Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 100

Chapter 100: The Real World 4

The two sat across the table, hands clasped together, looking very intimate.

Zhou Zhou’s smile was extremely brilliant, his bright twinkling eyes gazing at Alvia with emotion.

“Al, would you be willing to become my brother?” Zhou Zhou asked expectantly.

Alvia felt that in just a few minutes, his mood was like a roller coaster, raised high and then plunging rapidly down. Not only could they not even be friends now, but he also had to be a brother?

Was this taking away any chance at all?

However, soon Alvia realized something was off. Zhou Zhou’s thoughts were simple, and he had only a half-understanding of things that were commonplace for everyone else. So why would he want to become brothers?

When he asked out loud, Zhou Zhou immediately sold out Xue Li and Ke Li.

Upon learning that Zhou Zhou, after being reminded by him, realized that his behavior of pursuing multiple relationships was a problem, but did not know how to resolve it, he ended up going from one misunderstanding to another after listening to some well-meaning advice from Xue Li and others.

From pursuing multiple relationships, he changed to treating everyone as his brother.

“Al, what’s wrong? Do you have a headache?” Zhou Zhou asked with concern.

Alvia held his forehead with one hand, shook his head, and let out a long sigh. It seemed he was being a little impatient. Zhou Zhou still did not understand anything, and although he was constantly absorbing knowledge about various aspects of this world, without someone to teach him, he could only stumble and grope his way through.

Alvia blamed himself for being too confident, relying on his familiarity with Zhou Zhou’s preferences, thinking he could slowly cultivate feelings after Zhou Zhou agreed. Now it seemed his idea itself was flawed. The current urgent task was to help Zhou Zhou integrate into this world as quickly as possible and understand common knowledge from various aspects.

As for other matters, those could wait until later.

“Al? Will you be my older brother?” Seeing that Al still did not respond, Zhou Zhou asked again. He had calculated it clearly, he was nineteen years old, and Al was older than him, so by age Al should be his older brother.

“Don’t even think about it, let’s just be friends first.”

Alvia immediately refused, the first half of the sentence stating it firmly, the second half weak and powerless. This made the originally shocked Zhou Zhou, wondering why it was not allowed, understand tactfully and not ask further. If it was not allowed, it was not allowed. Wasn’t it said that kinship was more lasting than friendship? Why did Al not want this or that, so difficult to deal with.

Dating was not allowed, nor was being brothers, Zhou Zhou silently complained in his heart.

Seeing Zhou Zhou’s pouting expression, Alvia guessed what he was thinking and changed the subject: “Didn’t you say you wanted to go to other games? Let’s go now.”

Zhou Zhou immediately forgot his displeasure, excitedly pulling Alvia’s hand to leave.

Alvia followed helplessly, but the next moment Zhou Zhou remembered to ask: “How are we going to go?”

Bringing him to the holographic device, this device could connect to all the holographic games on the market. Alvia carefully explained the functions and usage of the holographic device to Zhou Zhou, who nodded and asked: “Do I have to lie down inside?”

“No need, what game do you want to go to? I’ll go in first and set your data as a player account, then you can enter the game.”

“I want to go to a dating game!” Zhou Zhou said loudly.

Alvia: “……”

Alright, a dating game it is.

After Alvia entered the holographic device, Zhou Zhou curiously watched him from outside the transparent cover, giving Alvia a feeling of being on display.

Watching Alvia close his eyes, Zhou Zhou lay there quietly waiting, taking the opportunity to stare at Al’s face nonstop.

Before too long, Zhou Zhou disappeared from his spot.

Zhou Zhou’s vision flickered, and he found himself in a different place. He was now in a bustling small town, with players coming and going around him, dressed in Western-style clothing, some carrying bows and arrows or large swords on their backs, and others with swords at their waists, chatting and joking with the surrounding NPCs.

Zhou Zhou looked down at himself, he was wearing very simple clothes, without any weapons or game instructions.

“Zhou Zhou.” A strange voice suddenly appeared by his ear. Zhou Zhou looked up to see a very ordinary-looking man, almost instantly forgettable, standing in front of him. Or rather, Zhou Zhou had appeared next to him, but hadn’t noticed him when he first came in.

“Al?”

The other nodded: “This game allows for character customization. I chose the system’s initial default template without modifying your data. If you want to change it, you can reset your settings.”

Zhou Zhou did not change it, he thought his appearance was just fine.

Alvia had never played dating games before, so he chose the one with the highest rating. He was not very clear about many of the processes inside, and this time his main purpose was to accompany Zhou Zhou in playing, so he just stood by and watched the eager Zhou Zhou.

“Anyway, it’s a dating game where you take quests to earn NPC affection, right?”

The game’s beginner instructions came in the form of a letter given to the player by an NPC. After reading it, Zhou Zhou summarized it skillfully. In his view, this game was similar to Love Academy, just a different packaging, extremely easy for a professional NPC like him.

There were many NPCs available to pursue, of different professions, races, and genders. Zhou Zhou chose Lillith, the elven girl ranked first.

Their first quest was to go to the herb shop to purchase potions, while also gaining the affection of the shop owner Lillith.

Zhou Zhou brought Al along to do quests. He truly lived up to being a professional dating NPC, tasks that would take others several days, Zhou Zhou completed in just a few hours, and the elven girl’s affection level also reached 90%.  At this point, Lilith shyly invited them to go herb gathering in the mountains with her.

“Once we come back from gathering herbs together, her affection will become 100%,” Zhou Zhou confidently told Alvia.

Alvia was just going through the motions the whole time. Although he did the quests together with Zhou Zhou, his own affection level was less than half. Fortunately, this dating game had a relatively high degree of freedom, allowing players to do daily quests to earn gold coins in addition to the story route quests, so Alvia mainly observed Zhou Zhou doing quests.

Watching him earnestly pursue the elven girl, Alvia’s feelings were very complicated. Seeing the person he liked pursuing someone else, even though that someone else was just an NPC in the game, made his heart clench even more when he recalled that Zhou Zhou himself was also an NPC, making their identities seem even more matched.

Lilith moved nimbly and gracefully along the steep cliffs. The game’s modeling was truly well done, fully displaying the girl’s liveliness and vivaciousness, with her features and figure looking very natural and realistic.

“Zhou Zhou, this is for you.”

The elven girl handed Zhou Zhou the freshly picked flowers, her shy yet somewhat expectant gaze revealing her intentions to anyone.

Just as Zhou Zhou was about to accept the bouquet, Al intercepted it midway.

“Let me hold it for you.”

“Al, I’ll take it myself, it’s from Lilith to me.”

“Since it’s given to you, you can re-gift it to me. We’re the best of friends, aren’t we?”

This statement hit Zhou Zhou’s weakness: “But…” But he hadn’t even received the flowers himself yet, so re-gifting them didn’t seem quite right.

Meanwhile, the elven girl whose “random passerby” had taken her flowers showed no reaction to the matter.

As Zhou Zhou and Alvia were still debating who should hold and receive the flowers, Lilith suddenly said: “There’s a legend in the elf tribe that if a pair of lovers can find the red elf flower, it means they will be together forever. Zhou Zhou, will you accompany me to find the elf flower?”

Zhou Zhou realized this was the key to raising the final 10% affection, and immediately agreed. Alvia observed coldly, feeling that this game was really too boring. So why was such a boring game ranked number one for dating games?

Zhou Zhou and Alvia followed the elven girl to the highest peak, where Lilith described the appearance and color of the elf flower to Zhou Zhou, saying she had seen seedlings here before and that these few days were the time they would bloom.

Zhou Zhou searched earnestly while Alvia, though just going through the motions, still followed Zhou Zhou and casually swept the ground with the bouquet he held.

“Ah.” Suddenly there was a cry of surprise from behind. Zhou Zhou and Alvia turned to see that somehow, Lilith had fallen off the cliff edge. She was now tightly gripping a rock on the cliff with one hand, dangling above the deep abyss below.

Zhou Zhou immediately ran over: “Lilith, hold on, I’m coming to save you!”

But when he grabbed Lilith’s hand, he found he couldn’t pull her up at all. Zhou Zhou exerted all his strength, but the slender elven girl didn’t budge, still hanging off the cliff.

Zhou Zhou turned to Alvia for help, so they both tried pulling together, but still couldn’t get her up.

“This game has reduced the player’s physical strength,” Alvia instantly realized the reason. As a full holographic game not focused on combat, it reduced the players’ real physical attributes to put everyone on an equal starting level.

In other words, it wasn’t that Lilith was too heavy, but that they were currently too weak.

“Then what should we do?” Zhou Zhou asked.

Before Alvia could speak, Lilith shouted from below: “Zhou Zhou, I can’t hold on any longer, quickly let go!”

Zhou Zhou didn’t say anything, only continuing to pull upwards with all his effort. Although he knew this was just a game, and the NPCs inside were different from him, their behaviors pre-programmed without true life, Zhou Zhou couldn’t let go in this situation.

“Zhou Zhou, let me go. You must find someone better than me in the future, and forever forget me, so you won’t be sad and heartbroken.”

Zhou Zhou: “I will definitely get you back up, don’t give up.”

Alvia: “……”

Watching the contrived tears and drama from Lilith, Alvia was utterly unmoved, silently wondering if he had chosen the wrong game.

“Zhou Zhou, I have a secret to tell you. The truth is, I’ve liked you for a long time.” Lilith’s eyes filled with tears, her lips trembling as she spoke those words, then let go of her grip.

Although the two of them had been grasping her wrists and arms, when Lilith intentionally released her hand, that arm suddenly became impossible to hold onto, leaving them both unable to get a solid grip.

They could only watch helplessly as Lilith fell from the cliff.

The last scene they saw was Lilith’s tears sliding down her cheeks as she fell in an exceedingly tragic pose, slowly plummeting down.

“Lilith!” Zhou Zhou lay at the cliff’s edge, arm outstretched as he cried out in anguish.

Alvia: “……”

【Lilith fell off the cliff and died, route failed!】

Seeing Zhou Zhou’s dejected state, Alvia tentatively asked: “Do you want to continue?”

“Hm?” Zhou Zhou seemed not to have recovered yet.

“Try pursuing Lilith again?”

“Can we?” Zhou Zhou stood up from the cliff edge, clenching his fists resolutely. “This time, I definitely won’t let her die.”

【Lilith was bitten by a poisonous snake and died, route failed!】

【Lilith was killed by bandits, route failed!】

【Lilith tripped over a tree root and fell to her death, route failed!】

After countless attempts, Zhou Zhou finally gave up.

He looked up worriedly: “Lilith really is a short-lived girl, I can’t save her.”

Alvia went from speechless to finding it laughable. Even without playing dating games before, he knew this game was indeed very strange.

“Why don’t you try pursuing a different character?” Seeing Zhou Zhou’s dejected expression, Alvia suggested.

Zhou Zhou had lost the passion he had when first entering the game, but he still wanted to try. Lilith, an NPC who couldn’t be saved by any means, should be the minority, right?

This time, Zhou Zhou chose a male human prince NPC from the game, a blond with blue eyes, while their roles were to be the prince’s bodyguards.

Through various quests early on, Zhou Zhou raised the prince’s affection to 95%. After that, Zhou Zhou started being wary of anything that could potentially happen around them.

Based on his previous experience, even a rope or blade of grass could lead to the prince’s death.

However, this time seemed to go much more smoothly, with the prince not encountering any accidents.

Just when Zhou Zhou had finally relaxed, thinking Lilith’s case was an outlier, the prince was assassinated.

As bodyguards, they naturally had to protect the prince. Although Zhou Zhou couldn’t fight, as a bodyguard he only needed to go through the motions to successfully fend off the assassins.

Just as he was easily taking care of the last few sword-wielding assassins running around, the prince who had been hiding in the protection circle suddenly rushed out, spreading his arms to shield Zhou Zhou.

The assassin’s sword, which couldn’t really cause any harm, or at least one that even an outsider like Zhou Zhou could easily dodge, plunged straight into the prince’s chest.

Blood sprayed out, dyeing the prince’s magnificent clothes red.

Zhou Zhou was dumbstruck. He supported the quickly deteriorating prince, who knelt on the ground. He wanted to ask if something was wrong, the battlefield was practically cleared, yet he had charged right into the sword.

Compared to the extremely unlucky Lilith meeting all kinds of accidents, this one had clearly chosen to seek death himself.

“Zhou Zhou, I… I’m sorry, for treating you so badly all this time. The truth is, I was doing all those annoying things because I like you and wanted your attention. I’m about to die, can you forgive me?”

At a time like this, what could Zhou Zhou say except nod miserably in agreement.

“That’s great, I hope… I hope in the next life, I can meet you sooner.” After saying those words, the prince closed his eyes with a faint smile.

【The human prince was assassinated and died, route failed!】

Alvia: “……” He had definitely chosen the wrong game, normal dating games wouldn’t do this.

Zhou Zhou sat dazed and lost. He suddenly began doubting life itself, was he just not cut out for dating games, resulting in a bad ending every time?

Alvia took another look at the game’s rating. This game was indeed the top-rated dating game, it’s just… he hadn’t read the reviews before.

“Hahahahaha, this game is honestly too fun, everyone come and play!”

“You absolutely can’t miss this, the craziest dating game in history, makes you want to smash the developers every minute.”

“So much fun, I’ve replayed the same character’s route hundreds of times already, hahahaha I’m not crazy.”

“Who up there said it was fun? Die!”

“A tearjerking love story, a heart-wrenching tale of life and death, just what masochists love in a game.”

“Is it really that fun? Everyone’s comments seem so hyped up.”

“Go play it, highly recommended. After this game, you’ll understand the true meaning of life, just being alive is enough!”

The comment section showed many people were going insane, desperately trying to pull others into this hellish game and share their suffering.

If Alvia had read the reviews while searching for a dating game, he would have definitely noticed something was off. But his mind was a mess after being rejected by Zhou Zhou, so he missed those details, leading to Zhou Zhou now doubting life like the other players.

“Why don’t we try a different game? What other genre did you want to play?” For once, Alvia felt a bit guilty.

Zhou Zhou slowly blinked, having rarely shown this state since his connection to this world grew stronger. After a while, he replied: “Anything is fine.”

Alvia immediately exited the game with Zhou Zhou. Let’s go to a combat game instead. The students had just returned from outdoor training this year, so there should be many wandering around the holographic games. This would be a good chance for Zhou Zhou to interact more with young people. And perhaps after a few invigorating battles, Zhou Zhou would recover his usual demeanor.