Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Be honest! What’s your relationship with all those ladies? No wonder you were being very protective of them last time,” Young Master Han probed.

“Ahh... We just happen to know each other,” Gu Fei tried to pass it off. When everyone looked at him dully, he said weakly, “It’s true. Ha ha....”

“Speak the whole truth and we won’t be too harsh with you,” everyone said in unison.

“Shhhh! Quiet! They’re still around! You see, they really wanna know the members of our mercenary group. They admire us greatly,” Gu Fei shared this tidbit.

“That bunch of gossiping women,” Young Master Han sighed in frustration.

“Royal, what are you doing?” Gu Fei saw Royal God Call stand up sneakily, intending to go outside.

“Nothing. I just wanna take a stroll around...” Royal God Call said as he continued to head outside.

“Grab him!” Young Master Han yelled.

Royal God Call was pulled back to his seat by War Without Wounds who had stood up. “Brothers! It’s an all-female guild! They happen to idolize us; shan’t we give them a chance to do so?” Royal God Call’s heart was in pain as he bemoaned.

Everyone sneered at the idea.

“What a child...” Gu Fei flashed him with that same old look of disdain.

“That’s right. Royal, you’re too immature,” War Without Wounds chided Royal God Call solemnly.

“See, that’s what I call a mature man,” Gu Fei looked at War Without Wounds with admiration.

War Without Wounds turned to face Gu Fei, “Miles, I don’t care where that group of women came from or your relationship with them, I just wanna ask you something!”

“What is it?” Gu Fei asked.

“When do you plan to introduce us to them?”

Gu Fei was instantly left speechless.

Of all the six men of Young Master’s Elite, War Without Wounds was the one he was least familiar with. He usually did not have much to say, silently arriving and taking his seat when it was time to meet and quietly getting up and leaving when it was time to go. War Without Wounds seemed to be older than everyone here by quite a lot. Gu Fei thought that he had difficulty conversing with everyone else besides matters related to gaming due to his age – hence, the taciturn nature he gave off. Whereas Gu Fei thought of Royal God Call as the brattiest of the brattiest, he judged War Without Wounds as the epitome of maturity. Indeed, he was not wrong, as the difference between the two could clearly be seen from this issue alone.

Royal God Call had this immature idea of reaping the benefits by capitalizing on the ladies’ feelings of admiration to him. War Without Wounds, meanwhile, had this mature idea of getting to know the girls directly through Gu Fei, with the traditional mindset of having Gu Fei matchmake for him. Whatever the case might be, the two had the same goal in mind: to pick up girls.

“No need to waste time on that! Wounds, let’s use this chance while they’re still interested in us to reveal to them that we’re part of Young Master’s Elite mercenary group. An opportunity like this won’t come twice,” Royal God Call persuaded. It seemed that he intended to form a team with War Without Wounds and pick up the ‘mission’ of getting to know the ladies.

“You two together?” Gu Fei laughed, but he did not say anything further.

In the end, it was Young Master Han who heartlessly voiced what Gu Fei had wanted to spit out, “You two standing side by side – one is obviously too old, while the other is too young – aren’t you two afraid that they’ll treat you as father and son?”

“Picking up chicks as a father-and-son combo? That’s rather fresh. I’d love to see you two try,” Brother Assist was hooting with laughter.

War Without Wounds and Royal God Call looked at each other. “Sh*tty old man, get the hell away from me!” Royal God Call rasped. “It’s you who should get away from me, sh*tty shota!” War Without Wounds countered.

“Settle down. You two should not waste your efforts. That bunch of women is only interested in who our Mage is,” Young Master Han said.

“Miles! Do you intend to swallow them all?!” War Without Wounds and Royal God Call glared at Gu Fei.

“Wounds...” Gu Fei said in a very pained voice, “Your image in my heart has been utterly ruined today.”

“Image may be precious, but love’s more valuable!” War Without Wounds recited.

“G*dd*mm*t, I should’ve chosen to be a Mage!” Royal God Call’s regret only deepened.

“It’s not about your job class; it’s a matter of your temperament,” Gu Fei patted him.

Brother Assist could stand it no longer, “Oh, woe is the heavens! Is humility a virtue?”

The mercenary group’s members had begun an all-out roast; insulting, attacking, disdaining, and slandering one another, until Sword Demon asked, “Miles, what exactly did you call us here for?”

Although Sword Demon did not speak very loudly, everyone still heard him clearly. They immediately simmered down and felt a wave of shame rush over them. This was especially the case with Gu Fei, who had just arrived after spending some time with the Amethyst Rebirth’s ladies. Digression, isn’t that a woman’s patent trait? And yet, here’s a bunch of men doing the very same thing? All began to check themselves.

Gu Fei took out Frost Memories and gave it to Sword Demon.

“You got it back?” everyone asked the obvious.

Gu Fei smiled proudly.

“It’s a miracle!” Sword Demon sighed in disbelief.

“Really?” everyone squinted. If this was a miracle, then what would Sword Demon dropping Frost Memories with one death be?

“Frost Memories. I’ve dropped it thrice now, and I’ve gotten it back every time. If that’s not a miracle, then what else could it be?” Sword Demon reflected.

All held in their shock. Calling such a thing that happened in sequence a ‘miracle’ was indeed accurate.

“All three times were thanks to Miles helping,” Sword Demon added.

Gu Fei froze. In his mind, he had helped Sword Demon only in two occasions! Thinking for a bit, he realized that Sword Demon had included their first PvP with each other; it was true that Sword Demon’s Frost Memories was indeed taken by Gu Fei during that fight.

Not one reacted much to this revelation. Having the best understanding of Gu Fei’s capabilities, they were already numb to his prowess. This was especially the case after Royal God Call had revealed to them about Gu Fei’s Midnight Spirit Robe and Moonlit Nightfalls. Everyone felt even more impressed upon being able to justify his monstrous strength.

They were all top experts in the online gaming community; having such a character like Gu Fei pressure them was honestly not a great feeling. However, everyone could swallow this reality easily since he was a good friend to everyone and was not a particularly vain person.

“Now that that matter is settled, can we get back to talking about this group of babes?” Royal God Call asked.

“What babes? Are there really that many babes? That guild has about twenty ladies, and only a few of them are good looking,” Gu Fei refuted.

“Twenty! Do you know all of them?” Royal God Call was astonished.

“Alright! I’ll come clean. I’m... I’m a member of Amethyst Rebirth, too,” Gu Fei disclosed.

“WHAT?!” That was the biggest revelation of the day. They did not even react this strongly when Sword Demon was killed and his equipment was looted.

“Isn’t that guild known for only accepting women?” Royal God Call asked, skeptical.

“It’s all a big misunderstanding.” Gu Fei felt sorry for himself as he gave them the synopsis of that past event, “I accidentally nominated their guild, which resulted into me becoming a part of them. The guild only had a minimum amount of members, so they didn’t let me quit.”

“F*ck! Why didn’t this sort of misunderstanding happen to me! Quit? Why would you wanna quit?” Royal God Call asked, mystified.

“Because they don’t seem to be welcoming me,” Gu Fei answered.

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s an issue of temperament. If it were me, the situation would definitely be different,” Royal God Call had this look of fantasizing a scenario where he would capture all the ladies’ hearts in one-go.

Everyone regarded him with contempt.

“But recently, their number has gone up to twenty-one. I’m thinking of quitting now!” Gu Fei shared emphatically. He had originally decided to not leave the guild after that little talk with Luo Luo back then. But after that recent fiasco involving Lie Lie, Gu Fei felt that it might be for the best if he left Amethyst Rebirth, seeing that his relationship with all the ladies of it was currently on tenterhooks.

The culprit for Gu Fei’s lack of a gentlemanly bone was his family’s upbringing of him. His family of kung fu practitioners’ view of the world was rather traditional and evidently placed more regard in men than in women. It was a good thing, therefore, that Gu Fei was of the new generation, which made him more open to modern trends. Still, the traditional way that Gu Fei had been raised somewhat juxtaposed with his modern learning. This included his thinking that men and women were equal. Thus, he treated women just like how he would treat men. Gu Fei might indeed appear more lenient or show more restraint toward ladies, but that was not because they were female but because they had naturally weaker bodies. In fact, if Gu Fei met a feeble man, he would treat him with leniency as well, just like how he did with women.

“Why are you quitting?!” Gu Fei’s thinking was clearly illogical to people who had Royal God Call’s mentality.

“You’re still a kid; you won’t understand,” Gu Fei sighed.

“F*ck!” Royal God Call was pissed.

“If it’s not too big a problem, then it’s better if you stay,” Young Master Han suddenly advised.

“Why?” Gu Fei asked.

“For us who are in this line of work, it’s important to have many sources of information. I’d prefer it if we split up into different major guilds. Just like how Royal God Call provided us plenty of intel and convenience last time by being in Traversing Four Seas Guild—I believe everyone still recall that incident?” Young Master Han addressed everyone.

All nodded their heads.

“Based on our capabilities, it shan’t be difficult to be accepted in any guild. But this sort of guild that is purely composed of women is difficult to infiltrate. Since you’ve managed to be part of one, you should stay in it for a while,” Young Master Han reasoned.

“But it’s only a twenty-woman guild,” Gu Fei retorted.

“Don’t look down on it. There’s naturally something special about this sort of all-female guild,” Young Master Han remarked. All these gaming experts nodded in agreement with his assessment.

“If that’s the case, I guess I’ll hang around for a bit more!” Gu Fei relented.

Royal God Call nodded his head repeatedly, “What you should do at the earliest is find out everything you can about those twenty beauties, such as their three sizes, and report back.”

Gu Fei gave them a withering look, “Is that why you all want me to stay in that all-female guild?”

Young Master Han involuntarily said, “Sometimes that truly is the case. But now that we’re in a full-immersion game, this sort of information isn’t that difficult to collect anymore. A lecherous information expert can probably get all that by using his eyes alone.”

“F*ck off! All of you!” Gu Fei was clearly not interested in doing such things.

“Alright. If there’s nothing else, let’s all get back to our own business!” Young Master Han adjourned the meeting.

“Come here Miles. I wanna have a nice talk with you for a bit!” War Without Wounds dragged Gu Fei to the side. “Wait for me!” Royal God Call quickly chased after the two.

Sword Demon put the dagger back inside his dimensional pocket as he got up.

“Where are you off to?” Young Master Han asked.

“To a grinding map after killing those losers!” Sword Demon said coldly.

“Go level up first. We’ll set up a proper plan for that matter soon,” Young Master Han advised.

Sword Demon nodded his head and took his leave.

“What about you?” Young Master Han gazed at Brother Assist.

“I’ve caught wind of something on the forums. Seems like Parallel World is about to be officially released!” Brother Assist shared.

“Oh?” Young Master Han raised his eyebrow with interest.