Chapter 202 - A Huge Mess
Only a minority of the present players could see through Gu Fei's bluff, and a majority of them were completely taken in by his Zhao San Mu Si. Feeling that Gu Fei had cast the spell on their very feet, the whole bar lost any semblance of order as many leaders scampered about to dodge the incoming spell.
Just as Drifting was regarding the flustered leaders contemptuously, Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno flared into existence in the middle of the bar.
The spell's AOE only extended to the center of the bar, so the fleeing players were able to escape to the side unscathed. Only a handful of players got blasted by the spell and they were mainly made up of those who had thought that they had seen through Gu Fei's wild gestures. These people included the number one Mage Drifting, the four Amethyst Rebirth ladies, and The Black Hand mercenary group leader Black Index Finger.
The four Amethyst Rebirth ladies freaked out for a bit, thinking that their death was unavoidable given Gu Fei's high Spell Damage. But when they unexpectedly remained relatively fine, they became very perplexed.
As for Drifting, he was trying to figure out how the spell had successfully been cast despite Gu Fei's wild flailing of his sword, and he began to thoroughly inspect himself. The Black Hand mercenary group leader, for his part, promptly checked his HP and subsequently sneered, "You call this the Instkill Mage?"
They were not the only people who had gotten burned by the spell. When these other players heard Black Index Finger's words, they immediately checked their HP and were shocked. The damage they had received from this Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno was far lower than the damage output of a naked level 40 Mage's spell. It was indeed too farfetched to claim that Gu Fei could instkill someone based on the low Spell Damage he displayed just now.
'Instkill Mage' was how Brother Assist had promoted Gu Fei in his posts on the forums. Many of the present people had been drawn to this conference due to those two words, but now that they had experienced Gu Fei's Spell Damage for themselves, the surrounding players grew extremely agitated as they assumed that they had been scammed by Brother Assist. Calling him a liar, everyone demanded a refund upfront. Some players even asked Brother Assist for a deathmatch. The scene quickly descended into chaos.
This was entirely outside Brother Assist's realm of calculation. Seeing so many people brandishing their swords, sabers, bows, and staves threateningly at him, Brother Assist hurriedly raised his hands to appease the crowd, "Please don't be so hasty, everyone. Let's calmly talk about this."
"What's there to talk about?!" someone bellowed, "We've already experienced what his spell is capable of! That's nowhere near enough to actually instkill someone at all!"
The men refused to be pacified. After all, they now had solid proof of the falsity of Brother Assist's claim after getting hit by Gu Fei's spell. As for those players who had escaped Gu Fei's Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno, they immediately asked the enraged men about Gu Fei's Spell Damage. In a matter of minutes, dissatisfaction spread throughout the crowd in the bar.
Brother Assist was absolutely certain that Gu Fei's Spell Damage could instkill many people, but it was also irrefutable that the latter's recently released Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno had weak damage output. But as an acclaimed information expert, he was able to easily deduce what had just happened: While it was hard for weak players to suddenly get stronger in MMOs, it was actually very easy for the stronger players to slightly weaken their own Attack Power, and one of the way was through removing their weapons that greatly boosted their damage output.
The troubled Brother Assist thought of this as he gazed at Gu Fei. Despite his face being covered, Gu Fei's twinkling eyes could clearly be seen. Brother Assist blanched as he exclaimed to himself, F*ck! I got sabotaged!
"Miles bro, don't mess around. You almost caused my death!" Brother Assist hurriedly sent Gu Fei this private message.
[The player you're trying to contact is temporarily unavailable.] the system expressed.
Sh*t! He came prepared! Brother Assist almost coughed up blood.
Covering his face, intentionally casting a weak spell, and even blocking any incoming messages… Gu Fei had clearly seen through Brother Assist's plan and had purposely messed things up for him. Brother Assist watched helplessly as the hoard of leaders before him became more and more enraged. "You are all leaders or influential figures in our city! How am I going to live peacefully in this city from here onward if this is truly an attempt to scam you all out of your money?" was what he had said previously to eliminate the doubts of everyone, and in the eyes of the others, it seemed that he had done just that at the moment.
Guess I will have to abscond from this city! Brother Assist was in tears as this thought filled his head. Unexpectedly, someone stood up in his defense, "Everyone, please hold your horses!"
The one who had spoken was Young Master Han. But given the sort of people gathered in the bar today, Young Master Han held no sway to them. Some arrogant leaders even pointed to him and yelled, "Just who do you think you are?!"
At the same time, Brother Assist received a private message from Young Master Han: "I request to be given a bigger share of the pot if I manage to resolve your predicament."
"Taking advantage of me while I'm in trouble?" They were both gaming experts after all, so their messaging speed was even faster than actual speech. Brother Assist might be lacking in other aspects as a player, but he was truly top-notch when it came to chatting, with his replying speed being faster than Blink.
Young Master Han did not respond to that; instead, his eyes steadily made contact with Brother Assist's while smiling faintly.
Brother Assist was clueless to Young Master Han's plan, so he could only nod his head to the latter.
"Ahem!" Young Master Han cleared his throat and raised his voice above the leaders' din, "Hear me out first!"
"What's there to explain?!" The men demanded angrily.
"Listen!" Young Master Han suddenly bellowed, "That man is absolutely not the Instkill Mage we want to introduce you guys to."
The whole bar suddenly became quiet. Even Gu Fei looked at Young Master Han in surprise.
"Who is he, then?" someone skeptically asked.
"How do I know? I don't know him. Perhaps, he's here to sabotage us?" Young Master Han innocently replied.
This guy is really vicious and cunning! Brother Assist cried out in his heart. Basically, Young Master Han was implying that someone was trying to sully Brother Assist's good name by making it seem that he had cheated the others of their money, and that someone was the 'unknown' Mage before them.
Naturally, quite a few leaders would want to hold Gu Fei accountable for this ruckus. And once Gu Fei retaliated against his attackers, his true colors would get revealed and the matter would subsequently be resolved. After all, none of these leaders would still be angry at Brother Assist once they realized Gu Fei was truly capapble of instkilling the others. Right now, what was unknown was whose poor soul would get sacrificed to uncover this truth. Brother Assist sympathetically gazed at the crowd before him as he thought up to this point. It all boiled down to who among them was angrier at Gu Fei's earlier stunt.
Young Master Han's plan was not complicated, so Brother Assist was not the only one who could figure it out. Gu Fei had also seen through his intention. In the end, he simply said to the two with a slight smile on his lips, "I won't attack even if I die."
Young Master Han smiled faintly as well, "Then, go to hell!"
Young Master Han claimed that they were not acquainted with the masked man, yet now they were talking to each other. The people present were no fools so they immediately questioned them, "You guys are supposed to not know each other, right?"
"That's right! We don't know each other," Young Master Han replied.
"Then, what were you two talking about?" someone asked.
"Your 'mum'!" Young Master Han answered.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" the person bellowed in anger.
"Weren't you asking us what we were talking about?" Young Master Han asked innocently.
The person who had asked the question was left speechless. What happened next was even more outside of Brother Assist's expectation… .
Knowing that many of the present people were eager to beat Gu Fei up, Silver Moon, who had been maintaining silence all this while, suddenly said, "Everyone, please don't be rash. Let's just turn a blind eye over this weak Mage who has suddenly barged in for now. He's all surrounded now, so there's no way for him to run, anyway. Don't forget; we didn't spend 100 gold coins today just to fight here, so I think it's better to get Brother Assist to invite this Instkill Mage out!" He then looked at Brother Assist and the gang with eyes full of loathing and malice.
Actually, from the way these 'event organizers' greeted the 'weak Mage' just then, everyone could already tell that those people knew one another, and that the Mage was probably the one that the gang had wanted to introduce to everyone. Who knew that things would come to this point where Young Master Han would vehemently deny his connection with Gu Fei? Given the fast development of the situation, hardly any people could connect the dots yet. Silver Moon coldly observed this proceeding, and unlike the others that had their focus shifting from person to person, his attention had remained on Gu Fei.
Just from the verbal exchange between Gu Fei and Young Master Han, Silver Moon more or less got the full picture of the situation and deduced that some sort of conflict must have transpired between the 'weak Mage' and 'the event organizers'. With Gu Fei's refusal to admit that he was the Instkill Mage and Young Master Han's denial of their connection, these few people in charge of the event would probably be branded as scammers and would swiftly be annihilated by all the leaders in Yunduan City if they were unable to present the so-called 'Instkill Mage' right at this moment - an outcome that Silver Moon would thoroughly relish.
To think that the opportunity for revenge would come this soon, Silver Moon gleefully thought to himself as his mouth formed a sinister smile.
Brother Assist noticed how Silver Moon had tried to calm down the enraged crowd earlier, and his heart tightened when he saw the latter smirking at a corner.
Young Master Han had judged Silver Moon's character correctly: He was indeed a very shrewd person. He knew that Young Master's Elite was his arch-nemesis, yet he never showed it in his action. Seeing a chance for revenge, he had pounced on it and viciously bit hard on it. This one bite was rather fatal. If they were unable to present the Instkill Mage to the crowd, they would be featured on the forums the next day as swindlers and their reputations would be ruined by this one incident.
Right now, we could only hope that Gu Fei would intervene, Brother Assist thought to himself, as he gazed imploringly at Gu Fei.
Gu Fei had naturally caught on to Silver Moon's nasty plot. Although he had no wish to become a moneymaker for others, he could simply not allow such a villainous man to succeed. Finding a trade-off between the two, Gu Fei resolved to instkill Silver Moon with one move, even at the price of revealing his identity as the Instkill Mage. Everything else that followed could be discussed at a later period.
Just as he was about to make his move, Young Master Han spoke up once more. Even when he was in such a dire straits, Young Master Han's tone remained measured and languid, "Everyone, you've actually seen the Instkill Mage just now without realizing it. He is one of the Five Unyielding Experts and Parallel World's number one Mage, Drifting!" Young Master Han said this emphatically as he pointed to the seated Drifting who was calmly watching the proceeding.
"Oh…" Brother Assist came to a sudden realization upon this reveal. It turned out that Young Master Han's earlier words to Gu Fei were not a threat uttered out of anger but the truth instead. He judged that Drifting was the perfect alternative candidate for the title of the Instkill Mage.
Was Drifting capable of instkilling others, though? Although they had known him as one of the Five Unyielding Experts, none of the present people had actually seen Drifting in action. Given that there was not much difference in the levels of the current players, the ability to instkill others depended entirely on an individual's equipment and spell proficiency. Drifting happened to have a higher level than every person in the bar, so Brother Assist and the others could not appraise his equipment and make a judgment of his might as a Mage.
Meanwhile, Drifting, whose name was suddenly shoved to the limelight, dumbly gazed at Young Master Han.
Everyone once more descended into silence. Young Master Han did his best to give everyone an introduction, "I'm sure that all of you are familiar with the name Drifting, since he has always been ranked first on the Mage leaderboard. But I believe that not many of you are aware that he is currently in Yunduan City, right? To actually get to meet a living legend... You should all feel that the money you've paid is well worth it!"
"B*llsh*t! He's nothing but a shi*ty Mage!" Royal God Call was aware of their dire situation, yet the youth was ultimately more sensitive than sensible. He was utterly discontented to see his adversary being raised high up on the pedestal, so he shouted this without caring for the consequences.
Young Master Han was unperturbed by Royal God Call's outburst and merely addressed Oathless Sword, "Guild Leader Oathless, you should grab this wild child of your guild and chastise him properly. This rascal has always been in conflict with Drifting. He knows very well that Drifting is in town, yet he never once saw it fit to inform you."
The animosity between Royal God Call and Drifting, the two renowned Mage users in MMOs, was a well-documented fact known by many well-informed players. Everyone easily accepted Young Master Han's words after seeing that Royal God Call was indeed just a youngster. Everyone merely viewed Royal God Call as a child throwing a tantrum even as the latter kept on shouting "B*llsh*t!"
The whole place once more returned to a state of tranquility as Brother Assist surveyed everything with incredulity, Is the situation really resolved just like that?
Chapter 203 - Mission accomplished!
With the situation in the bar restored to a state of normality, all the leaders began to privately collect their thoughts. Many of them promptly tried adding Drifting as a friend and expectedly received the [Player Drifting is currently not accepting any friend request.] system prompt. Those who were sitting near Drifting even started to strike a conversation with him.
Of course, with how War Without Wounds had greeted Gu Fei earlier and how Gu Fei had exchanged furtive glances with Brother Assist, the others could not shake off the feeling that these people actually knew one another. Still, it was true that their payment of 100 gold coins was well worth it if they could get to know the number one Mage in Parallel World, Drifting. Now that the crowd had calmed down and recalled the purpose of their visit, they realized that the important thing to do now was to interact with Drifting before anyone else had the chance to do so. All the other matters could take a back seat.
Despite Drifting becoming the focal point of this conference, he oddly remained unresponsive. Suddenly, he raised his hand with his five fingers upright and waved it toward Young Master Han and Brother Assist, as if he was greeting them.
Brother Assist was momentarily stunned by his action. It seemed that Drifting was willing to act his part in this charade and was even reassuring them. What a great guy! Brother Assist felt immensely touched and he quickly waved his hand back at Drifting. However, Drifting completely ignored him.
Next to Brother Assist, Young Master Han raised his hand as well and waved it slightly, his three fingers at attention.
Almost immediately, Drifting retracted his thumb with only his four fingers remaining upright.
In response, Young Master Han retracted his ring finger and left his forefinger and middle finger upright.
Drifting handily retracted three fingers, left just his forefinger up, and wagged it toward Young Master Han before putting his hand down.
All the players saw Drifting waving his hand to greet the two event organizers, but none of them noticed Young Master Han sneakily answering back. Only Brother Assist, who was right beside Young Master Han, witnessed their whole exchange. When the two finished their finger gesturing, Brother Assist asked, "What was that all about?"
Young Master Han began to explain, "He asked for 5000 gold coins, and I rebutted with 3000 gold coins."
Brother Assist began to piece everything together, "So when he asked for 4000 gold coins, you gave him the price of 2000 gold coins?"
Young Master Han nodded his head.
"Then… He voluntarily dropped his price to only 1000 gold coins?" Brother Assist could not understand this part.
"That finger movement means that we will discuss this matter after this," Young Master Han corrected.
"Do you guys know each other?" Brother Assist asked. It was hard to imagine two perfect strangers being able to successfully communicate with each other using their fingers alone.
"No, we don't. This is just a matter of IQ," Young Master Han said matter-of-factly, leaving Brother Assist quite dejected.
After all their finger gesturing, Drifting was now gamely playing his role. He even took the initiative to stand up before anyone could discern the true nature of his relationship with Young Master's Elite and addressed the crowd, "This is my first time in Yunduan City, so I hope that everyone here will take good care of me from here onward."
"Of course! That is to be expected!" all the leaders eagerly agreed to his request. Everyone present was rather prominent in Yunduan City, but that was still nothing compared to Drifting, whose name was well-known throughout Parallel World. If an unknown player was the Instkill Mage, all these leaders could still dream of successfully headhunting him. But since the Instkill Mage turned out to be such a huge character, at least half of them understood that their chances of recruiting Drifting were slim and nearly zero. Only Oathless Sword, the guild leader of Traversing Four Seas, which was the largest guild in Yunduan City, was extremely happy at this turn of events. He believed that out of all the leaders present in the conference, he had the best chance at recruiting Drifting.
As an experienced gamer that was often in the limelight, Drifting was able to easily handle the attention of all these influential figures and to casually socialize with them. But despite Drifting's excellent social skills, mingling with everyone was still not possible for him, and this resulted into quite a few people being left high and dry. All the present leaders were distinguished by their own right, so none of them could stand being disregarded by anyone, even someone as popular as Drifting.
These people were of course feeling unhappy at having spent 100 gold coins without managing to acquaint themselves with the number one Mage, but they were not so unreasonable that they would blame this outcome on Young Master's Elite. But Silver Moon could see just how frustrating they were feeling inside, and he was currently scheming on causing everyone to get mad at Young Master's Elite once more.
Silver Moon had attempted to sabotage the 'meet and greet' event by getting everyone to view Young Master's Elite as a common enemy earlier, and in the end it was the many leaders who were treating one another as enemies instead since they were all competing to get close to Drifting. When his plan had fallen through, Silver Moon had gone back to quietly observing the situation. Seeing the few disregarded leaders' desire to vent their frustration on someone, he knew that he had found another opportunity to create trouble for Young Master's Elite and hurriedly cleared his throat, "Ahem. I say, there's no doubt that Drifting is the number one Mage—"
"Number one, my foot!" Royal God Call indignantly interjected.
"Mhm-mhm. I know that Royal bro was also very glorious back then…" Silver Moon threw a half-hearted flattery at Royal God Call. He tried to divert everyone's attention from Drifting by pointing directly at Gu Fei and saying, "I don't know what this guy's intentions are, but he was making a scene just now by claiming to do a 'Bounty Mission'. Somehow, I got the feeling that he is well acquainted with you all based on the interactions you lot were having just now!"
The way Gu Fei suddenly barged into the bar and how the rest of Young Master's Elite greeted him earlier were very suspicious, and Silver Moon kindly reminded the dissatisfied leaders of this fact, so that they could have a valid reason to vent their built-up resentment toward these few 'event organizers'.
Given that a few of the present leaders had pretty terrible personalities to begin with, Silver Moon easily succeeded at enticing them. They immediately latched on to his words and once more pointed accusing fingers at Brother Assist and friends, "That's right! We demand an explanation for this matter. Just what is going on here?! That Mage clearly talked to you guys when he came in, so how come you all claim to not know who he is?"
Brother Assist did not know how to answer the person's question, and it was the expressionless Young Master Han who replied, "When did talking equate to knowing each other? You're talking to me right now, but do you know who I am?"
The person was briefly taken aback by this statement. Since the man he had instigated proved to be a weak hand, the clever Silver Moon felt the need to give him a helping hand, "Don't play word games with us; do you think we're stupid?"
Young Master Han merely snorted at his words, showing a defiant look on his face.
Silver Moon was glad that Young Master Han was so intransigent; at this rate, the situation would reach a point where words would be meaningless and a fight would break out, which was exactly what Silver Moon was hoping for. Thus, he became more fervent at inciting the crowd, "If you don't explain this matter properly, we would not be convinced that we have spent 100 gold coins appropriately!"
The leaders who had been unable to talk with Drifting nodded their heads maliciously as they stared at Young Master Han and the gang with malevolent eyes.
Gu Fei, who had been staying quiet all this while, finally said, "I don't know what you guys are yapping about, but haven't I told you all already? I'm here on a 'Bounty Mission'!"
"Oh, yeah? Who is your bounty target, then?" Silver Moon challenged. Since he was aware of Gu Fei's identity and had been observing the latter all this while, Silver Moon figured that the matter at hand was not as simple as it seemed.
However, Silver Moon made a miscalculation. He wanted to use the misunderstanding to start a huge fight that could not be resolved by mere words. While he correctly judged that Young Master's Elite was on the weak side when matched up against these influential leaders, he did not account for Gu Fei being bold enough to make the first move.
Gu Fei already disliked Silver Moon, and now that the latter was trying to incite everyone present into fighting, Gu Fei just resolved to execute him on the spot. When Silver Moon gleefully inquired about his bounty target, Gu Fei simply answered, "It is you!" He then stepped on to a bench and leaped over the table, slashing the sword in his hand across Silver Moon's face.
"Twin Incineration! Incinerate!" Gu Fei chanted, causing even the leaders chatting with Drifting to turn their heads over and look.
All they saw was a fiery slash enveloping a dark shadow before brushing past Silver Moon's face. This one stroke of Gu Fei was truly vicious. Although Silver Moon did not get instkilled, a straight cut was left across his face.
Gu Fei gave it a look as he sighed, "The bottom part is a bit crooked; looks like my hand isn't steady enough. Sigh… Seems like the weight of this sword isn't very handy!"
Silver Moon was so shocked that he pointed at Gu Fei and repeatedly said, "You… You… You… You…" What he wanted to say was, "How dare you strike at me just like that!" But since Gu Fei had already executed his move, what was the point of saying that? This was what the adage 'When a scholar meets a soldier' meant. Silver Moon was a 'scholar' who was using his gift of the gab to breed discord among the people, yet his chance encounter with the 'soldier' Gu Fei who merely used brute strength to resolve any issue became his downfall.
Silver Moon did not get instkilled by Gu Fei as his equipment provided him with high magic defense, but the attack was still powerful enough to drop his HP into the red. Thankfully, his two companions quickly flanked his sides. Although they reacted half a beat slower to Gu Fei, the two readily slashed at Gu Fei's face to give it a cut of their own.
"'Bounty Mission'! Please leave if you're not involved!" Gu Fei shouted this as he retreated to dodge the two's incoming attacks.
The two men were of course not frightened off by Gu Fei's words and even positioned themselves right before Silver Moon to protect him.
Silver Moon knew that this was useless, as Gu Fei had another fearsome skill in hand. Knowing that he was no match for the deadly Gu Fei even with his two companions, he immediately bolted toward the bar entrance as he continued to provoke Gu Fei, "What are you doing?! Are you trying to silence me?!" Silver Moon was trying to incite the present leaders into aiding him.
But even though he had spoken these words quickly, Gu Fei's words were still faster, "Translocation! Blink!"
By the time Silver Moon finished his words, Gu Fei had already teleported himself right before Silver Moon.
The blurry image of a moving sword and a fiery glow streaking through the air killed Silver Moon there and then.
"Mission accomplished!" Gu Fei exclaimed in satisfaction, as the entire bar descended into silence once more.
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