What?! The Gamemaster And The Top Player Are Dating?!

Zhihao couldn't remember that day well enough. He could only recall bits and pieces of that day. He remembered meeting an annoyingly cute little boy, he remembered playing with the boy and taking a photo at the end of the day. He even remembered that he made a stupid promise with that boy, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember what the promise was. 

He felt like it was important, but at the same time, he felt like it was something stupid as well. He met that boy again a few times at the same arcade, but eventually lost touch with the boy when his mother stopped taking him to that arcade. His father had tried to support his gaming dream by buying everything needed to set up a gaming cafe at his house so he didn't need to go to the arcade anymore. His house became even better than the arcade and after months, when he finally missed the little boy, he went to the arcade once again but he didn't meet the boy there. 

Just like he had stopped going to the arcade, the little boy had stopped going there as well. 

Now that Zhihao thought back to it, he found it weird that the little boy would always come to the arcade alone, and instead of pestering the other kids, he would always stick himself to Zhihao's side. If Zhihao had been nice to him, he could understand why the boy did such a thing but as long as Zhihao remembered. He had been nothing but rude to the boy so he couldn't understand why the boy liked him so much.. 

Suddenly, in Zhihao's dream, he remembered one more unimportant thing. A conversation that he had almost forgotten. It wasn't something important, but it was really ridiculous. 

When the little boy saw Zhihao's mother calling him A-Zhi, he too started to drop the 'Laoshi' and called Zhihao as A-Zhi. 

Zhihao didn't like it very much, but he didn't have the heart to scold the boy so he grew accustomed to it. Most of the time, the kid would be confused about what he should call Zhihao. Sometimes he would call him 'Big brother' although they were the same age, and other times he would shift between 'Laoshi' and 'A-Zhi'. Out of 'Laoshi' and 'A-Zhi', the boy seemed to like the latter better so Zhihao would often find himself being referred to as A-Zhi by the little boy. 

At that time, Zhihao only saw the little kid as a dumb child that would hang around him for no reason at all and because of how cute he looked, Zhihao wouldn't mind it much. On the first day, he had been annoyed by the boy a lot, but after playing with the little guy, he had grown accustomed to him and would treat the child a bit better. 'A bit' because it was only Zhihao who felt like he was treating him better. For anyone seeing them, it was clear as day that Zhihao was still bulling the little kid who looked to be younger than Zhihao but was actually the same age as him. 

Zhihao didn't know why he had still not forgotten the kid. If someone were to ask him, he would not hesitate to say that they had been friends back then and if he hadn't stopped going to the arcade or if he had asked the boy for a phone number or an address back then, he would've still had him as a friend. 

It was a pity that he never got to meet the boy again. If he were to meet him, Zhihao would ask him a question that still gnawed at his heart. 

Was he really a beginner or did he lie to Zhihao back then? 

There was no way such a good player was a beginner. If he really had learned how to play by simply looking at Zhihao playing, the boy had to be a talented genius. To that boy, he would also want to ask one more question: Had he stopped playing after that or was he still playing? 

If the boy hadn't quit, there was a high chance that Zhihao already knew him under a different alias. If the kid hadn't stopped playing, he would have surely become a pro-gamer today with his skills. If he was a pro-gamer, there was a high chance that Zhihao knew him, but he would never be able to recognize him because of his poor memory. He didn't remember the kid's name nor did he remember how his face looked like. All he remembered was that the kid looked extremely cute when he was crying and he had a beauty spot under his right eye. He was slightly shorter than Zhihao and looked much younger, but who knew what he looked like today? Maybe he had grown taller than Zhihao or he might not have changed at all. 

In all honesty, if he were to meet the little boy again, he would not stop at only two questions. He would want to know why the boy had been so adamant about playing with him. Zhihao knew his own self well and he wasn't too proud to say that he was a little brat who didn't get along with other kids his age. He was immature and impulsive, making the other kids dislike him and not wanting to include him when they were all playing. This was also a major reason why he had chosen online gaming over the others. No other kids were willing to play with him so instead of accepting that it was his own fault, he would rather call them all 'kids' and prefer to play alone. 

It was really shocking that someone who seemed to be so lively and innocent had come up to Zhihao and wanted to play with him instead of going after the crowd and playing with the other kids. He was curious about a lot of things and it was a pity that he would never be able to ask these questions. 

Having a beauty spot under the right eye wasn't an uncommon thing so if he were to try finding the boy with that clue, he was surely going to be disappointed. He already knew a few people with a beauty spot under their right eye. One was a famous idol while the other was a famous actor and if he wasn't going to include celebrities in his list, he would still be able to find people who had the same characteristics such as Li Ling who had the same exact beauty spot under his right eye.

When he had first met Li Ling, part of the reason why he was instantly attracted to the man was because the man's smile and beauty spot seemed to remind him of the little kid. When Li Ling started calling him A-Zhi, he once again felt a sense of familiarity, but the more he got to know the man, the more he found differences between the two.

The little boy and Li Ling were oddly similar, but their behavior was different. The little boy was too shy and docile while Li Ling would always be the first to tease Zhihao while also being the first to-... On second thoughts, maybe the two were a bit similar. The little boy at that time didn't seem cunning, but now that Zhihao thought back to it, the boy was much smarter than him and was much more sly just like Li Ling, who would seem to be innocent, and at the same time, he was really suspicious. 

Zhihao was still unsure, but at times, he would find Li Ling to be a little too suspicious just like that little kid who had said that it was his first time playing but was constantly beating Zhihao with his amazing skills. Li Ling would always act like he was a bad player who didn't know anything and at times, he appeared to know everything there was to know about the game. He would know the levels before he even played it and Zhihao wasn't too sure if his suspicions were true. He was sometimes afraid that it was all in his head and if he voiced it out, he would look stupid and anger Li Ling since no one liked to have someone be suspicious of them when they were entirely innocent. 

It wasn't a simple accusation that Zhihao was trying to pin on the man.

He sometimes found himself wondering if Li Ling and the Gamemaster were the same people, but whenever he had such thoughts, he would remember back the time when the three played together. Li Ling and the Gamemaster had been in the same level at the same time, so if they were both the same people, there was no way such a thing would have been possible unless the whole situation had been set up to eliminate such thoughts from entering Zhihao's mind. 

Zhihao didn't want to seem like he wasn't trusting Li Ling. He treasured their friendship so there was no way he would be ready to put that friendship at stake to clear his own crazy thoughts.

If in the end they really did end up being the same person, Zhihao would simply deal with the situation according to how he felt at that moment. For now, he was willing to trust Li Ling.