Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Doll’s House 1

Alvia: ?

He looked at Zhou Zhou’s expectant face and gradually frowned: “Why do you suddenly want me to be your boyfriend?”

Zhou Zhou answered seriously: “Because I want to live in the present, so I have to date.”

His wish was to have many, many romantic relationships, so starting now, he had to date happily!

So how was living in the present necessarily related to dating? Alvia felt like he couldn’t keep up with the other’s train of thought: “Do you know how long we’ve known each other?”

Zhou Zhou: “Three days.”

“We’ve only known each other for three days, so don’t you think what you just said is inappropriate?”

What was inappropriate about it? Zhou Zhou pondered seriously for a moment, then asked, “Then should I write a letter?”

Alvia: “…This isn’t about writing a letter.”

Ever since inheriting the throne, Alvia had been busy with all kinds of political affairs, and it was only recently that the country had completely stabilized.

Even if there were some people hiding in the shadows, they would not affect the current situation.

That was why he had time to linger in the game for so long.

Alvia rarely appeared in public, so many citizens of the empire thought he would be like the previous emperor, surrounded by beauties across the entire universe.

But in reality, because he was too busy and due to the negative influence of his father, he had never had a romantic history, and had never even liked anyone. His views on romance were extremely old-fashioned.

Now, faced with Zhou Zhou’s direct approach, he suddenly felt a sense of not knowing how to communicate. Could such a thing really be said so casually?

After pondering for a moment, he asked, “How old are you this year?”

Zhou Zhou blinked: “Nineteen.” He was always nineteen years old.

Alvia’s brow relaxed as he looked at Zhou Zhou and said, “You can only date after turning twenty, which is the age of adulthood. Only if both parties feel it’s appropriate after being together for five years can they get married.” His tone was as serious as a father worried about his daughter being taken away.

Zhou Zhou was struck by lightning, he had never heard of such a thing!

So how could he date like that? Was he not even allowed to date?

“Then I’m twenty.” He would make himself a year older.

Alvia gave a cold laugh, thinking he could change it just like that and expect him to believe it.

Seeing Alvia’s cold demeanor, Zhou Zhou said pitifully, “Okay then, I’ll change to someone else.” If he dated someone else, surely there wouldn’t be so many requirements, right?

Alvia: Could he really just casually change who he dated like that?

“Wait, who are you going to change to?”

“Xue Li, Ke Li, Qian Le, Heya, Eddie, Mo Lan.” These were all people on his contact list.

Alvia: …He felt that their perspectives on this matter differed greatly.

“This kind of thing should be carefully considered, not something you can just casually choose someone for. There are many factors to consider – personality, interests, hobbies, habits…”

Zhou Zhou was puzzled, wasn’t dating just about chatting together and playing together? Why did you have to consider so much?

After Alvia explained for a while, he asked, “Do you understand now?”

Zhou Zhou didn’t understand, but he grasped the key point in the other’s words: “Wanting to date you can only be discussed again next year.”

It didn’t seem quite right, but it was close enough. Alvia wanted to say something else, but noticed that Heya was standing outside.

The privacy of each table was very good, from outside, you couldn’t see the people inside. But Alvia had already detected Heya’s presence, and took the opportunity to stop the discussion about dating.

Zhou Zhou also noticed: “Heya?”

Heya heard Zhou Zhou calling him and walked in from outside.

“Why are you here?” Zhou Zhou looked up and asked.

Heya didn’t look at Alvia, only staring silently at Zhou Zhou for a while before speaking: “Can I continue doing missions with you?”

Zhou Zhou had already forgiven him, so hearing Heya say that, he nodded in agreement: “Sure.”

Alvia hadn’t intended to speak, after all, this was Heya’s own decision. But hearing that he still wanted to continue doing instances, he asked: “Aren’t your current conditions unsuitable for continuing instances?”

Heya’s reaction in the instance had been too extreme, he was completely unsuitable for high-intensity instances. He could only do one instance and then rest for a period before continuing.

But based on the frequency Zhou Zhou did missions, he basically had to enter an instance every day. Heya was not suitable for doing instances with Zhou Zhou, the mental pressure was too great.

He himself might not even be able to bear it for very long.

“I can do it,” Heya insisted.

Alvia looked at him coldly for a moment, then said, “I respect your decision.”

Heya breathed a sigh of relief. Since His Majesty also agreed, then he had no more concerns.

Zhou Zhou’s mission panel pinged, it was Xue Li and Ke Li’s information. They were done with their tasks and asked if he had time to do an instance together tonight. Eddie was also asking if Zhou Zhou did an instance, could he tag along, he was available anytime.

Only Qian Le messaged to say his parents had suddenly asked to see him and he wouldn’t be able to do instances together for the next two days.

Qian Le was extremely annoyed. Who could have imagined that the parents who had kicked him out of the house would suddenly have something they needed him to come home for? Just what was it? This was a critical period in the game for him.

Zhou Zhou saw that everyone was asking him when he would do an instance, and thinking about being able to continue doing missions in instances with his friends, he had already forgotten about his earlier confession.

“Al, do you have time tonight? Let’s do an instance together.”

Alvia did have time recently, and with the three of them doing an instance together, he could also observe Heya’s condition.

“Okay.”

That evening, Xue Li and Ke Li hurried to the meeting point, only to find that there were actually several other people there as well.

Upon asking, they learned that these were all friends Zhou Zhou had made while doing instances, and they also wanted to do an instance together with him.

Xue Li didn’t expect that in just over a day, Zhou Zhou had gotten to know so many people, and these people all had very distinct characteristics. One was icy cold, but extremely handsome. Another was actually over two meters tall and looked very intimidating.

As expected of Zhou Zhou, the friends he made were impressive too.

There was also a green-haired boy who looked quite nice, except that neon green hair was too eye-catching.

During their conversation, they learned that his hair played an important lighting role in instances. Xue Li didn’t even know what to say, whether it was sporting that green mop or using his hair as a light, either was admirable.

Alvia maintained his usual style, not saying much, so others didn’t feel comfortable approaching him.

Heya looked even more fierce, so no one dared say more than a few words to him.

Only Eddie and the Ke Li siblings quickly struck up a conversation together.

Zhou Zhou looked at the five people behind him. Excluding Al, there were four others.

Hmm, surely one of these four would be willing to date him, right?

Gathering everyone together, Zhou Zhou looked at his mission panel, recalling what Mo Lan had said earlier.

“Find the black star at the bottom and click on it.”

At the very bottom of the interface for choosing whether to accept the instance mission, there was indeed a five-pointed star in the middle, but this star was white. Zhou Zhou clicked on it, and it actually turned into a black star.

After turning the star black, Zhou Zhou then selected to accept the instance mission.

After that, they all received the next instance mission, the location was 01 Celestial Street.

The six of them headed to Celestial Street together. Unlike the previous ramshackle streets and huts of the last instance location, Celestial Street was suspended in midair in Nightmare City.

They needed to take a flying vehicle to get there.

Zhou Zhou was very curious, but seeing everyone else act like it was perfectly normal, he could only pretend to be equally casual and follow along.

The flying vehicles also came in all sorts of weird shapes. They boarded a very beautiful cat-shaped one, and less than a minute after getting on, they had already arrived at Celestial Street.

The ground of Celestial Street was all white, looking as if made of cotton, but with a very solid texture.

Zhou Zhou looked around the whole way, almost forgetting what he had come here to do.

Xue Li and Ke Li exchanged a glance and expertly dragged him away.

Meanwhile, Eddie just kept staring at several people, especially whoever got close to Zhou Zhou, he would peevishly glare at them, as if trying to see something from their expressions.

He even occasionally turned to look at Alvia’s expression, only to be disappointed, as Al remained expressionless the whole time.

01 Celestial Street was an extremely tall tree, at least tens of meters high. The straight, thick trunk had a tree hollow at the base, with a sign hanging on it that said 01.

The six of them entered together. Inside was like a tunnel with no end in sight, so they could only keep walking forward.

At this point, Eddie’s neon green hair was extremely eye-catching in the dark tunnel, constantly drawing the gazes of Xue Li and Ke Li.

So green.

After walking for about ten minutes, they finally saw a light source ahead.

The six emerged from the tree hollow to find themselves in an extremely cartoonish, colorful world.

Looking down at the emerald green ground and pale blue sky overhead, with rows of tiny trees, they felt like live actors who had wandered into an animated film.

After entering and waiting a while, several more batches of people arrived in succession.

One particularly noticeable group was a bunch of large men. Though not as tall as Heya, each one was broad-shouldered and burly, looking quite formidable.

Everyone else kept their distance from them.

Once all the players had arrived, the tunnel entrance sealed shut, and new notifications appeared on everyone’s mission panels:

【Instance Name: The Doll’s House】

【Mission Content: Find a tree hollow to exit within three days.】

【Main Mission: Adopt an egg and carefully nurture it until it hatches.】

The main mission was issued right after entering this time.

Everyone stared at the last line in confusion.

An egg? What egg? Why would a horror game make you raise an egg?

“Over here.”

Someone noticed that inside each of those tiny trees at their feet was a single egg.

A palm-sized egg painted with colorful stripes.

Everyone started scrambling to grab eggs from the ground, with some even trying to take multiple eggs, thinking having more might mean getting a higher score later.

As soon as Zhou Zhou entered, he noticed a golden egg right at his feet that he had been staring at for a while now.

Seeing the mission panel mention raising an egg, he immediately bent down to pick up this golden egg.

The small, striped egg felt warm, and Zhou Zhou suddenly felt eager to see what would hatch from it.