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.]

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