Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 41

Chapter 41: Nightmare City 3

Zhou Zhou picked up the teddy bear and placed it neatly on the bedside table. He himself also knelt on the bed, facing the bear.

At this moment, this fluffy yellow little bear remained motionless, as if its earlier movement of shifting outwards was just an illusion of Zhou Zhou’s.

Zhou Zhou also remained motionless, staring at the little bear, both of them staying still, without any movement. Not a single sound from outside the room penetrated the interior, and the quiet dark room seemed devoid of any human presence.

Finally, Zhou Zhou slowly blinked and said while looking at the little bear, “Why can your eyes emit a red glow?”

No matter how dark it was, Zhou Zhou could see clearly, so before going to bed, he had set the room to dark mode, letting in no light at all. The little bear’s eyes, emitting a red glow, were particularly noticeable in the darkness, and Zhou Zhou’s face was also cast in a pale red light. From the doorway, whether it was Zhou Zhou’s kneeling posture or the flickering red light on the bed, it looked like a strange and eerie ritual was being performed.

After Zhou Zhou finished speaking, the yellow little bear sitting on the bedside remained motionless, but those eyes flashing a red light suddenly went dark, returning to their original black pupils.

The room also plunged back into darkness.

Zhou Zhou did not move either. He watched the little bear silently crawl to the other side in the darkness, changing its position, and asked, “Are you Xiao Jin?”

Although he had no evidence, Zhou Zhou just felt that this bear was Xiao Jin, the boy who had entered his room on the first night in the Doll’s House instance.

The teddy bear stopped moving for a moment, then immediately lay down, pretending to be just an ordinary toy bear that had done nothing.

However, Zhou Zhou had already seen all its movements in the darkness. He lowered his head in thought. If it really was Xiao Jin, what was he trying to do by coming to his room in the middle of the night?

Recalling his promise in the instance, Zhou Zhou suddenly took action. He got off the bed, opened the light-colored wooden cabinet by the bedside, took out a handful of colorful candies from the drawer, and then offered them to the toy bear.

Originally, he had thought the other party wouldn’t be able to see what he was doing in the darkness, so he could give him a fright. But instead, he was seen through at a glance. The toy bear felt very regretful but still reached for the candies without hesitation.

Then, the pile of candies slipped through its fingers and fell onto the bed.

This toy bear’s design was very ordinary, light yellow fur, short and round limbs, and it had no fingers that could be used to grasp things, so naturally, it couldn’t hold onto the candies.

Both the person and the bear looked down at the candies scattered on the bed, but Zhou Zhou still added salt to the wound, “Ah, they all fell down.”

The toy bear held back and held back, but finally tilted its head back and opened its mouth wide, “Wah wah woo woo woo~”

Zhou Zhou’s eyes lit up. He recognized Xiao Jin’s crying voice.

“You’re Xiao Jin,” Zhou Zhou stated with certainty.

The woo wah woo crying sound paused for a moment, then continued, but fortunately, this time Xiao Jin only felt embarrassed, and after crying for a while, he stopped.

“How, how did you know it was me?” Xiao Jin sniffled.

“I remember your voice,” Zhou Zhou said with a slight smile, obviously very happy, after all, Xiao Jin had come to find him, which meant they were not afraid of him anymore.

The teddy bear turned its body, presenting its fluffy back to Zhou Zhou. After a while, it asked awkwardly, “You said before that you would treat us to a meal. Does that still count?”

“Of course it counts.”

“Then how about tomorrow?”

The toy bear’s voice was very small, as if afraid Zhou Zhou would disagree.

“Tomorrow, ah, I’ve already made plans to go to the amusement park with Al tomorrow.”

“Amusement park?” The toy bear Xiao Jin suddenly turned around, staring at Zhou Zhou with a pair of dark black glass eyes. Although they were just glass eyes attached to a toy bear, Zhou Zhou saw a hint of longing within them.

“Do you also want to go?”

Before Zhou Zhou finished speaking, the toy bear immediately stood up from the bed, its short, round, fluffy arms behind its back, and lowered its head as it drew circles on the bed with one foot, “It’s not that I have to go.”

“Oh.” Zhou Zhou nodded. Although the one in front of him was a toy bear no taller than thirty centimeters, when he associated it with Xiao Jin’s appearance, if it was the golden-haired, golden-eyed Xiao Jin making these actions, it would undoubtedly be very cute.

Seeing Zhou Zhou’s response was rather perfunctory, and that he had no intention of continuing, the toy bear could only go on, “I’ve never been to an amusement park before.”

“Then do you want to come with us?” Xiao Jin’s hints were already very obvious, and Zhou Zhou pursed his lips and smiled secretly, feeling like he was bullying a child.

The little bear raised its head, tilting it to look at Zhou Zhou, “Okay, but the others will probably want to go too.”

“You mean the other kids also want to go?”

“Yeah, they haven’t been to an amusement park either.”

“Of course they can come. The more people, the merrier.”

Having received an affirmative answer, Xiao Jin seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and sat back down on the bed, “Thank you.”

Zhou Zhou also sat on the edge of the bed, maintaining a distance from the toy bear. He remembered very clearly how many kids he had scared into crying before. Even though Xiao Jin no longer seemed as afraid of him, he still cautiously kept his distance, afraid of frightening him again.

“Why are you suddenly not afraid of me anymore?” Zhou Zhou asked.

While trying to gather the scattered candies nearby, the teddy bear said, “You told us ghost stories, of course we were scared. We even went and reported you, but Sister Lan said you’re a good person.”

Zhou Zhou was surprised, “You guys also know Mo Lan?”

“Of course, there aren’t many high-level players now, so we also keep in frequent contact and help each other out,” Xiao Jin gathered the candies within his short reach, then got up and went to push the candies farther away, looking very busy.

It turned out Mo Lan had helped. But when had he told ghost stories? Zhou Zhou was very puzzled, and naturally raised this question to the person involved.

The toy bear waved its limbs and almost bounced off the bed, “What ghost stories? Everything you told were ghost stories!”

Zhou Zhou tried to recall, it seemed like he had only told bedtime stories to everyone, so those bedtime stories were ghost stories?

“But those stories didn’t have any ghosts, nor were they scary, like the little kid who came out to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, behind him was clearly…”

“Ahhhh, ghosts go away! Ghosts go away! I won’t listen, I won’t listen!” The toy bear covered its ears and rolled around on the bed. Although its ears were just for show, it successfully interrupted Zhou Zhou and prevented itself from recalling that terrifying time.

Zhou Zhou stopped talking. Seeing Xiao Jin’s strong reaction, he lowered his head and wondered if the books he had read really were ghost stories.

“But those were from the rooms in the Doll’s House instance,” he said. Those were all children’s rooms, and the book covers were very cartoonish. He really thought they were children’s bedtime stories.

Xiao Jin paused, raising his bear head to look at Zhou Zhou, “You read the books in the room?”

Those books were randomly placed, and most elements in the rooms were meant to increase the sense of fear. No one was clear on what specific books were placed there. Who would have thought a player would actually read the books in the room seriously, and then recount them to the others, scaring the whole group into tears? It was just so frustrating.

“I’ll go and change the books,” Xiao Jin said angrily.

Discovering the real reason, Zhou Zhou felt a bit embarrassed. It turned out it was him telling the stories that had scared the children into crying. He had thought it was because he didn’t know how to interact with children, which was why they found him scary.

“I’m sorry, I won’t tell those stories anymore,” Zhou Zhou apologized again.

The toy bear waved its paw, “It’s okay, I didn’t know the books in the room were ghost stories either. I forgive you.”

Xiao Jin’s tone was very relaxed. Zhou Zhou hesitated, “So does that mean we’re on good terms now?”

“Yeah.”

The person and the bear exchanged a smile, although Zhou Zhou couldn’t tell if Xiao Jin was really smiling or not. But he himself felt very happy.

With the misunderstanding resolved, Zhou Zhou looked at the little bear who had piled all the candies in front of him on the bed and asked, “Xiao Jin, why were you inside my teddy bear?”

Xiao Jin had gathered all the candies on the bed in front of him. He walked over to Zhou Zhou and placed his two round, plump feet on Zhou Zhou’s thigh. Since it was a toy bear’s body, it had almost no weight, so Zhou Zhou’s leg only had two shallow round indentations from the bear’s feet.

He beckoned to Zhou Zhou, and when Zhou Zhou leaned down, Xiao Jin whispered in his ear, “We can attach our souls to other inanimate objects.”

Zhou Zhou looked at the toy bear in amazement and whispered back, “Wow, so cool. Is that why you’re in a toy’s body?”

The toy bear nodded, “Don’t tell anyone else.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Zhou Zhou promised quietly.

It was through his later conversation with Xiao Jin that Zhou Zhou learned that Xiao Jin and the others, like Mo Lan, were also one of the minority races in Interstellar.

They remained in the form of children their entire lives, never growing up, and had the ability to separate their souls and attach them to inanimate objects. Although this ability had limitations, it wasn’t a big problem in the game, which is why they came to the game to earn money.

Because they were so small, they couldn’t find work in the Empire. Now they couldn’t openly appear in the city of Nightmare City either, since the game prohibited minors from entering. So if they wanted to play around in the city of Nightmare City, they needed someone to escort them, or rather, to escort the objects they had attached their souls to.

They had encountered many players in the instance, but everyone seemed to treat them as real NPCs. Some even wanted to attack the children. Originally, they thought Zhou Zhou was also that kind of bad player. Although he didn’t physically attack them, he was more powerful and managed to scare everyone into crying just with a few stories.

However, what he said before leaving the instance made everyone change their view of him a little bit. This was the first time anyone had apologized to them so carefully and said they would treat them to a meal.

Later, when Sister Mo Lan also said Zhou Zhou was a good person, Xiao Jin took on the important mission of exploring Zhou Zhou at night.

Now that he knew those stories were from books they had placed themselves, Xiao Jin finally forgave Zhou Zhou.

The toy bear Xiao Jin sat in Zhou Zhou’s arms and told him a lot, like the traits of their race and his group of good friends. Zhou Zhou also told him about his own companions.

Finally, Xiao Jin prepared to leave. Although he could directly return his soul to his body, he wouldn’t be able to take the candies with him. So he borrowed Zhou Zhou’s toy bear and planned to use this body to carry the candies back.

“Aren’t you all going to gather with us? How will I find you then?” Zhou Zhou asked as he stood at the door.

The toy bear, already walking away with a small bundle on his back containing the candies Zhou Zhou had packed, turned around upon hearing the question, “I’ve already come up with a way. Tomorrow when you enter the amusement park, come to the doll area to find us. We’ll be waiting for you there.”

After saying that, he waved his paw at Zhou Zhou and left with the small bundle on his back.

Zhou Zhou returned to his room. Thinking that he would be able to meet Xiao Jin and the other kids tomorrow, he immediately lay down to sleep. But he had just closed his eyes when he opened them again, realizing he hadn’t asked the others if they also wanted to go to the amusement park.

Zhou Zhou summoned the quest panel and sent messages to Xue Li, Ke Li, Eddie, Qian Le, Heya, and Mo Lan, before finally settling down to sleep.

In the Imperial Palace, Alvia was still reviewing documents when a little boy suddenly appeared beside him, wailing and rolling on the ground.

His actions did not attract Alvia’s attention at all. Although Zeus was an artificial intelligence, his behavior was always strange, and Alvia had grown accustomed to it.

“My entrance, oh, the entrance I had planned was used by someone else. Ahhhh, I don’t want to use what’s left by others!”

Zeus rolled on the smooth, bright marble floor. Even though the only person present ignored him, he wailed for quite a while. Afterwards, he abruptly sat up from the ground and muttered to himself, “No, I must find another way. My entrance must be grand and majestic! It must shake the earth and heavens! None shall be able to compare!”

His voice grew louder, and after speaking, he clenched his fists, as if making a resolution. Then he disappeared from the spot, as if nothing had happened.

Alvia glanced at the place where Zeus had disappeared and shifted his gaze back to the documents before him. He had been in the game for the past two days, so he could only review many documents at night. The Empire currently faced no major threats, but there were many trivial matters, such as the upcoming celebration, policy changes in various regions, and the replacement of officials on some planets, among others. Some required his personal presence, while others needed to be handled by his subordinates.

A few years ago, he would have had no time to spare for other places, let alone to play games. Nightmare City could indeed improve spiritual power, but at his current level, it was impossible for him to improve his spiritual power simply by playing the game, as the higher the level, the more difficult it became to advance.

So why did he spend so much time in the game? Was it to personally catch spies? To use himself as bait?

He gave a self-mocking smile and then focused his attention on the documents in his hands. The items arranged around Alvia were very simple: a dark-colored desk and chair, a wall of bookshelves, and various instruments and electronic devices in the distance. Apart from these, there was nothing else, appearing vastly different from the palace’s luxurious exterior decorations and making the interior seem empty.

Alvia’s daily routine was very punctual. After completing the training he had to do every single day, and drinking his nutrient solution, he returned to his bedchamber and looked at the holographic equipment set up there, then glanced down at his own attire.

“What are you thinking about?” Zeus asked, standing beside Alvia and squinting at him curiously, his face carefree, looking in a good mood, completely different from the wailing and rolling on the ground he had done the day before.

Alvia did not respond. He simply took off the dark-colored clothes he usually wore and changed into a light-colored casual outfit.

The style of the clothes was very simple, but anything that appeared here was no ordinary clothing. The edges were embroidered with intricate pale silver patterns, barely noticeable at a glance, and the cut of the clothes showcased the wearer’s physique to perfection.

Zeus circled around him, watching him change clothes and enter the holographic game. His smile became somewhat strange for some reason, and after chuckling a few times, he disappeared again.

The place they had agreed to meet was at the entrance of the amusement park. Alvia was the first to arrive. Looking at the towering rides within and hearing the laughter and screams of the people, he felt out of place.

He stood casually to one side, waiting for Zhou Zhou to arrive. The players coming to the amusement park seemed to notice Alvia, occasionally glancing at him, and some even wanted to approach and strike up a conversation. Alvia lowered his presence to the minimum, and soon, no one paid attention to him anymore.

In fact, one’s presence was also related to spiritual power. When Zhou Zhou first encountered Alvia, the transparent film he felt was actually Alvia using his spiritual power to envelop the two of them, lowering their presence to the minimum and deceiving the monsters’ senses.

In their subsequent adventures in the game, he also used his spiritual power to make everyone unconsciously ignore his presence. Heya’s spiritual power was also very high, so he could also lower his presence, although not to Alvia’s level. But generally speaking, for someone as tall and imposing as him, it was indeed very useful.

“Al!”

It didn’t take long before Zhou Zhou’s voice rang out nearby. Alvia looked up and saw Zhou Zhou excitedly waving at him from the crowd.

He was actually quite curious as to why Zhou Zhou always seemed to notice him, even when he lowered his presence to the minimum. Zhou Zhou’s gaze always managed to spot him right away.

Alvia nodded at Zhou Zhou and got up to meet him.

After waving at Alvia, seeing that Alvia had noticed him, Zhou Zhou immediately turned to the two people behind him and said, “There are a lot of people here. Follow me closely and don’t get separated.”

Qian Le: “Don’t worry, no matter how many people, I’ll stick close to you.”

Eddie: “No problem, no problem. What’s there to worry about? If we get lost, we can just contact each other on the quest panel.”

Zhou Zhou nodded, “Yeah, let’s go meet up with Al quickly.”

When the two people behind Zhou Zhou came into view and waved at him, Alvia’s footsteps faltered slightly, but he maintained his usual expression and continued walking over at the same pace.