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Virtual World: Close Combat Mage – Chapter 1 – Teacher Gu Fei
Original by Butterfly Blue, Translated by James
Cloud City. Murky Sky with discontinuous rain. Near the birthplace of the players, by the Mage Academy, two merchants were surrounded by players. These two guys, one of them was selling exclusively brooms and the other exclusively black spectacles. The interest in magic due to Harry Potter was still present in the latest online game, Parallel World.
These two NPCs, using iconic items from Harry Potter, have ripped off all the newly born players. A player was born with a total of 250 copper coins. These two useless items that the NPCs were selling cost 125 copper coins each, totaling 250 for both. However, the newly born players were still very eager as they handed away all the money that they had. The whole area by the Mage Academy was covered with enthusiastic players wearing a long gown and black spectacles while holding a broom.
Amidst this joyful atmosphere was a single person with a frowning face.
Gu Fei stood in the middle of the plaza. He was donned in a mage’s robe and sighing constantly.
The job that he was most reluctant on being was mage.
But he became a mage.
This was all because of that student called Ah Fa. Guo Fei was a teacher. He accidentally overheard several students discussing over the new game with virtual reality technology. After he asked the students about the game, this student called Ah Fa decided to please his teacher by presenting him with an account.
Unexpectedly, even good intentions were bad sometimes. Ah Fa carelessly gave an account that he had already preset with the character name and occupation to Gu Fei. Gu Fei had entered the game after a 3D scanning of his body and identity, only then did he found out that he was a mage. And because it was the first time 3D scanning was ever used in a game, Parallel World had received an unprecedented amount of attention. And because the game server’s capacity was limited, the amount of accounts was limited to one per person. Thus, having scanned his identity, if Guo Fei were to want to play this game, then he could only play as a mage.
Seeing his newly brought gaming equipment, Gu Fei felt that it would be a pity not to play the game. Thus, he decided to enter the game. However, upon entering and seeing his occupation, Gu Fei had lost his purpose and ended up standing and sighing incessantly.
Right when he was at a loss as to what to do, he suddenly saw a couple of mages running backwards from the gates of the Mage Academy. They were dragging their disintegrated gowns, their noses were bloodied and their faces were swollen. Gu Fei noticed that amongst the mages was a small and thin individual. He determined that to be Ah Fa right away and subconsciously yelled his name. “Ah Fa!”
Ah Fa was a student who had poor grades, poor physiques, and poor looks. His only talent was in smooth talking. He was the type of individual that even his grandparents won’t love; an absolute side character. Gu Fei’s mage account was given by him. To meet him here in the game, Gu Fei tried very hard to hold back his impulse to beat him up. After all, it was not on purpose. Furthermore, he was Ah Fa’s teacher.
Ah Fa heard his name being called. He raised his head and saw Gu Fei. Immediately he quickly staggered and stumbled to the front of Gu Fei and said “Hello teacher!” .
“Enough, enough. Don’t act like this.” said Gu Fei promptly. To be greeted by one’s student like this in the game was an extraordinary embarrassment. Players nearby who had overheard Ah Fa’s greeting had all turned toward them in curiosity.
“How did you end up like this?” Asked Gu Fei after dragging Ah Fa away from the crowd.
Ah Fa took two deep breath and said. “I… I was taking a stroll in the town and got beaten up by others right away…”
“What level are you?” Gu Fei felt the situation to be strange. In this game, the only safe zone was the birth cities. However, players lower than level 5 would still be protected from being PKed.
“Level one, I was just born!” said Ah Fa.
“How did you got killed by others then?” Gu Fei pondered.
“I didn’t get killed… I got beaten up…” said Ah Fa.
“What’s the difference?” Gu Fei was confused..
“Teacher, PK requires the usage of game skills to reduce the HP of the target. However, because of the virtual reality system that is in the game, one can get beat up just like in a street fight. Although the HP won’t be decreased… it’s still very painful!” Ah Fa was touching the corner of his mouth and grimacing in pain.
“There’s actually people like that?!” Gu Fei was shocked.
“That’s right! Never had I expected such a thing to happen in virtual reality gaming.” said Ah Fa.
“Virtual reality… “ Gu Fei mumbled these words. “Let me check it out!” Gu Fei suddenly began to move toward the outside where Ah Fa came from.
“Wait!” Ah Fa pulled onto Gu Fei. “Teacher, you’re also a mage with a much less health and strength than those knights! You won’t be able to beat them!”
Gu Fei patted Ah Fa’s head and said “Had you forgotten that your teacher knows Kung Fu?!” He left immediately after.
“Teacher!” Ah Fa was completely baffled as he watched his teacher’s distancing back. ‘Teacher Gu Fei knows Kung Fu!’ In the YuLin middle school, those words were a well-known joke. It was rumored that even the principle had discussed about that in private: ‘What is being shameless? Teacher Gu Fei constantly saying that he knows Kung Fu is the most shameless thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’
Although Gu Fei does indeed jump higher, run faster, have more agile and more strength than an average person, they were stuff that were within the norms for a PE teacher. However, Gu Fei would incessantly say that his physical abilities were all products of learning Kung Fu and had been unrivaled since youth.
No one believed him.
That was because a very video was spread online and to everyone in the school. This video showed a footage from the school’s security camera. In the video, a young man was badly battered by an old man. He was rolling around the ground, completely unable to retaliate. The title of the video was named ‘Old But Vigorous’. The first male in the video was obviously the old man. As for the second male in the video, it was the self-proclaimed unrivaled Teacher Gu Fei.
Who would believe that Gu Fei knows Kung Fu seeing that video? Everyone thinks that he had read too much wuxia novels and had some psychological issues. Although Gu Fei said that he knows Kung Fu, he never showed any violent tendency and his attitude toward teaching was also very earnest. Because of that, his teaching career was not affected.
Gu Fei had already exited the gates of the Mage Academy. He turned around and shouted toward Ah Fa. “Which side?”
Subconsciously, Ah Fa pointed toward the right side and Gu Fei immediately started to proceed toward the right.
Ah Fa was dumbstruck for a while before coming back. He immediately started to run after Gu Fei.
The virtual reality of the game was exceptional. The stone paved road was a bit painful to run on. However, Gu Fei was running at a lighting speed. Running after him, Ah Fa was already sweating bullets. Once again, Gu Fei stopped at another intersection.
“Where are they?” Gu Fei turned around and asked the approaching Ah Fa.
“They were there earlier.” Ah Fa extended his hand and pointed at the fountain in the plaza ahead. “Teacher, you shouldn’t go!” yelled Ah Fa as he saw Gu Fei approaching the plaza.
Gu Fei turned around and smiled. “Stay here, teacher will be right back.”
The back views of mages always give an impression of weakness. However, Gu Fei’s back view was filled with an extraordinary confidence.
“Hell! At most I’ll get beaten up again, it’s just a game, not like my actual body will be hurt!” said Ah Fa before chasing after Gu Fei again.
However, he had already lost sight of Gu Fei. Ah Fa looked around as he walked toward the plaza. Suddenly, he heard sounds of screaming coming from an alley nearby. Ah Fa quickly rushed to the side of the alley and peeked his head out to see what happened.
Inside the alley, four men in knight uniform were currently violently beating a slightly built man. The sounds of their fists landing on the man’s flesh was absolutely terrifying. The noses and the mouths of this man was already twisted from the beating. His whole body and face was covered in bruises and blood. It was impossible to discern his occupation he had from his equipment. However, even if he have the most tanky occupation, the warrior, as his occupation, he would still be unable to resist getting attacked from all sides by these four robust knights. He had already long lost his ability to resist and was knocked to a corner from a punch. He was already cowering in fear.
The four men who are attacking him all had fierce expressions on their face. Just from looking at them, one could tell that they’re not good people. However, they stopped attacking this man. That was because Gu Fei had appeared in front of them.
No one said anything. However, after seeing Gu Fei’s mage outfit, the four men suddenly looked at each other and exposed wicked smiles.
“Let him go!” Shouted Gu Fei.
“You mean him?” The most valiant looking men amongst the four raised his leg and kicked the cowering man in the corner. He gave the three other men a glance and the four slowly moved to envelop Gu Fei. They originally feared that Gu Fei would turn around and flee but Gu Fei remained motionless, allowing the four to surround him.
The leader of the four, the most valiant looking one, was slightly surprised by Gu Fei’s action. However, after carefully sizing up Gu Fei, his slight surprise turned into a slight relief. This guy in front of him wasn’t tall. However, the well fitted mage robes did not conceal his well proportioned build. Wide shoulders, slender waist, long legs. One could tell that he exercised a lot. Based on his good physiques, the leader had determined that this mage wasn’t going to be bad at fighting. However, this was a game. No matter how good one’s physique is in real life, when in game, one’s speed, strength, physique, etc. was all determined by one’s game stats. This guy is a mage, thus his strength and physique are both the weakest. This mage would be in pain for half a day just from a single punch of his. It would appear that the mage had forgotten that he was in a game due to how realistic it was.
Without saying anything more than needed, the leader shouted. “Get him!”
