Chapter 147 - Li Ling Is Protective

Wang GuiYing climbed on top of Zhou XinYi's shoulder and sat down comfortably as he patted the spot beside him and offered, "You can come up here." 

Zhihao looked at the rusted seat that was offered to him and before he could politely refuse the offer, Li Ling picked him up and placed him on his own shoulder as he spoke, "He can stay with me." 

Zhihao couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed as he sat on Li Ling's shoulder. 

Wang GuiYing whistled, "Getting super protective, are we?" 

Li Ling didn't say anything, he simply smirked in satisfaction as he kept on walking. 

The shopping mall had been successfully destroyed by them and there were still some things burning, which meant that this place was super unstable at the moment. 

If they waited around to see what would happen, they would be waiting around to be buried to their death.

Wang GuiYing looked at the creature that had blasted away into tiny smoked bits for one last time as he mumbled, "Are there more of you?" 

The creature was already dead, so there was no way it was going to give him an answer, however, Wang GuiYing didn't seem to be expecting an answer.. 

Zhou Xinyi waited for Wang GuiYing to give him a signal and when he received a pat from Wang GuiYing, he picked up his heavy legs and started following after Li Ling. 

"Where are we going, little lover?" Wang GuiYing asked with a wide smile that didn't look to be fake.

Li Ling didn't bother responding to the question and Zhihao didn't know the answer to it so it was only natural that Wang GuiYing and his question were skillfully ignored. 

They got out of the building, but what awaited them outside was something even more troublesome than the creature they had just dealt with. 

It seemed that the loud explosion had attracted 'little' trouble for them.

Little because the trouble was literally little. Hordes of insects, bees to be exact, but they were all silver in color and Zhihao was able to say that these bees were all robots as well. 

Dealing with big creatures was hard but dealing with small ones was even more troublesome. 

Wang GuiYing, "What the hell are these?" 

[They are a part of Ribix.] 

"Ribix?" Zhihao remembered Alvi mentioning them somewhere before but he couldn't remember what these things were so he asked "What are Ribix?" 

[Ribix are modern robots that have a live brain.] 

[Live brain helps them behave like a normal living being with emotions and cognitive abilities.] 

"Live brain?" Zhihao suddenly remembered that their mission in this level was to fight against such Ribix. 

Alvi nodded as she continued, 

[There's an army of them and they are headed this way.] 

[You guys should try to run away.] 

Zhihao also shared the same opinion, but when he looked at the robotic bees that were getting ready to attack them, he knew running away wasn't an option. 

"Hang on tight," Li Ling spoke and Zhihao clutched tightly onto Li Ling's helmet, making sure that he had a firm grip on it.

Li Ling took out a flamethrower and aimed it at the robotic bees that had finally attacked them.

The flamethrower was certainly powerful. The moment the fire touched the bees, the metal that the bees were made up of melted away. Zhihao watched as half of the bees that approached them were all melted away. 

He looked over at Wang GuiYing's side to see the situation and just as he did, he couldn't help but sigh in a disappointed tone. He should've already expected something like that to be the case. 

Instead of trying to fight against the bees, Wang GuiYing had found another method to keep himself safe and that was, like always, using Zhou XinYi as a shield. 

The big robot, Hulk0_0 covered Wang GuiYing completely and for some reason, all the bees didn't dare bother this big robot too much. Maybe they had already realized that this big robot was also something like them and wasn't just a suit. In any case, Wang GuiYing had it easy and this fact wasn't sitting too well with Zhihao but he couldn't openly say anything against it because he was also not in a different position.

He felt his hand slipping just a bit and he immediately clutched on tighter to Li Ling's helmet. The blood started rising up his ears as he realized what he was doing was nothing much different than what Wang GuiYing was doing. 

They were both depending on someone particular to save them and fight the bees for them. 

Zhihao had always been the person who protects rather than a person who is protected and so it was only natural that all of this was super new to him. He had never realized how embarrassing it felt to openly be protected like this and suddenly wondered if this was what Li Ling felt all the time when Zhihao tried to protect him like a fragile butterfly. 

He suddenly regretted it but even if he was to be sent back in time, he was sure that he would still try to protect Li Ling from anything and everything. 

The flamethrower suddenly ran out of gas and the flame coming out from it paused before letting out two bursts and coming to a stop completely. 

"The bees seemed to have found Zhihao really interesting and they aimed directly at him. Zhihao guessed it to be because he wasn't wearing the suit. Out of all of them, Zhihao was the only one who wasn't wearing a suit, and hence, he was the best target who would not be able to protect himself against the robotic bees. 

Li Ling ducked his head and avoided the bees as he took a few steps forward. 

He threw the useless flamethrower up in the air and distracted the bees for a few seconds as he equipped something else. 

Zhihao was curious to know what Li Ling would do in this situation so he attentively watched this man's every move closely and the most shocking thing Zhihao had observed was that his initial suspicions on Li Ling had been true. 

Li Ling was too skilled at this. Zhihao had noticed it since the beginning. Since their first game, he had a suspicion that there was something Li Ling was hiding but he never confronted the man about it since he thought that Li Ling wanted to keep it a secret, and so he should also not think too much about it. 

There was probably a reason why Li Ling was hiding his skills. 

Now that Zhihao was calmly observing his every move, he couldn't help but compare the man to himself and had to agree that Li Ling was just as good as Mastermo and if not, maybe he was even more talented and skilled. 

Li Ling took out a smokescreen bomb and detonated it as he made a run for it. 

Zhihao, "We're running?" 

"I don't like dealing with bees," was the only reply Li Ling gave. 

When they were a few meters away, Li Ling took out another bomb and threw it at the smoke. 

"What about those two?" Zhihao questioned. He wasn't really worried but since they were all forming a temporary team, he still needed to keep the other two alive in order to pass this level. 

"Eh~ They'll manage," Li Ling threw another bomb and quickly ran away to put some distance in between them and the explosion that soon took place. 

Zhihao and Li Ling had already seen how powerful Hulk0_0's armor was so they knew that this small explosion wasn't gonna do anything to him or Wang GuiYing who was completed protected by Zhou Xinyi. 

When the explosion had ended and the smoke had cleared, just as they had expected, Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi emerged, completely unharmed. 

Wang GuiYing was the first to speak up, "There are probably more coming." 

Zhihao nodded, "We can't run away from them." 

Wang GuiYing, "So we need a plan?" 

Li Ling looked at Zhihao as if waiting for Zhihao to give him an order. 

Mastermo shook his head as he asked, "What do you expect me to say?" 

"Oh come on! You're the best at coming up with strategies," Wang GuiYing responded. 

Zhihao looked at the man before turning his head to glance at Li Ling and he finally came to a conclusion, "I'm not gonna lead today." 

"Eh?" Both Wang GuiYing and Li Ling were stunned and confused.

Mastermo was always the leader. This was an unsaid rule. Since he was the top player, it made perfect sense that he would always be the one leading a group and coming up with strategies. In fact, Zhihao had also believed that he would always be the one leading in a game, however, he didn't feel like doing the usual this time. 

He wanted to test something. 

He wanted to see for himself just how skilled Li Ling was. 

He wanted to make sure that he wasn't wrong in thinking that Li Ling was a much better player than him. 

"I'll let Li Ling be the leader this time," Zhihao added. 

"What?!" Wang GuiYing and Li Ling shouted in unison. 

Zhihao didn't bother giving them an explanation for his sudden decision as he simply shook his head and kept clutching Li Ling's helmet.