Zhihao's eyes went wide as he looked at the person who was painted on the huge canvas that was hung up on the white wall in front of him.
"This man cannot be the monster. The blood sucker must be hiding inside!" The woman who had a pitchfork in her hand moved forward as if she was about to break through the door.
Li Ling pursed his lips as he stood in front of the woman and didn't let her enter.
The woman glared at the man as she shouted at him, "Why are you obstructing our way?! We are trying to rinse this world from evil! This is good for all of us!"
"Good for us?" Li Ling chuckled and coughed as if purposely mocking the woman as he responded, "Don't joke around with me. What type of monster are you talking about? I don't see anything."
"The monsters inside!"
'He's definitely inside!"
"Stop protecting it!"
The mob seemed to be united by the hate they had for this so-called monster they were all here for..
"Monster? I heard about a monster too. That's why I came here, but..."
"But what?"
Li Ling shook his head and sighed as he continued, "There's nothing here. Such a big waste of time."
The woman took a step back as she squinted at the man and questioned, "Are you sure you didn't see any?"
"What if he's the monster?"
"Oh! I'm definitely not a monster." Li Ling shrugged as he looked at the man who had made the comment.
If he really was the monster they were here for or not was something Li Ling didn't know, since he lacked something really important called character profile, but even if he was the monster or not, it didn't really matter since he was still supposed to say that he wasn't if he wanted to keep his life intact. Which monster would face an angry mob and tell them that he was the monster they were after? Unless that person was suicidal, they would certainly not do something like that.
"Then let us in!" One of the men yelled out, "I want to see for myself!"
"Young lad, if there's nothing inside, why aren't you letting us go in?"
Li Ling seemed to ponder over the question for a minute before he responded, "Well... I had a situation."
"What type of situation?" The woman who was standing in front of him asked.
"You probably don't want to know." Li Ling chuckled awkwardly as he responded, "But I assure you, there's no monster inside."
"Why should we believe you?!"
"Let us see for ourselves! There's nothing we haven't seen. What type of situation would you have?"
"That's right! Let us go in!"
Li Ling glared at the man who spoke before his lips curled up in a smile again as he asked, "Didn't I already tell ya? It's better for you to be unaware of certain things."
"..."
"What bullsh*t is this?!"
"Do you think we'll be scared of you?"
"Move over!"
Yeah! Step aside if you don't wanna get hurt, boy!"
Li Ling cursed in his mind. He thought glaring at them as Zhihao would, might work. Zhihao had even got Alvi to listen to him so these NPCs had to be intimidated too, shouldn't they?
Maybe Li Ling didn't look as scary or cool as Mastermo. Not only were these people not afraid of him, but they were madder to see him acting like this.
"Brother, we are the same age. You look educated, I don't think I want to fight you. Please step aside and let us go in." A young man who looked to be around his mid-twenties spoke up with a smile.
Li Ling shook his head as he responded, "I'm educated, that's why I'm standing here."
"..."
It was like an indirect way of calling everyone else here uneducated and the people didn't seem to like it very much.
"Then don't blame us for being rude," The smile on the young man's face had vanished as he glared at Li Ling and walked towards him.
This was a mere NPC so it was only natural that Li Ling was unafraid of him but he wasn't willing to kill this NPC at this point simply because it would be a lot of trouble hence, he stood there and waited for the young man to act first.
The young man saw that Li Ling wasn't getting ready to move away anytime soon and was instead looking at him with a mocking smile on his face and it made the man's blood boil as he raised his fist to knock the smile off of Li Ling's face.
Li Ling didn't even want to bother blocking the punch since he already had a plan in mind. If this young man was going to punch him first, there was no need for Li Ling to be kind to him either.
In a fight, it's always the fault of the person who hits first. It doesn't matter who gets hurt more, all that matters is the first blow and its owner.
A punch wasn't going to hurt him so he was okay with letting this NPC receive a short moment of satisfaction however, it didn't seem like that punch was ever going to land on the face it was aimed at.
Right at this moment, Mastermo came from behind Li Ling and blocked the punch for him by catching the young man's fist and twisting it in a way that looked a lot less painful than it actually felt.
"Who do you think you're hitting?" Zhihao glared at the man as he twisted his arm further until he could hear a cry from the man, only then was he satisfied and even then, he didn't let go of the man's twisted arm.
Li Ling was a bit taken back to see the sudden appearance of the man who was slightly taller than him. He glanced towards his side and could see Mastermo's side profile which looked to be as handsome as always with a bit of modification done by the game to match the traits of the character he was supposed to play in this level.
This was how the game and its new features worked.
They were given a character to play and their characters had traits that defined them. The players would still be able to have their original appearances but according to the traits of the character they are playing, their looks in certain levels would change as well.
This was the reason why Li Ling and Zhihao maintained their original appearances in the unknown demon station level and why Zhihao's appearance changed in the level where he had to play a crazy scientist chasing after a dog.
In this level, the changes weren't major. Li Ling's skin just turned a bit paler in color and Zhihao looked to be a tad bit older than normal.
Li Ling didn't know why but he kinda liked Zhihao's current appearance. He looked a bit more mature and Li Ling would no longer be able to call him cute.
Zhihao wasn't looking cute anymore! He was looking hotter than hell and Li Ling almost felt as if he would die a happy man after having been graced with this sight.
"Get the hell away from him," Zhihao warned the man as he let go of his arm and pulled Li Ling behind him like an overprotective lover.
Since Mastermo always went around going such stuff, was it wrong for the fans to ship them and assume that they were dating?
The young man who wasn't afraid of Li Ling took a few steps back in fear as he looked back at Zhihao who indeed looked a lot stronger than him. This was typical basic human nature. As long as something looked weak, humans would always try to bully it but the moment, they met someone who was much stronger than them, they would tuck their tails in between their legs like a dog and run away.
Li Ling frowned as he saw the fear in the eyes of the people who saw Mastermo entering the scene.
Why was it that they weren't afraid when Li Ling tried to intimidate them?
Unbeknownst to Li Ling, their current appearance was in contrast with each other.
While Zhihao seemed to appear a lot mature and grown up than his usual self, Li Ling's appearance had freshened up and looked a lot younger than his original appearance. Anyone who looked at the two would be able to tell who was scarier than the other.
Even if Li Ling wanted to be scary, he would only end up looking like a baby cat trying to scare off predators while the man who stood behind him looked like a full-grown lion.
"Why are you all creating a ruckus?" Somehow Zhihao had already guessed what these people were here for.
They were here to kill the vampire and although Zhihao knew exactly who that was, there was no way he was going to let them achieve their goal at any cost.