Close Combat Mage - Chapter 3

Virtual World: Close Combat Mage - Chapter 3 - A Little Demonstration Of Skills
Original by Butterfly Blue, Translated by James, Edited by MineralWater

Parallel World! After hearing the boys in his class discussing about this upcoming latest virtual reality technology game, Gu Fei had suddenly found hope.

He knew that by the latest virtual reality technology, it means that what he was incapable of using in real life should no longer be considered a taboo anymore in the game. That day, Gu Fei went out and brought the whole set of virtual reality equipments for the game. He also decided upon his profession - the fighter. Fighter, a warrior whose whole agile body was built for battle. Upon reading the first sentence of the fighter occupation introduction, Gu Fei had already determined that it was the most suitable occupation for him.

Unfortunately, because of his student Ah Fa’s mistake, he had became the most fragile, the most unsuitable occupation for close combat - the mage.

Gu Fei was completely depressed. However, after experiencing what happened earlier with the four knights, he came to the conclusion that the the differences between the occupations in the game was only their abilities. What this meant to Gu Fei was that since he already had an entire set of abilities from his martial arts, once he add his stats accordingly, it doesn’t really matter what his occupation was.


Of course, if he was a fighter, then his developed stats would certainly allow him to exhibit his martial arts even more. However, being a mage doesn’t equate that everything about it is wrong. He had decided to become a kung fu mage!

A moan interrupted Gu Fei. That guy at the corner of the alley was struggling to get up.

“Teacher!” Ah Fa didn’t dare step forward. He raised his head and looked toward Gu Fei.

Gu Fei quickly went to the guy and assisted him up. “Are you okay?”

“I’m... I’m fine!” The man stood up straight and took a deep breath. Although his face was still injured, he still gave off an aura of a bookworm. It was not surprising that he would be targeted by bullies when walking alone. Gu Fei and Ah Fa assisted him to the fountain in the middle of the plaza. They sat down by the fountain. The man turned around and scooped up a handful of pond water and wiped his face with it. Looking less tired, he turned back toward Gu Fei and smiled. “Hello. I am called EarthlySmile.

Gu Fei immediately noticed that it was his game name and immediately gave his own game name. “ThousandMilesDrunk.” This name was named by Ah Fa. It sounds like the owner of the character was a drunkard. This caused Gu Fei to be a bit depressed. The two shook each other’s hands. As for Ah Fa, one could tell that he was a child right away so EarthlySmile completely ignored him.

“It was the first time for virtual reality technology to be used for online gaming, I already knew that there would be unexpected bugs and accidents. However, never had I imaged such a thing would happen.” EarthlySmile raised his head up and said.

“Oh? From your speech, it seems like you’re a staff member of the game?” said Gu Fei.

Ah Fa was stunned. He could be considered as a veteran gamer. To him, the title of a game staff member meant boundless benefits from information about quests to helping one obtain highest quality equipment. Those kind of unethical game staff members, they’re what everyone despise and criticize when they haven’t met them and what everyone worship like a god when they have.

EarthlySmile looked toward the sky and said. “Today, right when I got to my work office, I was given report that there was a group of newborn players that goes around ganging up and beating people with occupations like mages and such using their overwhelming early level stat differences of a newborn player. After hearing that, I decided to come into the game to check stuff out. Never would I have expected that I myself would be beaten up by the same people.”

“Regarding this issue, what are you planning to do?” Asked Gu Fei.

“I’m not certain.” said EarthlySmile. “It would depend on what the skills department do. There are a lot more problems with the game, it seems that it would still take a while for us to formally operate the game and charge players fees to play it.”

Gu Fei and Ah Fa saw that EarthlySmile was still looking at the sky and decided to follow him and look upon the sky. There was currently a drizzle of rain. In a flash, their faces were wet. Could it be that this guy was still washing his face? Thought Gu Fei before lowering his head.

“What are you two looking at?” Unexpectedly, EarthlySmile was the first to ask.

“What are you looking at?” Ah Fa answer with a question.

“Little boy, my nose have been bleeding non stop!” Said EarthlySmile.

They were speechless. After a long while, EarthlySmile lowered his head. He rubbed his nose and said. “Well then, I still have to check things out elsewhere, what are you two planning to do?!”

“I’m going to go leveling!” Said Gu Fei. He was currently impatient to know whether or not increasing his stat will allow his weak and frail mage body to be able to use kung fu.

After a moment of hesitation, Ah Fa said as he looked at EarthlySmile. “I wanna follow you around and check things out.”

EarthlySmile smiled and said. “Little boy, I’m a self disciplined game worker, you best not expect to gain something nice from me.”

Ah Fa’s intention was seen through by EarthlySmile. His face was red with embarrassment as if he had a sunburn. “That’s not my intention, I just wanna follow you and familiarize myself with the game.”

“Let’s go then!” EarthlySmile was smiling at Ah Fa. He turned around and asked Gu Fei. “Do you also want to familiarize with the game?” He intentionally gave more weight on the word ‘familiarize’. Ah Fa’s face grew even more red.

“It’s okay. You two can go!” Gu Fei waved at the two.

After parting with the two, Gu Fei immediately rushed to the leveling area outside of the Cloud City.

Parallel World, like all the other games, only had low level monsters near the birth cities. Even the monsters were like all the other games. It was all a bunch of good natured animals - cats, dogs, rabbits, etc. These animals are known to be good friends of human, and because of the new virtual reality technology, these animals looked even more lifelike and extremely cute. Furthermore, these low level monsters doesn’t hit back when attacked, the most they would do is cry like an adorable animal when they get hit.

After kicking a dog twice, Gu Fei was unable to continue kicking that cute animal. When he looked around, all the other players nearby were also hesitating. There were a few players who have decided to be ruthless and kill the animals. However, after receiving looks of despise from everyone nearby, they cannot help but stop. In the leveling area, a large number of players were standing foolishly with their eyes staring into space. The animals were jumping around wildly, they have even grew intimate and started rubbing the legs of the players.

“How am I going to level up like this?!” A male player threw the weapon in his hand onto the ground and sighed.

“That’s right, it’s impossible to level up! They’re too cute!” A female player put away her weapons. She picked up the rabbit that was rubbing her leg and started rubbing her face against the rabbit and said angrily. “What’s with this game company?! Why did they make the leveling area to be full of these cute little things?!”

Everyone started talking and denouncing their discontent with the game company. Gu Fei followed the people around him and also complained for a bit. Then, he decided to go elsewhere to train. He figured that since these monsters here cannot be killed, then it should be fine as long as he find a different location with different monsters.

Truth be told, he wasn’t interested in attacking animals to begin with. He had practiced martial arts his whole life with human being his target. He had never learned what kind of critical points to attack should he encounter a dog. This doesn’t mean that he wasn’t able to win against a dog, it was just that he felt that it’ll be a let down to himself and his years of hard training if he were to use the kung fu that he was so proud of on a dog.

He walked along the main path; the city gradually disappeared behind him. What appeared in front of him was a continuous mountain range. The cute and lovely animals had already disappeared from sight. Gu Fei hiked up the mountain path. He looked down from the top of the mountain. A valleys or a basins - basically a lower mountain edge - region was in sight. A bonfire was burning. A few disgusting looking guys were sitting around the bonfire, dozing off to boredom.

Right away, Gu Fei knew that these guys were not players but rather NPCs. That’s because even if they were sextuplets, it was impossible for them to have identical height, identical build, identical clothes along with their identical appearance.

Human shaped NPCs, they were exactly what Gu Fei was hoping to see.

They should be monsters right? Gu Fei pondered while slowly walking toward those people.

As the six were surrounding a bonfire, their eyesight naturally were in six different directions. Thus, Gu Fei who was on top of the mountain path should’ve already been seen. However, they were had waited for Gu Fei to come closer to them. As if stung by something, the six got up in a panic, they pointed and Gu Fei and shouted.

Gu Fei clearly heard what the six said. “Wow, a fat sheep had came! Quick, quickly catch it!”

Had it been the older games, then there would’ve already been speech bubbles on the NPCs’ heads. However, this is the latest virtual reality game, the speech bubbles have been replaced with actual sounds of speech.

The six rushed up. Their motion was extremely orderly, their speed exactly the same, they arrived in front of Gu Fei with the exact same formation they had before.

These NPCs didn’t bother to waste time talking. One of the six immediately came at Gu Fei with a butcher knife. Gu Fei dodged the incoming knife and retaliated with a punch hitting the NPC who came at him with the knife.

His punch this time was completely different from the last time when he fought the four knights. Earlier, his targets were other newborn players, thus they were protected from being killed by other players. Thus, even though they experienced physical pain, their HP didn’t decrease at all. However, now Gu Fei was attacking a NPC monster. Thus, even the physically weak magician’s fist still dealt damage to his target.

Gu Fei’s punch merely caused this humanoid monster to sway a bit. He immediately came at Gu Fei again with his rusty butcher knife. Gu Fei once again dodged the incoming knife and returned with yet another punch.

The six humanoid monsters all came at Gu Fei at once. Gu Fei was skillfully and easily traveling back and forth between the six of them. From time to time, he would retaliate with a punch or kick. Gu Fei didn’t know the level of these six, however, he was having an easier and more boring time fighting them than the four knights.

Gu Fei had became somewhat disappointed with the latest virtual reality technology. It appears that other than being super realistic, there’s nothing much else to it. These low level monsters still only possess the low level AI. Their manner of attack was very monotonous. To Gu Fei, it was no different than not attacking at all. Furthermore, they don’t know how to dodge attacks at all.

Defeating these monsters was only a matter of time. Gu Fei started to consciously allocate his attack to all six of the guys. After fighting for a couple more minutes, a NPC let out a final snarl and collapsed. In a couple more punches and kicks, the other five guys have also dropped to the ground. Gu Fei was basked in a bright light. He leveled up six times.

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