Mastermo finds it cute

Li Ling was a good driver—considering the fact that he was over-speeding, but they had neither ended up in heaven nor hell. 

Zhihao couldn't help but curse, both in his mind and letting those curses slip from his tongue as he gripped onto his belt and couldn't move an inch. The car was driving so fast that Zhihao didn't have enough strength to pull himself away from the seat. 

"Li Ling, stop the car! Stop it!" Zhihao yelled out, but to no use. 

His voice couldn't even be clearly heard over the speeding car. 

Li Ling chuckled as he made a dangerous sharp turn, "I want to be honest."

"What honest?! We have no time for honesty! Slow down!"

"I lied"

"..."

"I don't have a driving license, I never passed the driving test."

"..."

Zhihao was silent; this silence was not the calm type of silence, it was equal to when you'd mourn over someone's death. Zhihao was praying in his mind. 'May God have mercy on my soul and at least let me reincarnate as someone who knew the Gamemaster in his next life.'

Zhihao had no idea what bullshit he was praying about, it was his deepest desire coming out at the thought of death. He was going to die young!

Li Ling laughed as he saw Zhihao's face turning white.

"Stop the freaking car!!"

"I lied again, I'm sorry." Li Ling laughed, "I have a driver's license."

Zhihao wanted to choke the man, kick him out from his car and never let him come anywhere near his mechanical baby, but sadly, he couldn't because he couldn't even move from his seat. 

He didn't know if his heart had stopped or was beating at a speed too risky for a normal person. He couldn't hear his heart, his ears had been clogged up with air bubbles and he became deaf from the speed. 

Zhihao's eyes almost popped out from his sockets when he saw a red light up front and a car crossing the road in front.

He was going to die! He was going to die before he uncovered Gamemaster's real identity!!

Zhihao shut his eyes instantly as he waited for the impact to hit him and tear his soul away from his body. 

Li Ling stepped on the brake peddle and the car came to an instant stop. 

"Oooh... Nice breaks." Li Ling commented as Zhihao was thrown forward at the sudden impact. If it weren't for his seatbelt, Zhihao's head would have cracked open. At this moment, Zhihao understood what Newton meant when he gave the laws of motion. This method of studying was much more effective to understand physics, but Zhihao didn't prefer it. He'd rather safely sit on his seat in class and listen to his physics teacher giving a lecture on the laws of motion. 

Zhihao wanted to puke, but he hadn't eaten anything or drank anything yet so he could only gag out empty air. 

"Was A-Zhi scared?" 

Zhihao fixed his clothes calmly and looked at Li Ling with a wide smile. In the next moment, Zhihao attacked Li Ling as he smacked him and tried to snatch away the keys from the ignition. 

Li Ling laughed as he tried to defend himself, "Wait. Wait. Let me explain."

"What explanation?! You almost had us killed!"

"I didn't. I didn't. I was just kidding."

Zhihao frowned, "The joke wasn't funny."

"I-I'm sorry." Li Ling apologized as he joined his hands and asked for Zhihao's forgiveness, "I'm too used to driving fast and this is a sports car, I couldn't help but want to test it out."

Zhihao didn't look amused as he kept glaring at the man. 

Li Ling, "Why do you own a sports car if you aren't going to use the speed?" 

"..."

Zhihao was always obsessed with sports cars. Always finding them looking very sexy and hot, but that was it, that was the reason why he bought a sports car and loved it. He had never tried out the maximum speed of his car. It was a waste of money, but Zhihao didn't care because he had a lot of money to throw around, however, he wasn't stupid enough to truthfully answer the question. What was he to say? That he bought it because it looked hot? No way, he would do that. He was already considered weird for liking games too much and a car fetish added to that would create a new perverted reputation for him—a big no-no...

"Okay! Okay! I won't Overspeed again. We'll go slowly and steadily from here on out, okay?"

Zhihao didn't know why, but he felt like there was a hidden meaning behind the man's words, something deeper than what appeared on the surface, and this caused Zhihao to contemplate on whether he should agree or not—eventually choosing to stay silent.

Li Ling wasn't looking for an answer and soon, the light had turned green. 

Li Ling started the car again and this time, he did as he promised, he drove at a normal safe speed and Zhihao had to admit that the man was a good driver. The rest of the ride was as smooth as butter—so smooth that Zhihao almost fell asleep on his seat. It was a soothing long ride to an unknown destination, but since Li Ling was by his side, Zhihao wasn't worried about where the car would end up leading him to. 

The car came to a stop in front of an arcade. 

"We are here." 

Zhihao looked at the place and found it looking very similar yet, he also felt like he had never been here before. 

"Where are we?" Zhihao asked.

"My favorite place. It's been a long time since I came here though."

"How long?"

Li Ling looked at Zhihao as if he was searching for something—some reaction, "Ten years."

Zhihao was amazed, "You haven't been to your favorite place for over ten years?"

"Hmm" Li Ling affirmed. 

"Woah!" Zhihao couldn't help but express his amazement. If Zhihao had such an arcade that could be considered his favorite place, he would've just bought the place and visited the place daily. 

Unbeknownst to Zhihao, the owner of this arcade was actually Li Ling, who had recently bought the place with the money he earned.

Li Ling, "I made a promise to myself."

"What type of promise?" 

"I promised myself that I won't come back here unless I meet you."

Zhihao was stunned, forgetting to move an inch as he stared at the man with a blank expression, "What do you mean?"

"Didn't I tell you already? I've been your fan for a long time." Li Ling smiled. 

"Ah!" Zhihao seemed to remember the man telling something like that. 

Li Ling smiled even deeper as he heard this reaction, he wanted to chuckle in disappointment. 

Zhihao was too dumb outside the game. So dumb that he hadn't picked up the clear clue. Mastermo hadn't become Mastermo ten years ago, so it was impossible for someone to be his fan for ten years. Zhihao just heard that Li Ling has been his fan for ten years and didn't question it, only feeling a bit amazed by it. This was temporary though, he would one day come to think back on this day and realize what was wrong—his feelings on that day would be something very amusing. 

Having a fan for ten years was already a big achievement in itself. 

Li Ling, "It used to look very different, but it was recently renovated."

The arcade was very old and was ready to be closed down due to the low number of customers who came but the first thing Li Ling did after buying the arcade was renovating it, even if it meant losing a lot of money. 

Zhihao wondered what he was supposed to do at an arcade. If he wanted to play games, he could just play them back at home so why waste all the time to come so far just to waste your money? Zhihao couldn't understand the feelings a person held towards their favorite place. 

"I wanted to show you something." Li Ling spoke as he grabbed Zhihao's hand and dragged him inside the arcade. 

Zhihao didn't know what else to do so, he wordlessly followed the man, letting him do whatever he wanted to do. 

Zhihao had thought that this arcade was like any other arcade so he wasn't expecting to see anything new that could catch his interest. Arcade games were fun, but Zhihao felt like they were made for kids to waste their idle time. 

When Li Ling finally stopped in his tracks, Zhihao looked up and his eyes suddenly twinkled with excitement like a little child who has come to the arcade for the first time. 

It was T.I.A.D.

To be more exact, the whole zone was dedicated to T.I.A.D. with the walls covered in huge posters and one of the walls with some random gameplay displayed on the screen. There were even small figurines of the top player's in-game characters. There was a little Mastermo, a little BBtrash, a little Li Ling, and even a miniature Gamemaster. 

Zhihao wanted to buy the Gamemaster figurine; it looked so ridiculously cute and cool. 

"Do you like it?" Li Ling asked as he looked at Zhihao, trying his best to hide the nervousness. 

"Like it? I love it with all my heart and soul!" Zhihao moved forward and picked up the miniature Gamemaster. 

"...If there was to be a player who has to beat him, I'd rather it be me." The voice came from the speaker and it sounded so familiar that Zhihao looked up at the screen almost immediately recognizing the voice. 

He was embarrassed to see himself on the screen. It was the scene where he was talking with Kaoru. 

Zhihao had never known the existence of such a place and he couldn't be blamed since this place was only recently constructed and was not yet open to the public. 

When Li Ling saw Zhihao's eyes twinkling as he stared at the miniature Gamemaster in his hand, Li Ling knew that the man wanted to buy it and somehow his heart felt a little jealous. 

Jealous of a figurine—he felt like he was too pathetic. 

"You can buy it."

"Really?" Zhihao was delighted as he picked two more figurines, "Then I'll buy all three."

One Gamemaster, one Mastermo, and one Devilmagiclover. 

The figurines were actually not for sale, but if Li Ling wanted to buy them, who would dare stop him? He owned the entire thing so who could tell him that he was banned from buying the figurines? If he could, Li Ling would want to gift this entire place to Zhihao but that was risky since Zhihao would then come to know the owner of the arcade. 

"I don't like that one." Li Ling commented as he pointed at his miniature self. 

"What do you mean? It's so cute." Zhihao frowned as he stroke the miniature figurine. 

Li Ling was satisfied as he smiled happily, he had successfully tricked Zhihao into calling him cute and when Zhihao saw the man's reaction, he knew he had been tricked and his ears heated up. 

"You swindler!"

Li Ling shook his head, "But Mastermo is cuter."

Zhihao looked at the man and saw that he was pointing at the figurine in Zhihao's hand. 

Embarrassing!

Zhihao wanted to dig a hole in the ground and hide his head like an ostrich.

"W-where do I pay for them?" Zhihao asked 

"Did you bring money?" 

"..."

He had forgotten...

When Li Ling saw the depressed expression on the man's face, he couldn't help but want to laugh at the man's cuteness that was beyond his tolerance level, he was ready to squish his cheeks like a baby but the only thing that stopped Li Ling from doing so was the thought of the man getting creeped out by him and deciding to keep his distance from the weird man. It was Li Ling's biggest fear, he would never want to be ignored again. 

"It's okay, I'll pay for it." Li Ling spoke as he tried his best to not laugh. 

Zhihao looked at the man and misunderstood him. He thought the man was laughing at Zhihao because he was acting like a kid who wanted a figurine, this was for kids, why was he buying it? With such a huge misunderstanding in place, Zhihao frowned and rejected the offer immediately. 

"I don't need it anymore."

Zhihao had a plan. He wasn't going to let it go just like that so he would just come here again without Li Ling and buy the figurines. Till then, he was willing to wait and be separated from the three cute miniature versions of them.

"Eh?" Li Ling was shocked to get such an outright rejection.