Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Deep Sea Creature 3

Alvia naturally also smelled it. The scent was emanating from the room marked 106, seeming to be the aroma of food.

Without waiting for Alvia to answer, Zhou Zhou took a few steps to Room 106’s door and carefully knocked on it.

“Clang clang,” there was no sound from inside the room. Zhou Zhou waited for a while, then tentatively opened the door.

“I’m coming in.”

The door was not locked, easily opening. After opening it, the aroma became even more pungent. Zhou Zhou couldn’t help but open his eyes wide, gazing at the rectangular dining table in the room. The table was covered with a white tablecloth, and a sizzling oily steak was placed on a white porcelain plate, with a knife and fork beside it. There was even a candlestick with a burning red candle on the table.

“Wow!” Zhou Zhou exclaimed, taking two steps forward.

Alvia walked behind Zhou Zhou and noticed that there was only this one portion of food on the table. The aroma of the steak was scattered throughout the room, constantly stimulating the sense of smell, making one involuntarily salivate.

“I feel a bit hungry,” Zhou Zhou said, patting his slightly sunken belly.

Alvia also noticed. From the moment he smelled the steak aroma, the feeling of hunger became increasingly apparent.

In the virtual world, players would not feel hungry. Those restaurants open in Nightmare City only provided oral cravings. No matter how much one ate, there would be no sense of fullness. Some players who preferred oral cravings would even frequent Nightmare City, eating from morning to night without affecting their bodies while also tasting cuisine from different regions, it was simply a paradise tailored for them.

So feeling hungry from the aroma of food in an instance was clearly an issue.

Alvia looked at the steak on the table and surveyed the surrounding environment.

Zhou Zhou’s stomach growled, and he curiously looked down at his belly, even poking it through his shirt. Then his stomach growled again.

Outside, the waves kept surging, and inside, the two did not speak, so Zhou Zhou’s intestinal sounds were very clear, even causing Alvia to look over.

Why was his stomach making noises? Zhou Zhou looked surprised, even about to lift his shirt to check.

“What’s wrong?” Alvia asked as he nonchalantly brushed Zhou Zhou’s hand away from the edge of his shirt.

“I’m so hungry, and my stomach is making noises,” he said, patting his belly while speaking to Alvia.

Zhou Zhou could feel hunger, which was already an unbelievable thing. Now his stomach was also growling, it was the first time he had experienced this situation. However, many things in Nightmare City had been firsts for him recently, so everything seemed new and intriguing. Thus, his stomach growling didn’t seem like a big deal.

After speaking, Zhou Zhou stared intently at the steak on the table, lightly biting his lower lip in an expression of extreme craving. Wisps of steam were still rising from the steak, as if waving their little hands to entice the two hungry players in front of it.

Alvia remained unmoved. Hunger was not a big deal for him, he was only worried that the increasingly intense feeling of hunger might make Zhou Zhou feel unwell. Moreover, the sudden appearance of a freshly cooked meal on the ship looked more like an obvious trap.

He was about to say something when he saw Zhou Zhou take out a piece of beef jerky and start gnawing on it like a squirrel while staring at the steak on the table.

Alvia: “……”

That’s right, Zhou Zhou had previously bought a bunch of food from the store, all priced higher than ordinary food and able to be brought into instances.

Alvia opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing.

Zhou Zhou munched on the beef jerky, which eased his stomach discomfort. Noticing Alvia’s gaze, he turned his head in puzzlement to find the other looking at him with an exasperated expression.

“Are you hungry too? Here, have some,” Zhou Zhou generously offered Alvia a piece of beef jerky.

The long, blackish-red beef jerky didn’t look as good as the steak on the table in terms of color, but it was chewy and flavorful with a spicy taste, perfect for passing the time. Zhou Zhou loved the taste and was reminded of his beef jerky when he saw the steak.

Alvia looked at the beef jerky Zhou Zhou handed him and shook his head: “You eat it.”

“Aren’t you hungry? Or do you want something else?” After all, the two of them had bought the food together, so Zhou Zhou knew which foods Alvia was most familiar with.

“No, you… don’t want to eat the steak on the table?”

Zhou Zhou looked at him in surprise, as if wondering why he would ask such a question.

“That’s someone else’s food. How can we eat it without permission? Besides, I have my own, and a lot of it. It tastes better than his,” Zhou Zhou spoke with pride about owning lots of tasty food.

Alvia lightly laughed and gazed at Zhou Zhou, who was diligently gnawing on the jerky, then couldn’t help but reach out and ruffle his hair.

Zhou Zhou didn’t resist, letting Alvia ruffle his hair while eating.

At that moment, a loud thud in the room caught their attention.

Alvia and Zhou Zhou simultaneously walked around the table, finding that the sound had come from a silver plate that had fallen from a cabinet.

This room was more of a dining room than a guest room. Apart from the single portion candlelit dinner on the dining table, the cabinet against the wall held various tableware and vessels of different materials and styles.

The silver plate on the floor rocked for a while before stopping. Zhou Zhou held the beef jerky in one hand and picked up the silver plate with the other.

The plate’s embossed floral patterns were intricate, looking more like an art piece than tableware. However, this artwork had fallen from above, causing one corner to dent, turning it from flawless to defective.

Zhou Zhou munched on the beef jerky as he studied the plate’s patterns. But when he saw the base, he suddenly froze.

Sensing Zhou Zhou’s abnormality, Alvia also turned his head to look and immediately saw the few words on the base.

[I’m watching you]

Five words that looked bloodstained jumped into view.

The red liquid flowed and dripped from the tilted, bloodied letters, making it look even more eerie. Zhou Zhou turned his wrist slightly and realized that the hand he used to hold the plate had also been stained red.

With a glance, Alvia noticed that when the plate fell to the floor, a few drops of red liquid had also splattered onto the surrounding cabinets and pristine white tablecloth.

The eerie writing seemed like a warning, yet also a curse, making one unconsciously suspect whether there were eyes watching them at all times from the darkness.

“This… seems to be the captain’s writing,” Zhou Zhou said with a furrowed brow. He had read through all the contents of the ship’s log, so he was very familiar with the handwriting. Although the words on the base of the plate looked a bit crooked, upon careful examination, the strokes and turns were exactly the same as in the log. The material used to write appeared reddish and slightly cool, looking very much like fresh bloodstains that had not fully dried.

Alvia took the plate from Zhou Zhou’s hands, not caring if the liquid would stain his own hands. After careful identification, he confirmed it was written by the same person who wrote the ship’s log.

“Is the captain still alive?” Zhou Zhou said obliviously, sending a chill down one’s spine. He looked at the steak on the table. “Was the captain about to eat but got interrupted by us?”

Alvia’s spiritual power did not work on the ship, not for the first time. In the Haunted Villa instance, when facing the resentful woman who appeared and disappeared suddenly, his spiritual power could not investigate either. It was not that his spiritual power was too weak, but rather, to make the game as fair as possible and allow each player’s spiritual power to be better tempered, the higher the level of spiritual power, the greater the restrictions within the game.

In instance-related task locations, especially these semi-enclosed spaces, Alvia’s spiritual power would be suppressed to the minimum, just like in the previous Doll’s House instance where he could not use his spiritual sense to detect which room Zhou Zhou had been moved to.

So in the Deep Sea Creature instance, although he had tried using his spiritual power from the start, confirming that there were no people on this ship, he could not be absolutely certain that his spiritual power was not being interfered with, preventing him from detecting anyone aboard. Moreover, just from the various traces of life inside the ship, many areas here seemed full of vitality.

“The writing has not dried yet, so the other party might still be here. Let’s search around first,” Alvia said calmly to Zhou Zhou.

If there were other players on this ship, facing the haunted ghost ship with no one aboard and a possibly resurrected captain, along with the cursed red writing, they would have been scared out of their wits long ago.

But the two here showed no abnormality, not a hint of horror or eeriness. Alvia remained expressionless with only a slightly furrowed brow, looking as if he were participating in a puzzle game, while Zhou Zhou appeared completely carefree, constantly munching away, more like he was in a mukbang.

He had already eaten several pieces of jerky. Although his stomach had stopped growling, he still felt hungry, so he kept eating. But he did not forget to help search as he ate, joining Alvia in looking around the room.

Whether it was under the dining table, in the nooks and crannies of the cabinets, or elsewhere, they found nothing, not even any valuable items in this room.

“Where did the captain go?” Zhou Zhou seemed convinced that the person who wrote on the base of the plate was the captain, asking Alvia as he munched on jerky.

Alvia pondered for a moment, his cool gaze sweeping the room. “There’s no one else here and no clues related to the mission. Let’s search the other rooms.”

Zhou Zhou realized that besides this room, they still needed to look elsewhere for clues. They could only search for the captain next time.

The two exited the room, Zhou Zhou closing the door behind them as they left.

Outside, the sky grew darker, and the vision inside Room 106 also dimmed. The two orange candlelights flickered faintly in the gloom. Suddenly, the flames swayed left and right a few times before returning to stillness.

Since they had reached the last room, Alvia and Zhou Zhou prioritized the nearest Room 105 this time.

This room was also unlocked. After Zhou Zhou knocked and entered, he found it completely empty inside. Had everything been cleared out? He walked forward puzzled, but after just two steps, the wooden boards beneath his feet suddenly broke apart, causing the surrounding boards to collapse as well. In an instant, the area where Zhou Zhou stood became a massive pit.

The boards seemed to have struck some metal object, making a clang before falling to the ground and shattering into pieces.

Zhou Zhou’s footing gave way, and as he was about to fall with the boards, his wrist was grabbed in time.

His entire body had sunk into the suddenly collapsed pit. Zhou Zhou did not cry out, his dangling feet swayed slowly as he tried to find something to brace against. Alvia held one of Zhou Zhou’s hands, slowly pulling him out.

Both of them had excellent night vision. Alvia had already seen clearly that at a depth of four or five meters below this floor, more than a dozen swords were inserted haphazardly, some broken, some rusty. And right below Zhou Zhou was a sword missing its hilt, although the top did not look particularly sharp, falling from this height would have turned Zhou Zhou into a shish kebab.

Zhou Zhou was not heavy, but Alvia moved extremely carefully. The wooden boards under his feet had also cracked, the cracks even continuing to spread backwards. If he pulled Zhou Zhou up too quickly, the surrounding boards would surely collapse too, causing them both to fall. He could only slowly pull Zhou Zhou to a suitable position before seizing the chance for them to exit the room together.

Zhou Zhou also heard the sound of the cracking boards, though the noise was extremely faint, almost drowned out by the waves outside. But with their exceptional hearing, they could still catch the faint sounds close to them.

“Let me go,” Zhou Zhou mouthed, looking up. He dared not speak aloud for fear his voice would cause the boards to crack faster, nor dared to move recklessly.

Alvia ignored him, focusing on sensing the speed of the cracking boards under his feet as he exerted force to pull Zhou Zhou out at an extremely slow pace.

“Crack.”

A sound slightly different from the previous board cracks rang in their ears as the ship suddenly tilted significantly, the wind outside growing stronger.

At the same time, Alvia, having already pulled half of Zhou Zhou’s body out, suddenly embraced him and retreated backwards at great speed, even crashing into the hallway outside the door. The hallway walls on both sides were also made of wooden boards, but they were much sturdier than those in Room 105.

Although the two collided with the walls, they only created a few cracks without directly smashing through a large hole to fling them out.

The moment Alvia acted, the boards in Room 105 continuously collapsed from the middle until the entire floor had disappeared.

If Alvia had been even one second late, they would have suffered the same fate as the boards.