Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 63

Chapter 63: Nightmare City 11

The next morning, Zhou Zhou woke up from the soft and warm quilt, looking at the little yellow bear’s head on the headboard, where a little pink octopus was sleeping with its eyes closed.

Last night, Zhou Zhou felt the little octopus crawling onto the bed, using its cool tentacles to touch his forehead, before finally crawling onto the little bear to sleep.

He didn’t know if it was because of the impression left by the kids possessing the plush toys, but the little octopus chose the little bear without hesitation.

Shortly after Zhou Zhou opened his eyes, the little octopus also woke up, waving its tentacles to greet him.

After the person and the octopus finished their meal at home, Zhou Zhou took it to the study to read books. They hadn’t finished reading about interstellar history yesterday, so now they could read some more.

There were too many books displayed on the bookshelf screen. Zhou Zhou planned to read some every day, first learning about the outside world through these books, so he wouldn’t be completely unable to answer any questions. Moreover, he himself enjoyed reading very much. Previously at the Love Academy, he had read all the books in the library. Time seemed to fly when he was reading, making it a good way to pass the time.

Now that he had so many new books, he could read for a long time and learn a lot of new knowledge.

Though the book was as thick as a brick, Zhou Zhou flipped through it very quickly, finishing half the book in no time. It looked like he was skimming through it, but in fact, he had already finished and memorized the previous content.

After reading the first half, Zhou Zhou stopped because the little octopus accompanying him seemed very bored, crawling all over him and even trying to braid his hair, though failing due to his short hair. Afterward, it gently touched his face with its tentacles.

“Play.”

Zhou Zhou put down the book: “Where do you want to play?”

The little octopus used its tentacle to point at the study door, meaning it wanted to go out. Zhou Zhou put the book back on the shelf and walked out of the study.

This time, the little octopus had a very clear target, pointing directly at the windows to the balcony.

Zhou Zhou walked over, and together with the little octopus, they looked at the scenery through the windows.

The street below was even noisier than yesterday, and there was a crowd of people gathered somewhere. Zhou Zhou stared at the crowd for a while, but it was too far away to hear what they were arguing about, so he took the little octopus downstairs to see the commotion.

There were two ways to go from the personal space to the outside world: one was like the real world, taking the elevator downstairs. The other was through the express passages on each floor’s corridor. By paying 1 point, one could be transported to other places.

Yesterday, when Zhou Zhou went back to move, he used the express passage to transport there. Today, since he was just going downstairs, he took the elevator down with the little octopus perched on his shoulder.

The closer they got to the crowd, the louder the arguing voices became.

The arguing people sounded like both men and women, but when Zhou Zhou got closer, he found he couldn’t get in.

In the interstellar era, people’s average height was very tall, so Zhou Zhou could only be considered of average height. Therefore, he couldn’t see what was happening inside at all.

He looked up, standing on tiptoes, but could only see the heads of the onlookers. The little octopus, however, had crawled from his shoulder to the top of Zhou Zhou’s head, so it could see a little better.

As Zhou Zhou was circling the crowd, trying to piece together what was happening from the curses coming from inside, the people in front of him happened to retreat from the crowd, and he quickly squeezed in through the gap.

Originally, he should have been in the middle, but Zhou Zhou was pushed around in the crowd, and he didn’t know how he ended up at the very front.

At the center of the argument were several people. Zhou Zhou stood in the front line and listened for a while before figuring out what had happened. The two sides were about to go do an instance, but they encountered each other on this street. Apparently, one side bumped into the other and didn’t apologize, and then they started arguing.

The more they argued, the more intense it became. The onlookers had thought it was some love-hate feud, but it turned out to be just a bump without an apology. Many people found it uninteresting and left, while other passing players squeezed in to watch.

Zhou Zhou stood there listening for a good while, his expression of astonishment never leaving his face. They were so good at cursing! He didn’t know it was possible to curse like that. Although he couldn’t curse himself, it was still quite interesting to hear others do it.

In the end, the two sides left in a hurry because the instance was about to start, and the onlookers also dispersed.

As Zhou Zhou walked back, he told the little octopus: “Things like this used to happen a lot too.”

Although there was no holographic technology at the Love Academy back then, and players could only communicate through forums or dialogue boxes, once a conflict arose, the two sides’ words in the dialogue box would appear like lightning. Sometimes, if you blinked, you would miss the previous words.

Zhou Zhou watched with relish as players wrote long dialogues in the dialogue box, almost killing the other party with their words or leaving them helpless. At times like that, he felt they were all so impressive.

Originally, he planned to go upstairs and play with the little octopus, but then he received a message.

It was from the two female players he had added yesterday, asking Zhou Zhou to join them for lunch. They were already at the restaurant.

Since he had agreed yesterday, Zhou Zhou naturally had to go. Looking at the little octopus that had crawled back onto his shoulder, he asked, “Do you want to go home or come with me to eat outside?”

“Eat!” The little octopus answered without hesitation.

Zhou Zhou took the little octopus to the restaurant location the others had sent. As soon as he entered, he saw the two female players from yesterday waving at him.

“Zhou Zhou, over here!”

Zhou Zhou walked over and found that in addition to the two female players he had done the instance with yesterday, there were four other girls at the table.

“This is the Zhou Zhou we told you about.”

“Wow, he really does look very cute.”

“Hello, we’re friends of Yue Ling and Lan Ya.”

Faced with a group of girls watching him, Zhou Zhou didn’t show any abnormality, his smile just right: “I’m Zhou Zhou, and this is the little octopus.”

The little octopus belonged to the Captain, so Zhou Zhou didn’t know its name and could only call it that for now.

“Eh? So it really is an octopus. I was wondering why the decoration on your shoulder looked so exquisite.”

“It’s so cute! This little octopus has such big eyes.”

When the girls reached out their hands, the little octopus quickly fended them off with its tentacles, hiding behind Zhou Zhou’s neck and peeking out its head cautiously with its big eyes, as if afraid someone was going to touch it.

This avoidant little display made the girls laugh.

Zhou Zhou sat down and said to everyone, “Hello, I’m Zhou Zhou.”

The other four girls also introduced themselves.

After they finished, Zhou Zhou turned to the two female players from yesterday and asked, “Are you Yue Ling? And you’re Lan Ya?”

The two nodded, confirming that the quiet one was named Lan Ya, and the more lively one was Yue Ling.

Zhou Zhou then said, “You forgot to tell me your names yesterday.”

“No way, you two invited him to eat, and you didn’t even tell him your names.”

Yue Ling patted her forehead and muttered, “I guess we really didn’t say it. You don’t know what we went through in the instance yesterday. It’s already good that I didn’t forget what you guys are called.”

Her companions then started asking about the instance. Zhou Zhou had already done four instances, and while the two female players introduced him to their friends, he also chimed in with supplements.

Although it looked like a gathering of six girls and one boy, Zhou Zhou quickly blended in. From what to eat, to the clothes and makeup the girls were wearing that day, Zhou Zhou could keep up with everything.

The girls didn’t expect Zhou Zhou to be so knowledgeable, and soon he had exchanged contact information with the other four girls.

“Zhou Zhou, do you have anyone you like right now?” As expected, the girls’ topics inevitably turned to this, and soon someone asked the relevant question. Since Zhou Zhou had an easygoing personality and was the only male among them, he was the first to be asked.

Zhou Zhou put down his hand that was feeding the little octopus and answered seriously, “Yes.”

“I knew it, a good man has already been taken.”

Yue Ling blinked, recalling how Zhou Zhou had been inseparable from Al in the instance yesterday: “Is the person you like that Al from yesterday’s instance?”

Zhou Zhou nodded: “Yes.” Currently, there were only Ke Li and Xue Li. The others hadn’t been in the game recently, seemingly all busy. He also hadn’t had time to interact with everyone.

Lan Ya was also the first to think of Al: “You two look very well-matched.” After all, both of them were exceptionally good-looking, and Al’s skills were excellent. Whether as a couple or partners, the two of them would go well together.

The other girls jokingly said they were a step too late. Zhou Zhou blinked, intending to say that it wasn’t too late, but he perceptively realized that everyone was just joking and didn’t really want to date him, so he didn’t mention it again.

The Love Academy was a game, and this world was also a game, but Zhou Zhou had long noticed that there were significant differences between the two. In the Love Academy, everyone was there to find love, but the players here preferred to do instance missions.

Moreover, he wasn’t someone who wanted to get into a relationship with others as soon as they met. He had to get to know them first, at least interact with them for a period of time. After all, which dating game had the two people get together right from the start? There were always various events that needed to be triggered before finally being able to hold hands and date.

In the Love Academy, as one of the main line NPCs, Zhou Zhou basically interacted with the players for a while, through events like attending classes, going on dates, eating together and chatting, and so on. Only after raising a girl’s affection to 100 would he accept her confession.

There were two forms in the game. One was for the NPC’s affection to reach 100, and then they would confess to the player, and the two would be together.

The other was if the affection was above 80, the player could confess, and there was a high probability of success, but there was also a tiny chance that the unlucky player would be rejected by the NPC.

Zhou Zhou’s affection increased the fastest among all the NPCs, but he hadn’t confessed to many people. Most of the time, it was the players who confessed to him first before he accepted.

Xue Li and Ke Li were the same. It was because Ke Li said the moonlight was beautiful, and Zhou Zhou misunderstood it as a confession to him, so he agreed.

So Zhou Zhou wasn’t someone who would accept anyone, especially now that he had a deeper understanding of the players, knowing that some of them weren’t good people. Even if such people confessed to him, he would definitely reject them.

The meal was an enjoyable one, after all, a treasure of a boy like Zhou Zhou wasn’t easy to come by. He didn’t insult people when he spoke, wasn’t a typical guy, could keep up with their topics, had good dining etiquette, and also knew how to care for girls. Interacting with him was truly comfortable.

After the meal, several of the girls wanted to make Zhou Zhou their brother. Although they couldn’t have him as a boyfriend, having him as a brother would still be great. If they had a brother like him, they might even smile in their dreams. One of the girls who actually had two younger brothers at home felt that compared to Zhou Zhou, she really wanted to remake those two rambunctious ones.

“Can we have meals together again next time?” Lan Ya had a somewhat shy personality and didn’t say much during the meal, mostly just listening to the others. It wasn’t until after the meal that she mustered the courage to ask Zhou Zhou in a soft, blushing voice.

Seeing Zhou Zhou blinking at her, and the little octopus on his shoulder tilting its head to look at her in a similar way, Lan Ya hurriedly waved her hands: “I just think you’re a nice person, and it’s really pleasant to have meals with you. Next time you can bring Al too.”

Although she didn’t know why Al was suddenly mentioned, Zhou Zhou still readily agreed, as he generally wouldn’t refuse such an invitation.

When it came time to pay the bill, they had originally agreed to go Dutch treat, but the girls ended up paying Zhou Zhou’s share, saying they would settle it next time they had a meal together. Even if Zhou Zhou wanted to give them the points, they wouldn’t accept them.

Zhou Zhou could only give up. He thought that next time they had a meal together, he would have to run the fastest to be the first to pay. Today, there were too many of them blocking him from leaving, so Zhou Zhou couldn’t pay the bill.

After bidding farewell to the girls, there was still plenty of time left in the day. Zhou Zhou said to the little octopus, “Let’s go wait for the Captain by the lake now.”

The little octopus had just eaten a lot. The girls also really liked it. Although it didn’t let them touch it or eat the food they offered, under Zhou Zhou’s feeding, the little octopus had eaten a lot and was now lazily nestled on Zhou Zhou’s shoulder, squinting its eyes and leaning against him. Hearing that they were going to find the Captain, it didn’t react much.

Zhou Zhou went back home and got the Captain’s bucket, fishing rod, and stool, then came to Lake Colt to continue waiting for the Captain.

This time he was alone, so Zhou Zhou felt a bit bored and sat on the stool to fish with the Captain’s fishing rod. He wasn’t supposed to catch anything since he didn’t have any bait, but after a while, the fishing rod actually moved. Zhou Zhou quickly reeled it in and found that he had actually caught a fish.

Staring at the unfortunate fish for a while, as it rolled its eyes at him again and again, Zhou Zhou hurriedly put it in the bucket, happily telling the little octopus, “Tonight we’ll eat fish at home!”

Having caught the first fish of his life, Zhou Zhou became excited and started fishing again. He didn’t know if it was due to the system’s settings, but even without any bait, Zhou Zhou was catching them one by one, and there were already several fish in the bucket.

Zhou Zhou didn’t wait for the Captain but instead caught several fish from the lake. Estimating the time, he planned to catch one more and then go home.

When the fishing rod moved again, Zhou Zhou quickly pulled it to reel in the fish, but this time the fish seemed very large. The fishing rod even bent into an arc, and he still couldn’t pull the fish out of the water.

As Zhou Zhou reeled in the line, he kept stepping backward, thinking he would pull the fish onto the shore first.

The water in the lake was splashing more and more, and when Zhou Zhou finally pulled the fish onto the shore with all his might, he looked at the massive creature before him in utter confusion.

Had his strength become so great? How could he have caught such a huge fish?

Lying on the shore was a fish even larger than him, with a black back and white spots on the sides of its head and underside, looking like some kind of whale.

Zhou Zhou looked at the fishing rod in his hand, then at the whale, his eyes filled with bewilderment.

Did the lake really have whales?

What was this fishing rod made of? Why could it even catch a whale?

And this fish was so big, it probably wouldn’t fit in a pot, right?