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.