Chapter 129 - Who's behind that tree?
"Let me do this…" Gu Fei refused to hand over his duty to Royal God Call despite the latter's top-notch monster luring skill, as Gu Fei could only contribute by casting spells alongside the ladies if Royal God Call took over his task; would that not be boring and lacking thrill?
However, Royal God Call was so eager for a chance to repay Gu Fei that he insisted on being the one to lure monsters. Although Gu Fei kept on saying that he loved luring monsters, Royal God Call merely thought that his words were said out of courtesy.
Meanwhile, Drifting was feeling really nervous that the two were fighting over the right to lure monsters. He had stayed up the whole of last night checking the various level 50 monsters of Yunduan City from one corner to another before finally finding a place where he could calculate Gu Fei's Spell Damage. Thus, he could not help but feel irate that Royal God Call had come out of nowhere and looked to be about to spoil his plans. "Stop fighting, you two. Just go and lure monsters together." Drifting came up with to what he thought was an acceptable compromise; his goal of determining Gu Fei's Spell Damage could be attained as long as the latter was able to lure monsters.
This suggestion would have easily been accepted by Royal God Call had it not come from Drifting's mouth. As such, Royal God Call pursed his lips and threw him a steely look, "Are you trying to say that I can't do it alone? Do you think that I don't know how to play as an Archer?"
"Of course not," Drifting answered hurriedly. Honest to god, Drifting did not intend to ridicule Royal God Call right now.
Sadly, that was how Royal God Call had taken his suggestion and he angrily shouted at Gu Fei, "Miles, let me do this. I'll do all the monster luring over here!"
Gu Fei was helpless and could only step down while smiling wryly at Drifting.
Drifting was so annoyed that he nearly vomited blood. He thoroughly regretted having suggested the compromise as he only ended up riling Royal God Call to such a degree of foolhardiness. Even the wisest man could make mistakes occasionally.
Fortunately, there were still plenty of opportunities in the future; he refused to believe that Royal God Call would be able to follow them to grind levels every day. There would surely come a time in the future that he would discover Gu Fei's Spell Damage. With that thought in mind, Drifting was relieved enough to smile again, "Then, let us begin!"
Grinding at this spot was indeed much easier than yesterday's location. Even without Gu Fei's or Drifting's assistance, the ladies could beat the monsters to near death through their concerted efforts. Sometimes, someone would even luckily deal their highest damage, cleanly instkilling the lured monsters.
Gu Fei threw some spells for quite a few waves and quickly became bored. I don't even feel as if it matters if I'm here or not! Furthermore, he found it extremely vexing that he had to eat fruit after every four waves of monsters due to his low mana. The currently bored Gu Fei saw Luo Luo get to his side and warily asked her, "What?"
"Look how stressed out you are just from me getting near you," Luo Luo smiled as she raised her hand to bestow Heal on to him. Gu Fei extended his hand and pushed her hand down, "Don't waste that on me. Use it to someone who needs it the most—"
"You're holding my hand," Luo Luo interrupted.
Gu Fei smiled as he kept holding her hand. He did not feel the slightest embarrassed that he had purposefully pressed her hand down to stop her from bestowing Heal on him. What was a little physical contact between men and women nowadays? Only those with ill-intention would mind such a superficial action.
Luo Luo's smile slightly wavered. She was about to say something when Gu Fei suddenly shouted, "Who's there?!"
"What?" Luo Luo looked at her back and saw no one there.
"There's someone behind that tree," Gu Fei said as he pointed to a spot. He then started walking toward the area he had just indicated. With how things were currently, his departure barely affected the grinding of the party.
Luo Luo trailed her eyes to where Gu Fei had pointed and saw a lone tree a few meters away.
"I don't see anyone," Luo Luo muttered to herself as she followed him over. She too felt that her participation in the party's level grinding did not matter much. Originally, fighting monsters ten levels above them should be a dangerous task, such as Will-low needing Luo Luo's constant Heal to survive the level grinding yesterday. But since the ones pulling the monsters today were gaming experts and had long-range job classes, Luo Luo could only blankly watch them without needing to use her skills. Feeling bored, she decided to tease Gu Fei for a bit but she got stopped by him in the end. It was all because she was 'bored'.
The others looked on as the two headed toward a tree with Luo Luo following behind Gu Fei. Very quickly, they all retracted their gazes from the two with a knowing smile on their faces and feigned ignorance of what had just occurred.
"Wait for me!" Luo Luo shouted.
Gu Fei stopped walking and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"What if it's dangerous?" Luo Luo asked back instead.
"That's precisely why I'm asking you what you're doing here," Gu Fei reemphasized his previous question. Danger lurked everywhere in the game, and Yunduan City was no exception. A majority of people in Yunduan City had heard stories of the evil-doers that would 'farm' solo players' equipment, so most players now grinded in parties rather than by themselves in order to ward off these evil men.
"I'm coming with you to heal you!" Luo Luo smiled as she said this.
Gu Fei was helpless and just let her be. He slowed down his pace to match Luo Luo's as they made their way around the tree. They spotted half the back of a person's figure prone on the base of the tree. Seeing the person's figure and shoulder-length hair, it seemed that the person was a she.
Ah. So what I actually saw just then was this person dropping on the ground, Gu Fei muttered to himself as Luo Luo bent over. Tapping the person's shoulder lightly, she asked, "Hello?" She took a quick look at the person's face and turned her head to Gu Fei, "This lady's a beauty. Your eyes sure are quite sharp."
Gu Fei did not respond to her teasing.
"Hey, what's wrong? Please wake up!" Luo Luo became anxious when the beauty remained motionless after getting tapped by her. Holding the lady's shoulders, Luo Luo gave them a few firm shakes.
Gu Fei could clearly see the lady's features now that her face was turned toward him and he immediately froze.
Vast Lushness. She was the demoness who was responsible for the hardships of countless players in Yueye City in the past. In addition, she was the one that that had forced Will-low and her friends to leave their home city.
When Gu Fei and the rest of Young Master's Elite mercenary group left Yueye City, the all out war between the behemoth Past Deeds Guild and the allied small guilds had only just begun. He did not even bother to find out how things had turned out in Yueye City ever since his departure. A month had passed since then. Vast Lushness' sudden appearance here made Gu Fei wonder how the large-scale guild war had turned out.
Vast Lushness finally opened her eyes after experiencing Luo Luo's violent shaking. Her glazed over eyes slowly regained their awareness as she sat up while looking at them, "You two are….""Were you… sleeping?" Luo Luo asked in disbelief; she actually mistakenly thought that something serious had befallen the lady.
Vast Lushness nodded her head, "It has been forever since I last logged off. I only wanted to rest for a bit behind this tree, but I accidentally fell asleep instead."
"What are you doing here?" Luo Luo asked, perplexed.
"I'm looking for Yunduan City. Is this near Yunduan City? Are you Yunduan City's players? That's great! I finally met other players," Vast Lushness happily picked herself up. She was talking to Luo Luo at first, but her gaze instinctively shifted to Gu Fei when she said 'players'. Her gaze did not shift after that as it stayed on Gu Fei for the longest time.
Black mask, black mage robes, and a purple blade gleaming with dark luster... The image was burned deeply into Vast Lushness' mind.
However, Gu Fei was not wearing a mask right now. He also kept Moonlit Nightfalls into his dimensional pocket when he realized that it was her. Vast Lushness could not identify him solely from the robe alone; black mage robes were no longer as rare as before, after all.
Gu Fei had yet to make a sound and only Luo Luo spoke to her, "You wish to head to Yunduan City?"
Vast Lushness finally switched her gaze from Gu Fei to Luo Luo as she nodded her head in affirmation, "Yup. I'm from Yueye City, so I don't know the way. I got lost after crossing the Oolong Mountain Range. I've been running around this map for so long, but I've yet to meet anyone. I'm only at level 30 so I don't dare to wander off too far. It's a good thing that I met you two."
"Wah! You're only at level 30…" Luo Luo exclaimed, saying, "This is a level 50 grinding map!"
"Yeah, that's why I don't dare to move any further. I have to be careful with every step I take, as dying will send me back to Yueye City since I have yet to log off over at a safe zone in Yunduan City," Vast Lushness affirmed.
Currently, most players were around level 38 to 40, and those at level 30 were basically new players who had just started playing Parallel World for a few days. Vast Lushness was a veteran player when the game was still in beta. She was already at level 30 last month, yet she was still at level 30 right now; it was obvious which side had won the guild war in Yueye City. For Vast Lushness to not even be able to raise one level this entire month, it seemed that she had quite the tough time.
She was looking the part of someone who had not gone offline for so long as well, as her eyes were bloodshot and her face looked haggard. Luo Luo sympathetically tugged on her hand and said, "We're grinding our levels over there. You should join us as well. We'll bring you back to the city together later."
"Thank you so much," Vast Lushness nodded her head.
Just as she was about to tag along, a voice suddenly rang out, "Over there!"
The three looked toward the voice's origin and saw a number of players running down the hill toward them. Vast Lushness's face visibly paled as she sighed, "They found me."
"Who are they?" Luo Luo's inquisitive spirit was piqued.
"They are people of Yueye City who are hunting me… I have many enemies; our guild has been hunted constantly ever since we lost to them. To think that they would find their way here," Vast Lushness admitted to them.
Luo Luo stared at Gu Fei, clearly wanting him to make a decision. If they were to help Vast Lushness, Gu Fei would have to do the attacking; as a Priest, Luo Luo could not make any form of decision in this situation.
However, Gu Fei remained noncommittal regarding the situation. Answering a cry for justice was a chance he had been waiting for quite a long time, yet reality always seemed to always make fun of people, especially him, for the person Gu Fei currently needed to help was none other than Vast Lushness… This woman was not a good person, even though her current predicament was quite pitiful. That's right! Where is her husband? Where has that guy called Silver Moon gone off to? Gu Fei was still muttering this to himself when the men from downhill arrived before them. These men wore a shocked expression upon seeing the three.
"It's you?" one person facing them addressed Luo Luo.
Gu Fei raised his head and looked at the bounty hunters. F*ck, these men are no good either. The one in charge of this lot was the person that that had gone incognito for a while: No Smile.
Chapter 130 - Battō-jutsu
Vast Lushness was public enemy number one in Yueye City. If Past Deeds was mentioned in front of Will-low and her friends, the person they would curse and complain about would not be Guild Leader Silver Moon but his wife, Vast Lushness. If she ever came in dire straits, like right now, it was no exaggeration to say that there would be no place she could hide in Yueye City. Death was the only result awaiting her if anyone caught sight of her.
Besides, Dusky Cloud and his gang that that had defeated Past Deeds were no upright heroes. It would be ludicrous if anyone thought that they had eradicated Past Deeds Guild for the sake of justice in Yueye City. Very few people were pacifists in online games. Dusky Cloud and his lot took its place when Past Deeds fell. Considering their hot-blooded nature and 'might was right' mentality, their resulting arrogance would definitely be no better than Vast Lushness'. Naturally, they would spare no efforts when dealing with Vast Lushness given their deep animosity toward her. This was clear enough, given how their hunt for her had spread all the way to Yunduan City.
No Smile had a really good relationship with Dusky Cloud. No Smile previously lending his precious dagger, Zephyr's Whisper, to Dusky Cloud in this online game was already proof of the strong bond that the two shared. Dusky Cloud even tried to off Gu Fei for No Smile and, at the moment, No Smile was helping Dusky Cloud hunt for Vast Lushness. "Why are you two here?" No Smile asked first, recognizing Luo Luo and Gu Fei - of course, he recognized Gu Fei as the despicable person who had snatched his dagger away and not his nemesis, the Masked Slayer.
Luo Luo evidently cared not for No Smile so she did not bother to reply; Gu Fei was the one who spoke to No Smile, but it was not to politely answer the latter's question; instead, he asked one of his own questions, "Why are you still alive?"
No Smile felt peeved! He was currently considering whether to kill off these two people along the way, seeing as bad blood already existed between him and July, Luo Luo, and the rest.
"Who are these two?" someone beside No Smile asked.
No Smile froze, as the question was not easy to answer. The only person related to him from the previous matter was July. Since July was considered as an 'enemy', then Gu Fei and Luo Luo would be the friends of his 'enemy', and it would be somewhat of a stretch to say that he was related to them. No need to tangle with these two since I'm just helping Dusky Cloud and his lot hunt for Vast Lushness. No Smile thought of this and casually responded, "Nothing much. I just happen to know them."
Gu Fei and Luo Luo were quite surprised by his statement. They initially thought that No Smile would use this opportunity to punish them for what they had done before, yet No Smile apparently no longer had that in mind!
"Oh. Would you two please let us through? We're players of Yueye City who specially made the trip out here to find this woman!" The person pointed at Vast Lushness as he spoke to them.
Luo Luo glanced at Gu Fei. Vast Lushness looked quite pathetic right now, so Luo Luo felt really sympathetic of her plight. However, Gu Fei had always been apathetic toward this woman ever since they had seen her under the tree. His current attitude was very different from Luo Luo's impression of him that she instinctively knew that there was more to this matter, yet she did not say a thing about this and merely tugged on Gu Fei's hand, "Shall we leave?"
Gu Fei nodded his head in agreement and took two steps back.
Luo Luo hesitated for a moment before finally saying, "Or should we stay and have a look?" Although she was no gossipmonger, she sure was nosy when it came to stuff like this.
"Fine by me," Gu Fei easily agreed again. The two took a step back as No Smile and his team immediately surrounded Vast Lushness.
Vast Lushness was a Priest with very slow movement speed, so she did not attempt to escape when she got discovered by them. Now that she was being surrounded, she only softly said, "Just do it already; stop dragging this out."
The men laughed coldly and said, "You're not bad, running so far away from Yueye City. Don't you want to see more of the local sights?" With that, one of them swung a sword toward her.
Vast Lushness tried to dodge the attack, yet she could not dodge it completely. With her much lower level than the attackers and non-combat job class, she could only take the hit while gritting her teeth and bestow Heal on herself.
"You d*mn b*tch! Looks like you want it the hard way!" The person cursed as he scored another hit with his sword.
Vast Lushness dodged again, but she was still struck by it. Once more, her Heal landed on herself.
"I'm joining in as well!" Two more men joined the fray; one was a Mage while the other was a Priest like Vast Lushness.
The Mage did not use spells, nor did the Priest use his healing spells; both waved their staves wildly as they closed in on Vast Lushness.
"Shall I join in as well?" An Archer also stepped up from the men and changed his fighting style to something inappropriate for his job class like the two before him, brandishing his longbow like it was a crescent blade.
No Smile stood to the side with a cruel smile on his face, not joining in the skirmish.
This was not a PvP but an extended session of torture, instead. Since Vast Lushness had no way of retaliating against them and could only painstakingly bestow Heal on herself, the men were beating her up using methods that could inflict the lowest possible damage on her.
"Is this how you fight back? Why are you being so 'gentle'?" A few of the men jeered at Vast Lushness. Describing her as 'gentle' happened to be ironic given her past tyrannical personality, and they laughed at this inside joke.
Luo Luo could not bear to look on anymore. As she was about to say something to Gu Fei, she saw the corner of his eyes twitch.
"Ahhh!" A scream escaped from Vast Lushness, who had been enduring all their painful attacks, when the opposing Priest swiped his staff across her legs and tripped her over.
"HA HA HA HA!" Everyone stopped their attacks as they guffawed in ridicule at Vast Lushness' sorry appearance.
Vast Lushness quickly climbed up to her feet with her body visibly shaking from the effort. Having stayed online for such a long time, her body was now showing signs of exhaustion.
"Do you still want to do this the hard way?" The opponent berated Vast Lushness as he slashed her once more.
Heal!
"You're still holding on!" said someone as another slash was sent her way.
Heal once more.
"You're still at it!" The surrounding men severely chastised Vast Lushness as they continued their attacks.
The answer to their actions was yet another Heal.
"Woman, retreat to the side!" someone suddenly said loudly.
All gawked when they saw Gu Fei stride over. There were only two women here. Based on where Gu Fei was looking at, it was apparent that his statement was for Vast Lushness.
"What are you trying to do? You wanna be a hero?" No Smile laughed mirthlessly as he gripped his dagger tightly. He did not want to make the same mistake twice. I tried making things easy for these two. But since they're insistent on serving themselves up on a silver platter, they can't blame me for messing with them, No Smile thought to himself.
Vast Lushness looked at Gu Fei with an emotionless face, "I don't need your help."
"I'm not helping you; I'm helping them," Gu Fei corrected her.
"Oh?" The lot hesitated for a while before laughing, "Bro wants to play with us, too? Go ahead."
Gu Fei laughed as he entered the crowd and stood in front of Vast Lushness, addressing the men, "I am helping you know what a real PvP is! Twin Incineration! Incinerate!"
The Priest that that had tripped Vast Lushness disappeared under a fiery glow. "F*ck!" everyone exclaimed.
"Step aside; school's in session," Gu Fei bluntly told Vast Lushness.
Vast Lushness was in shock. The required Spell Damage to instkill a Priest with just Twin Incineration was frighteningly high. What was worse was the fact that Gu Fei casted the spell with just his bare hands.
Gu Fei actually used a weapon, but it was done so fast that she failed to see it. Gu Fei drew out Moonlit Nightfalls from his dimensional pocket, casted the spell, attacked with it, and put it back inside his pocket almost instantly. This technique of drawing out a sword for one strike and returning it to its scabbard was called 'battō-jutsu'.
Legends had it that battō-jutsu used the resulting arc when the user drew the sword as well as the resulting friction from that action to create an instantaneous burst of power, achieving a slash that was far stronger than an average slash. However, that was merely legends; in reality, the real profundity of using battō-jutsu came from executing it during an ambush.
A sheathed sword would naturally give the opponent a false sense of security. The one explosive attack that came from suddenly unleashing battō-jutsu would have a greater success if the opponent least expected it.
If the lethality was truly a result of the friction from drawing the sword out of its scabbard, then that would mean that the user would have to quickly sheath the sword back once the first slash was executed; otherwise, it would be impossible to perform the second strike.
In other words, swiftly sheathing the sword was more difficult than swiftly drawing the sword from its scabbard. Many Japanese warriors were obsessed with battō-jutsu and they trained the technique of drawing and sheathing their weapons for years. And yet, most of them still could not perform the sheathing part of the technique, failing to master battō-jutsu and discovering the manly seppuku1 technique instead. This could be considered as an oddity in the history of martial arts.
The battō-jutsu technique that Gu Fei was currently using was in fact executed using the method for using a hidden weapon. Honestly speaking, pulling out a sword from the dimensional pocket and putting it away were easier to accomplish in-game than in reality where he would have to use a scabbard.
"You rascal!" one of the men bellowed, resulting into him eating Twin Incineration from Gu Fei as well.
Six men, including No Smile, were chasing after Vast Lushness and two of them already lost their lives in Gu Fei's hands in the blink of an eye. Thus, the remaining four men no longer bothered with Vast Lushness as it was evident that Gu Fei was the harder opponent.
No Smile's heart was currently in turmoil. He was uncertain why Amethyst Rebirth had so many top experts helping the guild. Before it was that Fugitive 27149, and now it was this person. If only No Smile knew that 'that person' and 'this person' were the same one, he would probably be sh*tting his pants right about now. Unfortunately, No Smile did not have much time to ponder on this because Gu Fei once more created another arc of Twin Incineration, instantly killing two more players that that had rushed toward him. In this instance, only No Smile and a Warrior wielding a huge axe remained standing.
"What's your level now?" Gu Fei suddenly asked No Smile.
"Level 40," No Smile answered while stepping backward.
"Your level is higher than me!" Gu Fei exclaimed, feeling spiteful.
"YA!" the axe-wielding Warrior accompanying No Smile roared as he cleaved his weapon toward Gu Fei.
Gu Fei turned his body to the side and evaded the move, "You look familiar. What's your name?"
"This m*th*rf*ck*r here is called Celestial Pig; remember the name!" Celestial Pig growled.
"Oh, got it. Bye!" Gu Fei's hands moved and instkilled Celestial Pig.
No Small was paralyzed with fear. He no longer had the will to fight and only thought of escaping. Just as he was about to activate his Vanish skill, two arrows loudly pierced the air and embedded themselves into his forehead. White light shone for the sixth time....
Gu Fei glanced over and saw Royal God Call jumping up and down, "F*ck me! You're PvPing again!"