219 Chapter 219 - Thousand Miles Drunk’s Reply (1/2)
In actuality, only one hundred twelve individuals had mailed him the two hundred forty-one letters. This meant that each of them had sent two or three letters on average. While there were some who had only sent one letter, most had sent two or three letters over; in fact, a handful of them had mailed him four or five letters. What was regretful, though, was that none of the mails was a letter of challenge that Gu Fei had been hoping to find.
The various in-game cities were geographically divided, so Gu Fei's fame was more or less limited to just within Yunduan City. Perhaps, some people would have sent letters of challenge to Gu Fei if the title of 'the strongest across all lands' could have been claimed by defeating him. Gu Fei pondered on this as he wrote a reply to each letter, Should I try to gain the title of 'undefeated under the heavens' to attract worthy challengers and travel all over Parallel World in search of such individuals?
Through their joint effort, Gu Fei and Young Master Han managed to compose one hundred twelve letters of reply; the name of each recipient was written properly across the surface of every envelope. The two needed not write Gu Fei's IGN as the sender of the letters, as the system would help Gu Fei fill that portion up once he put the letters inside the mailbox.
”Off you go, then!” Young Master Han pushed all the letters on the table over to Gu Fei.
Gu Fei nodded his head, hugged the stack of letters, and left for the mailbox. Arriving at the mailbox by one of the city gates, Gu Fei slowly slotted each letter into the mailbox and was charged a nominal fee for each letter. While the one hundred twelve players bore the cost of their letters separately, Gu Fei now had to pay the full cost of all by himself when replying....
The system was very quick to send a mail, almost as if it was SMS. Gu Fei only closed the lid of the mailbox after putting all the letters in it for a bit, but when he opened it again in the next moment, he saw that the mailbox was already empty. All of the letters he had put inside it were already sent out.
Accomplishing this task, he looked at the time and saw that only thirty minutes were left until the start of the mercenary PvP tournament. It was at this point that he received Young Master Han's message telling him to meet everyone by the teleportation array, so Gu Fei hurriedly made his way over.
Over by Four Seas' side, Youthful Reflection was feeling restless. He had been waiting for a reply to his letter from last night until now. As time went by and he still did not get a reply, Youthful Reflection began to wonder, Just how did my beautifully crafted letter fail to sway him?
In the end, Youthful Reflection came up with this sort of reason, Perhaps, he's really strong-willed! He then decided to give up on the matter. With only thirty minutes left until the match's start and some members pestering him on the mercenary channel, he figured that it was best to focus his energy on organizing everyone and coming up with a way to fight the opponents. Youthful Reflection was glad he did not brag about his plan to his men after sending that letter last night; otherwise, he would really be shooting himself in his foot.
As he was thinking of this, the system suddenly notified him: [You have received a mail.]
Feeling slightly stunned, Youthful Reflection rushed over to the nearest mailbox by one of the city gates. He was an Archer with a full-Agility build, so he swiftly arrived at the mailbox. Heart filled with trepidation, Youthful Reflection opened the mailbox and gingerly retrieved the letter within. He felt giddy when he saw the sender's name on the envelope's surface: Thousand Miles Drunk.
Since the system generated the name itself, how else could it be faked? Youthful Reflection sprinted toward the teleportation array while he rapidly tore off the envelope to retrieve the letter within.
If the letter had indeed been written by Gu Fei, Youthful Reflection would have experienced what it felt to descend to the depths of hell from the pearly gates of heaven with Gu Fei's ”I thank you for your offer, but I refuse” reply. However, this letter was written by Young Master Han, so Youthful Reflection was abruptly sent straight up to the pearly gates of heaven – for now. The 'hell' part would definitely come later.
In this letter, Thousand Miles Drunk first voiced all the grievances he had with Young Master's Elite before wholeheartedly approving of Youthful Reflection's suggestion to defect over to his side. He then wished to show his dedication to his new mercenary group, Four Seas, by heartlessly revealing the PvP strategy for this upcoming match of his now ex-mercenary group, Young Master's Elite.
Grand Kiting strategy! Thousand Miles Drunk revealed in the letter. No one in Young Master's Elite had the guts to face the strongest mercenary group, Four Seas, head on in combat, so they decided to use the Grand Kiting strategy that they were well-versed at for this match. The best way to counter such a strategy was for Four Seas to control the number of its match participants; only Four Seas' best and elite members should participate in this upcoming PvP match because Young Master's Elite could only accumulate kill points by targeting the opposing side's weakest members.
Furthermore, Young Master's Elite would depend on its team's Mage, Thief, and Archer – three job classes with the fastest movement speed – for the Grand Kiting strategy. The other three with low Agility would often be positioned far from the actual battlefield, so if Four Seas could ambush those three, the outcome of the match would tilt in Four Seas' favor. As for how this could be done, Thousand Miles Drunk asked Youthful Reflection to think of this himself since he was regrettably not good at coming up with any combat strategy.
Finally, Thousand Miles Drunk expressed his regret for being unable to open his friends list to accept Youthful Reflection's friend request as ”There are simply too many people trying to add me these days.”
A flicker of doubt passed through Youthful Reflection's mind as he read through the letter. Only half an hour was left until the match's start, so the members of Four Seas were anxiously inquiring to him about their group's strategy for this PvP. The match was about to begin, but Youthful Reflection had yet to tell them of how they would fight Young Master's Elite. Did he wish for everyone to participate in the match or just the elite members? This was a question that the whole of Yunduan City was also wondering about.
Youthful Reflection hurriedly sent out a message on the mercenary channel before rushing over to the teleportation array by the Hall of Mercenaries. When Youthful Reflection was teleported into the 'changing room', he knew exactly which plan he was going with and announced, ”Not all of us are going to participate in this match to prevent us from falling for enemies' Grand Kiting strategy. Mmm… I'll call out the names of the members who will join me for this match.” He then began to read out names from the members list. Out of the thirty members he was choosing for this match, he made sure to include ten Archers and ten Thieves before filling up the remaining spots with the other job classes.
Youthful Reflection had always been the commander and tactician of Traversing Four Seas Guild, so he had always had more authority than Guild Leader Oathless Sword when it came to this matter. No one objected to his decision once he announced it. The players who were not chosen for the match immediately left the 'changing room'. According to Traversing Four Seas Guild's rules, all the players would receive recompense just by abiding to the core members' orders, so these players did not really feel saddened for not being chosen to participate in the match.
”This will do!” Youthful Reflection gazed at the thirty men before him as he thought of how to proceed.
In the 'changing room' of Young Master's Elite, five men listened to Brother Assist count the number of participants of the opposing group for this match. ”Hey, Four Seas initially had sixty-seven players for this match, so why are they down to only thirty men now?!” Brother Assist expressed his surprise at the final headcount of the opposing mercenary group's match participants. ”Looks like your Grand Kiting strategy is still very effective against our opponents. They are very afraid of it!” Brother Assist happily patted Young Master Han.
”He he…” Young Master Han merely chuckled.
”How are we fighting this match?” Gu Fei rubbed his fists together, the fighting spirit within him surging. Youthful Reflection would definitely be shedding bitter tears if he could see Gu Fei right now.
”It's only thirty men! How about we just kill them all directly?” Young Master Han cheerfully fielded this idea.
”I absolutely agree!” This was Gu Fei's favorite method, as it would let him rampage across the map and enjoy himself to the fullest! It reminded him of the times he had fought alongside Amethyst Rebirth….
”These… These thirty men that Four Seas have sent in cannot be compared to High Cloud's. They are surely the elite within Traversing Four Seas; their teamwork won't be lacking at the very least. Wouldn't it be inappropriate for us to simply face them head on?” Brother Assist was worrying about his fellow mercenaries' way of approaching a fight as usual.
”Let's have some fun! We should also learn to enjoy this tournament from time to time. Stop fussing over the minor details,” Young Master Han said something very uncharacteristic of him.