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

[Why are you running?!] 

Alvi tried her best to keep up with him, but it seemed that Zhihao was faster than usual.

In a matter of a few minutes, they had already arrived at the small town and were once again greeted by the sight of the bustling night stalls. 

Zhihao looked back to see Alvi walking or more like crawling slowly towards him, completely out of breath. 

Although he felt a little guilty about it, he still didn't care too much about it since he had more important matters to deal with. Li Ling was in danger and needed Zhihao's help. If Zhihao wasn't gonna be able to find him on time and save him, he might as well give up on trying to make Li Ling like him. 

He needed to be cool! He needed to show his strong sides and make Li Ling fall for him! 

If he couldn't even protect the man in a game, he was certainly going to feel pathetic. 

He followed the GPS and ended up standing in front of an old tavern that looked desolated from the rest of the lively atmosphere.. 

He had a bad gut feeling about this, but he still ended up deciding to go inside without wasting much of his time. 

Before he could take another step forward, somebody grabbed a hold of his arm and stopped him from going inside. 

"Young man, you shouldn't go in there." 

"Huh?" Zhihao turned around to look at the woman who had stopped him and when the woman saw his face, she couldn't help but be shocked and immediately let go of his arm as she muttered, "Carmen...?" 

"Do you know me?" Zhihao asked and the woman ran away, not even trying to respond to him. 

Weird. 

Zhihao still had no idea what this Carmen character was supposed to be like so when he saw this, he felt that Carmen was certainly not a very well-liked guy. 

This fact was clear even back at the wooden shed where everyone had turned hostile at him when they heard about who he was. 

Though he didn't know the details, he knew he was hated by the people. This was both a good thing and a bad thing since people would stay away from him. They would stay away and he won't find himself in a troublesome situation because of them but this was also a bad thing because they would avoid him and he won't be able to gather any information from them. 

It was like a double-edged sword.

He ignored the sudden interruption and decided to once again go inside the tavern but he was a bit reluctant this time. The woman had clearly warned him to not go inside out of good intentions. 

Only after seeing his face did she run away so there was a high possibility that she was trying to stop him for the best. If that were the case, didn't it mean this Tavern wasn't a normal Tavern? 

Maple Tavern. 

The name didn't sound dangerous at all.

Zhihao took a deep breath and although he was a bit suspicious about it, he still went inside. If this place was dangerous, that was even more reason for Zhihao to go inside because there was a really important person captured inside, and the more trouble he was in, the less reluctant Zhihao would be to risk his own life to save that man. 

Zhihao's hand reached out to open the closed door of the Tavern but before he could even touch it, the door, as if having sensed his presence, opened up on its own. 

Zhihao looked at the door curiously as he stepped inside. It was dark. So dark that Zhihao could hardly tell the difference between the wall and the floor. 

"A-Zhi, Lookout!" It was Li Ling's voice but before Zhihao could react to it, he was already a step late. 

Zhihao's screen went dark and he was left shocked. 

"What... Happened...?" 

Zhihao waited for a few minutes, and the screen was still dark, but it wasn't his computer lagging. He could still somewhat hear the faint voice of shifting and dragging but his screen was completely blank, so he didn't know what was happening.

The last thing Li Ling said was "Lookout" So it was possible that someone had attacked Zhihao from behind and he had fainted on the spot. At this moment, this was the only possible scenario. 

Another few minutes passed and the screen slowly started regaining all the colors as Zhihao's in-game character opened his eyes. 

"A-Zhi! Are you awake?" 

Zhihao nodded his head as his eyes adjusted to the light. 

Zhihao tried to move his arm but it was restricted. He tried to stand up but even his legs were bound.

"..." 

He had called Li Ling careless for getting caught so soon while here he was, in the same situation as the man whom he was scolding. 

How did he end up being so careless? 

"Li Ling... Where are we?" 

"You're both awake? Great!" It wasn't Li Ling who spoke up. 

It was the voice of a man who was standing in front of them but his body was hidden in the shadows hence the only thing they could see was the man's silhouette. 

He had a rather healthy trained body with muscles and Zhihao found the person somehow familiar but he couldn't guess how. 

"Who are you?" Zhihao asked rudely. 

Well, this man was probably the one who had kidnapped them so there was no need for Zhihao to be polite to him. 

"Carmen, how great to see you again." The man was glaring at Zhihao as he spoke, "I see, you haven't given up on your hobby to look after the weak blood-suckers." 

Zhihao gritted his teeth as he heard this.

"How pathetic." The man commented with a sense of disgust and it made Zhihao wonder if this man had known the original Carmen and if he had, were they close or were they, enemies? 

If they were close, there was no way he would talk to Zhihao like this so the only option left was enemies. 

So who was this new enemy of Carmen? 

"So this must be Lord Versailles," The man turned his head to look at Li Ling as he continued, "I believe it's the first time we've met." 

Li Ling's lips twitched as responded, "You give out a really bad first impression." 

The man chuckled but it didn't sound like he was too happy. 

"Who are you?" Zhihao asked without even trying to hide his hostility. 

"Me?" The man sounded a bit shocked as he asked, "You don't remember me...?"

"..." Zhihao had never even met this man so wasn't the answer to that clear? 

"You're lying! How can you not recognize me? Was I that insignificant to you?!" 

Zhihao suddenly had flashbacks of Kazan who was obsessed with the demon Taki who was being played by Zhihao. 

When he thought about that level, he noticed a few similarities. This level also seemed to be a lot like that one. 

Li Ling and Zhihao were again playing the role of two lovers and there was an antagonist standing in front of them who wasn't too happy with them. 

"Why do you think I should remember you?" Zhihao asked and although he wasn't trying to attack the man with his words, that was exactly what he did. 

By phrasing his question like this, wasn't he indirectly saying that this man wasn't even worth remembering? 

The man stomped his feet on the ground and walked a few steps forward. His face that was previously hidden in the shadow was now completely visible under the light, and the face certainly shocked Zhihao a lot. 

"Carmen... You gave me this scar and you dare forget me?!" 

Zhihao suddenly realized why this man's silhouette was so familiar to him. His height and body appeared to be similar to Kazan's but his face was a bit different. If he were to be compared to Kazan, his features could be said to be more handsome but at the same time, he looked scarier than Kazan due to the huge scar that ran across his face, starting from his left eyes and going all the way across his face to his lips. 

Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn't a bit afraid to look at the man's face. That scar looked like it would hurt a lot and it indirectly caused Zhihao to feel uncomfortable as he could almost feel how much that would have hurt. 

"You still don't remember me?!" 

Zhihao shut his mouth tight and didn't dare give the man a response. If it was the real Carmen, Zhihao was sure that the man would remember this guy but since it was Zhihao, no matter how much the man told him or tried to make him remember, Zhihao would still be unable to remember him since he had never really met him. 

"Why are you guys yelling so much?" It was the voice of a ten-year-old girl called Alvi whose existence was just noticed. 

Zhihao looked over with hope but this hope was soon crushed when he saw that Alvi was also in the same state as them. She was also tied down. 

"..." 

Really a useless bot!