Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 667: Chapter 667 – Belonging to a Faction

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Traversing Four Seas was brimming with confidence and bluster minutes ago when they first embarked on their investigative assault attempt, but they were defeated by a two-pronged pinch from the system. Upon remembering that there were 800 guilds worth of players watching their every move, Oathless Sword gritted his teeth and refused to give the order to retreat. There were no penalties for their deaths anyway, so everybody fought till the last man standing.

Traversing Four Seas no longer had a chance to take another step forward. The sudden arrival of these Assassins was already more than they could handle, and with the addition of the ranged attacks from the battlements atop the city walls, this company of players from Traversing Four Seas was completely annihilated even without accounting for the two rows of foot soldiers right under the walls that had yet to even make a move.

When Oathless Sword stepped out of the spawn point, he saw Gale Force had already run over to receive him. He was in a momentary daze before he suddenly complained, “You were watching as we got ambushed by the Assassins, why didn’t you bring men over to help us?”

Traversing Four Seas had not sent out all their men for this attempt, and it had just been their Archers and Priests, while the majority of their melee guild members hung back and watched the battle.

Gale Force was stunned for a good moment before answering, “You said not to!”

“I was the oblivious participant, while you had a more comprehensive view of the situation as the bystander; You should have decided during such times! Even if you’re uncertain, you could have reminded me!” Oathless Sword said.

Gale Force was speechless, but he thought what Oathless Sword said was reasonable when he ruminated over it further. It was understandable that those players engaged in the fight were preoccupied with dealing with the enemies and were unable to consider everything to such degrees, so it only made sense that he should have set out to lend a helping hand while they were watching from behind. The system had not sent too many Assassins on its part, so if Traversing Four Seas’ melee guildmates had indeed rushed in to lend a hand, they would not have been defeated just from that one wave of attack.

Oathless Sword could only sigh as he stewed in tremendous regret. It was around this time when the voice of Brave Surge could be heard in earshot, “Guild leader Oathless, thank you for your hard work!”

Brave Surge must have hurried over to the spawn point as well when he realized that Oathless Sword was about to fall, and had only arrived at this time. As for whether Brave Surge was here to console or to ridicule him, only Brave Surge himself would know. Even though Oathless Sword was annoyed deep down, he refused to show his dejection to his rival. At the moment he heard Brave Surge’s voice, Oathless Sword puffed his chest out and turned to face him, presenting a dignified expression as he spoke briskly in a businesslike fashion, “Guild leader Surge, the system is quite the troublesome opponent this time.”

“Yes, we saw everything,” Brave Surge had come over with several other guild leaders in tow as well, a solemn look on each and every one of their faces.

“Traversing Four Seas didn’t probe the system’s defenses for nothing. For you to have uncovered that the trebuchets were able to switch up their attacks as they did and that Assassins were lying in wait, these are all new information that we had not known from the previous engagement,” the guild leader of Cloud Herder Guild, Foe-herder, said.

Oathless Sword shot a heartfelt glance of gratitude to this guild leader that had spoken up for Traversing Four Seas. But it was not as if he was not unaware of the underlying bad blood between Brave Surge and Foe-herder, so he proceeded to offer a more in-depth analysis of his own from what little information they had learned from his sacrifice. “I don’t think that there’s much to be worried about from the change in the trebuchets’ payload to those smaller stones that we had just witnessed. Players should have no issues surviving the attacks with the support of Priests. Once the fight with the NPC guards under the wall breaks out, the attack from those trebuchets would surely stop, otherwise, they would end up injuring their men with the hail of stones instead.”

“Yeah!” Everyone nodded repeatedly.

“Even though there’s 170,000 of us, we would simply be too much of a failure if we just charge at them like a swarm of bees. The system might already have an idea as to the number of players in guilds, which was why it had gone with such a set up that specifically targeted such zerg tactics. I suggest we send the optimal amount of players per the area assigned. We will all adopt a more scattered formation as best as we can, and all the excess players can wait behind as replacements! The moment the players that charge up fall, the replacements can quickly fill in, while those that died will hurry from the spawn points. I refuse to believe we cannot make a breakthrough if we take turns in such a manner.” Oathless Sword was bloviating to the point that he said something of substance, which he quietly praised himself for when he was done. In the beginning, he was just casually giving an analysis of the few simple observations he made, doing his best to prove that despite him dying so quickly, a modicum of success was achieved from his attempt. However, the more he talked at length, the more ideas he got. Oathless Sword felt that his idea of adopting a rotational system by taking turns substituting the main assault forces was truly worthy of praise.

Black Index Finger had been quiet this whole time, as if he was not used to this job of being a guild leader, when he suddenly heaved a sigh, “Ladies and gentlemen, the 170,000 players that we have is no more than a theoretical number. Specifically, I had consulted a few people before, and the over 800 guilds that we keep harping on about, more than a good half of them were just guilds at the initial stage of establishment Some haven’t even reached the 50 members limit, and there were plenty of players who were still around level 30 mingled in this crowd. There are even players decked out in only white tier equipment! Not all these 17,000 players were like the elite players from Traversing Four Seas or Carouse, and a good portion of these guild members are most likely incapable of contributing any sort of combat strength to the assault. I do believe everyone has a cursory impression of just how powerful the NPC guards are, and they are more than just a little powerful. I’m afraid I doubt anyone of us could confidently say that we would surely end up winning against them in a 1v1 duel setting.”

“Yes!” The crowd nodded. Oathless Sword did not say anything more either. He had tried to challenge one of the Assassins, and he would have lost were it not for the fact he had several Priests supporting him from the sidelines.

“However, I still think Brother Oathless’ suggestion is very appropriate. I believe if we were to seriously vet the participants for this operation, we could just stop those players who do not have the strength from participating in this City War, as they could very well end up jeopardizing our coordination with our teams,” Black Index Finger said.

“You can say that, but it’s hard to say if these people would be willing to just back off like that!” Oathless Sword pointed out.

The crowd of guild leaders sighed when they heard this. They were all guild leaders, so all of them were keenly aware of the problem that Oathless Sword was insinuating. The players in question were low-leveled and weak, but they were still players nevertheless. These players all technically shared the same right as even the Five Unyielding Experts to play the game. It would have been sensible of them if they were willing to not become a nuisance and go along with the arrangements that these guild leaders were now making. But if there were no penalties to dying for this event, players would simply want to play around and participate in whatever capacity they could, which meant there was no reason for any of them to stop these people from having fun playing the game.

However, Black Index Finger laughed, “There’s a total of four gates in the city, so we could just focus our forces on the one gate, and leave the other three gates open for those who refuse to cooperate with us to have fun with. After all, weren’t there currently guilds who are unwilling to work with us that are trying to siege their gates with their own methods right now?”

Both Oathless Sword and Brave Surge could feel their heartbeats quicken when they heard this. Black Index Finger clearly meant to prune the members participating in the assault, and drawing the line over who should be cut thereby subtly meant that the contribution score would most likely end up being split between those players who were involved in this front! Insightful players could already tell that this city assault would require everyone to cooperate, and even the guilds that boast over a thousand members each working together would not be enough to make so much as a dent in the situation, much less without them, since Yunduan City had no other guild that numbered over a thousand besides these five.

“Everybody, please be at ease. Delegate this task to us, and we will finish it. The Black Hand began as a mercenary group, after all, so there are plenty of people out there we know,” Black Index Finger said.

“Any thoughts?” Brave Surge turned to regard the others.

It was at this time when Oathless Sword realized why Brave Surge had gathered all these guild leaders and brought them over to receive him here at the spawn point. It was apparent that he did not want to have too many people here, as that would make it hard for everyone to agree. The guild leaders present were all representing the large guilds, and there were no guild leaders from the small guilds that made up the majority. By first finishing their discussion here before getting all the others to act accordingly, they would save time for divergent opinions.

“I have no issues with this arrangement,” Foe-herder was the first to express his agreement. Several other guilds concurred with Black Index Finger’s suggestion, with Oathless Sword and Brave Surge finally nodding as well. With this matter settled, Black Index Finger immediately departed to screen and muster the manpower necessary for this push.

“Guild leader Oathless, ” It was unknown when Foe-herder had slid right up beside Oathless Sword, tugging him once for his attention.

Oathless Sword could tell that he wanted to speak about something, so instead of speaking, he sent a message, “What’s the matter?”

“Do you feel that Black Index Finger had came prepared?” Foe-herder asked.

“What do you mean?”

“There are over a thousand guilds here in Yunduan City, and we’ve managed to gather 820 here. Out of all these guilds, how many of these guild leaders are you able to name?” Foe-herder asked.

“Uhmm... About a few dozens I guess!” Oathless Sword answered him, before realizing with a start what he meant. Before, when Brave Surge had first discussed the notion of teaming up with him, he mentioned his intention of contacting all the guilds in Yunduan City, and Oathless Sword had done his best to do the same as well. But the guilds that he knew were no more than just the level 4 and 5 guilds. Why would he be acquainted with the newly formed guilds that were just starting? But now that there were over 800 guilds out here, with more than half considered to be small guilds, just who could it be that reached out to these people? Was this Brave Surge who did this, or was it Black Index Finger? No matter who this person was, someone who was able to rally such a huge number of small and scattered guilds must surely have come prepared. At the very least, he or she must have visited the Hall of Mercenaries and done the necessary homework of making a record of all the guilds and the contact information of their respective guild leaders in Yunduan City. To have expended so much effort toward this, this person must surely be attempting to make a big move of his own.

“Now that Black Index Finger dare to take up this task, I’m sure he must at least be acquainted with several hundred guild leaders, right? Even if he was originally from a mercenary group, there’s no way his network could reach such a degree, right? His network might be no different than ours, perhaps being a bit more popular gives him an edge in the size of his network, but it’s pretty much the same for the opposite situation for us as well,” Foe-herder said.

“Yes, what you said makes sense. That guy looks to be up to something big,” Oathless Sword agreed.

“We’ll have to keep a lookout,” Foe-herder said.

“Indeed. I wonder if that rascal Brave Surge has realized this as well,” Oathless Sword wondered.

“It’s hard to say. Perhaps the two of them are already working together on this. Otherwise, who could it be that called on so many of those small guilds? Given the fact that you only know a few dozen guilds, I’m in the same boat as well, so there’s no way I or you could have been the ones who first sent the word out to them,” Foe-herder voiced his conjecture.

“True. I hadn’t noticed this from the start,” Oathless Sword nodded his head vigorously. He realized that after Traversing Four Seas won the Guild v.s. Guild tournament and completed the guild quest that they had been rewarded with, they seemed to have acted a little too insolently. Their disregard for others had been a little too much, to the point that they had convinced themselves that being the top-ranked guild for this City War event was a foregone conclusion. But when he thought about Black Index Finger, Brave Surge, or even the two of them together, to have made such comprehensive preparations all for the sake of this event, Oathless Sword could not help but feel extremely unsettled, even suspecting if he had already fallen into some sort of trap. And it was with such a thought that Oathless Sword consciously went looking for Young Master Han, but Young Master Han did not appear next to Brave Surge when they came over.

The man might not be around, but a message could still be sent... Oathless Sword contemplated over this for a moment. Thinking positively about this matter was more or less about the same as considering it in a negative light, so as long as his thought leaned toward whichever direction, the illusion was no more than something to comfort or scare himself, respectively.

The attack on the north wall had come to a momentary standstill, and Brave Surge did not mention anything about his guild still needing to go try another round of investigation of the city defenses. Oathless Sword was interested in finding out just what that person intended to do, so he did not say a word about it either, pretending to meld into the sidelines and quietly watch what would happen. At the same time, he kept maintaining his communication with Youthful Reflection to see if there were any discoveries made with him. Oathless Sword made sure to keep him abreast of what transpired over here so Youthful Reflection could contemplate over matters as well.

—

Gu Fei and Sword Demon were almost dying from boredom and loneliness now that the army of players was no longer making their move, with the two men yawning repeatedly as they stood right under the city gate. They did not make it in time to catch and take down White and Black in that first assault, and the second wave of troops were all just players from Traversing Four Seas. The two were currently waiting for the third wave, but the players have yet to make a move for the longest time since.

“I reckon they must be drawing up strategies to deal with the city’s defenses. It seems like this City War won’t be an easy cakewalk after all,” Sword Demon commented. “That shower of stones that the trebuchets had thrown was quite tightly packed, there’s just no way to avoid it.”

“It’s too fake. Those stones to be as big as a human brain, it’s a miracle that any of them survived after being struck by them, considering how they were sent flying their way from the height of the city walls,” Gu Fei said.

“You can’t say that. Everyone isn’t exactly your normal human being here in Parallel World; Each and every one of us is capable of becoming Warriors, strong and able-bodied. We would be no more than average human beings if we would die from being struck on the head by those rocks,” Sword Demon reminded.

“Yeah, you’re right. I won’t die either, if I was the one struck by a rock,” Gu Fei did not consider himself to be the average human being.

The players had not made their move after all this time, and the two men were discussing if they should try and sneak into the mass of players in the distance. After all, the players would surely be incapable of guessing that the two of them were spies from the system’s side. They were talking about this in length when they heard the crunching sound of gravel from inside the city. The two men took a peek over at the city gate right next to them, and they spotted someone pushing a double wheeled wooden cart with much difficulty, heading toward the gate. As this person got nearer and nearer, both parties revealed a look of surprise once they could make out each others’ faces.

“Ray!!” Gu Fei and Sword Demon exclaimed in unison.

Right in front of the two men was the person from Yunduan City whose name was the first to become famous all over Parallel World, comrade Ray, the boss of Ray’s bar. Similarly, Ray recognized the two frequent customers of his from Young Master’s Elite that were patrons of his bar’s room.

“Miles? Sword Demon?” Ray was surprised as he called out their names.

Sword Demon reacted much quicker when it came to things in-game, immediately asking, “You belong to a Faction as well?”

Ray was momentarily startled when he heard this, “How did you know?” But a look of realization soon dawned upon him, “The two of you are in Factions too... Is that why we remained in the city during this City War event?”

“That’s right! What’s your Faction?” Sword Demon quickly asked.

“The Mercantile Trade Association. How about the two of you?” Ray asked.

“I’m with the League of Assassins, and him... We don’t know,” Sword Demon answered.

“Don’t know?” Ray was confused.

Gu Fei sheepishly explained, “I joined it in my careless confusion. No one told me that it was a Faction beforehand! I didn’t even know who I should be asking regarding this matter.”

“Ray, how did you join your Faction?” Sword Demon asked. Though he was no Brother Assist, he nevertheless had researched everything about the game’s design on his own, except he never reached the point of obsession like Brother Assist had.

“I’m not too sure myself. I once picked a quest from the Trade Union, when I suddenly saw that there was some paperwork, claiming I’ve become a member of the Mercantile Trade Association,” Ray said.

“Oh? You’d do quests too?” Gu Fei interrupted. He was quite astonished. He had thought Ray manned his bar 24/7.

“Occasionally,” Ray said.

“What’s the reward for joining the Faction?” Sword Demon asked.

“A 20% reduction to the tax I have I to pay for my bar,” Ray answered.

“Hmm....” Such a reward was even worse than trash in Sword Demon’s eyes, so he continued to ask, “Did they not offer you any skill?”

“Skill? I did choose a brewing recipe. Where’s Young Master? I haven’t seen him in forever.” This was what made Ray different from the others. While everyone hated Young Master Han, Ray liked him. Most tavern proprietors would love their alcoholics.

“He’s... He’s outside the city at the moment!” Sword Demon said.

“Come find me when you’re free! There’s this new liquor I’ve created, and I’m the only one selling it. Not even the system-operated taverns have it for sale,” Ray told them excitedly.

“Is that so?” Gu Fei wondered out loud, before patting the huge barrel that Ray was rolling out on his wooden cart. “What’s this?”

Ray responded, “The City War event this time will be dividing up the sphere of influence for the city, right? A few other friends and I who have opened up stores in the city discussed the matter, and felt like this dividing up of the area might be related to our properties, so we temporarily formed a guild and participated in this event. But when I got online today, I ended up being the only one here stuck in the city. I couldn’t find anyone around, and all the messages I tried to send to my friends were marked as communicating with the enemy. Later, when I ran over to the Trade Union, they ended up sending me off on a mission, giving me the task of transporting army provisions over to the frontlines.”

“Army provisions? What’s that?” Gu Fei tapped the barrel again, even as he stuck his ear firmly onto the wood. “Sounds like water.”

“There’s a lid here,” Sword Demon pointed to the top of the barrel.

Gu Fei immediately reached out to open it, wanting to take a look, but this only caused Ray to panic, “Hey, it’s a quest item. Don’t tamper with it.”

“How would I be tampering with it if I’m just taking a look?” Gu Fei said even as he tried to lift the lid, his face turning red from the strain before he let go. “I can’t lift it.”

Ray sighed in relief. Worried that the two men might continue to mess with this, he pushed the cart away as he called over to them, “I’ll be sending this to its destination first. I’ll come back and chat with you guys after.”

“Go on, then!” Gu Fei waved to bade him farewell.

Ray pushed his wooden cart away, rumbling along as the gravel crunched under its wheels. Sword Demon suddenly turned to regard Gu Fei, “I’ve got a quest and Ray’s got a quest as well Your Faction might perhaps have a quest to offer as well.”

“Yeah, you might be right. I’ve no idea what’s going on here. Nobody’s made a move after all this time. Guess I’ll go back into the city and see if there’s a quest for me,” Gu Fei said.

“Okay!”

Gu Fei made his way into the city once that conversation ended. His Bounty License was given to him by the Bounty Assignment Hall, so that place should have something to do with his Faction. Gu Fei could feel his heart chill. Could my Faction be for jailors and constables of that sort? What kind of Faction am I in, to have such an unimposing name? Could this be like ‘Six Doors’? This game cannot possibly call it that!

Gu Fei continued to brood about this even as he made his way to the Bounty Assignment hall. He pushed the door open, and the familiar scene in front of him looked exactly like how he remembered it. However, the moment he interacted with an NPC, it informed him that given how the city was in a state of emergency, they were no longer interested in the petty crimes committed, urging Gu Fei to find something more meaningful to occupy his time with.

Gu Fei thought further about this. Aside from this location, the only other place he had gotten a quest from was the City Hall, so he began to make the trip over to Yunduan City’s City Hall. The average player would not have permission to enter this location, but Gu Fei easily got past the guards once he flashed his Bounty License. After walking a few rounds aimlessly inside the main hall for a bit, Gu Fei recalled that the person with whom he spoke to in Xiawu City was some sort of vigilante. Thus, Gu Fei sought out the nearest NPC guard and asked where the Vigilante Corp in Yunduan City resided and headed right to their chambers.