VRMMO: Passing of the Sword

“Go back.” Blue Maple sounded like he was trying to get away as quickly as possible.

“Yes.” White Cherry nodded gently as she answered, a faint smile remaining on her pretty and pale face.

Blue Maple lifted his hand, and a single speck of blue fire submerged into White Cherry’s body. White Cherry was a little confused, but Blue Maple gave an explanation afterwards.

“I have no scroll. You should go back first, so that I can lock onto my location.”

“Oh.” White Cherry activated her teleportation scroll obediently as she tried to mask a different kind of emotion in her eyes.

Teleportation scrolls couldn’t be stacked, so typical players only stored only a single scroll in their backpacks to save some space. Any place that sold supplies for battles would always sell teleportation scrolls, and players wouldn’t forget to buy one.

However, Blue Maple always forgot to buy one. He could always use Heavenly Fire to transport himself back in case he forgot, so he didn’t think about getting a teleportation scroll back to Gong Liang City.

But White Cherry was a Priest, and typically a supporting player, so she actually had several extra teleportation scrolls in her backpack. She chose not to tell him because Blue Maple’s position lock wasn’t so that he could teleport himself next to her, but so that he could make sure where she was, so as to avoid her…

Perhaps Blue Maple would return once again, but he didn’t want to be here at this moment. She also didn’t want to try all these anxious separations, because White Cherry could tell from Blue Maple’s eyes that he was trying to escape…

Even though she didn’t know what he was escaping from, she knew that the next time she would see Blue Maple after she activated her teleportation scroll was when the cherry flowers blossomed.

White Cherry was enveloped by the light from her teleportation scroll, but she turned back and glanced at Blue Maple in the moment right before she was about to return to the city. That was her goodbye, and she still had that faint smile on her face, her almond-like eyes that were curved into beautiful moons.

So you could still tell in the end… Blue Maple could see White Cherry’s goodbye when he saw the slight smile on her face as she left.

Blue Maple didn’t have any friends and he was always alone, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know anything about human interactions. Perhaps, there were some things that he truly didn’t know anything about. For instance, he didn’t know anything about true love…

I’ll submit my quest first, and then I’ll return to my original city… Blue Maple suddenly froze as his thoughts stopped there, and his expression became a little unnatural.

What’s the name of the city I was in? He had made a really big mess this time...

The cold, sharp winds messed up Blue Maple’s fringe and revealed the left eye which had remained hidden beneath it. His long blue cloak swayed in the furious winds, and he was truly a mess in the wind…

Blue Maple started to contemplate moments later.

Seems like I forgot to purchase the teleportation scroll back to the original city. Otherwise, I could see the city’s name on the scroll… His idea wasn’t going to work.

The Mercenary Union should know which city I accepted this quest from. After all, the Mercenary Union in that city gave me the quest card. Yes, I shall go back and inquire. Blue Maple found a more plausible solution. He had always been meticulous, and would take some time to think about things once he started paying attention to them.

If the Mercenary Union doesn’t know… should I try and ask that idiot? Blue Maple suddenly thought about Blue Snow, because she was the only friend that he had added.

Forget it. It’s a lot more peaceful by myself. Blue Maple changed his mind. After all, he was more used to the peace and quiet when he was alone.

I can tour around Europe if everything doesn’t work. The Mercenary Unions should know cities within the European region. Blue Maple recalled his motivation for switching cities. He wanted to move between cities anyway, because staying in the same city was boring.

The game didn’t have very detailed border and region differences before Rank 90, which was before the fourth class advancement. The game’s structures and buildings were all based on ancient European styles, and there wasn’t much to differentiate them. A Japanese Rank 3 Main City could likely be beside a European Rank 3 Main City; the only way to distinguish between these cities would be how the NPCs were dressed and the players within each city.

Novice Village was initially governed by European cities, but there were far too many Chinese people, and it was changed to a Chinese appearance impromptu. The NPCs’ conversational language and appearances were switched, but the location names and whatnot were not changed in time.

During this period, if two countries’ cities that were at odds bordered each other, nobody would care if they started fighting. Nothing much would happen as the game allocated hit points to players, and players couldn’t truly kill each other. Things would be different if two countries truly had bad blood and intensely hated each other, or it wouldn’t be necessary to separate the cities. However, the game’s designers typically separated countries which were at war or really hated each other.

Once players reached Rank 90, and after at least half of all players entered four Rank 1 Main Cities, meaning four country-level Main Cities, then those four Main Cities would start fighting one another. Four Main Cities would be picked afterwards, and a leader chosen before they would form an alliance with other races against the Demons.

Frankly, the infighting was all for training, as players were the ones fighting each other. They would just die a few more times at most, and lose some hit points.

That was the game’s rough arrangement, but Blue Maple didn’t look through the details. He was just here to spend five years, and he didn’t see why he should care about all that.

The four Main Cities were respectively located in Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa. They were separated according to how the continents were shaped. It didn’t matter which region’s Main City players chose to go, but players typically chose regions where their own countries were located.

But other countries were more uncertain. For instance, Chinese and Japanese players, who belonged to Asia, or Russia, which belonged to Europe, might not stay in their country’s region.

Things would be considered pleasant and fortunate if they weren’t fighting, let alone staying in the same region…

The African Region was a little special. African countries headed to that region, and most people from cities within the Chaotic Region also chose to go there. There were few citizens from the Chaotic Region who could immigrate, but that didn’t mean there were none. Therefore, the African Main City could be considered an extremely mixed and multicultural region…

Blue Maple didn’t know where he would eventually go. He could go to any region, as he didn’t belong to any sovereign country. However, he probably wouldn’t head to the African Region due to language barriers, and wouldn’t be very comfortable even though the system could translate for him.

Blue Maple knew a little of the Egyptian language, but that wouldn’t be a reason for him to go there.

I shall just return to the Mercenary Union to submit my quest, Blue Maple thought to himself as he started channelling his Heavenly Fire’s spatial teleportation capability.

Heavenly Fire emerged from his body and covered his entire body. There was nothing fancy about this, and the process was quickly completed, just like it was with a teleportation scroll.

A dash of Heavenly Fire vanished from the graveyard, and the only marks showing that Blue Maple and White Cherry had been there were quickly covered by the falling snow.

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Moments later, inside Gong Liang City’s Mercenary Union...

A bluish sphere of Heavenly Fire suddenly appeared in the center of the Mercenary Union’s hall. Everyone turned their attention to the blue fire which had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Their first reaction was wondering why the blue fire seemed so familiar...

They had seen a video about this terrifying blue fire a few hours ago, and it would be strange if they didn’t find it familiar.

Perhaps many people didn’t recall this blue fire’s identity when they first saw it, but they started to do so when the blue fire gradually swelled and expanded, and Blue Maple’s silhouette appeared within the flames. Everyone except for hermits and players who didn’t look at the forums knew what was happening.

Players from the Yamato Guild immediately covered their guild’s marks as they ducked into the crowd in fear.

Shit, revealing their guild’s mark in front of this devil was equivalent to asking for death. Blue Maple could scorch the entire guild with his blue fire!

Everyone else also moved aside timidly. Blue Maple had taken on more than seventy players all by himself, and he fought them all at the same time. He managed to kill around fifty players, and scared away the remainder!

This wasn’t like how he fought multiple players across several rounds back at Novice Village. Several dozen players had showed up at the same time, and typical players would be sent back to be revived. The reason why there weren’t videos of Blue Maple’s feat at Novice Village was the old man’s doing; he had used his authority to prohibit players’ private recordings.

Blue Maple appeared within the dissipating flames, and knew what was happening when he witnessed everyone’s reactions. He didn’t have to think for more than a moment for him to know that someone had secretly filmed him.

Blue Maple didn’t care about it, because he was either touring the European cities or going back to his original one after this. He didn’t think that leaving a strong impression in the Japanese region would concern him anymore.

White Cherry should have collected quite a small fortune, because she had been picking up items and equipment that Blue Maple didn’t want along the way. She would probably have an easier life after this. At least, men wouldn’t try to pick on her anymore, while the women would probably only gossip.

Every country had their own private forum, so videos typically only circulated within their own country. Blue Maple’s original city was under Chinese governance, so recordings that concerned him were circulated and broadcasted on the Chinese forum. Thus, almost no Japanese players knew about him before this.

The “blue fire” was an important part of this video, so there was a certain connection with the previous recording, and resulted in the Chinese forum finding about this episode. Of course, the Japanese forum also viewed Blue Maple’s previous recordings.

Therefore, the Japanese forum coined a title for Blue Maple: Bluefire Devil…

This title did fit the description of a person who had unleashed blue Heavenly Fire across the sky…

Blue Maple walked towards the information desk as everyone stepped aside obediently. Blue Maple thought to himself, Having some reputation is beneficial after all. At least, I don’t have to queue at times like these.

“Quest submission.” Blue Maple directly handed his quest card to the NPC behind the information desk, before he inquired about the city that he had taken this quest from.

“May I ask which city posted this quest?”

“I’m sorry, sir. We only recognize quest cards, and we don’t know which city posts them. We will only know which city is responsible when they come to collect processing fees with their records.”

“Then, you should know which European cities are nearby.” Blue Maple couldn’t return to the city that he had been in, so he decided to tour some other cities, which was his initial intention in the first place. He felt that Japan wasn’t suitable for him, and wanted to return to somewhere he was more familiar with.

The female NPC, who was dressed in a kimono, answered in a friendly tone,“If that’s the case, then Aika City is a European city that’s relatively nearby.”

The system did give the NPCs information that we can ask for, Blue Maple thought to himself after his guess was proven right.

“Here, sir. This is your reward.” The NPC processed Blue Maple’s completed quest as Blue Maple was asking her questions, and handed over his reward.

Blue Maple placed his reward directly into his backpack. The system automatically allocated additional space for players to store and retrieve rewards if their backpacks were full.

A circle of blue light would spring out for players to take a look, but Blue Maple didn’t even look as he closed it immediately and left. He never cared about the rewards from his completed quests, because his intention was just to use quests to travel between cities.

It’s time to find another city.

Everyone inside the Mercenary Union heaved a sigh of relief when he exited the building.

The Bluefire Devil has finally left…, everyone thought. Nobody wanted to be burned by this fellow…