Chapter 121 - Blatant Teasing
The party’s level grinding process was going smoothly. Everything, ranging from Gu Fei luring the monsters, the ladies hitting the monsters with their Descending Wheel of Flames spell, and Gu Fei delivering the final blow on to the monsters... to Luo Luo winking at him from time to time, was going off without a hitch.
Not being able to stand it anymore, Gu Fei called Ice Glaze over during their latest timeout session while he munched on one fruit. He passed her the apple that she preferred and asked, “What’s the matter with Luo Luo—did you see what she just did?” He indicated Luo Luo who had just winked at him for who knew how many times already.
“Yeah, I did,” Ice Glaze cheekily pursed her lips.
“What’s wrong with her?!” Gu Fei asked thickly.
“You are so oblivious to this!” Even Ice Glaze felt comfortable enough to joke with Gu Fei now, bluntly telling him, “Sis Luo Luo is lovestruck!”
“Lovestruck? How is that possible?” Gu Fei understood the term; what he could not fathom was why it only happened now, considering that it was not the first day that they got acquainted with each other. Having a sudden fondness for him just from finding out his other identity as the Close Combat Mage or Fugitive 27149 seemed a little too frivolous and farfetched. Besides, why would a level-headed person like her had such a superficial obsession? This was the second matter that Gu Fei could not fathom.
“Well, for matters like this...” Ice Glaze shook her head, saying, “Sometimes, we just feel the chemistry on the spur of the moment.”
“How tricky,” Gu Fei looked over at Luo Luo as he said that. Luo Luo noticed his gaze once more and immediately winked at him again. The way she winked… It did not seem as if she was making sheep’s eyes at Gu Fei, nor did it seem like an act of seduction. It was more like... teasing… As the word ‘teasing’ flashed through his mind, Gu Fei could feel himself crumbling apart inside right there on the spot. Never would he have thought that he would be teased by a lady... He wanted to weep, but no tears came out!
“Miles, have you finished eating yet?” Luo Luo called out in a singsong tone.
“It’s blatant teasing!” The ladies were giggling while admiring Gu Fei’s current state of embarrassment. Gu Fei stood up without replying to her and headed to a slightly distant corner of the field to continue the task of luring the monsters.
“He didn’t confront her! How boring!”
“Is that so? I think it’s more interesting that he’s not confronting her...” The ladies had different views about Gu Fei’s reaction to being teased.
The level grinding resumed under the current situation. Although he was under a different kind of ‘assault’, Gu Fei’s monster luring remained flawless, showing everyone just how strong his willpower was. He remained calm in everything he did; he calmly lured the monsters, calmly ate a variety of fruits, and calmly took Luo Luo’s blatant teasing. Gu Fei’s present mentality of ‘ignoring the issue until it went away by itself’ was obviously an outdated approach. For the young ones of this generation, they would often face with stubbornness and perseverance the things that they were interested in.
Now that Gu Fei had made changes to his grinding strategy by doing the monster luring himself, the ladies were no longer standing in positions that would be targeted by the monsters and he of course was able to dodge the monsters’ attacks with his fighting prowess. With nothing left to do, Luo Luo decided to bestow Heal on to him repeatedly, making the latter feel as if his entire body was being displayed to all with how it kept on glowing.
Gu Fei kept on luring the monsters and Luo Luo continued to bestow Heal on him unnecessarily … Both remained like this until the end of their level grinding session.
The ladies’ gaming hours were quite to Gu Fei’s liking, as they suggested to conclude today’s grinding session just as he deemed that it was time to log off. They gathered up to leave the level 50 grinding map together, feeling very satisfied with their accomplishment today. “What time are we meeting tomorrow?” everyone asked Gu Fei.
“I am just a substitute…” Gu Fei said instead.
“Come together with Royal, please! You’re also grinding for levels, anyway!” all the ladies pleaded.
“I am used to grinding alone—”
“What’s fun about grinding alone? Please come!” The bunch of ladies surrounding Gu Fei was adamant, cajoling, “We’ll bring different kinds of fruits for you! You just need to be present!” One of them even said, “You like bananas, right? I’ll bring more for you tomorrow.”
“Am I a pet that can easily be swayed by bananas alone?” Gu Fei laughingly asked.
“There are still apples, peaches, and pears besides bananas… Which ones do you want?” the ladies answered with a question.
Gu Fei explained to them patiently, “Look. I’ve been a member of Amethyst Rebirth from day one... When did I ever grind with the other members before?”
The veteran guild members turned silent, and only the four newcomers curiously asked, “Why is that?”
“Because I’m used to grinding alone—”
“What’s fun about grinding alone?” They went back to that same question.
“Oh, great hero, Miles, don’t be so small-minded! Take all these women under your wing!” Luo Luo finally spoke.
Gu Fei did not say a word. He had always been grinding alone not because he was opposed to grinding with others but because nobody wanted to grind together with him. When he first started the game, he thought of grinding together with Fireball. However, Fireball valiantly declined his offer, not wanting to depend on Gu Fei to level up easily. He also learned that the other five members of Young Master’s Elite never grinded levels together after joining that mercenary group. As for his Amethyst Rebirth’s guildmates, they previously did not welcome his presence with such enthusiasm like right now. Since he also usually went to high-level grinding maps, the chances of him making new friends or meeting new people in those maps devoid of other players were virtually non-existent. All sorts of reasons led to Gu Fei grinding by himself all this time, but he definitely did not do it to get used to becoming an independent expert like Sword Demon and the rest.
Had it been the typical Gu Fei, he would not have rejected the ladies’ request, especially after seeing how enthusiastic they were to grind levels with him. Right now, however, Luo Luo’s sudden transformation into someone who was infatuated with him frankly left him quite shocked.
“What? Could it be that you are afraid of me?” Luo Luo smilingly asked.
“What’s there to be afraid of? I’m just not used to getting preferential treatment from a Priest,” Gu Fei answered lightly.
“Then, get used to it!” Luo Luo remarked.
“See you tomorrow,” Gu Fei said.
“See you tomorrow,” Luo Luo said as well.
All went their separate ways once they arrived at Yunduan City, either heading to the log-off points or going to do their personal matters. The level grinding session’s end did not mean that everyone would get offline. Out of consideration for people who worked and slept at regular hours, guilds and mercenary groups would do their joint activities during the peak hour of the game – from the time after dinner until the time before bed. The really large-scale or lengthy activities would only be conducted during the dead of the night when the ‘normal people’ were fast asleep.
Gu Fei saw Young Master Han, with eyes brimming with vigor, exit Ray’s Bar as he passed by it. “Hi!” he greeted.
“Time to work,” Young Master Han greeted Gu Fei with a liquor-induced burp and headed to the direction of the city gate. This one was obviously among those with irregular lifestyles that would energetically do their businesses once others were sound asleep.
Gu Fei headed to a safe zone to log off.
He had more free time the next day, so he logged into the game earlier than usual. He had a lot of idle time before the peak hour arrived, so Gu Fei hung Moonlit Nightfalls on his back and flashily wandered the streets, hoping to encounter a few robbers. In the end, his effort was in vain. Most players were law-abiding; even if they saw some top-grade equipment, they would at most fantasize about owning it inwardly and would never actually try to steal the item. As for those who would do such felonious act, they began walking on a more rational path after Parallel World’s release to the public. Although they could see that Gu Fei’s Moonlit Nightfalls was top grade, they would not hastily steal it without uncovering its traits through the Appraisal skill first.
Top-grade equipment referred to an item that possessed strong traits, which had obvious edges over the weak traits of regular equipment. If the traits of an item were lousy, then that particular equipment would be nothing but lustrous trash. Those who wanted to rob equipment would never do so for collection purposes; since equipment-looters were either thinking of using the equipment themselves or selling it for money, none of them would of course steal equipment that they had failed to appraise. Killing a player for his or her particular equipment to drop was not an easy task, after all.
Gu Fei inadvertently found himself arriving at Ray’s Bar after roaming around and failing to attract any robbers. He went inside and greeted Ray who pointed him toward the mercenary group’s usual private room. This gesture meant: “Someone from your group is inside.”
Gu Fei walked inside and indeed saw one member, Royal God Call, writing by a corner!
“What’s the matter? Bringing homework to do in-game again?” Gu Fei asked.
Royal God Call lifted his head at Gu Fei’s words before lowering his head to continue what he had been doing, “I’m writing the secret manual for Mages!”
The legendary ‘Mages’ Secret Manual’ was supposed to be written by Royal God Call, but it turned out that he had merely promised to write one on a whim. Royal God Call previously bringing Gu Fei along to buy stacks of booklets and pens caused the latter to mistakenly assume that the former was about to seriously write the manual. When Gu Fei inquired about it several times afterward, Royal God Call always put it off as another day’s work. A month later, Royal God Call resorted to putting up a blank look on his face and pretending to not know about it whenever Gu Fei brought up the issue, so Gu Fei eventually stopped expecting anything about it from Royal God Call. Thus, Royal God Call resuming his initial plan today made Gu Fei think that he had eaten something wrong. Gu Fei picked one booklet up, casually flipping through it before dropping it down. He asked, “How’s your ‘Bounty Mission’ going?”
Royal God Call’s expression dimmed, answering, “I managed to kill three, but the fourth one is on hiatus.”
“What happened?” Gu Fei pressed on.
“My target has many companions, so I dared not make my move.” Decision-making was an important quality expert gamers like Royal God Call had; when experts were faced with an unwinnable situation, they would oftentimes refrain from making a move. “What would you do if you encountered a situation like that?” he asked Gu Fei. Since players usually grinded together with others, Royal God Call firmly believed that Gu Fei had likely stumbled upon a situation like his more than once.
“Make my way over there and kill the target,” Gu Fei answered simply.
“Sh*t! That only applies to you!” Royal God Call felt foolish for asking such a question. Gu Fei’s circumstance was clearly different from the rest of them. Putting his ability to insta-kill his opponents aside, Gu Fei was a super melee expert, and many methods applicable to him were simply not doable for them. “It’s impossible to consecutively complete ‘Bounty Mission’ for one hundred times at this rate!” Royal God Call exclaimed in anguish.
“Want me to help you?” Gu Fei asked.
“How can you help?” Royal God Call asked with eyes wide open.
“By accompanying you, of course! I’ll slightly reduce your target’s HP, and then you can settle everything by shooting the target from afar!” Gu Fei replied.
“This...This...” Royal God Call stuttered, shocked. It was not that the idea was not good, but that it would waste a huge amount of Gu Fei’s time. Since the final objective of doing the ‘Bounty Mission’ was to get Royal God Call the reward, Gu Fei himself would not gain anything from helping him out. Even biological brothers were not necessarily willing to help each other like this, right?
“What is it?” Gu Fei asked while looking at him in a puzzled way.
“Bro, you are a real brother to me!” Royal God Call was moved to tears.
“You brat! That’s very rude! Call me your uncle!” Gu Fei scolded.
“If you manage to get me the boots, I’ll even call you grandpa if you want!” Royal God Call threw himself at Gu Fei, saying, “Let’s go! Let’s go!”