Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 720: Chapter 720 – Everyone Arriving at the Scene

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

As for Gu Fei and the others, none of them cared to think too much about the overly complex situation that they were in. The fact that Young Master Han might be coming was enough for them to see their own deaths, and all of them were having a headache just thinking about it. Was Young Master Han coming or not? Just that option alone represented a huge problem for them.

But there was someone who was feeling rather lonely—Will-low... The lady had also spent plenty of her time revising her responses with Xi Xiaotian and Cirrus, yet no one had cared about the existence of this ‘guild leader’ of theirs in the end, so the whole role that she had prepared was completely unused. As for the whole getting herself killed to cause the quest to fail’ situation, it had only been something that they would merely mention, but never enacted.

But why would anyone even be bothered with how she was feeling right now? The moment they heard the latest update, everyone had immediately begun their nervous discussion about what they should be doing. Everybody was trying hard to come up with ideas, hoping to find a solution to avoid such an outcome.

“I’ve got it!” Royal God Call had actually been the first to come up with an idea. He leaped to his feet and shouted, “Why don’t we tell them that the quest can only be picked up by a man, and women can’t acquire the quest?”

“But I’m a woman...” the fake guild leader Will-low spoke up as the player who had been the one who had supposedly acquired the quest.

“Nobody’s came in contact with you for this role yet, right? Let’s take a risk on this!” Royal God Call said.

“Risk your head! It’s a bit too late to mention this now,” Brother Assist said. “For such a reason to make sense, we would not have told them there was no need to invite Colored Clouds from the start, but that she could not even qualify for the quest! If we had done that, we might have been able to hoodwink the others when we mention that there was such a quest requirement.”

“It’s too late to discuss all these things now, what we need is a solution. Cirrus, how are things over on your end?” Sword Demon asked.

Cirrus was current put in a very awkward spot. After talking to Oathless Sword, the man had begun messaging Gu Xiaoshang to inform her about the auction, not even caring to ask Cirrus anything else. Oathless Sword was basically just standing there, staring blankly as he exchanged messages with Gu Xiaoshang. Instead, it was the other core member standing beside the guild leader, Youthful Reflection, who came over and asked a host of questions. What guild was he from? How many players were there in the guild? Who was your guild leader? How will this auction work? All of these questions were posed to Cirrus.

Cirrus answered all these questions diligently like before. But at the moment when he was about to tell Youthful Reflection who their guild leader was, Xi Xiaotian had hurriedly sent a message, “Don’t mention Will-low when they ask you about our guild leader. We need time to prepare anew. Try and buy us some time.”

Xi Xiaotian had already clarified with Gu Fei and the others that Young Master Han should recall meeting Will-low before, so she could not take the role of the guild leader any longer. They now have to find someone whom Young Master Han had never met before.

“Within this group of players present, the only person who would fit this criterion was Bashful Countenance, but the problem was that if she were to quit the guild right now, the guild itself would immediately be disbanded. As such, they had to find a replacement for her place in Extremely Heaven Defying beforehand, and that meant finding someone to head over to the Hall of Guild Creations to apply for the guild. None of the ladies from Amethyst Rebirth were coincidentally in the vicinity of the hall, so it was going to take some time for someone to make her way over. Did Cirrus have the capability to drag things out for that long?

He had no choice but to try!

The moment he received Xi Xiaotian’s message, Youthful Reflection had already asked him about the identity of his guild leader and was waiting for him to reply. Cirrus felt fortunate that he had not chosen to check his message while he answered the question verbally, or he would surely have endless regrets about it. But how was he going to buy them the time they need in the interim? Cirrus was at a complete loss regarding what he could mention in order to stall for time on giving Youthful Reflection an answer. Should I attempt to b*llsh*t the man? That would only make him all the more suspicious. The anxious Cirrus was almost at his wit’s end, when he suddenly saw a flash of white light appear a short distance away from him. He froze for a moment before gritting his teeth, and he disappeared.

Forceful log out! Cirrus had opted to forcefully log out of the game. Even though the log off point in this encampment was pretty much just several meters in front of him, it was far too illogical for him to make his way over there before logging out, so the only thing he felt he could do was forcefully log out without notice and disappear. Everyone playing the game knew that there was nothing to be gained from forcefully logging out like this, so Cirrus felt it was a very good cover story. The only problem was that he hoped that he was a little lucky, and that the punishment for what he had done here would not be too harsh.

“To think that he would resort to such a method...” Xi Xiaotian saw Cirrus’ name turn dark and reckoned the other party must have been just about to ask the question, so the man made the choice to make such a huge move. “Quick, we need to find the nearest lady in the city to head over to the Hall of Guild Creations.”

“Who’s the nearest to the hall?” Gu Fei quickly shouted out in the guild channel.

“Did something crop up again?”

“It’s an emergency. I’ll explain later, but we need those of you who are nearest to the Hall of Guild Creations to immediately request to join Extremely Heaven Defying. This matter is urgent; hurry!” When had Gu Fei been so unsettled? The ladies did not dare to tarry either, but none of them really had any clue as to how close each of them was to the Hall of Guild Creations on their end! Thus, almost every one of these ladies began making their way over as fast as they could, still continuing to chatter over the guild channel even as they ran. When Gu Fei saw how everyone was so involved with the speculation, he decided to take the time to give a simple summary of their current predicament.

“You guys are really tiring. We’ll add a few more players over to your side. Just staying around the 20 players of yours is really too dangerous,” July commented.

Meanwhile, there was really only one viable option to be the guild leader of their fake guild. The only person who Young Master Han had no knowledge about, out of all the players here in this scheme, was Bashful Countenance. Even though the lady was introverted and shy, it was more than apparent that she most definitely lacked the acting skills necessary for this role. But because their interaction would most likely be limited to just an exchange of messages, it would not be too much of a trouble as long as she had someone beside her, coaching her through the process. However, Sword Demon had his doubts, “We are not too familiar with your cousin, Brother Assist. Would she be unhappy now that we are kicking her out of the guild after only recently getting her to join us?”

“She won’t,” Brother Assist confidently answered. “In fact, she’s quite happy about it. I’ll be the one having the headache trying to coax her to return afterward, however.”

“Eh? What do you mean?” Sword Demon asked.

“Oh, nothing...” Brother Assist grimaced. How was he going to explain it? Was he supposed to reveal that Bashful Countenance found none of the players in the guild, be it the ugly, the violent, the larcenists, perverts and the swindler. Did any of them look to be good people?

But Bashful Countenance had happily obtained this task, as it was essentially Brother Assist giving her the perfect chance to quit the guild for good.

Now, all they were waiting for was the ladies from Amethyst Rebirth to reach the Hall of Guild Creation and proceed to join their guild so that they could kick Bashful Countenance properly. As for Cirrus, it was best if he did not come online during this time, since he would need to log out again even if he did come online, and put the blame on frequent network failures....

This was a race against time, so no one spoke any more about this matter as everyone waited with bated breath as they listened to Gu Fei’s broadcast about their progress.

“Lady no.1 is currently ahead, and she’s just 300 meters away from the hall.”

“However, lady no.4 is about to catch up because she’s an Archer, possessing a movement speed that far outstripped lady no.1’s.”

“Oh dear, lady no. 6 had suddenly closed the distance. She actually knew that there was a shortcut over by Crystal Square. Truly an unexpected dark horse! Did no one else know about it?”

“Lady no. 8... I feel like you’re better off just backing out from this race... You’re going the wrong way! I’ll speak in Royal God Call’s stead and extend my most sincere greeting.”

“D*MM*T! Why didn’t you say so earlier, I’ve betted on no. 8!” Fireball’s tears was flowing freely.

“Haha, such is life. The almighty pressure from no. 6. That is why six is more auspicious than eight,” Royal God Call was delighted, not even paying mind when Gu Fei exposed his lack of sense of direction so matter-of-factly.

“Okay, we’re now down to the final sprint. No. 1, 4 and 6; Just which of these ladies would make it to the destination first?” Gu Fei was yelling, as everyone could not help but move in closer to him.

“I have some very bad news. It appears that we have a traitor within our midst, and she actually bribed the participating ladies. Right now, No.6 should have been the first to enter the Hall of Guild Creations, yet she has decided to stop by the stairs, waiting, as lady No.4 is coming up right behind her,” Gu Fei continued his shoutcast.

“Ah! NOOOO!” Royal God Call yelled. “I protest! We need to crack down on this meddling and corruption!”

“Your protestation is invalid,” Svelte Dancer sent a swift kick right toward Royal God Call, raising both her arms and declared in jubilation, “The winner is lady No. 4! Those who placed your bets, please hand them all over to yours truly, hahahaha!”

“Alright everyone, I’ve gotten their requests to join the guild...” While Svelte Dancer was still celebrating, Sword Demon had been busy dealing with the matter at hand, accepting the three consecutive applications from the ladies from Amethyst Rebirth. Once confirmed, he proceeded to hail Bashful Countenance and kick her out from the guild.

“Why isn’t Cirrus back yet?” Everyone was now focused on this question after all the excitement had died down with them.

“That fool could not have possibly pretended to disappear just like that, right?” Just as someone asked this, the system prompt chimed, and Cirrus was back in the game world.

Xi Xiaotian had already left him a message, “The guild leader is Bashful Countenance.” Furthermore, she reminded him that he must act like he had really disconnected, and not forcefully logged out, so he should take note of the emotions he was showing.

Cirrus had already considered how he should be acting during the few minutes he went offline. When he came back online, he made sure to look visibly agitated, not even paying any attention to Oathless Sword, Youthful Reflection and the others as he quickly checked his own equipment, experience points and coins that he had on him. There was no need to act for this portion, as the forceful log off he had just performed was the real deal. Cirrus was indeed anxious to find out what he got penalized on.

“D*mm*t, someone kicked the plug,” Cirrus inspected himself even as he tearfully complained to everyone around him.

The men from Traversing Four Seas were at least compassionate enough to empathetically ask him what he lost.

“I lost my experience points... D*mn, I lost 23% of my current experience bar. Would the officials even care if I lodge a complaint about this?” Cirrus asked around.

“Well... I’m afraid they won’t be bothered to do anything in your case.” Youthful Reflection expressed his condolences. For players above level 40, 23% of their experience bar was several days of grueling grinding. A kicked out plug and everything was gone in an instance; empathy was a must.

“This sucks...” Cirrus looked like he wanted to bite someone.

Showing off this series of very genuine reactions, he finally managed to convince Oathless Sword, Youthful Reflection and the others to no longer suspect him, and treated it as him just being unlucky. While Cirrus was at his moodiest, the two of them felt that it was more than a little awkward to mention what they had been talking about before.

“Friend, I offer my sympathies to you. But you’re still able to gain back the experience points you lost, at least it’s better than losing an equipment,” Youthful Reflection consoled.

“I guess. Where were we just now?” Cirrus took this lull in the conversation to get back to the topic at hand.

“Oh, you were telling us about your guild. May I know who’s your guild leader?” Youthful Reflection asked.

“Her name is Bashful Countenance, and she’s currently in a very secure location right now. After the auction ends, if you happen to be the highest bidder, we will coordinate with you and turn the quest over to you at the appropriate time,” Cirrus replied.

“You’ve really thought this through!” Youthful Reflection laughed. The appropriate timing stipulation was very important because now that the quest was made public, winning the auction was just one step, but what if the other guilds use their combat prowess or other means to get up to some funny business when said auction is over? Getting the quest was not the goal here; the key was completing it, and no one would want their quest holder to die, as it would be all for naught.

“The name of this guild leader, it sounds like a girl’s name?” Youthful Reflection asked.

“Yes, our guild is just a bunch of old friends, so it did not matter who the guild leader was,” Cirrus said.

“Oh, such a guild isn’t too bad either,” Youthful Reflection commended.

“So may I ask if you guys are coming to participate?” Cirrus was now seeking for their confirmation.

“Of course we will be joining the auction. But I would like to ask, are we able to directly buy the quest outright?” Youthful Reflection also wanted to try the same method like Brave Surge.

Of course, Cirrus shook his head and expressed that they had no such intentions.

“That’s unfortunate,” Youthful Reflection said.

“Oh, and it seems like Oathless Sword has contacted guild leader Gu from Colored Clouds on our behalf? We had originally thought that she would not be interested in such endeavors, but is she thinking about coming over now?” Cirrus asked.

“Of course she’s coming,” Oathless Sword said.

This was essentially as good as finding his own competitor to compete with him over this auction, but Youthful Reflection standing beside him was not particularly blue about this. Firstly, he already knew that this would happen, and secondly, he had a very good understanding of Oathless Sword. If Colored Clouds were to participate in this auction as well, the quest would either end up with Traversing Four Seas or Colored Clouds. Even if Colored Clouds ended up with it, it would not have achieved without the help of Traversing Four Seas, and with Gu Xiaoshang’s personality, there was no way that Traversing Four Seas’ aid would not go unrewarded. Of course, the fantasy that Oathless Sword had that she would end up offering herself to repay his aid on this matter was most definitely impossible.

“Oh, then do you mind giving me a way to contact Colored Clouds? I would like to have a proper chat with them as well,” Cirrus said.

“Haha, isn’t it going to be everything that you’ve told us? There’s no need for this. I’ll help you pass on the message. When will the auction begin?” Oathless Sword evidently wanted to spend more time talking to Gu Xiaoshang, so he was more than happy to be the middleman.

Cirrus had no choice but to say, “If everyone is okay with everything, we can begin at any time. Then I will have to trouble Guild leader Oathless to help me relay all the information I’ve shared with you to Colored Clouds as well?”

“No problem. Then let us get a move on things now. If the others wish to participate as well, tell them to hurry up. We can get cracking on the quest the sooner we are done with everything.” With that said, Oathless Sword gave the order to his guild as Cirrus saw the players all around him stirring into action. The feeling that it gave him was that Traversing Four Seas was mobilizing a good majority of their forces for this auction, so Cirrus quickly relayed this information to everyone.

“Great, now that the situation is more or less set in stone, we still have four guild leaders attending, though it is very unfortunate that we only have missions for just two of them, Black Index Finger and Foe-herder, who will now be our priority targets. According to the update Cirrus just sent over, Traversing Four Seas seem to be mobilizing their full force, so when we do the deed, we might very well find ourselves in dire circumstances that will be hard for us to extricate ourselves from. Everyone will have to give it their all and kill the enemy so as to earn more points!” Sword Demon said.

“I think we should quickly send off the two who managed to accomplish their mission. It would be too much of a waste if they end up accidentally dying in the process and result in the mission to fail.”

“This sort of mission...”

“It is better to be safe than sorry!”

“Alright then. We shall do our best and put our best foot forward! Because Colored Clouds will be coming, Young Master Han could very well appear as well, and the ensuing skirmish that would unfold would surely include plenty of his old friends. Simply just keeping our faces covered would not be enough to fool that man. However, the terrain here in the sawmill would give us plenty of hiding spots, especially with all the lumber piles around. Everyone knows what position they will be taking up, and by the time we’ve determined where everyone would be coming, each of the relevant mission holders will take up the optimal ambush spot. As for the rest of the players who are blending in with the rest outside... When would the players blending on the outside be able to arrive?” Sword Demon asked.

None of the players present would be suitable to be the people who were blending in from the outside. They had originally wanted Xi Xiaotian to be the one doing this, but now that Young Master Han would be here, there was a very good chance the man would suspect something. Actually, there would be a huge risk that they would all be exposed to by the time they reached this stage of their plan, and that hinged on the fact that Young Master Han did not know Xi Xiaotian’s name. If he was aware of her name, then he might very well have begun preparing already. However, because this was already a pandora’s box that they could no longer close, nobody wanted to give up having already spared so much effort into this scheme. As a result, all they could do was to bite the bullet and continue to work hard on this.

“We can only depend on Cirrus presiding over this matter,” Xi Xiaotian sent a reply message back saying this.

“Can that rascal come back sooner already; There are plenty of things I want to go over with him,” Sword Demon was anxious.

“If this can’t wait, why not just describe it over the guild channel? He might very well be heading back alongside with the men from Traversing Four Seas, and too big of a movement might easily tip those men off to suspect something’s afoot,” Xi Xiaotian suggested.

“I guess that’s our only option.”

“Hey Cirrus, are you heading back together with the men from Traversing Four Seas?” Sword Demon asked.

“Yeah, I’m with them right now,” Cirrus answered.

“Great, listen carefully; we are leaving everything about the auction to you. I’m going to tell you about how we are positioned right now, so please memorize it carefully...” Sword Demon messaged.

—

Four large guilds, none of which were characters that could be easily led on the nose about. After discussing their interest to attend the auction, they had already begun to send men to find out more information.

Foe-herder had originally planned to call a few of his comrades to represent Cloud Herder guild and thought that would do, but the moment he got the message that they can make their way to the destination of the auction, he had also found out that Traversing Four Seas was making their way over with a huge horde of players. Foe-herder could not help but rethink his strategy once more; He had only sent a handful of men from his own guild, so would he end up being cheated in the end? This was not a system-operated auction where there was any sort of order to fall back on. What if Oathless Sword resorted to being a little despicable and block the men he sent to one corner of the auction, or even kill them off just like that; how would they be able to participate in the auction?

On Black Index Finger’s side, as a guild leader from a mere mercenary group background, he was no stranger to representing himself, and he had intended to bring with him just a few close comrades for this auction until he received news from his scouts regarding Traversing Four Seas’ full mobilization.

“D*mn, that uncultured swine!” Black Index Finger cursed. This was an auction, not some large-scale PK, what was the point of bringing so many men there? Black Index Finger felt that Oathless Sword must be trying to act like an upstart by flaunting the size and prowess of his guild, making it difficult for the others to act. As such, since Traversing Four Seas was sending so many men of theirs, Black Index Finger shared the same worries that Oathless Sword had shared. He had no choice but to gather his men as well and head over in a show of force.

Over by Colored Clouds’ side, everything had been relayed from Oathless Sword to Gu Xiaoshang. Given her personality, guild leader Gu was originally uninterested to join in to compete over this quest with the other guilds. However, this City Wars event had indeed been fought to the point where there was nothing else to do by this stage. The city assaulters were unable to get any advantage taking on the city guards directly, and the smattering of quests that they discovered had been insignificant in the grand scheme of things. They wanted to deal with Thousand Miles Drunk, but they had not seen any traces of Thousand Miles Drunk while waiting for him to appear yesterday, which was why Gu Xiaoshang had decided to go ahead and take a look after the vigorous urging of Oathless Sword.

“Oh? What’s the point of auctioning off a quest? Which guild is this?” Young Master Han asked when he heard the news.

“A small guild by the name of Rise Above the Skyline.” Gu Xiaoshang said.

“Who’s the guild leader?”

“Somebody called Bashful Countenance. Sounds like a girl that nobody has seen before. She’s currently in hiding. She plans to suicide and transfer the quest once the auction is over,” Gu Xiaoshang said.

“That’s very well organized!” Young Master Han exclaimed.

“We’ll talk about it further after we see what’s up,” Gu Xiaoshang said.

“It’s only an auction, what’s the point of going yourself? Just pick a few men whom you can trust to handle this task and I’ll follow them,” Young Master Han said.