VRMMO: Passing of the Sword

What was Blue Maple doing on top of the mountain at midnight? Of course, he wasn’t there to just enjoy some night wind. He was there to avoid people and attention.

Blue Maple thought, If Heavenly Fire can be materialized into any physical form, such as a sword or a shield, then can I materialize them into a pair of wings?

Even though I won’t be able to control my wings to fly, I can still stretch them into gliding wings. Will I be able to glide through the air, then? Yes, that’s very likely. This is a game half-based in reality after all, so I might just be able to do that. Furthermore, Heavenly Fire is so versatile.

Blue Maple had discreetly attempted to materialize a pair of wings during the day, and discovered that he could. That was the reason why he had run up the mountain at night.

Players starting returning to the city one after another when the sky turned dark after 7 PM. The players who were strong enough to wander around outside when the sky was dark were probably all drawn away by the auction, but Blue Maple didn’t take that fact into account.

Blue Maple just knew that it was almost 11 PM at night, and felt nobody should be out farming or training… and realized he was probably right, as training at night was next to impossible. Even Blue Maple carefully tried to avoid wild monsters, as players had relatively poor night vision.

Why haven’t I reached the cliff? Blue Maple was an idiot, and still hadn’t bought a map. He saw a cliff on this mountain from afar, and then he tried to find his own way over…

Blue Maple was still looking for the cliff in the dark when the auction was dispersing.

“White Cat! Come out, you shit!” The Crazy Woman, Berserk Overlord’s howling voice immediately appeared once the auction ended. Yes, she was howling...

“Ahem! Sister Berserk, I’m here. What do you need me for?” White Lion scurried over from one side carefully.

“White Cat, tell me right now; were you the one who lent money to Red Wine, that retard? Eh?!” Berserk Overlord stomped up to White Lion when she saw him and grabbed his collar as she asked.

“Ahem. Why would I do that? How could I offend you, Berserk?” White Lion was relatively calm.

“Oh? Then explain to me how Red Wine, that bastard, bid on more things than I did? How did he have so much fucking money at the end? Where did he get all that money, if you didn’t lend him ten thousand coins?” Berserk Overlord appeared like she was going to eat White Lion up.

“Calm down, ma’am. You are a guild leader after all, and image is very important. Why don’t you consider putting me down? I’m just a tiny advisor, and I can’t take a beating. Don’t worry, I didn’t lend a single bronze dollar to Red Wine.” White Lion sounded very confident as he insisted that he didn’t lend out a ‘single bronze dollar’, because all he lent were gold coins.

“You didn’t?” Berserk Overlord had a doubtful expression on her face. She expressed a lot of disbelief as she released White Lion’s collar.

“Yes, absolutely. Don’t worry.” White Lion was finally dropped to the ground before he slapped his chest confidently.

“Oh. Then show me the remainder of your balance.” White Lion thought he had dodged a bullet when Berserk Overlord suddenly made another request.

“Ahem, yes, that. Mao Mao has some of the money, and he’s transferred them back to the guild leader. In the end, the guild leader is temporarily responsible for funds and whatever. I should go try and level up.” White Lion was a tactician after all, and quickly found another excuse to bullshit his way through.

“Hmph. That better be the case. If not, I’ll chop you into pieces the next time I see you!” Berserk Overlord declared ferociously before turning and leaving.

Wew. The crazy woman is gone. But why is this crazy woman so easy to deal with today? White Lion watched her leave and heaved a sigh of relief.

White Lion knew that Berserk Overlord would look for trouble with him, but he couldn’t run, and he had to stay to calm her down. After all, anybody could guess that White Lion was the one who had lent the money, except she didn’t have much to say without a proper reason. Even then, he still had to try and calm her down, because otherwise she really would chop him into pieces when she saw him again. White Lion had no doubt about that; this crazy woman was well-known for being unreasonable.

“Yo, what’s wrong with our little cat today? He looks like he’s got PTSD.” Dusk’s mocking voice travelled into White Lion’s ears.

“Why did you back away when the crazy woman appeared?” White Lion hit back mercilessly. Dusk and the others who had been here did indeed back away when Berserk Overlord’s thunderous voice appeared, and White Lion happened to see it.

“Uh, I forgot something, and I went back to get it.” Dusk couldn’t really defend himself after he knew he had been caught.

Paris Red Wine appeared at this moment and said sarcastically, “You guys were having a great conversation. Why aren’t you fighting it out?”

“Someone’s in a good mood after winning a bid for a set.” White Lion didn’t continue bickering with Dusk.

“That’s right. I’ll get people to have a look tomorrow, and we’ll take out the Boss once it’s refreshed.” Paris Red Wine was in a good mood. He had managed to get Gold-tier set pieces after all, and the highest tier for sets was Gold!

Dusk retorted unpleasantly, “As long as you don’t let the Boss take you out instead!”

Paris Red Wine laughed heartily. “Haha, how can that happen? Even a single person can accomplish that. How can an entire guild fail?” He didn’t mind what Dusk said.

“A single person? You know who that is?” Dusk asked both suspiciously and surprisedly at the same time.

“Roughly. One of our Chinese subordinates accidentally came across a Chinese forum’s video and guessed, because this player’s equipment and items are very recognizable. He doesn’t have any armor, and he only wears a long blue coat.” Paris Red Wine wasn’t idle during the auction. He had sent someone to check, but he didn’t give that player the screenshot of Blue Maple while he was present at the auction.

“No armor? How did he kill the Boss, then?” White Lion was also doubtful.

Paris Red Wine was also in a bit of disbelief as he replied, “Why don’t you guys check it out yourselves? I haven’t seen the video, either. But from his tone, I think he’s trying to say that this player doesn’t need any armor!” Red Wine also wanted to see the video.

“Tsk, tsk. He doesn’t need any armor? I really want to meet someone like that.” Dusk licked his lower lip, and appeared fascinated.

“Oh? Is that right? Let’s not discuss how you’re going to take on a Rank 50 Boss by yourself, first. Why don’t you try taking on seventy of the Yamato Guild’s men all by yourself? You also have to remain uninjured after being ambushed by Ghost Spike, and kill him instead!” Paris Red Wine hadn’t seen the video yet, but his subordinates had already told him some things. The Thief who had ambushed Blue Maple in the final moments was the Yamato Guild’s strongest Thief: Ghost Spike!

“This player did all of that?” White Lion couldn’t keep his cool anymore.

“I don’t know. My subordinates told me everything. But you guys have to know that we had quite some interactions with the Yamato Guild during the civil war, so this information is unlikely to be wrong.” Paris Red Wine also didn’t want to believe this reality, because that player would truly be frightening!

“What happened to the Yamato Guild’s seventy players?” White Lion asked that very important question, because nobody really had any Skills at this point. Someone could possibly turn around to kill Ghost Spike, but there were seventy players! Each one of them using just one Skill would undoubtedly be enough to stone someone to death!

“Not many people died in the beginning, but that player seemed to use some terrifying fire to instantly kill more than forty players at once! Everyone ran away after he turned around on Ghost Spike to kill him. Even my subordinate seemed rattled when he was describing everything.” Paris Red Wine’s expression was serious.

White Lion and Dusk went silent temporarily.

“I should go back and search for this video.” White Lion decided to go back and find out about this. After all, this player was in the European region!

“Yes. I should, too. I’m going back then. Goodbye, fellows.” Dusk had the same thought. Everyone felt unsettled with such a powerful player in their own region. They wouldn't have much fun if one of their subordinates provoked or offended this player!

“Alright. Goodbye, everyone. We’ll probably meet again after establishing a guild.” Paris Red Wine also bid his farewell to White Lion and the others.

“I wonder which guild is going to be established first?” White Lion smiled faintly.

“Hmph. The Fire God Guild will definitely be first.” Dusk sounded very confident as he spoke.

“The Red Wine Guild will be first.”

“That will definitely be the Lion Guild!”

-------

Everyone dispersed after their wrangling and went back to see how formidable that player was. The person responsible for these series of events was still wandering around aimlessly amid the night’s cold winds.

The cliff should be here. Blue Maple still hadn’t found the cliff, but he was confident that it was in this area.

The winter night’s cold winds were unnaturally sharp and biting, but Blue Maple didn’t feel much. It wasn’t because Blue Maple had adjusted his senses to a lower setting, but because he possessed Heavenly Fire. Heavenly Fire would be quite useless if it couldn’t even keep him warm!

Blue Maple finally saw the vast and limitless night sky before him; he had arrived at the cliff.

Blue Maple stepped closer to the edge. Everything was pitch-black over the cliff, and the chilly gusts billowed his long coat until they crackled. There was no moon or stars in the sky, and the night sky was as black as ink. Blue Maple could only see an obscure silhouette of the towering mountains in the distance, yet he was just standing by the edge so calmly, like he didn’t know how to be afraid.

Everything was dark before his eyes; he didn’t know what was beneath the cliff. There was only darkness all around him, while the biting winds continued gusting incessantly. Blue Maple couldn’t see Aika City from his location, which meant he couldn’t see a single inch of light from all the households in the city. However, Blue Maple had seen during the day that there was nothing beneath this cliff, or on the other side.

The wind direction doesn’t seem very suitable for gliding. Blue Maple was still thinking about that problem at this moment; he was actually going to jump down from this cliff, where nothing could be seen. Blue Maple was truly unstoppable when it came to things he was interested in.

Blue Maple summoned Heavenly Fire as he stood before the cliff’s edge. Blue fire gradually emerged from behind his back, and continued stretching out from behind his back into a pair of huge blue wings. These enormous wings were at least seven meters long when fully extended, and their dark-blue color was very eye-catching atop the cliff in the night sky.

Blue Maple attempted to flap his wings, and realized that his giant wings only swayed slightly and couldn’t generate a flying motion. He would only be able to use his wings to glide.

I should just try. I will just drop a Level if I fall to my death, or I can glide back. Blue Maple was very open about dying in the game, because the player didn’t truly die, and would only drop by one Level.

Blue Maple would become the first person in the game to fly if he was successful. More accurately put, he would be the first person to glide. If he was unsuccessful, then he could be the first person to commit suicide or die from falling off a cliff. Even then, there could be someone else from the three hundred million other players who was even more suicidal than he was.

Blue fire enveloped Blue Maple as the wings formed with Heavenly Fire behind his back flapped gently. Even though they couldn’t be used to fly, the faintly flapping wings could still allow him to move or change direction when he was gliding.

Blue fire continued circling Blue Maple as he glanced at the darkness before him. He took a calm step forward, bent down, and leapt!

Anybody watching from afar would have seen a dash of blue light falling from the cliff at that moment.

I can control my wings like controlling a hang glider and ride the wind… Blue Maple had played around with hang gliders before. Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have dared to challenge such a high cliff so late into the night when visibility was so low.

Blue Maple stabilized himself, and started gliding through the sky!

A blue figure that resembled a shooting star blazed across the winter night’s dark skies.

Blue fire formed a long trail of flames, drawing a beautiful arc across the night sky…