Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

No one had expected such a torrential PK duel to have such an ending. Neither of the players had even pulled out their weapons, nor was there even a drop of blood spilled. The fact that the fight had actually ended when one of them bolted to leave because they had something to attend to left everyone flabbergasted. Not even the rumored fights that stopped at a certain point would be so abrupt.

Eternal Dominion and his men had left with such speed that the players still remaining could only shoot glares of dissatisfaction over to Gu Fei. He could not have cared less about that, turning to return to his own group.

Svelte Dancer had a look of disdain about her, and while VL was used to witnessing such high-profile fights herself, even she did not dare to admit she was an acquaintance of Gu Fei when she saw how this fight had gone down. Oathless Sword at least reacted a bit better, constantly saying, “Thank you for your hard work!”, even though he whispered otherwise deep down in his heart. Just what sort of drug did this killer that revels in PK from Yunduan City, renowned for his ruthless and cold-blooded ways, eat today to actually fight for such a long time with Eternal Dominion. They barely even exchanged any blows, yet they said so many words to one another; this is totally contradictory to the style of the slayer we’ve known all this while.

Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion had not shouted out their conversation when discussing their respective martial families, so the onlookers had no idea what the two men were talking to one another about. The only thing they took away from this encounter was the feeling that they had just witnessed a really sham of a duel.

“Guild Leader Oathless, I’ll be logging off now that the quest is over,” Gu Fei said to Oathless Sword.

“Hmm, didn’t you just say you wanted to clear your PK points?” Svelte Dancer questioned him. Gu Fei and she had originally planned to clear the points they had accrued fighting all those men just now, she found it strange that he had changed his mind so quickly.

“I just remembered I had something else to do,” Gu Fei said. “I’ll be taking my leave!”

“Take care!” Oathless Sword quickly replied. Gu Fei took several steps away from the group before Oathless Sword suddenly remembered something and quickly shouted, “Brother Miles, do you want us to wait for you before we set off back to Yunduan City?”

“There’s no need for that, you guys can go ahead!” Gu Fei shouted back. Now that the mercenary mission was over, there was obviously no need for everyone to set a time to meet up any longer. Gu Fei reckoned these gaming addicts would likely hurry their way back tonight, hoping to return back to Yunduan City so as to show off their status as a newly minted Level 6 guild.

Once Gu Fei turned to leave after bidding farewell to Oathless Sword, he saw Deep Waters and Coco still standing by the wall, the emotions on their faces similar to that of the crowd of onlookers that had gathered, obviously displeased with the outcome.

“Aren’t you gonna leave? Take care Svelte Dancer don’t come over and stab you,” Gu Fei said to Deep Waters as he passed.

“Tsk, I’m not afraid of her,” Deep Waters scoffed. What made Thieves like her so frightening was their ability to stay Stealthed. Someone who could counter Stealth like Deep Waters naturally did not put that despicable job class in his eyes, even if that person was Svelte Dancer.

“Are you two acquainted?” Coco looked at Deep Waters before glancing over to Gu Fei. She was a little uncomfortable with the fact that even though this man had slain many of their brethren moments ago, Gu Fei had actually came over and chatted with them like good friends, as if nothing had happened.

“Heh, not really, he’s just someone I’ve slain before,” Gu Fei said as he left.

Deep Waters ground his teeth angrily as he told Coco, “Look, bad friends are often bad influences to one another. Anyone who spends time with that a*sh*l* would all become equally detestable.”

“Is Sword Demon that detestable?” Coco asked.

“Uh, that’s why I’ve always said that Sword Demon was a man of talent,” Deep Waters said.

“Thank you for the compliment!” someone suddenly answered from behind him. Deep Waters hurriedly turned round and saw Sword Demon, Young Master Han, and the other members of Young Master's Elites, as well as Drifting and the other seven men walking over towards him. It was not just them alone, as the other players from Yunduan City had also come rushing along every possible path towards this street. It could not be helped, since none of them were even familiar with how to get here!

“Even Coco’s here!” Young Master Han was the first to greet Coco, before happily addressing Deep Waters, “I thought you’d lost both your men and your wifey. Not bad, at least you managed to save her.”

Deep Waters could only grind his teeth as he stewed in his gloom.

Sword Demon was looking through the crowd that had already begun to disperse, yet did not discover Gu Fei anywhere, “When did the fight end?” he asked Deep Waters.

“Moments ago,” Deep Waters said.

“Does that mean Eternal Dominion’s already dead?” These men were extremely confident when it came to Gu Fei.

“Nope!” Deep Waters said.

“What?” Everyone was surprised. If Deep Waters was not dead, then that meant it was Gu Fei who had perished...

“Nobody died. Halfway through their fight, Eternal Dominion mentioned he had something to do and left,” Deep Waters announced with a hint of regret.

“So you’re telling me he wasn’t insta-killed by Gu Fei in two or three moves?”” They had all seen Gu Fei fight. There was no doubt in their minds that as long as Gu Fei struck, death was the only outcome unless he ran out of mana. Hearing Deep Waters use the word ‘halfway’, could it be that Eternal Dominion had actually tangled with Gu Fei for quite some time?”

“It was indeed quite long. Both of them were unarmed,” Deep Waters said.

“Just what in the devil was that about?” No one could make sense of it.

“Perhaps they were merely sparring due to their similar background?” Royal God Call’s guess was actually rather close to the truth.

“There’s even less reason for them to stay their hands if that was the case!” everyone cried out. There were all outsiders, so it was obvious they would not understand that the MMO setting was an unsuitable stage for Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion to spar. They had tried their best to make it an even fight, as Gu Fei’s spell damage was already an unfair aspect he possessed in-game. It was clear why he had to give that up.

“Perhaps Gu Fei’s PK Value had reached 29!” Everyone began to examine this issue from a gaming perspective, which resulted in a suggestion proposed by Brother Assist. The people nodded in agreement.

“That’s thanks to the efforts of Deep Waters bro here! Eternal Dominion should really be thanking you. Where’s Eternal Dominion? You should get him to salute you and treat you to a good meal, with drinks of course!” Young Master Han said.

“Eat and drink your own a**!” All the anger and sadness inside Deep Waters was condensed into that sentence, lightly tugging on Coco’s hand as he turned to leave, “Let’s go.”

“Bye!” Coco was old acquaintances with Sword Demon and Young Master Han, not forgetting to say her goodbyes with a slight smile as she left with Deep Waters in hand.

---

Over by the other side, plenty of Oathless Sword’s guild mates had arrived as well. Excitement grew among them once more now that they were all gathered together. Oathless Sword was all smiles as he walked over to Young Master Han and the others. “Haha, the quest is finally over!”

Young Master Han and the rest already knew what sort of reward they had received, since Royal God Call was still considered a member of Traversing Four Seas.

They knew just how bountiful the reward was for the guild to increase by a whole level just from this one quest, but the average guild member would not really feel any sort of direct benefit from this. Thus it could be said that those members who were the most excited were the core members of the guild, similar to Oathless Sword. Even though the guild had hundreds of players in it, its existence mainly benefited this lot of players, especially the private wealth of the guild leader.

To give a very simple example to illustrate this point, if Oathless Sword put his Level 6 guild up for sale, buyers would very likely flock like bees to pollen in an attempt to outbid one another. There were plenty of players out there who would love to experience what it was like to be a dominant force in an MMO, and owning such a powerful and large guild would be the easiest and most efficient method to achieve this. This was especially true for any late-adopters of the game. With how guilds were developed by the contributions made by hundreds of players, there was simply no way such players would be able to quickly reach such heights. Such a transaction would surely be a chance that must not be missed.

In the trade forums of Parallel World, there were already plenty of messages appearing explicitly stating their desire to purchase a guild outright. Currently, the successful transactions were all exorbitantly priced, with a small Level 2 guild worth about the price of a single piece of top-grade equipment. The prices for Level 3 and 4 guilds skyrocketed even more, and there were usually no more than three Level 5 guilds in every city, so there was not even a market price for them. There were even rumors that there were professional gamers out that had begun to make strides along this road to wealth. Those who had the financial power had set up their own guilds, organizing their men to begin grinding on guild missions day and night and creating their own ‘product’. Some of the craftsmen who did not have any financial backing travelled across the land to the various large guilds or other capitalistic professional players in an effort to form their own guilds, selling their services as players who specialized in setting up guilds in their stead, creating a new group of gamers from this demand.

Obviously Oathless Sword did not have any intention of selling his guild like this, but the availability of this option was nevertheless a very satisfying fact, so it was no wonder the man was grinning from ear to ear.

“Everyone, since the quest has already been completed, there’s no need for us to be in a rush to head back home. Let’s all head to the tavern, drinks are on me. Today, we shan’t… We shan’t log out until we’re drunk!” Oathless Sword declared loudly.

Few would reject such an open invite, as all these players from Yunduan City began to inquire which way the tavern was as rancorous laughter and celebrating spread out. Oathless Sword instantly ditched the group of experts he was with when he saw Gu Xiaosiang, giddily heading towards where she was…

------

After Gu Fei logged out, he called back home and exchanged polite pleasantries with his father before he went on to inquire about the situation with the Gu Family.

It was fine if Eternal Dominion was in a hurry to log out for his night training session, but Gu Fei had not expected to see the huge portion of those players from Eternal War mercenary follow him as well.

When he previously exchanged blows with the men that had blocked their way, Gu Fei had already sensed that they were most likely properly taught actual kung fu, so for the Gu Family to actually possess so many disciples…

Gu Fei was very intrigued by this development. If it was that easy to find so many fellow practitioners for kung fu, then the martial arts would not be in the decline they were experiencing. Thus, the moment he logged out, Gu Fei immediately rang up his home and asked his father just what was going on over there.

“You can’t count those as Gu Family’s disciples,” Old Man Gu sighed when he heard the question.

“Then who are they?”

“The Gu Family there has collaborated with some bodyguard school, and is now in charge of teaching them close-combat kung fu techniques,” Old Man Gu explained.

“They looked to be properly taught,” Gu Fei said.

“Of course they are. Do you really think that the Gu Family is a white elephant? Don’t you look down on them just because that family’s patriarch lost to you in that match back then, and then his kid lost to your dad recently. Your thinking is no different from bullying the weak just because you’re strong. Just what is wrong with you? Is it because it’s been ages since I properly taught you a lesson!? You better get your butt back home this weekend…”

“That’s not what I mean!” Gu Fei hurriedly interrupted, “What I meant to say was he is no longer just randomly teaching them a few moves, and is also formally training them in the ways. How would there be any guarantees towards the conduct of these disciples considering the line of work they were in?”

Old Man Gu sighed, “There’s no way they could guarantee it...”

“And so…” Gu Fei did not know what else to say. The rules when it came to discipleship were not something that differed from family or sect. The rules were something passed down from the days of yore, a rule that any kung fu practitioner should follow at its core. It represented the responsibility and obligation they had towards maintaining unity, harmony, and social stability.

Old Man Gu sighed deeply once more, “Such matters are becoming more and more prevalent over the years. There’s nothing we can do about it; everybody’s gotta make a living, somehow…”