Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Doll’s House 3

Zhou Zhou, who had been walking around holding the golden egg, suddenly stopped, with one foot stepping out in front of him. Xue Li, who was beside him, couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Zhou Zhou, what’s wrong with you?”

“Oh, the egg cracked,” Zhou Zhou answered calmly as he looked down at the crack on the golden egg.

“Oh, the egg cracked… No, wait! The egg cracked!”

Because Zhou Zhou’s expression was too calm, Xue Li didn’t even react at first. When she finally realized what he was saying, she immediately rushed over to look at the egg in Zhou Zhou’s hands.

Sure enough, there was a crack at the top of the golden egg, and the crack was continuously expanding.

“It’s cracking! Quick, quick, quick!” Xue Li shouted in a panic, not even knowing what to tell Zhou Zhou to do.

Hearing the commotion, Ke Li and Eddie also frowned and looked over. “What cracked?”

“Zhou Zhou is cracking!”

The three players’ tragic states were still fresh in their minds. If the egg in their hands cracked open, it meant that the player would also be eliminated in the same way. Xue Li couldn’t even imagine what it would be like for Zhou Zhou to be eliminated in that manner.

Heya, who was following behind Zhou Zhou, naturally also saw the golden egg in Zhou Zhou’s hands cracking. He took a few steps forward, wanting to exchange Zhou Zhou’s golden egg with his own. Now that the egg had only cracked a little, if it broke in his hands, then perhaps he would be the one eliminated instead.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Zhou avoided Heya’s hands while hugging the egg.

“Don’t take my egg,” Zhou Zhou said warningly as he looked at Heya’s hands, hugging the egg closer as if trying to hide it, but the egg was too big to conceal.

Ke Li and Eddie also surrounded Zhou Zhou, shouting and making a fuss, looking completely at a loss as to what to do.

Only Alvia remained standing in his original spot. Calculating the time, it should be about time now. After all, this stage only had three days, so it was impossible to spend all the time hatching the eggs. Now that it was nearing evening, these eggs should be about to hatch.

Moreover, Zhou Zhou was a very careful person, and he absolutely wouldn’t accidentally break the egg at this moment. So these people were really noisy.

“Ahhhhh, the egg cracked!”

“Ahhhhh, Zhou Zhou is going to crack too!”

“What should we do?”

“Do we have any glue? Let’s glue it back together.”

“Who would have such a thing in this game?”

“Zhou Zhou, do you have any useful items, like the kind that can revive you or save your life?”

Items? Zhou Zhou blinked. He didn’t even seem to know how many points he had from the last instance, let alone ever think about buying items.

The group continued to shout and make a fuss, as if Zhou Zhou was the one cracking open. At the same time, other teams’ players who heard the commotion also looked over.

The golden egg continued to crack open, the crack extending from the top all the way down and making a full circle back to the initial crack.

At this point, the egg looked as if it had been split open. If Zhou Zhou hadn’t been holding it, it would have likely split into two halves.

Then, in the horrified gaze of the group, Zhou Zhou moved his arms.

“Crack!”

The cracked eggshell fell to the ground.

Inside the cracked egg appeared a small yellow duck, no, it should be called a big yellow duck. It wasn’t made of plastic like those toys, but rather a plush toy, and it was also very fat.

The group that had been shouting and panicking fell silent. It turned out that it really did hatch, but this thing was too unexpected…

Xue Li opened her mouth, not knowing what to say, and finally just sighed, “I thought, at least, what hatched would be alive.”

But instead, it was a plush toy, so why did something like this need to be hatched?

“Quack!”

As if responding to Xue Li’s question, the chubby yellow duck sitting in Zhou Zhou’s arms made a sound.

“Huh? It can even make noises? Well, this is a game world after all, so anything is possible. This fat duck should also be considered alive, I guess,” Eddie said as he reached out to poke the duck, but the duck almost pecked his finger.

Ke Li also observed the chubby yellow duck. “So, the eggs we’re hatching will also be plush toys?”

“Maybe,” Eddie said, looking at the pink egg in his hands and starting to imagine what kind of plush toy it might be.

Shortly after Zhou Zhou’s duck hatched, the other players’ eggs also began to hatch. Since they had Zhou Zhou’s example, no one panicked when the eggs cracked open.

The red egg that Xue Li had hatched into a small tiger, also a plush toy.

Eddie’s pink egg hatched into a pink little pig. Judging by his frustrated expression, he probably didn’t expect it to be a pig.

Heya’s brown egg was a small wooden doll, the only non-plush toy among the hatched eggs so far.

As for Ke Li’s navy blue egg, when it cracked open, there was actually a fish inside, a fish-shaped body and a pair of lifeless fish eyes. Xue Li mercilessly mocked him, saying that the type of person hatches the type of egg.

Al’s green patterned egg hadn’t hatched yet, and everyone was a bit worried that there might actually be a problem.

At the same time, the eggs held by players from other teams had also hatched, all of them various plush toys and toys.

When everyone’s eggs had hatched, Al’s egg finally showed some movement and cracked open, revealing a small green frog inside.

It seemed that the color of the plush toys was related to the color of the eggs themselves. Whatever color the egg was, the hatched plush toy would generally be that color as well.

Everyone’s task panel showed that the main quest was complete, and then immediately another line of text appeared on the panel.

【Please return the plush toys you hatched to their owner.】

Xue Li looked at the red little tiger in her hands and said reluctantly, “We hatched these, so aren’t we the owners? We have to return them to someone else?”

Ke Li held up the salted fish plush, “This is just a game. If you like it, you can buy another one when you get home.”

“What do you know? You’re a salted fish, but mine is a tiger.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right, a mother tiger.”

“What did you say?”

Seeing the two about to start arguing again, Eddie quickly said, “The important thing now is where are the owners of these toys? We have to find the person first, at least.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the chubby duck in Zhou Zhou’s arms suddenly jumped down to the ground, then waddled away.

The other plush toys also got down from the players’ hands and arms, following the duck in the same direction.

“Are they leading us to find their owners?”

“Let’s follow them.”

A group of plush toys, some walking and some hopping, moved in the same direction, with a group of players closely following behind.

It seemed that at the same time the plush toys hatched, the unselected colorful eggs on the ground had disappeared, so everyone no longer had to worry about accidentally stepping on those eggs.

After walking for a while, Zhou Zhou’s chubby duck separated from the group of plush toys and waddled back to Zhou Zhou’s feet.

“Quack,” the chubby duck called out to Zhou Zhou, looking up at him.

Then Zhou Zhou picked up the duck and held it in his arms again.

The curious Xue Li asked, “Zhou Zhou, can you understand what this duck is saying?”

Zhou Zhou shook his head, “I can’t understand it.”

“Then how did you know it wanted you to hold it?”

Zhou Zhou: “I guessed.”

Xue Li looked at the largest plush toy in the group, the duck, and said, “I guess it’s because it’s too fat to walk, so it wants you to carry it.”

“Quack quack quack!”

The chubby duck seemed to understand that Xue Li was calling it fat and quacked at her a few times.

Xue Li quickly moved to the side, thinking that although this duck looked quite cute, this was still a horror game, and she hadn’t forgotten how those few players had died. So whether it was a duck or anything else, it was better not to offend it. She quickly moved away to avoid upsetting the duck.

It’s unknown how long they walked before it became dark.

In this instance, when it got dark, it wasn’t pitch black where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. There was a round moon in the sky, and its clear moonlight shone down, allowing them to even see their shadows on the ground.

Moreover, the moon here was very large. Looking directly at it almost made the moonlight seem glaring, and you could see white clouds drifting around it high in the sky.

Ke Li looked at the moon with satisfaction. How could they do an instance if it was completely dark at night? This level of brightness was just right, allowing them to see everything around them clearly.

Zhou Zhou, holding the duck, kept looking around, as if searching for something.

“What are you looking for?” Ke Li asked.

“I’m looking for ghosts,” Zhou Zhou answered.

Ke Li paused, recalling how he had been scared unconscious by a ghost in the Love Academy, and forced a laugh, “There are so many of us, ghosts shouldn’t appear, right?”

Eddie’s glowing head was still bright. Hearing Ke Li’s words, he immediately said, “It’s not certain. Three players just died, so there must be three ghosts lurking somewhere now. It’s better to be careful.”

His words successfully kept Ke Li on alert for the rest of the journey, although no ghosts appeared.

The surrounding scenery didn’t change, with only short pine trees around them. Until they crossed a small hill, they finally reached their destination.

Because a house appeared in front of them, standing abruptly on the grass, with nothing around it.

And the destination of the plush toys was clearly this house.

A red roof, white walls, and even a chimney on top, the moonlight made everything clear for everyone to see.

Xue Li frowned at the house, feeling like she had seen it somewhere before, but she just couldn’t remember where. So she asked Ke Li beside her, “Don’t you feel like this house looks a bit familiar?”

Ke Li had originally been on guard in case any ghosts suddenly appeared, but when he heard Xue Li’s question, he took a proper look at the house. Now that she mentioned it, it did seem a bit familiar, but after carefully thinking about it, the buildings in their hometowns weren’t in this style.

Neither of them could remember where they had seen it before, so they eventually gave up.

The plush toys headed towards the house, climbing a few steps, and when they reached the front door, the white door suddenly opened.

The players at the front stretched their necks, trying to see who had opened the door, but there was no one inside.

The plush toys bounced and hopped into the house, and the players had no choice but to follow them in.

After everyone entered, the door immediately closed behind them.

Everyone looked around at the furnishings inside the house and found that there were many children’s items here. The walls were covered in scribbles, and the floor and sofa were littered with all kinds of messy plush toys, some of which were identical to the ones they had hatched.

On the far left, an extremely large grandfather clock was placed, its ticking sound constantly resonating. The time displayed on it was eleven o’clock.

The clock was a deep red color, which seemed to clash with the bright colors of the rest of the room. Every player noticed this clock as soon as they entered and looked around.

The plush toys the players had hatched were no longer heading in the same direction but had instead separated.

Al noticed that these plush toys seemed to be separating based on different teams. For example, the red lion, green frog, and salted fish from their team headed towards the left side of the first floor, while the plush toys from other different teams went upstairs.

It seemed that the next task would indeed require teamwork. If they were missing teammates, would that affect the next task? Al glanced at the group of three burly men who had become a team and silently wondered.

At this time, Zhou Zhou’s duck jumped out of his arms again, quacking at Zhou Zhou, and then went with the plush toys from their team.

Zhou Zhou nodded, as if understanding, turned to his teammates and said, “It wants us to follow it.”

Xue Li: “So Zhou Zhou, you can really understand it, right?”

“I don’t understand, but its gaze was saying that.”

How could a plush duck have a gaze? The group wanted to scoff but didn’t know where to start, so they just followed along.

The house looked small from a distance, but the interior space was very large, probably with five floors. Each team occupied one floor.

Only the team that had left early to search for the tree hollow had not returned yet.

Zhou Zhou’s team was on the first floor. They followed the plush toys into a room, which was also very spacious inside, with an extremely high ceiling that made it look vast.

This room seemed to be a children’s room, with scribbled walls and six small beds placed in different locations.

The six plush toys headed towards different beds.

Everyone looked at each other and followed the plush toys they had hatched to the beds.

Zhou Zhou followed the duck, watching it waddle to a small bed, then quacking at him.

“Do you want to get up there?” Zhou Zhou asked.

“Quack.”

Zhou Zhou picked up the duck and placed it on the bed, setting it on the pillow and thoughtfully covering it with a blanket.

“Okay, is this alright?”

“Quack.” The duck seemed very satisfied, nestling on the bed without moving, as if it had fallen asleep.

The others learned from Zhou Zhou and placed the pig, wooden doll, salted fish, and lion on different small beds.

Al looked at the small green frog that jumped twice near the bed and croaked at him, coldly refusing, “Get up there yourself.”

The small frog: “…”

The poor little frog had no one to help it up, so it had to make the effort itself. After jumping repeatedly, it finally made it onto the bed and lay there without moving.

These plush toys seemed to have lost their life, becoming real inanimate toys.

The players in the room waited for a long time, not knowing what to do next. They were supposed to return the plush toys to their owners, but the key question was where were the owners?

“We can’t just wait around. Let’s look for clues in the room,” Xue Li suggested.

So everyone searched around the room for any clues about the owners of the plush toys or the exit tree hollow.

After searching for a while, they found nothing.

On the other side of the room were a few small desks with bookshelves, which also seemed to be for children’s use.

Zhou Zhou stood in front of a desk, taking books from the shelves to look at their contents, thinking he might find clues inside.

But as he read, he became engrossed and just stood there reading.

“Zhou Zhou, what are you reading?” Ke Li walked over and curiously asked.

Zhou Zhou looked up happily and said, “Books. The books here are very interesting. I’ve never read books like these before.”

There were many books in the library at Love Academy, but he had read all of those. However, this was the first time he had encountered books of this type.

Oh? What kind of book was so interesting?

Ke Li also became interested and took one from the shelf. The cover looked very cartoonish, so it couldn’t be some fairy tale for children, could it?

But seeing Zhou Zhou’s focused expression, as if the content was very engaging, he opened the book anyway.

A few minutes later, Ke Li stiffly closed the book and quickly put it back in its place.

What fairy tale! Those were all horror stories!!!

The covers looked cute, but inside were little stories that made one shudder intensely the more one thought about them, utterly terrifying horror stories.

Why was he reading horror stories in a horror game? Did he think his life was too long?

Perhaps he had grabbed the wrong book. That one must have been an exception.

Not convinced, Ke Li took another book from the shelf with a pink, flowery cover and opened it.

A minute later, he slammed the book shut, trembling as he called out, “Xue Li, Xue Li.”

“What is it?”

“Come here for a second.”

Not understanding, Xue Li walked over to her brother. “What is it?”

Ke Li hurriedly moved behind Xue Li and grabbed her shoulders. “Don’t go too far from me. Big brother needs you.”

Xue Li’s body was covered in goosebumps. “What are you doing? Have you finally gone crazy?”

After that, Ke Li stuck extremely close to Xue Li. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake him off, so she eventually gave up and just let him follow her.

Seeing Zhou Zhou still seriously reading, Ke Li hid behind his sister, very puzzled. “Zhou Zhou, didn’t you have any thoughts after reading those books?”

Didn’t he find the content more and more terrifying the more he thought about it?

Zhou Zhou looked up, contemplating for a moment. “The meaning is very profound.”

Ke Li: “…”

Okay, he was just an ordinary person. He didn’t understand. He didn’t get it.

In the game instance, the clock struck twelve.

The ringing sound of the bells resonated throughout the house, and all the players heard it.

In the next moment, everything blurred before the players’ eyes, and they found themselves in different positions.

Originally, they had been together with their companions in the room, but now each person was lying alone on a bed, with the plush toy they had hatched beside them, and their companions were nowhere to be seen.

Zhou Zhou found himself lying on a bed, covered by a blanket, with the chubby little duck lying at the head of the bed. The surroundings were completely unfamiliar, not the room they had entered together.

Sitting up from the bed, Zhou Zhou noticed this room only had one bed and one desk, nothing else. Everyone else was gone.

Hugging the yellow duck, Zhou Zhou was still wondering how he had ended up here when he suddenly heard a rustling sound from under the bed.

It sounded like something was crawling on the floor, the fabric rubbing against the ground making that noise.

He leaned over the bed, lifting the bedsheet that draped to the floor, curiously peering down.