Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 309 - Murderous Intent Emanating in the Central Plaza

Just as Dusky Cloud and his men had expected, the large throng of players immediately went their separate ways upon entering Baishi City’s west gate. Dusky Cloud felt anxious when he saw a majority of the players heading directly to the nearest log-off point, as he and his men would not have any chance to strike if Silver Moon decided to meld in with the going-offline crowd.

Good news quickly arrived with the high-spirited reconnaissance team member’s report: “I’ve spotted Silver Moon!”

“Where is he headed to?” Dusky Cloud hurriedly asked.

“Seems to be in the warehouse,” the member replied.

“Watch him closely, then. Wait till more of these people disperse. Are the preparations over by the Archer Range complete?” Dusky Cloud asked.

“Ready and waiting.”

“Silver Moon has indeed left for the warehouse… but he’s still in the company of many players, with some of them appearing to be Baishi City players. It may not be convenient to strike now,” the member appropriately updated him about the situation.

“Just keep track of him for now. The rest of you, start populating the road from the warehouse by the west gate going to the Archer Range,” Dusky Cloud commanded.

“Got it!”

“How many companions does Silver Moon have with him?” Dusky Cloud asked.

“There are about forty to fifty players heading to the warehouse with him,” was the reply he got.

“That’s a sizeable amount…” Dusky Cloud pondered on aloud, “If they continue to stick together, I’m afraid we’ll be forced to wait for most of Traversing Four Seas players to log off before we can make a move.” Naturally, Dusky Cloud was not doing this because he wanted to give Traversing Four Seas face but because it would eat up time for them to deal with a handful of enemies. Although there were merely forty to fifty men on their end, they could not discount Silver Moon’s party-wide skill.

If they attacked while most of Traversing Four Seas’ players were still online, those men could easily turn back and assist Silver Moon in the fight, essentially wasting Dusky Cloud and his men’s effort of waiting for the whole night. Furthermore, their failure here would make their target be on guard for future attempts. It would not be easy to find another chance for this, given how shrewd Silver Moon was.

“We must take him down in one attack. This is something we cannot afford to f*ck up!” Dusky Cloud clenched his fists, “Those standing by the Archer Range, inform us after the players from Yunduan City log off.”

“Roger that.”

“Where has the leader of Traversing Four Seas gone to?” Dusky Cloud asked the reconnaissance team.

“We have no idea!” they replied.

“Everyone, besides those stalking our target, head over to the Archer Range. We will concentrate our firepower there for this one concerted strike,” Dusky Cloud commanded.

“Silver Moon has left the warehouse!” the reconnaissance team hurriedly reported.

“Is there any other players with him? Have the players from Yunduan City logged off yet?” Dusky Cloud quickly asked.

“Some have left. Silver Moon and a dozen or so players are heading toward a different direction together. I’m tailing them now!”

“They’re not heading toward the Archer Range?”

“Nope!”

“Send us the coordinates! Everyone, approach and act alone,” Dusk Cloud hurriedly instructed. “Can you tell me where that b*st*rd is heading to?”

“I’m not too sure…” The reconnaissance team member could not answer this. This place was not Yueye City, and he was still unfamiliar with its layout, so he could not easily determine their target’s destination.

“Don’t panic!” Dusky Cloud told his comrades even as he tried to calm himself down.

“This should be Silver Moon’s first time visiting this city,” Dusky Cloud began to break down his thought process aloud, “We specially memorized Baishi City’s layout because we wished to take him down here, but since he’ll be staying here for one night, he doesn’t have a reason to spend too much effort learning his way around this city. He’ll likely depend on the pedestrians to navigate around here. When one of you sees him speak to someone, just ask that same person about his inquiry and we’ll surely find out his destination.”

“Boss can really divine the unknown; that guy is really talking to a passerby right now,” the man happily exclaimed.

“Not bad, Old Cloud!” Celestial Pig was beside Dusky Cloud as he heavily patted his back, “You’re pretty quick-witted.”

“M*th*rf*ck*r, you may be a pig, but I sure am not!” Dusky Cloud mocked Celestial Pig as he started heading toward Silver Moon’s current coordinates with several of his brothers-in-arms, silently waiting for more news.

“I’ve got it, boss!” the reconnaissance member announced in elation, “Silver Moon and company are going to the Auction House!”

“Everyone, quickly gather to the Auction House!” Dusky Cloud ordered as he gleefully bragged to Celestial Pig, “I knew that b*st*rd won’t know his way around here.”

“But… Isn’t the Auction House supposed to be located at the central plaza just like in every in-game city? Could this be a trap?” Celestial Pig wondered.

“F*ck! Do you think you have the God’s eye view or something?! Could you find your way to the heart of a city if I were to throw you in a random corner of it? M*th*rf*ck*r, you’ve grown cowardly after being killed by Silver Moon so much that you now think everything he does is a trap! I spit on you!” Dusky Cloud harshly berated him.

Celestial Pig did not dare to comment on this. Out of Dusky Cloud’s comrades, Celestial Pig was known for his fear of Silver Moon. Back then, he had been unable to outwit or outplay Silver Moon. Having been bullied during Parallel World’s open beta left a knot in his heart.

Urged by Dusky Cloud to hurry, besides the players lying in wait by the Knights’ Barracks, the rest of the men headed straight for Baishi City’s central plaza to gather at the Auction House there.

Silver Moon and his band of brothers walked onward at a leisure pace, while Dusky Cloud’s troops followed behind stealthily. Some players with faster movement speed rushed ahead of Silver Moon. Even the Warriors and Priest job classes were not particularly slower than Silver Moon.

“Old Cloud, it might be hasty for us to act promptly, and he might escape us if our preparations are not completed in time. Why don’t we let him do his shopping first so we can use that time to set up outside?” someone suggested.

“Hmm… That’s not a bad idea. Quite a lot of Yunduan City’s players have gone offline, right?” Dusky Cloud asked.

“The players, who went to this spawn point for Archers, are already back in reality,” the players by the Archer Range reported.

“Have you seen their guild leader, that Warrior… uhm…” As his comrades did not know Oathless Sword, Dusky Cloud was wondering how to describe him when he heard someone over there reply, “Yeah. I saw him. He’s gone.”

“Eh, you recognize him?” Dusky Cloud found this perplexing.

“He he… there’s a long-winded Warrior who addressed everyone after arriving at the Archer Range. Anyone can instantly tell that he’s a guild leader!” the man explained.

“Oh…” Dusky Cloud mumbled. He was a guild leader himself, yet he had never addressed his men before logging off like Oathless Sword.

Shortly after, Dusky Cloud and his men arrived by the Auction House. They even arrived at it earlier than their target. Dusky Cloud was pleased to see some of his men pretending to nonchalantly wander about the plaza – feeling that they had done a wonderful job blending in. Naturally, those people that Silver Moon might recognize, such as Dusky Cloud, Celestial Pig, and a few others, hid themselves from plain sight along the street. Dusky Cloud no longer needed to position up his men when he saw this. They had men crawling on every street leading to the Auction House, so once Silver Moon was done with his business in the Auction House, he would instantly be surrounded. Nothing short of divine intervention could grant him escape now.

“When is Silver Moon reaching this location? I think now is the time—” Before Dusky Cloud could key in these words, he caught sight of a silvery glint before him as a Knight clad in shiny, full-body armor swaggered right past his eyes. Silver Moon and his mercenary members were heading toward the Auction House.

F*ck! Look at how flagrant and audacious you are; I’ll have you crying in a moment! Dusky Cloud cursed inside as he informed his men: “Silver Moon has already arrived. Those who aren’t here yet better put your m*th*rf*ck*ng backs into it.”

This seemingly simple command was actually very difficult for Dusky Cloud to relay over. This was because the players with him all hailed from ten different guilds. Although they were all in the same alliance, the system did not provide them a channel of sort to communicate with one another. This meant that Dusky Cloud would have to relay his order to these men from the other nine guilds around him first before it could be disseminated to the respective members, and any response that they might get in return would have to be sent over to these nine as well.

This was indeed a complicated setup, but since they had been working in such a format for so long, everyone was already used to it.

At the moment, this air of trepidation was not just being experienced by these three hundred odd men in Baishi City; the Ten Guild Alliance’s players back in Yueye City were also in a similar state, and they made a conscious effort to maintaining a clean channel, knowing that their comrades were at the critical stage of their hunt in Baishi City, and quietly waited for further news.

Silver Moon, who was now in a group of only twelve men, made his way across the plaza and into the Auction House. The men from the Ten Guild Alliance made eye contact with one another without revealing themselves in the slightest.

Some players had yet to reach the area, and Dusky Cloud saw it fit to hurry them along while he arranged those present to collapse on to Silver Moon when he exited the Auction House. He then assigned a few Thieves in Stealth mode outside the Auction House to block Silver Moon as soon as he stepped out. The Auction House was a safe zone in itself, which meant that PvPing was impossible inside, so they could not let Silver Moon to seek sanctuary inside it once they launched their attacks.

Had Gu Fei been in the central plaza at this moment, he would have surely been able to sense the palpable killing intent pervading the air.

Dusky Cloud felt a twinge of regret inside him that Young Master's Elite’s was currently not present to witness the spectacular sight of them ganking Silver Moon.

“Everyone, Silver Moon is about to come out!” the man who followed Silver Moon’s group inside the Auction House reported this.

Just as this message arrived, the Auction House’s door swung open and Silver Moon and company walked out in high spirits, his expression clearly showing that he had made quite the haul.

Heh… Let me show you what a real haul is! Dusky Cloud was amusedly thinking of this when, in the next moment, the materialization and subsequent descent of Descending Wheel of Flames right above Silver Moon’s head gave him a thorough shock.

“M*TH*RF*CK*R! Whose hands slipped?!” Dusky Cloud was infuriated. The plan was to wait until Silver Moon was a good distance away from the Auction House before the members milling about in the central plaza would come forward and surround him. The players on the streets would follow and create an even larger encirclement, forming an inner and outer circle to completely cut off Silver Moon’s path of escape.

The flame wheel indeed hit Silver Moon, but it also hit the nearby Thieves in Stealth.

Taking that spell head on and discovering the several Thieves around, Silver Moon quickly realized what was going on. Turning on his heel, he ran toward the Auction House. The Thieves strove to catch up to Silver Moon and stop him from entering the safe zone.

Silver Moon and his men were all outside by now, but the Auction House’s door remained wide open and, from it, a bunch of Warriors rushed out with murder in their minds. Since the Thieves did not recognize any of them, they hastily raised their arms to resist their charge. Unfortunately, these Thieves had already received damage from that flame wheel before, so they were unable to endure the rushing Warriors’ assault.

Dusky Cloud did not bother to find the culprit for that misfire and instead led his men to join the fray while they still had the chance. This was when the doors of the Bank, Trade Exchange, and nearby establishments burst open with hordes of players streaming out of them.

“What’s going on?!” Dusky Cloud was at a complete loss right now.

“F*CK! That’s Blue Ease!” Celestial Pig bellowed.

Dusky Cloud turned to follow his voice, spotting a Mage in liquid, blue robe. It was indeed the erstwhile vice guild leader of the disbanded Past Deeds Guild: Blue Ease.

“F*cking h*ll! Was this really a trap?!” Dusky Cloud looked around and saw numerous players rushing out of the buildings around them. The Bank, Trade Exchange, et cetera were edifices capable of holding hundreds or even thousands of players. It was now clear where that flame wheel from before had come; by the looks of things, the Mage who had cast that spell was not from his men.

Given his men’s rich experience PvPing, Dusky Cloud was already considering that, as it was really unlikely for them to make such a rookie mistake.

“Let’s retreat!” Celestial Pig suggested in his agitation. Once he heard Silver Moon entrapping them, Celestial Pig broke out in a bout of cold sweat.

“F*ck retreating, you coward! That’s no way someone who hangs out with proper m*th*rf*ck*rs like us should act! Out of all the four thousand four hundred eighty-seven members of the Ten Guild Alliance, you’re the most cowardly at times like this!” Dusky Cloud gave Celestial Pig an earful before pulling out his dagger and hurtling it toward Blue Ease.

This was the core characteristic of Yueye City’s players. They would discuss plan, set up ambushes, and even ensnare their enemies before a fight… But once the fighting began, they would just recklessly charge head on to the enemies with this mantra in mind: Show no mercy and kill them all! When they held the upper hand, they showed no mercy; if they were at a disadvantage, they would grit their teeth and kill as many as they could without mercy as well.

Never retreating, and never backing down… Dusky Cloud had always believed this to be the very essence of a man.

“F*CK IT! LET’S GO ALL OUT!” Dusky Cloud’s admonishment seemed to have awakened Celestial Pig’s inner fire. Wielding his battleaxe, he followed Dusky Cloud into the fray.