Chapter 138 - Li Ling: Protect The Sleeping Vamp Beauty!

At first, Zhihao thought about carrying the man bridal style and running, but after having tried and failed to maintain speed, he decided to change his strategy. 

He flipped through his inventory to find the perfect item that would help him in this scenario: The moon goddess spellbook! 

When he first got this item, he didn't think it would be so useful, but only at such a time of need did he realize how useful it was. 

He immediately activated it without wasting any further time and Li Ling was sucked inside the book. 

Zhihao picked the book and held it close to his chest, afraid that if he didn't, he'll lose it somehow.

He continued running and the Tavern that was previously small now seemed to be growing bigger and bigger. No matter how much he ran, the corridors were unending and there was no exit in sight. 

He suddenly remembered what Li Ling had told him. 

Elsie was an antivirus that was tasked to eliminate them and she had complete control over this level.. 

She could do anything she wanted, so naturally, this was probably her handiwork. 

"Little rats are running so fast! Why don't you wait for me? ~" Her playful voice was heard and it caused Zhihao to panic a little as he looked at the two paths in front of him. Both of them were dark, however, one had more debris falling and the other looked a bit more stable, but Zhihao still chose the completely unstable path in which the ceiling was giving out slowly. 

A path that looked so peaceful when the entire building was coming down? Elsie had to try better to trick Mastermo. There was no way he was going to fall for something like that. 

Zhihao ran in a zig-zag manner, avoiding all the obstacles in his path. 

Suddenly, there was a wall in front of him and it forced him to stop. 

"You can't run away, little rat!" 

At this moment, Zhihao wondered why Elsie wasn't able to teleport and come here. If she could control everything in this level, doing something like that was possible, right? So why wasn't she? 

After thinking about it for a minute, he came to the conclusion that she wasn't the absolute authority here. There were still things she couldn't control and if there were such things, Zhihao needed to find what they were. 

What could be the condition to being under her control and what were the things that she had no control over? 

Think...! 

Think! 

THINK!! 

What do I do?! 

Stupid brain, work! 

Think! 

Just think, damnit! 

What do I- 

Oh! 

I got it! 

Zhihao suddenly remembered something. A function that had been unlocked with the reopening of T.I.A.D. 

The skills function. 

All the skills that he had gained as a reward in the previous levels were now available for him to use!

Zhihao smiled as he saw the skill that he needed at this moment. At this moment, he couldn't help but agree that luck was certainly biased towards him. What were the chances of gaining skills that you would need? Even if they were one in a million, Zhihao would still manage to be that one due to his amazing luck. It was as if he had a protagonist halo on top of his head. 

[Skill: Master of survival activated!]

As soon as the skill was activated, there was a hole in the wall in front of him and when he peeked through the hole, he saw that the outside was the bustling town that wasn't disrupted in the least. 

This wall! 

Zhihao equipped Shuang and broke through the wall. 

As soon as the wall crumbled down, he made a run for it. 

He stumbled as he ran and bumped into a few people who cursed at him for disturbing them. 

"Where are you running off to?!" 

"Have some patience!" 

"Don't you see me buying something?!" 

"Oi! Oi!" 

Zhihao apologized to all of them even though there were mere NPC's. 

Before he knew it, he was already in the middle of the woods and had left the town far behind.

He calmed himself down and tried to come up with a logical solution to the problem. 

They were being chased by an antivirus that wanted to eliminate them. Li Ling was asleep and trusted Zhihao to protect him. Zhihao had no idea what was going on and they had probably already lost this level. 

The only positive thing Zhihao could think up of was the fact that he would be gaining 2 T-points because of the negative bet he placed on himself. 

The negative bet... 

The negative gambling bar! 

Zhihao immediately clicked on the function that he had previously muted. 

On his screen now was a comment section that was oddly silent and an Alvi that looked like a teenager. 

"Mastermo! You're back!" Alvi beamed. 

Zhihao was a straightforward person so no matter how much this bot would try to greet him and win him over, he wasn't gonna do it back. 

"I have a favor to ask."

"Favor?" The girl chuckled, "You'll have to join the auction." 

"I'll do it." Zhihao nodded and in turn, Alvi only smiled as she looked at him.

"Then what would you like to bet? The starting bet is 1000 T-points." 

"1001 T-points." 

"..." 

"And if anybody dares to bet another number, I'll bet one T-point higher than them." 

"..." Alvi was silent and so was the comment section. 

It seemed that nobody wanted to take Mastermo up on that challenge. 

Currently, Mastermo was the richest player in this game so of course, they all knew how little of a chance they had against him. 

They were smart enough not to take him up on this challenge and some didn't do anything simply because they wanted to see what Zhihao was here to do. 

This was a negative gambling bar. Did Mastermo want to cause trouble for himself? 

[2000 T-points!] 

It looked like not everyone was smart enough. 

"2001 T-points!"

"..." 

Mastermo wasn't joking around. 

Zhihao had learned how to play in an auction thanks to his father who would often place money on western paintings, saying that there was something extremely beautiful about them. 

[3000 T-points!]

"3001 T-points!" 

[Hehe] 

[4000 T-points!]

Zhihao sighed, "4001 T-points!" 

[5000 T-points!] 

"Who is this?" Zhihao was now getting a bit annoyed. He was already being patient enough. To think that there was somebody who hated him so much that they wouldn't even let him win an auction at the negative gambling bar? It was a bit annoying. 

[Why do you care who I am?] 

[Didn't you say you'll raise the value with a single T-point?] 

[Do it!] 

[Let's see how far you can go.] 

Zhihao was silent for a minute as he heard this but in the end, he still decided to let this annoying person go as he exclaimed, "5001 T-point!"

[Hahaha] 

[This is so fun!] 

[10,000 T-points!] 

Zhihao gulped as he thought about how many T-points he had left in his wallet. 

He closed his eyes as he reluctantly spoke, "10,001 T-points!" 

[Mastermo is so stubborn.] 

[I wonder what your request is.]

[Why are you betting away so much money?] 

[You aren't gonna get anything in return.] 

"Then why are you going against me? Do we know each other?" Zhihao asked, not trying to hide his annoyance. 

[Know each other?] 

[You don't know me but I do] 

[So...] 

[15,000 T-points!] 

[Let's see who gives in first.] 

"You're crazy," Zhihao gritted out, "15,001 T-points!" 

[You're the one who's crazy!] 

[20,000 T-points!] 

Zhihao smirked as he exclaimed, "20,001 T-points!" 

[We can do this all day!] 

[Hahahah] 

[30,000 T-points!] 

"30,001 T-points" 

[40,000 T-points!] 

"You're so stupid," Zhihao shook his head, "40,001 T-points!" 

[You calling me stupid?] 

[You're the one who's really stupid!] 

[You'll bet so many T-points away and for what?] 

[50,000 T-points!] 

Zhihao nodded, "50,001 T-points." 

He had already guessed that something like this would happen. In fact, this was the main reason why he was here. 

The negative betters would see that Zhihao was desperate to win this auction and they would think that he had a plan up his sleeve and since they had already bet against Zhihao winning, they would never want to let Mastermo win this auction. However, they didn't have enough T-points to win against Mastermo so there was no way they could hope to win over him. 

They couldn't win against him and they didn't want to let him win. So what were they going to do? 

[60,000 T-points!] 

"60,001 T-points!" 

They were going to make sure that Mastermo wasn't going to have an easy win and the only way to make sure that happens is by constantly raising the bet. 

This was going to be their purpose. 

They were going to make sure that Mastermo pays the highest price possible and even if he were to win in this manner, in the bigger picture, he would still be losing. 

[80,000 T-points!] 

"80,001 T-points!" 

[100,000 T-points!] 

"Hmm..." Zhihao sighed, "I lost interest. You can win." 

"..." 

[...] 

[Eh?] 

Zhihao smirked as he let the other person win. 

[The auction had been concluded with the winner being our guest player who bet the sum of 100,000 T-points!] It was the enthusiastic voice of Alvi.