Chapter 150 - Forever in Flowers
Gu Fei's words left Young Master Han inexplicably stunned. His pure intention of 'using kung fu' brought him to Parallel World, so his way of thinking somewhat differed from the other players. As such, Young Master Han was momentarily left speechless by his words.
"Alright. Let's speak more of this tomorrow! Don't you four still have the guild versus guild tournament to take care of?" Brother Assist addressed Gu Fei and the other three men who were part of other guilds.
Nodding their heads, the four quietly departed toward the same location. Intuitively, the four separated from one another as if they were strangers along the way.
Only Brother Assist and Sword Demon were left by the the square outside the Hall of Mercenaries. Brother Assist wiped the sweat off his brows as he peeked out of the corner that they were in. "Let's quickly leave as well! Cloud Herder's men are almost on us."
Sword Demon smiled slightly, "I'm not afraid of them; I can use Stealth."
Brother Assist paused, patting Sword Demon's arm as he laughed bitterly, "Oh, you…."
Despite what was just said between the two, they still took a detour to sneak past Cloud Herder. Since Young Master's Elite's members came face to face with Cloud Herder's members just a while ago, it was highly likely for them to recognize the six men.
This sort of tournaments usually placed everyone on an equal playing field with no death penalty, so very few people would hold grudges. As for those few people who would bear hatred against others in such fair fights, they more often than not had tyrannical, unprincipled, and other negative personalities. In the Cloud Herder's members' case, it was their extreme unwillingness to admit defeat that bred this heavy grudge against Young Master's Elite.
Sword Demon and Brother Assist went a big round before finally leaving the square outside the Hall of Mercenaries. "Shall we head to the bar?" Brother Assist suggested.
Sword Demon did not say no to his suggestion, so the two made their way toward Ray's Bar. Their usual room was taken, so they occupied a different room.
"Today's match led to a bit of disharmony within our group!" Brother Assist began to speak about the matter once he sat down.
Sword Demon smiled bitterly. It was not just 'a bit of disharmony'; in fact, it was no exaggeration to say that this event could even lead to the disbandment of their mercenary group. Fortunately, everyone had been through thick and thin since Parallel World's open beta days. Although they had not done many things together, spending time every day at Ray's Bar with one another at least fostered a strong bond among them all. Moreover, they did not lose in this match, so the situation did not escalate too much.
More importantly, everyone had a pretty good grasp of Young Master Han's personality after knowing him for quite a while. With their great mental resilience, they could one way or another tolerate Young Master Han's illogical approach to today's PvP match.
If this was how they had done their first mercenary mission together, Sword Demon believed that Royal God Call would have left without a word and Gu Fei would have slain Young Master Han on the spot. That man was a seriously violent person… Gu Fei's high PK value and his days of slaying people for 'Bounty Mission' had left a deep impression on everyone in the mercenary group.
"How much do you understand of Young Master's intention for employing such a PvP tactic?" Brother Assist asked. Sword Demon had been Young Master Han's online partner for so many years already; even if he did not have Young Master Han's mind for tactics, Sword Demon at least had a better idea of his intention than others. Interpersonal trust was built up through mutual understanding, after all. Even in an online game, it would be virtually impossible to partner with someone that a person did not trust or understand.
Sword Demon thought for a moment before saying, "He must have planned out today's tactic as he entered the preparation map, only deciding to set his plan in motion after confirming the opposing group's head count."
Brother Assist was astonished, "That's only several minutes before the match began!"
"Yes. He probably had several different ideas from the start, but when it was time to begin the match, he chose to carry on with the plan to achieve a victory without finishing off every opponents. However, an accident happened at the beginning," Sword Demon said.
"Accident?"
"Wounds did not manage to eliminate any opponents, causing us to fall behind on kill points. That's something he must not have expected," Sword Demon explained, continuing, "But… It's very common for unexpected accidents to happen while plans are underway. As long as adjustments are done in time, the main strategy will still be used. From today's method of assault, he clearly intended to achieve this sort of victory."
"This sort of victory... Hmm…" Brother Assist seemed to have understood something.
More people were gathered at the plaza outside the Main Hall of Guilds than at the square outside the Hall of Mercenaries. All players queued with their guild leaders to enter the teleportation portal in an orderly fashion. On his way over, Gu Fei was pondering on something, If Amethyst Rebirth were to meet a guild as cohesive as Cloud Herder mercenary group, victory would not be achieved with just my and Svelte Dancer's efforts. If that time ever comes, should I kill for the fun of it or deal with the enemies as best as I can while considering the guild's benefit in mind?
At this moment, this saying entered his mind: 'With great power, comes great responsibility.' This adage had essentially been vetoed by his father in reality. Even when he already possessed great skills, his father did not allow him to take on some noble calling, such as protecting world peace. This made him feel absolutely helpless. And now he had to resort to playing Superman in this online game… Sigh.
As Gu Fei was thinking of all this, he had unknowingly walked through the teleportation array and was instantly teleported into the 'changing room'.
"Hi..." Gu Fei greeted everyone. The ladies had arrived earlier than him as usual. However, the ladies' mood today seemed to be very different from yesterday's jocular banter. Not only were all the ladies present, all of them wore a serious expression on their faces as well.
Could it be that my and Svelte Dancer's indomitable performance yesterday made all these ladies gain a bit of bravery through shame, and they decided to seriously fight the PvP matches from now on, too? Gu Fei asked to himself.
"Miles, you're here," July welcomed Gu Fei.
"Yup!"
"How was your mercenary PvP match today?" she politely asked. This way of greeting the others had started trending in Parallel World ever since the PvP tournament event began. Asking "How was your guild match" before a mercenary PvP tournament and "How was your mercenary PvP match" before a guild versus guild tournament was was now a common act that everyone in-game performed.
"Close win," Gu Fei smiled tightly.
"Congrats," July said. With that, she clapped her hands to get the ladies attention and introduce their opposing guild for today's guild match.
Gu Fei listened and slowly understood why everyone seemed to have brought out their fighting spirit today.
Today's opposing guild for Amethyst Rebirth was called Forever in Flowers. It was a level 1 guild with fifty members. The problem was that this guild was established by a bunch of male players who were notorious philanderers. It was unknown if the system purposely matched up a guild filled with lewd men with a guild filled with pure ladies. July looked up some information about their current match-up from the system and was left in utter rage when she read the opposing guild's lecherous motto. Briefing everyone about the current opponents upon her return, all the ladies' will to fight was instantly kindled.
Now that she was explaining the matter in greater detail, the ladies were even more agitated. Everyone promptly condemned that bunch of lechers to the seventh hell. Their words kept flowing nonstop as they slowly began to include not just the fifty lechers of Forever in Flowers but the entire male species as well in their verbal condemnations.
When their condemnation even reached all the way to the photo scandal that that had happened to a certain popular male artist at the start of the year in reality, July clapped her hands to draw all the ladies' attention once more.
All focused their gazes at her, thinking that she was about to express a unique view on this matter.
July said, "There are still three minutes until the match begins; all should make their preparations!" It was indeed a unique view. Gu Fei believed that all the ladies here had long forgotten what they were supposed to be doing here besides July.
Amazing! Gu Fei could not help but think, Our current meeting before the battle… is filled with unity. Despite the tension, it does not lack solemnity or liveliness as well."Today, I must kill more than you. Hmph!" Just as everyone was about to enter the PvP arena, Svelte Dancer said this to Gu Fei.
The Amethyst Rebirth's ladies saw a different scenery when they finally arrived at the real PvP arena.
"My fellow sisters, let's kill!" someone yelled. All the ladies showed their determination by echoing this battlecry. Gu Fei kept his mouth shut this whole time, as he did not agree with that 'my fellow sisters' call with him being a 'brother'.
"CHARGE!" With a bellow, all the ladies dashed forward.
In the blink of an eye, Svelte Dancer disappeared out of sight, and he was left behind with the Priests and Warriors once more….
What's so different here than what happened yesterday? Gu Fei was irate. Once more, he matched his pace with the Priests and Warriors.
Luo Luo, who was beside him, also had a severe expression on her face today and did not teasingly bestow Heal on to Gu Fei like usual; instead, she asked him intently, "Miles, why aren't you charging onward?"
When Gu Fei did not reply, she asked, "Do you need me to add fuel to your fire?" Lifting her staff, she acted as if she would bestow Heal on to him, so he quickly ran after Svelte Dancer.
Svelte Dancer was bellicose. Wanting to seize the initiative from Gu Fei, she pushed her limits and sprinted straight toward the opposing guild's spawn point. However, she found no one around when she arrived there.
Circling the area twice, Svelte Dancer still found no one. She roared in her impotent rage, "Where's everyone?! Get outta here!"
"Babe, over here!" someone actually answered.
Svelte Dancer turned her head fast toward the voice's origin and spotted a few men by a small knoll making funny faces at her. Without hesitation, she bounded toward them.
With their mouths drooling, they stuttered their admiration for the pretty lady before them, "Ahh… Ahh..." This went on for quite some time before someone among these men finally said, "G*dd*mn. This babe is too fierce. Let's run!" These men finally felt terrified when they saw how Svelte Dancer had managed to cover half the distance in a split second.
The men stood up in unison from atop the knoll and ran in five different directions.
Svelte Dancer paused for a moment when she got on top of the knoll. Helpless, she casually chose a target to chase. However, she ran no more than a few steps when she saw a figure clad in black robe opposite her hurtling himself over to kill the targets. Svelte Dancer found this figure to be very familiar! She quickly hollered, "DON'T YOU DARE! THAT IS MINE!"
Her scream arrived too late, though. The man clad in black robe caught up to her target and, with a lift of his arm, turned the target into a stream of white light. "What's the situation?" Gu Fei asked about the status of the PvP match as he ran toward Svelte Dancer.
"You're not allowed to steal my kills again!" Svelte Dancer clutched Gu Fei's arms and shook him.
"Don't mess around! There are forty-nine more people out there!" Gu Fei did not know whether to laugh or cry at her pettiness, so he just pointed her toward a direction, "There are men hiding inside that forest."
"You think you can trick me with that?!" Svelte Dancer spat those words with vitriol as she turned to chase after the other four men who had previously dispersed.
"Sigh... To think my kindness would be mistaken for trickery." With that, Gu Fei entered the forest he had indicated to Svelte Dancer himself.
"Stop hiding and come out already!" Gu Fei knocked upon the tree trunks as he shouted hoarsely.
"Drunk bro! Drunk bro, over here!" someone suddenly called.
Gu Fei followed the voice in shock. "Fireball!" A ball of fire formed on his palm just as he reflexively said this word. "Bleh!" Gu Fei quickly spat to extinguish the ball of fire in his hand, asking as he stared at the mousy Fireball hiding behind a tree, "Why are you here?"
"This is my guild!" Fireball replied.
"Forever in Flowers?" Gu Fei asked.
"That's right!" Fireball nodded his head vigorously.
Gu Fei suddenly felt guilty. Fireball could be considered as the first friend he had made in Parallel World, yet he did not even know which guild he belonged to, showing how little he cared for his Fire bro.
That was when Fireball suddenly kicked a few trees around him, "Get the f*ck outta here and meet him. There's no need for me to tell you guys how awesome Drunk bro is, right?"
Five other men, with eyes teeming in admiration for Gu Fei, appeared from behind the trees. They regarded him like a god even as they called out to him in the same way Fireball had done, "Drunk bro."
"Uhh…" Gu Fei did not know how to respond to this! They were supposed to be enemies, yet they actually treated him as if he was one of their own with Fireball taking the lead! How could Gu Fei kill them at this rate?
"Drunk bro, how did you get into Amethyst Rebirth? Please teach these fellow bros!" someone pleaded while gazing at Gu Fei expectantly.
Now that he knew why they idolized him so much, Gu Fei could feel beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He steadied himself before answering, "It's all a misunderstanding." He then began to tell them about Xi Xiaotian tricking him in the past. "Although they have the number now, they decided not to kick me out of the guild once we all became more familiar with one another. That is how I managed to stay there till now!" Gu Fei concluded.
"Ahh! Why am I not lucky like you?!" A few of them lamented as they beat their chests in sadness.
Gu Fei was once more left speechless.
Fireball suddenly became alert as he hushed everyone, "Quiet. Another babe is here."
These men quickly ducked back behind the trees, including Fireball. Seeing Gu Fei standing there dumb as a doornail, Fireball quickly called out to him, "Drunk bro, over here!" He pulled Gu Fei over and shared a tree with him.
Hiding behind the tree with Fireball, Gu Fei saw July, Will-low, and a few Archers and Thieves rushing to the clearing within the trees.
"Ah. That slender babe isn't bad," someone said, pointing to Will-low.
"That one is not bad, too… She is a Fighter, I think?" That was July.
"Drunk bro, be careful. Don't let them discover you," Fireball felt that Gu Fei was a little too bold with his sneaking, so he gave the latter this advice out of concern for him.
Gu Fei was in tears as this situation unfolded before him. F*ck*ng hell; just what am I doing exactly?
Chapter 151 - Hunt
When July, Will-low, and the other ladies with fast movement speed reached the opposing guild's spawn point, they promptly searched the area, just like what Svelte Dancer had done earlier, and naturally found nothing.
"I'll head into the forest to take a look," Will-low said as she began to walk toward the forest.
Gu Fei could see the sudden excitement of the gentlemen around him. They were exchanging looks among themselves, as if they were conveying "A beauty is coming over!" with their eyes.
The dim light of this gloomy forest could be eliciting these men's desire to do something criminal.
"This lot. Don't tell me…" Gu Fei was jolted by a sudden thought. Something like that should not be possible in this game... But what if this guild versus guild tournament operated differently from the usual Parallel World's system, allowing players to initiate a different kind of physical assault to the others?
"Hold on. Let's wait for more of us to arrive before entering the forest together; there might be an ambush within," July stopped Will-low.
Fireball and his fellow brothers had an extremely disappointed expression on their faces when Will-low did not continue heading toward the forest.
"What are you guys up to?" Gu Fei whispered.
"This is a guild match!" Fireball whispered back.
Well. At least this lot still remembers that this is a PvP tournament! Gu Fei was grateful and hurriedly reminded them once more, "I'm from the opposing guild, too!"
Fireball fearfully regarded Gu Fei, "Drunk bro, we're not interested in men—"
"Go to hell!" Gu Fei cursed.
That was when the person next to Fireball sniggered, "He he! Xiao Lizi and the four others were killed."
Fireball gleefully and smugly said, "Serves them right. Those idiots didn't even gather intel first before picking up babes. That babe they had the balls to piss off is Svelte Dancer herself!"
"That's right!" The rest of them happily agreed, feeling a touch of schadenfreude.
This guild has such a warped relationship! Gu Fei thought to himself. This was a guild versus guild tournament, yet Fireball and his friends looked as if they were about to break open the champagne bottles to celebrate the deaths of their guildmates.
It seemed that this bunch of men cared not for the match's outcome and were just here purely to enjoy themselves. Evidently, their intention was to meet the ladies of their dreams and show off in front of them!
Gu Fei could not help but smile at their pure intention. Such situation was something he had seen many times before due to his profession. In the school Gu Fei was teaching, physical education classes for boys and girls were conducted separately, but whenever there were joint classes, a majority of the boys would act as if they were on dope in front of the girls. The sudden burst of bravery, strength, and endurance would allow them to uncomplainingly run for ten kilometers when asked. In fact, the boys would rather die than admit that they were tired at times like that.
"This bunch is really..." As Gu Fei was muttering this to himself, more and more ladies of Amethyst Rebirth began to gather on the fringe of the forest. June's Rain and Luo Luo, the ladies with the slowest speed, managed to make it here, so it was obvious that Amethyst Rebirth had all finished gathering at this part of the map.
"Hey! I know those two!" Fireball cheerfully remarked.
"Which ones?" everyone asked in astonishment.
Fireball pointed to Luo Luo and June's Rain, "That one and that one!"
"Nice! How did you get to know them?" Several expressed their surprise. Knowing two out of the present ladies was already pretty good for these men. Since the two that Fireball actually knew were rather beautiful, they now regarded him as a great person.
"It's all thanks to Drunk bro," Fireball honestly admitted.
All these men realized something. What was a great person compared to a man who knew all the fifty plus ladies? That man was essentially a god - a god that they would burn incense for and pray to.
Gu Fei felt awkward when he saw these men's worshipping gazes, "Don't say it like that."
"Ah! It looks like they are about to enter the forest!" someone exclaimed.
Gu Fei shifted his head to look and saw that the now organized party of ladies was indeed about to begin searching the forest with June's Rain in the lead.She was a bit of an airhead that absolutely detested male players who harbored ill designs for her female friends, and Gu Fei had known about this when he first got to know her. She even called herself a lesbian; although it was a poor lie on her part, it showed her conviction to not be harassed by any male players.
"They're all here!" The men's excited voices betrayed a hint of nervousness, making it hard for Gu Fei to determine their real intention.
"Aren't you guys planning to flee?" Gu Fei asked.
"Why would we do that? This is the moment we have all been waiting for," Fireball replied seriously.
Gu Fei was at a loss. There were a total of six male players here including Fireball. Were they gaming experts that could handle fifty plus female players by themselves?
Just as he was pondering about this, June's Rain, who was the closest to the men, suddenly cried out in astonishment, "AH!"
"What is it?" A few other ladies quickly rushed to Xiaoyu's side to see what was going on and their cries followed soon after.
"What's going on there?!" Gu Fei asked, shocked.
"It's a trap we have set," Fireball answered.
"Quickly do what you have to do, Fireball," the others anxiously prompted Fireball.
"Here I come!" Fireball flashily appeared from behind the tree and grandly saluted to the ladies before him, "How do you do, m'ladies!" Following this, he chanted a spell, "Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno! Arise!" The resulting inferno instantly ignited patches of trees with June's Rain and all the ladies trapped within.
"Drunk bro, let's leave!" Fireball pulled Gu Fei to run away with him, and the other five men had long retreated deeper into the forest. The ladies behind were frantically escaping the AOE of Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno, while several Priests were trying to keep everyone alive with their healing. Gu Fei dazedly went deeper into the forest with Fireball, What is this?! Am I a turncoat now?
Fireball and the others seemed to have made preparations for this, as they stopped at a certain spot inside the forest. While the five dropped on all fours to the ground and got busy, Fireball explained to Gu Fei, "These Archers finished their Job Class Advancement and are now Hunters. The skill they are currently using is called 'Hunting Trap'."
"I like the word 'hunting'." Someone among the five flashed Gu Fei a crooked smile as he set a trap up.
"Tsk. What's so great about this skill? It just stops a target's movement for a few seconds and it doesn't even deal a bit of damage," Fireball spat with contempt.
"G*dd*mn. How else would your sh*tty spell hit without this?!" The five accomplices raised their heads in unison and cursed at him.
Gu Fei was quite surprised when he heard this. This small guild that he had never considered as a big deal apparently had quite a few members who had already done their Job Class Advancement. At the current stage of the game, only those players who would play day and night had reached level 40, and the rest that would only play at night were still at the same levels as the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies.
Online games were truly a world with an inclusive community that even creeps could achieve something over. And yet, Gu Fei could only think of one word to describe the sight of these few Hunters setting traps for the ladies: obscene.
"Done!" The five stood up once their traps were set in place.
Gu Fei stepped forward and had a look. Five contraptions resembling mouse traps were poorly hidden beneath the fallen leaves, twigs, and tall grass carpeting the forest ground. Thankfully, the poor lighting caused by the trees and the detritus strewn everywhere on the ground had helped in masking these traps. People must be blind to even find themselves falling for these snares if these were set up in well-lighted places like Yunduan City.
These Archers felt somewhat embarrassed when they saw Gu Fei's amazed expression and hurriedly explained, "The higher one's proficiency in the 'Hunting Trap' skill, the better he or she can hide a trap and the higher the damage it can cause. We've only learned this skill not too long ago."
"Oh…" Gu Fei could only utter this.
"Alright! Let's quickly hide ourselves!" As the Hunters found themselves trees to hide, Fireball dragged Gu Fei to stand beside him once more.
"You can't kill people like this! Why didn't you five shoot arrows just then?" Gu Fei asked in puzzlement. Fireball obviously did not have high Magic Attack Power, so his Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno could not instkill any of the ladies. However, it would have been a different story if the five Hunters had fired off their arrows together. Although the five Hunters went through their Job Advancement at level 40, the skills that they had learned from the preceding forty levels still remained with them, so they would still be able to shoot arrows!
Unexpectedly, Gu Fei's words greatly frightened these men, "Shoot these babes? Drunk bro, are you insane?"
"He he! 'Shoot' these babes he says…" When someone repeated the words lewdly, the rest could not help but sinisterly laugh along with him first before immediately regarding Gu Fei with a horrified expression again.
Lewd! They are far too lewd! Gu Fei roared inside him.
Fireball solemnly said to Gu Fei, "Drunk bro, we don't intend to kill these babes. We just wanna tease and have a little fun with them."
"Hunting babes. He he!" someone added.
Gu Fei finally understood that these fellows were not really evil at heart and were just rascals that wanted to fantasize about the ladies from afar and capture the women's distressed look in their mental spank banks.
"Ahh!" Fireball seemed to have recalled something, "Drunk bro, you have been following us all this time... How are you going to earn kill points?"
Gu Fei felt very gratified that Fireball had remembered his original goal for coming here.
"How about this! I'll tell you the hiding locations of the other guys, and you can earn some kill points from them, instead!" Fireball proposed.
Gu Fei was amazed. This is downright betrayal! Is he not afraid of what his fellow brothers will think of his action?
Unexpectedly, the other five men agreed with Fireball's suggestion, "That's a great idea! Drunk bro, go bring Svelte Dancer with you and kill them all!"
"Tsk! Drunk bro doesn't need any helper. He can solo them all," Fireball said dismissively.
"Is that so…" The five did not say anything more. Although they were very impressed that Gu Fei had managed to get himself into an all-female guild, Gu Fei was only at level 39. This meant that Gu Fei was a whole level and Job Class Advancement away from them in terms of raw power, so the five did not feel a shred of respect toward him in this aspect.
"Hmph! You guys don't know a fart at all!" Fireball was unlike the other five skeptics. Pulling Gu Fei to one side, he seriously said, "Drunk bro, they are at these places…."
The Forever in Flowers Guild's players were basically split into five or six-man teams, each hiding in a different spot to take advantage of the ladies when they were alone. Once Fireball betrayed almost all his brothers' positions in the map, he looked at Gu Fei expectantly and said, "The rest is up to you, Drunk bro."
"Are you sure this is fine? What if they find out?" Gu Fei asked, worried for Fireball.
"Drunk bro, why would you tell them anything?" Surprised, Fireball asked back instead.
Gu Fei was left speechless once more.
"They're here! The babes have arrived!" someone among the six men excitedly announced.
"You go ahead, Drunk bro! We're gonna continue our hunt," Fireball returned back to his position, and the six men proceeded to intently observe the direction that the ladies were heading.
Sighing, Gu Fei thought that this must be what it meant for someone to borrow another's knife to kill someone. "But I'm not the one being killed or the one lending the knife; I'm the knife itself…."