Chapter 146 - Li Ling Is Crying?

[Your mission is to win the war against the Ribix]

Zhihao closed his eyes and prayed for it not to hurt too much, but the anticipated impact never came and when Zhihao opened his eyes again, he saw something else covering them both. It was huge and made out of steel just like their suit, however, although it was more rusted, it was still more durable than theirs seeing as how it was able to absorb all of the impact on their behalf. 

They were saved. 

Zhihao sighed in relief as his legs gave out and he fell on top of Li Ling, who pushed the helmet off from Zhihao's face and shouted, "Don't you ever do that again!" 

Zhihao chuckled as he tried his best to maintain a calm heart rate and breathing. He laid down on the ground with his hands sprawled out. 

He was overheating and out of breath. 

"Take the suit off!" Li Ling scolded as he took out his own big hand gloves and he pulled the suit out piece by piece. Taking out the hands first and then the shoes and finally opening up the body of the suit in order to let Zhihao out from it. 

Zhihao felt a lot more free now that the suit was off and what he received for this freedom was a slap to his face by Li Ling, who had two big drops of tears waiting to drip down his face. 

Zhihao was thoroughly stunned to see this. His muscles tensed up and his breath hitched as his heart stopped for a moment. 

"W-why are you... Crying...?" 

Li Ling hit him again and the tears finally started flowing out as he remained silent. 

Zhihao engulfed the man in a hug as he tried to comfort him, "Why are you crying? Why? I'm sorry..." 

Li Ling pushed him away and punched him lightly once again, but even though it hurt, Zhihao didn't seem to mind the pain as he pulled the man into a hug once again, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have worried you." 

"Do you think this is a joke?!" Li Ling wiped his tears away and scolded, "You could've died! Don't you ever do that again! Never! I'll really leave you forever if you do that!" 

Zhihao didn't know why but he felt a little touched and yet, at the same time, he found the situation a bit funny considering that they were in a game and he wasn't really gonna die. 

"Don't worry about it," Zhihao patted his head as he continued, "I'm fine, aren't I?" 

"Like hell you are! You were running out of breath!" 

Zhihao chuckled, "Maybe I've been holed up in my room for too long. Just a small bit of exercise had me out of breath. It's nothing to worry about. It's normal." 

Li Ling frowned as he asked, "Do you think the shortness of breath and heat were all caused by the machine?" 

"..." 

"No! It wasn't!" Li Ling gave the answer to his own question, "You were overheating in real life too! You had a hard time breathing? That was real too!" 

Zhihao couldn't help but smile in response as he asked, "Were you that worried about me?" 

Li Ling didn't say anything as he simply stared at Zhihao with tears still brimming in his eyes.

Zhihao chuckled, "If you're that worried about me, you should just date me." 

Li Ling punched Zhihao once again as he responded, "You know what?! Maybe I will!" 

Zhihao held onto his cheek that had started hurting. This last punch was pretty strong and definitely as real as it could get.

"Eh?" It took Zhihao's brain a whole minute to process what Li Ling had just said and just as he finally realized it, Zhihao no longer knew how he was supposed to react. 

He was clearly expecting another 'ask again' response, but this man... Did he really just agree to it or was Zhihao hearing wrong?!

Zhihao was about to ask to double-check but before he could say anything, they heard the familiar voice of a girl. 

[Hey! Care to help me?] 

It was the voice of Alvi who was buried underneath Zhihao's heavy suit. 

Zhihao seemed to have been too shocked with what Li Ling had said so he dare not move from his place to help Alvi. 

Li Ling completely wiped his face dry and sniffed back the tears as he reacted first and pushed the heavy suit off the bot who was barely able to breathe.

[You guys are trying to kill me!] 

Li Ling pointed at Zhihao as he responded, "It was him, not me." 

Alvi glared at Zhihao as she frowned but said nothing more. 

Zhihao glanced at the bot once and then looked back at Li Ling as he tried to ask the man if Zhihao had heard wrong or not, but his question was once again interrupted as the thing that was covering them from the explosion suddenly started moving and the dust from it started falling on them. 

Zhihao coughed as he put his hand up and tried to wave it in front of his face in a pathetic attempt to push the dust away. 

The heavy steel suit that was ten times larger than them suddenly sat in front of him and they looked at him with curiosity. 

This thing had saved them just now so there was no need for them to be cautious of it, however, Zhihao still couldn't be completely reassured that it was 100% safe. 

When Zhihao finally realized where he had seen this huge head before, Wang GuiYing suddenly popped out from its clutched hands. 

"Mastermo, you owe me now." Wang GuiYing beamed. 

They had seen this huge robot-like thing before and it was in the park where they had rested for a few minutes and Li Ling was the one that discovered its head. 

"You went back for it?" Zhihao couldn't help but be shocked as he questioned Wang GuiYing. 

There was no way this man was smart enough to go back looking for this robot and trying to make it work once again. 

Wang GuiYing patted the arm of the robotic giant and responded, "How can that be?" He laughed, "He was following us on his own." 

"Following us?" Li Ling glanced at the robot before turning his head back to face Wang GuiYing in suspicion. 

Wang GuiYing smiled brightly, "Meet Hulk0_0"

"Eh?" Zhihao was a bit surprised as he looked at the giant robot. 

This robot didn't seem to be a suit. Although it looked much alike their steel suits, the built was different and inside the head, there wasn't a head of a human, there was a robot head instead. 

"But he's a robot...?" Zhihao muttered. 

Wang GuiYing nodded, "A real helpful robot. Sadly, he can't talk." 

"Then how do you know he's Zhou Xinyi?" 

Wang GuiYing got down from the robot's hand and walked over to its front as he pointed at the robot's chest where there was a number carved on the steel.

Zhihao stood up and walked closer to it to get a better view of what was written. 

"Ribot zy400?"

Wang GuiYing bobbed his head up and down as he responded, "That's what Alvi said his character was." 

Zhihao would be lying if he said that he had actually paid attention to what Alvi had said. 

He did remember her saying something in between their fight but everything else was so loud and they weren't really in a situation where he could afford to sit around and listen to her. 

They were in the middle of a really heated fight against an alligator robot that roared like Godzilla. Of course, he ignored Alvi as if she were nothing but a part of the background noise. 

"I see." Li Ling mumbled as he stood up and put his gloves back on along with his helmet. 

Zhihao had already calmed down and was no longer out of breath nor was he overheating and hence he picked up the dismantled suit and wore it once again but just after putting on the huge steel shoes, he was stopped by Li Ling. 

"Don't put them on for the time being." 

Zhihao looked at the heavy suit and he felt as if it was better not to put them on again since there was still a chance that he would go into that overheating mode, however, he was sure that they weren't safe yet, and since they weren't safe yet, if he took out the suit, he'll be in more trouble than he originally was in. 

The suit was somehow protecting him but if it wasn't gonna be there, he'll be prone to an attack. 

Those robotic things didn't look like they were playing around. If any one of them were to decide that Zhihao looked delicious and tried to take a bite out of him... Let's just say that the result wasn't gonna be pretty. 

"Just put it inside your inventory for the time being." Li Ling suggested and Zhihao listened to him as he placed the suit in his inventory for the time being since it was gonna be easy for him to access it from there.