such a timely appearance, too. Could this be fate?”

Everyone expectantly gazed from the rooftops to the street, waiting for some sort of emotional exchange to occur between the two. Instead, the lady’s gaze passed through Sakurazaka Moony and landed on Gu Fei, “Why are you here, too? What are you doing here?”

“AHHHHHH!” All the players on the rooftops almost went mad.

“What’s going on here?! Does he know every woman in Yunduan City?! JUST WHAT THE HELL IS HIS BACKGROUND?!”

“Fireball, spit it out! Who’s that guy?!” everyone demanded.

“Tsk! How can a buncha virgin boys like you understand the depth that my Drunk bro has.” Fireball looked exceptionally pleased with himself.

Naturally, the lady who was down the street now was none other than Vast Lushness. Gu Fei glanced over to her, “Mhm. I had a sort of business here. How about you?”

“He he! I told you before that this is the shortest route to the log-off point by the Archer Range. Looks like you remembered!” Sakurazaka Moony felt very delighted.

Vast Lushness did not reply and merely turned her head, “I’m leaving.” She then continued to head toward the Archer Range.

“HAIL MOONY! HAIL MOONY! HAIL MOONY!” all the Hunters on the rooftops cheered by waving their bows toward him.

“The pleasure is all mine!” Sakurazaka Moony grinned widely and tidied his equipment before quickly chasing after Vast Lushness.

During all this, Sword Demon silently moved next to Gu Fei and asked, “Are they all your friends?”

Gu Fei looked at the sleazy men on the rooftops, not saying a word.

Chapter Notes:

[1] Xiaocan (pronounced as xiao tsc-an) - refers to Nightmare of Death.