Something had happened.
Something had definitely happened!
The air around Zhihao seemed to change.
Mastermo, who would hardly ever keep his smile on for more than a minute now had a wide grin plastered on his face and it wasn't going down at all as he kept himself glued to Li Ling who had still not woken up from the shock.
The thing that changed the most was probably Zhihao's way of addressing his partner.
"Honey, are we going to search for the green dots now?" Zhihao beamed.
Li Ling looked at him and was silent for a minute before slowly nodding his head, "Green dots... Sounds good.."
Wang Guiying who was sitting on top of the huge metal giant called Zhou Xinyi knocked at the robot's head twice as he whispered, "Did he turn stupid after that? How is that even possible?"
Wang GuiYing couldn't help but squint as he commented, "He's definitely not normal! Why does he seem more and more like a..."
[Henpecked husband?]
"Exactly! He reminds me more and more of a henpecked husband whose wife is about to bear a child!"
[Tch-]
[You're right.]
The players and the bot gossiped as they looked at the couple walking in front of them.
Zhihao and Li Ling had once again worn their suit after Li Ling had decided that not letting Zhihao wear his suit could be more dangerous.
Their second destination was a green dot a.k.a., a 2X Ribot.
This green dot wasn't far away from their location, however, when they thought they were going to collect this one easily, something unexpected jumped in front of them. This something was a Ribix that looked like a Lion while its outer body, like every other Ribix, was made out of steel.
The Ribix Lion roared as soon as it saw them and Zhihao immediately shielded Li Ling by standing in front of him and taking out an air cannon to shoot the damn thing down.
The Ribix Lion was thrown back and before it could stand up to fight them again, Zhou Xinyi had already stepped on it and since the Lion was smaller in size compared to the huge Ribot, Zhou Xinyi, it didn't come as a shock that the Ribix Lion was crushed underneath its feet.
The mechanical parts of it broke into pieces and Zhihao almost felt a bit of pity for it, however, this Lion had tried to attack not only him, but it had also tried to attack Li Ling so of course, Zhihao wouldn't feel any sense of pity for it.
Li Ling sighed as he patted Zhihao's back once, "A-Zhi, I can protect myself."
Zhihao remembered what Li Ling had said last time when Zhihao had covered him from the explosion and as soon as he remembered that warning, he smiled cheekily as he moved away, "It was on instinct."
Li Ling lightly glared at the man, "You should fix such useless instincts."
He really should.
Li Ling couldn't help but feel that it was a bit ridiculous. He was the one who was here to protect Zhihao, that was the whole purpose of him being Zhihao's gaming partner so how come, the situation turned out like this? Why was Zhihao the one who was trying to protect him?!
Wang GuiYing glanced at the broken Ribix Lion and looked up at the road ahead as he questioned, "Are there gonna be more ahead?"
Li Ling shook his head, "I don't know."
The team once again continued to walk and they soon reached the location where the green dot was supposed to be. This time, it was an empty skateboarding rink.
Since the rink was empty, it wasn't hard to find the 2X Ribot.
Thankfully, they didn't need to fix it either.
As soon as Li Ling commanded, "Rise!" The 2X Ribot stood up obediently.
At this moment, Zhihao realized a method through which he could recognize the different models of the Ribots.
The 2X Ribots had green-colored light inside their helmet. The 3X Ribot had blue-colored light inside its helmet and the newly created Ribots have a human head inside their helmet. The most different among them was certainly the XY Ribot since they were huge in size and could easily be recognized.
"Extract data!" Li Ling commanded once again and Zhihao furrowed his eyebrows for a mere second before realizing that since Li Ling worked at Omelas, he probably knew all about the hidden commands.
Zhihao didn't know what Li Ling's job inside Omelas was so at this moment, he made a mental note: Next time, when they get out of this level, he was surely going to ask Li Ling what his job was.
[Extracting data from the memory chip.]
The 2X Ribot took a few steps back and the light coming from its eyes grew in intensity as it projected something in front of them.
It was a captured footage of what had happened.
On the projection, they could see an army of Ribots, all Ribots combined and... Humans!
Humans were also captured in the footage!
When the 2X Ribot turned its head, it seemed that the scene in front of them also changed. This footage was captured from the perspective of the Ribot they were extracting all this data from.
The army of Ribots was waiting and Zhihao was also waiting to see what they were all waiting for.
Suddenly the perspective changed as the original 2X Ribot looked up at the sky. There was something coming... And it was huge! Growing bigger and bigger as it got closer and closer. At first, Zhihao wondered what it was, but when it was close enough for them to see it clearly, Zhihao realized that it was a building.
Somebody freaking threw a building at them!!
Zhihao unconsciously took a step back only to realize how stupid he was. They were seeing a pre-recorded video, so of course, the building wouldn't really hit them.
The Ribot army on the projection suddenly faltered back and the people who were controlling them also yelled, "Retreat! Retreat!"
They tried to run and escape, but not everyone was able to save themselves. When the building finally hit the ground, it crushed a few of the Ribots and a few people too, but thankfully, a majority of them were able to escape from it.
Zhihao gulped as he watched the projection with great interest as if it were a movie.
Wang GuiYing was also completely immersed in watching this playback. At times, he would jolt in shock, and other times, he couldn't help but gasp whenever something happened.
The 2X Ribot stopped and looked at the destruction that had been caused. Zhihao knew that the Ribots weren't supposed to have emotions, but when he saw the way the Ribot looked at the debris and broken parts of his fellow Ribot soldiers, Zhihao could almost feel the sadness and disbelief.
The Ribot looked up once again and this time, it saw a lot of Ribix, crawling on top of the buildings and heading towards them. All the Ribix were different in shape and sizes, but they all had one thing in common: They looked crazy. Their eyes were bright red and they seemed to be glaring in anger at the Ribots who were standing below. Some had their metallic fangs gnashing for display while others had their jaws wide open, almost drooling viciously.
Zhihao would be lying if he said that the sight didn't creep him out.
If there were only one or two Ribix, the situation wouldn't have been so creepy or scary, however, at this moment, there was clearly an army of Ribix, slowly crawling towards them. Zhihao felt a shiver go down his spine as he realized that the army of Ribix had greatly outnumbered the army of Ribots.
"Captain Burn! If we go, we go down together!" There was a voice and the Ribot turned its head to look at the person who had suddenly spoken up.
What greeted them on screen was the face of Li Ling and the one he was talking to was Zhihao, or at least, the character that Zhihao was supposed to play.
Captain Burn, a.k.a., Zhihao looked back at Captain Liv and smirked in satisfaction, "We go out together," He repeated firmly and Captain Liv nodded as a response.
Captain Liv, "Humans are stupid."
Captain Burn chuckled as he agreed, "They certainly are."
Even Zhihao and Li Ling would agree to this comment.
Captain Burn, "They create something they can't control, and then when the inevitable happens, they try to destroy the thing they created. It's quite funny."
Although the man had said that it was funny, there wasn't even a shadow of a smile or joy on his face.
Captain Liv had a scary expression on his face as he turned his head to look at the Ribix approaching them, "Humans are stupid, but... Not all of them."
Captain Burn, "..."
Captain Liv, "It was a delight to meet you, Captain Burn. I wish we could've known each other longer."
Captain Burn looked at the man and clicked his tongue, "We're not dead yet so save your words for later."
Captain Liv and Captain Burn shared one last look of understanding.
They knew that they weren't dead yet, but it wasn't as if they'd be alive for long.
To get through this war with your life still intact was certainly not an easy task.
Their chances of survival was 0.1%