Chapter 261 - Why Hesitate?

"Shoot me."

"You're not going to say anything else?" Huang Zhen questioned in shock. 

Li Ling shook his head as he responded, "If you are really sure that you want to win this game, go ahead and shoot me. It's not like I'll really die even if you do." 

Huang Zhen, who previously looked to be confident, no longer had the same unaffected demeanor, "How can you be sure about that?" 

"Sure about what?" Li Ling tilted his head in confusion as he questioned. 

"How can you be so sure that you won't be affected?" Huang Zhen didn't sound too happy as he asked, "You could possibly damage your brain. That's a possibility, is it not?" 

"It is," Li Ling shrugged his shoulder as he responded calmly as if this meant nothing serious to him, "But you came here to shoot me, didn't you?" 

Huang Zhen gulped as he nodded his head and confirmed it, "I am here to shoot you." 

"Then why are you hesitating now?" Li Ling asked with an amused smirk plastered on his face. 

Huang Zhen was silent as he had no answer to this question. 

"Why? Are you having a change of heart now that you are actually given the perfect opportunity?' Li Ling questioned as he leaned back on the wall leisurely. 

Huang Zhen sighed as he took off his mask and showed Li Ling his face as he spoke, "Are you really not even going to try to stop me?" 

"Why would I want to stop you?" Instead of giving a straight answer to him, Li Ling asked back in turn, "I want to stop the system and if killing the gamemaster is the only way we can stop the system, I would naturally take the responsibility and accept my fate." 

"..." 

"At the end of the day, everything is still my fault, is it not? I'm the one that created something that wanted to kill me. I had been too impulsive and stupid." 

Huang Zhen nodded his head as he agreed with the man with no sense of reluctance visible on his face, "That's right. It was your fault." 

Li Ling chuckled as he found it a bit funny to hear the same thing coming from the boy's mouth. 

"So you should live," Huang Zhen added and Li Ling was surprised as he snapped his head up and looked at the boy in shock.

"Wha-" 

"I'm still going to shoot you," Huang Zhen informed coldly as he didn't bother lowering his gun, "But I hope this is not the end. You must live in order to fix your mistakes." 

"..." 

"You were the one at fault so you should be the one to fix it. So you better live and make it all up to my brother." 

A small smile crawled up Li Ling's face as he nodded his head. 

"Then," Huang Zhen gulped as he held the gun higher and got ready to pull the trigger, "I'll be ending this now. Let's talk later. In the real world."

Li Ling closed his eyes as he nodded and waited for the boy to shoot and in the very next moment, he heard a gunshot however, he felt nothing.

Li Ling opened his eyes cautiously to see the situation. 

"Eh?" He muttered in shock as he looked at the man that had interrupted them. 

"B-Big bro...?!" Huang Zhen's eyes widened as he looked at Zhihao who had suddenly rushed over and saved Li Ling by kicking the gun away from Huang Zhen's hand. 

"It was.....you??" Zhihao asked in shock, as if, he hadn't guessed it already. 

"A-Zhi..." Li Ling also muttered in shock as he looked at the man. 

"Big bro, don't misunderstand!" Huang Zhen immediately tried to defend himself as his entire demeanor changed once again. 

"Don't misunderstand?!" Zhihao repeated as he raised his voice, "Why are you here?! How can you be Jiangshi?!" 

Huang Zhen gulped as he gave no answer to the man. 

"How dare you hide this from me?!" Zhihao questioned in a scolding manner, looking as if he found it a bit hard to believe that his brother had actually been Jiangshi. 

"B-big bro..." Huang Zhen blinked anxiously as he glanced over at Li Ling for help. 

Li Ling didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry as he stood up and picked up the gun before walking over to the two brothers, "A-Zhi, calm down, you're scaring him." 

"And he scared me by trying to shoot you!" Zhihao exclaimed angrily as he glared at Li Ling. 

Li Ling gulped as he unconsciously took a step back, feeling a little intimidated by the man. 

"Big bro, it's not what you think!" Huang Zhen tried to explain himself but found that there was no better explanation for the situation. 

"What? Are you going to tell me there was a good reason why you were trying to shoot him?" 

Huang Zhen gulped as he bobbed his head up and down. 

"Don't give me that bullsh*t! What good would come out of shooting him?" 

"A-Zhi, calm down first~" Li Ling chuckled as he spoke up, "I was the one that told him to shoot me." 

"You?!" Zhihao let go of Huang Zhen and turned to face Li Ling as he heard the man, "Why would you do that?" 

Li Ling smiled as he threw the gun back over to Huang Zhen and turned to look at Zhihao as he replied, "You know why." 

"No," Zhihao frowned as he immediately responded without even bothering to think about it, "I have no idea why you would ask something like that from him so you should tell me." 

"..." 

Li Ling chuckled dryly as he bowed his head and spoke, "You know it too... I'm sure you have realized it as well..." 

"I'm telling you that I haven't," Zhihao clicked his tongue as he spoke, "So you better confess right now." 

Li Ling looked up and met the man's eyes but still didn't dare say anything. 

"What? You don't want to tell me?" Zhihao scoffed and for a second there, Li Ling could almost swear that he saw a disheartened expression on the man's face, "So you don't trust me?" 

Li Ling gulped as he shook his head and reassured, "I trust you." 

"Then tell me," Zhihao spoke firmly in a demanding manner, "Tell me why I just saw my brother trying to kill my boyfriend." 

Huang Zhen couldn't help but be in this awkward situation as he looked at the cou[ple that seemed to be ready for a fight. The boy took a few steps back as he tried to sneak away from this place but he was immediately stopped by Zhihao who grabbed his hand and stopped him. 

"You don't get to leave," Zhihao sent the boy a glare as he informed and Huang Zhen simply nodded his head with a bit of fear. 

"Now you tell me," Zhihao demanded, "I'm not giving you more time. I want to hear it from you. What are you hiding, Gege?" 

Li Ling gulped as he tried to calm down his guilty heart. 

This was it... 

This was the moment when he was supposed to finally reveal the truth. 

Zhihao was giving him a chance to come clean. He was giving him a chance to say it himself. 

"A-Zhi, I met you when we were kids," Li Ling held his head down as he spoke in a low volume that was somehow still audible. 

"I know that," Zhihao replied coldly. 

"We became friends... Or at least, I thought we did. Do you remember our promise?" 

"Promise?" 

Li Ling lifted his head and nodded as he spoke, "The promise we made the last time we met." 

"I don't," Zhihao answered honestly as he truly could not recall anything about a promise. 

"I guessed you won't..." Li Ling sighed and sounded a bit dejected as he continued, "You won't remember it because you never agreed to the promise. It was just me..." 

"Talk clearly," Zhihao interjected, "Tell me what are you talking about. What promise?" 

"When we were kids, you used to love playing games at the arcade but... You once told me that you were starting to get bored of the games." 

"..." 

"You told me that they were not challenging enough. That they were all alike and that they were all the same." 

"I... Do remember that," Zhihao muttered as he found the wordings a bit familiar. 

"But you still liked playing those games more than playing with me," Li Ling chuckled as he added, "For you, they were the same old boring games but you still decided to choose them over me." 

"I was a kid." 

"I know..." Li Ling muttered as he nodded, "We were both kids so it was understandable but I still hated the fact that the only time you would play with me was when I would go over and play video games with you." 

Zhihao's eyes widened ever so slightly as he heard this.