Chapter 76 - Mastermo Is The Star Of The Ceremony

"If you want me to be the vessel, I'll be the vessel."

[You both are crazy.]

Zhihao looked into Li Ling's eyes and for some reason, he felt like the idea wasn't too crazy. He didn't know why, but he had trust in Li Ling and when he saw the man winking at him, he was confident that this man knew what he was doing.

Li Ling was confident in himself cause he already knew what was about to go down. He wasn't suicidal, he was just sure that this wasn't a suicide and that he'd get out of this alive.

"Good! Since this human is volunteering to be sacrificed, we'll do it like this." Doji was the first to react enthusiastically, "A male vessel is better than a female vessel."

[Aren't you going to stop him?]

It wasn't like Zhihao didn't want to stop the man, he simply couldn't.. This was like a gamble in which Zhihao didn't know what cards he had. He thought about the reason behind Li Ling's confidence and suddenly he felt like his brain had finally realized something important. When they had entered this level, they placed bets on themselves, which meant that they now had the advantage of the gambling bar too.

Zhihao could always save the man if this went down the wrong way.

The middle-aged demon was a bit taken back to have met such a docile vessel who willingly sacrificed itself, he was a bit skeptical and since he had heard that this human was related to Taki, he was even more untrusting. These two were certainly up to something and this demon wanted to be the first to uncover their true faces.

"This makes things easier. Just use the new vessel." The demon king ordered and Zhihao felt his heartbeat rise.

He was a bit nervous about this.

The middle-aged demon moved forward towards the table on which the fake Hasumi was laying on. In the next minute, fake Hasumi was burnt up, leaving behind not even ashes to remember her by. Zhihao who saw this suddenly felt like he shouldn't make this demon his enemy.

"Lie down here." He ordered and Li Ling looked at Zhihao for one last time before he moved to the table and lay down on the place where the fake Hasumi was burnt up at.

The drums, which had been paused now continued playing. With every beat of the drum, Zhihao's heart would feel more and more uneasy.

Doji who stood by the side had an evil smirk on his face as he saw Itsuki getting ready to receive the worst death ever, he was the one who was the happiest to see things going down this way.

The middle-aged demon suddenly held a flashy-looking knife in one hand and on his other hand was the cup which was previously kept on the second—smaller—circular table. Zhihao was too focused on Li Ling and so he didn't see where this demon had got the two things from.

"Your hand." He ordered and Zhihao stretched out his hand.

Before he could react to it, the demon suddenly used the knife to pierce through his skin. Zhihao didn't feel the pain, but that didn't mean he was not shocked.

The wound started to bleed and the dark droplets of blood fell inside the cup.

The demon was satisfied with seeing Taki bleed out and with an ugly expression, he turned his head and took the cup away.

Next, in turn, was Li Ling, who was lying on the table. The demon did the same thing, but this time he cut a bit deeper and Li Ling bled a lot more than Zhihao.

Zhihao clutched his hand in a fist and felt himself getting angrier. Just a few moments ago, he didn't want to get on this demon's bad side, but now he wanted to directly murder him. 

The cup now had a few drops of blood inside it, some of it belonging to Taki and the rest belonging to Itsuki. 

Zhihao looked at it curiously. The middle-aged demon was chanting something as he held the cup above the fire pit and heated the cup up. He swirled it around a few times in the process and Zhihao was shocked to see the contents inside the cup grow in quantity.

Soon the whole cup was filled with some sort of liquid that had a darker—deeper color of red, almost looking black, and was much thicker than water. Zhihao's first guess was that it was blood. Somehow the blood had increased in quantity.

The demon brought the cup back to Zhihao and gave it to him. Zhihao didn't know what this demon had wanted him to do, but since he was giving the cup over to him, Zhihao took a hold of it and looked inside at the dark liquid that didn't look very appealing.

[Drink it.]

Zhihao was a bit reluctant to follow the order. He felt like he'd puke if he drank this. It wasn't like he was a vampire. He looked up at the onlookers who were staring at him expectantly.

His eyes wandered around till it stopped when he met the demon king's eyes. Taki's father was looking at him coldly as if trying to say that if he were to fail this ceremony, he'd really be thrown inside the fire pit.

Zhihao gulped, he was scared of this demon king who could even make him drink blood if he wanted to.

Zhihao glanced back down at the cup in his hand and then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath in and drank the dark liquid in a single gulp as if he were casually drinking alcohol. This was just a game and he wasn't supposed to taste anything but his subconscious which had decided that this was blood made him have an illusion of having a metallic taste in his mouth.

Zhihao gave the empty cup back to the demon and thought everything was over but when he looked up, he knew something was up. He was too naive in thinking that it had ended this soon. 

The demon who was standing in front of him took the cup and moved aside, making way for the demon prince to walk towards the vessel. 

By this time, Li Ling was lying on the table with his eyes closed like a sleeping beauty waiting for her prince charming. Zhihao stepped closer to him and stood beside the table.

He had no idea what he was to do.

[Kiss him.]

"What?!" Zhihao had overreacted and was now being stared at by everyone. He had almost hit the OOC alert once again.

[They want you to kiss him.]

"???"

Zhihao gulped. What type of level was this? If they weren't tricked and it was Hasumi lying here, would he have to kiss a complete stranger like her? He felt a shiver run down his spine. He really didn't want to kiss that girl. For the first time, today, Zhihao felt like it was a good thing that Kazan had kidnapped the original vessel and the one lying here was Li Ling.

He didn't know why he was comfortable with the thought of Li Ling being the one he was supposed to kiss.

He looked down at the beautiful face of the youth and his heart was no longer fine. At this moment, he didn't know if Li Ling was just acting to be unconscious or if he was really knocked out, but he knew that no matter what it was, Li Ling was still playing and he knew everything that was happening.

This was like kissing someone without their permission thinking they were asleep whereas they were actually awake, the thought was somehow exciting.

Zhihao gulped as he stared at the beauty spot under the man's right eye that had always fascinated him. He leaned in and their faces were just a few inches away.

Zhihao felt his heart stop and his breathing grow difficult. He suddenly had a thought, if this weren't a game would he be able to smell the sweet fragrance this man always had?

It was... a bit tempting.

Zhihao wasn't someone who looked into the reason behind their feelings or someone who wanted to label their feelings. If he felt like doing something, he would do it and if he didn't want to, no one could make him do it.

If this had been Hasumi, he would've chosen a rebirth instead and let the negative betters win, but this wasn't her. This was Li Ling, one of his closest friends whom he was comfortable around.

Zhihao suddenly felt like Li Ling's crush was certainly stupid. Who would look at this face and be able to refuse his love? If Li Ling were to hear his thoughts, he would laugh. His crush really was dense.

Zhihao felt jealous, but he was never going to admit it.

He leaned in, closing the space between the two till there was no space left.

The crowd that watched on were shocked to see Taki showing such a tender side of him. This kiss was supposed to be just a part of the ritual, but as they watched on, they felt like it had somehow become romantic and they were all the third-wheelers, watching something that was super private and they weren't supposed to watch.

This was maybe the first time Zhihao hated this to be just a part of the game. His lips wrapped around the other's and he shouldn't have been able to feel anything because this was just a game. It might have been just his imagination, but he felt the sweet lips of the other rubbing against his. Sweet and tender, so soft that he felt like bitting it. 

Zhihao felt like a pervert for feeling such a way. Why the hell was he imagining how it was supposed to feel? This was not the Gamemaster, it was Li Ling! His friend! He wanted to slap himself out of this feeling. The feeling of imagining the soft moist lips of the other. He felt hot and bothered. This was way more adrenaline than he asked for. 

Li Ling suddenly opened his eyes and winked at Zhihao.

Zhihao was greatly affected by it, so much so that he forgot to pull away and stayed in that position. To his surprise, Li Ling didn't look bothered by it and on the contrary, he seemed to be enjoying this feeling. 

Li Ling slowly closed his eyes again and did nothing, Zhihao was shocked at how beautiful the man looked. He was lost in his feelings and emotions, slowly closing his eyes and deciding to go with the flow.

[You can stop kissing him now.]

[Stop taking advantage of the situation!]

[This isn't the time for you two to be all over each other.]

Zhihao woke up from the trance and pulled away. He coughed a few times, trying to calm his heart and mind. His face which would hardly give him out was now red and that to, very noticeably red.

Everyone looked at the vessel waiting for it to rise and become something they all feared, but a minute or two passed and nothing happened.

[I think we should run soon.]

Zhihao didn't understand why Alvi had suddenly said such a thing.

He looked at Li Ling and nothing happened.

Nothing changed.

Just what in the hell was supposed to happen?!

Doji had a distorted expression on his face as he looked at Li Ling, "Why isn't it working?!

Zhihao looked at the man's face and he suddenly understood a few things. This time, Doji wasn't acting and if he wasn't acting, it meant something unexpected had gone down, and the ritual hadn't been successful.

[Hmm]

[Was the kiss too weak?]

"Do you want me to try again?"

[...]