Mastermo cannot be fooled

"Ahhhh! I can't get it!" Wang GuiYing yelled out in frustration.

Zhihao could not take the curiosity anymore and just had to ask, "What was your riddle?"

Wang GuiYing, "System, What is our riddle?"

[Answering players question:

Your riddle is:-

With the wind, I swing,

On the earth, I dance,

I'm innocent and helpful for people I like but,

Fear me, for my temper, as I also like laying traps.]

Zhihao really felt like banging a rock on this guy's head—opening it up and seeing if there was a brain intact? Only BBtrash and Hulk0_0 could hear the voice of the system that was assigned to them. How could Zhihao hear?

As if having understood Mastermo's struggles—Zhou XinYi repeated the same riddle, aloud.

Li Ling guessed, "Maybe a carnivorous plant?"

"That's a possibility." Zhihao nodded in agreement.

They had been walking for the past half an hour, It was still dark and they were yet to cross their paths with any guardian beasts or other teams. This rose some suspicion in Zhihao's mind, but he didn't voice it out. Li Ling tugged on his sleeves and discussed something with him—their voice was low and could not be heard by the two who followed them.

Wang GuiYing glanced between the two, having a weird sense of jealousy rise up in his heart as he mumbled, "What's so good about that guy? If he likes being cold, he should just be cold! Why the discrimination?"

When Zhou XinYi heard this displeased remark, he spoke with a seemingly straight face, "He's not cold, he just finds you annoying."

"Aiya! How can you say that? Haven't I treated him so well? How could he find me annoying?"

".....", Zhou XinYi really didn't want to respond to that; He had known this guy for most of his life and had grown accustomed to the man's shameless thick-head.

"In any case, this is unacceptable." Wang GuiYing skipped towards Mastermo in hopes of disturbing the peace he was enjoying but before he could do so, something else had destroyed that peace in his stead.

The earth shook for a few seconds—stopped and shook again. Wang GuiYing was thrown out of balance—landing straight on his bum. Zhihao and Li Ling instinctively held onto each other and maintained their balance. Zhou XinYi had also managed to stand upright.

"An earthquake?!" Wang GuiYing yelled out as he clutched onto the ground, knowing that even if he did stand up—he'll still be knocked down so why not just accept it and lay on the ground for a while?

"Be careful! This is not an earthquake." When Li Ling said this, Zhihao was suddenly reminded of the time when the gamemaster had held onto his hand and told him to be careful. Such similarity, but Zhihao really didn't have time to be reminiscing about the sweet moments.

Zhihao followed Li Ling's sentence, "Earthquake is not supposed to be like this. Look carefully."

Li Ling, "The earth is shaking in intervals. It's as if..."

"Something was walking. Something big..." Zhihao completed his sentence as he slowly turned his face upwards.

The road that had previously been empty in front of them had now become a dead end. A furry dead-end or more like a furry roadblock.

The four pairs of eyes had noticed this furry roadblock and everybody paused their movements, slowly—looking up, knowing that this was not going to be anything good.

Wang GuiYing was fear-stricken; He had already failed one of the missions, he'll have to keep his pitiful life intact in this level no matter what, if he were to stand a chance of winning that 1 million dollar cash prize.

Zhihao, Li Ling, and Zhou XinYi stood frozen in spot, not realizing that BBtrash had slowly turned around and abandoned them—running backwards for his life. But how could that be easy?

Wang GuiYing didn't pay attention to where he was running and bumped into a really soft and furry wall; No Good!

"XinYi gege! Save me!" He cried out loud.

When Zhou XinYi heard this he was instantly unfrozen from the post and turned back only to find that there was another such creature behind them, one whom BBtrash had bumped into.

Zhihao had also looked around, only to find that they were surrounded by four huge beasts covering them from all four sides.

The creature was at least 100 feet tall; something that could clearly not hide in the forest even if it would like to, not to mention the weight of such a creature that could shake the earth. Just how had the creature suddenly managed to sneak up on them and surround them like this?

It had a huge body alike that of a bear—dull black colored fur that covered its entire body and a seemingly small face in comparison that resembled that of orangutans with two pointy horns on top of either side of its head.

"Don't move from your places!" Zhihao warned. This was not something that he was sure on but he had read it on the internet somewhere that if one was to come face-to-face with a wild bear the person should not let fear move them as that could further agitate the beast but this was clearly no wild bear and there was no guarantee that the same trick could work here however what could they lose by trying?

The giant beasts only stood there, not moving and not attacking them—maybe the trick had worked?

But clearly, that was not the case as the beast in front of them spoke.

Yes, He freaking spoke!

In clear human language!

Zhihao sighed, he really didn't enjoy dealing with weird creatures that could talk.

"What are you little humans doing here?" The sound was heavy and loud—it made Wang GuiYing shiver and want to dig a hole in the ground in order to hide.

The beast in front—lowered its head and glared at the intruders.

Li Ling was the first to respond, "Handsome brother, we mean no harm. Just passing through."

Zhou XinYi wanted to puke at the sudden flattery with a face full of smiles.

The creature seemed to be dumbstruck as well and took a second to recover. In the next moment it chuckled, seemingly happy with the man's sweet-tongue, but due to the weight of his voice—it struck fear among the four. The beasts chuckle—although harmless—sounded extremely scary as if it was laughing at the misfortune that was to befall on these innocent tourists.

A tear dripped down Wang GuiYing's face that was expressionless and speechless with fear.

"Even if you meant to harm, how could you manage to even touch a fur on my skin?" It laughed, teasing the group

Wang GuiYing thought in his mind; hadn't he just bumped into one and directly touched its fur? But although he wondered this—he was too scared to say it out loud.

Li Ling forced himself to chuckle as well, "True! True! How could we hurt you? hahaha... So funny."

The beast stopped laughing and silently glared at Li Ling. Zhihao who saw the sudden hostility in its eyes pulled Li Ling behind him and shielded him against whatever was to come next.

It seemed that although Li Ling was a master at flattery—flattery would fail to win against such a beast.

"Mere human, Who are you to laugh? I could squash you beneath my feet like a cherry." The voice was not exactly angry, however, the hostile words spoken along with the heaviness of the voice sent shivers down their spine as they thought about a scene where they were squashed like a cherry with only a censored mush of meat as their remains; Horrifying!

Li Ling, who was being shielded by Zhihao apologized immediately, breaking out in cold sweat, "Ah! Sorry! I really don't deserve to be standing here and talking to your greatness."

The beast hummed in satisfaction.

"Now tell me the truth, Why have you people entered here? If I like your answer, I'll let you live."

Wang GuiYing cried out in his head; and what if you don't like our answer? Are we as good as a squashed glop of cherry?! Unacceptable!

The beast was surely intimidating, but Zhihao wasn't that scared of it. If the beast really wanted to attack them, then it would've already done it, but as it stands, they were still alive and given a chance to talk their way out of it, so he guessed that there was an undeniable reason why the beast hadn't attacked yet and this reason was most certainly linked to the system and the orders it gave to these NPC beasts.

"We are looking for a treasure." Zhihao answered without hiding anything, if he was gonna go for it—might as well go all out. In the worst-case scenario, he still had his trustable spiritual sword; Shuang to protect him and Li Ling. Hulk0_0 could also be considered skilled enough to protect himself and BBtrash.

Like thunder—the beast growled, "What treasure? There is no treasure in these lands."

"The treasure is something with three tails, is white, has big blue eyes and it glows at night. Have you seen it?" Zhihao asked casually as if he were asking a stranger if they had seen his lost wallet. When Wang GuiYing saw this he could only utter out a single sentence; seeking one's own death.

Zhou XinYi had, however, noticed that although Mastermo appeared as calm and collected on the outside—it was indeed because he was actually feeling that way, with a bluish-green glint of the sword that was hidden behind his back—how could he not be self-assured?

The beast lowered its head and took a closer look at Zhihao, it huffed a breath of air on the man's face—a breath that was strong enough to send out his clothes and hair into a disheveled mess.

"Young man, are you not afraid of death? Why go through such extra trouble?"

Zhihao couldn't understand what the beast was trying to say, the words were threatening yet it wasn't the beast that was threatening them, but more like the beast was trying to warn them about some kind of unseen danger that lay ahead of them.

Li Ling, "So, did our answer please you?"

"....."

Zhou XinYi wanted to smack this man's head, didn't he know that certain questions should not be asked out loud??

The beast laughed in amusement, "Such courage. You can pass! I don't stop people from walking straight towards their doom."

This was most certainly a warning. Could it be that the treasure they were after was more dangerous than these huge beasts?

The beast moved aside and cleared the path for these four travelers, even going as far as to wish and warn them at the same time, "The deeper you go in the forest, the more eyes you'll catch. The more things that notice you, the harder it gets. We wish you all the best, but luck may not stand a chance. Here's our final advice; Beware of the eyes that lurk in the dark."

The system dinged.

[Congratulations on discovering a new riddle! +50 T-points gained]

Zhihao was ecstatic. They were in the right direction to solving the secret side-story.

[The extra riddle is:-

The deeper you go in the forest, the more eyes you'll catch.

The more things that notice you, the harder it gets.

We wish you all the best, but luck may not stand a chance.

Beware of the eyes that lurk in the dark.]

Zhihao turned towards the beast and bowed in gratitude, "We'll survive. Many thanks for your great advice."

Wang GuiYing sprang to his feet and stumbled towards Zhou XinYi who caught him by instinct.

The group of four continued their journey with a heavy sigh of relief.

A few miles later, the beasts were no longer in sight and this was the chance for Wang GuiYing to voice out the question that was gnawing at the back of his head, "Why didn't we fight them? Why are we walking away? We could've killed them and collected the rewards! Such a waste!"

It seems that this man had forgotten the scene where he was frozen speechless in fear of those beasts; now that he was out of danger—daring to even think about saying such things.

Zhihao simply looked ahead as he answered with a smile, "Why would you want to fight a bunch of illusions?"

"..."

Even Zhou XinYi hadn't expected this and Li Ling was stunned that Mastermo had realized such a crucial thing.

Wang GuiYing's reaction, however, was much bigger, "What?! What do you mean by illusions?!"

Zhihao smiled as he spoke, "I'm not amazed at your dumbness. Pay more attention to details, will you?" He pointed towards the ground, "Such big creatures that can shake the earth as they walk so why is the earth not moving right now? Why are there no footprints left behind?"

"..."

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