Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Nightmare City 4

When Alvia walked up to the three of them, Zhou Zhou immediately rattled off the reasons why the others couldn’t come, like spilling beans.

Xue Li and Ke Li were working during the day and only had time to play games in the evenings. Mo Lan was still in the instance, dutifully playing the role of an NPC, so she didn’t have time to come out either.

It seemed like Heya had some temporary matter come up, so he wouldn’t be online for a while. He sent Zhou Zhou a message apologizing, saying there was some major event coming up that he had to help a friend with.

So the only idle people with time available were Eddie and Qian Le, who hadn’t started school yet. Qian Le had taken out the money he earned from his part-time job yesterday along with his previous earnings and paid his tuition fees. Because of this, his parents had called him home to ask him about it. But since he hadn’t done anything illegal, after staying home for a night, he was kicked out again.

Zhou Zhou still looked a little disappointed that everyone couldn’t get together. Alvia nodded at the other two, his expression as cold and calm as ever.

The four of them looked at each other. Eddie grinned and waved at Alvia, then glanced at the wary Qian Le facing Al, shrugging as if he was ready to enjoy the show.

“Where do you want to go play in first? I’ll lead the way.”

Qian Le had worked here before, so he knew the general layout of this huge amusement park. It was impossible to cover all the areas in one go, so they could only pick a few that everyone wanted to visit.

Eddie didn’t have any preferences, as long as there was some excitement to watch, he didn’t care where they went.

Zhou Zhou looked up at the three of them, his clear eyes sparkling with flickering lights: “How about we go to the Doll House area first?”

The others didn’t object, so the group followed Qian Le’s lead towards the Doll House area.

Even before they reached the Doll House area, they could see several towering giant dolls, sitting or standing at the entrance.

Eddie stuck his head out of the sightseeing car, craning his neck to look up at those huge dolls and whistled: “These are way bigger than the ghosts we saw before.”

Qian Le was completely confused. “What’s bigger than ghosts?”

Since Qian Le wasn’t there for the last instance, Eddie immediately started telling him about the large ghosts they encountered, leaving Qian Le gaping in astonishment. He had only played the Haunted Villa instance before and didn’t know that the ghosts were different in each instance.

Zhou Zhou kept looking left and right. Xiao Jin said they were in the Doll House area, but at the entrance, he only saw players coming and going. Where exactly were they?

“What are you looking for?” Alvia, who had been silent all along, suddenly asked.

Zhou Zhou reflexively turned his head to look at him, staring at Alvia’s calm face and stammering, “Nothing.”

Alvia gazed at Zhou Zhou, whose eyes kept drifting left and right, but didn’t ask further.

The four of them played around the giant dolls at the entrance for quite a while. Zhou Zhou, Eddie, and Qian Le, being of playful ages, happily touched, hugged, and pounced on the feet of the dolls, burying themselves in the fluffy plush toys. After all, they were often in tense situations during instances, so they were delighted to have time to play now.

Only Alvia remained as quiet as ever, standing aside with his hands in his pockets and watching the three youngsters frolic. His posture was upright, and his aura was outstanding, clearly different from the other three younger boys. He looked like a steady older brother taking care of three lively younger brothers.

Eddie would glance at Alvia from time to time, then lean towards Zhou Zhou and whisper, “I feel like Al doesn’t seem too happy. Do you know what’s going on?”

Zhou Zhou looked over at Alvia, whose expression seemed no different from usual. “Al doesn’t seem happy? Why?”

Eddie: “…How would I know?”

Zhou Zhou pondered for a moment, then walked straight up to Alvia and asked, “Are you unhappy?”

Eddie’s eyes widened, not expecting Zhou Zhou to ask so directly. He stood in the back, pretending to admire the view while straining his ears to catch every sound from their conversation.

“Why do you ask?” Alvia said flatly.

“You seem different from usual.”

“Isn’t this how I usually am?”

Zhou Zhou lowered his head in thought. Al did seem to act like this normally, expressionless and quiet. There didn’t seem to be any problem.

“Zhou Zhou, what are you guys doing standing at the entrance? Aren’t you coming in?” Qian Le had already entered the Doll House area and turned back, waving at them and shouting.

“Coming right away.” Zhou Zhou shouted back. “Al, Eddie, let’s hurry in.”

Eddie pretended to have just heard it, responding with a sound and following closely behind them.

Others could say whatever they wanted, and Zhou Zhou would believe it. Al was clearly unhappy, and his whole aura was like a block of ice, yet Zhou Zhou didn’t notice at all, even after asking Al directly if he was unhappy and Al not denying it.

He shook his head with a sigh, then couldn’t help but laugh, only suppressing his laughter after catching Al’s icy cold gaze.

Upon entering the Doll House area, they were surrounded by plush toys of various colors and sizes everywhere. Zhou Zhou looked left and right, his eyes full of curiosity.

However, he didn’t forget his mission and carefully searched for dolls that matched the children’s appearances. Although Xiao Jin didn’t explicitly say so, Zhou Zhou figured that they couldn’t appear directly in front of people and would likely continue hiding inside doll bodies. But there were so many dolls here that he didn’t know which ones the children would be hiding in.

Suddenly, Zhou Zhou noticed a rabbit doll keychain about the size of a palm waving at him from the transparent window of the first claw machine on the left.

Zhou Zhou’s eyes lit up, and he went straight towards the claw machine, followed by the others.

There were dozens of claw machines at the entrance, with four people lined up in front of the first one. Zhou Zhou silently stood behind them, tilting his head to observe how they played the game.

He had never played it before and watched intently as the person in front operated the mechanical claw, slowly moving it down. The mechanical claw gently grabbed a small dog plush toy with dark circles under its eyes and began to lift it up, but the dog slipped and fell halfway through.

The player sighed with regret, tried again a few more times unsuccessfully, and finally had to let the next person take a turn.

“Zhou Zhou, there’s quite a line for this machine. If you want to play, let’s go to the ones further back.” There was no one in front of the last dozen or so claw machines. They only needed to walk a few dozen meters to reach those, so why wait here?

Zhou Zhou shook his head, his gaze turning towards the transparent window of the claw machine. When that person was trying to catch the plush toy earlier, he saw the dog plush that was gripped by the claw wiggling its butt in midair, causing it to fall from the mechanical arm. The subsequent ones did the same – just as the mechanical arm was about to grab the plush toy, several of them would either suddenly tilt to the side or shift positions. The movements were subtle but enough to make the already loose mechanical arm fail to grab any of them.

The second player couldn’t catch a single plush toy either and angrily said this machine was faulty. The girl in front of Zhou Zhou didn’t even try, directly leaving for the claw machines further back.

Qian Le hesitantly stopped Zhou Zhou: “Why don’t we change to another one?” This machine seemed to have issues since several people in a row couldn’t catch anything, while the second player immediately got a plush toy after switching machines.

Zhou Zhou had already gripped the control stick: “It’s okay, I’ll catch from this one.”

He carefully extended the mechanical arm above a white rabbit plush, then slowly lowered it. But when the claw tried to grab it, his inexperienced operation caused it to lightly graze over the rabbit’s body without catching it.

Qian Le, watching from the side, felt a tinge of regret but still tried to console Zhou Zhou: “You’ll definitely get it next time…”

He hadn’t even finished his sentence when the rabbit plush that was sitting in the corner of the side window suddenly tilted over, falling perfectly into the mechanical arm. To Qian Le’s astonishment, the rabbit keychain about the size of a palm dropped out from the exit below.

“Your luck is really good,” Eddie praised.

Zhou Zhou held the little rabbit in his hand and turned to leave, but his finger was gently tugged by the rabbit.

“More,” the rabbit’s mouth moved slightly, and two barely audible words floated into Zhou Zhou’s ear.

More? He turned back to look at the dozen or so animal keychains in the claw machine. Could it be that all of these were…?

Alvia frowned slightly, looking at the small rabbit in Zhou Zhou’s hand. That rabbit just now…

Zhou Zhou operated the mechanical arm again to catch the plush toys inside. These plush toys were about the same size, mostly around the size of a palm, but they varied in color and type, some were turtles, some were puppies, all kinds, looking very miniature and cute.

Then, one by one, Zhou Zhou managed to grab the plush toys out.

Qian Le’s mouth hung open the entire time, mainly because Zhou Zhou’s luck was too good. There were several instances where the mechanical arm didn’t actually grab onto the plush toys, but each time, the toys beside it would suddenly drop, conveniently falling into the mechanical arm’s grasp.

Gradually, Zhou Zhou couldn’t hold any more in his hands, so he had the others help carry them. Even Alvia ended up with a few plush toys in his hands.

“Why don’t we go play something else?” Qian Le asked. Others would usually just catch one or two and leave, but Zhou Zhou kept managing to catch them every time, seemingly intent on clearing out all the plush toys from this machine.

With their hands full of plush toys, many other players were already looking their way, and the few men grabbing so many plush toys felt a bit awkward.

“Wait, almost done,” Zhou Zhou said. There were only two plush toys left, he couldn’t just leave these two children behind, could he?

He grabbed out a black kitten, finally leaving only a black and white panda remaining.

Skillfully maneuvering the mechanical arm close to the panda, Zhou Zhou slowly lowered it, but just as he was about to grab it, the arm suddenly wobbled, causing him to miss the panda. As the shaky mechanical arm rose back up, the panda sitting in the window and hugging a bamboo stick abruptly threw the stick away. Its plump body leapt upwards, grabbing onto the mechanical arm with all its limbs and dangling precariously until reaching the exit, then dropping down successfully to the outside.

Qian Le: ?!

He pointed at the panda in horror: “Did you see that just now? What happened? The panda moved!”

Zhou Zhou bent down to pick up the panda, guiltily hiding it behind his back. He had promised Xiao Jin not to reveal their tribe’s secret to others, so he could only pretend he didn’t know anything.

Eddie held plush toys in both hands, kittens, deer, pigs, you name it. Recalling the scene just now, he was reminded of the plush toys from the previous instance that could also move and talk, so he wondered if these were NPCs who had come out to find Zhou Zhou again.

The resentful woman running out of the instance had left quite an impression, so Eddie quickly made the connection but didn’t expose Zhou Zhou, who seemed uneasy. Instead, he said to the utterly shocked Qian Le: “So what if a plush toy moved? Didn’t you play with toys as a kid? Which ones couldn’t move? There were even some that could fly to the heavens and dive into the sea.”

Qian Le looked at Zhou Zhou doubtfully, then at Eddie: “Really?” Mainly, that panda’s movements just now were too nimble, like it was truly alive, which was why he got so scared.

By now, Zhou Zhou had grabbed all the plush toys out of this claw machine. The staff member looked at the empty display window, then at the four men covered in plush toys, giving them a strange stare for a while before sighing in resignation and refilling the plush toys inside.

Zhou Zhou held an armful of animal-shaped plush toys. Although each one wasn’t big, they added up to a considerable amount, and he had to be careful not to drop any from the middle while carrying them like this.

Finally, Qian Le couldn’t stand watching anymore. How were they supposed to play while carefully hugging a bunch of plush toys like this?

“Zhou Zhou, why don’t we store these plush toys here first and pick them up when we leave?” Qian Le asked.

Zhou Zhou shook his head while cradling the plush toys. If he left the children here, they wouldn’t be able to see anything and wouldn’t be able to join in the fun.

When Alvia heard the rabbit’s voice, he realized what was going on. He found that Zhou Zhou had a strong draw for NPCs in the game, always having some NPC or other come out to find him.

“The plush toys have strings, so you can hang them on yourself,” Alvia reminded.

These plush toys were originally meant to be keychains that could be hung on keyrings, backpacks, clothes, etc. The strings on their heads would automatically lock in place when touching an object, so they wouldn’t fall off no matter where they were hung.

Hearing Al’s words, Zhou Zhou immediately hung the plush toys all over himself, two on his wrists, a few hung from the hem of his clothes, two on his shoulders. He looked like a walking display of plush toy keychains.

Eddie and Qian Le fell silent at Zhou Zhou’s appearance. Zhou Zhou’s cute looks made him even more adorable covered in a bunch of plush toys.

As for themselves, they didn’t dare imagine what the same getup would look like, so they opted to just hold the plush toys in their hands, tying the strings to their wrists to prevent dropping them.

Alvia also frowned at the plush toys in his hands but followed Eddie and the others, holding the plush toys while facing their backs outwards, ensuring the plush toys could still see outside even while hidden in his grasp.

After finding the children, Zhou Zhou was at a loss for where to go next to play. In the end, it was Qian Le who suggested they go ride the roller coaster.

After all, this amusement park’s roller coaster was quite famous, so they had to go to the best attraction while here.

Qian Le had only heard about it since he hadn’t been here long. Apart from eating dog food on the Ferris wheel, he hadn’t been to many other places, relying more on the map.

Gazing at the intricate, winding roller coaster tracks with nearly vertical slopes, Eddie hesitated: “Is this really safe?”

Qian Le glanced at him: “This is a game world, how could it be dangerous?”

“I mean, we barely survived and cleared the instance, wouldn’t it be embarrassing to die on an amusement park roller coaster?”

“What, are you scared?”

Facing Qian Le’s provocation, Eddie immediately said, “Of course not, just because you’re afraid doesn’t mean others are too. I’m just worried the rides here are too thrilling and might have safety hazards.”

“Can you really call it a hazard if it’s in a game? You’re just making excuses if you’re scared.”

The two glared at each other, simultaneously turning to Zhou Zhou: “Zhou Zhou, who do you think is scared?”

Zhou Zhou looked between them, eager to try: “Why don’t we all go up and find out?”

He had never seen this before, and the screams and shouts from above made it seem really fun.

“Al?” Zhou Zhou turned to Alvia at the back, calling him to buy tickets together.

Alvia: “I won’t go. You guys can go play.”

Zhou Zhou hesitated. If Al wasn’t going, should he not go either? Otherwise, with the three of them leaving, Al would be left alone.

“What, are you also scared…”

Qian Le was about to provoke Alvia when he caught sight of Alvia’s ice-blue eyes and suddenly lost his nerve. For some reason, he felt like he had seen those eyes somewhere before, exuding an indescribable pressure.

Eddie was already quite certain that Alvia was truly angry, but about what? What was there to be angry about just going out to play with Zhou Zhou? Alvia wouldn’t say, and the others couldn’t tell either, which was really frustrating.

Alvia went to sit on a nearby chair and wait for them, handing the plush toys he was holding to Zhou Zhou before leaving. Now that he knew their true identities, these people were inhabiting plush toy bodies just to come out and play this time. Leaving them with him meant they couldn’t go on the roller coaster, so it was better to let Zhou Zhou take them along.

The three of them headed towards the entrance, with Eddie secretly sidling up to Zhou Zhou and whispering, “Zhou Zhou, whose idea was it to go out this time?”

No matter how he thought about it, something felt off. Based on his understanding of Al from the two previous instances, few people could stir his emotions, and making him angry was even rarer.

“It was Al’s idea,” Zhou Zhou truthfully answered.

“His?” How could that be possible? Al didn’t seem like someone who would suggest going to an amusement park to play with his companions.

Zhou Zhou briefly recounted apologizing to Al and their subsequent conversation. Eddie finally realized the reason.

He held back a laugh: “Then why did you message us all to come play together? Wouldn’t it be better if it was just you two going to the amusement park?”

However, Zhou Zhou gave him a puzzled look: “The more people, the merrier. It would be too quiet with just the two of us.”

So that was the reason. Eddie finally couldn’t hold it in and burst into laughter in the tunnel. He noticed today that Al seemed to have changed his clothes, probably thinking it was a date for just the two of them, but then Zhou Zhou brought them all along. If the others weren’t busy, there might have been even more people.

No, Eddie looked down at the plush toys in his hands. They already had a lot of people now.

Qian Le pricked up his ears, trying to listen to their conversation amid the other players talking nearby, only catching a few key words. He asked vigilantly, “What do you mean by two people? Which two people?”

Eddie patted his shoulder, pushing him towards the roller coaster stopped in the tunnel: “Nothing, nothing. Let’s get on quickly.”

The three of them sat in the same row, with Qian Le on the inside, Zhou Zhou in the middle, and Eddie on the other side.

After fastening their seatbelts, Qian Le leaned over with difficulty and asked Eddie, “What were you guys just…”

The roller coaster took off with a whoosh, scattering the rest of his words into the air.

It was too fast!

Alvia sat leisurely below, squinting up at the roller coaster that had become a streak of light. While to ordinary people it had turned into an afterimage, Alvia could not only see the full appearance of the roller coaster but also the facial expressions of everyone on board.

He had never been to an amusement park since childhood, let alone ride a roller coaster. Although it was still called a roller coaster, in the interstellar era, roller coasters only retained the old name, their actual speed was comparable to light speed, and in the virtual world, the speed would only be faster. So as soon as he entered, he saw the distorted expressions of the players on the previous roller coaster.

He possessed the empire’s various models of spaceships and mechas and had piloted countless of them himself, so he didn’t have much interest in roller coasters. It was more interesting to watch others ride instead.

Besides, if he went up there, his expression might end up looking like that too. The idol Alvia, burdened by his image, shook his head. It was better to let them play.

He bought four glasses of lemonade, drinking one while elegantly gazing up at Zhou Zhou and the others, giving the impression that he wasn’t in an amusement park drinking lemonade, but leisurely sipping tea in a magnificent palace.

“Aaaaaaahhhhh~”

Qian Le and Eddie screamed loudly, not knowing what else to do. The speed was so fast that their faces were distorted, but at this point, the two couldn’t care less about their appearances.

Help, they wanted to get off!!!

Among the distorted faces, Zhou Zhou’s calm expression stood out. Not only was his face unaffected, even his hair wasn’t too disheveled, and he even had the mind to adjust the positions of the plush toys all over himself.

Alvia’s eyes narrowed slightly below, his thick lashes obscuring his gaze.

“Aren’t you going to go play?” A trash can beside Alvia suddenly spoke, Zeus’s voice coming from inside.

Alvia glanced at the trash can, continuing to look upwards: “What is it?”

“I’ve already investigated these past two days. None of the problematic families or rebels have any connection or affiliation with Zhou Zhou.”

“You mean after investigating for two days, you only found out that he has no relation to anyone at all?”

The Zeus trash can gave an affirmative sound: “I checked very carefully. It seems he just appeared out of nowhere in this game. I can’t find anything else about him.”

“Appeared out of nowhere, huh.” Alvia let out an ambiguous chuckle and muttered.

“Anyway, I think he’s a good person. Don’t try anything against him,” Zeus said, sensing Alvia’s odd demeanor, not daring to linger and hurrying off after leaving those words.