Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Nightmare City

Mo Lan was the first to encounter someone like Zhou Zhou, and her impression of him was very good. Unlike how she treated other players with an indifferent attitude, she would explain everything in detail no matter what questions he asked. Even if his questions were too simple, she never brushed them off.

The resentful woman’s voice didn’t sound nice, and she spoke very slowly, but she explained the term NPC in great detail, and Zhou Zhou patiently listened to her explanation the entire time.

However, gradually, Zhou Zhou’s earnestly curious gaze changed. He tightly bit his lower lip, and his two hands clutched at the edges of his clothes, constantly rubbing and fidgeting with them. After the resentful woman finished explaining, he lowered his eyes, pondered for a long while, and then asked, “You mean NPCs are those people who originally exist within games?”

Before the resentful woman could nod, he quickly asked again, “Then do NPCs not have homes or families? Were they really created by people? Can they only exist within games?”

Although the resentful woman was puzzled as to why Zhou Zhou would ask such questions, seeing the urgency in his inquiring expression, she answered slowly, “They are~ created by~ designers~ specifically for gameplots. Their appearances, personalities, and~ every line~ they say~ is~ designed in advance. Without games, NPCs~ naturally~ would not exist either. They are just a program, not~ real people, so of course they don’t have homes~ or families.”

Zhou Zhou wanted to refute her, saying that the words he spoke and the things he did were what he wanted to do himself, not something predetermined by others. But thinking about how sometimes he would say things without any reason that even he didn’t understand, and how he had looked this way for as long as he could remember, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Then, is it possible for an NPC to run out from a game?”

According to what Mo Lan said, if he really was an NPC, then having always stayed in the Romance Academy, he would be the NPC that originally existed within that instance. He could only stay there, performing specific actions and lines of dialogue that were predetermined.

But he had come out, right? He left the Romance Academy and came to Nightmare City, where he could do instances just like everyone else and earn points. Aside from being unable to log off, he wasn’t any different from the others.

Mo Lan thought he was asking if it was possible for NPCs to exhibit abnormal behavior that deviated from their settings, so she answered, “Of course~ it happens.”

Were there people like him? Zhou Zhou’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“However, abnormal~ NPCs would likely~ be discovered~ quickly, and then~ repaired~ to fix the issue.”

“Repaired? How would they be repaired?”

The resentful woman’s hometown was very remote, with technology even hundreds of years behind the Empire’s, so she had only recently started accessing Nightmare City due to the Empire’s support policies for minority groups. Naturally, she didn’t understand these things.

“I guess~ they would modify~ the parameters, or~ delete and recreate~ a new NPC?” she guessed.

Modify? Delete?

Zhou Zhou leaned forward, anxiously asking, “Does that mean killing this NPC?”

Resentful Woman: “Killing? More or less~ that’s what~ it means.”

As long as someone discovered he was an NPC, and moreover one that had run away from an instance, he would be killed.

Zhou Zhou immediately imagined the scene of being discovered by people, then a group capturing and killing him. Or would they remake another Zhou Zhou to replace him, since he was just a disobedient NPC who had run away?

He didn’t want to die.

There were still so many things he hadn’t done yet, he hadn’t fallen in love, and only had a few friends. He still wanted to continue doing instances, keep earning points, buy a home, and… oh right, he had just agreed to let Al take him out for a meal too.

He hadn’t had a chance to do anything at all. He didn’t want to die.

Zhou Zhou’s panicked, frightened gaze was too obvious. The resentful woman thought for a while, but it seemed like she hadn’t said anything wrong, she had just answered a few questions.

“What’s~ wrong with you?” the resentful woman asked.

Zhou Zhou suddenly regained his senses, looking at Mo Lan sitting across from him, her black, soulless eyes regarding him with concern.

He pouted, wanting to confide his fears and worries to this person who clearly cared about him. But he also clearly knew that before finding a way to survive, he couldn’t tell anyone that he was an NPC.

Struggling to suppress his jumbled emotions, Zhou Zhou hadn’t yet learned the human skill of hiding one’s true feelings. He said pitifully, “I thought of some bad things, and I’m not happy.”

The resentful woman stretched out a withered white hand, reaching across the table to pat his head, and Zhou Zhou obediently lowered his head to let her pat him.

Before Nightmare City officially launched, there was actually a public testing period, although most people didn’t know about it.

During that time, the Empire had invited some minority races to participate in the game testing. These minority people basically all had appearances that didn’t conform to normal human aesthetics, or possessed special abilities that humans found frightening.

But not only were they the earliest game participants, they were also the creators of instances. Although currently only an extremely small number of instances were created by these people, most were made by Zeus and many other game designers.

However, the Empire gave them a guarantee that through this game, these races that normal humans saw as monstrous could eventually appear openly anywhere in the Empire without being rejected, insulted, or having to hide.

It was because she believed those words that she actively participated in the game, raising her level to intermediate even before public testing, and after official launch, their accounts and levels were preserved without being reset.

Although the specific details of the game still couldn’t be revealed to others, her gaming experience so far hadn’t been very good.

When she encountered players screaming in terror at her appearance within instances, it made her feel very uncomfortable inside. She was a girl too, and hoped to receive fair treatment like a normal person, instead of just scaring people.

Only Zhou Zhou had actively approached her, and she could tell his actions and words came from his true heart, so she left the instance wanting to get to know him.

Moreover, even now, Zhou Zhou didn’t lie by saying he was fine or that nothing was wrong. He continued to honestly share his innermost feelings with her. Perhaps it was precisely because he was so sincere that she felt so comfortable interacting with him.

“Would you~ like to come~ to my home~ as a guest?” Mo Lan asked. “It’s very~ beautiful there, and my~ people~ would really like~ you too.”

Hearing Mo Lan say that, Zhou Zhou felt even sadder. He raised his head pitifully and said, “I want to go, but I can’t.”

He had no way to leave Nightmare City at all, he could only stay here.

Mo Lan patted his head again, ruffling the little curls on top of Zhou Zhou’s head until a few strands stuck up, before withdrawing her hand and saying, “It’s okay, when you~ can go, you’re welcome~ anytime.”

Zhou Zhou nodded solemnly. If one day he could truly leave the game, he would definitely go.

Afterwards, Mo Lan told Zhou Zhou that when choosing an instance, there was a tiny black star below the quest panel. If he clicked it and then confirmed, there was a chance the instance he was transported to would be one played by real people.

Nightmare City hadn’t been running for long, and everyone was still feeling their way right now. She didn’t know if any players had discovered this point yet.

These instances played by real people were more difficult with a much higher death rate, but for someone like Zhou Zhou, there was also a greater chance of earning high scores.

“I hope~ you can quickly~ raise~ your level. If you need it in the future, I’ll come~ help you.” Those were Mo Lan’s parting words before she left, as she didn’t have much time left and needed to return to the instance to wait for the next batch of players.

After Mo Lan left, Zhou Zhou also exited the restaurant, wandering alone on the streets. Thinking about how he was just a program, only able to live cautiously within the game, he couldn’t cheer up at all and even felt like crying a little.

Imperial Palace in the Capital.

After Alvia logged off, he instructed Ryan to notify Heya that he didn’t need to continue with this mission anymore.

Regardless of what had happened at the time, after Heya let his personal emotions get involved, he was no longer suitable to continue tracking Zhou Zhou. After all, he felt guilty, and in the worst case scenario, he might even be swayed by the other side’s tactics.

Leaning back in his chair with eyes closed, Alvia tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, thinking about what to do next.

Zeus kept glancing at Alvia with an excited expression like he wanted to say something, which Alvia could sense even with his eyes closed.

“What is it?”

Zeus immediately scurried over in small quick steps, grinning at Alvia.

Alvia opened his eyes, looking at the other’s strange smile and asking, “What’s going on?”

With a wave of Zeus’ hand, several virtual image-like white sheets appeared around them.

“You did something in the game, your emotional fluctuations were really intense.”

In addition to the SAN value and brain wave fluctuation related to spiritual power, there was a lot of data generated after each instance that served as important basis for score calculations.

Looking at the numbers, Alvia’s emotional fluctuations didn’t actually change much, but for someone as emotionally indifferent as him, this variation was considered very significant.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You must have done something? Heheh, did you do something bad perhaps?” Zeus snickered mischievously.

He could actually see all of Alvia’s actions in Nightmare City, but it was more interesting to ask the person directly about such an amusing matter.

“No.”

“You definitely did! Were you flustered and distracted at that moment?”

Alvia: “If you keep misusing words, I’ll confine you.”

Zeus immediately shut his mouth. What he feared most was confinement, where there was nothing at all and not the slightest bit of fun.

Seeing Alvia’s indifferent expression, he coughed seriously like an adult: “I saw Zhou Zhou hiding alone in a small alley in Nightmare City, looking very sad. Don’t you want to go take a look?”

Alvia looked down at the file in his hands and said indifferently, “Whether he’s sad or not is none of my concern. I just want to know who is behind him and what their schemes are. The rest is irrelevant to me.”

Zhou Zhou wandered alone on the street, no longer even stopping to observe the various novel sights that had previously caught his attention.

He was very afraid. What if the players on the street discovered his words and actions were different from others, and realized he was an NPC?

The more he thought about it, the more afraid he became. He didn’t even dare return to the room he had previously rented, because who knew how many people he might encounter along the way.

In the end, he hid in a pitch-black small alley, curled up like a stray cat with nowhere to go, terrified of being discovered.

Following the address provided by Zeus, Alvia arrived at a small alley. Outside was a bright street bustling with vehicle and pedestrian traffic, while inside the alley was pitch black without a sound.

He immediately spotted Zhou Zhou hunched dejectedly in a corner.

Alvia slowly approached, looking down at the seemingly dazed person and asking, “What’s wrong with you?”

Zhou Zhou had thought about a lot while curled up here, his previous life, the days spent alone at school, Xue Li, Ke Li, so many many things.

Hearing someone speak, he slowly raised his head and looked at the person before him: “Al, why are you here?”

“Just passing by.”

This was the first time Alvia had seen Zhou Zhou in such a state. “Why are you hiding here?”

“Oh, I’m thinking about some things.”

“Thinking about what?”

Zhou Zhou lowered his head and didn’t answer.

After a long while, he finally asked in a small voice, “Al, what should you do if you find out that every move you make was predetermined by someone else?”

Alvia looked at Zhou Zhou curled up on the ground, eyes narrowed without revealing any emotion, and continued in a cold voice, “I think whatever happened before is in the past. What’s important is your own thoughts now. If you can reflect and turn away from evil, you can still be forgiven.”

Zhou Zhou raised his head, looking at Alvia with a bewildered gaze that seemed to say he didn’t understand.

After thinking for a bit, he asked again, “What if you find out you could die at any moment?”  If others discovered his true identity, he would definitely be killed.

Was he being threatened?

Alvia guessed that perhaps Zhou Zhou had realized the things he was doing were wrong and didn’t want to continue, resulting in threats from the people behind him.

He looked at Zhou Zhou meaningfully and said, “You can seek out someone with even greater power than them and ask for protection.”

“Really, someone would protect me?” Even knowing he was an abnormal NPC, they would still protect him from being killed by others?

Alvia could tell Zhou Zhou was seeking a promise from him. Although Zhou Zhou’s actions were indeed wrong, he was still very young with immature thinking, and had already recognized his mistakes. As long as he was willing to lay everything bare, he was willing to give him this chance.

“As long as you tell me everything you know, I will protect you.”