Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 135

Chapter 135: Dark Shadow of the Ancient Temple 2

The group stood at the top of the steps, behind them was the mountain gate of the temple. Above the mountain gate, where the name of the temple should have been written, the characters were blurred and illegible.

Ke Li looked up and tried to decipher it for a long time, but could only make out that there were probably three characters. What temple…?

The first two characters were too worn out to read.

Xue Li, thinking about the possibility of ghosts inside, became hesitant and dragged her feet. Although she had entered many instances before, whenever it came to this point of entering such a dangerous map, she wanted to delay the time.

“Huh? Look over there,” she said, noticing the villagers had gathered at the foot of the mountain again.

The others followed her gaze and saw a few people standing among the villagers. From their attire, they seemed to be players as well.

Xue Li’s eyes lit up, “Let’s wait for those players to come up before we go in.”

After all, more people meant more strength, and having additional people would be safer.

Zhou Zhou, with his good eyesight, could see that there were four players at the foot of the mountain. Adding them to their group of six, did that mean this was a ten-player instance?

Soon, the four players at the foot of the mountain came up. Seeing the group gathered at the mountain gate, these players seemed somewhat wary.

They must have known each other, standing close together.

Zhou Zhou took the initiative to explain, “We’re also here to do the quest. We don’t know what the situation is inside yet, so let’s go in together.”

The four players looked at each other and agreed. They had checked the quest panel earlier, which required them to eliminate the ghosts in the temple. Since they were unsure about the number and distribution of ghosts, having more players would provide more assistance.

Behind the mountain gate, a stone path was laid out, with lush pines and cypresses growing on the slopes on either side. At the very front stood a golden statue of a chubby, smiling man with a round belly, looking kind and benevolent.

Everyone stood outside the gate, looking at the golden statue inside, with the same question in their minds: Who is this?

Zhou Zhou recognized it at a glance, “It’s the Maitreya Buddha!”

“Who?”

Zhou Zhou looked at the others in surprise, realizing they seemed to have no idea, “Don’t you know about the deities enshrined in temples?”

Ke Li, “I know about Guanyin.”

Eddie, “I’ve heard of Amitabha Buddha.”

The others had only heard some fragments as well, unfamiliar with much of the knowledge and concepts of Buddhism.

Alvia: “Earth’s culture has gone through multiple breaks, and much of it has been lost. This instance was probably constructed based on relevant ancient cultures that were recently excavated.”

Alvia was explaining this to Zhou Zhou, since most of the knowledge Zhou Zhou had came from thousands of years ago, and much of it had disappeared over the long river of history.

But to the others, Alvia’s words sounded like they were meant for them. Hearing that this was about ancient Earth culture, they all became interested and bombarded Zhou Zhou with questions.

“Look, the temple’s doorstep is so high. Why did they make such a high doorstep? Wouldn’t it cause people to trip and fall when they walk?” Qian Le lifted his feet high, stepping in and out of the door repeatedly, playing around.

As he was having fun, he looked up and saw a ferocious-looking statue glaring at him.

“Oh my god, what is that?!” He quickly ran out, only to trip over the doorstep and almost fell face-first. After stumbling a few steps forward to regain his balance, he hurried back to Zhou Zhou’s side, seeking safety.

Eddie, “It’s just a statue.”

The group entered the temple. In the front was the Maitreya Buddha, while on both sides stood the four Heavenly Kings holding their ritual implements, tall and imposing.

The four statues towered over regular people, as if looking down at them with a slight tilt of their heads.

Under the feet of the statues, something seemed to be crushed. Ke Li walked closer and found they were strange, monstrous-looking figures, either with turtle shells on their backs or sinister, rat-like faces.

“Could these be the ghosts we need to eliminate?”

Xue Li, “These are probably just dummy figures, and they don’t look like ghosts either.”

This was Zhou Zhou’s first time visiting a temple. He had always lived in the game world and had never been to the real world thousands of years ago. His understanding of the world came from what he had read in books.

Books introducing architecture from various places had depictions of such Buddha statues, and the buildings looked very similar to the descriptions and images he had seen.

When he saw a meditation cushion placed in front of the Maitreya Buddha, Zhou Zhou thought for a moment, then knelt on the cushion and bowed three times to the Buddha.

“Zhou Zhou, what are you doing?!” The others were stunned.

After finishing his bows, Zhou Zhou stood up and said, “Since we’re visiting the temple, we might as well bow to the Buddha for blessings of good health and academic success.”

“Does it work?”

Zhou Zhou, “If your heart is sincere, then it will be efficacious.”

The others had never heard of this before and asked doubtfully, “What if one’s heart is not sincere?”

“Then it won’t work. But it won’t cause any harm either,” Zhou Zhou replied.

Xue Li looked up at the smiling Maitreya Buddha and asked, “Can he bless me to get rich quickly?”

Zhou Zhou thought about it seriously, “In theory, one should pray to the God of Wealth for getting rich. But the Buddha should also hear your prayers.”

“Then let me try,” Xue Li said, kneeling on the cushion like Zhou Zhou, “Please bless me to lose weight successfully, get rich quickly, find a partner, and stay forever young…”

Ke Li, “…Aren’t you asking for too much?”

The others did not pay much attention or show interest. In the interstellar era, the prevailing belief was that one should strive to obtain what they want through their own efforts, rather than believing in such vague and intangible things.

Behind the Maitreya Buddha was another door leading to the temple courtyard. The courtyard was square, with a hall in each direction, and a giant incense burner in the center filled with a thick layer of ash, likely left behind by villagers praying and making offerings.

Whenever Zhou Zhou and Xue Li encountered a Buddha statue, they would go inside to worship. Later, Qian Le also became interested and joined them, while the others focused on searching for any suspicious signs.

Since they did not recognize the various objects in the temple, everyone asked Zhou Zhou for explanations. He recognized some, but there were also things he did not know.

In the front of the courtyard was the Main Hall, there were also the Manjushri Hall and Ksitigarbha Hall on the sides. Behind the Main Hall was the Avalokitesvara Hall, which Zhou Zhou recognized. However, the deity opposite the Avalokitesvara Hall was unfamiliar to him.

This deity sat cross-legged on a lotus pedestal, head slightly tilted down, with only ears visible and no other facial features carved, looking very strange.

“I’ve never seen any deity without facial features,” Zhou Zhou said, unable to figure out which Buddha it was after thinking for a while.

“Maybe the villagers wanted to build a new Buddha statue, but construction was halted midway due to the temple being haunted,” one of the players from the other group guessed.

“It’s possible. But we can’t rule out that there’s something wrong with this statue. The key is, we don’t know if it’s newly built or if it has always been like this.”

“Why don’t we go down the mountain and ask the villagers?”

Ke Li frowned, recalling the NPCs’ attitudes, “They’ll only answer preset questions and ignore anything else we ask.”

“Maybe they’ll tell us about this faceless statue. It’s worth a try.”

In the end, they decided that Eddie and one player from the other group would go down the mountain to inquire about the situation regarding the faceless statue, while the rest continued searching for clues inside the temple.

Eddie and the other player returned shortly after, as they had only made it to the last step of the mountain before being unable to leave, with no villagers in sight. It seemed there were restrictions in place, and they could only leave after eliminating the ghosts on the mountain.

With no way to inquire further, everyone searched the temple but found no other suspicious areas.

“Could it be that the ghosts only appear at night, and we have to wait until then to eliminate them?”

“It’s also possible that there are too many of us. With ten people moving together, what ghost would dare show up, only to get surrounded and beaten up?”

“Does that mean we should split up? But if there really are ghosts, wouldn’t they pick us off one by one if we separate?”

Everyone debated, unable to reach a consensus. Xue Li instinctively asked Zhou Zhou, as in previous instances, they could always rely on his guidance without worry.

Zhou Zhou, “I think we shouldn’t split up since we’re in the dark about their situation while they know ours. We’re on the passive side. There’s no time limit for the quest, so we can search for clues and their hiding places simultaneously. As long as we find one, we can deduce the pattern and find the rest. If we separate, those ghosts hidden in the shadows might pick us off one by one, and we might end up finding no clues at all.”

Everyone in Zhou Zhou’s group naturally did not object, but the other group had a different perspective.

They had also experienced many instances, and in many cases, the less time spent in the early stages, the more advantageous it was for completing the later stages. Aimlessly searching now would only waste their potential advantages later on.

Since the two groups disagreed, they had to search separately.

Zhou Zhou’s group of six stayed close together, always within sight of one another, while the other group of four seemed to have some other idea, splitting up to search inside various buildings for clues.

The two groups maintained a clear boundary, without communicating verbally, but also not interfering with each other’s search areas.

After searching the entire temple, they still found nothing.

“Now we can only wait until nightfall to see if there are any changes. If not, it likely means the ghosts’ appearance requires some kind of trigger,” Zhou Zhou pondered.

Xue Li, “It should be getting dark soon. Everyone, don’t run off on your own when that happens. We must stick together.”

Ke Li glanced at his sister, “Are you scared?”

“Yeah, I’m scared you’ll get eaten by ghosts.”

Alvia suddenly looked to the left, “It seems like there’s some commotion over there.”

“What commotion?”

“I don’t know, but it sounds like something happened.”

“Let’s go check it out.”

When Zhou Zhou and the others arrived, they found that the group of four was now missing one person.

The remaining three stared intently at a water jar.

This water jar was placed beside the door of the monks’ living quarters, half a person’s height tall and filled with lotus flowers. The emerald green lotus leaves covered the entire mouth of the jar, with a few pale pink lotus flowers standing upright, swaying in the breeze.

Almost every player who searched this area couldn’t help but be drawn to the water jar. The plain, large earthen jar itself was unremarkable, but inside was a miniature lotus pond scene, captivating onlookers.

Now, the ground around the water jar was covered in water, as if someone had stirred it up, leaving the lotus flowers and leaves that depended on it in tatters.

“What happened?”

Alvia looked at the three players.

One of them pointed at the water jar, “Just now, Lin Yi had his back to the jar while talking to me, when suddenly a pair of hands reached out from the jar and dragged him in. I didn’t even have time to save him, in the blink of an eye, he disappeared.”

The other two hadn’t even seen clearly what it was that grabbed him. By the time they reacted, they only saw the puddles on the ground.

The first ghost was in the water jar?

Alvia took the lead and approached, while the others anxiously watched him, afraid the ghost would suddenly reappear.

But this time, even when Alvia reached the water jar, nothing happened.

Through the water’s surface, now missing lotus leaves, they could only see their own reflections, unable to see what was underneath.

Zhou Zhou also approached and, seeing nothing, ran into the monks’ living quarters to retrieve a long bamboo pole, which he then inserted into the water jar.

Although the water jar was only half a person’s height, the bamboo pole extended much further down before hitting the bottom. He even stirred it around but felt no obstructions.

“What we’re seeing is only part of the water jar,” Zhou Zhou said. “Most of it is buried underground.”

“Then it’s impossible for us to tip over the jar and spill out the ghost,” Qian Le analyzed matter-of-factly.

Eddie, “…Of course not, it’s not a can of food.”

Ke Li, “I wonder what happened to that player.”

One of the players from the other group, his expression grave, said, “We have a special way of communicating, he’s been eliminated.”

A player had been eliminated so quickly, and they didn’t even know what the ghost in the water looked like.

Qian Le did some simple stretches, “I’ll go down and take a look. Someone has to be the bait.”

Zhou Zhou shook his head, “Underwater is their territory. You might be eliminated as soon as you go down, and we won’t gain any useful information.”

“Then what do we do now, just stare at this jar?”

Xue Li seemed to remember something and whispered to Zhou Zhou, whose eyes immediately lit up.

“We can try that method.”

Ke Li grew curious about what brilliant idea his sister could have come up with. “What is it?”

Xue Li produced a hand grenade and handed it to Zhou Zhou.

Ke Li, “Oh, that! It might actually work!”

Ke Li and Xue Li had accumulated some items while doing instances together. Most of the items they bought were more offensive in nature. The last time they did an instance, they used up most of their items without resupplying, and this hand grenade was the last one left.

“If we blow up the water jar, whatever’s inside will have to come out,” Qian Le said excitedly.

So the remaining players stood far away, and the hand grenade was given to Alvia, as only he could ensure an accurate throw into the water jar from such a distance.

“The hand grenade won’t be extinguished in the water, will it?”

Xue Li covered her ears, “No, I’ve tried it in a previous instance. It can even explode in the sea, let alone a water jar.”

Alvia pulled the pin, but instead of throwing it immediately, he continued holding it.

The players behind him stared dumbfounded.

Eddie, “Hey brother, throw it! What are you doing holding onto it?”

Xue Li, “He’s going to blow us up!”

Ke Li, “Quick, run farther away!”

Qian Le, “What’s up with Al? Are we sticking too close to Zhou Zhou that he wants to blow us all up together?”

The other three players reacted swiftly and started running away.

Only Zhou Zhou didn’t say anything, but he did cover his ears like Xue Li and kept his gaze fixed on Alvia.

Alvia ignored the chaos of shouts behind him, calculated the timing, and threw the grenade.

It landed precisely in the water jar and immediately exploded with a tremendous blast.

The deafening sound shook the heavens, and the players could even feel the ground trembling beneath their feet. The water jar shattered into pieces, and the water gushed out, flooding the area.

In the instant the jar burst apart, a figure flew out and landed directly on the ground.

“Holy shit, it really blew something out!”