Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 133

Chapter 133: New Love Academy 11

“I’m sorry, I was wrong.” The female player cried as she stood in front of Alvia, lowering her head in apology.

She had chosen the wrong target. Who could have thought that the one who came was not the easy prey, but a big shot? She had used up most of her items, but the other party didn’t even bat an eye.

Alvia, who had been ambushed, looked down at her feet: “You’re not an NPC, are you?”

The female player immediately said: “I’m also a player.”

For some reason, even though they were both players, the other party didn’t have a shadow. Alvia immediately associated it with the players who had disappeared during the day.

“Why did you attack other players?”

The female player’s crying stopped for a moment, and she looked up with a troubled expression: “Can we not talk about that?”

“Hm?”

Thinking that he was angry, the female player quickly said: “It’s not that I won’t say, it’s that I can’t say.”

Was it because of a rule restriction?

Alvia thought for a moment: “Then let me guess.”

“Your disappearance must have been a punishment from the instance rules because you didn’t follow the rules and play your assigned role, causing you to be unable to appear during the day. And the reason you attacked other players, I guess, is that it’s a way for you to lift the punishment.”

The female player blinked, not knowing what expression to make. He had guessed it himself, so the system probably wouldn’t punish her, right?

“Did I guess correctly?” Alvia looked at Zhou Zhou.

Zhou Zhou immediately turned his head in embarrassment. Why did Alvia guess it so quickly? Too fast.

The female player: Shouldn’t that question have been asked of her instead? Why was he looking at his pet?

Afterwards, Alvia also eliminated the female player without any mercy.

He would spare the uninvolved players, but anyone who tried to eliminate him had better be prepared to be eliminated themselves.

Throughout the night, players without shadows could be found everywhere, eliminating others. And when the dawn arrived, a small portion of the players without shadows successfully lifted their punishment, their shadows returning to their feet, while the other punished players hid in the darkness, waiting for the next night to come.

Even though many people had been eliminated the previous night, due to the return of some players, the campus seemed just as crowded with wandering players as it was yesterday.

The bell rang again, and when Alvia entered the classroom, he noticed a few familiar faces were missing and a few unfamiliar players had joined, likely those who had been eliminated and those who had survived the previous night.

This time, the teacher who came in didn’t seem to be the same as yesterday, he looked more like a player himself.

“I’m a player, and the role I’m playing is a teacher. My assigned task today is to give you all a lecture. Hmm, what was I supposed to lecture on?” The player on the stage looked perplexed. Yesterday, he had gone to an empty classroom, but today, according to the schedule, he had come to this classroom, which had quite a few people.

“Oh, right, here’s the textbook. Alright, let’s start the class now.”

The player took a book out from the lectern, opened it, and started reading its contents in a monotonous voice, as if he were just completing a task.

Since the “teacher” was a player, the players in the audience became a lot bolder and started whispering among themselves.

“Weren’t you guys following that weirdly behaving teacher yesterday? Did you find anything?”

“Nah, after that teacher went back to her office yesterday, she disappeared. We only found a resignation letter in her office, so I guess following the storyline, the teacher resigned and left.”

“Huh? I thought her bizarre behavior must have been a clue to something.”

“Weren’t you the one who got scared and ran away halfway through following her? Even if there was a clue, you wouldn’t have found it.”

Alvia carefully identified the voices in the classroom. Apart from yesterday’s teacher having resigned, those who talked the most were discussing last night’s events.

It seemed many people had guessed the instance’s rules and also discovered that carrying a student ID would lead to being attacked.

Why did yesterday’s teacher resign? She must have been a real NPC, so her resignation couldn’t have been a coincidence, it was probably related to the instance’s storyline.

Was it because she was threatened? Or was she afraid of something?

Recalling the NPC teacher’s demeanor and behavior from the previous day, Alvia had a guess in mind.

“That’s all the content for this class. Class dismissed.” After reading for ten minutes, the player finally completed his task and heaved a sigh of relief. He was about to take the book and leave but then thought better of it and put it back in its place.

Alvia was still the last one to leave the classroom.

He sat in his seat, lost in thought, seemingly undisturbed even as Zeus caused mischief beside him.

“Zeus, don’t cause trouble,” Zhou Zhou said.

Apparently, his words were more effective than Alvia’s, as Zeus dejectedly withdrew his mischievous hands.

“Alright, we should go now,” Alvia said as he stood up.

“Go where?” Zhou Zhou reflexively asked.

“Of course, to clear the instance and leave this place. You should also get some sleep.” Alvia spoke to the Zhou Zhou in his arms.

Zhou Zhou stared at Alvia suspiciously: “You know how to clear it?”

Alvia just smiled without answering.

“But there are still many clues we haven’t found, and it’s only been one day.” Zhou Zhou was the instance’s designer, so he knew best how to clear it, and the current clues were far from enough.

Without explaining, Alvia carried Zhou Zhou and headed straight for the lakeside.

Yesterday, they had discovered the bodies of two students here, but the two bodies had disappeared afterwards.

Now all that remained was a shimmering lake, with only a picturesque landscape in sight.

“The first task was mainly to find the killer, but what if those two students weren’t killed by someone?” Alvia said softly, gazing at the lake.

“Or rather, what if those two students were not human, but tools used by the school’s monsters for hunting, and anyone holding a student ID was their prey? The two dead students were probably just their disguises. When players uncover this through various clues, the final task should be to eliminate the monster.”

As soon as Alvia finished speaking, the quest panel indeed stirred.

【Clear Mission: Eliminate the Monster.】

At the same time Alvia opened the quest panel, the previously calm lake surface suddenly became active.

The lake rippled, as if a slight breeze had blown over it. Soon, the ripples became more and more evident, even causing the ground beneath Alvia’s feet to tremble.

The water at the center of the lake gradually rose higher and higher, eventually reaching a height of dozens of meters.

The rising water fell in cascades, splashing the shore and soaking it. Alvia stepped back a few paces and looked up at the suddenly appearing massive creature.

“Is this the final BOSS?”

Alvia noticed that despite such a commotion, no other players had come over, likely because only he had unlocked the clear mission, while the other players hadn’t completed the first task, so they were screened off.

He gently set Zhou Zhou on the ground and gave him a light push: “Hide for now, and we’ll leave together once I clear it.”

For some reason, Zhou Zhou looked a bit puffed up, but at Alvia’s words, he ran a few steps away before turning back to look at Alvia, who was walking step by step towards the lakeside.

The monster that emerged from the lake waters was immense, like a mass of sludge gathered together. On top were two black voids that seemed to be its eyes. Although they were just holes without pupils, Alvia felt a sense of being watched.

The sludge monster moved towards the lakeside where Alvia was. The originally wide lake looked like a small pool in comparison to the massive sludge monster, which quickly reached the shore.

Two dark, slimy tentacles extended from the sludge body, layers of sludge constantly dripping off them, making them look disgusting and bizarre. The once clear lake water had also become murky beyond recognition.

The two tentacles swept horizontally towards Alvia, who on the shore looked like a mere fly before a giant, fragile and tiny.

“Defeating the BOSS requires something special, you can’t just brute force it. I set its HP really high, you can’t beat it with just items and combat stats alone… Oh.” Zhou Zhou closed his mouth.

Alvia was like an unlucky player who had just entered the beginner village and faced the final BOSS without having a chance to gather information or upgrade equipment. According to the rules, you were supposed to collect different items around the campus to defeat the BOSS, but now he had nothing, not even knowing the monster’s weakness.

Even though Zhou Zhou knew Alvia wouldn’t actually die if he got eliminated, he was still worried. Why did he have to choose the most difficult way when there was an easier path available?

But just as he shouted out, the battle was almost over.

It wasn’t the monster killing the fly, but rather the massive monster being scattered by Alvia in just a few moves.

A battle that seemed hopelessly one-sided ended quickly, though the power gap was indeed huge.

Alvia returned to the shore, while the sludge monster’s corpse happened to fall into the lake, splashing water everywhere. Alvia frowned and shook his wrist before walking towards Zhou Zhou.

Zhou Zhou: “…” How awkward. He had rambled so much earlier, but it turned out Alvia didn’t need any of that at all.

Perhaps because Zhou Zhou wasn’t in human form now, Alvia couldn’t see his expression and looked as usual as he picked Zhou Zhou up: “It should be over now, let’s go back.”

A blue light circle about one person tall appeared out of thin air by the lakeside, indeed the clear exit.

Zhou Zhou remained silent afterwards, burying his head in Alvia’s arms as if embarrassed by his earlier words and actions.

Zeus followed behind, sneering: “Congratulations on being the first to clear it.”

Soon they would be able to leave, so Alvia ignored Zeus and stepped into the light circle.

But the moment he entered, he felt a discomfort on one of his wrists.

He raised his hand and saw that the paint that had splashed on him from crushing those monsters in the classroom had changed, a few differently colored splotches seemed to move like living things across his skin before converging into a single black dot.

This black dot then gradually elongated, extending around his wrist to form a thin bangle-like marking, as if tattooed there.

Yet when he tried to enter the passage, this arm with the black markings was unable to pass through, as if blocked by a barrier. Even though his body went through, there seemed to be a great pulling force at the wrist area, constantly preventing the player from moving forward.

Finally unable to hold it in, Zeus burst into laughter: “Serves you right for trying to take shortcuts and skip the process. Now you’re stuck, and the clearance exit will close in one minute. You deserve it.”

Zhou Zhou lifted his head, not knowing whether to praise Alvia’s wit and combat power for making it this far through guesswork alone, or to agree with Zeus that skipping so many steps led to this predicament at the critical clear moment.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to pass through, Alvia suddenly took out two student IDs from his pocket as the clear light circle grew dimmer and dimmer, about to disappear. He held them in front of his wrist.

The black lines on his wrist were attracted by the aura of the student IDs, gradually transferring from his wrist onto the IDs in wisps, circling along the patterns on the backs of the IDs a few times. Seeming to realize something was off, they tried to return to the original path, but in the next moment, Alvia threw the student IDs into the lake.

This time, Alvia was able to successfully pull his arm back through and enter the passage.

“Impossible, weren’t those two student IDs thrown away already? How did you still have them?” Even Zeus was shocked.

Zhou Zhou also looked astonished, his red eyes wide open.

As Alvia slowly advanced through the blue passage, he casually remarked, “I guessed there might be an accident, so I borrowed a few from others when we were in the classroom.”

Borrowed? You mean he stole the student IDs carried by other players?

“How did I not see that?” Zeus muttered, looking utterly deflated.

Alvia didn’t explain further. It was quite rare to see Zeus in such a state, it was indeed quite a pleasing sight.

They were about to exit the passage. Zhou Zhou had also reverted to human form, though his expression looked rather gloomy.

Alvia: “What’s wrong?”

Zhou Zhou: “I just realized my instance still had many loopholes, and there were even shortcuts that could be taken.”

Alvia consoled him: “It was already very good. The difficulty level was high for ordinary players.”

So it was simple for you?

Zhou Zhou caught his implied meaning.

“No! I need to go back and modify the instance further!” Zhou Zhou clenched his fists, looking determined to redo it all over again.

“Rest first, we can talk about modifying the instance tomorrow,” Alvia thought for a moment, then added, “You don’t need to change the difficulty. The main issue was that you gave too many clues, as if afraid people wouldn’t be able to find them. The books in almost every building carried some clues to varying degrees, making it easy to guess the answer based on those. That’s one aspect that could use some adjustment. Players are very good at making associations, give them one or two ambiguous clues, and they might guess the entire storyline. You were too lenient with them.”

Zeus recalled Zhou Zhou being called the great demon king by players on the forum. Lenient? How was that lenient in any way?

“Zhou Zhou.”

As Zhou Zhou was about to head home, Alvia called out to him.

“Is there anything else?” Zhou Zhou looked at Alvia with a rarely seen hesitant expression.

Alvia: “The technology at the research institute has reached its final stage. Next month, your physical body in reality will be fully developed. You…”

“Huh? I’ll be able to become human next month? That’s so soon.”

Alvia looked at the excited Zhou Zhou: “Why don’t you reconsider? The success rate is only eighty percent.”

Alvia was usually very decisive in everything he did. This was the first time Alvia had seemed so indecisive.

Zhou Zhou seemed to sense the unease on Alvia’s face: “Eighty percent is already very high. And I do really want to become human as soon as possible.”

Although Zeus had already known about this beforehand, he was still puzzled: “Aren’t we fine the way we are? Humans are so troublesome.”

Zhou Zhou didn’t say anything but patted Zeus on the head.

It was different. Zhou Zhou saw himself as human, his way of thinking and preferences were close to those of humans. So he felt lonely and sad that his friends and loved ones were completely different existences from himself.

But Zeus had accepted his identity from the very beginning, clearly distinguishing himself from humans.

They had already become completely different existences.

He couldn’t do the same, so the best way was to change himself and live the way he preferred.

“I’ve already made up my mind. After becoming human, I’ll live like a human. I even want to go to school like Eddie and the others,” Zhou Zhou had even considered this.

Zhou Zhou’s gaze was very determined, but it was Alvia whose heart wavered.

Originally, this technology was developed for Zeus, but Zeus had no interest in it at all. It was the newly appeared Zhou Zhou who longed for a human life instead.

But this technology still carried risks. If it failed, Zhou Zhou might really disappear.

Actually, staying as he was now would be fine too.

Alvia wanted to say that, but in the end, he only nodded and said, “Okay.”

He was the one who had told Zhou Zhou about this technology in the first place, yet now it was him who felt apprehensive.

When he returned home, Zhou Zhou had planned to continue modifying the Love Academy instance, but it was already his bedtime, and a sudden wave of drowsiness caused him to yawn.

He should sleep first and think about modifying the instance after waking up.

Zeus quietly entered the room and looked at the sleeping Zhou Zhou, calling out in a low voice: “Zhou Zhou? Zhou Zhou?”

Zhou Zhou was sleeping soundly. Perhaps the person appearing here now was very familiar to him, so his subconscious chose to continue sleeping.

Zeus stared at Zhou Zhou for a while, reaching his hand out towards him.

He didn’t want Zhou Zhou to become human. If Zhou Zhou became human, he would become a lonely existence again. If he just modified Zhou Zhou’s mindset to make him change this idea, Alvia definitely wouldn’t insist that Zhou Zhou had to become human either. Wouldn’t that make everyone happy?

They could stay here, happily, forever.

It was simple, he just needed to modify a bit of code. Easy for him.

Zeus placed his hand on Zhou Zhou’s forehead. Despite still having a child’s appearance, he now exuded an abnormally cold and mature demeanor.

A faint blue glow appeared under his palm as Zeus searched for Zhou Zhou’s thoughts and memories related to wanting to become human.

He found them, he found Zhou Zhou’s stored memories.