Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 119

Chapter 119: The Real World 17

Zhou Zhou’s sudden disappearance, as well as what he had just said, the combined force of the two clearly startled those present.

The two subordinates grabbing Zhou Zhou instinctively tried to grab him as he disappeared, but ended up clutching at thin air. They stared in shock, the lingering sensation on their palms making the two realize that what had just happened was no illusion.

They couldn’t help but step back, their eyes searching all around for any trace of Zhou Zhou. The others also looked around their surroundings with suspicion, their eyes undoubtedly revealing their horror and disbelief.

Alan didn’t believe in ghosts and spirits, but for a living person to disappear right before his eyes was indeed eerie. For a moment, the people in the control room seemed to have forgotten Alan’s brutality, occasionally someone would shout in panic, asking where that person had gone, as if talking about a ghost.

His heart was extremely vexed, but a trace of fear also emerged. In the face of the unknown, even the seemingly fearless Alan could not help but feel a sense of awe.

Xia Yan was also rendered speechless for a moment. He was more rational than the others, and the current Empire had clearly not yet developed teleportation technology, so where had Zhou Zhou gone?

Zhou Zhou’s disappearance caused everyone’s mood to change, fear, horror, suspicion, all their thoughts revolved around him.

And the very person everyone was fixated on, Zhou Zhou, actually reappeared in the same spot a few dozen seconds later.

“Fuck!”

“There’s a ghost!”

The caught-off-guard crowd hurriedly backed away, if they were just startled and suspicious before, now they were truly frightened.

Alan, who was closest to Zhou Zhou, almost fell over as he retreated backwards.

“What kind of thing are you?” he shouted fiercely at Zhou Zhou.

“I…”

He had only said one word before he disappeared again.

After a few seconds, he reappeared.

“Of course…”

It was as if his signal kept cutting in and out, Zhou Zhou’s whole body disappearing and reappearing, appearing and disappearing again, back and forth several times, unable to complete a full sentence.

Looking at the group he had frightened, this should count as achieving his goal, Zhou Zhou thought with a mix of laughter and tears.

He now guessed that this situation was caused by him being over fifty meters away from the bracelet.

But what was with the appearing and disappearing, did Al keep jumping back and forth across the fifty-meter connection?

Uh…he didn’t think Al would do something like that.

Quite a few people had already retreated to the farthest corner, looking at Zhou Zhou with awe and fear.

Unable to kill or capture him, Zhou Zhou passively took advantage of the bracelet’s ability to plunge everyone present into panic.

Those closest to the exit suddenly ran toward the door, now they couldn’t care less about Alan, only wanting to get as far away from Zhou Zhou as possible. Seeing them flee, the others followed along the edge of the room, also trying to run out together.

However, when the first person reached the entrance, the control room door suddenly closed shut.

There was a display screen to the right of the main door where a password could be entered to unlock it. The first escapee hurriedly entered the password, but the door still didn’t open.

“What’s going on? We can’t get out!”

“Why can’t it be opened?”

The others pulled the person away from the display screen, but no matter how many times they tried, the control room’s main door remained motionless.

More and more people gathered at the entrance, and finding that they couldn’t open the door with the password, they tried other methods. However, the quality of this spacecraft was clearly good, and no matter if they bombarded it or used other means, they couldn’t open the door.

“Let us out!”

“Open the door!”

Alan’s subordinates shouted as they pounded on the door, to no avail.

Suddenly someone thought of Zhou Zhou, everything had been fine before this person boarded the ship, but after he came on board, strange occurrences kept happening frequently. It must be him doing something!

“It’s you!” someone pointed at Zhou Zhou and shouted loudly.

“What?” Zhou Zhou was utterly confused.

“You must have closed the door, trying to let us die in here!”

Zhou Zhou felt wronged: “…I didn’t do anything.”

Besides initially dodging around at the very start, he really hadn’t done anything, but these people clearly didn’t believe him, cursing at him to immediately open the door.

After all, they all had blood on their hands. The way they roared and shouted with ferocious looks did seem rather threatening, but they still remained by the door, not daring to move a step towards Zhou Zhou’s direction, so their threat lacked imposing force, instead looking more like cornered beasts.

Unable to open the control room’s main door, Alan immediately realized the problem. Important areas on the ship all required a password to enter, and the passwords would only become ineffective if the ship entered safe mode, locking all the major doors. Only he knew how to activate safe mode.

This was originally set up to prevent mutiny on the ship, but now he clearly hadn’t done anything, so why would safe mode be activated?

Alan couldn’t be bothered to deal with Zhou Zhou for now, and hurriedly searched the ship’s system for the reason. Being inherently suspicious, he kept the most critical controls in his own hands, never handing them over to others.

Although he seemed quick-tempered and irascible, as a former prince, Alan was highly skilled in operating spacecraft. Over the years of being on the run, he rarely left this ship, so he was as familiar with it as his own limbs.

But now, he had lost control of the ship.

Cold sweat broke out on Alan’s back, how was this possible? To change the control authority, the original owner’s consent was required, but he hadn’t done anything!  Why had he lost control?

His fingers trembled slightly as he tapped on the screen faster, trying to regain control of the ship through his past experience, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t succeed. Worse still, the ship was even automatically attempting to connect to the interstellar network.

His actions betrayed a hint of impatience, stabbing at the screen with such force that even Xia Yan couldn’t help but glance over repeatedly.

At this moment, Alan did not display his emotions like usual, although he knew that once the ship connected to the interstellar network, this unregistered large spacecraft would immediately be exposed to official view, and Zeus could trace the network to find his location and take over the intruding ship’s systems.

He had been in hiding for so many years, just about to succeed, he couldn’t possibly fail!

Alan thought indignantly. He had already captured Alvia… Wait, where was Alvia?

Alan suddenly raised his head. Alvia! It must be him!

“I’m just standing here, I haven’t done anything. Did you guys forget the password?” Zhou Zhou explained slowly.

“Impossible! There’s so many of us, we can’t all have forgotten it. It was fine before, you must have done something!”

Zhou Zhou reasoned seriously, “Think about it, you guys brought me in here, and after I came in I’ve been in your line of sight the whole time, when could I have done anything?”

“Besides…” Zhou Zhou took a step forward as he spoke, and the group of desperate fugitives actually shrank back nervously.

Zhou Zhou pursed his lips, struggling not to laugh. Did he really look that scary? Maybe he could go back to his old job, return to the instance to be an NPC, change careers from romance NPC to horror NPC, the effect might not be bad.

“Besides, this is your ship, even if there’s an issue with the password, you can unlock it through other means, don’t just pin it on me. I can’t pick locks, I can’t just wave my hand to open the door, right?”

Zhou Zhou casually gestured towards the door. He had intended to use their reactions to find out who had the highest control over the ship. If that person was in the control room, he could try to control them. If not here, as long as he knew their name or appearance, he could capture them later if he had the chance.

However, after he finished speaking and pointed at the locked door, that very door suddenly opened.

The crowd gathered at the entrance looked at Zhou Zhou with even more bizarre expressions.

It really was him!

Zhou Zhou held up his hands in embarrassment, what a coincidence.

He discreetly withdrew his hand, gazing suspiciously at the door as he said softly, “Close.”

The door actually closed again.

“Open?”

The not-fully-closed door opened once more.

Those present were now convinced that Zhou Zhou was behind these strange happenings. Even those who had been on this ship for many years had never seen such a scene before, a door that should only open with a password being casually opened and closed by an outsider.

Xia Yan also sensed the abnormality. Of course he wouldn’t think it was some ghost or spirit nonsense. If Zhou Zhou could open the door at will, did that mean he had control of the ship? Xia Yan immediately looked towards Alan and saw beads of sweat on his forehead, his fingers rapidly tapping the screen with a slight tremble.

Had the control authority been taken away?

Xia Yan knew Alvia was highly proficient in software systems and the like, and could be the only one capable of this, but he clearly wasn’t in the control room. How had he seized control then?

Xia Yan couldn’t figure these questions out, but it didn’t stop him from realizing Alan could no longer be relied upon.

If he couldn’t even keep control of the ship, how could he hope to capture Alvia? It seemed he had chosen the wrong person.

Xia Yan signaled with one arm behind his back, out of sight of the others.

Only a few people realized this, while most still believed Zhou Zhou must have done something. Recalling the legends about this planet, they finally couldn’t hold it together anymore. The first person dashed out as soon as the door opened, prompting several others to flee from the control room as well.

They had never been truly loyal to Alan, only following him for the money. Now faced with such bizarre events, they only cared about saving themselves, how could they bother with Alan’s situation?

Alan couldn’t be bothered with this group either. After many failed attempts to regain control, he finally panicked.

He began to regret not immediately killing Alvia when he had the chance, but now it was too late for regrets.

His options now were to either immediately escape, or take a hostage to threaten Alvia.

But the potential hostage Zhou Zhou was too bizarre, using some unknown method to randomly disappear. Such a tactic was too unreliable.

If Alan were truly just a simple-minded fool, he wouldn’t have survived until now. After some quick thinking, he prepared to abandon this ship and flee. But simply giving up like that wasn’t his style either.

Stopping his actions, Alan let out a cold laugh and strode towards the entrance, his steps steady. A few of his subordinates followed closely behind, and Xia Yan’s gaze flickered as he went after them too.

Zhou Zhou couldn’t be killed and could disappear at will, so he was useless to Alan.

At this moment, the control room door was closed. Earlier, Zhou Zhou had tried to see if he could really open and close the main door at will by voice control, finding it was possible. He had closed the door again, not opening it no matter what the others said.

Zhou Zhou was already regretting that the first few people had run out. What if they encountered Alvia outside? It was better if they were all trapped in here together since these people couldn’t do anything to him anyway.

But as Alan approached the door, it opened without warning.

He hadn’t said anything, had he? Zhou Zhou looked over puzzled, meeting eyes with Alvia standing outside the door.

“Al!” Zhou Zhou immediately waved happily in greeting.

Alvia stood at the entrance, and not far behind him lay a pile of people, those who had just run out earlier.

When the door opened, Alvia’s gaze first landed on Zhou Zhou, scanning him to ensure he was unharmed, before looking towards Alan in front.

The two were blood-related brothers, yet their appearances were completely different. One was tall and gracefully built with striking looks, while the other looked haggard and vicious.

Alan stared fixedly at Alvia, who only gave him a casual glance in return.

In front of outsiders, Alvia always appeared exceptionally cold, this expression perfectly normal. But that indifferent glance infuriated Alan, as if in Alvia’s eyes he was just an insignificant gnat that could be ignored.

“Alvia!”

Alan gritted his teeth as he uttered the other’s name. If not for him, if not for Alvia, he would now be the Emperor of the Empire.

All these years, he went to sleep filled with hatred every night, everything he did was to regain the throne. Countless times he fantasized about the expression Alvia would have the next time they met.

Would it be the mocking sneer of a victor, or still cowering in fear of him? No matter the attitude, it would never be like now, treating him as disposable trash barely worth a glance.

Alvia had no interest in the other’s inner turmoil. Now that he controlled the ship and had connected to the starnet, all he had to do was wait for Zeus to infiltrate every address linked to this spacecraft. These people were already destined to be prisoners, not worth worrying about. As for Alan, the sudden revival of someone who should have died long ago did surprise him a bit, but since he hadn’t died before, killing him now wasn’t too late either.

If it were earlier, he might have spared some thought to properly “catch up” with Alan. But now that he had control of the ship, he could leave the rest to Zeus. All he wanted now was to be with Zhou Zhou.

The disdain completely ignited Alan’s hatred. Suddenly, he brought out his mech suit.

The narrow space was unsuitable for mech combat, but Alan’s purpose in using the mech was to utilize the suit’s large-scale destructive weapons against Alvia.

A white beam of light instantly surged towards Alvia.

The distance between them was too close, no one around had time to react.

The moment Alan brought out the mech, Zhou Zhou had already started running towards the entrance. But he was still no match for Alan’s speed. By the time the particle cannon exploded in the confined space, countless people were blown away by the shockwave, and several subordinates too close even disappeared into the white glare.

The rectangular door melted into a circular shape, the surrounding walls and floors still flowing with molten red metal liquid. Facing such an attack head-on, it was impossible for anyone to survive.

Zhou Zhou was now just a projected energy form, utterly unaffected by the massive shockwave as he urgently ran towards the entrance.

Shouting Alvia’s name, he searched through the billowing smoke for the other.

After passing through the melted circular doorway, Zhou Zhou was suddenly grabbed by the arm.

Just about to resist, Zhou Zhou abruptly realized something and felt up the other’s arm.

“Al?”

“Yeah.”

“You scared me, are you okay?”

As the smoke cleared, Alvia’s figure appeared, looking completely unharmed. “I’m fine, I blocked the attack with spiritual power.”

Only then did Zhou Zhou relax, glancing around to notice the mech was gone and Alan and Xia Yan had disappeared.

“They ran away!”

Alvia had already seen that during the attack, Alan was prepared to flee.

As the person most familiar with this ship, Alan definitely knew other paths to escape now that the main exits were under Alvia’s control.

“It’s okay, don’t worry, they can’t run.”

Alvia remained calm. Besides Zeus, he had other contingencies in place. Whether Alan or Xia Yan, not a single one could escape.