Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 116

Chapter 116: The Real World 14

A few small spaceships remained outside the planet, while only the most massive spacecraft slowly descended towards the ground.

Rolling clouds of dust spread outward in waves, and even though Zhou Zhou and Alvia were quite far from the spacecraft, they could still see the gray tidal waves stirred up by the massive spacecraft’s descent, and even feel the surging airflow caused by its landing.

Zhou Zhou’s expression was grave as he gently squeezed Alvia’s hand: “They should have a lot of people.”

That spacecraft was even larger than the starship they had traveled on, because Alvia had reduced the number of crew members for this secretive trip, so they couldn’t use a massive spacecraft that would attract too much attention.

However, in this border star domain, since there was only one entry and exit route, it was too dangerous for outsiders to come here often, so this place had become a haven for lawless individuals.

Both starships and heavy weapons could be easily purchased here, and one could even openly take them out without any issues.

This was a lingering poison left behind by the empire. In the past, they didn’t have the resources to deal with it, but now that they knew this star domain had become infected, they had to root out the entire source of the poison to thoroughly cleanse the domain and allow it to be reborn.

Alvia’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked towards the distant spacecraft. Although his spiritual power had not fully recovered yet, it was enough to deal with these people.

Zhou Zhou was also thinking of a way to handle the situation. Just from looking at that spacecraft, he knew the enemy must have a lot of people. Perhaps they could find an opportunity to seize the spacecraft. If they could gain control of the spacecraft, they would have a way to deal with these people.

“Don’t worry, my spiritual power is enough.” Zhou Zhou was still pondering how they could seize control of the spacecraft when he heard Alvia’s voice. Only then did he recall that in the interstellar age, spiritual power could do many things. Although he hadn’t systematically understood spiritual power, based on what Al said, he intended to use his spiritual power to deal with these people?

Zhou Zhou pursed his lips, looking worried: “But the doctor said you passed out because your spiritual power was exhausted.”

“I’ve recovered some of it. We just need to wait for them to come to us now.”

In the distance, the spacecraft had already landed on the ground, its lights flashing in the darkness, brazenly announcing its presence.

Zhou Zhou fell silent for a moment: “What do you think, could we take this opportunity to seize control of the spacecraft? After all, there are only two of us, so we definitely can’t defeat them head-on. But if we gain control of the spacecraft, we can use its weapons to attack them instead.”

Zhou Zhou rarely panicked, and even now, he could still calmly analyze the best course of action. Alvia’s gaze softened slightly. This trip, he had deliberately brought Zhou Zhou along for two reasons: first, he wanted to spend more time with Zhou Zhou; and second, he had known all along that this was Mo Lan’s hometown, as Zhou Zhou had once casually mentioned that Mo Lan had invited him to visit her home planet as a guest.

It just so happened that his destination on this trip was the 24th star domain, so after they finished their business there, he could take Zhou Zhou to tour this planet.

That was his original plan, but he hadn’t expected they would encounter trouble midway and arrive here ahead of schedule.

He had made Zhou Zhou worry unnecessarily.

Although the ambush was beyond his expectations, he wouldn’t let the remaining events cause Zhou Zhou any further concerns.

“I was thinking the same thing. We’ll wait for them to come to us here, and after they bring us onto the spacecraft, I can use my spiritual power to take control of it.”

Zhou Zhou suddenly turned towards him: “But what if they don’t plan to bring us onto the spacecraft? After all, they didn’t hold back before in the wormhole, so they might just attack and try to kill us as soon as they discover us.”

His face was full of disapproval, the smooth, fair features looking extremely serious. Alvia felt his mood lift, and the more he looked at Zhou Zhou like this, the cuter he found him.

“Why are you smiling?” Their current situation was already quite dire.

“If it were before, they very well might have tried to kill us. But now, that’s impossible.” Alvia’s gaze towards the distant spacecraft held a chilling coldness. Several hours had passed since their incident, and to stabilize the situation, Aileen would definitely take action.

No matter who the enemy was, if they wanted to obtain the maximum value, the best approach would be to capture him alive.

This was their opportunity.

On the other side, after the spacecraft landed, Alan immediately ordered his subordinates to go capture Alvia.

Xia Yan lightly tapped his finger, his gaze lifting slightly: “Wait, this planet isn’t that small. Relying solely on them to search is like finding a needle in a haystack. We don’t have that much time.”

Alan let out a cold snort. He didn’t like it when others tried to instruct him. Considering their current cooperation, he simply responded with a cold expression: “You don’t need to worry about that. My people naturally have a way to handle it.”

Sensing the other’s impatience, Xia Yan didn’t say anything further.

He only looked out the window into the darkness, a sudden sense of foreboding welling up inside him.

“Your Highness, what if we encounter the native residents of this planet?” a subordinate asked.

Alan glanced at the person who spoke: “Didn’t they say this planet only has ghosts? Hmph, our operation this time cannot be known by others. Besides Alvia, the rest…”

He made a gesture, which meant to kill them all.

The people following Alan were extremely familiar with his way of handling things, so they didn’t ask any further questions. They immediately prepared to lead a team off the spacecraft.

“Oh, if you encounter Alvia’s little lover, don’t kill him, bring him back too.” Alan suddenly remembered this person’s existence, and he was now more interested in this person than Alvia.

Several hundred people came out from the spacecraft. The well-trained teams rode flying vessels, advancing in different directions.

Alvia used his spiritual power to carefully sense their advancing directions and movement speeds. After a short while, his gaze shifted past the darkness to look even further away, the corners of his mouth curving into a slight arc: “It seems we’re not fighting alone.”

What did that mean? Zhou Zhou, still pondering countermeasures, was completely baffled. He stared blankly at Alvia’s smiling expression for a moment before suddenly realizing: “You mean Mo Lan and the others…”

Alvia nodded. He had originally thought that when Mo Lan said that earlier, she meant they would resolve the troubles he had brought, and the Mo tribe wouldn’t get involved. But now it seemed they had only taken the elderly and children to a safe place, while almost all the able-bodied youth had been mobilized.

The darkness provided them with the best concealment. The ghostly Mo tribe chose to help them while also protecting their own homeland.

“It seems we owe them a great favor,” Alvia said with a sigh. Although he could have resolved the situation himself, his spiritual power had not fully recovered yet, so the assistance from these people would definitely save him a lot of effort.

Zhou Zhou’s first reaction was worry.

“What if Mo Lan and the others get hurt?”

“Have faith in your friends. They are not weak.” Because he understood the habits and characteristics of the Mo tribe well, Alvia knew these people could not harm them.

“What should we do now?” Zhou Zhou asked again. He wanted to resolve this matter as quickly as possible, but to seize control of the spacecraft, they had to get inside first. He didn’t know who the enemy was or what their true purpose was, so he couldn’t make the best judgment.

In this aspect, Al was more skilled than him.

Alvia: “Join me in acting out a play. This might turn out to be an unforgettable experience.”

Zhou Zhou muttered: “…It’s already an unforgettable experience now.”

The people who came down from the spacecraft split into eight small teams, each riding a flying vessel and heading in different directions.

Each team carried corresponding equipment that could detect human heat signatures within a certain range. They just needed to advance while following the reactions on their instruments to locate the heat sources. Once they found Alvia and Zhou Zhou, they would bring them back, while killing everyone else without exception.

The third small team happened to be heading in the direction where Zhou Zhou and Alvia were located. However, they were still too far away from the two and would need some time to reach them.

Meanwhile, the first team to make contact with the native residents of this planet was the ninth squad.

They had arrived at a forest, and the lights from their flying vessel illuminated the trees, occasionally startling oddly-shaped small animals that would screech and flee from the noise and low-altitude flight. The squad leader signaled for the vessel to stop, as the instrument showed there were several people in this area.

However, the readings on the instrument were somewhat strange. The heat signatures were not only moving rapidly but would also suddenly disappear, only to reappear elsewhere a short while later. The numbers were constantly changing as well.

Was it malfunctioning?

The squad leader tapped the instrument, but the display still didn’t return to normal, with many red dots continually blinking, disappearing, and reappearing at new locations.

Although the instrument seemed unreliable, it was only showing reactions in this forest area, indicating there were definitely people present here.

“Go check it out.”

The flying vessel landed in the forest. The ninth squad, carrying weapons, cautiously disembarked from the vessel.

Nearby were many local trees with an eerie, glowing green luminescence. They looked extremely bizarre, but these people had experienced many storms and seen many strange plants before, so glowing trees didn’t faze them much.

One squad member tensed up as soon as he left the vessel. Many people knew the legends about this planet, and he had grown up hearing those tales too. Now that he was truly here, he was filled with nothing but anxiety and caution.

Those were just made-up stories. With so many of them here, nothing bad could happen. The young squad member consoled himself, but then suddenly noticed something seemed to flit across a distant tree branch.

“Who’s there!” The squad member shouted, immediately opening fire towards the tree branch.

The sound of the attack alerted the others. Not knowing what had gone wrong, the other members who heard the attack joined in firing in all directions.

The attack sounds gradually diminished until the surroundings fell silent, with only the rustling of wind through the leaves.

The ground was littered with glowing green branches and leaves that had been shot down in the earlier barrage.

“Who fired the first shot!” the squad leader shouted loudly.

The others didn’t know either. They had only heard the attacking sounds, assuming something had been discovered, so they joined in the attack. Especially at night, even with the flying vessel and the luminous trees, the distant areas were still not very visible.

The young man who had fired first slowly stepped forward, still shaken: “I, I saw someone float across the tree branch.”

Someone floated across the tree branch?

The squad leader looked towards the distant branches. The glowing branches had been blasted into a gap, but there were no human shadows to be seen on the ground or above, and the instrument now also showed no one was nearby.

It must have malfunctioned.

The squad leader put the instrument back into his bag and looked sharply at the squad member: “If you discover an issue, report it first. Next time something like this happens, you can explain it directly to the prince yourself.”

Upon hearing about explaining directly to the prince, the squad member’s shoulders shrank slightly, and the others lowered their heads too.

Prince Alan had countless ways of punishing people. Many squad members hadn’t died on missions but were instead tortured to death by the prince himself. So no one wanted to directly face the ill-tempered prince.

After this incident, the atmosphere in the ninth squad became extremely tense. Everyone was paying attention to their surroundings. As they gradually moved away from the flying vessel, the dim visibility and rugged trees greatly hindered their search progress. The leader no longer looked at the instrument but instead relied on his own spiritual power to explore.

For those with high spiritual power, they could indeed use it to explore their surroundings after training. But in this forest, the traces of the Mo tribe had been concealed by Alvia’s spiritual power.

The highest level of spiritual power was completely different from ordinary people’s spiritual power, as if they had been shielded. No matter how much these people used their spiritual power, they could not detect the Mo tribe’s presence at all.

Soon, as this group continued searching in the forest, someone finally noticed that people around them had gone missing.

There had clearly been several people behind him, but now not a single one remained.

The man looked warily behind him, a creeping sense of horror arising within him. He gripped his weapon tightly, swallowing hard nervously. Just as he was about to call out to the people in front, he felt something seemed to have wrapped around his feet.

A chilling sensation crept up from his ankles to envelop his entire body. Before he could cry out for help, his whole being vanished.

One of the people in front sensed the unusual atmosphere behind him and whipped his head around, only then realizing the people behind were gone.

He quickly reported this to the squad leader, and everyone stopped in their tracks, forming a tight circle to monitor their surroundings.

“Turn on the lights!” the leader shouted loudly.

They had already moved out of the flying vessel’s illumination range. The glowing green trees were not numerous, only able to dimly light a small area around them. So they turned on the portable lights they were carrying and realized they had been surrounded without realizing it.

Not far away, figures in long black robes with long black hair completely covering their faces stood among the bushes, behind trees, and on branches.

They had similar forms, like ghosts standing in different positions, their robes and long hair swaying gently in the breeze, appearing completely inhuman.

“Who’s there!” the leader bellowed.

None of them responded, only slowly drifting forward and gradually tightening the encirclement.

“Those are ghosts! The legends were true!” one squad member shouted in alarm.

His panic and terror infected the others, and many began trembling and backing away.

The leader thought this was bad, at this rate, the squad would psychologically collapse even before combat began.

“These people are just putting on an act. What are you all standing around for! Attack immediately!” The leader’s voice was like a thunderclap in the darkness, jolting many to remember the weapons in their hands. They immediately opened fire haphazardly at the figures they could see.

But contrary to their imagined scene of the enemy falling to the ground, none of their attacks had any effect. Lasers and bullets even passed straight through the black-robed figures, continuing towards the trees behind.

The splashing sparks and glaring lights allowed the ninth squad to see more clearly how these black-robed figures were steadily closing the distance between them.

The squad members’ palms were drenched in sweat, some even unable to hold their weapons steady.

They didn’t fear ferocious beasts or hail of bullets on the battlefield, but this unknown dread was truly unbearable.

What were these things?

The night wind gusted intermittently, a refreshing breeze followed by a wild gale.

The trees rustled and swayed violently, and the black robes and long hair of those figures were whipped open by the strong wind.

With their hair no longer obscuring their faces, the Mo tribe’s faces were exposed to these people.

Countless pale faces with pitch-black eyes devoid of whites stared at them unblinkingly.

Ghosts!!!