What?! The Gamemaster And The Top Player Are Dating?! - Chapter 222

“I found it weird as well,” Zhihao added with a sigh, “It was a good game so I was quite disappointed. I tried to download other versions of it but they all simply vanished from the internet. No trace of it was left behind and since it wasn’t a popular game, there was nobody else talking about it.”

“So someone created a gaming company with no success which eventually had to shut down. The company left no traces of itself or the games it produced and now, after a few years, it has resurfaced like this just to assist Alvi in setting up the final level?” Liang Feng collected all the information that Zhihao had given, in his mind and compiled them before stating it in a single go.

Zhihao nodded as he confirmed, “That’s right.”

“But why this company?” Liang Feng frowned as he questioned no one in particular.

Zhihao shook his head as he responded, “I don’t know. As long as I’ve known, LHA had no connection with any other company and especially none with Omelas. Omelas was founded after LHA’s death.”

Zhihao’s eyes widened ever so slightly as he turned to look at Li Ling, “Gege, do you know anything?”

Li Ling was a bit surprised to suddenly see the man turning to him for answers. He gulped as he stuttered, “W-what do you mean?”

“This is no time to be hiding company secrets,” Zhihao spoke up and it seemed that he thought Li Ling wasn’t saying anything because his position as the founder of Omelas banned him to say anything about the company to outsiders.

Li Ling sighed as he shook his head, “I might know something but… I’m not sure.”

In reality, even after being the gamemaster, Li Ling had no idea why this certain company was helping Alvi. He had never signed with them, in fact, he had never even properly heard about them.

LHA had certainly been a name that he remembered coming across a few years ago but it wasn’t something that he remembered since the company went bankrupt and disappeared.

“What is it?” Zhihao questioned enthusiastically as he heard Li Ling’s response.

“The year of release,” Li Ling spoke up.

“Eh?” Liang Feng was the one who muttered out loud in confusion as he slightly tilted his head to look at the man.

“By what you say, LHA was a new gaming company that was released before Omelas. A-Zhi, what do you think. Do the companies sound alike?”

“Huh?” Zhihao looked to be a bit stunned as he seriously pondered over the answer for a minute, “I wouldn’t say that they are alike… LHA and Omelas are very different from one another. LHA has more of an escape room and mystery theme while Omelas has a role-play adventure theme.”

“But there is something that connects the two,” Li Ling spoke up, “Both of them are new companies that came out of nowhere and suddenly released a game that is actually good. Where LHA failed because it couldn’t find a market, Omelas succeeded due to the help of active advertising.”

When Zhihao heard this, he couldn’t help but nod as he agreed to the theory of them being somewhat alike, “If T.I.A.D. wasn’t a hit then… It would have also ended up like LHA?”

Li Ling’s expressions looked to be a bit worried as he nodded, “That’s right. The two companies are only different because of the advertising that was done for T.I.A.D.”

“Now that you mention it, I think there is something else that I remember,” Zhihao informed as his eyebrows creased together in worry.

“What is it?” It was Li Ying who asked as she looked at the man curiously.

“The building,” Zhihao answered as he looked over at Li Ying and explained, “The building currently used by Omelas was previously used by LHA.”

Li Ying’s eyes widened slightly as she heard this shocking news. She turned to look at her brother as she waited for the man’s explanation.

“Are you sure about that?” Li Ling questioned as he looked at Zhihao with a serious expression plastered on his face.

Zhihao nodded as he confirmed, “I’m sure about it.”

“How can you be sure?” Tian Xifeng also joined in on the conversation as she asked.

“When the game got deleted from my device, I thought someone had hacked into my computer so I dug up some information on them and the address was the only thing I was able to find. However, when I went to the address, the building was completely emptied out and it was even put up for sale.”

“Let me guess… You bought the building?” Li Ling interjected with a question.

Zhihao shook his head as he replied, “How could I? I didn’t have that much money on myself at the time. Instead of buying the building, I made my father buy it. However, it isn’t currently owned by my father. It’s owned by the founder of Omelas… You.”

Li Ling sighed as he nodded, “Understood.”

What Zhihao said was indeed right. The current office of Omelas was owned by Li Ling and it was actually bought from Zhihao’s father at a rate that could be considered somewhat cheap. It was actually Huang Zhi Juan that helped Li Ling buy the building for a cheap rate since she also supported the opening of Omelas and convinced her husband to sell it to Li Ling for cheap.

“But sharing a building has nothing to do with it, does it?” Kaoru suddenly spoke up as she questioned.

Zhihao nodded as he commented, “That’s what I’m thinking as well. Just because they share a building, it doesn’t mean they have a connection.”

“But it’s our only clue,” Li Ling spoke up, “Nobody in Omelas knows why LHA is helping Alvi at this moment, not even the gamemaster.”

“How can that be?” Zhihao frowned.

Li Ling sighed as he decided that it was probably better to tell everyone what they were dealing with here.

“Alvi is not a system that is made to improve a player’s understanding of the game or assist them. Automated Living Virtual Intelligence. That’s the full form of its name. Alvi is basically a system that creates all the scenarios and games. It’s kind of like the second gamemaster. That means all the decisions inside the game regarding how a level is set up and the rules inside the game are all decided by the system without any need for interference by others which includes the gamemaster and all the other staff.”

“What the hell?!” Zhihao’s reaction was just as strong as Li Ling had expected it to be, “So you’re saying that this is a wild system that can do anything it wants?!”

“…” Li Ling seemed to seriously think about it for a while before he responded, “More or less, yes. That’s what this system is.”

“Is your gamemaster crazy or something?! Why in the world would he create such a dangerous thing?! And how could you agree with him?!” Zhihao looked to be mad and inside his head, the respect he previously held for the gamemaster somehow seemed to be decreasing slowly.

“Because it’s efficient and it saves time,” Li Ying spoke up for her brother as she looked at Zhihao, “Brother Zhihao, do you know how long it takes to create a single level? T.I.A.D. has more than a million unique levels. Do you really think it would have been possible for anyone to sit and create all those levels? The technical aspect shall be overlooked if we consider the fact that we’ll be hiring a lot of others to work on it together, but what about the story aspect of it? A single story can have more than a thousand endings and no matter how many people we hire, it’ll at least take ten years just to get all those stories and their alternate versions ready.”

“Then all the stories were also created by the system?” Zhihao’s eyes widened even more as he questioned back.

Li Ying sighed as she shook her head and informed, “That’s not wrong, but that’s not right either. The initial stories were indeed created by the gamemaster but the spin-offs and alternate situations were all created by the system. The stories were modified so much that I’m sure even the gamemaster doesn’t remember making them anymore.”

For some reason, even after hearing this, Zhihao didn’t feel impressed at all.

“If this system could be perfected a little more then it would certainly be a revolution in the world of gaming for both players and for the developers,” Li Ying added proudly.

“So you’re saying that it wasn’t even perfected before it was put out there for the world to experience?” Zhihao seemed to be keen on pointing out all the things that were wrong with this system.

“…” Even Li Ying fell silent to that.

Li Ling suddenly sighed as he spoke up, “A-Zhi, what has happened had already happened. There’s nothing we can change about it. After this whole game is over, you can go and complain to the gamemaster all you want. Instead of scolding or blaming someone, it’s better if we look for a way out of this right now.”

Zhihao’s expressions seemed to have softened a bit as he heard Li Ling.