CHAPTER 7 – DAGGER MAGE

In Demon Domain, Ghost Blade could be considered to be rather famous. He had single handedly formed [Against the Gods] which many players had tried extremely hard to join. Once stating that he would move on to Parallel World, a mass of players had immediately responded and declared that they were willing to follow him. Those from his guild that had come along with him had obviously continued to treat him as their leader.

Who would’ve expected that upon entering Parallel World, their character’s appearance would reflect their appearance in real life. Ghost Blade’s true appearance was extremely simple and crude and contrasted vastly compared to his glorious character in game. The contrast was so big, that many players couldn’t accept it and at once, more than half of the players indicated that they would rather play alone. Although originally there were a handful of pretty girls that regularly circled his side, with just a glance from afar, anyone could see that none of them had appeared. At last, the original group of a thousand men had been reduced to a mere fifty people there were still willing to follow him.

The fickleness of human friendship left Ghost Blade in bitter disappointment. Finally, he decided that he wasn’t willing to give up as he was still a first-rate player with extraordinary gaming abilities who had obtained many achievements. He had already secretly determined to reclaim his glory and make the name [Against the Gods] resound throughout Parallel World.   

Currently, his first goal was to become strong. However, he almost immediately realized that he was no longer able to utilize his advantages. This was because in this simulated environment, his way of operating was completely obsolete. His original mouse and keyboard manipulation, his two ghost hands, were already completely useless. As a first-rate player, however, he understood that he could make up for any disparity by understanding the intricacies of the game. Luckily, fortune seemed to favour him as the game’s public beta test had closed down for upgrades after only half a day, giving him some time to readapt to the game. Utilizing that time wisely, he was able to obtain a lot of information about the game, so much so that he was very familiar with the game characters’ different fighting styles. Thus, when the game’s public beta test reopened, Ghost Blade, once again filled with confidence, entered the game.

Not even a day had passed and he had already risen to Level 25! Normal people were incapable of imagining the exhaustive effort and sweat that he had invested into the game already. As easy as this game might look, it really wasn’t.

It was a given that the very beginning of a game was the best time to level up. Ghost Blade definitely would not miss this opportunity to surpass his companions in level. He hadn’t even wasted any time bringing other people with him, which was why he wasn’t in the beginner levelling area with the other members of his guild. It wasn’t until Gu Fei’s move, that had swept three men away to rescue Fireball, that his guild members had hurriedly sought contact with him.  

After listening to the detailed description from his comrades, Ghost Blade was filled with doubts. Having fully familiarized himself with all the skills in the game, if he were to firmly theorize, then this kick of Gu Fei’s appeared to be similar to the warrior class’ skill [Curved Swallow Flash]. However, that was a high levelled skill that a character could only learn after reaching Level 54. How was it even possible for someone to have already hit Level 54? Moreover, these few comrades of his hadn’t even surpassed Level 10 yet. So, how was it possible for Gu Fei to use a skill against his opponents that were still under PK-protection?

Thus, he had hurriedly returned to the beginner levelling area where he assembled his guild members, after which they had set off to search in the direction the two had left in. His reasoning for chasing after them wasn’t at all to seek revenge over the boar, but rather to make them understand their “place” in this game.

Unfortunately, Fireball had poked at his sore spot. It was the easiest way to provoke his fighting spirit, and Fireball had accurately done so. Ghost Blade ferociously stared at Fireball before glancing at Gu Fei and asking, “What level are you?”

“Level 10,” Gu Fei replied.

“Very good!” Ghost Blade nodded, “I, alone, will face the both of you. What do you think?”

“Fuck! I am only Level 1. Level 1! What level are you?” Fireball shouted.

Gu Fei also copied Fireball and replied, “That’s right! He’s only Level 1, so you can’t PK him.”

Ghost Blade laughed at this reply. He never intended to PK these two players, he just said it so that they wouldn’t fight back. Who would have thought that at that moment Gu Fei would continue, “So it should be okay with just me alone.”

Ghost Blade opened his eyes wide and glared as he even started to doubt if his ears had just heard those words correctly, “What did you say?”

“Why? Didn’t you want to PK us?” Gu Fei answered his question with another question.

With Gu Fei throwing his own questions back at him, Ghost Blade was no long able to back down. Of course, he wasn’t afraid but rather felt that this was a bit pointless. Never in a million years would he have expected that his first battle would be with some puny Level 10 Mage. He couldn’t help but feel he had fallen really low this time.  

For now, however, Ghost Blade found no reason to refuse and could only nod his head and exclaim, “Good! Very Good!” He looked around and saw that next to the pond by the hillside was a rather large open space. Pointing in that direction, he inquired, “Is that place okay?” This would be his first time PKing in Parallel World, so he thought that it would be courteous to express that he would look for an open, stable ground to fight on.  

On the other hand, Gu Fei was completely indifferent as he simply nodded and walked to the open space.

Fireball quickly followed beside him and said in a low voice, “You are crazy! You don’t even know what level he is and are going to fight him?”

“What does that have to do with it? If we can battle it out, then we will!” Gu Fei smiled.

On the open space beside the pond, two people stood still. Behind Ghost Blade stood his followers, all of whom were extremely nervous. They trusted in him, which was why they had proceeded to follow him muddle-headedly. However, if he would be unable to show a glorious show this time as he had done so often in the past, then perhaps this would illustrate a lot of his current problems.

Behind Gu Fei stood Fireball who was currently absentminded. He was currently gauging the pond’s depth and was searching for a place where he could draw support from after falling into the pond. He felt that Gu Fei did not have the odds of success. Who was Gu Fei’s opponent? Ghost Blade, the number one player in the world of online games. As long as he set foot in an online game, there was not a single game where he was not the pinnacle of existence. Demon Domain? That was merely one magnificent point of his supremacy amongst his many pinnacles in online games.

“Let’s start!” Gu Fei said as he slightly lifted his Mage’s robe up and grabbed a dagger that hung on his waist.

“A dagger?” Ghost Blade was startled. This person was clearly a Mage!

Certain skills in the game were mass-oriented. To get the skills all one had to do was to pay some money and the skill would be learned, regardless of their class. [Identification] was one of these skills. Its function wasn’t just to identify equipment; it could also a player or monster’s class and level.  

As the extremely experienced online gamer he was, the first moment he could, he had learned the [Identification] skill. The moment he had spotted these two he had already used this skill to inspect them. From that, he had received the basic information that both of them were Mages and their respective level, but because his [Identification] skill wasn’t of a high enough level, he wasn’t able to see what kind of equipment was hidden on the other party’s bodies. As such, the moment Gu Fei pulled his dagger out, surprise was plastered on his face.

“So this guy is actually just a newbie.” Ghost Blade shook his head, feeling pitiful. His first fight was actually with a dagger-armed Mage and really wasn’t worth mentioning.  

He then conveniently pulled out a weapon from his waist, which was surprisingly a similar looking dagger! However, his class was a Thief, a class that excelled in the use of daggers.

“Please!” He thought that with this kind of opponent, if he seized the opportunity to attack first, it would be really inhumane.  

“Please!” While holding the dagger, Gu Fei suddenly cupped one fist in the other hand toward him. Seeing this, he couldn’t help but become somewhat distracted, and while he was puzzling over what had just happened, Gu Fei had already advanced forward and stabbed toward him.

“So fast!!” Ghost Blade was greatly shocked. With his research of the game, one glance told him that Gu Fei had most likely added his stat points to Agility. A Mage increasing his Agility… this was surprisingly not completely uncommon as he had seen them do it before. However, those wishing to increase their dodging capacity by relying on high Agility required a high level combined with exceptional equipment to support it. One could argue that to create a character in such a fashion a lot of time was needed.   

Moreover, in other games, many players had reached the highest level, allowing them to research the game before taking advantage of such a possibility. However, with regards to Parallel World, on one hand it was a new game and everything still had to be explored. While on the other hand, it was a game in which a person could only have one account, meaning that even if a person made one error or encountered other causes for error, their character would be disadvantaged as these errors could currently not be corrected. So, even though Ghost Blade was already Level 25, the number of points added was only equivalent to a level ten player. Before he finished researching and clearly setting out a good plan of action for his stat points, he wouldn’t risk using them.  

However, this agile Mage, in Ghost Blade’s eyes, was just an extreme existence. While analyzing his opponent, he was also hurrying to the side dodging as Gu Fei directly stabbed at him.

Unexpectedly, Ghost Blade’s reaction was exceptionally quick, this time without delay, Gu Fei saw him move his body as he immediately performed a backhand flip.

However, Ghost Blade who could train a pair of demon-like hands also did not conceal his reflexes. He withdrew his body in an agile motion and this movement of Gu Fei’s had also been dodged by Ghost Blade. Not thinking whether Gu Fei’s attack had finished or not, Gu Fei took the opportunity to turn his body that had been lifted up into the air. His back was now facing Ghost Blade as he passed a dagger from under his armpit, actually stabbing towards Ghost Blade once more.

At that moment, Ghost Blade was still assuming a half-squatting position from dodging that last swipe of Gu Fei’s hand, but when Gu Fei turned around to strike, his dagger was actually pointed at Ghost Blade’s forehead. Right then, there was no time to dodge. Ghost Blade was completely like an ordinary person and in the face of the attack, had unconsciously raised his hand to protect his head, resulting in the dagger in his hand and the one Gu Fei had thrusted to mutually intersect. With a sharp sound, Ghost Blade took a few step back and pulled away from Gu Fei.

Both their hearts were indefinitely undulating.

Gu Fei did not expect that his opponent would be able to dodge his three attacks. It wasn’t like they were just randomly thrown.

“Tai Sui*” — “Teasing Wei**” — “Yaksha***”

It was a set of refined dagger techniques with each stroke aiming at a vital part. The technique was also brought from real life into the game. Gu Fei originally did not dare to use the three strokes – if one was not careful, it was certain that a life would be wiped out with them.

Even imagining it a thousand times, it was unthinkable that he would lose. Although Ghost Blade didn’t practice martial arts, his reaction speed was very fast. In addition, his added Agility stat in the game was the deciding factor. Because of the characteristics of his job, his speed would obviously be somewhat faster than Gu Fei’s. Ghost Blade made him realize something: in reality, only a kung fu practitioner could achieve high speed, but in the game, as long as they could add points, anyone could achieve a higher or faster speed.

He never thought that he could actually encounter a situation in the game that would even be impossible to happen in reality. This, however, filled him with happiness.

……