Chapter 199 - Li Ling Promises To Be Honest

"A-Zhi..." 

Zhihao chuckled dryly as he looked down at the ground, "I know you're not a liar and I believe you. I think you'll be more open with me, and that's why I can't figure out why you were not clear about it when I asked you what your job was." 

"..." 

"I don't discriminate people based on their jobs so I really don't understand why you would try to hide such a thing. When I thought about it deeper, the only reason I could come up with was my father. Did you try to hide it because of your bad relationship with my father?" 

Li Ling gulped as he shook his head, "That's not the reason.." 

"Then why?" 

Li Ling took a step forward as he sighed, "A-Zhi, we should talk about this later. Right now, it's really not the time to be discussing something like this." 

"Then when do you plan on being honest with me?" Zhihao looked right into Li Ling's eyes and it only made the other man feel more guilty. 

It was as if there was a sword poking his heart. Zhihao was really making Li Ling suffer and it was all Li Ling's fault. He was the one that stacked up all the lies. He was the one that trapped himself within those lies and made it so that no matter how much he confessed, there would still be more lies that laid on the surface of their relationship. 

He knew he had to open up one day. He knew that he couldn't keep on hiding behind his lies forever and he did plan on coming clean to Zhihao. 

But... Right now... It was really not the time for such an open conversation. 

This was a game being streamed. There were millions of fans watching them and his own sister and Zhihao's mother were also in that crowd, watching this livestream. 

Li Ling had no problem with people knowing about his relationship with Zhihao. In fact, he was happy if everyone in the world knew that Mastermo was already a taken man. 

However, he wasn't comfortable with showing all the drama to the world. The people behind a screen didn't know them that well and they could only judge the relationship between the two according to what they see in the gaming livestreams. 

Right now, they had only seen the good side, the healthy side of fluffiness. They were yet to see the lies that Li Ling had created in order to get closer to Zhihao. They had not seen anything about the plans that Li Ling made just to get Zhihao to fall in love with him. 

Li Ling was sure that his actions weren't the best. He knew that he had been wrong since the beginning and because he knew himself this well, he would naturally not want others to point at him accusingly. He was already accusing himself so to have someone else say the same negative thing about him was really not something he preferred. 

This was something between him and Zhihao. In the end, it was Zhihao's choice if he would want to stay with Li Ling even after the truth has been revealed.

If such personal things were to be leaked on a livestream by mistake, Li Ling could clearly see the dark future that lay ahead of them. Even if Zhihao was okay with everything, his fans would certainly have a different opinion and since Zhihao was an internet celebrity, the opinions of the netizens would naturally have a big impact on his future career and mental health. 

Li Ling sighed as he gently squeezed Zhihao's shoulder, "After this level, okay? After we clear this level, I'll tell you everything you need to know. I'll be completely honest with you. No matter what question you ask, I would definitely tell you the truth." 

"Are you sure about that?" Zhihao asked as he squinted at the man. 

Li Ling nodded his head without any hesitation as he took a deep breath in, "I'm being honest. I will definitely tell you everything starting from the very beginning." 

Zhihao looked to be a little skeptical, however, in the end, he still ended up nodding his head as he once again believed Li Ling. 

If he was gonna date this guy, trust had to be the first thing needed in their relationship and Zhihao was willing to trust Li Ling with his life. 

Li Ling wasn't lying to Zhihao this time. Since all of this had already come this far, he was really planning on coming clean to Zhihao. He was planning on narrating the whole story from the beginning itself. Even though it was pretty late for him to be honest, at least, he finally had the courage to be honest. He finally had the courage to tell Zhihao and see what his reaction would be. 

Before it gets too late and Li Ling ends up regretting it, he was going to have to tell Zhihao everything and hope that Zhihao loves him enough to forgive him and let the past stay in the past. 

Zhihao sighed, "Okay then... Let's quickly get out of this level...? We have a lot to talk about." 

Li Ling smiled thinly as he nodded his head ever so slightly, "Let's do that. Have you got the world background yet?" 

Zhihao shook his head as he answered, "I joined this level just a few minutes ago. I think I still have about a minute or so left for the world background to be unlocked." 

Li Ling nodded as he looked around at their surroundings.

His mind had been so shocked and filled with Zhihao that he didn't even pay attention to the name of the level that Alvi had announced and hence, just from looking alone, he couldn't know where he was or what he had to do in this level. 

"Alvi, what was the name of this level?" 

[Weren't you listening when I announced it the first time?] 

"..." 

[It's the G-ranked level 817: Find the stone!] 

"Ah! That one!" Li Ling muttered out loud as he found the name familiar. 

It was one of the easier G-ranked levels. There was nothing that would be dangerous for them in this world. In fact, this was a beautiful level that was filled with sceneries that could never exist in the real world and at the same time, looked so beautiful that one would pray for it to exist in the real world. 

It was filled with new mystical types of plants and creatures. The level was highly inspired by a natural forest that had its own beauty, however, since it was a game, everything in here had a more mystical feel to it. 

Right now, it was dark, and instead of just one, there were two moons in the sky. 

Both the moons seemed to be facing opposite directions. Even the color of the two moons was different. One appeared to be the slightest shade of pink that could almost be mistaken for white and the other had a more cold, blue tone to it making it appear as the lightest shade of turquoise blue. 

"There was a rabbit that came hopping out, but it went away. I don't think there's anything dangerous here," Zhihao commented as he looked around along with Li Ling. 

Li Ling, "What type of rabbit?" 

"Well... It had a kind of pink fur but I'm not too sure. Maybe it was white and the moonlight made its fur appear pink. Extremely long and huge ears that could cover the entire body of the rabbit." 

"And?" 

"Oh! And it had big aqua eyes!" Zhihao exclaimed enthusiastically. 

"I see..." Li Ling muttered, not really giving out more of a big reaction. 

The creature was probably just as harmless as Zhihao made it sound like. 

As long as Li Ling knew, this level depended heavily on luck. 

There were a lot of mystical creatures and plants, however, most of them were harmless.

There were dangerous creatures as well, but the chance of meeting a dangerous creature was quite low. 

This level was so harmless that it made players wonder why it was even ranked as a God-ranked level. It made no sense that a level was this easy and still ranked that high. 

For the gamemaster who had already thoroughly examined this level once before, Li Ling was more clear than anyone else. This level had a pretty good reason to be ranked this difficult and it was because the 'stone' in question was not something they could easily find. 

Even for Li Ling, this was going to be a challenge because the stone kept on changing its position with every second of the game.

If you were really lucky, you might just enter the level and find the stone lying on the ground in front of you. 

Li Ling looked around and tried to see if there was anything shiny but as expected, he wasn't that lucky. 

They were going to have to work extremely hard to solve this level.