Chapter 65 - Mastermo Understands Demon Taki Better

Zhihao was really unsure if he liked Alvi or hated her. At times he would feel like she was better and at times like this, he'd want to run her over with a truck. 

She knew exactly why Itsuki was carrying a demon detecting talisman, but she still dared to lie and say that she was unaware?! The old system would hide information but would never lie. What was her limit of shamelessness?!

Li Ling smiled. Zhihao didn't know if this man was just trying to keep himself from cursing the bot or was he really delighted with her response. 

"Was it his grandmother who gave him the demon detecting talisman?"

[Nope]

[The talisman belongs to his grandmother, but it wasn't her who gave it to him]

Zhihao, "Did he steal it?"

[He is a good boy. He would never steal]

[He swapped it with the demon repelling one]

Didn't that indirectly mean he stole it?

Who was this bot trying to fool?

Zhihao, "Why did he swap it?"

[Because he wanted to?]

Yep, Zhihao really didn't like her. 

Li Ling, "Why did he refuse to take a demon repelling talisman with him and instead took a demon detecting one?"

Zhihao, "Maybe he wanted to see if the talisman works?"

"Huh?" 

"The demon detecting talisman burns when coming in contact with a demon. The demon repelling talisman probably doesn't have this feature so even if a demon is near, it wouldn't show any signs of working."

Li Ling, "So Itsuki wanted to see if demons were real?"

Zhihao nodded, "At least I think that is it. I could be wrong but I really can't think of any other reason."

"I can think of one."

"What?"

Li Ling smiled as he looked away, "What if he wanted to catch the demon?"

"Why would he want to catch the demon?"

Li Ling wanted to provide a mirror for this fellow demon. Has he seen himself? Who wouldn't want to catch such a good looking demon? 

"Teen curiosity. It's the same as wanting to catch a mermaid. He'd be instantly famous and rich if he were to catch a demon, and prove to the world that such things really did exist."

Zhihao suddenly thought of something completely unrelated to teen curiosity, "What if the reason the train was headed here was because of him?"

"Huh?"

The topic was somewhat changed so Li Ling couldn't catch up that fast. 

Zhihao felt like his new theory was a lot more convincing and had more of a chance of being right, "If he had a reason behind everything he did, and he really wanted to catch the demon, he should have been aware of where the train was going."

Li Ling nodded as he listened attentively to what Zhihao was saying. 

"The train was a normal train that somehow ended up here. The other passengers were asleep but why?"

Li Ling tilted his head as he couldn't fully comprehend where this conversation was going, "Because it is night?"

"Even if it is night, everyone should not be sleeping at the same time. The only people awake on the train were Itsuki, Taki, and Hasumi."

"What are you trying to say?"

"What if the reason they were all asleep was because they were affected by something, actually that is probably it. They were affected by something which caused them to go unconscious so why didn't that same thing affect these three?"

"Taki is a demon so he shouldn't be affected." Li Ling responded as he thought about it for a bit. 

"Taki not being affected makes sense and he was sitting with Itsuki. Let's say that Itsuki was his target for today. If so, then it makes sense that Itsuki was still conscious."

Li Ling could now get the gist of it, "Itsuki wanted to come to the other world and was in search of a demon so it would make sense that Taki was interested in this victim that was more than happy to be a victim."

"If the train had come here because of Itsuki, then it would make sense that along with Taki, he was also not affected, but what about Hasumi?"

"She should have been asleep."

Zhihao nodded, "But she wasn't."

"Why?"

Zhihao glanced at the girl who was asleep on the floor, "because she was supposed to be the real victim."

[Huh?]

Zhihao, "She was supposed to be the only victim, but Itsuki suddenly came into the picture, and Taki who was supposed to come and collect this girl, got more interested in him. From then on, the victims were switched."

[...]

Alvi wanted to point out that he was talking nonsense, her face made it clear what she wanted to say, but she couldn't say anything. She wasn't allowed to. If a player were to come up with a situation with their own imagination, she could tell them if it was right but she couldn't deny the possibility of it. 

Li Ling didn't fully understand what Zhihao wanted to say, but as much as he understood, he didn't know if he should tell the man about how wrong he was or about how right he was. 

Hasumi was really not supposed to be the victim today nor was Itsuki supposed to be the victim, but if Li Ling said this out loud, Zhihao would question why he knew such a thing, and what would Li Ling answer to that? Would he say that he was good friends with Alvi so she told him?

There was really no way the two of them could say anything to refute Zhihao who seemed to fully trust his theory. 

Zhihao suddenly sighed, "We can't be sure about it, but it's a possibility."

"It may be possible." Li Ling smiled, "So what is your plan now?"

"Nothing as of now. Unless I know what the ghost festival is about, I can't do anything."

[You guys are so boring.]

"..."

[Can't even use your own brains.]

"..."

This bot really didn't have a mouth filter1.

Zhihao, "You said something about a vessel. Would Itsuki become a vessel too?"

[Now you are asking an intelligent question]

[Originally, Itsuki was not supposed to be a vessel.]

"Then what was he supposed to be?"

[I don't feel generous enough to answer that.]

Zhihao, "Would we ever get to know about him?"

[Of course, you will]

[That is when you uncover the secret mission]

"So the secret mission is supposed to be about Itsuki?"

[...]

[I feel tricked.]

Zhihao lightly chuckled as he stood up, "Let's go."

Li Ling stood up as well and both of them looked at the girl that was still lying on the floor, unconscious. 

Alvi, "I think one of you would need to pick her up."

"Yeah... No." Zhihao was clear about it. He crouched down and lightly patted her shoulder, trying his best to wake her up as he continued repeating "wake up".

Hasumi was sleeping but she wasn't a fairytale princess that would sleep forever and so Zhihao was able to wake her up. 

"It wasn't a dream?"

"..."

Did this girl really think she was dreaming? 

Zhihao, "We need to keep moving."

He gave her a hand and pulled her up. Hasumi was injured but she seemed to be a strong girl as she ignored the pain and stood up, walking on her own. 

[Alert: The gambling bar has been used]

Damn...

Zhihao really hated that notification. 

The group moved forward and finally reached the end of the tunnel. It was still night time so Zhihao really found it hard to believe that there was a saying such as "light at the end of the tunnel"

Where the hell was the so-called light at the end of the tunnel? All he could see was darkness. 

And in that darkness, a man was waiting for them ahead. 

[This is caused by the gambling bar]

"Caused...?"

[Would you look at that.]

[That is Taki's enemy]

[Demon Kazan1]

Zhihao heard this and stopped in his tracks, along with Li Ling. 

Hasumi saw the man who looked nothing like a demon. From all angles, he looked like a human so she was delighted to see him and ran towards him, limping. 

She was really a stupid girl who trusted people blindly, in this case, it wasn't even a human; she was blindly believing a demon. 

Zhihao had heard that the sudden appearance of this demon was caused by the gambling bar and he was sure that this man wasn't good news. He had originally wanted to hold Hasumi back and warn her but if she was so eager that she ran towards him without further thoughts, could he really do anything?

Hasumi was now as good as a dead corpse, but Itsuki was still here. 

This demon was an enemy of the original Taki so who knew what he was here to do?

Zhihao didn't have a good feeling about this so he immediately shielded Li Ling behind him and flipped through his inventory to find a useful item that could help him. 

The moon goddess spellbook!

Li Ling was sucked inside the book and the book was given to Alvi who was tasked to keep it safe. 

Alvi was the safest option. 

Zhihao moved forward and caught up with Hasumi, he looked at the demon in front with an unamused face. 

"I really thought you'd fail today's task as well. Didn't expect you to be such a professional." Zhihao could sense that the demon was taunting him. 

"Of course I'm good." Zhihao immediately knew how the original Taki would have reacted. 

The two were enemy so how did the original Taki talk to this demon? People are usually unkind to their enemies but when Zhiaho heard the demon taunting him, he was instantly sure what type of enemies these two were.

The kind that couldn't attack each other openly so they used their colorful vocabulary and talent to speak things with deeper meaning. 

If it was the original Taki, he would have said the same exact thing, and hence the OOC alert wasn't heard and even Alvi was shocked that with such little information given, Zhihao was really able to understand Taki.

It was amazing and Alvi felt like this Mastermo was really impressive, but in reality, the only reason why Zhihao knew exactly what to say was because he had prior experience. He and his aunt Su were in the same relationship, they hated each other but they couldn't say anything openly so they'd twist their words with a taunting tone. 

Now that Zhihao thought of it like this, he felt like he could really understand Taki a bit better. 

"I'd be watching you tonight. If anything goes wrong, I'd be the first to notice." The demon named Kazan scowled, "I'd be taking the girl."

The second he said this, Hasumi fainted and the demon caught her. He put her over his shoulder and got ready to walk away. 

[Stop him!]

Zhihao was a bit shocked to hear Alvi giving him instructions but he didn't have time to question it as he immediately did as he was told. 

"Wait!" Zhihao yelled out and the demon really did stop in his tracks, "I was the one who brought her here, how can I trouble you like this?"

The demon had a shockingly handsome face but his expression could only be summed up as ugly, "It's no trouble. I'm only trying to help you out here."

"I can do it myself. No need for you to pity me." Zhihao was adamant. He wasn't going to let Hasumi go like this, especially after what Alvi had warned him. 

[If you let Hasumi go with him, I'm throwing this book away.]

"..."

Zhihao was really helpless. He didn't want to do this as well. Just look at the scary face of that demon, Zhihao wasn't crazy to pick a fight with him, he was forced to.