Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Deep Sea Creature 2

Alvia looked at Zhou Zhou’s questioning expression and smirked: “They probably aren’t the real ones.”

Zhou Zhou lowered his head, thinking for a moment, then stretched his head to look at the two people in the sea. Xue Li and Ke Li were now shouting loudly for help towards the two of them. Their appearance, clothing, and expressions were exactly the same as the ones he knew. If it weren’t for the lack of anything above their heads, anyone would be unable to tell the difference.

“Zhou Zhou, quickly lower the rope. It’s so cold in the sea.”

“That’s right, Zhou Zhou, are you really going to watch us die in the sea?”

Seeing they remained unmoved, the two people in the sea shouted more desperately.

“Do you want to save them?” Alvia asked Zhou Zhou, whose curiosity showed on his face.

Zhou Zhou didn’t answer, but loudly asked the two people below: “Have you seen Xue Li and Ke Li? Where are they?”

Since these two people could transform into their appearance, they might have seen the real two. Moreover, the two of them didn’t have any life values above their heads, indicating they weren’t players, but probably something from within the instance. However, when asking for help, why did they only ask him for rescue and completely ignore Alvia by his side?

Although based on Xue Li and Ke Li’s personalities, they would definitely ask him for help in such a situation, since they were more familiar with him.

But if these two impersonators were reading the players’ memories, they should also know Alvia’s name and ask him for help at the same time.

However, their current attitude made Zhou Zhou suspect that these two people had either heard Xue Li and Ke Li mention him before or had interacted with them, so they knew exactly how to react when asking the two of them for help.

Of course, there was also the possibility that these two were just an illusion they imagined themselves.

Zhou Zhou didn’t know which possibility was correct, so he could only probe by asking the two impersonators.

“What are you talking about? We’re right here.”

‘Xue Li’ looked at Zhou Zhou with an unbelievable expression, full of incomprehension and doubt, as if shocked that he could do such a heartless thing of not rescuing his companions.

Zhou Zhou gazed at the two of them and shouted again: “Okay, then let me ask another question. Xue Li, do you like Ke Li?”

The ‘Xue Li’ below froze, as if not expecting Zhou Zhou to ask such a strange question. After a few seconds, she said, “I do like him, after all, he’s my brother, my family member.”

On the side, ‘Ke Li’ showed no reaction upon hearing ‘Xue Li’s’ reply, still gazing up at the people above with an urgent expression, awaiting rescue.

Zhou Zhou nodded: “Then have you seen Xue Li and Ke Li before?”

The two people below frowned simultaneously. Why was this person being so difficult? How many times did he need to ask the same question?

“Zhou Zhou, don’t you remember us? I am Xue Li.”

“They’re not telling the truth,” Zhou Zhou turned to Alvia and said with a troubled expression.

Alvia gazed at the two people below, shivering from the cold sea water, and said coldly: “Since they’re not telling the truth, let them stay down there.”

The two soaked in the sea water kept shouting, their expressions urgent and voices pleading. ‘Xue Li’ even nearly drowned from exhaustion at one point, only narrowly escaping thanks to Ke Li’s desperate efforts. Such a scene would soften the heart of anyone who saw it, but the two people above had already shifted their attention elsewhere.

“Where do you think Xue Li and the others went?” Zhou Zhou’s face was full of worry.

If it were before, upon seeing people in distress, regardless of whether they had any issues, Zhou Zhou would have rescued them. But now it was different. Putting aside the fact that they had the exact same faces as his companions, just the fact that they weren’t telling the truth was enough to indicate these two people had problems. If he rescued them, who knew if they might do something bad to him and Alvia?

Moreover, Zhou Zhou had already noticed that the two below seemed to be breathing steadily, with no change in their complexions. Their appearance of exhaustion in the sea was completely an act.

“They were probably teleported elsewhere. Don’t worry, they might have already reached some small island or ship. The instance wouldn’t block off all paths from the start. And even if they’ve been eliminated, we can only try to clear it first.”

What Zhou Zhou could notice, Alvia had already noticed long ago. He hadn’t even looked down once, his gaze fixed on the distant sky as he nonchalantly reassured Zhou Zhou.

After a long while, seeing they were completely ignored, the two people below gradually stopped calling for help, their expressions blank as they stared at the two people on the ship.

Their facial expressions were no longer as lively as when they were calling for help, stiff as if covered in a layer of white wax. The features on their faces slowly became blurred, as if being melted by the sea. The edges of their bodies also gradually blurred and deformed. Finally, they silently and soundlessly melted into the sea, as if the cries for help just moments ago were merely an illusion of Zhou Zhou and Alvia’s.

The sea water rose and fell in waves, crashing against the ship’s hull. The only sounds were the surging sea and howling cold wind. Aside from this, it seemed as if this vast sea only had this one ship with just the two of them.

The people who suddenly appeared also disappeared just as suddenly, melting into the vast ocean. Alvia’s expression was cold and indifferent. After a glimpse of flowing light flashed in his eyes as he gazed at the deep blue sea, he said to Zhou Zhou: “Let’s go inside.”

Although the countdown had long since stopped at 55 minutes for both of them and hadn’t changed since, the fluctuation in their life values wasn’t large either. But in the cold weather, it would still decrease at an imperceptible rate. Alvia had the hunch that these two values above their heads would certainly play a major role in the instance, so they should try their best to prevent them from decreasing further.

Zhou Zhou took one last look at the sea water and waved goodbye, not knowing if it was directed at the sea or the two people who had melted into it. Only then did he enter the cabin with Alvia without looking back.

The sky grew darker, filled with lead-gray clouds. The once calm sea surface was now churning with huge waves. Alvia and Zhou Zhou sat in the warm cabin, calmly watching the scenery outside.

Even as the ghost ship rocked constantly, even making a whining sound from the fierce cold wind, like the mournful cries and resentful curses of the ship itself.

Zhou Zhou sat quietly by the window. After finishing the remaining nautical logs, he stared intently out the window at the scenery. Though the deep-toned sea view looked like it might swallow this dilapidated old ship, everything felt novel to him, having grown accustomed to the blossoming flowers and clear skies of the campus. This darker sea scenery was all the more striking.

From every angle, the scenery was different, simply never growing tired of it. Zhou Zhou gazed out the window and suddenly thought, every instance he encountered had different scenery. In this game world, there were so many splendid views. But what about the outside? What was the outside world like?

Previously only focused on concealing his identity to survive as an NPC in this new game world, Zhou Zhou suddenly had an idea. Was there any way for him to leave Nightmare City and go to the outside world?

He wanted to see the outside world with his own eyes.

Infinite spirit shone in Zhou Zhou’s eyes. Not only did he want to live well, he wanted to go out, like everyone else, to leave from here!

Alvia had a casual expression as he rested his head, not understanding why Zhou Zhou’s fighting spirit had suddenly risen so he followed his gaze out the window…but saw nothing.

He was calculating the time. From the moment they entered the instance, or more precisely when the countdown appeared, it had already been 55 minutes. Since the countdown was set to 60 minutes, there would definitely be changes after an hour.

Either the emblems above their heads would disappear, or a new mission would be issued.

Time passed minute by minute, and both were patient people. Finally, when an hour arrived, Alvia, who had been keeping track of the time, immediately looked at Zhou Zhou’s head.

The countdown and life values hadn’t changed at all. Instead, there was a new prompt on the mission panel.

Alvia lightly tapped the table with his index finger. It seemed the next mission would still be related to time or life values.

Zhou Zhou had been thinking for a long time about how he could leave the game world, but he couldn’t figure it out. After all, everyone just logged off with a single click. He had tried pressing that key, but it was useless. Were there any other ways?

It wasn’t until he heard the prompt from the mission panel that he came back to his senses and opened it.

A new main mission had been issued.

【Main Mission: Find the most valuable item on this ship.】

He exchanged a glance with Alvia, and after inquiring, found that their main missions were the same, so it seemed to be the same thing.

“Aren’t we going to wait for Xue Li and Ke Li?” Zhou Zhou asked.

Previously, they had always happily done missions together. But in this instance, they were separated from the very beginning. Zhou Zhou was indeed very worried, because the two of them meant more to him than just companions, one was his girlfriend, and one was his boyfriend. He was concerned about both of them.

Alvia glanced out the window: “Either they’ve been soaked in the sea water for over an hour and been eliminated, or they’re somewhere else, and might have started doing the mission too.”

Based on the current situation, those were indeed the only two possibilities. Zhou Zhou thought for a moment: “Then they must be the second one.”

“Yeah, let’s do the mission first. We might meet up with them later.”

Alvia stood up and surveyed the small captain’s quarters. If they were looking for the most valuable thing, the first place to search would be here, as well as the cargo hold and other cabins.

But the definition of “most valuable” varied from person to person.

“What do you think is the most valuable?”

Zhou Zhou had already been searching the desk and drawers. Hearing Alvia’s question, he turned his head, pondered for a moment, and tentatively said, “Love?”

Alvia: “…No, that’s not what I meant. The mission is asking us to find something tangible.”

“Oh.” Zhou Zhou nodded, thought for a moment, then said, “Money?”

He knew that people in the outside world liked money, just like how everyone in Nightmare City liked points, hoping to have more points. The nature was about the same.

Alvia paused, as if not expecting Zhou Zhou to be so pragmatic. His fleeting smile disappeared as he seriously evaluated: “Supposedly there are large amounts of treasure like gold coins on ghost ships, so that might be our mission objective.”

“Ghost ship? Are there ghosts on this ship?” As always, Zhou Zhou’s focus was different from others, showing a lingering sentimentality towards certain things.

“Not sure, there might be.”

“That would be great. Hopefully the ghosts on the ship don’t grow too large, otherwise they’ll be hard to catch.”

“…They probably won’t.”

The two chatted as they searched all over the captain’s quarters. Zhou Zhou even crawled under the bed to look, but there were very few personal belongings here, and not many valuable items either.

So far in this room, they had only found an antique-style lighter, a cigar, and a white handkerchief embroidered with pink patterns.

The first two items showed that the captain of this ship was a man. After all, to become a captain required extensive experience, so the captain had to be at least 40 years old, and enjoyed smoking cigars. But why would he have such an elegant handkerchief?

“I know, it must have belonged to his girlfriend,” Zhou Zhou said with certainty.

Alvia looked at the three items placed on the table. Indeed, either this captain was an introspective person with a slight case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or the handkerchief belonged to his wife.

None of the three items seemed very valuable. Upon contact, the mission panel showed no reaction, so they would have to search elsewhere.

Leaving the three items on the table, Alvia opened the door to the captain’s quarters and led Zhou Zhou down the stairs.

With each step, not only did the wooden boards creak loudly, they could even feel the boards shaking, not from the ocean but because the wood had rotted and could no longer support their weight.

The two made their way to the cabins at the back. This ship had two floors, the second floor had the captain’s quarters and the bridge, while the first floor had the guest cabins. At the very bottom, there should be a cargo hold. With only the two of them, they could only search one area at a time.

Upon entering the guest cabins, they found that it was just like the captain’s quarters, not only was the temperature comfortable, everything appeared brand new.

There was even a red carpet laid down one side of the hallway, with gold numbers marking a few of the room doors, from 101 to 106, a total of six rooms. The door to each room was also brand new, as if the guests who had once stayed here would either complain or smile as they opened the door if they knocked right now.

Zhou Zhou wrinkled his nose, sniffing around the hallway like a puppy, then turned to Alvia who had stopped at the entrance to the guest cabins and asked, “Do you smell something really fragrant?”