Chapter 143 - Li Ling Finds Something

"Let's find Zhou Xinyi first." Wang GuiYing spoke as he took a seat on the bench that was inside the park but as soon as he sat down, the bench broke because of the weight of the suit he was wearing. 

Wang GuiYing was a bit startled but he still didn't care to move as he sat on the broken bench. 

"Alvi, how long till we get more information?" Zhihao questioned as he sat down on the grass that was immediately crushed under his butt and the ground now had a small dent because of him. 

[Approximately six minutes and 20 seconds.] 

Li Ling didn't sit down and instead, he walked around the place. Zhihao was shocked to see that the man wasn't tired after all the running. 

"So we just wait out the six minutes?" Wang GuiYing asked. 

Zhihao chuckled as he responded, "As if we could.." 

"..." 

"Come over here." It was Li Ling who called out to them. 

Zhihao had just sat down to take a break but since it was Li Ling, he couldn't be happier to stand up and walk over to the man. 

"What happened?" Zhihao asked as he saw Li Ling crouching down to look at something. 

Zhihao looked at the thing that had caught Li Ling's attention and couldn't help but feel a bit surprised.

There was something there, on a corner of the park and it wasn't something that you'd notice at first glance since it was covered with grass and plants. 

It was a sort of glass and Zhihao tried to poke around the glass and by doing so, the soil that had been accumulated on top of it and the grass that grew on the soil fell down, giving them a clearer view of what the thing was. 

It was a robotic head. There was no mistaking it. 

It looked a lot like the suit they were wearing but it was much larger in size and its head alone was bigger than their entire suit. 

Zhihao wondered if there was anything below the head or if it was just the head alone that was buried here. 

"How come this is here?" Zhihao asked, finding it weird that there was something out of place here. 

The entire city looked like all the people had just vanished a few minutes before they came here and this robot head looked old as if it had been buried here for a long time and had now become a part of the ecosystem. 

"I think I know where we are," Li Ling mumbled and Zhihao wasn't able to hear him. 

Zhihao dusted the dirt and grass off from one side of the head and noticed that the head had started to rust, however, it still looked like it would be able to function. 

"What is this?" Zhihao asked and only after he had said it did he realize that it was a useless question since Li Ling was also new to this place and Alvi wasn't gonna give him an answer. 

He didn't even bother counting in Wang GuiYing since he already knew that the man was the most useless among them. 

Zhihao tapped on the glass twice and waited for something to happen but nothing happened. He was about to knock again but suddenly, he heard a loud cry and when he turned around to look at the situation, he found the owner of the cry to be Wang GuiYing who was looking up in horror. 

Zhihao followed his line of sight and spotted the thing that had horrified Wang GuiYing. 

It was a creature made out of steel. It had long four limbs and a body structured like an alligator with a long tail swinging behind it. It was clutching onto a building and for some reason, it was trying to find a way to go inside the building. 

Thankfully, it didn't seem to have noticed them, at least, not yet. 

Zhihao carefully walked towards Wang GuiYing and stopped the man from saying anything as he whispered, "Don't move. You'll attract attention." 

[That thing looks so cute~] 

"..." 

Zhihao wondered if there was something seriously wrong with this bot's preferences. That thing was clearly nowhere near cute! 

Li Ling had clearly seen the creature creeping on the building's wall but he found this robot head buried on the ground more interesting as he tapped on its head twice and sighed as he stood up and walked towards Zhihao. 

"We should get out of here." 

Zhihao nodded in agreement but didn't move. 

Li Ling, "What are you waiting for?" 

Zhihao pointed at the creature that was going around the building as he spoke, "That thing... Why is it doing that? Could there be something inside?" 

Li Ling shook his head, "It's a stupid creature. There's probably nothing inside." 

"How can we be sure?" Zhihao questioned.

"..." Cause Li Ling already knew the level they were playing and so it was only natural that he knew there wasn't anything inside that building. Just like all the other buildings here, it was completed empty and had traces of life but no humans inside. 

"This level was named Metropolis war... Am I right?" 

Li Ling and Wang GuiYing nodded in unison as they looked at Mastermo who seemed to have figured something out and yet, at the same time, he was still a bit confused. 

"So could it be that what we are seeing is the aftermath of a war?" Zhihao immediately shook the idea out of his head as he continued, "That's not it. If it was war, there should have been some signs pointing to destruction or maybe blood but..." He looked around and sighed, "This place is too empty." 

All the buildings were still standing upright and the roads looked to be brand new so there was no way this was a place that had undergone a war and this thought wasn't sitting well with Zhihao. 

Zhihao, "If there wasn't a war before we came here, could it be that there will be a war soon?"

Wang GuiYing, "What war?" 

"I don't know. If I'm guessing right, this place is called Metropolis. It's the name of the city and the people here seem to have suddenly vanished, however, since the level is named Metropolis war, I have a theory in mind." 

"Theory?" Li Ling looked at Zhihao with interest. 

Zhihao nodded as he continued, "Maybe there is a war coming and all the people were evacuated immediately." 

"Sounds possible," Li Ling agreed and he couldn't help but once again be surprised with how fast Zhihao was able to put all the things together. 

Anyone who would be able to ignore the danger and think with a calm mind would be able to come to this conclusion but to say that it was the answer to the question 'what happened here?' was a bit incorrect because at the end of the day, it was still just a theory and Li Ling knew it wasn't the case. 

Although this wasn't the case, it was pretty close to what had really happened. Li Ling knew this but he wasn't gonna say anything about it. 

Wang GuiYing, "So the people were evacuated? But to where?" 

Zhihao pursed his lips as he looked at the man with an unimpressed expression, "Do you think I'll know?" 

"No." 

"Then why ask?" 

"..."

Li Ling chuckled, "Since this is the only thing we can come up with, why don't we try finding the hideout?" 

"Hmm..." Zhihao seemed to have wanted to say something more but he was reluctant to simply give out all his theories just like that without having a solid foundation to base them on. 

"What is A-Zhi thinking?" Li Ling asked and for a minute there, Zhihao was really about to give him an honest answer but before he could say anything, he stopped himself and suddenly broke out into a smile as he responded. 

"I was thinking when my future boyfriend would finally say yes to my proposal." 

Li Ling suddenly choked as he snapped his head at Zhihao and then at Wang GuiYing who didn't look shocked but he still looked a bit surprised as he glanced at the two of them and raised his hands up in a surrendering manner. 

"Don't mind me," He spoke up, "I'm good at pretending to be invisible. You can continue flirting~" 

Zhihao chuckled as he heard this and Li Ling's cheeks heated up. 

He never thought Zhihao would be bold enough to talk about their relationship in front of another person. It seemed that Li Ling had still not realized that they were always live streaming in the previous levels so Zhihao had in fact, already proposed to Li Ling countless times in front of countless strangers who were watching their live stream. Nobody was shocked anymore. 

Zhihao smiled warmly and it was a bit shocking for Wang GuiYing to see that this man could also smile like this, "So when is my future boyfriend gonna say yes?" 

Love seemed to be a disease that had affected Zhihao a little too strongly. This man who had always pushed Wang GuiYing away actually knew how to make such an expression?! 

As expected, it seemed that Wang GuiYing and Li Ling really were too different from one another, but was Wang GuiYing jealous because of this?