Virtual World: Close Combat Mage Chapter 134-136

Chapter 134 - Gambling

Gu Fei was eyeing Silver Moon with extreme disdain, yet the latter did not even notice it. After winning everyone's sympathy with his speech, the relationship between everyone in the cell seemed to have become closer. Silver Moon was truly leader material, as he actually managed to become the core of the cell occupants with just a few words. Gu Fei felt disgruntled when he saw everyone instinctively gravitating and crowding around Silver Moon.

After Silver Moon's sob story, he addressed everyone anew, "Everyone's pretty bored, right? Come. Let me show you something good to pass the time!"

"What is it?" everyone asked, curious.

Silver Moon beamingly opened his palm. All peeked at it and their eyes shone brightly afterward. Three dice lay on Silver Moon's palm.

"Wanna play a few rounds?" Silver Moon smilingly asked, and everyone excitedly nodded their heads.

"Why don't you guys join us as well?" Silver Moon beckoned Gu Fei's 'customers' that were huddled in the opposite corner of the cell. After Gu Fei successfully countered their plan to appeal to Royal God Call's 'customers', they glumly maintained their distance from the rest of the cell occupants.

The men looked at one another for a while. Imprisonment was a dull affair, so they would gladly participate in something that could allow them to pass the time, yet they were currently hesitating due to their pride.

"Come on! It's better with more people," Silver Moon shouted, turning to address his two companions, "Go drag them over here."

Silver Moon's two friends moved to get up, but the players already used that excuse to head over. Gu Fei chuckled impassively, Pull? Pull, my a*s. There's no way for players to have contact with one another in a safe zone like this cell.

Silver Moon proved to have quite a good grasp of people's hearts, yet he forgot to consider someone. After successfully gathering everyone, Silver Moon finally noticed that Gu Fei did not join them, so he quickly waved at him, "Brother Miles, come and join us in the fun, too!"

"No, thanks." Gu Fei smiled, saying, "I'm a little tired, so I'll lie down for a bit! You guys go ahead." With that, he folded his arms and placed them behind his head like a pillow and lay down. Silver Moon felt quite disappointed. He really wanted to pull Gu Fei to his side, but this Mage was not receptive to his methods. As he was about to try calling him over again, Gu Fei turned to his side and faced his butt to him. Thus, Silver Moon could only swallow what he had wanted to say.

Everyone of course knew how to play with dice. With how much they were shouting, it was as if this sort of gambling did not depend on luck but on their vocal cords instead.

How would Gu Fei sleep with such a din? He began to regret his earlier decision. Lying down for two hours in such a noisy environment without anyone to talk to… Was this not as good as self-punishment? With that thought in mind, Gu Fei got up and turned around. Silver Moon had a sly smile on his face as he glanced at him, "So, I guess you can't sleep!"

Gu Fei nodded his head, "Forget it! I'll join in as well!"

Silver Moon beamed in delight and vacated a spot for Gu Fei to sit in, "That's right; it's boring to do nothing. Oh, yeah. How long are you in here for?"

"Two hours," Gu Fei casually replied.

"Oh. How about you guys?" Silver Moon asked the rest of the players.

When fellow cellmates met for the first time, their usual question to one another was "How many hours?", so no one found Silver Moon's question suspicious. All stated their prison time. Since Royal God Call and Gu Fei had specifically chosen players with high PK value as their bounty targets, all these players had quite a long duration ahead of them.  Gu Fei turned out to be the one serving the shortest time with only two hours after all stated their imprisonment duration, yet these players entered the prison earlier, so all were at the final stretch of their stay.

This last portion was usually the hardest to endure, so many found it a blessing that Silver Moon had brought this game of dice in, allowing them to pass the time quicker with something largely entertaining as gambling.

Gu Fei usually took things in stride, so he immediately immersed himself into the game. Because he did not have the same conservative attitude toward in-game currency like the regular players, he gambled with a sort of 'did not matter if I won or lost' mentality. Although that was well worthy of praise, the amount of joy he could gain from playing the game decreased by quite a bit.

The other players were different; they hooted, hollered, and stared at one another with competitiveness, making the game exciting and nerve-wracking. When they won, they wanted to win more; when they lost, they wanted to recover their loss. This was how people found gambling so addictive. Furthermore, most players were not rich and some even had very trashy luck, losing all their gambling funds after a short while.

This was when Silver Moon would swoop in and lend them a hand, passing them a few gold coins and simply stating that it was a loan.

Those players who had received a loan from him naturally continued to play. If they won, they would pay up; if they lost, they would borrow some more.

After a while, it became a habit for everyone to borrow some coins from Silver Moon after losing everything they had. Silver Moon did not reject any of them. Gu Fei, who did not lack in-game currency, also tried reaching out and borrowing coins from him several times, getting 5 gold coins from Silver Moon in total.

Silver Moon's dubious character made Gu Fei suspicious of all this. However, he had yet to discover anything shady after observing the gambling process.

Everyone's playing style was simplistic. There was no specific dealer or player. When it came to the dice roll, the largest number would win the whole pot. If there were two same rolls, the pot would be split 50/50. This was a game entirely dependent on luck and it was the simplest sort of gambling that did not need any consideration whatsoever.

After observing the players' winning and losing expressions, he realized that all of them, including Silver Moon, were guileless gamblers. Seems like this really is an innocent game to while the time away, Gu Fei refuted his original thought that Silver Moon had some devious plan in mind. Honestly speaking, winning this game was easy for Gu Fei. If it was a rolling with a dice cup, Gu Fei would not be able to roll out any particular result. But if it was a straight toss like what they were doing now, although he did not have any practice in doing so, Gu Fei had the dexterity to toss out the numbers he needed three out of ten times. This was much better odds compared to others who purely depended on luck.

Gu Fei did not see a need to use it, though, so he honestly depended on his luck to make the casual throws. Moreover, rolling out his required numbers with the three dice was quite taxing; he even thought of it as a harder feat to accomplish than throwing a flying dagger to kill someone. If he had to do such tosses, Gu Fei reckoned that his wrist and hand would immediately cramp up from the effort. Having adroit fingers was truly very difficult.

And so, the bunch of cell occupants continued to engage in their theoretically illegal gambling without a hitch. They cared naught for who would lose or win, only that they could while their time away. One after another, the players were sent out of the prison once their time was up. There was even a player who had just won a big pot right before he left. Just as he happily pounced upon the pile of coins, his time in prison was up and he was unceremoniously sent out before he could put even 1 copper coin inside his dimensional pocket. Everyone became alert after that.

This was a game, after all. The quest log would have a countdown timer on how much time was left before the players could be released from prison. Players who therefore continued to gamble despite their time almost being up were simply fighting against time at that point. The power of gambling was clearly displayed in everyone's attitude. Seeing that their time was almost up, each of them looked very unwilling to leave. Some players who were intently playing the game even looked as if their leaving was akin to them dying.

As Gu Fei did not care about winning or losing, he naturally did not feel any attachment toward the game. His heart fluttered like a sparrow in the spring when he saw that his time was almost up. He did not know how much he had won and lost throughout the course of the game; the only thing he knew was that he owed Silver Moon 5 gold coins.

At this point, the only ones left serving their time in the cell were Gu Fei and Silver Moon and his two companions. Playing with just the few of them was no longer exciting, so they began to chat with one another more.

"Miles, I've felt that you are not just an average player the moment I first laid my eyes on you," Silver Moon complimented Gu Fei graciously.

"He he!" Gu Fei chortled.

"You should consider my offer; join me and let's build the number one mercenary group in Yunduan City," Silver Moon offered.

"There - There's no need!" Gu Fei rejected once more.

Silver Moon chuckled, "Fine, I won't force you anymore. Join us whenever you feel like doing so. Add me to your friends list once you get out." All sorts of messaging services were restricted in the underground prison; adding someone as a friend was part of these restricted services.

Gu Fei did not give a definite answer to Silver Moon's suggestion.

Silver Moon looked at the time, "How many minutes do you have left?"

"Sixteen minutes." With that, he threw his dice and collected the gold coins into his arms while maintaining a poker face the whole time.

"You're pretty lucky; how many consecutive wins is that?" Silver Moon asked, surprised.

Faking puzzlement, Gu Fei scrunched his face and openly exclaimed, "How annoying; why wasn't my luck so good when there were more people around." Now only four of them were left, the final pot was no more than three gold coins. The content was far fewer than what it had before.

The speed of the rounds between them was faster, though. Gu Fei fought for every second faster than the people who had left before him now that it was his turn to leave. Silver Moon pointed at him and jokingly said, "Man, I never saw you playing with such vigor when everyone was here. Now your luck with the rolls has become good, are you trying to sap me of my coins?"

Gu Fei laughed politely.

"How many coins do you have? Why don't we play for a larger wager?" Silver Moon suggested.

"Oh, that's great. Let's have 12 gold coins as the ante," Gu Fei readily agreed.

"12 gold coins? Why is it 12 gold coins?" Silver Moon could not understand why he had picked such an odd number.

Gu Fei laughed, "There are three of you, so a winning of 12 gold coins can be split evenly!"

Three against one; the three would win as long as one of them had a higher roll than Gu Fei, whereas Gu Fei only had one chance to win against all three of them. This was no longer about luck and was now an arithmetic equation of probability.

Silver Moon's face immediately blanched when heard what Gu Fei had said, "Miles what do you mean? Are you saying that us, three, are trying to fleece you?"

Gu Fei still had that same smile on his face, "Man, can't you tell I was joking?"

Silver Moon still maintained that wronged expression on his face.

Gu Fei said, "Look. If I truly suspected you guys of foul play, would I suggest upping the ante? Do you think I'm stupid?"

Hearing that, Silver Moon's face slightly softened as he nodded his head, "I hope Miles didn't think we're that sort of people."

"How could that be," Gu Fei laughed forcefully. "Why don't we just bet 13 gold coins, instead? How does that sound?"

"Not a problem," Silver Moon accepted it readily.

Fourteen minutes later, the betting had to stop. One of Silver Moon's companions paled, "I have no coins left."

Gu Fei's expression was even more serious than this person's. Staring at the small mountain of gold coins, he gaped, "To think all my good luck today rest entirely in these few minutes."

Silver Moon's face was ashen and he said dryly, "Your luck is really great."

"Yeah, it is!" Gu Fei nodded his head as he began to fill his dimensional pocket with his earnings. When it got to his last 5 gold coins, he returned it to Silver Moon, "I'm returning you the 5 gold coins I borrowed earlier."

"Forget it. It's only 5 gold coins," Silver Moon pushed his hand away.

"Take 'em! Take 'em!" Gu Fei forcefully stuffed the few gold coins into Silver Moon's hands as he patted his dimensional pocket, "I've already gotten quite a bit of gold coins from you."

Silver Moon's eyes twitched crazily.

Gu Fei glanced at that companion of his that that had lost all his gold coins, "Shall I lend you some gold coins? Else, you guys can't continue once I leave."

The person shook his head and did not say a word.

"Are you sure you don't need any?" Gu Fei asked once more.

"Nope," the person croaked.

"Oh! If that's the case, I'm leaving," Gu Fei stood up.

The three nodded their heads as Silver Moon said, "Keep in touch."

"How much longer are you guys in for?" Gu Fei asked instead.

"About four hours more," Silver Moon answered.

"Good luck. See you guys around," Gu Fei looked at the broke player and waved goodbye. In a white flash, he found himself out of the cell.

"F*ck!" Just as Gu Fei disappeared, the broke player who had lost everything to Gu Fei beat the floorboards in exasperation.

The other player picked up the three dice and studied them closely, "Was his luck truly just amazing?"

"What else could it be?" Silver Moon retorted.

"Skill?" someone voiced his suspicion.

"If he had this skill, he would already be rich. Why would he use it here to win a few shitty gold coins?" Silver Moon stated the obvious.

The other two companions of his were speechless, neither able to make sense of what had just happened. Actually, Silver Moon also did not feel good right now as he had lost many gold coins as well.

"Forget it; let's not think anymore about that. Now that the prison is empty, let us begin our quest!" With that sentence, his two companions nodded their heads and all three began to get busy in the cell.

Gu Fei, who had finally exited the prison, breathed a huge sigh of relief. The game environment inside was too real. The air in the underground prison was damp and rotten. The game designers boldly designed everything inside to be so life-like because they knew that the simulation would have no negative effect on people's health in reality. However, the psychological effect of undergoing that entire ordeal was evident. Gu Fei gasped for quite a few breaths of air and instantly thought that the world was a truly wonderful place to live freely in and would never ever enter the prison again even if it meant his death. After Gu Fei collected himself, he finally noticed that a person was seating on the stone steps of the underground prison's entrance.

As he bewilderedly backed away for a bit, the person turned its face toward his direction. "It's you," the person said expressionlessly.

It was Vast Lushness. Gu Fei sighed in relief as he asked, "Are you waiting for Silver Moon?"

Vast Lushness nodded her head, "I sent him a message and the system prompt stated that he is 'not in a serviceable area', so that probably means that he's currently serving time in prison."

Gu Fei nodded his head, "He's inside. I saw him."

"Oh…" Vast Lushness said, yet no happiness was visible on her face.

"I'm going."

"Bye."

Gu Fei walked off a few steps before turning back. Vast Lushness sat there by the stone steps by herself, looking very lonesome. He thought for a bit before finally returning to face Vast Lushness.

She raised her head to look at Gu Fei.

"There are some things that you should know…" Gu Fei began. As Vast Lushness looked at him unerringly, Gu Fei repeated everything Silver Moon had said inside the prison.

Her expression actually did not change much when he told her everything. No rage or sadness was visible on her face and she just listened quietly to Gu Fei's recount.

"I… I still want to ask him myself," Vast Lushness finally said.

Gu Fei nodded his head and walked away. Turning his head backward after five steps, he shared, "Silver Moon said he should be out in four hours or so. Maybe you can log off and take a rest first."

"Alright," Vast Lushness nodded her head.

Gu Fei faced forward once more and left the area. He did not look back even once and walked all the way to a log-off point and went offline.

When he got online the next day, he immediately received Royal God Call's message asking him to head over at Ray's Bar. By the time Gu Fei entered their usual private room, all the members of Young Master's Elite mercenary group were already there. Before everyone would grind in earnest each night, the mercenary group members would meet up and spend time together for a bit. Truthfully, there would hardly be any form of interaction between the six if it was not for this habitual meet-up. This was because the mercenary group had not had anyone hiring them for anything for a long time.

This reality proved that Young Master Han was not fit to be in charge of the mercenary group's operations.

Many ways existed for a mercenary group to gain fame compared to a guild. A guild's strength lay in its number of members and the quality of these members. As for a mercenary group, besides the two methods mentioned, it also had the quest completion leaderboard in the Hall of Mercenaries to display the group's prowess.

The leaderboard was arranged by the total number of quests taken, the number of quests completed, and the overall percentage of quest completion of every mercenary group. The amount of completed quests and percentage of completed quests were very important factors. With a higher percentage of completed quests, a mercenary group would indubitably be widely lauded.

As for Young Master's Elite mercenary group, it was not even listed there. Just based on the percentage of completed quests alone, the mercenary group achieved the highest possible 100%. However, when the number of completed quests was considered, people would think that the mercenary group was a newly established one. This was especially so because the mercenary group's attainment and completion of system-issued quests was glaringly zero.

Chapter 135 - Event

The system would release a set amount of quests, which was more than the amount of requests from players who needed help, at a specific time every day. Any mercenary group that wished to attain fame would depend on completing these system-issued quests repeatedly every single day. If the completion count and percentage of success were high, the mercenary group's rank would become higher. Naturally, players would look for these better ranked mercenary groups to aid them in their requests.

However, system-issued quests, especially those repeatable ones, were very boring. No matter how interesting a quest was, no one would find joy in doing it for ten times, hundred times, or thousand times. The perseverance required to do so would be staggering.

Young Master Han was extremely impatient when it came to doing such dull tasks, so the mercenary group under his leadership did not even consider this route. Young Master Han's plan was to become famous through the word of mouth of players who had hired their mercenary group before.

The first step toward this development was considerably successful; the quest to takedown Mountain Bandit Leader Sooto in Oolong Cave was extremely difficult back then, so completing it allowed Young Master's Elite mercenary group to become a key figure of discussion in the Hall of Mercenaries and taverns for a period of time. It was this success that that had led to Amethyst Rebirth looking them up for a request.

However, No Smile was a mercenary mission that was done with utmost secrecy. Although the success for the mission was beyond outstanding, it did not technically contribute to the mercenary group's statistics.

Afterward, no other missions out there were worth picking up. Obtaining quests with extreme level of difficulty needed good luck and not all players were willing to expend the effort and funds to hire others to complete their quests for them.

These factors caused the development of Young Master's Elite mercenary group to stagnate. It was unclear if Young Master Han had lost his enthusiasm for the group as he did not do anything to help develop their prospects now that they had no business readily at hand. While other mercenary group leaders would spend days in the Hall of Mercenaries to research and choose all sorts of quests, Young Master Han would instead be at Ray's Bar drinking all day. At this rate, Young Master's Elite would eventually become just another small mercenary group that was hardly worth noticing.

Today, with the six men gathered, Young Master Han suddenly announced: "The time for our mercenary group to establish itself is now."

Just as everyone thought that he had become a raving lunatic, Brother Assist explained what Young Master Han meant with a solemn tone, "The system is about to host their first event. It's a mercenary PvP tournament as well as a guild PvP tournament."

Most companies would use holidays or anniversaries to host special events in order to increase their games' impact to people. Record highs of the number of players online would usually be created on such days. What attracted players even more as well as the main reason why players valued such events was the hard-to-obtain-elsewhere awards that the officials would give during those events.

Parallel World's spokespersons stated that the upcoming special event was to celebrate the official release of the game. Everyone was already aware of this upcoming event since the game company had announced about it when the open beta was about to end. Nonetheless, information regarding the contents of the event was kept under wraps. As for dragging it for more than a month, it was very likely that the game company extended the period for marketing promotion purposes. Besides, it gave players who had just joined Parallel World after its open beta days more time to increase their levels.

Given how many experience points was required to level up, the distance between the levels of the players was close. Two players who were at level 40 could have a difference of three days worth of grinding time in terms of experience points. And yet, this difference, when translated into Strength, was barely perceptible that it would not arouse a player's sense of satisfaction.

Brother Assist's information sources informed him about the event's particulars before they were announced to the public. Upon finding out that the event would have mercenary group and guild related portions, he immediately told Young Master Han to gather everyone. Since even regular players would do their best to participate in such event no matter how it ended up, experts like them would naturally try their hardest to showcase their prowess in it as well.

"We must dominate this event, so that our names will become renowned throughout Parallel World!" After dramatically saying this, Young Master Han realized his faux-pas. In this room, besides Young Master Han who had changed his IGN, Sword Demon, Brother Assist, Royal God Call, and War Without Wounds were already names well-known throughout the gaming community. As for Gu Fei, quite the commotion would even occur if he revealed his identity as Fugitive 27149, seeing as he was currently acknowledged as the best player - or the secret boss - of Parallel World.

Unsurprisingly, Young Master Han's speech about them becoming "renowned throughout Parallel World" did not have any impact on these five men.

Young Master Han cleared his throat as he expressed his opinion once more, "I think we must participate in this event. Since we've already gotten wind of this matter, everyone should do the necessary preparations. Those who have yet to advance their classes should do so at the earliest—you guys are about done with your individual research, right? Miles, can you make it to level 40 in these few remaining days before the event?"

"I don't think so," Gu Fei said. He still needed a large chunk of experience points to reach level 40!

"Has anyone here proceeded with Job Class Advancement already?" Young Master Han asked.

Four of them shook their heads. Each of them was well aware that hurrying to advance the job class would not affect their daily grinding, so no one was careless enough to make a choice before the research of the two available paths was done. All were waiting for the officials to reveal more information before they took that crucial step.

"I'll leave you guys to it, then!" Young Master Han waved his hand dismissively. From the others' perspective, he was someone who was afraid of nuisances as even his speech avoided going into details about certain matters. Leaving things as that, he said, "Our main competitors this time are other mercenary groups. Brother Assist will spend the next two days gathering information on the major mercenary groups here in Yunduan City and researching about them."

All nodded their heads in acknowledgement.

"That's it," Young Master Han waved his hands to adjourn the meeting.

"I'm off to continue my 'Bounty Mission'!" Royal God Call was the first to get up. He said this in a tone that sought for Gu Fei's instruction and guidance on the matter.

"Go on, Royal," Gu Fei gave him the go-signal.

With that, the five got up to leave one after another. Young Master Han only peeked out of the room to shout, "Liquor" over to Ray and then he sat down once more.

Outside the bar, War Without Wounds and Sword Demon went about their businesses. It was at this point that Gu Fei received a summon from Amethyst Rebirth to attend a meeting as well. This in itself was a hundred-year rare occurrence. Having not visited the Amethyst Rebirth's guild house for quite some time, Gu Fei felt somewhat muddled about which of the door signs on the streets belonged to it.

As he made his way over, he realized that Brother Assist was going down the same route as him. Striking up a conversation with Brother Assist as they walked, Gu Fei suddenly recalled to ask him about a matter, "Do you know of a person called 'Drifting'?"

"Of course," Brother Assist said, adding, "He is a veteran gamer - a Mage expert."

"Is that so? Between him and Royal, who is the stronger one?" Gu Fei asked.

"You're asking something that people have argued endlessly since those two became famous," Brother Assist stated.

"But didn't you guys say that Royal is the number one Mage?" Gu Fei felt that his statement was strange.

"B*llsh*t. That's only because we have Royal sitting with us. If Drifting was the one sitting there at the time, we would say that he is the number one Mage," Brother Assist confided.

Gu Fei lost his smile instantly, thinking that they really were a bunch of hypocrites. With that in mind, he asked, "So who do you really think is stronger?" Although Brother Assist's capability was just so-so, he was definitely the best when it came to gaming knowledge. Evaluation was his strong suit.

"That…" Brother Assist hesitated slightly before saying, "Don't tell Royal this!"

Gu Fei smiled, "Got it. I already know the answer."

Brother Assist smiled back, "I'm not saying that Royal isn't as good. But you've seen how flamboyant Royal is. Everyone knows clearly what he is like as a person. Whereas that kid will immediately boast to everyone any new trick or technique he has learned, Drifting does not easily share what he knows to others. If he discovers any trick or technique, I reckon he will hide it well. He is calm and calculative and is usually very low key. You'll only know how powerful he is when he acts. So while Royal's strength is obvious for all to see, Drifting will still have something up his sleeves. Just from how they think, I feel that Royal cannot compare to him."

"Mhm. I share your sentiment," Gu Fei nodded his head in agreement. Drifting was extremely protective when it came to his 'Blossoming Crimson Lotus' skill.

"You know Drifting?" Brother Assist asked, surprised. The five mercenary group members knew how amazing Gu Fei was, yet he was still a newbie in MMO through and through.

Gu Fei nodded his head in affirmation, "I met him two days ago. He's currently in Yunduan City."

"What's he here for?" Brother Assist asked, astonished.

"I don't know," Gu Fei shrugged his shoulders.

Brother Assist muttered by his side.

Gu Fei asked another question, "Do you know who those Five Unyielding Experts that everyone is currently talking about are?"

Brother Assist laughed, "The five players who are at level 41 on the overall leaderboard, you mean? I don't know who that Fighter, Lifetime Dominion, is. I'm not sure if he's someone who has changed his IGN for Parallel World. The Archer called Deep Waters and the Warrior called Southern Lone Blade are two famous professional gamers. As for that Thief, Svelte Dancer, that person is a woman. She is known historically as the mightiest pay-to-win gamer. I've never had contact with this woman before, but I heard that her skill control is quite prodigious. It's not unexpected that she is strong; while others put their money into starting a business, she chose to spend hers on training her skills. However, I feel that if Sword Demon hasn't been ganged up on and lost his level, then one of the five's positions would be his."

"What a pity," Gu Fei felt sorry for Sword Demon. The amount of work he had put into this game was definitely not something anybody could imagine. His passion toward gaming was comparable to Gu Fei's passion toward kung fu. On the flipside, Young Master Han was much more casual about gaming, making him wonder how the two even got together.

Ray's Bar was not far from Amethyst Rebirth, but it was rare for Brother Assist to actually walk with Gu Fei all the way there. By the time their conversation ended, the signboard for Amethyst Rebirth was already before the two's eyes. Gu Fei pointed to it and said, "I've arrived at my destination."

"Oh," Brother Assist patted him and smiled warmly before continuing his way.

Gu Fei pushed open the door and inhaled the cool air inside.

It had been a long time since he last visited this place. Amethyst Rebirth's headquarters did not get larger but the people it housed increased quite substantially. Gu Fei swept his gaze to his usual spot by the corner and found someone already occupying it.

Not knowing where to position himself, he just stood dumbly by the entrance. Quite a number of new faces spotted Gu Fei and each of them had a bewildered expression on their faces. They had never seen a man enter this room ever since joining Amethyst Rebirth.

As discomfiture set in, a lady suddenly popped out of the crowd and headed toward Gu Fei while shouting, "Miles!" 

Gu Fei glanced over. Isn't that Xiaoyu? After a month of not seeing her, the lady's appearance had changed so much. Gone was her full-body, heavy armor and in its place was a form-fitting, flexible armor that was popular among female Warriors. This sort of armor might look fragile, but it was considered as the heavy armor variant. The game company refitted the armor's design since they knew the female players' fussiness about their appearances. Red and black dominated Xiaoyu's armor design. It did not have any bright glow or shimmer, yet it still had a very bold and heroic feel to it. She was not wearing her helmet at this moment, so her long hair cascaded on her shoulders as she walked toward Gu Fei. It was truly a wonderful sight that harmoniously mixed strength with gentleness.

"Long time no see!" June's Rain casually patted Gu Fei on his back.

Gu Fei was still smiling when that clap slammed onto his back. That clap on his back weighed a ton, and he instantly cried out inside him, Not good! Xiaoyu was still such a klutz who did not know how to hold her strength back.

As he staggered to the side for several steps, Gu Fei's ego received a heavy bruising. Gu Fei getting outbalanced by a lady's single slap was just too ridiculous, yet he was helpless against this situation. As the characters in-game continued to allocate points, the players' Strength, Agility, and similar stats began to go beyond human beings' capabilities. Xiaoyu's full-Strength build was like the power of Popeye. Gu Fei was easily overpowered and crushed like aluminum can.

Just as Gu Fei was about to find his balance, someone slotted her arm into his and propped him up. He turned and saw that the person was Will-low.

"You alright?" Will-low smiled.

"I'm fine!" Feeling miserable, he returned the question to her, "Are you alright?"

Will-low knew what he was talking about, so she nodded her head.

When Gu Fei was thrown out of balance, someone cried out in a reproaching tone, "Xiaoyu!"

June's Rain covered her mouth as she exclaimed, "Ahhh! I forgot!"

With that, she quickly came over to have a look at Gu Fei. "Don't mind her. She already staggered quite a few people today." The one speaking was Guild Leader July whom Gu Fei had not met for more than a month.

"Why would I mind? Xiaoyu and I are brothers, after all!" Gu Fei said.

"He he! That's right!" Xiaoyu agreed as she tried to pat him on the shoulder once more. Gu Fei was no longer careless this time and he shifted his shoulder to the side, causing that slap of hers to loudly whisk by.

"I don't think I can afford to let my guard down!" Gu Fei wiped the sweat off his forehead in relief.

It was at this moment that Heal descended on to Gu Fei's body. He knew who the culprit was without even looking at her. Just as he had presumed, Luo Luo's voice resounded from the side, "You won't treat my Heal as useless this time, right?" An all-Strength Warrior's Attack Power without a weapon was nothing to scoff at, so Xiaoyu's first slap indeed lowered Gu Fei's HP by some.

Gu Fei did not reply to her, thinking that all these guild ladies were such a handful.

"Everyone, let me introduce this person here," July clapped her hands to call all the ladies' attention, saying, "This person is our guild's Thousand Miles Drunk."

The ladies who had previously not known about Gu Fei already learned from the old members of his identity. Since July was the one formally introducing him, everyone reacted accordingly with applauses and screams. There were even some who whistled. Gu Fei was someone who had never appeared before them, so the ladies jokingly dubbed him as a 'Man of Mystery'. The atmosphere became really lively now that he was here in person and was being teased by everyone enthusiastically.

It was at this moment in time when Gu Fei's profession came into play.

The boys and girls in the school that Gu Fei was teaching took P.E. classes separately, so P.E. teachers like him could be said to be the only ones that could take on a group of girls by themselves. Gu Fei already experienced such scenarios countless times before, so he very casually nodded his head toward the ladies and greeted, "Hello, students."

"Ha ha ha ha!" Everyone played along with Gu Fei's joke and laughingly said, "Hello, sir!"

This scene unknowingly lifted the mood. Gu Fei once more smiled toward the ladies and the awkwardness in the air dissipated on its own. Luo Luo was simply amazed as she watched all this unfold from the side. This guy is always uncomfortable whenever I bestowed Heal on to him, yet he's actually calmly interacting with all these ladies, Luo Luo thought to herself.

July swept her gaze over the crowd and happily announced, "Alright. Everyone more or less is here. Let me begin by saying that the officials are about to host an event. The activities this time are a mercenary group tournament as well as a guild tournament. I heard that the prizes will be rather generous. Our guild isn't huge, but there's no harm in us participating in it. Both matches are not mutually exclusive either. Since our guild does not have a mercenary group, we can form one if there are members here who wish to participate in the mercenary group tournament."

The ladies solemnly listened to July speak. Only Xiaoyu leaped up and clenched her fists as she moved to hit Gu Fei in her excitement, "It's a quest! A QUEST!"

No wonder she suddenly came back; it was because she wanted to participate in this event. Although Parallel World had been up for some time, this girl's fervor toward quests did not diminish in the least. Gu Fei smilingly took a few steps backward to dodge the unintentional attack. That first slap of hers is already painful enough. If I receive this current punch of hers, won't I get punctured?

July's speech had not yet ended, "Ladies, try your best to level up as much as you can in these few remaining days before the event commences."

It seemed like July also had someone in the know, as she got a hold of information that Brother Assist had gotten wind of.

"So, who wishes to enter the mercenary group tournament? Come and sign up and we'll form a mercenary group," July encouraged.

That competition would clearly be a PvP match, so few Amethyst Rebirth's ladies were interested in it. Joining the guild and experiencing the event together with everyone was already enough. To participate in the mercenary group tournament … The ladies' enthusiasm waned a bit. Besides Lie Lie who promptly jumped out and put her name forward as team leader, everyone else was hesitating.

"Miles, are you participating?" July singled him out and asked.

"I already have a mercenary group," Gu Fei refused.

"Oh!" July did not say anything else. This sort of occurrence was commonplace. Not every guild would have a mercenary group under its name. Amethyst Rebirth was one such example; therefore, it was excusable for its members to join external mercenary groups.

Lie Lie cajoled for a long time before she managed to convince a few ladies to join the group. Gu Fei laughed disapprovingly by the side, thinking of the ladies' subpar skills being pitted against Sword Demon and the bunch of experts'. Besides relying on their seduction skills, there was nary a chance for these ladies to claim victory.

Thinking of that, Gu Fei immediately realized that if these ladies really clashed with Young Master's Elite mercenary group, they would instantly lose Royal God Call and War Without Wounds in the ensuing battle.

As for the other three men, they might not act as crazily as Royal God Call and War Without Wounds toward women on the surface, yet who knew what they were feeling inside? Gu Fei recalled how Sword Demon's emotions were all over the place when he first met Xi Xiaotian back then.

As he was indulging in all these nonsensical thoughts, Gu Fei received a message. He opened the message and saw that it was Coward's Savior calling loudly, "Master, I finally managed to contact you. Let's meet."

"Where?" Gu Fei asked.

As the two set a meeting place, Gu Fei saw that the ladies were beginning to disperse. He bade the few he was friendlier with goodbye before leaving the guild house.

Gu Fei and Coward's Savior arranged to meet at the fountain by the plaza at the heart of Yunduan City. Coward's Savior had already been waiting there for quite some time when Gu Fei arrived. As soon as he spotted Gu Fei, he immediately struck a Mantis Fist style stance; his body rocked back and forth as his mouth mimicked the insect's cry.

Gu Fei immediately went forward and extended his leg to hook Coward's Savior's. The latter swiftly took half a step backward to dodge that while maintaining his stance. He actually evaded Gu Fei's leg hook.

"You've trained well!" Gu Fei complimented. Coward's Savior's half a step completely complimented Seven Stars Steps' footwork. Naturally, Gu Fei's cursory leg hook was done to probe him. Otherwise, how could Coward's Savior's one month of training match Gu Fei's twenty years of kung fu training? Would that not mean that Coward's Savior was far more deserving to be the lead star here?

Having received Gu Fei's praise, Coward's Savior happily continued to display his fighting stance.

"Alright, alright! That's enough!" Gu Fei said. Mantis Fist Style's stance was very flashy, so it easily drew the people's attention in this crowded location of the city.

"What's happening over in Yueye City?" Gu Fei engaged Coward's Savior in some polite small talk.

Coward's Savior shook his head, "Same old, same old. Originally, everyone thought that eradicating Past Deeds would turn things for the better. In the end, the Ten Guild Alliance has more members than Past Deeds, which resulted into them being worse player bullies."

"The Ten Guild Alliance? What is that?" Gu Fei asked.

"Oh. It's the alliance of ten guilds. Since none of the guilds' level is high enough to contain all Yueye City's people, they have yet to merge all right now," Coward's Savior explained.

Gu Fei inhaled a sharp breath. Before, the tyrannical and overbearing guild was only Past Deeds; now, with the alliance of those ten guilds... Yueye City was indeed a place that never grew peaceful.

"Yueye City's players decreased by a huge lot," Coward's Savior continued, saying, "Everyone already ran off to other in-game cities."

Chapter 136 - Survival Challenge

Gu Fei and Coward's Savior went back to discussing about kung fu once they concluded their small talk. Coward's Savior could not wait to let Gu Fei witness the progress he had made in this one month of training.

Gu Fei failed to stop Coward's Savior in time and the latter already bellowed a cry, leaping to the side of the fountain and executing several moves of the Mantis Fist Style. The demonstration was unintentionally garish and immediately drew the attention of the surrounding players. Watching Coward's Savior, these spectators mumbled the same question to one another: "Is he sick or something?"

Coward's Savior was unfazed by the people's odd looks and continued executing the moves of the Seven Stars Mantis Fist Style: Thrusting Hammer, Wheel Turnover, Spring Step, Ripping off the Helmet, Double Flower Thrust, Eighteen Weave... Each move was measured, accurate, and smooth. Using online gaming terms, Coward's Savior's skill and proficiency were already quite high. However, it was an entirely different story when it came to applying his moves to actual combat.

Gu Fei felt moved when he saw that Coward's Savior cared naught for the people's ridiculing stares toward him, as this scenario was something he was well acquainted with. When he was younger, Gu Fei was so proud of his kung fu that he also disregarded everyone's strange looks. In retrospect, he knew that his pride for his capability could only be kept in his heart because far too many people did not understand it.

Just like Gu Fei's situation in his school… Kung fu… Under such a circumstance that everyone treated it as a sort of joke, his reverence for it unknowingly diminished. Unless—"Hey! What's this nincompoop doing?" a man suddenly heckled from the crowd.

Sigh! Coward's Savior happened to be facing that direction and saw the person who had mocked him. With a roar, he charged toward the disrespectful man and performed the lower back suplex he had learned from Nine Twists and Eighteen Trips - another move of the Seven Stars Mantis Style. As the man's back hit the ground, Coward's Savior took two steps backward to assume his original position.

Gu Fei nodded his head sagely, That's how it should be done. That was the only way to show others that kung fu was not a joke. It was a pity that Gu Fei was restricted from using this method on his naysayers since he was young; otherwise, it would have been a simple matter for him to demonstrate the genuineness and value of his martial arts prowess.

The man who had received the suplex felt stunned. However, he quickly recovered himself upon seeing that his HP did not decrease much. The laughter of the crowd around him made him feel utterly embarrassed. With a forward roll, he got up and cursed, "Stinky brat." Reaching into his dimensional pocket, he pulled out his Bastard Sword and brandished it menacingly toward Coward's Savior.

Gu Fei stood still, watching how Coward's Savior would react to this.

Coward's Savior calmly slid to the side with two steps, and the overhead cleave that had come from behind Coward's Savior missed him entirely. He then proceeded to hug the man around the waist. A thunderous bellow escaped Coward's Savior's lips as he tossed the opponent into the air, landing him right into the nearby fountain with a splash.

"Oh, come on!" Gu Fei muttered under his breath. Seismic Toss… Coward's Savior actually used his job class' skill in the nick of time to save himself instead of the Mantis Fist Style.

The man was soaked through as he stood up from the fountain. He clearly knew now that he was no match for Coward's Savior when it came to PvP. With the deafening laughter coming from the surrounding crowd, he meekly crawled out of the fountain and made himself scarce as soon as he could.

"Let's go!" Gu Fei said to Coward's Savior.

"Are we not practicing anymore?" Coward's Savior asked; he was not finished with his demonstration yet.

"Let's find a place with monsters to practice!" Gu Fei answered.

Coward's Savior was new to Yunduan City, so he was naturally not familiar with any of the grinding maps here. Moreover, Coward's Savior was currently only at level 34 as he neither played much during this past month nor possessed a grinding efficiency near Gu Fei's level. Gu Fei brought him to a level 30 grinding map, pointing to the monsters and saying to Coward's Savior, "There are three phases when practicing kung fu: fundamental, routine, and sparring. You've already learned the fundamentals in reality so doing them in-game is not necessary. You're also familiar with the routine, so what's left is sparring. When it comes to individual sparring, it is usually done with a wooden dummy or a punching bag. It's even better inside the game, since there will be moving monsters for you to practice on. Alright, go and freeform!"

"Can't I spar against you?" Coward's Savior asked.

"Spar against me?" Gu Fei asked, shocked. "Well, if you're not afraid of hurting your own dignity, I don't mind at all!"

As Coward's Savior's face instantly flushed red, Gu Fei patted his back and said, "It's a process to move from individual sparring to a friendly spar. Take it easy!"

Coward's Savior nodded his head.

"When it comes to sparring, you can no longer follow the set moves you previously learned based upon your routine. You need to apply your moves in accordance to the opponent's position, choosing the right move for the right situation. Here, let me show you," Gu Fei immediately closed in on a monster as he finished saying this.

The monster howled as it was engaged by Gu Fei into combat. Gu Fei deftly dodged its first attack. Jabbing his fist toward it, he shifted his position to throw another fist and a low kick. Coward's Savior was left dumbfounded when he saw Gu Fei call out the various moves of the Mantis Fist Style as he performed them one by one.

Fast! He was truly too fast! Gu Fei's full-Agility build allowed him to have a faster striking speed than Coward's Savior by quite a lot. Gu Fei's every punch and every kick did not contain unnecessary movements and were executed very smoothly and clearly, allowing Coward's Savior to easily distinguish which routine or move each attack came from. It was a truly impressive display of kung fu techniques. Coward's Savior unblinkingly admired the sight before him.

Gu Fei spent over three minutes pummeling the monster before it died. It was too bad that despite his smooth kung fu execution, the system still deemed each move he had made as just a normal attack. A barehanded Mage's normal attack could only do 1 point of damage against this type of monsters with decent defense. Thus, Gu Fei had to hit the monster countless times before it finally died. "So, how was it?" Gu Fei returned beside Coward's Savior and asked him.

Coward's Savior was crying and his face was crestfallen, "And I thought I could spar against you. I've already lost my self-esteem just from witnessing your individual sparring. How did your moves get so fast?!"

"I added lots of points to Agility…" Gu Fei answered.

"Oh, right… This is a game…" Coward's Savior clearly got this VR game and reality all mixed up.

"How did you set your stats?" Gu Fei asked.

"Spirit, Strength, and a little bit of Agility…" Coward's Savior replied. The Fighter's specialty was their combo attack capability; therefore, the Spirit stat that affected how fast skills or spells could be unleashed was very important to them.

"No matter. You can reset your points once you reach level 40." Gu Fei never thought that he would have the opportunity to say this to another player, hastily reminding Coward's Savior, "Having low Agility will not do if you wish to use kung fu in this game. But you won't need to do such thing if you're doing this for gaming purposes."

Making such a choice was difficult for martial arts practitioners like him who were playing Parallel World, as martial arts techniques evidently did not go well with in-game skills. Take Gu Fei as an example; if it were not for his top-grade equipment, his Mage job class would practically be useless. Gu Fei had level 70 equipment that helped improve his Mage job class' capability, but the same could not be said for Coward's Savior. In addition, Gu Fei did not care much about his in-game job class, so his way of thinking was of course different compared to other players. It all depended on how much Coward's Savior loved kung fu.

"Alright, you can stay here and keep training. Call me if there's anything else," Gu Fei's instruction for Coward's Savior ended, so he bade him farewell.

Gu Fei left to grind levels alone, occasionally helping Royal God Call with his 'Bounty Mission'. When the Amethyst Rebirth's grinding party called for Gu Fei at 7 P.M., Gu Fei used the excuse of helping Royal God Call with his quest to avoid going.

"Miles, you're not coming to grind today?" Drifting immediately sent a message to him.

"Nope. Gotta help my friend with his quest," Gu Fei explained.

"Oh. Then, I won't go as well…" Drifting said. In all honesty, top-tier experts like Drifting and his two companions and Gu Fei considered solo grinding as more efficient than party grinding. Drifting only joined the level grinding of the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies mainly because he was interested in finding out Gu Fei's Spell Damage. Since Gu Fei would not be grinding there, he of course would not be wasting his time with the ladies either. How could Drifting become one of the top five, a.k.a. the Five Unyielding Experts,on the overall leaderboard if he were constantly distracted by women?

War Without Wounds and Royal God Call were two living examples. Ever since they started grinding with the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies, their drop from the experience leaderboard had been unprecedented.

Actually, such a job would be most suitable for Gu Fei since he did not care for his leveling speed.

Without the two experts' assistance, the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies could naturally not grind on monsters beyond their level so they uncaringly headed toward their usual level 40 grinding spot. Just like Gu Fei, they cared not for the speed of their leveling. Of course, grinding on monsters above their level was way better, but they were still fine with not doing it. Instead, the ladies were more curious about the two men, Gu Fei and Drifting, not being able to join them at the same time. Could there perhaps be an affair of sorts?

That was how the next three days passed by. When the officials finally announced the particulars of the event, they were indeed a mercenary group tournament and guild tournament like what Brother Assist had heard. Apparently, there was supposed to be an individual PvP tournament as well, yet the job classes' discrepancy was rather obvious so it would be unfair to host it. If they restricted it only to a PvP between players of the same job class, the Priests' and Knights' low amount of PvP skills would be hardly worth watching. Thus, it was scrapped in the end.

There was only one activity in this event that everybody was looking forward to: The Survival Challenge.

While the name sounded frightening, it was actually just like a match in Counterstrike. Two teams would be casually thrown into a randomly generated map with a set time limit to PvP. Victory would naturally come to the team that defeated all its opponents first. If the time ran out and either team still had survivors, the decision would boil down to which team killed more players. This meant that victory would go to the team with more survivors.

Every match would award the winner with in-game currency and experience points. There was also a chance to receive item reward, which was dependent on the winner's performance in a given match. Logically speaking, the reward would be the most bountiful if a team only took one second to defeat all the opponents and had no member casualty. The further the team made it in the contest, the more experience points and gold coins it could earn from each win. The chances for an item reward would increase as well.

Currently, players were mostly attracted to the top-grade item reward as well as Permanent Skill Scrolls.

Permanent Skill Scrolls were something new that the officials had created. It was said that using one would grant a character a new skill, and it could be something several levels above his or her current level or something rare to obtain that was not even listed in a player's skill tree. Nonetheless, there was a restriction: The skill would depend on the winning player's job class. It was impossible for a Mage to get a hold of the Stealth skill.

In a private room inside Ray's Bar, Brother Assist presented the information from the announcement to everyone. Because of his existence, the time that these experts had to trawl the official website for information had decreased. Unless it was related to specific details, Brother Assist naturally kept them in the loop with regard to the day-to-day news and information.

Just as he mentioned the Permanent Skill Scrolls, Royal God Call became very excited, "If I can get a bunch of those scrolls, won't I be able to become a dual class holder, a Sharpshooter and a Hunter to boot?"

Everyone stared at him contemptuously. Royal God Call evidently read too many YY novels. What were the chances of such thing happening to him? He was no main character, after all.

"Such thing happening can only occur to a crazy pay-to-win Warrior," Brother Assist sighed.

"Svelte Dancer…" everyone intoned the name at the same time.

Gu Fei only heard of this name the other day. It seemed that she indeed lived up to her name as the mightiest pay-to-win player. These old birds actually said her name at the same time when 'a crazy pay-to-win Warrior' was mentioned.

"Maybe you can fill your desire by bagging a date with this lady, Royal," Brother Assist joked.

Royal God Call's face suddenly showed a distant expression.

"Uhm. I'm afraid this sort of rich girl won't be interested in such an immature child. It's better if I go instead," War Without Wounds shamelessly volunteered.

The dirty old man and the young lecher began to quarrel.

"Stop with this nonsense!" Young Master Han slammed the table. The two settled down when Gu Fei pulled out his sword and Sword Demon slid out his dagger.

"Let's get on with our business," Young Master Han said impassively.

"I'm done. It's your turn," Brother Assist gestured.

"Oh…" Young Master Han nodded his head, pausing first before glancing at everyone, "Hey, where's my glass?"

Sword Demon quickly got up, "Let's discuss this tomorrow. He's already drunk."

"Sit down," Young Master Han stared at Sword Demon scornfully, "Do you think I'm you?" With that, he began to tap on the table's surface as he addressed everyone solemnly, "Large guilds and mercenary groups will definitely use the quickest amount of time to finish their opponents in this tournament. As for small guilds, if they can't achieve victory through team confrontations, they can only use the second rule to win: beginning a game of cat and mouse as soon as they obtain a lead in the kills. The rule must've been introduced for the benefit of small guilds. So that is how we will be fighting whenever we meet mercenary groups larger than us. However, let's expect for a restriction toward the use of the Thief's Stealth skill with such a rule in place!" Young Master Han warned.

Brother Assist was momentarily stunned before he nodded his head, "Your mind is pretty agile. There is indeed a restriction, but the rules are not yet revealed."

Young Master Han smiled smugly, "I'm sure you guys are now aware that having peerless beauty and matchless brains in one being is possible because of my existence!"

Chapter end