Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 137

Chapter 137: Dark Shadow of the Ancient Temple 4

Standing in front of everyone was one of the Four Heavenly Kings they had seen after entering the temple. The figure held a pipa and had a ferocious face, its tall stature exuding an overwhelming sense of oppression.

Without averting its gaze, it stared fixedly at the struggling water ghost, reached out with its large hand to grab the water ghost’s arm, and lifted it up. Then, the two disappeared into the smoke.

As the smoke gradually dissipated, only a group of silent players remained.

After a while, Ke Li finally found his voice: “The water ghost was taken away, should we chase after it?”

Xue Li gave him a cold look: “Chase what? The first ghost has already been eliminated.”

The others immediately looked at their quest panels, where the progress had changed from 0/10 to 1/10.

Eddie pondered: “So, the quest isn’t about killing the ghosts, but about capturing them, and then…”

He looked towards Zhou Zhou, and everyone else realized that the sudden appearance of the Four Heavenly King statues was related to the paper Zhou Zhou had taken out.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Zhou Zhou took out a stack of yellow papers from his pocket: “These appeared in my pocket suddenly. I just tried it out, and I didn’t expect it to actually work.”

“Zhou Zhou really is a quest bug, always able to turn things around when doing quests,” Xue Li said excitedly, stepping forward to give Zhou Zhou a hug, but was met with a cold stare from Alvia, his boyfriend.

The hand that was originally meant for a hug ended up patting Zhou Zhou’s shoulder instead, but even that earned her several glances from Alvia.

“But there are only eight of these papers, and there are still nine ghosts left,” Zhou Zhou thought for a moment and said to Xue Li: “Xue Li, check your pockets.”

“How could I possibly have any?” Xue Li said as she reached into her trouser pockets, but surprisingly, she did feel a crumpled yellow paper slip.

The others also started checking their pockets. Ke Li had already checked earlier, so he knew he didn’t have any.

“How is this possible? Why do only you two have them?” asked someone from the other group of players. Both groups had entered together, but the crucial quest item was only held by the other team.

Zhou Zhou put the papers back into his pocket: “I just thought about it, and it’s probably because we bowed to the Buddha statues after entering the temple, which is why these papers appeared.”

Qian Le turned his pockets inside out, frustrated: “I also kowtowed, so why don’t I have any?”

Xue Li also recalled that the Buddha statues they had bowed to were all places where Zhou Zhou was the first to bow. The only exception was the last one, which Zhou Zhou didn’t recognize, so she was the first to bow there. Qian Le had followed along, but he was always the second or third person, so it seemed that only the first person to bow would receive the quest item.

After sharing her thoughts, Zhou Zhou agreed with her. Although the trio felt a bit sour, if it weren’t for them, Zhou Zhou and the others wouldn’t have realized this point and wouldn’t have discovered the quest item, so they had benefited from their presence.

“Now that we have these items, we can easily handle the remaining ghosts once we find them,” Ke Li immediately perked up.

With their previous experience, the players always stuck together as a group of nine, without splitting up again.

Many of the scenes in the “Nightmare City” quest were set at night, so the players were used to carrying a light source each.

The group came to the kitchen, which had already been checked during the day and showed no signs of abnormality. As everyone was about to leave, Alvia noticed that the leftover food in the kitchen had been tampered with.

The kitchen only had vegetarian food, as the monks had disappeared, so the stored vegetarian dishes had already gone bad.

However, Alvia noticed that some of the food in one of the bowls was missing a portion compared to when they had last inspected it. The missing amount was not much, and none of the other players had noticed.

“So there’s also a ghost in the kitchen? After all, we wouldn’t eat the food here, and it’s gone bad anyway. The ghost must have eaten it,” Ke Li analyzed.

“But where is the ghost hiding?” Xue Li couldn’t figure it out. The kitchen was not large, and the simple, antique kitchen had no places to hide a person. Could this ghost also turn invisible?

“A ghost in the kitchen?” Zhou Zhou muttered, his eyes fixed on the bowl of rotten vegetables. “Could it be a gluttonous ghost?”

Since they couldn’t find where it was hiding, Zhou Zhou decided to try luring it out with food.

He took out the food he had bought from the item shop earlier, originally intended for the group to eat together during the quest. However, since it was mostly just him and Alvia doing quests together later on, he had ended up eating most of the food himself.

This was the last of it.

This food was worlds apart from the rotten vegetarian dishes in the temple’s kitchen. If the ghost was truly a gluttonous one, it would definitely fall for the bait.

The kitchen was too small for all of them to wait inside comfortably, so in the end, only Zhou Zhou, who had the yellow talisman papers, and Alvia, who had the highest combat stats, stayed behind. The others waited outside.

The steaming hot food was placed on the small wooden table in the kitchen, and its aroma gradually wafted through the room. Zhou Zhou and Alvia stood side by side at the doorway, chatting in hushed tones.

Zhou Zhou spoke softly to Alvia, like a thief: “I wonder if the gluttonous ghost will be lured out.”

Alvia: “Since it even eats rotten food, it should be unable to resist these.”

Zhou Zhou inhaled the fragrant aroma in the air and suddenly said: “It smells so good, I want to eat it too.”

However, all the remaining food had been placed on the table, without a single piece left.

Suddenly, an ice cream cone was handed to him from the side, his favorite flavor.

He looked at Alvia in surprise, who simply extended the ice cream further: “Isn’t this your favorite?”

Zhou Zhou looked at the ice cream and felt a little embarrassed for some reason. He silently accepted it and took small bites.

After a few bites, he seemed to remember something and held the ice cream up to Alvia’s mouth: “You have some too.”

Alvia looked at the ice cream very close to his face and shook his head: “I don’t really eat these kinds of things.”

“Try a bite,” Zhou Zhou insisted, determined to make him eat some.

Alvia took a bite. He really didn’t eat these kinds of things very often, nor had he eaten them when he was young, but the taste was indeed very sweet.

Zhou Zhou ate the ice cream quickly, occasionally letting Alvia have a bite. After they finished, the atmosphere became a bit strange.

Zhou Zhou gazed at Alvia, feeling that when there were many people around, he always kept his presence to a minimum, quietly following behind him. Yet, he would step up at the most crucial moments, always being the first to notice Zhou Zhou’s needs. Dating was great, no, dating Al was great. He really wanted to kiss him.

He would just do whatever he was thinking. Without concealing his thoughts, he tilted his head up and kissed Alvia, then continued with a few more pecks like a little chick pecking at grain.

The corner of Alvia’s mouth curved up slightly. Bending down with his head lowered, he was always happy to receive such intimate gestures from his lover and indulged them completely.

Alvia’s arm slowly hooked around Zhou Zhou’s lower back.

“Um…” A player with a completely flushed face appeared at the kitchen window. He was one of the trio, currently red-faced and shifting his gaze to the ground. “Your companions are asking if you could capture the ghost first. If you want to be lovey-dovey, you can do it after finishing the quest.”

He seemed very embarrassed, never raising his head to look at them directly. With his head slightly bowed, it seemed he was listening to something: “They also said they’ve reserved a honeymoon suite, so don’t make them watch you being all affectionate during the quest. And lastly, I’m being forced to say this.”

After speaking, he immediately moved away from the window.

Alvia cast a cold glance out the kitchen window, where a group of people were huddled and making a commotion, hard not to notice.

Zhou Zhou didn’t feel embarrassed at all, but it wasn’t appropriate to continue at the moment either. He gently pushed Alvia away and turned towards the wooden table, noticing that one of the dishes was missing.

“One of the dishes is gone,” Zhou Zhou blinked, too engrossed earlier to notice when the dish went missing.

Alvia looked towards the stove not far from the wooden table: “It’s over there.”

He had noticed when the gluttonous ghost snuck out earlier. The ghost settings in this quest were very clever. Although they appeared human-like, their movements were extremely agile and barely made any noise, so even the perceptive Zhou Zhou sometimes missed their movements.

Alvia saw it clearly, but the timing wasn’t appropriate earlier, so he didn’t mention it to Zhou Zhou, since he already knew where the gluttonous ghost was hiding.

“The stove?” Zhou Zhou looked at the kitchen stove, built from yellow mud with only a small fire pit for entry and exit. The opening was too small for even a child to crawl through, so it seemed this ghost did possess unique abilities, just like the water ghost.

As they were talking, a black hand quietly reached out towards the table and swiftly snatched a large chicken leg.

The whole process happened right under their watch. Zhou Zhou held the yellow talisman and quietly walked towards the edge of the table, then crouched down and curiously peeked underneath. A completely black ghost was holding the chicken leg and eating it ravenously. When it suddenly met Zhou Zhou’s gaze, the gluttonous ghost froze.

The next moment, the gluttonous ghost looked as if it had seen a real ghost, letting out a terrified shriek. Then, at lightning speed, it darted into the stove’s fire pit. Zhou Zhou only saw a black blur before the gluttonous ghost disappeared.

“So fast,” Zhou Zhou couldn’t help but marvel, noting that the ghost didn’t forget to take the chicken leg with it as it fled.

“What do we do now?” Zhou Zhou asked, having scared the ghost away himself.

Alvia glanced at the black footprints on the floor and the thick, black soot inside the stove. He opened his mouth: “We keep waiting. It will definitely come out to steal food again. Give me one of the talisman papers. I’ll handle it next time.”

“Oh.” Handing the talisman paper to Alvia, Zhou Zhou stood behind him, watching as Alvia squinted his eyes, focused on the stove’s opening. Knowing Alvia wouldn’t have any problems handling it, Zhou Zhou lowered his head and played with the hem of Alvia’s clothes, wrapping and unwrapping it around his fingers.

Noticing Zhou Zhou playing with his clothes, causing wrinkles, Alvia didn’t say anything. His gentle expression turned sharp and cold when he looked back towards the stove’s opening, where the gluttonous ghost was sneaking out furtively.

A black creature emerged from the small stove opening, instantly growing larger. It moved soundlessly towards the table. Despite knowing it was a trap, it couldn’t resist the temptation of the food, having never eaten anything so delicious before.

As its black claws reached for the table, Alvia seized the moment and slapped the talisman paper onto its arm. The gluttonous ghost reacted extremely quickly, perhaps relying on its agility to brazenly appear despite knowing players were lying in wait.

But no matter how fast it was, it couldn’t match Alvia’s speed.

The moment the gluttonous ghost saw the yellow talisman paper, its brown pupils shrank instantly. As it retracted its arm, it opened its massive maw to bite at Alvia, but at the same time, the talisman paper had already been slapped onto its arm.

The gluttonous ghost was instantly frozen in place. Its originally small face had a mouth larger than a normal human’s size, the gums and cavity filled with densely packed sharp teeth, appearing exceptionally terrifying up close.

The moment the mist spread through the kitchen, the players outside knew they had succeeded and hurried in to catch a final glimpse of what this ghost looked like.

The small, pitch-black ghost was extremely scrawny, its large mouth full of sharp teeth appearing highly disproportionate. The mischievous Qian Le even poked at the ghost’s body, only to find his finger had turned black, causing him to shout that he had been poisoned.

It turned out to be the soot accumulated from years of charcoal burning in the stove, and Qian Le, mocked by everyone, finally hung his head and went to wash his hands.

Once again, one of the Four Heavenly Kings appeared. The kitchen was small and dilapidated, and the Four Heavenly Kings had towering figures. Originally, they thought this place couldn’t accommodate them, but unexpectedly, the figure wasn’t a physical entity. The virtual form of the Buddha statue passed through the kitchen, bent down to grab the gluttonous ghost on the ground, and disappeared.

Quest progress: 2/10.

They didn’t expect the second ghost to be captured so easily, but Zhou Zhou did say the gluttonous ghost was extremely fast. If it weren’t for the lure of food and Al’s quick reaction, they might have had to put in more effort.

The third ghost soon appeared as well. As everyone searched around under the cover of night, Xue Li suddenly shrieked, saying someone had touched her arm.

Everyone shone their lights around, but couldn’t find where the ghost was hiding.

Naturally, they didn’t know what kind of ghost this was either.

Eddie unintentionally opened the quest panel again and discovered a new display.

“Look at the quest panel, there’s a new display.”

The original quest panel only showed the progress of capturing ghosts, but now it had revealed information about the first two ghosts they’d encountered. Of course, this wasn’t needed anymore. The important thing was that the name of the third ghost had also appeared.

The third ghost was the Lust Ghost.

Although it only showed the name, one could tell this ghost’s preferences from the name alone.

Everyone unintentionally looked towards Xue Li, the only female player among the nine. Xue Li also tensed up and hugged herself tightly.

“Oh my god, it’s a lust ghost. I’m doomed, you guys have to protect me well. I don’t want to be taken advantage of by a ghost.”

Zhou Zhou nodded seriously: “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely protect you.”

Earlier, he had his back turned to Xue Li and didn’t notice the ghost in time. Now, he stood right next to her, determined not to let the ghost touch her again.

Ke Li started to say something but stopped, ultimately remaining silent as he stood on his sister’s other side.

Xue Li was very touched. Indeed, in critical moments, her brother and Zhou Zhou were the most reliable. She clenched her fists: “Don’t worry, I’ve also learned self-defense. If it dares touch me again, I’ll kick it right in the middle and cripple it.”

Zhou Zhou agreed: “Yeah! Cripple it.”

Alvia, standing on Zhou Zhou’s other side, lowered his head to look at Zhou Zhou, indignantly echoing Xue Li’s words, but didn’t say anything.

The others watched as Xue Li stretched out her leg and started practicing, silently backing away.

They had no objections to her kicking the lust ghost, as long as she didn’t accidentally harm an innocent party.

Everyone remained alert for any movements around them. Suddenly, Zhou Zhou felt a chill behind him and whipped his head around, but didn’t see anything.

Just as Zhou Zhou was puzzled, he felt someone grope his waist.

Zhou Zhou: !!!

He looked down, but there was nothing around him.

Noticing Zhou Zhou turning around, Alvia immediately asked: “What’s wrong?”

“It feels like someone is groping my waist,” Zhou Zhou’s gaze searched around, not noticing Alvia’s expression growing colder at his words.

“Could the ghost have appeared? The temperature around us seems to have dropped. Stay alert,” Eddie’s hair stood on end as he tensed up.

Everyone present could sense the ghost was seemingly all around them, but this ghost was like the wind, omnipresent yet intangible, without even a shadow to be seen.

Suddenly, Alvia’s hand shot forward, as if grasping something in the air.

Everyone’s gaze followed Alvia’s hand, and from the moment he seized it, the ghost gradually began to take form.

“Is this the ghost?” one player questioned skeptically.

This ghost that had taken form looked no different from an ordinary person, even better-looking than normal. Of indistinguishable gender, its peach blossom eyes were moistened from breathing difficulties caused by its neck being gripped, appearing pitiful.

At this moment, the lust ghost was standing in front of Zhou Zhou, one hand about to touch his face. Even now, restrained by Alvia, that hand still struggled forward, wanting to touch Zhou Zhou.

“I just want to touch you a little, nothing else. You’re so beautiful, I really like you,” the others finally saw the influence of the lust ghost in this “person,” as it narrowed its eyes, peach blossom eyes fixated on Zhou Zhou, expression revealing an entranced infatuation.

Alvia let out a cold laugh and tightened his grip, immediately squashing the lust ghost’s neck into an elongated shape. But it wasn’t human after all and could still tease Zhou Zhou calmly despite its distorted neck.

Its elongated neck brought it even closer to him. Zhou Zhou took a step back: “I already have a boyfriend.”

This statement seemed to amuse it: “It doesn’t matter, as long as we…”

Xue Li suddenly rushed out from the side, shielding Zhou Zhou: “Don’t hit on our Zhou Zhou.”

The lust ghost glanced at Xue Li, decisively ignoring her to continue speaking to Zhou Zhou: “As long as we… share the clouds and rain, I’ll definitely be able to make you…”

The moment Xue Li jumped out, Alvia told Zhou Zhou: “Talisman paper.”

Zhou Zhou immediately took out a talisman paper to slap it on, but Alvia snatched it away midway. Before the lust ghost could finish its last sentence, the talisman paper was forcefully slapped onto its face.

The lust ghost’s expression froze, and after the Four Heavenly King appeared, this lust ghost also revealed its true form.

The perfect human appearance transformed into a hunched, ape-like creature, the true face of the lust ghost.

When this ghost disappeared along with the Four Heavenly King, the players didn’t feel as joyful as before, instead cautiously glancing at the two present with extremely foul moods.