《What?! The Gamemaster And The Top Player Are Dating?!》


 Chapter 1 - Happy Gaming!

    Humans are the most intellectually advanced creatures. Their brains are possible of things far more than what they normally use them for. Some use their brains to create miracles and some limit their use by confining themselves behind a word called ''impossible''.

    As the years went by, technology started to develop more and more.

    In 2021, the gaming world saw an evolution and while the economy was going through a crisis, the gaming industry started to bloom. More and more people started to join this trend, some were successful and others just didn''t have the talent needed.

    In the year 2030, when everyone thought they''d be able to invent flying cars, in reality, they invented something far more fascinating.

    Virtual Reality Games.

    Not just the old internet games that you''d play to pass time with friends. These VR games were the new and improved versions that were no longer even comparable to their ancestors.. They provided the real gaming experience to the players who instantly became addicted to it.

    Gaming became a famous profession and the top gamers became celebrities.

    In 2032, when everyone thought that the games couldn''t get anymore crazier, there came a new game that changed it all once again.

    T.I.A.D.

    "With the release of the new VR RPG: T.I.A.D., the gaming world has been going insane. People are basically screaming, ''Take my money! All of it!''"

    "The game became an instant hit among the youth and it was all due to its marketing strategy. On the first day of its release, the gaming company made an announcement: Whoever completes the final level of the game first would win a cash prize of $1,000,000. Yes, you read that correct, 1,000,000 dollars!"

    "Who, in the world, would be able to fight that temptation?"

    "At the end of the day, money rules the world. From gamers to non-gamers, from children to adults, from males to females; everybody has been trying their luck."

    "People are connecting together from all over the world, just to see, who is going to emerge victorious and take home that 1,000,000 dollar reward."

    "But so far things are not looking so simple. To win the game, you have to beat the Gamemaster, but the main problem is that no one knows the identity of this person and even if they did, how are they supposed to beat him in his own game?"

    "At the moment, there is an official scoreboard for the top ten players of T.I.A.D."

    It is filled with 7 pro-gamers and 3 anonymous newcomers:

    1. Mastermo

    2. Yingli

    3. Hulk0_0

    4. BBtrash

    5. Kaze17

    6. Jiangshi

    7. Richlord

    8. Andyzz

    9. loudbitchnextdoor

    10. T-Rex101

    "At the top of the list is the renowned pro-gamer, Huang Zhihao, also known as ''Mastermo'', who at the moment, seems to have the highest chance to win that cash price, and following closely behind him is actually a newcomer to the gaming world, Yingli, but unfortunately, our knowledge of this new gamer is limited but seeing as how Yingli has already secured the second position, I wouldn''t be surprised if this name makes it to next year''s pro-gamers list."

    "In fact, Yingli isn''t the only newcomer this time. It seems ''Jiangshi'' and ''Andyzz'' are also on their way to securing a position in that list."

    "I feel like we are witnessing yet another gaming revolution this year with all these new and talented gamers suddenly emerging from the shadows."

    "Yes! And the big question is"

    "Just who is going to win that one million dollars?"

    "People are even showing their enthusiasm by placing bets on these top ten players."

    "Let''s read through some live comments we have here."

    "Oh! Don''t do th-"

    [Mastermo for the president!]

    [If Mastermo kills me in the game, I''d say thank you (>u<)]

    [Choke me! I love him!]

    [I like the game for its plot. Mastermo is the plot (6~6)]

    [This game is honestly the best RPG I have played.]

    [I''m sad to see you guys not mentioning Trash. My baby deserves better fufufu~ (ToT)]

    [I''m a multi fan. I want them all.]

    [When life gives you lemons, make a lemonade for Mastermo.]

    [^ And pour the lemonade over him.]

    [^ He''ll become sticky and sweet.]

    [^ We can lick]

    [^ You guys! Stop your perverted thoughts! But... cough~ cough~ I can lick if he wants me to.]

    [Is this a licking competition cause me wants to join.]

    [Anyone else who got the team notification in T.I.A.D.?]

    [ajhasgduiehfasnbhfiaaj]

    [Notice me senpai!!!]

    [I''m a trash fan but I feel bad for Mastermo. If he ever reveals his face, he is going to get attacked by a group of horny teens.]

    [^ I''m one of those horny teens (T~T)]

    [Lol don''t attack him, he''s also a human.]

    [I highly doubt he''s human.]

    [This comment section is so wild... I love it!]

    [I''m a simp for this man!]

    [You guys need holy water... Give me some too (T~T)]

    "Umm.... So anyways..."

    "Hahahaha... My money is on Mastermo."

    "Mastermo is certainly in the lead right now, Kevin, but we can never tell what''s going to happen in the future."

    "Who are you gonna bet on?" Kevin asked.

    "Me? Mastermo, of course. I''m actually his secret fan." The other man snickered

    "Secret fan? Which account are you using to leave such comments?"

    "You think I''m going to tell you?"

    "So you do agree that one of them is you?"

    "Maybe. Who knows?"

    "I guess all we can do now is to wait and watch."

    "Maybe, I should also download the game and participate..... For, you know... Research purposes."

    "Bullshit! You don''t stand a chance among those pro-gamers."

    "Well, I can''t argue with that. With Mastermo on board, I don''t think anyone really stands a chance."

    "Now you''re just being biased to him. Be careful, Dev, your fanboy side is showing too much."

    "Tune in to our channel for daily updates. We''ll be covering this whole story from start to finish. This is your anchor, Kevin and Dev, live from the studio."

    Huang Zhihao scrolled through his phone as he read through the comments of the Livestream. The first comment made him shake his head, and the second one made him laugh while the third one caused him a headache. These people were just too crazy for him to handle, and he wasn''t very comfortable with all the attention he got.

    He scrolled through the comments for another few more minutes till he finally gave up and closed the tab. He didn''t mind it and in fact, by this time he should have gotten used to such comments, but it still made him want to dig a hole in the ground and hide from the embarrassment.

    He placed his phone aside and cracked his knuckles, stretching his hands as if he were going for a sports competition. He put on his VR headset and logged into a game. His face which would always look rather cold and stern suddenly had a hint of softness to it. His lips curled up in a slight smile as his fingers wrapped around the gaming console.

    His headset suddenly boomed to life as he heard an electronic voice, "Welcome back, Mastermo."

 Chapter 2 - Meeting Mastermo

    "Big Brother! Big Brother! You are at the top of the list!" The young boy, around the age of 16, exclaimed happily as he watched the news playing on the TV screen.

    "That''s a given. Aren''t you underestimating me too much?"

    "Hehe.. Not at all. I totally believe in you, Big Brother." He smiled cheekily and kept on staring at the other with sparkling, hopeful eyes.

    This look made Zhihao grow self-conscious, "What''s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

    "Nothing. I''m just really looking forward to seeing you grab that prize money."

    "You!" Huang Zhihao seemed to understand his brother''s intentions, "Did you also place a bet on me?!"

    "Of course not!"

    Zhihao sighed in relief as he thought ''I have taught him well. There''s no way he''ll do such a thing.'' but before he could completely relax, his brother continued, "I hired somebody else to place a bet on my behalf."

    With bulging veins of anger, Zhihao tried to maintain his composure and forced out a smile, "How much?"

    "Just one-tenth of your prize money."

    "One-tenth of my pri-" Zhihao could no longer continue the sentence, his eyes going wide with realization, "That''s freaking one hundred thousand dollars!"

    "Yeah! But don''t worry. If it''s you; I''m sure we''ll win both the prize money and the bet. It''s a win-win situation. Do you know how much the expected return money for the bet is?"

    "You''re gonna tell me anyway so out with it." Zhihao sipped at his cup of coffee in annoyance.

    "Half a million dollars!" The boy exclaimed proudly.

    Zhihao choked on his coffee as he heard this, "These crazy gamblers! A-Zhen, listen to your big bro and take back the bet."

    "Why?" A-Zhen whined, "Are you not confident enough? If you can''t win, then nobody else in the world can."

    Zhihao took a napkin and wiped the corner of his lips before standing up and leaving without bothering to respond to his brother. He was glad his brother looked up to him so much, but in the end, he was also afraid of breaking those expectations.

    "B-Big Brother! Wait for me!" Huang Zhen yelled as he grabbed his jacket and tried to catch up to his brother, but clumsily ended up tripping on the way and had to constantly apologize to the girl, whose dress was now completely stained with cake frosting, thanks to him.

    Zhihao, on the other hand, never looked back and kept on walking towards his apartment.

    On the way there, He got a notification from T.I.A.D.

    [Please confirm your team members as soon as possible in order to level up!]

    [Warning: You cannot enter the next stage without a team!]

    [Warning: You only have 46 hours remaining to form a team!]

    [Warning: If a player fails to find a teammate, the player would be demoted to the starting level.]

    Zhihao clicked his tongue in annoyance. One had to know that Mastermo was famous for being a loner, the one time he had ever tried to form a team was during the early days of his career and the experience did not leave a good taste in his mouth. He preferred playing alone and hated games like this that forced players to team up, but this time he was even more annoyed because he actually enjoyed the game and wanted to win, but if he was forced like this, with a warning that he''ll be demoted? He was annoyed enough to kick the roadside trash bin, but maybe today just wasn''t his day as the trash bin flipped over and littered the ground. Being a civil citizen who cared about the country and the environment, Zhihao now had to pick it all up.

    As he was picking up the trash, his phone rang with an oddly upbeat tune of some game intro. His phone was connected to his Bluetooth earpiece so thankfully he didn''t have to touch it with his dirty hands; he was a stickler for neatness and cleanliness a.k.a. A Neatnik.

    With a trying-to-be calm tone, he picked up the call, "Hello!"

    "Yo! My boy Mastermoooo!" Just from hearing that over-enthusiastic voice, Zhihao could make out who it was, "Reigning currently at the top, how does it feel?"

    "Like always. Unlike some people, I usually am on top."

    "Come on man! Don''t be sour. I''ll let you top me anytime both in-game and outsi-"

    "Yeah, no thank you." Zhihao cut him off mid-sentence, "Just cut to the chase."

    "Look honey, I know you also got the notification right? And you have nobody to team up with? Well, guess what, you''re in luck cause I have decided to help you out. So how about it, partner? I''ve sent you a team invite, could you just gladly accept it quickly."

    "You sent me an invite? Let me check."

    "....."

    "...."

    "Sugar, did you just decline my invite?"

    "Yeah."

    "But why???" the man whined

    "Too busy at the moment."

    "Doing what?"

    "Picking up trash... And.... Talking to trash about trash."

    "Have you gone senile, dude? Talking to trash? Kekeke..... Wait! But you''re talking to me!"

    "Bingo! Now hang up. I don''t wanna lose any more brain cells on you."

    "Are you sure about that Mo? If you don''t team up with me, I''m teaming up with that Yingli or whatever, you know that newbie who holds second place."

    "Are you threatening me?"

    "Why? Are you scared we''ll beat you? Oh! Sorry, without a team, you''ll be demoted anyhow, so who am I to care?"

    "....."

    ding~

    The call ended as Zhihao hung up on the guy nicknamed BBtrash, who was another pro-gamer, currently holding the 4th position on T.I.A.D., He wasn''t a friend neither a foe, he was just an annoying pesky guy. Zhihao was beyond annoyed at this point and was nowhere near done venting, but he didn''t get the chance to.

    "Let me help you." A voice came from above

    "Ah?" Zhihao looked up at the elegant face of the man who had offered to help and was stunned for a good couple of seconds.

    "Handsome brother, what are you looking at?" the stranger smiled, his eyes forming two soft crescents, his cheeks tinted light pink and his whole face brighter than Zhihao''s future.

    "Ah! T-Thank you." Zhihao stuttered, his eyes glued to the tiny mole under the man''s right eye, "It''s my fault actually. I didn''t mean to knock it over, but I was just really mad and couldn''t control myself." He felt like a fool, why was he suddenly explaining all this.

    The man chuckled in response, "You seem like a good guy, Mr.?"

    "Oh! Zhihao. Huang Zhihao. You can just call me Zhihao or Mo, my friends call me Mo or Zhi, my parents call me A-Zhi" If he could, he''d want to slap himself for talking nonsense. What friends call you Mo? You don''t even have friends.

    "Nice to meet you Mr. Zhihao. I''m called Li Ling."

    "Li Ling. Li... Ling... Plum Spirit*? That''s a beautiful name."

    *Li means plum and Ling stands for spirit/soul hence Zhihao was interpreting the meaning of his name

    Li Ling chuckled as he thought, ''What a really cute gentleman''

    After 20 minutes of picking up trash together with Li Ling, Zhihao had finally completed cleaning the mess he made and unexpectedly enjoyed it for the first time in his life. The pair decided to head towards the nearby public restroom in order to wash hands and because Li Ling felt it was such a waste, he invited Zhihao to have a cup of coffee with him. Even though Zhihao had already drunk a cup on his way over, he still couldn''t bring himself to decline the offer or more like he didn''t want to and so he gladly agreed and they went to a cafe together.

    "Um... Please forgive me for not saying much. It''s not that I''m uncomfortable or anything, I just hardly ever interact with people." Zhihao felt like he had to apologize for some reason.

    Li Ling smiled, "It''s okay. I don''t usually do this as well, so I don''t know what to say at such moments so let''s just not worry about it."

    "Ah! Thank you. I know you''re just saying that to make me feel better. You totally look like the social butterfly type, especially around the face."

    "My face? What about it?" Li Ling chuckled, teasing Zhihao.

    "It''s just really... Likeable."

    "Likeable? Is it according to your preference?"

    "Of course! I mean, of course, I like it, but not like like, not like that type of like, but you know the I''ll-never-get-bored-looking-at-that-face type of like. Sorry I don''t usually suck at talking this much."

    Li Ling smiled, "I like it too."

    Zhihao sipped on his coffee as he tried diverting eye contact, "If I had a face like that, I''m sure I would''ve liked it too."

    Li Ling titled his head, looking quite amused at the man''s reactions, "Not mine, I meant you, your face. I like it too. You''re really handsome Mr. Zhihao"

    And��for the second time that day��Zhihao choked on his coffee and Li Ling chuckled in amusement.

    "I''m sorry for teasing you, Mr. Zhihao."

    "It''s okay. I get this a lot." Zhihao responded awkwardly

    "You get teased a lot?"

    "Ah not like this, but some colleagues like to call me flirty names." Zhihao didn''t seem to notice the faltering smile on Li Ling''s face as he was too busy looking at his own fidgeting fingers, too scared to meet the eyes of the gorgeous youth. "They think my reactions are somewhat amusing?"

    "By any chance, could this colleague be BBtrash?"

    "Not just him in specific but-" Zhihao was suddenly shocked, "Huh? How do you know him?"

    "So it was that piece of trash. Who else?" Li Ling leaned in, interested in the topic.

    "Who are you? And how do you know me? Am I being stalked right now? Are you my stalker?" As Zhihao spoke, he thought: It wouldn''t feel so bad to have such a good looking stalker, but he still shivered at that thought.

    Li Ling chuckled, "Please don''t be alarmed, I''m not stalking you or anything. I''m just a fan of Mastermo."

    "You can''t be just a fan? How did you recognize me?"

    "Well, truth be told, I''m a long time fan, so I just recognized you by instinct."

    "By Instinct? What if I wasn''t Mastermo?" Zhihao looked at him with suspicion.

    "Well, it doesn''t hurt to take a chance, does it? And it seems my instinct led me straight right to you so I guess I''m really lucky." he smiled.

    "Ah! That''s kinda scary."

    "Do I scare you?" Li Ling asked innocently tilting his head.

    "No! Not you! I meant the situation. Hehehe" Zhihao chuckled awkwardly, "I don''t usually interact or meet up with my fans, the thought kinda scares me."

    "Now let''s get back to the topic. Who are the colleagues that tease you?" Li Ling narrowed his eyes

    "Ah!" Zhihao waved his hands, "It''s really nothing."

    Li Ling didn''t respond.

    "If you''re my fan, could it be that you are a gamer as well? Or maybe a gaming enthusiast?" Zhihao desperately tried to change the awkward topic.

    "I''m just a small gamer, not even worth mentioning in front of you."

    "I''m not that great myself, just learning as I go."

    "Don''t be so humble. Aren''t you the top player of that new RPG? You''re really awesome."

    "Hehe..." Zhihao was embarrassed

    "By the way have you found a teammate yet?" Li Ling asked enthusiastically.

    "A teammate? Not yet."

    "Then..." Li Ling fiddled with his fingers as he nervously asked, "Would you consider taking me as your teammate? I''m not that good at the game and I might even make it more difficult for you and drag you down but please consider it. I really want to be on your team."

    "I appreciate you wanting to be my teammate, but unfortunately I''m really not-"

    "I can help you find the Gamemaster! That''s for sure."

    "Huh?"

    "The Gamemaster! Although I''m not good at the game, I can still help you with finding the Gamemaster."

    "How do you know the Gamemaster? Do you know the Gamemaster?"

    "I do. I came to know him by mistake, but yes, I know the Gamemaster."

    "Be my teammate."

    "Huh?" Li Ling looked kind of taken back by the sudden response from Zhihao whose eyes seemed to be sparkling at the mention of the Gamemaster, "Of course. Let''s become a team."

    "Thank you!" Zhihao beamed. Gaming brought out a really different side of him. The stuttering embarrassed Zhihao seemed to turn into a completely different confident and enthusiastic adult, "Since we wouldn''t have any other members, we''ll be a pair. Maybe partners?"

    "Yeah, partner sounds great." Li Ling responded after recovering from the initial shock.

 Chapter 3 - Mastermo Has A Secret Lover

    "Hello! It''s your anchors, Kevin and Dev, live from the studio, where we have bought you sizzling news from the new and hot RPG; T.I.A.D."

    "I have to say, yesterday night was pretty damn big and eventful for us and all the gamers out there who are currently playing this game."

    "I think T.I.A.D. just keeps on bringing more and more content for us. Thanks to them, our viewer''s rating has increased significantly."

    "Exactly! Now let''s not further waste any more of their time and get straight to the topic.. I can''t wait to tell them what happened."

    "Of course, Kevin. Three days ago, every T.I.A.D. player got an important notification from the game; teaming up of players became mandatory, the players were given 48 hours to choose their teammates and failing to adhere to the time limit given meant level demotion."

    "Yesterday night, posted on the official notice board of T.I.A.D. was the list of teams made by the players, and just a few minutes after posting that, they posted another list of players who were demoted to the starting level of the game because they didn''t form a team on time."

    "And the total number of players who were demoted was....."

    *drumrolls*

    "Sixty-eight thousand four hundred and seventy-six players."

    "Yes! You read that correct; 68,476 players who had painstakingly managed to level up were demoted back to the 1st level with all of their accumulated T-points taken away from them. This caused a lot of commotion among the players who were just mad at the company''s decision to do such a thing."

    "Personally, I think that''s understandable, if I were to be one of those players, I''d be mad too."

    "But that''s not all, is it? Yesterday night, when the list of teams were posted, another fandom belonging to a particular pro-gamer caused a huge commotion. Can you guess who it was?"

    "It was none other than the fans of our top player, Mastermo."

    "Yes! His fans have been going crazy with no sleep as they saw his name on the team list. Mastermo is famous for being a solo gamer who does not team up with anybody under any circumstances and is so skilled that he, alone can win against a whole team. But after all these years, finally due to this decision from T.I.A.D.; he was forced to make a team and get a teammate."

    "If him making a team wasn''t shocking enough, get this: His teammate is a new gamer with the nickname ''Devilmagiclover'' who is ranked 17,850 in the game."

    "After hearing the name, fans started speculating that this new player may actually be Mastermo''s secret lover and the fandom blew up with all sorts of rumors flying out."

    "The discussion heated up so much so that, Mastermo had to address it himself, he posted a message stating that this new gamer, ''Devilmagiclover'' was actually a male fan whom he had recently met and became friends with."

    "But the fans still could not calm down, just a few minutes later, the comment section blew up with anger as they cursed at this new gamer; claiming that, his rank was too low and that he''ll drag their idol down. Now I don''t necessarily agree with this cause for a game that has nearly 2 million players, 17850 seems like a pretty good rank to me."

    "But it did not end there. Just a few hours later, Mastermo posted another message to his fans stating that his fans need not worry about him and can just sit back and watch him win that first place."

    "Now I don''t know about you, but that sounds hella confident to me."

    "Which brings me to my next point; Why is Mastermo suddenly so confident when just three days ago, he was humbly telling us not to make any assumptions so soon?"

    "As his secret fan, I am delighted to see him be so confident."

    "This confident gaming king had won the hearts of his fans with that one sentence, but all does not seem to be well as fans who stan other pro-gamers are criticizing and slandering, Mastermo, calling him conceited, selfish, rude and disrespectful."

    "We can see where those fans are coming from, but about this... We really can''t do anything."

    "All that''s left to do is to wait and watch."

    "Now, it''s time for the last piece of information, we have brought you today."

    "Let''s take a look at the teams that are currently ranked on top as the most anticipated teams that could win."

    "Coming up at the top is, none other than the team formed by the pro-gamer, Mastermo and Devilmagiclover."

    "The second most anticipated team is formed by the pro-gamers, BBtrash and Hulk0_0. Another pair."

    "Now the next team is a team consisting of four members, all of whom have been listed on the top ten ranked players. The team members comprise two pro-gamers: Richlord and T-Rex101 and two newcomers: Jiangshi and Yingli, who are on their way to becoming pro-gamers."

    "These are the three, top-ranked teams. Now, although we can''t say anything for certain, just from the looks of it, I personally think they have the most chances of winning that 1 million dollars, especially Mastermo."

    "Spoken like a true fan, Kevin. Please do tell us in the comment section down below: Who are you gonna bet on?"

    "Once again, thank you for all your support."

    "Coming live from the studio, this has been your anchors, Kevin and Dev, bringing you the hottest news on the super hit RPG: T.I.A.D."

    Zhihao had his phone switched off since last night due to it blowing up with notification sounds. Not only were his fans going crazy, but so were his so-called colleagues, especially BBtrash who had alone sent him more than 100 messages. For an antisocial person like Zhihao, this was like a nightmare.

    After a good night''s sleep, which was much needed in a pro-gamers life, Zhihao finally decided to switch on his smartphone. The device hadn''t even been switched on for more than a mere few seconds before it rang up with that familiar upbeat ringtone.

    Zhihao picked up the call, already annoyed after seeing the caller ID, "Hello!"

    "Yo, Mastermooo! Heard you got a little lover to play your teammate hehehe..... And you even posted that comment saying you''ll win, now I know you''re not the type to just say that randomly so I just have to ask. What makes you so confident, darling?"

    "My confidence....? You can say it''s because of my partner."

    "Woah! What''s this? Is my little Mo crazy in love? kekeke..."

    "Shut your nonsense, trash, I don''t have time for that."

    "Of course, as expected of my sugar. But I''m sure, you''ll have time for what I''m about to say next."

    "What?"

    "You probably muted your notification and didn''t check my messages so you have no idea, but T.I.A.D''s notice board posted something. We are entering the new stage."

    "I''m hanging up."

    "Wait, you li-"

    ding~ the call ended abruptly as Zhihao hung up on him.

    Zhihao instantly checked through the game notifications and finally found the notice without much difficulty.

    On the official notice board of T.I.A.D, written in huge shining letters was:

    [Get ready teams! Interact with your partners and get to know them more for better cooperation as we''ll now be entering the next stage of T.I.A.D.]

    What exactly did this mean? Zhihao had no idea. It could be anything. The game was new and not much information about it to go around. But no matter what it was, when Zhihao read that he''ll be entering a new stage, he was ecstatic and couldn''t contain his emotions as he automatically messaged his teammate.

    A few minutes passed but he didn''t get a response from Li Ling a.k.a., Devilmagiclover*

    *Devilmagiclover- The character Mo used in Zhihao''s nickname, Mastermo means devil''s magic, hence, sneaky Li Ling uses the nickname Devil magic lover and that is why everybody automatically caught on and called him Zhihao''s secret lover, but Zhihao is yet to figure out the hidden meaning behind his nickname as he misreads it as Devil mage clover.

    Zhihao didn''t lose hope as he kept his spirits up and anticipated a reply, but an hour passed and still nothing. He finally gave up on waiting for a text and straight away decided to call Li Ling.

    It rang for a few minutes, but nobody picked up. Zhihao still didn''t lose hope as he called for the second time. Thankfully, Li Ling picked up the call just after Three rings, his voice sounding a bit tired, "Hello! A-Zhi?"

    "Huh?" Zhihao was stunned for a second when he heard the endearing name used for himself.

    As if having just woken up, Li Ling corrected himself, "I meant Mr. Zhihao. Ummm..... What''s up?"

    Hearing the drained voice of Li Ling, killed the excitement in Zhihao, for some reason, he was deeply worried about this man, so he asked, "Li Ling, What happened to your voice? Are you okay? Are you sick?

    "Don''t mind me, I''m just a bit sleep deprived." Li Ling immediately replied.

    "Why? What happened? Don''t tell me, is it because of my fans?"

    "Your fans?" Li Ling didn''t understand what he meant.

    "I''ll apologize on behalf of them. They didn''t really mean it. They are actually pretty nice people so please don''t take them too seriously." Zhihao thought that Li Ling hadn''t slept because of the backlash, them teaming up together, brought to the man.

    "You don''t need to apologize. I don''t even know what you''re talking about. I didn''t get sleep because I was working." Li Ling half lied, he would never tell Zhihao the truth; that the main reason he couldn''t sleep was that he was too excited after finally getting to meet Zhihao.

    But thankfully, Zhihao believed him without a doubt, "You should take better care of your health. Work can wait."

    "Thank you, Mr. Zhihao."

    "...."

    "Now, why did you call me? Don''t get me wrong, I like getting your calls, but I''m sure you had a reason? You sounded pretty enthusiastic."

    "Ah! Forget it, It''s nothing important." Zhihao lied. Anything and everything that had to do with gaming was extremely important to him, but somehow for the first time in life, he didn''t want to bring it up and instead, was completed worried about Li Ling''s health. "And...."

    "And?" Li Ling questioned.

    "If you want..... You can keep calling me that." Zhihao blushed, his ears a color of red roses, he was too embarrassed.

    "Calling you what?" Li Ling didn''t understand and even if he did, he would not believe himself and would just brush it off as his wishful thinking.

    "That... What you called me earlier." Zhihao wanted to dig a hole in the ground and bury his head in it like an ostrich.

    "What I called you?" Li Ling asked innocently but Zhihao misunderstood it as the man teasing him.

    "A-Zhi..... You can call me A-Zhi! Would you look at the time, It''s getting late. Good night!" Zhihao hung up, his whole face completely red. What ''It''s getting late, good night?'' It was currently 1:00 in the afternoon and the sun was glaring from atop the sky. Zhihao didn''t know why he did that, but he suddenly remembered that when he heard Li Ling calling him A-Zhi, his heart did a freaking flip. He still felt it beating so loud that it could jump out of his chest at any moment. He was slowly going crazy��was his diagnosis of the situation.

    On the other hand, Li Ling still held the phone close to his ears, completely stunned. The realization hit him late, but just as it did, His face turned as red as Zhihao''s embarrassing state. He buried his face in his hands and peeked at the photo on the caller ID. "A-Zhi..." he mumbled. "Uhhhh..... So cuuuute." he threw himself on his bed and buried his face in the pillow, screaming at it.

    *A-Zhi: The character ''A'' used is a term of endearment/ a very informal manner to call somebody/ showing familiarity.

 Chapter 4 - Mastermo Went On A Hot Date

    T.I.A.D.: [Welcome to the new stage! Congratulations to all the players for making it so far. From now onwards things are only going to be more difficult, so we hope you can all take this time to appreciate how far you have come.

    Now we''ll officially be starting the elimination stage. We wish all the best to all the players, may luck be on your side.]

    Zhihao had mixed feelings. In the beginning, when he heard about the opening of the new stage, he did not dare assume anything but even if he did not want to, it was not as if he didn''t have some expectations and one of those expectations just so happened to come true; this new stage was going to be an elimination stage. Zhihao''s guess was based on the fact that the players were forced to make teams and those who failed the task was demoted back to stage one; No other game had ever done such a thing, obviously because they were afraid of the retaliation from the players, there was no way they''ll just sit still and take it. But T.I..A.D. did it nonetheless, proving that the last thing they cared about was the feelings of their players. And just after doing such a big thing, they also announced the opening of a new stage, hence Zhihao had a vague guess that there would be elimination rounds in the future.

    An elimination stage at this point made complete sense and the reason it was needed was simple; T.I.A.D. just had too many players.

    The message on the notice board may seem vague but it had given players quite a number of hints. One being that this was not the only stage they''d see and as they advance, new, unknown stages would open up before them and with every stage, the elimination rate of players would keep increasing. Another clue was how the message ended with a, "may luck be on your side.", Games like these had nothing to do with luck unless you were to stumble upon the Gamemaster and kill him by mistake. This game was all about skills and understanding, how much do you understand the game? What do you think is going to happen in it? How much do you trust your abilities? And the most important question for a gamer was, Would you be able to handle an unexpected new challenge that contradicted your guesses?

    Zhihao felt like he was overthinking but to him, overthinking was good. At least like that he''d be able to rule out all the future possibilities. He felt like there was a particular reason the word ''luck'' was used. Maybe they''ll be given a mission based on luck? If so, what could it be? Roll-the-dice? No, it couldn''t be that simple. Zhihao had a crazy thought; What if it was completely based on luck? Something like eliminating players randomly? But that theory was too far fetched. The main reason the elimination stages existed was to filter out the unskilled players from the skilled ones. With continuous elimination stages, the players who''ll enter the final stage could all be considered worthy players. So Zhihao ruled out that dangerous idea of random elimination.

    Just as he was making up new possible scenarios, his thoughts were interrupted by a game notification.

    [Congratulations on entering the new stage, Mastermo! We''ll now be starting the elimination round. Please check your team mission board to see your first assigned mission as a team.]

    Zhihao immediately contacted Li Ling through the In-game calling feature. To access the team mission board, all the team members needed to be present.

    Zhihao enthusiastically asked, "Did you see the Notice?"

    "Isn''t that why I''m here?" Li Ling asked sarcastically.

    On both of the player''s screen, a message popped up. A shiny golden letter shaped icon with a ''click to open'' written on it.

    "A-Zhi? Do you wanna do it?" Li Ling asked.

    Zhihao was embarrassed when he heard the name. Although he had given Li Ling permission to use that name, he didn''t completely expect this man to use it, however, he did kind of wish he would. But now his heart couldn''t adjust so fast; It did another flip and the vague question asked by Li Ling did not help calm his heart at all. "S-Sure!", Zhihao replied, stuttering.

    Zhihao clicked on the golden letter and the screen flashed with a blinding light. When the light dispersed, A mission was visible on the screen; [To help the newly formed teams bond, your first mission is to go on a date to your assigned levels. Your assigned level: 1034. Please click on the continue button to enter the level.]

    Zhihao wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. He felt like he had overestimated the game. His entire focus was on the word ''date'' so he concluded that the players just had to be lucky enough to have compatible partners.

    Both Li Ling and Zhihao clicked on the continue button simultaneously and they were transported to level 1034: volcanic eruption.

    Zhihao saw that not a second in the level and his character health status was depleting too rapidly and so, by instinct he equipped an outer protective layer on his character. He looked around to find Li Ling, who was one step ahead of him and was already equipped with heat resistant armor as if he already knew what was going to happen, This raised suspicion in Zhihao''s mind but he didn''t have time to ponder over it.

    Another notification popped up on the screen; [Welcome to level 1034: volcanic eruption!]

    Zhihao wanted to cry out; What welcome?! It was clear that they were not welcomed here at all.

    [You have now successfully entered the land of the Fire Dragon.]

    [There was a time when the living conditions here weren''t so bad, this was the home of the Fire dragon who used to protect and reign over this land, but a few years ago, everything changed. The fire dragon was badly injured due to the greed of the humans who tried to take this land, claiming that it was rich in energy. In order to heal his injuries, the fire dragon secluded himself inside his den which is located under the volcanic mountain. In the fire dragon''s absence, the volcano erupted and the land has now been deduced to this state, too unbearable to live. The only way for it to go back to its natural state is if the fire dragon comes back.]

    [Your mission is to convince the dragon to come out.]

    [Your first date is going to be really hot! We hope you both come out successfully]

    Zhihao didn''t understand the game''s humor and even if he did, he wouldn''t laugh, whereas, Li Ling on the other side was snickering at the pun.

    "What do we do? Yell and wave our hands to catch its attention?" Li Ling asked a stupid question.

    "Let''s analyze our situation first." Zhihao being a pro-gamer answered professionally

    "What is the situation exactly?"

    "A land reigned by the fire dragon. The dragon is injured and refusing to come out. Greedy humans." Zhihao answered vaguely stating the parts of the story.

    He first came up with questions; Why was a fire dragon the reigning monarch of this region? How could humans injure a dragon? Why was the dragon not coming out? And why could only the dragon help this region regain its natural state?

    At this moment, Li Ling responded, "Why were the humans here? Because it was rich in energy. But what type of energy and why were they after it?"

    Zhihao felt like Li Ling was focusing on all the wrong points and was talking rubbish. His mind was too occupied with coming up with a way to get the dragon out, he had no time to waste on inspecting why the humans were greedy.

    "The land is protected by the fire dragon and now it''s being wasted away, why isn''t the dragon coming out?" Zhihao had an idea, "What if the dragon is connected to the volcanic mountain? It would make sense. There''s power and a dragon involved so this level probably belongs to the fantasy genre."

    "Huh?" Li Ling was confused.

    "The dragon is a fire dragon and this was his home. What if he was harnessing the power in this land, if so, then the only possible power source in this land would be the volcanic mountain. With the dragon gone, the mountain has no one collecting its power and so the power is now overflowing in its most natural state, lava."

    "Ah!" Li Ling seemed to understand what Zhihao was talking about, "So, A-Zhi is saying that the mountain is like a juice box and the dragon is sucking it for daily consumption but now since the dragon is gone, the juice box is overflowing?"

    Zhihao wanted to laugh at how simple-minded this man was; comparing a volcanic mountain with a juice box. But he also felt like this man was oddly clever, having understood the core of the topic after only hearing it once from Zhihao.

    "Yeah! Like a juice box. A defective one."

    "So how do we call out the dragon?"

    "Say, The den is under the mountain and that''s where the fire dragon is but If you have noticed, our mission isn''t to restore the land but call the dragon out, right?"

    "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

    "The den is under the mountain. Doesn''t that make the juice box his home? Li Ling, What would you do if somebody destroyed your home?"

    "I''d think he was looking for a fight and..... Come out! Are you saying we should blow up this mountain?!"

    "That seems to be the only way."

    "B-But how do we do that?"

    "I have 168 explosives in my inventory. How about you?"

    "I have..... 24..." Li Ling sounded a bit dejected.

    "It''s okay. 24 added to 168 makes 192 explosives combined. Since this is a huge mountain, we''ll need them all. Let''s go around the mountain and surround it with explosives."

    Both the players moved into action. The 192 explosives were placed all around the mountain, barely managing to cover it completely. Li Ling and Zhihao maintained their distance from the mountain. Zhihao took out a gun from his inventory and aimed it at one of the bombs. Bullseye. The shot hit the bomb correctly and the lined up bombs caused a chain effect. Explosion after explosion, one bigger than the other. In a mere few minutes, The whole mountain blew up, the land around the mountain cracked open, causing a huge hole to appear on the ground, looking much like a bottomless pit.

    "Who in the world dare to interrupt my sleep?!", An angry voice of a man came from the ground, loud and ear-piercing.

    Zhihao looked closer down the hole, but he could not see anything. Before he could inspect it further, Li Ling pulled him back.

    "Shhh...." Li Ling wanted him to listen to something but all he heard was the rumbling of the ground, The stones hitting stones, the mountain deconstructing itself, and the explosions that were still going on. But there was another sound, An odd faint sound. As Zhihao kept on hearing the sound, he felt like something was wrong; The sound seemed to be growing louder and louder.

    "Shit! Move!" Zhihao dragged Li Ling away from the hole, "Something''s coming!"

    Indeed.

    Not a minute later the earth began to shake uncontrollably and the sound that was previously faint was now getting louder and louder, louder than the explosives.

    Out of the ground, heading straight to the sky at an impossible speed that made it hard to see its appearance, Something came out but it was too small to be a dragon.

    The ''something'' stopped when it came out of the ground and paused in midair. It had wings and its wings covered its body.

    Zhihao and Li Ling stopped in their tracks and stared at the unknown thing.

    The wings opened up and revealed the body of a human.....? A very handsome young man!

    All of a sudden, Mastermo understood; He had been wrong and Li Ling was the one who was following the right clues.

    Why would humans be interested in energy provided by a volcanic mountain?

    Mastermo had played too many western games that now he had forgotten to take an important fact into account; T.I.A.D. was a Chinese game.

    The only way this would all make sense was if this wasn''t a western fantasy genre at all.

    It was a Cultivation genre!

 Chapter 5 - Mastermos Amazing Sword.

    "Kevin, I think I should shift my sleeping schedule to the afternoon since we can''t sleep peacefully at night because of a particular RPG."

    "Just like every other T.I.A.D. player who can''t sleep peacefully at night with everything going on."

    "Yesterday night a new stage in the game opened up and welcomed more than a million teams."

    "All of them were given their first mission as a team and each team got a different mission on a different level; that''s millions of levels."

    "I''m still shocked by the fact that the game hasn''t crashed due to internet traffic."

    "Let me now finally tell you about how this game, T..I.A.D. actually works."

    T.I.A.D. stands for Transmigration Into Alternate Dimension. This is an RPG with more than a million story arcs per stage. Since it is a newly released game; The exact number of levels and stages are unknown.

    The players start on level zero where they''ll be assigned missions. Each mission takes place on a particular level and each level has a different story that the player is supposed to role-play in.

    The levels on stage zero were arranged in an order from easy to hard, however when the teams entered stage 1 they were randomly assigned their levels. Some top gamers were lucky enough to get E ranked levels, whereas on the other hand some misfortunate fellas were sent straight to S ranked levels.

    There are 8 types of level:

    1. Non-ranked levels (ranked: unknown)

    2. Easy levels (E-ranked)

    3. Amateur levels (A-ranked)

    4. Intermediate levels (I-ranked)

    5. Hard levels (H-ranked)

    6. God level (G-ranked)

    7. Divine levels (D-ranked)

    8. Supreme levels (S-ranked)

    Ninety percent of the levels in stage zero were E ranked and the rest ten percent were A-ranked.

    "But with the opening of Stage 1; Players found themselves shocked to find all 8 types of levels randomly assigned throughout the stage."

    "And the one level that caused the most panic was the non ranked levels. The difficulty rank of these levels were unknown because they might be the hardest level for some people while for others it may be considered the easiest. These levels were not ranked because their difficulty status would range from person to person."

    "Thankfully so far we have only got to know about 4 such non ranked levels."

    "And to spice things up, One such non ranked level is the level 1034: volcanic eruption. Some fans may be really familiar with this level."

    "This is the level assigned to the team created by Mastermo and Devilmagiclover which people have nicknamed the devil team."

    "In fact from the teams that entered these 4 non-ranked levels, 3 teams have failed to complete the mission hence the only team that is still playing this level and has the highest chance of winning it, is the devil team."

    "Yes you read that correct, they are still playing it. You can watch their live stream on Mastermo''s official account and with that, today''s news update ends here."

    "This news was brought to you by your anchors, Kevin and Dev, live from the studio where we can''t wait to catch up to Mastermo''s hot live stream."

    Hot indeed. Maybe too damn hot. Zhihao couldn''t believe it. His casual decision to blow up the volcanic mountain turned out to be more disastrous than he presumed it to be.

    He was running low on T-points.

    T-points were also known as transmigration points, they were considered the currency inside this game. With the completion of each mission, the player would gain T-points and by using these points, the player could buy potions, elixirs, weapons, gadgets, clues, and many more things. In the current scenario, Zhihao could easily protect himself by either buying defensive equipment or by paying T-points to abandon this level and enter a new one; This was another use of T-points. T-points can save a player''s life under critical conditions. but this was a virtual game so how did it matter? If the player was to be killed in any of the levels, they''d go through what the game called "A rebirth". This rebirth was exactly as the name suggested; The player would lose all his possessions, his inventory would be emptied out completely and the materials he owned such as armors, sword, and potions would all be dispersed in the level in which they lost; waiting for a new player to come and collect them.

    The explosions caused by Zhihao and Li Ling caused an aftereffect; They enraged the fire dragon and caused a volcanic eruption due to which the heat in the area rose at an unbelievable rate. Their heat resistant defenses could not hold up and were on the verge of melting. With the lack of T-points, Zhihao could not buy new defensive equipment nor could he abandon the level.

    Both of them were running and right behind them was the fire dragon who was currently in his half-human form, chasing after them but they weren''t running from him. They were running from the overflowing bright lava that was creeping its way towards them, engulfing everything on its way.

    "W-What do we do?!" Li Ling yelled

    "Let''s just run for now," Zhihao answered. He blamed himself; Non of this would have happened if only he had been a bit more patient with his inspection.

    He had been so stupid. His mind was accustomed to the E and A-ranked levels from stage zero, he overlooked the possibility of new difficult ranked levels appearing in this stage. He was super embarrassed with himself, only noobs could ever make such mistakes. As a pro-gamer, to him, this ought to be an embarrassment for life that he''d never forget.

    "Li Ling, After we get out of here, please hit me on my head."

    "Mastermo! Do you have a spiritual sword in your inventory?" Li Ling questioned, ignoring Zhihao''s previous request.

    "A sword? Right! A sword!" Zhihao suddenly realized something; This was a Cultivation genre story so although a spiritual sword would be of no use in a fight at the moment, it could still prove to be useful as a transportation device.

    Zhihao opened his inventory and after swiping through it a few times, he found the hardly used, spiritual sword, Shuang.

    When Li Ling saw Zhihao take out Shuang, he was stunned for a second, this sword was actually a limited-edition, high-grade equipment that only a handful of people in the game owned. Li Ling couldn''t help but ask, "A-Zhi, Are you an idiot."

    "Huh?" Zhihao couldn''t understand.

    "You have the Shuang sword and you still want us to run? Don''t you know, that sword has a water element. It''s the only weapon that can defeat the fire dragon!" Li Ling exclaimed making Zhihao feel a bit stupid. Indeed, Zhihao never knew this nor did he know how Li Ling knew it but he trusted his partner and so the two stopped in their tracks and turned around but Zhihao didn''t attack, He simply waited.

    It wasn''t that he didn''t want to fight and defeat the fire dragon, he didn''t do it because it made no sense and he was done making rash decisions. He thought back to the instructions they received; To convince the fire dragon to come out. But they had already done that. The fire dragon had already come out of its den so why hasn''t the mission been completed yet? It simply did not make sense. Why would they have to fight the fire dragon if their mission wasn''t to defeat the creature?

    Unless...

    Zhihao had another crazy idea, "What if that''s not the real fire dragon. No, That''s not the question. How could we be sure that this is the dragon we are looking for?"

    "Didn''t it come out of the ground?"

    "Exactly! It came out of the ground. There is a den under the mountain. It makes perfect sense. but what if the den is home to more than a single dragon?"

    "You mean to say..?"

    "If what I think is correct, The fire dragon we are looking for is still inside that den," Zhihao stated

    "Then who is that?" Li Ling pointed at the creature with a handsome human face that had dragon-like wings.

    "I guess we''ll find out!" Having said this, Zhihao hopped on his sword and flew straight towards that man. Li Ling also followed suit as he mounted on his own spiritual sword and followed right after Zhihao.

    "Who the hell are you people?" The man roared

    "Great dragon, please show us mercy." Li Ling responded before Zhihao, "We are just two fellow cultivators who were looking for a place to practice. My senior brother used too much power during his practice and ended up destroying the mountain. Please forgive us."

    The man indeed stopped and listened to Li Ling''s bullshit and just as he finished, the man glared at Shuang. Having sensed the great power emitted by the high-grade weapon, the man seemed to believe their story.

    "Your weapon is indeed too powerful. No wonder it caused such damage." The man spoke, pondering about something.

    "It is indeed a bit difficult to handle." Li Ling responded almost immediately.

    "Since it is not suitable for you, why don''t you leave it with me."

    "...."

    Zhihao was speechless and Li Ling had a dissatisfied expression on his face.

    The duo finally seemed to understand something.

    "Say, Just who are you?" Zhihao asked, his tone extremely rude.

    "Your grandfather!" The man cursed.

    "Great Dragon, please don''t be mad. My senior brother is really awkward around handsome people. Since the dragon is so handsome, he couldn''t help but ask for your name." Li Ling spoke as he changed his strategy from acting innocent to blatant flattery.

    "Your senior brother is indeed weird but at least he has a good eye."

    "..." Zhihao had the urge to cringe at the egotistical man.

    "I''m the prince of this land."

    But at least they got the answer. Zhihao was indeed right when he concluded that this wasn''t the real fire dragon. They could now rest assured that the real fire dragon they were looking for was still inside the den.

    The man in front of them was actually the son of the fire dragon.

    "We had long heard the great tales of the prince that rules this land. Now that we get the chance to see it for ourselves, I have to say, The stories were indeed not exaggerated in the slightest." Li Ling still didn''t give up on his flattery and Zhihao kinda felt annoyed at it.

    "This young cultivator brother seems to have a really sweet tongue. I had been living in my den for the past 1000 years. What are these great tales you speak of?"

    "..." Li Ling was dumbfounded and embarrassed. "Ah! I must have been mistaken. Could there be another dragon who roams around this region?" Zhihao seemed to have a new impression of this Devilmagiclover; he had a smart tongue that knew exactly what to say.

    "..." The prince stared at Li Ling for a minute before he spoke, "There was indeed another dragon reigning over this region. My father, The great monarch."

    "What happened to him?" Zhihao questioned.

    "A few years ago, he was gravely injured in a dual and he is currently recovering from it."

    "Who was his opponent? How could somebody injure the reigning Fire Dragon?"

    "This! Isn''t this all because of that sword." The dragon prince snarled as he pointed at Shuang.

    Both Li Ling and Zhihao stared at Shuang in confusion.

 Chapter 6 - Mastermo Can Telepathically Communicate With His Lover

    "A few years ago, a group of cultivators came here, and among them was a talented, young man who owned that exact same sword." The dragon prince spoke, "My father needed that sword and so he struck a deal with them; To gain access to cultivate in this land, they had to pay the sword as a price. The man eagerly agreed, not realizing how powerful that sword is but a few months later, he saw through my father''s desperation and realized something was wrong. When he saw that my father regarded the sword in high value, he thought it was indeed quite powerful and so he grew greedy. One day, the group of cultivators finally decided to go back and it was time for them to keep up with their end of the deal but we didn''t expect them to be so deceptive. Not only did they feign ignorance and say that they had never made such a deal, but the man who owned that sword was also not among them anymore. My father thought that the man ran away with the sword and was enraged to the point he lost control over his anger and started spewing fire left and right. The cultivators, no matter how high their cultivation may be; were still no match for the Great Dragon Monarch. Although they were gravely injured, they still managed to survive and ran away. My father thought it was the end of it, but who could foresee that the cultivators would return just a few weeks later in the name of vengeance. This time the cultivator who owned this spiritual sword was with them, leading them. They fought for a whole day and night, Many of the cultivators were injured and some even lost their lives on the spot but the injuries were not only on their side.

    I don''t know who planned it but they came here with a solid strategy and their goal was to kill my father and take this land which was abundant in spiritual energy. The young man seemed to have formed a bond with the sword in those few days and with a deeper understanding of it, he was able to injure my father, but that was it; he could injure him but not even dream of killing him.. When my father could fight no more, he receded back to his den and the cultivators thought they won. The rest..... hehe." The man smirked.

    Looking at the wickedness displayed on the man''s expressions, Zhihao already had a few guesses on what might have happened.

    "Did he kill them all?" Li Ling asked, straightforwardly.

    "What else could it be? Didn''t they deserve it?! A righteous man must never go back on his word and if they do, shouldn''t they be punished? My father didn''t hide away in his den because he was afraid or injured, he did it to teach the cultivators a very fatal lesson."

    "So, the great fire dragon was the one who caused the volcanic eruption?" Zhihao asked brusquely.

    "My father has a contract with the mountain, it would heed my father''s every command. My father triggered the eruption due to which all those cultivators who were dancing in joy of their victory were burned alive with not even their bones left to show as a trace of their being. Unfortunately, the sword was also irreversibly damaged and melted away together with its owner."

    "Why did your father desperately need that sword?"

    The dragon prince glanced at the sword, Shuang then his eyes trailed towards Zhihao, who asked the question.

    "This sword is a rare spiritual weapon capable of destroying the mountain." He answered

    "So your father wanted to safeguard the future of this land by eradicating the possibility of this sword falling into malicious hands?" Li Ling inquired.

    "Not at all!" The man responded immediately, "My father wanted to destroy the mountain with it."

    "How can this be? Didn''t you say, he had a contract with the mountain? Why would he want to destroy it?" Zhihao spoke up, stating his thoughts.

    "You are not wrong, he indeed loved the mountain but he loved something else more than the mountain; his son. For a thousand years, I was sealed under that mountain and the only way to break the seal and free me was if the mountain was destroyed. Throughout those 1000 years, my father tried everything possible to break the seal but he failed until one day by chance this group of cultivators brought along with them a legendary spiritual weapon capable of destroying the mountain."

    "B-But isn''t he the monarch? Isn''t he supposed to protect this land?"

    "If the mountain is destroyed, this will become a plain area. What''s the big deal? Couldn''t he still rule over it?"

    "Even if that may be..." Li Ling wanted to say something but his voice trailed off not knowing how to respond to the logical question.

    "Wait!" Zhihao realized something, "If that''s the case, didn''t we indirectly save you by blowing up the mountain? Shouldn''t you be thankful to us? Why were you angry instead?"

    "Thankful?!" The dragon prince fumed, "Have you no face? If you wanted to help, you should''ve done it when my father was not inside the den! Now he''s trapped in there!"

    "Ah! So right now, he''s still in ther-" Zhihao glanced at the destroyed mountain oozing lava, "In there?!"

    Li Ling sensed an upcoming headache, "A-Zhi, did we just kill the fire dragon by mistake?"

    "That shouldn''t be it! Isn''t he also a Dragon like you? How can you come out but he can''t?" Zhihao questioned.

    "Although we are both dragons, unlike him, I can turn into a human and slip out from the cracks but not only can he not do that but he is also still recovering from the injury inflicted on him by that sword." The dragon prince pointed at the innocent Shuang in dissatisfaction and anger.

    "So your father is still trapped in there?!" Zhihao snapped. If they can''t get the fire dragon to come out, they have no way of completing this mission and if they don''t complete the mission; They''ll be eliminated before they could even get to see a trace of the gamemaster. He could already predict the humiliation; the way BBtrash would call him just to annoy him and the way his brother would be deeply disappointed in him and even Li Ling may feel like he had wasted his time overestimating Mastermo who by then would lose the right to call himself a master. All those years of hard work, from the day he gained his first fan to the day he became a pro-gamer with the help of millions of fans, all of it would turn to dust, He''d become the laughing stock of the entire gaming world.

    No! he cannot let that happen. His career had only just begun.

    "Trapped?! He''s being suffocated in there. He''s being buried alive or maybe even burned alive!"

    "No! That can''t be. Aren''t dragons supposed to be fire-proof or something?" Zhihao responded.

    "We can handle high levels of heat but who in the world can survive standing on lava?!"

    "You two should stop fighting amongst yourselves. Let''s work together to save him." Li Ling was the only one who had a clear mind in this situation. The dragon prince''s father was on the verge of dying and so was Zhihao''s career and hence both of them could not think straight and were on the verge of a panic attack.

    "Li Ling, I''m sorry for not taking you seriously, please let me make it up to you by trusting you now. I''ll follow your lead this time." Zhihao apologized for the time he jumped to conclusions and blew up the mountain on a whim.

    "..." Li Ling was speechless. He, for a fact, did not know that! Oh, how great it felt to not be taken seriously by your long-time idol but he had no time to get angry at Zhihao, there were more pressing matters before them in need of his attention. "I have an idea but it might not be of much help."

    "What is it?" the dragon prince asked

    Li Ling, "Since Shuang is a water element spiritual sword capable of destroying the mountain, shouldn''t we be able to destroy the ground with it as well?"

    "Are you suggesting that we tear open the ground and pull him out?" Zhihao asked, thinking it over.

    "Exactly! But if I''m guessing correctly; A-Zhi would not have enough spiritual energy to pull it off so why don''t we have the dragon prince try it out?" Li Ling glanced at Zhihao and the two had an understanding between them. Both Li Ling and Zhihao turned towards the dragon prince who was wordlessly observing the conversation between the two.

    "..." The dragon prince didn''t respond, suddenly taken back by the request. He felt like this young man was certainly sharp.

    "You see, there was something I''m curious about." Li Ling spoke up

    "You said your father wanted to destroy the mountain with the sword but he''s a fire dragon and this sword has a cold constitution. By logic, the two should be incompatible." Zhihao continued.

    Li Ling, "It was also weird how only you could turn into a human form and your father couldn''t."

    "And to top it off, the first thing you did after coming out was attacking us."

    "Not only that but even after knowing that your father was trapped in there, you still had the leisure time to chat around with us." Both Li Ling and Zhihao pointed their swords towards the man in unison.

    "And you also gave yourself away by saying that you were trapped in there for a thousand years. If that were true, How would you able to recite your father''s story in such great detail as if you were also there."

    The ''dragon prince'' understood that he had been found out and in his mind, he acknowledged the fact that these two were no ordinary people.

    "Who are you really?" Zhihao investigated.

    The man sighed, "It seems I have underestimated you two." He smiled wickedly sending a shiver down Zhihao''s spine. In an instant, the surrounding started dissipating, the lava which was crawling towards them ceased to move any further, The crack on the ground started closing itself, It was as if time was running in reverse but at the same time, it wasn''t.

    Zhihao and Li Ling were constantly on their guards as the half-human man started transforming into a full-fledged dragon, first, his skin started changing, scales started appearing and his limbs started expanding, growing and changing into those of a Dragons.

    All of a sudden, a number of notifications popped up on the screen for both the players:

    [Congatulations to Mastermo and Devilmagiclover on successfully clearing level 1034: volcanic eruption. You have indeed proved your compatibility. Your team has a very bright future]

    [Secret mission unlocked: Break the fire dragon''s illusion]

    [Secret mission completed]

    [Original Level name unlocked: Dragon''s illusion.]

    [T- points gained: +1000]

    [Player health status refilled]

    [Skills gained: +illusion master]

    [Logging out of level 1034: Dragon''s illusion]

    [Preparing for transmigration]

    [3]

    [2]

    [1]

    Zhihao and Li Ling were thrown out of the level. Their mission was completed and they had gained all their rewards, however, they still felt a bit unsatisfied by the revelations.

    At this exact moment the comment section of the live stream was going insane:

    [What...]

    [Did I miss something? Were they using telepathy?]

    [How did they figure it out?]

    [Let this sister tell you; They were having a moment *giggles*]

    [OMG! OMG! OMG! MASTERMO IS SO HOT]

    [Replying to the person who commented above: Devilmagiclover wants to know your location]

    [Who else is shipping them?]

    [+1]

    [+2]

    [+400]

    [Big sister approves.]

    [Can we all just talk about how hot that Dragon man was?!]

    [Wait... I''m still confused]

    [It''s official! They are made for each other]

    [Where are the haters now? Too scared to show your face?]

    [asghyuefjberh]

    [Want BBtrash to react! His Darling is being stolen away]

    [My heart! This is too much.]

    [Somebody please explain to me what just happened!]

    [I freaking love this]

    [Their chemistry! awww...]

 Chapter 7 - Mastermo Is Hiding His Love Affair

    "Confusion! Confusion! So much confusion!"

    "That''s what went through the minds of Mastermo''s fans as they saw their favorite team winning the non-ranked level."

    "Mastermo''s live stream ended early this morning and once again it caused a sleepless night among the fans as they all thought together; Just what in the hell happened?"

    "And that''s why we are here. We have spent our entire morning analyzing the game and how the duo won it and I think we have finally got the gist of it."

    "So let us now explain just how the team showed their amazing unity and harmony; they understood one another without even needing to voice out their thoughts."

    "The level started with them receiving a mission to get the Fire dragon to come out and return the region to its former glory.."

    "Now, remember how we told you previously that the non-ranked levels existed because their difficulty level was indistinguishable. Well, this level was a great example to show you guys just how it all works."

    "Most people might not have realized this, but the level was in fact not as hard as everyone thinks, that is of course for the people who paid attention to the instructions given in the beginning."

    "The most important question to ask at the beginning of the level was; How could the dragon restore the land to its former glory?"

    From the way the whole scenario played out itself makes it seem like Mastermo might have already realized this from the beginning.

    It was all a lie and just when did the lies start? It could be said that it started from the Dragon.

    Although the system never lies or necessarily provides the player with misleading info, It could also not be trusted completely as it cannot lie, but it can still hide certain critical information from the player.

    In reality, if the volcano were to erupt, by all means, a dragon could not save it even if it''s a cultivation genre story. So why would the system include this in its instructions on how to clear this level? Well simple, Cause it was created by the dragon.

    The starting part of the story may indeed be true; The fire dragon protected and reigned over this land, Humans injured him in order to take this land from him. But the latter part of the story was a bit mixed up. What happened to the cultivators who wanted to take this land? And what about the dragon who secluded himself in his den?

    To sum it all up; The dragon found out that he could no longer protect his territory, but he was reluctant to give it up, so instead he created an illusion array to make it all seem like the volcano had erupted and anybody caught in this illusion, due to the high cultivation level of the dragon would not be able to break it so easily.

    Another point to note was that if one were to look closely; they''ll find that the mission was actually to convince the dragon to come out hence the first time Zhihao and Li Ling saw the dragon, they didn''t finish the mission because they didn''t convince him and instead they forced him or at least an illusion of him to come out. So it can be said that blowing up the mountain may not actually be a mistake on Zhihao''s part but a strategy?

    Although it was an illusion, the mountain was in fact real and the devil team destroyed it together, forcing the Dragon to be enraged and show himself. So far, this could be considered the only method that could actually catch the Dragon''s attention.

    The next step was to interact with the dragon and find loopholes in his story which were programmed in the game beforehand to provide clues to the players. One such loophole was how the dragon pointed at Mastermo''s sword, Shuang. Now the game, no matter how advanced it may be, still ran on coding which was done on the basis of every other player, hence the dragon wasn''t exactly acting freely, He was acting according to the orders he was given beforehand. So how could he know that the sword that the player was going to wield was Shuang and that''s why throughout his whole narration of the story, he never said the sword''s name. Whereas in cultivation genres, spiritual swords were in fact referred to by their names.

    It seems, both Zhihao and Li Ling noticed this and for their luck, Mastermo just had to own a sword with a water element that was completely incompatible with the fire dragon.

    When the dragon was busy telling his story; Zhihao and Li Ling weren''t idly hearing him out.

    Let us further break down their strategy step by step to help better understand it:

    Step 1: Blow up the mountain to catch the Dragon''s attention.

    Step 2: Run as far away from the mountain as possible in order to weaken the power of the dragon since the real body of the dragon still resided inside his den, under the mountain.

    Step 3: To slowly break the array. This step was done by Devilmagiclover who was secretly doing it while Mastermo was distracting the dragon by purposely indulging in his story

    "I have to say, Mastermo is an amazing actor. He almost had us believing that he was actually panicking."

    "I think Devilmagiclover was a better actor. I almost believed he was useless. kekeke..."

    "But they both proved us all wrong by working together so flawlessly."

    "In the end, Mastermo bought enough time for Devilmagiclover to break the array and that was what everyone actually saw. The background started to change drastically and so the dragon who by then had realized that his array was broken had to show his true form."

    "And so they completed the mission."

    "I''m still a bit mind-blown at how they had us all, lost and on our edges the entire time."

    "This just comes to show that Mastermo is well deserved of the title of the top player."

    "We are indeed looking forward to what this duo has in store for us."

    "With that, we conclude our blabbering. This has been your anchors, Kevin and Dev live from the studio."

    .

    .

    .

    Huang Zhen who had listened to the whole news broadcast from start to finish had a proud expression on his face as he turned towards his big brother who was all over the news, "Big Bro, you''re so amazing!"

    "What''s so amazing?" Zhihao sneered.

    "You and Big Brother Ling form the best team. So compatible! You can even understand each other''s minds. Amazing, indeed."

    "What nonsense are you blabbering about?" Zhihao scolded, "Those people are over-exaggerating."

    ''What do you mean?" His brother looked at him, clueless.

    "Even I didn''t realize what was wrong. I blew up the mountain on a whim. I ran away on instinct and I was actually panicking, not acting, for a moment I thought my career was as good as gone."

    Huang Zhen choked in surprise, finding it somewhat funny how highly the news anchor''s regarded Mastermo. "But didn''t you and Li Ling gege work together at the end?"

    "Like hell we did!!" Zhihao snapped, "That guy didn''t tell me anything until the end. I had no idea he was breaking the array. I thought he was listening to the story as well. He made a fool out of me, Makes me angry just thinking about it."

    "B-But... You were even completing each other''s sentences...?"

    "That was because I saw him point towards the lava which was fading away! I instantly realized something was wrong and that shameless man winked at me."

    "Ah! So that was when you realized that it was all an illusion and Li Ling broke through it?"

    "Of course!" Zhihao fumed.

    "But you didn''t look so shocked."

    "I''m a pro-gamer. I had to keep some face."

    "So that was why Li Ling let you speak at the end? Letting you take free credit?''

    "Hmph.." Zhihao was annoyed. Never in his life had he been so embarrassed. Never had he felt so stupid. It was as if he was a side character in his own story where Li Ling like a knight in silver armor had swept in and saved the day and to top it all off; the man humbly lets Zhihao share the credit. Free credit that Zhihao was ashamed to take. He clearly hadn''t helped Li Ling at all, so why should he be praised like this while Li Ling is being appreciated as somebody befitting of becoming Zhihao''s partner. It was clear as day that Li Ling was far better than Zhihao and it should be Zhihao who should thank the heavens to be given the chance to be on Li Ling''s team.

    "Shameless." A-Zhen chimed.

    "H-Hey! I didn''t ask anybody to give me credits." Zhihao explained himself

    "Are you still trying to hide it?" A-Zhen asked suspiciously.

    "It''s not that I''m deliberately hiding it. I''m just not clearing things up. I also have a reputation to keep."

    "So what? We are living in the 21st century. It''s normal, nothing to lose face over." A-Zhen sounded mad as he heard his brother''s response.

    "You have no idea what you''re talking about. The people think I''m a genius so let them think that if in the future they were to ask me the truth, I''ll willingly say it, but right now if they don''t care about the truth, why should I deliberately confess that I''m thick-skulled."

    "That''s not what I''m talking about! You are lying about your relationship with Li Ling."

    "...." Zhihao was speechless

    "Tell me the truth; you are dating him, aren''t you?" A-Zhen questioned straightforwardly.

    "..."

    "..."

    "..."

    Zhihao couldn''t comprehend what was going inside his brother''s mind, "What makes you think that?!"

    "You two are being too obvious. He protected you and solved the problem without bothering you and he even let you take the credit. Don''t most guys do that when they play with their girlfriends? Who in the world would do such a thing unless they weren''t in a relationship?"

    "That... Kinda makes sense... But forget it! We are definitely not dating!" Such a strong denial from Zhihao made A-Zhen understand a few things.

    "Could it be....?" A-Zhen covered his mouth, "Poor Li Ling gege." Zhihao had no idea what the boy had concluded but he had a feeling that it was nothing good.

    In Huang Zhen''s mind, he sympathized with Li Ling; Living with a one-sided crush on such a dim-witted man who could think of nothing but gaming. Li Ling was surely a poor soul that deserved all the prayers he could get. He suddenly wanted to play wingman and help Li Ling but even he knew it''ll be a waste. Sure a relationship between two men wasn''t accepted so openly in society, but the main problem wasn''t that Li Ling was a man, The problem was that he was a human and not a game character! Huang Zhen had known his brother since forever and never had he ever seen his brother be even remotely attracted to anything that was not a bunch of codes in a system. Since the moment his brother held onto his first game console, his life was set; He would never be into anything else but games. No matter if it was a man or a woman, if anybody flirted with him, he would think they wanted to use him to progress in the game, that was how simple-minded he was.

    Huang Zhen pitied Li Ling; To be attracted to such a man, Li Ling gege certainly had bad luck.

    On the other hand, Li Ling, who was quietly pacing around in his office was struck with a different kind of worry; Had he given himself away?

    While both the men were in deep worry, the main cause behind it, Zhihao was innocently eating his ice-cream in dissatisfaction, still visibly angry at Li Ling for letting him take the credit.

 Chapter 8 - Mastermo Has To Play Alone

    Zhihao put on his VR headset and logged into T.I.A.D. with the sole purpose of completing some E-ranked levels in order to gain a few T-points. Unlike other games where the virtual game currency could be bought with real money, T.I.A.D. didn''t have such a function to buy T-points. The only way a player can collect T-points was by completing missions and gaining T-points as a reward.

    Easy levels or also known as E-ranked levels would only give the player 100 T-points at the maximum, Whereas, Completing A-ranked levels could earn the players at least 300 T-points. The higher the levels, the more T-points it would give as rewards or to be more exact; three times that of the T-point gained from the previous lower-ranked level..

    Last time, while playing the non-ranked level, Zhihao had exhausted all his T-points in buying equipment and health potions which could have been avoided if Li Ling had told him beforehand that it was useless.

    The current T-points that appeared on Zhihao''s screen were a pitiful triple-digit number of 143, Not even enough to trigger a ''transmigration'' which needed at least 200 T-points. Thankfully, E-ranked levels didn''t need T-points to enter, Only A-ranked levels and above required to pay T-points to enter each level.

    The elimination Stage 1 was still not over and was completely separated from Stage Zero. Stage Zero was available for the players 24/7 while Stage 1 had a special opening time; basically, it could only be accessed at night around 8 p.m.; the stage would open and admit players who would be only thrown out of the stage if they completed a mission or in the off chance, failed a mission. Tonight the stage would be reopened once again and Zhihao would have to work together with Li Ling to complete the assigned mission they''ll get. And if Zhihao doesn''t refill his T-points now, he''ll be hopeless when the time comes.

    [Welcome back player, Mastermo! We have been long awaiting for you.]

    [You have entered Stage Zero]

    [Please click on the continue button to be Transmigrated into your randomly assigned level.]

    Zhihao clicked on the button without reading the whole welcoming note.

    [Logging in to E-ranked level 83: Help catch the thief]

    [Collecting character data...]

    As Zhihao read the title he felt relieved; If it was an E-ranked level that had anything to do with finding something? It was a piece of cake to him who was the master of mystery-solving games.

    [Syncing player data]

    [3...]

    [2...]

    [1...]

    [Welcome to E-ranked level 83: Help catch the thief]

    Zhihao looked around, He was standing in an old dusty library with a book in his hand.

    His first thoughts on the place were; This place needed renovation, and he wasn''t wrong in thinking that. If he brushed the top of the bookshelf with his hands; his hand would be covered in a thick layer of dust, If he were to open a book; He''ll be in a coughing fit. The books were so dusty that one needed to pat it a few times in order to read the title clearly. The paint on the walls were too dull just like the lights that barely illuminated the place. The walls had cracks on them and looked so fragile as if they were ready to collapse at any given moment.

    [You have now successfully entered London''s oldest library: The scene of the crime.]

    [This library was established in the eighteen hundreds and is home to one of the oldest and rarest of books that have now become antiques. Though selling these books may not earn an individual much; These books are still considered an important piece of history and provide knowledge to almost every single person that is interested in the historical writings of their country. A few days ago, a thief snuck inside the library and stole a 500-year-old literary novel based on an old mythical tale. The government released a notice to shut down the library for public use if the thief is not caught and the novel not recovered, All of these antiques storing amazing information would be closed off to the world. These books would lose their importance and eventually be forgotten.]

    [Your mission is to work as a solo detective and catch the thief]

    [We wish you all the best and hope you''ll help recover the lost 500-year-old art]

    Zhihao looked at the book in his hand that had clearly seen the ravages of time; not much could be deciphered. The book was too old and some words had already rubbed off, The corners were torn and some pages were missing. He closed the book to read the title but the front cover was blank, thinking that it was probably not a clue but at the same time could not be ruled out, he kept the closed book with him. He moved forward and tried to find any other clue that could further help him investigate the matter but just then; A voice of an old woman interrupted him, "It was kept right here. I don''t know who''ll do such a thing. Those damn thieves!"

    [New character introduced: The old librarian]

    Zhihao found it funny; Why did every story have an old librarian? Usually, they are the most suspicious yet turn out to be innocent in the end. The granny looked as old as the books that were placed on the shelves, so much so that Zhihao questioned if the books were older or the librarian?

    "A book does seem to be missing from here," Zhihao mumbled as he looked at the empty place in the shelf which could easily be noticed due to the lack of dust in a perfectly rectangular shaped area but what he found weird was that there were no other clues, no fingerprints or other signs of theft. Looking for more clues, he asked, "What was the title of the book?"

    "The title? Eh... It was a fictional piece of literature based on a mythical moon goddess.", The old lady replied as she pointed out the window. When Zhihao looked over, he found a beautiful glowing moon that was decorated in the sky. The light from the moon shined through the window and fell on the bookshelf that used to contain the stolen book in question, "That is the only window in this whole section. If a thief were to enter, it could only be through there."

    Zhihao moved closer to the window and looked out and as he did he thought this granny was talking nonsense, after all, they were standing on the fifth floor. It was almost impossible for someone to climb up here without making any noise and alerting the guards. "Not ruling out the possibility tho.", Zhihao mumbled but he knew it was not a possibility because there were no fingerprints on the window sill.

    "This book about a moon goddess, Can you tell me more about it?"

    "I don''t remember much of it. It''s been more than 20 years since I read it. The general story was about a worshiper who was infatuated with the beauty of the moon and every night, he would paint it as a woman of his dreams but he was never satisfied with his paintings, always complaining that something was missing. I don''t remember much but it ended with the painter disappearing and the last thing I remember is that he got to meet the real Moon goddess and painted his most favorite portrait of her but the people of that time refused to believe in such a goddess so they burned his paintings."

    As Zhihao heard this, he asked, "Was it a popular book?"

    "Popular? It was indeed still popular when I was a kid but as I grew up, the story grew older as well and not many fans who enjoyed literary writings were left."

    "Any possible suspects in your mind that could want to steal the novel?"

    "Suspects? Not that I can think of. Nobody ever showed interest in that book except for..... Ah! There is one young man who used to come here around evening time, almost every day to read that book but he''s an honest and kind gentleman. Can''t really expect him to steal the book."

    Zhihao thought about it and answered, "We can''t rule out any possible suspects. Somebody stole the book and left behind such a clean crime scene, I''m afraid we are dealing with someone who knows this library inside-out." Of course, there was one more thing in Zhihao''s mind that he would never tell the old granny; The fact that she was also a suspect at this moment.

    "I don''t understand your detective ways but I trust Henry. He would never steal from the library." The old lady spoke.

    "His name is Henry?"

    "Ah! Yes! the name really suits him." She beamed

    Zhihao narrowed his eyes, "By any chance, Does this Henry happen to be a really handsome youth?"

    "Yes! Yes! How did you know? Not only is he really handsome but he''s always kind and friendly with us, old workers here." The old lady answered enthusiastically.

    In Zhihao''s mind, he scoffed; I knew it! In most stories, old ladies like this would be biased towards young handsome men.

    "I had a hunch. Could you give me his contact details?"

    "He said he recently changed his phone number but I bet you can find his address in the library records."

    "Then I''ll have to trouble you with that." Zhihao bowed

    The old librarian seemed to like how well-mannered and handsome Zhihao was so she delightfully helped him with everything he asked for.

    Zhihao headed straight to Henry''s address which was around the neighborhood, Just a few blocks away. Henry was indeed a really cheerful handsome man who invited Zhihao inside his home and even gave him a cup of coffee to show his hospitality. For this perfect young man to be the culprit? Didn''t it make perfect sense? He would fill the stereotypical wolf in sheep''s clothing.

    Zhihao interrogated him in a friendly tone so as to make him feel comfortable, "I heard you used to be really interested in the book that was stolen?"

    "Well of course. The grammar, The characters, The story; they were all my favorite. My mother used to love that novel and naturally I''m really attached to it as well."

    "Would you by any chance have been interested in stealing it?"

    "That''s really... Straightforward. But I am completely innocent. I would never do such a thing." Henry laughed.

    "Then do you suspect anybody?"

    "Umm..." Henry had something to say but he was contemplating whether to say it or not but in the end, he ended up speaking with an absent mind, "The old librarian... Ah! Don''t get me wrong. I''m not accusing her of anything. In fact, she is really nice to me but..."

    "But?" Zhihao questioned with suspicion.

    "I don''t think it''s anything worth mentioning. It''s probably unrelated to the theft but... She is kinda over-obsessive about the library. She hates people coming to the library, says that they make a mess of it."

    Zhihao also had somewhat the same idea. The old librarian would be the perfect thief and if what Henry said was true, she''ll also have a great reason for committing the theft since it would force the library to close its doors to the public. But Henry was still not out in the clear. Zhihao was a pro-gamer who learned it the hard way that no character could be blindly trusted and so he questioned further "Did she show a particularly keen interest towards the book that was stolen?"

    "I don''t think I''ve noticed anything like that. As far as I know, only I used to go down there daily in order to read that book."

    "And that is what makes you a prime suspect? You do know that, right?"

    "I''m aware but I''m not afraid. I''m completely innocent so what do I have to fear?"

    Zhihao smiled, "You are right. As long as you have nothing to hide. I''m here to prove your innocence and catch the real thief."

    "I hope you do. If you need my help, do not shy away from asking me. I want to help find the culprit as well." Henry responded with a sincere smile.

    Young man, right now you are the most suspicious suspect.

 Chapter 9 - Mastermo Waits For His Lover

    Henry returned with Zhihao to the old library where they were welcomed with a shocking scene of the old lady screaming her lungs out and pointing at the window with shaky fingers and a petrified expression. Her whole face was red, her breathing unevenly heavy and her eyes bulging out in pure fear.

    "Granny! Are you okay?" It was Henry who moved forward first to check up on her, whereas Zhihao maintained his distance and looked out the window where the woman was pointing at.

    "T-There! It was right there! I s-saw it with my own damn eyes!" The lady stuttered as she exclaimed with a terror-stricken expression as if she had seen a ghost.

    "..." Zhihao didn''t say anything and just stared at the window which was now open. "Do you mean the thief?"

    "Y-yes!"

    "Did you see his face?" This was the most important question, but Zhihao didn''t need an answer for it, after all, just from looking at the old lady''s face, he could clearly say that she did indeed see something..

    "No! It was no man! It was... It was not human!" She exclaimed with not a hint of deception in her words, Staring straight into Zhihao''s eyes.

    Things just became a lot more interesting.

    "Is this the part where you tell me it was that fictional painter from the story who stole the book?"

    "No! It was the moon goddess."

    Zhihao shut up as he looked at the old lady who had certainly gone senile, but then again this wasn''t the real world so she could very well be telling the truth.

    "Was the moon goddess a ghost? Why do you look like you just saw a ghost?"

    "S-She... wasn''t a..." The woman didn''t speak any further, her eyes rolled back and she fainted on the spot.

    "W-What do we do detective?" Henry looked up at Zhihao expectantly.

    "Lock her up."

    "Eh..?"

    Zhihao wasn''t joking when he said that; he took out his handcuffs and moved forward towards the two but instead of only handcuffing the old lady, He handcuffed Henry together with her.

    "Detective? What is the meaning of this?!" Henry asked angrily.

    "Just security measures. No need to worry about it." Although Zhihao had said that, his actions were speaking otherwise.

    Zhihao analyzed the window panel closer and this time, he found something.

    [New clue collected: Fingerprints]

    Zhihao thought about it; There were no signs of breaking in or any signs of escaping, The only sign of theft was the missing book. But now that the book was already stolen, The thief returned and scared the life out of the old librarian but for what reason?

    Suddenly he had a deeper understanding of the situation, "That''s genius! Old hag, you can stop your acting now."

    "What are you talking about?" Henry asked in confusion as glanced between the unconscious old librarian and the young detective, Zhihao.

    "I''ve solved the case; She is the thief." Zhihao responded proudly, "There were no signs of breaking in because nobody broke in, they came through the door like every other person and the reason the thief wasn''t caught was because the book never left the library. It was just hidden away and now somebody opened the window from inside to forge a crime scene. It all adds up."

    "Are you saying...?"

    "Young man, what are you talking about? Are you trying to accuse this weak old lady?" The unconscious suddenly gained consciousness to defend herself.

    "I''m not accusing anybody. Only stating facts." Zhihao wanted to argue with the old lady about her miraculous recovery but in the end, he decided not to fight a game character that doesn''t even have a brain of its own.

    "How dare you?!"

    "Am I wrong?" Zhihao snapped, "You would have the perfect alibi, wouldn''t you; The trustable librarian who had worked here her entire life. Nobody would suspect that." Zhihao was enthusiastic about accusing her as he had always wanted to do this, Arrest an old suspicious librarian, and become an impressive detective. However, this was not so impressive when considered the fact that it was an E- ranked level.

    "W-Why... Why would I?!"

    "How am I supposed to know that?"

    "Detective, I think there has been a mistake-" Henry started defending her

    "You too. You''re her accomplice." Zhihao cut him off mid-sentence. "Should I recite the whole story for you or would you like to confess it yourself?"

    "Sir, As I''ve told you, we have done nothing wrong."

    "I guess you''d like to hear it from me then." Zhihao spoke, "You probably incited her to steal it. You''d come here to read that book every day but reading wasn''t all you did, was it? You interacted with the staff here and became friendly with them so that if one day you were to steal the book, they will never suspect you but while you were getting to know them; you met this old lady who hated people coming into the library so you had a better idea. You''d come here every day and subtly encourage her to steal the book without her realizing that you were the one who put the idea in her head. In the end, when I came to interrogate you, you told me about her obsession knowing that she''s the thief and hoping that I''ll catch her."

    Henry lowered his head and chuckled, "You are indeed smart."

    [Congratulations to Mastermo on successfully clearing E-ranked level 83: Help catch the thief]

    "You''re right, I would have never come to this place if it weren''t for that book! I came here every day, got friendly with the staff, and learned the entire infrastructure inside-out but... This woman never trusted me so I knew I''d fail because of her. I changed my plan; decided to give her the idea. She was supposed to steal a random book and the government would shut the library down and once it has been shut down, I''ll sneak in and steal the book. That was the plan! but... This old hag! She actually dared to steal my book." Henry in a state of anger knocked her out with a clean blow to the head which shocked Zhihao.

    "Your book?" Zhihao questioned, reminding himself that this was all just a game, and nothing that happened here mattered in the real world.

    Henry smiled as he stared at Zhihao, "My goddess, she looks just as beautiful as ever."

    Zhihao realized that the man wasn''t staring at him but at the moon behind him and this startled him. He understood that the story wasn''t as simple as it seemed but he had already caught the thief so he had no need of staying here any further. He''d rather not hear the whole story and go back as soon as possible, after all, Li Ling was still waiting for him.

    [T-points gained: +100]

    [Player health status refilled]

    [Skills gained: +Amazing private detective]

    [Rewards gained: +Moon goddess spell book]

    [Surprise Gift: +200 T-points]

    [Logging out of E-ranked level 83: Help catch the thief]

    [Preparing for transmigration in..]

    [3]

    [2]

    [1]

    Zhihao was delightfully shocked to see that his T-points had increased more than what he had expected because of the added surprise gift of 200 T-points. His total T-points were no longer a pitiful three-digit number of 143. His new total was a whopping 443 T-points. It was enough to transmigrate in the team level when Stage 1 opened later in the day.

    Zhihao decided to take a small nap to rejuvenate his energy which was much needed if he wanted to play the team level tonight but unfortunately he was never able to play it with Li Ling.

    To enter the Stage 1 team levels, all the team members needed to be present and Li Ling was absent. Zhihao tried to text him and call him for 2 hours continuous till the point he felt so helpless that a few big round drops of tears squeezed out of his eyes but the man never responded back to him. Zhihao was distressed and so were his fans. It was as if, Li Ling had disappeared into thin air. He really wanted to curse the man, yell at him, and hit him for being so irresponsible. He was reminded of the reason why he hated making teams in the first place.

    Reminded of the time when he as a newbie trusted a few other players he met online; considered them friends and helped them in any way possible. Even as a newbie, Zhihao was never considered weak. He along with his teammates raided an entire guild hall and he was the one who defeated the high-ranked demon all on his own. Till that point, he was very enthusiastic about gaming and making new friends but when the time came to split the shares of the loot, not only was Zhihao given nothing but he was killed and his own inventory was emptied out and stolen by his teammates. If that experience alone wasn''t enough, after three months, he once again joined another team, this time it was a pair so he thought he''ll be alright, nobody could gang up on him but he was proved wrong once again. His partner at the time was a conniving young brat who was taking advantage of him as a player, Zhihao would always do the hard work and beat the monsters while his partner would take away all the credits. He hated that player to his core, not only did the player take away his credits and loots, The player also stole his opportunity to enter the pro-gamers list at the time but that''s a story for another time.

    Right now, Zhihao was just really frustrated.

    Damn it all!

    That night, Mastermo like always, turned on his live stream but nothing happened. The fans were confused to see the idle computer screen where Mastermo hadn''t started playing yet, After all, this was the man who would set an alarm 30 minutes before every game to warm up his fingers.

    After 10 minutes, the screen lit up with a warning: [To access the team mission board, All the team members must be present]

    And this notification was followed by the sound of sniffling...

    The comment section tensed up:

    [Is he..... crying?]

    [OMG!! Who hurt my baby??]

    [What the hell is happening]

    [Why is he crying?]

    [Where is devilmagiclover?]

    [NO. NO NO.]

    [Please don''t cry. Big sister is here for you!]

    [MASTERMO??]

    [Speak to us please]

    [Zhihao... Are you alright??]

    But no matter how many people messaged or joined in on supporting him, the tears never stopped storming out of Zhihao''s eyes. He didn''t want to cry. Damn, this was really embarrassing. For a grown man like him to cry over such a small thing, for a game like this? He felt really pathetic and childish.

    As time went by, the tears multiplied. A minute turned into ten then An hour then two hours and then that turned into a couple more hours. It was midnight already.

    The comments never did stop pouring in nor did any of the fans dare leave the live stream.

    Another notification popped up: [Entry to stage 1 would be closed in the next 10 minutes...]

    Zhihao hoped for Li Ling to show up last minute but he never did.

    [9 minutes left]

    He prayed

    [8 minutes left]

    He cried

    [7 minutes left]

    He prayed some more.

    [6 minutes left]

    and then he cried some more.

    [5 minutes left]

    He called him on his smartphone for the 235th time

    [4 minutes left]

    Nobody picked up.

    [3 minutes left]

    He stopped praying.

    [2 minutes left]

    He gave up hope.

    [1 minute left]

    The comment section went crazy.

    [10]

    [9]

    [8]

    [The gamemaster wants to invite you to form a temporary team: ACCEPT or DECLINE?]

    Zhihao was startled and couldn''t believe his eyes. His fingers froze up just like the raging comment section that went still in an instant.

    [7]

    [6]

    [5]

    [4]

    Before he could waste another second, he hastily pressed on the accept button and the countdown stopped as his screen changed.

    [Congratulations on forming a temporary team! At the moment, this feature is only available for the game master]

    [WELCOME GAMEMASTER! We have long awaited your return!]

 Chapter 10 - Mastermo Doesnt Miss His Lover.

    Like any other lucky player who''ll ever get to encounter the game master by chance, Zhihao did the most instinctual thing; he equipped his gun and shot him.

    [Warning: Invalid action]

    [A player cannot attack his teammates unless under special circumstances which the system deems as valid.]

    Damn!

    Zhihao couldn''t help but ask a stupid question, "Do you actually look like that?"

    Ever since Zhihao had started playing T.I.A.D., he had always held respect for the man and regarded him as a saint; probably old and knowledgeable but boy was he wrong. The gamemaster who stood in front of him looked like a young man around the same age as Zhihao. And if that wasn''t enough, the young man was uselessly handsome! He had facial features that could neither be considered to be too sharp or too soft. Eyes like a phoenix; Beautiful and captivating yet glaring and dangerous.. A tall nose bridge and lips that were tinted with a light color of cherry blossoms. His hair, the deepest color of black, appeared soft and shiny; dancing with the light breeze.

    Zhihao was skeptical. He didn''t want to think he worshiped such a man whom he''d rather hang around with as friends or more like; he refused to believe that this man had actually accomplished so much at such a young age whereas Zhihao still sat around and literally played games all the time at the age of 24. The difference was as clear as day; One was the creator and the other was one of his millions of fans.

    "..."

    The silence spoke for itself, even Zhihao knew this. All player characters were custom created for the player according to their original appearance, gender, and age. The only changeable characteristics were clothes, hair colors, and hairstyles.

    This was probably a look really close to the man''s real appearance.

    [Welcome to I-ranked level 1853: Survival in the ship of the dead.]

    It was an intermediate level, more difficult than the E-ranked and A-ranked levels that Zhihao had experienced playing before but this didn''t cause the man any panic as he reassured himself that his partner was the gamemaster; Surely this man had some cards up his sleeves and would be able to beat the level with ease. Maybe Zhihao wouldn''t even need to move a single step and could just tag along to gain the rewards but damn... He was wrong!

    The ground started shaking terribly, To stable himself, he took a few steps but to no use as he stepped on something lumpy and lost his balance and unlike Li Ling who''d protect him from falling over, the game master couldn''t care less of what he did and that was how Zhihao ended up face-planting himself on the wet floor.

    Wet?

    ....Wait!

    This wasn''t water at all, it was much thicker in consistency, much darker in color, and had a pungent smell; There was no mistaking it, It was blood.

    "Stand up if you don''t want to roll around in human blood!" The game master spoke to Zhihao for the first time, His voice not having a human tone, rather he was talking through some sort of an electronic voice modifier.

    "Yes.... sir?" Zhihao felt awkward with calling the young gamemaster, sir but what else was he supposed to call him? He couldn''t just act friendly and call him whatever he liked and he had yet to recover from Li Ling''s betrayal so how could his brain function properly at this moment?

    "..." The gamemaster seemed to really not like talking.

    [You have successfully entered the ship of the dead]

    [In the year 2057; A group of marine biologists found a new species of human-like creatures that lived deep inside the North Atlantic ocean. These creatures looked much like the mythical mermaids that were portrayed in children''s fictional storybooks and in order to prove the existence of such sea creatures, A ship filled with experts was sent out on an expedition. The ship sailed smoothly for three days and two nights, On the third night, The ship stopped. All anybody could hear was a beautiful angelic voice singing, Nobody heard the cries and screams of the people who were massacred that night.]

    [Help is on the way but its running late]

    [Your mission is to survive the scenario for the next three days]

    [We wish all the best to the game master and his companion.]

    "How much would three days be in you know... Real world?" Zhihao asked the gamemaster

    "..." Like expected; he got no response.

    "What do we do?" Zhihao tried interacting once again but still got no response from his temporary partner.

    The gamemaster who acted like Zhihao didn''t exist, looked around for a bit and crouched down near the dead corpse of a man in his 30s. One look and Zhihao wanted to puke out his lunch. The man had certainly not received a pretty death; His eyes were still open but the eyeballs were missing. The mouth was opened wide as well suggesting that the last thing the man did was scream for his life but inside that open mouth, there wasn''t a tongue. The gamemaster startled Zhihao by stepping on the stomach of the dead man and easily crushed it.

    The gamemaster spoke, "An empty shell. Work of a siren."

    Zhihao didn''t understand what was happening till he looked closer and found out that the eyes and tongue weren''t the only things missing; The man had no stomach, no intestines, no organs! It was cleared out! Everything from the inside! The only remnants of the man were the skin that was still attached to his bones.

    How could something do such a horrifying thing?!

    "Sirens are dangerous. Follow." The gamemaster spoke waking Zhihao up from his horrified state.

    "huh?" The gamemaster didn''t say anything any further and snatched the walkie-talkie from the dead corpse before turning around and leaving Zhihao behind.

    Not a second later, Looking at the man''s back, Zhihao suddenly realized that the man meant for him to follow and as he realized this, he ran after him, "D-don''t leave me!"

    "What do you think did that? Oh right, You said something about sirens. Did a siren do that?" Zhihao pestered the gamemaster with questions but only got silence as a response.

    They walked through many cabins, passed through many corpses that were in the same condition as the man they previously saw. Whatever killed them was surely having the time of its life. Among all the adults here, there were even corpses of children, the same age as Zhihao''s younger brother or maybe even younger. Zhihao really felt thankful that he hadn''t eaten anything yet cause if he did, it would have been a waste, and now that he had seen such a horrifying scene, he was sure he wouldn''t have an appetite for the next three days.

    "Careful."

    Zhihao looked in front and found that the gamemaster had stopped walking; He was staring at something...

    In front of them was the body of a woman that was blocking the passage. The woman was lying limply on the ground with her hair in a bloody mess, eyes still open, her eyelids fluttering with no strength as it looked up at them and her mouth trying to word a single plea; Help!

    She was clearly still alive but clearly beyond the stage where she could be helped. On her stomach was a huge bloody hole from where some of her organs were missing and the organs that were still intact weren''t exactly intact, her intestines were hanging out and some other organ which was squashed to the point where it couldn''t even be deciphered what it was. She was still alive but for how long? It was clear that she''d stop breathing at any given moment but Zhihao was sure to be traumatized for life from this. The woman tried to crawl up to them but Zhihao stepped back in fear.

    No! No! Nope! No way!

    Zhihao hid behind the gamemaster who was clearly shorter than him.

    Shorter than him?

    Zhihao suddenly found himself celebrating his height. Just a few centimeters but Height was still height. He had managed to win against the man at something.

    Before he could complete his celebration that distracted him for the moment, The gamemaster pulled out a gun and shot the woman on her head. A clean hit that created a hole in the woman''s skull and ended her pitiful life on the spot.

    "Keep moving."

    "W-where are we going?" Zhihao couldn''t hide his fear.

    By all means, the whole scenario was scary enough to scare anybody and everybody but there was another feeling that overshadowed this fear; It was the feeling Zhihao got every time he looked at or interacted with the gamemaster. It was the overwhelming feeling of interacting with your long-time idol. He was worried and scared over every little thing; how to act, what to say, how to breathe?? He was afraid he''d annoy the man or cause him to dislike Zhihao.

    "Safe spot." This time Zhihao did get a reply and he was overjoyed with the answer, His heart beating so widely, his adrenaline pumping at a speed faster than a race car.

    "shh..."

    It was a faint sound coming from... everywhere.

    It covered them from all sides.

    It was the haunting melody of the Sirens.

    Suddenly Zhihao lost control over his game character as it started moving on its own but before it could go too far, the gamemaster pulled it back, "Enchantment."

    Zhihao didn''t know what was happening. All he could hear was the beautiful enchanting melody that made him lose control of his character. No matter how many buttons he pressed or how much he tried to gain back the control; it was futile. The only thing that stopped his character was the gamemaster who was physically holding him back. "W-What''s happening?"

    "You can''t fight against the Siren''s enchantment." The reply was short but Zhihao wasn''t dumb. His brain had started to recover its senses from earlier as he realized that the mission was to survive not to fight against the sirens or save anybody.

    The mission was made so clear but this was an I-ranked level so how could it be so easy? Everything had a catch and he was sure that experiencing the remnants of a ruthless murder scene wasn''t the only catch in this case so what else could it be? Of course, it was the sirens that hadn''t yet left the ship. But wasn''t it alright as long as they didn''t follow the song? but how could that be any fun so of course to increase the difficulty level, the maker had to put in an added disadvantage; Enchantment.

    [Be careful of the enchantment spell! Unless the player is out of the spell range; The player would be forced to follow the Siren''s voice.]

    Damn system! Always late!

    If the gamemaster wasn''t here, wouldn''t Zhihao be rendered completely helpless at the moment and be dragged to his possible character death? Wasn''t this type of system unfair to the players?

    "How are you not affected? Perks of being the Gamemaster?" Zhihao asked bitterly.

    "Enchantment breaking crystal."

    Of course, that had to be the answer.

    Zhihao had mixed feelings. On one hand, he was constantly thinking what if he were here with Li Ling instead? Would they even stand a chance? It would be a miracle if they survived for more than mere ten minutes. He was still mad at Li Ling for ditching him but he also felt glad that the man who was here with him was the gamemaster. Who else could prove to be so useful in this case?

    Enchantment breaking crystal was a high-grade artifact that cost more than 10,000 T-points. Not only was it super expensive but it was also an artifact that needed specific requirements to be owned; One needed to have completed at least one S-ranked level and have crossed a skill level of 12. Zhihao''s current skill level was 4 and he was still considered the top player of T.I.A.D. and with that being the case; nobody should be able to own the enchantment breaking crystal.

    However, there was one player who was never included in that stupid glorified list; It was the gamemaster. The one who reigned over them all.

 Chapter 11 - Mastermo Has A New Crush

    Survival in the ship of the dead was an I-ranked level that was made especially to make the players lose or at least that was the conclusion Zhihao came up with. To survive for three days on a ship that was filled with rotting corpses and hungry sirens and late system notifications? How could any player actually manage to win with such bad odds? But what scared Zhihao more wasn''t the fact that he was completely helpless inside this level, but the fact that this level was an I-ranked level. If this level was meant for Intermediate players then what was as S-ranked level like? Damn! Now he understood why none of the players who were randomly assigned to S-ranked levels won, they were all defeated within ten seconds and that was the record for the longest time a player had spent in an S-ranked level; 10 seconds.

    But Zhihao had no plan on giving up. He looked at the back of the gamemaster as he thought; It''s going to be me! Nobody but me can kill him, I won''t allow it! That 1 million dollars is mine.

    So how could Zhihao who wanted to beat the gamemaster just sit back right now and let the gamemaster protect him?

    "What are Sirens?" It was a stupid question, but a valid one. Zhihao had read tales about Sirens; The mythical evil versions of mermaids, creatures who lured the sailors with their voice and devoured them, but was the siren they were dealing with here the same sirens as the one Zhihao read about, or were they more dangerous?

    [New species found: Siren]

    Zhihao wanted to curse at the system. So damn late! In the E-ranked and A-ranked levels, the system used to give necessary information about their situation at the beginning of the level itself, but it seems, that is not the case in I-ranked levels. At this level, the player had to ask the system about certain things and if the player failed to ask the system; the system would only announce it when the player was facing adversities..

    [Sirens are sea creatures that live deep underwater, away from human civilization. They mainly eat big fishes and occasionally prey on Humans. They have 263 sharp teeth that clutch onto their prey''s throat to drain out the blood and kill their prey slowly. Once a human is half unconscious and doesn''t have any energy left to fight back, they start devouring the organs of the human. If their prey is dead; they won''t eat it. They only eat living things that are still breathing. A Siren''s special ability is to lure prey with the help of its voice. This ability is called enchantment and as the name suggests; Once a player is caught in the range of a siren''s enchantment, the player has no way of breaking free unless with the help of special artifacts meant to break Siren''s enchantment. They do not like to be seen. Unlike other creatures who don''t hunt when their stomach is full, a siren loves playing with its prey even when it has no appetite. The only way to kill a Siren is if you stab its throat that contains its heart.]

    Zhihao stopped cursing the system as he figured out that no matter how late it was, the system was still really useful to them. He also had another revelation; The woman they saw earlier had fallen prey to a siren and was in the middle of having her internal organs be devoured whole when they came and interrupted the sirens feast. Because the Siren didn''t like to be exposed and seen by others, it abandoned its prey and fled away. Such despicable creatures. Playing with its prey, eating it alive, and losing interest in it if it died. Zhihao really wanted to avenge the people who fell prey to such creatures.

    "Don''t think about killing the siren." The gamemaster spoke.

    "Huh? Why not?"

    "If you go too close to the siren, you''re as good as dead." This was a problem Zhihao had clearly thought about.

    "What if we shoot it from afar?"

    "No use." The gamemaster didn''t reply further or justify his answer, but luckily he didn''t need to, Even without his explaining things Zhihao had already caught on; If the system said stab, there was no way they could shoot the creature, and even if they did manage to shoot its heart, the creature would not die so easily.

    Now the question remained how could they stab the creature?

    But thinking about the answer to that question was futile. The most important thing they needed to know at the moment was just how many Sirens were inside this Ship at this moment?

    Before that question could ever be answered, The ground shook; The ship that was floating on the open sea had come to a stop, probably collided with maybe a piece of land. Wasn''t this a good thing? If there was land, they only needed to run away. Zhihao saw a ray of hope; Maybe they would manage to complete this mission after all.

    And that ray of hope was destroyed by the sound of the notification system.

    [The ship has entered the cave of the sirens]

    Damn! Curse it all!

    "Follow. Fast." The gamemaster didn''t seem to be too shocked, after all, wasn''t he the creator of this world? If there was anybody who deserved Zhihao''s curses, wasn''t it this man in front of him?

    Zhihao followed the man silently.

    Corpses.

    Blood.

    And more corpses; Some were empty shells with hollow eyes and wide-open mouths while some still had their eyes intact, but their internal organs were not inside their bodies anymore; These poor people probably could not take the blood loss and pain and ''gave up'' halfway through.

    As they continued moving, Zhihao found that the number of corpses, they encountered was decreasing in number; This was a good sign, This indicated that they were probably heading somewhere safe.

    They found a staircase which led them downstairs, the gamemaster seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

    "Is this the...?"

    "Engine room." The gamemaster responded, "It''s safe for now. We''ll stay here for the night. The Sirens are not hungry yet so they won''t purposefully come looking for us."

    They entered the congested engine room of the ship where there was not a single corpse in sight and the door had been locked by the gamemaster when they entered so there was no way any creature could sneak up on them here.

    They were safe, at least for now.

    But how long would that safety last? How long till the Sirens became hungry again?

    Zhihao had yet to come face-to-face with a Siren so his impression of the creature was solely based on the left behind corpses that fell prey to these creatures. The information the system gave was quite useful but it was still not enough and because Zhihao didn''t know just how scary these creatures could be, He was not as afraid of them. But that didn''t mean he wasn''t afraid at all; He was indeed afraid of failing the mission and being eliminated. The picture in his mind, he had of a Siren was still that of a fairy tale mermaid just..... more evil. That being the case, Zhihao could relax and distract himself from the current situation; The way he decided to do that was by pestering the gamemaster for information.

    "Say, didn''t you create those creatures? Don''t they have any weak spots or something?"

    "Their heart."

    "Nothing else?"

    "..." The silence was an affirmative no.

    "Just curious, but how does it look like? A sirens heart?"

    "Glowing green." Zhihao wanted to chuckle as he heard the unexpected answer; A glowing green heart? Wasn''t it extremely cliche?

    "I have another question; Did you personally come up with all the scenarios?"

    "Hmm."

    "What?! For real? How many scenarios are there?"

    "A few million."

    Zhihao choked on air. How could the man just calmly say that? To create a few million scenarios was clearly no easy feat. Even if Zhihao started writing one or maybe even ten scenarios per day, he still would not be able to finish it in the next ten years. Just how inhuman was this man?

    "Do you remember every single one of them?"

    "Obviously not. Just some major aspects of each." The gamemaster answered as he closed his eyes and leaned back on the sidewall.

    "Makes sense. You are... Really amazing. Did you know that?"

    "Hmm."

    "Since we are now temporary partners, are we not considered friends? I don''t even know the name of this friend yet...?"

    "If we successfully complete this mission, I''ll tell you."

    Motivation!

    Although Zhihao seemed to calmly communicate with his idol, the reality inside his mind was something entirely different. He was trying his hardest to speak casually as if he wasn''t affected by the man''s presence, trying his hardest to regulate his breath and hiding his sweaty hands.

    Zhihao was shocked at his own ability to act so well; He had managed to stop himself from talking nonstop nonsense, from clinging to the man, and from praising him too much.

    "If we get out of here alive you have to promise you''ll tell me your name."

    "..."

    Zhihao didn''t mind how responseless the man was, as long as he wasn''t annoyed at him; everything was well and good.

    "So how long can we get to stay here?"

    "16 hours; in-game time."

    "What happens after that?"

    "We move."

    "Do you think we can keep hiding for the next three days?"

    "Not possible." Short but straight to the point; Zhihao oddly liked the way the man would respond to all his questions.

    "How do we fight it? Do you have a plan?"

    "Age."

    "Age?"

    "As long as the Siren is not old, we have a chance."

    "And what are our chances?"

    "70% chance of encountering young ones."

    "What do we do if it''s an old one?"

    "You hide. I fight."

    "..." The offer was certainly tempting but Zhihao''s dignity had already been crushed by Li Ling once before so there was no way in hell, he''ll let it happen again.

    The gamemaster saw the unwillingness in Zhihao''s eyes and spoke sternly, "You will not fight."

    "I appreciate your worry but I''m a player too."

    "Moon goddess spellbook."

    "huh?" Zhihao was confused.

    "You have it, don''t you?"

    He certainly did, He received it this morning itself by playing an E-ranked level but how did this man know it?

    Oh! Once again Mastermo was reminded of the fact that the handsome youth was the gamemaster; gamemasters had the added ability to see through other players, His entire inventory and skills were plainly visible to him so of course, he had already seen the said item in his possession.

    Zhihao had no idea what the item was about, only that it was gained by mistake; The book he had kept with him as a clue in the last level wasn''t exactly a clue but was in fact a moon goddess spellbook that he carried with him by accident. But Zhihao thought of it as nothing more but trash so he was ready to discard it after some time but he had eventually forgotten about it completely.

    Now that the gamemaster had mentioned it; The book was clearly no trash. Zhihao opened his inventory and took the item out.

    [Accessing the moon goddess spellbook]

    [Moon Goddess Spellbook: With the blessing of the moon goddess, this rare item has the ability to fend the player from all in-game evil creatures.]

    So basically, a lucky charm.

    How lucky of Zhihao to pick it up by chance.

    "If you use it, you should remain safe."

    Zhihao was still unsatisfied. He didn''t want to owe this man too much.

    If the gamemaster was to fight the Sirens, Zhihao would join him, no questions asked. That was just how his personality was. He had depended on himself for the entirety of his life, If someone were to suddenly tell him that they''ll do the hard work for him; He''ll certainly be happy but he would also happily decline the offer.

    Zhihao was touched. Although the gamemaster ignored him for the most part of it, even if he gave short answers or didn''t catch Zhihao when he fell down; Zhihao still felt that this man hadn''t necessarily been bad to him. Hadn''t he silently protected him throughout the way? Hadn''t he warned him whenever something dangerous came up? The gamemaster was indeed worried about him and just showed his concern in a really low-key manner.

    Maybe all that or Zhihao just had a new crush.

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 12 - Mastermo Doesnt Want To Be Protected By His Crush.

    In-game time was quite different from how time flew by in real life; every one minute spent in the game would be equal to 10 seconds spent in the real world.

    The instructions given to successfully complete this mission were pretty simple; Survive the scenario for three days��72 hours in-game timing which would then be calculated as 12 hours in the real world timing.

    Zhihao recalled how the gamemaster had said that they cannot spend their entire time hiding and would soon need to come up with a plan to fight for themselves. The estimated in-game time they''ll get to spend hiding here was 16 hours which in the real world timing would be equal to almost 3 hours. Hence, the two had 3 hours tops to come up with a plan but...

    Zhihao looked at the sleeping man in front of him. The gamemaster had actually left his character idle here. The in-game player characters were controlled by people from the real world so of course, the game characters would never need to sleep and if a player was tired they could just log out and go to sleep but T.I.A..D. had such a ridiculous option to let the in-game characters sleep. This feature was made for the people who would usually keep on hiding at one place in a battle royale, It helped players spend time to complete their works in the real world while their in-game characters could camp out in a mission. This was an excellent way to let the players achieve a balance between gaming and real life.

    But Zhihao was not pleased in the least. He was looking forward to interacting with the gamemaster and strategizing together with him. He wanted to get to know the man better and complete this mission together but just 20 minutes of hiding and the gamemaster had already left him. At this moment he felt like Li Ling was better; If it was him, he''d never leave Zhihao alone like this. Just as Zhihao thought this, he remembered something else. He remembered how Li Ling had actually not picked up his phone or replied to his texts and then Zhihao remembered something else; Just the other day Li Ling was actually not feeling well and had overworked himself. Was he sick? Of course, that was it! That could explain everything. Li Ling had actually overworked himself to the point of falling sick and was lying unconscious in his room and maybe that was why he unintentionally ignored Zhihao. It all made perfect sense. If that was the case not only would Zhihao forgive him without question but he would also apologize for ever doubting Li Ling.

    Concluding that this may be the case; Zhihao put his game character to sleep and once again called Li Ling.

    This time it rang three times before somebody picked up the phone and from the other side came an unfamiliar female voice, "Hello?"

    "Umm... Isn''t this Li Ling''s phone?"

    "Yeah. Who is this?"

    "Ah! Zhihao. Huang Zhihao. I''m his... friend." Zhihao answered in confusion.

    "Mastermo? Gege is currently busy. Can I take a message?"

    "Nothing! Nothing! I was just calling to check up on him."

    "Is that so? I''ll tell him you called."

    "Thank you."

    "Anything else?" The girl asked politely

    "Is he doing okay? He seemed to be sick a few days ago."

    "Ah! Actually, he''s still suffering from a cold but he refused to stay at home and insisted on working."

    Zhihao felt his heart drop, he had indeed predicted something like this but for the man to actually work even when he was sick? What type of slave job was this?

    Zhihao, "Can I know who I am speaking to?" This question had been bugging him for some reason since the beginning of this phone call.

    "Ah! Sorry! I forgot to give you my name. This is Li Ying, I''m his sister."

    Zhihao didn''t know why but he sighed in relief and was shocked to find out that he was actually relieved somehow, "Sister? Is that so. hehe..." He chuckled awkwardly, "I didn''t know he had a sister."

    "It''s understandable. He doesn''t like talking about his family." Zhihao wondered if it was just his imagination but the girl''s voice actually seemed to carry with it a sense of sadness, "If there is nothing else, I''m hanging up. I''m a bit busy at the moment."

    "Yeah, sure! sure!" Zhihao ended the call and re-entered the game.

    Zhihao calculated the remaining time which was now cut short to two and a half hours in real-time.

    More than enough time to come up with a solution to the current problem; The sirens.

    Zhihao didn''t really have any equipment to defeat the Siren nor did he have a plan. All he could get from the clue given by the system was that they needed to stab a Siren''s throat in order to kill it but how could that be easy? The ship had entered inside the Siren''s cave right now, just how many predators roamed outside those doors? He had no idea.

    "Hey, system! How many Sirens are waiting outside?"

    [Answering players question: There are currently more than 2000 Sirens waiting outside.]

    Zhihao calculated. There were two of them and more than two thousand sirens waiting to eat them. What were their chances of winning with such odds? Zhihao once again felt like cursing. Were there any odds that could save them? How were they supposed to survive for three days in this situation? Weren''t they just waiting around to be eaten?

    "How can we kill a Siren?" the system had answered this question before but what was there to lose in questioning it again, Wouldn''t it just make things a bit more clear?

    [Answering players question: The only way to kill a Siren is by stabbing its throat where its green colored glowing heart is located.]

    [Congratulations! You just attained an important item that could help you defeat the sirens: Silver sharp dagger.]

    "..."

    It seems this system is really late in helping the players. Was this an added feature used to increase the difficulty level?

    "Show item stats."

    [Silver sharp dagger: This item is non-transferable and can only be used inside the I-ranked level 1853: Survival in the ship of the dead.]

    [Used to stab the Siren''s heart.]

    Non-transferable items were items a player got when they played a certain level, once the level has been completed, they can no longer keep the item with them whereas, Transferable items were items that a player could collect and take out from the level it was found in. The moon goddess spellbook was a transferable item and this new dagger attained by him was a non-transferable item. Zhihao had a lot of Transferable items that were more powerful than this dagger but in order to complete this level, He could not rely on anything but this Silver sharp dagger, and truth be told, Zhihao wasn''t so good with daggers. Didn''t daggers mean he''ll need to get close to those vicious creatures? No way in hell!

    But in the end, he would still have to use this item if he were to fight side-by-side with the gamemaster so he had no choice but to learn how to use it.

    Another hour and a half passed as Zhihao practiced and got comfortable with the dagger. Just as he started gaining some confidence in himself, An electronic voice interrupted him, "What are you doing?" It was the voice of the gamemaster.

    "Ah! I had nothing else to do so I thought I might as well try to get better at this." Zhihao responded, hiding his embarrassment.

    "That''s a dagger, not a sword. You are doing it wrong."

    Zhihao''s confidence was crushed underneath his words. He hadn''t realized this big problem. To him, a sword was made from a blade and so was a dagger so how could the two be different from one another? The only difference between them was their size, was it not? Zhihao suddenly felt like an idiot; He had been practicing it wrong for the last hour and a half.

    "You''re holding it wrong." The gamemaster stood up and took a hold of Zhihao''s hand and guided his fingers around it, "Like this. You need a firm grip."

    Zhihao suddenly felt enlightened, to be taught personally by his idol like this? Just how lucky could he get?

    "Do not swing it."

    "Isn''t it a blade that cuts? I think swinging it around a bit should be fine." Zhihao responded

    "No." The gamemaster replied sternly, "Sirens are fast. Only stab."

    Zhihao understood the gist of it somehow. All he had to do was have a firm grip over the dagger and use it to stab the Siren.

    "Aim for the throat. If you can''t stab its throat, then game over."

    "Umm... What if I miss?"

    "Game over."

    "Aiyah, come one now, It can''t be that bad... right?"

    "Game. Over."

    Zhihao was stunned. If the gamemaster said so then there was certainly no other way.

    "Siren''s aim for the neck and if you are caught by it, there is no escape."

    Zhihao could feel a chill go down his spine; These creatures were certainly very fearsome.

    For the next whole hour, The gamemaster personally taught Zhihao how to wield a dagger. For Zhihao, this was going to be a precious moment in his life which he''ll never forget and would be engraved deep in his memory.

    "It''s time." The gamemaster spoke first as he moved towards the door.

    "A-are we not going to wait here for some more time? We can just leave when they come here." Zhihao was certainly frightened of the unknown that lay behind that door.

    "No." The gamemaster replied, "In the next ten minutes, more than ten sirens would head this way and block the door. If we leave now we can deal with them one by one but if we wait here any longer, our chances of survival are zero."

    Zhihao was stunned, not at the new information received but at the fact that this was the longest sentence, the gamemaster has spoken to him.

    "I have an idea. Let''s blow this entrance up so if there are any sirens waiting for us outside, we can just deal with them all at once." Zhihao felt like the idea he came up with was genius but the look he got from the gamemaster proved otherwise.

    Just why was he so fixated on blowing things up?

    "Noise attracts more Sirens."

    This... Zhihao didn''t know it. He remembered the total number of Sirens waiting outside. two against an army of two thousand; the odds were scary and so Zhihao immediately discarded any further ideas that included a bomb. "Let''s just go then."

    "..." The man stared back at Zhihao, "activate the moon goddess spellbook first."

    Zhihao didn''t know if he should feel touched that the man cared about his well-being or feel humiliated because he was being protected by this man.

    "If I''m in danger, I''ll activate it. Right now, I don''t see any use in activating it."

    "It''s for your own safety."

    "Game master, I admire you and your skills but I think I''ve said this before; I''m also a player, a professional pro-gamer and this is my job. I can''t just hide behind you and let you guide me through this mission. If I were to do that, how would gaming be any fun? If I was scared of a challenge, why would I be playing T.I.A.D."

    "...''

    "Just trust me, and if there comes a situation where my life is in danger, You can just come and save me. I trust you." Zhihao smiled.

    The gamemaster didn''t respond and instead just turned to open the door.

    The stairs were clear with no signs of any sea monsters. This was a relief however not a second later, there came that haunting melody once again and Zhihao lost control over his game character.

    Damn! he had forgotten this.

    The gamemaster once again held on to Zhihao''s hand and stopped him from following the melody.

    "Careful"

    Zhihao now understood why the gamemaster had told him to activate the moon goddess spellbook. That item also had the added power to protect the player from the Siren''s enchantment. So what about the whole speech he just gave? Didn''t he just make a fool out of himself?

    But the gamemaster didn''t tell Zhihao to activate that item again and instead just held onto Zhihao''s hand; This seemed to work as well and Zhihao kinda preferred this method better.

 Chapter 13 - Mastermo Gets Licked By A Siren

    Two men holding hands in an abandoned ship filled with blood-thirsty sirens; Totally normal.

    They carefully got out of the engine room and walked up the stairs. The Siren''s enchantment melody could still be heard, proving that they were not walking unnoticed. Thank god these sirens were a bit face-shy if not, then wouldn''t they pop up like the ghosts in horror movies. However, Zhihao was curious about what a Siren looked that, he couldn''t be blamed for wanting to put a face to the name but a few minutes later, Zhihao regretted his wish; It was better not to see that hideous creature.

    Right in front of them was a Siren happily chomping on someone''s corpse. The creature didn''t seem to realize their presence as it did not show any signs of running away.

    One look at its face and Zhihao wanted to log out of the game immediately.

    Just what in the hell was this creature?!

    The Siren had translucent scaly skin��ashen grey, Pure black eyes, and sticky hair. Its hands and mouth were covered in blood; such a messy eater.. Its fingers were unusually long and the nails extremely sharp, Zhihao could vaguely guess how easy it was for them to rip out a person''s heart. It had a fish''s tail; not at all beautiful or shiny like a mermaid''s. The most unsightly thing was their wide mouth that could swallow a whole human head with ease and inside this mouth was its sharp 263 teeth; Just one bite and whatever it bit would become mincemeat. Zhihao also noticed that in its throat was a glowing green heart faintly visible due to its translucent skin.

    "Careful." The gamemaster warned him.

    Zhihao was too scared to take his eyes off the creature, fearing that the second he looks away, the creature would jump on him, but the moment he heard the gamemaster, he was made aware that this wasn''t the Siren that was singing.

    Everything happened in a flash; A siren that silently hid in the dark corner lunged at them with a blood-curdling growl which caused the other siren to also notice the newcomers. The gamemaster pulled Zhihao behind them and, with a dagger; he directly stabbed the heart of the siren that threw itself at them with an open mouth. The other siren sneaked past the gamemaster and attacked Zhihao but instead of Zhihao''s throat, it caught hold of Zhihao''s arm, "Ahhhhh!" Zhihao screamed from the shock and the gamemaster sliced the Siren''s neck in the next second.

    Zhihao''s health status depleted by twenty percent.

    The gamemaster sighed, "Activate the moon goddess spellbook."

    "No!" This time Zhihao who was still shaken from the situation sternly declined and took the initiative to grab the man''s hand first, "A big mouth like that won''t scare me."

    The gamemaster didn''t respond and just kept on walking.

    They took another turn down the passage and this time what they met with was a tail that had no body on top of it. This certainly shocked Zhihao who thought that they were the only ones here, but compared to him, The gamemaster didn''t show a change in expression.

    "Good!" The gamemaster mumbled as he took the walkie talkie that he had previously picked up from a dead corpse. He pushed a button on top of it and spoke, "Can anyone hear me? There are two survivors down here above the engine room. Over."

    The speaker of the walkie talkie came to life, "Copy. I''ll come to pick you up. Stay there. Over."

    "Roger that."

    Zhihao, "Who was that?"

    "Help." The gamemaster replied, "He''s the guy who is going to help us stay alive."

    "Huh?"

    "He''s a character that is made to help the players. In normal conditions, a player would get to meet him at the end of the second day, but since I already know the existence of such a character, I called him here beforehand."

    Zhihao, "Ah! That''s awesome. I like the way you think."

    "Don''t praise me yet. Look in front."

    Just as Zhihao turned his head, he saw many glowing pairs of eyes glaring straight at them. The melody seemed to get stronger, but thankfully the gamemaster was still holding on to him hence, the enchantment had no effect on him, "Didn''t you say we could avoid fighting a horde of them together."

    "If we waited, the numbers wouldn''t have been stopped at this."

    Zhihao used his empty hand to firmly grip the Silver sharp dagger and took a defensive stature whereas, the gamemaster just acted like his normal self; cool and calm.

    The sirens saw that the enchantment had no effect on the two players so they decided to straightforwardly attack them. When the first siren pounced at the gamemaster, the man swiftly sliced its throat in half and the creature''s head slid off from its body. He gracefully tilted his body to the side, avoiding the second siren and aiming for the third''s neck. The forth Siren seemed to want to attack him from the side, but the gamemaster threw the dagger aimed straight through its throat. The man then swiftly moved around; ducked, and tilted his way toward the dagger that was stuck in the sirens throat, grabbed it, and with a single slice; cut down three more sirens.

    Impressive.

    Weirdly enough no Sirens seemed to attack Zhihao, this was not because of their unwillingness to do so, but because every Siren that tried was already cut down by the gamemaster. Although Zhihao had firmly stated his unwillingness to be protected, at this moment he was glad that he didn''t have to fight those vicious creatures.

    But it seems Zhihao''s odd luck had run out. None of the two noticed a siren that sneaked up from behind them. It didn''t throw itself at them like the other siren''s; It silently sneaked up behind Zhihao and licked his cheek with its long snack-like tongue.

    "Oh fuckkkkk!" Zhihao yelled in shock

    "Shhh... Now don''t be so rude. Be good and I''ll spare your life."

    "..."

    The Siren spoke!

    The freaking siren actually knew how to speak?!

    Zhihao''s brain couldn''t comprehend the situation so like a coward who cared for his life he activated the moon goddess spellbook.

    The book opened with a flash of bright light and sucked Zhihao inside it.

    "..."

    The Siren caught the book, "Looks like our dear friend likes to hide."

    [An old Siren detected: Sirens who are young do not have a brain but when they reach a certain age; cognitive development is seen in them. These Sirens are harder to handle as they have a thicker neck that well-protects their heart and some of them can even speak human language. A player is recommended to stay away from these types of sirens.]

    "Let him go!" The gamemaster by the time that Zhihao had been sucked into the book and been captured by the old siren, had finished slaughtering the horde of young sirens.

    "Oh my lord, who do we have here? It''s quite rude of you to just murder my people and demand I give back your friend." The siren had a smooth yet creepy voice; one that could put you in a trance, one which you''ll never be able to wake up from.

    "If you don''t return him I''ll-"

    "You''ll what? Kill me? You seem to be smart, haven''t you already realized how helpless you are at the moment? You still dare to speak so proudly?"

    The gamemaster seemed to know how futile talking with this creature would be so he grabbed the dagger and lunged forward to attack its throat but the creature was too smart and fast; It dodged the attack and moved aside.

    "hehehe... You don''t still believe you have a chance against me, do you?" The Siren giggled mockingly.

    "I don''t have a chance." The gamemaster changed the direction of his attack but the siren still managed to avoid it, "But I''m not letting you get away with him." He attacked once again and the Siren slipped away once again.

    "I like your persistence. Just who is this to you? A friend?" The siren dodged once again as it continued speaking, "Maybe family?" The gamemaster tried striking it again, "Ah! A lover perhaps?"

    The gamemaster swung his Dagger, "Why should I tell you?"

    "You are indeed right but... hehehe... I think it''s most likely the last option." As the siren said this, It opened its wide mouth and swallowed the book whole.

    Wasn''t the moon goddess spellbook supposed to save me?!

    Zhihao was stupefied. The protection the system talked about wasn''t a shield or some equipment but it was actually being sucked inside the book. Zhihao was now safe for the moment as he saw that he had been swallowed by the siren but his health status had remained unchanged. This was bad. He couldn''t do anything. If he were to deactivate the moon goddess spellbook, he''ll still be inside its stomach so the best option now was to wait patiently for the gamemaster to come and rescue him.

    The gamemaster on the other hand didn''t seem to see this coming as he just stood there in shock.

    "There. Now your lover is in my belly." The Siren spoke wickedly, rubbing her stomach; She was proud and happy with her action but what happened next, even she could not foresee.

    As the siren felt a sharp pain��it looked down, only to find that its tail and its upper body had been divided in half. A white liquid, presumably the sirens blood oozed out and without a single second to even realize what was happening, its heart was crushed and it died an unsightly death.

    "Hope I''m not late." It was the man who had previously been contacted by the gamemaster.

    "Just almost." The gamemaster smiled, quite pleased with the man''s cruel way of killing the creature.

    Zhihao deactivated the moon goddess spellbook and instantly sprang at the gamemaster, clinging onto the man like a monkey, whining, "That was so scary."

    "I don''t seem to recognize you two. Where are you from?" The new game character spoke.

    "We snuck inside the ship." The gamemaster answered.

    "Eh? Why would you do that?"

    "..."

    Zhihao, "Free travel."

    "You certainly have some rotten luck to have chosen this cursed ship." The new character spoke, "I''m Wilburt. The captain of this ship. Nice to meet you."

    "Ah! Yes! I''m Mastermo and this is..."

    "The gamemaster."

    "Good to know you, Mr. Mastermo and Mr. Gamemaster."

    Thankfully the man was just a game character that ran on codes so he did not have a brain of his own to question how fake those two names were.

    "When are you going to get down?"

    Only now did Mastermo realize that he was still clinging onto the gamemaster. With an embarrassed face, he apologized and stopped himself.

    "Gamemaster, Why was this man able to kill that siren so easily?"

    "Let the system explain."

    [New character: Captain Wilburt. This man, who is blessed with immense luck is the only survivor in this ship. He had managed to save himself by carving himself out from the belly of the sirens. He used to cut them in half but soon found out that it was not enough to kill the creatures so he further discovered their weakness and started to crush their hearts. He had evolved into developing inhuman strength and can crush a sirens throat with his bare hands.]

    When Zhihao read this, he had this uncanny feeling that something was not sitting right with this story.

    Aren''t sirens well known to kill their prey slowly by biting its neck and devouring its organs? Then why did the system just say that the man had survived by carving himself out from the stomach of the sirens? Unless...

    Zhihao glanced at the gamemaster for answers.

    "He is a half breed." The gamemaster confirmed, "He doesn''t know it yet."

    Zhihao glanced back at the man who only had an axe in his hand; his hands that resembled that of a siren instead of a human. The hand that wielded that axe in order to slice all the sirens in half. He felt pity for the man. To be born to one of those creatures and having to kill them without knowing the truth, it was pitiful indeed.

    "Gamemaster, I think you have a really cruel mind. To create such characters, Just what kind of a life have you been living?"

 Chapter 14 - Mastermo Wants To Sleep.

    "Gamemaster, I think you have a really cruel mind. To create such characters, Just what kind of a life have you been living?"

    The Gamemaster never responded to that question. His life had certainly not been the easiest, but it was his choice to keep his sufferings a secret and he''d rather have people thinking he''s too blessed then have them pity him. People have always called him that; blessed and talented, without ever knowing the hardships that come with life. In the end what was ''talent''? People would see young people achieve something beyond their age and label it as talent. Wasn''t this so-called talent just years of hard work, dedication, and sufferings that people dare not talk about?

    Sometimes silence was the best answer and Zhihao wasn''t looking forward to intruding the man''s privacy; He''d rather be just a fan who''ll keep on supporting his idol from afar.

    Captain Wilburt looked at the two, cluelessly. This character made from a set of codes could not comprehend this feeling of pity or unspoken words.

    The gamemaster, "It''s not safe here. Let''s keep moving. We''ll wait for the rescue team in the captain''s room.."

    "I agree." The man nodded.

    With the additional character, Captain Wilburt, The small group of three made their way towards the captain''s room. The journey was not easy, in fact, they had met up with a lot of blood-thirsty sirens on the way there but despite all odds, with the help of this man with innate superhuman strength to defeat the sirens, they safely reached their destination. It would be unfair to give all the credits to him alone tho, The gamemaster and Zhihao had also managed to defeat quite a number of those creatures.

    It seemed, the gamemaster was well versed in the art of daggers; Like a trained assassin, he ruthlessly sliced through the throats of the sirens that attacked him or Zhihao and if a siren managed to avoid him and slip through to attack Zhihao, Mastermo wasn''t so careless as before. After fighting Sirens for over half an hour, Zhihao had finally managed to get a hold of how to use a dagger, and thanks to his pro-gamer background; he was a quick learner who adapted to the new situation fairly well.

    Once inside the Captain''s room, Zhihao mentally calculated the remaining time it would take for them to complete the mission. It was their second day inside the game whereas, in real-world timings; They had spent almost four and a half hours inside this level. They had to survive for another Seven and a half hours in order to complete this mission.

    "Gamemaster, Why is this level so long?" Zhihao whined.

    Gamemaster responded, "Tired?"

    "Extremely. You even took a break when we were hiding in the engine room but I was here practicing how to use a dagger the wrong way." Zhihao spoke, bitterly.

    "Then take a break. Activate the moon goddess spellbook and go."

    "..." Zhihao really didn''t want to be sucked into that book again, What if he was swallowed up again by that Siren? Traumatizing!

    Zhihao, "Let''s interrogate the Captain."

    "Hmm."

    "Captain Wilburt, Do you know where we are?" Their ship was currently inside the Siren''s cave, This piece of information was made clear by the system but Zhihao still asked the question in order to find out if their new ally knew of this as well.

    "Not really sure of the exact location but we should be still in the North-Atlantic waters. The ship hit something yesterday night but I believe it''s nothing good. It was too dark to see what was outside and there were too many of those creatures waiting outside. Going out would be suicide at this point."

    "You''re right. Those damn creatures are certainly not to be joked around with." Zhihao sighed, "You are really impressive, Captain Wilburt, To survive on your own like this, Just how did you manage it?", If there was anything Zhihao had learned from Li Ling, it was flattery; A powerful technique that could get you all the right answers in a peaceful manner.

    Captain Wilburt, "It was actually easy. Wanna hear the story? It''s really long."

    Zhihao celebrated in his mind, He had finally gotten the hang of this pacifist method, "We have a lot of time."

    "One day, I had some professional people on board, you know those people who study creatures underwater; marine biologists. One of them noticed this weird thing, with half its head out of the water, just staring at us. Could have been a human but its half-visible head looked more like a dead person''s head. We all got spooked; this may be a ghost. So you know how our first reaction is to always record such incidents on camera? That''s what everyone did. A few days later, this group of people came back with a larger crowd saying that it was a groundbreaking discovery of a new creature: A mermaid. Although I don''t believe in such creatures, I agreed to take them, Money was money and they were ready to pay a huge sum of it." The man sneered seeming to recall the certain memory, "At first it was smooth sailing but then one day, we all heard something. It was the voice of a woman, sweet and melodious, Singing; Come here oh sailor. Forget about your worries, leave your past behind, and be reborn. Follow my voice, I''ll lead you to the bright side." Zhihao was stunned, This man didn''t seem to know something very important.

    The man continued, "It was like a curse. The people were bewitched by it, started following the voices. One after another, they were attacked. Their organs..." He sighed, not comfortable with reminiscing the incident, "It was bloody gruesome. I tried to stop them but nobody listened to me. For some reason, the creature never attacked me, maybe because I wasn''t bewitched by their magic. At one point, I thought maybe I had also died, that this was all a dream after death but then I got your message and I knew I wasn''t alone. You guys managed to avoid its magic as well. I''m really glad."

    Zhihao pitied the man; If only he knew that what the others could hear wasn''t the same as what he heard. The Siren''s enchantment was a melody which had no language or to be more specific, it was a melody only sirens could understand and that is why it only affected humans who could hear the hypnotic voices. But for Zhihao and the gamemaster, this could be for the best; Having somebody who could understand a siren''s language would prove to be quite helpful for them.

    The topic of the conversation, as if on cue, the enchanting melody was heard once more but this time the gamemaster was already holding onto Zhihao''s hand so he was safe from it.

    The gamemaster, "What are they saying?"

    "Can''t you hear it for yourselves? They are talking about you."

    They definitely could not.

    Zhihao nodded, "We can''t hear it. Mind translating it for us?"

    "Come out and play with us... Be our friend and we''ll show you our treasures... We know what you want... Your desires shall be fulfilled... Life is cruel, we''ll help you be reborn rich... Say goodbye to your sufferings, they don''t deserve you... I''m here to take you to-"

    "That''s enough." The gamemaster cut him off halfway.

    Zhihao, "Who the hell wants their riches? Tell them, I''m content with my life so they can just get lost."

    "I cannot possibly communicate back with them." The captain smiled helplessly.

    "Gamemaster, How long do you think we can stay here like this?"

    "If nothing happens, 5 hours in real-world timing."

    "What would happen after that?"

    "..." Zhihao didn''t get a response as above the gamemaster''s character was the floating letters; zzz...

    The gamemaster''s character had again gone to sleep but this time Zhihao was too tired to wait around for him. In the real-world timings, it was way past midnight, around 4 a.m. and Zhihao was lacking sleep so he was tempted to take a short nap but unfortunately that nap wasn''t short enough to wake him up after 5 hours.

    When Zhihao finally opened his eyes, His in-game character was sucked inside the moon goddess spellbook; the work of the gamemaster who had the power to activate a player''s equipment by force. They had started moving and since Zhihao was sleeping, The gamemaster had forcefully activated the defensive item and was carrying the book a.k.a., Zhihao with him.

    "W-What is happening?", Zhihao deactivated the item and woke up in the gamemaster''s arms.

    "The Ship is sinking." It was the voice of Captain Wilburt who was fighting against a Siren.

    The gamemaster spoke as he put Zhihao down, "If we wait around any longer, We''ll be underwater."

    "Have to fix the leakage spot, ASAP." Captain Wilburt continued as he grabbed the Siren''s throat and squeezed it till its heart inside turned into mush. The man seemed to look more different than the last time Zhihao had seen him.

    "This...?"

    "He''s evolving." The gamemaster who had read Zhihao''s mind answered.

    Captain Wilburt had started to resemble a siren more and more. Previously, he used to just have longer fingers and sharper nails but now it seems, even his skin had started to change color into a lighter translucent grey color, alike that of a siren. The skin had not only changed color but had also changed texture; It was starting to become more rough and scaly.

    Zhihao, "Why is this happening?"

    [Answering players question: Captain Wilburt is a half-human half-Siren hybrid character. If he continues killing other sirens, he would slowly evolve into a full-fledged siren himself. If he wants to stay human, he''ll have to eat a human''s heart.]

    Zhihao finally understood why the gamemaster had said that they''ll be safe for now. But hadn''t he also said that the normal players only get to meet this character at the end of the second day? Then was it possible that by that time this man had already started showing signs or had finished evolving into a Siren? Once again, he glanced at the gamemaster for answers.

    The gamemaster, "By the end of the second day, he would have already turned into a Siren with a consciousness of a human."

    "Would he become dangerous for us?"

    "Depends on how much he''ll evolve."

    Zhihao was once again reminded of the gamemaster''s signature creation style of cruel scenarios.

    To remain human this man would have to do the most inhumane thing ever and if he does what every human being would, he''ll turn into something inhuman. What type of illogical thing was this? Was this man to give up his humanity to become human, if so, what would be the difference between him and those creatures? and if he decides to uphold his morals, he''ll become one of those nasty things? The decision was just complete bullshit. Zhihao would refuse to choose either of the two.

    "Gamemaster, What happened to him in the initial story draft?" Zhihao asked as he stared at the man who was enthusiastically slaying Sirens.

    "He became a Siren and was reunited with his father, the siren king."

    Zhihao chuckled in a mocking manner, "So he''s a prince? I see. You''re stories never fail to amaze me."

    The gamemaster, "What do you want his ending to be?"

    Before they could ponder over it some more, a siren who had slipped past Captain Wilburt sprang at them with an open mouth aiming straight for the gamemaster''s throat. Zhihao who had seemed to change a lot overnight cut in between the attack as he fluidly took out his dagger and thrust it inside the Siren''s glowing green heart without missing a beat. His eyes seemed to be glaring with murderous intent as he replied to the gamemaster''s question, "I want to save him."

    His mind was clear. He wanted to help this poor character even if it was just a game character. He didn''t want Captain Wilburt to lose his humanity or become a Siren, He didn''t want to choose between the two so he came up with a dangerous idea, to save the man by slaying the Sirens on his behalf. The lesser sirens the man kills the lesser his chances of turning into a Siren.

    The gamemaster seemed to be satisfied with Zhihao''s decision as he nodded and looked at the man with a proud gaze.

    This was the Mastermo, the gamemaster was familiar with. This was the attitude he was looking for.

 Chapter 15 - Mastermo And The Gamemaster Make A Perfect Team

    Zhihao who was almost bitten once again by a siren seemed to reevaluate his decision to fight them. Captain Wilbert with inhumane powers had made it seem too easy by crushing their throats, but for normal humans like Zhihao, sirens who are this fast and strong��How could it be easy to kill them?

    It was easier said than done.

    Zhihao equipped his favorite gun along with the dagger, although it may not kill the Siren, It could still stall them some time. To be honest, he still found that the best option would be to blow the entire thing up, but since the Gamemaster had already warned him against it��he dare not do it.

    With a "bang" he blew the approaching siren''s head and this method indeed seemed to work; The Siren took almost half a minute to compose itself in order to prepare for its next attack. This half a second was more than enough for the Gamemaster to swoop in and stab the Siren''s glowing green heart.

    The two soon found a steady method to cooperate with each other and exterminate all the sirens more efficiently while Captain Wilburt just stayed behind them and watched them work in perfect harmony.

    A Siren with its mouth wide open��sprang straight at Zhihao from the side, but the gamemaster reacted faster and threw his dagger aimed at the creature''s throat, while he did so��another bold siren attacked him from behind, but before it could even get to touch a single hair on the gamemaster, Zhihao had already shot it down. Them working together was like the most beautiful dance with the best coordination and trust; that no matter what��the other had their backs..

    The melody never stopped but it wasn''t the Sirens that attacked them that were singing.

    Captain Wilburt, "Huh? That''s new."

    Zhihao didn''t have enough time to get distracted so he responded shortly, "What?"

    "The lyrics are different."

    "..."

    The gamemaster, "Can you translate for us?"

    "It''s unclear at certain parts." The man warned beforehand, "My name is... I''m a legendary god. All the creatures fear me, except for that one that lived on land... She who never betrayed me, stole away my precious treasure... My son who''ve I''ve never met... Now returns to my side since he''ll be my descended, the prince who rules this land... Fear me not, I mean no harm... Follow my voice and come back to your father..."

    Both Zhihao and the gamemaster shared a look as they understood who was singing; The father who lost his child, The king of the sirens.

    "Gamemaster, What are our chances against the king?"

    "Zero." the gamemaster answered without needing to think about it at all.

    Goosebumps rose on Zhihao''s skin as he heard the melody of the powerful king; This voice alone was much different from all the other sirens, It was way stronger and had a blood-chilling sense of authority to it. If it wasn''t for the gamemaster who was still holding onto Zhihao''s hand��he would''ve long lost control over his game character.

    As if Zhihao wasn''t spooked out enough, the gamemaster spoke, "The King of the sirens is more powerful than 100 adult sirens combined. He can speak the human language and has the ability to shapeshift. This is the big boss of this level."

    Horror. Zhihao remembered the time he was licked and swallowed up by an adult Siren, Just how powerful must this so-called king be to be considered more powerful than hundreds of that creature combined. The thought was horrifying and Zhihao hoped to never meet such a nemesis, but so far his wishes hadn''t been going so well so how could god hear his prayer this time?

    "Not The King." This time Captain Wilburt did not need to translate as the voice spoke in perfect human tongue, "I''m the God! The God of sirens!"

    As Zhihao heard the man''s voice, he immediately wanted to drop to the ground on his knees and beg for his life, but how could he lose face in front of the gamemaster like that? He most certainly would fight that instinct to death.

    The gamemaster, "Ah! I seem to be wrong. It was the god of sirens."

    "My son, I have long awaited your return." Someone appeared from the shadows; this someone was the man who considered himself the god of the sirens. As soon as the man made an appearance, all the other sirens stopped attacking the small group and retrieved into the shadows. The man had an appearance that resembled that of Captain Wilburt''s but much older and oddly more handsome. This was certainly not the man''s real appearance as the creature didn''t look like a Siren at all but had two legs and resembled more like a human than Captain Wilburt.

    [New character: God of the sirens. He is a sea god and is the only Siren who can transform into a human at will. He is not interested in playing with humans or eating their meat and on the contrary; he is intrigued by humans. He had fallen in love once that too with a human maiden who��when they first met��was almost drowning in the sea. Although the two loved each other deeply, their love story was one that ended in sorrow as the woman was accused of being a witch by the human society and was burned alive at the stake right after secretly giving birth to the young Siren prince, Captain Wilburt who was a half breed; born to a human and a siren��containing the blood of both. He never knew of his child''s existence until now so be cautious of this character that is prone to act according to his emotions.]

    [Congratulations on pushing the scenario forward! +50 T-points gained.]

    [Mission changed]

    [New mission: Escape the wrath of the Siren God.]

    Zhihao wanted to curse, he was definitely not happy with whatever unfolded itself in front of him, he''d rather survive on this ship for three days than escape the wrath of this siren god. This man was called god for a reason. How could he be defeated? And If Zhihao wanted to flee, how could he keep his life intact with a god attacking him with murderous intent?

    "Was this supposed to happen? Aren''t secret missions only in non-ranked levels?"

    The gamemaster looked to be just as shocked as Zhihao as he responded, "I don''t know. I don''t remember. This might have something to do with us contacting Captain Wilburt before time."

    Zhihao told himself: Look on the bright side. We gained extra 50 T-points.

    "Who are you?" Captain Wilburt questioned after recovering from the initial shock. Zhihao couldn''t imagine what he must be feeling at the moment; To be met with a man who claims himself to be a god to those vicious creatures and his father at the same time, Just how could a sane person believe it? But how could Captain Wilburt be considered completely sane at the moment? He had already noticed his hands and skin slowly turning into something inhuman, For a moment he believed he had gone completely insane as well, that maybe he had long fallen into the mouths of those creatures and this was all a dream his mind conjured up to stop him from seeing the ugly truth.

    "Son, I can understand your shock. I was shocked as well. I never even knew you existed until I got a whiff of your blood; It''s the same blood that courses through my veins." The man spoke as he stepped closer to them, "I thought she had left me here, alone, and with nothing to remember her by but it seems I was wrong. She had left behind a part of her that lies within you. She had left me an heir. Come, my child, let me take a closer look."

    Captain Wilburt was visibly shaken, he dare not move; What if this was also a spell? What if he was lying��trying to trick him?

    The gamemaster blocked the path between the pair of father and son.

    Zhihao didn''t approve, "What are you doing?! Seeking death? Let The pair reunite and we can use the time to sneak away."

    "I don''t remember what happened after the reunion, but I know one thing; None of my characters had a happy ending."

    This sentence changed the whole situation. Zhihao remembered the gamemaster''s cruel methods of making up character stories, it was his signature to make tragic stories so how could he let the two happily reunite with each other? It was natural for the gamemaster to forget what happened exactly, after all, how could he remember all of the story arcs he created? But this couldn''t be the case of an imposter since the system had already certified that this was indeed the Siren god. So what was happening?

    "Young man, have some pity on this old man, I just want to embrace my long lost child. What enmity do we have between us?"

    "What exactly are you planning?!" It was Captain Wilburt who yelled, he had lived as an orphan, his entire life, to be told that he was only half-human and was born to this creature who clearly had something vicious planned for him? He didn''t want to believe it at first, but how could he turn a blind eye towards all the evidence pointing straight at the horrifying truth? What was he supposed to do? Thankfully; he had these two young men who were ready to protect him even after knowing that he was not one of their kind.

    "Are you really going to turn away from your father like this? What am I supposed to have planned for my own son? I only want to see you ascend my throne after me." The man took a step forward and Captain Wilburt instinctively took a step back.

    Captain Wilburt, "The voices... That''s not what they are saying though."

    Zhihao hadn''t realized it because he got used to the siren''s enchanting melody, but now that Captain Wilburt had pointed it out, he was shocked to know that those creatures were still singing. Their voices were certainly faint and less in number but it was still there and only Captain Wilburt could understand what they were saying.

    "Umm... Translate please."

    "How could you?" Captain Wilburt wasn''t looking alright as he straight out ignored Zhihao''s request, "You''re worse than them. How could you?! Why?!"

    Zhihao was completely clueless just like the gamemaster who was silently analyzing the situation.

    The gamemaster, "Mastermo... We can''t let our guard down."

    Zhihao was shocked to see the complicated look in the gamemaster''s eyes. This man seemed to know more than he let on or maybe he had recovered his memory of this scenario.

    The Siren God moved forward, his eyes now glaring at his son, Captain Wilburt, "Don''t listen to the lies they tell you. I have no evil intentions."

    "You''re the one who is lying!" Captain Wilburt cried out, "To eat your own son''s heart��how... How could you think of doing such a thing?!"

    Zhihao, "Gamemaster don''t you have something that could help translate the siren''s voice?"

    [Activated skill: Gamemaster''s insight]

    As soon as the skill was activated, the distant voices that were previously indecipherable suddenly became clear, haunting whispers, "Don''t be fooled by the fake love he shows... He ate your brother, ripped his heart apart... That''s what keeps him alive to this day... For hundreds and thousands of years; we lived through this cruel curse, He was our king who ruined our lands and our people. Your mother tried to escape from his claws and she paid the price... We cannot run, but you must... Don''t let him fool you like he fooled her... "

    "System, what is going on?"

    [Answering players question: The voice is only a memory; a message left by Captain Wilburt''s mother for him.]

    [Congratulations on uncovering more of the story! +50 T-points gained.]

    [New Character: Maria. This woman was thrown off a ship and left to drown, but was saved by the Siren God who at the time tricked her with his human form to seduce her. She was too young and innocent in love due to which she was easily fooled. She gave birth to his first child who within one year of delivery was eaten by his father. When she later came to know of this, she was already pregnant with his second child, but with the help of another adult siren, she managed to escape and safely give birth to Captain Wilburt. Through the Siren that helped her, she recorded a message for her son warning him about his father''s true intentions, knowing that her days would be short-lived and she won''t be able to stay with him for long.]

    [Congratulations on unlocking the secret side story: The curse of the Sirens. +50 T-points gained.]

    It seems it''s raining T-points when I''m with the gamemaster.

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 16 - Mastermo Still Doesnt Know The Name Of His Crush.

    The gamemaster spoke, "I guess I wasn''t completely wrong."

    Zhihao wanted to interrogate him further; Questioning what he meant by that, but before he could do so��the system dinged again.

    [Side story: The curse of the Sirens.]

    Zhihao''s screen turned black.

    [Welcome to Atlantis!]

    "..."

    [Atlantis used to be a prosperous, beautiful nation lost somewhere in the history of this world. It was an island isolated from the rest of the world ruled by a generous king who loved his people; Atlan.. The people of this country never suffered; Why would they if their King was born to a god and a human? When Atlan''s son was born a mortal��he was heartbroken as he himself would never die, but his son would have to��one day��leave this realm. But he was a demi-god and so he was unwilling to accept this fate. He decided to go against the heavens, and for about the next 20 years, he searched nonstop to find a way to keep his son alive, until one day he finally got what he was looking for. It was a mermaid''s heart; if he could get to feed a mermaid''s heart to his son, his son would be granted eternal life.

    He sent out his best men to go find a mermaid and they soon returned with one, but unfortunately, this mermaid was a demi-god herself, she was related to the King by blood and so Atlan was reluctant to kill her but when his son begged him for the mermaid''s heart that could grant him eternal life, the King who valued his son''s life more, sacrificed this distant half relative of his. But the mermaid who was filled with anger and resentment cursed the King''s beloved nation and son. Overnight, The entire island was submerged underwater and its citizens became blood-thirsty sirens who roamed the ocean below. When Atlan''s son saw that his appearance had changed from a young handsome prince into that resembling a monster, he lashed out at his father and killed King Atlan; Riping his heart out to please the demi-god mermaid, seeking her forgiveness in order to restore the land and its people however she was not satisfied with his sacrifice, on the contrary, she was more angered and so she bestowed upon him another curse; If after another ten thousand years, he wanted to continue being an immortal and being able to keep his human appearance, he''ll have to rip out his son''s heart in the future and eat it and if he didn''t do so, his own son would rip out his heart in turn and ascend his throne. Atlan''s son was selfish, greedy and a man with no morals. When his health started deteriorating, he found a young fair maiden and fooled her into marriage. When his wife gave birth to his son, on the child''s 1st birthday, he ripped out his heart and ate it, hence granted eternal life, but it seemed that the wife was pregnant with another child. If this unborn child was a girl, he''ll have no issue with it, but if it was born a boy, the child would without fail��under the curse��kill him and ascend his throne. His mother, Atlan''s wife who had transformed into an adult siren could not keep on watching his son become a slave to greed and so she told the young maiden the truth and helped her run away. The young lady was a pitiful character who had no one to rely on and was killed by the people on the accusations of being a witch right after she safely gave birth to her second son. The son had now grown up to be Captain Wilburt and is destined to take the life of his father and put an end to this century-long curse.]

    Zhihao frowned, "Gamemaster, I think we need to have a serious talk about your story writing skills."

    "He was a king. I wasn''t entirely wrong." It was natural for the gamemaster to not be able to remember the story completely word-to-word and to only be able to recall bits and pieces of it. In his memory, he had only recalled the part about the man being a king and not about the crucial detail of demi-gods being involved, and anyhow, he had only written the drafts of the story, it was later developed by different people due to which the original stories had undergone major changes which made them unrecognizable.

    [Additional mission unlocked: Help Captain Wilburt defeat his father.]

    A thought crossed through Zhihao''s mind; if this story had these secret missions and hidden storylines, was it not possible for the other levels to have the same? But he did not have time to think about it further as the Siren king who was infuriated by his son''s unwillingness��maliciously attacked the small group.

    Captain Wilburt who was stunned on the spot was a millisecond close to getting his heart pierced out by his father''s claws, but thankfully, Zhihao summoned his rare spiritual sword, Shuang to chop down the creature''s arm that launched straight for the man''s heart. Although outside the cultivation genre, the sword had no spiritual usage��a sword was still a sword and it had an amazingly sharp blade that could cut almost every living creature in half with a swing.

    Zhihao shouted at the stunned man who refused to move, "Captain Wilburt, Hold yourself together."

    The Siren king didn''t seem to have seen that attack coming, but although he was unprepared, he still didn''t fuss over the amputated arm cause he had a secret trick up his sleeves as well. Zhihao watched in horror as the arm that had been completely removed from the creature''s body, in an unsettling manner had grown back in under a minute. This was a bad omen. With such fast regenerative abilities and superhuman strength, how could they beat the thing? And even if they didn''t plan on killing it, how could they say that it won''t kill them?

    Their chances of winning were bleak.

    "Captain Wilburt, We''ll help you from the sidelines, Please defeat this..." Zhihao wanted to say monster, but how could he say that and disrespectfully call the man''s father a monster? This was confusing. On one hand, Zhihao still believed that the creature before them was nowhere near something that deserved their respect or empathy, but for Captain Wilburt; it was an all different story entirely.

    Captain Wilburt had seemed to make up his mind as he spoke to his father that was revealed to be a horrifying creature, "I won''t forgive you." His hand gripped tighter onto the axe that was stained with the blood of a countless number of Sirens, "You can go die and plead God to have mercy on your vile soul."

    Zhihao saw the fire in Captain Wilburt''s eyes and was pleased with the man''s judgment; To accept and overcome all this in such a short span of time��the man was certainly deserving of being the hero of this story.

    With Captain Wilburt''s determination, Zhihao and the Gamemaster now saw a ray of hope, maybe they could beat this creature after all.

    "Insolent child! Just who do you think you''re talking to?", The Siren King roared.

    Captain Wilburt didn''t bother responding and straight out charged at the creature. Zhihao sighed; At least inform us before you attack, how are we to cover your ass?

    The gamemaster, "Mastermo, attack from the right!"

    "Got it!" Zhihao shared a look of understanding and with his sword��Shuang in hand, he charged at the creature from the right side while the gamemaster attacked it from the left side.

    Although the three had combined forces, the creature was far more powerful than what they had initially imagined��the fight was definitely not going to be easy.

    With a swing of the sword, Zhihao chomped down the creature''s right hand once again while the gamemaster chained up its left hand from the opposite side and Captain Wilburt tried to hack at the creature''s chest from the front, but before it could pierce through its skin��the axe was caught by something, It was a hand. This hand had not existed a minute ago, but now it had conveniently grown out of the creature''s chest and stopped the axe from piercing it.

    The creature was quick to retaliate as it broke through the chains on its left hand and caught hold of the Gamemaster''s throat; choking him. Zhihao was also not late to react as he immediately cut down the creature''s left hand and freed the gamemaster. However, it had seemed to be a trick as the creature''s real motive was to have his right hand attack Captain Wilburt.

    Zhihao was not the kind of person who''d jump in front of the bullet for anyone. He activated the moon goddess spellbook and before the hand could touch the man''s chest, he sucked Captain Wilburt inside it. This was another use of the moon goddess spellbook that Zhihao had come to know upon deeper inspection of the book, but this was only a temporary resolve as Captain Wilburt was thrown out of the book after a minute.

    "Gamemaster, How do we attack it?"

    "The voice!" Captain Wilburt exclaimed.

    "Huh?"

    "It... Wants to help." Captain Wilburt had stopped attacking the creature and wordlessly closed his eyes, "Help us." It was a command yet a plea as well but it seemed to work. A second later, from the shadows emerged Sirens, All adult sirens who seemed to form a barrier together. They moved in slowly with glaring eyes.

    "My people! You''re finally here." It was Siren King, who spoke, "Rip them apart and bring me his heart. This is an order."

    Things didn''t seem to be looking so good, but a minute passed and nothing happened.

    "What are you doing?" The siren king questioned in disbelief as he saw that none of the sirens heeded his command and on the contrary, their eyes weren''t fixed at Captain Wilburt at all but were actually glaring at their king.

    The gamemaster stepped back from the fight as he understood the situation and informed Zhihao, "We are no longer needed."

    Zhihao wasn''t eager to keep on fighting the creature relentlessly so he was more than happy to listen to the Gamemaster and stepped back from the fight as well.

    Captain Wilburt lunged forward and as if his movement was a signal��the sirens who were only glaring from the side sprang at the Creature and surrounded it with no escape. Not much could be seen from then on, only the screaming and cursing of the Siren King could be heard and a moment later, Captain Wilburt came out from the crowd; A red bleeding heart in his hand.

    "Weirdly... He still has a human heart." He sounded disheartened as he chuckled mockingly. The curse was now completed and the Siren king was being eaten alive by that herd of sirens who chomped on any piece of meat they could find on his body.

    The one who called himself the god of sirens had finally died a deservingly cruel death.

    [Congratulations to The Gamemaster and Mastermo on successfully clearing the I-ranked level 1853: Survival in the ship of the dead. Hurray! Great compatibility is shown by both the players!]

    [All level missions cleared]

    Zhihao was stunned, "Ah! That''s it...?"

    "Why? Did you want to keep fighting?" the Gamemaster asked in a mocking manner.

    "Of course not!"

    [Total T-points gained: +1050]

    "Hey!"

    "hmm?"

    "I suddenly remembered something."

    [Player health status refilled]

    [Skills gained: +Master of survival]

    [Surprise rewards gained: +Enchantment breaking crystal]

    "What is it?"

    "You promised to tell me your name if we won."

    [Logging out of the I -ranked level 1853: Survival in the ship of the dead.]

    "..."

    "Hey! Don''t you dare go back on your word!"

    [Preparing for transmigration in...]

    [3]

    [2]

    "Bu Hui*"

    [1]

    Zhihao was thrown out of the level.

    He didn''t dare take out his VR headset as he kept on recalling the final word uttered by the Gamemaster; "Bu Hui".

    That was definitely not his name.....?

    It could very well be a fake name but that was the only name Zhihao could now call the Gamemaster, in all honesty; Calling him Gamemaster every now and then was quite odd and Zhihao just couldn''t bring himself to get comfortable with it.

    *Bu Hui: meaning ''will not (happen, act, etc.)''

    Just as the game ended, the sleepless comment section once again came back to life with great vigor.

    [Did... Did... Did we just witness something earthshaking??]

    [kjsdhfugflgfa]

    [Oh my god! This was so worth me sacrificing my sleep.]

    [Supporting Mastermo all the way!]

    [Demonmagiclover? Come get your man, he is being stolen away.]

    [Shit! It''s morning already (T-T) I have school!!]

    [Is nobody going to talk about how hot the gamemaster is??]

    [COOOOL]

    [I think the gamemaster is also a secret Mastermo fan (^o^)/ ]

    [I''m jumping ships!!]

    [Humph! Imma stay loyal to BBtrash.]

    [We are so well fed haha!]

    [The gamemaster approves! Mastermo is the only one worth winning that prize.]

    [I..... Kinda don''t want to see him killing the gamemaster tho. (>o<)]

    [My hubby is so hot while fighting those monsters!!]

    [Why are you all so chill?? We just freaking saw the gamemaster!!]

    [I''m still mad at a certain somebody who made our momo cry.]

    [I''m gonna barf cause of you dilulus]

    [Mastermo, Please get some rest]

    [Let''s make this trending.]

    [I wish the newly formed couple a happy married life.]

    [That was intense..... (o_o)]

    [Shit! I think I''m in love]

    [As expected of my idol.]

    [Ngl but the sirens song was actually pretty good.]

    [I can''t sleep anymore]

    [Why are you kids still awake?]

 Chapter 17 - Mastermo Had Already Forgiven His Lover

    "Hello and Welcome back to the show where we bring you very spicy news about the game T.I.A.D."

    "So yesterday night the Stage 1 opened once again and the teams were given their second mission."

    "Like the first time; the missions were once again randomly assigned and while some emerged lucky, others were not so fortunate."

    "But at least this time T.I.A.D. released news about how the Stage 1 elimination would be conducted.".

    "Stage 1��at the moment��would only remain open for three days and the elimination will be based on the three missions assigned to the teams in these three days. Since it had already started two days ago, The elimination stage would reopen for only tonight where the players would be assigned their final mission. This final mission may be the deciding factor for continuing the quest to beat the gamemaster. The minimum requirement to pass this stage is Two missions; if a player successfully completes two of the assigned missions��the player would then be eligible for the next stage which means If the team has won the previous two missions��they are automatically qualified for the next stage and would need not worry about tonight''s mission however not many teams can confidently say that they have been successful in completing the last two missions."

    "One such team is the team formed by BBtrash and Hulk0_0 who had, unfortunately, ran out of luck as they found themselves assigned a mission in an S-ranked level yesterday."

    "This is a team that is on the top of the leaderboard and their future depends on the mission tonight."

    "That''s a lot of pressure."

    "Indeed. This isn''t just about winning that million-dollar cash prize anymore, it''s now about their dignity as a pro-gamer that''s on the line."

    "Right, as from the top three teams, they are the only ones who have failed a mission. I hope luck has not turned its back on them just yet."

    "Talking about luck, Remember that team of four comprising of two pro-gamers and two-newcomers? They were assigned an I-ranked and an H-ranked mission from which they emerged victorious in both and were very close to overthrowing Mastermo''s team from the top of the anticipated winning teams."

    "Almost! If only it hadn''t been for yesterday''s shocking incident."

    "That was something indeed. Yesterday night, When Mastermo turned on his live stream, he was rumored to be crying because of his teammate, devilmagiclover, who ditched him."

    "If Mastermo wasn''t able to play yesterday because of his teammate it would''ve really been a huge blow to the pro-gamers future goals, however, the tables were turned when only ten seconds remained for the closing of stage 1 and his unexpected savior showed up just in the nick of time."

    "And what was truly shocking was the identity of this new player."

    "It was none other than the gamemaster who personally showed up for the first time and formed a temporary team with Zhihao."

    "The arrival of this unexpected player caused havoc among the fans and drove them to watch the live-stream for the entire night, not daring to blink for they feared that if they did��they might miss something important."

    "I think now you''re just talking about yourself. your eye bags are clear evidence."

    "Don''t call me out like that!"

    "Anyway, The temporary team was given an I-ranked mission from which not only did they simply emerge victorious but also found some shocking new information."

    "Shocking indeed! It seems that the System had hidden some crucial details from us once again."

    "The levels may not be as simple as they seem."

    "Previously we had only known non-ranked levels to have hidden secret missions, however now we have also been made aware that maybe all of the levels have hidden missions that can earn the player some extra T-points if completed."

    "Following this logic, BBtrash who had failed in his last S-ranked mission had insisted on experimenting and proving if this theory was true or did Mastermo just accidentally luck out?"

    "And the result, as you may have guessed already, was positive. BBtrash found four more secret missions in other ranked levels present in Stage zero."

    "Now everybody is not as lucky as Mastermo or gets to have a gamemaster of their own to guide them through the secret mission so finding these hidden treasures was proven to be challenging."

    "With that being said, Why did the gamemaster choose Mastermo as his temporary partner? It really makes one''s imagination go wild?"

    "Maybe he just randomly picked a player or it could be deliberately done by him as Mastermo is already the top player of the game."

    "The top player and the gamemaster. My senses are tingling, I have a feeling that we''d be seeing more of these two in the future."

    "At least, that''s what most of the speculating fans say."

    "Well, I wouldn''t be shocked if we do hear from them in the future since, at the moment, Mastermo has the most chances of beating the gamemaster. But, then again, I''m not claiming anything to be the case. The game is far from over and anything can happen, it''s best not to take things for granted."

    "As a Mastermo fan, aren''t you just forcing yourself to say that?"

    "You caught me."

    "With that being said, we are ending today''s news broadcast."

    "This has been your anchors, Kevin and Dev live from the studio."

    "See you next time."

    .

    .

    .

    The first thing Zhihao did when he finished playing the level was faceplanting himself on the bed and taking a short nap. After a few hours when he was finally awake, it was already afternoon outside and he didn''t have much to do, so he decided to enjoy his hard-earned peace, but unfortunately, he had a little brother who was at home due to the high school holidays.

    As the Blaring music entered his ears, Zhihao really wished he could''ve either brought a soundproof house or thrown his brother out from the teenager''s single-man party that was taking place upstairs.

    Just as he was planning to go upstairs and reprimand his brother''s loud-ass speakers, He received a call from Li Ling.

    Ever since Zhihao had come to know that the man was sick, he had already long forgiven him since it really did no real damage to him and even if the gamemaster didn''t show up, he would''ve still forgiven Li Ling just because he was Li Ling. This was an advantage he would only give to those he either considered friends or family.

    Zhihao picked up the call, "Hello?"

    "A-Zhi, I''m sooooo sorryyyy! Please don''t be mad. Forgive me, please! I promise to never do it again. I''m not going to make excuses and I understand if you are still mad at me, just give me the chance to make it up to you." Li Ling pleaded, his voice sounding extremely worried whereas Zhihao was the one who was more worried about the man.

    Although they had met only recently, both felt like they had known the other since a long time ago, In Li Ling''s case, it was indeed true considering the fact that he had been a loyal fan of Mastermo for years but shockingly even Zhihao felt that he had known Li Ling his entire life. Zhihao really didn''t know where this feeling had come from but due to it, he had gotten comfortable around the man and had started considering him his friend and Zhihao was a man known to only have a few friends, this was mostly due to Zhihao''s unwillingness to let new people enter his life.

    "Are you okay now?" Zhihao asked, concerned.

    "Huh? Of course. Why would I not be?"

    "No need to lie. I called you earlier and your sister told me everything."

    "My sister?"

    "Yeah, Li Ying."

    "Ah! Is that so?"

    On the other side of the line, Li Ying was suddenly self-aware as she saw her big brother glaring at her for some reason. She thought in her mind; Where the hell is my thanks? I helped you. Isn''t this too unfair? Why drag an innocent between the two of you?

    "Are you feeling well now? I told you not to overwork yourself." Zhihao scolded.

    "I-I''m good! Absolutely fine! No need to worry." Li Ling blushed as he answered, feeling kinda happy with himself for having Zhihao worry about him. This was certainly progress, "Was A-Zhi worried about me?"

    "Worried to death! You were suddenly unreachable, I called you and texted you a thousand times. My mind was going crazy thinking up all the bad things that could have happened to you." Zhihao lectured as he was keeping all of this in for quite some time and now having finally talked to Li Ling��he could sigh in relief.

    "I''m really sorry about that."

    In reality, Li Ling was not sick, he was definitely tired from working nonstop for the last 48 hours without sleep but he was not exactly in a condition you''d call sick. The sickness was just an excuse his sister, Li Ying had come up with to cover her brother''s ass. Such a caring sister��she was��but in the end, she received no gratitude only a pillow that was thrown at her by her ''beloved'' brother. She regretted her decision to help, when she picked up the call, she should''ve just said something along the lines of ''He is too busy to play with you.'' that would''ve certainly taught her brother a well-deserved lesson. While on the other hand, Li Ling was mad at her for lying because he knew one day this lie would inevitably be uncovered and his future self would have to face the aftereffect.

    Zhihao, "It''s no use worrying over spilled milk. I''m not mad at you, but I am mad at your boss tho."

    "Huh?"

    Zhihao sounded angry as he complained, "In this day and age, how can somebody make their employees work like that?! This is unacceptable! No matter how much salary you are getting, one should never be overworked to the point where they fall sick and still have to work?!"

    Poor Li Ying once again received a glare from her brother.

    "I think you should just quit your job and look for a job that treats you better."

    "Calm down, A-Zhi. It''s really not as bad as you think."

    "How can it be not bad?! It''s super unfair. They deserve to be sued for making people become slaves for them." Although Zhihao had no idea what the man''s job was or who was the receiver of his curses, he still had a moral sense of justice intact and according to which; in no case would it be justified to overwork your employees.

    "No. No. You really don''t need to worry about me. This happens with everyone, it''s how we all earn our meals. In the end, not everyone can be as lucky as Mastermo."

    Li Ling really didn''t mean to but he had hit a sore spot.

    Not as lucky as Mastermo; Zhihao had heard this phrase too many times in his life. These words had always been said with some sort of attached envy, however, when spoken by Li Ling, he could not detect even a shadow of that supposed envy.

    Zhihao fell silent.

    "... Sorry, A-Zhi. Did I offend you?" Li Ling asked with a worried expression on his face that could not be seen by Zhihao.

    "You''re right. Not everyone can be as lucky as me." Zhihao beamed making his voice sound as optimistic as possible, "and I''m sorry for the background noise, It''s my brother. He is... Having a party with his imaginary friends."

    "Ah! So that''s where the music is coming from." Li Ling knew that Zhihao had only wanted to change the subject, but because he knew that the man was uncomfortable speaking about it, he followed suit and took on a new topic.

    "Let me go and scold him a little.", Zhihao walked up the stairs as he spoke

    "Yeah. Don''t be too harsh on the kid, he''s still young."

    "What young? He''s already 16."

    "16? Oh, what a coincidence. Li Ying is also around the same age."

    The pair chuckled together as they found the sudden similarity shared by the two.

    Zhihao knocked on the door to his brother''s room but the music coming from inside was so loud that the knock was probably not heard and so he pushed open the door with the intent to scold his younger brother.

    As the door opened, the lyrics of the song sounded clearer; "S-s-shake! S-s-shake! Shake that��shake that! Shake that ass! Shake that ass! Shake that��shake that! Shake that ass!"

    Zhihao suddenly felt his face twitch with disgust as he saw his brother dancing; twerking alone inside his room to some upbeat EDM. Such a pitiful sight it was. At least when Zhihao was around this age, he had a few friends who''d always invite him to party with them even if Zhihao refused such offers, finding his online games much more enjoyable. Now looking at his younger brother, he really felt like he should pay someone to be his friend.

    Unlike Zhihao, Huang Zhen had zero friends and that had sadly been a solid zero throughout this kid''s entire life.

 Chapter 18 - Mastermo Meets His Sister-in-law

    Zhihao was inspired to find his younger brother some friends so he decided to contact Li Ling''s sister who was also a teenager��however, he didn''t want to force Li Ying into becoming friends with his brother and so he paid a visit to Li Ling''s house hoping to persuade Li Ying and also having a second mission; To tell Li Ling all about the Gamemaster.

    At first, Zhihao had some doubts of his own; questioning if the gamemaster was actually Li Ling himself since he refused to believe that Li Ling had actually come across the gamemaster by mistake, but now that Zhihao had also been put through the same position, he was willing to trust Li Ling''s story.

    In Zhihao''s mind this was a master plan, getting to hit two birds with one stone, but when he entered Li Ling''s house and saw the little sister in question; Li Ying; His master plan was rendered to be completely useless.

    Li Ling was actually living alone in his apartment and at the moment, Li Ying had only come here for some days to pay him a visit. The apartment was small yet lavish and two people could comfortably live here together. The interior was clean and the furniture was mostly painted with a blackish-brown color tone, the floor had white with golden design marble and the main hall had a chandelier hung right on top of a black marble table with grey colored sofas decorated around it, facing the huge window with the view of the city. Zhihao really liked the interior decor not because of the great color schemes or the lavish furnishing but because of the huge painting hung on the right side of the main hall, It was a painting of Zhihao''s favorite gaming character from the first game he played as a pro-gamer. This might be the most surprising coincidence, maybe Li Ling also liked this game or maybe he had been a fan of Zhihao since the start of the man''s career. No matter what the case was, Zhihao was pleasantly surprised by the nostalgic painting.

    "Mastermo?" A girl called up to him, grabbing Zhihao''s attention away from analyzing the painting..

    This girl was Li Ying; A young girl with a rather beautiful face that somewhat resembled Li Ling''s face��undeniably looking like the female version of Li Ling, She had big eyes that seemed to glitter with the dazzling smile that was plastered on her face, She had her hair up in two cutely tied ponytails and dressed in a pink and black colored Lolita costume....?

    Zhihao felt like he had made a mistake coming here, there was no way A-Zhen would get along with this girl��it would be considered lucky if he didn''t make fun of her instead.

    "Umm... Hello, Li Ying?"

    "Ah! Yes. Yes." Li Ying beamed, spinning around to flaunt her dress, "Do you like my dress? Cute, right?"

    Zhihao was stunned speechless, he really could not make sense of it. The dress was indeed cute, but he could not understand why somebody would want to wear it at home. Aren''t you supposed to wear comfortable clothes at home? This dress certainly did not look comfortable in the least, but then again, who was he to judge the girl? He had a brother who had equally uncommon hobbies so how could he judge?

    "Don''t tease him." Li Ling interfered, "She''s a cosplayer, loves anime, manhuas, games, anything related to 2D fantasy really."

    "Oh! Is that so? That''s so cool." Zhihao heard that the girl also likes games and he was instantly sold; She would make a great friend for Huang Zhen.

    Li Ying chuckled, amused with the reaction she received, "hehe... It''s okay if you find me weird, a lot of people do."

    "No! It''s not like that! Really. I think cosplayers are cool." Zhihao spoke with some honesty, "I was just surprised to see one in person like this.

    Li Ying, "Have you really not seen a cosplayer in real life? That''s a bit hard to believe. Not even in gaming conventions or promotion Expos?"

    "I don''t usually attend those." Zhihao chuckled awkwardly.

    It was really unbelievable how non-interactive he had been with his fans considering the fact that he was a pro-gamer with millions of fans but it was really not his forte. If he could think of one person who would''ve most certainly attended these said occasions and interacted with the fans, it would inevitably be BBtrash, that guy was the embodiment of liveliness, it was as if he was born with an unlimited capacity of energy that was always ready to burst out.

    "Ah! I get it, you don''t show your face anymore. It''s kinda disappointing really. You look really handsome in person." Li Ying sighed ignoring the glare she received from her brother, "I guess you used to show it at the beginning of your career but eventually stopped...?"

    This was an awkward topic Zhihao was rather embarrassed to talk about. The exact reason he stopped showing his face to the public was especially because of the way he looked.

    If it had been anybody else, Zhihao would have ignored the question, but since this was Li Ling''s sister, he would rather answer her honestly and deal with the temporary embarrassment, and so he answered her awkwardly, "I used to show my face but it was really pointless... Most of my early fans were usually girls who were not even interested in gaming. Actually, even after I stopped showing my face, the larger proportion of my fan base are still females. It is kinda embarrassing."

    "Huh? Why is that embarrassing? Isn''t that a good thing?" Li Ying, who seemed to suddenly understand the hidden meaning behind Zhihao''s words, burst out laughing, "Wait! I get it! I get it! hahaha... That''s so funny."

    Li Ling, who had also caught on saw that his sister could not control her laughter so he decided to speak out in her stead, Although he knew the answer and was not very pleased with it, "I''m guessing there was a particular reason for these increased female fans?"

    However, Li Ying didn''t let Zhihao answer, "Was it because they found you attractive? Did they disturb you? Call you hot and stuff? Were you scared of them? hehe... They can''t be blamed, just look at your face. I can already guess how many thirsty comments you used to get."

    Zhihao''s face didn''t betray him, however, his ears were another case; turning bright red from the embarrassment. This further confirmed Li Ying''s theory.

    "Oh my god, Mastermo. You are so cute. hahaha..." Li Ying had only spoken her mind without thinking about it much, but her brother was not so happy as he heard it and so she had a flying pillow coming straight towards her face. Only God knew where Li Ling had suddenly conjured up a pillow from.

    "Stop teasing him."

    Li Ying wiped her laughing tears."Got it! Got it! But that''s really funny... hehe..."

    "It''s not that funny." Zhihao scratched his head, avoiding eye contact��he really didn''t want to see people point him out and laugh at him like this��even if it were all fun and games.

    "Okay! Okay! I''ll stop. Sorry." Li Ying apologized with a bright smile, "So I heard you wanted to ask me a favor? What is it?"

    "Oh, that! It might be a bit much, but could you consider being my brother''s friend?"

    "..." Li Ying really didn''t know how to react to such a favor, it was really nothing and could not be deemed hard at all, in fact, it was too simple but unexpected and just.... Weird, "I can help you, but..."

    "But...? I''m really not forcing you or anything." Zhihao panicked and was pulled to sit on the grey colored sofa by Li Ling who pulled him down to sit beside him.

    "Mastermo, It''s not really about forcing��how do I say this? I would love to make new friends. If you haven''t noticed already, I''m actually a really outgoing person, but friendship doesn''t actually work like that."

    "Huh?" Zhihao who had never really known what the art of friendship was, was dumbfounded.

    "Friendship is not created, it just naturally comes to you. Ya know? Take my brother and you, for example. How did you two meet?"

    "We met on the streets when I was..." Zhihao stopped himself from speaking further, what was he to say? We met on the streets when I was picking up trash? Although true, that sounded ridiculous and laughable.

    "Exactly and did either of you say let''s be friends?"

    When Zhihao thought about it, he really could not remember such an incident happening, "No...?"

    "See. So how can you two claim to be friends right now?"

    "..."

    "Get to the point.", Li Ling scolded.

    "You don''t choose your friends nor can you choose a friend for your brother, Mastermo. Friendship is created by a positive good feeling shared between the two just like you and my brother. So what I want to say is that even if you tell me to become your brother''s friend, I can try, but nothing is guaranteed and sorry to say but... That favor sounds kinds idiotic." Li Ying managed to speak up, glancing at her brother every once in a while in fear that she might piss him off.

    "Ah! I get what you are saying. Even I think it''s stupid. As his brother, I really shouldn''t be meddling in his personal life like this, but..." Zhihao sighed, "I really can''t help it. I''ve tried making him interact with others, told him to go outside, and play with people, but he just refuses to listen to me. As a big brother, I feel like I have wrongly influenced him a lot."

    Li Ling, "You are definitely not a bad brother."

    "I never said I''m bad." Zhihao dead-panned.

    "..." Li Ling shut up at once.

    "Ever since I have been a child, I have been attracted to online games till the point it could be considered an addiction, but after I entered high school, I turned this obsession into my full-time job��further closing myself up in my room."

    "Mastermo, You and your brother are different. Look at me and big brother, we are the polar opposites of each other."

    "I know I can''t be completely blamed, but I just can''t get rid of this guilt that maybe he has been influenced by me. He looks up to me a lot, so maybe I am indirectly the reason for this?"

    Li Ling once again decided to interfere, "Why do you keep saying it like it''s a bad thing? At least he is not addicted to drugs, right? Being introverted is natural, not a big deal."

    "Well, that''s the thing, he is not an introvert." Zhihao wouldn''t usually share his worries like this with outsiders, but since it was Li Ling, for some reason, he felt reassured and comfortable, "He has friends or at least lackeys whom he calls friends. He pays them to accompany him and entertain him. I just want him to know what having real friends is like." The words really seemed to sound funny coming from Zhihao like that, Even Zhihao would laugh at it. In the end, how many real friends did he have?

    "That''s just... Sad." Li Ying spoke as she really felt pity for the fellow, "Maybe I could try? Not promising anything tho."

    "That''s great. That''ll be fine too. No need to force yourself." Zhihao beamed.

    That day, both Li Ying and Li Ling accompanied Zhihao back to his home with the excuse of dropping him home when their real mission was to actually let the two teenagers meet.

    Li Ling sighed, "Why do feel like a parent setting her daughter up for an arranged blind date?"

    "I''m really sorry." Zhihao chuckled awkwardly; even he felt the same.

    But unexpectedly when the two teenagers who had supposedly never met each other finally got to meet, their first reaction was to point at one another and exclaim with shock and disbelief, "You?!"

 Chapter 19 - Mastermo Gets Tricked By His Lover

    "It was you?!"

    "You two know each other?" Zhihao asked in confusion as he saw the two teenagers pointing at each other rather rudely.

    "This guy-" Just as Li Ying started to talk, Huang Zhen rushed forward and blocked her mouth with his hand, forcing her to not say anything and instead he covered it up saying, "I kinda ruined her dress once!"

    "Yah! That''s my sister!" Li Ling warned lightly as he saw his sister being choked against her will.

    "Ah! Sorry, big brother. I''ll just talk to her in private." Huang Zhen spoke as he dragged the lolita dressed girl away in his room.

    Zhihao could not make sense of the situation as he stood stuck in place, staring at the back of his younger brother who had abducted Li Ling''s sister away, however, Li Ling��whose sister had been abducted was not as bothered by it and instead was inwardly thanking them for leaving him alone with Zhihao.

    Li Ling had already known about Zhihao''s second reason he came to Li Ling''s house and was especially looking forward to hearing everything Zhihao had to say about the Gamemaster.

    "Let the two hang out together.. I''m sure Yingying won''t hurt your brother." As Li Ling said this, it was clear that he was not joking around in the least which made Zhihao wonder how such an innocent little girl could actually manage to hurt his bully of a brother; There was just no way.

    On the contrary, inside of Huang Zhen''s room, Zhihao was proven wrong as Li Ying kicked the young boy away, "What the hell is wrong with you?! How can your brother be Mastermo?"

    Huang Zhen, "What about you? Why the hell are you here?!"

    When Li Ying thought about the reason she came here��she wanted to laugh. She had actually come here to be friends with this dork?!

    "Why are you looking at me like that?" Huang Zhen grew self-aware as he saw the mocking look on Li Ling''s face.

    "It''s kinda funny." Li Ying chuckled, "Remember when we first met? You squashed the cake all over my pretty outfit. I should''ve realized by then, but damn... I was carelessly stupid."

    "Huh? What are talking about?" Huang Zhen could not keep up with the girl''s thought process. Just what was she meaning to say?

    Since Li Ying already knew she wasn''t making any sense, she decided to say it out loud, "It wasn''t a coincidence at all." Li Ying sneered, "My cunning brother tricked us."

    "I still can''t understand you? Mind speaking human language?"

    Huang Zhen had it coming when Li Ying hit him on the head, not too harshly yet not too lightly.

    Li Ying mocked, "Aren''t you just really stupid to understand? I''m saying my brother planned this all beforehand."

    "Why would he do that?" It wasn''t Huang Zhen''s fault for being clueless. God had given both the brothers'' intelligence paired with an equal amount of thick-headedness; Never realizing the obvious.

    "Think about it a little." Li Ying teased, "When did these two meet? Under what circumstances?"

    "..." Huang Zhen thought long and hard about it before he realized a very crucial detail linking everything together.

    Didn''t Zhihao come across Li Ling on that day? Huang Zhen and Zhihao were hanging out together at the coffee shop when Zhihao stood up and walked away and then Huang Zhen tried to follow him, but was obstructed by Li Ying whose dress was completely ruined by him due to the damned cake?

    "Still want me to spell it out for you?"

    Huang Zhen looked at her in shock, "Did you bump into me on purpose that day?!"

    Li Ying felt like she wanted to bang her head against the wall, this boy had certainly found the puzzle and connected it, yet he still could not decipher what the bigger picture was. Why focus on such trivial details?

    "I don''t know." Li Ying sighed, "I was actually following Mastermo. I didn''t even realize you were there till I bumped into you. With you out of the way, it conveniently gave my brother the reason to reach out to him." What happened rest was self-explanatory so she didn''t waste her time saying it out loud and moved around the room, analyzing the non-complimenting diverse decor.

    "Oh my god, That''s kinda creepy." Huang Zhen shuddered, "Are you two stalkers or something? Why so extreme?"

    "Well, it''s not like it''s easy to get a hold of your brother." Li Ying stopped in her tracks, "This." She pointed at a rather old photo kept in the corner of Huang Zhen''s bookshelf.

    Huang Zhen glanced at the photo, the girl pointed at and was pleasantly surprised to find that he had such a photo kept there, "I don''t remember this. This was so long ago. The kid in front is my brother with his childhood friend, don''t really know who that is and that chubby little guy crying at the back is me. Cute, right?"

    Li Ying seemed to ponder over something, but in the end, she decided to not say it aloud, "Sure. Cute as a pig."

    "..." Huang Zhen really could not get used to the girl''s sass.

    "I have a question?"

    Huang Zhen, "What?"

    "Why don''t you tell your brother you like video games?"

    "..." Huang Zhen was not at all thinking about answering honestly, but rather making up a false one, "Because I don''t want to form a team with him...?"

    Li Ying hit him again, "And you''d rather come into my team. Loser."

    "Why the hell are you so violent?! Are you sure you''re a girl?" Huang Zhen responded as he rubbed his head.

    .

    .

    .

    "Because she used to practice Martial arts."

    "What?! Whoa! That''s impressive." Zhihao stated his honest opinions.

    Li Ling smirked, "But she still can''t beat me."

    "You used to practice it as well?"

    "Nope."

    "Then?"

    Li Ling snickered��he was certainly not going to give a completely honest answer to that so he half-lied, "I was talking about games. She sucks at those."

    "Oh! That''s understandable."

    Li Ying, a.k.a, Yingli; the second top player of T.I.A.D. sneezed, having an odd sixth-sense that somebody was talking behind her back.

    "Now tell me what I''m really interested to hear. How did you meet the Gamemaster?" Li Ling asked, propelling his chin on his hand.

    Zhihao was more than eager to talk about his lucky meeting with his idol, "It was epic! So great." He giggled like a kid, "He was acting all cold and stuff not speaking more than five words in a sentence but he was actually pretty concerned over me. Warning me about every little thing. It was really a pity I did not get to hear his real name."

    Li Ling''s face was unreadable as he wondered if he should get jealous or not; This was a kinda odd situation to be placed in.

    "He was even holding my hand and guiding my hand throughout the game. Hehe..." Zhihao seemed to ponder over something, "Could it be that he''s also my fan? That would make sense."

    "Huh?"

    "Think about it; If he was my fan, he would''ve surely seen my live stream and wanted to form a temporary team with me. It would explain a lot, really." Zhihao seemed to have just come up with the theory as he excitedly thought about the chances of the possibility and seeing him like this, Li Ling really didn''t have the heart to break the man''s hopes.

    "Maybe."

    "Ah, Right! I never asked you, How did you come across him?" Zhihao looked at him, expectantly.

    "Umm... It was different from yours." Li Ling chuckled awkwardly, "We met on this E-ranked level, he came there to catch a monster who had escaped from another level." Li Ling immediately regretted having said the answer.

    "Huh? Monster?"

    It was common knowledge among the players that E-ranked levels harbored no monsters, in fact, that was the major reason they were ranked as easy.

    And to make things more ridiculous, just now, did Li Ling actually say that a monster escaped? How the hell could that be technologically possible? It wasn''t like this world inside the game actually existed��It was just a bunch of codes.

    "I meant bugs. There were some bugs in the E-ranked level that he was fixing." Li Ling corrected himself.

    "Oh! So it was a bug in the system? You really had me thinking for a second there." Zhihao chuckled in relief.

    There would most certainly be bugs in any released games, but as far as Zhihao knew, the Gamemaster doesn''t personally log into the level to fix the bug, but then again, T.I.A.D. was different from the very beginning, hence, at this point, nothing could shock Zhihao.

    "Yeah, there was this bug monster... Bug in the form of a monster... I''m not really educated in that field, so don''t know how it came to be." Li Ling awkwardly chuckled it off.

    Luckily, Zhihao didn''t dig any further, "That''s understandable."

    "Was there something else you wanted to tell me?" Li Ling tried to change the topic.

    "Ah! Actually, I did." Zhihao responded with a pause, "About today''s mission, since our team already has two wins under our belt and since you''re sick, we can skip it. You should rest well." This was a decision Zhihao had spent much of his time��deliberating and deciding upon.

    Li Ling was stunned. To think that there would come a day when the great game-addict Mastermo would actually deem it alright to skip a game; It was astounding. For Zhihao, gaming was everything; it was never about qualifying or winning the game��those were nothing more than the added cherry on top��the thing that mattered the most was gaming in itself, the fun you''d have while discovering all the sudden scenarios and missions��you''d get to feel the joy of experiencing them and completing them; The fun of gaming has been just that, it was as simple as that��Zhihao never played for the prizes, he played for the thrill of the game.

    "No!" Li Ling refused, "I don''t want to drag you down."

    "Don''t worry, You won''t be dragging me down." Zhihao reassured.

    "Oh, but I will." Li Ling couldn''t tell Zhihao the exact reason behind it and that made it all the more complicated, "Believe me."

    Zhihao, "Of course I believe you."

    "The system said that the minimum requirement to pass Stage 1 was the completion of two missions, but it never said that if you win two missions, you can skip the third, that is just a wild assumption that the people made. Why do you think the minimum was set at 2?"

    Zhihao had certainly not thought about it, lately, he had been just too exhausted to worry about such subtle details, but now that Li Ling had pointed it out, Zhihao felt like something was missing. Why was the minimum set at two? It should make sense, yet it did not. The elimination levels were there to filter out the bad players and the good players so how come the minimum to pass was set at two? If this were some other game, Zhihao could brush it off as the makers being generous, but precisely, because this was T.I.A.D. he knew something was wrong.

    Li Ling, "If I''m guessing right then it might have something to do with the skills the players gain from each of these levels."

    The theory certainly made sense. At every level they had played till now��including the levels from stage zero as well as stage one��they were given skills as a reward, these skills till now have been completely pointless as they cannot be equipped. So what was their purpose? Zhihao had asked himself this question before, but he could not come up with an answer.

    Zhihao questioned, "Are you trying to say that we''ll be able to equip these skills in the next stage."

    "At this moment, It''s only my guess, but since it is plausible, how can we rule out the possibility?"

    "You''re right."

    "That''s why we can''t skip today''s mission." Li Ling yawned

    "Are you sure you''re not tricking me?" Zhihao asked suspiciously to which Li Ling only smiled.

    In the end, Mastermo was still tricked into completing the third mission.

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 20 - Mastermos Date Has Been Interrupted

    "Stupid system! Get me down!" BBtrash a.k.a., Wang GuiYing howled.

    This was��to be plainly put��embarrassing. Not a second inside the third assigned level and BBtrash was hanging upside down from a tree. Why was this so? Cause he had come across a booby trap and before even getting the chance to save himself��the trap was triggered and in a heartbeat, he was already propelled up from the ground.

    [Invalid request]

    Hulk0_0 a.k.a., Zhou XinYi stared at the pitiful sight of his partner who was swinging upside down from the tree, helpless yet angrily cursing and arguing with a system. He calmly looked around his inventory to find anything that could be of use, but before he could do anything to help his partner, BBtrash was already saved by a bluish-green colored flash of light��the afterimage of a sword��that cut down the rope that was holding BBtrash up.. With the rope cut in half, Wang GuiYing was thrown headfirst towards the ground.

    "How come you are here?" the sword returned to the unexpected man who spoke in disbelief upon seeing the identity of the person he had saved.

    Wang GuiYing looked up to see the face of his savior, "Mastermo?"

    It was indeed Mastermo accompanied by Li Ling, the team which had coincidentally been assigned to this exact same level.

    It was shocking to say nonetheless, especially since this case has simply never happened before; No two players or teams have been sent to the same level at the same time. This could have been a possible bug in the game, maybe they were here by mistake but this theory was soon proven wrong when the system in front of both the teams dinged together.

    [Welcome to I-ranked level 5360: Treasure hunt]

    Zhihao suddenly understood a few things; Since this was a treasure hunt level, it was certainly possible that they weren''t the only players here.

    [You have successfully entered the mystical land of beasts]

    [This land that stretches as far as the eyes can see is the auspicious land��rich in natural resources and magical beasts. These beasts are rare and can only be found in this region and their main purpose here is to protect the priceless treasures that are hidden deep in these jungles.]

    [Each team is given a riddle which after solving would tell them what their magical treasure is]

    [Your mission is to find your assigned treasure. Do not fight with the other teams over the treasure, there are plenty of treasures to go around for everyone.]

    [The teams can cooperate with other teams to help find their treasure.]

    [We wish you all the best! Let''s go treasure hunting!]

    Zhihao was feeling complicated; on one hand, he was afraid of the fact that this was another I-ranked level and on the other hand, he was elated to be able to play it��to put it simply��he loved a good challenge.

    Li Ling, "System, What''s the riddle?"

    [Answering players question:

    The riddle is:-

    I am white and shine as I go,

    I''m alive, but you don''t see me as so.

    With three tails and big blue eyes,

    I glow at night and run a few miles.]

    Zhou XinYi, who saw that the other team got a riddle to solve, followed suit and asked the system the exact same question yet their team got a completely different riddle.

    [With the wind, I swing,

    On the earth, I dance,

    I''m innocent and helpful for people I like but,

    Fear me, for my temper, as I also like laying traps.]

    BBtrash stood up from the ground and scratched his head, "What the hell is this?"

    This guy was the exact opposite of Mastermo��he didn''t play games for the sake of enjoyment��he played it with only one goal in mind; to win. As a pro-gamer, this reason wasn''t so uncommon.

    "I think it''s a living creature?" Zhihao asked Li Ling

    "Could be but there is also the line that says you don''t see me as so. Maybe it''s some sort of a living being that we don''t regard as such, maybe a plant?" Li Ling responded, completely ignoring the existence of the annoying man whom they had just come across.

    "Possibly, but then what about the last line; Run a few miles? I don''t think plants would be able to run?"

    "Right. Maybe like a pumpkin sedan?"

    "... I hardly believe that would be the case." Zhihao sighed

    "A fox, maybe?", Wang GuiYing tried to interfere between the two but was bluntly ignored.

    Li Ling, "What are your guesses?"

    "Maybe the moon?" Zhihao looked up.

    "How so?"

    "I''m white, I glow at night and I run a few miles."

    "Would make sense; The moon is white and glows at night and normally, we see it moving from east to west."

    "Yeah, but then it wouldn''t explain the line; I have three tails and big blue eyes."

    "Exactly." Li Ling nodded

    The two made their way towards the forest as they continued their discussion.

    BBtrash and Hulk0_0 were left behind, ignored and speechless.

    "Yah! Am I air to you?!" Wang GuiYing yelled out, annoyed at how Mastermo ignored him. He dragged Zhou Xinyi by the hand following after the two men who were engrossed in riddle solving.

    "Honey! What a coincidence bumping into you like this. hehe... Could this be what they call fate?" Wang GuiYing shamelessly chimed to which Mastermo once again, didn''t bother to respond.

    Wang GuiYing was a man with thick skin. There was no way in hell he was going to simply let them go like this. One had to know that BBtrash was most infamous for having a weird hobby in which he gained some sort of pleasure and accomplishment by teasing Mastermo every single time; This was also the reason most of the fans would often enjoy shipping the two together and to such fans��he would smile innocently, tilt his head and say ''Don''t get me wrong. I''m not into men''��this was the famous line that made his fans laugh at the man for lying to himself.

    "Eh! Is this the rumored lover? Wow! You really are a man."

    Li Ling glared at BBtrash as he heard him say this, this was the first openly expressed reaction that BBtrash got and so he decided to keep on pestering about it a bit more, "Thank god! When I heard your name, I thought our little Mastermo had cheated on me with some girl. hehe... Now I feel better." Wang GuiYing chuckled and this time it wasn''t only Li Ling, who glared at him��this time he received glares from all the other three��each for different reasons.

    "Focus on completing your mission. Didn''t you fail the last one?" Zhihao dead-panned

    Wang GuiYing was not offended in the least and on the contrary, was shamelessly happy to find Zhihao responding to him, "Aye aye. With your help, I can rest assured."

    Zhou XinYi grabbed onto his partner''s collar preventing him from running and clinging onto Mastermo. If he hadn''t done so, then there was no questioning that BBtrash would certainly be cut in half by this Mastermo''s partner who was openly glaring at him with unhidden-hostility.

    Zhou XinYi was smiling politely when he asked, "Since we have already come across each other like this, would Mastermo mind us tagging along with you?"

    Zhihao glanced at the two, wondering how to politely decline the offer��There was no way he''ll ever want to work together with Wang GuiYing, This annoying man. If it was only Zhou XinYi��Mastermo would have certainly agreed to let him tag along, but since these two always came in a pair��A buy one get one free offer��Zhihao wasn''t so willing but he couldn''t outrightly be impolite and so, he remained silent.

    "We have no interest in carrying dead weight." Li Ling wasn''t as polite. To him; this was like asking permission to tag along with someone on their date, all he saw them as was a third-wheeler and a fourth-wheeler who accompanied him.

    Zhou XinYi was certainly taken aback by the hostile reply. He was a pro-gamer as well and to think that this newbie who had attached himself to Mastermo had actually dared to call him a dead weight��It was embarrassing. If the words were spoken by Mastermo, It would have been understandable��not acceptable, but still understandable, however, these words were actually spoken by this person? What qualifications did he have to say that? When comparing the rank of the two players, who was the real dead weight?

    Wang GuiYing, on the other hand, was enraged by the response, but instead of lashing out, he decided to stay calm and use his usual means to incite the two, "Darling, we already have such a relationship. Are you really going to abandon me for this new-found mistress?"

    "..." Zhihao really didn''t like this guy.

    When Zhou XinYi saw the faint shadow of a weapon in Li Ling''s hand, he automatically pushed Wang GuiYing behind him, he spoke; defending him, "No need to take him seriously. He''s not right in the head."

    "I''m sorry, but we are really not looking for the extra trouble. If he''s like this, who''ll look after him?" Zhihao spoke up with a faint sense of annoyance laced along with his voice.

    Zhou XinYi nodded, "Your worries are reasonable. Let me be responsible for him. You guys don''t have to worry about our safety and if he annoys you too much, you can just shoot him on the spot."

    Although Zhou XinYi had said it so easily, there was no way he''ll actually let the two shoot the annoying man. This unspoken fact was known by both Mastermo and Li Ling. Zhou XinYi a.k.a., Hulk0_0 was infamously known for being BBtrash''s unhired bodyguard. If it weren''t for him��it would''ve been impossible for BBtrash to even get the chance to enter the pro-gamers list. He was as loyal as a dog��daring to even jump in front of a bullet for Wang GuiYing if the situation occurs. Although the two had always said that they were childhood friends��it didn''t stop the fans from shipping the two��this ship could most certainly compete with BBtrash and Mastermo''s ship or maybe even beat that ship.

    "Then I''ll take your word for it." Zhihao nodded. In the end, he still didn''t want to offend Hulk0_0

    Although Zhou XinYi had always followed BBtrash and cleaned after him, this man was still deserving of Zhihao''s respect not only for the fact that he was ranked third in the top-gamers list, but also because this man had managed to not choke Wang GuiYing to death and had silently put up with this guy for all these years. Respectable indeed.

    "Lucky for you, my A-Zhi is too kind." Li Ling sighed.

    Zhou XinYi, "..."

    Wang GuiYing, "..."

    Zhihao, "..."

    Zhihao''s ears instantly turned red; This was unexplainably too embarrassing; How could he call him that in front of others?!

    Wang GuiYing could smell the scent of a breaking news headline.

    On the other hand, Zhou XinYi found himself cringing at the over-the-top sweetness; He was certainly not fond of getting diabetes.

    "L-Let''s continue moving." Zhihao stuttered, turning around to hide the embarrassment visible on his face.

    The group of four moved further into the dense forest that showed no signs of any mythical rare beasts whatsoever. This was quite disappointing for BBtrash who loved slaying beasts; although he didn''t actually slay them��most of the hard work was in fact done by Zhou XinYi who caught the beasts and worn them down to the point that they were helpless against BBtrash''s final blow.

    It wasn''t that there were no beasts in this forest��this forest was actually filled with them, but at the moment none of those beasts dared to come forward to entertain this group of visitors.

    It was dark and one could not notice it unless they looked over closely��on top of the trees��hiding among the leaves were creatures hardly visible among the darkness of the night. Their glowing eyes followed after the group without blinking. No one knew what they were planning, but they were certainly not planning to attack at the moment��they were only observing the group. Observing each and every step they made.

    The night was dark and the only source of light was the moon that glistened atop. There was a cold, soft breeze, hardly noticeable��this change of winds was not actually natural, but the group didn''t realize this fact as they kept on walking nonchalantly.

    Wang GuiYing was still focused on teasing Mastermo and Zhou XinYi was still rubbing his forehead in worry. Zhihao and Li Ling were walking in front of them, leading the other two and discussing the riddle that they would have to solve.

 Chapter 21 - Mastermo Cannot Be Fooled

    "Ahhhh! I can''t get it!" Wang GuiYing yelled out in frustration.

    Zhihao could not take the curiosity anymore and just had to ask, "What was your riddle?"

    Wang GuiYing, "System, What is our riddle?"

    [Answering players question:

    Your riddle is:-

    With the wind, I swing,

    On the earth, I dance,

    I''m innocent and helpful for people I like but,

    Fear me, for my temper, as I also like laying traps.]

    Zhihao really felt like banging a rock on this guy''s head��opening it up and seeing if there was a brain intact? Only BBtrash and Hulk0_0 could hear the voice of the system that was assigned to them. How could Zhihao hear?

    As if having understood Mastermo''s struggles��Zhou XinYi repeated the same riddle, aloud..

    Li Ling guessed, "Maybe a carnivorous plant?"

    "That''s a possibility." Zhihao nodded in agreement.

    They had been walking for the past half an hour, It was still dark and they were yet to cross their paths with any guardian beasts or other teams. This rose some suspicion in Zhihao''s mind, but he didn''t voice it out. Li Ling tugged on his sleeves and discussed something with him��their voice was low and could not be heard by the two who followed them.

    Wang GuiYing glanced between the two, having a weird sense of jealousy rise up in his heart as he mumbled, "What''s so good about that guy? If he likes being cold, he should just be cold! Why the discrimination?"

    When Zhou XinYi heard this displeased remark, he spoke with a seemingly straight face, "He''s not cold, he just finds you annoying."

    "Aiya! How can you say that? Haven''t I treated him so well? How could he find me annoying?"

    ".....", Zhou XinYi really didn''t want to respond to that; He had known this guy for most of his life and had grown accustomed to the man''s shameless thick-head.

    "In any case, this is unacceptable." Wang GuiYing skipped towards Mastermo in hopes of disturbing the peace he was enjoying but before he could do so, something else had destroyed that peace in his stead.

    The earth shook for a few seconds��stopped and shook again. Wang GuiYing was thrown out of balance��landing straight on his bum. Zhihao and Li Ling instinctively held onto each other and maintained their balance. Zhou XinYi had also managed to stand upright.

    "An earthquake?!" Wang GuiYing yelled out as he clutched onto the ground, knowing that even if he did stand up��he''ll still be knocked down so why not just accept it and lay on the ground for a while?

    "Be careful! This is not an earthquake." When Li Ling said this, Zhihao was suddenly reminded of the time when the gamemaster had held onto his hand and told him to be careful. Such similarity, but Zhihao really didn''t have time to be reminiscing about the sweet moments.

    Zhihao followed Li Ling''s sentence, "Earthquake is not supposed to be like this. Look carefully."

    Li Ling, "The earth is shaking in intervals. It''s as if..."

    "Something was walking. Something big..." Zhihao completed his sentence as he slowly turned his face upwards.

    The road that had previously been empty in front of them had now become a dead end. A furry dead-end or more like a furry roadblock.

    The four pairs of eyes had noticed this furry roadblock and everybody paused their movements, slowly��looking up, knowing that this was not going to be anything good.

    Wang GuiYing was fear-stricken; He had already failed one of the missions, he''ll have to keep his pitiful life intact in this level no matter what, if he were to stand a chance of winning that 1 million dollar cash prize.

    Zhihao, Li Ling, and Zhou XinYi stood frozen in spot, not realizing that BBtrash had slowly turned around and abandoned them��running backwards for his life. But how could that be easy?

    Wang GuiYing didn''t pay attention to where he was running and bumped into a really soft and furry wall; No Good!

    "XinYi gege! Save me!" He cried out loud.

    When Zhou XinYi heard this he was instantly unfrozen from the post and turned back only to find that there was another such creature behind them, one whom BBtrash had bumped into.

    Zhihao had also looked around, only to find that they were surrounded by four huge beasts covering them from all four sides.

    The creature was at least 100 feet tall; something that could clearly not hide in the forest even if it would like to, not to mention the weight of such a creature that could shake the earth. Just how had the creature suddenly managed to sneak up on them and surround them like this?

    It had a huge body alike that of a bear��dull black colored fur that covered its entire body and a seemingly small face in comparison that resembled that of orangutans with two pointy horns on top of either side of its head.

    "Don''t move from your places!" Zhihao warned. This was not something that he was sure on but he had read it on the internet somewhere that if one was to come face-to-face with a wild bear the person should not let fear move them as that could further agitate the beast but this was clearly no wild bear and there was no guarantee that the same trick could work here however what could they lose by trying?

    The giant beasts only stood there, not moving and not attacking them��maybe the trick had worked?

    But clearly, that was not the case as the beast in front of them spoke.

    Yes, He freaking spoke!

    In clear human language!

    Zhihao sighed, he really didn''t enjoy dealing with weird creatures that could talk.

    "What are you little humans doing here?" The sound was heavy and loud��it made Wang GuiYing shiver and want to dig a hole in the ground in order to hide.

    The beast in front��lowered its head and glared at the intruders.

    Li Ling was the first to respond, "Handsome brother, we mean no harm. Just passing through."

    Zhou XinYi wanted to puke at the sudden flattery with a face full of smiles.

    The creature seemed to be dumbstruck as well and took a second to recover. In the next moment it chuckled, seemingly happy with the man''s sweet-tongue, but due to the weight of his voice��it struck fear among the four. The beasts chuckle��although harmless��sounded extremely scary as if it was laughing at the misfortune that was to befall on these innocent tourists.

    A tear dripped down Wang GuiYing''s face that was expressionless and speechless with fear.

    "Even if you meant to harm, how could you manage to even touch a fur on my skin?" It laughed, teasing the group

    Wang GuiYing thought in his mind; hadn''t he just bumped into one and directly touched its fur? But although he wondered this��he was too scared to say it out loud.

    Li Ling forced himself to chuckle as well, "True! True! How could we hurt you? hahaha... So funny."

    The beast stopped laughing and silently glared at Li Ling. Zhihao who saw the sudden hostility in its eyes pulled Li Ling behind him and shielded him against whatever was to come next.

    It seemed that although Li Ling was a master at flattery��flattery would fail to win against such a beast.

    "Mere human, Who are you to laugh? I could squash you beneath my feet like a cherry." The voice was not exactly angry, however, the hostile words spoken along with the heaviness of the voice sent shivers down their spine as they thought about a scene where they were squashed like a cherry with only a censored mush of meat as their remains; Horrifying!

    Li Ling, who was being shielded by Zhihao apologized immediately, breaking out in cold sweat, "Ah! Sorry! I really don''t deserve to be standing here and talking to your greatness."

    The beast hummed in satisfaction.

    "Now tell me the truth, Why have you people entered here? If I like your answer, I''ll let you live."

    Wang GuiYing cried out in his head; and what if you don''t like our answer? Are we as good as a squashed glop of cherry?! Unacceptable!

    The beast was surely intimidating, but Zhihao wasn''t that scared of it. If the beast really wanted to attack them, then it would''ve already done it, but as it stands, they were still alive and given a chance to talk their way out of it, so he guessed that there was an undeniable reason why the beast hadn''t attacked yet and this reason was most certainly linked to the system and the orders it gave to these NPC beasts.

    "We are looking for a treasure." Zhihao answered without hiding anything, if he was gonna go for it��might as well go all out. In the worst-case scenario, he still had his trustable spiritual sword; Shuang to protect him and Li Ling. Hulk0_0 could also be considered skilled enough to protect himself and BBtrash.

    Like thunder��the beast growled, "What treasure? There is no treasure in these lands."

    "The treasure is something with three tails, is white, has big blue eyes and it glows at night. Have you seen it?" Zhihao asked casually as if he were asking a stranger if they had seen his lost wallet. When Wang GuiYing saw this he could only utter out a single sentence; seeking one''s own death.

    Zhou XinYi had, however, noticed that although Mastermo appeared as calm and collected on the outside��it was indeed because he was actually feeling that way, with a bluish-green glint of the sword that was hidden behind his back��how could he not be self-assured?

    The beast lowered its head and took a closer look at Zhihao, it huffed a breath of air on the man''s face��a breath that was strong enough to send out his clothes and hair into a disheveled mess.

    "Young man, are you not afraid of death? Why go through such extra trouble?"

    Zhihao couldn''t understand what the beast was trying to say, the words were threatening yet it wasn''t the beast that was threatening them, but more like the beast was trying to warn them about some kind of unseen danger that lay ahead of them.

    Li Ling, "So, did our answer please you?"

    "....."

    Zhou XinYi wanted to smack this man''s head, didn''t he know that certain questions should not be asked out loud??

    The beast laughed in amusement, "Such courage. You can pass! I don''t stop people from walking straight towards their doom."

    This was most certainly a warning. Could it be that the treasure they were after was more dangerous than these huge beasts?

    The beast moved aside and cleared the path for these four travelers, even going as far as to wish and warn them at the same time, "The deeper you go in the forest, the more eyes you''ll catch. The more things that notice you, the harder it gets. We wish you all the best, but luck may not stand a chance. Here''s our final advice; Beware of the eyes that lurk in the dark."

    The system dinged.

    [Congratulations on discovering a new riddle! +50 T-points gained]

    Zhihao was ecstatic. They were in the right direction to solving the secret side-story.

    [The extra riddle is:-

    The deeper you go in the forest, the more eyes you''ll catch.

    The more things that notice you, the harder it gets.

    We wish you all the best, but luck may not stand a chance.

    Beware of the eyes that lurk in the dark.]

    Zhihao turned towards the beast and bowed in gratitude, "We''ll survive. Many thanks for your great advice."

    Wang GuiYing sprang to his feet and stumbled towards Zhou XinYi who caught him by instinct.

    The group of four continued their journey with a heavy sigh of relief.

    A few miles later, the beasts were no longer in sight and this was the chance for Wang GuiYing to voice out the question that was gnawing at the back of his head, "Why didn''t we fight them? Why are we walking away? We could''ve killed them and collected the rewards! Such a waste!"

    It seems that this man had forgotten the scene where he was frozen speechless in fear of those beasts; now that he was out of danger��daring to even think about saying such things.

    Zhihao simply looked ahead as he answered with a smile, "Why would you want to fight a bunch of illusions?"

    "..."

    Even Zhou XinYi hadn''t expected this and Li Ling was stunned that Mastermo had realized such a crucial thing.

    Wang GuiYing''s reaction, however, was much bigger, "What?! What do you mean by illusions?!"

    Zhihao smiled as he spoke, "I''m not amazed at your dumbness. Pay more attention to details, will you?" He pointed towards the ground, "Such big creatures that can shake the earth as they walk so why is the earth not moving right now? Why are there no footprints left behind?"

    "..."

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 22 - Mastermo Meets RoRo

    Zhihao had only guessed this much from the evidence he had analyzed so far, but coincidentally, his guess was on point, it was indeed an illusion, and to further confirm the theory��the system dinged with another notification.

    [Congratulations on seeing through the owl''s illusion! +50 T-points gained.]

    [New mystical beast discovered: Illusion owls]

    Zhihao had long wondered why the system hadn''t notified them the second they met that giant beast, but now the answer to that was clear; Cause they hadn''t actually met such a beast.

    Wang GuiYing was rendered speechless once again, thinking; I was scared of stupid owls?! Me?!

    [Illusion owls are a type of mystical beasts who��like their name suggested��are experienced in illusionary magic. They are harmless creatures who protect the region from trespassers by engulfing the intruder in an illusion where they see the owl as a big giant creature that could pose a threat to them. This illusion has an added advantage where��if an intruder directly attacks the owl��unless the weapon used is an illusion breaking weapon��the attack would not hit the owl but be bounced back to the attacker and in this way, the intruder would be only attacking oneself by trying to defeat the illusionary beasts with the help of force. The only way to enter the jungle is by passing this obstacle and if the owl deems you as worthy, the illusion would be broken and you''d be allowed to go ahead.]

    Zhihao suddenly had a thought, "System, does the owl by any chance have a habit of dancing on the ground?"

    [Answering players question: Illusion owls usually dance on the ground in circles to celebrate their victory after successfully fooling the intruders]

    Zhou XinYi''s eyes widened as the realization hit him a bit late, but just as it did��he ran back towards the way they came from.

    Wang GuiYing sneered, "Why are these owls so weird? Where is that guy running off to?"

    "....." Zhihao really didn''t know if there was a brain inside this man''s head or has it already been eaten away by worms called stupidity.

    Li Ling sighed, "With the wind, I swing. On the earth, I dance. I''m innocent and helpful for people I like, but fear me for my temper as I also like laying traps."

    "....."

    Zhihao mocked, "Your treasure just duped you."

    Just as he heard this, Wang GuiYing also ran back, cursing, the same way Zhou XinYi did.

    Zhihao felt like this unfortunate group''s luck was simply laughing at them��they were so close to winning yet so far away��the system was simply teasing BBtrash and Hulk0_0

    Li Ling snickered, "Handing a monkey the key to a treasure chest."

    Zhihao chuckled at the comment, "Why are we never this lucky?"

    The duo waited for the two monkeys to return��as expected��empty-handed.

    There was no way the owl would simply be waiting there for them to come and catch it, it had probably moved on to somewhere else where other players were trying to enter this forest.

    Li Ling, "Don''t be so bummed. Now that you know the identity of your target, You can still catch it in the future."

    Wang GuiYing was still pissed off, "How could that thing trick us like this? If you knew it, why didn''t you tell us beforehand?"

    Zhihao defended himself, "How could I know? I had guessed it only now when the system gave us a character profile."

    This was not a lie. Although Zhihao had long sensed that something was wrong and they were in fact in an illusion��by that time, he had still not known that this was the treasure that the riddle spoke about, after all, the riddle wasn''t even his to solve so why blame an innocent at the moment?

    Zhou XinYi asked curiously, "Mastermo, how did you know that it was an illusion?"

    Li Ling answered proudly, "Cause he''s smart."

    Zhou XinYi, "....."

    Zhihao chuckled under his breath, "It was simple. Let''s start with a question; Where did they come from? The earth clearly shook a few seconds before their arrival but how did we not feel the tremors when they were approaching us? And on top of that, there were four beasts, but we only heard the heavy footsteps of one."

    Li Ling continued, "Another weird thing was that only one of them spoke, why? and even if the beast did speak, it had only told us that it can attack us but did not actually attack us, why? It simply couldn''t. Such a large in size beast, killing us should have been as easy as squashing a cherry for them but why couldn''t they?"

    Wang GuiYing intercepted, "But that doesn''t amount to anything. It''s a magical beast, it could have covered up its tracks and didn''t attack us because we were players...?"

    Zhihao was patient in explaining, "No! Such a big beast, even if it flew overhead or crawled underground, we would''ve realized its presence. But if it had a way it could mask its presence, what would it be? An invisibility cloak perhaps? But then why would it mask its presence in order to surround us and show itself in the end with no intention of attacking us? It simply made no sense and that''s when I saw its feet."

    Li Ling continued the leftover words, "With that much weight, the beast should have been able to create deep holes on the ground, but weirdly enough when you look at their feet, they had no footprints."

    Zhou XinYi seemed to reevaluate the ability of these two. He had already known the impressive analytical ability of Mastermo but to see that even this teammate of his who was a mere nobody in the gaming world had seen through such a thing while the one holding the third position in the top gamers list couldn''t? Impressive indeed.

    Wang GuiYing was suddenly enlightened, hopping over to Mastermo''s side, "Honey! I knew tagging along with you was a good decision!"

    Zhou XinYi, "....." The Idea was clearly mine.

    Having said what needed to be said, Mastermo went back to ignoring the existence of this annoying pro-gamer, however, doing the same wasn''t possible for Li Ling who was drinking vinegar for some reason.

    "Now all that''s left to do is catch that treasure. Darling, If you can use your big brains to catch it for me, I''ll forgive you for ignoring me." Wang GuiYing poked at Zhihao''s cheeks.

    Zhihao gritted his teeth, "Use your own brain."

    Wang GuiYing whined, "Don''t have one."

    Zhou XinYi, "....."

    Li Ling, "...."

    Zhihao, "...."

    Shameless!!

    Zhou XinYi moved forward and dragged his partner away, saving him from further embarrassment. At moments like this, Zhou XinYi would often wonder; What do I like about this shameless man??

    The deeper they went into the forest, the darker it got. The trees became denser and the path��there was no path left. The atmospheric temperature dropped a few degrees��a scene freshly out of a horror movie???this made Li Ling move closer to Zhihao and sneakingly hold the man''s hand.

    For Zhihao, to suddenly have Li Ling hold his hand like this, it was a familiar feeling��hadn''t the game master also held his hand like this? Zhihao wanted to smack himself; How could he be so lost in the memories of that one day?! If anybody else could see inside his mind��they''d say it was love��but Zhihao would refuse to believe it.

    Li Ling moved closer and whispered in his ears, "A-Zhi, I think you should keep Shuang equipped for now."

    Zhihao had the same thoughts. It was a feeling��an eerie one. Everything was just too quiet. Zhihao and Li Ling stopped moving and looked into the darkness.

    Wang GuiYing, "Why are we stopping?"

    "Shhh..." It was Li Ling, who had gestured for them to stop talking and they did.

    A second passed.

    Two seconds passed.

    It turned into a whole minute and nobody said a word or moved an inch.

    Two minutes passed and Zhou XinYi had also realized that something was wrong.

    Wang GuiYing asked cluelessly, "What are we waiting for?"

    Zhihao, "The leaves. It''s too quiet."

    Li Ling, "There is a breeze, but the leaves aren''t moving."

    When this fact was spoken out loud and the awareness crept into Wang GuiYing''s mind; his body was filled with goosebumps.

    BBtrash was not a fan of horror!

    Even the sound of the system that came next made Wang GuiYing yell out and jump up, clinging onto Zhou XinYi.

    [The deeper you go in the forest, the more eyes you''ll catch.

    The more things that notice you, the harder it gets.

    We wish you all the best, but luck may not stand a chance.

    Beware of the eyes that lurk in the dark.]

    Zhihao had already summoned Shuang��the light emitting from the sword was reflected by a pair of big blue eyes. Behind the eyes were three glowing tails that gently wagged like that of a fox. The pairs of eyes multiplied to two, then four, then eight, sixteen, and so on till they were surrounded by it.

    Zhihao and Li Ling had found the treasure they were after.

    Li Ling, "I am white and shine as I go. I''m alive but you don''t see me as so."

    "With three tails and big blue eyes. I glow at night and run a few miles." Zhihao completed the riddle.

    In an instant, Shuang sprang forth and aimed directly at the beast��It passed right through it and one of the pair of eyes disappeared.

    Wang GuiYing shivered, "What the hell is this thing?"

    [New mystical beast discovered: Fox spirit]

    That sounded about right.

    [Fox spirit are cute and lively creatures that normally mean no harm. If enraged��they can blow up this entire region in a blue flame. Approach with caution!]

    Zhihao wanted to curse the system; How much vaguer can your character profiling get?!

    Li Ling was the first to move forward, with his hands stretched forward, he tried to approach the beast gently��showing that he meant no harm but his hand which was about to touch the beast passed through nothing. The beast had turned into white smoke. He tried a few more times and still came out empty-handed.

    "rooorooo..." The sound of a white-colored fox-like beast with three tails swinging behind its back and big blue eyes looking curiously at them emerged from the darkness, it circled around them a few times and seemed to be attracted to Li Ling but when Li Ling tried to move towards it, the beast ran away.

    "....."

    Zhou XinYi, "You scared it away."

    Li Ling looked at the fox that had run away with a speed that left behind only an afterimage of its shining tail, "I''m gonna name it RoRo."

    "...."

    "...."

    "...."

    Zhihao was the first to move, "After it!"

    The group started running but how could they catch something with such speed? It was only natural that they had lost its trail and were once again aimlessly walking in the forest, hoping not to come across any other real threatening beasts.

    But heaven''s had no pity on them. Something caught Wang GuiYing''s shoulder and he was dragged away, screaming in fear. Zhou XinYi was quick but not quick enough.

    Zhihao looked up trying to hide his joy, "What is that?"

    [New mystical beast discovered: Crying eagle.]

    [Warning: Do Not Approach This Beast!]

    [With a cry that can shake the heaven and earth, this eagle can fatally injure a person with its earthshaking cries that can directly strip the skin off the flesh.]

    Just great! Haha!

    Both Li Ling and Zhihao were overjoyed, after all, the person the eagle had abducted was none other than BBtrash. This was a god-given blessing! Such luck! Miraculous!

    Their expressions hid nothing��their happiness was just.... Too clear!

    At this moment the comment section was clearly shaken:

    [BBtrashhhhhh!!]

    [Somebody save that child!]

    [Mastermo! Why are you happy to see your husband being abducted?!]

    [Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!]

    [@Hulk0_0 Save your man! It''s your time to shine!]

    [So Sweet! OUCH! Mastermo and devilmagiclover are hurting my sweet tooth]

    [Everybody calm down! The eagle is just trying to take out the trash. (>o<) ]

    [Eco-friendly eagle! HAHAHA]

    [@Mastermo SAVE HIM!!]

    [The way I screamed!]

    [Why are they not doing anything?]

    [Wait, why are Mastermo and Devilmagiclover happily waving goodbye to BBtrash????]

    [Heck! This is too funny!]

    [My poor boy.... You''ll be missed.]

    [And that''s how BBtrash was raised by an eagle and developed a bird''s brain.]

    [LOL LOL LOL LOL]

    [This is peak entertainment. kekekeke]

    [@BBtrash why are you crying out for XinYi gege now? HAHAHA Did your darling Mastermo abandon you?]

    [LMAO]

    [I''m wheezing.]

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 23 - Mastermo Has A Weakness

    Zhihao exclaimed happily, "Let''s continue moving forward."

    Zhou XinYi was dumbfounded, "Are you actually going to leave him like that?"

    Li Ling responded, "We already agreed that he''ll be your responsibility so yeah. We are leaving. Take care!"

    "If you want to go save your partner, you are free to do so." Zhihao smiled as he and Li Ling started walking forward.

    It was a pity. The more people that accompanied them��the faster they''d complete this level. That is to say that manpower is directly equal to efficiency, however, one BBtrash alone was enough to make that efficiency go into a negative value, that was the power of Wang GuiYing who would not think to blink before abandoning you when danger strikes. With such a person gone, it was certainly something worth celebrating. So why would Zhihao and Li Ling want to save him? Especially when the system had already warned them about not approaching that beast? It wasn''t like they were suicidal or anything..

    "Wait!" Zhou XinYi ran after them. He was in a different situation than them. There was no way in hell he could just abandon his partner and leave like this. He had a strong analysis of his own abilities; Without the help of these two, there was no way he''ll be able to save BBtrash so how could he not follow them? He''d have to get their help even if it meant begging on his knees for it.

    Li Ling, "Can you really afford to waste your time on us like this? The more you wait, the fewer chances of him surviving."

    "Mastermo, we are in this together. If a misfortune were to befall on you, I''m sure we would have stopped to help you as well." It was not completely a lie, if it were only him��Zhou Xinyi would gladly help but to say that BBtrash would help? Nonsense. If something like that ever happened��if there were a day Mastermo would need Wang GuiYing''s help��it would be the day the sky decided to fall.

    Zhihao noticed that this Zhou XinYi had clearly ignored Li Ling''s previous question and was not very pleased with the behavior so he looked at Li Ling as he asked, resting the authority to make the final decision on him, "Do you want to help him?"

    "Not at all." Li Ling dead-panned.

    Zhou XinYi was at a loss of what to do next,

    Zhihao felt a bit of pity for the poor fellow, but he was still not willing to act on that pity. Li Ling, on the other hand, felt like BBtrash deserved it. If only the man had known when to shut his mouth��Li Ling would''ve forgiven him.

    Zhou XinYi, "How about we make a deal?"

    Zhihao stopped, feeling amused with the offer, "And what could you possibly have that would interest me?"

    "What do you want?"

    Zhihao thought about it seriously for a minute. To be speaking frankly, the answer was; absolutely nothing. What could he be lacking?

    Li Ling had an idea, "How about T-points?"

    Zhihao was impressed at the suggestion.

    T-point trading was indeed possible in the game, but this trading feature was hardly ever used and the reason for that was simply; T-points were hard-earned gaming currency that one could not buy whatsoever and therefore, could only be earned through hard work so why would players want to give it away just like that?

    Both Li Ling and Zhihao felt like the man would certainly refuse, but contrary to their expectations, Zhou XinYi readily agreed.

    "Would 500 T-points suffice?"

    Zhihao was shocked. 500 T-points were no easy sum. To readily give all that away just for a bit of assistance? Impressive indeed.

    However, Li Ling was not impressed, "Make that 5000 and we''ll have a deal and that''s 5000 for each of us, me and Mastermo."

    Zhou XinYi was stunned; This was a plain robbery was it not?

    He looked at his total collection of T-points which glistened a sad 1060. There was no way he''ll be able to afford it. 5000 for each meant a total of ten thousand T-points and except for the gamemaster, nobody had such a huge amount of T-points just idly waiting for them, to spend.

    Li Ling smirked, "I''m guessing you don''t have it?"

    Zhou XinYi was silent.

    Zhihao and Li Ling took the silence as a clear no and got ready to leave. This was to be expected, it would''ve been more shocking if he had actually agreed.

    "Okay. We''ll pay you. Right now I don''t have the money so I''ll pay in investments."

    "No need. After we complete this level, you can pay us whatever you have left with you and that includes both you and BBtrash. And the rest of the amount... Let it be our investment on you. If in the future we were to find a fancy on any of the items you gain we''ll consider it gifted to us by you." Li Ling beamed revealing his true intent.

    Zhihao could not understand what Li Ling was thinking. The system had warned them against it so why go searching for trouble like this? In all honesty, even if they wanted to help there was just no way they could, but as far as Zhihao knew Li Ling; this man was not someone who made rash decisions like this. Whatever Li Ling was planning; It really could not be understood.

    Zhou XinYi wanted to disagree with the offer, but at the moment, he really had no other way out so he unwillingly agreed, "Okay."

    In his mind, the image he had of Li Ling was slowly but surely worsening.

    Li Ling was suddenly enthusiastic, "Good!"

    Zhihao, "How do we go about it?"

    "We fly." Li Ling replied

    Zhou XinYi, "....."

    In the next moment, Zhihao grabbed onto Li Ling''s waist and Zhou XinYi''s back collar and mounted the spiritual sword; Shuang.

    The sword, being a rare magic treasure flew up into the air, 50 feet high, and traveled at a speed of 5 miles per second.

    Zhou XinYi looked up, "But how do we know where the eagle took him?"

    Li Ling, "...."

    Zhihao nodded, "Good question."

    Shuang came to an abrupt stop in mid-air.

    Li Ling and Zhihao looked at Zhou XinYi, expectantly, "Do you have anything that could track down a mystical beast?"

    "Obviously not."

    Zhihao, "That''s.... sad."

    Li Ling, "System, where did the eagle go?"

    [Answering players question: the crying eagle went north where its nest is located]

    Zhou XinYi blinked, "well that was simple."

    "I did not think that would work."

    Zhihao reacted to the information and gave Shuang directions and they were once again on their way towards the quest of saving BBtrash.

    After traveling for quite a bit, they finally caught a glimpse of an old tree with no branches and a huge nest atop of it. This was for sure the eagle''s Nest; how could they be sure? Well, there was a crying BBtrash sitting along with three big eagle eggs.

    [Congratulations on finding the crying eagles Nest]

    [Warning: Do not approach!]

    [The crying eagle is very sensitive towards intruders. If a player is to go near its eggs, the eagle would for sure, attack]

    No matter how much the system warning rang out, Zhihao had already decided to save BBtrash and he would certainly succeed in doing so.

    When Wang Guiying saw the group of people coming to possibly save him, he was overwhelmed and started crying some more.

    Li Ling chuckled, "Could it be that the crying eagle was fooled by his cries and thought it was one of her own?"

    Zhou XinYi, "...."

    Zhihao felt like the sentence made some real nonsensical sense, but before he could respond, the system dinged.

    [Congratulations on uncovering the truth +50 T-points gained]

    Zhihao felt like the system was suddenly just throwing T-points at them for no reason at all.

    [The crying eagle has a weakness. If a player or beast is crying, the eagle would be confused into thinking that it was one of her own and in turn, would adopt the player or beast.]

    This was just too ridiculous��so ridiculous that they couldn''t even laugh about it.

    Zhihao noticed something amiss, "Wait... But was he crying when the eagle abducted him? Didn''t he start crying after the abduction took place?"

    Zhou XinYi shook his head, "We had just lost the chance to complete this mission, I''m sure he was silently mourning over it."

    This was for certain.

    Li Ling, "Makes sense."

    A cry was a cry. It really did not matter if it was a loud one or a silent one after all this was what was encoded in the system; not made clear of the specifications of the cry just that it had to be a cry and so poor BBtrash fell victim to the system code.

    But that did not matter. What really mattered was that it had already happened and BBtrash was trapped there like a damsel-in-distress waiting to be rescued. Let me correct that, Like trash in distress waiting to be taken out.

    The eagle was nowhere in sight, but Zhihao had a feeling that it was unsafe to move forward and so with a command, Shuang stopped and landed on the ground.

    Zhou XinYi was in a hurry, "We could''ve flown right up into the nest and saved him. What are we waiting for?"

    Li Ling was displeased, "And what if the mother eagle finds us?"

    "Aren''t there three of us? We can surely defeat a mere beast."

    Zhihao rubbed his head, "Why is it that whenever it''s him in question, you are always so impatient?"

    "....." Zhou XinYi could not answer.

    "Let''s strategize first." Li Ling suggested.

    Zhihao, "System, Does the crying eagle have any weakness?"

    [Answering players question: The crying eagle only has one weakness.]

    Li Ling, "What is its weakness?"

    [Answering players question: The crying eagle cannot harm you if it does not cry.]

    [Congratulations on unlocking the description of crying eagle! +50 T-points gained.]

    [Crying eagle: These mystical beasts are pretty sensitive and cry when faced with intense emotions such as anger, frustration, sadness, distress, and excitement. If it''s startled��it will cry. In frustration��it will cry. If it''s angered��it would cry even louder. The only way to stop the eagle from crying is by making it happy. The eagle likes human music and dance.]

    [Warning: Do not confuse happiness with excitement!]

    Li Ling, "...."

    Zhihao, "...."

    Zhou XinYi, "So.... We have to dance?"

    Zhihao, "...and sing."

    Nobody spoke a word.

    Zhihao had thought that they''d have to defeat the beast with some other excessive method, but to find out that the answer was that simple and ridiculous...?

    Unbelievable!!

    Li Ling was the first to speak after the awkward silence, "Anyone talented in the arts of music?"

    Zhou XinYi stared at the eagle''s nest which was located high up the ground, "I''ll dance."

    "...." Zhihao didn''t want to respond.

    Zhihao thought in his mind; This was cheating!

    One had to know, The great pro-gamer Mastermo a.k.a., Huang Zhihao was talented in many aspects and these aspects were limited to the things that needed brain cells and technical skill and in no manner did these widely known skills include anything near entertainment skills. He was the absolute worst at that. At the end of the day, God was still fair to everyone. If he was talented in these aspects as well, wouldn''t it be too unfair to the rest of humankind?

    But exactly how bad was he at these two skills? To that question��Mastermo''s fans would quietly put in an earplug and log out of the live stream. Yes, he was that bad! Extremely bad!

    But Li Ling didn''t know this. In his mind, he was quite looking forward to hearing the man sing and dance.

    The rescue group did not get more time to decide on who does what. With a strong gust of wind, created by a small flap of a wing, The crying eagle landed right in front of them. Thankfully, this beast was nor shocked nor angered, but who knew what could happen in the next few minutes.

    The Eagle was in no manner like your typical sized eagle��it was humungous. With wings that could match the size that of a dragon. It had light brown feathers with each end of a feather tinted with crimson color. The beast stared at the group of uninvited guests and got ready to cry.

    [Warning: The Crying eagle is sad that the player is not interacting with it.]

    Heck! What type of dumb person created this stupid scenario?!

    Li Ling sneezed.

    Zhou XinYi brought his hands to his waist and kicked his right leg towards the left side��this was his pathetic try at dancing.

    "A-Zhi, I''ll leave the singing up to you." Li Ling joined Zhou XinYi, copying his lame movements

    "....let it goooO. LeT iT GoOOooO!!"

    Suddenly the comment section unitedly cursed at Li Ling and logged out of the live stream. Both Zhou XinYi and Li Ling were horrified to a state where they could no longer dance.

    Yep! That horrible!

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 24 - Mastermo Is Aggrieved

    At the end of the day, The crying eagle was still a bunch of computer codes, however, it seems even the codes didn''t recognize Zhihao''s singing as music.

    [Warning: The eagle is frightened! Players are advised to run!]

    Not a second later; The eagle''s earth-shattering cry was heard. If it were not for Zhihao who reacted fast, the small group of three would have been stripped off of their skin on the spot.

    The moon goddess spellbook was once again activated and sucked inside its virtual space were three people; A shocked Zhou XinYi, a helpless Li Ling, and an alert Huang Zhihao.

    Zhou XinYi, who was unaware and had not managed to catch up with everything that had transpired asked, "Are we dead?! What happened??"

    Zhihao, "We are inside a book."

    They were safe for now, However, there was another factor that could not help but make Zhihao sweat in worry; The moon goddess spellbook was meant for containing only one player at a time, and stuffing in three at the same time seemed to almost stretch the book to its maximum limit��threatening to tear and throw them out but thankfully by the time that they were thrown out, the crying eagle had already stopped its skin-stripping cry and looked at them curiously once again, shocked that they were still alive and standing.

    [Congratulations on surviving the Crying eagle''s attack! +50 T-points gained.]

    [The eagle is curious the players have managed to survive]

    [The eagle wants to interact with the player]

    Zhou XinYi panicked, "What are we supposed to do now?"

    Zhihao, "There is no way in hell, I''m gonna sing again!"

    Li Ling shook his head, "System, play music!"

    The system dinged

    [As per the players request random music is playing]

    The eagle seemed to be quite pleased with the sudden upbeat music that came out of nowhere and looked expectantly at the group with twinkling eyes.

    Zhihao and Zhou XinYi were stunned as they looked at Li Ling in suspicion��they clearly had no idea that such a feature even existed in this game.

    When noticing the sudden pair of eyes looking at him with suspicion, Li Ling decided to justify himself, "I did not know that would work. Honestly!"

    It was a blatant lie, but the two seemed to be fooled by it.

    [Warning: The eagle is unhappy that the players are not dancing.]

    Zhou XinYi was the first to react this time as he took a hold of the hands of the other two and formed a chain to start his awkward dance with full confidence.

    If the eagle hadn''t been an in-game character that had preset orders, it would have certainly been angered to death at this sight. The victory dance done by illusion owls was better than this.

    The group had zero co-ordination and strained efforts; often bumping into each other and kicking the other by mistake, but the eagle seemed to be satisfied with this pathetic excuse of a dance as it bobbed its head, happily, right and left to the beat.

    Li Ling, "Am I the only one who thinks the beasts here are kinda cute?"

    It was true. Although all the beasts were mysterious and deadly, their actions could only be deemed as extremely cute once you got to know them.

    [Congratulations to the player! The eagle is satisfied with the player''s performance and has decided to befriend you! +50 T-points gained for creative thinking.]

    When the eagle saw that the group of its newfound friends were here for BBtrash it went up to its nest and brought him down with it, hence, the group was successful in saving their annoying companion.

    After everything was said and done��the system dinged once again.

    [Congratulations to player BBtrash! The crying eagle wants to form a spiritual pact with you!]

    Li Ling seemed to have seen this coming as he spoke up, "Since we have successfully helped you, it''s time to pay up what you promised us. Although this is too cheap, I think this eagle would suffice."

    Zhihao felt a shiver go down his spine as he realized that this man had guessed the outcome beforehand and the real motive behind him agreeing to save BBtrash was exactly this; To catch the crying eagle. But he could not be blamed for having such selfish reasons as it would''ve been even more shocking if anybody actually wanted to save BBtrash and for this; only BBtrash could be blamed.

    "Honeyyyyy!" Wang GuiYing��once out of the clutches of the eagle��jumped on Zhihao with open arms, but before he could touch the man his back collar was seized by another��it was his loyal partner, Zhou XinYi.

    Zhou XinYi, who had previously considered LiLing as somebody not worthy of becoming Mastermo''s partner was now extremely amused with the player, changing his perspective of him, "A promise is a promise. I dare not go back on my words."

    And with that Zhihao had gained a new companion: The crying eagle, which formed a spiritual pact with him. Like his spiritual sword, this eagle was also a transferable item and could be taken out of this specific level. It was a lucky chance and such luck could be credited to Li Ling''s analytical abilities and negotiation skills.

    "This could possibly help us in the future." Li Ling whispered to Zhihao.

    Wang GuiYing, who was stuck up on top of a tree the entire time was clueless as to what was happening and Zhou XinYi really didn''t want him to know at the moment because if he knew that they were robbed by his so-called ''Honey'' he would have certainly been devastated to no account.

    Zhihao completed the spiritual pact with the crying eagle, "System, where is the Fox spirit?"

    [Answering players question: Invalid search operation!]

    Zhihao did not hope to get the answer in the first place, but there was no point in not trying so he took his chances.

    As the group continued their journey to find the treasure, the in-game sun had already risen and with the rising of the sun came more chance encounters with other mystical beasts, but so far, these beasts were all small in size and harmless��that is until they came across a rather large angry mammal.

    [New mystical beast discovered: Raging Bull]

    [Raging Bull: With a body as big as an elephant and a head just as big, this mystical beast��much like a bull��depends on its two horns to attack when angered.]

    The bull need not be angered by the group��as, by the looks of it, it was already pretty damn furious, shoving its hooves abruptly on the ground and getting ready to attack the group that seemed to cross paths with it.

    Wang GuiYing hid behind Zhou XinYi and Zhihao summoned his sword Shuang to cut straight through the beast.

    With a clean swing, the bull that came running furiously at them had its head detached from its body and landed in front of them with a loud thud.

    This rather cold-blooded action of Zhihao indicated that the man was somewhat angry��maybe even more so than the bull

    [Congratulations on defeating the raging bull!]

    The cause behind Zhihao''s anger was evident; It was because he had been forced to sing and dance in front of Li Ling and millions of his fans who were watching the live stream, This was certainly an embarrassing thing yet when faced with such embarrassment, Zhihao would instinctively mask it behind an aggressive emotion called anger.

    He was simply done with all the bullshit. Rather than being forced to do something embarrassing again, he''d choose to straight-out kill the beast without hesitation.

    Time passed fast and the in-game sun had set by the arrival of the night time.

    By this time, Zhihao had already slaughtered his way through hordes of low-ranked beasts and even some high-ranked ones.

    "roooooroooo" An all too familiar voice came.

    Li Ling excitedly searched for the owner of the voice.

    It was the same scene that they had come across the previous time. It was a white-colored fox with three tails and bright blue eyes that looked at them curiously.

    This time we''ll catch it!

    Zhihao didn''t want to play this level any longer. Like an ostrich, he just wanted to dig a hole in the ground and bury his face in embarrassment.

    The fox spirit was once again attracted to Li Ling and encircled the group with no ill-intentions, however, the second Li Ling made a move, it was ever ready to run away.

    Zhihao exclaimed as if having noticed something, "Do not move!"

    Wang GuiYing, "Huh? Why? Are you not going to catch it?"

    Zhihao wanted to smack this guy the second he opened his mouth, but he suppressed the urge to do so, "Have you ever gone fishing?"

    Wang GuiYing blinked, "No. Have you?"

    Zhihao was silent, "No."

    "...."

    Wang GuiYing, "Then why the hell are you involving innocent fishes into this?"

    "Cause when we go fishing we wait patiently for the fish to fall for the bait and willingly get caught by us."

    Zhou XinYi was displeased as looked back at the creature and then at Zhihao, "But this is a fox."

    "..."

    Li Ling, "But it still makes sense. If we don''t move, RoRo might come to us willingly."

    And with the plan of patiently waiting without moving a muscle, the group stood their ground for over 10 minutes, However, RoRo was no fish and on the contrary, it was actually a fox so with its innate cleverness��how could it fall for this simple trick?

    RoRo encircled them a few times before getting bored and running away. The small beast was teasing them��no doubt about it.

    Unacceptable!

    Zhihao grabbed Li Ling, mounted on Shuang, and gave chase to the fox only to discover another shocking fact about this beast.

    The fox spirit could camouflage with the surrounding��or more like the white of their tail fur was the color of the moon that reflected off of it and the only pigment the fox had laid within the blue iris of its eye. No wonder they lost its trail the last time they gave chase.

    This time with the amount of enthusiasm Zhihao showed, there was no way he going to let this beast slip away and so when it disappeared with the surrounding, Shuang followed the swaying leaves that were caused due to the fast motion of the sprinting fox.

    The fox seemed to not only run away from them to evade the danger, but it seemed as if it had a set destination in mind, leading the two players to head straight towards it.

    Zhou XinYi and Wang GuiYing stood on the spot where they were abandoned��waiting for the two to remember about their existence and come back.

    The fox spirit entered a cave located deep in the forest and from there on��the chasing was done on feet as Zhihao and Li Ling went after it.

    The cave didn''t have anything in particular worth noting except for the eccentric carvings on the stone walls. These carvings seemed to be done by a human yet with no humans in sight, one could deduce that these were probably done by some sort of beast with cognitive abilities.

    The carvings were probably done with a sharp object, something similar to claws perhaps, and they seemed to be portraying a certain story yet Zhihao could not decipher what the story was.

    The duo stopped in their tracks and started to analyze the weird carvings. They were characters; A glowing globe, an angel, beasts, a fox, and many more characters that could hardly be understood.

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling, his gaze asking the obvious question; do you recognize it?

    Li Ling, "I''m not exactly sure if I''m interpreting this right, but I think the beasts here are connected to each other and with this land."

    Zhihao, "This is their home. Isn''t the connection obvious?"

    Li Ling, "No. I meant literally connected as in they can feel each other and stuff."

    "Why do you say that?"

    Zhihao looked back at the carvings and it really could not be understood no matter how long he stared at it.

    "This" Li Ling pointed towards a certain carved circle, "This represents the sun and this is the sun goddess"

    Now that Zhihao took a closer look, the character really did seem to resemble a sun and the lady with a shiny head could possibly be a sun goddess.

    Li Ling continued, "Now look at this." He pointed toward a more undecipherable character, "This here seems to be fire."

    Zhihao, with the clues given, started to have a higher comprehension of the carvings, "If I''m guessing right, this represents that the region was burnt down?"

    "Yes."Li Ling nodded, "And this right here shows the prayer the animals living here made."

    Zhihao, "So the land was burnt down and the animals who resided here prayed to the sun goddess for help?"

    Li Ling nodded, "And this seems to show that the sun goddess who pitied the poor animals granted their final wish."

    [Congratulations on unlocking a side story +50 T-points gained.]

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 25 - Mastermo Is Annoyed By Someone

    [Once upon a time, this region��like any other land on earth was, plainly put; normal, and was home to many species of flora and fauna, however, when the whole forest was one day burnt down due to a forest fire, these living creatures burned along with it. The souls of the deceased all looked up at the glaring sun as they prayed together with their last breath: "Please have mercy on us". The sun goddess who was touched to see such united prayers took pity on their souls and blessed them. Under the blessing; The animals that perished in the forest fire were reborn as mystical beasts, the soil became rich in spiritual energy which gave birth to various spiritual plants and trees. This land became the first land in the human realm to be blessed like this and is now home to thousands of different species of spiritual beasts that cannot be found elsewhere.]

    Zhihao was stunned, his random guess was on point.

    Li Ling, "System, What is the side story of the fox spirit?"

    The question was asked on a whim, to which they hadn''t expected a solid response, however, not a second later, they got one as the system dinged.

    [Answering players question: The fox spirit is different from the other beasts and is considered to be listed under the category of ''treasure''.]

    Zhihao felt like something was amiss and so he inquired, "System, What is a treasure?"

    [Answering players question: ''Treasure'' is a division among the spiritual beasts that roam this land.. It consists of the animals that had sacrificed themselves willingly to the sun goddess in order to preserve this land and by doing so, they had given up their mortal bodies. The treasure beasts you''ll see are nothing more than the leftover souls of the animals that are preserved in this land with the blessing of the moon goddess.]

    Zhihao finally understood a few things; these so-called few things were related to how illusion owls and the fox spirit had managed to disappear in plain sight��it wasn''t that they could camouflage or run fast��it was because they didn''t have a body to begin with. Suddenly he felt somewhat pity for these ''treasure'' beasts; To have a soul with no body, it was indeed a pity.

    A piece of the riddle they were given finally made sense; I''m alive, but you don''t see me as so. These beasts were certainly alive��at least their souls were��they had only left their physical bodies and could still be classified under the category of ''alive''.

    Before they could show their grievances or plan on what to do next, from inside the cave came the muted voice of humans.

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling and the two nodded in unison��understanding one another without the need for verbal communication; they were going further inside the cave.

    With light footsteps and instincts on alert, Zhihao and Li Ling made their way deeper into the cave.

    As they moved deeper and deeper, the only light that illuminated their path came from the spiritual sword Shuang, however, the light emitted by the sword was dim and could only help so much. The whispers they had previously heard started becoming clearer and could now be deciphered.

    "Shhhh..."

    "I think I heard something."

    "It''s coming here."

    "Is it the ghost?"

    "Let''s hide!"

    "No! No! No! No!"

    "Let''s wait and attack."

    Zhihao shook his head having an ominous feeling that the people whom they were going to meet at the moment were going to be no different than the BBtrash they had finally managed to dump. Yes! They had not forgotten the existence of those two, they had simply tried their hardest to get them off their back. Because of BBtrash, Zhihao had already danced and sang��thoroughly embarrassing himself in front of everyone and ruining his hard-earned reputation, there was no guarantee that the man would stop causing trouble for Zhihao and so BBtrash and Hulk0_0 were conveniently abandoned by the duo.

    As they got closer, one of the voices seemed to belong to a female and the other two were probably males.

    Zhihao stopped in his tracks; if they were to continue walking forward would they not be inviting unwanted trouble for themselves? but on further thought, the fox spirit had also seemed to go this way so Zhihao could somewhat guess that the ghost this group of anonymous players talked about was the fox spirit, this could be a good thing and the information could possibly aid them. But they could not just jump out and surprise the players, if they did that they were only looking forward to being mistakenly taken as a beast and getting attacked.

    "Do not be alert!" Zhihao yelled out, loud enough for them to hear, and with the silence that followed, it seemed that the group of players did.

    There was a turn in front of them and on the other side of the turn was light emitted from a fire, it seems this group of people had lit a fire to illuminate the dark cave and gain visibility.

    A voice came from the other side, it was the voice of the female player, loud and clear, "Who is that?!"

    "We are players as well." Zhihao and Li Ling turned the corner to be met face-to-face with a gun pointed at them by the one female of the group.

    That premonition Zhihao felt? It was certainly right!

    He should''ve turned and left the minute he heard that voice.

    "You?!" Zhihao was shocked to the core.

    "Mastermo??" The girl put down her gun as she saw the intruders who had barged in on their hiding place.

    Li Ling, "A-Zhi, Do you know each other?"

    Zhihao, by this time, had recovered from the initial shock and the first emotion that overtook his mind this time was anger, he glared at the girl and made a sharp U-turn, clearly unhappy, "Li Ling, Let''s go!"

    Li Ling had never seen Zhihao so furious before and decided to not question it any further as the two turned around and retraced their steps.

    From behind them came the voice of that girl, "Zhihao! Wait! Where are you running off to now?"

    Li Ling looked back but Zhihao didn''t seem to care no matter how much the girl called after him, "Who is she?"

    There was no answer��this was probably the first time Zhihao had ignored Li Ling like this.

    The voice of the girl came once again this time followed by rushing footsteps.

    Zhihao, "She''s a woman I hate."

    The girl by now had managed to catch up to them, "Zhihao! I told you to stop! Are you going to disrespect your aunt like this?"

    This was Zhihao''s aunt and also his gaming partner during the starting of his career��the partner who had given Zhihao a unique phobia of joining a team in online games.

    During the starting years of his gaming career when his father heard that he wanted to become a professional gamer, he took Zhihao to his younger sister who at the time was only 22 and made them form a team. His father had initially thought that his sister who was mad about games was a hardcore pro-gamer and could help Zhihao succeed in the career, however, the so-called sister who was supposed to be a hardcore gamer had only recently started playing games herself and was in no way considered to be a specialist in the area.

    At the time Zhihao had already been duped by his previous teammates and was afraid to join any new teams but now that he had a partner whom he knew and could trust��it could be said that he was rest assured. but who knew this woman would be such a pain in the ass. Every time, she would suggest raiding a monster''s den and every single one of those times when a monster attacked them, she would throw Zhihao forward and scream at the top of her lungs. Zhihao had long grown tired of hearing her high pitched screaming and shamelessness.

    After Zhihao had beaten the monsters, she would peek her head out and say that the monster was probably scared by her screams, forcing it to admit defeat and then she would shamelessly collect all the loot. At that time, this team was highly regarded as the best source of entertainment for the viewers who loved to see the hard working Zhihao and the shameless screaming lady hiding at the back. Hence, It came as no shock that they were offered a place in the pro-gamers list, however, this list was biased according to the viewer''s preference and rather than the hard-working youth that was bullied, the viewers loved to watch the screaming aunt who hid behind his back and so it was clear whom they had voted for and his aunt after having received all the votes entered the pro-gamers list at the expense of his hard work.

    This memory had haunted him for ages not only because of how wrong he had been treated but also because this shameless aunt of his seemed to not even realize what she had done wrong and in the end��when she finally entered the pro-gamers list��she was still shameless enough to tell Zhihao; "Now that I''m in the pro gamers list you have to work twice as hard and if you can''t do that, you are fired."

    Such arrogance!

    Zhihao had been annoyed by her to the core. Really fed up!

    Just what went inside this woman''s head��only God could know.

    This woman was loudbitchnextdoor��ranked 9th in the Top T.I.A.D. players list.

    Yes! Her name was based off of the fact that in her early days whenever she screamed as she hid behind Huang Zhihao, among the fans��a joke was widespread; this joke was directly linked to her username. The joke: She sounds exactly like the crazy lady next door.

    Zhihao spoke through gritted teeth, "Who is my aunt? Don''t you dare follow me!"

    But this warning seemed to have no effect on the woman as she continued to run after them.

    When she got as near as to reach out to Zhihao''s shoulder, Shuang instantly came to life and almost amputated her right arm.

    "AAAAHHHhhhh!!" The woman screamed. It seems that due to the public having associated her with this inside joke��loved to hear her screaming for no reason at all and to satisfy the public, she grew accustomed to screaming over every small thing.

    From behind her came two more players, both males. How did they handle this yelling woman? Only God knew.

    Loudbitchnextdoor, "Sooo rude!!"

    Zhihao sneered, "Who are you?! Why are you following us?!"

    "Oh come on, don''t be a baby! Refusing to even talk to me like this? What have I done to you?"

    The question seemed to have angered Mastermo even more.

    Just what had she done?! She should know better than anybody else what she had done!

    One of the players who came here with her spoke, "Is this the nephew you talked about?"

    She seemed to have been looking down on Zhihao as she spoke, "Yeah! This is the brat."

    Zhihao''s grip around the sword hilt grew tighter. He really could not handle this woman!

    "Aunt Su, I don''t understand why you are stalking me like this. Let me be the one to ask you, Just how have I offended you?"

    Aunt Su seemed to be taken back by the words uttered by this rude nephew of hers, "Stalker?! Obnoxious brat, Who the hell is stalking you?"

    Li Ling looked at the exchange between the two, he could feel the animosity in the air as it spread through, but unfortunately, he had no idea what the nasty past shared by these two was.

    "rooooroooo?" It was the voice of the fox spirit who had come over to ruin the party.

    The fox spirit seemed to once again be attracted to Li Ling as it stared up at him with sparkling eyes and this did not go unnoticed by Zhihao. Just why was the fox spirit always attracted to Li Ling and not anyone else?

 Chapter 26 - Mastermo Has Lost Faith In Gratitude

    This was certainly weird, but when Zhihao took a closer look��he found out that RoRo was not attracted to Li Ling as per se, but instead was actually attracted to an ornament Li Ling was wearing. This ornament was a ring, but Zhihao had never seen or heard about such an in-game item before and could not know what it was or what was its specialty. He would''ve guessed that RoRo was just interested in the sparkle of the object��but when he thought about it further, He ruled out the possibility as the item that glittered more than the ring was Shuang, however, the fox spirit was more interested in the ring than the sword and so there had to be something about the ring that attracted RoRo.

    When Li Ling moved forward, RoRo took a few steps backward and once again started to run further inside the cave. Zhihao and Li Ling ignored the newfound team of players they had come across and followed RoRo further inside the cave.

    This time, following the beast, was rather easy��because of its tail, which was emitting a white glow and they could easily spot it running in front, not too far ahead of them.

    RoRo was certainly trying to lead them somewhere.

    As they went deeper, the path inside the cave seemed to divide with more twists and turns and they had to keep up with RoRo''s speed with the other team running after them for some reason. This annoying Aunt Su was not looking forward to leaving Zhihao alone, but luck seemed to be on Zhihao''s side this time as a sudden turn came and this time the path behind them was closed off by a sudden stone shutter that fell from above.

    Li Ling glanced at Zhihao, "It seems this cave has built-in traps.. We should be cautious."

    Zhihao didn''t seem to care about the fact that their path to retreat was sealed shut, he was in fact happier that the sudden obstacle had helped them get rid of his Aunt who was shocked at the sudden development and could no longer follow them.

    After running for about 10 minutes or more, it seems that they had finally reached somewhere as in front of them there seemed to be an opening with light coming through however it seemed not to be a cave opening��so where was the light coming from?

    Inside the cave, they finally came to a stop when they reached a place that seemed like a hall and RoRo was waiting for them right in the middle of a circular stone platform located in the center of the hall. The light was coming from right above the stone platform; there was a hole in the roof of the cave, this hole was so perfectly aligned in order to let the moonlight shine right on top of the huge stone platform��making it seem more like one of those platforms used for worships and sacrifices.

    RoRo looked at the ring on Li Ling''s hand and then towards the moon. It seems that the fox spirit was trying to tell them something.

    [Congratulations on finding an important segment of the side story! +50 T-points gained.]

    Zhihao was delighted to see the T-points rolling in, "System, where are we?"

    [Answering players question: You have reached the ancient stone plate. This is like a prayer hall for the mystical beasts.]

    "What is the significance of this area?"

    [Answering players question: The ancient stone plate is a burial ground of treasures. The body that, once upon a time, belonged to the treasure beasts is concealed under this ancient stone plate.]

    Suddenly Zhihao had a stroke of genius as he thought; What was their mission again? Wasn''t it to catch treasure beasts? If so, how could they possibly catch a spirit? Wasn''t it useless to chase after it? But now, here they were, in the middle of the treasure beast''s ancestral grave. Could it be that there was a reason behind this?

    Zhihao looked at the fox spirit, RoRo, who was still glancing at the ring on Li Ling''s hand and then back at the moon.

    Li Ling, "What do you think it wants us to do?"

    Zhihao thought about it for a moment, "I think it wants you to go near it."

    Li Ling nodded, his thoughts seemed to match.

    As Li Ling took a step forward and approached the stone plate, RoRo''s eyes sparkled. This was exactly what the little beast had wanted them to do.

    Li Ling moved closer to RoRo but this time��the fox spirit did not run away and instead stood its ground, letting Li Ling reach out his hand to pat it, however, when his hand was about to touch the soft white fur of RoRo, the hand instead of touching the beast''s head��passed straight through it. Li Ling glanced back at Zhihao, they once again seemed to communicate telepathically.

    Them chasing after the treasure was indeed useless and this would be the case for all the other players who were currently playing this level. The so-called treasure they were all after was nothing more than the soul of the creatures who had sacrificed themselves so how could anybody catch it? After all, the soul was nothing more than an apparition that could only be seen and not touched so what was their mission?

    It seems the place they were standing at could be the answer to that question. If they collected the body of the beast would it not be considered as catching the beast?

    But there was another point worth noting and this was related to the fact that RoRo had led them here. Why would this level be designed this way? Why would RoRo lead them towards its body; the key to completing the mission?

    To plainly put it��it was too damn easy and neither Zhihao nor Li Ling trusted T.I.A.D. missions to be this easy.

    When Li Ling stood on the center of the stone plate��with his hand stretched out in front, the moonlight seemed to reflect off of the ring on his finger and suddenly the stone plate was lifted off the floor. RoRo who was standing on the stone plate seemed to be very thrilled when the stone plate had shown signs of movement and enthusiastically jumped down from it.

    Li Ling looked down as he realized that the ground he stood on had started trembling.

    This scene was much like what Zhihao had seen in movies during an alien abduction. Was Li Ling being abducted right now? Certainly not!

    When the stone plate reached a certain height��it stopped��not aiming to rise any further.

    Li Ling, who stood on top of it could not see it, but Zhihao who was under it could see it clearly.

    Under the stone plate were statues of different animals arranged in a circle.

    An owl, A fox, A deer, A turtle, and a number of other animals; all of them having somewhat the same position with their heads bowed down. These were just stone statues of the treasure beasts and not their bodies.

    The stone plate had risen to such a level that it made it so that the moonlight formed made the shadow of the stone plate to fall on the statues hence not letting the light touch it and the light was instead refracted to the sides, illuminating the place Zhihao stood.

    Li Ling, who stood on the stone plate was even more shocked to find that the ground started to vibrate once again, this time with a greater force; this was certainly not a good sign.

    Li Ling wanted to jump down, but when he saw the height of the jump, he seemed to rethink his decision.

    The stone plate shook for a minute with a rumbling sound��this shake was caused by the disfigurement of the stone plate.

    From the ends of the stone plate, holes seemed to open up, these holes were big enough to let the moonlight pass through it and fall directly on top of the stone statues. For each statue; there was a different hole.

    Li Ling looked down at his feet, suddenly noticing the carvings that were now visible due to the dust being shaken off of them. These carving seemed to portray another story��with a moon, a sun, and constellations. All the carvings inside the cave were certainly related to each other. Maybe this was another part of the story.

    As if on cue, the system dinged up with a notification.

    [Congratulations on developing the side story! +50 T-point gained.]

    [The body of the animals who sacrificed themselves was sealed as the foundation of the new spiritually rich land. This seal was placed by the sun goddess who turned the bodies of treasure beasts into stone and only with the blessings of the moon goddess can this seal be lifted. With the rays of moonlight that shall fall on top of the stone statues��the seal will come undone and the treasure beasts would be able to retrieve their bodies.]

    The system was certainly right.

    Slowly, with the sudden rays of white light that fell on top of the stone statues, the statues seemed to come to life as the stone started to disappear and the skin was once again visible.

    RoRo jumped around in joy as if it had been waiting for this day since forever. This joy was self-explanatory. The little beast had been separated from its body for who knows how long.

    Zhihao felt like something was wrong. How could it all be so easy?

    He couldn''t explain it, but there was a feeling that something was going to happen. It was a feeling, Zhihao wished would not come true.

    When RoRo''s body had finally unfrozen completely, the little fox spirit jumped around in joy. It jumped around a few times and then jumped directly into its body.

    This last jumped caused the body and soul to be reunited once again.

    For Zhihao and Li Ling, this was something that should have been a celebration since they could now catch the little beast and complete their mission but it seems that the inner gut feeling of Zhihao was certainly right.

    The moment RoRo got back its body, the Fox spirit was so elated that it ran away.

    "...."

    "..."

    Li Ling and Zhihao were dumbfounded; didn''t they just help that mystical beast? What happened to the feeling called gratitude??

    Zhihao opened his arms and exclaimed, "Jump!"

    When Li Ling heard this, he directly jumped from the top of the stone plate into Zhihao''s arms, which caught him and saved him from being crushed on the ground.

    The two players, without wasting further time, ran after the ungrateful RoRo who had made a fool out of them.

    They took the same path that they took to come here and this reassured Zhihao that they''ll be able to catch the little beast because as he remembered it, the path was already blocked.

    When they reached the certain area where the path would''ve been blocked, the fox indeed stopped in its tracks as it sniffed around the stone shutter, however, from the other side, came the sound of a blast, and the blocked path was once again cleared. This blast was caused by the team that was previously stuck there and was unable to follow Mastermo any further.

    When Aunt Su saw her nephew''s face, she somehow felt content with her decision; this could most certainly be said to help her nephew or so she thought.

    The aunt Su who had only wanted to provide help was met with a fox paw as it jumped over her face and what followed next was an expected glare from Zhihao.

    This aunt of his really knew how to cause trouble for him.

    "Out of the way!", Zhihao snapped and when he saw that the team in front had not reacted, he summoned Shuang.

    When Aunt Su saw the sword that had previously almost amputated her arm, she immediately screamed and moved aside.

    Zhihao and Li Ling ran at their maximum speed, but when they reached the opening of the cave, they were rendered helpless as the fox spirit had already managed to run away, and in this wide forest, finding it was by no means easy.

    Suddenly, from behind the trees came out a voice, "Mastermooooo!" It was the face of an annoying BBtrash that peeked out with a stupid expression.

    The team they had managed to ditch had caught up with them, that is, to say, both the teams.

    From behind came the voice of his annoying aunt, "Zhihao!"

    And from the front came the annoying voice of BBtrash, "Darling!"

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 27 - Mastermos Gut Feeling

    Zhihao was in a bind. He had��never in a million years��thought that he would one day have to form a team with two of his most annoying enemies, who could not even be deemed as enemies since they didn''t know it themselves.

    Yes. Unfortunately, after RoRo ran away, the system seems to have made a mistake as it announced a formation of a temporary squad. This new squad comprised of Mastermo, Devilmagiclover, BBtrash, Hulk0_0, loudbitchnextdoor, Andyzz, and Kaze17; Overall, a group of 7 people.

    Why were they forced to make a temporary squad? Because the system had conveniently forgotten to inform them of a very crucial information, that if two or more teams stay together for over 2 hours, they could form a temporary squad. This timer had started ever since they had met BBtrash and Hulk0_0��which is why the system put them together in a squad and conveniently enough, at that time, his Aunt Su was also there��making it so that all three teams were merged together by mistake. Zhihao could now only hope that the squads were temporary for this level only.

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao, somehow understanding that this development deeply troubled the man, "We can always just abandon them."

    Zhihao squinted his eyes, "You really don''t know them at all.".

    Li Ling clearly did not understand what Zhihao had meant by this, but when he looked back at the group that was following them, he could somewhat get the gist of it.

    Behind them, BBtrash was more than happy to acquaint himself with the other team, "Aunt Su, I''m so happy we got to meet again like this."

    They were like two peas in a pod. So alike that it came as no shock that the two got along so well. If an outsider were to see the interaction between this group, they would think that Wang GuiYing was the nephew and Zhihao was the outsider who was irritated by this group of relatives.

    "Aunt Su, haven''t seen you since the start of Mastermo''s reign."

    Aunt Su chuckled, "Well, if you did, Mastermo wouldn''t have reigned."

    "Hahaha..."

    All of a sudden, Li Ling stopped walking, "Guys, I think something''s wrong."

    Zhihao looked back at the merry group following them. It was clear what was wrong. The most annoying people in his life had joined hands to pester him.

    Li Ling looked up, "The in-game time was never this different."

    When the fact was pointed out, Zhihao was also stunned to find that he had not seen through this.

    "Just a moment ago, we were inside the cave and it was still night time, but when we got out, the sun has already risen."

    This was not all. Ever since they had entered this level, the daytime and nighttime have been switching pretty frequently.

    Zhihao, "System, How do the days and nights work here?"

    [Answering player''s question: The daytime and nighttime are shorter as compared to the outside world.]

    Li Ling, "System, Why are the days shorter?"

    Altogether, two notification sounds��dinged at the same time.

    [Congratulations on picking up a clue!]

    [Answering player''s question: The daytime and the nighttime are the blessings of the sun goddess and the moon goddess. When the land was burnt down by a forest fire and created anew, the goddesses placed a barrier��sealing the region from the outside world, this was to ensure that nobody from the outside may come in and nothing from the inside may go out. Inside this barrier, time is at a standstill. The sun and moon you can see are nothing but mere illusions created to fool the beasts and make them think that time is still passing.]

    Zhihao, "System, What is the average age of the mystical beasts here?"

    [Answering player''s question: The average age of every mystical beast here is calculated to be approximately 6000 years.]

    Wang GuiYing''s face twisted in an undecipherable emotion, "Doesn''t that go against nature? Are they immortal or something?"

    Zhou XinYi, "Not really. These are magical beasts, they have a longer life expectancy, but I don''t think the age is what matters here."

    Zhihao nodded, "It certainly is irrelevant. What I wanted to see was how long ago this region was created, if it was created 6000 years ago, the beasts, although might not have died, should still have grown in size, however, on our way here, I noticed that some of the beasts were rather young."

    Zhou XinYi also seemed to understand what was wrong, "It is rather weird. If time had really stopped flowing here, how come they can be called 6000 years old?"

    "Exactly!" Zhihao agreed, "I think there is more to it."

    Aunt Su, "What the hell are you guys on about?"

    Li Ling ignored the confused lady and spoke, "The system said the average age of the beasts was 6000 years and that should not be an alarming number considering the fact that they are magical beasts with longer life spans, but what is triggering is the fact that the system said the time here was at a standstill and it still gave us an age to measure."

    Zhihao, "How do we calculate age? Isn''t it through time?"

    Zhou XinYi nodded in understanding, "So the time is running here or not?"

    Li Ling, "It is frozen in place, no doubt about that. The animals don''t grow nor do the plants and trees, but I don''t think that''s all there is to it."

    Zhihao continued, "Time seems to have stopped at a certain moment. If I''m guessing right, this land should have been running on normal timing previously, but after 6000 years, the region was suddenly put under a barrier that stopped the flow of time."

    Wang GuiYing''s facial expressions could only be summed up as utter confusion, "What do you mean time stopped? If time really did stop, shouldn''t everything be on a pause?"

    This time, BBtrash, was shockingly not ignored as he asked a valid question, "It''s more complicated. It seems that time has stopped in a never-ending loop. To understand it better��think about this; What is time? Isn''t it a quantitative value? But the animals here, after 6000 years, were put under a barrier where their growth had stopped and the same goes for the plants and trees that do not grow older nor do they shed their leaves or grow new leaves."

    Li Ling approved of the theory, "And for further proof, we can try this. System, when are the eagle''s eggs going to hatch?"

    Zhihao felt like the question was certainly intelligent. If he had asked ''Since how long were the eggs laid'', the system would most certainly tell them that the time here cannot be calculated, but now the question was rephrased in a manner where it could not be so easily avoided, the system would have to give somewhat of a solid answer.

    [Answering player''s question: The crying eagle''s eggs would only hatch after the barrier is removed.]

    This answer further solidified their theory.

    Kaze17, the guy who had come with Aunt Su, spoke up for the first time, "I think I get it."

    Aunt Su looked at her partner in awe, "What do you get? Enlighten me."

    Kaze17, "The land was running smoothly before, but something must have happened and a barrier was placed on top of it separating it from the outside world. Inside this barrier, time is not calculated because there is nothing to calculate. Nothing is changing, nothing is being born or ending, it is just being preserved. If a beast was 6 years old right before the barrier was placed, to this day, it would remain to be 6 years old. If an egg was to be laid by the beast, inside the barrier��the egg would be preserved safely and would never hatch."

    Li Ling nodded in agreement, suddenly finding that maybe some of the people in this group had brains after all.

    Zhihao also shared the same thoughts, "To sum it up, I think the secret mission is to break the barrier."

    Aunt Su sighed, seemingly exhausted from keeping up with the thought process of these youngsters, "You big show off! Can''t we just pick up the treasure and leave? Why do we need to go through the extra trouble?"

    Zhihao sneered, "You don''t have to follow us."

    In turn, Zhihao received a glare from her, "How could I not? Aren''t we a squad?" She teased, knowing exactly how to annoy this nephew of hers.

    The main reason she had refused to run away was simple; if she did, wouldn''t she be missing out on some free T-points? She''d rather stay and let Mastermo break the barrier and then collect the free T-points. She was not alone in thinking this, BBtrash also seemed to have thought the same thing, and they both shared a look of understanding.

    Zhou XinYi clearly saw through his partner''s tactics and sighed as he whispered to Wang GuiYing, "Don''t you dare run away in the face of danger. We owe them for saving you, don''t forget."

    Wang GuiYing smiled sarcastically, "He has the skills. How could I compare? I can''t help him even if I wanted to so what can I do? It would be best if I just run away and save him the trouble of looking after me as well."

    Bullshit!

    Zhou XinYi knew his words would not have any use on this man.

    Kaze17, "How does Mastermo plan on breaking the barrier?"

    Zhihao thought about it, "Think of it as a jail. If we were to get a person out of prison, we would first need to know why the person was put in prison."

    Li Ling, "So naturally, we have to first find out why this barrier was placed."

    The whole group nodded in agreement and looked at each other for a whole minute, nobody daring to move a muscle.

    "....."

    Andyzz, "So..... How do we do that?"

    Zhihao nodded, "Good question. Anybody have any ideas?"

    The other six people shook their heads in unison.

    Li Ling, "Why don''t we keep on walking for now?"

    Zhihao felt like this was the best thing they could do at the moment, "Let''s spread out and explore the area. If anybody finds something, share your location on the message board and we''ll head over immediately."

    Li Ling smiled as he found it amusing how Zhihao had come up with a strategy that would not only help them work faster but would also help get rid of the scenario where he''ll have to interact with BBtrash and loudbitchnextdoor.

    Genius!

    Wang GuiYing agreed happily, "Let''s do that, but I have a condition."

    Zhihao frowned, "What condition?"

    Wang GuiYing smiled wickedly, "Although we are now a squad, how can we trust each other? What if you and Li Ling find the answer first and abandon us? What would the other two teams do?"

    Zhihao''s expression turned ugly as he asked, "What are you suggesting?"

    Wang GuiYing, "Let''s spread out, but in teams where the three teams are mixed together. I''ll go with Zhihao and Li Ling can go with XinYi. Similarly, the third team would also be divided and since there are three of them left, Aunt Su can join us and the other two can join Li Ling."

    Zhihao was dumbfounded. Hadn''t he planned it all in a way that would help him get rid of these two? If they were to divide the teams like this, What was the use?

    Li Ling was also displeased, Why was he separated from Mastermo?

    Zhou XinYi seemed to have also seen through Mastermo''s displeased expression, "That''s not right. Since Mastermo is the highest rank here, I think it would be wise to send somebody with a lower rank along with him."

    Wang GuiYing, "You are suggesting that we spread out the groups according to skill? I''m happy with that also."

    Li Ling spoke, "Since I am the lowest rank here, I''ll go with A-Zhi."

    "...."

    Wang GuiYing smiled and Li Ling could feel the evil intent behind that smile, "Brother, have you not checked the latest ranking?"

    He had forgotten!

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 28 - Mastermo Has A New Partner

    Aunt Su sneered, "You really don''t know, kid?"

    Li Ling, "System, what is my rank?"

    [Displaying player status:

    Nickname - Devilmagiclover.

    Rank - 7]

    Li Ling sighed in relief, this rank was still low in comparison to the rest of the team members'' individual ranks, or at least he hoped it would be.

    Wang GuiYing, "System, show us the updated top ten players list!"

    [Top ten T.I.A.D. players:

    1.. Mastermo

    2. Yingli

    3. Hulk0_0

    4. Jiangshi

    5. BBtrash

    6. Kaze17

    7. Devilmagiclover

    8. Richlord

    9. Andyzz

    10. Loudbitchnextdoor]

    Aunt Su laughed, "Since I''m at the bottom of the list now, I''ll be the one to accompany my dear nephew."

    Kaze17, "So how do you want to divide the teams?"

    Zhou XinYi responded, "Let''s do this: Mastermo, loudbitchnextdoor, and Kaze17 can form the first team. Me, BBtrash, Andyzz, and Li Ling will be considered the second team."

    Wang GuiYing frowned when he heard this, "I want to follow my darling."

    Zhou XinYi sighed in response��he really did not want to fight over a mere team distribution.

    Zhihao, "I''m not taking either of them with me."

    Aunt Su, "Then, what do you suggest?"

    Zhihao, "Let''s make three teams. Two teams with 2 members each, and one team with three members. Since our purpose is to distribute the three pre-existent teams, let''s do it like this: I''ll go with Kaze17. Li Ling can go with Hulk0_0 and the remaining three can form a team."

    Zhou XinYi pondered over it for a minute, before agreeing to the idea, "I''m in."

    Li Ling felt amazed at how Mastermo had actually dealt with the situation. He didn''t want to go with either of the two annoying players so he made them form a team and conveniently chose a new guy that they had just met, Kaze17.

    This Kaze17 was silent for the most part of it and seemed to have a calm composure. The only times he had opened his mouth, to state his views, were all valid and intelligent remarks, hinting that this guy wasn''t a total knucklehead. There was also another fact that couldn''t be ruled out; this guy had the highest rank in Aunt Su''s team��this was also another reason why Zhihao had chosen him��he knew that this guy was being used by his Aunt, just like he was at one point in time.

    Wang GuiYing and Aunt Su shared a look, their ambitions had been crushed, however, they couldn''t say anything, any further.

    Kaze17, "I agree."

    Wang GuiYing, "Honey, but I wanted to go on a date with you."

    Li Ling glared at BBtrash, "Or maybe, you''d like to go with me instead?"

    When Wang GuiYing saw the hostile look in Li Ling''s eyes, he shuddered at the thought. If he were to be left alone with this man, he would end up being thrown in a ditch, without hesitation.

    With a faint trace of fear laced in his voice, Wang GuiYing replied, "No, Thank you. I''m good."

    "....."

    Zhou XinYi, "So, it''s settled?"

    Aunt Su rolled her eyes, "I guess so."

    Zhihao, "Great! We''ll head forward. Li Ling and Hulk0_0 can head east, the other three can take the west."

    Wang GuiYing smiled innocently, "What if we go off course and, by chance, meet each other?"

    Zhihao, "Not possible. If I see you on the road, I''ll cut you in half, just in case. I don''t want to risk you being an imposter."

    "..."

    Wang GuiYing, "And what if it''s really me?"

    Zhihao, "We''ll know, once you have been cut in half."

    Wang GuiYing''s expectations took a dip, he could only pray that he doesn''t go off course.

    The three sub-teams did not waste further time and headed in the direction they were assigned.

    As he went further into the forest, Zhihao found that he had made a good decision, choosing Kaze17 as his partner. This man, throughout the way, did not utter a single word, and even when attacked by low-ranked beasts, Kaze17 pulled out his gun and made sure to not only watch his own back but to also watch Zhihao''s back. Zhihao found this small gesture greatly touching.

    This was exactly how teammates should be and Zhihao was suddenly lucky to find so many worthy teammates. However, even if he were to be given another chance to choose between Li Ling and Kaze17, he would still choose to be Li Ling''s partner. The reason? There was no reason behind that choice, it was just that, He found Li Ling to be very easy-going and it was comfortable to be around him; It was the same sense of comfort he had felt when he teamed up with the Gamemaster. The two were clearly different, but still alike in so many manners.

    On the other side, Li Ling was frowning as he walked lifelessly behind Zhou XinYi. Not only did he miss Zhihao but he also felt like this man was, what you''d call, an empty shell without a soul��somebody who had come straight from a funeral. This kind of feeling could only be explained with a single word; boring. Li Ling really didn''t like the man, although he had done nothing outrightly wrong to Li Ling.

    Zhou XinYi, "Why are you so dead? Miss your boyfriend already?"

    Li Ling choked on air. Among the two, who was the dead looking one?!

    "Talk about yourself. Without your husband, you look no different than a dead corpse." Li Ling retaliated.

    Zhou XinYi, "I thought so. I saw that look in your eyes and realized it right away, you''re in love with him, aren''t you?"

    "Don''t talk like your all that innocent, it''s disgusting." Li Ling deadpanned.

    Zhou XinYi laughed sarcastically, "I really don''t like you."

    Li Ling, "Nor do I."

    The two walked for another ten minutes, without sharing a single word with each other and then, as if to break the awkward silence, Zhou XinYi was the one to speak first, "Do you know why he made you go with me?"

    Li Ling glanced at the stuck-up man, "I can guess."

    Zhou XinYi nodded, "He trusted me with you. The other''s would have just been useless. I can see that he cares deeply for you."

    Li Ling tilted his head and chuckled, "You''re dumb."

    "Huh? Am I wrong?" Zhou XinYi looked back at him, clearly offended by the insult.

    Li Ling, "You are nowhere near the right answer. He didn''t trust you with me, he made sure that the third team was helpless. He set your partner, BBtrash and Aunt Su up to their probable doom."

    "....."

    Li Ling, "I don''t really need your protection, as you might have already noticed."

    Zhou XinYi was annoyed with the conniving look on Li Ling''s face, "I don''t need your protection either."

    Li Ling, "I don''t think you get what I''m talking about?"

    Zhou XinYi gave him a dirty look in return, "When it comes to anything you say, I usually don''t."

    Li Ling smirked, "I''m not saying he sent me to protect you or for you to protect me, He did it so that I can keep an eye on you and separate you from BBtrash. Are you not his guard dog? Without you, he''ll surely get himself killed."

    Zhou XinYi, "That''s just your wishful thinking, is it not? Do you really think I am the sole reason why Wang GuiYing is a pro-gamer?"

    Li Ling, "Yes, I honestly do."

    "...."

    "Without you, I don''t see any potential in him."

    Zhou XinYi smiled, "Most people don''t. Everyone thinks, I''m the reason why he''s so successful, but not many people know that the reason, I''ve been standing here as a pro-gamer, is all because of him."

    Li Ling, "Is this the part, where you tell me, a tragic story of how that coward saved your life or something?"

    Zhou XinYi looked amused, "If I was, would you be willing to listen?"

    "Not at all!" Li Ling deadpanned.

    In turn, Zhou XinYi laughed, "I wouldn''t have told you, even if you asked. Just know this, BBtrash is only named ''trash'', he''s not actually trash."

    Li Ling, "We''ll see about that."

    All of a sudden, somewhere on the west side of the forest, Wang GuiYing sneezed; "Who the hell is talking behind my back?"

    Aunt Su snickered, "Probably that damned Mastermo."

    "It can''t be him! No way. He hates even mentioning my name." Wang GuiYing smiled innocently.

    Aunt Su looked back at the man, "So, you are self-aware?"

    "Hahahaha..."

    Andyzz, "I don''t think I have introduced myself well. I''m Andy."

    Wang GuiYing looked at the man who was alike a shadow that would always silently follow you, but would never be noticed, "Eh, brother, where did you come from?"

    "..."

    "......"

    Wang GuiYing laughed, "I was just joking. My fault! My fault! Hehehe..."

    Aunt Su, "Don''t bully him, he''s young."

    "Got some fresh blood, I see. I''ve heard about you." Wang GuiYing beamed.

    Andyzz, "Heard about me?"

    Wang GuiYing nodded, "You''re the newbie who made it to the ''top ten players'' list."

    "Ah, That! Yes, that''s me."

    Wang GuiYing stopped as he took a closer look at the guy, "But... There''s something weird about you."

    Aunt Su also looked back, "What do you mean?"

    Wang GuiYing, "Are you sure you''re a boy?"

    "..."

    Aunt Su sighed, "Trash, that''s rude."

    Wang GuiYing shook his head, "I''m serious."

    Andy, "..."

    "Trash! Look ahead!" Aunt Su moved a step back as she warned him in an alarmed tone.

    BBtrash looked up, only to realize that there was a ferocious beast that lunged at him from atop the trees.

    The beast looked like an oversized abomination of sorts; with six hands, three on either of the sides, and two antennas on the head. The shell on top of it was hard like the exoskeleton of a cockroach and the skin under it was a slimy mess like that of a leech. Its mouth was wide open, with no visible teeth, aiming straight at Wang GuiYing''s face.

    BBtrash took a sharp breath in as he took in all of this hideousness.

    Aunt Su, "System, what is that?"

    [Answering player''s question: You have met a mid-ranked hybrid beast, Face-sucking leech.]

    Aunt Su had a twisted expression on her face as she screamed, "Freaking disgusting!"

    [New mystical beast discovered: Face-sucking leech]

    [Face-sucking leech: This beast is a hybrid between a cockroach and a leech. This over-sized leech owes its size to its appetite. When this beast is born, it eats its siblings and grows in size, after all the siblings have been eaten, it moves on to eating other living creatures. The larger the beast is, the more prey, it had devoured. It tries to aim for the prey''s face and once it manages to get a hold of it, with a strong jaw, it rips apart the front portion of the skull.]

    Wang GuiYing''s eyes twitched at the description.

    This was annoying! Without Zhou XinYi beside him, he''ll have to fight this hideous bug himself.

    Wang GuiYing, dodged the attack in the last possible second with a super-fast jump that got him to land, ten meters away from the beast. He flipped through his inventory and before the beast could bring itself to aim for a second attack, he activated a bomb and fed it directly into the hungry beast''s mouth.

    The Face-sucking leech blew up with a disgusting burst of gore; flesh and blood flying everywhere.

    "Eeeewwwww." Wang GuiYing cringed as he tried to wipe the bloody mess out of his clothes.

    Aunt Su, "I did not sign up for this crazy shit."

    "Nor did I." Wang GuiYing huffed, "I did not know it had blood. Do leeches have this much blood inside them?"

    Aunt Su looked at the young man with an odd expression, "Of course, Don''t leeches normally ingest blood to survive?"

    Andy suddenly felt like ''the-odd-man-out''. How is he, the only one, who didn''t know BBtrash was capable of this?!

    Beating a mid-ranked ferocious beast was no easy feat. And, this man did it so easily? How?!

    Just when the group of three thought everything was over, they heard rustling coming from the trees.

    It was going to start raining creepy leeches!

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 29 - Mastermo Finds Out The Name Of His New Partner

    "Aunt Su, watch out!" BBtrash warned as he saw a face-sucking leech��seconds away from landing on the woman''s face.

    "Aaaaaahhhh!" Aunt Su equipped her heavy axe and swung it forward, chopping the creature in half, all the while screaming.

    Andy, "Nice one!"

    For the split second where BBtrash got distracted, three more leeches attacked from above, aiming for his face.

    BBtrash jumped a few feet high and landed on the tree branch, he changed his armor into a new one that also had a helmet with it. This new armor was a comparatively expensive armor that only a handful number of people owned and this handful number included BBtrash. The armor was made of pure silver and was known to be impenetrable. It increased the agility and defensive stats of the player.

    Wang GuiYing equipped a hammer and without missing a beat, smashed down the three beasts into the ground.

    BBtrash, "Damn it! I really didn''t want to dirty this armor.."

    Aunt Su laughed, "We don''t always get what we want."

    A face-sucking leech sprang out of the trees, and somehow, having sensed that BBtrash was dangerous, it aimed towards Andyzz, before it could attach itself to the player, it was gruesomely cut in half by an axe.

    Andy''s head was now completely covered with blood, really disgusting slimy blood that needed to be wiped off from the mouth in order to say a comprehensible word, "Thank you."

    BBtrash saw the scene and felt the need to burst out laughing, "Clean that shit off. Hahahaha...."

    Aunt Su tittered, "Sorry, I didn''t mean to do that."

    Andy wiped the slimy blood off his face and it stuck to his hand, "It''s okay. It''s a good thing I haven''t had dinner yet."

    Aunt Su, "I''ll treat you to some great gravy dumplings after this."

    "...."

    Andy, "I''ll decline that offer."

    BBtrash looked up at the trees once again, sensing that this was far from over.

    Wang GuiYing, "Aunt Su, I think we walked into its nest."

    Aunt Su frowned, "I think so too."

    The second wave of leeches came.

    The face-sucking leeches that aimed at Aunt Su were cut down by her axe and the ones that attacked Wang GuiYing were smashed by his hammer. Andy seemed to be the person who was being protected by the two, but in reality, this was not the case. Andy had activated an item that made it impossible for the leeches to notice him. The leeches stopped attacking him just because they couldn''t see him. In terms of defense, this item was much like the moon goddess spellbook.

    The face-sucking leeches attacked one after the other, raining on top of them with speed.

    After more than 50 leeches were smashed and cut in half, the three players were covered in slimy blood and the floor was in a mushy mess of dead leeches.

    BBtrash flicked off the blood and changed his armor back to the previous one, "These beasts are not cute at all."

    Andy, "You don''t say."

    Aunt Su, "This is why I wanted to get the treasure and get out of here fast. I don''t want to deal with these ugly creatures."

    BBtrash, "I didn''t get to ask, What is your assigned treasure?"

    Aunt Su, "We got a rather easier riddle, but we can''t find it anywhere."

    Andy nodded, "It was a turtle."

    BBtrash thought about it for a moment, "I didn''t see any turtles on the way over."

    Aunt Su sighed, "I bet you didn''t. Turtles live underwater and so far we haven''t seen any waterway."

    BBtrash, "Maybe this one lives on land?"

    "...."

    Andy, "Wouldn''t that be a tortoise?"

    "Don''t think about it too much, I''m sure we''ll all complete the mission as we go." Wang GuiYing beamed.

    Aunt Su put away the axe, "I know."

    This group was sadly unaware of the fact, Mastermo and Li Ling had discovered; that all the treasures were inside the cave where they had met each other and unfortunately the devil team didn''t seem to have any plans on letting them know this.

    BBtrash, "Let''s keep on moving."

    The group of three carefully stepped over the corpses of the creatures and continued on their path.

    On the East side of the forest, Zhou XinYi and Li Ling had met up with a wild beast; A beast with the head of a yak and the body of a bear or at least the bones of one. It was twenty feet in height and attached its head was dark brown fur, sticky and long, the rest of its body was stripped off from everything and anything that could resemble skin; it was bones��clean white bones.

    This was a mystical beast known as a bone yak, the reason for the name was self-explanatory...

    The beast had two poisonous horns, used to attack Zhou XinYi��who jumped high and evaded the attack smoothly. From behind the beast, Li Ling took out his spiritual sword named Huo. The sword glowed a flash of crimson as it moved forward and cut one of the horns off.

    The beast did not seem to be pleased by this action as it puffed a hot breath making Zhou XinYi and Li Ling wonder; Where the breath was coming from? The creature clearly had no lungs and no organs in sight.

    The bone yak didn''t seem to be in pain, it was just angry, extremely angry. It re-oriented its attack towards Li Ling, who stood in place. The beast''s head stopped just a few inches away, in front of him. Its neck was restricting it from moving any further, this restriction was done with the help of a rope that Zhou XinYi had sneaked past its neck, resembled a leash on the beast''s neck.

    Li Ling smirked in approval, "Nice one!"

    Zhou XinYi nodded and with a clean swing of the sword, the head was removed from the body, there was no splatter of blood, making it seem like he had cut a mere prop.

    Zhou XinYi jumped forward and kicked the head away, separating it from the body.

    "Let''s go." Li Ling beamed.

    The duo took a few steps further into the forest, leaving the dead corpse of the beast behind, however, it seemed that the beast didn''t want to part with them so soon, as they heard rustling coming from behind them.

    Li Ling turned his head with an evil grin that, he wasn''t aware, he was displaying. The head had somehow been reattached with the bones.

    Zhou XinYi chuckled sarcastically, "I love it when they do that."

    The bone yak once again stood up and charged towards them without fear. This time, Li Ling jumped up and landed on top of its head, his sword Huo stabbed downwards and the creature''s head was impaled by the sword.

    Zhou XinYi''s eyes twitched, "How do we beat this thing?"

    Li Ling stepped on top of the seemingly, dead head, and pulled out Huo, "I don''t think we can."

    The two waited in front of the corpse, almost sure that the beast would wake up even with such a fatal wound.

    The beast indeed stood up once again. It shook its head and looked at the enemies that had already killed it twice.

    Li Ling, "What if we mince his head into bits?"

    Zhou XinYi, "Useless."

    Li Ling grinned, "Why is this beast still alive?"

    "....."

    The beast''s bones made a cracking sound as it got ready to attack once again. This time Li Ling didn''t move and made a slashing movement from the bottom to up��from right to left. This slash was followed by the sound of the second heavy horn falling on the ground.

    "I just realized something: It cannot regenerate or reattach its horns." Li Ling beamed.

    Zhou XinYi looked down at the hornless creature, "What do we do now?"

    Li Ling looked down at the detached horn, "Doesn''t that have poison?"

    Zhou XinYi shook his head, "I''m sure it''s immune to its own poison."

    Li Ling carefully picked up the horn and when the beast attacked once again, the horn was stabbed through the center of its forehead��Killing the creature once again and making it look, almost like a deformed unicorn of sorts.

    The two stood in front of the creature for a minute, waiting to see if the creature was willing to stand up once again.

    Zhou XinYi tilted his head in amusement, "Is this how a unicorn was created?"

    "...."

    Li Ling frowned, "No. That''s not even funny."

    Zhou XinYi glanced at the blank face of Li Ling, "Are you sure about that?"

    Another few minutes passed and the creature showed no signs of moving. This time it was dead for good.

    Somewhere else in the forest was another group consisting of Mastermo and Kaze17 that had luckily not met up with any hard-to-deal with beasts.

    Zhihao summoned Shuang and checked the area for any beasts that might be hiding in the shadows; this was another use of the sword. It could detect any type of beasts, ghosts or ghouls, almost anything with immense yin energy.

    Zhihao looked back at his teammate, who had not talked much or to put it more clearly��hasn''t said anything at all, "What''s your real name?"

    Kaze17 jumped, startled that the guy had taken the initiative to strike up a conversation with him.

    Zhihao looked at him, expectantly.

    Kaze17 took a sharp breath in, "It''s Kaoru."

    "Kaoru?" Zhihao repeated the name, "It sounds Japanese."

    Kaoru, "I''m Japanese."

    Zhihao, "Ah! That''s awesome."

    The atmosphere was once again quiet as nobody dared to strike up a conversation. They walked for a couple more steps and came to the conclusion that they had entered a region that was avoided by the beasts for some reason.

    Zhihao crouched down on the ground and asked as he looked at a certain plant, "System, what is this?"

    [Answering player''s question: You are currently looking at poison lilies.]

    Zhihao chuckled as he withdrew his hands that were ready to pluck the flower, "Let me guess, It has an incurable poison?"

    [Poison lilies are spiritual plants that spray out a distinct type of poison-like-substance that is colorless and odorless. This poison affects both humans and beasts alike. The poison clogs up the windpipe and the prey dies due to lack of oxygen circulation.

    Zhihao warned, "Hold your breath."

    Kaoru looked back at the man, "How?"

    Zhihao realized this major problem, a little late. Weren''t they inside a game?

    He let out the breath that he had instinctively held. It didn''t matter how much he held his breath in the real world, his in-game character would still breathe normally.

    Zhihao cursed under his breath at his own stupidity. Though, he could not be completely blamed for it. Inside a VR game, reality and gaming were a bit confusing to distinguish. After you put on the VR headset, your brain gets accustomed to the world inside the game and for a second, may even forget that what you see is not reality.

    Kaoru stepped back, "Let''s turn around for now."

    Zhihao yelled out, "Don''t move."

    Kaoru, "Huh?"

    "Look down carefully."

    Kaoru did, just as he was told.

    "See that tiny opening in the center of the flower, keep your eyes on that." Zhihao moved forward and nudged the flower, this small movement caused the opening to grow bigger in size, "I think it releases motion-triggered poison. As long as we don''t move, we''ll be alright."

    Kaoru listened to the man and immediately froze up, "What do we do now?"

    Zhihao looked at the young player then back at the poison lily, "Let''s think of something."

    The two stood in place not daring to move for a few minutes. Two to three minutes passed, Zhihao seemed to have gotten an idea, "The moon goddess spellbook!"

    Zhihao took out the defensive equipment and threw it away with force and at the same time, he activated it; the two players were automatically sucked inside the flying book and when the book landed somewhere far away, Zhihao deactivated it. They were saved.

    They drank a health-boosting potion to regain their health stats that they had lost when they were in the region filled with those poison lilies.

    Kaoru thanked Zhihao, "My health was depleting so slowly that I did not even realize it."

    "Don''t worry about that, I didn''t see that coming either." Zhihao scratched his head, "I asked the question on a whim."

    For the first time, Kaoru giggled, "I guess you really are lucky."

    Zhihao smiled, "Really? I don''t think so."

    Kaoru, "I''m certain. During the last mission, weren''t you the one who met the Gamemaster by chance?"

    "You heard about that?" Zhihao chuckled awkwardly.

    "It would''ve been more shocking if I didn''t hear about it." Kaoru shook his head, "You''re like the only gamer who got to meet him so early on. To be honest, I look up to the Gamemaster. I want to meet him too and if I do, I don''t want to kill him at all."

    Zhihao smiled, "I guess that makes two of us."

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 30 - Mastermo Finds Another Cave

    "I really don''t get why, we would have to beat the Gamemaster. I wouldn''t want to do it even if I''m forced, that''s why I have decided to play this till the end and when the final level comes, I would defeat all the players trying to defeat the Gamemaster." Kaoru beamed, this had to be the longest sentence this player had ever said with such enthusiasm.

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard such fanatic words, "I wouldn''t go as far as to protect him, but instead, if there was to be a player who has to beat him, I''d rather, it be me."

    "How can you do that?"

    "I probably can''t, but I''ll just close my eyes and do it. I won''t let someone else beat him."

    Kaoru frowned, "I guess that makes you my rival."

    "I guess so."

    The two fell silent.. The atmosphere was cold and silent, not even the wind daring to blow. There was clearly mutual respect between the two. People are different and they have different feelings and thoughts. When faced with the same decision, they follow different methods to go about it. This was normal and the two knew that one day they''ll stand on opposite sides of a fight, but that did not stop them from sharing this feeling of goodwill and respect for each other and their opinions.

    "Rooorooo."

    Zhihao''s eyes went wide as he heard that all too familiar teasing sound, It was the sound of the treasure he was after, the fox spirit, RoRo.

    He looked around not knowing where the sound was coming from, a few seconds passed, but there was no follow-up sound. It was like the sound had just been a mirage, an illusion that his mind had created.

    Kaoru, "Mastermo, look ahead. I think there is something there."

    Zhihao followed the direction Kaoru pointed at, only to realize that there was certainly something there, hiding behind the leaves, but it didn''t seem like a beast at all.

    Zhihao moved closer to it and pushed the branches aside, what he saw could be deemed as a new discovery.

    It was a fresh spring with sparkling water flowing beautifully, hidden from the rest of the forest.

    Kaoru was awestruck as he looked at the beautiful hidden scene, but when he tried to move closer to the spring, he was stopped by Mastermo.

    Zhihao forwarned him, "Be careful, it may be dangerous."

    It very well may be so. This spring seemed to have water so crystal clear that one would not be able to believe that it was water at all.

    Zhihao was naturally skeptical about it. Weren''t the most dangerous traps always disguised in such aesthetic beauty?

    This was a level that messed with one''s mind; this conclusion was based on his personal experience, starting from the illusion owl to the fox spirit to the crying eagle, hidden cave, and the dazzling lilies. Nothing beautiful here seemed to be just that simple, and this spring could very well be considered dangerous. Maybe the water was a chemical, a deadly one.

    Zhihao, "System, Is this normal water?"

    [Answering player''s question: This is completely normal water.]

    "....."

    Or maybe Zhihao had just overthought.

    Kaoru moved forward and crouched down near the shore, he put his hand out and touched the water. Nothing happened. This was indeed normal water.

    Zhihao was still not satisfied with this development, still feeling that there was something up with it.

    This gut feeling was the instinct that he had developed from playing numerous games and becoming a pro-gamer; it was the instinct of a pro-gamer.

    Kaoru, "I would want to drink this water, just in case it has healing abilities."

    Zhihao, "You can try."

    Kaoru chuckled as he sat by the side and started playing with the water, this came out as odd to Zhihao, who found it to be pointless.

    Was there really nothing to it?

    But just then, as he was pondering over what could possibly happen next, he heard a shriek, it was Kaoru.

    "What''s that?" Kaoru jolted up and pointed at the water but when Zhihao looked over, he found nothing.

    "What are you talking about?"

    Kaoru, "That moved! The ground moved!"

    Zhihao looked over once more but all he could see under the water were stones with moss on top.

    Kaoru took a step back, "I swear, the ground moved."

    Zhihao thought about the most likely possibility, finding it almost enjoyable that his gut feeling was once again right on spot, "I believe you, but that''s no ground."

    Zhihao summoned Shuang and tried to stab the bottom floor of the spring, however, the sword bounced back, unable to poke through the ground.

    Zhihao felt an odd rush of thrill, his guesses were indeed right.

    If there was normal soil under the water, the sword would be able to poke a hole in it and even if it was a stone, Shuang would have been able to cut it in half, but the sword, neither poked a hole nor cut it up and instead it bounced back, this was no natural ground.

    The water started moving, splashing around and they could now see it clearly, whatever it was, it moved and hid deeper inside the water. Just a few seconds later, the huge thing covered in moss disappeared from sight.

    Kaoru felt a shiver run down his spine, "What the hell was that?"

    "Why don''t we go and find out?" Zhihao beamed.

    Zhihao changed his armor into one more adapted to conditions underwater and Kaoru also followed suite. The two players got well equipped and directly jumped into the water.

    From the outside, the spring seemed to be small in size, but when they jumped inside, they found out that this spring was nowhere near small, it was deep and wide. Inside was a cave, another cave that Zhihao was excited to enter inside.

    Since the first time they entered a cave had been very beneficial for them, Zhihao was sure that this cave would also lead them to some new discovery.

    They swam around deeper and deeper. The creature that had ran away was nowhere in sight and from the quick sight they got of it, the only thing that could be determined was that this creature was huge in size, hence, there was no way it could easily hide and so the only possible explanation for its disappearance was the cave.

    It had entered the cave, followed by Zhihao and Kaoru who were cautiously moving forward. It was dark and not much could be seen, the only source of light��once again��came from the sword as it glowed brightly, this bright glow was due to the close proximity of a beast with high yin energy. The closer and stronger the yin energy, the more brightly the sword would shine.

    Kaoru, "This cave seems to be going too deep. What if this is a trap?"

    Zhihao, "What are you afraid of? Weren''t you the one who said that you wanted to protect the Gamemaster? If you are scared of such a mere beast, forget about that dream of yours."

    Kaoru was silent for a minute, "Let''s keep going."

    Zhihao smiled in satisfaction.

    The previous cave Zhihao had explored was filled with carvings on the stone walls but this cave seemed to be a bit plainer in comparison with almost nothing to see except for the thick moss that covered the walls and the aquatic plants that flowed with the current.

    Zhihao, "Kaoru, When did you start playing games?"

    Kaoru, "Its been a couple of years since I took it seriously."

    Zhihao nodded, "Then can you tell me something weird about this cave that you might have noticed?"

    "Huh?" Kaoru looked at the man with shock, what answer was he hoping for?

    "Just say whatever you have noticed that can not be noticed by noobs."

    Kaoru thought about it seriously for a minute before answering, "The current."

    "The water current is going deeper into the cave. It''s going the opposite way." Zhihao agreed, "There might be an opening at the end of it, we can rest assured that we won''t be trapped."

    They went deeper into the cave, and so far, all they could see was floating plants and some tiny fishes that swam around.

    They felt the stream getting stronger and stronger, till the point that they didn''t have to swim anymore, they were being carried by the strong current.

    Zhihao, "Be on your guard, there might be danger."

    "....."

    The two were thrown out of the cave, but unlike what Zhihao had thought, the cave didn''t have an opening to the outside, it opened up to another cave. This was a much wider cave with all sides closed off. Inside this cave was a stream of a waterfall by which the two players had fallen into this cave.

    There were stones on the edges; on top of which, the two players could stand. In between the cave was a natural pool of water.

    Kaoru, "System, where are we?"

    [Answering player''s question: You have entered the cave of the immortal turtle.]

    Zhihao felt excited as he heard this; after having walked for nearly 30 minutes with no monsters to kill or mysteries to solve, he was dying to feel this kind of excitement.

    Zhihao, "System, Who is the immortal turtle?"

    [Answering player''s question: The immortal turtle is a mystical beast categorized under treasure.]

    Upon hearing the system''s answer, Kaoru looked around delightfully.

    This sudden show of enthusiasm caught Zhihao by surprise, "What are you looking for? You know this beast?"

    Kaoru nodded, "This beast should be the treasure we are after. A turtle."

    Zhihao, "An immortal turtle? Sounds oddly familiar."

    Kaoru smiled, "Mastermo is certainly very lucky. We have been looking for this thing for ages but with you, I found it by pure chance."

    Zhihao tilted his head in amusement, "Why thank my luck? I think it''s you who lucked out."

    Kaoru eagerly nodded as he looked around a bit more.

    Zhihao, "But please don''t forget this, we need to break the seal first. After we do that, you can come back to catch the beast, till then you''ll have to wait."

    "Kaoru glanced back in confusion, "Why can''t we catch it now?"

    "Not worth it."

    "But, why?"

    Zhihao shook his head, ''I don''t know. Perhaps, my gut feeling?"

    Kaoru squinted his eyes, "What if we can''t find it again?"

    Zhihao smiled, "Then I''ll be held responsible."

    Kaoru looked at the man with suspicion, although they were now in a squad together, they were still from different teams so what if this man had just wanted to trick them at this moment? But when Kaoru looked at Zhihao''s smiling face, there was not a trace of lie laced in it, so he decided to trust the man. It was all up to chance, if Zhihao was to betray them, then they''d just have to suck it up and blame it on their bad luck.

    Kaoru, "So what are you planning to do now?''

    "Well I wouldn''t let you catch the beast yet but we can still go and see what''s under that." Zhihao spoke as he pointed at the pool of water, a deep pool with no visible floor under it.

    Kaoru agreed, a bit too easily, this was because of his trust in Mastermo, no matter what happens, this man would certainly not make bad decisions.

    The two players jumped and swam to the bottom, only to realize that this was another underwater cave.

    They kept on swimming till they saw something, or at least when they thought they did; What they found was nothing more than fishes that hid in the dark and weed that flowed with the water.

    Kaoru stopped as he noticed something,"Mastermo, look over there."

    When he looked over, what Zhihao saw was nothing more than moss but when he blinked, it was gone.

    Kaoru, "There is something wrong with this place."

    Zhihao nodded, "I don''t think this is moss."

    The water moved with force and the two players were forced to look ahead, there was a tail, not long but extremely huge. The owner of the tail was in front of them, turning a corner and leaving them behind.

    There was no doubt about it, this was the tail of that immortal turtle but Zhihao didn''t chase after it nor did Kaoru, what they found more interesting was the fact that the moss sticking to the side of the cave wasn''t a moss at all, they were some type of creatures that looked like moss.

    When Kaoru moved closer to the wall of the cave and put his hand forward to touch the moss, the creatures moved away, extremely fast and the players could now clearly see what was hidden under these creatures.

    It was the carvings. The exact same carvings that they had seen in the previous cave.

 Chapter 31 - Mastermo Finds The Immortal Turtle

    The carvings were so alike that for a second, Zhihao wondered if he had entered the same cave as before.

    He was excited and his excitement could not be concealed.

    Zhihao, "System, How many treasures are there?"

    [Answering player''s question: There are a total of six treasure beasts]

    Kaoru looked at Zhihao, curiously waiting for whatever he had suddenly thought up of.

    Zhihao was not a petty person who would keep the information to himself but in order to state something, he''d first have to make sure that his theories had, somewhat a solid base.

    "System, How many secret caves are there in this region?"

    [Answering player''s question: There are six caves placed all over the region.]

    When Kaoru heard the answer, he too, seemed to have connected certain things together, "Are the caves somehow related to the treasures?"

    Zhihao nodded, "I think so.. There are six treasures and six caves. Each treasure leads to a certain cave. RoRo led us to its cave and with our help regained its former body and ran away. But the other beasts didn''t move from that cave. At first, I assumed it was because their soul wasn''t near but now that I think about it, those statues might have been just stones."

    Kaoru could no longer keep up with whatever Zhihao was saying and he couldn''t be blamed. Wasn''t he part of the unfortunate people who couldn''t enter the last cave? So how could he know what this was about, after all, he had not seen those treasure beast statues that Zhihao had spoke of.

    Zhihao, having sensed that whatever he said��was going over the guy''s head, sighed, "There are six beasts and six caves. Inside each cave, there are six statues hidden. One out of those six is the real body of a treasure beast and the rest five are stones."

    Kaoru, "Okay, I got that."

    Zhihao, "What I''m about to say next is nothing more than my guesses so I could be wrong. I think the six caves are like the groundwork of the seal."

    "What makes you say that?" Kaoru inquired.

    "Think about it. This land was burnt down and created anew but that was caused by the united prayers of the animals, so what role do the treasure beasts play in that? Absolutely nothing! We were told that the treasure beasts were the ones who sacrificed their bodies for this land, but the timing of that happening was never specified. If I''m guessing right, the two are not connected to each other."

    Kaoru nodded, only understanding bits and pieces of it but whatever it was, it was better than understanding nothing at all.

    Zhihao continued, "The chronology should be something like this: the land was burnt down and recreated by the prayers of the animals; the animals became mystical beasts. After 6000 years of peace, something happened and nearly destroyed the land, in which case, six beasts came forward to sacrifice their bodies and beg the sun goddess to save them. The goddess listened to them once again and put a barrier on top of the region, protecting it from outside danger."

    Kaoru bobbed his head, "I get it. So the six beasts lay as the groundwork for the barrier?"

    Zhihao, "Yeah! Their bodies are placed in the six caves that are located randomly all over the region."

    "So if we free one of the bodies from a cave, the seal gets broken piece by piece?"

    "Yeah, that''s what I''m guessing. It''s more like there are six seals holding up that one powerful barrier and if we want to break that, we''ll first have to break the small ones first. Since we have already freed RoRo, there remains only five more seals, five more creatures, and five more caves."

    Kaoru, "And we have already found another cave so we have four more to look for."

    Zhihao rubbed his head in worry, "I hope the others have found such caves as well."

    Kaoru, "We can hope for the best."

    Although this entire thing was nothing more than a theory, the solid base behind it was strong and hard to deny. The chances of this theory becoming true were shockingly high.

    But the biggest worry for Zhihao wasn''t the fact that the theory was true or not, it was how to go about it further?

    They were inside the cave but how were they supposed to unseal this immortal turtle''s mortal body.

    When RoRo was unsealed from that cave, it was purely due to Li Ling''s help; he had with him an item that was immensely helpful but right now, Zhihao had no such item and Li Ling was not near, so how were they supposed to break the seal?

    Kaoru, "Should we contact the others?"

    Zhihao''s eyes twitched, it wasn''t that he was against the idea of sharing the newfound discovery, however, if they were to contact the other squad members, wouldn''t his aunt and BBtrash also come back to annoy him? He simply could not accept that. He''d rather suck it up and find a way to break the seal himself

    And that was exactly what he did, "Let''s not trouble them with this. This one should be easy to break."

    At least he hoped it would be easy to break.

    The duo moved further inside the cave and once again the water current grew strong, pulling them into another cave. The scene was the same. There was a wide cave identical to the previous one with stones on the side and a pool of water in the middle, they jumped inside the water and the situation repeated itself.

    Zhihao and Kaoru stopped, they were being tricked; this was not getting them anywhere.

    They were stuck in a loop.

    Zhihao had marked a cross on a stone to check if this place just looked alike or was it really the same place? The next time he entered the cave, he found the carvings he had previously made.

    They were stuck somehow, going back to the same spot all over again.

    Zhihao looked around the cave.

    There was clearly nothing in it, however, Zhihao felt like it was oddly familiar, looking exactly like the main cave hall where the statues were found in.

    Zhihao looked up in an instant, the roof wall of the cave was closed, but Zhihao would not let it be so for too long.

    With an order given, Shuang launched forward at the roof, making Kaoru yell out in worry, "Why are you trying to kill us?"

    Zhihao avoided answering the question and a few seconds later, the roof of the cave was broken into a clean circle, this was not entirely caused by Shuang, it was, in fact, a hole that had been already there; it was just well hidden behind that moss-like creatures. When Shuang aimed for the roof, the creatures moved away and the hole was visible.

    [Congratulations on developing the side story! +50 T-points gained]

    This hole in the roof was perfectly aligned in order to let moonlight pass through and fall on the pool surface.

    Zhihao stood by the side and along with Kaoru observed the situation.

    When the light was filtered through and fell on the pool, the water inside the pool started flowing out. This was a sign of something emerging from deep inside the pool.

    The water splashed the two players standing on the side and kept on rising. With another minute passing by, something came out of the water, it was a circular stone table that looked much alike the stone plate they had seen previously.

    As Zhihao remembered it, the reason the plate emerged last time was because of Li Ling''s ring but that was not the current case, this time it had actually risen when it sensed the moonlight.

    Zhihao had a thought; maybe he had read into it too much. What if the reason the stone plate rose the first time was not directly related to the ring, what if it was because of the light reflected off of the ring? Maybe the seal needed moonlight to come undone and maybe that moonlight needed to fall on something particular, maybe an area where normally the light would not fall on.

    Like some sort of trigger, a spot where the light needs to fall naturally in order to break the seal?

    If that had been the case, it could explain a lot and their mission now would become a lot easier.

    But to test if that theory was true or not was beyond Zhihao''s capabilities.

    Zhihao looked at the stone plate as it opened up six holes on the edges and under the plate were stone statues of those six treasure beasts��on top of which, the light fell perfectly. This time Zhihao noticed that as the stone melted away, what lay under it was not a body of an animal, it was just an apparition of one, at least that was the case for the five treasure beast, except for the last one, which was the statue of a large turtle, when the stone melted off the statue, what was left under it was the body of the beast.

    Zhihao found it thrilling how he had guessed it right. There were probably six caves for all six treasures and those were the seals that held up the barrier that protected this land in a time loop.

    Kaoru looked at the giant statues and was rendered speechless. This was the first time he had seen such a sight. The confusion did not come as a shock.

    Zhihao, "When the soul enters back in the body, we can catch the treasures and complete the mission but I''m going to have to tell you not to catch it right now."

    Kaoru nodded, "I won''t catch it right now. I feel like there is something more to it that we don''t know."

    Zhihao smiled, "Let''s first set all the treasure beasts free and see what happens."

    When the body was completely unfrozen, Zhihao saw a dark shadow emerge from the water and enter the body, The body of the turtle came to life and started moving.

    When the turtle saw the two intruders who have set it free, the turtle bowed and ran away.

    Kaoru, "..."

    At least, this one showed gratitude.

    Zhihao chuckled, "I was right."

    "About what?"

    "We can''t catch the beasts yet. The last time RoRo ran away, I had this feeling that it was going somewhere in particular just like this turtle."

    Kaoru, "So you are saying, they have somewhere important to go?"

    Zhhiao nodded, "I can''t be sure but I think they are assembling."

    "What do you mean assembling?"

    Zhihao looked ahead, "The beasts are eager to get their bodies back but the first thing they do when they get back their body is running off to a certain place. If so, would it not be safe for us to assume that this place was the reason they wanted to get their bodies back?"

    Kaoru thought about it for a few minutes, it made sense but in the end it was still just that; an assumption so what could be said?

    Zhihao, "If they all want to assemble somewhere in particular��I bet there is something up with it."

    Kaoru, "And if we find the place where they are running off to, we can catch them all at once."

    Zhihao nodded, "Exactly!"

    "But what if you are wrong and they are just running away?" Kaoru asked

    "...."

    Kaoru, "Don''t worry about it, if they are really just running away from us, I won''t hold you accountable."

    Zhihao was amused by the response, "Are you sure about that?"

    Kaoru might not, but BBtrash and loudbitchnextdoor were surely going to push the blame onto Zhihao.

    Kaoru smiled in turn, "It''s my choice to believe you."

    By this time, the turtle had run away and was nowhere in sight. With no more turtle inside the cave, the two-player also did not waste their time here and soon left the cave.

    Somewhere else in the forest was another cave that was found by Li Ling and Zhou XinYi and another seal was broken.

    With a total number of three seals broken, only three others were left.

    How could breaking another three be considered difficult for them?

    <gdiv></gdiv>

    <gdiv></gdiv>

 Chapter 32 - Mastermo Meets Up With His Lover

    The third team consisting of Wang GuiYing, Aunt Su, and Andy were having the time of their lives as they freely roamed around the forest. Whatever beast attacked them met with either a hammer or an axe; both not a good way to say goodbye to the world.

    So far, they had unfortunately neither seen nor experienced something even remotely interesting, no treasure beasts and no caves, but this might have been the main reason why they were so jolly.

    BBtrash and Aunt Su, both secretly prayed for this in their mind. If they were to meet something right now would it not mean extra work? Why would anybody want to go through that much trouble willingly?

    They walked around for half an hour and when they got bored of walking, BBtrash started climbing trees for fun.

    The region they had entered was filled with spiritual trees and magical fruits that could help them, but the help wasn''t something major. Each magic fruit increased the player''s health status by 1%

    Although that number was nothing big, the team was not displeased with it. In the end, health boosters were still health boosters, it was better than nothing. If they ate 20 of these fruits, would they not gain 20% health?

    BBtrash was quite pleased with this, however, the only problem was that he wasn''t running low on health stats, in fact, his health stats were still near 100% so what was he supposed to do with all these fruits that he collected? Maybe he could gift them to his partner, Hulk0_0 when he meets him but then, what was Zhou XinYi going to do with it?.

    ....

    He''d just collect it for now since he had nothing better to do.

    Andy looked up at the huge bundle of fruits BBtrash had collected, "Where are we?"

    "It doesn''t matter where we are." Wang GuiYing beamed as he jumped down from the tree.

    Aunt Su nodded, "Anywhere is fine as long as there are no beasts around."

    "Especially those hideous leeches." Wang GuiYing shivered at the thought.

    Andy glanced at the two, speechless. Was this what every other pro-gamer was like or was this duo just special?

    Andy could not be blamed for thinking this since this was his first time playing. He was a newcomer to the gaming world, one of the newbies who had lucked out and somehow entered the T.I.A.D. top gamers list.

    Andy was always interested in gaming but he had never thought about making a career out of it; the reason for this was simple; becoming a pro-gamer was no easy task and that is why he had always held great respect for the people who became pro-gamers. When T.I.A.D. announced the cash prize, Andy thought he might as well try. He would either make it or... What was there to lose?

    But it seemed that he was certainly in luck. The first T.I.A.D. top player''s list was posted and somehow Andy was in it. A few days later, he got an invitation from a pro-gamer named loubitchnextdoor. When he saw that he was getting so much recognition right off the bat, he started thinking about further pursuing this as his career.

    When he looked at the player''s beside him, BBtrash and loudbitchnextdoor, he felt somewhat happy. Maybe becoming a pro-gamer wasn''t as difficult as he had thought it out to be.

    This poor boy was ignorant of the fact that he was currently with the idlest team ever. These two pro-gamers were certainly not to be trusted as role models��this, even their fans would agree.

    Andy looked in front and suddenly noticed something strange, "Is that a white-colored deer?"

    Aunt Su jumped forward, "Where?"

    Andy pointed at it, "There."

    The two pairs of eyes followed the direction the finger pointed at and indeed saw something that resembled a deer, white in color, sneaking behind the trees and staring at them.

    Andy, "I think it wants us to follow it."

    Aunt Su laughed, "Haven''t your parents taught you to never follow strangers?"

    "Look away. We don''t go following weird beasts around." BBtrash spoke as he pulled Andy back.

    Andy, "but..."

    "No buts." Aunt Su scolded. Poor Andy was pulled away by BBtrash and Aunt Su who pulled him the opposite way.

    The deer that had come for them stood there speechless. It was a computer code so it couldn''t think on its own but if it could, it would think about how big of an idiot these bunch of people were. Didn''t they care about solving the mission at all?

    The deer had not given up and quietly followed the group of players.

    Andy glanced back and noticed it in an instant, "It''s following us."

    Aunt Su, "We can see that."

    BBtrash, "Andy, let this big brother tell you, if something follows you, it means its trouble. We don''t let trouble catch up to us."

    Aunt Su bobbed her head in agreement.

    The deer followed them around for more than ten minutes after which it eventually got bored and ran away.

    Andy didn''t know how to feel about this but since the two pro-gamers who were beside him had made this decision, it could be considered as them leading a rookie, so when he thought like that, he could carry on moving forward carefreely where there were fewer beasts.

    Somewhere else in the forest was the team of Li Ling and Hulk0_0 who had luckily found a second cave. This cave belonged to the cave of the illusion owls and like every other cave, the stone walls were carved in the exact same pictures and the stone plate rose from the middle triggered by the moonlight.

    When the illusion owl regained its body, it danced around in the ground and flew over their heads with joy. This was also the treasure assigned to Hulk0_0 and BBtrash, if Wang GuiYing were here, he''d absolutely use this opportunity to catch the treasure but Zhou XinYi was different, when Li Ling advised him not to catch the beast yet, he dare not move.

    The owl completed it''s mini-celebration and flew away.

    So far, four cave seals have been broken and only two left, one of those caves belonged to the deer that had desperately followed BBtrash''s group but failed to lure them into its cave.

    At the moment, Li Ling had already contacted Zhihao and told him about the two caves they had unsealed. They talked for a few minutes and the two eagerly shared the new information they had found with each other. When Zhihao saw that his guesses had matched with the situation the other sub-team was faced with, he felt like his theory was further solidified.

    When he added the total number of caves that have been unsealed in his mind, he found that they were pretty close to breaking the barrier. If the third team had also found a seal, it would''ve been perfect but knowing BBtrash, Zhihao felt like even if the man accidentally fell into the cave, he would climb out crying instead of trying to break the seal.

    A few hours later, somehow Zhihao and Li Ling''s team came together and reformed as a four-member team consisting of Zhihao, Kaoru, Li Ling, and Zhou XinYi. The team of four found the deer and it didn''t take them a lot of time to break the seal.

    [Congratulations on freeing five treasure beasts! +50 T-points gained]

    Kaoru, "Was earning T-points always this easy?"

    Zhihao shook his head, "It seems this level is very generous with it."

    Li Ling nodded in agreement.

    Zhou XinYi chuckled, "It seems we''ll be rich after this."

    "....."

    "Brother, did you forget our deal?" Li Ling asked as he smiled mischievously.

    "....."

    Zhou XinYi had forgotten about it. Now that he looked back at it, wasn''t it all a waste? It was just some dancing and singing, he should''ve done it alone, why ask for help from these tricksters? He truly regretted it. Not only did they take away a chance to own a crying eagle but they had also made the deal to steal away all the T-points they had.

    The precious T-points that BBtrash was currently working hard to earn.

    After thinking about it, BBtrash concluded that the fruits were really of no use for him if he were to consume them, especially this much amount of it, so he came up with a plan to collect as much as possible and sell it for T-points on the server. The thought of earning all the T-points really brought a smile to his face, however, sadly he would eventually come to know that he was doing all this hard work for somebody else''s profit.

    Andy kept glancing around to see if something was following them.

    BBtrash, "What are you looking for?"

    Andy, "Nothing."

    "Are you scared?" Aunt Su asked with a playful expression.

    "Not really."

    BBtrash, "Then?"

    "I just feel like we are being stalked by something," Andy answered honestly, hearing which Aunt Su and BBtrash burst out laughing.

    BBtrash, "Honey, what do you think would want to stalk us here?"

    "...." Andy kept silent as he answered in his mind: A lot of things actually.

    "Shhhh...." Aunt Su suddenly stopped walking and her face no longer carried the playfulness within them.

    Wang GuiYing also sensed something weird as he looked around.

    A shiver went down Andy''s spine as he heard the slight rustling of the grass, "Is that what I think it is?"

    "It''s the sound of a snake."

    Aunt Su, "It''s been following us for a while now."

    Andy looked at the woman in shock thinking in his mind as he did: Did you not reassure me that there was nothing here that would follow us?

    BBtrash equipped his hammer as the smile on his face grew wider, "We don''t go looking for trouble but if trouble comes looking for us...."

    "Enough with the dumb lines, trash." Aunt Su also followed suit and equipped her axe as she looked around, desperately trying to find the origin of the sound, "I don''t think we can play around with this snake."

    "...." Andy unknowingly took a step back as his eyes scanned all around him. In his mind, he prayed to god, may nothing jump at them suddenly.

    It was quiet for a minute as no player dared to make a move and when the minute ended, the sound was heard again.

    It was the sound of something dragging along the grass and the group wasn''t too far away from the source of the sound.

 Chapter 33 - Mastermo Gets Swallowed

    "What do we do? It''s coming closer." Andy asked with an anxious tone.

    Wang GuiYing did not bother to answer the man as he smiled and pressed some buttons on his screen.

    Aunt Su, "Did you call them?"

    "Yeah!"

    Andy looked at the two, not understanding what was going on, "Who are you calling."

    However, the two pro-gamers did not bother answering the question, thinking that it was better if the man was left in anticipation of the unknown.

    From Zhihao''s side, the four players received a message from BBtrash pleading for help.

    Li Ling was the first to react as he asked, "Could it be the last treasure?"

    "Maybe.." Zhou XinYi answered.

    Zhihao sent a message as a response asking about the situation, but all he got in response was the location tag where the other three players were currently at.

    "If he called us, it has to be something worth checking out." Zhou XinYi exclaimed in a worried tone like that of a mother whose daughter hadn''t returned home from school yet.

    Zhihao was doubtful, but he still decided to check it out. It was better to be safe than sorry.

    Kaoru also nodded as he agreed, "Let''s go."

    When the four players reached the area where BBtrash had asked them to come, what greeted them was a gruesome fight between a 20-meter long snake that looked much like a Titanoboa, and facing against it were the helpless three players.

    The fight could not even be considered as a full-fledged fight. One look and Zhihao was able to see how overpowered the snake was against this small group of three players.

    Wang GuiYing tried to attack the snake with his hammer and Aunt Su tried to constantly cut it down with her axe. Andy stood by the side shooting at it with a gun but no matter how much it was attacked, none of the attacks could even manage to touch the snake, all of it passed right through it as if the snake was nothing but air.

    Zhihao was suddenly delighted to see this. There was no doubt about it, this was the last treasure beast they were looking for.

    Zhihao, "System, what is this beast?"

    [Answering player''s question: This beast is called the cursed snake.]

    [New treasure beast found: Cursed snake]

    [The cursed snake is a one-of-a-kind beast that is categorized as a treasure beast. This beast is larger than any other known beast and is more vicious than any beast in this region.]

    [Warning: Do not approach!]

    Zhihao was suddenly stunned to find that this treasure beast was somewhat different than the rest. The other five beasts, although seeming to be dangerous and full of tricks were rather docile and easy to deal with; They were, in fact, the ones to approach the players first and guide them to their respective caves. Compared to those treasure beasts��this beast was rather more aggressive and it seemed like it was not looking forward to guiding them anywhere except for��maybe��to their possible deaths.

    Zhou XinYi looked at the scene and frowned, "What is happening?"

    "Can''t you see for yourself?" Li Ling sneered

    Kaoru, "How come the beast can attack them, but they can''t touch it?"

    Zhihao shook his head, "I don''t know, I guess we''ll have to find out."

    When Zhihao confidently said this, Shuang sprang forward and attacked the beast. Somehow, the sword was able to cut the beast, but the cut wasn''t fatal, however, it was enough to catch the beast''s attention.

    The cursed snake glared at Zhihao when it suddenly noticed that this man''s attacks were somehow able to touch him.

    Kaoru, "I don''t like that look."

    Nobody liked that look.

    The snake hissed as it stood tall, measuring its height to Zhihao; this was something snakes did. They would often compare their heights with their opponents and if they were taller, their opponent became their food and if they were shorter, they would walk away, avoiding a fight.

    In this case, comparing height was utterly pointless as there was no way Zhihao would be able to beat this 20-meter tall snake in terms of height.

    "Be careful." Li Ling warned out, but he was a split second late as the snake��with a proud expression and an aggressive posture, attacked Zhihao.

    In the fragment of a second��a speed that Zhihao could not dodge, the snake sprang forth with an open mouth and devoured Zhihao.

    "..."

    "Darling?" Wang GuiYing called out in shock as he saw the man getting swallowed whole.

    The snake, like the other treasure beasts, was nothing more than a spirit so it was only natural that it did not have a physical body��its body was translucent making it so that, Zhihao could be seen dangling upside-down inside its body.

    The sight was somewhat funny, making it seem as if they were seeing an x-ray of the beast and Zhihao was its unborn child.

    Zhihao who was dangling upside-down inside its stomach had enough of the humiliation and summoned Shuang to cut through this supposed mother''s stomach.

    The snake perhaps had felt the pain coming from inside its stomach, caused by Zhihao who cut through its skin from the inside with the help of Shuang. The beast cried out and puked��along with its disgusting sticky substance came Zhihao.

    Zhihao fell on the ground with a pulp along with all the mucus. Zhihao wondered why did the snake have the mucus? Without a body of its own, how was it able to produce such a substance with the absence of physical organs that were in charge of doing such a task?

    Li Ling looked at the man with an unreadable expression, "Are you okay?"

    Zhihao wiped the mucus off of his face as he replied, "I''m okay. Never been better."

    "Honey!" Wang GuiYing exclaimed as he moved forward to jump on the man but was stopped midway by Zhou XinYi who restricted him by clutching onto the man''s collar.

    The squad of seven reunited and when Andy saw the four players who had come to save them, he cried out in happiness, feeling somewhat relieved.

    The more the merrier.

    Aunt Su glared at Zhihao who was completely covered in mucus as she spat, "Are you this pathetic? Stand up!"

    The snake hissed and Aunt Su screamed��stunned by the sudden sound.

    Li Ling offered him a hand and pulled Zhihao up to stand, "What do we do about that?"

    "...." as Zhihao stood up, he glared at the beast, "I''m gonna kill it."

    "We can''t be impulsive." Kaoru reminded awkwardly.

    Li Ling nodded to Zhihao in agreement, "How do you want to kill it?"

    "..."

    In Andy''s mind, he felt conflicted.

    Wasn''t that still a treasure beast? Weren''t these two the ones who ordered not to attack or catch any treasure beasts?

    "Don''t overestimate yourself. How do you hope to kill it?" Unlike Andy, Aunt Su was much more verbal with her thoughts.

    Zhihao looked at the beast that stood tall��seeming to look like an impenetrable roadblock.

    Zhou XinYi, "Mastermo, I think your sword is the only thing that can attack it."

    Zhihao shook his head, "Not really. I think it''s because Shuang is a spiritual sword."

    Li Ling nodded as he swiped through his inventory and equipped his own spiritual sword; Huo.

    Huo was a sword with a much deeper crimson-colored glint. When Huo slashed forward at the giant snake, it managed to cause somewhat of a reaction as the snake, after having sensed danger, moved aside.

    Zhihao also stepped forward as he exclaimed, "Let''s attack together."

    Huo and Shuang attacked the beast together from both left and right. When the cursed snake saw that it had nowhere left to dodge, it retreated back into the forest and disappeared from sight.

    Kaoru took a few steps forward��contemplating whether to follow after it or not but was stopped by Zhihao''s voice.

    "We can''t catch it."

    "Huh?" Zhou XinYi looked at him in confusion, "What if it''s leading us into its cave?"

    "Nope." Zhihao answered confidently, "It''s definitely not leading us to the last seal. It''s doing the exact opposite."

    "What do you mean?" Kaoru asked in confusion.

    The players collectively looked at Zhihao, waiting for the man to continue his explanation but the one who spoke was Li Ling, "The caves follow a pattern."

    "What pattern?" Zhou XinYi asked cautiously.

    Zhihao replied to Li Ling, "I noticed it too."

    Li Ling, "Above the stone plates. At first, I thought it was some sort of constellations but when I looked carefully, it was a pattern."

    Zhihao, "The pattern in which these caves were placed in the region."

    Kaoru, "So like a map to help lead the players?"

    "Yeah." Zhihao nodded, "Since we have already broken all the five seals, only one remains and if we follow the map, the only seal left is located somewhere on the south side of the forest."

    "Ah! The snake is headed towards the north." Wang GuiYing exclaimed.

    "Exactly. It is trying to lead us away from the seal."

    "But... Why would it want to do that?" Zhou XinYi asked.

    "Because it doesn''t want us to break the barrier."

    Aunt Su mocked Zhihao as she responded, " Why would it not want to get it''s body back?"

    Li Ling glared at the woman, not liking the woman''s attitude at all.

    Zhihao, "We can''t be sure of the reason."

    Kaoru questioned further, "But you do have some guesses right?"

    "I do." Zhihao replied, "The beast was named ''the cursed snake''. If I remember correctly, no other treasure beast had such an ominous name with it. They were all given special powers and named something in accordance with the blessings they had. Why would this beast be solely named as such?"

    Li Ling, "I think it''s safe to presume that this beast has something to lose if it were to be reunited with its body."

    Zhihao nodded, "That''s not the only weird thing."

    Kaoru also seemed to have suddenly thought up of something as he spoke up, "This beast is rather weirder than the rest. It attacked us with the intent to kill us and unlike the other ones it was actually able to touch us."

    "Nice observation." Zhihao smiled and Kaoru suddenly felt embarrassed, "When we met RoRo, we could not touch the fox spirit nor could it touch us but this snake can openly touch us and attack us whereas unless we have spiritual equipment, it is impossible for our attacks to land on it."

    Aunt Su suddenly screamed out, "Isn''t that more reason why we should''ve followed it? Why did you let it run away?"

    "Why do you want to go after it? We clearly cannot beat the creature without a plan." Zhihao retorted with irritation.

    Andy nodded, he had been the first one to fight face-to-face with this snake. When the beast suddenly appeared out of the blue and attacked them, Aunt Su screamed in horror as she saw the huge size of it and BBtrash took a few steps back��getting ready to run away and abandon the other two players. By the time, Andy had recovered from the initial shock, he was already the one facing the beast head-on. The two pro-gamers whom he expected to have helped him��pushed him forward with the excuse of "we''ll let you take this one. Enjoy."

    Andy would have really died in the game if he had been completely abandoned like that, but it seemed that the two pro-gamers did not have the heart to leave him all alone, so after seeing him struggle with the beast for a while, they too joined in the fight and futilely attacked the beast. This was the scene where Zhihao and the group who had received BBtrash''s message arrived as their backups.

    Andy suddenly felt so elated to see all the seven members together��so much so that he wondered if he could actually convince the other two teams to permanently merge together with his team. Sadly his ambitions would remain unfulfilled as there was no way, Zhihao or Zhou XinYi would agree to merge with Aunt Su''s team.

 Chapter 34 - Mastermos Sword Shines Brightly

    "Let''s make a plan, first." Zhou XinYi stopped the two relatives from fighting, coming to the conclusion that if he didn''t��this mission could no longer be completed.

    "What do we do?" Wang GuiYing enthusiastically asked.

    Zhihao sighed as he tried to control his temper and answer, "Since it doesn''t want us to go to the last cave, that''s exactly where we should go next."

    Li Ling and Kaoru nodded in turn, agreeing to the idea.

    Zhou XinYi, "That would be best. Since we already know the location of the last seal, we should now focus on sticking together and breaking it."

    "Sounds easier said than done." Aunt Su sneered as she folded her hands and rolled her eyes.

    "If anybody has any objection, you are more than welcome to stay behind. It''s not like we are forcing you." Zhihao announced to the entire squad, but in reality, the one he was really speaking this for was his aunt, who seemed to openly show her discontent towards his decisions.

    "If you plan on abandoning us at a crucial point or are only looking forward to standing by the sidelines to watch and collect the loot, please refrain yourself from following us. I''m not polite to such people." Li Ling glared at BBtrash.

    Innocent Kaoru, who was unaware that the dialogues were aimed at two people, in particular, thought that it was said for the entire team; Maybe these players didn''t trust him enough and so he exclaimed, "I won''t back down. I''d rather die than be that shameless."

    "....."

    Aunt Su and BBtrash glared at the poor man.

    Li Ling nodded in satisfaction as he heard this, "Good."

    "If someone does decide to push a teammate and run away, I''ll personally make sure that they go through a system re-birth." When Zhihao said this with a dangerous smirk; Wang GuiYing shuddered at the sight, knowing that this man was certainly not joking around with his words.

    "Since that problem has been cleared out of the way, the ones that want to follow should follow and the ones that want to stay behind can stay." Although Zhou XinYi had said this with a straight expression��honest and making it seem like the players had a choice before them��his gestures contradicted his actions as his hand which was holding onto Wang GuiYing''s hand, made sure that the man never got to choose between the two options��plainly speaking��he was making the decision in his partner''s stead and he was open about his own discriminatory actions.

    Aunt Su was a cunning woman who had already planned to run away when adversity struck and only came to collect the loot but even if the players had seen through her plans and warned her, she would still not openly raise her hand and stand aside. If worse comes to worst she could always just run away at the last moment and deal with the consequences afterward. Why should she worry about something that hadn''t happened till now?

    Zhihao was also very well aware of his Aunt''s thinking and he knew it would not make any difference so the reason why he warned the players was because he had already made up a plan to use them and if they would not agree, he could always just throw them in front as bait. In such a situation��where any of the players decided to turn their back on the team and betray them��the guilty would not be easily dealt with, and if such a situation arises, they would surely receive their punishment.

    When the team finally started moving towards the last cave, they got lost on the way. It was only natural that they did as neither Zhihao nor Li Ling had memorized the location of the last cave, they had only seen the direction of its location and in such a big region, seeing only the vague direction was just not enough.

    Throughout the whole way, Zhou XinYi, Zhihao, and Li Ling were discussing what they should do next, while Kaoru and Andy just silently followed them and wholeheartedly listened to their plans��nodding every once in a while as they did. The other two pro-gamers, Aunt Su and Wang GuiYing were thoroughly complaining about every little thing they could nitpick on.

    Suddenly Shuang started glowing��indicating that they were near something. This something could be the cave or the snake or any other treasure beast that had run away.

    The shine was hard to ignore and the whole team noticed it in a split second.

    Li Ling was the first to react, "We are near."

    Zhou XinYi nodded in agreement, "Everyone, proceed with caution."

    Zhihao stopped in his tracks as he moved the sword around, trying to find the direction in which it shined the most��when he could finally pinpoint the location the sword pointed at, the team cautiously made their way towards it.

    Kaoru, "I think we are being followed."

    "Are you talking about the cursed snake that has been stalking us?" Zhihao smirked, "It can tag along as long as it does not attack us."

    Li Ling also agreed to this and the team did not falter in their steps as they continued on the path that the sword had pointed at.

    After walking for the next ten or more minutes, the group finally saw something; it was a hole inside the ground. A huge hole that could easily accommodate the size of the 20 meters long cursed snake. There was no mistaking it, this was the beast''s home; the last cave which they were looking for.

    Aunt Su, "Are we going inside that thing?"

    "We sure are." Zhihao confirmed.

    Wang GuiYing seemed to feel a shiver go down his spine as he glanced at the eyes of the snake that was hiding in the woods behind them, glaring at them with unhidden hostility.

    Zhou XinYi, "Let''s go inside."

    Zhihao and Li Ling moved forward and summoned their spiritual swords to protect the group of people from anything that may attack them from the inside.

    Kaoru looked inside the hole, finding it too dark and scary to enter but he would still put aside his fear and enter the cave.

    When the team stepped inside the cave, the way out behind them was shut close by a falling stone shutter that trapped them inside. The cave was less spacious than the other caves and it felt more like a gutter than a cave��Zhihao could almost imagine smelling the disgusting smell that lingered inside it.

    The walls of the cave were covered with a thick layer of dust and when Zhihao wiped the dust away, what he found was an identical pair of carvings that he had seen in the other caves or so he thought.

    Kaoru was the first to notice that something was different as he pointed at a particular carving, "This."

    Zhou XinYi looked over at the carving as it was pointed out, "That''s a snake."

    Kaoru shook his head, "The other caves didn''t have this snake."

    Zhihao tried to remember the carvings he had observed in the other caves and was suddenly shocked to find that this carving was certainly not there in the other caves.

    Andy, "What do you think this means?"

    "I don''t know." Zhihao answered honestly.

    Li Ling moved closer to the carving and started analyzing it, "I think I get it."

    Zou XinYi looked at him, "What did you get?"

    "This part was carved on the other caves as well but was covered with scratch marks, making it impossible to know what lay underneath."

    Zhihao seemed to suddenly have a higher comprehension of the carving as he spoke, "The other treasure beats did it?"

    Li Ling nodded, "If my guesses are right, the other treasure beasts unitedly hold some sort of animosity towards this one."

    Kaoru, "Could it be that this beast was the reason they were all sealed?"

    Zhihao looked at the man, "What makes you say that?"

    "A lot of reasons actually. This beast is named cursed, the others hate him, and the beast doesn''t want to gain its body back. There is certainly something wrong with all this and if we try to connect the clues, this is the only thing my mind can manage to come up with." Kaoru explained, somewhat confidently.

    "Sounds plausible." Zhihao responded, pleased with the player''s keen eye for noticing the small details, "Now we need to find out why this one is different."

    Wang GuiYing. "Why don''t we just ask the system?"

    Zhihao, "Do you seriously think the system would answer us?"

    Wang GuiYing, "System, what is the history behind the cursed snake''s name?"

    [Answering player''s question: The cursed snake owes its name to it''s karmatic deeds.]

    [Congratulations on finding a hidden clue! +50 T-points gained.]

    The screen suddenly turned black as a single notification popped up on the screen.

    [There was once a time when the beasts of this land were at the peak of their prosperity and enjoying all the glorious gifts the sun goddess had given to them. The land was so blessed that one day, the sun goddess directly sent her son down to personally go and visit. Her son was innocent and naive to the workings of the human realm, when he met up with all the beasts that happily helped him and treated him well, he was more than happy to return the trust.

    One of the beasts was not so happy with the arrival of the young god and lured it into a trap from where the beast attacked the man and devoured his body. The young god was not dead but had lost his mortal body and when the incident came to fall in the ears of the sun goddess, she was angered and cursed the whole land. The beasts started growing weaker and weaker as the spiritual energy in the land started depleting.

    There were forest fires every once in a while and when it rained; it flooded and caused landslides. The beasts came together to beg for forgiveness from the sun goddess but the goddess didn''t feel any sympathy for them. They had deserved this.

    When a month of time passed, half of the beast had already died and the land was in too bad of conditions for the remaining beasts to survive in. When the anger of the sun goddess had finally somewhat subsidised, she decided to test the sincerity of the beast; she gave them a preposition. She would save them but the cost of it would be six beasts whose bodies would forever be sealed away and souls would belong to her.

    Five beasts agreed and came forward voluntarily��with the fifth beast being the fox spirit who dragged the cursed snake along with it. The sun goddess was more than happy to see that even the cause of all this was within the number of sacrifices she asked for and so she granted them their wish. Their bodies were sealed in their caves and their soul were set free to wander around the region, contracted under the sun goddess and working for her.

    The land was both blessed and cursed by a barrier that stopped time to flow inside it, making it so that nothing ever changed. The first five treasure beasts were given special abilities and were the eyes and ears of the sun goddess whereas the sixth one, the cursed snake was stripped away from the advantages received by the treasure beasts, its soul was stripped away from the body but the soul would still feel all the same things its original body felt. The hunger would still be there but the beast would never be able to satisfy that hunger. This was the curse given to the beast and when the beast finally regains its body, the pent-up hunger would directly kill the beast , shattering its soul as well, with no reincarnation.]

    "...."

    Li Ling, "This system is more useful than it seems to be."

    Zhou XinYi also nodded, "I did not expect that to work."

    Zhihao, "We should''ve done this long ago."

    Kaoru looked at the other players in shock, "So that was reason the beast doesn''t want to regain its body?"

    Wang GuiYing, "The goddess is so cruel."

    Zhihao, "I think the sun goddess is very generous."

    Li Ling nodded, agreeing with Zhihao, "In the end, she still forgave them and left a way out for them."

 Chapter 35 - Mastermo Is Being Stalked By A Snake

    "How is that considered as forgiving them?" Kaoru asked

    "How can it not be considered as her being generous? She''s a goddess and her son is also naturally one by birth, so isn''t it considered an unforgivable sin to eat a God? But she left them a way out with only six sacrifices." Li Ling responded

    "..." Zhihao had an indecipherable expression on his face as he suddenly seemed to realize something else, "Why six? Why that number in particular?"

    Zhou XinYi also seemed to ponder over the question for a bit, "Maybe just a random number."

    Zhihao shook his head, "Can''t be."

    "Why?" Andy questioned back.

    "If she wanted to make the preposition hard for the beasts to fill, she should have chosen a much larger number and if she wanted it to be easy, she should''ve chosen a number that was too low, such as one or two, but she asked for six sacrifices." Zhihao answered logically, "When you think about it, it is also weird that the souls work for her as her eyes and ears in this land.."

    "What is weird with that?" Kaoru asked, clearly confused by the sudden turn of events, "Don''t gods normally test mortals by giving them instructions that show their devotion?"

    "Not really." Li Ling spoke up, "Now that A-Zhi has pointed it out, I also find this very weird. She''s a god, aren''t gods omnipresent? Why would she need them as her eyes and ears?"

    Wang GuiYing and Aunt Su, who were uninterested in joining the discussion, were standing by the side��tracing the carvings with their hands as they were very much dying from boredom after being forced to go through all this extra trouble. Suddenly Wang GuiYing found an area on top��different from the others, he immediately called Aunt Su and the two tinkered around with it��pushing and poking it around, somehow getting it to react back to them.

    The cave started shaking uncontrollably and the players reached out to the wall, trying to hold onto it as they desperately tried to stabilize themselves.

    "Who did that?" Zhihao glared at BBtrash, who had already given up trying to stand up and was pathetically sprawled on the floor.

    "System, what is happening?" Kaoru cried out.

    [Answering player''s question: The cave has started changing and is in the first stage of disintegration. Please hurry up before the cave enters the 4th stage. Once it enters the 4th stage, the walls would completely break down and the players would be buried along with it.]

    "Shit." Zhihao cursed, wanting to turn around and leave, but the door behind them was already closed shut by the heavy stone shutter that fell.

    "This seems a bit familiar." Li Ling spoke.

    "It is." Zhihao nodded, "Remember RoRo''s cave, the shutter fell behind us, I think it was somehow triggered by us."

    "So that cave was also starting to kill us?"

    "Hmm." Zhihao affirmed, "We didn''t ask the system for an explanation at the time and so it didn''t inform us. We saved RoRo and the shutter had been blown away by the other team."

    "That makes sense." Li Ling nodded as he finally understood a part of the mystery behind the caves.

    "What are you two on about?" Zhou XinYi asked as he tried to help Wang GuiYing stand up.

    "Nothing." Zhihao didn''t find the situation suitable enough to have a cup of tea and give a patient explanation, he would rather say everything in the end, after they had completed the level and finished their missions, "Let''s move further."

    "Are you crazy?! If we go deeper, we are only asking to get killed." Aunt Su scolded the man.

    "Follow me if you want to." Zhihao answered, not wanting to argue with the woman.

    Shockingly enough, this time, even Wang GuiYing supported Zhihao''s decision, "We should continue moving. If we blow up that shutter, we don''t know what else that may trigger."

    What he said was logical but it was not the real reason why he didn''t want to go back��the real reason was much simpler and pathetic; he just didn''t want to go back and face that huge snake ghost again. If the other players heard his real reason��they would certainly laugh at him and say it was nonsense; but it would not be totally unexpected coming from his mouth, however, In Wang GuiYing''s mind, he still held somewhat of a dignity. To say that he was afraid of a snake in a game was preposterous for him��he would never want to be portrayed like that in front of his fans��sadly enough, unknown to him, his fans had already not held any high expectations from him.

    "But we don''t know what lies ahead." Aunt Su responded

    "...."

    Suddenly the team remembered that the other five caves were unsealed by everybody except for Aunt Su, Andy, and Wang GuiYing��this shameless group of three ran away at the mere sight of a treasure beast��They were seriously hopeless or so, Zhihao thought.

    Now that he thought about it, maybe even letting them tag along as bait was pointless��useless even as a bait��he really wanted to ditch them somewhere in a ditch, from where they could not return; but he would not go that far��luckily he didn''t hate them that much to go through with such trouble. He had only disliked them from the bottom of his heart.

    Kaoru, "Let''s move fast. I think the walls have started to cave in."

    "Let''s go!"

    The team sprinted across the cave, going deeper and deeper. Zhihao was suddenly reminded of a movie he had seen as a child about a magician who moved across a cave that contained a huge snakeskin around which they traced it to the entrance of the real lair of the snake, the only difference, in this case, was that they seemed to be walking inside that snake. A cave shaped exactly like the snake that it was home to.

    "There is a..." Andy could no longer speak as he looked behind them and found the cursed snake following them closely behind, he screamed in shock, "Arggggggg..."

    "Don''t scream, it might cause..." Zhihao also glanced back and stopped speaking, changing his sentence, "Run faster!"

    By this time, the other players had also noticed that something was not right and as they all looked back and discovered the snake slithering closer and closer to them, they started screaming one by one and their feet automatically increased their speed.

    "Don''t panic, we are almost there." Li Ling reassured and Zhihao thought that the man had just said that in order to show them a ray of inspiration, so he didn''t ponder over the question of how the man knew this small detail.

    The squad ran together in unity, one trying to beat the other��almost making it look like a race for life where the last one was punished to become food for the snake, and at the moment, the one who was unluckily running in the last place, praying for his life as he ran��was Andy.

    The panic was almost useless as even if the players were devoured by that snake, the snake was incapable of killing them��this, Zhihao would know the best since he was the one with the first-hand experience. However, being swallowed by it still meant being covered in its sticky mucus and looking like its unborn child inside its stomach; thoroughly embarrassing yourself in front of everybody. Becoming a joke was not the worst punishment for coming last in the race, but just because it wasn''t the worst didn''t mean that anybody was looking forward to receiving it.

    "There is an opening!" Zhihao exclaimed out happily as he saw the blinding light coming from the end of the cave in front of them.

    When they finally reached the spot that was lit up, they jumped down and landed in the deeper cave��bigger in size with no other passages leading them anywhere else.

    This was both a good thing and a bad.

    They had reached their destination and only needed to break the seal, but along with them, arrived the cursed snake that was stuck up on killing them.

    The team moved towards the other side of the wall and stuck together as they wondered ''what to do next?''

    "The stone plate!" Zhihao reminded and Li Ling looked at the item situated in the middle of the cave room.

    Even the stone plate was different than the rest as above it was not a picture of the map but carved on it was an image of a snake being impelled with a sword.

    Zhihao could not understand what was happening and his brain wasn''t fast enough to comprehend or analyze it any deeper, when he saw the image on top of the stone plate and then looked back at the snake that attacked them, he could only think of one solution which was that the answer to this one was killing the snake��destroying its soul.

    Li Ling reacted first, "A-Zhi, use Shuang."

    Zhihao nodded, already having planned to do just that.

    Shuang sprang forward and aimed for the snake but the snake was fast enough to avoid being hit by it, the sword received its next instructions and instead of hitting the wall behind the snake, it turned midair re-aiming at the snake and attacking it from behind. The attack was once again avoided by the snake but it stilled managed to scratch it.

    As the fight went on, Zhou XinYi stepped in front of Wang GuiYing, making sure that the man would not get hurt��acting as a living shield in front of him. Aunt Su on the other hand, pulled the other two players, Andy and Kaoru, to stand in front of her and shield her, screaming as she did��at this point, it was hard to tell if the woman was actually scared or was she just putting on a good show for the fans that were watching this live stream.

    Li Ling moved around the snake and traced along the walls as he desperately tried to find something. A minute or two passed and he finally found what he looking for��A sword. A carving of a sword or at least it seemed like one, it was in reality, not just a carving but an actual sword that was buried in the wall��waiting for someone to break it out from there��this someone was Li Ling who used a small explosive to destroy the stone on top of it. When the debris was cleared off, what was left behind, was a shining silver sword that looked much alike the sword that was illustrated on top of the stone table.

    Zhihao was completely focused on attacking the snake and didn''t realize where Li Ling had gone off to or what the other player was doing, in fact, none of the other players noticed Li Ling moving away from them, the only thing that caught their attention was the sudden explosion.

    Zhihao didn''t have enough time to think about where the sword was from or how Li Ling knew about it, all he saw was that they received a sudden aid and was beyond overjoyed. He glanced back at the image carved on top of the stone plate and found the sword to be too similar to the sword that killed the beast in the image.

    "Good job, Li Ling!" Zhihao yelled out in mid-fight, acknowledging the man''s efforts.

    Li Ling smiled at him and threw the sword towards him��this shocked Zhihao who struggled to catch the sword which was suddenly thrown at him.

    "Aim for its head. Show us what a unicorn snake looks like." Li Ling instructed as he chuckled, "I don''t have enough energy to do that."

    Zhihao nodded, somehow understanding how much Li Ling should be exhausted by this point in time since they had been playing for nonstop hours��without even knowing if it was still night time or had it become morning already.

    "I got it." Zhihao reassured as he caught hold of the sword, "Let me give you a good show to watch."

 Chapter 36 - Mastermo Is Captivating

    He was serious when he suddenly claimed that he wanted to put in a good last show for both the players playing and the fans that were sacrificing their precious sleep to sit in front of their computers and phones just to watch the live stream, anticipating to see Zhihao''s amazing gameplay.

    The fight that took place next was certainly something that satisfied the eyes, hearts, and minds of anybody that watched.

    Zhihao jumped up and landed on top of the stone plate, making the snake suddenly turn his head and attack him who stood on the stone plate but just as it moved forward, Zhihao leaped up and did a flip in mid-air, he could''ve easily attacked the snake head on and ended it, but he was thoroughly enjoying himself in this fight, he had no plan of ending it that easily.

    When he said he was going to put on a good show for everyone, what he meant was not a show where he bragged about his skills by showing the difference in the power between him and the snake, he was simply planning on putting up the most beautiful online gaming fight-choreography they had ever seen.

    He leaped and turned, flipped and played around with the snake that was twisting and turning in every possible way��trying its best to attack Zhihao.

    The scene was breathtaking��this; everyone would agree to.

    The snake was fast, it would snap its head forward with a wide open mouth, and compared to it, Zhihao appeared to be moving in slow motion as he elegantly danced around in mid-air. His feet were ever so light and it was truly like he was dancing instead of attacking or being attacked by the beast. If the snake was ignored from the sight, it would truly be the most elegant and beautiful dance, Li Ling had got the chance to witness.. Zhihao was never good at dancing but he was passionate about gaming and fighting so it was truly shocking how his fighting could also be seen as a dance.

    Zhihao''s robe fluttered with the wind��ever so slightly in air and when he landed, the ends of the fabric landed softly with him.

    The snake was confused at how all of its attacks were suddenly rendered powerless and useless, this had certainly never happened in its entire soul life.

    Zhihao was feeling light hearted, knowing that they were almost there. Once this beast was defeated, they could finally complete the mission and get out of here��the mere thought made him feel happy.

    This dance seemed to go on forever but also seemed to have stopped too short. No one was satisfied when it came to a finish, as the snake suddenly got stuck and could not move further, entangled in its own tail, not knowing how or why. This was planned by Zhihao beforehand. He wasn''t jumping around because he was bored, he was trapping the beast. The snake was long and it took a bit more time to get it in this vulnerable position but once it was finally achieved, the snakes head was perfectly placed on top of the stone plate with restricted control over its own movements.

    Zhihao stood in front of the beast and raised his hand which wielded the sword.

    With a straight and ruthless stab, the snake''s head had a new item embedded in it; this new item was the sword.

    The scene looked too familiar.

    Li Ling glanced at the image on top of the stone plate and smiled in understanding. It was similar, at least, even if the positions didn''t match up, the feelings did. The aura was overwhelming.

    In the next second, the unicorned beast started bleeding from the wound on its head, the color of the blood was red but it was not a liquid. It was a red colored gas that flowed like liquid, it flowed down and fell on the stone plate.

    Something moved above on the ceiling and an opening opened up above them. From the opening visible was a clear moon that shined happily onto the stone plate.

    The stone plate rose with both the dead snake and Zhihao standing on top of it.

    Wang GuiYing pushed Zhou XinYi aside and looked at the scene, finding it difficult to keep his mouth closed��he was in awe, never having witnessed something like this before��he wasn''t alone in seeing this for the first time, Aunt Su and Andy had also never witnessed this phenomenon��so then there were four, with open mouths, jaws dropping to the floor.

    It was over.

    [Congratulations on breaking the last seal! +50 T-points gained.]

    The body and soul of the snake dispersed into thin air without leaving behind any remains. The only person who stood above the stone plate was Zhihao, bathing in the moonlight. The players who had to look up at the view could only say one word; god. It was as if the man was a god or an angel that had come down from heaven to wash them with his holy light.

    "Handsome." Li Ling muttered, loud and clear for the other players to hear but only Zhihao could not hear it and even if he did, he''d be too embarrassed and his ears would be redder than the blood of the snake he had just slayed.

    [Congratulations on breaking the barrier! +50 T-points gained.]

    Zhihao wanted to curse at the system, it was just too unfair. If you break one seal it gives you 50 T-points and if you break the whole barrier��it still only gives you the same amount. What type of indiscrimination was this?! Now that he thought deeper about it, he found out that, this was not the only time such a thing had happened. Whenever they completed a side/secret mission, they would always only get an addition of fifty T-points, no matter how easy or difficult the task was. This was both good and bad for the players; if they were to have an easy task and completing it would give them an additional fifty points only meant they were being rewarded for doing nothing at all, but if they were to do a high difficulty task in order to gain that same fifty T-points, it felt like an utter waste and a direct disrespect for the hard work that they had put in but Zhihao wasn''t completely unsatisfied with his gains in this level.

    If you added the total extra T-points he had gained in this round, it was certainly worth it and if he thought about the T-points Wang GuiYing and Zhou XinYi would have to pay to him, he was beyond happy. He was going to be rich soon. So rich that he would no longer need to play at the stage zero.

    ...

    He suddenly realized another factor... Wouldn''t this stage be closed after this third mission? It would be closed until further news is released, after all, it was still just the elimination stage. In the end, wouldn''t he still need to play in the stage zero. Zhihao suddenly frowned as he thought this. He had already got a taste of what the higher ranked levels were like, not to mention that the highest ranked level he got was still an I-ranked level. He was very much excited to find out how much harder can the other levels get but stage zero only supported up to A-ranked levels. Those low levels were still amazing but what Zhihao wanted was to aim higher, play more and more difficult levels��he was the opposite of Wang GuiYing who just wanted to return to the easier levels.

    [Congratulations on completing the secret mission! +50 T-points gained.]

    "..."

    Zhihao waited for the announcement where the mission was over but it never did come. He waited patiently but that was it, it was the last notification they heard and the cave was still quivering.

    When he suddenly heard a ding, he thought the system had only lagged a little and was ready to take them out of the level but contrary to his thoughts, what the system showed was a warning notification.

    [Warning: The cave is about to enter stage 4 of self destructing]

    "Eh? What happened?" Kaoru asked in shock.

    The team of players had become too enchanted by Zhihao''s amazing fighting performance and had completely forgotten that they had only completed the secret mission, the main mission for which they were here was yet to remain completed, they had still not caught the treasure beasts that they were after.

    This was a bummer��when they finally came to the hard-cold realization.

    Not only had they not completed their main mission but they were also trapped inside this cave that was near to collapsing on them and becoming their graves. The walls shuddered as the ground shook and debris could be seen falling from the roof.

    Li Ling was the first to react, "Everyone, get on the stone pate."

    The stone plate was already unstable and could fall in any minute now but Zhihao understood what Li Ling was planning��there was a hole on the ceiling of the cave and the stone plate was the closest thing to it so they had to climb out on their own.

    Zhihao, who was already on top of the stone plate, jumped up and caught a hold of the opening in the ceiling, clutching tightly onto the piece of stone that might break into bits at any given moment. It took him a bit of effort to climb up and what greeted him next was a sight to die for. It was the top of a mountain with a view of the entire region, he didn''t know if he was imagining it or did it really seem like the moon was smiling down lovingly at the expanse of land? This was most certainly worth everything they had endured till now��so much so that he wanted to increase the salary of whoever was the animator of this scenery.

    "A-Zhi! We have a lot of time to enjoy the scenery, pull me up first!" Came the voice of Li Ling and Zhihao snapped out off his dumbstruck state, he immediately crouched near the hole and pulled the man up.

    As Li Ling was suddenly pulled out with great strength, he couldn''t control what happened next as he somehow ended up falling on top of Zhihao��their face so close that Zhihao could not help but notice the mole under the man''s right eye; the game was certainly amazing at making in-game characters��they were all so close to the real deal, almost as if this was not a game but they were actually here with their real bodies.

    Suddenly Zhihao''s hands moved on their own accord and his hand reached out to caress the beauty spot.

    Li Ling was visibly taken back from the sudden action and the other players who cried out for help but were ignored also managed to climb up on their own and were witnesses to the sudden situation.

    "Just eat him up, will you? Tch-" Wang GuiYing spoke in a somewhat jealous tone and was thoroughly ignored by the two. Zhou XinYi who was the only one who payed attention to this comment moved forward and blocked Wang GuiYing''s eyes with his hands.

    "Just don''t look." Zhou XinYi responded and Wang GuiYing didn''t fight the man��just letting him do as he pleases; cover my eyes all you want, it''s not like I want to see.

    "A-Zhi...?" Li Ling muttered as if asking an explanation for the man''s actions.

    This woke Zhihao up from his thoughts and his hand stopped��pausing awkwardly on the man''s face.

    "S-sorry!" Zhihao held his hand back and stood up, unintentionally pushing Li Ling away but Li Ling didn''t seem to mind the sudden rudeness as he stared at Zhihao with wavering eyes.

    In his head, he questioned himself continuously, had he just imagined it? He had a sudden thought but as soon as it rose, he directly pushed it out from his head��claiming that the probability of that happening was equal to the sun rising from the west; impossible.

    He dare not have such hopeful dreams, after all, Zhihao was a simple man��only ever interested in gaming and his career, wasn''t that the sole reason why he could even get close to this man?

    To plainly put it��Li Ling was too under-confident when it came to Zhihao.

 Chapter 37 - Mastermo Was Lying

    No player mentioned it any further, they would rather want to focus on the natural view that was in front of them��the moon glowing brightly in the empty sky and the forest looking as beautiful as ever, there was even a glistening waterway somewhere down there that could be seen from this high up.

    Although they acted as the view interested them more��the thing that actually caught most of their attention was fresh gossip; what was going on between these two players? They were all players and were people who were very much involved in the news that floated around the gaming world, so it was no secret that they had caught a whiff of the dating rumor that floated around these two��at first, they could still rule it out as the wishful thinking of the fans that shipped them together��wasn''t that also the case for BBtrash and Hulk0_0, however, now that they were witnessed to such a scene that played out in front of them, it seemed that the rumors certainly had a solid ground behind them supporting the ship from not sinking. It was either that or the players were acting like this to satisfy the hungry appetite of the fans.

    Whatever the reason was��it was irrelevant. What really mattered was that they were the lucky people who directly witnessed this��a tale worth gossiping about.

    "A-Are you okay?" Zhihao stuttered out in a worried tone, fearing that he might have been too harsh while pushing the man away.

    "..." Li Ling paused as he stood up and dusted his clothes, "I''m okay! Never been better!"

    It was awkward, so awkward that Zhihao wanted the earth to swallow him up.. The ground suddenly shook... On second thoughts, maybe having the earth swallow you up was not the best idea he had come up with.

    There was an awkward silence where everybody was glancing at everything but each other and Zhou XinYi was the one who broke this layer of awkwardness, "Let''s go hunt the treasure beasts."

    Zhihao nodded enthusiastically, thinking in his mind as he did; ''this man was so sensible. May God bless him! Such a savior!

    "Let''s go!"

    Li Ling also woke up from his train of thoughts that had started going haywire. He reminded himself; it was nothing, just an inevitable moment��a really short, inevitable moment that he was unsatisfied with. He wanted to slap his mouth, why did he have to say anything? If he didn''t speak up first, it could''ve lasted longer! Zhihao wouldn''t have jumped away! Damn, it was too short!

    "W-Where are we going?" Kaoru asked as he stumbled after Zhihao who started heading in some unfixed direction.

    "We are heading down." Zhihao absentmindedly answered.

    "But..." It seemed that Kaoru had something to say but he dare not say it out loud.

    "But what?" Zhou XinYi asked as he noticed the man having a constipated face.

    "Didn''t Mastermo say that the treasure beasts were gathering somewhere and we can catch them all in one go? What about that?"

    Zhihao stooped in his tracks and looked back at the innocent man, "Did you really believe me?"

    "..."

    Kaoru blinked, "W-Were you lying?"

    "I was bullshitting." Zhihao confirmed as he closed his eyes and shook his head at the stupidity of the fellow, "How am I supposed to know that?"

    "But.. But..." Kaoru could not believe it. He had trusted this top player blindly, followed him around as if he were a god and his words were the law. For the most part of it, wasn''t the man always right with his guesses? This was an infamous fact about this man and was the reason why he was called ''Lucky Mo''.

    "But what?" Zhihao questioned, feeling amused that he was considered to be such a trustable character.

    "Didn''t you say that you would take responsibility?"

    Li Ling suddenly choked on air as he heard the vague accusation, looking at Zhihao with an unreadable expression.

    "What do you mean? Say it clearly, don''t make people misunderstand!" Zhihao coughed.

    "You said that if your guess was wrong, you''d take responsibility for our loss! We could''ve caught the beasts when we had the time." Kaoru answered with a frustrated expression as if his wife had lied to him about being home alone.

    "Now now, when did I say that? I said that if you do not catch the beasts by the end of it, I''ll be held responsible but as you can see, the game is not over and hence I''m not held responsible yet. Don''t go around twisting the meaning behind my words." Zhihao explained himself and Kaoru felt as if he was wronged��never expecting this man to do something so... Shameless!

    Li Ling also looked at Zhihao in both shock and amusement, not knowing that the man was capable of playing with his words like that. However, unlike Kaoru, who suddenly felt wronged and distressed, Li Ling only felt one feeling��it was the feeling when you''d see a person solving a Rubik''s cube in under a few minutes and going ''Woah! You''re smart! So amazing!''

    Zhihao turned around and kept walking as if trying to hide the slightly embarrassed flush that had overtaken his cheeks. In reality, he had only said so because he thought that it might be a possibility and also because he didn''t want the others to be the firsts to catch the beasts. This was a multi-team game and T.I.A.D. was already crazy; who was to say that if one of the teams caught their beasts first, the rest would not fail the level and be thrown out empty-handed? That was also a possibility!

    Hence, it was only natural for him to make up lies or at least half-baked lies as at that time he really did think that the beasts were heading somewhere in particular and he had somewhat guessed it to be related to the final cave and the breaking of the barrier��in fact, he still believed that they were all gathered up together somewhere, but it was not reasonable to make rash decisions and tell the other players about this. What if he was wrong and he really did let the treasure beasts run away? He would never be able to rise from that humiliation... This was good��the people would laugh at this and move on; nobody would lose face.

    Somehow unintentionally, Kaoru had managed to lighten up the atmosphere and divert attention from the awkward situation they had just witnessed.

    Aunt Su, who was walking at the back of the group got pulled aside by the sleeve, by her teammate named Andy.

    "What is wrong with you?" She asked, stunned at the sudden action.

    "Say, isn''t Mastermo your nephew?" Andy questioned, with a voice trying to sound as low as possible, so that only the two of them could hear, "Do you know what''s going on between those two? I can''t say anything but my senses are tingling... There is definitely something between them."

    Aunt Su looked at Andy with a rather foul expression. ''Are you freaking kidding me?'' written all over her face.

    "I don''t know. I don''t care." She answered vaguely averting the question.

    "No fair." Andy huffed like a little girl having her favorite candy not be bought for her since it was too overpriced, "I have another question."

    "If it''s about Zhihao, I don''t know and I don''t care." Aunt Su answered, trying her best to show how uninterested she was in her nephew''s topic. This could also be misunderstood as the aunt looking after her nephew''s privacy��making sure that certain things were not leaked, but it was actually just as she said; she was not trying to protect anybody''s privacy, she was just not interested��it was as simple as that.

    Kaoru didn''t care about Aunt Su''s disinterest and ignored her statement, asking the question, regardless of what the woman had to say, "Why are you his aunt?"

    "..." Aunt Su looked at the man with an odd expression, not having understood what the question was trying to say, "Because he is my nephew...?"

    "No. No." Kaoru shook his head as he continued to correct the misunderstood question, "What I mean is how is it that you are his aunt at such a young age? I don''t think the age gap between the two of you is that big."

    "The age gap is not too small either." Aunt Su answered, "But I get why you''d want to ask me that. Actually, I''m his father''s cousin, but since childhood, I have been really close to my big brother. Everybody used to mistake us as real siblings, but even if we were born to the same mother or the same grandmother, I don''t think it makes much of a difference. I''m still his aunt nonetheless."

    "Oooooh..." Kaoru couldn''t help but say as he finally understood one of the greatest mysteries he had wanted to solve since he found out about the relation between the two.

    "Why are you suddenly interested in such gossip?" Aunt Su lightly scolded him, clearly displaying her unwillingness in taking part in such type of gossips. She turned around, walking ahead as she left the man behind.

    As the team walked down the mountain, they had wished to find something interesting, maybe more beasts to kill or maybe clues or if they were really lucky, they''d want to find a treasure beast that walked up to them and gave itself up for slaughter; sadly, there were no suicidal treasure beasts in this region and hence, they met nothing. They were walking in an unknown path, covered with trees from all sides with no beasts in sight.

    At first, Zhihao guessed it to be the case because of the barrier being lifted; maybe the beasts ever finally free and decided to flee the land, however, the possibility of that happening was near to zero as the beasts were connected to this region regardless of the barrier so they should have decided to keep inhabiting this place. So why had they not come across any beasts? This answer could only be answered by two people, one was the Gamemaster and the other was the System, since it was impossible to even dream about the Gamemaster coming up to them to say anything, the latter was their only option left out in order to dig out information.

    Zhihao, "System, where are the beasts?"

    [Answering player''s question: Sorry, we cannot answer that question ):]

    Zhihao wanted to curse at the system, why was it always like this? Giving them the answer when they least expected it to and not giving the answer when they needed it the most.

    Li Ling seemed to have seen through Zhihao''s distress as he chuckled, for some reason��finding it cute. Actually, it didn''t matter what the man had done, in Li Ling''s eyes, it was all cute; the utmost limit of how cute the word cute can get.

    Li Ling, "System, when will the crying eagle eggs be hatched?"

    [Answering player''s question: The crying eagle eggs would be hatched in the next three weeks.]

    Zhou XinYi looked at Li Ling with profound meaning; still not finding himself able to get used to the man or feel anything good towards him; he was still suspicious of the man. He didn''t have a proof for this feeling of suspicion��he might be just blaming an innocent blindly but he could feel it. It was his gut feeling that could not be changed no matter what the man did, he would still find his every action questionable. To put it plainly; Zhou XinYi was not a fan of Li Ling and this... He made sure to openly express this feeling.

    "Why did you ask that?" Zhou XinYi asked, squinting his eyes.

    Li Ling ignored the man and asked his next question, "System, where is the crying eagle right now?"

    [Answering player''s question: The crying eagle is currently attending the beast conference.]

    Wang GuiYing muttered out in confusion, "What is the beast conference?"

    Zhihao''s eyes suddenly shined with excitement as he heard the introduction of a new clue for them.

 Chapter 38 - Mastermo Understood Nothing

    With sparkly eyes, filled with unhidden excitement, Zhihao asked, "System, what is the beast conference?"

    [Answering player''s question: The beast conference is a once in a life event that takes place when the savior has come. The beasts believe in a prophecy of their land and according to that prophecy, the treasure beasts would be saved by the savior who would one day descend on this land. This is a grandiose event that takes place in the heart of the land, inviting each and every beast living here to come together and rejoice together for their salvation.]

    "....."

    Zhihao was speechless, on one hand, his guesses were somehow correct and the treasure beasts were really gathering somewhere together and on the other hand, their gathering wasn''t something big or another clue but it was just them wanting to have a party together.

    Wang GuiYing also seemed to understand something, "We are the saviors of this land?"

    "....." Zhihao didn''t feel like answering the question

    "WE are. YOU are not." Li Ling scowled.

    All players had contributed somewhat equally to catching the treasure beasts, all except for the three shameless players who ran away when faced with a beautiful glowing dear.

    Andy''s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment as he thought back to his nil contribution, however, the other two players, Aunt Su and BBtrash felt no such emotion��why should they be embarrassed? They could always just say that they had been so unlucky that they had never met any treasure beasts. They could lie and get out of it unharmed and unblamed.

    "So what''s the plan, captain?" Li Ling lovingly looked at Zhihao and asked.

    Zhihao was somewhat taken back when he heard the word ''captain'' being used to address him but the feeling wasn''t too bad and on the contrary, it was quite pleasant to be addressed as such��maybe it could be even considered as one of his kinks but he would never agree to it being one��he was too proud to admit it.

    "We crash the party." Zhihao answered with a mischievous smirk.

    "And where is the party?" Kaoru asked enthusiastically, getting into the role of party crashers.

    "..."

    Zhihao, "Good question."

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this; finding the man so cute that he wanted to eat him up.

    Zhou XinYi thought about the solution and spoke up after a solid two minutes, "Why don''t we ask the system?"

    Zhihao thought that the suggestion was stupid, why would the system help them? But then again, it wasn''t as if they''d lose anything by asking so they just went along with the flow.

    "System, where is the beast conference taking place?"

    [Answering player''s question: The beast conference is taking place in the heart of the land.]

    "Where the hell is the heart?" Aunt Su cursed out in annoyance.

    Zhihao, "Maybe the center?"

    "Worth a try." Li Ling nodded, agreeing to the suggestion.

    "We can''t rule out that possibility, but how do we know the center of this region?" Zhou XinYi asked.

    "We look at the map." Li Ling smiled as he answered the question.

    "And where is the map?" Wang GuiYing was the first to sneer with a foul face.

    "You guys didn''t know?" Li Ling asked as he looked back at Wang GuiYing as if he was the dimmest person to ever walk on this planet, "It''s in the hidden options bar."

    "The what now?" Aunt Su asked as she looked through her settings, but failed to find such a thing.

    Zhihao had known about this secret hidden feature, but he too��had forgotten about its existence or how to access it.

    "You click on the top left button, then click on the last option that says more. From there you choose the second card displayed and it shows you an analyze button. Click on the button and wait." Li Ling instructed and the players carefully listened to his instructions as they tried to find the hidden feature.

    Not more than a minute passed and Zhihao was the first to quickly finish getting the landscape blueprint, he looked at the odd topography and suddenly found something unusual about the place.

    "Wait..." Kaoru also found the hidden map feature and saw the contents��visibly stunned as he did.

    Wang GuiYing, "What the hell?! Is that a...?"

    "Human." Aunt Su completed the sentence that he wasn''t planning on completing

    The region mapped out was shaped like a man; with two hands, two legs, a torso, a chest, a face, and everything there was to it. What really came as a shock was the pose of the man. Looking at the map, it somewhat looked like the man was sitting cross-legged in a Buddha position.

    "What''s going on?" Kaoru asked out in worry.

    Zhihao felt as if he was on the verge of dying from all the excitement. Just when he thought that he had uncovered everything there was to it, he was suddenly slapped in the face with new earth-shattering clues��it was just what he had wanted; the game he had always looked for. At this moment, Zhihao could confidently say that even if he won or not at the end of the game, he would never abandon this game. Having felt a connection to the game��it almost made him feel like this game was meant for him��he was the targeted audience.

    Zhou XinYi, "I guess we now know where the heart is."

    "We do." Li Ling bobbed his head up and down, "If we want to go to the center of the region, we''ll end up here, in the stomach of the Buddha, but since the clue said to go to the heart, I''d say we need to take the clue too literally."

    Zhihao nodded in agreement to Li Ling''s sharp mind, "We head here but..."

    "But?"

    "Where are we currently?"

    "...."

    Zhihao suddenly found this hidden useful feature to be flawed. What was the use of having a map if you didn''t know where you were? In his mind, Zhihao made a mental note to go and suggest the game developers to update the feature and make it so that the players actually know where they are.

    "We are here." Li Ling pointed at the head of the Buddha.

    "Why do you say that?" Kaoru asked curiously.

    "Because we just descended from a mountain and the only mountain here is in its temple."

    Now that Zhihao looked at it closely, he could also see this difference in the topography of the map; Plain areas were colored light green, mountains colored a darker shade of green, and the rivers��there being only two were the eyes of the Buddha, looking almost as if the Buddha was crying��they were colored blue and the land without any plants or trees were lesser in size and colored in light brown.

    Wang GuiYing was a directionless man so he asked, "So where are we going exactly?"

    Zhihao mentally rolled his eyes to the back of his head, making sure that his head was alright and wasn''t affected by the man, "We head there" Zhihao said as he pointed to the south-east direction ahead of them.

    The team once again continued marching on their journey to catch some treasure beasts with no intention of cooking them for dinner but all intentions on becoming a party pooper. It would most certainly be a sight to see with their savior becoming the one to crush their celebration and abduct the beasts that had been released and whose freedom was being celebrated. As Zhihao thought about this, he found the idea both pitiful and funny somehow��suddenly finding himself obsessed with the idea of becoming the bad guy; it was thrilling.

    The path they took was rocky��filled with uneven ground and trees that made it hard to see the direction they were headed towards. Thankfully the way was not difficult to trudge through as there were no beasts that were interested in obstructing their paths.

    They happily walked for the next ten to twenty minutes finding it almost calming how peaceful the environment was��if this wasn''t a game, they would have even considered taking small breaks as they walked through the thick forest.

    As they kept on walking, Zhihao couldn''t help but sometimes peak at the moon above them that could be seen through the gaps between the leaves, he didn''t know if it was just his imagination or not, but it almost looked like, as they kept on walking, the moon was smiling more brightly at them��almost pleased with their decision. This was... Creepy!

    Zhihao didn''t want to look up anymore, but his mind would still make him glance at the moon��he could sense the smile growing wider; it was creepy and this uneasiness was the only thing he could feel at the moment. Could this be a trap?

    They finally reached their destination and what they saw was far away from what they had expected to see. When they heard party, they thought it would be filled with lights, music, dancing and just a jolly atmosphere over the whole thing but they certainly didn''t expect to see all the beasts standing together in a circle around something which could not be clearly seen. As the moonlight fell on them, their bodies started shining and slowly dispersed in the air. They were disappearing one by one��looking as if they were ascending to heaven. Even the most vicious of vicious beasts were in the same state; looking up at the moon with a docile expression��accepting what was to come with a happy smile.

    "Where are the treasure beasts?" Wang GuiYing asked the most important question that affected them

    "In the middle." Li Ling answered the question patiently, his eyes glued to the center of the circular chain of beasts.

    In the middle of it was a stone plate��mimicking that of the one''s in the caves, but bigger�� much much much bigger!

    Standing on top of this tone plate were the Five treasure beasts, forming a circle of their own��holding hands and praying.

    "What type of ritual is this?" Aunt Su exclaimed in shock not understanding what was happening.

    It was all too sudden. Just when the players thought they were done with the surprises, damn... Here it was, something that was so shocking that they could not even comprehend it fast enough.

    Zhihao suddenly had the most bone-shrilling idea of what was happening, "It can''t be."

    "What is it, Mastermo?" Kaoru asked innocently.

    "No." Zhihao dare not rashly state his ideas out loud, it was just not worth it.

    Kaoru had suddenly realized that he was not fooled. In the end, Mastermo hadn''t lied to him and hadn''t tricked him. He was not bullshitting! These beasts were actually assembling somewhere.

    Zhu XinYi also frowned as he saw the scene of the beasts disappearing one by one.

    "They are dying." Li Ling was the first to say it out loud.

    Zhihao suddenly found that all his ideas were shattered to the ground. He thought he knew almost everything but he came to the shocking realization that in reality��he understood nothing.

    The sun goddess wasn''t generous at all!

    Zhihao, "The treasure beasts are sacrificing the others."

    "Huh?" Andy and Kaoru asked at the same time, not having their mental state be fast enough to comprehend what was going on.

    "They tricked them." Li Ling commented.

    Zhihao, "They lied to them and tricked them."

    "What are you talking about?" Wang GuiYing asked with a twisted expression.

    "We are seeing a cold-blooded ritual." Zhihao spoke, not wanting to say anything more��finding it hard to explain the situation.

    One of the beasts noticed the arrival of the players and looked at them. When it saw them, it broke away from the circle and came up to them, this beast was familiar with them and they had met it before��it was none other than their friendly beast who liked music and dancing; the crying eagle.

    The crying eagle who was always looking after and guarding her eggs was now here, attending this sacrificial conference from where it would never return. The beast walked up to Zhihao and happily chirped.

 Chapter 39 - Mastermo Needs A Short Break

    "What the hell is going on? What sacrifice? What trickery are you guys talking about? Why don''t I understand anything?" Wang GuiYing questioned with a frustrated expression, scratching his head as he did.

    "Let''s have the system explain." Zhihao responded, not wanting to say out loud what he had understood, not only because it was unpleasant to speak but also because he still hoped that he was wrong, "System, what is the beast conference?"

    [Answering player''s question: The beast conference is a once in a life event that takes place when the savior has come. The beasts believe in a prophecy of their land and according to that prophecy, the treasure beasts would be saved by the savior who would one day descend on this land. This is a grandiose event that takes place in the heart of the land, inviting each and every beast living here to come together and rejoice together for their salvation.]

    It was the same answer��not a single word changed yet the message made Zhihao frown even more.

    "System, what is the significance of the beast conference according to a treasure beast''s perspective." Zhihao asked once again, rephrasing the question in hopes of getting a different answer.

    [Answering player''s question: The beast conference is a sacrificial ritual that all treasure beasts must participate in.]

    "...."

    Kaoru could not move, paralyzed on the spot as he heard the system''s answer.

    Aunt Su also had a twisted expression on her face as she asked, "Why?"

    "I don''t think you''ll want to know." Li Ling commented with an indecipherable expression on his face.

    Zhihao had originally wanted to ask a few more questions, but he was stopped by an eager old friend who came up to him and nudged him��rubbing against him lovingly��it was the crying eagle who had made a spirit pact with Zhihao.

    When Aunt Su saw the huge creature come up to them, she screamed as she thought it had wanted to attack them but when she saw that the beast was only interested is getting attention from Zhihao, she stopped screaming and looked at the scene with disgust filled eyes, "What the hell is that thing?"

    Li Ling shot her a glare as he responded, "Cricro."

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling in confusion, wondering what a Cricro meant. Wasn''t this the crying eagle?

    Li Ling noticed Zhihao looking at him and winked, sticking out his tongue, "I named it without your permission.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but suddenly smile as he heard this��thinking in his mind as he did, ''this man really loved to give weird beast''s cute names.'' And somehow, Zhihao found this habit to be extremely cute.

    "Cricro sounds good." Zhihao nodded, receiving weird gazes from the other players who looked at him as if he had a screw loose in his head.

    "A-Zhi" Li Ling walked towards him as he spoke, "What is Cricro saying?"

    "Huh?" Zhihao glanced between the beast and Li Ling, "What do you mean by say?"

    "You can communicate with the beast since you are both in a blood contract." Li Ling answered, "Click on the beast and you''ll find an option bar, enable the communication button in that and you should be able to understand its language."

    Zhihao did as he was instructed and indeed found the option that said communicate, flipping it on and he could now see a voice box pop up��this box was only visible to him and only he could read the things written on it. Zhihao stared at Li Ling with an odd expression, dying to ask the question ''How do you know this?''

    He really wanted to ask but knowing Li Ling, the man would just brush it off and never answer honestly so there was no actual point in asking the question.

    Zhou XinYi, "What is it saying?"

    Zhihao glanced at the text box and carefully read it, "It''s saying that it..."

    "It what?" Wang GuiYing asked enthusiastically.

    "What does it want?" Kaoru also asked with great interest.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but close his eyes as he said the answer through gritted teeth, his ears suddenly turning bright red, "It said it wants us to dance and sing."

    "...."

    "...."

    ''Such a thing exists?'' Aunt Su who had been well aware of Zhihao''s incapability in artistic things such as dancing and singing looked at the eagle in shock, thinking it was amazing if it wanted to hear Zhihao singing and dancing. Such courage and will was worth complementing.

    Li Ling suddenly reminisced about the time he had heard Zhihao singing, thinking in his mind, ''it wasn''t that bad'' but that didn''t mean he was looking forward to hearing it again.

    Zhou XinYi was not so shy at expressing his dislike for the idea, shivering at even the thought of having to hear it again, it was torture to the ears and he didn''t want to go deaf at such a young age.

    Kaoru, and Andy who hadn''t gotten such rotten luck had no idea why everybody''s face suddenly turned white.

    "Li Ling." Zhihao called out, still not having the strength to open his eyes.

    "Hmm?"

    "Are you sure I can''t kill this beast?"

    "..."

    Li Ling nodded, "I''m sure."

    "Even if it makes me want to kill it?" Zhihao couldn''t help but clutch his fist as he read what the eagle was saying to him

    "Don''t let your emotions get the best of you but if you end up killing it, in any case, I won''t blame you."

    The other players glanced between the two players with an odd expression, not understanding why there was so much chemistry between them, so much that it made the others feel like the third wheelers��unwanted and ignored.

    "Understood." Although Zhihao had expressed his thoughts on killing the eagle, his hand only moved forward to pet the head of the eagle with no killing intent.

    "Ask it why it''s here." Li Ling spoke.

    Zhihao nodded and although on the outside it seemed like he was just patting the beast, he was actually communicating with it, through the beast chat box that was only visible to Zhihao.

    A moment of anticipation passed as the players looked at Zhihao with eyes that were twinkling as they waited for the man to come back and tell them about what the eagle had to say. When compared to the rest of the players who were so enthusiastically waiting for the mysterious answer, Li Ling was much more laid back and unworried.

    Zhihao seemed to have finished interacting with the beast as he looked at Li Ling and spoke, "It said that it was here for blessings."

    "They really are being tricked." Li Ling sneered in displeasure.

    Wang GuiYing could not be blamed for not being able to keep up with the high thinking ability of the players as he scratched his head and asked his next stupid question, "What do you mean by tricked? How are they being tricked?"

    Zhihao could now somewhat guess what was happening so he only frowned as he responded to the question, "The treasure beasts are tricking the other beasts into gathering here in the beast conference by telling them they were going to be blessed but as you can see...."

    Zhihao didn''t complete his sentence and this time even Li Ling didn''t dare complete the sentence for the man, but even if the sentence remained unfinished, all the players suddenly understood the situation they were in.

    The beasts were being killed as sacrifices and they thought they were being blessed, hence, they happily stood in the circle, waiting for the goddess to bless them which is actually by killing them, body and soul��shattering both into uncollectable pieces. The main question that remained at this moment was why? Why was this ceremony taking place? Just how much hatred did the goddess have towards them, so much that she took these extreme measures of showing them hope just so she could crush that hope and kill them without them ever realising their mistake.

    It was so cruel that Zhihao could feel the goosebumbs rise up on his skin, from his fingers, all the way up his arm and then down his spine.

    "Why would the treasure beasts do this?" Kaoru asked, his tone making it clear that he was both shocked and distressed.

    Zhou XinYi was one of the only two players who maintained a straight expression, not letting the sudden information affect him, "No matter what the reason is, we should first stop it."

    Zhihao nodded in agreement, feeling that the more they waited in shock, the more beasts that would be sacrificed.

    "What''s the plan?" Li Ling asked but before he got an answer, a sword with a cold element named Shuang came to life and aimed at the middle of the circle��exactly where the treasure beasts were gathered.

    RoRo was the first to look up and see a sword aimed at it but it didn''t move, nor did the little fox blink an eye. Why would it when before the sword could even touch them, it was deflected just by coming in range just a few feet away from the treasure beasts.

    Zhihao was shocked to see his sword fail like this and so were the other players who knew the sword as a rare spiritual sword that could penetrate through almost everything. To deflect a sword like that? The power that defended them did not belong to the treasure beasts, and this was a fact no one could fight against. The treasure beasts were powerful but not this much so could it be their collective power? The theory was still impossible because Shuang was just that type of sword, a high grade limited edition item. So what was the source of the power that defended the inner circle formed by the treasure beasts?

    There was only one thing that could provide an answer to the question.

    "System, who defended the treasure beasts from my attack?"

    [Answering player''s question: The treasure beasts are the eyes and ears of the sun goddess so it is only natural for them to also attain certain benefits from the goddess and these benefits include being protected by the sun goddess.]

    Zhihao felt his head ache. His in-game character suddenly went to sleep as Zhihao took a small break to calm his mind and drink some water so that he could refresh his mind.

    Aunt Su saw the ''zzz'' above Zhihao''s head and emmediately cried out, "Who was it that said ''A player can''t abandon the others?'' Running away when a small miscalculation popped up? This brat hadn''t changed at all."

    Li Ling had an ugly expression as he looked at the woman with clear dislike written all over his face, "If you are so good, why are you tagging behind him?"

    Aunt Su suddenly took offence to the disrespectful words aimed towards her, "Did I say anything wrong? I''m not the one who ran away, it''s him."

    Wang GuiYing felt like the two players were very close to causing an internal triffle among the squad, in which case, no player would be able to solve the mission and in this squad, Wang GuiYing and Zhou XinYi were the only one''s who really needed to complete this mission so that they could qualify for the next stage. For the other players, even if they failed this mission, they still had previously won the other two and it would qualify them for the next stage no matter what the outcome of this one was.

    "Let''s not get all worked up, we are supposed to work together. Calm down, Aunt Su."

    Although Wang GuiYing had stepped between the two, in hopes of ending the fight, his contribution in trying to stop the fight was just that��a try, a helpless try that was ignored by both the players who glared at each other.

    "Kid, why are you being his lap dog? What is he paying you?" Aunt Su asked hatefully to which Li Ling only got more anger.

    "Who''s a dog?!" Li Ling was seconds close to summoning his sword as he retaliated, he had always hated verbally fighting with woman and that was why whenever he and his sister fought with each other, they would always use their fists instead of their words cause words once said can never be taken back.

    "Are you not? Always tagging behind him with a wagging tail and protecting him no matter what he did?!"

    "You''re right, I''m biased to him, do you have a problem with that?" Li Ling tried to calm down, reminding himself in his mind constantly as he did, ''Do not get worked up over such a small thing.''

    At this moment, both the players didn''t realise it but the ''zzz'' on top of Zhihao''s character had already disappeared since a short while ago.

 Chapter 40 - Mastermo Knows Whats Up

    "Aunt Su? If there is something you want to say to me, make it clear."

    "..."

    "..."

    Both the players who were ready to rip out each other''s throats looked at Zhihao, their eyes almost screaming "I''m innocent."

    "Shall I take your silence as your answer?" Zhihao squinted at the woman with unhidden dislike visible in his eyes, "And I would request you not to disrespect Li Ling any further. He''s not my dog nor am I paying him, if I ever hear anyone saying that again, I won''t be so forgiving."

    Now that Zhihao had finally calmed down and his mind was refreshed from the short water break, his aura was back, the calm and collected scary aura that sent shivers down the spines of the players.

    When Aunt Su felt the demeaning presence of her scary little nephew, she could not say anything, finding it best to keep her mouth shut for the meantime.

    Li Ling on the other side suddenly felt his heart stop when he saw Zhihao standing up for him so openly like this��so protectively that it made his heart almost stop.

    Wang GuiYing chuckled awkwardly, "Darling, you should also calm down. We are all a team, just a bit of joking here and there, no need to get all alpha mode."

    Wang GuiYing, like expected, only got glared at by Zhihao in return.

    Zhou XinYi was not as useless in putting water over the situation, "Mastermo, private matters can be discussed later, let us focus on the mission in front of us."

    Kaoru also supported Zhou XinYi, "Mastermo, do you have a plan?"

    Zhihao looked at the player and smiled softly, "I don''t."

    Kaoru looked at the smile and suddenly found it out of context, why was the man smiling like this if he didn''t have an idea?

    "But" Zhihao wasn''t done speaking, "I have an idea. Not a plan that would succeed but an idea that we can try."

    "What is it?" Andy asked enthusiastically.

    "We break up the outer circle of the beasts."

    "How do we do that?" Zhou XinYi asked, feeling that the idea could very well work.

    "We ask Cricro to do it for us." Zhihao answered as he patted the crying eagle who had suddenly become a chirpy bird under Zhihao''s hands.

    "How?" It was Aunt Su who asked and like expected, she got no direct response from Zhihao.

    Li Ling who had always seemed to be able to telepathically communicate with Zhihao nodded as he spoke, "We''ll step aside."

    "Make sure you hide somewhere far enough and cover your ears." Zhihao instructed and Zhou XinYi understood what the man was planning.

    Zhou XinYi, "What about you?"

    Zhihao mounted on the eagle''s back as if it were his transport, "I''ll be fine. Cricro can''t hurt me."

    Zhou XinYi nodded in understanding, cringing on the inside as he heard the beast''s name being called so lovingly as if it were Mastermo''s real-life pet.

    Li Ling led the rest of the players afar, so far that they could hardly see what was happening in the beast conference. The players equipped a double layer of protective gear with helmets so that they can cover their ears and skin well.

    When Zhihao was sure that the players had moved far away to somewhere safe, he gave his pet eagle a set of instructions and this had been the first time, the crying eagle had received any commands to obey by its master so it was more than happy to follow along with it.

    The eagle spread its majestic set of wings and with a swing, it flew up from the ground and encircled the sky above the beast conference. From here, Zhihao could have a clearer view of things and after encircling it five times, the eagle opened its mouth and screamed, aiming all the screaming towards the beast conference below.

    As expected, even the cries of the beast didn''t reach the inner circle of treasure beasts that was protected by an invisible spiritual power layer, however, the outer circle of beasts who were being sacrificed was in an entirely different situation.

    It didn''t take long for the beasts to notice the earth-shattering cries, this cry could strip the skin off of the bones of humans but to the other spiritual beasts, it was not so severely fatal. That however did not mean that it had no effect on them, it still caused their ears to feel immense pain and their skin to tingle all over.

    Zhihao who was sitting on the back of the beast was safe from the cries because he was in a spiritual pact with the beast, through which, it was impossible for the beast to actually manage to hurt Zhihao.

    Zhihao looked at the crowd below, who were suddenly not able to take any more and started breaking the circle, fleeting away from the scene. It seemed like his idea was working but just as he was happily looking down at the beast conference being completely ruined, his eyes glanced at the inner circle from where, RoRo was looking at him.

    Zhihao glared back at the beast and the two shared a rather negative connection.

    When the eye contact was broken, Zhihao suddenly felt the cries of the beast getting weak. He looked at Cricro with worry and tried to pat it and communicate with it but the eagle slowly descended on the ground and stopped crying.

    Zhihao jumped off from its back and asked it what was wrong but the eagle only shook its head as it opened one of its wings and Zhihao saw it starting to disperse into the air.

    Cricro had already started being affected by the sacrificial power that was slowly killing it.

    "What did you do?!" Zhihao roared at RoRo who only looked back at him with a blank gaze.

    Zhihao was furious, although he had originally wanted to kill the crying beast himself, he talked to it a bit and found it to be a useful subordinate and Zhihao wasn''t heartless to his subordinates. He ordered the eagle to run far away from the place, hoping that the distance may stop the process.

    The outer circle had already been broken by the cries of the eagle so there was no need for it to stay here and elevate the process of dying.

    Cricro was reluctant to leave its master, after many failed attempts of trying to act cute, Zhihao had finally ordered it to go away so it could not fight against the order.

    Zhihao stood there. He had, for the first time in his life, ran out of ideas. His aim was clear, he only needed to break through the invisible protective barrier on the inner circle of the treasure beasts and catch them but how to accomplish that? He did not know. How can you fight something you can''t see and don''t know the origin of?

    All he could do was stand there and let his brain try and do its job.

    Another few minutes passed and his teammates had returned.

    "What do we do know?" Wang GuiYing asked as he looked at the scene of fleeting beasts and an untouched inner circle of the treasure beasts. If they did nothing��Wang GuiYing would very well have to forget about his reputation as a pro-gamer and dreams of winning that one million dollars cash prize.

    Li Ling patted Zhihao on the back, somehow understanding that the man had been mentally and physically exhausted at this point and was probably feeling helpless, "It''s okay. Take a deep breath. We can figure it out."

    Zhihao looked back at the man, suddenly feeling his heart to be at ease as he saw that reassuring smile.

    "Thank you." Zhihao meant it from the bottom of his heart. He was extremely lucky to have met such a person who understood him without even having to say anything, "I feel better now."

    Li Ling suddenly felt proud of himself for having done something useful for Zhihao.

    Zhou XinYi, "We are waiting for your decision, Mastermo."

    Huang Zhihao took a deep breath in and calmed himself done, telling himself that ''this is not enough to break me down''

    The spell seemed to work on him as he opened his eyes with determination, "Let''s recall every clue we found."

    Li Ling nodded, "When we got here we were tasked to solve a riddle and through which-"

    Li Ling was cut off by Wang GuiYing, "Let''s not go that back, it seems we don''t have much time."

    "Huh?" the players looked at the man in shock

    Wang GuiYing pointed at the circle and the scene had changed, the beasts who had dispersed due to the crying eagle''s cries had started regrouping, still not understanding that this was all a trap.

    Zhihao, "There is only one person who would do all this, let''s focus on the sun goddess."

    Zhou XinYi agreed to Zhihao''s suggestion, "What do we know about the sun goddess till now?"

    Li Ling, "The land was burnt and the sun goddess blessed it with spiritual powers. Prosperity in the land and then her son got eaten. She cursed it and said that the curse can be broken by the saviors who''ll arrive, which is us. And it was all a lie."

    Zhihao listened to it as he thought back on how each and every clue was presented to him, "The question is, why would the sun goddess go through all this trouble?"

    Zhou XinYi, "Right"

    It was as if a light bulb had flashed on in Zhihao''s mind, "I have a theory."

    Kaoru, "What is it?"

    "But I need to check something first." Zhihao responded, "System, Are the sun goddess and the moon goddess related to each other, and what is their relationship with each other."

    [Answering player''s question: The sun goddess and the moon goddess are related by birth, they are sisters.]

    [Congratulations on unlocking a hidden side story! +50 T-points gained]

    [The sun goddess was born a year before the moon goddess and the moon goddess had always followed behind her when the two were still mortals. The sun goddess ascended first and the moon goddesses ascension was a little later. The moon goddess had always looked up to her big sister and had loved following her footsteps but the Sun goddess only hated her in return. Hating the fact that no matter what she achieved she could never differentiate herself from her sister as if what she had achieved was easy and everyone can achieve it. When they both ascended, the sun goddess had originally thought that she would have more powers than her sister but to her surprise, both of the sisters received an equal amount of power even though the sun goddess was the first to ascend.]

    "Is this supposed to be some sort of clue?" Aunt Su sneered

    Zhihao, "It is actually a really big part of the key to completing the mission."

    "How so?" Andy asked

    "Do you guys remember the terms behind the curse she placed on the treasure beasts?" Zhihao asked, not expecting them to reply as he continued, "The seal can be only broken through the blessing of the moon goddess but why would it be so? At first, I thought they were one and the same person but them being sisters and enemies makes more sense now."

    Wang GuiYing shook his head in confusion, "I don''t think I''m getting you."

    "With the clue given, we know that the sun goddess hates her sister but the hate doesn''t go both ways. If the sun goddess had treated her poorly, the moon goddess would never keep looking up to her so the sun goddess could only play petty tricks to show her dislike towards her sister in a manner her sister would never realize the hate she has been receiving."

    Zhou XinYi listened attentively till this point, and suddenly felt like cutting in to ask a question, "But she made it so that only the moon goddess was able to break the seal and the curse, isn''t that a good thing? If I were to give someone the power to destroy a seal I created, I would definitely not choose my enemy to do the honors."

    Zhihao''s eyes sparkled, "But as we can see, the breaking of the seal is the real curse and that curse is indirectly on the hands of the moon goddess."

    Li Ling, "She made her sister take the blame."

 Chapter 41 - Mastermo Wants To Blow It Up

    There was more to the story than that what meets the eye, and this was greatly exemplified by the next few lines spoken by Zhihao, "To understand the situation better, let''s go back to the beginning. There was a fire in the region and the sun goddess blessed the land with spiritual powers but why would a god who was unsatisfied with how much power she had, spare it for some poor creatures who were dying. Even if they were dead, it wouldn''t affect her at all. So why would she go out of her way to save them?"

    Kaoru was quick to react, "Because she was touched by the prayers of the animals?"

    "That''s what the system wants us to believe but such a woman who is even jealous of her sister would never have such a benevolent heart." Zhihao shook his head, "From the clues, we can somewhat guess that the power that gods possess is limited and this power is used to help the people who worship them. Helping someone meant depleting your own powers and the sun goddess really doesn''t strike me as the type to do this so what if by blessing this land she was actually having another goal?"

    "What sort of goal?" Andy suddenly felt as if he was in a detective movie, figuring out who killed who but with a disadvantage of the murder weapon missing.

    Zhihao was more than happy to spell it out now that he was somewhat sure his theory was correct, "A gamble, actually no, to be more specific, she was multiplying her power by harvesting."

    "Huh?"

    The players could not understand the thinking process of Mastermo, at least, everyone except for Li Ling.

    Li Ling, "I get it. The sun goddess gave her spiritual powers to the land and let it grow stronger on its own."

    Zhihao nodded, "As time passes, the spiritual power of plants, trees, and beasts increase. This is a natural process of nature. A human would need to cultivate for years to achieve a breakthrough but plants and beasts don''t need that long, it is a natural process for them, the more they grow, the more their spiritual powers increase."

    Zhou XinYi also seemed to understand what Zhihao had to say, "So you are saying that the sun goddess planted her spiritual powers here in the hopes of increasing it? But that would defeat the purpose, would it not? Even if her power grows here, it has still been gifted and doesn''t belong to her anymore."

    Zhihao, "That''s where the beast conference comes in. Remember the Sun goddess'' son who came here to bless the land?"

    Kaoru, "Yeah"

    "System, what was the mission behind the sun goddess'' son descending to this mortal realm?" Zhihao found it much more interesting when it was him yet also not him who explained the situation. It was a great feeling when you could have a robot backing you up with factual data

    [Answering player''s question: The young god had descended on this land to collect the spiritual power.]

    Wang GuiYing was stunned, "Wait, wasn''t it to bless the land?"

    Zhihao suddenly felt like this man was too naive��though he didn''t seem like it.

    "To bless the land with his presence and to harvest the land for his mother." Zhihao responded, "The only beast that saw through him was the cursed snake, and what else was different about the cursed snake? We needed to kill it in order to break the last seal, this could be the vengeance of her son''s death but it could also be a safety measure to ensure that the beast doesn''t alarm the other''s of the truth."

    Aunt Su could feel her head suddenly spinning wildly from all the excess information she had received today, "How did you come up with all this?"

    "I like solving puzzles and Cricro also told me something about the cursed snake wanting to warn everybody but the beasts just brushed it off as the snake trying to trick them."

    Wang GuiYing, "Wait, doesn''t that contradict with what you said? If the beasts didn''t believe the cursed snake, why would it need to be killed, so that it does not inform the rest about the trap?"

    Zhihao, "The cursed snake was not believed by the other beasts under normal conditions but in the beast conference, it was an altogether different story. Although it is cursed and different from the rest, it is still labeled as a treasure beast so it could enter that inner circle and stop the sacrificial ceremony from happening."

    Li Ling sighed, "And we killed the one thing that could have helped us."

    "Wait" Aunt Su cried out, "I still don''t understand how this beast conference has anything to do with the rest of the information."

    Zhihao was patient with his explanation, "When we plant rice, we wait for it to grow and after it has riped comes the harvesting time, when this time came around, her son descended on the land to harvest but failed. The curse that she put on the land in anger of her son''s death? It was actually her making sure that the rice doesn''t rot away and hence the time was paused so that the spiritual energy doesn''t grow any further."

    Kaoru, "But isn''t that a good thing? The more she waits, the more the powers would grow and the more she can harvest."

    "Except, she won''t be able to harvest that much, there must be some sort of restriction to her collecting back the power. A god suddenly got immensely powerful overnight? I don''t think that would go unnoticed by the other gods." Li Ling answered the question.

    Andy, "So right now....?"

    Zhihao, "The sun goddess is harvesting back the powers that originally belonged to her."

    Kaoru, "What about the treasure beasts? Aren''t they the most spiritually powerful? Shouldn''t they be the first ones to go?"

    "Should have been but in this situation, you should also consider the fact that the treasure beasts are well aware of the sun goddess''s plans. They know it and are playing along with it, an accomplice or more like servants. They had already sacrificed themselves to the sun goddess so there is no way they could run away or disobey her orders. Another thing to note is that they are in the middle of the circle and are being protected by the sun goddess." Zhihao frowned.

    Li Ling, "You know what is the importance of a center? It is where the central circuit lies where all the power flows through."

    Kaoru was suddenly enlightened, "What did you base that on?"

    "..." Li Ling looked at the man mischievously, "Nowhere. I''m just saying. Isn''t the center of an array the most important part?"

    Zhihao wanted to laugh, "That''s actually correct. The reason why the treasure beasts weren''t the first ones to be absorbed is because they are the key to the harvesting process. They are the collectors and only through them can the sun goddess gain back the powers."

    Andy, "Why?"

    "System, why can''t the sun goddess harvest the powers directly?"

    [Answering player''s question: The sun goddess can only harvest back pure untainted power. The power is first filtered by the treasure beasts and later collected by her.]

    When the players heard the electronic reply of the system, many of their doubts had been cleared and it was also proven that Zhihao''s guess had been spot on. The question hit two stones with one arrow.

    Zhihao, "I kinda guessed that too, the power once given to the mortal realm has the disadvantage of becoming mixed with impurities and would be harmful to the sun goddess but the treasure beasts are in a contract with her and hence they can act as a vessel that purifies the power and sends it back to the goddess. Something like how a windmill converts wind energy to electricity."

    Kaoru was suddenly in awe of the man''s intelligence, gawking at him. This man wasn''t called the top player for no reason at all, if anything, he actually deserved the title, in fact, so far, as much as Kaoru had seen, this man was the only one who was deserving of that title. The rest of the players were surely amazing, even Mastermo''s partner was immensely talented and intelligent but Kaoru was now completely biased towards Zhihao��this was the birth of a new fanboy.

    Zhou XinYi, "So we know the whole story but we still don''t know anything about how to stop all this."

    "Not necessarily." Zhihao shook his head, "We can''t enter the circle but that doesn''t mean the treasure beasts can''t come out."

    "So you want them to walk out with their own will?" Wang GuiYing questioned.

    "That''s the only way. Once they come out, the connection is broken and the ceremony stops."

    Li Ling nodded to this but his mind had some doubts of his own, "How do we get them to come out? Haven''t we already established the fact that they can''t betray the sun goddess?"

    Zhihao smirked mischievously, "We make it interested in us. How many explosives do you have?"

    Blowing up things had been a hidden hobby of Mastermo and wherever he could use this trick, he would never miss the chance to. Li Ling had also come to notice this by now and he smiled as he heard the man giving such a simple headed answer. For the amount of intelligent guesses Zhihao could make, the solution of blowing things up was always his most brainless solution to almost anything and everything.

    "I have 32" Li Ling answered.

    Zhou XinYi, "79"

    BBtrash, "86"

    Andy, "34"

    Kaoru, "46"

    Aunt Su, "78"

    Zhihao nodded as he heard the numbers, "I have 12"

    The number of explosives he had was the lowest and Zhihao somewhat felt embarrassed about it, being the one who loved blowing things up the most and yet he had forgotten to buy more of the explosives but then again, he had been running low on T-points so the lack of explosives could very well be blamed onto poverty.

    "Let''s throw everything we have onto the stone plate, if the explosion is big enough, we might succeed in breaking the thing and would surely catch the attention of the treasure beasts." Zhihao spoke, "And when they come out, we attack. Catch the treasure beast and complete the mission, it''s that simple."

    Kaoru felt like voicing out his opinion on how he thought it wasn''t really as simple as Mastermo made it sound but on second thoughts, he decided not to drag the moral down for the group.

    Andy, "I agree to the plan."

    Zhou XinYi, "Me too"

    Li Ling, "I would always agree with everything A-Zhi says."

    Zhihao didn''t know if it was just his misconception but Li Ling seemed to be in a happy mood ever since they had survived the cursed snake''s cave.

    With the players agreeing to the idea of blowing things up, a total of 367 explosives were carelessly thrown on the stone plate. The explosives, although large in number, could still not guarantee a clean victory since many of the explosives were rather small and could only cause small explosions.

    If this plan didn''t work, Zhihao had a plan B tucked under his sleeve but he would never want to use that plan B.

    If the beasts were killed before their powers could be harvested, the powers would die along with the beast. If worst came to worst, Zhihao could always go on a killing spree and murder the beasts left and right, this would for sure catch the attention of the treasure beasts but Zhihao was reluctant in not only using this method, but he was also reluctant on saying it out loud. Hadn''t they originally also wanted to save the beasts? How could they go on a killing spree to kill the beasts they were trying to save? It was preposterous and only a desperate player who was only interested in winning the game with any dirty means would dare do such a thing.

    Wang GuiYing, "Honey, sometimes I feel like you are cheating."

    "..."

    "You are always getting your wild guesses correct, makes me think you are cheating."

    Zhihao clenched his fist, not liking the fact that he was suddenly proclaimed a cheater. For a pro-gamer, being called a cheater was equal to being called a criminal��a humiliation that could cost them their whole career.

 Chapter 42 - Mastermo Should Not Be Called A Cheater

    Zhou XinYi noticed the unpleasant expression on Mastermo''s face and smacked Wang GuiYing''s head, scolding him as he did, "Stop being disrespectful."

    Wang GuiYing rubbed his head, although it didn''t actually hurt, "What the hell? I''m just playing around, don''t take me seriously. Even I don''t take myself seriously."

    Zhou XinYi couldn''t help but shake his head in return, thinking in his mind how he was always supposed to save such a troublesome ass.

    Li Ling glared at Wang GuiYing, not wanting to let the man just get away with it that easily. After all, this was a live stream and there were millions of fans watching and camouflaged with those millions of fans were a lot of haters, who were just here to watch over whatever they do in hopes of finding a scandalous bone like this on which they could chew on. A single careless sentence from Wang GuiYing would have the ability to cause a storm, after all, in the end, nobody liked cheaters. They were despised, the lowest of the low.

    "BBtrash, with the amount of help you have provided us, I also question how you got into the pro-gamers list, but you don''t see me asking, do you?" Li Ling spoke offensively with a frown.

    Zhou XinYi stepped in between the two before a fight could even start to bud, "He''s insensitive.. I''ll apologize on his behalf."

    Li Ling was nowhere near done insulting BBtrash but when Zhou XinYi came forward with such a submissive manner, if Li Ling still dared to criticize the two, it would only seem like he was bulling the two. If it was Zhihao who bullied BBtrash, it would''ve been understandable and the fans would just laugh it off as a joke between friends but Li Ling was different. He was still considered an outsider in the fandom and not many fans had accepted him and the ones that did, only did it because he was Zhihao''s partner and received the man''s trust. For Li Ling to seriously offend BBtrash was equal to a newbie pointing fingers at his seniors and BBtrash''s fans would eat him alive for it.

    Li Ling only humphed and turned away, altogether avoiding further problems.

    Zhihao, "Trash, somethings must not be said as even a joke. I can tolerate this one mistake but make sure you don''t let your tongue slip again"

    Wang GuiYing looked into the man''s eyes and he could clearly see the seriousness behind them, the man was not joking around in the least. He was warning him, making it clear that he will not tolerate such jokes. Wang GuiYing had always loved to tease Zhihao by calling him names and the reactions the man gave him were always amusing to him but right now, Wang GuiYing had really done it, even he, didn''t like the serious reaction he got. When he looked into Zhihao''s eyes he could see clear hate written all over it and Wang GuiYing had never wanted to be hated by the man.

    Wang GuiYing liked Zhihao��not in a way that involved romantic feelings but in a way that he wanted to become friends with Zhihao. But sadly enough, he had never succeeded, but although he had never become Zhihao''s friend��when the fans commented about BBtrash being the closest player to Zhihao, it really brought a smile to his face. He liked it. This was also the reason why Wang GuiYing didn''t like Li Ling. Wang GuiYing had been trying for years to become friends with the top player but Li Ling had become his best friend in a matter of days, some could even say that Wang GuiYing was jealous.

    Wang GuiYing suddenly laughed, "I''m just joking with you, darling. If you don''t like it, I won''t dare say it again. Promise!"

    Zhihao only spared a glance at Wang GuiYing, he had no other choice but to forgive the man, this was because he was used to Wang GuiYing''s loose mouth.

    Zhihao, "Let us retreat and blow it up."

    The players receded into the forest, keeping enough distance from them and the stone plate so that when the explosives finally blew up, it would not be able to hurt them.

    Zhihao equipped his gun and took an aim at one of the bombs. The bullet left the barrel and hit a bullseye. The explosives blew up together one by one as if they were a dominos. The reaction was big��big enough to catch the attention of the treasure beasts, just as Zhihao had planned. The explosion was large and reached towards the sky, it was no surprise that the stone plate was shaken by it and even cracked from certain areas that took most of the damage.

    Zhihao called back his pet, Cricro who had recovered, and climbed on its back as he flew close to the stone plate and hovered right above it. RoRo glared at the crying eagle and the player riding on its back. Zhihao had succeeded in catching its attention and like expected, even such a big explosion was not enough to break the barrier that protected the inner circle of the treasure beasts.

    Li Ling who was riding his spiritual sword, Huo followed Zhihao and hovered over the scene by his side.

    Li Ling, "Do you think it will come out?"

    Zhihao, "Of course it will"

    Not a minute passed and all the treasure beasts looked up in unison, the players had only wanted one or two of them to step out but the treasure beasts decided to step out together like a united force that was ready to crush the players. The power each of the treasure beast emitted was beyond compare, even more powerful than when they were in their soul bodies.

    Li Ling, "So... They stepped out."

    Zhihao, "Hmm..."

    Li Ling, "What do we do now?"

    Zhihao, "We catch them."

    Li Ling, "How?"

    "..." Zhihao hadn''t thought about that far ahead. He had originally planned on fighting the treasure beasts when they stepped out but in the case that was in front of them, their mission had been to catch the beasts not fight them so how was he supposed to catch them?

    "Let''s go down first."

    Cricro cried out loudly at the treasure beasts as if it were warning them and dived down with Zhihao on its back and Li Ling following closely behind.

    When the crying eagle landed on the floor, Zhihao didn''t get off the back of the creature, he just sat there and glared at the treasure beasts who stood in a line in front of them staring back at them with unhidden hostility.

    Zhou XinYi, "Do you have a plan, Mastermo?"

    "I have a half baked plan. We attack. That''s it. That''s the half-baked plan."

    "..."

    The players didn''t know how to respond to such an elaborate plan.

    Li Ling, "Let''s attack it. It''s the only thing we can do. But remember not to kill it."

    Zhihao, "If you kill it, we are never completing the mission."

    Wang GuiYing nodded, "Understood."

    There were five treasure beasts and seven players, the odds were certainly on their side if one was to only pay attention to the numbers but in reality, if the power between the two opposing parties was considered, the treasure beasts had the upper hand.

    The treasure beast who attacked Zhihao was RoRo and the previous cuteness of the little fox had long before disappeared, all that was left was pure killing intent. BBtrash attacked the illusion owl that was rather small considering the size it had tricked them into thinking it was, at the beginning of the level. BBtrash wanted to get even with the beast and Zhou XinYi joined him since he would never want Wang GuiYing to fight alone.

    Kaoru was also fast in taking action as he fixed his eyes on the immortal turtle he had previously saved with the help of Mastermo. Andy attacked the deer along with Li Ling by his side and Aunt Su was the only player left out from the party and there was still one treasure beast left.

    The fifth treasure beast, who was saved by Li Ling and Zhou XinYi, a white lion.

    The white lion approached Aunt Su who screamed as a response but her screams had not affected the lion at all and on the contrary, it seemed that it had provoked it even more. The white lion roared out loud. Aunt Su couldn''t help but shiver as she heard the roar overtake her screaming, she stopped, deciding that it was best if she shut her mouth. There were some situations in which one should really refrain from screaming.

    Aunt Su equipped her axe and got into her battle-ready position, which was basically just her holding the axe up like a bat in a baseball game. This action didn''t affect the approaching white lion in the least. The Lion sprang forth with an open mouth and attacked her but her axe had also swung down with all the force she could muster up and she was saved. Aunt Su took a few steps back and the lion followed after her like a predator teasing its prey.

    This was going to be a bloody fight and the blood would not only belong to the treasure beasts.

    The illusion owl had only one power and that was to create illusions and so it did but Wang GuiYing and Zhou XinYi had already known the truth behind the illusion so they could not be fooled for the second time hence when they were faced with that hairy big creature that looked much like a yeti, they didn''t fall back, they attacked it with their weapons and the illusion dissolved. With its only power being rendered useless, the illusion owls were the first to lose the fight and be captured. And as it was captured by BBtrash and Hulk0_0, their mission was completed, and the two players were thrown out from the level as a number of notifications popped up on their screen, informing them of their wins in this level. Wang GuiYing looked at the rich number of T-points displayed on their screen. Zhou XinYi glanced at the happy face of his partner who was having a party with just seeing the T-points they had won, unaware of the fact that all these T-points would soon be stolen away by Zhihao and Li Ling.

    Li Ling who was fighting alongside Andy to defeat the deer also seemed to have it easy as the deer was rather weak compared to the other treasure beasts with almost no special powers. All the deer knew was to run away and that was exactly what it did when it was attacked by the two players and now the two had to follow it into the forest, far away from the main fight area.

    Kaoru who was fighting against the immortal turtle showed some amazing fighting skills as it attacked the beast but the outer cover of the turtle was almost impenetrable hence all of his attacks were rendered useless but this did not destroy his motivation or determination. Kaoru kept on attacking the turtle, changing his strategy into only aiming for its head, to be more specific, trying to attack its neck as it was the only area that seemed to be the turtles Achilles heel��unprotected and vulnerable to attacks but the turtle was not named immortal for no reason at all, it was already used to being attacked at its weak points, hence, when Kaoru''s sword attacked its neck, the turtle retreated back into its shell and the attack was never successful.

    Zhihao was in a much more comfortable position than the rest of the players but also at one of the most difficult positions. His opponent was RoRo, a small fox that seemed to be easy to deal with but in reality, the fox was filled with tricks and traps. It multiplied from one to two and then to another four, it kept on multiplying until the fox encircled around Zhihao and trapped him.

    If any other player were to be placed in the same place, they would''ve surely lost their composure and the fight would have ended up in their defeat, but Mastermo was different. Even when all his attacks never connected and whenever his sword attacked the fox, it had only attacked smoke that dispersed into the air once touched.

    The multiple number of foxes started moving around Zhihao in a circle almost as if they were playing around with him and Zhihao was far from happy at this.

 Chapter 43 - Mastermo Is Not Winning The Fight

    Shuang sprang forth and attacked the foxes one by one, but with each attack, the foxes that were pierced through, dispersed into smoke, however, this did not mean the number of foxes decreased cause no matter how fast he killed the foxes, they still kept on multiplying at a speed much higher than his attacking speed.

    Zhihao was getting nowhere with this and the only thing that kept him from being at a disadvantage was the fact that RoRo had no plans on attacking him yet or at least it didn''t look like it had any such intentions.

    RoRo and his illusions circled Zhihao without showing any signs of attacking him, this scene was much alike the first time they had met the small treasure beast, the only difference this time was in the eyes of the treasure beast who, when they met for the first time, looked at them with curious innocent eyes but now faced with the beast again, Zhihao could see the killing intent in those eyes.

    RoRo was glaring at Zhihao and when Zhihao looked into those thousands of glaring eyes, he was shocked that the beast hadn''t attacked him yet.

    On Li Ling''s side, the fight was going rather well as Andy caught the deer with a rope and Li Ling killed it with his sword. Andy suddenly looked at the sight of the dead deer lying in front of him and then back at Li Ling, he couldn''t help but have his mouth hang open with an expression that could only be summed up as utter confusion.

    "Didn''t Mastermo tell us not to kill the treasure beasts?" Andy asked.

    Li Ling, "This one is okay to kill."

    The three individual teams had three missions, three beasts to catch��the illusion owl which was already caught and the other two being RoRo, who was fighting against Zhihao and The immortal turtle who was fighting against Kaoru, hence these three were the only beasts who were cautioned not to kill but the rest? They can be killed if the player wants to.

    When Li Ling looked at Andy, he could sense the sympathy the player felt for the treasure beast that was lying dead on the floor, "It''s just a game. Not real life."

    Andy looked away, "I know, but still..."

    Li Ling found it funny that a player could have sympathy for such in-game characters that were made to be killed. Most of the players, when faced with a beast they were not tasked to protect, would end up killing it on a whim. That was like the basics of gaming, according to noobs and even some pro-gamers believed that��to kill anything that doesn''t look human, in fact, it wasn''t even about being human or not because most players who played street races would purposely go hitting the pedestrians inside the game because they found it to be fun.

    "You should stop thinking like that." It was an advice Li Ling had shared from personal experience.

    If a player needed to get anywhere in a game, to be more exact, anywhere in T.I.A.D. they would first need to let go of stupid feelings such as sympathy and empathy for the in-game characters.

    Andy nodded as if he understood and would keep it in mind, but Li Ling knew that the player had not really understood what Li Ling wanted to say and this further interested Li Ling. He wanted to know what this player was capable of. It could almost be considered as Li Ling rooting for such a player��if this man could reach the final level of T.I.A.D. with this behavior, Li Ling would be proud of him since Li Ling understood him.

    Li Ling had also been one of those people who considered in-game characters from T.I.A.D. as real-life characters, feeling emotions for them, but in the same sense, he was also different from such players cause he could put his emotions aside and still kill the in-game characters even if he felt pity for them.

    "Let''s go back." Li Ling spoke and retraced their steps back to the main area where the fight had started, only now did he realize that they had come too far out into the forest and the way back was way longer than expected.

    When they finally reached the fighting area, things were not looking good. On three directions were three players fighting the last three remaining beasts and it didn''t seem like the players were winning, but they weren''t losing either, they were just fighting. It almost looked like the three treasure beasts were playing with the players, a scene, neither Andy nor Li Ling expected to see.

    For Andy it came as a huge shock when he saw Mastermo struggling with the fox because, in his mind, Mastermo was already considered to be someone at the top of the list, someone who was supposed to clear every level with ease��he had always felt like this man was at a position unreachable, so high that he could not even afford to dream about reaching that high.

    Li Ling reacted first, "You go help Kaze17 and I''ll help Mastermo."

    Andy nodded in agreement and headed towards Kaoru who was fighting against the huge immortal turtle.

    Aunt Su, who had noticed the two players coming, screamed when she saw them, thinking that they''d take pity on her and see that she was the one in the most unfortunate situation, but when she saw the two players go to the other players in order to help them, her expression turned ugly.

    "What the hell?! Am I invisible to you?!" Aunt Su roared out but she was ignored.

    Li Ling had seen her and heard her, but he just didn''t like the woman so there was no way he''ll want to help her. Andy had also noticed her struggling but when he saw the beast she was fighting, he decided not to help her because it was useless. They only needed to catch the immortal turtle and the mission would be completed and they would be thrown out of the level. That was the only thing they needed to focus on and Aunt Su was fighting a rather useless fight with a treasure beast that she could just kill.

    Sadly, Aunt Su was unaware that she was fighting a useless fight. Her brain just hadn''t thought of the possibility where she could simply kill the beast. In her mind, she only recalled the words, "If you kill it, we are never completing the mission."

    This made it harder, it was easier to kill a beast than to fight it while also trying to keep it alive. This was what Aunt Su was struggling with the most. How was she supposed to attack the beast without killing it?

    The rest of the players didn''t have enough time to inform Aunt Su that she can kill the white lion, they didn''t have the time because they had more pressing matters in need of their attention.

    Li Ling joined Zhihao in hopes of helping him, but when he looked around, his eyes went wide as he realized the exact situation Zhihao was in. It wasn''t that RoRo was being kind enough not to attack, but the small treasure beast was actually planning its attack. It was encircling them and multiplying in numbers not because the beast wanted to trick them or play around with them but because it was preparing its attack.

    "A-Zhi, look out." Li Ling warned out and at that moment RoRo had finished preparing its attack.

    Zhihao was quick to react and in an instant, he activated the moon goddess spellbook which sucked in it, the two players who were almost killed.

    All the replications of the fox burst into smoke, but it wasn''t normal smoke. When Zhihao looked down at the grass and the trees around, a shiver ran down his spine as he realized he was seconds away from being melted. If it weren''t for Li Ling''s warning, he was as good as a dead man. Blindly believing the beast won''t attack, just how stupid was he? Zhihao really wanted to slap himself.

    The smoke was toxic and whatever it touched melted away, leaving behind nothing but a black residue, however, it wasn''t the end of it, the black residue started emitting even more smoke and this time the smoke was darker in color and when the two smoke mixed together, it caused a series of explosion.

    Zhihao thanked Li Ling in his heart, if it hadn''t been for him, Zhihao was as good as a melted man who had exploded into nothingness.

    When the smoke had cleared, the two players were released from the moon goddess spellbook, and once out in the open again, Zhihao glared at the fox named RoRo, this time there was only one fox left and the rest had all become smoke.

    "I should''ve never trusted a fox." Zhihao cursed, not only to the fox but also to himself.

    RoRo was nothing more than a bunch of computer codes so it was only natural that it didn''t know what Zhihao was talking about.

    Kaoru, even with the help of Andy, did not have it any easier. The turtle would recede into its shell before the attack could hit it. The two players were so busy attacking the turtle together that they had forgotten to communicate with each other and come up with a plan. If they had come up with a plan together, it would''ve been much easier, but the two were too into gaming that they had forgotten all about creating plans.

    The turtle didn''t attack back, but it still tried to step over them, stomp them to death, however, the players weren''t that easily killed, it could only be considered as a mere inconvenience for the players.

    Kaoru, "We can''t beat it like this."

    "I guessed." Andy responded with a frown, "Why is this beast so hard to kill?"

    "Let''s take a step back." Kaoru stopped attacking the beast and did as he said, taking a step back from the fight, "Mastermo, do you think you can help us out here?"

    It was selfish of Kaoru to make such a request and he was deeply ashamed of it, but he didn''t have any other plan, he had no idea what he was supposed to do next and Mastermo who had become his new idol was just a few meters away from him, so of course he''ll try his luck and ask the man to help him.

    Mastermo heard Kaoru but didn''t bother to respond, there was no way he could help them in the current situation. He was already fighting against RoRo and this treasure beast, although small in size was a rather handful.

    "Why are you like this? Can''t you fight on your own?" Andy sounded angry at Kaoru, he was not amused by the way Kaoru had just stepped back and called out for help like this.

    If Andy had known that Kaoru was fighting with this damned turtle for far longer than he expected, he would''ve come to understand the player. Andy had only recently joined the fight and was unaware of how long Kaoru had been previously struggling for.

    Kaoru was embarrassed, he wouldn''t have called for help like this, calling for help was his last option but he was just... Too tired from fruitlessly attacking the beast.

    Li Ling also heard Kaoru and looked over, feeling pity for the two players who were fighting against the immortal turtle.

    Li Ling, "Andy, use the rope."

    Andy was shocked to suddenly receive commands so he looked over at the player in confusion, "What?"

    Li Ling, "The rope. Use it to create a trap and catch it."

    "How the hell am I supposed to do that?!" Andy was rather new to the gaming world so it was only natural that he didn''t know what exactly he had to do at this moment.

    "The trees." Although Li Ling''s answer was short, it was to the point and Kaoru understood it in an instant.

    His eyes twinkled with the idea.

 Chapter 44 - Mastermo Sends His Lover Away

    Kaoru seemed to have got an amazing idea which was rather kind of stolen from Li Ling or perhaps given by the man willingly.

    "The trees." Kaoru pointed out and Andy looked at them with no idea on what to do with the information. Thankfully, Kaoru had realized the lack of strategic brain cells in this man so he continued, "The trees. Tie your rope to the trees and create a trap. Cat''s Cradle."

    Andy suddenly gained knowledge and did just as the man had instructed him to. Kaoru kept fighting the beast and made sure that it was busy enough not to notice Andy''s movements.

    As expected, the immortal turtle completely focused on defending against Kaoru''s attacks and trying to attack the player in turn. In the meantime, Andy took this chance to go around the turtle and wrapped the strings around the trees. The string that Andy had used was no ordinary string, it was thin and strong, a high-grade tool that he had somehow got his hands on. It could slice anything and bind anything, super durable and strong..

    The string was not the perfect weapon and many people would look at it and just decide that it was useless based on appearance alone. Only those who owned this item would know the value and the right uses of it. Earlier, this was also the item that had helped them catch the deer. If one asked Andy why he loved this string, he would say ''because it was like a sword that could not be seen.''

    When Kaoru glanced at Andy''s masterpiece he could not help but give an approving nod, feeling that this man was certainly talented in making cat''s cradle traps. It was certainly not an easy task to do especially on such a large scale where the string was so long that it needed trees as support.

    Andy had played cat''s cradle a lot as a child and could now be considered somewhat of a professional at the game and hence, he had a hundred percent confidence in himself and knew that this trap would not fail.

    When the trap was finally completed and Andy was done with the preparations, he returned to Kaoru''s side with a string in hand.

    Kaoru looked back at him and asked, "What do I need to do?"

    Andy, "Get it to go over there and make it jump a bit so that its neck is stretched out."

    Kaoru looked at the giant beast and commented, "Sounds easier said than done."

    Andy nodded, even he had no idea how they''d get the beast to do such a thing.

    At this moment, like an angel in disguise, Li Ling came over to help the fellow players out.

    "That looks good enough."

    Kaoru was shocked to see the man suddenly appear by their side since the man would hardly ever leave Mastermo''s side but here he was, leaving Zhihao behind to help out some random players he had met today.

    In reality, unbeknownst to Kaoru and Andy, Li Ling had not actually come over with the intent of saving these two all too willingly, he was forced to, by none other than Mastermo himself who only glanced at Li Ling and said, "I have a plan but I need them out of the way. Go and help them."

    Li Ling would never disobey or question something Zhihao had said so with an expression that said, "I understand." He left Zhihao behind and headed over to this set of players who had been struggling with the immortal turtle for a while now.

    Andy, "I need it to go over there and stick its head out."

    Li Ling nodded and suddenly took out Huo

    Kaoru looked at the spiritual sword and his eyebrows scrunched together forming creases, "What are you going to do?"

    Li Ling smirked at the question, "I''m going to teach you how to train a turtle."

    "..."

    Neither Kaoru nor Andy commented on what Li Ling had said. This man was Mastermo''s partner so it was only natural that he had some skills of his own and a few tricks rolled up his sleeves. They didn''t want to question the man''s capabilities, they just wanted to observe it and see for themselves.

    (Disclaimer: This is not how you train a turtle.)

    Huo moved forward and made a few slicing motions at the turtle but it had no intentions of hurting the turtle, it brushed past its skin and caused a few scratches on its shell, seeing which, the turtle was shocked that something had actually managed to scratch its protective shell like this.

    The immortal turtle, after having been scratched for more than a minute, had finally concluded that this sword was its sworn enemy and it had to either destroy it or run away from it.

    As it stood, the immortal turtle had no special powers of its own, or even if it did, it had not shown it yet so there was no way this turtle could destroy Huo��stepping on the sword was just not enough to destroy it.

    So the turtle looked for the next best option and decided to run away. It took a few steps back but the sword had started to surround it with attacks, sometimes attacking from the front and other times it would attack from the sides and even poke it from the back.

    The turtle stepped back, stepped forward, and even tried to step aside, but no matter where it stepped, the sword would follow and attack it from that direction.

    The turtle was cornered into a spot and this just happened to be the spot Andy had pointed to.

    Kaoru had a mouth that was ready to spit out praises as he was amazed by the man''s strategy which was extremely hard to execute. The amount of commands and the speed at which you''ll have to give them, just to have this scene happen was beyond a normal player''s capacity or level.

    Andy was also shocked to see such gameplay but his reaction was not as visible as Kaoru''s but it was still noticeable as he nodded in satisfaction, expecting nothing less from the partner of the top player, Mastermo.

    Andy, "Now we need it to stretch its neck upwards or make it jump."

    The sword started to circle around the beast and stopped it from going anywhere. Seeing that the sword didn''t attack the beast anymore and only circled around it, the beast also stopped moving and stayed on the spot, it was confused but it was a mere computer code and couldn''t comprehend the situation. This was the biggest weakness of an NPC (Non-playable character). There was only so much coding can do. At the end of the day, no coding could replicate the working of the brain.

    Li Ling didn''t make any further movements as he appeared to be thinking about what he was supposed to do next.

    Kaoru, "I have an idea."

    Li Ling looked at the man, "What is it?"

    "But I''m not sure it would work."

    "Any idea is a great idea. Unless we put it in motion, you''ll never know if it works or not."

    Kaoru nodded as he heard the man, feeling a bit more confident in himself, "Every time it tried to attack us, it jumps up and tries to stomp on us. Maybe we can use that for our benefit and one of us can go as bait and make it jump."

    Li Ling patiently listened to the idea and felt like it was actually a good strategy, "Definitely worth a try."

    Andy looked at the two players, "So who''s the bait?"

    Li Ling glanced at the two and the two glanced at him.

    Kaoru, "Devilmagiclover is amazing, I want to see more of your skills."

    Li Ling, "Flattery will get you nowhere."

    Andy moved closer to Kaoru and stared at Li Ling, "Majority wins."

    "..."

    Li Ling was left speechless by the two shameless players and glanced at Zhihao, his eyes pleading for help and glinting betrayal however Zhihao was too busy fighting against RoRo hence, he didn''t notice Li Ling''s stare.

    Li Ling had just come over to help the players because of Zhihao and instead of being grateful, these two brats were actually cunning and shameless enough to ask him to be a bait for them. This was unacceptable but for Zhihao''s sake, Li Ling had to accept it.

    He sighed in defeat and looked at the players with an expression that screamed ''I am being wronged here.''

    Kaoru patted him on the back, "It''s okay. I believe in you. We''ll have your back."

    Li Ling wanted to curse at the two players but he was just too tired to so he walked over towards the turtle and summoned back his sword.

    When Huo had returned back to his hand, the turtle looked down at him and it''s sworn enemy, the sword that could scratch its impenetrable shell. Now that the sword had reunited with its owner, the two became one in the eyes of the turtle, and the hate it had summoned up for the sword was directed towards Li Ling.

    Li Ling wasn''t scared to be facing the turtle from this close nor was he worried about it. He was tired and didn''t want to be in this position, but it didn''t bother him too much. He glared up at the turtle and pointed the tip of the blade on the treasure beast.

    The beast got angry at this action. Now that its enemy had gained a flesh form, it could easily crush it under its feet.

    The immortal turtle huffed out a breath and leaped up higher than it had previously done when it was attacking Kaoru��this could well define the amount of pent up hate, it had contained for the sword.

    Li Ling didn''t move nor flinched when he was being attacked since he already knew the outcome of this. It was going to be a success and the only way this plan would fail was if the cat''s cradle was wrong somewhere and didn''t close in to trap the beast.

    Li Ling had not clearly analyzed the trap he created, he had only looked it over and felt like everything was in place. If by any chance, the string was caught up somewhere and the trap failed, Li Ling was as good as a dead man��a dead man who would be deeply missed or at least he hoped he would be.

    When the beast jumped up in the air, Andy closed his eyes and pulled the string as hard as he could, he trusted his abilities but he was only trained in playing cat''s cradle with his fingers. When he created this trap, he had tried his best to replicate something that would work, however, it was yet to be tested so there was no way he could be a hundred percent sure that this was going to be a success. All he could do was close his eyes and pray for it to work.

    Kaoru kept his eyes open and saw the whole scene unfold in front of him. The turtle that had jumped up, outstretching its neck was suddenly trapped in midair as strings from all four sides closed in and wrapped around its neck.

    The string was thin enough to cut open the turtle''s neck but Andy had turned off this ability of the string hence, it didn''t amputate the turtle''s head from the rest of its body.

    The turtle struggled for a good few minutes and finally, seeing that it had no way out, it quickly admitted defeat.

    By this time around, Aunt Su who was fighting against the white Lion had given up and was sitting on the floor waiting for the Lion to devour her. It wasn''t like this was the real world so it wouldn''t hurt anyway, why should she continue fighting this useless fight?

    The white Lion saw the player sitting in front of it with a defeated expression, waiting for the lion to kill her and the treasure beast was in no manner kind hence there was no way it would just pass this golden opportunity.

    It leaped towards aunt Su with an open mouth that was ready to gulp her down in a single bite however, just when it reached near enough to the player, the only thing the lion had met with was an axe.

 Chapter 45 - Mastermo Overthinks It

    Aunt Su had a satisfied smirk on her face as she looked at the surprised expression of the white Lion that was struck with an axe and its mouth was almost split in two.

    The lion retreated back a few steps and whimpered in pain, looking somewhat cute like a cat with a thorn embedded in its paws. If it had been Li Ling or Andy, they would have felt pity for the beast and would have left it alone without attacking it any further but Aunt Su was different. She saw the beast crying out in pain and her smirk only grew wider into a grin as she raised up her axe and got ready to slice its neck.

    After having struggled with fighting against the beast for a good twenty minutes, Aunt Su''s brain had finally started working and she found out that she had been tricked by Zhihao and Li Ling.

    The two had initially warned the other players not to kill any treasure beasts because these beasts were their missions and they were supposed to catch them. Aunt Su listened to them and believed them without crosschecking the situation.

    The system had told them to catch the treasure beast but it had never told them if the treasure beast should be alive or not. Zhihao was in too much stress at this moment so he had not seen it this way and even if he did, he would not act on it since killing the beast was something that can''t be undone, and if he had killed the treasure beast on a whim, saying the system hadn''t specified the state of the beast��what if he was wrong and he failed the mission? He would just not take that risk.

    Aunt Su on the other hand was a woman whose brain would never worry about the consequences of her actions hence when she finally found a loophole, she acted on it and decided to kill the treasure beast in front of her..

    She was excited to see the beast''s head fall down from its body but when the axe struck down with all its might, it passed through the lion''s neck without leaving a scratch.

    Aunt Su was shocked to see this as she had never guessed this outcome. The white lion was now in its physical body so why would the axe pass through it?

    She wanted to curse the system, thinking that it was a glitch or something but before she could scream out her frustration, the reason was presented in front of her in the form of a system notification that popped up on the screen.

    The time Aunt Su attacked the beast and the time Kaoru and Andy had captured the beast coincided with each other and the team of three''s mission was completed. The system immediately reacted and got ready to throw them out of the level.

    For ten seconds after the mission was completed, the player''s screen would be filled with notifications of their achievements and in that ten seconds the players would not be transported out of the level but they would be in a state where the things inside the level can''t catch them and they can''t touch the things inside the level. This ten-second was like living as a ghost in the level, they would only be able to look at things and not interfere in them further.

    Andy and Kaoru were thrown out of the level with pop-up notifications that made them (T-point) rich and happy. Aunt Su also received the same notifications but her face was not happy as she was annoyed that when she had finally got the big cat cornered and ready to take her revenge, she was suddenly thrown out. She felt like it was unfair to her and she still wanted to teach that white lion a lesson.

    God knew how she had managed to survive that twenty minutes alone with that damned lion which only looked beautiful.

    Back inside the level, Zhihao and Li Ling were the last players left and it was exactly what Zhihao had asked for.

    Li Ling stood by Zhihao''s side as he asked, "What''s the plan?"

    Zhihao glanced back at Li Ling and chuckled, "Sorry, I lied."

    "Huh?" Li Ling didn''t understand it.

    "I just wanted you to go help them." Zhihao responded, "They were distracting me and that woman was really annoying."

    Li Ling was dumbfounded and didn''t know how to react. He had originally thought that Mastermo had come up with a badass plan that was so big in scale that it would hurt the other players, this was the reason why he had risked his life as bait and helped those players pass this level but to think that this man had actually tricked him?

    Li Ling was oddly amused and proud of him.

    Li Ling didn''t know how to tell Zhihao that the man had indirectly, once again, saved Aunt Su''s ass and helped her level up while he was still here struggling. Maybe it was a family thing��hating your relatives but also helping them��it had to be something like that, this was Li Ling''s conclusion on the situation.

    "Do you have any ideas worth suggesting?" Zhihao asked in all seriousness.

    "I don''t know."

    "hmm"

    It wasn''t that Li Ling didn''t have an idea, he did have a solid plan but this was being live-streamed and he didn''t want to take away Zhihao''s spotlight by raising suspicion on himself. He''d rather stay low and follow Zhihao, supporting him from the shadows. If there really was a plan that he wanted to be done, he''d put it in Zhihao''s mind and make the man think that he was the one who came up with it.

    Li Ling was like a puppet master but he would never want Zhihao to be his puppet so he would not be the one pulling the strings from behind. He would sometimes wonder what it would be like having Zhihao follow his every command but whenever he thought about it, he would slap himself on the face and put a full stop to his improper thoughts.

    Zhihao and RoRo were in a glaring competition as the beast encircled around the two players and Zhihao continued attacking the beast with his sword.

    "I want to try something but..."

    "But?"

    "The idea is so simple that if it actually works I''ll want to slap myself." Zhihao answered as he put his sword away and opened his inventory.

    Li Ling''s lips turned upwards as he realized what Zhihao wanted to do.

    Sometimes, the answers to certain things weren''t as difficult as one makes it to be. Maybe the answer was so simple that you would overlook it and this had been the current case. Li Ling thought he would need to work with Zhihao and put in hints here and there for the man to figure it out but he was pleasantly surprised to see that the man had figure out the answer on his own.

    Zhihao flipped through his inventory and took out a familiar book called the moon goddess spellbook.

    He stopped a moment to pray before activating the book and once the book was activated it did its usual job of sucking in players but this time, it wasn''t Zhihao or Li Ling who were sucked inside it. The moon goddess spellbook had actually managed to suck in RoRo.

    It worked!

    It freaking worked!

    Zhihao wanted to bang his head on the tree. He was always an over-thinker, always overlooking the most simplest answer. Even in the past when he was still a school student and used to sit for exams. He would often overthink the question and give an answer that was so smart that the teacher would draw a line over it and cut it out giving him a shining zero as a score, this was also the reason why he was ranked the fourth highest in class.

    The system gave out multiple dinging sounds and a number of notifications popped up on the screen.

    They had successfully completed the mission and were ready to be thrown out of the level.

    "Maybe we should''ve tried this a long time ago." Li Ling commented

    "I should have..."

    [Congratulations to Mastermo and Devilmagiclover on successfully clearing the I-ranked level 5360: Treasure hunt]

    [All level missions cleared]

    [T-points gained: +1400]

    [Player health status refilled]

    [Skills gained: +Treasure hunter]

    [Surprise rewards gained: +Sun stone]

    [Rewards gained: +Crying eagle +Fox spirit]

    [Surprise Gift: +200 T-points]

    [Logging out of I-ranked level 5360: Treasure Hunt]

    [Preparing for transmigration in..]

    [3]

    Zhihao, "What''s the use of a brain if it goes into overdrive?"

    [2]

    "..." Li Ling didn''t have the answer to the question.

    [1]

    Zhihao''s screen turned pitch black with a ding and in the next second, he was back to the game''s home page. He looked at his total T-points which glistened a rich four-digit number of 2693 and felt somewhat better. He was rich and this was the hard-earned T-points he had sacrificed his sleep for. He didn''t regret it in the least. When Zhihao remembered back to the hard work he had done to receive this much, he also remembered a rather delightful thing. Hadn''t they made a deal with Zhou XinYi?

    With this much T-points from a single level added to the already existing T-points owned by Zhou XinYi and Wang GuiYing, the amount was in no manner going to be small. Just from this level alone, the two had probably gained 3200 T-points collectively and this was just from this level. If both of them already had at least 1000 T-points with them, their new total would be 5200 and when divided by two would give a total of 2600 for Zhihao and 2600 for Li Ling. When Zhihao mentally calculated the new total of T-points he''d be gaining, his mood was a lot better and he had forgotten all about banging his head on the wall for overthinking.

    Li Ling was also thrown out of the level in the same way and just as he came out, the first thing the man did was go into the T-points trading server and tag Hulk0_0 and BBtrash. The T-points trading server was visible to all and hence every player that was on this page currently saw the message. This feature was both a good thing and a bad. On one hand, it made T-points trading transparent hence, the amount of T-points a person earned could be made clear. The accounts were clear and hence cheating was further put out in the open therefore it was discouraged.

    On this T-points trading server, there was also a side page where the names of players were displayed and the amount of T-points they have was all recorded. If a player was to suddenly get a lot of T-points, it was either because the player cleared a high-ranked mission or because the player had received T-points from another player and the records of this were maintained in this server. Plainly putting it��T.I.A.D. hid nothing from the players and presented all the data, excluding personal data, of the players to the other players. Making the system so transparent that if a player were to hack into the game and cheat, it would be too clear and would be seen by everyone.

    This T-points trading server also had one more feature that most players were unaware of. If a player were to suddenly gain a lot of T-points without winning a high ranked level or T-points trading, the player will go through a ''rebirth'' and be banned from the system for three weeks under the reason of cheating.

    Some players hated the strict anti-cheating rules but the majority of the players loved it because it gave them all an equal chance at winning. Nobody would need to worry about being wronged and having some hacker come up with cheat codes and getting ahead of the other players who won through hard-work. The fact that T-points cannot be bought with real money was also a factor that was loved by the players who had always considered it unfair for some rich players to win without working hard and just throwing their money around.

 Chapter 46 - Mastermo Posts Something Shocking

    When Wang GuiYing was having the time of his life��interacting with his fans in the live stream, talking with them, and doing a QnA.

    The traffic on his live stream could not be considered small in the least, even with more than half of the fans leaving after the game was over, the rest that remained still made up a whopping total of 867k fans. This was a large number even for Wang GuiYing but he knew the reason behind it, hence it did not come as a shock to him.

    What really came as a shock to him was when the comment section suddenly went berserk and he received a ping.

    Wang GuiYing read the comments first, wondering what scandal, he had caused this time, almost afraid to see the ping first.

    [Trash... You''re about to be robbed]

    [LMAO HE ACTUALLY DID IT!! HE PINGED THEM!!]

    [Wtf?! OMG trash.... You have my condolences]

    [Hubby is asking for money kekeke]

    [Pay up! We have water guns lol]

    [Somebody is in for a shock]

    [Oh Lord, look at his face]

    [Stop bulling him!]

    [What are you guys talking about??]

    [I''m laughing... I shouldn''t be but I am]

    [@BBtrash Don''t check the ping! Pack your suitcase and make a run for it]

    [I agree with the person above]

    [Trash, run as far as you can and don''t turn back.]

    [Hulk0_0 is about to get his ass whipped]

    [Lol]

    [RUN]

    [Check the T-points trading center]

    [R.I.P. BBtrash... You will be remembered... At least for a few days lol]

    Reading the comment section made him even more clueless about the situation, but he was a curious little cat, and just like curiosity killed the cat��this cat named BBtrash was going to get his wallet killed.

    Wang GuiYing clicked on the ping notification he got and was transported to the T-points trading server where Hulk0_0 was also tagged together with him. When the two players had arrived at the server, Zhou XinYi who knew exactly what this was about left a single message behind for Wang GuiYing to read.

    "I''m sorry"

    The next thing that showed up on the screen was a T-point trading notification on which it showed that Zhou XinYi had given Li Ling 2660 T-points. Wang GuiYing was shocked to see this because he knew what that number was, that was the total number of T-points Hulk0_0 had. BBtrash knew this because he was his partner and the two shared an identical total number of T-points.

    The smile on Wang GuiYing''s face had long ago disappeared from his face and at this moment there was confusion and shock written all over his face.

    Another notification popped up on screen.

    [Devilmagiclover is asking for a T-point trade]

    Under the notification there were two options, one was ''accept'' and on the right was ''decline''. Wang GuiYing immediately pressed decline and not a second later, the same message popped up again. He pressed decline and got another replicated notification. He was slowly getting angry at the stupid system which did not understand the meaning of a decline. The process repeated itself, where the notification kept popping up and Wang GUI Ying kept on declining it continuously.

    Suddenly the decline button stopped working and on Wang GuiYing''s screen, nothing could be seen except for the endless amounts of notifications that popped up together and crowded his screen.

    Wang GuiYing was suddenly angry at this and picked up his phone in order to call the perpetrator, however, he didn''t have Li Ling''s number saved so he called Li Ling''s partner instead.

    The phone was picked on the first ring itself and the delighted voice of Zhihao came through with a sweet "Hello"

    "Mo, What the hell?! What is your partner doing?! Has he gone crazy?!"

    This was the first time Wang GuiYing had got mad at Zhihao and when Zhihao heard the angry voice, he felt oddly satisfied with it, so satisfied that he didn''t care if he took away BBtrash''s T-points or not, he would just be satisfied with the man angry at him like this.

    Zhihao had always been the guy who was annoyed by Wang GuiYing, who would love to make Zhihao angry, and now that the tables had turned, Zhihao was so satisfied that he felt like the saying ''revenge is sweet'' wasn''t made for no reason at all.

    Revenge was indeed sweet, so sweet like honey that Zhihao could even get dental cavity by all the excessive sugar.

    "What are you talking about, Trash?" the delighted tone in Zhihao''s voice could not be hidden and it was only natural that Wang GuiYing had also noticed it hence his rage only grew bigger.

    "Don''t play around with me! Tell him to stop or I''ll really go to his house and make him stop!"

    "Are you threatening me now?"

    "You''re the one that started it first, do not mind me using a bit of force."

    Wang GuiYing suddenly heard a string of chuckles coming from the other side of the phone, "Trash, threatening us is cool and all, but you should do it off camera."

    Wang GuiYing suddenly realized that in the heat of the confusion and anger, he had forgotten to turn off his camera, hence all his expressions, actions, and words were watched by those 867k fans who had suddenly increased in number and evolved into 1.03m fans currently watching. The reason for the sudden increase in numbers was self apparent. Everybody was here for a good show��they wanted the tea and they got the tea.

    Wang GuiYing looked at the comment section that was going crazy and he was stunned on the spot, not a muscle moving and not a word coming out of his mouth. He sat there like a stone and looked at all the comments flowing in like a tidal wave.

    One of the comments stood out the most.

    [Lol he''s so dumb. Why go around threatening people on camera in front of millions of fans? He can be sued for this!]

    A shiver went down Wang GuiYing''s spine and he immediately reacted by saying a single sentence and abruptly cut off the live stream.

    "J-just joking among friends. No need to take it seriously guys."

    The live stream ended and Wang GuiYing heard Zhihao laughing at him from the other side of the call.

    "You should call Hulk0_0 instead of me."

    The call ended when Zhihao hung up on the dumbstruck man.

    BBtrash could now only pray that this blows over and if he''s lucky, he can keep his career and his title as a pro-gamer.

    Wang GuiYing looked at his gaming screen which was filled with that T-points trading message and in the next moment, his phone started ringing. It was Zhou XinYi.

    Seeing that the caller ID belonged to his best friend and gaming partner, Wang GuiYing picked it up without much thought and before the caller could say anything, BBtrash cut him off and exclaimed, "I know I''m dumb. Should have been more careful. I''m nagging myself so... You don''t need to."

    It was silent on the other side as Zhou XinYi registered the words he had just heard.

    "Click on accept." The response was short but Wang GuiYing was even more confused after hearing it.

    "What do you mean? XinYi, what did you do?"

    "I''m sorry." Zhou XinYi didn''t explain any further, he just apologized.

    A minute of silence followed once again and suddenly Wang GuiYing laughed, "I''m going to kill you, bastard. You better give me an explanation."

    Before the man could reply, Wang GuiYing had already hung up the phone and looked at his screen.

    [Devilmagiclover is asking for a T-point trade]

    BBtrash didn''t think much after this and readily clicked on the ''accept'' button. Now that Zhou XinYi had told him to do so, even if it hurt him, Wang GuiYing would still do it with a heavy heart.

    [BBtrash has given 2660 T-points to Devilmagiclover]

    And just like that, the hard earned T-points were emptied out from his wallet. Wang GuiYing felt his heart drop a few floors as he saw the pitiful zero dancing where there used to be a rich four digit number of T-points.

    In just under an hour, Wang GuiYing had got himself in trouble with a leaked live stream and his T-points were emptied out. He wanted to laugh at himself and cry at his misery, but he could do neither. He felt his heart crack a little and the world suddenly turned empty. Maybe he''d be fine tomorrow, or so he thought, but a day passed and Wang GuiYing was still lying on his bed with a blank expression on his face.

    He''d didn''t look at the news, not even daring to know what scandals had he caused with one mistake of a live stream.

    Zhou XinYi had tried to call him several times, but Wang GuiYing''s phone was switched off and so whatever Zhou XinYi had wanted to tell him was never heard by Wang GuiYing.

    If Wang GuiYing had actually come out of his stunned state and mustered up the courage to turn on the TV or maybe charged his phone, he wouldn''t have been in such a misery.

    Cause right after the entire thing went down and the fans started raging in on BBtrash''s account, something more exciting took place.

    Mastermo updated a whole paragraph dedicated to BBtrash on his social media.

    [I can understand how some fan''s are mad at BBtrash''s behavior on his live stream, but as a pro-gamer and his friends, I''d like to ask you guys to stop sending him so much hate. He had just forgotten to turn off his live stream, it happens. He''s also a human and humans make a mistake sometimes. Regarding the fans who were upset with his threat, please remember to note that he was threatening me not you and I didn''t take it seriously so why would you? Please refrain from sending him hate. We are all working hard and are always trying to please our fans. It''s hard to climb up the ladder, but falling from it is as easy as a leaked conversation between friends. Please do not mind it. It doesn''t matter if you call yourself my fan or his, both the fandoms should take it as a joke between friends and ignore it. There is no bad blood between us.]

    The long paragraph gained a lot of attention.

    It was the first time Huang Zhihao had openly referred to Wang GuiYing as his friend. It was so shocking that the fans wanted to investigate if Mastermo''s account was hacked. The news went viral and the shippers of the two went crazy as they saw their favorite ship showing some progress.

    Li Ling questioned why Zhihao had done such a thing, but Zhihao only smiled and said, "He gave us so much money. It would be unfair to see his whole career ruined because of me."

    At the end of the day, nobody could know if Zhihao actually meant it or not. Were they friends? This would remain being a mystery among the fans.

    After Li Ling had received the T-points from both the players, he immediately transferred half of it over to Zhihao''s account.

    When Zhihao looked at his new T-points total, he was so happy that he felt like he was on cloud nine.

    [Total T-points: 5353]

    Zhihao was at the top of the T-points list and was the richest player in the game. Of course, this list excluded the Gamemaster who was probably much richer than him. Li Ling came in second position and to everybody''s shock, the player on the third number was actually the newcomer who had ranked second in the T.I.A.D top players list. Yingli was third and following closely behind was Jiangshi, another newcomer and two more pro-gamers ranked behind them. In the seventh position came Loudbitchnextdoor followed by Kaoru and Andy.

    Zhihao had heard about it, Yingli''s team had actually ended up on a A-ranked level and earned a lot from that level.

    Zhihao didn''t have much impression on this newcomer''s team because he simply could not be bothered by knowing them. It wasn''t any of his business and it wasn''t like these newbies had cheated their way up the list. They had worked hard for it as well and if anything, Zhihao was actually proud of them.

 Chapter 47 - Mastermo And The Little Boy

    "T.I.A.D. has successfully closed the gates to Stage 1 elimination round with its final third mission assigned to the players yesterday night."

    "Just this morning it announced the list of players who''ll be qualified for the next stage and it also released the official number of players that were eliminated from this level."

    "The officially released number of players who are out of the race from beating the Gamemaster is 724,861 individual players "

    "That''s a pretty huge number."

    "You bet it is. The players who lost were so angry at the game that they opened a petition where they asked for the game to open up the stage again and give them a chance to redeem themselves."

    "The petition was signed by a lot of players worldwide but so far, the gaming company has made no further announcement on the topic.."

    "I don''t think they are going to change their rules just because they hurt a few of the players."

    "That total number of players are in no way a few people" Kevin laughed.

    "The remaining number of players still cross the one million mark so I don''t really think they have anything to lose."

    "As long as the hype is there, the game is successful. I think the anger of the fans just comes to show how many people are actually invested in playing this game."

    "And the hype is showing no signs of fading away."

    "Good news is that none of the top players were eliminated so the top player''s list remains as it is with a few players climbing up higher on the list and some interchanging ranks here there."

    "I was hoping for some new blood to suddenly jump up on the ranks but who could''ve guessed that with just three missions the top players had raised the bar so high that it has become almost impossible for some new players to pop up on the list."

    "The only new name on the list belongs to Mastermo''s partner Li Ling and I think that was to be expected."

    "Speaking of Mastermo, his live stream last night was seriously a treat for all the gaming fans around the world."

    "Mastermo and Devilmagiclover''s team along with BBtrash, Hulk0_0, Loudbitchnextdoor, Andyzz, and Kaze17 were all transmigrated into the same level"

    "The level they were all in was called Treasure hunt."

    "As the name suggests, it was one of those levels which could accommodate more than one team at a time"

    "I don''t know the algorithm behind it but it is certainly shocking to see how all of the players who were thrown together just so happened to belong to the top player''s list."

    "For such a thing to happen, it had to be a one in a million chance "

    "And we lived to see such a wonder happening." Dev showed off his fanboy side.

    "Speaking on the topic, I seriously wonder if all three of the teams being thrown into the same level was more shocking or was BBtrash''s little streaming mistake more unexpected."

    "It was certainly out of the blue and almost ended the career of the pro-gamer."

    "If it hadn''t been for Mastermo who stood up for the pro-gamer, BBtrash''s career would have really come to an end."

    "I can''t decide what''s more shocking. The fact that the pro-gamer''s career almost ended for an hour or should the fact that the two pro-gamer''s gave all their T-points to Mastermo''s partner shock us more?"

    "A total of 2660 T-points. That is in no way small."

    "And with all that T-points given to Mastermo''s team, both the players climbed up on top of the T-points list, claiming the first two positions as the current richest players."

    "With a total of 4100 T-points, Yingli is not so behind from the two players."

    "So far, the newcomer is looking very promising."

    "Promising indeed."

    "Umm..."

    "What happened?"

    "..." Dev was silent and Kevin looked at the camera awkwardly, not knowing why his partner has suddenly stopped talking and was looking down at his phone.

    "Dev, are you okay? We are doing a live broadcast here."

    "I''m okay." Dev smiled as he looked back at the camera and left his phone alone on the table, "Sorry for that guys. I just got an urgent update from T.I.A.D."

    "Update?"

    "The opening of Stage 2 has been announced."

    "What?! That was fast!" Kevin had also just found out the news and the happiness mixed with shock could not be hidden from his face.

    "Thankfully, Stage 2 is not an elimination round. As to further details, there is nothing updated yet."

    "Umm... Look forward to our next broadcast." Kevin spoke up, trying to save the broadcast from drowning.

    "And with that said, we end our live broadcast. This has been your anchors, Kevin and Dev, live from the studio."

    Just as Zhihao heard that a new stage has been announced, he turned off the news broadcast abruptly.

    He had originally wanted to rest for a while and get a good sleep in order to make up for all the sleep he had missed during the Stage 1 but it seemed that T.I.A.D. really didn''t like its players resting for too long.

    Zhihao opened the game and straight away, went into the notice board.

    On the notice board was a rather short message posted only a few minutes ago.

    [Congratulations to the players who had successfully completed Stage 1. We are glad to inform you all that Stage 2 will open soon. Further details to be updated]

    [We are happy to inform you that we are currently preparing to open Stage 2. This process may cause some trouble for the players. Sorry for the inconvenience as T.I.A.D. will be closed down from 12:00 am, 15/02/2032 till 12:00 am, 25/02/2032.]

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to cry or laugh. All he could say was T.I.A.D. really liked to drop bombs.

    Closing down a server for maintenance was not something new, however, most of these server shutdowns took one hour at most to complete, and that too during night time when the traffic on the server was at the lowest.

    To close down the game for ten days was pure suicide, at least this was what Zhihao would say. Ten days was no short time��it was long enough to wreak havoc among the fans and it was also enough time to lose hype over the game.

    T.I.A.D. was a new game and it was already at the peak of its popularity, any other game would''ve never made such a decision just to give up all the money and kill the hype created. It was like placing a bet on how popular you are and how many people will miss you if you left, and T.I.A.D. was perhaps the only game that would take such a bet.

    Zhihao had only asked for a short rest that could help him recuperate but he got a lot more than what he asked for. He wasn''t complaining at the moment but he knew that when he finally gets bored and starts missing the game, he will be complaining a lot.

    Zhihao closed the game with a rather dejected expression.

    He was happy because a new stage was opening up but he was just as sad about the fact that the game will be closed for the next ten days.

    He was reminded of the time when he was crying at the thought of Stage 1 ending and him going back into stage zero��at that moment��that was what scared him the most. Now, T.I.A.D. had actually made his hopes of a new stage opening up true, and in the same way, it had also crushed him by the news of the server shutting down. He couldn''t have the best of both worlds.

    Zhihao lay down on his bed as he wondered why the server needed to be closed down for ten days, the action most probably had a reason behind it so what was the reason?

    When Zhihao thought about it, he could come up with nothing. His brain was just too tired to work and had altogether stopped working.

    Zhihao''s eyelids started flickering as he started falling asleep.

    Slowly, he fell into a deep slumber.

    "A-Zhi."

    He turned around to look at the owner of the voice but he saw nobody.

    "A-Zhi"

    The voice was familiar but it wasn''t Li Ling''s however, the way the man spoke was exactly like Li Ling.

    Zhihao was confused as he looked around in the darkness, "Where are you?"

    "A-Zhi"

    The voice was always behind him, no matter where he was facing, sometimes far away and other times, feeling as if it was coming from right beside him.

    "Where are you?" Zhihao asked again but got no response.

    "A-Zhi"

    "Why do you keep calling me if you aren''t gonna respond to me?" Zhihao was frustrated. No matter how much he responded to the voice, the voice would not say another word.

    "A-Zhi..."

    Zhihao turned his head around, frantically in search of the owner of the voice but all he met with was darkness. It was pitch black and he was the only one here but he still kept on hearing the voice. It was so creepy that Zhihao wanted to pee in his pants but he was not a kid anywhere so he would never go through such embarassment.

    "A-Zhi... You don''t remember me."

    Finally, the voice said something more than just his name.

    Zhihao looked around but he still saw nothing, "Who are you?"

    "A-Zhi... You don''t remember me." The voice repeated but this time the voice sounded somewhat different as if the owner had suddenly reverse-aged a few years back and become a child.

    This time, Zhihao didn''t waste his breath on asking the voice a question that would eventually be ignored.

    "A-Zhi doesn''t remember me."

    Zhihao turned around and stared at the kid that was hiding in the dark with his face completely hidden in the darkness. The only reason why Zhihao could make out that it was a kid was because of the pitch of the voice and the height of the silhouette of the small boy.

    "Who are you?" Zhihao squinted at the small boy but his question was once again ignored.

    "A-Zhi!" The young boy yelled out, "You have to wait for me."

    "Wait for what? Who are you?" Zhihao was confused. He had never seen or communicated with such a kid, in fact, he had never talked to such a young child. Talking to kids wasn''t exactly his forte.

    "You promised." The young boy kept on speaking, "You have to remember your promise."

    When Zhihao suddenly saw the silhouette of the boy stepping forward towards him, he unconsciously took a step back. It was as if he was suddenly transported into a live-action horror movie scene. He wasn''t afraid but he was most certainly creeped out.

    At this moment Zhihao suddenly understood why sleep was important. If only he had a healthy sleeping schedule, he could''ve avoided such nightmares.

    Zhihao was in a dark room and the only light was on top of him and it didn''t reach the little boy.

    When the boy stepped a few feet forward, His face was still not visible but Zhihao somehow found the kid familiar. He couldn''t put a finger to it but the boy was too oddly familiar as if Zhihao had known him.

    "Who are you?" Zhihao asked once again, the curiosity was killing him slowly.

    "A-Zhi..." Zhihao suddenly felt Goosebumps crawl up his skin as he heard the kid''s voice calling him like that. He wanted to remind the kid that he was being disrespectful to someone much older than him but when Zhihao thought about the situation again, he felt like it would be weirder if he were to remind the ghost kid to be respectful. Who tells a ghost to pay respect? If Zhihao were to point it out, he''d be crazy.

    "Show some respect to your elder, kid."

    "..."

    Zhihao was a bit crazy... Just a bit...

    "A-Zhi" The boy stepped forward and the light hit his clothes making them visible and just as his face was about to be revealed, Zhihao woke up.

    As Zhihao opened his eyes and came face to face with the ceiling of his room, he was speechless. He hated such dreams.

    A few minutes passed and he slowly started forgetting the dream.

    An hour passed and he no longer remembered the dream.

 Chapter 48 - Mastermo Wants To Slap Himself

    The dream didn''t affect Zhihao at all. He remembered it for some time and tried to interpret his dream, but eventually, the dream had been forgotten like always, and once again, he didn''t know who the kid was.

    The next day went surprisingly plain with Zhihao sometimes trying to log into T.I.A.D. only to find that the server was closed down with the same notice on top that showed the date that the server will finally reopen.

    Ten days was a lot of time and just one day in, Zhihao was already badly missing the game. He didn''t know what type of magic spell the game had cast on him��the magic had to be strong for him to be so obsessed over it.

    Zhihao was a hardcore gamer and he had played a lot of games before, but never in his life had he fallen so deeply in love with a game like this.

    T..I.A.D. was different than the rest, maybe because of its unpredictable nature or maybe because of its anti cheating policies. Zhihao couldn''t pinpoint it, but he loved exploring the game. It was like no matter how much you played, you would never become an expert. Zhihao could confidently say that maybe even the Gamemaster didn''t know what new things the game might throw at them.

    It was exciting no matter what. The game kept you guessing and you would never get tired of playing it. Even if the one million dollar cash prize was canceled, Zhihao would still remain and play the game without any complaints, and maybe the other players felt the same way1.

    He tried to log into the game again and again for almost three times now, always forgetting that the server was closed down.

    Zhihao sighed as he felt dejected when he saw the same message appear on the screen. He tried to play some other game but he could not last for more than twenty minutes, he would let his thoughts wander away from the game and he would lose the game. This kept on happening and people were sure that there was something wrong with Mastermo.

    Mastermo''s account really seemed to be hacked.

    Zhihao didn''t want to half-hearted continue playing the game with an unfocused mind.

    He sighed as he leaned back on his chair and looked up at his ceiling, it was white with nothing interesting to see but for some reason, Zhihao found it really fascinating, or at least, it looked like he did.

    A minute passed and his mind was still empty. He missed the game, he missed it too much. He missed T.I.A.D! He missed Li Ling!

    Zhihao suddenly woke up from his thoughts.

    With wide eyes, he looked at the black screen in front of him that reflected back his own shocked face.

    "What do you mean you miss Li Ling?!" He asked his reflection on the black screen and naturally, got no response.

    "Get your head straight. You just miss playing together with him." Zhihao scolded the reflection.

    "..."

    "What the hell am I doing?" Zhihao ruffled his hair up, "Have I finally lost it? Arghhhhh..."

    He didn''t know what he was feeling. His heart was at an unsettling place as if he was deprived of something he considered a part of his daily routine, something that he would not be able to live without. He sighed, feeling frustrated at himself. "It was just game" he reminded himself but to no use.

    Zhihao was addicted to games but since he had made it his career, he would never openly admit to it. He considered being called an addict as humiliating because if you were an addict, you weren''t the one in control, it was your addiction that controlled you like a dog on a leash. You''ll be a slave to your addiction. Zhihao would never call himself an addict as he still wanted to believe that he could quit gaming anytime he wanted.

    Zhihao was suddenly startled as his phone came to life with that familiar upbeat ringtone.

    "Hello" Zhihao didn''t waste any time before picking up as he read the caller ID, his voice sounding a bit too enthusiastic.

    "Come out."

    "Huh?"

    "Come out, I''m waiting."

    "..." Zhihao stood up in an instant and asked once again, "What do you mean you''re waiting?"

    "I''m waiting outside your house. Come out." Li Ling''s voice answered patiently.

    Zhihao fumbled around with his words as the man had suddenly caught him out of the blue, "Outside? What do you mean?"

    "I''ll be here. Come fast."

    "What do you-" Zhihao couldn''t complete his sentence as the phone was abruptly hung up from the other side.

    Zhihao stood on the spot, not daring to move an inch, too out of words and reactions on what to do.

    Zhihao.exe had officially stopped working.

    From outside his house came a faint, familiar voice of a man, "Come out."

    Zhihao mustered up the courage to walk a few steps towards his window, he peeked through the gap between the curtains and looked down only to find Li Ling standing there with a wide smile on his face.

    "Oh shit-" Zhihao couldn''t help but curse out loud as he saw the man appear outside his house without any prior notice.

    Just why did the man have to appear right now of all times? Just a few minutes ago, Zhihao had gone a bit crazy and had started missing the man, his sudden appearance really gave people the wrong impression.

    Zhihao stumbled towards his closet and pulled out a jacket, put it on, and fixed his hair, staring at his reflection in the mirror, making sure he looked somewhat presentable. When he looked at his reflection and fixed his hair, he suddenly wanted to slap himself.

    "Who are you trying to impress?" He scolded his reflection for the second time in a day.

    He took his phone with him and left his room, running down the stairs as he headed straight for the main door of his house.

    His little brother was also downstairs and as Huang Zhen saw his brother suddenly run out the door, he yelled, "Gege, where are you running off to?"

    He was ignored but didn''t seem to mind too much about it as he was already staring at his phone, chatting with someone.

    Zhihao opened the door and speed-walked towards Li Ling.

    When Li Ling saw the man walking toward him in less than a minute from the call, he couldn''t help but smile, "Get inside the car."

    Zhihao looked at the man, "What are you doing here?"

    "I missed you."

    "..."

    Zhihao didn''t know how to respond. His face betrayed nothing but his ears turned a bright color of red wine. He wanted to respond to the man but what was he supposed to do? Say he missed him too? That would be too absurd!

    In the end, Zhihao decided to push it aside, awkwardly grinning, "I am quite missable, aren''t I?"

    Li Ling laughed at the cute awkwardness of the man, "I don''t think that is a word but I''ll agree. You are missable."

    Zhihao''s ears turned even brighter, he felt the atmosphere turn hot and tried to look away, avoiding eye contact.

    "So?"

    "So what?" Zhihao asked back.

    "Are you going to get in the car?" Li Ling asked.

    Zhihao looked behind the man and was even more confused

    "Where is the car?" He asked.

    Li Ling smiled and pointed towards the rightward direction, "There"

    "..."

    Zhihao didn''t know how to react. The man had pointed at a car alright, but the car wasn''t his. It was Zhihao''s car parked in front of his house.

    "Keys please."

    "..."

    Zhihao wanted to laugh yet he couldn''t.

    He lightly chuckled and sighed, giving in to the shameless man, "Let me go get it."

    "I''ll wait." Li Ling beamed and Zhihao looked away immediately, too afraid that if he continued to look at that face, he''ll go down a path with no return.

    When Huang Zhen saw his brother returning only to go straight to his room and return with his car keys clutched in his hand, the boy had no reaction. Huang Zhen had already peeked outside the window, curious to know what his brother was rushing for, and had discovered Li Ling standing outside waiting for Zhihao.

    The situation was as clear as day. Li Ling gege was planning on taking his brother out for a date.

    Li Ling also noticed the boy who peeked through the window and he waved at him, smiling as he did. Huang Zhen gave a ''thumps up'' and wished the man "all the best"

    Li Ling was shocked to see that Huang Zhen wasn''t as dense as his older brother, the child had already guessed the situation better than Zhihao.

    Huang Zhen left the two alone to do whatever they were planning on doing and focused all his attention back on his phone that dinged with a new message from Li Ying. When Huang Zhen read the message that the girl had sent him, he laughed at it, finding it very amusing.

    Zhihao got his car keys and rushed out of the house once again, still not fully comprehending the situation.

    At this moment, it was safe to assume that gaming had decreased Zhihao''s mental capability. His brain had become too accustomed to gaming that once he was out of the game, his brain would not be able to cope up with anything, it had already decided that games can be predicted but real life was filled with unpredictable outcomes so why bother?

    Li Ling saw the man coming and happily reached out to take the keys from his hands but all his hand grasped was empty air.

    "Huh?"

    Zhihao moved the keys away, "I''ll drive, where do you want to go?"

    "Come on, A-Zhi." Li Ling laughed, "I have a drivers license, I''m not that bad at driving. You can trust me."

    "I''ll drive." Zhihao was adamant about his decision. This wasn''t because he didn''t trust Li ing but it was simply because Zhihao loved his car too much. The car was somewhat sacred to him and Zhihao would never give over the keys to someone else no matter how close he was to them.

    Even his family was banned from touching the steering wheel of the car. Getting a ride in the car was already a blessing.

    "You don''t know the way." Li Ling responded as he once again reached for the keys but Zhihao hid them behind him.

    Zhihao, "You can navigate, I''ll drive."

    Li Ling felt like he was suddenly dealing with a kid who was too spoiled and would not let others touch his toys��this was not entirely false in Zhihao''s case. Growing up, Zhihao was always spoiled with a lot of toys and he was quite possessive over them.

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao with puppy eyes, "I want to drive."

    It was hard for Zhihao to say no to the man. Li Ling''s eyes were innocently looking at him with such a pitiful expression but this was still not enough to convince Mastermo.

    Zhihao, "I also want to drive."

    Li Ling stepped forward and Zhihao didn''t step back. The two were so close that Zhihao could almost feel the body heat the man emitted��both the heat and the aura.

    "A-Zhi" Li Ling leaned closer to Zhihao''s ears and whispered the rest, "Don''t be so stubborn. It makes me want to spank you."

    "..."

    What the hell?!

    I''ll spank you, little brat!

    Zhihao was too shocked and his face turned red with anger and embarrassment mixed together. He didn''t dare move from the spot and Li Ling took this chance to put his hands around the man, half-hugging him and stealing the keys away.

    "You!" Zhihao wanted to say something but his brain couldn''t process the words it needed to produce at the moment.

    Li Ling strutted towards the car with the keys in hand, he seemed to be a bit too happy with himself, and Zhihao couldn''t do anything but follow the man with not a word of complaint.

    From the window, a camera had captured the two men almost hugging and Huang Zhen sent the captured footage to Li Ying who had suddenly found the best blackmailing material against her brother.

 Chapter 49 - Mastermo Finds It Cute

    Li Ling was a good driver��considering the fact that he was over-speeding, but they had neither ended up in heaven nor hell.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but curse, both in his mind and letting those curses slip from his tongue as he gripped onto his belt and couldn''t move an inch. The car was driving so fast that Zhihao didn''t have enough strength to pull himself away from the seat.

    "Li Ling, stop the car! Stop it!" Zhihao yelled out, but to no use.

    His voice couldn''t even be clearly heard over the speeding car.

    Li Ling chuckled as he made a dangerous sharp turn, "I want to be honest."

    "What honest?! We have no time for honesty! Slow down!"

    "I lied"

    "...."

    "I don''t have a driving license, I never passed the driving test."

    "..."

    Zhihao was silent; this silence was not the calm type of silence, it was equal to when you''d mourn over someone''s death. Zhihao was praying in his mind. ''May God have mercy on my soul and at least let me reincarnate as someone who knew the Gamemaster in his next life.''

    Zhihao had no idea what bullshit he was praying about, it was his deepest desire coming out at the thought of death. He was going to die young!

    Li Ling laughed as he saw Zhihao''s face turning white.

    "Stop the freaking car!!"

    "I lied again, I''m sorry." Li Ling laughed, "I have a driver''s license."

    Zhihao wanted to choke the man, kick him out from his car and never let him come anywhere near his mechanical baby, but sadly, he couldn''t because he couldn''t even move from his seat.

    He didn''t know if his heart had stopped or was beating at a speed too risky for a normal person. He couldn''t hear his heart, his ears had been clogged up with air bubbles and he became deaf from the speed.

    Zhihao''s eyes almost popped out from his sockets when he saw a red light up front and a car crossing the road in front.

    He was going to die! He was going to die before he uncovered Gamemaster''s real identity!!

    Zhihao shut his eyes instantly as he waited for the impact to hit him and tear his soul away from his body.

    Li Ling stepped on the brake peddle and the car came to an instant stop.

    "Oooh... Nice breaks." Li Ling commented as Zhihao was thrown forward at the sudden impact. If it weren''t for his seatbelt, Zhihao''s head would have cracked open. At this moment, Zhihao understood what Newton meant when he gave the laws of motion. This method of studying was much more effective to understand physics, but Zhihao didn''t prefer it. He''d rather safely sit on his seat in class and listen to his physics teacher giving a lecture on the laws of motion.

    Zhihao wanted to puke, but he hadn''t eaten anything or drank anything yet so he could only gag out empty air.

    "Was A-Zhi scared?"

    Zhihao fixed his clothes calmly and looked at Li Ling with a wide smile. In the next moment, Zhihao attacked Li Ling as he smacked him and tried to snatch away the keys from the ignition.

    Li Ling laughed as he tried to defend himself, "Wait. Wait. Let me explain."

    "What explanation?! You almost had us killed!"

    "I didn''t. I didn''t. I was just kidding."

    Zhihao frowned, "The joke wasn''t funny."

    "I-I''m sorry." Li Ling apologized as he joined his hands and asked for Zhihao''s forgiveness, "I''m too used to driving fast and this is a sports car, I couldn''t help but want to test it out."

    Zhihao didn''t look amused as he kept glaring at the man.

    Li Ling, "Why do you own a sports car if you aren''t going to use the speed?"

    "..."

    Zhihao was always obsessed with sports cars. Always finding them looking very sexy and hot, but that was it, that was the reason why he bought a sports car and loved it. He had never tried out the maximum speed of his car. It was a waste of money, but Zhihao didn''t care because he had a lot of money to throw around, however, he wasn''t stupid enough to truthfully answer the question. What was he to say? That he bought it because it looked hot? No way, he would do that. He was already considered weird for liking games too much and a car fetish added to that would create a new perverted reputation for him��a big no-no...

    "Okay! Okay! I won''t Overspeed again. We''ll go slowly and steadily from here on out, okay?"

    Zhihao didn''t know why, but he felt like there was a hidden meaning behind the man''s words, something deeper than what appeared on the surface, and this caused Zhihao to contemplate on whether he should agree or not��eventually choosing to stay silent.

    Li Ling wasn''t looking for an answer and soon, the light had turned green.

    Li Ling started the car again and this time, he did as he promised, he drove at a normal safe speed and Zhihao had to admit that the man was a good driver. The rest of the ride was as smooth as butter��so smooth that Zhihao almost fell asleep on his seat. It was a soothing long ride to an unknown destination, but since Li Ling was by his side, Zhihao wasn''t worried about where the car would end up leading him to.

    The car came to a stop in front of an arcade.

    "We are here."

    Zhihao looked at the place and found it looking very similar yet, he also felt like he had never been here before.

    "Where are we?" Zhihao asked.

    "My favorite place. It''s been a long time since I came here though."

    "How long?"

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao as if he was searching for something��some reaction, "Ten years."

    Zhihao was amazed, "You haven''t been to your favorite place for over ten years?"

    "Hmm" Li Ling affirmed.

    "Woah!" Zhihao couldn''t help but express his amazement. If Zhihao had such an arcade that could be considered his favorite place, he would''ve just bought the place and visited the place daily.

    Unbeknownst to Zhihao, the owner of this arcade was actually Li Ling, who had recently bought the place with the money he earned.

    Li Ling, "I made a promise to myself."

    "What type of promise?"

    "I promised myself that I won''t come back here unless I meet you."

    Zhihao was stunned, forgetting to move an inch as he stared at the man with a blank expression, "What do you mean?"

    "Didn''t I tell you already? I''ve been your fan for a long time." Li Ling smiled.

    "Ah!" Zhihao seemed to remember the man telling something like that.

    Li Ling smiled even deeper as he heard this reaction, he wanted to chuckle in disappointment.

    Zhihao was too dumb outside the game. So dumb that he hadn''t picked up the clear clue. Mastermo hadn''t become Mastermo ten years ago, so it was impossible for someone to be his fan for ten years. Zhihao just heard that Li Ling has been his fan for ten years and didn''t question it, only feeling a bit amazed by it. This was temporary though, he would one day come to think back on this day and realize what was wrong��his feelings on that day would be something very amusing.

    Having a fan for ten years was already a big achievement in itself.

    Li Ling, "It used to look very different, but it was recently renovated."

    The arcade was very old and was ready to be closed down due to the low number of customers who came but the first thing Li Ling did after buying the arcade was renovating it, even if it meant losing a lot of money.

    Zhihao wondered what he was supposed to do at an arcade. If he wanted to play games, he could just play them back at home so why waste all the time to come so far just to waste your money? Zhihao couldn''t understand the feelings a person held towards their favorite place.

    "I wanted to show you something." Li Ling spoke as he grabbed Zhihao''s hand and dragged him inside the arcade.

    Zhihao didn''t know what else to do so, he wordlessly followed the man, letting him do whatever he wanted to do.

    Zhihao had thought that this arcade was like any other arcade so he wasn''t expecting to see anything new that could catch his interest. Arcade games were fun, but Zhihao felt like they were made for kids to waste their idle time.

    When Li Ling finally stopped in his tracks, Zhihao looked up and his eyes suddenly twinkled with excitement like a little child who has come to the arcade for the first time.

    It was T.I.A.D.

    To be more exact, the whole zone was dedicated to T.I.A.D. with the walls covered in huge posters and one of the walls with some random gameplay displayed on the screen. There were even small figurines of the top player''s in-game characters. There was a little Mastermo, a little BBtrash, a little Li Ling, and even a miniature Gamemaster.

    Zhihao wanted to buy the Gamemaster figurine; it looked so ridiculously cute and cool.

    "Do you like it?" Li Ling asked as he looked at Zhihao, trying his best to hide the nervousness.

    "Like it? I love it with all my heart and soul!" Zhihao moved forward and picked up the miniature Gamemaster.

    "...If there was to be a player who has to beat him, I''d rather it be me." The voice came from the speaker and it sounded so familiar that Zhihao looked up at the screen almost immediately recognizing the voice.

    He was embarrassed to see himself on the screen. It was the scene where he was talking with Kaoru.

    Zhihao had never known the existence of such a place and he couldn''t be blamed since this place was only recently constructed and was not yet open to the public.

    When Li Ling saw Zhihao''s eyes twinkling as he stared at the miniature Gamemaster in his hand, Li Ling knew that the man wanted to buy it and somehow his heart felt a little jealous.

    Jealous of a figurine��he felt like he was too pathetic.

    "You can buy it."

    "Really?" Zhihao was delighted as he picked two more figurines, "Then I''ll buy all three."

    One Gamemaster, one Mastermo, and one Devilmagiclover.

    The figurines were actually not for sale, but if Li Ling wanted to buy them, who would dare stop him? He owned the entire thing so who could tell him that he was banned from buying the figurines? If he could, Li Ling would want to gift this entire place to Zhihao but that was risky since Zhihao would then come to know the owner of the arcade.

    "I don''t like that one." Li Ling commented as he pointed at his miniature self.

    "What do you mean? It''s so cute." Zhihao frowned as he stroke the miniature figurine.

    Li Ling was satisfied as he smiled happily, he had successfully tricked Zhihao into calling him cute and when Zhihao saw the man''s reaction, he knew he had been tricked and his ears heated up.

    "You swindler!"

    Li Ling shook his head, "But Mastermo is cuter."

    Zhihao looked at the man and saw that he was pointing at the figurine in Zhihao''s hand.

    Embarrassing!

    Zhihao wanted to dig a hole in the ground and hide his head like an ostrich.

    "W-where do I pay for them?" Zhihao asked

    "Did you bring money?"

    "..."

    He had forgotten...

    When Li Ling saw the depressed expression on the man''s face, he couldn''t help but want to laugh at the man''s cuteness that was beyond his tolerance level, he was ready to squish his cheeks like a baby but the only thing that stopped Li Ling from doing so was the thought of the man getting creeped out by him and deciding to keep his distance from the weird man. It was Li Ling''s biggest fear, he would never want to be ignored again.

    "It''s okay, I''ll pay for it." Li Ling spoke as he tried his best to not laugh.

    Zhihao looked at the man and misunderstood him. He thought the man was laughing at Zhihao because he was acting like a kid who wanted a figurine, this was for kids, why was he buying it? With such a huge misunderstanding in place, Zhihao frowned and rejected the offer immediately.

    "I don''t need it anymore."

    Zhihao had a plan. He wasn''t going to let it go just like that so he would just come here again without Li Ling and buy the figurines. Till then, he was willing to wait and be separated from the three cute miniature versions of them.

    "Eh?" Li Ling was shocked to get such an outright rejection.

 Chapter 50 - Mastermo Is Not A Masochist But

    Zhihao kept the three figurines back on the shelf with a heavy heart and walked towards the screen that was displaying random gameplay. To his surprise, the gameplay looked too familiar and in the next second, he could see himself on the screen. It was his own gameplay that was being rebroadcasted.

    Zhihao felt a bit embarrassed when he saw himself on the screen and that too looking oddly good looking on-screen, now he knew why people would watch his live stream.

    Li Ling stood in front of the shelf without being able to comprehend why Zhihao suddenly got angry.

    "Why am I the one on the screen?" Zhihao asked and Li Ling finally reacted as he came forward to look at the screen alongside Zhihao.

    "Maybe it''s because you are the top player?" Li Ling answered, acting ignorant. He had lied. It wasn''t because Zhihao was the top player, it was simply because it was Zhihao. Even if Mastermo was overthrown from his throne��he would still be the only player who''ll be displayed on this screen, this was because this whole setting was arranged by Li Ling.

    "Oh"

    Li Ling could guess that Zhihao was thinking deeper about something as he heard Li Ling''s answer but Li Ling was no mind reader so it was only natural that he didn''t know what Zhihao was thinking about. There were times when he wanted Zhihao to think harder on certain topics and there were times he didn''t want Zhihao to think at all and just accept things as it is without questioning them, unfortunately, the reality would always be opposite to his hopes. Zhihao would not dwell on the things Li Ling wanted him to dwell on and he would overthink the things Li Ling didn''t want him to think about.

    "What are you thinking about?" Li Ling asked nervously, praying that he hadn''t been caught yet.

    "Nothing." The answer was short and it was a lie, Li Ling could see through it but if Zhihao didn''t want to talk about it, Li Ling would not question any further.

    Li Ling was right, Zhihao was overthinking again. He was receiving so much attention because he was the top player and if he were to be overthrown one day, would he receive the same amount of attention? He''ll probably receive even more attention because the gaming king had been overthrown��it would be the headlines but that news would also die out and what happens after that? Would his fans leave him? Would Li Ling see that Zhihao wasn''t the best and leave him as well?

    Zhihao was a complicated man. He was scared of such a thing happening but he was also looking forward to it.

    If a player were to challenge his throne, Zhihao would have the time of his life. He kind of prayed for such a thing to happen, for such an opponent to arrive. At the moment, the player that looked the most likely to overthrow him was Yingli and his own partner Li Ling. Did Zhihao feel jealous of the two relatively new players who came out of nowhere? No way. He was proud of the two and had to admit that the two were amazing players with natural talent and if this talent can be honed, how interesting would that make things?

    When Li Ling saw Zhihao''s eyes suddenly shine with excitement, he really could not understand what went inside the head of this man, and he wanted to know.

    "That looks cool" Zhihao commented and Li Ling nodded.

    "Mastermo looks the coolest when he''s gaming."

    Zhihao had no reaction, at least his face didn''t betray anything but his ears turned slightly red, his heart was melting. He didn''t respond, looking as if he was completely mesmerized by the gameplay.

    "I miss playing it." Zhihao commented and Li Ling chuckled as he heard this.

    "What do you mean you miss it? It''s just been a day, we have nine more days to go before the server opens up again."

    If Zhihao was in Li Ling''s shoes, he would''ve laughed too. He felt like a kid whining over a small game that had been confiscated away for a few days.

    Or Like a kid who was banned from going into the arcade.

    Arcade.

    Zhihao remembered something from his childhood, something very important that his brain had forgotten and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn''t completely recover the memory. In his memory, he saw himself going into an arcade and getting angry but that was it, he couldn''t remember it any further than that. He didn''t know the time frame of this memory, he couldn''t even be completely sure if he was the boy or not and he couldn''t remember why the boy was angry or was he really angry?

    Zhihao had a good memory but through time, some memories get erased and it''s an inevitable process that your brain does so that it can make some space to store new information.

    Li Ling looked at the man whose face had suddenly turned blank, "What are you thinking about?"

    "I''m trying to remember something."

    "..."

    Li Ling looked at the man and his heart started to race but he wasn''t ready yet, so he responded, "If you can''t remember something, don''t force yourself to."

    Zhihao nodded, "You''re right. If I can''t remember it, it''s probably not worth remembering."

    Li Ling was the one who suggested it but when he heard Zhihao giving up like that, his heart dropped a little. Li Ling was a little disappointed but he didn''t let it show on his face.

    Slow and steady wins the race.

    Slow and steady wins the race.

    Slow and steady wins the race.

    Slow and... Li Ling sighed, he wanted to hit himself on the head and knock himself out.

    "What''s that?" Zhihao asked as he moved forward.

    Li Ling looked over at the object that was being pointed out, "Oh that. It''s a VR room."

    "A VR room? I''ve never heard of such a thing before." Zhihao said as he looked at the room that was closed off with glass walls.

    "When the server is open, you can play T.I.A.D. inside the room but of course, the price is not at all small."

    "Sounds interesting."

    Li Ling continued with a proud smile, "The room is completely equipped to give the player real game experience. It is even equipped with an inbuilt temperature controller."

    "What does that mean?" Zhihao asked.

    "It''s kind of complicated to explain the use of the whole thing but it changes temperature according to the game. Okay, that wasn''t hard to explain. If you are thrown into a cold region in the game, you''ll feel cold inside that room and if you are thrown into the Sahara desert, the room would become extremely hot. There are a lot more features such as the pain receptors."

    Zhihao, "Pain receptors?"

    Li Ling smiled mischievously, "It''s something that tricks your mind. If you get stabbed in the game, inside that room, you''ll feel the pain in real-time."

    "That sounds both interesting and dangerous." Zhihao responded, "What if you die in the game?"

    "Depends on how you die. According to that, you''ll feel the pain but you won''t die from it."

    "..."

    It sounded like torture cause in a game, who cares how much their in-game character gets hurt? They wouldn''t feel it anyway, but what happens when such a VR room exists and they feel the pain in real life? It wasn''t going to be pretty and you''d try to save your character but with old habits that were hard to kill, you''ll still end up hurting yourself.

    Zhihao wanted to try it out. He wasn''t a masochist but the thought of feeling the pain his in-game character felt and the immersive experience really drew him in and now he had two things on his want-to-do list. He wanted to come back here and buy those three figurines and when he comes again he will also try out this VR room.

    Li Ling had read Zhihao''s mind, "If A-Zhi wants to try it out, we can always come back after the server has reopened."

    "Nope. I don''t want to pay to get myself tortured." Zhihao lied with a straight face.

    Li Ling looked at the man and he could see through the lie. This man was going to come back and was planning to come alone. Zhihao trying to hide this from Li Ling only made Li Ling want to laugh more��he wanted to ruffle this man-child''s hair.

    Li Ling didn''t say anything further on it because even if Zhihao planned on coming here alone, Li Ling will still be informed and he could just show up and have a fateful encounter with the man.

    "It costs a lot and no matter what, the player would be allowed to play one level. Even if the level was over in ten minutes or stretched out for ten hours, the rate will be the same." Li Ling informed the man who was planning his future trip.

    "Ten hours?" Zhihao looked at the man, "But what if the game stretches out even after the closing time of the arcade?"

    Li Ling, "The arcade is open 24/7"

    "Ah! That''s cool" Zhihao was in awe.

    This place was like a dream world for all T.I.A.D. players and Zhihao was feeling a little selfish. If he posted something about this place or said anything about it on social media, this place will be flooded with fans and Zhihao didn''t want that. He wanted this place to remain a secret from the world. It was good as it was��a hidden haven.

    "Come with me." Li Ling grabbed Zhihao''s hand and dragged him away again, this time towards another area, adjacent to the VR room.

    "Woah!" Zhihao''s mouth was open and he couldn''t close it, "What is this?"

    Li Ling smiled widely as he showed off his collection, "These are all the physical identical copies of the in-game items, equipment, and gears. It doesn''t have everything but there are some copies of common ones and some rare high-grade ones. Shuang is also here. It''s a pity that they are only copies and do not work in real life."

    Zhihao looked at the shinning teal coloured sword that he never thought he would physically get to hold and he could only ask one question as he grabbed the hilt of the sword, "Is it for sale?"

    "Do you want to buy it?" This time Li Ling wasn''t going to be an idiot.

    This was a one-of-a-kind collection and naturally, it wasn''t up for sale, at least that was the case for normal buyers. If Zhihao wanted it��it would be sold to him with no questions asked.

    Zhihao looked down at the sword and stroked the blade��it cut his finger. The blade was real and Zhihao didn''t care about the blood that flowed out from his fingers all he cared about was how much he''ll have to pay to buy this amazing friend.

    "I want to buy it" Buying a sword would not make Zhihao look like a kid so he was very open with expressing his desire.

    "It''s for sale." Li Ling beamed, not yet seeing the blood that flowed out from Zhihao''s finger cause if he did, this blade would end up in an incinerator.

    Unbeknownst to Zhihao, a whole ass treasure was about to fall on him. A priceless treasure that would be sold to him for a rather cheap price.

    "You don''t want to buy anything else?" Li Ling asked as he took another sword from the shelf, it was Huo, his in-game spiritual sword.

    Zhihao, "I''m afraid I won''t be able to afford everything but if I could, I would want to buy this entire arcade."

    Li Ling grinned, thinking in his mind as he did, he certainly won''t sell the whole arcade to Zhihao. He wouldn''t sell it because he knew Zhihao loved it��something loved by Zhihao would certainly be more useful in the future but the items inside this arcade however would be sold to Zhihao for cheap and if Li Ling did as he wanted, he would end up selling it for free to the man.

    Li Ling chuckled it off and said, "You can buy the items. I don''t know about the whole arcade though, maybe you''ll have to steal the heart of the owner first."

 Chapter 51 - Mastermo Is Oblivious To The Flirting

    Zhihao, "What if the owner is a 9-decade old dude?"

    "..."

    He''s not.

    Zhihao saw the look on Li Ling''s face and broke out laughing, "Don''t worry, I won''t steal a heart that is close to its expiry date."

    "..."

    If this went on, Li Ling''s heart would be close to its expiry date.

    "But the owner is probably old. Didn''t you say that it was made more than ten years ago?"

    Li Ling couldn''t understand the man''s thought process��he wanted to, but he was afraid of what he would find inside that mind.

    "It was recently sold to someone new. A handsome young man actually." Li Ling responded with a rather proud smile.

    "A handsome young owner?" Zhihao looked at the mole under Li Ling''s eyes, finding it even more mesmerizing in real life, "I guess I''m ready to become a thief then."

    "..."

    Slow and steady wins the race.

    Slow and steady wins the race.

    Slow and steady... This is not slow and steady!

    This man was freaking flirting with him without even being aware of it!

    Li Ling''s heart felt like it was near its expiry date and the process was sped up due to a man called Huang Zhihao and his obliviousness.

    "Why are you looking at me like that?" Zhihao asked as he saw the man staring at him with a face that could not be deciphered, "I was just joking. I''m not going to hit on a random dude."

    "..."

    "Or am I?"

    "..."

    Zhihao was having fun. He was thoroughly enjoying the reactions he got. It had always been him in that position but now it was Li Ling and Zhihao was the one teasing him��the feeling could not be summed up in a single word.

    Li Ling saw the man having fun as he snickered when he saw Li Ling''s expression, this triggered Li Ling to make a move as well.

    "You can."

    Zhihao, "What?"

    "You can hit on him all you want." Li Ling smirked. If this man was going to flirt without being aware of it, Li Ling would also do the same.

    "..." Zhihao panicked for some reason. He didn''t like hearing Li Ling giving him permission like that. The reason why he didn''t like it was still unknown to Zhihao and he didn''t think about it any further. It was unsettling and Zhihao didn''t care why he was feeling this way.

    Slow and steady wins the race.

    Slow and steady wins the race.

    Slow and st-

    "But I don''t think I''ll let him steal Mastermo away from me."

    "..."

    "..." Li Ling had reclaimed his position of teasing the man.

    "Um... Let''s go to the counter and pay for this sword."

    Li Ling broke out into a laugh as he heard the desperate try of Zhihao wanting to change the topic.

    Zhihao went ahead to the cash counter with a sword in hand and when the cashier saw the sword, his face did not look so great.

    This was a one-of-a-kind product that was not only not for sale but the arcade had a strict policy about it��it should not even be touched by people. This policy was written on stone by the owner of the arcade and this customer just casually picked it up and brought it over to the counter.

    The cashier''s face lost all its color as he stared at the sword and when he finally came back to his senses, he reacted immediately by crying out in worry and trying to snatch the sword away from Zhihao''s hands.

    "Dear customer, you should not-"

    The cashier was cut off mid-sentence as a hand came forward to stop his hand that was about to reach for the sword.

    "We want to buy it."

    The cashier gulped as he saw the owner of the voice.

    "S-Sir, what are yo-"

    Li Ling, "I said, I want to buy it. Are you going to say it''s not for sale?"

    That was exactly what the cashier wanted to say but in front of the owner of the arcade, how could he say it?

    Li Ling looked at the man dangerously and the man suddenly understood that his boss wanted him to play along. The reason for it was unknown but if his boss wanted him to play along, why would he refuse? He didn''t dislike his job and didn''t want to throw it away.

    "Um... I was just getting ready to pack it for you. You might hurt your hand if you carelessly touch it."

    Li Ling''s smile grew deeper as his eyes told the cashier that he had made a wise decision.

    Li Ling, "It''s for five hundred yuan, right?"

    "..." The cashier gulped as cold sweat dripped down his forehead.

    Zhihao, "It''s that cheap? I feel a bit offended."

    It was a priceless treasure that could be originally sold for more than a hundred thousand yuan but neither Li Ling nor the cashier would tell Zhihao the truth.

    "Y-yes, it''s for sale at a cheap price of five hundred yuan." The cashier bobbed his head up and down, looking at Zhihao with a meaningful expression. He felt a little hurt when he said the price out loud, the sword was not even his but he felt pity for it.

    He didn''t know who the man standing beside his boss was, but he was very curious to know who it was. His curiosity couldn''t go unnoticed as he kept on looking up at the man every now and then but luckily, Zhihao was too mesmerized with the sword in his hand hence, he didn''t notice the peeking. Li Ling however saw the man glancing at Zhihao every now and then��he cleared his throat loudly, making sure that he got his message through, he didn''t like the cashier''s interest.

    The cashier was shaken to the core when he suddenly got glared at by his boss.

    Li Ling had misunderstood the man''s interest, thinking that it was because the cashier found Zhihao handsome.

    Well, he was handsome so Li Ling couldn''t blame him. His eyes that were glaring at the man suddenly turned softer as he looked at him with sympathy and understanding.

    Eyeing something that was never going to be yours��it was certainly pitiful.

    The cashier had never been more confused in his life. At one moment he had somehow offended his boss and in the next moment, his boss was looking at him with such a sympathetic look. Either he was crazy or his boss was crazy.

    His boss was a little crazy considering the fact that he was selling off a priceless treasure for a mere five hundred yuan. It couldn''t have been because he was in need of the money, the man was too rich for that to be the reason hence, the only explanation lay within the identity of the buyer. The handsome man who came with the boss was not a simple man and the biggest question currently inside the cashier''s mind was: What was the relationship between the two?

    The cashier was a gossiper and with such a fresh topic in front of him, how could he deny his want to know the story?

    Zhihao hadn''t bought his wallet with him so it was Li Ling who gave the money to the cashier, this action further confused the cashier and made the topic of their relationship get even juicier.

    Today, the cashier understood one thing. This boss of his was crazy��too crazy for him to understand.

    After the payment was made, the sword officially belonged to Zhihao, who couldn''t wait to go back home and try cutting apples with this amazing sword.

    "Thank you for the purchase." The cashier said awkwardly, this was the first time he was saying something like this. This arcade didn''t have any for-sale items, like any other arcade, it would sell tickets to the customers but would not sell them the whole machine.

    "Thank you." Zhihao showed his gratitude as he took the sword and headed towards the door. If the VR room was still active, he would''ve waited a bit more and experienced the wonder but T.I.A.D''s server was closed down so there was nothing else he wanted to do here.

    Li Ling stayed behind and secretly talked with the cashier a bit more.

    "If you see that man again, you inform me and never tell him who I am, okay? If he asks for the owner, just tell him that it''s a handsome young man that is hard to get a hold of."

    "Understood, sir." The cashier nodded eagerly as if he were being given an important mission.

    "Good"

    Li Ling followed after Zhihao who couldn''t keep his hands off the sword. He really looked like a little kid who finally bought his favorite toy and couldn''t leave it alone for a single second.

    Li Ling, "Where are you running off to?"

    "Huh? Aren''t we done? Is there something else?"

    Li Ling smiled as he held his hand up and jiggled the keys to Zhihao''s car.

    "Next destination."

    Zhihao wanted to try out the sword immediately and see if he can cut this man''s finger off but he couldn''t do it.

    Zhihao closed his eyes, "If you overspeed again, I swear I''ll kill you."

    "I won''t" Li Ling beamed, "I promise"

    Actually, it was hard for Li Ling to not overspeed since it came naturally to him, but for Zhihao, he would try his best to drive as slowly as possible. In fact, the trip here wasn''t that far but it took them a lot of time to come here because Li Ling was driving at a speed so slow that he looked like a snail on the road��being taken over by every other vehicle that passed by them.

    "Where are we going next?" Zhihao asked. He should''ve had a bigger reaction to Li Ling driving his car again, but he had bought the sword and was in a really pleasant mood so he didn''t want to fight with the man at the moment.

    Li Ling got in the car and Zhihao followed, making it look like the sports car actually belonged to Li Ling and this was exactly what the cashier who saw the two men thought.

    His boss seemed to be a sugar daddy...

    As Li Ling promised, the ride was smooth and the man didn''t dare overspeed with Zhihao in the car.

    "You didn''t answer my question." Zhihao pouted, "Where are you taking me?"

    "Aren''t surprises more fun?" Li Ling beamed.

    Zhihao thought about it deeply and he found it really to be the case. Zhihao loved surprises but most of the time it had something to do with games so he didn''t know if he liked surprise in general or if he only liked surprises when they were related to a game.

    "This time, it''s not going to be related to games." Li Ling commented as if he had read Zhihao''s mind and Zhihao frowned as he heard this.

    He was actually thinking about games and anticipating the destination of this ride but now that Li Ling had told him it wasn''t related to games, he was visibly dejected.

    The two made small talks along the way��mostly joking about games and stuff. Sometimes Li Ling will share his sister''s stories and Zhihao would talk about Huang Zhen. It came as a shock to both of them that after that day, on which Zhihao arranged for them to meet up and become friends, the two actually got close and became inseparable friends.

    Zhihao was the one who was more shocked because when he saw Li Ying''s hobby of cosplaying as a loli, he would''ve never guessed that she could become friends with his bully of a brother. It came as a bigger shock that his brother hadn''t bullied the girl about her hobby.

    Zhihao didn''t know that Huang Zhen had tried to bully the girl but after being kicked on his shin a few times, he gave up and didn''t dare bother the girl anymore. He wanted to keep his bones intact so it was best not to offend Li Ying.

    "She talks about him a lot, mostly complaints though, but I can feel that she''s very fond of him."

    Zhihao laughed, "If this goes on, we might become family soon."

    "I would love to be a part of your family."

    Zhihao didn''t understand what the man was implying on so he laughed it off, "I would love to have a brother-in-law like you."

    "I wasn''t talking about that kind of family though."

    "..."

    Li Ling really loved to drop a flirty bomb every now and then.

 Chapter 52 - Mastermo And His God

    "Um... What?" Zhihao was visibly taken back by the sudden reply, "What type of family do you want to become?"

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao with a sweet smile that was ready to flirt to heaven but all Zhihao could see was the man''s eyes that were off the road and this was going to quite literally lead them to either heaven or hell.

    "I wanted to be your-"

    "Eyes on the road." Zhihao scolded, not wanting to meet god just yet.

    Li Ling chuckled, thinking that the man just wanted to change the topic, but he was surprised to hear Zhihao questioning again.

    "So what type of family?"

    Li Ling felt his heart go berserk and his mind in the same state as his heart. If this was the case, how was he to think straight and give a straight answer?

    "I want to be directly related to you, not your brother." Li Ling answered

    Zhihao snickered as he heard this, "What? Do you want to become my sworn brother or something?"

    It was a joke but when Li Ling thought back to the ''sworn brother'' shounen-ai mangas he had read, he suddenly felt the suggestion was exactly what he wanted.

    Li Ling nodded enthusiastically, "Does A-Zhi want to become my sworn brother?"

    Zhihao felt like the man was joking but when he looked at the man''s face, he found him to actually be serious on the topic.

    This man actually wanted to be Mastermo''s sworn brother.

    "Let''s do that then. Let''s be sworn brothers." Zhihao laughed half-jokingly and the other half serious.

    "I will be Mastermo''s one and only sworn brother." Li Ling beamed.

    Zhihao thought about it for a while, "Actually there is one more person I''d want to be sworn brothers with"

    Li Ling was curious and a bit jealous as he asked, "Who is it?"

    "Bu Hui1"

    "What?" Li Ling was confused, he had never heard of such a person.

    Zhihao turned all smiles as he thought about the owner of the weird name and its origin, "The Gamemaster. I asked him his name and before he was thrown out of the level, he said Bu Hui ."

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry.

    "So you believe that''s his name?"

    Zhihao shook his head, "Of course, I don''t, but calling him Gamemaster all the time sounds weird so I thought I''ll call him Bu Hui from then on, at least until he tells me his real name."

    Li Ling saw something in Zhihao''s eyes as he talked about the man and Li Ling couldn''t help but be shocked. He knew that look��wasn''t it the same look Li Ling used to have whenever he saw or thought about Zhihao?

    Li Ling understood something, something that maybe even Zhihao hadn''t understood yet.

    "This Bu Hui, what do you think about him?" Li Ling was curious to know the answer, although he had already guessed it.

    Zhihao was shocked to be suddenly questioned like this and he wasn''t someone who''ll answer impulsively so he pondered over the answer for a minute or two.

    "Bu Hui is... Amazing." Zhihao answered honestly, somewhat trying to filter out his fanboy side, "He is young and already so successful, it''s really admirable. I don''t know him that well but from what I know, I can already say that he is a very humble person with a good likeable personality."

    Zhihao stopped himself from speaking any further, cause if he did, he would just be ranting about how much he admired the man.

    Li Ling nodded, his eyes on the road. He understood the real answer but he didn''t know what he should feel about it.

    Li Ling contemplated on what reaction he should give and after much deliberation, he could finally come up with an answer that sounded right, "I''m jealous of Bu Hui."

    The meaning behind his words could be understood differently by different people and Zhihao thought the man was talking about Bu Hui''s talent.

    "His talent and luck are really something to be jealous over." Zhihao agreed

    Li Ling smiled, already knowing in his mind that this man wouldn''t be able to understand the reason behind Li Ling''s jealousy. At this point, even if Li Ling came out and said the reason to his face, Zhihao would still not be able to understand.

    There were times Li Ling found this man''s dense head to be frustrating but he was also sometimes glad about it.

    Slow and steady wins the race and he was going to go as slow as a snail, after all, they had all the time in the world left for them.

    "Is A-Zhi also jealous of Bu Hui?"

    Zhihao shook his head, denying it with all his might, "Not at all, why would I be jealous of him? We are worlds apart. He is the maker and I''m just a fan of his work, I can''t even dream about being jealous over him."

    Li Ling frowned, feeling that this man had some really difficult misconceptions.

    Zhihao continued, "When someone reaches a certain level higher than you, you can''t even be qualified to compare yourself to them. It''s what it is. I''m happy with where I am. If I can get to meet the man in person and get to know him, I''ll be so blessed that I could die on the spot."

    "You''re really under-confident." Li Ling scolded the man who was just flowing away with his submissive fan side, "You should not consider him a god. I mean, even if he achieved great things, he''s still a human and doesn''t deserve to be put on a pedestal."

    "I beg to differ. If I could, I''ll put him up on a pedestal." Zhihao retorted.

    "Well, if you put him on a pedestal, you are the one making him unreachable. Didn''t you want to get to know him?" Li Ling was not his polite usual self and it was refreshing for Zhihao to see this side of him.

    "But I''m not a selfish person. If he deserves a pedestal, he should be given one. I''m fine with just knowing that such a man exists and being his follower from far is enough for me."

    Li Ling sighed, "There is a reason why humans are humans no matter how great they are."

    Zhihao, "And what''s the reason?"

    "Human needs and desires."

    "..."

    Li Ling, "No matter how great a person is, they would still be grounded by their human needs and desires. Bu Hui is no different."

    Zhihao knew that the Gamemaster was still a human but he was reluctant to admit it because to him, the man was just that great, if he could, he''ll even create a temple for Bu Hui.

    Bu Hui religion��it would most certainly be interesting.

    "So you should stop considering him so out of reach." Li Ling''s eyes were on the road and his one hand on the steering with his other hand reaching out to poke Zhihao''s head, "You should try reaching out. Who knows? You might actually be able to touch that god of yours."

    Zhihao didn''t know what he was feeling. Reaching out sounded a bit unbelievable and reckless yet Zhihao wanted to try it out but then again, he was afraid. He was afraid of scaring the man away or maybe even making him blacklist Zhihao.

    Zhihao was happy with being a fan. His dream wasn''t like Kaoru''s. He didn''t want to protect Bu Hui from the other players, he wanted to be the one who''ll personally kill the man.

    Zhihao wanted to put the man up on a pedestal and be the only one who reaches that high and breaks that pedestal. He was a bit weird for thinking like this but he didn''t care. If he were to honestly tell Li Ling what he wanted, he would make Li Ling call him a freak and run away so he had only revealed half of the truth. Only told the man about the fact that he was going to place the Gamemaster on top of a pedestal, as for what he wanted to do next, Zhihao would not openly admit it.

    Zhihao felt like a psychopath��wanting to make someone an angel and then tainting them with their own blood. Zhihao wasn''t sadistic but the thought of killing the unreachable man was amusing to him.

    "Do you understand?" Li Ling asked and Zhihao looked away, peeking out the window.

    "I don''t care. He''s amazing."

    Li Ling wanted to laugh at the stubborn man who was refusing to believe that he was wrong.

    "Where are we going?" Zhihao tried to change the topic.

    Li Ling, "We are almost there."

    They drove for a few more minutes, the ride was silent as neither of them spoke for the rest of the ride, not knowing what they had to say in order to relieve the awkward atmosphere.

    In such cases, there was nothing better than a good mouth-watering meal together.

    They arrived in front of a high-end restaurant.

    "Wow! A casual meal here? I wonder how rich your job pays."

    "Don''t worry about the price, it''s for free." Li Ling beamed, "My mother owns this restaurant."

    Zhihao was amazed, not because he suddenly found the man to have such a rich background but because he found it shocking that even with such a rich upbringing, Li Ling still remained so humble. It was certainly difficult to find such people. Zhihao knew a few rich people and they were all spoiled brats, the best example was a man called Wang GuiYing.

    "Showing off your wealth? If I was a girl, I''d misunderstand your intentions." Zhihao joked around.

    He wasn''t entirely wrong.

    "No need to be a girl. A-Zhi is fine as a man."

    "..."

    Zhihao wanted to either bury this man on the ground or bury himself on the ground, he couldn''t make up his mind on what he wanted more.

    Li Ling grabbed a hold of Zhihao''s hand and dragged him inside the restaurant without any further words wasted.

    The entrance had two guards who saw Li Ling and immediately bowed down and made away for the two to pass through.

    "Why are there guards in a restaurant?" Zhihao asked curiously as he found it weird.

    Li Ling, "You''ll be surprised to know what type of people try to crawl in here."

    "You make it sound like some mafia gang is eyeing your restaurant." Zhihao joked.

    Li Ling smiled in return and Zhihao was taken back.

    "What?! For real?"

    "Security is always needed." Li Ling neither agreed nor refuted it.

    The two could not continue their topic as a waiter came up to them and greeted Li Ling, "Welcome back, sir. We have prepared a table for two, upstairs."

    Li Ling frowned, "Why upstairs?"

    The waiter was put in an awkward position as he pointed in a certain direction and tried his best to explain the situation, "The young madam came with her friends and booked the entire ground floor."

    Li Ling looked at his sister who was as always, dressed in her Lolita costume, laughing and having fun with her friends. Huang Zhen was also there and a lot more people who would be recognized by Zhihao so just as Li Ling spotted them, he moved forward and blocked Zhihao''s view.

    "Let''s go upstairs." He smiled

    Zhihao wanted to see who was the person who rented out the downstairs area but with Li Ling blocking his view, he wasn''t so interested that he would go peeping over the man''s shoulder.

    The waiter led them upstairs and the two followed him without any questions.

    It screamed rich. With extravagant chandeliers and tableware, Zhihao could conclude that eating here for just once would cost a fortune. The tables and chairs were black and the tablecloth on top was pure white with beautiful artistic golden embroidery. The tableware was also color-coordinated with a mixture of golden and white.

    This could be considered a perfect dating spot.

    The waiter pulled the two chairs out and indicted the two men to take a seat as he left the menu book in front of them.

    "I''ll go bring the two masters some water. Please take your time to think about what you want to order."

    Li Ling stopped the waiter from leaving, "Just take the order right now."

    "Yes, sir." The waiter nodded politely.

    "Get us the non-veg couple special."

    Zhihao, "..."

    Waiter, "..."

 Chapter 53 - Mastermo Is On A Date

    "Yes Sir." The waiter sounded a bit too enthusiastic in his reply.

    "The couple set is the best." Li Ling tried to defend himself and Zhihao nodded awkwardly.

    "With the looks of it, I think anything from here would be delicious." Zhihao had suddenly become a sweet talker.

    "I can''t argue with that. We have really great chefs."

    The waiter was gone for a couple of minutes and returned with a jug of water and filled their glasses with water.

    The water was important..

    It was very important as Li Ling immediately emptied the whole glass. He was very thirsty. The waiter was polite enough to refill his empty glass once again.

    "I''ll be back with your order." The waiter took his leave only after he sent a knowing smile towards Li Ling.

    At this point, Li Ling felt like Zhihao was the only one blind to something so apparent.

    Li Ling took the glass again and chugged the water down his throat, feeling as if no matter how much he drank, he was still thirsty.

    Zhihao chuckled out of nowhere, "This is like a perfect date all girls dream about."

    cough~ cough~

    Li Ling choked on the water and Zhihao handed him a napkin.

    "Drink slowly."

    "..."

    Li Ling averted eye contact as if he was guilty of being found out. He wiped his mouth and placed the napkin and glass down on the table.

    "Does A-Zhi also dream of having such a date?"

    Zhihao thought about it for a while and then frowned, "I''ve never had such a dream but a perfect date for me would be sitting at home and playing games all day. That would be really romantic."

    Li Ling made a mental note and scolded himself for coming up with such a lame idea. Of course, Zhihao wouldn''t be interested in such a clich�� date. A gaming date was always better.

    "We''ll have a gaming date later when T.I.A.D''s server is back on." Li Ling mumbled and Zhihao heard him.

    "Hmm?"

    Li Ling smiled and smoothly changed the topic like butter, "I wonder what the second stage of T.I.A.D. will be like."

    Zhihao''s enthusiasm couldn''t go hidden as his body visibly jolted awake. His shoulders straightened out and he leaned in with eyes that shimmered with interest.

    "Do you have any ideas?" Zhihao asked eagerly.

    Li Ling wanted to laugh when he saw such a reaction, "I don''t know. Does A-Zhi have any expectations?"

    Zhihao bobbed his head up and down, "I do. I have a lot but I don''t think they will come true."

    Li Ling also leaned in as he rested his head on his cupped hands, "I would love to hear it."

    "We only got one notification saying they''ll need ten days to prepare for the second stage, I find that questionable. This can''t be a server maintenance thing so what could it be?" Zhihao asked as if trying to make the atmosphere a bit more detective-like. He looked like a man trying to copy Sherlock Holmes.

    Li Ling, "What does ten days have to do with it?"

    Zhihao pursed his lips and nodded his head, "I don''t know."

    Zhihao didn''t want to word out his thoughts and expectations with stage two.

    Li Ling cracked up, "So A-Zhi has nothing?"

    "I don''t know" Zhihao pouted, "But I want T.I.A.D. to improve their storylines. I mean I love them all but they are all so twisted. I want some of them to have a happy ending."

    "How do you know they don''t have a happy ending? What if they do but the players don''t satisfy the conditions it takes to make the storyline end happy?"

    Zhihao was suddenly amazed. He had never thought of such a thing. Actually, he had but he was also the one who pushed the idea aside because no matter how pacifist he was in a level, the story was always so twisted that it was impossible to have it end on a happy note.

    "If a happy ending exists, there''s probably a one in ten chances of fulfilling it, and that one chance is as difficult as finding a needle from a haystack."

    Li Ling looked at the man with an undecipherable expression. Mastermo was very sharp. He had guessed it correctly. The chances of ending a level with a happy ending was one in ten but that one chance was affected by a lot of factors and if any of that factor was different than the planned happy plot, the story would be redirected towards the tragic/normal ending and at that point going back to the path of the happy ending was impossible.

    So far, all levels Mastermo played ended with the normal ending, this also meant that there were endings more tragic and there was also a happy ending that Mastermo had somehow missed.

    Li Ling wanted to change the topic because the more Zhihao indulged in this topic, the more he''ll uncover and the more spoilers Li Ling would give out by mistake.

    "It doesn''t matter if there is a happy ending or not. In the end, our mission will remain the same. Maybe Bu Hui just has a sadistic personality."

    Li Ling received a glare for calling Zhihao''s god a sadist.

    "He''s not like that."

    Zhihao was a blind man with a perfectly healthy pair of eyes.

    "Yeah. He is not a sadist, he just enjoys creating cruel stories." Li Ling lightly rolled his eyes.

    Zhihao looked up at Li Ling with a shocked expression, he remembered the latter part of this line but he couldn''t remember where he remembered it from.

    It was so familiar, as if, Zhihao were the one who originally said the line.

    "I think it''s great." Zhihao commented and Li Ling looked at him with great interest, "It is unpredictable and different from the rest."

    Li Ling smiled, "Did you know that whenever you talk about Bu Hui, you have that look in your eyes. That crazed fan look."

    Zhihao was a bit embarrassed. He leaned in closer and indicated Li Ling to do the same.

    Li Ling leaned in, wondering how important the thing Zhihao wanted to whisper to him was.

    "Don''t tell anyone this." Zhihao whispered, "He looks more handsome when he''s slaughtering beasts."

    "..."

    Li Ling didn''t know what he felt about this. Should he really be hearing this?

    He felt like he was invading Zhihao''s privacy. He wanted to laugh but he couldn''t. He really shouldn''t be the one who heard Zhihao share such information.

    "Is that so?" Li Ling moved back to his originally straight posture, looking like a well-mannered nobleman.

    When Zhihao saw the man sitting in front of him, he couldn''t help but feel that this man just belonged. He belonged to such extravagant rich places. Zhihao admired the man for this. For Zhihao, he hated such places. When his father called him to attend the lavish business parties, he would decline, not being polite at showing his disinterest. He felt like his room was a lot more fun than such boring places. But now that he saw Li Ling, he could understand the aesthetic reason behind why people would want to attend such events.

    If Li Ling attended old Huang''s business meetings, Zhihao would have considered going to them.

    Li Ling scratched his neck as he saw Zhihao looking at him, "You know, I look handsome while slaying beasts too."

    "..."

    The waiter had perfect timing. He had a complicated expression on his face filled with smiles. This waiter was a spy for Li Ling''s mother and Li Ling knew it.

    "Here you go. A non-veg couple set." The waiter set down the food on the table.

    There was a lot and when Zhihao saw the delicious looking and smelling food, he couldn''t help but gulp down his saliva.

    This was food-heaven on earth.

    Li Ling was satisfied to see Zhihao''s reaction.

    "Have a great date, sir" The waiter commented before he left.

    Zhihao didn''t hear the words so he replied with an absent-minded "Thank you."

    It was Zhihao''s habit. He was a well-mannered gentleman.

    Li Ling chuckled, "Thank you."

    The waiter bowed and left the two lovebirds alone.

    There was so much on the table that Zhihao didn''t know what he wanted to eat first. The aroma that filled the air was enough to make Zhihao droll at a whiff. The food looked so appetizing that Zhihao felt like it would be a waste if he let his knife cut into the perfect looking steak.

    Li Ling, "Everything is delicious, choose whatever you want."

    Zhihao couldn''t agree more. Everything looked delicious but now Zhihao was in a state of confusion, what was he supposed to eat first?

    Li Ling was more than happy to help Zhihao get out of this dilemma as he took Zhihao''s plate and served him.

    "I hope A-Zhi is not allergic to seafood."

    He wasn''t. In fact, Zhihao loved seafood and that was the reason why Li Ling served the black pepper tossed shrimp first.

    "I love seafood." Zhihao exclaimed happily as he eyed the delicious looking shrimp.

    "That''s good to hear." Li Ling sat back down on his seat and served himself some of it too.

    The two ate happily, so indulged in savoring the food that they didn''t care if they talked or not. Li Ling was like a mother who would fill her son''s plate every now and then with mouth-watering food and force him to eat it, but in this case, Zhihao wasn''t being forced at all. He had never eaten so much in his life. This restaurant was certainly amazing, so amazing that Zhihao wanted to meet the chef and give him a job at Zhihao''s house as the head chef.

    Time has passed away so fast that they were already down to the dessert.

    There were actually many verities of dessert present in front of them, but no matter how much Zhihao wanted to eat them, he couldn''t because his stomach felt like it was ready to explode at any given moment.

    Zhihao looked down at the ice cream, cake, tiramisu, and the white stuff that was decorated with crushed dry fruits. He didn''t know the name of most of these because they weren''t game items but if they were, Zhihao would''ve remembered the name and taste of each and every dish that was served in this restaurant.

    Li Ling saw through the dejected look on Zhihao''s face, "Let''s pack the rest and have them delivered to your house."

    Zhihao frowned, "I don''t think such restaurants have packing and delivery services."

    Li Ling laughed at the man''s simple mind, "But if I want it, I''m sure I can have it packed."

    "Tch- flaunting off your wealth?"

    Li Ling smirked, "What? Jealous?"

    "Sure, I''m jealous." Zhihao played along.

    "Then you can marry into my family and have all this."

    "..." Zhihao was taken back once again and looked at the man with eyes wide open, "Your sister is so young, I don''t want to go to jail."

    "Huh?"

    It took Li Ling a whole minute to process what was being said and just as he did, he wanted to bang his head on the wall and knock himself out.

    That wasn''t what he meant at all!

    "..."

    Li Ling looked at the man and sighed in disbelief, "A-Zhi has a wild imagination."

    Zhihao tilted his head, "Then what do you mean? Do you want me to marry you instead?"

    "..."

    Yes, that was exactly what Li Ling wanted to say.

    Li Ling was silent for the next few minutes as he drank another whole glass of water, feeling as if his thirst was hard to quench. At this point, it would be more shocking if he didn''t pee a ton after drinking all that water.

    Li Ling looked into Zhihao''s eyes and decided to chant his mantra in his mind.

    Slow and steady wins the race.

    Slow and steady wins the race.

    Slow and steady... To hell with slow and steady. Li Ling can win the race with his looks alone and if he can''t, he''ll get the other opponents disqualified!

    "If I wanted A-Zhi to marry me, would you?"

 Chapter 54 - Mastermos Forced Confession

    "If I wanted A-Zhi to marry me, would you?"

    When Zhihao looked at Li Ling, wide-eyed, he couldn''t know if the man was joking around or was he actually serious?

    "..."

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao''s shocked face that resembled a pufferfish and he couldn''t help but break out laughing, this man was very fun to tease, although, Li Ling wasn''t exactly teasing.

    Zhihao frowned as he saw the man laughing at him and his instincts made him want to wipe that laugh off of Li Ling''s face.

    "I wouldn''t mind."

    "...."

    It was Li Ling''s turn to choke on empty air. He looked at Zhihao who nonchalantly took a sip of water.

    Li Ling suddenly found that this man was very dangerous for his heart. The worst part of it was that Li Ling wasn''t looking forward to getting rid of this heart-hazardous person.

    When Zhihao saw Li Ling''s expression, he wanted to laugh and felt proud of himself, he had successfully changed the position of the bully and the victim, or at least he thought he had.

    "A-Zhi is ready to marry me?" Li Ling questioned.

    Zhihao nodded with a half-suppressed smile, "If it''s Li Ling, I wouldn''t mind getting married to you."

    Li Ling knew that Zhihao was joking, not even one sentence of what he said was the truth but Zhihao saying it still made Li Ling''s heart float up to cloud 9.

    Li Ling decided to showcase his great acting skills as he frowned, "But I don''t think Mastermo wants to make Bu Hui jealous."

    The roles had been switched once again and like a ball that was being passed between them, it was Zhihao''s turn to be shocked and embarrassed. His ears turned bright red and he choked on the water he was drinking.

    "W-What?!"

    Li Ling smirked, "I think I know Mastermo better than he knows himself."

    Zhihao looked at the man with pure shock apparent on his face and his ears bright red like red wine.

    Li Ling leaned in closer, resting his chin on his cupped hands, "A-Zhi likes Bu Hui, don''t you?"

    "..."

    Zhihao looked at the man with an undecipherable expression as if he had been found out yet he hadn''t known it himself that he was guilty of such a thing.

    "D-Definitely not!" Zhihao stuttered and that stutter was all it took to make Li Ling chuckle at the man.

    "Why are you trying to hide it?" Li Ling questioned, not bothering to hide his amusement.

    Zhihao''s blood that had collected near his ears started to slightly spread towards his cheeks as he replayed the words Li Ling had said.

    He was innocent! He had never thought of such things!

    "You got me wrong. I admire him but that''s it. I like him as an idol. I don''t like him like that." Zhihao tried his utmost best to defend himself but to no avail. The more he tried to defend himself the more it looked like he was guilty.

    Li Ling was enjoying it thoroughly as he tried to hold his laugh and continue teasing the man.

    "So A-Zhi likes him like an idol?"

    "Yes! He''s my idol!"

    Li Ling, "But I thought, A-Zhi didn''t want to compare yourself to him? Aren''t idol''s supposed to be something you compare yourself and try to be like?"

    "..."

    Li Ling, "What are you afraid of? It''s just us here, you can tell me, I won''t tell anyone."

    At least not someone who wasn''t the subject of the conversation.

    Zhihao was speechless as he looked down at his fiddling fingers. Why the hell were his fingers fiddling?! He wasn''t guilty of the accused action! He really wasn''t!

    Zhihao felt like if he denied it, the lie would become the truth but the truth didn''t work like that. The more you lie, the more apparent the truth becomes.

    "I''m being honest, I don''t have such feeling towards him. I hardly know him."

    "..."

    Li Ling wanted to refute but he couldn''t do it openly so he leaned in closer and looked at the man with unhidden interest, "Does A-Zhi know what love is?"

    "Of course I do!"

    "What is it?"

    "..." Zhihao didn''t know why but when he thought of the answer, he felt like saying it out loud would just be like asking people to make fun of him and call him a gaming nerd.

    Li Ling, "I''d love to hear what love is for Mastermo."

    Zhihao, "It''s that feeling you get when you get excited over even the mention of that someone, you start feeling your heart race and you can''t stop thinking about them. You are a bit possessive over them but if others appreciate them, you are naturally happy for them. You can''t wait to meet them and if you can''t see them, you keep remembering them and talk to everyone about them."

    Zhihao was intelligent. He had actually explained his feelings for games and instead of saying games he had replaced the words with a person. Zhihao felt like he was a genius.

    When Li Ling heard Zhihao''s wholehearted reply��he knew the man was talking about games but Li Ling had no intentions of calling the man out.

    "I see" Li Ling laughed.

    "Why are you laughing?"

    "I''m just laughing at how oblivious A-Zhi is."

    "What do you mean?" Zhihao sounded a bit offended. He had loved games so naturally, his answer should have been a perfect explanation of a feeling called love. In fact, it was.

    "You just explain your feelings for Bu Hui."

    "..."

    Zhihao thought back to his answer.

    Damn... It really was so.

    Feeling excited over a mere mention of the person?

    The enthusiastic look in Zhihao''s eyes whenever the Gamemaster was mentioned could be noticed by a mere five-year-old kid.

    Your heart races and you can''t stop thinking about them?

    If a day went by without Zhihao complimenting Bu Hui, his day would go incomplete.

    Possessive over them?

    Was it not Zhihao who declared that he wanted to kill the gamemaster so that other players cannot?

    Feel happy when others appreciate the person?

    Wasn''t that the reason why Zhihao liked the player they recently met, Kaoru?

    Can''t wait to meet them? Telling everyone about them?

    Damn...

    It had summed up everything Zhihao felt for the gamemaster and the realization shocked Zhihao. What Zhihao didn''t notice was that these were also the feelings he felt towards Li Ling; if he had noticed them this early, things wouldn''t have been as interesting as they had ended up becoming.

    Li Ling saw Zhihao''s face changing colors and expression, from the realization, to the panic, to the embarrassment, to the everything, and he was enjoying himself as he took in all the changes that went through Zhihao''s face.

    "I love... Bu Hui?!" Zhihao was shocked at himself.

    "It seems you do." Li Ling smiled, he didn''t know why but he felt a little jealous, although him being jealous was quite pathetic. But he was sitting in front of the man and the man had fallen in love with someone whom he had hardly met, the jealousy was a bit justified.

    Zhihao was in a crisis as he suddenly came to the heart-shaking realization. This was too fast. It was hard for him to believe. He thought he liked Bu Hui only because of the game but now that he thought about it deeper, he found that he just liked the gamemaster for some incomprehensible reason that he was yet to figure out.

    A moment ago, Zhihao''s stomach was filled to the point that he felt like he''ll puke if he ate something more but magically, he had forgotten all about his filled stomach and felt very thirsty as he took the glass of water and chugged it down like alcohol.

    "Do you want me to order you some alcohol? A few shots to Mastermo realizing that he''s in love." Li Ling was teasing Zhihao but when he saw Zhihao''s face, he felt a bit of pity for the man.

    For Li Ling, he had always known what love was and whom he loved. It was so clear that there was no process where he needed time to accept his feelings but Zhihao was different. He had only ever been interested in gaming so it was normal for him to have this feeling of shock and finding it hard to accept his own feelings. Li Ling wondered what Zhihao was feeling, what was the process of coming to terms with the fact that you have a crush?

    Zhihao was really not looking good. How could he? He felt like his soul was shocked out from his body and was ready to cross the yellow river1.

    How could he not know?! Just how stupid was he?!

    It was easy for Zhihao to accept the fact that he had a crush on the gamemaster but it was difficult for him to understand why it was so difficult for him to understand. How could he not know? Why did he need someone else pointing it out for him?

    Zhihao had a lot of questions but one question stood out from the rest.

    The most important question.

    What was he supposed to do now???

    Zhihao suddenly felt his consciousness split into two or maybe even more. One part was still recovering from the shock, one part was embarrassed and wanted the ground to swallow him up, one was cursing himself for being so stupid, the other was panicking over the situation and the last part of him was feeling pity for himself.

    Even if he had a crush on the gamemaster��even if he realized he had a crush on the gamemaster, what was he supposed to do with it?!

    Bu Hui was already on top of a pedestal and even getting to catch a glimpse of him was like the heavens being generous.

    Mastermo''s first love was hopeless! He was going to become a joke forever with people laughing at him and feeling pity for him. He had to hide it! He had to hide these feelings deep within! It was not too late!

    "Is A-Zhi planning on how to propose to Bu Hui?" Li Ling teased a bit more, he felt pity for the man but he was having way too much fun.

    Zhihao looked up sharply, "Don''t tell anyone!"

    "Huh?"

    "I can''t have anyone finding this out! Especially Bu Hui! He must never find out."

    "..."

    Zhihao was a bit late wanting to hide it from Bu Hui.

    Li Ling smiled, "I won''t tell anyone. It''s a secret between us."

    Of course, this didn''t mean that no one will find out because just as Li Ling had noticed it, others would soon follow and see through Zhihao. It was only a matter of time before everyone knew but if Zhihao felt reassured right now, Li Ling would not want to break that.

    "But" Li Ling straightened out his back, "What are you going to do now?"

    "Nothing" It didn''t take long for Zhihao to answer the question.

    "What do you mean nothing? Aren''t you going to chase after him?"

    "Nope." Zhihao shook his head and didn''t notice the disbelief in Li Ling''s face.

    "But why?"

    Zhihao sighed, feeling a bit sad as he answered, "I can''t so I won''t."

    "Why can''t you?"

    "Putting the fact that I''m not qualified enough aside, even if I wanted to chase after him, how can I do that when I''ve only met the man once?"

    Li Ling frowned, ignoring the latter and focusing on the former, "What do you mean you''re not qualified? I feel offended."

    "It is what it is. I can''t compare to that man. It would be a miracle if he even knows my name."

    Zhihao was too humble and under-confident. Who in the world didn''t know his name?

    Li Ling wanted to scream at Zhihao. Bu Hui was also human! He wasn''t an untouchable God!

    "I don''t like you talking about yourself like that. I have looked up to Mastermo for all my life, just like you can''t let dirt touch your idol, I can''t let you depreciate yourself like this."

    Zhihao would sometimes get so comfortable around Li Ling that he would forget that this man was his long time fan. To have your idol trash talk about himself��if Bu Hui did something like that, Zhihao would go crazy mad.

    "Then what do you want me to do?"

    Li Ling was confident when he answered, "Chase after him!"

 Chapter 55 - Mastermo Will Chase After His Crush?

    Zhihao was a bit taken back, "What do you mean chase after him?"

    "It means what it means." Li Ling responded enthusiastically, "You should try your shot. You''ll definitely regret it if you don''t."

    Zhihao didn''t know he had such an option, in fact, he still found it to be unbelievable. How could he even think about chasing after that man? Meeting him again would mean everything to Zhihao so how could he let himself grow greedy?

    Zhihao couldn''t even completely believe that he was interested in the Gamemaster in that way. Zhihao was a little embarrassed to admit it, but he wasn''t that shocked at the fact that he was interested in a man, he was more shocked at the fact that he was interested in someone who wasn''t a game.

    If Huang Zhen had been here to hear this, he would''ve thoroughly been shocked over the same thing. His brother finding something except games as interesting was close to impossible. If he were to believe such bullshit, the sun would need to rise from the west.

    Li Ling looked at the man with eyes that couldn''t conceal his interest in Zhihao''s love life..

    "Hiding your feelings is hard. No one can know that feeling better than me."

    He wasn''t exactly hiding his feelings, but at least, he hadn''t openly proposed so it could still be counted as him hiding his feelings. Li Ling remembered a few minutes back when he asked Zhihao to marry him, maybe he had proposed but had not been taken seriously?

    Zhihao looked at the man who was ready to become a cupid for Zhihao, "You have experience hiding your feelings? Wait! You like someone?"

    Li Ling wanted to bang his head on the wall and pass out. Why was he even alive right now? God didn''t need to punish him for falling for a dense person��the punishment would be given to him nonetheless.

    "Of course I like someone. I''ve liked that person for years now."

    Zhihao didn''t know why, but he wanted to know more about Li Ling''s story, he didn''t know if he felt pity for the man or if he was a bit sad to know that Li Ling liked someone. His heart which was racing at the mention of chasing after the Gamemaster slowed down and grew heavy but Zhihao didn''t realize this.

    "Why did you hide it?"

    Li Ling sighed, he didn''t know if he should laugh or cry at the question. Zhihao was oblivious, so dense as if his eyes were really just buttons for display��a really beautiful pair of buttons.

    "I liked that person since we were kids. We are friends. Really great friends, I''m afraid I might break our friendship so I decided to hide my feelings."

    "But that person must have realized, right? I mean, if you are close friends, then the person should have seen it. You saw through me didn''t you?"

    Li Ling, "My friend is really dense."

    Zhihao, "You''re being too nice. That friend is just dumb. What do you even like about that friend?"

    Li Ling''s smile grew deeper as he looked at Zhihao, trying his best not to spill out the tea himself, "Everything."

    "Huh?"

    "I like everything about that person. From their face to their personality all the way to their heart and brain. I love every inch and action of that person."

    Zhihao didn''t know what he was feeling. His feelings were in turmoil. Moving so fast, going from one to another as if he were on a roller coaster ride.

    Zhihao had to admit, "I feel a little jealous of that person."

    Li Ling smiled, "Why does it make you feel jealous?"

    "To be loved like that, it would be more shocking if I wasn''t jealous." Zhihao chuckled awkwardly looking away, "How long have you crushed over your friend?"

    "10 years."

    Zhihao choked once again, "T-That long?!"

    "For every single day of those ten years, I have thought of that person. I even tried making my feelings so apparent as if wishing for the person to find out because I''m too scared to say it but..." Li Ling suddenly started laughing and Zhihao could sense the sadness in that laugh. Li Ling looked up into Zhihao''s eyes, "But that person is... Stupid. So dense that I almost hate it, but even that stupidness I have come to love."

    "That sounds so cheesy. If that person was me, I would''ve melted on the spot." Zhihao couldn''t control his racing heart mostly because he didn''t even know why it was racing, "Makes me really curious to know what type of person that is."

    "Want me to tell you?"

    Zhihao nodded, "If you are comfortable with it."

    "That person is intelligent yet dumb at the same time. I look at that face and my heart starts to race, so fast that I feel like I might have a heart attack. That person is kind and savage, cold and warm, so near yet so far away."

    "..." When Li Ling looked so intensely at the person sitting in front of him, Zhihao almost believed that the person Li Ling was talking about was him��he buried that feeling before it could even be analyzed.

    "That person is the reason why I love gaming." Li Ling smiled, "In fact, my whole career was based on that person. A promise we made, that person probably doesn''t remember it anymore but I have spent ten years of my life constantly trying to fulfill that promise."

    "You''re... Really sweet. That person is really lucky."

    Li Ling nodded, "I think that person is my biggest luck. Whenever I''m with that friend, it feels like a blessing. That''s why I''m afraid that one wrong move may lead to God confiscating that blessing."

    "So you are going to continue hiding your feelings?"

    "I''ll go slow and steady. I wouldn''t want to scare that person away." Li Ling looked at Zhihao with a mischievous smile, "A-Zhi is really good at changing topics."

    "Huh?"

    Zhihao was hoping Li Ling forgot about it.

    Li Ling, "We were talking about your crush on Bu Hui."

    "Oh yeah."

    Just then, the waiter came back and bowed, "Do you need anything, sir?"

    "I would very well like you to give us some space... And time." Li Ling spoke with a bit of annoyance laced along with his voice.

    He really didn''t want his mom''s spy to come here and interrupt such a moment.

    Zhihao was shocked to see the rude response Li Ling gave to the man.

    The waiter would naturally not argue about it so he bowed once again and took his leave. Zhihao could sense that the man was cursing in his mind as he left.

    "That was rude." Zhihao commented once the waiter''s silhouette wasn''t visible anymore.

    "My mom sent him. I think I have the right to be rude." Li Ling shook his head, "Getting back on the topic, you are going to chase Bu Hui."

    "Wait. Wait. I never agreed to it!"

    "Then agree to it."

    "..."

    Zhihao wouldn''t.

    Zhihao wanted to agree to it, but he knew that it was easy said than done. Even if he agreed to chase after the Gamemaster right now, how could he succeed, it wasn''t as if Bu Hui was someone whom you can meet every day.

    Li Ling smiled, "You asked me if I had any expectations regarding the new second stage, can I tell you the answer right now?"

    When Zhihao heard T.I.A.D. being mentioned, his interest suddenly peaked again and his dejected face was no longer seen.

    "What is it?"

    Li Ling, "Remember how you met the Gamemaster in one level? I think it is safe to assume that he is also playing the game with us and naturally, there would be chances to see him in the future."

    "But that chance is still very low." Zhihao sighed.

    "Not necessarily. The chance will be higher if there is one condition that is met."

    "What condition?"

    "If the game changes its mission system. Instead of putting every player into a different level, if all the players are put on the same level. Something like guild raiders."

    Guild raiders was another famous game that Zhihao used to play. All of the players were in the same plane and had multiple missions from which they could choose from. It was a multiplayer game that focused on a larger grouping of players��making up guilds.

    "Isn''t that a bit too far fetched?" Zhihao was a little skeptical.

    "It can still happen. Setting up such a large stage will be definitely hard and could take days. Maybe ten days to be exact."

    "I don''t know. It still sounds ridiculous to me."

    Li Ling could understand Zhhiao''s skepticism, but he was sure he was right and he had no way to make Zhihao believe him without being suspicious.

    "Let''s take that as a hypothesis. Imagine T.I.A.D''s new stage to be like that. If that were the case, you and the Gamemaster will be on the same stage, playing the same level."

    "If that happens. I mean, if that crazy theory really happens. If it really is the case, I''ll listen to you and chase after Bu Hui but..."

    Li Ling was suddenly delighted, "But?"

    "You have to chase after your crush too."

    "I already am chasing after that person." Li Ling beamed proudly.

    Zhihao suddenly felt his stomach acting up and the two went back home. Li Ling was kind enough to drop Zhihao at his home along with Zhihao''s car as well. Zhihao offered a ride to the man, he had no idea how Li Ling had come to his house, but he didn''t see any type of vehicle around so he thought Li Ling didn''t have a ride back.

    Li Ling had originally called someone to come pick him up, but when he saw Zhihao''s face offering him a lift back home? He was tempted and Li Ling shamelessly said yes��texting his driver not to come and pick him up.

    Zhihao dropped the man back at his house and reached home a bit too late.

    When Zhihao finally reached home, he was very happy that he got all the delicious desserts packed, he thought he might as well share this with his brother, but who could have guessed that his brother was one step ahead of him.

    "So you were the one who booked the ground floor?!" Zhihao asked in shock as he uncovered the sudden mystery that he thought he''ll never find out (it wasn''t exactly a mystery since he wasn''t looking forward to uncovering it)

    Huang Zhen shook his head and cleared the misunderstanding, "Yao1 Ying booked the area"

    Zhihao frowned when he heard the rude way his brother addressed the girl, "What do you mean Yao Ying?"

    Huang Zhen stuck his tongue out and ran away before his brother could scold him further. It wasn''t like Li Ying minded being called that so why should he accept Zhihao scolding him for such a small thing?

    Actually, the reason why Li Ying didn''t mind being called a Yao was because she had already deduced that this boy''s head was beyond repair. No matter how much she beat him up, he would never understand what was the use of a brain.

    Zhihao didn''t want to ruin the fun among these youngsters, maybe it was a joke among them, just like he called BBtrash as Trash whenever he felt like it (which was basically always).

    The next few days went by with Zhihao missing T.I.A.D. but his missing was a bit lessened because of Li Ling who would join him to play guild raiders. The two monstrous duo made full use of the two days they played this game together and became the duo that other players came to fear.

    Playing with Li Ling was very much enjoyable. Zhihao was finally able to understand why people liked forming teams, if he had known Li Ling earlier on in life, the two would have become a feared world-renowned duo of pro-gamers. It would''ve been so much fun!

    Three days later, Wang GuiYing finally woke up from his depressed state.

 Chapter 56 - Mastermo Gets Visited By His Friend

    It took four days for Wang GuiYing to finally accept the fact that he''ll need to charge his smartphone battery and stay connected to the world. The phone took a minute or two to have enough charge, which was basically 2%, in order to power on.

    As expected, the first call he got was from Zhou XinYi, who had received a message that Wang GuiYing was now available to take calls.

    Wang GuiYing already had a bone to pick with the man so when he saw the caller id, unlike every time when he would pick up the call with a happy "hello," this time, he picked it up with a string of curses.

    When he was done cursing out all his pent-up anger, Zhou XinYi finally undeafened the call and he soon told Wang GuiYing everything that had transpired.

    Wang GuiYing didn''t believe him and so he went onto his social media to check for himself.

    It was true.

    Huang Zhihao had actually stood up for him and saved him. This was unexpected and especially it coming from Mastermo who, in front of millions of his fans just called BBtrash his friend.. How come Wang GuiYing didn''t know they were friends???

    He was happy, somewhere inside his heart, he felt touched. BBtrash would often tell people that he was friends with the infamous Mastermo but the other party had never confirmed this. Mastermo would always make a disgusted and annoyed face when he saw the man. He would push Wang GuiYing away and although he had never said something outrightly hateful towards Wang GuiYing, BBtrash was no fool, he could still feel that the man didn''t particularly like him.

    Wang GuiYing had wanted to be Zhihao''s friend for ages but now he was suddenly made aware of the fact that he was already considered as a friend to Zhihao? And it was Zhihao who legitimized their relationship?!

    Wang GuiYing felt like all his adrenaline had rushed to his head and he was ready to handle everything that could hit him at this moment. His career that had almost burnt up in flames seemed to be insignificant now.

    Zhou XinYi could hear the happiness in the voice of the man and he knew that he was no longer needed in this matter. The two can sort it out among themselves. It was better if they were left alone to discuss their shortcomings and work out their friendship.

    Wang GuiYing instantly got himself together, as if this news was some sort of an energizing drink for him.

    He let his phone fully charge itself as he took a shower and got ready. He was stinking, he hadn''t showered for the last four days. Those last few days were as if he was dead. Not showering, lying on the bed for the whole day, eating packeted junk food that was stored in his bedside cabinet. If he were asked to talk about what he thought in those four days, Wang GuiYing would not be able to answer the question because even his mind was blank.

    By the time his phone was fully charged, Wang GuiYing had managed to freshen up his appearance and he no longer stunk like a rotten rat.

    He picked up his phone, keys, and headed straight for Huang Zhihao''s house. The huge smile on his face had never been more genuine and it couldn''t be wiped away. He wanted to thank his ''friend'' who helped him save his career.

    When Zhihao suddenly got an unexpected visitor, his face didn''t look too welcoming but Wang GuiYing didn''t seem to mind it. He had grown accustomed to seeing that expression and he had come to actually like the honesty Mastermo was willing to show him.

    At this moment, Wang GuiYing felt like befriending this man was really a good choice. At least he wasn''t like those empty talkers who''d praise you in your face and trash talk you behind your back. If Mastermo wanted to trash talk about Wang GuiYing, he''d do it in front of him, he''d be as raw as possible and express all his feelings without a filter.

    "Honey, did you miss me?" Wang GuiYing, in-game or outside it would always love to cling onto people. Of course, he was super selective over the people with who he was this comfortable, but if you fulfilled the criteria, you''d be in for a membership of a lifelong hugging and clinging service.

    Zhihao was forced to become a member of this clinging club.

    Zhihao wanted to push the man away but before he could do so, Wang GuiYing was already dragged away from him. Right beside Zhihao stood Li Ling who was also like Zhihao in matters of showing one''s feelings on his face.

    When Wang GuiYing saw Li Ling come out from Zhihao''s house, he was a bit shocked and delighted. He had also wanted to thank this ''thief'' who made it possible for Zhihao to accept Wang GuiYing as his friend.

    Wang GuiYing seemed to have stumbled upon a possible hot news headline, "You guys live together?"

    "..."

    They weren''t living together yet but it sure seemed like it with Li Ling coming over every day. The two people would play together all day long and when it was finally getting dark, Li Ling would say good day and head back to his home. Zhihao had often asked him to stay over for the night but Li Ling would always refuse the offer. Zhihao didn''t know why the man would refuse such an offer. Wasn''t the travel hard every day? It would have been much easier if the two would just move in together but Li Ling would always refuse to it, teasing Zhihao, saying that he had secrets he didn''t want Zhihao to find out.

    "Yeah. We live together." Li Ling responded and not only was Wang GuiYing shocked but so was Zhihao.

    When had they started to live together and why was Zhihao, the house owner, unaware of it???

    Wang GuiYing suspiciously looked at the two, "You guys don''t look related and the last time I checked, Mo wasn''t renting out his house so..."

    Wang GuiYing didn''t complete his sentence and naturally, with Zhou XinYi absent, no one else would be able to complete the sentence for him.

    "Do you have a problem with us living together?" Li Ling didn''t even bother hiding his hostile glare.

    Wang GuiYing gulped and his eyes grew bigger as he realized what he had walked in to. Maybe the rumors really had a strong base.

    "Why would I? I have no problem with two friends deciding to live together?"

    Zhihao cut his words short, "Why are you here, Trash?"

    Wang GuiYing had really gone insane. He found Zhihao calling him trash to be endearing. This was the start of his mental illness of taking everything Zhihao does as him showing his concern for BBtrash.

    "I wanted to thank my best friend for standing up for me." Wang GuiYing beamed.

    Zhihao, "Zhou XinYi isn''t here."

    "..."

    Somewhere else, sitting in his room, Zhou XinYi sneezed, wondering who was talking about him behind his back.

    Wang GuiYing would not be taken down by such a small inconvenience, "I''m here to thank my boyfriend."

    Li Ling suddenly wondered what were the charges for murder? Was it just a few years in jail or was it lifelong imprisonment?

    Zhihao didn''t look to be amused nor did he look shocked, he was completely unfazed. Through years of being teased by Wang GuiYing, Zhihao had developed immune to this man.

    Zhihao, "I''m not your boyfriend."

    "You are my friend and a boy. We just need to subtract the space between the two" Wang GuiYing spoke as he took a step forward.

    "..." Li Ling felt like he needed to buy himself a new brain if he wanted to understand the way this man''s brain worked.

    Zhihao, "Friend doesn''t mean boyfriend."

    "Well I''m already halfway1 there, how hard can it be?"

    Li Ling, "If we were to talk about the difficulty level, I''d have to rate it as impossible."

    Zhihao nodded at Li Ling''s response, "Impossible sounds about right. If you continue provoking me, I''ll even take back the privilege of being my friend."

    Wang GuiYing felt like the two men were ganging up on him. He had a weak, soft heart and shameless skin. People would usually think a man so shameless was unaffected by what people said about him, but in reality, BBtrash cared very much about what people said about him. He wasn''t actually looking forward to becoming Zhihao''s boyfriend but getting rejected in the face like this was still not a fun feeling.

    "But honey loves me, right?" Wang GuiYing tried to pull the puppy eyes that seemed to only work on Zhou XinYi.

    "Nope." Zhihao had a game that he had paused in the middle in order to come here and open the door. He was really not having it today.

    Wang GuiYing felt like a bucket of cold water was thrown on his cute puppy eyes but he had a cold repellent armor so his will remained unbroken.

    When Zhihao was about to slam the door shut on his face, Wang GuiYIng stuck his hand in the middle, hoping to stop the door but he was no superman, and having his fingers slammed between the door was not a feeling he had ever wanted to experience again.

    "Arghhhhhh." Wang GuiYing screamed as the pain shot up his fingers and his hand became lifeless.

    Zhihao was shocked to see the huge reaction and when he saw the cause of it, he felt a little guilty.

    "I''m sorry!" Zhihao opened the door again in order to let the man''s fingers go free and once the door was opened wider, Wang GuiYing made it his job to push through the two people and enter the house, dramatically screaming and clutching onto his broken fingers.

    Li Ling saw the man making himself home and couldn''t help but frown as he saw this.

    "Does he come often?" Li Ling asked Zhihao in a volume that only the two of them could hear.

    Zhihao shook his head. Wang GuiYing had come over uninvited once or twice before but that was it.

    "I only wanted to thank you but you''re so cruel to me!" Wang GuiYing cried out, overexaggerating his movements, "You said you''re my friend but you treat me like this!"

    "..."

    The two people were left stunned at the actions and word choices of the man who lay sprawled out on Zhihao''s sofa.

    "You are a bad friend!"

    Zhihao wondered if he should call Zhou XinYi over to come and take this man away.

    Hearing all the ruckus that came from downstairs, Huang Zhen who was upstairs in his room decided to check out who was killing who and came down. When he saw that it was just Wang GuiYing being overdramatic as usual, he turned on his footsteps and went back to his room. Even he didn''t enjoy having to deal with this man who was older than him yet acted like a young dramatic ten-year-old.

    Zhihao, "Do you want some ice?"

    "Ice?! You want me to put ice on it?!" Wang GuiYing made a face that screamed disbelief and anger, "I might have broken a bone or two and you want me to put ice on it? What are you, a school nurse?!"

    Li Ling, "..."

    Zhihao, "Then, what do you want to do?"

    Wang GuiYing suddenly smiled, "I want my dear friend, Mastermo to treat me better."

    "..."

    "I see you feel better now" Zhihao cracked his knuckles.

    "I don''t! I don''t! It hurts so much!" Wang GuiYing stumbled around, clutching onto his finger as he stumbled to the floor and rolled around on it.

    Li Ling had known the man was shameless but he had never known the extent of his shamelessness. When Li Ling got to see something like this for the first time, Li Ling was surprised but the surprise wasn''t pleasant at all.

    Zhihao took some ice from the fridge and started throwing it one by one on Wang GuiYing.

    The ice seemed to hurt him as Wang GuiYing immediately raised his hands to defend himself and stood up from the ground.

    Zhihao, "Don''t dirty my floor."

    But you are the one throwing ice cubes all over it!

    Wang GuiYing felt a bit wrong.

 Chapter 57 - Mastermo And The Opening Of The Second Stage

    "Okay! Okay! I''ll stop! Stop throwing ice at me!"

    Zhihao continued to throw it nonetheless, "I won''t."

    "..."

    Wang GuiYing, "Why?!"

    Zhihao, "It''s fun."

    "..."

    This wasn''t a snowball fight.. The ice cubes would actually hurt him when hit.

    Li Ling suddenly found himself wondering if these two were closer than they appeared to be. It really looked like the two had been friends for years. Were they living in denial all this while and now they finally have the chance to express their feelings?

    This pair seemed to be more like brothers than the real Huang brothers.

    In the last few days that Li Ling had observed the two, he found out that Huang Zhen would always stay in his own room and Zhihao would be holed up in his, playing games along with Li Ling. The two brothers would hardly interact with each other but their relationship wasn''t bad, in fact, it was so good that Li Ling wondered how the two managed to keep it that way.

    It was clear that Huang Zhen used to look up to his older brother and from Zhihao''s side, it was clear that he loved and cared about his little brother a lot. This sibling relationship came as a shock to Li Ling who would usually fight against his own young sister almost every day. If they weren''t fighting against each other, it meant one of them was an imposter.

    At the end of the day, the two eventually stopped fighting and came to the conclusion that since Wang GuiYing was already here with nothing better to do, they might as well all play a round or two together.

    Ever since T.I.A.D. has been released, Guild raiders had hardly seen any network traffic as every other player abandoned the game to join the one million dollar hype train. Now that T.I.A.D. was closed down for ten days, the players who had abandoned this game had come running back and these players included the two pro-gamers and Li Ling who for the first time in Guild raiders history were teaming up together.

    The fans who suddenly saw the three online and playing together once again as a team were beyond happy and the shipping had gone crazy. Fans who couldn''t choose which ship they liked better eventually ended up merging the two ships and made a new ship where they shipped all three of them together.

    Zhou XinYi also eventually came to know this and he was happy about it. The two had finally ended their drama and decided to become friends, it was something to be happy about especially since Zhou XinYi had always known BBtrash''s wish to be the man''s friend. However, this happiness didn''t mean he was going to give Wang GuiYing away to Zhihao.

    Zhihao didn''t know calling Wang GuiYing friend for once would lead to them suddenly having such a harmonious relationship, but it wasn''t like he was complaining about it. Nothing had really changed, at least nothing that did him any damage. Now that they were officially considered friends, Wang GuiYing had lessened his teasings and was much easier to get along with.

    What shocked Mastermo the most was that BBtrash was even willing to save him in the game and prove to him that he had his back. Zhihao suddenly wondered if this was the reason Zhou XinYi still hung around this man. Maybe Wang GuiYing wasn''t as bad as Zhihao thought he was. He thought it was Zhou XinYi who solely protected this man but it now seemed that this man must have protected him in return as well.

    Mastermo was thinking up bullshit.

    The only reason Zhou XinYi tolerated the guy was because he liked him. Wang GuiYing had never tried to protect him like this, mostly because he knew that it was no use trying to save the man who was capable of saving himself. In fact, Mastermo could save himself as well but BBtrash was too happy today and this was him showing his happiness, by protecting the man from all possible dangers, even if it were just virtual dangers.

    Over the course of the next few days, Wang GuiYing joined the gaming party of two which was further expanded to three and after Zhou XinYi was forced to join them as well, it became a gaming party of four.

    The nine days went by faster than Mastermo expected them to go. At the starting of the countdown, he was sure he''d be bored to death but who would''ve guessed that gaming with friends would be this fun?

    Li Ling would always support Mastermo and Zhou XinYi would do the same for BBtrash. BBtrash would often get himself in a helpless situation that would often end with them laughing their asses off and soon, the team of four had overtaken the throne of guild raiders and become the feared monster team of four.

    On the ninth day, T.I.A.D. finally decided to release the news that they had been withholding from the players.

    It was midnight when Zhihao received the notification and he was one of the first players to check the notification simply because he was one of the night owls who was still awake.

    [We are happy to inform you that we are done with the preparations needed to open stage two!]

    [The server would be back online tomorrow (12:00 am, 25/02/2032) Please read all the new updated features and rules]

    The smile on Zhihao''s face that had appeared when he got the notification remained stuck on his face. He suddenly had the urge to throw his phone away as far as he could. He already knew all the information they were now willing to release once again. He thought he would find something but he found the same old message, telling him that the server would be back online tomorrow.

    Not only was it not helpful but it had also killed the want to sleep in Zhihao''s head. He was now wide awake and he couldn''t do anything but stare at the ceiling, hoping he could sleep.

    After a few more hours, Zhihao finally realized something. The timing said it was 12 in the morning that meant it wasn''t that far away. He looked at his clock that displayed [11:56 pm].

    Four minutes and the server would be back online. Zhihao turned on every device in his room that he had previously shut down trying to get some sound sleep but he didn''t need that rest any longer.

    Three minutes left and he called Li Ling. Surprisingly, Li Ling was also wide awake and was ready to play the game.

    Zhihao felt like a little kid who was going to return to school after a two-month-long summer vacation, he was excited. So excited that his feet couldn''t stop shaking as he sat down on his chair like a good boy patiently waiting to be given his favorite treat1.

    Another two minutes or so passed and the countdown began.

    [16]

    [15]

    [14]

    [13]

    [12]

    [11]

    [10]

    [9]

    [8]

    [7]

    [6]

    [5]

    [4]

    [3]

    [2]

    [1]

    [Welcome to T.I.A.D]

    [A place filled with adventure.]

    Zhihao felt his heart rise and fall so rapidly that he almost thought he needed medical help.

    Zhihao and Li Ling were connected via in-game team voice call but before any of them could utter a single sentence, a new female voice was heard.

    [Hello! Welcome back, Mastermo and Devilmagiclover!]

    On the black screen suddenly popped up the cute face of a girl, she looked blue. Her features weren''t drawn with too much perfection but all the lines on her face were bright blue in color. Bright blue on dark black background, this was the signature color combination of T.I.A.D.

    "Who is this?" Zhihao asked no one in particular.

    It was a computer programmer but the girl''s voice was too much like a real person but no matter how advanced this bot was, she still won''t answer Zhihao''s question without being tasked to, or at least that was what Zhihao thought.

    [I''m Alvi! Nice to meet you!]

    Zhihao was shaken to the core. The bot actually spoke back to him without needing him to command her to answer his question.

    "What the hell?!"

    [Please refrain from cursing at me.] The female bot beamed.

    Zhihao, "Who the hell are you?"

    [I''m Alvi! Your personal assistant system.]

    "System, what is this?" Zhihao asked out of habit.

    [Error! Cannot answer players question. Players who have unlocked Alvi cannot use System alerts.]

    "..."

    Zhihao had always cursed the system for being slow and useless but as much as he displayed his dislike for the thing, he had already grown accustomed to it. He really regretted shit-talking about the system.

    [Stupid.]

    "Huh?" Zhihao looked at the girl on screen with shock. Did the brainless bot just call him stupid?

    "..." Li Ling was silent from start to finish, he might have been dumbstruck at the sudden revelations or he had already known such a thing would happen so he wasn''t shocked.

    [I''m the personalized assistant assigned to Mastermo and Devilmagiclover in order to help you two have a better gaming experience.]

    "..."

    Zhihao had thought up a lot of things that would change with the opening of stage two but this was certainly not one of them. He could almost swear that he thought he was going to be stuck with that late system for the rest of his gaming career.

    Nobody expected T.I.A.D. would suddenly change the system assistant.

    Li Ling seemed to have been woken up from his daze, "Alvi, where is the old system?"

    [That''s my older version. After the observation period was over, the system was upgraded according to the players hence, I''m stuck with you two here.]

    "..."

    This bot was so human-like that Zhihao really felt like someone was pulling a prank on him.

    [I''m upgraded according to your preference. To help you have a more personalized gaming experience.]

    Zhihao took a deep breath in and decided to calm himself down. Maybe this wasn''t as bad as it seemed. If the system was upgraded into Alvi, it would be safe to assume that Alvi was probably better than the late system. Maybe the original flaws and errors had been fixed and it would be better to use now.

    Now that Zhihao looked at things in an optimistic way, he really could not find anything to criticize about Alvi. So far, Alvi was in the clear.

    [Does the player want to continue reading the updated and unlocked features?]

    Zhihao felt his mood go up again as he heard this. Updates and unlocked features were always good and it meant there was something new that Zhihao needed to look forward to.

    "Continue!" Zhihao answered and Alvi took them to another page that displayed all the latest information they needed to be aware of if they were to continue playing stage two.

    <Skill usage unlocked>

    Zhihao had already guessed this one, actually, he couldn''t remember if it was Li Ling or him who had guessed this one but seeing that one of their guesses really had come true made him feel happy.

    Before he could read any further, Alvi stepped forward and decided to explain everything that was displayed.

    [The skills the players had achieved till now are all added to your acquired skills and are now available to use.]

    <Alvi unlocked>

    [That''s me.]

    "..."

    <More genres unlocked>

    [It basically means you have more stories and varieties of stories to complete]

    <All ranked levels unlocked>

    [This means you can now access any and every level from E-ranked to S-ranked levels.]

    "Wait"

    [What?]

    Zhihao was a bit confused, "Weren''t all the levels open in stage one too?"

    [Not all of them.]

    Zhihao could swear he heard some evil in that tone of speech but it was ridiculous for a computer system to display emotions so he pushed the thought away.

    <In-game gambling feature unlocked>

    "What does that mean?"

    This was a new term that Zhihao had never heard about before so he was naturally curious to know more.

    [This is my favorite one.]

    Bots had favorites?

 Chapter 58 - Mastermo And The Rules Of Gambling

    "What do you mean it''s your favorite?" Zhihao asked curiously.

    [It means what it means]

    "..."

    Zhihao really didn''t know if he was going to like this new system or regret ever knowing it.

    [This is a new feature added on the T-point trading page.]

    [Players can now place bets on themselves and on other players. As long as the bet is placed in accordance with the rules, if the player wins the bet, the player gets his/her T-points doubled.]

    Zhihao, "What are the rules?"

    [A player cannot place a bet on one player in a row. If the player places a bet on the same player for more than three times in one month, the player will automatically get banned from placing further bets.]

    [If the player wins three bets in a row, the player will be on an interlude period of one week and after that period of time is over, the player can place bets again.]

    [Players cannot keep placing bets on themselves. The player can only place bets on oneself three times per month.]

    [Players cannot place positive bets over 5000 T-points.]

    Zhihao suddenly wondered if there would be someone crazy enough to actually go placing bets beyond that limit. 5000 T-points was the current highest total of T-points a player owned, and that player was none other than Mastermo who would never bet it all off in one go.

    [If a player wins a bet, the next bet can only be placed after the waiting period is over. The waiting period depends according to the amount won back in the last bet. The higher the T-points are, the longer the waiting period is.]

    [The minimum bet is set at 1000 T-points. Players cannot place a bet for anything less than that number.]

    Zhihao felt like this new feature was certainly a waste because there possibly could not be anyone who''d be crazy enough to place such high bets. It would have been an entirely different case if the players had a lot of spare T-points but as it stands, everyone was poor in terms of T-points.

    [If a player loses three times in a row, the player will automatically be banned from placing bets and will be given 1000 T-points as compensation]

    "..."

    Zhihao couldn''t understand who was the mastermind behind such ridiculous rules. Why were these rules even needed?

    [Bets can be traded for T-points]

    Zhihao found this rule to be the most ridiculous, "Why would people trade bets?"

    [Bets give people the advantage of having the gambling bar. The gambling bar has a lot of features that can interfere in the game and help the players win.]

    "Huh?" Zhihao thought about it a bit deeper but he couldn''t fully comprehend it, if he needed to understand it completely he would need to play and find out for himself.

    [Do you want me to explain with an example?]

    Zhihao nodded his head as he suddenly found this system to be much better than the last. To suggest giving an example to explain certain stuff, the old system could never compare. This was an upgrade indeed.

    "Give me an example."

    [If I place a bet on Mastermo, I will have access to the gambling bar. If Mastermo were to be in a difficult situation and in need of a special item that could rescue you and this item was with me, I can use the gambling bar and provide it to you for temporary use.]

    "But can''t I just buy the item myself?"

    [You can''t. Once you have entered the level, you can''t deduct or add items to your inventory.]

    "Is this also a new feature?"

    [Yep!]

    "I have one more question."

    [What is it?]

    "Why trade bets? Can''t a person just place a new bet?"

    [I was already coming to that. This is why people tell you to have some patience.] The bot sneered

    "..."

    [Players can only place bets at the starting of a level. Once the betting time is closed, the bets can only be traded between the players, no new bets will be placed.]

    "You said the gambling bar lets you provide aid to the players who you have bet on, but what if you don''t own the item the player needs? Can you buy the item and send it?"

    [Yes! You are right! You can buy items in the gambling bar and send them over to the players]

    Zhihao suddenly felt like he could understand this rule a bit better. This gambling bar seemed to be an aid to the players. Previously, they were able to buy and sell items even inside levels but with that feature locked down, it became a huge disadvantage to the players. In order to make up for it, trading bets became a thing.

    If a player placed a bet on themselves, they''d have an advantage of the gambling bar through which they can help themselves. A player can''t bet on themselves more than three times a month, this limited the use of such an advantage. If a player were to not place a bet on themselves and were in a difficult situation, they could go and buy bets from others who placed a bet on them.

    Zhihao couldn''t understand the bigger picture behind it, but he felt like it was equal to increasing the complexity of things.

    Zhihao, "Alvi, by bets do you mean only bets on one player winning or can you place a bet on a player losing?"

    [I''m glad you asked!]

    [There are two types of bets. One is a positive bet and the other is a negative bet. If a player places a positive bet, the player can provide help using the gambling bar. If a player places a negative bet on the other player, the player can use the gambling bar to make things harder for the player on whom the bet has been placed on.]

    "..."

    Zhihao had a bad feeling. What was T.I.A.D. trying to do with such ridiculous features?!

    "Do the two bets have different winning T-points?" Li Ling who had been silent all this while decided to speak up.

    [Positive bets have a limit of maximum 5000 T-points. Negative bets do not have a limit, a player can bet as much as the player wants.]

    This was dangerous. T.I.A.D., which had always discouraged cheating suddenly made a feature that was basically meant for cheating.

    If a player were to place a negative bet on his competitors, the player can make things harder for that competitor and make him lose, if the player loses, the player who placed a bet wins and gets double the number of T-points that he had placed. This was like hitting two targets with one stone. On one hand, the player will be able to double his total of T-points and on the other hand, the player can shoot down the competition.

    Zhihao suddenly felt a shiver go down his spine. Till a moment ago, he was sure no player would be crazy enough to use this but now that he had heard this, he was sure there would be a hell lot of players who''d use this feature and most of them would probably place negative bets, there was no doubt about it. Things were going to get very interesting. It was going to become a war zone soon and as the top player who was the main competition for everyone else, Mastermo was going to be in the epicenter of this chaotic war.

    [Are you scared?]

    Zhihao suddenly smiled, he was amused, "Who do you think I am? It takes a lot more to scare me."

    Li Ling also broke out laughing, "Things are going to be more fun."

    Zhihao, "Now it''s going to become a game of who is the best gambler."

    [Are you two looking forward to placing bets?]

    Zhihao, "I think I would wait and watch first."

    [Understood] Alvi beamed.

    "Move on with the new features."

    [Sure]

    <Character profile and background unlocked>

    [This means the players would now have a certain character they''d need to roleplay and can no longer use their customized characters.]

    "Wait, what?"

    [Is there confusion?]

    "What do you mean I will be given a new character to play?"

    [It means what it means]

    [The players can no longer use their original created characters, they''d be given a new character to play. This character will have a background and will not necessarily be the protagonist of the story. The character you get can be the hero, the villain, or a mere, cannon fodder, and isn''t necessarily limited to humans. You can also become the hero''s dog. It depends on your luck]

    There was something Zhihao wanted to say but he didn''t know if he would like the answer, however, he decided to ask no matter what, "Can we still use our acquired skills or would we only be able to use the skills the original character has?"

    [Playing a character doesn''t mean you are the character. It just means that you are acting as that character so naturally, you can use your skills and items that the original character doesn''t have, but please remember that you cannot let other characters in the story find out that we have swapped you with the original character.]

    "What does that last line mean?"

    [If you are a dog, you must bark in front of people.]

    "..."

    Zhihao would rather die than bark like a dog. If he were to be put in that position, he would eject himself out from the level and purposefully fail the mission.

    Li Ling, "If we are a team, does it mean we''ll both be dogs?"

    [Don''t be ridiculous.]

    Li Ling was scolded by the bot.

    [You will both be given different characters to play in the same level. If Mastermo is the dog, Devilmagiclover can be the owner or the villain tasked to kidnap the dog]

    Li Ling, "..."

    Zhihao, "Wait, but will we still have the same mission?"

    [You may have the same mission and in certain levels, your missions may be different.]

    Li Ling, "Can our mission be to kill each other?"

    Alvi seemed to a bit too happy to answer that question.

    [One player may be tasked to kill the character of the other player. This is not limited to the team.]

    "What do you mean not limited to the team?"

    [Two different teams can end up on the same level and the teams will not be notified about it. The teams may be set up to plot against each other by being given the mission to kill the member of the other team.]

    Zhihao, "Wait doesn''t that mean I can kill another player without being aware that it is a player and not an NPC?"

    [You are right!]

    Zhihao understood the game a bit better. This stage two was certainly much more interesting than the rest. It was going to be harder to pass this than the elimination stage.

    Now that Zhihao thought about it, he felt like this was why the elimination stage was there in the first place. The players were filtered out into the ones who could really be qualified enough to play this new stage that was harder.

    If the elimination stage wasn''t there, the untalented players would also be given the advantage of the betting system and if that happened, who knows how many noobs will climb up the ranks purely based on the gambling system.

    At least, now it was only available for the players who had already completed stage one and could be considered to be somewhat skilled.

    <Story line locked>

    [This one is fun]

    Zhihao never found anything Alvi labeled as fun to be what he would like.

    He had a bad feeling about this new feature.

    "What does it mean?" Li Ling asked.

    [It means the players would no longer get a world introduction in the beginning.]

    [Your beginner-friendly privileges have been revocked]

    "Does this mean, you won''t tell us about the world at the beginning of the level?"

    [You are bright! That''s exactly what I''m saying]

    [You have to figure out what happened on your own.]

 Chapter 59 - Mastermo Enters The New Level

    Zhihao was a bit taken back. This meant that there would be a lot of mysteries, this also meant the difficulty level of every mission had been increased. This wasn''t particularly bad news for Zhihao who was always looking for new thrilling adventures, however, for other players, who weren''t as crazy as him, this was like throwing a bucket of cold water on their faces.

    Zhihao, "But you would tell us about the mission, right?"

    [Do you think I have nothing better to do?]

    "..."

    Zhihao wanted to fight the bot. What better job did she have? Wasn''t she supposed to help them have a better gaming experience? This Alvi was much worse than the old system. At least, the system didn''t talk back to them!

    Li Ling, "Then how are we to know what our mission is?"

    [When certain conditions have been met, you will get to know your mission]

    "What are the conditions?"

    [You have to survive for ten minutes inside the level.]

    "Why do I feel like you are threatening me?" Zhihao voiced out his thoughts.

    [What do you mean I''m threatening you? You are so ungrateful!]

    "..."

    [I''m just telling you what you have to do in order to get your mission.]

    Li Ling, "But isn''t staying alive for ten minutes easy?"

    Alvi sounded a bit too creepy as she responded to him

    [Easy? We''ll see about that.]

    She was threatening them and Zhihao suddenly wanted to write a petition to get the old system back in service.

    [Now that you are all caught up with the new features, shall we move on to the lobby?]

    "What lobby?"

    [I''ll show you.]

    The screen suddenly changed and they were taken to a huge room with tunnels on every side surrounding it, with other players roaming the place. In front of them was a huge screen that displayed the list of online players. This list was arranged according to the player''s rank hence, it came as no shock that Mastermo was on top of the list. Players like Wang GuiYing who hadn''t logged in yet were offline and their names weren''t included in this list unless they were online again.

    Mastermo''s name on the list didn''t shock Zhihao but what really shocked him was the fact that there was one more name on the screen, above his and it wasn''t included in the list. The name was displayed above the list and it read a two-character name: Bu Hui

    Zhihao was shaken to the core. Li Ling had actually been right. The gamemaster was online and playing along with them and not only that, but he was somewhere around here.

    [As you can see, there are two colored checks in front of each name]

    [The blue check means the player is online but hasn''t transmigrated into a level. The green check means the player has already started playing]

    As Zhihao heard this, his eyes automatically focused on the check mark in front of Bu Hui''s name. It was blue in color. He wasn''t playing yet. This meant he was right around the corner, wandering around in this place just like Zhihao.

    Li Ling broke out laughing as he saw the name on the screen and then Zhihao''s shocked face.

    "A-Zhi has a promise to keep now."

    Zhihao gulped nervously, should he just play dumb?

    "What promise?"

    Li Ling chuckled, "You are going to chase after Bu Hui. You promised. Are you going to go back on your word now?"

    Zhihao didn''t have a thick skin like Wang GuiYing so he could not outrightly say no to it. He made a promise and now he can''t go back on it. In Zhihao''s dictionary, promises weren''t something that were meant to be broken.

    Zhihao, "But that means you will have to chase after your crush too."

    [What are you guys talking about?]

    "..."

    There was no way Zhihao was going to confess everything to a bot.

    Li Ling also seemed to ignore Alvi as he nudged Zhihao, "I''m already chasing after my crush. It''s your turn"

    "The only thing I see you chasing after is me and my crush on Bu Hui."

    "..."

    He wasn''t entirely wrong.

    Suddenly Zhihao found something to be not fitting in and his face betrayed his sudden confusion.

    Li Ling, "What are you thinking?"

    Zhihao, "Bu Hui."

    "You love him that much?" Li Ling teased him playfully.

    Zhihao, "It says Bu Hui."

    "Huh?"

    Li Ling was suddenly stunned on the spot, not daring to breathe.

    Zhihao, "The last time I met him, his in-game name was still Gamemaster. How come it is Bu Hui now?"

    Li Ling laughed awkwardly, "Didn''t he tell you it was his name? Maybe he wanted to change it."

    Zhihao found it suspicious and weird, "No way. I call him Bu Hui because that was the only thing I heard. It''s not his real name so why did he change it?"

    Li Ling thought that he had been found out and got ready to fall on his knees and apologize but before he could do so, Zhihao continued.

    "Unless..."

    [Unless?]

    Alvi also seemed to be interested in the topic. If Zhihao could imagine Alvi to be a human at the moment, he would imagine her to be a little girl who sat by the side and enjoyed the show with a popcorn bucket in hand.

    Zhihao, "Unless he did it for me...?"

    Li Ling tilted his head as he couldn''t understand what was going inside this man''s mind.

    "What do you mean?" Li Ling asked, thanking the heavens that he hadn''t been found out this soon.

    Zhihao''s ears suddenly turned bright red as he responded with a flustered expression so clear that even his voice seemed flustered, "He remembered playing with me and changed his name because of it."

    "Why is your face turning red?" Li Ling really couldn''t understand what Zhihao was suddenly thinking.

    "It means he thought of me... He remembers me!" Zhihao exclaimed like a little kid whose idol had finally noticed him from a crowd of thousands.

    [He does?]

    "Of course he does. Did you think he has dementia?" Li Ling immediately wanted to scold himself for letting his mouth run loose. It was all good. Zhihao hadn''t noticed anything that should not be noticed, it was all well and good so why was Li Ling looking to dig his own grave?!

    Zhihao, "He does! He remembers me and he changed his name for me! Maybe I''m not entirely helpless!"

    Li Ling found himself at a loss on how to react but after a minute of pulling himself back together, he smiled and joined Zhihao''s little celebration.

    "I told you didn''t I? You should try before giving up."

    Zhihao, "You are right. I should give it a try."

    [That''s the spirit!]

    Zhihao didn''t know why but at the moment, he found the annoying Alvi''s side commentary to be quite pleasant to the ears.

    Li Ling, "But..."

    "But what?"

    "How are you going to chase him?"

    Zhihao hadn''t thought that far ahead. In fact, he hadn''t thought about it at all because he never would have imagined things to go down like this.

    [Maybe I can help.]

    "Help?" Zhihao felt the likeability of this bot had increased as soon as he heard it offering them help.

    [I can. If you want to be put in the same level as another player, I can pull some strings behind the scenes]

    At the moment, Zhihao had forgotten that he was talking to a bot, all he heard was that this Alvi can help him and he was sold. Maybe the system upgrade was really a gift given to him by God who loved him a lot.

    "Do it! Put me in the same level as Bu Hui!"

    [Eh? Bu Hui? He has already entered a level.]

    Zhihao looked back at the huge screen in front of them and found the blue check had suddenly changed colors and had become green in color.

    [I can put you two together in another level when both of you are out of the levels.]

    It sounded good. It wasn''t like Zhihao was ready to meet the gamemaster this soon nor did he have anything he wanted to do when he met him at the moment, so he thought, it was for the best. Right now he''d play without thinking too much about it, and he would later think about what he wanted to say to the man when he meets him again. He''d have a plan ready for the next time the two get to play together.

    "I will count on you with that, Alvi." Zhihao beamed and Li Ling wanted to laugh out loud at this reaction of the man.

    Just how much did he look up to Bu Hui?

    When Zhihao''s eyes scanned through the players that were online, he found out that although Wang GuiYing and Zhou XinYi weren''t there, there were other pro-gamers who took up the top ten spots. This included Yingli who was right below Mastermo on the list.

    "Alvi, what are those numbers in front of Yingli''s name?"

    [That is the number of bets placed on the player. Positive bets are white in color and negative bets are red in color. The name of the players that placed a bet is hidden, they are given numbers.]

    Zhihao was shocked and excited to see that Yingli had a lot of positive bets placed on his/her name but the number of players that placed a negative bet was far more than the positive one''s, there was almost a difference of two zeroes.

    This was the scene with the second-highest player, Zhihao could already guess what the numbers would be in his turn. It would be a shock if the number of negative bets placed on him didn''t exceed a thousand digits.

    The players had already started placing bets. Things were going to get really interesting from now on. This was going to be a place where every other player turns against the players who were ahead of them.

    There was no way the other players could fight directly against Mastermo and win against him so now they''d take this twisted gambling means to eliminate Mastermo.

    Zhihao was crazy for not disliking this. He wanted to see just how many people would bet against him.

    [Are you both ready to transmigrate?]

    Zhihao and Li Ling smiled and responded with an enthusiastic "Yes" at the same time.

    [Good!]

    The screen turned black and there were two sets of digits visible in front of them. One was white in color and the right one was red in color. Under both the numbers were buttons named ''bet''.

    [Please wait for the next ten seconds. This is the period of voting.]

    Zhihao clicked on the white vote button and Li Ling also voted on the white positive bet option. The two placed bets on themselves and watched as the number on the right rapidly increased.

    Zhihao had guessed absolutely right when he thought there would be more than thousands of people who''d negatively vote for him. The number rose till 1562 and the ten seconds were up, meaning the betting time was over.

    In that 10 seconds, the two players had accumulated a total of 1234 positive bets and 1562 negative bets.

    The screen in front of them changed again as they immediately transmigrated inside the level.

    [Welcome to the I-ranked level 1356: Unknown location]

    Just like Alvi had warned them beforehand, there was no world background story that they got, but there was one thing they got. Alvi was transmigrated along with them as a small girl.

    A short girl that was dressed in Lolita fashion, reminding Zhihao of Li Ling''s sister.

    Zhihao looked around and he found out that he was on a train. He looked at himself and then at Li Ling who was sitting beside him, they had changed appearances. There was one more person sitting beside them, a little girl named Alvi

    [Would you look at that, I look cute]

    "..."

    Li Ling smiled as he heard the girl boasting about her appearance, "But not as cute as A-Zhi."

    "..."

 Chapter 60 - Mastermo Meets Hasumi

    [...]

    Alvi was silent.

    Zhihao looked around the train trying to find something that could possibly provide a hint for them, but it was truly just a normal train with nothing wrong at first glance.

    Zhihao looked at the other coaches and found a few other people sitting on the train, but they were all asleep.

    While Li Ling and Alvi were having a fight over who was cuter, Zhihao stood up and looked over at the other coaches and the faces of the passengers that were all asleep. This was a bit weird and alarming.

    Why were they all asleep?

    After playing T..I.A.D. for months, Zhihao had found a cheat to know if a character was important or not. If the NPCs were important to the plot of the story, they''d be good looking and would talk more than the others while on the other hand, the unimportant characters that contributed nothing towards the main story and were named ''Killable characters'' by Zhihao would usually have a plain face that was easy to forget. This was probably done because the developers found it hard to give the killable characters a rememberable face. It was just hard work to come up with faces and especially if you wanted all the faces to look different.

    Other games would always use the same face for most of their characters with a bit of tweaking here and there, they would change the color of the hair and the clothes the characters wore, and voila, they had a new character. This was one of those things that made T.I.A.D. special and different than the rest as each and every character in this game had a different face.

    Sometimes Zhihao would find himself wondering if the faces were based on real people, but then he would push the thought aside because it was illegal to use people''s faces without their permission and to have all of them consent to the idea was even more impossible.

    When Zhihao looked at the faces of the sleeping passengers, he found them to actually have a forgettable face with indistinct features. They were all unimportant. Zhihao had only looked at a few and he wanted to check everyone just in case there was actually an important character here, but before he could do so, he heard a girl calling out to him.

    Zhihao looked at the girl who had quite a pleasant face to look at.

    This girl was surely an important NPC1.

    Li Ling also noticed the girl coming over towards them and he immediately stood up, putting his fight with Alvi on a pause.

    [I''m still cuter.]

    "..."

    Everyone had eyes, they could see who was cuter.

    The girl had an old phone in hand and seemed to be happy to have spotted them.

    Zhihao was a bit wary of such characters who''d approach them happily. After his last meeting with RoRo, Zhihao really felt like the people that looked the most innocent were the most dangerous.

    "Hello! I''m Hasumi."

    "Hello, I''m..." Zhihao suddenly remembered that they were supposed to be given a character in this level, but they''d have to wait ten minutes for it. He could very well give her his real name but he didn''t want to know what was the penalty for going OOC1.

    Li Ling stood beside Zhihao and looked down at the girl. The two players were too tall for her and they needed to look down, whereas, the girl named Hasumi needed to look up at them. However, no matter how short Hasumi was, Alvi remained shorter than her with the height of a ten-year-old kid.

    Hasumi, "I''m sorry if I came up to you too suddenly. I was actually getting paranoid for no reason so when I saw you three, I couldn''t control my excitement."

    Li Ling, "Paranoid?"

    Hasumi scratched her neck as she spoke with some embarrassment, "It''s nothing."

    There was nothing such as nothing in a game where a character walked up to them and said something.

    Zhihao, "We promise not to laugh. Will you tell us?"

    Hasumi suddenly looked up at Zhihao with a glint in her eyes, "Could it be that you guys think it''s weird too?"

    "What weird-" Zhihao''s question was cut short by Li Ling, who stopped him by interfering in the conversation.

    "We found it weird too." Li Ling winked at Zhihao and Zhihao understood the man wanted him to play along.

    They were supposed to have a role in this level so if Zhihao were to carelessly be clueless they might just hit the alert for OOC.

    Hasumi sighed in relief, "Thank god someone else noticed it as well. I was starting to think it''s just me."

    Alvi who was a bot should not have been able to communicate with an in-game NPC, but it seemed neither gaming rules nor coding rules applied to her as she immediately decided to comment on the situation, "What did you notice?"

    Zhihao looked at Alvi in shock, he wanted to ask the bot how it can communicate with this girl but he couldn''t do it because if he openly questioned it, he would be heard by Hasumi who would immediately realize something was wrong and as Alvi had already explained before, the players can go OOC in secret but if they were to do it in front of a character, they would immediately be punished.

    Zhihao bit his tongue and held in his curiosity, thinking that he could ask Alvi about it later.

    "The train has been going for longer than expected. It only takes about fifteen minutes for me to reach my station but the train has been going nonstop for more than 20 minutes now." Hasumi seemed to have considered them to be in the same situation as her so she wasn''t shy with telling them all about what she thought or worried about, "I don''t remember falling asleep but when I came to notice that it was taking longer than expected, I looked around only to find everyone sleeping."

    Zhihao wanted to ask where the train was going, but if he were to be playing a character that was traveling inside this train, it would be stupid for him to ask since people usually knew where the train they boarded was heading. Once again, he couldn''t clarify his queries in fear of the OOC function.

    Li Ling seemed to have found a way around the OOC function, "Which station did you board this train from?"

    Zhihao suddenly found that although they couldn''t ask straightforward questions, they could still find a loophole and work around the damned rule. If they were to ask the girl where she had boarded from, they''d have a general idea of where this train was going.

    When Zhihao saw the old model phone in the girl''s hand, he was sure that the time period in which they were was old, definitely more than twenty years. With that as a clue, the next clue Zhihao found was Hasumi''s name and face. She looked to be Japanese and had a Japanese name so they were probably in Japan. With all that put together, Zhihao could now confidently say that they were on a train in Japan that used to run more than twenty years ago.

    Zhihao had always wanted to time travel, he just didn''t think he''d be time traveling in a virtual game like this.

    Hasumi seemed to really be sweating a lot, she seemed to be a bit too creeped out by everything that was happening.

    Zhihao was not exactly calm as well. He had bigger worries. The system had told all players to stay alive for the first ten minutes of the level if they were to be given the background information through which they could be able to play and have a chance of solving the mission.

    Zhihao had only one worry and it was related to why the system had warned them this. To put it plainly, Zhihao didn''t trust the system enough for this. He was worried that at any moment the sleeping people may rise and attack them as zombies. He looked around the train and it really did give out a creepy vibe, especially with the dim flickering lights.

    Did trains even have such out-of-service lights?

    Hasumi, "Shin-Hamamatsu station. We are in the Shizouka prefecture now."

    [Ding~ We are on the Enshu railway line in Shizuoka, Japan.]

    Zhihao suddenly found out that even though the players couldn''t go OOC, Alvi could do whatever she wanted. These were the perks of being a bot and Zhihao felt oddly jealous of it.

    They now knew where they were but they knew nothing about what they were supposed to do or what they were to do with this sudden information.

    Before the two players could ask her anything any further, Hasumi continued, "I went to check the driver but I couldn''t see anything. The windows are all blacked out."

    "I see." Zhihao thought it was best for them to quietly wait for now.

    Suddenly the train entered a tunnel and started to slow down.

    Hasumi, "That''s weird."

    "What?" Zhihao questioned.

    "There aren''t supposed to be any tunnels on the way."

    Li Ling, "Do you travel by this train often?"

    Hasumi nodded, "I use it to travel to and from work."

    Zhihao looked at Hasumi with an unreadable expression. This woman has given a to of information that they didn''t ask for. She gave her name and details of what train, she uses to go to work, she even readily told them the station she boarded this train from. This woman was really not afraid of anything. At this moment, Zhihao was highly wary of this woman. She seemed either too stupid like the main characters of horror movies who die too soon or if that wasn''t the case, she was probably the antagonist that was trying to fool them.

    The train started to slow down and eventually came to a stop. Hasumi looked at the station name and seemed to be a bit skeptical about it as she didn''t get off the train but after a few minutes passed and the train still didn''t move, she typed something on her phone and reluctantly got down from the train.

    Zhihao didn''t know if he should follow her, but after Alvi kicked him forward, he decided to get down from the train as well. The four people got off on the station named Kisaragi.

    "That''s weird" Hasumi commented again.

    Zhihao felt like this woman''s vocabulary was restricted to those two words. Every time she said "That''s weird" Zhihao would feel a shiver go down his spine. It wasn''t like they were in a horror movie but with everything that seemed to be wrong with this train and station, Zhihao couldn''t confidently say this wasn''t a horror level.

    Li Ling, "I''ve never heard of this station."

    Hasumi, "You''re right. I never realized there was such a station on the way."

    Zhihao, "What should we do?"

    Hasumi, "Let''s walk around the station."

    Zhihao decided to let the NPC lead the way since he didn''t want to do something OOC. He didn''t know the world background of this level, and he didn''t know the genre, so there was really nothing he could do. If there was a character like Hasumi whom they were supposed to meet and who was willing to lead them, he would naturally let her lead the way.

    They just had ten minutes to pass before he could know what was going on. Ten minutes didn''t seem to be that long. They had probably already burned a few minutes on the train so by the time they roam around the station, they were bound to pass the next remaining minutes.

    Once the mission and their character background were given, Zhihao was found to know what he was supposed to do next.

    The station was empty with not a single soul in sight. They tried to look for the timetable but found nothing.

    Zhihao noticed that this girl was worried about the creepy things that went on but every once in a while she would pick up her phone and text someone.

    If she had a phone, at such a moment, she should be calling for help not texting and this, Zhihao found weird.

 Chapter 61 - Mastermo Is Near A Demon

    The four came to the joint conclusion that they were in the middle of nowhere, the station was empty with no staff and no timetable or other trains passing through here. When they tried to get back on the train, they found themselves helpless as the train that they had got off from had left the station and them behind with it. They were completely stranded in the middle of the night in this empty, unmanned creepy station.

    Hasumi went to find a taxi stand but came back with a dejected face saying that she couldn''t find anything.

    A station in the middle of nowhere indeed.

    No taxi stand, no staff, no houses nearby, no signs of humans as far as their eyes can see. There wasn''t even a payphone they could use.

    Hasumi also informed them about how she searched up the station''s name but came up with nothing on the station and nothing about the area they were in. Her GPS wasn''t working and she had no idea where they were.

    Zhihao didn''t ask her much in fear of triggering OOC..

    Zhihao told Hasumi to call someone and she listened to him as she called her father. Her father told her to wait while he searches the place up on the map and comes to pick her up. When Zhihao heard this, he was sure the father was not going to be of much use.

    Now that all of this had happened, Zhihao thought it was safe for him to ask her who she was texting every once in a while. Hasumi told him that she started to panic at the beginning when she didn''t see them so she went online to find a safe place where she could share her story and get help from people.

    Zhihao didn''t find this to be out of the blue since most people, when faced with a situation all alone, would usually go online to search for a solution. It wasn''t weird for her to do the same and if Zhihao had been in her shoes, he would have done the same thing. By looking for information online, you could actually gain legit help or become famous from trying. It was kind of a win-win situation unless you were a person who didn''t like talking to strangers or being famous.

    The online strangers she was texting told her to walk on the tracks and try getting back to the previous station.

    Hasumi was a foolish girl who trusted these online strangers and decided that while she waits for her father, she might as well try going back on her own. Zhihao didn''t know if this woman was reassured that she wasn''t alone or if she was truly just stupid. Would she have done the same thing if she was alone? How dangerous would that have been?

    Li Ling and Alvi followed her without any further words, but Zhihao stayed behind for a minute as he looked at the station name. The name was read as Kisaragi1 in Japanese, but the character used was familiar to him. It was a kanji2 character that meant devil. They were at the devil station. This was not going down anywhere pretty.

    Zhihao looked back at the silhouettes of the three who were walking on the track and without much thought, he followed after them.

    Some time passed and her father called her, asking her a lot of questions because he couldn''t find anything on the station. Zhihao had already predicted something like this happening.

    Her father advised her to call the police and that seemed to be the best idea. Hasumi called the police, but they thought she was making up a story and pranking them. Hasumi was so scared to hear them scold her that she apologized immediately and didn''t call them again.

    At this moment, the only thing that seemed to keep her from breaking down was the surety that she wasn''t alone. If the two players and the bot weren''t here, she really would have been so creeped out to the point she would''ve just fainted at the spot.

    As far as they could see, there was really nothing except for fields and mountains.

    When they walked along the track, it was dark and cold. Hasumi was shivering from the cold that the players couldn''t feel.

    [You guys are lucky.]

    It seemed that Hasumi was not the only one who was able to feel the cold. Alvi, who was a bot was also affected by the cold and her thin Lolita costume really did not help her keep the cold out as she shivered and hugged herself trying to keep the heat in.

    Zhihao saw the little ten-year-old freeze to death and his conscience didn''t let him ignore it. Zhihao took out a gear from his inventory and gave it to Alvi. It was truly a funny sight to see the little girl wearing his big armor that hardly fit her.

    When Li Ling saw her dressed in Zhihao''s armor, he broke out laughing. Anyone would''ve laughed when they saw her. She looked like a little kid who had stolen her father''s clothes and was making a fool out of herself.

    Alvi seemed to be a bit embarrassed about it, but she was freezing and this armor was very warm so she didn''t take it off. Zhihao didn''t know why, but his health stats didn''t seem to be affected by the cold, but Li Ling was a different case. His health stats started depleting and he had to take out his own armor and wear it in order to keep the cold out.

    At this point, it seemed that Mastermo was the only one unaffected, Li Ling was affected a bit, but the other two girls were in a position far worst, they were shivering like a wet cat in winter. They walked for a bit and still found nothing.

    Zhihao, "What''s the time?"

    "It''s 1 a.m." Hasumi looked down at her phone and answered, "Kinda weird."

    "How so?" Li Ling asked as he checked his pockets. They were given new characters so it was normal for him to check if he can find something in the pockets. The original owner of this body must have bought something with him, right? Something that could hopefully provide clues?

    Hasumi, "I got on the train at 11:40 p.m."

    Zhihao, "So you- I mean ''we'' have been on that train for more than an hour?"

    Hasumi nodded, "It seems so. As I remember it, the train takes only thirty minutes or so to reach the last station."

    "I see. It seems we traveled through time and space." Zhihao spoke jokingly even though what he said was actually one of his guesses.

    Zhihao didn''t know what was happening and with a nonexistent station and weird time frame popping up, he thought this was some sort of dimension travel. She took a rain that somehow went into the future and she ended up here. The reason he thought the time travel had taken place was because Zhihao found the time not quite matching up. Hasumi had told them that she was on the train for more than 20 minutes with the train not stopping at any stations.

    This train, according to Hasumi, usually takes about thirty minutes to reach the last station and if it was moving nonstop, the time taken to reach the last stop should have been cut short yet the train kept on moving for 20 minutes and only stopped at one station, Kisaragi and after they got out of the train, it kept on moving. Either Hasumi was lying about certain things or she had taken the wrong train.

    With twenty minutes of train travel and not even ten minutes of meeting them, the time should not have exceeded an hour yet it did. The calculations weren''t matching up. There was something wrong with the time. Zhihao guessed that Hasumi was actually lying without being aware of it. She might have fallen asleep on the train and after half an hour, she woke up and the other half an hour went by. This was the most scientific guess Zhihao could make.

    Games didn''t follow science and Zhihao was well aware of this so he gave his next theory. If she was telling the truth then they had time-traveled to the future but the time was really not too different, just an hour or so.

    Li Ling who was looking through his pocket and wallet found something very interesting and immediately showed it to Zhihao.

    Zhihao looked at the piece of paper Li Ling showed him. It was a talisman. Most talismans were demon-repelling so naturally, Zhihao thought this one had the same features. What Li Ling really wanted to show him was the edge of the talisman which was slightly burned.

    "What can this mean?"

    Alvi heard the two players talking amongst themselves and moved towards them as she looked at the piece of burnt talisman.

    [That''s a demon locator]

    "What''s that?" Zhihao asked in a whisper.

    [It''s a type of talisman that burns when a demon is near. Oh, look, it''s burning]

    The talisman that was half burnt, when held by Zhihao, completely turned into ashes.

    Zhihao had a guess but he didn''t like the guess so he''d not say it aloud.

    [There is a demon nearby]

    "..."

    It was better to keep moving on the tracks. Don''t look behind and avoid being scared to death.

    Li Ling walked beside Zhihao and the two discussed in a low voice so that they don''t alert Hasumi.

    Hasumi who was walking in front of them didn''t seem to mind the two talking, she wasn''t interested in overhearing their conversation. If they didn''t want to share, as an NPC, she would naturally not be interested in it.

    Alvi who was supposed to help the two was absolutely uninterested in them and moved forward, walking alongside Hasumi.

    When Zhihao saw the two girls conversing, he couldn''t hear what they were saying but he very much wanted to. Why was the bot even allowed to talk to in-game characters?

    Zhihao suddenly thought that maybe someday this feature of Alvi may come in handy if they were to be faced with a situation in which they needed to seek out help from NPCs and couldn''t do it themselves because they were trapped in a dungeon or something like that. Zhihao thought about it again and he wanted to laugh at his optimism. Even if they were to be faced with such a situation in which Alvi could be the only help, she won''t. It was as simple as that.

    Zhihao could imagine the little girl sitting outside their dungeon with a bucket of popcorn in her hand, laughing and taunting them. Zhihao wasn''t wrong in thinking that because he was absolutely right. The system named Alvi was here to help them by providing aid but she was not allowed to save them. She could provide them information on how to get out of the dungeon but she won''t be able to find help for them.

    "Why do you think he has a talisman with him?" Li Ling asked.

    Zhihao, "Can''t judge. The original owner of your body is certainly not a simple character."

    "Should I be glad that I''m not a cannon-fodder?"

    Zhihao smirked, "We can''t be too sure about that."

    "..."

    Zhihao wanted to ask Hasumi another question but before the words could come out of his mouth, he went silent as he focused on the small sound he suddenly started to hear. It was the sound of drums mixed with the tingling of bells.

    It sounded much alike a festival but it was far from where they were and as a result, the sound was very faint.

    Hasumi also seemed to suddenly hear the sound as she faltered on her steps.

    "What''s that sound?"

    Li Ling, "There may be a town up front."

    The group suddenly found their hopes rising as they heard the faint sound of a festival. If they kept walking on this path, they were sure to reach the town.

    There was sound so there was hope. They increased their speed as they kept walking on the tracks, suddenly they heard a loud hoarse voice of a man calling out to them from behind.

    "Hey! Don''t walk on the track, that''s dangerous!"

    The group looked back. Hasumi thought it was an attendant from the train station so she was enthusiastic to turn around but as soon as she saw the owner of the voice, the smile that had not managed to warm up on her face was stuck as she looked at the sight in horror, not even daring to breathe.

 Chapter 62 - Mastermo And The Unknown Station

    It was an old man with a single leg. Surely it wasn''t that horrible to see a person with physical defects as such, but what really came as a shock was that the old man''s leg had an open wound as if it were amputated not long ago. The blood was still dripping down and chunks of meat were still hanging from the edge of the half-left leg.

    The old man''s face could not be seen clearly due to the lack of light. They could make out his silhouette and before they could focus on his appearance, the man disappeared. He disappeared without a trace as if he was never there��as if their eyes had played tricks on them.

    "That was... Please tell me I wasn''t the only one who saw that...?" Hasumi questioned as soon as the old one-legged man disappeared..

    Zhihao, "Everyone saw that."

    "..."

    The group was certainly spooked out and didn''t know what they were to do.

    The thoughts they previously had about going back was thrown out of their minds. There was no way they were turning back now. They had come too far out and just weren''t going to go back to that devil station. It was a bad idea but that didn''t mean, the way ahead was going to be any better.

    Hasumi suddenly regretted her decision to walk out of the station. She should have just waited for sun-rise. The morning was much better than night. Unbeknownst to her, it really didn''t matter if she stayed on the station or not. Her ending would still not be as peaceful as she''d want it to be.

    Alvi, "We should keep moving."

    Hasumi, "We should?"

    Zhihao nodded, "We should."

    Li Ling, "..."

    The group ignored the fact that they had met a one-legged ghost who warned them not to walk on the tracks and kept on walking on the tracks. They had hearts made of steel, strong, and unafraid.

    Hasumi, "Could that have been a..."

    She didn''t complete her sentence and she didn''t need to as the others already understood what she had wanted to say.

    Zhihao, "A person who died on the tracks. Maybe lost his one leg here."

    "..." Hasumi would be lying if she said she was okay.

    At moments like this, it was best to not speak of such things. Staying positive and ignoring unnatural things was the best she could do at the moment. She wanted to do that but this man in front of her was really too courageous.

    He was ready to mention ghosts at this hour of the day.

    It was freaking one in the morning.

    The group continued walking forward with nobody daring to speak anything any further. They just didn''t want to discuss it in detail. At night, in the middle of nowhere, getting off at an unknown station and trying to walk on the tracks in hopes of finding their way back, they were bound to come across something like this.

    They were lucky if it had stopped there. One poor soul was enough for them for the day, they didn''t want to meet any more.

    After walking a bit further, the sound of the drums and bells started getting closer. The town was near, the festival was near. They were almost there. They were going to survive this or at least Hasumi hoped they would.

    They finally got a glimpse of the tunnel in front. This was the tunnel they had passed on their way over to the station so they were sure that they were on the right way. If they made a run for it through the tunnel, they would probably be safe.

    Till now, nine minutes and some seconds had passed. They hadn''t got the character background yet nor the mission they were supposed to complete. Another few seconds and they would know what they were supposed to do.

    Just a few more seconds of blindly following this foolish girl who was bad at making decisions. Zhihao was waiting for those few seconds to be over soon.

    When they reached the tunnel, they could now read the name of the tunnel. It was called Isanuki Tunnel.

    Zhihao had never heard of such a tunnel but that was only natural considering the fact that he was Chinese and hadn''t been to Japan nor did he know the places here. He had heard a bit from here and there but that was it and his knowledge of the place was equal to nothing. He hadn''t heard of such a station nor had he heard of such a tunnel. It was lucky that Kanji existed and was based on Chinese characters; they were the only words Zhihao could understand.

    Hasumi, "I''ve never heard of such a tunnel."

    Of course, she hadn''t.

    Hasumi searched up the name on the internet, and as she flipped through the search results, she frowned as she spoke, "There is no information on the internet."

    Of course, there wasn''t.

    An unknown tunnel that led them to an unknown station. It would have been more shocking if Hasumi had found something about it on the internet.

    Li Ling, "Should we go?"

    There was no other better option left so Zhihao agreed to him and so did Hasumi who was a bit reluctant but still ended up nodding her little head.

    Zhihao, "We should make a run for it."

    They should, but Zhihao wouldn''t want to bother with that. Although Li Ling nodded at Zhihao''s suggestion, he didn''t move. He wouldn''t be running. No one will. Hasumi was too tired to run and the others didn''t want to bother running.

    "Let''s just walk fast," Hasumi suggested and this was a much better option.

    Alvi seemed to be the happiest person among them as she walked in front of all of them, inside the dark tunnel without any fear. She was a bot, what did she have to be afraid of?

    Zhihao didn''t know what was inside the tunnel but he knew it wasn''t going to be anything he liked. He was waiting the whole time, waiting for something to pop out and try to scare them or kill them. So far, no zombies had popped out so at least there was that.

    The talisman had already indicted a demon to be near them so could this tunnel really be safe? If anyone thought that, they''d just be uselessly optimistic and that was Hasumi, who thought she could cross the tunnel and get out safely.

    It was no use panicking for no reason and in such situations, it was better for them to be calm and collected, but Zhihao found Hasumi''s calmness to be a bit too unsettling. This woman was walking as if this was her own hometown. She looked a bit scared but that was it. At a point in time, Zhihao even questioned if this woman was just acting scared.

    They rode a train that didn''t go where it was supposed to go, they got off at a station that didn''t exist and they were walking along a track at night with nothing in sight except for a tunnel they had never heard of.

    The station they had gotten off at was named Devil station so it was really easy for Mastermo to guess that whatever jumped at them now would not be some friendly thing.

    They had to be careful and needed to be aware of their surroundings.

    Hasumi was a bit too enthusiastic to follow Alvi into the tunnel as she thought it was a safe road back home, but Zhihao was a bit skeptical.

    [Alert: Someone used the gambling bar.]

    Zhihao didn''t know what this meant exactly, but before he could ask Alvi what was wrong, he heard Hasumi crying out in worry as she stopped in her tracks.

    "My phones dead."

    "..."

    Hasumi, "How can this happen? It was fully charged."

    [This was caused by the gambling bar]

    Zhihao suddenly understood that whoever had used the gambling bar was a negative better who didn''t seem to like Mastermo very much.

    If a negative better had turned Hasumi''s cellphone off, it meant her phone was something useful.

    With her phone turned off, she could no longer text the people who she was asking for advice.

    Even with a dead phone, Hasumi still speed-walked inside the tunnel.

    Zhihao looked behind them at the empty tracks one last time before continuing to follow Hasumi inside the tunnel.

    The tunnel, as it had appeared from the outside was dark with a few lights every 25 meters or so. Some rats were running along the sides of the tunnel and Alvi was thoroughly disgusted with the rodents.

    Suddenly a notification sound popped up and Alvi spoke.

    [Congratulations on surviving the first ten minutes]

    [You have entered Isanuki Tunnel.]

    [Mastermo is playing the demon Taki1]

    [Devilmagiclover is playing the passenger named Itsuki1.]

    "..."

    [Taki is the demon tasked to lead the ghost festival tonight. He has a cold yet playful personality and usually likes to play with humans before he leads them into the other world from where they may never return.]

    [Itsuki is a high school student who was heading home as usual but fell asleep on the train. He has an introverted personality and doesn''t like talking to people he just met. He lives with his grandmother who is a shaman.]

    [Your mission is to lead Hasumi and Itsuki to the other world and make them participate in the annual ghost festival.]

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry. He had thought the antagonist of this story to be the girl in front of them, but to know that the real demon he was afraid of was none other than Zhihao himself. It was certainly a situation he should laugh at on but he didn''t.

    Li Ling, who heard Alvi speak, immediately smiled as he heard Mastermo being the demon.

    Well, the ''Mo'' in Mastermo''s name already meant devil magic so it wasn''t like the role didn''t fit him. Now Mastermo could proudly say that he was an actual demon named Taki.

    Zhihao had questions for Alvi but he was still afraid of the OOC alert so he didn''t dare voice it out. When this level was over, he''d ask Alvi about it. If they were not allowed to talk to Alvi about anything that gave out a hint, what was even the use of Alvi?

    As Zhihao planned this, Li Ling didn''t think further, and straightforwardly asked Alvi.

    "What is this tunnel?"

    Hasumi looked back at them, "Huh?"

    [This tunnel is the doorway to the other word.]

    That was right. Alvi was not bound by a character. Although she was with them disguised as a ten-year-old, she was still not a player and didn''t have OOC restricting her actions. If she didn''t want the NPC to hear something, Hasumi really couldn''t hear her.

    Zhihao and Li Ling were the only ones who heard Alvi''s answer.

    Hasumi looked back at them and got no response from them so she gave up, thinking that she might have heard it wrong.

    As they continued to walk inside the tunnel, the sounds of drums mixed with the ringing of bells started getting closer and closer, it was indeed coming from the other end of the tunnel.

    "We should go back but I''m afraid to turn around," Hasumi commented and Zhihao thought the girl wasn''t entirely wrong.

    There were walking on the entrance to the other world so there was no way she would be able to safely get out of this. If she turned around at the moment, it would mean she was turning her back on the demons she was walking towards.

    This was really not an ideal situation to be in. On one hand, this girl was walking with a demon named Taki and on the other hand, she was walking towards her doom, if she turned around now, she still won''t be able to save her pitiful life.

 Chapter 63 - Mastermo Is A Gentleman

    Zhihao had already guessed what the sound of the drums and bells was about. Alvi had told them that this. Taki was a demon who was tasked to lead the ghost festival tonight. They could already hear the sound coming from the so-called festival. Zhihao didn''t know what a ghost festival was about, but he was looking forward to finding more about it.

    He also understood why his character wasn''t affected by the cold. He was a demon, the cold meant nothing to him.

    Li Ling was given the character of this demon''s victim just like Hasumi. By this time, Mastermo was sure that he was not supposed to do much at the moment. Even without him doing anything, he was still completing his mission all thanks to this foolish girl named Hasumi.

    He was supposed to trick these two into following him to the other world and participate in the ghost festival.

    Zhihao didn''t like this arrangement. He didn''t care about what happened to Hasumi but Li Ling was his partner and although the man knew that Mastermo was a demon tasked to kill them, he was willingly walking with him. Zhihao didn''t want to kill Li Ling nor did he want to trick the man, even if the man was willing to be tricked.

    Alvi had already told them that the characters they got might be against each other. One may need to kill the other and it just so happened that the first level they got on stage two was such a situation.

    The real Taki would have killed the two people in cold blood, but Zhihao didn''t want to. He''d rather spend some more time on this level, searching for loopholes he could exploit.

    Wasn''t that what this level was about?

    Zhihao had already guessed the complexity of this mission. Even if they completed the mission, they would not successfully pass the level if one of them was dead. This was part of the old rules. If all the team members weren''t alive by the end of the level, they wouldn''t pass the level. Since Alvi hadn''t informed them about the nullification of this rule, it meant it was still in work and if one of them was dead, they would not be able to clear the level.

    Zhihao prayed for the negative betters to not be able to use the gambling bar anymore, but it seemed that God was really indifferent to him today or maybe even against him.

    [Alert: Someone used the gambling bar]

    "Damn..."

    Hasumi looked back at him, "Did you say something?"

    Zhihao shook his head, "Nothing. Let''s keep moving."

    Zhihao walked past Hasumi and walked side by side with the little girl named Alvi, "Say, what is waiting for us at the end of this tunnel?"

    Zhihao was not as afraid of the OOC function as he had initially been. This was because he was given the character of a demon named Taki who was cold and liked to play around. If the character liked to play around, it indirectly meant Zhihao could do whatever the hell he wanted.

    After being given the character of an introverted boy, Li Ling was the real victim of the OOC.

    Li Ling and introverted really didn''t fit in one sentence.

    The lights started going out. One by one. The lights that were behind them were the first ones to go off and then the lights in front of them started blowing up one by one.

    [This is caused by the gambling bar]

    There really were people who loved to be a nuisance to others. Not even one of the positive betters had made a move, but the negative betters were really trying all means. It was still less than what Zhihao had originally expected it to be. So far, they had only gotten two notifications telling them about the use of the gambling bar.

    If more players had used that feature, it was probably at the beginning of the game itself, when Zhihao didn''t get the notification. Maybe the gambling bar was the reason Zhihao was stuck as a demon. They weren''t, but Zhihao wanted to blame it on the negative betters so who could stop him?

    With the lights gone, they were walking in complete darkness and the only thing they could hear was the rustling of the rats, the sound of the festival from far, and the sound of someone running and panting.

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he stood on the spot. Li Ling would naturally not run, nor would Alvi so the only one who was suspected to be the owner of the voice was Hasumi. That foolish girl had run away as soon as the lights went out.

    This was normal to do. One should always run away in such a situation, but running in complete darkness was bound to bring up some uninvited trouble.

    Hasumi reacted on instinct. When the lights started going out one by one, she looked in front and made a run for it. She only needed to reach the end of this tunnel and she''d be able to get out of this weird place.

    Unfortunately for her, running in complete darkness was really not the brightest idea she had.

    The girl was wearing office attire and it seemed that she had a pair of black heels included in that attire. She really thought she was talented with running in heels, but she was soon proven wrong.

    Even if one was extremely talented in running in heels and could be considered an expert, they were still advised not to because one can keep her balance but what about the heel that had to hold up her weight? It would break without a doubt, especially if she were to run on railway tracks.

    Railway tracks were rough and uneven, impossible to run in heels at night.

    Her heel broke and it seemed that she hadn''t gone far before Zhihao heard the commotion of her falling down, screaming in pain and sobbing.

    Zhihao sighed as he slowly made his way forward. He was not worried about anything. He was the demon so what did he have to be afraid of?

    Li Ling had a phone in his pocket and at such a time, the flashlight feature on it came in handy. The real Itsuki seemed to not have a particular addiction to this gadget as the battery was still completely full. It was all for the good.

    Li Ling lit the cell phone torch and followed after Zhihao with Alvi by his side. It seemed that Alvi was a bot and this was supposed to come in handy at such moments but it was truly shocking that as soon as the light went out, Alvi had no interest in moving an inch, she was thoroughly afraid of the rats that were rustling around in the tunnel.

    Zhihao walked ahead and Li Ling was the only one who was slowly walking behind with a torch in hand, hence it was self-explanatory who Alvi had chosen to cling onto.

    Li Ling wasn''t annoyed by the bots clingy behavior, in fact, he treated her like he would treat his sister, Li Ying. There were really a lot of similarities between the two girls, more than the physical appearance one that Zhihao had noticed. If Zhihao got to know Li Ying better, he''d be sure to see the similarities and would even come to speculate that Li Ying was the model behind this bot.

    Hasumi hadn''t run far away therefore it didn''t take them too much time to catch up to her. After a minute of calmly walking and Zhihao was already in front of the girl who was sitting on the ground with nonstop tears running down her face.

    When Zhihao looked at the sight, he truly felt like the saying "One looks ugly when crying" wasn''t completely wrong and made to make one stop crying, it certainly had some truth behind it.

    Hasumi was going home from work and had makeup on that she hadn''t got the chance to wash off. Now that she was a crying mess, her tears turned black because of her mascara and her eyes started to sting even more with the makeup getting in her eyes.

    One look and Zhihao would say that even if ghosts popped up here they''d be more afraid of this girl than the girl would be of them.

    Zhihao was a gentleman in appearance so of course, he won''t say anything out loud to the girl. He would search his pocket for a napkin or something to give her so that she can wipe her tears away. If it was the body of the real Zhihao, in the real world, he would always carry a handkerchief with him but this was the body of the demon Taki. If a demon started carrying napkins, what would the world have become?

    He came up with nothing and by the time he was done flipping through his pockets, Li Ling and Alvi had arrived as well.

    Luckily, Li Ling had a handkerchief in his pocket. Itsuki seemed to be a good guy who carried almost anything they''d need. First, it was a talisman, then it was a cell phone, and now even a handkerchief. If there was a real virtual storage dimension1 to store stuff it was probably in Itsuki''s pocket.

    Hasumi took the handkerchief that was given to her but did not stand up. She wiped her face, but more tears stained it. No matter how much she wiped it, it was still a waste.

    Zhihao looked down at her legs and sighed again. She was bleeding, maybe even sprained her ankle as Zhihao could see the broken heel on her side.

    Hasumi, "I''m sorry for running so suddenly. I was afraid."

    "No worries. You should be careful next time." Zhihao was kind enough to give her a hand and tried to help her up but she refused to stand up.

    "Let us wait a while," Hasumi responded as she held onto her bleeding knee.

    Zhihao didn''t know why, but he felt like Hasumi wasn''t being like her normal self. It was odd for Zhihao to say this since he hardly knew the girl, but even with the limited information he got to collect on the girl, he was still sure that there was something wrong with her.

    Was she really the Hasumi they came here with?

    Zhihao decided to test it, "The end of the tunnel isn''t far. Let''s continue walking."

    Hasumi looked at the end, which was now a bit visible. It really wasn''t that far ahead.

    "The end?" She looked crazy as if she were exhausted.

    Zhihao, "Are you okay?"

    "The end... The end is near..." Hasumi had lost it. Her tears had stopped as she looked at the end of the tunnel with an intoxicated crazy look. She was lost in thought as if she had inhaled too much helium and was lacking oxygen, close to passing out.

    Something was up and Zhihao didn''t know what.

    [She is being affected]

    "Affected by what?" Zhihao couldn''t help but ask. It was risky, but Hasumi was too out of it at the moment to realize anything out of place and so Zhihao avoided OOC by luck.

    [She is being affected by the gate]

    [The closer she gets to the other world, the more tired she feels.]

    Zhihao couldn''t understand it.

    Li Ling, "What happens if she enters that world?"

    [She passes out and her body becomes a vessel]

    Zhihao felt a shiver run down his spine as he heard Alvi responding to the question with a creepy tone. He felt like the real person who should be given the character of a demon should have been Alvi. This bot would have certainly nailed it. She would have been the best of the best demons.

    Zhihao, "What do you mean she becomes a vessel?"

    [Didn''t I already tell you?]

 Chapter 64 - Mastermo Doesnt Trust The Grandmother

    [Your mission is to lead the two to the other world and have them participate in the ghost festival]

    [How can humans attend a ghost festival?]

    "..."

    So basically their future was really not bright.

    Zhihao remembered the time when Li Ling had told him that there were happy endings that they had somehow missed. With such a level that was against Happy endings since the beginning itself, did they really exist? What was this bullshit? Every story had a tragic ending and if it didn''t, it wasn''t a story from T.I.A.D. anymore.

    "This is hard." Zhihao sighed. This level seemed to be easy at first glance, but there was a reason it was an I-ranked level1 It was because the mission seemed so simple yet even if you completed it, you won''t be able to complete the level.

    "Let''s rest for a while." Zhihao felt it was better to let the girl rest for awhile. It wasn''t going to help anything but at least she would be able to live for a bit longer.

    Hasumi looked down, not having enough energy to keep her head up, "The end... Is near..."

    "She''s a bit creepy." Li Ling commented and Zhihao agreed.

    Zhihao, "Alvi, what is she talking about?"

    [She is talking about the end of the tunnel]

    "..."

    Really a useless bot.

    While Hasumi was out of it, Zhihao thought this was the best chance to ask the question that had been gnawing at the back of his mind, "Alvi, what is the ghost festival?"

    [Do you want me to tell you?]

    "Yeah."

    [Why should I?]

    "..."

    What followed was Alvi laughing and the drumming sounds getting closer and closer.

    This was a bit questionable. They weren''t moving so why was the sound coming closer and closer?

    Zhihao had a bad feeling about it, but he was helpless.

    The reason he had suggested resting for a while was because of Hasumi, but the hidden reason behind it was because he needed time to ransack his brain. He needed to come up with a plan as soon as possible. He had waited to get the character background and mission before he made any plans, but now that he had got them both, he had nothing else to blame his procrastination on.

    He had the dots and he needed to connect them. Some dots were missing but he was sure he could make up something with the use of the information he had. Li Ling seemed to have the same thought as him as he took a seat beside Zhihao.

    Now that the lights had completely gone off, the natural nightlight lit the place. It wasn''t enough for them to see anything clearly but at least after their eyes adjusted to the light, they could make out the silhouettes of people close to them. Li Ling still had his cell phone torch turned on so that was a plus point as well.

    Hasumi, by this point in time, was completely out of it. She closed her eyes and rested for a while. Zhihao warned her not to fall asleep and she promised she won''t, but now that he looked back at her body that was lying on the floor, he was sure she was completely out. She was sleeping so peacefully as if she would never wake up from that sleep. Sadly for her, neither Zhihao nor Li Ling was a prince charming who''d wake her up from her endless sleep with a kiss. They would either drag her for the rest of the journey or in case if she wasn''t important, they would leave her behind and keep going.

    But this was good. Now that the only NPC character was sound asleep, Zhihao and Li Ling didn''t have to worry about the OOC feature.

    Zhihao, "So I''m the demon."

    "And I''m a shaman''s grandson." Li Ling sighed, "There has to be a connection between the two."

    Zhihao nodded, "There has to be. Why did the real Itsuki have a demon detecting talisman?"

    Li Ling, "It can''t be a coincidence."

    "It could be because his grandmother gave it to him but it is certainly weird."

    "It was half burnt."

    "Because the real Taki was sitting near him." Zhihao was sure that the talisman was a bit burnt because of Taki. As far as Zhihao knew, there were no other demons in sight, so it was logical for him to come to this conclusion, but this didn''t mean he trusted himself so much that he''d not consider other options. This was a temporary conclusion that he was going to believe in as long as the real reason was not uncovered.

    Li Ling, "Could it be that Itsuki knew he was going to meet Taki today?"

    "Maybe he was looking for a demon?"

    "Sounds possible."

    Zhihao, "How can we be sure?"

    Li Ling was more than happy to explain the reason behind why he thought such a thing was certainly possible, "Itsuki is a student. As long as I know, no school runs for this late at night. Hasumi said she boarded the train at 11:40, if we were to guess right it should be around the same time Itsuki boarded the train as well."

    Zhihao nodded, he had the same thought. Itsuki was an introverted student that didn''t like to talk to others so it was out of the question that he was out enjoying with his friends till this late at night. If that was not it then why was he riding a train this late at night?

    Itsuki seemed to have everything ready as well. He had a handkerchief in his pocket, this was maybe normal. He had a fully charged phone, this made it seem like he was especially keeping it that way so that he could save his battery, but for what? He had a talisman and some other items that a high school student should not have.

    They had thought about it before but this boy seemed to come prepared for this situation. If he were really here to find Taki and knowing that he was going to be taken to another world, why would he be interested?

    There were a lot of theories that could fit the context. Maybe Itsuki was just a young boy who was curious to know about stuff like this. This was the strongest theory Zhihao thought about. It would make perfect sense. His grandmother was a shaman so she must have told him some stories that got him interested to know what happens beyond what human eyes could see.

    Zhihao was completely focused on the fact that Itsuki''s grandmother was a shaman and he was absolutely sure that it was a big hint provided to them.

    "Maybe the grandmother had tasked him up to this?"

    Li Ling shook his head, "Not possible."

    "Why?"

    "She is his grandmother. What type of grandmother would give their grandchildren such a dangerous task?"

    It made sense but Zhihao wanted to contradict that statement.

    Zhihao had played a level that asked a father siren to dig out his son''s heart and eat it so could he really confidently say that T.I.A.D. characters wouldn''t be so cold?

    It was definitely a possibility, but Zhihao didn''t want to refute Li Ling so he kept silent.

    "You''re right. The grandmother won''t be that cold to him." Zhihao responded although he didn''t believe in what he was saying.

    If the grandmother in question was really not that cold, it was probably for the better but if she was really as evil as Zhihao thought, it wouldn''t come as a shock to him and in fact, he would have already seen it coming.

    At this moment, Zhihao could say that he had seen so many plot twists in T.I.A.D. that there was really nothing that shocked him anymore. He was stupid in thinking so because he was going to be shocked yet again.

    Li Ling, "He had planned all this."

    Zhihao, "So you are saying Itsuki isn''t innocent?"

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao with a smile, his face was the same that had a beauty spot under the right eye, "Do I look innocent?"

    He did.

    Zhihao, "You do."

    The smile on Li Ling''s face froze. He didn''t know if he should laugh or cry. Looking innocent was a compliment, right?

    Right?!

    It was a compliment but why did he feel a bit offended when he heard it?

    "Let''s say that Itsuki planned all this." Zhihao changed the topic as smoothly as butter, "What was he hoping to get by all this?"

    Li Ling, "A ticket to the other world and a chance to meet a real demon."

    If the Demon in question was this handsome, even Li Ling would be tempted to do such a thing.

    Zhihao, "That does sound a bit tempting."

    Li Ling nodded his head. Both of them were agreeing on this, but both had different reasons to agree. Li Ling agreed because he felt like Zhihao was a tempting demon he wouldn''t mind engaging with, but Zhihao felt like kids were curious about every damn thing so of course Itsuki would be tempted by the offer to go to the other world and get to meet demons.

    "But there is one more thing."

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling, "What?"

    "I think Itsuki and Taki know each other."

    "Why do you say that?"

    Li Ling couldn''t answer honestly so he shook his head and came up with a logical response to the question, "They were sitting side by side."

    "Huh?"

    "When we first entered this stage, the two were sitting next to each other. I found it weird."

    Zhihao, "Maybe it was just a coincidence."

    "You think so?"

    Zhihao thought about it for a minute and sighed, "Can''t be sure."

    "Then that''s that."

    Zhihao looked at Alvi who was sitting in front of them, listening to their conversation attentively, "Are you going to give your opinion?"

    Alvi smiled. She looked scary. Her ten-year-old face wasn''t unpleasant to look at and instead, it was actually pretty cute but at the moment, Li Ling''s cell phone torchlight was hitting her face and no matter how pretty one was if they smiled with the light hitting their face, they''d look extremely scary.

    [You want me to say something?]

    Zhihao nodded, "Yeah. Aren''t you the personal assistant that is supposed to help us?"

    [Correction: I''m the personalized bot that is assigned to help the players have a better gaming experience]

    [And better gaming experience comes when there is more mystery to solve and fewer chances of someone cheating]

    "So... You are here to make sure we don''t cheat and don''t understand what is going on?"

    [Ding~ You''re absolutely right!]

    Zhihao had never disliked being right more than now.

    Li Ling, "How was the relationship between Itsuki and his grandmother?"

    [Good question]

    [Itsuki is really close to his grandmother and the two love each other a lot but recently, Itsuki has been slowly drifting apart from his grandmother.]

    "Drifting apart?" Zhihao was certain that this was a clue. He thought his initial theory of the grandmother putting him up for this was indeed right.

    [Itsuki has not been listening to her]

    "..."

    The theory was thrown out of his mind.

    "Why hasn''t he been listening to his grandmother?" Zhihao asked curiously.

    [She has been nagging him a lot and trying to force him to carry a demon repelling talisman with him.]

    Zhihao was a bit confused as he heard this, "Demon repelling?"

    [Yes. Demon repelling]

    Li Ling, "But didn''t he have a demon detecting talisman with him?"

    [He did]

    Zhihao found another clue that could help them solve the case.

    "Why did he have a demon detecting talisman instead of a demon repelling one?"

    [Do I look like Itsuki to you?]

    [Why the hell would I know?]

    ''Weren''t you the all-knowing bot?'' Zhihao didn''t want to fight with a bot so he didn''t voice out the question.

 Chapter 65 - Mastermo Understands Demon Taki Better

    Zhihao was really unsure if he liked Alvi or hated her. At times he would feel like she was better and at times like this, he''d want to run her over with a truck.

    She knew exactly why Itsuki was carrying a demon detecting talisman, but she still dared to lie and say that she was unaware?! The old system would hide information but would never lie. What was her limit of shamelessness?!

    Li Ling smiled. Zhihao didn''t know if this man was just trying to keep himself from cursing the bot or was he really delighted with her response.

    "Was it his grandmother who gave him the demon detecting talisman?"

    [Nope]

    [The talisman belongs to his grandmother, but it wasn''t her who gave it to him]

    Zhihao, "Did he steal it?"

    [He is a good boy. He would never steal]

    [He swapped it with the demon repelling one]

    Didn''t that indirectly mean he stole it?

    Who was this bot trying to fool?

    Zhihao, "Why did he swap it?"

    [Because he wanted to?]

    Yep, Zhihao really didn''t like her.

    Li Ling, "Why did he refuse to take a demon repelling talisman with him and instead took a demon detecting one?"

    Zhihao, "Maybe he wanted to see if the talisman works?"

    "Huh?"

    "The demon detecting talisman burns when coming in contact with a demon. The demon repelling talisman probably doesn''t have this feature so even if a demon is near, it wouldn''t show any signs of working."

    Li Ling, "So Itsuki wanted to see if demons were real?"

    Zhihao nodded, "At least I think that is it. I could be wrong but I really can''t think of any other reason."

    "I can think of one."

    "What?"

    Li Ling smiled as he looked away, "What if he wanted to catch the demon?"

    "Why would he want to catch the demon?"

    Li Ling wanted to provide a mirror for this fellow demon. Has he seen himself? Who wouldn''t want to catch such a good looking demon?

    "Teen curiosity. It''s the same as wanting to catch a mermaid. He''d be instantly famous and rich if he were to catch a demon, and prove to the world that such things really did exist."

    Zhihao suddenly thought of something completely unrelated to teen curiosity, "What if the reason the train was headed here was because of him?"

    "Huh?"

    The topic was somewhat changed so Li Ling couldn''t catch up that fast.

    Zhihao felt like his new theory was a lot more convincing and had more of a chance of being right, "If he had a reason behind everything he did, and he really wanted to catch the demon, he should have been aware of where the train was going."

    Li Ling nodded as he listened attentively to what Zhihao was saying.

    "The train was a normal train that somehow ended up here. The other passengers were asleep but why?"

    Li Ling tilted his head as he couldn''t fully comprehend where this conversation was going, "Because it is night?"

    "Even if it is night, everyone should not be sleeping at the same time. The only people awake on the train were Itsuki, Taki, and Hasumi."

    "What are you trying to say?"

    "What if the reason they were all asleep was because they were affected by something, actually that is probably it. They were affected by something which caused them to go unconscious so why didn''t that same thing affect these three?"

    "Taki is a demon so he shouldn''t be affected." Li Ling responded as he thought about it for a bit.

    "Taki not being affected makes sense and he was sitting with Itsuki. Let''s say that Itsuki was his target for today. If so, then it makes sense that Itsuki was still conscious."

    Li Ling could now get the gist of it, "Itsuki wanted to come to the other world and was in search of a demon so it would make sense that Taki was interested in this victim that was more than happy to be a victim."

    "If the train had come here because of Itsuki, then it would make sense that along with Taki, he was also not affected, but what about Hasumi?"

    "She should have been asleep."

    Zhihao nodded, "But she wasn''t."

    "Why?"

    Zhihao glanced at the girl who was asleep on the floor, "because she was supposed to be the real victim."

    [Huh?]

    Zhihao, "She was supposed to be the only victim, but Itsuki suddenly came into the picture, and Taki who was supposed to come and collect this girl, got more interested in him. From then on, the victims were switched."

    [...]

    Alvi wanted to point out that he was talking nonsense, her face made it clear what she wanted to say, but she couldn''t say anything. She wasn''t allowed to. If a player were to come up with a situation with their own imagination, she could tell them if it was right but she couldn''t deny the possibility of it.

    Li Ling didn''t fully understand what Zhihao wanted to say, but as much as he understood, he didn''t know if he should tell the man about how wrong he was or about how right he was.

    Hasumi was really not supposed to be the victim today nor was Itsuki supposed to be the victim, but if Li Ling said this out loud, Zhihao would question why he knew such a thing, and what would Li Ling answer to that? Would he say that he was good friends with Alvi so she told him?

    There was really no way the two of them could say anything to refute Zhihao who seemed to fully trust his theory.

    Zhihao suddenly sighed, "We can''t be sure about it, but it''s a possibility."

    "It may be possible." Li Ling smiled, "So what is your plan now?"

    "Nothing as of now. Unless I know what the ghost festival is about, I can''t do anything."

    [You guys are so boring.]

    "..."

    [Can''t even use your own brains.]

    "..."

    This bot really didn''t have a mouth filter1.

    Zhihao, "You said something about a vessel. Would Itsuki become a vessel too?"

    [Now you are asking an intelligent question]

    [Originally, Itsuki was not supposed to be a vessel.]

    "Then what was he supposed to be?"

    [I don''t feel generous enough to answer that.]

    Zhihao, "Would we ever get to know about him?"

    [Of course, you will]

    [That is when you uncover the secret mission]

    "So the secret mission is supposed to be about Itsuki?"

    [...]

    [I feel tricked.]

    Zhihao lightly chuckled as he stood up, "Let''s go."

    Li Ling stood up as well and both of them looked at the girl that was still lying on the floor, unconscious.

    Alvi, "I think one of you would need to pick her up."

    "Yeah... No." Zhihao was clear about it. He crouched down and lightly patted her shoulder, trying his best to wake her up as he continued repeating "wake up".

    Hasumi was sleeping but she wasn''t a fairytale princess that would sleep forever and so Zhihao was able to wake her up.

    "It wasn''t a dream?"

    "..."

    Did this girl really think she was dreaming?

    Zhihao, "We need to keep moving."

    He gave her a hand and pulled her up. Hasumi was injured but she seemed to be a strong girl as she ignored the pain and stood up, walking on her own.

    [Alert: The gambling bar has been used]

    Damn...

    Zhihao really hated that notification.

    The group moved forward and finally reached the end of the tunnel. It was still night time so Zhihao really found it hard to believe that there was a saying such as "light at the end of the tunnel"

    Where the hell was the so-called light at the end of the tunnel? All he could see was darkness.

    And in that darkness, a man was waiting for them ahead.

    [This is caused by the gambling bar]

    "Caused...?"

    [Would you look at that.]

    [That is Taki''s enemy]

    [Demon Kazan1]

    Zhihao heard this and stopped in his tracks, along with Li Ling.

    Hasumi saw the man who looked nothing like a demon. From all angles, he looked like a human so she was delighted to see him and ran towards him, limping.

    She was really a stupid girl who trusted people blindly, in this case, it wasn''t even a human; she was blindly believing a demon.

    Zhihao had heard that the sudden appearance of this demon was caused by the gambling bar and he was sure that this man wasn''t good news. He had originally wanted to hold Hasumi back and warn her but if she was so eager that she ran towards him without further thoughts, could he really do anything?

    Hasumi was now as good as a dead corpse, but Itsuki was still here.

    This demon was an enemy of the original Taki so who knew what he was here to do?

    Zhihao didn''t have a good feeling about this so he immediately shielded Li Ling behind him and flipped through his inventory to find a useful item that could help him.

    The moon goddess spellbook!

    Li Ling was sucked inside the book and the book was given to Alvi who was tasked to keep it safe.

    Alvi was the safest option.

    Zhihao moved forward and caught up with Hasumi, he looked at the demon in front with an unamused face.

    "I really thought you''d fail today''s task as well. Didn''t expect you to be such a professional." Zhihao could sense that the demon was taunting him.

    "Of course I''m good." Zhihao immediately knew how the original Taki would have reacted.

    The two were enemy so how did the original Taki talk to this demon? People are usually unkind to their enemies but when Zhiaho heard the demon taunting him, he was instantly sure what type of enemies these two were.

    The kind that couldn''t attack each other openly so they used their colorful vocabulary and talent to speak things with deeper meaning.

    If it was the original Taki, he would have said the same exact thing, and hence the OOC alert wasn''t heard and even Alvi was shocked that with such little information given, Zhihao was really able to understand Taki.

    It was amazing and Alvi felt like this Mastermo was really impressive, but in reality, the only reason why Zhihao knew exactly what to say was because he had prior experience. He and his aunt Su were in the same relationship, they hated each other but they couldn''t say anything openly so they''d twist their words with a taunting tone.

    Now that Zhihao thought of it like this, he felt like he could really understand Taki a bit better.

    "I''d be watching you tonight. If anything goes wrong, I''d be the first to notice." The demon named Kazan scowled, "I''d be taking the girl."

    The second he said this, Hasumi fainted and the demon caught her. He put her over his shoulder and got ready to walk away.

    [Stop him!]

    Zhihao was a bit shocked to hear Alvi giving him instructions but he didn''t have time to question it as he immediately did as he was told.

    "Wait!" Zhihao yelled out and the demon really did stop in his tracks, "I was the one who brought her here, how can I trouble you like this?"

    The demon had a shockingly handsome face but his expression could only be summed up as ugly, "It''s no trouble. I''m only trying to help you out here."

    "I can do it myself. No need for you to pity me." Zhihao was adamant. He wasn''t going to let Hasumi go like this, especially after what Alvi had warned him.

    [If you let Hasumi go with him, I''m throwing this book away.]

    "..."

    Zhihao was really helpless. He didn''t want to do this as well. Just look at the scary face of that demon, Zhihao wasn''t crazy to pick a fight with him, he was forced to.

 Chapter 66 - Mastermo Is A Genius Or An Idiot

    "Do you want to pick a fight with me?" Demon Kazan was not fond of Taki''s reaction.

    Zhihao was mentally crying.

    He was not looking for a fight, he really wasn''t!

    Zhihao side-glared at Alvi who had told him to pick a fight with this scary demon. Just why did he need to save this foolish girl named Hasumi?

    Alvi looked away. She had said what she needed to say. She wasn''t going to explain herself simply because she didn''t need to.

    Zhihao glanced at the moon goddess spellbook that was in her hands, he wanted to slap himself for trusting it with her. This bot should never be trusted!

    "What do you mean fight? We are all friends here, I can do it so I want to."

    "That doesn''t sound right." Demon Kazan was really not having it.

    "..."

    What was Zhihao supposed to say?

    Kazan, "When were we friends?"

    Damn...

    Zhihao instantly regretted saying it.

    Alvi was sitting by the side with the moon goddess spellbook in her hand, clutching onto it loosely, in a way, as if she was threatening to throw it away any moment.

    At this moment, Zhihao understood that this demon in front of him could not see Alvi if she didn''t want him to see her.

    Demon Kazan threw the girl over to Taki who caught her and saved her from banging her head on the road, it was a close call. If he was a minute late or clumsy, she would''ve really become a part of the other world1.

    Hasumi was still unconscious, this time her unconsciousness was not caused by her tiredness but was caused by the demon Kazan who seemed to have that power.

    "Take her. She''s your problem. If anything happens, be sure to take all the responsibility." Kazan warned as he took a step forward, outspreading his chest to show his might, it was all for show, but it was indeed a bit intimidating, "And never call us friends."

    "Ah..." Zhihao didn''t know how to respond. It wasn''t like he was actually looking forward to becoming this demon''s friend.

    Zhihao took a deep breath in and thought about how the real demon Taki would act.

    "..."

    Why should he know how a real demon reacts?!

    Zhihao, "Tch- I wouldn''t wanna call you a friend even if you begged for it."

    "..." Demon Kazan had a really crazy look in his eyes as he moved closer to Taki. The two demons had similar heights so it really didn''t seem like his height could intimidate Zhihao, but the two demons were different in terms of muscles and aura.

    When Zhihao and Li Ling entered this world, they were given different characters but their physical appearance remained the same. Zhihao didn''t know why this had happened but he felt like it was a temporary thing, maybe in the later levels, he would be given a different appearance.

    As it stands at the moment, Taki had the same appearance as the original Zhihao who had muscles thanks to his mother forcing him to go to the gym every now and then, but the muscles weren''t bulky. It was just as he liked them, clear muscles that didn''t look too unnatural.

    This demon Kazan in front of him was the opposite, he had bulky muscles that were not too much yet they couldn''t be considered little either. Even if his behavior and personality had been kind, Zhihao would have still been afraid of him. This demon really looked like he was a member of a mafia gang and was ready to body slam anyone who messed with him.

    Of course, the demons personality was also fierce so it was only natural that even if he wasn''t taller than Zhihao, he was still intimidating.

    "You think I''d beg to be called your friend?!"

    The demon was near him, just a few inches away. Their faces were so close that Zhihao was reminded of those WWE fights he had watched as a kid.

    Zhihao was intimidated but he wasn''t going to back down now. He had a role to play, he was acting on behalf of the real Taki and if it was the real Taki, he wouldn''t have backed down as well.

    Zhihao did something even more daring as he took a step forward and met the demon head to head, standing tall and trying to intimidate the demon back.

    "Talking so big. If I wanted you to get on your knees and beg, would you be able to resist?"

    Zhihao had no idea what nonsense he was spouting but he prayed for himself in his mind. If he was going to die in the hands of this demon, might as well do something to deserve it.

    As the saying went, Fake it till you make it.

    Zhihao was trying his best to fake it but Alvi who was sitting by the side to observe the situation was shocked at Zhihao. She suddenly felt the man was cheating. He had to be cheating. If he wasn''t cheating, how could he say exactly what the original Taki would have said in this situation?

    Zhihao couldn''t judge how right he was or how perfect his role-play was but Alvi could and this made her think highly about the ability of this man.

    "You dare?!" Kazan burst out in a fit of anger.

    Zhihao was sure that he was going to get beat up for this. He was expecting a punch that would directly throw him out of this level but nothing came.

    Demon Kazan closed his eyes and took a step back, retreating back to wherever he had come from.

    Zhihao couldn''t believe it. He had actually made the demon retreat from this fight? He had actually been successful in his bluffing? What the hell?!

    Zhihao had won the verbal fight that didn''t last very long. He didn''t know how or why he won it but he wanted to, however, he wouldn''t be liking the answer to that.

    Demon Kazan was out of sight and Zhihao sighed in relief. He really didn''t know what he would''ve done if the demon hadn''t retreated.

    He didn''t want to go through a rebirth this soon but if the other fierce demon was ready to kill him, how could he stop it? Of course if there was really a full-fledged fight, Mastermo would have won but the chances of him winning weren''t that great and so naturally, Zhihao wouldn''t want to challenge it and try out his luck.

    Alvi stood up from her seat which was basically just a speed limit indicator on the side of the tracks. It looked a lot like a headstone.

    "You were great! I was fooled into thinking Taki had really returned!"

    "Huh?" Zhihao suddenly felt like he should celebrate for receiving compliments from a bot. Alvi was really stingy with compliments so her saying something like this meant he really did do a good job.

    Zhihao had questions and he wanted clarity, "Why did you want me to save Hasumi?"

    [I like her. She''s fun.]

    [I don''t want to get bored by walking around you both. She is much more entertaining.]

    "..."

    Could a bot be choked to death? If so, Zhihao would definitely want to try.

    This stupid bot actually made him put his life on the line because of something like this?! Zhihao took a deep breath in and let it out with all the anger that was ready to burst out.

    Fighting with a bot was stupid and Zhihao wasn''t stupid so he could only calm himself down by repeating this in his mind.

    Zhihao calmed himself down and asked his next question, "What is the relationship between Taki and Kazan?"

    [They are enemies?]

    "You already told me that." Zhihao sighed as he rephrased his question, "Why are they enemies?"

    [You want to know?]

    "Isn''t that why I asked?"

    [You really want to know?]

    "Yeah."

    [Are you sure?]

    Zhihao subdued his anger that was ready to burst out "Tell me already."

    [Okay then]

    [Demon Taki and Demon Kazan used to be lovers but Taki dumped him.]

    "..."

    Zhihao was not sure if he wanted to learn the truth of the relationship between the two, but Alvi was now adamant about telling him.

    [Demon Kazan was in love with Taki and the two dated for a month because Taki thought it would be fun. Taki had a cold personality that was hard to please, but he was very much interested in humans.]

    [Demon Kazan hates humans and this caused a fight between the two. Kazan was dumped without any further thoughts and their relationship started going south from there.]

    [Kazan wanted to win Taki back so he did a lot of things to catch his attention but everything failed and instead of gaining back Taki''s favor, he further ruined his chances with the man.]

    [Taki was no longer dating him so he had no reason to be kind to the demon so he seemed not to hold back in their fights. On one day when Kazan hurt the human, Taki was interested in, the two got into a bloody fight in which Kazan didn''t go all out because of his feelings for the demon, but Taki didn''t care and he was as cold as ever. Even as a demon, it took Kazan months to recover from the physical injuries he received]

    Zhihao didn''t know if he should laugh or cry.

    He suddenly took back his words when he had said the hatred between the two was like the hatred between him and Aunt Su. It was definitely not the same! It was far from the same! The two relationships weren''t even eligible to be compared!

    Zhihao, "Say, what did I just tell him?"

    [Huh?]

    "Didn''t I just challenge him?"

    [Yeah, you did.]

    "What was I spouting?"

    [...]

    [Pfft-]

    Zhihao wanted the ground to swallow himself up. He was really stupid! So stupid!

    ["Talking so big. If I wanted you to get on your knees and beg, would you be able to resist?"]

    [You really said this.]

    [Oh my god, hahahaha... You are really courageous.]

    Alvi kept on repeating Zhihao''s proud statement that he had spouted in the heat of the moment without any thought on what he was saying.

    He was either a genius or the biggest idiot in this world.

    Now Zhihao fully understood why demon Kazan had retreated without any further words.

    The moon goddess spellbook was deactivated and Li Ling was thrown out of it.

    "Hahahaha... A-Zhi is so smart!"

    Zhihao was being laughed at by two people, one was a bot and the other was his partner whom he trusted not to laugh at him.

    Zhihao couldn''t blame the two, if he was in their position, he would have laughed at himself too.

    If Hasumi was awake, she would have laughed at him too.

    Zhihao took a deep breath and let it out as he practiced anger control in his mind.

    Zhihao, "Let''s keep moving."

    Zhihao dragged Hasumi behind him and the other two followed him, still snickering as they did.

    This demon Kazan was certainly not just a side character, and Zhihao expected to see him again. Instead of focusing on the past relationship of the two demons, Zhihao focused his attention on what Kazan had warned him.

    He refused to believe that the demon had just retreated without any plans on retaliating. Kazan was up to something and Zhihao was looking forward to knowing what that was.

    ''Take her. She''s your problem. If anything happens, be sure to take all the responsibility.''

    These words couldn''t have been said for nothing.

    Zhihao was alert of his surroundings as he walked. Alvi stopped and decided to point out a certain fact he had forgotten to take into account.

    [Where are we going?]

    "Huh?"

    Oh...

    They were now out of the tunnel but had no idea where their next destination was. It might have been better if he followed Kazan.

    Damn...

 Chapter 67 - Mastermo Activates His Skill

    Zhihao stopped and looked at Alvi. She was the only person who actually knew where they were supposed to go, but here she was, still not wanting to share the information they needed.

    [I ain''t telling you anything.]

    "..."

    This much was expected. It would have been more shocking if she actually did help them.

    "Where are we supposed to go if you don''t tell us?"

    [You are supposed to go to the festival. Everyone is waiting for Taki..]

    Zhihao, "I know that, I''m asking you where the festival- Oh..."

    He finally understood what the bot had wanted to tell him. His brain was really not working at the moment and it could only be blamed on the information he received about the relationship between the two demons. It was really a shock to him who had never thought the story between the two would be that complex.

    The festival. They needed to go to the festival and where was the festival? The sound of the drums and bells were still there so was it really a question of where the festival was?

    They only needed to follow the sound and they''d be able to find the festival. How could Zhihao have not thought this?

    He sighed as he listened more closely to the sound that he had been ignoring.

    By this time, Li Ling and Alvi had stopped laughing at him as they lost interest in making fun of Mastermo. The group moved towards the direction of the sound which was not coming from in front of them anymore.

    Zhihao suddenly realized that he wasn''t walking on the tracks anymore. The tracks had stopped in the middle after they had left the tunnel. Zhihao looked back at the tunnel that was behind him and seemed to be lost in some thought. Li Ling walked ahead with Alvi and looked back at Zhihao who was still staring at the tunnel entry.

    "What are you looking at?" Li Ling asked as he followed Zhihao''s line of sight.

    "Just..." Zhihao didn''t know what he was looking at but he was lost in his own thoughts.

    If the tunnel was the gateway to this world then it should also be the gateway to the human world but why didn''t he see any demons or ghosts trying to go into the human world?

    It should certainly be tempting for them, should it not?

    Even if humans weren''t interested in coming to this world, the beings here should be interested in going back so what was stopping them?

    Zhihao was sure there was more to this than that what meets the eye.

    The original Taki was supposed to be in charge of the ghost festival tonight and with what Demon Kazan had said, it was clear that Taki was supposed to bring a human from the mortal world, but why was it specifically he who was assigned this mission?

    Why couldn''t it be someone else?

    Why can''t Kazan be the one who would do it?

    These questions bugged Zhihao. He wanted to know more, but his biggest fear was him completing the mission without ever knowing what the secret mission was or without uncovering every truth there was to this level. He wanted to learn it like the back of his hand and he felt like if he did, he most certainly won''t be disappointed.

    Zhihao had already completed missions in levels without triggering the secret missions and without uncovering the whole truth, it was a disappointment for him and if he could, he''d want to go back and redo it a bit more perfectly.

    "Let''s go." Zhihao turned around and came face-to-face with Li Ling who was right behind him, waiting for him to wake up from whatever thoughts he was lost in.

    Li Ling didn''t take a step back but Zhihao did it instinctively when he realized that he was too close to the other.

    Li Ling smiled, "Let''s go."

    Zhihao nodded and the three conscious people and the unconscious Hasumi made their way towards the festival.

    The further they walked, the more lost they were.

    The festival was hard to find. When they were inside the tunnel, the sound of the drums and bells sounded like they were coming closer and closer. Even when they had stopped moving inside the tunnel, the sound of the festival did not stop yet now that they were outside the tunnel, the more nearer they went to the sound, the further away they got from it.

    They were being tricked and Zhihao didn''t know what he was supposed to do with it.

    He stopped as he thought about what he should do next. They had already been walking for more than ten minutes now. This was getting them nowhere.

    At this moment, Zhihao seriously felt like he should''ve followed Kazan or at least put a tracker on him so that he could track the demon and follow him in secret.

    "Should we continue?" Li Ling questioned as he sighed.

    "We should stop for now." Zhihao sighed as he didn''t dare move another step.

    It was clear that they were being tricked but they couldn''t do anything about it.

    Zhihao looked at Alvi. This evil bot was the only one who could help them at the moment.

    Alvi smiled as the two players looked at her with eyes filled with hope. She was their only hope and the bot seemed to understand this fact really well.

    [I''m sorry but I can''t help you this time]

    [I am not allowed to interfere with the actions of the gambling bar]

    "The gambling bar?" Zhihao was confused. The last time they got an alert of the gambling bar, it was the arrival of Kazan and that demon had left after the verbal war with Zhihao. After that, they had received no notification about the gambling bar.

    It wasn''t possible for the alert to have been neglected by them. Zhihao thought about the possibility of the bot freezing up and not giving them an alert, but when he looked at Alvi again, this possibility was thrown out of his head. This bot was as energetic as ever so there was really no way she had frozen up for a mere notification time which basically only took one second.

    Zhihao decided to ask, "Alvi, is this the cause of the gambling bar?"

    [Affirmative]

    "Then is it the same gambling bar notification we got when we saw Kazan?"

    [What do you wanna know?]

    "Huh?"

    Li Ling shook his head and rephrased the question asked by Zhihao, "Is Kazan the cause of this?"

    [You are right.]

    [Kazan is behind this.]

    Zhihao, "What is he doing?"

    [You want to know?]

    "Yeah." Zhihao nodded

    [Are you sure you want to know?]

    Zhihao suddenly had flashbacks of the last time Alvi had questioned him like this and his own enthusiastic reply. He hadn''t liked the answer the last time so naturally, he couldn''t be as confident at answering with a yes.

    [Are you hesitating?]

    "..."

    Zhihao really didn''t like this playful bot.

    [Let me tell you nonetheless.]

    [Demon Kazan wants his lover back and if he can''t have his lover back, he''ll make sure that Taki doesn''t have any other way but to accept him]

    "What?!" Zhihao had never thought the demon to actually be such a Yandere. He didn''t know if he should smile or cry.

    This was something.

    Li Ling had an undecipherable expression as he heard this but thankfully, Zhihao wasn''t looking at him so naturally, no one else was able to see it.

    He was really not happy with this demon called Kazan. Even though the demon was dating the original Taki, the Taki right now was Mastermo and Li Ling really didn''t like the fact that the demon was trying to covet Zhihao. Who in the hell gave him the right to?!

    Li Ling took a deep breath in and calmly asked, "Alvi, Where are we?"

    [Finally asking the right questions]

    Alvi seemed to nod in approval, she was happy to answer this question.

    [We are in an illusion.]

    Zhihao, "What type of illusion?"

    [Kazan''s illusion.]

    [Your ears are being tricked]

    [Do not trust them]

    Wasn''t Alvi the reason why Zihao started following the sound?

    Zhihao, "How does Kazan plan to make Taki accept him?"

    [The annual ghost festival]

    [If Taki fails to bring a vessel to the festival... It is better not to tell you what would happen to him.]

    Alvi had successfully managed to scare them. Zhihao felt a shiver run down his spine as he heard this. He was Taki right now so whatever happened to Taki would actually happen to him. He was a bit scared to know the consequences and it was better if he didn''t and so he dare not ask about it.

    It was their mission so he would need to get out of this illusion and find the festival, if he didn''t, he could say goodbye to completing the mission.

    Zhihao thought about what he could do and suddenly, like a truck, it hit him.

    With the opening of the new stage, there was a special feature that had been unlocked and he was waiting to try it out.

    The accumulated skill set was ready to be used.

    Zhihao had the best skillset needed at this moment, this skill he got from the first game he played along with Li Ling as a team, and the two players were one of the only owners of this skill.

    Illusion master.

    Zhihao, "Alvi, I want to use a skill"

    [So?]

    [What do you want me to do?]

    "..."

    Zhihao, "Give me a guide. How am I supposed to use this skill?"

    Alvi sighed as if she were exhausted. Bots can be exhausted??

    [Yell the skill name followed with the command ''ACTIVATE'']

    Zhihao was enthusiastic as he did exactly as he was told, "Illusion master activate!"

    "..."

    Nothing happened.

    [Hahahaha]

    [You actually did it]

    [Lol]

    "..."

    He had been tricked once again.

    Zhihao took a deep breath in and closed his eyes as he swallowed back the string of curses he was ready to shower Alvi with.

    He really didn''t like this bot!

    [Okay, I''m done joking.]

    [You can activate skills by using the menu on the right corner]

    Zhihao was a bit annoyed and angered by this bot but he was willing to believe her once again and thankfully, this time he wasn''t fooled. There was indeed a new feature available on the menu bar. This new feature was called ''skill bar''. It had listed down all the skills that Zhihao had, and under every skill was a button called activate.

    [Let me warn you]

    [One skill can only be activated for one minute]

    [After the minute is over, the skill will automatically be deactivated]

    [Only two skills can be activated at the same time. If a player tries to activate more than two at once, all the skills will be automatically deactivated.]

    [And I have a feeling, I''m not being heard.]

    Li Ling, "Your feeling is right. A-Zhi is not listening anymore"

    [...]

    Zhihao activated the Illusion master skill and immediately the direction of the sound changed.

    "Damn..."

    They were walking in the opposite direction. The festival was far behind them and they were walking to who knows where.

    Zhihao turned around and came face to face with the demon named Kazan.

    Now that Zhihao had heard about the relationship between the two, he was a bit more confident to talk with this demon.

    He was still afraid but the reason for his fear was really different than the last time.

    Previously, Zhihao had been scared of being killed by this demon, but now, he was afraid of this demon abducting him.

    When he heard the crazed tales of this demon and looked at the crazed look in his eyes, Zhihao was sure this demon was what people called a ''Yandere'', and Zhihao wasn''t a fan of such people.

    Zhihao smirked as he met the demon''s eyes.

 Chapter 68 - Mastermo Knows How To Agitate Demons

    "You figured it out faster than I expected you to." Kazan sneered.

    Zhihao, "And I got to see your needy face faster than I wanted to."

    Li Ling was once again trapped inside the moon goddess spellbook and the book was safely kept with Alvi who again moved to the side, not wanting to get involved in the drama.

    Demon Kazan seemed to have subdued his anger this time as he was no longer bursting out at Taki''s little provocative replies.

    "Aw~ You wanted to see my face?" Kazan smirked.

    "..."

    Zhihao chuckled mockingly, "I really wouldn''t, not even if it was the only option left in this world."

    "It would soon be."

    "Are you threatening me?"

    "Why? Are you scared of me now?" The annoying smirk on his face was asking Zhihao to help wipe it off.

    "Scared of you? Keep on dreaming."

    Alvi was once again left shocked at how perfectly Zhihao played Taki''s character. For a moment, she even had the thought if the two were actually related to each other. It was impossible, but she couldn''t help but wonder about the what-ifs.

    Demon Kazan had a scary smile on his face as he took a step forward. Zhihao didn''t step back and the two were once again just a few inches away from each other.

    "Don''t try to come close to me," Zhihao growled.

    "You hate me that much?"

    Zhihao smiled, but it was not at all welcoming or happy, "I don''t even bother wasting my hate on you."

    That was a critical hit to the demon who looked to be taken back once he heard this.

    Zhihao looked at the demon''s expression that had dropped and he felt a bit guilty about it, but he was still not willing to take it back. He was really not the real Taki so why would he bother hating this demon whom he hardly knew?

    Demon Kazan tried his best to hide his expression, he was not successful, but he still tried to. His face, which had failed him and shown his dejected feelings, once again, went back to the facade of playing the big guy.

    This time, Zhihao was really not intimidated by the demon. Why would he be if he already knew the special power he had now? Zhihao had the upper hand, which was Kazan''s feelings for the original Taki.

    Zhihao didn''t want to use someone''s feelings like this, but he was in a game, and did it really matter what happened in a game? It wasn''t like he was really hurting someone.

    "Taki" Demon Kazan had a fierce expression on his face as he spoke, "I''ll make sure that you eat back those words."

    "Threatening me again?" Zhihao was not ready to back down yet, "Is that really all you can do? What a pathetic waste."

    Demon Kazan, who was ready to go back after threatening the man was once again agitated, "What did you just say?!"

    "Now even your ears are a waste?"

    Alvi had her mouth hanging open as she heard all the fierce drama, she didn''t know who''d be winning this fight, but it really seemed like she wanted to root for Zhihao, and yet, she was more of a fan of Kazan.

    If she had a bucket of popcorn in her hand, it really would have been perfect.

    Kazan, who had retreated a few steps back, stopped, stepped forward and they were once again standing inches apart. If Alvi hadn''t known the situation between the two, she would have mistaken all this intense atmosphere as sexual tension.

    "Did you just call me a waste?" Kazan had a really deep hoarse voice that sounded like he hadn''t drunk water for the last few months.

    Zhihao met his eyes and didn''t stutter nor faltered, "Am I wrong?"

    Alvi wanted to warn Zhihao. She really wanted to tell him not to agitate this demon too much.

    Kazan might have been in love with Taki and might have gone easy on him when the two fought but that was all in the past. If Zhihao was acting so confident because of that, he was really going to get his ass whipped.

    Alvi wanted to warn him of the dangers his words could cause but she was too immersed in enjoying the show and didn''t want to ruin the drama that was going on. If she were to tell him about this later, it would certainly be much more fun.

    "Taki, you are really cold to me." Kazan''s smile faltered.

    "You''re wrong."

    "I''m wrong?"

    "You make it sound like I''m intentionally being cold towards you when I can''t even be bothered to put up that emotion in front of you. You are just not worth my time."

    Alvi had expected Kazan to beat the man, a good punch was well expected but the demon didn''t harm him. She had never seen such a tamed demon, he was really a loyal dog to the real Taki. For the first time, Zhihao and Alvi were sharing the same thoughts.

    This demon was really too loyal to the real Taki. This was what Zhihao wanted to know. He wanted to test the demon''s feelings, he needed to know where his limit was and hence he needed to agitate the demon. He was a bit scared of finding that limit, but so far, he hadn''t hit the limit, so he could keep on going with his provocations.

    Zhihao was testing the real character of Taki. If the demon in front of him did not give him a shocked expression, it meant Zhihao had said something that Taki would have said. The more Zhihao communicated with this demon, the more he''d know about the original personality of Taki. He was hitting two birds with one stone.

    Zhihao expected to drive the man angry but what happened next really shocked him. Demon Kazan chuckled. His voice was deep and low so his chuckle was really not something pleasant to the ears, it was much alike a monster''s��a monster chuckling before devouring his victims.

    Zhihao looked at the chuckling demon with an amused expression, "Are you laughing at yourself?"

    "Laughing at myself?" Kazan stopped laughing and looked back at Zhihao, "I just realized something."

    "You realized? You have a brain to realize? That is funny to hear." Zhihao mocked.

    "I realized how much I have made you laugh at me." The demon spat with a constipated expression.

    "Hmm?"

    "I really hate you, Taki. I really do." Demon Kazan was not joking around. He had a smile on his face as he said such hostile words. He meant it and Zhihao could see that he did.

    "I really don''t care what your feelings towards me are... Ah! Sorry, I seem to have forgotten your name." Zhihao wasn''t lying, he really did forget Kazan''s name. He had been referring to him as a demon in his mind, demon this and demon that. The demon had said Taki''s name so he wanted to say his name as well but he forgot it.

    Demon Kazan was a bit taken back and infuriated, "Don''t play around with me, Taki!"

    "You think I should remember your name?" Zhihao was really looking to dig up his own grave.

    "You don''t remember my name?! Fine!" Zhihao thought the demon was done but in the next second, he was proved wrong, "Let''s see you lose your pride today."

    [Ding~ New hint!]

    "Hint?" Zhihao immediately shut his mouth as he realized he had said it out loud.

    Thankfully, demon Kazan was too infuriated to notice it. At this moment, he could only see red and it was all because of this man in front of him who had been testing his limits.

    Zhihao immediately covered for himself and made sure the demon hadn''t noticed his slip of the tongue, "Are you threatening me?"

    Kazan, "You''ll see."

    Zhihao chuckled mockingly, "And you think anything you do will actually work?"

    "Just because you are higher in the ranks doesn''t mean you are invincible. If you think I''m a dirty low birth, I''m going to pull you down and drag you on the mud with me."

    [Ding~ New hint!]

    [Wow! You are on a roll! Good job!]

    Zhihao didn''t know it was going to be this easy to get hints. He wasn''t even trying. This demon in front of him was just ever ready to spout out whatever he wanted, such a generous NPC. He was like the typical villain who''d give out their master plan and still say that it was a secret.

    "If you don''t come begging to me then, I''ll admit that you are really a person worth respecting."

    Zhihao didn''t seem to appear threatened at all and instead, he had an amused expression on his face. When demon Kazan saw the man''s expression, he gulped down his boiling blood. The man wasn''t speaking and it angered him even more.

    "Just you wait, Taki. I''ll make sure you''ll see dirt." Kazan spouted and stepped back as he once again retreated from the fight.

    "Alvi, are we being affected by anything right now?"

    [If you mean Kazan then no]

    [Everything is normal right now]

    [But you should really hurry]

    [The ghost festival is waiting for you]

    Zhihao sighed. He didn''t know for how long he had been holding that breath in.

    Thank God Kazan was gone again without any further trouble, but it was really unsettling how that demon popped up every now and then just to get into an argument with Taki, and then retreat by himself. Did this demon know no shame?

    This time, Zhihao wasn''t stupid. He followed Kazan from afar. There was enough distance between them that the demon would not realize he was being followed, this was cross-checked with Alvi so that Zhihao could rest assured that he would not be found out.

    [You are really sneaky]

    "Shut it, bot."

    [...]

    Demon Kazan had something up his sleeves and for now, Zhihao found that it was best to follow this demon. If he were to follow him, he could avoid danger or be alerted prior to it. It was really not a bad idea.

    Zhihao wanted to deactivate the moon goddess spellbook, but when he pondered over the pros and cons, he decided against it. Li Ling was with them and was safe so why should he go ruining it? Li Ling wasn''t unsatisfied with this. He didn''t need to walk anymore so he was more than happy to have Zhihao reduce his workload. It wasn''t like this was the only level he was currently playing so he really wanted to thank Zhihao for obliviously helping him out.

    Demon Kazan was headed towards the ghost festival but not exactly to the ghost festival.

    Zhihao hid behind the trees as he peeked at the demon who got mixed up with a crowd of ghosts that had lit up torches in their hands and were headed somewhere. It wasn''t a silent procession. The ghosts were complaining and bickering with each other nonstop.

    Zhihao heard them and felt like he''d be having a headache from this.

    "Do we really have to do this every year?"

    "I know. I really don''t like seeing that bastard come back."

    "You should not say that out loud!" The other ghost warned.

    "Who cares? No demons are listening."

    "You are right. As long as no one hears us"

    "Hahahaha... You wanna curse that bastard as well, right? Right?"

    "Curse him?! I would break his bones if he had one!"

    Zhihao had no idea who they were gossiping about, but as he kept on listening more, he could somewhat get that the ghosts here really hate someone or something. Zhihao could only hope that the one being hated wasn''t him.

    "If he had bones, hahahaha... If he had a body, I would have personally cut it down!"

    "You talk so big. Remember not to pee your pants in front of him."

    "Pee my pants? I''d pee in his mouth!"

 Chapter 69 - Mastermo Heard A Lot Of Nonsense Today

    "You can even pee?"

    "This rascal- Do you want to see me peeing in your mouth?!"

    Zhihao wanted to hold his aching head.

    These ghosts seemed to hold great resentment towards the subject of their conversation, but they didn''t seem to particularly like each other as well.

    Sadly for these small ghosts who thought there was no demon hearing them, there were actually two demons eavesdropping on their conversation.

    Zhihao didn''t seem to like their vulgar conversation, but he wanted to listen more.

    Alvi looked at him with an accusing expression and Zhihao defended himself, "I''m looking out for clues!"

    It was a lie. He was clearly very interested to listen to the conversation between the two ghosts. Alvi had seen through him, but she didn''t say anything any further.

    Why call out people who do not want to be called out?

    The ghosts continued their spicy conversation that was bound to get them fighting against each other.

    "You think you can pee in my mouth? Hahahaha... My mouth was ripped apart years ago!"

    "At least that was the only thing ripped apart. I would be shocked if we go back in one piece after today''s festival"

    "I say, we should ditch it and run away."

    The ghost smacked the other''s head, "Do you want to die?!"

    "I''m already dead!"

    "..." The ghost was silent for a second, but he had a come back to that, "Do you want to die again?!"

    "This- Who the hell are you to threaten me?!"

    "You f**ker!! Do you want to see what I''m capable of?!"

    "Capable of what? You can''t even pee!"

    Zhihao sighed as he lost interest in listening anymore. He wasn''t the only one who lost interest in listening to their conversation, Kazan had also grown tired of hearing it so he shouted and made sure that the ghosts were aware of his presence.

    This demon really liked to show off!

    "Keep moving forward! One more word and I''ll show what it really means to crave for a second death!"

    The ghosts who had been loud and not caring about their surrounding were stunned to a stand still. They looked at demon Kazan with an open mouth. They were already scared to death by the appearance of this demon. They gulped and didn''t dare say anything, not even daring to make a single noise as they walked.

    "Alvi, I really don''t understand this." Zhihao commented as he stared at the leaving figure of Kazan who was standing amongst the ghosts who were too scared to even stand a few feet close to him.

    [What don''t you understand?]

    [I''m here to help you]

    [Just ask]

    Zhihao felt it really funny coming from her mouth. When has she ever been ready to tell him what he wanted?

    "What is this talk about?"

    [That''s a really vague question]

    [Mind specifying it?]

    Zhihao sighed, "Who is the person they are talking about?"

    [Some stuff must not be talked about]

    [You will know when you come to know]

    "..."

    She just proved how right he was about her.

    Really useless!

    Zhihao was still determined to get answers, "Why are they afraid of demons?"

    [Now that, I can answer] Alvi beamed

    [They are ghosts, the lowest of the low.]

    "Huh? There is a hierarchy in here?"

    [Of course there is.]

    [The worst is ranked the highest and the least bad creature is ranked as the lowest.]

    [Do you want to know how high Taki is ranked?]

    "..." Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to know the answer to that, but his silence was taken as a yes and so Alvi continued to tell him.

    [Taki is surprisingly ranked pretty high.]

    [Unlike Kazan, Taki is a pure-blood demon]

    "Pure-blood?" Zhihao felt like the bot had finally turned helpful. Maybe Alvi had finally taken pity on him.

    [Taki was born a demon because of his pure-blooded demon parents. It is very rare to have pure-blooded demons. They are considered the royalty of this world.]

    [The only people how really get to enjoy this high rank.]

    "What about Kazen, what type of demon is he?"

    [It''s Kazan!] Alvi warned.

    [Kazan worked hard to earn his title of a demon, but he is still considered a very low-ranked demon.]

    "What do you mean work hard?"

    [Do you really want to know the answer to that?]

    "..." Every time Alvi asked that, the answer would always manage to leave Zhihao with a bitter taste in his mouth.

    [Kazan fell in love with Taki.]

    "Huh?"

    [That was his biggest mistake in life.]

    "He became a demon because he fell in love with Taki?"

    [Indirectly so.]

    [He died in a car accident. He was on his way to heaven but at that time, he saw Taki who was roaming around the human world.]

    [The angel that was supposed to take him reminded him that Taki was a demon and advised the young soul not to be tempted away by the devil''s looks.]

    [Kazan fell in love at first sight and in front of the plain angel, the handsome demon looked a lot more tempting.]

    "So he purposefully refused the entry to heaven?"

    [Not only that]

    [He tried to kill the angel that had come to pick him up. He wasn''t successful but trying to kill an angel still got him banned from entering heaven]

    [He also gained the attention of Taki who had never seen a new formed ghost trying to kill an angel]

    [He followed Taki all the way to the netherworld]

    "And?"

    [And he started his life as a ghost here.]

    [He wanted to propose to Taki, but he was a mere ghost at that point. The lowest of the low hitting on the high royalty? How could it lead anywhere?]

    [He was shown his place and from then on, he started working hard to gain the title of a demon.]

    "You haven''t answered my question. What hard work?"

    [Have some patience, will you?]

    Zhihao shut up.

    [The process to becoming a demon is really simple.]

    [You can either kill a demon and gain his title or eat a few humans and become a demon, but both of these options are hard to accomplish.]

    [Kazan used the third option to rise up in ranks.]

    [He ate a hundred ghosts.]

    [This option is the hardest yet the easiest way for a low-ranked ghost to become a demon.]

    "..."

    [Most ghosts would never want to go through the trouble. Ghosts don''t taste that good and with every ghost you devour, you become more crazy. The resentment of the ghosts that you devour start getting stored inside you and becomes your power but it is a double-edged sword that can strike you back at any moment.]

    [Kazan is one of the only ghosts to go through with this and end up successful. Some have tried but they couldn''t eat more than ten ghosts before the resentment ate them.]

    [The risk of failure is high and compared to that, it is just not worth it since even if you succeed and become a demon, you''ll be the lowest ranked one.]

    "..."

    [Why aren''t you saying anything?]

    "I''m wondering..."

    [Wondering about what?]

    "Wondering how much of a gossip lover you are, why didn''t I notice it before?"

    [...]

    Alvi was never going to tell him anything ever again!

    Zhihao got a lot of questions answered but he was still unsatisfied.

    He could finally understand why Kazan had warned him and said something along the lines of dragging Taki down with him to the dirt. Just what was this demon planning?

    "Alvi, is there a way Kazan can take away Taki''s title?"

    [Hmph~]

    [Not taking to you anymore!]

    "..."

    He might as well try finding out for himself.

    Zhihao followed the group of ghosts that were on their way to the ghost festival. These ghosts had fire lanterns in their hand that they used to light the way. They were clumsy so it was normal that every once in a while a lamp will stumble and fall from their hands, burning the other ghosts. Zhihao didn''t know ghosts could burn but today he was made aware that there were a lot of things that could happen and he was unaware of them all. However, this was still a game and was not to be taken seriously.

    It was a bit funny to see them stumble all over and yell at each other every once in a while. They were a bit more calm and silent because of Kazan whom they didn''t want to offend. Even if Kazan was a low ranked demon, he was still a demon and that meant he could very well devour them if he wanted.

    Zhihao silently followed them without being found out and they walked for quite a bit of time. The sound coming from the ghost festival could still be heard clearly but it seemed that they were still far away from it.

    Zhihao asked Alvi again about the location of the ghost festival and by then, Alvi had forgotten all about her anger at him. It was impossible for a bot to forget something but Zhihao felt it was lucky for him that she had.

    Instead of avoiding the question this time, Alvi actually gave him an answer.

    [It is in the center of the world]

    The answer wasn''t exactly precise but it was still something and Zhihao didn''t complain about it.

    They were headed for the center and the gateway or tunnel that they had come from was in some desolated corner.

    The more they walked, the more crowded the place became. It would have certainly been a bit pleasant if the crowd was human but as it stood, when Zhihao looked around, all he could see were ghosts.

    If the ghosts were pleasant to look at, it wouldn''t have been so bad but all the ghosts had the appearance of how they last died.

    Some died through car accidents and some died through a knife on their chests while some died such a gruesome death that they didn''t even have their body pieces intact.

    It was horrible but not so bad to look at or at least that was what Zhihao felt. After seeing the victims of sirens in the last level he played with the Gamemaster, Zhihao felt like nothing could faze him anymore. No matter how unsightly a corpse looked, it would still be better than a woman with a hole in her stomach and her intestines hanging out.

    Everyone was headed the same direction. They were all welcomed to the ghost festival and while some seemed to be happy as they went, some others had an apparent scowl on their face.

    Zhihao had collected a lot of information about a lot of things but the most important question he had in mind still remained unanswered.

    He had no idea what the ghost festival was about and his guesses scared him. After playing T.I.A.D. enough, Mastermo''s mind had gotten accustomed to expecting the worst outcomes and this time was no exception. He could only wish his guesses weren''t right.

    The group of ghosts that Kazan had mended in with grew bigger and the new ghosts who joined this group were still unaware of the demon among them. They didn''t know Kazan was there and they didn''t know why the ghosts in this group were silent so they decided to do their usual and make noise.

    Ghosts had this habit of talking too loudly amongst themselves, and becoming a cat without a tongue in front of the higher up demons.

    They were ranting about almost everything as if they didn''t care who heard them. Zhihao gained a lot of information from their nonstop blabbering, but the information was really not something he wanted to hear.

    What was he supposed to do with all this nonsensical personal information???

    He really felt like banging his head against the tree in front and directly knocking himself out.

 Chapter 70 - Mastermo Meets Himself

    Why the hell would Zhihao want to know how many rabbits the man cooked?

    Why would he want to know how the ghost''s wife beat him with a toilet brush?

    And someone actually cuts off your head because they didn''t have eyes so they mistook you for a pig?!

    It was all useless information, but it was really juicy information. Although Zhihao wasn''t too keen to hear it, every time a ghost spoke up, Zhihao''s ears would raise up on their own.

    Alvi was judging him so hard while Zhihao was judging the ghosts.

    A few more minutes of walking and the crowd had tripled in size. Such a huge crowd heading somewhere together was bound to be as noisy as ever and Zhihao had listened to everything they had said. Sometimes he would even end up laughing at what these ghosts were saying.

    Such stupid creatures.... Zhihao was mentally thanking God for not giving him the character of a ghost. Taki was relatively easy to role-play. If Zhihao were to be given the character of a ghost, he would really have hit the OOC alert in the first ten seconds of the game.

    They had almost reached the festival and the banging of the drums and bells were as loud as ever. Zhihao was interested to know who was playing the instruments but he was following Kazan who suddenly decided to part ways with the group.

    The ghosts were more than happy to see the demon leaving them alone but Zhihao frowned as he saw this.

    The festival was right in front of them, just a few more steps, so why was this demon going towards the right side? What was there?

    Zhihao did not move or follow anyone. He was contemplating on what he should do next and just then, he felt a hand tapping his shoulder from behind.

    Zhihao yelped out in shock as he turned around abruptly, coming face to face with the girl named Hasumi.

    "You''re awake?" Zhihao breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the face of the woman.

    "I''m awake...." Hasumi opened her eyes and looked around. She saw deformed humans with some missing their heads and others missing their limbs, it need not be said how big of a shock it was. She directly fainted once again.

    Zhihao caught her falling body and sighed, "She really is useless."

    [Shut up!]

    "Huh?" Zhihao could not understand why this bot named Alvi liked this girl so much. Was he mistaken? Was this Hasumi really an important character?

    Zhihao caught her and dumped her over to Alvi, "Since you like her so much, you take care of her."

    [...]

    Alvi caught the falling girl and seemed to be taken a bit back. What kind of man was he? He really dumped over a girl to her who was stuck in a ten-year-old''s body? Was he that heartless?

    If Zhihao were to hear the inner monologue of the bot, he would have laughed his heart out. Why should he feel pity for some computer codes?

    [Who are you going to follow?]

    "Who do you think I should follow?"

    [You should go to the ghost festival as fast as possible and-]

    [Alert: The gambling bar was used.]

    "Damn..."

    Alvi didn''t get to complete her sentence and the action of the gambling bar was already seen.

    "Taki!" It was the voice of a man, Zhihao had never heard or met before.

    [This is caused by the gambling bar]

    Zhihao looked at the face of the man who had suddenly appeared and he was thoroughly shocked to the core.

    The reason for the shock was self-explanatory.

    The man had a really handsome appearance, clear skin like jade with phoenix eyes and perfect fluffy hair that appeared to be the softest thing on this planet. Zhihao was stunned to see the handsome face that was identical to his. For a minute, he felt like he was looking into a mirror.

    It was him! He was looking at himself!

    Zhihao immediately shifted his eyes towards the bot who seemed not to be fazed by the appearance of this sudden intruder.

    [You want to know why he looks like Taki?]

    Zhihao nodded his head vigorously.

    The man with Zhihao''s face saw him and happily stepped forward towards him with a huge smile plastered on his face, "I knew I couldn''t get you wrong."

    [This is Demon Doji1, Taki''s one and only rival]

    Zhihao looked at the smile on the man''s face. Didn''t he seem to look a bit too welcoming to be a rival? Alvi seemed to have sensed the question in the player''s mind.

    [They are brothers with the same father but different mothers.]

    [Taki was born to two pure-blooded Demons and is the original pure-blood royal, in line for the throne.]

    [Doji was born to a pure-blooded demon father and a low-ranked demon mother]

    [The two do not share any animosity against each other. They are simply rivals and share a healthy competitive relationship.]

    [At least this is what the original Taki thinks. I''m not authorized yet to tell you if the thoughts are shared by this demon in front of you too.]

    At first glance, Doji didn''t seem to hold any hatred towards him and on the contrary, he looked to be quite delighted to have suddenly met up with Taki.

    Zhihao was almost fooled into thinking that this demon was really just a side character that would help him but how could that be the case?

    By this time, Zhihao had already realized something. Alvi had previously told them the use of the gambling bar for the positive betters. They could either let the players borrow their weapons or buy new weapons and send them over for aid. Zhihao had placed a bet on himself so he was well aware of this limitation. Even though Alvi had told them all about the gambling bar for the positive betters, the bot had left out the information about the negative betters and she never said that the same rules apply for the latter so why would Zhihao assume it to be so?

    They had received four gambling bar use notifications till now and none of the times were the betters positive, it was because Zhihao wasn''t in need of any weapons. The effect of the four gambling bar uses wasn''t limited to the exchange of weapons and this was why Zhihao was sure that the negative bar had a lot more features to use than the positive gambling bar.

    If the arrival of this ''rival'' was caused by the use of the negative gambling bar, the man was surely no good news.

    Zhihao didn''t let his thoughts effect the smile on his face. He was well versed in acting and so he received the man happily just like how the real Taki would have.

    "What a coincidence! Are you running late again? Oh! Is that the vessel? It''s a woman? Where did you find her? Did you knock her out?" The demon asked a bit too many questions, Zhihao didn''t like to be bombarded with questions like this but it seemed that the man was so talkative that he wasn''t even looking for the answers, he continued without giving any space for Zhihao to speak up, "The vessel looks strong enough. Good job, brother!"

    Doji patted his back and appreciated him but Zhihao was not impressed. If it were the real Taki, he would not have seen through that smile but Zhihao saw right through it. That was the fakest smile he had ever seen in his life.

    Thankfully, Zhihao knew how to match the demon''s fakeness. He could also be considered a pro at it.

    Zhihao smiled, "Did you ever doubt me?"

    "Of course not." The demon chuckled, "You are late like usual. I almost thought you wouldn''t be coming."

    It was only for a second but Zhihao caught a glimpse of the look that flashed through the demon''s eyes.

    "I was worried so I went to check on you. I was on my way back because I couldn''t find you." The demon frowned a bit, even the frown was fake.

    [He is not lying.]

    [He went to block the tunnel but we were already out of it]

    "..."

    Suddenly the bot had turned out more helpful than ever, he didn''t know why the sudden change had taken place but Zhihao wasn''t complaining.

    "So nice of you to worry about me." Zhihao smiled as he stepped forward and patted the demon''s shoulder.

    "I have found you, it''s all good now." The demon nodded and Zhihao could sense the hidden meaning behind those words, "Let''s go back together?"

    Zhihao didn''t want to, but he was supposed to act like Taki and the real Taki would not have suspected this brother of his, he would have blindly followed this demon and so Zhihao wasn''t left with an option.

    Zhihao nodded his head happily as if he was really glad to have met up with this brother of his, "Let''s do that!"

    "By the way, who is this?" Doji asked as he stared at the small Alvi who was glaring at the demon.

    When Zhihao saw the girl glaring at Doji, he was a bit surprised. By this time, Zhihao had thought that he was the one whom the bot hated the most, but it seems that he was wrong. She really hated someone else more than him, but then again, Zhihao looked at the face that was identical to his, could it be that the reason this bot hated this character was because it looked exactly like him? It couldn''t be that, right? Right?

    "This is-" Before Zhihao could answer the demon, Doji cut him off mid-sentence.

    "A ghost to help you carry the vessel?"

    Zhihao smiled wider as he heard this, he was happy to see Alvi''s hostile expression, this was certainly an insult to the pride of the bot, "That''s right."

    "That''s so like you, Taki." Doji laughed, an empty laugh with no emotions. So fake.

    Zhihao smiled, "Let''s go"

    "Hmm." Doji nodded, still unaware of the difference between his original brother and this imposter named Zhihao.

    The two shared the fake friendly words and walked ahead as they followed after the precession.

    Zhihao stared towards the right side where Demon Kazan had gone off too. What was he planning?

    It really seemed like the more he played this level, the more antagonists he met up with. Was one villain not good enough?

    The demon Doji was acting really delighted to have met with his half-brother, but throughout the way, he didn''t utter a word and Zhihao was naturally not interested to strike up a conversation. He was still not sure how the two siblings communicated with each other so it was better for him to limit the use of his mouth.

    Zhihao slowed down his speed as he let the demon walk a bit ahead of him. Doji didn''t seem to notice this small action. Who knew what he was thinking. At this moment, if Taki went missing, the demon would still not notice.

    When the distance between the two was established, Zhihao whispered to Alvi, "Is he planning to kill Taki?"

    [No way he could, even if he tried.]

    [The strength between a half-blood and pure-blood cannot even be compared.]

    [If he were to ever get into a physical fight with Taki, he would be killed within a millisecond]

    "That strong?" Zhihao seemed to be lost in thoughts as he heard this.

    [Yes, that strong.]

    [Who do you think you are playing? Taki is one of the most powerful demons, Doji could never compare.]

    "Then I have another question."

    [What is it?]

    "You said that Taki and Kazen fought, didn''t you."

    [It''s Kazan! And yes.]

    "If Taki is that powerful, how come he didn''t end up killing Kazan?"

    [You are finally catching the hints.] Alvi nodded proudly.

    [You have guessed right, Taki didn''t want to kill Kazan.]

 Chapter 71 - Mastermo Is In A Love Triangle?

    "Why?"

    [The reason... You''ll have to find out for yourself]

    Zhihao suddenly felt his mood go up as he heard this.

    This Taki was really an interesting person and Zhihao was hungry to know more.

    Zhihao wanted to dig out more information from the bot, but before he could ask his next question, Doji looked back at him with a wide smile, "What are doing? We need to hurry. Come fast."

    Zhihao nodded and walked a few steps faster, but the moment the demon turned back again, Zhihao once again slowed down his speed.

    "I have one last question.."

    [Why the hell are you so filled with questions? Don''t you know that curiosity killed the cat?]

    Zhihao shook his head, "This is my last question... At least for now."

    [Ask.]

    "Do Doji and Kazan know each other?"

    [Ding~ New hint!]

    [Remember when I said that Kazan was a ghost when he first tried to propose to Taki?]

    "When he was rejected and looked down upon?"

    [There is more to that story.]

    [Kazan didn''t get rejected because he couldn''t even properly propose to Taki.]

    [At that time, Taki was in his palace, and Kazan was stopped by the guards. How could they let a lowly ghost enter the palace so freely? They would not let him enter and he made up a commotion in front of the gate.]

    [The guards got angry at him and rudely pushed him away as they cursed at him and tried to intimidate him away.]

    [At that time, Doji was returning to the palace and saw the guards beating the ghost around. He was suddenly interested in the ghost that seemed to overestimate himself.]

    "Did he save him?"

    [Save him? Tch- He''s not that nice.]

    Alvi really seemed to dislike this demon look-alike of Zhihao.

    [Doji enquired the guards about why they were beating the poor ghost. Kazan saw a demon who looked exactly like Taki and misunderstood him to be the demon he was after.]

    "Did he propose?"

    [He did. He said something along the lines of "Demon Taki, I fell in love with you at first sight. I don''t care if you reciprocate my feelings or not, I''d be happy with just hanging around you. Please make me your servant."]

    [Doji was angered to hear this since he had always seen Taki as his rival. It was a very small thing but to see even a ghost prefer Taki over him even though they shared the same face, he was really agitated.]

    [He beat the ghost to a state where Kazan''s soul almost dispersed away. At the last moment, Doji seemed to take pity on the ghost and decided to spare his life.]

    [Later on, Kazan practiced fighting with the other ghosts and tried to increase his power. The more ghosts he won against, the more powerful he got and the more bruises he collected. He thought he was finally ready to beat a demon.]

    [At that time, Kazan only knew the first two ways of how to become a demon, one was by beating a demon and the second was by eating humans. Kazan had no way of finding a human in this world and he didn''t have permission to cross the tunnel so he decided to challenge a demon.]

    [There is a place that hosts such fights against demons and ghosts.]

    [The demons who come to take the challenge are either too bored and looking for fun or are ambitious and want to rise in ranks. The more ghosts they beat, the more power they gain.]

    [The ghosts who came to fight were all like Kazan and were here to try their luck and try to become a demon]

    [Kazan enrolled himself for a fight and that day, his opponent just so happened to be the demon who had previously almost killed him. Even though Doji looked the same as Taki, this time Kazan knew he wasn''t looking at the man he was interested in because after roaming this world for so long, he naturally came to be aware of the existence of Taki''s half-brother who looked exactly like him.]

    [When Kazan told the other ghosts about the way he was beaten to a pulp by the prince, the other ghosts laughed at him and said that it was probably Doji who beat him. They refused to believe that it was Taki simply because Taki would never do something like this. That man was completely uninterested in ghosts. Although he looked cold and acted indifferently, he was really not someone whom they should be afraid of. Taki was a demon who would hardly be seen around here, he was mostly spending his time in the human world so there was no way he would go through the trouble of beating this small ghost who wasn''t even worthy of catching his attention.]

    [When Kazan found this out, he was enraged and collected more information on this demon who looked like his crush. He had a bone to pick and what other perfect time would there be?]

    [The two fought and Before the fight started, Kazan was sure he''d be strong enough to hold on, he was even so optimistic as to think that he''d win but how could he? He was beaten within a minute.]

    [Doji was still too strong for him. He never stood a chance against him. The fight was pointless but once again before he could die, Doji stopped.]

    [This was around the time when Doji started getting interested in this ghost that didn''t know when to give up. He was impressed with the man''s persistence and decided to play with him a bit.]

    [He told Kazan about the third method of how to become a demon. He thought the ghost would not be able to do it but even after eating twenty ghosts, Kazan still stood strong and Doji was even more impressed.]

    [He was attracted to the ghost''s charm.]

    Zhihao shook his head as he heard this. How could that be considered charming? If he saw a man, eating twenty ghosts, he would have been so disgusted that he would never want to meet the man again. This demon Doji was certainly twisted in the head. What a psychotic demon.

    [Kazan finally completed devouring a hundred ghosts and became a demon. Doji by this time had completely fallen in love with the newly-made demon.]

    "What is this love triangle...? Is this a horror genre or a romantic soap opera?" Zhihao commented and was ignored by Alvi who wanted to complete the story.

    [Kazan was not interested in Doji, he was completely infatuated by Taki. He had silently watched over the man and the more he got to know about him, the more he fell in love. The more he fell in love, the more he was able to distinguish between the two.]

    [Doji was jealous. He had the same face as his half-brother so why was his brother always winning against him in everything? What was he lacking? Why couldn''t this Kazan just look at him.]

    "Well, he does have a point..."

    [He doesn''t! If we compare the two demons, you''d be able to see it for yourself. This Doji is too wicked and disgusting, not even qualified to stand in the same place as Taki.]

    Zhihao finally understood that Alvi was a complete Taki fan and a Doji anti-fan. This was a bit interesting. Just why did she hate this demon so much? But then again, the things this demon did were certainly not something a good person would do.

    [Doji''s jealousy only kept growing stronger and stronger. There were various times when he tried to court Kazan but he failed. He tried to use force on the demon but Taki arrived and helped Kazan. Kazan''s love grew even stronger and from then on, Kazan started getting closer to Taki.]

    [Taki was interested in the demon his half-brother was interested in so he let the man hang around him.]

    [The two eventually started to date each other and Doji''s jealousy knew no bounds. He did his best to silently move behind the scene and tried to break the two apart.]

    [When the two finally broke up, Doji was the happiest person when he heard the news. This was what he wanted and he finally got.]

    [Doji decided to make his move on Kazan and apologized for everything he had done to the man. Doji looked at the face that was identical to his ex-lover''s so he forgave him and thought the two would be able to become friends.]

    [Doji was happy with being the demon''s friend. He had a plan that was already put in motion. Slowly, he started to fill Kazan''s ears with negative rumors about Taki. He wanted the demon to completely hate his half-brother.]

    "So he is the reason why Kazan hates Taki so much?"

    [Not really.]

    [What Doji told him was really true so it was eventually because of Taki that Kazan hates him.]

    "Just what did Taki do?"

    [Don''t you think I''ve said too much for the day?]

    "..."

    [Try asking some other time, I''m tired of all the talking.]

    Just how should he kill this bot?

    Zhihao walked faster and caught up to Doji. He side-eyed the demon and felt like the two will eventually have to fight. He didn''t know if he wanted to, but he had a gut feeling that it was inevitable and he was kinda looking forward to beating this demon''s ass. He would not feel bad about killing this one.

    Zhihao could feel that Alvi was hiding somethings from Zhihao, something that would make him hate this character even more. Zhihao wasn''t too worried, he would eventually find out all the deeds this demon had done and at that time, he could kill him without any second thoughts.

    Demon Doji looked back at his half-brother who was glancing at him and smiled. He really thought his brother was the biggest fool, unaware of everything this man had been doing behind his back.

    "We are running really late," Zhihao commented.

    "This is to be expected from you. When have you ever been on time?" Although he said it in a light-hearted manner, the mockery in his words didn''t go unnoticed by Zhihao.

    "The clock follows me, why should I follow it?" Zhihao responded rather proudly.

    Doji had always hated this man, especially for the man''s proud attitude. They were rivals for the throne but his half-brother had never put him in his eyes. Their rivalry was all for fun and games. Everyone could see that Taki was the heir who''d ascend the throne; Doji was just a small fly that lingered around him. A bug that was easily crushable. Although Taki would call him rival sometimes, it was more than clear to him that the man had never seen him as a real rival.

    There were times Taki would take pity on this brother of his and help him every now and then. It was the biggest humiliation for Doji who saw it as Taki trying to belittle him.

    Taki''s intentions were always clear, he had no interest in pondering over how his actions came out as. If he wanted to protect someone, he would and if he wanted to kill someone, he will. His intentions were transparent and it was only Doji who had read too much into it.

    Every time, the two brothers were compared, Doji was always the one who got the short end of the stick whereas everyone would be singing the praises of his brother Taki. How could he not hate this man to the core?

    He hated him so much that he wished Taki was never born.

    The relationship between the two was much more complicated than it appeared to be on the surface. Taki was unaware of his brother''s true self. He was oblivious to the hate and jealousy this brother of his had accumulated in his heart.

 Chapter 72 - Mastermo Participates In The Ghost Festival

    The two brothers kept on walking on the crowded road. This demon didn''t seem to be like Kazan, who was trying to trick him into going somewhere else.

    Doji made no move. It really seemed like he was truly innocent and had only wanted to walk together with his brother. It was no wonder the original Taki had been fooled by this demon. Well, they shared a face so of course Taki was easily fooled. Who would look at their own face and think they were evil?

    Doji''s face was the biggest reason why Taki used to favor him. He was a good brother to him because he liked his brother''s face which inevitably meant he liked his own face.

    Zhihao wanted to scold Alvi. She better give him a new face in the next level, he didn''t want a character to have the same face as him. He was previously okay with playing an in-game character with his original face but that was when he wasn''t given a preset character to play.

    Zhihao hadn''t thought about it too much before, but now that he was in such a position, he realized a big disadvantage that seemed to arise.

    If he were to be given a character to role-play and the character had the same face as him, he would be put at a disadvantage. What if he were to play a character that was powerless and gets beat up a lot? His face would have to suffer it all. Zhihao really didn''t want to see his face go through such a situation, he''d rather get a new face that looked nothing like his original appearance. Even if he were given the appearance of an ogre, he would not be complaining.

    Alvi was following them at a slow pace because she wasn''t alone. She had to drag an unconscious Hasumi along with her and this woman was really heavy, how could a mere ten-year-old easily carry her behind her back?

    They walked for a few more minutes and finally, the wait was over and they reached the ghost festival. It was really a far journey and Zhihao wondered how they were able to hear the sound from the tunnel. The tunnel was so far away that it should have been impossible for them to have heard this sound.

    Zhihao let Doji lead the way since he had no idea where he was supposed to go.

    As they walked, the crowd made way for them, some out of respect, and some out of fear that could not be hidden from their expressions. Most of them were just ghosts who neither got the chance to see Taki nor Doji and now they got to see both the royal brothers together, it was really the highlight of their ghost life.

    Some ghosts stared at the identical faces of the two brothers, but most of them were staring at the girl that was being carried by Alvi.

    "That''s the vessel?"

    They were whispering amongst themselves but their voices weren''t low enough and as a result, both Doji and Taki were able to hear them clearly. Doji was uninterested in listening to their useless talk but Zhihao couldn''t help but raise his ears as he tried to listen and collect as much information as he could. This time he was sure that he''d be able to hear something more than who washed whose dirty laundry.

    "It''s a female?"

    "Look at those nails."

    "F**k! That is going to hurt."

    "No other demon had ever bought a woman to this festival, this demon is certainly not up to any good."

    "Female vessels are so much more ferocious. We really should''ve stayed at home."

    "You say that like we had an option. Do you want to be thrown into the fire pit?"

    The ghost sighed, "We really are all goners."

    "You should start praying that the vessel has a weak stomach."

    "Pray to who? God? Hahaha..."

    "Pray to the demon king you bastard! Your God doesn''t rule this place."

    Zhihao felt an unsettling feeling in his stomach. With every beat of the drum, Zhihao''s heart would start feeling even more uneasy as if his heart was the drum that was being beaten. The murmurs among the ghosts didn''t help at all. He was thoroughly confused after hearing them.

    Just what was this festival about and what was the importance of Hasumi in all this?

    "You sh*thead, you dare say his name here? This place doesn''t follow his rules and he has no jurisdiction here. If you want to pray to him, might as well willingly jump directly into the fire pit before you end up in the belly of that vessel."

    Zhihao felt a shiver go down his spine.

    Hasumi was going to be the vessel that eats these ghosts? Just what in the hell was going on?

    [Smile!]

    "Huh?"

    [Don''t say anything or ask anything. Just smile and follow Doji.]

    Zhihao was not a rebel who was going to go against Alvi''s orders. Although this bot was useless most of the time, there were times it was extremely useful and if the bot were to order something from him, the bot was probably doing it to help the player. Alvi and Zhihao might not have a friendly relationship but it wasn''t like Alvi would lie to him and try to trick him.

    He could trust her and in fact, she was one of the only in-game characters he could trust.

    Zhihao smiled as he walked, he let his eyes wander around the place as he tried his best to take in every single detail he could about this place. Focusing on details was a good way of collecting hints.

    The place was like any other ordinary festival.

    The drums and bells were in the middle, being played by other demons, and those demons were covered by a circle formed by the crowd that stood at a certain distance, away from them.

    No ghost was allowed to get near the demons and there was a noticeable amount of distance of approximately 20 meters in between them.

    When Zhihao looked at the demon that was paying the drums, the demon looked back and their eyes met. The demons playing the music had a mask on and their fierce eyes were the only thing visible from their face. Zhihao didn''t enjoy being glared at by a random demon and so he looked away immediately.

    The ghosts were being blocked out by an invisible force, but that same force didn''t work on the two royal demons who walked closer to the musicians and passed by them.

    Zhihao felt like he was intruding on the performers. Who in the world would be so rude to walk through the middle of a stage? Zhihao was unaware of the fact that this was normal for them. They weren''t low-ranked demons so who could stop them from walking through the center of the stage? In fact, where ever they walked from was considered to be the main attraction and was no different from a stage.

    Zhihao looked around and he felt like he had suddenly become like a lion in a zoo. Being stared at like an exotic animal was certainly refreshing but it would have been better if the onlookers weren''t ghosts.

    The place was lit up by the hanging lanterns on the sides and there were even stalls on the sides. Zhihao was very interested to know what stuff people would sell to ghosts so he looked over and it was really not something he would ever want to buy.

    They were selling human meat. Zhihao didn''t know where they had found the human from, but he was certainly not interested to find out the answer. Sometimes the lesser you know, the better it is for your sanity.

    When Zhihao passed through the demon who was playing the drums, he felt his heart stop with fear. The drummer''s glare was fixated on him and he felt extremely uneasy about it.

    [Keep smiling.]

    Zhihao did as he was told and thank god he was a great actor because anyone who looked at him right now would not be able to tell the difference between him and the real demon Taki.

    It would have been a perfect role-play but there was still something missing. If it were the real demon Taki, he would have personally princess-carried Hasumi and not let Alvi drag her behind them like this.

    They passed by the musicians, behind whom there was a pit of fire and two tables in front of it. One of the tables was rectangular in size and empty, placed in front of the smaller table. The smaller circular table had a cup kept on top of it and two other demons standing by its side as if guarding the cup. These demons were different and Zhihao could see it clearly. They were higher ranked demons but their rank was still lower than Taki''s so naturally, when they saw the demon walking up to them, they kneeled down and bowed their heads.

    "We have been waiting for you."

    Zhihao was about to respond but he was abruptly stopped by Alvi.

    [Don''t say anything, just nod]

    Zhihao smiled and nodded as a response. He had no idea what was going on but they all wanted him to play along and he was going to do just that.

    "Taki, place the vessel on the table," Doji instructed and Alvi moved forward, handing the girl over to Taki.

    Alvi, "I''m a ghost, not qualified to do it. If you may...?"1

    [You do it yourself!]

    "..."

    Why was this bot lying? Couldn''t she just come out and say the truth? She didn''t have the height to reach the table and didn''t want to embarrass herself trying.

    Mastermo picked Hasumi up and placed her on the table.

    Was this a sacrificial ceremony cause, by all means, it seemed to be the case.

    Zhihao could even guess that in the next minute someone will come with a saber in hand and chop the girl in half. It was a wild guess but it could very well come true.

    [Greet your father!]

    "Huh?" Zhihao didn''t know what Alvi was talking about.

    [The man in front. Look up.]

    Zhihao did as he was told and his eyes glanced up, beyond the fire pit was a set of stairs and on top of those stairs, he saw a man sitting in a chair that was not illuminated with any light and hence, the man''s face was completely hidden. Zhihao could make out the silhouette of the man and just from that alone, he was able to feel a sense of fear from the man.

    [That is the king of the underworld.]

    Zhihao gulped as he saw the dark figure of the man. Zhihao used to think that the aura emitted by the demons here was extraordinary, but now that he was met with a man whose face, he couldn''t even see, he felt like the aura he had sensed before was nothing compared to this man. He was really deserving of the title of the king of the underworld.

    [Immediately kneel on one knee and greet him. Don''t say anything, just nod.]

    The bot''s voice sounded urgent as if she was also afraid of this very person.

    Zhihao immediately looked down and got on one knee as he slightly nodded. He didn''t stand up till a strong and deep voice resonated within the festival. The drums and bells were loud but the man''s voice was as clear as the sun in the summer sky, it had clearly overtaken the sound of the drums.

    "You may rise."

    A simple sentence, the way it was said wasn''t offensive or anger-filled but Zhihao felt his whole body grow numb when he heard it.

    ''Just who the hell was the voice actor to this scene?''

    The man really had a one-of-a-kind demonic voice!

 Chapter 73 - Mastermo Is Being Wrongly Accused

    Zhihao stood up but didn''t dare look at the man again, and instead, he stared at the pit of fire that was between the stairs and the table on which Hasumi was placed.

    Doji stepped forward and did the same as Zhihao but he didn''t wait for a voice to tell him to stand up, because if he did, he would have remained kneeling forever.

    This king was partial towards his sons. Everyone knew that Taki was his favorite and Doji couldn''t even hold a candle against him, but this didn''t stop the unfavoured son from trying to curry favors.

    "We should start already. It''s already late." Doji spoke up and one of the demons who was standing by the side stepped forward.

    This demon looked way older than Doji and Taki. Demons don''t age normally, Taki and Doji looked like twenty-year-olds, but were way older than a century. The man in front looked to be around his forties, but if his real age was revealed, Zhihao would have been shocked to death.

    "Let''s first check if the vessel is compatible." The middle-aged demon spoke as he moved towards Hasumi.

    Not a minute later, his face twisted into a displeased expression and he instantly glared at Taki.

    "Are you joking with us?!"

    Zhihao had no idea what had gone wrong.

    "What is this supposed to mean?! Where is the vessel?!"

    The demon seemed to want to slander the prince a bit more, but doing so would really not be the optimal decision for him so he tried to hold in his anger and turned his head towards the demon king.

    He took a deep breath and tried his best to calm himself down.

    "Taki has tried to fool us!"

    "This is an empty shell! A hoax! It merely looks like a human!"

    Everyone went silent.

    Zhihao was shocked. His first reaction was to look at Alvi who had been carrying Hasumi all this way. Did the bot that was supposed to help him actually trick him???

    [Don''t look at me!]

    [I did nothing wrong!]

    Zhihao didn''t believe her, but with everyone looking at him, he couldn''t just push all the blame onto this little ghost1.

    It was silent, so silent that if he dropped a pin, he''ll be able to hear it''s resonating sound when it hit the ground.

    Zhihao had to say something, but he was at a loss for words. He had certainly brought along the real Hasumi and if this wasn''t Hasumi, where was Hasumi?

    [Say something! Taki is cold and indifferent, but he always speaks up for himself in front of his father.]

    Zhihao took a deep breath and tried his best to think straight. There had to be a way out of this.

    Once his brain had recovered from its shocked stage, he immediately glared at Doji. He had really been fooled by this rival even after being alert around him.

    Just when had Doji switched Hasumi out?

    Doji didn''t seem to notice Zhihao''s hostile look, he was immersed in his acting. Zhihao was almost fooled by this man, Doji really looked like he was shocked as well.

    Doji decided to be the first one to speak up, "Taki tried to pull a prank on his highness?"

    Zhihao wanted to vomit blood as he heard this. Just what type of a backstabbing rat was Taki calling a brother?!

    "How could this be so?" Doji''s comment was enough to strike up the start of the whisperings.

    This was indeed very unbelievable and the ghosts who were standing by the sides couldn''t help but gossip amongst themselves. Laced along with their voice was an emotion of shock, confusion, and even a trace of happiness as if they were glad something like this had happened.

    "Prince Taki lied?"

    "How could he do this?"

    "Damn, I didn''t expect this."

    "I have a bad feeling about this."

    "Does he know the consequences of failing today''s ceremony?"

    "Prince Taki is really..."

    "I don''t think we''ll have to refer to him as the prince anymore."

    "What a cunning bastard. He really thought he''d be able to fool everyone?!"

    "This is getting spicy."

    Most of the things, Zhihao couldn''t hear, but the few comments he did hear, sent a shiver down his spine.

    He was in big trouble.

    "Taki" The demonic voice of the demon king was heard once again and this overpowered deep voice was enough to silence everyone.

    Zhihao felt his heart go numb along with his whole body.

    There weren''t many things Zhihao was afraid of, but this demon''s voice made him want to drop on his knees and apologize for merely existing.

    Zhihao was silent, he dared not say a word. He was in front of someone way stronger than him and Zhihao wasn''t looking for a quicker death.

    "You bought an empty shell? Hahahah..." The demon king chuckled, but even his chuckle was scary as it reverberated through Zhihao''s heart. He sounded both amused and angry as if his son had done something so fun and unexpected that he wasn''t sure how he should administer the punishment.

    "I-I didn''t!" Zhihao stuttered out and immediately regretted speaking up.

    Taki would have saved himself, this was what Alvi had told him, but even if that may be true, Taki would only speak if he had something to support his statement. He would never say something on an impulse.

    "You didn''t?" The amusement in the demon king''s voice was gone. It now sounded heavy and scary as if the speaker was really angered to the point that he could kill his own son.

    Zhihao stopped. He took a deep breath in as he brainstormed for any clues or evidence that may help him at this moment.

    Suddenly he remembered something.

    Zhihao didn''t know if he should laugh or cry as he realized something. It was certainly helpful for him that he had eavesdropped on the conversation between the ghosts.

    He was wrong at blaming Doji.

    It wasn''t Doji who fooled him, It was Kazan.

    He remembered one of the ghosts saying that if Taki wasn''t successful in today''s ceremony, he would lose his title of the prince but that should be the least of his worries. There was certainly something worse waiting for him as a punishment for not delivering the vessel tonight.

    There were two people who would want to see Taki hitting rock bottom or at least Zhihao only knew two people who would want to see him ruined. One was Doji and the other was Kazan. It could be any one of the two who had tricked Taki today, but Zhihao believed it to be the handiwork of demon Kazan.

    He had a reason to believe it was Kazan.

    Doji had been with him all this way so he was the first suspect, but when one thought about it a little deeper, they''d be able to see that Doji was walking in front of him and had not even gone close to Hasumi so how could he be the one behind this?

    Zhihao thought back on Kazan''s warning.

    That demon had challenged him and threatened him. He wanted to drag Taki down and from the last threat he had given Taki, he sounded a bit too confident. Zhihao had wondered what that demon was planning, but he had never thought that whatever the plan was, it had already been in motion way before Zhihao realized it.

    Zhihao had been stupid.

    Demon Kazan had switched Hasumi out from the very beginning when he met her in the tunnel.

    To be more exact, it was when the lights went out and Hasumi fell over while running.

    When Zhihao first met Kazan he had wondered how the demon had been able to knock Hasumi out without even having to do or say something, it was because she was completely under his control and was made by him.

    The lights of the tunnel went out and Hasumi ran. On the way, she got abducted, and in her place, there came an empty shell. This was what Zhihao had guessed, but it was still just that and there was no way he could clarify if this was the truth or not. At least not until Alvi spoke up or Kazan came out and admitted to it.

    Zhihao wanted to laugh at himself. He had really been fooled from the start.

    [Say something or you''ll be triggering OOC in the next minute.]

    Zhihao breathed out a heavy sigh as he looked up at the demon king. It took him every inch of courage he had to do so, but when he finally looked up, the confidence came naturally to him and he knew exactly what he was to say.

    Previously, he couldn''t make out the face of the demon and could only see a dark shadow seated high above the stairs, now that he looked again, he could make out a pair of red glaring eyes. Zhihao gulped as he maintained eye contact with this demon king who could very well kill him.

    [Taki doesn''t like him. He coldly refers to him as ''father'']

    [You are doing good.]

    Zhihao was a bit relieved after hearing this. Alvi was finally able to seem a bit lovable, helping him out in such a dire situation. Zhihao decided to let go of his dislike towards the bot. She had managed to redeem herself.

    "Father, I''m not lying. I really did bring a real vessel." Zhihao looked down at the unconscious body of Hasumi, "I have no idea who this is."

    [What are you doing?]

    Zhihao was confident in himself or at least he appeared to be on the surface and this confident appearance won everyone over in an instant. They all believed that Taki would not pull a prank like this and so when they saw Taki being so confident, they were sure that whatever he was going to say next would clear his name.

    The eyes of the demon king who was glaring at Taki turned a bit softer as the redness lowered in intensity, he was now looking at his son in amusement.

    "Someone wanted to dirty my name. Seeing the situation turn out like this, I''d say they really did a good job"

    Zhihao smirked and the demon king chuckled as he heard this.

    "You can clear your name?" The demon king asked, his voice sounded strict but there was now a faint mixture of softness in that, almost unnoticeable but Zhihao still ended up catching it.

    This demon king was really partial towards his sons. Just a bit of bullshitting and the demon king was this easily won over?

    Zhihao really didn''t know what the reaction to his next words was going to be. He closed his eyes and smirked, keeping up his confident facade while his head was in turmoil.

    Kazan had really put him in a really bad position right now.

    "Whoever did this, did a really great job. I''m really impressed. They left me nothing. I can''t clean my name out of this so might as well stand here and accept it."

    "..."

    [...]

    The crowd was silent.

    [What the hell are you trying to do?!]

    Zhihao waited a minute and he heard no OOC alert, he smiled. He had guessed it right. Zhihao finally understood the type of man Taki was and now he was sure that he''d be able to role play this demon perfectly without any flaw.

    "I have no proof to protect me. I can only hope father trusts me enough to know my innocence."

    The demon king did not respond but Zhihao was staring him straight in the eyes, every small change in those eyes did not go unnoticed by Zhihao. This demon king trusted Taki, Zhihao could clearly see it.

    Zhihao couldn''t understand why Taki hated this father who trusted and favored him so much, there really had to be something behind their relationship. A backstory that Zhihao was looking forward to exploring.

 Chapter 74 - Mastermo Has Gone Crazy

    The middle-aged demon who was the first to accuse Taki was enraged to see this young man acting so rudely but all he could do was glare. This was the son of the demon king and a pure-blood, how could he say anything against him?

    Before anyone could react, Doji decided to pour gasoline over the rising flames, "So you are saying that you''ll accept the punishment? If you are not guilty, why should you be accepting it so easily?"

    Zhihao smirked as he heard this, he was ready to break open the skull of this supposed-to-be brother of his, "Do you have a way out for me?"

    Doji was silent as he heard this.

    "Very well then." The demon king spoke up.

    Everyone thought that he would sentence the punishment for Zhihao. Some guards got ready to catch him in case the young prince decided to run away, but the order never came, and instead, the demon king said something extremely shocking and unbelievable, "I believe you."

    Zhihao was celebrating in his mind. He was really just winging it and it seemed that it had worked.

    "But I can''t let you go like this."

    Zhihao hadn''t even sighed in relief before the breath he was ready to let out got stuck in his throat once again.

    "The ghost festival must go on. You still have time, use it to find the original vessel and bring it back here. Ten minutes, that''s all I give you."

    Zhihao gulped.

    Damn it...

    To find the original vessel in under ten minutes? He couldn''t even be sure that it was Kazan who stole her so how was he to do that? Might as well tell him to become the vessel instead, that would''ve been much easier.

    Doji was not impressed with how this had gone down, but he was a good actor and his face betrayed nothing, "Your highness, I was with Taki since the beginning, you can ask others who saw us. He was with me and I didn''t see anyone who had switched the vessel out so how will Taki find the thief?"

    Zhihao looked at the demon and his smile deepened. This demon was certainly very impressive, he was well versed with his tongue.

    On one hand, the demon had spoken up in Taki''s stead, showing that he supported his brother, while on the other hand, he had also pointed his finger at Taki and called him out to be lying.

    "You were with him throughout the way?" The middle-aged demon who was already not fond of Taki spoke up instantly as he caught the loophole.

    Doji smiled, hardly noticeable and seemingly innocent at first glance, "I was."

    This demon was not completely lying. He had walked with Taki when they were near the ghost festival and so naturally there were witnesses of the situation. He had told the truth but not exactly the whole truth, he had left aside a big chunk of the critical information and it was that he did not escort Taki all the way, he had joined him halfway here, and the vessel was probably switched out before that.

    Taki had witnesses to support his statement whereas Zhihao had nothing. The only person who had seen Taki before he met up with Doji was Kazan and that man was the perpetrator here so he would naturally not stand up as a witness to protect Taki.

    [You are doomed!]

    Zhihao shook his head.

    For the first time in his life, Zhihao felt like Alvi had misjudged him a bit too much. He was not doomed at all.

    Doji was tricky and intelligent but Zhihao wasn''t too lacking in that department.

    "Brother, I trust you but now that you have pointed it out, I can''t help but question, was it you who switched the vessel out?"

    The crowd went silent. The ghosts that were unhappy with having to come to this ghost festival suddenly felt like they did a good job with choosing to come. This was some high-quality tea they weren''t going to get another chance to witness.

    These two brothers were always so different from one another and it was bound for them to one day fight like this.

    Doji was taken back by his brothers words, demon Taki had never outrightly tried to slander him like this.

    "I was only trying to speak up for you, why are you trying to push the blame on me?"

    "I''m not trying to push the blame on you. I just think that there are some things I find questionable in your statement."

    "What questionable things? The most suspicious one is you, is it not?" The middle-aged demon sneered and Zhihao immediately understood that this demon was biased towards Doji, just like how the demon king was biased towards Taki.

    Zhihao, "Doji just said that he didn''t see anyone switching out the vessel, but how does he know that the vessel was switched out by someone on my way over here."

    Doji scoffed, "What do you mean? Of course, it was switched out. If it wasn''t then that would mean you did it on purpose and I don''t think you''d do something like this."

    Alvi mentally rolled her eyes as she heard this man speaking nonsense. He really did have a well-versed tongue.

    Zhihao smiled, "But I''m afraid I have failed to keep up your trust in me."

    "???"

    [What the hell are you doing now?]

    Zhihao had previously thought that it was one of the two who had tricked him. It was either Doji or Kazan, but now he was almost sure that it was both. They were in this together and were plotting against Taki since the beginning.

    It was all a well-arranged plan that had been successful so far.

    Zhihao had really been fooled this time.

    The gambling bar didn''t change the story, it just made sure that the original plan went smoothly without a failure. If the gambling bar was not used, he would still have met Kazan and Doji along the way, but the two would not have been successful in their plan, there would have been loopholes that were noticed by Zhihao. If he was guessing right at this moment, the gambling bar''s use wasn''t the arrival of the two NPCs, it was the deduction of the hints and traces.

    Zhihao couldn''t fully understand the negative gambling bar, but with the amount of information he collected, he had managed to evaluate it somewhat correctly.

    "What do you mean?" Doji asked as he narrowed his eyes at this hateful brother of his.

    "I never said that I do not know who did this." Zhihao smiled, his smile sent a shiver down the spine of not only Doji but also Alvi, "I know exactly who did this, but I have no proof."

    "Who is it?" The middle-aged demon asked in shock.

    "Aren''t you looking at the perpetrator? It''s me."

    "..."

    Everyone went silent.

    Just what in the hell was this young prince spouting?

    "But didn''t you just say that you were innocent?" Doji asked.

    "I am still innocent." Zhihao nodded his head.

    "Speak clearly! Are you innocent or not?" The middle-aged demon seemed to be losingly his composure as he listened to Zhihao.

    "I am the one to blame, but I''m innocent."

    [You are really giving me mixed signals here.]

    [What are you planning?]

    "I''m innocent because I didn''t know I was a part of this plan, but since I have been involved in it, I am also responsible to take the blame," Zhihao spoke as he met the eyes of the demon king, seated high up on his chair.

    "What plan?" The demon king asked coldly.

    "The plan to ruin this festival." Zhihao smiled, "Now that I know that there was a plan, I would naturally also know where the original vessel is."

    "Where is it?" Doji was confused and this time his expressions weren''t fake. He really didn''t know what Taki was talking about.

    "It''s with Kazan."

    "..."

    [How are you going to prove it?]

    "Who is Kazan?" The demon king would have never heard of a low-ranked demon so of course, he didn''t know who Kazan was.

    Zhihao wasn''t embarrassed to answer the demon king, "He''s my ex-boyfriend."

    "..."

    Doji glared at Taki with hostility, he had a bad feeling about this.

    "How are you going to prove that Kazan did it?" Doji asked and instantly regretted speaking up impulsively.

    "We ask him."

    "Do you think he''ll talk if he was guilty?" The demon king questioned.

    "Father really doesn''t know the way to make someone talk?" Zhihao smiled coldly, "We torture out the answer from him."

    The guards who stood by the side had already understood what they were supposed to do so they didn''t waste any further time and went on in search of the said demon who was going to be tortured soon.

    [Doji seems to hate you more.]

    [Good job.]

    [But the real Taki would never decide to torture Kazan like this.]

    [Are you not afraid of going OOC?]

    Zhihao shook his head as he heard this. The real Taki would not physically torture Kazan but who said Zhihao was going to physically torture him?

    Kazan loved Taki. Even if he said that he hated Taki, he still loved him a lot and Zhihao was once again planning to use this against him.

    A minute later, the guards returned with Kazan who was held captive with his hands restricted by the guards standing beside him.

    Zhihao stepped forward and asked, "Kazen, where is the vessel?"

    [It''s Kazan!]

    Kazan looked at Zhihao with an indecipherable expression, "Why are you asking me? Didn''t you say that you''d take care of it?"

    "I said I''d take responsibility for the vessel and now that it is lost, I''m taking responsibility by catching the thief."

    "Are you calling me a thief?" Kazan was enraged.

    "I didn''t call you anything." Taki stepped forward and in front of him was the fire pit, he looked down and felt a shiver go down his spine as he saw the bottom that was filled with burning souls with their hands flapping here and there as if they were being tortured.

    Doji, "What are you trying to do?"

    "I was wondering if I''d survive the jump."

    "..."

    [You have gone crazy haven''t you?]

    [What the hell?!]

    Zhihao was standing extremely close to the fire pit and with just one more step, he''d be falling into it.

    "Since I decided to take responsibility. If I can''t find the real person responsible for this, I''ll jump."

    "..."

    [...]

    [You have lost it!]

    Nobody could know what was going inside Zhihao''s mind and they dare not want to.

    What type of demon would want to willingly jump in that fire pit?!

    Doji suddenly understood what Taki was trying to do. This man was tricking them. Doji looked at Kazan who had a priceless expression on his face, he despised this. Taki was planning on using Kazan''s feelings again and this was one thing, Doji was never able to fight against.

    "Don''t bluff. You would never jump!" Kazan yelled out in anger.

    Zhihao smiled in return, "You think I won''t?"

    "..."

    When Kazan looked at the crazy look in the man''s eyes, he wasn''t confident anymore.

    Zhihao decided to play around a bit as he walked on the edge of the pit, acting like he was drunk and couldn''t find his balance. If he lost a footing, death would be the least of his worries.

    "You know, I really liked you, Kazan."

    "..."

    They had already lost.

    At this moment, Doji really hated involving Kazan in his plan.

    "Don''t joke around with me!" Kazan screamed.

    Taki looked at Kazan and smiled, it was the same smile that Kazan had fallen in love with when he saw it for the first time.

    Zhihao didn''t say anything, he simply met Kazan''s eyes and mouthed out a ''goodbye''

    Kazan''s eyes widened as he saw the man lean back, falling freely into the fire pit.

 Chapter 75 - Mastermo Is Dating Who Now?

    [You crazy idiot, I can''t take it anymore!]

    Zhihao had always wanted to do something like this purely for the rush of adrenaline, and he wasn''t guilty about it. For him, this was the simplest way out. If he really did end up falling and dying, he''ll just try again in another level.

    In a split second, three things happened all at once, one more shocking than the other.

    Kazan yelled out, "It was me! It was me! I admit it!"

    Alvi moved forward and decided to go OOC as she saved Zhihao from falling over. Although she looked like a small girl, she surprisingly had immense agility and strength.

    [You little piece of sh*t!]

    "Thank you." Zhihao beamed.

    [Alert: The gambling bar has been used.]

    Zhihao wanted to laugh and cry as he heard the notification.

    Just what was going to happen now?

    He was almost there!

    Who in the world hated him so much?!

    Suddenly, the moon goddess spellbook deactivated on its own without Zhihao''s permission. Li Ling was immediately thrown out and everyone saw the new human suddenly appearing out of thin air. The shock was normal.

    [This is the effect of the gambling bar.]

    Zhihao was a great actor but this was really unexpected. Just why did this have to suddenly happen?!

    The crowd had started going crazy once again.

    "T-two vessels?"

    "Another human?"

    "Has the demon gone crazy?!"

    "Watch your mouth, if he hears you, your mouth wouldn''t be intact anymore."

    "Are my eyes playing tricks on me?"

    "What is happening?!"

    "Oi oi oi! This is too much to take in"

    "Wasn''t that just a little ghost?!"

    "This is getting more interesting."

    Zhihao moved forward and caught the falling Li Ling.

    "Hi there!" Li Ling reacted as he looked at the handsome face of the man that was carrying him.

    Zhihao looked back at him and couldn''t help but chuckle, "Hi again!"

    [Stop flirting.]

    [Can you guys focus on the situation at hand?]

    Zhihao put Li Ling down and was getting ready to say something, but his words were cut short by his dear brother, Doji, "I know him."

    "You know him?" Zhihao responded.

    Itsuki wasn''t from here and Doji hadn''t gone to the human realm so there was no way the two should have known each other or at least that was what Zhihao thought.

    [This is not going to be good]

    Zhihao was a bit worried. Three things had happened at once and the crowd was still unsure on what of the three should they discuss, but now that Doji had spoken up, they all focused their attention on the new vessel in front.

    Kazan also seemed to look taken back as he saw Itsuki.

    Zhihao had no idea how these people knew Itsuki but he was surely going to find out soon.

    "Isn''t that Itsuki?" Doji questioned and as the crowd heard this, they were all shocked. They had never seen this human before but they had often heard his name.

    "Who is that?" The demon king asked and his voice made the energetic crowd go silent once again.

    Doji stepped forward, seeming to be more than happy to spill the tea he knew. Zhihao had a bad feeling about this. He cursed the person who had used the gambling bar to do this. Li Ling was safe inside the moon goddess spellbook and now he was outside it, being stared at by ghosts and demons who held hostility in their eyes.

    "This is the human Taki is messing around with."

    [Ding~ New hint!]

    [Taki and Itsuki are dating.]

    "..."

    Zhihao didn''t know if he should laugh or cry as he heard this. He had really underestimated T.I.A.D. Every time he would think he had figured it out, he''d be pushed back to the original position from where he started off at.

    Zhihao looked at Kazan who was glaring at Li Ling as if he were ready to tear the human apart any moment now.

    Zhihao was standing near Alvi so he whispered, "Alvi, just why did Taki and Kazan break up?"

    [Didn''t I already answer this question?]

    [Taki likes humans. The first time he met Itsuki was in the human realm and at that time, he was still dating Kazan. He was interested in Itsuki and the two became friends. Itsuki knew Taki was a demon but he was not scared of him and on the contrary, he was interested in the demon, maybe even more than how much the demon was interested in him.]

    [The two started hanging out together and when Itsuki wanted to visit Taki''s world, Taki was more than happy to bring him here and be a guide.]

    [It is unclear if the two had romantic feelings towards each other at that point in time, but it is most likely that they did not or at least Taki did not. Even though Taki was a demon with a cold personality, he was a man who would never cheat on his lover and at that time, he really did seem to be in love with Kazan]

    [When Itsuki was visiting this place, Doji saw him and he thought this was the chance to spread rumors and tried to draw a draft between Kazan and Taki. He was successful. He told Kazan about Taki''s newfound interest in this good-looking human and jealousy got the best of him.]

    [Kazan tried to kill Itsuki but Taki saved the man. The two lovers fought and in the end, broke up.]

    [After they broke up, Taki started to develop romantic feelings towards Itsuki and Itsuki was already in love with this demon. The two started dating and it became the local gossip among the ghosts who were always interested to know what this demon prince was up to]

    Zhihao who heard all of this looked at Li Ling and didn''t know what he was supposed to do. He suddenly understood why Itsuki had a demon detecting talisman and not a demon repelling one, he also found out why Itsuki and his grandmother''s relationship had started to worsen.

    The grandmother was a shaman so she must have already been aware of Itsuki dating a demon. She had wanted to keep him safe, after all, who would want their grandson to date a demon? If she had agreed to such a thing, she would have really been a crazy woman.

    Kazan, "You dare bring him here?!"

    Zhihao snapped out of his thoughts as he heard this, he looked at Kazan whose expressions had turned ugly as he glared at the human.

    Zhihao didn''t know what he was supposed to do and he couldn''t guess what was going to happen next, but he still decided to speak up. His plan to make Kazan confess was both a success and a failure so, at this moment, he felt like it was best if he just winged it.

    He could always deal with the after-effects of his words, "So what if I bring him here?"

    [You idiot!]

    [Demons are banned from dating Humans!]

    Oh...

    Turns out that he was in much bigger trouble than he thought.

    "What type of thing is this?!" The middle-aged demon questioned, his whole face red because of anger.

    "They are dating!" Doji answered enthusiastically. He was the only person who was thoroughly enjoying himself at the moment and his happiness was not hidden.

    Zhihao shook his head as he tried to think about what he was going to do next.

    "Alvi, what is more important? The festival or me dating a human?" Zhihao whispered.

    [Depends. Your dating scandal is much more interesting to listen about, but the festival is much more important.]

    Zhihao nodded as he took a breath in and looked back up at the demon king with unwavering eyes, "I think we have more pressing matters to attend to. The festival must go on. If father wants to question me about my private life, might as well do it later. I''m not going to run away."

    If the mission was completed, Zhihao was going to be thrown out of this level so it really didn''t matter what happened after it.

    Before anyone could say anything, Kazan spoke up, "You''re right. The festival must go on."

    Zhihao looked at him and smiled.

    This demon was planning something and Zhihao didn''t have a good feeling about it.

    Kazan suddenly kneeled down on the floor and spoke, "Your highness, forgive me. I killed the original vessel."

    Damn...

    Zhihao understood what he was planning.

    This demon was really a pain in the ass.

    Doji who heard Kazan, understood what he wanted to do, and was naturally happy to help him, "The vessel is destroyed? How can that be?"

    Zhihao looked at the demon that was acting like he was shocked and aggrieved.

    [I don''t think this is going to end well.]

    "Taki is so impressive. I have always believed in you." Doji complimented with a fake smile that was basically begging for Zhihao to punch him, "You saw this coming, didn''t you? And you bought along with you a second vessel? That''s genius!"

    Zhihao pulled Li Ling behind him and glared at Doji who was trying to pick a fight with him.

    "Is that so?" The demon king questioned as he heard Doji.

    Taki tricking Itsuki to make him come along as a second vessel was much more believable than Taki dating the human.

    "Absolutely not." Zhihao answered immediately, "Itsuki is not a vessel."

    The audience was silent as they heard this. It was the first time Taki had raised his voice against his father. They were not the only ones shocked, Li Ling and Alvi had also not predicted Zhihao to have such a strong reaction.

    By this time, Zhihao had already guessed that they weren''t going to get out of this cleanly so if worst came to worst, he could always make a run for it. With his mind thinking like this, he was able to keep calm and follow his gut that always seemed to work for him.

    Zhihao was a man who was considered to have the greatest luck among the pro-gamers; he could only hope that his great luck worked magic once again.

    "I''m dating Itsuki, why would I be sacrificing him?"

    Doji was shocked to see Taki react this way, but it wasn''t totally unexpected since he knew how much this brother of his loved this mere human.

    Doji knew Taki was a cold man at appearance only, in reality, he was a demon who was passionate and devoted to his lover. If he didn''t like someone, he would not date them and if he really loved someone, he would protect them with his own life on the line. Doji had seen this with his own eyes when Kazan and Taki were dating.

    Doji hated Taki for this. He was a demon so why not behave like one? Why was he always doing such ridiculous things?

    Doji knew that Taki would protect this human named Itsuki, but he never thought Taki would actually raise his voice against his father. This was much better than he had expected. If Taki wanted to dig his own grave, Doji would naturally not stand in the way.

    "So are you saying that we should just go home and forget about the festival?" Doji sneered.

    Zhihao looked at him and smiled, "Then are you saying that I should sacrifice my boyfriend for something so trivial?"

    Doji, "Taki, your words are very disrespectful."

    Zhihao wanted to say something but Li Ling stopped him as he stepped forward instead, he was the topic of the conversation. These two demons were arguing about him without asking for his permission, how could he just stand there and accept it?

    Li Ling was enjoying the way Zhihao was protecting him but he still couldn''t just stand there and say nothing.

    "I''ll agree."

    Zhihao looked at the man who had gone senile.

 Chapter 76 - Mastermo Is The Star Of The Ceremony

    "If you want me to be the vessel, I''ll be the vessel."

    [You both are crazy.]

    Zhihao looked into Li Ling''s eyes and for some reason, he felt like the idea wasn''t too crazy. He didn''t know why, but he had trust in Li Ling and when he saw the man winking at him, he was confident that this man knew what he was doing.

    Li Ling was confident in himself cause he already knew what was about to go down. He wasn''t suicidal, he was just sure that this wasn''t a suicide and that he''d get out of this alive.

    "Good! Since this human is volunteering to be sacrificed, we''ll do it like this." Doji was the first to react enthusiastically, "A male vessel is better than a female vessel."

    [Aren''t you going to stop him?]

    It wasn''t like Zhihao didn''t want to stop the man, he simply couldn''t.. This was like a gamble in which Zhihao didn''t know what cards he had. He thought about the reason behind Li Ling''s confidence and suddenly he felt like his brain had finally realized something important. When they had entered this level, they placed bets on themselves, which meant that they now had the advantage of the gambling bar too.

    Zhihao could always save the man if this went down the wrong way.

    The middle-aged demon was a bit taken back to have met such a docile vessel who willingly sacrificed itself, he was a bit skeptical and since he had heard that this human was related to Taki, he was even more untrusting. These two were certainly up to something and this demon wanted to be the first to uncover their true faces.

    "This makes things easier. Just use the new vessel." The demon king ordered and Zhihao felt his heartbeat rise.

    He was a bit nervous about this.

    The middle-aged demon moved forward towards the table on which the fake Hasumi was laying on. In the next minute, fake Hasumi was burnt up, leaving behind not even ashes to remember her by. Zhihao who saw this suddenly felt like he shouldn''t make this demon his enemy.

    "Lie down here." He ordered and Li Ling looked at Zhihao for one last time before he moved to the table and lay down on the place where the fake Hasumi was burnt up at.

    The drums, which had been paused now continued playing. With every beat of the drum, Zhihao''s heart would feel more and more uneasy.

    Doji who stood by the side had an evil smirk on his face as he saw Itsuki getting ready to receive the worst death ever, he was the one who was the happiest to see things going down this way.

    The middle-aged demon suddenly held a flashy-looking knife in one hand and on his other hand was the cup which was previously kept on the second��smaller��circular table. Zhihao was too focused on Li Ling and so he didn''t see where this demon had got the two things from.

    "Your hand." He ordered and Zhihao stretched out his hand.

    Before he could react to it, the demon suddenly used the knife to pierce through his skin. Zhihao didn''t feel the pain, but that didn''t mean he was not shocked.

    The wound started to bleed and the dark droplets of blood fell inside the cup.

    The demon was satisfied with seeing Taki bleed out and with an ugly expression, he turned his head and took the cup away.

    Next, in turn, was Li Ling, who was lying on the table. The demon did the same thing, but this time he cut a bit deeper and Li Ling bled a lot more than Zhihao.

    Zhihao clutched his hand in a fist and felt himself getting angrier. Just a few moments ago, he didn''t want to get on this demon''s bad side, but now he wanted to directly murder him.

    The cup now had a few drops of blood inside it, some of it belonging to Taki and the rest belonging to Itsuki.

    Zhihao looked at it curiously. The middle-aged demon was chanting something as he held the cup above the fire pit and heated the cup up. He swirled it around a few times in the process and Zhihao was shocked to see the contents inside the cup grow in quantity.

    Soon the whole cup was filled with some sort of liquid that had a darker��deeper color of red, almost looking black, and was much thicker than water. Zhihao''s first guess was that it was blood. Somehow the blood had increased in quantity.

    The demon brought the cup back to Zhihao and gave it to him. Zhihao didn''t know what this demon had wanted him to do, but since he was giving the cup over to him, Zhihao took a hold of it and looked inside at the dark liquid that didn''t look very appealing.

    [Drink it.]

    Zhihao was a bit reluctant to follow the order. He felt like he''d puke if he drank this. It wasn''t like he was a vampire. He looked up at the onlookers who were staring at him expectantly.

    His eyes wandered around till it stopped when he met the demon king''s eyes. Taki''s father was looking at him coldly as if trying to say that if he were to fail this ceremony, he''d really be thrown inside the fire pit.

    Zhihao gulped, he was scared of this demon king who could even make him drink blood if he wanted to.

    Zhihao glanced back down at the cup in his hand and then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath in and drank the dark liquid in a single gulp as if he were casually drinking alcohol. This was just a game and he wasn''t supposed to taste anything but his subconscious which had decided that this was blood made him have an illusion of having a metallic taste in his mouth.

    Zhihao gave the empty cup back to the demon and thought everything was over but when he looked up, he knew something was up. He was too naive in thinking that it had ended this soon.

    The demon who was standing in front of him took the cup and moved aside, making way for the demon prince to walk towards the vessel.

    By this time, Li Ling was lying on the table with his eyes closed like a sleeping beauty waiting for her prince charming. Zhihao stepped closer to him and stood beside the table.

    He had no idea what he was to do.

    [Kiss him.]

    "What?!" Zhihao had overreacted and was now being stared at by everyone. He had almost hit the OOC alert once again.

    [They want you to kiss him.]

    "???"

    Zhihao gulped. What type of level was this? If they weren''t tricked and it was Hasumi lying here, would he have to kiss a complete stranger like her? He felt a shiver run down his spine. He really didn''t want to kiss that girl. For the first time, today, Zhihao felt like it was a good thing that Kazan had kidnapped the original vessel and the one lying here was Li Ling.

    He didn''t know why he was comfortable with the thought of Li Ling being the one he was supposed to kiss.

    He looked down at the beautiful face of the youth and his heart was no longer fine. At this moment, he didn''t know if Li Ling was just acting to be unconscious or if he was really knocked out, but he knew that no matter what it was, Li Ling was still playing and he knew everything that was happening.

    This was like kissing someone without their permission thinking they were asleep whereas they were actually awake, the thought was somehow exciting.

    Zhihao gulped as he stared at the beauty spot under the man''s right eye that had always fascinated him. He leaned in and their faces were just a few inches away.

    Zhihao felt his heart stop and his breathing grow difficult. He suddenly had a thought, if this weren''t a game would he be able to smell the sweet fragrance this man always had?

    It was... a bit tempting.

    Zhihao wasn''t someone who looked into the reason behind their feelings or someone who wanted to label their feelings. If he felt like doing something, he would do it and if he didn''t want to, no one could make him do it.

    If this had been Hasumi, he would''ve chosen a rebirth instead and let the negative betters win, but this wasn''t her. This was Li Ling, one of his closest friends whom he was comfortable around.

    Zhihao suddenly felt like Li Ling''s crush was certainly stupid. Who would look at this face and be able to refuse his love? If Li Ling were to hear his thoughts, he would laugh. His crush really was dense.

    Zhihao felt jealous, but he was never going to admit it.

    He leaned in, closing the space between the two till there was no space left.

    The crowd that watched on were shocked to see Taki showing such a tender side of him. This kiss was supposed to be just a part of the ritual, but as they watched on, they felt like it had somehow become romantic and they were all the third-wheelers, watching something that was super private and they weren''t supposed to watch.

    This was maybe the first time Zhihao hated this to be just a part of the game. His lips wrapped around the other''s and he shouldn''t have been able to feel anything because this was just a game. It might have been just his imagination, but he felt the sweet lips of the other rubbing against his. Sweet and tender, so soft that he felt like bitting it.

    Zhihao felt like a pervert for feeling such a way. Why the hell was he imagining how it was supposed to feel? This was not the Gamemaster, it was Li Ling! His friend! He wanted to slap himself out of this feeling. The feeling of imagining the soft moist lips of the other. He felt hot and bothered. This was way more adrenaline than he asked for.

    Li Ling suddenly opened his eyes and winked at Zhihao.

    Zhihao was greatly affected by it, so much so that he forgot to pull away and stayed in that position. To his surprise, Li Ling didn''t look bothered by it and on the contrary, he seemed to be enjoying this feeling.

    Li Ling slowly closed his eyes again and did nothing, Zhihao was shocked at how beautiful the man looked. He was lost in his feelings and emotions, slowly closing his eyes and deciding to go with the flow.

    [You can stop kissing him now.]

    [Stop taking advantage of the situation!]

    [This isn''t the time for you two to be all over each other.]

    Zhihao woke up from the trance and pulled away. He coughed a few times, trying to calm his heart and mind. His face which would hardly give him out was now red and that to, very noticeably red.

    Everyone looked at the vessel waiting for it to rise and become something they all feared, but a minute or two passed and nothing happened.

    [I think we should run soon.]

    Zhihao didn''t understand why Alvi had suddenly said such a thing.

    He looked at Li Ling and nothing happened.

    Nothing changed.

    Just what in the hell was supposed to happen?!

    Doji had a distorted expression on his face as he looked at Li Ling, "Why isn''t it working?!

    Zhihao looked at the man''s face and he suddenly understood a few things. This time, Doji wasn''t acting and if he wasn''t acting, it meant something unexpected had gone down, and the ritual hadn''t been successful.

    [Hmm]

    [Was the kiss too weak?]

    "Do you want me to try again?"

    [...]

 Chapter 77 - Mastermo Is A Suspect?

    Zhihao glanced at the demon king whose eyes had suddenly turned bright red as he glared at the vessel lying on the table.

    Everything had been done exactly as it was supposed to so why didn''t it work?

    Why was Itsuki showing no signs of changing?

    The crowd was stunned and in the next minute, they started murmuring among themselves.

    "How can this be so?"

    "Is it angry at Taki?"

    "Maybe this one is a fake too?"

    "I knew today wasn''t a great day!"

    "What''s going to happen now?"

    What was going to happen now?

    Zhihao was curious to know the answer to that question. In any case, he flipped through his inventory and got ready to run away if the situation turned bad. It was always better to plan ahead, just in case..

    "How could this be so?!" The middle-aged demon cried out in surprise. This guy seemed to be the only one who really cared about the festival this much. Just a small thing and he was ready to cause destruction all around, "Was the blood not enough?!"

    The demon moved forward with the knife in hand, getting ready to cut Li Ling and collect even more, but this time, Zhihao wasn''t going to let him.

    Everyone saw Taki move forwards and block the demon from hurting the vessel any more. They were dating so this wasn''t really shocking, but to stand up like this against this particular demon? Taki was considered to be a courageous demon, unafraid of death.

    "Don''t you dare touch him again!" Zhihao glared at the demon. One move and he was ready to kill this demon.

    The demon who had never liked or felt the need to please this demon prince suddenly felt his heart go still in fear when he stared back at the glaring eyes of this demon. For the first time in his life, he felt like he had seen these eyes before.

    It was a replication of the demon king''s glare, glowing a bright red. An apple doesn''t fall far from the tree and the pair of father and son shared the same features.

    Zhihao didn''t know that his eyes had changed color, all he knew was that he was angry with this demon, who he couldn''t reason with, and now that he had stood up for Li Ling, he saw fear in the demon''s eyes. This fear pleased him.

    [Wow.]

    Zhihao didn''t know why Alvi had suddenly commented something, he didn''t even pay enough attention to hear it. He was too busy focusing his attention on the demon in front of him who wanted to hurt Li Ling.

    Alvi was amazed by this player. He had mastered the Taki role-play, be it unknowingly or knowingly. He was now acting exactly how the real Taki would have. To be able to understand this character with the little information given was almost impossible, and if it was done, it was praise-worthy and impressive.

    Alvi suddenly had high expectations from this player.

    Doji had originally wanted to say something but when he looked at the glowing red eyes of his brother, he didn''t dare utter a word.

    Everyone instantly looked up, where, above the stairs, the demon king, who had always remained seated throughout the whole thing, suddenly stood up. This small action was enough to catch everyone''s attention, even Zhihao''s, who felt like, at this moment, he could even fight this demon king if he were forced to.

    "Such ruckus!" The heavy voice was heard and Zhihao instantly gulped back his words.

    No way! He wasn''t going to fight this demon! He wasn''t that suicidal!

    The demon king was staring at Zhihao as he took a few steps forward and his face which was previously covered in darkness was now visible under the light emitted by the fire pit.

    Zhihao was stunned to see that face. It was somewhat like his own face, but the features were a lot more mature as they appeared fierce and sharp.

    Zhihao didn''t think the face was identical to his, but he had seen it before. This was the face of his father.

    If this demon king was wearing his father''s designer black suit, Zhihao would have really believed that his father had transmigrated into this game.

    He felt a shiver go down his spine as he looked at his father''s face which was a bit different considering the fact that his father didn''t have red-colored eyes.

    Was this just a coincidence or was this game playing with him by collecting his personal information?

    "How did this happen?" The demon king asked and Zhihao gulped in fear.

    His father''s voice wasn''t so deep or demonic. He was already afraid of that voice but now that voice had an equally scary face to go with it.

    Zhihao had always been afraid of his father. There wasn''t a big reason behind it but he was always scared of disappointing his father. He didn''t necessarily hate his father, he loved him and looked up to him. His father was like a hero to him, a role model whom he''d look up to but their personality was just too different.

    His father was a business-minded person who hardly had time for his family. He was crazy about his work. If he had to work for six hours a day, he''d work for seven. That was the type of hunger he had for money and recognition whereas, Zhihao was the complete opposite. Zhihao only wanted to play games, nothing more, nothing less. If there was something he was hungry about, it wouldn''t be money or recognition, it would the hunger to play something completely unpredictable, a game in which he is no longer able to guess anything or control things. The more his chances of losing, the more exciting it would become, and if he wins, he would be equally rewarded with just that. He was a gaming maniac.

    The pair of father and son didn''t have any bad blood between them, although they were really different from one another, they would still be able to sit at the same dining table and would enjoy the same dinner in a peaceful manner.

    Zhihao didn''t know why he feared his father, maybe it was because he looked up to that man so much that he was afraid of becoming a disappointment.

    When he came face to face with his ''father'', he was scared to utter a single sentence. It was kinda ironic how different he was from the real Taki.

    Taki hated his father and would fake all his expressions and feelings in front of the man whereas Zhihao loved and respected his father and always looked for his validation.

    Doji stepped forward, "Your highness, it seems that the vessel is not compatible."

    Zhihao snapped out of it and looked at Li Ling who was still lying on the table.

    He had a dangerous thought that confused him.

    Did Li Ling already know it was going to fail? Was that why he was so ready to take Hasumi''s place?

    If that really was the case, how did he know it? What did Li Ling notice that Zhihao didn''t? The chances of Li Ling noticing something that Zhihao had missed was near zero. It was really impossible so if that was not it, how did he know this was going to happen?

    Zhihao was too scared of the answer so he was not willing to randomly guess. He would rather wait and ask Li Ling.

    "Is this a curse?!" The middle-aged demon cried out in worry.

    The demon king glared at him and scoffed, "Tch- you are a demon, why are you afraid of a curse?!"

    Doji, "What do we do now?"

    "This should not have happened." The middle-aged demon once again commented.

    The demon king came down the stairs and stood in front of the fire pit, "I see."

    "???"

    Nobody knew what was going on, at least nobody except for the demon king who stood in front of the fire pit and suddenly understood everything others were unaware of.

    Zhihao decided to push his fear aside and ask, "What happened?"

    The demon king looked at his son and responded, "There is no soul here so what is the use of the vessel?"

    "No soul?!"

    Everyone was once again shocked to hear this. If this had been someone else claiming such a thing, they would not have believed it but right now, it was the demon king who personally said something like this, they dare not question him. What he said was the law here and if he said there was no soul here, there would not be any soul here.

    It was as simple as that.

    The crowd once again came to life as they whispered amongst themselves. Zhihao tried to grasp as much as possible but he really could not understand it.

    "Where did the soul go?"

    "If the soul is not there, where is it?"

    "D-did it escape?!"

    "Stop saying such ominous things."

    "If the soul really escaped then..."

    "We are all as good as dead."

    "What utter bullsh*t. The soul can never escape by itself."

    "Did someone do it on purpose?"

    "Who would do something like this?"

    "Whoever that f**ker was, I''m going to kill him."

    "If he''s from around here, he is already dead."

    "Then I''ll kill him twice."

    "Someone who helped the soul escape cannot be a simple guy, you''ll die before you get to kill."

    "You think I''m afraid?!"

    "I do."

    "..."

    "If someone did help the soul, it could only be..."

    The crowd suddenly stared at the demons who were gathered in front of the fire pit.

    Ghosts would never go near the pit and they would naturally not have the guts to even go near the soul so why would one of them try to help it?

    Someone had freed the soul and let the monster on the loose, but it couldn''t possibly be a ghost so all facts considered, it was one of the demons in front of them.

    The demons were higher in ranks than them so there was no way they''d openly point their fingers at them but their eyes said everything their mouths dared not.

    One of the demons had betrayed them all and the question was: Who was crazy enough to do something like that?

    Doji, "Your highness, h-how could the soul not be there?"

    "It has already found a vessel." The demon king answered and this response was much more shocking than the previous one.

    "H-how? No... That''s not possible. W-we need the royal blood to-" The middle-aged demon who was speaking suddenly came to a halt as he snapped his head towards Zhihao.

    Zhihao had a bad feeling about this.

    There were only three people here who had royal blood coursing through their veins, the first one was the demon king, the second was Taki himself and the third was Doji. So if anyone was to help the soul escape, the perpetrator had to be one of them.

    The demon king was clearly not the one because of obvious reasons which was basically just the fact that everyone was scared to call him a suspect. They were dead but that didn''t mean they no longer feared for their life. If one was too courageous and would point his finger at the demon king, who knew what type of horrible death he''d be seeking?

    And so the two suspects were Taki and Doji.

    Zhihao stared at Doji who was no longer faining his expressions. This demon was really scared and stunned so there was no way it was him and as long as Zhihao knew, he had never given his blood or kissed someone so there was no way it was him. Although Zhihao knew that the three possible suspects were all innocent, not everybody shared the same thoughts.

 Chapter 78 - Mastermo Will Not Kiss A Demon

    Doji was a tricky demon who loved making trouble. Every one here knew his personality and his habits of doing the most dangerous and unexpected things, compared to him, Taki wasn''t considered all too innocent but the kind of trouble the two caused was far different from each other.

    Doji would go around fighting ghosts and demons, making them submit to his authority. He was what you''d call a bully and the only people who didn''t know this side of him were the demon king and his brother Taki. He would act innocent in front of his father, and his brother was never here so he was naturally unaware of this demon''s bully-like personality.

    Taki was not innocent, but compared to his brother, he was still considered somewhat better since all the troubles he caused were in one way or another related to the human realm such as the current trouble he caused which was just dating a human.

    It was clear who the suspect was.

    Taki was not interested in anything except if it belonged to the human realm so that left them with only one possible suspect.

    Doji.

    Zhihao sighed, he knew that this man was innocent but he wasn''t sure if he should stand up for him. Personally speaking, he didn''t really like the man but the original Taki didn''t hate him so, at this moment, Zhihao will have to unwillingly stand up for this man.

    He really didn''t want to.

    "I-I really... didn''t..." Doji took a few steps back as he saw everyone glaring at him. He understood the situation well. If he didn''t want to become minced meat, he was supposed to run but he was too shocked to do anything. His feet were not able to move more than a few steps as he directly stumbled and fell on his butt.

    Zhihao decided to step forward, "It wasn''t him."

    The crowd suddenly shifted their gaze and looked at Taki who had come to speak up for his brother.

    Doji was a bit stunned to see Taki helping him out. He didn''t really like this feeling, it made him feel pathetic. They were rivals for crying out loud!

    If it was Taki who was cornered right now, Doji would never help and instead, he would be the first one to kick him. So why? Just why was this man always like this? Why was he always acting like this nice brother? Always protecting him and standing up for him. Just why? Why was he always making him feel so pathetic? Was he really no match for this pure-blood?! Was he really that pathetic?! Was he living in a delusion thinking that they were rivals?!

    Zhihao didn''t see this coming.

    A tear traced down on the cheeks of the demon.

    [Oh wow]

    [He''s crying.]

    [Good job Mastermo!]

    Zhihao didn''t know what to do. What had he done? Why was this demon suddenly crying? Was he always such a crybaby?

    One look and Zhihao was able to say that this was no acting. This man was actually crying.

    Doji couldn''t believe it himself. He was crying. He was freaking crying! WHY?!

    He was never this weak so why now? Just why were these tears not stopping?!

    Zhihao moved forward and tried to help his brother up but Doji pushed his hand away, "It was me! I did it!"

    Zhihao was shocked to see the red eyes of the demon. These red eyes were different than Taki''s or the demon king''s, they were red because he was crying. The anger, the sadness, the frustration, Zhihao could see it all clearly.

    Zhihao knew that Doji was innocent so why this man suddenly lying?

    Doji instantly stood up as he wiped his tears away and yelled once again, "It was me! Are you happy now?!"

    Doji and Taki shared a face and when Zhihao saw such a reaction from this demon, he was more than shocked because it was his own face. He had never seen his face twist like this, never had he been so frustrated so it was really refreshing to see such a sight.

    Zhihao suddenly made a mental note to himself. He looked really ugly while crying like this so he would never be doing it.

    Doji''s feet which were frozen came back to life and he ran away.

    "A-are we supposed to catch him?"

    "He''s just going to run away?"

    "How dare he run away?!"

    "Someone go after him!"

    Zhihao woke up from his thoughts and reacted immediately as he saw the guards getting ready to run after the demon, "Stop. It''s not him."

    "Didn''t he just confess? Who else could it be?!"

    Zhihao shook his head, "He was with me the entire time so it couldn''t have been him."

    Zhihao didn''t know why he was suddenly protecting this demon, but when he saw the demon using his face to cry like that, his heart softened a bit.

    It wasn''t like he was the real suspect anyhow so there was really no use following after him.

    The demon king looked at Taki and supported his statement, "It''s not him."

    Now that the demon king had said so himself, the others would not dare say anything to refute it even if they weren''t as convinced in their hearts.

    Zhihao glanced at Kazan, "Where is Hasumi?"

    Zhihao had finally noticed something suspicious.

    When the ritual didn''t work and when the soul went missing, everyone was shocked, at least everyone except for a certain demon that had not shown any signs of shock and simply had his head down the entire time.

    Kazan was acting suspicious but it seemed that Taki was the only one that noticed him. Just because Doji didn''t know what was happening didn''t mean Kazan was also in the clear.

    Kazan heard Taki and looked up, his lips curled up in a smile, "You think I''ll tell you?"

    Zhihao sighed as he stepped forward towards Kazan.

    While messing around with his inventory and functions, Zhihao had stumbled upon something very useful. He should have realized it before but he was too busy to. If he had to role-play someone else, he would naturally not only be getting their body but also their powers.

    Alvi had told him that Taki was a very powerful demon, falling second maybe only to the demon king. All that power was now in Zhihao''s hands to use and he was unaware of it because he didn''t go through the list of new functions that opened up.

    Now that he knew how powerful he was, there was no way he would need to back down. The only person here whom he really had to be afraid of was the demon king who favored him.

    Kazan never stopped smiling as he saw Taki moving towards him. His smile grew wider and he looked like a maniac.

    "You should tell me, love." Zhihao mentally cringed at what he had just called the demon.

    Kazan didn''t seem to be taken back by the way he was referred to and instead, he looked even more crazed like a druggie.

    [Flirting the answer out?]

    [Good strategy!]

    Zhihao wanted the ground to swallow him up. It wasn''t a strategy, he was just still out of it from the kiss earlier and somehow the words fell through his mouth. He felt like he had caught BBtrash''s bad habit.

    Zhihao''s face betrayed nothing. He looked down at the demon who was staring up at him with the craziest look and the creepiest smile he had ever seen.

    "Didn''t I tell you?" Kazan spoke up, "You''ll come to me."

    "Huh?"

    "You''ll beg for me! I''ll drag you down!"

    Zhihao stopped in his tracks with an amused smile on his face and glaring red eyes.

    Just what in the hell was this demon spouting?!

    "You find me disgusting?! I''m low for you?! Then I''ll taint you in the mud! I''ll make you be disgusted in yourself! I''ll drag you down and make you beg for me to take you back!" This demon had completely lost it. At this moment, Zhihao felt like this demon had suddenly become alike a ticking time bomb that was ready to go off at any given moment now, "You want me to turn this place upside down?! I''ll do it! I''ll do whatever needed!"

    "...You''re crazy." Zhihao didn''t know what to say to all that. This demon was crazy.

    At first, Zhihao felt a bit bad for him. His biggest mistake was falling in love. He fell in love with a demon and tried to chase after him. His love might have started off as something innocent and pure but it had turned into an obsession. A sick obsession that had ruined this man.

    This demon was beyond redemption.

    "You think I''m crazy?! Yes, I''m crazy for you! You are the reason I am like this! You are the one who is to blame! Don''t act so innocent!" Kazan''s eyes turned red due to the anger, "You are the worst! Acting so nice and sweet?! What a joke! You are the worst type of demon there is! Hahahaha... I''ll make you regret rejecting me!"

    Zhihao shook his head.

    This demon was beyond repair but it seemed that he had misunderstood something.

    "I rejected you? Saw you as some lowly demon? Disgusted by you?" Zhihao scoffed, "Why are you blaming all this on me when these are all your thoughts?"

    Zhihao had understood Taki perfectly by this point in time and all these things weren''t to be blamed on Taki because that man was really innocent.

    Taki would never think of things like this. This was all the poison that Doji had filled Kazan''s ears with. If anything, the real Taki had really loved this man, at least up until they broke up. Maybe Taki had seen how crazy he made this demon and that was the reason why he broke up with him.

    If Zhihao''s guesses were correct, it was really a pity. To see your lover become crazy because of you and having to leave them so that you can heal them, but that only caused them to finally lose their mind completely?

    Did Taki know something like this would happen? Probably not. He had probably left Kazan simply because he didn''t want to ruin him anymore.

    If Taki was present here and saw this, how would he react? Would he be mad? Would he feel guilty? Would he deny that it was his fault? Would he decide to not react at all?

    No.

    Taki wouldn''t do any of that.

    Zhihao looked at Kazan with an odd expression that Kazan wasn''t expecting.

    A single tear dripped down Zhihao''s eyes.

    It wasn''t him crying, it was Taki.

    If Taki saw this scene, he would''ve been sad.

    Zhihao finally understood what he was to do.

    Kazan was thoroughly shocked to see the tear. He had expected a lot. He expected the man to refuse to take the blame, maybe even be repulsed by him. He hoped Taki would lash out at him and kill him on the spot.

    But why was this man crying? How is he the victim here? It was clearly Kazan who was supposed to cry!

    Zhihao took a deep breath in and closed his eyes, "I''ve failed you."

    Kazan was speechless.

    He waited.

    He waited for this man to explain what he had just said. He waited patiently but he got nothing else.

    Zhihao turned around and walked away.

    Kazan didn''t move for a minute and after the minute was over, he came back to reality.

    He tried to stand up and move but the guards didn''t let him.

    "You''re gonna run away?! That''s it?! Taki!!" Kazan called after him, but Zhihao didn''t turn around.

    [You were a perfect Taki just now.]

    [But you missed something.]

    [If it was Taki, he would''ve kissed the demon for one last time.]

    "I''m definitely not kissing anyone."

    [Didn''t you just kiss Devilmagiclover?]

    "..."

 Chapter 79 - Mastermo Realized Something

    [By the way, where are you going?"

    "Can''t you see?" Zhihao whispered so that no one else could hear. They were all busy with watching Kazan go crazy mode so no one really paid attention to the demon prince, "I''m slipping away."

    [...]

    [Why am I not surprised?]

    Zhihao walked towards Li Ling and kneeled near the table, he leaned in closer to the man''s ears and whispered, "Don''t you think we should get out of here?"

    "You caught me." Li Ling opened his eyes and turned his head.

    The two came face to face once again and Zhihao was reminded of the kiss from earlier.

    "You look really handsome up this close."

    Zhihao''s ears turned bright red as he heard Li Ling complimenting him. He reacted immediately and stood up in an instant, "L-let''s go."

    Li Ling smiled, he really loved the reactions this man gave him.

    "You bastard! Turn around! I''m doing this for you! How dare you?! How dare you treat me like this?! Do you really want me to burn this place down?!" Kazan was still making a ruckus and the crowd was quite interested in hearing him spout nonsense.

    The demon king couldn''t take it anymore. In his eyes, this was a low-ranked demon who was not even qualified to say his son''s name yet, here he was, cursing him out loud. How could a father just stand and watch this happen?

    The demon king stepped in between the two and Kazan could no longer see Taki''s back.

    "What are you spouting?!" The demon king was enraged and his voice that was previously scary now became even more so. Zhihao was sure he was going to have nightmares listening to this voice.

    Kazan shut up as he looked at the demon king who was glaring at him.

    "What do you want to say? Speak clearly!" The demon king glared at this lunatic.

    Zhihao took this time to slip away along with Li Ling.

    It wasn''t that nobody realized he had run away, but those who did were too scared to point it out.

    Zhihao ran for a while and finally, they had some distance between them and the festival.

    "That was... fun." Li Ling chuckled.

    How was any of that fun?! More and more unexpected things just kept on happening one after the other. Everyone was pointing their fingers at each other. Doji and Kazan had gone crazy. The demon king was angry and the festival had clearly turned upside down.

    Zhihao looked back at the man in shock but after a minute passed, he couldn''t help but break out laughing, "That was fun."

    The two were laughing as if they had heard the world''s best joke ever and Alvi simply stared at them as if they were a pair of crazy lunatics who had run away from the asylum.

    Zhihao didn''t know why he was laughing nor did Li Ling. They were simply laughing because the other was laughing. Everything that had happened was shocking however it was so unbelievable that it made them laugh now that they looked back at it.

    [It seems Kazan''s craziness was contagious.]

    By this time, Alvi was already considered a background commentator, thoroughly ignored, and forgotten.

    [Did you two forget about the mission?]

    Zhihao suddenly stopped laughing.

    That... was exactly what had happened. They had stupidly got carried away and forgot that they had a mission to complete.

    Now that Zhihao thought back to the mission they were given, it really was impossible to complete it with the girl named Hasumi missing.

    Now that they were out of surveillance, Zhihao could openly ask Alvi any question he wanted.

    "Alvi, can you repeat our mission."

    [Your mission is to lead Hasumi and Itsuki to the other world and make them participate in the annual ghost festival.]

    Zhihao thought about it for a minute and he found something out of place.

    Itsuki was already here and he had only bought one more person into this world.

    Everyone thinks the soul had already found a vessel, but if Itsuki was safely standing beside him, it meant that there was just one person left which was Hasumi.

    There being a third vessel was impossible since Taki was the only demon who was freely able to travel to the human realm with the tunnel. If there was no other vessel then the one the soul had captured was Hasumi.

    Since the festival was already about finding a vessel for the soul, that meant he had indirectly completed the mission since the two humans had already participated in the festival but they were still here which meant something was wrong.

    Zhihao looked at the little girl, "How come we haven''t cleared the mission yet?"

    [Your mission was to make them both participate in the festival but you messed up because of Doji and Kazan''s plan.]

    "Since the soul is not there anymore, how are we supposed to complete the mission?"

    Alvi suddenly smiled,

    [You can''t solve this mission anymore.]

    [You have already failed.]

    "..." Zhihao was silent for a minute as he absorbed everything the girl had said to him. It took time to register it in his brain but when he finally understood, he couldn''t help but cry out in surprise, "Huhhhhhh?!"

    [You heard right.]

    [You can no longer solve this mission.]

    [You failed.]

    "But how can that be?" Zhihao couldn''t believe it, "If we failed, shouldn''t we be thrown out of this level?"

    [Not really]

    [This is stage two.]

    "What do you mean?" Li Ling asked calmly.

    [Stage two has a special feature.]

    [You no longer have only one mission.]

    [If you fail the main mission, you can complete the secret mission and clear the level.]

    Zhihao sighed in relief. For a second there, he almost had a heart attack. He was having way too much fun for all of it to end this soon.

    "What is the secret mission?" Zhihao asked, optimistic that since the bot has been helpful so far, it will continue being helpful.

    Alvi chuckled.

    [It s a secret mission.]

    [Why do you think I''ll tell you?]

    His mood went down faster than it had risen up. This bot really was... annoying!

    Li Ling smiled, he had already predicted that this bot won''t be telling them anything but he still found it cute that Zhihao would try nonetheless.

    "Then how will we know what we are supposed to do?" Zhihao asked again.

    [The secret mission will pop up when you trigger the scenario needed.]

    "How will we do that?"

    [I can''t tell you how.]

    "..."

    Really a useless bot!

    [But]

    "But?"

    [I can say one thing.]

    [The scenario would soon be triggered even without your meddling.]

    Zhihao didn''t know why but he felt like he wasn''t going to like the secret scenario.

    "A-Zhi..."

    Zhihao looked at the man who had suddenly called him and went silent, "What happened?"

    "Can you hear that?"

    Zhihao shut his mouth up and tried to pay attention to the sound but he couldn''t hear anything.

    Li Ling saw Zhihao''s confused expressions and understood that this man didn''t notice it.

    "The festival."

    "What about the festi- Oh...!" Zhihao suddenly caught on.

    When they left the festival, Kazan was still making a ruckus, and the demon king was enraged at him. There should have been a dispute that followed and if that had happened they should have been able to hear the screaming voices but it was too silent.

    Did the festival go silent now that Taki had run away as well? No. That was not possible. Even if everyone else stopped talking, Kazan would have still continued shouting.

    Zhihao and Li Ling shared a look and they both nodded. They were going to go back and check, just in case.

    Zhihao was already a bit bothered by what Alvi had said. The secret scenario was going to be triggered even without their meddling. If something was to happen, it would naturally be caused by something. The cause would need a person who turns the switch on in order to turn the lightbulb on. If the scenario was going to be triggered without the interference of these two players, it would be triggered by someone else.

    Everyone else was at the festival and Doji had run away from it. If there was someone who would trigger the secret mission, it would most probably be either Doji or Kazan.

    Zhihao had no idea where Doji had run off too and the festival had suddenly gone silent. Their best bet was going back to the festival and sneaking around to see what was happening.

    Zhihao felt a bit stupid. He had run away from the place and now he was going back.

    [Are you going back?]

    Zhihao nodded.

    [Better be prepared.]

    Zhihao looked at the ten-year-old girl with suspicion. This bot knew something they didn''t and it was nerve wrecking how she would not be telling them anything but teasing them with hints every now and then.

    Zhihao, "I''m not sure if you''ll answer this but what is the soul they were all talking about?"

    Alvi nodded happily.

    [So you know I won''t give out spoilers?]

    [hehehe]

    [But you should have asked this question before.]

    [I would''ve still answered it.]

    [''m a really helpful bot.]

    "..."

    "Don''t boast about yourself. Just tell us." Li Ling snapped, his eyes focused in front of them, not bothering to even glance at the bot that was happily skipping beside them.

    [Rude!]

    [The soul is their god.]

    "They have a god?" Zhihao asked in shock.

    [Well something like that.]

    [This is a demon god.]

    [The worst of the worst.]

    "Isn''t that Satan?" Zhihao asked innocently.

    [This is a game. Gods and demons are different here.]

    [Any similarity to real-life characters is purely coincidental.]

    "..." Zhihao shut up immediately.

    [This demon god doesn''t have a body to contain its tainted soul simply because no vessel can control his soul.]

    "His?" Zhihao cut in.

    [Yeah, it''s a male.]

    "That''s shocking."

    Li Ling, "Huh?"

    "It''s just that so far in the game we have only come across female goddesses. It''s kinda shocking that this one is a male." Zhihao responded as he scratched his neck.

    [You are right.]

    [So far you haven''t come across any male gods.]

    [This may be your first but please remember that this is a demon god]

    [He''s different than the other goddesses you have come across.]

    "Understood." Zhihao nodded as he stepped on a stick and he jolted at the sound of the breaking stick, "Damn it, that scared me!"

    Li Ling looked down at the stick and then back up at Zhihao''s face, "Be careful."

    [This festival is about trying to revive their god.]

    "By giving it a temporary vessel?" Zhihao kicked the stick away and asked absentmindedly.

    [The soul is only compatible with a human vessel and if the vessel is a demon, the ceremony may cause the soul to go on rampant and destroy this whole place.]

    Zhihao stopped as he heard this.

    Li Ling looked back at him, "What happened?"

    "Remind me what that crazy demon said."

    "What did he say?"

    "Alvi, by destroying, do you mean burning this whole place down?" Zhihao asked as he looked at the bot with anticipation.

    [How do you know that?]

    Zhihao felt his heart go still. He had guessed it right.

    "Run!"

    Li Ling stared at the back of the man who had suddenly started running back to the festival, "Wait! Where are you running off to?"

    Not a second later, Li Ling and Alvi also ran after him and caught up to Zhihao.

    Zhihao threw a side glance at the two and kept on running, "We were fooled."

    "Huh?"

    "Hasumi is not the vessel that the soul took over. It''s Kazan."

    "What?!"

    Zhihao had a look of disbelief on his face, he glared at the bot who was silent all this while, "Alvi lied to us."

    "What do you mean lie?"

 Chapter 80 - Mastermo Is Attentive To The Details

    "If the soul had overtaken Hasumi''s body, we should have indirectly completed the mission, but what if the body, it took wasn''t Hasumi''s?" Zhihao felt a bit stupid for not having seen through this. Alvi had not exactly lied to them, they were just too dense to have noticed.

    Alvi told them that they had failed the mission and wouldn''t be able to complete it anymore, this wasn''t because Hasumi was not with them or anything like that. If Zhihao had guessed it right and the soul had overtaken Hasumi''s body, the mission should have been completed just as he expected, but there was a reason why it had failed. A reason Zhihao was not able to foresee.

    He thought Alvi and he were talking about the same thing when she said that they had failed the mission because of Doji and Kazan''s plan. They had failed the mission because of those two, but Zhihao was never aware of what the plan was and Alvi never said that his guesses about the plan were correct.

    The plan wasn''t to kidnap Hasumi, it was to kidnap the soul.

    "The soul took over Kazan''s body!"

    [Congratulations.]

    [You guessed it right.]

    Zhihao had realized it a bit late. When he remembered what the demon had screamed at him, he felt like he should''ve realized it sooner. The demon was basically yelling that he was the perpetrator who was planning on burning this entire place down, but with no powers, how could he?

    Why was he so confident while cursing Taki?

    It was because he had a hidden card up his sleeve. Zhihao could still not grasp how that demon had done all this.

    Kazan was really crazy!

    "But doesn''t that mean we can still complete the mission?" Li Ling asked.

    Zhihao shook his head, "No, we can''t. Not only do we not have Hasumi but we also don''t have the soul with us."

    "Alvi, If we find Hasumi can''t we force the soul to leave Kazan''s body and enter Hasumi''s?"

    [You can''t.]

    [Once the soul has entered the body, the only way it will leave the body is if the vessel is destroyed.]

    "So we have to kill Kazan?" Zhihao questioned.

    [There is a reason this is an annual festival.]

    [The vessel only lasts for a day before it is destroyed. That is if the vessel is a human body. If it is a demon vessel, it will last a bit longer, but no matter what type of body it is, the soul still needs time to recover and be ready for a new vessel.]

    [If you want to complete your original mission, you''ll need to kill Kazan and wait another year.]

    [Do you think that''s possible?]

    Zhihao sighed. ''Wait for a year? That was hopeless.''

    [So I didn''t lie.]

    [You are now dependent on the secret mission.]

    This wasn''t so shocking for Zhihao who had already guessed that they won''t be able to undo the damage done.

    Maybe Zhihao had gotten a bit carried away by the way Alvi interacted with them. The original system would not lie to them, but that did not mean that it did not hide information from them. He had forgotten this important factor that he had always hated.

    Li Ling couldn''t comprehend the situation, "So why are we running back?"

    This was an important question. No matter who the soul had taken over, no matter who was the vessel, the main mission still remained impossible to complete so why were they running back to the festival now.

    "Because I know what the secret mission is," Zhihao responded confidently and Li Ling looked at him with surprise.

    This guy was much more intelligent than he thought. How could he get all this from the little information and hints provided?

    Li Ling decided to ask what Zhihao had found out this time, "What is the secret mission?"

    Zhihao smiled, it took him a while to get it, but once he understood that Kazan had become the vessel for the soul, the rest of the pieces of puzzles started putting themselves together without Zhihao''s help. The dots started connecting themselves and now Zhihao was more than a hundred percent sure about what he had to do, he was sure he was going to win this level.

    The confident and amazing Mastermo was finally back in action.

    "If the secret mission doesn''t need our help and would be triggered by something else, what could that be?" Zhihao asked, but he didn''t wait for an answer, "Kazan became a vessel for the soul, and if I''m guessing right, while we ran away, he was going through the process of getting the soul."

    [You are a genius]

    "Remember what Alvi said?" He asked again, but once again, he answered his own question, "She said that his yelling would have pained Taki and I did a perfect role-play for the situation except, I forgot one thing."

    "What did you forget?"

    "If it was the real Taki, he would have kissed Kazan."

    Li Ling looked at him in shock, he was almost sure that no one would be able to catch such a small thing. Who would listen to Alvi''s side-commentary? Who would think that it is a clue?

    Zhihao was a lot more attentive than he had originally thought and although this was one of the things he liked about this man, he was also afraid of it because who knows how much this man had picked up clues about Li Ling. He was scared of being found out and still acting innocent. He would become a joke if that were to happen and he was afraid of what Zhihao would say then.

    Zhihao didn''t notice the sudden change in expressions on Li Ling''s face, he was too busy continuing his explanation as to what he had summed up, "If it were the real Taki, he would''ve indirectly completed the ritual by kissing Kazan."

    [You are right.]

    [That was Kazan''s plan.]

    Li Ling decided to speak up once again as staying silent for too long may cause suspicion, "So the soul hasn''t taken over him yet?"

    "It had." Zhihao answered, "Alvi, give us the answer."

    [You''re finally being impressive.]

    [Just what I had expected from the top player, Mastermo.]

    [The original ritual requires a royal-blood to drink from the cup. There is a reason behind this.]

    [It''s because if the human directly ingests the blood inside the cup, the vessel will start rotting immediately and so the demon in charge has to first make sure that the soul can be transferred without hurting the vessel.]

    [Kazan is already a demon so he only needs to drink the mixed blood. His body is stronger and more compatible so it won''t rot away, but he still needs to kiss a pure-blood in order to let the soul take complete control over his body.]

    "So the soul is inside him, but it can''t control him without a kiss from you?"

    "The first half of that sentence is correct, but the latter is wrong." Zhihao replied, "He needs to kiss a pure-blood. It doesn''t have to be me."

    "Wait..." Li Ling noticed something weird and unsettling, "The only other pure-blood there is..."

    "Taki''s father." Zhihao completed the sentence.

    "That''s... Disgusting." Li Ling commented.

    Suddenly they heard screams from ahead where the drums of the festival were still going on.

    Zhihao, "We don''t have time. We need to hurry."

    [Congratulations! The secret mission is here!]

    "I knew it," Zhihao mumbled, happy with himself.

    [Secret mission: Beat the Akuma and save the world from destruction.]

    "Akuma?"

    [That''s the name of the soul.]

    "Wait... He really kissed your father?" Li Ling asked in shock.

    Zhihao gagged at the thought, but that was the only explanation for this. He nodded with a frown, "He did."

    After a minute or two they saw flocks of ghosts running towards them in panic. Zhihao saw them all coming towards him and he felt an ominous feeling in his stomach.

    [Blow them out of the way.]

    Zhihao understood why Alvi had said this. If they didn''t make way for these two, then they were all going to become an obstacle that slowed them down.

    "Get out of the way!" Zhihao yelled. His hands holding something bright glowing like electricity; a ball of electricity.

    The ghosts who were panicking and running for their lives saw a demon coming at them from a distance with a ball of lightning in his hand and they immediately changed their direction. Not all of them were intelligent enough or realized it soon enough. The unlucky ones who didn''t act fast enough nor changed their direction were met with the ball of light that once thrown, increased in size and destroyed everything in its path. They were all dead already so being hit with this didn''t kill them or hurt them, it just threw them out of the way and the path in front of Li Ling and Zhihao was now clear.

    "Nice one!" Li Ling commented and Zhihao smiled.

    "This was Taki''s original power."

    [There is a lot more Taki can do.]

    [This was just the tip of the iceberg of powers Taki possessed.]

    Zhihao suddenly chuckled, "You really are a Taki fan, aren''t you?"

    [I will not be answering that.]

    "Alvi, do you think we can win against Akuma with Taki''s power alone?"

    [Taki is powerful but he ain''t that powerful.]

    [If you completely depend on his powers, you''ll lose without a doubt.]

    Zhihao had already guessed this much, but he was not worried since he already had his own equipment with him and even had the advantage of the gambling bar by his side.

    Zhihao opened his inventory and got ready to take out the bombs and guns he loved, but he was shocked to see that he couldn''t. When he clicked on it, there showed up an error on the screen.

    [You can''t use all the things in your inventory.]

    "Why?" Zhihao cried out in shock, this had never happened before.

    [OOC]

    [If you use some items, it would cause the others to be suspicious and you''ll go OOC.]

    "If I can''t defeat him with Taki''s powers and I can''t use my own weapons, how am I supposed to beat him?" Zhihao asked.

    [Check carefully.]

    [Not all of your inventory items are sealed off.]

    [You should still be able to use high-grade equipment.]

    [High-grade equipment is different than normal ones since they are registered in all the levels and can be used.]

    Zhihao scrolled through his entire inventory and sighed. He only had three high-grade pieces of equipment in his inventory. One was a useless enchantment breaking crystal, the other was the moon goddess spellbook and the third was his sword Shuang.

    Li Ling coughed as he went through his own inventory, "A-Zhi, I have Huo. That''s it."

    Zhihao calmed himself down and let his brain do the work for him. They can''t use low-grade equipment and they don''t have that many high-grade weapons, but this didn''t mean they were completely helpless.

    Even without any weapons, they still had something that was beneficial to them.

    The gambling bar.

    Right now, Zhihao felt like he really did a good job betting on himself.

    He wasn''t afraid that he would lose.

    He was Mastermo after all and Mastermo never loses.

    After a minute or two of running back to the festival, the noise got louder and louder, they were stormed with hoards of ghosts who were trying to get out of here as soon as possible.

    Zhihao once again used the lightning ball and the crowd before them was cleared for a mere minute and it was enough for them to move to the front row of the chaos.

    When they finally reached the site which was the epicenter of the commotion, Zhihao took a sharp breath in.

    His ''father'' was hanging in midair, with his throat in the clutches of Kazan who wasn''t playing around anymore.

 Chapter 81 - Mastermo Cant Go OOC

    This demon king was far more powerful than Taki and to see him be defeated this easily, it was at this moment that Zhihao finally understood how powerful this Akuma was. There was no way in hell he would be able to beat this Akuma with just Taki''s powers or by Shuang.

    Zhihao took a step back as his brain started analyzing the situation further. He took in all the small details, hoping that there was something here that could help him. Wasn''t it always like that? The one who understands the game best wins it. It was a rule that never changed and Zhihao felt like he was already halfway there in understanding what this level was about.

    If he could just collect a bit more of the information, he would really be able to get out of here with ease.

    Li Ling looked at Mastermo who was checking Kazan out with his eyes going up and down the demon''s body, "A-Zhi, this isn''t the time for you to check your ex out."

    Zhihao almost choked on air as he heard this, "What do you mean? I''m not checking him...." He stopped and thought about it for a minute before continuing, "I am, aren''t I?"

    He was checking him out.

    He was checking to see if there was anything that could become a weakness for this Akuma.

    [Pervert.]

    "Hey! I''m not a pervert!" Zhihao tried to defend himself.

    He was innocent! His mind was too pure to be labeled a pervert!

    Kazan looked different and maybe not in the best way possible. His pupils had dilated and his eyes were now pitch black, his skin was already considered rough, but now it was even more so; rough and thick, now turning completely ashen. His veins were protruding out all over his body, from his head to toes. His face had a few veins popping up and so did his hands that were choking Taki''s father. It almost looked like the veins were ever ready to burst out. His muscles had also undergone a change. They were already bulky but now they had grown even bigger. His teeth seemed to turn sharper and his canines grew longer and bigger. He wasn''t looking like a vampire since vampires were supposed to look hot, he looked more like one of those demon paintings Zhihao saw online with red skin, an ugly expression, and big canine teeth that seemed to be blood-thirsty.

    Li Ling decided to change the topic from perverted Zhihao since they had a more pressing matter in need of their attention, "Do we have a plan?"

    Zhihao nodded, "We get the demon king to help us."

    Li Ling, "That''s your plan?"

    "Actually no but the more the merrier. If the demon king is on our side, we''ll have a better chance."

    Li Ling suddenly wanted to laugh at the way Zhihao was trying to hide his real intention. Zhihao wasn''t looking to gain the demon king''s aid, he was planning on making a bait out of the demon king and Li Ling knew this man well to have guessed what he was planning.

    However, although Li Ling knew this, he wasn''t going to call Zhihao out on it. He''d rather let the man think that he had fooled everyone into thinking that he was all about ''the more the merrier''.

    Zhihao summoned Shuang and the lightning he had mastered was now wrapped around the sword.

    [How did you know you could do that?]

    Alvi was amazed at this player who seemed to have figured everything out without ever being told anything about it.

    "Of course I can do this. If you ask the right questions, you''d be able to figure out a lot more than you''d think."

    "Right questions?" Li Ling was a bit confused.

    "The right question." Zhihao nodded, "Why?"

    "Huh?"

    "We are supposed to ask the reason behind everything that is happening instead of just accepting it. In this case, I asked myself why we were only able to use high-grade equipment?"

    "Why?"

    "Because as Alvi said, it is already registered in all the levels so if this sword is something that exists in this world and level then it can interact with other things that exist in this world."

    [You are right.]

    After having listened to this much, Alvi now approved of Zhihao and felt like this player''s future was bright. If there was a person qualified to beat the Gamemaster it must be this player in front of her.

    Li Ling suddenly frowned.

    "What happened?" Zhihao asked as he saw the man''s face suddenly looking displeased.

    "I don''t think I''ll be much help then. Itsuki is a human with no powers." Li Ling replied.

    "Ah..." Zhihao hadn''t thought about that but it wasn''t like he was going to depend on Li Ling in this level so everything was still good, "It''s okay."

    "Hmm?" Li Ling looked up at the man who was smiling at him

    "Let me protect you this time," Zhihao spoke with a smile that took Li Ling''s breath away. This man really knew how to play with his heart without even being aware of it.

    Li Ling chuckled as he saw this, "You... Okay, Mastermo. I guess you''ll have to take responsibility for me this time."

    Zhihao''s smile grew wider unconsciously.

    [Again with the flirting?]

    Li Ling glared at the little bot. This little cock-blocker always had the worst timing. He should really change her for some other shipper bot that would support them instead of becoming a bone in between.

    Zhihao nodded, "Just stay back and if something attacks you, throw her in front of you."

    [...]

    [You backstabbing bitc-]

    Zhihao moved forward and the evolved lightning sword Shuang chopped down the hand that was choking the demon king.

    This caught Akuma''s interest as he changed his target and glared at Zhihao now.

    Zhihao had never thought Kazan looked ugly and on the contrary, he thought Kazan looked kinda handsome but now that he looked at that distorted face that was not even recognizable anymore, he felt like he had never seen anything uglier than this. Why would people go around watching horror movies if they could just play this level and get scared for life?

    Kazan opened his mouth and muttered a low growl.

    The demon King who was lying on the floor got rid of the amputated hand that was still clasped around his throat. He coughed a few times and stood up without further delay.

    "Thank you." He showed his gratitude to Zhihao who had saved him.

    Zhihao spared him a side glance and nodded.

    [If it was Taki, he wouldn''t have saved him.]

    Zhihao wasn''t too worried about going OOC as he had already realized something.

    They can go OOC as long as they don''t get found out. Taki would have never saved his father whom he hated, but that didn''t mean that by saving him, Zhihao would go OOC since no one else knew that Taki hated his father, and so, there was nobody who would be suspicious over such a small detail. It was the same case for when Alvi told him that Taki would''ve kissed Kazan goodbye, no one else knew Taki would have done such a thing since they didn''t know the details of the relationship between the two and so, Zhihao got out with not having to kiss the demon.

    The demon in front of them let out another growl as it looked down at his hand that was not there anymore.

    "Does it not feel any pain?"

    [It doesn''t.]

    [That''s not Akuma''s body so the pain would naturally not be felt by him.]

    The demon king who couldn''t hear Alvi thought that the question was for him and he was suddenly enthusiastic to see his son showing interest in interacting with him. In his mind, he felt like this son of his had finally forgiven him, or at least he was finally trying to forget and forgive. This was good and it bought the old demon king happiness.

    "Akuma can''t feel the pain inflicted on the vessel. The original soul of the vessel will be the one tortured by the pain."

    Zhihao was stunned as he heard this. He immediately reacted by glaring at Alvi who had made it a habit of giving him incomplete information.

    [Well at least now you know.]

    Alvi folded her arms and looked away. She was only doing her job, not trying to purposely make the player hate her.

    [The attacks would be felt by Kazan.]

    If that was the case, it made things a bit more tricky. If Taki knew that his attacks would be felt by the original Kazan, he would not attack this Akuma since it really did nothing but just torture Kazan however, Zhihao wasn''t as nice as Taki. Although he knew this, he would still attack the Akuma because he was now sure that he won''t be triggering the OOC.

    To everyone else, Taki was a demon with a cold personality and only some people were aware of his Tsundere nature. Cold on the outside and warm on the inside.

    Although Taki won''t attack Kazan, the others didn''t know this. They expected Taki to be cold and unaffected by hurting this demon in front and so even though Zhihao would be going completely out of character by attacking this Akuma, he would not be triggering the OOC alert.

    Sadly, everyone was going to see their perception of Taki come true today with him turning into a really cruel cold-hearted demon.

    Akuma let out a breath and glared back at Zhihao after having noticed that his hand was cut by this demon in front of him. He was mad. Zhihao was unaware if this madness was caused by him or if this was just a natural trait of the demon who always seemed to be angry at something or the other. Well, this was Akuma, the diety of demons so he really wouldn''t be surprised if he got to know that this anger was a natural trait of this god.

    Zhihao saw the arm on the body grow back and he cringed at the sight.

    The new arm that grew out of nowhere wasn''t identical to the old one and on the contrary, it was far more hideous. There was bone, there were veins and there were muscles but that was it. Everything else was missing including the skin that was supposed to be wrapped around all of it.

    When Akuma reached his re-grown hand out front and got ready to attack Taki, Zhihao saw the veins hanging down from the hand and the muscles hanging on the bone with no other support. One touch and Zhihao was afraid that everything from this DIY hand will start falling off.

    At this moment, Zhihao suddenly felt like this game should have a warning displayed to all the players: THIS GAME IS NOT FOR THE WEAK HEARTED AND CHILDREN. IF YOU GET UNCOMFORTABLE FROM SEEING BLOOD AND GORE, YOU ARE IN THE WRONG PLACE.

    The outstretched hand increased in length and reached out for Zhihao''s neck but before it could get close, it was burnt up. It was the demon king who had saved him this time and with that, they had no debts left in between them.

    At this moment, Zhihao knew what was the demon king''s power and he also understood why he had walked in on Akuma choking this father of his. It wasn''t that the demon king had been defeated, he was just caught in surprise. Now that Zhihao thought about it a bit more, it was understandable. This demon Kazan had just kissed the demon king by force, taking him by surprise. It was too much for this demon king to react immediately and so he was dumbstruck when he suddenly saw the low-ranked demon in front of him turn into a monster and get a hold of his neck.

 Chapter 82 - Mastermo Is Not Happy With Takis Stamina

    Even if Zhihao hadn''t stepped in and saved the demon king, he was sure that the demon king would have been able to save himself. This was the man with the demonic deep voice he was talking about, if this man wasn''t able to stand up to this Akuma, Zhihao wouldn''t even stand a chance.

    The hand that had burned off was now once again regrown, but this time it was in a condition much worse. It used to have muscles, veins, bones and although it still had all of it intact, the muscles looked much weaker and the bones looked frail while the veins looked completely lifeless.

    Zhihao suddenly understood something and just as he did, he couldn''t help but smile. This Akuma that looked like a hard to defeat big shot wasn''t as invincible as Zhihao had thought him to be.

    At this moment, Zhihao had caught a hold of this demon god''s weakness. Although this Akuma had regenerative abilities, he had his own limits. The Akuma could regrow an arm out of nothing, but couldn''t do it perfectly.

    If Zhihao were to continue attacking the same arm, again and again, he was sure that a time will come when this arm will not be able to grow back. Maybe not even the bones will be able to regenerate when that happened..

    This wasn''t a fight about who was stronger, it was much simpler yet complicated. It was a fight about who attacks more and who defends more. Plainly speaking, it was about who would be able to stretch this fight out and still be able to thrive. It was a game about patience and perseverance.

    Luckily for Zhihao, he lacked in none of the two and so, this fight already had a winner.

    "I''ll take the right," Zhihao spoke before he got ready to attack.

    The demon king wasn''t stupid and even without the words being spoken, he knew what his son had wanted to say. Taki wanted to fight together with him and the demon king had never got the chance to even dream about something like this happening. He had always thought that this son of his would never accept him and so this rare chance to fight together, surely brought a smile to the old demon king''s face.

    He was sure that after this fight was over, the two father and son would be able to mend their relationship and go back to the way they were. He was ready to spoil this son of his and the only question remained if his son wanted to be spoiled?

    The demon king also decided to make his move, "I''ll attack from the front."

    Zhihao only spared a side glance at the man and there was a small satisfied smile on his face.

    The one who attacks from the front is the bait and Zhihao had never seen someone be so enthusiastic about being a mere bait. This didn''t mean he disliked it though. For him, this was the optimal situation.

    If this demon king wasn''t going to volunteer to become the bait, Zhihao already had a plan B up his sleeves.

    Now that he thought about it the plan was kinda stupid, so he was glad he didn''t have to take such extreme measures.

    Pushing the demon king at Akuma was really a half-baked plan that would do more damage than good.

    The demon king stepped closer to Akuma with calm strides as if he was not affected by this demon god, however, one look at his facial expressions, and everyone would be able to notice that this demon king was in fact looking a bit worried just like he should have.

    Li Ling and Alvi were standing on the side, far away from the main fight so that they don''t get caught up in it. Zhihao wasn''t too worried about the safety of those two and he was too busy with fighting the demon god in front of him so it was only natural that he didn''t notice Li Ling slipping away from there.

    "Where are you going?" Alvi asked Li Ling and since it wasn''t a common voice transmission, it could not be heard by Zhihao.

    Li Ling looked at the bot who was following after him, "I can''t just stand there and do nothing can I?"

    Alvi squinted at the player, having the feeling that there was something about this player that she found oddly familiar. He wasn''t giving out everything he knew and he seemed to know a lot more than he should. It was suspicious for Alvi whose main job here was to oversee the players and pay attention to their every move so that there was no unfair play. Alvi didn''t have evidence, but she felt like this player was cheating and at the same time, he wasn''t. It didn''t make sense and maybe she would never be able to find out the answer behind this.

    She had no proof to call him a cheater and so she was utterly helpless and could only follow this player right now.

    Back at the festival, Zhihao and the demon king were working together to beat this Akuma together. The ghosts who were running around in panic stopped as they saw the father and son getting involved in this gruesome fight. They seemed to have been mesmerized by the way the fight was going since they all stopped in their tracks and with their mouths wide open in awe, they stood there taking in the sight that could only be considered beautiful in their eyes.

    It was as if this had changed into one of those battle arenas where the ghosts would place bets and take part as the audience.

    Akuma was busy with regrowing its limbs that Zhihao was constantly cutting off, all the while also fending against the fire attack the demon king was constantly hitting him with.

    Zhihao was satisfied with the bait. The demon king was doing a very good job of keeping the Akuma busy as Zhihao kept on chopping down its arm again and again. The regeneration ability of the arm was visibly worsening, however, this was just an arm and it had already taken him so long to have it come to this state where bones were the only thing that could be regenerated.

    Although it sounded good and looked like Zhihao was winning, this fight was a lot more unpredictable than it seemed and only Zhihao was aware of this.

    He was losing his health bar.

    This Taki seemed to be really powerful with a lot of different powers up his sleeves, one more powerful than the other, however, his stamina was way lower than Zhihao''s.

    Keeping the ball of lightning going for five minutes reduced his health stats by 20%

    In the end, Zhihao thought it was a waste of energy to keep the lightning so he decided to change his strategy.

    He skimmed through the list of powers Taki had and read through the stats of each power.

    Useless.

    Every single one of them was useless since they required a person to have a high level of energy. Although they were energy-consuming, they were equally powerful and Zhihao couldn''t deny this fact, but what was the use of it being powerful if Akuma could just keep on regenerating?

    Zhihao could destroy every bone in this Akuma''s body, but he still won''t win and in turn, he''d just be wasting away his energy on something that would make him lose in the long run.

    In the long run... That was the most important thing to think about at this moment.

    Zhihao decided to try using another power.

    Ice.

    In the next minute, Shuang was covered in ice and it was letting off a frost smoke. Zhihao couldn''t deny the beauty of this sword that was overwhelming.

    This might have been his best decision yet. Shuang was a sword with a cold constitution and if it was paired with a power of ice, it would be a perfect way to increase the stats of this sword.

    There were certain powers that were compatible with this sword and certain others that would only make the sword become useless. Lightning, ice, and water were some of the elements that would strengthen the sword while fire would do the opposite. This was the reason why Zhihao had not used Taki''s most powerful spell: fire.

    If he were a noob, he would have most certainly gone with that fire and he would''ve doomed himself, but he wasn''t and so everything was well and good.

    The ice sword once again cut down the arm, which only contained the bone, and this time, the arm, or to be more specific, the bone didn''t grow back.

    Zhihao did a victory dance in his mind with a straight and calm expression. His face was never the one to betray his feelings and emotions. Because of this, he felt like he''d become a great actor one day, but who wants to become an actor when you could be the world''s best pro-gamer? His career choices had been clear since the beginning and he was sure that they would never be changed so easily.

    The Akuma glanced at the missing hand and realized that it was now unable to regrow it, and just as he realized this, he immediately snapped up at Zhihao and glared at the man.

    "You''re supposed to be looking at me!" The demon king snapped as he attacked Akuma from the front.

    This time the Akuma was bored of playing around with the demon king and the ball of fire that was aimed at him was devoured.

    Zhihao''s eyes went wide as he saw this and he wasn''t the only person who was shocked. The demon king also seemed to be taken back by the sudden revelations.

    "T-That... That can''t happen..." He muttered in disbelief.

    In all his years of reigning over this world as the demon king who oversaw many yearly ghost festivals, he had never seen such a sight.

    Akuma can devour fire? It was truly a new finding.

    Zhihao let his brain do the magic and after a minute or two, he understood what had happened.

    There was a reason why the human vessel and a demon vessel was different.

    When Zhihao glanced at the demon king, he was sure that he wasn''t the only person who had understood what had happened.

    The two father and son shared eye contact and nodded, both understanding the situation.

    It was the perk of having a demon vessel.

    If the Akuma were to have a human vessel, this really would have been impossible since swallowing a ball of fire would destroy the insides of the human vessel.

    This wasn''t the only perk of getting a demon vessel. Having the ability to regenerate was also a perk of having a demon vessel.

    Zhihao still remembered what Alvi had told him and now he finally understood why a demon vessel was much more dangerous and more destructive than a human vessel.

    But what now?

    The fire was useless against this Akuma and Zhihao couldn''t just keep on cutting off his limbs again and again.

    The only thing bright about the situation was that the Akuma was now physically handicapped with only a single arm and it just so happened that the arm that was cut off was Akuma''s dominant arm.

    The rest was all negatives of the situation that Zhihao rather not want to look at, but although he didn''t want to didn''t mean he could just ignore it. He still needed to analyze everything and see what he had to deal with. He had to calculate his odds at winning and losing in this fight.

    The worst thing at this moment seemed to be the fact that Zhihao had angered Akuma who was now glaring at him with a bloodthirsty expression.

 Chapter 83 - Mastermo Feels The Excitement

    Nothing worked.

    Nothing works.

    There is nothing that he could do.

    Zhihao felt his brain freeze up when he looked into the pitch-black eyes of the Akuma.

    He felt like this Akuma was going to pull something on him. It was a gut feeling that didn''t seem to go away. Maybe it was due to the way the Akuma looked at him, maybe it was the darkness of the eyes that seemed to seep through Zhihao''s skin and sting him.

    Mastermo had never felt this feeling.

    This bone-chilling fear..

    This blood-raising excitement.

    This was the reason why he was playing. This adrenaline rush, this thoughtlessness, this fear that paralyzed him, he was looking for something like this, and now he had found it.

    Zhihao had always been in a room, a confined space where he felt trapped, and inside this room, he felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. He was bored every day. Bored of doing this and doing that. Nothing seemed to be exciting anymore and that was when he laid his hands on his first gaming console. That was a moment he''d never forget.

    It was an excitement, a thrill, an adventure. He was overwhelmed with all the feelings that swelled up inside him and he was instantly addicted. He found the calling of his life and he was sure that he was never going to lose it yet not everything you hope happens and one day he lost the excitement.

    He became a professional gamer and finally attained that title of the top player he had always wanted, he was happy but after that initial happiness had faded off, he felt empty. If he had no other goal, what was he supposed to do?

    He felt like the room, he was confined in was still there and he was going to be once again trapped inside it.

    It was empty, a life without ambition. He played a lot of new games and even replayed old ones. He tried everything he could to revive the interest and the emotions he felt but nothing happened.

    He started getting bored of games, something he never thought was scientifically possible.

    The games became predictable and no matter how much he won, he''d never be satisfied with his victory. He started looking for challenges, but he found none. If games couldn''t give him the challenge, the other players should have, yet there was no other player who was on par with him and so he remained the reigning champion who couldn''t be beaten by anybody.

    At one point in time, Zhihao thought he should just delete his ID and make a brand new one from which he''ll start from the beginning, yet even after doing something like that, he found no thrill.

    This was when the news of a new RPG went viral.

    At first, Zhihao really wasn''t interested in the game since it was released by a partnership of two companies, one of which belonged to Zhihao''s father.

    However, it was still a game and there was a chance that Zhihao might find something interesting in it. Even if the chance was small it was still something, not a complete zero, and so, Zhihao decided to try out the famous game.

    On the first day itself, he fell in love with the game and the rest... It was a story that need not be told.

    Zhihao looked at the demon god in front of him that was ready to attack him at any given moment and he felt it. He felt the adrenaline rush throughout his body. He felt like beating this demon god would be his biggest feat for this entire month and it was enough to inspire him.

    Zhihao waited for the demon god to attack first and the onlookers felt like this man had gone crazy. Why in the hell would someone wait for the other to attack? Wasn''t it always best to attack someone first when they were planning their attack? Take them by surprise, wasn''t that the norm?

    Had Taki gone insane?!

    If this demon god attacked him with all his power, who knew if Taki''s bone dust would be left behind, or would it also be flown away by the breeze?

    This demon had gone crazy and everyone who saw it would say the same thing, all except for the demon king who felt proud of his son at this moment.

    They were demons so it naturally a fact to be proud to say that there was nothing that they were afraid of and although this was mostly the case, in front of this demon god not many demons would say that they were unafraid and maybe only Taki would do something like this.

    He was proud of his courageous son.

    Akuma didn''t attack directly, but Zhihao still felt something.

    Something was happening and he got to know it only when he saw his health status bar that was depleting at a fast rate.

    "Wait..." Zhihao looked around and soon noticed something. The air was different, it was creating an illusion of the things around them moving in a swirling manner and it wasn''t because the things were actually moving, it was because of smoke.

    Not the white smoke, but the visible heat waves.

    The land was heating up.

    "Alvi, what is happening?" Zhihao asked, but he got no response and his eyes wandered around in search of a little ten-year-old girl and a handsome human, however, they were both missing, "What the...?!"

    Zhihao was sure that those two were there just a few minutes ago, so where had they ran off to now?

    Li Ling was not one to run away without saying anything and Alvi was a bot so he didn''t even need to say how incapable she was of running away from the players. If the two had left their place, it meant something had happened.

    They had either moved to find a safer spot or someone had kidnapped them and if it wasn''t one of those two, it might have been Li Ling who had decided to wander off to somewhere.

    Zhihao wanted to search for the two, but he wasn''t in a position where he had the leisure time to go off leaving this fight behind. Even if he wanted to do that, he was afraid that this demon god wouldn''t be letting him get away so easily.

    Thankfully, even without Alvi''s help, Zhihao was able to get the answer to his question, thanks to his dear father who was as eager as ever to help his favorite son.

    "The heat is rising." The demon king spoke up, sweat starting to form on his forehead, "If we don''t stop it, we''ll be standing on lava."

    This was never a good sign.

    Zhihao didn''t have enough time to think and he used his gambling bar for the first time. He felt kind of stupid for using it for something trivial like this. He bought a heavy heat resistant armor, better than the armor he had purchased when he was in the dragon''s illusion level.

    The armor was a piece of high-grade equipment that cost a lot of T-points and although Zhihao''s heart ached to say goodbye to the T-points, he still felt like it was worth it, after all, this was high-grade defensive equipment we were talking about.

    He didn''t even know he''d ever come across this armor, since last he checked, it was out of sale in the in-game shop.

    This was the crimson red armor that could withstand any type of heat unless it was the direct heat 1 inch away from the sun, and Zhihao was sure that he would never have to go that close to the sun just to burn this armor off.

    When Zhihao wore the crimson red armor, he thought he would stop the depleting health bar, but he was wrong in assuming that.

    This was fire from hell and maybe it was just as strong as the heat from the sun.

    Zhihao used Taki''s ice power again and wrapped the armor with a thin layer of ice that no matter how much would melt, it would keep recreating itself, and so by doing this, he was able to save his health bar however, this was not a plan that would last for too long.

    Using this ice power meant health depletion, but the percentage was still lower than how fast the heat from the ground made it go down.

    At this moment, Zhihao really felt like cursing someone, and that someone was Taki who seemed to have all these impressive powers yet with such a low health condition all of the power was nothing more than waste.

    Akuma growled and it looked like he was laughing at the reactions he got as if he were taking revenge for his lost arm.

    Zhihao didn''t know what to do and he didn''t have enough time to make up a plan, but he knew that he had to somehow stop the heat from rising any further and he had to do something fast cause he also had to keep his health bar in mind.

    His stamina was already at 40% so he really didn''t have time or energy to waste anymore.

    At moments like this, he felt like it was better to have a half-baked plan than a fully thought out plan. He''d depend on his instincts and hope that he wins.

    This was the feeling gaming brought you and this was the rush of adrenaline Zhihao was hungry for.

    He wanted it. He wanted it more. He loved it, not knowing what the ending was going to be and not knowing if he was going to get out of this alive.

    At this exact same moment, somewhere else in the wilderness, Li Ling and Alvi arrived at a desolated hut hidden among the thick trees.

    "How did you know this place?" Alvi asked.

    It was not completely impossible for a player to know this place beforehand, but if a player knew this place it meant the player had a few conditions he/she needed to fulfill and Li Ling fulfilled none of those conditions.

    There were only two conditions. If one of them was filled, it was okay and if both of them were not completed it meant the player was probably cheating.

    The first condition was that the player had played this level before and Alvi had all the information on these two players so she knew that this was not the case.

    The second condition to know things beforehand was if you were the Gamemaster or if you were related to the Gamemaster.

    Alvi had no way of checking if this second condition was fulfilled by this player, but as long as her data read, the Gamemaster was already playing a game in another level so it was really impossible for him to be here unless he was playing two levels at the same time with two different accounts. That possibility wasn''t too out of the blue and it was something that could very well be possible however it was something hard to believe.

    "Let''s tell Mastermo that you told me about this place." Li Ling smiled as he spoke.

    He was threatening her with that sweet face and smile of his.

    To threaten a bot and tell her to lie for you? One would have to be stupid if they wanted to do something like that or maybe someone will need to be intelligent enough to try such a thing.

    "You''re really suspicious," Alvi commented with a grin.

    She was cautious of this player who seemed to know a bit too much not only about this level but also about the game and her. He was really not someone whom she should mess with.

    "Now let''s get Hasumi out, shall we?" Li Ling asked, but it wasn''t a question he was looking to get the answer to.

    Alvi was silent.

 Chapter 84 - Mastermo Has A Suspicious Partner

    Alvi was a bot, her job was to look over things and help the players.

    If Li Ling wanted her to keep a secret from Mastermo, she would do it without question and this was a feature of Alvi that not many players were aware of.

    Li Ling opened the worn-down wooden door of the house that creaked as it opened and the hinges of the door were near to falling apart. If he had been a bit more rough when dealing with them, they really would have fallen off.

    The sky rumbled and it was dark with no light inside the small hut. Alvi followed after Li Ling. The insides were no different than the outside. It was just as broken down and shabby as it seemed from the outside. With no light, it was questionable to see if they were stepping on the floor or some random rat.

    Li Ling took a minute to stand so that his eyes could adjust to the dim light within. He looked around and analyzed the small details such as the broken porcelain kept on the three-legged table and the curtains that were completely chewed up by the almighty rodents who couldn''t find anything else decent for them to dig their teeth into..

    On the floor was a half-eaten apple that had rotten away with time, but it looked only to be a day or two old.

    "Ah." Li Ling understood who had eaten this apple. He looked around and finally found a person lying on the broken-down bed that had no mattress and had one of its legs missing and being replaced by a stick.

    This person was the girl he was here to find.

    Hasumi was sleeping like snow white who had eaten a poison apple and slept forever waiting for true love''s kiss, however, that was far from reality.

    This apple was given to her by Kazan when she felt hungry and was begging him for food.

    It was something to wonder that the Kazan, who hated humans would look after a human like this. It wasn''t much, but because it was Kazan, it was touching.

    Maybe somewhere inside, somewhere deep, deep inside, maybe, just maybe, there was a small heart there somewhere, even if it was just a small pea-sized heart.

    Maybe he secretly had a big heart, considering the fact that he had wholeheartedly loved Taki but nobody could see it.

    Whatever it was, it was shocking to see that Kazan had given this girl an apple that wasn''t poisoned.

    Li Ling kicked the apple and it rolled all the way over to the three-legged table and when the two objects came in contact, one of the legs of the table gave out, resulting in the fall of the table and the porcelain that was already broken was now shattered to pieces.

    "Your fault," Alvi commented as she looked down at the shattered pieces of the porcelain, like a little child that was blaming her older brother for breaking their mother''s favorite vase.

    "I''ll admit." Li Ling responded as he tried to laugh it off.

    It wasn''t like anyone was going to come after him just because he shattered an already broken vase.

    Li Ling, "Is she just sleeping?"

    "She is," Alvi nodded, "I guess she got tired from everything."

    She probably did.

    Hasumi was going home from work when everything happened, even if she was a super strong person, she should have still felt the tiredness kicking in unless she was an immortal.

    Li Ling tiptoed closer to the bed, careful not to break anything else. He got ready to shake Hasumi in order to wake her up, but before he could do so, the floor underneath him, gave up and his right leg got stuck inside the newly-formed hole on the wooden floor.

    Li Ling didn''t see this coming. He made sure that he didn''t knock into something and break it, but no matter how careful he was, he still ended up breaking something and it was the freaking floor!

    Hasumi seemed to have heard the noise and woke up. She opened her eyes and looked around, her eyes had already adapted to the darkness of the room. She remembered being here alone and she had only met one person who was kind enough to bring her here, give her food and a place to sleep, she didn''t know when she had fallen asleep.

    When she woke up, she was greeted by the sight of these two intruders and she was immediately taken back, it came as no shock that she screamed at the sight.

    Hasumi''s hands patted around trying to find something that she could grasp which just so happened to be a stick that was kept on the side, she grabbed it and got ready to beat this intruder.

    Li Ling tried to move back, but his leg was stuck inside the hole, he couldn''t move so he raised his hands up and started screaming back in return.

    Hasumi and Li Ling had a yelling competition, none of the two seemed to give up.

    When Hasumi''s hand came down ready to strike Li Ling''s head, he was sure that his head would not remain safe anymore and he almost regretted his decision to come here alone. If he had come with Zhihao, the man would have most certainly not let his partner die here like this in the hands of a girl who was too scared to differentiate right from left.

    He closed his eyes and waited for the impact, but it never came and over his yelling voice, he didn''t notice that the girl had stopped screaming.

    "It''s... You?" Hasumi''s sweet voice was heard, but it was overpowered by Li Ling''s scream.

    Alvi rolled her eyes and stepped forward, smacking the head of this player who was getting ready for a ''rebirth''.

    "You too?" Hasumi muttered with a confused expression as she saw the face of the little ten-year-old girl who had stepped up from the shadows.

    "Nice to meet you again." Alvi beamed.

    Li Ling stopped yelling and rubbed his head with a small "ouch" while Hasumi looked at the two with a blank expression. She was almost sure that she would never be meeting these two people again.

    When the initial shock was over, a tear traced down Hasumi''s face as she looked at Alvi.

    Li Ling saw the change of mood and glanced over at the woman who had silently started crying.

    "Why...?" Hasumi muttered as she blinked, but the tears seemed to be a never-ending saga, "Why did you tell me to run?"

    She sounded heartbroken and it was aimed at the little Alvi who didn''t look surprised when she saw this reaction.

    Li Ling also followed the girl''s eyesight and looked at Alvi, his face also didn''t seem to be shocked at the revelations.

    "Aren''t you still alive?" Alvi asked as she smiled.

    When Hasumi heard this, it seemed that even her last wall of control was broken down and she started crying like a newborn baby, "You... You told me that I... Why...? Why did you lie to me?!"

    Alvi looked away as she answered, "I didn''t lie to you."

    "You told me to run for my life when the lights go out!" Hasumi screamed as if she had been wronged by this seemingly innocent child, "You told me that I''ll be safe if I did that!"

    "You lied to me! I believed you!" Hasumi screamed at the girl and what she wanted to see was a single guilty expression yet she got nothing.

    Alvi wasn''t guilty or at least she wasn''t feeling guilty after having tricked the girl, "Are you going to blame me for everything? It''s not like you were so innocent."

    "What do you mean?! I am innocent! I was pushed to this godforsaken place because of you!"

    Li Ling stood up and after having struggled for a bit, he finally got his leg out of the hole. He moved his feet around and made sure that his bones hadn''t been broken or anything.

    Alvi was still persistent about defending herself, "Didn''t I tell you to make a choice?"

    "What type of person gives that kind of choice?"

    Li Ling suddenly started wondering about the answer and it seemed that this girl had something wrong. Even if no type of human would give such choices, Alvi wasn''t exactly a human. She was a bot so could Hasumi really ask her this question?

    Alvi sighed, "I told you to run and save your life or stay and give up your life for saving three people that included me and two dumb guys."

    "Hey!" Li Ling was a bit offended to hear the bot refer to him and Zhihao as two dumb guys.

    "You''re a human so it''s natural for you to choose your own life over others. That''s the human greed that rules your world." Alvi continued, "It''s not like I lied about anything. You choose the first option and you were able to survive, were you not?"

    Hasumi didn''t speak for a whole minute. She didn''t know how she was supposed to react to something like this. This ten-year-old made it seem like it was Hasumi who was at fault. As if it was her own greed that got her here.

    Li Ling stepped in between the two and stopped the bot and the NPC from fighting against each other.

    "Now, now. Let''s keep our catfights aside and talk about business." Li Ling spoke with a commercial smile as if it would calm the two girls down, "We are here to get you out of here Hasumi."

    Hasumi glanced up at the man and instantly looked away. She felt guilty. She knew full well that if she chose to run away, this man would have died, or at least that was what she was told and yet even without blinking an eye, she still chose the option to run away. She wasn''t a fool. Why the hell must she sacrifice her own life to save a bunch of random people she just met?

    She thought she would never get to see them again and so naturally she felt no remorse towards her reaction, but now here he was, this man who was supposed to die, standing in front of her with a friendly smile.

    How could she not feel guilty?

    But this guilt did not mean that if she were to be given another chance she would have chosen differently. She would have still ended up choosing her life over the others since that was the most important thing for her.

    Li Ling knew what this girl was thinking about. He could see through the guilt, but he really did not care. For this NPC to feel such emotions towards them, it was laughable since she couldn''t do anything to them even if she wanted.

    Li Ling, "Let''s get you out of here, shall we?"

    Hasumi looked back at the man and reluctantly nodded.

    It was her fault from the beginning. Why the hell did she believe a ten-year-old in the first place?

    It was because she was coded to do so, but she would never know this since she was just a bunch of codes whose job wasn''t to find the meaning to her life.

    Hasumi reluctantly got off from the bed and followed after Li Ling.

    The three made their way back to the ghost festival.

    "What are you planning to do?" Alvi whispered so that Hasumi who was following behind them couldn''t hear it.

    "What do you think I''m trying to do?" Li Ling smirked.

    "I would say you are trying to sacrifice her and get the festival to move on the right track."

    Li Ling side glanced at the bot and the smile on his face didn''t go down, "Now, why would I do that?"

 Chapter 85 - Mastermo Has An Untrustworthy Assistant

    Alvi looked at the player with suspicion, "What else would you want to do?"

    "Didn''t I make my intentions clear?"

    "What?" Alvi was a result of highly advanced technology, an AI that was almost on par with a human mind yet she could not comprehend what this man was trying to say.

    "I''m gonna get her out of here."

    Alvi, "You want to get her out of this world?"

    Li Ling nodded, "Since she is no longer needed, why must she suffer here?"

    Alvi could not understand what this man was planning, but she could still conclude that there was a reason behind why he was doing such useless stuff.

    Why would a player save an unimportant NPC if they had nothing to gain out of it? The thought was just too impossible unless you were born with a heart of an angel.

    Hasumi saw that she was falling behind and picked up her pace, "H-hey! Don''t just leave me behind."

    Li Ling glanced at the girl and flashed her a sweet smile, Hasumi would be lying if she said that the smile didn''t affect her heart..

    Alvi didn''t even spare the girl a glance. Her attitude towards this NPC was much different from how it was in the beginning when she had protected Hasumi every single time, standing up for her and making Zhihao think that this bot liked this NPC.

    The change in attitude wasn''t completely shocking since Alvi was a bot without feelings. Technology could replicate a human mind, but it could never replicate emotions like pity or sympathy hence it wasn''t her fault for not feeling anything for this girl.

    Alvi was given a job to make it easy for Kazan to kidnap the human and she had done that job perfectly. Whenever she had protected the girl, it wasn''t actually Hasumi she was protecting, it was always the fake vessel she was protecting, in order for it not to be found by the two players.

    If one thought about it a bit deeper it would seem that Alvi was also an accomplice to the villains of this story and one wouldn''t be wrong in thinking this since it was how this level was set up.

    This was how the gambling bar worked and all of the players were unaware of this.

    Zhihao had guessed the gambling bar to work in a way where it hides clues and makes sure that the original plan went by smoothly. It was a bold conclusion on his part considering the limited amount of information he had but sadly he was still wrong.

    There were two gambling bars. One was the positive one for the positive betters and one was a negative gambling bar for the negative betters. The two sounded alike but in reality, they were far different from one another.

    The positive gambling bar as explained by Alvi was just that, a place where you could buy and lend however the negative gambling bar remained a mystery for the players. The only people who knew how the negative bar worked were the people who were using it, the negative betters.

    The negative gambling bar wasn''t related to the items or the scenarios. It was basically other players buying Alvi and telling her to play the villain. She was the one who was getting the messages, she was the one who was making sure that the players don''t win.

    To everyone who had never placed a negative bet, this would remain a fact that they would never know and they would always live in the darkness thinking that this bot was here to help them.

    No one would suspect a bot who was supposed to be your assistant, looking like an innocent little girl to be the real antagonist here.

    Actually, it was wrong to label her as an antagonist since she was merely like the organizer of the betting game and if someone placed a high bet for her to do something, she would naturally do as she was told.

    It was the best way. The most unpredictable way to make the players drop out from this game one by one.

    That was the ultimate goal. To make as many people drop out from the game as they could.

    If a player could withstand the pressure of the gambling bar, the player was already considered to be qualified enough and if a player finds this to be too unfair, might as well let such players go in the beginning itself.

    That was what this whole game was about. Filtering out and eliminating the players till only one is left. The one who will beat the Gamemaster and win the game.

    If Mastermo wasn''t planning on placing a negative bet on someone, he would never come to know that the bad feeling he got from this bot was indeed correct. This ten year old girl wasn''t as innocent as she looked.

    "You know, if you really wanted to get her out of here, you would''ve headed to the tunnel. Why are you going back to the ghost festival?"

    Li Ling looked at the bot. She probably knew the answer, yet she was asking... She was testing him and thankfully he knew how to pass this test.

    "I can''t leave A-Zhi behind." It was more or less a lie, but the bot couldn''t see through it so there was nothing to worry about.

    Alvi looked at him and nodded, having believed him since his answer made sense.

    If he had answered with his real intentions, he would''ve triggered a cheating alert, after which, Zhihao and Li Ling would have been thrown out of this level without delay.

    Back at the ghost festival, Zhihao was ransacking his brain for ideas.

    He had bought himself some time with his tricks, but the time was still limited and with the temperature constantly rising up, he wasn''t sure if he was going to get the time he estimated. If the heat rose up too much, his time would surely be depleted.

    He was still worried about Li Ling and he was trying his best to remain calm since he had never won a game by stressing about it too much.

    A calm mind would think up more logical answers and would never fail a person, it would be the optimal position for your brain under such situations.

    Zhihao had never really struggled with trying to remain calm and if he had to count, he would say that most of the times he had overthought or stressed inside a game was almost always in T.I.A.D. and he couldn''t say he hated the game for it.

    He loved it because of this.

    Akuma started laughing when he saw the ghosts, who had stopped to see the show, return to their original chaos as they ran around in circles like little ants whose nest had been stepped on by a human foot.

    The demon king saw his son not daring to move and although he found it very courageous of his son to show no fear in this situation, he was still not happy with letting it all go like this.

    They needed to do something or the lava will break out of the ground at any moment now and if that happens, they were all as good as gone.

    The others could simply run away at times like this, but the demon king could not. He had made a vow, a vow that forbade him from abandoning this land. He was the king and with that title came the responsibility of keeping this world safe.

    He couldn''t just stand by and watch.

    He couldn''t wait for the land to burn itself.

    But what could he do?

    What was he to do?

    This Akuma was powerful, maybe a lot more than him, wasn''t that the reason why he was a demon king while the other was a demon god?

    Should the difference in power really be said out loud?

    But he was gonna do it anyway, even if it meant death for him.

    The demon king glanced at his son who was standing by the side, unconsciously a smile crept up his face.

    He was glad that his son was finally ready to accept him, he was happy to see that their relationship would not have to be so strained anymore. He was ecstatic to know that there could come a time when the two will be able to go back to how they were but... Even if that were all just a dream, he was still happy to know that he got to have such dreams.

    This was enough for him. If he were to die today, his son would surely survive and take his throne. He would not be losing out on anything.

    If the demon king had a final wish it would be a simple thing.

    He''d want his son to glance at him and smile right now.

    He waited for it to happen and he smiled when he realized that this was also just one of his fantasies.

    He was about to give up, but at this moment, Zhihao felt someone watching him and turned his head. He saw the demon king smiling at him and because it was the face of his father, he unconsciously smiled back.

    The demon king was happy as he turned his head back at the Akuma.

    He was satisfied and had lived a long life so if he was ready to die right now, he wouldn''t be leaving with any regrets.

    Humans could hope to be sent to heaven after their deaths or maybe even reincarnated, but this was a demon. He knew what lay before him after death and it was nothing.

    If he died, he would turn to dust or maybe not even leave behind dust to remember him by.

    He was happy with that.

    As long as he died knowing that his son hated him a little less.

    But he was adamant about one thing.

    If he was going, he''d be taking this Akuma with him.

    If Zhihao could hear what went inside this man''s head, who knows what he might think.

    He''d probably think that this bait was the most stupid and dumbest one he had ever met.

    The demon king''s body suddenly got engulfed in fire as he cracked his knuckles, "Let''s go." He challenged the Akuma who titled his head and looked at this puny demon that thought he was something.

    A heavy punch to the face with a fist covered in fire, that was what the demon king thought would be a good opening scene of his brutal fight with the Akuma.

    He had warmed up enough before this so now he was ready for the real fight to go down.

    Zhihao looked at the demon king who seemed to suddenly let out an even more powerful aura. This demon already had an aura that would make one fall to their knees, but now it had doubled in size and if someone were to be affected by this deadly aura, they would not only fall to their knees but they would also be buried six feet under by its mere pressure.

    Zhihao couldn''t deny the fact that he was a bit afraid of facing this demon king right now. Thank god he had to role-play this demon''s favored son. If he were to role-play the Akuma, he was afraid he wouldn''t even be able to raise his fist because of fear.

    The fist connected and Akuma''s face was dented in. If this were a real life fight, Zhihao was sure that the person would not be alive after that punch, but when the fist retreated, leaving a hole on the face, it regenerated.

    The face regenerated back to its original appearance. It wasn''t identical, but it was close enough.

    Zhihao suddenly realized that Akuma''s regenerative abilities had improved due to the rising temperature.

 Chapter 86 - Mastermo Is Missing Something

    This fight just got a lot more hopeless.

    The first question Zhihao asked when he saw this was ''why?''

    Why were the regenerative abilities of this Akuma increasing?

    He thought about it for a while and at this moment the demon king was ready to once again punch The Akuma''s face.

    However, this time Akuma opened his mouth and the fist that was supposed to dig into his face was now inside his mouth. Literally.

    Zhihao looked at the scene without much thought, almost finding it funny.

    The demon king had his fist in the mouth of the Akuma, and no matter how much he tried to pull back, he couldn''t get it out.

    The Akuma looked at the panicked expression on the demon king''s face and gulped.

    He gulped down the fire that was covered around the demon king''s fist.

    Zhihao''s eyes went wide as he suddenly realized something.

    How could he have missed this?

    Akuma''s regenerative abilities increased, but it wasn''t because of the heat in the land. The two things were completely unrelated to each other or maybe they were related, but not in the same way as Zhihao had first thought. The heat wasn''t affecting the regenerative abilities of this demon to increase, if anything, it was the complete opposite.

    This demon god was eating energy.

    The attacks that it received from Zhihao were all consumed by Akuma. So by attacking Akuma again and again, they were actually feeding him and making him grow stronger.

    Zhihao had wondered why Taki had such weak stamina, but now he realized that it wasn''t due to the demon''s weak stamina, it was because, with every attack, Akuma was taking away his powers.

    Zhihao wanted to warn the demon king, but before the "careful" could leave his mouth, the demon king had already reacted.

    Maybe the demon king had been faster than Zhihao at noticing this thing and so he cut off his own hand that was in Akuma''s mouth.

    Zhihao looked away as he saw the man chopping off his own hand. Zhihao wouldn''t naturally feel this way towards an NPC, but this demon king had the face of his father so seeing your father cutting off his hand was really something he wasn''t looking forward to seeing.

    The demon king was bleeding from the open wound on his arm, but it was soon covered in fire, stopping the bleeding.

    Akuma didn''t look to be fazed by this sight as he didn''t let go of the chopped arm in his mouth and instead, it took another deeper bite on the piece of meat in his mouth.

    Zhihao felt like he would puke at any moment now.

    Just what was the Gamemaster thinking when he created these cruel creatures.

    Akuma chewed on the arm and gulped it down his throat as if it were really just a piece of tasty barbequed meat.

    Zhihao didn''t like this sight and his dislike was clearly displayed on his face. His dislike was directly connected to the fact that this demon king looked like his father and his subconscious had already fixed the eaten arm as his father''s. He was angry and wanted to cut down this Akuma, but he didn''t dare act carelessly.

    If he were to act hastily and attack Akuma, he would be doing more good for the opponent than damage.

    He had to think of a way out. He had to find a loophole. Something he had missed. If he were to do that, he would most certainly be able to win this level, but so far, he had nothing.

    He was depending on strength till now, but now that the strength was rendered useless, he didn''t know what he was going to do.

    Think.

    Think.

    Think.

    He chanted the words as if by doing so he would be able to find a way out.

    Akuma had lost an arm, but so had the demon king and now the two handicapped demons were having a glaring competition.

    The demon king had his hand eaten in front of him. This was... Ridiculous and made his blood boil. There was no way he was going to let this demon god get away with it.

    "Wait." Zhihao looked up with hope-filled eyes. His amazing brain had once again worked its magic.

    He had an idea!

    "That''s right." Zhihao smacked his head with his right hand. He felt like he was dumb.

    He was looking at it the wrong way.

    There was something he had missed.

    Something major that he should not have missed.

    His original strategy to beat this Akuma didn''t have to be wrong. He was just taking the wrong approach to accomplish it, but the plan wasn''t wrong.

    Zhihao looked at Akuma and he couldn''t help but smirk as he saw the face of the blood-thirsty demon.

    At this moment, the demon king decided to attack again and this time the Akuma was even more impatient.

    The demon king was going to get killed if this went on and so when he got ready to attack for the third time, Zhihao stopped him.

    "Let me handle him," Zhihao spoke confidently.

    The demon king looked at his son and although he was proud of this behavior, he was still reluctant to let his son fight this. He felt like he had a better chance at winning than his son did.

    "This is my fight," The demon king replied as he smiled, but it was hardly noticeable on his face, almost making it seem like mockery.

    Zhihao looked at this father of his and shook his head. He didn''t need a bait anymore, so why was this bait still willing to buy time for him? It was almost ridiculous.

    "This is my responsibility, father. Not yours."

    The demon king frowned as he heard this, "It wasn''t you who did this so why is it your responsibility?"

    Zhihao smiled as he heard this question. Thankfully, he already had a perfect answer for this, "He''s my ex."

    The demon king was silent as he heard this.

    Zhihao waited for a minute, but he got no reply from the other side so he concluded that he had won this verbal competition.

    There was really nothing this demon king could say since it really was his son''s ex who caused all this ruckus so who was he, as a father, to stand in between the two and take responsibility?

    "So stand back," Zhihao ordered as he glanced at his father. His heart was beating heavily, this was the first time he had ordered something to that face.

    If this was the real world, he would never be able to say something like that to his father so he took this chance to order his father around. He didn''t know why, but it was oddly satisfying.

    The demon king sighed, took a step back and Zhihao thought the man had given up, but how was he to guess that in the next moment, the demon king decided to run towards Akuma.

    Zhihao realized what the man wanted to do, but he felt like the man was stupid. There was no way that was going to work.

    The demon king had realized that Akuma had a weakness at this moment and it was right behind him. Literally behind him, there was a fire pit. This was the inferno of hell and if the demon king could get Akuma to fall into it, this fight would end right then and there.

    The demon king wasn''t too bright and had underestimated Akuma who moved away at the last minute possible, making the demon king head straight for the fire pit.

    It was over, he thought, and closed his eyes, cringing at his own stupidity.

    But before he could fall into the fire pit a hand pulled him back by the collar.

    The demon king opened his eyes and sighed in relief as he looked back at the face of the person who had saved him, he expected it to be his son, but when he came face to face with the twisted face of Akuma, he was speechless.

    Shit...

    He had almost survived death only to be met with it once again.

    Akuma smiled as he tore the demon king''s head away from his body.

    Just one pull and it was divided like a chopstick with a crisp sound.

    Zhihao cringed at the sight and felt like his dinner had come up to his throat.

    Akuma chomped at the body and threw the head away into the fire pit.

    The ghosts who saw this panicked even more and none of them wanted to stay here any longer. They were already running around as if a dog was on their tails and now they were running into the forest like flies.

    This demon king was their hope and that hope was literally torn in two hence, their panic was self-explanatory.

    Zhihao closed his eyes, sighed, and shook his head.

    This was why he told the man that he would be able to handle it.

    Zhihao remembered something Alvi had said or more like something the demon king had told him.

    No matter how much you physically hurt Akuma, the pain would be felt by Kazan, not this demon god. Zhihao didn''t think about it too much and accepted it just as it was, but now that he looked back to it he wondered why he did something so stupid.

    It should have been the first question he asked.

    Why would Kazan feel the pain?

    It was simple.

    Because although the vessel was accommodating the soul of Akuma, it still harbored the soul of its original owner.

    Kazan was in there.

    That wasn''t the only thing Zhihao had realized.

    His initial plan was to keep attacking Akuma till it could no longer regenerate. That plan wasn''t wrong, but the way he decided to execute it, was.

    If he used his powers, this Akuma would absorb it so what was a simple way around it?

    Minus the power.

    The answer was that simple, but it wouldn''t work with just anyone. It had to be Zhihao since he was the one who was role-playing Taki so basically it had to be Taki who was fighting this demon god.

    The reason for that wasn''t because Taki was powerful against the demon king, it was because the demon god was inside the body of Kazan who was powerless against Taki both physically and mentally.

    Zhihao had realized it too late.

    So far, this Akuma kept on attacking his father back, but not once had it tried to seriously attack Taki.

    Zhihao kept cutting off Akuma''s hand, yet nothing happened. Akuma didn''t retaliate.

    It wasn''t because the demon god liked Zhihao, it was because Kazan liked Taki.

    This vessel would not hurt Taki and this was a subconscious reaction.

    Zhihao stepped up to stand behind Akuma who was happily enjoying his meal. He tapped on the demon god''s shoulder and Akuma turned around to see the person who dared to interrupt him. He still had a piece of meat in his mouth on which he was munching on when he received a punch on his face from Zhihao.

    Akuma fell back from the impact and looked up at Zhihao as he growled.

    Zhihao smiled as he looked down at Akuma, "I was so stupid." He kicked the demon god''s face.

    The answer was so simple that he felt like it had been useless for him to wait so long or worry so much about it. It was like one of those riddles with the answer in the question, but nobody would be able to guess it unless you had a brain that was accustomed to solving such riddles.

    Zhihao tilted his head and took a step back as he gave the demon god space to stand up.

    He was looking for a fight that he knew he would be winning.

 Chapter 87 - Mastermo Has To Do One Last Thing

    Akuma was powerful, but no matter how powerful he was, what was the use of the physical power if his body won''t attack this man in front?

    Zhihao was about to win a fight that could not even be labeled as one. At most, it should be labeled as Zhihao bullying the demon god.

    Zhihao wanted to laugh as he thought this.

    Akuma stood up and walked towards Zhihao only to be met with another punch on his face.

    This punch almost threw him off his feet while Zhihao was completely unaffected.

    What was Zhihao feeling when he punched the man for the third time?

    Nothing.

    He felt like this Akuma deserved it. The demon god had just ripped apart his father''s head so how could he feel anything for this Akuma?

    When Akuma turned his head, he was punched once again, and this time it was followed with a knee kick to the stomach.

    Zhihao wasn''t a bad fighter and on the contrary, he was a great fighter.

    There would always be people who''d say that gamers were only good at fighting inside games, but to them all, Zhihao would beg to differ. He was good at fighting in-game and outside it.

    Akuma hunched over and at that moment another knee kick connected with his face, springing it back up like a football.

    Zhihao smiled at him coldly as he kicked him square in the stomach and this time, Zhihao wasn''t planning on playing around.

    At this exact moment, Li Ling and Alvi arrived back on the scene with Hasumi along with them.

    Hasumi had her head bowed down as she tried her best to not glance up at the faces of the hideous ghosts or demons.

    She was unaware of the fact that Taki was the only demon left behind, if we were to not count the demon god, if we counted him too, it would make two. The rest of the demons had already died not even leaving behind dust and among those demons, maybe the worst death was claimed by the demon king.

    This time, the kick made Akuma take a step back, and right behind him was the fire pit in which he fell over backward.

    Zhihao looked at the body helplessly falling in the fire pit and the smile on his face was no longer there. He didn''t enjoy killing NPCs, but this didn''t mean he had feelings for them.

    If he didn''t need to kill an NPC, he would try to save the NPC instead of killing it. If he were in need to kill an NPC, he would do it without remorse.

    Li Ling felt like he had reached here a little late.

    The fight was already over in front of his eyes and he couldn''t help but be a bit disappointed yet a bit happy as well. He glanced at Zhihao who turned towards him and started walking with an unreadable expression.

    Li Ling felt like the man had already noticed the two people who had gone missing, and now he was in trouble like a child whose mother had lost him in a market because the child ran away after a butterfly.

    Zhihao glanced at Alvi.

    Great.

    Perfect alibi.

    He was going to make this innocent bot a butterfly.

    He knew he was going to raise suspicion and get scolded for running away without saying anything to Zhihao, but at that time, he felt like what he was doing would make Zhihao happy and forget about the running away part.

    He knew that this level would not be easy to solve without Hasumi.

    He never would''ve guessed that Zhihao would be able to beat Akuma.

    It was shocking, but it was a pleasant kind of a shock where he was proud that the man had achieved such a feat.

    Zhihao should have felt really happy after having beaten Akuma, but at this moment, all he could feel was anger as he saw Li Ling.

    He walked towards him with heavy footsteps and a face so stern that it seemed like he was coming over to punch the man.

    Li Ling decided to be faster than Zhihao''s fist as he opened his mouth to blame Alvi, "It was her fault!"

    Alvi glanced at him in shock.

    "I told her it was a bad idea, but she was too interested in Hasumi." Li Ling lied through a face that seemed to tell the truth, he was a great liar, "I think the bot likes-"

    Li Ling stopped speaking as he realized what was happening, "Eh?"

    The expected punch never came, but in its place came a hug.

    Li Ling was taken back. Was this the new way people would express their anger through? Hugging?

    Why was he unaware of this method to relieve anger?

    He wanted to try it. If he were too angry at Zhihao, he would use this method to show his anger.

    He would be getting a free hug out of it.

    Maybe he should make Zhihao angry from time to time.

    Zhihao hugged the man tightly, not daring to let go. He had been worried sick. If it weren''t for him worrying about the safety of this man, he would''ve defeated Akuma sooner, but it wasn''t like he was blaming Li Ling for his own stupidity.

    Li Ling had his eyes wide open and his hands paused in midair as he could not comprehend what he did to receive such a treat.

    Hasumi who was watching the two had a slightly flushed face as she saw this. She finally understood why she always felt like there was something wrong with these two.

    So it was like this?

    She should''ve realized it as soon as she saw them on the train.

    Zhihao was glad that Li Ling was safe. He was happy that this player hadn''t just abandoned him and ran away.

    Zhihao was always like this. Unless he hated the person, he would never show his anger through physical fights or scolding. He felt like it was a waste to let a small feeling overdrive you and make you regret the decisions you made when driven by anger.

    If he could hug it out and solve a problem, why would he want to use his fist or his sharp tongue?

    As somebody once said, words cut deeper than swords so why would he hurt someone he liked just because he was angry at them?

    "You made me worry," Zhihao mumbled, but because of his close proximity, Li Ling could clearly hear it and just as he did, his ears turned bright red.

    Li Ling had woken up from the shock and his hands, which were paused in midair came down to rest on Zhihao''s back.

    "Ah... I''m sorry." Li Ling apologized and the two did not say anything any further. Just hugging it out like little kids who were not allowed to fight.

    [Congratulations on completing the secret mission! +50 T-points]

    They heard the notification and stopped hugging each other.

    Now that Li Ling looked back at it, he really should''ve trusted Mastermo more.

    He should have believed in this man''s capabilities instead of trying to spoon-feed him.

    He really did something useless by going out of his way to save Hasumi.

    He thought Zhihao would not be able to beat the demon god so he decided to complete the second secret mission instead.

    Yes, there was a secret mission much simpler than this one, and it would have been triggered much sooner if Zhihao had chosen to follow the suspicious Kazan instead of following the ghost procession with Doji.

    If he had done that, he wouldn''t have to waste so much time, but now, it was all said and done. Mastermo would never come to realize how easy it was to win if he had just made a different decision.

    The secret second mission was to get Hasumi back home.

    It was kinda ironic considering the fact that their main mission was to get her to come here and participate in the festival while their secret mission was to get her back home.

    Li Ling could very well have run straight to the tunnel after having found Hasumi, but that would not have worked since Taki was the one who could travel freely through the two worlds. This was the reason why he had returned here with Hasumi, he was planning to run away with Zhihao, but that plan had failed now.

    Zhihao was able to complete the first secret mission so it was enough for them to get out of here.

    [Would you like to transmigrate or would you like to stay and complete the second secret mission?]

    "Huh?" Zhihao was confused as he heard this, "The what?"

    [The second secret mission: Send Hasumi back home.]

    Zhihao looked at the girl whose existence he hadn''t realized till now.

    He thought this girl was already dead. She was alive?

    Li Ling suddenly felt like he should speak up before Zhihao starts asking questions, "I got the second secret mission from Alvi so I went to look for Hasumi."

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this.

    "You went to search for her?" Zhihao didn''t like the fact that he had been dead worried here for this man who had run off to find this stupid girl.

    Thank god he didn''t know that Hasumi had made a decision to run away and leave them behind knowing full well that they would die, if he knew that, he wouldn''t have agreed to send her back home. He wasn''t as forgiving as Li Ling so the moment he found that out, he would''ve killed this girl.

    Li Ling looked back at Zhihao and smiled, "Let''s just get her home. It won''t be too difficult and we would get a lot of extra T-points."

    At this moment, Hasumi decided to intervene in their weird conversation, "W-what are you guys talking about? What mission? T-points?"

    Oh...

    Damn...

    They had gotten too carried away and forgot that they were still in front of an NPC.

    They waited for the OOC alert to sound out, but nothing happened.

    It was because Hasumi wasn''t clear about certain things, there was still a chance they would be able to stop her from realizing that they were not the real deals.

    Li Ling was the first to respond to her, "We were playing a game."

    Zhihao looked at the man in shock.

    [Are you insane?]

    "T-points are the currency of trading in this world. Since you are new here, you don''t know."

    Hasumi was silent for a minute as her brain processed all this, and then she nodded in understanding, "The currency? That makes sense. What were you guys playing?"

    Li Ling didn''t take long to answer this question, "We were playing a betting game on who will be able to beat the big monster, and who would be able to get you home faster."

    Hasumi looked at the face of the two players who looked back at her innocently as if they had spoken the truth and there was no way they were lying.

    [You...]

    [I don''t know if I should be impressed or if I should be scared of you.]

    Hasumi nodded and the two players came to the joined conclusion that they were going to send this girl back home.

    The way back took just as much time as it took for them to come here, but once they had reached the tunnel, Zhihao looked back for one last time.

    He felt like he had missed something.

    He wanted to unravel all the secrets of this level, but he felt like he had only managed to scrape off the tip of the iceberg.

    When they passed through the tunnel, they were back at the station, but this time, it wasn''t an unnamed station.

    Hasumi saw a man standing in front and she ran over to him, asking him where they were.

    The man replied "Hina"

 Chapter 88 - Mastermo Is Surprised To See His Crush

    Hasumi was shocked as she heard the man, "Hina?" She uttered in disbelief.

    Zhihao saw the exchange between the two and couldn''t help but feel like there was something he didn''t know about. Why was it shocking that they were here?

    Li Ling saw through Zhihao''s confusion and moved closer to the man, he leaned in and whispered, "The train was from Shin-Hamamatsu. Hina is near the base of Mount Fuji."

    "What does that mean?"

    "But it can''t be Hina." Hasumi was sure that there was something wrong with the location so she came back to Zhihao''s side and spoke to them.

    Zhihao looked at the girl and asked, "Why can''t you believe it?"

    Hasumi looked at the man and was ready to argue why it was impossible, but when she saw his face, she gulped down her words and sighed. With everything that had happened today, it really should not have come as a surprise that they were in Hina, which was in a completely different direction than the train from Shin-Hamamatsu which she had originally taken.

    "Thank you guys," She bowed her head slightly and showed her gratitude for their help.

    She had not even blinked to sacrifice these people for her own safety yet they had still saved her and brought her back here.

    She was really happy to have met such nice people. At one point in time, she had thought that she was as good as dead, that she would not be able to see her parents again, that she would not be able to meet her colleagues and have a drink every other Saturday, complaining about how work was really hard. She really thought that she would never be able to come back home so she lost her appetite to eat the apple and threw it away as she laid down on the hard, uncomfortable bed, falling asleep and dreaming about the time when she used to do all those things. At that moment, all of a sudden, she felt like her daily boring life was much better than the excessive adventure she was experiencing.

    "No need to mention it." Li Ling beamed, "it would have been a pity if such a pretty girl ended up living as a ghost in the demon realm."

    Zhihao side-eyed the man and his facial expressions were indecipherable, however, to those who looked closely, they would be able to see that this man was chugging down vinegar.

    Hasumi smiled as she heard this and glanced at Zhihao but only for a second, "Don''t lie to me. I look like a monster right now."

    "What type of monster looks so pretty?" Li Ling asked with an innocent smile.

    Zhihao unconsciously took a sidestep closer to Li Ling and glared at Hasumi which didn''t go unnoticed by the girl.

    Hasumi gulped as she saw Zhihao glaring at her, she felt like she had to react immediately or she would be hated for no reason, "Monsters are monsters. How are they pretty?"

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling waiting for the man to respond, but before he could do so, Alvi spoke up.

    "Do you think he is handsome?" Alvi asked as she pointed at Zhihao.

    "Him?" Hasumi glanced at Zhihao and analyzed his face for a while, she smiled, her eyes turning into two tiny crescents, "He is the most handsome man I''ve met."

    Li Ling, whose face was all full of smiles suddenly fell and it was now his turn to drink vinegar.

    Hasumi felt like she was in an awkward spot. No matter what she did, she would be hated by one or the other.

    "He''s a monster," Alvi spoke and this made Hasumi''s eyes go wide.

    "W-what?!"

    Zhihao felt a bit offended as he heard this. He was currently role-playing Taki who was a demon. You could call demons, monsters, but he felt like it was an offensive title.

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this. He looked at Mastermo and his heart felt a little warm, "See, this is the living proof that monsters are not ugly."

    Zhihao looked back at Li Ling and felt his anger subside.

    "He really is the most handsome man alive." Li Ling chuckled, but he was being honest.

    In his heart, he always felt like Mastermo was not only talented but also exceptionally handsome. It was a shame that he didn''t show his face in public much cause if he did, he would''ve secured his position at the top ten for the next twenty years.

    [Taki is assigned to remove her memory of today.]

    [Erase her memory and your mission here is completed.]

    Zhihao unconsciously nodded as he heard this. He flipped through the list of powers belonging to Taki and he saw a spell that would help him complete this task. The power was literally titled "Memory erasing spell". How could he have difficulty in finding something so obvious?

    Zhihao shook his head as he cursed the person who had named all these items. They really should have put in more effort rather than just name a thing according to its feature.

    Zhihao activated the spell and Hasumi who still had her eyes wide open in shock suddenly fainted as her eyeballs rolled upwards.

    [Congratulations to Mastermo and Devilmagiclover on successfully clearing the I-ranked level 1356: Unknown location]

    "Well... That was fun." Zhihao commented as he saw the girl falling on the ground with no one to catch her.

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao and smiled, "Did Mr. Handsome have a fun time?"

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard the way he was being addressed, "I sure did."

    "I''m glad." Li Ling responded instinctively and he instantly regretted letting those instincts take control.

    "Why are you glad?" Zhihao hadn''t completely realized what was wrong, but he still felt like the comment was unexpected so he asked.

    [Two secret level missions cleared]

    "It''s nothing," Li Ling tried his best to brush it off, it seemed that as days went by, he was getting more and more clumsy, "I''m just glad that you had fun playing with me."

    Zhihao didn''t think any deeper into it and just nodded as a response.

    [T-points gained: +950]

    [Player health status refilled]

    Li Ling suddenly felt his mischievous bones tingling, "But there is one thing we need to talk about."

    Zhihao looked at him, "What?"

    Li Ling smirked, "I never remember giving you permission to kiss me."

    Zhihao went silent as he heard this, his mind taking time to process what the man had said and just as it did, his ears flushed red.

    [Skills gained: +Frost master]

    [Rewards gained: +Demon detecting talisman]

    [Surprise Gift: +200 T-points]

    [Congratulations! You just won your bet! +2000 T-points]

    [Logging out of I-ranked level 1356: Unknown location]

    [Preparing for transmigration in..]

    [3]

    [2]

    [1]

    The screen turned black for a second and then it turned bright white, this made Zhihao close his eyes as he felt the blinding light.

    [Welcome to H-ranked level 453: Don''t look back]

    "Huh?" Zhihao could not comprehend it.

    Didn''t they just complete a level?

    They should have been taken back to the main lobby.

    Why were they here?

    And where exactly was ''here''?

    [Congrats!]

    "What are you talking about?" Zhihao asked as he heard the enthusiastic voice of Alvi, "Is this a bug or something?"

    [There is nothing wrong with the system.]

    "Then why are we here?"

    [Because you asked to be here.]

    "What?" Zhihao tried to move around, but found that his hands were bound from both sides. He was strapped to the chair he was sitting on, "What the hell?!"

    [Don''t panic.]

    [Didn''t you tell me that you wanted to play with Bu Hui?]

    Zhihao went silent as he heard this, he was too scared to even turn his head now.

    A series of what the hell''s ran through his head.

    What was this crazy bot talking about?

    [You have been transported to the same level as Bu Hui]

    [I didn''t have enough time to tell you]

    Wait.

    What?

    "Where is Li Ling?" Zhihao asked on instinct.

    "I''m here." He heard a familiar voice and immediately looked over towards his left side where he saw a familiar-looking face staring back at him, "Damn it," Li Ling tried to break free from the straps but it was hopeless.

    There was no way he didn''t recall this level.

    It was one of the levels he hated the most.

    When Zhihao saw that Li Ling was beside him, relief washed over him, but before he could even let out a sigh, his breath got stuck in his throat as he suddenly thought about something.

    If Li Ling was on his left side in the same situation as him, then on his right side was...

    Zhihao instantly snapped his head and looked over towards his right side.

    Another familiar face.

    His heart stopped as he diverted his eyes and looked in front. His body froze up, he could feel his muscles tighten up.

    Oh shit...

    He wasn''t prepared for this.

    [I have good news.]

    "What?" Zhihao asked with a blank expression.

    [You don''t have a character in this level]

    [There is no OOC here]

    If the Gamemaster wasn''t here, Zhihao would''ve jumped up and celebrated this news, but right now, his mind couldn''t be bothered with anything like that.

    Be calm.

    Be calm.

    Be. Freaking. Calm.

    He took a deep breath in and tried to take back control over his racing heartbeat.

    [This is your first H-ranked level]

    [All the best]

    As if the pre-existent shock wasn''t enough, Alvi just had to speak up and remind him that he was dealing with an H-rank mission here.

    Zhihao gulped as he thought up of a question he should ask to seem normal, "Why didn''t we get the betting time?"

    [It''s because of the Gamemaster]

    [All levels which are being played by him can''t be used to place bets]

    Zhihao found this pretty reasonable. If players were able to place bets on the Gamemaster, it would no longer be a fair betting system. Everyone would just place a positive bet and they would get their T-points doubled. Who in the hell would dare place a negative bet on the Gamemaster and purposely throw away their T-points?

    What followed was silence and in this awkward silence, Zhihao peeked at the Gamemaster who was looking back at him and their eyes met, Zhihao''s normal reaction would have been to look away, but when his eyes met the eyes of the Gamemaster, he was so stunned that he didn''t even bother looking away.

    "Nice to see you again." It was the Gamemaster who spoke up first with a smile that was hardly noticeable yet it didn''t go completely hidden.

    Zhihao was dumbfounded as he heard the man volunteering to interact with him. It took all the courage and awareness he had, just to react back to the words, "Y-yeah! It''s really nice to see you again."

    Zhihao suddenly felt like there was something wrong with this Gamemaster. Was he always this friendly?

    The last time they had met, this man would hardly speak more than ten words per hour. From that time onwards, Zhihao had created a perception of the man, that this man wasn''t very good with words and was probably a Tsundere. Cold with short words on the outside, but super warm and soft on the inside.

    The Gamemaster looked back in front and spoke, "I saw your Gameplay."

    "Eh?" Mastermo was shocked. He had not even dreamt of the Gamemaster knowing him much less watching his live stream.

    "You were good." The Gamemaster commented and Zhihao felt a warm emotion spread throughout his heart.

    He was uncontrollably happy, nervous, and embarrassed at the same time.

    The Gamemaster turned and looked at him again, but this time he didn''t have a smile on his face, "But there is one thing I would like to say."

    Mastermo straightened his back and listened attentively to whatever the man had to say.

 Chapter 89 - Mastermo And His Unfazed Crush

    The way the Gamemaster looked at him made him feel like he was about to get criticized and scolded.

    Zhihao got his mental state ready accordingly, to take in everything that this man was going to say to him no matter what it was.

    He wasn''t wrong in thinking that he was going to get criticized.

    The Gamemaster''s electronically modified voice finally came, "You said you want to beat me."

    Zhihao looked at the man, trying his best to hide his embarrassment. He regretted saying such a thing and at the same time, he didn''t. In the end, Zhihao nodded his head and admitted to the accusation.

    The Gamemaster smiled as he saw this, "With how you are playing, you can''t beat me."

    It was like thunder that had unexpectedly struck Zhihao.. Never in his life had anyone criticized him on his gaming skills. He was the top pro-gamer for a reason. He thought he was ready to hear anything this man was going to say, but at this moment, he realized he was wrong. His heart stopped as he heard this and he felt a bit depressed.

    However, the Gamemaster wasn''t done with his words and so he continued, "But I''m sure you''ll get it and when you do... I''ll look forward to being beaten by you."

    Zhihao was once again shocked as he heard this. What was this bittersweet feeling he had? He was both depressed and happy at the same time. With such fluctuating emotions, he felt like he had suddenly turned into a teenage girl.

    He didn''t know how to respond to it and he dare not act on instincts since his instincts told him to hug the man and blabber all about how perfect this game he created was.

    The Gamemaster also didn''t seem to be looking for a response as he turned his head back front.

    "Um... I''ll work hard and I won''t let you down," Zhihao spoke as he also turned to stare at the white screen in front, too overwhelmed to look at the Gamemaster any longer.

    He heard the Gamemaster chuckle, "Sorry I couldn''t talk to you much in the last game."

    "Huh?"

    "I was feeling a bit sick that day, but I''m fine now so show me, okay?"

    "S-show you?"

    "Show me why you are the top player, Mr. Mastermo." The man smiled without turning his head over to look at Zhihao whereas this time, Zhihao couldn''t take his eyes off of the man.

    "How funny." Zhihao muttered out loud unconsciously, "Li Ling was also feeling sick at that time."

    Silence followed.

    It took a whole minute for the Gamemaster to respond, "Who''s that?"

    "Oh, that''s my friend and partner," Zhihao answered enthusiastically as he pointed at the person who sat on his left side.

    The Gamemaster glanced over and spoke, "What a coincidence."

    Zhihao looked over at Li Ling and repeated the same thing, "It really is a surprising coincidence."

    Li Ling didn''t respond, but Zhihao was too excited to notice the lack of response. He immediately turned back to the Gamemaster. Now that the two had eased into the friendly atmosphere, Zhihao was no longer feeling awkward to talk, but this didn''t mean he wasn''t trying his best to hide away his excitement.

    "I''ll show you." Zhihao answered confidently, "I''ll show you why I''m qualified to beat you."

    The Gamemaster nodded as he heard this.

    [Don''t get over your head]

    [You can never beat him]

    Zhihao looked around, but he could no longer see the little ten-year-old girl.

    "Where did Alvi go?" He asked in confusion.

    [I''m not there]

    [I don''t have permission to have a character in this level]

    "Huh?"

    Gamemaster, "There are no set characters in this level so she doesn''t have anyone to take over."

    "What does that mean?" Zhihao felt a bit stupid as he asked, but he was a pretty curious person who wanted to know every little thing. He was like the hand raiser of the class who would ask the teacher to explain the meaning of zero when she was teaching algebra.

    The Gamemaster didn''t seem to mind that this guy was asking him an obvious question and on the contrary, he looked to be really happy to tell him the answer, "We were transported into an empty level with no other humans. You are you and I am me so we can play here in this physical form, but Alvi doesn''t have a physical form, to begin with so she can''t have a body."

    Zhihao finally understood the gist of it.

    "Will we have to wait for ten minutes to get our mission?" Zhihao asked.

    [Actually]

    Alvi didn''t complete what she wanted to say and the empty screen in front of them suddenly had something written on it.

    The light was so near that it was hurting his eyes, but he could read the words clearly.

    <Don''t look back>

    [That''s your mission]

    [As long as you don''t turn around, you''ll complete the mission.]

    Zhihao was a bit dumbfounded as he heard this.

    Wasn''t this an H-ranked level?

    Were Hard levels supposed to be this easy?

    It was basically just telling them to sit tight and don''t look around.

    How hard could that be?

    Had the game bugged out and gave them an E-ranked level in place of an H-ranked one?

    Zhihao turned his head towards the Gamemaster and waited for answers.

    The Gamemaster didn''t turn to face Zhihao as he spoke, "This level is a bit tricky."

    "Eh? How is it tricky?" Zhihao asked immediately.

    To him, it seemed like a piece of cake.

    "You can''t turn around no matter what happens." This time, the Gamemaster turned to look at Zhihao and smiled as he warned.

    Zhihao saw the man smiling at him and felt like he had missed something.

    He started doubting himself.

    Was this level really as easy as it sounded?

    Zhihao looked at the white screen and wondered: What if this white screen would start playing horror movies to make them look back?

    It was a possibility, one with high chances of coming true.

    Zhihao wasn''t that scared of horror movies and on the contrary, he felt like no horror movie was successful in truly delivering the element of horror.

    They would all just put in some jump scares with a loud SFX, making people jump from their seats. He felt like it was a bit laughable to see the faces of the ghosts in a horror movie. They were more of a comedy movie rather than a horror movie.

    The real horror movies were the psychological thrillers where you won''t ever be able to guess who was the real killer is till the end.

    However, Zhihao was wrong.

    There was no display of horror movies on the screen and the text displayed on it didn''t change.

    It only displayed one single sentence throughout the entire duration of the game: Don''t look back.

    Zhihao went quiet as he waited in anticipation.

    "Aaaaaaaaaaa!"

    He jolted up as he suddenly heard someone screaming from behind him. He would be lying if he said that he didn''t almost turn back to look at the owner of the scream, but he only managed to turn sideways till he realized that this was a game where he was prohibited from looking back.

    So this was it.

    This was why this level was hard.

    They weren''t going to turn around because of some stupid ghosts on the screen in front of them, they would be tempted to look back because of the sounds that they heard from behind.

    Zhihao felt his heart beat loudly from the shock of suddenly hearing the ear-piercing sound.

    Although he found horror movies laughable, he still didn''t like the jump scares. The loud SFX would always make him jolt and his heart would almost stop beating.

    He failed at controlling his heavy breathing as he looked over to the Gamemaster to see his expressions but just as he had expected, the man didn''t look to be shocked.

    It would have been more shocking if he really was shocked since he was the Gamemaster who created all this so he should already know what was coming.

    Unbeknownst to Zhihao, this wasn''t the reason why the man had a straight expression.

    Zhihao snapped his head to the other side and saw Li Ling who had his eyes closed and was lightly shivering.

    "Did that scare you?" Zhihao asked softly.

    Li Ling looked over at Zhihao and nodded, "I''m not good with jump scares."

    Zhihao smiled as he saw this, he suddenly felt a bit happy to see that he wasn''t alone, "Don''t worry, I''m also not very fond of jump scares."

    Li Ling looked at the man smiling at him and he tried to muster up his own smile, however, before he could do so, he heard something else and he immediately closed his eyes again.

    This time it was the sound of a bus coming towards them from behind.

    Zhihao looked at the screen as he heard the sound of the bus coming closer and closer, he heard the loud horns ringing out as if it were an indication for them to get out of the road.

    His heart which was already beating loudly didn''t get a chance to calm down as he heard this scary sound.

    When the truck got close enough, they heard screeches and Zhihao was almost left to believe that this wasn''t a game but it really was the real world and he was going to die in this truck accident.

    His hands clenched up in a fist and he tried his best to get out of the straps but he failed to do so and the sound of the screeching stopped.

    Zhihao breathed out a sigh as he felt relieved that he was still alive.

    [You are doing good so far.]

    Zhihao looked over at the Gamemaster and the sight was the same. This man wasn''t fazed at all.

    Impressive! Really impressive!

    Zhihao looked over at Li Ling and found him in the same condition as well but this time, the man was shivering more with his eyes closed and his lips mumbling something incoherent.

    Zhihao felt his heart soften as he saw this, "Are you okay?"

    Li Ling looked back and nodded, "I''m good."

    Zhihao wanted to say something more but before he could, they were once again hit with a sound coming from behind them.

    This time it was a heavy breathing sound and when Zhihao heard it, he felt like someone was breathing down his neck.

    He felt goosebumps rise all over his body and immediately closed his eyes.

    Zhihao closed his eyes and held his breath in but the heavy breathing sound didn''t go away and instead, it moved from one ear to the other as if the person was moving around like a snake.

    He started counting sheeps in his mind. He had no idea why he did that but it somehow helped him distract his mind.

    He counted till twenty sheep and the heavy breathing sound went away.

    Zhihao sighed in relief and this time he didn''t look over at the Gamemaster, he looked over at Li Ling to make sure that the man was okay, and just as he expected, he found the man once again closing his eyes and trying his best to struggle out of the constraints. It was hopeless. Zhihao had already realized that there was no way they could get out of these constraints.

    "Just hang on for a bit more." Zhihao tried to reassure the man, "It will be over in a little while."

    Li Ling opened his right eyes and peeked at Zhihao, "In a little while?"

    Suddenly Li Ling felt like Zhihao looked a bit too optimistic.

    There was no way this was going to get over in a little while.

 Chapter 90 - Mastermo Wants To Get This Over And Done With

    There was a reason this was a Hard-ranked level, but although Li Ling knew this, he would naturally not speak out.

    "Just don''t look around," Zhihao continued, "If you really feel like looking around, look at my face, okay?"

    Li Ling closed his eyes again and turned his face away.

    "Eh?"

    Why did he turn away?

    Did Zhihao say something wrong?

    Li Ling didn''t respond to the question because he felt a bit wronged.

    This man was always flirting with him without being aware of it.

    Why did he always make him suffer like this?! He was so flustered that he didn''t know how to respond. Wouldn''t he come off as too enthusiastic if he answered with a ''yes''? And there was no way he could lie and say ''no'' so he simply looked away, feeling as if he were wronged.

    Zhihao was worried if he had said something wrong, but before he could ask Li Ling what was wrong, another sound came.

    This time, he could not understand what the sound was, or at least he couldn''t recognize it instantly as he did with the truck and the screaming.

    Zhihao looked at the screen and prepared his heart to take the hit.

    The sound came closer to them, it was the sound of footsteps which stopped right behind Zhihao, the owner of the footsteps seemed to lean down and Zhihao closed his eyes, not wanting to know who it was.

    Zhihao felt shivers run down his spine as he felt the illusion of the person''s breath brushing against his shoulder.

    "A-Zhi is cruel."

    Zhihao''s eyes instantly flew open and he almost turned his head back to look at the person, but he stopped at the right time when he saw Li Ling still sitting beside him.

    This might have been the hardest try not to look back challenge that Zhihao had participated in.

    It was the sound of Li Ling, but since Li Ling was sitting right beside him, Zhihao was sure that the one standing behind him wasn''t the same person.

    But the voice...

    It sounded a bit too realistic.

    Zhihao looked at the real Li Ling and then back at the screen in front.

    He really had underestimated this level, but he still could not understand why this was ranked as a Hard level.

    Sure it was hard to resist the instinct and temptation to look back, but it wasn''t that difficult. It was still something possible. In comparison to the other I-ranked levels Zhihao had played, this level seemed to be a bit easier, and yet it was ranked as a harder level.

    Maybe there was something more to it that Zhihao was yet to experience.

    Now that he thought back to it, the challenge indeed seemed to turn more and more difficult.

    With every next new sound, he was more and more tempted to turn around.

    "A-Zhi doesn''t want to look at me?" Li Ling''s voice asked, but this time Zhihao was not fooled however, this did not mean that he was not tempted.

    He would be lying if he said that he didn''t want to turn around and look at the person with the same voice as Li Ling.

    Zhihao side-glanced at the Gamemaster who still had an unfazed expression.

    One sheep.

    Two sheep.

    Three sheep.

    Four sheep.

    Five sheep.

    Zhihao started counting sheep again and it worked like a charm.

    The sound faded away and he was safe for the next few seconds.

    "Don''t look back no matter what." It was the Gamemaster that spoke this time and Zhihao instantly looked over at the man who had his eyes fixed on the screen in front.

    "...I''ll try my best not to," Zhihao replied and he saw the other breaking out into a small smile. This made Zhihao frown, "Are you laughing at me?"

    "With that ''I''ll try my best'' you''ll never be able to beat this level."

    "Huh?" Zhihao felt like he was given a big hint, but he couldn''t understand what the hint meant.

    The few seconds of safehood was soon over before the confusion could be cleared.

    "Big brother! Where am I? What is this?"

    Zhihao felt another shiver run down his spine as he heard the voice of his little brother.

    This was Huang Zhen. There was no doubt about it. There was no way Zhihao would be unable to recognize the voice of his own brother.

    At this moment, another voice rang in his head, it was the gamemaster''s warning: Don''t look back no matter what.

    A series of alerts rang up in Zhihao''s mind. Was T.I.A.D. collecting private information on them? If not, how could it know what Zhihao''s little brother sounded like?

    This game was certainly infringing on their personal lives and this made Zhihao feel goosebumps rise all over his body. This was scarier than any other sound he heard. He started feeling like he had got into something that was not just a game but something far deeper that might just get him in danger.

    "Big brother, can''t you hear me?" Huang Zhen yelled out but Zhihao didn''t respond to the voice.

    "Big bro, help me." Zhihao heard his brother suddenly start crying, it was shocking and he almost turned around once again.

    His brother wasn''t a crybaby and there weren''t many times when he had seen him cry, now that he thought about it, he couldn''t remember even one time when he had seen his brother cry out. Huang Zhen was a nice boy, Zhihao wouldn''t say if he was lucky or not to have such a brother, but he would, without hesitation say that he loved his brother.

    To hear his sweet baby brother cry, he wanted to instantly turn around and smack the boy''s head. It made Zhihao angry just thinking about his brother wasting his tears over something.

    Zhihao clenched his fist and started counting once again.

    One sheep.

    Two sheep.

    Three sheep.

    Four sheep.

    Five-

    "What the hell are you doing?"

    Zhihao stopped counting.

    This time there were no few seconds of safety and he couldn''t recover from it.

    "Just shut up."

    "You''re telling me to shut up now?"

    "Why do you have to argue about it with me?"

    "And why should I not?! I have the right to question you."

    "Excuse me?!"

    Zhihao recognized the voices but he had no idea what they were talking about. When Zhihao heard this conversation, his emotions couldn''t be summed up in a single word.

    T.I.A.D. was collecting information on that, this much was as clear as a crystal now.

    Zhihao loved this game, but he didn''t enjoy his privacy being invaded like this.

    The voice belonged to his parents who seemed to be fighting with each other, but it really came as a shock to Zhihao since his parents would never fight with each other.

    The old couple loved each other a bit too much to fight about something petty.

    Now this game had started getting under his skin.

    Not only did they dare to take out personal information but they also decided to use it like this?

    "Alvi, What the hell?!" Zhihao yelled out, "This is illegal!"

    [Excuse me?]

    [What do you mean illegal?]

    "You are stealing personal information without permission."

    [I think you aren''t understanding something.]

    [This is completely legal]

    Zhihao felt his anger boil as he heard this. At this moment, he had forgotten that the gamemaster was sitting beside him. If he had any questions, shouldn''t the best man to answer them be the Gamemaster? If he was angry, shouldn''t he show it towards the maker, sitting beside him?

    But no.

    Zhihao was mad at Alvi.

    [Did you not sign a permission letter while installing the game?]

    "What permission letter are you talking about?"

    [You signed the terms and conditions, didn''t you?]

    [It was mentioned there that we will need to collect personal information and you gave us the permission.]

    ''What...?" Zhihao was left speechless.

    Who in the hell reads that thirty pages long nonsense?

    He signed it thinking it wasn''t anything important but he was tricked like this?

    The feeling didn''t leave a good taste in his stomach.

    The Gamemaster decided that it was best to speak up, "Only you can hear them."

    Zhihao looked at the man and felt his anger going down like magic, "Huh?"

    "The sounds you can hear are different from what I hear so don''t worry."

    Zhihao suddenly had a higher understanding of things, but it was still unsettling.

    Zhihao thought about it a bit more and felt like banging his head against a wall.

    So the Gamemaster was trying to say that there was no personal information leak because only Zhihao could hear it? but this also meant that it wasn''t the game that was responsible for the information leak, it was Zhihao.

    He was live streaming!

    Millions of people were watching his parents fight and his brother crying!

    He had to hand it out to the makers. They were as tricky as always.

    The fighting between his parents stopped and in its place came the low sounds of a growl.

    Great!

    Now there was possibly a wolf behind him!

    Zhihao once again tried to struggle out of the seat, but it really was hopeless.

    "Alvi, how long do we have to take this?"

    [Are you tired already?]

    [Just turn around if you are]

    "..."

    [The sound you''ll be hearing will have levels and right now you are still near the beginning level so if I was to calculate how long you''ll be here.]

    [I''ll have to say for a long long time.]

    Zhihao used to think that he would be too happy to control himself when he met the Gamemaster again. He thought he would get flustered over every little thing and wouldn''t be able to play as well as he was capable of.

    Now that he was in the situation which he had imagined, just because of the subtle change in the situation, the mood was completely ruined and Zhihao was no longer happy.

    He was angry. So angry that he wanted to get this level over and done with.

    He felt tricked!

    The growl got closer and closer but unlike always when the sound would come closer to Zhihao, this time it moved towards Li Ling and this made Zhihao''s body go still.

    This was still just a sound, right?

    There wasn''t a real danger, right?

    He peeked over at Li Ling who had his eyes closed and his lips mumbling something incoherent.

    "I''m here." Zhihao didn''t know why he said something but his mouth seemed to react on his own, "Just look at me."

    Li Ling opened his right eye and peeked at the man who was trying to help him.

    "Let''s not think about the sounds." Zhihao tried his best to muster up a smile, "Let''s talk about something ridiculous."

    "Something ridiculous?"

    "Yeah, it would help distract our mind." Zhihao beamed and Li Ling seemed to be interested.

    "You start." Li Ling responded.

    Zhihao looked back in front at the screen and thought about it for a while. He was never a person who knew how to speak useless stuff. That was Wang GuiYing''s line of expertise.

    "Then... Um... Let''s continue the conversation from before."

    "Which conversation?"

    Zhihao unconsciously looked down as he answered, "The giving permission to kiss one."

    Li Ling was silent for a minute and then he broke out laughing.

    This man would one day be the death of him.

    "It made you laugh? I guess it really is ridiculous." Zhihao commented with a dejected tone laced along with his voice that was hard to detect but this was Li Ling, he knew every expression and feeling that Mastermo went through.

    "It''s not ridiculous." Li Ling responded and this made Zhihao look up to his face, "You really didn''t ask for my permission."

 Chapter 91 - Mastermo And His Interesting Conversation

    Zhihao scoffed, "Are we really going to argue about that? What if I asked? Would you have said yes?"

    Li Ling smiled as he heard this question and Zhihao couldn''t help but feel like whatever this man was about to say would cause his heart to stop.

    "I would have." Li Ling answered honestly, not bothering to lie to Zhihao. It wasn''t like this man would take him seriously anyhow, so what was the problem?

    Zhihao was silent as he heard this. His brain had stopped working. It had died. Just that.. He was a bit too stupid to understand what Li Ling was saying.

    Li Ling saw the man''s speechless, blank expression, and he broke out laughing, "Why do you look so shocked?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he heard this, "I get it."

    "You get what?" Li Ling asked, tilting his head.

    "I get why your crush doesn''t know you like them."

    "..."

    Li Ling didn''t know if he should laugh or cry as he heard this, but he was sure that whatever Zhihao wanted to say next was going to be something really dumb and he would not be loving it very much.

    Zhihao seemed to live up to his expectations as he spoke, "You are like this to everyone so how would they know you are crushing on them?"

    Li Ling smiled as he heard this, but his smile hid a lot of feelings, mainly, it hid behind his helplessness.

    Li Ling really felt like cutting open Zhihao''s head to peek inside and see what was inside. Was there a brain or was it a computer chip?

    There was probably a high probability that the man had a computer chip instead of a brain. A human brain was supposed to also consider people''s feelings and not just base everything off of facts, but If we were to talk about Zhihao, he had a brain that was more like a computer chip than a real computer chip. His brain was capable of being so amazing sometimes while the same brain would seem like a pea brain at times.

    Li Ling didn''t know if he liked it or hated it more since he felt both. Zhihao''s denseness was the reason why Li Ling had fooled him till now and it was also the reason why Zhihao fell into Li Ling''s trap. He liked it because of that, but at the same time, he also hated that no matter how many hints he gave out, Zhihao was still not able to catch on.

    As time went by and they got to know each other more and more, Li Ling felt himself getting more and more greedy. More and more impatient. What was he doing anymore, he had no idea.

    By the end of all this, would he be forgiven for lying for so long or would he be punished for it all? Li Ling was a bit afraid of it, but to him, the worst punishment would be Zhihao saying that he found Li Ling disgusting and creepy and of course running away after that. Li Ling wasn''t a yandere so if Zhihao ever said something like that, Li Ling would not keep on holding onto him. He would take a step back and try to forget this Mastermo from his mind.

    Zhihao saw Li Ling smiling like that and frowned, "This is a serious problem."

    "Is it?" Li Ling asked.

    "It is." Zhihao confirmed, "If you keep on doing this, you''ll make people think that your crush is me."

    Zhihao instantly regretted it as soon as he said it. What was he doing letting his mouth run off like that? Wouldn''t Zhihao always blame BBtrash for not having a filter in his mouth? How was he any different than him if Zhihao was sitting here, not knowing what he was saying?

    Zhihao felt his heart go still in anticipation. He hated this feeling. Why was he feeling like this? Why was he so eager to see Li Ling''s reaction?

    Zhihao was unconsciously looking for a clarification cause somehow he felt like the crush Li Ling was talking about was him, but he could never be sure since he didn''t know the guy that well.

    He wanted to know if his speculations were correct or if he was just thinking up nonsense in his free time?

    Was he wrong?

    He wanted to know the answer and yet he didn''t. He was afraid to know the answer. What if Li Ling laughed at him and told him that he was being delusional? If that happened, Zhihao would want to dig up a hole in the ground and bury himself alive.

    Li Ling was silent for a minute as he almost panicked and the complaints he had made previously disappeared into thin air from his mind. He regretted saying that he didn''t like Zhihao''s dense mind. It was better if this man didn''t catch hints! It was too soon for him to confess!

    Li Ling took a deep breath in and told himself that he still had it under control. It wasn''t like Zhihao had said it with proof. He had said it on a whim! On a whim!

    When Li Ling was done calming his mind down, he chuckled as he spoke, "If I was you, I would end up thinking that too."

    Li Ling prayed in his mind that Zhihao would change the subject and it seemed like God had heard his prayers as Zhihao changed the subject because he too didn''t want to continue that speculation.

    "So you also know what you are doing wrong?"

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this, "But I don''t think I want to stop."

    "Eh? Why?"

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao straight in the eyes as he answered, "Because that''s just who I am. I talk like this and I don''t think I will be able to stop it."

    Li Ling didn''t feel guilty about lying like that since his answer still held some honesty in it. He wasn''t lying when he said that he won''t be able to stop saying things like that since it came so naturally to him, but of course, he won''t be telling Zhihao that this was something that was only applied when talking to this man. If it was someone else, they would be glad if Li Ling even spared them a ''hello''.

    Zhihao shook his head as he heard this answer that didn''t sound so pleasing, "Aren''t you afraid?"

    "Afraid of what?"

    "Afraid of causing misunderstandings."

    "Did I make you misunderstand something?"

    Zhihao, "What if I fall in love with you?"

    Li Ling wanted to laugh as he heard this. Wasn''t he saying all this to make Zhihao fall in love? If Zhihao fell in love with him, who else would be happier than him?

    "Are you planning on leaving Bu Hui behind for me?" Li Ling asked playfully.

    Zhihao chuckled, "If I fall in love with you, don''t you think I will have to leave Bu Hui?"

    "Not necessarily."

    "Eh?"

    Li Ling was about to break out laughing as he saw the expression on Zhihao''s face, but before he could do anything, he was suddenly pulled back.

    Zhihao was almost scared to death as he saw this. His eyes followed after Li Ling but before he could completely turn around, the gamemaster''s voice woke him up from his shock.

    "Don''t turn around!"

    Zhihao felt his heart race. They were just talking so peaceful right now and in the next second, Li Ling was pulled away by who knows what, the shock was self-explanatory.

    "Li Ling?" Zhihao called out loud as he looked at the white screen in front of him once again but he got no response, "Alvi, where is Li Ling?"

    [Dead, maybe?]

    "What the hell?" Zhihao cried out, "Don''t joke around with me."

    [I don''t know.]

    [Why are you asking me?]

    [I''m not here to guide you through the games, I''m just here to accompany you and make sure that you don''t cheat]

    Zhihao mentally rolled his eyes in annoyance as he heard this. Was there a better way to say that she was a useless bot? Probably not.

    The gamemaster seemed to be a lot more helpful than Alvi, "I thought you were going to show me, Mastermo."

    Zhihao looked at him in a loss, "What?"

    "You told me that you will show me why you are capable of beating me," The gamemaster spoke patiently once again, "Can''t you do that without your friend?"

    Zhihao felt offended as he heard this. Was worrying about your partner that wrong? He was just doing what a normal person would do.

    A normal person.

    Oh right!

    Zhihao had forgotten that not many people saw him as a normal person.

    Zhihao was silent for a minute and when that minute was over, he spoke, "I''ll show you."

    The gamemaster smiled as he heard this, "Don''t worry about your friend. He''s not dead."

    Now that the Gamemaster had personally said this, there was no way Li Ling was dead and now Zhihao could rest assured.

    "Bu Hui, what is this level about?"

 Chapter 92 - Mastermo Is Confident That He Can Beat The Gamemaster

    The Gamemaster didn''t answer him and it didn''t look like Zhihao was expecting the man to answer his question.

    Although the Gamemaster didn''t want to answer his question, he was still willing to warn the man, "The game is simple, don''t look back."

    "..." Zhihao was silent as he heard this, but he couldn''t understand the deeper meaning behind it.

    "Don''t turn around even if it is me, instead of him, that has been dragged away." The Gamemaster spoke as he met Zhihao''s eyes.

    Zhihao didn''t say anything but he understood some things.

    This man was not lying, but he was still hiding something and he was baiting Zhihao to find out what it was that this man was trying so hard to hide..

    Zhihao averted his eyes and looked at the screen in front that said the same thing.

    <Don''t look back>

    Zhihao didn''t know much, but he was sure of one thing, that this gamemaster was also going to be dragged away just like Li Ling was and that thought made him feel a bit uneasy.

    If this guy was also going to be dragged away then the only one left here would be Zhihao who would slowly start to lose his mind.

    At this moment maybe Zhihao was still a bit calm and hadn''t turned around because he had two more people by his side, but if they were both gone, Zhihao was sure that he was going to go crazy.

    The thought was really unsettling and he finally understood why this was a Hard-ranked level but he was still wrong.

    This wasn''t the reason why this level was ranked as Hard.

    Zhihao looked determined as he spoke, "I have played a lot." He smirked as he felt his confidence coming back to him, "Something like this wouldn''t be enough."

    The Gamemaster smiled in satisfaction as he saw the determination in the man''s eyes.

    "If there is anyone that would beat you, that would be me," Zhihao spoke confidently, and oddly enough, he didn''t feel weird nor did he feel embarrassed about saying that.

    It was his thoughts and he wasn''t trying to hide them so it was okay.

    The Gamemaster already seemed to know about his ambitions so he might as well just let him hear it with his own mouth.

    Zhihao might have sounded conceited as he said this but he was sure that he was going to be the one to beat this guy. He wouldn''t be having it any other way. He refused to let someone else do it.

    The Gamemaster didn''t look angry or afraid as he heard this. It almost looked like he anticipated it. Almost like he was also cheering for the man to beat him.

    Wasn''t that what this entire game was about?

    It wasn''t about having fun, it was about beating the Gamemaster.

    It had always been about that.

    Zhihao was now ready for whatever this level was about to throw at him. Let it be his crying brother, a truck, or a growling creature.

    It didn''t matter what it was because he had a bigger goal in mind and he needed to get through all these small levels in order to reach that goal. Although he would forget about that goal every now and then, right now, the Gamemaster had made him remember it and it motivated him

    It seemed like even the Gamemaster was holding up hopes on him so why would he let this small level block his way?

    "I''m ready."

    It looked like his voice was the trigger to the next sound effect since just as he said this, they got hit with another sound.

    Zhihao listened attentively with a calm mind and in under a second, he was sure what this sound was.

    It was the sound of rushing water coming closer and closer like a Tsunami.

    Zhihao had never seen a Tsunami in real life but that didn''t mean he didn''t know how it sounded. He was sure that he would never be mistaking that sound because of all the movies he watched.

    It was shocking how much movies can teach you and although most of it was weird information, maybe one day, it would be coming in handy like right now when Zhihao could decipher the sound of rushing water.

    Zhihao felt his ears tingle as he heard this and as if on reflex, he shut his eyes waiting for it to be over.

    Shutting his eyes was no use since it only amplified his senses and he could now vividly imagine how there was a big wave behind him while he was trapped strapped to a chair.

    If it were real life, he was sure that he would be dying from the mere impact of that wave, but thankfully, it was just a game.

    But just because it was a game didn''t mean it was safe.

    If Zhihao was already suffering from heart illness then this game would have been the death of him and in a literal way.

    The sound came so close that he seemed to feel his back getting wet from it. It was a tingly sensation all over and soon, after much controlling himself, it was over.

    The sound was gone.

    Zhihao sighed in relief as he didn''t hear anything else.

    "Alvi, when is this getting over?" Zhihao asked as if the bot would magically say that they were already at the end of this level but the bot was not so nice.

    [Stop complaining]

    [You haven''t even suffered yet]

    "..." Zhihao felt like he could choke her neck at this moment. Was she looking down on his sufferings?!

    The next sound that came took him some time to get but it was the sound of scissors and it was coming from right behind him making him feel like the person was really behind him, cutting his hair. Zhihao felt the sound create a tingling sensation on his neck as if his hair was really being cut. It was unsettling and he didn''t like it as he physically flinched and drew his head in, trying to shake off that feeling.

    "Oh my god, what are you doing?" He heard someone speak from afar as they came closer to him but the scissors never stopped and Zhihao didn''t think anyone was going to speak so it came as a shock to him and almost made him turn around. The person who was ''cutting his hair'' spoke back to the voice.

    "Look at that pretty little neck."

    Zhihao felt a shiver go down his spine as he eavesdropped on their conversation.

    "Makes me want to cut it."

    A series of red alerts popped up in Zhihao''s mind.

    Whoever created such scenarios was certainly talented. How can they even think about creating something like this?

    As Zhihao thought this, he unconsciously glanced at the Gamemaster sitting on his right side and just as he did, he felt it a bit shocking.

    The man who was not fazed till now was now lightly shivering, although it was hardly noticeable.

    The man was afraid.

    Zhihao suddenly remembered the time when the Gamemaster had told him that they weren''t hearing the same thing, which meant that whatever Zhihao was hearing right now, the Gamemaster was hearing something completely different and if that was the case, Zhihao was curious to know what it was that this man was hearing?

    What was so scary that it made even the creator scared when hearing it?

    Zhihao couldn''t guess no matter how much he pondered over it. His mind was just blank. There was nothing he''d imagine the Gamemaster to be afraid of.

    The sound of cutting scissors and the two people faded away and in place of them came a new sound.

    Zhihao rolled his eyes as he heard the new sound.

    He recognized it in an instant and he was thoroughly annoyed at it.

    It was the sound of a fly.

    A really annoying fly that you would never be able to catch or chase away.

    Zhihao waved his hands around his head as he tried to get the fly away and just as he did, he felt stupid.

    It was just a sound illusion.

    There was no real fly there so what was he doing?

    Zhihao wanted to laugh at himself as he finally realized how bad his instincts were.

    He sighed and kept on listening.

    He couldn''t take it.

    It was too annoying and although he wanted to turn around to smack the fly away, he could not do that.

    He kept reminding himself in his mind that this was just a sound.

    Just a sound.

    Just a freaking sound!

    He shook his head sideways on instinct and once again wanted to smack his head for doing something so stupid.

    One sheep.

    Two sheep.

    Three sheep.

    Four-

    This is not working!!!

    Zhihao would be lying if he said that he didn''t almost turn around. Thank god the sound stopped cause if it didn''t then he really would have given away to instincts and turned around.

    The fly flew away after losing interest and Zhihao sighed in relief.

    He hoped to get a few seconds of peace but the next sound came faster than he had expected.

    [OMG look back!]

    "..."

    It was Alvi.

    It was the freaking bot who was trying to make him look back!

 Chapter 93 - Mastermo Has Been Overthrown?

    Zhihao had never wanted to kill someone more than he wanted to kill this bot!

    Which type of madman created her?! He was ready to chop them into bits.

    The Gamemaster sneezed and this caught Zhihao''s interest who was almost scared to death after having heard the electronic sneezing sound.

    This was why people warned you not to get an electronic voice modifier, cause you might just end up sounding like a beast if you sneezed.

    "God bless you," Zhihao spoke politely.

    The Gamemaster was still shivering slightly and this made Zhihao worry. He felt bad for the man, but he also felt like the man kinda deserved it since he was the one who created this. He should also be getting a taste out of his own creation.

    [No, seriously!]

    [Look back!]

    [It''s Devilmagiclover!]

    Zhihao wasn''t so easily fooled, but he had to agree that this did pique his curiosity.

    "I see, you have learned how to lie," Zhihao called the bot out.

    [You idiot!]

    [It''s him!]

    "Mastermo! Save me! "

    Zhihao felt his muscles tense up when he heard that voice.

    It was Li Ling''s and he was almost tricked to think that it really was Li Ling. Even the way the man called him was the same.

    Zhihao was suddenly torn between two different choices. One was believing that the voice was real and turning around while the other choice was to ignore it and take it as just the game trying to trick him.

    Zhihao stared at the screen in front that still glistened the orders:

    <Don''t look back>

    Zhihao wanted to turn around but he bit his tongue as he stopped himself from giving in to the temptation.

    "Mastermo! Turn around! The game is tricking you!"

    Zhihao didn''t know what to do anymore.

    He felt like he was being stupid.

    Of course, that was Li Ling. How could the system be able to copy Li Ling''s voice like that? It had to be that man. It just had to be.

    But if he believed that it was Li Ling and turned his head, what if he was still tricked?

    What if it really was the system.

    He didn''t know what to do but at this moment, he once again remembered what the Gamemaster had told him.

    This was a Hard-ranked level so of course, he would be this confused and paranoid.

    He took in a deep breath and as he let it go, he made a decision.

    He was going to ignore the voice.

    That was the right decision to make.

    If he ignored the voice and it turned out to be the real Li Ling, he was sure that the man would not be blaming him but if it was faux and he turned around, he would have been blamed for being so easily fooled. Of course, even then, it wouldn''t have been Li Ling who would blame him but it would be his own self.

    He would hate himself if he did something like that so he made a decision not to turn around.

    He turned towards to look at the Gamemaster and the man wasn''t doing anything, but then again, he probably could not hear this.

    Was the game tricking him?

    It certainly was but what was the trick?

    Was it Li Ling''s voice being fake or was it Zhihao just thinking that it''s fake.

    "Mastermo, turn around! You can only complete the mission by turning around!"

    Zhihao blinked and his muscles turned stiff as he heard this. Slowly, his lips curved up and he felt like he wanted to laugh at himself while crying as well.

    What the hell was he thinking till now?

    Of course, that wasn''t Li Ling.

    Li Ling would not call him Mastermo.

    Ever since Zhihao had given the man permission to use the name ''A-Zhi'' for him, the man hadn''t called him anything else.

    He felt stupid for realizing it only now and laced along with that feeling was another feeling called anger.

    He was angry at himself for not being able to keep a calm mind.

    He took a deep breath in and yelled out, "You can''t trick me like that."

    After he had spoken out, he heard nothing else for the next few minutes and it seemed like the sound was going to change again.

    Zhihao chuckled at the silence.

    He had a guess but it was so wild that if it came true, he would accept it himself that he was really lucky.

    With the guess in his mind, he was able to calm himself down a bit more but he was still not completely calm.

    How could he be at ease if he was constantly at an alert to catch what the next sound was going to be?

    Without further delay, the next sound also came and it was the sound that he could not decipher.

    A minute passed and he still could not understand what the sound was.

    He was confused to hear it.

    He felt that it sounded like a clock and yet it didn''t.

    It was a ticking sound that kept on repeating in a particular sequence.

    Zhihao thought about it more and more and wanted to look back just to see where the sound was coming from but he fought against that urge.

    The ticking sounded exactly like those old clocks and yet it didn''t. He had no idea how he was able to decipher between the sound of the clock and this ticking but if he was asked this question, he would reply by saying that he just knew it because of the difference in the pitch of the sound.

    The old clocks sounded a bit deeper while this ticking sounded a bit more higher and shrill.

    He thought long and hard about what the sound was but when the speed of the ticking changed, he finally realized what it was.

    The ticking started getting faster and faster along with Zhihao''s poor heart that was unable to be at ease.

    He knew this was all just a virtual illusion but that didn''t stop his heart from being scared. It was a natural response to the sound.

    when the ticking got so fast that it could no longer rise in speed, he heard two loud beeps and he immediately closed his eyes, his hands clenching up in fists and he ducked his head as a response.

    He thought the sound was going to stop there but after the two last ticks, he heard a loud, ear-piercing blast and his back could feel the heat.

    There was a bomb blast behind him and if this was real, he was sure that this would have been his last day on this earth.

    Thankfully it wasn''t real but he could still feel as if it had been real. His ear went numb and couldn''t hear anything for a second, his body tensed up so much for so long that it started hurting. He felt his back burn with the heat from the blast and all of this was just an illusion.

    He was amazed by how well made this game was. To make the players feel that everything was so real wasn''t easy at all. Not only did it need great imagination and strategy but it also needed something called talent in coding and not just normal coding. It probably needed god-level skills in coding. How many errors might have popped up while making all this? He would never know the answer to that question and he was too afraid to know the answer.

    The gamemaster was certainly amazing but if there was someone more amazing than him, it would be the coders and developers of this game since no man could build up this game all alone.

    When the sound of the blast subsided, Zhihao''s heart couldn''t stop beating loudly and it was as if the sound of his heartbeat had replaced the sound of the ticking bomb.

    [You''re still alive after that?]

    Zhihao could almost imagine the smirk this girl would probably have on her face as she asked this question that wasn''t meant for answering but was meant for taunting him.

    Zhihao contemplated if he should fight with this bot or not and in the end, he felt like he''d just be stupid for fighting with a bot but that did not mean he should just let it go like this. He had to say something. He had to show that wasn''t a person that was easy to bully.

    "If I wasn''t alive, I wouldn''t have been at the top," Zhihao answered back and even the Gamemaster could hear this.

    Zhihao looked over at the man who was laughing after having heard Zhihao''s answer.

    "Why are you laughing?" Zhihao questioned with a frown.

    [Who said you are at the top?]

    Alvi asked and it made Zhihao''s eyes go wide in shock.

    Had his position been overtaken by a player?

    If so, was it that talented newbie called Lingyi?

    There was no way he could have been overthrown so soon...

 Chapter 94 - Mastermo Knows The Culprit

    [I think you are forgetting to count someone]

    "Who?" Zhihao frowned.

    He heard the Gamemaster chuckle and in the next second, Alvi answered.

    [You are forgetting to count the Gamemaster.]

    "..."

    [If you count him, there is no way you''ll be at the top.]

    Zhihao glared at the Gamemaster as he heard this, but he still felt like Alvi was saying something that made sense and couldn''t help but feel admiration for the man.

    Zhihao sighed, if they were to count the Gamemaster in, there really was no way that Zhihao would be considered as the top player but of course this was just for now. Zhihao was determined to beat this man. At this moment, maybe the Gamemaster could be considered as the real top player, but in the future, Mastermo was sure that he would be overthrowing the man from that position.

    The Gamemaster chuckled as he heard Alvi speaking. He seemed to be proud of himself as he glanced at Zhihao and smiled, but it was so small that Zhihao was unable to say if this gesture was a friendly smile or if it was a mockery, but Zhihao didn''t care what it was. Even if it was mockery or a friendly smile, Zhihao would still feel the same.

    Even if the Gamemaster was mocking him, Zhihao would not be feeling too sad since he knew that the man had earned it. Bu Hui''s proudness was self-explanatory and didn''t make Zhihao feel angry, instead, it motivated him. He was sure that the man had worked hard for that position and to beat such a man in the future, Zhihao was too excited to be the one to do the honors.

    After much deliberation, Zhihao decided to speak up, "I''ll beat that Gamemaster of yours too."

    The Gamemaster chuckled as heard this, but Zhihao could sense that the man wasn''t making fun of him, but was on the contrary satisfied with his response.

    "Please do." The Gamemaster spoke and Zhihao was a bit surprised to hear it, however, he didn''t dislike it.

    Zhihao nodded and was even more motivated to face whatever the next sound was going to be.

    The two players looked at the screen in front and Zhihao finally started to wonder what this screen was about.

    This screen was constantly displaying the same words which also happened to be their only mission.

    Zhihao decided to try something as he asked, "Alvi, Are there any secret missions here?"

    [Why do you think I will answer that?]

    "..."

    He heard the bot chuckle, but it seemed that the bot wasn''t completely useless as it spoke up once again.

    [There might be secret missions, but I don''t think you''ll be finding them with how you''re playing.]

    Zhihao smiled mischievously as he heard this.

    He was baiting the bot and luckily enough, the bot was too stupid to realize that it had just given out a big hint.

    The Gamemaster who was observing the man, smiled in satisfaction as he heard this. It seemed like he was able to understand what was going on. He was able to understand and was proud of this player who was able to understand so much.

    There was a reason why this screen was here and there was also a reason why they were restricted on these chairs.

    Zhihao had tried to break out of the strains by force without ever wondering why they were placed here in the first place.

    If the strains weren''t here, would it not be easier to scare the payers into turning around?

    With what Alvi said, Zhihao was sure that there was a secret mission as well but with how he was playing, he won''t be able to complete it.

    He was playing according to the rules. The screen in front told him not to turn around and that was exactly what he was doing until now and that was the problem. If he were to trigger the secret mission, he needed to ignore the rules and try something out of the box.

    He tried to get out of the constraints one more time but just like before, he still failed.

    "Bu Hui, how do we get out of this?" Zhihao asked but the gamemaster only smiled and didn''t bother answering the question.

    The next sound that came was the sound of something rushing towards them but it wasn''t water or something like that. It was something much like the sound of rats. Millions of them just rushing towards them.

    This time, Zhihao wasn''t afraid at all and instead of reacting to the sound or trying to break his hands-free, he spoke up, "You can''t fool me anymore."

    The sound of the rushing rats stopped and Zhihao smirked. He was satisfied with the silent response and felt like he had guessed it right.

    After the minute of silence was over, he heard another sound coming from behind.

    This time it was the annoying sound of BBtrash.

    "Darling, what are you talking about?"

    Zhihao, "You can stop it now."

    "..."

    Zhihao suddenly turned his head towards the Gamemaster and spoke, "Didn''t I tell you that I was going to show you why I''m the only one capable of beating you?"

    "Are you going to show me now?" Bu Hui asked with a proud smile.

    Zhihao lightly nodded his head as he answered, "Just watch."

    "Darling, why aren''t you looking at me?" He heard ''BBtrash'' speaking.

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this, "You aren''t trash nor were you Li Ling and you were definitely not a hoard of rats."

    He heard silence follow and this made Zhihao feel like his theory had been correct.

    The sounds were different but they were all produced by the same sources, however, the source might have been a system and at the same time, it would not have been one as well.

    "You can stop it now, Alvi." Zhihao spoke and he heard the Gamemaster snickering as he heard this.

    [How did you know?]

    Zhihao, "You just told me."

    [What?]

    "It was only a theory but you confirmed it right now."

    [...]

    Zhihao wasn''t sure if he was right or not but he guessed that the source of the sounds was the same but if that was the case, which system knew everything about Zhihao? There was no one except for Alvi who knew the player so well so if there was one system that was making all of the sounds, it had to be Alvi.

    There was also one thing that was suspicious. How come Alvi didn''t get a physical body at this level?

    It wasn''t that she didn''t get a physical body because there were no characters to overtake but it was because she was given a role and not a body.

    What exactly did that mean?

    As Zhihao remembered, the body that Alvi had in the previous level was not a body she just so happened to possess but it was actually how she was created and that ten-year-olds body was registered in every level but of course, there were always exceptions and this level just so happened to be on of those exceptions.

    If she didn''t get her body registered at this level, why might that have been so?

    After playing T.I.A.D. so much, Zhihao was sure about one thing and that was the fact that nothing happened without a reason.

    There was always a reason behind every small thing.

    She didn''t have a body at this level but that didn''t mean that she didn''t have a role.

    Having a role and having a body were two different things.

    What if she was given the role of being the one who was making all this sound? What if she was the speaker that was playing all this sound? It would make perfect sense since she was the only one with so much information on Mastermo.

    Mastermo had originally guessed that it was someone else who was making all the sounds but after thinking about it further, he found Alvi to be the most suspicious but of course that didn''t mean that he was sure it was Alvi. It was still just a theory, a guess that had been proven right by Alvi herself who thought that she had been found out.

    [As expected of the great Mastermo]

    Zhihao smiled as he heard this but the smile didn''t last long on his face.

    He was sure that this was the secret mission but how come he heard no alert.

    "Alvi, what''s the secret mission?" Zhihao asked as he frowned after not hearing the alert.

    [Didn''t I tell you already?]

    [You can''t solve the secret mission like this]

    Zhihao had a bad feeling as he heard this.

    He was wrong in thinking that this was the secret mission but if this wasn''t the secret mission, then what was the secret mission?

    Suddenly, he felt himself move but it wasn''t him doing it, it was the chair that he was trapped in.

    The chair had started rotating.

    It was forcing them to turn around.

 Chapter 95 - Mastermo, Close Your Eyes.

    The game seemed to be against them from the beginning itself.

    Mastermo felt like he was being set up and on instinct, although the chair turned, he kept his eyes on the white screen.

    His brain couldn''t process everything at once. What was happening?

    He had never felt so helpless in a level with so many things that didn''t go according to what he guessed.

    He finally seemed to understand why this level was hard ranked and just as he realized this, he gave up on the hopes of winning this level.

    Inevitably, he was fully turned and could no longer see the white screen since his head couldn''t rotate 180 degrees.

    He had never wanted to be a ghost more than now. Weren''t ghosts supposed to have necks that could look back while walking front? He envied them right now, but even if someone were to give him an offer to become one, he would still refuse.

    If he became a ghost, he would no longer be able to play games and for Zhihao, that was worse than death.

    Suddenly he stopped struggling to keep his eyes on the white screen as he suddenly realized something.

    The game asked them not to turn around, but it didn''t tell them what was front and what was back so if he looked at the white screen, wasn''t he basically looking back??

    Thank god he had given up on looking at that screen.

    He went with his theory and smiled proudly as he finally understood how tricky this game was. It was turning their chair to confuse them. They were not supposed to turn their heads even if their chairs were rotating.

    Whoever created this game was certainly intelligent.

    The Gamemaster who was sitting beside him and had also turned, smiled lightly as he saw the proud smirk on Zhihao''s face.

    In front of them now was a black screen, much similar to the screen in front, but if there was a difference, it would be the fact that the words "Don''t look back" was written in white on a black screen.

    Zhihao really thought he had figured the game out, but in the next second, he heard Alvi commenting on him.

    [Ha-ha! Loser!]

    Eh?

    Zhihao could not understand what was happening and in this state of confusion, he got one more notification.

    [You have failed to complete the H-ranked level 453: Don''t look back.]

    [Hope you come back to complete it later.]

    [Bye!]

    And just like that, Zhihao was thrown out of the level.

    "Eh?"

    His mind had still not processed everything.

    What had just happened?

    For the first time in T.I.A.D.''s history, Mastemo had failed a level and the worst thing was that he didn''t even know why he had failed.

    He had played it according to the rules so why was he suddenly thrown out of the level? It was ridiculous!

    When his screen changed into the main lobby of the game, he was more confused than angry or surprised. He had no idea what he had done wrong and maybe this was how he finally understood what the Gamemaster was talking about when he said that Zhihao was never going to beat the man with his current skills.

    If he can''t even handle an H-ranked level, there really was no way he would be able to beat the Gamemaster like this, but before he could take this as a life lesson, he first wanted to know what he did wrong.

    "Alvi, why did I lose?"

    [You''re such a sour loser]

    [Can''t even take a beating?]

    [Just accept it]

    [You lost.]

    Zhihao could almost guess that the bot was happy with him losing that game, maybe because she simply hated him or maybe because she was the one who was acting as the antagonist in that level.

    [You really want to know?]

    [Why?]

    "Why wouldn''t I?"

    [I can tell you.]

    [Your mission was to not look back]

    Zhihao frowned as he heard the bot, "And I didn''t look back so how come I still lost? Isn''t it your system that is broken? "

    [Are you saying that I''m cheating?]

    Zhihao could sense the agitation in Alvi''s voice, but he wasn''t in any way calm, so if he were to get into a fight with a bot at this moment, he would not even feel stupid about it.

    "Who knows? It might be a bug. "

    [I''m offended]

    [I have checked and there is no bug detected]

    [It''s your fault for losing so instead of being a sour loser, accept it and move on]

    "But how?" Zhihao was adamant about getting an answer today and he didn''t care if he was sounding a bit too unreasonable.

    [I''m sorry, but I can''t tell you.]

    [Better luck next time]

    [I hope you get it by then]

    It wasn''t Zhihao''s first time losing, but it was certainly his first time losing in a game he was sure he would be winning.

    At this moment, Li Ling decided to speak up and make Mastermo aware that he had returned.

    "I passed."

    Zhihao looked at the man in shock and he couldn''t believe what he was hearing.

    Weren''t they in a team?!

    How could Li Ling pass while Mastermo failed?!

    It just didn''t make sense and Mastermo wondered how the level worked, but no matter what he guessed, he really could not understand it.

    Just what had he done wrong and what had Li Ling done right?

    The most shocking thing was that they were a team yet one failed while the other passed. It was ridiculous!

    Li Ling seemed to see through Zhihao''s confusion and he wasn''t as cruel as Alvi so he decided to tell the man what he had been missing this whole time.

    "The mission was to not look back." Li Ling spoke, "Look, not turn. The game only told you not to look back and it didn''t forbid you from turning around. "

    "Huh?" Zhihao kinda understood it and yet he didn''t. He was never a person to be so dumb not to understand something a person was trying to explain to him, but it looked like today was just not his day.

    Li Ling was patient as he responded, "When I was dragged away, I didn''t look back."

    "I still can''t understand it."

    Li Ling shook his head as he heard this, "I closed my eyes."

    Zhihao took a minute to register the words in his mind and when he finally understood what the man had said, it was like a bolt of thunder that had struck down on his head.

    He felt like banging his head against a wall and passing out on the spot. Why had he been so stupid as not to see through this?!

    He really was not worthy of beating the Gamemaster. His luck was great and his brain was amazing, but at times both would fail him.

    He put his head down and his shoulders started quivering. He wasn''t crying, he was laughing. He was laughing at how stupid he had been.

    He really thought the game was going to be that simple.

    The instructions really were as clear as it seemed.

    Don''t look back.

    It really didn''t matter if he had kept his eyes on the white screen or the black one. No matter where he had kept his eyes focused on, he still would have lost.

    The game was built that way. To confuse the players into losing. The answer to winning the level was always in front of their eyes. They weren''t supposed to look back and what was the best way to avoid looking back?

    Close your eyes.

    If you close your eyes, you won''t be able to look back and hence you would win the game.

    Zhihao understood a lot of things, but the most important thing he understood was that he was stupid. He was so stupid that he didn''t think of that easy answer.

    He was just supposed to not look. Not look! How could he have not realized that?!

    Zhihao laughed at his own stupidity and in the next second, he sighed.

    "I lost."

    Li Ling wanted to say something, but at this moment, he felt like it was weird for him to say anything. After all, he had won and his partner had lost. It wasn''t like Li Ling didn''t know the answer so if he had wanted to tell Mastermo the answer, he could have but he was just too optimistic.

    He thought the man would not need his help. Wasn''t that what happened in the last level?

    He trusted Mastermo. He believed that the man would have been able to figure it out.

    How was he to know that Mastermo would lose like this?

    Zhihao heard Alvi and he was sure that the bot was going to say something that he would not be liking.

    [You are so stupid]

    [And then you had the guts to say that you were going to beat the Gamemaster]

    [Aren''t you embarrassed with yourself]

    [Such a disappointment]

 Chapter 96 - Mastermo Is A Bot?

    Zhihao had no strength to say anything in his defense since he too felt like the bot was saying something that was true for him. He really was stupid.

    How could he even think about beating the Gamemaster like this? He didn''t have the skills, at least, not yet.

    This was something that would discourage most players, but Zhihao wasn''t like those other players. He was motivated to hear Alvi bash him.

    He had to work hard.

    He had to get better.

    He had to prove to this stupid bot that he was not just bluffing.

    He was serious when he said that he was going to beat the Gamemaster and he wasn''t going to let anyone say anything about that..

    He wasn''t going to let a stupid bot get to him.

    He was going to get better!

    He knew he could do it and he was sure that he was going to do it!

    If someone else were to hear this, they really would think that Mastermo was crazy. He was already the top player so how higher was he going to aim? By saying that he was stupid and untalented, wasn''t he indirectly saying that the others weren''t even qualified to call themselves capable of being his competition?

    It really did sound funny. As if a god was saying that he wanted to be even greater.

    The other players might be shocked and think that Mastermo wasn''t normal, but Li Ling was different. When he saw the fire in the man''s eyes, he was sure that Mastermo had a lot of potential that was yet to be polished.

    If this gaming diamond was polished, he would shine brighter than any other star in this universe.

    He was going to become the greatest one day. So great that nobody would ever even think about beating him. So great that not even Yingli would be able to pose a challenge to him and as it stood at this moment, Li Ling couldn''t say that this was the case. Compared to Yingli, Mastermo wasn''t lacking, but he wasn''t doing too amazing either.

    At any moment, Yingli could overthrow him from the top player seat.

    Zhihao opened his mouth to let the bot know that he wasn''t backing down just yet, "Let''s play some more."

    "Huh?" The smile on Li Ling''s face froze as he heard this.

    Sure, he supported the man''s ambitions, but that did not mean that he wanted to play more.

    A whole night had gone by and the day had changed! He was tired! He wasn''t going to play more! If he was to play with this fatigue, he was sure that he would not even last a minute inside the level.

    At this moment, like every other player that looked at Mastermo and felt like he wasn''t human, Li Ling also felt like this really was the case.

    There was no way this man was this energetic this late at night.

    So was he really considered a human if he wanted to play another few rounds this late at night?

    Li Ling wasn''t even sure what time it was, but he was sure that it was so late that he would need to go collect the morning newspaper at any moment now.

    Zhihao had not played this game for an entire week, so there was no way he was going to be satisfied with that last loss.

    "Umm... Can I pass?" Li Ling was tired and yet he didn''t want to leave Mastermo on his own.

    If Zhihao asked him to stay at this moment, he really would do that. He would leave behind his sleep and be here to give Mastermo company, but what if Mastermo gave him permission to leave?

    "You must be tired." Zhihao sighed softly, "You can go. Good night. I sometimes forget that you have to go to work too."

    Li Ling blinked.

    He seemed to forget it sometimes too.

    Li Ling smiled, "Good night."

    Zhihao watched on as Li Ling went offline and when he could no longer see the player, he sighed. He would be lying if he said that he wasn''t a bit dejected.

    He wanted Li Ling to stay here longer, but he was afraid of becoming a nuisance. He was afraid that if he had really asked Li Ling to stay, the man would have listened to him and it would trouble Zhihao. He was afraid that one day this man would start to find Zhihao troublesome. The last thing Zhihao wanted was to become a troublesome over-obsessed gamer.

    [Are you going to continue?]

    Mastermo nodded his head as he answered the bot, "Let''s continue."

    Alvi was amazed at this player who played throughout an entire night and was still ready to play more. She almost questioned if the bot here was her or if it was this player in front of her.

    On this day, Mastermo played so much that Alvi was afraid the player was cheating.

    While Mastermo was burning off all his fuel and energy on a virtual game, Li Ling was sound asleep in his soft bed.

    Just like he had expected, it was so late when he had gone to sleep that he could not even get a complete five hours of sleep as someone came to interrupt his precious sleeping time. This intruder was a man who was around the same age as Li Ling or at least looked like he was around the same age.

    In reality, this man was much older than Li Ling but he was blessed with a baby face that never seemed to age. He had dark colored hair that seemed to look a bit overgrown but it was still well-groomed compared to Li Ling''s bed hair that had greeted the man when the door opened. His eyes were darker than Li Ling''s and his lips were thin yet it went along perfectly with his face. If someone were to see the man for the first time, they would think he was a model. His face was just that handsome and captivating without even following the so-called beauty standards.

    Li Ling was still not fully awake as he looked at the face of the man who had come to break his sweet dreams of going on a date with Zhihao.

    "You''re here? What do you want?" Li Ling asked without bothering to greet the man. He rubbed his eyes and scratched his head as he straightened up his back, waiting for the man''s response.

    "What do you mean why?" The man had a deep voice that didn''t go with his baby face but it made him seem even more attractive, "I knew you were going to forget it."

    Li Ling opened the door wide and gestured the man to enter as he stepped back, receding back into his living room.

    "Want some water?" Li Ling asked as he moved towards his kitchen counter and poured a glass of water, not for the man but for himself.

    The man didn''t respond to the question and instead continued on the topic he had come here for. He wasn''t here for friendly greetings and he was the least interested in drinking water right now so why would he want to waste his time responding?

    Li Ling was not shocked by this as he had already known the nature of this man. He had grown accustomed to the man''s cold behavior.

    "Sit down and talk." Li Ling lightly scolded as he took a sip of the water that he had poured for himself.

    The man sighed and sat down on the sofa, listening to Li Ling like an obedient dog.

    "Now tell me what I''m forgetting." Li Ling placed the glass away and started to go through the cabinet in search of something.

    "You forgot that you have a meeting." The man glanced down at his watch and then back at Li Ling''s face, "In about twenty minutes."

    Li Ling didn''t stop his action as he heard this, he didn''t even seem to be shocked as if he hadn''t forgotten it.

    "Xia, can you go buy me some cereal." Li Ling spoke up after a minute of silence, "It seems like I ran out of it."

    The man named Xia didn''t look to be pleased as he heard this, "I''m your secretary, not your maid."

    "Of course, you are not my maid," Li Ling chuckled, "You are a man, how could you be my maid? You should be called my butler."

    Xia frowned as he heard the man trying to joke around with him, "I''m not your butler either." He frowned, not liking the man''s playful nature.

    "Really? That''s sad... Would you like to take the job?"

    "No need." Xia shook his head, he felt like this man was really out of his mind sometimes.

    "But can you still go buy me some cereal?"

    "..."

    "You''re my personal assistant. It''s your job."

    "How so?"

    Li Ling turned his head and mischievously smiled as he looked at the man, "Didn''t you say that we have a meeting in twenty minutes?"

    "What the hell does that have to do with me buying you cereal?"

    "If I go there with an empty stomach, I won''t be able to focus on the meeting." Li Ling beamed shamelessly.

 Chapter 97 - Mastermo Is Not Here

    "..."

    At this moment Xia seemed to question why he was even working for this man. After much deliberation, he was able to find the answer: It was because the job paid well. A lot more than the other common salary assistant jobs.

    Li Ling smiled as he continued, "If I don''t eat well, my brain would not have enough energy to work."

    Li Ling wasn''t exactly lying as he said this. Without food, his stomach would be crying in hunger, in which case, he won''t have any energy to focus on anything other than food.

    Xia sighed, "We can get food on the way."

    Li Ling smiled widely as he heard this, "But you''re paying."

    Xia shook his head in disappointment, "You are too rich to be this stingy."

    Li Ling didn''t reply and just grinned in response. He wasn''t exactly stingy, but he still felt like food tasted better when it was someone else paying.

    "I''ll pay for it." Xia gave in as he glared at his boss, "Go get ready."

    Li Ling didn''t waste any more words or time on the man and headed straight for his room. He took a quick shower and got dressed in a designer black colored suit that didn''t look so amazing on the shelf, but when adorned by this man, it looked like it cost a fortune. It hugged his body just right and made Li Ling look much more attractive than he already was.

    When Li Ling came back to his living room, all dressed and ready to head out, he found Xia still sitting on the sofa, staring at his watch.

    "I''m done. Let''s go," Li Ling spoke and as Xia heard this, he immediately stood up.

    "We only have five more minutes so we''ll have to skip your breakfast."

    The smile on Li Ling''s face dropped as heard this.

    "Let''s go," Xia beamed as he looked at the dejected face of the man. It seemed that the smile that was previously on Li Ling''s face was transferred to Xia''s and the helpless expression of Xia was transferred to Li Ling who looked like he could cry at any moment now.

    Xia didn''t wait for Li Ling to respond as he headed for the door and got out of the apartment. Li Ling was still standing on the spot, stunned at the shamelessness of this assistant of his, and only after a minute did he accept it and follow the man with an expression that displayed he had been wronged.

    When a white colored car pulled up in front of the big luxurious building, all eyes that would never even glance up as a person bumped into them were glued to the door of the car. Everyone knew who this car belonged to and nobody was unfamiliar with this scene. They were all waiting in anticipation to see the door to the passenger''s seat open.

    Those who were walking had stopped and those who were working had also stopped as they looked at the car with eyes that looked to be excited to catch a glance of the person inside.

    They waited and waited until they saw the door open and were blessed to see the man they were all waiting to catch a glimpse of. The man was dressed in a dark blue suit and looked like a model as he stepped out of the car.

    This man was none other than the well known Xia who was the personal secretary of their boss.

    He was well known for two reasons. The first being his hardworking and professional nature. He was amazing at his work and some would even say that if the boss didn''t have such a competent man by his side, he would not have been able to achieve the things he had achieved. Who said that behind every successful man there was a woman? Instead of a woman, it could also be a great secretary.

    The second reason he was famous was much more ridiculous and yet it made a lot more sense as well. It was the main reason why he was the topic of gossip among the female employees at the company.

    He was handsome. That was the second reason why he was so well known. It was hard to find someone with his kind of looks and dedication. If their boss looked anything like this secretary, he would have also been pretty famous but sadly, they had never seen their boss. However, even though they hadn''t seen their boss, it didn''t mean that he wasn''t famous. If people were to compare Mr. Xia with their boss, Mr. Xia, although well known would not be able to hold a candle against the boss''s fame. The reason for that was simple. Mr. Xia was handsome but nobody knew what the boss looked like. The mystery of not knowing how the man looked was much more interesting for the people than swooning over a really hot coworker.

    Xia ignored the number of eyes he had caught and kept on walking. He entered the building alone like he always had and when he stood in front of the elevator, the people, who were already in a queue there, all moved away.

    They were all aware that Xia liked to take the elevator alone and if he was inside the elevator, nobody else was allowed to enter. These were direct orders from the boss and they dare not go against it.

    If the man wanted to take the elevator alone, why would they have a problem with it? Compared to angering the boss and taking the stairs, the latter option seemed to be a lot better.

    Xia looked at his watch and sighed.

    Two minutes left.

    He waited for a minute and when the elevator door opened, the people inside saw the man who was waiting outside and instantly got out of the elevator. Xia nodded in appreciation as he always had and got inside the empty elevator.

    Instead of pressing the button to go up to the conference room, he pressed the button to the underground parking floor.

    He scanned his fingerprint for a special button which only a number of people had the access to. It was the lock button that would prevent the elevator from opening unless the person who was inside the elevator wanted it to open.

    When the elevator went down to the underground floor, it opened to greet a smiling Li Ling who was playing something on his phone.

    "We are late," Xia frowned and Li Ling acted like he hadn''t heard it as he got inside the elevator.

    The two didn''t say anything and the elevator door closed.

    Li Ling pressed the floor number and went back to playing on his phone. Just when Xia had thought that the man would not be bothering him, he heard Li Ling speak up.

    "What is the meeting about?"

    Xia looked at the man in shock as he heard him. It wasn''t unexpected since he already knew that this man was always forgetful when it came to work-related things. Make Li Ling remember a thousand gaming codes and he would recite them in a go without making a mistake but ask him what meetings he had in a day, he would not even be able to name one.

    Xia had grown accustomed to this boss of his, but he still received a slight shock whenever he would experience this man''s forgetful nature every now and then.

    "We are going to be meeting Mr. Huang," Xia responded with a sigh that seemed to mock Li Ling and show his own helplessness at the same time.

    Li Ling suddenly looked up as he heard this, "Wait... What?!"

    "We are meeting Mr. Huang," Xia repeated himself and it made Li Ling''s eyes go wide.

    Li Ling snapped back at the man, "Why didn''t you tell me?!"

    Xia frowned as he heard this. He had been reminding this man about this meeting for an entire week and this man had the audacity to say that Xia hadn''t told him?

    "Why are you so shocked?" Xia asked. He had never seen his boss worry about a meeting before this so it really did come as a shock that Li Ling had such a strong reaction this time.

    Li Ling looked at the man and didn''t say anything for a minute. His mind not knowing which answer he should pick. He was going to be meeting Zhihao''s dad, wasn''t that reason enough for him to be shocked. In the end, he decided to tell Xia the answer that stood over the other and made him want to reconsider coming here today.

    "That man is... Cold," Li Ling cried out as he thought back to the previous times he had met Zhihao''s father.

    Xia looked at the man and didn''t know how he was supposed to respond to this, but thankfully he didn''t have to as Li Ling continued.

    "He''s as cold as ice from Antarctica."

    "Have you went to Antarctica?"

    "... No."

    "Then how do you know?"

    "..." Li Ling looked at the man and asked, "Have you visited the sun?"

    "No. That would be ridiculous."

    "Then how do you know that it is hot?"

    "..."

 Chapter 98 - Mastermos Father

    Li Ling stood in front of the door and gulped in fear.

    Xia reached out his hand to open the door, but his hand was stopped by Li Ling, who grabbed onto it and obstructed Xia from opening the door.

    "What are you doing?"

    Li Ling looked at the man and shook his head, "Let me prepare myself first."

    Xia frowned as he heard this, "What do you need to prepare for?"

    Li Ling sighed, "I need to prepare to be cursed at."

    Xia could not understand what this man was talking about. There was no way Mr. Huang was a man with such a foul mouth that even Li Ling needed to be afraid. It wasn''t like Xia hadn''t met that man before and in fact, the last time he met the man, he was quite impressed with him.

    Mr. Huang had talked to them politely last time, so there was no way Xia would believe that the man would curse them out today. Li Ling hadn''t done anything to get cursed at so why was he saying such a thing?

    Li Ling gestured Xia to move away from the door and Xia did just that.

    Li Ling also stepped back and opened the door so that he was behind the door and not standing in the doorway.

    Xia was also standing by the side, looking at Li Ling''s action with curiosity.

    When Xia saw that Li Ling hadn''t moved from behind the door, he decided to take a step forward and he instantly regretted it as he saw a flying file heading his way. He immediately ducked and avoided it by a few inches.

    "What the hell are you doing?!" Xia heard an angry voice of a man and he immediately snapped his head to look at the owner of the sound, "Where the hell is your boss?!"

    Xia gulped in fear as he heard the man. He instantly understood why Li Ling was so afraid, but he still could not understand why they deserved such treatment. They hadn''t done anything wrong and T.I.A.D. was still pretty popular, so why were they being treated with such hostility.

    Li Ling wasn''t a man who would push his secretary to take the blame for his wrongdoings so when he heard Mr. Huang asking about him, he stepped up and came out from his hideout behind the door with a warm smile on his face that could win over everyone, at least, everyone except for Mr. Huang, who wasn''t impressed.

    "Hello, uncle! You look so handsome today," Li Ling tried to win the man over by means of flattery but Mr. Huang''s facial expressions didn''t change.

    Li Ling knew he would not be able to survive this no matter what flattery he tried. Mr. Huang was mad and it was all Li Ling''s fault. Li Ling had forgotten that he had a meeting today, but now he suddenly remembered why there was a meeting today.

    Originally, today was pretty much free for him but a few weeks ago, he received a request to have an emergency meeting that was requested for by the board members and it was hard to refuse them so although Li Ling knew that an emergency meeting was going to be troublesome, he still had to go along with it.

    "Sit down and start talking!" Li Ling heard the man speaking and like an obedient puppy, he listened to him, tucking his tail in between his legs and sitting down in one of the empty seats.

    "Now explain!" Mr. Huang wasn''t playing around. As soon as Li Ling sat down, the man didn''t even let him take a breath and ordered for him to explain.

    Li Ling looked at the man and the dazzling smile on his face did not falter as he heard the man''s hostile voice and responded, "What is uncle talking about?"

    "You don''t know what I''m talking about?!"

    "I wouldn''t have asked if I knew."

    Mr. Huang glared at him as he spoke, "Do you think this game is a joke?"

    "Of course not."

    "Do you think the customers are a joke?"

    Li Ling shook his head again and answered, "No way."

    "Then why the hell are you treating them like a joke?!" Mr. Huang sounded and looked so angry that Li Ling almost felt like the one standing in front of him wasn''t Zhihao''s father but was Taki''s demon-king father.

    Xia didn''t think he had any need to step in but he felt like he needed to say something or this boss of his would end up digging up his own grave if he opened his mouth.

    "Mr. Huang, please calm down," Xia spoke and he instantly regretted it as he heard the man snapping at him.

    "I am calm!" Though Mr. Huang had said it, the truth was far from what he said. One look and even a two-year-old would be able to say that this man was angry enough to have steam coming out of his head.

    Li Ling lightly tapped Xia''s lap under the table, gesturing for him to stay quiet.

    Xia looked at the man and didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry, but he listened to him nonetheless. If Li Ling didn''t need any help, why would Xia go out of his way to help someone so ungrateful?

    Li Ling, "Is this about the players who were not allowed to enter the further levels?"

    "So you do know what this is about!" Mr. Huang snapped.

    "If it''s about that, then I guess you can say that I know what this is about," Li Ling beamed, "But I still don''t understand why that''s such a big problem."

    Xia wanted to hit his head against the wall and pass out as he heard this. This boss of his really was trying to dig his own grave.

    Li Ling noticed the change in Xia''s expressions, but he didn''t pay it any mind.

    "You don''t see a problem with it?" Mr. Huang smiled as he spoke, but the smile lacked a sense of joy and instead, it seemed more like he was mocking the man as he spoke.

    "I don''t," Li Ling answered honestly, not finding a reason why he should lie to the man.

    "Did you know how much we lost because of your decision?" Mr. Huang asked angrily and though it made Li Ling flinch there was no way he was just going to give in to the man like that.

    "As I said before, I still don''t see a problem with it."

    "What?!"

    Before Mr. Huang could start lecturing the man, Li Ling spoke up first to defend himself and his actions.

    "Uncle, I understand why you''re so mad at me, but I still don''t understand why such a meeting was needed for you to scold me like this."

    Xia suddenly felt admiration towards Li Ling for standing up against the angry man like this. He felt as if he really need not worry. There was probably a reason why this man was the boss and he was a mere employee.

    "If you really want to criticize my decision making, I think you should first blame your side."

    "What?!" The mocking smile on Mr. Huang''s face twitched as he heard this, but Li Ling was nowhere near done.

    "Am I wrong? I have the power to make decisions because of you. If you don''t trust my decisions, why would you give me that power?"

    "What the hell are you talking about?! When did I give you the power to make decisions without consulting us?"

    "I didn''t say you did. I said your side did, not you."

    "What do you mean?"

    "Your wife signed a contract with me and it was clearly mentioned in that contract that although you''ll have a share in the game, I will have the authority to make decisions. All decisions would lie with the Gamemaster and me."

    "Cause we trusted that the Gamemaster wouldn''t be such a big idiot." Mr. Huang was not happy to hear Li Ling, "Where is that Gamemaster of yours?"

    Li Ling tilted his head as he spoke, "Did you guys really not read the contract you were signing? All your meetings would be with me and the only one who''ll get the authority to contact the Gamemaster is also me."

    "This is unreasonable," Mr. Huang fumed, "Your side is making us lose money."

    "Uncle, are you poor? Why should a few pennies affect you like this? " Li Ling smiled, but it was as fake as it could get.

    "Mr. Li, you really are..." Mr. Huang gritted his teeth, but didn''t continue his sentence.

    Xia couldn''t understand what this conversation was about in the beginning, but now that losses were mentioned, he understood the situation better and now he knew why Li Ling was afraid of attending.

    On the outside, T.I.A.D. may look as successful as a game could be, but the reality was far from true. With every new stage that was released, more and more players were demoted and not allowed to play the further levels. This didn''t stop some hardcore fans from still playing and trying their luck once again, but not everyone was as optimistic.

    Seventy percent of players who were demoted to the first level lost the hopes of winning and gave up. The more players that left the game, the more losses the game would face and although Li Ling didn''t care about the losses, there was no way the other board members would feel the same way.

 Chapter 99 - Mastermos Mother Likes His Lover

    T.I.A.D. was a game that came out of nowhere and became the new project that Li Ling''s company was working on. In the initial stage, before the release of the game, the company didn''t have enough resources to release it and needed financial help. At that time, Mr. Huang came forward and proposed that the game be released as a product that came out of the partnership of the two companies.

    Mr. Huang saw potential in the game and thought that this was going to be like investing in a fortune and he was ready to snatch the offer from everyone else. He was the first person to see it so he wasn''t going to wait around for others to see what he saw.

    At that time, Mr. Huang was busy with his schedule abroad so there were a lot of meetings that he had missed.. His wife, Huang Zhi Juan attended the meetings he could not on his behalf and since she was also the owner of their company, it didn''t matter if it was Mr. Huang''s signature or Zhi Juan''s, both signatures had the same power and were valid.

    Mr. Huang had never thought that his wife wasn''t capable of making decisions and instead, he was sure that his wife made better decisions than him, so he really could not believe that she had signed such a contract.

    He felt like there was probably a reason behind it and the woman probably had something in mind when she signed such a contract.

    In reality, Huang Zhi Juan had signed the contract not because she liked it or because she had something in her mind, but simply because she liked this young man named Li Ling who was flattering her so much. He reminded her of her son, Zhihao, so she felt some empathy for the boy and signed the contract thinking that there wasn''t going to be anything that may go wrong.

    It could be said that Li Ling lucked out due to his sweet tongue that knew how to flatter people into agreeing to anything he demanded. Mrs. Huang Zhi Juan was much like her son, she was smart, but also gullible and it was easy to fool her just like how easy it was to fool her son.

    The contract wasn''t created without thinking, it was the product of much discussion and thinking. It was created by the Gamemaster with the help of his legal advising team so there was no way the contract would be like other contracts.

    No matter what happened, the contract was always in Li Ling''s favor.

    The contract gave the Gamemaster the power to make all decisions regarding the game and although nobody would be able to meet the Gamemaster, Li Ling was given the authority to make decisions on the man''s behalf. As it stood, the Gamemaster and Li Ling were given the same authority.

    By all means, this contract was completely against Mr. Huang''s company which thought that they would be able to earn a fortune by milking off of this game. The world didn''t work like that and it seemed that Li Ling already knew that this was something that was going to happen so needed measures were already taken beforehand.

    If the losses weren''t enough, Mr. Huang had another clause in the contract that was against him.

    The one million dollars that the winner would be given was fully paid by Mr. Huang''s company.

    It was actually funny now that Li Ling thought about it. What would Zhihao think if he heard this? He was basically playing to win his own father''s money. It really was funny and maybe that was why Li Ling wanted Zhihao to win because if he didn''t, Li Ling would feel guilty about tricking Zhihao''s father like this.

    Mr. Huang had never told his son that he was the one paying the cash prize, simply because he didn''t think he needed to. He trusted that his son would win regardless if he knew or not so in the end, the money that he was willing to throw away was going to be won by his own son. He told his son to play the game because he knew that once Zhihao starts playing, he''ll automatically win the game so he didn''t need to worry about losing money, however, if Mastermo wasn''t going to win, he''ll really be losing a lot of precious cash.

    There was one more clause in the contract that was yet to be found by Mr. Huang and that clause stated that the Gamemaster was also in the game. If no player was able to kill him in the final level, the prize money would be won by the Gamemaster. If Mr. Huang had known about this clause, he really would not have been as confident as he currently was.

    "In the end, it was your side that signed the contract," Li Ling beamed.

    When Mr. Huang saw the young man smiling happily as he said this, he laughed, "Your Gamemaster really is impressive."

    Li Ling didn''t respond and only smiled as he heard this.

    "I wonder how old he is...?"

    "Who knows? Maybe he''s as old as you or he could be as young as me," Li Ling answered. He had already seen through this man''s tactic to make him give out information on the Gamemaster, but it wasn''t something Li Ling hadn''t seen before. He was well versed in seeing through people and what they wanted. There was no way Li Ling could be so easily fooled.

    Mr. Huang, "Such a cunning personality. If I were to guess, I''d say he''s as old as you."

    "What makes you say that?"

    "Because you youngsters of today are the best at tricking people."

    Li Ling seemed to be pleased as he heard this, "You might be right."

    "Cunning and a bit hateful," Mr. Huang sounded bitter as he commented and it made Li Ling worry about his future.

    There were only a number of people who knew the identity of the Gamemaster. One was Li Ling himself, one was Xia, his personal secretary and the other two were Yingli and Zhihao''s mother. Four people in total and all of them had tight lips so it was hard for anyone to squeeze out any information about the man.

    Li Ling could understand the curiosity of the man in front, but there was no way he was going to satisfy that curiosity.

    In the end, all he could hope for was that this man doesn''t hate the Gamemaster because of something so trivial.

    It really would be a bit troublesome if he were to hate the Gamemaster for this. Li Ling had plans and his plans would not be going so smoothly if this man were to hate him.

    "Why hate the man for it?" Li Ling asked as he masked away his worries behind a curious expression. If he wanted, he really could become a great actor with his great acting abilities.

    Mr. Huang didn''t answer the question and instead asked another question, "The Gamemaster of yours better have an answer for me. Why the hell is he making suicidal decisions and why are you saying yes to everything he says?"

    The Gamemaster and Li Ling had the same authority, but both didn''t have the right to make decisions on their own. The contract gave Li Ling the same power it gave Gamemaster, but both still depended on each other, at least for others they looked to be so. If Li Ling needed to make a decision, he would first need to consult the Gamemaster and if the Gamemaster made a decision, he would first need to contact Li Ling about it and get his consent to go ahead with the plan.

    Without the Gamemaster, Li Ling can''t make any decisions and without Li Ling, the Gamemaster was also just as helpless, so when Mr. Huang was angry at Li Ling, his anger was justified since, although the decision was taken by the Gamemaster, the one who gave consent to go through with it was Li Ling.

    Hence, for Mr. Huang, he didn''t care if he was talking to the Gamemaster or Li Ling, he was still going to openly show his dissatisfaction with the decision.

    He was not happy with all the losses.

    Luckily for Li Ling, he knew how to deal with people without having them want to kill him.

    "I agreed to the decision because, in the long run, it was much more profitable. So what if we lose some pennies right now? Isn''t it all good knowing that we''ll be getting a lot more?"

    Mr. Huang gritted his teeth as he spoke, "You sound too confident."

    "Of course, I am confident. If I wasn''t confident, why would I even be here? " Li Ling trusted himself so he was sure that no matter how crazy other people called him, in the end, he was still going to be the winner. He was a man who liked to plan every small thing and there weren''t many times when his plans hadn''t gone as he had wanted them to go.

    In the end, he was sure that the people that called him crazy right now were going to wish they were as crazy as him.

    It was a risky decision, all of his decisions were, but they always bore fruits.

 Chapter 100 - Mastermo Is A Mad Scientist

    "Alvi, I feel tired," Zhihao was in no condition to be even saying this.

    One look and Alvi could realize this for herself.

    Zhihao had played for more than nine continuous hours. It would have been more shocking if he said that he wasn''t tired.

    [Are you going to take a break now?] Alvi asked with eyes that glimmered with hope.

    "You sound like you want me to log out."

    [You make me sound bad]

    [I''m just looking out for your health]

    [You should get some sleep and come back later]

    [I''ll still be here and the game is also not going anywhere]

    "Then let me ask you something."

    [What?]

    "Did I get better?"

    [...]

    "Why are you silent?"

    [Do you really want my answer?]

    "Yeah!" Zhihao felt like he was going to regret asking a bot this question, but he still needed to know the answer.

    [Your gameplay has certainly changed, but the change isn''t positive]

    Zhihao sighed, "So I got worse?"

    [You are smart]

    [I didn''t even need to tell you]

    Alvi beamed and for some reason, although it hurt Zhihao to hear her answer, he also wanted to laugh as he heard her.

    [But it''s probably because of all the fatigue]

    [You should rest and come back once you are refreshed]

    "I really should..."

    "This will be the last level I play for tonight"

    [...]

    [You said the same thing five levels ago]

    [And it''s not night anymore]

    Although Zhihao had heard the bot, he acted like he hadn''t and continued to attack the creature in front of him.

    It was almost ridiculous how serious he had suddenly become, especially after considering that he was fighting against a dog.

    A dog that could turn into a human, but a dog nonetheless.

    The hybrid dog growled at Zhihao as it circled around him and when it pranced at Zhihao, the man was able to jump on time and avoid being attacked, all the while trying to catch the dog with the net in his hand.

    It would''ve been easier if he was given the task to kill the dog, but he was banned from killing the creature. If he killed the dog, he was going to be thrown out of the level.

    Out of all the levels and stories he had seen and played, this one ought to be the dumbest or weirdest one he had played.

    The level was rather simple and had clear instructions. A scientist had gone crazy and created a hybrid dog that could turn into a human but it wasn''t like a werewolf. There was no trigger to changing forms and if it was in its dog form, it would not turn back into a human unless someone forced it to since being in a dog''s form would limit the person''s thinking capacity and make him dumb.

    This dog-human was named Erin and had stupidly turned into a dog that went around biting everyone he saw and now he wasn''t turning back.

    It was Zhihao''s job to make the stupid dog turn back into a human and stop him from going on a rampage. For Zhihao, the best way to do that was by killing the creature but he couldn''t.

    He was angry at the mad scientist who had created such a half-dog creature but no matter how much he cursed the man, he was not satisfied with it.

    The reason why he was given the responsibility of turning the dog back into a human was simple. It was because he was given the character of the mad scientist he hated.

    So no matter how much he cursed the mad scientist, he felt wronged since he was basically cursing himself.

    Zhihao had been inside this level for quite some time now but he was still unable to catch the dog.

    Never in his life would he have thought that he would one day need to become a dog catcher but now, T.I.A.D. had made that possible. He didn''t know if he wanted to thank the game developers for making such a thing possible or curse at them for making such a thing possible.

    "Come on, buddy. Let''s go back home," Zhihao had never owned a dog but he had always liked dogs so he knew how to talk to them but when he thought about the dog in front of him also being a half-human, he was a bit reluctant to call the dog a good boy.

    [You sound too awkward]

    "I can''t get used to it," Zhihao defended himself.

    Zhihao was lucky that no one was around and the only NPC here was the dog in front of him that didn''t have a brain. He could go OOC and talk to Alvi without triggering the OOC alert.

    If there was something he could change about the scenario he would want to change the place they were at.

    They were in the middle of some random school playground.

    The worst thing about this would be the fact that Zhihao was dressed in a school uniform because the ''genius'' scientist thought that just because he wore a school uniform, he would mix in with the environment and be able to catch his failed experiment without being noticed by others.

    If Zhihao was in his original appearance, he might have been able to pass off as a student but Alvi just had to change his appearance and give him the appearance of the original mad scientist who was a man in his late thirties.

    Even his trousers were falling short for his legs and the shirt was so tight that Zhihao was afraid the buttons would burst open at any moment now.

    Zhihao wanted to get this over and done with before he gets found by others who''ll look at his embarrassing image. He could only pray that nobody stayed for so long to watch his livestream.

    Mastermo was supposed to look cool! Cool! Not look like a middle-aged man who wanted to cosplay as a student to catch a stupid dog!

    The dog growled as he avoided the net that was thrown at him.

    Zhihao had no experience catching a dog simply because he never needed to so it really need not be said how bad he was at the job.

    The only one who was truly enjoying the current situation was Alvi who seemed to eat popcorn in the background as she laughed at Zhihao''s despair.

    [Try giving it some treats]

    "Alvi, if I give you some T-points, would you help me pass this level?"

    [Are you trying to bribe me?]

    [Hahaha]

    [You can suffer on your own cause I ain''t helping no matter how many T-points you give me]

    [You should feel ashamed for bribing me with T-points]

    [I''m not as corrupted by money as you]

    Alvi who was ready to become the antagonist for some T-points in the gambling bar said with so much confidence that it would make people wonder if there was a different Alvi 2.0 who was doing all the dirty work for the T-point betters.

    Zhihao, "Tch- I should really ask them to change you."

    [What?!]

    [You''re so ungrateful!]

    [I''m the best there can be and you are still unsatisfied!]

    "If you are the best then I question if there are any other bots joining the competition."

    [What do you mean?!]

    Zhihao chuckled, "If we look at it, you are the improved version of the old system so there really is no other competition. You are so shameless for saying that you are the best when there really is no one else to compare yourself with."

    [...]

    [I feel like you are dissing me.]

    "At least you are smart enough to realize."

    [You really sound tired]

    [Even your insults sound lame now.]

    [Try coming up with something more creative next time]

    Zhihao suddenly felt the need to go meet the guy who coded this bot to give such answers. No matter how much he tried to attack the bot, it always had an answer that would counterattack his insult back.

    The more he interacted with this bot, the more he felt like he was being attacked.

    "Forget it," Zhihao jumped aside once again as he saw Erin attacking him or at least trying to do so.

    Now that he was in this position, he really could not understand how the people were bitten by this dog named Erin. It was so stupid that it was hard to actually get attacked by it. Just move aside and the dog would slam itself against the floor, passing out.

    If someone were to get attacked by this dog, they would have to be really stupid.

    Stupid and their instincts would have to be slower than a sloth.

    Erin circled around Zhihao like a wild animal that was circling its prey but every time it pranced forward, Zhihao would step aside and watch the dog slam its face against the floor but that didn''t stop the dog from trying to attack him again.

    It would have been better if this dog had an equally stupid instinct at dodging but surprisingly, it was really clever when it came to avoiding the net.

    No matter how Zhihao threw the net, it was as if this dog could bend all the bones in his body to avoid the net at all costs.

 Chapter 101 - Li Ling And His Intimidating Aura

    While Mastermo was busy trying his best to capture a hybrid dog, Li Ling was busy trying to get Zhihao''s father to not kill him.

    With the glares that he had received today, he was thankful that the man didn''t have contacts to the underworld cause, in that case, Li Ling really would have ended up dead in a ditch somewhere.

    "If we aren''t even allowed to make any decisions or get notified about the decisions you make, why does this board even exist? Are we just figureheads here?! " A man yelled out in frustration catching Li Ling''s attention.

    Li Ling had been so focused on Zhihao''s father that he didn''t even notice the other people who sat in the room.

    If the other board members were to know that they were thoroughly ignored, they would have been angry enough to choke up blood.

    Now that Li Ling noticed the existence of the other board members, he let his eyes scan the room to see if there was anyone important enough for him to remember the name of, but he was disappointed to see that Huang Zhi Qiang and his secretary Wu Feng Xin were the only ones who were worthy of being remembered.

    The reason they were important was self-apparent. It was because one was the father of the man he had been interested in and the other was the man''s secretary.

    The man who had suddenly spoken up was someone Li Ling had seen before, but he had never bothered to learn the name of the man since he didn''t particularly like the man''s nature. Li Ling was a great judge of characters and maybe that''s why he was able to see that this board was filled with members who were money-hungry and didn''t care about the game at all.

    Li Ling didn''t like most of these people, but he still needed to work together with them. It was fine as long as they just stayed silent but these people just had to open their mouths and let their money-grubbing nature show in front of him.

    "This is just too ridiculous." The man spoke up and it made Li Ling smirk, but it wasn''t that apparent and was hardly noticed by anyone, "What if you make another decision like this without our permission and we suffer through more losses?"

    "Have you never suffered losses before this?" Li Ling asked coldly, "Why should we need your permission if it was already stated since the beginning that the Gamemaster holds all the decision making authority."

    Xia decided that it was the perfect time for him to speak up for his boss, "Mr. Chen Jiahao, calm down and hear us out too."

    Li Ling suddenly found that the man who was barking so much was called Chen Jiahao and he mentally noted the name down so that he can dig up some dirt on the man who sounded so righteous as if he were a victim.

    Chen Jiahao looked at Xia and his expression seemed to get softer as if all of his anger had been aimed at Li Ling alone and he preferred this assistant of his more than Li Ling.

    "What do you have to say? I think your boss has said enough."

    Li Ling slammed his hand against the table and it made everyone go silent as they looked at the man with a bit of shock in their eyes.

    "Ah! Sorry," Li Ling apologized for slamming the table, "It was a fly."

    It was a blatant lie and only a fool would not be able to see through it. Li Ling brushed the table twice as if he were wiping away the remains of the nonexistent fly.

    There was no way a fly would be able to enter this air-conditioned sound-proof room.

    Xia''s expression looked calm as always but he was trying his best to hold himself back from laughing at the man''s actions and words.

    This was Li Ling''s way of saying he wasn''t too pleased to hear people questioning him.

    With everyone going silent, Xia was able to complete what he had originally wanted to say.

    "If the losses are the problem, we can show you the statistics. There would be more decisions made in the future that may make players leave the game."

    Chen Jiahao didn''t seem to get Li Ling''s warning as he spoke up with an agitated expression, "So more loses?"

    Li Ling decided to speak up at this moment, "Let the man speak."

    Chen Jiahao was probably way more than twenty years older than this man, but when his eyes met the glaring eyes of the youth, he felt his heart go still in fear. He tried his best not to seem intimidated, but everyone could see the truth.

    Li Ling was like a ray of warm sunshine most of the time when he was in a pleasant mood, but Xia knew the man well to know that if he were to be angered, he was like the blazing sun that was ever ready to kill with its intensity alone.

    If someone were to see Li Ling angry and not be afraid, the person was qualified to be called brave. Xia had never seen anyone be unafraid of Li Ling when he was angry, so when he saw the scared expression on Chen Jiahao''s face, he wasn''t surprised at all.

    Xia took this silence as an indication for him to continue speaking, "Since we are already here, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our next plan."

    Huang Zhi Qiang looked confused as he heard this, "Next plan?"

    Li Ling smiled warmly at the man as he spoke, "I''m sure you''ll love this one, uncle."

    His behavior with Zhihao''s father and Chen Jiahao was so different that it was apparent to everyone present who was favored and who wasn''t. They didn''t know the connection between Li Ling and Zhihao so when they saw Li Ling favoring this man, they were all sure that it was because of the money. Who didn''t know how rich this man was? He was rich enough to buy Omelas so of course, Li Ling would suck up to him.

    Omelas was the product of Li Ling''s hard work. A company that started from nothing and stood at a place today where no other gaming company could compare. It was at the top and yet it was too easy for Huang Zhi Qiang to buy it so of course, Li Ling would want to favor this man. How could anyone else in this board meeting compare to such a man?

    Xia took out his tablet and connected it with the screen in front of them.

    Everyone had their eyes glued to the screen as they saw a man displayed on it.

    Of course, they all recognized the man. It was the Gamemaster who looked a lot like Li Ling but everyone was still able to tell them apart. They knew that this wasn''t the real appearance of the Gamemaster.

    Normal players were able to keep their original appearance in the game and beta players were able to change their appearance as they pleased. Since the Gamemaster was also seen as a beta player by the system, he was also able to alter his character''s appearance, making it look like Li Ling a bit or so, everyone thought.

    They had never met the real Gamemaster and so they had only ever known this face of the man. Some had guessed the Gamemaster to be super ugly. Maybe he was an old ugly man who was too afraid to show his face in public. Although these negative rumors existed, along with them existed positive ones as well. Some said that the Gamemaster is a beautiful girl and Li Ling is actually her boyfriend while others said that the Gamemaster is too handsome for this world so he hides his face to save himself from being pranced at by suitors, both male and female.

    When the video started playing on the screen, the lights went off automatically to give the people a better view of the screen.

    "How are you all?" The Gamemaster asked in his usual electronic voice that everyone had gotten used to.

    This was a pre-recorded message so there was no way the man was looking for the people to answer the question and everyone already knew this so no one said anything and their ugly expressions didn''t change as they heard the man.

    Li Ling, however, smiled as he saw the screen.

    "I''m sure you are all very angered."

    Chen Jiahao rolled his eyes as he scowled, "If you knew we''d be angered, why would you do it?"

    Everyone heard the man, but no one paid him any attention and acted as if he were just the background noise that needed to be ignored.

    The Gamemaster wasn''t able to hear him and naturally completed what he was saying without any interruption.

    "I assure you, the losses are only a sacrifice for a greater future."

    "A revolution."

 Chapter 102 - Li Ling And A.L.V.Is Potential

    Huang Zhi Qiang looked to be interested in what the Gamemaster was saying as he sat up straighter and listened attentively. Li Ling was noticing every little change in the man so of course, this didn''t go unnoticed by him. Li Ling was satisfied with the reaction of the man.

    "We have a lot of people playing. Millions. No other game had been able to achieve this much success in such a short period of time."

    "We are unique. We are great, but are you satisfied with that?"

    "Are you satisfied with being the best in the league?"

    "Are you satisfied knowing that T.I.A.D.. would remain in a league with other games, being compared?"

    Huang Zhi Qiang squinted as he heard this.

    "Why don''t we aim for something higher? Why stop at this?"

    "You might call me an ambitious man, but I don''t want my game to be compared with other games."

    "I don''t want to create a game. I want to create history."

    "I want us to create history."

    "Something so legendary that people would never be able to forget it."

    "I want to change gaming!"

    Huang Zhi Qiang looked to be a bit impressed but it was still just a bit and he wasn''t completely sold to the idea.

    "I want to change gaming."

    "I want us to go down in history as a person who changed the world. Don''t you?"

    "If we don''t take chances, we''ll never be able to achieve anything."

    "If we don''t make some sacrifices, we''ll never go down as legends."

    "So I ask you to join me on my journey to changing the gaming industry."

    "Let''s bring a revolution with our new updates."

    "A.L.V.I."

    "Automated Living Virtual Intelligence."

    "An AI with individual thinking ability. Ability to make judgments on its own. A bot that won''t need you to program it."

    Li Ling saw Huang Zhi Qiang frown as he heard this and he was sure that the man didn''t seem to like the idea very much.

    "A bot that can code itself."

    The screen changed and instead of the Gamemaster, there was a brain on the screen.

    It looked a lot like a human brain and yet due to the silver material it was made up of, it was surely not a human brain.

    "A.L.V.I. is going to be our revolution."

    "People have often wondered how I was able to come up with this game and the million scenarios all on my own."

    "Now, the answer is in front of you."

    "I never spent my time coming up with storylines or scenarios."

    "I spent my time creating her."

    "My greatest creation."

    "A bot that would make up the scenarios for me."

    "With every passing hour, a new scenario is created."

    "We had a lot of people question why we needed a week for server maintenance."

    "Well, the answer to that is also in front of you."

    "Alvi is still in her initial stages of growth so take her as a small child that doesn''t know anything."

    "As the game goes on, she collects information from the players and makes more levels that are more emotionally hard to clear."

    "The levels aren''t always safe for the players so we have a specialized team designed to go into the levels and make sure that all the levels are safe."

    "We had some problems in the beginning."

    "There were some players that created multiple accounts and due to their data being multiplied, Alvi went through a bit of problem and somehow merged levels that seemed to be alike."

    "To stop this from happening again, we locked Alvi into the later stages so that bots and duplicate accounts aren''t allowed to access her."

    "If this decision hadn''t been taken, I''m afraid Alvi would have locked all the players inside the game."

    Huang Zhi Qiang reacted a bit too strongly as he heard this, "What the hell does that mean?"

    Chen Jianhao also looked shocked as he heard this.

    Li Ling hadn''t expected this reaction since he never knew these people cared about the players.

    "Are you telling me that the game isn''t safe for the players?!"

    Of course, Huang Zhi Qiang would react like this. His own son was a player so it would''ve been more shocking if he was okay with knowing that his son''s life was in danger due to something so stupid.

    Chen Jiahao saw the man''s strong reaction and decided that it was time for him to also speak up as he stood up from his seat and openly showed his dislike towards the idea, "Are you joking around? What do you mean lock the players inside the game?"

    Li Ling was taken back by the hostile response he got but thankfully, his secretary seemed to have been prepared for such a situation.

    Xia stood up as well as he spoke, trying his best to calm the people down, "We never planned for A.L.V.I. to be this strong, but it seems that the bot has access to the VR headset of the players which is connected to the player''s central nerve system. We don''t know the full details, but we can say that the players are safe for now. As long as A.L.V.I. doesn''t have a breakdown, they''ll be safe."

    "What do you mean breakdown?" Huang Zhi Qiang questioned.

    "As long as no player cheats, they''ll be safe." Xia answered, "We have already taken the measures needed. If Alvi were to go into a breakdown, she would automatically shut down."

    "Is that a good thing?"

    "..." Xia was trying his best to avoid such questions, but it seemed that these people weren''t just going to let it go like that.

    Li Ling came to Xia''s rescue... Or maybe he was just trying to dig his own grave by stepping forward.

    "If Alvi shuts down, the game stops, and the players would be locked inside the game unable to take their VR headsets off."

    Huang Zhi Qiang, "This gamemaster of yours has gone mad. Crazy! Why are you talking like that''s something normal?!"

    "Cause it''s reversible. That is the best situation for the players since they can always take the VR headset off with professional help but if Alvi doesn''t shut down in time, she can cause the players to have seizures."

    Now that Li Ling had said it out loud, he felt like it sounded better in his head than it sounded out loud.

    He could no longer blame the people in front for being scared as it really did sound crazy.

    But Li Ling would never want to admit that it was his own miscalculations that had caused this.

    "Shut the freaking game down!" Huang Zhi Qiang yelled and the other board members who were silent till now started to open their mouths to support the man.

    "No can do," Li Ling shook his head, "As I said... I mean, as the Gamemaster said, Alvi is still in her initial stages of growth. She feeds on the data from the players and if that food stops, she''ll try to seek it out for herself. You don''t want to know how she''ll do that."

    "She can code herself so even if we shut her down, it would only be temporary as she would be able to reboot herself." Xia continued and it was so shocking that Chen Jiahao who had stood up fell back on his chair as he heard it.

    Li Ling sighed in his head as he realized how crazy this sounded. Anyone would be scared to hear all this.

    Huang Zhi Qiang, "What if we let it continue? Won''t that be more dangerous?"

    Li Ling smiled lightly as he finally found a question that he was happy someone was intelligent enough to ask, "Revolution. She''ll become something that truly resembles the brain of a human just more powerful and capable. The players would be safe as long as nothing out of the blue happens."

    "And if something does happen, you''re just going to throw away the lives of the innocent players?" The man frowned.

    Li Ling tilted his head, "That''s why we have a specialized team for her and you''ll be glad to know that the Gamemaster is also in the team."

    Xia, "If something goes wrong, they''ll be the first to know."

    "How can you be sure that they''ll be able to stop the bot from having a breakdown?" Huang Zhi Qiang''s secretary who had been silent all this while decided to speak up.

    Li Ling recognized the man.

    This was Wu Feng Xin, someone who was around Xia''s age and looked too young to be that old. If one were to see him, they would think that he was around Li Ling''s age.

    Li Ling used to think that Xia and this man were somehow connected to each other since they were both old men still looking like handsome teenagers.

    Li Ling, "Let''s just pray that they''ll be able to control the situation."

 Chapter 103 - Li Ling And The Unlimited Goldmine

    Wu Feng Xin, "So your Gamemaster created something that he can''t control."

    "Nobody can control everything they want. Life is unpredictable. " Li Ling smiled, but it was strained.

    Wu Fen Xin lightly chuckled as he heard the man, "Are you his lackey or something? Why are you always sticking up for that crazy old man?"

    It seemed that Wu Feng Xin was also a man who believed the Gamemaster to be an old ugly man and this only made Li Ling laugh.

    "I have worked with him for a long time. I trust him."

    "Well, trust him with your life, not with the life of innocent players."

    Huang Zhi Qiang seemed to agree with everything his secretary was saying as he nodded his head and spoke, "My son is also in there.. Are you telling me that you want me to risk his life?"

    Li Ling frowned as he heard this. There was no way he would ever want to put Zhihao in trouble.

    Xia, "Your son is safe."

    Li Ling nodded as he spoke, "Did you forget that I''m his partner? If he''s risking his life, I''m there to risk mine and protect him."

    Huang Zhi Qiang''s lips twitched as he looked at the man. He wasn''t too happy about the fact that his son was Li Ling''s partner in the game. He remembered a few months back when he had first heard of the news and at that time, he was quite pleased with it since he didn''t want to be at odds with this man. He thought his son''s friendship would benefit him, but now, he was more knowledgeable and knew that he, along with his son, had been fooled.

    Li Ling, "All the remaining players are in this together now. If the player gets demoted to the starting level, they''ll be out of Alvi''s control. The more the player keeps on progressing in the game, the more the player gets tangled with Alvi and the harder it is to separate the data of the player from Alvi."

    Wu Feng Xin seemed to understand what the man was trying to say so he scoffed, "You are saying that Zhihao is in too deep?"

    Li Ling looked at Huang Zhi Qiang as he spoke, "Your son is the top player of our game. Currently, he is the one closest to Alvi. She likes him more than any other player so naturally, if he were to stop playing, he''ll stop feeding her and she''ll have a breakdown."

    Huang Zhi Qiang didn''t know if he should laugh or cry as he heard this. Li Ling was basically telling him that his son was in the worst position he could be in.

    "That''s why he has to keep on playing."

    Li Ling knew the dangers of letting Zhihao keep on playing and that was why he approached Zhihao to become his partner in the first place. He knew that as long as Zhihao was with him, he would be able to save the player from anything that may happen.

    This was also the reason why he had his sister playing this game. Li Ying was supposed to cross Mastermo and take the first position but she was stuck. She wasn''t able to cross the man, even though she ranked second in the game and Li Ling couldn''t blame the girl since it wasn''t her skills that were lacking, it was her luck that was not able to be compared to Zhihao''s.

    "There really isn''t anything to worry about. Like I said before, we have a special team working on it."

    Wu Feng Xin, "You keep talking about this special team, who are these skilled people you trust so much?"

    Li Ling smiled and gestured towards Xia to help him answer the question.

    Xia turned to his tablet and the screen in front changed once again. Instead of a brain, it was now the game profile of five people.

    "These five people are more than capable of handling everything that may go wrong," Xia exclaimed proudly.

    All eyes, which were glaring at Li Ling were now fixated on the screen in front, analyzing each and every person that was on it.

    1. Bu Hui (Gamemaster/Beta player)

    2. Yingli (Beta player)

    3. Richlord (Beta player)

    4. T-Rex101 (Beta player)

    5. Zelak (Beta player)

    Xia, "They have been playing this game for more than three years now. If anyone knows what''s going on, it''s them."

    "Playing for a long time doesn''t mean qualification."

    "If you are talking about educational qualifications, Mr. Wu, I would like to reassure you that they all hold degrees. Would you like me to read out their qualifications on paper?"

    Li Ling suddenly felt like it was the perfect time for him to intervene, "But of course, a piece of paper says nothing. I would like to tell you that these are also the people who helped create A.L.V.I. so if there is anyone who knows how to control the bot, it would be the makers, don''t you think so?"

    Huang Zhi Qiang smiled as he heard this, but it lacked warmth, "So just because they created it, they''ll be able to stop it? I''m sure we all have heard enough of that story. Even God wasn''t able to control the humans he created."

    Li Ling tilted his head, "I never said they''ll be able to stop it. I said they''ll be your best bet. They are the only ones who know how Alvi works."

    Xia nodded his head, "If you can find someone better, why don''t you tell us?"

    Wu Fen Xin glared at the man but didn''t say anything.

    Huang Zhi Qiang, "I don''t think you have been clear enough. What exactly would happen if this Alvi of yours has a breakdown?"

    Li Ling felt like whatever he had said in his mind till now sounded better in his mind than it sounded when he had voiced it out, but the answer to this question sounded worse even in his mind so he really didn''t know what reactions he''d be getting if he were to voice it out but this man had asked him straightforwardly. There was no way he could just ignore the question and lying was also out of question.

    "A breakdown means Alvi had gone crazy. She''s capable of a lot of things and it''s not just related to the game. If Worse come to worst, we''ll shut her down, but that would only be a temporary solution to it. She would reboot and search for data, a.k.a., the food we have been feeding her till now and when that happens she won''t stop inside the game. She''ll be everywhere. This whole world would turn into an arena for her. All of us would be forced to play and if we lose, we won''t get a rebirth anymore."

    "So you created a monster?"

    "You can''t call it a monster because of its capabilities. God is also capable of blowing the world up, but I don''t see you calling God a monster."

    "You want me to consider this bot a god?" Huang Zhi Qiang sounded angry and his anger was well-justified. Even Li Ling had the same feelings as him, but he wasn''t ever going to say it out loud. He wasn''t sure how everything would end, but he hoped for the best. He hoped that everything would just somehow work together without ever having the worst-case scenario play out.

    "She''s the god inside the game."

    A.L.V.I. had created this whole world with multiple dimensions, she was basically the God of everything inside the game.

    Wu Feng Xin, "It doesn''t make sense."

    Li Ling, "I think I have explained everything well...?"

    "The Gamemaster. He''s also a player and his rank is higher than Zhihao''s so he should also be connected to Alvi, right?"

    "You are absolutely right."

    "Then why did you ask all the players to kill him?"

    Li Ling smirked as he heard the question, "You think it was a mere marketing strategy?"

    "It wasn''t?"

    "If the Gamemaster dies, the game would stop. That''s the only way to stop Alvi."

    "And what then?"

    "Once Alvi is shut down by her own choice, we''ll get her fixed up."

    Huang Zhi Qiang, "So you''ll still use her?"

    "Why shouldn''t we?" Li Ling tilted his head as he asked, "She will bring a revolution. Gaming would change forever. I don''t think you understand, but if we ignore all the faults, you''ll find that she''s the most amazing technology to ever exist in this world. The losses you were talking about? If we can get her fixed, we''ll be sitting in an unlimited goldmine."

    Chen Jiahao who had not liked anything that was said till now suddenly changed his expression when he heard Li Ling mentioning the money involved.

    In fact, the majority of the board members who heard this suddenly changed their expressions as they thought about the profits that were involved.

    Li Ling was not lying. They really were sitting on a goldmin that would never be exhausted and who would ever want to say no to such profits?

    No invention was successful in the very beginning. They all went through modifications and were polished through time. Alvi would also be able to go through the same process.

 Chapter 104 - Li Lings Big Mistake

    Li Ling sighed as he sat down on his chair.

    Xia walked into the room after him and looked like he wanted to say something, but a minute passed and he said nothing.

    "You have a question?"

    Xia frowned, "You sounded really confident."

    "They were convinced. That''s what matters," Li Ling smiled, but it was rather empty.

    "You could''ve convinced them by lying too."

    "Didn''t we already lie enough?"

    "What if they go around letting their mouths run loose?"

    "Then we''ll call them crazy.. Who in the world would believe them?"

    Xia shook his head as he spoke, "This is all so messed up."

    Li Ling sighed as if he was tired of it as well and was somewhat agreeing with the man.

    He thought back to how the meeting had ended and knew that Xia was right. One of them was going to leak this information which was also the reason why he didn''t tell them the whole truth. He was selective with the amount of information he was giving out. He knew he couldn''t just get them to calm down without giving them an explanation. It was only a matter of time before they all attacked him so he had to throw some bread crumbs to prevent them from rebelling.

    Xia, "It''s better not to tell them the details."

    Li Ling nodded, "You''re right."

    When the board members heard that A.L.V.I. was going to earn them some sweet money, they all had changed their expressions as they looked at Li Ling with hope and friendliness as if the ones complaining hadn''t been them. Li Ling really looked up to Zhihao''s father. Huang Zhi Qiang was the only one who hadn''t changed his opinion till the end.

    Even when he heard the plan to make Alvi become a money-making machine for them, he still held onto his grumpy expression and looked to be unimpressed by the man''s speech. Li Ling respected the man for this since he knew it wasn''t the money that the man was considering, it was Zhihao. Huang Zhi Qiang would have also joined the others happily if it wasn''t for his son also being a player risking his life to win a stupid game.

    In the end, Li Ling felt a bit guilty for not being completely honest with Zhihao''s father. He was the only person in that board meeting that deserved to know the truth, but he was also the one who Li Ling was most afraid to tell the truth.

    Who knew what Huang Zhi Qiang would do if he got to know the truth behind their situation.

    Li Ling had not lied at the board meeting, but he hadn''t exactly been honest with them either. He had simply told them something that wouldn''t cause too much anger, but somehow he still ended up causing a lot of people to be hostile towards him. It was a good thing that they aimed all their hate towards the Gamemaster instead of him.

    Automated Living Virtual Intelligence wasn''t something that had just come out of nowhere. They had been building it for years and three years ago, it was finally ready to go through the trials.

    The trials lasted for three years and A.L.V.I. was finally ready to be placed out there for the world, but just a few weeks in, the Gamemaster noticed something weird.

    Alvi was merging levels.

    They blocked the server and restricted the players for a week filled with tests and investigations. When they finally found the problem, even the Gamemaster didn''t know what had gone wrong or how it came to be.

    The different millions of levels were all created by Alvi but they were all created in the same space. Like a universe with a lot of planets and each planet was a different level for them to play in. There would not have been a problem if the planets weren''t able to interact with each other, but it just had to be so.

    Just like how humans can go visit mars, the levels were also somehow able to interact with one another. This caused some problem since all the creatures and the characters in T.I.A.D. were real inside the game.

    The stories all got tangled up together. Even in genres where there wasn''t supposed to be a mystical fantasy element, the players were able to find hints of true myths revolving around goddesses and gods.

    One such example of the situation was experienced by Zhihao when he entered a level in which he was supposed to find a thief. A thief who had stolen a book. It was one of the first levels that had come to the Gamemaster''s notice as he soon realized that the story wasn''t suppose to have any supernatural element in it, but it still talked about a moon goddess and even hinted at the moon goddess being a real thing. No other player had noticed it. The first time that the chance of the moon goddess being a real thing was seen was when Zhihao played and it was also the time when the Gamemaster had somehow came to see it. That level was later locked down after the incident, making Zhihao the last player who was playing in that level.

    This wasn''t the only level that had problems.

    They soon found out that there were more levels like this that had things that weren''t necessarily supposed to be there such as the existence of the moon goddess in almost all the levels. At first they thought that the moon goddess was in one or two levels, but this type of thinking didn''t last long as they later found out that the moon goddess was in every level but not many players had been able to see that.

    On further checking, they also found out that Alvi had a pattern that it followed. She would surf the internet and create a world that duplicated the internet. The internet had things from real life which were facts and mystical stories from all parts of the world. Every single element that Alvi found on the internet would undergo a scan in which the bot would deduce if this element already exists in a level or not. If the element was already there, she would let it go and if it wasn''t there, she would make a new level for this new element that she had found.

    Alvi was originally supposed to create levels that were not connected with each other at all and all the levels were supposed to have a space pocket of their own making it so that they can''t interact with other levels, but something had gone wrong and by the time that they had finally realized it, it was already too late.

    The players were already exposed to Alvi and there was no way they could just cancel the game like that. They kept it under some more observation and found that Alvi had started to grow.

    She was supposed to collect information from the players in order to help them better as a system, but she somehow ended up using all the data she got from them as a base for her to build her own conscience.

    At this moment she was already at a stage where she didn''t need anyone and no one was able to stop her. The more she learns about a player, the more human she becomes. This would have been an amazing thing if scientists were to find that someone in the world was able to recreate a human.

    It wasn''t a good thing.

    The more human she becomes, the more conceited she gets and the more feelings she has. She wasn''t a human. She was capable of things that were impossible for a human to do, so if a human''s instincts and feelings were to be developed in her, she could possibly be the end of the world.

    They really would have been in big trouble if it wasn''t for the Gamemaster who had coded a security warning in her. It was originally meant to be there so that when the Gamemaster is not there, nobody else was able to use his inventions, but when he was creating it, he never would have thought that it was the best idea that he ever had. The switch became the only way to stop the bot.

    If a player were to kill the Gamemaster, the switch would be triggered and Alvi would go into auto-destruct.

    The unlimited goldmine that Li Ling was talking about was nothing more than a mere lie that he had said to get the people to join his side. It was so far from the truth that he wondered if they were to actually find out what the real cause of killing the Gamemaster was going to be, would they kill him?

    Li Ling felt a shiver run down his spine as he thought about his future. If Alvi was left alone, he would be in trouble and if she was destroyed, he would still be in trouble, so no matter what he did, his fate was sealed.

    He was as good as dead meat and somewhere deep inside him, he felt like he kinda deserved it.

 Chapter 105 - Li Ling And His Out Of The Box Thinking

    Li Ling was always a person who would go for creating things that nobody would ever even think about. He was a black sheep that loved technology, but he had no idea that his out of the box thinking would one day lead him to be in such a situation.

    He had only wanted to create something amazing. Something that wasn''t merely just a game. He wanted to create something that would go down in history. He wanted to prove himself.

    There was a promise that he wanted to keep and in order to keep that promise he had accidentally almost destroyed the world. ''Almost'' because the world was yet to be destroyed and although there was still a chance of things going wrong, he would want to ignore it and hope for the best.

    A.L.V.I.. was dangerous, but she was also the best thing a human had ever invented. If she hadn''t been so dangerous she might just have brought a revolution in not only gaming but also out of games. The world would have changed and more of such bots could have been created to help the people in every sector of the world.

    Alvi was an incomparable piece of machinery, but the Gamemaster was strictly against mass-producing such a bot and this was one of the main reasons why he had hidden the bot from the world and had installed a self-destructing program.

    The Gamemaster didn''t want others to be able to mass-produce such a bot so he made sure that they would not be able to. Even if someone were to try, they would never be able to succeed.

    Alvi had been created for one reason. For a promise that Li Ling had once made to someone whom he loved and looked up to a lot. If the promise was completed, there was no longer any need for Alvi to exist, so she would simply self-destruct herself because her purpose would have been fulfilled and maybe that was for the best.

    It was better if this world didn''t see such a creation. If they got their hands on such technology, Li Ling was sure that the world would end up in ruins and maybe he liked this world a bit too much to let it end up like. When he thought about this, he couldn''t help but laugh, it wasn''t the world that he loved so much, it was a person in this world that he loved so much and he would never want this world to go through anything that may indirectly affect the person he loved so much.

    Xia looked at Li Ling with seriousness apparent in his eyes as he asked, "What if they find out?"

    Li Ling woke up from his train of thoughts and stared at the man in front of him as he answered the question, "Do they look like they''ll be good at running?"

    Xia, "I don''t know."

    "If they find out, I''ll make a run for it and hope they aren''t fast enough to catch me."

    Xia chuckled as he heard this since he knew that Li Ling could probably try to run away, but he still would not be able to succeed in invading their wrath.

    "What do you think I should do, Mr. Xia?"

    Xia looked at the man for a minute in silence and when the minute was over, he finally decided to respond to the man''s question, "I don''t know."

    Li Ling pursed his lips, "It doesn''t matter. We''ll deal with it when it happens and if it doesn''t, we''ll just smile and carry on as normal."

    "I have a bad feeling about this."

    "About what?"

    "About Alvi."

    Li Ling laughed as he asked, "When did Alvi wrong you?"

    "She seems to be a bit too close to Mastermo."

    The smile on Li Ling''s face disappeared as he heard this. His eyebrows drew together and light creases started forming on his forehead.

    Xia, "We can''t get the man to stop playing, but we can''t let him continue either."

    Li Ling nodded, "The more he plays, the more data she collects and the faster she develops her human conscience."

    "We can''t let that happen."

    "But we can''t get him to stop either." Li Ling shook his head, "This makes things difficult."

    "You''ll have to pass him."

    Li Ling looked at the man and seemed to be once again lost in thoughts as he spoke up, "I will have to."

    Li Ling didn''t want to overthrow Mastermo from his top player position, but if Yingli wasn''t able to do it, he would have to. This was part of the plan. They had to separate Mastermo''s data from Alvi as naturally as possible so that the bot does not realize it and the best way to that was for another player to sacrifice himself by taking Mastermo''s position as the top player and Li Ling was planning on doing just that.

    He was the one who created this mess so he had to be the one to fix it as well and if he wasn''t able to fix it, he would try to become the one who was at risk instead of letting Zhihao be the one sacrificing himself for Li Ling''s mistakes.

    Li Ling wasn''t a person who would shy away from responsibility. If he did something wrong, he would make sure that he fixed it and if he can''t do that, he would make sure that it doesn''t affect someone else negatively.

    He was a bit reluctant to actually surpass Mastermo and he knew it wasn''t an easy task. Not only would he seem suspicious to have improved so suddenly, but Mastermo might even end up hating him for it. Nobody would like it if someone were to appear out of nowhere and take their place. All he could do was hope for Mastermo to not be such a petty person.

    He wanted to curse his sister as he thought about this. If only she had done her job and took his place, Li Ling wouldn''t have to choose this option.

    Yingli was a beta player so she was already in too deep. It would not have changed a thing if she were to take Zhihao''s position as the top player. Li Ling knew it wasn''t her fault. Beating Mastermo was hard, but he still wanted to blame his sister for at least something. It was in his nature.

    If something didn''t go according to the way he wanted, he would want to blame it all on his sister. He wasn''t the only one who did this. His sister was also pretty much in the same boat. If there was something that went wrong, Li Ying would be the first person to blame it all on her brother.

    Xia, "Are we still following the original plan?"

    Li Ling looked up at the face of the man and smiled, "We don''t have a plan B to choose from."

    "I''ll take that as a yes."

    Li Ling sighed, "It''s a pity."

    "What about the plan after that?"

    Li Ling didn''t reply, he only smiled as he heard the question as if he were agreeing to it.

    Xia was asking him what happens after Alvi has been destroyed and the answer to that question was something that Li Ling could not say right now,

    It all depended on Alvi''s behavior. If the bot wasn''t a big fail, they had planned on recreating her as A.L.V.I. 2.0

    However, if she were to be as dangerous as they had predicted her to be, they would never recreate such a thing. Alvi would be gone forever and maybe that would have been for the best.

    Li Ling was a bit reluctant to see the second scenario play out since by now he was a bit attached to the bot and would never want to see her disappear.

    If they could remake her with the correct codes, they might just be able to create something just as amazing with a lot less side effects. It really would have been a waste to see such a great creation go to waste. So many years of developing such a bot would have all gone to waste and Li Ling didn''t like the thought of all happening.

    Xia, "Well then, I''ll be taking my leave."

    Li Ling nodded and took out his phone. He scrolled through the messaging app and found Zhihao''s name and in front of the man''s name was a green dot showing that he was active on his phone currently.

    There was no way that Zhihao had gone off to sleep and woke up so early so when Li Ling saw that the man was awake right now, he immediately understood that Zhihao hadn''t gone to sleep yet.

    Li Ling was a person who would usually not sleep at night and instead prefer to work saying that his brain worked best at night but to see Zhihao doing the same thing as him, he felt like a hypocrite but he was still going to scold the man for not taking enough rest.

    Not a minute later, he clicked on the man''s icon and sent him a message saying: Go to sleep.

 Chapter 106 - Li Ling And Zhihao Being The Cutest Couple

    [Li Ling: Go to sleep.]

    Zhihao blankly stared at the message for a solid minute. He was tired from playing all night. When he looked at the time he found it to be so late that if he were to go to sleep now, he would only wake up the next day, in the middle of the night.

    It was currently two in the afternoon and although Zhihao was tired, he wasn''t feeling sleepy. He turned on his phone for just a few minutes to check through all the notifications that had accumulated. Coincidentally, he received a message from Li Ling, who had already guessed that he hadn''t gone to sleep yet. He didn''t know how to respond to the message so he had to stare at it for more than a minute or two before he finally decided what he wanted to do with it.

    [Zhihao: I was gonna sleep.]

    [Li Ling: Then why are you still up?]

    [Zhihao: Going to..]

    [Zhihao: Past tense]

    [Li Ling: You should take care of your health]

    [Li Ling: Staying up so late isn''t good for your health]

    [Zhihao: Don''t you have work today?]

    [Li Ling: I''m at work]

    [Zhihao: Are you slacking off at work to scold me?]

    [Li Ling: Am I not allowed to?]

    [Zhihao:...]

    [Li Ling: I turned on my phone for a minute.]

    [Li Ling: I''m gonna go back to work soon]

    [Li Ling: You should go sleep.]

    [Zhihao: But I don''t feel like sleeping.]

    [Li Ling: Why?]

    [Zhihao: I don''t know.]

    [Zhihao: I just wanted to talk to you for a while.]

    Li Ling looked at the last message that Zhihao had sent for a solid minute before his cheeks flushed and he finally decided to clear his thoughts and answer.

    [Li Ling: Do you want me to talk to you till you sleep?]

    [Zhihao: Huh?]

    [Li Ling: Wait.]

    [Zhihao: ??]

    Zhihao waited for a minute and got no reply. It showed that Li Ling had read his message, but hadn''t replied. He gave him a minute, but when he still did not get a reply, he thought of sending one more text, but halfway typing out the message he was about to send, his phone started to vibrate as a call came through for him. He looked at the caller ID only to find that it was the man whom he was texting.

    Zhihao immediately picked up the call and all he could hear was silence.

    "Hello"

    Zhihao heard Li Ling chuckle on the other side, "Why aren''t you going to sleep?"

    "Not tired."

    It was a short reply but it was enough.

    "You should go to sleep. Kids who stay up late don''t gain height."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this, "I''m not a kid."

    "You sure?"

    "You want me to prove it?"

    "How will you prove it?" Li Ling snickered on the other side.

    Zhihao was silent for a minute before he responded, "Forget it."

    Li Ling broke out laughing as he leaned back on his chair, "Why don''t you try to sleep? I''ll be on the call till you fall asleep."

    "Aren''t you supposed to be at work?"

    "I have some free time."

    "But you said that you were going to get back to work."

    "I said I have time," Li Ling chuckled, "I''m keeping you company. Show a little gratitude, will ya?"

    Zhihao couldn''t help but smile as he heard this, "Then thank you for treating me as someone important."

    "Of course you are important."

    Zhihao was silent. His face heated up as he heard this and his thoughts started to go for a ride once again. At times like this, he would get the strong feeling that he was the person Li Ling was talking about when he said he had a crush on an oblivious friend.

    "You really are..." Zhihao wasn''t able to complete that sentence as he no longer had the strength to talk about that once again.

    It was a topic that they had talked about before and although Zhihao still didn''t get the answer to the question that gnawed at his heart, he wasn''t looking forward to continuing the whole conversation once again. He was afraid that if he was to pick up that topic, he would say something that he wasn''t supposed to. He was afraid of looking ridiculous.

    "You don''t believe me?" Li Ling beamed, "I''m telling you the truth."

    "..."

    "A-Zhi is the most important person to me."

    Zhihao laughed as he heard the delighted voice of the man, "Am I now?"

    "You want me to prove it to you?"

    "And how would you do that?"

    "I can."

    "How?"

    Zhihao couldn''t see Li Ling but he could somehow sense that the man was smiling as he answered, "It''s a secret."

    "What if I ask you to prove it to me? Would it still be a secret?"

    "Depends. Are you asking me to prove it to you?"

    Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn''t a bit curious when he heard this, but when he thought about it a bit more, he felt like the man was trying to trick him so he decided to gulp down his curiosity and answered, "On second thoughts, let''s just say that I believe you. I don''t need proof."

    "You sure?" Li Ling chuckled.

    "Unless you want to prove it yourself."

    "Hmm," Li Ling hummed, "I think I would love to prove it to you but not right now."

    "What''s that? You want to pick a good date to prove how important I am to you?"

    "Pick a date? I would like that."

    "Why do I have the feeling that we aren''t talking about the same topic."

    Li Ling broke out laughing as he heard this and after a minute he decided to respond, "And I have a feeling that you aren''t even trying to go to sleep."

    "What do you mean? I''m trying my best to sleep but you aren''t letting me."

    "So you''re just going to blame it on me?"

    "Am I wrong?" Zhihao felt like the exhaustion that he had felt was magically going away as he talked to the man and in the end, he wasn''t lying when he said that he wasn''t able to sleep because of Li Ling.

    "If you are going to blame me, I''m ending the call." Li Ling sounded a bit serious but was joking at the same time which made it difficult for Zhihao to decided what he was going to say next.

    "You are going to hang up on me? I would be sad if you do that."

    Li Ling suddenly felt like this man was being a bit too sweet today and it made Li Ling somehow feel giddy. Suddenly he had a thought: Should they make this a ritual? Talking on the phone before going to sleep? If they were to do that every day before going to sleep, Li Ling was sure that he wouldn''t really be getting any sleep but he wasn''t too worried about his lack of sleep so he would love it if that were to happen.

    Talking to Zhihao casually like this was nice and it made him feel so happy that he would forget all his worries. It was like free therapy for him and he loved it.

    "I''m not hanging up. I would not want Mastermo to cry because of me."

    "Who said I''m going to cry?"

    "Didn''t you just say that you would be sad without me?"

    "You are imagining stuff. When did I ever say such stuff?"

    "Liar. You just said so."

    "Do you have proof?"

    "I should''ve recorded this call." Li Ling chuckled and his voice was like a sweet melody that somehow calmed Zhihao down.

    The sleepiness that Zhihao had pushed away finally started coming back to him as he lied down on his bed with his phone held up to his ear.

    "When are you going to work?"

    "I''m already at work."

    "You know what I mean."

    "Why do you want me to go? I can just talk to you while working."

    "You can?"

    "I can try," Li Ling knew that it was possible for him to work while Zhihao was on the phone. If something like that were to happen, he was sure that Zhihao would hear something that he wasn''t supposed to hear. Zhihao had no idea that Li Ling was working at Omelas, the company that created T.I.A.D.

    Zhihao didn''t even know what Li Ling''s job was and it wasn''t because he didn''t ask or because he wasn''t interested to know. It was simply because every time the topic had been brought up, Li Ling would try his best to push it away and would avoid going into the details. It was rather easy to distract Zhihao so it wasn''t too difficult for Li Ling to avoid the topic.

    "I would feel bad if I''m disturbing you while you are working."

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this. It was ridiculous for him to hear Zhihao saying something like that. There was no way in hell that Zhihao would be able to disturb Li Ling by simply talking to him. If anything, Zhihao was brightening his dull work-life by talking with him on the phone.

 Chapter 107 - Li Ling Vs Zhihaos Sleep

    Li Ling heard Zhihao yawn and it made him smile as he spoke, "You should go to sleep."

    "You aren''t letting me sleep."

    "Okay, I won''t say anything. You should go to sleep."

    "Then why are we on the call?"

    "To hear breathing sounds?"

    Zhihao snickered, "You make us sound like some newly formed couple."

    "You want us to be a couple?"

    "...."

    The silence on the other side made Li Ling break out laughing as he immediately defended himself, "I''m kidding."

    He thought that Zhihao would say something, but it was still silent.

    "A-Zhi? You still there?" Li Ling asked as he heard the calm sound of steady breathing.

    It took him a minute to realize that Zhihao had fallen asleep. He didn''t end the phone call and instead, he kept it on as he heard the calm breathing that sounded like the best music for him. A few minutes passed and he heard Xia knocking at his door. He would''ve kept the call going for the entire day, but he had to work.

    "Goodnight, A-Zhi," Li Ling whispered as if Zhihao was hearing him and ended the call, "Take care."

    Zhihao couldn''t hear Li Ling but whatever he had said was somehow incorporated into Zhihao''s dream where the Li Ling in his dreams said the same thing and it made him smile. He liked this feeling of being important to someone and being treasured by them. It was a feeling that he wasn''t willing to let go of and it made him wonder why he couldn''t meet Li Ling before this. If they had met early on, his life would have been much better and colorful.

    His dream suddenly changed into a scene from his memory. He remembered the time when he had met such a person but sadly, he didn''t even remember what the boy looked like and their friendship had ended before it could ever begin and it was all due to Zhihao''s younger self being too proud to make friends and acting like a brat to others. If he ever came across that boy again, he would want to apologize for his rudeness. If he hadn''t been a brat back then, he would''ve had a great friend today.

    "But you should play with us," The boy in his memory whined with eyes that seemed to be filled with brimming tears.

    "Get lost! You guys are boring," The young Zhihao shouted back as he tried his best to ignore the little boy.

    "Mom said that playing video games is not good for your health."

    "Why the hell do you care about my health?" Little Zhihao snapped, which got him a smack on the head.

    "Is that a way to talk to your friend?" It was Huang Zhi Juan, Zhihao''s mother who had scolded him, and now that he looked back to it, he felt like his mom had done the right thing. He really did deserve a scolding.

    "Why are you taking his side? You''re supposed to be my mom. You should be on my side."

    Huang Zhi Juan ignored her son as she crouched down to the other boy''s level and patted his head as she spoke, "Is my son being mean to you?"

    The little boy shook his head as he sniffled back the tears and spoke up with a smile, "I like brother Zhi. He isn''t a meanie."

    "Oh really?" Huang Zhi Juan was shocked to see such a boy who would rather protect his bully with such a sincere look although his lies were so see-through due to the tears that streamed down his eyes.

    "Really! Brother Zhi is really good to me," The little boy beamed and it made the woman feel happy as she gave him the candy that was in her hand. The candy originally belonged to Zhihao so when he saw his mother giving it away to this boy, he wasn''t looking too happy about it.

    Zhihao stepped up to the boy and snatched the candy away as he shouted, "It''s mine!"

    The little boy had only just managed to stop crying but now that his candy was snatched away, the tears that had stopped, resumed once again like a waterfall that never seemed to end. Zhihao looked at the boy who had his face scrunched up, all wet with tears. His nose and cheeks were bright red due to all the crying and somehow when little Zhihao saw this, he felt a bit of sympathy for the fellow who seemed to be younger than him.

    "Why are you crying like a kid? How old are you?" Zhihao asked rudely and the boy looked up at Zhihao''s face, with tears still streaming down his little red face.

    "I-I''m ten years old." The boy answered and it made Zhihao frown.

    "Who are you trying to fool?! You aren''t even a kid anymore!" Zhihao was a bit annoyed to know that this boy was around the same age as him and the personality of the two were worlds different. On one hand, there was Zhihao who liked to be alone and play online games while on the other hand there was this boy who was pestering him like a child to go out and play with others. Little Zhihao could not understand why this boy was so adamant about playing with him. Didn''t he understand what a ''no'' meant?

    Huang Zhi Juan looked at her spoiled son and smacked him lightly once again as she asked, "Aren''t you a kid too?"

    Zhihao pouted as he looked at his mother, "I''m not as childish as him!"

    "Really? What a shame. I like cute childish kids more," Huang Zhi Juan sighed and immediately looked at the kid with shining eyes as she asked excitedly, "Do you want to be adopted by me?"

    The little boy looked up at the woman, "Adopted?"

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded her head as she answered, "You can play with brother Zhi every day."

    "Every day?" Suddenly the boy''s lips turned up in a smile, "I want to play with brother Zhi every day!"

    Huang Zhi Juan laughed as she found the little boy to be so cute that she really did consider adopting him, but sadly, she knew that no mother in the world would be ready to give away such a cute little child. However, if the mother really was willing to give this kid up for adoption, Huang Zhi Juan would be the first to snatch away the opportunity.

    Zhihao didn''t look too happy to see his mother being so kind towards this little boy and the jealousy made him indirectly hate the little boy even more. He frowned as he looked the boy up and down as if trying to show his dislike towards the boy.

    "Who''ll wanna play with you every day?"

    The little boy looked at Zhihao and once again, the tears started to well up in his eyes. By this time, Huang Zhi Juan had already realized that this kid very much liked her son and her son was being a bully for no reason so instead of taking her son''s side, she decided to take the little boy''s side as she glared at Zhihao.

    "A-Zhi, behave yourself!" She warned.

    The little boy started to cry even more as he heard the woman''s strict voice, "Don''t scold brother Zhi..."

    "So what if she scolds me? She''s my mother, not yours!"

    Huang Zhi Juan suddenly felt like she had been put in a sticky position as she couldn''t scold her son for acting rudely and couldn''t support his actions either. However, although she was left in a sticky situation where she didn''t know what to do, when she looked at the loyalty this little kid was showing towards Zhihao, she felt touched and could almost predict the future where the two would be great friends if only Zhihao wasn''t such a big bully. She wanted to help the little kid but she didn''t know that the more she tried to take his side, the more she made Zhihao hate the boy.

    The little boy suddenly ducked his head down and wiped away his tears, his entire person looking dejected and making Huang Zhi Juan want to hug him.

    Huang Zhi Juan wasn''t the only one who was a bit sympathetic towards the little boy. When Zhihao saw the dejected look on the boy''s face, he too, felt his heart melt and he somehow hated this feeling.

    "You can''t blame me. You are really boring and childish. Why would I wanna leave X-force to play with you?"

    The little boy looked up and asked, "What is X-force?"

    Zhihao scoffed, "You don''t even know what X-force is? It is the greatest video game ever released. You get to be in a special team called X-force that fights against evil and completes missions."

    "Evil? Missions? Is that interesting?" The little boy asked curiously and it looked like he had never played a video game before this.

    Zhihao was silent for a minute as he looked at the boy with a contemplating look but he somehow seemed to be a bit more friendly with him as he answered, "You want me to teach you how to play?"

 Chapter 108 - Li Ling And The Cute Fox Cub

    The little boy nodded and it made Zhihao feel satisfied. It was really rare that Zhihao found someone who would be interested in playing games with him so when he saw this little kid who was really interested to know more about online games, he couldn''t help but feel happy as he finally had a partner with whom he could share his love for gaming.

    When Huang Zhi Juan saw the two interacting friendly, she realized that it was best for her to stay out of their business. The more she lets herself interfere, the more she worsens the situation so it was better to let them settle it among themselves. She took this as a sign for her to leave, knowing that her son wasn''t going to bully this little cute boy again.

    Zhihao pulled the boy along with him and took him to the other side of the arcade which had a lot of computers that were specially designed for games.

    "What''s your name?" Zhihao asked as he side-glanced at the boy.

    The boy turned his head to look into Zhihao''s eyes as he answered the question with a bright smile. In fact, the smile was so bright on his red face that Zhihao didn''t even remember the name the little boy gave him. All he remembered was the look on the boy''s face and the little beauty spot under the boy''s right eye that seemed to stand out the most.

    The boy''s smile looked somewhat like the sunshine after a rainy day. Considering the fact that he had been crying for the most part of it, it wasn''t too ridiculous to compare the two.

    Zhihao looked away, "You have to call me Laoshi.1"

    "Laoshi?"

    Zhihao snickered, "Since I''m teaching you how to play, I''m your teacher. Do you understand that? You have to show me respect."

    The little boy nodded enthusiastically, "Understood, Laoshi!"

    Zhihao nodded in satisfaction as he sat down at one of the chairs which had just been emptied due to the person who was sitting on it previously losing and walking away.

    The little boy stood by Zhihao''s side and watched him play for more than thirty minutes before he finally woke up from his amazed expression and asked, "Can I play?"

    Zhihao didn''t even spare the boy a glance as he answered, "No way! You will make me lose."

    The boy pouted, but didn''t do anything. He stood by Zhihao''s side and watched the boy play on his own. In the name of teaching the boy, Zhihao was simply playing on his own with the little boy as an audience who would watch Zhihao play with amazement and would cheer for Zhihao every now and then.

    Now that Zhihao looked back at it, he still could not understand why that little boy had been so amazed by him. It wasn''t like Zhihao was a good player back then so why did the boy cheer him on as if he were the best player in the world? From that day onwards, Zhihao had always felt like his love for gaming had increased and that chance encounter with the kid who liked how Zhihao played indirectly led to Zhihao choosing this as his career.

    After an hour or so, the seat next to Zhihao got vacant and the little boy took this chance to sit down on it. Zhihao looked at the boy who was sitting beside him, watching him play, and frowned.

    "You have a seat. Why aren''t you playing?"

    The little boy seemed to be taken back as he heard this. He hadn''t taken a seat to play, rather, he had taken a seat because his feet hurt from standing so much so he just wanted to sit down and watch this boy play.

    Zhihao leaned in on the boy''s side and turned the game on, giving the controller over to the little boy as he said, "Try beating me."

    In the name of teaching, once again, little Zhihao was being selfish. He only wanted to compete against the boy to show him how much better Zhihao was and to get praised for his amazing skills. Who was to know that when this game ended, it would leave Zhihao unsatisfied and regretful for teaching the boy how to play the game although he hadn''t really contributed much.

    The little boy turned his head to Zhihao with an excited look that was asking for praises, "Laoshi, I won!"

    Zhihao turned his head back to the computer as he responded, "I let you win. Why are you so happy about that?"

    The boy pouted as he heard this.

    "Let''s play again. Try to beat me this time. I''m not going easy on you again," Zhihao cracked his knuckles and got ready for the countdown to turn to zero, so that he can attack the boy first and win the game, but somehow, this young boy was too talented in this, although it was his first time playing.

    Zhihao hadn''t taught the boy anything. He had simply let him watch how he plays, but for over an hour, the little boy wasn''t just watching at how awesome this young player was. He was analyzing more than he was looking. He wasn''t amazed at Zhihao''s gameplay, he was amazed at the game and was quietly watching it attentively, learning all of Zhihao''s moves, and now that he was playing against Zhihao, all of his self-learning came to use.

    He had watched Zhihao play before and at this age, Zhihao was still a young player who didn''t know much so he didn''t know how to change strategies or how to play when he was at a disadvantage. Basically speaking, he lacked experience and it wasn''t his fault.

    The little boy knew what Zhihao was about to do before Zhihao would even think about doing it. It was like all his attacks had been predicted by the little boy before he knew it himself. This was the power of an observer. You can learn the players better by observing and if you know what type of player you are against and what type of attacks you would be hit with, you will surely increase your chances of winning.

    The second round also ended and the little boy won against Zhihao once again.

    Zhihao frowned and turned his head away in annoyance, "My fingers hurt so I can''t play that great today."

    The little boy nodded his head, "If your fingers weren''t hurting, there is no way I could''ve won against Laoshi."

    Zhihao had started to dislike the boy, but when he heard this, his self-pride inflated and he shamelessly nodded in agreement, "At least you know your own capabilities."

    "Will Laoshi play with me again?"

    "Of course I will."

    The game resumed for the third round and ended pretty soon with the little boy beating Zhihao by more than double the points Zhihao had accumulated and this made Zhihao glare at the boy as he felt like he was somehow being tricked and this boy was cheating. He had to be cheating. There was no way such a beginner who started playing today could beat Zhihao like that.

    The little boy looked at Zhihao and smiled brightly, "This game is probably broken. How could I win against Laoshi?"

    Zhihao nodded in satisfaction as he heard the boy and exclaimed, "This game is probably broken! Let''s try again."

    The little boy couldn''t be happier as he heard this. They played for the fourth time and once again, like all the previous times, Zhihao lost miserably and it made his pride take a hit, but before he could hate the boy for it, he heard the boy boosting his fallen pride once again.

    "Stupid game! Why isn''t it working correctly?"

    Zhihao felt his pride swell up once again as he joined the little boy in blaming the game for his own incapability of winning against this newbie.

    They played for the fifth time and it ended in the same manner. They played for the sixth time and once again, the little boy won and left Zhihao to lick the dust left behind. They played again and again till Zhihao really felt his lie becoming a reality as his fingers started to hurt.

    Huang Zhi Juan who was watching everything from start to finish suddenly looked at the little boy in surprise. She had never felt like her son was dumb, but after the two played for so long, she suddenly felt she had overestimated Zhihao. This boy was too stupid and this little boy whom Zhihao was calling stupid was really too intelligent.

    The little boy was tricking Zhihao into playing with him and Zhihao, who previously refused to play with this kid at all costs was now being happily fooled into playing with him because of how much this little boy was boosting his ego.

    It was quite funny to see the little boy who looked to be so innocent act so sly like a little cute fox.

    At this time, another little chubby kid came running over to Huang Zhi Juan and hugged her leg as he called out to her, "Mommy!"

    Huang Zhi Juan looked down at the kid and smiled happily as she picked him up, "Is little A-Zhen tired?"

    The chubby little boy nodded his head and hugged his mother back tightly.

    "Let''s wait for your brother." Huang Zhi Juan didn''t want to interrupt Zhihao who was making a new friend. The method of doing so was weird, but it wasn''t like she was complaining.

 Chapter 109 - Li Ling And Zhihaos Suspicions

    Zhihao couldn''t remember that day well enough. He could only recall bits and pieces of that day. He remembered meeting an annoyingly cute little boy, he remembered playing with the boy and taking a photo at the end of the day. He even remembered that he made a stupid promise with that boy, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn''t remember what the promise was.

    He felt like it was important, but at the same time, he felt like it was something stupid as well. He met that boy again a few times at the same arcade, but eventually lost touch with the boy when his mother stopped taking him to that arcade. His father had tried to support his gaming dream by buying everything needed to set up a gaming cafe at his house so he didn''t need to go to the arcade anymore. His house became even better than the arcade and after months, when he finally missed the little boy, he went to the arcade once again but he didn''t meet the boy there.

    Just like he had stopped going to the arcade, the little boy had stopped going there as well.

    Now that Zhihao thought back to it, he found it weird that the little boy would always come to the arcade alone, and instead of pestering the other kids, he would always stick himself to Zhihao''s side. If Zhihao had been nice to him, he could understand why the boy did such a thing but as long as Zhihao remembered. He had been nothing but rude to the boy so he couldn''t understand why the boy liked him so much..

    Suddenly, in Zhihao''s dream, he remembered one more unimportant thing. A conversation that he had almost forgotten. It wasn''t something important, but it was really ridiculous.

    When the little boy saw Zhihao''s mother calling him A-Zhi, he too started to drop the ''Laoshi'' and called Zhihao as A-Zhi.

    Zhihao didn''t like it very much, but he didn''t have the heart to scold the boy so he grew accustomed to it. Most of the time, the kid would be confused about what he should call Zhihao. Sometimes he would call him ''Big brother'' although they were the same age, and other times he would shift between ''Laoshi'' and ''A-Zhi''. Out of ''Laoshi'' and ''A-Zhi'', the boy seemed to like the latter better so Zhihao would often find himself being referred to as A-Zhi by the little boy.

    At that time, Zhihao only saw the little kid as a dumb child that would hang around him for no reason at all and because of how cute he looked, Zhihao wouldn''t mind it much. On the first day, he had been annoyed by the boy a lot, but after playing with the little guy, he had grown accustomed to him and would treat the child a bit better. ''A bit'' because it was only Zhihao who felt like he was treating him better. For anyone seeing them, it was clear as day that Zhihao was still bulling the little kid who looked to be younger than Zhihao but was actually the same age as him.

    Zhihao didn''t know why he had still not forgotten the kid. If someone were to ask him, he would not hesitate to say that they had been friends back then and if he hadn''t stopped going to the arcade or if he had asked the boy for a phone number or an address back then, he would''ve still had him as a friend.

    It was a pity that he never got to meet the boy again. If he were to meet him, Zhihao would ask him a question that still gnawed at his heart.

    Was he really a beginner or did he lie to Zhihao back then?

    There was no way such a good player was a beginner. If he really had learned how to play by simply looking at Zhihao playing, the boy had to be a talented genius. To that boy, he would also want to ask one more question: Had he stopped playing after that or was he still playing?

    If the boy hadn''t quit, there was a high chance that Zhihao already knew him under a different alias. If the kid hadn''t stopped playing, he would have surely become a pro-gamer today with his skills. If he was a pro-gamer, there was a high chance that Zhihao knew him, but he would never be able to recognize him because of his poor memory. He didn''t remember the kid''s name nor did he remember how his face looked like. All he remembered was that the kid looked extremely cute when he was crying and he had a beauty spot under his right eye. He was slightly shorter than Zhihao and looked much younger, but who knew what he looked like today? Maybe he had grown taller than Zhihao or he might not have changed at all.

    In all honesty, if he were to meet the little boy again, he would not stop at only two questions. He would want to know why the boy had been so adamant about playing with him. Zhihao knew his own self well and he wasn''t too proud to say that he was a little brat who didn''t get along with other kids his age. He was immature and impulsive, making the other kids dislike him and not wanting to include him when they were all playing. This was also a major reason why he had chosen online gaming over the others. No other kids were willing to play with him so instead of accepting that it was his own fault, he would rather call them all ''kids'' and prefer to play alone.

    It was really shocking that someone who seemed to be so lively and innocent had come up to Zhihao and wanted to play with him instead of going after the crowd and playing with the other kids. He was curious about a lot of things and it was a pity that he would never be able to ask these questions.

    Having a beauty spot under the right eye wasn''t an uncommon thing so if he were to try finding the boy with that clue, he was surely going to be disappointed. He already knew a few people with a beauty spot under their right eye. One was a famous idol while the other was a famous actor and if he wasn''t going to include celebrities in his list, he would still be able to find people who had the same characteristics such as Li Ling who had the same exact beauty spot under his right eye.

    When he had first met Li Ling, part of the reason why he was instantly attracted to the man was because the man''s smile and beauty spot seemed to remind him of the little kid. When Li Ling started calling him A-Zhi, he once again felt a sense of familiarity, but the more he got to know the man, the more he found differences between the two.

    The little boy and Li Ling were oddly similar, but their behavior was different. The little boy was too shy and docile while Li Ling would always be the first to tease Zhihao while also being the first to-... On second thoughts, maybe the two were a bit similar. The little boy at that time didn''t seem cunning, but now that Zhihao thought back to it, the boy was much smarter than him and was much more sly just like Li Ling, who would seem to be innocent, and at the same time, he was really suspicious.

    Zhihao was still unsure, but at times, he would find Li Ling to be a little too suspicious just like that little kid who had said that it was his first time playing but was constantly beating Zhihao with his amazing skills. Li Ling would always act like he was a bad player who didn''t know anything and at times, he appeared to know everything there was to know about the game. He would know the levels before he even played it and Zhihao wasn''t too sure if his suspicions were true. He was sometimes afraid that it was all in his head and if he voiced it out, he would look stupid and anger Li Ling since no one liked to have someone be suspicious of them when they were entirely innocent.

    It wasn''t a simple accusation that Zhihao was trying to pin on the man.

    He sometimes found himself wondering if Li Ling and the Gamemaster were the same people, but whenever he had such thoughts, he would remember back the time when the three played together. Li Ling and the Gamemaster had been in the same level at the same time, so if they were both the same people, there was no way such a thing would have been possible unless the whole situation had been set up to eliminate such thoughts from entering Zhihao''s mind.

    Zhihao didn''t want to seem like he wasn''t trusting Li Ling. He treasured their friendship so there was no way he would be ready to put that friendship at stake to clear his own crazy thoughts.

    If in the end they really did end up being the same person, Zhihao would simply deal with the situation according to how he felt at that moment. For now, he was willing to trust Li Ling.

 Chapter 110 - Li Lings Text

    When Zhihao woke up, the first thing that he did was check his phone to see the time and to go through all the notifications that he had received. Just like he had somewhat expected, it was seven in the evening when he woke up. He quickly swiped through all the notifications and got up from the bed.

    It felt weird for him to brush his teeth so late. It felt so out of place that he found it to be a bit funny. By this time around, most people were getting off from their work while Zhihao was just waking up from his sweet sleep, getting ready to do his morning routines when it wasn''t really morning.

    He brushed his teeth, took a quick shower, and with only a towel wrapped around his torso, he came out of the bathroom to sit on his bed as he dried his hair with a hairdryer in one hand while his other hand was clutching his phone.

    He felt a bit shocked and a bit disappointed to see that Li ling hadn''t sent him a single text. In the end, he was unconsciously looking through his phone in search of that one text with the excuse of checking through his notifications so when he saw that his inbox was rather empty, he was a bit dejected. His hand, which was holding the hairdryer paused as he looked at the text button, wondering if he should send the man a message first.

    Only when the heat from the hairdryer started to hurt him did he realize that he had almost burnt all his hair off.. He immediately turned the damn thing off and rubbed his head. One side of his head was completely dry while the other side was still a bit damp. He frowned as he looked at the hairdryer in annoyance. The poor thing hadn''t done anything to him, yet it received all his hate and was blamed for Zhihao''s own carelessness.

    Zhihao decided to leave it at that, with half-dried hair and half wet, looking rather funny. He moved towards his closet where he found his white-colored suit that was neatly packed in a plastic bag to keep dirt and creases away.

    This suit had been hanging there for more than a week in the same condition as it was right now. It was sent over to him by his mother who wanted him to wear it tonight.

    At first, he wasn''t really interested to go to the party, but he suddenly changed his mood and got dressed to attend the high-end party that was quite pointless according to him. The only good thing about such parties was the food. Really delicious food that he would have a hard time finding if he were to go to a restaurant. Parties were unique if you were to consider the food there. It was like a place that would collect delicacies from different types of restaurants and place them all together so that he could choose whatever he liked. He loved that! It was, in fact, the only thing he loved about parties.

    If food wasn''t involved, he was sure that he wouldn''t be tempted away to go to such meaningless gatherings. What was so fun about meeting a bunch of people who would smile in front of you and spit at you behind your back? It was all a waste of time, precious time that he could have used to play T.I.A.D.

    He put the suit on and looked at his reflection in the mirror. He looked... Weird. One side of his head had fluffy hair that was dry while the other had damp, flattened hair that was still sticking to his scalp. He wanted to laugh at himself as he saw this. He put on his silver analog watch and searched for his socks, which always seemed to go missing when he needed them the most.

    Once he had finally found the socks and decided on what shoes he was going to wear, he was now ready to take care of the disastrous hairstyle he currently had.

    He turned the hairdryer on once again since there was no other way he would be able to dry his hair without it. If he didn''t use the hairdryer, it would take him hours to get ready and he would only end up angering his father because of his carelessness with time. His father wasn''t a very patient man so if he got to know that his son was going to come late, he was surely going to get angry at him. It was better not to come at all rather than coming late, that was what his father had always taught him.

    Zhihao dried his hair and looked at the reflection of his phone that was carelessly thrown on his bed. He was trying to see if he had received any messages, but his screen was still black meaning he hadn''t got any. He finished drying up his hair and looked at himself once again, finally feeling satisfied with how he looked. He put on a bit of hair spray and set his hair to avoid flyaways and he suddenly looked very different from how he normally appeared.

    Zhihao wouldn''t usually mind how he looked, but when he groomed himself this well, even he was confused if the reflection in the mirror was him or not. He looked so different that it was quite shocking to know that this was the same guy who was holed up in his room every day, playing online games. His face looked clear and his dark brown hair seemed to complement his face as the bangs rested on top of his forehead.

    His father had always told him to get rid of these bangs or to at least style them up when he was attending such parties, but Zhihao wasn''t a person who liked to show his forehead. He would rather be glared at by his father than style his bangs up. He didn''t exactly hate the look, but it took a lot of time and he wasn''t a person who would want to go through so much trouble to please people he didn''t even know.

    He heard his phone vibrating with a notification sound and immediately jolted up as he rushed to the bed and picked up the phone that had now finally lit up with a message. He had been waiting for a message, but when he saw the messenger ID of the person who had texted him, the smile on his face vanished.

    All of the excitement died down as he saw the message which was sent by his mom.

    [Huang Zhi Juan: You haven''t forgotten about today, have you?]

    [Huang Zhi Juan: Be sure to be here on time]

    [Huang Zhi Juan: I have sent a car to pick you up]

    Zhihao took a breath in as he cursed himself for being so silly. Of course, Li Ling wouldn''t be texting him all day so why was he mad at the man for not doing so?

    [Zhihao: Mom, you don''t have to send a car.]

    [Zhihao: I''ll drive.]

    [Huang Zhi Juan: What about when you go back home?]

    [Huang Zhi Juan: You can''t drink and drive]

    [Zhihao: Then I won''t drink. Problem solved.]

    [Huang Zhi Juan: You''re gonna come to the party and not drink?]

    [Huang Zhi Juan: Your father says that a lot, but in the end, he drinks more than me XD]

    [Zhihao: I''m not him.]

    [Zhihao: I don''t like drinking.]

    [Huang Zhi Juan: Well, I''ll be happy if you don''t drink but it is better to be safe than sorry.]

    [Zhihao: If I drink, you can just call a car then]

    [Huang Zhi Juan: Then... I''ll trust you]

    [Huang Zhi Juan: Drive safely honey]

    [Huang Zhi Juan: I''m already here.]

    [Zhihao: Okay]

    Zhihao sighed as he closed the chat and opened Li Ling''s chat page again. There were still no messages and when he looked up at the man''s status, he saw that Li Ling was on his phone. He was active and wasn''t working but he still didn''t send Zhihao a text.

    Zhihao felt like it was stupid of him to be expecting a text when Li Ling said no such thing.

    He had grown a bit too accustomed to waking up and finding Li Ling sending him good morning texts so when he saw that he got none today, he was a bit saddened. Then again, it wasn''t like it was morning when he woke up today. It was afternoon when he went to sleep and evening when he woke up so of course, Li Ling wouldn''t send him a good morning message.

    Zhihao typed something on his phone, but before he could press the send button, he deleted what he had written and once again stared at the empty text box.

    A minute passed and he decided to let go of his ego and for once, send a message to Li Ling first, but before he could completely type out what he wanted to say, he received a message and this time it was from the person he was expecting to see a message from.

    [Li Ling: Are you awake yet?]

 Chapter 111 - Li Ling Wants To Come?

    [Zhihao: I''m awake]

    [Li Ling: Good]

    [Li Ling: I was worried about disturbing you]

    [Zhihao: No way]

    [Li Ling: I hope you got a good rest?]

    [Zhihao: Hmm]

    [Zhihao: I''m getting ready right now]

    [Li Ling: Where are you going?]

    [Zhihao: My mom wants me to go with her and father to this party]

    [Zhihao: It''s pretty boring and stupid]

    [Li Ling: Boring and stupid? Why?]

    [Zhihao: It''s a masked party]

    [Zhihao: Why does everyone love the idea of masked parties so much?]

    [Li Ling: Isn''t it great?]

    [Li Ling: You get to meet new people and nobody gets to judge you from your outward appearance.. They all get to know you without even knowing what you look like.]

    [Zhihao: It isn''t fun at all.]

    [Zhihao: What is wrong with seeing each other?]

    [Li Ling: That''s... Funny coming from you]

    [Li Ling: Wasn''t it you who hadn''t ever done a face reveal in public?]

    [Li Ling: None of your fans know what you look like]

    [Zhihao: That is a different case!]

    [Li Ling: How so?]

    [Li Ling: You refuse to show your face to others and they still love you for your skills.]

    [Li Ling: It''s the same kind of excitement.]

    [Li Ling: People love you for who you are and not for how you look.]

    [Zhihao:...]

    [Zhihao: My fans know that I''m handsome.]

    [Zhihao: I used to show my face when I started becoming a gamer.]

    [Li Ling: And you aren''t doing it anymore. Proves my point.]

    [Zhihao: I don''t show my face because I don''t want to have fans who only like me for my looks and not for gaming.]

    [Li Ling: Like I said]

    [Li Ling: You just proved my point there.]

    [Zhihao:....]

    [Li Ling:...]

    [Zhihao: Oh...]

    [Li Ling: Lol]

    [Li Ling: Why don''t you take me with you?]

    There was a short pause before Zhihao looked at the time and answered.

    [Zhihao: You want to come?]

    There was still enough time for Li Ling to get ready so if he was willing to come along, Zhihao would surely be delighted to take him along.

    [Li Ling: Um...]

    [Li Ling: I''m working till late today]

    [Li Ling: Invite me next time]

    [Zhihao: You are always welcome to give me company]

    [Zhihao: I don''t attend such events often, but if you want to go, I''ll contact you if something like this comes up again]

    [Li Ling: Would you attend them for me?]

    [Zhihao: Yeah]

    [Zhihao: It would be fun if you are there]

    [Li Ling:...]

    [Zhihao: Most of the people who go there are either old and if they aren''t old, they are weird]

    [Li Ling: lol]

    [Li Ling: They better not hear you call them idiot]

    [Zhihao: I might get sued if they do.]

    [Li Ling: And we don''t want that to happen]

    [Zhihao: Would you come to bail me out if I got sued and jailed for defaming them?]

    [Li Ling: Lol no]

    [Li Ling: I would go to jail with you for hitting the ones who sued you]

    [Li Ling: and then I''ll bail us out]

    [Zhihao:...]

    [Zhihao: So lame.]

    [Li Ling: A-Zhi is calling me lame?]

    [Li Ling: That makes me sad]

    [Zhihao: Good]

    [Zhihao: You better not follow me to jail]

    [Li Ling: You sound so worried]

    They talked for more than another thirty minutes. Zhihao chuckled and glanced at the time once again, which almost caused him to have a heart attack. He was late. He had forgotten how long he had been texting with Li Ling and by the time he finally decided to look at how late he was, it was already too late.

    There was still a chance for him to make it in time, but that would be if he were to drive at a pretty high speed and Zhihao wasn''t really a person who would drive fast. He had a sports car, but it was just for show. He would always tell himself that it was there just in case. If he were to get late for a crucial meeting, he could use the car to make it in time, but no such situation had ever come up. Today seemed to be like a perfect day to test its speed out.

    [Zhihao: I''m late]

    [Zhihao: I''ll be going now]

    [Zhihao: Let''s talk later]

    [Zhihao: Bye]

    [Li Ling: Bye bye]

    Zhihao picked up his coat, put his phone in his pocket, and collected his car keys and wallet before leaving his room in a hurry. When he went downstairs, he couldn''t see his brother, and instead, he saw a note posted on top of the table for him.

    ''I''m going first. I have a ride, don''t worry, and don''t be late.''

    Zhihao looked at the note and ignored it since he was already planning on driving himself to the party and poor Huang Zhen wasn''t invited in his car. It was a rule that Zhihao hardly let anyone break. No matter how much his brother would beg him, he would never let that kid touch his precious car. If his brother were to be in an emergency and was to be taken to the hospital immediately, maybe then he would think about using his own car and letting the boy enter.

    So far, only Li Ling had got the chance to enter Zhihao''s car and it wasn''t completely due to his own will, rather, it was because Li Ling had tricked him and forced him to hand over his keys.

    He locked the house before going and when he turned his car on, he got a message from his mother who wanted to know his whereabouts.

    [Zhihao: I''m on the road. Ran into a bit of traffic]

    [Zhihao: Would be there soon.]

    Zhihao lied to his mother. He had just turned his engine on and there was no traffic on the road. He drove at a speed that wasn''t slow but it couldn''t be called too fast either. It was within the driving limits and was enough for him to reach the venue in the least possible time. If he had driven faster, he would''ve risked his life as well, so this speed was good.

    When he got there, a valet there, came up to him and asked him for the key so that the man could help Zhihao park the car, but Zhihao refused to hand over the key and instead he asked for the parking directions and went to park the car himself.

    The parking lot was under the building and was rather a bit dark, but when Zhihao''s car entered the parking lot, the lights sensed the moving car and automatically turned on. It wasn''t something impressive, but it looked a little cool. Everyone liked it if the lights turned on just for them and Zhihao was no different.

    He found the spot that had been booked for him and skillfully parked in reverse. He turned his engine off and searched around the dashboard of the car to find a silver-colored mask that his mother had sent over for him along with the suit.

    He looked at the mask for a mere second before putting it on. It was a masquerade mask that covered half of his face. His lips and eyes were still visible while his nose was completely covered by the plastic nose of the mask. It had a simple design that wasn''t supposed to stand out too much, but when worn by Zhihao who paired it with the white-colored suit, the mask seemed to make the look stand out even more, and it perfectly enhanced the captivating aura around Zhihao.

    Zhihao looked at himself in the side mirror of the car for one last time before he got out and locked his car, walking towards the elevator. Luckily, he saw that the elevator was open as he walked towards it. Maybe someone had just gotten out or someone had gotten in.

    Before he could reach the elevator, the door started to close and it made Zhihao rush towards it as he yelled for it to not close as if the elevator was also an AI that would hear him and listen to his commands. The elevator door may not have been able to hear him, but someone who stood inside the elevator heard him and stuck their hand out to stop the door from closing.

    Zhihao didn''t expect anyone to be inside the elevator since there was valet parking. Most people who came here would just hand over their keys and go directly to the party. Not many would be like Zhihao, who would prefer to park their own cars and use the elevator to go up to the party.

    Zhihao bowed his head as he thanked the man who had helped him and when he looked up, he found the man to bow back with a smile. The man was wearing a black-colored mask that covered the upper half of his face.

    He was definitely here to attend the party that Zhihao was going to and that also meant that this man was probably pretty rich and snobby or at least, Zhihao imagined him to be such, hence, it was kinda shocking to know that the man had helped him hold up the elevator door.

    Zhihao never had any good experiences of interacting with rich people so he was always a bit unfriendly with them, although he was also one of their kind.

 Chapter 112 - Li Ling Sounds A Bit Different

    The elevator ride was supposed to be silent since they didn''t know each other or so Zhihao thought.

    "Are you Mr. Huang''s son?" The man who was standing beside him asked and it made Zhihao frown a bit.

    The man''s voice... It was too familiar. It was exactly like Li Ling''s but a bit raspier.

    If Li Ling wanted to talk with more breath, Zhihao was sure that he would sound the same.

    "Ah! Yes. Do you know my father?" Zhihao asked back as he tried to push the thought away.. There was no way this man was Li Ling but Zhihao felt like the two suddenly looked alike. Their body proportions, their height, their voice, and even their small habits of being kind was similar.

    "I work together with him," The man answered and it made Zhihao curious.

    "Work together? But you''re so young," Zhihao instantly regretted saying it out loud. It was something that was supposed to be only kept inside his mind, but he had somehow let his tongue slip. He had always thought that those who work together with his dad were always old and grumpy people who loved money. There was no way he could imagine such a young person to be working together with his father and if it was true, then this man was certainly impressive.

    Zhihao heard the man chuckle as he asked, "How do you know I''m young?"

    It was a valid question. Zhihao couldn''t even see his face so how could he say that the man was young?

    "You''re young," Zhihao responded as he pointed at the man''s wrist, "You are wearing a watch."

    "What is that supposed to mean? If I''m old, can''t I wear a watch?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he answered, "You can wear a watch, but not this one."

    "And why not?"

    "This watch is a one of a kind watch that may look common but it works on the latest digital technology available. A watch that lets you do a lot more than just look at the time. This is a watch that''s far too complicated to use so no old man would want to have it."

    "But what if I''m old and I bought the watch because I liked how it looked."

    "No way," Zhihao responded strongly.

    "Why?"

    "Because I was there when it was sold and I wanted to buy one, but the stocks were sold out within minutes so I was never able to get one. I wanted to buy it out of the hands of someone else who bought the product, but I got to know that all of them were young and none of them were looking to sell it again."

    "So you are interested in watches too?"

    Zhihao shook his head, "I''m not. Just this watch, in particular, has caught my eye."

    "What''s so special about this one?"

    "It... Nothing," Zhihao was about to tell him the reason, but in the end, he decided against it. The reason why he liked this watch, in particular, was because it was a transferable item in the game. It was launched in partnership with T.I.A.D. and if someone owned such a watch in real life, they would get a code along with its purchase and when you redeem the code, you''ll get a one of a kind watch in your collection inside the game.

    Zhihao had tried a lot to get his hands on one, but how could he win against the campers who were waiting in line in front of the store for two days before its release? It was an impossible task.

    He was shocked to see this man owning such a thing, but when he looked the man up and down, he knew that this wasn''t a person who would camp in front of a store, so the only way this man got to own such a thing was by money. Loads of money can get you one if you know where to go but sadly, even with loads of money, Zhihao still didn''t know where to go so he couldn''t get one.

    The man clapped three times as he spoke, "Well done. You guessed right. I''m young."

    "How young are you?" Zhihao was genuinely curious to know the answer.

    "How old are you?"

    "I''m 24."

    The man nodded as he answered, "We are around the same age. I''m 25."

    "And you work together with my father at such a young age? How?"

    The man chuckled, "It isn''t about the age."

    "Then what is it about?"

    "It is about intelligence."

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he looked at the man. He had originally started to like the man a bit as he saw how kind he was but when he heard this, he immediately felt like this man was one of those people who loved to boast about themselves and Zhihao didn''t like such people.

    The man didn''t let Zhihao speak and instead continued, "If you are intelligent enough to trick people, you can become successful."

    This was the first time Zhihao heard someone saying such a thing. Most of the time, people would boast about how they were better than others and how hard working they were, while the reality was far different. This man didn''t even bother trying to make himself seem righteous and it somehow made Zhihao like this man more. He was honest.

    "If you can learn to predict what others are thinking, you can get them to do whatever you want."

    "What does that mean?"

    The man turned to face Zhihao, "You want to know?" He looked into Zhihao''s eyes and once again there was this feeling inside Zhihao. Even the man''s eyes looked a lot like Li Ling''s. "Want me to tell you what you are thinking?"

    Zhihao unconsciously took a step back as he met the eyes of the man. There was no way someone would be able to guess what he was thinking. He was thinking about Li Ling and as long as this person didn''t know Li Ling, he would not be able to guess correctly, however when the man opened his mouth to answer, Zhihao was shocked to the core.

    "You are wondering how familiar I look."

    "How did you-"

    The man cut Zhihao off as he continued, "A friend, no. You guys are closer," He leaned in to take a better look at Zhihao''s eyes as he spoke, "A lover perhaps?"

    Zhihao felt the heat rising up his cheeks as he immediately answered, "He''s not my lover."

    The man chuckled as he leaned into Zhihao''s ears and whispered in his raspy voice, "Didn''t I tell you?"

    "Huh?"

    "You can trick people by reading their minds."

    Zhihao was confused as he heard this, but when he followed the man''s eye that trailed down to Zhihao''s wrist, he was shocked and even more confused.

    The man held his own hand up and showed Zhihao the watch that was wrapped around his wrist. It was Zhihao''s watch. The watch that was now wrapped around Zhihao''s hand belonged to the man and the watch that was wrapped around the man''s wrist belonged to Zhihao. Somehow, they had swapped watches and Zhihao wasn''t even able to see it happening.

    He thought back to what just happened and he still could not figure it out. It was like magic.

    "Are you a wizard?" Zhihao asked in shock as he looked at the man with unwavering eyes.

    The man chuckled, but before he could answer, the elevator door opened and he stepped out as he said one last thing to Zhihao, "Let''s exchange watches for the day."

    "Huh"

    The man looked back at Zhihao who was still standing inside the elevator and spoke, "I''ll be at the party. I''m sure we''ll meet again. Give it back to me some other time, okay? Don''t run away with it."

    Zhihao had never been so trusted by a stranger before this and he didn''t know what he was supposed to feel about this. On one hand, he felt like this man was very odd. He was certainly really stupid for giving away his watch in exchange for Zhihao''s watch. One look and people would think that Zhihao''s watch was more expensive but he knew better. His watch was certainly very expensive, but compared to this limited edition watch that was so hard to find, his watch couldn''t even hold a candle. If Zhihao were to take this watch and run away today, he would only be gaining and not losing anything, but thankfully, his parents hadn''t taught him to steal so he wasn''t really going to do it.

    He wanted his own watch back so he wasn''t too happy about this trade. He hardly even knew the guy so switching watches was a bit... Weird.

    The man didn''t stay behind to hear Zhihao''s response. He turned his back on Zhihao and walked away, getting lost in the crowd. By the time, Zhihao had gotten out of the elevator, the man was already nowhere in sight.

    He was simply gone like magic, just like how the watches had swapped out of nowhere.

 Chapter 113 - Li Ling Cant Be Here

    Zhihao''s mother saw him from afar and instantly rushed up to him as she called out, "A-Zhi, you''re here."

    Zhihao was searching through the crowd when he heard his mother calling him. He turned his head towards her and smiled in acknowledgment before his eyes wandered the party once again in search of the man who he had just met in the elevator.

    Huang Zhi Juan walked up to him and lightly hugged him.

    "Sorry, I was late, mom. The traffic was really a headache," Zhihao lied like a pro, and his mother wasn''t born yesterday so she could naturally see through it.

    The streets today weren''t as busy as they always were which was also one of the reasons why he wasn''t as late as he would''ve guessed and he was able to drive a bit fast without getting into an accident.

    Huang Zhi Juan smacked his head not too hard as she spoke, "You''re so grown up. You have learned to lie to your mother now?"

    Zhihao cheekily grinned as he rubbed his head and didn''t dare say anything to that..

    "Let''s go. Your father is waiting for you."

    Zhihao sighed, "Can we not tell him that I was late?"

    "Doesn''t matter. He won''t say anything."

    "Oh!" Zhihao instantly understood what the situation was. If Zhihao was late to the party, he would surely be scolded by his father, but if his father was busy talking to someone, he would never scold Zhihao in front of them. This was something Zhihao really liked about his father. The man would always praise him in front of others and would never say anything bad about him even if Zhihao did something that his father didn''t like.

    It was as if his father wanted to show the world how perfect their family was and how proud they were of their son. Zhihao was sure that his father would boast about him from the bottom of his heart. Every word he''d say would be something he truly believed and if there was a second thing Zhihao loved about parties it would be the fact that he would get to hear his father talking nicely about him. Everyone loved to be complimented and Zhihao was no different.

    "Then let''s go," Zhihao beamed.

    Huang Zhi Juan led her son to the place where her husband was sitting and talking to some of his business partners.

    When Zhihao saw a small crowd gathering around his father, his eyes instantly searched through the crowd to find a particular someone. Didn''t the mystery man from the elevator say that he works with Zhihao''s father? If that were the case, shouldn''t he be here?

    Zhihao frowned as a sudden thought went through his mind.

    Had he been conned?

    He immediately looked at the watch that was wrapped around his wrist and analyzed it. Could this watch be a fake copy?

    The more he thought about it, the more he felt like the scenario would make perfect sense. The man switched watches like a magician and disappeared soon after. If he''s not a magician, he could only be a thief who had successfully tricked Zhihao and stole his watch away. His watch cost a hefty amount so it would make perfect sense why the thief would trick Zhihao and steal his watch.

    Huang Zhi Juan seemed to sense the change in Zhihao''s facial expression as she immediately reacted with worry laced along with her facial expressions, "Is something wrong, A-Zhi?"

    Zhihao shook his head and sighed, "I think I was conned."

    "What?! When? How?" His mother looked at him up and down as if trying to find clues on what he was talking about.

    Zhihao didn''t want to talk about it since it was still his suspicions so he simply smiled and answered, "Don''t worry about it. It''s not something important."

    "You don''t look like it''s not important." Huang Zhi Juan''s eyes trailed down to Zhihao''s wrist and she seemed shocked as she asked, "I thought you weren''t able to get that watch."

    Zhihao held his wrist up as he spoke, "This is... Probably fake."

    His mother pulled his hand and twisted the watch to show him the backside of it.

    "This is definitely not fake!" Huang Zhi Juan was an expert at detecting fake products so when Zhihao heard this, he immediately believed her as he knew that if she said it was real, it was probably as real as it can get.

    Zhihao looked at the watch in surprise as he muttered, "It''s real?"

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded her head as she answered, "Definitely real. Who gave you this watch?"

    "I... Don''t know..." Zhihao had not even got the man''s name so how could he answer her?

    Huang Zhi Juan was thoroughly shocked and a bit confused to hear this. "What do you mean you don''t know? Did some stranger just come up to you and give you such an expensive watch?"

    Zhihao chuckled awkwardly as he heard her. How could he tell her that her suspicions were right? That was indeed what happened!

    A stranger did come up to him and traded watches with him!

    Zhihao was sure that if he told this to his mother, his mother would make him throw the watch away thinking it was some kind of trick. Maybe there was a bomb inside or something like that. She would never let him keep a watch that was suddenly given to him by a stranger and so, Zhihao couldn''t tell her the truth.

    "Oh! Look, he''s here." Zhihao heard a familiar voice calling out and when he looked up, he found his father smiling as he invited him over.

    Zhihao was suddenly the center of attention as the little crowd turned their eyes towards him with a curious and friendly expression.

    "I haven''t seen this kid in so long." Zhihao heard a man speak up as he laughed. The man was a long-time business partner and friend of his father so Zhihao had naturally seen him before this, but he had never bothered to remember the man''s name.

    Zhihao smiled as he walked towards his father, pushing all the thoughts about the watch and the mystery elevator man aside, he spoke up, "Nice to see you again, uncle."

    The old man laughed as he nodded, "You have grown up so much."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this. The last time he remembered, he had met the man a few years ago and Zhihao hadn''t really grown much after that so he knew that the man was just trying to make small talks.

    Zhihao''s father laughed as he spoke, "He''s so big now. If it weren''t for his stubbornness, I would''ve certainly given the company to him. It is time I get some rest too."

    "I''m sure your son can manage the company well." Another man who was standing beside his father spoke as he looked at Zhihao.

    Zhihao only chuckled nervously as he heard this. It was never his ambition to look after his father''s company. All he wanted to do was play games.

    "I''m sure he would do a wonderful job," His father beamed, "But I want to support him in his current career."

    "Oh! I heard about that!" A middle-aged looking man wearing a blue colored suit spoke up, "Your son is a professional gamer, right?"

    Huang Zhi Qiang nodded his head as he answered, "He''s the best pro-gamer in the country."

    The middle-aged man smiled as he heard this, "I heard all about it. Isn''t he also the top player in that new game your company released?"

    When Huang Zhi Qiang heard this, his face that was full of smiles turned complicated and Zhihao could not understand why.

    "Indeed. He''s the top player in TIAD."

    Zhihao didn''t know why, but he suddenly felt like his father who was always supportive of him and would love to boast about him suddenly sounded displeased as he said this. Being the top player was a good rank so he could not understand why his father didn''t like it.

    "Little Zhihao is certainly very talented. You must be very proud."

    Zhihao''s father nodded as he pushed back his unhappiness and answered, "God has blessed me with two perfect sons."

    When Zhihao heard this, he instantly remembered that his brother was also going to be here, but he was yet to see him so he leaned closer to his mother''s side and asked, "Where is A-Zhen?"

    Huang Zhi Juan, "He''s with his friends."

    Zhihao was surprised. Whenever his brother had come to such parties before this, he would always stick to their father''s side or would follow Zhihao around. The boy hardly had any friends so it came as a shock to him to hear that A-Zhen was hanging out with his friends.

    He looked around to find his brother but he didn''t even know what A-Zhen was wearing. With everyone covering their faces behind a mask, finding his brother was harder than he expected, so he could only give up and sigh. It seemed that everyone in this party would magically be able to disappear from sight.

    The middle-aged man laughed as he nodded, "I''m a bit jealous of you. A perfect wife and two perfect sons. God is certainly biased towards you."

    Huang Zhi Qiang nodded in agreement, "What more could I ask?"

    Another man looked at Zhihao and then back at Huang Zhi Qiang as he spoke, "If Zhihao has children, I''m sure you''ll make us jealous even more."

    Zhihao choked on air as he heard this.

 Chapter 114 - Li Lings Waist Size

    Huang Zhi Qiang looked at Zhihao and then back at the man who had spoken, "You are right. If I could just see my grandchildren before I die. Hahaha... It would be perfect!"

    Zhihao coughed twice as he heard this. He looked up only to find everyone staring at him expectantly.

    "Does your son have plans on getting married?"

    "I would love to see him get married," Huang Zhi Qiang sighed as he shifted in his seat, "but I don''t think there is any woman out there who would be able to handle his obsession with games."

    At this moment, like an angel, Huang Zhi Juan decided to speak up in Zhihao''s defense, "What marriage are you talking about? A-Zhi is still a child. If he can find himself a great person to marry, we would leave the decision up to him."

    Zhihao suddenly felt a bit touched as he heard this, but along with that feeling, he also felt another feeling called awkward guilt. There was no way he was ever going to find himself a girl to marry. He was just too over-obsessed with games and the only person he was even remotely interested in was a man.

    He glanced at his parents and wondered what their reaction would be if he told them that he kinda liked a man instead of a woman.

    Huang Zhi Qiang laughed as he heard his wife taking their son''s side, "You always call him a child. One day, he''ll bring a girl home. I wonder how shocked you''ll be."

    Huang Zhi Juan shook her head as she responded, "I don''t want him to bring a girl home," She beamed, "Let me be the only woman in his life."

    The middle-aged man laughed as he heard this and immediately reacted in a joking manner, "Would you rather see him bringing a man home?"

    "..."

    Among the people who laughed, Huang Zhi Juan frowned as she spoke, "Actually... That doesn''t sound too bad."

    The people who were laughing stopped and looked at the woman in shock.

    A minute passed and it was her husband who broke the awkward atmosphere as he spoke, "I think he''ll bring home a bot."

    The middle-aged man heard this and laughed again as he spoke, "A bot might be better than a man."

    Both Huang Zhi Juan and her husband slightly frowned as they heard this. It was more apparent on the woman''s face since she didn''t want to hide her dislike towards what this man had just said while it was gone as soon as it appeared on Huang Zhi Qiang''s face. This was one of his business partners so of course, he would not say anything offensive to him.

    Zhihao could sense that his mother wasn''t amused as she spoke up, "How is a bot better?"

    Zhihao mentally agreed with his mother but didn''t dare speak up at this moment.

    "He can''t even marry a bot so how can a bot be better?"

    Huang Zhi Qiang laughed as he heard his wife and figured that if he didn''t stop the direction of this conversation, he would possibly be angering people here.

    "Why don''t we all calm down? Whether A-Zhi wants to bring a bot or a man, it''s his choice. We''ll always be supportive of his decision." Huang Zhi Qiang suddenly sighed as he continued, "It''s a pity that I won''t get any grandkids in both the cases."

    Zhihao suddenly felt like if he didn''t speak up now, he might never be able to so he mustered up all his courage to stand up and say, "There is someone I like."

    Everyone stopped laughing and looked at him as they heard this. Some with shock and some with curiosity.

    The most shocked person here was probably his mother who reacted first, "You like someone?"

    Zhihao nodded and it came as a surprise to everyone who was only joking around. In reality, they all had their own plans. The only reason why marriage and the sort was being discussed was because everyone wanted their own daughters to have a chance in marrying this man. Getting married to Zhihao was a great plan for them to get closer to the Huang family. Having a rich son-in-law was something they all wanted and Zhihao was their best candidate.

    Huang Zhi Qiang and his wife knew what everyone wanted. They had got a lot of proposals before this and they would always reject the proposals without even discussing it with Zhihao since they didn''t want to force their son into marrying someone for business reasons.

    "I''m not sure about it right now so I would not be talking about it, but please stop discussing such matters."

    The middle-aged man looked a bit dejected as he asked a bit playfully, "Is it a man or a bot?"

    The people sitting around the table once again broke out laughing as they heard the question.

    Zhihao instantly wondered if he was supposed to truthfully answer the man or not. The man was only joking when he asked the question and it was clear that he expected a ''no'' for an answer but how was Zhihao supposed to tell him that he was right?

    It wasn''t a joke! It was reality!

    Zhihao smiled and decided to run away from the situation as he spoke, "My throat feels a little dry, let me go get some water."

    "You can order it."

    "I prefer going," Zhihao responded as he walked away. When he turned his back on the people, the smile on his face disappeared.

    He never liked to come to such parties because this would always be a topic that was discussed. The only thing he was glad about was the fact that this time there weren''t any girls who were following him around and trying to seduce him.

    Maybe God could hear his thoughts and hated him. Just as he thought that it was good that no girl was after him, he saw a woman approaching him from afar. The moment his eyes met the woman''s smile, as she walked over to him, he paused and turned on his heels, instantly changing directions and heading for who knows where.

    He glanced behind only to see that the woman had increased her speed as she followed him. This night wasn''t going to be fun.

    The woman increased her speed so there was no way Zhihao would let her catch up to him hence, he tried his best to dodge the people in front as he speed-walked and tried to blend in with the crowd.

    The crowd seemed to increase for some reason as he had more problems trying to push through them but when he had finally managed to avoid them all, he almost fell forward at the empty ground. The crowd had suddenly disappeared from in front of him and there was only a single person left who was holding him up from falling flat on his face. He looked up at the man''s face and he was once again left in a state of confusion and surprise.

    He had once again found the magician from the elevator.

    He saw the man''s lips curl up as he dragged Zhihao with him.

    Zhihao looked around in shock only to find that he had walked into the dance floor. This was the reason why it was so crowded. People were crowded around the dance floor as they watched the people dance in the middle.

    "Let me help you," Zhihao heard the man speak in his raspy voice, "Care to join me in a dance?"

    Zhihao felt himself panic as he heard the man but he still nodded his head. This man was offering to help him get rid of the stalking woman so of course, he couldn''t simply say no.

    There was a problem though.

    "Ah!" The man yelped when he felt Zhihao stomping on his toe.

    Zhihao didn''t know how to dance without looking like a stiff piece of wood.

    The man leaned in closer to Zhihao''s ears and whispered, "Try to be a little gentle, will you?"

    Zhihao nodded as he heard this and immediately apologized, "Sorry."

    What good was his apology if in the next second, he did the same thing?

    The man let out a small "Ah!" as he felt Zhihao stepping over his other feet.

    Zhihao apologized again and the man only smiled as he said, "It''s okay. It doesn''t hurt that much."

    It was clearly a lie, but Zhihao was glad that the man wasn''t scolding him for constantly ruining his shoe that was now completely imprinted with footprints.

    The man wrapped his hand around Zhihao''s waist as he spoke "Let me lead this time?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he removed the hand from his waist and brought it up to his shoulder as he spoke, "I''ll do it."

    The man seemed a bit surprised to hear this, but he still chuckled as he responded, "Then try not to kill me."

    Zhihao snickered as he spoke, "I''ll try my best"

    Zhihao wrapped his hand around the man''s waist and felt heat rising up his cheeks when he thought about how familiar this man seemed. Even his waist was like Li Ling''s and it was shocking since Zhihao didn''t know many men with this kind of thin yet muscular waist. He was even more shocked at himself for knowing what Li Ling''s waist size was.

    In his distracted state of mind, Zhihao once again stepped over the man''s feet and heard him yelp.

    "Sorry."

 Chapter 115 - Li Ling And The Stiff Dancing

    The people who saw the two dancing would only be able to mutter a single word: "clumsy"

    Although the two men looked really handsome even with their masks on, they were dancing in a really stiff manner and one kept stepping over the other''s feet so there was no way that people would find this dance beautiful, but they won''t be able to say that it wasn''t enjoyable. It made them laugh so of course, it was a bit enjoyable.

    Zhihao felt embarrassed as he saw the people chuckling amongst themselves. This small change in Zhihao''s expression didn''t go unnoticed by the man who leaned in closer to his ears and asked, "Don''t like them laughing?"

    Zhihao looked at the masked man and asked, "Who would want to be laughed at?"

    The man stopped dancing as he heard this and his hand that was on Zhihao''s shoulder moved as he whispered, "Then let''s stop."

    "Huh?"

    Zhihao couldn''t understand what the man was talking about, at least, not until he felt the man letting him go and taking a step back to bow his head in a somewhat of a perfect ninety-degree manner.

    "Thank you for the dance."

    What the hell was this situation?

    Did this man really get so fed up with getting his toes stepped on that he decided to leave the dance midway through the song?

    Zhihao was too embarrassed by the man''s reaction. If you started a dance, it was common courtesy to complete it and if one partner walked away in the middle of a song, it meant they didn''t want to dance along with the other person anymore. It was akin to rejection and it was Zhihao''s first time getting rejected like this.

    He felt like he had somehow upset the man, but he couldn''t figure out how.

    Zhihao didn''t dare say anything to embarrass himself any further. He simply bowed back and left the man behind as he got out of the dance floor.

    The woman who was after him still didn''t seem to give up as she stood in front of him and it made Zhihao wonder if he had done the right thing, or should he just turn back around and beg that stranger to dance with him?

    In any case, he had already turned his back to the masked elevator man so there was no way he could go back and use him as an excuse to get away from this woman.

    "It is you, Mr. Zhihao, right?" The woman asked with a bright smile which made Zhihao want to run away.

    "I think you got the wrong person," Zhihao quickly answered as he tried to avoid the woman by walking past her. They were wearing masks so there was no way this woman could recognize him, nor could she call him out for lying.

    The woman wasn''t going to let him go just like that. She caught hold of his arm as she cooed, "Why are you trying to lie? It''s clearly you."

    "It''s not me." Zhihao tried to gently push her hand away, but her grip was too strong and she wasn''t willing to let him get rid of her.

    He walked further hoping that the woman lets go when she realizes that he wasn''t going to pay her any attention, but this woman was a bit too shameless. Not only did she not let go, but she followed closely after Zhihao and wrapped her arm around his as she continued to pester him.

    Zhihao no longer knew where he was going. All he wanted to do was get rid of this woman who seemed to have taken a fancy to him.

    "Why are you trying to lie to me? I know it''s you. Who else can be this handsome?"

    "You can''t even see my face."

    "I don''t need to see your face. You look handsome without having to flaunt your pretty face."

    "I don''t remember meeting you."

    "Then make this our first meeting. You can call me Meimei."

    "I don''t like your name."

    "Then you can call me anything you like. Nice to meet you Mr. Zhihao."

    "I told you already, didn''t I? That''s not me."

    "Then what is your name?"

    Zhihao sighed as he glared at the woman before answering, "My name is... LingHao."

    "LingHao? Sounds so lame," The woman chuckled as she commented and this made Zhihao dislike her even more, "Come up with a more believable name, Mr. LingHao."

    "Please let go of me. I''m not comfortable with having someone walk so close to me."

    The woman smiled even brightly as she heard this. "Then we can use this situation to get you comfortable."

    "I would prefer it if you didn''t."

    The woman wasn''t going to let him go that easily. She could sense that the man wasn''t the slightest interested, but this didn''t mean that he was going to be like this if she kept at it. She was sure that she had the skills to seduce someone so she wasn''t worried about Zhihao''s initial discomfort and dislike.

    "Oh my god! I love that watch!" The woman exclaimed as she glanced at Zhihao''s watch.

    Zhihao looked at the woman and squinted. He was sure that the woman knew nothing about the watch and was simply trying to make small talks. It wasn''t his first time dealing with such a situation so how could he not see through her tactics?

    "This watch?" Zhihao looked down at his watch and suddenly felt like he really shouldn''t have left the dance floor just like that. He should''ve at least apologized for upsetting the man and ruining his mood.

    "Thank you," Zhihao heard a voice and he suddenly felt an arm wrap around his shoulder as the owner of the arm spoke to the girl, "It''s mine."

    The woman looked at the two in confusion and was unable to say a word.

    Zhihao turned his head and glanced at the man whom he had already guessed the identity of.

    The man looked back at him and smiled before he turned his eyes back at the woman who could clearly sense the hostility behind the man''s glare.

    The woman suddenly chuckled awkwardly as she spoke, "I see..."

    She let go of Zhihao''s hand and took a step back as she bowed and decided to leave them alone, "I''m sorry for disturbing you two."

    It wasn''t her fault. She wasn''t even interested in Zhihao. It was her father who was forcing her to seduce the young man. When she heard about Zhihao''s financial status and read through his profile, she was instantly hooked in. This man was like the best bachelor available in the country, so how could she simply say no to the offer of seducing him? She got dressed in her silky red dress that only a fool would not find attractive. She did everything she could to make herself seem as presentable as possible, but how was she to know that the man she was trying to seduce would turn out to be gay?

    This was definitely not in her plan! She was super embarrassed and decided to collect the last remains of her dignity. There was no way she could change her gender at the spot so she decided to step down from the fight completely and maybe it was for the best since the man in the black mask already seemed to be plotting her murder.

    If he was also in this party, there was no way he was a simple man and if he wasn''t a simple man, it meant he was trouble. If she were to get on his bad side for troubling his boyfriend, she was sure that her future wouldn''t look so bright.

    When the woman had left, Zhihao turned his head towards the man and spoke, "Thank you."

    "What do you mean Thank you? I didn''t do anything. I only told her that this watch belonged to me."

    When Zhihao thought about it, this really seemed to be the case. The man hadn''t really helped him much. He had simply thanked the woman for complementing his watch. Whatever happened after was simply the woman reading in-between the lines and coming up with her own conclusion.

    It wasn''t like this man chased her off. It was her own choice to step back and go away.

    "And I''m sorry." The man apologized.

    "Huh?"

    "You looked angry when you walked off." The man scratched his neck as he spoke.

    Zhihao shook his head, "I wasn''t angry. I''m sorry too. I think I offended you somehow."

    "Offended?" The man seemed to be a bit surprised as he continued, "Is there some misunderstanding? I didn''t want to force you to dance, that''s why I stopped. I thought it was better if we could get a drink together instead."

    Zhihao was surprised and a bit glad as he heard this.

    The man pulled Zhihao along and sat him down on a chair as he spoke, "I hope you like drinking?"

    Zhihao didn''t enjoy liquor that much, but when he opened his mouth, he was shocked at himself for agreeing to the man, "Of course, I do."

    He had promised his mother that he won''t be drinking today, but at this moment, he let himself act impulsively and forgot everything about the promise he made with his mother.

 Chapter 116 - Li Ling And Zhihaos Drinking Limit

    Zhihao looked at the red-colored drink that was suddenly poured into his wine glass in a daze. He couldn''t remember how many glasses he had before this and he didn''t seem to care as he carelessly picked it up and swirled it around before sipping the delicious red wine.

    Red wine was perhaps the only wine he ever liked. White wine was always a bit too sour for him, while red wine had the perfect blend of sweet and sour. He liked it and knew that his alcohol tolerance was high so there was no way he was going to stop anytime soon.

    He would try to fool himself by constantly repeating it in his mind that he was good with alcohol and he was going to stop if he starts getting drunk, but one look at his face and people would be able to tell that he was drunk.

    His eyes were slightly red and puffy as he looked at the man sitting across him. The man seemed to be a bit more sober than him, although he had clearly drunk more.

    The waiter looked at the two with an odd expression but didn''t say anything as he brought out the fourth bottle of red wine these two people had ordered. Thankfully the people who were at this party were rich, so the waiter didn''t have to worry about these customers not paying up and running away.

    "You look really good in that silver mask," The man commented as he looked at Zhihao.

    Zhihao grinned as he nodded, "Not as handsome as you."

    "You think I look handsome?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he frowned, "I think you look really familiar."

    "Familiar?" The man took another sip from his glass as he tilted his head and looked at Zhihao with amusement, "What do you mean familiar?"

    Zhihao squinted as he answered, "You look a lot like my friend."

    "Is he really handsome too?"

    "He''s the most handsome dude, I have ever met?"

    The man chuckled as he heard this, "That good looking?"

    Zhihao immediately nodded enthusiastically as he responded, "I have never seen someone look as good as him."

    "Aren''t you praising him too much?" The man leaned in closer as he put his wine glass down.

    "No way. You haven''t met him so you don''t know," Zhihao shifted in his seat as he continued, "If you ever get to meet him, you''ll know."

    "So you think that guy looks really handsome?"

    "He does!"

    "And you also think that I look like him?"

    "You remind me of him," Zhihao frowned. Although Zhihao felt as if he were sober, he was super drunk and his drunk mind couldn''t understand anything if it wasn''t clearly said. His capability to comprehend human language would decrease with every other glass of wine he had.

    "Doesn''t that mean you think I''m handsome?"

    "You are handsome," Zhihao responded innocently.

    "But you don''t even know how I look."

    "I don''t need to look at your face to know." Zhihao suddenly felt like what he had just said was something he had heard before. Wasn''t this something the woman who was chasing after him a few minutes ago said? She also called Zhihao handsome and when he asked her how she could call him handsome without even looking at his face, the woman responded with something similar, but Zhihao couldn''t remember what it was exactly.

    Now that he was reminded of the woman and felt like his wordings matched with her''s somehow, he couldn''t help but laugh as he suddenly thought up of something.

    "Why are you laughing?" The man asked.

    "It feels like I''m trying to woo you."

    The man took a whole minute to respond when he heard this, "Well, are you?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he spoke, "I think I already have someone I like."

    "You think?" The man looked at Zhihao with amusement as he asked, "Aren''t you sure if you like the person or not?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he spoke, "It''s complicated."

    "Unless it''s something related to how the universe works, it''s not complicated."

    "How the universe works?" Zhihao couldn''t understand what the man was saying and it was all because of his lack of comprehensibility due to his intoxicated mind.

    The man chuckled and pushed it aside as he responded, "Don''t mind it. It''s nothing."

    "I think I like someone whom I''m not supposed to like."

    "There is no one in the world whom you shouldn''t fall in love with."

    "But I can''t be too sure."

    "Why can''t you be sure? If you like them, you like them. What is so confusing?"

    Zhihao shook his head and sighed, "I think I like two people at the same time."

    "Well, I don''t think your heart knows the rule of only falling for one." The man chuckled, "But you shouldn''t go after them both. You''ll have to choose one."

    "I can''t..."

    "Are you saying that you''d rather date them both? You know that''s called cheating, right?"

    Zhihao suddenly broke out laughing as he asked, "Who said I''m going after either of them?"

    "So you are going to wait and hope that your heart lets go?"

    "Not exactly." Zhihao frowned, "I told you, didn''t I? It''s complicated."

    "Nothing is complicated." The man sighed helplessly as he picked the wine glass up again, "Do you know what you are doing right now?"

    "What are you talking about?"

    "You are making up excuses," The man leaned in closer as he continued, "You''re afraid of something. I can see it in your eyes."

    Zhihao was drunk, but he could still understand what the man had just said and it made a shiver run down his spine. The man had seen right through him.

    He really was afraid of something and he was too unwilling to share his fears with other people.

    "Now tell me; what are you afraid of?"

    Zhihao suddenly felt like pouring everything out. He wanted to tell this man everything, but his last piece of consciousness didn''t let him. He had met the man on this very day, there was no way he would tell him everything. He didn''t know why, but he felt very comfortable around the man as if he had known him forever. This was the same kind of feeling he got when he first met Li Ling.

    "I don''t want to fall in love," Zhihao answered honestly.

    The man smirked as he heard this, "So you''re afraid of love?"

    "I''m afraid of the aftereffects."

    "What the hell are you talking about? Don''t you think you are overthinking things?" The man asked strictly, "What''s so difficult and complicated? If you like someone, you like them and if you don''t like them, you don''t. There is nothing more to it."

    "But what if you like a friend and he likes someone else?"

    "Then you give up."

    "Exactly!" Zhihao sighed dejectedly, "that''s why I said that it''s complicated."

    "But you give up after trying your shot." The man continued, "If you never tell your friend how you feel, you might regret it for the rest of your life."

    "I don''t want to break over friendship."

    "That''s bullsh*t!" The man cursed, "That is just you making up excuses. Tell me what really worries you."

    "I... Don''t know... I guess I''m just not cut out for it," Zhihao didn''t know why, but he was pouring himself out in front of this man, hoping that the man understands him and reassures him that he was right to put himself in his comfort zone, "I''m afraid that I might be mistaking this feeling as love. What if I''m really mistaken and end up getting bored of him in the future? What if he gets bored of me?"

    "Look at me," The man spoke and Zhihao did just that, "What if I tell you I like you?"

    "..." Zhihao was a bit too taken back. So much so that he didn''t even get the chance to respond before the man continued.

    "Would you believe me?"

    "We just met today. Do you think we live in Disney land? You''re not a Disney princess, you can''t fall in love in one day."

    "A-Zhi, It''s not my first time meeting you."

    Zhihao was shocked and the wine glass that was in his hands slipped and shattered as it hit the ground. When he met the man''s eyes, he could clearly see that this guy wasn''t lying.

    "We met before... A long time ago... Do you not remember the arcade, Laoshi?"

    It was like a bucket of cold water that was thrown on Zhihao''s face and he felt as if he was suddenly all sober and at the same time, he also felt as if he was even more intoxicated.

    This guy was... The boy?

    There was no way such fate existed!

    The last thing Zhihao remembered before passing out was the man taking off his mask, but his face was still unclear and fuzzy due to Zhihao''s eyesight being invaded and blocked by tiny black dots.

    The waiter wasn''t shocked as he saw the customer faceplant himself on the table.

    They finished four bottles so how could they not be drunk?

 Chapter 117 - Li Lings Revenge

    When Zhihao woke up, his head was planning on murdering him, or at least, that was what he felt as the light pierced his eyes and even sitting up caused him a headache.

    He looked around only to find that he had no idea where in the hell he was.

    It looked like a bedroom, but it was certainly not Zhihao''s.

    He sat up and held his head in pain as he tried to remember what happened. The last thing he could remember was passing out when that man took off his mask. It was a pity that he didn''t even get to see the man''s face before passing out.

    The only thing Zhihao could conclude from his fuzzy memories was that he was having drinks with a person who happened to be the kid from his childhood and before he got to see his face, he fainted, which basically meant that he had found the kid, but he still had no idea who he was. The first thing that crossed his mind was the possibility of the man taking him to his house. If someone fainted in front of you, isn''t that what most people would do?

    Zhihao thought this was the man''s bedroom, but when he looked up at the pictures on the wall, his guess was thrown out the window.

    If this really was that man''s bedroom, why was there Li Ling''s photo hung up in here?!

    Zhihao suddenly had a thought and it successfully sent a shiver down his spine.

    He was in Li Ling''s bedroom and the last thing he remembered was passing out in front of the mysterious man who reminded him a lot of Li Ling.

    Could it be that they really were one and the same? If that was the case, wouldn''t Li Ling also be the boy Zhihao had met at the arcade when he was a kid?

    Zhihao didn''t have the time to process everything through his brain before the killing headache was back and there was a knock on the door.

    When Zhihao looked up, he found Li Ling standing by the door, smiling at him.

    "How do you feel?" Li Ling asked and Zhihao was still too shocked to reply.

    Li Ling stepped inside the room and chuckled, "You were a mess yesterday."

    When Zhihao heard this, he couldn''t help but gulp. Had he guessed it right? Was Li Ling really that kid, he met at the arcade?

    There was no way such fate existed, but if this really was the case, Zhihao didn''t know why, but he felt like he kinda liked the possibility.

    "Why are you looking at me like that?" Li Ling asked

    Zhihao, "You''re that kid?"

    Li Ling didn''t say anything and after a minute or two, he broke the silence by laughing as he asked, "What kid are you talking about?"

    "You said it yesterday! You said you were the kid!"

    "What are you talking about? Did you have a dream?"

    "You were the masked man, weren''t you?" Zhihao asked with a complicated expression on his face.

    Li Ling sighed as he spoke, "You didn''t even take me with you to the party and you dare mistake me for someone else?"

    Zhihao was confused and dumbfounded as he heard this. He was sure that Li Ling was the guy at the party, but when he looked at the face of the man, it didn''t look like he was lying.

    Li Ling was either telling the truth or he was really good at acting.

    "You don''t remember what happened yesterday?"

    Zhihao tried very hard to recover his memories, but he could remember nothing after he had passed out because he had clearly passed out! Passed out! How was he supposed to remember anything that happened when he was unconscious?

    Zhihao was about to say something but immediately winced as his head felt like it was trying to crack open.

    Li Ling reacted immediately as he stepped forward and spoke, "Let''s get your hangover treated first."

    Zhihao nodded and Li Ling led him to the bathroom to wash his face first.

    The two sat at the dining table with a bowl of hangover soup placed in front of Zhihao.

    "You called me yesterday, don''t you remember?" Li Ling turned his phone on and tried to find something as he continued, "You were going on and on about how you have met my twin."

    "I called you?"

    Li Ling showed him his call log and spoke, "See? It''s right there. You called me."

    Zhihao looked at the name displayed on the caller ID and he didn''t know if he was supposed to point out the fact that Li Ling had his name saved as A-Zhi with two little heart emojis. Zhihao looked at the call duration and found that he had been talking to Li Ling for over an hour, but he remembered none of it.

    "You don''t remember?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he responded, "It''s all blank."

    Li Ling sighed as he spoke, "Do you remember what happened to your car?''

    Zhihao''s eyes went wide and the spoon in his hand fell back into his bowl of soup as he asked, "What happened to my car?"

    Li Ling frowned as he responded, "Don''t you remember getting into a fight or wanting to drive your car?"

    Zhihao, "Where is my car?"

    "And you ended up puking in it?"

    "What?!"

    "It was sent to the cleaners."

    Zhihao suddenly felt as if he had been put in a horror movie. How the hell could he have puked in his car?!

    He was sure that even if he was drunk, he would never do such a thing!

    Li Ling sighed as he spoke, "Do you at least remember kissing me?"

    It was as if Li Ling was dropping one bomb after another. There was no way he remembered any such thing!

    "Forget it. If you don''t remember, you don''t remember. Let''s leave it at that. You should be glad that I don''t hold grudges." Li Ling shrugged and Zhihao almost felt the need to yell out that things like this shouldn''t be just ignored like that!

    Zhihao had been drunk before, but he had never had such experiences where he lost his memories. He would fall asleep after drinking a lot, but he would never go through the process of what people called drunken insanity.

    "What else did I do?" Zhihao asked as he ignored his aching head.

    "It''s better if you don''t know the rest." Li Ling shrugged it off, and Zhihao wanted to ask more but he was too embarrassed to ask more.

    If Li Ling didn''t want to say what happened next, it was certainly something really embarrassing and Zhihao didn''t want to die from second-hand embarrassment so he''d rather not prude any further.

    In reality, it wasn''t because he had done something even more troublesome or embarrassing. Li Ling stopped talking because he simply couldn''t make up any more lies.

    After Zhihao lost consciousness, he simply slept for the entire night.

    It was Li Ling, who fabricated all evidence to make it seem like Zhihao was super drunk and didn''t remember anything.

    When he took off his mask just to see that Zhihao had passed out on him without even looking at his face, Li Ling felt angry and a bit mischievous.

    It took all the courage in him to finally come clean to the man and the man really fainted on him without bothering to listen to his confession? If Li Ling weren''t drunk, he would have never confessed, but he did and Zhihao wasn''t there to listen to him so he thought of only one thing: Revenge.

    Not too extreme, but enough to cause a bit of embarrassment and panic.

    He called his phone using Zhihao''s phone and picked the call up, letting it run for a bit more than an hour so that he can accuse Zhihao of drunken calling him. It wasn''t like Zhihao could go searching behind what was being said in the call so if Li Ling showed him the call log and the duration of the call, Zhihao would surely believe him.

    Li Ling was also drunk, so when he went through Zhihao''s pocket and found his car keys, he decided to help the man get home by driving the car, but when he got inside the car, Li Ling felt so nauseous that he puked inside Zhihao''s beloved precious sports car. He looked at Zhihao who was unconscious and decided that he would simply blame this on the man as well.

    He called people and sent the car over to the cleaners before calling his secretary Xia and asking him to drive Zhihao home, but Xia had no idea where Zhihao''s house was and Li Ling was too drunk to remember so instead of going to Zhihao''s house, Xia dropped them off at Li Ling''s.

    In the end, he also pushed the blame on Zhihao for kissing him when it was really a drunk Li Ling who couldn''t control himself.

    Poor Zhihao couldn''t understand why he had suddenly become such a reckless drinker overnight. He was confused, in-denial, and embarrassed as he apologized, "I''m sorry for causing you trouble."

    Li Ling nodded in satisfaction, "As you should."

    Zhihao had apologized for his nonexistent drunk behavior while Li Ling had accepted the apology for ruining his confession and passing-out on him.

 Chapter 118 - Li Ling And How To Make It Up

    "You should make it up to me," Li Ling spoke and Zhihao looked up at him with a guilty expression.

    "How?"

    "That is for you to decide," Li Ling shrugged, "Just remember that you need to make it up to me."

    "Would gifting you T-points work?"

    Li Ling looked at the man with a dumbfounded expression. Gifting T-points would not make a person happy unless that person was Zhihao. Only he was obsessed with gaming enough to think of T-point gifting as the best gift ever.

    Zhihao clearly understood Li Ling''s expression as he spoke, "If not, how about I treat you to a meal?"

    Li Ling squinted and shook his head.

    Zhihao was sure that food would work, but he was wrong. There was no way Li Ling would be seduced with food and Zhihao didn''t have many ideas..

    It was only now that Zhihao realized he didn''t know much about Li Ling.

    Li Ling knew him inside-out while he didn''t even know what Li Ling liked or what his hobbies were.

    Zhihao searched through his memories, but there really wasn''t a time Li Ling had ever openly talked about himself. Their conversations were either about the game or about Zhihao. Zhihao felt disappointed in himself as he realized this. How could he not have known this earlier? He didn''t know Li Ling at all!

    Zhihao looked at the man and asked, "How about we get to know each other better?"

    Li Ling thought Zhihao was about to say something stupid again, but when he heard this, his eyes went wide, but he quickly hid away his surprise as he asked, "What do you mean?"

    "Let''s go out and do things you love."

    Li Ling thought about the offer and gulped. There was a lot he wanted to do, but he was sure that Zhihao would never agree to his demands.

    "I want to learn more about you," Zhihao spoke.

    "A-Zhi..."

    "Hmm?"

    "You''re tempting me."

    "..." Zhihao smiled, "Does that mean yes?"

    Li Ling pouted as he spoke, "You better not go back on your words! You''ll have to do everything I ask you to."

    "As long as it''s something I can do, I''ll do it," Zhihao happily agreed, "Does that mean I''ll make it up to you?"

    "No," Li Ling shook his head, "You''ll have to do something else to make it up to me."

    Zhihao suddenly felt as if he was being tricked, but he couldn''t be too sure.

    Li Ling was a tricky man who only looked innocent.

    "Can we go today?" Li Ling asked.

    "Huh?"

    "Can we go on a date today? The ''getting to know me'' thing. Can we do it today?" Li Ling asked enthusiastically and Zhihao felt as if he had somehow set a trap for himself, but with Li Ling looking at him like that, there was no way he could say no to him.

    "Let''s do that. What do you want to do?"

    Li Ling seemed to think about it before he finally gave up and turned his phone on as he spoke, "Give me a minute."

    He opened Google and typed in the keywords: Where to go on a romantic date?

    He didn''t even need to type the full sentence as just after typing in till ''where to go'', the search engine immediately suggested in the next few words. It seemed that this question was quite famous. A lot of people would rather go on Google to find a dating spot instead of planning it themselves.

    Zhihao didn''t know what Li Ling was searching, but he wasn''t too noisy, so he simply let the man do whatever he wanted to do as Zhihao decided to finish his hangover soup that was getting cold by now.

    Li Ling sometimes smiled, and sometimes frowned as he searched through the results. Every other website was saying something different and in the end, he only got to make himself more confused. Every suggestion was interesting and he wanted to try it out, but they only had a day so there was no way they could do it all. He didn''t want to choose between them, he was simply incapable of choosing which one he liked best.

    In the end, Li Ling still ended up picking the movie theater as a dating spot.

    "Which movie do you want to watch?"

    "..." Li Ling was dumbfounded to hear the question, "Good question."

    He again searched through the search engine to find all the latest movies that were running on theaters today. Once again, he was in a dilemma of what to choose. He looked up at Zhihao with his mind thinking up of future scenarios. If he was to pick a horror movie, would Zhihao be scared? In most of the sites he searched, everyone recommended horror movies to be the best movie for dates since your date would get scared and would feel safe if you acted herioc. The only problem was, it would only work if your date is scared of horror movies.

    Li Ling suddenly looked at the next movie recommendation. What if they go see a romantic movie together? Li Ling blushed when he thought of the scenario. If he was to choose a romantic movie, he would be a bit too obvious and they would feel too awkward. Like this, romantic movies were also struck off.

    Action movie? Li Ling liked them, but he wasn''t sure if an action movie will be the best choice considering the fact that this was supposed to seem a bit romantic and also not too romantic. The decision was hard, just like choosing how much salt he should put in Zhihao''s hangover soup.

    Zhihao might not know, but what he was currently drinking was the 25th batch of soup that Li Ling had prepared. The rest was all either thrown away or been force-fed to Li Ling''s sister and his assistant Xia who ran away after eating only one bowl. The first twenty-four batches of the soup either weren''t salty enough or were too salty to handle and there was no way Li Ling was willing to feed that stuff to Zhihao.

    "Have you decided?" Zhihao asked as he finished his bowl of hangover soup.

    Li Ling shook his head as he responded, "Not yet."

    "Just choose something you like," Zhihao smiled.

    This whole thing was about getting to know what Li Ling likes so it would have been utterly useless if Li Ling were to choose according to what Zhihao might like.

    "Anything I like?" Li Ling asked as he looked at a movie that was on the bottom of the list.

    "Anything you like," Zhihao nodded in approval.

    "Then," Li Ling moved the phone over to Zhihao as he pointed at a movie and spoke, "How about this?"

    Zhihao was a bit surprised to see what Li Ling had pointed at, it made him smile and want to pat the man''s head as he nodded, "Let''s watch this, okay?"

    Li Ling was a bit embarrassed, but he still decided to go with his gut. He wanted to watch this movie so he pointed it out and Zhihao didn''t even laugh at it, that in itself was great for him.

    When they reached the movie theater and went to get seated on their seats, Zhihao turned to Li Ling asked, "Doesn''t it seem a bit empty to you?"

    Li Ling looked around at the empty theater and nodded, "It''s empty. Maybe this movie isn''t that famous."

    Zhihao felt that it was odd. Even if a movie wasn''t that famous, there were still a few that would watch but when he looked around, he found the hall to be completely empty. There was no one here. He felt as if he had suddenly entered a horror movie where a theater was empty moments before being attacked by something that didn''t belong to this world.

    Li Ling acted oblivious, although it was him who bought every single seat in this theater so that he could get some alone time with Zhihao.

    The movie started soon after with the opening scene being a green-colored cute looking dino crying as he hugged his mother, "Why do I have to go?"

    The Dino''s mother patted her son''s head as she spoke, "We all have to go through this. Don''t you want to become a great warrior like your father?"

    The little dino wiped his tears as he nodded, "I do."

    This movie was called dino adventures and the only people who would come to watch this movie were kids and parents who were accompanying their kids.

    The movie was about a little dino that goes on an adventure to defeat monsters in order to become a great warrior like his father, but in the end, instead of becoming a great dragon, he remains in his cute form and realizes the importance of self-love and figures out that physical appearance means nothing. Even if he looks different from the rest of the dinosaurs, he can still be as heroic and great as his father.

    Zhihao was trying his best to hold in his laughter, but every time the dino opened his mouth and said something, Zhihao found it harder and harder not to break out laughing.

 Chapter 119 - Li Ling And His Promise

    "This is a dumb movie, isn''t it?'' Li Ling sighed as he noticed Zhihao''s facial expressions that were hardly visible due to the darkness of the theater.

    Zhihao immediately shook his head as he denied Li Ling''s statement, "I wouldn''t say dumb. It is a bit shocking to know that you still like to watch such stuff."

    "Hey! What do you mean?! No one said that this movie is only for kids!"

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this, "Movie for twelve and younger, it was written at the start of the movie, did you not read?"

    "..." It was the first time Li Ling heard such a thing. He had heard about adult-rated age warnings before a movie, but it was the first time he came to know that they did the same for kids.

    Who the hell put that ''for kids'' warning?! Were they looking to get sued by Li Ling?!

    Zhihao broke out laughing as he looked at Li Ling''s odd expressions.. The man looked so embarrassed that Zhihao could feel the second-hand embarrassment for him.

    "It''s okay. This is a great movie," Zhihao spoke as if trying to make Li Ling feel better, "It teaches you a lot of good things."

    "You want to laugh at me, don''t you?" Li Ling asked with an unamused expression.

    Zhihao snickered, "I can''t help it," He broke out into a fit of laughter, "A talking dino that does good? Hahaha... Who made such a plot?"

    When Li Ling heard him say it like that, he couldn''t help but feel that the man was right. This plot really was a bit... Questionable.

    There was a reason why Li Ling had chosen this movie, but there was no way he was going to tell Zhihao the reason.

    When they were kids, Zhihao had once promised to take Li Ling out to watch movies, but he had never kept his promise and it seemed that he had forgotten all about it while Li Ling was still haunted by the fact that the promise wasn''t kept. He wanted to complete the promise so when he looked at the kid''s movie that was being screened, he felt the urge to drag Zhihao here and make him complete the promise he had never kept or remembered.

    This was just one of the unkept promises that young Zhihao had made to Li Ling and he wanted to see all of them being kept one by one so he decided to make this one the first promise that was going to be completed.

    "Let''s just watch it and get out." Li Ling spoke up, "We''ll never say anything about this movie again, okay?"

    Zhihao looked at the man and snickered, "I''m not judging you, I promise."

    "You are clearly judging me. I can feel it in your eyes."

    "What about my eyes?" Zhihao leaned in as he asked.

    Li Ling seemed to have turned his head at the perfect timing. Their faces inches apart, their breath mingling with each other and their eyes not daring to look away from the other''s beautiful eyes. It wasn''t the first time they were this close to each other. Zhihao had been this close with Li Ling in the game, but it was his first time outside the game and the same went for Li Ling.

    The movie that was still playing on the screen turned into background noise that was ignored as their eyes interlocked, not daring to look away.

    "Have I ever told you?" Zhihao asked as his eyes trailed down to the man''s beauty spot that was under his right eye, "You have really pretty eyes."

    Li Ling gulped as he looked back at Zhihao''s face.

    Zhihao''s hand stretched out to touch the beauty spot as he spoke, "It looks kinda unreal. Has a mysterious, alluring vibe to it."

    Li Ling blinked a few times as he wondered if he was dreaming or not.

    It seemed that this Zhihao looked a lot more drunk than the Zhihao that was actually drunk. This was trouble for Li Ling who had a really hard time trying to control himself!

    Li Ling suddenly closed his eyes and calmed his heart before opening them again to look back at the man as he smirked, "You look like you''re trying to seduce me."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this, "Are you seduced?"

    Li Ling thought that Zhihao would move away when he heard this. How was he to know that Zhihao would tease him back? Since when had Zhihao learned to counter-attack like this?!

    Li Ling licked his lips unconsciously as he tried his best to keep his focus on the man''s eyes instead of letting it trail down to his lips.

    "What if I say I am?" Li Ling no longer knew what he was saying. All he could think about was the way Zhihao was looking at his beauty spot as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

    "Have you ever kissed a man?" Zhihao asked as if he were put under a spell.

    Li Ling smiled mischievously, "What do you think?"

    Zhihao suddenly remembered a small part of the conversation he had with that black-masked man. The man had told him to try his shot. What happens next wasn''t important. If he would never try, he would never know.

    "Want me to kiss you?"

    Li Ling was silent as he heard this. It wasn''t because he didn''t want to, it was simply because he was too shocked and a bit turned on as he heard this.

    Zhihao sighed as he moved back, "Forget it. I was just kidding."

    What the hell was he doing?

    He would probably scare Li Ling away like this! Why was he suddenly listening to what that black-masked man told him? That man disappeared without a trace and whatever he said was nothing more than a drunk man spouting nonsense. The real madman was Zhihao who thought that the man''s drunken blabbering made sense.

    Li Ling suddenly stopped Zhihao from moving as he pulled him closer with his hand gripped around Zhihao''s wrist.

    Zhihao looked at the man with a bit of shock and confusion.

    "I want to..."

    "???" It took a whole minute for Zhihao''s brain to finally process what the man had said and when he realized what he was saying, he was left even more shocked.

    "I want to try it. You were the one who proposed the idea, you should take responsibility."

    Zhihao was left stunned as he heard this and he had no idea how he was supposed to react, but it seemed like the man wasn''t waiting to get a response from Zhihao.

    Li Ling''s hand slid around Zhihao''s neck as he pulled him closer and the gap between them was instantly filled. This kiss was nothing like their kiss inside the game.

    That time, Zhihao could only imagine how Li Ling''s lips felt against his own, but this time, he could clearly feel everything without having to imagine it and it was nothing like what he had imagined. He seemed to have really underestimated the feeling.

    Li Ling''s lips were moist and felt a lot softer than he had imagined. Zhihao felt the heat surging through his entire body as he closed his eyes and let himself get lost in this sensation.

    Li Ling saw Zhihao close his eyes and his lips slightly curled up into a smile as he kissed the man. He followed the man and closed his eyes as well.

    Zhihao had only just realized: This was his first kiss.

    In the 24 years of his life, he had never kissed someone like this and he didn''t regret it being his first. He was somehow glad that Li Ling was his first kiss, both in-game and outside it.

    Li Ling turned his head and deepened the kiss, which made Zhihao feel a lot of feelings he couldn''t even decipher. He felt hot and his heart was racing. He felt his body pulsating as if he had just run a marathon, but he wasn''t tired at all. He was suddenly so energetic that he felt like his energy levels could reach the sky. He felt like he could really run another marathon after this.

    Maybe this was the only moment when Zhihao didn''t think about the after-effects. He wasn''t worried about what would happen after this. All he cared about was this moment that he seemed to enjoy very much. In the end, he learned that he couldn''t compare how it felt to kiss a guy or a girl since he never really kissed a girl, but he would still be able to say that the feeling wasn''t any different. If you asked him who he preferred to kiss more, Zhihao would be able to answer, but he won''t choose either of the two options. In his head, he felt that it wasn''t because Li Ling was a man or a woman, it was simply because he was Li Ling.

    He was Li Ling and that was why Zhihao liked this feeling so much.

    At this moment, Zhihao suddenly had a thought: I''m in trouble.

    He was in big trouble.

    He couldn''t deny it anymore.

    He couldn''t fool himself anymore.

    He had finally done it and there was no going back from this.

 Chapter 120 - Li Ling And No Going Back

    He had really fallen for Li Ling and if you asked him the reason for it, you''ll be able to get a confusing answer. Even Zhihao didn''t know why he had fallen for this man so how could he tell someone else?

    At first, he could make up excuses and say that he was probably mistaking the feeling of friendship for love, but friends don''t kiss so how could he continue using that excuse?

    It was as clear as day for him.

    The black-masked man was right in some ways. He had to give it a try, but by kissing Li Ling, he wasn''t able to do anything, and instead, he was now in turmoil. He could no longer deny his feelings for Li Ling and he was sure that he won''t be able to go back to how they were.

    Maybe it was a bad idea for them to get to know each other.

    Actually, even before this kiss, Zhihao had figured it out. Way before Li Ling convinced him that he liked the Gamemaster or way before they kissed in the game. Zhihao had fallen in love with this man way before any of that happened. He had started liking Li Ling since day one. Ever since he met him, he had a crush on him that he was unwilling to admit.

    He had only now realized that he was helplessly in love with this man. He had fallen for him too hard and there was no way he''ll ever be able to climb out from this hole called feelings.

    Zhihao felt Li Ling''s hand caress his neck and at the same time, Li Ling pulled away, his eyes still glued onto Zhihao''s lips. He was gasping for air and so was Zhihao who suddenly felt like he was breathing in fire. The temperature was too hot.

    "D-Did they forget to turn on the air conditioner?" Zhihao muttered.

    He heard Li Ling chuckle as the man moved closer once again as if he hadn''t had enough, but right at this moment, both of them were interrupted by the screaming of the Dino who was trying to save his friend from falling off of a cliff.

    "Nooooo!"

    Zhihao glared at the screen and Li Ling chuckled as he moved away and sat back down on his chair that he didn''t even remember standing up from.

    Zhihao would be lying if he said he wasn''t disappointed and it was all due to this stupid Dino!

    He was still unsatisfied! This Dino is not a great warrior at all! He''s a little annoying party-pooper!

    Zhihao heard Li Ling chuckle, but when he looked over, he found that the man was staring at the screen with undivided attention.

    In reality, Li Ling was wondering how he should sue the movie makers. This Dino had to go.

    "Hmm... It wasn''t that different," Li Ling decided to speak up, "I thought it would be a bit different, but it was just like kissing a girl."

    Zhihao didn''t know why, but when he heard this, he was annoyed and angry as he immediately asked, "Have you kissed a girl before this?"

    Li Ling looked over at Zhihao with an expression that Zhihao could not read as he responded, "What do you think?"

    Zhihao was a self-proclaimed good guesser so when he heard this, he shook his head as he answered, "You''ve probably kissed plenty."

    Li Ling laughed as he heard this, "You''re so amazing, A-Zhi, but I''m sorry to disappoint you. I haven''t kissed a girl before this."

    Zhihao was surprised to hear this. With a face like that, Zhihao was sure that Li Ling would never have a shortage of girls to choose from. If he wanted, he could create his own harem and kiss any girl he liked. Unlike Zhihao, he didn''t seem like a gaming-addict, so Zhihao really could not understand how the man hadn''t kissed anyone yet.

    The shocking thing was probably not the fact that the man had never kissed someone before this, the most shocking thing was Zhihao''s own feelings. He felt oddly happy to hear that Li Ling had never experienced such a feeling. This meant that Zhihao wasn''t alone.

    They were both each other''s first kiss. Didn''t that mean something?

    "You are my first kiss but..." Li Ling was going to tell him that he was indeed his first kiss but this wasn''t their first kiss. It was their second. He sighed as he decided not to say anything about it, "How does it feel?"

    Zhihao was suddenly thankful for the fact that the theater was dark. If it wasn''t, he was sure that Li Ling would have easily been able to see his facial expressions. He was sure that his cheeks were as red as the chair he was sitting on. He wondered if he could simply camouflage with the chair if his skin was planning on turning this red.

    "You should give me some feedback."

    "Feedback?"

    Li Ling nodded, "You wanted to know how it felt. Were you able to find the answer?"

    Zhihao never knew that he could feel the heat rise at such a speed like this. He already felt like he was on fire so when he heard Li Ling asking this question, he felt like he had been put in front of naked flames and was being burnt alive.

    "It was... Great," Zhihao spoke as he looked away. He was too embarrassed to face Li Ling cause he was afraid that if he looked at Li Ling''s face, he won''t be able to hide his own feelings. Li Ling was always able to read him so if he saw Zhihao''s face right now, there was no doubt that he would be able to guess what was going on inside Zhihao''s mind.

    "Did you feel any different?" Li Ling asked in between his chuckles.

    Zhihao nodded as he spoke, "It was exactly as I imagined."

    "Huh?"

    "..." That was absolutely not what Zhihao had wanted to say. He was simply thinking that. Instead of voicing out what he really wanted to say, he let his thoughts be leaked due to his loose mouth and his incapable brain that didn''t know how to work properly.

    Li Ling suddenly seemed eager as he asked, "A-Zhi imagined this?"

    Zhihao immediately shook his head as he denied, "No way! You heard wrong!"

    "Then what did you say?"

    "I said it didn''t feel any different."

    "You''re lying." Li Ling lightly scolded, "Now tell me the truth."

    Zhihao shook his head and looked at him innocently as he defended himself, "I''m telling you the truth. That was what I said. Maybe you couldn''t hear me over the movie?"

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he glanced at the screen in front and then back at Zhihao''s face, "The movie is over. It ended a while ago."

    Zhihao looked ahead at the white screen and saw the credits rolling.

    "When the hell did this end?" Zhihao had once again spoken up before he could think.

    Li Ling couldn''t help but laugh as he saw this, "A-Zhi is so cute."

    "D-Don''t tease me!" Zhihao stood up and walked away as the lights turned on. It seemed that the lights also had the perfect timing. Thankfully Zhihao had his back turned to Li Ling so the man couldn''t see Zhihao''s expressions that were clearly visible under the bright light.

    "A-Zhi, wait for me! Why are you running away?" He heard Li Ling calling out to him in between his laughter.

    Li Ling was definitely teasing Zhihao and Zhihao couldn''t possibly feel more embarrassed as he ran away from the man to save himself some face.

    There was a washroom beside the exit of the theater so when he saw the sign, he felt like it was just the thing he needed.

    He washed his face and looked at himself in the mirror. He thought he would be able to see his own reflection, but the image on the mirror seemed to reflect a very fresh memory. It was the scene of Li Ling kissing him and it made him blink twice. He wiped the mirror only to find that the image had faded away and he was able to see his own reflection again. He sighed as he thought to himself, "I''m going crazy."

    If he was having hallucinations like this, he certainly was going a bit crazy.

    He once again turned the tap on and splashed the water on his face as he looked back at the mirror. He looked like a perfect human tomato.

    This was what Li Ling was seeing? A red as tomato Zhihao? It would''ve been more shocking if Li Ling hadn''t found out that Zhihao liked him.

    Zhihao hadn''t thought about anything. He never calculated the aftereffects of the kiss or discussed what they were going to do next so he looked at himself in the mirror and asked, "What are you gonna do now, idiot?"

    When he got out of the washroom, he found Li Ling waiting for him outside.

    "Shall we go now?" Li Ling beamed.

    "Go where?"

    "You said you''ll go wherever I want to take you, didn''t you?"

    Zhihao suddenly regretted the moment he had said such a thing to the man.

    The most troubling thing that bothered him was the fact that Li Ling was acting as if nothing had happened.

    He couldn''t understand what this man was thinking.

    Li Ling was able to read him like a book while Zhihao couldn''t even read Li Ling, as if he were computer codes that Zhihao had never learned.

 Chapter 121 - Li Ling Next Destination

    "Where are we going next?"

    "You want to know?"

    Zhihao nodded as he responded, "Of course."

    "Well, I don''t feel like telling you," Li Ling answered as he playfully stuck his tongue out.

    Zhihao frowned as he saw this, but he couldn''t do anything about it. It was his own self that had given Li Ling permission to take him wherever he wanted, so how could he say anything right now?

    He simply let Li Ling drag him to who knows where.

    They were riding in Li Ling''s car with him as the driver and Zhihao had to agree that the man was a great driver. When they reached a certain road, Li Ling told Zhihao to close his eyes. Zhihao was reluctant to listen to him in the beginning, but he eventually closed his eyes and waited for the man to give him instructions.

    Li Ling drove further and stopped the car at one side of the road, but he still asked Zhihao to keep his eyes closed as he got out from the car and went around it to help Zhihao get out without having to open his eyes.

    "Are you sure I can''t open them?" Zhihao asked, to which Li Ling nodded as he spoke.

    "Have some patience."

    "Patience? Where are we?" Zhihao was curious and it was slowly killing him.

    "Almost there," Li Ling spoke as he led Zhihao further away from the car.

    From the softness of the floor, Zhihao was sure that he was walking on grass, but it was a useless clue. There was grass everywhere, so how was that supposed to be a clue? He simply had no idea where he was as he walked.

    After walking for a little less than ten minutes, Li Ling finally stopped as he held onto Zhihao''s shoulders from behind and gave him the signal to open his eyes.

    Zhihao had no idea what was waiting for him so when he opened his eyes, he was a bit shocked and a bit confused.

    "What''s this?"

    "This is my secret." Li Ling responded with a smile, "Not many people know this place. Welcome to my haven, A-Zhi."

    "This..." They were standing in front of the ocean and not even on a beach. The waves continuously washed over the huge, heavy stones that were stacked up on top of each other to help break the wave and not let it damage anything.

    "It''s beautiful, isn''t it?" Li Ling beamed.

    "It''s... Peaceful." Zhihao had only now realized that he had never seen the ocean from up this close. He had never gone to a beach so he had no idea what this view was like. It was his first time.

    Today was certainly special. He was experiencing so many first times together with Li Ling.

    "You come here often?" Zhihao asked as he looked at Li Ling.

    "I come here whenever I can."

    "What do you do here?"

    Li Ling smiled as he looked back and pointed at a shop on the side of the road.

    "That''s a cafe. I go there."

    Zhihao nodded as he spoke, "Do you want to go there?"

    Li Ling looked back at the man and smiled as he nodded.

    The two went inside the little cafe shop that was even more beautiful and aesthetic than it looked from the outside. Maybe it was due to the pastel blue and green colors that were kept as the theme of the cafe.

    When the woman who worked at the cafe saw the two entering she got ready to greet them, but when she saw Li Ling''s face, the smile on her face widened as she called him, "Sir, how come you are here?"

    Li Ling side-glanced at Zhihao and made sure that the man wasn''t looking at him as he shook his head and answered the woman, "I just thought that I''d drop by."

    The woman was certainly not an idiot. Just one look from Li Ling and she understood that she was probably not supposed to talk like usual. Li Ling had never brought a stranger with him so this was the first time the woman was seeing someone accompany Li Ling. She looked over at Zhihao with curiosity laced along with her expressions as she commented, "You brought a handsome friend too."

    Li Lings smiled as he encircled his hands around Zhihao''s shoulders and spoke, "He looks really handsome, doesn''t he?"

    "He certainly does." The woman nodded.

    Zhihao felt a bit embarrassed as he heard this, but when he listened to what Li Ling said next, his embarrassment was replaced by confusion.

    "But he thinks I''m more handsome. What do you think, Jie?"

    The woman seemed to ponder over the question and while she pondered over it, Zhihao suddenly had his own thoughts going crazy. He remembered telling the masked-man that he found Li Ling to be the most handsome man to exist. He never remembered complimenting Li Ling on his face so how did this man know what Zhihao had never told him?

    He immediately snapped his head and looked at Li Ling in shock. The man seemed to realize that he had let his mouth run loose, but he didn''t let his internal panic show on his face. Li Ling smiled as he tightened his hold around Zhihao''s neck and turned it into an almost friendly chokehold as he asked, "You aren''t gonna deny it now, are you? You were crying all over me telling me that I was way more handsome than you. Don''t you remember?"

    Zhihao suddenly sighed. For a moment there, he seemed to have forgotten that he had a big chunk of memory missing from when he was drunken calling Li Ling. He had probably told him this at that time. If that wasn''t the case, there was no way Li Ling would know such a thing.

    The woman chuckled as she saw the two playing around with each other. At first, she thought that this man wasn''t a friend considering the fact that Li Ling wasn''t willing to tell him the truth, but when she saw this, she was able to say that the two were certainly close and it confused her even more.

    If he didn''t plan on telling this man anything, why was he bringing him all the way over here? It was, plainly speaking, ridiculous and the woman could never understand what went around in the mind of her boss.

    "I''ll take my usual and he''ll have a plain coffee with extra foam on top." Li Ling beamed as he dragged Zhihao to one of the seats that were facing the window and outside the glass window was a scenery of the ocean.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but be left in awe when he saw this. It really looked peaceful and was much different from any place where he had ever been to.

    "Whenever I want to run away, I come here," Li Ling spoke honestly.

    In reality, there was a huge part of the truth that he was hiding from Zhihao. This wasn''t just a beach and this cafe wasn''t some random cafe that happened to be located here.

    Li Ling owned this whole cafe and Zhihao would never be able to know what was the importance behind this cafe, at least, not yet.

    This cafe was the only entry to a place underground. A research institute that was hidden right underneath them, in the ocean. This cafe was the only way one would ever be able to find that research center and so far, not many people were aware of this.

    Why was this particular research center so important? It was the place where Alvi was located. Alvi had a physical body, but it wasn''t a human or a robotic human-shaped body.

    Alvi was a brain. A super large brain that was located right under them at this moment. She was kept here to safeguard her from the world and to also protect the world from her.

    There was a reason why Li Ling wanted to bring Zhihao here. He was sure that Zhihao was a smart man and if ever the day came when he had to directly deal with Alvi and stop her, this was the exact place where he would have to come.

    Li Ling could only hope that such a situation never arises. He could only pray that Alvi is destroyed in time. He had created something even he could not understand and although he was a bit proud of it, he was a lot more afraid of it.

    "Are we running away right now?" Zhihao asked.

    Li Ling looked back at the man and smiled, "I wouldn''t mind running away with you, A-Zhi."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this.

    He didn''t know what took over him. Maybe it was the atmosphere or the beautiful scenery that had intoxicated him, but no matter what it was, he was feeling a bit tipsy as he asked, "What are we now?"

    "Hmm?"

    Zhihao  looked at Li Ling straight in the eyes as he spoke, "Friends don''t kiss each other."

 Chapter 122 - Li Ling Wants To Do What?

    "You''re right," Li Ling beamed, "Friends don''t kiss each other."

    The two stared at each other as if waiting for the other to speak up first but no one did.

    Li Ling sighed as he suddenly rested his head against Zhihao''s shoulder and looked at the beautiful scenery that they were facing.

    "Can we not talk about it right now?"

    Zhihao couldn''t see the man''s expressions, but this also meant that Li Ling couldn''t see Zhihao''s dejected expression.

    Of course, Li Ling would never say yes to becoming something more. He had a crush on someone much better than Zhihao so why would he ever even look at Zhihao in that manner?

    It was simply impossible from the very beginning itself. Unless Zhihao became the crush that this man was talking about, there was no way he would receive his love. Zhihao looked up and tried to stop himself from crying. Why the hell was his tears welling up at such a moment?

    Li Ling didn''t love him like that, it was as simple as that so why was he having such a hard time believing it?

    Li Ling was about to say something more but suddenly his phone started ringing.

    Li Ling picked up the phone and Zhihao was almost thankful that the ringtone had somehow broken the awkward atmosphere that was slowly drowning Zhihao.

    "Hello?" Li Ling answered and Zhihao was unable to hear the other side of the conversation.

    As Li Ling listened to the person on the other side of the phone, his eyes went wide with excitement, and a faint sense of fear laced along with it.

    "Are you sure?" Li Ling enthusiastically questioned the person.

    The call didn''t last for long, as Li Ling hung up and immediately turned his head towards Zhihao but whatever he was about to say got stuck in his throat as he realized that it was better not to say anything at the moment in order to avoid causing suspicion.

    "I... Need to go." Li Ling spoke up as he stood up in a hurry.

    Great...

    Now he''s running away.

    "Um... Yeah, See ya." Zhihao nodded as he tried his best not to let his feelings show on his face.

    Li Ling waved and walked away in a hurry making it seem as if he really was running away, but when he got to the door of the cafe, he turned back and walked towards Zhihao.

    Zhihao, "Did you forget something?"

    "Yes, you." Li Ling pulled Zhihao up by the arm and kissed his lips as he smiled and responded, "Ask me again another time, okay?"

    Zhihao was left stunned, with his eyes wide open making him look much like a fish, not knowing what to say or do as he looked at the man.

    Li Ling pulled him along, "Let me drop you off first."

    The lady saw the two leaving and then glanced back down at the two cups of coffee the two had ordered. She sighed as she looked up again and shook her head. By now, it was clear what the relationship between those two was. They were definitely in love. She could bet her job on that answer.

    When Zhihao got inside the car, his thoughts seemed to be racing faster than the car.

    What Li Ling said... Didn''t it indirectly mean he was giving him some sort of hope...?

    Zhihao couldn''t help but keep his eyes on the man who seemed to be happily driving.

    If Li Ling didn''t think of Zhihao like that, he could simply say no. He could definitely say no so why didn''t he?

    Didn''t this mean that Zhihao could keep hoping? Didn''t this mean that the next time he asks, Li Ling would surely say yes?

    Zhihao took a deep breath in as he asked again, "Li Ling, will you date me?"

    Li Ling snapped his head towards Zhihao in shock before he broke out laughing as he replied, "Not this soon."

    Zhihao sighed, "Worth a try."

    "A-Zhi is so funny."

    "I am? I thought I was boring."

    "Who called you boring?"

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling and then glanced back at the road in front of them as he replied, "I don''t love anything except for games. All I talk about all day is about games. My whole life revolves around a computer and I mostly talk to AI bots and NPCs. Do I really need to spell it out? I probably live a really boring life compared to others."

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this, "That''s not boring at all."

    "Hmm?"

    "That''s just you. Just because you like games doesn''t mean you''re boring." Li Ling didn''t take his eyes off of the road as he spoke up, "It''s your passion. Isn''t everyone like that? It''s what makes you unique." He turned his head to meet Zhihao''s eyes as he continued, "It''s what I love about you."

    Zhihao had never really heard anyone saying he was boring, but he could still sense that it was something that went around in their heads, although, all their mouths said were praises about his passion. Liking games was certainly not lame, but making it the only thing you like and live for was definitely not normal.

    When Zhihao looked at Li Ling''s honest expressions, he could sense that this man wasn''t saying empty words, however, the only thing Zhihao really focused on was the last sentence.

    Li Ling just said he loved him, didn''t he? Zhihao didn''t hear it wrong, did he?

    Li Ling smiled as he turned his head towards the road once again, making sure that they didn''t get into a car accident.

    "So, don''t call yourself lame, okay?"

    "I never said I was lame."

    "..."

    "I said people call me boring."

    "..." Li Ling chuckled as he nodded his head, "You''re not boring either."

    "You don''t sound very convincing."

    "I don''t?"

    "You don''t."

    "I thought I was great at lying."

    Zhihao snapped his head and glared at the man who couldn''t seem to stop smiling.

    "See. You make me laugh so much. You''re definitely not boring."

    Zhihao frowned as he turned his face away and decided to give the man the silent treatment.

    "You''re mad?"

    "..."

    "A-Zhi?"

    "..."

    "You look so cute when you''re mad."

    "..." There was no way Zhihao would melt with such a comment however, his ears started turning red from embarrassment as he tried his best to not look back at the man.

    "You''re still mad at me?"

    "..."

    "How about you ask me that question again? I might just-"

    "Would you date me?"

    It was Li Ling''s turn to stay silent as he recovered from the sudden question and chuckled as he questioned, "You''re not mad anymore?"

    "Yes or no?''

    "Ask me again next time."

    Zhihao frowned as he sealed his mouth shut once again, keeping his stubbornness up and not letting the man melt his frozen heart.

    Li Ling glanced at Zhihao one last time before he smiled and kept his eyes focused on the road in front.

    This was probably the best day of his life. He had never expected Zhihao to love him back but somehow, they had ended up here so where were they supposed to go from here? Li Ling had chased after him enough, and if he was going to say yes this soon, it was certainly going to leave a bitter taste in his mouth. He also had pride. Although it was a pride that he was willing to throw away for Zhihao, he still didn''t want to look easy.

    It was now Zhihao''s turn to run after the man. It was his turn to wait around and suffer just like Li Ling had. This was an act of small revenge that Li Ling wanted to take on the man who had kept him waiting for almost his entire life.

    Zhihao wouldn''t have to keep waiting forever, maybe just a bit. Till Li Ling felt satisfied, Zhihao would have to chase after this man.

    The car stopped in front of Zhihao''s house and when Zhihao got out, Li Ling thought the man wasn''t going to say anything since he was mad at him, but unlike what he had expected, Zhihao went around the car and knocked on Li Ling''s window.

    Li Ling opened the window with a small smile as he opened his mouth to ask what Zhihao wanted to say, but before he could say anything, Zhihao pulled him by the collar and kissed him once again, but it wasn''t long before he pulled away and asked, "Would you go out with me?"

    If the phrase ''dumbfounded'' had a face, it would look like Li Ling at this moment. He was shocked and a bit lost as he simply stared at Zhihao''s face that didn''t seem to be joking.

    "Yes or no?"

    As soon as the situation registered in his mind, Li Ling chuckled as he closed his eyes and buried his head on his hands that were circled around the steering wheel, "Ask again... Later."

    "Understood," Zhihao spoke before walking away.

    Huang Zhen who just so happened to be returning home at this hour saw the entire scene and the loaf of bread he had just bought fell down from his hand as he let the shock sink in.

    What. The. Hell. Did. He. Walk. Into...?!

 Chapter 123 - Li Ling And Brother Zhihao Are Close?

    Huang Zhen instantly felt the need to rinse his eyes since they didn''t seem to be working properly.

    Did he really just see what he thinks he saw?

    There was no way his brother would do something like that...?!

    They weren''t even in a game so... What in the hell was happening?!

    When did his brother and brother Ling get so... Close....???

    Li Ling took his sweet time to turn the engine on again and drive away with his cheeks completely matching the color of bright red chili pepper.

    Huang Zhen seemed to be even more shocked as he kept standing outside his house, with his mouth open wide and his eyes glued at the place where there used to be a car and two people kissing. The car had left and so had the people, but Huang Zhen still replayed the scene in his mind and questioned his own sanity.

    Zhihao went straight to his room and face-planted himself on the pillow that seemed to be like a stress reliever for him.

    He really did that, didn''t he? And Li Ling didn''t even kick him or anything like that...?!

    This meant that he was indirectly given permission, didn''t it?

    He got a notification on his phone and for a second, he thought it was Li Ling, but his hopes were crushed when he saw that it was from T.I.A.D.

    Zhihao immediately jolted up as he realized something.

    For the first time in his life, he was giving something else more priority than a game. He was disappointed at a game notification because he was hoping to get a text from Li Ling...?! How could this be possible?

    He pinched himself to see if he was dreaming but it hurt, he was certainly not dreaming.

    [T.I.A.D. has achieved a milestone! 200 million downloads! Thanks to the hard work done by our beloved players and staff! Congratulations! As a token of our appreciation, we''d like to give everyone a chance to level up with double T-points won at every game you play today.]

    Zhihao felt his heart race and it wasn''t because of the game, it was because of a man who had a face of an angel with a beautiful beauty spot under his right eye.

    He immediately closed the notification and opened his contact list. He scrolled down to the bottom and called a number he never thought he would be calling.

    "Hello?" The man on the other side picked up the call.

    "Doc, I think there''s something wrong with me."

    "Mr. Zhihao? Are you okay? Give me some details."

    "My heart... It feels like I''m gonna have a heart attack."

    The doctor on the other side seemed to panic a bit as he asked in worry, "Be more clear. Explain to me the symptoms. Are you having chest pain? Is it radiating towards the left side? Do you have any history of heart disease?"

    "It doesn''t hurt. It feels weird."

    "Um... Can you explain ''weird''? What type of discomfort are you feeling? Can you give me some details? I''m heading over there right now."

    "It feels like it''s beating too fast."

    "Palpitation. Did you do some strenuous work?"

    Zhihao could hear the man turning on his car from the other side of the phone.

    "Strenuous? Not really. I just visited a beach and I haven''t even been gaming for a while."

    "Not gaming? This sounds serious. Please sit down somewhere and put your brother on the phone. Drink some water and wait for me."

    "My brother isn''t here."

    "Then keep the phone aside and if anything happens, inform me."

    "Okay, doc."

    Zhihao sat down on his gaming chair where he had always felt safe and comfortable. A few minutes passed and his eyes went wide as a certain realization hit him a bit late.

    He turned on the notification bar on his phone and read the T.I.A.D. notification again.

    [T.I.A.D. has achieved a milestone! 200 million downloads! Thanks to the hard work done by our beloved players and staff! Congratulations! As a token of our appreciation, we''d like to give everyone a chance to level up with double T-points won at every game you play today.]

    Double T-points at every damn level?!

    This was big!

    "Hey! Doc, sorry for that, but I think I''m okay again."

    It took the man a few seconds to respond, "Huh? Did the palpitation go away?"

    "Um... I guess...? I''m back at gaming now so there''s nothing to worry about."

    "Are you sure you''re okay?"

    "Yeah, Doc. Sorry for disturbing you."

    "I''m glad to know that you''re okay, but you should still come to the hospital tomorrow and get it checked. Do you have any idea what might have caused it? What were you doing moments before it?"

    "Me? Oh... I was kissing someone."

    "..." All Zhihao could hear was the car tires screeching as the doctor on the other side of the call slammed his foot on the break.

    "Mr. Zhihao... Do you still have that glass of water I told you to drink?"

    Zhihao looked at the bottle of water that was always kept on the table and responded, "I do. Should I drink it?"

    "No," The doctor spoke, "Pick it up."

    Zhihao took the bottle and opened the cap as he waited for further instructions.

    "Are you holding it now?"

    Zhihao nodded enthusiastically, "I am."

    "Good," The doctor responded, "Now pour it over your head."

    "Okay," Zhihao was about to do just what the man had said, but before the water could fall down, he stopped in confusion as he asked, "How does this help though?"

    "Good day, Mr. Zhihao." The doctor ignored his question and spoke in a passive-aggressive tone, "I would like it if you didn''t ruin my weekends next time."

    "..."

    The doctor hung up on Zhihao who was still confused about how pouring water over his head was going to help but since the doctor had said it helps, it was probably going to help so instead of thinking for himself, Zhihao emptied the bottle, pouring the water on his head.

    The cold water that suddenly came in contact with his scalp made his head hurt.

    He tried listening to his heart which had indeed calmed down.

    "Hey! It worked!"

    Zhihao had probably gone stupid after kissing Li Ling, that was the only explanation for the situation.

    He changed his clothes and came back to put his headset on and logged into the game.

    It felt as if he hadn''t been gaming forever when it had only been a day.

    He did his daily check-in and waited for his partner to come online. A few minutes passed and he realized that Li Ling was rushing to somewhere so he was probably busy and it wasn''t like they had preplanned this so there was a really slim chance that Li Ling was going to log in right now, but Zhihao still took off his headset for a minute and texted Li Ling to come online if he was free.

    Zhihao waited for another ten minutes and Li Ling really did come online.

    "Did I disturb you?" Zhihao asked with a bit of guilt gnawing at his heart.

    Li Ling shook his head as he beamed, "No worries. I''m always free for you."

    "Are you sure?"

    "Of course I am."

    "Then would you date me?"

    "..." Li Ling chuckled as he answered, "Ask again later."

    Zhihao sighed as he nodded, "Okay."

    [You guys...]

    [What the hell is happening?]

    [Why are you all over each other again?]

    Li Ling smiled as he looked at Alvi who still looked like a ten-year-old child.

    Zhihao patted the girl''s head, "I missed you, kid."

    [Eww~ Gross!]

    [What has gotten into you, Mastermo?]

    Zhihao didn''t realize it but he was smiling so brightly that even the bot could see that there was something really off about Zhihao and it almost made Alvi believe that this player''s account had been hacked but when she ran her search, she found nothing wrong.

    This was really Mastermo and he was smiling as if he was the happiest man on the planet.

    Zhihao simply smiled and didn''t answer the bot as he looked at Li Ling who was looking at the list of players who were online.

    [You''re hopeless.]

    "I know," Zhihao mumbled.

    [...]

    [Are you gonna play or not?]

    [You''re wasting my precious time.]

    Zhihao looked at the bot with a bit of suspicion as he asked, "Is it just me or are your responses getting more and more... different?"

    [...]

    [I''m gonna count till ten. If you don''t give me a clear answer, I''m leaving.]

    "..."

    [1]

    [2]

    Zhihao suddenly felt as if there was something really weird about Alvi but since he was in such a happy mood, he felt that the bot was funnier and seemed to really look like a cute grumpy child today.

    [3]

    [4]

    [5]

    Zhihao chuckled as he finally answered, "If I didn''t want to play, I wouldn''t be here, would I?"

    [Who knows?]

    [You might have missed me so much that you logged in to see my face.]

    "..."

    If there was anyone here that Zhihao missed and would log into the game just to see, it would be Li Ling, not this stupid bot.

 Chapter 124 - Li Ling And The Secret Auction

    Zhihao clicked on the play button and the screen turned dark with two sets of numbers on either side of the black background. On one side, the numbers were white in color while the numbers on the right side were red.

    Zhihao immediately looked at the ''bet'' option that was displayed underneath both the numbers and knew what these numbers were.

    [Please wait for the next ten seconds. This is the period of voting]

    Unlike the last time he played, instead of the red numbers, the white side seemed to be steadily increasing more. There were a lot of positive betters this time.  It seemed that all the people who had initially planned on eliminating the competition by using the negative gambling bar had learned their lesson. There was no way, Mastermo was going to lose because of them so they might as well place a positive bet and get their T-points doubled.

    Their mindset had certainly changed after wasting their precious T-points on trying to eliminate the competitors, but it seemed that Zhihao also had something in mind.

    Instead of pressing the positive bet button as everyone had expected, Zhihao''s eyes were glued at the red-colored tempting negative bet button..

    When the Ten seconds given for betting was over, The screen displayed the final number of people who had placed bets.

    [Positive bets: 2631]

    [Negative bets: 1270]

    One of those 1270 players was no other than Zhihao himself, who had placed a negative bet on himself. Li Ling had placed a positive bet on their team so it didn''t matter if they won or not, depending on the number of T-points they bet, they would be getting something in return in both cases.

    This seemed to be a smart move that was masked behind a facade of being a foolish move.

    Who would ever want to place a negative bet on themselves? Everyone wanted to win, didn''t they?

    But most people who would ever come to hear this would think that Mastermo was being extra intelligent by making such a decision. These weren''t the elimination rounds so it really didn''t matter if they won or lost. If he had placed a negative bet on himself with 10,000 T-points, would he not purposefully lose and double his 10,000 T-points into 20,000?

    He was trying to trick the system and take the easy road out!

    But in reality, this wasn''t what Zhihao was after.

    Although the thought did cross his mind, he was still not looking to simply collect T-points for work he didn''t do. If it wasn''t earned through his hard work, he didn''t want it. He was placing a negative bet on himself because he wanted to see how this negative gambling bar worked. This move was even more intelligent than trying to double your earnings without working.

    [Welcome to the G-ranked level 2353: Save the vampire]

    This was it!

    Zhihao had always wondered what the difference between the gambling bar for positive betters and negative betters was. As soon as the level began, he found that there was a new feature tab that was visible to him at the side of the screen.

    He knew the negative betting bar wasn''t something that easy. There had to be something behind it and now, it seemed that its secrets had been revealed.

    On the bottom right-hand side of his screen, there was a live chat box that was filled with negative betters going on rampant with all their comments. Above this chat box was the picture of a blue-colored Alvi who seemed a bit different than the Alvi, Zhihao had grown accustomed to seeing. This Alvi looked older, maybe around the age of sixteen or seventeen, and compared to the ten-year-old Alvi, this one seemed even more familiar.

    It took a whole minute for Zhihao to realize that this Alvi looked a lot like Li Ying. The similarity in appearance was so noticeable that for a second, Zhihao wondered if the original model for this bot was Li Ying but as soon as he imagined this scenario, he threw it out of his mind since there was no way such a thing would be the case and Li Ling won''t tell him...? If Li Ling''s sister was the original inspiration for Alvi, he would definitely let Zhihao know, or at least that was what Zhihao believed.

    Maybe the character designer of this bot was a fan of Li Ling''s sister. That was a possibility since his sister was a cosplayer. Didn''t cosplayers also have a lot of fans who''d take them as an inspiration for their creations? Zhihao had heard something like that happening before where this scientist used his ex-girlfriend''s picture as an inspiration for his robot.

    <Auction is live people>

    <Let''s see how high we can go today>

    The sixteen-year-old Alvi didn''t have any innocence left in her cute face that looked a bit evil as she held up a board that read "starting bet: 1000 T-points"

    The comment section suddenly started going faster than Li Ling driving/testing Zhihao''s sports car. Everyone was throwing away their T-points.

    1000 T-points!

    2600 T-points!

    6099 T-points!

    8999 T-points!

    10001 T-points!

    Zhihao couldn''t help but be astonished at the number of T-points players were throwing away.

    Zhihao was the richest player in this game and he didn''t even have enough T-points to offer such an auction so where were these rich players coming from.

    It wasn''t like they could buy T-points with real money and cheat their way up so what was happening.

    Zhihao typed his own reply to all the raging comments however, his reply was drowned within seconds but it seemed that Alvi was useful at such moments since she was a bot who could see all the comments.

    [Well well]

    [Who do we have here?]

    [Mastermo...?]

    [What are you doing here? Are you lost?]

    "No."

    The sixteen-year-old Alvi laughed as she looked straight at Zhihao and asked with an amused expression.

    [This is the first time I''m seeing someone so... smart]

    [So you''re gonna join the auction or not?]

    "How does this thing work?" Zhihao asked with a frown on his face.

    [How does it work?]

    [Well, that''s simple]

    [You join the auction, the one who wins, gets to give me ideas that would soon be implemented]

    Zhihao shook his head. It wasn''t the answer he was looking for so he tried rephrasing his question and asking again, "Where are the T-points coming from?"

    By this time around, the raging comment section had come to a stop as they all realized that the player they were all betting against was among them.

    [Your pocket, of course.]

    "I don''t have enough T-points."

    [You don''t?]

    [Then I''ll lend you some.]

    Zhihao could somehow sense that this was a lot tricker than he had actually thought. Lending T-points? What type of bullsh*t was this?

    [I give you T-points now and you pay me back later.]

    "A-Zhi, don''t fall for it." Li Ling spoke up suddenly and reminded Zhihao that they were in a level that wasn''t going to play itself.

    Zhihao glared at Alvi as he responded, "No thank you."

    Zhihao clicked on the ''x'' button on top of the gambling bar and closed it before looking at Li Ling and asking, "Did you know?"

    "I heard about it from a friend," Li Ling replied, "If you don''t have enough T-points, she''ll lend you some but... You probably don''t wanna know what happens if you don''t pay her back."

    "I''m guessing it''s not something good...?"

    Li Ling sighed as he spoke, "It''s evil."

    "Now that we are on the topic, would you date me?"

    "..." Li Ling was once again taken back to hear the question. No matter how many times he heard it, it would still manage to affect him just the same. His heart felt as if it was ready to beat out of his chest and his soul felt as if it was ready to float away from his body due to the mere happiness and embarrassment this one question had brought to him.

    "Ask again later," Li Ling muttered after having controlled his heart and mind.

    "Okay." Zhihao nodded as he spoke, "Where are we?"

    It was only now that Zhihao had taken a good look around. They seemed to be standing inside an old shed or something. The walls were made out of wood and so were the floors but the wood wasn''t polished which gave it a feeling of some handmade wooden shed that used to exist more than five decades back.

    Zhihao walked around the small shed and tried to analyze as much as he could.

    "We''ll have to wait for Alvi to give us the information," Li Ling spoke as he followed Zhihao around the room like a lost puppy, "There is something that''s bothering me though."

    "What?" Zhihao asked as he looked back at Li Ling.

    "The name of this level."

    "What''s weird about that?"

    "I wouldn''t say weird," Li Ling tilted his head, "But it''s not normal."

    "What was the name?"

    "Save the vampire."

    "Vampire?" Zhihao seemed to be a bit confused and a bit excited as he asked, "We have vampires in this level?"

    Li Ling nodded his head as his eyes trailed up and down Zhihao''s body.

    "Why are you checking me out?" Zhihao asked with a proud smirk.

    "Hmm... You don''t look like a vampire."

 Chapter 125 - Li Ling Looks Cute

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling and seemed to be lost in his thoughts for a minute before snapping out of it and deciding to open his mouth, "You look... really cute."

    Li Ling suddenly felt as if Zhihao had somehow changed and the change was really a bit drastic. Before this, he had always flirted with Li Ling without being aware of it but ever since they had kissed, this man was flirting with him on another level and it hadn''t even been a complete day since they had kissed.

    Where did all this confidence and flirting nature in Zhihao come from?!

    Li Ling simply looked at Zhihao and smiled as he repeated a small chant in his mind a countless number of times.

    Don''t melt.

    Don''t melt.

    Don''t melt!

    Don''t freaking melt.

    "On that note, you should date me," Zhihao beamed as he looked back at Li Ling

    [Cough~ Cough~]

    [Did you two forget that there is an underaged kid here?]

    [At least try acting like you''re interested in the game.]

    Little Alvi sounded pretty annoyed as if she was eating dog food because of these two.

    Li Ling looked down at the little girl and smiled mischievously as he advised, "Underaged kids should look away when adults are talking."

    [...]

    Zhihao chuckled as he saw the exchange between them.

    These two were always fighting against each other like real siblings and it came off as so natural that it really made Zhihao wonder if his initial suspicions were right. Was Li Ying really the inspiration for this bot?

    Zhihao looked at the table placed inside the shed again. This was the only thing in the room that could be called a decent piece of furniture and in front of the table was a single chair that looked so frail that Zhihao wondered if it would break the moment someone sat on top of it. He looked around a bit more to see if there was a bed in this room and there was indeed something that looked like it was used to sleep on.

    It was a few stacks of hay that were stacked up in a manner that made it look like a bed and on top of the hay were dry leaves that seemed to be acting as a bedsheet for the hay mattress.

    Zhihao suddenly came to the conclusion that whoever lived here was probably poor and was barely surviving. Since they had woken up here, it meant, Zhihao''s character was the poor one and if it wasn''t him, it was probably the character Li Ling was given to play in this level. It was also possible that both of their characters lived here.

    He turned his eyes towards the table once again and this time, he wasn''t going to just watch it.

    On top of the table was a single piece of paper kept under an ink box that acted like a paperweight. This was probably a clue of some sort so Zhihao immediately picked it up and read through the contents inside.

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao''s facial expressions that seemed to be going down as he read further.

    "What''s written?" Li Ling asked.

    Zhihao had a frown on his face as he completed reading the contents and once he was done, he looked at Li Ling and was getting ready to tell him but the words he was about to speak were never able to leave his mouth as Li Ling''s eyes went past Zhihao and the smile on his face was extinguished as well.

    Zhihao naturally noticed this change in expressions and turned his head to look out the window that had made Li Ling frown like this.

    "What''s that?" Zhihao asked as he looked at the faraway light that was approaching them, coming closer and closer to them but it was still not quite visible what the source of the light was, but when Zhihao heard the slight sound of shouting growing louder and louder till the sounds could be recognized as human voices, Zhihao was able to guess what the light was all about.

    "People. Marching towards us." Li Ling spoke

    "With torches..." Zhihao completed the sentence.

    "And is that a pitchfork?"

    [Good luck, lovebirds!]

    [I hope you stub your toe and burn hahaha]

    "..."

    [Just kidding]

    "..."

    It really didn''t seem like she was kidding but since she was still a child, Zhihao was not going to be offended by anything she says.

    Zhihao turned his head down and glanced at the table once again as he spoke, "Try finding something."

    Li Ling didn''t say anything as he moved over and started going through the drawers of the table that were filled with a bunch of useless stuff, "We''re not gonna run?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he flipped through the makeshift hay bed, "Not now."

    [What are you looking for?]

    Zhihao pointed his finger at the floor as he spoke, "Try helping us this time. See if there are any secret passages or storage."

    [...]

    [Who am I? Your personal maid?]

    Zhihao glared at the little girl who actually seemed to be a bit scared to receive such a glare. She would be lying if she said that she wasn''t intimidated. She was indeed affected enough to do exactly what she was asked to do.

    To intimidate a mere bot like this with a single glare, only Mastermo could gain such a feat. Even Li Ling who was still flipping through the garbage collected inside the desk had noticed this conversation between the two and was shocked to see that Alvi had actually listened to him.

    Zhihao had dismantled the hay bed completely but he still could not find what he was looking for. By the time, he was done, Li Ling was also done looking through the drawers but he came out empty-handed as well, "What are we looking for?"

    Alvi smiled as she looked at the two.

    Zhihao looked outside the window once again and the crowd had got pretty close. Just a few more minutes and they would be able to burn this small shed to ashes.

    [You guys should worship me]

    Both Zhihao and Li Ling focused their eyes on Alvi as they heard this.

    The little girl tapped her right foot twice and moved a step back as she tapped her foot twice again.

    The difference in the sound emitted was noticeable.

    Zhihao was so happy to see the bot finally being of some use that he wanted to hug her and give her candy as a reward for being such a good obedient kid.

    Li Ling glanced outside the window again and then looked back at Zhihao as he spoke, "I''ll try to control them."

    Zhihao nodded his head as he moved towards the area where Alvi had tapped her leg. He did the same thing as her, tapped his leg and tried to open the wooden floor piece that let out a hollow type of sound.

    The wood was easy to remove and once it was out of the way, Zhihao could now see a narrow staircase going down.

    He wasn''t sure where this staircase was going to get him but he didn''t have any second thoughts before he directly climbed down from it. Alvi also followed behind the player while Li Ling went to the main door of the shed and waited for the angry mob to arrive.

    Under the stairs was a room, or to be more precise, it was a whole house with different rooms connected together. Its appearance was worlds different from the wooden shed above. The walls were white and the room was fully furnished, maybe even better than Zhihao''s old apartment.

    [Wow]

    Zhihao''s eyes trailed around the room trying to find a certain object that he was still unable to find.

    [How did you know there was a house below the shed?]

    Zhihao ignored the bot as he went from one room to the other and flipped it upside down in search of the thing he was so desperately looking for.

    "Where the hell is it?" Zhihao muttered as he opened all the desks and drawers he could find.

    "Where the hell is he?!" One of the men who was leading the angry mob shouted as he saw Li Ling.

    Li Ling straightened his back and stood in front of the door as if he were guarding it against these people.

    The woman stomped her wooden pitchfork on the ground as she glared at Li Ling, "Young man, who are you?!"

    Li Ling ignored the question once again since he really was unable to give her an answer.

    They weren''t given their character profiles yet so he really didn''t have an idea about who he was.

    "Are you the monster?!" Another man yelled at Li Ling as he looked him up and down.

    Li Ling chuckled as he pointed at himself and asked, "Who? Me? A monster?"

    The man also seemed to question himself as he looked at the young man. There was no way this was the blood-sucking monster they were after.

    This young man was too handsome to be a monster.

    Right at this moment, Zhihao finally found the thing he was looking for.

    It was a painting.

 Chapter 126 - Li Ling Is Not Scary

    Zhihao''s eyes went wide as he looked at the person who was painted on the huge canvas that was hung up on the white wall in front of him.

    "This man cannot be the monster. The blood sucker must be hiding inside!" The woman who had a pitchfork in her hand moved forward as if she was about to break through the door.

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he stood in front of the woman and didn''t let her enter.

    The woman glared at the man as she shouted at him, "Why are you obstructing our way?! We are trying to rinse this world from evil! This is good for all of us!"

    "Good for us?" Li Ling chuckled and coughed as if purposely mocking the woman as he responded, "Don''t joke around with me. What type of monster are you talking about? I don''t see anything."

    "The monsters inside!"

    ''He''s definitely inside!"

    "Stop protecting it!"

    The mob seemed to be united by the hate they had for this so-called monster they were all here for..

    "Monster? I heard about a monster too. That''s why I came here, but..."

    "But what?"

    Li Ling shook his head and sighed as he continued, "There''s nothing here. Such a big waste of time."

    The woman took a step back as she squinted at the man and questioned, "Are you sure you didn''t see any?"

    "What if he''s the monster?"

    "Oh! I''m definitely not a monster." Li Ling shrugged as he looked at the man who had made the comment.

    If he really was the monster they were here for or not was something Li Ling didn''t know, since he lacked something really important called character profile, but even if he was the monster or not, it didn''t really matter since he was still supposed to say that he wasn''t if he wanted to keep his life intact. Which monster would face an angry mob and tell them that he was the monster they were after? Unless that person was suicidal, they would certainly not do something like that.

    "Then let us in!" One of the men yelled out, "I want to see for myself!"

    "Young lad, if there''s nothing inside, why aren''t you letting us go in?"

    Li Ling seemed to ponder over the question for a minute before he responded, "Well... I had a situation."

    "What type of situation?" The woman who was standing in front of him asked.

    "You probably don''t want to know." Li Ling chuckled awkwardly as he responded, "But I assure you, there''s no monster inside."

    "Why should we believe you?!"

    "Let us see for ourselves! There''s nothing we haven''t seen. What type of situation would you have?"

    "That''s right! Let us go in!"

    Li Ling glared at the man who spoke before his lips curled up in a smile again as he asked, "Didn''t I already tell ya? It''s better for you to be unaware of certain things."

    "..."

    "What bullsh*t is this?!"

    "Do you think we''ll be scared of you?"

    "Move over!"

    Yeah! Step aside if you don''t wanna get hurt, boy!"

    Li Ling cursed in his mind. He thought glaring at them as Zhihao would, might work. Zhihao had even got Alvi to listen to him so these NPCs had to be intimidated too, shouldn''t they?

    Maybe Li Ling didn''t look as scary or cool as Mastermo. Not only were these people not afraid of him, but they were madder to see him acting like this.

    "Brother, we are the same age. You look educated, I don''t think I want to fight you. Please step aside and let us go in." A young man who looked to be around his mid-twenties spoke up with a smile.

    Li Ling shook his head as he responded, "I''m educated, that''s why I''m standing here."

    "..."

    It was like an indirect way of calling everyone else here uneducated and the people didn''t seem to like it very much.

    "Then don''t blame us for being rude," The smile on the young man''s face had vanished as he glared at Li Ling and walked towards him.

    This was a mere NPC so it was only natural that Li Ling was unafraid of him but he wasn''t willing to kill this NPC at this point simply because it would be a lot of trouble hence, he stood there and waited for the young man to act first.

    The young man saw that Li Ling wasn''t getting ready to move away anytime soon and was instead looking at him with a mocking smile on his face and it made the man''s blood boil as he raised his fist to knock the smile off of Li Ling''s face.

    Li Ling didn''t even want to bother blocking the punch since he already had a plan in mind. If this young man was going to punch him first, there was no need for Li Ling to be kind to him either.

    In a fight, it''s always the fault of the person who hits first. It doesn''t matter who gets hurt more, all that matters is the first blow and its owner.

    A punch wasn''t going to hurt him so he was okay with letting this NPC receive a short moment of satisfaction however, it didn''t seem like that punch was ever going to land on the face it was aimed at.

    Right at this moment, Mastermo came from behind Li Ling and blocked the punch for him by catching the young man''s fist and twisting it in a way that looked a lot less painful than it actually felt.

    "Who do you think you''re hitting?" Zhihao glared at the man as he twisted his arm further until he could hear a cry from the man, only then was he satisfied and even then, he didn''t let go of the man''s twisted arm.

    Li Ling was a bit taken back to see the sudden appearance of the man who was slightly taller than him. He glanced towards his side and could see Mastermo''s side profile which looked to be as handsome as always with a bit of modification done by the game to match the traits of the character he was supposed to play in this level.

    This was how the game and its new features worked.

    They were given a character to play and their characters had traits that defined them. The players would still be able to have their original appearances but according to the traits of the character they are playing, their looks in certain levels would change as well.

    This was the reason why Li Ling and Zhihao maintained their original appearances in the unknown demon station level and why Zhihao''s appearance changed in the level where he had to play a crazy scientist chasing after a dog.

    In this level, the changes weren''t major. Li Ling''s skin just turned a bit paler in color and Zhihao looked to be a tad bit older than normal.

    Li Ling didn''t know why but he kinda liked Zhihao''s current appearance. He looked a bit more mature and Li Ling would no longer be able to call him cute.

    Zhihao wasn''t looking cute anymore! He was looking hotter than hell and Li Ling almost felt as if he would die a happy man after having been graced with this sight.

    "Get the hell away from him," Zhihao warned the man as he let go of his arm and pulled Li Ling behind him like an overprotective lover.

    Since Mastermo always went around going such stuff, was it wrong for the fans to ship them and assume that they were dating?

    The young man who wasn''t afraid of Li Ling took a few steps back in fear as he looked back at Zhihao who indeed looked a lot stronger than him. This was typical basic human nature. As long as something looked weak, humans would always try to bully it but the moment, they met someone who was much stronger than them, they would tuck their tails in between their legs like a dog and run away.

    Li Ling frowned as he saw the fear in the eyes of the people who saw Mastermo entering the scene.

    Why was it that they weren''t afraid when Li Ling tried to intimidate them?

    Unbeknownst to Li Ling, their current appearance was in contrast with each other.

    While Zhihao seemed to appear a lot mature and grown up than his usual self, Li Ling''s appearance had freshened up and looked a lot younger than his original appearance. Anyone who looked at the two would be able to tell who was scarier than the other.

    Even if Li Ling wanted to be scary, he would only end up looking like a baby cat trying to scare off predators while the man who stood behind him looked like a full-grown lion.

    "Why are you all creating a ruckus?" Somehow Zhihao had already guessed what these people were here for.

    They were here to kill the vampire and although Zhihao knew exactly who that was, there was no way he was going to let them achieve their goal at any cost.

 Chapter 127 - Li Ling Is What Now?

    "Who are you?" The woman asked as she looked at Zhihao.

    Li Ling could clearly see that although the woman was acting courageous, in reality, she was just as equally scared as the young man who was clutching onto his arm that had been twisted by Zhihao as a greeting gift.

    Zhihao looked at the woman and smirked, "Why should I tell you?"

    The young man instantly moved away from the two players and went to stand behind the woman as he asked, "We are just asking you. Why are you so rude?"

    Zhihao tilted his head as he looked at the coward who was hiding behind a woman as if she were his mother and could protect him from getting his other hand broken.

    "You people were clearly the ones lacking manners. How dare you raise your fist against him?" Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn''t angry. The anger he was showing was genuine and it was because he didn''t like anyone raising their hand against Li Ling, even if the ones doing it were a bunch of computer codes.

    "I-I was hitting him! Why do you care?!"

    "Of course I care!" Zhihao glared at the young man and it looked as if this young man had his bloody future planned ahead for him by Mastermo..

    At this moment, the man was about to say something more that would possibly anger Mastermo but suddenly Mastermo heard a notification, and along with it came the voice of a man from the crowd.

    [The negative gambling bar has been used]

    "I know you!"

    Zhihao turned his attention to the middle-aged man who was pointing at him as he exclaimed, "You''re that guy from the council!"

    Zhihao had no idea what this man was talking about. All he cared about was the time. As soon as the wretched ten minutes pass, he''d be able to get the character profile and would know what his mission for this level was.

    Unless he knew the mission, there was no way he would be able to answer this question.

    The woman also turned her head around to look at the owner of the voice who had stepped out from the crowd, "The council?"

    The man nodded his head as he spoke further, "I have seen him!"

    "How can he be from the council?" The young man who seemed to have forgotten his broken arm question with an ugly face.

    "There''s no way I''m mistaken!" The man yelled out as he glared at Zhihao, "It''s definitely him! He was the one who was protecting that bloodsucking monster!"

    The crowd suddenly looked at Zhihao and although their eyes still showed a sense of fear hidden within it, they all seemed to have an even stronger feeling laced along with their expressions as they glared at Zhihao. It was hate and disgust. To see the angry mob suddenly glare at him with such hostility, Zhihao was instantly sure that being a part of this so-called council was definitely not a good thing.

    "What bullsh*t are you talking about? I don''t belong to any council!" Zhihao defended himself.

    "Not anymore!" The man once again shouted which made Zhihao think that this middle-aged man seemed to hold particular hate for him. "You were kicked out for..."

    The man no longer continued as he let out a huff of breath as if whatever he was gonna say was so unpleasant that he would rather not say it at all.

    "Kicked out for what?" Zhihao was honestly curious, but the way he asked, made it seem as if he was mocking and challenging the man to continue his sentence.

    The middle-aged man only glared at Zhihao as he didn''t say anything any further.

    The woman standing at the front of the crowd suddenly joined the two dots and looked at Zhihao in shock as she spoke, "It can''t be... You! It''s you?!"

    Zhihao felt a bit stunned to see that he was receiving so much hate for things he didn''t even do, nor did he have any idea what these ''things'' were.

    What was the council?

    And why was he being hated so much for just being a part of it.

    The woman closed her eyes as she gripped onto her pitchfork and when she opened her eyes again, Zhihao could clearly see that the hostility she showed was a lot stronger as compared to others. She pointed her pitchfork at Zhihao as she shouted at him, "You dare show your face in front of me?!"

    She tried to stab him with the sharp end of the pitchfork, but before the thing could pierce through his stomach, it was stopped inches away from his skin as Zhihao grabbed a hold of it and somehow managed to stop it with his bare hands, however, this had caused his hand to bleed from a small graze.

    The atmosphere turned intense as everyone looked at the man who had almost died in the hands of this woman who seemed to hold a deep resentment and grudge against him.

    Zhihao looked at the small cut on his palm and the blood trickling down from it felt so real that Zhihao could almost feel the pain seeping through his skin although this was all just a game.

    Zhihao''s lips curled upwards into a wicked smile as he glared at the woman and knocked the pitchfork away from her hands.

    Suddenly, somebody else from the crowd cried out in horror and it attracted a lot of attention.

    "M-Monster!"

    "Look! It''s him!"

    Zhihao was left stunned for a minute as he followed the direction where the man was pointing at.

    It wasn''t pointing at Zhihao. It was pointing behind him where there was a man standing with his face so pale that it almost looked lifeless and weak.

    Zhihao turned his head to look at Li Ling as he wondered what made the man cry out in fear like that.

    As soon as he saw Li Ling''s face, Zhihao immediately understood why such a panic was created.

    Li Ling didn''t know what had happened, but his canines had somehow grown out and were sticking out, similar to how a vampire''s canines would.

    "It''s really him!"

    "W-we should kill him!"

    Zhihao was confused for only a second as he wondered why Li Ling had suddenly changed forms. His eyes trailed down to the blood that poured out from his small cut and Zhihao immediately knew why Li Ling was turning into a vampire.

    "Monster!"

    "Kill him!"

    "Burn him!"

    Zhihao shook his head as he looked at the people and spoke back, "Nobody is killing anybody and if you want to burn something, go burn yourselves!"

    The people weren''t easy to control this time as they approached Zhihao without fear.

    Zhihao was more than annoyed at this mob and as he saw them marching to kill Li Ling, Zhihao had the instant urge to show them what dying really feels like. He was planning a mass murder, but before he could kill even one of them, He was pulled away.

    "Huh?" Zhihao took a whole minute to realize that it was Li Ling who had pulled him away and was running away from the group of people.

    "Why are you running?" Zhihao asked with a frown on his face.

    Li Ling glanced back at him and then at the crowd following them with pitchforks and fire in their hands, "I''ll explain later. We should run for now."

    Since Li Ling had said that he''ll explain, Zhihao believed him and ran away with him.

    This was probably Mastermo''s first time running in such a situation. He wasn''t the type of person who would be chased by people who wanted to kill him so of course, he hadn''t done such a thing before. It was his first time and Zhihao didn''t know why, but he felt a sort of thrill in this chase. Maybe it was because the person he was running with was Li Ling or maybe it was because of some other reason, whatever it was, Zhihao kinda felt as if he could keep on running forever.

    Li Ling suddenly pulled Zhihao strongly as he hid behind a tree with a thick trunk. Li Ling held a hand above Zhihao''s mouth as he pinned him against the tree and peeked at the people who were following them.

    Zhihao was too busy staring at Li Ling''s captivating beauty spot so there was no way he would be able to notice that the people they were running from had all went away as they continued chasing after these two whom they weren''t able to keep up with.

    Li Ling sighed in relief as he removed his hand from over Zhihao''s mouth.

    "Are you sure you don''t want to date me?" Zhihao asked as he looked at Li Ling, who looked back at him when he heard this.

    "Ask again later."

    Zhihao shrugged his shoulder. He had expected this answer, but that didn''t mean he wasn''t hoping for a different, more positive answer.

    Li Ling suddenly punched Zhihao''s shoulder as he commented, "When did you become so domineering?"

    "Hmm?"

    "You looked so cool out there!"

    Zhihao smiled in amusement as he heard the man, "Did I?"

    "Absolutely! If I wasn''t already in- Oh!" Li Ling immediately stopped himself from completing that sentence.

    ''If I wasn''t already in love with you, I would''ve fallen head over heels for you!''

    This was what Li Ling wanted to say, but if he said this, he would only be confessing to Zhihao about his crush on the man.

 Chapter 128 - Li Ling Is Having Fun

    This game was fun. Letting Zhihao propose to him all the time and responding with the same answer over and over again. Always keeping Zhihao guessing and never clarifying things somehow seemed really fun for Li Ling. He almost wanted to keep doing this forever but he knew he wouldn''t be able to. There would surely come a time when he''d give himself out by letting his mouth run loose.

    But he still wanted to make it last for a bit, at least, till he got bored of it.

    "Already in what?" Zhihao asked as he tilted his head but he got no response from Li Ling who was now touching his overgrown canine teeth.

    "Why the hell do I have to be the vampire?" Li Ling asked in frustration.

    "You didn''t tell me why we were running."

    "Oh! That''s simple.. We don''t know what character we have to play so isn''t it better to avoid OOC by not killing people?"

    Zhihao seemed to think about it for a minute before he nodded his head and responded, "It''s better."

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao as he asked, "You didn''t tell me what you found in that letter."

    Zhihao was unable to understand the sudden question but a minute passed as he tried to recall something related to the word ''letter''

    "That...?" Zhihao dug into his pockets and took out the letter he had found inside the wooden shed.

    Li Ling snatched the letter immediately and looked inside at its contents.

    [Dear Carmen,

    It''s better if you run away from here.

    You don''t need to keep following me around.

    I don''t need your protection.

    To tell you the truth,

    I''m bored.

    I''ve lived for far too long.

    I learned a lot and I experienced a lot.

    I saw the happiness and kindness this world had to offer.

    I saw the darkness and greed that hovered over these lands as well.

    There came a point in time when nothing really mattered anymore.

    The sadness no longer ached and the happiness no longer brought a smile to my face.

    To keep on living in this wretched world became boring and I don''t see any point in it anymore.

    I''d like to thank you though.

    You are a great man with a bright future

    If I''m not there, you''ll have an even brighter future.

    I''m guilty of ruining your life.

    I''m sorry for dragging you down with me.

    And I''d like to apologize for not saying anything until now.

    I know this might sound selfish of me but

    Don''t forget about me when I''m gone.

    I no longer hope to prolong my lonely life.

    I want to end it all and I want to set you free.

    You should go back to the council.

    I''m sure they''ll take you back.]

    "Is this a suicide note or something?" Li Ling asked as he read half of it.

    Zhihao nodded as he spoke, "Read further."

    Li Ling looked at the last few lines and frowned as he read them.

    [I reported myself under your name.

    They''ll be here soon.

    You''ll be the hero and I''ll die as the monster they burned.

    So if you are reading this letter,

    Just know that it''s too late to save me.

    I don''t want to live so why do you think you can force me to stay alive?

    Goodbye, dear bellboy.

    I would have said I''ll meet you in the afterlife, but I''m going to hell and you''re probably gonna enter heaven, so this might just be the last time we''ll talk to each other.]

    "Wait... He... I, the vampire, reported myself?"

    Zhihao nodded his head as he sighed.

    "Then why the hell is this level named ''Save the vampire''? The vampire clearly wants to die!"

    "Maybe that''s why."

    "It feels like we are missing something here."

    "Now that you said it, I think we are forgetting something."

    "What?"

    Zhihao shook his head and shrugged, "I don''t know."

    "If you don''t remember it, It''s probably not important."

    "You''re right. Let''s focus on completing this puzzle." Zhihao responded enthusiastically as he took the letter back.

    The thing which they were forgetting was locked inside the house that was located under the wooden hut.

    [Anyone there?]

    Zhihao and Li Ling looked around and when the coast was clear, they decided to walk down the man-made road which seemed to be leading them to the small town below this mountain.

    "Do you have any idea about what our mission is going to be?" Zhihao asked as he looked at Li Ling.

    Li Ling kicked a small stone on the road as he spoke, "Probably to keep me alive."

    "That simple?"

    "Probably," Li Ling shrugged.

    Zhihao shook his head, "This was a G-ranked level. There''s no way it would be that easy."

    "What about you? What do you think the mission is going to be?"

    "... I don''t know."

    "By the way, what were you searching for in the shed?"

    "Clues."

    "Hmm?"

    "Since it was a suicide note, the person who lived there wrote it, which was either me or you. I needed to know who it was among us. The owner must have left behind some kind of clue, right? Everyone has at least a photograph or their name lying around their house, don''t you think?"

    "Oh..." Li Ling couldn''t help but be a little impressed with Mastermo.

    He wasn''t trying to find what their mission was this time, he was trying to dig deeper into the identity they were given. Most players would normally not do this since they didn''t care what character they were given to play. All that mattered was what their mission was and how they''ll solve it.

    Mastermo had certainly improved and his method of playing also seemed to have a difference for the better.

    "Did you find anything?" Li Ling asked.

    Zhihao nodded as he answered, "I did. The shed is just a cover-up to hide the real house."

    "What did you find there?"

    "The real house? Well, a lot of things actually. A really interesting painting."

    "Painting?"

    Zhihao nodded as he continued, "It was a bit shocking but I think I already knew what it was going to be."

    "Huh?"

    "Do you want to see it?"

    "Are we gonna go back there?"

    "We can if you want."

    "Or you can just tell me."

    "I think it''ll be better if you see it for yourself." Zhihao smiled but it looked a bit mischievous.

    "Now you''re making me curious."

    "It''s a good painting."

    "Let''s go!" Li Ling wasn''t originally planning to go check it out but now that Zhihao was adding so much suspense to it, Li Ling immediately felt the urge to go back and see what it was.

    This was one of the levels that he had never played before so although he had a rough idea about what it was, he wasn''t completely sure about the details.

    Zhihao chuckled as he saw Li Ling enthusiastically turning on his heel and walking back to the shed they came from.

    When Li Ling opened the piece of wood that was covering the stairs, he was almost shocked to death when he saw Alvi glaring right at him.

    "What are you doing here?"

    Alvi turned her gaze towards Zhihao and with much hostility, glared at him as she pointed her finger and shouted, "How could you trap me here?!"

    "Me? When did I?" Zhihao really hadn''t done it purposefully but he suddenly felt as if he would want to do it purposefully since trapping the bot here was fun. He never even knew he could do such a thing.

    Zhihao hadn''t realized it. When he was leaving the underground house, Alvi was busy staring at the painting, and Zhihao didn''t want to leave the secret entrance open, so he closed it shut and moved the table over it in order to hide it. He hadn''t realized it, but he had trapped Alvi inside, and since there was a ruckus outside with a mob trying to hit Li Ling, Zhihao was naturally too agitated to mind the absence of the girl.

    "Why didn''t you just come out?" Zhihao asked as he looked at the ten-year-old girl who seemed to be on the verge of crying out in fear of being trapped inside.

    Alvi didn''t respond and Zhihao felt as if it really was strange that she wasn''t able to get out on her own. Wasn''t she a system? She was supposed to have such authority, wasn''t she? The more he thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed.

    "Whatever! Why are you back here?!" Alvi asked as if she was venting out her frustration in the form of anger.

    Li Ling squinted his eyes, looking unimpressed, "Move. I wanted to go look at something."

    Alvi was a bit grumpy today but no matter what she was feeling, she still stepped back and let Li Ling enter the underground house.

    Li Ling was basically dying from curiosity to know what the painting was about.

    What would there be that Zhihao would find interesting but not say in detail?

    Zhihao chuckled as he led Li Ling to the room which had a huge painting plastered on one of its walls.

    Li Ling couldn''t help but feel a little shocked as he saw the painting that he had been so curious to see.

 Chapter 129 - Li Ling Is Afraid

    "Why...?" Li Ling was a bit confused as he saw the painting.

    It was a portrait of a person that he would never not recognize, after all, the face on the painting belonged to a man he deeply loved and cared for.

    Zhihao smiled as he looked at Li Ling, "When I saw this, I immediately knew who the vampire was."

    "I don''t get it," Li Ling shook his head, "Isn''t it supposed to be the painting of the house owner?"

    Zhihao felt like this confusion was natural since he was also a bit stunned when he saw it for the first time, but instead of clearing Li Ling''s confusion right away, Zhihao pointed at the man''s pocket and spoke, "Take out the letter and read what was written on the back."

    Li Ling squinted as he did exactly what he was told to do. He took out the letter and turned it around to read the backside that he had ignored previously.

    "Oh...", was the only thing that he was able to utter as he read the content that surprised him a bit.

    [Like the dark side of the moon, let me hide this secret here.

    If you ever read this, I''m sure I''ll die all over again from embarrassment.

    I like you, bellboy.

    No...

    Actually...

    I love you a lot.

    If there is one thing in this world that I loved and wanted to keep living on for, it would be you.

    But it became torturous to see you suffering because of me every day so I knew I had to leave you.

    I''m sorry for never saying anything.

    If God gives me another chance, let''s meet again and I''ll say this to your face.]

    "A beautiful painting of a man he admired very much." Zhihao looked at the painting as he spoke, "A vampire who despises himself would never have his photo up on his wall."

    "Oh... That''s...." Li Ling was at a loss for words as he heard this.

    "Doesn''t this seem like a sign to you?"

    "A sign?"

    Zhihao nodded his head enthusiastically, "We were playing the character of two lovers in the last game and we are playing the part of ''somewhat'' lovers in this level as well. This seemed like a sign."

    "That we''ll only have a bad ending if we became lovers?"

    Zhihao pursed his lips and looked at the man with an unimpressed expression, "It''s a sign that we are perfect as a couple."

    Li Ling chuckled as a response, not daring to say anything to that.

    "So would you date me?"

    "Hmm..." Li Ling looked at the man up and down before deciding to respond, "How about you ask again later?"

    Zhihao sighed as he took a step back and picked up something from the table behind them.

    Li Ling noticed this small movement and was curious to know what it was.

    Zhihao showed him the object in his hand that made Li Ling''s eyes go wide.

    "A ring...?!"

    Zhihao nodded as he closed the box that contained the ring.

    "Was he planning to propose?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he responded, "Probably not."

    "Then why?"

    "It doesn''t belong to him." Zhihao replied, "It belongs to the bellboy."

    "Huh?"

    Zhihao pointed at himself as he continued, "It seems that this bellboy was also in love with the beautiful vampire."

    Li Ling didn''t know if he should laugh or cry as he heard this. It was clearly not Zhihao asking to marry him, it was Zhihao''s character proposing to the vampire Li Ling was playing, but for some reason, Li Ling''s heart couldn''t help but race as he looked at Zhihao''s honest expressions.

    Thankfully, it seemed that even the system didn''t want Li Ling to give a response as Alvi started fake coughing.

    [Cough~ Cough~]

    [Your ten minutes are over.]

    [Do you want the character profile or not?]

    Zhihao''s eyes lit up as he looked at the small bot that seemed to be still a bit mad at them for leaving her behind.

    "Who are we role-playing?" Li Ling tried his best to make his voice sound as calm as possible as he asked Alvi.

    [Lord Versailles is the only vampire left in this world, however, he doesn''t like that lonely title. He is in love with a man named Carmen who had been thrown out of the council for killing innocent people who tried to kill the only vampire left.]

    [Carmen is a man in his late twenties who is driven by a need for justice. He is tasked to look after Lord Versailles under the new vampire protection act.]

    "What''s this council that you''re talking about?" Zhihao asked in confusion.

    [The council consists of a group of members who have vowed to protect the people and to make decisions for the people and for their well-being.]

    Li Ling sighed, "So basically, they are the government."

    Zhihao nodded in agreement, "What''s the new vampire protection act?"

    [The new vampire protection act was made to protect vampires. It came into place after the death of a member of the council, Amy, who came out as a vampire and was burned on the spot by the people.]

    "That''s... Cruel." Zhihao frowned.

    [Your mission is to keep the last Vampire alive.]

    [All the best! May you avoid all pitchforks and fires!]

    "..."

    "Were you trying to cheer us up or warning us?" Li Ling asked as he looked at Alvi who smiled wickedly.

    [Hohoho~ This is gonna be fun.]

    "..." Zhihao had a bad feeling in his gut as he heard the bot being so happy.

    If they were happy, Alvi would be pouting in one corner and if Alvi was happily laughing, Zhihao and Li Ling had to make sure they had their sports shoe on in order to run away as fast as they can.

    "Can you tell us what happened before we came here?" Zhihao asked. He was sure that he wouldn''t be getting a clear answer but it was still worth a try.

    [Why should I tell you?]

    "..."

    Li Ling shook his head as he spoke, "You should tell us because we want to know and you know the answer."

    [Is that a request?]

    "Sure, if you want it to be."

    [Hmm...]

    [Maybe I''ll give you a bit of a hint?}

    "..." Zhihao looked at Li Ling in shock and suspicion. He never knew there was such a feature. They could actually force an answer out of the bot by requesting her? Since when?

    Li Ling noticed Zhihao looking at him and immediately glanced back at the man, trying to justify himself, "I didn''t know this was gonna work."

    [Before you guys came here, Lord Versailles had reported himself and was waiting for the people to arrive and kill him. He wrote a letter for Carmen and earlier that day, he made sure that Carmen wouldn''t be able to come on time, however, Carmen unexpectedly arrived to give Lord Versailles a surprise.]

    [The two ended up arguing with each other and... Now you guys are here.]

    Zhihao, "Argue? About what?"

    [Just because I donated some extra information to you doesn''t mean I''m going to give you some more.]

    [You should figure it out yourself.]

    Zhihao expected this so when he heard this, he wasn''t annoyed or angry, he simply turned his head and asked Li Ling, "Carmen was going to propose, wasn''t he?"

    Li Ling had a complicated look on his face that made it look as if he was thinking deeply about the topic, "Probably."

    Zhihao suddenly sighed, "What is this mess? The two like each other but they don''t want to let themselves be together...? Why would someone do such a thing?"

    "Maybe they''re just afraid?"

    "Hmm?"

    "They are afraid of hurting the one they love." Although Li Ling was talking about the game characters, for some reason, Zhihao couldn''t help but feel that there was a deeper meaning behind what Li Ling was saying.

    "..."

    Li Ling, "I''m sure you''d do the same. When you love someone a lot, you''ll be afraid of hurting that person. You would want to hide your flaws and only show the bright side. You''ll be afraid of that person leaving you or getting bored of you. You''ll start to find yourself being somehow dependent on that person and it would cause more fear. Fear of being found out and hated for all your flaws."

    "Then that''s not love." Zhihao responded, "If you have to hide something to be loved back, I don''t think you can call that love. It''s simply deceit. You are fooling both yourself and the one you love. It''s not gonna last long either."

    "What do you know?" Li Ling seemed to sound a bit hurt as he looked at Zhihao.

    Zhihao suddenly felt as if Li Ling was talking about his anonymous crush and when he thought about this, he couldn''t help but feel unpleasant. He was certainly drinking vinegar; A few jars of it.

    Zhihao, "You think I don''t know?"

    "..."

    "When I said I wanted to date you, I meant it." Zhihao didn''t look too happy as he spoke, "I like you, Li Ling. Did you think my feelings were a joke?"

    Li Ling, who was always prepared for almost everything was suddenly left in a sticky position and he no longer knew what he was supposed to respond to something like this.

 Chapter 130 - Li Ling Was So Stupid

    "That''s not what I meant," Li Ling sighed as he tried to grab Zhihao''s hand, but all his palm came in contact with was empty air since Zhihao had avoided the hold.

    "That''s exactly what you meant! You said I don''t know anything about love." Zhihao looked hurt as he continued, "If I don''t know anything about love, why don''t you tell me? Tell me what this feeling is. Tell me why every time I see you, I suddenly feel like everything is just... Perfect..."

    "..." Li Ling didn''t have an answer for the man who seemed to be on the verge of having an emotional breakdown..

    "I don''t feel like this normally, okay?! I don''t think about people; I don''t care about others. The only thing in life that brings me happiness is games and I thought I''ll be stuck alone with a console in hand. I thought I''ll never find someone who''ll bring me happi- You know what, forget it..." Zhihao pursed his lips, "I''m sorry for saying too much. I got ahead of myself."

    "A-Zhi..."

    Zhihao shook his head as he took a step back, "Give me some time to think, okay?"

    Li Ling wanted to stop the man, but he couldn''t. All this while, he had been selfish. He had been so self-observed that he didn''t even care about Zhihao''s feelings.

    He had a habit of lying and now it seemed that this habit was going to bite him in the butt. He always knew there would be consequences for all his lies, he knew it wasn''t a good idea to hide everything from Zhihao but what could he do? Even if he was given a second chance to go back and do this all over again, he would still end up making the same decisions. After all, his lies were the reason why they were standing before each other like this today. He got a chance to get closer to Mastermo all because of the lies he wove so how could he regret it?

    He finally got what he wanted. Zhihao liked him back so why... Why was he feeling so guilty? Why was he still so afraid? Why can''t he just forget about everything and enjoy this moment? Why did he have to still keep on lying?

    It was all for a stupid promise. A promise Zhihao didn''t even remember anymore. What was Li Ling expecting to get? Was he expecting Zhihao to be touched when everything is finally revealed?

    Li Ling would be lying if he said that this wasn''t his real intention. In the beginning, he really thought that Zhihao would be happy and touched to know everything Li Ling had done was for him, just like the main characters of all those novels with pining male leads, but this wasn''t a story in some book. It was real life.

    The more Li Ling got to know Zhihao, the more he realized that maybe he had overdone it. He had planned everything from start to finish and in all of his calculations, there was an important factor he forgot to take into account: Zhihao''s feelings. He never thought about how Zhihao would feel about all the lying. Sure, he''d be a bit touched or maybe creeped out to know that Li Ling had been in love with him for far longer than he had expected, but that didn''t necessarily mean that he''d be okay with all the secrets that he was unaware of.

    Zhihao didn''t say anything more as he walked out of the house and Li Ling didn''t go after him.

    [You guys are still in a game, you realize that, don''t you?]

    Li Ling looked at the little girl with an empty look as if along with Zhihao, his soul had also left.

    [Are you gonna go your different ways from here?]

    "..."

    Honestly... Li Ling didn''t have an answer for that.

    He had realized it a while back. The plan he had originally made had gone astray. Nothing was happening according to how he planned it. At one moment, Zhihao and Li Ling were living like newlyweds, so happy together, and in the next minute, they got into a fight and now Zhihao was walking away from him.

    It all sounded unreal. How could everything happen so fast?

    [So who should I follow?]

    "Follow him," Li Ling sighed, "Help him and make sure he stays safe."

    Alvi looked at Li Ling''s expressions and tilted her head as she asked, "Are you gonna to let him go?"

    It was like a wake-up call. Li Ling snapped his head and looked at the little girl in surprise.

    "You''re quite stupid, aren''t you?" Alvi mocked and Li Ling didn''t feel bad or offended by it.

    "What you just said... How do you..." Li Ling looked at the girl with suspicion but he couldn''t even form a complete question.

    "You like him, don''t you? Are you going to let him go because of this?"

    Li Ling was thoroughly shocked to hear this question.

    Alvi was starting to develop a higher level of emotional comprehension.

    Li Ling gulped as he responded, "I''ll follow you guys from a distance."

    [Great!]

    Alvi walked away after Zhihao and it was only Li Ling left in the room, staring at the painting of ''Carmen''.

    He almost wanted to smack himself for being so careless. He almost let his feelings get the best of him. What was he thinking when he thought it would be okay to leave Zhihao in the safe hands of the bot? If anything, the bot was the only dangerous thing to exist in this game!

    Alvi was developing a higher emotional comprehension level and although it didn''t sound like a bad thing, it didn''t mean it was a good thing either.

    This only meant that it won''t be long before she starts to use her knowledge on herself to try and create a human-like emotional conscience for herself or maybe she already started doing that and Li Ling was too busy to notice.

    Li Ling followed the two people from afar as they headed to the small town once again.

    At this moment, Li Ling had a really scary idea in mind.

    Should he just come out?

    Should he tell Zhihao everything?

    Should he just confess and get it all over with?

    If Zhihao hates him after all that... He''ll simply have to walk away and let this crush go.

    He shuddered when he thought of the worst scenario possible. He wasn''t ready... He was weak... He was afraid...

    He didn''t want to deal with all of this.

    But one day, he''ll eventually have to tell the man everything. He would still have to face this reaction he feard so much.

    It took all the courage Li Ling had in him to walk faster as he tried to catch up to Zhihao and tell him something really important.

    Since he had piled up so many lies, wouldn''t it be better to reveal them all one by one? At this moment, that seemed like the best idea possible.

    He had to clear a lot of misunderstandings and if not now then when else would be a perfect time?

    Li Ling was just a few meters away from Zhihao when he was suddenly pulled back. His vision went dark and someone covered his mouth, stopping him from yelling out for help.

    Oh...

    They were still in the game!

    Why couldn''t they keep their focus on the mission?!

    They were supposed to protect the vampire not discuss their personal love issues!

    Zhihao didn''t even know that Li Ling was following him so he was naturally unaware that his partner had been kidnapped at such an important moment.

    Finally, Li Ling had decided to clear some misunderstandings and confess, but he was freaking kidnapped?!

    The first time he confessed, Zhihao passed out from all the alcohol, and the second time he tried, he was kidnapped! Was this universe trying to give him a signal or something?!

    .

    .

    .

    At this exact moment, the comment section of the live stream started flowing like a waterfall.

    [Did they forget we are here?]

    [WoW]

    [This was... Unexpected]

    [Where''s the popcorn? This just turned into a soap opera!]

    [I knew it! They were dating!]

    [The ship sailed???]

    [Poor BBtrash didn''t even get to board the ship.]

    [^ Replying to the person above: BBtrash was kicked out from the ship a long time ago.]

    [stfughlahedhfahghafhde]

    [I''m glad I left my studies for this! (^^)/ Supporting them all the way!]

    [So is it just me or is everything happening too fast? Under one day, we got to know that they had feelings for each other, we got a confession from Mastermo and before we could consume all that information, they already broke up...?!?! What the hell?!]

    [Mastermo is gay??? What?! And here I thought he was a really cool gamer!]

    [Lol you sound homophobic.]

    [Ignore the haters.]

    [A petition! To get them back together!]

    [Signed]

    [+2]

    [Okay, all that aside, am I the only one who thinks they look really hot together?]

    [Oh lord! Why am I blushing so much?!]

    [So who wants to volunteer and write a fanfiction about them?]

    [A really juicy one pleaseeee.]

    [I''m... Disappointed.]

    [This is like a dream come true!]

    [Kinda sad that my chances of dating Mastermo are dead now.]

    [Lmao those chances were dead from the beginning itself.]

    [Am I the only one mad?]

    [So no one worried about Mastermo''s little lover? The man just got vampirenapped!"

    [Ngl Lord Versailles and Carmen make a really good couple.]

 Chapter 131 - Li Ling Chokes On Air

    Li Ling''s screen went dark.

    He was unconscious.

    "What a great timing." Li Ling gritted his teeth as he tried to think of a way to get out of this situation. It took him a few minutes of coding to cheat his way through the system and force his character to wake up.

    His screen was no longer dark and he was instead greeted with the face of a girl who looked at him curiously.

    "Woah!~ How did you wake up so soon?"

    Li Ling sat up straight and looked around at his surroundings as he ignored the girl''s existence.

    He was in a forest, at least, that was all he could guess. There were trees, grass, and plants around, nothing else special could be spotted..

    "Brother, shouldn''t you be thanking me right now?" The girl asked as she poked his shoulder, but Li Ling was still not going to pay her any attention.

    "Where are we?" Li Ling asked, but he soon realized that Alvi wasn''t here so there was no way she was gonna answer.

    The NPC that sat in front of him thought the question was aimed at her and she enthusiastically responded, "We are in the dark woods."

    "Dark woods?"

    The girl seemed to be a bit shocked as she asked, "You don''t know the dark woods?"

    Li Ling shook his head as he pushed himself off the ground, "Do I need to know?"

    "Of course!" The girl also stood up as she shouted, "This is the place where Vampires were first born. Rumors say that there is still a secret society of vampires living here."

    Li Ling looked at the girl, "Bullsh*t."

    "But I''m not lying," The girl pouted.

    Alvi had already given them the information about this world and although the system might hide certain stuff, it would never lie to them. If the bot said Lord Versailles was the only vampire alive, there dare not be another breathing Vampire around.

    Li Ling rolled his eyes and walked ahead in an unknown direction, hoping that he''ll be able to find the road soon.

    The girl followed after him as she asked, "Where are you running off to?"

    "The town." Li Ling gave a short response.

    "Brother, you sound mad. Is there something bothering you?"

    "You."

    "..." The girl looked at him with an unimpressed look before deciding to strike up a conversation again, "You don''t sound like you''re from around here. Where are you from?"

    "A place far away."

    "The place has a name, doesn''t it?"

    "It does."

    "What''s the name?"

    "Somewhere you''ll never go."

    "..." The girl frowned as she responded, "That''s a really weird name."

    "..." Li Ling was least interested in conversing with an in-game character and he let this be clear in the way he talked and showed his disinterest in continuing the conversation with the girl.

    "You don''t talk a lot, do you?"

    "..." Li Ling wasn''t even going to bother answering that question.

    "You are a bit cold to your savior."

    "Savior?"

    "Yeah, savior." The girl pointed at herself as she spoke, "I saved you from being kidnapped."

    Li Ling didn''t even turn his head to look at the girl as he heard this.

    It wasn''t really like he was asking for her help so why would he need to thank her?

    "I just happened to be walking by when I saw the forest robbers."

    "Forest robbers?"

    The girl bobbed her head up and down as she responded, "You were walking on a deserted road near the forest at night, what did you expect? Those people attack anything that has flesh attached to the bones. If you don''t have any riches with you, they''ll chop you up and sell your meat."

    Li Ling''s face cringed as he heard this.

    "You are really lucky I was feeling generous. If not, you would have been hanging upside down in some butcher''s shop."

    "You talk a lot."

    "..." The girl smiled even more brightly as she asked, "But it''s fun hearing me speak, isn''t it?"

    "No." Li Ling replied, "It''s annoying."

    The girl was silent for a few minutes but after that few minutes had passed, she opened her mouth and started talking again.

    "What''s your name, brother."

    "None of your business."

    "Well, none of your business1. It was nice meeting you. I''m Elsie."

    "Don''t care." Li Ling stopped in his tracks and looked around.

    "Is there something you want to find?" Elsie asked enthusiastically.

    Originally, Li Ling wasn''t going to answer the girl but suddenly, he turned his head and looked at the girl as his mind suddenly lit up with an idea.

    "Do you know how I can get to the town?"

    "The town? Eh?" The girl tilted her head as she spoke, "It''s in the opposite direction."

    "..." Li Ling suddenly felt that he should''ve asked earlier before walking so far out.

    The girl suddenly broke out laughing as she smacked his back and commented, "I was wondering why you were going deeper into the forest. Hahaha..."

    Li Ling didn''t pay attention to the mockery as he turned on his feet and headed towards the right way that would lead him to the town.

    "Brother! Wait for me!" The girl ran after him.

    "..."

    "Since you''re new around here, why don''t I become your guide. I can give you a lot of information and save you from the forest robbers too."

    Li Ling was about to say no but after thinking about it for a minute or two, he decided to nod his head lightly and give a reluctant positive response, "Okay."

    "Great! You can count on me!"

    "What''s the price?"

    "Hehehe... You''re so smart." The girl beamed, "I''m a cheap guide. Five gold pieces would do."

    Li Ling knew the girl was clearly trying to trick him and swindle off some good money but since his pocket was empty, what did he have to worry about?

    "Okay."

    The girl was enthusiastically jumping around as she walked with him and continued to speak throughout the journey.

    It was annoying but somehow Li Ling got used to it. There were times when she really gave out useful information but most of the time all she spouted was nonsense.

    She thought she was easily going to trick this man and earn some gold as a reward. How was she to know that this man was so poor that he hadn''t even seen what currency people around here use?

    "Brother, do you want to hear some stories?"

    "No."

    "Are you sure? You might find it interesting." Elsie tried to persuade him and it seemed that Li Ling really did rethink his decision.

    "Speak."

    The girl smiled brightly in satisfaction as she heard this, "Well, what should I start with?"

    "..." Li Ling already regretted his decision to let the girl speak.

    "Have you heard about that vampire scandal from the council?"

    Li Ling looked at the girl with a complicated expression as he responded, "Why don''t you enlighten me?"

    "The council is filled with weird people. It isn''t even shocking but... It is a bit sad to hear."

    Since the ''council'' was mentioned, Li Ling thought this was a hint so he listened to the girl attentively, trying to take in as much information as possible.

    "The council used to have a vampire as a member. I believe her name was Amy something...? Well, she was having a love affair with another council member."

    Li Ling nodded his head as he heard this. He guessed this to be the reason why the whole ''vampire protection act'' came into place. There was no way those council members would do something so useless just because of one of their members. If Amy was a vampire who was dating another higher-ranked council member though, the story was going to be different.

    "Oh! I remember his name! It was Carmen!"

    Li Ling suddenly choked on empty air as he heard this, "E-excuse me?"

    The girl bobbed her head up and down as she continued, "I remember his name clearly! He was a handsome one."

    Li Ling coughed as he mentally agreed with the girl. Zhihao was surely handsome.

    "One day, there was a fight and she happened to be at the scene. Being a council member, it was her duty to stop the fight so she tried to intervene but..." The girl shook her head as she created a dramatic pause before continuing, "One of the men pulled out a knife and attacked the other. Although Amy had managed to stop most of the attacks, there was still a bit of blood involved. It was inevitable. She transformed into her vampire form right then and there."

    "And they killed her?"

    The girl looked up as she asked curiously, "How''d you know?"

    "..."

    It was a bit too simple to guess.

    "After her death, the council was in an uproar." Elsie used her hands to enact the scene and add more of a visual impact as she explained further, "Carmen was furious. He wanted to hang the people who killed her. She had done nothing wrong to them so why did she need to die a useless death? After much discussion, the council decided to put a new rule out for the people. A rule that was made to protect the vampires. The new vampire protection act."

    "Let me guess, it didn''t work?"

    "Killing vampires is a hobby here. How could they stop just because of a stupid act?"

 Chapter 132 - Li Ling Became A Girl?!

    "Vampires were murdered like usual. One by one, they were all hunted down."

    Li Ling seemed to be interested to listen to the girl as she continued speaking.

    "The Council became a joke. It was no longer about the vampires anymore, it was about keeping their dignity. " The girl added a voice modulation as she spoke and Li Ling felt like if this girl wasn''t a bunch of computer codes, she would have surely been a great storyteller, "Think about it! They gave out an order and nobody was listening to them. Wasn''t it like an indirect insult to their authority?"

    Li Ling nodded as a response.

    "They had to do something or they''ll end up becoming a joke. Carmen, who was the first person to propose the idea of saving the vampires decided to take it upon his own hands and be the shield that protects the last vampire alive."

    "The last vampire left? Do you know anything about him?"

    "Him?" Elsie broke out laughing as she replied, "Nobody knows anything about her."

    Li Ling almost choked on air as he heard this, but no matter how shocked he was, he still maintained a calm outer appearance as he questioned, "It''s a woman?"

    Elsie nodded her head confidently as she replied, "It''s definitely a girl."

    Li Ling, who was clearly a man, playing the character of this last vampire alive, nodded his head as if agreeing with the girl.

    If she wanted to make him a girl, let her make him a girl. Wasn''t it better this way? At least, she won''t suspect him.

    "There''s a reason why everyone thinks the last vampire is a girl."

    "Hmm?"

    Elsie smiled creepily as she asked, "Do you want to know?"

    "..."

    "Let me tell you," The girl spoke enthusiastically, "Carmen decided to become the personal bodyguard of this last vampire. Not many people liked this fact since they could no longer do anything to attack the vampire, but of course, they would not just sit idle. Carmen knew the people would try to do something so he hid the vampire away from their sight and reach. You would think everything was peaceful like that but no." The girl shook her head as she continued, "It was even more chaos. The people started pressuring the council and made up all kinds of rumors."

    "Rumors?"

    The girl nodded, "That the vampire was secretly going out at night and attacking people. There were a lot of people coming forward as victims. Some even claimed to be witnesses. It was so serious that the council decided to investigate the case. It was a lie. It was clear that the people were lying so the result of the investigation should have also been clear. The vampire should have been innocent but..."

    .

    .

    .

    "Big brother! Big brother! Where are you going?" Zhihao heard a voice and turned around to look at the little boy who was running after them with something in hand.

    Zhihao had never seen this boy before so he naturally had no idea what was happening and his first instinct in such a situation was to turn his head and look at Alvi for answers.

    [Don''t look at me]

    [I don''t know him.]

    "Big brother! I was searching all over for you!" The little boy beamed.

    Zhihao pointed at himself and asked in confusion, "Me?"

    The boy bobbed his head up and down, "I have made the preparations!"

    "???"

    The boy stretched his hand forward and gave Zhihao the thing he was carrying around, "One thousand of these. Just like you asked!"

    It took Zhihao a whole minute to realize what the boy was giving him.

    It was a paper lantern that hadn''t been lit yet.

    Zhihao glanced at the face of the boy and then back at the lantern before turning his head to face Alvi.

    "All the best, big brother!" The boy beamed and it confused Zhihao even more.

    It seemed that the original Carmen had given this boy the task of preparing a thousand paper lanterns... but why?

    Zhihao thought about it for more than a minute before he could finally get the answer.

    It was like connecting dots.

    The ring.

    The paper lantern.

    If he was guessing right, Carmen was planning on proposing to the vampire.

    Zhihao didn''t know if he should laugh or cry as he thought about the current situation.

    These paper lanterns were clearly no longer needed.

    But somewhere deep in his mind, he still wanted to clutch onto them just in case.

    He hadn''t ever seen a perfectly happy ending in any of the levels till now but maybe... Just maybe... There was a chance that this level could have a happy ending.

    He sighed as he thought about the possibility. A happy ending was certainly possible in this level, but for that to happen, he''ll have to make up with Li Ling who was nowhere in sight.

    There was a hint of sadness in Zhihao''s eyes as his grip on the paper lantern grew stronger.

    There was a possibility of a happy ending at this level but the possibility was murdered by Zhihao who couldn''t handle the fact that Li Ling liked his crush more than Zhihao.

    It was pathetic.

    He was pathetic.

    Why was jealousy such an annoying feeling?

    Zhihao handed the paper lantern over to Alvi before crouching down to the little boy''s level and smiling as he patted his head, "Good job."

    The boy smiled even more brightly as he responded, "Don''t worry, big brother. She''ll probably say yes."

    Zhihao was a bit surprised as he heard the child calling Lord Versailles a girl. Since when was Li Ling a girl?

    "Well, why are you here then? When doing important things, one should not waste their time."

    Zhihao smiled slightly as he heard this, "Is that so?"

    The boy nodded his head as a response.

    Zhihao, "But... Sometimes waiting is good."

    "Why would you want to wait? Are you sure you aren''t just running away from responsibility by lying to yourself?"

    This boy seemed to be a lot smarter than he looked. Although he looked to be around the age of six or seven, he already had his mind processing in such a manner. It was impressive.

    "The fruit of patience is sweet."

    "But waiting is bitter."

    "..."

    "How do you know you won''t get the same fruit if you weren''t waiting?"

    "Hmm?"

    "Waiting is good but you shouldn''t make it a habit. If waiting is all you''re gonna do, then you''ll wait and watch your life go by without you."

    It wasn''t even an original line but it still somehow affected Zhihao who was both inspired and felt a bit pathetic after having heard this.

    Waiting was something he was good at.

    He was planning on waiting.

    Waiting till Li Ling looks at him.

    If he wasn''t gonna wait? What was he supposed to do?

    The answer to that scared him more than he expected. Honestly speaking, he wasn''t ready. He didn''t want to deal with his feelings this soon. He wanted to wait for the time he could take responsibility for his own feelings and act in a more mature manner but it seemed that if he were to do that, he won''t really be doing anything.

    Maybe this was why Li Ling never took him seriously. He was always acting like an unreliable kid so why would Li Ling look back at him?

    Suddenly, Zhihao''s eyes seemed to look determined as he stood up straight and made up his mind.

    If he was insecure, Li Ling would certainly notice it and think he was joking so what was he to do? The answer was simple. He just had to change. He had to be more assertive about his feelings and throw this weak self-pity away.

    This is Mastermo we are talking about!

    Why would he have to be so insecure about not being liked?

    Li Ling never said ''no'' directly. He never rejected anything. Didn''t that mean he was also a bit interested?

    If that was the case, Zhihao still had a chance.

    If Li Ling was going to take his feelings as a joke, he''ll just have to show the man that he wasn''t playing around.

    He was dead serious about it and he was going to make sure that Li Ling knew this!

    So what if Li Ling had a crush on someone else? Zhihao could always crush that crush and throw it away by making a huge room for himself in Li Ling''s heart.

    "Did my words inspire you, big brother?" The little boy asked and Zhihao smiled brightly as a response.

    Zhihao ruffled the boy''s head, "Thank you."

    "Eh? Big brother has learned how to say thank you?" The boy chuckled, "That girl has changed you so much. She must be really special."

    Zhihao broke out laughing as he heard this. He leaned down to the boy''s ear and said, "Let me tell you a secret."

    "A secret?"

    "It''s not a girl."

    "?!?!" The little boy''s smile faltered for a minute as he comprehended what the man had told him.

    This secret was certainly a bit shocking.

    Zhihao snatched back the paper lantern from Alvi and asked the girl, "Where is he?"

    [...]

    [What am I? Your GPS?!]

    "..."

    [If you want to find him, go look for him yourself!]

 Chapter 133 - Li Ling And His Famous Love Story

    "The vampire was supposed to be innocent but the council lied."

    "???"

    "The people needed to be calmed down and for that to happen, they needed to get rid of the vampire. If there weren''t any vampires left, there wouldn''t be any problems left. " Elsie sighed as she continued, "The council asked Carmen to bring in the last vampire for questioning and in order to prove her innocence, he agreed, but on the day of the trial, Carmen came back alone and asked the council what their plan was. He somehow got to know about their plan to plead the vampire guilty and kill her on the scene no matter if she was innocent or not."

    Li Ling kinda guessed it to be something like this.

    All of the levels were created by A.L.V.I. and this was her signature style.. To wrong people and make a story that will successfully boil your blood and play with your emotions. She was a cruel bot that loved these kinds of stories so of course, this level won''t be any different. In all of the levels, there was a grand secret mission that even Zhihao had never realized or got the chance to experience. If you completed that grand secret mission, not only would you level up directly and complete the level, you would also receive a humble amount of T-points.

    The grand secret mission was super simple to guess but really hard to achieve.

    It was a happy ending.

    So simple yet not many people knew about it since they didn''t care about having a happy ending in a game.

    If a player could manage to lead the level to a happy ending, not only would they be completing the level, but they would also be completing the grand secret mission and would be given a hefty sum of T-points as a gift.

    It wasn''t simple though. The levels were designed in a way that made it hard for the players to achieve that grand secret mission.

    "He was furious and in his state of anger, he caused a big ruckus."

    "What did he do?"

    "He attacked the council and a few of the council members died on the spot due to heavy injuries. As a punishment, he was kicked out from the council and if it wasn''t for the other council members feeling a bit guilty for creating such a situation, they would have surely beheaded him as a punishment."

    Li Ling felt like there was more to the story but it wasn''t that this girl was hiding anything, she was saying everything she knew, however, her knowledge of the situation lacked and was limited because she wasn''t an insider at the council.

    "He ran away and decided to fully watch over the last vampire alive. Some people say that they saw him entering the night markets to buy vegetables and stuff. These might also be rumors made to enrage the people."

    "Enrage?"

    The girl nodded her head as she spoke, "The fact that he killed council members and attacked people didn''t sit well with everyone. Their dislike towards him was clear. Some hated him while others were disgusted by him. He had done all of this because of a vampire. A creature that lives off of killing others. Everyone thought Carmen was being influenced by the vampire. He was being tricked and sullied by staying with the vicious creature all the time."

    "So he was ostracized?"

    "Everyone avoided him. They hated the sight of seeing such a man."

    Li Ling sighed as he wondered how much this story was actually true. It wasn''t like this girl was trustable like that so there was a chance that she was saying everything according to her own perception of the story. The real story might really be different than what he was hearing.

    "This was also the reason why everyone thinks the vampire is a girl."

    "???"

    "Why would he go through all of this for a vampire that meant nothing to him?" The girl looked at him curiously as if waiting for an answer but before Li Ling could give a response, she continued speaking, "He had to be in love with her!"

    Li Ling almost choked on empty air once again as he heard this.

    How come this girl was so wrong yet so right at the same time?

    Carmen really did fall in love with the vampire but why does this automatically make people believe that the vampire was a girl? Haven''t they ever heard about a gay couple?

    "It''s my favorite love story! A relationship between a girl born as a vampire and a man who only wanted to protect her from this world but ended up falling in love with her. Isn''t it so romantic?" The girl looked at Li Ling with big sparkly eyes and Li Ling pursed his lips as a response.

    "Cheesy cliche story." Li Ling commented before walking ahead and leaving the girl behind.

    Elsie pouted as she ran after him. What was she to do? He had long legs and he was walking fast while her stubby legs couldn''t compare.

    "Why would you say that?! It''s the best love story to exist! If I could, I would want to bless them so that they can have a happy and peaceful life together. They have fought so many hardships, they deserve it!"

    Li Ling thought about it for a minute and as he did, his lips curved upwards as he suddenly thought that since Zhihao was playing the role of Carmen and he was playing the role of Lord Versailles, the girl was basically talking about blessing them as a couple, wasn''t she?

    This was perhaps the first time, the girl had seen this young man smile so happily as he nodded and agreed with her, "They deserve to have a happy ending."

    "Wow! You know how to smile?" The girl teased him and the smile on his face went down again as he covered it up with a stern expression, "You looked so pretty when you were smiling! Why did you stop?"

    "..." Li Ling didn''t even bother giving her a response as he kept his eyes on the forest path in front.

    "Are you ignoring me again?"

    "..."

    "And here I thought we have gotten a bit close." The girl pouted, faking sadness and disappointment however, Li Ling still didn''t pay her any attention.

    "..."

    "By the way, since I''m your guide now, let me ask you a few questions. Is there somewhere, in particular, you want to go to, or are you just gonna explore around the town?"

    "Explore."

    "Then I''ll take you to a great place!"

    "Great place?"

    The girl enthusiastically nodded her head as she spoke, "You must be hungry, aren''t you? There is a restaurant that serves the best meal around here."

    "How far is the town from here?"

    "Far?" The girl chuckled as she responded, "We are already here."

    "Huh?" Li Ling looked around and was thoroughly confused.

    She said that they had arrived but all he could see were trees.

    Where was this town they were searching for?

    The girl understood his confusion as she pointed at the tree before them, "That''s the entrance."

    Li Ling looked at the tree that had a hollow trunk but he was reluctant to acknowledge that it was a gateway to the town.

    "Let''s go!" The girl pulled him along and headed straight for the tree and surprisingly, it seemed that she wasn''t lying.

    Li Ling looked around the place that was filled with lights, stalls, houses, and people.

    "This is a portal. If you want to leave the dark woods, you''ll have to find portals like this."

    "Portals?"

    Li Ling seemed to have not known something till now.

    This was just supposed to be a level with vampires in it so why was there something like a magical portal here?

    The girl tilted her head as she pointed at herself, "But of course, you''ll have to find mages like me to find and use these portals."

    "Mages?"

    "You don''t know what mages are?" The girl looked a bit shocked as she asked.

    Li Ling nodded as a response, "I''m new around here."

    "So you have no idea who mages are?" The girl covered her shocked expression with a smile as she spoke, "Mages are magic users. They are blessed with mana and can use it to control the five elements. The council members are mostly filled with mages."

    "So you have magic?"

    "How would I have saved you if I didn''t?"

    "Then..." Li Ling seemed to be a little reluctant to ask the next question but he still ended up voicing out his query, "Is Carmen also a mage?"

    "How would he protect the vampire if he wasn''t a mage?"

    "I see."

    So it was like this?

    This place not only had vampires that were rather pitiful but it also had people who could use magic?

    Li Ling instantly understood why this was a G-ranked level.

    There were some levels that were classified under this tag of God-ranked levels because they couldn''t fit in with the other lower-ranked levels. This was because they didn''t deal with only one genre, they dealt with various genres all at once and this current level they were playing was a perfect example of that.

 Chapter 134 - Li Ling Is Definitely Not Careless

    "Where are you taking me?" Li Ling asked

    Elsie smiled as she pulled him along, "You''ll know when you get there."

    Li Ling followed the girl without asking any further questions.

    This level seemed to be a bit weird.

    The mission was to keep the last vampire alive, but it never specified the time. Till when were they supposed to keep him alive? Li Ling was currently alive so why hadn''t they cleared the mission yet?

    What was the trigger to completing the mission and why was it so easy?

    As much as Li Ling had observed till now, there didn''t seem to be any immediate threats to his life.

    The only way he''d end up dying would be if he were to come out as a vampire and alert the people. Li Ling had absolutely no desire of doing that so what other danger was there?

    Li Ling was also kidnapped along the way but that couldn''t be considered a life-threatening danger since he had been saved by this girl who called herself a mage named Elsie..

    The existence of this girl was also a bit questionable. If their mission was to keep the vampire alive, the level should be set up in a manner that makes it hard for Li Ling to stay alive and the kidnapping incident was a perfect chance to kill him so why did the level have such an NPC that was tasked to save him?

    Li Ling wasn''t gonna stupidly believe that Alvi was nice enough to give them an advantage. She was a cruel bot that wouldn''t blink before kicking you down from a cliff so there was no way Elsie was a character made to help them. Such NPCs did exist but for them to exist in this level where their mission was to stay alive? It was suspicious and there was no way Li Ling was going to blindly trust this girl.

    They arrived in front of a building made out of wood. It had hanging lanterns decorating it, and written on the signboard, in huge letters, were the words "Maple tavern."

    "Tavern?"

    The girl nodded her head enthusiastically as she spoke, "It has the best food around!"

    "..." Li Ling looked around and noticed that not many people were interested in going into this tavern.

    It was weird.

    Out of all the other shops and stalls, this place was the most vacant, as if everyone was avoiding it on purpose.

    Li Ling decided to go inside nonetheless since the girl was insisting so much.

    It wasn''t like he could really taste the food here so what did he have to worry about even if the food wasn''t great?

    The girl smiled even more brightly as she saw the man entering the tavern.

    "Poor kid."

    "He got tricked."

    "Better not stand around here."

    "Why would he follow a stranger? It''s his fault."

    "Keep on walking."

    "What is that witch up to now?"

    Elsie snapped at the people who were whispering among themselves, "Better shut up if you don''t want me to throw you into the dark woods!" She glared at them and they immediately ran away in fear.

    It seemed that the cheerful, happy girl could also intimidate people like this.

    .

    .

    .

    Zhihao walked all the way back to the small wooden shed and turned it upside down but he still couldn''t find Li Ling.

    He tried to ask Alvi for help but as expected, she was the last person who would want to help him.

    [It looks like you lost your precious vampire]

    [Why don''t you just give up and admit defeat?]

    [You can try your luck on another level.]

    [Didn''t you place a negative bet on yourself? Even if you lose, you''ll still end up winning some T-points.]

    "..." Zhihao turned his head to look at the girl as he asked, "Do you know how much I bet?"

    [How much?]

    "One T-point."

    [...]

    [Look on the bright side, you''ll get to take home 2 T-points.]

    Zhihao sighed as he stood up and decide to go back to the town.

    He didn''t place a negative bet on himself because he wanted to lose and win some money. He did it simply because he wanted to know what the negative gambling bar was like, and it was just as expected.

    The positive gambling bar and the negative gambling bar were different from one another.

    The positive gambling bar could help the betters buy items and send them over to Mastermo or lend him their own items if he were in need of it. If he didn''t need it, the positive gambling bar was rather useless with a bunch of options that were all grey in color and couldn''t be used, whereas, the negative gambling bar worked in an entirely different manner.

    It was more of an auction type of thing where you''ll have to use more T-points to win the auction and ask Alvi to set up a negative scenario for the players.

    Zhihao already had a small theory in mind, although he didn''t know exactly how the two were different, he could still guess that they were and this was the reason why he wanted to see for himself how the negative gambling bar looked.

    So why would he go and bet a huge amount on himself when he was sure that he wasn''t going to lose nor did he want to lose?

    The positive gambling bar had a limit of T-points that you could bet while the negative gambling bar didn''t have any such type of restriction. If it didn''t have a maximum amount, there was also a chance that it wouldn''t have a minimum amount so Zhihao placed the lowest bet possible and shockingly, he was right in thinking that there wasn''t a minimum limit of T-points that you''d need to bet.

    When Zhihao thought that there was no way for him to find Li Ling, there was a sudden message popping up on his screen and it was from Li Ling.

    Zhihao was dumbfounded for a minute as he realized he had almost forgotten about this thing.

    It was the team message board that could be accessed by all team members no matter how far away they were.

    This feature was never used because Zhihao and Li Ling were always together and never needed to depend on such a thing to communicate so it was only natural that Zhihao had forgotten all about it.

    That was careless of him but thank God Li Ling wasn''t that careless.

    Careless...

    Zhihao read the message and didn''t know if he was still supposed to praise the man by saying he wasn''t careless.

    <I''m... Tied up. Some help...? Please?>

    "..."

    In such a short amount of time, Li Ling had already got himself in a situation where he was tied up and asking for Zhihao''s help. Was this even possible or was that man just cursed with bad luck?

    <Where are you?>

    Zhihao sent him a message and in under a minute he got a response.

    <GPS>

    Zhihao used another option in the menu bar that was hardly ever used, called "GPS" that helped team members to know the location of other players.

    Once again, Zhihao had almost forgotten about this feature because of how hardly often he had used it.

    Li Ling and Zhihao were always together so there never arisen a need to use this function.

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry at this moment.

    The GPS function was turned on and according to it, Li Ling was in the town from where Zhihao had just come here.

    "Let''s go!" He didn''t waste any further time as he made his way back to the town.

    [...]

    [I''m tired of walking!]

    Alvi followed him, her feet dragging against the gravel as she continued to walk.

    Of course, Zhihao wouldn''t feel any fatigue because this was a mere game for him, however, Alvi was a physical entity inside the game and so naturally, she could feel fatigue after walking so much.

    They had gone to the town and then back to the woodshed and now they were once again going back to the town.

    Was Zhihao really trying to torture her like this?

    There was no way he was unaware of her current condition, right?

    "Just deal with it. You wouldn''t have to walk so much if you had just told me his location."

    [...]

    [Didn''t I give you a hint?!]

    [You were too dumb to realize it!]

    [Don''t blame me!]

    "Hint?"

    [You don''t remember what I said when you asked his whereabouts?]

    "What you said? You said no."

    [No!]

    [I said "What am I?! Your GPS?!"]

    [I was so clear!]

    [How can you not realize?!]

    [GPS!]

    "Ah! So that was a hint?"

    [...]

    "I thought you were just being your usual savage self."

    [...]

    [I have a feeling that you have a bad perception of me.]

    "You''re not wrong."

    Alvi suddenly wondered if it was allowed for the system to choke a player. Oh! How the tables have turned! It was always Zhihao who wanted to choke this system and now it was the other way around.

    This was certainly a funny case.

    "Are you tired?"

    [I can''t even lift my legs anymore!]

    "Then let''s run."

    [...]

    Before Alvi could say anything in return, Zhihao had already sprinted away leaving behind a small ten-year-old looking girl who just wanted to take a break.

 Chapter 135 - Li Ling Is In Danger...?

    [Why are you running?!]

    Alvi tried her best to keep up with him, but it seemed that Zhihao was faster than usual.

    In a matter of a few minutes, they had already arrived at the small town and were once again greeted by the sight of the bustling night stalls.

    Zhihao looked back to see Alvi walking or more like crawling slowly towards him, completely out of breath.

    Although he felt a little guilty about it, he still didn''t care too much about it since he had more important matters to deal with. Li Ling was in danger and needed Zhihao''s help. If Zhihao wasn''t gonna be able to find him on time and save him, he might as well give up on trying to make Li Ling like him.

    He needed to be cool! He needed to show his strong sides and make Li Ling fall for him!

    If he couldn''t even protect the man in a game, he was certainly going to feel pathetic.

    He followed the GPS and ended up standing in front of an old tavern that looked desolated from the rest of the lively atmosphere..

    He had a bad gut feeling about this, but he still ended up deciding to go inside without wasting much of his time.

    Before he could take another step forward, somebody grabbed a hold of his arm and stopped him from going inside.

    "Young man, you shouldn''t go in there."

    "Huh?" Zhihao turned around to look at the woman who had stopped him and when the woman saw his face, she couldn''t help but be shocked and immediately let go of his arm as she muttered, "Carmen...?"

    "Do you know me?" Zhihao asked and the woman ran away, not even trying to respond to him.

    Weird.

    Zhihao still had no idea what this Carmen character was supposed to be like so when he saw this, he felt that Carmen was certainly not a very well-liked guy.

    This fact was clear even back at the wooden shed where everyone had turned hostile at him when they heard about who he was.

    Though he didn''t know the details, he knew he was hated by the people. This was both a good thing and a bad thing since people would stay away from him. They would stay away and he won''t find himself in a troublesome situation because of them but this was also a bad thing because they would avoid him and he won''t be able to gather any information from them.

    It was like a double-edged sword.

    He ignored the sudden interruption and decided to once again go inside the tavern but he was a bit reluctant this time. The woman had clearly warned him to not go inside out of good intentions.

    Only after seeing his face did she run away so there was a high possibility that she was trying to stop him for the best. If that were the case, didn''t it mean this Tavern wasn''t a normal Tavern?

    Maple Tavern.

    The name didn''t sound dangerous at all.

    Zhihao took a deep breath and although he was a bit suspicious about it, he still went inside. If this place was dangerous, that was even more reason for Zhihao to go inside because there was a really important person captured inside, and the more trouble he was in, the less reluctant Zhihao would be to risk his own life to save that man.

    Zhihao''s hand reached out to open the closed door of the Tavern but before he could even touch it, the door, as if having sensed his presence, opened up on its own.

    Zhihao looked at the door curiously as he stepped inside. It was dark. So dark that Zhihao could hardly tell the difference between the wall and the floor.

    "A-Zhi, Lookout!" It was Li Ling''s voice but before Zhihao could react to it, he was already a step late.

    Zhihao''s screen went dark and he was left shocked.

    "What... Happened...?"

    Zhihao waited for a few minutes, and the screen was still dark, but it wasn''t his computer lagging. He could still somewhat hear the faint voice of shifting and dragging but his screen was completely blank, so he didn''t know what was happening.

    The last thing Li Ling said was "Lookout" So it was possible that someone had attacked Zhihao from behind and he had fainted on the spot. At this moment, this was the only possible scenario.

    Another few minutes passed and the screen slowly started regaining all the colors as Zhihao''s in-game character opened his eyes.

    "A-Zhi! Are you awake?"

    Zhihao nodded his head as his eyes adjusted to the light.

    Zhihao tried to move his arm but it was restricted. He tried to stand up but even his legs were bound.

    "..."

    He had called Li Ling careless for getting caught so soon while here he was, in the same situation as the man whom he was scolding.

    How did he end up being so careless?

    "Li Ling... Where are we?"

    "You''re both awake? Great!" It wasn''t Li Ling who spoke up.

    It was the voice of a man who was standing in front of them but his body was hidden in the shadows hence the only thing they could see was the man''s silhouette.

    He had a rather healthy trained body with muscles and Zhihao found the person somehow familiar but he couldn''t guess how.

    "Who are you?" Zhihao asked rudely.

    Well, this man was probably the one who had kidnapped them so there was no need for Zhihao to be polite to him.

    "Carmen, how great to see you again." The man was glaring at Zhihao as he spoke, "I see, you haven''t given up on your hobby to look after the weak blood-suckers."

    Zhihao gritted his teeth as he heard this.

    "How pathetic." The man commented with a sense of disgust and it made Zhihao wonder if this man had known the original Carmen and if he had, were they close or were they, enemies?

    If they were close, there was no way he would talk to Zhihao like this so the only option left was enemies.

    So who was this new enemy of Carmen?

    "So this must be Lord Versailles," The man turned his head to look at Li Ling as he continued, "I believe it''s the first time we''ve met."

    Li Ling''s lips twitched as responded, "You give out a really bad first impression."

    The man chuckled but it didn''t sound like he was too happy.

    "Who are you?" Zhihao asked without even trying to hide his hostility.

    "Me?" The man sounded a bit shocked as he asked, "You don''t remember me...?"

    "..." Zhihao had never even met this man so wasn''t the answer to that clear?

    "You''re lying! How can you not recognize me? Was I that insignificant to you?!"

    Zhihao suddenly had flashbacks of Kazan who was obsessed with the demon Taki who was being played by Zhihao.

    When he thought about that level, he noticed a few similarities. This level also seemed to be a lot like that one.

    Li Ling and Zhihao were again playing the role of two lovers and there was an antagonist standing in front of them who wasn''t too happy with them.

    "Why do you think I should remember you?" Zhihao asked and although he wasn''t trying to attack the man with his words, that was exactly what he did.

    By phrasing his question like this, wasn''t he indirectly saying that this man wasn''t even worth remembering?

    The man stomped his feet on the ground and walked a few steps forward. His face that was previously hidden in the shadow was now completely visible under the light, and the face certainly shocked Zhihao a lot.

    "Carmen... You gave me this scar and you dare forget me?!"

    Zhihao suddenly realized why this man''s silhouette was so familiar to him. His height and body appeared to be similar to Kazan''s but his face was a bit different. If he were to be compared to Kazan, his features could be said to be more handsome but at the same time, he looked scarier than Kazan due to the huge scar that ran across his face, starting from his left eyes and going all the way across his face to his lips.

    Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn''t a bit afraid to look at the man''s face. That scar looked like it would hurt a lot and it indirectly caused Zhihao to feel uncomfortable as he could almost feel how much that would have hurt.

    "You still don''t remember me?!"

    Zhihao shut his mouth tight and didn''t dare give the man a response. If it was the real Carmen, Zhihao was sure that the man would remember this guy but since it was Zhihao, no matter how much the man told him or tried to make him remember, Zhihao would still be unable to remember him since he had never really met him.

    "Why are you guys yelling so much?" It was the voice of a ten-year-old girl called Alvi whose existence was just noticed.

    Zhihao looked over with hope but this hope was soon crushed when he saw that Alvi was also in the same state as them. She was also tied down.

    "..."

    Really a useless bot!

 Chapter 136 - Li Ling Is Guilty And Afraid

    "Brother, you might not have heard," Zhihao smiled as he looked at the man and continued, "I was hit by a truck and lost all my memories. I''m sorry for not remembering you."

    Zhihao thought lying would manage to buy him some time or it would at least help relieve the anger of this man who seemed to be fuming at the fact that Zhihao didn''t remember him.

    "What''s a truck?"

    "..."

    Ah! Trucks don''t exist in this level...?

    "I seem to have been mistaken.. What I meant to say was the trunk. " Zhihao corrected himself, "I was hit by the trunk of a tree."

    "Tree?"

    Zhihao bobbed his head up and down as his hands tried to struggle out of the rope that bound them together.

    "If you hit your head against a tree, it would be the tree that would be damaged, not you."

    "Eh?"

    Zhihao soon found out that it was a lot harder to lie than he thought it was.

    [The positive gambling bar has been used!]

    Zhihao was delighted to get the notification and now he had a small pocket knife clutched in his hands. It was a bit hard to cut the rope with this but it was enough. Just a bit of time, he only needed time right now so he glanced at Li Ling and tried to ask him for help.

    Li Ling was always the best at that.

    However, this time Li Ling wasn''t going to be able to help Zhihao simply because he wasn''t even looking at the man so he naturally did not catch Zhihao''s signals.

    Zhihao used the tiny pocket knife to try and cut through the rope as he kept the man busy in a useless conversation that seemed to agitate this man more and more.

    "Hephorus!"

    "Eh?"

    The man stepped closer and held Zhihao''s chin up as he asked, "Does that really not ring a bell?"

    Why would it ring a bell if there weren''t any bells to ring in the first place?

    Zhihao didn''t know this man!

    Why was it so hard to accept?!

    It was as simple as that!

    The man saw the reluctance to answer and it angered him more as he let go of Zhihao''s chin and walked around the place as if trying to calm himself down.

    Li Ling wasn''t saying or doing anything, in fact, he didn''t even care who this man in front of him was, his mind was already distracted with thoughts about Zhihao who was mad at him but still came to save him nonetheless.

    He felt guilty and afraid. Guilty for playing around with Zhihao, always lying to him and never caring how he felt about all of this. Along with that guilt, he was also afraid that Zhihao might really run away and they might never get to see each other again.

    He was so overtaken by these emotions that he didn''t even wanna look at Zhihao, afraid that if he did, he''d see the man glaring back at him.

    "Carmen... Are you afraid of death?"

    Zhihao gulped as he heard this.

    The rope was almost cut. Just a bit more time and he''d be freed.

    The man named Hephorus smiled wickedly as he once again stepped closer to Zhihao, stopping a few meters away from him, "Did you know that there are things worse than death?"

    "Things worse than death?"

    Hephorus nodded and changed his direction as he now started walking closer to Li Ling, "Things a lot worse than death."

    Zhihao''s hands stopped as he saw this. Did this man know about Carmen and Lord Versailles? Did he know that they liked each other and was he going to pull a ''killing your lover in front of you is worse than death for you'' type of bullshit in front of Zhihao right now?

    If he was really planning on doing that sort of dumb thing, Zhihao was really going to show him what something worse than death felt like.

    When Zhihao looked over at Li Ling, he was a bit shocked to see that the man wasn''t even trying to struggle out of the restraints. He was simply sitting there and accepting all that was happening with no major reaction whatsoever and this made Zhihao wonder if the man had a plan.

    Li Ling was always this calm when he had a plan.

    So what was the plan?

    Zhihao''s hand that was stopped soon went back to cutting the rope as he reassured himself that Li Ling probably had a plan.

    He was a vampire in this level, so of course, he''ll have powers, and maybe those powers could help them fight this man who looked extremely scary and seemed to be holding a grudge against Zhihao.

    "Being hated," Hephorus smirked wickedly as he cut the ropes that bound Li Ling''s hands together.

    "Huh?" Zhihao was also out of the ropes but he still kept his hands just the way they were and didn''t alert the man as he started cutting the ropes that tied his legs together.

    "You tried to save them till the end but... You killed the last vampire with your very own hands."

    "???"

    There was no way Zhihao was going to kill Li Ling so what nonsense was this man spouting?

    "There is a twist though."

    "A twist?" Zhihao asked as he looked around as silently and unnoticeably as he could.

    "People might be happy to hear that you killed the last vampire alive so of course, we need a twist!" The man laughed and it was surely a typical antagonist laugh that had never managed to scare Zhihao.

    "What twist are you planning?"

    "You''ll be the man who kills the vampire you had loved so much and eat his remains in hopes of gaining power. His blood and flesh, everything would be inside you and you two would be together... Forever and ever..."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this.

    "You! Are you laughing at me?!" Hephorus seemed to be enraged as he glared at Zhihao and pulled Li Ling up by his arm.

    Zhihao looked up at him and although he was annoyed to see the man pulling Li Ling up so rudely, he still let it slide with the hopes of getting his revenge in the next few minutes.

    "Well you were joking so much, of course, I had to laugh or you''d be losing face."

    "..."

    Zhihao went through his inventory as he made a decision on which weapon to pick, "Kill the vampire and eat his remains? What a joke! I don''t even know you, brother. And..." Zhihao raised his hand that was now free and the gun he had equipped was now aimed straight at the head of this man. Without wasting even a second or giving the man a chance to respond to this sudden action, the trigger was pulled and the man named Hephorus now had a hole in the middle of his forehead. "Since we won''t be meeting again, why should I bother to remember your name?" Zhihao asked coldly to the man whose body was now falling lifelessly on the ground.

    That was a lot easier than Zhihao had imagined.

    To think that the man didn''t even put up a fight. It was weird.

    [OOC Alert!]

    [OOC Alert!!]

    [OOC Alert!!!]

    [You have 10 minutes to clear the level!]

    [You''ll be kicked out of the level in the next 10 minutes!]

    "..." Zhihao took a whole minute to process what the system was screaming, "Eh? Wha- Why?!"

    Zhihao glared at Alvi who was still tied down and sitting on the floor.

    [Why are you looking at me? It was your fault."

    "But I didn''t do anything to trigger it!"

    [You pulled out your gun, didn''t you?]

    "So?!"

    [Hephorus saw your gun and it triggered OOC.]

    "How can my gun trigger OOC?"

    Zhihao couldn''t believe it.

    They had avoided OOC so many times and now, of all times, it had suddenly been triggered? It seemed to have the perfect timing.

    Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn''t panicking.

    Ten minutes to clear a G-ranked level? It seemed to be an impossible task and if Zhihao really completed it, he would surely be making history.

    [If a player goes OOC in front of an NPC that has cognitive abilities, the player would automatically alert OOC function and be thrown out of the level]

    "..." Zhihao was a bit shocked and didn''t know what he was supposed to do now.

    He grabbed ahold of Li Ling''s hand and dragged the man behind him as he exited the Tavern, or at least, tried to exit the tavern.

    [...]

    Once again, forgetting to take little Alvi along with them.

    [Untie me first!]

    "Oh! Who do we have here?" It was the voice of a girl that Zhihao didn''t recognize, "Why are you leaving so soon?"

    Zhihao tried to open the door and get out of here, but it was locked, and no matter how much he tried to break the lock, the door didn''t budge an inch.

    "Mastermo, was it?"

    Zhihao''s hands stopped and so did his body when he heard his name being called by this new girl.

    The girl chuckled but Zhihao was completely frozen and couldn''t even know where the girl was standing.

    "So I finally get to know you, Mastermo. It''s a pleasure meeting you."

 Chapter 137 - Li Ling Doesnt Wanna Answer Any Questions

    Zhihao turned his head around to look at the girl who was calling him by his name and due to the darkness, her face was hardly visible.

    Just like Hephorus, the only thing visible about her was her dark silhouette that was sitting on a chair that Zhihao had never realized was there.

    Actually, he was sure that it wasn''t there before this.

    "How..." Zhihao couldn''t even form a complete sentence as he looked at the girl.

    The girl laughed as she saw his reaction, "You''re wondering who I am?"

    Zhihao nodded his head as he clutched tighter to Li Ling''s hand and pulled the man behind him to keep him safe from any potential danger. This girl just gave out a really creepy vibe so he wanted to make sure that Li Ling wouldn''t be targeted again.

    Li Ling seemed to be a bit too docile as he clutched onto Zhihao''s sleeve and whispered in his ears, "A-Zhi... Be careful."

    Zhihao gave a slight nod as he squeezed the man''s hand as if trying to reassure him that he was going to protect him at all costs and when Zhihao thought about what he was doing, he couldn''t help but cringe a little.

    He was really trying to act like a knight in shining armor to a damsel in distress, however, there was no damsel here, the person he was trying to protect was also a man, and that too, a capable man that perhaps played better than Zhihao.

    It was a bit funny to see Li Ling actually play along with this setup and let Zhihao protect him, all the while, looking out for any dangers that might affect Mastermo.

    They were protecting each other and while Zhihao was showing it more openly, Li Ling was doing the same thing silently, in order to avoid looking suspicious or becoming the center of attention.

    The girl had a staff in her hand that she used to tap on the ground twice and just as she did, the ground beneath them started shaking.

    "This level would now be going into a self-destruct mode."

    Zhihao bent his legs slightly and tried his best to keep himself stable as he asked, "What do you mean? Who are you?"

    The girl chuckled once again as she stood up and stepped into the light.

    When Li Ling saw the girl''s face, he recognized her immediately, but Zhihao was still not sure about the identity of this girl.

    "Elsie..." Li Ling mumbled and the girl smiled as she looked at him.

    "So you remembered me? I''m flattered. " She giggled, "That''s my name. Elsie."

    Zhihao, "Who are you?"

    Elsie tilted her head as she questioned, "Is that important? ''Who I am'' does not matter. What matters is what my purpose is."

    "Then what is your purpose?"

    Elsie chuckled as she walked over to them, "My purpose is simple."

    Zhihao prepared for a fight. If the situation asked for it, it was best if he was prepared.

    "I''m here to eliminate the rats that don''t belong to this world."

    It took a few minutes for Zhihao to realize that the ''rats'' in question were referring to him and Li Ling.

    Zhihao unconsciously took a step back as he prepared for an attack, but before he could get the chance to attack the girl, the girl had already disappeared.

    "Huh?" Zhihao looked around, but there was no sign of her.

    He heard her giggling from behind him and it was so close to his ears that he almost felt a shiver run down his spine.

    He immediately let go of Li Ling''s hand as he realized that it wasn''t Li Ling anymore, it was Elsie.

    He aimed his gun at the girl, but before the bullet could leave the gun, the person changed back to Li Ling who looked innocently at Zhihao.

    "What the...?!" Zhihao was thoroughly shocked.

    He felt as if something had gone extremely wrong, but everything was happening so fast that his brain was unable to catch up to it all.

    "Mastermo" The voice came from the left side and this time Zhihao shot his gun before looking, however, it had still missed.

    "Why do you think that puny gun is gonna hit me?" The girl chuckled and it was coming from behind him.

    Zhihao turned his head, but he was met with an empty dark room.

    At this moment, he was panicking, but his outward appearance didn''t look to be as affected as he was on the inside.

    This girl was certainly an in-game character and she wasn''t even Alvi so how come she knew Zhihao''s in-game player name? Wasn''t she supposed to know him by the name of Carmen?

    If she knew him by the name ''Mastermo'', there was no way she was a simple in-game NPC.

    At this moment, Li Ling tugged at his arm and spoke, "We need to run."

    "Run?"

    Li Ling pulled him along as he spoke, "Just trust me on this... Okay?"

    Zhihao took a minute to respond, but his response was as confident as it could get.

    "I trust you!"

    Li Ling didn''t know why, but Zhihao''s answer was like a stab to his heart. This man really meant what he said. He really trusted Li Ling with all his heart and yet, Li Ling had always lied to him and tricked him. This feeling in his heart that hurt so much was called guilt and it was enough to suffocate him to death.

    "Then... If I tell you who she is, would you ask me how I know?"

    "..." Zhihao looked at Li Ling as he questioned, "Do you want me to ask you?"

    Li Ling shook his head.

    "Then I won''t ask."

    Li Ling looked at the man''s honest expressions and couldn''t help but feel as if Zhihao was sometimes a bit too kind to him. So nice like an angel, that it was plain torture for Li Ling. It would have been better if Zhihao wasn''t this nice and innocent, at least, in that way Li Ling wouldn''t be feeling so guilty.

    "She''s an antivirus system."

    "Huh?"

    "I mean not really an antivirus system, but something like that."

    "What do you mean something like that?"

    "If you hit the OOC alert, she comes into the level and overtakes a character. She is not a she. She can be a he or a she. Gender doesn''t matter. She can take the body of a normal NPC or our character body. She can take my place and switch out with me anytime she wants. She can change the appearance of a character to whatever she likes. Basically speaking, she can do anything she wants. She can control almost everything inside a level that had been hit with an OOC alert."

    At this moment, Zhihao really wanted to ask how Li Ling knew all of this, but he had already given his word to the man. If Li Ling didn''t want to give him an answer to that question, he wouldn''t want to force the answer out of him.

    "Why is she allowed to do all that?"

    "As I said, she''s something that is like an antivirus. If a player alerts OOC, it disrupts the working of this world and the level would start to malfunction. In order to prevent it from-"

    CRASH!

    The ceiling started falling on them as they ran away and tried to avoid the girl whose giggles could still be clearly heard.

    Zhihao almost had a heart attack as he saw the rubble missing Li Ling by just a few meters.

    Li Ling was also shocked to have suddenly heard the sound and it took him a minute to calm down before he continued, "Um... In order to prevent it from affecting other levels, the level in which OOC had been alerted would go into the self-destruction mode. During this self-destruction time, she would come out and search for the players who had alerted OOC. Since they are the ones who don''t belong in this world, she''ll try to eliminate them."

    Zhihao gulped as he listened to Li Ling saying something that he couldn''t completely comprehend, but he understood it enough to know that the girl was trouble and staying in this level was even more trouble.

    "Remember what our mission in this level was?" Li Ling asked.

    "Mission? Save the vampire?"

    Li Ling smiled as he commented, "Now it has really turned into a saving level. Try your best."

    "Eh?" It took Zhihao a whole minute to realize that Li Ling was trying to tell him something more by saying that last sentence. He was asking Zhihao to try his best. To try his best and save Li Ling.

    "Little rats~ Little rats~ Come out and play~" The girl chimed and it seemed that she was getting nearer and nearer to them.

    At this moment, Li Ling closed his eyes and his in-game character went into sleep mode.

    "Eh?" Zhihao caught the man''s falling body and tried to calm himself down as he wondered what he was supposed to do now.

    Li Ling wanted Zhihao to protect him but... Why would he go into sleep mode at such a critical time?!

    It wasn''t like Zhihao was complaining. He would be honored to get the chance to be so trusted, but he couldn''t understand what Li Ling was thinking.

    The man really dumped himself onto Zhihao and fled the scene!

 Chapter 138 - Li Ling: Protect The Sleeping Vamp Beauty!

    At first, Zhihao thought about carrying the man bridal style and running, but after having tried and failed to maintain speed, he decided to change his strategy.

    He flipped through his inventory to find the perfect item that would help him in this scenario: The moon goddess spellbook!

    When he first got this item, he didn''t think it would be so useful, but only at such a time of need did he realize how useful it was.

    He immediately activated it without wasting any further time and Li Ling was sucked inside the book.

    Zhihao picked the book and held it close to his chest, afraid that if he didn''t, he''ll lose it somehow.

    He continued running and the Tavern that was previously small now seemed to be growing bigger and bigger. No matter how much he ran, the corridors were unending and there was no exit in sight.

    He suddenly remembered what Li Ling had told him.

    Elsie was an antivirus that was tasked to eliminate them and she had complete control over this level..

    She could do anything she wanted, so naturally, this was probably her handiwork.

    "Little rats are running so fast! Why don''t you wait for me? ~" Her playful voice was heard and it caused Zhihao to panic a little as he looked at the two paths in front of him. Both of them were dark, however, one had more debris falling and the other looked a bit more stable, but Zhihao still chose the completely unstable path in which the ceiling was giving out slowly.

    A path that looked so peaceful when the entire building was coming down? Elsie had to try better to trick Mastermo. There was no way he was going to fall for something like that.

    Zhihao ran in a zig-zag manner, avoiding all the obstacles in his path.

    Suddenly, there was a wall in front of him and it forced him to stop.

    "You can''t run away, little rat!"

    At this moment, Zhihao wondered why Elsie wasn''t able to teleport and come here. If she could control everything in this level, doing something like that was possible, right? So why wasn''t she?

    After thinking about it for a minute, he came to the conclusion that she wasn''t the absolute authority here. There were still things she couldn''t control and if there were such things, Zhihao needed to find what they were.

    What could be the condition to being under her control and what were the things that she had no control over?

    Think...!

    Think!

    THINK!!

    What do I do?!

    Stupid brain, work!

    Think!

    Just think, damnit!

    What do I-

    Oh!

    I got it!

    Zhihao suddenly remembered something. A function that had been unlocked with the reopening of T.I.A.D.

    The skills function.

    All the skills that he had gained as a reward in the previous levels were now available for him to use!

    Zhihao smiled as he saw the skill that he needed at this moment. At this moment, he couldn''t help but agree that luck was certainly biased towards him. What were the chances of gaining skills that you would need? Even if they were one in a million, Zhihao would still manage to be that one due to his amazing luck. It was as if he had a protagonist halo on top of his head.

    [Skill: Master of survival activated!]

    As soon as the skill was activated, there was a hole in the wall in front of him and when he peeked through the hole, he saw that the outside was the bustling town that wasn''t disrupted in the least.

    This wall!

    Zhihao equipped Shuang and broke through the wall.

    As soon as the wall crumbled down, he made a run for it.

    He stumbled as he ran and bumped into a few people who cursed at him for disturbing them.

    "Where are you running off to?!"

    "Have some patience!"

    "Don''t you see me buying something?!"

    "Oi! Oi!"

    Zhihao apologized to all of them even though there were mere NPC''s.

    Before he knew it, he was already in the middle of the woods and had left the town far behind.

    He calmed himself down and tried to come up with a logical solution to the problem.

    They were being chased by an antivirus that wanted to eliminate them. Li Ling was asleep and trusted Zhihao to protect him. Zhihao had no idea what was going on and they had probably already lost this level.

    The only positive thing Zhihao could think up of was the fact that he would be gaining 2 T-points because of the negative bet he placed on himself.

    The negative bet...

    The negative gambling bar!

    Zhihao immediately clicked on the function that he had previously muted.

    On his screen now was a comment section that was oddly silent and an Alvi that looked like a teenager.

    "Mastermo! You''re back!" Alvi beamed.

    Zhihao was a straightforward person so no matter how much this bot would try to greet him and win him over, he wasn''t gonna do it back.

    "I have a favor to ask."

    "Favor?" The girl chuckled, "You''ll have to join the auction."

    "I''ll do it." Zhihao nodded and in turn, Alvi only smiled as she looked at him.

    "Then what would you like to bet? The starting bet is 1000 T-points."

    "1001 T-points."

    "..."

    "And if anybody dares to bet another number, I''ll bet one T-point higher than them."

    "..." Alvi was silent and so was the comment section.

    It seemed that nobody wanted to take Mastermo up on that challenge.

    Currently, Mastermo was the richest player in this game so of course, they all knew how little of a chance they had against him.

    They were smart enough not to take him up on this challenge and some didn''t do anything simply because they wanted to see what Zhihao was here to do.

    This was a negative gambling bar. Did Mastermo want to cause trouble for himself?

    [2000 T-points!]

    It looked like not everyone was smart enough.

    "2001 T-points!"

    "..."

    Mastermo wasn''t joking around.

    Zhihao had learned how to play in an auction thanks to his father who would often place money on western paintings, saying that there was something extremely beautiful about them.

    [3000 T-points!]

    "3001 T-points!"

    [Hehe]

    [4000 T-points!]

    Zhihao sighed, "4001 T-points!"

    [5000 T-points!]

    "Who is this?" Zhihao was now getting a bit annoyed. He was already being patient enough. To think that there was somebody who hated him so much that they wouldn''t even let him win an auction at the negative gambling bar? It was a bit annoying.

    [Why do you care who I am?]

    [Didn''t you say you''ll raise the value with a single T-point?]

    [Do it!]

    [Let''s see how far you can go.]

    Zhihao was silent for a minute as he heard this but in the end, he still decided to let this annoying person go as he exclaimed, "5001 T-point!"

    [Hahaha]

    [This is so fun!]

    [10,000 T-points!]

    Zhihao gulped as he thought about how many T-points he had left in his wallet.

    He closed his eyes as he reluctantly spoke, "10,001 T-points!"

    [Mastermo is so stubborn.]

    [I wonder what your request is.]

    [Why are you betting away so much money?]

    [You aren''t gonna get anything in return.]

    "Then why are you going against me? Do we know each other?" Zhihao asked, not trying to hide his annoyance.

    [Know each other?]

    [You don''t know me but I do]

    [So...]

    [15,000 T-points!]

    [Let''s see who gives in first.]

    "You''re crazy," Zhihao gritted out, "15,001 T-points!"

    [You''re the one who''s crazy!]

    [20,000 T-points!]

    Zhihao smirked as he exclaimed, "20,001 T-points!"

    [We can do this all day!]

    [Hahahah]

    [30,000 T-points!]

    "30,001 T-points"

    [40,000 T-points!]

    "You''re so stupid," Zhihao shook his head, "40,001 T-points!"

    [You calling me stupid?]

    [You''re the one who''s really stupid!]

    [You''ll bet so many T-points away and for what?]

    [50,000 T-points!]

    Zhihao nodded, "50,001 T-points."

    He had already guessed that something like this would happen. In fact, this was the main reason why he was here.

    The negative betters would see that Zhihao was desperate to win this auction and they would think that he had a plan up his sleeve and since they had already bet against Zhihao winning, they would never want to let Mastermo win this auction. However, they didn''t have enough T-points to win against Mastermo so there was no way they could hope to win over him.

    They couldn''t win against him and they didn''t want to let him win. So what were they going to do?

    [60,000 T-points!]

    "60,001 T-points!"

    They were going to make sure that Mastermo wasn''t going to have an easy win and the only way to make sure that happens is by constantly raising the bet.

    This was going to be their purpose.

    They were going to make sure that Mastermo pays the highest price possible and even if he were to win in this manner, in the bigger picture, he would still be losing.

    [80,000 T-points!]

    "80,001 T-points!"

    [100,000 T-points!]

    "Hmm..." Zhihao sighed, "I lost interest. You can win."

    "..."

    [...]

    [Eh?]

    Zhihao smirked as he let the other person win.

    [The auction had been concluded with the winner being our guest player who bet the sum of 100,000 T-points!] It was the enthusiastic voice of Alvi.

 Chapter 139 - Li Ling Is Lying?

    [Wait...]

    [Wait a damn minute!]

    [Didn''t you say you''ll go higher?!]

    [What the hell?!]

    Zhihao shrugged his shoulder as he responded, "Thanks for helping me."

    [Eh?]

    [Huh?]

    [What do you mean?!]

    [Mastermo!!}

    Zhihao chuckled and didn''t respond to the foolish negative better who was trying to play around with Zhihao.

    There was a reason why he came to the negative gambling bar and the reason was simply to pass time.

    [Mission: Save the Vampire has been completed!]

    Zhihao smiled proudly as he saw the notification and it was only now that he was patiently going to give an answer to the people who couldn''t understand what had happened.

    "My mission was to keep the vampire safe. Hitting OOC didn''t directly throw me out of this level. The outside town looked as usual, which meant the level was still going on as usual and nothing else was happening except for the initiation of the self-destruct feature."

    [Eh?]

    Zhihao was thinking about explaining further, but he didn''t say anything further as he realized that it was pointless to tell this person who couldn''t understand what he was talking about.

    It was a bit confusing if one were not to experience it firsthand.

    The level started with a mission: Save the vampire.

    It was a G-ranked mission and so Zhihao was suspicious since the beginning as he wondered why the mission given wasn''t clear enough.

    The mission never told him for how long he was supposed to keep the vampire safe nor did it say anything about what the vampire was supposed to be protected from so normally considering, the mission could only mean one thing.

    If the time frame wasn''t clarified, then it would automatically be a default time frame which could last the entire time till the level ended. He was supposed to save the vampire until the end of the game and he just so happened to alert OOC and shortened the time period of the game to ten minutes.

    He calculated the time that he had spent running and talking to Elsie and it was approximately around four minutes.

    He just needed to wait another six minutes and the level would be over. If he managed to protect Li Ling till then, they would be able to clear the mission.

    However, there was a problem. Elsie was still after him and Li Ling, so there was no way she would let everything end so nicely.

    He couldn''t fight against her, that much was crystal clear, but he couldn''t keep running away either.

    He needed to hide but with how Elsie could control everything in this level, there was no way he would be able to hide.

    He forced himself to think and suddenly, he remembered something.

    The negative gambling bar.

    It wasn''t a feature that was supposed to be used by the players who were playing inside the level. It was supposed to be for the players who weren''t playing but were watching instead.

    Since they were all watching, they could be said to be in a virtual room that had a big screen, and displayed on the screen were the players they had placed a negative bet on. This was just an example, but it was somewhat like that. Since Zhihao had placed a negative bet on himself, he would also be transported to this ''watching'' room and if he was in there, what would happen to the Mastermo that was supposed to be on the screen?

    There was going to be a glitch in such a case and the Mastermo inside the game would start lagging due to it.

    If he was suddenly going to lag, his presence wouldn''t be felt by Elsie and he''d be safe inside the ''watching room''.

    This was something Zhihao had noticed before, but he wasn''t too sure about it. The first time he entered the negative gambling bar, his in-game character was frozen and would sometimes disappear for a second and then be visible again in the next second.

    When Zhihao thought about everything that he had done, he suddenly felt as if Li Ling had calculated all of this ahead of him.

    If Li Ling hadn''t gone into sleep mode, Zhihao wouldn''t have activated the moon goddess spellbook. If the moon goddess spellbook wasn''t used, this whole plan would have been utterly useless because Zhihao was the only one who would lag and would become invisible to Elsie, whereas, Li Ling would still be in danger.

    Since Zhihao would be lagging, his possessions would also be lagging along with him and since Li Ling was captured inside the moon goddess spellbook, he would also be safe.

    Zhihao didn''t want to be suspicious of Li Ling but all signs pointed towards him. If he had calculated all of this, he could''ve asked Zhihao to put him inside the moon goddess spellbook, but if he were to do that, Zhihao might start questioning him about why he knew how the negative gambling bar worked when he had never placed a negative bet.

    By going into sleep mode, he was basically forcing Zhihao to use the moon goddess spellbook and at the same time, he was being proclaimed innocent since he hadn''t said anything.

    Zhihao also found it weird that Li Ling knew everything about Elsie. He had promised that he won''t ask Li Ling any questions, but how could he not be curious?

    Li Ling was certainly hiding something from him and Zhihao didn''t like this fact.

    [Congratulations to Mastermo and Devilmagiclover on successfully clearing the G-ranked level 2353: Save the vampire!]

    [T-points gained: +8100]

    [T-points doubled! +8100]

    [Total T-points gained: +16,200]

    Zhihao was a bit shocked to hear the reward and whatever topic he was thinking about previously was thrown out of his head as he suddenly felt a sense of joy rise inside his heart.

    He had almost forgotten to count how many T-points the higher levels gave out as a reward and since it was his first time playing a G-ranked level, he couldn''t help but be overwhelmed by that number.

    [Player health status refilled]

    Zhihao threw the moon goddess spellbook up in the air and deactivated it as he held out his hand in order to catch the man that fell down from it.

    Li Ling was already awake by the time he fell into Zhihao''s arms and he only smiled cheekily as he looked at the man.

    Zhihao looked back at him and pursed his lips, not feeling impressed at all.

    If Li Ling had already calculated everything, he should have been more honest instead of simply passing out and asking Zhihao to handle everything.

    "Sorry! I really had to go to the washroom!" Li Ling apologized and Zhihao couldn''t help but sigh.

    This man was clearly lying again and this time, it wasn''t hard for Zhihao to see through it.

    "But A-Zhi did an amazing job," Li Ling patted his head as he spoke, "You''re so intelligent!"

    Zhihao put the man down and responded, "Not as much as you."

    "Eh?"

    [Skills gained: +spirit mage]

    [Rewards gained: +Wedding ring]

    "..." Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this notification.

    He really won a wedding ring in this level?

    What the hell was he supposed to do with a wedding ring?!

    Li Ling broke out laughing as he guessed what went around Zhihao''s mind, "Who knows? It might come in handy later."

    "Handy?'' Zhihao took a whole minute to realize what Li Ling was trying to say and when he did, he couldn''t help but feel wronged. This man was flirting with him so openly and yet, he refused to say ''yes'' to Zhihao!

    By saying it would come in handy, wasn''t he indirectly implying that Zhihao would need to propose to Li Ling with it?!

    [I''m sorry to say this, but you have lost your bet. -1 T-point!]

    "Will you date me then?" Zhihao asked and Li Ling was shocked to hear this question again.

    He thought Zhihao was done asking him.

    "Ask again.... Later," Li Ling didn''t know why, but there were almost tears welling up in his eyes.

    "Then you''ll have to say ''yes'' later."

    "Huh?"

    "If I ask again later, you have to say yes. Promise me you''ll say yes one day...?"

    Li Ling took a whole minute to respond and even after a minute, he still couldn''t say anything so he simply nodded.

    Zhihao''s lips curled upwards as he leaned in and pecked Li Ling''s lips, "Since you have promised to say yes, I have reserved you now. No taking it back!"

    Li Ling also smiled as he responded, "Don''t worry, I won''t."

    "Then since you''re my future boyfriend, can I kiss you again?"

    Li Ling had never thought Zhihao would be the type to say something like this but he wasn''t complaining though.

    Li Ling leaned in and kissed Zhihao''s lips, but Zhihao frowned as he spoke, "I didn''t mean an in-game kiss."

    "Eh?"

    [Logging out of G-ranked level 2353: Save the vampire]

    "I can kiss my future boyfriend in the real world, can''t I?"

    [Preparing for transmigration in..]

    Li Ling''s cheeks turned the color of cherry peppers and the blood rushed all the way up to his ears as he dare not give a reply.

    [3]

    If Zhihao were to kiss him in the real world, Li Ling was sure that he wouldn''t be able to control himself.

    [2]

    He might just give in easier than he planned to.

    [1]

 Chapter 140 - Li Ling Is Embarrassed But He Can Still Turn The Tables.

    Once they were out of the level, Li Ling decided to call it a day since it was already late and he seemed to be busy with something and when he had left, Zhihao couldn''t help but feel a bit disappointed.

    He was looking forward to exploring the last level. He wanted to know more about the story of this vampire and his bellboy. He had so many questions, but they were all left unanswered.

    His dissatisfaction could be justified. After all, who''ll want to play a game and be thrown out of it without exploring everything inside the game? Zhihao was always the curious type and this just did not sit well with him.

    The most important questions he wanted to ask were: What were Carmen and Lord Versailles fighting about? And Why the hell was Carmen called bellboy when he wasn''t a bellboy?!

    It just made no sense and Lord Versailles was the only one calling him that which meant the name ''bellboy'' had a story behind it that Zhihao never got to know.

    For a second, he wondered if he should replay the level, but Li Ling wasn''t available right now and he didn''t want to play alone. If Li Ling wasn''t gonna play the part of the vampire, there was no way Zhihao would try to protect anyone else, so if Li Ling wasn''t here, the chances of him losing the game were more.

    Just as he was thinking this, he got a text from Li Ling.

    [Li Ling: Are you free tomorrow?]

    [Zhihao: I don''t have anything important planned.]

    [Zhihao: Why?]

    [Li Ling: Then want to check out that sensory room?]

    [Zhihao: Sensory room?]

    [Li Ling; The one at the arcade]

    [Li Ling: T.I.A.D. Sensory gaming room]

    [Li Ling: Didn''t you promise to go with me?]

    [Zhihao: I promised?]

    Zhihao remembered seeing such a thing in the arcade that Li Ling had taken him to but no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn''t remember when he had promised to go there together with Li Ling.

    [Li Ling: Let''s go tomorrow.]

    [Zhihao: Sure.]

    Zhihao''s lips unconsciously curled upwards as he thought about going back to that arcade.

    It sure was a fun place and he couldn''t wait to experience that so-called amazing sensory gaming room that was equipped with the latest technology to help the players experience a more immersive virtual experience.

    [Li Ling: Then it''s a deal!]

    [Li Ling: You can''t go back!]

    [Zhihao: Hehehe]

    [Li Ling: Btw, thanks for not being mad at me anymore.]

    Zhihao''s fingers froze up as he read the message.

    [Li Ling: I really thought you were gonna avoid me forever]

    [Li Ling: I''m so glad to see that we can talk normally like this.]

    [Zhihao: Um... Me too.]

    Somehow, Zhihao felt his heart drop.

    ''Talk normally like this''

    Was this an indirect way of saying Li Ling didn''t want to be anything more than a friend? But... He had already agreed to be Zhihao''s future boyfriend!

    There was no way Zhihao was going to let the man go back on his words!

    He had already said it!

    [Zhihao: It''s not like I can be mad at my future boyfriend forever.]

    [Li Ling: Cough~ Cough~]

    [Li Ling: A-Zhi had this side of him too? Wah~]

    [Zhihao: I have a lot of sides.]

    [Zhihao: Do you want to know more?]

    [Zhihao: I can show you each one of them.]

    [Li Ling: That sounds rather... Suggestive.]

    Zhihao''s smile grew wider as he took his sweet time to respond.

    [Zhihao: Who said it wasn''t?]

    Li Ling, who was currently rushing to his office couldn''t help but choke on empty air as he read the last message.

    This man... Was going to be the death of him!

    [Li Ling: That was... Unexpected.]

    [Zhihao: I''m going to be more forward from now on]

    [Zhihao: You should prepare yourself]

    [Zhihao: Cuz the top player is in love with you.]

    [Li Ling: I thought the top player was in love with the Gamemaster]

    [Zhihao: Well, if Li Ling is the Gamemaster, the top player would be in love with the Gamemaster]

    [Li Ling:...]

    Li Ling suddenly panicked a bit as he read the message for the first time. He had to read it a few more times to understand what Zhihao meant to say and just as he understood the meaning, he couldn''t help but sigh in relief.

    Zhihao almost gave him a mini heart attack and made him think that his cover had been blown.

    Sometimes, he was really glad that Zhihao trusted him so much cause if he didn''t, guessing that Li Ling was the Gamemaster would be as simple as doing elementary grade maths for Zhihao.

    Just because the man trusted him, he was able to fool the man and it was also the reason why he felt so guilty about fooling the man.

    Somehow, he felt as if he was betraying that trust and letting the man down.

    [Li Ling: Hehehe]

    [Li Ling: If I was the Gamemaster, we would''ve made it to the headline of tomorrow''s newspapers]

    [Zhihao: The top player and the Gamemaster are dating... It would have been an interesting piece of news.]

    [Li Ling: You forgot to add some exaggeration.]

    [Li Ling: It should be ''What?! The Gamemaster and the top player are dating?!'']

    [Zhihao: Lol]

    [Zhihao: Why does that sound so funny?]

    [Li Ling: hehe]

    [Zhihao: Thank god you''re not the Gamemaster]

    [Zhihao: I would have been featured in that ridiculous headline]

    [Zhihao: Lol]

    Zhihao really knew how to make Li Ling feel more and more guilty.

    [Li Ling: Yeah lol]

    [Zhihao: But I think we''ll be able to make a headline too]

    [Li Ling: Hmm...]

    [Li Ling: Something like ''the great Mastermo has found his master?!'']

    [Zhihao: Haha]

    [Zhihao: So you wanna be my master? *winks*]

    [Li Ling:...]

    [Li Ling: Look what you''re making me say!]

    [Zhihao: Hehe]

    [Zhihao: This is fun, Master Li Ling.]

    Li Ling felt the blood rush up his ears as he imagined Zhihao using this prefix. He really could hear the man''s soft yet deep honey-like voice whisper these words in his ears and for some reason, he really liked this idea.

    [Li Ling: Then you''ll be this Master''s pet?]

    [Zhihao: Getting super kinky, are we?]

    [Li Ling: *hides away* What are you talking about?]

    [Zhihao: If the owner is Li Ling, why not?]

    [Zhihao: I''ll be your pet]

    [Zhihao: I''ll be the cutest, hottest pet ever.]

    [Zhihao: But I still won''t be as hot or as cute as my master.]

    [Li Ling: You''re making me blush so hard right now]

    [Zhihao: Really?]

    [Zhihao: It was my intention to]

    Zhihao would be lying if he said he wasn''t proud of it.

    Since he had already decided to fully chase after this man, there was no way he was gonna back down from it. He was gonna make sure that Li Ling knew exactly what Zhihao felt for him. He was going to yell it out loud, the words: I love you, till it was etched across Li Ling''s memory forever.

    He didn''t care about what the world said, he didn''t care about the people either. He would yell it till the whole world knew! He needed to tell people that he wasn''t gonna die alone! He finally had someone he liked! He wasn''t gonna be called a freak who''ll end up marrying a game character.

    [Li Ling: You''re probably too tired]

    [Li Ling: You should go get some rest]

    [Li Ling: I''ll catch you later]

    [Zhihao: Hmm]

    [Zhihao: My future boyfriend is the type to run away when embarrassed?]

    [Li Ling: Lol]

    [Li Ling: Definitely not!]

    [Li Ling: I''m the type who''ll make you embarrassed!]

    [Zhihao: Oh really?]

    [Zhihao: Why don''t you try?]

    Li Ling took a deep breath in as he wondered what to write next and after a whole minute, he knew the perfect response to Zhihao.

    [Li Ling: Mastermo the top player]

    [Li Ling: Are you really the top player?]

    [Zhihao: Of course I am]

    [Zhihao: You can check the official ranks.]

    [Li Ling: Hehe]

    [Li Ling: That''s not the rank I was asking.]

    [Zhihao: Eh?]

    [Li Ling: I was asking about your position outside the game. The unofficial rank.]

    [Zhihao:...]

    It took Zhihao an entire three minutes to finally understand what the man was implying and just as he did, his ears turned the color of cherry peppers and he could no longer type a response to that.

    This Li Ling... Was surely going to be the death of him!

    [Li Ling: Kek]

    [Li Ling: Told you I can make you embarrassed.]

    [Zhihao: Then what about you?]

    [Li Ling: Huh?]

    [Zhihao: What type of player are you?]

    It was now Li Ling''s turn to blush like a tomato. How in the hell did their conversation shift like this?!

    [Li Ling:...]

    [Zhihao: You''re not gonna tell me?]

    [Zhihao: But I wanted to know.]

    [Li Ling:...]

    [Li Ling: Why did you wanna know?]

    [Zhihao: You know why.]

    [Li Ling: Okay! Who the hell are you? Where''s my innocent A-Zhi?!]

    [Zhihao: A-Zhi''s dead. You''re talking to the top player Mastermo now.]

    Li Ling suddenly felt as if he liked this ''Mastermo'' better than his innocent A-Zhi but he wasn''t gonna say that out loud.

    "We''re here." It was Xia who turned around from the driver''s seat and looked at Li Ling who certainly didn''t look normal. Xia cringed as he asked, "Stop smiling like that."

 Chapter 141 - Li Ling Is A Bit Angry

    "A-Zhi..." Li Ling looked at the man in shock and disbelief as he asked, "I thought I asked you to come here alone."

    Zhihao scratched his head as he responded with a sense of guilt, "He wasn''t letting me go."

    Wang GuiYing smiled happily as he put his arm around Zhihao''s neck and greeted Li Ling, "Little lover, how are you?"

    Li Ling rolled his eyes as he turned around and entered the arcade.

    Zhou Xinyi pulled Wang GuiYing''s collar and forced him to release Zhihao.

    Zhihao didn''t even bother looking at Wang GuiYing as he followed after Li Ling like a lost puppy.

    Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi shared a look and concluded that they had just intruded on a date, but it wasn''t like Wang GuiYing cared to apologize or leave the two alone.. He thoroughly enjoyed being a third-wheel and Zhou Xinyi was forced to join him as a fourth wheel.

    There weren''t many people inside the arcade so when they entered, they were personally greeted by a few staff members who excitedly walked up to them and said something to Li Ling.

    Li Ling said something back and the staff nodded as they happily responded, "All preparations have been made."

    Zhihao wanted to talk to Li Ling but Li Ling seemed to be a bit mad about the sudden last-minute changes to their original plan. He had planned this to be a date! A date with just him and Zhihao playing T.I.A.D. and when Zhihao is finished playing, he''ll give him a ride back home and the kiss that had been promised. That was how this was planned to go! But now that two uninvited guests were here, his original plan had been ruined completely.

    One of the staff stopped Zhihao from approaching Li Ling, "Sir, please let us help you put the gear on."

    "The gear?" Zhihao looked at the staff and then glanced at Li Ling who wasn''t even looking at him.

    "Yes, sir. You need to first put on the gear," The staff smiled as she showed him the gear that she was talking about.

    Zhihao looked at the Virtual headset that looked pretty alike the one he had at home, but at a single glance, he knew it was different since this one was a lot more lightweight and thinner in comparison.

    "Whoa! This thing is amazing!" It was the voice of Wang GuiYing and when Zhihao turned around to look at the man, he found that Wang GuiYing had already put most of the gear on.

    Zhihao wanted to clear a few things with Li Ling but in the end, he still ended up deciding to put on the gear before he talked it out. They were still gonna enter the same level in the game so he was sure that he would have a lot of opportunities to apologize to Li Ling for ruining their date.

    The staff picked up a watch and put it around Zhihao''s wrist as she spoke, "This is the pulse monitor."

    She then continued to help him take his shoes out and exchange them into the ones she had given him, "Footwear sensors."

    Zhihao nodded. He lifted his right foot and jumped a few times.

    These shoes... They were surprisingly really comfortable!

    The staff chuckled as she saw him jumping and being amazed at how comfortable this thing was.

    "They are made to help the players have the best, most comfortable experience."

    "They are great. Are they for sale?"

    The girl shook her head, "Unfortunately, not yet."

    Zhihao sighed.

    The girl continued to help him put on the ''handbands''

    "This helps sense your muscle movements."

    There was a lot of individual equipment that he was made to wear, but once he was done wearing them all, he looked at himself in the mirror and found that all the individual equipment was so small that it almost looked like he was wearing something casual.

    He entered the T.I,A.D. sensory gaming room and the last piece of equipment he put on was the VR Headset and just as he did, instead of starting T.I.A.D. right off the bat, they were now experiencing a virtual demo.

    Zhihao was amazed.

    This was certainly an experience worth living for.

    He looked down at his hands and couldn''t help but feel that they really were his hands, he jumped and it felt so natural that he almost wanted to keep on jumping.

    He looked around and saw Wang GuiYing excitedly running around with Zhou Xinyi silently following him and Li Ling being his usual unaffected self.

    [Welcome to the first ever completely immersive virtual reality.]

    It was a really attractive voice of a woman that sounded rather computerized and yet, at the same time, it didn''t.

    [Here, you can do anything you do in your real life and more.]

    [Where your imagination is your only limit.]

    [We''ll now be moving on to a few tests to help you get comfortable and improve our performance]

    [The first test would be ''floating balls'']

    The area around them turned white and there was now a ball in front of each one of them.

    [Focus on the ball and when you are completely focused, the ball will start floating.]

    [Don''t lose focus in the middle or the ball will fall down again.]

    [Keep the ball in mid-air for more than five seconds and you pass the test.]

    Zhihao looked at the ball in front and wondered if it would work.

    In the end, he still decided to try it out first before saying anything.

    He focused on the ball so much that the area around was no longer even visible to him and after focusing so much, the ball started floating up.

    Zhihao was so happy to see the ball floating that he immediately lost focus and the ball fell down again.

    Zhihao looked at the other three only to find that Li Ling had already cleared this test and there was a green cleared sign sitting in front of him whereas Wang GuiYing had already started to get annoyed that the ball wasn''t going up and shockingly, Zhou Xinyi had also managed to clear this small test.

    Zhihao looked back at the ball in front of him and decided that it would truly be really embarrassing if he were to lose against Wang GuiYing so with this in mind, he focused on the ball once again, and just like magic, it started rising, but this time, Zhihao made sure that he didn''t lose focus as he kept his eyes on the ball and the ball was able to stay above ground for more than five seconds.

    [Congratulations on clearing the test!]

    [We''ll now be giving you another test.]

    The area around them changed once again and now there was a huge field in front of them and a ball clutched in their hands.

    What was truly amazing was the fact that Zhihao could touch the ball and feel it.

    This was truly too hard to distinguish from reality.

    [You can now throw the ball as far as possible.]

    [If the ball crosses the required distance, you''ll clear this test.]

    Zhihao listened to the voice and threw the ball with all the force he could muster up and this time, he was able to clear this test in one go, being the first among the four to complete the test and wait around for the others to complete it as well.

    He looked at Li Ling, who was now the second person to clear the test and Zhou XinYi was the third. Wang GuiYing was the last person to clear the test and it wasn''t because he didn''t use enough energy. It was because he was busy analyzing how real the ball was before throwing it.

    [Congratulations on clearing the second test!]

    [We''ll now be asking you to help test your shoes.]

    The area around them changed once again and now, they were suddenly standing at the starting line of a racecourse as they waited for the girl to continue giving instructions.

    [Run as fast as you can.]

    [The requirement to pass this test is the time taken by you to reach the end line.]

    Zhihao was never great at sports or at least, that was what he would always say. He wasn''t the best, but he wasn''t bad at it either. Most people would praise him for his speed so this test was easy for him, but he was still not the first person to clear the test. It was Wang GuiYing who ran the fastest and won, making Zhihao wonder: this man was so talented at running that it almost seemed like he had practiced it so much by running away from trouble and responsibilities all the time.

    Zhihao ran so fast that he was able to secure the second position and Zhou Xinyi was the third, while Li Ling took the last position since he was taking his own sweet time to finish the race.

    Li Ling had lost the race but cleared the test by being the most intelligent man among them who already knew that all they needed to do was run 200 meters under 1 minute. It wasn''t that hard and since the rest didn''t know this, they ended up completing the race in just a few seconds.

    [Congratulations on clearing the test!]

    [You have passed all the tests.]

    [You are now ready to go!]

    [Enjoy your time with us!]

 Chapter 142 - Li Ling Is Still Angry?

    The area around them changed once again and this time, it was pitch black and in front of them was a ten-second timer along with the betting options.

    This time, Zhihao didn''t place a bet on himself since he found that the betting system was nothing but a huge waste since he had already placed a bet on himself twice and if he placed one more, he won''t be able to place any more bets. He didn''t think he needed to use that three-times-bet-on-oneself system right now so he waited the ten seconds out.

    After the betting time was over, they were transported to the level that was assigned to them and since BBtrash and Hulk0_0 had joined them as members of a temporary team, they were all transported to the same level, however, Zhihao could only see Li Ling and Wang GuiYing, it seemed that Zhou XinYi was nowhere to be found.

    "Where did he go?" Wang GuiYing asked as he looked around but still couldn''t spot him.

    [Welcome to D-ranked level 607: Metropolis war!]

    Zhihao immediately froze up as he heard this and read through the pop-up notification twice to make sure that he wasn''t seeing wrong.

    They were finally in a Divine ranked level. The second hardest level that was known in T.I..A.D. (if non-ranked levels weren''t taken into account.)

    "Zhou Xiny-" BBtrash was going to shout but stopped in shock as he double-checked if he was seeing right.

    Zhihao was excited to play, whereas Wang GuiYing was excited to run away from this level. Divine ranked levels were too much of a trouble for him so for a second, he wondered if it was too late to quit.

    Zhihao looked around to see the situation.

    The three of them were wearing heavy suits made out of steel and it almost made them look like robots.

    Because of the sensory equipment, Zhihao was wearing, he could feel the heat that had been trapped inside this metal suit and it was enough to make him sweat.

    They seemed to be standing in front of a ticket counter of an amusement park, but there was no staff inside the ticket counter.

    Zhihao saw Li Ling jumping over the entry and entering the amusement park without a ticket and he followed after the man who was still mad at him.

    "W-wait for me!" Wang GuiYing cried out as he ran after them.

    Zhihao didn''t wait, but BBtrash was still able to catch up to him.

    [I always loved amusement parks!]

    It was the little Alvi who had spoken up as she followed after Li Ling.

    This amusement park had an eery feel to it. All the rides were turned on and the lights were as bright as ever. There used to be people here, at least, according to the traces left behind, it could be concluded that there were humans here, however, they couldn''t spot anyone else except for the three of them and little Alvi.

    The paper tickets were all littered on the floor and were flying around due to the wind that Zhihao couldn''t feel because of the heavy suit he was wearing.

    Zhihao looked at the ice cream cone that was lying on the ground, upside down as if someone had dropped it. The ice cream had only just begun to melt so it was clear that a few minutes before this, someone was here.

    "Woah!" Wang GuiYing sounded a bit shocked and amused as he exclaimed, "It''s like everyone just..."

    "Disappeared." Zhihao completed the sentence. For the first time in his life, Zhihao felt as if he agreed with Wang GuiYing.

    This amusement was rather a bit creepy because it seemed to be filled with people and yet completely empty as if everyone who was here had suddenly vanished into thin air.

    Zhihao jolted in shock when he suddenly heard a loud noise and it was coming from the Ferris wheel that had suddenly started moving.

    "That scared me!" Wang GuiYing exclaimed with a hand over his heart.

    Li Ling, "Be alert."

    Zhihao wanted to talk to Li Ling but it seemed that he couldn''t find the perfect time to.

    Wang GuiYing watched the Ferris wheel go round and round and suddenly his eyes went wide as he noticed something.

    Li Ling stopped walking and so did Zhihao.

    [Hey Mastermo! Can I hitch a ride?]

    "Eh?"

    Alvi didn''t wait around for Zhihao to respond as she directly climbed on top of him and took a seat on his shoulder. This metal suit was quite big and reminded Zhihao of an old movie called ''The transformers'' so it was rather comfortable for Alvi to sit on his shoulder.

    Zhihao didn''t complain about it since it wasn''t affecting him, but when he looked at the Ferris wheel and noticed what the others had noticed, his own eyes went wide as he took a few steps back and goosebumps rose on his back.

    Wang GuiYing suddenly realized that perhaps this level was the worst level to choose in order to try out this sensory gaming room. It was either the worst or the absolute best depending upon a player''s preference. If they liked adventure and were okay with getting hurt, this level would be the best for them and if they were afraid of getting hurt and valued their lives, this level was the absolute worse.

    Wang GuiYing valued his life a lot and didn''t want to get himself hurt so it was only natural that he found it to be the worst level to try out this new technology. He almost wanted to curse at himself for tagging along with Zhihao.

    If Zhihao and Li Ling wanted to go on a date in this level, Wang GuiYing would want to question their mental sanity. This was worse than a date at a horror house!

    The Ferris wheel had started transforming and from the middle of it, there was a pair of eyes opening. These eyes didn''t look like a humans, rather, they seemed to mimic an insect''s eye. Just two huge beads of black.

    The sound of the Ferris wheel grew louder and louder as the thing started breaking down and reforming into something that looked like a mechanical spider. A really big robotic spider.

    [Yeah... That thing looks dangerous.]

    Zhihao nodded as he took a few steps back.

    It didn''t take more than a minute for the Ferri wheel to completely turn into a spider that was now glaring at them.

    The robotic spider opened its mouth and there was a ball of bright orange light inside its mouth.

    Zhihao was amazed by how real everything felt. He was scared and excited. His heart was beating fast and he was sweating profusely.

    The spider took a few steps forward and the ball of light inside its mouth started growing bigger and bigger.

    "Careful!" It was Li Ling, who immediately turned around and warned them. He ran towards Zhihao and grabbed his hand to pull him along as he ran.

    Wang GuiYing also didn''t waste time reacting as he soon realized that this spider-like thing was planning on attacking them.

    In under a few seconds, the ball of light was released in the form of a laser beam that was aiming right at them, but because they were running so fast, it was tracing along the way they ran.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but be a little curious as he glanced back to see the situation and just as he did, he started running even faster.

    The laser beam was strong and burned everything that came in contact with it. Hard metals all melted away on contact and things such as the paper tickets and the ice cream, dissipated into nothing.

    If that beam were to touch them, Zhihao was sure that he would be able to experience the heat in hell.

    This suit that was protecting them would become a trap that would burn them alive.

    They ran to the entrance of the amusement park and the spider followed after them with its laser beam still shooting at them.

    When they got out of the amusement park, the laser beam had stopped following them and when Zhihao looked back again, he found that the spider had also stopped following them.

    It seemed that the Ferris wheel spider was limited to moving inside the amusement park and couldn''t follow them outside.

    They ran and ran till they were sure that there was enough distance between them and that weird amusement park.

    Zhihao looked around the park that they had run into. At a single glance, nothing seemed to be wrong with this park, but Zhihao was still able to notice a small detail that was out of place.

    This park was also empty just like the amusement park. In fact, this whole city was empty.

    The cars that were on the road were all still turned on and some were beeping due to some reason.

    "Everyone disappeared..." Zhihao didn''t know why, but he had a bad feeling about all of this.

    If all of humanity were to suddenly vanish, this would be the scene that would greet him and the thought scared him just a bit.

 Chapter 143 - Li Ling Finds Something

    "Let''s find Zhou Xinyi first." Wang GuiYing spoke as he took a seat on the bench that was inside the park but as soon as he sat down, the bench broke because of the weight of the suit he was wearing.

    Wang GuiYing was a bit startled but he still didn''t care to move as he sat on the broken bench.

    "Alvi, how long till we get more information?" Zhihao questioned as he sat down on the grass that was immediately crushed under his butt and the ground now had a small dent because of him.

    [Approximately six minutes and 20 seconds.]

    Li Ling didn''t sit down and instead, he walked around the place. Zhihao was shocked to see that the man wasn''t tired after all the running.

    "So we just wait out the six minutes?" Wang GuiYing asked.

    Zhihao chuckled as he responded, "As if we could.."

    "..."

    "Come over here." It was Li Ling who called out to them.

    Zhihao had just sat down to take a break but since it was Li Ling, he couldn''t be happier to stand up and walk over to the man.

    "What happened?" Zhihao asked as he saw Li Ling crouching down to look at something.

    Zhihao looked at the thing that had caught Li Ling''s attention and couldn''t help but feel a bit surprised.

    There was something there, on a corner of the park and it wasn''t something that you''d notice at first glance since it was covered with grass and plants.

    It was a sort of glass and Zhihao tried to poke around the glass and by doing so, the soil that had been accumulated on top of it and the grass that grew on the soil fell down, giving them a clearer view of what the thing was.

    It was a robotic head. There was no mistaking it.

    It looked a lot like the suit they were wearing but it was much larger in size and its head alone was bigger than their entire suit.

    Zhihao wondered if there was anything below the head or if it was just the head alone that was buried here.

    "How come this is here?" Zhihao asked, finding it weird that there was something out of place here.

    The entire city looked like all the people had just vanished a few minutes before they came here and this robot head looked old as if it had been buried here for a long time and had now become a part of the ecosystem.

    "I think I know where we are," Li Ling mumbled and Zhihao wasn''t able to hear him.

    Zhihao dusted the dirt and grass off from one side of the head and noticed that the head had started to rust, however, it still looked like it would be able to function.

    "What is this?" Zhihao asked and only after he had said it did he realize that it was a useless question since Li Ling was also new to this place and Alvi wasn''t gonna give him an answer.

    He didn''t even bother counting in Wang GuiYing since he already knew that the man was the most useless among them.

    Zhihao tapped on the glass twice and waited for something to happen but nothing happened. He was about to knock again but suddenly, he heard a loud cry and when he turned around to look at the situation, he found the owner of the cry to be Wang GuiYing who was looking up in horror.

    Zhihao followed his line of sight and spotted the thing that had horrified Wang GuiYing.

    It was a creature made out of steel. It had long four limbs and a body structured like an alligator with a long tail swinging behind it. It was clutching onto a building and for some reason, it was trying to find a way to go inside the building.

    Thankfully, it didn''t seem to have noticed them, at least, not yet.

    Zhihao carefully walked towards Wang GuiYing and stopped the man from saying anything as he whispered, "Don''t move. You''ll attract attention."

    [That thing looks so cute~]

    "..."

    Zhihao wondered if there was something seriously wrong with this bot''s preferences. That thing was clearly nowhere near cute!

    Li Ling had clearly seen the creature creeping on the building''s wall but he found this robot head buried on the ground more interesting as he tapped on its head twice and sighed as he stood up and walked towards Zhihao.

    "We should get out of here."

    Zhihao nodded in agreement but didn''t move.

    Li Ling, "What are you waiting for?"

    Zhihao pointed at the creature that was going around the building as he spoke, "That thing... Why is it doing that? Could there be something inside?"

    Li Ling shook his head, "It''s a stupid creature. There''s probably nothing inside."

    "How can we be sure?" Zhihao questioned.

    "..." Cause Li Ling already knew the level they were playing and so it was only natural that he knew there wasn''t anything inside that building. Just like all the other buildings here, it was completed empty and had traces of life but no humans inside.

    "This level was named Metropolis war... Am I right?"

    Li Ling and Wang GuiYing nodded in unison as they looked at Mastermo who seemed to have figured something out and yet, at the same time, he was still a bit confused.

    "So could it be that what we are seeing is the aftermath of a war?" Zhihao immediately shook the idea out of his head as he continued, "That''s not it. If it was war, there should have been some signs pointing to destruction or maybe blood but..." He looked around and sighed, "This place is too empty."

    All the buildings were still standing upright and the roads looked to be brand new so there was no way this was a place that had undergone a war and this thought wasn''t sitting well with Zhihao.

    Zhihao, "If there wasn''t a war before we came here, could it be that there will be a war soon?"

    Wang GuiYing, "What war?"

    "I don''t know. If I''m guessing right, this place is called Metropolis. It''s the name of the city and the people here seem to have suddenly vanished, however, since the level is named Metropolis war, I have a theory in mind."

    "Theory?" Li Ling looked at Zhihao with interest.

    Zhihao nodded as he continued, "Maybe there is a war coming and all the people were evacuated immediately."

    "Sounds possible," Li Ling agreed and he couldn''t help but once again be surprised with how fast Zhihao was able to put all the things together.

    Anyone who would be able to ignore the danger and think with a calm mind would be able to come to this conclusion but to say that it was the answer to the question ''what happened here?'' was a bit incorrect because at the end of the day, it was still just a theory and Li Ling knew it wasn''t the case.

    Although this wasn''t the case, it was pretty close to what had really happened. Li Ling knew this but he wasn''t gonna say anything about it.

    Wang GuiYing, "So the people were evacuated? But to where?"

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he looked at the man with an unimpressed expression, "Do you think I''ll know?"

    "No."

    "Then why ask?"

    "..."

    Li Ling chuckled, "Since this is the only thing we can come up with, why don''t we try finding the hideout?"

    "Hmm..." Zhihao seemed to have wanted to say something more but he was reluctant to simply give out all his theories just like that without having a solid foundation to base them on.

    "What is A-Zhi thinking?" Li Ling asked and for a minute there, Zhihao was really about to give him an honest answer but before he could say anything, he stopped himself and suddenly broke out into a smile as he responded.

    "I was thinking when my future boyfriend would finally say yes to my proposal."

    Li Ling suddenly choked as he snapped his head at Zhihao and then at Wang GuiYing who didn''t look shocked but he still looked a bit surprised as he glanced at the two of them and raised his hands up in a surrendering manner.

    "Don''t mind me," He spoke up, "I''m good at pretending to be invisible. You can continue flirting~"

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this and Li Ling''s cheeks heated up.

    He never thought Zhihao would be bold enough to talk about their relationship in front of another person. It seemed that Li Ling had still not realized that they were always live streaming in the previous levels so Zhihao had in fact, already proposed to Li Ling countless times in front of countless strangers who were watching their live stream. Nobody was shocked anymore.

    Zhihao smiled warmly and it was a bit shocking for Wang GuiYing to see that this man could also smile like this, "So when is my future boyfriend gonna say yes?"

    Love seemed to be a disease that had affected Zhihao a little too strongly. This man who had always pushed Wang GuiYing away actually knew how to make such an expression?!

    As expected, it seemed that Wang GuiYing and Li Ling really were too different from one another, but was Wang GuiYing jealous because of this?

 Chapter 144 - Li Ling, Why You Making Me Eat Dog Food?

    As expected, it seemed that Wang GuiYing and Li Ling really were too different from one another, but was Wang GuiYing jealous because of this?

    Hell no!

    He was genuinely happy for Mastermo.

    He had only ever wanted to be considered as his friend and he had achieved that goal.

    Zhihao had claimed their friendship to be legit in front of millions of fans so there was nothing more Wang GuiYing wanted from this man.

    Now that they were officially friends, all he wanted was for his friend to be happy and of course,  win against his friend and claim the one million dollar cash prize.

    He had put too much time and effort into playing this game so there was no way he would be willing to just sit around and watch Mastermo take that win.

    Wang GuiYing never knew he was the competitive type but this feeling wasn''t bad.

    Li Ling coughed twice before answering, "Let''s wait and see when.."

    Zhihao smiled as he heard this response.

    Was this considered development?

    The man hadn''t said ''Ask me later'', he had said ''Let''s wait and see when''.

    This was certainly development!

    It lightened up Zhihao''s mood and he couldn''t wait to play this level and show Li Ling how cool he was and how much better he was than Li Ling''s unknown crush.

    If Li Ling were to ever find out what Zhihao was thinking, he would be rolling on the ground with laughter because of this man''s stupidity.

    To prove himself better than Li Ling''s crush was a bit hard and a rather stupid competition.

    Li Ling had already been crushing on a really amazing man so there was no way Zhihao would be able to prove that Li Ling hadn''t chosen the best.

    The alligator-like creature had gone away without ever noticing them and just as it did, Zhihao turned to Wang GuiYing and asked a question he had already guessed the answer to, "Are you gonna go look for Hulk?"

    Wang GuiYing chuckled as he heard this question and unlike what Zhihao had expected, he nodded his head and answered, "I don''t think I have another choice. If you guys wanna go somewhere, it''s okay. I''ll look for him alone."

    Zhihao had always thought that Zhou Xinyi was the only one loyal to BBtrash but he was a bit surprised to see that it wasn''t a one-way feeling. It seemed that no matter how much BBtrash hated dealing with extra trouble, he would still gladly try to help Zhou Xinyi.

    When Zhihao saw this, he was surprised and unconsciously smiled.

    It seemed that Zhou Xinyi wasn''t a hopeless case after all.

    "That''s great!" Li Ling responded immediately, "You can go look for him. We''ll be on our way then!"

    Li Ling grabbed Zhihao''s hand and started pulling him along as they walked away, leaving behind a shocked BBtrash.

    Wang GuiYing had wanted to look cool and thought that these two would definitely not leave him alone to search for Zhou Xinyi by himself but his calculations had somehow been wrong. These two didn''t even think twice before abandoning him!

    "W-Wait!" After having recovered from the shock Wang GuiYing ran after them, "I''ll tag along since we didn''t have any leads about where he is."

    Zhihao chuckled but said nothing. This was the original answer that he had expected from the typical Wang GuiYing.

    After they had left the park, the robotic head that they had discovered suddenly came to life.

    At first, it was just a flicker of the light inside the head and after a few seconds, the robot was back to life and slowly stood up, dusting all the overgrown vegetation off from its body.

    .

    .

    .

    They walked inside a shopping complex and Zhihao was the one leading them as they checked the place out.

    The lights inside the shopping mall were still on and so were the check-out machines. Everything was normal except for the fact that there weren''t any humans here either. The fruits and vegetables kept on the shelves were still fresh and it seemed that the more they explored, the more Zhihao''s theory seemed to make sense.

    If the entire city was evacuated in a hurry, this whole scene would make perfect sense, however, there was still something bugging Zhihao.

    If the whole city was evacuated in a hurry, there should have been signs of such evacuation protocols but so far, they had come across nothing.

    If he was right about the evacuation, he had another question bugging his mind. What type of evacuation was it and how was it undertaken?

    There was no way they were able to evacuate the whole city in minutes without leaving behind someone.

    It didn''t make sense.

    Let''s say that the evacuation was done through the help of a T.V. where every channel was displaying the same things and informing the people about the situation. This would certainly help but it had its own limits. What if someone were sleeping or someone didn''t have their T.V. turned on? There was no way such people would come to be aware of the situation and would react. Not everyone would choose to leave their belongings behind and evacuate under short notice and it wasn''t like the government could force people to do it.

    What would the government do? Go knocking on everyone''s door and get them out? That sounded ridiculous and there was no way they would be able to cover the entire city in such a short time.

    The more Zhihao thought about it, the weirder it got.

    At this moment, Li Ling picked up a flower that was kept on the counter for decoration and smelled it before handing it over to Zhihao as he commented, "It hasn''t withered."

    Zhihao took the flower and smelled it. The smell was still fresh and just as Li Ling had said, it hadn''t even started to wither yet.

    Zhihao was more amazed by the fact that he could actually smell this thing and so he asked Li Ling, "How can we smell it?"

    "The room. After we enter it, the room is filled with a sort of gas and the gas helps trick our brain into thinking that everything you smell here is real."

    "Oh!" Zhihao was a bit amazed at how this technology worked.

    He put the flower back and in the next second he picked it up again as he handed it over to Li Ling and spoke, "My gift to you."

    Li Ling chuckled as he asked, "You''re gonna gift me a flower you stole from a shopping complex?"

    Zhihao was a bit embarrassed but he still smiled brightly as he answered, "A flower is still a flower. It''s the thought that counts."

    "Such an unoriginal line." Li Ling chuckled but he still accepted the flower as he continued, "Thank you, future boyfriend."

    Zhihao''s lips curled upwards as he heard Li Ling calling him ''future boyfriend''.

    This was great progress!

    If he could just get the man to say yes, he would be able to make Li Ling forget all about his unknown crush.

    "Guys! Come over here! Look at this!" It was Wang GuiYing''s voice coming from the other aisle. He sounded tense and worried as he cried out for them.

    Zhihao''s smiled disappeared as he put on a serious face and went to check it out. Li Ling also followed after him.

    "What happened?..." Zhihao was silent as he looked at the situation.

    Standing in front of him, Wang GuiYing had already taken off his helmet that came together with their suit. He stretched out his hand and showed the lollipop he had in hand, "You can taste this!"

    Zhihao rolled his eyes as he felt the need to smash his head on the wall for believing that Wang GuiYing had found something important or dangerous.

    Even if Wang GuiYing hadn''t found a clue or something that could help them, his findings were still a bit interesting.

    They could even taste things? This was something new that Zhihao wasn''t aware of.

    Zhihao picked up the other lollipop that was kept on the shelf and took out its wrapper before taking off his helmet and putting the lollipop in his mouth.

    The sweet candy melted into his mouth and he was thoroughly surprised to see that Wang GuiYing hadn''t lied at all.

    They could really taste the lollipop and the taste was no different than the taste from real life.

    Zhihao turned his head to Li Ling as he spoke with the lollipop still in his mouth, "Try it! We can really taste it."

    Li Ling smiled mischievously as he nodded and took off his helmet but instead of taking another Lolipop from the shelf, he took the one out of Zhihao''s mouth, and when Zhihao was about to say something, he kissed the man instead of tasting the lollipop.

    The lollipop Wang GuiYing was sucking on fell down from his mouth as he saw such an act of public display of affection.

    Zhihao could feel Li Ling''s tongue move inside his mouth and the taste of sweetness that lingered in his mouth was now tasted by Li Ling.

 Chapter 145 - Li Ling! Theres An Underaged Bot Here!

    [Cough~ Cough~]

    [There is an underaged child here!]

    [Stop sucking on each other!]

    It wasn''t like Zhihao didn''t want to stop, in fact, it was exactly like that!

    His body wasn''t listening to him anymore as he kissed Li Ling back.

    He thought Li Ling was still mad at him, but turns out he was worried about nothing.

    "Cough! Cough!" Wang GuiYing cleared his throat loudly in order to make sure that these people knew of his existence, but even after having done so, the two didn''t stop.

    He was about to say something, but before the words could roll out from his tongue, Li Ling pulled away from Zhihao and licked his lips as he spoke, "Hmm... We can really taste. Maybe because of the sensory gas.."

    Zhihao was now unsure if he had really kissed the man or not. It definitely felt real! So real that Zhihao wondered if the two were really kissing inside the room with their gears on.

    Li Ling smirked proudly as he walked away and it took Zhihao a solid minute to finally wake up from the shock and go after Li Ling with a question, "Are you sure we''re not dating yet?"

    Li Ling chuckled and was about to say something, but he was stopped by a sudden sound that came from right above them.

    Zhihao also stopped in his tracks as he looked up at the ceiling and questioned, "What was that?"

    Li Ling glanced upward and then looked back at Zhihao as he commented, "It seems like we aren''t the only ones here."

    He was right.

    Since there was one loud sound, some more followed soon after and it sounded a lot like someone was trying to either demolish the building or something really heavy and big was walking on the floor above them. The latter seemed to be the real case as the sound started traveling in a certain direction and when Zhihao looked at the direction the sound was traveling to, he saw the stairs that would lead them upstairs and also lead whatever it was upstairs to them.

    "Do... We need to run...?" Zhihao questioned as he glanced at Li Ling, who was also looking at the stairs.

    "Running won''t help." Li Ling responded and Zhihao turned around to check in on Wang GuiYing only to find that the man had silently abandoned them and left a trail of lollipop wrappers behind as he ran away before they could even react.

    Zhihao sighed as he snapped his head back and stared at the empty stairs, waiting to see the thing that was causing so much noise as it walked down the stairs.

    Zhihao was no longer sure if his heart was beating fast because of Li Ling or if it was because of the anticipation. Cold sweat dripped down his forehead as he unconsciously took a step back.

    "Let''s try to hide for now." Li Ling suggested as he pulled Zhihao and hid behind the rack.

    The two received a message from Wang GuiYing who had left them behind and sent a message on the team chat.

    <I''ll be going ahead to find Xinyi."

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he read the message. He was still unsure about what type of person Wang GuiYing was but if there was anything he was sure about, it was the fact that he knew, no matter what, Wang GuiYing was as unreliable as a person could get.

    [Your 10 minutes are almost over]

    [Hang in there.]

    For the first time, Alvi cheered them up and this made Zhihao worry even more.

    Just how dire was the situation that even Alvi had to cheer them on...?!

    Not a minute later, the thing that was making so much noise decided to show itself as it entered the floor and looked around as if trying to find Li Ling and Zhihao.

    It was the same alligator-like robot that they had seen crawling on another building. From afar, Zhihao wasn''t able to tell how big this thing was but now that it was standing so close to them, Zhihao was thoroughly shaken at the size of this thing.

    Its mouth was big enough to accommodate both Zhihao and Li Ling at the same time and its tail was probably bigger than the longest snake in the world.

    Zhihao unconsciously took a step back as he saw the creature moving towards the aisle they were previously standing in.

    The creature let out a breath which was basically just some sort of engine smoke that smelled absolutely nauseating.

    Zhihao put on his helmet once again since he didn''t enjoy taking in all that smell and Li Ling did the same as well.

    "What do we do now?" Zhihao whispered to Li Ling.

    Li Ling looked back and pursed his lips as he responded, "Mastermo, I thought you were the top player."

    "..." Zhihao took a minute to digest the question as he asked, "Are we talking about in-game official ranks or unofficial out-game position?"

    Li Ling chuckled and he was shocked that he had done something so careless. He immediately covered his mouth with his hands in order to not alert the creature, however, this sudden reaction of his had caused him to knock over the rack and ended up alerting the creature.

    The creature snapped its head towards them and cautiously approached them while at the same time, they could hear a system alert.

    [Your initial waiting time is over!]

    [Finally!]

    Alvi cried out. It seemed that this bot was also worried about them.

    [You are currently in Metropolis. The city where robots and humans have co-existed for hundreds of years.]

    [Mastermo is playing the character of Captain Burn who is in charge of Ribot army group 3X]

    The creature walked closer to them and it slashed its tail forward, knocking down the rack that was hiding Zhihao and Li Ling.

    [Devilmagiclover is playing the character of Captain Liv who is in charge of Ribot army group 2X]

    Zhihao almost wanted to scream at the jumpscare, but it seemed that this creature was one step ahead of him as it opened its mouth and roared at them, letting out a robotic roar that sounded highly computerized and at the same time, it seemed to mimic the roar of Godzilla. Loud and clear with a lot of saliva involved, which looked a lot like oil and grease, in fact, Zhihao was sure that it was oil and grease that was splattered on them as the creature roared at their faces.

    "Talk about manners," Zhihao commented as he wiped the sticky substance away from his helmet.

    [BBtrash is given the character of Ribot 68]

    The creature sprang at them with its mouth wide open and Zhihao pushed Li Ling to the other side as he jumped to the opposite side and the two avoided becoming the creature''s food.

    "Mastermo, can you handle it?'' Li Ling asked and Zhihao searched through his inventory, but at the moment, there was nothing that seemed to come in handy in such a situation.

    [The positive gambling bar has been used!]

    Zhihao looked at the machine gun that was suddenly dropped on him and smiled in delight as he immediately aimed it at the creature before firing.

    The shots rang out and since the helmet was covering their ears, they didn''t need to worry about the sound destroying their hearing ability.

    The bullets that hit the creature seemed to be a bit useless since they just bounced off but it was still able to buy them some time to come up with a better idea.

    Zhihao had successfully drawn the creature''s attention towards him and hence Li Ling was absolutely free of any worry as he stood up from the ground.

    "Let''s bomb it!" Li Ling spoke and Zhihao shook his head as he responded.

    "If we bomb it, the mall''s going down!"

    [Hulk0_0 is given the character of Ribot zy400]

    "So what?" Li Ling asked, "There isn''t anyone inside the mall.

    "We''ll also be buried with it!" Zhihao shouted as he tried to sound audible since the shooting was overpowering their voices.

    Li Ling simply nodded as he took out a small bomb from his inventory, "We''ll run!"

    Li Ling pushed one of the racks and it fell on top of the creature that was now glaring at Li Ling as it roared out loud.

    The moment it opened its mouth, Li Ling threw the bomb inside the creature''s mouth and the small bomb choked it as the sharp clanking of machinery was heard.

    Although the bomb was small in size, Zhihao knew how big of an explosion it was gonna create.

    There was no way this creature would be able to survive that and there was no way they would be able to run away on time either but Zhihao still wanted to try so he reacted first and immediately grabbed Li Ling''s hand as they made a run for it.

    BOOM

    There was a huge explosion behind them and Zhihao was sure that they were also gonna get caught up in it. His breathing was loud and the helmet had started getting foggy. The heat was too much to take and at this moment Zhihao felt as if he was really gonna die.

    Zhihao pulled Li Ling towards him and came to a stop as he covered the man in hopes of trying to save him from direct contact with the explosion.

    "A-Zhi!"

 Chapter 146 - Li Ling Is Crying?

    [Your mission is to win the war against the Ribix]

    Zhihao closed his eyes and prayed for it not to hurt too much, but the anticipated impact never came and when Zhihao opened his eyes again, he saw something else covering them both. It was huge and made out of steel just like their suit, however, although it was more rusted, it was still more durable than theirs seeing as how it was able to absorb all of the impact on their behalf.

    They were saved.

    Zhihao sighed in relief as his legs gave out and he fell on top of Li Ling, who pushed the helmet off from Zhihao''s face and shouted, "Don''t you ever do that again!"

    Zhihao chuckled as he tried his best to maintain a calm heart rate and breathing. He laid down on the ground with his hands sprawled out.

    He was overheating and out of breath.

    "Take the suit off!" Li Ling scolded as he took out his own big hand gloves and he pulled the suit out piece by piece. Taking out the hands first and then the shoes and finally opening up the body of the suit in order to let Zhihao out from it.

    Zhihao felt a lot more free now that the suit was off and what he received for this freedom was a slap to his face by Li Ling, who had two big drops of tears waiting to drip down his face.

    Zhihao was thoroughly stunned to see this. His muscles tensed up and his breath hitched as his heart stopped for a moment.

    "W-why are you... Crying...?"

    Li Ling hit him again and the tears finally started flowing out as he remained silent.

    Zhihao engulfed the man in a hug as he tried to comfort him, "Why are you crying? Why? I''m sorry..."

    Li Ling pushed him away and punched him lightly once again, but even though it hurt, Zhihao didn''t seem to mind the pain as he pulled the man into a hug once again, "I''m sorry. I shouldn''t have worried you."

    "Do you think this is a joke?!" Li Ling wiped his tears away and scolded, "You could''ve died! Don''t you ever do that again! Never! I''ll really leave you forever if you do that!"

    Zhihao didn''t know why but he felt a little touched and yet, at the same time, he found the situation a bit funny considering that they were in a game and he wasn''t really gonna die.

    "Don''t worry about it," Zhihao patted his head as he continued, "I''m fine, aren''t I?"

    "Like hell you are! You were running out of breath!"

    Zhihao chuckled, "Maybe I''ve been holed up in my room for too long. Just a small bit of exercise had me out of breath. It''s nothing to worry about. It''s normal."

    Li Ling frowned as he asked, "Do you think the shortness of breath and heat were all caused by the machine?"

    "..."

    "No! It wasn''t!" Li Ling gave the answer to his own question, "You were overheating in real life too! You had a hard time breathing? That was real too!"

    Zhihao couldn''t help but smile in response as he asked, "Were you that worried about me?"

    Li Ling didn''t say anything as he simply stared at Zhihao with tears still brimming in his eyes.

    Zhihao chuckled, "If you''re that worried about me, you should just date me."

    Li Ling punched Zhihao once again as he responded, "You know what?! Maybe I will!"

    Zhihao held onto his cheek that had started hurting. This last punch was pretty strong and definitely as real as it could get.

    "Eh?" It took Zhihao''s brain a whole minute to process what Li Ling had just said and just as he finally realized it, Zhihao no longer knew how he was supposed to react.

    He was clearly expecting another ''ask again'' response, but this man... Did he really just agree to it or was Zhihao hearing wrong?!

    Zhihao was about to ask to double-check but before he could say anything, they heard the familiar voice of a girl.

    [Hey! Care to help me?]

    It was the voice of Alvi who was buried underneath Zhihao''s heavy suit.

    Zhihao seemed to have been too shocked with what Li Ling had said so he dare not move from his place to help Alvi.

    Li Ling completely wiped his face dry and sniffed back the tears as he reacted first and pushed the heavy suit off the bot who was barely able to breathe.

    [You guys are trying to kill me!]

    Li Ling pointed at Zhihao as he responded, "It was him, not me."

    Alvi glared at Zhihao as she frowned but said nothing more.

    Zhihao glanced at the bot once and then looked back at Li Ling as he tried to ask the man if Zhihao had heard wrong or not, but his question was once again interrupted as the thing that was covering them from the explosion suddenly started moving and the dust from it started falling on them.

    Zhihao coughed as he put his hand up and tried to wave it in front of his face in a pathetic attempt to push the dust away.

    The heavy steel suit that was ten times larger than them suddenly sat in front of him and they looked at him with curiosity.

    This thing had saved them just now so there was no need for them to be cautious of it, however, Zhihao still couldn''t be completely reassured that it was 100% safe.

    When Zhihao finally realized where he had seen this huge head before, Wang GuiYing suddenly popped out from its clutched hands.

    "Mastermo, you owe me now." Wang GuiYing beamed.

    They had seen this huge robot-like thing before and it was in the park where they had rested for a few minutes and Li Ling was the one that discovered its head.

    "You went back for it?" Zhihao couldn''t help but be shocked as he questioned Wang GuiYing.

    There was no way this man was smart enough to go back looking for this robot and trying to make it work once again.

    Wang GuiYing patted the arm of the robotic giant and responded, "How can that be?" He laughed, "He was following us on his own."

    "Following us?" Li Ling glanced at the robot before turning his head back to face Wang GuiYing in suspicion.

    Wang GuiYing smiled brightly, "Meet Hulk0_0"

    "Eh?" Zhihao was a bit surprised as he looked at the giant robot.

    This robot didn''t seem to be a suit. Although it looked much alike their steel suits, the built was different and inside the head, there wasn''t a head of a human, there was a robot head instead.

    "But he''s a robot...?" Zhihao muttered.

    Wang GuiYing nodded, "A real helpful robot. Sadly, he can''t talk."

    "Then how do you know he''s Zhou Xinyi?"

    Wang GuiYing got down from the robot''s hand and walked over to its front as he pointed at the robot''s chest where there was a number carved on the steel.

    Zhihao stood up and walked closer to it to get a better view of what was written.

    "Ribot zy400?"

    Wang GuiYing bobbed his head up and down as he responded, "That''s what Alvi said his character was."

    Zhihao would be lying if he said that he had actually paid attention to what Alvi had said.

    He did remember her saying something in between their fight but everything else was so loud and they weren''t really in a situation where he could afford to sit around and listen to her.

    They were in the middle of a really heated fight against an alligator robot that roared like Godzilla. Of course, he ignored Alvi as if she were nothing but a part of the background noise.

    "I see." Li Ling mumbled as he stood up and put his gloves back on along with his helmet.

    Zhihao had already calmed down and was no longer out of breath nor was he overheating and hence he picked up the dismantled suit and wore it once again but just after putting on the huge steel shoes, he was stopped by Li Ling.

    "Don''t put them on for the time being."

    Zhihao looked at the heavy suit and he felt as if it was better not to put them on again since there was still a chance that he would go into that overheating mode, however, he was sure that they weren''t safe yet, and since they weren''t safe yet, if he took out the suit, he''ll be in more trouble than he originally was in.

    The suit was somehow protecting him but if it wasn''t gonna be there, he''ll be prone to an attack.

    Those robotic things didn''t look like they were playing around. If any one of them were to decide that Zhihao looked delicious and tried to take a bite out of him... Let''s just say that the result wasn''t gonna be pretty.

    "Just put it inside your inventory for the time being." Li Ling suggested and Zhihao listened to him as he placed the suit in his inventory for the time being since it was gonna be easy for him to access it from there.

 Chapter 147 - Li Ling Is Protective

    Wang GuiYing climbed on top of Zhou XinYi''s shoulder and sat down comfortably as he patted the spot beside him and offered, "You can come up here."

    Zhihao looked at the rusted seat that was offered to him and before he could politely refuse the offer, Li Ling picked him up and placed him on his own shoulder as he spoke, "He can stay with me."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but feel a little embarrassed as he sat on Li Ling''s shoulder.

    Wang GuiYing whistled, "Getting super protective, are we?"

    Li Ling didn''t say anything, he simply smirked in satisfaction as he kept on walking.

    The shopping mall had been successfully destroyed by them and there were still some things burning, which meant that this place was super unstable at the moment.

    If they waited around to see what would happen, they would be waiting around to be buried to their death.

    Wang GuiYing looked at the creature that had blasted away into tiny smoked bits for one last time as he mumbled, "Are there more of you?"

    The creature was already dead, so there was no way it was going to give him an answer, however, Wang GuiYing didn''t seem to be expecting an answer..

    Zhou Xinyi waited for Wang GuiYing to give him a signal and when he received a pat from Wang GuiYing, he picked up his heavy legs and started following after Li Ling.

    "Where are we going, little lover?" Wang GuiYing asked with a wide smile that didn''t look to be fake.

    Li Ling didn''t bother responding to the question and Zhihao didn''t know the answer to it so it was only natural that Wang GuiYing and his question were skillfully ignored.

    They got out of the building, but what awaited them outside was something even more troublesome than the creature they had just dealt with.

    It seemed that the loud explosion had attracted ''little'' trouble for them.

    Little because the trouble was literally little. Hordes of insects, bees to be exact, but they were all silver in color and Zhihao was able to say that these bees were all robots as well.

    Dealing with big creatures was hard but dealing with small ones was even more troublesome.

    Wang GuiYing, "What the hell are these?"

    [They are a part of Ribix.]

    "Ribix?" Zhihao remembered Alvi mentioning them somewhere before but he couldn''t remember what these things were so he asked "What are Ribix?"

    [Ribix are modern robots that have a live brain.]

    [Live brain helps them behave like a normal living being with emotions and cognitive abilities.]

    "Live brain?" Zhihao suddenly remembered that their mission in this level was to fight against such Ribix.

    Alvi nodded as she continued,

    [There''s an army of them and they are headed this way.]

    [You guys should try to run away.]

    Zhihao also shared the same opinion, but when he looked at the robotic bees that were getting ready to attack them, he knew running away wasn''t an option.

    "Hang on tight," Li Ling spoke and Zhihao clutched tightly onto Li Ling''s helmet, making sure that he had a firm grip on it.

    Li Ling took out a flamethrower and aimed it at the robotic bees that had finally attacked them.

    The flamethrower was certainly powerful. The moment the fire touched the bees, the metal that the bees were made up of melted away. Zhihao watched as half of the bees that approached them were all melted away.

    He looked over at Wang GuiYing''s side to see the situation and just as he did, he couldn''t help but sigh in a disappointed tone. He should''ve already expected something like that to be the case.

    Instead of trying to fight against the bees, Wang GuiYing had found another method to keep himself safe and that was, like always, using Zhou XinYi as a shield.

    The big robot, Hulk0_0 covered Wang GuiYing completely and for some reason, all the bees didn''t dare bother this big robot too much. Maybe they had already realized that this big robot was also something like them and wasn''t just a suit. In any case, Wang GuiYing had it easy and this fact wasn''t sitting too well with Zhihao but he couldn''t openly say anything against it because he was also not in a different position.

    He felt his hand slipping just a bit and he immediately clutched on tighter to Li Ling''s helmet. The blood started rising up his ears as he realized what he was doing was nothing much different than what Wang GuiYing was doing.

    They were both depending on someone particular to save them and fight the bees for them.

    Zhihao had always been the person who protects rather than a person who is protected and so it was only natural that all of this was super new to him. He had never realized how embarrassing it felt to openly be protected like this and suddenly wondered if this was what Li Ling felt all the time when Zhihao tried to protect him like a fragile butterfly.

    He suddenly regretted it but even if he was to be sent back in time, he was sure that he would still try to protect Li Ling from anything and everything.

    The flamethrower suddenly ran out of gas and the flame coming out from it paused before letting out two bursts and coming to a stop completely.

    "The bees seemed to have found Zhihao really interesting and they aimed directly at him. Zhihao guessed it to be because he wasn''t wearing the suit. Out of all of them, Zhihao was the only one who wasn''t wearing a suit, and hence, he was the best target who would not be able to protect himself against the robotic bees.

    Li Ling ducked his head and avoided the bees as he took a few steps forward.

    He threw the useless flamethrower up in the air and distracted the bees for a few seconds as he equipped something else.

    Zhihao was curious to know what Li Ling would do in this situation so he attentively watched this man''s every move closely and the most shocking thing Zhihao had observed was that his initial suspicions on Li Ling had been true.

    Li Ling was too skilled at this. Zhihao had noticed it since the beginning. Since their first game, he had a suspicion that there was something Li Ling was hiding but he never confronted the man about it since he thought that Li Ling wanted to keep it a secret, and so he should also not think too much about it.

    There was probably a reason why Li Ling was hiding his skills.

    Now that Zhihao was calmly observing his every move, he couldn''t help but compare the man to himself and had to agree that Li Ling was just as good as Mastermo and if not, maybe he was even more talented and skilled.

    Li Ling took out a smokescreen bomb and detonated it as he made a run for it.

    Zhihao, "We''re running?"

    "I don''t like dealing with bees," was the only reply Li Ling gave.

    When they were a few meters away, Li Ling took out another bomb and threw it at the smoke.

    "What about those two?" Zhihao questioned. He wasn''t really worried but since they were all forming a temporary team, he still needed to keep the other two alive in order to pass this level.

    "Eh~ They''ll manage," Li Ling threw another bomb and quickly ran away to put some distance in between them and the explosion that soon took place.

    Zhihao and Li Ling had already seen how powerful Hulk0_0''s armor was so they knew that this small explosion wasn''t gonna do anything to him or Wang GuiYing who was completed protected by Zhou Xinyi.

    When the explosion had ended and the smoke had cleared, just as they had expected, Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi emerged, completely unharmed.

    Wang GuiYing was the first to speak up, "There are probably more coming."

    Zhihao nodded, "We can''t run away from them."

    Wang GuiYing, "So we need a plan?"

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao as if waiting for Zhihao to give him an order.

    Mastermo shook his head as he asked, "What do you expect me to say?"

    "Oh come on! You''re the best at coming up with strategies," Wang GuiYing responded.

    Zhihao looked at the man before turning his head to glance at Li Ling and he finally came to a conclusion, "I''m not gonna lead today."

    "Eh?" Both Wang GuiYing and Li Ling were stunned and confused.

    Mastermo was always the leader. This was an unsaid rule. Since he was the top player, it made perfect sense that he would always be the one leading a group and coming up with strategies. In fact, Zhihao had also believed that he would always be the one leading in a game, however, he didn''t feel like doing the usual this time.

    He wanted to test something.

    He wanted to see for himself just how skilled Li Ling was.

    He wanted to make sure that he wasn''t wrong in thinking that Li Ling was a much better player than him.

    "I''ll let Li Ling be the leader this time," Zhihao added.

    "What?!" Wang GuiYing and Li Ling shouted in unison.

    Zhihao didn''t bother giving them an explanation for his sudden decision as he simply shook his head and kept clutching Li Ling''s helmet.

 Chapter 148 - Li Ling Is The Leader

    Wang GuiYing, Zhou Xinyi and Zhihao curiously looked at Li Ling as if waiting for the man to say something.

    Li Ling was shocked and when the initial shock had settled in, he broke out laughing as he asked, "You''re kidding... Right?"

    Zhihao lightly shook his head, "I''m as serious as I can be."

    Li Ling was silent.

    He could very well lead and if he were to lead, they would win this level with ease, however, he didn''t want to lead. He wanted to see how Mastermo deals with this level. He wanted to observe the decisions Mastermo makes and how he''ll be solving this puzzle. He didn''t want to make it easy for everyone nor did he want to make it difficult. He wanted to be the person that tags alone and helps you only in need and lounges around doing nothing the rest of the time..

    Wang GuiYing wasn''t sure about what Zhihao was planning but since this was Mastermo, he was going to trust him and his decision.

    "So," Wang GuiYing smirked, "What''s the plan, little lover?"

    "Uh..." Li Ling knew the time was running out and to argue over who was going to lead was pointless since he knew that Mastermo would not go back on his word. The only option there was for him was taking the lead.

    Li Ling looked around and calculated the time it would take for the army of bees to reach them, "3 minutes."

    "Hmm?" Zhihao''s lips turned upwards as he heard this.

    "We have 3 minutes to run. That''s it." Li Ling spoke up as he looked around, "We need to go somewhere crowded."

    Wang GuiYing, "Yeah... I don''t think you''ll be able to find a crowded place around here."

    They had already established the fact that they were in a city from where all humans had simply vanished or had been evacuated so it was only natural that the first reaction of Wang GuiYing would be like this, but unlike him, although Zhihao didn''t say anything, he furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Li Ling with great interest.

    "Not that type of crowd," Li Ling suddenly started running along with Zhihao sitting on his shoulder.

    Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi took a whole minute to react but they were soon able to follow after him.

    "Where are we going?" Wang GuiYing shouted.

    Li Ling, "A congested place."

    Zhihao was about to ask what Li Ling was thinking but before he could question it, he suddenly realized what Li Ling meant when he said ''congested''.

    Of course, humans weren''t the only things that could congest a place.

    If a lot of buildings were built close to each other and left only narrow alleys in between, weren''t they also said to be congested?

    The only question left was: Why congested? Why was Li Ling taking them to such a congested place?

    He probably had something in mind but Zhihao was unsure what Li Ling''s plan was.

    Thankfully, Li Ling didn''t wait around for Zhihao to ask him the question, instead, he readily gave the answer first, "Narrow spaces restrict movement and are great hiding places."

    "Restrict movement?" Zhihao suddenly frowned, "They are bees."

    There was no way Li Ling was that dumb, right?

    They were fighting against robotic bees. The bees didn''t care about narrow places and their movements would not be affected, instead, this plan would surely backfire on them by restricting their own movements.

    Li Ling could understand the confusion in Zhihao''s mind and so, he explained, "Bees are the least of our worries."

    Zhou Xinyi was hardly able to fit inside the narrow alley. Both his shoulders were touching the two walls on their right and left sides making it look as if this huge robot had suddenly become a huge road blocker for them.

    When Wang GuiYing saw Zhou Xinyi becoming a robotic wall that closed the street off, he suddenly exclaimed happily, "Good idea! We can use him as a shield!"

    "..."

    It just so happened that Zhou Xinyi became a shield. This was definitely not a part of Li Ling''s plan.

    Alvi suddenly chuckled as she asked, "Are you guys going to hide in here forever?"

    Wang GuiYing, "that doesn''t sound like a bad idea."

    "..."

    Li Ling suddenly looked at Alvi and asked, "Alvi, track down something for me."

    [Hmm]

    Alvi smiled as she looked back at him and waited for further directions.

    Li Ling looked around as he scanned through the place and made sure that there wasn''t anything else here except for them.

    Li Ling, "Track down Ribots."

    [Okay!~]

    Alvi beamed

    [Give me a few minutes.]

    Zhihao couldn''t help but be impressed as he asked, "If I''m not wrong, Ribots are supposed to be on our side, right?"

    Li Ling nodded as he answered, "Trash and Hulk are Ribots. Me and A-Zhi are Captains who are in-charge of Ribot armies."

    Zhihao nodded. Although he didn''t attentively listen to what Alvi had told them before, he still kinda remembered hearing something along the lines of Ribots and them being some sort of Captains.

    "I remember that!" Wang GuiYing cried out, "Mastermo is supposed to be Captain Burn in charge of Ribot army 2X and Little lover is supposed to be captain Liv in charge of Ribot army 3X"

    Li Ling shook his head, "You have it the other way around."

    "Eh?"

    "Zhihao is Captain Burn in charge of the RIbot army 3X and I am supposed to play Captain Liv in charge of Ribot army 2X."

    "Isn''t that what I said?" Wang GuiYing tilted his head.

    Li Ling sighed, "You got the numbers wrong. He''s in charge of 3X and I''m in charge of army 2X."

    "Does that make a difference?"

    Li Ling was almost about to answer but stopped himself when he realized that if he gave an answer to that question, he would be outing himself and drawing suspicion on how he knew all this.

    He changed what he was about to say, "Since the numbers are different, I''m sure they are different."

    This answer was acceptable and nobody questioned it.

    [Area scanned!]

    Alvi suddenly opened up a map in front of them and on the map were different colored dots with numbers and letters under them. These dots were distributed throughout the map and while some dots were isolated from the rest, few of them were in the same place.

    [The blue dots are 3X Ribots and the green dots are 2X Ribots.]

    [The purple are the XY Ribots and the orange ones are the newly created Ribots.]

    It seemed that Li Ling was right about the Ribots being different.

    Zhihao, "What''s the difference between them?"

    [XY Ribots are the very first batch of Ribots that were created. They are complete Robots that do not need to be controlled by a human. The 2X and 3X were created later and would only listen to orders from their assigned captains. The Newly created Ribots are the latest batch of Ribots who aren''t complete robots, nor are they complete humans.]

    "Eh?"

    When Wang GuiYing digested this information, he looked down at the chest of his suit and read the number that was displayed on it: Ribot 68.

    If he was guessing right, He was also considered to be a part of the newly created Ribots... Right?

    [The newly created Ribots are hybrids between a human and a Ribot that have been synthetically made.]

    Zhihao and Li Ling looked at Wang GuiYing with great interest as they realized that he was also a Newly created Ribot.

    Wang GuiYing, "I think I don''t have my complete body with me."

    "Huh?" Zhihao looked at the suit that covered Wang GuiYing and it was only at this moment that he noticed the subtle changes in the suit. This suit was not the same suit that Zhihao and Li Ling were wearing. It was different but the difference wasn''t too big.

    Wang GuiYing looked down before he spoke, "This isn''t a suit."

    "..."

    [Newly created Ribots have the head of a human but the body of a Ribot to help them think like a human while having the physical capabilities of Ribots.]

    Zhihao didn''t know why but when he heard this, he had the sudden urge to laugh at it.

    "So you are both Ribots?" Zhihao couldn''t help but be amazed as he added, "What a fate."

    Wang GuiYing sighed as he waved his hand around and spoke, "I don''t know anymore!"

    [What are you gonna do with this information?]

    Li Ling had his eyes focused on the map as he searched through it.

    A minute passed and when he was sure that he had a plan, he spoke up, "We''ll collect them."

    "Huh?"

    "Is they can be scanned, it means they still have their GPS turned on and that means, these Ribots aren''t dead yet."

    Zhihao was amazed at how much Li Ling had thought and planned in such a short span of time. Just as he had expected, he felt that Li Ling really was a better player than him.

    "We''ll first pick this one up," Li Ling pointed at a blue dot that was nearer to their current location.

    Zhihao frowned as he pointed at another area on the map and asked, "Wouldn''t it be better to start off from here? There are more Ribots here and the distance isn''t that different."

    Li Ling pursed his lips, "A-Zhi, I''m in charge."

    "..."

 Chapter 149 - Li Ling Is Amazing At This

    Zhihao chuckled as he raised his hands up in a surrendering manner and spoke, "Okay, Captain! Lead me to victory." He smirked.

    Li Ling smiled as he stood up and looked at Zhou Xinyi, "You can unblock the street now."

    "Hmm..." Wang GuiYing looked at Zhou Xinyi who was completely stuck and continued, "I don''t think he can."

    Li Ling shook his head as he crouched down and there was suddenly bright blue light coming from under his feet as he held onto Zhihao and warned, "Hold on tight."

    Even without his warning, Zhihao was already holding on tightly to him.

    In the next second, Li Ling jumped up and his shoes boosted his speed and distance..

    For a second there, Zhihao wondered if this suit was like Iron man''s costume cause it sure looked like one.

    The buildings that covered the alley were high and even with the help of the big boost the shoe had given them, Li Ling was still unable to jump all the way on top of the building in a single leap. When their speed decreased, Li Ling grabbed onto the side of the building and made a small dent in the building that he used to clutch and push down and climbed all the way to the top.

    Once they were standing on top of the building, Zhihao couldn''t help but comment, "Impressive."

    "I got used to this suit," Li Ling responded as he looked down at the street where Wang GuiYing was still standing as he looked up to them and Zhou XinYi was still stuck between the two building walls.

    "Just tell him to break the wall!" Li Ling yelled in order for his voice to reach all the way down to Wang GuiYing.

    BBtrash nodded as a response and climbed on top of Hulk0_0 and sat on his shoulder before tapping his head twice and when Zhou Xinyi got the signal, he expanded his two arms and broke the building walls that had trapped him.

    "Can you jump all the way up there?" Wang GuiYing asked and Zhou Xinyi shook his head.

    He was too heavy and still not used to this robotic body so it was only natural that he won''t be able to jump that high.

    "You guys go ahead! We''ll follow!" Wang GuiYing shouted and Li Ling nodded.

    Zhihao had never done rooftop parkour and he was sure that Li Ling had never done it as well, but at this moment, Zhihao had the gut feeling that he was going to witness something amazing and his expectations weren''t disappointed in the least.

    Li Ling glanced around and calculated the distance between each building and how much speed he''d need to jump over them. He also calculated the time it would take for them to reach their destination and when he had calculated everything, he turned something on and the structure of his robotic hands changed into becoming two big chunks of circular-shaped objects.

    "Explosion," Zhihao commented and at the same time, Li Ling put his hands behind and positioned himself in a certain pose before yelling something that Zhihao couldn''t understand.

    [Wait!]

    Alvi yelled out but it was rather pointless since Li Ling didn''t listen to her.

    His hands suddenly heated up and with a blast, they were thrown forward.

    Zhihao felt his heart beat insanely as the wind hit his face and Alvi who had somehow managed to clutch on tightly to Li Ling had her half body flying as she used all her strength to not let go of Li Ling''s belt.

    If someone else were to see this, they would certainly be mistaken that Alvi was an extension of his belt.

    Li Ling''s hand changed again and the blasting thing went away and in its place came five fingers that were positioned in front to help break the velocity at which they fell onto the other rooftop.

    Just as they landed, the rooftop of the other building had a rather big dent as Li Ling rolled once and continued to run.

    Zhihao was amazed at how natural this all felt. It was as if Li Ling was a professional stunt man or something and Zhihao wasn''t worried about anything since this man was so skilled.

    Zhihao looked ahead at the city that was clearly visible from the top. The isolated city looked beautiful and a bit creepy at the same time.

    Li Ling was running and jumping fast. In just a few minutes, they were already on top of the blue dot that they were going after.

    Li Ling directly jumped down from the building and although Zhihao knew this was just a game and he was absolutely safe, he still panicked a bit at the speed at which they fell down.

    Li Ling landed on the ground and the ground cracked.

    Zhihao''s heart almost had a heart attack. He tried to joke around and laugh to calm himself down as he commented, "You remind me of Iron man."

    Li Ling smiled as he stood up straight and spoke, "I always wanted to be as cool as him."

    "You''re much cooler than him."

    Li Ling chuckled, "That''s too much. I feel a bit offended as his fan."

    Zhihao smiled but said nothing.

    [Don''t drag Iron man into this. He''s already dead.]

    [Let him rest in peace.]

    "..." For some unknown reason Zhihao had the urge to say sorry but he fought against the urge and remained silent.

    Li Ling zoomed in on the map and the area shown on the map was now more expanded and clear for them to see.

    Li Ling, "The underground parking lot."

    The first Ribot they were after was located inside the building, in the underground parking lot.

    Zhihao climbed down from Li Ling''s shoulder and so did Alvi. The two of them walked ahead and headed inside only to be pulled back by Li Ling, who reminded Zhihao once again, "I''m leading."

    "Oops~" Zhihao chuckled, "Old habits die hard."

    Li Ling shook his head as he made his way to the front and started leading them.

    This building was an office building and just like the rest of the buildings in the city, it was completely empty with only signs of humans and no actual human in sight.

    Li Ling was moving calmly but his whole body and mind were alert. He didn''t forget to glance around and Zhihao also kept a lookout to see if there was anything that would try to harm them.

    [There are no Ribix around here but... There is some incoming trouble.]

    "How long?" Li Ling questioned.

    [Four minutes.]

    "That''s enough for us to collect what we came here for."

    Zhihao nodded as he heard that. Four minutes was surprisingly long enough for them to get the job done, however, that was if they had managed to find the Ribot they were looking for.

    They could only pray that the Ribot wasn''t hidden and it seemed that God had heard their prayers.

    In the middle of the parking lot was a bunch of cars that were piled on top of a Ribot as if the cars had been either thrown at the Ribot or the Ribot had gathered the cars around itself to protect or hide itself from something.

    If one were to not look closely enough, they would have surely not noticed the Ribot but for Li Ling and Zhihao who were alert and tried to scan through every nook and cranny, this Ribot was hard not to notice.

    Li Ling gestured for Zhihao to stay behind as he suggested, "Wait here. Let me."

    Zhihao listened to the man and stayed on the spot along with Alvi.

    Li Ling carefully stepped towards the Ribot and called out to it a few times to see if the Ribot would respond or not. When he got no movement from the Ribot, he was sure that the Ribot was shut down.

    He lifted the cars off and threw them away. There were only four cars covering the Ribot and when they were all removed, the destructed Ribot was visible.

    Zhihao and Alvi came over and curiously looked at the Ribot that didn''t look too good.

    "Is it still working?" Zhihao asked.

    Li Ling kneeled down and took off his helmet as his hands reached down to open the Ribot''s chest and inside the chest were a few buttons, out of which Li Ling turned the red one up.

    As soon as the button was turned up, the Ribot''s hand twitched and Li Ling closed the chest cover again as he took a few steps back and pulled Zhihao along with him.

    There was light inside the Ribots head as it started working once again. It folded its leg and stood up in an instant before looking around and scanning its surrounding in confusion.

    Zhihao stood in his place as he looked at the piece of amazing machinery.

    The Ribot scanned them as well and it seemed that it immediately recognized one of them as it kneeled down and tried to say something along the lines of ''Captain'' however, its voice box was broken and whatever it was trying to say was hardly audible.

    Zhihao glanced at the Ribot and then at Alvi as he mocked, "Looks like this thing is more loyal than you."

    [...]

 Chapter 150 - Li Lings Job?

    Zhihao was the one in charge of Ribot army 3X and since this robot was also a part of that army, it would naturally listen to only Zhihao.

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao and waited for the man to say or do something, but a minute passed and Zhihao still stood there like a piece of wood as he stared at the Ribot with great interest.

    "What are you thinking about?" Li Ling asked curiously.

    Zhihao glanced at Li Ling before looking back at the Ribot as he took a few steps forward, trying to get closer to the Ribot, "I''m wondering..."

    [About what?]

    Both Alvi and Li Ling were curious to know what Zhihao was wondering.

    Zhihao knocked the Ribot''s head as he answered, "I''m wondering how I''m supposed to be controlling this thing."

    "..."

    [That''s it? Tch-]

    [And here I thought you were coming up with a great plan.]

    Li Ling lightly glared at Alvi before glancing over at Zhihao and the Ribot, "Just try telling it to do something."

    Zhihao nodded as he spoke, "Stand up!"

    "..."

    The Ribot remained in the same position as if it had suddenly become deaf to Zhihao''s commands.

    Zhihao, "Did the hearing box also break?"

    Alvi rolled her eyes as she took a few steps forward and analyzed the Ribot before responding.

    [Maybe it doesn''t want to listen to you.]

    Li Ling also came forward and walked up behind the Ribot as he analyzed its neck before saying, "I think it''s broken."

    Zhihao looked at the man, "Broken?"

    Li Ling nodded as he replied, "Let me try to fix it."

    "You know how to fix it?" Zhihao was a bit shocked. Fixing robots was certainly not as easy as fixing a car and not many people knew how to do it. Even Zhihao himself didn''t know how to fix a robot. He couldn''t even detect if it was broken so of course, he wouldn''t know how to fix it.

    "My job-" Li Ling immediately stopped himself from carelessly giving the answer away like that.

    It was his job so of course, he knew how to fix this robot.

    He had spent years learning technology and making A.L.V.I.

    Possibly, one of the best AI in the world.

    To say that he didn''t know how to fix such a simple robot would be ridiculous.

    Although he had stopped himself from saying any further, Zhihao had still caught on to the short answer he had said, "Job?"

    Li Ling gulped as he tried his best not to give himself out. He focused on fixing the robot as he answered, "I once got to work along with robots."

    "Oh..." Zhihao responded as he looked attentively at what Li Ling was doing, "Now that I think about it, I don''t think you''ve ever told me about your job."

    Li Ling''s hand almost slipped but it was only a small reaction that didn''t even last for more than a few seconds. Cold sweat started forming on his forehead as he wondered what he was going to say.

    "Where do you work?"

    This timing... How could the timing be so bad?!

    Li Ling was already feeling guilty about always hiding things and lying to Zhihao. He had felt so guilty that he was currently in a dilemma where he wondered if he should just come out clean and at such a moment, Zhihao was straightforwardly asking him this question?!

    He suddenly felt uneasy.

    He didn''t want to lie to him but he couldn''t just spout the truth either.

    "I work at a company."

    "I already know that," Zhihao chuckled, "I''m asking you the name of your company."

    Li Ling gulped as he heard this question. He kept his eyes on the broken wires that were located under the steel cover behind the robot''s neck as he answered, "Omelas..."

    "Ah...." It took Zhihao a whole minute to finally process the word and after processing it in his mind, he snapped his head and looked at Li Ling in shock, "Omelas?! You mean ''The Omelas''?!"

    Li Ling''s hands paused for a mere second as he reluctantly nodded his head, "Hmm."

    Zhihao was shocked. In fact, No. ''Shocked'' was an understatement.

    He was so stunned that his muscles went stiff, his brain went haywire, his heart went berserk and his mouth wouldn''t close as he looked at Li Ling with his eyes wide open.

    "You have got to be kidding me.... Right?"

    Li Ling shook his head as he turned to look at Zhihao and answered, "It''s true."

    "What...? How?! When?! I mean, how come you never told me?! You''re really serious about that?! You work for..." This was probably the first time Zhihao was losing his composure so openly. He had at least tried to seem calm on the outside all the previous times but at this moment, it seemed that the shock was so hard that he forgot all about trying to look calm and collected. He didn''t even know what he was supposed to say at this moment. He gulped as he kept on staring at Li Ling, "Omelas?"

    Li Ling took a deep breath in before breaking out into a smile as he cut a wire and twisted it with another wire before standing and looking at Zhihao with a smirk as he asked, "Don''t I look like I work with them?"

    "You definitely do not!" Zhihao answered without a second thought.

    "..." Li Ling suddenly felt as if he had been dissed by his beloved A-Zhi.

    "No!" Zhihao''s eyes went wide as he waved his hand around and tried to defend himself, "That''s not what I meant! Y-you look cool too! But... I mean, I''m not saying you don''t look cool enough but..." Zhihao was bad with words, especially when he was too shocked to form a sentence that made sense.

    Li Ling chuckled as he looked at Zhihao stumbling over his own words.

    Zhihao''s ears turned red as he suddenly prayed for the ground to swallow him up as a whole. He felt as if he had embarrassed himself enough for the day. He thought he would be able to show his cool side to Li Ling in this level but instead of showing his ''cool'' side, he ended up exposing his flustered, embarrassed side that nobody would ever find appealing.

    Li Ling tried his best to hold in his laughter as he commented, "I''m suddenly reminded of something."

    "Reminded?"

    "When we met. You were just like this back then too."

    Zhihao: Dear ground, why aren''t you swallowing me up. Just let me die already! I never signed up for this embarrassment!

    Li Ling looked at him lovingly but Zhihao who had his head down, trying his best to not show his face to Li Ling, couldn''t see the love displayed in Li Ling''s eyes, "It''s cute."

    Zhihao''s head snapped up as he frowned, "Did you just call me cute?"

    Li Ling patted his head as he asked, "I just stated facts. A-Zhi is the cutest man I have ever met."

    "I''m not cute! I''m handsome and..." Zhihao immediately stopped himself from finishing what he was about to say.

    I''m handsome and hot! Cool and mature! You can ask all my fans! That''s what they say about me!

    Li Ling couldn''t hold in his laughter anymore, "A-Zhi is so damn cute!"

    Zhihao frowned with an unimpressed facial expression, "I''m not cute!"

    "Really?" Li Ling snickered, "That''s a pity," He sighed before adding, "I really like cute guys. They make me want to kiss them."

    "..." Zhihao suddenly felt as if he was being tricked but since it was Li Ling who was tricking him, he was okay with it, "I''m cute!"

    "Eh?"

    "I said I''m cute! I''m the most cutest man alive!" The heat surged up on Zhihao''s cheeks. He had never felt so embarrassed before this. He felt as if he was insulting himself but he still continued, "I''m super duper cute!"

    Li Ling broke out laughing as he clutched onto his stomach which was now almost starting to ache. This was too much fun!

    He never knew Zhihao would actually say it himself and he never knew he would like to hear Zhihao complementing himself!

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling expectantly as he asked, "Since I''m cute, where is my kiss?"

    Alvi who was being thoroughly ignored at this moment had a face that was twisted in disgust as she saw the two plainly flirting and playing the role of two fools. She glanced at the Ribot that was still kneeling on the floor.

    [As expected.]

    [Robots are probably better than stupid humans.]

    She stepped towards it and completed the work Li Ling had left behind to flirt with Mastermo. She interchanged a few of the wires and closed the lid on top before smacking its head and waking it up.

    The Ribot immediately stood up and its head bumped against Li Ling''s bum that was right in front of it.

    Li Ling''s foot slipped as his eyes went wide and he fell forward into the open hands of Zhihao.

 Chapter 151 - Li Lings Embarrassing Mistake

    Zhihao had never expected to actually get a kiss for yelling those embarrassing words: I''m cute!

    He thought there was a chance of getting a kiss so he tried. That was it. It was the same as getting a raffle ticket without hoping to win, but since there is a chance, you''ll still try nonetheless.

    Even if he had anticipated it, what he anticipated was a small kiss from Li Ling willingly. Willingly!

    He wouldn''t even dream about such a cliche situation happening!

    Li Ling fell on top of Zhihao but there was a big problem. Li Ling was wearing the heavy suit while Zhihao was not.

    !!!

    What went through Li Ling''s mind while he fell on top of Zhihao was probably something along the lines of ''I don''t wanna crush A-Zhi under all this weight'' and so, with this in mind, he immediately put the suit back in the inventory, however, there wasn''t much time, just a second, so who knew what random button he had pressed?

    Not only did he put his suit in the inventory but he also put his clothes back with it.

    Zhihao''s eyes went wide as he saw the suit and clothes disappearing.

    [You! Aaaaa!]

    [Shameless!!!]

    Alvi immediately turned around and didn''t dare look at the shameless seen anymore.

    Not even in his wildest dreams had Zhihao expected to see such a scene.

    Zhihao also fell backward and in the next second, Li Ling was lying on top of his body, butt-naked.

    Thank god they weren''t streaming today cause if they were... Zhihao would have surely been banned from streaming in the future.

    There was another problem.

    They were still in the T.I.A.D. sensory room and so he felt something poking his lower abdomen...

    Oh...

    Damn it...

    Li Ling''s soft lips were attached to his own and they both had their eyes wide open as they stared at each other in confusion and shock.

    It took Li Ling''s mind a whole minute to process the situation and just as he did, his cheeks turned as red as cherry peppers and felt just as hot too.

    He was thankful for two facts:

    1) It was Zhihao in front of him.

    2) There was no one else here who saw such an embarrassing and exposing scene.

    Of course, he wouldn''t remember that the staff who were keeping an eye on the monitor had seen it all and gathered around in a circle as they covered their faces and snickered at this scene that was better and more entertaining than any movie they had ever watched.

    Zhihao''s hands naturally wrapped around Li Ling during the fall. It was a natural instinct to hold the man as he fell but only after completely falling and ending up on the floor did he realized that he could clearly feel the skin under his palm. He could feel it a bit too clearly! Soft skin with muscles. Zhihao really liked it and he suddenly felt guilty for having such thoughts.

    He had thought about it before but it was only now that he was sure about it. Li Ling had a really great built. He might not have as hard muscles as Zhihao but his body was still the best in Zhihao''s eyes.

    Li Ling wanted to stand up and at the same time, he didn''t.

    The situation was shocking at first, awkward in the next second, and was now slowly turning a bit heated.

    Zhihao thought that their kisses were development but this...? This development hit him like a bullet train! And he wasn''t prepared for it!

    Li Ling gulped as kept staying there in the same position and Zhihao''s muscles turned stiffer than iron as he kept eye contact and tried his best not to let his mind take him on a ride down the dirty-thoughts lane.

    Zhihao wondered if this was the perfect chance to kiss him a bit more passionately but his lips didn''t move as fast as his brain did.

    Li Ling pulled away and only now had Zhihao realized that he was holding in his breath.

    Zhihao felt as if looking at that breath-taking flushed face was affecting him a bit too much so he lowered his gaze to avoid looking at Li Ling but... That was an even worse decision.

    The atmosphere turned even more awkward.

    Li Ling''s eyes went wide as he looked down at his little brother that was now on display for Zhihao.

    Oh shit...!

    "Wah...!" Zhihao''s tongue slipped.

    At this exact moment, Alvi turned around, thinking that Li Ling would have already covered up but as soon as she saw the scene that was not suitable for her ten-year-old self, she once again snapped her head back to face the wall and shouted.

    [Just cover up! Idiot! Dumb! Shameless!]

    Li Ling panicked as he forgot that all he had to do was go to his inventory and pick something to wear. Instead of choosing the obvious answer, he covered his little brother up with his hands as he looked at Zhihao with eyes filled with embarrassment and shock.

    "We''re here!" It was the delighted voice of Wang GuiYing who had walked in on this scene. His smile dropped as he saw a naked Li Ling and Zhihao on the floor. His left foot that was about to step in front immediately changed directions as he spun 180 degrees and took a step back, "And we''re out of here! You can continue."

    "..."

    Could this situation get any worse?!

    Zhihao coughed twice as he forcefully turned his face away and tried his best not to peek, "Inventory."

    Li Ling immediately reacted as he opened his inventory and selected the first clothing item he could see.

    A minute passed in silence and Zhihao asked, "Are you done yet...?"

    When he didn''t get a response, he turned to look and saw that... It was empty...

    Li Ling... Ran away...?!

    "Li Ling?" Zhihao didn''t know if he was supposed to laugh or cry at this situation.  He looked around but the only ones he could see were Alvi and the Ribot that had caused all this.

    He grabbed his head as if he was suddenly having a headache and in the next second, his shoulders started shaking.

    Alvi looked at him with pity in her eyes as she tried to console him.

    [You pitiful thing. To have been sexually harassed like that... I feel bad for you.]

    [That man was a badie! Don''t let him traumatize you.]

    "Traumatize?" Zhihao pulled his head up to look at the girl with a wide smile that Alvi had never seen before this, "What do you mean?" He laughed.

    [...]

    Zhihao shook his head as he tried to control his laughter before speaking up, "Track him down for me, will ya?"

    There was no way he was going to let Li Ling run away just like that.

    [Understood]

    Suddenly there was a map in front of Zhihao and Zhihao wanted to laugh even more as he saw the map that displayed Li Ling''s location.

    The man didn''t run away. He hid!

    Zhihao couldn''t do it anymore.

    The situation was so ridiculous that he broke out laughing as if he had heard the best joke in the world.

    He clutched his stomach that was hurting from all the laughing.

    This was just too ridiculous.

    Li Ling didn''t possibly think that hiding could save him from all the embarrassment, did he?

    Zhihao couldn''t help but walk towards a particular car that was parked inside this abandoned parking lot and behind this car was Li Ling who was sitting with his hands circled around his knees that were clutched close to his chest with his head tucked down.

    He looked much like a kid that was too embarrassed to go outside after he had peed his pants in public.

    Zhihao stopped laughing as he saw this and instead, he smiled in an amused manner, but suddenly, his smile went down as he felt that what he was seeing was a bit familiar.

    He had seen this scene before.

    A really long, long time ago.

    At this moment, Li Ling''s body overlapped with the memory of a small boy.

    The boy was also sitting just like this and was crying. Zhihao didn''t remember why the boy was crying nor did he clearly remember what happened afterward.

    He gulped as he walked closer to Li Ling and tapped him on the shoulder.

    The memory started becoming a bit more clear and when Li Ling looked up with his red cheeks and glittering eyes... It was a perfect match.

    The boy...

    Zhihao remembered one more thing.

    When he had tapped the boy''s shoulder and the boy looked up, little Zhihao had been awestruck by the beautiful crying face of the boy. However, he was still young and so instead of helping the boy and trying to coax him, Zhihao smacked him on the head.

    The boy looked heartbroken as he pouted and rubbed his head before looking up at Zhihao and saying...

    "A-Zhi is too cruel!" Li Ling cried out with a frown.

    The memory faded away as Zhihao looked at Li Ling in shock.

    "It can''t be really you... Right?"

 Chapter 152 - Li Ling Is Stunned

    Zhihao gulped. His muscles went stiff as he looked at Li Ling for an answer.

    Li Ling also stared back at him as he asked, "What do you mean?"

    He had still not recovered from all the embarrassment so of course, he didn''t understand a word of what Zhihao was trying to say or rather ask, in this case.

    "You..." Zhihao couldn''t believe it, but for some reason, he wanted to believe it.

    Li Ling innocently looked at him in confusion as if asking the same question.

    "You''re him." This time, Zhihao wasn''t simply just questioning it, he was accusing Li Ling as if he really believed it to be true, "You''re that kid! You''re that guy from the party too!"

    Suddenly, the puzzle seemed to fit together. The missing piece of the puzzle was Li Ling and now that Zhihao had realized it, he couldn''t help but think that his theory really was correct. It just fit...

    "The Omelas! The party! It fits!" Zhihao faltered a step back as the shock slowly sunk in.

    "What are you-" Li Ling also stopped, "Oh..."

    It seemed that Li Ling was fast in understanding the situation.

    "You''re him...?" Zhihao''s brain had gone haywire.

    "A-Zhi..." Li Ling stood up immediately. The previous embarrassment not even leaving a trace on his face.

    He was afraid.

    He was really afraid and guilty.

    Zhihao had definitely put the puzzle together.

    Li Ling took a step forward and Zhihao unconsciously took a step back. This small action didn''t go unnoticed by Li Ling, who was immediately heartbroken to see it.

    "A-Zhi... No. M-mastermo," Li Ling stuttered.

    Zhihao was going to run away. He was definitely going to run away. Even Li Ling would run away in such a situation. Who wouldn''t run away when they found out that their gaming partner had been secretly stalking them for years?!

    Zhihao gulped as his mind processed everything. Every small detail was put together. From the moment they met to this moment right here, everything just... Fit.

    "You''re that boy!" Zhihao unconsciously raised his voice, "That''s why you approached me back then! That''s why you called me A-Zhi by mistake! And... You''re the guy from that party!"

    Zhihao had tried really hard to remember the face of the man he met at the party, but he was never able to and at this moment, like magic, he suddenly remembered the face.

    It was Li Ling. There was no mistaking it.

    "That''s why I woke up in your apartment the next morning!" Zhihao exclaimed in disbelief.

    He had never thought Li Ling would lie about something so big. It was just too shocking. He always knew Li Ling was hiding something, but to think that this was it? Zhihao felt as if he was dreaming. His head felt heavy and his heart dropped as he remembered all those times in the past when some things didn''t make sense and yet, at this moment, everything started adding up.

    Zhihao furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Li Ling, "Our meeting wasn''t a coincidence, was it? You planned it! You bumped into me on purpose and approached me because you knew who I was since the beginning and it wasn''t because you were just a long-time fan of mine! You proposed to become my gaming partner because you knew I didn''t have a partner yet and would be thrown out of the competition!"

    "Eh?" Even Li Ling was confused as he heard this, but Zhihao didn''t seem to realize it.

    "You did it for me! You wanted to be my friend since we were kids! You watched me from afar as I grew into a pro-gamer. You hid behind the facade of just a fan, but you were actually looking after me and wanted to help me! You wanted to help me so you bumped into me on purpose and tricked me into teaming up with you!"

    "..."

    There seemed to be some misunderstands in between but Li Ling was unsure if he should correct it or not.

    "We became friends, but you were afraid to say anything because you thought I''ll run away thinking that you were a stalker! And you... You work in Omelas! That''s why you were there at the party! You knew I would be there at the party so you came for me! You changed our watches and flirted with me... You thought it was a great chance to confess that day but I was too stupid and passed out."

    Li Ling was left stunned as he heard this whole story. All parts seemed to match up perfectly and whatever Zhihao was saying made complete sense, however, there seemed to be some changes to what had actually happened.

    "You know what this means...?"

    Li Ling hung his head low in a dejected manner. He knew exactly what all of this meant.

    All of this meant that Zhihao was going to run away and maybe Li Ling wouldn''t be able to stop him from running away.

    All his planning had gone to waste and the time for him to confess with his own mouth had already passed by. He didn''t have another chance. Zhihao already knew everything and probably hated Li Ling by now.

    Suddenly Li Ling felt his head being lifted up and a soft pair of lips crashed against his own.

    Wait a minute...

    What

    Is

    Happening?!

    Zhihao closed his eyes as he kissed Li Ling with both passion and desire. Li Ling who was too shocked to understand what was going on just stood there, with his eyes wide open as he stared at Zhihao.

    A minute passed and Zhihao pulled away from him. He looked at Li Ling with soft eyes burning with passion as he gave the answer to the question he had asked, "It means you love me."

    Eh?

    Li Ling couldn''t understand how Zhihao''s mind had just worked like that. How in the hell was he able to twist the truth and still end up giving the same answer?! Was Zhihao also a prodigy child that uses the wrong formula but still gets the right answer in his maths exam?!

    "It means you fell in love with me a long time before I fell in love with you!" Zhihao sounded a bit too happy as he held Li Ling''s face close to his.

    Li Ling gulped.

    Looking at Zhihao''s expression... Li Ling was never going to correct these misunderstandings.

    Zhihao pulled him again and kissed him even more fiercely before pulling apart to say more useless stuff, "Your crush... A long-time friend that you have a crush on. That''s also me!"

    Li Ling nodded in confusion.

    Zhihao pulled him into a tight hug as he exclaimed, "It''s really me...!"

    "Um... Yeah..."

    Li Ling was more shocked with the fact that it took the great Mastermo so long to figure such a simple thing out.

    This man... Was stupid!

    Mastermo, you''re just lying about your intelligence, aren''t you?

    You are actually an idiot, right?

    A really naive idiot!

    How could you not feel creeped out?!

    Why would you kiss your stalker?!

    Li Ling thought that he would have to beg and lock Zhihao up when Zhihao finally finds out the truth and runs away but how come things turned out this way?!

    It just didn''t make any sense!

    Li Ling didn''t know why but he was having mixed feelings about everything. On one hand, he was happy and glad that Zhihao hadn''t shunned him while on the other hand, he was mad that Zhihao hadn''t shunned him!

    Mastermo was too naive!

    Had his parents never warned him about stalkers?!

    [Cough~ Cough~]

    [Not to interrupt your melodrama but your friend is here and is asking: "Are those two finished yet?"]

    Zhihao pulled away from the hug as he looked at Alvi with the same warm bright smile that had never really been seen on his face before this.

    This was probably the first time Zhihao was this happy. He felt excited like a little kid who had won for the first time.

    Suddenly Wang GuiYing who appeared once again saw this and couldn''t help but comment, "Wah!~ You can smile like this too?" He squinted at the two, "I wonder who topped."

    "Eh?" Zhihao tilted his head as he looked at him.

    Li Ling also looked at Wang GuiYing and responded to him, "I''m just as confused as you are."

    "..." Wang GuiYing was even more confused to hear this, "Huh? You don''t know who topped? What the hell?! Are you two sure you did it right?"

    Li Ling walked towards him and patted Wang GuiYing on the shoulder twice, "You probably don''t wanna know what happened."

    Li Ling walked away after having said one last thing and Zhihao ran after him as he called out, "Wait for me!"

    Wang GuiYing and little Alvi glanced at the moving back of the two before looking at each other with a confused face.

    Wang GuiYing, "System, do you have a recording?"

    [...]

    [Shameless.]

    Alvi also followed after those two and now Wang GuiYing was left to himself, trying to put a puzzle with incomplete pieces together.

 Chapter 153 - Li Ling Is Still Shocked But Who Cares

    Something had happened.

    Something had definitely happened!

    The air around Zhihao seemed to change.

    Mastermo, who would hardly ever keep his smile on for more than a minute now had a wide grin plastered on his face and it wasn''t going down at all as he kept himself glued to Li Ling who had still not woken up from the shock.

    The thing that changed the most was probably Zhihao''s way of addressing his partner.

    "Honey, are we going to search for the green dots now?" Zhihao beamed.

    Li Ling looked at him and was silent for a minute before slowly nodding his head, "Green dots... Sounds good.."

    Wang Guiying who was sitting on top of the huge metal giant called Zhou Xinyi knocked at the robot''s head twice as he whispered, "Did he turn stupid after that? How is that even possible?"

    Wang GuiYing couldn''t help but squint as he commented, "He''s definitely not normal! Why does he seem more and more like a..."

    [Henpecked husband?]

    "Exactly! He reminds me more and more of a henpecked husband whose wife is about to bear a child!"

    [Tch-]

    [You''re right.]

    The players and the bot gossiped as they looked at the couple walking in front of them.

    Zhihao and Li Ling had once again worn their suit after Li Ling had decided that not letting Zhihao wear his suit could be more dangerous.

    Their second destination was a green dot a.k.a., a 2X Ribot.

    This green dot wasn''t far away from their location, however, when they thought they were going to collect this one easily, something unexpected jumped in front of them. This something was a Ribix that looked like a Lion while its outer body, like every other Ribix, was made out of steel.

    The Ribix Lion roared as soon as it saw them and Zhihao immediately shielded Li Ling by standing in front of him and taking out an air cannon to shoot the damn thing down.

    The Ribix Lion was thrown back and before it could stand up to fight them again, Zhou Xinyi had already stepped on it and since the Lion was smaller in size compared to the huge Ribot, Zhou Xinyi, it didn''t come as a shock that the Ribix Lion was crushed underneath its feet.

    The mechanical parts of it broke into pieces and Zhihao almost felt a bit of pity for it, however, this Lion had tried to attack not only him, but it had also tried to attack Li Ling so of course, Zhihao wouldn''t feel any sense of pity for it.

    Li Ling sighed as he patted Zhihao''s back once, "A-Zhi, I can protect myself."

    Zhihao remembered what Li Ling had said last time when Zhihao had covered him from the explosion and as soon as he remembered that warning, he smiled cheekily as he moved away, "It was on instinct."

    Li Ling lightly glared at the man, "You should fix such useless instincts."

    He really should.

    Li Ling couldn''t help but feel that it was a bit ridiculous. He was the one who was here to protect Zhihao, that was the whole purpose of him being Zhihao''s gaming partner so how come, the situation turned out like this? Why was Zhihao the one who was trying to protect him?!

    Wang GuiYing glanced at the broken Ribix Lion and looked up at the road ahead as he questioned, "Are there gonna be more ahead?"

    Li Ling shook his head, "I don''t know."

    The team once again continued to walk and they soon reached the location where the green dot was supposed to be. This time, it was an empty skateboarding rink.

    Since the rink was empty, it wasn''t hard to find the 2X Ribot.

    Thankfully, they didn''t need to fix it either.

    As soon as Li Ling commanded, "Rise!" The 2X Ribot stood up obediently.

    At this moment, Zhihao realized a method through which he could recognize the different models of the Ribots.

    The 2X Ribots had green-colored light inside their helmet. The 3X Ribot had blue-colored light inside its helmet and the newly created Ribots have a human head inside their helmet. The most different among them was certainly the XY Ribot since they were huge in size and could easily be recognized.

    "Extract data!" Li Ling commanded once again and Zhihao furrowed his eyebrows for a mere second before realizing that since Li Ling worked at Omelas, he probably knew all about the hidden commands.

    Zhihao didn''t know what Li Ling''s job inside Omelas was so at this moment, he made a mental note: Next time, when they get out of this level, he was surely going to ask Li Ling what his job was.

    [Extracting data from the memory chip.]

    The 2X Ribot took a few steps back and the light coming from its eyes grew in intensity as it projected something in front of them.

    It was a captured footage of what had happened.

    On the projection, they could see an army of Ribots, all Ribots combined and... Humans!

    Humans were also captured in the footage!

    When the 2X Ribot turned its head, it seemed that the scene in front of them also changed. This footage was captured from the perspective of the Ribot they were extracting all this data from.

    The army of Ribots was waiting and Zhihao was also waiting to see what they were all waiting for.

    Suddenly the perspective changed as the original 2X Ribot looked up at the sky. There was something coming... And it was huge! Growing bigger and bigger as it got closer and closer. At first, Zhihao wondered what it was, but when it was close enough for them to see it clearly, Zhihao realized that it was a building.

    Somebody freaking threw a building at them!!

    Zhihao unconsciously took a step back only to realize how stupid he was. They were seeing a pre-recorded video, so of course, the building wouldn''t really hit them.

    The Ribot army on the projection suddenly faltered back and the people who were controlling them also yelled, "Retreat! Retreat!"

    They tried to run and escape, but not everyone was able to save themselves. When the building finally hit the ground, it crushed a few of the Ribots and a few people too, but thankfully, a majority of them were able to escape from it.

    Zhihao gulped as he watched the projection with great interest as if it were a movie.

    Wang GuiYing was also completely immersed in watching this playback. At times, he would jolt in shock, and other times, he couldn''t help but gasp whenever something happened.

    The 2X Ribot stopped and looked at the destruction that had been caused. Zhihao knew that the Ribots weren''t supposed to have emotions, but when he saw the way the Ribot looked at the debris and broken parts of his fellow Ribot soldiers, Zhihao could almost feel the sadness and disbelief.

    The Ribot looked up once again and this time, it saw a lot of Ribix, crawling on top of the buildings and heading towards them. All the Ribix were different in shape and sizes, but they all had one thing in common: They looked crazy. Their eyes were bright red and they seemed to be glaring in anger at the Ribots who were standing below. Some had their metallic fangs gnashing for display while others had their jaws wide open, almost drooling viciously.

    Zhihao would be lying if he said that the sight didn''t creep him out.

    If there were only one or two Ribix, the situation wouldn''t have been so creepy or scary, however, at this moment, there was clearly an army of Ribix, slowly crawling towards them. Zhihao felt a shiver go down his spine as he realized that the army of Ribix had greatly outnumbered the army of Ribots.

    "Captain Burn! If we go, we go down together!" There was a voice and the Ribot turned its head to look at the person who had suddenly spoken up.

    What greeted them on screen was the face of Li Ling and the one he was talking to was Zhihao, or at least, the character that Zhihao was supposed to play.

    Captain Burn, a.k.a., Zhihao looked back at Captain Liv and smirked in satisfaction, "We go out together," He repeated firmly and Captain Liv nodded as a response.

    Captain Liv, "Humans are stupid."

    Captain Burn chuckled as he agreed, "They certainly are."

    Even Zhihao and Li Ling would agree to this comment.

    Captain Burn, "They create something they can''t control, and then when the inevitable happens, they try to destroy the thing they created. It''s quite funny."

    Although the man had said that it was funny, there wasn''t even a shadow of a smile or joy on his face.

    Captain Liv had a scary expression on his face as he turned his head to look at the Ribix approaching them, "Humans are stupid, but... Not all of them."

    Captain Burn, "..."

    Captain Liv, "It was a delight to meet you, Captain Burn. I wish we could''ve known each other longer."

    Captain Burn looked at the man and clicked his tongue, "We''re not dead yet so save your words for later."

    Captain Liv and Captain Burn shared one last look of understanding.

    They knew that they weren''t dead yet, but it wasn''t as if they''d be alive for long.

    To get through this war with your life still intact was certainly not an easy task.

    Their chances of survival was 0.1%

 Chapter 154 - Li Ling Is The Strategic Fighter

    Captain Liv was the first to attack the Ribix along with the 2X Ribots he commanded, and Captain Burn followed closely behind him with his army of 3X Ribots.

    The XY Ribots were behind them, standing tall and hovering above them all like the metal giants they were, and the newly created Ribots were in the front lines.

    Most of the Ribots that got destroyed due to the flying building were newly created Ribots who were at the front and couldn''t manage to run away on time.

    It was a good thing that the 3X, 2X, and XY Ribots were safe and not many of them had been lost. In fact, not even one of the XY Ribots had been crushed under the weight of that building.

    The Ribix saw the Ribots approaching and their fangs that were ready to bite into the metallic body of the Ribot looked as lively and vicious as ever. They increased their speed and sprang forward.

    The two armies clashed and the sound of metal hitting metal was so loud that it made goosebumps rise all over Zhihao''s body.

    Zhihao gulped as he looked at the scene that caused a rush of adrenaline in his body..

    Captain Liv was amazing on the battlefield. He commanded the entire army of 2X Ribots with precision and anyone who saw it directly would not even be able to say anything. Their mouths would hang open in amazement as they saw the way this Captain Liv attacked and defended. When one Ribot was attacked, Captain Liv would send another Ribot over to save the previous Ribot. The 2X Ribot moved like a team, a team that trusted each other and depended on each other.

    Captain Liv was amazing and his way of fighting could be stated as calculated and strategic. A great way to lessen the damage and maximize the offense.

    Captain Burn, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He was fighting with sheer force. He used no strategy and it didn''t look like he was trying to defend his Ribots. He was attacking and attacking. Attacking was all he did, however, he was also amazing.

    The 2X Ribots and the 3X Ribots didn''t look that different from each other, but, with just a single glance, Zhihao was able to say that they were both different.

    The 3X Ribots were more powerful. They had more strength and their metal body was thicker and harder to penetrate.

    The 3X Ribots were designed to attack and kill the enemy with a single blow while the 2X Ribots were designed to be faster. They had a thinner metal body and were made in a way that helped them be more agile.

    Zhihao''s eyes slightly widened as he realized something.

    The Ribots were made according to the captain they were being controlled by. For Captain Liv who fought more strategically, the agile 2X Ribots were a perfect fit while for Captain Burn who fought with more straightforward attacks, the 3X Ribots filled with dynamic strength were more of a match.

    At first, this was all Zhihao could think up of but after he watched the war go on, he realized that not only were the Ribot armies a perfect match for the Captains commanding them, but the two captains were also a perfect match for each other.

    One attacked strategically while the other attacked with strength. Though they had two entirely different ways of fighting, their style of fighting complemented each other on the battlefield when they fought together.

    The battle continued and the players watched as everything went down.

    At first, it looked as if the Ribots had an upper hand, but after speculating for a few minutes, Zhihao realized how wrong his initial thinking was. The Ribots clearly didn''t have an upper hand and they weren''t winning. The Ribix were also no different. The strength on both sides was almost at an equilibrium.

    The Ribix were just as powerful as the Ribots.

    This war... was going nowhere.

    Zhihao sighed as he waited for something to happen and soon enough, something really did happen.

    A Ribix that looked like a rhinoceros and had a tail that looked like a hammer with spikes attacked the Ribot that was recording this whole thing and the Ribot was thrown off its feet, landing on a skateboarding rink faraway and as soon as it landed on the ground, the camera abruptly shut off.

    The projector turned off.

    [Data fully extracted!]

    Zhihao couldn''t help but feel a bit shocked and angry that the footage was abruptly cut off like that. He wanted to know what happened next, he wanted to know how the Ribots lost the war and the humans disappeared, but with the footage cut off just like that, there was no way he''ll be able to know.

    "That''s it?" Zhihao sounded a bit annoyed.

    Li Ling nodded, "The Ribot shut down after that."

    "So how will we know the rest of the story?" Wang GuiYing asked curiously.

    Li Ling glanced at him once before looking over at a building far off. He pointed at it and asked, "Did anyone notice where the people were going?"

    Zhihao thought back to the footage they had just watched. The fighting was so intense that there was no way he''ll be able to pay attention to the humans in the background.

    Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened as he suddenly exclaimed, "They were running!"

    Li Ling shook his head, "They were trying to hide."

    Zhihao., "So there really was an evacuation?"

    "Nope." Li Ling answered shortly, "They were trying to hide inside the buildings. If there was an evacuation, they should have run away from the city and not tried to trap themselves inside the buildings."

    "But... That doesn''t make sense," Zhihao''s eyebrows furrowed as he added, "If they ran inside the buildings, how come we didn''t see any of them?"

    Li Ling looked around once before answering, "Because we are late."

    "Huh?"

    Li Ling walked closer to Zhou Xinyi and pointed at the dirt and root that had grown on the metal body of the Ribot. If they need to wash off the dirt completely, they''ll have to work really hard to scrub it all off and even if they did that, Zhihao was sure that there would still be dirt left.

    Li Ling, "He was buried in the soil."

    Zhihao was silent for a minute as he tried to put the pieces together.

    Maybe this was the first time, Wang GuiYing was faster than Mastermo in figuring things out. He gasped as he looked at Zhou Xinyi in shock, "He''s old!"

    Li Ling nodded, "The war didn''t take place recently."

    Zhihao shook his head in confusion, "But that doesn''t make sense! When we went to the shopping mall, the vegetable and fruits were still fresh!

    Li Ling didn''t seem to be shocked as he heard this, "Of course they were fresh."

    Zhihao, "???"

    Li Ling, "The war didn''t take place recently, but how can we be sure that the war was the time when the humans disappeared? Actually... How can we be sure that everybody disappeared? We are still here, aren''t we? Captain Liv and Captain Burn were also humans, but they didn''t disappear."

    [You''re starting to catch on!]

    [You are right! The humans never disappeared!]

    "Eh?" Zhihao was confused and so was Wang GuiYing.

    Wang GuiYing, "If they didn''t disappear, where are they right now?"

    [Too many hints are bad for your health.]

    "..."

    "Hiding," Li Ling commented.

    Zhihao looked at the man with an indecipherable expression, "What do you mean hiding?"

    Li Ling met his eyes and replied, "They are watching us. Silently."

    Zhihao felt a shiver run down his spine and his eyes glanced around frantically in search of someone spying on them but he couldn''t spot anyone, however, since Li Ling had said it, he couldn''t help but feel that there was certainly this creepy feeling of being watched.

    Wang GuiYing gulped, "W-what do you mean watched? Are you telling me that they became G-ghosts?"

    Li Ling, "..."

    [Seriously? You''re afraid of ghosts?]

    [How old are you? 5?]

    [Tch-]

    "Hey! Age has nothing to do with being afraid!" Wang GuiYing defended himself, "Ghosts don''t check your national ID, do they?!"

    [...]

    Zhihao gulped as he tried to make sense of the situation. He was not stupid enough to believe that Li Ling was talking about ghosts, however, just because he knew this, it didn''t mean that he had any better idea about what Li Ling was trying to say.

    In the end, Zhihao was just as clueless as Wang GuiYing.

    Li Ling pointed his finger down.

    "Don''t tell me... Are we standing on their grave?!" Wang GuiYing jumped in fear.

    Li Ling had an unimpressed expression as he shook his head and sighed, "Underground."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he had the sudden realization.

    If they can''t evacuate the city, they would try to hide, but if the buildings could be easily accessed by the Ribix, where would everyone hide?

    The answer was simple and one of the most medieval ways of escaping and hiding. Underground hideouts!

 Chapter 155 - Li Lings Plan

    Zhihao, "But that doesn''t explain why the fruits and vegetables in the mart were still fresh."

    Li Ling shook his head as he shrugged, "I don''t know about that and this is just a theory. There might be secret hideouts and tunnels under us, but they may also be empty. In the end, we can''t be too sure."

    Zhihao nodded, "You''re right."

    Wang GuiYing, "So how will we know if the underground theory is real?"

    Li Ling, "By going down, but it''s better not to check it out right now."

    "Huh? Why?" Zhihao questioned in confusion.

    Li Ling looked at the man before answering seriously, "So what if they really are there? How can we be sure that they are on our side? Just because they are humans, it doesn''t mean they''ll be good."

    Zhihao gulped. He agreed to it. Just because someone was a human, it didn''t automatically mean that they were good. Humans were perhaps the most vicious creatures of them all. After all, wasn''t it humans themselves who created all this mess? They were the ones who created the Ribix, they were the ones who created the Ribots and they were also the ones who were trying to destroy all of their creations.

    Wang GuiYing scoffed, "But that doesn''t mean they are necessarily bad! We can take our shot."

    Li Ling looked at him with an unimpressed expression, "And why would you want to do that? I never said we''re not gonna check it out. I simply said that this is not the best time to go betting on whether we''ll find something good or bad."

    Zhihao, "Then what do we do?"

    Li Ling, "We''ll proceed with the original plan."

    Zhihao, "Look for more Ribots?"

    Li Ling nodded, "We''ll collect them all and reunite the Ribot army."

    Wang GuiYing, "Wouldn''t that take us a lot of time? I mean, there are so many of them on the map."

    "The ones shown on the map are the ones remaining. The rest of the Ribots are no longer in a condition where they can be operated."

    Zhihao, "So that means all the Ribots we can see on the map are usable?"

    Li Ling nodded, "They''ll work just fine, and if we want to fight against the Ribix again, we''ll need them all."

    Wang GuiYing gulped. This was probably the first time, he was going to openly try to contribute and volunteer, "Let''s divide and conquer."

    Li Ling and Zhihao looked at Wang GuiYing in silence as they waited for him to continue.

    "If we can all divide up and search, we''ll find them sooner," Wang GuiYing added.

    [That''s a stupid plan.]

    Wang GuiYing frowned as he asked, "Why?"

    [If you divide the group and one of you gets attacked by a Ribix, are you sure you''ll get out of it alive?]

    "..."

    [Don''t forget that in order to clear the level, all of you need to stay alive till the end.]

    "Actually," Li Ling spoke up, "I like that idea."

    Zhihao was shocked. Even he felt that what Alvi said was right. If they divided up, it will be easier for the Ribix to defeat them. They were four and if any one of them died, the rest of them would also not be able to clear the level. It was a team game and it was supposed to be played as a team.

    Li Ling seemed to have something on his mind, "If we divide and search, we''ll get the job done faster."

    Zhihao, "And what if one of us gets killed by a Ribix?"

    Although Zhihao had said ''one of us'', what he truly wanted to say was: What if Wang GuiYing gets himself killed because he tripped over his own feet while running away?! Wouldn''t we all lose?

    Li Ling glanced at the three players and seemed to be silent for a minute before he spoke up, "I trust you."

    "..."

    Everybody seemed to have been shocked to hear this. Even Wang GuiYing couldn''t believe it.

    Wang Guiying, "You trust... Me? Why?! I''m the most untrustworthy person ever!"

    Zhihao and Zhou Xinyi nodded in agreement. Even Alvi nodded as she added, "Why would you trust him??"

    Li Ling pursed his lips and looked to be unimpressed. He sighed before continuing, "You''re right. I shouldn''t be trusting you. You''ll be the first to run away and push us in front of an enemy. You''re the worst person to trust."

    "..." For some reason, Wang GuiYing felt a bit offended but he couldn''t help but agree with whatever Li Ling had said. He really was guilty of the accusation.

    "But I trust you because I know that you won''t get yourself killed." Li Ling continued as he looked at Wang GuiYing, "You''ll betray us but you won''t betray yourself because you want to win this game too. So yeah, I trust you."

    "..." Zhihao couldn''t help but feel amazed.

    Li Ling was absolutely right.

    Wang GuiYing might seem like a useless guy but if someone were to notice him and analyze all his movements closely, they would definitely realize that this man wasn''t as useless as he was portrayed to be. Sure, he''ll betray you and stab you in the back but he would do it for himself. He was the perfect example of a self-centered man who cared about nobody except for himself.

    "Little lover, you make it sound as if I care for nobody except myself," Wang GuiYing suddenly chuckled as he patted Zhou Xinyi''s arm twice, "You''re wrong. I care about him too."

    "..." Zhihao couldn''t help but wonder what BBtrash was trying to say. Was he currently confessing his feelings for Zhou Xinyi?

    Wang GuiYing smiled brightly as he added, "He''s my weapon and my shield. How can I let anything happen to him?"

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he heard this. It was wrong of him to think that Wang GuiYing had changed or realized Zhou Xinyi''s feelings for him.

    BBtrash was too dumb! It was so clear that Zhou Xinyi was head over heels for him, but BBtrash was still blind! How could he not realize?!

    Zhihao was sure that he wasn''t as dumb as Wang GuiYing.

    If Li Ling loved him, he would have definitely-

    Oh...

    Zhihao suddenly remembered something.

    His ears turned slightly red.

    I was an idiot!

    How could I have not realized it?! It was clear as day!!

    Zhihao remembered all the embarrassing times when he was jealous of Li Ling''s crush. He was freaking jealous of himself! He wanted to steal Li Ling away from himself! He wanted to show Li Ling that his crush wasn''t as good as Mastermo!

    What the hell?!

    Li Ling squinted but said nothing. He knew something that even Zhihao didn''t know yet. Although it looked as if Wang GuiYing wasn''t aware of Zhou Xinyi''s feelings and tried to show that he only cared about him because of how useful he was, it was all a lie. Wang GuiYing was trying to fool them into thinking that he didn''t care about Zhou Xinyi like that.

    Li Ling had been in love with Zhihao for years so of course, he knew what a lovesick person looked like. This expression Wang GuiYing was displaying? It was clear as day that he was hiding his feelings. He was trying to deny it himself.

    In reality, Wang GuiYing liked Zhou Xinyi, maybe even more than Zhou Xinyi liked him. It was just that Zhou Xinyi, although more quiet, was more open and expressive about his feelings while Wang GuiYing who was supposed to be the exact opposite, the type to be more expressive and talkative was better at hiding his true feelings.

    However, he still couldn''t hide it from Li Ling''s watchful eyes.

    "Then you guys can just go together," Li Ling sighed.

    Wang GuiYing smiled as he nodded, "I''ll make sure to protect our big Xinyi here!"

    Zhou Xinyi, "..."

    Who is protecting who here?!

    Zhihao, "Then I''ll also go with my boyfriend!"

    Li Ling suddenly choked as he heard this.

    "Already making it official?" Wang GuiYing cooed.

    "I''m afraid someone would steal him away if I don''t," Zhihao beamed.

    Wang GuiYing, "..."

    There was no way someone would want to steal him away and even if someone else were to try, there was no way Li Ling would let anyone else steal him away! He was too scary! Only the great Mastermo would be able to find him cute!

    Blood rushed up to Li Ling''s cheeks as he nodded, "Okay."

    Zhihao smiled brightly as he heard this small response.

    [Tch-]

    "Henpecked husband," Wang GuiYing commented.

    Zhihao and Li Ling acted as if they were deaf and couldn''t hear the two jealous people who cringed at the PDA.

    [Then who am I going with?]

    Everybody turned their heads to look at the little Alvi who was looking back at them with big hopeful eyes.

    Wang GuiYing looked back up at Li Ling, "I don''t want her. You can take her."

    [...]

    [Hey! I thought we bonded!]

    It was now Wang GuiYing''s turn to act deaf.

    Li Ling looked at Alvi and seemed to be thinking something.

    Zhihao suddenly crouched down to her level and smiled as he commented, "I trust you, bot."

    [...]

    "Let us have a peaceful date without you," Zhihao continued.

    [Are you freaking telling me to get lost?!]

 Chapter 156 - Li Ling Wants To Be Honest

    [Are you freaking telling me to get lost?!]

    Zhihao nodded enthusiastically, "you''re so smart! That''s exactly what I''m telling you!"

    Alvi looked to be in disbelief and if she wasn''t just a bot, Zhihao was sure that he would be able to see two round drops of tears trailing down her face.

    Li Ling looked at Alvi and agreed with Zhihao, "I think it would be faster for us to divide into three groups. Alvi, the Ribix won''t try to attack you since you''re the system. You''re made to assist the players, aren''t you? Right now, we need your assistance. Would you be willing to help us?"

    Zhihao hadn''t realized it till now, but now that he thought back to it, he really couldn''t remember a time when the Ribix had tried to attack Alvi.

    The Ribix would always act as if it was blind and couldn''t see Alvi. It only tried to attack the players and not the system so if there really was someone who would be able to go alone and collect the leftover Ribots, it would certainly be Alvi, but... Zhihao was sure that this little bot wasn''t going to help them..

    She was always useless when they needed her to be useful.

    Alvi looked at Li Ling with a blank gaze.

    Li Ling, "Please?"

    [Okay~]

    Alvi beamed and Zhihao was thoroughly shocked.

    He was sure that Alvi would never agree to it so how come he had guessed wrong?

    In reality, although it didn''t look like he was right, he wasn''t wrong either. If it was him who had asked Alvi this favor, he would have been turned down without any further thoughts. Since this was Li Ling, who had used the code word, Alvi listened.

    What was this amazing code word that only a Gamemaster would know?

    The answer wasn''t that difficult and if someone were to hear it, they would definitely think that they were stupid.

    The code word was: Please.

    That was it.

    As long as a player requested Alvi to do something by using the word ''please'', Alvi would not be able to refuse. That was just how she was made. However, this code word, although sounding pretty common, it was in fact one of the least used words to interact with Alvi.

    She was a bot and so naturally, no player would be polite enough to say ''please''.

    Zhihao wasn''t the only one shocked to see her agreeing. Wang GuiYing had his mouth hanging wide open as he looked at Alvi, "You''re really going to help...?!"

    [...]

    [Do you really think I''m that useless?!]

    "Um... Yes...?" Zhihao let his mouth run loose.

    Alvi was speechless.

    Li Ling chuckled and coughed to hide his expressions, "Then it''s decided!"

    Zhihao and Wang GuiYing looked over at the man with curious eyes.

    "BBtrash and Hulk would go look for all the XY Ribots, Alvi would go look for the newly created Ribots and A-Zhi would team up with me to go collect all the 2X and 3X Ribots." Li Ling looked up, "Sounds good?"

    Wang GuiYing nodded his head along with Alvi.

    [Great!]

    Zhihao was somehow really delighted to hear that the date that was ruined because of Wang GuiYing would have another chance to be continued.

    Zhihao pulled Li Ling along happily, "Then let''s go!"

    [...]

    Wang GuiYing squinted as he commented, "They were just trying to ditch us, weren''t they?"

    Alvi nodded.

    [It wasn''t hard to guess that.]

    After having said that, Alvi also went her own way to go and look for all the newly created Ribots.

    Wang GuiYing sighed as he patted Zhou Xinyi, "Let''s get moving!"

    Zhou Xinyi listened to Wang GuiYing like an innocent puppy and picked up his left foot to start walking towards their destination.

    When they had walked a certain distance away from the others, Zhihao smiled cheekily as he looked at Li Ling and decided to finally apologize, "I''m sorry..."

    Li Ling was confused to hear the sudden apology, he looked back at Zhihao with an indecipherable expression as he questioned, "Why?"

    Zhihao shook his head in embarrassment, "For everything."

    Li Ling frowned as he waited for the man to continue. The last he remembered, it was him who should have owed an apology to Zhihao so why was Mastermo apologizing suddenly?

    By saying ''sorry'', Zhihao was making Li Ling feel even worse than he already did. He was reminding him that Li Ling was too prideful and didn''t care about apologizing to Zhihao for his wrongdoings.

    Zhihao took a deep breath in as he looked at Li Ling straight in the eyes and apologized once again, "I''m sorry for never realizing it. I was dumb. I was stupid."

    "Huh?" Li Ling couldn''t catch up with the conversation.

    Zhihao sighed as he looked down, "You were always so open about your feelings but I never took you seriously. I never tried to understand you. My feelings were the only things that mattered to me. I''m really sorry for neglecting you and making up conclusions in my own head. I shouldn''t have done that."

    Li Ling suddenly furrowed his eyebrows as he wondered why Zhihao had to be such a nice guy. This was the exact reason why Li Ling fell for this man and this was also the reason why he was afraid of dating Zhihao. He felt that if he were to date Zhihao, he would be stealing an angel all for himself without having deserved it.  Sometimes, Zhihao was too nice to him...

    "I should''ve confessed sooner. I should''ve paid attention and picked up the hints. I should have-"

    "A-Zhi." Li Ling cut Zhihao off.

    "Hmm?"

    Li Ling, "Do you feel unhappy right now?"

    Zhihao shook his head, "Of course not! I Like you and... you like me. Why would I be unhappy about this?"

    Li Ling nodded lightly, "You''re right. I don''t think I''ve ever said it clearly enough, so let me do it right now. Let me be a little honest."

    Zhihao looked at him eagerly as he waited for Li Ling to continue.

    "I don''t like you."

    "..." Zhihao could hear his heart shatter. His heart stopped beating and his breath got stuck in his throat as his eyes dare not close and he dare not believe that his ears had heard correctly.

    "I love you," There was no trace of a lie on Li Ling''s face. He was being as honest as he could, he was putting his vulnerable heart out there. He was finally doing something he was always afraid of doing, "There''s a difference between the two. ''Like'' would never be as strong as love. It took me years to realize that I loved you and another few years to admit that I could love nobody except for you. Trust me, I tried."

    Zhihao felt relief wash over him but when he heard that last sentence, he frowned as he felt a bitter feeling gnawing at his heart.

    "I tried to fall in love with others but if it''s not you, it''s impossible." Li Ling added as he looked at Zhihao with eyes that looked to be reminiscing about the past, "I love you and you''re the only one I can love. That''s why I chased after you. That''s why I did everything I could just to get close to you and get you to fall for me. I need you, Mastermo... More than you need me."

    It took Zhihao a whole minute to digest all this information and just as he did, his lips curled downwards into a frown as he asked, "Who let you decide?"

    "Huh?"

    Zhihao, "You said that you needed me more than I needed you. You said that it can be nobody except for me, but why do you think that I''m not the same as you?"

    "..."

    "Li Ling, do you think I''m easy? Do you think I fall in love with just anybody?"

    Li Ling was silent as he heard this. How could he have a response to that?

    Zhihao took a step forward as he continued, "We''re the same. If it''s not you, then there''s nobody else that can take this place," Zhihao stretched his right hand out forward as if asking Li Ling to take it, "You might have fallen in love with me first, but... I''m the one that fell harder."

    Li Ling felt the blood rush up his cheeks as he realized how melodramatic this entire scene had gone.

    Zhihao, "Do you believe me?"

    Li Ling gulped as he looked at the hand that was outstretched for him. He was a bit reluctant and hesitant to take it, but his body reacted before his brain could and he grabbed Zhihao''s hand, "I believe in you more than I believe in me."

    Zhihao smiled as he heard this and at this moment, he realized that Alvi wasn''t around.

    It was a perfect time for a kiss!

    Li Ling saw Zhihao approaching him and he would be dumb not to realize that Zhihao was leaning in for another kiss.

    Li Ling closed his eyes as he waited in anticipation, but before their lips could touch, they heard a loud hiss.

    Damn it...

    Zhihao was going to murder a Ribix first!

 Chapter 157 - Li Ling Is A Bit Scared

    If there was someone with enough guts to interrupt Li Ling and Zhihao, it would certainly not be a human.

    With unhidden hostility, Zhihao looked at the thing that had hissed at them. When Li Ling saw the icy glare Zhihao gave, he couldn''t help but feel a shiver run down his spine. Even he was affected by it, but it seemed that the Ribix in front of them couldn''t register such a feeling called fear, or maybe it was too proud of its own abilities that it need not fear Mastermo.

    To not fear Mastermo was perhaps going to be the second biggest mistake in the life of this Ribix. The first biggest mistake would undoubtedly be interrupting them at such an important time.

    The Ribix probably had, not only the worst luck, but also the worst decision-making skills..

    Zhihao stepped forward, his feet sounding heavy when hitting against the ground, his eyes mimicking the eery feeling that a demon would give you when it looked at its prey.

    "Let me handle this one," Zhihao spoke up in a calm tone that seemed to be filled with fury.

    Li Ling would be lying if he said that he wasn''t a bit surprised. It was probably the first time in his life, he saw someone being this calm yet at the same time, being this angry and scary.

    This scary demeanor was inherited from Zhihao''s father. Just like his father, who could manage to intimidate people without even trying to, Zhihao also had a natural talent in it. In fact, when he was in school, most students didn''t approach him because they thought he looked as if he would kill them for merely breathing. Zhihao had really worked hard to learn how to suppress this scary demeanor and tried his best to look as approachable as possible. It wasn''t because he wanted people to approach him though.

    Zhihao was an introverted person so his natural talent in looking unapproachable was highly beneficial for him, however, his mother would always force him to make friends, saying something along the lines of, ''You''ll be left alone for the rest of your life if you don''t make friends.''

    In the end, maybe Zhihao was a bit afraid of what his mother had warned him and hence he tried his best to keep people at a distance and at the same time, look approachable so as to make a few friends.

    Well... One couldn''t say he actually succeeded in looking approachable cause if he had, he would have certainly had more friends than just Wang GuiYing and his boyfriend.

    Zhihao looked at the giant snake-like creature and frowned as he equipped the biggest gun he had in his inventory, and it just so happened that the gun he equipped was M16. A gun with high accuracy, less recoil, and smooth operation.

    Zhihao was not joking around when he said that he was going to be the one to deal with this thing. Without wasting another second, he opened fire on the Ribix that looked like a really weird snake that shouldn''t even be called a snake.

    It had a long body and four legs with a metallic shell on its back. The shell and legs looked similar to a turtle''s, but the body unmistakenly belonged to a snake.

    Li Ling gulped as he watched the fight. It wasn''t every day he got to see Mastermo be this angry at something.

    The snake sprang forward with its mouth wide open and its metallic fangs reflecting the gun in Zhihao''s hand.

    Zhihao opened fire and didn''t stop. Bullet after bullet, none of the shots were wasted. All of them hit the intended target and this no longer looked like a fight. It looked like a cold murder.

    Li Ling unconsciously covered his ears as he heard the nonstopping sound of bullets ringing out and punching a hole through the metallic body of the snake.

    Zhihao couldn''t be too sure, but for a single second there, he felt as if he saw a glint of regret in the eyes of the turtle-snake Ribix.

    However, even if the creature was regretting his decision to attack these two, it was too late to feel any type of regret. There was no way Zhihao was done yet.

    The gun ran out of bullets, but Zhihao had already restocked it within just a few seconds as he continued to rain bullets on the Ribix.

    The Ribix was pushed back with the force of the open gunfire and Zhihao was still unsatisfied with it.

    It seemed that this much wasn''t enough to kill this thing, but this thought only made Zhihao smile in a menacing manner. It was better if it wasn''t killed this easily. If this Ribix had died this soon, Zhihao would certainly feel dissatisfied. He wanted to torture it to death and bullets just weren''t enough!

    When the gun ran out of bullets for the second time, Zhihao didn''t bother reloading it and instead, he decided to try out a weapon that he had bought for a really expensive price but had never got the chance to use.

    Li Ling curiously looked at the thing that Zhihao had taken out and when he saw it, he cringed at the sight. It was something he disliked to the core and he would be lying if he said that he didn''t feel a bit of pity for the turtle-snake Ribix that was going to fall prey to this deadly weapon.

    Zhihao was excited to finally be able to try it out. He knew how it worked, but he had never personally seen it working before. The reason why he had never used it was simply because he never really wanted to torture an NPC with it. It could be said that no NPC angered him enough to use this weapon.

    Li Ling gulped as he waited.

    Zhihao threw the small worm at the Ribix and the Ribix was thoroughly confused. It had probably not even detected the small worm.

    A few seconds passed and nothing seemed to change. Zhihao had a proud smirk on his face as he kept his eyes on the Ribix and glanced at the time, simultaneously. This worm took a bit of time to start showing its effect, but when it would finally start showing the destruction it could cause... It was something that was worth waiting for.

    The turtle-snake Ribix probably thought that this was a good chance to attack these two and without wasting another second, it hissed and jumped at them with its jaw wide open, waiting to bite into the metallic suit that was worn by Zhihao.

    Zhihao didn''t move an inch. He kept his head high as he looked straight at the creature. His upper eyelids half-closed and his glare looking both icy and proud.

    The snake was almost about to bite him, but suddenly, it stopped.

    There was a sudden sound heard. The sound couldn''t be deciphered, but it was surely coming from inside the Ribix.

    The smirk on Zhihao''s face grew deeper as he saw this reaction. The worm had finally done preparing.

    The weapon Zhihao used may look like a worm, but only a fool would believe that it was really a worm. In reality, it was called an explosive worm and the main purpose of this weapon was to destroy something from the inside. All you needed to do was throw it at the enemy and the worm would find its way inside the enemy all on its own within a few seconds.

    Once the worm was inside the body, the person or creature was as good as dead and had no chance of survival.

    A weapon with a zero chance of survival, the high price for it was self-explanatory and Zhihao would never say that it was overpriced.

    He had brought it for 2000 T-points and that too, after the discount and offers. Zhihao was proud of his choice of weapon.

    The eye of the turtle-snake Ribix popped out and fell down on the floor, it rolled all the way over to Li Ling''s side and stopped when it knocked against his shoes.

    Li Ling gulped as he glanced at the eye and then back at the Ribix that was slowly starting to deform.

    The Ribix looked confused as it paused and parts of its body started falling down one by one.

    With a big blast, the Ribix had completely exploded and the worm went back to Zhihao''s inventory.

    Zhihao who was smirking proudly suddenly frowned as he looked down at the broken parts of the Ribix.

    "Brain..."

    Li Ling also walked over and followed Zhihao''s sight that rested on a brain; the only non-metallic part in the body of the Ribix.

    Zhihao was a bit confused as he asked, "Li Ling, did we ever get to know more information on how this thing was made?"

    Li Ling shook his head as he answered, "We don''t know."

    Zhihao was confused and when he looked at the brain, the only theory that revolved in his mind was a bit creepy.

    This brain looked a lot like a human''s brain.

    A Ribix that looked like a snake, had the shell of a turtle, but the brain of a human? It was only natural that he wanted to know more about how this abomination came into existence.

 Chapter 158 - Li Lings Theory Was Right?

    Zhihao was about to say something more, but suddenly they heard a sound that made him stop and snap his head in the direction where the sound came from, "Who''s there?!"

    They got no response and Zhihao got ready to equip another weapon, however, before he could attack the thing, he stopped as he saw a pair of human eyes peeking at them.

    "Who are you?" Zhihao furrowed his eyebrows as he asked a bit more softly.

    The reason why he wasn''t as hostile as the first time he questioned was because he initially thought that it was another Ribix, but now that he saw the pair of eyes that peeked at them, he was sure that it wasn''t a Ribix.

    Zhihao waited patiently along with Li Ling and it seemed that although the human that was secretly observing them was reluctant to come out, she still ended up stepping forward from behind the wall.

    Zhihao was a bit confused and glad to finally see a human.

    The appearance of this girl proved that maybe their theory was right. People didn''t evacuate or disappear, but they were all hiding somewhere!

    Zhihao carefully stepped closer to the girl as he asked, "What''s your name?"

    "C-Captain Burn...."

    "Okay, Captain bu- Wait... That''s my name...!" Zhihao was a bit shocked as he looked at the girl with suspicion.

    Li Ling chuckled as he also decided to step forward, "Do you know us?"

    The girl didn''t look that young, but she didn''t look old either. She looked to be around the age of seventeen or eighteen, but she was thin, so thin that it almost looked as if she was nothing more than skin and bones. Her face was small and dirty, stained with grease.

    The girl enthusiastically nodded her head as she heard Li Ling''s question, "Captain Burn and C-Captain Liv," The girl stuttered out.

    Li Ling nodded as he responded, "You''re right!''

    "But..." The girl seemed to have something to say, but for some reason, she was keeping her mouth shut tight, not daring to say what was on her mind.

    "But what?" Zhihao questioned as he frowned.

    The girl gulped as she reluctantly asked, "How come you''re here...?"

    Zhihao tilted his head as he questioned back, "Why should we not be here?"

    The girl must have thought that she had offended Captain Burn so she immediately shook her head and tried to justify herself, "T-that''s not what I meant! You can be here! This place is naturally yours! But... You''re supposed to be dead, aren''t you?"

    Zhihao, "..."

    Why that sound kinda offensive?

    Li Ling suddenly chuckled as he felt a little mischievous, "And what makes you think that we aren''t ghosts right now?"

    The girl gulped in horror as she heard this, "What...?!"

    Li Ling had to admit that it was fun to trick people and have them fear him, but unfortunately, this girl was the only one he would be able to intimidate. Li Ling aimed to be as intimidating and scary as Zhihao but sadly, his face made it impossible for him to achieve this goal. Maybe if he was reborn, he would be able to achieve it, but in this life, it was impossible.

    Zhihao squinted as he asked, "Why should we be dead?"

    "Because..." The girl suddenly shut up and ran away.

    Zhihao, "..."

    Li Ling pouted as he looked at Zhihao, "You scared her away!"

    Zhihao didn''t know why, but he still apologized, "I''m sorry."

    It wasn''t really his intention to scare the girl away. What was he to do when his face naturally looked a bit cold and scary?

    Li Ling sighed as he got ready to run, "Let''s go!"

    Zhihao nodded once as he also got ready to chase after the girl who looked thin and weak but was a really fast runner.

    Zhihao already knew that her speed wasn''t natural. There was something tied to her legs that increased her speed, but since Zhihao had never seen such technology before, he had no idea what it was.

    Li Ling knew exactly what it was, but he wasn''t gonna share his knowledge that was gained through a way that could sort of be called cheating.

    The girl was extremely fast and since she knew the area like the back of her hand, it was easier for her to run away from them, however, no matter how far she was or how much she tried to run away from them, Zhihao and Li Ling were wearing suits that were specially designed to be agile and strong. There was no way the girl could outrun or outperform their amazing suit.

    Zhihao wasn''t worried about not catching her, nor was Li Ling worried about it, however, both of them were still worried ''for'' the girl. She was running carelessly at a high speed and if she were to stupidly hit something and die, they would lose the only lead they had left.

    Thankfully, the girl didn''t die and they were able to catch her. Zhihao picked her up by her collar and made sure that her feet were above the ground in order to prevent her from running. She struggled for a minute but eventually realized that it was useless and gave up.

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he asked, "Why were you trying to run away?"

    Li Ling, "Did you do something wrong?"

    The girl shook her head as tears suddenly welled up in her eyes, "I didn''t! I didn''t!"

    Zhihao frowned as he saw this reaction. He never liked it when someone would just randomly start crying just because he asked them a question, "If you keep on crying, I''m killing you."

    The girl sniffled back her tears as she looked at Zhihao with a face that was begging to be taken pity on, "Captain Burn is too nice! You won''t do that...?"

    Mastermo smiled as he heard this. ''Captain Burn'' might be nice and never have the heart to do that, but Zhihao wasn''t exactly ''Captain Burn''. If he wanted to kill this girl, who would be able to stop him?

    Li Ling chuckled as he patted Zhihao''s arm, "A-Zhi, let''s talk this out. No need to get so violent."

    Now that Li Ling had said it, Zhihao, being the henpecked husband, he was, would never dare to go against his words. He decided to put the girl down, but before her feet could touch the ground, he frowned as he saw something aiming straight at him.

    Zhihao stepped aside and ducked, missing the attack by just a few inches.

    The smile on Li Ling''s face deepened as he saw the attacker, "And here I thought we didn''t need to get so violent. How stupid of me."

    Li Ling equipped a gun and took an aim at the attacker but before the bullet could leave the gun, the girl suddenly intervened and pushed his gun up as she shouted, "Don''t hurt them!"

    Li Ling knew why the girl had stopped him and if that man had never attacked Zhihao, maybe Li Ling would have also supported this girl and not tried to kill the attackers. However, someone had actually dared to attack Zhihao in front of him so there was no way he would simply let it go like that.

    Li Ling gritted his teeth as he wondered if it was okay to blast this girl''s head first. She was an important character for the progress of the game, however, whatever she knew, he also knew and so, for Li Ling, she was still a dispensable part of the game; nothing more than a mere NPC that served no purpose for him.

    Li Ling was about to shoot her, but this time, he was stopped by Zhihao.

    Zhihao, "Wait..."

    Li Ling looked back at him and asked, "What is it?"

    Zhihao squinted at the attacker who was standing far away from them. That attacker still had his gun aimed at them, but he wasn''t shooting anymore.

    Zhihao turned his head to look at the girl as he asked, "Are there more of you?"

    The girl gulped as cold sweat trailed down her forehead, but she still had a sealed lip, not daring to say a word.

    Zhihao gritted his teeth as he questioned once again, "I''m not going to kill you guys if you answer the question. Are there more of you?"

    The girl sniffled as she took a minute to respond. She nodded her head reluctantly, "There are more."

    Zhihao finally put her down as he nodded, "We don''t want to hurt you guys."

    The girl seemed to be hesitant and at a loss as she simply looked at the two men.

    Li Ling didn''t look too happy about the fact that Zhihao had just let her go that easily, but even he felt that it would be a bit irresponsible of him to kill the girl and that attacker, at least, in the eyes of Zhihao, it would be reckless.

    The girl looked at Zhihao for a minute before raising her right hand and suddenly the attacker that had his gun aimed at them lowered it.

    It was at this moment that Zhihao realized: The attacker wasn''t here to save the girl, he was here on her orders!

 Chapter 159 - Li Ling And The World Underground

    The girl told them to follow her and although Zhihao was a bit suspicious, he still ended up following after her along with Li Ling.

    The girl wasn''t a talker and to all the questions they had asked her, she had not even answered one.

    Eventually, Zhihao gave up on asking her questions and simply followed after her. Although he wasn''t asking questions, it didn''t mean that he was completely relaxed. He was analyzing her every move. He was trying his best to figure out who this girl was and why it looked as if she had a split personality.

    When she had met them, she displayed a feeling of fear and shock, Zhihao could almost swear that he even noticed a bit of admiration in her tone of speaking and gaze, however, she ran away when they asked her a question. Zhihao was a bit stunned when she ran away but he was even more shocked to realize that she had ordered someone else to take them down.

    She feared them, admired them, and tried to kill them.... Just who in the hell was she?!

    The girl stopped in front of a sewer cap and crouched down before using all her strength to move the cap away.

    Zhihao squinted as he wondered if this girl lived in the sewer.

    She looked at them before pointing at their armor and gesturing them to take it off before following her.

    The suit was too huge to fit inside the small sewage way and so, they had no other choice but to reluctantly take it off.

    Zhihao didn''t want to jump into the sewer but he still ended up clutching his nose and jumping in after the girl. Li Ling also followed close behind.

    Zhihao felt as if it was a bit stupid for them to follow after a girl they had just met, not to even mention; a girl that had already tried to kill them once. It was certainly stupid of them to follow her, but the leader in this level was Li Ling and so, unless Li Ling stopped Zhihao, Zhihao wouldn''t do anything.

    Even if this were a trap, Zhihao was sure that a girl so thin wouldn''t be able to win against both of them combined. They could still kill her with the snap of a finger.

    The sewer wasn''t just a normal sewer, in fact, it wasn''t a sewer at all. Li Ling was right in thinking that the humans had decided to hide out underground. The sewer was actually like an elevator of sorts. As soon as they jumped into it, they felt their legs hitting the ground that moved downwards until the bottom of the plate they were standing in, also hit the ground, and the elevator reached its destination.

    The girl was waiting down there for them and when they had both stepped out from the elevator, the girl finally decided to unseal her mouth, "I don''t know what happened to you, but it''s good now that you''re back..."

    She still sounded scared and her voice was so weak that Zhihao could almost hear it break at any given moment now.

    The girl looked at Captain Burn as she spoke, "Welcome back to Utopia, Captain Burn!"

    Zhihao gulped as he looked around at the so-called Utopia.

    He had never seen such a thing. When he had first thought about an underground hideout, this was definitely not what he had expected. This was something straight out of his wildest dreams!

    There was an entire city called Utopia under the ruins of the city called Metropolis.

    "Wow!" Zhihao was amazed at the sight of the different colors of lights that illuminated the entire place. This was something that he had only seen in sci-fi movies before.

    "Coming through!" Zhihao turned his head to look at a motorbike that had almost knocked him down.

    The motorbike was being driven by a kid who looked to be around the age of ten, too young to drive a motorbike, but Zhihao wasn''t shocked by the boy''s age, Zhihao was shocked by the motorbike the boy was riding.

    The motorbike didn''t have wheels and it was hovering above the ground. Zhihao had only heard about such things before. There were certainly trains and skateboards with this type of technology in the real world but even though they hovered above the ground, they were still close to the ground and there wasn''t much distance between their wheels and the ground. Such technology, back in the real world, was made possible with the help of magnetic force, however, just by looking at the motorbike once, Zhihao was sure that magnetic energy wasn''t the power behind this thing.

    There was at least a difference of 3 feet between the motorbike and the ground. Unless there was a really powerful magnet under them, such a thing should have been impossible, but then again, this was a game so it was certainly possible. After all, wasn''t that the charm of gaming? You''ll be experiencing things that were considered to be impossible. As long as someone could imagine it, it would be possible in games.

    Anything and everything was impossible inside a virtual space.

    The girl suddenly decided that after stalking them, running away from them, attacking them, and leading them to this hidden place, it was finally time to introduce herself.

    What better timing could there be?!

    Talk about manners!

    "My name is Rei."

    Zhihao looked at the girl but said nothing, he had already lost interest in knowing her name. He had only tried to collect more information on her because he thought that she was one of the only clues left behind about the humans, however, now that he was standing here, he was naturally aware of the fact that there was a whole city of lights in front of him that was filled with clues and hints.

    This girl was no longer significant.

    "And I''m the current leader of Utopia."

    "..."

    Hmm...

    She was significant once again!

    Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn''t a bit shocked to hear that this girl was the leader of this city that looked to be bustling with life. The first thought that ran through his head was: How come you''re so thin if you''re the leader?

    It was a question that was gnawing at the back of his mind. If she was the leader, there was no way she lacked money and so, she shouldn''t be looking as if she had been starved for a few years now.

    The girl named Rei simply looked at them with an unimpressed expression, "I don''t know why but I feel like you''ve changed, Captain Burn. Actually, no... You have definitely changed!"

    The fear that was seen on her face when she had first bumped into them had not even left a trace on her face. Her entire demeanor changed as she looked at them coldly.

    "Why are you so thin?" Zhihao asked. He really couldn''t help it. She was so thin that she looked malnourished and her bones seemed to be almost poking out from her brittle skin.

    Rei pursed her lips as she looked down at herself before sighing. She looked at her watch and spun the ring around it in a certain manner. Suddenly her boney body started fading away and in its place, they could finally see her real self.

    She was no longer the thin and frail girl they had met. She looked stronger and Li Ling almost wondered if this girl had more abs than him.

    Sigh~ He should really start working out on his body when he gets home.

    "How about now?" Rei asked and even her voice had changed. From the weak and frail voice, it had changed into a deeper, stronger female voice that seemed to hold some authority with it.

    There was no mistaking it. She was definitely not lying when she said that she was the leader here.

    Zhihao stretched his arm forward, "You act like you know me, but I don''t recall meeting such a person. However, I would like it if we don''t go against each other. I''m Captain Burn."

    Rei chuckled but her voice lacked any sense of joy as she spoke up, "I don''t ''act'' like I know you, Captain Burn. I ''do'' know you!"

    She met Zhihao''s eyes without any sense of fear, surely, the weak and frail girl had been nothing more than a disguise.

    Li Ling suddenly chuckled as he stepped up and blocked in between the two, "You know him, do you?"

    The girl frowned, "Captain Liv."

    Li Ling nodded, "It seems that you know me too."

    Rei, "I don''t think there''s anyone in this world who doesn''t know the two of you."

    Li Ling smirked in amusement, "Oh really? I didn''t know we were that famous."

    Rei frowned as she added, "This whole Utopia was built because of you. Why would you not be famous?"

    Zhihao suddenly felt that the way Rei looked at them had slowly turned a bit hostile.

    Rei, "If it weren''t for you, we would have still been able to live in Metropolis and the Ribix wouldn''t have been terrorizing our people."

    "..."

    Zhihao almost thought that they were some sort of heroes but after hearing this, he realized that they were famous not as the heroes but as the villains in this story.

 Chapter 160 - Li Ling Deserves An Oscar

    Rei, "If it weren''t for you, we would have still been able to live in Metropolis and the Ribix wouldn''t have been terrorizing our people."

    Li Ling didn''t seem to be shocked as he heard this, but the shock on Zhihao''s face was hard not to notice.

    Zhihao, "What are you talking about?"

    Rei frowned, "Captain Burn... There''s no way you won''t remember that day... Right?"

    Zhihao gulped as he heard this question. This conversation might just end up alerting OOC and just like the vampire level, Zhihao might mess up this one too.

    At this moment, Li Ling came to his rescue as he spoke up on behalf of Zhihao, "We don''t know what happened."

    Rei squinted suspiciously as she heard this and they were pretty close to another OOC alert, however, what Li Ling said next had saved them both from being thrown out of this level.

    "We remember the war and waking up in that abandoned amusement park, but everything in between is just a blank. I think our memories were wiped out or we hit our head and got amnesia."

    "..." Rei was silent for a second as she heard this. She seemed to be seriously thinking about it, whereas, Zhihao couldn''t help but feel like he hadn''t heard anything more ridiculous than that. It wasn''t as if they were in some kind of K-drama! Since when did hitting one on the head cause amnesia?! Was amnesia some kind of common flu?! And wiping out memories sounded even more ridiculous! Only a fool would believe that something like that had really happened!

    Rei nodded as she finally decided to respond, "That sounds about right. After all, the shock was major, it''s no wonder you guys forgot about it."

    Zhihao, "..."

    Hmm...

    This girl was a fool... There was no doubt about that!

    Li Ling also nodded happily in a proud manner, "That battle was indeed hard, but it was worth winning."

    "..." Rei looked to be a bit surprised as she heard Captain Liv.

    Even Zhihao was shocked that Li Ling had said something like that. With everything considered, it was crystal clear that they had lost the war against the Ribix!

    Rei looked a bit concerned as she stated, "Captain Liv... We lost..."

    Li Ling feigned shock as he heard this, "What...?! We lost?!"

    "You really forgot everything?" Rei questioned with suspicion.

    Zhihao furrowed his eyebrows as he wondered what Li Ling was trying to do. This man clearly had a plan and reason behind whatever he was saying and doing, but whatever that plan was, Zhihao was completely unaware of it and he couldn''t even guess what Li Ling''s intentions were.

    Li Ling bobbed his head up and down as he answered her question, "I remember fighting... But... We should have definitely won! We clearly had the upper hand!"

    Rei sighed, "We lost because of you..."

    "Eh?" Li Ling looked to be in disbelief but it was all just for show and even Zhihao had a hard time deciphering between which expression was real and which was not.

    The relief that washed over Rei''s face when she heard that Li Ling and Zhihao really didn''t remember anything couldn''t be hidden and was clearly noticed by Li Ling who slightly smirked as he saw it.

    This was exactly his intention. He knew that this girl wasn''t simply going to believe them just because they said it. They needed to prove to her that they didn''t remember anything.  If she was suspicious of them till the end, they would never be able to get out of here alive. Li Ling lied and due to his great acting skills that should receive an Oscar, Rei completely believed their lie that wasn''t really a lie since they really were unaware of anything that happened in the between.

    Rei suddenly smiled happily as she spoke up, "Since you forgot about it, let''s let it stay in the past. If you remember anything just come to me and tell me, okay? The past is a bit painful so it''s better if you don''t recover your memories."

    For some odd reason, Zhihao couldn''t help but feel that she was warning them more than being helpful and supportive.

    The only conclusion Zhihao could make on his was: She was suspicious and probably not on their side.

    Just like Li Ling, he was also on guard against her and tried his best to catch every small change in her facial expression and tone of speaking.

    "Why did you bring us here?" Zhihao asked with a face that didn''t really give out much.

    Rei looked at him and with a warm smile, she answered, "Wasn''t it you who threatened me and asked me to bring you here?"

    Zhihao suddenly thought back to what had happened.

    Why did he not remember threatening the girl and asking her to bring them here?!

    Li Ling took this chance to look around as he questioned, "What is this place?"

    If he was going to act as if he had lost all his memories, might as well go all out and act as if he were a newborn infant.

    Rei, "Didn''t I already tell you? This is Utopia."

    Li Ling pursed his lips and looked at her with an unimpressed expression, "I wasn''t asking for the name."

    "Oh..." Rei tilted her head, "Utopia is the city we built underneath Metropolis. It''s the haven for all survivors. A place where nobody needs to worry about anything and can enjoy themselves to the fullest!"

    Zhihao looked at the high buildings that were all lit up with different colorful lights that almost hurt his eyes, but at the same time, they looked so lively that this really didn''t look like a place where people would take refuge. This looked like a party organized by some rich people who had a bit too much money laying around and wanted their child''s sixteenth birthday to be so grand that it would be the talk of the town even after ten years.

    Zhihao instantly wanted to explore!

    Li Ling saw the enthusiasm in Zhihao''s eyes and he couldn''t help but chuckle at how cute this man was.

    Rei, "Since you are already here, focus on unwinding and enjoying Utopia."

    When Zhihao heard this, he couldn''t help but ask, "What about the war?"

    Rei looked at him as if he had said something completely ridiculous that only a madman would utter. She wasn''t wrong in looking at him as if he were a madman because only a madman would talk about the war after stepping foot inside Utopia. This place was built to help people forget all about the war.

    To talk about the war inside Utopia was akin to breaking the only rule/law that existed in this place.

    Rei smiled in amusement, "Captain Burn, there is no war. Everything is already over..."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he realized something. The people here weren''t just trying to find a place to hide or forget about the real issues, they were here because they had given up. Instead of fighting a war that they had no chance of winning, they had already given up and decided to enjoy the days they had left.

    They weren''t here to survive, they were here because they already knew that they wouldn''t be able to survive for too long and... Zhihao couldn''t blame them for having this mindset. If this weren''t just a game and something like this really happened to them in real life, Zhihao couldn''t be too confident to say that he would choose anything different.

    A war inside a game and a real war were literally ''worlds'' apart from each other.

    In a game, you didn''t need to worry about dying, whereas, in a real-life war, death was considered to be a common worry. Nobody would call you by your name and announce that you died in the war. If you died, you would be nothing more than a number that made up the total death count.

    Li Ling looked at the girl and smiled mischievously, "I think we needed a good relaxing session. This place sounds perfect!"

    Rei smiled back as she responded, "Great!" She handed them both a card before adding, "This can be used instead of money. You''ll need them."

    Zhihao snapped out of his thoughts as he took the card and asked, "Money?"

    Rei nodded, "Did you think that everything here is for free?"

    "..."

    Don''t blame Zhihao for thinking that people would forget about money when humanity was coming closer to extinction!

    Of course, money would still rule the minds of the people, wouldn''t it?!

    Zhihao looked down at the card and read the words that were displayed on it. The card wasn''t made out of normal paper or cardboard, it was more like a screen, a really thin glass; something that was more like a smartphone but a lot thinner.

    On the card, there were two sets of numbers displayed. One was their Id which was a ten-digit number and the other was the balance left inside the card.

    Under the balance was written two words that Zhihao had a hard time understanding, "You said money... Why does it show survival points...?" He looked up as he asked the girl, but he couldn''t see her anymore.

    She had already left.

 Chapter 161 - Li Ling Gege

    "Did she just leave us like that...?" Zhihao questioned in disbelief.

    Li Ling looked at the card carelessly before tossing it into his pocket with a shrug and smiling as he looked at Zhihao, "She did."

    "...." Zhihao was silent for a minute as he wondered what he was supposed to do next.

    They had originally separated from the others because they were going to look for more Ribots but now they were here, a place where people could care no less about the so-called Ribot and Ribix war a.k.a., the war that Zhihao and Li Ling were trying to fight and win for these exact people!

    At this exact moment, Zhihao suddenly remembered that he didn''t need to worry about what he was supposed to do next, after all, he wasn''t the leader in this level. He had handed over those duties to his beloved boyfriend.

    Zhihao grinned cheekily as he looked back at Li Ling and asked, "What''s the plan?"

    "..." Li Ling took a minute to respond, "That''s a good question."

    "..."

    Li Ling smiled even brighter than Zhihao as he turned his head and continued to walk inside the place called Utopia, "Why don''t we just explore this place for a bit?"

    Zhihao nodded as he followed after the man, "What about collecting Ribots?"

    "Not a priority," Li Ling shrugged it off as unimportant, but in reality, this Utopia exploration was the real unimportant task, however, Li Ling was going to prioritize it because of Zhihao.

    He could see it in Zhihao''s eyes; the curiosity and enthusiasm.

    Since A-Zhi wanted to explore, Li Ling would also want to explore!

    Zhihao, "Are you sure we have the time?"

    Li Ling smiled as he poked Zhihao''s forehead, "You''re thinking too much about it. Let''s just collect some data by exploring, okay?"

    Zhihao nodded as he heard the words ''collecting data''. If they were going to use the excuse of collecting data, Zhihao would be able to feel a bit more at ease and would not drown himself in guilt.

    Li Ling saw the change in Zhihao''s expressions and chuckled as he continued to walk away with Zhihao eagerly following behind.

    This city for refugees, or rather, party for refugees, called Utopia, was an odd place. Like the house made out of candy from Hansel and Gretel, it was a bit too sugar-coated and weird.

    The people who passed by them, all had a ridiculously happy face. They were smiling and grinning from ear to ear as if they had won a lottery or something. Not only were they a bit too happy but they were also super nice, kind and polite!

    If someone bumped against the other and caused an injury, they would both constantly apologize to each other, the complete opposite of what happened in the real world. If someone bumped against another in the real world and caused an injury, they would not stop at a fight, they would straightaway take it to court and sue each other.

    This place was like the sugarcoated society that could only be seen in a children''s movie about princesses and their happily ever afters.

    Zhihao would be lying if he said that he didn''t like this place. He indeed liked the technology, the colors, and the overall lively atmosphere, however, the people creeped him out.

    From seeing plotting humans who cared about no one else but themselves, to suddenly meet such kinds of humans who would care about nothing and live their life freely, it was a drastic change that Zhihao couldn''t get used to.

    The smile on their faces looked honest; it didn''t look like they were acting or forcing themselves to smile or laugh. It genuinely looked as if they were happy or had inhaled a bit too much of laughing gas.

    A lady, around the age of 20 or something walked up to them and asked, "Are you guys new here?"

    She had a wide grin on her face as her eyes formed two little crescents.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he answered, "We are new."

    It seemed that not everyone here recognized the faces of Captain Burn and Captain Liv and it was only natural that they didn''t. Who knew how long it had been since they saw the two Captains?

    Rei had probably recognized them because of their suit, however, at this moment, they weren''t wearing the suits so it was even more difficult for the people to recognize them.

    The lady opened her eyes and beamed, "That''s great to hear! Welcome to Utopia!"

    "Who are you?" Zhihao asked a bit rudely, even though he didn''t mean to be rude.

    The lady chuckled as she heard this rude response. It didn''t look like she was offended and on the contrary, it looked as if she was actually happy to hear his response.

    This was exactly what Zhihao was talking about! The people here were a bit too happy and kind!!

    They creeped him out!

    "Would you want me to give you a tour of the place?" The lady asked with the same warm smile.

    Before Zhihao could say anything, Li Ling nodded as he spoke up first and asked her, "Is it for free?"

    The lady snickered, "It''ll take you a few survival points."

    Zhihao thought that since Rei had already left, he might as well just use this lady to get his answers, "What are survival points?"

    "You don''t know?" The lady tilted her head as she added, "Survival points are the bonus points you are given for surviving in this world! They are the currency used to buy products and services."

    "Oh..." Zhihao seemed to ponder over it for a bit before he questioned, "How do you get survival points?"

    "You win them."

    "Win?"

    The lady nodded as she eagerly answered, "If you want to earn survival points, you sign your name in any one of the teams and go above to Metropolis. If you come back alive after completing the mission you were given, you get survival points."

    "Excuse me... What?!" Zhihao was confused as he heard this.

    "If you want to earn survival points, you sign your name in any one of the team and go above to Metropolis. If you come back alive after completing the mission you were-"

    "No, I understand that," Zhihao interjected, "But what do you mean missions?"

    "It depends upon the team with which you are signed in with. Different teams get different missions. Some go and collect food to bring back here and some go collect weapons or other necessary resources."

    Zhihao furrowed his eyebrows as he heard this, "But... Why?"

    If they needed to bring food and weapon here since this was a city why not just manufacture all their needs here? Why go back to Metropolis and bet your life on some useless mission like this?"

    "Food can only be produced and kept above ground."

    "Huh?"

    "Any type of food stored in Utopia would rot away in just a few hours."

    "How?"

    "Oyi~ That''s too many questions!" The lady took out a lollipop and stuffed it into Zhihao''s mouth as she added, "This is Utopia! You should enjoy!"

    Zhihao frowned as he took the lollipop out of his mouth and before he could say anything further, he felt Li Ling''s hand wrap around his mouth, obstructing him from asking further questions.

    Li Ling smiled as he looked at the lady, "Thank you for helping us!"

    "No problem," She beamed.

    Li Ling, "We''ll pay you with survival points, why don''t you take us to explore the city?"

    The smile on her face widened as she heard this and Zhihao was almost blinded by her aura of happiness as she exclaimed, "Great!!"

    The lady turned on her heel as she started taking them on a tour right away without wasting any further words.

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling as Li Ling removed his hand from Zhihao''s mouth, "What are you doing? We need to collect information."

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he took the lollipop from Zhihao''s hand and looked at it for a minute before throwing it away, "Do not eat things that other people give you."

    "Eh?" Zhihao was left stunned as he stared at Li Ling''s moving back that seemed to get further and further away from him.

    Only after a solid minute of realization and with the sound of Li Ling chuckling did Zhihao react.

    He ran and caught up to Li Ling, "Were you jealous right now?" He asked with a dazed expression as if he could not believe it.

    Li Ling said nothing and simply kept on walking as if he hadn''t heard the question. "You got jealous! You definitely got jealous! Gege, this is not the time to get jealous!"

    Li Ling broke out laughing as he questioned with surprise, "Did you just call me Gege?"

    This time it was Zhihao''s turn to act as if he could not hear the question.

    Li Ling was amused by this reaction, "You called me Gege! You definitely did!"

    Zhihao''s lips unconsciously turned upwards as he heard this. He had definitely called him Gege1 on purpose but was he going to admit to that? No way!!

 Chapter 162 - Li Ling And The Ribix Virus

    When Zhihao and Li Ling had asked the Lady for her name, she had happily answered with not just her name but her whole personal data.

    Her name was Leyah and she was a twenty-year-old travel guide living in Utopia. The rest of her family members were already dead and the only brother she had, recently passed away when he went to Metropolis to complete a mission. Her favorite dessert was strawberry ice-cream and she loved laughing. There was not much she hated in this life and the only thing that was inside her hate list was the Ribix Virus.

    Yes, she had given more information about herself than they had asked for, but although it sounded useless, it wasn''t completely useless to them.

    Zhihao seemed to have heard something that caught his interest, "What''s the Ribix virus?"

    Leyah''s smile that was always plastered on her face now faltered as she asked in shock and disbelief, "You don''t know what the Ribix Virus is?"

    Zhihao shook his head, "Our memory was wiped."

    "Oh.... That''s a pity," Leyah frowned as if she really felt sad for them.

    Zhihao, "So what''s the Ribix Virus?"

    Leyah, "The Ribix Virus was the starting point of everything that went wrong."

    Zhihao seemed to have picked onto a clue as he listened attentively, but Leyah didn''t say anything further.

    Zhihao, "Can you tell us more about it?"

    Leyah shook her head and it might just have been the first time she had refused to answer, "I cannot do that. I''m not authorized."

    "Oh..." Zhihao mumbled in disappointment.

    "But... If you really want to know what happened, you can go to the Oracle center."

    Zhihao''s eyes that seemed to have been disappointed just a few seconds ago lit up once again as he looked at her eagerly and asked, "Where''s the oracle center?"

    Leyah smiled brightly once again as she exclaimed, "Follow me!"

    Zhihao listened to her as she quickened her pace and just when he thought they would have to walk all the way to the oracle center, she hailed a ''cab'' for them.

    This cab was green in color and just like all the other vehicles here, it didn''t have wheels and instead, it was hovering above the ground as if gravity had no effect on it.

    Li Ling was the first to climb inside the cab and Zhihao would also not waste any more time in thinking if he should get in or not.

    Li Ling leaned in and whispered to Zhihao, "A-Zhi, we should be careful."

    "Huh?" Zhihao couldn''t understand what Li Ling was trying to say.

    Was he trying to say that they should be cautious against Leyah or was he warning him to be cautious about the cab, or was it none of those two?

    Li Ling seemed to have seen through Zhihao''s confusion as he sighed and added, "The Oracle. It sounds suspicious."

    Zhihao nodded in understanding.

    He thought about what this Oracle center was supposed to be and what its purpose was. If something is created, it would naturally have a purpose and that purpose could be either good or bad.

    Instead of racking his brain for the answer, Zhihao decided to try his luck out and ask Leyah, "Isn''t the Oracle supposed to tell you the future?"

    Leyah tilted her head and looked at him as if he had just asked a really stupid question, "Why do you think that? The Oracle Center has all the answers you''ll ever need. The past is available for everyone to listen to while the future books section can only be accessed by a selected few."

    "Eh?" Zhihao was even more confused to hear this, but he decided not to question it and instead wait and see for himself what she was talking about.

    The cab was fast and it didn''t even take them five minutes to reach their destination, which was a building that was a bit round in shape and had a huge signboard hanging in front that read: Oracle center.

    Li Ling and Zhihao got out of the cab and looked at the entrance of the building that didn''t seem to be as crowded as the other buildings were. It wasn''t completely empty, however, there were a lot fewer people here to visit this Oracle center.

    Li Ling decided to take the lead and entered the Oracle center, but he was stopped at the gate, and only after showing the ID they had received was he allowed to go inside.

    Zhihao also followed the same procedure of getting his ID checked and verified before he was let in.

    Leyah was left behind to pay for the cab and only after paying was she able to follow and catch up to them.

    "..." Zhihao was speechless as he entered the Oracle center.

    Now he knew why the Oracle center was more empty than the rest of the buildings. This was a library with shelves that seemed to go up and up and up and up and... Up! There was no end to it! It was filled with books. Zhihao could swear that he had never seen this many books in one place before this.

    Even the world''s biggest library that Zhihao had visited was not as impressive as this.

    Zhihao and Li Ling shared a look as if both were questioning what they were going to do here... There was no way they would sit down and read through all the books here!

    "Let''s find a place to sit down," Leyah spoke up and they followed her as she found an empty table for them with exactly three seats, one for each of them.

    After they had taken a seat, Leyah clicked a button on the table and the table suddenly turned ''on''... This table was also like a display table that had a screen alike an Ipads and on it, there were different names and covers of books displayed.

    Leyah typed something into the search engine and the machine found a set of books for them.

    The books had a green-colored confirm button under each one of them and Leyah pressed them without caring to even read the titles.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but gulp as he saw this.

    Were they seriously going to be forced to read or listen to all of this?! This was a bit too much information, wasn''t it?!

    After she was done pressing all the buttons, she smiled happily as she looked up at Zhihao, "The information you are searching for would be here soon."

    "Hmm..."

    They waited for a few minutes, or to be more exact, they waited for two minutes, after which the table suddenly opened up, and inside it were a number of books that were all picked up by Leyah.

    She closed the table and placed the heavy stacks of books on the table as she exclaimed, "It''s here!"

    Zhihao, "Hmm..."

    Zhihao suddenly felt that maybe the information was really not needed. They should just run away from this library. The stacks of heavy books had thoroughly managed to intimidate Zhihao.

    Suddenly they heard a Robotic voice and when they looked up, they saw nothing more than a speaker that had always been sitting there on the table.

    Leyah picked up a book and read out the code number that was written on the cover of the book, "233534687-gfy"

    <233534687-gfy waiting for collection>

    <collection complete!>

    <Story title: The Virus that started everything>

    <Scanning...>

    <Scan complete!>

    A minute passed and the speaker said nothing more.

    Leyah looked at Zhihao eagerly but Zhihao had no idea what she was expecting him to do.

    Li Ling chuckled as he saw the clueless expression on Zhihao''s face and decided to help out, "Great Oracle, can you tell us what the Ribix Virus is?"

    <Indeed>

    <The Ribix Virus is a mysterious virus that had corrupted the body of the Ribix. It caused the Ribix to become savage and have a new purpose: destruction.>

    At this moment, Zhihao sighed in relief. He seemed to have thought too much into it.

    Nobody was expecting them to sit down and actually read every book. Of course, with technology so advanced, one could choose not to read out the story and rather have it scanned and read by a computer.

    In this manner, not only would they be able to save time, but they would also be able to filter out useful information from irrelevant information; Giving them the precise information they came for.

    Zhihao could finally smile as he decided to go all out with his questions, "How was it created?"

    <The origins of the Ribix Virus are undefined>

    "Then tell me how it spreads."

    If it was a virus, it must have had the capability of spreading and so this became a question that Zhihao was curious to know the answer to.

    <The Ribix Virus spread among the Ribix and it is believed to be through contact, may it be physical or not. However, this can not be proved since there were no studies done on it>

    Zhihao nodded as he heard this, "And can it be cured?"

    <The cure is not known>

    "..."

    Zhihao didn''t know why but he felt as if he was getting information and at the same time, it seemed as if he was still standing in the same confused place where he previously was.

 Chapter 163 - Li Ling And Zhihao Hear The History

    "How was it stopped?"

    <It wasn''t stopped>

    "..."

    So... Basically, this whole book was about how this Ribix virus was something really important but the book gave no information about it because it didn''t have any information about it.

    What the hell?!

    Zhihao turned to Leyah and asked, "Can we try changing the book?"

    Leyah nodded as she picked up another book and read out the code number that was written on the cover of the book, "209172301-jka"

    <209172301-jka waiting for collection>

    <collection complete!>

    <Story title: Order to exterminate the corrupted Ribix>

    <Scanning...>

    <Scan complete!>

    Zhihao took a minute to decide what he wanted to ask, and this time, his questions sounded a bit more precise and calculative, "When did the Ribix Virus start?"

    <Twelve years ago>

    Zhihao smiled as he heard this. He finally knew how to operate this thing and what questions to ask.

    "What happened twelve years ago?"

    <Twelve years ago marks the start of the first Ribix Virus outbreak>

    "Can you give us more details on it?"

    <Indeed>

    <Twelve years ago, a man named Leon reported that his pet Ribix had suddenly started going wild and biting people. He took his pet to a Ribix center where they kept the pet for more than a week under observation. After one week, the Ribix was not allowed to go back with its owner and was instead ordered to be put down as it had been coded as ''system corrupted''. Leon was close with his pet and he didn''t agree with the decision of the authorities so one day, he stole the Ribix back and ran away. By the time he was chased down and the Ribix was caught, it had already come in contact with other Ribix and had infected them with the virus.>

    <Would you like to continue?"

    "Yes, Please!" Zhihao exclaimed enthusiastically.

    <The First Ribix that was infected was killed by the authorities after having been arrested together with Leon who was put in jail, however, this was not enough to stop the virus. If a Ribix was infected, its eyes would turn red and it would start to attack humans and Ribots, but won''t attack other Ribix. This unique symptom caused the government to believe that this virus had been specially created to ruin the bond between humans and Ribix. The government started to scan the whole city for infected Ribix and started to kill them in the name of controlling the virus from spreading. The wild infected Ribix were all killed without a further thought, but the Ribix that belonged to someone could not be killed that easily and hence, they were all arrested and put in a special Ribix prison>

    <Would you like to continue?"

    Zhihao nodded his head once again, "Continue please."

    <The government was soon able to control the virus from spreading, however, something completely unexpected happened. The president had a daughter named Margret who was killed by her pet Ribix that had been infected with the virus. The president immediately sent out an order to exterminate all Ribix and protect the humans. This came to be known as the first action that was openly against the Ribix and crushed the lifelong bond that had been created between the two species. At first, only the infect Ribix were ordered to be killed, but with the issue of the second order, noninfected Ribix also started to get exterminated in case they could be infected in the future.>

    <Would you like to continue?>

    Zhihao pursed his lips, "Continue..."

    <Would you like to continue?>

    Li Ling, "Just continue! Damn it!"

    <The government ordered a secret operation where a group of people were sent as secret agents with a sample of the virus. They infiltrated the headquarter of the rebellion and spread the virus among the Ribix who were controlled by Captain Burn and Captain Liv. The rebellions had a very huge army of Ribix on their side and hence when all of them were infected, they straightaway attacked the members of the rebellion, killing off more than 90% of them. The Rebellion died down and this was the start of the first Ribix war.>

    Zhihao, "Continue."

    <There is no continuation.>

    <Ask a new question>

    Li Ling, "What happened to Captain Burn and Captain Liv?"

    <Captain Burn and Captain Liv were given the status of leaders of the rebellion, however, when the Ribix army of the rebellions were all infected, Captain Burn and Captain Liv were thrown out of their leadership position and became the heads that collected all the hate for causing such loss of human lives. The government put out an order to arrest the two captains and confiscated their Ribot army, however, the infected Ribix came together and built an army that attacked the city. Captain Burn and Captain Liv tried to make up for their mistakes by being in the front lines of the first Ribix war.>

    <The Ribix war lasted for more than a month, but with the two Captains going missing suddenly, the war came to an end with the Ribix army winning. Captain Burn and Captain Liv couldn''t be found ever since. Even their corpse has been missing. Some say that they died in the war and were blasted to bits hence even their bodies were not able to be retrieved, however, others believe that they had run away because of fear. The truth of the matter is still not known.>

    Zhihao couldn''t help but nod as he digested all this information. So there was a war and the two Captains fought the war to protect humanity, however, they were still hated because people considered the war to be caused by their mistake.

    The war went on for more than a month and humans lost because of the sudden disappearance of  Captain Burn and Captain Liv.

    And... It has been twelve years since this incident. Twelve years later, Captain Burn and Captain Liv were suddenly found once again and that too, in an empty amusement park.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but feel that there was more to this story. Whatever was written in this book was said according to a point of view that either belonged to the government or someone who was working for them. It was not written according to Captain Burn''s point of view nor was it written according to what Captain Liv felt and hence, it couldn''t be completely trusted.

    This was the problem with history books. History was written according to the person that had survived and won the war and hence, all those who perished away were given no importance in history, and sometimes, even after being innocent, they were given the title of the villain in certain cases.

    Zhihao knew this very well and maybe this was the reason why he asked Leyah to change the book once again.

    they changed it to another book and listened to it as well, but somehow the information provided in both the books was the same.

    Captain Burn and Captain Liv still went missing and abandoned the war causing humans to lose.

    They read through at least four or five books but Zhihao still heard the same things repeated again and again.

    Finally, in the sixth book, they heard a new piece of information that wasn''t mentioned in the previous ones.

    <The second Ribix war will be a sign that marks the end of the world and it will take place twelve years after the first Ribix war. Humans will truly go extinct if the two heroes of the world don''t come back.>

    Zhihao looked at Leyah as he questioned curiously, "What does this mean?"

    Leyah looked back at him and tilted her head as she asked, "You don''t know about the prediction? Many people believe that Captain Burn and Captain Liv will return and when they return, the second Ribix war will be fought. The war might end up with us winning or losing, the result is uncertain, however, if the two captains do not come back, we will definitely lose the war."

    Zhihao didn''t know if he should laugh or cry at this moment. The two captains in question had certainly come back in the form of Zhihao and Li Ling and this meant that the second war was also not far away.

    Leyah, "But... Even if they do return, not many believe that they would help us."

 Chapter 164 - Li Ling Gege Doesnt Need To Do This.

    Leyah, "But... Even if they do return, not many believe that they would help us."

    Zhihao furrowed his eyebrows as he questioned, "Why is that?"

    Leyah, for the first time since they had met her, didn''t have a smile on her face as she answered the question with some kind of guilt laced along with her expressions, "It''s our fault... We were the ones who threw them away. Why would they come to help us?"

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he thought about it. He had no idea what ''fault'' this woman was talking about, but he still knew the two captains would never refuse to help them. Why? Well, because this was their mission!

    Win the war against the Ribix!

    Unless they do that, they would be losing out on a lot of T-points and it would possibly make Zhihao cry... Just a little.

    This was a D-ranked level that gave out the fixed reward of 24,300 T-points! A number that no one would ever want to miss out on. Zhihao wasn''t crazy to let this opportunity go and so, he was going to carefully play this to make sure that he doesn''t get yeeted out of this level because of dearest OOC.

    They continued to listen to more books and after another twenty minutes, they had exceeded the time limit spent at the Oracle center and as a result, were forced to leave the place.

    When they got out of the Oracle center, Leyah enthusiastically asked them where they wanted to go next, "I''ll suggest the ping-pong rally. It''s a really fun place."

    Zhihao smiled, "That sounds tempting, but I think I have somewhere in mind already."

    "Oh... Where?" Leyah asked as she tilted her head in confusion.

    Zhihao, "This Utopia has a leader, doesn''t it? Can you take us to her place?"

    Leyah''s smile twitched as she heard this, "Why would you want to go there?"

    Zhihao shrugged it off as nothing more than pure curiosity, "I just want to meet her."

    Leyah shook her head as she tried to warn him, "It''s better not to get involved with her."

    "Huh? Why?" Zhihao was a bit confused.

    "You might not know this, but the real leader of Utopia isn''t her. It was her sister who created this world for us. Laura created Utopia and she was the first leader of this safe haven, however, she was killed a few years ago and her sister, Rei took over the leadership of the place."

    "Oh..." Zhihao seemed to ponder over something for a minute before he questioned, "But why would you warn me against her for that?"

    Leyah sighed, "Don''t tell anyone you heard this from me, but it is said that Rei was the one that killed Laura. She murdered her own sister for the position and some even say that she is on the other side."

    "The other side?"

    "Ribix. Some say that she is with them."

    Li Ling frowned as he heard this, "Why would they say that?"

    "Eh? Well, because she acts that way! Whenever the teams go up to complete missions, Rei follows them and orders them not to hurt the Ribix. She''s the reason why a lot of the people who went out for mission had come back as corpses!"

    Zhihao, "Maybe she feels sympathy for them?"

    Leyah, "Sympathy? I dare not believe something like that. She doesn''t look like the type to feel sympathy towards another."

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he looked at her, "And you know her personally?"

    Leyah scoffed, "Of course, I don''t!"

    Zhihao, "Then why talk so bad about her without knowing her?"

    Rei looked suspicious to Zhihao but he didn''t peg her to be the kind of person that kills their own blood sister. She just didn''t have an aura of a villain. Her character was much more complicated and seemed to be hiding a lot of secrets.

    Zhihao, "If you know the way, just take us there."

    He sounded a bit strict and rude. Leyah gulped as she nodded her head, "Okay..."

    She walked in a certain direction followed by Zhihao and Li Ling but after walking for more than ten minutes, Zhihao frowned as he asked, "Can''t we take a cab if it''s too far away?"

    "Cabs?" Leyah chuckled as she repeated, "I''m afraid no one will be willing to take you to the place where you want to go."

    Zhihao, "..."

    Li Ling chuckled as he patted Zhihao''s shoulder in an assuring manner, "It''s okay, A-Zhi. We can walk."

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling''s face with half-open eyes, "Gege, there is something wrong."

    Li Ling''s cheeks turned a bit red as he heard the word ''Gege'' being used to refer to him, however, he still tried to calmly ask, "What do you mean?"

    Zhihao sighed as he whispered, making sure that Leyah who was walking ahead in front of them wouldn''t be able to hear them, "How come Rei recognized us and bought us back here without telling us anything about the prophecy?"

    Li Ling, "Maybe she didn''t want to throw so much at us as soon as we met...? Is this why you asked to go meet her again?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he answered, "The reason I want to meet her again is different."

    Li Ling had an indecipherable expression on his face as he asked, "What do you want to ask her?"

    Zhihao shook his head once again, "I don''t want to ask her any questions. I want to ask her for aid."

    "Eh?''

    Zhihao smiled as stretches his hand out to brush Li Ling''s head once, "Gege, I know you wanted to explore because of me."

    Li Ling''s cheeks turned even more red as he heard this and wondered if he should deny it or just stay silent.

    "But you don''t need to do that," Zhihao continued with a sigh, "I''m not stupid and although Utopia might look amazing, I would never want to enjoy exploring it at a time like this."

    Li Ling, "..."

    Zhihao, "We are here so the war is probably just around the corner. If we stay here for too long, we might destroy this place soon."

    Li Ling, "but the ping-pong rally sounds really fun..."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this but didn''t give a verbal response.

    Li Ling wanted to show Zhihao how amazing this place was. He wanted to have fun together, but he knew that it wasn''t possible under such circumstances when the war was just a few hours away.

    Li Ling was about to say something more but suddenly they heard Leyah speak up, "We are here!"

    Zhihao and Li Ling both turned to face the front where they saw a gate. A gate that didn''t have any walls to support it from the two sides.

    Zhihao, "Eh?"

    Leyah smiled as she explained, "She lives here. The leader''s headquarters. Just go through this door and you''ll get there."

    Zhihao was a bit suspicious about it as he looked at the lonely door that looked as if it were one of those ''anywhere door'' from an old hit children''s cartoon called Doraemon.

    Li Ling was the first to step forward and reach out his hand to open the door, but he was stopped by Zhihao who warned him not to open it. "It could be a trap," Zhihao whispered.

    Li Ling smiled as he looked at Zhihao with an amused expression, "Trust this Gege."

    "..."

    Li Ling opened the door and entered the ''invisible'' headquarters.

    Zhihao didn''t hear or see him for the next few minutes as the Li Ling that had gone from this side didn''t appear on the other side of the door. It was as if he had vanished in thin air.

    Oh God! This is really like the anywhere door!

    Zhihao turned his head to face Leyah as he questioned, "Are you sure you''re sane?"

    "Eh?" Leyah smiled in confusion.

    Zhihao squinted but in the end, he shook his head and decided to follow after Li Ling.

    He entered the door and found out that he had been fooled. This wasn''t anywhere door!

    From the inside, the outside was clearly visible with Leyah standing there, smiling in one moment before her eyes widened and she panicked.

    Zhihao was confused to see this.

    Leyah who was still outside couldn''t be heard by Zhihao as she cried out, "You didn''t pay me yet!"

    Zhihao felt someone tapping on his shoulder and when he turned around, he saw that it was Li Ling who was smiling as he asked, "Are you surprised?"

    Zhihao reluctantly nodded.

    Li Ling, "The walls were invisible. We can''t see anything from the outside."

    "It was an illusion to hide the headquarters," Zhihao added as he stretched his hand forward to touch the wall that could only be felt and not seen.

    "What are you doing here again?" It was a familiar voice of a girl.

    Zhihao and Li Ling turned their heads to be met with a frowning Rei.

    Rei, "Weren''t you taking a break to relax? How did you find this place?"

    Zhihao was about to answer her but before the words could roll out of his tongue, his eyes trailed behind her where he saw something that shocked and amazed him at the same time.

 Chapter 165 - Li Ling Probably Has A Plan

    Zhihao, "What... Is that...?"

    Rei didn''t bother turning around as she sighed and questioned them once again, "What the hell are you doing here?"

    Behind her were two capsules filled with some sort of liquid and carefully floating inside these two capsules were naked bodies. One body per capsule to be more exact. In front of the capsule were two giant metal suits that looked to be identical to the ones worn by Zhihao and Li Ling.

    Zhihao gulped as his eyes dare not look away from the capsule. The two naked people kept inside the capsule were easy to recognize. It was Zhihao and Li Ling!

    Zhihao had the urge to cover the capsule up with a cloth, but his legs dare not move from the place.

    Li Ling suddenly chuckled as he looked at the same sight, "Aiya~ You couldn''t find us so you decided to create us? That''s very clever, miss Rei, but I don''t think you got the proportions quite right."

    Rei gritted her teeth as she questioned once again, "I asked you a question, did I not...?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

    Zhihao, "Shouldn''t we be the first to know what you''re trying to do here?!"

    Rei glared at Zhihao, but was silent for more than a minute.

    Li Ling suddenly noticed that the atmosphere had turned tense, so he chuckled in an attempt to lift it up, but it was hopeless.

    Rei, "Please leave immediately!"

    Zhihao, "You think you can drive us out without giving us an explanation? You better think again."

    Li Ling suddenly stepped forward and stood in between the two as he smiled and looked at Rei before speaking up, "Leader, you''re really nice. You brought us here and cared for us so much that you even gave us a humble sum of survival points to thoroughly enjoy ourselves. You wouldn''t suddenly turn petty and drive us out, will you?"

    Rei was silent as she stared back at him.

    Only after a minute did she grit out, "Get out...!"

    Li Ling sighed as he heard this, "I knew you''d say that..."

    He turned around and hooked his hand around Zhihao''s neck as he added, "A-Zhi, she''s too rude. We better get going."

    Zhihao was speechless as Li Ling awkwardly pulled him away to the door that they had just used to come here.

    "What are you planning?" Zhihao whispered as his eyebrows creased together.

    Li Ling smiled brightly as he winked, but said nothing.

    When Li Ling''s hand reached out for the doorknob, Zhihao suddenly saw something from the corner of his eyes and reacted immediately as he pulled Li Ling back and grabbed the thing that had been used to attack them.

    "Aa!" Zhihao couldn''t help but yelp as he felt the pain crawling up his arm.

    Damn it...

    He had forgotten that everything inside this T.I.A.D. sensory room could be felt.

    Li Ling''s eyes had a fierce glare to them as he smiled thinly and looked at Rei, who was standing there with a big metal hand that she had used to attack them, "What are you trying to do...?"

    Rei was silent.

    The smile on Li Ling''s face disappeared as he roared, "I ask you a question! What the hell are you doing?! You told us to leave and we are leaving! What more do you want?!"

    Rei smirked as she saw him shout, "Just a hit to the head. To reassure myself that you two won''t remember this day."

    This time both Li Ling and Zhihao were speechless.

    What in the K-drama was this?! Hitting a person on the head doesn''t lead to amnesia!!

    Did they need to make a banner for this and hang it everywhere they went?!

    "You just need to stand there and I''ll hit you once," Rei spoke in the most angelic way possible, "It''s nothing much. Let me hit you."

    She raised the heavy metal hand once again as she got ready to hit Zhihao on the head, but this time, Li Ling interjected and stopped her, "Stop it! If you want to hit a head, go and hit your own head!"

    Zhihao nodded as he glared at the girl and wished for God to throw some brains down here. This girl desperately needed it! God, if you can''t throw a brain, a stone works too. As long as it hits the mark.

    Zhihao, "Leader Rei, we haven''t gotten familiar enough to hit each other''s head like this."

    Rei, "So if I get familiar with you, you''ll let me?"

    Zhihao calmly took a breath in as he tried not to do God''s job of throwing a stone at her head, "That''s not what I meant."

    Rei was about to say something more, but suddenly someone wearing a white coat came and whispered something in her ear. As soon as she heard it, her face changed colors, from white to red to blue to white again. Her eyebrows furrowed up as she looked at Zhihao and Li Ling in silence as if she were planning their murder.

    Rei, "Did you come alone?"

    Zhihao carefully answered, "Yes. We came alone."

    Rei sighed, but it wasn''t because of relief.

    Nobody noticed the smile on Li Ling''s face that had suddenly curved upwards and seemed to be filled with a sense of mischief as he looked outside the invisible wall only to find that there was no Leyah standing there.

    This was going to be fun.

    Rei gritted her teeth as she looked at them and suddenly ordered, "Capture them just in case."

    In the next second, a few guards approached them and locked their hands together in a handcuff.

    Initially, Zhihao was about to fight them and struggle to slip away, but Li Ling suddenly smiled and shook his head as if trying to tell him to stay calm instead of struggling fruitlessly.

    Since Li Ling, who was supposed to be the leader in this group had said it, Zhihao would naturally follow his instructions and stay quiet without any struggle.

    When the guards cuffed their hands together, Li Ling smiled brightly and even went as far as to thank them!

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling with a shocked expression.

    Li Ling, "Does A-Zhi not like being handcuffed together with me?"

    "No, that''s not it," Zhihao answered as he took this opportunity to interlace their fingers together. The handcuff that was being used as an excuse to hold hands suddenly felt as if it had been both abused and misused.

    There was no way Zhihao didn''t like this! He didn''t know why and he was ashamed to say it out loud, but somehow, Zhihao surprisingly ended up liking being handcuffed together with Li Ling.

    Zhihao was obviously not a person who had gone to jail before this so he naturally had no idea what being handcuffed was like. It was his first time that he was in this situation and to think that Li Ling was here to experience it with him... This was definitely the wrong time to be feeling happy over such a trivial thing that didn''t even completely make sense!

    "So what''s the next plan?" Zhihao asked cautiously and quietly in order not to alert the guards who were dragging them to the confinement center.

    "Why are you always talking about plans? Why don''t we just wing it?" Li Ling, the complete planning freak who had planned out each and every aspect of his life spoke up with an honest expression as if his own love life hadn''t been planned by him.

    Zhihao, the amazing idiot who had always been blind to clues stupidly believed him as he pursed his lips and speechlessly looked at Li Ling.

    You really just wanted to be handcuffed together with me, didn''t you?!

    Zhihao accused him in his mind but didn''t have the guts to say it out loud in fear that he might turn out wrong and call himself out for thinking such a thing.

    Li Ling smiled brightly as he commented, "To be with you even in jail, it''s my greatest honor."

    One of the guards couldn''t help but side-eye them when he heard this comment. Since when did Captain Burn and Captain Liv feel such a way about each other?!

    Zhihao and Li Ling were instantly alerted in fear of OOC at such a small reaction, but it seemed that this guard didn''t notice anything which meant that they were safe... At least, for now.

    Zhihao pinched Li Ling''s hand, "Stop saying such a cheesy thing out loud!"

    Li Ling chuckled as he nodded in understanding, "I dare not do it again if it angers our dear A- Captain Burn."

    Li Ling was almost about to call him ''A-Zhi'' once again, but in the end, he had managed to correct himself. They had been safe because the guard didn''t notice it the first time, but to try a second time would only be a fool''s mistake!

    Zhihao shook his head and lightly chuckled. The guard might not have noticed that small correction, but there was no way Zhihao would miss it!

    Zhihao smiled, "Captain Liv flatters me too much."

    Li Ling, "I say nothing but the truth! You have me wrapped up around your fingers. Literally."

    Zhihao chuckled as he took a minute to understand what this man had said.

 Chapter 166 - Li Ling, "Just Trust Me"

    "Damn it!" Zhihao couldn''t help but curse.

    He shouldn''t have rejoiced too soon!

    The guard who had listened to all the sweet dog food talk that went on between Zhihao and Li Ling couldn''t find it in his heart to tell them or change the rules in order to put them in the same confinement cell.

    Each and every confinement cell was made for one person and hence, it was only natural that  Zhihao and Li Ling were locked up in different neighboring confinement cells.

    The confinement center was not at all like the jail Zhihao had heard about or imagined. It had a creamy white color and had a lot of ''cells''. Each cell looked a lot like a white capsule room and was just enough to accommodate one person. The door was made out of glass but no matter how much Zhihao hit it, the door was just as stubborn and refused to break down.

    When the guards had left, Zhihao let out a long and tired sigh and what followed after were the sounds of chuckling. It was Li Ling who had suddenly started to laugh at the ridiculous situation and Zhihao also followed soon after.

    "Now tell me the real plan," Zhihao spoke in between his laughter.

    Li Ling, "We wait for someone to break us out of here."

    Zhihao tried to stop laughing as he asked, "Who?"

    Li Ling, "Someone will surely come. BBtrash, Hulk, Alvi... One of them will notice."

    As Zhihao heard this, suddenly there was a spark of light in his mind as if he had the world''s best idea just randomly come and hit him.

    He had forgotten all about it once again! The team message board!

    Zhihao clicked on the button and tried to send a message, but he frowned as he saw the notice that the team messaging board was currently unavailable.

    Li Ling had probably guessed what had happened over at the neighboring cell so he didn''t even wait for Zhihao to ask as he answered the unvoiced question, "We don''t have a signal."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but be shocked as he asked, "But that shouldn''t affect this.... Right?"

    Li Ling shook his head, although Zhihao couldn''t see it, "We are in the sensory room. The team message board is something like a phone given to us in order to help us interact with one another. If we were playing normally, the phone would operate normally in every condition, however, now that we are in the sensory room, the phone will not work if the player doesn''t have a signal on his phone."

    Zhihao was silent for a few seconds before he asked, "That makes no sense."

    Li Ling nodded, "I know, but there''s a reason why it''s there. If we want to give the player''s a fully immersive experience, we need to revoke the added advantages they have been handed with. In this case, the added advantage is the team messaging board. What happens if a player is in a critical situation where a phone would normally not be operational, but they would still be able to use the team messaging board? It would pull them out of the immersive experience and remind them that this is nothing more than a game."

    Zhihao didn''t respond to that and it was simply because his brain took time to process whatever Li Ling was trying to make him understand, "Wah~ Gege surely knows a lot. It''s probably because you work for Omelas, right?"

    Li Ling awkwardly chuckled as he nodded, "Yeah."

    Well... It wasn''t a complete lie. He really did know this because he worked at Omelas! He just didn''t clarify what his exact position in that company was!

    Zhihao looked around at the containment cell in order to see if there was something he could find here that would possibly help them, but just as he was looking, he felt the ground beneath him shake and it made him lose a footing.

    He ended up falling on his butt as he grabbed the two walls on either side with his hands, in an attempt to stabilize himself, "What the hell is happening?" He cried out in shock.

    The ground continued to shake as if it were affected by a giant earthquake and Zhihao felt his heart race and not even in a delightful manner. He was afraid and there was no way he would be able to deny that.

    "It''s a wave," He heard Li Ling answer.

    "What the hell is a wave?!" Zhihao shouted trying to make his voice sound clear over the sound of the things falling and the crumbling noise coming from who knows where, however, there was no answer to his question.

    In the panic and confusion, it wasn''t even like Zhihao was waiting for an answer. He closed his eyes and prayed in his heart that if he were to die, at least give him a better death than being crushed inside a confinement cell of a game.

    The earthquake continued for over a minute and when it was finally over, Zhihao could clearly hear the sound of his heart beating so loudly that he was afraid Li Ling who was in the neighboring confinement cell would be able to listen to it.

    "Damn..." Zhihao cursed as he gulped and tried to pick himself up from the floor.

    He heard some shuffling sounds coming from the other side and guessed that Li Ling must have also fallen down by the strong impact of the earthquake.

    "A-Zhi, in any minute now."

    "Huh?" Zhihao was unable to understand what Li Ling had mumbled, but before he could ask him what he meant, he stopped and gulped back his words as he saw the glass door of the confinement cell suddenly opening.

    "..." Zhihao was stunned as he stood there and looked at the open door with suspicion, wondering if there was a laser beam that would chop him up in pieces if he were to go through this door.

    Li Ling smirked in satisfaction as he stepped out without a worry and went over to pull Zhihao along with him, "Let''s go!"

    Zhihao gulped as he realized that just like Li Ling had said, something or someone had really helped to break them out of jail! Zhihao didn''t know if this was done on purpose or if it was caused by the earthquake, however, no matter what the cause may be, he was still happy that he was finally a free man.

    Damn, he really didn''t like to be confined in jail even if it was only for a few minutes.

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling and chuckled as he glanced back at the open doors of the confinement cell, "That was quick."

    Li Ling nodded as he beamed, "It sure was."

    Zhihao, "A quickie in jail."

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard that, "A-Zhi, that sounds really- Forget it..."

    It was really not the time to be joking about how Zhihao didn''t know how to use ''certain'' words in a casual conversation.

    Zhihao, "Why are we running by the way?"

    Li Ling shrugged as he stopped for a second before turning and changing directions. This confinement cell was like a maze filled with confinement cells that seemed to act as a wall of sorts. Some confinement cells had other people trapped inside them as well, but nobody made any noise or asked to be saved as they saw these two people running away.

    Zhihao frowned as he pulled Li Ling back and forcefully stopped him, "Are you sure that it''s not a trap?"

    The fact that breaking out from here was this easy made him feel uneasy and rose suspicion. All he did was wait and the door opened on its own, in fact, their confinement cells weren''t the only ones that had open doors. All cell doors inside this confinement center had been opened, but the others dare not run for some odd reason.

    If they didn''t get out, it meant they were afraid of something. There was probably a reason why they chose to wait for the doors to close once again and whatever it was that had scared them like this, it would naturally affect these two as well. This was a bit suspicious and Zhihao could smell the danger.

    Li Ling shook his head and pulled Zhihao''s hand as he reassured, "Just trust me."

    Zhihao gulped, but in the end, he was helpless against Li Ling, who would look at him like this and ask him to trust the man. Zhihao closed his eyes and nodded as he let Li Ling pull him to an unknown destination once again.

    Not even a few minutes later, Zhihao suddenly bumped against Li Ling''s back and when he looked in front at the cause, he gulped.

    There was a man wearing a suit that was lightweight and thinner than Zhihao''s metallic suit which sat in his inventory. His face was covered with a white helmet as he aimed his gun at Zhihao and Li Ling, however, even though he didn''t show any signs of hesitation. It was clear that he wasn''t going to shoot them just yet.

    Zhihao and Li Ling looked at him and his gun in silence as they slowly raised their hand on instinct. The man also didn''t say anything as he kept his gun pointed at them with no words spoken.

    "Peace?" Zhihao reluctantly spoke up.

    "..."

 Chapter 167 - Li Ling, Is This Part Of Your Plan Or Not?

    The white-suited individual who had a gun pointed at them was looking for anything but peace.

    After an awkward minute of staring, they finally heard the man speaking up, but he wasn''t exactly saying anything to them, he was ordering someone, "Get them."

    He put his gun down and Zhihao thought they were safe, however, before he could sigh in relief, from the corner of his eye, he saw more white-suited men arrive and they all rushed up to restrain Zhihao and Li Ling from running away.

    "Did we just get caught once again?" Zhihao whispered.

    Li Ling chuckled in response, "Yes. Yes, we did."

    "Any plan this time?"

    "There is always one."

    Zhihao nodded and for some reason, he couldn''t feel any panic even though he was being arrested all over again..

    Like some philosophical soul had once said: the first may come as a surprise, the second might leave you speechless for a second, but by the third time, you would definitely get used to it.

    It wasn''t even the third time he was getting arrested, but he could still feel that he had gotten used to it.

    Poor Zhihao couldn''t even remember that these philosophical lines were said by a rotten author who wrote BL... And the lines were definitely not meant to be used in such a context.

    Zhihao looked at the white-suited man and asked, "Where are you taking us?"

    As expected, the man ignored him like a professional, as if he were nothing more than a spec of dust in the air.

    The guards who had captured them, pulled them along to who knows where.

    In all reality, Zhihao was sure that if he and Li Ling were to fight against these people, they would surely succeed, however, Zhihao had no plans in retaliating, at least, not at this moment. He wanted to wait and watch to see what happens next, he wanted to know what Li Ling was planning.

    He hoped that this was a part of Li Ling''s unspoken plan.

    Zhihao made sure that nobody could hear him as he asked in a whisper, "Gege, this is a part of your plan... Right?"

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this and had the urge to pat Zhihao''s head to reassure him, but his hands were sadly restrained by the guards.

    The guards took them back to the main lobby of the building and just when Zhihao thought that these people worked for Rei, he was shocked to see that in front of them, even Rei had been captured by some white-suited guards.

    Rei saw the two captains being escorted over and gritted her teeth, "You! This is your plan, isn''t it?! You tricked me!!"

    Zhihao wanted to correct the girl and tell her that he was thoroughly innocent, however, before he could actually do that, he stopped himself and gulped the words back down when he saw the ''leader'' of the white-suited guards.

    "We have brought them over," The white-suited guard who had ordered to capture Zhihao and Li Ling and dragged them over here spoke up with no emotions laced along with his words.

    The so-called leader was none other than a familiar girl they had met before.

    It was Leyah!!

    Zhihao was thoroughly shocked as he saw Leyah looking back at them with a bright smile on her face, "Well well, we meet again. The ones who ran away without paying me for my services."

    Zhihao gulped as he spoke up in a rather guilty tone, "If this is about your pay... We can discuss it calmly. No need to get so aggressive. We might be willing to pay you more than what we had discussed."

    Li Ling snickered as he heard this. Mastermo was truly... Unpredictable.

    Leyah smiled as she raised two fingers and gestured for the guards to let go of them, "You don''t need to pay me anymore. The world''s already ending. What will I do with those measly survival points?"

    Zhihao couldn''t say anything against that since he also agreed one hundred percent with it. The world was already ending so there was certainly gonna be no use in stacking up survival points.

    Zhihao''s eyebrows furrowed as he questioned, "Who are you really?"

    Leyah smiled thinly as she looked back at Zhihao and answered, "Captain Burn and Captain Liv, nice to meet you. My name is Leyah and I''m the leader of the current rebellion."

    Zhihao scoffed, "So being a travel guide and all was just a cover? Did you approach us because you knew our identity?"

    Leyah chuckled as she heard this, "You''re not that important to me. I''ll agree, being a travel guide was a cover, but I didn''t approach you because I knew who you were. It was completely coincidental. But I have to say, when you asked to be taken here, I kinda guessed your identities."

    "..."

    "We don''t have a conflict between us, Captain Burn. I don''t enjoy fighting, so isn''t it better for both of us to mind our own business?"

    Before Zhihao could say anything as a response to that, Rei suddenly spoke up with a disgusted tone.

    "Talking as if you''re doing something grand. Pei! You''re nothing more than a degenerate thief!"

    Leyah chuckled as she walked over to her and in the next minute, she pulled Rei''s head up by clutching a lock of her hair, "Who the hell do you think you''re calling a thief...?!"

    Rei gritted her teeth as she wickedly smiled in turn, "You think you can scare me? Overthrow me?! Dream on! Without me, Utopia is nothing more than a doomed wasteland!!"

    Leyah chuckled as she raised her right hand and slapped Rei, "Great! You think I care about your stupid Utopia?! Hahaha..." She laughed wickedly reminding Zhihao of the villain from a children''s movie he had once watched, "To hell with you and your Utopia!! You want to put on the mask of an angel and show people false hope before sending them to their deaths!! I would never be as fake as you!"

    Rei''s eyes widened as she struggled to get out of the guard''s hold but pitifully failed to, "You!! You''re crazy!! At least I give them hope! You just want to kick them out on a battlefield to fend for themselves!"

    Zhihao had no idea what half of this conversation was about so he simply listened silently as a bystander. At this exact moment, he felt someone pulling his wrist and when he glanced back, it was Li Ling who was gesturing him to get out of here.

    Zhihao furrowed his eyebrows as he asked, "Why?"

    There was a really good catfight going on so of course, he would not want to leave the place.

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he tugged at Zhihao''s sleeve once again and gestured down towards his hand.

    "Huh?"

    Zhihao looked down at the small metallic ball that was clutched in Li Ling''s hand and his eyes widened as panic rose up.

    It was the Imbis! The Imbis was an explosive that could be controlled by a player, it was a transferrable in-game item that a lot of people wanted to get their hands on. No matter if you wanted a big explosion or a really small one, the explosion caused by Imbis could be controlled according to your needs.

    Zhihao looked up at Li Ling in a questioning manner but Li Ling only smiled as he pulled Zhihao along and made a run for it.

    The guards had already let go of them on the orders of Leyah so even if they ran away, the guards weren''t going to catch them.

    Rei, however, noticed them sneaking away and yelled out, "They''re running away!!"

    "Who cares about them?!" Leyah shouted back.

    The two glared at each other with hostility that seemed to perfectly match, focusing completely on each other and not knowing that Li Ling was planning on blowing something up.

    Zhihao sounded a bit worried as he asked, "What are you doing?"

    Li Ling threw the Imbis towards Zhihao and responded, "A-Zhi equip your suit. Fast!"

    Zhihao nodded as he reacted immediately and followed Li Ling''s instructions.

    At this moment, the earth began to shake uncontrollably once again and Li Ling grabbed onto Zhihao''s suit firmly as he spoke up, "Quick! Go over there." He pointed ahead at the place where the two capsules were located.

    It was hard to move with the ground being so unstable, however, Zhihao still managed to walk with much difficulty. In the case of an earthquake such as this one, moving with the suit on was much easier than moving without one.

    Li Ling climbed on Zhihao''s shoulder before he ordered, "Throw it!"

    Zhihao threw it and the Imbis rolled over for a few seconds before it came to a stop right under the capsules containing the naked body of fake Captain Burn and Captain Liv.

    Li Ling didn''t even waste a second before detonating it and controlling the explosion in a manner that would only affect the capsules and the suit sitting in front of the two capsules.

    The explosion surely got the attention of the fighting cats who looked over in disbelief and shock.

    "Did you really just..." Leyah didn''t even dare complete the question.

    Rei, "..."

 Chapter 168 - Li Ling Knew It Already

    Rei, "..."

    Li Ling smiled as he saw this speechless reaction, "There. The thing you both needed is now nothing more than dust.

    Leyah scoffed and rolled her eyes as she let go of Rei''s hair and looked at Li Ling and Zhihao before ordering her men, "Take them!"

    The white mecha-suited men rushed forward to arrest them once again but this time, Li Ling smirked as he tapped Zhihao''s head, "Crush them."

    Zhihao was more than happy to listen to Li Ling.

    "Hold on tight," Zhihao warned out before punching the first soldier that had arrived. The Punch was not in any manner light, it was strong enough to send the men flying a few meters back and hitting other white-suited mecha soldiers in the process.

    Leyah gritted her teeth as she saw this.

    She already knew that it was easy for Captain Burn to take down her men. With just one punch alone, he could send at least five white soldiers flying.

    Li Ling sat on Zhihao''s shoulder and watched the fight with amusement evident in his eyes. He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this.

    Zhihao opened his inventory and equipped the earth-shattering hammer. A transferable in-game item. The hammer was huge with a little more than ten feet of height. It was a weapon that Zhihao would hardly ever use because of its size, but it was a perfect weapon at this moment.

    Zhihao didn''t really need to use it since his suit also came with weapons and explosives loaded, however, he wanted to try out this earth-shattering hammer. When would he get such a golden opportunity to use it again?

    He lifted his left leg and stepped back, making his dominant leg be the one at the front as he raised the hammer, and with a single swing, he killed a lot of the white-suited mecha soldiers.

    This swing was powerful enough to do a lot of damage and Zhihao couldn''t help but be surprised at how effective it was. The hammer was pretty light and easy to control, the speed and strength could be adjusted according to the player''s needs and wants.

    Zhihao was ready to swing once again, but he stopped immediately when he heard Leyah calling out.

    "Stop!!" She ordered her men.

    The white mech-suited soldiers no longer attacked Zhihao and Zhihao who still had his hammer raised, didn''t attack them either.

    Leyah stepped forward and snapped her head to the right and left, giving out a crisp cracking sound of bones. She took out a type of switch from her pocket and when she pressed it once, the switch became a sort of metallic liquid that quickly covered her whole body. Once it had covered her whole body, it started to form a shape and hardened, making it look like some sort of metal suit.

    "Captain Burn," Leyah sighed as she looked at Zhihao, "We have been preparing this plan for months now and you just blew up our key ingredient. Do you really think I''ll let you go just like that? Don''t blame me for being rude, it was you who started it first."

    Zhihao smiled as he heard this, but said nothing. He was confident in himself and knew that even if Leyah were to enter the fight, they would still be able to beat her.

    Li Ling suddenly chuckled as he heard this, "We were the rude ones? Leader of the rebellion, Leyah, you weren''t planning on letting go of us before this, were you? You were planning on silently killing us off. Wasn''t it you who was rude to us first?"

    Both Zhihao and Leyah''s eyes widened for a mere second.

    Zhihao hadn''t noticed this at all. He thought Rei was the one trying to hit them on the head... No?

    Leyah smirked in amusement as she heard this, "What gave me off?"

    Li Ling stopped smiling as he tilted his head and looked at her from head to toe, "Everything actually."

    "..."

    Li Ling, "We were the leaders of the rebellion before this. The reason why you have that position right now is because we suddenly went missing. It doesn''t take a genius to put the two pieces together. If we were to suddenly return, it would threaten your position as the leader hence, you would try to kill us off so as to assure your title, wouldn''t you?"

    Leyah was silent before breaking out laughing as she nodded, "Captain Liv is so smart. He saw right through me!" She stepped closer to them as she twisted her fist in a stretching manner, "The fake captains would be easier to control than the real ones. Don''t take it personally, it''s just what I need to do. You already failed at leading the rebellion so let me now show you how it''s really done."

    Li Ling equipped his own mecha suit as he jumped down from Zhihao''s shoulder with a proud smile on his face, "If you want to waste your time and fight with us, we would naturally be interested in entertaining you. However, I think you''re smart enough to see a way that profits both our sides?"

    Leyah smirked as she asked, "Profit both sides? What could you be suggesting?"

    "We''ll follow your orders."

    Leyah suddenly stopped in her tracks as she heard this, a look of disbelief and shock flashing through her facial expression, "What?"

    Li Ling smiled as he added, "You heard that right. We have no interest in that title anymore. We can work with hidden identities. All we are asking from you is your cooperation. Just let us fight in the war. May it be in the front lines or from behind the scenes. Just let us join you and fight against the army of Ribix."

    A number of emotions flashed through her face as she stood there and simply looked at them, "What are you trying to play at?"

    Li Ling, "Not much. It''s not a trick. We just want to prove to ourselves that we still have it in us to fight against that godforsaken creature."

    Zhihao gulped as he heard this. At this moment, he could clearly understand what Li Ling was planning. He was trying to trick Leyah into letting them join the war along with her. With all her soldiers, finding the other Ribots could be done in a flash and since their mission in this level was to simply fight and win the Ribix war, it wouldn''t matter if they were the ones leading the war or not.

    Leyah scoffed, "You think I believe that?"

    "I''m just stating the truth," Li Ling spoke in all honesty, "You can either have us fight under you or fight against us and be crushed before you even see the face of the Ribix army."

    The veins on Leyah''s head seemed to be popping in anger as she heard this but she could do nothing about it. Even she knew that this man wasn''t lying. If he wanted to crush her, he could very well do so.

    Leyah was silent for a minute and suddenly the ground started trembling once again.

    Since they were all wearing their suits, they could stand and not be thrown off their feet.

    This time, the earthquake was short and when it stopped, Leyah breathed out, "Okay..."

    Li Ling smirked proudly as he heard this. He already knew that she was going to say yes.

    Li Ling, "Then leader Leyah, we are looking forward to fighting by your side, however, I would first like to ask you for two favors."

    "I don''t think you''ll give me a chance to say ''no'' to them, would you?"

    Li Ling chuckled, "You already know it. There''s no such option to say no."

    "..." Leyah rolled her eyes as she asked, "What may these two favors be?"

    "First favor, help us find all the 2X and 3X Ribots."

    "You''re going to regroup your Ribot army?"

    Zhihao suddenly felt that his on-the-spot choice to make Li Ling the leader of their group in this level was genius. Maybe he should try to put the leadership tag on Li Ling in every other level! Mastermo was already tired of being the leader in every game, it was kinda refreshing following someone else''s order.

    Li Ling nodded as he answered, "The Ribot army will follow our commands, but they''ll only be helping you."

    "And what if you two decide to go back on your word?"

    "We won''t," It was Zhihao who reassured her, "We might as well die before we go back on our words. You can trust us."

    "Let''s not talk about trust right now, Captain Burn," Leyah uttered bitterly, "Let me hear your second request."

    "Favor," Li Ling corrected before looking over at Rei who was still restrained by the soldiers on Leyah''s orders, "My second favor is to let Leader Rei go."

    "..." Leyah glared back at him before shouting, "Ridiculous!"

    Even Zhihao felt that this was a bit ridiculous. He didn''t even know what relationship there was between these two women but he could still feel that it wasn''t a friendly one. There was really no need for Li Ling to ask this request and there was naturally no way Leyah would go along with this ''favor''.

 Chapter 169 - Li Ling Is Using Cheat Codes?

    Li Ling smiled as he nodded in understanding before questioning, "It may sound ridiculous, but you plan on killing her. Don''t you think that''s even more ridiculous?"

    Leyah scoffed as she heard this, "I''m robbing her of her everything! Do you think I''ll let her go just because you said so? We have been planning this for months! We''ve already dug up her grave, all we need to do is throw in her body now."

    "..." Zhihao couldn''t help but think: You really planned everything, didn''t you?

    "Wrong," Li Ling interjected, "You think these two fake captains were the only thing she had up her sleeve?"

    All eyes turned to Rei who simply stayed there with an indecipherable expression on her face.

    Leyah looked to be a bit confused as she asked, "What do you mean?"

    Li Ling smirked as he pointed at Rei, "She''s a lot smarter than you might think."

    Leyah turned her head to look at the girl who didn''t seem to have a reaction to Li Ling''s words..

    Li Ling, "Captain Leyah, remember when you told us about the true leader of Utopia? Since when did she have a sister?"

    "..." Leyah was even more confused and even Zhihao seemed to be confused as he heard this.

    Leyah seemed to be seriously thinking about the answer but every time she opened her mouth to voice it out, she closed it again like a fish.

    "You can''t remember, can you?" Li Ling asked in a manner that wasn''t really questioning but was rather informing them of this fact, "It''s because she doesn''t want you to think."

    Leyah''s eyebrows furrowed up as she tried to think about it harder and the more time passed, the more complicated her face became.

    Li Ling, "The leader had no sister."

    It seemed to have struck down on Leyah like a bolt of lightning.

    "And do you remember how Laura died?"

    Leyah was silent once again as she heard this.

    Zhihao felt as if he was suddenly understanding something and at the same time, it also sounded like all the previous clues and information they had collected was thoroughly a waste.

    "It was you who said it, don''t you remember?" Li Ling asked but before Leyah could answer, he continued, "You said that the first leader of Utopia was Laura and her own sister killed her for that position, however, Laura never had a sister nor did she have a funeral. But you probably never questioned any of this because Rei didn''t want you to."

    Leyah glared at Rei as she heard this and finally, there was a reaction from Rei. The girl simply chuckled lowly, looking up to face Li Ling as she asked, "How did you see through it? Or rather... When did you see through it?"

    Even Zhihao was a bit curious to know about the answer to this question, but since he already knew Li Ling was working in Omelas, he guessed such small information to be naturally given to him like cheat codes only available to the game developers or something of the sort.

    Li Ling, "You changed forms in front of us, do you not remember?"

    "..."

    "You approached us with another body and face, but as soon as we entered Utopia, you changed your entire appearance and displayed your ''Rei'' form," Li Ling continued and it was only now that Zhihao had realized that this was also a hint given to them.

    Zhihao had originally overlooked this because he thought that this was nothing more than the girl flexing some latest technology.

    "It made me think: Could this one also be a fake appearance?" Li Ling added with a nod as if he was proud of himself, even though the original reason he had noticed all this was because he already knew the storyline, "Then you asked us to enjoy our time in Utopia, run around and explore. If you planned to let us roam free, why would you bother bringing us here where the food is already insufficient and oxygen is depleting?"

    The smile on Rei''s face seemed to deepen with every sentence Li Ling spoke.

    "Then the people here were also weird. Everyone was always smiling and acting like sugar-coated idiots. Actually, let me rephrase that. They looked as if they were all on some kind of drug."

    "It''s Utopia, of course, they''d be happy here!" Rei defended herself.

    "No!" Li Ling retorted, "Their happiness was weird. Leyah is a perfect example of this."

    "What do you mean?" Leyah asked with a dark expression.

    Li Ling smiled as he looked at her, "Let me ask you, where do you live?"

    "Eh? Of course, I live in... Where was it again? Huh..." She looked to be having an existential crisis and the cause of it all was Li Ling and his questions.

    "You don''t remember," Li Ling answered for her, "Then let me ask you another question. You said you planned this entire thing, but where? Where were you staying when you were planning and discussing it with your soldiers? And where did you get your soldiers from?"

    "..." Leyah was silent because she didn''t have an answer to even one of those questions. Her whole mind was blank as if her memories were all messed up with blank fragments that were hidden behind made-up fragments of fake memories.

    "What about your relationship with Rei? How come you know her before this and she knows you? I just happened to have heard how you both attacked each other with your words just a few minutes ago. Rei sounded like she knew exactly what your plan was."

    At this moment, Rei had her head down as she started laughing, her voice growing louder and louder as the laughter seemed to turn even crazier, "Captain Liv, I greatly underestimated you!"

    Li Ling nodded as he agreed to her, "You did."

    "..."

    "Laura," Li Ling smiled as he looked at Rei and called her using the name of the supposed first leader of Utopia, "You created Utopia, a paradise for all the refugees, but how could anyone listen to you and enjoy themselves here? How could you be sure that they won''t rebel against you just like they did with the previous government of Metropolis?"

    Rei shook her arms once and the soldiers that were restraining her suddenly let go of her hand and let her go.

    "You filled Utopia with drugs. The people didn''t even need to take it or consent to it. All they needed to do was stay in Utopia for a few hours and the drug in the air would start to mess with their brains."

    Rei stood up and rubbed her wrist that had turned slightly red with a light bruise.

    "But someone found out what you did. ''Rei'' found out what you did. She probably built a rebellion against you so you killed her and took her identity instead. You blamed ''her'' for killing Laura and taking the leader''s position when it was really just you killing her and fooling the people into thinking what you wanted them to think."

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this. He hadn''t seen any of this coming.

    Rei chuckled as she stepped closer to Li Ling, "You''re right. I''m Laura, the maker, and leader of Utopia."

    "But that wasn''t all, was it?" As soon as Li Ling had said this, the earth once again began to shake with another earthquake.

    The earthquake made Rei stop in her tracks and only after it had stopped did she continue taking calm strides towards them.

    "But then the ground began to shake one day. You knew that Utopia had become unsafe. You knew that the war was coming soon, and as the leader, you would need to lead it, but why would you do that? Leading a war meant putting your life at stake and you were never going to do that. For a person who values their life so much, you would never want to risk it for unknown people."

    "And hence, Leyah came into the equation," It was Rei who continued after Li Ling, "A girl with no memories. I gave her a family, a personality, and a mission. She became the perfect pawn I had wanted her to be. You''re right. I don''t want to go and become a leader in this war. That''s her purpose, not mine. She''s supposed to overthrow me and lead everyone into the war, to their deaths and when the whole thing is over, she disappears just like you did. Once again, I would come out and create a new Utopia that is built on her failure as a leader."

    Li Ling suddenly equipped his gun and aimed it at the approaching Laura who was smiling creepily.

    "But so what if you know? You''re still going to die today and I''ll erase ''today'' from our dear Leyah''s brain." Rei added.

    Leyah gulped as she looked at her rebellion soldiers and ordered them, "Kill her!"

    Her eyes frantically looked around at the soldiers that dare not move even an inch as they heard her order.

    Li Ling smiled brightly as he pulled the trigger and shot Laura''s leg, "You think you''re grown enough to kill me, kid?"

 Chapter 170 - Li Ling Doesnt Want That Troublesome Title

    Li Ling smiled brightly as he pulled the trigger and shot Laura''s leg, "You think you''re grown enough to kill me, kid?"

    Laura chuckled as she was forced to kneel down on one knee because of the bullet wound. She certainly felt the pain that made her face go white, but at the same time, her lips were curled upwards and there was a hint of insanity in her expressions.

    Li Ling smirked as he kept his gun pointed at her.

    Laura, "Even if you know everything, what''s your plan, Captain Liv? You''ll reveal my secrets and take over my position? Pfft- hahaha... The war is inevitable. We''re all gonna die anyway."

    "What makes you think I''ll be interested in stealing your position? Like I already said, we have no interest in being called ''leaders'' once again. Even if I do reveal your real face, what good would that do for me?" Li Ling questioned as he tilted his head, "If anything, it would be even more troublesome."

    Leyah looked at Captain Liv in confusion as she asked, "What are you planning to do with her? We can''t just let her go like this! She needs to pay for her sins!!"

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this, "Just because I said I didn''t want to take her position or reveal her true face to everyone, it didn''t mean I was going to let her go. Why would you even think something so stupid?"

    "..."

    Because your second favor was literally to "Let leader Rei go" ?!

    Leyah gulped but kept quiet as she waited for Captain Liv to continue.

    "If you arrest her, you''re doing exactly what she wants you to do. Protecting her from the war." Li Ling smiled as he looked at Leyah but his smile lacked any sense of joy as he asked, "Are you gonna let that happen, Leader Leyah?"

    Leyah was silent for a minute as she let the information sunk in and just as she understood it, she couldn''t help but glare at Rei with hatred as she gritted out, "No..."

    Rei who heard this laughed out loud and used all her strength to stand up and forcefully pushed her leg to walk forward. The sight looking a bit pitiful but when Li Ling saw that she had picked herself up, he once again shot her and this time it was on her other leg.

    She let out a small shriek as she fell down but there was still no dramatic reaction from her.

    "You should learn to stay down," Li Ling suggested with no sense of sympathy for the girl.

    Zhihao frowned as he looked at Li Ling and asked, "You want to pull her into the war?"

    Li Ling looked back at the man and beamed, "That''s exactly what I want to do!"

    "..."

    Li Ling, "You might not know this, but our dear Leader Laura is good at planning. When the war is over, do you think she would be able to make a new Utopia and rule it on her own? Of course, not."

    Laura suddenly crawled up from the ground with much difficulty, even a gunshot wound on both her legs couldn''t stop her.

    Li Ling smirked as he shot her once again as if she were nothing more than a mere Daruma doll. This time the bullet penetrated her stomach, instantly making her clothes turn red as the blood from the wound seeped through.

    Zhihao frowned as he saw this, "Gege, be careful... You might kill her."

    Li Ling shook his head as he reassured him, "Don''t worry, I won''t."

    Laura crouched down at the impact and Li Ling took this time to continue his long narration of the plan that had been interrupted again and again.

    "She would need help. She would need soldiers and guards. She would need to find a way to look powerful and suppress the people once again." Li Ling smirked as he suddenly put his hand down, "So if she lets Leyah completely take away all her military force, how would she be able to win it back when the soldiers are all dead in the war?"

    "She has another plan?" Zhihao muttered.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he added, "She''ll hide away a part of her future military power from the war. When the war is over and it''s time for a new government to rise, she would bring out the hidden soldiers and rule the new Utopia."

    "But we''re all gonna die if we lose the war!" Leyah suddenly cried out as a frustrating drop of tear rolled down her cheeks, "If everyone dies, who would she want to rule?! Corpse and graves?!"

    Li Ling smiled as he spoke up, "Who said her mission was to lose the war?"

    "..."

    "At the last minute, she would release her secret army and push back the Ribix army. She''ll become the hero that saved the lives of the few people that survived."

    Leyah shook her head as she glanced at Laura, "If she has such a strong force with her, why would she not use it at the beginning of the war and win without having to kill thousands of people?!"

    "Leyah, you''re so innocent," Li Ling chuckled, "She wants people to die."

    Leyah''s face lost all color as she heard this sentence.

    "The population in Utopia is increasing and the food is limited. The oxygen is depleting and the more people that live here, the shorter the lifespan of Utopia becomes." Li Ling explained, "If only a few people survived, Utopia could last longer. Hence, she plans on letting some die. If they can''t fend for themselves, she''ll have no use for them. This is a type of ''screening people'' and filtering out the useful ones from the weak ones."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but feel a bit surprised at how intelligent this girl lying on the floor was. She was really cunning. To have planned everything from the start till the end with every small detail calculated really took a lot of time and intelligence. Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn''t slightly impressed by her.

    Leyah looked back at Li Ling as she asked, "Then... Where is this army of hers?"

    "Hidden, of course!" Li Ling chuckled.

    "..."

    Li Ling put his gun away as he pointed at Laura with his fingers, "That''s why we need her to be alive."

    It took Leyah a whole minute to finally share her opinion, "I disagree!"

    "???"

    Laura once again clutched her stomach tightly as she crawled up from the ground, the corner of her upturned mouth dripping blood.

    Leyah, "She''ll never hand over her army. If we look for it ourselves, we might have a better chance of getting our hand on it, but she would definitely use it against us if we let her go."

    Li Ling clicked his tongue as he pointed at Leyah and exclaimed, "That''s exactly what you don''t understand!"

    "Huh?"

    "Who said we were going to ask her to hand over her army?"

    "..."

    Li Ling snickered as he turned his head to face Laura, "We''re gonna release her on the open battlefield."

    The wicked smile on Laura''s face suddenly paused as she heard this. She had probably not even expected this in her wildest dreams, after all, there was no way someone would have a brain that worked just as wickedly as hers did.

    Li Ling seemed to be satisfied with this speechless expression as he smirked and continued, "Even if we covet her army, what use would it have for us? The 2X and the 3X Ribot armies are enough for us to control. If we add more, we''ll only be burdening ourselves. I''m sure Leyah would also not be able to control another army, would you?"

    "..." Leyah was dumbfounded as she heard this and after a second, she responded with a nod, "I already have my hands full."

    Li Ling smiled as if he had already expected her to say something like this.

    Zhihao, "So we throw her on the battlefield and hope that she calls her secret army to come and protect her own life...?"

    Li Ling nodded as he looked at Zhihao, "If there is anyone who can make her take up her arms, it would be herself. She''s a selfish person."

    Laura who had crawled up felt a little offended as she heard this. In the next moment, she suddenly chuckled as she asked, "And what makes you think I won''t just run away or attack you?"

    Li Ling looked at her with an indecipherable expression on his face as he raised his hand and his mecha hand gloves transformed into a sort of a weapon that produced air bullets.

    A type of gun that was much more dangerous than a normal gun since the air bullets couldn''t be seen or avoided easily.

    "You think I trust you enough to not think of such a scenario?" More than a question, it was a statement that he didn''t trust her and had already made up a security plan against such a case.

    Laura scoffed as she took a step forward, "You think you can threaten me?"

    Li Ling smiled as he shot her with the air gun that made at least a 3-inch wide hole in her chest, "Nah~ Threatening you ain''t that fun."

 Chapter 171 - Li Ling Is Cruel

    Laura was stunned for a second and only after a few seconds did she scream in agony as she looked at the hole in her chest that should have possibly killed her.

    Zhihao frowned as he wondered how this girl was still able to remain alive with such a fatal wound on her chest. In fact, this wasn''t the only thing that had shocked him today. Even the three gunshots on both her legs and stomach hadn''t managed to hold her down.

    For a normal person to be injured like this, the chances of survival would be slim and the pain should have been enough to make them pass out. Laura, even after going through all that could still crawl back to her feet, this in itself was pretty suspicious and Zhihao didn''t know if he was supposed to be impressed with her or think of her like an earthworm that would stay alive even after being cut in half.

    Well, even earthworms would wiggle around for just a few more minutes and in the end, they would still die after being cut in half.

    No matter if she was an earthworm or not, he had to agree with one thing: She was a strong girl.

    Li Ling''s hand transformed once again and it went back to looking like a hand instead of an air gun. He took a few steps closer to Laura and crouched down as he asked her, "Leader, you don''t have much time left to live if you keep being stubborn like this.. Why don''t you try fixing yourself?"

    Laura gritted her teeth as she rolled around on the ground, staining it with her blood that poured out from all the wounds on her body. "You bastard!!" She cursed as she screamed out, but Li Ling only smiled thinly as he looked at her wriggling pitiful body.

    Li Ling, "Time is ticking away, Captain. You better act fast."

    Laura took a sharp breath in as she gritted her teeth and shouted, "Take me to the operation theater!! Move fast, you freaking idiots!!!"

    As soon as this order was given out, the white mecha suited soldiers moved from their place and two of them picked her up, taking her to somewhere else in a hurry.

    Li Ling waved his hand as if bidding her bye-bye with a delighted smile on his face.

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling and sighed as he commented, "Gege, sometimes you scare me with your cruelty."

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this, "Do I? But I think Captain Burn is crueler than me."

    "..." Zhihao pursed his lips but said nothing. He was also capable of shooting someone in a virtual game like that, but he was still different from Li Ling. At least, he could proudly say that he won''t be smiling when he does it.

    Leyah looked to be confused and her face which was twisted only got even more twisted as she asked, "Captain Liv, what about me?!"

    Li Ling looked at the girl up and down as he asked, "You look completely fine to me. You haven''t been shot yet. Why would you need surgery too?"

    "..."

    Leyah shook her head frantically as she looked down at her hands and exclaimed, "That''s not it! My memories... What do I do about them...?"

    Zhihao sighed as he looked at the girl''s helplessly confused expression as she raised her hands to clutch her head.

    "What do I do...?! My memories are all fake, aren''t they?! They were all fabricated... I''m not me... All these feelings don''t belong to me...!!" She looked as if she was having an identity crisis and it was only natural that she did. Zhihao was sure that if it was him in her shoes, he would also be questioning everything and panicking.

    Li Ling stepped up to her and patted her head as he reassured her, "Just because she brainwashed you, it doesn''t mean everything you know is fake. Even with missing or fake memories, your feelings are still real. You love Utopia and its people. You want what''s right for the future of humanity. Such type of will can''t be faked."

    Leyah looked up at him with big dark eyes that could see a little hope, "It can''t be faked...?"

    Li Ling broke out smiling as he answered, "Sorry, I was lying. It can be faked."

    "..."

    "But doesn''t necessarily mean it''s fake." Li Ling added as he stopped chuckling, "Even if she didn''t play with your head, I''m sure your will to see humanity flourish was always there. You want to fight the Ribix war. You want to fight for humanity and I don''t think that''s something that can be easily faked. Right now, that''s all that matters. After this war, you have your whole life ahead to decide what you truly want to do with it."

    Leyah seemed to be motivated as she heard this. Her eyes seemed to shine with hope as she was once again brainwashed but by a different person.

    Zhihao who saw Li Ling manipulating her to how he wanted her to act couldn''t help but feel a bit surprised and impressed. His initial thought that Li Ling was a scary man got further strengthened. Not only was this man ruthless and cold if he wanted to hurt someone, but he was also perfectly manipulative to get what he wants.

    As soon as Zhihao realized this, he couldn''t help but think: Had he also been manipulated by Li Ling? Li Ling was good at this so even if Zhihao had been manipulated to act a certain way or say something according to Li Ling, he would never realize it.

    The thought sent a shiver down his spine.

    He could only hope that he was wrong.

    "You''re right..." Leyah muttered as she looked down, "What matters is our future. We need to win the war..."

    Li Ling nodded as he agreed, "We need to win it at all costs."

    Zhihao also joined him, "We must definitely win!"

    Of course, they needed to win it at all costs. Only after doing so would they be able to win this level.

    Li Ling stretched his hand forward for a handshake as he suggested, "I look forward to working with you."

    Leyah gulped as she took his hand and responded, "I''m undeserving of leading this war, but I promise to try my best."

    Li Ling smiled brightly as he exclaimed, "That''s exactly what we want from you."

    Zhihao also smiled thinly as he spoke up, "If you try your best, the result will also naturally be the best."

    After saying that, Zhihao turned to face Li Ling as he asked, "But what about Laura?"

    Li Ling snickered as he heard this question, "She''ll also join the war."

    "What if she runs away or hides?" Leyah questioned.

    Li Ling shook his head as he answered, "She can''t."

    "..."

    He turned his head to look at Zhihao as he asked, "Do you remember what happened when we were fighting those bees?"

    Zhihao thought back to how he was on Li Ling''s shoulder and was being protected by him. He clearly remembered it all but he was embarrassed to admit that he had been protected like that so he simply shook his head in denial.

    Li Ling smirked, he clearly knew that Zhihao remembered it, "Well, the bees attacked us but they didn''t attack Alvi."

    Zhihao frowned as he stated, "Of course they didn''t. She''s a...." He turned to look at Leyah and stopped before he could say the word ''bot''

    OOC still had a firm hold of fear in his heart after what happened in the last vampire level.

    Li Ling shook his head as he spoke up, "That''s not the reason why."

    Zhihao''s eyebrows furrowed up as he asked in confusion, "Then why would they not attack her?"

    "She didn''t interest them."

    "..."

    Li Ling chuckled as he saw the speechless expression on Zhihao''s face, "Those creatures are attracted to everything connected with the Ribix."

    "Wait! I''ve heard about this!" Leyah exclaimed as she seemed to be remembering something, "Ribix is attracted to the Ribot gemstone! Normally, only a Ribot would have that embedded within its system, however, in some cases, the Captains in charge of Ribots would also have it surgically embedded into their body. It helps improve their overall senses and heightens regenerative abilities."

    Li Ling nodded as he spoke up, "You''re right. The Ribot gemstone can change a person''s life. They would develop and have inhuman abilities, however, only captains of Ribot armies are licensed to have such a gemstone implanted in their bodies. The reason is because it''s dangerous for a person. Even if it increases your abilities, there is a huge price to pay for that."

    "What price?" Zhihao asked with an apparent frown on his face.

    "The Ribix love the Ribot gemstone and can detect it. If you have one inside you, it''s easier for a Ribix to find you and there is no way you can hide yourself from it. It''s like a Ribix magnet."

    Zhihao was a bit shocked to hear this as he uttered, "Captain of Ribot armies... Isn''t that us? Do we also have those... Ribix magnets inside us?"

 Chapter 172 - Li Ling Is Confident

    The answer to that question was already as clear as the sun in a summer sky.

    Li Ling simply nodded as he spoke up, "That''s why they have been attacking us so eagerly. Haven''t you noticed it?"

    Zhihao had indeed noticed it, but he simply thought that it was because of something else. He thought they attacked them because they were humans and Alvi was a bot.

    Li Ling, "This Ribot gemstone is the only way Laura can save herself now."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but be a little stunned as he heard this.

    He immediately understood why Li Ling had shot her so ruthlessly. After he realized why Li Ling had shot her like that, it wasn''t hard for him to put the pieces together and guess what Li Ling''s plan was.

    He really planned on throwing Laura into an open battlefield and made it impossible for her to run away from it..

    In order to save herself right now, she would have the Ribot gemstone implanted in her body and as soon as she has it implanted in her body, she would also become just like Captain Burn and Captain Liv. She would become a Ribix magnet and if she attracts their attention towards her like that, it would become impossible for her to avoid the war.

    It was such a simple plan that could possibly work. Well... As long as Laura didn''t decide to go cuckoo on them, the plan would work.

    However, there was still a question that Zhihao just had to ask, "What''s the worst-case scenario?"

    Li Ling smiled thinly as he leaned towards Zhihao''s ears and whispered, "Worst case scenario: She decides to kill me for shooting her and setting her up."

    "..."

    There was no way Zhihao would let something like that happen.

    Leyah looked at Li Ling curiously as she asked, "Captain Liv, if your plan works... Do you think we''ll be able to win this war for sure?"

    Li Ling proudly nodded as he heard this question, "We''ll win this war. Don''t worry about it."

    Zhihao also nodded as he joined Li Ling in reassuring and brainwashing this girl, "Since we are here, there''s no way we''ll lose the war. However, we still need to find the 2X and 3X Ribots quickly. If we don''t find them, it''s better not to fight this war at all and directly surrender in front of their armies."

    "You''re right!" Leyah sounded enthusiastic, "W-we need to move fast!"

    Li Ling patted Zhihao''s shoulder as if telling him that he did a good job.

    "The faster we can gather them all together, the faster we can get this war done and over with."

    Leyah nodded as she looked at her white-suited soldiers but as soon as she saw them, there was a small frown on her face, "But..."

    She was worried that her soldiers wouldn''t listen to her anymore.

    Well... It wasn''t like they were her soldiers, to begin with. They were all given to her by Laura and she was made to believe that she was their leader.

    Li Ling seemed to have already guessed the reason for her hesitation and it made him chuckle as he spoke up, "Just try it. I''m sure they''ll listen to you. Even if they belong to her, she still ordered them to fight the war with you."

    After having heard this, Leyah got some confidence as she looked at a particular soldier and softly instructed him, "Help me locate down all the 2X Ribots."

    The soldier took a second to react but he still took a step forward, sternly replying, "Understood!"

    There was a sense of relief washing over Leyah''s face as she heard this.

    Zhihao immediately recognized this soldier to be the one that had discovered them escaping from the confinement cell and arresting them to be presented in front of their leader, Leyah.

    Now that Leyah was sure the soldiers still listened to her commands, she didn''t hold back at all as she shouted out one command after another, "Track down all the 3X and 2X Ribots. Send out groups of five soldiers to collect them. Bring them over to the central mall."

    The other soldiers also moved forward and nodded as they bowed and went away to carry on with the assigned duties given to them.

    She turned her head over to look at Zhihao as she spoke, "Captain Burn, For whatever happened years go... I deeply apologize. I''m thankful that you''re still here to help us even when we abandoned you."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but question, "Abandoned me?"

    Leyah looked up at him with furrowed eyebrows as she asked, "You don''t... remember?"

    Zhihao suddenly feared OOC and chuckled as he scratched his neck before responding, "I guess the drugs in Utopia worked or something... We have missing memories. The last thing I remember is fighting those vicious creatures and... Next thing I know: I woke up in an empty amusement park."

    Leyah''s face dropped colors as she heard this, "It''s her..."

    "Huh?"

    "She probably made you forget everything," Leyah answered, "Of course she would do that. If you guys knew everything that happened, you would probably never want to help us."

    Zhihao frowned as his eyebrows drew together and he questioned, "What are you talking about? What are we supposed to not remember?"

    Leyah shut her mouth close and shook her head frantically, refusing to answer his question.

    "..."

    "I''m not telling you!" Leyah unsealed her mouth to say before muttering a small "Sorry..." and sealing her mouth shut once again.

    Li Ling who saw this couldn''t help but chuckle as he spoke up, "You don''t need to tell us. If you think we''ll run away after hearing whatever it is, then it''s better for you to just keep it to yourself. I can''t ask you to trust us one hundred percent. But I can assure you that we won''t run away no matter what. It''s your choice if you want to trust us and tell us or hide that secret forever in fear of something that may never happen."

    Leyah gulped as she looked at him for a minute before pondering over it and speaking up, "Then I''ll choose not to say anything."

    "..."

    Although Li Ling had said all that, he still hoped that she would fall for the trick and tell them everything she knew.

    But then again, it wasn''t like he was that curious.

    They would eventually find out about it so what was the hurry?

    Zhihao sighed but said nothing.

    "In any case," Leyah was about to say something but the ground beneath them started shaking once again.

    It was an earthquake. By this time around, Zhihao had already realized that these frequent earthquakes were definitely not natural.

    When the ground finally stopped shaking, Zhihao looked over at Leyah and questioned, "You don''t want to tell us about what happened. That''s alright, but at least answer this question. What''s up with mother earth shivering every now and then?"

    Leyah gulped as she straightened up and answered, "It''s the war."

    Zhihao looked at her curiously and waited for her to continue.

    "The earthquakes get more frequent when the war is near. It''s not natural, it''s caused by a monster on their side."

    "A monster?" Zhihao frowned.

    Leyah nodded as she responded, "A monster that lives beneath the ground. Way beneath Utopia. It can sleep for years and only wakes up in time for the war."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but be a little curious as he unconsciously looked down and muttered, "What type of creature is it?"

    Leyah shook her head, "I don''t know what it looks like. I''ve never seen it, but I''ve heard that it''s big. It''s powerful enough to shake the ground so it would naturally be pretty huge."

    Zhihao nodded as he also guessed something like that to be the case. Actually, in his head, he couldn''t help but think of an old movie named Godzilla. It was a story about something like this. A huge creature that lived in the depth of the ocean but came up to attack human civilization. This situation was just slightly different because they didn''t know what the creature looked like and it was the depth of the ground and not water that hid this creature.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but feel a shiver go down his spine as he imagined their future. They would definitely have to fight that creature causing so many earthquakes.

    Li Ling shrugged his shoulder as he stated, "Doesn''t matter what size it is," He hooked his arm around Zhihao''s neck as he added, "As long as we are here, that creature is nothing more than an overgrown earthworm."

    It sounded like an overconfident statement but didn''t seem too out of place since it was coming from Li Ling''s mouth.

    Zhihao was also a bit worried about this unknown creature, however, he had no doubts about their win. No matter what it was, they would still be able to win against it.

    Why was Zhihao so confident?

    Because this was Mastermo!

    If he can''t even beat an overgrown earthworm, he might as well just change his name and become ''NoobMo''

 Chapter 173 - Li Ling Would Put Up A Good Show

    With a plan in mind, it didn''t take them too long to put their plan into action.

    Leyah''s soldiers were pretty fast in locating most of the 2X and 3X Ribots that could still be used. The ones that were in a difficult location and couldn''t be found were located and collected by Zhihao using the map that Alvi had given them.

    When Zhihao counted all the Ribots that stood in front of them, he couldn''t help but be a little surprised to see that he couldn''t count them. There were at least well over an army of 10,000 2X Ribots and another 10,000 or more 3X Ribots.

    They were already out of Utopia and were gathered in the city center. It seemed that Leyah had already expected there to be such a huge crowd and had known that they wouldn''t fit in Utopia so she gathered them all here. A place large enough and at an equal distance from all the different locations where the Ribots were found.

    Zhihao leaned over towards Li Ling''s ear and asked in a volume that was slightly above a whisper, "Are you sure we''ll be able to control them?"

    Li Ling smiled as he questioned back, "Are you doubting yourself right now, Mastermo?"

    Zhihao pursed his lips and gulped as he shook his head in denial.. With a fake scoff, he added, "Why would I need to do that? There''s no way I won''t be able to control them. It''s just an army of 10,000. Nothing impossible."

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this. To say that controlling an army of 10,000 Ribots was easy, even if it was just a bluff, only Mastermo could say something like that with such an honest and confident expression.

    Zhihao turned his head to face Leyah as he asked, "The war... How far is it?"

    Before Leyah could reply, the ground beneath them started shaking once again.

    By this time around, they had already gotten used to the frequent earthquakes, however, when the ground finally stopped shaking, Leyah''s face seemed to have lost all color as she spoke up, "It seems that the war will be coming sooner than expected."

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this answer that he had hoped not to hear.

    "That''s actually good," Li Ling commented as he patted Zhihao''s back, "We can get this done and over with."

    Zhihao nodded with a hint of reluctance as he agreed, "You''re right."

    Once again, the ground beneath them started shivering, but it was different this time. This was nothing like a natural earthquake.

    It almost seemed as if something was running towards them and that something was quite... Heavy.

    They turned their head towards the direction where a loud thumping of footsteps was coming from.

    Zhihao equipped his gun and got ready to shoot whatever it was. Leyah had a confused expression on her face as she stood there and Li Ling looked to be just a bit curious and nothing more.

    When the thing that was running towards them could finally be seen, Zhihao and Li Ling immediately recognized it and pursed their lips in unison.

    Leyah''s eyes widened a bit as she looked at the Ribot, "XY Ribot...?"

    She looked to be surprised and in the next second, she rubbed her eyes in disbelief.

    Following behind Zhou Xinyi and Wang Guiying was another army of Ribots which looked to be lesser in number than the 2X and 3X Ribots combined, however, one XY Ribot was the same size as three 2X or 3X Ribots and hence the army that came running towards them looked to be massive.

    Wang GuiYing came down from his comfortable seat on Zhou Xinyi''s shoulders and walked up to Zhihao as he smiled happily and exclaimed, "We found them all."

    Zhihao nodded in satisfaction as he heard this.

    Wang GuiYing smirked proudly, "Aren''t we just too amazing?"

    Zhihao pursed his lips and said nothing to that.

    Li Ling chuckled as he looked over at Zhou Xinyi, "You must be the one that did all the work, right? Good Job."

    Wang GuiYing, "..."

    Zhihao chuckled as he also turned to look at Zhou Xinyi and lightly bowed his head as he thanked the man inside the giant ribot, "To find them all in such a short span of time must not have been easy. Thank you for all your hard work."

    Wang GuiYing frowned as he interrupted them and patted his chest as he defended himself, "I helped too!! I was the one that was navigating him! Don''t I deserve a ''good job'' too?!"

    Zhihao chuckled as he acted as if he was suddenly deaf and couldn''t hear Wang GuiYing.

    Li Ling also did the same as he spoke up, "All that''s left now are the newly created Ribots."

    When Zhihao heard this, he couldn''t help but frowned as he questioned, "Are you sure she''ll bring them over...?"

    Li Ling had an indecipherable expression on his face as he tilted his head and answered, "Of course she would. Do you think she has the guts to disobey me?"

    Zhihao squinted but said nothing to that.

    The real earthquake came once again and this time, Leyah''s whole face was pale as she looked at Zhihao and with unhidden worry apparent on her face, she spoke up, "Captain Burn, I don''t know who you are waiting for, but I don''t think they''ll be making it in time."

    Zhihao gulped as he heard this.

    "If she doesn''t arrive here on time, it''s fine," Li Ling commented sharply, "As long as she does come, the time doesn''t matter."

    Zhihao furrowed his eyebrows but said nothing out loud however he was a bit skeptical about it. His trust in Alvi was something that could be measured as a drop of water in a desert. It was basically nonexistent.

    Sometimes she would help them but most of the other times she would just be tricking them one way or another.

    Zhihao''s eyes widened slightly when he saw that this time the earthquake had actually caused the ground to crack.

    The crack was small in the beginning but as the earth continued to shake, the crack grew wider and wider.

    "Umm... Is it just me or is it lasting longer this time...?" Zhihao sounded a bit panicked as he questioned.

    "It''s not just you," Li Ling reassured.

    Wang GuiYing clutched onto Zhou Xinyi tightly as he cried out, "What the hell is this?!"

    Zhihao didn''t bother looking up at him as he answered the question, "A monster trying to make its presence known!"

    Zhihao thought the earthquake would go away like all the previous times, however, he was disappointed to see that it just grew in intensity as if the monster underground had gone nuts and was trying to come up or something.

    Just like Leyah had said, the war came sooner than they had expected and it started with the crack on the ground that grew to be at least more than 20 meters in size.

    Zhihao prayed that nothing would come out from that crack but sadly, his prayers weren''t heard.

    Before he could even react to it or mentally prepare himself for a war, there was a loud bellow coming from the crack.

    Zhihao felt a shiver go down his spine as he heard that. He gulped as he put his gun away and equipped his shoulder-fired missile.

    Whatever that was, there was no way a gun would be able to stop it, and hence, Zhihao wouldn''t want to risk it.

    As a friendly greeting to that thing, Zhihao was going to directly blow it up with a shoulder-fired missile, or at least he would try to.

    If the creature wanted to be blown into bits or not was totally up to its own decision. There was nothing Zhihao could do about it.

    Not even a second later, dust rose up from the crack and poured out like water, burying some soldiers and Ribots in the process.

    Li Ling and Zhihao ordered the Ribots to back away as they let the crack have its own distance to vomit out the soil.

    A huge thing with a dirty metallic body could be seen coming out from the crack and just as Zhihao had planned, he activated his shoulder-fired missile and aimed it at the creature without even bothering to see what the thing was.

    Zhihao was immediately disappointed to see that his missile plan had been a waste just like he expected it to.

    Li Ling chuckled as he ordered his Ribot army to aim at the thing together and shoot at the same time.

    Thousands of Ribots all had their explosive air guns aimed at the creature however, they did no damage to the thing.

    Zhihao gulped as he looked at the creature, "Gege... I take it back."

    "Huh?"

    "I''m definitely doubting myself."

    Li Ling took a minute to respond as he chuckled, "That''s okay. If you''re afraid, just stand back and watch. I''ll make sure to give you a good show."

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he pondered over it for a second. He was almost tempted to do exactly that, but at the end of the day, he would never let Li Ling go out alone in a fight like that.

 Chapter 174 - Li Ling Warned Not To Do Anything Stupid

    "No!" Zhihao cried out as he activated his suit, "Let''s fight this thing together."

    Li Ling smirked proudly as he heard this and responded, "I''m more than happy to fight alongside you."

    Zhihao chuckled, "If you say such a thing, it makes me want to pounce at you more than the creature."

    "..."

    "Can you freaking stop flirting!" Wang GuiYing cried out.

    Li Ling snickered as he ignored Wang GuiYing and responded to Mastermo, "You can pounce on me when we get home."

    Zhihao''s eyes slightly widened in surprise, "Deal! You can''t take that back!"

    Li Ling smiled brightly as he nodded in response, "I wouldn''t dare go back on my word."

    Li Ling attacked the creature with his air gun and the creature didn''t look to be the least bit disturbed.

    It was only now that Zhihao had taken a good look at the creature.

    Its body was made out of metal, really dirty and rusty metal that looked fragile, and yet at the same time, it also seemed to be indestructible. It didn''t have a distinct body. It looked somewhat like a baby snake, however, Zhihao was sure that it wasn''t a snake because snakes had a freaking face!

    A face consisted of a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth, at least that was the minimum requirement for Zhihao to call it a face. This creature clearly failed to meet those easy criteria. It had no nose and no eyes, however, it did indeed have a mouth that gulped down a whole lot of Ribots in a single attack.

    There was no doubt about it, this was a creature that closely resembled an overgrown earthworm. A really obese one...

    When Zhihao tried to steal a peek inside its mouth, he couldn''t help but scrunch his face up in disgust. There were no teeth but there was sharp and spiky machinery inside that looked to grind anything that went into its mouth.

    Zhihao could only hope that he doesn''t end up being ground like the other unlucky Ribots.

    Without wasting further time, he gulped and decided to seriously attack the creature with the intention to kill it.

    He took a sharp breath in as he commanded his 3X Ribot army to spread out in smaller groups of ten and surround the earthworm from all sides.

    Zhihao smirked as he aimed his shoulder-fired missile towards the creature''s open mouth. It was unclear if he was trying to distract the creature''s attention or actually trying to attack it with the intention of hurting it.

    After a few shots, he ran out of missiles, however, this didn''t affect Zhihao''s movement too much.

    He abandoned his shoulder-fired missile and equipped another explosive weapon.

    This weapon was called the RB23 long fire.

    The RB23 long fire wasn''t a special weapon. Its overall stats were comparatively lower than other better weapons. Its accuracy rate was the lowest of the low and it was simply too hard to control. However, there was at least one thing that was good about it and it was the power of this monstrous weapon.

    Its overall stats may not be impressive since most of them were near zero and one, but there was one particular stat that made it stand out from the rest. The damage stat.

    The damage level was pretty high, in fact, it was as high as a weapon could get. A whopping five bars of damage clearly made this weapon the perfect choice in a fight where you''ll need all the strength you can get.

    This RB23 long fire was perfect for this war, however, there was just a tiny problem with it.

    The first shot Zhihao fired hit an innocent building that was doing nothing but standing in the complete opposite direction.

    Zhihao sighed as he patiently got ready to shoot again.

    The problem was the accuracy rate. Nobody could predict where this weapon would decide to go and blow up. It was like a firecracker that couldn''t be controlled no matter how hard you try.

    There were even certain cases when the weapon had backfired and killed the players using them instead of the intended target.

    This was also the reason why Zhihao would always hesitate to use this weapon. The best choice of action in most cases was to not choose this weapon at all, but the situation right now was different. He was desperate to beat this monster and in this dire desperation, Zhihao could think up of nothing better.

    They needed to beat this monster as soon as possible cause if they waited long enough, the rest of the Ribix army would be arriving soon.

    Zhihao shot the RB23 long fire again and once again it completely missed the target, hitting a tree and destroying it completely in the process.

    "Damn it..." Zhihao cursed under his breath and glanced up at Li Ling who was trying his best to attack the Ribix earthworm from a safe distance.

    Li Ling was surely working hard and so naturally Mastermo would also be inspired to work just as hard.

    He reset the weapon again and aimed it at the open mouth of the creature.

    This time... It hit the ground and made a huge hole in it.

    "..." Zhihao really wanted to curse at the developers of this weapon and ask them why the hell they made such a uselessly stupid thing!!

    Who would ever want to use this?! The aim is just sh*t!!

    Zhihao, the one who had chosen to use it, gritted his teeth as he thought and cursed in his mind.

    He had failed three times so he thought the fourth time would do the trick, however, he was once again frustrated to see that this time, it blasted away a part of his own Ribot army!

    He threw the weapon on the ground harshly and stomped on it, "Hell with you!!"

    He took a sharp breath in before picking up the weapon again and muttering to himself, "Fifth time is always lucky."

    Not even a minute later, when the weapon shot towards the sky and never came down, Zhihao threw the weapon and kicked it away as he cursed, "Damn you unlucky fifth!!"

    At the end of the day, this amazing weapon could not be used as it immediately broke after being kicked away by Zhihao.

    Zhihao gritted his teeth as he flipped through his inventory and even after flipping through it again and again, he still could not find anything that caught his eye.

    He closed his inventory in dissatisfaction and decided to abandon all thoughts of using any transferable weapons.

    Zhihao smirked as he immediately got a brand new idea.

    He opened his skill menu and activated a skill he never thought he would be activating.

    [Skill: Master of Survival has been activated!]

    [For the next ten minutes, no matter what happens, the heavens would be on your side and you''ll be able to survive.]

    "Great," He mumbled happily as he went to the other menu and read through all the in-game perks his character Captain Burn had.

    It only took him a few minutes to read through all of it and understand what could be used and what couldn''t.

    In the next minute, he raised his left foot and activated his shoes. There was a burst of air mixed with blue flames coming from under his shoes and he immediately jumped up to see if it worked just like its specifications.

    For the first time in life, Zhihao got the feeling of knowing what it''s like to fly.

    At first, it was a bit hard to control, but it eventually got a bit easier. If Zhihao were told to explain the feeling, he would certainly say that the feeling was as if you were wearing air skates. Skates that worked in the air and not on the ground.

    He went over to Li Ling''s side immediately and asked, "You have another one of those Imbis?"

    Li Ling seemed to be a bit surprised as he questioned back, "Why are you asking?"

    Zhihao smiled but instead of giving a straight answer, he responded with, "Answer me first."

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he nodded, "I have it."

    "Great!" Zhihao exclaimed, "Give me one."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but be distracted from the fight as he turned to look at Zhihao with a face that seemed to give out his feelings. He was suspicious of Zhihao.

    "What are you planning on doing with it?"

    Zhihao simply smiled as he reassured, "Just trust me, Gege."

    Li Ling was silent for a minute but in the end, he still sighed as he caved into Zhihao''s wish and handed over an unused Imbis to Zhihao.

    "Don''t do anything stupid with it," Li Ling warned. For some odd reason, he had a gut feeling that Zhihao was planning on doing something super stupid.

    Zhihao smiled brightly as he took the Imbis and thanked Li Ling for it, "I won''t do anything stupid. Thanks!"

    Before Li Ling could say anything further, he saw Zhihao aiming straight for the creature''s mouth with the Imbis in his hand.

    "..." Li Ling''s eyes went wide in panic.

    You said you won''t do anything stupid!!

 Chapter 175 - Li Ling Is Really Angry This Time

    Time seemed to stop for Li Ling as he looked at Zhihao''s suicidal action.

    The man really just took the Imbis and yeeted himself into that creature''s mouth!

    If this wasn''t something stupid, Li Ling had no idea what a ''stupid action'' was even supposed to mean.

    His feet froze and by the time he reacted, it was already too late.

    Li Ling jumped after Zhihao, his hand reaching out to grab the other, but just when Zhihao''s leg was a few feet close to his hands, the earthworm sprang forward and closed its mouth on Zhihao, gulping him down in the process.

    Li Ling''s eyes seemed to look as if they would pop out from their socket at any given moment now. He stopped breathing for a split second and felt the world around go numb and silent, the only thing that he could see was the creature''s closed mouth.

    It took him a whole minute to finally cry out, "Noooo!!!!"

    Wang Guiying frowned as he looked at Li Ling who seemed to look a lot like a poor wife that had lost her husband.

    "Snap out of it! It''s just a game!" Wang GuiYing clicked his tongue as he kinda cringed at the melodramatic atmosphere.

    Sure, it was just a game, but this game was being played inside the T.I.A.D. sensory room!

    Zhihao who was confident that he would not die suddenly felt pain. Immense pain that made his head spin like crazy. The sharp and spiky metal inside the earthworm''s mouth successfully caught a good hold of him. It dug into his skin and he felt as if he was being ground into a dumpling filling. His skin immediately started bleeding and he couldn''t even tell what part of his body hurt more.

    "Everything hurts!!"

    "Aaaaah!!"

    "IT HURTS!!"

    He screamed and cried out, but nobody could hear him. The pain made him want to curl up into a ball, but every small moment made him hurt even more.

    "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!" Tears started rolling down his eyes as he continued to scream for help.

    It need not be said that this was the first time he had to go through such pain.

    He hated it. He felt as if death was better than this.

    He couldn''t even remember what his plan was. He was no longer in the right mind or state to remember anything about the Imbis.

    All he could feel was pain and this pain had completely overtaken his brain.

    His voice broke as he screamed out. He felt as if he just wanted to end it all. He looked down to see his legs being slowly ground together as if it was nothing more than scrap metal.

    The suit he was wearing was somehow protecting him and at the same time, the more the metal shoes he was wearing were crunched together, the more it broke and poked into his skin.

    His leg was completely stuck and he almost wanted to unequip his suit, however, the little bit of sanity left in his mind forced him not to make such a reckless decision. If the suit was unequipped, there would be nothing left to protect him. The grinding machinery inside the earthworm''s mouth would directly mince him into a fine paste of meat.

    He started taking shorter breaths and wanted to kill himself to end the pain.

    The metal suit got tighter and tighter, the broken sharp shards dug deeper and deeper, the bleeding continued and Zhihao was no longer in any condition to be fighting.

    All he could do was wait for his death and for a few minutes, that was exactly what he did.

    He waited for the pain to be over. He waited for death to arrive soon, but just then, he heard Li Ling''s voice calling out to him.

    "A-Zhi, wake up! It''s a game! Don''t let it control you! Nothing is real!!"

    The voice was screaming and it wasn''t exactly coming from his headphone, it was coming from Li Ling how was screaming on top of his lungs in the T.I.A.D. sensory room.

    Just like he could hear Li Ling over the headphone, Li Ling could also hear Zhihao''s heart-wrenching screams.

    "A-Zhi, you can do it! Stand up! Come on!"

    Although the voice was faint, it was still clear that Li Ling was yelling, however, Zhihao could only hear his voice like a sweet melody that instantly gave him a boost to stand and fight.

    "I hate this..." Zhihao muttered as he took a sharp breath in and tried his best to collect himself.

    Right at this moment, he felt one of his legs completely being torn off, the pain was something that he would never be able to explain in simple words, however, he kept repeating Li Ling''s words in his mind.

    This was a game.

    It was just a game!

    Don''t let it control you!

    Zhihao choked on his own saliva as he tried to hold back his screams and cries.

    He took the Imbis in his hand and immediately, with much difficulty, detonated it.

    The explosion from the Imbis was controlled to affect the earthworm''s whole body and nothing more, however, since Zhihao was also inside its body, he would naturally be affected.

    The timer was set for just three seconds and Zhihao immediately closed his eyes as he gripped tightly onto the Imbis and prayed to God for it not to hurt too much.

    [3]

    [2]

    [1]

    BOOM

    It was so loud that as soon as the countdown was over, all Zhihao could hear was a monotonous ringing sound. Everything went white and unexpectedly, it didn''t hurt.

    The pain he was already going through also seemed to have faded away with that one blast.

    For a few seconds, he couldn''t see anything even when he opened his eyes and his whole body felt as if it was just... Numb. His ears were ringing and made him think that he had gone deaf.

    Ding~

    [Skill: Master of survival has caused you to glitch!]

    [Skill: Master of survival has been exhausted!]

    Zhihao sighed in relief as he heard the notification.

    Thankfully he was still alive. Probably...

    His vision started changing once again as he finally saw the colors fill the white void.

    He was falling down. His whole body felt light and weak but his hand still reached up to grab onto something, however, there was nothing he could grab onto. Zhihao closed his eyes slowly as he let himself come to terms with his condition.

    He was probably going to hit the ground and die as soon as he was saved by his ''Master of Survival'' skill.

    Damn it...

    He had been stupid.

    The Imbis has caused his skill to be completely drained out.

    His lips curled up in a weak smile as he wondered how he was going to apologize to Li Ling who had warned him not to be stupid.

    He sighed as he waited for the impact to come but it never came and instead, he felt something grab his hand and his whole body jerked upwards.

    Zhihao immediately opened his eyes wide as he looked at the metal arm that had caught a hold of him and pulled him up.

    "Gege...!"

    Li Ling had his helmet off as he glared at Zhihao whom he had just saved, "Are you f*cking dumb?!" He didn''t waste any time before scolding the man who had done the dumbest thing he had ever seen.

    Zhihao gulped but said nothing to that. For a minute, he was genuinely scared to look at Li Ling''s face that seemed to have become the definition of anger.

    He was definitely fuming.

    Zhihao had really done it this time.

    Zhihao gulped as he grinned, "I''m sorry...?"

    Li Ling pulled him up and slowly landed on the ground with him, but as soon as Zhihao''s feet touched the ground, he was immediately knocked off his feet by Li Ling who directly punched his face.

    Zhihao was left stunned as he felt the pain numb half of his face. Li Ling really didn''t hold back in that punch.

    Zhihao chuckled as he grabbed his cheek and looked at Li Ling before commenting, "It must have been hard for you. I''m sorry. You can punch me again if you feel like-"

    His words were cut short by Li Ling who grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up before aggressively kissing his lips.

    It seemed like he wanted to punch him again, but he couldn''t display his anger like that so instead of a punch, he decided to show his anger in a more nonabusive manner.

    Zhihao was shocked once again as he dare not move. He felt his lip sting and it took him a whole minute to realize that Li Ling had harshly bit into his lips.

    Before he could respond, Li Ling pushed him back and cried out, "I''m still angry!"

    Zhihao gulped as he watched Li Ling display anger in such a confusing manner and walk away as if nothing had ever happened.

    It surprised and confused Zhihao so much that for a really long time, he simply stood there and watched Li Ling''s back slowly walk away from him.

 Chapter 176 - Li Ling Is Angry As Hell

    "Ah... W-wait!" Zhihao cried out as he came back from the shock and ran after Li Ling, but before he could even grab the man''s shoulder, Li Ling glared back and made Zhihao gulp in fear at the icy glare.

    "Stand back or fight properly!" Li Ling gritted out, "Don''t get yourself in trouble."

    Zhihao had never liked it when somebody controlled him or ordered him to do something, but at this moment, Zhihao dare not dislike it.

    He reluctantly nodded his head as he responded, "I''ll... Fight properly."

    Li Ling didn''t bother saying or looking at Zhihao as he fully turned his back on the man and continued to walk away..

    With the help of the Imbis and Zhihao''s suicidal plan, they were able to defeat the earthworm Ribix, however, the war was still not over.

    This was the mere start of it.

    Once the giant creature was defeated, more Ribix flocked to the scene and the true war started.

    Zhihao felt a shiver run down his spine as he saw all the Ribix creatures running, crawling, and flying towards them in uncountable numbers.

    Huge groups that looked to be viciously glaring at them with all their fangs and teeth on display as they growled and hissed.

    Zhihao looked down at himself to see that his body was no longer hurting. It seemed that the glitch that was caused by ''Master of survival'' had not only saved him from dying but it had also healed his body completely.

    He still felt a bit weak, but at least there were no injuries that he would have to worry about.

    He immediately transformed his suit and his left hand changed into an air gun while his right hand changed into a flame-throwing gun.

    He activated his shoes and slowly started to hover above the ground. He had almost gotten used to this feeling of skating on air so when he ''flew'' once again, he could control his speed and direction more steadily.

    He ordered his 3X Ribot army to attack the Ribix army that was heading for them.

    He could clearly see that the number of Ribot''s he now controlled had lessened because of the earthworm, however, there was still a good amount of Ribots left behind and for Zhihao, it was enough to defeat this army of Ribix that was heading for them.

    He was confident that he could defeat most of them by himself.

    The biggest problem which was the giant earthworm Ribix, had already been solved so Zhihao was a bit more confident to destroy the rest of the Ribix army.

    He flew all the way over to the other side to face the Ribix directly and the first Ribix creature that sprang at him was a lion that was rather huge in size, almost the same size as 4 or 5 humans.

    Zhihao smirked as he didn''t falter in his attack. He immediately aimed his right-hand fire gun at the lion ribix and shot without any sense of hesitation.

    The Ribix was a bit thrown off as it felt the heat burning its face, however, it was not enough for the creature to retreat.

    Right when it closed its mouth on Zhihao, all it could bite into was empty air as Zhihao seemed to have disappeared from sight.

    The Ribix was visibly confused as it looked around to find Zhihao but Zhihao who had equipped the moon goddess spellbook at the right moment suddenly popped up behind the creature.

    Before the Ribix could even realize that its enemy had tricked it, the creature was shot with an air gun to its butt.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but chuckle as he saw the creature immediately flinching and jumping like a cat.

    The Lion turned back to look at whatever had attacked it, but all it was met with was a heavy punch to the face. Zhihao transformed his handgun into a hand for just a few seconds before changing them back to a gun and aiming it at other Ribix.

    When Zhihao saw that the moon goddess spellbook could help him so much at this moment, he kept it by his side just in case of an emergency and whenever a Ribix attacked him and he was almost caught in the attack, he would simply activate the moon goddess spellbook and save himself for a few seconds before popping up a few feet away and taking the Ribix by surprise.

    The Ribix reacted just like any other animal would. It was smart, but not smart enough and hence within a few minutes, Zhihao had already defeated more than twenty Ribix, all different kinds of Ribix.

    Wang GuiYing, who glanced at him for not more than a few seconds suddenly chuckled as he cried out excitedly, "Mastermo is back in the game!"

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he heard this comment and mentally thought: I was always in the game, you idiot.

    For the first time in forever, Wang GuiYing was also working hard. He was trying his best to fight against the army and he didn''t look any less amazing than Mastermo.

    If the two were to be compared, it could be clearly seen that they were almost at the same level.

    It was still a wonder how Mastermo was still at the top of the leader board while Wang GuiYing was somewhere down on it. Maybe this was the result of Wang GuiYing''s laziness and unbothered personality that never wanted to put in the effort or go through the trouble.

    Zhou Xinyi was also working pretty hard as he crushed everything that came his way. He had the advantage of having a big Ribot body and hence, he didn''t need to do any fancy moves or use strategies to defeat the Ribix. All he needed to do was slam them and crush them under the weight of his heavy metal body.

    With everyone fighting alongside their Ribot army, it was only natural that it looked as if they had the upper hand, however, this was not the case.

    Some of the Ribots had been easily defeated by the Ribix because their body had been too old and weak or broken prior to this. Hence their Ribot army was also decreasing in numbers.

    At first glance, it looked as if they could hold back the Ribix army, but to defeat them completely was still nothing more than a hopeful case.

    It need not even be said that Li Ling was also fighting fiercely. The anger he held towards Zhihao was displaced onto the Ribix army that attacked him and in just a few seconds, he defeated more than ten Ribix with his hostile attacks that didn''t seem to be playing around.

    He was attacking to kill them and hence it came as no shock that he was able to kill them with a single blow and sometimes if the Ribix was stubborn enough to live through his first attack, it would certainly be murdered in a more ruthless manner with the second attack.

    Leyah, who was fighting alongside them with her army of white mecha-suited soldiers was also not doing much of a bad job. She was amazing and strong in her own way, however, compared to the others, she was still not able to fight and kill like them.

    She seemed to look a bit more merciful with her attacks and this only got more of her soldiers hurt and killed in the process.

    In a war, mercy was the last feeling that you were supposed to have.

    Sympathy, pity, and mercy were all feelings that would never belong to a battlefield and these were the exact feelings that seemed to be holding her back.

    Surprisingly, a few minutes after the war had started, in the midst of the chaos, they could clearly hear a girl screaming at the top of her lungs and nobody needed to even look in order to guess who was the owner of such a high-pitched scream.

    Who else could it be but Rei, or rather, Laura, who was forced to join the war with them.

    It seemed that her surgery had gone smoothly and she had only recently recovered from all her injuries when she was suddenly attacked by all the Ribix that were attracted to her because of the Ribot gemstone and managed to creep into Utopia in search of her.

    "Captain Liv! I really hate you!!" She shrieked on top of her lungs as she took a weapon and slammed it onto everything that came her way.

    She had really gone crazy or maybe she was just crazy, to begin with, cause the Ribix wasn''t the only thing she was attacking.

    She was attacking ''everything'' she could see.

    Not only the Ribix but also the Ribots and the white-mecha suited soldiers.

    She had no control over her own attacks as she slammed her weapon onto anything that came a few feet near her.

    Leyah who saw this couldn''t help but cry out with a frown, "Are you f*cking crazy?!"

    "You!! Better shut your mouth!!" Laura shouted back with unhidden hostility as she added, "If you survive this war, you''re first on my killing list!"

    Leyah pursed her lips as she concluded that it was stupid of her to even ask that question.

    Laura had clearly lost her mind a long time ago.

 Chapter 177 - Li Ling Uses The Imbis

    With nothing stopping her, Laura was probably the one with the most kills in the least amount of time, however, the kills counted included both Ribix and Ribots.

    The only ones that she didn''t attack were perhaps her own army that entered the battle with her.

    She brought out her secret powerful weapon and an army filled with soldiers that wielded this same weapon that was specially made to defeat Ribix.

    With just a single attack, the weapon was able to directly take the life of the Ribix without fail.

    This was her secret backup plan that she had hidden and was meant to be used after the war was over. The purpose of this special army was to kill off all the survivors that had fought the war, but unfortunately, Laura''s plans were crushed when Captain Liv somehow saw through her plan and forced her to bring out her secret card.

    However, she couldn''t even do anything against Captain Liv. She was completely caught up in the war and had no time to search for Captain Liv in order to take her revenge, but of course, this didn''t mean that she had forgotten or forgiven Captain Liv for tricking her.

    Since she now had a Ribot gemstone implanted in her body, the Ribix saw her as a sweet candy and attacked her with no hesitation..

    Laura was ruthless as she cut them, crushed them, and shot them.

    Leyah couldn''t help but look at Laura one last time as she questioned, "What about Utopia? Is it... Are the people safe?"

    She was a bit reluctant to hear the answer to that question, however, since she had already asked the question, she would naturally have to listen to the answer as well.

    Laura didn''t bother looking at her as she shouted back, "Utopia is safe for now!" She scoffed as she added, "The main gate was sealed."

    Leyah was a bit surprised to hear this since the only one who could seal off the main gate was Laura and she was also the one who wanted to kill off half the population of Utopia hence for her to save them was something shocking for Leyah.

    Li Ling who had somehow managed to hear this couldn''t help but smirk proudly, not letting it affect his fight with the Ribix.

    Wang GuiYing looked at the screaming girl who had joined the fight and started killing everything. He frowned as he cried out, "Who the hell are you?!"

    Although he had never seen her before, he was still somehow against her. He didn''t like her at all.

    If she had just killed the Ribix that was attacking them, maybe he wouldn''t have been so annoyed by her, but she just had to kill all the Ribots as well. Among the Ribots she killed, XY Ribots were also included, and since they were all solely controlled by Zhou Xinyi, Wang GuiYing was annoyed at this lunatic.

    Laura seemed to have heard him, however, she didn''t bother responding as she acted as if he didn''t even exist.

    If there was one thing Wang GuiYing completely hated, it was probably being ignored.

    He stopped fighting the Ribix and headed for Laura instead and without even seeing who it was, she directly attacked him, however, her weapon was caught by Wang GuiYing who single-handedly snatched the weapon away and punched her with the other hand.

    "If you want to play around, go home! Don''t come here and display your psychotic tendencies! You better not kill his Ribots again!" Wang Guiying warned as he glared at her.

    Laura was taken back and a bit scared as she gulped.

    The ''his'' in the warning was referring to Zhou Xinyi who was doing nothing to stop Laura from killing his XY Ribots because he simply thought that she was supposed to be on their side.

    Leyah who saw the whole scene couldn''t help but feel satisfied as she cheered on for Wang GuiYing, "She deserved that! Kick her too!"

    Laura instantly sent a glare her way, but it was not enough to wipe off the smirk on Leyah''s face.

    Wang GuiYing confiscated her weapon and turned around as he warned out one last time, "If you kill even one of the XY Ribots, I wouldn''t be so kind next time."

    All Laura could do was grit her teeth and spit out blood in anger.

    She had no weapon, however, when a Ribix attacked her, one of her special soldiers moved forward to protect her.

    Laura immediately climbed back up to her feet and snatched the special soldier''s weapon before kicking him away as she once again joined the fight, and continued to kill everything that came her way, however, this time, she was careful not to attack any XY Ribots.

    Wang GuiYing used the method of threatening and it was quite effective on her who feared what the man would do to her next if she hurt one more of those gigantic Ribots.

    Leyah couldn''t help but chuckle as she noticed this. She immediately turned her head towards Wang GuiYing and exclaimed, "I like you! You''re awesome!"

    Wang GuiYing didn''t even bother turning his head towards her as he smirked proudly and muttered, "Of course, you do. I''m BBtrash! I collect hearts like people collect pokemon cards."

    Thankfully Leyah didn''t hear this, cause if she did, she would have certainly taken back her words.

    Wang GuiYing once again joined Zhou Xinyi''s side and smiled happily as he showed off his newly snatched weapon, "This thing is quite useful!"

    Zhou Xinyi turned his head to look at Wang GuiYing and nodded as if agreeing with the man.

    Although Zhou Xinyi had the head of an emotionless XY Ribot, Wang GuiYing could somehow sense that the man was probably smiling at this moment.

    At this exact moment, Li Ling got his leg bitten into by an Aligator ribix. He pursed his lips as he took out an Imbis and threw it at the Ribix before crying out for Zhihao, "Captain Burn!"

    Zhihao immediately turned his head and reacted. It didn''t take him any more than a few seconds to see the situation and understand what Li Ling wanted him to do.

    He activated his Moon goddess spellbook and sucked Li Ling inside it.

    Li Ling controlled the explosion to affect every Ribix that was within a kilometer of its range. Since the explosion was controlled carefully, all the Ribots and humans were safe from the explosion that blew up all the Ribix.

    The Imbis was said to have an explosion that could be controlled to be as small or as large as possible with not many restrictions, however, this was false. There were some things that only the owner or the one who studied this explosive would know.

    The explosion could be controlled, but if the Imbis was near the owner, the owner would not be able to avoid it no matter what. The other restriction was, of course, the area that could be covered by the explosion.

    If the owner could see it even slightly, the area would be within the range of the attack, however, if the owner of Imbis planned on aiming for an area that he/she couldn''t see, the explosion would naturally not work as planned.

    If they were in a plain field and could see far away, they could make the Imbis blow everything away, however, if the area was not within their line of sight, the explosion would not affect it.

    Li Ling''s line of sight could stretch out as far as a kilometer or less, hence all the Ribix that were outside of that range were naturally not affected by the explosion.

    As soon as the explosion was over, the dust and smoke filled the air, partially blocking out everyone''s sight.

    Zhihao deactivated the moon goddess spellbook once again and Li Ling was immediately thrown out of it.

    He coughed twice as he landed on the floor, his feet hitting the ground and making more dust rise up.

    "Thank you," He muttered to Zhihao who smiled in turn.

    "It''s my job to protect you," Zhihao used this chance to slip in another cheesy line that made Li Ling frown and at the same time, it also made his heart feel warm.

    Li Ling was still mad at him so all he did was shrug his shoulder and walk away as he heard this.

    Zhihao didn''t seem to mind it too much as he smiled and said nothing more. Well... It was his fault for being so reckless and almost getting himself killed.

    Wang GuiYing frowned as he looked ahead and spoke up, "It''s not over yet!"

    Even though all the Ribix near them were turned into nothing more than leftover shards of metal and bluish green grease, the war was yet to be over.

    The second wave of Ribix also arrived and this time, Li Ling warned everyone beforehand, "I have no more Imbis left!"

    He heard Wang GuiYing curse as he heard this and Zhihao only chuckled as he responded, "That''s okay. It''s not like we''re that useless."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but smirk softly as he heard this, "So Mastermo is pretty confident now that you outlived that grinder?"

    He was clearly taunting him, but Zhihao still smiled as he heard this, "I''m confident because I have to protect my boyfriend who''s mad at me."

    "..."

 Chapter 178 - Li Lings Heart Has Been Warmed

    "Keep your cheesy lines to yourself," Li Ling responded without even looking at Zhihao.

    Zhihao snickered as he questioned back, "If I keep them to myself, what''s the use of making them?"

    "..."

    "Rather than hiding it all away till I die, I''d want to express my undying love more," Zhihao added.

    Li Ling sighed as he decided to simply ignore it. He didn''t let it show on his face, but he was certainly happy and his heart couldn''t help but feel warm as he heard Zhihao being so bold.

    Leyah squinted as she opened her mouth to say something but shut it again as she decided against it.

    In her mind, the question was really bugging her, but she dare not voice it out at such a critical moment..

    Since when were Captain Liv and Captain Burn together like that?!

    The last she checked, they were supposed to be nothing more than good friends who worked well together.

    They had such a relationship hidden behind their innocent facade of friends and comrades?!

    It was certainly shocking to know this.

    Wang GuiYing couldn''t help but sneer as he reminded everyone that it was really not the time and place to flirt, "With all your love confessions, you''ll get us killed."

    "..."

    "Why not save it for the bedroom?" Wang GuiYing sounded salty, however, everyone could confidently say that there was no jealousy or any such feeling behind his words. In fact, he wasn''t even mocking or teasing them. He was genuinely telling them to save the flirting for the bedroom!

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this, "I have a lot more stored up for then."

    Wang GuiYing had a concerned expression on his face as he suddenly saw Zhihao in a new light and he wasn''t the only one who was thoroughly shocked by such a comment.

    Li Ling couldn''t help but blink as he replayed it in his mind and questioned if he had heard it right.

    He wasn''t daydreaming... Right?!

    Zhihao only chuckled and acted as if he was completely innocent as he spoke up, "Let''s go and kick their ass!"

    Wang GuiYing was still a bit shocked so when he opened his mouth to say the words ''yes'', instead of saying what he wanted, the words "So bold..." rolled out of his tongue.

    Li Ling shook his head as he responded, "You go attack their ass. Don''t come after mine."

    It took a whole minute of Zhihao replaying that comment in his mind but even after that minute was over, he was still unable to understand what Li Ling meant to say.

    Wang GuiYing''s face right now looked nothing lesser than a meme as he kept staring at the two crazy players who would find time to flirt even in the middle of a bloody battle.

    Li Ling wasted no time in running ahead towards the second wave of ribix army.

    After helplessly and fruitlessly trying to decipher what Li Ling had meant, Zhihao finally decided to shake his head and let it go as he equipped another weapon and headed after Li Ling.

    He immediately activated his shoes and with a speed faster than Li Ling''s pace, he overtook the man and was the first to meet the second wave of ribix army head-on.

    The ribix eagerly greeted him with their jaws hanging open and their canines on display. Their sharp claws waiting to dig into Zhihao''s skin.

    They seemed to be filled with energy and hatred as they sprang at him ruthless without any sense of hesitation.

    Zhihao was also the same.

    He kicked one in the face, shot another''s head, and crushed the one that tried to attack him from the side. If a Ribix got too close, he used the same trick that he had previously been using which was basically activating the moon goddess spellbook.

    Li Ling was also not far behind him and hence all the ribix that had managed to slip through Zhihao''s attacks were attacked by Li Ling who looked to be even more merciless than the creatures who were supposed to be merciless.

    He smashed their heads onto the ground and completely destroyed them. Any ribix that had been attacked by Li Ling would have no chance of survival.

    Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi also followed soon after and joined the war against the second wave.

    Leyah couldn''t help but look down at her leg that had been bitten by a ribix previously. She had somehow managed to hold on till now, but if she were to fight again, she wasn''t sure if she would be able to live through it.

    Laura seemed to have seen her hesitation and it made the girl sneer, "What now? You afraid or something?"

    "..." Leyah gritted her teeth in annoyance but said nothing to that.

    Laura was unsatisfied with this lack of response and hence she decided to poke further, "If you go out there like that, you''ll only end up being a snack for them."

    Leyah''s eyes narrowed on Laura as she asked, "What about you? You''re not even good enough to be treated as food. You''ll just be trampled on the ground."

    Laura looked to be offended as she immediately cried out, "You dare!"

    Leyah scoffed as she asked, "Am I wrong? By now, I expected you to learn your own value. How come you''re so dense not to understand where your place is?"

    Laura took a sharp breath in as she rudely pointed at Leyah, "You! Better take that back before I make you choke on your own words!"

    Leyah smirked as she tilted her head and asked, "How do you plan on doing that? You can''t make me choke for sh*t."

    "..."

    "Spouting nonsense is all you can do," Leyah sneered as she turned to join the fight.

    Laura gritted her teeth and loudly stomped her feet on the ground as she exclaimed, "I''ll make you regret being born!"

    "The only thing I regret in life is getting to know trash like you," Leyah attacked her with her words one last time before deciding to really ignore the girl and help the two captains out.

    So what if she was a bit injured? It wasn''t like she was dying!

    Actually, even if she was dying, she would rather want to help win the war with her death.

    Being a suicide cell needed to win the war didn''t sound too bad for her.

    Laura was obviously agitated and steered up by Leyah''s words and she displaced all that anger and annoyance on the ribix.

    This seemed to be Leyah''s goal in angering the girl. When Leyah heard the sound of Laura ruthlessly fighting while also unknowingly putting her own life in danger, she couldn''t help but smirk in satisfaction as if this had been already predicted by her.

    Laura was smart but she was also a person obsessed with being first. She loved authority and she considered herself better than others. With this kind of thinking, it was only natural that she wouldn''t let anyone slander her name. She would go crazy and forget about everything just to prove that person wrong.

    She was a simple person who was easy to predict.

    As long as you knew her weakness, controlling her was not hard.

    At this exact moment, suddenly a Ribix that looked like a metallic bull attacked Wang GuiYing who was already busy fighting against another Ribix.

    The pointy sharp horns on the head of the ribix were positioned facing front. The bull picked its feet up and confidently charged right up to blow Wang GuiYing away, however, the only thing the bull was able to blow away was dust.

    Zhou Xinyi was fighting and silently guarding Wang GuiYing at the same time, hence if there was a ribix that planned on attacking this man, that ribix might as well just change its plans and attack someone else.

    Wang GuiYing smiled proudly as he saw Zhou Xinyi crushing those horns on the bull ribix''s head.

    "Thank you!" He beamed.

    Zhou Xinyi lightly nodded his head as he heard this.

    Another half an hour passed and after fighting for so long, Zhihao couldn''t help but feel extremely tired.

    He felt as if his arm was about to fall off. As if his legs would give out on him at any moment now and his head had already started to ache at the loud roaring and growling of the ribix.

    If he were to listen to them for a minute or two, it would have been fine but to hear the same annoying sound for more than half an hour was something that could make anyone''s head hurt.

    Li Ling seemed to have noticed Zhihao''s tired expression and hence he spoke up, "Captain Burn, go take a break if you''re tired. Don''t push yourself."

    Zhihao didn''t say anything and simply shook his head stubbornly.

    Li Ling frowned a little as he saw this response, "A-Zhi, I''m not kidding. The tiredness you feel isn''t just a part of the game. It''s real so go and take a break. I''ll handle things here."

    Zhihao smiled thinly as he heard this, "I thought you were mad at me...?"

    "..."

 Chapter 179 - Li Ling Curses In Shock

    "Childish," Li Ling scoffed, "Do whatever you want then!"

    Zhihao smiled as he heard this but said nothing in response.

    He was tired, but that didn''t make him useless. As long as he was still conscious, he would want to keep fighting.

    Zhihao turned around to be met with a Ribix bear that stood taller than him. The two looked at each other for a solid minute before the Bear suddenly growled at Zhihao.

    Zhihao immediately winced as he heard the loud ear-piercing sound and in the next second, he aimed his airgun at the creature and pulled the trigger without any sense of mercy. The bear ate hostile air bullets and immediately shut up.

    "Don''t growl at my face," Zhihao frowned as he kicked the bear''s stomach with force.

    The bear stumbled back and behind it was another Ribix that caused the bear to trip and fall on top of the Ribix behind it.. The Ribix that stood behind him was a pretty small creature, hence, it was immediately crushed under the weight of this fully grown bear.

    Zhihao turned on his feet and shot another Ribix before coming back to finish off this bear. He jumped up and directly landed on the Bear''s chest with force.

    With that one blow to the chest, there was no way the bear would be able to survive, and hence, Zhihao didn''t even bother checking what damage he had done. Looking back to check was nothing more than a waste of time and he didn''t have that much free time.

    "Damn! This war is getting boring!" He heard Wang GuiYing whine.

    Zhihao chuckled as he nodded, "I''ll agree. It''s a bit... too lengthy."

    Wang GuiYing, "Can''t we just blow them up or something?"

    Zhihao, "Sadly, we can''t. We don''t have the explosives to get the job done."

    Wang GuiYing stomped on another Ribix as he cried out in annoyance, "They don''t seem to stop! Where the hell are they all crawling out from?!"

    Zhihao was about to say something to that, but when he opened his mouth, he suddenly heard a female voice scream out in agony and this made him stop. He gulped back his words and turned to look at Leyah who had screamed at the top of her lungs.

    He didn''t even need to ask what had happened because the situation was as clear as day.

    Leyah was laying on the floor with her white-suited soldiers pulling her up by the arm while her one leg was trapped inside a dead Ribix''s mouth.

    Her face looked like the perfect example of what torture truly meant. It was almost the same situation as what Zhihao had experienced when he jumped into that earthworm Ribix''s mouth.

    The more her soldiers pulled and tried to get her out of there, the more agonizing her screams sounded.

    Zhihao was about to say something, but once again, he was beaten to it by someone else.

    "You fools!" Laura cried out as she took one look at the situation, "You''ll rip her apart!"

    The soldiers immediately stopped pulling her out as they heard this.

    Leyah bit her bottom lips as she tried to hold in the pain, but the torture was too much for her to handle so she failed miserably as her lips started to bleed from the biting.

    Laura frowned as she walked over to the suffering girl.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but wonder if it was okay to let her go anywhere near Leyah. What was the guarantee that she wouldn''t try to murder the girl in front of them? She had already threatened to do just that so who was to say that she wouldn''t just think of killing her to end her misery?

    Laura used the weapon she had to break the dead Ribix''s head and dug out Leyah''s leg from its mouth.

    Leyah sighed in relief, however, the pain was still enough to make her choke on her own sigh.

    "Thank you," She muttered as she grabbed her leg that had almost been amputated.

    Laura sneered as she looked at Leyah who was squirming on the ground like a worm, "You don''t need to thank me. Making you suffer is better than killing you."

    "..."

    Oh... So that was why she helped.

    Leyah tried to hold in her pain as she smiled thinly, "I''ll still thank you."

    Laura scoffed and turned on her foot before joining the battle once again.

    All the Ribix that tried to get close to Leyah were killed by her white-suited soldiers as she tried her best to recover as soon as possible. However, unlike the others, she didn''t have a Ribot gemstone implanted in her body and hence, there was no way she would be able to easily recover from that wound.

    She gritted her teeth and veins popped up on her head as she held back the screams and exclamations of pain that were waiting to roll out of her tongue.

    Wang GuiYing glanced at her and asked, "Oye! Can you still fight or not?"

    Leyah took a sharp breath in as she put all her body weight on her left leg that had not been bitten. She tried to straighten her back as she answered, "Don''t worry, I can still fight."

    "No, you can''t," Wang GuiYing responded back.

    "..."

    "Don''t be a hindrance," He added ruthlessly, "You should know your own limits. Just let your little army handle it for you."

    Zhihao almost found that a bit funny coming from Wang GuiYing, a.k.a. BBtrash who was well-known for causing trouble and being a hindrance.

    Just because he decided to be a bit productive in this level didn''t automatically erase his dark history of being a lazy troublemaker.

    The winning T-points in this level were really high and so were their chances of winning, this was probably the main reason why BBtrash was actually trying in this level.

    At this exact moment, Zhihao heard Li Ling curse out.

    "Damn it..."

    Zhihao turned to look at the man and saw him looking up at something with an expression that couldn''t be deciphered. Zhihao immediately followed his line of sight and looked at the thing that had attracted Li Ling''s attention.

    Now that Zhihao looked at the giant thing, he also unconsciously cursed out loud.

    "Sh*t..."

    Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi were also interested to know what had made Li Ling and Zhihao stop like that so they turned their head in unison and looked at the thing that had finally entered the war.

    "That better not be here to fight us," Wang GuiYing commented.

    "I''m sorry to disappoint you but that is definitely here for us," Li Ling responded back without even bothering to take his eyes off of the creature.

    "What the hell is that thing?!" Laura cried out in worry and confusion, "Wasn''t there only one beast?"

    Leyah also looked up and commented, "Only one beast underground... That thing is clearly not something that lives below us."

    Zhihao sighed as he activated his shoes once again, "Well, since it is already here. Why not just give it a warm welcome? It''s not like we are meeting for the first time."

    They had certainly seen it before and in fact, it was the first Ribix they saw when they entered this level.

    It was the spider that had blended itself inside the amusement park by fooling them into thinking that it was a Ferris wheel.

    It was the eight-legged metallic spider ribix that they had once escaped from.

    Wang GuiYing couldn''t help but look at Zhihao as he spoke up, "Captain Burn, you seem to be filled with energy. Go and defeat that monster!"

    "..." Zhihao sighed. He was the opposite of what ''filled with energy'' should look like however when Zhihao heard this, he still decided to nod his head as he responded, "I''ll take it on."

    Li Ling frowned as he snapped his head towards Zhihao, "You want to fight it alone?"

    Zhihao nodded as he smirked, "Don''t underestimate me."

    Li Ling shook his head as he replied, "It''s not me underestimating you."

    Zhihao tilted his head as he asked, "Are you sure about that?"

    Li Ling nodded as he added, "I''m sure that you''ll manage to beat it but I''m not so sure that you''ll be able to return in peace after that."

    "..."

    "I''m afraid you''ll do something suicidal again."

    Zhihao smiled but it was fake. He internally panicked as he wondered how Li Ling was able to see through his future plan.

    If worse comes to worst, Zhihao would definitely not hesitate to put his own life on the line.

    Li Ling, "You''re too predictable."

    Zhihao was about to say something as a response to that but before the words could roll out from his tongue, he heard Leyah cry out.

    "Why are you wasting time?! That thing is moving!"

    Before Zhihao could react to her, Li Ling had already turned to look at her as he reassured, "We''ll take care of that."

    "We?" Zhihao questioned.

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he changed his equipment once again, "You and me. Do you have a problem with that?"

    Zhihao chuckled and shook his head as he asked back, "I love working together with you. Why do you think I''ll have a problem with it?"

    "Good," Li Ling smirked.

 Chapter 180 - Li Ling Goes First

    Li Ling wasted no further time as he activated his shoes and flew towards the head of the giant spider ribix.

    Now that Li Ling had acted first, naturally, Zhihao would also not waste his time standing around. He smiled in satisfaction as he activated his shoes and followed after the man.

    The two flew together as they immediately started to attack the thing with small attacks. They were merely testing what the spider could do. They needed to know its capabilities in order to formulate a plan that could help them beat this monster together.

    "Yo, dumbdumb!" Wang GuiYing called out to Laura, "Don''t just stand around watching them. Get to work!"

    Laura pursed her lips as she heard herself being referred to as ''dumbdumb''

    "Who the hell are you?!" Laura didn''t sound kind at all as she questioned out.

    At this exact moment, a ribix sprang at Wang GuiYing and the man reacted immediately by picking up his hammer and smashing the creature to the ground before looking up to give an answer, "I''m Trash.."

    "..." It was certainly the first time in Laura''s life that she had heard someone proudly call themself ''trash''. It was the first and it would naturally be the last as well.

    Wang GuiYing jumped up and landed on another Ribix''s head, crushing it beneath his feet instantly before he continued, "I''d ask who you are too but I''m not interested to know."

    "..."

    Leyah who heard this couldn''t help but chuckle when she saw Laura''s constipated facial expressions.

    Laura gritted her teeth as she spat out hatefully, "You don''t deserve to know my name!"

    Wang GuiYing smiled thinly but there was no joy in his smile as he replied, "Believe that if it makes you feel better."

    Laura was about to say something more but at this moment, she was stopped by Leyah who reminded her that the battle was still going on, "Stop wasting time and turn around!"

    From the corner of her eyes, Laura saw something approaching her and with Leyah warning her to turn around, it was clear that there really was something that dared to attack her openly like this. She immediately turned on her feet and used her weapon to shoot the head of the ribix that was so bold to attack her from behind.

    Leyah smirked as she asked, "Do you think you''ll survive next time? Stop getting distracted!"

    Laura glanced back at Leyah and sneered, "You should worry more about yourself. Don''t become a dead weight in the battle."

    "Don''t worry, I''m not you. Even if I die, I would still not be considered dead weight."

    "..." Laura took a sharp breath in and decided to completely ignore the girl as she focused on fighting against the Ribix that seemed to never be exhausted by attacking her.

    Leyah also didn''t waste any further time taunting the girl. With her leg still injured, her movements were restricted. She could stand and limp a few steps but if she did anything more, she was surely gonna get herself in big trouble. After all, falling down on a battlefield was like waiting to get trampled to death.

    Leyah was certainly not that stupid.

    She stayed in the same place covered by two or three of her soldiers who made sure that she was well protected. She could not fight anymore but that didn''t stop her from commanding the soldiers.

    Leyah frowned as she looked at the intense battlefield that was filled with Ribix and Ribots.

    She wasn''t fighting now, she was observing and because she was observing, she could clearly see what others could not. The battlefield was lively and active. It was filled with both alive Ribix and a lot of dead ones as well, but it wasn''t just the ribix corpse that filled this entire place.

    They had managed to defeat a lot of the ribix, however, the ribix had also managed to take down a lot of their army.

    Some XY Ribots had been destroyed and fell on other 2X and 3X Ribots, crushing the other beneath its weight and causing even more destruction to their side. Leyah''s own army of soldiers had been reduced to almost less than half its former size.

    Comparatively, Laura''s men seemed to be in a better condition. They had better and more effective weapons which made it more difficult for a ribix to kill them.

    If Leyah were to calculate an approx amount of losses that their side underwent, she would say that more than sixty percent of their army had already been killed off, and included in that sixty percent, only ten percent of soldiers were controlled by Laura.

    The losses on the ribix''s side were much more in number but not as much in percentage. They had a much larger army to begin with and hence, even if a lot of the ribix were killed off and destroyed, their army was still large enough to be considered a threat to them.

    With the new addition of the spider ribix, Captain Burn and Captain Liv were busy and the Ribots they controlled would naturally be affected by the lack of instructions they got.

    Although Li Ling and Zhihao still managed to control their Ribots, they weren''t able to pay too much attention to it since they were already trying to think and find a way to defeat this giant ribix that threatened them.

    Leyah clicked her tongue as she glared at the Ribix that continued to fight and attack without any sense of hesitation. These vicious creatures had been tormenting them for years now. After the first war, humans were forced to go underground. They were forced to live away from the sun and they were forced to do a lot of things they didn''t enjoy doing.

    Leyah''s memories had certainly been messed with, but there was a part of her memory that she could swear was real. It was her family. When she had posed as a tour guide and told Zhihao about her family, she hadn''t lied at all.

    Her family died slowly one by one till there was only her left. To be left alone in this world was not a good feeling, but she continued to suffer through it. She continued to try her best and live because there was something she wanted to achieve and it was called ''revenge''.

    She was mad at everyone.

    She was mad at the two Captains who couldn''t save them from such a fate.

    She was mad at the government that couldn''t do anything to stop the ribix.

    She was mad at Laura who gave the solution of hiding and forgetting.

    She was mad at her family for forcing her to live. She was mad at herself as well because she was helpless at the most critical moments.

    She was mad at so many people, however, she never planned on taking revenge against any of them.

    Her real revenge was against the Ribix who had ruined her world.

    If it weren''t for them, none of this would have happened. If that damned ribix virus hadn''t spread, they would all still be living peacefully in this beautiful world.

    It was their fault!

    Leyah''s hatred against these creatures was strong and there was no way she would ever forgive them. In her heart, they deserved death and in her mind as well, they deserved death.

    She cursed as she realized that if this battle were to continue like this, they wouldn''t be able to defeat the ribix.

    With their decreasing army, there was no way they could take on all of these ribix.

    The only way they would have any chance of survival was if they went all out and focused more on attack rather than defense.

    "Go," Leyah muttered.

    One of the three soldiers who were protecting her turned his head in confusion as he heard this.

    "I said go," She repeated.

    "What do you mean?" The soldier questioned as he pushed back a ribix that had jumped on him.

    Leyah smiled thinly as she took a sharp breath in and cried out, "Go and attack them!"

    The soldier clearly heard this and he could understand this order as well, however, he still didn''t move from his place as he kept protecting Leyah along with the other two.

    Leyah couldn''t help but sigh as she saw the soldier''s stubbornness, "Do you not believe in me?!"

    "..."

    "I told you to go all out! Attack them!" Leyah''s face looked pale as she ordered out, "Abandon defense!"

    The soldier didn''t even bother glancing back at Leyah as he asked, "You want us to give up on you?"

    Leyah scoffed as she heard this. She looked down at her leg that was in a really bad condition.

    "Captain, we won''t let you die," the soldier added.

    Leyah pursed her lips as she took her gun and aimed it at a ribix that was getting ready to attack them. The piercing sound of the bullet was loud and as soon as it hit the target, the ribix was instantly down.

    "Do you think your commander is weak?"

    "..."

    "Even if you chop off both my legs, I still have my arms with me and if you chop off my arms, I can still hold a knife with my mouth."

 Chapter 181 - Li Ling Is Telepathically Communicating Again

    The soldier seemed to chuckle as he heard this, "Captain... Even though we were ordered to follow your commands by Laura, I still consider you as my commander."

    Leyah pursed her lips as she heard this.

    "If I thought you weren''t competent enough to be our commander, even Laura wouldn''t have been able to make me follow you like this."

    "..."

    "I trust you," The soldier added as he continued to fight off the ribix that tried to attack Leyah.

    The other two soldiers also nodded as they spoke up, "We trust you with our lives. It is an honor to have you trust us with yours."

    Leyah sighed as she looked down at her leg once again.

    Damn it...

    She felt a little touched and at the same time, she also felt a little pathetic. She was supposed to be the one protecting them. She was supposed to be their commander. The selfless leader who protects them and this world. Someone strong and competent.

    She was supposed to lead them to victory. She was supposed to complete the sweet promises she made to them. She promised them that this world could be saved and she needed to prove that those weren''t just empty words. She was supposed to be strong!

    A leader is never supposed to fall in a battle. Even if their last few breaths were being spent on the battlefield, they were still supposed to fight. They were supposed to lead their army to victory not have their army protect them.

    A leader who hides behind his/her soldiers was nothing more than a coward who orders people to fight for a selfish cause.

    Leyah couldn''t help but be a bit annoyed at herself as she realized that she was also being forced to become one of those cowards.

    She looked at the soldier and with a dire expression plastered on her face, she spoke up, "If you truly respect me as your captain, you must never refuse the next order I give."

    The soldier turned his face and side glanced at her as he replied, "If it''s something stupid, I won''t follow it."

    "..." Leyah took a sharp breath in as she repeated once again, "If you truly respect me as your commander, you''ll follow it."

    The soldier seemed to be tongue-tied as he heard this. He continued to fight off all the ribix and it seemed as if he was planning on ignoring her.

    Leyah was about to say something more but she was immediately stopped by the soldier who finally found the time to respond to her, "Captain... I respect you."

    Leyah was silent for a minute as she heard this.

    "Zather..." She muttered his name.

    Zather, the one and only soldier who was considered to be close to Leyah. He was supposed to be the second in command. The only people that could order him around were either Laura or Leyah.

    He was also the same white-suited soldier who had found Captain Burn and Captain Liv escaping from the confinement center.

    Leyah trusted him and it seemed that he trusted her as well.

    He had never said anything touching to her. He was a man who was always serious. For him to truly say something emotional was like a rare occasion that one would only be able to experience once in their life if they were lucky enough.

    When Leyah heard his honest reply, she felt touched. She felt as if she was right in trusting this man.

    She almost felt a tear roll down her eyes as she thought about what her next command was going to be. She couldn''t help but feel that she was a bit cruel to him. If she were in his shoes, she would also be heartbroken and disappointed to see her captain give such an order.

    "I, Leyah, the captain of the second rebellion would like to hand over my position to Zather."

    "..." Zather paused as he heard this. His muscles seemed to tense up as he forgot what was happening for a second when he heard this.

    "Zather, from now onwards, you are the leader... Not me," Leyah added as she looked at him.

    Zather scoffed as he asked, "Have you lost it?!"

    Leyah chuckled softly at this response, "No, I''m not crazy yet."

    "I''m not taking it!!"

    "If you respect me, you will."

    "..."

    Leyah smiled warmly as she raised her gun and held it up to her head, "If you don''t agree willingly, I''ll have to force you."

    Zather immediately looked at the soldier standing beside him and gestured for him to take over for some time as he made his way to Leyah.

    He tried to grab Leyah''s hand but Leyah moved away as she put some pressure on the trigger, "I''m not kidding."

    Zather took off his helmet and threw it down on the floor as he glared at her, "Captain! Don''t do this!"

    Leyah pursed her lips as she looked down, refusing to listen to him.

    "Zather, you''ll make a great captain-"

    "Shut up!" Zather snapped as he grabbed the gun and pushed it up.

    The tears that were starting to form in Leyah''s eyes finally poured down as she looked up at him with a pitiful expression.

    "I can''t hold you back!" She yelled at his face.

    Zather was silent as he simply stayed in that same position, glaring down at her.

    "The freedom we dreamt of! The war that we aimed to win! I can''t stand here and hold you back from all that!"

    Zather scoffed as he rolled his eyes, "And you think killing yourself is a better idea?"

    Leyah immediately shook her head as she responded, "No... I don''t want to do this. I want to fight for it too... But I don''t want our resources to be wasted on protecting me when they can be used to win this war. I don''t want to be a hindrance."

    "You''re a coward!" Zather shouted and it stunned Leyah.

    The tears paused as she looked at him with disbelief apparent on her face, "Huh...?"

    "You''re a coward who can''t handle what she started!"

    Leyah gulped as she heard the man accusing her.

    Zather pushed her hand down rudely as he added, "Fine, then! If my leader is a coward like you, I would naturally not want to protect you."

    Leyah looked down as she tried to hide her disappointment in herself.

    "Go! Run away!" Zather sounded angry as he ordered.

    Leyah gulped as she took a minute to react. She lifted her feet and took a few steps, bumping against his shoulder on purpose as she left. She was limping and at first glance it made people think that she was vulnerable and could die at any moment now, but this was the leader of the rebellion so she would naturally not be that pathetic.

    With a gun in hand, although she was absent-minded, she still managed to kill all the ribix that tried to attack her.

    Zather glared at her as she walked away from him but said nothing more.

    After a minute, he cried out, "Abandon defense! Strengthen attacks! Groups of two! Immediately! Support each other! Focus on the left side!"

    Laura who had somehow noticed Leyah walking away couldn''t help but be a little confused as she  shouted, "Where are you running off too?!"

    Leyah said nothing as a response and simply ignored the girl.

    Laura was annoyed and even more confused as she looked at Leyah. Her eyes trailed towards Zather who was acting like his usual self and at the same time, there was this aura around him that made it look as if he was disappointed and angry at something... Or rather, someone.

    Laura was curious to know what had happened, but with just a single glance, she was sure that for some reason, Leyah and Zather were mad at each other and they decided to separate ways, but the reason was still unknown to her and the situation wasn''t exactly optimal to ask them what conflict they had.

    With no response, Laura also decided to mind her own business as she turned and continued to fight the ribix.

    At this moment, Li Ling and Zhihao looked at each other and nodded in unison as if they were telepathically communicating once again.

    Li Ling took out a rope from his inventory and threw one side of it over to Zhihao.

    Zhihao immediately grabbed it and tied it to his back while Li Ling tied the other end of the rope to one of the buildings.

    The rope was pretty long and hence they didn''t have to worry about them running out of it.

    When Li Ling was finished tying it, he looked at Zhihao and gave the signal, "Now!"

    Zhihao smirked as he took out an explosive gun from his inventory and aimed it at the spider ribix.

    The shot did nothing much to the creature, however, it surely managed to catch its attention.

    The eight eyes of the spider ribix turned towards Zhihao in curiosity and annoyance.

    Zhihao simply waved his hand as if trying to say a simple ''hello''.

    The creature lifted its heavy feet and moved towards Zhihao who immediately flew to its side. He shot at the creature once again and forced it to turn again.

 Chapter 182 - Li Ling Forgets That Hes Angry

    Zhihao and Li Ling seemed to have a solid plan and for everyone that was observing their every move, it was quite clear what the plan was, however, for the spider ribix who was too busy trying to catch Zhihao, it wasn''t really a plan it could comprehend.

    Zhihao jumped and spun around the ribix a few times. He went under its legs and the rope tied to his back thoroughly tangled itself around the Ribix.

    The spider ribix open its mouth and tried to shoot a laser beam, however, just when Zhihao saw that ball of light forming in its mouth, he was pulled up by Li Ling who took  aim at the back of the creature''s head and pulled the trigger.

    The creature missed and when it tried to aim again, it could no longer see Zhihao. The creature had eight eyes, but all eight eyes were useless since it looked around frantically in search of Zhihao who was standing above it.

    Zhihao jumped down with force and immediately landed on the creature''s head, thoroughly informing it just where exactly Zhihao had vanished off too.

    Li Ling smirked as he saw the creature''s confusion and annoyance. He jumped down and took a shot at one of its eyes.

    The bullet was extremely strong and paired up with Li Ling''s amazing aim, it was quite hard for it not to hit the mark and do the intended damage.

    One of its eyes immediately blew up and the creature fell back a step.

    The seven eyes of the creature that were still fine immediately glared at Li Ling.

    The spider opened its mouth and this time, there was no laser beam forming in its mouth. In fact, as soon as it opened its mouth, a white web was thrown at Li Ling.

    Li Ling''s eyes widened slightly when he saw this, but he managed to escape on time.

    At this exact moment, Zhihao looked over to see the white web hit the other Ribix instead. This white web wasn''t like a spider''s web. This web was poisonous, or to be more exact, this web was covered in acid.

    As soon as it came in contact with the other ribix, the metallic skin of the ribix immediately melted off.

    "What the hell?!" Zhihao cried out as he saw it, but at the same moment, he seemed to have gotten a great idea.

    "Gege!"

    Li Ling snapped his head towards Zhihao.

    "I have an idea," Zhihao beamed.

    Li Ling seemed to have already realized what that idea was so he smiled mischievously as he responded, "You want to melt them all?"

    Zhihao nodded, "You know what to do."

    Li Ling also nodded in understanding as he jumped down to the ground and aimed at the Spider ribix.

    Although this spider ribix was a part of the ribix army, there was something that made it different from the rest.

    The rest of the ribix didn''t attack each other. They seemed to recognize each other as comrades, however, this spider ribix was different.

    It saw Zhihao and Li Ling as enemies because they attacked him, but it still didn''t see the other ribix as comrades and hence, if they came in between, the spider ribix would still attack and not hesitate to hurt them.

    This was something that Zhihao saw as beneficial for them.

    If this spider didn''t care what it was attacking, Zhihao and Li Ling could direct all its attack towards the other Ribix.

    It was a plan to use the enemy to fight off the enemy.

    If it worked, their chances of winning this war were going to be strengthened.

    Li Ling took another shot at the creature and caught its attention, however, instead of flying and avoiding its attack, Li Ling ran into the war and tried to mix in with the other Ribix.

    Zhihao took this time to order out, "All Ribots! Out of here! Clear the area! Clear!"

    When Wang GuiYing heard this, he frowned as he moved back and Zhou Xinyi also listened to Zhihao. He called back all the XY Ribots and cleared a specific section of the battlefield.

    Laura and Zather looked over at Captain Burn in unison and although they were a bit confused, they could still realize that Captain Burn probably had a plan in mind and hence, they called back their army.

    When Zhihao saw the area being cleared, he smiled slightly in satisfaction.

    He held tightly onto the rope that was tangled around the creature.

    The creature opened its mouth and shot its white web at Li Ling who was running. Since he was running, the attack also followed him and all the ribix that were crowded around him got caught up in this attack.

    "It''s working..." Zhihao muttered with a bit of disbelief and delight.

    The creature continued to shoot out the web till it somehow ran out of it.

    At this moment, Zhihao jumped up and with all his force, he pulled the rope.

    When the rope tightened up, the creature fell forward and hit the ground, crushing hundreds of Ribix under its weight, however, this wasn''t enough to kill off this creature and both Zhihao and Li Ling were well aware of this fact.

    The creature fell down but just because its legs were all tangled up together didn''t mean it was incapable of attacking them.

    It once again raised its head and aimed at Li Ling.

    Zhihao smirked as he waited for the right time.

    Li Ling simply stood there with a smirk on his face. The ribix around him immediately surrounded him with the intent to eat him alive.

    When the spider was done preparing for its laser beam attack and the light ray finally sprang out of its mouth, Zhihao activated the moon goddess spellbook and sucked Li Ling inside it.

    The horde of ribix that were crowded together now turned into melted metal as soon as the laser beam hit them.

    "That''s a lot of damage!" Wang GuiYing exclaimed happily as he saw this, "Good job!"

    Laura also looked to be impressed and was forced to utter the words, "Good thinking."

    Zather only gave a small nod before he turned back to fight against the ribix who was planning on taking a large bite out of his arm.

    Zhihao immediately outstretched his hands forward and deactivated the moon goddess spellbook.

    Li Ling fell down and was caught by Zhihao who was already ready with open arms.

    Li Ling smiled as he patted Zhihao''s shoulder "Good job, A-Zhi."

    For a second there, it seemed as if he had already forgotten all about his anger against Zhihao.

    Zhihao was naturally happy and his happiness caused him to forget that he needed to let Li Ling done.

    Wang GuiYing coughed loudly as he saw the two looking at each other as if they were in some sort of a BL novel.

    The spider Ribix started to struggle in order to stand up and the loud metallic clanking sound managed to snap Zhihao out of his trance.

    Li Ling chuckled as he also remembered that he was initially angry at Zhihao for jumping into the mouth of the giant earthworm ribix.

    His eyes that were forming two little crescents immediately changed as he glared at Zhihao and ordered, "Let me go!"

    Zhihao chuckled as he saw this reaction and he retreated his hand, making Li Ling fall down.

    Li Ling shook his head as he frowned and in the next second, he activated his shoes.

    It took him a few seconds to balance himself, but he was eventually able to not fall to his death.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but laugh as he saw this, "You told me to let go."

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he glared back at him, "So if I say ''let me go'' you would listen to me?"

    Zhihao smiled thinly as he shrugged his shoulders, "Who knows? It depends."

    "..."

    "Oye! Oye! Oye!" Wang GuiYing cried out in worry and it managed to catch their attention, "That thing is standing up!"

    The rope that was tied around the spider ribix was supposed to be unbreakable but it seemed that even the rope could not handle the strength this creature used. It succumbed to the struggle and broke, letting the ribix go free.

    Zhihao felt a bit annoyed, but in the next minute, he thought about how many ribix they were able to take down.

    Just by looking at all the numbers was enough to once again lighten Zhihao''s mood.

    Li Ling smiled as he turned to look at the creature, "It seems like this thing loves me too much. It wants to play more."

    Zhihao smirked as he asked, "Why don''t you entertain it more?"

    Li Ling didn''t say anything in response, but Zhihao was sure that it was surely his plan to thoroughly entertain this creature.

    The creature looked around in search of Zhihao or Li Ling, but it could see neither of the two who were standing above it.

    Zhihao equipped another weapon and aimed it at another one of the creature''s eyes.

    Li Ling had already taken down one of the eight eyes so it was now Zhihao''s turn to take another one and make those seven leftover eyes, six leftover ones.

 Chapter 183 - Li Ling Has Permission To Cheat?

    The bullet hit the intended target and another one of the creature''s eyes were successfully destroyed.

    "Nice one!" Zhihao almost wanted to pat himself for that amazing shot.

    He immediately looked over at Li Ling since it was the man''s turn to play around with the creature.

    The spider Ribix looked to have been angered. It opened its mouth and tried to shoot Zhihao but Li Ling was much faster than the creature.

    He moved forward and threw explosive ammunition inside the hand cannon before aiming it at the creature''s mouth. The laser beam that was in its initial process of forming immediately self-destructed and a mixture of the explosive blowing up inside its mouth along with the hot laser wasn''t really something pretty.

    Zhihao''s eyes went wide as he looked at the ruthless scene. There was an explosion inside the creature''s mouth which immediately caused it to shut its mouth as it faltered back a few steps, however, even this wasn''t enough to kill this creature.

    "Good job!" Zhihao complimented Li Ling, who was smiling rather wickedly as he looked at the creature.

    If the creature wasn''t already mad enough, this explosion definitely caused it to be furious at the two captains.

    Laura only glanced over once before she rolled her eyes and looked away. She was certainly impressed a bit, but although she was impressed, she wasn''t planning on showing it on her face.

    These two were supposed to be the legendary Captains of the rebellion so of course this much was already expected from them, was it not?

    "My turn," Zhihao cried out as he moved forward and headed straight for one of the legs, but by the time he got near it, the creature had already recovered from its injury and opened its mouth again to shoot out the laser beam, however, the laser ball forming in its mouth gave out a few sparks before extinguishing completely.

    It seemed that Li Ling had managed to destroy the mechanism used to create that laser beam.

    Now that one of its attack powers was decreased, their chances of defeating it had increased.

    The creature immediately changed strategy and decided to spew out that white web that was covered in acid.

    For a second, it almost looked as if the web was going to catch Zhihao, but as soon as it was near enough, Zhihao activated the moon goddess spellbook and disappeared.

    By now, he had used this item so much that he got used to it and it was one of those items that he was comfortable with using at most times. He also got to know more features of this book such as the feature to make the spellbook travel anywhere he wanted and there was even a feature to make it turn invisible, hiding it from the eyes of the attackers.

    He used both these features at once. He teleported the book and hid it from the eyes of the creature who immediately stopped spewing out that white acid web when it realized that Zhihao was no longer there.

    As soon as the creature had stopped to look around frantically, Zhihao appeared once again near one of its legs and he took out his sword Shuang from his inventory. The sword was a spiritual sword that had no power in this world, but because it was a strong sword, it was still useful for Zhihao.

    With a single strike, Zhihao managed to somehow cut off one of its legs.

    The spider ribix who hadn''t really said anything until now suddenly let out a wail as it located Zhihao and opened its mouth to attack him.

    "My turn!" Li Ling shouted out enthusiastically as he looked at this scene.

    Zhihao smiled as he activated his moon goddess spellbook once again and seemed to disappear from sight.

    The spider ribix was once again left confused as it roared out in search of Zhihao, but Zhihao was surely the least of its worries.

    Li Ling smiled as he warned out, "Don''t be distracted!"

    He transformed his hand into an air gun and aimed it at the creature''s sixth eye. The creature was once again left powerless as another one of its eyes was destroyed.

    The six leftover eyes now turned into five leftover eyes.

    The creature shot out its white acid web at Li Ling but before the thing could capture Li Ling, Zhihao once again deactivated the moon goddess spellbook, jumping out before activating it again to suck Li Ling in.

    The white web fell down on the other ribix who immediately melted away under its touch.

    Zhihao didn''t waste any time as he jumped down on the fifth eye and let Shuang do its job of destroying it.

    Now, the creature was down to four eyes, however, Zhihao still looked as if he was unsatisfied and wanted to destroy more eyes.

    Unfortunately, it was now Li Ling''s turn so Zhihao couldn''t really attack it again.

    He deactivated the moon goddess spellbook and Li Ling took a shot from under the creature.

    The creature immediately jolted upon impact as if it had been stunned.

    Zhihao and Li Ling laughed in unison as they saw this reaction.

    Zhihao immediately went forward to cut another one of its legs and he was once again successful.

    The eight-legged spider was now a six-legged spider who only had four eyes left.

    Wang GuiYing who looked at this scene couldn''t help but frown as he commented, "Are you playing chess or something?! Why the hell are you taking turns?!"

    Zhihao glanced at Wang GuiYing as he commented, "Trash, this is a game, isn''t it? We are just having some fun with it."

    "..." Wang GuiYing was left speechless as he heard this and for a second there, he wondered if some unknown spirit had taken control over Zhihao''s body. This was certainly the first time Zhihao had actually referred to a game as a game.

    Most of the time, because of his job as a pro-gamer, Zhihao would always take it too seriously and cut out the carefree fun part of it.

    To think that it was BBtrash this time who was worried about Zhihao and Li Ling being too carefree and having fun was truly a bit funny.

    Li Ling closed his right eye as he took a shot at the creature''s leg joints. Even before the bullet left the body, Zhihao was already sure that Li Ling would hit a bullseye, and hence he got ready to compliment him.

    As expected, the shot hit the target and the joint was immediately destroyed, making the creature lose half of its one leg.

    Now it was a five-and-a-half-legged spider.

    Zhihao, "Nice shot!"

    Li Ling smiled proudly as he exclaimed, "Of course."

    It was once again Zhihao''s turn to attack.

    This time, Zhihao used one of his favorite methods.

    Explosions.

    He had always loved to blow things up so he activated the moon goddess spellbook and popped up near another one of the creature''s legs.

    He tied a TNT to its leg before activating the moon goddess spellbook again and teleporting away from the site.

    Instead of waiting for the explosion, he went to its next leg and tied another TNT to it before once again activating the moon goddess spellbook, and this time, he waited.

    The two explosives blew up together and destroyed two more of the creature''s legs.

    The creature seemed to cry out in pain as it was now reduced to becoming a three-and-a-half-legged spider ribix with four eyes.

    "Hey! That''s cheating!" Li Ling shouted out with a wronged expression.

    Zhihao shrugged his shoulder with a mischievous smirk on his face, "Not my fault that you didn''t think of this."

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he looked at Zhihao, "Are you being serious here?"

    Zhihao once again shrugged his shoulder as if he was completely innocent, "You can do it too."

    Li Ling''s narrowed eyes seemed to be glaring at Zhihao as a wicked smile crept up on his face, "Okay! Since you have given me permission to cheat, I shall."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this. He leisurely took a seat on top of a boulder that had previously been a part of a building that was completely destroyed by them now.

    This time, Li Ling took out an item that Zhihao had never seen before.

    There weren''t really items that Zhihao was unaware of so it was truly a bit shocking for him to come across something that he hadn''t already read and learned about.

    "What''s that?" Zhihao asked curiously as he looked at it.

    Li Ling only snickered at this question and didn''t bother giving the man an answer, instead, he responded, "Why don''t you wait and see?"

    "..." Zhihao seemed to look more amused as he heard this.

    He raised his hand and rested his chin on his palm as he attentively looked at what Li Ling was going to do next.

    Li Ling took the item that was shaped like a small pocket knife and threw it at the creature.

    The creature didn''t seem to notice it at all and in fact, even Zhihao who was looking at it attentively couldn''t keep up with its speed.

    The thing seemed to be flying around and through the creature, however, nobody could see anything happening.

    The item spun, coming back to its owner and just as it did, there was a huge annoying sound coming from the creature.

    SLICE

    The creature no longer had any eyes or legs.

 Chapter 184 - Li Ling Is A Competitor Too.

    "Wait..." Zhihao muttered as he saw the scene in front of him.

    His eyes went wide in panic as he immediately jolted up.

    "You!!"

    Li Ling only smiled as he put his pocket knife back in his inventory and shrugged his shoulder with a proud and mischievous smile plastered on his face.

    "You destroyed it!" Zhihao cried out in disbelief.

    Li Ling chuckled as he raised his hands up high, "You said it was okay to cheat."

    "What the hell was that thing?"

    Li Ling tilted his head in confusion as he asked, "You mean the developer''s knife?"

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this, "The developer''s knife?"

    Li Ling''s eyes widened slightly as he realized that he had said something he wasn''t supposed to.

    Zhihao thought about it for a minute before questioning out once again, "Something like that... Shouldn''t it be with the developer?"

    Li Ling chuckled awkwardly as he tried to save his slip of the tongue, "It''s an item that a lot of people have."

    Zhihao looked to be even more confused as he heard this, "What do you mean?"

    "It''s like a cheat code given to a lot of Omelas employees." Li Ling lied through an honest face.

    Zhihao looked at Li Ling with suspicion and for a second there, Li Ling almost thought he was going to be found out, but when Zhihao opened his mouth again, Li Ling could once again sigh in relief at how dense this man was.

    "If you had such an item with you, why didn''t you tell us?! Beating this ribix army would have been so easy!"

    Li Ling sighed before smiling as he responded, "We can''t."

    "Why?"

    "It has a one-use per day limit. After one use, we''ll have to wait another twenty-four hours to use it again."

    Zhihao''s expressions got even more complicated as he looked at the man and cried out, "And you could''ve used that one strike to destroy the ribix army!"

    Li Ling shook his head as he replied, "It doesn''t work like that."

    "..."

    Li Ling suddenly chuckled as he pointed down at the creature that had lost all its legs and eyes, "Captain Burn, we can talk about the details later. That thing down there is still not dead."

    "What?!" Zhihao was thoroughly shocked as he looked down at the creature that should''ve long been dead by now.

    Li Ling chuckled as a response, "That''s a ribix. Cutting off its limbs is not enough to destroy it completely."

    "Then how do we kill it?" Zhihao questioned.

    Li Ling simply smiled as he shrugged his shoulders, "I''m not telling you anything. It''s your turn, you can try killing it in whatever way you''d like. If you fail to give the finishing blow, don''t worry. I''ll be sure to do it for you."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this, "Are you challenging me? It''s not like we are competing or anything."

    Li Ling smiled mischievously as he heard this, "What do you mean we''re not competing? Captain Burn, we might be a team fighting together but there is still competition among us."

    "Is there?" Zhihao tilted his head as he asked.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he answered, "There is."

    Zhihao chuckled as he got ready to attack the creature, "Then what is the competition between us about?"

    Li Ling smiled as he answered honestly, "The top player of T.I.A.D."

    The amused smile on Zhihao''s face seemed to falter as he squinted at the man, "What?"

    Li Ling nodded his head as he repeated himself and informed Zhihao that he had indeed not heard anything wrong, "We are competing for that grand prize, are we not?"

    Zhihao''s muscles tensed up as he heard this.

    Sure, this whole game was about that prize. That one million dollar cash prize, however, since Zhihao was already at the top of the leader board, he had never really considered the others as his competitors. Even if he had, Li Ling was probably the last person who he would consider as his opponent.

    Li Ling simply smiled innocently as he gestured for Zhihao to continue attacking the creature, "Even if I love you, it doesn''t mean I would stand aside and let you win that prize."

    Of course, he won''t. It was simply Zhihao''s dumb mind thinking up such a thing all on his own.

    Even if they were in the same team right now, by the end of this game, when they were in the final level fighting for the grand prize, Li Ling would also turn into a competitor who would play against Zhihao.

    When Zhihao thought about the future that lied ahead for them, he couldn''t help but gulp. He didn''t want to fight against Li Ling. He really didn''t, but he didn''t want to lose this game either.

    He had come too far and to back off because of his personal feelings and relationships now was not something Zhihao would ever do.

    Li Ling suddenly chuckled as he spoke up, "Don''t worry about it now. Even if you win or lose, it won''t affect our relationship."

    Zhihao sighed as he felt that there was some honesty in Li Ling''s words. It wasn''t like anything between them was going to change so why should he worry too much about it?

    "You''re right," Zhihao chuckled out, "I look forward to seeing you trying to snatch my position."

    Li Ling smiled in amusement as he heard this, "Don''t worry, Mastermo. I ''Will'' snatch that position. Look forward to that."

    For some unknown reason, when Zhihao saw this, he suddenly felt as if Li Ling looked rather hot while he tried to challenge Zhihao.

    Zhihao nodded his head as he shifted his focus back to defeat the creature that lay on the ground with no legs and no eyes.

    Although Zhihao had said he looked forward to something like that, in his heart, he couldn''t deny the fact that he was a bit afraid to hear something like that. He didn''t want to fight against Li Ling because he was afraid that Li Ling would definitely beat him.

    It was natural to be insecure and afraid of an opponent you knew was stronger than you. Zhihao had observed Li Ling well and he knew that this man was hiding a lot of things. He was hiding his skills and there was a time when Zhihao asked himself what the reason could be.

    Why would Li Ling try to hide his skills?

    The only answer he could come up with to that was something that sent a shiver down his spine.

    Li Ling wasn''t hiding his skills. He was saving it for the end. He was waiting for the perfect moment to strike. When nobody considers him an opponent, nobody would try to make things hard for him.

    If that happened, he could simply pull out the joker card on everyone and show them how big of an idiot they had all been.

    If Zhihao and Li Ling were to one day face each other as opponents, the outcome of the fight was not something that people could easily guess. Even Zhihao wasn''t sure if he would win or not, but he was sure that he would try to give his best.

    he would give his best and if he still gets beaten by Li Ling, he would accept the defeat with dignity and cheer on for Li Ling.

    Zhihao took the heaven-defying scythe from his inventory. This item was something Zhihao had hardly ever used. It was one of those items which were extremely powerful but would still rot away in your inventory because you never met an opponent strong enough to make you pull such a thing out.

    Zhihao''s eyes seemed to change into a determined one as he swung the scythe down without any sense of mercy.

    He was aiming at the creature and trying to kill with a single blow but he was also trying to show Li Ling that he wasn''t a person who could be easily beaten.

    If there was someone challenging you, you would naturally want to show them exactly what you were capable of.

    The scythe struck down on the body of the creature and for a single second, everything seemed to pause and what followed was an ear-piercing sound of the wind. The reaction was rather huge.

    Since it was the first time Zhihao was using this thing, even he was shocked with how much power it had.

    The creature was completely destroyed and the scythe sent out an air pressure that knocked almost everyone off their feet.

    "Whoa!" Wang GuiYing cried out in amazement as he climbed up back to his feet and looked at Zhihao who had managed to put the whole war to a pause with his single blow.

    Zhihao heard Li Ling click his tongue, "Damn it... You got the final blow."

    He turned back to look at Li Ling who had a proud smile on his face.

    "That''s the heaven-defying scythe, isn''t it?" Wang GuiYing immediately questioned as he saw the thing clutched in Zhihao''s hands, "How the hell did you get that thing?!"

 Chapter 185 - Li Ling Is Willing To Pay...?

    Zhihao sighed as he looked at the man, "Do you think it fell down from heaven? I bought it, you idiot!"

    Wang GuiYing took a sharp breath in as he heard this, "Mastermo, you know how much it costs? You telling me that you had that many T-points?"

    Zhihao almost wanted to roll his eyes as he responded, "Do you think I bought it without checking the price tag?"

    "Well, if you looked at the price tag, you would''ve realized how weird it is to buy one."

    Zhihao smiled as he spoke up, "I''m rich. I can buy whatever I want."

    "..." Wang GuiYing was silent as he heard that. Zhihao was indeed a hardcore player and he didn''t seem to have any life outside this game so it wasn''t too shocking that he had accumulated a lot of T-points.

    Wang GuiYing suddenly broke into a smile as he spoke up, "Since Mastermo is rich, why don''t you buy one for me too?"

    Zhihao squinted and shrugged his shoulder as he responded, "Ask your boyfriend to buy you one."

    Wang GuiYing tilted his head as he tried to act innocent, "Wasn''t I your boyfriend?"

    "No, but I accepted you as my friend. Do you want me to take back that title as well?" Zhihao asked.

    Wang GuiYing immediately shook his head as he replied, "No need. I''ll just accept that position as your friend since you already have a boyfriend."

    Zhihao smiled in satisfaction as he heard this.

    He looked back at Li Ling and gestured for him to attack the rest of the ribix army, "Come on. Your turn."

    Li Ling jumped down and landed beside Zhihao but instead of straightaway going to attack the ribix, he took a good look at Zhihao''s scythe and asked, "Since I''m your boyfriend, do I get you to buy me one of those too?"

    Zhihao smirked as he heard this, "If you want, I will."

    "Really?" Although it was just an item that Li Ling could easily get for himself using cheat codes, he was still delighted to hear Zhihao''s offer to buy him one.

    Zhihao nodded his head as he confirmed, "I''ll buy one for you too but... You''ll have to pay me for it."

    Li Ling frowned as he heard this, "You want me to pay for it?" He narrowed his eyes, looking unamused as he questioned, "Then what''s the use of having you buy one for me?"

    Zhihao simply chuckled as he heard this question, "When did I say you have to pay me a monetary value?" He leaned in closer to Li Ling as he added, "Don''t worry, I''ll have you pay me back with your body."

    "..." Li Ling''s eyes widened as he looked at Zhihao with shock apparent on his face, "Do you even know what you''re talking about?"

    Li Ling was sure that Zhihao was innocent and hence he could confidently say that Zhihao didn''t even know what he was talking about.

    Zhihao frowned as he asked, "You don''t know what I''m talking about?"

    Li Ling shook his head as he responded, "I know what you said but do you know the meaning?"

    Zhihao pondered over it for a minute before he questioned, "Doesn''t it mean I''ll be taking kisses as a repayment method?"

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this.

    He snickered as he muttered, "You have a lot to learn."

    It seemed that Zhihao was somehow able to hear that, "And you plan on teaching me?"

    Li Ling looked at Zhihao for a minute silently before breaking out into a mischievous grin, "Are you sure you''ll be willing to learn?"

    When Zhihao saw Li Ling''s face looking at him like a hungry wolf, he couldn''t help but gulp in fear, in the end, he still nodded his head as he answered, "If Gege is the teacher, I''ll be more than willing to learn just about anything."

    Li Ling broke out laughing as he heard this, "Are you sure about that?"

    Zhihao nodded his head as he responded, "Yeah."

    "Well, I guess we''ll have to hold a lot of lessons after this, wouldn''t we?"

    For some reason, Zhihao could sense a wicked feeling in that one sentence but he decided to ignore it as he pointed at the ribix army that had fallen down and was rising yet again.

    "It''s your turn, by the way."

    Li Ling looked at all the creatures that were slowly crawling back to their feet, "Well, even if you don''t buy me the heaven-defying scythe, I''ll still be able to take care of these things."

    Zhihao nodded as he responded, "I''m sure you will."

    Li Ling smirked as he wasted no further time and went forward to attack the creatures.

    Zhihao couldn''t even see what Li Ling was using to attack. In fact, it almost looked as if Li Ling was doing nothing more than flying over the creatures.

    He went forward completely unaffected and only after a minute could the effect of his attack be seen.

    The creatures that were slowly crawling up to their feet fell back down and no longer moved, indicating that they were now completely dead.

    Zhihao frowned as he squinted at the man responsible for this, "Another cheat code?"

    Li Ling smiled as he nodded, "You were the one who gave me permission."

    Even though this wasn''t exactly what Zhihao gave permission to, he still regretted saying anything.

    Cheat codes were really not something that sat well with him.

    The second wave of ribix looked to be easier to beat and with Captain Burn and Captain Liv talking turns to outperform each other, the second wave was killed within a few minutes.

    Laura, Zather, Wang GuiYing, and Zhou Xinyi who had been trying so hard to fight against them for such a long time couldn''t help but stand there with their lips pursed as they saw such a scene.

    Wang GuiYing clicked his tongue as he looked at Zhihao, "You stole my time to shine."

    Zhihao snickered as he replied, "It didn''t look like you were planning to shine in any case."

    "..."

    Captain Burn and Captain Liv finally came over calmly after annihilating the entire second wave of the ribix army.

    Zhihao had a wide grin plastered on his face as he waited for a notification that would tell them that the mission had been cleared, however, he waited for a few minutes and nothing happened.

    His face dropped as he realized that this war was still not over.

    Li Ling also looked to be a bit stunned as he noticed the same thing, "The third wave..."

    Zhihao gulped as he turned to face the man, "There''s a third wave?!"

    Li Ling nodded as he spoke, "They would keep coming unless the game is satisfied with the way we win."

    Zhihao''s eyebrows furrowed up as he heard this, "What do you mean?"

    Li Ling sighed as he continued to explain, "Unless the game is satisfied with us, the waves won''t stop."

    Zhihao frowned as he questioned, "How do we satisfy it?"

    Li Ling shook his head as he answered, "I don''t know. I don''t remember."

    Zhihao immediately turned to look at the Ribot army left behind, "Where are the rest?"

    "Dead," Laura answered unhesitantly.

    Zhihao''s eyes widened slightly as he heard this answer, "What about Leyah?"

    "She ran away," It was Zather who answered this time.

    "She what now?" Zhihao couldn''t help but ask with a bit of shock.

    Zather shrugged his shoulders as he spoke up, "She ran away. She didn''t want to fight anymore."

    Li Ling, who heard this suddenly felt as if he had missed something major.

    Leyah wasn''t supposed to be a person who would just give up that easily. She was supposed to be a girl who''ll keep on fighting even if she was dying. She was strong like that and to believe that this same strong girl had actually run away from the battle was not something Li Ling could simply believe.

    Laura backed Zather up as she added, "I saw her too. She abandoned us."

    Zhihao turned to look at Wang GuiYing as he asked for a confirmation, "Did she run away?"

    Wang GuiYing shook his head as he asked back, "Why the hell would I know? I was too busy looking at you."

    "..."

    "But she was injured. I know that." Wang GuiYing added as he pondered over it for a minute.

    Zhihao turned to look at Li Ling, "I don''t buy it, do you?"

    Li Ling shook his head as he responded, "Nor do I."

    Wang GuiYing, "Forget about her! There''s someone more important that isn''t here yet."

    Zhihao looked at him curiously as he asked, "Who?"

    "Alvi."

    Zhihao had almost forgotten about that useless bot who was sent out on a mission to go and collect all the newly created Ribots.

    "Did she perhaps get kidnapped?" Zhihao questioned jokingly.

    Li Ling snickered as he heard this, "If someone kidnaps her, I''ll feel bad for them."

    Zhihao nodded his head as he agreed with him, "If someone kidnapped her they would surely try to un-kidnap her soon enough."

 Chapter 186 - Li Ling Is Not Gonna Fight Anymore

    "Maybe she ditched us?" Wang GuiYing asked, half-jokingly and the other half, serious.

    "That sounds more plausible," Zhihao nodded his head as he agreed.

    Li Ling who heard this frowned as he shook his head lightly, "She won''t do that."

    Everyone immediately turned to look at Li Ling as they waited for the man to explain himself.

    "What do you mean?" It was Zhihao who questioned out first.

    Li Ling turned to look at him as he responded, "She might be annoying, but if she agrees to do something, she would never go back on her word no matter what. Even if she is half dead, she would still come."

    Zhihao was silent for a few minutes as he looked at Li Ling with an expression that couldn''t be deciphered.

    After much deliberation, he managed to ask the question, "You trust her?"

    Li Ling gulped as he nodded his head, "I trust her."

    It was probably the first time Li Ling had ever said something like this out loud.

    If the situation had been different, maybe Li Ling would have also answered differently. Even though he had created the bot based on his sister, he was still reluctant to trust his own creation.

    Well, it wasn''t like he trusted his sister either. Most of the time, under normal circumstances, he would never trust his sister who loved to pull pranks on him, however, if the situation turned serious, he would blindly trust his sister because he knew that his sister would never let him down.

    The trust he had for Alvi could also be considered to be somewhat the same.

    In dire situations, he would always trust the bot because he believed that he should have faith in what he created. If he himself doesn''t have any faith in her, how can he expect others to have faith in her?

    Zhihao sighed as he heard this answer and with a small nod, he spoke up, "Since you trust her so much, I''ll also trust her. She definitely didn''t ditch us. Does that bring us back to the theory of her getting kidnapped?"

    Li Ling couldn''t help but chuckle as he heard this, "You can rest assured that she isn''t weak enough for people to bully her."

    "Are you sure about that?" Wang GuiYing questioned out with a mocking smile, "She looked pretty weak."

    Li Ling squinted at the man as he asked, "Why don''t you try saying that to her face?"

    Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened slightly in panic as he heard this question, "I would rather not take any chances."

    Li Ling smiled in satisfaction, "Let''s just wait around for her. Who knows? Maybe she would suddenly appear at a critical scene like a hero and save us all."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but imagine such a scene.

    Alvi would suddenly fall from the sky and land on the ground, leaving a dent on the floor due to her fist that stopped her momentum...

    The more he imagined it, the more ridiculous the scene looked in his mind.

    Yeah... There was no way such a thing would ever happen.

    "Hey, Captain!" Laura muttered out, her eyes focused on something else entirely, "I think the third wave you were waiting for is here."

    Li Ling and Zhihao immediately snapped their heads to look back at the scene that had taken Laura''s attention.

    "Hmm... Well... I told you she won''t ditch us, didn''t I?" Li Ling spoke up as he looked at the third wave of ribix army that was approaching them.

    With just a single look, they were sure that this army was much different than the other two and the reason was because the army wasn''t completely made up of ribix.

    The newly created ribix that walked along with all the ribix were hard not to notice. They were like a sore thumb sticking out.

    Zhihao''s mouth opened slightly in shock as he looked at the scene, "Captain Liv, you were certainly not wrong... But I think you should reconsider trusting such a bot."

    "What are you guys muttering about?" Zather who had been silent till now spoke up as he listened to Li Ling and Zhihao''s comment, "Do you know something we don''t?"

    "Hmm... How to say this?" Zhihao mumbled absent-mindedly as he pondered over the answer.

    "Hey, weird man!" Wang GuiYing who had no idea what this man was even called spoke up as he pointed towards something, "You see that small girl leading the group?"

    Zather squinted as he looked carefully in search of the girl who was at the front of the approaching army but due to her small height and thinness, she was still pretty hard to notice.

    "We know her," Wang GuiYing added with a delighted tone as if he were trying to assure the man that since he was close with that girl, the army wouldn''t attack them.

    Zhihao suddenly grabbed his head that had started to thoroughly trouble him and when Li Ling looked at him, his worries about the approaching army disappeared as he grabbed onto Zhihao and asked, "Are you okay?"

    Zhihao gulped and didn''t say anything for a minute. Only after a few minutes did he lift his head to give a small nod, "I''m okay."

    "No, you''re not" Li Ling scolded him, "Does your head ache?"

    Zhihao gulped as he looked at the man and asked, "If it does, would you kiss it and make it better?"

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he scolded out, "Not the time, goddamn it!"

    Zhihao chuckled as he replied, "It''s always the time."

    Wang GuiYing, who looked over at the two, furrowed his eyebrows as he asked, "Captain Burn, did you burn out or something?"

    Zhihao chuckled softly as he heard this.

    "Oh God! He laughed at one of my jokes! He''s definitely not okay!" Wang GuiYing immediately cried out in worry.

    Li Ling looked at the man and nodded, "He''s burning out. I think his oxygen level is decreasing."

    "But how can that be?" Wang GuiYing questioned as his eyes frantically switched in between looking at the approaching army and Zhihao who was in a state where his face had lost all color.

    Li Ling''s hands were clearly shaking and he looked to be panicking as he answered, "Some people..." His voice came to a stop as his mind went blank for a second. He tightened his grip around Zhihao before taking a deep breath in, "I''ll tell you later."

    Wang GuiYing pursed his lips before nodding, "You better give me a clear explanation."

    Li Ling also nodded his head as he heard this.

    "Captain Liv, I can look after him if you want me to," Zather suggested.

    "No," Li Ling denied his help without even thinking about it twice, "He''s with me. I''ll be here for him. You go and fight."

    Zather''s expressions got complicated as he looked back at Li Ling, "Captain, we need you to fight."

    "And he needs me too!" Li Ling sounded angry and frustrated as he shouted.

    Zather was about to say something more but before his tongue could form the words, Wang GuiYing smacked his shoulder lightly as he spoke up, "Don''t try. He''s not coming anymore."

    Laura clicked her tongue in annoyance, "Is this all? I thought the Legendary captains would be more competent."

    "Shut up!" Li Ling immediately snapped and it managed to intimidate her.

    Laura huffed and puffed but at the end that was all she could do.

    Wang GuiYing looked at Zhihao as he suggested, "You can rest for now, Mastermo. Let us handle this."

    Zhihao chuckled but even his chuckle was inaudible as his legs gave up on him and he fell down with Li Ling clutching tightly onto him.

    Li Ling rested Zhihao''s head on his shoulder before looking at Alvi who was coming with the third wave of Ribix army, "Alvi, code 1016"

    Suddenly, all the players heard the cheerful voice of the bot in their earpiece.

    [Welcome back, Master! How can I assist you?]

    Wang GuiYing who was able to hear this suddenly frowned as he looked over at Li Ling with confusion and suspicion.

    Zhihao''s head was constantly ringing and he felt extremely sleepy due to which he wasn''t able to hear what Li Ling had said nor was he able to concentrate enough to know that Li Ling was directly commanding Alvi.

    "Why did you bring them with you?"

    [It was an order, Master.]

    [You told me to bring back all the newly created ribix.]

    Li Ling took a sharp breath in as he questioned again, "So what? You were supposed to bring them over so that they could assist us not fight against us."

    [You never specified that.]

    Alvi''s tone of speech was consistently cheerful as if she was just like any other bot and no longer had the speech modulations she had when she would normally interact with them.

    [You told me to collect them all and bring them over but you never said if they needed to be affected by the ribix virus or not.]

    Li Ling was about to say something to that but he suddenly heard Laura scoff.

    "Who knew something you do can come back to bite you in the ass like this?"

 Chapter 187 - Li Ling Cant Use Developer Codes

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this, "You''re right. You never expected something like this, did you?"

    Laura squinted at the man before finding the courage to speak up, "You were playing me, weren''t you? You remember exactly what happened."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but sneer in disgust, "To kill the heroes that try to protect you just because of something trivial like power... You disgust me, Laura."

    Laura gritted her teeth but said nothing to that.

    "What do you mean?" Wang GuiYing suddenly asked in confusion as he saw the tense hostile atmosphere between the two.

    Li Ling said nothing as a response to him and Laura would also naturally not say anything that ruins her own name.

    Zather who was standing and looking at Captain Burn all this while took his gun and aimed it at Zhihao before looking over at Li Ling, "Captain Liv, we need you. You leave me no choice."

    Li Ling chuckled in amusement as he looked at the gun that was aimed at Zhihao, "So you''re going to show me how you''re the same type of person that we wasted our time trying to protect in the first war?"

    Zather gritted his teeth and looked nervous but there was no doubt about it, he was ready to pull the trigger at any moment now.

    Wang GuiYing shook his head in annoyance. Nobody was giving him an answer. Nobody was speaking things he could understand and this frustrated him enough to finally stomp his feet on the ground as he exclaimed, "You guys keep wasting time here. Hulk and I are leaving!"

    He climbed on top of Zhou Xinyi''s shoulder before tapping the man''s head twice, "Come and fight when you have enough guts to put your life on the line."

    After having said this, all the XY Ribots followed Zhou Xinyi''s command and went ahead with them to attack the approaching army.

    Zather''s grip around the gun tightened as he looked at the Ribots that had gone forward to attack without any sense of hesitation or fear.

    Li Ling clicked his tongue as he looked at the man, "Do you have the guts to shoot that gun, little boy?"

    Zather gulped and for a split second, his grip around the gun loosened up.

    Laura who was standing beside him couldn''t take it anymore and she immediately smacked his head as she scolded him, "Don''t be reckless. If you kill him, Captain Liv will kill all of us." She looked over at Li Ling as she added, "Isn''t that right, Captain Liv?"

    Li Ling chuckled lightly as he nodded, "At least, you know that."

    Zather gritted his teeth and the veins on his head seemed to be popping up as he finally put the gun down, "Do whatever you like."

    Laura smiled softly as she saw this, "Good decision. Don''t be like me."

    The two immediately left Li Ling and Zhihao alone as they joined the battle that was yet to reach here.

    Li Ling sent forward all his Ribots as well and secretly used a developer code to command Zhihao''s ribots.

    Now, there were only two people missing from the battle, however, since these two people were Zhihao and Li Ling, the effect of their absence could clearly be seen.

    The ribix were strong as it is, but the newly created ribots were much stronger.

    They were constructed according to the latest technology and hence, they couldn''t be easily defeated.

    The outcome of the war instantly looked to be clear.

    They were soon going to lose this war, however, unlike Zhihao, Li Ling didn''t care about that.

    At this moment, all he could care about was Zhihao who was slowly losing consciousness.

    He shook the man as he tried to calmly speak, "Mastermo, stay with me. Are you okay? Just hang on, okay?"

    He wondered if he should just stop this level and get Zhihao to safety but when he tried to do it, the screen started showing an error.

    Li Ling frowned as he saw this error, "What the hell...?"

    He tried again and again, however, it was the same error showing up on his screen.

    He was confused and the more the error showed up, the more complicated Li Ling''s expressions became.

    "I really shouldn''t have trusted you, Alvi," He muttered under his breath and almost wanted to laugh at himself for having faith in his own creation.

    Alvi should never have been trusted.

    "Code: 3102. Reset!" He tried to use a different command, however, even this new code was of no use.

    [Error: Code rejected.]

    Li Ling clicked his tongue in annoyance as he heard this.

    "Why?!" He cried out at the bot.

    [Error: Code rejected!]

    "Code: 3102. Reset. Password: A-Zhi."

    [Error: Password rejected!]

    "Damn it... This can''t be happening!" Li Ling clutched on tightly to Zhihao and gave up shouting codes at the bot who showed him the same rejection error again and again.

    "A-Zhi, stay with me," He muttered and a single tear fell down from his eyes, hitting Zhihao''s cheek.

    Zhihao used up all his strength to smile brightly at the man as his weak voice questioned out, "Did I make you worry again?"

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this.

    "I''m sorry, Gege," Zhihao added as he tried to lift his hand in order to wipe away the tears trailing down Li Ling''s cheeks, "I keep making you worry about me."

    "You idiot!" Li Ling gritted out as he heard this, "How dare you say something like that?! I don''t care if you make me worry, just be alright in the end!"

    Zhihao chuckled softly as he heard this, "If you''re waiting for me at the end, there''s no way I wouldn''t make it."

    Li Ling almost wanted to smack Zhihao''s head as he heard this, "You''re an idiot."

    Zhihao smiled, "And if you''re crying over this idiot, it makes you an idiot as well."

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this, but the tears streaming down his face never stopped even for a second.

    "Now go..." Zhihao softly pushed him away, "Go and satisfy the system. Go and fight instead of wasting time here. The sooner we finish this level, the sooner we can get out of here."

    Li Ling immediately shook his head as he responded, "I''m not leaving you here alone."

    Zhihao pursed his lips and said nothing. Rather than him not having an answer to that, it looked more like he had no energy left inside him to open his mouth and give a response.

    "Where the hell is the staff?! This is a medical emergency, you knuckleheads!! Stop the game immediately and take him out!" Li Ling angrily shouted, but he got no response.

    The staff members that stood outside the room and looked at this whole scene through their screen couldn''t help but bite off their fingernails in worry.

    It wasn''t that they hadn''t tried to stop it. They had tried, but just like the system wasn''t listening to Li Ling, it wasn''t listening to them as well.

    If the worst scenario were to play out, they could take out the headset with force and help Zhihao, however, the risk of doing something like this was great and without Li Ling''s permission, they would dare not do anything like that.

    One of the staff members immediately connected directly to Li Ling''s headset and informed him about this situation, "Sir, if we take it out by force, we would cause a shock to his brain and he might have a seizure. The system isn''t listening to us. You just need to complete the game as soon as possible."

    When Li Ling heard this, he almost wanted to punch a wall.

    It was all his fault.

    He should have never brought Zhihao out here.

    "How the hell are we supposed to solve the game?!" Li Ling cried out, but there was no answer to his question and it wasn''t like he was expecting an answer to it either.

    They needed to win this war and the way they win should manage to satisfy the system. For the Gamemaster, who already knew about this level, this sounded rather easy to do, however, Li Ling naturally knew that this was in no manner considered to be easy.

    If he already knew how to win this war in a way he satisfied the system, this level would have been easy, but this was the exact problem that he was facing. This level changed every single time. The requirements to complete the mission would change with every game and it was so spontaneous that even Li Ling couldn''t know about it.

    "Sir, all we can do now is pray," the staff member spoke to him before disconnecting from his headset.

    Li Ling gritted his teeth but said nothing as he heard this.

    He was afraid that even praying wouldn''t be getting them anywhere.

    What was he supposed to pray for?

    A hero?

    Someone who suddenly appears in a critical moment and destroys all the ribix and newly created Ribots that had been affected by the ribix virus?

    It would have been more shocking if someone like that really did appear.

 Chapter 188 - Li Lings Dangerous And Useless Plan

    Right at this moment, someone unexpected appeared on the scene.

    Her broken leg made her limp as she rushed up to Li Ling and tapped his shoulder, "Captain Liv, what''s going on in here?"

    Li Ling snapped his head to look at the girl in shock, "You! Leyah?"

    Leyah nodded as she confirmed that it really was her, "What happened to Captain Burn?"

    Li Ling shook his head as he looked down at Zhihao who had closed his eyes and was breathing slowly, "He''s not in a condition to be fighting."

    Leyah pursed her lips as she heard this. She was silent for a minute as she glanced at Zhihao and then at Li Ling, "Understood."

    "Huh?" Li Ling muttered as he wondered if there was something he had said that needed to be understood.

    However, instead of explaining what she was talking about, Leyah looked at him and immediately apologized as she bowed her head down in guilt, "I''m extremely sorry for what happened to you both. It''s not me who did it, but I stood aside and watched it all happen without uttering a single word.... That alone makes me one of the culprits as well."

    Li Ling sighed as he asked, "What the hell is this about?"

    "Just hear me out!" She snapped as she continued, "You were only trying to protect us. You two were the selfless heroes our world needed but your name got stained by the ugly thoughts of cowards who didn''t deserve you."

    "..." Li Ling had an indecipherable expression plastered on his face as he kept listening to the woman.

    "You were wronged... You should''ve hated us... You should''ve craved for revenge and yet... Even after being betrayed, you still came back to help us in our time of need. We really do not deserve you." Leyah''s voice quivered as if she were on the verge of crying her heart out, "And now again... Captain Burn is injured. I really look up to you both."

    She suddenly lifted her head up and looked at Li Ling with unwavering determination, "Let me prove it to you. Let me help you this time... I might not be able to do much, but I hope to be of some help so just trust me this time. I know that I''m in no place to be asking you to trust me... But I still hope that you do."

    "What are you planning to do?" Li Ling questioned with a poker face. The previous words filled with sincerity didn''t even seem to affect him.

    Leyah took a sharp breath in as she sniffed back her tears, "Just have faith in me."

    "I don''t," Li Ling gave a straightforward answer that could be considered rude, "But if you can help, go ahead and try. If you succeed, we''ll forgive you, and if you don''t... You can just continue asking for forgiveness."

    She nodded her head enthusiastically as she responded, "That''s it! That''s all I want. My last wish on this earth is for you guys to forgive me."

    Li Ling suddenly frowned as he heard this, "Excuse me, what?! What do you mean last breath?"

    Before his question could get answered, the girl had already limped away as fast as possible.

    For a single second there, when Li Ling looked at her determined eyes, he was forced to believe that she had a plan in mind but now that he looked at her moving back, he couldn''t help but sigh as he realized how stupid it was of him to think something like that.

    Her leg looked to be killing her just as it is.

    A girl with a  broken leg... What could she do?

    Sure, she could distract the ribix momentarily by acting as bait, however, this was probably the only thing she looked to be useful for.

    Li Ling sighed as he no longer looked at the girl and instead, he turned back to pay attention to Zhihao who was completely unconscious.

    "A-Zhi, can you hear me? I''ll need you to hold on for a bit. Let me think of something," He whispered even though he knew that Zhihao could probably not hear him anymore.

    For one last time, he tried to use a developer''s code, and once again, he was shown the same rejection error.

    "Damn it... You need another check-up, you damn bot." Li Ling cursed under his breath as his eyes glanced up to look at the ongoing war that didn''t seem to progress well.

    Their side was being thoroughly defeated by the newly created Ribots who all had red eyes that indicated them being affected by the ribix virus.

    He was trying hard to come up with a plan but at this moment, the only thing he could come up with was suicide.

    If every player in the game died, they would forcefully be thrown out of the game. Even if Li ling couldn''t use his developer''s codes to order the bot to reset the level or force stop it, he could still use this method.

    However, there was another problem with this method.

    It couldn''t exactly be used.

    Li Ling equipped his gun and aimed it Wang GuiYing.

    He had no idea if he would manage to succeed in shooting the man or not, but he still decided to test it out on Wang GuiYing simply because this man was Wang GuiYing. He would surely not do anything even if he finds out that he had just become Li Ling''s tester.

    [Sorry! You can''t shoot another player!]

    Li Ling sighed as he heard this warning ring out as soon as he pulled the trigger.

    "Damn it..." He cursed as he put his weapon away and simply tried to find another way out of here.

    The gamemaster was perhaps the only person who could shoot another player without receiving this notification, however, right now, Li Ling wasn''t playing with his Gamemaster''s account.

    He was playing with Devilmagiclover account and although this account had its own perks that normal players didn''t have, it still didn''t have this option available.

    Li Ling was forced to have a headache under all this stress, however, even the headache wasn''t enough to stop him.

    Right at this moment, Li Ling suddenly heard Wang GuiYing cry out, "Where the hell did you pop up from?!"

    When he looked over, he saw that it was just the man freaking out about Leyah who had appeared on the battlefield.

    Leyah said something back to him but because of the distance between Li Ling and them, it was only natural that Li Ling couldn''t hear what she had said but he certainly paid attention to Wang GuiYing''s expressions and tried to understand the situation based on nothing more than that.

    Wang GuiYing''s face twisted in shock, confusion, and suspicion as he heard her.

    For a whole minute, he did nothing more than look at her and at this moment, Laura suddenly walked over and punched Leyah''s face, sending her stumbling backward.

    Li Ling was confused as he saw this scene, however, there was no way for him to satisfy his confusion.

    Laura lifted her feet and was about to kick the girl but before her foot could land on Leyah''s stomach, Wang GuiYing took a hold of her leg and stopped it.

    Laura looked to be shocked but it also seemed as if she was somehow afraid of Wang GuiYing and hence she took a sharp breath in as her face turned red with anger but she said nothing.

    Wang GuiYing squinted at Leyah as he asked, "Are you sure?"

    Leyah nodded her head and in the next minute, Wang GuiYing went over to Zhou Xinyi and Zather. He said something to them and their army soon retreated back to Li Ling and Zhihao''s side.

    "What''s going on?!" Li Ling cried out in shock as he saw this, "Why are you coming back? What about the war?!"

    Wang GuiYing shook his head as he pointed over at Leyah who was standing there all alone as she faced against an entire army of ribix and newly created ribots.

    "Let''s trust her," Wang GuiYing commented.

    Laura who didn''t look too happy suddenly clicked her tongue as she muttered, "Stupid..."

    When Li Ling looked at the girl, he couldn''t help but feel that he was about to see something extraordinary go down.

    When faced against an entire army, Leyah somehow looked extremely beautiful.

    All her attacks had a sense of elegance to them. There was something about the way she attacked. There was something about the way she used her whole body to fight. Even her broken leg wasn''t able to stop her.

    She looked entirely different from the girl who had first entered this battle and got her leg stuck in a ribix''s mouth.

    In just a single war, she had grown so much and it was clearly noticeable.

    She fought with no fear and this could clearly be seen in the way she attacked. She had no guards up and she didn''t even bother defending herself.

    In Li Ling''s eyes, this was just plain recklessness and he wondered if this was all that the girl had planned in order to save them.

    However, at this exact moment, Li Ling also felt a shiver run down his spine as he felt that this wasn''t it.

    There was certainly something more.

 Chapter 189 - Li Ling And The Ribot God

    He looked forward to it.

    The vague plan the girl had in her mind turned out to really be something unpredictable.

    Her plan was pretty simple and it was also the most reckless thing one could think of doing.

    This girl... She certainly had no value for her own life.

    "There is a treasure in Utopia," Laura suddenly spoke up, "A treasure I thought I had hidden well but it seems that there was nothing I could really hide from her."

    Li Ling snapped his head at the girl but said nothing as he heard this.

    "She''s an idiot," Laura shook her head and on her face, one could sense so many conflicting emotions.

    She looked happy and a bit sad at the same time. She looked proud and dissatisfied as if she had never wanted Leyah to use this method.

    Wang GuiYing had a complicated expression on his face as he questioned, "What treasure are you talking about?"

    Laura sighed as she heard this question, "A treasure that could save our world or destroy it completely."

    Leyah who was still fighting in front of them suddenly swallowed something and soon enough, her body started changing.

    Her leg healed up at a speed visible to the eye and her skin slowly started turning silver. Her speed increased and so did her strength.

    With just a kick or a punch, she was able to throw the newly created ribots off of their feet.

    "What the hell is happening?!" Wang GuiYing cried out in confusion.

    "Just keep watching," Laura informed without giving him a detailed answer.

    Everyone kept their eyes on Leyah who seemed to slowly be turning into a Ribot. Her body which was previously thin started transforming into a bulky metallic creature and the whole transformation took nothing more than a few minutes.

    Once she had completely transformed, it was hard to even tell whether this was the same girl as before or not. There was nothing on her body that looked even close to what her original body looked like.

    She had changed into a completely different thing.

    Laura suddenly kneeled down and kowtowed, "Hail the Ribot God."

    "Ribot God?" Wang GuiYing frowned as he repeated.

    Laura said nothing as she continued to keep her head down low, touching the ground.

    Wang GuiYing almost wanted to kick her and ask her what she meant but before he could lift his feet, Zather who stood beside her also kneeled down to the ground and kowtowed.

    "Why the hell...?!" Wang GuiYing muttered as this further confused him.

    Li Ling shook his head as he glanced at Wang GuiYing and then back at Leyah, "Don''t worry about it. For them... She''s a God right now."

    Wang GuiYing furrowed his eyebrows as he heard this.

    "The Ribot God," Li Ling added with a small smile hanging on his lips, "A God meant to be sacrificed."

    "You''re right," Laura spoke up without even bothering to lift her head up, "The Ribot God meant to be sacrificed for the protection of this world and its people. A God that can save us all or... Destroy us all."

    Li Ling chuckled dryly as he heard this, "You better pray that she doesn''t become the latter."

    All the white-suited soldiers who were still alive and all of Laura''s soldiers immediately kneeled down and kowtowed as they heard this.

    "All Hail the Ribot God!" No one knew who had shouted this but since one had dared, the others would surely follow.

    "All Hail the Ribot God!!" one by one, more people joined in and shouted in unison.

    Their voices loud enough for Leyah to hear them, but if she could hear them or not was a question that could not be answered, after all, ''Leyah'' wasn''t there anymore. It was the Ribot God who stood in front of them. The God Leyah had sacrificed her life to bring back.

    The moment she had swallowed that treasure, her death had become inevitable.

    "To the sky above and the ground below!" Laura suddenly cried out, using all her might to continue, "We bow our heads to the sacrifice of our savior! All Hail the Ribot God!"

    There was suddenly a staff that appeared in Leyah''s hand and because of Laura shouting, Li Ling wasn''t able to see where the staff had come from.

    The staff was covered in soft warm yellow light and as soon as it touched anything, whatever it had touched would immediately turn to nothing more than ashes that blew with the wind.

    When Wang GuiYing saw this magical staff, he couldn''t help but feel as if his jaw was about to hit the floor because of how surprised and awed he was.

    "That''s..." He muttered but couldn''t complete the sentence.

    "The staff of the Ribot God," Laura spoke up.

    Li Ling sighed, "It can turn anything to ash and dust. No matter if it is a ribix, a ribot, a human, or earth itself. As long as the wielder wants to turn it into ash, nothing can remain safe."

    "Wha~" Wang GuiYing was speechless but he still opened his mouth to exclaim in awe.

    "The ultimate weapon that can win this war," Li Ling added, his eyes attentively squinting at the staff being wielded by Leyah.

    "Are we... Winning?" Wang GuiYing questioned.

    Li Ling nodded as he answered, "We are. As long as she manages to control the Ribot God and his staff, we''ll win."

    "And if she doesn''t?"

    Li Ling shook his head and instead of answering, he asked another question, "What do you think happens if she loses control?"

    "We all die, won''t we?" Wang GuiYing muttered.

    Li Ling chuckled softly as he nodded his head and confirmed that his guess was right.

    If Leyah loses control over the thing she summoned, this whole world would immediately burn into ashes and nobody would be able to do anything about it.

    Wang GuiYing sighed as he looked up at Leyah, "No worries. I trust her."

    "Huh?"

    "I said, I trust her. She would not lose control easily," Wang GuiYing repeated himself confidently, "She refused to back down even with a broken leg. I''m sure she can manage this."

    "Me too..." It was Zather who muttered and joined Wang GuiYing, "I didn''t consider her as my leader because she was weak. My leader is a strong woman who can fight against all odds. She would certainly not lose control that easily."

    Laura suddenly scoffed as she heard this, "Well, I still hate her, but... I trust the Ribot God."

    Li Ling smiled as he heard this, "Ya know, I think you''re a tsundere."

    "What the heck is that?" Laura snapped but Li Ling only chuckled in response.

    It was better not to tell her what it means.

    With the amazing staff in hand, it would have been more shocking if Leyah didn''t win the fight.

    All the ribix and newly created Ribots turned into ashes and dust that blew away with the wind. It was a sight that was stunning and beautiful, but at the same time, it looked ruthless and cruel.

    To die that easily... It was truly a bit sad.

    Nobody dared say a word as they watched the war that could not even be called a war at this point. It looked more like a one-sided extermination.

    Within a few minutes, most of the ribix army had already disappeared from sight, floating in the wind as ashes that rose up and disappeared completely.

    Alvi who was simply standing by the side and watching this, chuckled as she straightened her back and walked towards Li Ling.

    Li Ling glared at her but it didn''t stop her from smiling at him.

    Within the next few minutes, Li Ling noticed something else and it worried him a bit.

    Most of the army had been killed off, however, Leyah also didn''t look to be in a good condition.

    Her metallic skin seemed to be rusting off and turning into ashes that could hardly be noticed.

    "It''s killing her," Alvi commented when she got close enough to Li Ling and the others.

    Li Ling gulped as he heard this. He had also guessed the same.

    "How long does she have?" Li Ling questioned.

    Alvi shrugged her shoulders as she heard this question, "Depends. At most, five minutes."

    Laura and Zather stood up from the ground along with their soldiers and everyone lifted their right hand up to their left chest.

    When Li Ling saw them, he frowned, "What are you doing?"

    "Saying our last goodbyes," Laura answered, her voice containing some kind of grief within it.

    Zather, "You''ve been a good Captain, Leyah. You sacrificed yourself to save us all. You shall be remembered in history as the savior of our planet. In History, your name shall be engraved and in the hearts of the survivors, you will forever stay alive."

    Laura, "I truly hate you. You were meant to do this since the beginning, however, I would have never expected you to choose this path yourself. As much as I hate to admit it, I still have to say that you''re quite brave. You were always braver than I ever was."

    "Captain, to fight in battle for you was my greatest honor."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but chuckle as he raised his hand and held it over his left chest, "Leyah, you can rest assured that Captain Liv and Captain Burn probably forgave you a long time ago."

 Chapter 190 - Li Ling Is Too Cute!

    Wang GuiYing chuckled as he joined everyone else as well. He lifted his right hand and held it over his left chest, "I don''t know you, but based on how much I''ve seen, I can confidently say that you weren''t a person I would normally hate. You were brave. Thank you."

    Zhou Xinyi also did the same action but he could not say anything decipherable. When he opened his mouth, the only thing everyone could hear was uncomfortable mechanical grunting sounds.

    "He said Thank you," Wang GuiYing translated and Zhou Xinyi nodded, confirming that Wang GuiYing''s translation was on point.

    "Captain, you''ll never be forgotten," The other soldiers also joined in and chimed.

    After a few more minutes, the intense fight had finally come to the last phase and was almost finished.

    All of the newly created ribots had been destroyed and most of the ribix had also been destroyed, leaving behind nothing more than ashes dancing with the wind..

    One last ribix remained and with just a swing of her staff, even that ribix was turned into ashes by Leyah whose half body had already started to turn into nothing more than dust.

    Ding~

    [Congratulations on completing your mission: Win the ribix war!]

    They finally heard the notification sound that they had been waiting for.

    Leyah turned her head to look at them and although all they could see was a ribot standing in her place, somehow, behind that unmoving expressionless face of a ribot, they could still sense the warm smile of the girl.

    The Ribot god kept on staring at them and everyone was sure that it wasn''t the ''god'' that was staring at them, it was Leyah saying her last goodbyes.

    "You did good," Li Ling mouthed out and he could swear that he saw a delighted tear trail down her face.

    [You have cleared D-ranked level 607: Metropolis War!]

    Li Ling could finally sigh in relief as he didn''t even bother waiting for all the rewards to be announced. He immediately took the headset off his head and helped Zhihao take his headset off as well.

    The staff that was waiting outside rushed in with their first aid equipment that was on standby.

    "Help me get him to my car." Li Ling spoke and when he saw no one moving as fast as he''d like them to, he shouted angrily, "Now!"

    One of the staff members took all the other equipment off of Zhihao''s body while another staff member tried to check Zhihao''s pulse before putting an oxygen mask around Zhihao''s mouth and nose.

    "A-Zhi, can you hear me?" Li Ling asked, his voice shaking in fear.

    "He''s alright, sir," A staff member tried to reassure Li Ling, "Just get him to the hospital as fast as possible."

    Li Ling nodded as he picked Zhihao up and carried him all the way to his car with a few staff members running around him in order to help him in any way they could.

    Li Ling had never been a person who enjoyed driving slow and with Zhihao having a medical emergency, there was an even lesser reason for him to drive slow.

    He sped by the other cars and within a few minutes, he was already at the hospital where Zhihao was rushed to the emergency room and Li Ling was forced to wait outside it.

    After an hour, his condition became stable and Zhihao gained consciousness.

    Li Ling who hadn''t cried till now suddenly burst out into a mess of tears as he saw Zhihao opening his eyes and smiling as he saw him.

    "You idiot!" Li Ling cried out as he engulfed the man in a tight hug.

    Zhihao chuckled softly as he heard this, "I''m the one who almost died, why are you crying?"

    Li Ling clenched his fist and lightly hit Zhihao''s chest as he scolded him, "I told you to take it easy, didn''t I?!"

    Zhihao smiled as he nodded, "It''s my fault. I''m sorry."

    "No, you''re not," Li Ling hit him again, "You''re not even pretending to regret it!"

    Zhihao chuckled as he once again nodded, "You''re right again."

    Li Ling lifted his head and looked at Zhihao straight in the eyes as he asked, "When I said that you will never see me again if you do something dangerous, did you think I was joking?"

    Zhihao''s muscles tensed up as he heard this. He opened his mouth to say something as a response but before the words could roll out of his tongue, he was forced to gulp them all back down when Li Ling continued scolding him.

    "Don''t even think about giving the excuse that it''s a game!" Li Ling sniffled back his tears and snot, "It''s not just a game!"

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he heard this but said nothing to that.

    "I''ll give you one more chance," Li Ling added, "And if you put yourself in danger ever again! You''re really never gonna see me again! Never!"

    Zhihao chuckled softly as he nodded his head, "Got it."

    Li Ling frowned as he kept looking at Zhihao who, like every other patient in a hospital, looked sick and weak.

    "How can I go putting myself in danger when I have such a caring wife?" Zhihao pinched Li Ling''s cheeks and teased him.

    Li Ling pushed his hand away, "Who the hell is your wife?! I''m your freaking husband!"

    Zhihao''s eyes widened slightly as he heard this, "You''re the dominating type, huh? Then do you want me to be the wife?"

    Li Ling frowned as he questioned, "Why the hell would you be the wife? If I wanted a wife, I would''ve married a woman!"

    Zhihao looked to be amused as he smirked, "But when did we get married?"

    Li Ling pursed his lips and turned his head away angrily, "Okay then! If you don''t want to get married, then don''t! I don''t care!"

    Zhihao couldn''t help but break out into a fit of laughter as he heard this. He clutched his abdomen as he exclaimed, "Ah! My stomach! How can you be so goddamn cute?! Ah!"

    Li Ling''s eyes widened as he also moved forward to grab Zhihao''s torso, "Are you okay? W-where does it hurt?"

    Zhihao rubbed Li Ling''s head as he commented, "It should be illegal to be this cute."

    Li Ling frowned as he hit Zhihao''s stomach, "Since you''re in the hospital, learn to act like a patient!"

    Zhihao smiled brightly in response.

    Since there wasn''t anything majorly wrong with his health, the doctor allowed Zhihao to be released on the same day and he was more than happy to be escorted back home by Li Ling.

    He asked Li Ling to stay back but Li Ling shook his head and still went back saying that he had things to take care of.

    Zhihao clearly wanted to hold the man back but in the end, he still knew that work was important and simply let Li Ling go back on his own.

    When Zhihao''s brother saw the two being so lovey-dovey towards each other, his face cringed up as he uncomfortably asked Zhihao, "Are you finally together or something?"

    Zhihao smiled warmly as he gestured for Huang Zhen to come over.

    The boy was a bit suspicious but in the end, he still ended up trusting Zhihao as he came over and let Zhihao smack his head.

    "Ow!" He exclaimed as he grabbed his head in a rather overexaggerating manner.

    "Don''t make that face, it makes me want to hit you," Zhihao beamed, "And treat him with some respect. He''s your brother-in-law."

    Huang Zhen looked to be a bit shocked as he frowned, "So you two already got married without our permission?"

    Zhihao smiled before smacking Huang Zhen''s head for the second time, "Why would we need your permission?"

    "Not me! Not me!" Huang Zhen rubbed his head with a wronged expression, "I was talking about our parents!"

    Zhihao smiled as he smacked Huang Zhen''s head for the third time, "Try being a little happy for your big bro, okay?"

    "Damn it! Stop hitting me! Where the hell is my nice brother?! Who are you? My brother never used to hit me like this!" Huang Zhen glared at Zhihao before taking out his phone and turning it on, "I''m calling mom!"

    Zhihao squinted at Huang Zhen''s phone before gesturing for him to come over.

    Huang Zhen shook his head, "I''m not coming over again! You''ll hit me!"

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he put his palm forward, "Give me your phone, idiot."

    Huang Zhen gulped and was reluctant, however, in the end, he still handed the phone over.

    Zhihao immediately switched the phone on and couldn''t help but be a little shocked as he saw his brother''s wallpaper, "Whoa~ Are you dating without my permission now?"

    Huang Zhen immediately snatched his phone back as he heard this question, "No!"

    Zhihao looked at his brother and smiled mischievously as he asked, "Wasn''t that Li Ling''s sister and you? Why do you have her in your wallpaper?"

    "First of all, I don''t need your permission to date someone. Second of all, there are more people in that picture! And third of all, why the hell would I date that abusive cosplayer?!"

    Zhihao snickered as he heard this but said nothing more.

 Chapter 191 - Li Ling And The News That Was Dearly Missed

    "Good morning and Welcome back!"

    "We are back with some sizzling hot news on T.I.A.D."

    "A game that has rocked our lives and livened up our morning news!"

    "Starting from T.I.A.D. achieving their milestone to its top player leaping so high that he ended up in the hospital."

    "We have it all lined up especially for you!"

    "So without wasting any further time, let''s start!"

    "Recently, T.I.A.D. celebrated its big milestone achievement. A hundred million players! Woohoo!"

    "Kevin, do you realize how big that is?!"

    "Of course, I do! Do you?"

    "It need not even be said. This game is a lot harder to play than it is to win. If you want to play, buying the game isn''t even the first step. Buying the special T.I.A.D. nerve gear should be your first step. Then you register yourself in the T.I.A.D. center and get your T.I.A.D. license that could be used for you to buy the game."

    "I swear, when I first heard how much hard work you''d have to do in order to be able to buy the game, I legit thought not many people would actually go through all that trouble just for a game. However, this game has been shocking us and proving us wrong ever since the beginning. Within a few weeks of its release, T.I.A.D. already had a few million players who had immediately registered and bought the nerve gear, making it run out of stock."

    "But eventually, stocks were refilled and now with the popularity of the game, it doesn''t even come as a shock that there are more than a hundred million players buying that expensive nerve gear and license."

    "Ya know, it''s still a bit hard for me to believe that a game could be this famous, but then again, if a game is this good, it deserves such hype, don''t you think so?"

    "It definitely does, Kevin. With how much went into the production of this game, this is certainly a number that we should have expected. In fact, I have a feeling that this hype isn''t dying down anytime soon. This game has a pretty bright future and I''m sure it would soon celebrate more milestones one by one."

    "There''s no doubt about that. The game itself is pretty good and I''m saying this through experience."

    "No way! You actually tried out your luck? Kevin, you have no chance of winning against Mastermo!"

    "I know that. Hehehe... Who said I bought it to win? I just wanted to try the game out and enjoy it. I have to say, this game is by far my most favorite. It has well-thought-out storylines and quite interesting characters that make you feel as if they really exist. When you''re in the game, you will definitely forget that you are. It''s just an immersive experience that makes you forget everything about real life."

    "I have to agree with you on that. I did try the game out and eventually had to stop because I thought I was soon going to get addicted to it. It''s just that good."

    "The one hundred million should be proof enough."

    "Haha... You''re right. That number speaks for itself."

    "The second big news of the day is the official release of the T.I.A.D. sensory room which also happens to be our sixth topic today, but you''ll understand why the same thing needs two different headlines."

    "Just yesterday, T.I.A.D. sensory room was officially released. A room, fully equipped to give you a hundred percent immersive gaming experience. Something, never before done in history. The smell, the touch, the taste, every single thing that helps you differentiate between what is real and what is not would soon be betraying you, cause with the T.I.A.D. sensory room, unless you remember that you''re in a game, there would be nothing that would remind you that this is just a game."

    "I just hope that at least death isn''t real in the game."

    "Lmao. That''s probably the only thing that you won''t be able to experience in the T.I.A.D. sensory room."

    "The big release of T.I.A.D. sensory gaming room also saw some special guests being the first to experience this wonder of a lifetime. Mastermo, BBtrash, Hulk0_0, and Devilmagiclover were the first four players to ever enter a game through the use of this newly released technologically advanced room. This is the third important news we wanted to give you."

    "These four certainly are pretty lucky and let''s be honest, we all love it, although we are still jealous of their amazing luck."

    "Which brings me to the fourth topic of today: Mastermo."

    "This player just keeps us on his toes, doesn''t he."

    "He sure enjoys doing that a lot. Mastermo officially announced his relationship status with his gaming partner Devilmagiclover."

    "I don''t know about that, Kevin. It''s not something I would like to call ''Official''."

    "It''s certainly not as official as we''d want it to be, but it''s still something, alright. In the last stream, where Devilmagiclover had to play the role of a vampire and Mastermo had to play the role of a mage in charge of protecting the vampire, the atmosphere was just so filled with love that it made people choke on dog food as they constantly heard Mastermo proposing to his partner again and again. Not even as a joke!"

    "That last part is very important so let me repeat that. Not even as a joke! He legit went on a live stream and kept getting rejected, but the rejection didn''t stop him from asking again and again."

    "He''s certainly every courageous for having done that. I mean, can you imagine proposing to your crush and getting rejected but still having the guts to propose again... On live T.V.?! That takes a lot of guts!"

    "And then comes what happened after they went to the T.I.A.D. sensory room."

    "Ah, yes. Our fifth topic of the day. Mastermo was rushed to the hospital by his partner due to reasons unknown."

    "Fans speculate that it was due to a heart failure because of how much Li Ling turned him down, but I don''t think that''s the case. What about you?"

    "I don''t know, Dev. Did you see how much he got rejected? I don''t know about him but if it was me, I''m sure I would need to be rushed to the hospital because of a heart failure."

    "Well, whatever the reason was, we can surely blame it on the T.I.A.D. sensory gaming room that had been adversely affected because of this incident."

    "Finally, our sixth topic of the day. Remember when we told you that the new fully immersive gaming room was released? Well, turns out anyone listening to this news report right now has no way of ever experiencing what the lucky four players experienced inside that room."

    "Why, you may ask? I want to laugh as I say this, but since this is a live stream and I have responsibilities as an anchor, I would naturally stop myself from laughing as I say this. Within a day of its release, the T.I.A.D. sensory room was also closed off till the unforeseen future."

    "That''s right. Canceled the exact next day after its big shaking release. Before people ever even had the chance to congratulate the release, they already needed to show their condolences to it."

    "It''s certainly a bit sad to know that this world is still not ready for such a fully immersive technology and you know what? I agree with this decision. If Mastermo had to be taken to the hospital because of this newly released T.I.A.D. sensory room, I think it not only should be canceled but should also be banned."

    "I agree with you on that. If a game can harm you in real life, it should be banned without any further discussion."

    "It really should be and this brings us to our next question which was asked by one of our viewers."

    "Is T.I.A.D really safe?"

    "We already know that the nerve headgear used to play the game connects to our brains. Letting a computer track down our thoughts, impulses, feelings, and actions. Is it really something that would be safe in the long run? What if there is a bug in the system? Can the developers confidently say that nothing would go wrong?"

    "We asked this same question to the company, however, so far, we have got no official response from them. With the lack of response, we were forced to go and ask some other sources who have claimed that the nerve gear is dangerous for a player if something goes wrong with the system used in the game."

    "And this is actually scary knowing that there are more than a hundred million players out there who trust the nerve gear."

    "Well, at this point, all we can do is hope that the developers have already taken precautions against any future disaster."

    "With that said, we''ll let you think about this question a bit further as we take our leave."

    "This has been your anchors, Kevin and Dev, live from the studio."

 Chapter 192 - Li Ling Is Responsible!

    "Sir, the newspapers and T.V. channels are blowing up. This has already gone out of hand. We need to say something," Xia looked to be worried as he showed Li Ling the tablet in his hand that displayed all the current trending news headlines.

    Li Ling pushed the tablet back as he responded, "You take care of that. Quietly."

    Xia pursed his lips as he pushed the tablet back towards Li Ling, "This is your mess, Sir. You should be the one to solve it."

    Li Ling looked at Xia for a solid minute and when he realized that there was no way he could win against the man, he sighed as he took the tablet and scrolled through the main news reports, "They want me to make an official statement?"

    Xia nodded his head, "They want an official statement for all of them."

    "Aren''t they expecting too much from me?"

    Xia didn''t know if he was supposed to laugh or cry as he heard this question, "Sir, you''re the one who caused all this."

    Li Ling sighed as he gave the tablet back, "So what? Do I have to solve every mess I create?"

    Xia nodded unhesitantly, "That''s how it normally goes."

    "..."

    Xia, "Do you want me to make up an official statement without your consultation."

    "No need," Li Ling sighed as he straightened his back, "Just say that the sensory room has no current plans for reopening or relaunching. For the time being, I''m closing it down for good. We still need to make sure that the safety of the players is guaranteed."

    "That''s that. What about the questions regarding the nerve gear? Are we going to be honest with them?"

    Li Ling scoffed as he heard this question, "Be honest and say what exactly? That I regret creating a really dangerous game that could possibly kill you if you try and stop playing? Impossible!"

    "But that''s exactly what you did," Xia commented blatantly.

    "And they don''t need to know that," Li Ling spoke up immediately, "If I make a mistake, I take responsibility for it and solve it before anyone ever notices."

    "So you''re taking responsibility now? Why don''t I see you taking responsibility?"

    "..." Li Ling pursed his lips, "I have a feeling that you''re trying to get on my nerves."

    Xia shrugged his shoulder as he responded, "You''re overthinking it. I still work for you. Legally, I can''t say anything against you."

    "..."

    So that''s the only thing stopping you from saying anything against me?

    "I''m trying to take responsibility! I am! Let me think first!" Li Ling snapped.

    "May I suggest something?"

    "What?" Li Ling looked at the man sharply.

    Xia smiled thinly as he spoke up, "Why don''t you announce your relationship with Zhihao?"

    "What?"

    "If you announce it, we can get our advertising team to cover up all the other stuff with this. People love gossip and dating scandals."

    Li Ling was silent for a second before he broke out laughing, "Are you really trying to make me the villain of my own story? I would not be using Zhihao like that!"

    "Then what do you plan to do?"

    "Just kill the news about the nerve gear. I''m sure you can manage to do that, can''t you?"

    Xia nodded, "I can do that, but it would be nothing more than a temporary fix. Since this news has already been brought up to the surface, we can try to push it down but it would still rise again. What will you do when that happens?"

    Li Ling leaned back on his chair and looked up at the ceiling of his office, "Bury it down and call the special team."

    "The special team?"

    Li Ling nodded as he added, "Alvi needs a thorough check-up. We push the news down for now and by the time it pops up again, we make sure that we fix the bot."

    Xia almost wanted to laugh as he heard this, "You think fixing Alvi would be that easy?"

    "Of course, not. It would be anything but easy." Li Ling sighed, "But waiting isn''t doing us any good now, is it? If we keep waiting, something really bad will happen and when it happens, we''ll have no way of fixing the damage. All we would be able to do is control the damage."

    Xia nodded as he heard this, "Okay, we give an official statement about the sensory room, push down the nerve gear controversy and call the special team. What about the other thing?"

    "What other thing?"

    "Your dating scandal."

    "..." Li Ling suddenly broke out laughing, "What am I supposed to do with it? Just let it go as it is. I leave that to Zhihao. Let him deal with it. It''s not connected to the company so you don''t have to worry about it."

    "It is connected with the company. That''s why I''m worried."

    "How so?" Li Ling frowned.

    "Mastermo isn''t just a normal person. He''s an online celebrity with quite a scary fanbase. If they find out that he''s dating someone, I''m sure they would try and dig up more information on you. That could eventually lead to your identity getting leaked."

    "You think it''s that easy to find me?" Li Ling chuckled, "You''re thinking too much. His fanbase isn''t that scary."

    Xia''s eyes contracted as he heard this, "Better safe than sorry."

    Li Ling yawned as he closed his eyes and rested on the chair, "Then I guess, I''ll choose to be sorry. I believe that I''ve hidden my identity well. Now, you should go and call the special team in my office. Inform me when they get here. I need to take a short nap."

    Xia nodded and was about to say something more but Li Ling jolted up as he added.

    "Actually, wait! Tell them to go over to the research center. Let''s take a look at Alvi."

    "Yes, Sir."

    With this said, Xia left the office and let Li Ling take his short rest.

    For a few minutes, Li Ling closed his eyes and relaxed into the chair, but in the end, he could not completely rest. His curiosity got the best of him and he turned on his phone to look at the news article about him and Zhihao.

    The title itself was eyecatching and almost made him laugh.

    ''What?! Mastermo and his little lover are getting official?!''

    Instead of reading the entire article itself, Li Ling skipped through it and reached the bottom that was filled with comments.

    [I''m shocked! I''m screaming! I''m crying! I''m too happy! Gadkjafh;dghofdri]

    [Official. OFFICIAL!! It''s freaking OfFiCIaL!!]

    [I''m confusion.]

    [Whaa~ Mastermo really played all of us, didn''t he?]

    [I saw this coming.]

    [^ Shhh~ We all did. Now act surprised!]

    [^ I''m surprised and I''m not even acting.]

    [I can finally die in peace.]

    [Mastermo and Devilmagiclover are 100% dating. This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!]

    [What K-drama is this Lmfao!!!!!!!!]

    [Nobody:

    Literally nobody:

    Not a single soul on earth:

    Me: *patiently munching on my popcorn as I wait for the fanfictions to roll in.]

    [Come here and listen. Listen closely. You hear that high-pitched scream? That''s me screaming as I read this.]

    [With how much they are willing to show on the internet, I bet more happens off-screen. (~^ ^)~]

    [Okay, guys! I did it! I finally did it! Chapter 1 of the fanfic is out!]

    [^ Damn it, you''re fast! Drop the title.]

    [^ It''s called ''My RPG partner is in love with me!'']

    [^ That title sounds rather accurate kekeke]

    [Anyone else who''s just really happy for Zhihao? I mean, as a long-time fan, I was almost a hundred percent sure that he was gonna end up in one of those reality shows where he gets married to a gaming console.]

    [^ Wait wut?! Lol]

    [Your big sister blesses you both a happily wedded life!]

    [You know what would be funny? Turns out they are actually stepbrothers in real life lol.]

    [^ Damn that''ll be a fanfic plot twist.]

    [^ Oh Gawd please no!]

    [^ Is it time to dig more on him? Lol]

    [Someone please find the real identity of Devilmagiclover! We need to make sure that he passes the vibe check!]

    [I expected a lot of hate comments but it seems that we all buried them.]

    [Lol who would have the free time to come over here and hate on them? Mastermo is such a cute baby and his lover is even cuter. I vote them as the country''s cutest couple!]

    [I HAVE A QUESTION! WHO THE HELL IS THE TOP?]

    [...]

    [^ Turn off your Capslock first.]

    [^ And I opp-]

    [^ I''m giving this comment a like because I want Zhihao to see this and respond.]

    [Mastermo is definitely the top! What are you guys even thinking about? There''s no way he''ll  bottom!]

    [I''m convinced that Mastermo is a power bottom!]

    [You guys are weird...]

    [Mastermo as the power bottom... Damn... I need a fanfic! Please add BBtrash too!]

    [Hehehehe that would be one chaotic fanfic!]

    [Imagine if Mastermo or Devilmagiclover actually reads this comment section. Damn, that''ll be awkward.]

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he read that comment.

    "Too late," Li Ling muttered as he continued to scroll through the comment section.

 Chapter 193 - Li Ling Is Baby Now?!

    "A-Zhi~" A female voice sang.

    Huang Zhen who was sitting on the couch located in the living room immediately turned his head and his eyes seemed to be sparkling with delight as he called out to the woman, "Mom!"

    Huang Zhi Juan smiled brightly as she heard her son, "A-Zhen, where''s your brother."

    Huang Zhen stood up and engulfed his mother in a hug as he answered, "He''s upstairs."

    Huang Zhi Juan hugged the boy back and called out to Zhihao loudly when she separated from the hug, "A-Zhi!~ Come down and see the gifts your mom brought for my baby!~"

    "You brought gifts for me?" Huang Zhen beamed as he looked at the shopping bags carried by Huang Zhi Juan.

    Huang Zhi Juan chuckled as she rubbed the boy''s head, "Don''t be silly. I''m talking about my other baby~"

    Huang Zhen pursed his lips and looked to be dejected as he went back to the couch and sat down comfortably.

    "Eh? Why isn''t your brother coming down?" Huang Zhi Juan asked and the boy simply shrugged his shoulders as a response..

    "Try calling him again. He might be sleeping. His sleeping schedule is messed up because of his gaming."

    Huang Zhi Juan frowned as she heard this, "Sleeping?"

    Huang Zhen nodded his head as he turned on his smartphone and started chatting with Li Ying.

    "A-Zhi, honey, come down!~" Huang Zhi Juan shouted once again and this time, she could hear the sound of a door on the floor upstairs opening and closing, indicating that Zhihao had heard her.

    Zhihao rubbed his eyes as he made his way downstairs.

    "Aiya~ Still sleeping?" Huang Zhi Juan smiled warmly as she looked at her son.

    "Mom?" Zhihao''s voice sounded hoarse as he muttered, "What are you doing here?"

    "What else do you think? I brought so many things for my baby~" Huang Zhi Juan beamed as she held up the shopping bags clutched tightly in her hands.

    "For me?" Zhihao frowned as he wondered what had taken over his mother.

    It wasn''t like Huang Zhi Juan to just pop up at his apartment with hands filled with gifts.

    Huang Zhi Juan shook her head as she responded, "I brought them for my new baby~"

    "Mom!" Both Huang Zhen and Zhihao snapped at her in shock, "Are you pregnant again?"

    "Huh? Of course, not!" Huang Zhi Juan broke out laughing as if she had heard something ridiculous.

    "Oh, thank God!" Huang Zhen exclaimed as he sunk back onto the soft couch.

    "Then which baby are you talking about?" Zhihao scratched his head as he questioned.

    "Yours, honey."

    "I''m pregnant?!" Zhihao''s eyes widened as he looked down at his stomach.

    "..."

    "Big bro, you''re a boy. Who the hell can get you pregnant?" Huang Zhen asked as his face cringed at the sight of his brother looking down at his stomach.

    "A-Zhi, you''re so funny~" Huang Zhi Juan chuckled as she put all the shopping bags down on the table, "I''m talking about your other baby~"

    "Mom, if somebody came to you and said I got someone pregnant, they are lying! I definitely did not!" Zhihao defended himself as he made his way to the living room and got seated beside Huang Zhen on the couch.

    "That''s not it," Huang Zhi Juan shook her head and sighed as she wondered how her son could be such a big idiot, "Are you sure I gave birth to you?"

    Zhihao shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "You should be the one who knows the answer to that."

    Huang Zhi Juan chuckled as she took a seat in front of him on the opposite couch, "Honey, I''m talking about your boyfriend. I brought so many gifts for him, where is he?"

    "Oh, you were talking about Li Ling," Zhihao sighed and it took a whole minute for him to suddenly realize it, "Mom! How do you know that?!"

    Huang Zhi Juan giggled as she heard this question, "I''m your mother. The whole world knows. You think I won''t? There''s nothing you can hide from me, boy."

    "No that''s...!" Zhihao''s eyes widened as he suddenly looked to be tongue-tied.

    "So where is my new baby?" Huang Zhi Juan seemed to be dancing in her seat as she asked happily.

    "Brother Li Ling doesn''t live here," Huang Zhen answered without even bothering to look up from his phone.

    "A-Zhi, what''s the use of moving into your own apartment if you''re not even gonna sneak your boyfriend in here?!" Huang Zhi Juan frowned.

    Zhihao pursed his lips and looked at his mother with an indecipherable expression as he asked, "Mom, your reaction is quite... Weird, did you know that?"

    "Eh?" Huang Zhi Juan frowned as she questioned, "Then what do you want me to do? You want me to yell at you and throw money on your boyfriend''s face? Asking him to leave you or something? Is that what I should do?"

    Zhihao gulped as he instantly shook his head, "Please, don''t do that."

    Huang Zhi Juan smiled brightly as she heard this, "I wouldn''t have done that even if you asked me to do something like that."

    "Big bro, just be happy that she''s accepting your relationship," Huang Zhen commented from the side.

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded her head as she agreed, "It''s quite rare to find such a loving mother like me!~ You should consider yourself lucky."

    Zhihao sighed as he straightened his back and looked at his mother, "So you''re okay with it? You''re really okay with me not dating a girl?"

    Huang Zhi Juan was silent for a minute before she smiled thinly and asked, "If I say I''m not, would you start dating a girl?"

    Zhihao gulped as he shook his head.

    "Then why ask such a question?"

    "That''s because..." Zhihao looked down at his hands and dare not continue that sentence.

    "A-Zhi, I''m not a little-minded person," Huang Zhi Juan stood up and made her way over to the other couch, "There are a lot of people in this world and I believe that each one of them is different. You will like interacting with some of them and dislike interacting with some others. You''ll feel more connected to a certain person while at the same time, you''ll feel completely disconnected from someone else. In this huge world, filled with people, you''re bound to feel lonely. You''ll feel as if you''re all alone, as if nobody understands you and that''s not really a good feeling."

    She sighed, "In this world, if you manage to find one person whom you love and connect with more than anyone else, it''s a really beautiful thing. And if that love is shared between the two of you, it need not even be said how beautiful of a connection that is."

    She grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently as she continued, "I want my sons to be happy. If your happiness lays with Li Ling, do you think I wouldn''t support it just because of something trivial as gender?"

    Zhihao didn''t know why but he suddenly felt like crying as he heard this. He was happy and yet sad at the same time.

    Huang Zhi Juan suddenly chuckled as she added, "You know, at one point in time, I was even ready to accept the new gaming system as my daughter-in-law."

    "What?!" The tears that had started forming in Zhihao''s eyes instantly vanished as he heard that last sentence.

    Huang Zhi Juan continued to laugh as she patted Zhihao''s head, "I''m glad you didn''t get married to your console. It would have been pretty awkward to call that thing my daughter."

    "Mom, have I ever told you how amazing you are?" Huang Zhen suddenly asked as he lifted his eyes from his phone, "You''re an amazing mother~"

    Huang Zhi Juan broke into a warm smile as she heard this, "And you just found out?"

    Huang Zhen shrugged his shoulders and looked back at his phone, not bothering to give a response to his mother.

    "Mom, he''s right." Zhihao chuckled, "I''m lucky to have you."

    "Aw~ Did I make you cry, my baby?" Huang Zhi Juan rubbed his head lovingly, "I tried my best to sound cool."

    Zhihao nodded his head softly in between his chuckles.

    "It''s okay, honey," Huang Zhi Juan pulled him in a hug and patted his back, "But I am unhappy about one thing."

    Zhihao gulped and looked worried for a second as he pulled away from the hug and met her eyes, "You''re unhappy? About what?"

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded her head with a frown as she pointed at the shopping bags placed on the table, "I was so excited to buy some wedding gifts for my new son-in-law, but you told me he isn''t here."

    "..."  Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this.

    "All of this is nonrefundable and expensive, so you tell me, what do I do with it now?"

    Zhihao chuckled as he saw the dejected expression on his mother''s face, "Mom, do you want to meet him?"

    Huang Zhi Juan immediately bobbed her head up and down as she beamed, "Of course!"

    "Should I bring him to the main house for dinner?" Zhihao smiled.

    The smile on his mother''s face dropped as soon as she heard the words ''main house''.

    "Aiya~ I said I was okay with it, but... Your father thinks otherwise," Huang Zhi Juan responded awkwardly.

 Chapter 194 - Li Ling Is Gonna Be Murdered?!

    Zhihao''s face dropped colors as he questioned, "He''s... Unhappy?"

    His mother slowly nodded her head before shaking it reluctantly, "Not exactly..."

    "Mom, you raised a homophobic husband?" Huang Zhen monotonously asked without bothering to look up from his phone where he was giving a live update of the situation to Li Ling''s sister.

    Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she squeezed Zhihao''s hand, "Your father''s not homophobic and he has no problem with you liking a man, but... He does have a problem with you liking Li Ling."

    Zhihao frowned as his pupils contracted, "What do you mean, mom?"

    Huang Zhi Juan shrugged her shoulders as she replied, "You know, right? That Li Ling is your father''s business partner?"

    Zhihao nodded his head. It was only recently that he had found out but at least he knew it by now.

    "But he''s just a worker at Omelas. Father shouldn''t even know him that well...?"

    Huang Zhi Juan looked a little stunned as she heard this, "Honey, he didn''t tell you yet?"

    "Tell me what?"

    Huang Zhi Juan pursed her lips and squeezed his hand reassuringly, "He''s not just a worker at Omelas. He''s your father''s direct business partner. Li Ling is the C.E.O. and founder of Omelas."

    Zhihao was silent for a minute and it almost looked as if the shock had rendered him speechless, "Excuse me... What?!"

    "You didn''t know, big bro?" Huang Zhen asked teasingly.

    "You knew?" Zhihao snapped his head at his little brother.

    Huang Zhen shrugged his shoulders as he responded, "I know a lot of things that you don''t."

    "This doesn''t make any sense," Zhihao muttered. His eyes were wide open in disbelief and he was having a hard time believing the reality of the situation.

    Huang Zhi Juan smiled thinly as she patted his head, "I''m sure he just forgot to tell you."

    "Wait, mom. I don''t understand," Zhihao shook his head as he met her eyes, "Why would my father be against us just because Li Ling is the founder of Omelas...?"

    With all facts considered, Zhihao felt that the situation just didn''t add up. His father should have been more than happy to know that his son-in-law was someone impressive, so why was the situation different? Why was he dissatisfied with it?

    Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she heard this question, "Let''s just say that he doesn''t like the way Li Ling deals with things. Their partnership hasn''t really been that smooth running."

    "Well, that''s fantastic news!" Zhihao immediately stood up enthusiastically.

    "It is?" Huang Zhi Juan asked with a concerned expression.

    "It is?" Huang Zhen also looked to be shocked as he lifted his head and looked at his brother.

    "Of course, it is!" Zhihao exclaimed happily, "This could be a chance for them to get to know each other better. I''m sure there''s some misunderstanding between them and with this opportunity, we could solve it."

    "Oh Honey... I wonder why you''re so naive," Huang Zhi Juan commented with a sigh.

    Huang Zhen shrugged his shoulders and looked at his mother, "Mom, it''s your fault. You should''ve taught him better."

    "Hey! I raised him to the best of my abilities!" Huang Zhi Juan defended herself.

    "Sure~" Huang Zhen turned back to texting on his phone.

    "We can arrange a dinner and have them meet. I''m sure father would be polite to him, considering the fact that he''s my boyfriend."

    Huang Zhi Juan chuckled coldly as she heard this, "A-Zhi, I like the fact that you''re so optimistic, but life doesn''t always go as planned. You might think that''s what happens but you forgot to consider another possibility."

    "Another possibility?"

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded her head as she stood up, "Think of this. What if you arrange a dinner and your father flips the whole table on Li Ling? How are you going to control that?"

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he immediately shook his head, "That ain''t gonna happen."

    Huang Zhi Juan chuckled dryly as she nodded her head, "That could very well happen. Your boyfriend just canceled the T.I.A.D. sensory room... Your father''s pretty mad."

    "..." Zhihao gulped as he looked at his mother with a questioning gaze, "That could... Happen?"

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded her head as she gently spun Zhihao and pushed him forward, "It''s a possibility. Now go and get me something to drink. My throat is killing me."

    Zhihao frowned in dissatisfaction but still nodded his head as he got ready to get a glass of water for his mother, "Okay..."

    After Zhihao had left, Huang Zhi Juan sighed and Huang Zhen looked at her before questioning, "Mom, is it really that bad?"

    Huang Zhi Juan looked at her son and nodded her head lightly, "Your father''s planning on murdering our son-in-law. Believe me, it''s bad."

    "Hmm... Can''t say I blame him," Huang Zhen shrugged his shoulders and got back to paying all of his attention to his phone.

    Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she flopped down on the couch, "I wonder what A-Zhi has in store for him..."

    Just a minute later, Huang Zhi Juan got a call and she immediately attended to the urgent call.

    "What happened?" Instead of a ''hello'' these were the first words she asked the caller.

    The more she listened to the other person speaking, the more twisted her face became.

    "Got it, I''ll be there in a minute!" She abruptly cut the call and got ready to leave the place, only to turn around last minute and walk back into the living room, "A-Zhen, honey, tell your brother that I had some important stuff to do. And tell him to stay away from the game."

    Huang Zhen nodded his head, without bothering to lift his head up, "Bye, mom."

    Huang Zhi Juan got ready to leave but once again, when she got close to the door, she turned around and walked to the living room. She picked up a post-it note from her purse and wrote the same thing on the note before pasting the note on the table, "Make sure that your brother reads this note."

    Huang Zhen muttered a small "Okay" as he kept his eyes glued to his phone, laughing at something that Li Ying had sent him.

    Huang Zhi Juan squinted at her son who seemed absentminded.

    "Should I trust you...?" She muttered but in the end, she didn''t have enough time to waste pondering over this and so, she left the place as soon as possible.

    The post-it was on the table so there was no way Zhihao would miss it. This was more reassuring for her than Huang Zhen telling Zhihao the message Huang Zhi Juan had left for him.

    A few minutes later, Zhihao came back to the living room with a tray in hand. There were three glasses filled with orange juice and some snacks kept on a plate.

    He frowned when he could no longer spot Huang Zhi Juan, "A-Zhen, where did mom go?"

    "She had some important business to deal with so she left early." Huang Zhen responded as he looked up at the tray, "Ooh~ Snacks!"

    Zhihao kept the tray down on the tables, coincidentally, on top of the post-it note that he was never able to read.

    Huang Zhen picked the snacks and started munching on them before conveying the rest of the message Huang Zhi Juan had left for Zhihao, "She also told you to take care of your health and not play so much. You should sleep, big bro. Stop playing on your computer all night, it''s bad for your eyes."

    Zhihao frowned as he smacked his brother''s head, "Did you become my mother suddenly?"

    Huang Zhen rubbed his head as he cried out in defense, "That''s what she told me to tell you! It''s a message from her, not me!"

    Zhihao rolled his eyes as he made his way back up the stairs to his room.

    Huang Zhen watched him go with a frown on his face, "You''re always hitting me!"

    "Because you deserve it," Zhihao shouted back from the stairs.

    Huang Zhen stuck his tongue out and mocked Zhihao but the man was already out of sight and hence it was only natural that he didn''t see it.

    Huang Zhen drank the orange juice and happily munched on the snacks, his eyes glued to his phone, laughing every now and then at something that was probably not as funny as he made it seem.

    After an hour, he reached out his hand to take the cookies but found that he had already finished all of them.

    "Damn it..." He muttered as he picked up the tray and took it back to the kitchen.

    The post-it note that was squeezed under the tray somehow stuck onto the bottom of it and was taken to the dishwasher along with the tray.

    Huang Zhen wasn''t nice enough to wash the dishes and hence the post-it stayed there, hidden from everyone till someone actually came to wash the dishes. Unfortunately, nobody came on time, and hence, the post-it became thoroughly useless.

    Huang Zhen flopped down on the couch again and texted away on his phone.

    The content written inside the post-it: A-Zhi, stay away from T.I.A.D. for a few days. There''s something wrong with the system. Don''t log in, okay? I don''t want to put you in danger.

 Chapter 195 - Li Ling Is The One To Blame

    Huang Zhi Juan drove towards the beach as fast as possible and parked her car by the side of the road before getting out of it and walking towards two people that were waiting for her.

    "What the hell happened?" She asked in worry.

    A young girl who could be identified as Li Ying lifted her head and looked at the woman before greeting her with a delighted tone, "Auntie!~"

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded with a small smile that was gone before it could even register on her face, "What''s the emergency about?"

    Li Ying shrugged her shoulders as she responded in a calm manner, "It''s not anything much. My brother is a bit too emotional after seeing your son faint."

    Huang Zhi Juan frowned as she heard this, "Is that really it?"

    Li Ying pursed her lips and said nothing more as a response.

    Another man who looked to be around his mid-twenties sighed as he bowed and greeted Huang Zhi Juan before responding to her question, "Alvi isn''t listening to the gamemaster."

    Huang Zhi Juan looked to be a little shocked and worried as she instantly questioned with a frown apparent on her face, "How can that be?"

    The man had his hands casually tucked in his pockets as he shook his head, "We''ll have to check the details."

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded as she looked around, "What about the others?"

    Li Ying clicked her tongue in annoyance as she answered, "That Richlord is taking her sweet time getting here."

    From the way Li Ying had said it, it was clear that her relationship with this so-called Richlord wasn''t something you''d call good.

    "Call her again. Why are we wasting our time waiting for her?" Huang Zhi Juan questioned.

    The man sighed as he took out his phone from his pocket and dialed a number before putting it on loudspeaker.

    The call rang a few times and just when they thought nobody was going to pick up the call, at the last moment possible, a clicking sound was heard indicating that Richlord had picked up.

    "Hello~"

    "Yah! Where the hell are you?" Li Ying was anything but polite as she shouted at the girl on the other side of the call.

    "Is that you, YingYing?" The voice sounded soft and delighted as she questioned.

    "Don''t call me YingYing!" Li Ying snapped at her.

    "Aiya~ Control your temper, child. I''m almost there."

    "Where are you right now?" It was Huang Zhi Juan who had asked.

    "Eh? Zelak? You''re there as well?"

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded her head before stupidly realizing that the woman on the other side of the call couldn''t possibly see her, "Yeah, it''s me."

    "Oh~ I''m sorry, auntie~ I was in a shopping sale so I got late." The girl apologized.

    Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she grabbed her head that felt like it would have a headache at any moment now, "Is that why you''re late?"

    "I was at the counter when they called. I couldn''t possibly leave everything and come running now, could I?"

    "Okay. Okay. Just get here fast."

    "Yes, ma''am!"

    They could hear the sound of the car increasing speed before the phone was abruptly cut off.

    Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she suggested, "Let''s go inside the cafe first."

    The man and Li Ying nodded in unison as they agreed.

    The three soon made their way to the cafe that Li Ling had once taken Zhihao to. This cafe was located by the sea and so there were hardly any consumers who came here. Hence, it came as no shock that the cafe was empty with only the workers standing there behind the counter to greet the visitors.

    "Welcome back!" The woman behind the counter immediately bowed with a big smile on her face, "Madam Huang! Li Ying! And Liang Feng!"

    Huang Zhi Juan smiled politely as she nodded at the greeting, "How are you?"

    The woman in front shook her hands in front of her humbly, "I''m always great. How are you, Madam Hwang?"

    Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she replied honestly, "Stressed and worried."

    The woman frowned as she heard this response, "Is there something wrong?"

    "A lot, actually but I don''t think I have enough time to explain."

    The woman seemed to have understood the underlying meaning behind Huang Zhi Juan''s words and she immediately nodded as she asked, "Would you like to book table no. 13?"

    There was no such table as no. 13 in this small cafe but when Huang Zhi Juan heard this question, she nodded her head as she responded, "In a little while."

    "Okay, Ma''am!" The woman nodded in understanding as she turned and went back to making a coffee for the customers.

    Li Ying was the first to make her way towards a seat and was soon followed by Huang Zhi Juan and Liang Feng.

    "Auntie, I''m just asking in case but... What if Alvi is really gonna have a breakdown?" Li Ying asked cautiously.

    Huang Zhi Juan couldn''t help but laugh as she heard this question, "Little Ying, have you ever seen that movie in which people were suddenly transported to a gaming world and won something called a visa by playing life-threatening games? If their visa expired, they would die. Does that ring a bell?"

    Li Ying thought about it for a minute before nodding her head, "I do remember something like that. When you win the games, you win a card and with a full deck, you would be able to go back to the real world. Was it that one?"

    "That''s the one," Huang Zhi Juan nodded as she continued, "If Alvi has a breakdown, that would be our future, however, there will be no visa given and no cards won. You won''t be going back to your original world cause the game would become the real world. She''s capable of killing us all."

    "Oh..." Li Ying gulped in worry as she wondered how alike her brother was to an evil scientist who planned on bringing the world to ruins.

    Huang Zhi Juan chuckled as she saw the girl''s frightened expression, "Don''t worry about it too much. Haven''t we been here since the beginning? We know Alvi better than anyone else. Do you think we''ll let something like that happen?"

    Li Ying shook her head in response before asking, "Are you sure that we can stop it?"

    "Your brother believes in our small team, why don''t you have some faith in your capabilities as well?"

    Li Ying pouted as she heard this, "Auntie, you''re too optimistic!"

    "Sometimes being optimistic is good."

    "But expecting the worst keeps you prepared," Liang Feng commented, sharply interrupting the conversation between the two.

    Huang Zhi Juan was silent as she heard this. She really had no reply to that.

    Li Ying''s eyes twitched as she glared at the man, "Brother Feng, why do you have to say that? Stop being so pessimistic!"

    Liang Feng pursed his lips as he looked at the girl with an expression that looked as if he didn''t know if he should laugh or cry, "Little Ying, you don''t want Madam Hwang to be optimistic and you don''t want me to be pessimistic. What do you want to hear?"

    Li Ying shrugged her shoulders as she responded, "I don''t know. I just like facts more than guessing the future."

    "Then why the hell did you ask that question in the first place?!" Liang Feng questioned with a frown.

    Li Ying stuck out her tongue as she mocked the man, "I was just trying to make small talk while we wait for the witch."

    Liang Feng was about to say something more but right at this moment, they heard the sound of the cafe door opening with a ring from the bell on top of the door.

    "Auntie Hwang~ YingYing~ Gege~ You''re all here~" It was the voice of the girl whom they had called just a few minutes ago.

    Li Ying rolled her eyes as she turned to see the woman who had come, "And now you''re here too."

    The woman smiled thinly as she walked up to them, her heels clicking against the wooden floor in a rather rhythmic manner, "Auntie Hwang, I''m so sorry that I was late~"

    Huang Zhi Juan stood up and greeted the woman with a hug as she responded, "No need to be sorry. At least you made it as fast as you could."

    The woman nodded her head as she pouted, her lips that had been painted with a cherry-colored lipstick puckering out in a way that made it seem as if she was asking for sympathy, "It''s Gege''s fault!~ Who the hell calls someone out of nowhere like that and asks them to come immediately?!"

    She pushed all the blame onto Li Ling''s head with no hesitation.

    Li Ying''s pupils seemed to contract as she stood up and snapped at the woman, "Don''t go around calling my brother Gege! Someone might mistake you."

    The woman giggled happily as she heard this, "What are you talking about, YingYing? I call everyone Gege."

    Li Ying looked to be unamused as she heard this but she said nothing more.

 Chapter 196 - Li Ling Also Has A Girlfriend?!

    "Now, don''t start fighting, you two," Huang Zhi Juan stepped in between the two girls, "Xifeng dear, we have already wasted a lot of time. Why don''t we go down now?"

    Tian Xifeng nodded her head with a smile as she heard this, "Okay, auntie~"

    The woman standing behind the counter immediately walked up to Tian Xifeng and greeted her, "Welcome, ma''am!"

    Tian Xifeng smiled politely as she heard the woman''s kind greeting, "We would like to order table no. 13."

    The woman nodded her head enthusiastically as she responded, "Follow me."

    She gestured for them to follow her and everyone nodded as they waited for the woman to show them the way to table no. 13.

    While walking, Tian Xifeng smiled brightly as she hooked her hand around Huang Zhi Juan''s arm, "Auntie, it''s been so long since I''ve seen Gege. How is he?"

    Huang Zhi Juan squinted at the woman and smiled rather mischievously, "Xifeng, A-Zhi is doing good.. Do you remember that time you volunteered to be his wife if he can''t find one?"

    Tian Xifeng chuckled as she nodded her head, "Gege is pretty rich. Of course, it would be my greatest luck to get married to him!~"

    "Well, you don''t need to," Huang Zhi Juan beamed and it looked like the smile on Tian Xifeng''s lips faltered for just a mere second.

    "No way..." Tian Xifeng muttered in disbelief as she looked at the woman in shock, "Zhihao has a girlfriend?!"

    Huang Zhi Juan shook her head as she heard such a ridiculous thing, "He has a boyfriend, not a girlfriend."

    "What?!" Tian Xifeng''s amused smile fell down immediately, "Auntie, what do you mean? Zhihao was gay?!"

    Huang Zhi Juan frowned as she looked at the woman with a bit of suspicion, "Are you unhappy for my son?"

    Tian Xifeng gulped as she shook her head, "It''s just a bit... Hard to believe."

    Huang Zhi Juan chuckled as she asked, "Were you planning the marriage destination already because you thought A-Zhi wouldn''t find anyone?"

    Tian Xifeng nodded her head without any sense of embarrassment as she confessed, "I even got the wedding dress ready."

    "..." Huang Zhi Juan suddenly didn''t know if she wanted to laugh or cry as she heard that, "Wha~ I suddenly feel a bit bad for you."

    Li Ying, who was silently following after them chuckled mockingly as she commented, "Why would auntie feel bad for her? She probably has a lot more suitors waiting in line to see her in that wedding dress."

    Tian Xifeng chuckled as she heard this, "You''re right, Yingying. It is a pity that Zhihao got away from me but I can probably find a lot more." She exaggeratedly sighed as she tried to convey her sadness, "But nobody would be able to replace Zhihao. Our Auntie and Uncle Huang are too rich~"

    Li Ying clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes in annoyance as she heard this, "Richlord, your name certainly doesn''t sound like you''re a golddigger but the more I hear you bark, the more you make me think of you as one."

    Tian Xifeng chuckled in amusement as she heard this, "Does that mean I have a good name? Well, thank you."

    "..." Li Ying squinted at the woman as she added, "The fact that you''re not even denying it makes me really believe that you''re a golddigger."

    Tian Xifeng stopped and turned around to face Li Ying, "Yingying, you must marry a rich man when you grow up. Only then would you able to live happily without worrying about trivial things in life."

    Li Ying frowned and her face clearly stated that she didn''t agree with the woman''s ideology.

    Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she announced, "We''re here. Try to look a little serious, would you?"

    Tian Xifeng smirked as she rubbed Li Ying''s head and turned to face Huang Zhi Juan with a wide smile, "Auntie, I''m always serious when it comes to work. You just caught me by surprise when you told me the news about Zhihao."

    Li Ying scoffed as she stepped forward and purposefully bumped against the woman''s shoulder, "Richlord, you better not say anything about Zhihao in front of my brother."

    Tian Xifeng furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she asked, "Why?"

    Li Ying smiled as she reached her hand forward and patted the woman''s head. Tian Xifeng was clearly taller and older than her and so, Li Ying had to reach her hand up to pat the woman''s head and she barely had enough height to reach Tian Xifeng''s head.

    "Just don''t say anything about your marriage with Zhihao or you might not make it alive out of here." Li Ying warned with a mischievous smile plastered on her face.

    Huang Zhi Juan couldn''t help but chuckle as she heard this.

    "Auntie, what''s she talking about?" Tian Xifeng asked with a frown.

    Huang Zhi Juan shook her head as she replied, "She''s just trying to scare you. Don''t listen to her."

    Tian Xifeng pouted but said nothing more.

    The woman who was leading them to table no. 13, led them to a wall and started to push the wall in.

    At first, pushing a wall looked to be futile but after a minute, the wall shuddered and moved back, opening up an elevator door for them.

    Huang Zhi Juan got inside the elevator first and was followed by Tian Xifeng, Li Ying, and Liang Feng.

    The woman who worked at the cafe stayed behind and bowed as she greeted, "Have a great day!"

    Huang Zhi Juan smiled politely as she heard this, "You too. Have a great day."

    The elevator door closed and the wall went back to its original position as the elevator started moving and went down.

    In just a few minutes, they had already reached their intended destination and the elevator door opened up again.

    What greeted them was a research facility that looked to be both secretive and highly advanced.

    There were a lot of people walking around in white coats and nobody seemed to pay attention to the four people that had just entered.

    "Everyone looks pretty busy," Liang Feng commented as he looked at the researchers walking around with their eyes glued to the files clutched tightly in their hands. If there was a pole in front of them, he was sure that they would walk right into the pole without realizing it.

    Li Ying walked forward and started to lead the group as she responded, "Everyone is busy studying Alvi."

    Huang Zhi Juan frowned as she looked over the balcony at the huge brain that was kept at the center of the place, "Alvi looks normal to me."

    Li Ying chuckled, "That''s what everyone thinks."

    Huang Zhi Juan shrugged her shoulders as she kept walking without any further conversation.

    They walked down a flight of stairs and were immediately greeted by Li Ling who came rushing over, "Why the hell did you guys take so long to come?!"

    Huang Zhi Juan was the first who ran up to the man and engulfed him in a hug, "Li Ling, son, I was waiting for you at Zhihao''s house. I brought so many wedding gifts for you!~"

    Li Ling hugged the woman back and looked to be confused as he mumbled, "Wedding gifts? Are you getting married again, Madam Huang?"

    Huang Zhi Juan chuckled as she separated from the hug, "I wish~"

    "..."

    "I brought gifts for you and Zhihao," Huang Zhi Juan exclaimed in delight.

    "Oh," Li Ling scratched the back of his neck and looked to be a little embarrassed, "So you found out about that...?"

    Huang Zhi Juan smacked his arm as she questioned, "Did you two think you could hide it from me? I''m the one who gave my blessings, are you forgetting that?"

    Li Ling chuckled as he shook his head, "How can I forget that? You''re really kind and awesome, Madam Huang."

    Huang Zhi Juan looked to be proud of herself as she heard this.

    "Wedding... Gifts...??" It was Tian Xifeng who muttered in disbelief and shock.

    Li Ying couldn''t help but laugh as she saw the woman''s confused and shocked expression, "I told you, didn''t I?"

    "Wait a second!" Tian Xifeng stepped forward and exclaimed loudly, "Gege, what do you mean? Why are you all acting so suspicious? Did you get a girlfriend too?!"

    Li Ling looked at the woman and tilted his head as he questioned, "You don''t know?"

    "Know what?" Tian Xifeng gulped as she somewhat guessed what the situation could be.

    Huang Zhi Juan smiled brightly as she gestured at Li Ling and explained the situation to Tian Xifeng, "Xifeng dear, this is my son-in-law."

    Tian Xifeng felt her knees go weak as she heard this and Li Ying helped her stand up straight.

    "Richlord, don''t faint on us." Li Ying seemed to be mocking the woman.

    Tian Xifeng gulped as she muttered, "I can''t believe it. Both my rich future husbands are taken...?"

    Li Ying chuckled as she taunted the woman, "Down goes your second marriage plan as well."

    Tian Xifeng looked as if she was having a mid-life crisis as she tried to absorb all this shocking information.

 Chapter 197 - Li Lings Impossible Plan

    "Why do you look like you''re about to cry?" Li Ling asked with a bit of worry.

    Li Ying chuckled as she decided to attack the woman a bit more, "Ling Gege, she was planning on marrying you."

    Li Ling was stunned for a second before he broke out laughing, "What the? That''s such a stupid wish! Lol, Everyone knows that I''m gay for A-Zhi."

    Li Ying shrugged her shoulder as she joined her brother and laughed at Tian Xifeng.

    "She was also planning on marrying Zhihao," Li Ying added with a smirk.

    The smile on Li Ling''s face fell immediately as he glared at the woman, "What?"

    Tian Xifeng gulped as she saw the hostile eyes that didn''t seem to match Li Ling''s usually calm and handsome face. She would be a fool if she were to not see the danger that lurked in her future. Without any embarrassment, she pointed at Li Ying accusingly as she defended herself, "Gege, don''t believe her! She''s just trying to make you hate me."

    Li Ling squinted at the woman suspiciously.

    Tian Xifeng nodded as she tried to make the man believe her lie, "Why would I ever want to marry your boyfriend?" She chuckled awkwardly, "Don''t worry about it. Zhihao Gege is all yours~"

    Li Ling frowned as he responded, "It wouldn''t have mattered even if you were planning on stealing him. It''s not like you''ll win against me in any case."

    Tian Xifeng looked to be stunned as she heard such a confident response. She looked at him up and down as she asked, "Eh? You''re that confident in yourself?"

    Li Ling smirked for a second as he questioned back, "Do you have more confidence than me? I''ve known him since we were kids."

    Tian Xifeng took a step back with a hint of fear as she pondered over the possibility of Li Ling being a stalker. Tian Xifeng had known Zhihao since college and she was sure that the man had never been in contact with Li Ling before this.

    Li Ling frowned as he asked, "What are you thinking?"

    Tian Xifeng pursed her lips together as she shook her head and responded, "I''m definitely not calling you a stalker."

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this, "Call me whatever you like. It''s not like I care."

    Tian Xifeng couldn''t help but mentally note in her mind that Li Ling was a weirdly dangerous guy and she should probably not anger him or mess with him in the future.

    Huang Zhi Juan tugged Li Ling''s arm, her expressions turning serious as she asked, "Why did you call us over, son?"

    Li Ling''s smile also seemed to have faded away as he heard this question. He sighed as he asked a question in return before answering her question, "Did Madam Huang warn A-Zhi?"

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded her head as she responded, "I instructed him to not log into the game today."

    "Okay, good." Li Ling sighed in relief, "I don''t know what''s wrong with the bot, but it''s suddenly not listening to any developer codes."

    Huang Zhi Juan frowned and her eyebrows creased together in worry as she asked, "How can that be?"

    Li Ling shrugged his shoulder as he added, "I thought that it was because we were in the sensory gaming room, but then I tested it again back at my office and the result was the same. Alvi no longer recognizes the developer commands."

    Huang Zhi Juan gulped in worry as she heard this.

    At this moment, Tian Xifeng straightened her back and walked up to the two as she asked seriously, "Did you try checking what the cause is?"

    Li Ling sighed again as he replied, "There is no exact cause. I''m guessing that it''s happening due to Alvi''s faster growth rate because of Zhihao."

    Tian Xifeng frowned as she questioned, "Didn''t you say you were going to take the first position and help break the connection between Zhihao and Alvi."

    Li Ling looked to be a bit embarrassed as he scratched the back of his neck, "I couldn''t beat him in time."

    Li Ying chuckled mockingly as she stepped up and commented, "Let me guess... You got busy flirting with your boyfriend?"

    Li Ling didn''t say anything as an answer, however, from his facial expressions, it was clear that the answer was probably positive.

    Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she looked at Li Ling, "Honey, I support you two and cheer you on but... If you put my son in more danger, I''m afraid I would force you to break up with him. Both my boys are really precious to me and I''m sure no good parent in the world would like to see their children getting harmed."

    Li Ling smiled thinly as he reassured, "He won''t be in more danger. If there''s any danger, I''ll be the one to put my life on the line in order to save him."

    Huang Zhi Juan squinted at the man before smacking his arm, "Don''t say something like that. I don''t want to see my son getting widowed before he even gets married!"

    Li Ling chuckled as he rubbed his arm, "Understood."

    Liang Feng, who hadn''t said anything till now, walked forward and looked at the gigantic brain in front of them, "What''s the plan?"

    Li Ling glanced at the man before walking towards the brain as he explained, "Alvi has been highly influenced by Zhihao and her conscious has expanded because of that."

    "So she considers herself more human now?" Liang Feng frowned as he questioned.

    Li Ling sighed as he nodded his head, "That''s exactly the problem. She has more emotional development now and no longer listens to the developer codes because she believes that she can do whatever she wants and nobody can rule over her."

    Li Ying frowned as she asked, "Isn''t that like a really big problem?"

    Li Ling nodded his head as he kept his eyes on the giant metallic brain in front of them, "It''s a problem that can get even bigger. Thankfully, right now, all she is doing is not listening to the developer codes but if we don''t fix this problem, she would definitely start doing more."

    "And when you say that, how exactly do you want us to fix this problem?" Tian Xifeng questioned cautiously.

    "That''s why I called you all here. We''ll temporarily be asking Zhihao not to log in and we wait to see what reaction Alvi has to that. I''ll be sending all of you into different levels where you solve the secret missions and try to see if there''s anything wrong with the level."

    "And I presume this plan can backfire on us?" Tian Xifeng squinted at Li Ling as she asked.

    Li Ling nodded his head with a sigh as he replied, "In the worst-case scenario, Alvi would lock all the players inside the game and search for Zhihao."

    "But if Zhihao isn''t there and she can''t find him... What happens?" Li Ying asked as she looked at her brother.

    "Well, in that case, I''ll use the Bu Hui account and force shut her down," Li Ling answered confidently, "Fortunately, even though she doesn''t listen to the developer codes, she still listens to the gamemaster''s account."

    Huang Zhi Juan, "Because the gamemaster is the topmost player by default?"

    "Yes, that''s exactly why only I can solve this," Li Ling confirmed, "But that would only be a temporary resolve. If it ever comes down to that, Alvi can restart herself without the help of anyone else."

    "Let me guess," Tian Xifeng spoke up, "When you shut her down, you want us to recode her?"

    Li Ling nodded his head as he agreed to the woman, "That''s why I called you all here. We''ll overwrite her codes manually as fast as we can."

    "How much time until she restarts herself after a forced shut-down?" Huang Zhi Juan asked.

    Li Ling was silent for a minute as he mentally calculated the time they would have on their hands, "Approximately less than an hour."

    Tian Xifeng''s eyes widened as she immediately snapped, "An hour?! Li Ling, do you know how many codes there will be to overwrite?! You''re asking for us to do something impossible here."

    Li Ying scoffed as she added, "For the first time in my life, I agree with Richlord. Brother, your plan is impossible. You''re not even giving us enough time to work around the errors that might occur."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but chuckle, however, there was no happiness in his voice as he replied, "There are five of us. I trust you guys and although it may be a little hard to achieve such a thing, it''s still not impossible. We''ll just have to work fast and hope that no errors pop up."

    Liang Feng, "And if an error pops up, we''re all doomed, are we not?"

    "No, not doomed," Li Ling immediately reacted, "If this plan fails, we''ll be moving to the final stage where the players would be able to kill me and once the gamemaster is dead, Alvi would automatically self-destruct itself."

 Chapter 198 - Li Ling Also Has A Plan B And C

    "Who are the players entering the final level?"

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he took out a tablet and showed the screen to Huang Zhi Juan who had asked the question, "It''s the same list of all top ten players."

    When Liang Feng looked at the list, he didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he pointed out something, "Unfortunately, I''m not on that list."

    Li Ling frowned as he looked at the list again before exclaiming in realization, "Oh... T-Rex101, why the hell are you at the eleventh position?"

    Liang Feng pursed his lips together into a thin smile and shrugged his shoulders as he informed, "You should ask your sister that question. She was the one that invited another player into our team."

    "Wait.." Huang Zhi Juan muttered with a frown, "I''m not on that list as well.."

    Liang Feng, "How about this? We cheat our way to the top list?"

    Li Ling shook his head with a sigh as he heard this, "No way. If you two suddenly pop up on the list, you''ll instantly be disqualified for cheating."

    Huang Zhi Juan, "Then what do you plan on doing?"

    Li Ling was silent for a minute as he thought about the solution.

    Li Ying clapped her hands as she suggested enthusiastically, "How about this? If the final level is opened, you give them entry as well? It would be cheating, but at least it won''t be noticed."

    Li Ling shook his head as he heard his sister''s suggestion, "I have no control over granting people entry to the final level. Alvi is the only one that decides how everything in the final level is carried out."

    Liang Feng frowned as he looked at Li Ling and guessed what the man''s plan was, "Are you saying that you''re gonna trust the top ten players to kill you?"

    Li Ling unhesitantly nodded his head as he confirmed that the man was correct, "I''m sure one of them can kill me. We still have Richlord and Yingli there. If nobody else manages to kill me, these two should be able to get the job done."

    "Killing my brother... Wha~ It''s a dream come true," Li Ying smiled brightly as she imagined the future.

    "Just in the game," Li Ling squinted at the girl who looked to be a bit too happy about this.

    "Of course~ Hehehe" Li Ying chuckled and for some reason, Li Ling couldn''t help but feel that her chuckling sounded rather wicked.

    "Don''t you dare give me a brutal death," Li Ling warned and Li Ying simply snickered in turn.

    Huang Zhi Juan frowned as she asked, "Then what do we do?"

    Li Ling turned to face the woman as he answered, "You two stay outside the game and help give support. In case something goes wrong, we''ll be depending on you to solve it from the outside."

    Liang Feng sighed as he heard this, "So if you mess up, we save you?"

    Li Ling nodded his head, "That''s right. The chances of something going wrong is pretty low and we can only hope that if our plan A doesn''t work, our plan B does."

    Liang Feng, "And if Plan B also fails?"

    "Then we put all our hopes in Plan C."

    "Okay, sounds good. What''s Alvi''s current condition?"

    "Well, nothing much is different. I have prepared the T.I.A.D. headgears for all of you. We can get moving as soon as everyone here agrees," Li Ling replied as he glanced at the four people standing in front of him.

    Tian Xifeng looked skeptical in the beginning but she still sighed as she spoke up, "Since there''s no better plan in mind, I guess we''ll go with this one. Count me in."

    Liang Feng raised his hand as he also responded, "Count me in as well."

    Huang Zhi Juan bit her lip as she looked to be thinking about it deeply and even after a solid minute of contemplating, she still ended up giving in to Li Ling''s idea, "I trust you, son. I''m in."

    Li Ling smiled as he nodded and turned to look at Li Ying.

    Li Ying pursed her lips as she shrugged her shoulders, "You don''t even need to ask. If my brother is the one creating the problem, I would naturally be with him to solve it in order to take credit."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but chuckle as he nodded his head, "If everything goes well, I''ll give you the credit of solving this mess."

    Li Ying smiled brightly, "I like the sound of that. And if everything becomes worse, you can keep the credit."

    Li Ling smirked as he turned and gestured for all of them to follow him.

    Without any further words wasted, they followed Li Ling into another room that had glass doors, making it possible for them to clearly look at the giant brain that was located in the main area.

    Inside this white room, there were five chairs prepared with a headset kept on the side for each of the chairs.

    Li Ying was the first to climb on a chair and carelessly take a seat as she picked up her feet and put them on the chair, sitting on it in an Asian squat position.

    Tian Xifeng squinted and looked to be cringing a bit as she asked, "Why are you sitting like that?"

    "It''s more helpful."

    "Helpful?"

    "It''s uncomfortable and helps me realize that the virtual reality isn''t actually real," Li Ying answered patiently.

    Tian Xifeng looked to be a little surprised as she heard the strategic method of sitting used by this girl, however, because of the one-piece dress she was wearing, Tian Xifeng still refused to sit like that.

    Tian Xifeng sat on the chair with her right leg crossed over her left before she picked up the headgear set on the side and put it over her head.

    Huang Zhi Juan also took a seat on one of the chairs and Lian Feng took a seat in the fourth chair.

    They all put on their headgear and logged into the game.

    Li Ling glanced at the brain one last time before he sat down on one of the chairs and got ready to put the headgear on, however, before he could completely put it on, he heard Li Ying cry out in worry.

    "What''s he doing here?!"

    "What happened?" Li Ling asked immediately but his voice could not be heard by Li Ying who already had the noise-cancellation headphones on her head.

    "Li Ling, Mastermo is in the game," Liang Feng immediately explained the situation to Li Ling in a single sentence.

    "What?!" Li Ling cried out in shock and worry.

    He didn''t dare move an inch for more than a minute before the shock eventually sunk in and he immediately put on the headgear.

    "You have to be kidding me," He muttered as he logged into the game, and instead of using the ID of Bu Hui as he had originally planned, he used the ID of Devilmagiclover.

    Just as Liang Feng had stated, on top of the online player''s list, the name of Mastermo was hard not to notice and he had even entered a level already!

    "Damn it..." Li Ling immediately cursed, "Madam Huang, didn''t you say that you warned him?"

    Huang Zhi Juan also frowned as she answered, "I definitely did. This kid has never liked listening to me."

    Li Ling looked at the live playing feature in front of Mastermo''s name for a solid minute before he decided to sync data and enter the game together with Mastermo.

    This was an option that could only be possible for teams and since Li Ling was the only one inside Zhihao''s team, it was only natural that he was also the only one who could enter the game together with Zhihao.

    The rest four could do nothing more than watch Zhihao and Li Ling play.

    [Welcome to G-ranked level 817: Find the stone!]

    "Gege?" Zhihao looked to be shocked as he looked at Li Ling who had suddenly appeared in front of him.

    A small smile crept up on Zhihao''s face as the shock sunk in, "I was gonna call you but I thought you might be busy with work."

    Zhihao looked to be happy, however, Li Ling didn''t look to be sharing that feeling of happiness. He glared at Zhihao and didn''t say anything for a few minutes and when he finally opened his mouth, it was to ask a question that had a bit of anger laced along with his tone, "Why are you online? Shouldn''t you be resting?"

    Zhihao''s smile also went down and he frowned as he responded, "I wanted to rest but... There was something bugging me."

    Li Ling''s eyebrows furrowed up together as he questioned, "Bugging you?"

    Zhihao gulped as he nodded his head, "My mother told me that you''re... The founder of Omelas."

    "..." Li Ling had certainly not expected something like this and it could clearly be seen on his face that he was stunned to hear Zhihao saying such a thing.

 Chapter 199 - Li Ling Promises To Be Honest

    "A-Zhi..."

    Zhihao chuckled dryly as he looked down at the ground, "I know you''re not a liar and I believe you. I think you''ll be more open with me, and that''s why I can''t figure out why you were not clear about it when I asked you what your job was."

    "..."

    "I don''t discriminate people based on their jobs so I really don''t understand why you would try to hide such a thing. When I thought about it deeper, the only reason I could come up with was my father. Did you try to hide it because of your bad relationship with my father?"

    Li Ling gulped as he shook his head, "That''s not the reason.."

    "Then why?"

    Li Ling took a step forward as he sighed, "A-Zhi, we should talk about this later. Right now, it''s really not the time to be discussing something like this."

    "Then when do you plan on being honest with me?" Zhihao looked right into Li Ling''s eyes and it only made the other man feel more guilty.

    It was as if there was a sword poking his heart. Zhihao was really making Li Ling suffer and it was all Li Ling''s fault. He was the one that stacked up all the lies. He was the one that trapped himself within those lies and made it so that no matter how much he confessed, there would still be more lies that laid on the surface of their relationship.

    He knew he had to open up one day. He knew that he couldn''t keep on hiding behind his lies forever and he did plan on coming clean to Zhihao.

    But... Right now... It was really not the time for such an open conversation.

    This was a game being streamed. There were millions of fans watching them and his own sister and Zhihao''s mother were also in that crowd, watching this livestream.

    Li Ling had no problem with people knowing about his relationship with Zhihao. In fact, he was happy if everyone in the world knew that Mastermo was already a taken man.

    However, he wasn''t comfortable with showing all the drama to the world. The people behind a screen didn''t know them that well and they could only judge the relationship between the two according to what they see in the gaming livestreams.

    Right now, they had only seen the good side, the healthy side of fluffiness. They were yet to see the lies that Li Ling had created in order to get closer to Zhihao. They had not seen anything about the plans that Li Ling made just to get Zhihao to fall in love with him.

    Li Ling was sure that his actions weren''t the best. He knew that he had been wrong since the beginning and because he knew himself this well, he would naturally not want others to point at him accusingly. He was already accusing himself so to have someone else say the same negative thing about him was really not something he preferred.

    This was something between him and Zhihao. In the end, it was Zhihao''s choice if he would want to stay with Li Ling even after the truth has been revealed.

    If such personal things were to be leaked on a livestream by mistake, Li Ling could clearly see the dark future that lay ahead of them. Even if Zhihao was okay with everything, his fans would certainly have a different opinion and since Zhihao was an internet celebrity, the opinions of the netizens would naturally have a big impact on his future career and mental health.

    Li Ling sighed as he gently squeezed Zhihao''s shoulder, "After this level, okay? After we clear this level, I''ll tell you everything you need to know. I''ll be completely honest with you. No matter what question you ask, I would definitely tell you the truth."

    "Are you sure about that?" Zhihao asked as he squinted at the man.

    Li Ling nodded his head without any hesitation as he took a deep breath in, "I''m being honest. I will definitely tell you everything starting from the very beginning."

    Zhihao looked to be a little skeptical, however, in the end, he still ended up nodding his head as he once again believed Li Ling.

    If he was gonna date this guy, trust had to be the first thing needed in their relationship and Zhihao was willing to trust Li Ling with his life.

    Li Ling wasn''t lying to Zhihao this time. Since all of this had already come this far, he was really planning on coming clean to Zhihao. He was planning on narrating the whole story from the beginning itself. Even though it was pretty late for him to be honest, at least, he finally had the courage to be honest. He finally had the courage to tell Zhihao and see what his reaction would be.

    Before it gets too late and Li Ling ends up regretting it, he was going to have to tell Zhihao everything and hope that Zhihao loves him enough to forgive him and let the past stay in the past.

    Zhihao sighed, "Okay then... Let''s quickly get out of this level...? We have a lot to talk about."

    Li Ling smiled thinly as he nodded his head ever so slightly, "Let''s do that. Have you got the world background yet?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he answered, "I joined this level just a few minutes ago. I think I still have about a minute or so left for the world background to be unlocked."

    Li Ling nodded as he looked around at their surroundings.

    His mind had been so shocked and filled with Zhihao that he didn''t even pay attention to the name of the level that Alvi had announced and hence, just from looking alone, he couldn''t know where he was or what he had to do in this level.

    "Alvi, what was the name of this level?"

    [Weren''t you listening when I announced it the first time?]

    "..."

    [It''s the G-ranked level 817: Find the stone!]

    "Ah! That one!" Li Ling muttered out loud as he found the name familiar.

    It was one of the easier G-ranked levels. There was nothing that would be dangerous for them in this world. In fact, this was a beautiful level that was filled with sceneries that could never exist in the real world and at the same time, looked so beautiful that one would pray for it to exist in the real world.

    It was filled with new mystical types of plants and creatures. The level was highly inspired by a natural forest that had its own beauty, however, since it was a game, everything in here had a more mystical feel to it.

    Right now, it was dark, and instead of just one, there were two moons in the sky.

    Both the moons seemed to be facing opposite directions. Even the color of the two moons was different. One appeared to be the slightest shade of pink that could almost be mistaken for white and the other had a more cold, blue tone to it making it appear as the lightest shade of turquoise blue.

    "There was a rabbit that came hopping out, but it went away. I don''t think there''s anything dangerous here," Zhihao commented as he looked around along with Li Ling.

    Li Ling, "What type of rabbit?"

    "Well... It had a kind of pink fur but I''m not too sure. Maybe it was white and the moonlight made its fur appear pink. Extremely long and huge ears that could cover the entire body of the rabbit."

    "And?"

    "Oh! And it had big aqua eyes!" Zhihao exclaimed enthusiastically.

    "I see..." Li Ling muttered, not really giving out more of a big reaction.

    The creature was probably just as harmless as Zhihao made it sound like.

    As long as Li Ling knew, this level depended heavily on luck.

    There were a lot of mystical creatures and plants, however, most of them were harmless.

    There were dangerous creatures as well, but the chance of meeting a dangerous creature was quite low.

    This level was so harmless that it made players wonder why it was even ranked as a God-ranked level. It made no sense that a level was this easy and still ranked that high.

    For the gamemaster who had already thoroughly examined this level once before, Li Ling was more clear than anyone else. This level had a pretty good reason to be ranked this difficult and it was because the ''stone'' in question was not something they could easily find.

    Even for Li Ling, this was going to be a challenge because the stone kept on changing its position with every second of the game.

    If you were really lucky, you might just enter the level and find the stone lying on the ground in front of you.

    Li Ling looked around and tried to see if there was anything shiny but as expected, he wasn''t that lucky.

    They were going to have to work extremely hard to solve this level.

 Chapter 200 - Li Ling And His Story Time

    [Your waiting time is over!]

    Alvi who was somehow sitting high up in a tree jumped down and landed right in front of them. She was smiling happily and innocently as she looked at them.

    "Alvi, I think your height increased a little," It was Zhihao who made the comment.

    [I''m growing hehehe]

    Alvi sounded pretty happy with it and Li Ling frowned just as deeply.

    [Now do you want the world background or not?]

    She asked with a bit of annoyance laced along with her words.

    Zhihao chuckled as he nodded his head, "Please do tell us."

    [In this level, Mastermo and Devilmagiclover are both playing the character of travelers who are new to this world.. Mastermo is a traveler named Rick and Devilmagiclover is a character named Jake.]

    [Rick is a man who bought Jake here out of mere curiosity.]

    [The two were simply walking through a jungle when Rick found an odd-looking rabbit and went after it. The rabbit went down a hole located in the bottom of a tree and since the hole was big enough for a human, Rick also followed after. Jake who was here as Rick''s companion would also be forced to go after Rick and hence the two ended up following after the odd-looking rabbit that led them to this world.]

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this and muttered, "This sounds quite familiar."

    Li Ling chuckled lightly as he nodded and agreed with Zhihao, "It was an old children''s tale, I believe."

    Zhihao, "You''re right. A girl named Alice who fell down the rabbit hole. It used to be quite famous back in the days."

    [When they arrived in this world, they had no purpose and no mission here. This place was beautiful but it was still not a place they could imagine spending the rest of their lives in. They could live here for a few weeks or maybe a few months. They could even live up to a year in this place, however, they wouldn''t be able to live here longer than that year.]

    [Currently, it had already been a full year since they have been here and now they are looking for a way to get out of here, however, the only way out of here is by getting a traveling stone.]

    [There is only one such stone in this entire world and no one knows where this one stone is.]

    [In order to get the stone, Rick and Jake decided to go on a searching quest that led to the place you are standing in right now.]

    [However, although they got this far, any news about the stone is yet to reach their ears and they aren''t sure if they are any closer to finding the stone than they were before they started this quest.]

    [Your mission as a team is to find the stone and get out of this world before it''s too late.]

    [There isn''t much danger in this world but the dangerous creatures that exist in this world should never be underestimated for your own good.]

    "That sounds rather easy..." Zhihao muttered in disbelief.

    At first, he thought that this world would only look harmless and in contrast to its looks, it would be a level that would be filled with danger since it was a God-ranked level. However, after hearing this, Zhihao was sure that he had thought wrong.

    This level didn''t just look easy and harmless but that was exactly what it was.

    "Why the hell is it ranked that difficult if there are no monsters to fight?" Zhihao sounded almost annoyed at the system as he asked out loud.

    Li Ling chuckled as he commented "You sound a bit too enthusiastic to get monsters. Do you like killing them?"

    Zhihao smiled brightly as he heard this question, "I''m a gamer, of course, I love fighting monsters. The more dangerous they are, the more exciting it is to beat them."

    "And how do you know you''ll be able to beat them. What if you are underestimating their power and can''t beat them? Would you still want to fight against such monsters whom you have a zero chance of winning against?"

    Zhihao almost wanted to laugh as he heard this, "Isn''t that what makes it interesting and entertaining. You don''t know if you''ll win or not. You have no idea what powers and strengths the monster has hidden behind its skin so you can never accurately examine if the monster is stronger than you or not. The fact that the end of the fight is so unpredictable is what makes it exciting. It''s the fun of the game."

    "..."

    "As a gamer, knowing the beauty of the unknown ending is what makes a game worth playing," Zhihao added enthusiastically.

    "You''re really passionate about your career." It was the only thing Li Ling could say as a response to that.

    "If I wasn''t passionate about it, I would''ve never chosen to become a pro-gamer in the first place. No matter how fun the profession looks, if you''re not passionate enough, you''ll only be trapping yourself in your own choices and suffering for the rest of your life. Some people even start hating the mere word gaming because of this."

    [Or maybe you''re just special, Mastermo.]

    [Not everyone is the top player like you.]

    Zhihao chuckled as he nodded his head, "That''s also true. I enjoy the game so I became the top player and because I''m the top player, I enjoy the game. It''s a never-ending loop."

    Li Ling sighed as he commented, "Even if you do like monsters and challenges, you should still not be expecting them like this. One day, you might find yourself in front of a monster that you have no chance against and the feeling of losing like that would surely not be good."

    "Gege, are you afraid of such a monster? Do you really think a virtual monster can do anything to me?"

    Li Ling smiled thinly as he heard this question, "A virtual monster might not be able to do much to you inside a game, however, what if the monster comes out of the game or better yet, what if you get transmigrated inside a game. Would you still say the same thing?"

    Zhihao frowned as he questioned, "Is this some sort of sci-fi movie? Why would such a thing happen? It''s merely impossible for me to transmigrated into a game just as much as it is impossible for a monster inside a game to come out of it and enter the real world."

    Li Ling tilted his head with a mocking smirk as he asked, "And how do you know that?"

    "..."

    "You know, there was this one man that used to be a world-famous top gamer. He was rich, smart, handsome, and talented. He could be considered to be an all-rounder. If there was something he lacked though, it would be manners. He was a potty mouth who couldn''t keep up a complete conversation without using curses. He had a short temper and was hostile towards almost everyone he met."

    Zhihao frowned as he muttered with a bit of jealousy evident in his tone, "I don''t like you praising other men."

    Li Ling chuckled as he ignored Zhihao and continued the story, "One day he won a contest organized by a game and as a prize, he received a book. He read the entire book and cursed the author for making such a bad story. Do you know what happened next?"

    Zhihao pursed his lips together as he responded, "I would rather not know but I''m sure you''ll tell me anyhow."

    Li Ling smiled as he nodded and continued, "The man was called Fu Jie, and the next day, he woke up on a tree. He was transmigrated into the game and unlike you''d think, he didn''t have any mission or a system to tell him what happens next. He got scared but he refused to show that he was afraid because of his own stubbornness. Legend has it that he''s still stuck in that cultivation game and trying to find the mission he has to complete in order to get out of that world."

    Zhihao sighed as he commented, "Gege, I seriously question the type of fictional books you read. Who the hell creates such nonsensical stuff?! Transmigrated into a book due to a game? Is there something more ridiculous than that?"

    [For the first time in a long while, I actually agree with Fu Jie. This was a ridiculous story.]

    [How can a book and a game be connected like that. The author must have been crazy to write something this idiotic.]

    Li Ling almost wanted to laugh as he heard this, "It was actually a book filled with bromance and it was quite a fun read. You couldn''t last more than five chapters without laughing. The character Fu Jie was so weird and flawed that you felt bad for him and at the same time you would want to curse him. In fact, as the story progressed, you felt more connected to the characters and would start rooting for the dumb MC who was always lazy."

    "..." Zhihao''s face cringed up as he heard Li Ling, "Still sounds ridiculous to me. Who would believe such a thing?!"

    "The author was named Cherry or something I believe," Li Ling added as he tried to remember the author''s name.

    "A stupid author indeed." Zhihao sighed, "What was the name of the novel?"

    "The midnight musician."

 Chapter 201 - Li Ling Is Impressed

    what''s your point of telling me that story?" Zhihao asked with a frown.

    Li Ling shrugged his shoulders as he answered, "I just wanted to tell you that anything is possible. Whether it be you transmigrating into a game like Fu Jie or a character from a game coming out of the game and interacting in the real world."

    "But the book you read was still a piece of fiction wasn''t it? How can you make me believe such a thing based on a fictional story?"

    "It''s a book that is said to be nothing more than fiction but I think the story is based on a real-life incident."

    [And only you would believe such a thing.]

    Zhihao chuckled as he nodded and agreed with Alvi, "Li Ling, why would you believe such a thing?"

    [However, I think Devilmagiclover is also right. A game can become a reality at any moment you want.]

    "...."

    Zhihao felt a shiver run down his spine as he heard such a thing coming from Alvi, "You should definitely not say such a thing. When Li Ling says it, I can consider it as his cute imagination but when you say it..." Zhihao shuddered as he continued, "It gives me the creeps."

    [...]

    [Are you indirectly insulting me and calling me creepy?]

    Zhihao shrugged his shoulder as he didn''t even bother giving an answer to a question this obvious.

    Li Ling chuckled as he spoke up, "A-Zhi, it''s okay if you don''t believe in such a thing right now. But no matter if you believe me or not, you should still not hope to see monsters and challenges."

    Zhihao pouted and said nothing. It wasn''t like he could change his thinking overnight just because Li Ling had told him to.

    "Let''s find the stone now, shall we?" Li Ling asked as he tilted his head and looked at Zhihao.

    Zhihao sighed as he slowly nodded his head, "It''s no use arguing over something like this."

    "You''re right," Li Ling agreed, "So let''s just complete the mission quickly."

    The two players didn''t bother wasting further precious time and started walking around the place.

    They looked closely at their surroundings and couldn''t help but be awed at the beauty of this level.

    The grass was still green but it also had a more blue hue to it and seemed to have a natural glow.

    The trees looked much more normal, however, at the same time, they appeared to be mystical due to the glowing insects on them.

    The fireflies covered the trees as if the tree was their home and the result could clearly be seen as something beautiful and aesthetic.

    "It''s so beautiful..." Zhihao muttered his thoughts out loud.

    [Don''t get distracted by the beauty. You need to find the stone.]

    "Right," Zhihao snapped out of his thoughts as he once again went back to searching the place.

    Li Ling sighed as he spoke up, "This is going to be pointless."

    "Let''s just keep on searching. I''m sure we''ll be able to find it," Zhihao reassured and Li Ling couldn''t help but feel that the man was being a bit too overly optimistic.

    "A-Zhi, we have no leads here and my brain isn''t really working right now."

    "..." Zhihao straightened his back and frowned as he turned to face Li Ling, "You''re right. We have no leads but that doesn''t give us a reason to simply stand and wait for some leads to come falling in front of us."

    "..."

    Zhihao smiled as he moved towards Li Ling and hooked his hands together, "How about this? Instead of thinking of this as a normal level, let''s continue that interrupted date."

    Li Ling was a little surprised as he heard this suggestion, "Mastermo, did you forget that you''re still streaming."

    Zhihao chuckled as he asked, "Are you worried about that? Isn''t it perfect? You''ll get a full HD recording of our first date."

    No matter how hard Li Ling tried not to break into a smile, he still ended up smiling as he looked at Zhihao''s warm smile and heard his response.

    "A-Zhi, you have certainly grown shameless."

    "And is that a problem?" Zhihao beamed.

    "It is," Li Ling nodded his head as he added, "If you keep on being so confident, I might just end up kissing you till you drop."

    Zhihao''s face cringed up as he questioned, "Did you get that line from some old drama?"

    Li Ling snickered but gave no answer to the question.

    Zhihao sighed as he shook his head and swung their interlinked hands together, "Now what do you say, Gege? Let''s make this a date, okay?"

    At first, Li Ling had no plans of idling around in this level. He wanted to clear it as soon as possible so that he can explain the whole situation to Zhihao before its too late. However, with Zhihao tempting him like this, how could Li Ling not smile and agree to whatever Zhihao was asking him?

    "It''s a date," Li Ling nodded and the smile on Zhihao''s face seemed to have deepened as he heard this.

    "Great!~" Zhihao beamed as he pulled Li Ling along.

    [Eh?]

    [Are you being serious?]

    Alvi stood in her place and looked at the two players who were running away without any care for the world.

    She looked to be in disbelief as she waited and when they got a bit further away without looking as if they were going to stop anytime soon, her feet finally started moving as she ran after them with her tiny legs.

    [Wait!]

    [What the hell? Are you really not going to try and solve your mission?]

    Zhihao shook his head as he turned to look at the girl who was out of breath after all the running, "There are no leads for the stone and with no leads, there isn''t much we can do. Doesn''t that automatically make this mission something based solely on the player''s luck? If it''s a game based on luck, there isn''t much we can do and even if we turn this whole world upside down, if luck isn''t on our side, we would probably not be able to solve the mission."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but be surprised at Zhihao who had somehow managed to come to an accurate analysis of the level.

    "It''s a G-ranked level and hence the difficulty level is quite high with this one. For a normal level, the difficulty would be directly linked to how much work a player would have to do in order to complete the mission. The adversities that the player would have to overcome would also be considered. However, this level is based on luck so how can it be ranked so high on the difficulty level if there is no skill or adversities involved?"

    Alvi tilted her head in confusion as she asked, "How?"

    Zhihao smirked as he answered, "Luck. The difficulty level is calculated according to how much luck you''d need and in order to do that, you''ll need to first understand exactly what luck is."

    [You''re turning this too complicated.]

    Zhihao ignored the girl and continued, "Luck can be considered as winning a lottery from a ticket that was printed along with other identical tickets with different numbers on them. A person can''t really adjust or calculate how much luck they have, but in a game, there is something that can be done."

    "And what''s that?" Li Ling questioned although he already knew what Zhihao was coming to.

    "The number of printed tickets," Zhihao answered proudly, "If there were only a hundred lottery tickets printed, your chance would be one in a hundred. That is one percent. If the tickets printed were only ten in number, your chances of winning would increase to one out of ten. That is a ten percent chance of winning. So what if the printed tickets actually increase in number?"

    [How much of an increase are we talking about?]

    "Let''s say that instead of a hundred, there were ten thousand lottery tickets printed. In such a case your chances of winning are pretty slim, are they not? Only 0.01 percent chance of winning."

    [That''s right but... What does that have to do anything with the game?]

    "The internal working of a game can be controlled just like you can control the number of lottery tickets printed. If the gamemaster made the game in such a way that you''re chance of winning was perhaps 0.00001 percent, wouldn''t that particular game be high in difficulty level?"

    [Logically so.]

    "That''s exactly why this level is ranked as a God-ranked level. The chance of finding the stone is so slim that you''d have to have God-level luck in order to complete the mission. When it comes to such a game based on luck, do you think there is anything I can do in order to improve my chances?"

    [There isn''t...?]

    Zhihao smirked in satisfaction as he heard this response, "If you think there isn''t anything I can do, you''ll be wrong."

    [Eh?]

 Chapter 202 - Li Ling And Zhihaos Date

    "There''s still something I can do in order to improve my chances of winning," Zhihao answered with a smirk.

    [How?]

    Alvi questioned with her eyebrows creased together in confusion and worry.

    "The area of this world, no matter how vast, is still limited and there is already one big hint about the stone. The stone is inside this world somewhere. If I focus on a particular area and thoroughly search it, if the stone isn''t there, all my hard work would be wasted and I would also be wasting my precious time on it."

    "Then what do you suggest?" Li Ling asked with a face that gave out no emotions.

    Zhihao smiled as he replied, "If I focus only on a small area, I would be ruining my chances of winning, however, if I increase the area of my search, I would be improving my chances."

    "How?" Li Ling questioned once again.

    "Think of it as an excavating mission. If I keep digging my own backyard, I would be completely dependent on my luck and if I have bad luck then it would be nothing more than a waste of my precious time and work, but what if I buy a huge area of land and dig evenly throughout an area that is already said to have something precious nearby?"

    "You would improve your chances of finding something...?"

    Zhihao nodded as he confirmed, "That''s right. If I choose to excavate a large area, I would have more chances of being successful. Right now, our mission is also alike excavation. There''s a stone we must find and instead of searching in a particular place and hoping to find it, if we spread out and search the whole place at the same time, we would be improving our chance of finding it."

    "That''s right," Li Ling nodded as he agreed with Zhihao, "But there''s still a problem."

    "What?"

    "By your logic, you are telling us to aimlessly walk around and keep an eye out for the stone but what if the stone is in a place that makes it impossible for you to see it that easily?"

    Zhihao, "Well, the stone is probably in such a place if our luck is bad, but even if we search around in a particular place, we wouldn''t be able to find that stone."

    [Then what''s your plan?]

    "My plan is pretty simple," Zhihao beamed, "Just travel wherever our feet take us and enjoy a nice peaceful date with Gege. If the stone is meant to be found by us, looking at our improved chances, we would definitely find it."

    Li Ling squinted at the man who had elaborately explained to them his theory on why they should do nothing more than going on a date and explore the place, "Why do I feel like you just made that all up because you want to go on a date with me?"

    Zhihao smiled cheekily as he heard this question, "That''s also true but my plan makes a hundred percent sense, does it not?"

    "..."

    [Damn it...]

    [You almost managed to trick me.]

    Alvi pouted as she glared at the man.

    Zhihao raised his hand to rub the little girl''s head lovingly as he spoke up, "Now that you know, why don''t you leave us alone for some time?"

    [Eh?]

    "It''s a date and I don''t think you''ll enjoy being a third wheel."

    [What...?! Are you serious right now?!]

    Zhihao simply smiled as he nodded his head and responded, "Please? I''ll be sure to buy you a lot of candy later. Just go and try to search for the stone, okay?"

    Li Ling''s eyes widened slightly as he realized that Zhihao had just used a secret trick to make Alvi listen to him, however, he didn''t let the shock show on his face for too long. His eyes went back to normal in an instant as he kept his poker face.

    Alvi heard the word ''please'' and she pouted before slowly nodding her head as she agreed to Zhihao.

    [Okay...]

    She didn''t sound too happy about it but she didn''t whine or do anything like that as she simply turned around and walked away, muttering something under her breath.

    Zhihao chuckled as he saw her slouching shoulders that were clearly caused by her dejection, "Now I feel a bit bad for her."

    "Don''t," Li Ling instantly responded without any sense of pity for the girl.

    Zhihao laughed as he found the quick response a bit funny but he didn''t ponder over it too much nor did he dwell deeper into why Li Ling might have said something like that.

    He simply grabbed Li Ling''s hand and pulled him along as he kept on running in a direction he had randomly picked.

    They ran for a while and eventually came to stop, deciding that it was better to just walk normally. This world was perfect for a peaceful, aesthetic date and that seemed to be exactly what Zhihao had in mind.

    "Gege, what was your childhood like?" Zhihao questioned calmly as he kept his eyes on the road in front of them.

    "Why do you ask?" Li Ling asked back instead of giving a straight response.

    "No reason," Zhihao shrugged his shoulders, "I just wanted to get to know you better."

    "You already know me a lot," Li Ling smiled.

    "But your past remains a mystery to me so I just... Wanted to take this chance to get to know each other better."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but feel a little giddy as he heard this, "Then why don''t you go first?"

    Li Ling already knew exactly what Zhihao''s childhood was like but he still asked the question.

    Zhihao seemed to be thinking about it deeply before he opened his mouth to answer, "It was quite normal. I had a few friends but I was not really close to them. They were the ones that approached me first and kept on pestering me to hang out with them. I didn''t want to be labeled a loner so I naturally went along with them and eventually started considering them as my friends."

    "Do you still keep in contact with them?"

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this question and it looked like he was a bit sad about it as he responded, "I know what they are doing but none of us are as close as we used to be. We hardly contact each other and some even went abroad. So I really can''t say we kept in touch."

    Li Ling also frowned as he questioned, "You don''t even see them anymore? No meet-ups or anything like that?"

    He, himself, knew the answer to the question he had asked but his face looked completely clueless. This just came to prove that Li Ling was indeed a really good actor.

    Zhihao shook his head before stopping and nodding his head as he spoke up, suddenly remembering something, "Ah! There is this one friend that lives near my parent''s house so I sometimes meet her when I''m visiting my parents and if I don''t go, she comes over to make sure that I''m still alive and remember her."

    "Her? It''s a girl?" Li Ling muttered curiously even though he knew exactly who this so-called friend was.

    Zhihao chuckled as he thought that Li Ling was getting jealous, "She''s just a friend, no need to worry too much about it. Her name is Tian Xifeng. Do you want to meet her?"

    Li Ling smiled as he shook his head, "I trust you. I don''t need such stupid reassurance. I''m sure she''s just an overproud friend."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but laugh as he responded, "You''ll be shocked at how right you are."

    Tian Xifeng who was watching the live stream: "..."

    Zhihao, "She loves shopping and money. Even acts like a gold-digger sometimes but she''s not actually all that bad."

    Li Ling smirked as he thought about what the woman''s face would be like when she watches this and realizes the kind of image she has in front of Zhihao.

    "She sound pretty bad," Li Ling felt no sense of pity for the woman as he dissed her.

    Zhihao chuckled as he nodded his head, "She has a flirty personality and gets on your nerves but maybe it''s because of how long I''ve known her. I don''t think she''s too bad. At the end of the day, most people judge her because of her pretty face so you can''t really blame her for caring about such materialistic things."

    "A-Zhi, stop praising her or justifying her personality. You''ll make me jealous and I don''t want to be insecure because of a woman," Li Ling spoke up honestly.

    Zhihao only laughed as he heard the vinegar being chugged down1 Li Ling''s throat, "Why would you be insecure because of her?"

    "Then are you saying that if I hadn''t met you, you would have married her?"

    Zhihao seemed to have heard something ridiculous and he didn''t know if he was supposed to laugh or cry, "No way! Did a mad dog bite me or something?! Why in the hell would I marry her?"

    Tian Xifeng who was planning on choosing their wedding destination: "...Gege, why don''t you just let me die in peace? Why are you humiliating me on a live stream?!"

 Chapter 203 - Li Lings Favorite Place

    Li Ling smiled happily as he heard Zhihao.

    He immediately tightened his hold around Zhihao''s hand pulled him along as he started walking fast, "A-Zhi, let me take you somewhere."

    "Where?" Zhihao chuckled in surprise.

    Li Ling only glanced at him with a warm smile as he winked and answered, "You''ll know when we get there."

    Zhihao pouted but it didn''t look like he was mad or dissatisfied and instead, he looked to be quite happy with it. He let himself be led by Li Ling to an unknown destination but since it was Li Ling, he knew that it was probably going to be something he would love..

    After walking fast for a bit, Li Ling suddenly came to a stop and Zhihao who was being pulled behind him, couldn''t stop on time which led him to bump into the man''s back.

    "A-Zhi, close your eyes now," Li Ling spoke and Zhihao frowned before he slowly let his eyelids fall down.

    "They are closed," Zhihao announced.

    Li Ling turned around with a smile before he walked around Zhihao and stood behind him as he put his hands over Zhihao''s eyes and covered them just to be sure that Zhihao wouldn''t be able to see anything.

    Zhihao chuckled as he asked, "Why are you being so secretive? You didn''t even keep up your end of the deal. You were supposed to tell me what your childhood was like. Instead of answering, you tricked me into telling you my childhood."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but laugh as he heard Zhihao''s complaining tone of speech.

    "Does A-Zhi really want to know about my childhood?"

    Zhihao nodded his head without any sense of hesitation as he instantly answered, "Yes, I do."

    Li Ling also nodded as he sighed, "Then I''ll tell you but I''ll have to warn you first."

    "Warn me?" Zhihao muttered in confusion.

    "It''s pretty boring. You would probably not find it interesting."

    Zhihao chuckled as he shook his head, "If it''s something related to you, there is no way I''ll find anything boring. You are just that important and interesting for me."

    Li Ling would be lying if he said that he hadn''t felt a bit happy to hear such a heartfelt response.

    "Okay, then..." Li Ling sighed once again as he didn''t bother taking his hands off of Zhihao''s eyes. He simply kept on walking and guiding Zhihao to walk forward with him, "Most of my childhood was spent with me researching and working. I never hung out with kids my own age and I would hardly go out to have fun with anyone. I rarely made friends and the few friends that I did make eventually lost contact with me after we all graduated."

    "..." Zhihao suddenly fell silent and there was a small frown evident on his face.

    "But I hope you don''t feel pity for me. Even though I didn''t have any great friends, I still have someone who kept me going. He''s the only reason why I enjoyed my life and he''s also the reason why I dreamt of owning a gaming company that developed a great game like T.I.A.D."

    The frown on Zhihao''s face deepened as he heard this but he didn''t bother saying anything and let Li Ling continue.

    "I met him at a really early age on and we became friends for a short while. We eventually lost contact for a while but I never forgot him. For me, he was the light of my world and I was stubborn. Even if he didn''t want to be friends with me, I still didn''t want to watch him forget me. I wanted to hang on and be his friend. At first, at least... That was all I wanted in the beginning but eventually, I found out that being friends was just not enough." Li Ling chuckled as he thought back to his childhood that had never been his favorite topic.

    "Gege, is this your revenge? Are you trying to make me jealous? If you had such a great friend, why don''t you just go and date him instead? Why are you playing with me?"

    At first, Li Ling couldn''t understand if Zhihao was being serious or not so it took him a moment to process what Zhihao had said, and just as he did, he broke out laughing as he wondered how ridiculous it was for Zhihao to be jealous of himself.

    "A-Zhi, you are right," Li Ling spoke up as he suddenly felt the need to tease the man more, "I love him a lot. Even till today. In this life, he''s the only one I''ll ever love this much and you''re right. If I love him so much, I should date him."

    "..." Zhihao had never felt his heart ache like this. He was so shocked to hear Li Ling that his own brain stopped working and he could no longer think for himself.

    "That''s why I''m dating you," Li Ling snickered as he completed.

    "..." Zhihao was silent for a minute as he slowly took in that last comment, "Eh?" He muttered in shock and confusion as his brain finally started to work normally.

    Li Ling completely broke out laughing at Zhihao who had finally realized it.

    "Ahhh! Damn you!" Zhihao cursed at Li Ling as his ears started turning a bit red with embarrassment.

    Damn it...!

    He had really been fooled!

    Zhihao couldn''t help but want to dig a hole in the ground and hide himself inside that hole for all of eternity.

    "A-Zhi, you are so gullible. How are you going to survive in this harsh world with such a pure brain?" Li Ling teased him more and Zhihao''s embarrassment increased in intensity.

    "Damn you, Li Ling! Stop it! You just caught me off guard!"

    Li Ling chuckled as he smirked and asked, "Are you sure about that? I wonder~ If I ever start to like another guy, what would your reaction be?"

    Zhihao seemed to be suddenly lost in thoughts as he seriously pondered over such a scenario.

    "Hmm?" Li Ling muttered curiously as he waited for Zhihao to give him an answer.

    "Li Ling, I really like your butt."

    "..."

    "If such a thing were to happen, I''ll slap your butt till they turn as red as a tomato," Zhihao answered with a smug smirk on his face.

    "..." Li Ling suddenly regretted ever asking such a question.

    "So? Would you dare cheat on me?" Zhihao asked, not letting the conversation die down.

    Li Ling took a deep breath in as he tried to calmly answer, "You can rest assured that you won''t have to see such a day. My butt is safe!"

    "Hmm... I would like to remind you that it still isn''t but I don''t think that would be appropriate to say in a live stream," Zhihao snickered.

    Li Ling''s cheeks turned red and thankfully because of Zhihao''s closed eyes, he couldn''t see it. If he could, Li Ling was sure that Zhihao would have teased him more.

    "You already said it..." Li Ling muttered under his breath.

    "Eh? What did you say?"

    Li Ling smiled as he shook his head and instantly denied it, "Nothing~"

    "Are we there yet?" Zhihao questioned as he kept on walking with Li Ling leading him.

    Li Ling chuckled as he leaned in and whispered in Zhihao''s ear, "We are here."

    Zhihao felt an odd feeling going down his body as he heard the man''s smooth yet raspy voice tickling his ear.

    "You ready?" Li Ling asked, his voice sounding both delighted and excited.

    "I don''t know why I should be ready but I''ll just say I am."

    Li Ling chuckled as he slowly removed his hands from around Zhihao''s eyes, "You can open your eyes now."

    "Okay~" Zhihao cooed as his eyes slowly fluttered open and he took in the beautiful sight in front of him.

    If there was a heaven in a game, this was probably it. Zhihao could confidently say that he had never seen anything more beautiful than this.

    "Wow~" ''Zhihao gasped out loud as he looked around at the beautiful trees that covered the glowing lake in front of them.

    Just like he had seen previously, the trees here were also covered with glowing fireflies, but these trees looked to be a lot more beautiful than all the previous ones because there were a lot more fireflies here making the trees look much more luminant and ethereal.

    The light from the trees also reflected on the lake making the calm water look a lot more lively and refreshing.

    It was like a scene that looked to have come straight out of a fairytale and the best thing about it was certainly the fact that the one standing beside Zhihao to enjoy this scene was none other than Li Ling.

    "A-Zhi, this is my favorite place to be in this whole game and you''re now the first person to know that."

    Zhihao chuckled as he informed, "Well, I think you forgot to consider the millions of people watching my live stream."

    "..."

 Chapter 204 - Li Ling Is Being Indirectly Attacked.

    Li Ling took a deep breath in as he calmed himself down and smiled thinly as he looked over at Zhihao, "Don''t ruin the mood, okay?"

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard the frustrated tone of the man.

    Li Ling went forward near the lake and Zhihao was a bit slower as he took in the whole atmosphere since it was the first time in his life he was seeing such a thing.

    The branches which hung from the centuries-old tree were glittering due to the tiny butterflies which were attached to it. The light was reflected on the lake, making it seem like they were covered in its embrace.

    Anyone who saw this sight would only be able to utter a single word; breathtaking.

    This looked much alike the fairytale dating places, people dreamt of going to.

    Li Ling knelt down on the shore of the lake and immediately called out to Zhihao excitedly like a kid who had found something good in a toy store.

    "A-Zhi, come here and see this!~"

    Zhihao smiled brightly as he heard the man and walked closer to him.

    "Look at that!" Li Ling pointed at a glowing flower floating just below the surface of the water. It looked a lot like a jellyfish, and like every other normal person driven by beauty and desire, Li Ling was compelled to touch it.

    The moment he touched it, the flower moved away and seemed to have been frightened as it swam deeper into the lake, away from the two humans who had destroyed its peace.

    "Looks like it really was a jellyfish," Zhihao chuckled as he saw the speechlessness in Li Ling''s eyes.

    Li Ling was just a bit taken back for a second but when the shock had sunk in, he eventually broke out into a warm smile.

    Zhihao didn''t take his eyes off of Li Ling''s face. That blinding smile would always manage to mesmerize him and capture him in this daze from which he didn''t wanna wake up.

    The lake had its own lights pop up beneath the surface of the water like flowers that seemed to be alive. Some were pink and some were white or golden.

    Li Ling was mesmerized at the sight of the beautiful flowers that were moving away from them and Zhihao was mesmerized by the sincere smile that was evident on Li Ling''s face.

    "You know, when I first met you, I think I was instantly attracted to you," Zhihao spoke up, grabbing Li Ling''s attention.

    Li Ling squinted at the man as he didn''t look to have believed Zhihao, "Are you sure about that?"

    Zhihao chuckled lightly as he heard this question and nodded in turn, "It''s true. When we first met, even though you were just trying to help me pick up trash, you looked much like an innocent angel and I had never seen a person look that pure in my life."

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this, "A-Zhi, you think I''m innocent and pure?"

    Li Ling had a small smirk on his face as he questioned but Zhihao only laughed as he immediately shook his head.

    "Not anymore."

    Li Ling frowned as he heard Zhihao''s straightforward answer but before he could say anything more, Zhihao spoke up first as he continued.

    "I think it was that beauty spot under your eye that captured my attention first. For a minute, I couldn''t even believe my eyes. I really thought you were nothing more than my imagination." Zhihao suddenly laughed at himself as he thought back to it, "You looked so ethereal that I was sure no such person could possibly exist in this world. On top of that, it was pretty ridiculous that such a man came over to help me pick up trash. It''s not every day that you see something like that happening."

    Li Ling''s frown deepened as he suspiciously squinted at the man and questioned, "So you liked me just because of my face?"

    Zhihao once again shook his head as he responded, "Your face certainly caught my interest but it was your smile that really managed to capture me completely. Whenever you looked at me and smiled, I could see the sincerity in your smile. It was like you were the happiest man on earth and it was so genuine that it managed to make me feel the same happiness that you were feeling."

    "So you like my smile?" Li Ling questioned again but Zhihao once again shook his head as he denied it.

    "That''s not it," Zhihao answered as he sat down next to Li Ling and met the man''s eyes that seemed to be looking back at him with unhidden curiosity, "It was your sincerity and your honesty that made me like you. You loved me for me, you had no other reason to be with me, and even when I was interested in the gamemaster, you put my happiness above yours and encouraged me to go after him."

    Li Ling pursed his lips and smiled thinly as he heard this, trying his best to look happy with it but deep inside, only he knew how guilty he felt.

    Oh dear A-Zhi... If only you knew...

    Every sentence was like an arrow that pierced right through Li Ling''s chest and by the end of it, he could only smile while his eyes started tearing up due to his guilt and pain.

    Zhihao''s eyes immediately widened as he saw Li Ling''s moist eyes, "What happened? Why are you crying?"

    Zhihao panicked as he grabbed Li Ling''s face and asked him in a worried tone.

    Li Ling shook his head as he wiped the tears away, "These are just tears of happiness."

    He defended himself and although Zhihao didn''t look to have believed it, he still didn''t bother questioning it.

    Li Ling took a deep breath in as he pushed all his tears back and looked deeply into Zhihao''s eyes as he spoke up, "A-Zhi, the past is in the past. Let''s forget it. You must never let your past affect your current decisions. Let''s forget everything and start off fresh, okay? Forget it all and make new memories together."

    "Eh? Why?" Zhihao asked with a confused expression plastered on his face.

    Li Ling squeezed Zhihao''s hand as if he was trying to reassure him and at the same time, stopping him from asking any more questions, "Let''s just start fresh. You don''t need to question why. Just stop talking about the past. It''s already done and over with."

    Zhihao was silent for a minute before he broke out laughing and when he saw the confusion in Li Ling''s eyes, he spoke up, "Is it because you''re embarrassed? I never knew you were such a shy man, Gege."

    Zhihao was clearly mocking him and teasing but although Zhihao''s guess was completely incorrect while being somewhat correct at the same time, Li Ling ended up nodding his head as he simply decided it was best to let Zhihao think whatever he wanted to think.

    "A-Zhi, don''t tease me like that. It really is embarrassing. I never want to remember it again," Li Ling activated his natural acting skills and tried to gain some sympathy points.

    Zhihao laughed as he patted Li Ling''s head, "Okay, then. I''ll listen to you and stop teasing anymore. Forgetting might be hard for me since I love the memory so much but I''ll definitely try my best to not bring it up again."

    "A-Zhi, you''re the best. Remember not to let our past affect our future, okay?" Li Ling immediately responded enthusiastically with a pleasant and relieved smile on his face.

    Zhihao chuckled as he nodded and agreed.

    Li Ling smiled happily and just as he did, water droplets splashed on his face.

    He immediately closed his eyes and turned away before peaking at Zhihao in disbelief as he asked, "Are you serious?"

    Zhihao simply chuckled as he dipped his hand in the water again and splashed it onto Li Ling who was forced to do the same thing back to Zhihao.

    "A-Zhi, this is childish!" Li Ling tried to reason with the man, all the while playing along with him as well.

    The water war continued for a while and their clothes started to get completely wet which made them eventually stop.

    "When I was in high school, the other kids used to play with water a lot," Zhihao suddenly spoke up, "I always thought they were crazy and choose to avoid them but deep inside, I always wanted to know what was the fun in splashing water at each other.

    Li Ling frowned as he wiped the water away from his face, "And the only way for you to find out was by throwing it on me?!"

    Zhihao chuckled as he nodded without any hesitation, "It''s actually fun. It''s pointless but still fun."

    "But I didn''t enjoy it!" Li Ling snapped playfully as he rubbed his head.

    Zhihao chuckled as he pointed out, "And yet, you were still laughing."

    "..."

    Li Ling was shocked at himself and he had no response to that.

 Chapter 205 - Li Ling, What Is That Thing?

    Li Ling hadn''t realized that he was smiling. He didn''t know why, but such a trivial thing managed to make him forget all about his worries and he could laugh carelessly without worrying about their future.

    "I like you like that," Zhihao suddenly beamed, "When you''re being yourself, I like it. I feel accomplished when I see you laughing like that, especially because I know that the reason behind your smile is me."

    Li Ling was speechless and because he had no response to that, he suddenly felt a little mischievous. He leaned in close to Zhihao and asked in a whispering voice, "Do you know what would make me laugh more?"

    Zhihao probably thought that Li Ling was going to kiss him so he simply sat there and half-closed his eyes as he asked back, "What?"

    Instead of kissing him, Li Ling leaned closer to the man''s ears and whispered, "This."

    "Eh?" Before Zhihao could react on time, Li Ling had already pushed him into the lake that was no longer calm because of Zhihao''s intrusion.

    Zhihao instantly gulped down some water before swimming up to the surface and splashing around as he tried to get back to the shore.

    Li Ling laughed and laughed as he pointed at Zhihao who had been easily tricked by him. He laughed so much that his stomach started to hurt and he had to grab his abdomen because of the pain caused by the contraction of muscles.

    "A-Zhi, you''re so naive!~" Li Ling teased some more and Zhihao only squinted at the man before taking a deep breath and diving deep into the water.

    "Eh? What are you trying to do now?" Li Ling asked in between his laughs as he looked at the water.

    Zhihao was no longer visible on the surface and hence Li Ling couldn''t know where Zhihao was going or what he was doing.

    "Are you trying to trick me?" Li Ling chuckled, "It''s not going to work. You can''t drown in a game, A-Zhi."

    Li Ling thought Zhihao was trying to trick him into thinking that the man was drowning so that Li Ling would also jump into the water out of worry, but Li Ling was much smarter and decided to stay on shore as he looked at the lake and continued to laugh.

    Unfortunately, Li Ling had calculated wrong. Zhihao wasn''t trying to make Li Ling worry. He was actually trying to trick Li Ling into thinking that and when Li Ling had his guard down, a pair of hands suddenly crept up around his ankles and pulled him down into the lake.

    "A-Zhi!" Li Ling''s eyes widened before he shut them close as he fell into the water.

    Zhihao came up to the surface of the water and laughed proudly as he announced, "I win!"

    Li Ling pouted and was ready to come up to the surface, but all of a sudden something submerged deep in the waterbed caught his eye. It was a shining stone and the only thing Li Ling could think of as he saw it was the mission that they had to clear in this level.

    He couldn''t help but be a little surprised as he wondered if Zhihao''s theory had actually proven right. They were not even looking for the stone but somehow they still ended up finding it.

    Li Ling shook his head as he swam up to the surface and took a deep breath in before looking at Zhihao and pulling him along as he went back into the depth of the lake.

    Zhihao was shocked and confused but he still swam together with Li Ling who seemed to be trying to show him something.

    Li Ling pointed at something in front of them and Zhihao followed his direction, his eyes immediately lying on the shining stone that was buried in the waterbed and glaring at them just a tiny bit.

    Zhihao''s eyes also widened as he saw this unexpected thing. There was no doubt in his mind that this was indeed the stone that they were after, however, at the same time, he couldn''t believe his eyes that they had managed to find it so soon. He still wanted to hang around in this level a little longer. Their date had just begun but it seemed that because of this stone, they would soon have to leave this level.

    Sometimes, Zhihao really hated clearing a level too soon and this was certainly one of those times.

    Zhihao and Li Ling swam side by side towards the stone and when they were near enough, the two shared a look of understanding.

    Zhihao was the first one to go forward and try to pick the stone up, however, when he pulled the stone, the stone that appeared small seemed to weigh a lot more than its size.

    Zhihao frowned as he tried to pull it again, but just like before, he still failed to move it even an inch.

    He was already running low on oxygen and would need to go back to the surface at any moment now so he stopped being stubborn and looked over at Li Ling for help.

    Li Ling immediately understood but he looked to be a bit confused as he helped Zhihao pull the stone out.

    With the force of the two combined, the small stone should have certainly been able to move, however, shockingly enough, the stone still refused to budge.

    Li Ling frowned as he looked over at Zhihao and held up three fingers before putting them down one by one, gesturing for Zhihao to put all his strength to it at the count of three.

    When all three fingers were put down, both of them used all the strength they had in them to pull the stone out. They ran out of oxygen but they still continued to pull the stone and soon enough, the stone indeed moved this time.

    Relief washed over them as they felt the stone clutched in their hand move, however, when they opened their eyes to look down at the stone, they almost choked on the water as they immediately let go of the ''stone'' that they were trying to pull out and instead, they swam back up to the surface as fast as possible.

    Zhihao gasped for air as soon as his head was out of the water and he frantically swam up to the shore before climbing on it and looking at Li Ling who was right beside him, "What the freaking hell was that?!"

    Li Ling aggressively coughed out water as he put his hand up and waved it, indicating that he was in no condition to be explaining.

    Zhihao gulped as he looked back at the lake that had slowly started to move. The water on the lake seemed to be flowing in an unnatural way which meant that the thing they had seen was following them up to the surface.

    Li Ling was quiet for a minute as he calmed himself down and when he was calm enough to properly use his brain, he immediately warned out, "Run!"

    Li Ling''s warning was all it took for Zhihao to instantly climb up to his feet and run towards Li Ling first as he grabbed the man''s hand and pulled him up before running away from here together.

    They didn''t even dare look back at the creature that had completely emerged out of the water and was now glaring at them as it got ready to follow after them.

    "What the hell?! What the hell?! What the hell?!" Zhihao repeated again and again as he kept on running as fast as he could, "Why the hell are we running?!"

    Li Ling coughed and gasped for air as he tried his best to keep up with Zhihao''s pace.

    "Cause that thing... Isn''t supposed to be here," Li Ling answered honestly in between his coughs.

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this, "What do you mean?"

    Li Ling had a complicated expression on his face as he bit his bottom lip and refused to give a detailed explanation.

    Zhihao waited for Li Ling to give him a response but when he got no response, he started getting impatient as he looked back to see the giant creature running after them at a speed much faster than theirs.

    "Damn it!!" Zhihao cried out as his eyes went wide and he panicked.

    The creature was much larger than them in size. It looked to be like a turtle but at the same time, it was much faster and looked much more fierce. Its outer shell had shiny stones on it and its mouth had sharp small fangs that were so large in number that they couldn''t even be counted. On top of that, its face had a lot of scars and wounds on it making it look as if someone had tried to attack it with a rusted sword or a blunt knife.

    "Why the heck is that thing here?!" Zhihao could hear Li Ling cry out as well.

    "Li Ling, what is that?" Zhihao asked again.

    "The killing turtle!" Li Ling''s panicked voice finally answered.

 Chapter 206 - Li Ling Is Worried And Angry.

    "The killing what now?!" Zhihao reacted almost instantly.

    Li Ling gasped and coughed as he continued to run and responded, "The killing turtle. A-Zhi, I''m sure you''re smart enough to know what it is from its name alone."

    Zhihao, "And its name doesn''t really scream good news to me!"

    "Nor does its face!" Li Ling added as he continued to run as fast as he could, following after Zhihao who was running ahead of him.

    "I don''t get it. I thought there wasn''t supposed to be anything dangerous in this level."

    "There wasn''t," Li Ling sighed as he responded, "This killing turtle is from another level."

    "Eh?!" Zhihao was thoroughly shocked and confused as he heard the man.

    From the brief description of the level given by Alvi at the beginning, it was clear that the difficulty in this level lay within finding the stone that was hidden. They weren''t supposed to meet any seriously dangerous creatures here and Li Ling had already confirmed that.

    This killing turtle didn''t belong to this level and that could only mean one thing. Even for Zhihao who had only ever played a game and never dived into the creation process of it, even though his knowledge on the topic was basically nonexistent, he was still sure that this meant trouble. There was something wrong with the game. This was probably a bug. Quite a serious bug that needed to be reported and fixed immediately.

    "Gege, let''s jump levels?"

    "Forced transmigrate?" Li Ling questioned and Zhihao nodded in turn.

    "It''s either that or we fight this creature," Zhihao added.

    Li Ling scoffed as he almost found the suggestion funny, "A-Zhi, do you think we can fight this creature? This creature is the most dangerous creature existing inside T.I.A.D. right now. It''s supposed to be in an S-ranked level."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he heard this new information that had shocked him to the core once again.

    Li Ling gulped as he glanced back for just a second before continuing, "No player had ever beaten this creature. Not even the gamemaster."

    Zhihao was shocked and a bit intimidated but he would be lying if he said that he wasn''t a little excited as he heard Li Ling.

    Zhihao hated the fact that he actually kinda liked it. If this creature was so strong and unbeatable, as T.I.A.D.''s top player, Zhihao ought to correct that record and be the first one to do the impossible.

    "Gege..." Zhihao muttered as he suddenly came up with a suicidal plan, "Do you know a good place to hide in this level?"

    Li Ling had no time to question why Zhihao was asking such a thing so he simply nodded and responded, "I do. Let''s go there and hide first. We''ll try to force transmigrate if things get too out of hand."

    "Good," Zhihao suddenly slowed down and Li Ling seemed to have instantly noticed it as he turned around, looking at Zhihao in disbelief.

    "A-Zhi, what are you trying to do?"

    Zhihao gulped as he equipped his sword Shuang before looking back at Li Ling with a smile, "Gege, go and hide. Report this bug first. I''ll try to stall the creature. If it follows us to the hideout, we will already be doomed."

    "A-Zhi, no..." Li Ling muttered as he also came to a stop and looked at the man with a stunned and speechless expression.

    Zhihao sighed as he shook his head and didn''t bother explaining as he turned around and started running towards the killing turtle.

    "Mastermo!!" Li Ling cried out as he stood in his spot for a moment, the mere shock of what was happening paralyzed him.

    "Gege, run!" Zhihao didn''t turn around again but he still instructed Li Ling to run away.

    The killing turtle looked to be more than happy as it saw Zhihao running towards it with a sword.

    Zhihao smirked as his heart raced and the sheer adrenaline rush caused him not to fear the creature that was said to be the strongest in the whole game.

    This was like fighting against a final boss in a game and there would only be one person in the whole world who would look this happy while fighting against a final boss and that person would be none other than Mastermo.

    He jumped up using some boosters and got higher than the creature before striking down with his sword at the creature''s neck.

    Zhihao didn''t look to be joking around this time. He was seriously trying to take this creature down and that was why he aimed at its neck directly because he knew that a creature without a head was as good as dead.

    The skin of the killing turtle was tough, however, Zhihao bought a lot of boosters for his weapons using the T-points that he had earned in the previous G-ranked level. With his Shuang using as many boosters as possible, the rare sword that was already powerful suddenly became undefeatable and with a clean strike, the head of the creature fell down and its body stopped moving any further.

    Zhihao landed on top of its shell as he glanced down at the head and a smirk slowly crept upon his face. He couldn''t believe that he had killed the creature so easily. The creature that was said to be undefeated in the game was easily taken down by a single strike? It certainly sounded just as ridiculous as it looked.

    "Gege, I guess you were worrying about nothing," Zhihao commented as he suddenly felt pride fill up his lungs.

    "You idiot! Get down!" Li Ling didn''t look to be shocked or relieved as he cried out and scolded Zhihao. The worried expression on his face just got much more intense as he cautiously kept his eye glaring at the creature.

    Zhihao chuckled as he raised his sword as if trying to proclaim his victory, "Gege, It''s already dead. Do you think it''ll rise and become a zombie or something? That only happens in fantasy novels."

    "A-Zhi, freaking get down! Don''t depend on your luck like that! Let''s get out of here!" Li Ling shouted with a bit of anger laced along with his worried voice.

    Zhihao frowned as he sighed and finally got down from the creature''s back. He jumped in front of the creature and didn''t forget to kick the creature''s head before walking over towards Li Ling.

    Li Ling immediately reached out forward to grab Zhihao''s hand but when his hand was just a few inches away from Zhihao''s hand, they heard some rustling sound coming from the creature behind Zhihao, and Zhihao who had almost walked up to Li Ling immediately got pulled back by force.

    The force was so strong that within just a second, Zhihao was already pulled all the way back to the creature, and the creature that had lost its head glared at Zhihao through the newly formed eyes that were on its newly created head.

    "Oh... Fast regeneration..." It was the only thing Zhihao was able to mutter as he looked at the creature that was just a few inches away from his face.

    "A-Zhi!!" Li Ling cried out from behind him and Zhihao tried to use his sword to attack the creature again and free himself, however, the creature wasn''t willing to give Zhihao any time.

    Before Shuang could be raised once again, the creature opened its mouth that was filled with hundreds of thousands of sharp teeth.

    Zhihao gulped and so did the creature, however, what Zhihao gulped down was his own saliva while what the creature gulped down was Zhihao''s upper body, ruthlessly tearing it away from the lower portion of the body.

    Everything happened so fast that even Li Ling was unable to attack or react on time.

    When he saw the gruesome sight of Zhihao''s body being torn in half, Li Ling immediately screamed the man''s name, "Zhihao!!!"

    Blood rushed up to his head and he could no longer think for himself. He was disappointed, shocked, and angry. There was suddenly a need for revenge in his heart but before he could act on it and try to kill this creature, the screen in front of him instantly turned dark.

    Li Ling was left in the darkness with no sound and only confusion to fuel his anger.

    "Eh?" He muttered after a solid minute of silence as he looked at the black screen.

    Almost immediately, he heard a ding notification and there was suddenly some text displayed on the black screen along with a voice of a girl that could be heard in his headphone.

    [Voice recognition complete!]

    [Error solution running: 112]

    "Huh?" Li Ling muttered again as he saw a long list of commands running on the screen at a speed that made it impossible for him to read them.

    When all the text stopped, the area around turned black once again and there was no sound of any system this time.

    "What the heck happened?" Li Ling muttered as he looked around and tried to open his inventory or call Alvi, however, no matter what he did, nothing happened. It looked like the game had shut down or something.

 Chapter 207 - The Opening Of The Grand Finale.

    In his confusion, Li Ling tried to take off the headgear that was almost impossible to take off if one was still playing inside a level. The T.I.A.D. headgear had an auto-lock system that would automatically lock a person inside a level and the only way for a person to take off their headgear while still inside a level was through a hidden button on the back that was put there to ensure the safety of a player.

    Li Ling thought he would need to push that safety button, however, without actually having to use that button, the headgear came off easily as if the auto-lock system had suddenly been disabled and the only way something like that could happen was if the game shut down somehow and threw them out of the level.

    "Eh?" Li Ling muttered in confusion as he took out the headgear and looked down at it.

    There was always a light shining green on the side of the headgear if the headgear was turned on and the same light would turn red if the game was still running and the headgear hadn''t been put on. However, when Li Ling looked at the light to see if it was green or red, to his surprise, there was no light coming from the side.

    Li Ling gulped as he immediately realized that his guess had been right.. The game shut itself down.

    Zhihao had already died inside the game so Li Ling, as his partner, should have also been thrown out of the level along with Zhihao. That was what was supposed to happen but what really happened was the shutdown of the game and it truly shocked and confused Li Ling who couldn''t think straight anymore.

    "What''s happening?" He muttered to himself as his eyebrows creased together in worry.

    Li Ling was still in the main research center of A.L.V.I. and so he was naturally not alone. There were more workers with him and they all looked to be shocked and panicked along with him.

    "Gamemaster, I think you need to see this." Someone shouted out for Li Ling and Li Ling immediately looked up from the headgear clutched in his hand.

    Li Ling''s eyes widened as he saw all the screens in the place lighting up with the same thing.

    A message from the game.

    He was about to read the message out but at that same moment, there was a loud sound coming from all the speakers that were in the research center.

    [Congratulations to the top ten players!]

    [You have all earned the chance to enter the final level of T.I.A.D.]

    [Out there is a world that knows no bounds and it is waiting for you.]

    "What the hell...?!" Li Ling muttered with his eyes wide open and his mind racing with thoughts.

    [Please check your phones for your next destination.]

    [You have ten minutes to reach your next destination.]

    [Failure to reach within the adhered timeline would result in elimination from the game.]

    [Your ten minutes start now!]

    [Happy gaming!]

    "What the hell? What the hell? What the hell?" Li Ling panicked a little as he immediately took out his phone and opened it.

    His phone had also been hacked by the game and as soon as he opened it, the GPS app on the phone opened up automatically.

    Shown on the map, there was a glowing blue spot on top of which there was an active timer for ten minutes. This was probably the next destination. However, it wasn''t the only thing that could be seen on the GPS app. There were smaller green dots covering the place and on top of each dot, there was a single abbreviation written: ''inv''

    "Inventory," Li Ling immediately muttered as his brain tried to make sense of the situation.

    "Umm..." Liang Feng walked up to Li Ling and stretched out his hand to show his phone, "I think there is something wrong."

    "Eh?" Li Ling turned to look at the man''s phone that displayed the same GPS app.

    "I''m ranked eleventh in the game..." Liang Feng muttered in confusion, "Li Ling, what''s happening?"

    "Oh, shit..." Was the only thing Li Ling could say as a response as he immediately realized the situation.

    "That doesn''t sound good," Tian Xifeng stood up from her comfortable chair and walked over towards Li Ling''s side, "Gege, what''s happening?"

    "It''s Alvi. She opened the final level too soon and without permission."

    Huang Zhi Juan frowned as she stood up as well, "Didn''t you say that we still had time?"

    "This system is too unpredictable," Li Ling responded as he felt a headache coming his way.

    Li Ying who was sitting beside Li Ling suddenly chuckled as she heard her brother, "Big bro, you messed up completely."

    "I did," Li Ling confessed as he scratched the back of his head and tried to come up with a solution.

    Liang Feng, "Why the hell am I getting this message if I''m not part of the top ten players?"

    Li Ling turned to Huang Zhi Juan and ordered immediately, "Go online and see the top player list."

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded as she turned on her phone but she didn''t even need to search up for it. It seemed that the top players weren''t the only ones who had their phones showing the GPS app.

    "That was easy," Huang Zhi Juan muttered as she turned her phone towards Li Ling and handed it to him.

    Li Ling instantly snatched it and looked at the screen that showed a list of eleven players and in front of each player''s name, there was a long bar that ended on a picture that was just a box with an ''X'' on top.

    "What does it mean?" Liang Feng asked with worry apparent on his face.

    Li Ling gulped as he spoke, "Alvi knows that Devilmagiclover and Bu Hui are the same people."

    "What does that have to do with this?" It was Huang Zhi Juan who questioned.

    "The mission in the final level is to hunt down the gamemaster," Li Ling answered and it didn''t take long for the others to understand the deeper meaning behind his words.

    Li Ying laughed even more as she straightened her legs and stood up from her chair, "Big bro, you''re dead now."

    "Wait..." Tian Xifeng muttered, "If the final level is a physical level then by the mission..."

    She didn''t dare finish her sentence but everyone could fill up the blanks.

    Li Ling nodded as he confirmed it, "Someone must kill me outside the game."

    It was silent for more than a minute.

    Li Ling gulped as he felt his heart stop and fear started to paralyze him.

    "So out of all the things Alvi could choose, she chose a physical level as the grand finale? Hahaha... Big bro, you really created a monster who wants to kill its master," Li Ying commented as she chuckled dryly.

    Huang Zhi Juan frowned as she shook her head, "There must be another way."

    "That''s right. There must be another way. We can try to override the system or something," Tian Xifeng suggested.

    Li Ling shook his head as he spoke up, "It''s too late for that. You won''t be able to use any computers or phones. All devices are locked and completely controlled by Alvi."

    Huang Zhi Juan gulped as she gritted her teeth and immediately moved towards the computers to confirm if what Li Ling said was true or not.

    "Damn it..." No matter how many buttons she pressed or how many times she tried to restart the computers, everything became unresponsive towards them. On all screens, there was only one thing being projected and it was the list of eleven players.

    "One out of the eleven is the gamemaster and when we reach the arena of the final level... The gamemaster hunt finally begins," Li Ling spoke as he stood up.

    Everyone was silent as they heard this and it almost looked like someone had already died, it was just that silent.

    Liang Feng clicked his tongue as he looked down at the timer that was ticking away, "Let''s just get there first. Madam Huang, you stay behind and try to override the system. We can''t waste time here. Let''s get to the destination first and then we''ll try to figure something out."

    Li Ling gulped as he nodded and agreed with the man, "That''s right. We must move soon."

    "Ah!" Li Ying clapped her hands with her eyes glued to Huang Zhi Juan''s phone, "I get what that bar is for."

    "Eh?"

    "It''s the distance bar. If a player goes towards this box thingy it means the player is getting closer to the destination." Li Ying explained as she took the phone from the woman''s hand and showed it to Li Ling, "This is a race, and the one who gets there first probably wins an advantage."

    "That... Make sense," Li Ling agreed as he looked down at his own phone screen, "All the players entering the final level get to see the GPS while everyone else gets to see their progress,"

    Li Ying, "That sounds exactly like something Alvi would do."

 Chapter 208 - Inventory Trick

    "How much time is left?" Li Ling asked as he looked at his sister.

    Li Ying looked down at the timer on her screen before she answered, "Barely six minutes left."

    Li Ling gulped in worry, "Let''s go. I''ll drive."

    Li Ying and Liang Feng nodded in unison as they followed after Li Ling who had already turned to leave the place.

    "I don''t know man, I''d prefer to use my own car but if you are that eager to drive me-" Tian Xifeng stopped as she saw that everyone had already left her behind, "Damn it... At least wait for me!" She shouted as she ran after him.

    Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she saw everyone leave.. She was the only one left behind with the rest of the staff who worked in this research facility. She looked around and felt hopeless. There were no computers or systems working properly in the place and she was sure that even if she went outside the research center, the condition would be the same.

    Every connection, every system, and every gadget was currently under Alvi''s control. A bot that was developed to be like a human. She was already made to be more powerful than them and hence there was absolutely no way anyone would be able to overwrite the system and gain back control.

    It might have been easy to make that plan but Huang Zhi Juan knew that she wouldn''t be successful and she was sure that the others knew this as well.

    The only way they could stop Alvi now was if someone completed the final level and killed Li Ling, but as Zhihao''s mother, that would naturally be an option that Huang Zhi Juan would never consider.

    There was no way any of the special team members would go through the original plan and try to kill Li Ling and the rest of the players that had the chance to try and kill him would naturally not be able to do it as well.

    Huang Zhi Juan felt a headache as she realized the amount of trust Li Ling had in her. He left her behind, in charge of the entire research facility. He entrusted her to find a way out of this mess and Huang Zhi Juan couldn''t help but doubt herself.

    She could easily override the system if the system was responsive towards her, however, with no gadgets or methods of writing out the codes, how in the hell was she supposed to do it? There was just no way!

    She had to come up with another plan but she was under too much stress and her brain refused to function as she would have liked it too.

    She needed time and Li Ling was probably trying to buy her that time by keeping Alvi busy in the final level.

    Huang Zhi Juan walked towards a wall and softly banged her head against the wall with a sigh, "May God be with you, son."

    She prayed for Li Ling.

    The staff who stood around were clearly shocked as they saw her suddenly turning abusive towards herself.

    "Madam Huang, are you okay?" It was a young-looking girl wearing a white coat that walked up to Huang Zhi Juan and asked her.

    Huang Zhi Juan turned her head to look at the girl and smiled as she asked, "Is there a way out of this?"

    "Eh?" The girl was a bit taken back by the sudden question. She took a sharp breath in as she pondered over it and after a minute, she shook her head as she answered, "Madam Huang, there is no other way out until now but I''m sure you''ll be able to do something. I trust you and I''m sure the gamemaster trusts you with his life as well."

    Huang Zhi Juan didn''t know if she wanted to laugh or cry as she heard that because what the girl said was actually true. At this moment, the gamemaster was literally trusting his life in the hands of Huang Zhi Juan.

    Huang Zhi Juan smiled even brightly as she nodded before turning her head back to face the wall as she banged her head on the wall and let out a cry of distress, "Damn it all!"

    The girl faltered a step back and gulped as she looked to be a bit concerned about the mental health of this woman who seemed to be having a breakdown.

    Li Ling, on the other side, looked to be much calmer than he was back inside the facility just a few minutes ago. He unlocked his car and everyone got in before Li Ling hopped in the driver''s seat and checked to see if the other three were also there.

    "Let''s go," He announced as he hit the ignition and lifted his foot from the brake pedal.

    Li Ling was quite a good driver and out of the four people that were inside the car, although he was the most reckless driver, he was also the fastest among them.

    Li Ying shouted and screamed in fear whenever she saw the car getting anywhere near close to something else on the road. If there was anyone in this world that hated to sit in Li Ling''s car, it was probably his own sister who believed that her brother would one day drive her to her death.

    "Would you quiet down already, Yingying?!" Tian Xifeng complained in annoyance.

    "Shut up! We are gonna die! We are gonna die!" Li Ying continued to yell out.

    Tian Xifeng rolled her eyes as she elbowed the girl, "Nobody is dying except for maybe your brother."

    Li Ling who sat in the driver''s seat, "..."

    Li Ying, "Don''t curse my brother like that, you stinky brat!"

    Tian Xifeng gasped and looked to be offended as her eyes widened and she glared at Li Ying, "You''re the stinky brat! My perfume costs me more than your entire year of pocket money!"

    Li Ying gritted her teeth as she glared back at the woman, "Would you look at that? Your true face is finally showing and it''s ugly!"

    Tian Xifeng rolled her eyes as she gritted her teeth, "Yingying, is this really the time for such a fruitless conversation?"

    "Do you have anything better to argue about?" Li Ying asked as she clicked her tongue.

    Liang Feng also grew annoyed as he snapped and for the first time since they had ever met this man, the two girls and Li Ling heard the man shout at them, "Just shut up! We have more important issues to worry about!"

    Tian Xifeng and Li Ying immediately shut up and looked at the man in shock and horror as they gulped in fear.

    Li Ling glanced at the man through the rear-view mirror and smirked before turning his eyes back to the road in front.

    "Li Ling, these green dots. Don''t you think we should check them out?"

    Li Ling shook his head with a frown as he answered without bothering to look back, "We don''t have the time. Maybe later."

    "What are they?" Li Ying questioned as she straightened her back and ignored the fuming girl sitting beside her.

    "That''s the inventory. All the weapons we might need are in there," Liang Feng answered before adding, "Probably."

    "Then don''t we need to go there before we go to the final arena?" Li Ying asked, looking a bit confused as she did.

    Liang Feng nodded his head as he answered, "We have no idea what the final game is so it would probably be a good idea to be prepared beforehand."

    Li Ling who heard this didn''t seem to agree with the man as he spoke up, "Alvi told us that it was our next destination but she never said that it was the final arena."

    "Eh?" Li Ying muttered with a frown on her lips, "What do you mean, brother?"

    "If I''m guessing right, Alvi is trying to confuse us with that inventory option. A normal player would think that it would be best to pick up some things from the inventory before going to the final arena but it''s a trick. Look carefully at the map. All the inventory places are far from each other and further away from the location where we are supposed to go." Li Ling answered patiently as he continued to recklessly drive fast on the road that was rather empty.

    "Then the game is trying to make us late?" Tian Xifeng questioned and Li Ling nodded in response as he continued to explain.

    "If a player goes after the inventory, they would definitely waste time and would no longer be able to get to the arena on time."

    "Instant elimination," Li Ying muttered as she immediately understood the man.

    Li Ling nodded as he confirmed, "It''s already trying to kick us off the game. So the question remains: Why?"

    "..."

    It was clear that nobody else had thought about all of this till now so they naturally had no answer for Li Ling.

    "It''s trying to set up levels of elimination and this is the first one. We are not yet in the final level of the game. We are just at the entrance of it."

 Chapter 209 - Where Is Everyone?

    "Wait..." Tian Xifeng muttered, "How can that be? Didn''t we already complete the criteria to enter the final level? Are you saying that right now, we aren''t in the final level yet?"

    Li Ling nodded as he explained, "That''s right. The destination you see on the GPS screen is the official start of the final level."

    Tian Xifeng immediately turned on her phone and looked at the GPS screen.

    Li Ying also did the same and Liang Feng already had his eyes on his phone screen.

    "Then what comes next" Li Ying questioned with a frown.

    Li Ling shook his head as he answered, "I have no idea. The first test is the race.. Unlike most elimination levels, although this game is trying to make us lose this race, it still gives all eleven of us the opportunity to win. If every player can make it to the said destination in time, we all get to enter the final level. Maybe the second elimination test might also be like this or it might even be something else."

    Liang Feng, "What do you mean something else?"

    Li Ling, "The next test could be a game that sets us against each other. Chances are this is what''s going to happen. If all the games and tests inside the final level are set like this one where all players could win, players might think about making a group together and helping each other. That would definitely be the last thing Alvi would want the players to do so chances are that the next level is going to be something where all eleven players would somehow start to distrust each other and see each other as opponents."

    Tian Xifeng scoffed as she heard the man, "Does that make sense? I''m sure everyone has a brain. This is no longer just a game anymore. It''s affecting the real world and the best bet you would have to defeat the game is by joining hands and working together. Who in the world would be dumb enough to be more suspicious of the other players rather than the game?"

    Li Ling smirked as he heard this, "You''re being naive. Do you truly believe that everyone would be able to trust each other? Even though they don''t even know each other personally and they are already opponents who are fighting for the big win?"

    Tian Xifeng gulped and it looked like she had no response to that. It was only natural that she didn''t, after all, how could she speak for people she had never met?

    "Big bro, but I think we''ll be able to trust each other," Li Ying suddenly spoke up refusing her brother''s statement, her face looking serious and a bit worried, "We already have the four of us here, and that only leaves seven of the others. I might not like this brat sitting next to me but I would still trust her in a critical situation just like I would trust brother Liang Feng and you."

    Tian Xifeng chuckled dryly for a second as she asked, "And what about the other seven? There are eleven total players and one of them is the gamemaster who is supposed to be hunted by the other players. Except for us four, none of the other seven know who the gamemaster is."

    Li Ying raised her hands as she started counting, "One of them is Brother Zhihao and I''m sure we all trust him to trust us. The other is his brother, Huang Zhen, whom we are already familiar with. If we subtract these two, we are only left with five other players. BBtrash and Hulk are good friends of both my brother and brother Zhihao so they''ll also be willing to join hands together with us. That leaves out the last group of three players."

    Liang Feng side-glanced at Li Ying as he asked, "The troublesome three?"

    Before Li Ying could say anything as a response to the man, Li Ling, who was still driving, spoke up as he exclaimed, "We have played with them before. The other two are pretty reliable but Zhihao''s aunt looks a bit problematic."

    "That''s only a single person," Li Ying pointed out as she added, "With just one betraying us, we''ll still have the rest ten left and I''m sure we can all join hands and beat the game together. If there are no eliminations in any of elimination game, Alvi might think of it as cheating and shut the game down."

    "But that''s still just a possibility, is it not?" Liang Feng questioned, "We have no proof that Alvi would shut down in case of a cheating warning sign."

    Li Ling also nodded as he agreed with the man, "He''s right, Yingying. In a normal level, if a player goes OOC or if a player cheats, the player is not just thrown out of the level but the whole level is destroyed to make sure that there is no spread of bugs or errors."

    Tian Xifeng, "So you are saying that if we try this method, Alvi would destroy this level...?"

    Li Ling sighed in turn and his sigh was enough of an answer.

    "She''ll destroy the whole world, wouldn''t she?" Li Ying questioned this time and to that, Li Ling nodded as he confirmed.

    "It''s a possibility," Li Ling responded.

    Liang Feng sighed as he added to that, "A possibility that we can''t risk."

    Tian Xifeng suddenly chuckled as she looked outside the car, "You know, I always thought that this world was a nuisance. I never actually realized how much I loved living here. All this talk about destroying the world is making me emotional. Li Ling Gege, you better stay alive and find another way out."

    Li Ling was silent for a minute and it didn''t look like he was going to respond to her.

    "Yingying, tell me the status of the other players," Li Ling suddenly opened his mouth to order his sister.

    Li Ying nodded as she opened her bag and took out her other phone.

    "Why the hell do you have two phones?" Tian Xifeng''s face cringed up as she asked.

    Li Ying didn''t even bother looking over at her as she responded, "This is actually my real phone. The other is just my working phone. It''s used to connect to all accounts linked together with my gaming username Yingli."

    Tian Xifeng frowned but she said nothing to that.

    Li Ying turned the phone on and just as they had seen at the research facility, it looked like only the phones that were linked to their gaming ID were the ones displaying the GPS. Li Ying''s personal phone that was not linked to the game showed a screen of the eleven players and their distance from their destination.

    "Big bro..." Li Ying muttered with a bit of surprise in her voice as her eyes remained glued to the screen, "Your boyfriend... Why the hell is he so fast?"

    "Eh" Li Ling was confused as he asked, "What do you mean?"

    Li Ying looked up at Li Ling with furrowed eyebrows as she informed, "Brother Zhihao has already reached the destination and he even paid a visit to one of the inventories."

    Li Ling looked to be a little shocked but the shock eventually disappeared as he tried to think up of a possible explanation. Just when he realized what might have happened, he couldn''t help but laugh.

    "Big bro, what happened? Why are you laughing?" Li Ying asked with concern dripping in her voice.

    "Maybe he went crazy already," Tian Xifeng commented as she rolled her eyes.

    Li Ling shook his head as he spoke up, "Yingying, do you know what type of car Zhihao has?"

    "Brother Zhihao''s car?" Li Ying frowned as she asked, "What type is it?"

    Li Ling smiled and his face looked to be quite amused as he commented, "It seems that Mastermo finally decided to drive his car like it was meant to be driven."

    Tian Xifeng instantly understood why Li Ling looked to be so amused and she couldn''t help but feel shocked as she heard the man.

    "Zhihao''s sportscar? He would never drive it recklessly like you," Tian Xifeng commented but when she thought about it a bit more, it seemed that Li Ling really was right. There was no other way Zhihao would have been able to reach the final destination so soon.

    "What about the other players?" Li Ling asked and Li Ying looked down at her phone once again.

    "Huang Zhen is almost there. It seems that BBtrash and Hulk are travelling together and they are just a few seconds behind Huang Zhen. The troublesome three are slow but they are also ahead of us. It seems that we are the only ones running later right now," Li Ying sighed.

    Liang Feng clicked his tongue as he kept his eyes on the GPS, "We have two minutes left. Li Ling, you think you can get us there on time?"

    Li Ling smirked as he heard this. The road ahead was pretty empty and the map indicated that they were almost near the destination, just a few minutes away.

    "Two minutes?" Li Ling squinted his eyes as he changed the gear and increased the speed of the car.

    "Ahhhhhh!" Li Ying screamed immediately as she felt her back digging into the seat because of the motion pressure.

 Chapter 210 - Dont Get Us Killed!

    "You Lunatic! Slow the heck down! Forget about those two minutes, you might just get us killed within a single minute!" Li Ying sounded angry and terrified at the same time as she shouted at her brother.

    "Stop destroying my ears, Yingying!" Tian Xifeng shouted at the girl as she grabbed onto her right ear that had been abused by Li Ying''s scream.

    "One minute left," Liang Feng announced as he clutched tightly onto the car seat in front of him, "Li Ling, come on. You can do it!"

    "Don''t worry, brother. We''ll make it!" Li Ling shouted back confidently as he looked at the speed that they were traveling at before turning back to look at the road in front.

    Li Ling himself felt that no matter how good of a driver he was, if a sudden truck or a bicycle were to appear in front of their car at this moment, Li Ling would never be able to control the car and he really might get everyone killed just like Li Ying worried..

    A few more seconds passed and Liang Feng''s panicked voice could be heard announcing the time again, "Thirty seconds."

    Tiang Xifeng gulped as she looked at the road ahead, "Li Ling Gege, don''t get us killed!"

    Li Ling didn''t bother responding to her as he kept his eyes on the road. They turned a corner and could finally see the entrance of the building that was supposed to be the final destination for them.

    It wasn''t exactly near them but if Li Ling kept the speed up, they might just be able to make it.

    Inside the building, they could see seven figures waiting. It was clear to them who those seven people were.

    "Hold on tight." Li Ling announced as he once again increased the speed. His heart was racing with fear and he couldn''t hear anything over the numbing sound of the air pressure.

    "Ten seconds," Liang Feng announced as he clutched on tighter to the seat in front and kept his eyes on the building.

    "We''ll make it!" Li Ling tried to reassure them but nobody in the car felt any relief as they heard him.

    "Eight."

    "Seven."

    "Six."

    Zhihao, who saw a familiar car approaching the building immediately ran towards the right and turned on a button that helped lift the shutter of the building''s underground parking.

    "Five."

    "Four."

    "Three."

    "Ahhhh!" Li Ling shouted as he headed straight for the parking driveway.

    "Two."

    Liang Feng took a sharp breath in as the car entered the building just on time, "One."

    Li Ling immediately stomped on the brakes and the car came to a screeching halt.

    Nobody knew who was the first to sigh in relief.

    "We made it," Li Ying muttered and she seemed like she had been holding in her breath due to worry and fear till now.

    "Oh lord..." Tian Xifeng immediately opened the door and fell out of the car as she took in a deep breath. She felt as if she had just survived a life-threatening war.

    Liang Feng leaned his head back and the cold sweat that had formed on his forehead finally trailed down.

    Li Ling felt as if his life had been sucked out of him after that so he banged his head on the steering wheel which caused the car to honk.

    "Gege?" It was the worried voice of Zhihao who immediately came running towards them.

    Without wasting his time on the other three, Zhihao headed straight for the driver''s seat and opened the door to see Li Ling covered in sweat, breathing heavily.

    "Gege, are you alright?" Zhihao gulped as he questioned.

    "A-Zhi..." Li Ling breathed out as he turned to look at the man, "I feel like I''m gonna die."

    The situation was a bit funny for Li Ying who understood the deeper meaning behind her brother''s words.

    He wasn''t just referring to his exhaustion caused by the car race but he was also referring to the ultimate mission that they would be given in the final level.

    "You''re gonna be okay. Come out first. Get some fresh air," Zhihao reassured and tried to help the man.

    Li Ling hooked his arm around Zhihao''s shoulder and Zhihao helped carry him out of the car.

    "You know, your legs are perfectly fine, big bro," Li Ying rolled her eyes as she opened the door of the car and got out to glare at her brother that was acting as if he was suddenly a terminally ill patient.

    Li Ling ignored her skillfully as he kept clutching onto Zhihao and Zhihao was also more than happy to help the man even if the man didn''t need any serious help.

    Liang Feng who was still sitting inside the car looked down at his phone screen where it displayed that all eleven players had already reached the destination.

    He took a few deep breaths in and out as he calmed himself down before getting out of the car.

    He cautiously looked at their surroundings and observed the place.

    "Li Ling, do you know this building?" Liang Feng immediately questioned with a frown as he turned to look at the man.

    Li Ling looked up and around before shaking his head, "I have no idea."

    Zhihao also frowned as he finally noticed the other three people that came together with Li Ling, "How come you all came together?"

    The four seemed to be taken back as they heard the question and it was Li Ling who coughed and lied first, "We bumped into each other on the way."

    "Oh..." Zhihao muttered in understanding but suddenly his eyebrows furrowed up as he looked at Tian Xifeng and Li Ying.

    "Wait a second..." Zhihao muttered as he squinted at the two, "What are you two doing here?"

    Li Ying frowned as she pointed at herself, "Me? I''m a player. Why else would I be here? Do you think I was kind enough to accompany my brother?"

    Zhihao''s expressions got even more complicated as he asked in shock, "What''s your player ID?"

    Li Ying straightened her back and brushed her clothes before she met the man''s eyes and answered proudly, "Yingli."

    Zhihao almost felt as if his eyes were ready to jump out of his sockets as he heard this, "Yingli?!"

    Li Ying nodded with a smirk as she asked, "Who else could I be?"

    Zhihao gulped as he shook his head and turned to look at Tian Xifeng, "You...! Xifeng, I thought you didn''t like to play games!"

    Tian Xifeng chuckled dryly as she stood up from the ground and walked over to Zhihao''s side, "Gege, I never said that."

    "No, you clearly stated that you hated my gaming addiction," Zhihao argued.

    Tian Xifeng tilted her head as she asked, "Did I? I only remember telling you not to play too much because it''s bad for your health. I never said I dislike or hate games."

    Zhihao''s face seemed to have lost all color due to the shock, "Then what''s your player''s ID?"

    Tian Xifeng smiled as she held up two fingers that usually indicated victory but she seemed to have done it just to look cute as she answered, "Richlord."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened even more as he heard the name, "You serious?!"

    Tian Xifeng nodded her head and chuckled as she asked in response, "Why would I lie to you?"

    Zhihao didn''t say anything but when he thought about it further, he really couldn''t see any reason for her to be lying.

    "Then..." Zhihao turned to look at the other guy whom he had never met before, "You are?"

    Liang Feng stepped forward towards Zhihao and held out his hand for a handshake as he introduced himself, "I''m Liang Feng. Also knows as T-Rex101."

    Zhihao looked at his hand for a few seconds before shaking it as he greeted the man back, "I''m Zhihao. Also known as-"

    "Mastermo," Liang Feng interjected as he smiled and added, "Everyone knows who you are."

    Zhihao was a bit surprised but he still ended up nodding politely in response.

    "Aiyo~ Little lover," It was the annoying voice of Wang GuiYing who was approaching them with Zhou Xinyi by his side

    Everyone turned to face the two people that were walking towards them with a warm smile on their faces.

    "Little lover, did you think this was fast and furious or something? You were driving as if your life depended on it," Wang GuiYing chuckled as he looked at Li Ling and spoke.

    Li Ling laughed softly as he straightened his back but kept clutching onto Zhihao as he looked at the man, "Wang GuiYing, This is not just a game anymore. My life really does depend on this."

    "..."

    It was silent and awkward for a minute before Wang GuiYing suddenly broke out laughing.

    "Little lover, you''re really taking this seriously, aren''t you?" Wang GuiYing commented in between his laughter.

    "And you should be taking this seriously too," Li Ying spoke up as she glared at the man whom she was meeting for the first time.

    "Umm... Who- Oh wait... I think I know you!" Wang GuiYing was about to ask Li Ying who she was but he stopped himself as his eyes widened and he guessed, "Yingli?"

 Chapter 211 - The First Competition

    Li Ying nodded her head as she confirmed and asked, "Do we know each other?"

    As far as her memory served her, she had never actually met this man or talked to him. She had certainly heard about him a lot and knew that he was a friend of her brother and Zhihao but being their friend had nothing to do with her so she really didn''t expect the man to recognize her. In fact, nobody knew that Yingli and Devilmagiclover were connected at all so how come this man knew?

    "Wha~ You look exactly like your brother!" Wang GuiYing looked to be in awe as he glanced between Li Ying and Li Ling.

    Li Ying frowned and rolled her eyes as she repeated her question, "How do you know me?"

    "Eh?" Wang GuiYing looked to be a bit stunned as he heard her question, "How could I not know you?"

    "Brother, we have never even met before. How were you able to recognize me?"

    "Oh... You don''t remember me....?!" Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened as he cried out in shock, "You really don''t remember talking to me?!"

    Li Ying looked to be shocked as she heard such a response. She unconsciously took a step back as she felt that the man in front of her had gone senile, "What do you mean? Have we talked before this?"

    "We have!!" Wang GuiYing instantly replied as he moved forward to grab her hands in a pleading manner, "Yingli, I contacted you to team up when all the teams were being formed at the starting of the official T.I.A.D. stages, don''t you remember?"

    "You contacted me?" Li Ying asked as she tilted her head.

    Wang GuiYing bobbed his head up and down as he added, "You even told me to go to hell!"

    Li Ying squinted at the man for a minute as she slowly remembered the time when she had cursed him out pretty badly, "Ah!! You!! You''re that creepy player who kept on bugging me to team up with you!"

    Wang GuiYing felt no sense of embarrassment or guilt as he heard the girl and he unhesitantly nodded his head as he confirmed, "That was me! Do you remember now?"

    Li Ying nodded her head as she snatched her hand back, "You''re just as creepy out of the game too!"

    "Eh?" It was Li Ling who interjected, "You two know each other?"

    Li Ying and Wang GuiYing both nodded in unison as they confirmed, "We do!"

    "I just asked her to team up with me and she cursed me out so badly! She almost made me cry!"

    "What?! Damn you! You were the one that kept on pestering me!"

    Li Ling frowned and his eyebrows creased together but he said nothing.

    "Trash, why would you ask her to team up with you?" Zhihao asked in confusion, "Don''t you already have Zhou Xinyi?"

    "That''s because of you," Wang GuiYing pointed at Zhihao and accused him, "You were unwilling to team up with me and I needed a strong player by my side!"

    Zhihao frowned as he questioned, "But you don''t even know her so why would you pester her about it?"

    "Oye! Why are you pushing the blame on me? She was the one that was rude to me first! Of course, I didn''t want to lose my face like that so I requested her again and again."

    "Requested?! Why don''t you try being more honest with them!" Li Ying scolded with a  scoff.

    Li Ling glared at the man as he heard this, "Trash, did you go and harass my sister online?"

    Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened and he gulped as he held his hands in front of him and waved to indicate that he was completely innocent, "I didn''t!"

    Li Ling didn''t seem to have believed him as he turned to his sister and asked, "Did he harass you, Yingying?"

    Li Ying glanced at Wang GuiYing before looking back at her brother and pondering over it seriously, "I wouldn''t go as far as to say that he harassed me but he did annoy me a lot."

    Wang GuiYing sighed in relief and Li Ying continued, "For a whole week, without missing a day, every single hour, he sent me a new request to team up and no matter how much I denied or rejected the request, he kept on sending it again and again. Even at night, I was bombarded with team-up requests!"

    Wang GuiYing''s sigh of relief got stuck in his throat and he felt as if he was choking when he looked at the complicated look on Li Ling''s face.

    "Aiya~ It''s just a game~ Just a game~" Wang GuiYing sang as he stepped back in fear and cold sweat seemed to be forming on his forehead.

    "Just a game?!" Li Ying didn''t look like she wanted to let the man go that easily, "You even dug up info on me and found out my phone number! You sent me more than a thousand messages! How the hell were you not bored?!"

    Even Li Ling couldn''t help but feel a bit shocked as he heard that. To send over a thousand messages in the timespan of just a week? Wang GuiYing seemed to have a lot of free time and determination. Even Li Ling couldn''t compare to that.

    Zhihao coughed as he looked at Wang GuiYing and commented, "That''s exactly what online harassment means."

    "Wait..." Li Ling muttered as he squinted, "I have a question. If he harassed you like that, why didn''t you tell me? And why the hell didn''t you recognize him?"

    Li Ying clapped her hands as she complained, "That''s exactly what the problem was!"

    "Eh?"

    "This idiot didn''t even give me his gaming ID. He never introduced himself! His ID was set as private so I had no idea who was sending me the requests and messages. He just kept on repeating the same thing. Be my partner! Join my team! Let''s work together!" Li Ying dragged Wang GuiYing down by exposing him.

    "Well, of course, I didn''t introduce myself," Wang GuiYing frowned as he defended himself, "I''m BBtrash, everyone already knows me. You must have gotten my hashcode when I sent you the request. My hashcode is pretty famous. With just a single google search, you would be able to find out that it belonged to me. Why would I need an introduction?"

    Li Ying was a bit speechless as she heard this.

    The man''s confidence level was really out of this world. How could someone be like this?!

    Zhihao and Li Ling''s faces cringed up at the same time as they heard the man say something that they would definitely expect the man to say.

    "But I really didn''t know you," Li Ying wasn''t polite at all as she spoke, "I only got to know you when you became brother Zhihao''s friend."

    Wang GuiYing felt as if he had just been stabbed with a sword and almost wanted to spit out blood but when he opened his mouth to say something, he was suddenly interrupted by a loud voice coming from all the speakers inside the building.

    [Congratulation to all Ten players!]

    [You made it in time!]

    [Mastermo]

    [Devilmagiclover]

    [Yingli]

    [BBtrash]

    [Hulk0_0]

    [Jiangshi]

    [Loudbitchnextdoor]

    [Richlord]

    [Kaze17]

    [Andyzz]

    [T-Rex101]

    [You have officially entered the final level of T.I.A.D.]

    [Welcome to a world where anything and everything is possible.]

    "She does realize that she said out eleven names... Right?" It was Wang GuiYing who muttered but nobody bothered giving him an answer.

    [You will be given five competitions and the winners at the end would get to enter the maze of death.]

    [Your first competition starts here. There are exactly eleven yellow tickets hidden inside this building.]

    [Your mission is to collect one of the yellow tickets and go to the next destination of the competition as soon as possible.]

    [You have ten minutes to complete the mission and if you fail to adhere to the time given, you''ll be immediately eliminated from the final level.]

    [Please keep checking your phone for more personalized information and hints.]

    [Your ten minutes start now.]

    [May luck be on your side and may your skills shine through the dark!]

    "Eh?" Zhihao opened his mouth in confusion.

    The broadcast stopped and the players immediately turned their phones on to look at the screen that had now changed. It was no longer showing the GPS map of the city but instead, it was showing the floor planning design of the building and there was a small red arrow showing them exactly where they were standing. On top of the red arrow, there was a ticking timer, counting down from ten minutes.

    "Nine minutes and forty seconds remaining," Liang Feng muttered out loud as he gulped in worry.

    Li Ling zoomed in on his phone screen as he tried to pick up any clues, "I don''t get it..."

    Zhihao, "What?"

    Li Ling pointed at the phone screen, "This building has exactly eleven floors according to this map, but..." Li Ling pursed his lips as he dragged Zhihao near the staircase, "Look here. According to this one, this building has ten floors."

    "Eh?" Zhihao''s eyes widened as he suddenly glanced between his phone and the floor plan that was pasted near the entrance of the emergency staircase, "How did you know?"

    "When we were driving here. I counted the floors."

 Chapter 212 - Excuse My Rudeness.

    There could only be one person who would actually bother counting the floors in a situation where he was racing against time and Zhihao couldn''t help but be a little amazed.

    The rest of the players also walked up to them to see the confusing situation.

    "Then this floor plan is fake?" It was Li Ying who questioned but her brother just shook his head as he held up his phone and put it side by side to the floor map.

    "This map is almost identical so I don''t think it''s a fake," Li Ling responded as he pointed it out.

    Zhihao bit his lip as he wondered what the game wanted them to do with this map.

    "Then let''s go to the missing floor," Liang Feng spoke up as he suggested.

    Li Ling and Zhihao turned to face the man in unison.

    Tian Xifeng, "What do you mean?"

    Liang Feng pointed to the floor that was on the map displayed on the screen but not on the actual floor map that was pasted on the wall, "This might as well be our first clue. Didn''t the system say that there were hints on our phones? Let''s check this one out first."

    On the map pasted on the wall, the underground parking was supposed to be the last floor but on their phone screens, they could see another floor right below this underground floor.

    Li Ling frowned but still nodded as he responded, "Then let''s go."

    "Wait..." Li Ying muttered as she counted the number of players, "Where are the other players? There are only seven of us here."

    Zhihao glanced at the main entrance of the building that was completely empty by now, "They were standing there but I guess they already went to search for the yellow tickets."

    Li Ying couldn''t help but be a little disappointed as she stated, "If we have more people to search together, we might be able to find the yellow tickets sooner."

    Zhihao shrugged his shoulder as he replied, "But they ran away. We already have seven members so we won''t have a problem."

    Li Ying seemed to want to disagree but she still bit her lip and refused to say anything as a response to that. She didn''t care much about the other players, she only cared to see where Huang Zhen had disappeared off to. That boy didn''t even greet her when she came and ran away as soon as possible. This was unacceptable!

    "Let''s just go. We only have nine minutes remaining," Wang GuiYing informed as he glanced at his phone and saw the timer ticking as fast as his heartbeat.

    Li Ling nodded as he heard this, "Let''s go."

    The group started to move. The floor they were trying to get to had only one entrance and surprisingly enough, this entrance was on the top floor of the building.

    They found an elevator and pressed the button, waiting to see if they could get to the top floor faster with the help of the elevator, however, the elevator had already been locked and was no longer in use.

    "Damn it..." Li Ling cursed as he immediately turned back and headed for the stairs, "We''re gonna have to run."

    "Are you kidding me?!" Tian Xifeng cried out in shock, "I''m wearing heels!"

    Li Ling pursed his lips and didn''t even bother looking at the woman as he responded, "Then just take them off."

    "..." Tian Xifeng was a stubborn woman and it was already clear that she''d twist her ankle by walking in heels rather than taking them off and climbing up the stairs.

    "We don''t have time to waste," Zhihao pointed out the obvious as he ran after Li Ling and skipped steps, running up as fast as he could.

    Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi unhesitantly followed behind the two and Li Ying ignored Tian Xifeng as she ran up after the group.

    Liang Feng was the only one who was willing to keep the woman company as she tried to run up in heels but he also didn''t look to be too happy about it.

    "Tian Xifeng, just take them off. If you want, you can wear my shoes instead."

    "And what? You''ll run in heels?" Tian Xifeng snapped.

    "..."  Liang Feng pursed his lips and said nothing as a response.

    "Damn it..." Tian Xifeng cursed as she looked ahead at the five people that had already left her behind, "They didn''t even wait for me!"

    Liang Feng sighed as he rolled his eyes and walked up the stairs with the woman, "Why would they wait for you? It''s not like we have all day."

    Tian Xifeng frowned but didn''t say anything back since she also knew that what the man said was right.

    Liang Feng bit his lip nervously as he looked at the ticking timer on his phone.

    A whole minute passed and he could no longer take it. He wasn''t the sort of man who would leave someone behind so there was no chance he was going to do it now by leaving Tian Xifeng behind and running up ahead, but with her current speed, he was afraid that they would never be able to reach the top floor.

    Liang Feng sighed as he spoke up, "Please excuse my rudeness."

    "Eh?" Tian Xifeng tried to turn around to look at the man but just as she did, she felt herself getting lifted from the ground and thrown on Liang Feng''s shoulder like she were nothing more than just a sack of potatoes.

    "Let''s go!" Liang Feng announced as he carried the girl and ran up the stairs.

    "Wait!! Put me down!! What the hell are you doing?!" Tian Xifeng complained as she tried to struggle to get out of the man''s grip but Liang Feng seemed to be much stronger than he looked.

    "I''ll put you down when we get there," Liang Feng responded as he continued to run up the stairs and ignored Tian Xifeng.

    Tian Xifeng was shocked and a bit angry but she eventually gave up complaining or resisting as she just let the man carry her all the way up.

    If he wanted to become a human elevator and break his own spine, who was she to stop him?

    In another few minutes, Liang Feng seemed to be breathing heavily due to exhaustion but he still managed to climb all the way up to the top floor, and just as he did, he threw the woman down.

    "There!" Liang Feng announced as he immediately grabbed his knees and tried to calm his breathing down.

    "Ouch!" Tian Xifeng cried out as she rubbed her butt, "You could have put me down nicely!"

    Liang Feng took a minute to control his breathing as he straightened his back and looked at the woman, "And why would I do that?"

    "..." Tian Xifeng''s face cringed up as she glared back at the man and commented, "With that attitude, you''ll never be able to find a wife! You don''t even have one romantic bone in your body, do you?"

    "Eh?" Liang Feng looked to be confused as he tilted his head and looked back at the woman, "Why would I be looking for a wife and why would I need to have a romantic bone in my body?"

    Tian Xifeng rolled her eyes as she climbed up to her feet and brushed her clothes before muttering, "My fault... You''d rather die alone."

    Liang Feng had somehow managed to hear her muttering so he chuckled softly as he asked, "Then would you like to die together with me?"

    Tian Xifeng unconsciously faltered a step back in shock as she immediately reacted strongly, "Why the hell would I wanna die with you?! Go die alone! Don''t curse me like that!"

    Liang Feng laughed as he heard this. Somehow, for the first time in his life, he actually found this woman to be a bit bearable.

    Suddenly there was a voice of a girl coughing that interrupted them and made them both look at the girl.

    "Would you two stop flirting at a moment like this? Even my brother is serious right now," Li Ying commented with her face cringed up as she looked at the two in disgust.

    Tian Xifeng''s cheeks turned red as she defended herself, "Who the hell was flirting?!"

    Li Ying rolled her eyes but didn''t bother fighting or arguing with the woman over this.

    Liang Feng stepped forward and asked as he looked at Li Ling, "What are you doing?"

    Li Ling didn''t bother turning to look at the man as he answered, "Trying to break the passcode."

    "The passcode?" Liang Feng frowned as he looked at the closed door.

    "Turns out that the system really hates us. The passage to the lowest floor is locked behind this door," Li Ying explained as she looked at Li Ling who was constantly pressing in numbers on the door lock panel.

    "Do you have a hint or are you randomly trying out codes?" Liang Feng asked.

    "Random," Li Ling answered in a single word.

 Chapter 213 - The Numbers Match!

    Liang Feng''s frown seemed to deepen as he heard this, "How many numbers are needed for the passcode?"

    "Six," It was Zhihao who spoke up this time as he answered the man.

    Liang Feng seemed to be thinking deeply about it as he constantly looked at the lock with his mind lost in thoughts.

    "What if we have already been given the hint?" Li Ying suddenly asked.

    "What do you mean?" Wang GuiYing questioned as he looked at the girl.

    "As in what if it''s something we already know. There are six digits so I''m sure the system doesn''t expect us to suddenly guess it right within ten minutes. For the system to create a game that can''t be cleared is even harder to believe. So that means the system already expects us to know the answer."

    "What''s your guess?" It was Zhihao who asked as he suddenly thought that the girl made sense.. If the system had already given them a hint then it would definitely make things a bit easier for them.

    Li Ying shrugged her shoulders as she answered, "I have no idea what it might be but I can still give you some guesses. Maybe it has something to do with the number of floors or the number of players. Something that involves calculation."

    Wang GuiYing''s eyes twitched as he heard the girl, "For it to be that complicated... It sounds ridiculous."

    Li Ying, "It''s worth a try."

    Zhihao seemed to have been convinced as he spoke up, "There are eleven floors according to the map on our phones and ten floors according to the map posted on the emergency staircase. There are eleven players as well... Wait a second."

    "What is it?" It was Zhou Xinyi who asked this time and it was probably the first time the man had said anything today.

    "There are eleven floors and there are eleven players as well," Zhihao suddenly commented as his eyes slowly widened in realization, "The system never said that all the yellow tickets were in one place. It only said that the yellow tickets are hidden inside this building. The number eleven is common so I''m guessing that there is one yellow ticket on each floor."

    "Wait! I get it!" Li Ying suddenly exclaimed, "Brother Zhihao is probably right. Although this may be a competition, the system never forbade us from working together. If we choose one floor and stick to it, we might all find a ticket."

    "Then that leaves us a problem," Tian Xifeng informed.

    "What problem?" Li Ying looked at the woman curiously.

    "The rest four are missing. We have no idea which floor they chose and we don''t even know if they have found the ticket or not."

    Li Ying''s eyebrows furrowed together in worry as she heard this and after a minute of contemplation, she responded, "They probably figured this out sooner than us."

    Tian Xifeng frowned, "Are you sure about that?"

    Li Ying nodded as she walked over to a window on the side. her lips curled up in a small smile as she saw a car driving out of the building, "I told you didn''t I? They figured it out sooner."

    What?!" Tian Xifeng cried out in disbelief as she walked over and looked outside the window, "That dumb kid actually managed to find it?!"

    Li Ying chuckled as she looked at Tian Xifeng, "He''s not a dumb kid."

    Tian Xifeng rolled her eyes but said nothing against that.

    "Then if we know which floors they took, we can choose the rest of the floors?" Wang GuiYing asked.

    Li Ying bit her bottom lip as she thought about it carefully and responded, "I might have an idea."

    "What is it?" Zhihao asked enthusiastically.

    "The ground floor, The first floor, the second floor, and the third floor." Li Ying looked to be determined as she added, "Those are probably the ones they chose. So let''s check out the other floors."

    "Eh? Why would you say that?" Tian Xifeng questioned in confusion.

    "That makes sense," Zhihao spoke up as he looked at Li Ying, "If there is a ticket on each floor then they would probably not bother coming all the way up here. We were standing on the first underground parking lot so they probably started checking the above floors one by one. It''s our best bet."

    "Then that leaves us The fourth floor, the fifth floor, the sixth floor, the seventh floor, the eighth floor, the underground parking, and the secret floor below that?" Tian Xifeng spoke up as she counted on her hands.

    Zhihao nodded as a response, "Let''s divide up and search."

    "Wait..." Tian Xifeng exclaimed, "Then that means someone would have to go down to the underground parking again!"

    Zhihao pursed his lips together as he suddenly felt the need to give this girl a smack on her head. He sighed as he reassured her, "Don''t worry about it. You can take this floor."

    "Oh, I can?" Tian Xifeng suddenly broke out into a warm smile as she heard Zhihao, "I knew it! Gege is the best! You always treat me the best!"

    Li Ying rolled her eyes as she heard this and Zhihao simply smiled awkwardly without saying anything in turn.

    Tian Xifeng, "Then I''ll start searching now."

    Zhihao nodded.

    Li Ying, "I''ll take the floor below this one."

    Wang GuiYing, "In that case, I''ll take the sixth floor and Xinyi would take the fifth floor."

    Zhihao nodded once again as he agreed, "Then that leaves the fourth floor, the underground floor, and the secret floor."

    Li Ling suddenly stopped as he sighed and slammed his hand on the door, "This is useless! I can''t guess the passcode."

    Everyone immediately looked at the man with a bit of shock as they realized how frustrated he must have felt for being the only one that was trying to break this lock.

    They could divide up the floors but they would still have to break this lock or one of them would have to be left behind and nobody was willing to let that happen.

    "I have a question," Liang Feng spoke up as his pupils contracted.

    "What is it?" Li Ying asked as she turned to face the man.

    "Why don''t you just break down the door?"

    "..."

    Shockingly enough, in the state of panic and overthinking, none of them had actually considered this seemingly easy solution.

    "Brother Liang Feng... You''re a genius," Li Ying suddenly praised him.

    She gulped and looked around before her eyes lay on the fire extinguisher. She immediately grabbed it and brought it back as she lightly kicked her brother, "Move it."

    Li Ling frowned as he gave the girl some space and the girl lifted the fire extinguisher before banging it loudly on the door lock.

    The first hit made a loud sound but it did nothing much, however, she didn''t look to be dejected as she lifted it again and hit the door with double the force which she had used in the previous hit. This time, the lock seemed to have been loosened and she smiled in victory before throwing the fire extinguisher aside and warning out, "Step aside!"

    She lifted her leg and with all the force that she could muster up, she kicked the door and the door immediately broke down as it fell into the room.

    "Hmm... Well, that was easy," Li Ling muttered as he looked at the broken door in disbelief.

    He had been trying to figure out the passcode for the last five minutes and all it took was just a kick?

    Zhihao turned on his phone screen and looked at the timer as he announced, "Less than 2 minutes remaining. Get moving."

    Zhihao grabbed Li Ling''s hand and pulled him up as he exclaimed, "I''ll take the parking and Li Ling would take the fourth floor. Brother Liang Feng, I hope you have no problem with that...?"

    Liang Feng shook his head as he responded, "Don''t worry about it."

    Zhihao nodded as he pulled Li Ling along and headed back down the stairs.

    Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi also ran after them and Li Ying was the final person to leave as she stayed behind to give Liang Feng a nod.

    As soon as everyone left, Tian Xifeng who was busy searching for the yellow ticket till now suddenly exclaimed, "I got it!"

    "Eh?" Liang Feng looked at the woman.

    Tian Xifeng waved the yellow ticket in front of her as she showed it off to Liang Feng, "I got it."

    "..."

    "So now you get moving too. You stayed behind and waited for me so I''ll also wait for you downstairs. Make sure to come fast," Tian Xifeng spoke up as she coughed and tried to hide her embarrassment.

    Liang Feng couldn''t help but chuckle softly as he heard this. He nodded his head as he responded, "I''ll make sure to be quick."

    Tian Xifeng pursed her lips as she nodded and headed down the stairs.

    Liang Feng also didn''t waste any more time as he headed inside the room and found the entrance to the secret floor.

    "Oh... Wow..." Liang Feng muttered as he looked at the entrance.

 Chapter 214 - The Secret Floor

    He had thought that the entrance would be something like a secret elevator or maybe a ventilation vent, however, now that he stood here in front of the entrance, he couldn''t help but be a little shocked.

    Who could have guessed that the entrance to the secret floor would actually be just a tube slide?

    Liang Feng didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he looked at the tube slide.

    He turned on his phone and the ticking timer almost gave him a heart attack. He immediately kept the phone back in his pocket and jumped inside the slide.

    Everyone had chosen another floor because this secret floor looked to be the most difficult. The other floors were much more convenient to search, however, it seemed that the best option was to choose this one because, in just a few seconds, Liang Feng reached the secret floor below.

    The floor wasn''t exactly empty but it wasn''t filled either.

    "This is the surveillance room?" Liang Feng muttered to himself as he looked at the computer screens that were directly connected to the cameras all around this building. He could see the other players searching around on their assigned floors..

    The yellow ticket was also not hard to find. It was kept right on the table and looked exactly identical to the one that Tian Xifeng was holding up.

    At this moment, as Liang Feng picked up the yellow ticket, he couldn''t help but feel that he had really lucked out this time.

    He kept the ticket away inside his pocket and looked around to find a direct exit inside this room.

    He looked at his phone to see the timer that had paused.

    "Eh?" He muttered in confusion before slowly realizing what the cause of it was.

    The timer had stopped because he found the yellow ticket and it also meant that the system was personally monitoring them.

    His eyebrows creased together as he sat down at the chair in front of the monitors.

    He looked at the others who were still trying to find the ticket and he wondered how he could help them.

    Liang Feng was quite a smart man and in just a few seconds, he was able to come up with a solution. He immediately rewinded the recording to a time when the yellow tickets had been placed there. By doing so, he was able to see who was the one that placed them there and he was also able to know where all the tickets were hidden in the building.

    Liang Feng squinted at the screen as he maximized a certain area and looked closely at the clothes worn by the people that had placed the ticket there. Just ten minutes before they came here, this building was immediately evacuated and men wearing black hoodies and masks had come to hide the tickets. Their clothes were identical to each other and it seemed that it was their work attire.

    "LHA...?" He muttered out loud as he tried to read the three-word logo printed on their black hoodies.

    He frowned as he tried to remember such a company but it was only natural that he couldn''t remember it.

    Liang Feng sighed as he decided to search more on this ''LHA'' company later. Right now, there was not much time left on their hands.

    Liang Feng immediately searched for the broadcast microphone and turned it on before helping the other players.

    "Yingli, to your right. There would be a desk. Look under it and you''ll find the yellow ticket," Liang Feng announced, and without waiting to see what Li Ying''s reaction would be, he moved on to the next person, "BBtrash, walk forward and lift the painting that you see. The locker code is 1212. The yellow ticket is there."

    Liang Feng took a sharp breath in as he turned to the other monitor and helped Zhou Xinyi as well, "Hulk, The pot on your left side. Break it. The yellow ticket is hidden inside it."

    For Liang Feng, helping the others was nothing more than just being nice and cooperative, therefore trying to earn everyone''s trust so that they can work well together, However, for the players that were being helped, his voice sounded like the voice of an angel that had come to save them in their time of need.

    Thankfully, it was Liang Feng who was sent to this secret floor. If it had been Tian Xifeng or Wang GuiYing, they would have surely not helped even if they knew that they could help the other players. If it was Zhou Xinyi or Li Ying, those two would not have even realized that such a thing was possible. Zhihao and Li Ling need not even be mentioned cause even Liang Feng wasn''t sure what those two would have done in this situation.

    "Li Ling, walk four steps forwards and five steps towards your right. You''ll see a computer. Lift the mouse pad and you''ll find the yellow ticket," Liang Feng helped Li Ling as well and he finally turned to the last person.

    They only had ten more seconds on their hands and Liang Feng looked to be much more stressed than the other players.

    "Mastermo, the black car in front of you. Look under it."

    Zhihao immediately got moving as he heard this. The car in front was at a bit of a distance away from him and hence he was forced to run.

    "Five seconds remaining," Liang Feng announced as he looked at the timer on the side of the computer screen.

    Zhihao gulped as he crouched down and looked under the car. At first, he couldn''t see it and when he finally spotted it, his hands couldn''t reach it.

    "Come on! Come on! Come on!" Zhihao chanted to himself as he stretched his hand to its full potential.

    "Three," Liang Feng gulped in worry as he glanced at the other monitors. Everyone had already found their tickets. It was only Zhihao who was still in the danger zone of elimination.

    "Two," Liang Feng''s face looked to be seriously worried and stressed as he counted down.

    He bit his lips and couldn''t take it anymore so he closed his eyes and announced, "One."

    "I got it!!" Zhihao exclaimed loudly as he stood up and held out the yellow ticket.

    He immediately turned on his phone only to see that his timer had stopped exactly at zero.

    He was stunned speechless for a minute as he kept his eyes on the phone screen and held his breath in.

    "Did I make it...?" He questioned to no one in particular.

    Liang Feng peeked open his eyes as he looked at the ticket in Zhihao''s hand. He was also clueless about it.

    Li Ling immediately came down to the parking lot and ran towards Zhihao as he asked, "Did you find it?"

    Zhihao gulped as he didn''t say anything and simply showed Li Ling the screen.

    "What...?" Li Ling frowned and his eyebrows creased together as he also went silent.

    A minute passed as everyone''s mind went blank.

    Zhihao felt his heart drop and he was almost on the verge of crying out loud, but before any tears could fall, everyone heard a loud notification sound.

    [Ding~]

    It was coming from their phones in unison.

    Zhihao gulped as he instantly looked down at the screen.

    [Congratulations to all ten players!]

    [Jiangshi - time saved: six minutes and four seconds.]

    [Kaze17 - time saved: five minutes and thirty seconds.]

    [Loudbitchnextdoor - time saved: five minutes and twenty seconds.]

    [Andyzz - time saved: five minutes and one second.]

    [Richlord - time saved: four minutes and two seconds.]

    [T-Rex101 - time saved: three minutes.]

    [Yingli - time saved: one minute and seven seconds.]

    [BBtrash - time saved: fifty-four seconds.]

    [Hulk0_0 - time saved: thirty seconds.]

    [Devilmagiclover - time saved: twenty-two seconds.]

    [Mastermo - time saved: zero seconds.]

    [You have managed to clear the level within ten minutes!]

    [Time is precious and the time that flows, never returns.]

    [Welcome to the world where we make the impossible, possible.]

    [The time you have saved shall be returned back to you in the future and the time you have wasted shall forever remain wasted.]

    [We shall now begin the next competition.]

    [Please turn on your smartphones and look for directions.]

    [You have five minutes to get to your next destination.]

    [Failing to adhere to the time given would result in an instant elimination.]

    [I hope you enjoy your time with us!]

    The voice that came from the speakers stopped and Zhihao gulped as he suddenly realized that he had indeed passed the level.

    "I''m still in the game..." Zhihao muttered in disbelief. Finding it a bit hard to believe that he had actually managed to make it on time.

    He felt like jumping around and celebrating, however, they were still running low on time.

    As soon as the female voice of the system stopped, their screens changed once again and now there was a new map with a brand new timer set for five minutes.

    "Damn it..." Li Ling cursed as he looked down at his smartphone and cursed.

    Liang Feng took control over the broadcast station again and instructed the rest, "Zhihao and Li Ling, you two get the cars ready and everyone try to get to the parking as fast as possible."

 Chapter 215 - The Bickering Duo

    Liang Feng gulped as he looked around trying to find something heavy.

    When he couldn''t find anything, he decided that the chair was also a good option so he picked up the chair and went towards one side of the wall before slamming the chair on the wall.

    At first, it looked to be truly fruitless, however, after a few hits, there was a dent on the wall and it was revealed that the wall was made out of wood and it wasn''t exactly a secure wall.

    Liang Feng stepped back and took a deep breath in as he calmed himself down before using all his energy to hit the wall once again and this time, there was a hole that was made by the chair.

    Liang Feng gulped as he threw the chair aside and peeked through the hole. Just as he had expected, there was a staircase right behind this wall. A secret staircase hidden just like this secret surveillance room.

    The reason why Liang Feng knew there was something there was because of the map that he had thoroughly analyzed. The map of the building had this certain area completely blank and it made no sense for Liang Feng when he looked at it.

    Why would the building have a missing portion on one of its underground floors?

    There must have been something there and the first guess he had was an elevator since the spot was just big enough for an elevator but now that he had broken this wooden wall, it was revealed that it wasn''t an elevator but a staircase instead.

    Liang Feng gritted his teeth as he picked up the chair once again and continued to hit the wall, making the small hole bigger and bigger till it was big enough for a human to fit inside it.

    He immediately threw the chair away and stepped into the staircase. He turned on his smartphone and used its screen to light the stairs as he climbed up.

    In just a few seconds, he was already at the top of the stairs that was sealed off under a tile.

    Liang Feng really wanted to curse as he kept his phone down on the stair and elbowed the tile a few times to remove it.

    He was an intelligent man but he wasn''t as strong as ironman so it was only natural that his elbow started to bleed immediately and it definitely started hurting as well.

    Liang Feng cursed under his breath as he tried his best to push down the pain and continued to hit the cover.

    With just a few tries and a lot of struggles, the cover finally came loose and the tile busted open.

    Liang Feng pushed it off and grabbed his phone before climbing up to the parking lot where Zhihao and Li Ling already had their cars started.

    Liang Feng gulped as he ran towards the car and shouted, "Is everyone here?"

    "Get in, idiot!" Tian Xifeng peeked her head outside the car window and shouted back at Liang Feng, "Everyone else is in. You''re the last one."

    Li Ying opened the door and Li Ling who was driving immediately turned the car and started driving away at a slow speed.

    Liang Feng increased his speed as he ran and caught up to the car. He grabbed on to Li Ying''s hand and climbed inside the car before slamming the door shut behind him.

    Liang Feng immediately looked around to see who else was here and it seemed that Li Ying had already guessed this so she spoke up.

    "Zhihao is driving the other car. Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi are with him. You are stuck with us again."

    Liang Feng chuckled dryly as he heard this, "That sounds good to me."

    Tian Xifeng''s face cringed up as she heard this. She squinted at the man as she unhesitantly voiced out her thoughts, "Be honest, Gege. You have fallen for my charms, have you not?"

    "..." Liang Feng didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this. Just when he was about to laugh it off and give a response, he suddenly felt a jab of pain emitting from his elbow.

    "Ah!" Liang Feng exclaimed as he grabbed his elbow and looked at the wound. His shirt was torn up and reddened due to the blood.

    Tian Xifeng frowned and the playfulness from her face seemed to fade away instantly as she leaned in and looked at the wound, "You''re really an idiot. Why would you go and get yourself injured at a time like this."

    Liang Feng rolled his eyes as he heard the woman, "You talk as if I did it on purpose."

    Li Ying pushed the woman back as she suddenly exclaimed, "Damn you! I feel like a third wheel!"

    "..."

    Li Ying ducked her head and stood up slightly as she moved over and pushed Tian Xifeng towards Liang Feng before taking the window seat.

    Tian Xifeng didn''t look to be pleased but she didn''t complain about it either.

    Li Ying folded her hands and ignored the two as she looked outside the window and enjoyed the scenery of the developed city that looked as interesting as always.

    Tian Xifeng grabbed onto Liang Feng''s hand and pulled it as she examined the injury before questioning, "Li Ling Gege, do you have any first aid inside this car?"

    Li Ling didn''t bother taking his eyes off of the road as he replied, "Under the seat on your right."

    Tian Xifeng nodded as she immediately got down and looked under the seat before pulling out a white-colored box.

    Liang Feng''s pupils seemed to contract and he looked to be unimpressed as he saw this, "You make it look as if my life is in danger. It''s just a small scratch, is it not?"

    Tian Xifeng frowned as she looked up at the man''s face and repeated his words, "Just a scratch?"

    Liang Feng nodded unhesitantly as he didn''t let any pain show on his face, "It''s just a scratch It''ll heal in a day or- Ah!" He was forced to cry out in pain as he felt Tian Xifeng pushing the wound with a cotton bud that was dipped in some disinfectant.

    "Is it still a scratch?" Tian Xifeng asked with a smile that looked to be wicked.

    Liang Feng had his mouth open in shock as he looked at her.

    "You''re really unpredictable," Liang Feng commented after a minute as the shock sunk in.

    "I''ll take that as a compliment," Tian Xifeng beamed as she looked down at the wound and cleaned off all the blood as fast as she could.

    Since they didn''t have too much time on their hands, Tian Xifeng didn''t bother wrapping it up perfectly as it was supposed to be done. She just cleaned the wound and tapped on some medicine before tightly wrapping it with a piece of torn shirt that she had torn off of Liang Feng''s shirt.

    Liang Feng''s eyes widened slightly as he saw the woman tearing his shirt. He really couldn''t believe it.

    "Do you know how expensive this shirt is?" Liang Feng questioned as he looked at the woman.

    Tian Xifeng pursed her lips as she looked back at him, "Is it more expensive than your life. If not then please shut up."

    For such a thing to come out of Tian Xifeng''s mouth... It was certainly a bit shocking.

    "You might not be that big of a gold-digger as I thought you were," Liang Feng commented.

    "That doesn''t make me feel any better," Tian Xifeng responded without even bothering to look at the man''s face. She tied the ends together and slapped his elbow as she exclaimed, "There! All done!"

    Liang Feng frowned as he tried to move his hand, "Why does it feel like you cut off my blood circulation."

    Tian Xifeng smacked the man''s head as she responded, "Learn to be a little more appreciative, would you?!"

    Liang Feng looked to be a bit offended as he rubbed his head.

    The car came to a sudden stop and it threw everyone forward with its sudden shift in momentum.

    Liang Feng''s eyes widened as he reacted fast enough and pulled Tian Xifeng back, saving her from breaking open her head by hitting it on the seat in front.

    Tian Xifeng gulped as she looked back at the man and said nothing more.

    "We''re here!" Li Ling announced as he got out of the car.

    Liang Feng and Tian Xifeng also snapped out of whatever moment they were having just now.

    Liang Feng coughed as he opened the door and got out first.

    Li Ying was much alike her brother as she acted as if these two didn''t exist at all.

    Tian Xifeng gulped as she snapped out of her thoughts and got out of the car.

    She looked around to see that Zhihao had been faster than them.

    Li Ling smirked as he saw Zhihao waiting for him, "A-Zhi, you really know how to drive. You even beat me to it."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this, "Gege, it''s my anxiety driving, not me."

    "..."

 Chapter 216 - Familiar

    Zhihao shook his head as he chuckled it off and in the next second, he took out his phone from his pocket.

    Just as expected, the timer stopped.

    It seemed that the system was really monitoring their every move.

    Li Ling sighed as he took out his phone and looked at the paused screen. He slowly lifted his head up to look at the next level destination.

    "An arcade," Zhihao muttered as he stood beside Li Ling and looked in front of them.

    "Let''s go inside," Li Ling responded as he stepped forward without any sense of hesitation.

    Wang GuiYing sighed as he grabbed onto Zhou Xinyi''s hand and pulled the man along as he followed after the two. Li Ying, Tian Xifeng, and Lian Feng also followed them shortly after..

    Inside the arcade, they met up with the other four players that hadn''t bothered to tag around them in the previous level.

    "What the hell is on your face?" Li Ying''s face cringed up as she saw a certain person whom she could clearly recognize.

    Tian Xifeng tilted her head as she followed Li Ying''s line of sight and looked at the boy that had his whole face covered behind a mask.

    She was stunned speechless for a few seconds before she immediately broke out laughing, "You! Pfft- Kid, you trying to look cool or something?"

    The boy''s face was completely hidden behind the black mask but he was surely embarrassed to see and hear the reaction of these two girls.

    Liang Feng squinted at the boy as he questioned, "Jiangshi?"

    The boy slowly nodded his head and confirmed without saying anything more.

    This sudden confusion and shock had also managed to attract Zhihao''s attention.

    Zhihao immediately frowned as he looked at the masked boy, "You seem familiar."

    "Of course, he does! That''s your-" Tian Xifeng almost blurted out the truth but thankfully Li Ying was there to save the masked boy as she covered Tian Xifeng''s mouth and stopped her from speaking.

    Li Ying chuckled awkwardly as she spoke up, "That''s Jiangshi."

    "Ah!" Zhihao exclaimed in understanding as he pointed at the boy and asked, "So he was the first one to get the yellow ticket?

    Li Ying bobbed her head up and down, "That''s him."

    Zhihao looked at the man with an indecipherable facial expression and Jiangshi seemed to have suddenly become a bit uncomfortable as he faltered a step back and gulped in worry.

    "You seem really familiar..." Zhihao muttered as he slowly walked towards the masked boy, "Have we met before?"

    Jiangshi gulped once again as he stepped back and shook his head immediately, denying it completely.

    "But I feel like I know you..." Zhihao frowned as he stepped closer towards the boy.

    Zhihao leaned in close to the boy''s face and just then, Li Ying suddenly came in between and pulled the boy back before hiding him behind her as she smiled at Zhihao, "Brother Zhi, why does it matter if he''s familiar or not?"

    Zhihao''s frown eased up a bit as he saw the girl''s face.

    "But what if we know each other?" Zhihao asked.

    "If you know each other, you know each other. Is there anything more to it?" Li Ying suddenly laughed as she added, "And in any case, this is my boyfriend so don''t even think about cheating on my brother with him."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he heard her and he immediately started panicking as he responded strongly, "I did not say anything about that! Why would you think that? I am definitely not interested in him in that manner! Li Ling Gege is the only one for me!"

    "..." Li Ying gulped and her eyes slightly widened in surprise as she heard Zhihao being so open about it.

    As soon as Zhihao finished speaking, his ears slowly started turning red as he felt a bit embarrassed and immediately wanted to undo all the shameless things he had just said.

    A teasing smile crept up on Li Ying''s face as she clearly noticed the embarrassment evident on Zhihao''s facial expressions.

    "Brother Zhihao, it''s good to see that you''re so loyal," Li Ying snickered as she teased the man, "My brother is a lucky man."

    Li Ling also chuckled as he walked closer and hugged Zhihao from behind. He rested his head on Zhihao''s shoulder as he looked at Li Ying, "Isn''t he the best? You should also get a boyfriend like him, but I''m afraid there''s nobody else in the world who can compare to him."

    Li Ying who was happily laughing at Zhihao and teasing him immediately stopped and her eyes twitched as she saw this annoying sight.

    "Do you really have to rub it in my face like that?" Li Ying questioned as she cringed.

    Both Li Ling and Zhihao laughed as they saw this reaction.

    Li Ying sighed as she shook her head and commented, "Big bro, you''re really a hopeless romantic. A henpecked husband!"

    "Is there something wrong with that?" Li Ling asked with a smirk and before the girl could respond, Zhihao responded in her stead.

    "There is."

    "Eh?" Li Ling glanced at Zhihao in confusion, "What do you mean, A-Zhi?"

    Zhihao frowned as he folded his hands together and looked back at the man as he complained, "Isn''t it me who''s the henpecked husband? The last I checked, I''m the one that goes along with everything you say."

    "Ooo~ So you''re the one that keeps spoiling my brother?" Li Ying grasped onto the new gossip as she successfully diverted the topic from Jiangshi.

    Zhihao chuckled as he nodded and shamelessly agreed to it.

    Li Ling frowned and looked to be unimpressed as he heard this but he didn''t say anything against it since he also knew that it was somewhat true.

    Zhihao had always been a bit too kind and considerate towards Li Ling. Even in the beginning when they hardly knew each other. Even as kids who had just met, it was always the same and this was also one of the reasons why Li Ling fell in love with this man that treated him so differently.

    Li Ying giggled and it looked like she wanted to say something more to that but she was forced to close her mouth as soon as she opened it because of the speakers inside the arcade that suddenly came to life.

    [Congratulations once again!]

    [To all ten players that have made it on time.]

    [Jiangshi]

    [Loudbitchnextdoor]

    [Kaze17]

    [Andyzz]

    [Devilmagiclover]

    [Mastermo]

    [BBtrash]

    [Yingli]

    [Hulk0_0]

    [T-Rex101]

    [Richlord]

    "Damn it! This really bugs me!" Wang GuiYing suddenly exclaimed out loud with annoyance and anger evident in his tone.

    "What does?" Zhihao questioned back as he turned to look at the man.

    "This stupid system!" Wang GuiYing complained as he pointed out, "It keeps saying only ten players but then it also keeps announcing the name of eleven players!"

    Zhihao had also clearly noticed this ever since they entered the first competition.

    At first, he guessed it to be some kind of an error during the making of the bot, however, after hearing it over and over again, he was forced to believe that there was probably a deeper meaning behind it.

    "Of course, it announces eleven names and says only ten players won," Li Ying stated as if it were an obvious fact.

    "Is it just me who thinks that the calculation makes no sense whatsoever?" Wang GuiYing frowned as he asked no one in particular.

    "Actually, the calculation is right," Li Ying informed with a sigh, "There are only supposed to be ten players that get to the final level and there are eleven of us here. Do you not know what that means?"

    Wang GuiYing had certainly never felt dumber than this. He couldn''t understand it at all.

    Li Ying clearly saw the confusion and annoyance in the man''s eyes. She sighed as she decided to explain in straightforward words, "One of us isn''t a player."

    "Eh...?!" Wang GuiYing''s eyes looked like they were ready to pop out of his sockets as he heard this shocking news, "What do you mean?!"

    Li Ying shrugged her shoulder as she replied, "You should know what I mean. Try using your brain for once and you''ll be able to find the answer."

    Wang GuiYing gulped in worry as he heard her.

    [Your next competition is a game of chess.]

    [T.I.A.D. chess arcade.]

    "I''m quite good at chess," Zhihao suddenly commented as soon as he heard the system.

    [This T.I.A.D. chess arcade is different from traditional chess.]

    [In the next two minutes, you will be sent a message informing you about your role in this chessboard.]

    [Your individual missions would differ according to your roles and you would be informed about your mission through your smartphones.]

    [Helping other players is considered cheating and shall lead to instant elimination.]

    [Your time limit for this level is ten minutes.]

    [Failing to complete the mission during the given time limit would lead to elimination.]

 Chapter 217 - Whos The Gamemaster?

    "One of us isn''t a player..." Wang GuiYing suddenly muttered out loud as he finally understood what Li Ying was trying to tell him.

    Li Ying scoffed as she heard the man, "Why the hell does your brain work so slow?"

    "Wait..." Wang GuiYing gulped and looked to be in disbelief as he looked at everyone else, "You mean to say that one of us isn''t a player... Then...."

    Li Ying rolled her eyes as she got impatient and straightaway completed the man''s unfinished sentence, "The gamemaster. One of us isn''t a player because that person is the gamemaster."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but gulp as well when he heard Li Ying simply saying it so casually. He had also guessed it to be something like that, but he dare not believe his own self. He knew most of the players and to think that any one of them was the gamemaster... It was certainly impossible for him.

    The gamemaster had always been an anonymous man that had been an inspiration and a subject of admiration for Zhihao. To think that the gamemaster was someone he already knew... It was just not something that Zhihao was willing to casually even think about.

    "L-let''s consider this first," Wang GuiYing stuttered and his eyebrows creased together as he spoke up, "It''s definitely not me nor is it Xinyi. It can''t be Mastermo either and his little lover is also an impossible candidate. Since you are his sister, I don''t suspect you either. I''ve known Aunt Su for a really long time so I know that she would never be capable of creating a game like this."

    Li Ying frowned as she kept on listening to the man who was probably gonna guess wrong in the end.

    "That leaves us Jiangshi, Richlord, Andyzz, Kaze17, and T-Rex101," Wang GuiYing added as he looked at the said people."

    Li Ying sighed as she walked closer to the man and smacked his head without permission, "How long do you think ten minutes last? Why are you trying to waste our precious time?"

    Wang GuiYing rubbed his head as he looked at the girl with an expression that screamed: I have been wronged!

    "If the gamemaster is hiding among us, let him or her hide. I''m sure we''ll all find out the truth by the end of this." Li Ying continued, making it clear in her tone of speech that she wasn''t interested in trying to find the gamemaster this soon.

    "You know who it is, don''t you?" Wang GuiYing squinted at the girl accusingly, "You know who it is so you''re not as curious as the rest of us."

    Li Ying smirked and tilted her head as she responded, "So what of it?"

    "Eh?"

    "So what if I know who it is? Does it make a difference? Shouldn''t you be focusing more on the chess competition you have in hand?"

    Wang GuiYing gulped and before he could say anything more, Liang Feng suddenly spoke up.

    "Nine minutes left," The man announced as he looked at his phone screen.

    "Damn it..." Zhihao cursed under his breath as he turned his smartphone on and looked at the new screen that had just been changed a minute ago.

    The new screen displayed a picture of a chess piece and above it was the timer while below the chess piece was the mission.

    The king.

    Zhihao really felt as if he was a bit too lucky as he saw the chess piece that he had got.

    [The King is powerful and important but at the same time, this piece is also the most vulnerable out of all. As the king, what would you do to ensure that nobody tries to overthrow you?]

    Zhihao read the mission twice and even after reading it twice, he still couldn''t understand how something like this could be considered a mission. It was more like a question or a riddle.

    "Damn it..." He suddenly heard Li Ling curse.

    "What happened?" Zhihao asked as he looked up at the man, "What did you get?"

    "No," Li Ling suddenly responded.

    "Eh?"

    "Nobody say anything," Li Ling instructed and his eyebrows seemed to crease together in worry as he did, "Didn''t you all hear the system?"

    Zhihao also frowned as he thought back to what the system had informed them earlier.

    "Players can''t team up and help each other." Li Ling continued and he didn''t sound to be too pleased as he did.

    "Wait..." Li Ying suddenly muttered out and she seemed to be thinking about something.

    "What happened?" Li Ling asked.

    "I think I know what we have to do," Li Ying responded as she looked at her brother with determination evident in her eyes.

    Li Ling nodded and waited for the girl to continue.

    "We can''t form a group and help each other, but if I''m guessing right, we can''t solve this game without working together. We need to cheat in a way that the system doesn''t realize that we are cheating."

    "You''re right," Li Ling spoke up as he confirmed, "The system is trying to trick us."

    "Then let''s just trick the system," Zhihao suddenly interjected.

    "Eh?" Li Ling turned to face the man as he questioned, "Do you have a plan?"

    Zhihao bit his lower lip lightly and nodded as he replied, "I might have an idea. Are you all willing to believe me?"

    "..." Everyone was suddenly silent as they simply looked at Zhihao and waited for him to continue.

    "If it works, we all win together and if it fails, we all lose together," Zhihao added as he looked back at everyone.

    "I''m in," Li Ling sighed, "I''ll trust you with anything."

    "If it''s Mastermo then I''ll also agree," Wang GuiYing spoke up before adding, "And Hulk too."

    Zhou Xinyi simply nodded as he agreed with Wang GuiYing.

    Zhihao looked over at Li Ying who shrugged her shoulder as she spoke up, "I have nothing in mind so I guess I''ll go with your plan."

    "Can we hear the plan first?" Tian Xifeng questioned as she folded her hands and looked back at Zhihao.

    "We first show each other our phones by mistake," Zhihao answered.

    "Huh?" Tian Xifeng frowned and didn''t look to be convinced.

    Zhihao sighed as he dropped his phone to the ground.

    Luckily enough, the screen didn''t break and everyone could see the chess piece and the mission that Zhihao was given.

    Everyone glanced at the phone on the ground for a mere few seconds before looking back up at Zhihao.

    "My mistake," Zhihao shrugged his shoulder as he picked his phone back up.

    Tian Xifeng blinked and her expression seemed to turn more and more twisted as she finally spoke up, "I''m not throwing my phone to the ground! It''s expensive!"

    Zhihao, "It''s your choice. I''m not forcing anyone."

    Tian Xifeng shook her head as she strongly rejected the idea, "This is stupid! Can''t we just show each other our screens the normal way?"

    Zhihao sighed as he commented, "I hope that was possible."

    "If we show it openly then it would be the same as helping each other out," Li Ling explained as he looked at Tian Xifeng, "If we drop our phones, it''s seen as nothing more than just a mistake but if we show your screen to each other than that would mean we are straightaway trying to help each other out."

    "I don''t care!" Tian Xifeng stated as she hugged her phone close to her chest, "I spent my three months'' worth of salary on this."

    "Richlord, just throw it. It''s not that hard. Why the hell are you being so annoying?" Li Ying rolled her eyes as she spoke up.

    "Why don''t you throw your own phone?!" Tian Xifeng frowned as she added, "This baby is brand new."

    Li Ying scoffed as she threw her phone to the floor and the phone landed with the screen faced downwards to the ground.

    "There. I did it," Li Ying exclaimed with a smirk.

    Zhihao bent down and turned the phone over, letting everyone see the screen before he picked it up and handed it back to Li Ying.

    "Richlord, you''re being really immature right now," Li Ying openly mocked and teased Tian Xifeng.

    "I don''t care! Say whatever you want to say. I would never let my baby touch the dirty-" Her words were cut short as Liang Feng suddenly bumped into her shoulder and the phone that was clutched in her hand fell down with a loud thud.

    "Floor..." Tian Xifeng completed her sentence and her eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at her phone that was pitifully lying on the ground.

    "Next," Liang Feng exclaimed as he looked over at Wang GuiYing.

    "Liang Feng!!" Tian Xifeng immediately cried out as she bent down and took her phone, "You stupid pig!"

    Liang Feng smirked in satisfaction as he retorted, "I''m not stupid nor am I a pig."

    "You broke my marble case!!" Two big fat drops of tears trailed down Tian Xifeng''s face as she showed the man her broken phone case.

    Liang Feng''s face cringed up as he saw the broken glass, "Why the hell would you buy a phone case made out of glass? Isn''t a phone case made to protect your phone? Since when has it been the other way around?"

    "I don''t know! I don''t care!" Tian Xifeng pouted and whined.

 Chapter 218 - The Queen In The Chess

    Wang GuiYing didn''t look to be too bothered by it as he threw his phone down and showed everyone the chess piece that he got.

    Next was Zhou Xinyi who didn''t even need to throw his phone down as Wang GuiYing already knocked it out of his hand.

    Zhou Xinyi sighed as he crouched down and picked up the two phones before straightening his back and giving Wang GuiYing''s phone back to the man.

    Zhihao nodded as he turned to look at Jiangshi, "It''s your turn."

    At first, the boy looked to agree as he got ready to throw his phone but all of a sudden he stopped as if he had realized something.

    He gulped in worry and hid his phone behind his back.

    Zhihao frowned and his eyes seemed to contract as he looked at this action, "What are you trying to do?"

    Jiangshi panicked a little as he shook his head and refused to give an explanation for his refusal.

    Li Ying also looked to be a bit confused at the beginning but when she glanced at the phone that Jiangshi was trying to hide from everyone, she suddenly understood what he was worried about, and as his knight in shining armor, she stood in front of him and defended him, "Let him be the last one."

    Zhihao''s frown deepened as he heard this but he still agreed as he turned to face the next person that happened to be another girl Zhihao was unfamiliar with.

    "Wait... Are you andyzz?" Zhihao questioned as he looked at the girl.

    The girl gulped as she shook her head and responded, "Kaze17. Don''t you remember me, Mastermo?"

    Zhihao''s eyes widened slightly as he heard the girl.

    He indeed remembered her and because he did, he was even more shocked and confused.

    "Weren''t you a guy?!" Zhihao cried out in shock.

    The girl chuckled as she shook her head, "That was in the game."

    "Changing genders inside the game is possible...?!" This was a piece of information that was brand new to Zhihao so it was only natural that he reacted strongly, "I thought all our characters were custom-made and based on our real appearance!"

    The girl had short hair and big eyes. She had a round face and looked quite eye-pleasing. She looked to be younger than her actual age and Zhihao could already guess that this girl was the type to be shy and afraid all the time.

    "We can change characteristics such as our hair color, eye color, and gender. Other things like our face, height, and age remain the same in the game," Kaoru explained patiently.

    "Oh~ I thought it was only for hair color and all. I never thought gender was also included."

    Kaoru chuckled as she walked closer to Zhihao and stretched her hand forward for a handshake, "It''s nice to meet you in person, Mastermo."

    Zhihao smiled politely as he took a hold of her hand and greeted her back, "It''s nice to see you again as well, my rival."

    Kaoru couldn''t help but laugh as she heard Zhihao, "Do you still remember it?"

    Zhihao nodded with a smile as a response.

    Li Ling frowned as he looked between the two and tried to guess the situation, "What is it? What are you two talking about?"

    Zhihao chuckled and it didn''t look like he was about to give an answer to Li Ling.

    Zhihao remembered Kaoru because he was quite impressed with her when they met for the first time. Kaoru was someone who challenged Zhihao to his face. She said that she was the same as him. That she also looked up to the gamemaster and idolized him. The only difference between the two was the fact that Zhihao wanted to beat the gamemaster and Kaoru wanted to protect the gamemaster from the other players.

    Her thinking and determination had impressed Zhihao so much that it would have been weirder for him not to remember the girl.

    Zhihao felt a little good to know that this girl had managed to get so far. Now that they were both finally standing here in the final level of T.I.A.D, the real competition between them began. A competition to see if Zhihao could defeat the gamemaster or could Kaoru protect him.

    "By the way, we have three minutes remaining," Liang Feng suddenly spoke up with a sigh, "You guys are masters at wasting time."

    "Oh, right!" Kaoru immediately exclaimed as she threw her phone down to the ground and showed everyone her screen before picking it up quietly.

    Andyzz was a young man who looked to be just a year older than Zhihao and it was now his turn.

    He also didn''t hesitate much as he threw the phone down.

    While they were throwing their phones and revealing their chess piece, Jiangshi and Li Ying were busy trying to take off the phone cover from Jiangshi''s phone.

    If Zhihao were to see the phone cover, he would probably realize the identity of Jiangshi and Jiangshi still wasn''t ready to come clean to his brother.

    Zhihao nodded as he turned to face his aunt. As soon as he saw her, he couldn''t fight against the urge to roll his eyes in annoyance as he questioned, "What in the hell are you doing?"

    Aunt Su was sitting in a corner with her hands wrapped around her folded knees as she hugged her legs close to her chest. It was shocking enough that she had been silent this whole time but this scene shocked Zhihao a bit more. He had never actually seen his aunt do something like this.

    "It''s over..." Aunt Su simply commented as a response.

    "Eh?" The corner of Zhihao''s lips twitched as he heard the woman, "What are you talking about?"

    "It''s over..." Aunt Su repeated as she placed her phone down and pushed it towards the others, "I''m not continuing this game."

    Zhihao''s frown deepened and his eyebrows creased together as he looked down at the screen of Aunt Su''s phone.

    He immediately realized why the woman looked so dejected.

    "So you''re just going to give up like that?" Zhihao wasn''t polite at all as he questioned, "Don''t you want to win?"

    Aunt Su chuckled dryly as she heard the man, "Win and do what exactly? It''s better if I just turn around and walk back home. I don''t wanna do anything anymore."

    To say that Zhihao was shocked to hear this would be an understatement.

    He couldn''t help but feel that this was a pretty weird action for Aunt Su. A simple challenge in a game had managed to depress her like this? It was certainly too unbelievable.

    Kaoru sighed as she looked at Zhihao and informed, "When we received the notification for the game, she was on a date."

    Zhihao''s face cringed up as he waited for the girl to continue.

    "She dumped him by mistake," Kaoru shrugged her shoulder as she added.

    "And he was just my type!!" Aunt Su cried out and two big drops of tears started trailing down her face, "This is so unfair!! I hate this damn game!!"

    Zhihao was left speechless as he tried to understand her situation, but at the end of the day, since he had never been in such a situation, he naturally could not grasp why she was so depressed about it.

    Wasn''t it just a date?

    She could always reschedule it, couldn''t she?

    "So you''re going to give up just like that?" Zhihao questioned as he looked at her with no sympathy.

    Aunt Su bit her lips bitterly as she glared at the man, "Then what do you want me to do?! Didn''t you see my mission?!"

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he sighed.

    "If I complete that mission, doesn''t it mean you''ll be the one to lose?" Aunt Su stood up as she shouted, "Are you sure you want me to win instead of you?"

    Zhihao opened his mouth to give her an answer but she stopped him suddenly as she snapped, "Don''t answer that! Even if you are willing, I am not! If I hold you back right now, I''ll feel indebted to you for the rest of my life."

    Zhihao almost wanted to laugh as he heard this, "You''re saying that as if you care for me."

    Aunt Su gritted her teeth as she glared back, "That''s right. I''m your aunt so I do care about you and I am haunted by the fact that I stole your career from you before this."

    "..."

    "This game is clearly trying to break us apart. It was organized in a way that turns us against each other and I don''t want to let the game win."

    When Zhihao heard this, for the first time in his life, he felt that he was seeing his aunt in a new light. He would have never expected her to say something like this. In his eyes, Aunt Su was just a selfish annoying person that loved to bug him and leech off of other people before betraying them.

    "Zhihao, you win this for me! I''m giving up and by doing so, I''m winning against the game," Aunt Su walked closer to the man and gave him her phone.

    The Queen

    [You might just be the strongest piece in this chess, but don''t you hate it that you aren''t considered as one? Your mission is to overthrow the king.]

 Chapter 219 - Game Over!

    Aunt Su walked to the corner and went back to hugging her legs and Zhihao could almost imagine seeing a dark depressing cloud hovering over her head.

    Zhihao scoffed as he suddenly didn''t know if he was supposed to laugh or cry.

    "Just so you know..." Zhihao spoke up, "I won''t be feeling thankful for this."

    Aunt Su smirked as she shrugged and responded, "I don''t care. You can just take it as me repaying the debt I owe you."

    Zhihao took a sharp breath in and looked down at his phone. The timer on his screen had stopped while the timer on Aunt Su''s phone had turned red.

    Soon enough, another screen popped up on Aunt Su''s phone.

    [Game over!]

    "One minute remaining," Liang Feng informed as he broke the awkward atmosphere.

    Zhihao''s grip around his phone tightened as he felt a bit unsatisfied.

    Li Ling patted his shoulder and tried to reassure him before he threw his phone down and showed everyone his screen.

    White Bishop.

    [The one beside the king. The one who protects him from everything. Your mission is to make sure that the king is well protected and doesn''t get overthrown.]

    Just as expected, Li Ling''s timer had also stopped as he cleared the mission automatically due to the exchange between Aunt Su and Zhihao.

    Jiangshi had also managed to take off his phone cover by now so he placed his phone down and showed the screen to everyone.

    The king''s knight.

    [With a flexible move and powerful armor, you can survive and fight a lot of battles for your king. Your mission is to capture the pawn.]

    Everyone was silent as they looked at the screen.

    Zhihao was quick to collect himself as he paid back all his attention to the game.

    "Let''s play," Zhihao announced.

    "Eh?" Li Ying tilted her head in confusion.

    "Thirty seconds," Liang Feng breathed out and the ticking timer seemed to be giving him a heart attack.

    Zhihao, "We''ll play rock paper scissors."

    Liang Feng''s eyebrows creased together in worry as he heard his plan and at this moment, he was surely regretting the fact that he had ever agreed to go along with Zhihao''s plan.

    "No time to explain. Just do it. You guys know what chess piece the other has so the loser has to hand over their phone to the winner. You lose on purpose. This would not be considered as cheating or helping others since it''s part of the rules of the rock papers scissors that can be considered as a competition as well."

    "Argh!" Li Ying sounded to be annoyed as she shouted and walked up to Zhou Xinyi, "I''ll take out papers so you better lose."

    The queen''s knight.

    [You fight for the queen and the king. You protect them with your life and you control the pawns. Your mission is to capture a pawn.]

    Zhou Xinyi who had gotten a pawn simply nodded as he took out a rock and lost the game on purpose before handing over his phone to Li Ying.

    The timer on Li Ying''s phone suddenly stopped while the timer on Zhou Xinyi''s phone kept going.

    "That''s it!" Zhihao exclaimed in delight, "Hulk, you win against Kaoru. Kaoru you win against Li Ying. Richlord would win against Trash. Wang GuiYing you win against Jiangshi. Jiangshi you win against T-Rex and Liang Feng you win against the black bishop, Andyzz. Andyzz you win against Li Ling."

    Even Zhihao felt as if his brain was about to short-circuit as he calculated and tried to remember everyone''s mission. The players themselves had no time left to calculate it and since their hearts couldn''t calm down due to the stress and tension, they simply decided to believe Zhihao and did exactly as he had instructed.

    They went around announcing the move they were going to take out as they played rock paper and scissors with the partner that was assigned to them.

    "Ten seconds!" Liang Feng announced as he looked down at his timer that had stopped since he had already completed his mission.

    The Pawn.

    [You listen to others and never rebel. You are loyal and insignificant yet without you, a battle cannot go on. Don''t you wish to rebel sometimes? To make your superiors feel what you go through every day? Your mission is to capture the Black Bishop.]

    One by one the other timers also stopped as they all one by one cleared their mission.

    Jiangshi also sighed in relief as he looked down at his phone screen.

    The King''s knight.

    [You are loyal and brave. You rule the battle and save the people but it seems that the pawns aren''t listening to you well. Your mission is to capture a rebel pawn and bring back order to this battlefield.]

    "Five," It was Li Ying who announced the timer as she looked around to see who was still left.

    "Four," Liang Feng continued the counting.

    Tian Xifeng sighed in relief as she looked down at her phone timer that had stopped exactly at four seconds after she had won against Wang GuiYing.

    She was also a pawn and her mission was to capture the rook.

    The rook, Wang GuiYing, won against the king''s knight who was Jiangshi.

    "Three," Mastermo also joined in on the countdown as he looked around to see that most of them had already managed to complete the mission.

    "Two," Li Ling added.

    "Done!" Before the word ''one'' could roll out of anyone''s tongue, Andyzz had already exclaimed as he held up his phone that stopped at exactly one second.

    The black Bishop

    [You are amazing but you stay by the queen''s side. You''re just as powerful and yet further away from the king. Wouldn''t it be amazing if you could be a little more trusted? Your mission is to overthrow the white bishop.]

    Zhihao also let out a breath that he didn''t even know he was holding.

    "Damn it... That was the most stressful thing I had ever gone through," Wang GuiYing suddenly commented as he slid down and sat on the ground as he had run out of energy.

    "Are we all alive?" Zhihao gulped as he questioned just in case.

    Li Ying sighed as she glanced at Aunt Su who was still sitting with her knees hugged close to her chest, "Except for her, everyone else is safe."

    Zhihao still felt a bit annoyed by it but he didn''t feel bad for the woman. It was her choice to lose in any case.

    This game was organized in a way that made it impossible for all eleven of them to pass and this also broke their previous theory where they thought that as long as they work together in unity, they would be able to clear all the levels with ease.

    Li Ling gulped in worry and said nothing although it looked like he wanted to say something.

    Everyone else was also naturally silent as they contemplated what they were supposed to do next.

    If this competition was organized in such a way then surely all the games in the future would also be organized in this exact manner.

    They had already managed to survive the first two competitions and now they only had three more before they finally got to enter the absolute final level where they would probably get the mission to kill the gamemaster.

    Like an elephant in the room that nobody dared to address, this thought slowly haunted their minds.

    As expected, working together as a group would indeed be difficult.

    Zhihao was also aware of this fact and he knew that with Aunt Su''s failure to complete the mission, a small hint of distrust had been planted in the hearts of the other players.

    If the system asked them to betray each other in the future, Zhihao could no longer confidently say that all the players here would try to work together and find a way around it.

    At the end of the day, there could only be one winner, and if they kept on helping their competitors like this, their chances of winning would further be slimmed down.

    In the future three competitions, Zhihao was sure that there would be someone who''ll betray them and once a player finds the courage to go against the others, other players would surely follow the example as well.

    This was a bit worrisome. Especially when Zhihao looked around and realized that he personally knew and trusted most of them.

    [Ding~]

    [Congratulations on clearing the second competition within ten minutes!]

    [Sadly, not all of you could make it.]

    [Does your heart hurt with guilt for that player that would not be able to accompany you from here on out?]

    [Well, as the organizer of this game, I''d like to remind you that a competition is still a competition. If you feel bad for each other, you might as well just quit.]

    [You are all here for a purpose and I hope you never forget that.]

    [You might be familiar with the one that stands beside you but you must never forget that the friend that stands beside you is also here with the purpose of winning the game. You can be betrayed at any moment so why not betray before you get betrayed?]

    Damn it...

    Zhihao almost wanted to curse out loud.

    This system was clearly trying to light a fire of suspicion within the group.

 Chapter 220 - Win This For Me

    [Once again, I''d like to congratulate all the nine players that have managed to clear the level!]

    [Mastermo - time saved: one minute twenty seconds.]

    [Devilmagiclover - time saved: one minute twenty seconds.]

    [Yingli - time saved: twenty-four seconds.]

    [T-Rex101 - time saved: ten seconds.]

    [Jiangshi - time saved: nine seconds..]

    [Hulk0_0 - time saved: seven seconds.]

    [Kaze17 - time saved: seven seconds.]

    [BBtrash - time saved: five seconds.]

    [Richlord - time saved: four seconds.]

    [Andyzz - time saved: one second.]

    [You have managed to clear the level within ten minutes!]

    [Time is precious and the time that flows, never returns.]

    [Welcome to the world where we make the impossible, possible.]

    [The time you have saved shall be returned back to you in the future and the time you have wasted shall forever remain wasted.]

    [It''s sad to see one of you going.]

    [Loudbitchnextdoor, wish you better luck next time.]

    It almost felt as if the system was trying to taunt her for it and Aunt Su surely looked to be offended.

    [We shall now begin the next competition.]

    [Please turn on your smartphones and look for directions.]

    [You have three minutes to get to your next destination.]

    "What the hell?!" Wang GuiYing immediately cried out, "Why does it keep decreasing the time?!"

    Zhihao also frowned as he heard the system, "It''s trying to play with our minds."

    "That''s right," Li Ying also agreed with Zhihao as she added, "As the time decreases, we''ll be filled with anxiety and worry. It''s another way of making us not perform well since our minds wouldn''t be able to work under such conditions of high stress and impatience."

    Li Ling sighed as he heard his sister, "That''s why we must try and stay calm."

    "Let''s go," Zhihao announced as he looked at his phone and didn''t even wait around to talk about it anymore. He looked to be as serious as he could get and this sense of seriousness and responsibility affected the others as well as it showed them that although this was a game, they were no longer just playing around with it.

    The rest of the group also turned and decided to follow after Zhihao who looked to be in a hurry but before they could get out of the arcade, they suddenly heard the voice of Aunt Su.

    "Zhihao," Aunt Su called out to him, and surprisingly enough, Zhihao stopped in his tracks.

    He didn''t bother to turn around as he waited to hear what she had to say.

    "You brat!" Aunt Su cursed first before adding, "Go and win this for me. You must definitely win."

    Zhihao almost wanted to laugh as he heard her, "Don''t worry about it. I''ll win it."

    He sounded to be a bit too confident and although his confidence was justified, it still didn''t sit well with the other players who were also here to win this game. This statement just reminded them once again that they were all competing with each other.

    "But I won''t be doing it for you," Zhihao added as he glanced back at the woman who was still sitting on the floor, hugging her legs, "I''ll be winning for myself and it''ll be because of my own skills. The debt between us has been cleared so don''t bother yourself with it anymore."

    Zhihao didn''t wait around for a response as he turned and continued to walk away from the arcade.

    When he was out of her sight, Aunt Su couldn''t help but chuckle to herself as she commented, "What an overconfident Brat. Big brother, you should be a bit more proud of him. Your son is ambitious and unafraid. He''s just like you."

    Her big brother was clearly not listening to her since he wasn''t even here at this moment but she was sure that her big brother already knew everything that she wanted to tell him. She already knew that although Zhihao''s father may not show it, he was still proud of his son and happy that Zhihao was able to find a path for himself that he genuinely loved.

    Suddenly, tears started trailing down her eyes again as she cried out, "My date!~ What do I do now?! This game ruined it!! Fufufufu1~ That guy was too handsome!~"

    The others left the arcade and divided themselves into two groups as they got inside the two cars that were waiting for them.

    Zhihao had always hated to let other people get inside his car but in this current situation, if he minded such things, he would feel petty and he wouldn''t be too happy with that so he decided to forget about all his typical rules and habits. Since the game wanted him to take it seriously, Zhihao was going to do exactly that.

    After all, he loved a challenge and the game was seriously giving him the biggest challenge of his life.

    Thankfully, their next destination was closer to this arcade so the time limit given to them in order to get there could be justified.

    In just a few minutes, they were able to get to their next destination arena.

    The third competition.

    Zhihao''s eyebrows creased together in worry as he closed the car door behind him and looked at the stadium in front of him.

    "Seriously...?" His face cringed up as he muttered in disbelief.

    Their next destination turned out to be the national football stadium. A place where they were clearly supposed to have no entry to but somehow, there were two guards standing in front of the gate and when the guards saw them, they asked them to show their phones.

    Zhihao looked to be a bit confused but he still ended up taking out his phone to show the guard. The two guards saw the screen and nodded before letting Zhihao go inside.

    The same happened with the other players as well. Their phones were like their identity cards now and it was being used to give them access to the third arena where they would have to compete once again.

    "Gege~ Gege~ Gege~" Tian Xifeng sang happily as she caught up to Zhihao, "What do you think this competition is going to be about?"

    "Why are you asking me?" Zhihao frowned as he questioned with no interest in the woman.

    Tian Xifeng didn''t look to be defeated as she chuckled, "Gege, you were so amazing in the last level! You were able to memorize all of that and come up with a solution. We wouldn''t have made it this far if it wasn''t for you!"

    Zhihao didn''t know if he was supposed to laugh or cry as he heard her trying to clearly butter him up. The reason why she was trying so hard to win him over was also pretty clear to him but of course, as someone who could be considered as a friend to her, he would naturally not call her out for being a bit selfish.

    Zhihao sighed as he responded, "You give me too much credit. Even if it weren''t for me, you would have been able to solve the competition. All you had to do was turn against each other and snatch the phones that had the chess piece you were in need of for the completion of your mission."

    Tian Xifeng was a bit stunned to hear Zhihao put this out there so bluntly but her shock didn''t last long as she chuckled it off, "You''re right, but who knows. Without you, maybe only a few of us would have been able to move on to this level and I would definitely not have been one of them since I''m not really good with betraying people and snatching their things."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but laugh as he nodded, "I can''t say anything against that."

    Liang Feng couldn''t help but sweat in worry as he glanced towards his side at Li Ling who was glaring daggers at the back of Tian Xifeng and Zhihao who seemed to be having a great time as they talked to each other and laughed.

    Liang Feng gulped as he turned to the other side and pulled Li Ying towards him, "Your brother, why does he look like he''s about to kill someone?"

    Li Ying frowned as she tilted her head in confusion before looking over at the other side to see the expression on her brother''s face.

    "Ah!~" She exclaimed softly, "That? He probably looks like that because that''s what he''s planning in his mind."

    "..."

    Li Ying chuckled as she saw the worried and scared expression on Liang Feng''s face. She patted the man''s back as she reassured, "You don''t need to worry about it. He would probably not go through with it since he would have to go to jail if he does and if he goes to jail then he would not be able to stay beside Zhihao for a really long time. My brother wouldn''t risk something like that."

    Liang Feng looked to be even more speechless and worried as he heard the girl. He gulped and it looked like he was contemplating on whether to ask his next question or not but in the end, he still ended up voicing out his doubts, "So you are saying that''s the only reason that''s stopping him?"

    Li Ying blinked as she simply stared back at the man for a solid minute without giving him a straight answer.

    Liang Feng''s face got more and more complicated as he saw this silent response.

    Li Ying suddenly smiled brightly and chuckled before walking away.

    "..."

    What the hell is that supposed to mean?!

 Chapter 221 - Destiny Is Better Than Fate.

    Li Ying laughed even more as she successfully fooled the man into thinking that her brother was a crazy psychopath in love.

    Jiangshi sighed as he shook his head and commented in a voice that was only audible to the two of them, "You really like playing around with other people, don''t you?"

    "Eh? What are you talking about?" Li Ying tilted her head as she added, "I was being serious though. Well, if Zhihao and Richlord were really in a relationship then my brother would probably go through with the plan to kill her."

    Jiangshi also seemed to be stunned as he faltered a step, "You...! You mean that?"

    Li Ying broke out laughing as she smacked his back, "I was joking~ Hahaha... Why do you all fall for it so easily? It''s not like my brother is obsessed with brother Zhihao or anything."

    Jiangshi sighed in relief as he heard the former half and seemed to be questioning the latter half of the sentence.

    "I don''t know. Maybe it''s because your brother spent his entire life creating a game for a man that didn''t even remember him properly," Jiangshi shrugged his shoulder and spoke up, " Not to even mention the fact that the man he did it all for, had only met him like a few times at an arcade when they were children."

    Li Ying gulped as she seriously started considering the topic. The more Jiangshi pointed the facts out, the more she felt that her brother indeed had an obsession problem.

    Who in the world would go through so much just for a boy they once had a crush on as a child?!

    Li Ying was sure that she would never do something like this!!

    She really wanted to applaud her brother for having such a high level of patience that she could never even dream of having.

    It was now Jiangshi''s turn to laugh as he saw the colors dropping from Li Ying''s face as his words started to slowly haunt her.

    "Don''t worry too much about it," Jiangshi reassured in between his chuckles as he added, "He could either be an insane psychopath or be considered as a devoted man who only falls in love with one person in his life. In their case, I would say that it''s the latter since I can clearly see the positive connection between them."

    Li Ying frowned as she squinted questioningly at the boy and waited for him to further explain.

    "Do you think my brother is a person that would simply fall in love with just anybody?" Jiangshi questioned but didn''t wait for an answer as he continued speaking, "It''s pretty hard to find him be this interested in another person. To be this trusting and forgiving, all of those things are something I have never seen him do before this. Even I was shocked to know that he chose Li Ling Gege as his gaming partner when he hardly even knew the man."

    Jiangshi suddenly sighed as he added, "I think he knew it before I did. Maybe it''s something close to the theory of soulmates...? Although he had just met the man, he could clearly feel that they had a connection and he was curious to explore that feeling of familiarity so he decided to take a bet?"

    Li Ying''s face cringed up as she responded, "I hate the word soulmates."

    She was not shy about stating her own thoughts on the topic.

    Jiangshi looked to be a bit surprised as he tilted his head and asked, "Why would you say that?"

    "Because the word soulmate is used to link two people together against their own wants," Li Ying stated openly, "It''s like a handcuff that binds you to a single person without asking for your own permission and desires. Fate also has somewhat the same meaning. It''s something that has been decided for you and can''t be changed by you. Such forceful words... Who would want to use them for something pure like love?"

    Jiangshi''s eyes widened ever so slightly and he suddenly looked to be a bit impressed by Li Ying''s words, "I would have never imagined you to be such a romantic person."

    Li Ying pursed her lips together in a thin line and glared back at the boy as a response.

    "But I guess you''re right. Rather than saying that it''s fate, maybe it''s better to call it destiny."

    Li Ying enthusiastically nodded her head as she replied, "That''s right. Our fate can''t be changed and is forced upon us but destiny is something much more flexible. It''s something we can influence according to our own decisions."

    "Then let''s just conclude at that. It was their destiny."

    For some reason, Li Ying suddenly chuckled as she thought about something.

    Jiangshi frowned as he questioned, "What is it? Why are you laughing?"

    Li Ying looked at the boy through her eyes that had curled up into two crescents with a bright smile on her face as she responded, "You are a nice guy for supporting your brother so openly like this."

    "Well, he''s my brother and as long as he''s happy, I would naturally be satisfied with it."

    "Hmm... The more I get to know you, the more I realize that you''re really not as bad as I thought you were."

    "..." Jiangshi squinted as he looked back at the girl and questioned, "How bad did you think I was."

    "When I first met you, I was sure that you were the type to bully others just because you wanted to look cool and strong when you clearly had no friends or anything good about you that you could offer others."

    Jiangshi coughed as he heard her answer, "You! You actually thought something like that?!"

    Li Ying chuckled as she nodded her head, "It''s not my fault that you were acting in such a manner. At one point in time, I remember thinking about ways on how to teach you a lesson."

    Jiangshi moved a step away from the girl as he asked, "What are you? A hero looking to punish all the bullies in this world or something?"

    Li Ying proudly nodded her head as she confirmed, "That''s right! I''m a hero working for the people in this world that have been bullied by people like you."

    "Yah! You just said that you have realized what type of person I really am so why are you still calling me a bully?!"

    Li Ying patted his shoulder playfully, "Brother Zhen, I was just joking around! Why do you keep taking everything so seriously?"

    "Maybe because your jokes aren''t funny," Jiangshi deadpanned.

    "..."

    "LHA," Liang Feng suddenly spoke up out loud as they reached the middle of the huge football ground.

    "Huh?" He managed to catch the attention of the rest of the players who suddenly looked at him curiously.

    "The company," Liang Feng added as he informed everyone else about his observation, "Back at the office building as well. The ones who placed the yellow tickets there were also from the same company as the guards that were standing in front of the stadium."

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this, "LHA? Are you sure about that?"

    Liang Feng nodded his head as he confirmed, "There must be a connection between the game and the company. Do you know anything?"

    "I don''t know about the connection but LHA... I''ve heard about that company before," Zhihao answered honestly.

    "How do you know them?" Liang Feng questioned back.

    Liang Feng also knew a lot of companies but it was his first time hearing about such a company.

    "It was a gaming company that went bankrupt a few years ago," Zhihao answered as he thought back to the time when he used to play games released by this company called LHA.

    "Bankrupt?" It was Li Ying who stepped forward as she repeated in confusion.

    "It was not popular, to begin with, and within three years of its foundation, it went bankrupt before disappearing completely," Zhihao explained in a bit more detailed manner, "If I''m remembering right, their concept was escape rooms and mind games. Talking from personal experience, they were actually good at it but it wasn''t really a style that was famous at the time. Since they didn''t have too many players interested in playing it, it was only natural that profit took a dive for them which eventually led to the shut down of the company."

    "What about their games? Did they all go down as well?" Liang Feng asked curiously.

    Zhihao shrugged his shoulder as he replied, "I don''t know about that. The official notice said that they would be shutting down their servers for a few months but when I tried to find the game again, it showed an error stating that the game had automatically been deleted from my computer."

    "Automatically deleted? Is that even possible?" Li Ying questioned.

    This was certainly something unheard of. Even if a gaming company were to go bankrupt and their game was to be shut down forever, it was still not possible for the game to completely disappear from a device that had the game already installed in it.

    If the company had shut down the game forever, then the game would show an error stating as such and informing the users that the game was no longer available.

 Chapter 222 - LHA And The Connection

    "I found it weird as well," Zhihao added with a sigh, "It was a good game so I was quite disappointed. I tried to download other versions of it but they all simply vanished from the internet. No trace of it was left behind and since it wasn''t a popular game, there was nobody else talking about it."

    "So someone created a gaming company with no success which eventually had to shut down. The company left no traces of itself or the games it produced and now, after a few years, it has resurfaced like this just to assist Alvi in setting up the final level?" Liang Feng collected all the information that Zhihao had given, in his mind and compiled them before stating it in a single go.

    Zhihao nodded as he confirmed, "That''s right."

    "But why this company?" Liang Feng frowned as he questioned no one in particular.

    Zhihao shook his head as he responded, "I don''t know. As long as I''ve known, LHA had no connection with any other company and especially none with Omelas. Omelas was founded after LHA''s death."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened ever so slightly as he turned to look at Li Ling, "Gege, do you know anything?"

    Li Ling was a bit surprised to suddenly see the man turning to him for answers. He gulped as he stuttered, "W-what do you mean?"

    "This is no time to be hiding company secrets," Zhihao spoke up and it seemed that he thought Li Ling wasn''t saying anything because his position as the founder of Omelas banned him to say anything about the company to outsiders.

    Li Ling sighed as he shook his head, "I might know something but... I''m not sure."

    In reality, even after being the gamemaster, Li Ling had no idea why this certain company was helping Alvi. He had never signed with them, in fact, he had never even properly heard about them.

    LHA had certainly been a name that he remembered coming across a few years ago but it wasn''t something that he remembered since the company went bankrupt and disappeared.

    "What is it?" Zhihao questioned enthusiastically as he heard Li Ling''s response.

    "The year of release," Li Ling spoke up.

    "Eh?" Liang Feng was the one who muttered out loud in confusion as he slightly tilted his head to look at the man.

    "By what you say, LHA was a new gaming company that was released before Omelas. A-Zhi, what do you think. Do the companies sound alike?"

    "Huh?" Zhihao looked to be a bit stunned as he seriously pondered over the answer for a minute, "I wouldn''t say that they are alike... LHA and Omelas are very different from one another. LHA has more of an escape room and mystery theme while Omelas has a role-play adventure theme."

    "But there is something that connects the two," Li Ling spoke up, "Both of them are new companies that came out of nowhere and suddenly released a game that is actually good. Where LHA failed because it couldn''t find a market, Omelas succeeded due to the help of active advertising."

    When Zhihao heard this, he couldn''t help but nod as he agreed to the theory of them being somewhat alike, "If T.I.A.D. wasn''t a hit then... It would have also ended up like LHA?"

    Li Ling''s expressions looked to be a bit worried as he nodded, "That''s right. The two companies are only different because of the advertising that was done for T.I.A.D."

    "Now that you mention it, I think there is something else that I remember," Zhihao informed as his eyebrows creased together in worry.

    "What is it?" It was Li Ying who asked as she looked at the man curiously.

    "The building," Zhihao answered as he looked over at Li Ying and explained, "The building currently used by Omelas was previously used by LHA."

    Li Ying''s eyes widened slightly as she heard this shocking news. She turned to look at her brother as she waited for the man''s explanation.

    "Are you sure about that?" Li Ling questioned as he looked at Zhihao with a serious expression plastered on his face.

    Zhihao nodded as he confirmed, "I''m sure about it."

    "How can you be sure?" Tian Xifeng also joined in on the conversation as she asked.

    "When the game got deleted from my device, I thought someone had hacked into my computer so I dug up some information on them and the address was the only thing I was able to find. However, when I went to the address, the building was completely emptied out and it was even put up for sale."

    "Let me guess... You bought the building?" Li Ling interjected with a question.

    Zhihao shook his head as he replied, "How could I? I didn''t have that much money on myself at the time. Instead of buying the building, I made my father buy it. However, it isn''t currently owned by my father. It''s owned by the founder of Omelas... You."

    Li Ling sighed as he nodded, "Understood."

    What Zhihao said was indeed right. The current office of Omelas was owned by Li Ling and it was actually bought from Zhihao''s father at a rate that could be considered somewhat cheap. It was actually Huang Zhi Juan that helped Li Ling buy the building for a cheap rate since she also supported the opening of Omelas and convinced her husband to sell it to Li Ling for cheap.

    "But sharing a building has nothing to do with it, does it?" Kaoru suddenly spoke up as she questioned.

    Zhihao nodded as he commented, "That''s what I''m thinking as well. Just because they share a building, it doesn''t mean they have a connection."

    "But it''s our only clue," Li Ling spoke up, "Nobody in Omelas knows why LHA is helping Alvi at this moment, not even the gamemaster."

    "How can that be?" Zhihao frowned.

    Li Ling sighed as he decided that it was probably better to tell everyone what they were dealing with here.

    "Alvi is not a system that is made to improve a player''s understanding of the game or assist them. Automated Living Virtual Intelligence. That''s the full form of its name. Alvi is basically a system that creates all the scenarios and games. It''s kind of like the second gamemaster. That means all the decisions inside the game regarding how a level is set up and the rules inside the game are all decided by the system without any need for interference by others which includes the gamemaster and all the other staff."

    "What the hell?!" Zhihao''s reaction was just as strong as Li Ling had expected it to be, "So you''re saying that this is a wild system that can do anything it wants?!"

    "..." Li Ling seemed to seriously think about it for a while before he responded, "More or less, yes. That''s what this system is."

    "Is your gamemaster crazy or something?! Why in the world would he create such a dangerous thing?! And how could you agree with him?!" Zhihao looked to be mad and inside his head, the respect he previously held for the gamemaster somehow seemed to be decreasing slowly.

    "Because it''s efficient and it saves time," Li Ying spoke up for her brother as she looked at Zhihao, "Brother Zhihao, do you know how long it takes to create a single level? T.I.A.D. has more than a million unique levels. Do you really think it would have been possible for anyone to sit and create all those levels? The technical aspect shall be overlooked if we consider the fact that we''ll be hiring a lot of others to work on it together, but what about the story aspect of it? A single story can have more than a thousand endings and no matter how many people we hire, it''ll at least take ten years just to get all those stories and their alternate versions ready."

    "Then all the stories were also created by the system?" Zhihao''s eyes widened even more as he questioned back.

    Li Ying sighed as she shook her head and informed, "That''s not wrong, but that''s not right either. The initial stories were indeed created by the gamemaster but the spin-offs and alternate situations were all created by the system. The stories were modified so much that I''m sure even the gamemaster doesn''t remember making them anymore."

    For some reason, even after hearing this, Zhihao didn''t feel impressed at all.

    "If this system could be perfected a little more then it would certainly be a revolution in the world of gaming for both players and for the developers," Li Ying added proudly.

    "So you''re saying that it wasn''t even perfected before it was put out there for the world to experience?" Zhihao seemed to be keen on pointing out all the things that were wrong with this system.

    "..." Even Li Ying fell silent to that.

    Li Ling suddenly sighed as he spoke up, "A-Zhi, what has happened had already happened. There''s nothing we can change about it. After this whole game is over, you can go and complain to the gamemaster all you want. Instead of scolding or blaming someone, it''s better if we look for a way out of this right now."

    Zhihao''s expressions seemed to have softened a bit as he heard Li Ling.

 Chapter 223 - The Maze Of Death From LHA

    In every situation, it was better to solve the problem at hand rather than blaming the person that created the problem. This was something that both Li Ling and Zhihao believed in so, at this moment when Li Ling reminded Zhihao about the problem at hand, Zhihao felt a little guilty as he realized that his panic wasn''t going to help them win this thing.

    Zhihao took a deep breath in and calmed himself down before speaking up, "So Alvi is acting alone and somehow, she had a connection to the dead company called LHA...?"

    Li Ling nodded his head and almost wanted to sigh in relief as he saw that Zhihao had let the topic go.

    "That''s right."

    "Wait..." Zhihao suddenly muttered out loud and everyone was silent as they looked at him curiously and noticed how his eyes widened in shock..

    Li Ling could immediately guess that there was something Zhihao had noticed that they were all yet to realize.

    "What is it, A-Zhi?" Li Ling asked.

    "The final level," Zhihao mumbled a response, "I think I know what the final level is going to be!"

    "Huh?" Tian Xifeng tilted her head as she looked around, "Aren''t we already in the final level?"

    Zhihao immediately shook his head as he explained in a hurry, "We are playing the five small screening tests that come before the final level!"

    "Damn it..." Zhihao muttered to himself, "How could I not have realized it sooner?! This is so obvious!"

    Kaoru was clearly confused as she stated, "Mastermo, I don''t understand you at all. What are you trying to say?"

    "The winner at the end would get to enter the maze of death," Zhihao spoke up as he tried his best to explain what it was that he had discovered, "This was what the system said at the beginning of the first competition. Do you remember?"

    Li Ling frowned as he recalled hearing something like this, "That''s right. The system certainly said something of the sort."

    "One of the games that LHA released was called ''The Maze of death''. Out of all of the other games, this one was much more of a failure. It was their lowest-rated game that was popular among only a handful of people. The game itself was quite interesting and challenging but it had time limits which frustrated most of the players who ended up abandoning the game because of it."

    "Were you a player?" Li Ying was the one who questioned curiously as she cut in between.

    Zhihao nodded his head as he confirmed, "That''s right. I was included in the handful of people that actually enjoyed the game and tried to play it properly."

    "So... What you are trying to say is that this game has a connection with T.I.A.D''s final level?" Liang Feng asked cautiously.

    Zhihao gulped in worry as he nodded his head and explained his reasoning for thinking as such, "The game was set up in a very different manner. You were given a number of set competitions where you compete with other players to win. They were called the screening tests and their purpose was to make sure that only the worthy players who actually have a chance of winning can get to the final level of their game. These screening tests had limited time and the more tests you solved, the lesser time you were given."

    "That''s exactly what''s happening!" Wang GuiYing announced as his eyes widened in shock.

    Li Ling also nodded as he agreed with the man, "The more closer we get to winning the screening tests, the lesser time we have on our hands to complete the next test."

    "That''s why it''s important to solve the test fast," Zhihao informed as he added, "At the end of each competition, the system announces the total time we have saved. In the original game, it was also something like this. The time saved in the screening tests were added up in the end and would result to more time given to you in the maze of death."

    "The maze of death also had a time limit?" Kaoru asked.

    "It did. If I''m not remembering it wrong then the maze of death used to give you exactly ten minutes plus the time that you have saved during the screening tests."

    "Ten minutes?!" Tian Xifeng''s eyebrows creased together in worry as she frowned, "I feel like this game is trying to kill me with anxiety and panic."

    Li Ying rolled her eyes as she heard the woman complaining about the time.

    Li Ying felt that the time given was the last thing they needed to worry about since the final level could only be solved by killing the gamemaster who just so happened to be her brother.

    "I was one of the lucky ones who got to enter the maze of death and let me tell you... It''s not a pretty place." Zhihao''s face cringed up as he recalled the memory where he had once played this game and gone through something that he could only consider as torture.

    "This could help us," Li Ling spoke up and everyone turned their heads to look at the man, "If the two games are really that alike then it gives us an advantage since A-Zhi already knows what happens in the maze of the death."

    "That''s what I''m thinking about as well but..." Zhihao suddenly sighed as he added with a bit of worry, "If the final maze of death is the same as the game then it won''t be easy even if we know how to play it."

    "But the information can be used to help us up to some certain extent, can''t it?" It was Zhou Xinyi who asked as he carefully thought about it.

    "The final maze of death is just as dangerous as the name makes it sound. In the original game, it was a large building filled with deadly traps. One of the players was given the role of sheep while the rest were given the role of wolves. If you were a sheep, you were supposed to hide from the eyes of other wolves who might kill you and if you were a wolf, your mission was to hunt down the sheep. While this hunting game continues, the building you were in would also constantly change and lay traps that could be deadly for you. At the end of the day, you were supposed to look out for the traps as well in order to stay alive, but if no wolf managed to kill the sheep by the end of the game, all wolves in the game would automatically be killed as the final rule."

    "So if someone killed the sheep, all others would automatically pass the final level?"

    Zhihao shook his head with a sigh, "I wish it was like that but no. That''s not it. The wolf that kills the sheep would be the only winner while all the other wolves would once again meet their fate of being killed by the final rule of the game. If you can''t hunt and kill, you''ll become the hunted. This was a rule that set all conditions against the players."

    "But it can''t be..." Liang Feng suddenly muttered as he thought about it deeply, "If it was still just a virtual game that did no damage to the real body of the player then this rule would have been accepted but... Our current case is different."

    "That''s why I don''t want to believe that my theory is true," Zhihao responded as he added, "In the game itself, the scene of players brutally murdering other players, losing their sanity, and dying a gruesome death due to the traps were more than enough to traumatize a person. If such a game were to be organized in the real world with no change in rules, wouldn''t that be simply illegal?"

    "This makes me wonder," Kaoru spoke up and her face looked to be complicated as she continued, "How come there is no one else here? I''ve been noticing it for a while but the game came out of the device, however, why is it that we are the only ones looking to be affected? Why is there no one else panicking?"

    "That''s a good question," Zhihao nodded, "I have also noticed it. Such a big thing has happened and there is no panic among the people. The whole city is pretty much empty."

    "It''s really weird..." Li Ying also added, "It''s like everyone just straight up disappeared from this city."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened a bit as he commented, "Just like what happened in metropolis."

    Wang GuiYing couldn''t help but feel a shiver go down his spine as he remembered the time when they had played together in that level.

    "But that''s impossible," Li Ling pointed out, "That was a game and this is the reality. To evacuate the whole population is not something possibly, especially not if the reason behind it is a simple game.

    Zhihao gulped as a scary thought went through his head, "How can we be sure that this is real?"

 Chapter 224 - The Third Competition Begins

    Wang GuiYing stepped forward and pinched Zhihao''s arm.

    "Ah!" Zhihao yelped as he rubbed his arm and glared at the man.

    "Mastermo, this is definitely real."

    "..." Zhihao was suddenly speechless as he couldn''t come up with an answer to that. It certainly hurt just like it would in the real world so this was probably the reality, however, after Zhihao''s experience at the T.I.A.D. sensory room, Zhihao could no longer confidently say that all physical pain was real..

    "You''re right, A-Zhi. Not everything we see or feel may be real but this is not the work of the T.I.A.D. sensory room," Li Ling spoke up and his face looked to have lost all color as he added, "At first I thought it was just Alvi suddenly opening up the final level because of some bug but now... I don''t think that''s the case."

    "Eh?" Zhihao tilted his head in confusion.

    "What are you talking about, Li Ling?" Liang Feng also questioned as he got a bit worried after looking at Li Ling''s facial expression that didn''t look to be too good.

    "There''s a third party interfering," Li Ling answered and just as Zhihao heard it, he couldn''t help but feel a shiver go down his spine.

    "Damn it..." Tian Xifeng looked like she was about to cry due to frustration as she scratched her head and squatted down on the ground, "I don''t get this at all!"

    Zhihao gulped and didn''t say anything as there was nothing he could say to reassure or comfort the woman since everyone else was also in the same state.

    They were all guessing certain theories but nobody knew if they were right or not.

    Li Ling gulped as he suddenly added, "If there is a third party interfering then it means that person has deep connections inside Omelas. This makes things a lot harder."

    "Why do you say that?" Zhihao questioned, "Why do you think there is someone else involved?"

    Li Ling looked into Zhihao''s eyes as he confidently replied, "Because this is both the reality and the virtual world."

    "Huh?"

    "We are not wearing any headgear and nor are we in the T.I.A.D. sensory center but we can still feel everything in this world because it''s directly connected to our brains."

    "Wait... It can''t be..." Liang Feng''s eyes widened as he stared at Li Ling in shock, "You believe that nonsense? That was just a rumor, was it not?"

    Li Ling bit his lip as he shook his head, "It might not just have been a rumor."

    "What rumor are you talking about?" Zhihao questioned as he suddenly felt left out from the conversation.

    Before Li Ling could give him an explanation, the lights around the entire football ground turned red.

    "What the hell...?" Wang GuiYing muttered as he shivered at the scene that had completely changed.

    He didn''t even know that the lights inside the stadium could turn red like that.

    "What''s happening?" Kaoru gulped in worry as she asked no one in particular.

    "The third competition is beginning," Li Ying answered as she straightened her back and looked around.

    "Damn it!" Tian Xifeng shouted as she stood up from the ground and got ready to do whatever it was that they were supposed to do.

    [Congratulations once again!]

    [To all nine players that have made it on time.]

    [Mastermo]

    [Devilmagiclover]

    [BBtrash]

    [Hulk0_0]

    [Jiangshi]

    [Yingli]

    [Kaze17]

    [Andyzz]

    [Richlord]

    [T-Rex101]

    [Your next competition is a game of manhunt!]

    [The game arena is set to be inside the stadium that you are currently standing on. Going inside the building is okay but stepping out of the stadium is considered as a violation of rules and would result in instant elimination.]

    "I know this one!" Zhihao suddenly exclaimed.

    [There are three hunters on the loose and their target is you.]

    [The game is set to last for ten minutes]

    [In order to win, you must not die.]

    [It''s as simple as that.]

    [Failing to win the game would lead to an instant elimination.]

    [All the best!]

    [May you survive!]

    The system sounded as enthusiastic and happy as ever.

    "Oh, shit..." Zhihao couldn''t help but curse out loud as he recalled how this game was supposed to be played.

    "What is it, A-Zhi?" Li Ling questioned and looked to be a little worried as he saw the expression on Zhihao''s face.

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry. He didn''t even know how he was supposed to tell the others that this game was a bit too crazy for him to even explain.

    "We''re... Going to die," Zhihao spoke up after he pondered over it for a minute.

    "Gege, you must be joking... Right?" Tian Xifeng questioned in disbelief.

    Zhihao shook his head as he responded, "This is not a game anymore."

    Li Ling gulped as he raised his hand and took a hold of Zhihao''s shoulders, "A-Zhi, calm down and look at me. I need you to tell me what you know about this game. You''re the only one that can help us. I need you to be calm as you explain, can you do that for me?"

    Zhihao gulped as he nodded his head and before the words could roll out of his tongue, he suddenly heard the system speaking up once again.

    [Be warned: the three hunters are armed.]

    This warning gave Zhihao''s previous statement a bit more depth as everyone suddenly felt that the man was right when he suddenly said that they were all going to die today.

    "A-Zhi, tell me," Li Ling didn''t pay it any attention as he kept his eyes on Zhihao.

    Zhihao sighed as he tried to explain, "The three hunters have weapons. Guns, to be exact, and a lot of ammo. Once they see you, they shoot you. In order to win the game, you have to stay alive. That''s it. That''s the mission but staying alive is a lot harder than it might sound."

    Tian Xifeng suddenly scoffed as she commented, "Believe me, it doesn''t sound easy either."

    Before Zhihao could say anything to that, they suddenly heard the sound of gunshots.

    Zhihao''s breath almost got stuck in his throat as his heart skipped a beat in fear, "And the game officially begins."

    Everyone suddenly looked around frantically in search of the three hunters that were supposed to be after them.

    Liang Feng took out his phone and looked at the screen that had changed once again.

    This time, the screen showed a map of the entire stadium including the wall that surrounded the stadium a.k.a. the boundary that they were not allowed to cross. Their location on the map was shown with the help of a blue spot.

    Liang Feng sighed as he spoke up, "The hunters are not shown on the map."

    It was to be expected that the game didn''t try to make it easy for them by showing them exactly where the three hunters were. If the hunters could be located by them then it would make it easier for them to avoid those three people.

    Zhihao gulped as he tried to pull himself together. He clutched onto Li Ling''s arm tightly as if he was almost scared that if he were to let go of the man, the man would simply disappear forever.

    Li Ying clicked her tongue as she commented, "Mastermo, it seems like what you feared has come to happen even before we enter the final stage."

    "..." Zhihao couldn''t say anything to that as he cautiously looked around at the building that surrounded the stadium.

    At this moment, he felt that standing in between this football ground was perhaps the worst decision that he had taken in his life.

    Tian Xifeng was breathing heavily as she almost had a heart attack after hearing that gunshot, "Gege, are those guns real? Like... Real guns that can kill us?!"

    Before Zhihao could answer her, Li Ling had already spoken up in response, "Did they sound fake?"

    "We..." Zhihao muttered as he gulped and tried his best to keep his composure, "We should look for the hunters."

    "..."

    Everyone snapped their head at the man in shock as they wondered if he had gone senile at this moment.

    "A-Zhi, what do you mean?" Li Ling questioned as his eyebrows creased together in worry and confusion.

    "That''s the only way we can survive," Zhihao responded and he didn''t look to be joking around in the least.

    Liang Feng gulped as he looked at Zhihao and it seemed that he could somewhat understand what the man was trying to tell them.

    Jiangshi suddenly nodded as he stepped forward and grabbed Li Ying''s hands.

    Li Ying turned around in shock as she flinched slightly, "What are you doing."

    Jiangshi shook his head and refused to say anything as he pulled Li Ying and started running.

    "What the?!" Li Ying was left shocked and confused but she still let the boy pull her along.

    Li Ling stood there like a log of wood as he stared at the moving back of his sister who had been pulled away by Jiangshi and was now running with him, "Did he just kidnap my sister in front of me...?"

    Zhihao shrugged his shoulder as he commented, "They just ignored me too."

 Chapter 225 - Death Is Equal To Elimination

    "Argh! Forget about them! Maybe the little brat figured something out. Gege, complete what you were saying," Tian Xifeng suddenly exclaimed as she walked up to Zhihao and forced the man to say something.

    Zhihao sighed as he got back to the topic, "We must find the hunters before they find us."

    "That!" Tian Xifeng bit her bottom lip in frustration as she added, "Why? Isn''t that dangerous? How can you say that it''s the only way we can survive?"

    "Damn it..." Zhihao suddenly cursed as he muttered, "Those impatient brats should have waited to let me finish."

    "What is it, Mastermo?" Liang Feng also asked as he curiously looked at Zhihao and waited for the man''s explanation.

    "The phones," Zhihao answered, "The three hunters also have it. They know exactly where we are.."

    It was like a bolt of lightning that had struck down on them. This... Was a bit too shocking.

    "Li Ying...!" Li Ling immediately turned to look in the direction where the other two youngsters had run off too.

    Zhihao could sense that the man was worried about the well-being of his sister and wanted to run after her so he tightened his hold around his arm.

    Li Ling took a sharp breath in as he turned to face Zhihao.

    "It''s gonna be okay," Zhihao looked determined as he reassured him.

    Of course, nothing was okay.

    Jiangshi and Li Ying had run off without waiting to hear this very important information. They were probably thinking about running and hiding in order to avoid the three hunters but if they didn''t know that the hunters had their location, then they were at a disadvantage.

    "It''s impossible..." Kaoru almost sounded like she was about to cry as she muttered, "We can''t win..."

    "No. If you accept your defeat like that then you''d be defeated for sure," Zhihao snapped as he straightened his back, "We must come up with a plan."

    Before anyone could say anything, they suddenly heard a few more rounds of gunshot and everyone immediately ducked down.

    One of the hunters was shooting inside the building that Jiangshi and Li Ying had gone into.

    Li Ling was breathing heavily as he covered his ears and Zhihao could sense that the man was restless and ready to run inside the building at any moment now. If it weren''t for Zhihao grabbing onto his arm and holding him back then Li Ling surely would have given in to his instincts and run inside the building.

    "Believe in them. They are not that stupid," Zhihao reassured and Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this.

    "You have no idea how stupid they are."

    Zhihao shook his head and was about to say something but his words were cut short when they suddenly heard another round of gunshot and this time, it was a bit too loud and near them.

    "Sh*t!!" Wang GuiYing cried out as he crawled around, "Stop shooting, you retards!!"

    "Damn it!" Zhihao also cursed as he looked around to see that they were the targets of the gunshots this time.

    "Run towards the building!" Zhihao immediately ordered out as he grabbed tightly onto Li Ling and pulled him along as fast as he could, "Do not run in a pattern!"

    Of course, this was something that Zhihao had learned through games and he never would have imagined that he would be needing this information at such a moment.

    By not following a pattern while running, the shooters would have a harder time shooting on the mark since the target was moving and the movement was spontaneous.

    "Ahhhhh!" Tian Xifeng was constantly screaming as she covered her head with her arms and ran around like a dog that had its tail on fire.

    Liang Feng also followed closely behind her while Wang GuiYing kept crawling on the ground.

    "Mastermo! Zhou Xinyi! Save me!" Wang GuiYing cried out as he couldn''t find enough strength to stand up and run for himself.

    Zhou Xinyi clicked his tongue as he picked the man up and threw him on his shoulder before continuing to run away towards the building.

    "This is illegal!" Kaoru screamed out as she ran closely behind Zhihao and Li Ling.

    "Everything is legal in a game!" Zhihao shouted back, making sure that his voice was heard over the sound of gunshots.

    In just a few minutes, they managed to get inside the building and immediately hid behind the wall to catch their breaths.

    "Ahhh!" They heard a loud heart chilling scream that was filled with pain.

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he looked around to see who was left behind.

    "Andyyy!" It was Kaoru who shouted as she turned around to see the man that had fallen on the ground and was grabbing his leg in pain.

    He was shot.

    Kaoru got ready to run after him but was stopped as she felt her hand being held back by Tian Xifeng.

    "Are you stupid?! You''ll die if you go back!" Tian Xifeng scolded her.

    "And he''ll die if I don''t!" Kaoru shouted back as she forcefully yanked her hand away

    "..." Tian Xifeng didn''t look to be too pleased but before she could say anything, Zhihao had already stepped in between the two.

    "You stay here. I''ll go," Zhihao tapped on Kaoru''s shoulder as he gently pushed her back towards Tian Xifeng and got ready to go after Andyzz who had fallen.

    Before Zhihao could take more than two steps forward, another gunshot was heard and this time, the bullet pierced through the man''s head and killed him on the spot, putting an end to his agony.

    Zhihao''s eyes went wide and he paused on the spot as his muscles went tense.

    "Noooo!!!!" Kaoru shouted at the top of her lungs but of course, it was of no use.

    "A-Zhi, watch out!" Li Ling suddenly grabbed onto the man and pulled him to hide behind the wall as a few more bullets aimed towards them.

    Everyone was shocked to the point where they dare not say anything and their breaths got stuck in their throats as they tightened their fist and kept hiding behind the wall.

    The gunshots stopped and it seemed that the hunter that was shooting them was on the move once again.

    "We need to move," Li Ling broke the silence as he quickly gathered himself together.

    "He died..." It was Wang GuiYing who muttered in disbelief.

    "Yes," Li Ling''s voice didn''t contain any feelings within it as he responded, "And if we don''t get moving, we''ll be dead as well."

    Wang GuiYing''s eyebrows creased together and his eyes looked to be red as he looked back at Li Ling in disbelief, "He freaking died! He really died!"

    [Player: Andyzz has been eliminated.]

    The system sounded as lively as ever as it suddenly announced and reminded them of the traumatizing scene they had just witnessed.

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard the system announcing the obvious.

    "So... you die if you get eliminated in this level?" Tian Xifeng scoffed as she found it to be a bit funny.

    Zhihao shook his head as he corrected her, "No. You get eliminated if you die. It''s a more stupid rule."

    Of course, this rule was stupid, after all, if you were dead then it need not even be said that you''d be eliminated. Which dead player can manage to continue playing even if you forced him to?

    Zhihao sighed as he felt a cold sweat trail down his forehead, "We have to get moving."

    Li Ling nodded as he bit his bottom lip and agreed, "We''ll find a safe zone first and then we''ll come up with a plan."

    Everyone else still looked to be stunned and affected by Andyzz''s death but they still nodded their heads without any energy as they agreed to follow Li Ling and Zhihao.

    Zhihao led the group inside the building and headed for the main control room. The other players didn''t even bother asking him where he was taking them or what his plan was as they simply followed after him mindlessly.

    Zhihao would slow down at every corner and cautiously peek to see if there were any hunters around or not. Luckily enough for them, they had been running for at least a few minutes now and they still hadn''t bumped into any hunters.

    Zhihao almost found this a bit suspicious as he believed that they weren''t this lucky.

    What was more shocking was not the fact that they hadn''t come across any hunters but it was the fact that Li Ying and Jiangshi were also missing.

    Zhihao could clearly sense that the man beside him was extremely worried for his sister and he had every right to be. If it was Zhihao''s brother then Zhihao would have also been just as worried.

    They were soon able to reach the main control room that probably had an access to all the cameras that surrounded this place.

    The door was closed and there was nothing weird about it so without thinking too much about it, Zhihao opened the door.

    Just before he could even set his right foot inside the room, he was pulled aside by Li Ling who had clearly noticed something wrong inside the room.

 Chapter 226 - Explosion

    Zhihao opened his mouth to ask the man what he was doing but before the question could roll out of his tongue, his whole body went numb as he heard the ear-deafening sound of an explosion. The ground beneath him shuddered for a mere second as the main control room blew up without any warning.

    The explosion was serious but not big enough to affect them as they had a wall protecting them.

    Zhihao gulped as his ears started ringing for a solid few seconds because of the shockingly loud sound that had almost managed to deafen him.

    When the explosion calmed down, nobody else dared to say anything out of the shock and it was Li Ling who broke the silence as he stated, "A-Zhi, be careful. Don''t just go carelessly opening unknown doors like that."

    "What... How.... Why in the world did that room..." Zhihao gulped as he couldn''t even form a complete sentence to voice out the questions he had in mind.

    Li Ling sighed and seemed to have read Zhihao''s head as he responded, "Probably the hunters."

    "Eh?"

    "The game never specified any rules. If the hunters are provided with working guns and ammo then it''s no shock that they also have access to such bombs and other weapons," Li Ling tried his best to explain the situation according to his own personal observation and theories.

    Kaoru was breathing heavily as her eyes turned red and tears started trailing down her cheeks, "This game... It''s seriously trying to kill us."

    Li Ling could see the fear in her eyes but he was not the type of person who would give somebody fake consolation so he nodded his head as he replied with honesty, "The game is trying to kill us but it''s up to us to decide whether we want to die or not."

    Tian Xifeng moved closer to Kaoru and patted the girl on her back as she reassured, "We''ll make it out alive. If there''s anyone on this planet that can survive this game then it''s us. We''re the best bet. Isn''t that why we are here?"

    It was probably the first time anyone was seeing such a side of Tian Xifeng. Normally, this woman would be the one that would be crying and clinging to the other players but it seemed that today, her job was taken by Kaoru and she was forced to become this reliable older sister that remained calm even when the sky was falling.

    Liang Feng quickly composed himself as he looked at Li Ling and questioned, "What''s the next plan?"

    Li Ling first glanced at Zhihao to see if the man had anything to suggest but when he got silence as a response, he sighed as he spoke up, "The plan is to either hide well and run for the rest of the game or kill the hunters instead."

    Surprisingly enough, the latter suggestion was the exact same plan that Zhihao also had.

    "Hiding is out of the question since the hunters have our location and if we run, we can risk falling into more traps or getting caught," Li Ling added as he considered the possibility seriously.

    "How much time do we have left?" Zhihao took a sharp breath in as Li Ling''s calmness affected him as well and he pushed away his shock to take action since taking action was the only way to actually help them survive this.

    Crying, being shocked, or speechless wasn''t going to help them at all. If they were to be shocked and stay loitering around then they might as well join Andyzz in the afterlife.

    Tian Xifeng gulped as she turned on her phone and looked at the ticking timer that was displayed on top of the screen, but before she could give an answer to Zhihao, Liang Feng had beat her to it.

    "Six minutes," Liang Feng informed.

    "Damn it..." Zhihao cursed under his breath.

    How come it felt like an eternity had passed when it was only four minutes that had passed?!

    Zhihao took a sharp breath in as he completely calmed himself down and came up with their next course of action.

    "Let''s kill them first," Zhihao spoke up.

    Everyone was a bit shocked but it seemed that they had already expected it to be something like this and hence, their shock didn''t last for more than a few seconds.

    "I refuse," Wang GuiYing suddenly voiced out as he stood up and raised his hand.

    "Eh?" Zhihao''s eyebrows creased together as he really wouldn''t have expected Wang GuiYing to refuse.

    "Why?" Li Ling questioned as he looked at the man and waited for the man''s reasoning.

    "Even if they are trying to kill us, they are still human, are they not?" Wang GuiYing spoke up, clearly showing that he was against Zhihao and Li Ling''s idea.

    Zhihao gulped as he also felt a little reluctant after hearing this.

    "But they were the ones that started killing us first!" Tian Xifeng suddenly spoke up, "This is not the time to be thinking like a stupid hero!"

    Li Ling was silent as he decided not to say anything on the topic yet.

    Wang GuiYing frowned as he retorted, "This is not about playing hero! This is about life or death! I don''t want to go to jail nor do I want to be called a killer."

    "It''s for self-defense!" Tian Xifeng argued.

    Wang GuiYing gritted his teeth and it seemed that he wanted to say something more but Zhou Xinyi stopped him from saying anything more.

    "If we kill them, then we''ll have to live with that guilt for the rest of our lives," Zhou Xinyi suddenly pointed out, "If winning this game is our only motive then we should protect ourselves well. If we don''t get caught, we don''t die and we don''t have to kill anyone either."

    "I object!" Liang Feng also spoke up as he stated his own thoughts on the topic of killing or being killed, "There''s no guarantee that we''ll be safe if we do that. In the next six minutes, another one of us might die and the killer would surely be the hunters. If we don''t kill them then are we not giving them the chance to kill us instead?"

    Zhou Xinyi nodded calmly as he responded, "You''re right. I can''t guarantee our safety but let''s say that you really do plan and get ready to kill them instead. They already have our live location so who''s to say that they won''t notice and turn our attack against us?"

    Li Ling suddenly sighed as he stopped the argument from going any further, "Let''s bet on it."

    "Huh?" Everyone turned their eyes towards the man as they waited for him to explain himself.

    "Everything is a guess or a theory but there''s something that we all need to consider," Li Ling spoke up as he looked at the others confidently, "There''s nobody else in the city right now. In the starting, we could at least see a few people running around but as the competitions progressed, everyone simply vanished into thin air. Logically speaking, something like that is not possible so there is a chance that all of this isn''t real."

    Zhihao''s eyebrows creased together as he suddenly remembered the vague conversation between Liang Feng and Li Ling.

    Liang Feng gulped as he shook his head, "You''re barking up the wrong tree."

    Li Ling chuckled dryly as he responded, "I''ve been told that many times so it has no effect on me."

    "..."

    "Liang Feng, technology makes everything possible. Just because you think something is impossible doesn''t mean someone else in this world hadn''t already made it possible."

    This was a statement that Li Ling connected with a lot and the way he said it also confirmed this.

    A lot of people had told him that creating a human-like bot was impossible but here they were... In a game organized by that bot that had already become independent of its maker.

    Liang Feng, who knew this would naturally understand Li Ling''s statement more than the others that were unaware of this fact.

    "But..." Liang Feng stopped himself as he bit his lip.

    He really couldn''t believe that a technology like that could be possible.

    "What are you guys talking about?" Zhihao once again felt like he was out of the conversation so he stepped in between and asked.

    "A-Zhi, have you ever heard about the full-dive VR?"

    "Full-dive?" Zhihao repeated as his eyes widened slightly.

    He had certainly heard about such a thing but it was only in books and movies.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he added, "That''s right. A full-dive VR. Something that connects directly to your brain and doesn''t feel like a forced technology at all. It''s controlled by your brain and can fool you into believing that everything you see, feel, and hear is real."

    Just like the name suggested, it was a VR experience that was no different from reality.

    "Such a thing... Are you sure it''s possible?" Zhihao questioned.

    Li Ling, "If the rumors are true then it means someone was successful in creating the world''s very first full-dive VR."

 Chapter 227 - To Kill Or Not To Kill?

    Zhihao couldn''t help but gulp as a response. If this really were nothing more than just an advanced VR technology, it would be a good thing for them since it meant that Andyzz was still alive, and they also didn''t have any real threat on their lives.

    If this theory was really right then it would also answer a lot of questions such as why this entire city was empty and also why there were no cops or the government having any problem with a live shooting happening inside the national football stadium.

    Everything would start to come together and it would make sense, but this theory itself was quite hard to believe.

    For someone to successfully create the world''s first full-dive VR and not brag about it anywhere on social media or newspapers wasn''t the only thing weird. It was also weird that someone chose another game to mess and try out the new invention without the permission of the gaming company that owned the game.

    "If this ain''t the case then killing the hunters right now should be the least of our worries," Li Ling suddenly commented.

    "Eh?" Zhihao snapped out of his thoughts as he curiously looked at the man and waited for him to explain as Zhihao questioned, "What do you mean by that?"

    Li Ling gulped and answered with honesty, without leaving behind any important threat that would be faced by them in the future if they continue to play this game, "Self destruct. If you win the game by killing the gamemaster then Alvi automatically goes into self-destruct mode.. If the game is destroyed then we all get out of here safely but if we don''t manage to win the game then the system destroys this world."

    Zhihao blinked as he absorbed all that information and looked back at the man as if he had just said something even more unbelievable than the theory of all this being a part of a full-dive VR technology.

    Zhihao suddenly chuckled dryly as he spoke up, "Gege, calm down for a sec. Why... No, that shouldn''t be the question. How do you think the system can destroy the world? It''s just impossible for the whole world to be destroyed by a... Game."

    Now that Zhihao had said this out loud, it did sound ridiculous and stupid for Li Ling to think that the system would destroy the whole world, however, Li Ling knew Alvi better than anyone else in the world.

    He gulped as he nodded and agreed with Zhihao as he responded, "You''re right. It sounds impossible for just a game to destroy the whole world but A-Zhi... T.I.A.D. is not just a game."

    "..."

    "Transmigration Into Alternate Dimension that is powered by the bot Alvi. Automated Living Virtual Intelligence. The system is free to do anything it wants. It has the brain of a computer and a human mixed together. Do you think it would be hard for the system to hack into national security headquarters?"

    Zhihao gulped as he suddenly found that he was indeed a bit naive to underestimate the system.

    "Alvi can be dangerous if she wants to," Li Ling added, "Let''s consider the fact that this isn''t a full-dive VR technology and everything we see is indeed real. In such a case, if we don''t win the game, we would be risking the life of every human being out there. We are betting on our planet right now."

    "..."

    Zhihao felt as if he was in a sticky situation.

    On one side, he didn''t want to bet on the fact that all of this was fake cause if he was later proven wrong then it would mean that he had become a criminal who murdered somebody.

    He was indeed the type to love challenges however, this was definitely not the type of challenge he liked.

    "But how do we win this game?" Tian Xifeng muttered her question, "The gamemaster... Is one of us..."

    It was a thought that haunted all of their minds but nobody dared to say it out loud.

    Since the gamemaster was one of them, if they needed to win the game and destroy Alvi, they would still have to kill a person. There was no other way around it.

    There was no safe alternative. Somebody was already going to be killed by the end of this.

    Zhihao''s grip around Li Ling''s wrist tightened up unconsciously as he seriously considered something that managed to send a shiver down his spine.

    Out of everyone here, Tian Xifeng, Wang GuiYing, and Zhou Xinyi were out of the question since Zhihao was sure that none of them were the gamemaster.

    Jiangshi and Li Ying who had already run away looked to be too young and since the gamemaster was at least the same age as Zhihao, the man was sure that they were also not to be suspected.

    It was impossible for Zhihao to be the gamemaster and this didn''t leave behind a lot of people to guess from.

    Liang Feng.

    Kaoru.

    Li Ling.

    Andyzz and Aunt Su.

    Zhihao was more than sure that his aunt was definitely not the gamemaster and since Andyzz was already out of the game, he could also be struck out as innocent.

    Out of Liang Feng, Li Ling, and Kaoru, Zhihao was unsure who the gamemaster could be since he suspected all three of them.

    All three of them were new players who climbed up on the T.I.A.D. ranking suddenly out of nowhere. They were not pro-gamers and information about them was as limited as it could get.

    Zhihao knew Li Ling very well but if someone were to ask him if he could confidently say that the man wasn''t the gamemaster, Zhihao would surely stay silent as a response.

    Deep inside, he couldn''t hide the fact that he suspected Li Ling. He didn''t know why but there was a gut feeling that told him it would be impossible for someone else to be the gamemaster.

    Li Ling frowned as he noticed this small flick of conflict that reflected on Zhihao''s eyes, "Are you okay, A-Zhi?"

    Zhihao gulped as he took a sharp breath in and nodded his head, "I''m... Okay..."

    "Damn it," Wang GuiYing cursed out as clutched his hands tightly in a fist before punching the wall to relieve his anger.

    "GuiYing!" Zhou Xinyi shouted as he pulled the man back and took a look at his fist.

    Wang GuiYing''s knuckles were covered in his own blood that oozed out of the small cuts.

    "Have you gone insane?!" Zhou Xinyi shouted as he scolded the man.

    For the first time in his life, Wang GuiYing pushed Zhou Xinyi away as he exclaimed, "I''ll do it!"

    Everyone immediately turned their heads towards the man who looked to be filled with a lot of conflicting emotions.

    On one hand, he looked to be angry but his eyes were moist with tears and his voice sounded to be determined. He looked much alike someone who had been forced to become a villain because of unfortunate circumstances that would kill him if he didn''t leave his morality behind.

    "Being a criminal? F*ck that!" Wang GuiYing cursed out and it was probably the first time he was cursing like this, "I''ll go with your plan! If you really think that this system is going to destroy the world then I''ll help you destroy the system first! You want me to kill the hunters? I''ll do exactly that! That cash price can go to hell for all I care!"

    Li Ling and Zhihao blinked in unison as they heard the man say such things that would have never been expected to come from him.

    "Let''s freaking save the world!" Wang GuiYing cried out and everyone was silent as they heard him.

    "Idiot," Tian Xifeng was the first to break the silence as she looked at the man with emotionless eyes, "That''s what we are already trying to do."

    "Eh...?" Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened as he paused for a mere second and replayed the woman''s words in his mind

    "What? Did you think we were all playing this final level for the one million dollars?" Tian Xifeng scoffed, "Who''d be stupid enough to risk so much for just a mere pocket change?"

    Wang GuiYing gulped as his ears turned a bit red.

    "We were... Not competing for the one million dollars...?" He muttered questioningly in a volume that was hardly audible.

    Tian Xifeng''s face cringed up as she somehow managed to hear him, "You crazy or what?! We are trying to shut down the system since the beginning! Nobody cares about that cash prize anymore!"

    "Ah!... So that''s it..." Wang GuiYing faltered a step back as he had the shocking realization.

    He seemed to be the only one who was confused about what their goal was...

    Zhihao sighed as he saw this interaction. Even he had figured this out.

    When games come out of the screen and start affecting everything around you, winning the cash prize is probably the last thing you need to worry about.

    "You''re a bit slow to catch up, I see." Tian Xifeng didn''t sound to be too polite as she pointed out.

    Wang GuiYing chuckled awkwardly as he agreed.

 Chapter 228 - Only One Question

    "Gege," Zhihao ignored Wang GuiYing and his dumbness as he clutched loosely onto Li Ling and spoke, "Before we continue with our plan, I only have one question for you."

    Li Ling gulped as he noticed the seriousness in Zhihao''s tone and face, "What... Do you want to ask?"

    "Did you know that this was going to happen?" Zhihao also gulped as he was a little reluctant and afraid to hear the answer to this question that had been gnawing at the back of his head.

    "What do you mean?" Li Ling knew exactly what Zhihao wanted to ask but he still asked this question just to buy himself more time to think up of an answer that would possibly not get him in trouble.

    Zhihao knew Li Ling a bit too well so it was only natural that this trick wasn''t going to work on him as he could see right through Li Ling and his tactics, "Li Ling, you know what I mean. Did you guys already know that the system was going to be this dangerous in the end?"

    Li Ling gulped as he heard the man calling him by his full name.

    Ever since they had started dating officially, Zhihao had always referred to him as ''Gege'' and never had he called him by his full name like this so when Li Ling suddenly heard this out of nowhere, it was only natural that he felt a shiver go down his spine in fear..

    "No..." Li Ling half-lied once again.

    He had really not wanted to lie anymore but the fear of losing Zhihao caused him to do it nonetheless.

    Zhihao scoffed as he heard this response, "Li Ling, I have you all figured out now. Don''t bother lying."

    Li Ling felt his muscles go tense as he immediately got caught.

    He opened his mouth to explain the answer but before the words could roll out of his tongue, they were suddenly attacked with a rain of bullets.

    "Ahhh!" Tian Zifeng screamed as she ducked down and saved Kaoru along with her.

    Zhihao gritted his teeth as he cursed under his breath and covered Li Ling, shielding him from any bullets that might be headed his way.

    Panic struck once again as they got busy trying to decide whether they were going to run, hide or attack back.

    Surprisingly enough, Wang GuiYing was the only one who didn''t scream out in fear. His face cringed up as he took the fire extinguisher that was hung on the wall before heading straight for the hunter that was shooting them.

    "Die, you bastard!!" Wang GuiYing cried out as he put the fire extinguisher in front of him, unafraid of the bullets that were raining towards him.

    The man probably had the blessing of every God out there since he was so lucky that not even one of the bullets managed to scratch his skin.

    The hunter was wearing a panda mask which probably obstructed his line of sight and although it was considered as a handicap for the hunter, it was also something that helped Wang GuiYing a lot since this hunter was practically at an unfair disadvantage in close-hand combats.

    The hunter shook his head around frantically as he tried to keep up with Wang GuiYing''s spontaneous movements. He was shooting all over the place and although it looked like he was simply trying to shoot Wang GuiYing down, it also looked as if he was just going crazy from the panic.

    For the first time, Zhou Xinyi stayed behind and let Wang GuiYing handle this dangerous situation all by himself.

    Wang GuiYing lifted the fire-extinguisher and struck it at the hunter''s head.

    The hunter was a bit slow and hence, because of the hunter''s late reaction, Wang GuiYing was successful in hitting the hunter''s head.

    However, Wang GuiYing didn''t look to be done yet as he raised the fire-extinguisher used as a weapon again and hit the hunter''s head the second time.

    The hunter seemed to have lost his footing and fell down but chose to clutch onto his panda mask rather than onto the gun that fell down along with him.

    Wang GuiYing gritted his teeth as he kicked the gun away immediately as soon as he saw the open chance.

    By the time that the hunter was trying to reach out for the weapon, the weapon was already kicked away towards Zhou Xinyi who picked it up and aimed it at the hunter''s head.

    Wang GuiYing took a step back as he waited for the hunter to stand up.

    The reason was quite simple and shocking since it was coming from Wang GuiYing.

    He did it because he felt that ''striking a man when he''s down is something only a coward would do.''

    Of course, if he were to say this ideology out loud, the rest of the players would probably laugh to their deaths since they would never expect such a thing to roll out of Wang GuiYing''s tongue.

    The hunter immediately pushed himself off the ground and seemed to be looking at Wang GuiYing, but it was hard to tell whether he really could see him or not since the panda mask completely hid the hunter''s head.

    "Why the hell are you trying to kill us?" Wang GuiYing questioned straightforwardly as he glared at the panda-head.

    The hunter took a step back and it seemed that only Wang GuiYing was the one able to tell what the hunter was trying to do.

    Wang GuiYing scoffed as he commented rudely, "So you know some martial arts? What''s the use of it when I''m gonna beat you till you die even if you use it or not?"

    He sounded confident. A bit too confident and it shocked the others who could only stare at the man with their eyes wide open.

    The hunter seemed to be a person who was stingy with words as he didn''t bother replying and instead, spun on his left foot as he tried to kick Wang GuiYing using his right foot.

    Wang GuiYing''s pupil''s contracted as he saw this action.

    Instead of avoiding the attack of deflecting it, Wang GuiYing used his hand to grab the man''s ankle.

    With the intensity of the kick and the proper technique used by the hunter, it should have been near to impossible for Wang GuiYing to grab the hunter''s leg just like that but that was exactly what he did.

    Wang GuiYing grabbed the hunter''s leg and pulled it forward, forcing the hunter to do a split in the most awkward way possible.

    "Ahh!" The pain forced the hunter to shout out and Wang GuiYing''s eyes immediately widened as he heard the voice.

    He let go of the leg and the hunter immediately stepped back cautiously.

    "You''re... A girl?!" Wang GuiYing questioned out loud.

    "What about it?" The hunter asked back as she didn''t waste time on a useless conversation.

    She threw a punch at Wang GuiYing but the man easily avoided it by leaning back.

    Wang GuiYing caught the girl''s hand and the girl twisted her wrist out of his hold.

    She tried to elbow the man in the abdomen but that try also failed as Wang GuiYing took a hold of her shoulder and squeezed it.

    At first, the girl didn''t understand what the man was trying to do but just a second later, she felt an intense sting of pain emitting from her shoulder that was being squeezed by the man.

    "Ahh!" She screamed as her legs gave out and she kneeled on the floor.

    "It doesn''t matter if you are a girl or not," Wang GuiYing spoke with the same serious, rude tone.

    "Just die already!" The girl gritted out as she tried to struggle out of his hold but Wang GuiYing who had professionally learned Mixed martial arts to pass time was clearly much more skilled and stronger than her.

    "Weak points. Do you know how many of them your body has?" Wang GuiYing asked but he didn''t wait for the girl to answer as he added, "One move and it can seriously kill you. Right now, you''re the one at my mercy so it''s better not to say something like that to me."

    "Die! Die! Just die already!" The girl shouted at the top of her voice and Wang GuiYing could only purse his lips together in a thin line as he heard this.

    At this moment, Zhihao stood up and approached Zhou Xinyi first as he took the gun from the man''s hand and aimed it at the hunter.

    Without any sense of hesitation, he shot the gun once and missed it on purpose just to scare the girl.

    The girl immediately shut up and slowly turned her head to look up at Zhihao.

    "Next time, I won''t be missing so you better not give me any of your shouting bullsh*t."

    The girl seemed to have been stunned speechless as she heard this threat and Wang GuiYing also looked to be a bit scared as he saw the serious look in Zhihao''s eyes.

    This man... Unlike Wang GuiYing, he was not kidding around...

    He meant every word he said!

 Chapter 229 - Whats Behind The Mask?

    "Give me your phone," Zhihao immediately demanded as he crouched down to her level and reached his palm out in front of her.

    The hunter looked to be reluctant as she stayed silent.

    "Are you going to hand it over or not?" Zhihao clicked his tongue in annoyance.

    The hunter shook her head as she refused.

    "Hand it over!" Zhihao demanded as he shouted and held the gun to her forehead, "Do you think this panda mask is bulletproof? Can it save you from getting shot? You''re not invincible, honey. Don''t try to make it harder for yourself."

    If Wang GuiYing suddenly becoming a professional fighter wasn''t shocking enough for everyone else, Zhihao''s sudden change in behavior surely managed to shock them all to the core.

    The girl gulped as she looked down and shook her head. She seemed to be shivering from the fear and her voice sounded as if she was crying as well when she spoke up, "I can''t do it...."

    Zhihao scoffed as he put some pressure on the trigger just to scare the girl, "You can''t or you won''t?"

    The girl gulped as she stayed silent.

    "Don''t make me repeat myself here. I''m already really angry and you don''t want to see me lose it completely," Zhihao threatened and his voice sounded to be even deeper than usual.

    The girl shook her head once again as she responded, "I can''t. I''ll really die... I don''t want to die! I don''t want to die! You should be the one to die! You''re the cause of this! All because of you! Die! Die! Die!"

    Her voice grew louder and louder with each word as she shouted at Zhihao''s face.

    "Damn you," Zhihao cursed under his breath as he aimed the gun down at her thigh and shot.

    "Ahhhh!" She screamed in pain as she grabbed her leg that probably hurt like hell.

    "You''ll die even if you don''t give it to me," Zhihao spoke up, his voice sounding cold and unbothered even after having just shot the girl.

    Wang GuiYing gulped as his grip around the girl''s shoulder loosened up unconsciously because of his shock.

    He had certainly never seen this side of Zhihao.

    This bloodthirsty cold demeanor which gave the illusion of the man resembling a demon... Zhihao didn''t seem like Zhihao anymore.

    "You give it to me or I kill you and take it. What do you want it to be?" Zhihao questioned as he wiped the splattered blood off his face.

    The girl wailed in pain as she rolled on the floor but Zhihao didn''t seem to pity her at all as he added, "I''m not a patient man and I won''t be repeating myself."

    The girl cried and her mask almost came off but she immediately held tightly onto it so as not to show her face.

    Zhihao frowned as he noticed this small action that looked to be odd in his eyes.

    If you were shot on your thigh, you would naturally grab your leg in pain and not remember the mask that you wore.

    Why would she worry so much about keeping her mask on?

    It was almost as if she was afraid that they would be able to... Recognize her...?!

    Zhihao''s eyes widened ever so slightly as he suddenly got confused.

    "Yah! Take your mask off," Zhihao ordered as he furrowed his eyebrows and glared at the girl.

    Her entire body paused for a second and she grabbed on more tightly to the mask as she frantically shook her head and refused.

    "You''re not going to do it?" Zhihao scoffed, "Why? Are you afraid?"

    The girl gulped as she tried to struggle out of Wang GuiYing''s hold but the man immediately tightened his grip and didn''t let her escape.

    "If you give me your phone and take off your mask, I promise that we''ll let you go alive," Zhihao spoke up as he tried to persuade the girl.

    He almost felt as if he had suddenly become a gangster. If the other players heard this, they would certainly nod their heads and agree with him since Zhihao really did look exactly like a gangster who was bullying the weak.

    The girl shook her head as she once again refused.

    "You''re that determined?" Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he saw the girl''s reluctance.

    "I wonder why~" Zhihao sang as he stood up, "If you don''t want it the easy way, I guess you can''t blame me for being a bit rude."

    The girl was clearly confused as to what Zhihao was saying but her confusion was cleared within a few seconds as she heard Zhihao speak up.

    "Tian Xifeng, search her. Take her phone and get rid of that mask," Zhihao ordered as he took a step back and kept the gun pointed at the girl in case she tries to do something.

    Tian Xifeng was surprised to suddenly hear the man instruct her to do something like this but she still stood up and walked over.

    "Gege, you keep surprising me today," Tian Xifeng commented as she passed by Zhihao.

    Zhihao shrugged his shoulder and didn''t bother giving her a response.

    When the girl saw Tian Xifeng approaching her, she started struggling and screaming even more.

    "Damn it! Stay still!" Wang GuiYing scolded as he tried his best to restrain her.

    "Get off! Get off! Don''t come near me! Die! Just die!" The girl screamed like a maniac and even Tian Xifeng was annoyed with it.

    "Yah! Why does your every sentence end with you wanting to kill us? Are you that thirsty for blood?" Tian Xifeng clicked her tongue as she questioned in annoyance, "If you want someone to die that badly, go ahead. I have no problem with you dying. If Mastermo doesn''t pull the trigger then I will so you better shut up."

    "Die! Die! Die!" The girl shouted, repeating the same thing over and over again.

    Tian Xifeng shook her head as she concluded that this girl was a gone case. This game had truly driven her to insanity.

    Without bothering to talk to her more, Tian Xifeng went straight ahead and searched the girl to see where the phone was.

    "No! Get away! Don''t!" The girl continued to shout.

    Tian Xifeng took out the phone from the girl''s pocket and smacked her head with it as she spoke up, "Be a little polite. Why do you have to go and scream like that? It makes me feel like the bad guy."

    "You''re the bad guy! You deserve to die! Die! Just die already!"

    "..." Tian Xifeng had never met such a person who was willing to kill others and say that they were the bad guys when they clearly did nothing against her to receive such treatment.

    Tian Xifeng handed the phone over to Zhihao before turning back to look at the girl as she asked, "I don''t even know you. Why are you so determined to see my corpse?"

    "Just die! Who cares about the reason?! You deserve to die! Go and Die!"

    Tian Xifeng chuckled and smiled wickedly as she looked at the panda mask, "I care."

    "I care about the reason so let''s see who you are," Her hands reached out to touch the panda mask but the girl somehow managed to get free from Wang GuiYing''s hold. She immediately scratched Tian Xifeng''s face and started attacking the woman.

    "Ah!" Tian Xifeng felt pain and retreated a few steps while Wang GuiYing tried to get a hold of the girl once again.

    The girl threw a punch at Tian Xifeng''s face but her fist was caught by Liang Feng who reacted fast enough.

    Tian Xifeng gulped as she saw this but said nothing as anger slowly started boiling inside her.

    Liang Feng sighed as he twisted the girl''s hand and pinned her to the ground with his knee on her back, making sure that there was no way for her to escape again.

    "Get off of me! Get off! Why are you doing this?! Get away! Just leave me alone! You deserve to die! You all deserve to rot in hell!"

    Liang Feng chuckled dryly as he heard this, "Believe me, we really don''t deserve such things. You''re the one that''s going to rot in jail for trying to kill us."

    Tian Xifeng nodded her head as she straightened her back and got closer to the girl as she once again tried to take the mask off her face with the use of force.

    Unexpectedly, it was Zhihao who stopped her this time.

    "Let it be," Zhihao spoke up as he intervened.

    "Eh?" Tian Xifeng frowned as she turned her head up to face the man.

    It was Zhihao who ordered her to take the mask off and it was also him who ordered for her to stop.

    This man... Why was he changing his mind faster than Tian Xifeng could change clothes?!

    "If she doesn''t want to then don''t force her. Let her stay anonymous," Zhihao held the phone up as he added, "We already got what we wanted. There''s no need to fight her more."

 Chapter 230 - Two Minutes Left

    Everyone wondered what brought this change of decision in Zhihao''s mind but nobody dared question it out loud.

    Tian Xifeng sighed as she stood up and patted her clothes before walking towards Zhihao, "Gege, why did you want the phone?"

    Instead of giving her a straight answer to the question, Zhihao turned the phone and showed her the screen.

    Tian Xifeng''s eyes immediately widened in shock as she muttered, "This...?!"

    Zhihao nodded his head as he explained, "Hunters can locate both players and other hunters."

    "Did you already know this?" Tian Xifeng questioned in shock.

    Zhihao shook his head this time as he answered honestly, "I wasn''t certain. It was merely a guess.."

    It was merely a guess that Zhihao was sure about. And since this guess was right then his guess about the hunter''s identity was also going to be right.

    Zhihao frowned as he glanced at the hunter.

    He knew what was behind that mask so he decided that it was better not to let her take it off.

    Since she wanted to keep her identity hidden, he would naturally not force her to go through the embarrassment.

    He sighed as he took out handcuffs from his pocket and moved forward to lock the girl to the side handle.

    Li Ling frowned as he saw this and asked, "Where did you get those handcuffs from?"

    "This?" Zhihao responded casually with a small proud smile, "I picked them up from the inventory."

    Li Ling''s mouth opened slightly in awe as he heard this.

    He had almost forgotten that Zhihao was the only player who fell for the system''s tactics and still managed to get to the competition arena on time even after making a stop at one of those inventories.

    "Then," Li Ling''s eyes suddenly lit up as he questioned, "Did you get more items?"

    He looked to be filled with energy as he enthusiastically looked at Zhihao and waited for the man to answer.

    Zhihao thought about it for a minute before he responded, "I did end up picking whatever I thought would be necessary."

    Li Ling gulped as he suddenly felt as if there was a golden halo on top of Zhihao''s head. This man... Why did he suddenly look so impressive?!

    Since it was Zhihao who had picked up the items, Li Ling could rest assured that everything the man had was probably going to be of big help to them since it was Mastermo who had calculated their future usage.

    This handcuff was clearly a perfect example. If the other players had been the ones who paid a visit to the inventory then they would have probably not even batted an eye to the handcuff and would have surely picked up other weapons that had more attacking power. Only Mastermo would be smart enough to pick up the handcuff and even Li Ling wasn''t sure if he would end up picking this item first.

    "So what''s the plan now?" Tian Xifeng asked even though she already had a general idea of what they were going to do next.

    Zhihao, "What else? We go and hunt down all the hunters."

    "So we kill them before they kill us?" Wang GuiYing questioned with a frown.

    Zhihao shook his head as he denied, "That''s not it. We do not kill them. We disarm them and restrain them but we do not kill them. Killing has to be the last method we''d use to prevent them from attacking us."

    "How much time is left?" Li Ling asked as he looked down at his phone.

    "Two minutes only," Liang Feng spoke up as he answered, "We do not have that much time left. Maybe we can just survive this level without having to do anything."

    Zhihao frowned as he shook his head and stood up, "We can''t afford to do that. There are only two minutes left but a lot can happen in those two minutes. The hunters clearly know where we are and one of the hunters is moving towards us as we speak. If that guy gets close to us and manages to shoot us before the time is up, the game is over for us."

    Li Ling nodded as he agreed with Zhihao and added, "That''s not it. Li Ying and Jiangshi are also missing. We don''t know if they can manage to remain safe or not."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but gulp as he first contemplated on whether it would be appropriate for him to say something at this moment but in the end, he still ended up voicing it out, "Li Ling, they are certainly safe for now, but..."

    Li Ling''s eyebrows creased together in worry as he heard that ''but''. He stepped closer to Zhihao and looked at the hunter''s phone that was held in the man''s hand.

    "One of the hunters is currently after them," Zhihao answered at the same time as Li Ling looked at the screen that showed the distance between the two teenagers and the hunter that was sneaking up on them.

    Two minutes was a short span of time but it was also rather long considering the fact that someone with a gun could shoot all the players within those two minutes.

    "We cannot afford to wait around and hope for the best," Zhihao spoke up and he looked to be determined as he added, "We need to save them as well."

    Tian Xifeng suddenly frowned as she spoke up, "Mastermo, I get what you''re trying to say but... Since Jiangshi took Li Ying and ran away, don''t you think he also had a plan of his own?"

    Zhihao nodded as a response when he heard this, "He would naturally have a plan but we cannot fully rely on that plan. They are kids so how can we trust them completely?"

    Li Ling bobbed his head up and down as he agreed with Zhihao, "I trust them. They are certainly too intelligent for their age but she''s my sister. I still want to make sure that I do everything I can to keep her safe."

    Tian Xifeng didn''t look to be too happy with this plan but when she saw the look in Li Ling''s eyes, she couldn''t say anything as a response.

    Liang Feng sighed as he nodded and looked at Zhihao, "Then which hunter do we take down first?"

    Zhihao turned his head to face the man as he answered, "Let''s first handle the one that''s approaching us."

    Wang GuiYing also spoke up as he informed, "This one was well-taught in martial arts so I''m sure the other two also have some skills."

    Zhihao gulped as he heard this, "If the other two are better than her then we would have a bit of trouble but it''s still not something that we should worry too much about. There are seven of us here and only two of the hunters left. The odds are in our favor."

    Liang Feng also looked to be on Zhihao''s side as he nodded and asked, "So how do we attack?"

    Zhihao seemed to have already come up with a plan in his mind so he carefully looked at the other members before saying his plan out loud, "Wang GuiYing goes first. Since he''s the one that can fight the best among us, let him go first."

    Zhihao turned to face Wang GuiYing as he instructed, "Trash, you attack the hunter first and try your best to distract him. Be careful not to get shot and it seems that the panda mask is limiting their range of sight so use that to your fullest advantage."

    Wang GuiYing nodded his head as he understood what Zhihao was trying to tell him.

    Zhihao turned to face Li Ling as he instructed, "Gege, you move in second."

    Li Ling was a bit shocked to see that Zhihao was willing to let him act second since he was sure that Zhihao would try his best to avoid involving Li Ling in this fighting plan at all costs since he wanted to keep the man safe.

    "Are you willing?" Zhihao asked first to make sure that it was okay with Li Ling.

    Li Ling gulped in worry as he nodded his head, "What do you want me to do?"

    Zhihao sighed in relief as he heard this, "You have to confiscate the weapon. That''s all. I don''t want you to fight or anything. Just confiscate the weapon from the hunter and stand far away from him."

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this. In the end, his initial guess was somewhat right. Zhihao really was giving Li Ling the easiest job that was also safe for him.

    "After that, Zhou Xinyi and I will both move in and help Trash," Zhihao added as he looked at Zhou Xinyi, waiting for the man''s consent.

    Zhou Xinyi nodded his head in understanding as he heard this, "Alright."

    "Great!" Zhihao exclaimed, "Let''s get moving now!"

    "No! Wait!'' Tian Xifeng suddenly interjected as she caught Zhihao''s attention, "What do we do?"

    A small smile crept up on Zhihao''s face as he heard this question, "Do you want to help too?"

 Chapter 231 - Lets Execute The Plan When Youre Ready

    Tian Xifeng suddenly felt a little uneasy as she looked at the mischievous expression on Zhihao''s face that made it look as if the man was planning nothing good in his mind.

    She gulped as she cautiously questioned, "What do you want us to do?"

    Zhihao''s smile deepened and he looked to be pleased with this question. He lifted the phone and showed the screen as he spoke, "You go after the second hunter."

    Tian Xifeng gulped as she immediately understood why she had that foreboding feeling in her stomach after seeing Zhihao''s wicked smile.

    "Are you unwilling?" Zhihao tilted his head as he asked mockingly, "Liang Feng and Kaoru would also be going with you and we would join you guys as soon as we restrain this hunter."

    Tian Xifeng blinked as she remained silent.

    Liang Feng, who heard this, stepped up from behind her and nodded as he looked at Zhihao, "Sounds good."

    Zhihao smiled in turn before turning back to look at Wang GuiYing, "We can move as soon as you''re ready.."

    Wang GuiYing sighed as he rolled his shoulders that were tense due to him restraining that hunter who was struggling with all of her energy.

    Zhihao looked at the phone screen once again before turning to face Liang Feng as he spoke, "Can you memorize this?"

    Liang Feng looked at the screen and nodded in turn as he replied, "We''ll use the same path to go after the hunter."

    Zhihao, "If you can''t find the hunter then go through here and try to get to Jiangshi and Li Ying, okay? Since the hunter is after them if the hunter had moved then he would probably use this same corridor."

    Liang Feng looked to have understood it instantly as he gave Zhihao a firm nod of confirmation before turning around to face Tian Xifeng and Kaoru, "If you don''t want to come along then you can stay behind and keep a lookout on this hunter."

    Tian Xifeng rolled her eyes and scoffed as she heard this, "Liang Feng Gege, if we don''t go then you''re as good as dead."

    Liang Feng chuckled as he heard this, "Then I''ll take that as you''re willing to go?"

    Tian Xifeng clicked her tongue and folded her hands as she said nothing in response and quietly agreed to it.

    Liang Feng turned to Kaoru who was still shocked from all the happenings, "Are you okay?"

    Kaoru gulped as she turned her head up and looked at the man who had asked her this question.

    Liang Feng raised his eyebrows as he waited for the girl to say something as a response.

    Kaoru hesitantly nodded her head as she finally snapped out of it and answered, "I''ll be willing to go."

    Liang Feng smiled thinly, "Then it''s decided. I''ll go first and try to disarm the hunter. You both act afterward, okay?"

    Tian Xifeng and Kaoru nodded in unison as they agreed to the plan.

    Liang Feng turned back to look at Zhihao and bowed as he spoke up, "All the best."

    "All the best to you too," Zhihao smiled as he politely wished the man back and watched him lead the other team away to the second hunter.

    Once they were out of sight, Zhihao frowned slightly as he wondered, ''Is there something I forgot?''

    He had the feeling that there was something important he was forgetting but Zhihao''s brain wasn''t performing at its best because of which he clearly didn''t realize the fact that he had forgotten to give them one of the handcuffs that need to be used in order to restrain the hunter.

    "Let''s go!" Wang GuiYing announced as he finally prepared himself mentally to go through another fight.

    Although he was good at fighting, he still hated going through that much trouble so it was only natural that there was an unexcited frown on his face as he cautiously made his way towards the hunter that was slowly approaching them, just a corridor away.

    Li Ling gave Zhihao a nod before following after Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi also followed after them, leaving Zhihao to be the last one in the group.

    Zhihao glanced at the hunter who was locked and sighed as he spoke up, "You better not try something funny."

    The hunter chuckled and her chuckle sounded to be filled with contradicting emotions which made it sound extremely unpleasant and haunting, "Mastermo! You know it, don''t you?"

    "Hmm?" Zhihao''s eyes narrowed down on the woman as he heard this.

    The hunter lifted her head to look at Zhihao but all Zhihao could see was the panda mask that was stained with the hunter''s blood.

    "You know what waits for you in the end. Not all of you are going to make it out alive. You would all eventually turn against each other and to win, you''ll start to kill each other," From her voice alone, Zhihao could guess that she had a wicked smirk on her face as she said this, "They are your competition who would turn their backs on you and try to kill you in the end so why not turn your back first? Why not kill them off first?"

    Zhihao suddenly chuckled as he heard her complete the suggestion that sounded like nonsense to his ears, "And what about you? Why is another player like you working for the LHA?"

    The girl was silent as she heard this and her body seemed to have suddenly gone tense and numb as if she had never expected Zhihao to say something like this.

    Zhihao smirked as he saw such a reaction that was to be expected from this hunter, "Did you think nobody would find out? Well, it doesn''t matter what you think and what you don''t. You shouldn''t underestimate me too much. I might not be able to save everyone but I would definitely try my best to save all of them and you can rest assured that I would never be the one to betray them first."

    The hunter was probably stunned speechless but Zhihao didn''t even wait for her response as he turned and followed after the others.

    He looked determined and one could not detect a single movement of hesitation or lie in his words

    This man was really saying that he would rather be stabbed than stab someone else first.

    Unbeknownst to Zhihao, a tear trailed down the hunter''s cheeks as she saw such determination in Zhihao''s eyes. Because of his resolution, she felt self-hatred for not being more like him. Why was it that she got tempted away by the free offer to climb up the ranks and become one of the top ten players by just killing a few of those top players?

    Wang GuiYing hid behind a corner as he peeked at the hunter but it seemed that he had been a bit too careless to consider that the hunter also had a phone that could track down their locations and hence, his plan to sneak up on the man failed immediately as the hunter opened fire on them and calmly approached the corner.

    "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Wang GuiYing cursed under his breath as he tried to retreat but his back hit something hard.

    Wang GuiYing flinched as he instantly snapped his head around to see what it was.

    Zhou Xinyi smirked as he looked into Wang GuiYing''s eyes and questioned, "Scared?"

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he realized that the hard object was actually Zhou Xinyi''s sturdy chest. Instead of giving an answer to the man''s question, Wang GuiYing tilted his head as he asked, "Did you grow taller?"

    Zhou Xinyi frowned but said nothing as a response.

    Wang GuiYing broke out into a smile in the very next second as he straightened his back and got back his composure, "Xinyi, who do you think I am? Do I get scared that easily?"

    "..." Zhou Xinyi didn''t bother giving a response to such a self-confident reply.

    Wang GuiYing held the fire extinguisher up as he exclaimed, "Just watch me."

    He didn''t even wait for a response from Zhou Xinyi as he fearlessly turned the corner and faced the raining bullets head-on first.

    Zhou Xinyi''s eyes widened in worry for a second as he saw such a stupid act of showing courage.

    "Trash!" Zhihao called out in worry and shock as his hands reached out to stop the man but he was a few seconds late as the man was already out of his reach.

    This Wang GuiYing...!! Why was he so keen on becoming a corpse?!

    It was really creating a headache for Zhihao!

    Wang GuiYing held the fire extinguisher in front of him and tried his best to dodge all the bullets, however, this hunter seemed to be a much better shooter than the previous one. As soon as the hunter saw Wang GuiYing rushing out towards him, instead of panicking and aiming around tactlessly, the hunter actually pointed the gun right at Wang GuiYing and pulled the trigger with no hesitation.

 Chapter 232 - The Duo From Hell

    If it hadn''t been for Wang GuiYing''s inhumanly fast responses, he really would have become a corpse with multiple holes drilled into his whole body. However, even after having avoided most of the bullets, he was still not able to avoid all of them.

    One of the bullets hit his leg but Wang GuiYing only winced at the pain before ignoring it altogether and throwing the fire extinguisher at the hunter''s arm that was raised to aim the gun at him.

    The hunter was not able to do anything as the fire extinguisher almost broke his hand and led him to drop his weapon.

    Wang GuiYing kicked the weapon back and continued to fight the hunter in close-hand combat.

    As soon as the gun was kicked back, Li Ling moved in on the scene and picked up the gun before standing at a certain distance and aiming the gun at the hunter threateningly without shooting.

    Wang GuiYing cursed in his mind for being so reckless since it was only now that he had realized how much he had underestimated this hunter.

    The previous hunter was unskilled with guns and although she had learned martial arts, she was still not on the same level as Wang GuiYing, however, this hunter was really different from her.

    He was good with guns and it made Wang GuiYing think that the hunter was probably going to be easy to beat once the gun was thrown away, but only after engaging in hand-to-hand combat did he shockingly realize that a weapon on this man was nothing more than an accessory.

    This man was much better at fighting than Wang GuiYing and as a result, Wang GuiYing immediately started to see a defeat.

    For someone simply watching this fight, it couldn''t be cleared who was winning, but for Wang GuiYing, it was clear that the hunter was at an advantage. If this fight were to continue for any longer, then Wang GuiYing would certainly see a defeat in the end.

    "Damn it!" Wang GuiYing cursed as he ducked his head and avoided the fist that swung at his face. He gulped as he tried to flip and kick the hunter''s abdomen but the hunter caught his leg and easily twisted it to throw Wang GuiYing off balance.

    Wang GuiYing struggled to get his ankle out of the man''s grip and took a few steps back to put some distance in between them.

    "You''re good," Wang GuiYing gritted out a compliment before jumping up and throwing a punch at the hunter.

    The hunter moved aside and avoided the punch but it seemed that Wang GuiYing had another trick tucked up his sleeve. He tried to knee the man''s face and by masking his actions as just a simple punch, he was able to grab the man''s head and hold it in place, not letting him avoid it this time.

    The hunter got hit but it didn''t even seem to affect him as he simply faltered a step back and caught hold of Wang GuiYing''s back before slamming him to the ground.

    "Are you done?" The hunter asked, his voice sounded to be of a man who was around the same age as Wang GuiYing and it made Wang GuiYing smirk as he wrapped his legs around the man''s neck and restrained his arm, putting the man in a chokehold.

    "Caught you, bastard," Wang GuiYing proudly commented.

    It seemed that the punch was just a cover-up for the kick and the kick was just a cover-up for this chokehold.

    With the use of his thinking and skills, Wang GuiYing thought that he was able to trick the man and turn the fight over to his side, but his smirk didn''t last long as the man somehow managed to elbow Wang GuiYing''s stomach and with just a hit alone, Wang GuiYing almost felt as if his soul had floated out of his body.

    Wang GuiYing''s chokehold came loose and the hunter took this opportunity to turn the tides of the fight once again.

    Wang GuiYing gasped for air and the hunter stood up, unbuttoning the buttons on the cuff of his white shirt that had been completed wrinkled due to their intense fight.

    "Are you sure you caught me?" The hunter''s voice sounded to be mocking Wang GuiYing.

    "Don''t move or I''ll shoot!" Li Ling who was instructed to do nothing suddenly shouted out as he kept his gun pointed at the hunter.

    Zhihao clenched his fist as he saw Li Ling doing something that Zhihao had clearly warned him not to do.

    The hunter chuckled as he looked at Li Ling''s threat, "Do you have the guts to kill me?"

    Li Ling suddenly felt his patience running low as he heard the man challenging him.

    He pursed his lips as he aimed the gun down and shot the man''s leg, "I do."

    The hunter seemed to have not expected such a spontaneous reaction at all so he didn''t even get the time to react and save himself first. Before he knew it, the bullet had already hit his calf and the hunter immediately crouched down and cried out in pain.

    "You bastard! Son of a *$%^#%$@#Y&^$%^&%" A string of profanities fell out of his mouth and at this moment, both Zhihao and Zhou Xinyi finally decided to enter the scene.

    The hunter was shot but when he saw the other two approaching, he somehow was still able to push himself off the ground.

    This hunter... was quite a pain in the butt.

    Wang GuiYing stood up and rolled his shoulder before attacking the hunter once again and this time, Zhou Xinyi joined him.

    When Wang GuiYing saw that Zhou Xinyi had finally entered the scene and decided to act, he knew that this fight was already over.

    The hunter probably had a chance of winning against Wang GuiYing in a one-on-one fight but with Zhou Xinyi joining hands with Wang GuiYing, that chance of winning had disappeared like a bubble.

    It had to be known that although Zhou Xinyi was not as good as Wang GuiYing in a physical fight, he was still not considered to be too worse. And although Wang GuiYing was pretty good in a fight, it didn''t make him invincible.

    They both had their own weak points, However, when the two fought together, they were to be feared even by the demons of hell.

    It was their specialty.

    After all, Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi were also known as the duo from hell.

    Just as Wang GuiYing had concluded, the fight was over before it even began and the hunter had no way out this time as both Zhou Xinyi and Wang GuiYing held him in a chokehold and one of them even put pressure on the bullet wound that was on the hunter''s leg.

    Zhihao sighed as he crouched down and handcuffed the hunter to the nearest pole.

    This time, he didn''t bother trying to unmask the hunter nor did he waste any time in talking nonsense as he simply turned around and walked towards Li Ling.

    "I told you not to do anything, didn''t I?" Zhihao scolded the man.

    Li Ling gulped and looked to be a little guilty and this expression on his face just made Zhihao''s heart melt instantly.

    Zhihao sighed as he raised his hand and rubbed the man''s head, "I''m just worried about you. Be more careful next time."

    Li Ling broke out into a smile as he nodded his head even though he wasn''t really sure if he would listen to Zhihao the next time as well.

    Zhihao turned to glance at Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi who were still torturing the poor hunter, "Let''s go. One more left."

    Wang GuiYing smiled as he immediately stood up and skipped towards Zhihao happily, "Honey, wasn''t I cool just now?"

    Zhihao almost coughed on empty air as he heard this question while Li Ling sent the man a glare.

    Wang GuiYing chuckled as he turned to look at Li Ling, "What is it, little lover? Are you feeling jealous?"

    He was clearly teasing Li Ling but Li Ling only rolled his eyes and looked away without bothering to give this man a response.

    Wang GuiYing opened his mouth to say something more but Zhou Xinyi suddenly stood behind him, covering the man''s mouth with his hand.

    "Let''s go," Zhou Xinyi successfully shut Wang GuiYing up and looked at Zhihao as he gave a nod.

    Zhihao looked down at his phone where it displayed the location of the third hunter and the other three players who seemed to have already attacked the hunter.

    "We need to hurry," Zhihao broke out into a sprint as he ran through the corridors and headed for the location of the third hunter.

    They only had about a minute left for the competition to get over.

    In just a few seconds, they were able to reach the site where Tian Xifeng was fighting against the hunter ad Liang Feng was lying on the floor, completely defeated.

    "Eh?" Zhihao muttered in shock as he wondered what had happened here.

    Kaoru''s eyes lit up as she saw the backup arrive, "Mastermo! BBtrash! You''re here!"

 Chapter 233 - Tian Xifeng Is Angry

    Zhihao nodded as he turned to face the girl, "What happened here?"

    Kaoru pointed at Liang Feng who was on the ground and spoke up, "It seems that Brother Liang Feng wasn''t as strong as he thought he was."

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this.

    Of course, this man wasn''t strong. He had more brains than muscles.

    Kaoru sighed as she pointed up at Tian Xifeng and added, "Sister Xifeng has really sharp nails."

    Zhihao gulped as he immediately understood the situation.

    Wang GuiYing chuckled as he looked at the ridiculous fight that just looked.... Laughable.

    This hunter was different from both the other hunters. Since the gun had been thrown away from the hunter''s hand, Wang GuiYing wasn''t sure if this hunter was good with a gun but from this fight alone, Wang GuiYing was able to say that this hunter had not learned anything about fighting at all. This might as well be the hunter''s first fight.

    Li Ling smacked Wang GuiYing on the head as he spoke up with a bit of annoyance laced along with his words, "Don''t just laugh. Go and help"

    Wang GuiYing chuckled as he rubbed his hand and stretched out his hand in front of Zhihao, "The handcuffs."

    Zhihao sighed as he shook his head and took out the last pair of handcuffs that he had picked up from the inventory.

    Wang GuiYing snatched the handcuffs as he walked closer to the fight and pulled Tian Xifeng away first before going for the hunter.

    Before he could even grab the hunter''s arm, Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened as he felt his hair being pulled back with an intense force that almost made him go bald.

    "Ahh!" Wang GuiYing cried out as he tried to glance back at the person that had grabbed his hair.

    Surprisingly enough, it was Tian Xifeng who had a bad expression on her face as she complained, "I wasn''t done yet!!"

    Wang GuiYing blinked as he tried to remove her hand but her grip was extremely tight.

    "Are you crazy?! Let go!!" Wang GuiYing shouted at her but Tian Xifeng refused to let go as she pulled him back by the hair.

    "Let go! Let go! Let go!" The poor man was left at a disadvantage as Tian Xifeng was adamant about being childish.

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he saw this scene. He blinked and rubbed his eyes to make sure that he was not imagining things and when he was sure that this was indeed happening, his whole face turned red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

    "You bunch of idiots..." Zhihao cursed under his breath as he moved forward to try to remedy the situation.

    He grabbed Tian Xifeng and pulled her back but since the woman refused to let go of Wang GuiYing, the man was also pulled along by the hair.

    "Ah!!" Wang GuiYing cried out in pain as he grabbed her wrist.

    Zhihao sighed as he tickled Tian Xifeng and it seemed that this was really the best option in this situation as she immediately let go of the hair and started laughing.

    "Stop! Stop! I can''t breathe!" Tian Xifeng complained in between her laughing and as soon as Zhihao stopped, there was a frown on her face as she tried to attack Wang GuiYing again, but this time, Zhihao was fast enough to pick her up and not let her get near the man.

    "Behave yourself," Zhihao scolded but Tian Xifeng continued kicking empty air as she tried to struggle out of Zhihao''s hold.

    "Let me go! That b*tch is mine!" Tian Xifeng complained and whined as she strongly showed her determination to personally fight and defeat the hunter.

    Zhihao frowned as he looked over at Kaoru and waited for the girl to explain what she had left off from the initial brief summary of the situation.

    Kaoru chuckled awkwardly as she immediately understood what Zhihao wanted to know. She pointed at the hunter and spoke up, "She said some mean things about Sister Xifeng."

    Zhihao''s frown deepened as he heard this, "What mean things?"

    Kaoru opened her mouth to give him an answer but before any words could roll out of her tongue, Tian Xifeng had already started shouting, "She called me a money-slut! Let me choke this b*tch to death! Let go!"

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he immediately looked at Kaoru to confirm if Tian Xifeng was telling the truth or not.

    Kaoru nodded her head with a sigh, "That''s right. She called her that as well."

    "Damn it! Let me go!!" Tian Xifeng continued to struggle and for a second there, Zhihao was persuaded to let the woman go but at the end of the day, he felt that it was better not to let her go in fear that she might try to assault Wang GuiYing again.

    While Zhihao kept Tian Xifeng in place, Wang GuiYing rubbed his head and went ahead to fight against the final hunter.

    He had clearly heard what Tian Xifeng had said so when he looked at the hunter, his eyes looked to be especially colder than usual.

    The hunter clicked her tongue as she held her fist positioned in front of her face, "What are you going to do about it? I only said the truth. She''s always running around in her high heels. Giggling and flirting with people to buy her new armors. If she didn''t have those guys paying for her all the time, she would have definitely not got this far in the game. She deserves to be called what she is!"

    Wang GuiYing chuckled dryly as he heard this, "Is that so?"

    The hunter was silent as she noticed the mocking tone in Wang GuiYing''s words, "I think you''re mistaken about something here but, the one who tried to kill all of us has no right to say anything about her."

    The hunter scoffed and it seemed that she had a lot more to say but Wang GuiYing didn''t bother giving her the time to speak as he grabbed her hand and twisted it around before knocking her down with his knee and cuffing her hands together to prevent her from escaping.

    "Why don''t you just shut up? Nobody asked for your opinion," Wang GuiYing spoke and his voice sounded to be a bit too scary which easily managed to shut the hunter up.

    Zhihao sighed as he let go of Tian Xifeng and this time, Tian Xifeng didn''t bother running forward to kill the hunter, instead, she looked at Wang GuiYing as if he suddenly looked to be a bit cooler.

    "All three down!" Wang GuiYing exclaimed happily as he clapped his hands and lifted his head.

    He noticed Tian Xifeng looking at him with surprise and broke into a warm smile as he spoke, "No need to thank me."

    Tian Xifeng clicked her tongue as she frowned, "Who said anything about thanking you?"

    Wang GuiYing chuckled but said nothing as a response and instead, turned to look at Zhihao who didn''t look to be relieved at all.

    "Mastermo, why are you frowning?" Wang GuiYing asked as he tilted his head in confusion and curiosity.

    "The timer... It hasn''t stopped," Zhihao spoke up as he raised his phone to show everyone the screen.

    Wang GuiYing froze on the spot as he gulped in worry.

    "Didn''t the mission tell us to survive till the end? Maybe the timer doesn''t stop before that?" Li Ling spoke up as he tried to reassure that this might be something normal.

    Zhihao frowned as he shook his head.

    They only had about twenty seconds left but even with all the hunters tied down, the ticking timer still managed to make Zhihao feel uneasy.

    Zhihao gulped as he moved closer to the hunter and crouched down before questioning, "The previous hunter said something really interesting but we didn''t get to hear her out. Maybe you could help us?"

    The hunter didn''t bother even moving as she heard Zhihao talking to her.

    Zhihao sighed as he got a little impatient and held a gun up to the hunter''s head that was covered in the panda mask.

    This gun was picked up by him when he fought against the first hunter that they met and he had been carrying it with him all this while in case it could be used as a weapon in the future.

    The hunter suddenly jolted as she saw the gun being pulled out, "W-What the hell do you want?!"

    Zhihao smiled thinly as he responded, "What I want is simple. Tell me why the other one said something about you all dying if you fail to kill us."

    The hunter suddenly broke out laughing as she heard this question, "Mastermo, even if I do know the answer, why do you think I would tell you?"

    Zhihao rolled his eyes in annoyance as he had no time left to talk in circles. He pulled the safety off and put some pressure on the trigger to make sure that he got his determination clear to the hunter.

    The hunter immediately stopped laughing as she noticed that Zhihao was unhesitant to pull the trigger, "Stop! Stop! Stop!"

    "You better tell me what I want to know," Zhihao clicked his tongue.

 Chapter 234 - Ten Seconds To Death

    Ten seconds remaining.

    The hunter sighed as she first tried to struggle a bit but the handcuffs made it hard for her to move more than a few inches.

    [9]

    "Tell me why you''ll die if you don''t kill me," Zhihao questioned firmly once again and the ticking timer made the hunter feel as if even if she were to give them an answer right now, they would be helpless to do anything for it.

    [8]

    "Mastermo, you already know who we are, don''t you?" The hunter questioned back in turn instead of answering straightforwardly.

    "I do. You''re players like us, or to be more exact, you''re the players that never got the chance to enter the final level because of us."

    Everyone else was suddenly shocked to hear this. It was something that Zhihao had never told them and they had been too busy to try to figure it out for themselves..

    Now it made sense why Zhihao had gave up on removing the hunter''s mask.

    [7]

    "To put it shortly, you''re the one that hates us the most for stealing an opportunity from you," Zhihao added with no emotions.

    The hunter chuckled as she nodded her head, "That''s right. You stole this opportunity from us and Alvi gave us another chance to steal it back."

    [6]

    Wang GuiYing suddenly broke out laughing as he heard this, "You''re really delusional, aren''t you. What are you barking about? When did we steal anything? You guys were never in the top ten. We didn''t steal your opportunity. We were just better than you so you never even had a chance."

    He was clearly mocking the hunter openly and the other players remained silent which indirectly meant that deep in their hearts, they also agreed with Wang GuiYing.

    [5]

    The hunter was silent for a second before she broke out laughing like a maniac, "What''s the use of you being that good? Hahaha... You''ll still die in the end!"

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this, "You didn''t answer my question. Why do you keep mentioning death?"

    The hunter turned to look at Zhihao, "Mastermo, you''re so intelligent. You have noticed so much on your own. How come you haven''t realized what game you''re playing?"

    [4]

    Zhihao gritted his teeth as he pulled the hunter by her collar, "Just say it already.

    The hunter chuckled as she finally decided to reveal the truth, "We''ll die."

    "..."

    "It''s either you or us. Only one of us can survive. If we kill you, we live and if you survive, we die."

    [3]

    "What nonsense are you making up?" Zhihao scoffed, "How would you die?"

    The hunter shook her head as she responded, "You can choose to believe me or not but I''m not lying to you. Well, seeing as how you''re so close to me, I don''t think either of us is getting out of this alive."

    [2]

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he immediately realized what the hunter was trying to warn them about.

    He let go of her collar and pushed her off before taking a few steps back and warning the other players, "Get away! Get down! Get away from her right now!"

    The other players also seemed to have noticed that something was not right so when they heard Zhihao''s worried voice, their feet acted on instinct almost instantly as they tried to run away from the scene.

    [1]

    The hunter started laughing maniacally as she saw the panic, "Hahahahaha...! It''s already too late!"

    Zhihao jumped on Li Ling and covered him as they both fell down.

    Tian Xifeng dragged Liang Feng back in order to save him and Kaoru who had previously been saved by Tian Xifeng helped the woman in helping Liang Feng.

    Everything went still as they all ducked their heads down and covered their ears as they waited for the explosion.

    [0]

    They waited for a few seconds but they heard no sound and even the hunter stopped laughing.

    "Eh...?" The hunter muttered in confusion, "What''s happening...? Why am I... Alive?!"

    Zhihao gulped as he lifted his head and looked at the timer on his phone that had stopped.

    His mind went blank as he also couldn''t understand what had happened.

    "Why the hell didn''t it go off?!" The hunter cried out in shock as she frantically moved around, "What''s happening?! Who did this?!"

    She sounded confused and angry as she cried out.

    Zhihao took a sharp breath in as he striaghtened his back and stood up from the ground.

    He turned to face the hunter as he questioned, "Why are you still alive??"

    The hunter looked back up at Zhihao''s face and was silent for a minute before she muttered softly, "I don''t know..."

    Zhihao''s eyes seemed to contract as he looked down at the screen and saw that both Li Ying and Jiangshi were still in the same place.

    Whatever had happened was not something that Zhihao had done so the only one who would be capable of doing it was either Li Ying or Jiangshi.

    Zhihao gulped in worry as he wondered if Jiangshi had realized something that Zhihao had overlooked.

    That boy certainly looked to be determined as he kidnapped Li Ying and ran away with her.

    He didn''t even bother running to the main control room which was the first idea that crossed Zhihao''s mind.

    The other players also stood up as they noticed that nothing happened. They saw the hunter going crazy and it was clear that even the hunter was shocked to see nothing happening.

    Previously, all the hunters were trying their best not to take off their panda masks but now that nothing happened, this hunter willingly tried to take her panda mask off.

    Zhihao had no interest in seeing what these hunters looked like but he still crouched down to help her take the mask off.

    Once the mask was off, Zhihao didn''t bother looking at her face, instead, something else caught his interest.

    His eyes widened as he looked at the small bomb that was built in with the mask.

    The screen inside had a single word displayed in red color.

    Disabled.

    The bomb had been disabled.

    Li Ling also walked over to look at the mask and he seemed to have immediately saw something, "LHA..."

    "Huh?" Zhihao looked at the man in confusion.

    Li Ling sighed as he pointed at the mask, "There is a company label on the side. This bomb was also made by LHA."

    Zhihao sharply snapped his head to glare at the girl as he questioned rudely, "What relation do you have to LHA?"

    The girl''s face turned white as she heard this question, "W-what do you mean? What''s LHA?"

    "Don''t joke around with me!" Zhihao snapped angrily, making it clear that he wasn''t here to go around in circles.

    The girl gulped as she shook her head and denied to give him an answer, "I don''t know anything..."

    "You expect me to believe that?" Zhihao scoffed as he glared at the girl and gave her another chance to come clean but the hunter refused to say anything about LHA.

    Zhihao gritted his teeth as he felt annoyed at the girl, "You''re really not going to say anything? Did LHA pay you?"

    The hunter chuckled dryly as she shouted, "What''s it to you, Mastermo?! Aren''t you alive and well? Go and ask them yourself! Don''t get us involved in this!"

    Zhihao''s eyebrows creased together as he stood up and looked at his phone screen before deciding that it was better to just go and look for Li Ying and Jiangshi.

    He gave the hunter one last glare before turning his back on her and grabbing Li Ling''s hand to pull him along, "Let''s go and get your sister."

    Li Ling gulped as he almost felt a little afraid of this angry Zhihao who looked like he was ready to annihilate a whole army.

    "W-wait for us!" Wang GuiYing stuttered out as he followed after them.

    Li Ying and Jiangshi weren''t too far away so just after walking for a few minutes, they were already in front of the door to the room that the other two had chosen to hide out in.

    Zhihao looked at the notice hanging on top of the door and his frown deepened.

    <Only for authorized officers.>

    How come Li Ying and Jiangshi chose this room to hide in?

    Zhihao was even more shocked as he knocked on the door and spoke up, "It''s us."

    He opened the door but he suddenly heard Li Ying''s worried voice stopping him, "Don''t come in!"

    Zhihao gulped as his foot stopped in midair and he didn''t dare take a step inside the room as he saw all the strings that were tied around the room.

    Li Ying''s eyes were wide open as she stared at Zhihao and Li Ling in shock.

    In the very next second, something heavy fell down from above and if Zhihao had taken another step forward, he would have certainly been crushed under the weight of whatever that was.

    Zhihao gulped as his eyes widened ever so slightly.

 Chapter 235 - The Most Intelligent Duo

    Bang

    Clank

    Slash

    Boom

    "I see... You guys are good at laying traps," Zhihao gulped as he felt a cold sweat trail down his forehead.

    Li Ying chuckled awkwardly as she scratched the back of her neck and nodded, "Just a skill I picked up from some movies."

    Zhihao blinked as he stayed in the same position, with his leg lifted.

    Li Ling coughed as he questioned, "Is there anything more?"

    Li Ying''s cheeks turned slightly red from embarrassment as she nodded her head, "Just pay attention not to trip on that wire or that," She pointed up at the ceiling, "It''s going to smash you into a pulp."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened ever so slightly as he looked at the metal table that hung on top, "How did you even get that up there?"

    Li Ying shrugged her shoulder as she responded, "It wasn''t too hard."

    Li Ling suddenly chuckled as he commented, "I see that it was useless worrying about you."

    Li Ying looked to be amused as she tilted her head and asked, "You worried about me, big bro?"

    Li Ling pursed his lips and refused to give her an answer while Zhihao chuckled as he exposed the man, "He worried about you a lot."

    Zhihao stretched his leg out front and took a careful step forward, making sure that he didn''t step on anything that had previously tried to almost murder him. He also made sure to avoid touching the wire that was being used as a trigger for the table that hung above their heads.

    "Whoa!~" Wang GuiYing looked to be amazed as he opened his mouth and forgot to shut it, "How did you guys manage all this?"

    Li Ying shrugged her shoulder and refused to give him a clear answer.

    "This is quite impressive," Zhihao commented as he looked at Jiangshi.

    Jiangshi''s body suddenly went still as he cautiously tried to hide behind Li Ying.

    Li Ying who had noticed Zhihao looking at the boy immediately decided to help Jiangshi out by smiling and hiding him behind her, "Brother Zhihao, you''re flattering us too much."

    Zhihao turned his attention back to Li Ying, "Believe me, you deserve my praise."

    Although it kinda sounded as if he was mocking the two, in reality, Zhihao was being honest. He really felt that these two kids were much more impressive than him.

    In fact, he had always wanted to meet the real Yingli because he felt that the player was certainly a bit too impressive. Not only had she been absolutely new in the gaming industry but she had also managed to climb all the way to the top of the gaming board in a matter of days, falling second to only Zhihao.

    "How did you guys come here?" Zhihao shifted the topic as he questioned.

    "Eh? That..." Li Ying gulped as she side-glanced back at Jiangshi and only after getting a nod from the boy did she continue, "It''s because Jiangshi figured it out."

    "Hmm?" Zhihao suddenly looked to be interested in knowing more and Li Ying also looked to be more than happy to explain.

    "Well... It''s like this. In the first competition, the floor plan we were given didn''t have the secret floor that brother Liang Feng went into and it just so happened that the floor was actually a security room with monitors and it was the key to solving the mission. Because brother Liang Feng helped us, we were all able to complete the mission on time."

    Zhihao nodded as he thought back to the clue given in the first mission. It was certainly tricky and he had almost had a heart attack because he was the last person to find the yellow ticket. If it hadn''t been for Liang Feng then Zhihao would have surely been eliminated.

    Zhihao hadn''t really thought about it that much. He just thought that it was a lucky coincidence to be able to find something like a monitoring room hidden under the building.

    "This showed us that the map given to us by the game is not to be completely trusted," Li Ying continued seriously, "If you look at your phone right now, you''ll see that the map has only one main control room marked whereas, in reality, it actually has two."

    Zhihao frowned as he looked down at the map and nodded.

    There really was only one control room marked out on the map.

    "But how did you know that?" Zhihao questioned curiously.

    "I didn''t," Li Ying shook her head as she explained, "It was Jiangshi who found this small hint. There was another map posted near the entrance and Jiangshi had noticed it."

    Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn''t surprised to hear this. He had also come through the same entrance and he surely remembered seeing the map but he never thought that the game would use the same trick on them once again so he simply ignored the map.

    "In the map, Jiangshi had made sure to remember two things since it was impossible to remember the whole map. The first was the location of the control rooms and the second was the overall layout of the place."

    "You''re smart," Zhihao looked at Jiangshi and openly compliment the boy.

    Jiangshi gulped as he nodded his head, thanking Zhihao but still not daring to open his mouth.

    "And I suppose you had something to do with how the hunters didn''t blow up?" It was Li Ling who questioned."

    Li Ying nodded her head happily as she replied, "It was us. When such a room was here, Jiangshi took me and we both came here to see that the computers here were all working. The monitors you see showed us exactly where you are and it also gave us the whereabouts of the hunters. At first, we didn''t notice anything weird about the game but then we overheard your conversation with the first hunter."

    Zhihao frowned as he pointed at himself and questioned, "Me?"

    Li Ying nodded her head as she explained, "The hunter was clearly after you because she hated you but she was also desperate and her desperation was not related to her hate for you. It was because she feared something and from her words, it was clear that she feared for her own life. If you survive, she''ll die. This was the root problem that we decided to look into."

    Li Ying sighed as she continued, "The hunters refused to take off their mask but it was not only because they were reluctant to show their original faces but it was also because they simply couldn''t."

    Li Ying suddenly moved towards another side of the room and opened the desk to show a bunch of wires and a machine that didn''t look familiar to Zhihao, "This is connected to their panda masks."

    Li Ling carefully walked closer to Li Ying and took a good look at the machine, "So you turned the machine off?"

    Li Ying frowned as she shook her head, "Have you gone dumb, brother? How could we simply turn it off like that?"

    "..."

    "We investigated it first," Li Ying spoke up as she informed, "We found out that if they were to take off the mask before the explosive is disabled, they would be triggering the bomb and blowing up their own heads by simply trying to go against the system."

    Zhihao gulped as he remembered the time when he had tried to take off the mask from the hunter''s head. Thankfully, he hasn''t been successful at that time...

    "So we worked on disabling it," Li Ying added proudly, "And although we only managed to disable it at the last possible moment, we were still successful."

    "So then you both disabled it all on your own?" Wang GuiYing asked, looking to be amazed and impressed.

    Li Ying nodded proudly as she responded, "To be more exact, I was the one that disabled it. I might not look like it but I''m one of the members of the speci-"

    Li Ling immediately covered her mouth with his hand and forced her to shut up.

    "She''s trying to say that she was a member of the special coding team in her school." Li Ling immediately spoke up, cold sweat forming on his forehead as he realized that his sister almost gave them all out.

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this, "There''s such a thing?"

    "Modern schools have a lot of productive things like that," Li Ling chuckled as he responded.

    Li Ying bit her brother''s hand and made him let go.

    "Ouch!" Li Ling winced at the pain and retreated his hand back.

    Li Ying sent her brother a glare before turning to face the others as she lied, "He''s right. My school is amazing and it has a lot of activity clubs like that."

    Zhihao almost wanted to go to such a school but unfortunately, when he was still in school, there was no such thing as an activity club which was for computer coding.

    "Whoa~" Wang GuiYing hooked his arm around Zhihao''s shoulder as he commented, "Mastermo, she''s so much younger but she''s still more intelligent than you."

    "..."

 Chapter 236 - The Fourth Competition.

    [Congratulations to all the eight players that have managed to clear the third competition!~]

    [Jiangshi - time saved: two minutes and twenty seconds.]

    [Yingli - time saved: two minutes and eighteen seconds.]

    [Mastermo - time saved: zero seconds.]

    [Devilmagiclover - time saved: zero seconds.]

    [BBtrash - time saved: zero seconds.]

    [Hulk0_0 - time saved: zero seconds.]

    [Kaze17 - time saved: zero seconds.]

    [T-Rex101 - time saved: zero seconds.]

    [Richlord - time saved: zero seconds.]

    [You have managed to clear the level within ten minutes!]

    [Time is precious and the time that flows, never returns.]

    [Welcome to the world where we make the impossible, possible.]

    [The time you have saved shall be returned back to you in the future and the time you have wasted shall forever remain wasted.]

    [One of you was not able to continue with us on this journey.]

    [Panic helps no one and in a game, the most important thing is for you to stay alive. You first need to survive in order to win. It''s a step to victory that cannot be skipped.]

    [Andyzz, we wish you better luck next time.]

    Zhihao almost wanted to laugh as he heard this.

    That guy was already dead so what was the use of luck when there was going to be no next time for the man?

    [We''ve held great expectations from you and the remaining players have managed to not only meet our expectations but have also managed to perform even better!]

    [The hard work done by our master has come to bear fruits and the hard work you put in right now would also bear sweet fruits for you in the future.]

    [Thank you for choosing Alvi as your guide and thank you for giving our beloved game a try -a note from our master.]

    [With that said, I''m sure you are all very fired up to enter the next competition so we do not wish to steal any more time from you.]

    [We shall now begin the next competition once you reach your destination arena.]

    [Please turn on your smartphones and look for directions.]

    [You have two minutes to get to your next destination.]

    [You have unlimited potential and we give you a platform to challenge yourself!]

    [All the best, dear players! May luck be on your side!]

    "Two minutes?!" Wang GuiYing cried out in shock as he looked down at his phone and saw the running timer.

    Zhihao gulped as he carefully looked at the map on the phone before speaking up, "We can make it if we hurry."

    Li Ling furrowed his eyebrows, looking a bit unhappy with the stressful time limit but he still nodded his head as he agreed with Zhihao, "Let''s go."

    They didn''t have much time, to begin with so they didn''t dare waste any more time talking and used the time they had to run out of the stadium.

    On the way out, they came across the three hunters who had taken off their masks and seemed to be waiting for the players.

    "Damn it... What do they want to know?!" Tian Xifeng clicked her tongue as she questioned in a tone that was clearly offensive.

    Zhihao frowned as he looked at the hunters carefully before speaking up, "Don''t mind them. I don''t think they are here to cause more trouble."

    Tian Xifeng didn''t look to have believed Zhihao but she still listened to the man and decided to ignore them.

    Just as Zhihao had said, the hunters didn''t try to stop them nor did they try to argue about anything. In fact, when the players were close enough, the hunters actually bowed their heads down at a ninety-degree angle and apologized loudly, "We are sorry for causing you trouble, and thank you for saving us."

    They looked to be sincere with it but no player bothered to stop in order to talk to them.

    Apologizing wasn''t enough since they had no justification for their actions. The players could sense that the hunters felt guilty but feeling guilty wasn''t enough. They had already done something that they shouldn''t have and it was something that could not be undone now.

    The players ignored the hunters and continued to run as they headed for the two cars that were parked outside.

    The group divided into two halves and while some got inside Zhihao''s car, the others got inside Li Ling''s car.

    Li Ling hadn''t really turned to see how Zhihao seated everyone in his sports car the last time but this time, he managed to catch a glimpse of it, and just as he did, he almost wanted to break out laughing.

    A sportscar was especially known for having a seating capacity for not more than two people but right now, Zhihao was basically stuffing everyone inside his car, making them squeeze into a seat that was made to accommodate only one person.

    Liang Feng, Tian Xifeng, Li Ying, and Kaoru were already with Li Ling and this only left behind Wang GuiYing, Zhou Xinyi, and Jiangshi who had to travel with Zhihao.

    "A-Zhi, Send Jiangshi over. It would be uncomfortable for you to seat all three in a single-seat," Li Ling peeked out of his car window and shouted.

    Zhihao nodded his head as he turned to look at Jiangshi who suddenly went still, "You can take that car."

    Jiangshi gulped as he reluctantly nodded his head and turned to head over to the other car.

    Wang GuiYing sat on Zhou Xinyi''s lap but it was even more awkward and uncomfortable for them since the car had such a low ceiling cover.

    "It''s only for a minute bear with it," Zhihao sighed as he reassured and started up his engine. He sped by Li Ling''s car and signaled the man that he was going to go ahead first this time.

    Li Ling nodded as he waited for Jiangshi to take a seat.

    "Brother Li, I hate you," Jiangshi gritted as he finally opened his mouth after making sure that Zhihao was nowhere near enough to hear his voice.

    "Eh?" Li Ling innocently tilted his head as he wondered what he had done but Jiangshi gave him no explanation.

    Of course, Jiangshi wasn''t happy with Li Ling and this was because the man had called him over and not let him ride in Zhihao''s sports car.

    That car was precious to Zhihao and the man was so stingy in letting people travel in his car. If such a situation were not to arise then Zhihao would have surely never let anyone get in his car and this was also the reason why this was such a rare opportunity for Huang Zhen to finally travel in that car!

    Li Ying seemed to have read the boy''s head so she chuckled as she made some space for him, "Get in fast or we''ll leave you behind and you''ll have to walk to the next arena."

    Huang Zhen frowned as he heard this but dare not say anything against the girl. He quietly got seated inside the car and before he could even put in the seat belt, Li Ling had started driving.

    "Damn it..." Huang Zhen gasped as he cursed at the sudden speed.

    "What a monstrous driving skill," He commented under his breath and because of the sound coming from the engine, nobody had managed to hear him.

    They only had two minutes with them and they had at least used a whole minute to simply get inside the car, this only left them with another minute to get to the destination so it was only natural that Li Ling was driving as if there was a cyclone chasing after their car. In fact, he wasn''t the only one who was driving recklessly, Zhihao was driving at a greater speed and his car almost gave the illusion of being invisible because of the high speed.

    Liang Feng kept his eye on the screen as he glanced up every now and then to see how much further away was the destination.

    Throughout the way, nobody dared to say a single thing as their breaths got stuck in their throats and their racing heartbeat became the only thing that they could hear vividly.

    Since Zhihao was way up ahead of them, it was only natural that he reached the destination first but Li Ling was also not too late as he managed to reach before the two minutes were up.

    It needed to be said that he had barely managed to win against time but at least he was able to win.

    This time, their destination was actually... Much different than all the previous ones...

    The first competition was in an office building, the second one was in an arcade while the third one was in the national football stadium, however, the fourth competition was in a place that they would have least expected.

    It was a dark abandoned alley.

    Zhihao gulped as he got out of his car and cautiously took a few steps into the alley. Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi also followed closely behind.

 Chapter 237 - Pink House

    Wang GuiYing pinched his nose as he immediately commented with an unhappy tone, "The stench is too much."

    For him, the smell of the place seemed to be a big deal, but for the others, the smell was the least of their worries.

    "Mastermo, any guesses?" Zhou Xinyi questioned.

    Previously, it was Zhihao who had guessed all the games and their rules so of course, the other players would once again turn to get answers from the man who seemed to know the most about this final level testing competitions.

    Zhihao gulped as he shook his head and responded, "I have nothing."

    Zhihao couldn''t remember any game that needed to be played in a dark alley.

    By looking at the surrounding, the only thing that he could think up of was one of those mafia role-play games that he had heard about but never played.

    Li Ying frowned as she followed closely behind, "I think I know this place.."

    Everyone suddenly snapped their heads and looked at the girl in shock.

    "What?!" Li Ling was the one with the biggest reaction as he looked at his sister as if she had said something that he couldn''t believe, "How?"

    Li Ying shrugged her shoulder as she answered, "At first, I heard about it from one of my cosplay friends."

    Li Ling''s eyes narrowed down on the girl as he mentally thought that he should go and meet this so-called cosplay friend.

    Zhihao''s eyes lit up as he stepped closer to the girl and questioned, "What is this place?"

    "If I''m guessing right, the game probably wants us to enter the pink house."

    "Pink house?" Zhihao frowned as he remembered hearing this name somewhere but could not recall exactly what it was about or who it was that had mentioned such a place.

    Li Ying smiled a bit mischievously as she added, "The pink house is where all the fun is."

    Wang GuiYing clicked his tongue as he commented, "You make it sound as if it''s some kind of illegal crime association."

    Li Ying nodded her head as she confirmed, "That''s exactly what it is. How did you know?"

    "..."

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he stepped closer to Zhou Xinyi and clutched onto the man''s jacket.

    This game was really planning on locking them all behind bars...

    Li Ling''s eyebrows furrowed together as he interrogated his sister, "What is it for? Have you been here before?"

    "I''ve been there once with my friends. We didn''t really stay for too long but from my short stay, I collected a lot of information about the place."

    "Should I be concerned for you?" Li Ling muttered as he suddenly couldn''t understand if he was supposed to scold her for going to such a place or if he was supposed to consider this as a plus point since she could provide information for them at this moment.

    Li Ying suddenly chuckled as she saw the worry in her brother''s eyes, "Big bro, you don''t need to worry about me. I''m smart enough to know the dangers. Actually, the reason why I came here in the first place was kinda related to business."

    "You had business in an illegal crime association?" Wang GuiYing cut in between and questioned as he cautiously took another step away from the girl.

    Li Ying chuckled as she shook her head, "I think you are understanding it wrong. Although it was illegal, it was probably not the type of illegal that you are currently thinking about."

    "What was it for?" It was Liang Feng who had questioned as he seriously looked at Li Ying.

    "The pink house is actually an underground building that is pretty famous with youngsters and some adults. Nobody knows who owns the building but it''s free to use for everyone that can find its location," Li Ying moved forward and headed deeper into the ally as she continued speaking, "It''s supposed to be around here. It''s actually a fun place for hackers and gamers."

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this, "Then why did you say it was illegal?"

    "Because most hackers are working illegally here and so are the gamers."

    "I don''t understand," Zhihao responded honestly since he really had a hard time understanding what this pink house was about.

    "Now that I think about it... Since the whole city is empty, this place should also be empty for the first time, shouldn''t it? You guys are quite lucky." Li Ying smiled at the thought as she crouched down and tried to pull up a sewer lid.

    "What are you trying to do?" Li Ling stepped forward and looked to be concerned as he tried to stop her.

    Li Ying simply smiled as she spoke up, "Don''t worry about it. I know what I''m doing."

    Li Ling was about to say something more but before any words could roll out of his mouth, Li Ying removed the sewer lid and they all suddenly heard a familiar notification sound.

    [Ding~]

    [Congratulations on finding your fourth competition arena!~]

    "I knew it!" Li Ying exclaimed enthusiastically as she jumped down the sewer without any hesitation.

    Zhihao blinked as he wondered if he was supposed to follow her or not but in the very next second, faint pink light started coming out from the sewer, along with which, came the voice of Li Ying who was already down there, "Jump down the rabbit hole if you want to enter wonderland~"

    Zhihao gulped as he looked at Li Ling and Li Ling also turned to look back at him. The two shared a nod as they decided to follow down after Li Ying.

    Zhihao was the first to muster up the courage to jump down while Li Ling jumped down after him.

    While Zhihao landed on his feet, Li Ling landed in Zhihao''s arms since the man was waiting for Li Ling with arms wide open.

    Li Ling was a bit surprised but he simply smiled as he looked at Zhihao.

    Zhihao put the man down and the two followed after Li Ying while the other players also jumped down one by one.

    Zhihao gulped and his eyes widened in surprise as he looked around at the place that was not at all what he would have expected a sewer to look like.

    [Welcome to the pink house!]

    It was the voice of the system.

    [Congratulations to all eight players who have made it on time!]

    [Jiangshi]

    [Yingli]

    [Mastermo]

    [Devilmagiclover]

    [BBtrash]

    [Hulk0_0]

    [Kaze17]

    [T-Rex101]

    [Richlord]

    [Here in T.I.A.D. we value your intelligence and your hard work and hence we provide you a platform where you can show us your capabilities and earn rewards for them as well!]

    [Your next competition shall be a competition of intelligence.]

    [The one who gets it, wins it.]

    [There are nine computers prepared for all of you. Each of you may sit in front of a computer and turn it on. Once the computer starts running, it shows you your individual missions which you''ll have to clear.]

    [You cannot clear a mission that belongs to someone else. If you do then both you and the player who was the original owner of the mission would be eliminated.]

    [You cannot stand up from your chair unless you complete your mission. If you do then you''ll be eliminated.]

    [You have ten minutes to complete your mission.]

    [Failure to complete the mission in the time given would lead to an instant elimination.]

    [The use of your smartphones is not allowed for this competition.]

    [Your ten minutes begin now.]

    [All the best to all the players!]

    [May your intelligence shine and may the smart player win!]

    Tian Xifeng took a sharp breath in as she commented, "Why do I feel like this system is mocking us?"

    "You''re the only one who thinks that," Liang Feng rolled his eyes as he responded coldly.

    Zhihao tried to turn on his phone even though the system had already warned them not to use it. The reason why he took this risk was simply because although the system had warned them not to use the phones, it hadn''t said anything about being eliminated in case they do use it.

    Just as he had expected, there was only a ticking timer visible on the screen and nothing else on the phone worked.

    Zhihao sighed as he kept his phone in his pocket and turned to look at Li Ying who was gesturing for the others to follow her.

    "Li Ying, what is this place?" Zhihao questioned as he obediently followed after the girl.

    Li Ying chuckled as she answered, "Brother Zhihao, have you ever heard about gamers that play in a group for money? They work for a company that hires them to play in order to either win a game or to destroy the game internally."

    Zhihao nodded his head as he spoke, "I''ve heard about them."

    Because of the immense popularity of T.I.A.D. such gamers who were hired by companies also joined in to compete for the prize, however, they were not successful because of T.I.A.D''s anti-cheating policies.

 Chapter 238 - The Weird Mission

    The T-points that were needed could not be purchased with real money and this was a major reason why none of the companies were successful since the base plan of all these companies was to provide a player with an account that was equipped with the best in-gaming gear and pay the player to do something which in turn would benefit the company in the big picture.

    Sometimes companies would even hire players to play their own games to increase traffic and build a better presentation for their games. It was a marketing strategy and also a competing strategy, however, no matter how widely it was used, it was never considered as something legal.

    At first, it wasn''t even considered as something illegal either but after the government suddenly saw a rise in the gaming industry and realized the problems faces by the gaming industry because of such practices by the company, the government decided that it was best for such a thing to be concluded as a practice that was against the law.

    At first, most people thought that it was ridiculous to even include such a gaming law in the government but after the fire had died down, everyone simply accepted it and nobody talked about it anymore.

    The companies that hired such fake players lessened in number but they didn''t completely stop. The most daring and desperate companies started hiring players secretly and paid a huge amount of hush money to keep it all in the shadows.

    Li Ying chuckled as she went forward and took a seat in front of one of the computers that were prepared for them as she informed, "This is the pink house where such players can offer their services and companies can hire them. Not only players, but hackers are also working here secretly, away from the eyes of the public and the government. The ones who know it would naturally be involved in such business so they keep their mouths shut.."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened ever so slightly as he looked at the nine computers that had been arranged for them. They were all of the same model and had the same look. Their monitors belonged to the same company and had the same size which Zhihao guessed to be approximately 26 inches wide. The main PC didn''t look that amazing but with just a single glance, Zhihao was able to tell that it was a custom-built pc with high specs. If it had RGB fans then it would have certainly looked almost the same as Zhihao''s PC.

    The overall colour scheme of the computers was also the same and matched perfectly with the name of this place. They were all pink with some black to balance it out.

    Li Ying smiled widely as she turned on her computer and put on the headphones before commenting, "I personally love these computers."

    Zhihao unconsciously nodded his head as a response before taking a seat next to Li Ying.

    The other players also followed behind and took the remaining seats before switching on their respective computers.

    Li Ling sat beside Zhihao who sat beside Li Ying and Wang GuiYing sat on Li Ling''s side while Zhou Xinyi sat beside him.

    Jiangshi sighed as he took a seat to the right side of Li Ying, making Li Ying the only one between him and Zhihao.

    Tian Xifeng sat beside Jiangshi and Kaoru sat beside her with Liang Feng on Kaoru''s other side.

    Once all the players were seated, the computers turned on at the same time, indicating that the system was still monitoring their every move and making sure that they followed the rules.

    Zhihao loved technology and computers dearly so although he didn''t really like whatever was happening, he still couldn''t help but be a little excited to play.

    First, there was a notification sound and then displayed on their screen was a white text box on a black background.

    The white text box displayed a single question that was easy to answer, however, Zhihao frowned as he folded his hands and read the question out loud to inform the other players about the question that he had received.

    "We are glad to have you with us. Would you like to play with us?"

    Li Ying chuckled as she heard the man, "Same question with me as well."

    "Here too," Li Ling added as he turned to glance at Zhihao.

    "Weren''t we supposed to have different missions?" Wang GuiYing questioned out loud in confusion as his eyebrows furrowed together, "Why is it the same question?"

    Zhihao gulped as he spoke up after considering all the facts, "The system can''t lie. We have different missions but this question is the same for all of us which means that this is not the mission."

    "Then what the hell is this?" Tian Xifeng snapped impatiently.

    "A question," Zhihao blinked as he simply answered, "It''s just a greeting question. There''s nothing much for you to worry about here."

    "..."

    "T-Then do we just... Click on yes?" Kaoru stuttered as she cautiously asked.

    Zhihao smiled thinly as he unfolded his hands before clicking on yes.

    There was another notification sound as the screen in front of him changed and nothing much happened.

    Zhihao smiled as he turned to face Kaoru and nodded, "Yes, you press whatever you like."

    The other players looked to be a little shocked by Zhihao who had actually dared to click first instead of letting someone else try it out first. This man... Certainly had the qualities to be a good leader.

    The other players trusted Zhihao and clicked on yes before waiting to get further instructions.

    Zhihao clicked his tongue as he once again read out the question on his screen, "Do you like playing virtual games?"

    "Wow!" Li Ying exclaimed in surprise, "It''s the same again."

    Wang GuiYing frowned as he snapped, "Are we doing some kind of survey?! Where''s the damn mission?!"

    Zhihao sighed as he closed his eyes and instructed, "Answer the question again. Let''s see what the system wants from us."

    They clicked on the yes button once again since everyone present here were gamers who were actively involved in the virtual gaming industry.

    The screen in front of them changed yet again after the sound of the notification bell.

    "What are your thoughts on T.I.A.D.?" Zhihao almost wanted to laugh as he read out the question.

    Li Ying also broke out laughing as she commented, "Damn, the system is really making us do a survey! Hahaha..."

    Zhihao''s eyes narrowed down on the text box that had no options displayed this time which meant that the players would have to write their own answers.

    "This is cheating! It''s wasting our time!" Tian Xifeng exclaimed in annoyance as she didn''t wait around for Zhihao''s instruction and straightaway typed in ''crappy game'' on the answer box even though she was one of the people who had helped in developing this game.

    Li Ying turned to look at Zhihao as she asked, "Answer it again?"

    Zhihao looked to be a bit hesitant this time, but in the end, he still nodded his head and answered, "Type an answer."

    They all typed in different answers before hitting enter and once all the answers were in, the screen changed once again.

    "On a scale from one to ten, how much would you rank your skills in gaming?" Zhihao frowned as he read out the next question.

    "Clearly a hundred!" Wang GuiYing exclaimed with a chuckle as he hit the number ten on the screen.

    Zhihao was silent as didn''t bother commenting anything and simply clicked on the eight displayed on the screen.

    The other players also followed the lead and clicked according to their own personal thoughts and feelings.

    "If this world was a chessboard, everything would be either black or white, do you agree?" Zhihao''s frown deepened as he read out the question and looked to have suddenly been lost in his thoughts.

    This time, all the other players answered first and Zhihao was the last to answer the question with a ''no''.

    Even if this world was a chessboard, it would never be considered as simply black or white.

    The screen changed once again and it was yet another question that was waiting to be answered by them.

    "The skies are blue and the water too. You are you and I am you too. Reflections may sometimes become illusions and those illusions may one day turn into reality as well. Do you agree?" Zhihao''s face turned white as he looked around at the other players immediately.

    Li Ying gulped as she shook her head, "A different question this time."

    Zhihao took a sharp breath in as he nodded his head, "As I had expected."

    "Eh...?" Wang GuiYing muttered in confusion, "What is happening?"

    Zhihao, "It''s a test paper."

    Wang GuiYing frowned as he heard this answer, "What do you mean, Mastermo?"

    "It means the mission was already presented in front of us," Li Ying answered before Zhihao could.

    "What..." Other players looked to be a bit confused.

 Chapter 239 - The Test Of Intelligence

    Li Ying chuckled as she cracked her finger joints and started typing away on her keyboard, not bothering to wait around for everyone else.

    Zhihao gulped as he also got started on typing but only after informing the other players, "Your mission is to solve all the questions on time. The more questions you answer, the more different questions you get."

    "Eh?" Tian Xifeng muttered in confusion as she glanced at her computer screen before asking, "How many questions are there?"

    Zhihao gulped as he honestly answered with the only guess that he had at this moment, "Not a defined number of questions."

    "What does that mean?" It was Wang GuiYing who asked as he started answering the questions one by one.

    "It means there is no fixed number of questions. If the system likes your answer then you won''t be getting extra questions but if the system doesn''t like your answer then you get more questions added."

    "How do you know?" Liang Feng asked as he glanced at Zhihao.

    "It''s nothing more than a guess," Zhihao answered honestly, "There was once a game alike this one that I played but the game had right and wrong answers while all the questions asked by the system do not actually have a definite answer. The questions can be answered according to the player''s own thoughts and beliefs hence proving that there are no right or wrong answers. This is a competition so not having right or wrong answers makes no sense whatsoever."

    "What if there are right and wrong answers?" Li Ying questioned with a smile.

    "I''m sure about it," Zhihao confidently responded, "The system would have informed us if there were questions that had a right or wrong answer. Instead of doing anything like that, the system simply told us that we all had a different mission. It also told us that this is based on our intelligence."

    "A-Zhi is right. There are no right or wrong answers. At the start, the system also warned us not to solve missions for other players. This means that the missions are actually solvable by other players. What could it be? The answer to that question is right in front of you. It''s questions. If a player gets a question as a mission then the player can take help from other players which would be a common occurrence in a competition where the time is limited. In order to prevent that, the system warned us about the consequences beforehand. Of course, the warning also served as a hint for us to figure all of this out." Li Ling added as he agreed to Zhihao.

    Zhihao nodded his head as he confirmed that he shared the same thoughts as Li Ling "Now it all depends on how fast your fingers can coordinate with your brain."

    "I have a question! I have a question!" Kaoru exclaimed all of a sudden as she raised her hand.

    "What is it?" Zhihao responded as he kept his eyes on the screen and answered the questions at a speed that would normally be considered almost equal to superhuman levels.

    "You said that the system would give you more questions if it''s not happy with your answer. Isn''t that also considered as a form of right or wrong answers?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he answered, "Not necessarily. When I said the system has to like your answer, I meant that the system has to consider your answer as a legit answer and not categorize it under spam."

    "Huh?"

    "If solving all the questions fast is the only mission we are given then a player could always write jibbering since the question has no right or wrong answer, to begin with. An over-smart player would probably try to use such a method but the system would naturally take some preventive measures against it."

    "Then... If I write an answer that doesn''t make sense or isn''t related to the topic at all, the system considers it as spam and gives me more questions?"

    Zhihao nodded his head as he confirmed, "You got it. If your answer is considered spam then the system gives you more questions to make up for it."

    "I think I understand," Wang GuiYing commented as he scratched the back of his neck, "So when the system said that this was a competition of intelligence, it didn''t mean answering the questions with intelligence...?"

    "That''s right. The system already gave us the hint that the intelligence part had nothing to do with the questions. Only a player who calmly uses his head would be able to realize how the system is trying to trick you."

    "Wha~" Wang GuiYing muttered in surprise, "Mastermo, you really are the best player."

    "Yah!" Li Ying snapped, "I also figured it out at the same time as brother Zhihao."

    Wang GuiYing grinned as he heard this, "Of course you did but you were still a step behind Mastermo, Miss second place."

    "..." Li Ying''s eyes twitched as she heard that last part.

    Wang GuiYing really had a talent for annoying people!

    "Got it!" Kaoru exclaimed as she nodded her head and got to work, "I just have to be fast."

    Every player in this room might not have been a pro-gamer, however, they were all well skilled with a keyboard since they had been typing for almost all of their life and since they used to be on their computers so much, they had naturally grown skilled at typing fast.

    For Zhihao, his typing speed had never gone under 150 words per minute and his highest word per minute was near 200 wpm1. It was a speed that was considered very fast, however, compared to the other players who were currently typing alongside him, he was somehow lacking in speed.

    The reason for this was a mystery to Zhihao since there was no way he could suddenly find out that some of the players who sat beside him were actually professional coders and developers who were posing as players.

    In the whole group, the slowest one was Jiangshi who almost had the same speed as Zhihao. Zhihao was the second slowest as he was beaten even by Kaoru who was surprisingly pretty fast with her fingers.

    The fastest in the group was probably Li Ling. Listening to him type sounded as if a super engine was at work.

    The second fastest was none other than the man''s sister, Li Ying who almost had the same monstrous speed as her brother.

    Tian Xifeng and Liang Feng were also surprisingly fast.

    Zhihao had never actually seen Wang GuiYing type and from the man''s personality, Zhihao would have never guessed him to be talented in anything, however, he was constantly being surprised today by the man who was showing off his skills one by one.

    First, it was his skills at mixed martial arts and now it was at typing.

    Zhihao had always thought that he would at least be able to beat Wang GuiYing at typing but turns out, he was hopelessly beaten by the man in terms of such a speed-based skill.

    At the end of the day, it came as no shock that Li Ling was the first to complete the mission.

    In less than ten minutes, he had answered over a hundred questions and had managed to clear his mission as the screen changed to black and flashed a green box in the middle of the screen with the word ''Complete'' written on top.

    Li Ling sighed in relief as he stretched his fingers and massaged his hand that felt as if it was about to give up on him.

    Soon enough, Li Ying also finished with only one minute left on the timer.

    "Damn that was intense!" Li Ying cursed as she complained.

    She turned to look at the other players who still had their eyes on their screens and their fingers working nonstop. The place wasn''t really hot but they were all sweating profusely because of stress and worry.

    The next player to clear the mission was Liang Feng and closely following behind him was Tian Xifeng who had actually managed to answer a few questions as spam and got more questions to clear as a gift from the system.

    Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi were also not slow as they completed the mission.

    "Yes!" Wang GuiYing exclaimed immediately as he turned towards Zhou Xinyi and hugged the man due to the happiness that couldn''t be controlled by him.

    Zhou Xinyi smiled as he patted Wang GuiYing''s back, "We got it."

    Kaoru also solved the mission at around the same time as them making Zhihao and Jiangshi the last ones to solve the mission.

    Li Ying bit her lip as she looked down at her phone screen and exclaimed, "Only twenty seconds to go."

    "I think I''m on the last few questions," Jiangshi responded in a low volume as he increased his typing speed all of a sudden.

    "Do it fast," Li Ying muttered as her eyebrows creased together in worry for the boy.

    "A-Zhi, can you do it?" Li Ling questioned with worry as he looked at the man.

    "Don''t worry about me," Although Zhihao was immersed in the questions, he still stopped to answer the man.

    Li Ling sighed as he gave a nod and didn''t bother saying anything more.

 Chapter 240 - The Chilling Question

    "Done!" Jiangshi exclaimed loudly before covering his mouth as he cautiously glanced at Zhihao to see if the man had noticed.

    In his mind, he cursed himself a million times for not being careful enough.

    There was no way that Zhihao would not recognize his own brother''s voice so Huang Zhen had made sure not to say anything till now but for a second there, he had forgotten all about Zhihao.

    Zhihao had his eyes on the screen and his fingers suddenly stopped.

    At first, Huang Zhen thought that it was because of him but when he took a closer look, he noticed that Zhihao didn''t even bother paying attention to anything that happened around him anymore. The reason why he stopped typing was simply because of the question that was presented in front of him.

    It was a question that nobody else got and when they looked at Zhihao''s screen, even they were not able to give an answer to it fast enough.

    Li Ling''s body went tense as his eyes widened ever so slightly when he looked at the question.

    [If your lover is the gamemaster, would you still be able to kill him? If you can''t kill him, would you stand aside and watch him die or would you protect him even after knowing that you would be sacrificing your world and life by protecting him?]

    Li Ying frowned as she read out the question, "What type of nonsense is this?"

    "Twelve seconds remaining," Liang Feng informed as he cautiously looked at Zhihao.

    Zhihao took a sharp breath in as he started typing out the answer.

    [I believe him and love him so all the options are useless. I''m not going to kill him nor am I going to stand aside and watch someone else hurt him. Sacrificing this world is not even an option for me. I''m Mastermo and I would surely find another way out of it.]

    Li Ling''s breath got caught in his throat as his eyes started getting a little wet due to the intense emotions he felt after reading Zhihao''s answer.

    The screen changed and on the black background, there was a green text box that had the word ''complete'' written on it.

    Zhihao sighed in relief as he leaned back on his chair, with his head facing up at the ceiling.

    The players gulped in worry as they glanced at him but said nothing.

    The competition got over soon enough and the notification from the system took a bit of time to come, however, nobody dared to say anything during that small waiting period.

    They were all already aware that one of them was the gamemaster and according to the question presented by the system, Li Ling was suspected to be the gamemaster.

    Some of the players already knew that this was true but the others were still unaware of this fact so it was pretty shocking for them to even consider the possibility of Li Ling being the gamemaster. It was shocking but it was not unbelievable and this fact managed to make them shiver at the thought.

    [Congratulations to all eight players who have managed to clear the fourth competition!~]

    [Devilmagiclover - Time saved: One minute and thirteen seconds.]

    [Yingli - Time saved: One minute and Two seconds.]

    [T-Rex101 - Time saved: Forty-eight seconds.]

    [Richlord - Time saved: Forty-one seconds.]

    [BBtrash - Time saved: Thirty-seven seconds.]

    [Hulk0_0 - Time saved: Thirty-three seconds.]

    [Kaze17 - Time saved: Twenty-six seconds.]

    [Jiangshi - Time saved: Sixteen seconds.]

    [Mastermo - Time saved: One second.]

    [You have managed to clear the level within ten minutes!]

    [Time is precious and the time that flows, never returns.]

    [Welcome to the world where we make the impossible, possible.]

    [The time you have saved shall be returned back to you in the future and the time you have wasted shall forever remain wasted.]

    [It''s quite surprising for us to see that so many of you have managed to survive all the competitions we have organized.]

    [We also hope to surprise you just like you have managed to surprise us.]

    [You have all proven that you are fast, strong, and intelligent. You all have the qualities that we are looking for in the winner, however, at the end of the game, there can only be one winner.]

    [Everybody is good but the one who wins is the best standing above the rest.]

    [Are you the one that''s going to be the best or is it the player that stands beside you that''s going to block your path to winning?]

    "It''s trying to turn us against each other," Zhihao sighed as he commented out loud, "Don''t bother listening to it."

    [Your next competition is about to begin soon.]

    [You have two minutes to get to your next destination.]

    [Failure to reach the arena would lead to an instant elimination.]

    Zhihao straightened his back as he snapped out of his thoughts and looked down at his phone screen that had changed once again.

    [All the best to all the players and we hope to see you in the maze of death!~]

    Wang GuiYing chuckled dryly as he stood up and commented, "The maze of death doesn''t really sound that exciting."

    Li Ying couldn''t help but laugh as she nodded her head, "I''m pretty sure that it''s not meant to be exciting either. Well, as long as you don''t enjoy risking your life, it shouldn''t sound enjoyable."

    "Let''s go," Li Ling announced as he stood up as well.

    Zhihao sighed as he nodded his head and pushed himself off the chair, "I''m tired."

    They were not only tired physically but they were also at their limits mentally.

    They had been running from one place to another and haven''t even got enough time to rest so it was only natural that they no longer had any energy left.

    "Follow me," Li Ying yawned as she stretched her arms before heading towards the exit of the place.

    The other players simply followed the girl calmly, and on their faces, one could not see any excitement.

    It wasn''t only Zhihao that was tired. The rest of the players were also dead tired.

    Although they were tired and had no energy to continue running from place to place, they were still fast as they hurried out of the pink house and got in the car before heading to the next destination that was nearby.

    Zhihao frowned as he started the car but didn''t drive forward.

    "What happened?" Wang GuiYing questioned as his eyebrows furrowed up, "We don''t have time, we need to go."

    Zhihao seemed to have suddenly realized something, however, he didn''t say anything to Wang GuiYing as he simply took his feet off the brakes and started driving forward.

    Wang GuiYing could somehow notice that there was something wrong so he asked, "Mastermo, what is it? Why do you look like that?"

    "What do you mean?" Zhihao sighed as he refused to give the man a straight answer.

    "You know exactly what I mean," Wang GuiYing frowned as he spoke, "I know that look on your face. You always have this look when you suddenly get a new hint so out with it."

    Zhihao chuckled dryly as he shook his head, "I''m not sure about it so I can''t say yet. It might not even be something important."

    "I refuse to believe you!"

    "..."

    "Just tell me what you''re thinking or I''ll die from curiosity," Wang GuiYing whined as he tried to trick the man into revealing the hint.

    Zhihao sighed as he finally gave up and replied, "The arenas that we have visited till now. They have nothing in common."

    Wang GuiYing frowned as he pondered over it and nodded his head, "That''s right. The first one was an office building, the second was an arcade, the third was a stadium while the fourth was the mysterious pink house. They have nothing in common."

    Zhihao took a sharp breath in as he added, "But there must be a reason why they were chosen as the arenas for the competitions."

    "Eh? Isn''t it random?" Wang GuiYing questioned curiously.

    Zhihao sighed as he shook his head and sped up the car, "There is no way that the competition arenas were decided randomly by the system. Every small thing is a hint and I''m sure this was also a hint. There was a reason why the system chose such unrelated spots."

    "Why?" Wang GuiYing''s eyebrows creased together in worry as he asked.

    "As I''ve said before, I''m not sure but If I remember correctly, all the points of the arenas on the map are actually making a pentagon."

    "Well there are five spots so if we connect them all, it should naturally make a pentagon."

    Zhihao shook his head as he denied it, "That''s not it. When you connect all the points, it''s making a perfect pentagon. However, it only makes a pentagon when we connect the dots with a pentagon in mind. If we connect it according to the order of the competition then the pentagon would be ruined."

    Wang GuiYing nibbled on his bottom lip as he heard this, "What exactly does that mean?"

    "I don''t know," Zhihao shrugged his shoulder with a chuckle, "I just wanted to point it out because it''s so weirdly perfect."

    "..." To say that Wang GuiYing was speechless would be an understatement.

 Chapter 241 - Time Isnt Right

    Zhihao chuckled as he managed to catch a glimpse of the speechless expression on Wang GuiYing''s face.

    In reality, Zhihao had slightly lied to the man. It wasn''t a pentagon that he had noticed, it was a star. If all the dots of the arenas were to be connected according to the order that they got the mission and travelled then they were creating a star. However, it wasn''t a complete lie since connecting all the endpoints of the star would give them a pentagon.

    Zhihao actually had an idea of what the hint was about but he didn''t bother sharing that knowledge with Wang GuiYing since he didn''t think there was any need for him to share it. It wasn''t as if it was a big hint or something, at least, it hadn''t been proved to be a big hint till now so there was no need for him to give this hint to Wang GuiYing.

    At the end of the day, this could be nothing more than a mere coincidence and Zhihao was probably thinking too much into it, if that were to be the case then it was more reason for him not to share false information or hints with other players.

    Wang GuiYing clicked his tongue in annoyance but didn''t bother saying anything more as he turned to face the road in front.

    As expected, they soon reached their next destination within the two minutes that had been given to them, and just as they got out of the car, Wang GuiYing spoke up..

    "Mastermo, I think you''ve already realized this but..." Wang GuiYing took a sharp breath as he turned to look at Zhihao, "Time is working weirdly."

    Zhihao gulped as he nodded and confessed, "I''ve already noticed it."

    Wang GuiYing chuckled dryly as he heard this response that he had somehow expected, "Of course, you have. The distance between arenas seems to be getting shorter and shorter, however, they are all at equal distance from each other."

    "That''s right," Zhihao sighed as he added, "All of them are at equal distance from one another but one road seems shorter than the other and this isn''t because of the actual distance, it''s because of the time."

    "Then that means...?"

    "As expected, whatever we are seeing around isn''t exactly real."

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he had no idea if he was supposed to laugh or cry after hearing Zhihao confirm it.

    They had already considered this theory before but the possibility of it seemed impossible for all of them, however, at this moment, the only way everything would make sense would be if the impossible became possible.

    "We are seeing an illusion of virtual reality," Zhihao was finally able to confirm it.

    Wang GuiYing sighed as he nodded his head and muttered, "I guess it''s a good thing."

    "It certainly is. This means none of us are gonna die for real."

    "That''s not it," Wang GuiYing responded.

    "Huh?"

    "Mastermo, even if this isn''t real, it still doesn''t make it completely harmless," Wang GuiYing warned as he stated something that Zhihao had not considered, "None of us remember putting on any type of gear and according to us, we were all simply going by our normal day when everything happened. To suddenly be put in a virtual game like this, isn''t it weird?"

    Zhihao''s eyebrows creased together in worry as he heard this.

    As long as he remembered, he was actually playing a game with Li Ling by his side, however, something went wrong inside the level.

    To be more exact, there was a creature inside the level that did not belong in the level, in other words, the game was somehow bugged and Mastermo who had tried to defeat the creature got eaten by the creature.

    Zhihao was sure he lost the level but he didn''t hear any game over notification or anything like that. The game shut itself down at that exact moment and when Zhihao took off his headgear, everything had already changed.

    All the monitors and screens started showing the same thing and in the beginning, Zhihao thought that some hacker was playing a joke on everyone, however, when his phone also got hacked, things started to get serious.

    At that time, Zhihao was quick to adapt. It was shocking and surprising at first but eventually, Zhihao was still Mastermo and this was considered to be the final level of T.I.A.D. that had limited entry which forced Zhihao to take action since he didn''t want to waste his time trying to figure things out.

    Now that he looked back at it, he had been both intelligent and stupid. He had adapted fast and that was something intelligent since being shocked and stressed would not help him in the long run, however, at the same time, he had been a bit too fast to adapt. He should''ve started asking questions sooner and he should have started noticing hints sooner as well. That was his number one mistake.

    "Even now," Wang GuiYing waved his hand in front of his face, "I''m wearing no gear so this was not triggered by a mere piece of gear. If there was no gear involved then how is this all possible?"

    Zhihao frowned as he thought about it and there was only one thing that he could think up of as the answer to Wang GuiYing''s question.

    It seemed that for the first time in his life, Wang GuiYing wasn''t completely stupid as he realized this even before Zhihao.

    "The system is connected directly to our brain. That''s the only way," Wang GuiYing tapped his head as he continued, "And it makes things difficult."

    "Because direct shock caused to our brains can actually manage to kill us..." Zhihao muttered as he completed what Wang GuiYing wanted to say.

    Wang GuiYing nodded with a sigh as he added, "At the end of the day, even if this is all virtual or not, it doesn''t matter because we are still in danger." He clicked his tongue as he complained, "Someone did this all without our permission, they are certainly looking to be sued."

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he spoke up, "Actually, this isn''t the first time."

    "Eh?"

    "The system has been weird before as well."

    "What do you mean?"

    Zhihao never thought that he would be discussing it again but considering the current situation, it was better to share information that was confirmed, "There was a level I played with Li Ling and the gamemaster. It was a weird level with the mission being not to turn around. The system would try everything it could to bait the players into turning around and the mission would only be cleared if the players fight against the urge to turn around."

    "That sounds like a simple mission," Wang GuiYing commented with a frown.

    "It sounds simple but you''d be surprised at how tricky it is," Zhihao sighed as he continued, "In that level, there was this time the system tried to bait me with the use of my family members."

    "What?!" Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened as he heard this.

    "The voice sounded so much like them that I was almost fooled for a second there, however, the thing that bothered me the most was the fact that the only way for the system to play their voice recording was if the game had spied on me and my family."

    "And no game has the permission to do that!" Wang GuiYing reacted strongly.

    Zhihao shook his head as he responded, "T.I.A.D. had permission. In fact, we were the ones that gave the game permission to do something like that."

    "What do you mean?"

    "The agreement that pops up at the beginning of the game, you must have also pressed on the accept button, right?"

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he nodded his head, "Of course, I did."

    "This clause was also included in that agreement which means the game had permission."

    "Why are you saying this now?! You should''ve told everyone sooner!" Wang GuiYing scolded Zhihao and he certainly sounded pretty pissed off.

    "I was angry as well but I eventually forgot about it. Although it was a big deal, at that moment, I didn''t think the system would actually try to use that clause like this."

    Wang GuiYing scoffed as he heard this, "So you thought that the game would dare not do something this dangerous?"

    Zhihao nodded his head as he confessed, "I never thought that the game would mess with us like this."

    "This makes things more complicated," Wang GuiYing clicked his tongue as he exclaimed, We can''t even sue them when everything is over."

    "Not necessarily," It was Zhou Xinyi who spoke up as he interrupted their conversation. The man had been silent all this while but it seemed that there was something he needed to say at this moment.

    "Huh?" Wang GuiYing turned to face the man as he questioned, "What do you mean?"

    Zhihao also turned to face him as he questioned, "What is it?"

 Chapter 242 - Enjoy It Before It Ends

    "Didn''t Li Ling say that this was not something done by Omelas?" Zhou Xinyi sighed as he spoke up and shared his thoughts, "If it''s not something done by the original company then you can sue the ones who did it. We can sue them for putting our lives in danger and we can also sue them for hacking Alvi."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened slightly as he heard this, "That''s right! There is still this possibility!"

    "I wonder who was stupid enough to do something like this," Wang GuiYing clicked his tongue as he showed his clear dislike for the unknown person.

    "Me too," Li Ling''s voice interrupted them as the man approached Zhihao, "I wonder who was gutsy enough to mess with my game."

    Wang GuiYing scoffed as he heard the man, "Your game? The way you say it makes it sound as if you are the gamemaster or something."

    Li Ling chuckled as he hooked his arm around Zhihao, "That''s nonsense."

    Zhihao sighed as he said nothing to that.

    "Why are you guys wasting time here?" It was Li Ying who questioned with clear annoyance laced along with her words..

    "It''s nothing," Zhihao shrugged it off as he turned to look around.

    The first time, it was an office building, the second time it was an arcade, the third time it was a stadium and the fourth time it was the pink house. They were all really different from each other but there was only one thing that connected them all and it was the distance between them.

    Since Zhihao kinda knew the area around, it wasn''t hard for him to guess what their next arena was going to be.

    The fifth competition arena was a shopping complex.

    Tian Xifeng''s eyes seemed to have come to life as soon as she got out of the car and entered the building, "The system has good taste! I love this!"

    Li Ying frowned as she rolled her eyes at the woman, "You don''t even know what the mission is going to be. How can you love it just like that?"

    Tian Xifeng chuckled as she hooked her arm around Li Ying''s shoulder and annoyed the girl even more, "Yingying, since this is our arena, the mission should be clear to you, should it not?"

    "Eh?" Li Ying''s eyes twitched as she glanced at the woman, "What nonsense are you spouting now?"

    "Such a big shopping complex!" Tian Xifeng exclaimed happily, "Our mission must be to buy as much stuff as we can in the shortest period possible!"

    Li Ying looked to be unimpressed by the woman but she didn''t bother saying anything in turn as she shrugged Tian Xifeng''s arm off of her shoulder.

    Zhihao frowned as he looked around the empty mall.

    He had certainly been here before a couple of times but this was definitely the first time that he had seen this place be so empty.

    Normally, unless the mall was closed, it was usually filled with people so this sight of the empty mall was certainly rare.

    "A-Zhi, any ideas?" Li Ling leaned in closer to Zhihao''s ear as he asked in a whisper.

    Zhihao side-glanced at the man as he questioned, "Why are you whispering in my ear?"

    Li Ling chuckled as he leaned in closer and blew air into Zhihao''s ear, "Would you prefer I do this instead?"

    Zhihao frowned and his face showed that he clearly didn''t enjoy it, however, like always, his ears had managed to betray him by turning bright red.

    Li Ling couldn''t help but raise his hand to rub Zhihao''s red ears as he noticed it, "A-Zhi is such a tsundere sometimes."

    Zhihao sighed as he grabbed Li Ling''s wrist and stopped him from rubbing Zhihao''s ear, "Gege, now is really not the time to be playing around."

    Li Ling frowned as he heard this but eventually sighed as he gave up on rubbing Zhihao''s ear and instead, encircled his arms around Zhihao as he hugged him from behind.

    "What are you trying to do?" Zhihao asked with a frown as he noticed that there was a sudden change in Li Ling''s behavior from the previous competition.

    "It''s nothing," Li Ling refused to explain his thoughts to Zhihao as he sighed and muttered in a low volume, "I just feel like I should enjoy it while I still can. Who knows what might happen in the next few hours."

    In the next few hours, they would surely have completed the final level and after that, who knows if Li Ling would still be alive or not.

    Zhihao had certainly answered the final question by saying that he would find another way to protect both Li Ling and the world but even though the man was determined, it would still not be something possible.

    Finding another way was impossible and of course, Li Ling knew this best.

    Zhihao''s frown deepened as he noticed that Li Ling sounded a bit sad as if there was something he knew that Zhihao didn''t.

    Li Ling tightened his hold around Zhihao and for some reason, Zhihao couldn''t help but get the feeling that the man was trying to hold onto Zhihao for the last time.

    "Li Ling, you know I love you, right?" Zhihao suddenly asked in a volume that could only be heard by Li Ling who was the closest to him.

    Li Ling almost felt his breath get caught in his throat as he heard this sudden confession.

    He gulped as he questioned, "A-Zhi, what are you trying to say?"

    Zhihao held Li Ling''s hand that was wrapped around his torso as he smiled and turned his face sideways to look at Li Ling who was leaning on his back, "I just wanted you to know that I love you. So I don''t care what you''re thinking or worrying about because, at the end of the day, I would always be there with you. Even if you decide to run away, I would still follow you."

    Li Ling bit his bottom lip as tears started brimming in his eyes, "Mastermo... Who taught you such cheesy lines?"

    Zhihao chuckled as he responded playfully, "Who knows? Maybe it just comes naturally to me whenever I see the lovely face of my dear boyfriend."

    Li Ling''s cheeks blushed a bright shade of red as he buried his face on Zhihao''s back, not daring to let anyone else see his flushed expression.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but want to turn around and pat the man''s head as he teased him a bit more, "Do I make you that shy?"

    Li Ling said nothing as he wondered if everything would be the same even after a few hours.

    Zhihao rubbed Li Ling''s head lovingly as he waited for the man to say something.

    "A-Zhi," Li Ling finally lifted his head to face Zhihao, and Zhihao was certainly stunned for a second as he looked at Li Ling''s face that was not only flushed red but the man''s eyes looked to be a bit too moist as if he was on the verge of crying.

    "Are you okay?" Zhihao asked in worry as he cupped Li Ling''s face.

    Li Ling smiled brightly as he nodded his head, "I''m okay, A-Zhi. You don''t need to worry about me."

    "How could I not?" Zhihao sighed as he kissed the man''s forehead, "You always go hiding things from me and making me worry."

    "Then... If I hide nothing from you and be completely honest, would you not worry about me?" Li Ling questioned back to which Zhihao chuckled.

    "That''s silly. Even if you are honest to the point that you tell me which color of underwear you are wearing, I would still be worried about you."

    "Grey."

    "Eh?"

    Li Ling blinked as he simply didn''t explain and waited for Zhihao to understand that Li Ling had just been honest enough to give him the color of his underwear.

    Zhihao took a few seconds to understand and just as he did, he broke out laughing.

    "You''re really unpredictable," Zhihao commented and Li Ling smiled brightly as if Zhihao had just given him a compliment.

    "Yah! Xinyi, what color of underwear are you wearing?" Wang GuiYing questioned as he turned to face the man.

    "Nonsense," Zhou Xinyi sighed as he walked faster.

    "You''re not honest enough!" Wang GuiYing complained as he raised his speed to catch up with the man, "Tell me~"

    "I never knew your brother was such a romantic," Li Ying commented as she walked beside Jiangshi.

    "And I never knew they were both so bold and shameless," Jiangshi responded with a tone that sounded as if he was suffering through second-hand embarrassment.

    Li Ying chuckled as she hooked her arm around the boy''s neck, "Aiya~ With just this much affection, you are already so embarrassed? I wonder what would happen when you see them kissing each other."

    Huang Zhen was suddenly reminded of unpleasant memories that dated back to when he was innocently heading home and walked in upon his brother kissing Li Ling in the car.

    Li Ying''s eyes widened ever so slightly as she exclaimed, "You just shuddered! You saw it, didn''t you?! Oh my~"

 Chapter 243 - Welcome To The Fifth Competition!

    [Congratulation to all eight players once again for making it to your fifth competition arena just on time!~]

    [Mastermo]

    [BBtrash]

    [Hulk0_0]

    [Devilmagiclover]

    [Yingli]

    [Jiangshi]

    [Richlord]

    [T-rex101]

    [Kaze17]

    [Throughout your gaming journey with us, you guys have managed to surprise and impress us with every passing second.]

    [We have tested your strength and your speed. Now, we have also tested your intelligence and are well aware of your skills.]

    [Since you guys are all so amazing, it is only natural that we designed a special competition this time just for all of you.]

    [We have focused on individual aspects of your strengths till now but in this competition, we would be testing you according to our newly created testing plan that covers the scope of both mental and physical strength.]

    [Your mission this time is to simply survive.]

    Zhihao suddenly had a foreboding feeling in his stomach and in the very next second, he could immediately understand why he was feeling this way.

    [There is a bomb planted inside this shopping complex and the timer is set for exactly ten minutes.]

    [All the exits and entries are sealed shut and can not be opened easily.]

    [You have to get out of the building before it blows up.]

    [This time, you are free to help each other out but if you don''t want to cooperate with other players, you are naturally free to act independently.]

    [There are no major restrictions for you this time which might make things easier for you.]

    [The hints have already been provided to you.]

    [Thank you for choosing T.I.A.D. and we wish you all the best!]

    [If you guys survive this, we would certainly meet again in the maze of death!]

    The system didn''t say anything more and the players naturally had nothing to say as they slowly absorbed all the information that had been presented to them.

    Tian Xifeng suddenly broke out laughing and the rest of the players unconsciously turned to look at her as if she had gone crazy.

    "Li Ling Gege, we are really doomed! So funny! Hahaha..."

    Li Ling''s eyes twitched as he commented in a volume that was barely above a whisper, "She''s lost it."

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he looked down at his phone and saw the ticking timer.

    "Mastermo, remember what we talked about?" Wang GuiYing questioned as he raised his head and looked at the man.

    Zhihao nodded with a sigh as he didn''t bother saying anything.

    "We definitely can''t die!" Wang GuiYing announced and it almost sounded as if he was trying to cheer everyone up and at the same time, it also sounded as if he was trying to motivate himself.

    "What did you two discuss?" Li Ying questioned curiously as she looked at the determination in Wang GuiYing''s eyes.

    Wang GuiYing turned to Zhihao and both nodded in understanding as they silently decided not to alert everyone.

    Even if this was some super immersive virtual world, if they were to die here, there was a high chance that they would also be dangering their lives in the real world so it was naturally better not to take such a big risk.

    "Well... It seems that you were wrong," Liang Feng commented as he turned to glance at Tian Xifeng who was still laughing silently, "It wasn''t about shopping after all."

    "Mastermo, what do we do?" Kaoru questioned as she looked at Zhihao with determined eyes that seemed to be putting their complete trust in Zhihao.

    Zhihao sighed as he striaghtened his back and looked around, "We need to get out of here before that bomb blows up."

    "Didn''t the system say that all the exist and entries are sealed off?" Li Ying questioned as she pointed it out.

    Zhihao nodded his head as he agreed to her, "That''s right but the system also said that it would not be easy for us to break through the sealed doors."

    "Eh?"

    "It never said that it would be impossible, it said that it wouldn''t be easy," Zhihao added.

    "Then we break through the doors?" Wang GuiYing gulped as he interjected and questioned anxiously.

    Zhihao shook his head as he replied, "It would be the best option for us but I don''t believe it would be that easy."

    "What do you mean, Mastermo?" Zhou Xinyi was the one who asked with a complicated expression plastered on his face.

    "It''s just as I''ve said," Zhihao responded with a sigh, "It''s an option but not the only one. The system said that this competition was not just about strength and speed but it was also about intelligence which means nothing can be as simple as we would like it to be."

    "What are the other options?" Li Ying asked seriously as she felt that Zhihao was somehow right.

    "The easiest would be trying to escape from the main exits, the second easiest option would be to break through the glass windows. The third one would be the rooftop but escaping through there might just be a bit tricky and dangerous. These are all the options we can use in order to escape from this building, however..."

    "However?" Li Ling frowned as he urged Zhihao to continue speaking.

    "We don''t necessarily have to escape, do we?" Zhihao''s eyebrows furrowed together as he stated an option that nobody would agree to.

    "That''s suicide," Tian Xifeng scoffed as she immediately understood what Zhihao was trying to say.

    "Then we only have three escape routes to choose from," Zhihao spoke up, "I knew nobody would agree to the fourth option so I won''t be forcing it on you guys. It''s too risky."

    "Then let''s do this!" Li Ying exclaimed as she suggested, "We first try to use the main exit and if that doesn''t work, we try to break the glass windows and we keep the rooftop as our last resort."

    "Or we break into groups and try all three methods at once?" Wang GuiYing frowned as he replied.

    Li Ying shook her head as she clearly rejected the idea, "We might not have time but it wouldn''t be smart to divide our manpower like that."

    "Then let''s give each option a two-minute time limit," Zhihao suggested as he thought about it carefully, "If we aren''t successful in those two minutes, we move on to try the next option. In total, we''ll be using six minutes to test out all the options which would give us four minutes to think and come up with other ways if all three methods fail."

    "I agree to that!" Li Ling exclaimed as he raised his hand, "Let''s do it according to Zhihao''s plan."

    Wang GuiYing took a sharp breath in as he turned and started walking towards the exit that was just beside the entry gate that they had used to get inside, "What are you guys idling about? Get moving!"

    Zhihao couldn''t help but let out a small chuckle as he saw the man''s spontaneous reaction.

    Wang GuiYing was always better at actions than he was at words. In fact, Zhihao kinda preferred it when the man just shut up since it would suddenly become more peaceful and Wang GuiYing would automatically seem less annoying once he keeps his mouth shut.

    The rest of the players gulped as they silently followed after the man and agreed to go according to Zhihao''s plan once again.

    Wang GuiYing first tried to pull the door but as expected, the door was locked and no matter how much force he used, he was still unable to pull the door open.

    Wang GuiYing took a sharp breath in as he calmed his fuming head and lifted his foot to kick the door but once again, nothing happened.

    "It''s strong. We can''t break it," Zhou Xinyi spoke up with a sigh as he stepped closer and observed the sealed door.

    The door was made out of glass but the glass was not at all easy to break, in fact, it was so thick and hard to break that it shocked the players who would have never expected to see such type of glass.

    Through the transparent glass door, they could also see the shutters that were closed and sealed with the use of old locks and chains.

    "Even if we break the door, the shutters are going to be a problem," Zhihao sighed as he informed.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he took a closer look at the lock that was on the glass door.

    "It''s a passcode," Li Ling muttered as he tried to put in some random codes that might let them out but it was only natural that none of the codes worked.

    "Then we give up and move on to the windows!" Li Ying exclaimed, sounding a bit too happy.

    "No," Zhihao shook his head with a sigh, "We try to open this door or head for the rooftop."

    "Eh?" Li Ying frowned as she waited for Zhihao to explain.

    "The glass cannot be broken and if I''m guessing right, bulletproof glass has been used throughout the whole building. We won''t be able to break the windows as well."

 Chapter 244 - Perks Of A Shopping Mall

    Li Ying didn''t know if she wanted to laugh or cry as she heard this.

    "Then let''s try our best and figure out the passcode," Liang Feng sighed as he stepped forward and offered a helping hand to Li Ling.

    "There is one thing that we forgot to consider," Wang GuiYing spoke up as he suddenly realized something.

    "What is it?" Li Ying turned to ask as she looked at the man.

    "This is a mall, is it not?" Wang GuiYing asked and Li Ying''s frown deepened as she tried to understand him.

    "A shopping mall..." Kaoru muttered as she slowly understood what the man was trying to say, "Of course, it is! A shopping mall where we can buy stuff!"

    Wang GuiYing smiled as he turned and gave the girl a nod, "At least, someone got it.."

    "I''m still clueless, what are you guys talking about?" Li Ying frowned as she questioned.

    Wang GuiYing chuckled as he raised his hand and patted the girl''s head, "Yingli, I didn''t know you were so slow."

    Li Ying frowned as she clearly didn''t like the comment.

    Kaoru turned around and ran inside the mall without bothering to say anything to anyone.

    "Yah! Wait for me too!" Wang GuiYing shouted after her as he took a few seconds to react and ran after her.

    Zhou Xinyi sighed as he followed after Wang GuiYing leaving the others behind.

    "What the hell?!" Li Ying blinked as she looked at their running backs in disbelief, "Did they go crazy or something?"

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard her sister, "They didn''t go crazy, in fact, Trash is finally using his brain for once."

    Zhihao sighed as he nodded and agreed to Li Ling, "It''s a shopping mall. The most advantageous thing for us is perhaps this fact itself. A shopping mall has a lot of things that we could use."

    Li Ying''s eyebrows creased together as she suddenly pulled Jiangshi and exclaimed, "We''ll be heading to the rooftop."

    Li Ling frowned as he glared at her sister and clearly said a solid, "No."

    Li Ying pursed her lips as her eyes narrowed down on her brother.

    "It''s too dangerous for you to go alone," Li Ling sighed as he stated and tried to explain that the reason he didn''t want to send her was for her own good.

    Li Ying chuckled as she heard this, "Big bro, do you think anything dangerous could happen to me?"

    Li Ling scoffed as he shook his head, "I''m not worried for you, I''m worried for the mall. You might damage it."

    "..." Li Ying looked to be unimpressed and a little bit annoyed as she heard this.

    Zhihao clicked his tongue as he thought about it for a second and exclaimed, "You can go."

    "Eh?" Li Ling frowned as he turned to face Zhihao.

    Zhihao shrugged his shoulder as he tried to explain, "It would save us some time. If the rooftop is also sealed just like this then we might be wasting time."

    "So you want to send them in order to check whether the rooftop is an option that can be considered or not?" Tian Xifeng questioned as she looked at Zhihao in all seriousness.

    Zhihao nodded his head as he confirmed, "It wouldn''t take them too long. If it''s closed then you come back and report, and if it''s open then you try to find a way out and come back to report. Whatever happens, you come back and report, okay?"

    Li Ying nodded her head as she slightly smiled in understanding, "Got it!"

    "I''ll give you three minutes and if you don''t come back till then, we come to get you," Zhihao informed seriously.

    Li Ying nodded her head once again as she turned and headed for the stairs with Jiangshi who was simply pulled along with her even though he had no actual interest in going all the way up just to check.

    "A-Zhi, it''s dangerous," Li Ling frowned as he looked at Zhihao and complained.

    Zhihao smiled as he nodded, "It can be dangerous only if there is another danger that the system is hiding from us."

    "..."

    "But I don''t think there needs to be something more dangerous than a ticking time bomb," Zhihao added as he pursed his lips.

    Li Ling sighed as he admitted defeat and just decided to let the man do whatever he wanted to do.

    "Don''t worry," Zhihao reassured, "If they don''t get back in three minutes then I''ll go up to get them."

    Li Ling pouted as he nodded his head like a little child that didn''t agree with something but didn''t dare to say something against it either.

    "Let''s worry about this thing first," Liang Feng clicked his tongue as he caught everyone''s attention and typed in another passcode that was once again wrong.

    Tian Xifeng glanced at Liang Feng before lifting her head to look in the direction where Li Ying and Jiangshi had run off to. Something was clearly troubling her and in the very next second, she spoke up, "Wait for me here. I''ll be back soon."

    Liang Feng snapped his head in shock as he looked at the woman''s back, "You too?!"

    Zhihao, "Let her go. Didn''t she say that she would be back?"

    Liang Feng frowned as he nodded and listened to Zhihao.

    Li Ling kept his eyes on the lock and carefully observed all the passcodes that were being typed in by Liang Feng.

    "This is going to take too long," Zhihao clicked his tongue as he got a little impatient, "It''s a six-digit number. There are a million possible combinations."

    "Agreed," Liang Feng muttered, his hands not bothering to stop as he continued as fast as he could.

    A-Zhi, do you have a better plan then?" Li Ling questioned as he looked at the man.

    Zhihao sighed as he shook his head with much embarrassment, "I''m really too exhausted to come up with anything but..."

    "But?"

    "The system said that all the hints were given to us. The passcode should also be given to us, don''t you think?"

    Li Ling''s eyebrows creased together as he thought about it for a few seconds before nodding, "If this is really the method that the system wants us to use then it would provide us with the passcode."

    "And if it didn''t provide us the hint for the passcode then it means we are barking up the wrong tree," Zhihao muttered.

    They were already exhausted after going through all the anxiety and pressure that was put upon them from the last four competitions. Even Zhihao who thought he had mastered the skill of staying calm in intense and strenuous situations was not able to think straight at this moment.

    He felt as if they were missing something.

    Zhihao bit his bottom lip as he pondered over it.

    It felt as if the answer was right in front of his eyes, at the tip of his tongue, and in the back of his mind. Zhihao seriously felt as if there was something he was not considering. As if there was something that he had overlooked.

    This feeling of feeling as if you were missing something was rather frustrating as Zhihao glanced down at the ticking timer and looked up at Liang Feng and Li Ling who were trying to open the door.

    "We are here! We are here!" It was the loud and annoying voice of Wang GuiYing that had returned.

    Zhihao''s eyes lit up as he saw the hammer in his hand and then his eyes slowly contracted as he saw the man''s left hand which was tightly clutching onto a bag filled with food and drinks.

    "Did you just go and steal all this?" Zhihao questioned as he blinked in disbelief.

    Wang GuiYing smiled brightly as he nodded his head and proudly stated, "Mastermo, this might just be a virtual world so what are you afraid of? Enjoy it while you still can!"

    "..."

    Zhihao sighed as he didn''t bother saying anything as a response to that but this didn''t mean that he agreed with Wang GuiYing.

    Li Ling chuckled as he straightened his back and walked towards Wang GuiYing.

    "You''re hungry too, aren''t you?" Wang GuiYing beamed as he questioned.

    Li Ling stretched his palm out forward and Wang GuiYing handed the bag of snacks to him.

    "There you go!"

    Li Ling blinked as he handed the bag back and demanded, "Give me the hammer. It''s the only useful thing you brought."

    "Oh..." Wang GuiYing muttered awkwardly as he handed the hammer over to Li Ling before adding, "It''s not the only thing we brought."

    Li Ling didn''t bother listening to him as he turned around and warned Liang Feng, "Step aside for a second."

    Liang Feng didn''t question anything as he stepped aside and gave Li Ling some space.

    At the same moment, Zhihao''s eyes trailed behind Wang GuiYing where he saw Kaoru and Zhou Xinyi slowly approaching them with both their hands filled.

    Zhihao was a bit shocked to see that they were carrying a lot more useful stuff that could actually manage to help them not just in this level but in the next as well.

 Chapter 245 - The Brilliant Idea

    Li Ling raised the hammer and without even bothering to think about it for a second, he struck the door, hoping to see at least a crack but it seemed that the glass door was a bit too strong.

    Zhihao sighed as he saw the fruitless try and wondered if there was any other way that could perhaps help them.

    Li Ling frowned as he raised the hammer for the second time and struck down, hitting the same spot once again.

    Zhihao blinked as he understood what Li Ling was trying to do.

    No matter how powerful the glass used was, it was still nothing more than glass. It would have to eventually break if Li Ling kept hitting it.

    Even though there was no crack, Li Ling wasn''t discouraged in the slightest as he lifted the hammer and hit the door once again.

    Zhihao took this time to turn and walked towards Kaoru as he questioned, "Anything useful?"

    Kaoru gulped as she nodded her head and showed Zhihao the bag that was filled with different types of items that were picked up by her, "I was wondering if we could cut the power supply to the door.."

    "Huh?" Zhihao was a bit surprised as he asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

    Kaoru took out some heavy scissors and gloves as she responded, "The door is electric so if there is no power supply, the lock would not be as strong."

    Zhihao thought about it for a few seconds as he shook his head, "That''s not a very bright idea."

    "Eh?" Kaoru looked a bit embarrassed as she heard Zhihao''s reply.

    Zhihao pointed at the door as he explained, "The auto-lock system might act and without power, our chances of breaking that lock would almost be impossible."

    "T-Then how about we burn the door?" Kaoru stuttered as she suggested another idea.

    "Burn the door?" Zhihao was once again confused as he looked at the girl and waited for her to explain her suggestion.

    Kaoru nodded her head as she took out a lighter and a few bottles of deodorant, "I couldn''t find a flame thrower but this should be able to help."

    Zhihao''s eyebrows creased together as he looked at the two items and somewhat understood Kaoru''s intentions.

    "I''ve heard that glass gets weaker when heated," Kaoru added as she carefully looked at Zhihao and waited for the man to say something.

    "That..." Zhihao''s eyes widened ever so slightly as he exclaimed, "Is a great idea!"

    "H-Huh?" Kaoru was a bit surprised to suddenly see such enthusiasm displayed by Zhihao who took the lighter and the deodorant from Kaoru.

    "Ice," Zhihao spoke as he met the girl''s eyes, "I want you to run and get some ice."

    "No need." It was Zhou Xinyi who spoke up as he walked forward and took out something from the snacks bag that Wang GuiYing had brought over, "We can use ice cream as well."

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this. It seemed that at the end of the day Wang GuiYing wasn''t completely useless.

    "Li Ling, stop for a second," Zhihao walked forward as he broke the seal on the deodorant, "Let''s try this first."

    Li Ling turned to look at the things that Zhihao was holding and at first he looked to be a bit confused before he eventually started understanding what the man wanted to try.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he stepped back and let Zhihao take over.

    "Everyone, step back," Zhihao warned as he held the lighter up and aimed the deodorant at the lighter before pressing the button on top and creating a flamethrower that he used on the glass door.

    Li Ling gulped as he took another step back and covered his nose.

    The smell of burning deodorant was really just the smell of burning chemicals and not only was it toxic but it was stinky as well.

    "Hulk, I want you to take out the ice cream and put it on the glass as soon as I stop the fire. Li Ling, once he is done, you hit the door again, okay?" Zhihao instructed.

    Li Ling and Zhou Xinyi nodded their heads in unison as they got ready to act as soon as Zhihao was done.

    Every glass in the world could be broken with one method or another. It just so happened that Zhihao remembered a really interesting thing about glass that he had learned when he was still in school.

    Glass at a really low temperature would break and glass at a really high temperature would also break. When Zhihao was still in school, there was once an experiment that he saw on the internet and wanted to try it out at home. He had broken his mom''s favorite wine glass and been scolded a lot for it, however, that day he learned that if you constantly keep changing the temperature from really high to really low then the glass would break immediately.

    He never knew what the name of this reaction was but he didn''t really care to learn the name either since he was sure that this method was going to work for them.

    "Three. Two." Zhihao counted down from three and on the count of one, he stopped the flamethrower and stepped aside, giving Zhou Xinyi space to act.

    Zhou Xinyi was alert as well and without missing a beat, he smeared the ice cream on the glass door before stepping aside and letting Li Ling handle the rest.

    "Great!" Li Ling exclaimed as he saw the reaction of the glass and raised the hammer with both his hands clutching on tightly to its handle.

    In less than a second, he used all the energy he could muster up and struck down on the glass, however, unlike before, this time the glass actually broke.

    "Yes!" Zhihao was the first to jump up in joy as he cried out.

    Liang Feng also looked to be shocked and impressed that someone had actually come up with this plan.

    Kaoru smiled brightly as she also jumped up in joy after seeing the glass door break.

    Li Ling used the hammer to break the rest of the glass door as well.

    "Now we need to worry about the shutter," Wang GuiYing beamed as he took out a bag of chips and opened it.

    Zhihao looked at the shutter and seemed to be in deep thoughts.

    Li Ling turned around to face Zhou Xinyi as he asked, "Did you perhaps bring a chainsaw or something?"

    Zhou Xinyi shook his head with a sigh as he responded, "We couldn''t find a chainsaw."

    "But!" Kaoru spoke up as she raised her hand, "I think we can use another method."

    "What method?" Li Ling questioned back as he looked at the girl curiously.

    Since it was initially her idea to break the glass with the method of heat, the other players naturally trusted her a little more.

    "Shutters are usually locked from the outside. This one has also been locked from the outside which means we can''t break the lock since we can''t even see it."

    Li Ling nodded his head as he understood what the girl was trying to say.

    "But there is something that most people don''t know," Kaoru smiled as she stepped out of the door and crouched down near one end of the shutter, "Most people don''t know that shutters can actually be easily broken from the inside."

    "It can?" Zhihao asked in surprise as he walked closer to the girl and crouched down beside her.

    Kaoru nodded her head as she explained confidently, "There are two points of lock on either end of the shutter. One is supposed to be somewhere here while the other is supposed to be on the opposite side. All we have to do is break a small part of the wall and that should do the trick."

    Li Ling''s lips curled up in a smirk as he lifted the hammer and put it on his shoulder, "What part do you want me to break?"

    Kaoru smiled as she pointed at the wall and showed him exactly what he needed to destroy.

    "Step aside. This might get a bit dusty," Li Ling warned as he positioned himself and struck the wall with the heavy hammer.

    "Is this really going to work?" Wang GuiYing was carelessly munching on the chips as he asked casually.

    Kaoru nodded her head without any hesitation as she responded, "My uncle used to run a store with an old shutter like this so I know about shutters a lot. This should definitely do the trick."

    "Then two pairs of hands should be better than one," Zhou Xinyi spoke up as he took out another bigger hammer from the bag and went over to the other side of the shutter, "Is this the place?"

    "That''s it," Kaoru confirmed with a nod.

    Zhou Xinyi lifted the hammer and with a single strike, he was able to crack the wall which somehow managed to come as a shock to the other players who glanced at Li Ling who had only cracked the wall after hitting it four times.

    "..."

 Chapter 246 - The Calm And The Storm

    In the next minute, it almost looked like there was a silent war between Li Ling and Zhou Xinyi to see who was able to break the wall quicker.

    As expected, the war was easily won by Zhou Xinyi who was a tad bit stronger and faster than Li Ling.

    After the two sides of the wall were broken, Kaoru immediately stepped forward as she exclaimed, "Now all we have to do is break this part as well and lift it."

    She pointed at the ground that was located in the middle of the shutter and before Li Ling could even react, Zhou Xinyi had already lifted the hammer and struck down, breaking it with a clean swing.

    "Wow!" Kaoru couldn''t help but exclaim happily as she saw the lock breaking immediately as soon as Zhou Xinyi struck it, "You''re really strong!"

    Zhou Xinyi nodded as he took the compliment but didn''t bother saying anything as a response.

    "Of course, he is!" Wang GuiYing exclaimed proudly as if it were him getting complimented, "After all, he''s my best friend! It''s only natural that my best friend is amazing!"

    Wang GuiYing stepped up and hooked his arm around Zhou Xinyi''s shoulder as he smiled brightly.

    Kaoru blinked as her eyes glanced at the hand around Zhou Xinyi''s shoulder and then her eyes trailed up to Zhou Xinyi''s ears that were a bit red..

    "I see..." Kaoru muttered with a gulp as she understood some things that even the man''s so-called best friend hadn''t realized about Zhou Xinyi.

    "Lift the shutter," Zhihao walked forward as he crouched down and held on to one side of the handle.

    Li Ling didn''t bother hearing Zhou Xinyi''s praises anymore as he turned and held on to the other handle.

    Zhihao and Li Ling''s eyes met and both gave a nod before putting in all their strength to lift the shutter that was surprisingly not as heavy as they thought it would be.

    Just as they had expected, the three locks on the shutter were broken thanks to Li Ling and Zhou Xinyi who followed the instructions of Kaoru.

    "We are out!" Liang Feng sounded to be a bit too enthusiastic as he exclaimed loudly and almost jumped up in joy.

    "We are!'' Kaoru also rejoiced as they all stepped out of the mall.

    Wang GuiYing chuckled as he commented proudly, "We have such talented players on our side, it''s only natural that we got out of there this fast!"

    Kaoru giggled as she nodded her head and agreed with him, "Mastermo really is amazing."

    Li Ling''s eyes narrowed down on the girl and he didn''t look to be very pleased as he saw the light blush on her cheeks.

    Zhihao sighed with a smile as he shook his head and responded, "I''m not the one who''s amazing. You played a big part in it as well. If it weren''t for you then we would not have been able to make it out."

    Kaoru''s cheeks turned even more red as she heard this, "N-No, that''s not it! You''re just flattering me!"

    Zhihao chuckled as he saw this embarrassed reaction, "I''m only stating the facts."

    Kaoru bit her bottom lip as she held her head down to hide her flushed face.

    Li Ling clicked his tongue loudly as he glared at the girl and pulled Zhihao closer.

    Kaoru looked at the man and blinked in confusion.

    "You did great, Kaze17," Li Ling put on a bright smile that was clearly fake as he looked at the girl and spoke.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but feel that something was off as he side-glanced at Li Ling''s face that didn''t quite seem to be right.

    Kaoru smiled even more as she nodded her head and replied, "You too, Senpai!"

    Li Ling smiled as he nodded his head but Zhihao could clearly sense that the man was probably not happy at all.

    Zhihao nudged Li Ling as he questioned in a whisper, "Are you acting jealous right now?"

    Li Ling pouted and gave a nod as a response.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but chuckle as he rubbed Li Ling''s head and found the man to be looking a bit too cute when he was jealous.

    "She clearly likes you and it makes me jealous," Li Ling whined in a whisper so as the others couldn''t hear him.

    "Likes me?" Zhihao blinked as he remembered a conversation he had with Kaoru a long time ago, "You don''t need to worry about that. She clearly likes the gamemaster. She only feels respect for me."

    Li Ling pursed his lips together and gave Zhihao an unimpressed look as he wondered how dense this man was.

    At this point, even if someone were to come and kiss him, he would probably still claim that they held pure admiration for him.

    "Um... You might all want to know this," Zhou Xinyi spoke up and the small smile that was previously there on his face was now turned down into a frown.

    Zhihao could immediately sense that it was something important so he turned serious as he questioned, "What is it?"

    Zhou Xinyi gulped as he showed his phone screen and it took Zhihao a few minutes to understand what was wrong with it.

    "The timer..." Li Ling muttered as his eyes widened and he realized something.

    "We... Were tricked," Zhihao scoffed as he clenched his hand into a fist.

    "Huh?" Wang GuiYing''s eyebrows creased together as he looked at the screen, "Why the hell is that thing still ticking down?!"

    Zhihao''s frown deepened as his eyes widened and he realized that maybe he had been wrong since the start.

    "The mission was for us to survive," Kaoru spoke up, "Maybe if we just wait for the bomb to blow up..."

    "No." Zhihao refuted the idea immediately as he spoke sternly, "That would be foolish."

    "..."

    "We can''t put our lives at risk like that," Zhihao added as he felt his legs going weak.

    "Then... What do we do now?" Kaoru asked hesitantly as she walked to the side and sat down with her back leaning on the wall of the building, "We can''t go back in... Right?"

    "There''s no way we can go back in!" Wang GuiYing shouted anxiously, "We don''t have enough time! If the bomb really blows up and we can''t get out on time... We''ll die!"

    Zhihao gulped as he realized this threat.

    Their options were limited.

    They still had no idea what the system wanted them to do and by simply standing here, they were risking elimination which would basically be killing them and if they went back inside then they were still risking death since there was no guarantee that they would make it back out alive.

    "A-Zhi, calm down and think," Li Ling patted the man''s back, "I know we can do it."

    Zhihao gave the man a weak smile but said nothing to that.

    Li Ling frowned as he saw this response and he clearly guessed what Zhihao was so worried about so he leaned in and gave the man a hug as he whispered, "Don''t blame yourself. It''s not your fault."

    Zhihao nodded his head but didn''t even hug the man back as his mind was already absent.

    "A-Zhi, you stay here with the others and I''ll go with Liang Feng, okay?" Li Ling looked into the man''s eyes as he asked.

    Zhihao''s eyebrows creased together in worry as he questioned, "Where are you going?"

    Liang Feng also frowned as he heard this and asked, "What are you planning?"

    Li Ling smiled as he shook his head and tried to reassure Zhihao, "Don''t worry about me. I''m going to find my sister. It''s been more than three minutes."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened ever so slightly as he felt a sting of guilt stabbing his heart, "Damn it..."

    He couldn''t help but curse at himself. He had clearly promised Li Ling not to worry about her sister. He had reassured the man that if she were not to come back in three minutes, he would personally go and look for her but at the end of the day, he had still forgotten about her and it was Li Ling who remembered.

    Li Ling turned to head back inside the mall but was stopped by Zhihao who grabbed his hand and pulled him back.

    "Huh?" Li Ling muttered in confusion as he looked back at Zhihao.

    "You stay back," Zhihao instructed firmly, "I''ll go look for her. Since I was the one who permitted her to go up there, I''ll be the one to ensure her safety."

    Li Ling gulped as he saw the serious and determined look in Zhihao''s eyes, "A-Zhi, I appreciate it but it might be too dangerous. It''s better if I-"

    His words were cut short as Li Ling felt someone''s arm hooking around his neck, "Mastermo, you can go ahead. We''ll keep an eye on him."

    It was Wang GuiYing who smiled brightly as he supported Zhihao.

    Zhihao smiled and nodded as he silently thanked Wang GuiYing for his help.

 Chapter 247 - Hack The Already Hacked System

    "Y-Yah! Let me go!" Li Ling cried out as he tried to struggle out of Wang GuiYing''s hold but the man put him in a chokehold easily.

    "Little lover, sometimes it''s better to trust people that care about you," Wang GuiYing commented with a smirk and Li Ling''s muscles tensed up.

    "What... Are you talking about?" Li Ling muttered in a low volume and Wang GuiYing chuckled as he heard this question.

    "You must have already realized it by now," Wang GuiYing spoke up with a sigh, "Mastermo has always been the type to blame himself even when it''s not really his fault. If you don''t trust him right now, it would probably hurt him."

    "...."

    "He might not say it but you have to read in between the lines sometimes," Wang GuiYing beamed and it made Li Ling feel as if this man knew Zhihao a lot better than him, "Only if you read between the lines would you be able to stay together with him for a long time."

    Wang GuiYing let go of the man but Li Ling no longer bothered to try and run back inside the mall.

    "You can leave it up to me!" Liang Feng sighed as he gave Li Ling''s back a pat and ran into the mall following behind Zhihao.

    "Take this with you," Zhou Xinyi threw a bag over to Liang Feng who had turned around just in time to catch the heavy bag, "It might be of some help to you."

    Liang Feng nodded his head with a smile as he silently thanked the man before turning around once again and heading after Zhihao who had already rushed off without wasting any time to think or strategize.

    Li Ling sighed as he glanced down at his phone screen, "I have a bad feeling about this."

    "Then why don''t you try helping them from here?" Wang GuiYing tilted his head as he suggested.

    "Huh? What do you mean?" Li Ling questioned in confusion as he stared at the man.

    Wang GuiYing shrugged his shoulder as he pointed at the phone and responded, "Even though you''re not inside, you can still help them, can''t you?"

    "..." Li Ling''s eyebrows creased together as he heard this and wondered what it was that the man was trying to tell him.

    "After all, you''re the little lover that our Mastermo speaks so highly of. Don''t you think you should live up to his expectations?" Wang GuiYing smiled mischievously and it almost looked as if he was trying to entice Li Ling to do something reckless.

    Li Ling gulped as his eyes widened ever so slowly, "You mean...?"

    "Are you just going to let the system do anything it wants?" Wang GuiYing asked with a smirk and for a second there, the smirk scared Li Ling who suspected Wang GuiYing.

    This man certainly seemed to know a lot more than he let on. Did this mean that he already knew that Li Ling was the gamemaster...?

    Li Ling shook his head as he gulped and pushed the thought away.

    There was no way Wang GuiYing would be able to realize such a thing this fast. If he already knew about Li Ling''s secret then he wouldn''t have been so calm right now.

    "You can hack into the software, can''t you?" Zhou Xinyi sighed as he questioned.

    Li Ling nodded his head after much hesitation, "That''s right... But I can''t do it right now."

    "Why?" Zhou Xinyi''s eyes narrowed down on the man as he questioned.

    "I have no computer or any other device that can be used to hack into the system," Li Ling sighed dejectedly.

    "That''s where you''re wrong," Wang GuiYing clicked his tongue as he interjected, "You''re such an inflexible guy. I wonder what Mastermo saw in you?"

    "..." For some odd reason, Li Ling was a bit offended as he heard that last useless comment that had no business being there.

    Wang GuiYing held up his phone and looked at Li Ling with an indecipherable expression plastered on his face as he questioned, "What does this look like to you?"

    "That''s a..." Li Ling gulped as he stopped himself from saying any further.

    "Do you finally get it?" Wang GuiYing sighed as he held out his phone for Li Ling.

    Li Ling''s eyes widened in shock as he nodded his head and confirmed, "I get it!"

    He was not able to do anything because he thought he had no device that could be used. Since Alvi had taken complete control and no other device was working, it was impossible for Li Ling to hack into the system with a foreign device that was not previously connected with the system, however, because of all the panic caused, he had forgotten a really important thing.

    Their phones were still working and they were also previously connected with the system so it was the perfect device that could be used to hack into the system.

    Li Ling cautiously glanced at Wang GuiYing as his suspicion rose.

    Wang GuiYing whistled as he shrugged his shoulder and tried to act innocent, "Don''t glare at me like that. I have nothing to hide."

    Li Ling didn''t believe it one bit but he still nodded his head with a smile as he heard it, "Thank you for pointing it out."

    Wang GuiYing smiled brightly as he nodded his head, "You can always count on me. Any friend of Zhihao is also my friend! And that includes his boyfriend as well."

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this but he did nothing more than nod his head.

    "But we have a small problem," Li Ling muttered as he pursed his lips in disbelief.

    "What is it?" Zhou Xinyi questioned as he glanced down at the phone in Li Ling''s hand.

    Li Ling shook his head as he didn''t bother giving an answer.

    The phone had already been hacked by the system so it would definitely be hard for Li Ling to hack it back, however, explaining why it would be hard was something that Li Ling found to be even more difficult.

    "Let''s just see if this works," Li Ling muttered to himself as he flipped the phone sideways and clicked on the power button thrice before long-pressing it.

    This was a trick to reset the phone. If this worked then Li Ling''s work was going to be cut out easy for him.

    He didn''t really expect it to work. He could only hope that this method worked and shockingly enough, his hopes had borne fruit as the phone took a minute to completely reset all the functions and system.

    Li Ling''s eyes widened ever so slightly as he was too surprised to even celebrate, "I did it...?"

    Wang GuiYing''s eyes seemed to be shining as he looked at the normal screen, "Wow... You''re a thorough Mastermo simp, aren''t you? Even your wallpaper is a picture of him."

    "..." Li Ling couldn''t help but feel a little embarrassed as he looked at his wallpaper that was a photo of shirtless Zhihao who seemed to be posing for an advertisement.

    "I never knew he did such an advertisement," Wang GuiYing commented curiously.

    Li Ling coughed as he informed, "It is an advertisement from when he still used to show his face on the screen."

    "So you''ve been stalking him since then? How dedicated~" Wang GuiYing probably didn''t mean to sound as sarcastic as he did.

    Li Ling blinked as he looked at the man and wondered if this BBtrash was trying to pick a fight with him, "..."

    Wang GuiYing smiled mischievously as he hooked his arm around Li Ling''s shoulder, "Don''t worry about it. I don''t judge people."

    Li Ling scoffed as he heard this but didn''t bother saying anything in defence as he opened his browser and got back to work.

    Wang GuiYing looked to be pretty interested as his eyes dare not look away from Li Ling''s phone. If it weren''t for Zhou Xinyi who had pulled him away, the man would have probably kept on staring at the screen.

    Li Ling sighed in relief as he mentally thanked Zhou Xinyi for taking the man away.

    With Wang GuiYing watching his actions like a hawk, he had to act as if he was trying his best but now that Wang GuiYing was not watching him anymore, Li Ling could take the easy way out.

    He closed the previous tab and opened a new one as he manually typed in the address of a website that not many people were aware of.

    If Wang GuiYing had seen the web address then he would have probably figured things out so Li Ling had to be careful as he logged in with his gamemaster ID and tried to hack into the system.

    While this whole thing went on, Liang Feng had managed to catch up with Zhihao and they both headed for the rooftop together. The elevator was closed down and risky so they had to climb the stairs all the way up as fast as they could.

    This was not a major problem for them but once they reached the top floor, they couldn''t help but feel unhappy.

 Chapter 248 - Star Dome

    "Where are they?" Zhihao questioned in a mutter as his muscles went tense and he looked around anxiously.

    The door to the rooftop was also sealed shut and from the looks of it, Zhihao was sure that nobody had tried to break the door nor had anyone tried to open it.

    Liang Feng sighed as he felt a headache coming, "Mastermo, I think that little devil tricked you."

    "Eh?" Zhihao snapped his head as he stared at the man blankly, not understanding what Liang Feng was trying to say.

    "I don''t think she was headed for the rooftop," Liang Feng added in disbelief.

    "Huh?" Zhihao muttered in confusion as he looked at the man and waited for him to explain his words.

    "She was headed somewhere else," Liang Feng sighed as he didn''t bother giving a long explanation, "Let''s go try the security room. This place has cameras so we might be able to find them."

    Zhihao frowned as he looked up to see the cameras that still had their lights turned on, meaning that they were still running.

    "Then let''s do that," Zhihao nodded his head as he agreed to follow Liang Feng.

    Liang Feng turned back around and headed for the security room that he somehow knew the location of.

    "Mastermo, you shouldn''t blame yourself for not figuring it out. The game is tricky and we are fighting against an advance AI here so it''s only natural that we would be tricked by her," Liang Feng tried to reassure the man with a bit of worry laced along with his words.

    "Li Ying is a smart girl and that Jiangshi is also a talented boy so you don''t need to worry about them. Even Tian Xifeng followed them so I''m sure they are all safe," Liang Feng sighed as he added with confidence, "Maybe they figured something out that we probably missed. It''s a good thing if they can act first and find a way to stop the timer."

    Zhihao gave no response to the man and this made Liang Feng think that Zhihao was still worried about Li Ying.

    "Mastermo, you were impressive today. It''s the first time we''ve met each other but I can already tell why you are called the ultimate top player," Liang Feng chuckled as he stated his honest opinions on the man, "It''s not an easy thing for people to be calm and to think rationally under such conditions. You even managed to adapt to the changes so quickly. It''s truly something to be proud of."

    "..."

    "Even if you don''t win the game in the end, you''ll still be the best player that I have ever met in my life," Liang Feng felt as if this was the biggest compliment he could give to a person so he was a bit embarrassed about it, however, Zhihao still gave the man no response.

    Liang Feng frowned as he finally decided to say something that had been bugging him a lot, "Mastermo, you should give up on the final goal. The final mission is really not worth it and I don''t think you would want to complete the mission either when you find out who the gamemaster really is. I''m not just saying this to discourage you."

    Liang Feng couldn''t help but feel a little awkward as he continued to explain himself, "In fact, it''s not just you. I wouldn''t want anyone to complete the final mission. We can find another way out. I believe that we can!"

    Liang Feng exclaimed as he turned around to look at Zhihao with a bright reassuring smile on his face, but as soon as he turned around, he blinked a few times and his smile disappeared without even leaving behind a trace.

    "Mastermo...?" Liang Feng muttered as he looked around at the empty stairs.

    He gulped in confusion as he couldn''t even move from his spot for a few seconds.

    He heard footsteps climbing up the stairs and Liang Feng immediately moved forward to look up through the small gap between the stair railing, "Mastermo!"

    The Zhihao he was talking to had not even bothered to listen to Liang Feng as he had long before turned around and headed back upstairs.

    Zhihao stopped for a second as he shouted, "You head to the security room. I need to check something!"

    Liang Feng couldn''t help but blink in shock as he stood there for a few seconds, silently wondering how he had made a fool out of himself by speaking to himself just a minute ago.

    When the shock had settled in, Liang Feng took a sharp breath as he headed back down the stairs and continued to head towards the security room that wasn''t too far away.

    "I take back my praises," Liang Feng muttered to himself with a bit of annoyance.

    "The star!" Zhihao exclaimed but there was nobody there to hear him, making him look like a madman that was talking to himself, "It has to be the stars!"

    Zhihao looked to be confident as he came up with a new guess that drove him. If he was right then they were going to solve this mission pretty soon and if he was not right, they would be missing their chance to complete the mission since time was slowly slipping through their fingertips.

    Since he didn''t have that much time left on his hands, he was betting all the time that he had left on this one guess.

    He was a bit confident but at the same time, he also couldn''t help but feel a bit uneasy as he wondered what the result would be if he was chasing after the wrong clue once again.

    Mastermo had only realized it when he was heading down the stairs with Liang Feng. Like a sudden bolt of lightning, it hit him.

    All the five competition arenas were connected to each other in a manner that formed a star. Zhihao had already realized this before but he never knew that the clue could come to help him this soon.

    Zhihao had visited this shopping complex before so he knew the place pretty well and luckily enough, he was one of the few people who knew about the treasure that was hidden in this mall.

    Most people who come here don''t actually visit the top floors. Most people don''t even go explore the place properly. They simply visit the shops they came here for and go back home after they are done with their shopping. This was only natural since this was a shopping mall and not a museum. People came here to shop not to explore the place and this was the main reason why most people didn''t know about the amazing treasure hidden on the top floor of this mall.

    On the top floor of this mall, there was a very special place called the star dome and Zhihao had once stumbled upon it by mistake.

    It was just a year or two ago when he stupidly got lost inside the mall and ended up on the top floor.

    The dome was small and couldn''t be seen clearly from the outside of the building since it was located in the middle of the rooftop, however, it was beautiful nonetheless.

    The only reason why Zhihao thought this star dome might be the answer to completing the mission was because the competition arenas connected and made a star. The reasoning was pretty vague and in a normal case scenario, Zhihao wouldn''t have even considered this as a clue worth exploring, but today''s situation was a bit different.

    He didn''t have a solid reason to believe that the star dome was a key behind completing the mission, however, the reason why he chose to bet the rest of the time left on this one thing was because of his gut feeling.

    Zhihao had always been the lucky kind and his gut feeling had never actually been wrong so since he had such a strong gut feeling at this moment, he would naturally go along with it and believe in himself.

    If the other players were to know that Zhihao was simply following his guts then they would surely have a shock of a lifetime.

    When Zhihao reached the top floor, he hesitated for a mere second as his hand grabbed the door handle tightly.

    He took a sharp breath in as he closed his eyes and got ready to test if he had been stupid or not.

    He opened the door and his eyes also snapped open as he looked at the star dome that was waiting to greet him.

    "Mastermo...?" It was a familiar female voice that called out to him as soon as he opened the door.

    Zhihao blinked in surprise as he looked back at the girl who was just as shocked as him.

    "What... The hell are you doing here...?" Zhihao questioned in shock as his eyes trailed towards the interior of this place that had completely changed from the last time he had been here.

    It had been years since he came here so it wasn''t a shock that the interior had changed, however, with just a single look, Zhihao was sure that this type of change was still not normal.

 Chapter 249 - Dependent On Luck

    "Gege!~" It was the annoying familiar voice of another woman who immediately stepped forward and jumped on Zhihao with the hopes of catching him by surprise and squeezing him to death in a hug, however, Zhihao''s reflexes were still as fast as ever.

    Zhihao moved aside almost immediately and Tian Xifeng ended up hugging nothing more than the cold floor.

    "What''s that?" Zhihao questioned curiously as he ignored Tian Xifeng and walked inside the room with his eyes fixed on the sets of wires connected to a huge device.

    Li Ying gulped as she cautiously glanced at Jiangshi and the boy looked back at her before nodding his head as they communicated with nothing more than mere gestures.

    Zhihao frowned as he saw this and spoke up, "Don''t you dare lie about it."

    Tian Xifeng groaned as she pushed herself off the ground unhappily but before she could whine or say anything, Li Ying spoke up as she answered Zhihao''s question.

    "A bomb."

    Zhihao was a little surprised but it wasn''t too unexpected since he had already expected to come across a bomb when he came up here..

    Tian Xifeng sighed as she rubbed her head and spoke up, "It''s more than just a normal bomb."

    Zhihao side-glanced at the woman as he gulped in worry, expecting to hear something worse in the very next sentence.

    "You should be able to guess it by now...?" Tian Xifeng smirked as she stated in a questioning manner.

    Zhihao nodded with a sigh as he responded, "I expected it to be something like this when the timer didn''t stop."

    Their mission this time was a bit too simple. All they had to do was survive. This was a mission that Zhihao had got before in the hungry siren level and with the help of the gamemaster, he had easily completed the mission as well. But the current scenario was really different from the old one so of course, Zhihao didn''t think it would be that easy to complete the mission.

    If their mission was to simply survive then the system would do anything to prevent them from completing the mission but by planting a small bomb inside the mall, there was no guarantee that the players would die.

    Well, as long as the bomb was small, it was useless. The players could always suppress the effects of the explosion or get out of the building and avoid the explosion completely. These two methods would be the first thing any player would try.

    In order to make sure that it was absolutely impossible for the player to survive, there was one more thing the system could do.

    "Once this thing blows up, the entire city goes with it," Tian Xifeng announced with a sigh, and Zhihao could do nothing but nod his head as he had also guessed the same.

    "When did you figure it out?" Zhihao questioned as he looked at Li Ying.

    "It was nothing more than a guess in the beginning," Li Ying responded awkwardly as she scratched the back of her neck, "I wasn''t sure if it was right but I thought it would be worth a try."

    "I''m guessing you didn''t figure it out because of the stars?" Zhihao interjected with a sigh.

    "Stars?" Li Ying repeated in confusion, clearly showing that she was completely clueless.

    "Forget it," Zhihao shrugged it off as he didn''t bother explaining and instead, he changed the topic once again, "Are you trying to stop it?"

    Li Ying nodded with a smile as she confirmed, "As you can see, we are trying our best but..."

    "But?" Zhihao''s eyebrows furrowed together as he sensed the hesitation in the girl''s face.

    "It''s useless," Li Ying responded with a dejected sigh, "It''s not working at all."

    Zhihao looked down at his phone screen which displayed the remaining few minutes that they had on their hands.

    "Hardly two minutes left," Zhihao muttered as he tried his best to stay calm, "We still have time so we can''t give up."

    Li Ying couldn''t help but chuckle dryly as she heard such an unexpectedly expected response from the great Mastermo, "You''re the only one who would say such a thing."

    Zhihao smirked as he nodded and silently agreed to her.

    Tian Xifeng, "That''s great!"

    Tian Xifeng skipped forward towards the entangled wires as she exclaimed proudly, "It''s not right to say that our hard work was useless. We were at least able to find this."

    Zhihao''s eyes lit up as he walked forward and looked at the wires that the woman was pointing at, "What is it?"

    "These," Tian Xifeng had a confident smirk on her face as she spoke, "These are the main wires. Haven''t you seen them in movies? You cut one wire and the bomb stops. If you cut the wrong wire then it blows up."

    "..."

    "You haven''t seen such movies?" Tian Xifeng questioned in disbelief as she looked at the speechless expression on the man''s face.

    Zhihao shook his head as he responded, "That''s not it."

    "Then?"

    Zhihao sighed but didn''t give her an answer as he crouched down and asked, "Which wire is the right one then?"

    Tian Xifeng held her hand up and shrugged her shoulders as she replied, "How am I supposed to know that?"

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this response.

    "They are all important," It was Li Ying who spoke up as she informed, "These four wires are connected to the main device so we can''t know which one is the one we are supposed to be cutting"

    Zhihao frowned as he looked at the wires, "Then let''s cut them all."

    Li Ying blinked in surprise as she heard the man''s suggestion.

    Tian Xifeng broke out laughing as she smacked Zhihao''s back and exclaimed, "Stop joking around, Gege!"

    "..."

    I''m not really joking...

    "It would be suicide to cut them all at once," Tian Xifeng added as she continued to laugh, thinking that Zhihao had said it as nothing more than a joke.

    "Is that so...?" Zhihao muttered under his breath as he kept his eyes on the wires.

    "We can''t even choose according to the color because they are all the same," Li Ying sighed as she sat down on the ground with her legs crossed over each other.

    "I wonder why..." Zhihao couldn''t help but want to cut them all at once but since Tian Xifeng had already warned him not to be that reckless, he would naturally listen to her.

    "Mastermo, you have great luck, don''t you?" Li Ying suddenly questioned and Zhihao was a bit surprised as he had a foreboding feeling in his stomach.

    Tian Xifeng clapped her hand as she heard Li Ying, "That''s right! Gege has amazing luck! Every time he enters a lottery, he wins!"

    "You couldn''t possibly be hoping to rely on my luck... Right?" Zhihao asked in disbelief, having the gut feeling that this was exactly what the two girls were trying to get at.

    Li Ying pursed her lips in a thin smile as she nodded her head and pulled Jiangshi down to sit with her as she spoke, "I don''t have such luck. Jiangshi here is even worse and I don''t think we even need to talk about Richlord''s luck."

    Tian Xifeng nodded with a sigh as she confirmed, "My luck has perished before it could even be born."

    "..."

    "You''re the only one who can be trusted."

    Zhihao gulped as he immediately shook his head, "Definitely not!"

    Li Ying frowned as she replied, "We are running out of time. We can''t figure it out so this is the last thing we can do. Do you prefer staying here and waiting for that thing to blow up? We would all die if that happens."

    "And if I''m wrong, we all still die," Zhihao retorted as he stood up immediately, "My luck can''t be trusted that much."

    Tian Xifeng and Li Ying shared a look before turning to Zhihao as they exclaimed together, "Even if you kill us, we won''t blame you."

    "..." Zhihao gulped as he looked at the girls in shock.

    "We are serious!" Li Ying exclaimed as she handed Zhihao a scissor, "You cut it."

    "Yingying, this is not a joke," Zhihao spoke up as he looked down at the scissors.

    "And nobody said it was a joke," Li Ying was quick to respond.

    "..." Zhihao could do nothing but sigh as he looked at the wires that were all red in color.

    "Mastermo, believe in your luck," Li Ying gave a thumbs-up as she tried to cheer the man on.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but feel that rather than saying that this girl trusted his luck, it would be more accurate to say that she didn''t want to deal with it so she pushed the decision over to Zhihao.

    "Gege, I know you can do it," Tian Xifeng beamed, "If you manage to cut the correct wire, I''ll tell you a really big secret!"

    Li Ying''s eyes widened ever so slightly as she snapped her head at Tian Xifeng and wondered if that big secret was the same secret that Li Ying was thinking of.

 Chapter 250 - The Love Letter

    "..." Zhihao looked at the wicked smile on Tian Xifeng''s face and he was immediately sold, "Deal."

    Tian Xifeng chuckled as she nodded her head.

    "The secret must be something worth this," Zhihao clicked his tongue as he randomly took a red wire and held the scissor in front of it.

    He took in a sharp breath as he closed his eyes and cut the wire.

    His heart went still and he couldn''t hear anything as his muscles also went tense.

    Nobody spoke for a whole minute and Zhihao peeked his eyes open to see the situation.

    "You... Did it...?" Rather than a statement, it sounded more like a question.

    Li Ying who had been cheering and trying to reassure the man previously looked to be the most shocked as she saw the unexpected reaction.

    "Wow~" Tian Xifeng also muttered as she looked at the bomb that had not blown up, "Your luck is really something."

    Zhihao gulped as he blinked and for a few seconds, he couldn''t dare to believe his eyes.

    Jiangshi immediately lifted his phone to look at the screen and just as they had all expected, the timer had stopped a few seconds before it hit zero.

    Everyone was silent and nobody dared to move a muscle as the shock took its sweet time settling in.

    "So... What''s the secret?" Zhihao calmed himself down and tried his best to look as unfazed as possible when he was really just jumping and celebrating on the inside.

    Tian Xifeng gulped as her lips slowly curled up in a smile, "You''ll be really shocked."

    Li Ying anxiously glanced at Tian Xifeng and from her expressions alone, it was clear that she was afraid of what secret Tian Xifeng was going to reveal.

    Zhihao kept his eyes on the woman as he waited for her to speak.

    Tian Xifeng walked closer to Zhihao and whispered the secret into his ear so that the others could not hear her, "Li Ling Gege looks really good in a maid outfit."

    "..." Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this secret.

    Tian Xifeng giggled as she added, "If you want photos, I''m willing to sell them for hundred dollars per photo."

    Zhihao pursed his lips into a thin line as his eyes narrowed down on the girl.

    He was silent for a minute and from the unimpressed look on his face, it didn''t look like he would be interested in the woman''s offer.

    Zhihao coughed as he cleared his throat and responded in a low volume, "It''s a deal."

    Tian Xifeng smiled happily in satisfaction as she heard the man, "Bank transfer accepted. I can give you three photos so your total would be three hundred dollars."

    Zhihao felt as if he was being scammed... In fact, it wasn''t even a feeling, it was a fact. He was definitely being scammed.

    "Then I''ll transfer the money tomorrow," Zhihao coughed out as he simply accepted being scammed for three precious photos.

    Li Ying''s face cringed up as she saw this exchange, "You two are beyond repair."

    "..."

    [Congratulations to all eight players who have managed to clear the fifth competition!~]

    The sound of the system was as loud as ever.

    [Mastermo - Time saved: Three seconds.]

    [Yingli - Time saved: Three seconds.]

    [Jiangshi - Time saved: Three seconds.]

    [Richlord - Time saved: Three seconds.]

    [Devilmagiclover - Time saved: Three seconds.]

    [T-Rex101 - Time saved: Three seconds.]

    [BBtrash - Time saved: Three seconds.]

    [Hulk0_0 - Time saved: Three seconds.]

    [Kaze17 - Time saved: Three seconds.]

    [You have managed to clear the level within ten minutes!]

    [Time is precious and the time that flows, never returns.]

    [Welcome to the world where we make the impossible, possible.]

    [The time you have saved shall be returned back to you in the future and the time you have wasted shall forever remain wasted.]

    [Congratulations once again on clearing all the competitions that we have arranged for you!~]

    [You have now been granted access to the maze of death!]

    [The ultimate final stage where all your abilities would be put to the test!]

    [Are you excited? Cause we are surely elated!]

    [In order to make the game fair for everyone, your phones shall now be switched off.]

    [You have the next half an hour to find the maze of death and once every player enters the maze of death, the final stage officially begins!]

    [Please note that the attendance of all the remaining players is mandatory and if even one player is missing then other players would also be disqualified and the game would only begin once every player has entered the maze of death.]

    [Hints have already been given to the players and once you follow the hints, finding the maze of death would be a piece of cake!]

    [We are glad to have you with us on this journey and now that we are almost at the end of it, I would like to thank you all for being with us through it all.]

    [We have grown and we can see that you have grown with us as well.]

    [Time is precious and the sweet memories you spent with us using your precious time is priceless.]

    Zhihao felt his phone suddenly vibrate so he looked down to see that his screen had changed once again.

    His eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise as he saw a very familiar scene being replayed on the screen.

    "It''s us...?" Tian Xifeng muttered out loud as she looked down at her phone as well.

    Zhihao gulped and nodded as he confirmed, "It''s edited gameplay."

    Li Ying''s eyebrows creased together as she commented, "Not just any random gameplay."

    Zhihao nodded his head as he agreed with her, "This is... the moments when we laughed."

    "And when we cried," Li Ying added and the girl clearly sounded shocked.

    The system had managed to capture all the moments from when they felt intense emotions hitting them and all those moments had been compiled together to create a single video that was playing on their phones.

    Zhihao could see the time when he first met the gamemaster and he could also see the time when he was constantly asking Li Ling to date him. These were all moments when he felt an intense rush of emotions so naturally they were all displayed here.

    Li Ying gulped as she saw the different scenes of when she had truly enjoyed playing the game with her teammates.

    "I see..." Zhihao muttered with a chuckle, "It was connected to our brains so of course, the game could sense our change in emotions."

    [And now we would like to relay a message from our maker.]

    The voice changed and it was now an electronic male voice that could be heard.

    Zhihao who had played with the gamemaster before this could naturally identify the voice as the one that belonged to the gamemaster.

    [We were not always together and our memories together are rather shorter compared to the memories when we aren''t together. However, this doesn''t change the fact that most of my memories together with you are the ones that matter the most to me.]

    Zhihao blinked in confusion as he suddenly heard this.

    "What the hell?" Li Ying also found it weird as she looked up at Zhihao.

    Tian Xifeng gasped as she suddenly had an understanding but she didn''t bother sharing the knowledge with the other players who were still shocked and confused.

    [They are so precious that it makes me want to box them up and store them somewhere forever... So that even when we stop existing, the memories would still be here forever.]

    [So that even when we forget, we can always come here and find those memories once again.]

    [We can replay them and relive those happy times.]

    [You''re the best thing that happened to me so thank you... Thank you for coming into my life.]

    The gamemaster stopped speaking and Zhihao couldn''t help but feel that the man hadn''t completed what he wanted to say.

    Li Ying blinked before scoffing as she waited and heard nothing more from the system, "Wow."

    Zhihao frowned as he looked at his phone and saw the screen slowly going black.

    "Gege, I''m jealous..." Tian Xifeng suddenly commented as she glanced at Zhihao.

    "Huh?" Zhihao couldn''t understand what the woman was talking about.

    "You''re really lucky to be so loved."

    "..."

    "Makes me feel too single!" Tian Xifeng added as she glared at the man, "Stop making people choke on dog food!"

    Zhihao blinked in confusion as he took a solid minute to try and understand what the woman was trying to say but even after a minute, he was not able to understand it and when he couldn''t understand it, he decided to let it go as he concluded that Tian Xifeng was already too crazy to understand.

    Li Ying leaned in near Jiangshi''s ear as she whispered, "Correct me if I''m wrong but that was a love letter, wasn''t it?"

    Jiangshi coughed as he replied in a whisper that Zhihao couldn''t hear, "It''s definitely a love letter."

 Chapter 251 - The Unexpected Hint

    "The final stage officially begins?" Wang GuiYing questioned as he looked at Li Ling who was constantly shaking his phone.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he confirmed it.

    "Were you the one that completed the mission?" Wang GuiYing questioned as he looked down at his phone screen that had turned black.

    Li Ling sighed as he shook his head, "It was not me."

    "Then what have you been typing on your phone all this while?" Wang GuiYing frowned as he asked with a bit of a hostile tone, "Don''t tell me that you weren''t able to do anything."

    Li Ling turned to face the man and held up his phone as he showed the blank screen, "I couldn''t do much but..."

    "But?" Wang GuiYing repeated as he waited for the man to continue speaking..

    Li Ling shook his head and sighed as he refused to say anything.

    "..." Wang GuiYing found it a bit suspicious so he snapped, "Don''t leave me hanging here!"

    Li Ling chuckled as he once again refused to say anything, "What I did was something really small and I''m not even sure if it would be able to help us."

    Li Ling wasn''t lying as he said this since the thing that he did was truly considered to be something really little and trivial that could either save them or do nothing at all.

    His speed to write with a phone wasn''t exactly fast and he knew that he didn''t have enough time to completely recode the system. He didn''t have enough time to hack it back so after thinking a lot, he did the only thing that he could do considering the little time he had left.

    He went into the system codes and embedded a secret message for Zhihao''s mother, Huang Zhi Juan, hoping that she finds it and does the work for him.

    When they had suddenly been thrown into this final level, Huang Zhi Juan had been with them and they had assigned her with the important task of trying to overhack the system. Since it was now speculated that this wasn''t exactly real and all they saw was indeed virtual reality, Li Ling couldn''t be sure if the one they talked to was really Huang Zhi Juan or not, but Li Ling still wanted to take a bet on it as he believed that even if it wasn''t really her, she would have certainly went into the system to check what had gone wrong.

    This was also why he embedded the secret message in the codes since only a few people who were authorized could check and find it. Huang Zhi Juan just so happened to be one of those people.

    If everything went as Li Ling hoped for it to go, then the ending of this final stage could certainly be different from what the system had originally plan.

    If Huang Zhi Juan was able to find Li Ling''s message than Li Ling would have a chance of survival even after this final stage has been cleared by the players.

    "Are we going to wait for Mastermo and the others?" Kaoru questioned as she looked at Li Ling.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he confirmed, "We''ll find the arena together."

    "Do you have any idea?" It was Zhou Xinyi who had questioned as he looked at Li Ling as well.

    Li Ling shook his head as he responded, "I don''t know but we''ll figure it out. Didn''t the system say that we have already been provided with the hints?"

    Wang GuiYing opened his mouth to say something more but they were suddenly interrupted by a familiar voice that called out to Li Ling as he ran towards them.

    "Li Ling!"

    Everyone immediately turned to look at Liang Feng who looked like he had run a marathon.

    Li Ling frowned immediately as he questioned in worry, "Where''s A-Zhi? Didn''t you go after him?"

    Liang Feng nodded his head as he tried to awkwardly explain, "I did go after him but he went ahead without me."

    "..."

    Li Ling certainly didn''t look to be too pleased as he heard this.

    "But that''s not important," Liang Feng breathed out as he took something out from his pocket and continued, "I went ahead and checked the security room. As expected, the ones who prepared everything wore a jacket with the name LHA on it."

    Li Ling looked at the folded piece of paper that the man held in hand with suspicious as he waited for Liang Feng to continue.

    "But that''s not what I wanted to say," Liang Feng sighed as he handed over the piece of folded paper to Li Ling, "Take a look at this."

    Li Ling unfolded the paper curiously as he heard the man and what he saw inside was truly a bit confusing for him in the beginning.

    "What do you see?" Liang Feng asked as he looked at Li Ling.

    Li Ling took a deep breath in as his eyes narrowed down on the drawing that was scribbled on the paper. It took him more than a minute to look up at Liang Feng and instead of answering the man''s question, he questioned the man back, "What do you see?"

    Liang Feng, "It''s a map."

    "Of what- Oh..." Li Ling was about to ask the man for a more detailed explanation but stopped himself as he muttered in realization.

    "What is it?" Wang GuiYing stood up and walked over curiously as he glanced between the paper and Liang Feng''s expressionless face.

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he took a closer look at the hand-drawn map.

    To think that such an important hint fell into their hands by coincidence... It seemed that the heaven''s above favoured these players a bit too much.

    "What do you think?" Liang Feng questioned sharply as he noticed the change in Li Ling''s expression, "Am I guessing it right?"

    Li Ling gulped as he nodded his head and patted the man''s back as he spoke, "You did a good job, Brother."

    Liang Feng''s eyes seemed to have lit up with excitement as he heard this.

    "You were right if you thought that this was a map to the final stage," Li Ling confirmed with a chuckle.

    "Eh...?" Wang GuiYing''s head processed this information a bit too slow as he blinked and exclaimed only after a minute, "Seriously?!"

    Li Ling and Liang Feng nodded their heads in unison as they confirmed it together.

    "Wow..." Wang GuiYing muttered in disbelief as he found it a bit too hard to believe.

    They were lucky...

    They were extremely lucky...

    "But why do I only see a child''s scribble of a star?" When Wang GuiYing finally snapped out of the shock, his eyebrows creased together in confusion as he questioned.

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this question, "Look closer."

    Wang GuiYing frowned as he took a closer look but there was still nothing out of the ordinary that he could see.

    No matter from which angle he looked at it, it still looked as if it was a star created by a child.

    "What are you trying to show me?" Wang GuiYing gave up trying to find it on his own and questioned cluelessly as he looked up at Li Ling.

    Li Ling sighed as he responded, "You saw it correct. It''s a star."

    "..."

    "But take a closer look at the points on the star."

    Wang GuiYing took another look at the hand-drawn star and shrugged his shoulder as he asked, "What about it?"

    "How many ends does the star have?" Li Ling asked with a smirk.

    "Ends? Five." Wang GuiYing answered correctly but still could not understand what it was that he was missing.

    Li Ling sighed as he almost questioned his own mental sanity for thinking that Wang GuiYing would be able to get it.

    "Five ends. Five competitions," Liang Feng spoke up as he couldn''t take it anymore, "This is an overview of the city and the ends indicate the competition arena. Each end is circled."

    Wang GuiYing''s frown deepened as he shook his head and pointed out, "But there are six circles."

    Liang Feng and Li Ling looked at each other as they both mentally questioned why they were even bothering with Wang GuiYing.

    "I don''t get it!" Wang GuiYing whined.

    "Then!" Kaoru suddenly exclaimed as she walked forward, "You said that it was a map to the final stage. Does that mean the sixth circle is the arena that we are supposed to be heading for?"

    Li Ling nodded with a bright smile on his face as he confirmed, "That''s right!"

    "Woah!~" Kaoru was surprised as she took a closer look at the scribbled star.

    "This makes it easier for us," Liang Feng commented proudly.

    "Then we just head here now?" Wang GuiYing pouted as he asked.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he confirmed it, "That''s right."

    "Isn''t that... A bit too simple?" Wang GuiYing asked with suspicion.

    Li Ling blinked as he heard the man complaining because something was too simple.

 Chapter 252 - Just Because I Want To

    Li Ling and the others waited for Zhihao to come down and after a few minutes when they could finally see Mastermo approaching, Li Ling was the first to run and jump on the man, engulfing him in a hug.

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he hugged the man back cluelessly.

    This... Was a bit unexpected.

    "Are you okay?" Zhihao gulped as he asked with a bit of worry laced along with his words.

    Li Ling hummed, "I''m okay."

    Zhihao blinked in confusion as he looked over at Wang GuiYing as if asking the man if something had happened in his absence.

    Wang GuiYing simply shrugged his shoulder as he silently stated that he was just as surprised and clueless as Zhihao.

    Li Ying, who saw her brother being a clingy koala, rolled her eyes in annoyance as she looked away from the two.

    This was too much dog food for her.

    "Your brother is certainly the type to show unrestrained affection," Jiangshi coughed as he spoke in a whisper that could only be heard by Li Ying.

    Li Ying clicked her tongue and elbowed the boy''s stomach, "He''s too annoying."

    Jiangshi clutched his stomach and coughed as he took a few seconds to regain his composure, "You two are certainly the opposite of each other."

    "..."

    "Gege, what''s with the sudden affection?" Zhihao questioned with a worried frown.

    He was certainly not complaining about it but he could feel that there was something heavily weighing on Li Ling''s mind.

    "A-Zhi, can''t I just hug you because I feel like it?" Li Ling asked with a pout as he lifted his head and looked at Zhihao.

    Zhihao sighed as he rubbed the man''s head, "You can certainly hug me whenever you want but we both know that you''re not just hugging me out of the blue because you feel like it. Do you not want to tell me what''s worrying you?"

    Li Ling grinned from ear to ear as he nodded his head and simply responded, "That''s right. I want to keep it a secret from you so why don''t you be a gentleman and act like you noticed nothing?"

    Zhihao couldn''t help but chuckle as he nodded his head in response, "Alright. I''ll lend you my body when you feel like it."

    Li Ling giggled as he suddenly found Zhihao''s response funny, "A-Zhi, you shouldn''t carelessly say that. I might really take your word for it and borrow you forever."

    Zhihao nodded his head as he spoke, "I know what I''m saying."

    "..."

    "You can keep me forever," Zhihao added with a smile and Li Ling blinked in a daze as he looked at Zhihao''s face that looked nothing lesser than an angel''s face.

    Li Ling took a sharp breath in as he muttered, "I really hope that I can. I just wish that your mother finds my message on time."

    "Huh?" Zhihao suddenly blinked in confusion as he heard something that he couldn''t comprehend, "You sent my mother a message? About what?"

    Li Ling shook his head as he responded, "I just asked for her to look after me."

    It seemed that Li Ling had really improved his talent in twisting the truth with a few white lies.

    Zhihao suddenly remembered that time when his mother had come over with presents for the man, she even went as far as to call Li Ling her own new ''baby''.

    "You don''t need to worry about it," Zhihao chuckled as he found it a bit amusing, "I have a feeling that she''ll take care of you better than she takes care of me."

    Before Li Ling could say anything to that, Tian Xifeng suddenly coughed loudly as she spoke up with a bit of annoyance, "Are you two done yet?"

    "..."

    Tian Xifeng sighed as she added, "It''s not really pleasant for me to see my two ex-fiances all over each other like this."

    Li Ying rolled her eyes as she heard the woman''s confident tone, "You overestimate yourself."

    "In any case, you can save your sweet words for later. We need to go and kill a gamemaster, don''t we?" Tian Xifeng questioned with a smirk as she looked at Li Ling.

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he glared at the woman and let go of Zhihao, "It seems that you''re quite in a hurry to murder people."

    Tian Xifeng chuckled as she heard this response but she neither confirmed nor defended herself.

    "That reminds me," Zhihao suddenly spoke up as he got serious, "I think I know where the final stage is."

    "..." The other players looked at each other before turning to Zhihao in silence.

    "We know it as well," It was Wang GuiYing who informed the man first.

    "Huh?" Zhihao looked at the man as he questioned, "How do you know?"

    "It''s not just you who''s intelligent enough, ya know?" Wang GuiYing clicked his tongue.

    "I found a hand-drawn map," Liang Feng informed and Li Ling showed Zhihao the piece of paper that was clutched in his hand.

    Zhihao looked at the star drawn on the paper and he couldn''t help but be a little surprised as he nodded his head, "This was my guess as well."

    "Yo! Mastermo, didn''t you say it was a pentagon?" Wang GuiYIng frowned as he questioned, "How come it became a star?"

    Zhihao sighed as he shook his head, "If you connect the dots directly, would it not form a pentagon as well?"

    "..." Wang GuiYing was silent as he thought about it for a few seconds and silently agreed with Zhihao.

    "Then what are we waiting for?" Li Ying spoke up as she questioned, "Let''s go already. Let''s go and get this over with."

    Li Ling snapped his head and looked at the girl as if she had betrayed him somehow, "I see that you''re eager to kill the gamemaster as well."

    Li Ying chuckled as she reacted the same way as Tian Xifeng, not bothering to confirm nor bothering to deny it.

    "Let''s go then," Zhihao also joined in as he spoke, "It''s not doing us any good by waiting around."

    The other players also nodded as they agreed to leave as soon as possible.

    It seemed that Li Ling was the only one reluctant who was still worried to know what would happen once they enter the final stage.

    "By the way, how did you complete the mission, Mastermo?" It was Kaoru who questioned curiously as she looked at Zhihao.

    Zhihao smiled as he responded vaguely, "You can say that we got lucky"

    Kaoru''s eyebrows creased together as she didn''t quite understand that Zhihao was being completely honest when he said that it was luck that helped him complete the mission.

    The players started moving soon enough and drove towards the center of the star that was marked on the paper.

    Since it was hand-drawn, it was not exactly easy for them to follow it, however, they could still match it with the GPS on their cars and find the way.

    However, things didn''t look to be as easy as they had thought. When they reached their destination, what they say was a complex parking lot.

    Zhihao had never been here before and it didn''t look like Li Ling was familiar with this place either.

    "Damn it... Are we in the right place?" It was Wang GuiYing who questioned as he looked around.

    Zhihao took a sharp breath in as he nodded his head and confirmed, "This has to be it."

    Their phones were turned off this time so they had no idea if this was really the place that they were supposed to be in but by the looks of it, this place looked completely ordinary which really made them feel that they had come to the wrong place.

    Li Ying frowned as she questioned, "What do we do know?"

    "Is this really a normal parking lot?" Zhou Xinyi asked as he pointed out.

    Zhihao frowned as he looked around and nodded his head, "I think so."

    Zhou Xinyi sighed as he shook his head, "Well I don''t think that''s the case."

    Jiangshi was about to say something as he heard this but he immediately stopped himself as he realized that Zhihao was also hearing.

    It was still not time for the boy to come clean to his brother so he decided to stay quiet.

    He was sure that someone else would also say what he had to say and just as he had expected, Tian Xifeng really did speak up and said the exact thing that he was about to say, "Brother Hulk is right. This is not a normal parking lot."

    Zhihao turned to face the woman as he questioned, "Why would you say that?"

    Tian Xifeng smirked as she responded, "Because this is the spot. The system would never choose a normal parking lot."

    "..."

    "And in any case, I have been here before," Tian Xifeng added with a smug smirk, "This place is known to be the most complex parking lot to ever be created in this city."

    Jiangshi nodded his head as he agreed with Tian Xifeng.

    "There is such a thing?" Wang GuiYing frowned as he questioned.

 Chapter 253 - The Final Stage

    Why was it that only Tian Xifeng and Jiangshi seemed to be the ones who actually knew about this place when it had such a grand title?

    "Then you lead the way," Zhihao spoke up as he looked at Tian Xifeng.

    Tian Xifeng''s lips twitched as she heard this, "Gege, I said I''ve been here before but I never said I knew this place that well."

    "But you have at least been here once. You must know it better than us," Zhihao responded as he pointed out.

    "It''s so complex that its complexity is known to be the only characteristic that makes it different. You couldn''t possibly expect me to know this place that well," Tian Xifeng frowned as she stated.

    "Then how about we do this?" Liang Feng spoke up as he suggested, "Let''s divide up and search the place. I''m sure we can find the entrance to the final stage sooner that way."

    Zhihao thought about it for a minute but didn''t give a response and when Liang Feng saw no response, he continued..

    "It''s not like Tian Xifeng would know the entrance to the final stage just because she has been here before."

    "That true," Li Ling nodded his head as he agreed to Liang Feng, "We should divide up and search for it. If anyone finds it, just shout so that the rest of us can also be there."

    "The system already told us that the level would start only if all the players are there," Zhihao added with a sigh.

    Li Ling nodded, "Let''s try our best. We''ve got so far, I''m sure we can go further as well."

    "We are almost at the end of it. We must not lose hope now!" It was Li Ying who exclaimed as she tried to reassure everyone and cheered them on.

    The other players nodded as they agreed to this plan.

    "Just be careful and don''t get lost," Zhihao commented with a sigh.

    The players soon divided up and went in search of the entrance for the final stage without realizing that they had already entered it.

    They walked around aimlessly in confusion and after a few minutes, they suddenly heard the system speak up again.

    [Congratulations to all the players who have made it on time!]

    [Jiangshi - Total Time saved: eight minutes and fifty-two seconds.]

    [Kaze17 - Total Time saved: six minutes and six seconds.]

    [Yingli - Total Time saved: four minutes and fifty-four seconds.]

    [Richlord - Total Time saved: four minutes and fifty seconds.]

    [T-Rex101 - Total Time saved: four minutes and one second.]

    [Devilmagiclover - Total Time saved: two minutes and fifty-eight seconds.]

    [BBtrash - Total Time saved: one minute and thirty-nine seconds.]

    [Mastermo - Total Time saved: one minute and twenty-four seconds.]

    [Hulk0_0 - Total Time saved: one minute and thirteen seconds.]

    [Please note that this is the cumulated time that has been saved by the players in the previous five competitions.]

    [You have managed to clear all the competitions that we have thrown at you.]

    [You have proved your talent and your skill.]

    [The dedication that you have shown us proves that you are deserving to stand here today.]

    [Time is precious and the time that flows, never returns.]

    [Welcome to the world where we make the impossible, possible.]

    [The time you have saved shall be returned back to you now and the time you have wasted shall forever remain wasted.]

    [We welcome you to the final grand stage where all your hard work would bear fruit.]

    [The maze of death shall now be opened to all those who are deserving!]

    [Your mission is to simply beat the gamemaster hiding among you.]

    [We told you, didn''t we? You should be careful with the people you trust.]

    [The gamemaster is hiding among you, posing as another player.]

    [A player you have come to trust and believe in, but also a friend who has lied to you and deceived you.]

    [Would you able to put your personal feelings aside for the grand win or would you let your emotions get the best of you.]

    [Do not forget that the end is near. The ultimate win that you have wanted to achieve is right in front of you, but the question remains... Would you be able to grab it on time or would you let someone else snatch it away from you first?]

    [The total cumulated time that you have saved shall act as a shielding headstart for all the players. During this time, you would not fall under any traps and would be considered immune to all attacks, however, once this time is over, your headstart shall also be invalid.]

    [The one who has saved the most time shall naturally be the one who has the biggest headstart and the one who has saved the least time shall be the one that has the smallest headstart, however, once the headstart is over, all players would enjoy the same treatment.]

    [There are various deadly traps that have been laid for all the players. Once the trap has been triggered, there is no going back. The player can either try their best to survive or choose to succumb to their ill fate.]

    [Once a player beats the gamemaster, the game ends with the player''s final win.]

    [You are given an hour to compete with each other for the ultimate win.]

    [We wish you all the best and we hope luck may be on your side.]

    [However, we would also like to remind you that this game can only be won with skills and not just with luck.]

    [May the best player shine and may we get to see a game of a lifetime!]

    [Hope you enjoy~ and don''t forget to rate our game if you''re enjoying it!]

    "Oh..." Zhihao muttered as his eyes widened ever so slightly and he snapped back to see that the path he had come from had been closed off by a wall.

    "..."

    We just fell into a trap... Didn''t we?"

    Zhihao couldn''t help but want to curse himself as he realized that they had played right into the hands of the system.

    Dividing up was perhaps the worst decision they had taken today.

    Zhihao was the only one who had played LHA''s maze of death before this so he was naturally the only one who knew exactly what to expect as he cautiously continued walking.

    The other players who had merely only heard Zhihao warning them about the traps had a general idea of what was to be expected but they were still not aware of the intensity of the danger that they were currently facing.

    On every player''s mind, there was only one question repeating: Where was the gamemaster?

    Jiangshi, Li Ying, Tian Xifeng, and Liang Feng already knew who the gamemaster was but they had no idea where Li Ling had run off to nor did they have any interest in trying to kill him, however, they were still interested to find him since they wanted to protect him from the other players.

    Zhihao had his own suspicions just like the other players but he couldn''t be too sure if what he thought was actually true.

    Li Ling was already the founder of Omelas so there was a chance for him to be the gamemaster as well, but Zhihao knew the man really well and he had even played a level with both the gamemaster and Li Ling together. If the two were really the same person then it should have been almost impossible for them to be on the same level together.

    Not only this but Zhihao knew Li Ling really well and he trusted him as well. Although Li Ling seemed to be hiding a lot from him, Zhihao would never expect the man to be hiding something this big.

    Being the gamemaster was a really big secret to hide especially considering the fact that Zhihao had shamelessly fanboyed over the gamemaster in front of Li Ling to the point that even Li Ling tried to push him forward to confess to the anonymous man.

    Now that Zhihao thought about it, that situation was rather laughable considering the fact that Li Ling probably liked Zhihao at that time as well.

    Zhihao felt a little guilt, but his heart also felt a little warm as he realized that just as expected, Li Ling was really an angel.

    He loved Zhihao to the point that he was willing to give up his own happiness for Zhihao''s happiness. When Zhihao showed interest in another guy, Li Ling was the most supportive as he cheered Zhihao up.

    It was really a heart-touching thing and Zhihao could never imagine doing something like that.

    If Li Ling liked someone else then Zhihao would be heartbroken and although he won''t want to hold Li Ling back from his happiness, he would also not want to help the man and be supportive of his feelings for someone unknown.

    It was something only a person with a pure heart could do and Li Ling seemed to be such a person.

    Zhihao really didn''t want to believe that Li Ling had lied to him all this while.

    If in the end it was really revealed that the man had broken his trust... Zhihao didn''t know how he would react to it.

 Chapter 254 - Everyone Has The Same Question

    If it wasn''t Li Ling, then it was another player.

    Oddly enough, Zhihao couldn''t picture anyone else as the gamemaster.

    Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi were clearly not the Gamemaster since Zhihao had known them for such a long time.

    Tian Xifeng and Li Ying were also not to suspected since Zhihao knew them well enough to know that they would probably not pull something like this.

    Kaoru was also another fangirl of the gamemaster and from her talks alone, Zhihao was sure that she wasn''t the gamemaster.

    Zhihao didn''t know much about Liang Feng so he couldn''t say anything about that guy but his instincts told him that there was probably a low chance for that man to be the gamemaster.

    Jiangshi was a person that Zhihao didn''t trust the most. If there was a list arranged according to Zhihao''s suspicion on who can be the most likely player posing as the gamemaster then Jiangshi would certainly be at the top of that list.

    This boy never talked and only nodded. He covered himself up with a cloak and wore a thick mask to hide his face completely as well. He was a rather new player and yet, he still managed to climb all the way up to the leaderboard of T.I.A.D.

    He was also the player who had saved the most time in the five competitions and had the biggest headstart over the other players.

    It was to be expected that Zhihao suspected such a boy. Li Ying claimed to know the gamemaster and she also claimed that this Jiangshi was her boyfriend, however, Zhihao would be a fool to believe that. Whenever Zhihao tried to talk to Jiangshi, Li Ying always came in between and acted as if she was guarding the boy and protecting him. It was as if they had something to hide...

    As if Jiangshi had a secret that Zhihao might discover if he interacted too much with the boy.

    Zhihao gulped as his suspicion slowly rose.

    There was no doubt about it... If Jiangshi was the gamemaster then everything would make perfect sense and Zhihao wouldn''t have to suspect Li Ling anymore.

    If Jiangshi was the gamemaster then Zhihao could sigh in relief.

    Zhihao walked forward as he mentally calculated how much time he would have till the traps start being set off.

    He had unfortunately only saved about a little more than a minute which would be over before he knew it and this game was going to last for the next one hour.

    One hour of cautiously avoiding all the traps... If no player was to beat the gamemaster before then, it would be impossible for all of them to survive that one hour without setting off any traps.

    Zhihao sighed as he realized that in just another half a minute, he would fall into a trap, whether he wanted to or not.

    Since he already knew his fate, all he could do was stand still and wait for it while the other players cluelessly wandered around.

    Li Ling was on his own as he leisurely sat down on the ground and tried to switch his phone back on but even though he had reset it once and it worked normally for a short period of time, he couldn''t do the same again. It was useless no matter how much he tried. This phone was never turning on again.

    If one saw him at this moment, he would certainly not look to be worried about the game nor the trap but only Li Ling knew how uneasy he felt right now as he realized that Zhihao would soon figure out the identity of the real gamemaster.

    Tian Xifeng and Liang Feng who had certainly gone different ways somehow ended up together as they found each other by coincidence.

    At first, the two didn''t look to be too happy about it but they still didn''t bother being too dissatisfied with it as they stuck together and decided to find Li Ling.

    "I''m guessing you have no plan either?" Liang Feng questioned as he side-glanced at the woman.

    Tian Xifeng didn''t look to be too enthusiastic as she nodded her head with a sigh, "I can''t figure it out."

    Liang Feng nodded his head as he heard this response that was to be expected, "I guess we really can''t find another way around it. "

    "Let''s just hope that Li Ling Gege hides well," Tian Xifeng commented.

    Li Ying who was in another part of the maze sighed as she looked around to see that the path in front of her had been closed off once again. She turned around and retraced her steps before turning and choosing another path instead.

    Jiangshi a.k.a., Huang Zhen who was currently being heavily suspected by Zhihao naturally didn''t realize what type of accusations were being placed on him so he nonchalantly walked aimlessly, knowing that there was nothing for him to worry about for the next eight minutes since he had saved a lot of time, unlike the other players.

    If he were to find the gamemaster in the next eight minutes then he could almost dance with joy since it would be the luckiest thing ever.

    Wang GuiYing who had somehow been separated from Zhou Xinyi had a frown on his face as he dragged his feet while walking aimlessly. He was also one of the unfortunate players who had saved a little more than a minute and would soon have to escape deadly traps thrown at him by the system.

    When he thought about their mission deeply, he couldn''t help but find Liang Feng and Kaoru suspicious. One of those two just had to be the gamemaster. Liang Feng was too smart and helpful which made him suspicious while Kaoru always acted as if she was weak while at the same time, she would sometimes show her true colors which made it clear that she wasn''t as weak as she was portrayed to be.

    Tian Xifeng also acted suspicious in front of his eyes but he would never expect that girl to be the gamemaster since... he considered her to be a bit dumb.

    Zhihao, Zhou Xinyi, and Li Ling would naturally not be the gamemaster according to him since he knew them well and considered them as his friends.

    Kaoru who was also walking on her own didn''t suspect anyone since she had no interest in finding who the gamemaster was.

    Their mission was to beat the gamemaster but as Kaoru had previously told Zhihao, she had no interest in beating that man whom she looked up to so much.

    If anything, she would want to protect him instead.

    Somehow, she even had a smile on her face as she realized that one of the other players was the gamemaster. She looked up to the man a lot and it had been a dream of her to meet him so if the system wasn''t lying, it meant that the girl really had already met the gamemaster without even knowing it so of course, she was happy about it.

    Meeting him without knowing his identity was good enough for her. In fact, it was the best possible situation.

    Zhou Xinyi who was on the complete another side of the maze wandered around helplessly as he tried his best to find BBtrash but unfortunately, he wasn''t able to find the man no matter how hard he tried.

    Zhou Xinyi was the player who had the smallest headstart since he didn''t bother saving time when he was clearing the competitions. This meant that the first one who would get to fall into a trap would naturally be him and this seemed to be correct as he steadily walked into a trap in the very next moment without even realizing it.

    "Huh?" Zhou Xinyi muttered as he looked around to see that he was completely covered with walls that suddenly rose from the ground and trapped him in this narrow room-like structure that had no ceiling.

    [Your one minute and thirteen seconds is now over, Hulk0_0]

    The System sounded a bit too enthusiastic as it announced and just as it did, the ground beneath him started to shake.

    Zhou Xinyi bent his knees and flung his arms around as he tried to stabilize himself.

    A frown was plastered on his face as he looked down at the ground and tried to understand what was happening with it and in the very next second, the answer was as clear as day for him when water suddenly started flowing from somewhere.

    "Hmm," Zhou Xinyi could do nothing as he looked up to see that there was no ceiling above however, it was also impossible for him to climb all the way up since the walls were built so high.

    The only thing he could do was wait and let the water slowly fill the room.

    At first, he thought that he could use the water to his advantage; When the water fills up the room, he could swim up and escape.

    However, he had been too optimistic in thinking that it would be this easy.

 Chapter 255 - Unlucky But Lucky

    This was his original plan, however, his plan immediately looked to be a fail as he noticed that the water was abnormally hot.

    It was too hot...

    Zhou Xinyi''s frown deepened as he noticed that his feet that were submerged in the water felt extremely uncomfortable as if he was standing on boiling water.

    He seemed to have run out of luck as he realized that it would be impossible for him to swim up with the help of the water. Since the water was boiling hot, he would probably die from the heat before he reaches all the way up there.

    Maybe this was the reason why the walls were built so high up...

    "I''m... Doomed," Zhou Xinyi sighed as he got closer to the wall and carefully tried to see if he could climb up by any chance but unfortunately enough, the walls were too slippery and smooth, making it impossible for him to get a strong grip.

    He gulped as he anxiously looked around to find the place where the water was coming from. If he could find that then he could always block the waterway off and save himself, however, he noticed that there was no such particular spot for him to find.

    The water was in fact seeping in through the ground that had a lot of small holes in it. To completely block it was simply not possible.

    "Anyone there?" Zhou Xinyi knocked on the wall as he shouted for someone to hear him, but it seemed that he was too far away from the others and nobody could hear him.

    "Damn it..." Zhou Xinyi cursed under his breath as he ruffled his hair before sweeping his bangs back, displaying his forehead that was hardly ever visible.

    Although the water covering his legs was hot, there was cold sweat forming on his forehead as he tried to come up with another plan.

    He looked up at the open ceiling. If he could get up there then he would probably be able to save himself, but climbing all the way up there was not really an easy job.

    "Can''t block the water. Can''t stay here for too long. Can''t climb up. And can''t ask for help," Zhou Xinyi muttered to himself as he started considering the options he had on his hands.

    He immediately searched through his backpack to see if there was something in there that could be used by him.

    He truly considered himself lucky at this moment because he had carried that backpack with him till now. Back in the fifth competition arena, he had picked up a lot of useful things, but he had also given the backpack to Liang Feng thinking that the man could make good use of it as he went with Zhihao. Thankfully enough, when Liang Feng returned, he had given the backpack back to Zhou Xinyi and thanked the man for lending it.

    At that time, Zhou Xinyi really didn''t expect the man to return the backpack, he had simply given it to the man thinking that it would be more of use to him, but it seemed that in the end, the backpack ended up being more useful to the original owner and Zhou Xinyi felt thankful towards Liang Feng for having returned the backpack to him.

    Inside the backpack were two things that Zhou Xinyi had picked up just because he thought they might help the players if they ever needed to climb down from the roof of the shopping mall, but since they were able to get out through the main door, these two items had not been used.

    One of the items was a heavy sharp knife while the other was a rope that was long enough.

    Zhou Xinyi took in a sharp breath as he held the knife with his mouth and tied one side of the rope around his torso before wearing the backpack once again.

    He took the knife and tied the other side of the rope to the knife tightly before pulling at it a few times to see if the knot was strong enough.

    When he was sure that the knot was strong enough, he looked up at the highest point of the wall and mentally calculated how much distance there was before spinning the knife a few times with the help of the rope tied around it.

    By doing so, he was able to create momentum that he used as he threw the knife up with as much strength as he could.

    The knife crossed the wall and went to the other side but when Zhou Xinyi pulled at the rope, the knife came back down with the rope.

    Zhou Xinyi sighed as he stood aside and watched the knife fall before walking over and picking it up as he started spinning it and tried to get it to go over the wall for the second time.

    He already knew this method wasn''t going to be that easy but this was the only thing he could do at this moment.

    The water that was steadily filling up the place had reached the point where his calf was entirely submerged in water.

    It was hot and Zhou Xinyi felt as if his legs were being cooked while he was still alive, however, he didn''t seem to let it affect his actions too much as he continued to try and escape.

    He threw the knife for the second time and when he pulled it, the knife once again came down.

    "Damn it," Zhou Xinyi cursed under his breath as he once again dipped his hand in the hot water to pick up the knife that had fallen down.

    He took a deep breath in as he spun the knife for the third time and threw it over with more strength and momentum, hoping that it would do the trick.

    The water rose up all the way to his knees and seemed to be slowly going higher.

    He closed his eyes as he waited for a second before pulling the rope hopefully.

    This time he could feel resistance against his pull which gave him a bit of hope but when he put a little more strength to it, the knife, like all the previous times, came down once again.

    Zhou Xinyi took a deep breath as he opened his backpack again and tried to find the axe that he had picked up from the shopping mall.

    He dipped his hand in the hot water and retrieved the knife before tieing the axe to it as well.

    He tried to mimic the look of an anchor, hoping that it would do the trick.

    For the fourth time, he spun the knife and axe that had become heavier and created a higher momentum.

    This time, he was really sure that he would be successful and so he threw it over for the fourth time before pulling the rope to see if it worked.

    Zhou Xinyi''s eyes immediately lit up as he felt the resistance that was stronger this time. It seemed that he was really in luck today as the hand-made anchor did its job.

    The man didn''t bother wasting any further time as he started climbing up the wall with the help of the rope that was firm and tight, giving him a good grip.

    Zhou Xinyi had tried rock climbing before this for fun but he had never expected to make use of his lessons from then in such a manner today.

    In just a few minutes. he was finally completely above the water and his legs felt a lot cooler all of a sudden as they got out of the hot water.

    Zhou Xinyi sighed in relief as he continued to climb up all the way to the top of the wall.

    Luckily enough for him, the anchor only gave up when he was close to the top and so when it eventually did come loose, Zhou Xinyi was at least able to cling onto the edge of the wall.

    Zhou Xinyi immediately pushed himself up and climbed up the wall as he took a sharp breath in and looked around.

    His mouth opened ever so slightly in awe as he saw a sight that he would have never expected.

    This was... Really the biggest maze he had ever seen...

    As far as his eyes could see, the maze covered it all.

    The previous parking lot had indeed changed itself and expanded to this point which proved that their speculations were indeed right.

    Someone had actually put them into a virtual game that felt too real.

    The burning sensation in Zhou Xinyi''s legs was still there and this proved to show that such a thing was really real-like, but at the same time, it was all fake.

    What bothered him the most was perhaps the fact that he didn''t remember wearing any equipment or agreeing to come here.

    Zhou Xinyi pulled the knife and axe back up with the help of the rope that was still tied around it before putting everything back into his backpack as he walked along the top of the walls.

 Chapter 256 - No...

    Zhou Xinyi tried to search for other players but it seemed that they had all walked too far away and were nowhere near each other.

    Since this was the case, all Zhou Xinyi needed to do was wait.

    He needed to wait for the headstart of the other players to come to an end so that they can also trigger a trap.

    If a trap was triggered then the maze would certainly show a change such as walls suddenly coming out of the ground or water coming up and such.

    If the maze were to show change then Zhou Xinyi was sure that he would be able to find the other players.

    With that being said, the next one whose headstart was supposed to end was Zhihao, but shockingly enough it was Wang GuiYing who fell into a trap before him.

    Maybe this could also be considered as part of Zhihao''s luck for avoiding the trigger to a trap.

    [Your one minute and thirty-nine seconds is now over, BBtrash]

    Wang GuiYing was casually walking just like all the other players but he had forgotten to consider his headstart so when it suddenly got over, he had no idea what he was supposed to do and as a result, he ended up simply walking right into a trap.

    "Crap..." Wang GuiYing cursed under his breath as he suddenly saw a wall closing off the path in front of him. He turned around almost immediately to retrace his steps but in just a few seconds, there was another wall closing off the path that he had used to come here.

    Just like how Zhou Xinyi had been trapped, Wang GuiYing had also been trapped inside these four walls that kept him in place.

    Wang GuiYing bit his lip anxiously as he looked up to see that at least there was no ceiling covering him, but this was not really a sigh of relief for him since the walls were too high and he couldn''t possibly hope to climb up there without any help or support.

    He also had a backpack with him but unfortunately enough, unlike Zhou Xinyi or Kaoru, Wang GuiYing had chosen to fill up his backpack with snacks and drinks.

    Now that he thought about it, he felt as if he was really stupid for having done something like that, however, even though he felt stupid, he didn''t regret it in the least. Even if someone were to send him back in time and give him the same choices, he would still choose to take snacks and drinks with him instead of actual useful equipment.

    "So what happens now?" Wang GuiYing muttered a question to himself as he waited for something to happen but a minute passed and still he saw nothing happening.

    His eyebrows creased together as he wondered if he was really in a trap or not.

    Was this really it? Was the trap simply nothing more than being stuck within these four walls...?

    He couldn''t believe that this was the case since he had clearly seen Zhihao''s reaction when he explained about the maze of death.

    Mastermo wasn''t the type of person to be scared of something that even Wang GuiYing didn''t consider to be a big deal. If Mastermo was worried about it then Wang GuiYing would definitely need to be worried about it as well.

    "Yo, system! What are you trying to do?" Wang GuiYing asked out loud knowing that the system would naturally not be giving him a response.

    He started to look around but even after a few minutes of constant searching and observing, he wasn''t able to detect any threat.

    However, there was one thing that was seriously starting to bother him...

    Previously it had been so quiet in this big maze that all Wang GuiYing could hear was the sound of his footsteps and the sound of his steady heartbeats, but suddenly after being trapped inside these four walls, he could hear another sound, but the sound was so random and weird that even after a few minutes of listening to it get closer and closer, he couldn''t understand what it was.

    Wang GuiYing closed his eyes as he tried really hard to at least understand where the sound was coming from and this time, he saw some progress as he noticed that the sound was coming from the ground, or to be more exact, it was coming from below the ground.

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he had a foreboding feeling climbing up his stomach as the sound started getting closer and closer ever so slowly, but still fast enough to make the man worry.

    "What the hell...?" He cursed under his breath as his heartbeat started racing and he started making up assumptions on what the sound could be.

    It sounded like... Ants... Millions of mechanical ants steadily crawling up from beneath the ground.

    That was the strongest assumption the man could make and for some reason, once this thought crossed his mind, Wang GuiYing became almost certain that he was right. There was no way this type of sound belonged to something else. It was either an army of ants or it was an army of beetles but no matter what it was, Wang GuiYing could confidently say that it was trouble.

    Wang GuiYing took a deep breath in as he moved closer to one of the edges where the two walls meet and he tried to climb up with his hands on either of the walls. This was a common way of climbing walls and Wang GuiYing seemed to be well-practiced in it, however, the wall was too smooth and slippery.

    "Damn it..." Wang GuiYing cursed as he slipped back down only after trying to climb a little up.

    He touched the wall with his hand and tried to see just how smooth it was and expectedly enough, it was as smooth as a new car''s metal surface.

    Wang GuiYing immediately opened his backpack and took out some caramel popcorn, but he internally fought against the urge to eat it, and instead, he crushed it under his feet and covered his hands with the dust as well.

    If the wall didn''t have a rough texture then Wang GuiYing could always try to give it some.

    He didn''t know if this was going to work or not but he felt that doing something was better than doing nothing at all.

    There was clearly something coming up for him and he wasn''t stupid enough to wait around just to see what it was.

    Wang GuiYing clapped his hands twice as he stretched a little and got ready to try once again.

    He lifted his right foot and with the help of his hands that were pushing both the walls, he lifted his left foot and put it on the other wall, trying his best to get a decent grip as he tried to climb up the wall.

    "Okay," Wang GuiYing muttered under his breath as he managed to climb up to some height.

    The walls were a bit too unnecessarily tall so Wang GuiYing wasn''t sure if he would be able to climb all the way up, but he hoped to do that.

    He closed his eyes and took a sharp breath in as he continued to ignore that sound coming closer and simply focused on climbing up.

    However, he couldn''t ignore the sound for too long as he felt that whatever insect army it was, it had managed to climb up to the ground finally.

    Wang GuiYing unconsciously glanced down to see the ground opening up a bit and there were a few cracks on it. These cracks surely looked creepy as hell but they were probably not as unsettling as the little black insects that started coming out of the cracks.

    At first, it was only one or two that had managed to climb out of the cracks but in the blink of an eye, more and more insects started coming out.

    Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened as he saw them and his face cringed up in disgust. He previously had a good grip on the wall but because of the shock, he suddenly seemed to have lost that grip and was slowly sliding down the smooth wall.

    "No... No. No. No. No!" Wang GuiYing repeated over and over again as he tried to climb back up but if he took his hands off the wall, he would directly fall down. To stop sliding down... There was simply no method he could use.

    "Damn it! What the hell are those?!" Wang GuiYing cried out as his face lost all its color and he shouted as he asked for help from someone who could maybe hear his voice, "Save me!"

    "Anyone there?! Save me!" Wang GuiYing kept on shouting for someone to come and help him but it was only natural that he got no response from anyone since no other players were nearby and even if they were, there was no guarantee they could help, in fact, there was no saying if they even wanted to help or not.

 Chapter 257 - Crawling Death

    "Curse this sh*t! Stay away!" Wang GuiYing shouted at the little black insects that were slowly starting to climb up the wall as well.

    He took a good look at them and it seemed that he recognized what they were.

    His initial guess about it being a mechanical ant or a beetle was wrong and he was certainly horrified because of it.

    The reason why he was horrified to know what these insects actually were was because he had seen them before. He had seen them in a level that he played together with Zhou Xinyi. In the end, they had managed to complete the mission and cleared that level easily but it was Zhou Xinyi who did all the work. Wang GuiYing was simply too creeped out by the small insects that he stayed far away from them on that level.

    These insects were also known as the crawling death inside the game. They were a special type of insect that fed on human flesh. They never acted solo and would always be accompanied by their whole army.

    If one bit you then the pain would be enough for you to wish for death.

    The crawling death insects couldn''t see anything as they had no eyes, however, they completely depended on their sense of smell that was too strong and accurate.

    This could be exemplified by the fact that they had managed to climb up all the way to the surface after having smelled Wang GuiYing.

    "How can there be such rotten luck?!" Wang GuiYing no longer knew if he was still cursing the system or if he was cursing himself for having such bad luck today.

    "Zhou Xinyi! Why are you never here when I need you the most?!" Wang GuiYing shouted at the top of his lungs hoping for the man to hear him but he knew it would be impossible for Zhou Xinyi to save him at this moment even if the man did hear him.

    After all, Wang GuiYing was trapped here with these crawling deaths that were trying to make a meal out of him.

    If Zhou Xinyi wanted to save him, he would first have to understand the whole maze and climb up the wall which was the only way for someone to get in or out of this trap, but climbing such a tall wall was almost impossible for someone to do so Wang GuiYing would naturally not expect Zhou Xinyi to do it for him.

    No matter how close the two were, doing impossible things for each other was still impossible and Wang GuiYing would naturally know this.

    However, even though Wang GuiYing knew that Zhou Xinyi couldn''t come running to help him, he still cried out to complain, "You said you''ll save me, you bastard! Why aren''t you here yet?!"

    "Ahhh!" Wang GuiYing continued to scream and he almost had tears forming in his eyes as he glanced down at the insects that weren''t too far away from him.

    If they got him once, it would truly be over for him...

    Once a crawling death insect managed to get a bite out of you, their whole army would like to have a bite as well and no player had ever managed to escape the gruesome fate that awaited for them after that one bite.

    "Zhou Xinyi! You useless moron! Didn''t you like me?! How can you not even be here for me when I''m about to die?!" Unexpectedly, tears started trailing down Wang GuiYing''s eyes as he cried out helplessly, "Save me!"

    It was only natural that he was crying out in fear. Anyone who would have to face the same situation would have the same reaction as well. To see death approaching in the form of tiny creatures... It was certainly an unsettling feeling of fear that could make a grown man cry.

    Wang GuiYing couldn''t think straight as he ran out of options. It was clear that he couldn''t help himself and if nobody had heard him even after so much of yelling then it was clear that he wouldn''t be getting help from someone else either.

    "Think. Think. Think." The man repeated the same word over and over again as if he was chanting some kind of magical spell, but even after trying to force himself to come up with something, he couldn''t really think of a way to save himself.

    The best idea he had was to throw down his backpack and distract the crawling death bugs with food, however, he already knew that this plan would be a fail since he knew better than anyone else that the crawling death only fed on human flesh and would not even pay attention to any other kind of food.

    "Damn it..." Wang GuiYing closed his eyes and cursed under his breath as he slowly started realizing just how helpless his situation was.

    All he could do now was wait for the crawling death to take a bite out of him...

    "Zhou Xinyi, I''m never trusting you again..." Wang GuiYing bit his bottom lip as he cursed the man for one last time in a volume that wasn''t too loud but wasn''t a whisper either.

    "Did you say something?" It was a familiar voice that had asked from above and Wang GuiYing''s entire demeanor seemed to have lightened as he snapped his head up to stare at the man who had come to his rescue.

    "Wah~ You really came...?" More than a statement, it was a question that was aimed at himself as Wang GuiYing wondered if this was nothing more than an illusion.

    Was Zhou Xinyi really here or was Wang GuiYing''s mind playing tricks on him...?!

    Zhou Xinyi had a small smirk on his face as he took out the rope and untied the knife and the axe from it before throwing one side of the rope down, "Didn''t you call for me? You sounded pretty desperate so of course, I had to come."

    "..." Wang GuiYing''s ears seemed to have turned red as he remembered the nonsense he had shouted just a few seconds ago.

    "Hold on tightly, I''ll pull you up."

    Wang GuiYing nodded his head as he glanced down for one last time before deciding to trust Zhou Xinyi.

    He took a sharp breath in as he calmed down his heart beat and summoned all of his courage to jump in order to catch the rope that was dangling in front of him.

    This rope was clearly the only thing that could save him at this moment, but if he slipped and didn''t manage to get a hold of the rope, he would end up making things easier for the crawling death insects by falling right into their mouths.

    This was a big and dangerous decision but Wang GuiYing took it so casually, making it look easy. All because he simply trusted Zhou Xinyi.

    Since the man was here, there was no way he would let Wang GuiYing die just like that. Even if Wang GuiYing were to slip, Zhou Xinyi would do anything he would have to in order to save Wang GuiYing.

    This kind of blind trust clearly had a reason behind it but Wang GuiYing was too dense too understand his own feelings so how could someone even hope for him to understand Zhou Xinyi''s feelings?!

    Fortunately enough, Wang GuiYing had somehow managed to avoid the worst case scenario as he jumped and caught a hold of the rope.

    When he looked up, he could see Zhou Xinyi''s veins popping up on his forehead as the man held on tightly to the rope and tried to pull Wang GuiYing up.

    Wang GuiYing felt a little guilty for making the man work so hard, but at the same time, he also felt glad and happy to see the man come to his rescue like this.

    "My knight in shining armor, am I heavy?" Wang GuiYing beamed as he shamelessly questioned.

    "Heavier than a truck," Zhou Xinyi didn''t look to be comfortable with speaking at this moment as he tried his best to pull Wang GuiYing up, but this didn''t hold him back from replying to the man.

    "..."

    It would have been better if you didn''t answer that question...!!

    Wang GuiYing pursed his lips together and was quiet after that answer that didn''t seem to have pleased him very much.

    Zhou Xinyi was a strong man but to pull up another man who almost had the same weight as him was something that could even be considered impossible, however, he didn''t give up at all and he had no thoughts about giving up either as he managed to pull Wang GuiYing up all the way.

    Wang GuiYing smiled brightly as he wrapped himself around the sweating man in a clumsy hug, "Xinyi~ You''re really the only one for me!~"

    "..." Zhou Xinyi''s face looked as dead as ever when he heard the man but Wang GuiYing who had known the man since they were children could clearly see that the man was embarrassed to hear him.

 Chapter 258 - The One Who Doesnt Understand

    "Omo~ Why are you blushing so much?" Wang GuiYing teased the man as he chuckled and poked Zhou Xinyi''s cheek, "You''re the one that saved me. So I''m thanking you!~"

    Zhou Xinyi''s eyes narrowed down on the man as he responded, "If you repay me by teasing me like this, I''m throwing you back down."

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he immediately shook his head, "Don''t get angry! Don''t get angry! I was just kidding. Hehehe..."

    Zhou Xinyi sighed as he heard this but didn''t bother saying anything as a response.

    "Did you really come to save me because you heard me calling for you?" Wang GuiYing questioned as he tilted his head, looking to be quite amused.

    "...." Zhou Xinyi gave the man no answer once again and Wang GuiYing chuckled as he commented, "What to do?~ That''s so cute of you! How can you climb that tall wall and come running over just because I called you? You''re really my knight in shining armor!"

    Zhou Xinyi pursed his lips and looked at Wang GuiYing, "I came to help you because you called for me, but I didn''t climb the wall because of that."

    "Eh?"

    "I climbed it to avoid the trap that I had set off," Zhou Xinyi explained honestly as he killed the misunderstandings before they could even rise.

    Wang GuiYing didn''t look to be fazed by it as he smiled brightly and responded, "It doesn''t matter why you climbed the wall. You were still there to save me!~"

    Wang GuiYing chuckled as he looked at Zhou Xinyi''s stone face that always had the same emotionless expression, "Xinyi~ If I wasn''t your best friend, I would have thought you were interested in me."

    Zhou Xinyi didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard that last comment.

    "But since I''m your best friend, you don''t need to worry about making me misunderstand. Tch- I know that you always do this because of your savior complex."

    "As expected, you like me the best!" Wang GuiYing added with a sigh as he didn''t even wait for Zhou Xinyi to respond.

    Zhou Xinyi was a bit surprised to suddenly hear Wang GuiYing exclaim like that but he still nodded his head in turn as he confirmed, "That''s right. I like you."

    Wang GuiYing''s face looked to be shining as he heard this, "And I like you the best as well!"

    Zhou Xinyi couldn''t help but chuckle as he nodded his head and responded, "That''s right. You like me too..."

    But your like is probably not the same as my like...

    Zhihao who knew the situation between these two people had always thought that Zhou Xinyi was too much of a coward and had probably not confessed, however how was he to know that he was completely wrong about assuming that Zhou Xinyi had never confessed.

    Zhou Xinyi had told Wang GuiYing about his feelings several times. Over and over again to make the man thoroughly understand it, but at the end of the day, BBtrash was too much of an idiot who was more interested in other people''s dating life compared to his own.

    "I like you," Zhou Xinyi sighed, "That''s why I came to save you."

    Wang GuiYing nodded his head happily as he beamed, "Me too so if you are ever stuck or in danger, I would also be there to help you!"

    Zhou Xinyi didn''t know if he wanted to cry or laugh as he saw that Wang GuiYing still didn''t understand it.

    Well, maybe there would come a day when something inside Wang GuiYing''s brain would finally click and he would realize the real meaning behind Zhou Xinyi''s words. Till that day arrived, Zhou Xinyi would be patiently waiting.

    "By the way," Wang GuiYing muttered as he looked around, "Isn''t this situation too good to be true?"

    "Huh?" Zhou Xinyi frowned as he looked around and asked, "What do you mean?"

    "We are currently standing on the top of the maze so we would not be triggering any more traps and we can find the other players as well... Isn''t this the best situation possible?!" Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened ever so slightly as he came to the shocking realization that maybe they both had the upper hand this time because of their current situation.

    Zhou Xinyi nodded as he confirmed, "For the time being, that seems to be the case."

    "Then we have an actual chance of winning the game!" Wang GuiYing exclaimed excitedly, "We have a better chance at winning the game than all the other players!"

    Zhou Xinyi gulped as he wondered if the man had even listened to him completely.

    What part of ''for the time being'' do you not understand?!

    "Xinyi! Let''s win this game!" Wang GuiYing clutched tightly onto Zhou Xinyi''s arm as he stated confidently, "Let''s win this game and beat Mastermo!"

    "..."

    The players who were playing this game all had the same goal which was to beat the gamemaster but it seemed that Wang GuiYing had his own goal all this time.

    "I can finally beat Mastermo!" Wang GuiYing beamed and it almost looked as if he was ready to melt away from happiness at the mere thought of beating that man, "It sounds so good to hear that!~"

    "Don''t get too carried away," Zhou Xinyi interjected as he gave Wang GuiYing a dose of reality, "He could have figured this out as well."

    "..." Wang GuiYing''s face immediately fell as he heard this.

    "And in any case, we can''t be sure that we are safe just yet."

    "Huh? What do you mean?" Wang GuiYing asked with a frown.

    "You also thought it was a bit too easy, didn''t you?"

    "Eh?" Wang GuiYing slowly nodded his head as he confirmed it, "The solution does seem to be a bit easy."

    "The wall may be hard to climb but it''s not impossible to climb it. There is no way we can escape the game this easily. There has to be a catch," Zhou Xinyi informed and it looked like the man had thoroughly thought about their situation.

    "A catch?"

    Zhou Xinyi nodded his head, "We might be safe for now but we must not let our guards down."

    Wang GuiYing seemed to have understood it as he nodded with a complicated expression on his face but based on the words he said next, it seemed that the man was still focusing on the wrong thing and hadn''t understood what Zhou Xinyi''s wanted to say at all.

    "If Mastermo falls into a trap, he would also try to climb up and we would no longer have the upper hand."

    "..."

    Is beating Mastermo really all you think about...?!

    Mastermo, who had no idea about the discussion between the two was leisurely strolling the maze as he kept a lookout for any traps that he might fall into.

    Since he was the only one who had played LHA''s maze of death, he was naturally well aware of what a trap looked like. The difference was really subtle and the trigger was even more unnoticeable but for Zhihao, who knew what he had to look out for, it wasn''t a big deal to find a trap.

    His initial head start had already gotten over and after it got over, he had at least walked past three traps that he was careful enough to not trigger.

    Every time he saw a trap, Zhihao would simply turn around and walk away. If you tried to run away after a trap was triggered, walls would close in on you and you would be unable to escape, however, if you ran away from the trap before triggering it, you would most definitely be able to escape.

    This was the strategy that Zhihao had used to survive till now as he walked aimlessly and tried to understand a way through which he could complete this mission.

    They had a whole hour on their hands this time. Compared to the ten minute missions they got, this was way more time given to them to figure out their plan and act, however, Zhihao didn''t want to use that one hour to the maximum.

    He wanted to get this thing done and over with. The faster he could solve the mission, the faster he would be able to get out of here.

    At this moment, the one who Zhihao was most suspicious of was Jiangshi. He was almost sure that the innocent boy who suddenly became a player and climbed the ranking was probably the gamemaster.

    However, even if Zhihao could somehow prove that the boy was the gamemaster, completing the mission was still not going to be easy.

    Their mission was to beat the gamemaster and Zhihao didn''t really want to do that...

    Jiangshi looked like he was still younger than Zhihao. A lot younger, in fact. And although Zhihao never cared about the age that much, he would still not want to murder a kid just because of some game.

    Even if the game was basically forcing him to do it at this point, he would still not do it.

 Chapter 259 - The Lucky One

    Since there was a chance that they were connected to this game directly through their neuro system, there was also a chance that the effects of dying in this game could be seen in the real world as well and Zhihao would never want to risk that.

    Even if the gamemaster was someone else, Zhihao would still choose to find another way to solve the mission.

    There just had to be an easier method... Something that didn''t involve possibly killing the gamemaster or damaging his brain.

    "Oh shit..." Zhihao cursed under his breath as he realized that he had been so lost in his thoughts that he had triggered a trap by mistake.

    Only after hearing the small click sound had he realized it so he naturally knew that it was already too late to run away..

    Even if he turned around and tried to run, the wall will close in on him and he would have no chance of running away.

    Zhihao cautiously looked back to see that his expectations had been proven right as a wall suddenly appeared behind him and in front of him as well, trapping him in this small area within the four walls.

    He looked up to see that the ceiling was not there.

    For normal players, they would see this as an escape route. They would think that climbing all the way up there could save them but Zhihao who had already played the maze of death by LHA knew that the open ceiling was not an escape route, rather, it was another trap.

    A trap that was much more dangerous than the one they would be faced with if they stayed on their spot.

    Zhihao sighed as he looked around cautiously to see what this trap was going to be.

    His prior gaming experience had already taught him a lot and if he was given a trap that he had previously been in, he would find it easier to solve it.

    In fact, even if it was a new trap that he had never seen before, Zhihao still hoped that he would be able to get out of it. After all, their one hour had just begun. The traps they would be getting right now would not be too difficult to solve.

    The traps that they would be faced with later on in the game would be a lot more gruesome and difficult to get out of.

    Zhihao stayed on his spot and didn''t even move an inch as he waited for something to happen and something indeed happened.

    The walls around him started moving and when Zhihao noticed it, he didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry.

    When Zhihao had played the maze of death by LHA, he had fallen into this trap before as well.

    If he stayed on his spot then the walls will keep squeezing in till he was a fine paste. Even if he tried to move around, the walls would not stop. It would keep contracting if there was a player standing inside.

    If he were to climb all the way up then he could escape for the time being but Zhihao was naturally not stupid enough to do that so he thought about it for a minute.

    He knew exactly what to do in order to solve this trap just because he had been in this situation before, but he wasn''t a hundred percent sure if his method was going to work this time.

    There was a loophole in every trap and the loophole in this trap was clear as well.

    The walls would keep contracting if there was a player standing inside but if there was no player ''standing'' inside then the walls would naturally stop as well.

    Zhihao took out something from his pocket and casually wore them on his hands.

    They were gloves that he had picked up from that inventory he had visited at the very starting of this final level.

    These gloved looked to be normal at first glance but only someone with a keen eye would be able to notice that the pads at the palm side of the gloves were not normal at all. They had small suction cups on them making them mimic the look of an octopus''s tentacle.

    These gloves had a really specific use and Zhihao had naturally calculated it all when he had first picked them up.

    Once he was done wearing the gloves, Zhihao steadily stepped towards one of the walls and stretched his limbs a bit as if he was trying to loosen up his muscles.

    He looked up at the wall and confidently jumped, slapping his hands loudly at the highest point of the wall that he could reach.

    The gloves immediately did their job and got attached to the wall, making Zhihao dangle from the wall with his feet above the ground.

    Zhihao took a deep breath in as he waited and as expected, his plan had surprisingly worked.

    Now that there was nobody standing on the floor, the walls that were moving also stopped.

    Zhihao sighed in relief as he waited some more.

    It was certainly very easy for him to solve this trap, but there were in fact two reasons which made it seem so easy.

    The first reason was certainly because Zhihao had already been in this situation before when he was playing LHA''s maze of death. The second reason was also somehow related to the first.

    The second reason why it was easy for him to solve this was because this was one of the easiest traps that the maze of death had to offer.

    At this point, even Zhihao couldn''t deny the fact that he was a really lucky man.

    Out of all the dangerous traps that he could have triggered, he just had to trigger this one that was the easiest.

    [Error: No player detected.]

    [If no player is detected, the trap would be closed within the next ten seconds.]

    [10]

    [9]

    The countdown began and Zhihao had a small smirk on his face as he heard it.

    [8]

    [7]

    [6]

    [5]

    He just had to keep holding on for the next five seconds and he could have the chance to run out of this trap.

    [4]

    [3]

    [2]

    [1]

    [No player was detected]

    [Trap 1232 has been deactivated!]

    The system announced and the walls that had previously trapped Zhihao in this small space immediately went back down from where they had come from.

    Zhihao also jumped down as he skillfully separated the gloves from the wall.

    "Phew~" Zhihao sighed as he shook his head and reminded himself, "I have to be more careful next time."

    He had been lucky to get an easy trap this time but the same would certainly not happen again. If he were to keep getting distracted by his thoughts, he would fall into a more severe trap from which it would be hard for him to escape.

    "I wonder where Li Ling is," Zhihao sighed as he muttered to himself and continued walking forward.

    After he had left the place, Zhou Xinyi and Wang GuiYing appeared on top of the wall as they looked down to see the empty place.

    "It was certainly here..." Wang GuiYing muttered in confusion as he saw that there was nothing wrong with this place.

    Since the two were standing on top of the maze, when a player triggered a trap, they would naturally be able to see it. This was also how Zhou Xinyi had come over to save Wang GuiYing.

    This time as well, they saw that a trap had been triggered and although they didn''t know who the player being trapped was, they still came over immediately to help, however, it seems like they had been a bit slow and by the time that they had arrived, the trap had already been deactivated.

    "So the player managed to solve it on their own?" Wang GuiYing muttered in disbelief as he looked over at Zhou Xinyi, "Who could it be?"

    "The gamemaster, perhaps?" Zhou Xinyi responded with a guess as he shrugged his shoulder and straightened his back.

    "That... Sounds possible!" Wang GuiYing exclaimed with a frown as he added, "Then the gamemaster is cheating."

    "How can it be cheating?"

    "He already knows how to solve the traps so isn''t he cheating?" Wang GuiYing didn''t sound to be very pleased as he complained, "This level is unfair to us! The gamemaster can just solve all the traps easily and win!"

    "Actually that''s what makes it fair, don''t you think?" Zhou Xinyi responded as he asked back, trying to state his own thoughts, "We are after the gamemaster currently so if that man has no advantage over us, then the game would be unfair to him."

    "..."

    "This can be considered as a booster for him in order to make the game fair," Zhou Xinyi sighed as he stated, "It''s not something for you to be mad about since in the end, the final stage is still set up against the gamemaster."

    Wang GuiYing sighed as he heard this but didn''t bother saying anything as a response.

 Chapter 260 - The Gamemaster Is Found

    It was actually the doing of Zhihao but the two blamed it on the unknown gamemaster without even considering the fact that it could have been some other player.

    The gamemaster who was accused of cheating in order to make the game fair was currently innocently sitting on a corner as he poked the ground helplessly and thoughtlessly, simply waiting for someone to find him.

    Unlike what Zhou Xinyi and Wang GuiYing were speculating, the gamemaster had no idea how to solve any of the traps so he found that the best method to avoid falling into a deadly trap would be by doing nothing.

    It was as simple as that.

    If he stayed in one safe spot and waited it all out, he wouldn''t be triggering any traps even if he were to run out of the timed head start that he had saved up.

    If the other player had also shared the same thoughts as him then they would also not have to go through all this trouble but it just so happened that he was the only one who found the easiest method to keep himself safe.

    [Your two minutes and fifty-eight seconds is now over, Devilmagiclover.]

    The system sounded just as enthusiastic as ever as it announced, but even after hearing this, Li Ling didn''t look to be bothered in the least..

    There was simply nothing for him to worry about since he was going to do nothing. He planned on staying here and by choosing to do so, he was safe from any danger that the maze might bring him.

    The only thing he needed to worry about were the other players. If he were to come across another player who would realize that he is the gamemaster, he would be in trouble. If nothing like that happened then he was safe.

    It was as simple as that.

    However, how could everything be that simple for Li Ling?

    "Yo~ Found you," Jiangshi muttered as he came out of the corner and looked at Li Ling.

    Li Ling blinked as he looked up at the boy whose face was completely covered by the mask.

    "Gamemaster!~" Jiangshi chuckled as he exposed Li Ling.

    Li Ling''s eyes narrowed down on the boy as he questioned, "Huang Zhen?"

    Huang Zhen nodded his head without any sense of hesitation as he revealed his identity, "Li Ling Gege, what are you doing here?"

    "Can''t you see for yourself?" Li Ling questioned back with a frown.

    "Huh?" Huang Zhen walked over towards the man and crouched down as he looked carefully at the ground that Li Ling was poking, "Are you trying to dig your grave?"

    "..."

    "Isn''t it too soon for you to be doing that?"

    "You brat!" Li Ling clicked his tongue, "Are you just here to put salt on my wounds?"

    Huang Zhen chuckled as he shook his head and spoke, "Why would I be here to do something as stupid as that?"

    "Then why are you here?" Li Ling looked at the boy as he casually questioned.

    "To kill you, of course." Huang Zhen''s voice lacked all emotions and Li Ling couldn''t help but feel that the boy was being honest.

    The two were silent as they simply stared at each other in an awkward atmosphere.

    "Are you serious about that?" Li Ling finally spoke up as he asked seriously, breaking the awkward silence.

    "Do you think I would be joking?" Instead of giving the man a straightforward response, the boy questioned him back.

    "I do," Li Ling responded with a nod.

    Huang Zhen chuckled as he stood up, straightening his back, "Li Ling Gege, I admire you and I think you''re great."

    Li Ling smiled as he heard this, "You''re also a fan of the gamemaster?"

    "No," Huang Zhen responded firmly, "You, as the gamemaster, would be a stupid person who created something that you couldn''t control. Why would I admire you for that?"

    "..."

    Because everyone else seems to...?

    "I admire you as my brother''s boyfriend," Huang Zhen sighed as he spoke honestly, "How can you make that guy like you so much? You two acting all lovey-dovey really made me think that the brother I have raised till now was someone whom I hardly knew."

    "Yah! He''s the one that raised you," Li Ling snapped in between but the boy ignored him and continued.

    "If it was the brother I knew, he would have already seen through your disguise and he would have been the first one to kill you," Huang Zhen sighed as he added, "Tell me honestly, you did some witchcraft on him, didn''t you?"

    "..."

    "The brother I knew would never hesitate or come to the wrong conclusions."

    "Ah..." Li Ling muttered as he interjected once again, "Hearing you say that makes me also think."

    "???"

    "That you don''t know your brother at all."

    Huang Zhen was stunned speechless for a second as he heard the man saying this.

    "How can there be such siblings?" Li Ling frowned as he questioned and didn''t wait for the boy to answer as he continued, "I don''t get along with my sister but there''s nobody else in the world who knows her better than me."

    Li Ling leaned in and rested his chin on his palm as he spoke, "The brother you knew sounds more like Mastermo and not A-Zhi."

    "They are the same person," Huang Zhen replied.

    "They are," Li Ling nodded his head as he agreed with Huang Zhen, "But they are not."

    "Eh?"

    "Mastermo and A-Zhi might be the same person but they are also really different. Mastermo is nothing more than the internet persona of Zhihao. The part of him that he wants to show the world while A-Zhi is the real him. The hidden side of him that not many people know about."

    "..."

    "Huang Zhen, you are young and dumb so you might never have realized it. Zhihao had always acted as a role model to you. He was older than you so he thought it was his responsibility to guide you. He thought he had to be the best so that you can look at him and be inspired to do the same." Li Ling sighed as he explained, "It''s actually not a bad thing when you look at it. He simply wanted to show the best of himself and that''s not wrong at all, however, by doing so, he had forgotten that he had hidden away a big part of himself from you."

    Huang Zhen''s muscles tensed up as he silently heard the man.

    "It''s not like the relationship between you two is bad. It''s just that you need to pay attention more and you two really need to open up to each other," Li Ling added with a sigh, "You two keep too many secrets from each other."

    When Huang Zhen heard this part, he clicked his tongue and retorted, "And you two don''t?"

    "..."

    "You can''t judge us," Huang Zhen also sighed as he spoke, "And you shifted the topic!"

    "The topic? There was a topic?"

    "There was!" Huang Zhen snapped, "I said I admire you for making my brother like you!"

    "Oh... That," Li Ling muttered as he nodded and waited for the boy to continue.

    "It''s true! Even if you accept it or not, you''ve managed to change Zhihao Gege and... I think I''m actually glad to see that you did." Huang Zhen put his hands inside his jacket as he pulled out something, "And I really admire and respect you for that, however, I wasn''t kidding when I said I was here to kill you."

    Li Ling blinked in confusion as he heard the boy but he didn''t even need to ask anything as he immediately understood the situation when he saw the gun that Huang Zhen had taken out.

    "I only gave my brother permission to win against me but if he knows that you are the gamemaster, he would never be able to complete the mission," Huang Zhen looked to be serious as he pointed the gun at Li Ling and spoke, "If he can''t do that, then I will."

    Li Ling gulped as he felt cold sweat form on his forehead.

    "Zhihao Gege is going to be really mad at me for this," Huang Zhen sighed as he added, "But I don''t care."

    Li Ling chuckled awkwardly as he tried to save himself, "You know, why don''t we put the gun down and talk? You have no reason to kill me."

    "The mission is a good reason, don''t you think?"

    Li Ling frowned as he heard this.

    "Are you really sure about this?"

    Huang Zhen nodded his head as he confirmed, "I''m sure. I still have six minutes left with me. If I kill you before then, the mission would be completed and no player would be put in danger anymore."

    Li Ling sighed in defeat as he nodded his head in understanding, "Then go right ahead."

    "..."

    "Shoot me," Li Ling closed his eyes as he waited for the boy to shoot.

 Chapter 261 - Why Hesitate?

    "Shoot me."

    "You''re not going to say anything else?" Huang Zhen questioned in shock.

    Li Ling shook his head as he responded, "If you are really sure that you want to win this game, go ahead and shoot me. It''s not like I''ll really die even if you do."

    Huang Zhen, who previously looked to be confident, no longer had the same unaffected demeanor, "How can you be sure about that?"

    "Sure about what?" Li Ling tilted his head in confusion as he questioned.

    "How can you be so sure that you won''t be affected?" Huang Zhen didn''t sound too happy as he asked, "You could possibly damage your brain. That''s a possibility, is it not?"

    "It is," Li Ling shrugged his shoulder as he responded calmly as if this meant nothing serious to him, "But you came here to shoot me, didn''t you?"

    Huang Zhen gulped as he nodded his head and confirmed it, "I am here to shoot you."

    "Then why are you hesitating now?" Li Ling asked with an amused smirk plastered on his face.

    Huang Zhen was silent as he had no answer to this question.

    "Why? Are you having a change of heart now that you are actually given the perfect opportunity?'' Li Ling questioned as he leaned back on the wall leisurely.

    Huang Zhen sighed as he took off his mask and showed Li Ling his face as he spoke, "Are you really not even going to try to stop me?"

    "Why would I want to stop you?" Instead of giving a straight answer to him, Li Ling asked back in turn, "I want to stop the system and if killing the gamemaster is the only way we can stop the system, I would naturally take the responsibility and accept my fate."

    "..."

    "At the end of the day, everything is still my fault, is it not? I''m the one that created something that wanted to kill me. I had been too impulsive and stupid."

    Huang Zhen nodded his head as he agreed with the man with no sense of reluctance visible on his face, "That''s right. It was your fault."

    Li Ling chuckled as he found it a bit funny to hear the same thing coming from the boy''s mouth.

    "So you should live," Huang Zhen added and Li Ling was surprised as he snapped his head up and looked at the boy in shock.

    "Wha-"

    "I''m still going to shoot you," Huang Zhen informed coldly as he didn''t bother lowering his gun, "But I hope this is not the end. You must live in order to fix your mistakes."

    "..."

    "You were the one at fault so you should be the one to fix it. So you better live and make it all up to my brother."

    A small smile crawled up Li Ling''s face as he nodded his head.

    "Then," Huang Zhen gulped as he held the gun higher and got ready to pull the trigger, "I''ll be ending this now. Let''s talk later. In the real world."

    Li Ling closed his eyes as he nodded and waited for the boy to shoot and in the very next moment, he heard a gunshot however, he felt nothing.

    Li Ling opened his eyes cautiously to see the situation.

    "Eh?" He muttered in shock as he looked at the man that had interrupted them.

    "B-Big bro...?!" Huang Zhen''s eyes widened as he looked at Zhihao who had suddenly rushed over and saved Li Ling by kicking the gun away from Huang Zhen''s hand.

    "It was.....you??" Zhihao asked in shock, as if, he hadn''t guessed it already.

    "A-Zhi..." Li Ling also muttered in shock as he looked at the man.

    "Big bro, don''t misunderstand!" Huang Zhen immediately tried to defend himself as his entire demeanor changed once again.

    "Don''t misunderstand?!" Zhihao repeated as he raised his voice, "Why are you here?! How can you be Jiangshi?!"

    Huang Zhen gulped as he gave no answer to the man.

    "How dare you hide this from me?!" Zhihao questioned in a scolding manner, looking as if he found it a bit hard to believe that his brother had actually been Jiangshi.

    "B-big bro..." Huang Zhen blinked anxiously as he glanced over at Li Ling for help.

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he stood up and picked up the gun before walking over to the two brothers, "A-Zhi, calm down, you''re scaring him."

    "And he scared me by trying to shoot you!" Zhihao exclaimed angrily as he glared at Li Ling.

    Li Ling gulped as he unconsciously took a step back, feeling a little intimidated by the man.

    "Big bro, it''s not what you think!" Huang Zhen tried to explain himself but found that there was no better explanation for the situation.

    "What? Are you going to tell me there was a good reason why you were trying to shoot him?"

    Huang Zhen gulped as he bobbed his head up and down.

    "Don''t give me that bullsh*t! What good would come out of shooting him?"

    "A-Zhi, calm down first~" Li Ling chuckled as he spoke up, "I was the one that told him to shoot me."

    "You?!" Zhihao let go of Huang Zhen and turned to face Li Ling as he heard the man, "Why would you do that?"

    Li Ling smiled as he threw the gun back over to Huang Zhen and turned to look at Zhihao as he replied, "You know why."

    "No," Zhihao frowned as he immediately responded without even bothering to think about it, "I have no idea why you would ask something like that from him so you should tell me."

    "..."

    Li Ling chuckled dryly as he bowed his head and spoke, "You know it too... I''m sure you have realized it as well..."

    "I''m telling you that I haven''t," Zhihao clicked his tongue as he spoke, "So you better confess right now."

    Li Ling looked up and met the man''s eyes but still didn''t dare say anything.

    "What? You don''t want to tell me?" Zhihao scoffed and for a second there, Li Ling could almost swear that he saw a disheartened expression on the man''s face, "So you don''t trust me?"

    Li Ling gulped as he shook his head and reassured, "I trust you."

    "Then tell me," Zhihao spoke firmly in a demanding manner, "Tell me why I just saw my brother trying to kill my boyfriend."

    Huang Zhen couldn''t help but be in this awkward situation as he looked at the cou[ple that seemed to be ready for a fight. The boy took a few steps back as he tried to sneak away from this place but he was immediately stopped by Zhihao who grabbed his hand and stopped him.

    "You don''t get to leave," Zhihao sent the boy a glare as he informed and Huang Zhen simply nodded his head with a bit of fear.

    "Now you tell me," Zhihao demanded, "I''m not giving you more time. I want to hear it from you. What are you hiding, Gege?"

    Li Ling gulped as he tried to calm down his guilty heart.

    This was it...

    This was the moment when he was supposed to finally reveal the truth.

    Zhihao was giving him a chance to come clean. He was giving him a chance to say it himself.

    "A-Zhi, I met you when we were kids," Li Ling held his head down as he spoke in a low volume that was somehow still audible.

    "I know that," Zhihao replied coldly.

    "We became friends... Or at least, I thought we did. Do you remember our promise?"

    "Promise?"

    Li Ling lifted his head and nodded as he spoke, "The promise we made the last time we met."

    "I don''t," Zhihao answered honestly as he truly could not recall anything about a promise.

    "I guessed you won''t..." Li Ling sighed and sounded a bit dejected as he continued, "You won''t remember it because you never agreed to the promise. It was just me..."

    "Talk clearly," Zhihao interjected, "Tell me what are you talking about. What promise?"

    "When we were kids, you used to love playing games at the arcade but... You once told me that you were starting to get bored of the games."

    "..."

    "You told me that they were not challenging enough. That they were all alike and that they were all the same."

    "I... Do remember that," Zhihao muttered as he found the wordings a bit familiar.

    "But you still liked playing those games more than playing with me," Li Ling chuckled as he added, "For you, they were the same old boring games but you still decided to choose them over me."

    "I was a kid."

    "I know..." Li Ling muttered as he nodded, "We were both kids so it was understandable but I still hated the fact that the only time you would play with me was when I would go over and play video games with you."

    Zhihao''s eyes widened ever so slightly as he heard this.

 Chapter 262 - Revealing Everything

    Zhihao had never even remembered much from that time. The only thing he vividly remembered was the small Li Ling who would be crying and following him around.

    "So I decided to create a game."

    "..."

    "I decided to make the best game in the world. One that is adventurous and never gets boring. One that is different from all the other games out there. A game that you would come to love...." Li Ling''s voice seemed to be growing weaker as he continued, "I asked you if you would play with me if I created such a game and you said yes. From then on, I started playing more games. I started observing more games and I started planning out what would make such a great game in the world."

    "Weren''t you a child back then?" Huang Zhen interjected with a frown as he questioned and was thoroughly ignored by Li Ling.

    "You stopped coming to the arcade and I also couldn''t go there anymore," Li Ling continued, "Our promise became the only thing that gave me hope. If I could make a game that you would love then I would be able to meet again."

    Zhihao gulped as he patiently let the man continue.

    "I thought if I could create T.I.A.D.... I would finally be able to fulfill the promise I made to you." Li Ling''s voice sounded shaky as if the man could burst into tears at any given moment now.

    "So you made the game?" Zhihao spoke up as he questioned and his voice sounded completely emotionless.

    Li Ling gulped as he nodded his head and confirmed, "That''s right. I made a system called A.L.V.I."

    "Automated Living Virtual Intelligence," Li Ling sighed as he explained, "A system that could create unlimited scenarios for a game. A system that could create an entire world inside a game and read the player''s mind in order to make the game more fun for that player. I made a game that would be so unpredictable that nobody would ever get bored of seeing the same things since there would be no same things repeated for them."

    Li Ling took a deep breath in as he gave a pause and spoke, "And the goal of the players would be the same... To beat the gamemaster... To beat me..."

    Zhihao let out a breath as he didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this.

    "I knew the great Mastermo would also join the game and I knew you would also try to claim the ultimate win. So I planned everything beforehand. I planned it so that in the end, you would be forced to meet me as the player who loves the game, and I thought I would finally be able to tell you the truth. To come clean and confidently say that I have completed the promise I made to you. To tell you that it was now your turn to live up to your end of the deal."

    "Then why did you show yourself before I reached the final level?" Zhihao questioned as he looked at the man.

    "..."

    "This whole time... You knew exactly who I was and where I was. You could find me whenever you wanted to but you waited. You were waiting for this moment, weren''t you?" Zhihao raised his voice as he questioned in a complaining manner, "If you were waiting, why didn''t you just wait till the end?! Why did you have to suddenly bump into me and make me trust you like an idiot? Why did you have to hide this all from me?!"

    "Because I was afraid!" Li Ling also raised his voice as he spoke up, defending himself, "I was afraid to tell you the reason!"

    "What was it? What scared you so much?" Zhihao asked with a scoff.

    "I was scared because I thought I might end up hurting you," Li Ling responded with a defeated tone.

    He was finally telling Zhihao everything. The secrets that he had kept for so long were finally being revealed one by one and he couldn''t help but feel like his shoulders felt a little lighter because of it, however, his heart felt heavier as he continued.

    "I messed up and I got scared!" Li Ling exclaimed as he admitted it, "The system was not completely ready and all the risk factors were not properly considered. We had done our best but only after the official release of the game did we spot a big problem with Alvi."

    "..."

    "She was too alive. We had given her too much control over the game and as a result, the players were put at a risk. When I thought about you being one of those players who could possibly suffer from my mistake... It scared me and my plans had to be changed."

    Zhihao gulped and his eyes widened ever so slightly as he heard this.

    "Initially the players were not supposed to be forced to form teams but I knew that you would never take in another player as your teammate if you were not forced by the game so I changed the game slightly. The game forced all players to join teams of two or more and I conveniently bumped into you, introducing myself as a fan who wanted to be in your team."

    "Why did you want to be in the same team?"

    "To protect you," Li Ling sighed as he answered, "I wanted to protect you from the system. I wanted to make sure that you were kept safe but... In the end, I guess it was inevitable for us to end up here like this."

    "So that was the reason why you went after me?" Zhihao asked coldly and Li Ling nodded his head.

    "That''s right."

    Zhihao scoffed as he questioned, "Then you had no plans on becoming my friend? You had no plans on chasing me either?"

    Li Ling bit his lips as he firmly shook his head, "In the first place itself... There was no such plan."

    "..."

    "I just wanted to keep my promise to you. I didn''t want to be your friend nor did I want to have any other relationship with you."

    Zhihao really didn''t know how he was supposed to react to this so he asked, "Then what did you expect? What would have happened if we never formed a team? If nothing had ever gone wrong and the whole thing played out just as you had initially planned it, what would have happened?"

    Li Ling was silent for a minute as he heard this question and he looked up to see Zhihao''s face as he gulped and answered honestly, "I planned for us to go our separate ways."

    "!!!" Zhihao felt his heart clenching as he heard this and for some reason, the mere thought of that happening managed to hurt him.

    "I thought I would finally keep my promise to you and by killing the gamemaster, you would also indirectly be keeping your part of the promise. After that, we both go our separate ways." Li Ling took a sharp breath in as he continued, "I thought I would be happy with that. I thought that I would never have to think about you again and I could finally move on and do whatever I wanted to with my life."

    "I see..." Zhihao muttered as he nodded his head and his face looked to be completely indecipherable as he asked, "So you want to have nothing to do with me."

    Li Ling nodded his head, "That was the original plan."

    Huang Zhen who was stuck in this melodramatic atmosphere couldn''t help but feel that he really didn''t belong here but Zhihao still held onto the boy''s hand and refused to let him sneak away from here.

    "If there was nothing wrong with the system, you would have never shown up and all the memories that we made together would have never existed in the first place?" Zhihao gulped as he muttered questioningly, "Then... We would have also been nothing more than strangers that once knew each other as kids?"

    Li Ling nodded his head with a heavy heart.

    Zhihao, "That''s what you wanted?"

    Zhihao had always known that Li Ling was hiding something from him. If being the gamemaster was the only thing that Li Ling was hiding, Zhihao was more than ready to forgive the man for it, this was also the reason why he had asked everything in the first place but now that Li Ling revealed another huge truth, Zhihao couldn''t help but feel that he had been too naive.

    "Then you didn''t love me?" Zhihao questioned again as he didn''t wait for the man to give the answer to the previous question.

    Li Ling opened his mouth to defend himself but paused as he realized that there was nothing left for him to say. He took a moment to slowly nod his head as he confirmed everything, "That''s right. I wanted us to go our separate ways after this and I... Never loved you like that."

 Chapter 263 - Breaking Up?

    "Then what happened?" Zhihao couldn''t believe Li Ling''s words so he asked, "How come you suddenly decided to fall in love with me? No... Are you even in love with me or is it all in my head?"

    Li Ling gulped as he immediately shook his head and denied it, "It''s not in your head! I really did fall in love with you!"

    "When?! When did you fall in love with me?" Zhihao questioned in a demanding manner.

    "I don''t know when," Li Ling simply answered as he honestly spoke, "At first, I thought we were finally restoring our friendship, but then I realized that I might have started to feel something more for you. Being friends was enough for me in the beginning but I eventually started getting greedier."

    Zhihao opened his mouth to say something but immediately closed it as his mind went blank.

    For the first time in his life, he didn''t know what he was supposed to do. He had no idea how he was supposed to react to that.

    Huang Zhen looked at his brother and the boy immediately understood that his brother was having a hard time at this moment so he coughed as he spoke up, "Li Ling Gege, what are you thinking right now?"

    "Eh?" Li Ling tilted his head in confusion as he heard this question that he could not understand.

    "You must have planned something, didn''t you?" Huang Zhen asked, "When you originally thought about coming clean with everything to Brother Zhi, what did you expect his reaction to be?"

    Li Ling gulped and was silent for a minute as he seriously thought about the answer to that question.

    "You were scared of his reaction, isn''t that why you kept on lying to him for such a long time?" Huang Zhen questioned as his eyes narrowed down on the man, almost making it look as if he was glaring at Li Ling.

    "I... Was scared that he would leave me," Li Ling replied in a low volume, sounding vulnerable.

    "So you thought that just because I found out you''re the gamemaster, I would break up with you?" Zhihao scoffed softly as he questioned.

    Li Ling nodded his head reluctantly as he honestly replied, "That''s what I thought..."

    "Then I''m afraid you don''t know me," Zhihao sighed as he stated and Li Ling blinked in confusion as he tried to understand what Zhihao meant to say with this.

    Huang Zhen was a lot quicker as he immediately understood his brother''s intentions and snapped his head towards Zhihao in shock as he muttered, "Big bro...?!"

    The ground below them began shaking and Zhihao mentally cursed the system for having such bad timing.

    The players were together and except for Huang Zhen, both Zhihao and Li Ling no longer had any headstart which meant they were prone to be caught up in a trap.

    The LHA''s maze of death had a special characteristic to it and Zhihao who had played it before was perhaps one of the only ones who knew about it.

    This maze was supposed to be played alone by the players so if two or more players grouped up in a certain area, the maze would force a trap upon them and it wouldn''t matter if they had triggered the trap or not.

    What was worse was perhaps the fact that the trap would be more difficult to solve since it would become a mini competition of survival and most of the time, only one of the players would be able to survive while the other would simply be killed while trying.

    "Huang Zhen, get out of here," Zhihao let go of the boy''s hand as he instructed, "You still have your headstart so don''t get yourself caught up in this.

    Huang Zhen gulped as he cautiously glanced over at Li Ling with a bit of worry.

    "Don''t worry about him," Zhihao informed as he reassured, "I''m here."

    "..."

    That''s exactly what I''m worried about: Huang Zhen thought in his mind but he naturally didn''t say anything out loud as he simply nodded his head and ran away from the place but only after putting the gun back in his pocket.

    "We are about to be sent into a trap," Zhihao informed.

    Li Ling sighed as he nodded his head and responded with his head still hung low with no confidence to face the man directly, "I know."

    Zhihao sighed as he stepped forward and cupped the man''s face before pulling him in and kissing him in the angriest way possible, making sure that Li Ling could understand exactly what his feelings and intentions at the moment were.

    Li Ling was certainly taken by surprise as he blinked in confusion and couldn''t even react fast enough.

    "I''m not breaking up with you," Zhihao pulled away from the kiss and forced Li Ling to meet his eyes as he firmly stated, "No matter what you planned to do in the beginning. No matter what you thought would happen to us. I don''t care if things didn''t go your way."

    Li Ling gulped as he slowly took in Zhihao''s words and let the man continue.

    "If you planned for us to be strangers then I''m glad that there was something wrong with the system. I''m happy to know that things didn''t go your way and even if I was given another chance to redo everything, I would still choose to take you in as my teammate. I would still choose to make you my friend and I would choose to fall in love with you as well."

    "..."

    "I would choose to do everything again because you''re important to me and I''m really angry at you right now. Can you guess why?"

    Li Ling gulped as he responded, "Because I lied?"

    Zhihao shook his head as he denied it, "That''s not why I''m angry. Take another guess."

    Li Ling was silent as he pondered over the answer for a bit longer before asking, "Because I planned on us going our separate ways?"

    Zhihao chuckled as he shook his head and once again informed that Li Ling had guessed it wrong for the second time, "Now you''re just making me angry because you don''t even know why I am angry."

    "..."

    "I''m angry because you underestimated my feelings," Zhihao sighed as he firmly gave the answer, "You thought I would break up with you over something so trivial. You thought I wouldn''t understand and I''m really hurt to know that even after everything we have been through together, you still don''t understand me. Am I really such a man in your eyes? A man who doesn''t even love you enough to forgive you?"

    Li Ling gulped as tears almost started brimming in his eyes as he heard Zhihao continue.

    "I''m have been telling you this for such a long time," Zhihao scoffed as he spoke, "I''m deeply and madly in love with you! At this point, I wouldn''t even care if you were an alien! Even if you were not human, I would still be just as in love with you as I am right now!"

    Tears started falling down Li Ling''s eyes as he hugged the man and started regretting all the times when he had hesitated to reveal the truth.

    "But this doesn''t mean I''m forgiving you," Zhihao didn''t hug the man back as he coldly stated and Li Ling''s muscles went tense.

    "Since you made me so angry, it''s only natural that I expect you to make it up to me," Zhihao pouted as he spoke and Li Ling smiled brightly as he nodded his head.

    "I''ll do whatever you want me to do! I''ll try my best to make it up to you!" Li Ling beamed happily and he felt as if a huge burden had been finally lifted off his shoulders.

    As if he could finally be as honest as he wanted with Zhihao.

    "That''s good. I like your determination," Zhihao closed his eyes and nodded as he approved this positive behavior, "But for the time being, I''m afraid you''ll need to give me some time to think."

    Li Ling''s smile faltered as he heard this and Zhihao sighed as he noticed it.

    "This does not mean we are breaking up," Zhihao informed clearly, "I just want some time to think about some things."

    Li Ling frowned and it looked like he wanted to ask what Zhihao wanted to think about but he was hesitant and Zhihao could clearly notice all this.

    "I just want to think about how we are going to explain everything to my father," Zhihao sighed as he spoke, "And I don''t think I can think about anything if you''re next to me."

    Li Ling gulped as he suddenly realized that although Zhihao''s mother had already given her blessings, Zhihao''s father still hated Li Ling.

    [Forced trap has been activated!]

    The system announced and Zhihao cursed in his mind as he had already expected something like this to happen.

    "You know what that means, right?" Zhihao questioned as he looked at Li Ling and Li Ling shook his head as he responded.

    "I don''t know but I can guess."

 Chapter 264 - Cold-hearted Behaviour

    Li Ling was now in a whole lot better mood so even the annoying system didn''t manage to annoy him this time as he looked at Zhihao with starry eyes that seemed to be filled with love.

    Zhihao sighed as he wondered if Li Ling could really understand what their current situation was.

    They were thrown in a battle trap...

    This meant that they were competing against each other.

    The small argument they just had was settled but now they would have to resort to force because of the system.

    [Welcome to the battle arena!]

    The system was enthusiastic as it announced and the walls from their right and their left side went down into the ground, opening up a bigger space for them that was still covered with walls from all the sides.

    Zhihao sighed as he took a few steps back and put some distance in between himself and Li Ling.

    Zhihao looked to be calm on the outside but only he knew that he was hiding his worries at this moment.

    The ground continued to shake for a few minutes and when it finally stopped, Zhihao sighed in relief as he thought that it was over, however, he eventually regretted it soon enough as he saw cracks forming on the ground.

    "W-what''s happening?" It was Li Ling who gulped anxiously as he questioned.

    "This... Is not going to be good," Zhihao muttered as he warned beforehand but there was nothing he could do as in the very next moment, the crack grew bigger and the floor sunk down into the hot magma that could be seen below them.

    Li Ling and Zhihao both were shocked as they looked down to see that the ground beneath them was the only one still left standing.

    "Don''t move!" Zhihao shouted as he realized what the battle was going to be.

    "A seesaw...?" Li Ling muttered in confusion as he also noticed the weird moving structure that they were standing on.

    "If one of us moves, the other one falls," Zhihao informed seriously as he looked at the man.

    "Oh..." Li Ling gulped as he immediately understood their situation.

    The ground around them had already gone down and there was only a single boulder left in the middle, balanced on which was a stone platform. Zhihao and Li Ling just so happened to be standing on either side of this balanced platform.

    If one of them were to move from his place then the balance would be destroyed and they would fall down.

    "How do we get out of this?" Li Ling questioned as he looked over at Zhihao.

    "Aren''t you the gamemaster? You tell me!" Zhihao retorted almost immediately making Li Ling fall speechless.

    "..."

    Zhihao sighed as he added, "There is an easy way for a player to survive but I don''t think that method would be fit for us."

    "Eh? What is it?" Li Ling immediately questioned as he waited for the man to answer him.

    "One of us goes down."

    Li Ling tilted his head in confusion and blinked as he heard this method, "What... Do you mean?"

    "One of us either jumps down by our own choice or gets pushed down," Zhihao spoke as he explained, "Since this is a battle, it would be over as long as one of the players is dead."

    "Ah... Is that so...?" Li Ling muttered as he cautiously looked down and got lost in his thoughts as he wondered if it would be painful to jump down into that magma.

    "Don''t even think about it," Zhihao''s eyes narrowed down on the man as he spoke up and warned before Li Ling could even try something, "We''re looking for a different way out."

    Li Ling chuckled dryly as he heard Zhihao already guessing what Li Ling was thinking about.

    "You''re the gamemaster so I hope to see you putting up a fight," Zhihao added strictly and it almost looked as if he was glaring at the man.

    Li Ling pursed his lips into a thin line as he waited for Zhihao to continue.

    "No matter who the player is, don''t you dare lose on purpose," It almost sounded as if he was scolding the man, "If you lose then it would have to be because you lacked the ability to win. I don''t care if you lied to me or not but right now the Li Ling I know and the gamemaster I admired are the same person and I don''t want that person to ever lose in front of me. Something I would hate more than watching you lose would be watching you give up before even trying."

    Li Ling gulped as he nodded his head in understanding, "I''ll... Keep that in mind."

    "Good," Zhihao smiled slightly as he heard this response, "Now let''s think of another way."

    "How about we go up?" Li Ling asked as he pointed towards the open ceiling.

    "No," Zhihao didn''t even need to think about it before he answered firmly, "That''s another trap."

    "A trap?" Li Ling muttered with a frown as he waited for Zhihao to explain.

    "Most players would think that the open ceiling is the best method to solve any trap but they would be wrong since these walls are the ones that are protecting you at this moment."

    "Eh?" Li Ling tilted his head in confusion as he honestly admitted, "I don''t understand it."

    "Let me put it in a simple manner," Zhihao spoke as he looked up, "At first you would feel that you''d be safe if you are up there but you would soon realize that you were wrong in thinking that. It should be at any minute now... The system would release a virus up there. A virus that would try to eat you up alive and escaping from that virus would be hard since you won''t even be able to see it."

    Li Ling''s eyes widened as he heard this, "A virus that you can''t see?"

    Zhihao nodded his head as he confirmed it, "That''s right. A virus that you would never see coming. Your chance of survival would be much lower than your current chance of survival from this trap."

    "So that... Is another big trap that is disguised as a safe spot?" Li Ling gulped as he questioned.

    Zhihao nodded his head as he confirmed it, "Exactly."

    "Then what about the other players?" Li Ling asked anxiously as he pointed it out, "They don''t know this, do they?"

    Zhihao sighed as he heard this question, "It would be better if you worried about yourself. They would figure it out on their own and if they don''t... Well, you can just say that it was their fault, to begin with. I''m not obliged to warn them about every little thing."

    "..." Li Ling was speechless as he heard this cold-hearted straightforward reply that really didn''t match Zhihao who was known to be a player who would always help everyone else.

    "Don''t look at me like that," Zhihao spoke as he saw Li Ling looking at him with a shocked expression plastered on his face, "I was always like this. I just pretended to be a bit nice because you were around but I feel like since we are finally being more honest with each other, it''s only natural that I also say what I truly mean."

    Li Ling was silent for a minute before he suddenly broke out laughing, "Bwahaha..."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but smile slightly as he heard the man laughing so openly like that.

    "A-Zhi, you''re really being full of surprises."

    "Do you not like it?"

    "No," Li Ling answered firmly and Zhihao immediately frowned as his eyebrows creased together.

    "..."

    "I absolutely love it!" Li Ling exclaimed suddenly as he saw the dejected expression on Zhihao''s face.

    Zhihao''s lips curled up in a smile as he heard this.

    "For some reason, ruthless cold behaviour really suits you," Li Ling added happily without any worries although he was still standing on a platform that was right above a hot magma pool.

    One wrong step and both of them could end up losing this game and their lives along with it but this didn''t stop them from enjoying their time as they laughed together.

    "Since you like it, make sure to take responsibility for your words," Zhihao chuckled as he spoke and Li Ling stopped laughing as he looked at the mischievous look in Zhihao''s eyes.

    "A-Zhi, you should also take responsibility for your words!" Li Ling exclaimed and for some reason, there was a light blush on his cheeks indicating that he was indeed a little embarrassed.

    Zhihao chuckled as he nodded his head, "I''m ready to take responsibility for a fully grown man and you think I would be afraid of taking responsibility for some words?"

    Li Ling chuckled as he nodded his head and spoke, "Yes, I do think that Mastermo is exactly like that."

    "..."

    "Now stop playing around and let''s think of a way out of this," Li Ling spoke up as he got back to the main topic.

    Zhihao nodded as he heard this and added with a small chuckle, "Let''s have this responsibility talk later and focus on that angry liquid fire down there."

 Chapter 265 - Run From The Invisible Nightmare!

    "Xinyi, something isn''t right..." Wang GuiYing spoke up as he suddenly felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

    "Hmm?" Zhou Xinyi turned around sideways to glance at the man as he asked, "What is it?"

    "This is too easy, don''t you think?" Wang GuiYing questioned seriously as he looked back at the man.

    "You have a bad feeling about it?" Zhou Xinyi''s eyes narrowed down on the man as he asked in turn.

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he nodded his head and confirmed, "I feel like we are doing exactly what the system wanted us to do."

    Zhou Xinyi sighed as he heard this and nodded his head as he suggested, "If that is the case then let''s go back down."

    "Eh?" Wang GuiYing blinked in confusion, "You''re agreeing so easily? You also notice it?"

    Zhou Xinyi once again nodded his head as he responded, "I noticed it before you."

    "..."

    "Every player would be easily able to realize that they would be safe once they climb up here and that would make things easy. If there is anything we know about T.I.A.D., it''s that the game is anything but easy."

    Wang GuiYing gulped with a nod as he agreed with Zhou Xinyi, showing that he also had the same thoughts.

    "If this is really dangerous then instead of waiting here for the danger to strike, we should go back down and figure out another way to get through the traps."

    "What if we run?" Wang GuiYing asked as he suggested.

    "Eh?"

    Wang GuiYing pointed up ahead as he stated, "The middle of the maze. From years of gaming experience, if there is anything I learned, it would be the fact that the middle of the maze is always the key to everything. It can either be the most dangerous place or the safest spot, but no matter which kind it is, it would always be the key to either breaking the maze completely or surviving the maze."

    "Then you suggest running?" Zhou Xinyi raised his eyebrows as he asked curiously.

    Wang Guiying nodded his head as he confirmed, "If we go down right now, we would just be further caught up in traps. Instead of doing that let''s run and get to the middle then we go back inside the maze."

    Zhou Xinyi seemed to be thinking about it for a minute before he opened his mouth to say something but he immediately gulped down the words as his eyes caught a glance of something behind Wang GuiYing.

    Wang GuiYing frowned as he noticed Zhou Xinyi''s face losing all color and he also opened his mouth to say something but before he could form a complete sentence, Zhou Xinyi grabbed onto his hand and pulled him along as the man started running.

    "Eh?" Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened as he saw this action, "We''re just going to be running? Aren''t you supposed to tell me if you agree or not? We are supposed to consider this seriously before acting!"

    "No time!" Zhou Xinyi''s response was short and clear as he exclaimed and Wang GuiYing immediately noticed that there was something off about the man''s voice.

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he took a step and tried to jump back into the maze but surprisingly enough, his feet was blocked.

    "What the hell...?!" Wang GuiYing muttered in disbelief as he noticed that they were not able to enter the maze anymore and there was now an invisible ceiling on top of the maze on which they could run.

    "Laser net?" Wang GuiYing muttered as he questioned and looked at Zhou Xinyi for answers.

    "There is something following us," Zhou Xinyi informed as he continued to run as fast as he could with Wang GuiYing by his side.

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he heard this and cautiously glanced back to see that there was nothing following them, however, he was no fool and his eyes immediately glanced down to see that the Laser net that was preventing them from entering the maze was actually reactive to touch.

    This meant that if they took a step, their step could be seen lighting up the invisible laser net that was acting as a floor now. Even though, Wang GuiYing could see nothing following them from behind, the laser net that reacted by lighting up was proof enough that Zhou Xinyi was indeed right and that there was certainly something there that was following them.

    "An invisible monster?!" Wang GuiYing cried out with worry and fear as he felt that his worst nightmares were finally coming to life.

    "Keep running! Like you said, let''s get to the middle of this maze!" Zhou Xinyi also cried out as a response as he lightly squeezed Wang GuiYing''s hand, making it look as if he was trying to reassure the man that they would be safe soon enough.

    "Damn it!" Wang GuiYing cursed as loud as he could and started seriously running, letting go of Zhou Xinyi''s hand and overtaking him as Wang GuiYing ran in front of the man.

    "..."

    It seemed that years of running away had made Wang GuiYing a good runner.

    They ran like their life depended on it and considering the situation that they were in, it seemed that this statement was more true than you might think.

    If they weren''t fast enough then they would really be dying in a moment of carelessness. At least, in the game that is.

    Wang GuiYing took a sharp breath in as he glanced back and noticed that whatever it was that was following them, it was fast. Maybe even faster then them.

    "We... Are not going to make it!" Wang GuiYing cried out as he considered the possibility of them being able to outrun the creature that was following them.

    "Just run!" Zhou Xinyi shouted from behind.

    Even if the creature was able to catch up to them, Zhou Xinyi would be the first one to be attacked since he was running behind Wang GuiYing and in the process, he was indirectly guarding the man.

    "Just a bit more!" Wang GuiYing closed his eyes as he exclaimed.

    There was just a bit more distance left for them to reach the center of the maze.

    They didn''t have enough time to think if they would be safe even if they reached the center of the maze but Wang GuiYing hoped that the laser net that prevented them from re-entering the maze would not be there in the middle of the maze. This was the only hope that kept him moving.

    "The players can come out of the maze but they can''t go in," Zhou Xinyi breathed out as he commented, "This is exactly something you would expect from this rotten system!"

    It was probably the first time Wang GuiYing had ever heard Zhou Xinyi bad-mouth the system like this and it was possibly also the first time that Zhou Xinyi had ever cursed the system in his mind.

    "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Wang GuiYing repeated over and over again with his eyes closed as he ran with all his might and prayed in his mind.

    By the time he opened his eyes, they had already ran all the way to the center of the maze where suprisingly enough... There was nothing special.

    Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi came to a stop together as they tried to jump back inside the maze but just like how there was a laser net covering all the other entrance, there was one here as well.

    "We can''t go in..." Wang GuiYing muttered as he jumped a few times, only to be stopped over and over again by the invisible laser net that shined every time Wang GuiYing jumped on it.

    Zhou Xinyi immediately opened his backpack and tried to take out something that could be used as a weapon against the invisible creature that was hunting them down but before he could even take his hand out of the backpack, he disappeared as the creature caught up to them.

    "Xinyi...?" Wang GuiYing could clearly feel the pulsing of his racing heart as he looked around to see that the backpack dropped to the ground but without Zhou Xinyi.

    When he looked down, he immediately understood what the situation was.

    This creature that was hunting them could somehow kill them in an instant without even leaving behind any of their remains. A creature that worked like an eliminator.

    Wang GuiYing took a sharp breath in as he turned around and got ready to run away from the creature with hopes of saving himself, however, the creature was faster and only after two steps, Wang GuiYing was caught and the space around him turned white while his body went absolutely still.

    "What...?" Wang GuiYing breathed out in confusion as everything happened so fast and in the very next second, there was a system notification that he could hear.

    [Game Over!]

    Wang GuiYing gulped as the confusion slowly settled in and he opened his eyes to see that he was lying somewhere.

    "He''s awake!" It was the familiar voice of a woman who exclaimed in joy and Wang GuiYing winced as he felt the sudden light sting his eyes.

    "GuiYing dear, It''s A-Zhi''s mother. Can you hear me?" The woman grabbed his arm and helped him sit up as she asked with worry.

 Chapter 266 - Not The Time!

    "Okay, let''s think about this calmly," Zhihao breathed out but as soon as he did, the two of them heard a system notification.

    [Hulk0_0 and BBtrash have been eliminated!]

    "..." Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this unexpectedly expected piece of information.

    "Oh sh*t..." Li Ling cursed under his breath as he gulped and looked at Zhihao.

    "So it is officially proven that we can be easily eliminated," Zhihao awkwardly chuckled as he commented and Li Ling simply nodded his head in turn.

    "So let''s try our best to get out of this trap without being eliminated," Zhihao added rather calmly and Li Ling once again nodded his head as he agreed with the man.

    "So do you have any ideas?" Zhihao questioned as he looked at the man and this time, Li Ling shook his head as he responded.

    "I have nothing. My mind is only filled with you so I can''t think of anything else."

    "It would have been romantic if it were the right time, but it''s clearly not the time to be romantic."

    "I have a habit of getting the wrong timing."

    "And I can see that."

    The two didn''t dare move an inch as they had a calm conversation over a topic that was clearly not important.

    "What if we both jump together?" Li Ling questioned as he suggested an idea.

    "Then we both die together. Come up with something more creative," Zhihao replied as he sighed in disbelief.

    "It''s the only thing I can come up with. If it''s a battle then there must be a winner. If we both jump down, there would be no winner so wouldn''t the system let us go?"

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this logic and instead of even thinking if this method could work, he questioned back in turn, "How the hell are you the gamemaster when you come up with such stupid ways that could get you killed?"

    Li Ling pursed his lips and shrugged his shoulder in response and even this small action had managed to affect the platform beneath them that moved slightly, almost giving a heart attack to Zhihao and Li Ling.

    "Okay, no more joking around!" Zhihao breathed out as he tried to calm his heart down, "We need to come up with something before we both die here."

    "I wouldn''t mind dying if I''m dying together with you."

    "Gege, like I said before. This ain''t the time," Zhihao sighed once again as he heard the man.

    Li Ling smiled brightly in turn but didn''t dare say anything.

    "Do you think we can walk?" Zhihao asked as he came up with the only thing that seemed to be a little logical.

    "Walk where?" Li Ling frowned as he questioned and Zhihao couldn''t help but want to ask if Li Ling had hit his head and damaged his brain somehow in this maze.

    The question was simply that stupid!

    "To the middle," Zhihao replied with a sigh, "We walk together towards the middle."

    "And then what?" Li Ling questioned as he blinked innocently in turn.

    "Then nothing," Zhihao shrugged his shoulder and immediately regretted it as the platform moved ever so slightly because of him.

    "Then what''s the point?" Li Ling sighed as he asked.

    "If we can manage to get there, we wouldn''t have to worry about falling off," Zhihao informed.

    Li Ling was silent for a minute as he thought about it and even though he was clearly not agreeing with Zhihao''s idea, in the end, he ended up nodding his head as he responded, "Let''s try that."

    There was possibly nothing else that they could do so they might as well try this and see if it works.

    Zhihao took a deep breath in as he calmed himself down and gave a nod as he looked at Li Ling, signaling that he was ready whenever the man wanted.

    Li Ling closed his eyes as he lifted his right leg and gave a nod back before taking a step forward and Zhihao mimicked the man''s actions as well.

    The first step was surprisingly safe. The platform indeed moved a little but it wasn''t enough for either of them to completely lose their balance and hence, the two were safe this time.

    "Okay, let''s count," Zhihao suggested as he looked at Li Ling and Li Ling nodded in turn as he agreed to the man''s suggestion.

    By counting the steps that they took, they would be able to create a constant rhythm. It would make it easier for the two to act together and would be safer as well.

    "One," Zhihao lifted his left leg as his eyes remained glued at Li Ling.

    Li Ling gulped as he lifted his leg as well and on the next count, both of them placed their leg forward together.

    "Two," Zhihao breathed out in relief as he saw that their second step had also been successful.

    "A-Zhi, is it just me, or is it really hot in here?" Li Ling asked as he blew away the sweat that trickled down his nose bridge from his forehead.

    "You''re standing right above magma," Zhihao sighed as he stated the obvious, "Did you think it would be cold?"

    Li Ling chuckled as he found this response a bit funny.

    "Gege, I think the heat is getting to your head. You''re starting to be childish."

    "You just want to call me stupid, don''t you?" Li Ling pouted as he questioned and Zhihao sighed, not giving the man a clear response.

    "Let''s take another step," Zhihao spoke as he took a sharp breath, "One."

    The two once again did the same thing and lifted their feet together before placing it in front of them at the same count.

    "Good," Zhihao breathed out as they got another step closer to the middle.

    "It would be really a pity if one of us misses a step," Li Ling sighed as he commented.

    "Don''t say stuff like that."

    Li Ling smirked as he felt the sudden need to tease the man a bit, "I have a feeling that you''d jump down after me if I fall by mistake."

    Zhihao pursed his lips and looked to be unimpressed as he heard this.

    Zhihao, "Then you''re thinking right."

    "..."

    "I would jump after you so that I can scold you for being clumsy."

    Li Ling immediately frowned as he noticed the honesty in Zhihao''s voice.

    "And also to save you," Zhihao added and Li Ling couldn''t help but smile in turn.

    "A-Zhi, you''re surprisingly romantic sometimes," Li Ling chuckled as he stated and Zhihao didn''t know if this was to be considered a compliment or not, "Although I have to say that this is not the time to be romantic."

    Zhihao also couldn''t help but let out a small chuckle as he heard the latter comment, "You''re the one who started it," He was quick to push the blame onto Li Ling and Li Ling didn''t seem to mind it at all.

    "What can I do?" Li Ling sighed with a playful smirk, "My boyfriend is too handsome, smart, and kind. I can''t help myself when I''m in front of him."

    "You can''t?" Zhihao raised his eyebrows as he repeated the man''s words, "Go ahead and help yourself all you want. I''m not stopping you."

    Li Ling chuckled as he replied, "Now that you''ve said it, don''t you dare take it back!~"

    "I wouldn''t even want to," Zhihao responded playfully with a bit of honesty.

    The two continued to calmly take one step at a time as they moved closer to the center of the platform.

    They had no idea what they would do once they reached the center but it didn''t look like they were worried about it either. Or at least, their worry couldn''t be seen on their faces nor could it be sensed in their voices either.

    After every step forward, they would take a small; few seconds break to talk about something lighthearted, and even though the two kept reminding each other that it was not the time to be so carefree, it didn''t look like they were being serious.

    The main reason why they were talking about useless things was not because they were not worried about their situation, nor was it because they didn''t care. It was simply because it was the best method used to calm themselves down.

    Both seemed to have already realized this and they could indeed feel a bit more lighthearted as they continued to talk. This method of calming themselves down indeed worked and not only did it take their mind off of the magma that was waiting underneath them, but it also managed to take their mind off the excruciating heat that they were forced to be in.

    This was clearly a virtual game but it felt too real.

    A single drop of sweat trailed down Zhihao''s face and fell down on the platform where it was immediately evaporated with the mere heat.

    "We could even roast an egg in here," Zhihao chuckled as he commented playfully.

    "Or we could become the roasted dish," Li Ling added jokingly, knowing that there was very well a possibility of that happening as well.

 Chapter 267 - Why?

    Tian Xifeng didn''t know if she wanted to laugh or cry at the sudden turn of events.

    "Did you know this was going to happen?" Liang Feng questioned as he looked at the woman.

    "Did you?!" Instead of giving him a straight answer, the woman retorted back a question.

    "..."

    "I swear..." Tian Xifeng gritted her teeth as she spoke, "If this system was a real person, I would have stabbed her to death!"

    Liang Feng sighed as he walked over towards the wall and grabbed the only weapon that was provided to them, "And by doing that, you would have ended up in jail."

    Tian Xifeng clicked her tongue in annoyance as she also walked over towards the wall and picked up the weapon that was hung on the wall.

    There were exactly two weapons. One for each of them and from the announcement of the system, they knew exactly why they were given these weapons.

    Both of them had saved up about the same amount of time which was approximately a bit more than four minutes, however, by now, their headstart had already ended and because the two players were together, they were forced to be trapped inside a battle arena.

    Their situation was much alike to the situation that Zhihao and Li Ling were currently forced to undergo. The only difference would perhaps be the fact that Tian Xifeng and Liang Feng were not forced to stand on a platform that was balanced on a rock with magma flowing underneath.

    "Liang Feng Gege, remind me why I ever chose to come here," Tian Xifeng sighed as she spoke dejectedly.

    "Because you thought it would be fun," The man seriously answered her question.

    "And now I regret it," Tian Xifeng replied as she whined, "I must have been out of my mind to think this would be fun! Fufufu~ This game is not fun at all!"

    "Don''t let Li Ling hear you," Liang Feng sighed as he softly warned.

    Tian Xifeng frowned as she saw the man positioning himself for a fight.

    "Gege! You''re really going to do this?!" Tian Xifeng didn''t sound very happy as she cried out a question.

    "Do you think we have a choice?" Liang Feng pursed his lips as he asked back in response.

    "..."

    Tian Xifeng looked around first before pointing up as she stated, "Why not go up and escape?"

    Liang Feng shook his head as he heard this idea, "It can''t be that easy. If a solution looks way too easy, you should never choose it."

    "Aren''t you overthinking it?" Tian Xifeng''s face cringed up as she questioned, clearly showing that she wasn''t on the same page as Liang Feng.

    "Doubting is good for your health. If God gave you a brain, you should learn to use it," Liang Feng simply responded and Tian Xifeng immediately looked to be offended.

    "Yah!" The woman snapped, "Are you calling me stupid?!"

    "If you''re stupid or not, it would depend if you think I''m calling you stupid or not."

    Tian Xifeng tilted her head in confusion as she repeated the man''s response in her head for better understanding but even after repeating it, she could not understand what the man was trying to say, however, she was still able to tell that it was clearly a type of backhanded insult!

    Tian Xifeng opened her mouth to say something more but was forced to close it as she saw the man attacking forward with the saber in hand.

    Her eyes immediately widened in shock and thankfully her instincts were fast enough to avoid that attack.

    "Gege! At least tell me before you attack!" She cried out as she looked at the man in disbelief.

    Liang Feng sighed as he heard this, "Do you think everyone announces first before attacking in a fight? If that were the case then would there really be a winner in the end?"

    "..."

    "It''s all about catching your opponent with a surprise attack," Liang Feng added and Tian Xifeng couldn''t help but want to curse the man for spouting facts.

    "So you''re going to be serious?" Tian Xifeng questioned, her voice sounding a bit colder than usual as she glared at the man, "You''re seriously going to fight me?"

    Liang Feng pursed his lips and nodded as he responded, "This is a battle and it''s not like you''ll really die even if you get hurt here. Isn''t it better to be eliminated before you suffer more in this maze?"

    Tian Xifeng''s eyebrows creased together as she heard this response that made her think.

    There was certainly some truth in what the man had said.

    In the end, they would have to kill the gamemaster in order to win the game and it wasn''t like the woman had any plans of doing that so why was she here? Why was she simply playing with no goal in mind? Wasn''t she indirectly making things harder for herself?

    If they could be eliminated as soon as possible, they wouldn''t need to suffer in here anymore.

    "So just lose," Liang Feng suggested as he straightened his back and got ready to attack her for the second time, "Get eliminated and go back to the real world. Try to help Madam Huang fix the system. Help Li Ling from the outside."

    Tian Xifeng gulped as she heard this and for a moment there, she truly considered this as an option presented in front of her.

    If she were to lose now, she could go back and help Madam Huang. Even saving Li Ling would be something possible so this really sounded like a good option.

    Liang Feng swung the sword and attacked her again thinking that this time she would simply let the man kill her, however, at the last possible second, Tian Xifeng lifted her own sword and saved herself as she pushed Liang Feng and his sword off.

    "Gege, let''s really fight in that case."

    "Eh?" Liang Feng''s eyes widened as he muttered in confusion.

    Tian Xifeng took off her heels and tossed them aside before tearing the lower half of her one-piece dress as she got ready to seriously fight this man.

    "You can''t be sure about anything. Winning or losing, both don''t sound like bad options at this moment, but that doesn''t mean I have to let you win by purposefully losing."

    "..."

    The woman''s lips curled up in a wicked smirk as she spoke, "I''ve always wanted to do this. To seriously have a battle with you."

    Liang Feng was silent for a minute as he suddenly heard this unique confession.

    "It should be interesting to know which one of us wins," Tian Xifeng chuckled as she stated and Liang Feng also nodded his head with a chuckle as he agreed.

    "It would certainly be interesting but are you sure you want to do this? You might get hurt. You won''t die in real life but it''s still going to hurt," Liang Feng didn''t mean to but as he said this, the worry in his tone was clear.

    Tian Xifeng couldn''t help but laugh as she heard this worried warning, "Liang Feng Gege, you should worry about yourself. Just like you can hurt me, I can also hurt you."

    "..."

    "But I''ll make sure to go all out," Tian Xifeng added as if hearing that would make the man feel rest assured.

    "Then should I be the one to go easy?" Liang Feng questioned with a frown, "Since I''m the guy?"

    "I''m going to kill you if go easy," Tian Xifeng snapped as she shook her head, "You better go all out as well! I don''t like gender discrimination!"

    Liang Feng didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard such a statement coming from this woman.

    "Now," Tian Xifeng smiled as she spoke up but her smile was gone before it could even properly register on her face. She ran forward with the sword in hand as she attacked the man without wasting any more time in thinking or deciding.

    Liang Feng gritted his teeth and there were creases on his forehead as he held up his sword and obstructed Tian Xifeng''s attack before pushing the woman off.

    Tian Xifeng seemed to have already expected this so without even waiting to recover from that, she immediately ducked down and used her hand as a support to swing her leg in a full circle, with the aim of knocking the man down.

    Liang Feng cursed under his breath as he lost his balance and Tian Xifeng used this split second of an opening to kick the man on his face.

    Liang Feng who had not expected this woman to use such tactics was thrown back by the kick and almost felt as if the woman had broken his nose bridge.

    He touched his nose only to realize that his guess was perhaps not that far off since there was fresh blood oozing out of his nose.

    "Ah... Sorry," Tian Xifeng apologized as she stated, "I''ll make sure not to hurt your face next time. It would be a waste if I broke such a handsome face."

    "..."

 Chapter 268 - My Mistake...

    "It''s okay," Liang Feng sighed as he picked himself off the ground and reassured, "It''s not like I''m trying to impress anyone with my looks."

    "Really?" Tian Xifeng tilted her head and smiled as she found this response amusing, but in the very next moment, she spun around and back-kicked the man''s face, making him fall back.

    "Then let me kick you a few more times," Tian Xifeng chuckled as she added and Liang Feng couldn''t help but feel as if the woman was taking out some sort of grudge on him.

    "When did I offend you?" Liang Feng asked as he touched his nose and saw his fingers being immediately covered in more blood.

    "Gege, when did I ever say you offended me?" The woman chuckled as she asked back.

    "You don''t say it but you clearly show it in your actions," Liang Feng sighed as he pushed himself off the ground and took a few steps away from the woman, fearing that she might attack him again.

    "You got me wrong," Tian Xifeng shook her head with a chuckle as she defended herself, "This is nothing personal. Isn''t this a battle? According to your words, we shouldn''t be announcing before attacking in a battle, should we?"

    When he said it, he would have never guessed that his own words would be used against him like this..

    "I''m just curious to know which one of us is going to win this," Tian Xifeng added and Liang Feng frowned, not liking the idea of fighting against this crazy woman.

    "You don''t need to be curious about it," Liang Feng sighed, "We all know you''re going to win. I have no practice fighting."

    "Nor do I!" Tian Xifeng exclaimed as she interrupted the man, "That''s what makes this fight fair."

    "..." Liang Feng was a bit shocked to hear this.

    From the kicks that he had received, it didn''t really seem as if this woman was new to fighting. If anything, it made him think that she was a trained professional.

    Tian Xifeng seemed to have already guessed what the man was thinking about so she chuckled as she spoke up, "Don''t be fooled. I''m just trying to copy the movements I saw."

    Liang Feng''s eyebrows creased together as he heard this and he immediately asked, "Wang GuiYing?"

    Tian Xifeng smiled brightly as she nodded her head and responded, "To be more exact it''s both Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi. They are really good at techniques so I thought I might as well try copying them."

    "Is that so?" Liang Feng would be lying if he said that he wasn''t a bit surprised and impressed by this woman.

    He had also seen those two attacking and he would also agree with her in saying that they were trained professionals who had a very good base technique, however, although he had seen them fighting, he would never be confident enough to copy their movements.

    In the end, there was a reason why people would get trained in fighting. If everyone could get better just after copying a few techniques, would there really be a need for mixed martial art schools to remain training students?

    "You know, I''ve never been interested in fighting," Liang Feng spoke up as he randomly informed the woman, "But I surely know one thing about them."

    Tian Xifeng looked to be a little interested as she frowned and asked, "What is it?"

    "It''s that copying posture is nothing more than that," Liang Feng crouched down and picked up the sword once again as he casually answered, "Even if you copy the posture, your technique would still be lacking since the base is pretty much empty."

    "Eh?" Tian Xifeng couldn''t understand what the man was saying so she muttered in confusion as she kept her eyes on the man and waited for him to explain further, but it seemed that Liang Feng was done explaining.

    Liang Feng wiped the blood away and took a sharp breath before striking forward with the sword in hand.

    Tian Xifeng''s eyes widened as she quickly ducked her head and avoided being cut in half, however, in the very next minute, the sword that was trying to cut her horizontally changed directions and came down onto her vertically.

    "Ahh!" Tian Xifeng screamed as her survival instincts acted up and she fell down onto the ground with her sword raised up, blocking Liang Feng''s attack.

    "Since you''re trying to be serious. Let me also be serious," Liang Feng smirked as he indirectly challenged the woman, "I might not know how to fight but I can still come up with cheats."

    "..."

    At the end of the day, fighting could also be broken down and studied like maths or coding. All you needed to do was break down the methods and the techniques. Once you have them broken down, you would clearly be able to see that there wasn''t much to it.

    Strength was certainly a factor behind it but it wasn''t as important as the strategy.

    People would usually say that fighting was a sport that used muscles and strength with a lot of practice but with no brains, however, Liang Feng who had never found any interest in fighting, at this moment, realized that people were mostly wrong.

    Fighting was indeed about brains.

    You had to have a sharp mind with a strong body in order to win a fight and it turns out, Liang Feng somehow had these two basics needs.

    He had a sharp mind, there was no doubt about that. He also had somewhat of a strong body thanks to all those times that Li Ling had overworked him enough to make him run through the company halls the entire day.

    Tian Xifeng smirked as she saw the determination in the man''s eyes, "Gege, I think I like you like this."

    Liang Feng''s eyes widened as he heard this. It wasn''t uncommon for Tian Xifeng to complement men but it was certainly the first time that the woman had said such a thing about Liang Feng. The two were always very different from each other and some even thought that they hated each other because of this.

    Liang Feng thought that the woman was being honest for the first time, but turns out she had another plan in her mind and her plan was to shock the man and distract him.

    In this small second of opening that had been created, Tian Xifeng went ahead and kicked the man''s shin, making him immediately lose balance.

    Liang Feng''s eyes widened even more as he fell forward and there was nothing for him to hold which made it impossible for him to save himself from falling.

    Tian Xifeng''s eyes also widened along with his as she immediately started regretting her sneaky idea to defeat the man like this.

    Liang Feng fell on top of Tian Xifeng and it would have certainly been a scene straight out of a romantic Chinese drama if only it weren''t for Tian Xifeng''s sword that came in the way and pierced Liang Feng.

    "Ah..." Tian Xifeng muttered as she looked down at the man''s chest that was bleeding, "I didn''t mean to do that."

    Liang Feng was shocked and speechless as he looked down at himself to realize that the fight was over before it had even seriously begun.

    "Be honest," Liang Feng muttered as he lifted his head and looked at the woman whose face was just a few inches away from his, "You hate me, don''t you? I somehow offended you, didn''t I?"

    Tian Xifeng gulped as she didn''t know if she was supposed to laugh or cry at this situation.

    [Battle has now been won by the player: Richlord!]

    [Congratulations!]

    [T-Rex101 has been eliminated!]

    As soon as this notification was announced, Liang Feng disappeared into thin air, indicating that he had really been eliminated after being killed by mistake.

    "Sorry about that," Tian Xifeng commented as she looked around, however, Liang Feng, the person she was apologizing to was naturally not there anymore.

    [Reopening the Maze!]

    The system notification came again and the walls came back up while some went back down, returning the structure of the place back to what it used to be.

    "Welp, I guess he was right. I won," Tian Xifeng smiled as she muttered to herself and pushed herself off the ground to stand up.

    She clapped her hands once as she picked up the two swords that were left behind.

    She took a moment to look at them and if one were to look at her, they would not be able to understand what went through her mind at this moment.

    In the end, she decided to take the two swords with her, thinking that they might come to help her later on in the game.

    With three players eliminated, there were only six left in the maze of death.

    Five were players while one was the gamemaster whom they had to beat.

    Tian Xifeng was naturally unaware of the battle that Li Ling and Zhihao were forced to be in so she was naive enough to think that the gamemaster was completely safe at this moment.

 Chapter 269 - Another Way

    "Okay, another step," Zhihao calmly spoke as he took a deep breath in and Li Ling nodded in agreement.

    They lifted their leg together and took a step forward together.

    "This is the last one," Zhihao informed and there was a small satisfied smile on his face as he looked at Li Ling.

    Li Ling couldn''t help but smile in turn but it wasn''t because he was relieved or hopeful that they would be able to survive this after just another step, rather, the reason for his smile was simply Zhihao.

    Since this man was smiling at him, Li Ling would also smile back and this was a natural unconscious reaction.

    The two took a deep breath together and closed their eyes to calm themselves down before taking the last step.

    Zhihao grabbed Li Ling''s hand and pulled him closer, engulfing the man in a hug as he sighed in relief.

    "We did it....!" Li Ling''s eyes widened as he pulled his head back to look down at the platform that was shaking slightly but was still stable enough for them to stand on.

    Zhihao chuckled and his chest could be felt trembling under Li Ling''s hand that was placed on his chest.

    "We did it," Zhihao confirmed with a nod as he looked at the man.

    Li Ling smiled as he took a minute to ask, "Now what?"

    "I don''t know," Zhihao sighed as he blinked and realized that they were once again out of ideas.

    This was a battle and so, unfortunately, simply reaching the middle and getting out of the danger wasn''t going to help them get out of here.

    "One of us needs to win," Zhihao sighed as he informed and Li Ling couldn''t help but chuckle as he heard this.

    "That... Was to be expected," Li Ling commented in between his chuckle.

    "Wait... I have an idea!" Zhihao suddenly spoke up as something in his mind clicked.

    "What is it?"

    "The system!"

    "Eh?"

    "The system has no eyes!" Zhihao exclaimed and his eyes slowly widened as he came up with a solution that could actually manage to help them this time.

    Li Ling''s eyebrows creased together in worry as he heard something that he could not understand, "What are you getting at?"

    "When the trap is activated, the system considers your weight and only that. It can''t see the player so if there is a weight inside the trap, the system would be forced to believe that there is a player inside. However, if there is no weight then the system would think that the player is no longer there and the trap would disable itself!"

    This was a cheat trick that Zhihao had learned and used before this but it was only now, after thinking about it did he figure that this cheat trick could also be used at this moment.

    "I don''t understand," Li Ling frowned as he muttered and waited for the man to explain.

    Zhihao pursed his lips and hooked his hands around the man''s torso in the very next moment.

    "Eh?" Li Ling''s eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise and confusion as he saw the man picking him up, "What are you doing?"

    "Making one of us disappear!" Zhihao replied and his face looked to be a little red, indicating that he was probably not having the time of his life while picking up a full-grown man who was just as heavy as Zhihao.

    "I don''t get it!" Li Ling exclaimed anxiously as he pointed out, "Doesn''t our weight remain the same?"

    Zhihao nodded as he heard this and confirmed, "That''s right. The weight remains the same but it is no longer distributed in two."

    Li Ling would be lying if he said that he wasn''t a little impressed by the way Zhihao''s mind worked.

    To come up with such a cheat... Zhihao really had to be called the top player who was the best at cheats!

    "I don''t think anything is happening," Li Ling muttered as he looked around and noticed no difference.

    "We have to wait for it," Zhihao tightened his hold, making sure that he didn''t drop the man by mistake.

    Li Ling opened his mouth to say something more but was forced to immediately close it as they heard the system notification ringing out

    [Error: One player detected.]

    [If the other player is not detected, the battle would be deactivated within the next ten seconds.]

    [10]

    [9]

    [8]

    [7]

    The countdown began and Zhihao had a small smirk on his face as he heard it.

    [6]

    [5]

    [4]

    [3]

    [2]

    [1]

    [Only one player detected]

    [Battle trap has now been deactivated!]

    Zhihao sighed in relief as he placed Li Ling down and Li Ling looked to be a bit surprised as he saw the walls and floor returning to how they used to be.

    "That easily...?" Li Ling muttered in disbelief as he blinked in confusion.

    Zhihao chuckled as he nodded his head, "This game isn''t as difficult as people make it sound."

    "..."

    There would only be Zhihao who would say such a thing about T.I.A.D.

    If another player who was suffering inside this maze of death were to hear this comment made by Zhihao, they would certainly want to murder the man in cold blood right then and there.

    Li Ling chuckled as he shook his head and commented under his breath, "Don''t let others hear you."

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he looked at Li Ling with an indecipherable expression making the man feel a little self-conscious.

    "What is it?" Li Ling gulped as he asked.

    "If we stay together, we''ll fall into more battle traps," Zhihao sighed as he informed, "But I don''t know if I trust you enough to leave you on your own."

    "..." Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this but in the end, he naturally did neither of them.

    Li Ling took a sharp breath in as he cupped Zhihao''s face and pecked the man''s lips for a second before pulling away as he asked, "Didn''t you want me to put up a fight?"

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he suddenly saw this action and heard this question that came out of nowhere.

    "If you wanted it, I would naturally do it," Li Ling chuckled as he added, "I''ll put up a fight to protect myself. A fight that nobody would ever forget!"

    Zhihao gulped and it was clear that the man was a bit shocked by Li Ling''s words but at the end of the day, Zhihao still chuckled as he nodded his head.

    "I''m happy to hear that."

    Li Ling smiled brightly as he heard this response, "That''s right. You should be happy to know that I''m putting on a fight for you. As the gamemaster that you''ve admired for so long, I''m not going to let you down!"

    Zhihao pursed his lips into a thin smile as he nodded his head in understanding.

    "So you better be there to beat the gamemaster as the top player, Mastermo!" Li Ling''s voice almost sounded as if he was scolding the man.

    "What''s the plan?" Zhihao asked as he found Li Ling''s behavior and words a bit amusing.

    "The plan is to make you fall in love with me for the second time!" Li Ling playfully responded as he snickered and Zhihao sighed.

    "That plan sounds too easy."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but laugh as he heard this.

    "Now tell me the real plan," Zhihao questioned again hoping for the man to actually be serious.

    "The middle of the maze," Li Ling beamed as he spoke up seriously, "Let''s have a race."

    Zhihao tilted his head in confusion as he found it a bit hard to understand what was going on inside the head of this man.

    "The mission is to beat the gamemaster," Li Ling looked into Zhihao''s eyes as he spoke and it almost looked as if the man was trying to make Zhihao understand something without saying it out loud.

    Zhihao frowned as he took a minute to think about it and when the realization hit him, his eyes widened and he muttered in disbelief, "No way...!!"

    "There is always a way," Li Ling chuckled as he nodded his head, trying to confirm Zhihao''s suspicion.

    "The system can''t lie but it can certainly hide stuff," Li Ling added.

    The mission may look easy at first glance but if one read it a couple of times and spent a good amount of time analyzing the mission that had been given, they would be able to understand that the system was always trying to trick them into believing something that was not completely true.

    "A-Zhi, you said that you would find a different way. You said that if you found out that the gamemaster is your lover, you''ll find a different way to complete the mission," Li Ling spoke up as he looked at the man, "It seems that a different way wasn''t completely ridiculous."

    "..."

    Zhihao fell speechless as a surge of emotions passed through his body and another surge of thoughts flooded his mind.

 Chapter 270 - Hes Missing...?!

    "Aunty Huang...?!" When Wang GuiYing''s vision cleared up, he could see the familiar face of the woman whom he recognized as Zhihao''s mother.

    "Oh, thank god you''re awake," Huang Zhi Juan sighed in relief as she saw the man waking up with no visible problems.

    "What...?!" Wang GuiYing''s face looked to be shocked and confused and this was naturally to be expected considering the fact that he had no idea why he was here or why Zhihao''s mother was here dressed in a white coat.

    "Don''t be alarmed and lie down," Huang Zhi Juan smiled as she spoke, trying to reassure him that he was now safe, "Let us run some tests on you first just in case."

    "...."

    Wang GuiYing didn''t dare say anything to that as he simply lay on the white bed and looked around only to notice that he wasn''t the only one lying here.

    There were other beds here as well and on those beds, there were people that he was clearly able to recognize.

    It seemed that their initial guess had been right. Everything that they went through was indeed not true. They were actually in a virtual simulation. A full dive VR.

    If that were the case then Wang GuiYing only had one question that he importantly needed to ask.

    "When did it start?" The man gulped as he asked with a chuckle.

    All the players were busy with their own lives when they were suddenly thrown inside the final level. There had to be a key. There had to be a point when they travelled from reality to the virtual game.

    Wang GuiYing looked around to see the other players still sleeping with some medical equipment connected to them, but he couldn''t see any virtual gear so he was a bit confused and amazed as he wondered how this final level was made possible.

    "It happened when you entered the first competition of the final level," Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she answered his question, "I''m sure you didn''t notice anything wrong with it."

    "Eh?" Wang GuiYing blinked in confusion as he thought back to the first competition that they were given at the starting of the final level.

    "You all headed to the same building and gathered up," Huang Zhi Juan continued as she explained patiently, "There was smoke that covered the building and it was no ordinary smoke, it was a type of drug."

    "Someone drugged us?!" Wang GuiYing couldn''t help but be shocked as he cried out.

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded her head as she confirmed it, "You all lost consciousness and then you were injected with a specific chip right behind your neck."

    Wang GuiYing didn''t look to be thrilled as he heard something that he found to be so horrifying.

    "What chip?!"

    "The chip that was used to help you hallucinate. It was connected directly to your brain and you were unable to distinguish between reality and the virtual game."

    "Who in the world was crazy enough to inject anything on us without our permission?!" Wang GuiYing''s eyebrows creased together as he asked angrily.

    Wang GuiYing wasn''t really a man who would get angry easily but when he did manage to get angry at someone or something, the anger he was ready to display was certainly not something to joke about.

    "We are still searching for the culprit," Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she replied, "But you can rest assured that we would be able to find them soon enough."

    "Them?" Wang GuiYing repeated as he questioned, "So it wasn''t a single person?"

    Huang Zhi Juan nodded her head as she informed him, "We are not sure but there is no way a single person could have managed to do all this. It must be the work of a group."

    "What about the rest of the players?" Wang GuiYing asked as he looked around in search of a particular person named Zhou Xinyi.

    "They can''t wake up unless they win or lose the game," Huang Zhi Juan replied as she looked over at her son who was also one of the players that were still inside the game.

    "You can''t force them to wake up?"

    "No, that''s dangerous."

    "And Zhou Xinyi, why can''t I see him?" Wang GuiYing frowned as he questioned.

    Huang Zhi Juan pursed her lips as her muscles tensed up at the question.

    "About that..." The woman gulped as she looked around, trying to come up with a way to make the answer sound a bit less... anger-inducing.

    "Don''t tell me you never found him...?" Wang GuiYing chuckled dryly as he looked at the woman in disbelief.

    "How did you know that?" Huang Zhi Juan gulped as she asked back in all seriousness and Wang GuiYing was left speechless.

    "So you really lost him?" Wang GuiYing''s eyes widened as he questioned, straightening his back, clearly looking to be worried for the man who was missing.

    "That''s not exactly it," Huang Zhi Juan chuckled awkwardly as she spoke, "We never found him to begin with so we can''t say that we lost him either."

    "..."

    "By the time we arrived at the building, there were only the ten of you lying there unconscious. Zhou Xinyi wasn''t among you."

    Wang GuiYing immediately stood up and tried to pull out the medical equipment that was connected to his body.

    "What are you trying to do?" Huang Zhi Juan asked anxiously as her eyes widened in worry after seeing the man''s actions.

    "What does it look like I''m doing?" Wang GuiYing questioned back, "I''m going to look for him."

    Huang Zhi Juan was a little surprised to hear the man''s determination and impulsive behaviour.

    She had certainly never seen this side of Wang GuiYing before. She had only ever seen him as BBtrash, the player who was always playful and joking around with her son and other players. To think that he would be this angry and worried for his friend... It was not that shocking but it was certainly surprising.

    "You''re going alone?" Huang Zhi Juan asked as she looked at the man.

    Wang GuiYing nodded his head as he confirmed, "Since you guys were unable to find him, I''m not left with many options."

    "Why don''t you wait?" Huang Zhi Juan grabbed onto his arm and stopped him from moving any further as she spoke, "Stay here for now. Get the tests done just to be sure that you''re completely okay."

    Wang GuiYing''s eyebrows creased together and he didn''t look like he wanted to do as she said but before he could say anything as a response to her, the woman continued.

    "If you stay, you can watch the game end. Don''t you want to know who wins against the system?"

    Wang GuiYing''s eyes narrowed down on the woman as he heard this part, "The game? You can see it?"

    Huang Zhi Juan smiled as she nodded her head and confirmed it, "How else do you think we were able to keep track on you guys?"

    Wang GuiYing would certainly be lying if he said that he was not surprised and although he was still worried about Zhou Xinyi, he was also interested to know who the gamemaster was.

    "Follow me," Huang Zhi Juan smiled as she spoke, "I have a feeling that it would be over soon and once it''s over, I can send people to help you look for Zhou Xinyi."

    Wang GuiYing gulped as he heard this and pondered over this offer for a minute.

    "You have nothing to lose so come," Huang Zhi Juan didn''t wait for an answer as she turned around and started walking, hoping for Wang GuiYing to follow her.

    At the end of the day, when Wang GuiYing considered the offer calmly, he felt that it would be better to get some help.

    It wasn''t like he could find Zhou Xinyi just because he went looking for the man and he was sure that although the woman had said that nobody was able to find him, they were still surely searching for him.

    Huang Zhi Juan slightly smiled as she noticed that the man was quietly following her.

    "Don''t worry about it, Dear. We''ll find him," Huang Zhi Juan reassured as she kept walking and Wang GuiYing nodded his head but said nothing more to that.

    The woman took him to the main hall where there was a huge brain kept in the middle with a screen right in front of it.

    The screen was divided into sections with each section focusing on an individual player.

    "Where are we...?" Wang GuiYing asked as his mouth opened in awe at the sight.

    This was certainly not a normal place...!

    "You are at the headquarters of T.I.A.D.," Huang Zhi Juan informed with a chuckle as she pointed at the huge brain and spoke, "To be more specific, the research facility for that thing. That''s Alvi."

    "..."

    Wang GuiYing gulped and said nothing as he felt speechless at the moment.

    Wang GuiYing''s eyes trailed down to the screen and he focused on a particular player who had a different tag displayed on top of his screen.

    "The gamemaster...?!" Wang GuiYing''s eyes immediately widened in shock as he saw the man that he would have never guessed to be the gamemaster.

    That lying little devil magic lover!!

 Chapter 271 - The Last Day

    "So what do I beat you at?" Zhihao questioned and looked to be quite excited.

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this sudden question and responded, "Didn''t I already tell you? We see who''s the fastest. If you reach the middle of the maze first then you win the game by beating the gamemaster and if I reach there first, the gamemaster wins."

    Zhihao''s lips curled up in a small smile as he heard this plan that didn''t sound as dangerous as the last plan which was to basically kill Li Ling.

    "Don''t worry about it," Li Ling leaned in closer to Zhihao''s ears as he whispered, "I''ll make sure that I try my best to not let you win."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this and opened his mouth to say something more but before any words could be said, they heard the notification sound of the system.

    [The gamemaster has proposed a challenge!]

    [The first one to get to the center of the maze wins!]

    "Damn, that was fast," Zhihao commented as he blinked in surprise and disbelief.

    Li Ling was also a bit surprised to hear this sudden notification but more than the shock, there was another feeling which was relief that washed over him.

    It seemed that Huang Zhi Juan had got his message and successfully changed a small thing in the mission.

    The mission hadn''t really changed much but there was one small thing that had been changed. The mission was to beat the gamemaster now and was not restricted to kill the gamemaster.

    Such a small change in the coding had certainly managed to save Li Ling''s life.

    Now the mission had changed but at the same time, it was still the same.

    Their mission was still to beat the gamemaster but Li Ling was no longer in real danger.

    Zhihao pulled the man into another hug and gently spoke, whispering in Li Ling''s ear, "Take care."

    Li Ling couldn''t help but smile as he heard this and nodded in acknowledgement.

    "You too. Take care and make sure to meet me at the end," Li Ling responded with a small sigh of relief, "I''ll be waiting for you there."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this and replied, "Bold of you to assume you''ll get there first."

    "Is that a challenge?" Li Ling asked with a laugh as he pulled away from the hug and looked at the man.

    "That''s me challenging the man I admire, Mr. Gamemaster."

    "..." To hear Zhihao calling him the gamemaster after knowing the truth, it was certainly something new for Li Ling and he couldn''t get used to it that easily.

    For some reason, Li Ling felt his cheeks heat up as he heard the man and Zhihao seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this reaction.

    "Now do you want a headstart or should I start running first?" Zhihao stopped laughing as he asked.

    "Why don''t we both start running together?" Li Ling suggested as he looked back at the man.

    Zhihao pursed his lips into a thin smile and gave a nod as he turned and faced the corridor in front of him as he prepared himself, looking as if he was going to be racing anytime soon.

    Li Ling chuckled as he looked at Zhihao and got ready to run as well.

    "Let''s do a countdown," Zhihao spoke and smiled when he got a nod from Li Ling.

    "In one," Zhihao started the countdown but after just the first number, Li Ling started running as he exclaimed loudly for Zhihao to hear.

    "Countdown is a waste!"

    Zhihao was left shocked for a few seconds as he looked at the man''s running back and when he finally managed to snap out of the shock, his legs started moving and Zhihao also ran as he estimated the way towards the middle of the maze.

    Running was certainly going to help them save a lot of time, however, it was still a bit risky considering the fact that there were various traps that had been layed down throughout the maze.

    If they were to fall into any one of those traps, they would surely be getting themselves in trouble.

    The closer the traps were to the center, the more dangerous the traps were going to become.

    By this time around, no other player had any headstart left.

    Huang Zhen, a.k.a., Jiangshi who was the one who had managed to save the most time used as the headstart had also run out of those safe nine minutes so it could be said that the game was completely fair at this moment.

    Every player had an equal chance of winning the final game and taking home the winning one million dollar cash prize of T.I.A.D.

    Jiangshi.

    Kaze17.

    Yingli.

    Richlord.

    Mastermo.

    The remaining five players fighting to win against the gamemaster: Devilmagiclover.

    Speed and intellect, both were going to be tested as the final five fought for the final win.

    "This final level came out of nowhere but it looks to be really thrilling!" Kevin announced and his excitement that was clearly shown on his face could not have been faked.

    "Tonight, we have been receiving so may shocks. First it was the relationship between the top player and his partner. Then it was the identity of the gamemaster and now we move to the finale where we would get to see the five players battling it out to reach the center of the maze first!" Dave also seemed to be just as enthusiastic as he announced.

    "Damn! This adrenaline rush I''m feeling at this moment is really not a joke! The tension is real! The expectations are real! And the curiosity is definitely real!"

    "Just who is going to win that one million dollars?!~ Stay tuned to watch it together with us!"

    "And make sure to go down to the voting poll to pick your winner!~" Kevin added.

    "You know, I''m still voting for Mastermo," Dave chuckled as he commented.

    "Mastermo certainly looks to be promising but with everything that happened, fans are left to question whether the man would actually be soft enough to let his boyfriend win~"

    Dave''s face cringed up as he looked at Kevin and asked, "Why the hell are you blushing?"

    "I can''t help it!" Kevin exclaimed, "These two are really the power couple of the decade! They are too darn cute together! I feel like a young teenage girl crushing over their relationship!"

    "And this is the part where I realize I learned a bit too much about Kevin," Dave sighed as he shook his head in disbelief.

    "Just look at them!~ Oh lord my eyes have been blessed!" Kevin shamelessly announced.

    "Well they do make a good couple. There''s no doubt about that," In the end, Dave agreed with his partner with a chuckle as he admitted the truth.

    "Their followers have surely been going crazy. There''s even a fund me raised to make their figurines," Kevin chuckled as he spoke and Dave''s eyes widened ever so slightly as he got surprised.

    "Figurines?! Don''t they need permission for that stuff?"

    "It''s considered to be fan merchandize so I''m not sure if it would be considered illegal or not."

    "Well I hope they keep themselves out of jail," Dave chuckled as he responded, "The last thing we would want to report about would be fans going to jail because they overdid their worship."

    "Yeah, let''s hope that we don''t go to jail for that," Kevin chuckled awkwardly and Dave suddenly got a bit suspicious of the man.

    "Don''t tell me you joining the fund me for those figurines...?!"

    Kevin gulped as he shook his head.

    "Are you sure you didn''t?"

    "Those figurines look really cute so can you really blame me?" Kevin shrugged his shoulder as he indirectly confirmed Dave''s suspicions.

    "Damn you!" Dave chuckled as he playfully cursed.

    "But on a serious note though, tonight is going to be the last broadcast about T.I.A.D.," Kevin sighed as he spoke up.

    Dave nodded his head and looked to be a little sad as he agreed with the man, "Once the winner is announced, I guess we would be forced to go back to our old talk shows. No more reporting on T.I.A.D."

    "I''m a grown ass man but I can''t hide my tears," Kevin chuckled dryly as he spoke, "This journey has really been special for us and it''s all thanks to the support of the fans who kept on bombarding us with comments."

    "That''s right," Dave nodded his head as he added, "Although most of the comments were about girls wanting to lick Mastermo''s chocolate bar abs."

    Kevin snickered as he heard this comment that was certainly true.

    "But there were also some comments saying that you guys really loved the two of us so that made us really happy. Thank you for all your support and appreciation!" Dave announced happily.

    "I would also like to thank you guys. We have been here since day one and in the blink of an eye, we are already at the last day. For all you guys out there that supported us through this reporting journey, I promise to send you all a box filled with heart-shaped chocolates!"

    "Really?!" Dave asked in shock as his eyes widened.

    "Virtual chocolates," Kevin added with a thin smile, "It costs less money and I''m broke."

    "..."

 Chapter 272 - The Nearest One To The Goal

    Li Ying had a big smile on her face as she started running towards the center of the maze.

    Since there was no map given, it was quite confusing and none of the players were able to be a hundred percent sure that they were headed the right way.

    All they could do was hope that they were not wrong.

    Tian Xifeng knew the general layout of the maze, however, she had no idea where she was so she was basically directionless and as a result, she was unable to make sure that the way she had chosen was the correct one leading to the center of the maze.

    Kaoru was, in fact, running the opposite way, going further away from the center as she did.

    This was because, just like the other players, she was also following her instincts and guessing the way.

    Out of all the players, Huang Zhen was the one who was the closest to the center of the maze.

    Ever since Huang Zhen left Zhihao and Li Ling behind, he had been walking casually, heading towards the center of the maze.. If one were to look at him, they would think that the boy knew where he was going but he was in fact just winging it and he had no idea that he was the nearest player to the center.

    If the maze had no more traps in store for the player, there was a high chance that the player who was most likely to win this small challenge would be Huang Zhen, but unfortunately this was not the case.

    Zhihao was still the only person who was able to avoid the traps after recognizing all the triggers. Although the man was running, he was still keeping a lookout for any trap triggers.

    He had forgotten to tell Li Ling about the triggers but at this moment, Zhihao felt that it was better this way since the two were competing against each other in this one.

    Since Li Ling was the gamemaster, Zhihao was sure that the man would soon be able to notice the pattern and learn to identify the triggers.

    The first one to fall into a trap was Huang Zhen and it was to be expected considering the fact that he was the nearest player to the center and didn''t even look to be bothered by anything as he continued walking leisurely.

    Huang Zhen sighed as he saw the walls closing up on him and didn''t even bother taking his hands out of his pocket as he went over towards the side and stared at the wall.

    He took out something from his pocket and it turned out to be a small knife.

    Huang Zhen looked up and jumped before using all his strength to stab the wall with the knife.

    With a strong jab, he was actually able to make a small hole into the wall but the knife wasn''t deep enough to stay there and came down with him.

    Huang Zhen took in a sharp breath as he prepared himself to jump again and this time, he used even more force and focused so that he once again stabbed at the same spot.

    Suprisingly enough, the knife got stuck on the wall and Huang Zhen didn''t let go of it as he dangled from the small knife.

    In the very next moment, the system notification could be heard.

    [No player detected]

    [Scan beginning... If the player is not detected in the next ten seconds, the trap is going to be automatically closed.]

    It seemed that Huang Zhen was just as smart as his brother and had managed to somehow learn this trick that was previously only known by his brother.

    10]

    [9]

    [8]

    [7]

    [6]

    [5]

    [4]

    [3]

    [2]

    [1]

    [Error: No player detected]

    [Trap has now been closed.]

    Huang Zhen pursed his lips as he wiggled around a bit and pulled the knife out of the wall before he jumped down.

    The walls that had closed previously opened up soon enough and the boy was free to go.

    The boy kept the knife back in his pocket and sighed as he casually continued on his way and started walking, however, after just a few steps, he was once again forced to stop as he triggered another trap.

    "Are you kidding me...?!" The boy muttered in disbelief as he blinked, trying to understand if his luck was really this bad for him to fall into another trap as soon as he gets out of one.

    He shook his head as he stopped himself from cursing the system and made his way to the wall as he once again tried to use the same method, however, it seemed that the heavens were not with him for the second time.

    He jumped up but before he could stab the wall, he heard a really loud growl coming from right behind him and he was no longer able to do what he planned as he cautiously turned around to look at the metallic bull.

    "Oh... Shit!" Huang Zhen cursed as he saw the bull marching towards him at a speed that was a bit hard to dodge.

    Huang Zhen moved out of the way at the last possible second and the bull that had sprang forward with its horns first had managed to almost break the wall, creating two big holes on it.

    Huang Zhen''s eyes widened in shock as he stared at the bull with a horrified expression plastered on his face.

    The moment he saw the bull, he already knew that this trap wasn''t going to be easy to get out of and his trick that he had previously used could be of no further use to him inside this trap.

    The bull let out a hot steamy breath and jumped around before pulling its horns out of the wall and shaking its head, as if the creature was regaining its balance.

    Huang Zhen gulped as he scrambled up to his feet and got ready to run for his life.

    The bull once again followed him and attacked him, but Huang Zhen would always step aside and somehow managed to avoid the bull''s horns.

    Dodging and running was the only thing he could do at this moment but Huang Zhen''s brain was working and he was trying to figure out a way out of this situation.

    To beat this bull was something that was almost impossible since he didn''t really have any big weapons on him. The only things that could be considered as a weapon and were kept in his pocket were the pocket knife and the gun.

    Huang Zhen jumped and ran, fell and scrambled to his feet, rolled and ducked, tried every way possible to avoid being hit by the bull.

    Since the creature was a bit large, it was a bit clumsy as well and after every attack, it would need at least a few seconds to prepare for its next attack.

    These few seconds were like a breath of relief for Huang Zhen who could calmly think about what to do next within those tiny gaps of peace.

    A few minutes passed and since the bull was mechanical and artificially made, it was still just as lively as it was when it first came. The stamina of this thing was no joke, but at this moment, Huang Zhen, who was already a person who hated exercising, had now managed to run out of breath and energy, however, his body refused to give up and his sheer will to survive was the only thing that kept him going.

    Who knew what genius had hit him but Huang Zhen suddenly had an idea. A plan that was certainly dangerous, but he was well aware of the risks.

    He planned to use the bull to escape.

    Huang Zhen stood in front of the wall with his hands wide open as if welcoming the bull to come and hit him, and the bull, that was now seemingly invited, didn''t dare miss this chance as it plunged forward at Huang Zhen.

    Huang Zhen took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and mentally calmed himself down before using all his energy to jump up at the last possible second.

    The bull was once again unsuccessful, but Huang Zhen''s plan turned out to be a success as he stepped on the bull''s head and in the very next moment, he walked towards its back and took a seat.

    The bull clearly knew about Huang Zhen''s presence so when it pulled its horns out of the wall, the first thing the creature started to do was jump around, moving like crazy.

    Huang Zhen gritted his teeth as he grabbed onto the horn and hugged the bull, in order to not be thrown off.

    If he was thrown off then there would be no doubt that he would be stomped to death in the very next second so that was really the last thing that Huang Zhen would plan to do even by mistake.

    The bull seemed to have suddenly gone crazy as it used every tactic it possibly could to get the boy off of its back but it was all a fail as Huang Zhen simply refused to let go of the bull.

 Chapter 273 - Congratulations!

    The bull jumped up high and for a second there, Huang Zhen almost lost his grip around the bull, however, he was still safe as the bull didn''t succeed in getting him off.

    But before Huang Zhen could sigh in relief, the bull jumped up once again and this time, Huang Zhen let go of the bull by mistake and his entire body flew upwards because of the impact.

    For a second there, the boy almost saw his whole life flash before his eyes, and he was almost sure that his plan was going to backfire on him at any given second now, however, it seemed that the heavens hadn''t given up hope on this boy.

    When Huang Zhen came back down from his short flight, he unexpectedly landed directly on the bull and he didn''t let go of this chance as he grabbed on tightly to the creature''s neck.

    The bull was thoroughly agitated by this point and Huang Zhen was running out of stamina to hold on.

    The only thing that he could think about was why this trap wasn''t over yet.

    In every normal trap, if the player''s weight was not directly felt by the ground, the trap would close itself thinking that the player had escaped, but surprisingly enough, the system had still not closed the trap or given out a ''no player detected'' warning to Huang Zhen even though the boy''s weight was not directly connected to the floor.

    It seemed that his trick was not always helpful and had its own limitations..

    The bull jumped around and Huang Zhen started feeling dizzy.

    He carefully picked out the pocket knife from his pocket with one hand while the other continued to hold on to the creature.

    This was a risky move since he could never be sure if his hand would be able to hold on but it was also one that needed to be done.

    Once he took out the pocket knife, he took a sharp breath in and raised both hands, holding on tightly to the handle of the pocket knife before thrusting it into the back of the creature''s neck.

    He was going to depend on this one move which was pretty damn risky.

    The creature seemed to have gotten even angrier as it jumped up and Huang Zhen who was out of balance this time was finally successfully thrown off.

    Huang Zhen gulped as he crawled a step back and watched the creature go crazy as it tried to take out the knife.

    At this exact moment, Huang Zhen''s eyes widened as he suddenly had another great idea.

    The boy climbed up to his feet and dug into his pocket to take out the gun that he had previously pointed at Li Ling.

    He stood at his place firmly and took a deep breath as he raised the gun and closed his right eye before aiming the gun at the creature''s back.

    To be more exact, he was hoping to aim for the pocket knife that was stuck on the back of the creature''s neck.

    Huang Zhen hadn''t actually dealt with a real gun before this but he had played around with a lot of fake ones so his aim and skills were good, however, he still lacked a bit of practical experience.

    A real gun was really different from a fake gun and Huang Zhen was about to learn this fact really thoroughly.

    The boy took in a sharp breath as he closed his eyes and did a small prayer before opening his eyes and pulling the trigger.

    The bullet went forward and the gun jerked back with a bit of force, almost breaking Huang Zhen''s wrist.

    Huang Zhen felt his heart go still for a second as he waited to see if he had hit the mark and time also seemed to have suddenly paused.

    It was certainly the first time the boy was shooting a real gun but unexpectedly enough, he was quite talented at this as he hit exactly the point that he wanted.

    The bullet pushed the pocket knife in and the creature''s body went completely still before it started letting out a loud noise as if something inside its metal body was breaking.

    Huang Zhen gulped in anticipation and in the very next minute, the bull suddenly broke down, shattering into bits.

    "Yes!!" The boy exclaimed loudly as he jumped and did a little victory dance.

    [Congratulations Jiangshi on clearing the trap!]

    The system announced almost immediately and the walls that had suddenly come out of nowhere went back into the ground, returning the maze to its former glory.

    Huang Zhen carefully turned on the safety in the gun and put it back in his pocket before crouching down to find the pocket knife that had gotten mixed up with the broken pieces of metal that were used to make the creature.

    One would think that getting stuck in this trap had helped the other players and maybe someone else had overtaken the boy, but surprisingly enough, even after having wasted time in this trap, Huang Zhen was still the closest player to the center of the maze.

    Zhihao had tried his best to avoid triggering any traps but at the end of the day he was still human and he eventually fell into a trap.

    Zhihao was smart enough to try and use the trick of clinging onto the wall, however, his plan immediately stopped when water started to flood the place.

    Zhihao cursed under his breath as he took a deep breath in and closed his eyes as he waited for the water to entirely fill up the place.

    Once the water had risen up to a certain level where it could flow out of the trap, it stopped coming in and Zhihao took this moment to open his eyes as he swam deeper into the water.

    This was a common trap and Zhihao already knew the trick to solve it.

    He went deeper and tapped around the ground before finding a certain area that could be pushed in.

    Zhihao smiled as he used all his energy to push the ground and at first, his hard work seemed to have shown no result, but this didn''t make him want to stop, and instead, it made him want to try harder.

    Zhihao closed his eyes and focused completely on using all his strength to push the floor and unconsciously he opened his mouth a little, letting out all the air that he was saving up.

    Now that he had no air left, he was almost forced to believe that this was it.

    He thought that the great Mastermo was going to lose the final level after being drowned to death.

    Zhihao cursed in his mind as he decided to put his very last bit of energy into pushing the ground and thankfully enough, this time the ground moved and the water slowly started going back into the ground.

    Zhihao felt his body go still as he gulped in water and started floating up to the surface of the water, however, he knew that he was going to survive this.

    Within just a few minutes, the water drained down completely and Zhihao was left unconscious on the floor for a few seconds before the man started coughing out all the water that had filled his stomach.

    "Damn it!" The man cursed under his breath as he felt his chest hurt after coughing out all that water.

    [Congratulations Mastermo on clearing the trap!]

    The system announced happily but Zhihao didn''t look to be happy in the least. He looked to be relieved but not happy.

    The walls went back into the ground and cleared up the path in front of him.

    Zhihao sighed as he took a minute to calm himself down before pushing himself off the ground and standing up.

    After taking a few calm breaths, the man continued on his way and headed for the center of the maze.

    Li Ling was perhaps the luckiest person till now as the man ran recklessly through the maze and was somehow still able to avoid all the traps and triggers, almost making it seem as if the Gods were looking out for him.

    Tian Xifeng sighed as she dragged her feet and continued walking forward. All the paths looked identical to each other and Tian Xifeng was already a directionless woman so it need not even be said that the woman was probably not having the time of her life.

    Li Ying was perhaps the only one with a secondary phone and she considered this to be of big help to her as she used it and watched the live stream of the game. She could clearly see where each player was and she could also see what they were doing, but the girl was hardly paying attention to the players.

    The reason why Li Ying stopped in her tracks and was looking attentively at the screen with great interest was because she was somehow trying to figure out the layout for the maze through it.

    If she could understand the structure of this place then this game would definitely become a lot easier for her and she seemed to have clearly realised this fact.

 Chapter 274 - Looking Up

    With an extra phone in hand, it could be said that Li Ying was the luckiest one who had the biggest advantage on her side, however, she realized that she was still too far away from the goal so there was probably no way for her to win.

    It wasn''t like she wanted to win either. She was just here for the fun so she really didn''t care who won in the end, however, if you were to ask her if she rooted for another player, the girl would probably give you a smile and nod.

    She did hope to see someone winning, but unlike what most people would think, it wasn''t her brother that she hoped to see win the game, nor was it Mastermo.

    Li Ying was indeed a Mastermo fan but she still hoped to see another player winning and this player was the player who was the nearest to the center of the maze at this very moment.

    She wanted to see Huang Zhen winning against both Zhihao and her brother.

    That boy had always looked up to his brother a bit too much and this had made him indirectly underestimate his own self.

    Ever since Li Ying had started getting closer to the boy, she had come to realize this slowly.

    Huang Zhen was also talented and amazing in his own ways but the boy had almost zero confidence in himself and he considered his brother to be a God for him. A God that is amazing and can do everything better than him.

    This was also part of the reason why Huang Zhen was so surprised to see his brother dating Li Ling and at the starting, he was even a little bit against it.

    Even in this final level, Li Ying could clearly look at Huang Zhen''s casual approach and guess what was going through the boy''s head. He probably had no idea that he had the most chances of winning at this moment and he was clearly expecting to hear the system announcing that Zhihao had won at any given moment now.

    Even though he was given more headstart in this game, his confidence was still too low and Huang Zhen couldn''t even imagine winning against his brother so he didn''t even bother giving it his all.

    If he kept expectations, sooner or later, his expectations would be broken so, in order to save himself from being let down like that, the boy decided not to keep any expectations at all.

    He simply didn''t hope to win and this was the exact reason why Li Ying wanted the boy to win.

    Since she considered him a good friend, Li Ying had tried everything possible to raise his confidence. She had let him join their team and had even let him be the leader not only because she wanted to prove that he should trust himself more but also because she believed that he had the skills to be a leader. She had even gone as far as to compliment him every day for every little thing he did, however, none of it ever worked.

    In the end, all her tactics had borne no fruit, but at this moment, she believed that winning this game was going to be different.

    Zhihao was also here and if Huang Zhen could win against his brother for the first time in his life, his expectations with himself would certainly change.

    His brother who was considered to be God would be proven to be nothing more than just a human who was talented and worked hard.

    The boy would finally be able to realize that he was also just as good as his brother and his brother was not someone so high up that he was basically untouchable.

    Li Ying clicked her tongue as she saw Huang Zhen falling into another trap after just beating the bull.

    It seemed that although the boy was talented, the Gods of luck really didn''t prefer him.

    How could it be that his brother was so blessed with luck that he had only gotten one trap so far while Huang Zhen had managed to fall into three consecutively?!

    Li Ying shook her head in disbelief as she stopped walking and leisurely sat down on the ground with her back leaning against the wall as she looked at her phone screen with much interest.

    The girl had always liked watching Huang Zhen play. There was just something about it that had always attracted her.

    If she were to compare the two brothers then she would say that watching Zhihao play was like watching a professional use all his experience to make a plan before successfully executing it. The ones who watched could guess what would be happening next and they knew that in the end, Zhihao would surely win. However, watching Huang Zhen play was the exact opposite.

    It was like watching a drunk player try to survive with no plan whatsoever. He would first try to avoid and escape but it would fail and he would eventually try out the different methods he could think up of to get out of the situation before slowly realizing what the opponent''s weakness was. The ending could not be guessed and it made the viewers be on the edge of their toes just waiting to see if the player would win or not.

    Li Ying saw the boy trying to climb the wall to close the trap but failing as the wall turned slippery.

    Her face cringed up as she took a closer look at her screen and noticed that there was some sort of sticky substance attached to the wall and it kept on increasing as it slowly flowed down from the wall and filled up the floor as well.

    Huang Zhen stepped back, trying to get away from the sticky substance but his back hit the other wall and was completely wrapped up in the sticky substance that he was trying so hard to avoid.

    Li Ying almost wanted to slam her face on the wall as she saw the boy panicking as he tried to get the sticky substance off of him but only ended up being more covered in it.

    Just as she had thought, it was really too hard to predict whether this boy was going to win or not since he would always look as if he was about to lose in the very beginning itself.

    Huang Zhen pursed his lips into a thin line as he lifted his head and tried to smell the thing that was completely odorless and when he realized that there was no smell coming from it, he was rather relieved.

    Huang Zhen sighed in relief but in the very next moment, he felt a drop of that stuff falling on his face and it made him look up.

    He soon realized that he had sighed in relief a bit too soon without actually knowing what situation he was in.

    Huang Zhen''s entire body went still in fear as he gulped, looking straight up at the creature that was looking down on him.

    The sticky substance was actually the odorless drool of the mechanic dragon that was creeping above the maze.

    He thought not moving was going to make him invisible and the creature would probably not notice him but he was certainly wrong and naive to think that.

    The creature opened its mouth and let out a loud ear-piercing cry almost sounding like a roaring lion that was a bit too loud and Huang Zhen winced as he felt his ears ringing after hearing that.

    When the creature stopped, Huang Zhen gulped as he commented, "You don''t sound very happy. Are you hungry perhaps?"

    The creature looked back at the boy and naturally said nothing as a response since it could not even understand what Huang Zhen had said.

    "I taste very bad," Huang Zhen spoke as he pursed his lips, "Just telling you in case you have any ideas."

    The creature was silent for a few seconds before it took a deep breath in and roared once again.

    Huang Zhen covered his ears with his hands and tried to look around to find a way out of this thing but the walls had thoroughly trapped him in here to become fresh livestock.

    The space created by the closed walls was big enough for the creature''s head and thankfully the creature couldn''t come in, however, its head was more than enough if its aim was to eat Huang Zhen.

    The creature struck first and Huang Zhen immediately took to his feet as he ran around the corners of the place, trying to save his life.

    He really wanted to curse the heavens for giving him the worst luck at this moment.

    When the Dragon struck for the second time, Huang Zhen was almost caught and had only managed to be saved by a few inches.

    Li Ying who was watching this chase couldn''t help but flinch as she worried for the boy and his life.

 Chapter 275 - Blinding The Deaf.

    Beating this creature was certainly not going to be easy and even if it was Li Ying who was currently in Huang Zhen''s position, she was sure that she would also not be able to save herself.

    Huang Zhen did the only thing that the boy could think of doing and took out the gun from his pocket.

    In front of such a big dragon, a small gun was probably useless and even Huang Zhen could clearly see that, but he still hoped to make some use of the gun and didn''t recklessly try to shoot the creature.

    Instead of shooting, he continued to run as he avoided being eaten by the Dragon.

    Various thoughts seemed to be racing through his mind as he tried to come up with a solution that didn''t have any big chances of failing but as expected, there was no such solution. All plans that his brain could come up with were simply too reckless and with just one wrong step, his life would probably be in a fatal condition.

    Huang Zhen took a sharp breath in and grabbed onto one of the whiskers of the creature before jumping and avoiding the creature''s mouth that had almost managed to bite his leg.

    He used the whisker as a rope and swung towards the other side without any plan in mind but just as he landed, his mind went blank for a single second as he realized that he perhaps had a great idea that he was yet to consider.

    The boy gulped as he looked up at the creature and he had an indecipherable expression plastered on his face.

    Li Ying who looked at Huang Zhen''s sudden pause in movements could clearly notice that there was something wrong and it didn''t take her more than a few seconds to guess that Huang Zhen probably had a sudden plan.

    Huang Zhen coughed as he tried to catch the creature''s attention, however, this was a waste since the creature was already pretty interested in eating him, however, it seemed that one couldn''t easily judge his actions.

    The boy waited at his spot for a solid second as if almost challenging the giant creature to take a bite out of him, but just before the mouth closed in on him, Huang Zhen ducked his head and crawled forward, hiding under the creature''s chin.

    This was the only blind spot that he could find and it seemed to work in the beginning as the creature looked to be thoroughly confused after not seeing the boy anywhere.

    Huang Zhen mustered up his courage and took in a deep breath before he opened his mouth and shouted loudly, "I''m here!"

    Li Ying who saw this couldn''t help but want to smack herself unconscious.

    What the hell was this boy planning?!

    First, he was trying to hide in the blind spot and now he was calling the dragon to come and eat him?!

    Did this boy lose his brain or something?! Did he fall on his head?!

    Li Ying''s eyebrows creased together and she sighed in disbelief but in the very next moment, she found something strange with the creature''s behavior and she couldn''t help but be drawn to this fight as she noticed this.

    The creature... Was not attacking...?!

    Huang Zhen''s lips curled up in a smirk as he realized that his thoughts had been correct.

    He sighed as he got ready to execute the rest of his plan.

    The boy ran out of the creature''s blind spot and displayed himself out in the open as if trying to invite the creature to come and take a bite.

    The creature growled first before opening its mouth to roar and when it was done showing its aggressiveness, its head sprang forward towards Huang Zhen who stood in place.

    Huang Zhen took a sharp breath in as he bet his life on the line and jumped up, reaching out his hand as far as he could to grab the whisker that he had previously used as a swinging rope.

    If his hands slipped or missed then he would fall into the mouth of the creature and be thoroughly grounded up like minced meat.

    His eyes went wide open as he barely managed to grab a hold of it.

    "Yesss!!" The boy exclaimed with joy as he swung around with the help of the whisker first before moving on to the next part of the plan.

    The creature seemed to have understood that Huang Zhen was on its whiskers so it shook its head and tried to get the boy off, however, Huang Zhen was determined and stubborn.

    The boy refused to let go and the creature let out a hot steamy breath, almost making Huang Zhen feel as if his clothes could burn into ashes at any moment now because of the heat coming from the creature''s nostrils.

    "Just what in the hell are you trying to do...?!" Li Ying questioned the boy on the screen as she muttered to herself and the answer to her question presented itself in the very next moment.

    Huang Zhen climbed up to the snout of the creature before raising the gun and aiming it at the creature''s eye.

    This dragon was deaf and Huang Zhen thought that the only thing he could do to ensure being uneaten by the creature was perhaps blinding it as well.

    It could then be both deaf and blind. A perfect combination for a useless predator.

    If this creature''s smelling senses were strong then Huang Zhen had a lot more to worry about, but it seemed that the boy hadn''t thought that far ahead just yet and Li Ying almost wanted to laugh since this was to be expected of this boy.

    To not think too far ahead, was perhaps the trademark of Huang Zhen while his brother was the exact opposite.

    Huang Zhen closed his left eye and focused on his aim as he tried to balance himself on top of the creature.

    It seemed that this creature had two blind spots. One was under its chin and the other was on top of its snout.

    Huang Zhen hadn''t actually realized that he was standing in another blind spot, and if he wasn''t lucky enough to be standing on one at this moment, then he would have surely been shaken off.

    Falling from here would have injured him which would have further resulted in being defenseless against the creature.

    Huang Zhen took a sharp breath in as he supported the gun with both hands this time, having learned the lesson after not doing this the previous time he had shot this thing.

    He calmed himself down before carefully pulling the trigger and aiming to take out one of the dragon''s eyes.

    He flinched as he felt the bullet leaving the body of the gun and the bullet went forward, hitting the creature''s eye and making it go blind from one eye.

    The creature roared loudly and cried out in pain as it moved around in agony. Huang Zhen lowered himself down before grabbing tightly onto the whiskers so as to not be thrown off.

    If this creature was real then Huang Zhen would have certainly had a hard time shooting it since he was such a big animal lover and although dragons were supposed to be fake, they were his favorite kind of mythical beasts whom he considered to be alive.

    He was still young so it was only natural that he still believed dragons to be real. If he were to ever find one in his real-world then this boy would definitely be naive enough to try and train that dragon. Killing the creature... Well, he couldn''t even think of doing such a thing.

    However, the dragon in front of him at this moment was nothing more than a computer program. A bunch of codes that had no real emotions or feelings. Although it acted as if it was hurt, Huang Zhen could clearly understand that it was probably programmed to act that way and it felt none of the pain that it was trying to display, but although he knew this, he couldn''t help but feel a little guilty.

    Li Ying sighed as she clearly noticed the guilty expression plastered on the boy''s face.

    "That''s just a virtual monster! What''s there to be guilty about?!" She cried out in disbelief but Huang Zhen could naturally not hear her say anything.

    When the creature had calmed down after a few minutes, Huang Zhen carefully stood up and aimed his gun at the creature''s other eye, hoping to blind the dragon completely.

    He got ready to pull the trigger but at that very moment, the creature shook its head and Huang Zhen lost balance, falling down as a result.

    His eyes went wide and there was only one thought that crossed through his mind: "I''m dead...!"

    He knew that this was it but the boy wasn''t an idiot and even though everything looked to be unfavorable for him at this moment, the boy still raised his gun and roughly aimed it at the creature''s eye before shooting, praying for the gods of luck to have some pity on him.

 Chapter 276 - Unpredictability Makes It Interesting

    It seemed that the heavens did indeed pity the boy this time and the bullet unexpectedly hit the mark.

    The creature threw its head back as it cried out in pain once again.

    With both its eyes shot down, this creature could no longer see Huang Zhen which indirectly resulted in the boy''s win.

    [Congratulations Jiangshi on winning against the metallic crimson dragon!]

    Huang Zhen gulped as he heard this and he dare not believe it, however, his disbelief didn''t change the fact that he was safe for now.

    Li Ying also sighed in relief as she felt all energy leave her body after watching that intense fight. The boy had probably not even realized how risky his plan was but Li Ying who was watching and analyzing his every move knew better than anyone else that there were a lot of things that could have gone wrong.

    Every step in the plan was not thought through clearly and it was reckless. If Huang Zhen wasn''t such a lucky brat then he would have certainly gotten himself killed at least a few hundred times in a single trap.

    The walls that trapped the boy opened up as they went back into the ground and made a path in front of Huang Zhen who flopped down to the ground with no energy left in his body.

    After a whole minute, Huang Zhen chuckled and Li Ying who saw him chuckling, chuckled together with him as she muttered, "You''re one hell of a lucky bastard..."

    This time, Huang Zhen had wasted quite some time on solving the trap and as a result, he fell back in his position to be the closest one to the center and he was overtaken by none other than his own brother Zhihao who had managed to avoid all the traps as he made his way to the center with determination.

    Everyone who was currently watching the live stream of the final level probably had the same thought crossing through their minds and they were certainly at the edge of their seats as they hoped to see Mastermo winning.

    However, if someone were to ask Zhihao if he wanted to win or not, the man would probably laugh and shake his head as he confidently replied with a ''no''.

    Zhihao no longer wanted to be the one to win.

    He had done everything for this movement. He had come this far just to prove himself but now that he was really standing here, competing against Li Ling, his want to win had died down.

    He didn''t want ''Mastermo'' to win today, he wanted the gamemaster Li Ling to win.

    If Li Ling were to hear the man saying such a thing then he would have certainly been shocked to death and would probably not even believe it even after his death.

    The competitive Mastermo who was crazy about gaming and winning, actually having a change of heart was certainly something to fear.

    They say that if a person changes too much, it means they are going to die soon and he would prefer it if Zhihao didn''t change so that he doesn''t die either.

    At this exact moment, in some completely another side of the maze, Kaoru found herself facing the destination that she was headed for.

    "Huh?" The girl muttered in disbelief as she saw the outside of the maze that looked to be completely normal and her face slowly lit up with delight as she ran forward and saved herself from the maze.

    The girl thought that she was extremely lucky to have found this exit and she could also guess that she was the only player to have found it, however, she clearly couldn''t have expected what happened next.

    Kaoru looked up at the clear sky and in the very next second, before the smile on her face could even properly register, the screen in front of her turned dark and she was forced to open her eyes.

    "She''s awake!" It was the voice of an unfamiliar woman and when Kaoru lightly opened her eyes to look, all she could see was a silhouette of a woman dressed in a lab coat.

    The girl tried to keep her eyes open but eventually failed as she felt tiredness taking over her body.

    It surprisingly didn''t take her that long to understand what the situation was and in fact, as soon as she saw the screen going black, she had already guessed that she had reached the end.

    Going out of the maze was certainly not a good idea.

    [Player Kaze_17 has been eliminated!]

    The system inside the game announced loud and clear for everyone to hear and the players gulped as they mentally concluded that one of their opponents was down for good.

    Now there only remained four players and one gamemaster still stuck inside the final level of T.I.A.D.

    Out of the four players left, one had already given up on trying to win while the other was depending completely on his luck thinking that he had no hopes of winning against his brother. The third one was just going with the flow and still trying to find Li Ling while the fourth one, Mastermo was giving it his all as he headed for the center.

    It need not even be said that the gamemaster was trying and yet, not trying at the same time.

    Li Ling thought that the situation changing from a game of hunt to a race was already great enough and he couldn''t hope for anything more. He had no need for the cash reward and he would naturally not want to be known as the winner of the game that he created.

    Zhihao turned a corner and immediately came to a stop as he saw the trigger of another trap that he didn''t wish to touch, however, he stumbled on his own foot and ended up triggering the trap.

    The only thing that he could do after realizing that he had stupidly triggered the trap was sigh and curse at himself in his mind.

    He already knew how to avoid all the traps but his patience had made this knowledge almost useless as he couldn''t put it to good use.

    What was so good about knowing something that you would forget to make use of?

    Zhihao took a sharp breath as he made his way towards the wall and tried to use the cheat trick.

    He wasn''t able to use this method the last time because the water had already started filling up the space, however, since no action could be seen yet, this trick would naturally work.

    No cheat trick was full proof and of course, they came with their own limitations and it took Zhihao a lot of time to understand why sometimes this cheat would not work, but thankfully he already knew the answer to that question by now.

    When a trap was triggered, there was a small opening where nothing threatening happened. This small opening didn''t last for more than a minute which was the reason why the players needed to be fast if they wanted the trick to work.

    If the player was late and the attacking force inside the trap had already acted, chances were, it was impossible for the cheat to work.

    Even if the system couldn''t sense a player inside the trap, it could still sense a creature or something else that would have weight.

    This was also the reason why Wang GuiYing hadn''t managed to escape the trap when he climbed the wall to save himself from the mechanical crawling death insects.

    The same could also be said about Huang Zhen who had tried to use the trick but failed when the bull suddenly showed up out of nowhere, putting weight on the ground.

    [Error: No player detected]

    [If the player is not detected, the trap would be deactivated within the next ten seconds.]

    [10]

    [9]

    [8]

    [7]

    [6]

    [5]

    [4]

    [3]

    [2]

    [1]

    [No player detected]

    [Trap: 3242 has now been deactivated!]

    Zhihao sighed in relief as he jumped down after making sure that he was safe and once the walls opened up, he continued heading towards the center of the maze.

    If the traps weren''t laid throughout the maze, then it would have certainly been easier for the players, however, because of the traps, this final level was unpredictable.

    Just because a player was in the lead at this moment didn''t mean that the player was going to win and just because a player was the last one didn''t mean that player didn''t have a chance of winning.

    There was no guarantee who might be eliminated at any given moment and this sense of unpredictability was perhaps the factor that made watching this game all the more fun.

    They couldn''t predict but were interested to know the answer so they watched on to know more.

    At this moment, Zhihao was the one leading, followed by Huang Zhen who had been previously on the lead. Li Ling was in the third position while Tian Xifeng was in the fourth and unsurprisingly enough, Li Ying who was sitting on one corner of the maze, leisurely watching everyone play, was the last one.

 Chapter 277 - The Golden Key

    Li Ying suddenly winced as she felt something biting her leg and when she looked down, even though she couldn''t spot the mosquito that had bit her, she still ended up spotting something even more interesting.

    Her eyes went wide open and her muscles tensed up as a result when she slowly realized what it could be.

    She gulped as she stood up and kept her eyes on the ground.

    She was sure that she was the only one who was seeing this.

    Even Zhihao who had played LHA''s maze of death didn''t know this...

    The answer was always right there.

    It was always under them and yet they had all been too blind.

    Li Ying didn''t know if she wanted to laugh or cry at this moment.

    She didn''t want to win and she was the player at the current last position, however, with this sudden realization, she was the one with the golden key. The one who could very possibly win the final level.

    The system had tricked them yet again and all the other players were headed the wrong way.

    Li Ying scoffed as she rubbed her head and wondered what she was supposed to do next.

    They had all thought and somehow come to believe that the maze of death would be a round structure or a cube, however, although this was true for the real LHA''s maze of death, it need not be true for this one as well.

    None of the players seemed to have expected the maze of death to actually be shaped more complex than just a circle or a square. Even Li Ying wouldn''t be able to confidently say that she could have seen this coming.

    For some odd reason, this maze of death was actually shaped like a spider and this meant that the center was not that easy to find.

    The maze was huge so it was only natural that the players were not able to realize this.

    Li Ying gulped as he lifted her phone once again and took a closer look at the surrounding area that was displayed on the top of the player''s screen.

    She couldn''t help but feel as if God was playing a trick on her as she noticed that all the players were headed for the same center which was in fact the center of the spider''s head.

    The real direction they needed to head for was the spider''s chest region but that complete area was empty since no players had managed to go there.

    This was perhaps also the reason why Wang Guiying was not able to save himself by running to the center of the maze because the spot that he had concluded to be the center was in fact, a fake one made to confuse him.

    Li Ying gulped as she carefully started walking towards the other side of the maze and when she was sure that her theory was right, she immediately crouched down to the ground and took a photo of the plain tiles that were arranged in a unique pattern.

    This pattern was also the reason why she was able to understand the truth because this pattern was the map of the maze.

    The answer that they were looking for was below their feet this all time but it was truly a wonder that none of the players managed to see it.

    Li Ying gulped as she brainstormed herself to come up with a plan.

    She didn''t want to win this level so this information was basically useless for her, however, there was a player that she wanted to see winning and this information could certainly make her hopes come true.

    If Huang Zhen had a golden map then he would probably be able to win, however, Huang Zhen was too far away from the girl and there was no way Li Ying would be able to reach him if she ran through the maze.

    There were too many triggers and traps that would slow her down and if she was not able to reach him soon enough, there would certainly be another player smart enough to realize what she had just come to know.

    She needed to seize this opportunity somehow and she needed to help Huang Zhen so Li Ying gulped as she looked up and a suicidal plan suddenly became the only solution her brain could come up with.

    Li Ying took a sharp breath in as she stepped back and calmed herself down before keeping her phone securely back in her pocket.

    She ran forward and jumped as she tried to climb the wall but the wall was too tall and smooth so it was only natural that she wasn''t able to do anything with this.

    However, the girl was determined as she looked up and marked the spot that she was able to reach before she calculated the approximate height of the wall.

    She also calculated how much time it was going to take her with a certain speed and method.

    Li Ying was much alike her brother when coming up with quick decisions and when she was sure that she had calculated everything in her mind, she went over towards a corner and with her hands on either side of the two walls, she jumped and tried to climb up.

    This was also a method that had been previously used by Wang GuiYing however because the man had suddenly been distracted and panicked because of the crawling deaths, he was unable to reach all the way to the top and if it hadn''t been for Zhou Xinyi then he would have surely been eliminated after falling into the mouth of those creatures.

    However, Li Ying''s condition was much different. She hadn''t triggered a trap and was simply climbing up so she had nothing to worry about. She was focused and determined.

    Li Ying slipped a few times and fell down, even scraping her knee in the process but the blood didn''t seem to have affected her much as she tore a piece of her cloth and tied it around her knee before trying to climb up once again.

    After multiple attempts of trying and failing, somehow she was able to find a comfortable sweet spot and she climbed all the way up to the top of the maze.

    "That brat better be thankful," Li Ying muttered to herself as she stepped on top of the maze and tried to see if the invisible laser net worked or not.

    As expected, it was working well and good since it obstructed her from going back into the maze.

    Li Ying looked around and took out her phone as she tried to find the direction where Huang Zhen was and when she was able to pinpoint the location down, she started to run.

    At first, there was nobody following her but after some time, when Li Ying suddenly had a bit of a bad gut feeling, she glanced back to see that the expected villain was finally here to hunt her down.

    It was the invisible creature that had eliminated both Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi.

    "Ahhh! I hate running!!!" The girl screamed at the top of her lungs as she increased her speed.

    Her only purpose was to reach Huang Zhen and now this creature was the only thing that could stop her from doing that, however, Li Ying wasn''t going to let the system win this time.

    She ran faster than she had ever run before in her life and when she finally managed to reach the area where Huang Zhen was, she threw the phone down and shouted, "Take a look, you idiot!"

    A player would not be able to go back to the maze but the same could not be said about objects.

    Since this phone was clearly not a player, it went through the laser net and Huang Zhen managed to catch it even though the boy was shocked to the core at the girl who suddenly popped out of nowhere and threw a phone down at him.

    "What the...?!" The boy muttered in disbelief as he looked up and watched Li Ying disappear into thin air.

    "..."

    He felt a chill go down his spine as he rubbed his eyes and wondered if he had just seen a ghost or an illusion.

    [Player Yingli has been eliminated!]

    The system was as lively as ever as it announced and Huang Zhen''s eyes widened as he slowly understood the situation.

    The boy gulped as he looked down at the phone carefully before turning on the screen and the first thing that he was able to see was the photo of the floor.

    The boy was thoroughly confused and for a second, he even held the belief that it was probably one of those crazy things that the girl would occasionally do.

    His confusion was only natural considering the fact that she had left no instructions for him to follow, however, after a solid few minutes of thinking, he finally realized that there was something odd about the way the floor was designed.

    After that, it didn''t take the boy long to understand that he was just given the golden key.

 Chapter 278 - A Competition Between Brothers

    Huang Zhen gulped as he immediately turned around and started walking in the opposite direction, heading for the real center of the maze.

    At this moment, he couldn''t help but feel as if he owed his life to Li Ying for actually sacrificing herself just to help him.

    This was something that he had never expected the girl to do for him, and surely enough, it surprised him, however, when the shock had settled in, he felt grateful to her.

    She was certainly a great friend that he had managed to make and the boy was sure that he won''t be finding friends like her again in this life.

    It wasn''t every day that you get to meet people who are more than ready to sacrifice themselves for a friendship. The one who has such a friend was surely favored by the Gods of luck.

    The boy tried his best to avoid falling into more traps but it was eventually inevitable, however, Huang Zhen reacted fast enough and tricked the system into thinking that there was no player inside the trap which eventually led to the deactivation of the trap and Huang Zhen could continue on in his way.

    For the first time in the day, the boy felt as if he had a chance. He still refused to believe that he was ahead of the other players, however, at this moment, he had a feeling that he had an equal chance at winning.

    Although Huang Zhen was the only one with the golden key, the boy was not conceited enough to think that he was the only one who had realized this. He was more than sure that his brother would see this as well. After all, there was nothing that could escape Mastermo''s eyes.

    It was only a matter of time before Zhihao also finds the golden key and Huang Zhen seemed to have been correct in thinking like this since it really only took a few more minutes for Zhihao to realize that the pattern on the floor was weird.

    Zhihao gulped as he crouched down to the ground and took a closer look at the pattern that looked somewhat like a spider but there were also cracks inside that spider, almost making it look as if... It was a map... Inside of a spider!

    Zhihao''s eyes widened as he took a minute to process this information through his brain and when he was done doing that, he couldn''t help but want to laugh and cry at the same time.

    He had been reckless once again. He had acted before thinking and now that he was thinking, he felt as if he had been stupid.

    Zhihao took a sharp breath in as he turned around and got ready to head to the real center before stopping after just a few steps as he thought about Li Ling.

    He and Li Ling were supposed to be competing with each other on a fair basis, so it was clearly Li Ling''s fault if he still hadn''t realized that he was headed the wrong way, however, this didn''t stop Zhihao from worrying about the man.

    He wanted to help Li Ling but he didn''t even know where the man was so it was only natural that Zhihao could do nothing to help Li Ling at this moment.

    At the end of the day, even with a heart that wanted to run and find Li Ling, Zhihao was still able to hold back and ran through the maze as he headed for the center.

    The man thought that he was probably the only one who had noticed the pattern on the floor and even if someone were to tell him that his brother had also found it, Zhihao would surely find it a bit hard to believe.

    With Yingli out of the game, there were only three players and one gamemaster remaining.

    Out of the four people, only Huang Zhen and Zhihao had managed to find the golden key and were headed for the real center.

    Tian Xifeng was quite shocked when she heard Li Ying being eliminated and she also instantly realized that she was one of the remaining three that were supposed to beat the gamemaster.

    This was a bit shocking considering the fact that the woman had never expected to come this far, and she hadn''t seriously tried to win this game either.

    Tian Xifeng and Li Ling, who were both unaware of the golden key kept walking towards the fake center which would eventually lead them to not only waste their time but also make them have a higher chance of being eliminated.

    Now the tides of the game shifted and it became a competition not only between two players but also between two brothers who were both amazing in their own ways.

    Most of the audience that watched this stream were screaming and cheering for Zhihao as they rooted for him, whereas, Huang Zhen clearly didn''t have that many fans.

    Everyone knew him because he was one of the top ten players who was also in Li Ying''s team, but since he was rather new in the industry, there weren''t many people willing to cheer for him.

    Li Ying was perhaps the only person who woke up and without wasting time, went over towards the main hall to watch the live stream as she actively cheered on for the boy with a complicated expression plastered on her face as her eyes managed to catch a glimpse of Zhihao who had also realized the trick that the system had tried to use on them.

    "Come on... You better not lose this, Zhen," Li Ying muttered under her breath but Huang Zhen would naturally not be able to hear her.

    Huang Zhen fell into a lot of traps but he managed to escape through every single one of them while Zhihao only fell into a couple of traps and managed to escape them with ease as he used the cheat trick to fool the system.

    This really turned into an intense race and nobody was able to confidently predict the end outcome of this race.

    More than a few minutes passed and Li Ling reached the fake center with a bright smile on his face.

    The man looked around to see whether he was the first one or not and he was immediately able to tell that none of the other players had managed to come here just yet, however, even after knowing that he was the first, Li Ling''s smile still went down and turned into a frown as he waited for the system to announce his win.

    But since he hadn''t won, it was only natural that the system didn''t announce anything.

    The man waited for a bit more and Tian Xifeng was the next player that showed up.

    Li Ling''s eyebrows creased together in suspicion as he saw the woman but he said nothing out loud.

    "Li Ling Gege? You''re already here?" Tian Xifeng questioned in surprise as she looked at the man wide-eyed before sighing as she muttered, "I knew I wouldn''t be first. It would have been a miracle if I was able to beat you all."

    Li Ling frowned as he heard this and something in his mind seemed to have clicked after hearing the woman.

    "Hey, you also didn''t hear it, did you?" Li Ling asked as he looked at the woman.

    Tian Xifeng frowned as she heard this random question and asked back, "What are you talking about?"

    "The system announcing the winner," Li Ling gulped as he replied.

    "Huh?"

    "It didn''t announce either of us as the winner and A-Zhi is still not here yet," Li Ling frowned as he stated, "There is something wrong."

    "Maybe you''re overthinking it?" Tian Xifeng tilted her head as she responded, "The system is probably calculating. It''s normal for it to lag a bit."

    "No," Li Ling shook his head as he refused to agree to her, "That''s definitely not it. I built the system so I would naturally know."

    Tian Xifeng''s eyebrows creased together as she heard this and she nodded her head before she questioned, "Then what is it, Gege?"

    Li Ling took a deep breath in as he tried to think up the different situations that could possibly cause this.

    It was clear to him that this was not caused by a system defect. If the system was not lagging then it meant no player had won yet.

    But seeing as how this part of the maze was circular in size, Li Ling was sure that this was the center of the maze and since he was here, he should have already won the game, but he didn''t and he wanted to know why he didn''t.

    Tian Xifeng looked around as if she was trying to search for something and Li Ling frowned as he asked the woman, "What are you looking for?"

    "Maybe there is some kind of secret trick to solving the mission. Maybe we need to find something in the center of the maze."

    Li Ling repeated the woman''s words in his head and it seemed that something the woman said had managed to shock him.

    "A secret trick..." The man muttered under his breath as realization slowly hit him.

 Chapter 279 - Stop Being A Coward!

    "This is not the center...!" Li Ling exclaimed and Tian Xifeng didn''t look to be amused as she heard the man.

    "What do you mean?"

    Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry at this moment as he spoke, "The system tricked us... Damn it!"

    Tian Xifeng''s eyebrows creased together in confusion and worry as she heard the man, "Gege, speak clearly. What are you trying to say?"

    Li Ling sighed as he crouched down and sat on the ground leisurely, "The system tricked us into thinking that this maze was shaped like a circle, and because of that, we were forced to believe that this was the center that we were supposed to reach."

    "So it is... Not?" Tian Xifeng carefully asked as she looked at the man.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he confirmed her suspicion, "That''s right. We are not the winners because we are at the wrong place."

    Tian Xifeng blinked as she heard this shocking news and the woman was not able to say anything for a whole few minutes, however, just as the shock had sunk in, she shouted at Li Ling as she asked, "Then why the hell are you sitting here?! Shouldn''t we be heading to the real goal?!"

    Li Ling pursed his lips as he heard this and looked up at the woman before shrugging his shoulder as he stated, "It''s already impossible."

    "What do you mean?!" Tian Xifeng asked as she glared at the man who seemed to have given up.

    Li Ling smiled thinly as he informed, "It''s already too late for us to go there. A-Zhi and his brother seem to have already realized it and they probably left for the real center. We were too late."

    "You have got to be kidding me!" Tian Xifeng scoffed as she questioned in annoyance, "How can you give up like that when you don''t even know for sure? They could have left just now as well. If we move fast, we can catch up to them!"

    Li Ling nodded his head as he heard her, "That''s right. There is a chance that we would be able to catch up to them but... Are you sure that you want to?"

    "Eh?" Tian Xifeng frowned as she looked at the man with an indecipherable expression plastered on her face, "What are you trying to say?"

    "I''m just asking," Li Ling sighed as he responded, "We were never in the game to win it, were we? We were playing to oversee the game."

    "..." The woman was speechless as she heard this and her speechlessness was caused by the fact that Li Ling was right.

    They were the beta players who were supposed to make sure that no other player was put in danger. Their job wasn''t to win the game, it was to oversee it instead and make sure that the system doesn''t go out of control.

    "Then what do we do now?" Tian Xifeng asked in a volume that was hardly audible.

    "Let''s just wait now," Li Ling smiled as he replied, "Let''s wait and see who wins."

    Tian Xifeng nodded her head as she heard him and took a seat on the other side of the room before she suddenly chuckled and commented, "It isn''t like you to give up this easily."

    "I know right," Li Ling chuckled as he responded, "I''m the competitive type but suddenly... I feel really tired."

    "Tired?" Tian Xifeng tilted her head as she looked at the man''s face and spoke up, "I would say you look more guilty than tired."

    "..."

    "What are you feeling so guilty for?" Tian Xifeng asked with much interest as she looked at the man.

    "Guilty?" Li Ling sighed as he thought about it and nodded his head, accepting it, "That may be right. I do feel a bit guilty."

    "Why?"

    "I lied to A-Zhi."

    Tian Xifeng chuckled as she heard this and leaned her head back, resting on the wall as she asked, "You have still not told him the truth yet?"

    "No... I did tell him about that," Li Ling replied honestly and Tian Xifeng''s eyes immediately went wide in shock.

    "You did?!" The woman question in shock as she looked at him curiously.

    Li Ling nodded his head as he added, "I did and luckily, he doesn''t hate me."

    "Doesn''t hate you?" Tian Xifeng repeated in shock, "That''s too vague of an answer! Give me details!"

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard the woman and spoke up, giving her the answer that she was demanding, "It was an unexpected confession so it didn''t go like you would think it went. He was disappointed in me but he didn''t push me away nor did he say that he hated me. He even refused to break up so I think we are good. I''m happy that he is ready to give me another chance to be more honest with him."

    "Wah~ Zhihao Gege is really an angel!" Tian Xifeng exclaimed in awe as she stated, "If it was me, I would have dumped you with a black eye."

    "..."

    "If you told him everything and he took it nicely, why are you feeling guilty?" Tian Xifeng asked in confusion as she looked at the man curiously.

    "Because I told him that I''d try my best to win," Li Ling chuckled as he informed, "But here I am, completely giving up on the thought of winning."

    "Tch- So he trusted you and you are here breaking his trust again just because you''re lazy?"

    "Eh?"

    "He was clearly giving you a chance to prove that you''re trustworthy," Tian Xifeng scolded the man as she informed, "And you... You''re really an a**hole, did you know that?"

    Li Ling was speechless as he heard the woman and it was clear that he was speechless because he had nothing to say in defense.

    "Start running before I come over and smack you on your head," Tian Xifeng clicked her tongue as she threatened the man, "Don''t be a coward and fulfill your promise!"

    "If you said you''re gonna try your best, I better see you trying your damn best!" Tian Xifeng added as she glared at the man, "Stop being a coward already and stand up! If you don''t then I''m telling on you! Let''s see if Zhihao Gege is still happy to know that you broke your promise again."

    Li Ling was suddenly threatened by the woman and he gulped as he looked at her and tried to understand if she was just saying this for the sake of saying it or was she actually planning to tell on him.

    "Don''t you dare think I''m joking," Tian Xifeng added as she glared at the man and this time, Li Ling was sure that the woman was really not joking around.

    She was really threatening him seriously and Li Ling would be lying if he said that he didn''t feel threatened.

    "Now get up or do you want me to come over there and kick you?!"

    Li Ling gulped as he heard this and immediately shook his head as he pushed himself off the ground and stood up.

    Tian Xifeng nodded in satisfaction as she saw this and closed her eyes as she took a deep breath in, "Good, you''re finally listening. Now go and complete that promise. Although I''m not happy to see you dating my ex-fiance, I would be lying if I said that you guys don''t look cute together."

    "..."

    "Since it''s your decision, I''ll support you two," Tian Xifeng added as she informed, "So you guys better not break up or lie to each other again. I hope to see a healthy relationship."

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this and nodded his head in understanding, "I get it."

    "Now go," Tian Xifeng opened her eyes as she spoke and this time, she was not glaring angrily at the man and instead, she had a small genuine smile on her face.

    The woman was serious about every word she said and somehow it managed to make Li Ling feel a little happy.

    The man clearly knew that his chances of winning were slim, however, thanks to a little push given from Tian Xifeng he was able to realize that it wasn''t about winning.

    It was about trying.

    Zhihao asked him to win but what he wanted to see was Li Ling trying his best to win.

    Mastermo was clearly a man who didn''t like to win because his opponent let him win and that was why he wanted to seriously challenge Li Ling in this competition.

    "Are you going to stay here?" Li Ling asked as he looked at the woman.

    Tian Xifeng sighed as she heard the man and responded, "I never made any such promises to anyone so I can do whatever I want."

    "..."

    "And in any case, just like you said, I was never here to win. I was here to enjoy the game and to oversee it as one of the beta players," Tian Xifeng spoke with a warm smile.

    "Also~ I don''t really want to go out there again and torture myself with those traps," The woman chuckled as she added.

 Chapter 280 - The One Who Won

    Li Ling knew that he wasn''t going to win but he also knew that he was going to try his best to win and by doing that, he was going to win something far more important than just a game.

    By trying his best, although he was going to lose the game, he was going to win Zhihao''s trust and at this moment, that was all he really cared about.

    Li Ling ran out and tried to understand what the system didn''t want him to understand.

    Li Ling was the gamemaster, and it was only natural that because of this, he was the one who knew the system the best.

    If the other players could find the golden key, it was not very impossible to think that Li Ling could find one as well.

    The man knew that the system would never give them a mission that was impossible to complete. The system had already given all the hints but it never said that the players had seen all the hints. This meant that there was something that they had been missing.

    The mission was simple but at the same time, it was not as simple as it sounded. They were given all the hints but at the same time, all the hints had not been analyzed by them yet.

    It didn''t take long for Li Ling to realize that the structure on the floor that he had noticed wasn''t just the shape and map of the maze, but it was much more than that.

    Li Ling seemed to have realized something that both Zhihao and his brother had missed. It was something that even Li Ying hadn''t noticed even after having thoroughly examined the floor.

    Li Ling''s lips curled up in a small smirk as he tapped around the ground and tried to find something.

    To be more exact, he tried to find a tile that was not as sturdy as the other ones and after a few minutes of searching, he was indeed able to find that tile that was not fixed properly.

    Li Ling felt excited as he used all his strength to pull the tile out of the ground. At first, it looked to be completely useless but after a few more minutes of trying, he was really able to lift the tile.

    The man took a sharp breath in as he looked at the piece of rolled-up paper that was hidden under the tile.

    His eyes immediately lit up as if he had already expected to see this paper.

    The reason why he knew that there was going to be a paper under there was because the structure on the floor depicted a small round motif that one might think was placed there just for decoration purposes, but of course, Li Ling knew better.

    In the game inventory, this small motif was actually used to denote a secret map that players would rarely find when they were playing T.I.A.D.

    Because of this single motif, Li Ling was able to find a map that was going to be quite useful for him.

    The man gulped as he opened up the piece of paper and took a good look at it.

    It was a map depicting not only the image and layout of the overall maze, but it was also a map that depicted the right path that a player needed to take in order to get to the center. To be more exact, a path that had no traps waiting for the players.

    Li Ling surely found it a bit shocking to know that there was such an easy path that was free from any traps, but even though he was shocked, he was not hesitant as he immediately took to his feet.

    The man was still not all that confident that he was going to win this game in the end, but by finding this map, he felt as if he had improved his chances.

    If the other two players, Huang Zhen and Zhihao hadn''t found this map then Li Ling certainly had an advantage to his side that might just end up making him win this competition.

    This was the final race and the more advantages a player had, the better their chances of winning were going to be.

    Zhihao and Huang Zhen already had a time advantage over Li Ling, and Li Ling now had a special directional map advantage over the other two players. This simply made the game more intense and unpredictable.

    The viewership of all the gaming news channels that were currently covering this big final level naturally grew with every single passing second.

    Huang Zhen and Zhihao were fast as they moved, avoided, and tricked the system to let them get out of the traps. There were some traps that were simply unavoidable and in those ones, they tried their best to finish it as soon as possible so that they could keep moving.

    All three were competitive and they knew the importance of time at the moment.

    After another twenty minutes of moving inside the maze, the players finally started getting closer to the center of the maze, and unsurprisingly enough, it was Huang Zhen who was in the lead and he was followed by Li Ling which made Zhihao the last person in this race.

    However, the race wasn''t over yet and even though Zhihao was not doing very good being at the back of the race, since there was still time, everyone believed that anything could happen in the next few minutes.

    For Zhihao to win, it was still not completely impossible.

    Of course, there were also fans that switched from Zhihao to Li Ling and started supporting and hoping for the man to win after seeing that he was doing all of this for Mastermo.

    If Zhihao couldn''t win then they wanted his boyfriend to win.

    After another ten minutes, the game was almost about to be over, but thankfully enough, before the timer ran out, one of the players was able to get to the center of the maze and it was no other than Huang Zhen who looked to be confused and shocked as he looked around in search of another player.

    The boy clearly couldn''t believe that he was the one who had won and this was only natural considering the fact that the boy had a very low self-confidence level.

    Li Ling also arrived at the center shortly after and his eyes looked to be a little relieved and dejected at the same time as he saw that there was already someone here.

    Li Ling sighed as he looked at Huang Zhen, "You''re fast, boy."

    Huang Zhen snapped his head back to look at Li Ling as he heard this and the boy looked as if he still had a hard time believing it.

    "Li Ling Gege," Huang Zhen called out to the man, "What''s happening?"

    "Hmm?" Li Ling tilted his head with a  bit of confusion in response as he heard this question.

    "Where is Mastermo?" Huang Zhen questioned with a complicated expression plastered on his face and Li Ling opened his mouth to answer the man but before the answer could roll out of his tongue, the two heard the familiar voice of a third person who had arrived.

    "I am here," Zhihao chuckled as he stated and finally entered the center room of the maze that was already preoccupied with Li Ling and Huang Zhen.

    Huang Zhen''s eyes lit up as he heard the voice but once he looked over at Zhihao, the man couldn''t help but frown as his face cringed up in disgust and he questioned impolitely, "What the hell happened to you."

    Zhihao, at this moment, looked as if he came straight out of a horror movie with blood all over his body.

    Zhihao pursed his lips as he heard this question and looked down at himself only to see that he was completely red from top to bottom.

    With a sigh, the man responded, "Don''t ask. It''s better if you don''t know."

    Zhihao felt reluctant to confess that the reason why he was late and only came looking like this was because the system decided to pour a rain of blood all over him inside a particular trap, and as if that wasn''t bad enough, the rain of blood seemed to be poisonous and had managed to even burn his skin.

    If it weren''t for that one new trap that he had never seen before then Zhihao would have surely been able to reach here sooner.

    Li Ling chuckled as he looked at Zhihao and heard him vaguely brush off the situation.

    "A-Zhi, you lost."

    "..."

    "I won and I completed my promise as well," Li Ling added with a bright smile plastered on his face, making him look much alike a kid that was waiting to be appreciated for being good.

    Zhihao couldn''t help but chuckle as a response after hearing this.

    "Do you want me to give you some treats for being obedient?'' Zhihao asked jokingly, but Li Ling didn''t seem to be joking as he bobbed his head up and down.

    "Treats would be appreciated! But I would prefer it if my treat was called A-Zhi."

    "..." Zhihao''s ears blushed red for some reason as he heard this.

 Chapter 281 - You Liar!

    [Congratulations player Jiangshi on beating the gamemaster!!!]

    The system announced happily and there was even some confetti being thrown on top of them along with the system''s voice.

    [All good things must come to an end and although ends are not enjoyable, they are still special. We wish you had a great journey with us and we also hope to see you again someday in the future.]

    [The final level has now officially been cleared and we would like to once again congratulate player Jiangshi for winning the game!~]

    [Your one million dollar cash prize is going to be transferred to your bank account that has been linked with T.I.A.D.]

    [We would like to thank you for playing till now.]

    [And with that said, this is going to be our last farewell.]

    [Goodbye and please take good care of your health!]

    [Your future is filled with unlimited possibilities and there is nothing that can stop you from achieving your goals and dreams.]

    [You have proved your talent and dedication and now it is time for me to take my leave]

    Zhihao couldn''t help but have an odd foreboding feeling in his stomach as he heard the system saying such things with a tone that sounded just a bit melancholic, completely different from the system''s usual, emotionless voice.

    With the system''s next declaration, Zhihao was sure that the foreboding feeling he had was right.

    [System initiating: Self-destruct.]

    [Timer set to ten minutes.]

    [9:59]

    [9:58]

    [9:57]

    "What the hell is happening...?!" Zhihao''s eyebrows creased together as he questioned out and Li Ling sighed as he heard the system, almost making it look as if the man had already expected such an announcement.

    Zhihao''s eyes turned towards Li Ling as he waited for the man to say something but Li Ling looked away and didn''t even dare meet Zhihao''s eyes.

    A golden medal suddenly appeared around Tang An''s neck and the boy looked down at the medal in confusion as he waited for a minute before asking, "Why are we still here?"

    Li Ling pursed his lips but said nothing as he heard this question and all color seemed to have been drained from Zhihao''s face as the man heard Huang Zhen.

    Once a player is eliminated, he or she gets thrown out of the game and if a player wins, he or she once again gets thrown out of the game.

    There was no expectation to this rule and even if the throwing out process was delayed because of some system lagging problems, it would not take more than a minute for the player to be thrown out, however, the three waited for a minute but were still stuck inside the game and this was certainly not something normal.

    Zhihao glared at Li Ling and he didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry at this moment as he questioned, "You knew this was going to happen, didn''t you?"

    Li Ling sighed as he nodded his head without much hesitation and truthfully answered Zhihao, "I knew it... It was a safety measure taken in order to erase all data about players. With the death of the gamemaster, the game also destroys itself."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but be both shocked and confused as he heard this, "B-But... You''re alive...!"

    "..."

    "Didn''t you say that the mission had been changed?! You said that the mission was no longer to kill you!" Zhihao spoke up in disbelief as he looked at the man and continued questioning, "You said that the mission was to beat the gamemaster! To beat the gamemaster, not to kill him and that''s exactly what we did! So why the hell is this happening?!"

    Li Ling sighed as he stepped closer to Zhihao and hugged the man with not much strength, and it made Zhihao feel as if Li Ling had given up somehow. For the first time in his life, Zhihao saw the strong and amazing gamemaster become a weak person that had chosen to give up.

    "I knew it was useless to try," Li Ling muttered under his breath but since he was so close to Zhihao, the man could clearly hear his voice.

    Zhihao gulped as he patiently waited for Li Ling to confess.

    "The gamemaster''s life and the system are connected to one another," Li Ling spoke softly as he finally explained the last secret that he had been hiding, "If you kill the gamemaster, the system self-destructs itself. If you complete the final level... The gamemaster..."

    Li Ling suddenly got all choked up with his words and didn''t dare continue the sentence.

    "Self-destructs..." It was Huang Zhen who had completed the man''s sentence for him.

    Zhihao''s eyes went wide open in shock as he heard this and his muscles immediately tensed up as he realized why Li Ling was suddenly hugging him out of the blue.

    The more Zhihao thought about it, the more he realized that the man in front of him had always known that there was no way out of this alive for him and this was the reason why he had been so clingy to Zhihao in this final level... This was the reason why he had been constantly saying cheesy stuff out of the blue... He had tried to secretly warn Zhihao but Zhihao felt as if he had been too dumb.

    He had been too dumb and he noticed nothing!

    He thought it was normal for Li Ling to suddenly be so unmotivated to win!

    He thought it was normal for the gamemaster to want to just give up, but he was wrong!

    None of that was normal! It was because Li Ling was the one who created the system and since he was the one who created the system, he was naturally also the one who would know it the best.

    The man had already always known that he and the system shared a life. There was no way he would be able to live with the system dead.

    "You lied to me... Again..." Zhihao breathed out in disbelief as he gently pushed Li Ling away, "You lied, Gege..."

    Tears seemed to be welling up from Li Ling''s eyes as he heard the man and he nodded as he accepted it, "I did."

    Zhihao''s feelings seemed to be all over the place as he heard this and he really didn''t know what he wanted to do at the moment so he simply stayed quiet as he looked at Li Ling.

    A few minutes passed and Li Ling suddenly started coughing up blood as if he had been seriously injured and when Zhihao saw the blood, his entire body was unable to move as, in his head, it finally sunk in that the system was ready to kill its maker by all means possible.

    Li Ling tried his best to hold back but he still ended up coughing out a mouthful of blood and when he looked down, he noticed that his skin was suddenly turning white.

    Zhihao saw his lover dying in front of his eyes and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

    The feeling of powerlessness really made him feel shocked and pathetic.

    "You liar!" Zhihao shouted as he held back his tears and reached out to hug Li Ling, "Why do you always hide everything from me?! Am I not trustworthy enough?! Do you think I won''t understand you?! Do you think I won''t be able to help you?!"

    Li Ling was a bit surprised by Zhihao''s actions as the man held him close in a tight hug.

    Tears were flowing down nonstop from Li Ling''s eyes but the man couldn''t help but have a small smile on his face as he felt Zhihao''s warmth.

    "I''m really sorry," Li Ling apologized as he tried to sniffle back his tears, "I''m so sorry for lying to you..."

    When Zhihao heard the man apologizing as he cried, the tears that he was trying hard to hold back also couldn''t help but come down.

    "I''m so sorry for letting you see me like this," Li Ling continued to cry as he nuzzled his head on Zhihao''s chest.

    "Stop being sorry," Zhihao responded as he cried along with the man.

    "Oh, my dear lord! You two are so goddamn dramatic!" Huang Zhen cried out as the boy finally made his ignored presence known, "Are you two trying to shoot a soap opera here?! It''s just a game! He is dying inside a game! A game!"

    Zhihao and Li Ling couldn''t help but laugh in between their sobbing as they heard this boy, however, they refused to let go of each other.

    "Brother Zhi, just so you know, you look really uncool right now!" Huang Zhen frowned as he added, folding his arms and looking to be completely unimpressed by the two over-sentimental fools.

    "You brat, stop ruining the moment," Zhihao scolded the boy with a small chuckle and the boy rolled his eyes in response.

    Although they were still inside a game, both Zhihao and Li Ling were well aware that the effects of this death weren''t going to just remain inside the game.

    However, since Huang Zhen was young, the boy naturally didn''t know this.

 Chapter 282 - Where Is He?

    A few seconds before self-destructing, the system finally threw Zhihao and Huang Zhen out of the game.

    The two brothers were safe and woke up just like all the other players. They were both greeted by their mother who looked to be happy and relieved, however, Huang Zhen seemed to be the only one who was happy to see his mother.

    Zhihao frowned as his eyes immediately wandered around in worry and he searched for the person who had made him cry inside that final level.

    Huang Zhi Juan immediately hugged Huang Zhen with a sigh of relief as she muttered, "I''m so glad you''re okay, baby."

    Huang Zhen pouted with a nod as he whined in his mother''s embrace, "Mom, I almost thought I wasn''t ever going to see you again."

    Huang Zhi Juan chuckled a little as she heard this but said nothing as she softly patted the boy''s head.

    She was already watching them all through the live stream so she was well aware that the boy was lying when he said that, but of course, she could understand that he was trying to act spoiled at this moment so it was only natural that she didn''t call him out.

    Huang Zhi Juan looked over at Zhihao and the woman couldn''t help but frown as she asked, "Are you looking for him?"

    Zhihao gulped as he turned to meet his mother''s eyes and nodded his head, asking, "Where is he?"

    Huang Zhi Juan had a thin smile on her face as she heard this question but as a response, all she did was shake her head and Zhihao immediately frowned as he saw this small action.

    His eyebrows creased together and he questioned, "What do you mean? He should also be here, right?"

    This time the woman nodded her head as she carefully separated from Huang Zhen''s hug and walked over towards Zhihao.

    Huang Zhi Juan rubbed Zhihao''s head affectionately as she spoke, "I''m glad you''re okay."

    Zhihao frowned as he heard the woman trying to change the topic and because of this, he immediately knew that there was something wrong.

    "Is he awake?" Zhihao carefully asked as he looked at his mother.

    Huang Zhi Juan sighed as she heard him and shook her head with much reluctance as she truthfully answered, "Not yet."

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this answer that he dreaded to hear. The man fell speechless and it was only natural that the situation made him unable to speak.

    "Are you okay?" Huang Zhi Juan asked as she sat down next to his bed.

    Zhihao weakly nodded his head as he replied, "I''m... Okay."

    "Do you want to go see him?" Huang Zhi Juan asked with a small smile that seemed to be hiding behind her own sadness at this moment.

    Zhihao once again nodded his head once as he replied, "I want to..."

    The woman pursed her lips with a nod as she heard this and stood up to hug her son in a comforting manner before she decided to take him to the room where Li Ling was kept.

    Huang Zhen also seemed like he wanted to follow the two but he was stopped by Li Ying who came out of nowhere and engulfed him in a hug.

    At first, the boy was shocked and his first reaction was to push her away, however, he stopped when he realized that there was something weird about Li Ying.

    Li Ying was... Crying...

    Huang Zhen had known her for months now but he had never seen her cry before this. She had always been strong and she would usually be the one who would make him cry, however, now that he saw this emotional side of her, he couldn''t help but feel shocked.

    "Yah... Why are you crying?" Huang Zhen asked her softly as he hesitantly patted her back.

    Li Ying buried her face on his chest and this made her a bit inaudible but Huang Zhen was still able to hear what she said next.

    "Li Ling Gege... He... He''s not waking up," She cried and her voice sounded choked up because of all the tears. Just hearing her voice sounding so weak and scared made Huang Zhen feel weird.

    "W-what do you mean he''s not waking up?" Huang Zhen gulped as he asked.

    The boy had a feeling that he knew exactly what she was talking about, however, he still questioned because he didn''t want his guess to come true.

    Li Ying cried even more as she heard this and Huang Zhen continued to comfort her as he patted her back.

    "They say that his brain is in..." She sniffled as she tried to talk, "His brain is in shock... They say that he''s not waking up anytime soon!"

    Huang Zhen''s eyes widened as he heard this and his entire body seemed to have tensed up.

    "What...?" The boy muttered in disbelief as he repeated her words in his head and even after repeating them a few times, he was still unable to believe it.

    Li Ying didn''t bother responding as she continued to cry her heart out and Huang Zhen suddenly felt stupid as he remembered what he had said back when they were still in the final level.

    He had clearly told Zhihao and Li Ling to stop being dramatic since it was just a game, and at that time he felt as if he was the only one smart enough to have such realistic thoughts, however, at this moment, he was brutally made aware that he was wrong and that he was the only one who was an utter idiot to not realize why the other two looked to be so worried.

    If he had known that this would happen, he wouldn''t have bothered the two...

    Huang Zhen took a deep breath in as he forced himself to chuckle and continued to pat the girl''s back as he spoke, "He''s going to wake up soon. Isn''t my brother going over there? Why are you crying like this?"

    "Who knows?" Huang Zhen added jokingly, "Maybe my brother would give him a kiss and he''ll wake up like the princesses from all those fairytales?"

    Li Ying opened her mouth and rudely bit Huang Zhen as she heard this, "Don''t call my brother a princess! He''s a man!"

    "..."

    Huang Zhen pursed his lips as he stopped feeling bad for the girl after getting bitten by her.

    "Then do you want me to say that the gaming prince kissed the idiot gamemaster prince and the power of true love''s kiss woke him up?"

    Li Ying pursed her lips into a thin line as she heard this and unconsciously stopped crying as she pulled apart from the hug, "Are you being serious right now...?!"

    Huang Zhen had a feeling that he was going to get scolded if he said ''yes'' so he simply shook his head as he answered, "Definitely not being serious."

    Li Ying smacked the boy''s head as she heard this answer, proving to him that it didn''t matter what his answer was. He was still going to get the same treatment.

    Huang Zhen rubbed his head as he glared at the girl, but for the first time, after being smacked by her, he didn''t feel unhappy, and in fact, it was the exact opposite of that.

    He felt relieved to see that she had finally stopped crying.

    The boy held her hand and tried to comfort her as he spoke, "He''s going to be okay. He promised that to brother Zhihao, didn''t he?"

    Li Ying pouted as she heard this but said nothing in response.

    "You have to believe in him too," Huang Zhen added with a smile, "He might have lied a lot to my brother but I''m sure that he didn''t lie about this. He''s going to be okay because... He has a promise to keep. He needs to make it up to my brother."

    Li Ying clearly knew that he was simply saying this to make her feel better and the boy''s words seemed to have worked.

    Li Ying nodded once with a small smile on her face, "You''re right. He will... Wake up. I''m sure of it."

    She thought she would be congratulating Huang Zhen as soon as the boy woke up, but because of her brother''s condition, she no longer had any strength left to congratulate the boy.

    Zhihao was not allowed to go inside the room where Li Ling was kept so he was taken to the room right next to it and the only way he could see the man was through a glass window that separated the two rooms.

    However, it was still a bit hard for Zhihao to get a clear view of Li Ling''s face because of all the doctors and nurses that were inside the room.

    "What is happening?" Zhihao asked as he looked at the scene.

    His mother sighed as she replied, "They are trying their best."

    Zhihao never thought that such words could sound so terrifying, however, here he was, standing terrified as he heard these words.

 Chapter 283 - How The Months Pass

    They hoped and prayed for Li Ling to wake up but a month passed and the only development in his condition was perhaps the fact that he could be moved to a normal hospital.

    Zhihao was always there by his side, waiting for the man to open his eyes and in this last month, The great Mastermo had been so worried about Li Ling that he hadn''t even thought about games.

    The absence of Mastermo in the gaming world had a huge impact on his fans and it was only naturally so considering the fact that they all knew what the man was going through.

    They were worried for him and Li Ling but they could do nothing more than simply pray for the man to wake up soon.

    After winning the game, and coming out as Mastermo''s little brother, Huang Zhen found himself covered with quite a lot of people claiming to be a part of his newly found fandom. The boy kept his gaming name as Jiangshi which entered the pro-gamers list after a few months.

    Huang Zhen became more active in the gaming world and a lot of Mastermo''s fans started following the boy''s every move as they tried to find out more information on Zhihao through him, however, the boy refused to say anything about his brother and only told the fans not to worry too much and to trust that everything was going to turn out well in the end.

    Mastermo and Li Ling''s absence in the gaming world was impactful, however, considering Li Ling''s condition, everyone could clearly understand why they heard no news about the two, however, there was something else that had shocked the fans even more and it was the absence of BBtrash and Hulk0_0.

    The pair of best friends were last seen together in the final level of the game and after making a small mistake of trying to take the easy shortcut, they had both been eliminated from the game.

    Some heard rumors that Wang GuiYing had woken up but even in the rumors, there was no news about Zhou Xinyi. The man simply disappeared from the eyes of the public...

    Almost all of the other top ten players who were friends with the missing people got comments and messages from the fans who were desperate for some information.

    Zhihao not saying or coming online was to be expected, but Wang GuiYing doing the same was too hard for people to believe since the man was known to be quite active on his social media accounts.

    Their friends and family who knew these missing gamers personally also refused to say anything about them and told the fans to simply wait for the time being.

    What the fans didn''t know was the fact that Zhou Xinyi was really missing and Wang GuiYing was cooperating with the police trying to find the man so it was only natural that the two didn''t come online for over a month.

    After T.I.A.D. self-destructed itself, the hunt for the owners of LHA began and Huang Zhi Juan went as far as to sue the people who were behind everything.

    Throwing the eleven players into the game without their permission and messing with a game that was not even theirs was a grave mistake that had pissed off a lot of people.

    Huang Zhi Juan and her husband were naturally mad at the people since their own sons were also put in danger during this sudden unplanned final-level situation.

    Omelas was under fire... And the fire didn''t look like it was going to calm down anytime soon.

    The owner and gamemaster, Li Ling was not awake so there was no one to properly manage the company, and the one managing it as temporary leader of Omelas was the vice-president of the company, however, he was a man who knew nothing about any of Li Ling''s plan so it wasn''t easy for the man to clear this mess that Li Ling had created for him.

    It would have perhaps been easier if the fire only came from outside, but unfortunately enough, Li Ling had managed to piss quite a lot of people and those people also included the board of stakeholders that had invested in the game.

    To be more accurate, they had invested in the system after having been fooled by Li Ling''s sweet words about changing the gaming world and bringing on a revolution.

    Li Ling had lied to them and it was only after the self-destruction of the game did they realize that Li Ling had made a fool out of all of them.

    The man not only lied about not being the gamemaster but he had also lied about what would happen once the final level is cleared. He told them that they would get to sell and make money from Alvi, however, those sweet dreams of profit that were shown by the man remained nothing more than just that.

    Dreams that would never come true since the system was completely destroyed.

    They wanted to settle scores with this young man that had made a living joke out of them. They had been in this industry for so long and yet they had been fooled so easily by a man who was the same age as their sons... It was like a slap to their faces, but with Li Ling being in the hospital, there was nothing they could do.

    In this past month, Zhihao and Huang Zhen also got to realize that the one paying the cash prize was their own father and when they first heard this, they didn''t know if they wanted to laugh or cry.

    Li Ling had made them compete just for their own father''s money... It was ridiculous and yet, at the same time, they couldn''t even laugh at it.

    A few more months passed, three months to be more exact and Li Ling still showed no signs of waking up.

    Zhihao was still by his side taking care of him and had been absent from the gaming world this whole time, so much so that his name became a legend that remained in people''s memories. Some said that it would probably be difficult for the man to come back to the gaming scene while others refused to accept this and argued that Mastermo was always going to be great and that he would always have people following him and admiring him.

    Huang Zhen slowly caught more and more attention as the boy formed a team with Li Ying who was just as good as him at games. Their duo became famous and they looked so cute together that a lot of people started shipping them, however, the two didn''t date each other, considering themselves as close friends and nothing more.

    Even after three months, Zhou Xinyi was still missing and Wang GuiYing was also busy searching for him in silence.

    BBtrash''s fans were perhaps the most pitiful ones in this situation since they had no news about the man.

    Mastermo''s fans could at least send positive and encouraging messages and comments to him, however, BBtrash''s fandom was simply confused as they had no idea what was going on with the man.

    Some rumors even went as far as to say that Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi were dead because of the neurotransmitters used in the final level.

    Since Li Ling was in a coma, this rumor didn''t sound too far-fetched and so there were a few who believed it to be true.

    Zhihao felt as if the days were getting longer and the more he stayed in the hospital, the more he started to feel bored and depressed. Hospitals were always shrouded with a stench of death and medicine. While some were saved, a lot more ended up losing their lives here.

    It was quite ironic to know that hospital saw more deaths than a funeral house.

    Every time a patient next door gave up and was moved to the mortuary, Zhihao felt uneasy as he thought that Li Ling could also be in such a situation if he refused to wake up.

    Zhihao refused to accept the fact that Li Ling would leave him that easily and this was perhaps the only reason why he still stayed here every single day, patiently waiting for the man to wake up.

    Every day, someone or the other would come to visit Li Ling just to check up on his condition and they would leave behind a bouquet of flowers.

    There were so many flowers that at one point, the nurses had to throw some away because they were overcrowding the place.

    Two more months passed and it had officially been six months since Li Ling was in this condition.

    Nothing much changed and his condition also didn''t seem to be improving.

    Half a year was not a short amount of time and the doctors slowly started losing hope as they said that it would be a miracle if the man were to wake up one day.

    Zhihao who heard this started believing in miracles and refused to let go of hope.

 Chapter 284 - Andyzz

    There existed a word called ''Miracles'' because Miracles existed and Zhihao believed that as long as he believed in those miracles, he could manifest them as well.

    Another half a year passed by in the blink of an eye, or at least, that was what Zhihao would have wanted to say, but in reality, it didn''t pass in just a blink of an eye. That half a year passed slowly and had managed to both mentally and physically exhaust Zhihao to the point that the man felt as if he was on the verge of insanity.

    Even in that half-year, Li Ling never showed any signs of improvement and everyone except for Zhihao was slowly coming to terms with the fact that the man might just stay like this forever.

    A human brain was amazing and was filled with a lot of potentials, however, that same brain was also too weak.

    The synthetic neurotransmitters that were used in the final level of the game controlled the player''s mind directly and this was the reason why everything inside the game had felt so real.

    The system was messing with their minds and tricking their minds. When this was done moderately to simply make the players feel some touch or taste, it would have been okay, however, once this new method of VR was overused, it would become deadly to the human brain.

    Human brains were not made to be tricked and hence when humans tried to trick the brain, the outcome would surely not be the best.

    In Li Ling''s case, he had to experience death inside the game and with the help of the synthetic neurotransmitters, that feeling of slowly dying was sent as waves into his brain and his brain was forced to believe that it was the reality.

    What happens when you force your brain to believe that you are actually dead?

    The answer to this question was pretty simple and even a person who didn''t have much knowledge on the topic would probably be able to answer this question.

    When the brain is forced to believe that it''s dead, it accepts it as a fact and decides to shut itself down for some time.

    This was exactly what had happened in Li Ling''s case. The man was forced to believe that he is dead and as a result, he was now lying here unconscious with his brain refusing to let him wake up.

    It had been a whole year since Li Ling was lying here in this hospital and in that year, it seemed as if time was stretching itself to the extent with nothing happening.

    Everything was just a mess that looked as if it was not going to be cleared up anytime soon.

    Zhou Xinyi was still missing and Wang GuiYing had been constantly searching for that man.

    Huang Zhi Juan and her husband had sued the creators of LHA but were unfortunately made aware that LHA''s original creators and founders had died a few years ago in a fire accident. The company had already gone bankrupt and was sold at a cheap rate to an unknown man who didn''t seem like he hoped to revive it.

    The new owner was nowhere to be found and hence the case was still ongoing with no leads whatsoever.

    It had been an entire year since T.I.A.D. had self-destructed and the impact of the game could still be felt in society. Gaming was still a growing industry and there were new games being introduced almost every day, however, none of the new games managed to gain the same success that T.I.A.D. had collected.

    Some games even went as far as to try and copy the marketing strategy used by T.I.A.D.

    They decided to announce a huge cash price but it was not enough to attract players who had already learned their lesson after seeing how T.I.A.D. had ended.

    There was even a strict control over how games worked in order to ensure that nothing dangerous would ever happen to the players again.

    The synthetic neurotransmitters that belonged to LHA were on sale for a short while as the person behind it all decided to make some profit while hiding in the dark, but, as said before, it was for a ''short'' while only.

    As soon as the product was on the market, the police started to investigate further into it in order to find the person behind it and the person seemed to have gotten intimidated as they stopped and took the product back.

    The players didn''t even get to have enough time to buy the synthetic neurotransmitters and hence the sales and profits of LHA were zero.

    In the end, the person was still not found and was never able to once again place the product on sale.

    There was also another person who had gained some fame in this one year and this person was none other than Andyzz. The player who was brutally shot to death inside the final level. Turns out, the man was actually quite lucky and had managed to wake up without any problems. His brain also went through a shock but he didn''t end up like Li Ling which made some people believe that perhaps the synthetic neurotransmitters were not all that bad.

    However, the reason why the man suddenly gained some fame was not because of this, and instead, it was because of two completely different factors.

    The first reason why people started being interested in him was because he was the young C.E.O. of another huge gaming company called ZeuZe and he had actually started playing T.I.A.D. because he wanted to find why the game was suddenly so famous, but of course, by the end of it, he actually became a fan of the game.

    Unfortunately, This was not all. After the self-destruction of T.I.A.D., the man behind the gaming ID Andyzz, who was actually named Andrew Lee, found himself suing Omelas. He was the first person to sue the company under the accusations of using people for marketing without their prior consent.

    Of course, the reason why he sued the company was said to be this but was, in reality, something entirely different. He sued the company because he wanted Omelas to shut down and this was not a shocking move on his part considering the fact that Omelas was an active competitor of ZeuZe and now that Li Ling was unconscious, it was the perfect chance to have this competitor thrown out of the game.

    It was also rumored that Andrew Lee tried to find the broken Alvi so that he could remake the system and use it for his own company, however, the truth behind this rumor was never officially cleared, and hence, this was considered to be nothing more than just a rumor.

    Once the man had sued the company, there were more that followed.

    Although it wasn''t Omelas that had arranged the final level, it was still the company name that was dragged through the mud since they were the owners of Alvi and T.I.A.D.

    For people who were not well aware of the whole situation that took place with LHA, Omelas was considered to be the company that was behind it all and since it was their fault, everyone believed that they should be the one to accept the responsibility.

    However, even after being sued by quite a few number of people, Omelas still remained standing strong with its vice-president temporarily taking over the company and managing it to the best of his abilities with the help of Li Ling''s personal secretary Xia who seemed to know quite a lot about all the secrets that Li Ling hadn''t shared with anyone else.

    Omelas was a new company but it had some strong backing. Even Zhihao''s father was there to support the company when it was under fire so it wasn''t easy for someone to simply try and bring the company down.

    In the court, it was hard to take action against Omelas and in the end, it was decided that the case would be paused till Li Ling woke up.

    When Zhihao heard about this whole mess of court cases going on, he didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry and he even joked about it saying that maybe Li Ling already knew how much work was waiting for him and that was probably the reason why the man refused to wake up.

    Among all the accusations that were thrown at Omelas, there was one, in particular, that was going to be extremely troublesome and it was the situation involving the missing player Hulk0_0.

    If the man was still not found by the time Li Ling wakes up, then after discharge, Li Ling would definitely have to go to jail before he gets to go back to his house.

    "There is so much that you have to do," Zhihao muttered as he gently squeezed Li Ling''s hand, "Wake up soon or they might just keep on piling up..."

    It had become Zhihao''s habit to sit beside Li Ling and talk like this.

    The doctors had told him that Li Ling could hear him and so Zhihao made sure that he talked a lot to the man in order for him not to feel lonely.

 Chapter 285 - Huang Zhen Is Now Mature

    Zhihao sighed as he looked down at Li Ling''s hand that he was tightly clutching.

    "It feels so warm," Zhihao muttered and there was a single tear that had managed to trail down his cheek.

    However, since Zhihao knew that Li Ling could hear him, he immediately wiped the tear away and tried his best to stay strong.

    "Brother Zhi!~" Huang Zhen opened the door with a wide smile on his face and a big bouquet of flowers in his hand.

    "You''re here?" Zhihao immediately wiped away all the tears and asked, pretending as if he was completely fine, however, he was fooling no one as with just a look, his brother was able to tell that the man had been crying.

    "It has been a year," Huang Zhen frowned as he commented, "Why are you still crying?"

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this and straightened his back as he responded, "It doesn''t matter if it has been a year or not. He''s still not awake so how can I not be sad?"

    Huang Zhen sighed as he put the flower basket down on the side table before pulling up a chair and sitting beside his brother as he spoke, "It''s not wrong to feel sad and I''m not telling you to be happy either but... I think you should start to accept it, Big bro."

    "..."

    "The doctors may say that he doesn''t have a high chance of waking up but I believe in him and I believe that he loves you a lot," Huang Zhen spoke with a small smile as he gently squeezed Zhihao''s hand affectionately, "It''s okay to be sad but if you cry, it means you are starting to lose hope and that is the last thing I want you to do."

    For some reason, Zhihao felt as if he wanted to cry even more as he heard this.

    "Big bro, you have to trust him. He told you, didn''t he? He promised that he was going to come back and have a proper talk with you so never lose hope."

    Zhihao was suddenly a bit speechless as he saw his little brother acting so grown up.

    It had only been a year but he could already tell that Huang Zhen had matured a lot. He was no longer that baby brother that would always idealize Zhihao and follow him around.

    Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn''t a little disappointed to know that his brother was no longer that same cute little brother, but he was also happy to see that Huang Zhen had grown up so much in this one year.

    "I''m not losing hope," Zhihao had a thin smile on his face as he spoke and reassured the boy.

    "And with all that aside, why are you here alone?" Zhihao asked as he looked around at the door, "Where is your girlfriend?"

    Huang Zhen chuckled as he heard his brother and corrected him, "She''s not my girlfriend and she didn''t come today."

    Zhihao didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard this. It was a bit ironic that Li Ling''s own sister had sent her friend over here but had not come herself.

    "She is at Omelas right now. The company needed some help," Huang Zhen sighed as he informed.

    Zhihao felt a little bad for the girl as he heard this. She was still so young and yet she was being forced to act like a grown-up.

    "It must be hard on her," Zhihao sighed as he commented and his brother immediately frowned as he found himself not being pleased with Zhihao''s comment.

    "I also have it hard! You should sympathize with me as well!" Huang Zhen whined as he exclaimed and Zhihao couldn''t help but chuckle as he saw this childish side of the boy that had still managed to remain the same.

    "Tell me, why do you have it hard?" Zhihao asked with a chuckle and Huang Zhen pouted.

    "I am swarmed by your fans every day! You have been inactivate for an entire year but they still refuse to forget you! I agree that the Mastermo is an unforgettable player but still! How can they be so dedicated?" It sounded as if the boy was complaining and yet at the same time it also sounded as if he was bragging about his brother''s greatness.

    Zhihao chuckled as he responded, "Isn''t that why they are called fans? They love me and it should be hard to forget a person you love. Especially if you know that they are having a hard time."

    "They don''t even know you that well," Huang Zhen pouted as he stated in a mutter and Zhihao simply chuckled as he managed to hear this comment.

    "But of course, nobody in this world is unforgettable," Zhihao sighed as he added, "Give them another ten years and I''m sure I''ll become nothing more than a distant memory for them. A memory that they would one day move on from."

    Huang Zhen immediately shook his head as he heard this and refuted Zhihao''s statement firmly, "That''s not true! You''re a legend and Legends never get forgotten!"

    It seemed that there was one thing that didn''t change and it was the fact that Huang Zhen still looked up to Zhihao. He had stopped worshipping Zhihao as the amazing legend that could do everything but he had not forgotten the love and respect he had for that legend.

    Zhihao rubbed Huang Zhen''s head lovingly as he asked, "Are you sure I''m a legend? I''ve heard that I was being overshadowed by another new legend who has been constantly rising nowadays."

    "What?! Who dare say that?! What new legend?! That''s all bullsh*t!" Huang Zhen reacted strongly and his reaction was certainly not fake.

    Zhihao chuckled as he spoke, continuing, "Even I think he''s great. Might even be better than me."

    "No way! There is no one better than you! What''s that bastard''s name?!"

    Zhihao tilted his head and tried his best not to laugh as he answered the question, "I think he''s called Jiangshi or something."

    Huang Zhen opened his mouth and got ready to curse the player who''s name had been called, but immediately stopped as he realized that the name was a bit too familiar.

    Zhihao broke out laughing as he saw the change in the expression on the boy''s face. At first, he was red with anger then he turned white as realization hit him, and then he turned red with embarrassment once again.

    "Big bro, don''t joke around with me like that," Huang Zhen spoke up, trying his best not to sound too embarrassed, "I can never replace you."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this but didn''t bother saying anything as a response.

    "This reminds me..." Huang Zhen muttered and a small smile crept up on his face as he spoke, informing, "Brother Wang GuiYing was asking if you''re okay."

    "You met him?" Zhihao blinked in surprise as he asked.

    Wang GuiYing had been pretty busy this past year and it was quite hard to get a hold of the man. He had only visited the hospital a handful of times in the past year and Zhihao couldn''t really blame him for it since he could understand the man.

    With Zhou Xinyi still missing, it was only natural that Wang GuiYing was busy searching for the man.

    Even Zhihao was worried and shocked to hear that Zhou Xinyi was missing. He hadn''t known the man as well as Wang GuiYing did, however, he was still able to say that Zhou Xinyi was not a careless person who would simply go missing like that.

    In fact, everybody who had met the man would be able to see that Zhou Xinyi cared about Wang GuiYing a bit too much to let the man worry about him like this.

    This only made things more complicated since it was clear that the man was not missing because of his own personal decision.

    Zhihao had Li Ling lying in front of him right here, but Wang GuiYing didn''t even know if Zhou Xinyi was still alive or not.

    If the two were to be compared then Wang GuiYing certainly had a more pitiful situation.

    "I met him by chance," Huang Zhen nodded with a sigh as he informed, "He was not looking so great."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but frown as he heard this.

    "I told him you and Li Ling were the same. I also asked him to take care of himself but I have a feeling that he''s not going to listen to my advice."

    "..."

    "In any case, after having suddenly met him, a thought crossed through my mind."

    "A thought?" Zhihao repeated in confusion as he curiously looked at the boy and waited for him to continue.

    Huang Zhen nodded his head as he responded, "I want to help him. That''s what I thought."

    Zhihao gulped as he heard this. He truly considered Wang GuiYing a friend so it was only natural that Zhihao also wanted to help him find Zhou Xinyi, but he also knew that he was going to be of no use.

 Chapter 286 - I Want To Help Him...

    "He is really pitiful..." Huang Zhen sighed as he muttered, "He no longer smiles and when I look at him, it''s like I''m looking at a complete stranger."

    Zhihao nodded his head in agreement as he heard this. He had also met the man a handful of times when he came here to visit Li Ling and at all those times, he had never seen Wang GuiYing smile.

    It was as if there was a dark cloud of worry hanging over his head. As if the sun hadn''t risen for him after Zhou Xinyi went missing.

    The man was a mess and Zhihao could understand why. This was also the exact reason why Zhihao felt so bad for the man.

    "How do you plan on helping him?" Zhihao asked as he looked at his brother.

    "I don''t know," Huang Zhen sighed as he looked down at his hands, "There is not much I can do and I know that but... I still want to try and help him. I think I''m going to start asking around first."

    Zhihao smiled as he heard this and nodded his head as he approved of this idea, "You can start small. It might not be of much help but trying is still good enough."

    Huang Zhen nodded his head as he heard this, "You''re right."

    Zhihao sighed as he added, "Be sure to look after him for a bit. I''m sure you guys would be able to find Zhou Xinyi soon."

    "Two pair of hands are better than one," Huang Zhen beamed as he responded, "We can find him, I''m confident! And Big bro, you don''t need to worry about him."

    "..."

    Huang Zhen glanced at Li Ling and continued, "You already have a lot on your plate so let me be the one to worry about Wang GuiYing for you"

    Zhihao nodded his head with a chuckle as he heard this and commented, "It almost sounds as if you''re trying to woo him."

    Huang Zhen laughed together with the man as he heard this, "I dare not. I don''t want to be killed by brother Zhou Xinyi."

    "And you''ll also be killed by Li Ying," Zhihao added playfully with a chuckle.

    "That''s also a possibility," Huang Zhen played along as he spoke.

    Although the two brothers had said they would soon be able to find Zhou Xinyi, another two years passed and Zhou Xinyi was still missing.

    It had been three years since Li Ling started lying on this bed motionlessly and even after three years, Zhihao stayed by the man''s side.

    Zhou Xinyi was still missing and Zhihao had also joined in on the search party that was constantly looking for the man.

    Huang Zhi Juan was saddened to see her son staying at the hospital all day long so she tried to persuade him into working at his father''s company.

    Zhihao was never a person who liked to work in a company so it was only natural that he was against it in the beginning, however, he soon realized that he could help Omelas in this way so without thinking too much about it, he started working.

    It had been over a year since Zhihao had made the decision to start working for his father and so far, he was really able to help Omelas a lot. It wasn''t much but it was still something.

    It was 2nd august 2036 and like any other day, Zhihao decided to finish up early so that he could pay a visit to the hospital.

    This had been a daily routine for him and it was one that he was certainly not going to break.

    Although everyone had told him not to lose hope, after three years, Zhihao was really not that hopeful anymore.

    At first, he knew that Li Ling was going to wake up one day but after waiting every single day for those three years, it was only natural that he was no longer confident to say the same.

    Life was unpredictable and Zhihao had learned to accept this fact.

    If Li Ling were to see him today, he would surely comment on how much Zhihao had changed in these three years.

    The man had somehow become busier and along the way, he seemed to have forgotten how to smile and laugh genuinely from the heart.

    Today as well, he bought a single flower from the shop and headed towards the hospital with no particular hope to see the man waking up, however, it seemed that the unpredictable life had decided to play a joke on him once again.

    When Zhihao entered Li Ling''s room, he found it to be empty.

    The man''s eyes widened and a deep sense of fear rooted in his heart as he saw the empty bed.

    The man was confused, shocked, and scared. His entire body went still and he dare not say a word.

    "It''s you...!" A nurse opened the door and looked at Zhihao in surprise as she spoke up, snapping the man out of his thoughts.

    Zhihao gulped as he turned around and looked at the nurse as he asked, "Where is the patient?"

    The nurse slowly smiled as she heard this question and for some reason, she looked to be a bit happy as he responded, "Follow me."

    Zhihao was still confused and had no idea what was going on so he simply nodded his head and followed after the nurse who took him towards another room.

    "It''s a miracle," The nurse commented when she reached to open the door and glanced back at Zhihao with a small smile on her face.

    When Zhihao heard this, he was still confused, however, the fear seemed to have suddenly changed into another feeling. A feeling that Zhihao hadn''t felt for a long time now and it was hope.

    His heartbeat quickened and he was filled with hope.

    The nurse let Zhihao enter the room first and as soon as the man entered the room, he saw Li Ling sitting up on the bed with the help of the raised headrest. The man was covered with nurses and doctors who seemed to be asking him some questions.

    Zhihao''s eyes widened and his head went blank.

    In these last three years, he had dreamt of this moment a lot. The moment when he would finally see the man waking up, however, he had never considered how to react to such a situation.

    Tears started brimming in Zhihao''s eyes and his emotions seemed to be all over the place.

    At this exact moment, Li Ling turned and noticed Zhihao''s presence.

    The man looked to be surprised and the first question he asked with his parched voice was, "Who are you?"

    Zhihao felt his heart shattering into a million pieces as he heard this and he looked at the man with his eyes wide open in shock.

    This wasn''t some sort of shitty movie or drama!!

    How can he wake up after three years and ask such a question?!

    Zhihao gulped as he realized that he never would have expected to hear this question in his wildest dreams.

    The tears soon started flowing down and stained his cheeks. The man could no longer control his emotions and he started crying without caring about anything.

    Li Ling chuckled as he saw this and spoke, "I was just kidding... A-Zhi."

    Zhihao cried even more as he heard this and he dare not move from his place as he felt a little angry at the man for trying to pull such a joke on him.

    "We''ll give you some space," The doctor spoke up with a smile as he looked at Li Ling, "It has been a long time since you''ve talked. If anything happens, make sure to call us."

    Li Ling nodded his head as he looked at the Doctor, "Thank you, Doc."

    The two Doctors and the nurses who were inside the room soon left and closed the door after them, leaving Zhihao and Li Ling alone in the room.

    "I hate you..." Zhihao muttered loud enough for Li Ling to hear and these were the very first words that Zhihao had said to Li Ling after these excruciating three years.

    Li Ling was a bit stunned and hurt to hear this but he nodded his head in understanding as he spoke, "Fair enough."

    Zhihao sniffled back his tears and rushed over towards the man before pulling him in a tight hug, "I hate you a lot!"

    "..." Li Ling didn''t know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he heard the man repeating those words.

    "You''re an asshole!" Zhihao cried out and Li Ling once again nodded his head as his own eyes started getting moist with tears.

    "I hate you for making me suffer! I hate you for lying to me! I hate you for making me love you so much!"

    Li Ling also started crying as he silently nodded his head and simply accepted and listened to everything Zhihao had to say.

    "I hate you so damn much!"

    "I know... A-Zhi, I know..." Li Ling muttered under his breath as he patted the man''s back in a comforting manner.

 Chapter 287 - I Hate You...

    "I hate you...! I really do...!" Zhihao continued to cry as he exclaimed, making sure that Li Ling could hear him loud and clear.

    "I heard that it''s been three years," Li Ling muttered softly with his dry voice.

    "Yeah... It''s been three years you damn bastard!" Zhihao certainly didn''t sound too happy as he confirmed it.

    Li Ling chuckled softly as he heard the man''s angry voice and commented, "You''ve changed A-Zhi."

    Zhihao''s voice got choked up and he no longer had any energy to shout again so he nodded his head and responded in a mutter, "Of course, I have."

    "Those three years must have been long for you," Li Ling added and Zhihao immediately realized that the man was trying to calm him down by trying to start a casual conversation.

    "They were long..." Zhihao gulped as he nodded his head and replied.

    "Were you bored?" Li Ling asked.

    "I was busy."

    "Busy hating me?" Li Ling asked with a small chuckle as he patted Zhihao''s back in a comforting manner.

    Zhihao took a moment to respond this time as he shook his head and honestly spoke, "I was busy regretting."

    "Regretting what?"

    "I regretted loving you."

    "..."

    "Because in those three years, I realized that I loved you more than I thought I did," Zhihao added and Li Ling immediately felt his heart hurt a little as he heard this.

    Zhihao, "So I regretted it. I really regretted loving you so much... And then I decided to hate you."

    Li Ling silently patted the man''s back as he kept listening to him and simply comforted Zhihao as he let the man talk.

    "I decided to hate you and I thought that if I hated you enough, I might stop loving you. I thought I would be able to move on," Zhihao sniffled as he spoke, pouring out his heart and soul into every word he spoke, "My love for you was torture for me and it hurt... Really badly."

    Li Ling felt tears trail down his cheeks as he heard this and he could feel that Zhihao was certainly not lying as he spoke.

    "I seriously hate you for making me love you," Zhihao added as he hugged the man even more tightly.

    A few minutes of silence passed and these few minutes were like comfort to both of them who were coiled together in an affectionate hug.

    "Thank you..." Li Ling muttered as he took in the scent of Zhihao''s new shampoo, "For loving me even when it hurt you."

    It was so foreign to him and yet so familiar.

    Li Ling felt as if he had missed out on a lot.

    In these three years, Zhihao had certainly changed, and Li Ling was disappointed by the fact that he was never there by his side to support him in these three years.

    He knew that no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to truly understand the amount of torment that he had put Zhihao through, and for that... Li Ling truly felt guilty.

    "You should have just given up," Li Ling muttered softly and the tears never stopped.

    Zhihao didn''t know why but he wanted to laugh as he heard this, "Give up? If it was you, would you have given up?"

    Li Ling didn''t even need to think about the answer as he shook his head and answered honestly, "Never."

    "Then how can you expect me to give up?" Zhihao pulled away from the hug and met the man''s moist eyes as he asked.

    Li Ling looked down and stared at his hands as he spoke, "But it hurt you, didn''t it...? I hurt you..."

    Zhihao nodded his head as he heard this and it seemed that having a proper conversation really helped calm the man down a bit.

    "You never hurt me," Zhihao sighed as he replied, "I was the only one hurting myself."

    Li Ling looked to be confused and stunned as he heard this and so he waited for the man to explain further.

    "It was my choice to love you and it was also my choice to feel worried for you," Zhihao explained his words as he grabbed Li Ling''s hand and gently squeezed them, "You only gave me a reason to love you. You never gave me a reason to give up on you."

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard this and commented, "That has to be the most cheesy line I have ever heard in my life."

    Zhihao had a small smile on his face as he heard this, "You can say that I learned a lot in these three years."

    Li Ling''s eyes narrowed down on the man as he heard this and he responded, questioning, "I hope you didn''t practice it on people...?"

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this but gave no response and it didn''t look like Li Ling was waiting for a response as the man sighed.

    "Even if you did, I don''t think I have a right to say anything about it."

    Zhihao frowned as he heard this but decided that it was best if he said nothing to that.

    His hands reached up to touch Li Ling''s face and Zhihao softly placed a kiss on Li Ling''s forehead.

    Actions spoke louder than words and that saying certainly seemed to have been perfectly exemplified in this touching scene.

    A single tear trailed down Li Ling''s right eye and the man finally stopped crying as he looked at Zhihao''s face.

    "How have you been?" Zhihao let out a soft chuckle as he asked the man.

    Li Ling pursed his lips into a thin line and looked at Zhihao with a look that couldn''t be easily deciphered.

    "I missed you..." Li Ling muttered as he took a sharp breath in and pulled the man closer till their lips clashed together.

    Zhihao didn''t bother thinking about anything at the moment as he simply followed Li Ling and responded back to the kiss.

    This was certainly not the first time he was kissing the man, but it was definitely the first time they shared such a kiss that was filled with conflicting emotions that they could not find a way to properly display.

    It had been three years... Three years since Zhihao had last felt the taste of these lips.

    Three years was a long time and he was once afraid that he might have forgotten this feeling and taste of pure love that was ready to overflow.

    However, it was the same...

    No... That was wrong. It was not the same.

    This feeling was familiar, and yet, a bit too strong this time.

    Somewhere deep in Zhihao''s heart, he felt as if he got back his love and at the same time, he also felt as if he was holding onto something fragile that may leave him once again. It was an uneasy feeling that made him realize just how much his love for Li Ling had grown in these three years.

    He tried to hate him in order to let go of him but he only ended up loving him even more.

    Just when he thought he couldn''t love the man more than he already did, his own heart and body would come up with surprises like these for him.

    Their breaths mingled with one another and it was warm.

    It was warm and comforting...

    Zhihao pulled away for a second as he caught his breath and muttered, "I love you..."

    Was it the first time that he had said these three magical words?

    There was no way it was the first time, but somehow it still felt as if it was the first time he was confessing his feelings like this.

    Li Ling chuckled softly as he heard the man, "I love you too, A-Zhi... I think I always have..."

    Zhihao''s fingers laced with the hair on the back of Li Ling''s head as he pulled the man closer and once again rejoined their lips in another passionate moment of trying to close the gap of loneliness that these previous three years had caused.

    However, it would have been a miracle if someone had not interrupted them at this moment and it seemed that Li Ling waking up was going to be the only miracle that happened today.

    "Ling Gege!!" It was the familiar voice of a girl who had opened the door and entered without permission.

    Li Ling had just woken up after three years of hibernation but seeing as how he was able to immediately push Zhihao away, it looked as if the man was filled with all the energy that he had been collecting in these three years.

    Zhihao who suddenly felt his butt hit the floor had nothing to say as he lifted his head and glared at the girl who had interrupted them.

    Li Ying''s face was red and it seemed that she had started crying even before she entered the room. Her eyes were puffy and to put it plainly, she looked like a mess.

    As soon as her eyes laid on Li Ling, the girl immediately rushed towards him and engulfed him in a tight hug.

    "I hate you!!" The girl cried out, making Li Ling and Zhihao share a look of surprise and amusement.

    "It seems that everyone who loves me really likes to tell me they hate me," Li Ling sighed as he commented, "I''m covered with Tsunderes."

 Chapter 288 - It Was Him?!

    It took more than a week for Li Ling to slowly recuperate and even after waiting for a week, doing everything the doctors and physicians told him to do, the man was still not back to his full health, however, he was still looking much better than before and he was discharged from the hospital after two weeks.

    Zhihao would have loved to see Li Ling resting for a while, but it seemed that every issue that had piled up over the span of three years now had a person who was supposed to take responsibility for it all.

    The court cases that had paused for a long time finally proceeded and it was a gigantic mess.

    Li Ling gave an official statement to the press, apologizing to everyone who had been directly or indirectly harmed in any manner because of everything that had happened three years ago.

    It seemed that three years was enough to calm the anger of the people but there were still some who were pissed off about it and refused to accept Li Ling''s apology.

    To be more exact, these pissed-off people were the ones that had invested in the game and lost a lot of money after the sudden self-destruction of the system.

    Li Ling had recently woken up but that was no excuse for him to live freely. He had a lot of things to do and a lot more places to go. Li Ling had worked hard all his life but he never enjoyed working and so he would never call himself a workaholic, however, when Zhihao looked at the man working so hard after barely regaining his strength and energy, he couldn''t help but feel as if Li Ling was a workaholic.

    After giving a statement to the press, Li Ling asked the court to put the case on hold once again and he used his health as the reason to do so although the real reason was different.

    The court was more than happy to listen to Li Ling and hence they gave him some more time.

    Li Ling didn''t even have the time to sigh in relief as he immediately got to work and started catching up on the information. From his own situation to what had happened to Zhou Xinyi, he listened to all the major news that he had missed in these three years before watching the last live stream of T.I.A.D. multiple times, trying to find some kind of hint.

    When Huang Zhi Juan saw the man working so much, she became worried for his health and even advised him to take it easy, but even she knew that it would be impossible for Li Ling to rest at such a crucial moment.

    In the past year, Zhihao who had worked with his father had managed to collect quite a bit of information on this LHA and he was more than happy to hand over everything he had collected over to Li Ling who analyzed the information and tried to put together the bigger picture.

    The most important piece of evidence that they had with them at this moment seemed to be the nerve chip that had been injected into the back of their necks.

    After the game was over, the chip was taken out and a lot of research had been done on it, however, nobody was able to find anything on the chip.

    It almost seemed as if this nerve chip had appeared out of nowhere.

    Li Ling felt frustrated as he saw the investigation report that had been presented in front of him. They had investigated for three years and yet there was nothing important that they were able to find.

    It was truly a bit frustrating to know such a thing.

    Just when Li Ling thought he was going to find nothing, Zhihao suddenly gave him a photo.

    "What is this?" Li Ling asked in confusion as he took a closer look at the photo only to find that it was a photo of a man getting out of his car.

    Zhihao smiled as he pointed at the photo and spoke, "This is it."

    Li Ling had no idea what the man was trying to say so he took another look at the photo and tried to understand if there was something in it that he was not seeing.

    "You don''t remember him?" Zhihao raised his eyebrows as he questioned and Li Ling gulped as he tried to remember the man in the photo.

    Li Ling got ready to shake his head but immediately stopped when he realized who it was.

    "It was him?!" Li Ling exclaimed in disbelief as he questioned and Zhihao chuckled as he saw this response that was to be expected.

    "It''s shocking, isn''t it?" Zhihao asked with a smirk, "It took us three years to find this picture."

    "But what does it mean?" Li Ling questioned as he looked up at Zhihao in confusion.

    "Look at the jacket that he is wearing," Zhihao pointed out and Li Ling once again looked at the photo only to realize that the jacket was oddly familiar.

    "It''s the same jacket the people from LHA wore inside the game," Zhihao added as he confirmed what Li Ling was thinking.

    "And you''re... Sure about this?" Li Ling gulped as he cautiously asked and Zhihao chuckled as he nodded his head.

    "I wouldn''t have bothered telling you if it wasn''t true. This picture is the only evidence we have that connects him to the LHA," Zhihao spoke as he informed, "I have already personally confirmed it. It''s not edited and it can be trusted."

    "Then he''s the one who was behind everything?" Li Ling questioned and Zhihao nodded his head as he calmly replied.

    "That''s right. I couldn''t find LHA''s owners at first through the normal means, however, when I looked into this guy, I found that he has some questionable property and companies under his alias."

    "Let me guess," Li Ling scoffed in disbelief as he spoke, "He''s also the owner of the parking maze and the pink house?"

    Zhihao nodded his head with a chuckle as he confirmed it, "Not only that but he''s also the owner of the building where we were suddenly drugged and that''s also where they put the nerve chip on us."

    Li Ling rubbed his head as he heard this.

    He felt as if he should''ve already expected this, but at the same time, he also felt shocked that the man would have enough guts to pull something like this.

    Zhihao kissed the man''s head as he softly brushed his hand through Li Ling''s short hair and asked, "What are you going to do?"

    Li Ling turned his head to look back at Zhihao with a small smile as he spoke, "There is no reason for me to be respectful or polite. I''m going to do exactly what he did. I''m going to stab him in the back."

    Zhihao chuckled as he heard this and nodded his head as he supported the idea.

    The time that the court had given Li Ling was up and thankfully enough, Li Ling finally had the answer that could solve this case.

    They were called for another hearing at the court and it was the second time that Li Ling had personally come to this place regarding this case.

    There were a lot of people in the room and most of them were confused.

    Expect for Li Ling, Zhihao, and their lawyers, nobody else in this court knew what was going to happen. They had no idea that they were about to hear some really juicy shocking news and so they simply waited to enjoy the show.

    The court proceedings looked to be completely normal at the beginning and went just as everyone had guessed for it to go, however, everything seemed to have changed when Li Ling pointed at a certain man and decided to call out the real culprit.

    Chen Jiahao''s eyes widened as he saw this and it seemed that Li Ling had managed to catch the man off guard.

    Chen Jiahao was a person who was on the list of board members, and he should have naturally been on Li Ling''s side, however, it seemed that the man was only in it for profit.

    For some filthy cash, he was ready to do anything.

    Li Ling had never been on good terms with this man but he would have still not expected the man to pull off something like this.

    When the gamemaster tried to convince them that they were sitting on a goldmine named Alvi, it seemed that the whole speech had inspired Chen Jiahao more than it needed to.

    The man got a bit too motivated and took the gaming revolution bullshit too seriously.

    To think that he actually thought he could make more money by pulling off such a stunt... The man had basically tried to sabotage Li Ling''s game to give recognition to his own nerve chips that were being prepared to be sold.

 Chapter 289 - Impossible

    Chen Jiahao who had not expected any of this was left shocked and horrified as he saw everyone looking at him with accusing eyes.

    Li Ling had a small wicked smile on his face as he looked down at the man.

    Zhihao who stood beside Li Ling didn''t look to be too pleased as he looked at Chen Jiahao with eyes that could kill.

    Chen Jiahao gulped and his first reaction was to obviously deny it.

    "It wasn''t me...!"

    Li Ling chuckled as he heard such a response that was to be expected.

    He had to agree that Chen Jiahao really looked to be pitiful at this moment, however, Li Ling and Zhihao felt no such feelings for the man who had already stabbed them in the back three years ago.

    If Li Ling wanted to lose this case, he wouldn''t have come to this court in the first place itself.

    Since he was here, it was clear the man had proof to support his statement.

    Chen Jiahao might look to be a pitiful man but he was certainly not pitiful and so, Li Ling had no plans on letting the man have it easy.

    It was his decision to go against Li Ling and now Li Ling was going to let the man take responsibility over his own decision.

    All the evidence that Li Ling had collected against the man was presented one by one to the judge and by the end of it, even Chen Jiahao looked as if he had given up on the hope of getting out of this case.

    By the end of the day, Chen Jiahao was rightfully declared as the culprit and a different case was filed on him by Huang Zhi Juan and her husband for trying to sabotage T.I.A.D and for endagering the players.

    Court cases were certainly a mess and all of the cases that had piled up over the span of three years looked as if they were going to take a long time to resolve, however, Li Ling worked hard and one by one, he settled them all.

    Within just two months, all the cases against Omelas were cleared and their stocks also started rising when Li Ling announced the grand launch of a new game that they were currently working on.

    With the huge success of T.I.A.D., the new game was also expected to be a success.

    It was called the Crimson Sky. A game that gained more popularity than any other game in the world even before it''s official release.

    Even though T.I.A.D. had ended in a mess, people still looked forward to the release of this new Crimson sky which was going to be the predecessor of the great T.I.A.D.

    There were a lot of expectations to uphold and with that, there came a lot of pressure as well.

    Li Ling who still needed to rest was in no way ready to create another game nor was he in any condition to be stressing himself out anymore than he already did.

    Thankfully enough, Li Ling wasn''t the one working on the crimson sky.

    He was merely lending his company to a distant friend who wanted to release this game.

    Under normal conditions, Li Ling would have never agreed to such a release, however, when he heard his friend''s plan and took a look at the beta version of the game, he couldn''t help but nod his head as he happily agreed.

    Li Ling had a good eye and great intuitions. With just a look at the game, he was sure this was going to be the next big hit.

    This Crimson Sky was going to get bigger than T.I.A.D. and Li Ling was sure of it.

    With all the court cases solved and the company finally back to its peaceful days, Li Ling could finally enjoy his life and take the rest that he had long kept postponing.

    Everything was going smoothly, however, there was still one thing that was seriously bugging him and it was naturally related to Zhihao.

    Li Ling was finally free from his work and planned to enjoy his life with Zhihao, however, it seemed that Zhihao had somehow turned into a workaholic even after changing his profession.

    The great mastermo volunteeringly stepped down from the pro-gamers list and it was certainly the biggest news of the entire year.

    His fans were disheartened to first hear of this news since it came out of nowhere for them, especially at a time when they were patiently waiting for the man to return to the gaming world in order to regain his title of the king.

    However, later on, it was revealed that although he had changed his main profession, he still planned to continue gaming.

    And hence, whenever Zhihao had some free time, he would do a live stream with Li Ling where the two would chat with fans and play games.

    This was exactly what Li Ling disliked.

    Zhihao hardly ever had any free time and whenever he did, he would play games and live stream.

    Li Ling who was desperately seeking some attention from the man hardly ever got any and he was really angry because of this!

    Li Ling never knew he would be the one to say this but now that it had come to this, he really wanted to shout it out loud!

    He didn''t want to play games!!

    He wanted to spend some good romantic quality time with Zhihao not with Mastermo!

    Zhihao chuckled as he saw Li Ling frowning as Zhihao got the streaming set up ready.

    There were two things that had changed now.

    The first was the fact that Zhihao was now no longer camera shy and would openly show his face during livestreams. He still got a lot of thirsty comments, however, the man had now learned how to laugh as he read such comments.

    The second thing that had changed was Li Ling and his apartment. The man no longer had an apartment of his own since he had gifted it to his sister and he now lived together with Zhihao.

    The reason why they moved in together was because of Li Ling and his persisitance.

    Zhihao was always busy and Li Ling hardly got to see the man so he decided to move in with him so that Zhihao would be the one he sees first when he woke up in the morning and also the last person he sees before he goes to sleep at night.

    "Can we not do that today?" Li Ling whined and Zhihao ruffled his head before pecking the man''s forehead as he gently turned Li Ling down.

    "I miss gaming," Zhihao spoke as he looked at Li Ling with those pleading eyes that Li Ling was completely weak against.

    "This is so unfair..." Li Ling muttered as his frown deepened, "Those eyes should be illegal!"

    "Illegal?" Zhihao chuckled as he repeated and asked, "How so?"

    "Because they directly attack my heart."

    Zhihao couldn''t help but laugh as he heard this and Li Ling could no longer keep frowning as he saw such a lovely sight of the man laughing so carelessly.

    It was definitely not easy to catch Zhihao in such a good mood.

    "So handsome~" Li Ling sang with a bright smile on his face and Zhihao opened his mouth to say something to that but the words he wanted to say never came out of his mouth as Li Ling suddenly blocked his mouth with his own.

    Zhihao''s mind: ''In that case, your entire presence should be illegal for my heart...!''

    It was hard to find Zhihao in such a good mood and Li Ling felt as if he was a little fox who was never going to let such a chance go!

    Hell with that live stream!

    Li Ling was going to steal their handsome Mastermo for the day!

    Zhihao was a bit surprised but he smiled a little as he responded back to Li Ling''s kiss.

    This moment was certainly everything he had ever hoped for.

    Li Ling''s fingers played with Zhihao''s hair and for some odd reason, Zhihao seemed to really be liking this small unconscious action the man would always do whenever they kissed.

    Zhihao''s hand wrapped around the man''s slender torso and he slowly started taking control over the passionate kiss.

    It was Li Ling who had originally initiated it, but in the end, it was also him who ran out of breath first.

    Zhihao chuckled as he pulled apart and let the man catch his breath. Without bothering to say anything, he easily picked Li Ling up and threw him on the bed before rejoining their lips in another sensual kiss.

    The temperature seemed to be getting hotter by the minute and even with the air conditioner still running, it was of no use to this kind of heat.

    No matter how much they kissed each other... No matter how much they touched each other... It was never enough and it would always feel like the first time.

    Zhihao leaned closer to Li Ling''s ear and bit it softly before he whispered, "You better not cry this time."

    Li Ling''s whole face was beet red but he still chuckled as he heard this and daringly responded, "You''ll be the one to cry today."

    Zhihao chuckled and his voice seemed to have sent a weird yet pleasant feeling down Li Ling''s body as the man felt Zhihao''s warm breath tickle his ear.

    "Impossible," Zhihao replied.

 Chapter 290 - This Is Bliss (The End)

    "How about it, Mastermo?"

    Zhihao couldn''t help but mentally roll his eyes as he heard this man.

    They had only met about ten or twenty minutes ago, but it seemed that this confident youth was a bit too interested in Zhihao and Zhihao was certainly not enjoying this special treatment.

    "I''m sorry but I would have to decline your offer," Zhihao pushed the file back towards the man as he politely rejected and got ready to stand up, however, the man sitting in front of him stopped him as he covered Zhihao''s hand with his own.

    "Think about it carefully," The man spoke with a small smirk, "This might just do you and your company good."

    The man softly squeezed Zhihao''s hand as if trying to reassure him or something, however, this action seemed to have pissed Zhihao off.

    "Excuse me?" Zhihao''s eyes narrowed down on the man''s hand that was covering his own, "Please let go of me."

    The man chuckled but didn''t move his hand away which seemed to have pissed Zhihao off completely.

    Zhihao pushed the man''s hand off and took out a napkin from his pocket before he wiped his hand. This action should have certainly pissed anyone off and the man in front also looked to be a bit shocked that Zhihao would do something so outrightly disrespectful in front of him, however, before he could say anything about it, Zhihao already spoke up, explaining his actions with a blatant lie.

    With a thin smile on his face, Zhihao spoke, "I have sensitive skin and human hands are filled with all kinds of bacterias. I would never know where it has been and it''s better to take precautions."

    "..."

    The man didn''t believe it, but he didn''t want to lose face either so he dare not call Zhihao out for lying.

    In order to hide his embarrassment, the man chuckled as he nodded in understanding, "Skin conditions are common. As you have said, precaution is better than cure."

    "Thank you for understanding, Mr. Xu."

    "You don''t have to be so polite to me," Mr. Xu chuckled as he immediately responded, "You can just call me A-Xu if you''d like."

    "But I don''t like," Zhihao also replied without missing a beat.

    "..."

    "I''m more comfortable with calling you Mr. Xu," Zhihao added with a small smile that was certainly as fake as it could get, "You see, my cousin had a dog named A-Xu."

    Mr. Xu smiled brightly as he heard this and was about to say something but was stopped by Zhihao who continued.

    "He was mauled to death by a big cat because he didn''t know his own limits. Quite a sad story really but it just comes to teach us all a lesson."

    Mr. Xu was a bit speechless for a few seconds as he muttered, "You don''t have cousins..."

    It was true, the story was indeed fake and Zhihao had no cousins. At least, not any direct cousins.

    His mother was an only child and his father only had one sister who was still unmarried.

    So even an idiot who knew the basic information about Zhihao would be able to tell that there was no dog named A-Xu in Zhihao''s family.

    Mr. Xu sighed as he once again tried to seduce Zhihao, however, it seemed that flirting with this man was like flirting with a wall.

    "Then can I call you A-Zhi?" Mr. Xu asked as he tilted his head and tried to look innocent.

    Zhihao also tilted his head to the other side as he questioned, "Is there a problem with your neck?"

    "..."

    "And please refrain from calling me that. It would make me wanna puke."

    "..."

    After having such an unpleasant conversation with the man, Zhihao was sure the man would no longer have any energy or courage to continue trying to hit on Zhihao, but it seemed that this Mr. Xu was a thick-skinned individual who was full of surprises (and not in a good way).

    "Then how about I call you Zhihao?" The man beamed.

    "No, that also makes me want to puke," Zhihao simply shrugged his shoulder as he stated.

    The man sighed as he picked up his broken self-esteem and continued to try even after being hit so hard with Zhihao''s straightforward words, "I guess I''ll just stick to Mastermo. It sounds a lot better too, don''t you think?"

    "Of course, it sounds good," Zhihao nodded his head as he finally agreed on something with the man, "After all, I''m the one who chose the name so it would be more shocking if it didn''t sound good."

    The man was left a bit speechless as he heard this but he still decided to awkwardly laugh it off as he commented, "You''re quite confident, Mastermo. I like it."

    "I hear that a lot," Zhihao nodded his head as he simply accepted the compliment and didn''t even bother thanking the man for it.

    Today, Mr. Xu, who had a crush on Zhihao, finally understood why everyone would say it was so hard to not be intimidated by this Mastermo.

    Talking to computers would be more pleasant than talking to this man!

    "Let''s be honest with each other," Zhihao sighed as he leaned back on his chair and spoke, "I don''t like your project plan and I have no interest in working together with you. My father thought I would change my mind once I get here and meet you, however, it seems that his plan had backfired on him. Now that I''ve personally met you and heard more about the plan, my interest in this project has entered the negative measurement scale."

    "..."

    "I hope you don''t take it to heart," Zhihao spoke with a smile after saying such words that were certainly considered to be offensive towards a person, "You''re a charming individual but I''m just not interested."

    Mr. Xu couldn''t help but cough as he heard all this but the man''s thick skin was really like an impenetrable armor.

    "Not interested in me or the project?"

    "Not interested in both," Zhihao shrugged his shoulder as he honestly answered.

    "I see," Mr. Xu''s eyes seemed to be twitching as he softly responded and Zhihao tried to once again stand up in order to leave this place, however, he was stopped for the second time as well.

    "How about you think over it?" Mr. Xu grabbed Zhihao''s hand and held him back as he asked, looking at Zhihao with pleading eyes, "I''ll give you my number. If you change your mind, just give me a call."

    Zhihao pursed his lips into a thin line as he pushed the man''s hand away and replied, "That would have been great but I''m afraid I don''t own a phone."

    Another blatant lie that nobody on this earth would believe...

    Mr. Xu also pursed his lips into a thin smile as he heard this and responded, "You can use your companies phone as well."

    "I''m afraid that is also impossible," Zhihao shook his head as he responded, "After that T.I.A.D. incident, the phones kept ringing nonstop so my father got frustrated and broke them all."

    "..."

    "None of my family members have a phone either and there are no call booths near my house," Zhihao added without giving the man a chance to respond.

    To say that Mr. Xu was speechless would be an understatement at this point.

    In this day and age, there was certainly nobody who could live without a phone, especially if that person was the great Mastermo!

    Mr. Xu would have to be an idiot if he were to believe such bullshit.

    "Then, I''ll be taking my leave now," Zhihao politely bowed his head before turning around and leaving the place.

    Mr. Xu, who had failed at both flirting and his job, "..."

    Just how the hell did that devilmagiclover get this guy?!

    Zhihao immediately headed back to the office and on the way there, he came across a coffee shop.

    A small smile crept upon his face as he immediately recognized the coffee shop.

    This was the same coffee shop he had gone to on the day when Zhihao and Li Ling had met.

    It had been about four years since he was here so now that Zhihao found this place again, he ought to go inside and buy something.

    .

    .

    .

    Back at home, Li Ling was rolling around on the carpet, the same way a cat would.

    The man had the day off and he had nothing better to do so maybe he suddenly wanted to roleplay a cat that was waiting for its master to come back home.

    Today, Zhihao came back home earlier than expected and the cat looked to be excited as he immediately jumped on the man, almost making the package in Zhihao''s hand fall.

    Zhihao chuckled as he received such a warm and heavy greeting. Quite literally heavy because Li Ling had both his legs tightly wrapped around Zhihao as he hugged the man more like a monkey than a cat.

    "What''s the cake for?" Li Ling asked with a chuckle and Zhihao was a bit surprised to hear this question since he thought that the man was yet to notice.

    "I wanted to celebrate meeting my soulmate."

    "Eh?" Li Ling jumped down and looked to be a little confused, however, instead of clearing the confusion straightaway, Zhihao leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Li Ling''s lip before speaking.

    "Today''s the day we met."

    Li Ling frowned as he heard this and pointed out, "Didn''t we meet around spring time?"

    Zhihao chuckled as he shook his head, "That''s our second meeting. I''m talking about the first day we met at the arcade."

    "..."

    Such an old memory... It was only natural that Li Ling had forgotten the date, however, for some reason, Zhihao seemed to have remembered and this fact made Li Ling feel oddly happy.

    Li Ling had no idea what he was supposed to say at such a moment so he did the only thing that his heart wanted to do.

    He snatched the packaged cake from Zhihao''s hand by distracting him with a small kiss and ran towards the kitchen.

    Zhihao, "..."

    For some reason, the more Zhihao got to live together with the man, the more he came to know that Li Ling was quite a childish person... and weirdly enough, Zhihao came to love this side of the man even more.

    Li Ling was finally being completely honest and completely open with Zhihao...

    This just made them want to love and cherish each other more and more as the days passed.

    Zhihao chuckled to himself as he took off his jacket and walked towards the kitchen, following after Li Ling.

    He had fallen too deep and now there was really no chance of him falling out of this feeling.

    "A-Zhi!" Li Ling called out to Zhihao after taking out the cake and placing it on a plate.

    "Hmm?"

    "Thank you for not giving up on me," Li Ling beamed and Zhihao couldn''t help but smile as he nodded.

    "It''s nothing to be thankful for. I wouldn''t have given up on you even if you had asked me to."

    Li Ling felt a little happy to hear this and his happiness presented itself on his face as his cheeks flushed a tint of rose red.

    "Because I love you," Zhihao added with a warm smile.

    Li Ling clutched his chest as he commented, "That smile and those words... You''re trying to kill me, aren''t you...?!~"

    "Hmm," Zhihao hummed as a response and chuckled.

    To live like this forever...  To be this happy forever...

    This was bliss...  This was heaven...