Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Deep Sea Creature 9

Zhou Zhou blinked his eyes subtly, and no one noticed it. Kou Li looked at Alvia in horror, not understanding why he could still move when everyone in the wheelhouse was supposed to be under control. Why was that?

“Kou Li?” Wu Yu’s view was blocked by the crowd, and he only saw Kou Li stop in front of Zhou Zhou, without noticing the hand resting on his shoulder.

“Want to know why I’m fine?” Alvia asked softly, as the puzzlement in the other’s eyes was too obvious.

Zhou Zhou continued to remain still, his ears perked up high. He wanted to know too!

Before Alvia could explain the reason, Wu Yu, who was at the edge of the crowd, suddenly shouted, “Kou Li, what are you waiting for?”

Zhou Zhou was annoyed! He almost heard it. He also wanted to know why Al was unaffected. He didn’t feel anything himself, only realizing everyone had frozen when he hurried to mimic them at the first moment. So why was that?

Seeing time ticking away second by second, yet Kou Li still hadn’t brought the quest item back, they still had to hurry and throw the others out too. They were running out of time!

Wu Yu felt anxious. He strode through the frozen crowd towards Kou Li, only to see Alvia turn around, his gaze shallow as he looked at him.

Wu Yu paused, his expression the same as Kou Li’s. How could the item possibly fail? Could this man named Al coincidentally have some item that could resist being frozen?

He was still quite wary of this man. After all, judging people by their appearances was his usual tactic. He could basically tell who should be messed with and who shouldn’t. If it weren’t for there being only one quest item this time, plus these two being very cautious of him from the start, he might have continued to follow them until the end instead of exposing himself prematurely.

Now it was too late to say anything. All his thoughts flashed through his mind. Wu Yu’s eyes shifted, realizing that Al was the only one in the scene who had been unfrozen. There were two of them, so maybe they could…

Before he could act, that female player unexpectedly unfroze too. Her mid-swing punch motion had been frozen halfway, but now that she was unfrozen, her fist continued swinging out, hitting the player right in front of her squarely.

The item could only control the players themselves, not time and space. So the struck player’s body fell backward, coincidentally crashing into Wu Yu. Wu Yu, not very skilled in combat, had no time to react before being knocked down.

After throwing that punch, the female player realized something was off. Seeing the other frozen players in the scene, she quickly figured out that a player had used an item. Glancing at the nonchalant black-coated man, her gaze turned contemplative as she looked at Alvia.

Zhou Zhou was surprised, though his surprise was only inward. The female player had also returned to normal, but why were the others still frozen? He didn’t understand why Al and the female player were different from the rest. He’d better wait until everyone recovers before pretending to recover himself.

Alvia looked down at Wu Yu pinned under the player, then at Kou Li, whom he had under control. The two were supposedly companions, yet now Kou Li remained indifferent, his slightly clouded eyes drifting aimlessly, as if thinking of how to escape, showing no concern for his “companion” at all. It seemed their “companion” relationship was quite diluted.

By the time the other players gradually recovered one after another, Alvia and the female player had already tied up Kou Li and the others. The female player had a very long rope, one end connected to a black metal claw, which looked like it was meant to be used as a weapon but was now being temporarily used to tie people up. Those who had chosen to fight Wu Yu for the quest item were all tied together by the two.

Zhou Zhou noticed that everyone recovered at different times, with the longest taking two minutes and the shortest being Al, who didn’t seem affected by the item at all. Zhou Zhou pretended to recover from the frozen state only after several other players had recovered.

Now there was no need to keep fighting. The enemy’s high-level item had ended up backfiring on them instead. Many people in the scene didn’t know what had happened. Some players felt their actions were disconnected, while others only felt like they were grappling with other players a second ago, but then in the blink of an eye, their opponent had vanished.

When they turned around, they saw that the enemy had all been tied up. So what exactly had happened?

After the others recovered, the female player, seeing everyone’s bewildered expressions, explained, “Just now the enemy used a freezing-type item, immobilizing everyone here.”

The female player had recovered quickly too, and her tone suggested she was knowledgeable about this. Zhou Zhou hurried over, curiously asking, “Why did everyone recover at different times?”

“This type of item that freezes players is a bit like mental control. The stronger a player’s spiritual power, the shorter the time it takes to break free of the control,” the amber-eyed woman said, her voice softer than before.

Zhou Zhou nodded. So that meant Al had very strong spiritual power? This female player had recovered quickly too, so her spiritual power was only slightly weaker than Al’s, but stronger than the other players’.

Wait, what about him?

Could it be that his spiritual power was extremely, extremely strong, so he wasn’t affected at all?

Zhou Zhou felt a little happy. It seemed he did share something in common with everyone after all.

Suddenly, Zhou Zhou remembered that during the instance settlement every time, there seemed to be data about spiritual power. Previously, he hadn’t paid attention to this data. Except for the first time coming out of the Love Academy, when Ke Li and the others inquired about it, he glanced at it briefly. After that, he only looked at the score every time, never bothering to check the other data since most of it didn’t seem to change much at a glance.

While everyone was busy discussing how to deal with those players, Zhou Zhou quietly stood at the back and opened his quest panel.

Only the player themselves could see the basic quest panel. Zhou Zhou opened it and looked for his spiritual power value from every instance settlement.

When those numbers were laid out before his eyes, he could no longer feel happy.

Row after row of zeros caught his eye alarmingly. Not only was his spiritual power growth zero for every instance, even the initial value was zero.

He had no spiritual power!

Zhou Zhou immediately deflated. That’s right, he wasn’t a normal person, so having no spiritual power was normal. The freezing item earlier was mental control. Since he didn’t have any spiritual power, of course the item didn’t work on him.

He should be grateful that so far, only this one item has been discovered to be mental control type. Otherwise, he would have been exposed long ago.

The female player turned to look at Zhou Zhou in the corner, his expression constantly changing. He even took out the quest panel and stared at it for a while. She didn’t know what he had seen, but at first he seemed delighted, only to suddenly become dejected. What was going on?

“Are you okay?” The female player walked over. Although slightly shorter than Zhou Zhou, her demeanor and appearance seemed more mature as she reached out and pinched his cheek. The feel was indeed as good as it looked.

Zhou Zhou didn’t mind the female player pinching his cheek. He forced himself to perk up and smiled at her, “Thank you, I’m fine.”

Seeing the exquisite-looking Zhou Zhou acting so obedient, the female player couldn’t help but want to pinch his cheek again. But this time, she didn’t succeed. As soon as her hand moved, Alvia called Zhou Zhou over.

Zhou Zhou heard Alvia call him and immediately walked over.

Alvia handed the ropes to the other players, his gaze fixed on the approaching Zhou Zhou, then shifting to the female player.

The female player’s red lips curved into an ambiguous smile at him. It seemed she was already suspecting his identity. After all, he had roughly guessed her identity. With her spiritual power being quite high in the Empire, she might have already started guessing his identity.

Zhou Zhou looked at Alvia, thinking he had called him over for some reason. But Alvia only told him not to wander off, as there might still be people eyeing that sword.

One hand gripping the sword hilt, Zhou Zhou obediently replied, then seemed to remember something and leaned in close to ask Alvia in a tiny voice, “Al, do you think the Empire has people with absolutely no spiritual power at all?”

Alvia looked down at Zhou Zhou, who was practically leaning against him, asking while glancing around, afraid someone might overhear, looking all sneaky.

“Yeah, there are many in the Empire,” Alvia said, his gaze downcast, his expression unclear. “Not to mention those who completely lost their spiritual power due to war or accidents, even among ordinary civilians, there is a portion who are born with extremely low, almost non-existent spiritual power. So their daily lives don’t really involve using spiritual power.”

“Oh.” Zhou Zhou was relieved. That way, it wouldn’t be too strange for him to blend in.

The opposing players had all been tied up, and the other players were discussing how to deal with them next.

Killing them all didn’t seem like a good idea, but just letting them go would still pose a threat.

“How about we just toss them into the sea? Whether they live or die will be up to them.”

One player suggested. There was only this one ship nearby, but farther away there might be more ships. Letting these people swim in the vast sea would be like returning them to their origins.

Most people agreed with this suggestion, but they currently had no way to go outside.

Looking outside at the skeletons surrounding the mast, craning their necks up at the players above and the skeleton still struggling to climb up, their hollow eyes saw nothing, yet gave the illusion that they were waiting for the players to fall down.

In fact, that unlucky player was almost at his limit, asking “Where is everyone? Help!”

“This… how do we get out?” One player asked with difficulty.

Zhou Zhou, gripping his sword, wondered what the skeletons’ reaction would be if he went out there, since yesterday when they encountered the skeletons, nothing had happened.

He took a few steps towards the door when he heard Xue Li’s voice, “Zhou Zhou, where are you going?”

Turning his head, he saw Xue Li and Ke Li striding over. Sensing Zhou Zhou’s intention to go out, Xue Li bit her lip, “We’ll go out with you.”

Ke Li didn’t speak, but his eyes showed he meant the same.

Zhou Zhou shook his head. He just wanted to know how the skeletons would react if he went out. If they attacked him indiscriminately, he would quickly run back. If not, he could think of a way to stop the skeletons.

“I’ll go with you,” Alvia said, coming over.

“Alright, you two come back soon then.” Xue Li immediately changed her tone, even waving goodbye to them, no longer looking worried at all.

Ke Li twitched his mouth, but he could understand Xue Li’s sudden change. After all, Alvia was indeed very capable. With him accompanying Zhou Zhou, even if they were surrounded by skeletons, they could definitely return safely.

Zhou Zhou silently looked at Alvia, then reached out and grabbed his sleeve, “Let’s go.”

His voice carried a hint of excitement, as if they were going to an amusement park instead of facing a horde of skeletons.

The two walked slowly out of the wheelhouse, with the group of players behind them craning their necks to watch. They were lucky to have chosen to follow their hearts to end up here.

Although Nightmare City is a holographic game, most players don’t earn many points in the early instances. Many who die or get eliminated in the instances don’t have enough points to purchase revival items, so they try every means to pass the instance.

Without revival items means dying in the game and being unable to log in. They can only log in offline daily to accumulate points through check-ins. But daily check-ins only give a few points each time. It takes three consecutive months to earn one revival item, meaning they can only continue playing the game three months later, by which time the game would have gone through who knows how many updates and iterations.

The current Nightmare City only has one massive beginner city, with other functions gradually unlocking later. How many points could be accumulated in-game over three months? How much data could be updated? By then, they would have fallen far behind others and be unable to catch up. So for many players, the mentality is to win at all costs.

Those able to casually get by in instances without caring about winning or losing are either just playing the game for fun, or they already have revival items, maybe even stockpiling many, so they can afford to die regardless. Only then can they not worry about winning or losing.

Of course, there are also players here who can’t get over that mental hurdle, finding it unbearable to steal from others, which is why they chose to stand on Zhou Zhou’s side.

But now it seems their choice was right. Whether they pass the instance or not, it’s better than being tossed into the sea to fend for themselves.

The moment the two stepped out of the wheelhouse, the skeletons unanimously turned their gazes from pointing upwards to the direction of the wheelhouse.

Even the skeleton climbing up the mast stopped and looked towards the wheelhouse.

Seeing the skeletons’ attention drawn elsewhere, the player at the top of the mast was about to cry tears of joy, finally someone was coming to rescue him.

Zhou Zhou and Alvia walked step by step forward, noticing the skeletons’ behavior was different from when facing other players before.

Against other players, the skeletons wildly swung their swords everywhere. Now, though still staring at them, their sword arms weren’t raised.

The skeleton on the mast began slowly sliding down. At about two meters above the deck, it suddenly let go and jumped down, landing steadily on the ground.

The move was very cool, but it ended up stomping a hole in the deck, its two bony feet sinking into the wooden boards. The skeleton paused, trying to pull its feet out, eventually having to disassemble the foot bones one by one.

“Hahaha~” The player at the top of the mast burst into shameless laughter. Served you right for chasing me.

Zhou Zhou looked at the stomped hole in the deck. The ship’s exterior had already been severely weathered and corroded by seawater. Suddenly jumping down from above, the wooden deck naturally couldn’t support the impact.

They couldn’t really tell if the skeleton was embarrassed or not since its face showed no expression.

That skeleton seemed to hold a high position. As it walked towards them, the rest of the skeletons followed behind in an entourage.

Completely different from their previous wild slashing and tossing of players, now they approached calmly, like attending a meeting.

The players in the resting area all widened their eyes in disbelief at the skeletons’ double standards. Why did they get violently beaten for going out, while someone else could approach so peacefully?

When the two sides were about two meters apart, Zhou Zhou and Alvia stopped, and all the skeletons stopped too.

It seemed like an unspoken meeting between both sides, but Zhou Zhou was completely in the dark about what the skeletons wanted to do.

He only saw the foremost skeleton, likely the leader, stretch out a bony finger pointing at the sword on Zhou Zhou’s waist.

Zhou Zhou looked at where the skeletal index finger was pointing, then at the sword on his waist, hesitating, “Do you want this sword?”

The skeleton immediately nodded.

But this was the quest item. Giving it to the skeletons would fail their quest. However, the sword was originally taken from this ship, so perhaps the sword’s owner was that skeleton.

Zhou Zhou pondered for a moment, looking to Alvia to ask his opinion.

“Your decision.”

Alright, Zhou Zhou unsheathed the sword and handed it to the skeleton.

The players in the wheelhouse widened their eyes, watching the sword that had caused them to fight being so easily handed over to the skeleton.

“Brother! You can’t give it away, that’s the quest item!” One player yelled, opening the wheelhouse door.

“We might as well have let those guys take it if we knew it’d just end up with the skeletons. This was all for nothing.”

“They found it, so it’s up to them if they want to toss it into the sea.”

“Yeah, it’s better we don’t have to fight over it anymore if it’s given to the skeletons.”

Zhou Zhou heard the players’ voices. Originally not planning to speak, he finally called out to them, “This sword originally belonged to them. It was found on their ship.”

Player: …It does seem to be theirs, but it’s still our quest item.

The skeleton had already taken the sword, so no matter how much the players protested, it was done.

After taking the sword, the skeleton seemed very happy, holding it and looking it over.

Zhou Zhou calmly watched the skeleton, then suddenly widened his eyes, took a step forward, and leaned his torso towards the sword.

What’s wrong? Were they regretting it? Planning to take the sword back? The players craned their necks to see but could only make out their backs.

Zhou Zhou turned to Alvia in awe, “Did you see that? The skeleton’s hand!”

Alvia remained very calm, “I saw it.”

Players: …No, what did you two see? Let us see too.