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.