They hoped and prayed for Li Ling to wake up but a month passed and the only development in his condition was perhaps the fact that he could be moved to a normal hospital.
Zhihao was always there by his side, waiting for the man to open his eyes and in this last month, The great Mastermo had been so worried about Li Ling that he hadn't even thought about games.
The absence of Mastermo in the gaming world had a huge impact on his fans and it was only naturally so considering the fact that they all knew what the man was going through.
They were worried for him and Li Ling but they could do nothing more than simply pray for the man to wake up soon.
After winning the game, and coming out as Mastermo's little brother, Huang Zhen found himself covered with quite a lot of people claiming to be a part of his newly found fandom. The boy kept his gaming name as Jiangshi which entered the pro-gamers list after a few months.
Huang Zhen became more active in the gaming world and a lot of Mastermo's fans started following the boy's every move as they tried to find out more information on Zhihao through him, however, the boy refused to say anything about his brother and only told the fans not to worry too much and to trust that everything was going to turn out well in the end.
Mastermo and Li Ling's absence in the gaming world was impactful, however, considering Li Ling's condition, everyone could clearly understand why they heard no news about the two, however, there was something else that had shocked the fans even more and it was the absence of BBtrash and Hulk0_0.
The pair of best friends were last seen together in the final level of the game and after making a small mistake of trying to take the easy shortcut, they had both been eliminated from the game.
Some heard rumors that Wang GuiYing had woken up but even in the rumors, there was no news about Zhou Xinyi. The man simply disappeared from the eyes of the public...
Almost all of the other top ten players who were friends with the missing people got comments and messages from the fans who were desperate for some information.
Zhihao not saying or coming online was to be expected, but Wang GuiYing doing the same was too hard for people to believe since the man was known to be quite active on his social media accounts.
Their friends and family who knew these missing gamers personally also refused to say anything about them and told the fans to simply wait for the time being.
What the fans didn't know was the fact that Zhou Xinyi was really missing and Wang GuiYing was cooperating with the police trying to find the man so it was only natural that the two didn't come online for over a month.
After T.I.A.D. self-destructed itself, the hunt for the owners of LHA began and Huang Zhi Juan went as far as to sue the people who were behind everything.
Throwing the eleven players into the game without their permission and messing with a game that was not even theirs was a grave mistake that had pissed off a lot of people.
Huang Zhi Juan and her husband were naturally mad at the people since their own sons were also put in danger during this sudden unplanned final-level situation.
Omelas was under fire... And the fire didn't look like it was going to calm down anytime soon.
The owner and gamemaster, Li Ling was not awake so there was no one to properly manage the company, and the one managing it as temporary leader of Omelas was the vice-president of the company, however, he was a man who knew nothing about any of Li Ling's plan so it wasn't easy for the man to clear this mess that Li Ling had created for him.
It would have perhaps been easier if the fire only came from outside, but unfortunately enough, Li Ling had managed to piss quite a lot of people and those people also included the board of stakeholders that had invested in the game.
To be more accurate, they had invested in the system after having been fooled by Li Ling's sweet words about changing the gaming world and bringing on a revolution.
Li Ling had lied to them and it was only after the self-destruction of the game did they realize that Li Ling had made a fool out of all of them.
The man not only lied about not being the gamemaster but he had also lied about what would happen once the final level is cleared. He told them that they would get to sell and make money from Alvi, however, those sweet dreams of profit that were shown by the man remained nothing more than just that.
Dreams that would never come true since the system was completely destroyed.
They wanted to settle scores with this young man that had made a living joke out of them. They had been in this industry for so long and yet they had been fooled so easily by a man who was the same age as their sons... It was like a slap to their faces, but with Li Ling being in the hospital, there was nothing they could do.
In this past month, Zhihao and Huang Zhen also got to realize that the one paying the cash prize was their own father and when they first heard this, they didn't know if they wanted to laugh or cry.
Li Ling had made them compete just for their own father's money... It was ridiculous and yet, at the same time, they couldn't even laugh at it.
A few more months passed, three months to be more exact and Li Ling still showed no signs of waking up.
Zhihao was still by his side taking care of him and had been absent from the gaming world this whole time, so much so that his name became a legend that remained in people's memories. Some said that it would probably be difficult for the man to come back to the gaming scene while others refused to accept this and argued that Mastermo was always going to be great and that he would always have people following him and admiring him.
Huang Zhen slowly caught more and more attention as the boy formed a team with Li Ying who was just as good as him at games. Their duo became famous and they looked so cute together that a lot of people started shipping them, however, the two didn't date each other, considering themselves as close friends and nothing more.
Even after three months, Zhou Xinyi was still missing and Wang GuiYing was also busy searching for him in silence.
BBtrash's fans were perhaps the most pitiful ones in this situation since they had no news about the man.
Mastermo's fans could at least send positive and encouraging messages and comments to him, however, BBtrash's fandom was simply confused as they had no idea what was going on with the man.
Some rumors even went as far as to say that Wang GuiYing and Zhou Xinyi were dead because of the neurotransmitters used in the final level.
Since Li Ling was in a coma, this rumor didn't sound too far-fetched and so there were a few who believed it to be true.
Zhihao felt as if the days were getting longer and the more he stayed in the hospital, the more he started to feel bored and depressed. Hospitals were always shrouded with a stench of death and medicine. While some were saved, a lot more ended up losing their lives here.
It was quite ironic to know that hospital saw more deaths than a funeral house.
Every time a patient next door gave up and was moved to the mortuary, Zhihao felt uneasy as he thought that Li Ling could also be in such a situation if he refused to wake up.
Zhihao refused to accept the fact that Li Ling would leave him that easily and this was perhaps the only reason why he still stayed here every single day, patiently waiting for the man to wake up.
Every day, someone or the other would come to visit Li Ling just to check up on his condition and they would leave behind a bouquet of flowers.
There were so many flowers that at one point, the nurses had to throw some away because they were overcrowding the place.
Two more months passed and it had officially been six months since Li Ling was in this condition.
Nothing much changed and his condition also didn't seem to be improving.
Half a year was not a short amount of time and the doctors slowly started losing hope as they said that it would be a miracle if the man were to wake up one day.
Zhihao who heard this started believing in miracles and refused to let go of hope.