Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Fortunately, this pitiful bunch did not get thoroughly wiped out. These men were at least able to make their own judgement, and seeing one-third of their own party die off so easily, what could the remaining two-thirds do? Humans were naturally selfish, so nobody was willing to sacrifice themselves over nothing. The players subconsciously backed off while they still had their lives intact. By the time the mercenaries remembered these men and sent them a message about the situation, the lot of them no longer had any doubts in mind and turned to flee.

Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer did not give chase, either. Having fought prolonged battles consecutively like this had expended quite a lot from them. Svelte Dancer had taken and survived plenty of attacks thanks to her top notch equipment, but her HP were actually in dire straits at the moment. The moment the battle was over, she hurriedly pulled out a bread to munch on as she turned to regard Vast Lushness, “Don’t just take care of him! Give me a Heal a bit!”

Vast Lushness was stunned, “You need healing, too?”

Svelte Dancer’s indomitable defense had left a deep impression on almost everyone, causing them to view her as some undying superhuman over time. Pros and cons were often so close to one another...

The three headed towards the Prison together. They saw Oathless Sword standing by the stairs right outside the entrance as they got close, a catatonic look in his eyes as his mouth parted to reveal a wide grin, softly laughing to himself from time to time.

“What’s up with him?” Svelte Dancer was visibly anxious at this sight, despite being someone who barely blinked an eye when she killed others.

“He’s probably sharing the joys of victory with his fellow comrades!” Vast Lushness was a little surprised after she said this, as this was something that she had almost forgotten since she had not experienced such a feeling for quite a while.

Thankfully, Oathless Sword had not transcended into the state where he had forgotten everything that was happening around him. He could still see who was standing before him, registering the three with a glance as he walked up to them, all smiles. He originally wanted to shake hands with each of them for a job well done, but Svelte Dancer was holding her bread in one hand and her dagger in the other, while Vast Lushness looked to be in deep thought, not even looking at him.

Oathless Sword was a little disappointed when his intention to show his affections to these beauties was dashed. In the end, all he could do was grasp Gu Fei’s hand with both of his own, shaking it vigorously.

“Thank you for your hard work!” Oathless Sword said emotionally.

“All in a day’s work,” Gu Fei replied steadfastly. Those players that had been killed by his swords would surely be in tears had they heard how casually he said that.

There was someone like that present, as Deep Waters had yet to leave. He was standing by the wall with Coco, and let loose a heavy sigh when he heard Gu Fei’s response. He said, “There’s truly plenty of absurd things in this world!”

“Let’s go!” Coco prodded.

Deep Waters nodded glumly, holding her hand and was just about to leave when he suddenly saw a troop of players hastily making their way down the street that led to the North Gate. By the time they drew a little closer, Deep Waters could just make out that there were plenty of Fighters among these players making their way over, and instantly froze up, “Is that the rumored Eternal War mercenary group from Luori City?”

“They...” Deep Waters saw the direction these men were heading in, and that they were dashing straight towards the Prison Entrance.

“Looks like we’re in for quite a show!” Deep Waters’s eyes shone.

“Hey...” Coco looked discontented.

“Haha, we’re only watching! We don’t lose anything watching this free show,” Deep Waters hooked Coco in his arms as they waited for the players from Eternal War to pass them before following along.

------

Outside the Prison, Oathless Sword was not yet done with his shower of thankful words expressing his gratitude, yet the attention of these four from Yunduan City were already drawn towards the imposing troop of players marching straight towards them. By the time they neared them, the fact that their group was largely composed of Fighters easily allowed these four to guess just who they were.

“Does it ever end!?” Svelte Dancer began to wolf down that bread she had been munching on this whole time. Vast Lushness had already eaten a bunch of grapes to restore her mana. Oathless Sword’s HP was not in the best of shape at the moment, but because he had been busy celebrating his success moments ago, he had not had the time to replenish it. Now, he was quickly picking through his dimensional pocket as he pulled out bread, sandwiching a banana in between as he shoved it into his mouth.

“Ughh...” The three others felt a wave of nausea when they saw how Oathless Sword used all his strength to smush that banana between the bread.

“To think you can stomach that,” Svelte Dancer had even taken two steps to the side away from him.

Why would Oathless Sword even care about that at the moment, polishing off the bread and banana combo clean off in two or three bites, just as the players from Eternal War arrived before them.

“Brothers, the mission is over. Do you gentlemen have any other business?” Oathless Sword wiped his mouth as he addressed them.

However, the men in front were not even looking at him, as someone pointed a finger at Gu Fei, saying to the Fighter in the lead, “That’s the man!”

Two pairs of eyes met.

Gu Fei had already guessed the identity of this man. This person was most likely the leader of the Eternal War mercenary group, another player that was known as one of the Five Unyielding Experts, Eternal Dominion! The members of Eternal War all knew a thing or two about kung fu, so it only made sense that the leader of such a group would be a cut above the rest! With that thought in mind, Gu Fei naturally needed to check this person out!

That person stepped forward and greeted Oathless Sword, “This matter isn’t related to the mission. We’re here looking for this brother here.”

At this moment, Oathless Sword demonstrated the breadth of his spirit that came from a seasoned veteran. Facing off against this group that made any player from Luori City shrink away, Oathless Sword instead boldly walked forward two steps and eyed Eternal Dominion evenly, “Any matter that has to do with Brother Miles here is my matter, as well.”

“Miles?” Eternal Dominion seemed to be unaware of Gu Fei’s IGN.

“Thousand Miles Drunk,” Gu Fei clarified, gazing at him.

“I’m called Eternal Dominion,” Eternal Dominion grinned. Oathless Sword, who had been standing in between the two man, was treated as nothing but air. Just as he was feeling a little awkward, Gu Fei instead told him, “Guild Leader Oathless, tend to your own business! There’s no problems here.”

“That’s right, tend to your own business!” Eternal Dominion said to Oathless Sword.

Oathless Sword could not make sense at what these two were doing. He took two steps back and was unsure if he should stay or leave, hesitating for the longest moment.

Gu Fei was just about to say something when he saw the space beside Eternal Dominion shimmer as a fiery figure appeared, stabbing a dagger right at his waist.

Before she even appeared, Eternal Dominion had already slightly slackened his knee and lowered his elbow, his body listing slightly to the side as a result. Others would not be able to read this minute change in his posture, but Gu Fei saw it all too clearly. Realizing something was about to happen and about to say something about it, Svelte Dancer’s shadowy figure had already appeared before him.

He had no idea when she had actually entered into Stealth, because her target at the moment was Eternal Dominion and not him. Gu Fei had naturally not sensed that she was attempting to close in on Eternal Dominion. Only realizing something was not right when he saw Eternal Dominion change his pose, before he could even warn anyone, Svelte Dancer had already thrust out her dagger. Gu Fei only managed to yell out, “WATCH OUT!”

Svelte Dancer had thought her stab was sudden and infallible, even turning her head as she angrily shouted, “What are you shouting for?”

She had thought Gu Fei was alerting Eternal Dominion to her attack, but actually his warning had been for her. This dagger she had thrust out struck the pose Eternal Dominion had preemptively moved into. His two hands surged forth, one grabbing hold of her wrist while the other went for her waist, his hips dipping down, his whole body squatting and quickly recovering in the next moment.

Svelte Dancer was thrown down to the ground with the jerking motion.

The changes Eternal Dominion made at each step were extremely fast, most people would only see Svelte Dancer appear and suddenly fall down, but Gu Fei could clearly see each and every move, exhaling in awe, “Advent of the Cloud Dragon!”

“That’s right, to think you could tell just from that,” Eternal Dominion laughed even as he looked down at Svelte Dancer. “Babe, are you okay? Need me to help you to your feet?”

“You...” Of course, Svelte Dancer was fuming so much that she could hardly find any words. She paid no heed to Eternal Dominion’s proffered hand as she got up by herself, stalking away, somewhat embarrassed. Vast Lushness came over to help dust off the Thief as everybody’s gaze locked onto Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion. The whole street descended into silence.

“Is that the Dragon Fist style?” Gu Fei suddenly asked.

“Good eye,” Eternal Dominion smiled.

“And you are?”

“My last name’s Gu,” Eternal Dominion said.

“Gu Tian’s Gu Family?” Gu Fei asked. Eternal Dominion nodded. “How would you address Elder Gu Yaoyi?”

“He’s my father,” Eternal Dominion chuckled.

“I’ve met him before,” Gu Fei said.

“I know.” Eternal Dominion stopped smiling as he said emotionlessly, “Our family had a friendly sparring session with yours ten years back, and he lost to you. You were only 15 years old.”

“That was just the elder going easy on me in an effort to enable the growth of us younglings,” Gu Fei replied.

“You don’t have to say that. He was very satisfied with his loss,” Eternal Dominion said.

“Does that mean you know me?” Gu Fei found this to be a little strange.

“Of course, we are all martial practitioners!. How would we not know about the Fourth Young Master of Gu Family, the Kung fu prodigy whose talent is said to be seen only once every hundred years?” Eternal Dominion said.

“You flatter me!” Gu Fei quickly became modest, but he still found this to be strange. While it was not exactly strange for people within the kung fu circle to know of his name, he could not recall meeting the person before him at all, so he found it a little weird that he was able to identify him just from this meeting.

“Yes, if I am not mistaken, I don’t think we’ve met before, have we?” Gu Fei asked directly.

“Nope.”

“So how did you recognize me?” Gu Fei asked.

“I may not have met you in person, but I’ve seen photos of you!” Eternal Dominion said.

“Photos? Where?” Gu Fei was nonplussed.

“On the internet, of course!”

“Online?” Gu Fei found this to be stranger the more he inquired after it. When did a photo of him make its way onto the net?

“Are you not aware?” It was now Eternal Dominion’s turn to be surprised, “Uncle Gu recently had nothing to do, so he made a website for the Gu Family. That’s where I saw a photo of you.”

“The Gu Family... made a website...” Gu Fei was extremely astonished, for he had not heard a word about this before.

“This Uncle Gu you mentioned, that’s my father?” Gu Fei immediately asked.

Eternal Dominion nodded.

“The old man’s pretty free recently, huh...” Gu Fei muttered.

“Not really. Uncle Gu has been really busy recently.” Eternal Dominion was indeed a martial practitioner, for his keen sense of hearing actually picked up what Gu Fei was mumbling to himself.

“You’ve seen him?” Gu Fei was even more shocked at this revelation.

“That’s right. I’ve specifically gone over to visit your place.”