The Archer was truly devious for coming up with such a stratagem. While the others merely trailed behind Gu Fei and June's Rain after overhearing the two's talk about a nearby treasure chest, this person had actually taken a vantage point and readied himself to snipe the players from afar. Such an action nauseated Gu Fei.
Gu Fei's plan of action was to perform a sneak attack on this Archer personally, giving him a taste of his own medicine.
The wind was still howling so the sound of the rustling grass hid Gu Fei's footfalls. He lowered himself onto the tall grass and shimmied forward, his eyes not once leaving the Archer's figure. The person jogged up a small path on top of the hill, immediately drawing back his bow and staying still once he finished changing his position.
That's a pretty good move! Gu Fei was very impressed. The Archer seemed like a masterful hunter awaiting his prey with immeasurable patience. This was actually beneficial to Gu Fei, however. If the Archer had been someone unprofessional and was busy looking all over, he might have already been discovered!
Gu Fei slowly made his way closer to the opponent with his steps being masked by the wind. When he finally arrived right behind the Archer, the person had yet to discover his presence and was still rigidly staring downhill. Gu Fei casually followed his gaze and saw the treasure chest on top of that tree stump, as well as the spot where Fei Lian and him were previously huddling among the tall grass.
Gu Fei revealed a sinister smile as he raised his magic staff high and brought it down heavily on the target with a whoosh.
The whooshing sound finally alerted the Archer that something was off behind him. But before he could turn around, the magic staff had already struck him right in the neck artery. The neck artery was an acupuncture point, so not much force was needed to induce a state of unconsciousness by hitting it. It should be possible to do something like rendering a person unconscious in this VRMMO given how realistic it was. Nevertheless, there existed a possibility that the strike Gu Fei had landed would be calculated using the game algorithm, which meant his Strength might not be enough to cause an opponent to faint. As such, Gu Fei quickly threw in a kick as well after the Archer took the blow to the neck, with the intention of knocking him down and allowing Gu Fei to better shaft the opponent all over his body.
The Archer was standing just at the edge of a slope leading downhill. Although he swiftly reacted to the sound of movement behind him, he was still slower than Gu Fei who had already caused him to fall and roll down the hill with a kick. His head slammed into the trees multiple times as he rolled down. Gu Fei was worried that the Archer would turn into an idiot by the time he finished his roll downhill. Yet, he was more worried that his inertia of rolling down the hill would cause him to fall straight into the lake. He quickly pulled out his friends list and contacted Xiaoyu, "Someone's coming. Catch him."
"Who?" Xiaoyu asked.
"The person that shot you," Gu Fei said.
In the next moment, Xiaoyu's head peeked out from the tree stump as Gu Fei waved his hands at her. Seeing that she had no reaction, he quickly sent another message, "Just stand there and wait. He's coming soon."
With that, Gu Fei hastily began to make his way downhill.
Xiaoyu stood by the tree stump and looked about. In no time, she spotted something rolling toward her from up the hill. Is that the one Miles was referring to? Xiaoyu focused and tried to identify what it was. Once she confirmed that it was a person, she hopped over and stomped her other leg on that rolling body and finally stopped it. She sent a message over to Gu Fei, "Got him."
The person who got stomped on had no reaction at all. It was apparent that his trip downhill had caused him to faint after his head forcefully met too many trees along the way.
"Okay!" Gu Fei messaged back as he kept running down. Xiaoyu was looking toward his direction and when she saw a figure making its way over, she blurted out in shock, "There's still another!"
June's Rain had just taken that Snipe from before. Even though she had rested while hiding behind the tree stump, her HP had yet to recover fully. Meeting another enemy at this juncture would be very disadvantageous. Fei Lian had seen the movement from his side as well, so he immediately got up from the bush he had been hiding in. Now that Xiaoyu saw she had assistance, she immediately shouted without even caring who the person was, "Come quick! There's still someone here!"
Fei Lian was naturally surprised as he quickly took out his bow and rushed out. Upon seeing that there was a figure rushing down the hill, he let loose an arrow.
Gu Fei was already close enough to make out the two's faces and was about to call them. He did not realize that they could not see him clearly due to the poor lighting the trees provided, resulting in Fei Lian sending an arrow straight at him.
Gu Fei hurriedly dodged to the side, while reaching out with his hand and catching the arrow. He shouted in exasperation, "It's me!"
"Oh!" Xiaoyu recognized Gu Fei's voice and quickly stopped Fei Lian, "Don't shoot. He's one of us."
Fei Lian did not even think of letting loose another arrow as he froze in place. He had not considered the possibility of someone having the ability to catch an arrow in flight!
Once Gu Fei got out of the trees, he met up with the two and passed the arrow in his hand back to Fei Lian. He smiled toward them and said, "It's over."
Fei Lian rigidly took the arrow without another word. Xiaoyu did not even note these details and was only happily cheering, "Treasure chest! Treasure chest!" She went ahead and hugged the said object, "We've finally completed the quest."
"Quest?" Fei Lian blinked in realization.
"Yup. This is our guild quest; retrieve the stolen treasure chest," Xiaoyu picked up the treasure chest high up in the air.
Fei Lian's face revealed a look of dejection. Had he known that it was a quest item, he would not have wasted so much effort in fighting for it! However, he remembered his initial ill intentions, If not for the Archer's assault that caused me to work together with these two… As Fei Lian thought up to this point, he involuntarily retreated a step.
Gu Fei did not seem to hold a grudge against him. As for Xiaoyu, she was a simpleton so she had long forgotten about the matter. In the end, these two did not even bother with his existence. Seeing that they had no intention to fight him, he heaved a sigh of relief and looked at the player under Xiaoyu's feet.
This person was an Archer just like him, except he was decked out in top-grade equipment. Fei Lian gulped audibly.
"Fei Lian, aren't you an Archer? Why don't you check to see if there's any equipment on him that you could use?" Gu Fei asked.
"What?" Fei Lian was absolutely taken aback by this, Did I hear it right? Although the two were not Archers, this was still top-grade equipment they were talking about! They could easily loot the equipment, sell each in the market, and take the profit to purchase their own top-grade equipment!
Fei Lian stared at Gu Fei and Xiaoyu, yet the two had not even bothered to reply to him.
Xiaoyu was busy inspecting the treasure chest she was holding, trying her best to open it.
"Why can't I open it?!" Xiaoyu complained as she raised the chest and bashed it against the tree stump a few times.
"Stop bashing it. Let me have a look," Gu Fei went over to her and helped as well. Fei Lian was stunned. Did these two really care that little about the top-grade equipment and were alright with leaving everything to him?
Xiaoyu had already kicked the Archer to one side. Fei Lian carefully knelt beside the body as he took another look at them. They were still busying themselves with the chest!
Fei Lian finally felt at ease and boldly searched the unconscious Archer's body, taking a hold of that bow right into his hands first.
"Maybe there's no way to open it right now since it's a quest item," Gu Fei could not find the mechanism that might open the chest after spending quite some time on it. After his explanation, he turned to see Fei Lian searching the Archer's body.
"Wait…" Gu Fei said.
I knew it! Fei Lian fumed, You should've just told me up front that you didn't want to share the loot! Why even let me experience a moment of happiness when you didn't intent to make it last! You clearly wanted to torture me first. I was even starting to think you're generous! Fei Lian was pissed off, but in the end the spoils did not belong to him. Having no say in this, he could only step aside as his face darkened.
"This guy, I know him…" Gu Fei grimaced.
"Ah?" Fei Lian was surprised.
"Royal God Call," Gu Fei said.
"That name sounds familiar…" Fei Lian was after all an experienced player.
"He played Mages before," Gu Fei said.
"Oh, yeah! You're right!" Fei Lian nodded, "So that famous person is actually this guy?"
Gu Fei nodded.
"Let's wake him up first! Xiaoyu, carry him over to the lakeside," Gu Fei said.
"Why couldn't you do it yourself?" June's Rain was still busy tinkering with the treasure chest.
"As if I can do it," Gu Fei laughed forcefully. Saying this sentence made him feel ashamed. It's all this game's fault! Gu Fei had to console himself with this thought.
"Hmph. Fine, I'll do it," Xiaoyu walked over proudly, carrying Royal God Call with one hand and asking as she made her way to the lakeside, "You said you know this guy?"
Why is this girl's train of thought late by a beat?! Gu Fei nodded as he lamented in his head.
"Then why did he shoot us?" Xiaoyu asked.
"Maybe it's a misunderstanding. Let's just wake him up first." As the three got to the lakeside, Xiaoyu threw Royal God Call onto the ground and Gu Fei splashed the unconscious man with lake water. Fei Lian suddenly thought of an important question, That Royal God Call actually fainted?! How did Gu Fei manage to do that? There was currently no skill that could cause a fainting state. Even if there were, the game's faint status and a human that fainted were two separate things altogether. The former should only result in the player entering a trance.
Royal God Call finally woke up with that splash of water. He immediately rolled away once he recovered; his hand had already taken ahold of his bow and nocked an arrow. At this same moment, the water that had entered his nose made him sneeze a couple of times.
"Chill. It's me," Gu Fei said calmly.
"Ah, Miles!" Royal God Call recognized Gu Fei.
"What happened?" He kept his bow ready as he stood up. He raised his hand to rub his head full of sore bumps. Even the strike that landed on his neck had caused lingering pain.
"Could it be the level 36 Thief skill, Bludgeon?!" Royal God Call was suddenly at a loss. Even him who spent his days and nights rushing to level up had not reached level 31, and yet there was someone who had apparently reached level 36. It was preposterous!
"Ahem…" Gu Fei coughed once and ignored Royal God Call's exclamation. He asked instead, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm doing a quest to protect that treasure chest," he said as he saw Xiaoyu hug the item. He laughed bitterly, "What's the point of hugging it. It's just a quest item. There's nothing inside it. Only players who have received the quest to snatch it back would have a use for it."
Xiaoyu did not let go of the treasure chest even after hearing his words, and she held on to it even more tightly.
"It couldn't be that you guys…" Royal God Call was stunned.
"Just what is going on? Do the quests in this game force two groups of players to kill each other?" Although Gu Fei did not have much experience with playing online games, he knew that there were not any in-game quests – except for guild wars and such – that would forcefully put players together in a PvP scenario.
Just as Gu Fei finished his sentence, Xiaoyu exclaimed, "Crap! Sis July and Sis Luo Luo are dead!"