116 Chapter 116 - Substitute for Royal (2/2)
”Yunxia Valley,” Luo Luo answered.
”Oh, I am familiar with that map,” Gu Fei said, adding, ”I level grinded there a month ago.”
Luo Luo was momentarily stunned. A month ago was still the period where everyone was at level 30. Being able to grind over at Yunxia Valley at that time meant that the players possessed the capabilities to engage monsters ten levels beyond their own. A mere Mage that can actually solo grind monsters ten levels higher than his… Luo Luo deduced that Gu Fei was a formidable player, but she did not expect for him to have such incredible might. Only top-class players should possess capabilities like that, after all.
”Where do you level grind now, then?” Luo Luo asked out of curiosity.
”I'm not grinding that much anymore. I've been repeatedly doing 'Bounty Mission',” Gu Fei answered. He usually spent about two hours grinding on monsters. When compared to Sword Demon and the rest, Gu Fei did not consider his mere two hours to be a serious attempt at level grinding. And yet, if he had revealed where he had been grinding monsters on recently, it would have surely shocked Luo Luo to death. Yun Luo Summit, a level 60 grinding map, was definitely a place that the regular players had never been to before.
”'Bounty Mission'… Is it fast to level up with that?” Luo Luo asked, feeling weird about it.
”Nope. I'm just mindlessly playing around,” Gu Fei replied.
Gu Fei's ranking on the overall experience leaderboard had taken a steep fall. This fall was actually not that obvious in Amethyst Rebirth, where he remained an upper rank player. With their fondness for chit-chatting and gossiping daily, the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies did not care much about the efficiency for level grinding. In fact, the time they took to actually level up was nothing impressive at all. Frankly speaking, Gu Fei had helped the ladies greatly by introducing them to the two gaming experts, War Without Wounds and Royal God Call. Had it not been for the two's personal instructions and supports, the current levels of the Amethyst Rebirth's ladies would have been a lot worse than they were today.
Looking to his side, Gu Fei saw Ice Glaze silently walking with lowered head alongside them. ”Did Xiao Bing, my friend, here not recognize me anymore?” Ice Glaze did not greet Gu Fei even after she saw him earlier.
”Ah, that's not it!” Ice Glaze looked up in panic.
”Don't just focus on teasing the more shy ladies from our guild. Go and play with the little girls behind,” Luo Luo said disdainfully, pulling Ice Glaze to her side.
”What are you saying?!” Gu Fei was close to fainting, as what Luo Luo had just said implied that he had evil intentions in him, ”You're treating me like Royal!”
”Ah!” Luo Luo was taken aback for a second, finally saying, ”That seems to be the case!”
”That beast,” Gu Fei mocked.
Ice Glazed suddenly laughed, ”That's what he said about you, too.”
”Why did he describe me as such?” Gu Fei asked.
”It's nothing. It's just that whenever he mentions you, he would always replace your name with 'That beast!' or 'That livestock!'...” Luo Luo laughingly shared.
”I'm gonna hack Royal to his death!” Gu Fei declared spitefully.
The ladies all burst into peals of laughter. ”What a braggart!” everyone said while pointing at him.
Gu Fei was bewildered. He did not know why such a casual remark from him would generate such a response. Of course, there was something that he was not privy about. While he was always disdaining Royal God Call for his childishness, the latter was truly an exceptional gaming expert. Although the ladies were average at best when it came to gaming, they could tell that Royal God Call was very skillful after spending some time grinding levels with him. His famous IGN 'Royal God Call' was already proof of his ability in the online gaming community.
At present, Gu Fei's level was beneath Royal God Call. With him holding the Mage job class, he was actually disadvantageous against Archers. So when Gu Fei uttered that he would ”hack Royal to his death”, he was treated by the ladies as a braggart.
As the nonsensical chattering went on, they finally arrived at Yunxia Valley.
The current Yunxia Valley was no longer as bleak and desolate as when Gu Fei had been grinding in it before. Presently, it was a grinding map packed with the most players to the point that all its mountains and plains were filled with nothing but people. Gu Fei looked around as he strolled along with his party, seemingly unable to find an empty spot that could accommodate ten people for level grinding.
As the party was walking onward, some of the ladies' footsteps came to a sudden halt. Looking ahead, Luo Luo began to furrow her brows. The others were also commenting among themselves, ”It's them again.”
”What's wrong?” Gu Fei asked.
”This area originally belongs to Amethyst Rebirth. But that gang of people couldn't find a grinding spot for themselves these few days and took a liking to our spot. So we've been having numerous duels with their party.”
”Duels?” Gu Fei asked, failing to understand what she meant.
Luo Luo looked at him with an even more confused gaze.
”What's the duel for?” Gu Fei asked again.
”To claim a grinding spot for our own! Grinding maps are always overcrowded nowadays, and nobody can properly grind for levels when players are kill-stealing here and there. So everyone resorted to—”
”Oh, I get it,” Gu Fei indeed understood the matter now. The battle-crazed city of Yueye had the same rule as well. Since grinding maps could never handle so many players grinding altogether, it was inevitable for players to clash and claim their own grinding spots. Still, a large-scale group PvP would cause more harm than good, so an unwritten rule had been set: Different groups must only send out representatives to engage in a duel. Who would have thought that Yunduan City would become like this as well? This matter showed that people's nature was the same no matter where they were.
”Let's do it, then!” Gu Fei urged.
”But Royal isn't here,” Luo Luo expressed solemnly, adding, ”It's always him that took on the duels before. Besides him, there are just me with no offensive abilities and Xiao Bing who is a Mage. The levels of the others are even lower.”
”I'll go!” Gu Fei thumped his chest.
”But you're a Mage, too!” Luo Luo protested in shock. From a conventional perspective, Mages were often weaker in a PvP. Despite Luo Luo thinking that Gu Fei was quite competent, she did not actually think that he would be stronger than a veteran expert like Royal God Call. Gu Fei had almost died at the hands of Xiaoyu previously, after all. Something like that would never happen to Royal God Call.
Those people over at the claimed grinding spot noticed Gu Fei and the rest while they were still discussing the issue. There was no doubt that they were all familiar with one another, as that party of people started whistling and yelling, ”Hey, beauties! You're all here again.”
”How shameless you lot are! You all have lost numerous times already, yet you still keep on coming back here!” someone among the ladies yelled back.
”Perseverance! Such spirit is worth learning for all!” someone from the opposing side shouted, obviously trying to keep on acting shameless to the very end.
Gu Fei proceeded onward without even waiting for a reply from Luo Luo, ”Who's the one who will be doing the duel? Come out!”
Those from the opposing side were stumped when they saw Gu Fei, ”Why is there a sudden change of person? Where's that arrogant brat? Tell him to come out, instead!”
”He's not here,” Gu Fei stated matter-of-factly.
The opposing gang of people had a sudden discussion in hushed tone. The fact that they still dared to come again after suffering several consecutive losses to Royal God Call meant that they had come prepared this time. In order to deal with Royal God Call, they specially found themselves a Thief expert, preparing to counter the Archer with an advantageous job class. They also managed to observe that all the ladies were not proficient and knowledgeable in PvP besides Royal God Call. Thus, they had never considered the possibility of them switching the Archer for another person.
And yet, the unthinkable happened. The player line-up of Amethyst Rebirth that had remained unchanged for days suddenly changed out of nowhere. Royal God Call was absent today, and another guy had appeared instead.
”Appraise him!” The opposing gang had no intention of losing again.
”Mage!” They were all brimming with joy when the result of Appraisal was out. Despite there being question marks displayed on some of the Mage's equipment, nobody actually minded this minor detail. A duel with a Mage was hardly a difficult task, after all.
”So who's up for it?” Everyone on the opposing side began to bicker among themselves for the chance to go up against the Mage. Truthfully, this party of people had purposely been clashing with the Amethyst Rebirth' members to claim the grinding spot. Once they claimed the grinding spot for their own, they would 'generously' invite the ladies to grind levels together. Although it might be a little cramped with two groups of people, the ladies would presumably not reject their offer since it was still better than no place to train at all. What came next would of course be getting to know the ladies sooner or later.
This was what this party of people had in mind at first. Unfortunately, they had never anticipated that the party of moderately strong ladies would include an Archer who was a tough nut to crack. Over the course of a few days, some of them had continuously lost to the Archer. Although they enlisted the help of a Thief today, they were still feeling a little uneasy inside. Today, seeing that the expert Archer was absent and a Mage had replaced him, everyone was eager to come out and show their prowess in front of the ladies.
”Oh, right.” Gu Fei turned his head back and asked Luo Luo, ”This PvP is not a fight to the death, and we'll stop once a certain HP threshold is crossed, right?”
Luo Luo nodded her head in affirmation, as she thought to herself, Does that question have any merit? All have specifically come up with such a method to avoid having their levels dropped, so why would we be fighting to the death? She drew nearer to Gu Fei and said in a low tone, ”Be careful. This PvP can be either a fair one or a dishonest one. Knowing which one it is by the time everything ends will no longer be useful to you.”
”Don't worry, I'll be careful,” Gu Fei reassured.
Luo Luo nodded her head in acknowledgement, ”Just withdraw if things don't look good. We'll just find another grinding spot.”
Gu Fei went numb for a second before saying, ”When I said I'll be careful, I mean I'll be careful not to kill them....”
The ladies were flabbergasted.
The guys on the opposing side clearly heard it as well, and their blood instantly boiled. ”This guy is way more arrogant than that snooty brat!” someone among them rebuked.
Gu Fei was too lazy to explain himself, and he took two more steps forward, rubbing his hands together and saying, ”So who is it that I am up against?”
”Me!” A Thief emerged from the party of male players. He was originally invited today to deal with Royal God Call. The others could only look on when he stepped out, as it would be awkward to visibly compete with him for a chance to engage in this PvP.
Gu Fei nodded his head and asked, ”How high is your HP?”
”What?” the Thief asked, dumbfounded.
”I'm asking for your total HP,” Gu Fei replied seriously.
”What for? Why would I tell you that?!” the Thief asked, stupefied. This is a PvP; being as secretive as possible about our stats is of course the way to go. To think that there's someone who would ask questions like this.
”If you don't tell me your HP value, it won't be easy for me to hold back!” Gu Fei was still saying very seriously. He was not like the gaming experts Sword Demon and the rest who knew the algorithm related to the game like the back of their hands and could determine the opponents' data by using Appraisal. Gu Fei did not know all these finer details. He only knew that his current opponent was a Thief, a job class with inherently low HP, and was within the range of being insta-killed by his spells. It was out of good intention that he was asking for the opponent's total HP.
But how would the regular players be able to comprehend such a different way of thinking? As a string of admonishment echoed in the air, the Thief felt that he was being heavily looked down upon and angrily bellowed, ”Hey, you punk! I want a deathmatch with you!”
The meaning of 'deathmatch' was obviously a fight until one of the PvPers was dead. It was a special term that was created by pretentious gamers. When they were facing opponents obviously not on par with them, asking ”Do you want a deathmatch?” before a PvP would apparently make them look very dashing.
Gu Fei had of course heard of such a term before. Right now, he could only smile and say, ”Is that really necessary? It's getting harder and harder to level up these days!”
Thinking that Gu Fei was feeling apprehensive, the Thief became cockier, ”Don't mind me, please. Aren't you afraid of not being able to hold back? I'm actually giving you a chance right now. Kill me if you really have what it takes!”