517 Chapter 517 - Deceptive (1/2)
Coco and Xi Xiaotian had not been standing out in the open street talking this whole time, of course. The moment Gu Fei left, the two casually found a tavern, sitting in a corner to discuss things in depth.
Even though she had blocked Deep Waters, Coco still had access to her guild channel. She would take note of it from time to time, knowing full well that the channel would burst with activity once Broken Water Arrow became a victim of the assassination.
Unfortunately, the heavens never abided by the wishes of men; anything that someone hoped not to happen would occur, contradicting expectations. Coco waited with trepidation and finally saw the guild channel chat logs surge. She read them as the words passed, learning that Broken Water Arrow had been slain, yet the guild leader ordered the others not to tangle with the two perpetrators…
Who else could those two be? Coco had no idea what happened, but she was infuriated when she thought of how Gu Fei, who had gone searching for the man, ended up helping Sword Demon complete his kill, instead. She then read on and saw Broken Water Arrow take the moral high ground on the guild channel, telling his fellow members not to take things to heart and claiming the need to put the City War as priority. He asked everyone not to make any rash movement out of resentment. Coco was so incensed she had no idea what to say, merely harrumphing as she read on.
Observation was one of Xi Xiaotian's strong suits, so she could quickly tell that something was wrong from Coco's expression and immediately thought something had happened. She carefully asked the lady about this and Coco answered with a slap on the table. ”Those two guys!”
”What happened?”
”They still managed to kill off Broken Water Arrow,” Coco answered.
”As long as he can get him to admit to his deeds through his words; all these other things don't matter.” Xi Xiaotian laughed.
”Hmm. That's true.” Coco nodded. However, in spite of this, the two men still needed to be severely reprimanded for their reckless action. She could immediately tell from reading through the messages over the guild channel that the two had not actually accomplished a covert assassination but a direct assault on Broken Water Arrow. Thankfully, the guild decided to focus on the bigger picture and did not impulsively hunt down the two for their transgression. Otherwise, both parties would end up letting loose a river of blood, and that would just be a terribly difficult mess to clean up! This was especially true for Coco; while Gu Fei and Sword Demon could pat their butts, leave without caring for the aftermath, and avoid contact with the other party until they died, the same could not be said for Coco. She could not possibly run away with the two men. She might have blocked Deep Waters, but she would have to speak to him sooner or later. At the end of the day, Coco was the poor wretch that was stuck in middle without any options, so she was also the person who had the most to look forward to if this matter got a peaceful resolution.
”Don't be angry.” Xi Xiaotian saw that Coco was still in a huff and quickly consoled the woman. ”A lady who's angry won't be pretty, and it would hasten aging, creating more wrinkles on the skin. Quick, drink some water and take a deep breath. Think about some happy thoughts!”
”Water? What's the point of drinking water in the game?” Coco asked.
”You can always log off and drink it in real life!”
”Hmph. I'm not going anywhere. I want to wait for those two idiots and give them a proper tongue-lashing,” Coco said. She reckoned that the two would make their way over to meet them now that they had escaped with their hides intact. She did not bother to message either of the men and continued to sit there, awaiting their return like an empress dowager. Sure enough, in no time at all, Sword Demon's message arrived. ”Where are you?”
”Maple Leaf Tavern.” Coco found it extremely regrettable that her messaging was unable to express the icy tone in her voice.
”Maple Leaf Tavern…” Sword Demon quickly asked people around where this tavern was located and hurried over. Stepping into the establishment, he swept his gaze around the place and saw Coco and the swindler woman sitting together right there in a corner. Sword Demon was about to approach the two ladies, but he saw the clear profile of Coco's face already turned to the side and immediately realized that something was off. This was clearly the sign of the calm before the storm.
Sword Demon had no wish to become the seagull caught up in the thunderstorm of rage that was Coco, so he decided to avoid it entirely by pretending to have gotten lost, heading back to the door. He planned to blindly go around the room once more before taking his leave while feigning ignorance. But his careful plan of sneaking out had actually been seen through by the swindler, getting Coco's attention as she twisted her lips in direction of the man.
Crap! The word flashed like a lightning across his sea of thoughts and saw Coco turn her head over. She saw him looking at the door, as if he intended to leave and immediately stood up from the table. ”F*ck! Don't you dare run off!”
As the words left her lips, Coco had already dashed over with Fleetfoot, the dagger in her hands emitting out a chilling gleam as she streaked over. Sword Demon could tell that it was no ordinary item with a single glance. He did not dare dawdle with his actions, either, and swiftly pulled out his dagger to parry the blow. Both of them had the same Agility-based job class, and possessed agile movement. A vigorous fight immediately broke out in that small space of the tavern. Both parties changed positions, rolled about, poked at each other… All sort of skills and methods of attacks were displayed that even the onlookers had trouble keeping up with everything.
Finally, Coco managed to step past Sword Demon with a half pirouette and randomly grabbed a stool to smash right into the back of his head.
”Who told you to run?!” Coco shouted as the stool connected. Sword Demon felt a thud resonate from the back of his head. The blow did not split his skull open, but he was struck by her Bludgeon skill.
”Hmph!” Coco tossed that stool away and came round to Sword Demon's front with her hands by her waist. Sword Demon flashed her a bitter smile, for he was silenced while Bludgeon was in effect.
”It's fine it's fine, please carry on with your business,” Seeing that some players had cautiously been prepared to leave the tavern, Coco quickly smiled sweetly at these people to set everyone's mind at ease.
It was about this time when the Bludgeon effect ended, and Xi Xiaotian had walked over as well. Coco immediately probed, ”Where's that guy?” She wanted to know where Gu Fei was, for she had no wish to repeat her tirade twice.
”He logged out,” Sword Demon answered meekly.
Coco checked her friends' list and confirmed he was indeed offline, ”what luck.”
”You're the one who's lucky…” Sword Demon was being honest. He could already imagine that Coco would most likely find herself flat on the ground in that instant she came charging towards Gu Fei.
”I can attest to this,” Xi Xiaotian said. ”That man has no sense of chivalry whatsoever, nor would he care to show moderation just because you're a woman.”
”Oh? You can tell as well?” Sword Demon was rather surprised just like Coco. When it came to their gaming skills, Coco was at least weaker than Sword Demon by two stages. Even though Parallel World was more subversive as compared to the older MMOs out there, everyone had gotten used to it after playing for such a long time. Neither of them had fought in this game before, but Sword Demon knew Coco was no match for him after a few exchanges and even sensed that the gap between them was wider than before.
There was greater difficulty in this game as compared to the usage of the keyboard and mouse to play games. Sword Demon understood Coco and knew she would not be the sort that would work hard to study the nuances. Her habit was to pick up the attack routines used by the forebearers in these games and adequately practice to reach a semblance of skill, after all. In a game with such a high degree of freedom, it was not enough to depend on this alone, so it was not too odd to see Coco's standard fall behind like this.