Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Deep Sea Creature 4

Zhou Zhou lay in Alvia’s arms, his amber eyes blinking as he looked up at Alvia and asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Alvia said, gazing at the nearby Zhou Zhou and turning his head slightly.

“You saved me again,” Zhou Zhou said with a smile, completely oblivious to the danger he had just faced.

Alvia: “…Can you get up first?”

The two of them were lying on the floor of the corridor, with Alvia underneath and Zhou Zhou lying on top of him, showing no intention of getting up.

“Oh.” Zhou Zhou then obediently got off Alvia and stood up.

As Alvia sat up on the floor, even before he could stand, Zhou Zhou suddenly turned around and squatted behind him, trying to pull down his coat.

Alvia immediately grabbed the collar of his coat, frowning. “What are you doing?”

“You hit your back against the wall just now, and it sounded really painful. I want to check your injury,” Zhou Zhou said, seeing nothing wrong with his actions, full of concern and frankness.

“It’s not necessary. I’m not injured, and even if I was, injuries disappear automatically after leaving the instance without needing to remove clothes,” Alvia said, looking at Zhou Zhou with a hint of wariness, as if he were a ruffian who might take advantage of him at any moment.

“Oh, okay,” Zhou Zhou said, sounding almost disappointed.

Unable to remove Alvia’s clothes, he looked at the piece of beef jerky he was still holding in his hand and hadn’t finished eating, and began chewing on it again. However, there was no longer any food smell in the corridor, and Zhou Zhou didn’t feel hungry anymore. He had planned to eat some small fish jerky too, but it didn’t seem necessary now.

Once Alvia stood up, the two looked towards Room 105. The door to Room 105 was wide open, and the floor inside had completely disappeared, with only a few broken wooden boards remaining at the edges. The fallen wooden boards covered part of the area below the room, and scattered debris of abandoned swords and rubble lay everywhere, with the distance making it difficult to see clearly.

Alvia: “Let’s check these few rooms first, then we’ll go down and look.”

Zhou Zhou: “Okay.”

The recent danger didn’t seem to affect them at all, not even disturbing their minds.

Alvia took the lead, opening Room 104. Inside were two hammocks and a few wardrobes on either side, very simple and straightforward.

After making sure the floor in this room was safe, Alvia let Zhou Zhou enter with him. The wardrobes were empty, and there were no signs that anyone had ever lived in this room.

Next was Room 103, and perhaps because the wardrobes in Room 104 were empty, this room had massive wardrobes covering three walls, filled with various clothes for men and women, both luxurious and elaborate. There were also various accessories: hats, bowties, necklaces, watches, shoes – it seemed the owner of this room was either wealthy or noble, with high standards for dressing.

Zhou Zhou was very interested in this room. He remembered that he had only bought clothes and no accessories, so he would have to buy all these things too after leaving the instance.

However, nothing in this room triggered the main quest either.

In Room 102, there were several tables covered with various guns and weapons. Zhou Zhou gave them a curious glance at first but didn’t look at them again afterward, seemingly uninterested.

Since none of these rooms contained what they were looking for, the two only gave them a cursory look before leaving.

The final Room 101 at the end of the corridor had several wooden crates stacked inside, each with a copper lock hanging on it.

Unable to find the key in the room, Zhou Zhou stared at the crates and tried pulling on them, but couldn’t open them.

“What do you think is inside?” Zhou Zhou asked, sitting on one of the crates.

“I don’t know, probably gold and silver treasures,” Alvia said casually.

“Treasures?” Zhou Zhou’s eyes lit up, and he started actively searching for the key again, but couldn’t find it no matter how many times he looked.

“Do you want them?” Alvia asked, looking at Zhou Zhou, who was dejected from not finding the key.

Zhou Zhou nodded. “Yeah, I want to see what treasures look like.”

Alvia stepped forward, examined the copper lock, and with a forceful pull, tore the copper lock and the lock mechanism right off the crate.

Zhou Zhou’s eyes widened in surprise as he stared at the copper lock in Alvia’s hand, then began applauding. “So powerful!”

With the crate forcibly opened, Zhou Zhou lifted the lid to reveal that it was indeed filled with treasures. A whole crate of glittering golden coins seemed to shine, heavy and large, irresistible to anyone who saw them.

“Wow!” Zhou Zhou exclaimed, then without hesitation closed the crate and looked at Alvia expectantly. “I want to see the others too, can I?”

Alvia used brute force to break the locks on all the crates, and the curiosity-driven Zhou Zhou opened and looked through each one.

The second crate was filled with gems: deep red rubies, pure and profound blue sapphires, and star-shaped cat’s eye gems, among others. Zhou Zhou leaned his palm against the crate, almost sticking his head inside, but once his curiosity was satisfied, he closed it again.

The third crate contained various luxurious jewelry, the fourth a whole crate of pearls – white, pink, and black, each one almost identical in size. The fifth, the sixth…

Zhou Zhou would exclaim in wonder each time he opened a crate until finally, when he lifted the lid of the last one, instead of gold and silver treasures, a skeleton appeared, curled up inside the crate, its skull facing Zhou Zhou, its hollow eye sockets seeming to stare at the person who opened the crate.

This time, Zhou Zhou didn’t exclaim. He silently made eye contact with the skeleton for a moment, then quietly closed the crate.

“I’m done looking,” Zhou Zhou said, turning to Alvia.

Suddenly, the crate containing the skeleton started rattling violently, even causing the lid to bounce, as if the skeleton was struggling to get out.

Both of them looked towards the wooden crate. Zhou Zhou leaned over it, then reached out and opened it, while Alvia also took a few steps forward, standing side by side with Zhou Zhou in front of the crate.

After the wooden crate was opened, the skeleton inside stopped moving, though its position was different from before.

Zhou Zhou closed the crate lid, and the crate rattled and shook, even moving a few inches.

Open it, and the skeleton was still.

Close it, and the crate started moving again.

Open, still.

Close, moving.

Alvia watched as Zhou Zhou played with the skeleton like a game, opening and closing the crate repeatedly, not telling him to stop, just observing from the side.

After repeating this many times, just as Zhou Zhou was about to close the crate again, he suddenly opened it to find the skeleton raising its white bony claws, as if trying to strike the crate.

“Caught you,” Zhou Zhou said triumphantly, looking at the skeleton.

Skeleton: “…”

In the next moment, this very active skeleton suddenly scattered at the bottom of the crate. Originally maintaining a humanoid form, now all the bones were in a jumbled mess inside the crate.

Zhou Zhou’s eyes immediately widened, staring blankly at the bottom of the crate. “Why did it come apart?”

Alvia couldn’t help but laugh, looking at Zhou Zhou leaning on the crate with one hand while reaching into it with the other, as if trying to reassemble the bones. He quickly pulled Zhou Zhou’s hand back before it could touch the skeleton’s bones.

“Let’s go, we still need to look elsewhere.”

“But, but I made the skeleton fall apart,” Zhou Zhou said.

“It’s fine, if we close it, it might reassemble itself later.”

Alvia closed the last crate and took one last look at this room filled with treasures. When they had opened the crates earlier, the quest log didn’t show any indication of completing the main quest, meaning they still hadn’t found what the quest required.

They could only continue onwards. The two left the cabin, with Zhou Zhou still fixated on the scattered skeleton, frequently looking back at Room 101.

It was now evening. The ghost ship was drifting in the sea, and standing on the deck, one could feel the constant rocking motion up, down, left, and right. However, once inside the cabin, it became stable and the rocking sensation was greatly reduced.

The wind outside was strong, and their life points were gradually decreasing again. They quickly made their way to the aft deck of the ship. Alvia seemed familiar with the ship’s structure and opened the hatch on the deck with ease, it appeared effortless to Zhou Zhou, but in reality, the hatch cover was rusted shut, impossible for an ordinary person to open.

Alvia glanced at Zhou Zhou, then went down the hatch first, with Zhou Zhou following. Below the hatch was a ladder, and after about ten steps down, they reached the ground.

This was the ghost ship’s cargo hold, without any windows or lighting. Combined with the night time outside, they couldn’t even see their own fingers clearly.

However, the two entering this time had no such difficulty and could see everything clearly in the darkness.

Like the area outside the cabin, the cargo hold was dilapidated, covered in dust and cobwebs. Due to constant drifting at sea, the high humidity had caused green moss to grow in some areas.

As they walked and observed their surroundings, Zhou Zhou suddenly stepped on something underfoot. Looking down, he discovered it was a severed white bone arm.

Zhou Zhou lifted his foot, stepped around the bone arm, muttered an apology, and then continued walking further inside with Alvia, both acting completely unfazed.

The cargo hold was piled high with a large amount of resources, stacks of wooden crates dozens of times more than in Room 101, and these crates were not locked.

When Zhou Zhou opened one of the crates, a swarm of black insects poured out, making one’s skin crawl. Alvia immediately pulled Zhou Zhou away by the back of his collar, away from where the insects were moving.

After being dragged by the collar, Zhou Zhou watched as the insects crawled back into crevices and disappeared from sight, only then belatedly saying to Alvia, “So many bugs.”

“These crates were probably used to store food before. It’s been too long, and the food has rotted, breeding a large number of maggots. Don’t touch the crates; there’s probably nothing we need to find here.”

Zhou Zhou immediately promised he absolutely wouldn’t open them again. Only then did Alvia release his collar and let him down.

In addition to the wooden crates used for storing food, there were also many large wooden barrels, probably used for storing fresh water. Alvia pushed one of the barrels, deducing from its weight that the water had long since evaporated, leaving nothing inside.

It wasn’t until they reached the depths of the cargo hold, where Alvia estimated they were directly below those few rooms in the passenger cabin, that the scene before them surprised them both.

Alvia merely raised his eyebrows slightly, while Zhou Zhou let out an honest exclamation of wonder.

It seemed a battle had taken place here, with many skeletons lying and sitting haphazardly on the ground. Their clothing had lost all color from the passage of time, but one could still tell from the styles that some of them were either wealthy or noble, while others were dressed simply, probably servants or sailors of the other group.

Alvia deduced the scenario at the time from the skeletons’ postures, injuries on their bones, and the placement of embedded swords and blades. Zhou Zhou looked around, then suddenly ran out from behind Alvia towards one particular sword.

There were many different sword styles here, with most already broken or rusted, but the one Zhou Zhou found was not only intact but still had its sheath. What drew him to it was the sheath and hilt studded with gems. Although the sword wouldn’t glow in the darkness, to Zhou Zhou’s night vision, it shone brilliantly, impossible to miss.

The blade was slightly wide, with a golden sheath featuring embossed patterns and studded with rubies and emeralds, the small gems meticulously arranged in a wave pattern. The top of the hilt was also embedded with an exceptionally large ruby, making the sword appear incredibly luxurious.

Zhou Zhou picked up the sword from the ground and presented it to Alvia like a treasure.

“Al, look, look what I found.”

As Zhou Zhou made his way around the skeletons on the ground and ran up to Alvia, the quest log suddenly displayed a notification.

【Main Quest: Find the most valuable item on this ship, completed.】

Zhou Zhou looked down at the sword in his hand in bewilderment. “I found it just like that?”

Alvia gazed at the seemingly luxurious but impractical sword in Zhou Zhou’s hand, unable to comprehend why this sword was the most valuable item on the ship. By monetary value, weren’t the over a dozen crates of treasures in Room 101 worth more? Could this sword hide some secret behind it? Or did it represent a different kind of significance?

He secured the sword to Zhou Zhou’s waist. This sword might still be useful later, as most instance main quests were connected to the method of clearing the final stage.

With the main quest completed, Alvia didn’t dwell on deducing how the skeletons had fought. He immediately led Zhou Zhou out of the cargo hold, as their life points were also slowly decreasing inside. Although their current life points hadn’t reduced by much, in Alvia’s view, any reduction meant a lower chance of successfully clearing the instance.

Zhou Zhou, now wearing the exceptionally ornate sword, followed Alvia back to the captain’s quarters, but the quest log didn’t issue any further quests.

“What do we do now?” Zhou Zhou asked as he fiddled with the gemstones on the sword’s hilt.

“Wait.”

The weather had already taken a turn for the worse before nightfall. After waiting for a while, a violent storm broke out, with flashes of lightning and thunderclaps. The entire ship began rocking violently, creaking sounds coming from the hull as if it could no longer withstand the battering of the wind and rain.

A bolt of lightning suddenly burst across the sky.

The two of them immediately sat up straight.

“I think I saw a lot of ships over there?” Zhou Zhou said hesitantly, looking out the window.

“It’s not just ‘I think,'” Alvia said, standing up and going to the wheelhouse at the front for a better vantage point to observe all movement on the sea ahead.

Zhou Zhou quickly followed him to the wheelhouse.

Not far ahead of them, over a dozen ships were sailing in their direction.