Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 727: Chapter 727 – Infiltrating Neutral Players

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

The news of the assassination attempts on the guild leaders of both guilds very quickly disseminated among the city assaulters, and the 800 guilds in Yunduan City each began to feel they were at risk, feeling as if the threat of a knife was just dangling above their exposed necks. They had previously watched as Thousand Miles Drunk toyed around with the men from several large guilds, and everyone had been secretly sniggering to themselves as they took joy in their suffering. But now that they thought back to those incidents, everyone in these guilds began to feel it had been a very immersive experience, as if it was something that would soon befall upon them.

What made it even more frightening was that the bad news kept coming. Following the death of Yuntian and Black Night, during the time when everyone was engaged in many discussions, another three guild leaders from level 5 guilds were slain. Just like before, the assailants quickly departed after making their attack, with no one being able to catch sight of them. Furthermore, the only good news that came out from these three assassinations was that none of them were declared to have been completely removed from the CIty Wars event like Black Night.

The City Wars was very quickly interrupted, and those who were from the guilds which were originally losing themselves as they reveled in the bloodshed on the battlefield had begun to gradually pull out from the frontlines, as nobody wanted to be assassinated without any warning when engaged in that chaotic setting any longer. In truth, everyone could already tell that the other party’s targets were only the guild leaders, that was why several guilds only had their guild leader retreat from the frontlines, while the rest of their guild members continued to fight. However, there were still some guild leaders who felt that hiding in such a fashion was too much of a disgrace, so they simply decided to get the whole guild to pull out as well. The player army that originally did not any advantage against the NPC city guards soon discovered that the number of players diminished, and whoever remained quickly found themselves at the point of routing. The battlefield swiftly became desolated, leaving just the city guards waving their weapons as the players that revived back in the encampment no longer came dashing right back into the fray and everyone hesitated greatly about continuing this battle since they only saw a paltry amount of players by their side.

“We can’t fight on at this rate!” Plenty of players had begun throwing some worthless items to the ground to express the anger they were feeling at this time.

“Thousand Miles Drunk has to be taken out!” some of the more perceptive players called out.

“We will never get a day of peace during this City Wars event if we don’t do anything about Thousand Miles Drunk,” just as people were saying this, another message came in. The fifth guild leader had died, but this person was as lucky as Black Index Finger; he had not been Honor-killed, so he only lost a single life with that one death and not the heavy penalty of 15 deaths. At this very moment, that person was busy thanking the heavens, moon and stars for their favor.

Gu Fei was but a man, and he was not infallible. This was especially true during battles where he simply could not ascertain just how much HP the enemy might have left. This time around, he had not been too accurate gauging his damage output control and all it took was a stronger hit that one time that ultimately resulted in his target to die by his hand. This time, the team that consisted of both Fireball and him were stuck in limbo in terms of their potential mission progress. Fireball still had the mission for the player they just killed, and they would now have to storm the encampment in order for them to accomplish this. But because the fighting by the walls stagnated once more as batches after batches of players sought to evacuate from the battlefield, that had been the only chance for Gu Fei and Fireball to strike at the guilds while they were on the retreat. By now, the two men very obviously stood out to the naked eye out on the empty plain that constituted the battlefield, because there were no other players in sight anywhere around them.

“To think we would have such an impact so soon,” Brother Assist and the others looked on at the wide and open battlefield, equally dumbfounded. Everyone had just finished a wave of missions, and when they were back looking for their new target, they realized that the entire place was devoid of any player aside from them.

“I thought we could play for a bit longer!” Royal God Call had quite some regrets; It was not easy for him to end up grouped up with several ladies, and they had only been able to finish just one mission together. Everybody had already fled before he could even locate the next target.

“At the moment, every group had managed to accomplish one mission each; that’s already a decent result,” Sword Demon commended.

“Where in the world is that idiot Delirious!?” Svelte Dancer’s complaints could still be heard over Extremely Heaven Defying’s guild channel, having not found her target this entire time.

“Should we head back to the city first? We’re kind of conspicuous standing here...” Brother Assist suggested. Now that the battlefield was no longer a chaotic melee, all of them were very exposed standing out there right now.

“Yeah, let’s all head back first,” Sword Demon gave the order as everyone made their way into the city, leaving just Will-low and Svelte Dancer still drifting about outside.

Everyone met up by the east gate and discussed what their next step would be.

—

Outside the east gate, over by the encampment used by the players assaulting the city, a huge group of guild leaders were also gathered, discussing just how they would deal with Thousand Miles Drunk and the others who now belonged to the city defender’s force. Nobody wanted to provoke the proverbial dragon back when Thousand Miles Drunk was only bothering Traversing Four Seas, but now that they discovered that Thousand Miles Drunk would take the initiative to give them trouble even without any provocations, everyone had no intentions of just waiting for their deaths to come like this.

“This is actually what’s going on with Honor Kills...” The four large guilds seized this opportunity to announce everything immediately. Instantly, there were long lines formed in front of the respective Field Marshals in charge of the various encampments, all of them intending to pick up the mission to kill either Thousand Miles Drunk or Sword Demon.

But no one really knew what to do after they were done picking up the mission. The mission itself did not give any coordinates as a hint, and plenty of people still had no idea what Thousand Miles Drunk or Sword Demon looked like. Everyone hated the feeling that came with knowing that the enemy was shrouded in secrecy while they were exposed out in the open; everyone could only stare at the various city gates and anxiously stay vigilant the moment they saw someone appear. It did not take too long before everyone began to have plenty of criticisms.

“Who is this guy? Always coming in and out to pick up the rocks and stones. Looking at how leisurely he’s doing this, it looks like he’s mocking us!”

“Who knows who that could be? Perhaps he is Thousand Miles Drunk in disguise!?”

“So annoying. Have you seen Thousand Miles Drunk?”

“No. And you?”

“Neither have I. I heard he’s dressed in black robes and his purple sword.”

“Then what if he changes his outfit?”

“I have no clue about that. Guess we’ll attack wherever we’re pointed to when that time comes!”

Plenty of discussions broke out everywhere, except there was no overall specific plan for everyone to follow. The guild leaders from the four large guilds saw that this was not the way to continue on. Everyone was no longer besieging the city, but Thousand Miles Drunk was nowhere to be seen either. Did that mean that they would all have to camp outside and defend the city outskirts just doing this loathsome mission? They had over 800 guilds here and that accounted for several tens of thousands of men. How could all of them be afraid of attacking the city when facing just that handful of men? If word were to spread about this, how could Yunduan City not be viewed as the most trash city from here onward?

Players would hold their own city with the deepest regard, so no one would accept such a conclusion. Out of all the four large guilds, it was Brave Surge from Carouse that finally addressed everyone, hoping that the various guilds would work together and continue to attack the city. Meanwhile, the job of defending the guild leaders would be passed on to the 400 men group that the four guilds had formed. Brave Surge gave all the guild leaders the guarantee that the 400 players would be the most elite group in Yunduan City as of yet, and they were comprised of the various elite players from the four large guilds.

Some of the guild leaders from the small guilds, upon thinking that even a large guild with a thousand players had trouble containing Thousand Miles Drunk, realized that they would not be up to snuff if they were really so fortunate as to run into him. They had been intending to try their luck and play a game of hide and seek instead, but now that Brave Surge had made his announcement, a good number of guild leaders supported it greatly and came forth to accept their protection.

Brave Surge did a round of promulgation and emphasized the benefit of reducing the manpower needed if everyone accepted their protection. Naturally, this made a lot of sense and finally, out of the over 800 guilds that joined Yunduan City’s City Wars event, approximately 95% of the guilds decided to take Brave Surge up on his suggestion. That meant that over 700 guild leaders headed to the location Brave Surge and the other large guild leaders had cordoned off. As a result, there were around 764 guild leaders, though the players responsible for defense was merely just the 400 men.

Of course, these four hundred men were definitely elites, and there were plenty of experts among the 764 guild leaders as well. However, there were also many noobs among them as some garbage guild leaders, who were still around level 30, had also mixed in among the crowd. Brave Surge accepted them all equally, though everyone felt that these guilds leaders were putting too much stock into themselves for even seeking refuge. Thousand Miles Drunk had never sought out an average player as a target.

This was not the first time that the guild leaders had gathered, though it was a far more complete gathering than the first time when they gathered. It was truly quite the spectacular sight seeing Yunjiao Farm so packed with guild leaders right now.

“Ahem, there’s already so many of us just counting the guild leaders alone; With so a huge force gathered here, do you still think there’s a need to have our 400 men guarding us?” Oathless Sword asked.

“Of course there’s a need,” Brave Surge said. “Considering how almost everyone gathered here is used to be giving the orders, I sincerely doubt that they would be able to coordinate with each other if they are all asked to listen to orders now. Besides, we accepted all the guild leaders that were interested, so there has been no consideration of job class composition, meaning there’s bound to be an imbalance of job classes here. Just from the casual glance I took before, There’s plenty of guild leaders here that are Warriors, and very few Priests...”

“You’re right...” Veteran MMO gamers very clearly understood this phenomenon. There was a very classic three pillars of job class composition that was the staple in MMO games for many years. Even in today’s Parallel World, players would find themselves relying on this tried and tested model to take on the system sometimes. This battle tactic was essentially the basic job class composition, with the Warrior taking up the role as the Main Tank that was pegged to the group’s survival. Being in such a core position made it perfectly justified for the player to step up to the role as the leader of the group, and when a guild was being formed, it was only natural for them to end up as the guild leader as well.

“But for 400 players to take care of over 700 players... I feel like that might be a little too much for the former to handle. Guild leaders will still have to organize themselves a bit, so that they could also become a force of strength in the event that something were to occur,” Brave Surge continued to add.

All of the guild leaders from the large guilds nodded in agreement, and very democratically suggested this to the mass of guild leaders gathered. All these guild leaders were already emboldened when they saw just how many guild leaders were gathered. There was even a good number of guild leaders who had proposed the four large guilds disband the 400 players, and that they would be fine protecting themselves. In the end, Brave Surge wasted his breath yet again explaining to everyone regarding the issue of the job class balance present. Brave Surge did not bother mentioning the difficulties that they would all face given their status as leaders that might make it difficult for them to coordinate with each other, given how unpleasant it would sound.

As such, the guild leaders began to get themselves organized with great verve, while the guild members from the various guilds had restarted their assault on the city once more. Having fought for such a long time, players had come to realize that there was a limited number of NPC city guards that would replace those that died. So if they were able to continue grinding the system down in such a manner, it was entirely possible for the players to be able to eke out a victory in this City War at the end of the day. However, Thousand Miles Drunk and his merry band of troublemakers must surely be eradicated if they seek to do so. At the moment, they had already deciphered just how the ‘Rudderless’ status affected the players, and it actually sealed their guild channel. Without this feature, the players could only form their own parties to fight, making it very inconvenient for them to communicate with each other, which also led to reduced assistance and coordination between one another.

—

While everything was happening, Gu Fei and the rest of the city defenders had not left the confines of the city the entire time, though they could very clearly grasp the movement beyond the city walls. It was easy for them to collect information regarding the over 700 guild leaders that had gathered together, while Svelte Dancer and Will-low both went forward to observe this happening. Even though Svelte Dancer did not explicitly express it in words, she had also ditched her initial plan of ‘locate and slay Delirious while things were still in a state of disarray’ deep down in her heart when faced with such a scene. At the moment, Yunjiao Farm was under heavy guard, with all 400 elite players from the 4 large guilds keeping the entire area in total lockdown. Meanwhile, all the guild leaders were concentrated within, clustered inside the encirclement, with nobody allowed in or out. Anyone wanting to get in would be subjected to heavy scrutiny and inspection. Svelte Dancer and Will-low had no idea what would be the subject of investigation, but it was very obvious that they would not be able to blend their way in if they were stopped to ask questions left and right. Everything would be exposed if the pair gave their IGNs and the name of their guild the moment another guild leader was asked to verify the information provided.

“It’s very convenient for us to do the missions now, because all the guild leaders are all at this set of coordinates here,” Svelte Dancer and Will-low had now transformed into a pair of scouts, reporting the situation back to the group.

“But the possibility of completing the quests would be extremely difficult, since all the guild leaders had been confined within, requiring players going in to undergo an inspection. Even going to the Moon would not be as troublesome as this,” Svelte Dancer commented.

“Have you been to the Moon?” Brother Assist asked.

“When I was younger. It’s very pointless. I do not recommend,” Svelte Dancer casually replied.

Everyone was quiet. Svelte Dancer was indeed a super wealthy person; to actually be able to experience something as luxurious as a vacation to the Moon!

“This is a chance to get them all in one go!” Gu Fei exclaimed.

Nobody cared to entertain the man, as no normal human being would even logically consider this to be a ‘chance’.

“Alright everyone, come and think; what can we do to exploit in this current situation?” Sword Demon called on for everyone in the guild to brainstorm some ideas.

“I think we cannot continue with our guild leader assassination missions, for the moment,” Brother Assist said.

“Naturally.”

“Why don’t we take a look around the city to see if there are any vital quests?” Brother Assist suggested.

“That’s a great idea!” June’s Rain vehemently supported this.

“Yes, that’s all we can do now. Miles, what do you say to this?” Sword Demon asked.

“Get them all in one go—”

“Dismissed,” Sword Demon declared.

“D*mm*t!” Gu Fei was glum.

“You can continue your investigation into that quest of yours,” Sword Demon said.

“Over by Yunjiao Lakeside...” Gu Fei randomly muttered to himself, just as Slyris very adroitly took her leave.

“That quest has been going for quite a while, and given that it is also a competitive quest, I do believe it would have heavy repercussions toward the City War here,” Sword Demon said.

“Alright, I’ll go take a look. Is there anyone keen to follow me?” Gu Fei called out.

Because everyone heavily suspected that Gu Fei would be dragging people out to go slaying, nobody answered him. In the end, Fireball was the remaining person who very firmly responded, “Drunk bro, I’ll go with you.”

“Fine!” Gu Fei was helpless, and could only accept this choice.

“Will we be joining up with Svelte Dancer and Will-low when we head out of the city?” Fireball asked.

“We’re going to Yunjiao Lakeside, Drunk bro. If we don’t bring ladies when heading over, we just might cause a misunderstanding with just the two of us. It’s really gross!” Fireball gagged.

“Don’t worry, if we are mistaken as an item, I’ll be sure to slay you. There won’t be any mistake by then, right?” Gu Fei stated.

“My bad, Drunk bro,” Fireball was in tears.

—

With the battle restarting outside once more, the two changed their equipment and mingled their way out of the city again. The others had already gone off in every direction, searching for a quest within the confines of the city. Sword Demon himself was about to do the same as well when he saw Ray carrying a huge basket from outside the city, walking back in, exhausted.

“Ray!” Sword Demon hailed the man.

“They are back at it again,” Ray was rather annoyed. He naturally had no means to make any progress with his quest that required him to clean up the battlefield outside once battle resumed, but the moment it came to a halt, Ray would immediately make his way over. Ray did not think of himself as a member of the trade association, but more like a laborer from the sanitation department.

“You should go look for other quests as well!” Sword Demon advised.

“Yeah, I’ll do that after I rest for a bit. Carry on with your own business then,” Ray said his goodbyes to Sword Demon.

After handing in his quest, Ray crawled back to his own bar and measured out a drink for himself, drinking it all in a single gulp. Smacking his lips, he felt the drink seemed to lack flavor, and so he entered his bar cabinet and began searching through his stock inside so he can brew another batch when he suddenly heard the bar doors he was standing next to crack open as someone pushed their way in.

“Who’s there?” Ray did not turn his head around. Anyone who could be a customer at this time should be someone whom he was already acquainted with by now, so he would more or less recognize them by their IGN.

“It’s me. I’m here to refill my drinks,” This person requested.

Ray was startled. This person’s voice and choice of words sounded very familiar. He quickly turned his head around and saw the person walk right over from the door, casually picking a table to sit down as he pulled out a small mountain of empty bottles on the table, rapping his knuckles against the wooden surface, “Come on, I’m in a rush here.”

“You... How did you get in here?” Ray was in shock.

“Why can’t I come here?” Young Master Han asked.

“The City Wars!” Ray sputtered in bewilderment.

“Hmph. Neutral third party players are able to enter and leave the city as they please. I should have realized this fact sooner,” Young Master Han said.

“You’re a neutral player?”

“How else am I seated here right now?” Young Master Han scoffed. “Quick, bring me your liquor!!!”

“Right away. I’ve got a new brew for you to try too!” Ray was excited. He finally got his bosom friend. With that, he swiftly brought out a huge barrel, pulled out a glass and handed it to Young Master Han, “Have a taste of this first.”

The moment Young Master Han heard that there was a new brew, his eyes lit up and came forward in a hurry. Young Master Han immediately grabbed the glass from Ray’s hands when he was done pouring one out for him. Just a whiff of the brew and Young Master Han could tell that this was very different from the usual liquor that was offered by the game, and so he took a deep quaff from the glass.

“So? How is it?” Ray was a little nervous.

“It’s very strong...” Young Master Han wrinkled his brow. “To think that there could be such a strong brew in this game. If that fool Deep Waters were to come here and smell this once, he would probably end up groggy for a whole day.”

“Haha, how very exciting, yes?” Ray exclaimed.

“Exciting indeed, but just give me the usual this time! I need to keep a clear head for now,” Young Master Han said.

“A clear head?” Ray did not understand why Young Master Han would say something like this.

“The City Wars, bro,” Young Master Han reminded.

“Aren’t you a neutral third party player?” Ray questioned.

“That’s only the designation the system gave me,” Young Master Han replied nonchalantly.

“Then... Which side are you on?” Ray asked.

“The attacking side,” Young Master Han said.

Ray was more and more confused the more he learned. He handed over an arm full of liquor bottles like he always did to Young Master Han, asking, “Then with regards to seeing you back in the city, should I keep this a secret from Miles, Sword Demon and the others?”

“That’s up to you,” Young Master Han paid the cost for the bottles and waved his hands off dismissively as he turned to leave.

“So, how was it? What did you find out?” The moment Young Master Han stepped out of the bar, people appeared on his left and right and quickly asked him this question.

“Find out? What am I finding out?” Young Master Han was lost.

“Didn’t you go into the bar to get some information?”

“Who said that’s what I was doing... I just came to refill my stock of liquor bottles.”

“Are you serious? But didn’t you say that you’re gonna get into the city to head to somewhere important to do something very important?” the other person was angry.

“That’s right. I needed to refill my liquor!”

“refill your liquor... Isn’t there a tavern right when we enter the city gates before?”

“Old habits die hard,” Young Master Han did not think too much about it.

“You...” This person evidently wanted to strangle Young Master Han to death.

“Relax, Brother Moonless. Haven’t we already sneaked into the city successfully?” Young Master Han said.

“Then what are we going to do next? Find Thousand Miles Drunk and kill them all?” Moonless asked. His full IGN was Moonless Water, and was a high ranking core member from Colored Clouds. This time, he was assigned to lead a group of guild members who had temporarily quit the guild, with Young Master Han with them, so that they could infiltrate Yunduan City as neutral third party players.