Chapter 136 - Li Ling Is Guilty And Afraid

"Brother, you might not have heard," Zhihao smiled as he looked at the man and continued, "I was hit by a truck and lost all my memories. I'm sorry for not remembering you." 

Zhihao thought lying would manage to buy him some time or it would at least help relieve the anger of this man who seemed to be fuming at the fact that Zhihao didn't remember him. 

"What's a truck?" 

"..." 

Ah! Trucks don't exist in this level...? 

"I seem to have been mistaken.. What I meant to say was the trunk. " Zhihao corrected himself, "I was hit by the trunk of a tree."

"Tree?" 

Zhihao bobbed his head up and down as his hands tried to struggle out of the rope that bound them together. 

"If you hit your head against a tree, it would be the tree that would be damaged, not you." 

"Eh?" 

Zhihao soon found out that it was a lot harder to lie than he thought it was. 

[The positive gambling bar has been used!]

Zhihao was delighted to get the notification and now he had a small pocket knife clutched in his hands. It was a bit hard to cut the rope with this but it was enough. Just a bit of time, he only needed time right now so he glanced at Li Ling and tried to ask him for help. 

Li Ling was always the best at that. 

However, this time Li Ling wasn't going to be able to help Zhihao simply because he wasn't even looking at the man so he naturally did not catch Zhihao's signals. 

Zhihao used the tiny pocket knife to try and cut through the rope as he kept the man busy in a useless conversation that seemed to agitate this man more and more. 

"Hephorus!" 

"Eh?" 

The man stepped closer and held Zhihao's chin up as he asked, "Does that really not ring a bell?" 

Why would it ring a bell if there weren't any bells to ring in the first place? 

Zhihao didn't know this man! 

Why was it so hard to accept?! 

It was as simple as that! 

The man saw the reluctance to answer and it angered him more as he let go of Zhihao's chin and walked around the place as if trying to calm himself down. 

Li Ling wasn't saying or doing anything, in fact, he didn't even care who this man in front of him was, his mind was already distracted with thoughts about Zhihao who was mad at him but still came to save him nonetheless. 

He felt guilty and afraid. Guilty for playing around with Zhihao, always lying to him and never caring how he felt about all of this. Along with that guilt, he was also afraid that Zhihao might really run away and they might never get to see each other again. 

He was so overtaken by these emotions that he didn't even wanna look at Zhihao, afraid that if he did, he'd see the man glaring back at him. 

"Carmen... Are you afraid of death?" 

Zhihao gulped as he heard this. 

The rope was almost cut. Just a bit more time and he'd be freed. 

The man named Hephorus smiled wickedly as he once again stepped closer to Zhihao, stopping a few meters away from him, "Did you know that there are things worse than death?" 

"Things worse than death?" 

Hephorus nodded and changed his direction as he now started walking closer to Li Ling, "Things a lot worse than death." 

Zhihao's hands stopped as he saw this. Did this man know about Carmen and Lord Versailles? Did he know that they liked each other and was he going to pull a 'killing your lover in front of you is worse than death for you' type of bullshit in front of Zhihao right now? 

If he was really planning on doing that sort of dumb thing, Zhihao was really going to show him what something worse than death felt like. 

When Zhihao looked over at Li Ling, he was a bit shocked to see that the man wasn't even trying to struggle out of the restraints. He was simply sitting there and accepting all that was happening with no major reaction whatsoever and this made Zhihao wonder if the man had a plan. 

Li Ling was always this calm when he had a plan. 

So what was the plan? 

Zhihao's hand that was stopped soon went back to cutting the rope as he reassured himself that Li Ling probably had a plan. 

He was a vampire in this level, so of course, he'll have powers, and maybe those powers could help them fight this man who looked extremely scary and seemed to be holding a grudge against Zhihao.

"Being hated," Hephorus smirked wickedly as he cut the ropes that bound Li Ling's hands together. 

"Huh?" Zhihao was also out of the ropes but he still kept his hands just the way they were and didn't alert the man as he started cutting the ropes that tied his legs together.

"You tried to save them till the end but... You killed the last vampire with your very own hands." 

"???" 

There was no way Zhihao was going to kill Li Ling so what nonsense was this man spouting? 

"There is a twist though." 

"A twist?" Zhihao asked as he looked around as silently and unnoticeably as he could. 

"People might be happy to hear that you killed the last vampire alive so of course, we need a twist!" The man laughed and it was surely a typical antagonist laugh that had never managed to scare Zhihao. 

"What twist are you planning?" 

"You'll be the man who kills the vampire you had loved so much and eat his remains in hopes of gaining power. His blood and flesh, everything would be inside you and you two would be together... Forever and ever..." 

Zhihao chuckled as he heard this. 

"You! Are you laughing at me?!" Hephorus seemed to be enraged as he glared at Zhihao and pulled Li Ling up by his arm. 

Zhihao looked up at him and although he was annoyed to see the man pulling Li Ling up so rudely, he still let it slide with the hopes of getting his revenge in the next few minutes. 

"Well you were joking so much, of course, I had to laugh or you'd be losing face." 

"..." 

Zhihao went through his inventory as he made a decision on which weapon to pick, "Kill the vampire and eat his remains? What a joke! I don't even know you, brother. And..." Zhihao raised his hand that was now free and the gun he had equipped was now aimed straight at the head of this man. Without wasting even a second or giving the man a chance to respond to this sudden action, the trigger was pulled and the man named Hephorus now had a hole in the middle of his forehead. "Since we won't be meeting again, why should I bother to remember your name?" Zhihao asked coldly to the man whose body was now falling lifelessly on the ground. 

That was a lot easier than Zhihao had imagined. 

To think that the man didn't even put up a fight. It was weird. 

[OOC Alert!] 

[OOC Alert!!]

[OOC Alert!!!] 

[You have 10 minutes to clear the level!] 

[You'll be kicked out of the level in the next 10 minutes!]

"..." Zhihao took a whole minute to process what the system was screaming, "Eh? Wha- Why?!" 

Zhihao glared at Alvi who was still tied down and sitting on the floor. 

[Why are you looking at me? It was your fault." 

"But I didn't do anything to trigger it!" 

[You pulled out your gun, didn't you?]

"So?!" 

[Hephorus saw your gun and it triggered OOC.] 

"How can my gun trigger OOC?" 

Zhihao couldn't believe it. 

They had avoided OOC so many times and now, of all times, it had suddenly been triggered? It seemed to have the perfect timing. 

Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn't panicking. 

Ten minutes to clear a G-ranked level? It seemed to be an impossible task and if Zhihao really completed it, he would surely be making history.

[If a player goes OOC in front of an NPC that has cognitive abilities, the player would automatically alert OOC function and be thrown out of the level]

"..." Zhihao was a bit shocked and didn't know what he was supposed to do now. 

He grabbed ahold of Li Ling's hand and dragged the man behind him as he exited the Tavern, or at least, tried to exit the tavern. 

[...] 

Once again, forgetting to take little Alvi along with them. 

[Untie me first!] 

"Oh! Who do we have here?" It was the voice of a girl that Zhihao didn't recognize, "Why are you leaving so soon?" 

Zhihao tried to open the door and get out of here, but it was locked, and no matter how much he tried to break the lock, the door didn't budge an inch. 

"Mastermo, was it?" 

Zhihao's hands stopped and so did his body when he heard his name being called by this new girl. 

The girl chuckled but Zhihao was completely frozen and couldn't even know where the girl was standing. 

"So I finally get to know you, Mastermo. It's a pleasure meeting you."