Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 288 - Giving Face to Gu Fei

The smile currently on Vast Lushness’s face seemed to come from the heart, which made Gu Fei think that she was in a good mood.

This was ironic. To be capable of smiling sincerely in the face of such a relentless hunt that lasted for an entire day and night... Had she gone insane? Gu Fei had never seen Vast Lushness smile like this before. When they first met in Yueye City, her lips were curled in arrogance and tyranny, and when they met again in Yunduan City... Vast Lushness did not smile much beyond the few perfunctory smiles that were superficial at best and were obviously not heartfelt.

With Gu Fei’s comment, Sakurazaka Moony and his lot also came to this realization, especially Sakurazaka Moony. He had stuck his neck out for Vast Lushness so much that he had managed to get in contact with her more often than Gu Fei had, fostering a deeper relationship that allowed him see that Vast Lushness’s current smile was indeed far from the usual ones she showed. Furthermore, this smile of hers had appeared repeatedly throughout this day and night.

Sakurazaka Moony suddenly felt fuzzy inside. He could not help but ask, “You’ve been smiling like that this whole time. What are you happy about?”

“Really? I’m smiling?” Vast Lushness smiled coquettishly.

Everyone was speechless.

“Forget it. Let’s just get outta here!” Gu Fei said.

Now that Electric Wall had completely disappeared, the remaining enemies were clamoring to return to this alley from the left and right streets leading to it. The Ten Guild Alliance’s men had not actually retreated fully and had just temporarily halted their assault due to the troublesome Gu Fei’s appearance. Knowing that this was a dead-end alley, they decided to wait it out at the two entryways leading to the lane. These men perked up once their targets walked out of the alley. Simultaneously, one of them was spamming the guild channel with: “27149! 27149 is back!”

That was the name that the Ten Guild Alliance had given to the player who had helped them win the guild war against the Past Deeds Guild. Eventually, Dusky Cloud and his brothers had amassed a large number of men to the point that even the highest level guild out there would be unable to contain them. These men were actually from different guilds to begin with, and it was only the existence of Past Deeds Guild during Parallel World’s open beta that had forced them to band together.

Although they had since decimated Past Deeds, the brotherhood that they had found in one another did not end like that. They still considered one another as comrades and had even continued to lead their respective guilds together, eventually forming the current Ten Guild Alliance. Despite the system not having any way to guarantee their bond, they were still able to maintain the friendship that they had fostered all this while.

Still, the lack of an effective way to disseminate information to all the ten guilds in the alliance was truly a huge hassle. Just the “27149! 27149 is back!” cry was broadcasted several times on the various guild channels and messily discussed by many members first before it reached the Ten Guild Alliance’s figure heads.

Everyone was clear on who the target for this hunt was, so 27149’s appearance created much hubbub.

Those men who had personally participated in the guild war back then clearly remembered that 27149 had been instrumental in the Past Deeds’ demise. He was the hero that had ended Silver Moon, Vast Lushness, and company’s tyrannical reign in Yueye City, so none of them could fathom why 27149 had a change of heart and was now standing on the enemy’s side after just a month.

As the head honcho of the Ten Guild Alliance, Dusky Cloud did not have to participate in the hunt for the targets himself. However, he started paying attention to this matter once he learned that 27149 was intervening. With the Ten Guild Alliance’s strength, there was essentially no need for it to provide preferential treatment to any player, but 27149 was the only exception. Even the game officials had delegated him as their unofficial spokesperson with that promotional video, which had created quite the buzz in and out of Parallel World, even making people wonder if such an indomitable existence was the result of an unspoken nepotism.

The lack of instructions from the upper echelons of the Ten Guild Alliance somewhat showed their indecision on how to proceed with the matter. As for the players who were currently in direct confrontation with 27149, they all stared open-mouthed at Gu Fei who was sprinting toward them while brandishing his sword.

This player right here was a legend! Even the banana peel he had just discarded seemed to be executed rather nobly. Those blocking the streets involuntarily took a step backward, as the player in charge of them hurriedly asked on the guild channel: “Guild leader, what do we do now?!”

After a brief emergency discussion between the ten guild leaders, this instruction was finally passed down: “Confirm the person’s identity!”

“How do we do that?” the player asked.

“Ask him,” was the reply that the player received.

The leader of the hunting team quickly acted accordingly, “Are you 27149? Thousand Miles Drunk?”

This name was probably listed in some unknown corner of the leaderboard, yet it was a name that was often mentioned by the entire player base.

Gu Fei had no reason to deny his identity, so he simply nodded his head in response.

Gu Fei’s reply was swiftly reported to the top brasses, yet his sword was mere inches away from the team leader’s throat by the time the discussion of the superiors was completed and an instruction was issued accordingly: “Retreat.”

These men’s rich experience PvPing under the Ten Guild Alliance’s flag resulted into them developing a compliant personality to the upper echelons’ will. As such, everyone turned to leave with just that one command from the top brasses.

“Hey! Why are you guys leaving?!” Gu Fei got flustered.

“Our bosses’ order.” The team leader looked directly at Gu Fei while saying this. “They said we need to give face to Thousand Miles Drunk, so we’ll let this matter go this time around!”

Gu Fei sighed regretfully. He had never expected such a development. Gu Fei was unsure if he still had time to retract his earlier affirmation, but he had nothing to lose trying, “Actually, I’m not him.”

The man halted his steps in shock and was very confused by the Mage’s vacillation. Obviously, they would continue their hunt if Gu Fei was not 27149. It was clear that they had given him plenty of face by not doubting his claim, which allowed him to take advantage of the situation, so it absolutely made no sense for him to correct himself now.

There was no lack of PvP maniacs in MMOs, but few were as passionate about fighting as Gu Fei.

Gu Fei wanted to engage these players in PvP, while Fireball and the rest were hoping to escape with their shirts intact. Everyone sighed in relief when they heard that the enemies had decided to give Gu Fei face for this matter, but who would have guessed that Gu Fei would actually be so meddlesome? Seeing the enemies’ hesitation, Fireball hurriedly jumped in front of Gu Fei and said, “Drunk bro, stop joking around like this. Anyone here can tell you’re 27149 upon witnessing your fighting prowess. Besides you, is there any other Mage out there that can display such exquisite swordsmanship in a black, mage robe, and that sharp longswo—”

“Scram!” Gu Fei could not take his level of flattering.

The enemy team leader smiled ever so slightly at this. Indeed, Gu Fei matched the rumored 27149 to a tee. He looked the part, acted the part, and was OP enough. Even casting doubt on his identity and asking further questions were unnecessary. Who knew why he suddenly changed his mind about admitting to his identity? No matter how bold the Ten Guild Alliance’s members were, they still had a little selfishness in them. Grinding was not easy, so no one was willing to lose a level unnecessarily, and they knew better than to clash with a formidable foe like Gu Fei. Even if they had to fight him, it would still be better to not take the lead in this. With such a selfish thought in mind, this team leader merely led the men away with a wave of his arm. The enemy players blocking the other entryway seemed to have received a similar command from their superiors as they also departed accordingly.

Gu Fei disappointedly placed his sword back inside his dimensional pocket soundlessly.

Sakurazaka Moony and his gang were dumbfounded. Gu Fei was apparently not only an expert skirt-chaser, he was also in possession of godly gaming skill to the point where people would gladly give him face once his name was mentioned. These were people that had relentlessly pursued them for a full day and night as well....

In their eyes, Gu Fei’s awesomeness seemed to just grow more and more....

Gu Fei helplessly shrugged his shoulders as he turned to look at them, “Looks like everything fine now.”

“We should still be careful. Who knows if they have an ambush waiting for us outside this alley or even by the log-off points,” Sakurazaka Moony cautioned.

“They won’t,” Vast Lushness refuted this, saying, “Although they are not exactly good guys, they are at least men of their words. Since they already said that they won’t pursue this matter, then they really would uphold their word on account of Gu Fei today.”

“Mhm-mhm!” Gu Fei merely hummed in agreement. Sword Demon and War Without Wounds, who were better acquainted with Dusky Cloud and his men, considered them to be upright and hot-blooded. As for Gu Fei... When he had first come into contact with Dusky Cloud, the latter had actually been attempting to lure him into an ambush. Man! A person’s character is just way too complex.

Sakurazaka Moony and company finally felt reassured when they heard this. Having run all over Yueye City for an entire day and night, they barely had any energy left to even talk with one another, yet Sakurazaka Moony had just to ask Vast Lushness the question that had been plaguing his mind, “Just what sort of hatred do those guys have with you to actually go to such extent?!”

Mobilizing hundreds of players to relentlessly hunt them down... this vendetta seemed to run deeper than Marianas Trench.

Vast Lushness simply replied, “It’s nothing much. Just like today, I have been hunted down by them before.”

“Oh... Did you belong to that what’s-it-called guild in Yueye City, too?” Sakurazaka Moony asked. The large-scale guild war that had happened in Yueye City was still the most intense dispute in the history of Parallel World even now. It was rather famous, but because Sakurazaka Moony and his lot were not locals of Yueye City, they knew little about that event.

“Past Deeds?” Vast Lushness wryly smiled. Although she was still looking at Sakurazaka Moony, her eyes seemed to glaze over ever so slightly, “All went their separate ways when tragedy struck!”

“What?” While Sakurazaka Moony was confused by her answer, Gu Fei thoroughly got what she meant. He even figured out why Vast Lushness had been smiling sincerely throughout this whole ordeal.

It was camaraderie!

Sakurazaka Moony, Fireball... This bunch of reprehensible gamers was not hot-blooded or vehemently arrogant about facing death. They had simply worked hard together to deal with the sudden hunt that they had found themselves in – just like how they would diligently do their best to woo a beautiful lady that they met on the street. Be it getting hunted by others or wooing beautiful women... They thought of everything as nothing more than slapstick entertainment that spiced up their lives.

They were comrades – a bunch of comrades playing this game in search of pleasure and fun.