Chapter 89 - Mastermo And His Unfazed Crush

The way the Gamemaster looked at him made him feel like he was about to get criticized and scolded. 

Zhihao got his mental state ready accordingly, to take in everything that this man was going to say to him no matter what it was. 

He wasn't wrong in thinking that he was going to get criticized. 

The Gamemaster's electronically modified voice finally came, "You said you want to beat me."

Zhihao looked at the man, trying his best to hide his embarrassment. He regretted saying such a thing and at the same time, he didn't. In the end, Zhihao nodded his head and admitted to the accusation. 

The Gamemaster smiled as he saw this, "With how you are playing, you can't beat me."

It was like thunder that had unexpectedly struck Zhihao.. Never in his life had anyone criticized him on his gaming skills. He was the top pro-gamer for a reason. He thought he was ready to hear anything this man was going to say, but at this moment, he realized he was wrong. His heart stopped as he heard this and he felt a bit depressed. 

However, the Gamemaster wasn't done with his words and so he continued, "But I'm sure you'll get it and when you do... I'll look forward to being beaten by you."

Zhihao was once again shocked as he heard this. What was this bittersweet feeling he had? He was both depressed and happy at the same time. With such fluctuating emotions, he felt like he had suddenly turned into a teenage girl. 

He didn't know how to respond to it and he dare not act on instincts since his instincts told him to hug the man and blabber all about how perfect this game he created was. 

The Gamemaster also didn't seem to be looking for a response as he turned his head back front. 

"Um... I'll work hard and I won't let you down," Zhihao spoke as he also turned to stare at the white screen in front, too overwhelmed to look at the Gamemaster any longer. 

He heard the Gamemaster chuckle, "Sorry I couldn't talk to you much in the last game."

"Huh?"

"I was feeling a bit sick that day, but I'm fine now so show me, okay?"

"S-show you?"

"Show me why you are the top player, Mr. Mastermo." The man smiled without turning his head over to look at Zhihao whereas this time, Zhihao couldn't take his eyes off of the man. 

"How funny." Zhihao muttered out loud unconsciously, "Li Ling was also feeling sick at that time."

Silence followed. 

It took a whole minute for the Gamemaster to respond, "Who's that?"

"Oh, that's my friend and partner," Zhihao answered enthusiastically as he pointed at the person who sat on his left side. 

The Gamemaster glanced over and spoke, "What a coincidence."

Zhihao looked over at Li Ling and repeated the same thing, "It really is a surprising coincidence."

Li Ling didn't respond, but Zhihao was too excited to notice the lack of response. He immediately turned back to the Gamemaster. Now that the two had eased into the friendly atmosphere, Zhihao was no longer feeling awkward to talk, but this didn't mean he wasn't trying his best to hide away his excitement. 

"I'll show you." Zhihao answered confidently, "I'll show you why I'm qualified to beat you."

The Gamemaster nodded as he heard this. 

[Don't get over your head]

[You can never beat him]

Zhihao looked around, but he could no longer see the little ten-year-old girl. 

"Where did Alvi go?" He asked in confusion. 

[I'm not there]

[I don't have permission to have a character in this level]

"Huh?" 

Gamemaster, "There are no set characters in this level so she doesn't have anyone to take over." 

"What does that mean?" Zhihao felt a bit stupid as he asked, but he was a pretty curious person who wanted to know every little thing. He was like the hand raiser of the class who would ask the teacher to explain the meaning of zero when she was teaching algebra. 

The Gamemaster didn't seem to mind that this guy was asking him an obvious question and on the contrary, he looked to be really happy to tell him the answer, "We were transported into an empty level with no other humans. You are you and I am me so we can play here in this physical form, but Alvi doesn't have a physical form, to begin with so she can't have a body."

Zhihao finally understood the gist of it. 

"Will we have to wait for ten minutes to get our mission?" Zhihao asked. 

[Actually]

Alvi didn't complete what she wanted to say and the empty screen in front of them suddenly had something written on it. 

The light was so near that it was hurting his eyes, but he could read the words clearly. 

<Don't look back>

[That's your mission]

[As long as you don't turn around, you'll complete the mission.]

Zhihao was a bit dumbfounded as he heard this. 

Wasn't this an H-ranked level? 

Were Hard levels supposed to be this easy?

It was basically just telling them to sit tight and don't look around. 

How hard could that be?

Had the game bugged out and gave them an E-ranked level in place of an H-ranked one?

Zhihao turned his head towards the Gamemaster and waited for answers. 

The Gamemaster didn't turn to face Zhihao as he spoke, "This level is a bit tricky."

"Eh? How is it tricky?" Zhihao asked immediately. 

To him, it seemed like a piece of cake. 

"You can't turn around no matter what happens." This time, the Gamemaster turned to look at Zhihao and smiled as he warned. 

Zhihao saw the man smiling at him and felt like he had missed something. 

He started doubting himself. 

Was this level really as easy as it sounded? 

Zhihao looked at the white screen and wondered: What if this white screen would start playing horror movies to make them look back? 

It was a possibility, one with high chances of coming true. 

Zhihao wasn't that scared of horror movies and on the contrary, he felt like no horror movie was successful in truly delivering the element of horror. 

They would all just put in some jump scares with a loud SFX, making people jump from their seats. He felt like it was a bit laughable to see the faces of the ghosts in a horror movie. They were more of a comedy movie rather than a horror movie. 

The real horror movies were the psychological thrillers where you won't ever be able to guess who was the real killer is till the end. 

However, Zhihao was wrong. 

There was no display of horror movies on the screen and the text displayed on it didn't change. 

It only displayed one single sentence throughout the entire duration of the game: Don't look back.

Zhihao went quiet as he waited in anticipation. 

"Aaaaaaaaaaa!" 

He jolted up as he suddenly heard someone screaming from behind him. He would be lying if he said that he didn't almost turn back to look at the owner of the scream, but he only managed to turn sideways till he realized that this was a game where he was prohibited from looking back. 

So this was it. 

This was why this level was hard. 

They weren't going to turn around because of some stupid ghosts on the screen in front of them, they would be tempted to look back because of the sounds that they heard from behind. 

Zhihao felt his heart beat loudly from the shock of suddenly hearing the ear-piercing sound. 

Although he found horror movies laughable, he still didn't like the jump scares. The loud SFX would always make him jolt and his heart would almost stop beating. 

He failed at controlling his heavy breathing as he looked over to the Gamemaster to see his expressions but just as he had expected, the man didn't look to be shocked. 

It would have been more shocking if he really was shocked since he was the Gamemaster who created all this so he should already know what was coming. 

Unbeknownst to Zhihao, this wasn't the reason why the man had a straight expression. 

Zhihao snapped his head to the other side and saw Li Ling who had his eyes closed and was lightly shivering. 

"Did that scare you?" Zhihao asked softly. 

Li Ling looked over at Zhihao and nodded, "I'm not good with jump scares."

Zhihao smiled as he saw this, he suddenly felt a bit happy to see that he wasn't alone, "Don't worry, I'm also not very fond of jump scares."

Li Ling looked at the man smiling at him and he tried to muster up his own smile, however, before he could do so, he heard something else and he immediately closed his eyes again. 

This time it was the sound of a bus coming towards them from behind. 

Zhihao looked at the screen as he heard the sound of the bus coming closer and closer, he heard the loud horns ringing out as if it were an indication for them to get out of the road. 

His heart which was already beating loudly didn't get a chance to calm down as he heard this scary sound. 

When the truck got close enough, they heard screeches and Zhihao was almost left to believe that this wasn't a game but it really was the real world and he was going to die in this truck accident. 

His hands clenched up in a fist and he tried his best to get out of the straps but he failed to do so and the sound of the screeching stopped. 

Zhihao breathed out a sigh as he felt relieved that he was still alive. 

[You are doing good so far.]

Zhihao looked over at the Gamemaster and the sight was the same. This man wasn't fazed at all. 

Impressive! Really impressive!

Zhihao looked over at Li Ling and found him in the same condition as well but this time, the man was shivering more with his eyes closed and his lips mumbling something incoherent. 

Zhihao felt his heart soften as he saw this, "Are you okay?" 

Li Ling looked back and nodded, "I'm good."

Zhihao wanted to say something more but before he could, they were once again hit with a sound coming from behind them. 

This time it was a heavy breathing sound and when Zhihao heard it, he felt like someone was breathing down his neck. 

He felt goosebumps rise all over his body and immediately closed his eyes. 

Zhihao closed his eyes and held his breath in but the heavy breathing sound didn't go away and instead, it moved from one ear to the other as if the person was moving around like a snake. 

He started counting sheeps in his mind. He had no idea why he did that but it somehow helped him distract his mind. 

He counted till twenty sheep and the heavy breathing sound went away. 

Zhihao sighed in relief and this time he didn't look over at the Gamemaster, he looked over at Li Ling to make sure that the man was okay, and just as he expected, he found the man once again closing his eyes and trying his best to struggle out of the constraints. It was hopeless. Zhihao had already realized that there was no way they could get out of these constraints. 

"Just hang on for a bit more." Zhihao tried to reassure the man, "It will be over in a little while."

Li Ling opened his right eyes and peeked at Zhihao, "In a little while?"

Suddenly Li Ling felt like Zhihao looked a bit too optimistic. 

There was no way this was going to get over in a little while.