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!

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