Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Sakurazaka Moony wiped the drool off his mouth, “That hottie this morning. What’s her name?”

“Eh? You didn’t even manage to get her name?” Gu Fei thought that Sakurazaka Moony would be victorious in his and the stubborn Vast Lushness’ collision given the level of shameless he had previously displayed at Peddlers’ Street 2.

Sakurazaka Moony dejectedly shook his head, “Vicious. That woman is very vicious.”

“What happened?” Gu Fei asked.

“Thinking that she finally agreed to my proposition, I followed her to a high-level grinding map this morning. When we got there, she suddenly held me down—”

“Whoa! Vicious indeed!” Gu Fei exclaimed.

“I know, right!?” Sakurazaka Moony gave a bitter smile, continuing his recount, “Following that, we got surrounded by dozens of monsters and subsequently sent back to the city.”

Gu Fei was dumbfounded, “So where is she right now?”

“I don’t know... She died long before I did,” Sakurazaka Moony replied.

“How bold of her to actually use a suicide attack just to get away from you,” Gu Fei commented.

Sakurazaka Moony was close to tears, “Oh, how regretful I am....”

“Now you know what she’s made of!” Gu Fei pitied him. Sakurazaka Moony was originally ranked eighteenth on the Archer leaderboard, which meant that he was probably close to reaching level 41. Now... Gu Fei used Appraisal on him and saw that he was down to level 39.

“Why did I suddenly became nervous when she hugged me?! I should’ve taken that chance to grope a feel or two!” Sakurazaka Moony bemoaned.

Gu Fei was speechless, not having expected this kind of reaction.

“But I’m sure you wouldn’t make such a mistake if this happened to you,” Sakurazaka Moony gazed at him in adoration once more.

“I’m leaving.” Gu Fei no longer wished to waste time conversing with Sakurazaka Moony. He recalled how he had let the latter do all the talking when Foe-herder was confronting them both, and that alone was enough for Foe-herder to get the wrong idea about how they were a duo of skirt-chasers, simply because Sakurazaka Moony’s reputation’s as a lecherous person was so deeply ingrained in everyone’s mind.

“Hey! Don’t go! You have yet to me what that babe’s name is!” Sakurazaka Moony quickly chased after him. Although his speed had decreased after losing his level, he was still faster than Gu Fei.

Looking at the guild leader of Yunduan City’s most shameless guild, Gu Fei felt duty-bound to protect the women’s message inboxes, including Vast Lushness’, from his harassment. Asking for her consent was the sensible thing to do, but she was unfortunately not online, so he could only lie to Sakurazaka Moony, “I don’t know either.”

“What? Don’t you two know each other?”

“We also know each other, yet I don’t know your name,” Gu Fei made him an example.

“I’m Sakurazaka Moony,” Sakurazaka Moony introduced himself.

“Mhm-mhm. She did not introduce herself to me like this,” Gu Fei said.

“Seriously?” Sakurazaka Moony scrutinized Gu Fei’s face to see whether he was telling the truth or not.

Gu Fei’s eyes shone as he thought of something. Pointing to Sakurazaka Moony’s back, he exclaimed, “Oh, look! A pretty woman!” He then sprinted off.

Unexpectedly, Sakurazaka Moony did not even turn his head a fraction and merely ran after Gu Fei. A short distance later, he once more successfully blocked Gu Fei’s path. Gu Fei was very surprised by this, having expected Sakurazaka Moony to fall for his trick.

Sakurazaka Moony sighed as he shook his head, “A strong gale can fell down even the tallest tree in the forest!”

“What do you mean?” Gu Fei could not understand why he had used such an adage.

“The tallest tree in a forest will always be the first to be buffeted by wind. That lady is the most outstanding tree in the forest, so my strong gale is centered on blowing her away. I’ve already disregarded the other flora and fauna in the forest,” Sakurazaka Moony explained earnestly.

Sakurazaka Moony’s ability to bend the adage to his will was impressive. However, what shocked Gu Fei more was the latter’s revelation that he could devote himself to only one woman.

While Sakurazaka Moony was busy stewing in his regret, Gu Fei took this chance to sneak off. Sakurazaka Moony lacked the will to pester a man, so he promptly gave up chasing after Gu Fei. Looking backward and seeing the man standing so desolately on the street, Gu Fei could not help but feel a twinge of sympathy for him, “I’ll tell you her name once I find it out!”

Sakurazaka Moony happily darted over, “Really?”

“Yeah... Now just leave me alone!” Gu Fei said.

“Where are you off to, bro?” Sakurazaka Moony asked, intending to send off Gu Fei.

His question made Gu Fei recall something. Glancing at the time, he became depressed. The mercenary PvP tournament officially began at 7 P.M., and it was currently 7:03 P.M. Gu Fei had been too caught up with fighting the Cloud Herder Guild’s men that he had actually forgotten about the time.

Gu Fei was a little unwilling to accept his situation, so he bade Sakurazaka Moony a hasty goodbye and rushed toward the teleportation array by the Hall of Mercenaries. Unfortunately for Gu Fei, the system was very impartial. Not one player was able to enter the teleportation array past 7 P.M. Gu Fei tried all sorts of ways to enter but to no avail.

However, today’s match did not seem to be an intensive one, as Gu Fei’s absence was only met with a smatter of inquires that lacked anxiety from the others. Just as he was about to ask on the mercenary channel about the progress of the match, five familiar figures were teleported outside the Hall of Mercenaries. With how quick they were sent back out and how at ease they appeared, the result of this round became obvious.

The six headed to Ray’s Bar, and Gu Fei peppered them with questions about the match along the way. Learning that the opposing mercenary group only had six members and that they were all subpar, Gu Fei felt somewhat relieved at sitting this round out.

After they got settled at Ray’s Bar, Young Master Han started to speak, “After this mercenary PvP tournament ends, there is no doubt that our mercenary business will be on the right track... And how we split the rewards for every request will definitely become an issue. Since constant talks about money have always been something that put a strain on relationships, there’s a need for us to seriously go through this and come up with a proper system on how the rewards will be divided among ourselves. ”

“Couldn’t we just split things evenly?” Gu Fei asked.

“Such method will definitely rub others the wrong way,” Young Master Han replied.

“Egalitarianism is a very primitive way of doing things!” The rest of the mercenaries were also against Gu Fei’s suggestion.

“Fine. What do you guys suggest?” Gu Fei asked.

“Of course, we will employ something closer to our country’s sentiment of ‘to each according to his contribution’,” the others answered in unison.

“Have you guys already discussed this?” Gu Fei questioned.

“The five exchanged glances and smiled, “This is not our first rodeo on doing group missions in MMOs!”

“Okay... So how exactly are we doing this?” Gu Fei asked.

Young Master Han cleared his throat, “I have decided for our group to follow a kind of point system for our future missions. As the leader, I’ll do the hard work of recording everyone’s contributions during each of our group missions. Our contribution will be converted to points, and whoever has the most points will get a bigger slice of the pie.”

Sword Demon and the rest were evidently used to such a method, as none of them voiced any objection to Young Master Han’s proposal.

“The points will be shown to everyone to maintain transparency. Actually, I’ve taken it upon myself to begin scoring everyone for every match in this whole tournament. Take a look at my notes,” Young Master Han said.

“Oh?” This reveal caused the others to incline their heads toward Young Master Han’s direction, wanting to see what he had written about them.

Young Master Han fished out a booklet from his dimensional pocket and tossed it on the table. Everyone gathered around it to have a look. While the rest were checking to see how impartial Young Master Han was, Gu Fei was trying to learn exactly how this method worked.

Casually flipping through the booklet, they saw the points for their match with Cloud Herder Guild. This page contained their names. Gu Fei drank in all that he saw and felt amazed at how the human brain could achieve what a computer could not.

If a system calculated their contributions, plenty of aspects would be overlooked. As for Young Master Han, his little booklet actually contained every little detail of their PvP performance. For example, Brother Assist earned himself 10 points for gathering the necessary information on their opponents. This was a contribution that the system would not be able to calculate.

Just that match alone, the members that had sacrificed themselves were appropriately awarded points according to the level of their contributions. Gu Fei, who was the last one standing against the huge army, had earned the high score of 50 points from his action alone.

No one noticed anything wrong with the breakdown of points, resulting in everyone commending Young Master Han’s detailed and unbiased work. Casually flipping over to the next page, it showed Young Master Han’s point breakdown for himself from the most recent battle. Everyone read the following:

YOUNG MASTER HAN

Tactics: 20 points

Overall strategy: 30 points

Command: 10 points

Talent and brilliance: 10 points

Handsomeness: 10 points

Leadership: 10 points

Tabulation of points: 10 points

Total score: 100 points

Everyone’s expression changed. They hurriedly flipped through the pages and discovered that Young Master Han had earned over 100 points in every match of the mercenary PvP tournament thus far.

During the match with Amethyst mercenary group, Royal God Call and War Without Wounds’ ‘insubordination’, ‘disloyalty’, ‘irresponsibility’, and other such issues collectively earned them -100 points each.

“Any negative points will be brought forward to the next assignment, so anyone won’t earn any form of recompense until his points are back to positive!” Young Master Han warned them severely. He then took back the booklet. “Alright. I’ll write down today’s score.” Getting a quill, Young Master Han earnestly wrote: Thousand Miles Drunk. Dereliction of duty: -200 points.

“F*ck!” Gu Fei slapped the table and stood up. Royal God Call and War Without Wounds followed suit, “We strongly disagree with this points system.”

“Young Master Han. Shamelessness: -500 points!” Royal God Call cried out.