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?