T.I.A.D.: [Welcome to the new stage! Congratulations to all the players for making it so far. From now onwards things are only going to be more difficult, so we hope you can all take this time to appreciate how far you have come.
Now we'll officially be starting the elimination stage. We wish all the best to all the players, may luck be on your side.]
Zhihao had mixed feelings. In the beginning, when he heard about the opening of the new stage, he did not dare assume anything but even if he did not want to, it was not as if he didn't have some expectations and one of those expectations just so happened to come true; this new stage was going to be an elimination stage. Zhihao's guess was based on the fact that the players were forced to make teams and those who failed the task was demoted back to stage one; No other game had ever done such a thing, obviously because they were afraid of the retaliation from the players, there was no way they'll just sit still and take it. But T.I.A.D. did it nonetheless, proving that the last thing they cared about was the feelings of their players. And just after doing such a big thing, they also announced the opening of a new stage, hence Zhihao had a vague guess that there would be elimination rounds in the future.
An elimination stage at this point made complete sense and the reason it was needed was simple; T.I.A.D. just had too many players.
The message on the notice board may seem vague but it had given players quite a number of hints. One being that this was not the only stage they'd see and as they advance, new, unknown stages would open up before them and with every stage, the elimination rate of players would keep increasing. Another clue was how the message ended with a, "may luck be on your side.", Games like these had nothing to do with luck unless you were to stumble upon the Gamemaster and kill him by mistake. This game was all about skills and understanding, how much do you understand the game? What do you think is going to happen in it? How much do you trust your abilities? And the most important question for a gamer was, Would you be able to handle an unexpected new challenge that contradicted your guesses?
Zhihao felt like he was overthinking but to him, overthinking was good. At least like that he'd be able to rule out all the future possibilities. He felt like there was a particular reason the word 'luck' was used. Maybe they'll be given a mission based on luck? If so, what could it be? Roll-the-dice? No, it couldn't be that simple. Zhihao had a crazy thought; What if it was completely based on luck? Something like eliminating players randomly? But that theory was too far fetched. The main reason the elimination stages existed was to filter out the unskilled players from the skilled ones. With continuous elimination stages, the players who'll enter the final stage could all be considered worthy players. So Zhihao ruled out that dangerous idea of random elimination.
Just as he was making up new possible scenarios, his thoughts were interrupted by a game notification.
[Congratulations on entering the new stage, Mastermo! We'll now be starting the elimination round. Please check your team mission board to see your first assigned mission as a team.]
Zhihao immediately contacted Li Ling through the In-game calling feature. To access the team mission board, all the team members needed to be present.
Zhihao enthusiastically asked, "Did you see the Notice?"
"Isn't that why I'm here?" Li Ling asked sarcastically.
On both of the player's screen, a message popped up. A shiny golden letter shaped icon with a 'click to open' written on it.
"A-Zhi? Do you wanna do it?" Li Ling asked.
Zhihao was embarrassed when he heard the name. Although he had given Li Ling permission to use that name, he didn't completely expect this man to use it, however, he did kind of wish he would. But now his heart couldn't adjust so fast; It did another flip and the vague question asked by Li Ling did not help calm his heart at all. "S-Sure!", Zhihao replied, stuttering.
Zhihao clicked on the golden letter and the screen flashed with a blinding light. When the light dispersed, A mission was visible on the screen; [To help the newly formed teams bond, your first mission is to go on a date to your assigned levels. Your assigned level: 1034. Please click on the continue button to enter the level.]
Zhihao wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. He felt like he had overestimated the game. His entire focus was on the word 'date' so he concluded that the players just had to be lucky enough to have compatible partners.
Both Li Ling and Zhihao clicked on the continue button simultaneously and they were transported to level 1034: volcanic eruption.
Zhihao saw that not a second in the level and his character health status was depleting too rapidly and so, by instinct he equipped an outer protective layer on his character. He looked around to find Li Ling, who was one step ahead of him and was already equipped with heat resistant armor as if he already knew what was going to happen, This raised suspicion in Zhihao's mind but he didn't have time to ponder over it.
Another notification popped up on the screen; [Welcome to level 1034: volcanic eruption!]
Zhihao wanted to cry out; What welcome?! It was clear that they were not welcomed here at all.
[You have now successfully entered the land of the Fire Dragon.]
[There was a time when the living conditions here weren't so bad, this was the home of the Fire dragon who used to protect and reign over this land, but a few years ago, everything changed. The fire dragon was badly injured due to the greed of the humans who tried to take this land, claiming that it was rich in energy. In order to heal his injuries, the fire dragon secluded himself inside his den which is located under the volcanic mountain. In the fire dragon's absence, the volcano erupted and the land has now been deduced to this state, too unbearable to live. The only way for it to go back to its natural state is if the fire dragon comes back.]
[Your mission is to convince the dragon to come out.]
[Your first date is going to be really hot! We hope you both come out successfully]
Zhihao didn't understand the game's humor and even if he did, he wouldn't laugh, whereas, Li Ling on the other side was snickering at the pun.
"What do we do? Yell and wave our hands to catch its attention?" Li Ling asked a stupid question.
"Let's analyze our situation first." Zhihao being a pro-gamer answered professionally
"What is the situation exactly?"
"A land reigned by the fire dragon. The dragon is injured and refusing to come out. Greedy humans." Zhihao answered vaguely stating the parts of the story.
He first came up with questions; Why was a fire dragon the reigning monarch of this region? How could humans injure a dragon? Why was the dragon not coming out? And why could only the dragon help this region regain its natural state?
At this moment, Li Ling responded, "Why were the humans here? Because it was rich in energy. But what type of energy and why were they after it?"
Zhihao felt like Li Ling was focusing on all the wrong points and was talking rubbish. His mind was too occupied with coming up with a way to get the dragon out, he had no time to waste on inspecting why the humans were greedy.
"The land is protected by the fire dragon and now it's being wasted away, why isn't the dragon coming out?" Zhihao had an idea, "What if the dragon is connected to the volcanic mountain? It would make sense. There's power and a dragon involved so this level probably belongs to the fantasy genre."
"Huh?" Li Ling was confused.
"The dragon is a fire dragon and this was his home. What if he was harnessing the power in this land, if so, then the only possible power source in this land would be the volcanic mountain. With the dragon gone, the mountain has no one collecting its power and so the power is now overflowing in its most natural state, lava."
"Ah!" Li Ling seemed to understand what Zhihao was talking about, "So, A-Zhi is saying that the mountain is like a juice box and the dragon is sucking it for daily consumption but now since the dragon is gone, the juice box is overflowing?"
Zhihao wanted to laugh at how simple-minded this man was; comparing a volcanic mountain with a juice box. But he also felt like this man was oddly clever, having understood the core of the topic after only hearing it once from Zhihao.
"Yeah! Like a juice box. A defective one."
"So how do we call out the dragon?"
"Say, The den is under the mountain and that's where the fire dragon is but If you have noticed, our mission isn't to restore the land but call the dragon out, right?"
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
"The den is under the mountain. Doesn't that make the juice box his home? Li Ling, What would you do if somebody destroyed your home?"
"I'd think he was looking for a fight and..... Come out! Are you saying we should blow up this mountain?!"
"That seems to be the only way."
"B-But how do we do that?"
"I have 168 explosives in my inventory. How about you?"
"I have..... 24..." Li Ling sounded a bit dejected.
"It's okay. 24 added to 168 makes 192 explosives combined. Since this is a huge mountain, we'll need them all. Let's go around the mountain and surround it with explosives."
Both the players moved into action. The 192 explosives were placed all around the mountain, barely managing to cover it completely. Li Ling and Zhihao maintained their distance from the mountain. Zhihao took out a gun from his inventory and aimed it at one of the bombs. Bullseye. The shot hit the bomb correctly and the lined up bombs caused a chain effect. Explosion after explosion, one bigger than the other. In a mere few minutes, The whole mountain blew up, the land around the mountain cracked open, causing a huge hole to appear on the ground, looking much like a bottomless pit.
"Who in the world dare to interrupt my sleep?!", An angry voice of a man came from the ground, loud and ear-piercing.
Zhihao looked closer down the hole, but he could not see anything. Before he could inspect it further, Li Ling pulled him back.
"Shhh...." Li Ling wanted him to listen to something but all he heard was the rumbling of the ground, The stones hitting stones, the mountain deconstructing itself, and the explosions that were still going on. But there was another sound, An odd faint sound. As Zhihao kept on hearing the sound, he felt like something was wrong; The sound seemed to be growing louder and louder.
"Shit! Move!" Zhihao dragged Li Ling away from the hole, "Something's coming!"
Indeed.
Not a minute later the earth began to shake uncontrollably and the sound that was previously faint was now getting louder and louder, louder than the explosives.
Out of the ground, heading straight to the sky at an impossible speed that made it hard to see its appearance, Something came out but it was too small to be a dragon.
The 'something' stopped when it came out of the ground and paused in midair. It had wings and its wings covered its body.
Zhihao and Li Ling stopped in their tracks and stared at the unknown thing.
The wings opened up and revealed the body of a human.....? A very handsome young man!
All of a sudden, Mastermo understood; He had been wrong and Li Ling was the one who was following the right clues.
Why would humans be interested in energy provided by a volcanic mountain?
Mastermo had played too many western games that now he had forgotten to take an important fact into account; T.I.A.D. was a Chinese game.
The only way this would all make sense was if this wasn't a western fantasy genre at all.
It was a Cultivation genre!