Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 126

Chapter 126: New Love Academy 4

“There’s one more.” Alvia took an eyeball from Zhou Zhou’s shoulder and handed that eye to Zhou Zhou as well. After getting his eyes in place properly, Zhou Zhou smiled at Alvia, then turned his head.

“Huh? Where is he?”

The player from before had disappeared.

“He ran away early.”

“Did I scare him?”

“No.” Alvia glanced at the NPC striding angrily toward them from the stairs, and calmly said, “That NPC is chasing him.”

The approaching NPC was beautiful, except that her head looked like it had been hacked with half her brain exposed, not bleeding but just a red and white mass of brain matter that made one’s head crawl just looking at it.

She seemed to not notice the two people beside her, her gaze fixed on the fleeing player, the knife in her hand glinting coldly as she shouted toward the escaping player, “How dare you try to run away, I’ll kill you!”

The two stood by the wall, watching as the NPC ran off with a ghastly look, chasing the player.

“I feel like adding some bleeding effects would make it better,” Zhou Zhou said thoughtfully, watching the stairwell from which screams were coming.

But the game currently didn’t allow too much graphic violence, so that idea had to be regretfully abandoned.

Alvia stared at Zhou Zhou, suddenly reaching out and gouging out one of his eyeballs.

“It’s backwards.”

The sudden action startled a passing player, who slowly backed away and went around the two.

“Is that so? But it should look about the same whether the eye is forwards or backwards, right?”

“No, it’s different. The iris colors of the two eyes are slightly different.”

Zhou Zhou raised his head obediently to let Alvia fix his eyes. “I didn’t notice any difference between my two eyes before.”

“The left iris is a little lighter in color. There, it’s fixed now.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Zhou Zhou blinked his eyes. If there was a mirror now, he would definitely want to check the difference between the two eyes that he had never noticed before.

“Do you have anywhere you want to go now?” Alvia naturally took Zhou Zhou’s hand again after fixing his eyes.

Zhou Zhou glanced at him. “We can’t leave yet, we have to wait an hour.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, a player rushed past them from behind, running toward the window at the end of the hallway.

This was the third floor, not too high up, so the trapped player decided to jump out the window to leave the building.

He leapt straight out the open window, his figure immediately disappearing.

But the next moment he reappeared by the window again, staggering forward two steps, staring around in disbelief. He had just jumped out the window, so why was he back here?

The sound of metal scraping on the floor came from behind the two, the grating noise making Zhou Zhou and Alvia turn their heads. A boy in a bloodstained white suit slowly approached, head down, dragging a large pair of sharp, shiny silver shears that looked menacingly sharp.

His slow steps had a stiff quality as he passed the two without a glance, heading straight for the player by the window.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Not knowing what had happened, the player screamed hysterically, seeing his escape route cut off. The player jumped out the window again.

But the next second, the familiar scene reappeared and he was back in front of the window once more.

And the NPC was getting closer and closer.

The player’s eyes showed panic, and suddenly he noticed the two leisurely people in the hallway and immediately called out to them for help.

Zhou Zhou looked back and forth a few times, confirming that the player’s gaze fell on Alvia.

One of them had a affection rating displayed, the other a countdown, their identities were clear at a glance. Now these players couldn’t even hide from the NPCs they encountered, so Alvia was the only one they could call out to for help.

Alvia remained unmoved. Putting aside that this was just a game where being killed didn’t actually mean death, Imperial citizens were taught some self-defense skills in school, so they could absolutely escape from the NPC if they resisted, or even better, if they noticed Alvia and Zhou Zhou’s interactions, the smarter ones should be able to realize something from that.

Panicking senselessly was no better than just being killed by the NPC and regaining clarity afterwards.

In this instance, Alvia and Zhou Zhou could be considered special cases, since the instance designer was right here, Alvia was just tagging along to explore. But their actions were still somewhat limited by the instance rules. If these fleeing players thought carefully, they would realize the NPC’s behavior depended entirely on the players’ attitudes. If they couldn’t even notice that, then they wouldn’t be able to pass the later game anyway.

Unlike before when Zhou Zhou would try to save anyone, since this was his own designed game scene, when he saw this situation he just tugged on the silent Alvia. “He’s calling out to you for help.”

Zhou Zhou’s gaze was clear, simply stating the fact that he was curiously watching the player still calling for help and the NPC.

“Do you want to save him?” Alvia didn’t mind either way, if Zhou Zhou wanted to save the other person, he would rescue them. But for the current Zhou Zhou, he was on the NPC side in this situation.

Zhou Zhou glanced at the countdown displayed above Alvia’s head, then said with a strange expression, “We’ll be in peril ourselves soon.”

What did that mean?

Alvia was still puzzling over what “in peril ourselves” meant and why they would be in that situation, when he suddenly whipped his head around to look down the now deserted hallway.

Ignoring the noisy player and NPC on the other side, the hallway was brightly lit, yet inexplicably gave off a strange atmosphere, as if something unseen was gradually approaching.

It was getting closer and closer, and not only was Alvia’s gaze alert, but Zhou Zhou was also focusing intently on their surroundings.

Even though they didn’t see anything, the expressions of both of them were extremely grave.

Closer and closer.

“Bang!”

Alvia hugged Zhou Zhou and dodged to the side.

And the quick-reacting Zhou Zhou pulled Alvia into a run the next second. At the spot where they had just been standing, a huge pit suddenly appeared.

The flying debris even attracted the player and NPC who were about to commit a tragedy on the other side.

The NPC seemed unfazed, her expression unchanged despite the sudden situation. The player spat out some dust and stone chips that had flown into his mouth, staring in shock at the spider web-like indentation in the ground.

“What, what happened?”

A giant spiked club emerged from the shattered floor, and then a familiar figure slowly materialized as well.

“Isn’t that the dorm supervisor?” The player couldn’t make sense of what was going on and why the dorm supervisor was attacking them.

By this time, Zhou Zhou had already pulled Alvia and ran far away.

“With two hours left on the countdown, the two dorm supervisors will eliminate some players for impacting discipline, prioritizing the players with the highest and lowest affection ratings. You have the highest rating here, so the supervisors will chase after us relentlessly unless we find the group with the lowest rating in this building, then they’ll switch targets.”

Zhou Zhou was very familiar with the instance rules. As he explained to Alvia, he looked back the way they had come.

The dorm supervisor who had been standing there was now gone, leaving only the dazed player and the NPC brandishing scissors at the player’s head, itching to try them out.

Alvia had detected the attack at the moment it happened and dodged in time, but now the dorm supervisor behind them had disappeared.

There were no blind spots in the hallway, so where had the supervisor with extreme offensive power gone in that brief ten-odd seconds?

Before he could find the opponent, Alvia suddenly stopped in his tracks and kicked out to the side.

Ripples appeared in the empty space, and the dorm supervisor who had disappeared reappeared disturbingly at their side, the weapon and figure slowly materializing before their eyes.

And Alvia’s kick landed squarely on the weapon in the supervisor’s hand. The expressionless supervisor stared at Alvia, their cold gray eyes motionless as they tightened their grip on the club, but did not move an inch further.

“That’s right, they can turn invisible,” Zhou Zhou quickly reminded. “And if we don’t hurry up and run, the other one will come after us too.”

The instance settings were relatively friendly to the NPCs, but extremely dangerous for players. Each of the dorm supervisor’s attacks aimed directly at Alvia, if not for his high combat stats, he would have been eliminated long ago.

Alvia even had the spare capacity to talk to Zhou Zhou and ask how they could shake off the “pursuit” of the two supervisors. He had come here to spend time alone with Zhou Zhou, and didn’t want to waste time evading the supervisors.

Moreover, the supervisors weren’t like bosses in the game where defeating them would end it. No matter how heavily Alvia struck them, they would be back unharmed and in pursuit shortly after being temporarily shaken off.

It was truly troublesome.

“With one hour left on the countdown, if we haven’t been eliminated, the supervisors will go after other players, and then we can leave.”

At the two-hour mark of the countdown, the players with the highest and lowest affection ratings maxed out hostility, and the two supervisors would only chase those two players, leaving ample time for other players to raise their affection with the NPCs.

But this window was only one hour. If the highest and lowest rated players weren’t eliminated within that hour, they could leave the building. As for the remaining players, they would have to split the supervisors’ hostility evenly.

The players who survived the final hour could also exit the building.

So this period was crucial, a single mistake could lead to elimination.

The player who had entered the building with the lowest affection rating was nowhere to be found, and the two supervisors kept chasing Zhou Zhou and Alvia relentlessly.

Their ability to turn invisible was indeed vexing. Each time, Alvia had to rely on his intuition and subtle air currents to gauge their positions. Since they couldn’t be defeated, the only option was to stall for as much time as possible.

The two wandered around different parts of the building. With ten minutes left before they could leave, Alvia took Zhou Zhou down to the first floor to exit directly once the time was up.

There were quite a few players on the first floor, some fighting their NPCs and others who seemed to have found a way to harmoniously coexist with their NPCs and raise their affection significantly.

Most players didn’t react much to the two rushing down from upstairs. Some recognized Alvia as the first player to enter the building and wanted to chat, but Zhou Zhou shoved them away brusquely.

“What are you doing, are you crazy?”

The player who nearly fell cursed, but the next moment he almost got cleaved in two by the dorm supervisor that suddenly appeared.

The other supervisor deactivated his invisibility, his razor-sharp sword striking sparks against the floor, frightening the nearby players into stillness.

The other players immediately scattered, unable to make sense of the situation.

Alvia dodged the attacks with Zhou Zhou in tow. Soon after, the other supervisor appeared as well, the two of them jointly attacking Alvia.

Letting Zhou Zhou stay in a safe spot nearby, Alvia stretched his wrists and deliberately attacked the dorm supervisors’ legs with his sharp offensive moves, preventing the two supervisors from approaching for the moment.

The other players stood at a distance watching the spectacle, still discussing what had provoked these two fierce-looking dorm supervisors to go after the pair.

Zhou Zhou stood by the side and overheard the players’ discussion. Puzzled, he asked, “Isn’t it written on the quest panel? Didn’t you all look at it?”

“Is it written there?” The players hesitantly opened their quest panels. Previously they had been chased by the NPCs for so long that they hadn’t had time to check the quest panel. Only now did they notice the updated content.

“It explains the countdown, in the first hour, the NPCs go berserk. In the second hour, the dorm supervisors chase after the players with the highest and lowest affection ratings. Wow, I’m lucky my rating is average, or I’d be chased too.”

The player muttered, sounding a bit gleeful at others’ misfortune. These two dorm supervisors were not to be trifled with, it seemed being average had its advantages.

“Huh? There’s another part, in the final hour, they chase the other…”

The player’s voice gradually trailed off as they abruptly looked up at the other players’ countdowns – there were only two minutes left until the final hour!

“Shit!” The player stared in shock at the two dorm supervisors wielding weapons as they relentlessly attacked Alvia. They suddenly jumped up. “Run! These two are about to start chasing us next!”

Saying that, they swiftly pulled their NPC and ran upstairs.

These players lingering on the first floor had all tried to open the main door but failed. So now the only place they could escape to was upstairs.

The nearby players also realized the severity of the situation and followed suit, running upstairs, while the players further away looked on in bewilderment at the others fleeing up.

“Why are you all running?”

Alvia had been mentally counting down the time. Right as the final hour began, he immediately retreated.

True to expectations, the two supervisors did not pursue further, but slowly turned their heads toward the other nearby players instead.

The players: ????

Since the regular players outnumbered them, the supervisors adhered to the closest principle, chasing whoever was nearest. And those still lingering on the first floor were now their targets.

Brandishing their weapons as they chased the players everywhere, the supervisors seemed to not even notice Zhou Zhou and Alvia standing nearby.

The players were on the verge of tears. They hadn’t had a chance to check the quest panel, unaware that the countdown involved so many treacherous rules. They didn’t even have time to tend to their NPCs as they desperately fled in all directions.

The supervisors’ swinging weapons seemed to graze right by their necks, one slow step would mean losing their lives.

As for the NPCs left behind, they stared blankly at their gradually departing players, their expressions turning dangerous as they too drew their weapons.

Zhou Zhou scratched his head and turned to Alvia. “Isn’t this place too difficult? With both the NPCs and supervisors chasing them, the survival rate will be extremely low. There are still other quests ahead, so by the end of the whole instance, probably very few people will be left.”

“It’s okay, there are quite a few loopholes in the rules that they can exploit, so it’s not completely hopeless. It just depends on whether they can discover them.”

Alvia and Zhou Zhou walked toward the exit. As the group with the highest affection rating, they had successfully evaded the dorm supervisors’ pursuit for a full hour and could finally leave.

The main door that other players had tried opening countless times was pushed open effortlessly by Zhou Zhou.

After the two went out, some sharp-eyed players immediately tried to run out as well. But when they reached the entrance, the door seemed to sense their presence and snapped tightly shut, refusing to open no matter how hard the players pushed.

“I’m reporting this! There’s foul play! Why could they leave but we can’t go out?” a player shouted loudly.

His voice also drew the attention of the two dorm supervisors, who glanced menacingly in his direction…

The commotion inside the building was none of their concern anymore. As night fell and most players struggled inside the dorms, the outside was quiet.

Zhou Zhou rubbed his stomach, feeling a bit hungry.

“Let’s find a place to eat,” he said. He still had lots of food leftover that he had saved. With no other quests for now, they could leisurely have a meal.

The two found a classroom and pushed two desks together. Zhou Zhou then took out the food.

The food that could be brought into instances was very expensive. Zhou Zhou had saved up quite a lot, originally intending to share it with friends while doing quests in the instance. But later he mostly stuck with Alvia and didn’t have time to eat, so there was still food left now.

The two desks were piled high with food. In this game world, there was no risk of overeating anyway, so they could eat as much as they wanted.

There was no one else in the classroom, in fact, this entire school building only had the two of them idly roaming and dining.

Suddenly, a thumping sound echoed down the hallway, as if something was hopping and advancing steadily.

Zhou Zhou heard the noise, after all, it was so quiet here that the two keen-eared individuals could immediately detect any sound or movement.

He listened intently for a while. The sound seemed to be getting closer.

Seeing no reaction from Alvia, Zhou Zhou went to the door and peered out curiously.

When the green thing appeared in the hallway, Zhou Zhou immediately waved and called out, “We’re over here.”

A green frog-shaped trash can blinked its eyes as it hopped toward them.

It was a Zeus-brand trash can.