Virtual World: Close Combat Mage Chapter 733: Come Away Empty-handed

"Don't be so rash, let's discuss the matter first before making a move!" July quickly jumped out to dissuade Gu Fei.

"I'm only joking! Did none of you realize that?" Gu Fei asked.

"Not at all," July harrumphed, everyone was equally sullen. Gu Fei's joke was far too profound and no one really got the sense that he was joking in the least.

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"We currently have no idea how many enemies we are facing, nor do we know where they are headed. Just where are we supposed to go to slay them!" Brother Assist stated.

"They are at the Hall of Guild Creations," Sword Demon spoke up.

"Oh?" Everyone turned to look at Sword Demon.

"The status which neutral players possess in the city should not allow them to make a move on us as that would likely invite the city guard's wrath. Meanwhile, a level 1 guild only has a limit of 50 members to begin with, and I doubt he would be so naive as to believe that he could pose any amount of threat to us with just those numbers. Currently, there's nobody competing for quests inside the city, so rushing the guild to the next level should be a very easy task for them. A level 2 guild would increase their members limit to 200, so that means there's already 200 men readily available to join the guild and attain the city defender status that prevented them from being restrained by the presence of the city guards. Furthermore, Priests, Knights, and other support job class do not need to join the guild, and they would still be able to help those city defenders by maintaining their HP, Healing them, etc. And that would not draw the aggro of the city guards either. With a company of 200 players, there should be about 30 to 50 players who would be attached as Priests. Adding the support from Knights, the enemy should at least have somewhere above 250 players with them, which is why I reckon the enemy would have 300 players on their side," Sword Demon said.

"Why would it be 300? The Knights and Priests should not make up to 100!" Brother Assist protested.

"Because that guy likes tidy numbers," Sword Demon answered.

"Screw that guy..." Everyone derided Young Master Han's eccentricity.

"If we were to consider things on a very superficial level, that wave of attack just now simply looked like they had begun their assault on us, but the real goal he has in mind should be to make us afraid to split up and act on our own. If we are gathered together, our field of vision would be stagnant here in one spot. In turn, they can take this opportunity to quickly spread their guild members out to speed up leveling their guild; if we were to disperse, they would just continue their current attacks," Sword Demon said.

"So what should we do?" Brother Assist asked.

"Hmm. Let us split up into some strong teams as well. What does everyone think?" Sword Demon said.

"That seems to be the only way," everybody nodded. They could not completely split up, and choosing to stick together like this would only let the enemy have an easier time questing. That was why the only option they had left was to form up several teams that are capable of clashing with the enemy and bring the fight to them.

Sword Demon had plenty of experience in this, and he rapidly organized the players present and ended the meeting. Since a majority of these ladies were relatively weak in terms of their combat strength, Sword Demon opted to break up the members of Extremely Heaven Defying and grouped them up with the ladies of Amethyst Rebirth. Using the ladies to make up each team's numbers, they ended up forming a total of five teams, with Royal God Call, Southern Lone Blade, Cirrus, July, and himself each leading a team respectively.

"Eh, why isn't Svelte Dancer back yet?" Gu Fei took a look at the people around and noticed that Will-low and Fireball were here, yet Svelte Dancer was nowhere to be found.

"Yeah. The both of us came back by dying, but Big sis Svelte refused to kill herself," Will-low explained.

"No way, is she more powerful than me? Even I could not get out," Gu Fei exclaimed as he sent a message out to Svelte Dancer, "Stop holding out already. Quickly die and get back, we've got an operation here in the city."

"What are you rushing me for!?" Gu Fei did not receive Svelte Dancer's reply via message, but had instead heard her voice. Everyone turned to look and saw Svelte Dancer walking out from a small side alley, her hand holding onto the wall as she staggered over.

"Heroine, how did you end up like that?" Gu Fei swiftly came forward to greet her. Svelte Dancer looked really exhausted. Her whole body was drenched. Mud and grass was all over her head and her clothes, and she was slightly trembling as she walked over.

"This madam escaped by swimming her way out through the lake," Svelte Dancer panted breathlessly.

"Truly a woman of talent," Gu Fei commended. Sure enough, he did not have this particular skill to escape. He did not know how to swim!

"I'm so tired," Svelte Dancer swayed as she walked.

"Did you swim across the entire lake?" Gu Fei asked.

"Pretty much," Svelte Dancer answered.

"Is your Agility effective over water?" Gu Fei asked.

"Ah?" Svelte Dancer was stunned, not expecting for someone to ask her such a question. Furthermore, she had not paid any attention to this herself as she had been too engrossed in her swimming. Thankfully, a player's stamina dropped very slowly in Parallel World, otherwise, there would have been a very strong chance that she would sink to the bottom of the lake before she even made it halfway across it.

"Is there a need for all that? Dying would have been much faster," Gu Fei said.

"Well, I have no intention of dying so many times like a certain someone. I still want to play in this City War much longer!" Svelte Dancer goaded.

Gu Fei felt despondent when he heard that. He was the number 1 killer for the city defender's forces, yet he was also the one with the highest death counts on their side as well, not including the already eliminated Unrivalled Lucky Star and Blackwater, of course.

"We have a task now that no one else, aside from you, is able to step up to the plate," Gu Fei suddenly spoke to Svelte Dancer in a very serious tone.

"What task?" Svelte Dancer hurriedly asked.

"Go and take a trip to the four spawn points for the Warrior, Thief, Archer and the Mage job classes. Write down the coordinates for them on a respective teleportation scroll." Gu Fei said.

"What sort of task is that? Why am I the only one who can do this?" Svelte Dancer was confused.

"Who else has more teleportations scrolls aside from you?" Gu Fei said.

"Screw you!" Svelte Dancer was infuriated.

"Everyone, hand over your teleportation scrolls!" Gu Fei ordered, directly facing Royal God Call, Brother Assist and Sword Demon when he did. Gu Fei had used up all his teleportation scroll, but he knew that after his mercenary group had struck rich after the efficient grinding routine, many of his fellow mercenaries had procured these items to travel about, so he reckoned they must have quite a few left on them at the moment. The three men had quite the collection, with Sword Demon pulling out four scrolls, Royal God Call with five, and Brother Assist with the most sizeable stock, holding onto eight of the scrolls on him at the moment, all of them handing over the scrolls without a shred of hesitation. Svelte Dancer was in tears, "And you dare say I would have the most; I merely have three with me right now. You guys are the real wealthy people here!"

"Is that so? Then take these quickly. Including the three you have, we should have a total of 20 scrolls, and that's enough for five per spawn point. Take extra care; there could be players camping out the various spawn points," Gu Fei added.

"Then what about you?" Svelte Dancer felt that Gu Fei seemed to be somewhat underestimating her.

"There's still something else that needs me more," Gu Fei looked on with distant eyes.

"So shameless!" Svelte Dancer glared at Gu Fei with deep contempt before she departed.

"Everyone's been assigned to their groups, so let us leave as well," July said.

"Where are we going?" Sword Demon was astonished.

"Eh? Aren't we going to disperse and catch the enemies while they are questing?" July asked.

"Oh no, we are going to attack the Hall of Guild Creations," Sword Demon said.

"Attacking the Hall of Guild Creations?" July was lost.

Sword Demon was sweating. Sure enough, these ladies are a lot more innocent and naive. Did they really think we are going to hunt down the quest holders one by one now that they had split up to quest?

"It's like this," Sword Demon quickly explained. "Since the other party is doing quests, picking them up means they must return to the Hall of Guild Creation to hand the quest in, so the Hall is the one common destination they would all share. Actually, as long as we guard that location, there's no reason for us to fear that we would not cross paths with each and every one of them as such. Even though they hold the numerical advantage, but before they get their guild to level 2, their effective combat power would still just be the 50 men, so there's nothing for us to be worried about at all. However, the enemy would also be very clear of how crucial the Hall of Guild Creations would be to their plans, so the people that they send out to quest would most likely be their supplementary forces, while the true main force would most definitely be guarding the location with great vigilance. What we must now do is to defeat these men and occupy the Hall of Guild Creations. We can only completely cut off their development if we use this as the basis of our operation now."

It was a very simple logic, and everyone quickly understood what he meant after he explained it to everyone.

"If there are no other questions, then let us seize what time we have and move out!" Sword Demon gave the order.

This time was a true group operation, and even Gu Fei matched the movement speed of everyone, not rushing off all by himself in front of everyone. Even though he felt that it would be enough if he dashed up ahead solo, his previous sacrifice over by Yunjiao Lakeside was still fresh on his mind, and the pain from Gu Fei's psychological scars after that experience had not healed over so soon yet. Young Master Han must surely have thought about the details that Sword Demon had mentioned, so the players that await them in the Hall of Guild Creations would not be standing out singly one by one, waiting in position for them to engage in open combat. There was no doubt that the enemy would have located hiding spots and was waiting to ambush them upon arrival.

The ladies had never once participated in such a serious group battle before. All of them got influenced by the atmosphere that hung upon these other experts, and every one of these ladies was looking exceptionally somber as well. This was completely different from how these ladies were acting during the guild V.S. guild competition in the past, where the participants then were just all the fellow sisters in their guild, so everyone had been laughing happily and playing along rather carefreely with each other. They had all been largely burden-free back then, and given how they were now grouped up together with Sword Demon and the others, these ladies had no wish of becoming deadweight, so they were a lot more serious than how they were during the competition the last time. All of them had intently listened to the commander's orders, and not one of them was laughing.

"Haha, why isn't anyone saying anything?" The killer Gu Fei was actually the one who could not stand this heavy atmosphere and the furious stares he got from the whole lot of them as a response quickly shut him up.

"What do you think Young Master's ambush will be like?" Gu Fei asked Sword Demon.

"Hmm, I can't really describe it with words myself. You're familiar with the layout of the Hall of Guild Creations, right?" Sword Demon said.

"Nope..."

"Then there are even fewer reasons to talk about it," Sword Demon helplessly shrugged.

"Fine, then I'll just kill whatever then!" Gu Fei declared.

"Yes, you are free to just play around," Sword Demon nodded. He believed that given Gu Fei's strength, there was already no need for him to be limited by strategy or anything like that.

The Hall of Guild Creations loomed closer while they had been having their conversation, and by the time it was right in front of them, there was, indeed, nobody around. Everyone could each feel the cunningness of Young Master Han, believing that the enemy was all in hiding.

"Cirrus, take your team and bear southeast toward the Victory Boulevard, circling over toward the Hall of Guild Creations. Do you know how to get there?" Sword Demon began to assign everyone's position as he walked.

"Of course," Cirrus acknowledge the command and took his team and turned toward the path he was assigned to use.

"Royal, your team will cut into to the Guild Plaza through 2nd street," Sword Demon did not ask if Royal God Call knew how to get there, turning to instruct Luo Luo, who was in the same team as Royal God Call, "Luo Luo, you'll lead the way."

Luo Luo smiled and nodded her head. Royal God Call's inability to discern direction and general ineptitude when it came to finding his way was no longer a secret, but he still wanted to clarify, "I know how to find my way for something like this."

"July, your team shall come in from 4th street," Sword Demon said.

"Got it," July nodded as she brought her team in said direction.

"Big South, you guys still aren't too familiar with the layout of Yunduan City yet, so just continue in this direction and don't move. You could all become the target our enemy focuses their efforts on, so hang in there," Sword Demon said.

"Don't worry about it!" Southern Lone Blade was actually the most outstanding team leader out of everyone present. Even Sword Demon had not taken lead of a party in a long time here in Parallel World.

"Miles, you will head in from 2nd street by yourself!" Gu Fei lived up to his name as an expert among experts, and was considered as a team all by himself.

"Which is 2nd street?" Gu Fei asked. However, he merely had no clue about the name of the street, and he was not without any sense of direction. Sword Demon briefly described the place to him, and he immediately knew where he was supposed to go.

"Everyone with me will take 3rd street," Sword Demon turned around to address everyone in his team.

The five teams, plus Gu Fei, had been walking toward the Hall of Guild Creations this entire time. In the process, the separate teams constantly veered off to their designated approach, until it was just Southern Lone Blade and his team, taking the widest path, called Guild Avenue, that led toward the building. This path brought them straight through the Guild Plaza, which was right in front of the Hall of Guild Creations.

Even though Southern Lone Blade did not understand the layout of Yunduan City too well, ambushing and engaging in sneak attacks were ultimately his strong suits. The Guild Avenue was very wide, so this afforded them a wide field of view and there were no good ambush positions either, while the situation over by the Plaza was the same. By the look of things, if the enemy intended to ambush them, the only option they had was to hide themselves. As such, Sword Demon's arrangement to spread them out made it look like Southern Lone Blade and his team's purpose was to draw the enemy's ambush when arriving at the Plaza, so the others could surround the ambushers from behind, pincering them from inside and out.

"Take precautions to counter stealth," Southern Lone Blade told the players who were capable of detecting stealth beside him. The Guild Plaza and Avenue might be unconducive to set up ambushes, but it was entirely possible for Thieves who are capable of Stealth that could hang around to provide vision for the enemy. That was what Southern Lone Blade believed, yet as he walked into the Plaza, the players with him who could detect stealth still had nothing to report.

"Everyone, what's your status?" Sword Demon sent a message out to all the various teams.

"Nothing strange."

"There's no one here."

"I don't see anybody!"

Each of them had replied differently, though the message itself was the same. None of them had discovered anybody in the various streets they were assigned to.

"Something seems off!" Sword Demon began to have his doubts.

"Stop your advancement and take a look for a bit," Sword Demon messaged the various teams. He was walking toward the Guild Plaza via 3rd street, and he had not found any ambushers either. There were a total of six streets that connected to the Guild Plaza right outside the Hall of Guild Creations, and there was no cover out in the Plaza. This meant that aside from the aforementioned six streets, there was no other place that their enemy could ambush them. Presently, none of the five teams and Gu Fei walking along each street had found any other players preparing to ambush them...

Could that guy have anticipated a step deeper than I thought, such that the players looking to ambush us are still behind us? Sword Demon thought about this and had quite the shock deep down. This was the most troublesome matter when facing an enemy he was familiar with. It was a case of him guessing what the other would do, while the other man guesses what he would be thinking, and him considering that the other person would be guessing what he was thinking, and this cycle continuing back and forth endlessly... There was essentially no end to this if somebody were to go down this rabbit hole. Furthermore, it was not a case whereby either party would have it better if they made a more complex guess than the other; It would still be a mistake even if one party thought to execute the second step while the other continued to guess up till the fourth step.

Perfect execution; when both parties were familiar with each other, whomever that could end up achieving those two words would then be able to come out on top when they clashed.

Sword Demon had gone through endless speculation. He could continue guessing, but he believed that Young Master Han would do the same, so that person would surely not keep guessing like this. That man would use the most simplest method from the start so that it would end up causing Sword Demon to have speculated for naught. However, Sword Demon felt that since he had come to such a conclusion as well, he simply went back with the original method that he came up with to crack the ambush.

It might seem like it was a simple and rudimental plan, but to the two in question, they had actually gone in a huge circle and ended up with the most convoluted plan.

However, Sword Demon did not find anyone lying in wait, so if the ambushers were to appear behind him, that simply meant that Young Master Han had thought one level deeper than he did...

Should he turn around to deal with the attack? Rather than doing that, they would be better off to rapidly storm the Hall of Guild Creations instead. Occupying the Hall would truly give them the upper hand, so no matter how much steps Young Master Han had anticipated, it would all be irrelevant to the ultimate goal!

Sword Demon thought about this as he quickly gave the order, messaging the various teams to swiftly dash out from the streets and immediately gather in the Plaza.

"Why isn't there anyone around?" Royal God Call had already been holding his frustration inside him the entire time, ready to vent it all during the battle, yet they had all come up empty-handed.

Sword Demon did not respond to that. He continued to vigilantly watch the six streets, but no enemy appeared the entire time.

"Could the ambush be inside the building?" Brother Assist wondered out loud.

"Impossible. There's no way he could ambush so many of us if they were set up inside. Furthermore, the limited space inside means that they wouldn't be able to seize the first move with an ambush," Sword Demon said. An ambush was essentially a sneak attack, and the key to a successful sneak attack lay in making the first move. When two forces with similar strength collided, whoever managed to make the first move would be tantamount to being invincible. However, the limitations of the space inside the building meant that there was no way for them to form a complete encirclement on all of them, and that signify the ambushers would find themselves divided in the face of the attacking forces instead, so the disadvantages would easily outweigh the potential benefits.

They would have pretty much lost the first move to a certain degree if their enemy had already taken precautions against the ambush. With Sword Demon and Young Master Han trying to outwit each other's guesses, what either man was trying to do was to come up with a situation that the other would not expect and seize the upper hand. However, with their current situation where the Hall of Guild Creations was completely devoid of people, Sword Demon and everyone had managed to seize the upper hand, but they had no enemy to fight against.

"Did they not leave anyone to defend the Hall of Guild Creations?" Brother Assist asked.

"How could this be?" Sword Demon could not make sense of it. Now that they were stationed here by the building, Young Master Han and his men would not have the combat strength to contend with Sword Demon and everyone. Even before, Sword Demon believed that the men defending the hall must be top-caliber, which was why he had been so careful preparing his assault.

But in the end, they had actually given up the Hall of Guild Creations just like that; just what could they be up to? Unable to hand in their quests, there was no way for their guild to gain prestige, and that naturally meant there was no way for them to raise their guild level. Without this leveling, there was no way that Young Master Han and his men would be able to beat them with just those 50 combatants of his. My judgment here is completely logical! Sword Demon was vexed.

"Perhaps, the man had already determined that you would believe this, and he purposely avoided doing exactly that," Gu Fei interjected.

"This isn't a problem with my judgment. They must do this, otherwise, they have no way of beating us. Am I wrong?" Sword Demon retorted with another question of his own.

"I feel they won't be able to contend with us even if they turn up with 200 men. You guys got me, on your side, remember?" Gu Fei stated.

"Everyone knows you're really powerful, honest," Southern Lone Blade patted Gu Fei. After understanding the situation they were currently in, he had come to the same conclusion as Sword Demon. There was indeed no reason for Young Master Han and his men to have given up their position in the Hall of Guild Creations so easily. For that man to have abandoned it in such a fashion, just what sort of medicine was in that man's gourd?

"Since they aren't here, it'll be a matter of time before they return. Why don't we entrench ourselves here and wait around to ambush them once they return?" Brother Assist suggested.

"Wait around?" Sword Demon repeated what he said.

"Is it possible for that guy to intentionally leave us camping out here for them, so as to put us in a position that makes us unable to participate in other activities by chaining us here? If we consider the general picture of the city assault, this would be considered a success as well. At the very least, we would all be kept in check here and would no longer be able to create trouble for the other players outside the city," Southern Lone Blade said.

Sword Demon wrinkled his brow, not saying a word when Gu Fei suddenly voiced out, "Svelte Dancer's done with the teleportation scrolls."

A thought suddenly came to Sword Demon, and he turned toward July, "A level 1 guild only has 50 spots for members. What would happen if people applied to join the guild after this limit has been hit?"

"They would be unable to join the guild, of course!" July exclaimed. She was confused about why Sword Demon would ask such a noob question.

"No no no, that's not what I meant. I'm asking if these players would hold their application spot after applying? Take, for example, if my guild is filled right now, would their applications be put on hold, and they would be able to join the moment the guild becomes level 2?" Sword Demon asked.

"This..." July had not actually investigated such a scenario.