1 Chapter 1 - Teacher Gu Fei (1/2)

The sky was gloomy in Yunduan City, and it drizzled from time to time.

Somewhere near the spawn point¹ of new players within the city's Mage Academy, two NPC² merchants were being surrounded by a dense crowd. One exclusively sold brooms, while the other sold only black-rimmed glasses. The Harry Potter series popularized the medieval concept of magic so much that even the latest VRMMORPG³ masterpiece, Parallel World, could not escape from its influence.

By adopting the standard character designs from Harry Potter, the two NPCs were able to rip off the new players twice. New players would receive 50 copper coins from the system at the start of the game. However, the two useless pieces of equipment were being sold at the price of 125 copper coins each, totaling to 250 copper coins together. Despite this, the interest of the players for the items did not diminish. They would arduously work for an entire day just for this sum. The entire Mage Academy was filled with players who were roaming about, dragging their long robes, with black-rimmed glasses on their faces and brooms in their hands.

In this lively atmosphere, there was one person in a bad mood.

Gu Fei, in his long mage robe, stood in the center of the academy grounds. He found nothing to do other than to sigh as he watched these energetic people.

Mage was the last job class he wanted.

And yet he just had to become a Mage.

This was all 'thanks' to a student called Ah Fa. Gu Fei was a school teacher. He had accidentally overheard a few students discussing about this new online game that utilized virtual reality. When Gu Fei had inquired more about the game, Ah Fa gifted him a gaming account to get on his good side.

Who knew that matters would go wrong even when backed up by good intentions? Ah Fa carelessly gave Gu Fei an account that had already been set up with a name and job class. Gu Fei only noticed this fact after he had logged in and undergone a full-body scan, confirming his identity and other prerequisites for control. Because this was the first time that virtual reality technology was implemented for a MMORPG, it received unprecedented attention. The server could only handle so much at a time, so the developers resorted to limiting the distribution of accounts. Each person could only own a single account. That was why Gu Fei's only choice was to be a Mage if he wanted to continue playing the game.

Gu Fei felt like it was a pity to not play the game as he eyed the entire set of the latest VR equipment he had bought specially for the game. Hence, he had still ended up logging in to the game. It was just a shame that his desire to play the game was now greatly reduced since he could not choose his dream job class. Currently, he stood at the center of the academy with no idea on what he should be doing.

As he was zoning off, he suddenly noticed a few Mages retreating back into the academy through the main entrance. Their robes were ripped and they seemed to have been beaten black and blue. Gu Fei saw a short, skinny figure among them and yelled out involuntarily, ”Ah Fa!”

That was the student. Poor in grades, bad at sports, a plain appearance – he had no desirable traits other than his silver tongue. He was a nobody that nobody liked in school. It was him who provided Gu Fei with his Mage account. Encountering him inside the game, Gu Fei prevented himself from charging and beating him up after much restraint, as Ah Fa's action was probably unintentional. Besides, he had to uphold his status of being a role model for others.

Ah Fa looked up and saw Gu Fei when he heard someone call him. He staggered toward Gu Fei and greeted, ”Good day to you, sir!”

”Alright, enough. There's no need to do that,” Gu Fei replied hurriedly. Being greeted by a student like that in a game was just too embarrassing. In fact, many players in the surroundings glanced at them out of curiosity after hearing Ah Fa's greeting.

”What happened to you?” asked Gu Fei after dragging Ah Fa a little further away from the crowd.

Gasping for air, Ah Fa said, ”Never – Never thought that this would happen to me… I got beaten up as soon as I started wandering around the city.”

”What's your level right now?” Gu Fei was doubtful. He knew for a fact that there was nothing like a safe zone in the game besides the spawn point. However, the game still had a feature that prevented PvP⁴ among low-level players. It was impossible for any players to engage in PvP with those who were below level 5.

”I just spawned, so I haven't even leveled up yet!” said Ah Fa.

”Then, how did the others PvP you?” Gu Fei could not understand.

”I didn't get PvP-ed. I got beaten up,” said Ah Fa.

”Is there a difference?” Gu Fei was still puzzled.

”Sir, PvP uses in-game skills to reduce the HP of a player's opponent. But we're in a virtual reality game now. They just beat me up like in a regular street fight. Even though my HP remains the same, it still hurts a lot!” Ah Fa snarled as he rubbed the corner of his mouth.

”There're even people like that in here?!”

”Yeah! I didn't know before that this was possible in virtual reality,” said Ah Fa.

Virtual reality… Gu Fei thought. He blurted out, ”Let me take a look at this!” He then suddenly began to make his way outside.