Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

After receiving the information, Gu Fei was no more than a meter away from Giordano. He was now well within the range to pull out his sword and plunge it into the NPC; Gu Fei would surely have done this if he could confirm that he was able to insta-kill it.

However, it was apparent to him that he was unable to do so. As the captain that was always surrounded by its subordinates, Gu Fei believed that Giordano would possess a transcendental strength. If Gu Fei already had difficulty taking down the average lone guard, insta-killing this captain would simply be an unrealistic fantasy.

That was why Gu Fei decided against attacking it. He took the stack of papers as he watched Giordano and his cadre of guards leave, chatting in jubilation.

He casually stared at the information he was given.

“D*mn; how coincidental!” Gu Fei croaked. The information directed Gu Fei to his target, which was incidentally the PK maniac in Xiawu City whom Slyris had just mentioned, Cool Apple.

Gu Fei flipped through the 17 pages he was given, which detailed Cool Apple’s level, job class, and committed crimes—a record of his PK history. It seemed that this ‘Daily Bounty Mission’ was actually a tally of a player’s accumulated PK value, and the PK Maniac Cool Apple was second to none in this, so getting targeted for the ‘Daily Bounty Mission’ was the natural order of things.

“They couldn’t possibly even sentence the time of imprisonment accordingly, right? Wouldn’t this kid end up with life imprisonment at this rate?” Gu Fei sighed. For a PK record that was 17 pages long, it would not really be too much for this person to be given such a sentencing, considering the amount of blood on his hands in terms of the player levels he removed. At the same time, Gu Fei wondered if he would often be chosen as the ‘Daily Bounty Mission’ target himself.

However, after glancing upon Cool Apple’s total tally, he realized that he was nothing compared to the man. While he might have those occasional moments when he became the champion of the total amount of PK value held at any one time, there was just no way he could catch up to Cool Apple.

With a total tally of 1642 PK points, it only meant that Cool Apple had dropped the levels of 1642 players. If he started from the beta until now, that would mean that this man had killed about 10 men on average each day... Gu Fei was embarrassed. This was what it meant to be a true PK maniac. Those from Young Master’s Elite were being far too unworldly if they had actually considered Gu Fei as one.

With that in mind, Gu Fei was rather interested in meeting this person. Opening up his quest log, he could already see the Xiawu City ‘Daily Bounty Mission’ right there, but it was just the title, since the content was already physically in Gu Fei’s hands.

Gu Fei was taken aback by this. Normally, ‘Bounty Mission’ would have a set of coordinates and the serial number of the target shown on the quest log, yet this ‘Daily Bounty Mission’ actually had no hints at all. Did that mean he would have to search for Cool Apple himself?

Searching for somebody yet again... Gu Fei had just played this game with Southern Lone Blade. Why must he always be bogged down by such problems? It was at this moment when Gu Fei received another message asking for update on his end from the three he had left on the wall’s walkway.

“I didn’t kill the NPC, but it gave me a quest,” Gu Fei replied, uncertain if he should laugh or cry.

“What quest?”

“It’s a ‘Daily Bounty Mission’. We’ll meet up and talk about this once I’m out,” Gu Fei replied. With a longing glance at Giordano, Gu Fei figured that since he had easy access to the Government City Hall, there should be no problem coming back to take another go at this when he was free.

Leaving the Vigilante Corps Chamber and exiting the building via the back door, he climbed up the wall using the rope Yan Xiaozhu had placed there earlier.

“Take a look yourselves!” Gu Fei passed the information he had in his hands over to the three.

“Cool Apple...” Slyris repeated.

“1642!” Sword Demon was astonished. After all, it was not too difficult to occasionally do something. It was the persistence to repeat something day after day that was demanding. There was no doubt that this man was a true PK Maniac to be able to PK 1642 times.

“What do you know about this guy?” Gu Fei asked Slyris.

“I exchanged blows with this guy once when he was at level 30,” Slyris replied.

“What happened?” Gu Fei asked.

“I died.” Slyris was very remorseful about this but still told the truth. “He’s really very skilled. I am no match for him. If we have a rematch now, the outcome will still be the same.”

“Did he not look for you again?” Sword Demon asked. He felt that this sort of PK Maniac would surely enjoy finding a high-level player like Slyris as his target.

“I don’t know, but I’ve never bumped into him after,” Slyris answered. Considering how huge Parallel World was, it was not that easy to bump into each other serendipitously, or it would not have been such a chore to locate anyone.

“There will always be players on the receiving end of his attack every day... Of course, he may not always succeed, or his PK record won’t just be this,” Slyris said.

“But this man has never been slain before at the very least, right?” Sword Demon probed.

“Yeah. He is always successful at getting away when he realizes that things aren’t going his way,” Slyris affirmed.

“That’s pretty interesting!” Gu Fei clenched his fists.

“So are you gonna go search for Cool Apple, or are you gonna continue on your quest to Assassinate Giordano?” Sword Demon asked.

“I’ll do them both! Since this man possesses a Bounty License just like me, I’m afraid he is aware of the ‘Daily Bounty Mission’, so there’s a very good chance he’ll do it every day. I’ll stay here by Giordano and monitor the situation first. At the same time, I’ll wait for that guy to come and pick up his ‘Daily Bounty Mission’ and complete this quest. It’s two birds with one stone!” Gu Fei had already thought this through and specifically took the time to come out and tell the three of them the situation as it stood. This was to convince them of leaving as there was nothing they could do for what came after.

Sure enough, once the three figured out that they had no way of entering the government building and were naturally unable to do what Gu Fei was doing, they could only regretfully take their leave.

“Do you want me to leave this rope here for you?” Yan Xiaozhu asked.

“No need; I’ve got plenty on me.” Gu Fei chuckled.

Sword Demon audibly sighed. He had originally thought he found something meaningful to do, but there was nothing he could do after climbing up this wall in the end.

Gu Fei recognized that sigh, so he could only help distract him. “It’s about time Eternal Dominion get online. I’ll let him know when he’s on and help you set up a meeting.”

“Oh, yeah!” Sword Demon was rather happy when he read this message, but the moment he thought about the debt he was shouldering, he could not help but feel a little melancholic. This mingling of sadness amid happiness, fortune and misfortune often existed together...

Gu Fei got back to the ground and entered the Government City Hall again. This time, he knew his way around and headed toward the Vigilante Corps Chamber. The scene within was just the same as before he had left.

“Giordano!” Gu Fei shouted loudly, to see if he could draw him over.

Giordano blinked. “Is the mission completed?”

“Nope,” Gu Fei replied.

Giordano immediately turned his head away and no longer bothered to look at him. Gu Fei had no choice but to sit down on the couch and waited.

------------------------------------------

The sky outside the window got darker and darker, as the game officially entered nighttime. Gu Fei wondered what these NPCs would do when it became night, and he soon got his answer.

Several guards stepped toward Gu Fei and stood before him, indicating for him to leave.

The NPCs had treated his presence like air all this while, but he felt a little uncomfortable now that the NPCs were suddenly taking the initiative to make demands.

“Can I not leave?” When Gu Fei discovered that some of these guards and NPCs like Giordano were looking to leave, he felt that was an opportune development! Perhaps, he might have a chance to be alone with Giordano.

“No!” the guard coldly rejected Gu Fei’s request.

“Is there any way I can?” Gu Fei was naturally aware there was no way he could appeal to the NPCs through emotions, so he was trying to understand what sort of restrictions they were working under at the moment.

“You do not have enough clearance,” the guard answered.

What sort of clearance is needed?” Gu Fei asked.

The guard did not answer; instead, the system sent him a message: [Night has descended. Players are requested to vacate the Government City Hall at once or will be seen as invaders and be dealt with accordingly.]

The guards were already glaring at Gu Fei intensely. He finally did not dare to tarry and hurriedly made his way down the stairs. He originally wanted to leave via the same route he had used to get in, but he soon discovered that the back door had been locked for the night. Giving the door a shake or two and seeing that it would not budge, the system prompt rang once more as all the guards along the corridor began to place their hands on the hilt of their weapons while looking at Gu Fei. No longer caring for possible consequences, he hurriedly sped toward the front entrance.

Bang! The sound of the heavy doors slamming shut sounded from behind him. He dashed out from the front entrance. The doors to the Government City Hall locking behind him a second after he dashed out the front door, making Gu Fei feel as if he had just escaped from the site of a disaster.

Finding himself in the huge courtyard in this moment, Gu Fei looked around and saw that the position of the guards around it at night was different from what he had observed in the day. Those powerful stationary guards that were no more than ceremonial guards had all disappeared, while the number of guards patrolling the premises had also significantly diminished.

Is there perhaps another chance to enter the building? Gu Fei took a few steps back and lifted his head to gaze up the Government City Hall in its entirety, looking to see if there were any alternative ways to get in. This was when he heard the hurried steps coming from behind him. Turning around, he saw players from every direction rushing toward him. It was even more apparent that there was already a Thief in Stealth mode skulking somewhere near him.

These were players from Flowergazing in the Fog. The guild had arranged for their members to patrol this courtyard every day. They were doing this partly to be the foremost helpers of the NPCs if anything cropped up, increasing their completion rate as a result of their timely assistance. Still, they were mainly doing this to prevent other players from coming and sabotaging their quest.

Such people were not in the minority, since most of the guilds in Xiawu City would be loath to see Flowergazing in the Fog become stronger without attempting any sort of interference.

And because plenty of guilds out there had completed the quests rewarded by the system for placing first in the previous PvP tournament, everybody was already aware that the reward for a guild quest completion would directly level a guild once. This meant that guilds like Flowergazing in the Fog, which had yet to accomplish their guild quest, would have the chance to accomplish something Oathless Sword had once dreamed of doing: getting their guild to level 6 by their own efforts before receiving the guild-quest reward that would send them straight to level 7! Flowergazing in the Fog had actively pushed all their members to contribute and reach level 6 precisely because they had found out about the prize for the guild quest completion. As such, if Flowergazing in the Fog was able to get to level 7 instantly through the reward while the rest of the guilds in Xiawu City were still at level 5, these guilds would truly have no way of going against them, which was why they were so worried of such an eventuality.

Were it not for the fact that the entire courtyard was filled with guards, these guilds would really love to gather their troops and thrash the place proper, dropping Flowergazing the Fog’s completion progress well into the negatives. Unfortunately, the presence of the guards prevented them from going all out with their harassment and could only settle for a few minor methods of aggravation daily. The members from Flowergazing in the Fog were all pissed, but what else could they do aside from being more cautious in their preventive measures?

As everybody became more and more adept at working security, it had been quite some time since these troublemakers successfully made any headway in their attempts. However, just then, as the game transitioned into nighttime, someone actually discovered an unknown player appearing before the Government City Hall entrance. Nobody had any knowledge of this player entering the premise, and the defense over at the entrance was considered to be the strictest. The state of alarm that ensued caused all the members of Flowergazing in the Fog to descend upon Gu Fei and have him surrounded.