Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 293 - Super Mario

Anyone could tell with a glance where the highest point in Yueye City was.

At the heart of the city, and near the tavern Young Master’s Elite had just visited to drink liquor with Dusky Cloud and friends, there stood a tower way taller than Yunduan City’s clock tower. Although it clearly had a clock face as well, the system had called it the Tower to differentiate it from the other in-game cities’ clock towers.

Without a moment’s delay, Young Master Han set forth toward the Tower as he casually called War Without Wounds to accompany him. In a city where PvP was literally its lifeblood, a lone Priest walking around was a rare sight, as the non-combat job class was too easy to bully. Young Master Han might hold himself in high esteem, but he certainly had no wish to become somebody’s punching bag.

“Ahhh... I wanted to do something more meaningful!” War Without Wounds was extremely unwilling to become a bodyguard once more.

“Just give up; do you even have the movement speed to keep up with them?” Young Master Han pointed at Sword Demon and Royal God Call as he said this, and War Without Wounds wordlessly agreed.

Sword Demon and Royal God Call remained by the street, prepared to lend assistance if the need arose. Brother Assist left for the Bounty Assignment Hall; after all, no matter how high a vantage point was, Young Master Han would have no way of peering through the walls.

Gu Fei only began his hike back to the city from the woods once he received Young Master Han’s message informing him that all preparations had been made.

The Amethyst Rebirth ladies were actually asking about their situation as well and if they could help them in any way, but Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer shared the same view that these ladies could hardly provide them assistance. Svelte Dancer had even suggested using the ladies to divert their potential enemies’ attention through the honey-pot scheme, but Gu Fei absolutely vetoed it.

Yueye City was a paradise for manly pursuits; most players only had eyes for blood and killing. One of the two most hated players in the city was the beauty Vast Lushness, but when did any of them show mercy toward her due to it? Svelte Dancer was also a beautiful lady, but did any of those players who had obtained her ‘Bounty Mission’ show leniency in their attacks?

Once Young Master Han reached the top of the Tower, he approvingly regarded the bird’s eye view before him, “Yueye City’s skyline is much clearer. People can only see clouds when they look down from Yunduan City’s clock tower.”

“That’s why it’s called Yunduan1 City!” War Without Wounds, who was standing by his side, also took in the view before him. Almost instantly, he felt dizzy and his heart rose to his throat; War Without Wounds’ entire body suddenly went weak and he slumped to the ground like jelly, his arms quickly grabbing a hold of the stone pillar next to him.

Young Master Han eyed him in annoyance. War Without Wounds calmed himself and said, “I think I’m sick.”

“Huh?”

“Seems like I’ve gained fear of heights,” War Without Wounds clarified.

“I know. You’ve had quite the journey crossing the Oolong Mountain Range.” It was rare to see Young Master Han sympathize with another person. It was said that those that had fallen into the abyss lost a whole level when they died. War Without Wounds did not fall, yet tethering precariously between life and death for two separate segments of that stretch of road created a psychological shadow in his mind.

This is a serious issue since such trauma could be brought into reality. Who knew when War Without Wounds would find himself standing high up in an office building in reality and his sight from it would cause his legs to buckle just like today?

War Without Wounds tightly hugged the pillar as he slowly stepped away from the edge, returning to the center of the Tower.

Young Master Han paid attention to him no more as he studied the city’s layout while talking to others on the mercenary channel. The coordinates for the Bounty Assignment Hall, Gu Fei’s current location, the players’ heading direction from the Bounty Assignment Hall... All these were information he needed for the operation. However, just as he was drawing up a plan, Young Master Han suddenly froze and said to War Without Wounds, “We’re going down.”

“What?”

“There’s no need for us to guide him.”

“Why is that?” War Without Wounds asked, puzzled.

“He can get there without my help.” Young Master Han started descending from the Tower as he fired off a message to Gu Fei: “There’s no need for me to guide you.”

“Oh?” Gu Fei was confused.

“Svelte Dancer has Stealth, so she won’t have any problems getting there. As for you, you can just travel through the rooftops,” Young Master Han explained.

“Rooftops... Oh, that’s true!” Gu Fei thought that this was a great idea. It was not because he would have an easier time hiding from the bounty hunters by staying on the rooftops, though. The truth of the matter was that he might be the only player capable of navigating freely across the rooftops, and this was entirely due to his possession of the Blink skill! There was no way all the rooftops in the city would be conveniently connected, so there would naturally be some rooftops that were too far or too high from others for people to leap across. Only by utilizing Blink would anyone be able to cross these gaps safely.

As such, the bounty hunters would have no way of chasing after him using the rooftops. If they were to chase him from the streets below... Gu Fei could directly cross streets with the roofs found in the middle; how would others keep up to him if they had to take a detour around the streets and alleys?

“We’ll go to the Bounty Assignment Hall to keep an eye on things for you,” Young Master Han said.

“Got it,” Gu Fei replied.

He and Svelte Dancer were on their way to the city. Yueye City’s outskirts were open and vast, but thanks to Gu Fei’s experience being hunted, he knew how to play around the coordinates that refreshed every five minutes.

However, in this city where doing ‘Bounty Mission’ was the rage, it was quite possible that a few enthusiastic PvPers had achieved more than a hundred kills to their name, which meant that they were also given the prize for completing a hundred ‘Bounty Mission’: Windchaser’s Emblem. With that item, the coordinates would refresh every minute. Fortunately, there were few bloodthirsty players even in Yueye City, and most of the players were doing ‘Bounty Mission’ mainly to clear off their PK value... Moreover, few people were capable of clearing off at least 100 PK points like that.

Given Gu Fei’s and Svelte Dancer’s movement speed, the only job classes that could compete with them were Archers and Thieves. There were simply not enough players possessing these job classes to chase after the two across such a wide area. Furthermore, even among these two job classes, only those who had focused their points to Agility or acquired equipment boosting movement speed could trouble Gu Fei. Meanwhile, Svelte Dancer would likely have no issue dealing with anyone given how she currently was the top player across the entire gaming server.

It was unavoidable for them to bump into others along the way as they circled and took detours, though, so when this happened, they would decisively take down the person. With their PK value that was already well into the twenties, what was an additional PK point? The people gathered in larger groups as they drew nearer to the city. Players continued to run out of the city, but the two were unsure whether these people were hot on their heels or simply heading out to grind.

“Let’s split up here!” Gu Fei told Svelte Dancer.

“Okay. Be careful!” Svelte Dancer agreed.

“You, too,” Gu Fei said.

Svelte Dancer quickly activated Stealth and disappeared from view. Gu Fei darted toward the city gates while vigilantly eyeing the players leaving the city. It was possible that there would be players among them looking to capture him.

As expected, the moment Gu Fei made it to the city gate, three men followed his every movement. These bounty hunters could tell that he was their target. Since they had picked up the ‘Bounty Mission’, they could clearly see Gu Fei’s serial number hovering above his head. The others might be their helpers who were too lazy to pick up the ‘Bounty Mission’ themselves; since they could not see his serial number, they reacted much slower to Gu Fei’s appearance. Once their friends signal them about his appearance, almost one fifth of the players present sprinted straight toward Gu Fei.

“That’s a lot, alright...” Gu Fei mumbled to himself. Fortunately, he had already prepared for such a situation. With his nimble movement speed, Gu Fei was able to enter the city before the enemies could even get into their formation. Gu Fei played it safe by taking down one of the players that were closer to him during this sequence.

“It’s 27 now...” Gu Fei tallied his PK points. Once he passed the city gate, the players pointing him out increased as well. He did not hurry in the direction of the Bounty Assignment Hall. Instead, he looked for a disused side alley and dove straight toward it. Gu Fei briefly inspected all the players chasing after him. Noting that he still held the upper hand when it came to movement speed, he temporarily stopped worrying about anyone catching up to him.

But before he got too far ahead, other players began popping out of the other alley entrance he was running toward. These players streamed in to block Gu Fei’s forward advance. With men on both sides, everyone was convinced that Gu Fei had nowhere to run. Thus, they began showing hostility toward one another.

There was simply not enough to go around! Many players got the ‘Bounty Mission’ for Gu Fei, but only one of them could complete it. Thinking that Gu Fei had no escape, everyone started warily eyeing one another.

Gu Fei smiled brightly. Gathering all these people into this alley was precisely what he wanted to do. He waved goodbye to the people slowly creeping toward him from the front and back, lifted his finger, and cast his Blink, teleporting himself on a nearby rooftop.

This rooftop was so high that the average player would be unable to climb up easily. Gu Fei started running freely on the rooftop. The players in the alley stared at him for the longest time before returning to their senses and trying all sorts of ways to get on the rooftop as well. Some had Warriors toss others up the roof, while some Fighters tried doing the same thing with Seismic Toss. A few even tried forming a human pyramid to get up there layer by layer! Those bounty hunters with ranged job classes unleashed skills as they chased after Gu Fei from below the streets.

Gu Fei had already anticipated his pursuers’ actions. This first set of rooftops he teleported to was just his starting point, and Gu Fei was running about purely to wait for his Blink’s cooldown to end. By the time several players managed to make it up the roof he was on, a full minute had passed. Gu Fei sprinted toward the furthest end of this street, leaped off, and activated Blink halfway through his jump. Crossing the eight-meter-wide road, Gu Fei safely reached the rooftop right across.

All the players were utterly dumbfounded right now. It was just as Young Master Han and Gu Fei had predicted; none of them had a way to chase after Gu Fei anymore. Some players attempted to run ahead toward a rooftop further away, climbing up it in hopes of staging an ambush to Gu Fei there. How would they know what route Gu Fei intended to take, though? In the end, those players simply wasted their time climbing on that rooftop.

The countless players Gu Fei had left in the dust helplessly watched him sprint far ahead. Running and leaping... They saw his figure shrink in the distance. At this very moment, everyone was instantly reminded of the character in the video game that they had played when they were younger: Super Mario.