Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 64

Chapter 64: Nightmare City 12

After Alvia went offline, he went to handle state affairs. In the palace where he worked, Zeus appeared with a gloomy resentment, wandering around the palace with a strong presence.

This was not the first time Alvia had seen him like this, he didn’t even give him a glance and continued to handle state affairs.

The empire had not been at war for several years, but people had been making moves behind the scenes. The previous suspicion toward Zhou Zhou was because some people had recently become impatient, and they were probably going to make a move at the founding ceremony of the empire.

The founding ceremony of the empire was a very grand festival, and also the only day in recent years that Alvia would appear in public.

In the early days when the empire was still at war, Alvia could often be seen on the front lines. After the war ended and he ascended the throne, he became increasingly low-key, only appearing at public events where his presence was required. If someone wanted to make a move against him, the founding ceremony was the best opportunity.

Alvia was not worried about this, perhaps because he had been low-key for so long that those people had forgotten his former title.

Looking at the contents collected by Heya and others in his hands, Alvia’s ice-blue eyes contained a chill, completely different from his calm demeanor in the game.

As the strongest artificial intelligence in the empire, Zeus could come and go freely in this palace. He lingered around Alvia for a while, but Alvia kept his head down, making Zeus even angrier.

“Hmph!”

“What is it?” Alvia asked helplessly, finally raising his head. Zeus had existed for over a thousand years, and although he sounded very old, he had always had a childish personality. If Alvia ignored him, he could linger here for several days.

Seeing that Alvia had finally noticed his anger, Zeus indignantly materialized a chair, sitting across the table from Alvia, looking like he was preparing for a long chat.

“How could you all do this,” Zeus complained. “You disrupted my carefully planned debut.”

Although Alvia didn’t know what Zeus was talking about, the debut he mentioned must be the one he had been talking about before, to make his debut in front of Zhou Zhou.

“When did you make a debut?” Alvia asked.

“I was in the deep sea all along!”

In the deep sea, they had only seen deceased passengers, grayish-black fish, and giant octopuses. Was Zeus there?

Zeus rested his chin on the table. “In the Deep Sea Creature instance, if players kept holding the quest item, the skeletons would keep throwing the people on the ship into the sea. There were many ghosts at the bottom of the sea that would drag the players who fell into the sea down to the depths. After the number of eliminations reached a certain level, the ghost ship would sink due to being too old. The next story point was for the players to swim to a small island, but that small island was actually the back of a sea turtle, so in the end they would still be eliminated due to life value reaching zero. I originally thought you would be thrown overboard and become a whale in the sea, waiting for Zhou Zhou to come down so I could rescue him.”

“But I waited from the start of the instance until the end, and you guys actually…”

Zeus felt very gloomy. Who could have imagined that Zhou Zhou would find another way to complete the instance? The reason the player score was so high this time was because the Deep Sea Creature instance had an extremely low completion rate, and they had completed an absolutely unexpected main storyline.

On the game forums, although many people posted walkthroughs for instances, very few were able to complete them following the walkthroughs.

This was not only because there were a large number of instances, where the quests and main storylines would change randomly, but even instances designed by high-level players would open up different completion methods based on the choices made by the players.

Previously, Zeus had said that his debut had to be extremely grand and attention-grabbing, magnificent and spectacular. But he had waited as a killer whale in the deep sea for a long time, only for Zhou Zhou and the others to open up another completion route, so he didn’t get to do anything.

He had planned to do a touching heroic rescue as a killer whale in the deep sea, but who could have thought that they would choose a completely different main storyline from other players? The ship captain sailed off somewhere else, and by the time Zeus came huffing and puffing after them, there was nothing for him to do.

He missed another chance to get acquainted with Zhou Zhou, so now he had to think of a new way to make his debut. Of course he was unhappy about it.

But this wasn’t something he could blame Zhou Zhou for, so he could only complain to Alvia about it.

Alvia listened calmly to Zeus’s complaints, only then learning that the Deep Sea Creature instance had other completion methods. But since the instance was already over, there was no point in knowing now, so he continued working with his head down, without any intention of comforting the huffing Zeus.

Zeus was so frustrated! Why could Alvia be by Zhou Zhou’s side doing quests together, while he could only watch from the sidelines, and now Zhou Zhou didn’t even recognize him?

Zeus let out a few more huffs, wiggling his short legs in the chair. He had countless avatars monitoring the game and the entire network of the empire. While Alvia was working, he was working too.

After a few more hours passed like this, Zeus suddenly sat up straight in the chair, his expression flustered with a hint of embarrassment. Before Alvia could ask him what was wrong again, Zeus disappeared from the spot.

Alvia’s brow furrowed slightly. Zeus’s habit of leaving without notice had never changed, but his expression just now was very strange, the first time Alvia had seen him make that face.

Alvia was thinking of checking what had happened to make Zeus so flustered, but then the incessant noise emerging from the palace made it impossible for him to pay attention to that.

The imperial family did not have many people, so the quiet palace erupting with such a commotion clearly meant it was directed at him. Alvia walked out of the palace with an icy expression.

Zeus had not expected that his first meeting with Zhou Zhou would happen under such circumstances.

The killer whale body he had prepared to rescue Zhou Zhou with was not destroyed, but instead placed in Lake Colt. Since that lake was always shrouded in mist, no bored players would go swimming in it, so no one would discover that there was a killer whale inside.

Who would have thought that Zhou Zhou actually fished him up.

Each of Zeus’s avatars was connected to his main body, able to share memories and various information. The only difference was that due to interacting with humans for too long, he had developed human thinking, while his other avatars would only act according to their programming. If an avatar encountered something it couldn’t handle, it would notify the main body to deal with it.

The empire’s various electronic state affairs were also handled in this way, and generally nothing would come up that couldn’t be processed.

But this time, Zeus had encountered a major problem.

In the instance, he was a killer whale. After leaving the instance, his main body left the killer whale body behind. The killer whale essentially became one of his avatars, also counting as himself. Because it had his memories, when the killer whale found Zhou Zhou fishing on the shore, it went charging right at him.

Without human thinking, the killer whale didn’t consider whether the timing or identity was appropriate, only feeling affection for Zhou Zhou and wanting to get acquainted, so it very directly bit onto the fishing hook, willingly allowing itself to be caught.

Now this mess was handed directly to Zeus. When he returned to the killer whale’s body, he saw Zhou Zhou gesturing at him, even muttering about how to eat him.

What should he do!

Even the self-proclaimed super intelligent Zeus didn’t know how to handle the current situation. He could either escape and return to the lake, or take this opportunity to get acquainted with Zhou Zhou.

Zhou Zhou circled the killer whale for a while, not knowing if it was dead or alive. The lower half of the killer whale was still soaking in the lake water, only the upper half lying rigid and motionless on the shore, looking like it was already dead.

This one was a bit too big. Before even considering how to eat it, just bringing the whale back home would be very troublesome. Although he could use instant transmission to his doorstep, who knew if a whale this big could even be transmitted? After transmitting, it might not even fit through the door.

After weighing it for a while, Zhou Zhou decided not to eat something so large. The fish in his bucket would be enough for him and the little octopus to eat in the afternoon.

He put down his fishing rod and tried pushing the whale from the front towards the back, attempting to push it off the shore and back into the lake. But no matter how much he pushed, the whale wouldn’t budge from its spot. Zhou Zhou frowned at his own hands. Hadn’t he just fished the whale up? So why couldn’t he push it back down now?

While Zhou Zhou was straining to push the whale, Zeus had also thought of a way to get acquainted with him. He suddenly swished his tail, using the resulting downward momentum to successfully return to the lake.

Zhou Zhou returned the whale to the lake and, seeing it swimming back and forth at the lake’s edge, nodded in satisfaction. It was indeed still alive. He then picked up his fishing rod and stool, carrying the little octopus on his shoulder as he prepared to return home.

“Thank you for saving me,” a timid voice suddenly came from the lake.

Zhou Zhou turned towards the source of the voice and saw that there was actually a little boy in the lake, looking about five or six years old, his contrasting black and white eyes staring right at him.

Zhou Zhou: ?

Saved him? Zhou Zhou glanced around. At this moment, the mist on the lake surface was becoming increasingly dense, and only vague silhouettes could be seen in the distance. When Zhou Zhou had caught the whale, no one had noticed. So where had this little boy come from? And why was he thanking Zhou Zhou, when Zhou Zhou didn’t even know him, so how could he have possibly saved him?

From Zhou Zhou’s expression, Zeus could see he was full of questions, so he could only explain himself: “I’m that whale. You just saved me, so I want to repay you.”

It was a rather clichéd method, probably because Zeus had been influenced by reading too many ancient Earth novels lately. But as long as it worked, it didn’t matter whether he saved Zhou Zhou or Zhou Zhou saved him, the goal was the same.

Zhou Zhou was silent for a moment before asking in confusion, “You’re the whale?”

Zeus nodded.

After meeting a little boy who could turn into a doll, it didn’t seem too strange to now meet a little boy who could turn into a whale.

“I was the one who fished you up earlier,” Zhou Zhou said honestly. “And you went back by yourself, I didn’t do anything.”

He hadn’t even been able to push the whale, he was the culprit who caught the whale in the first place, he definitely hadn’t saved it.

Zeus blinked, completely ignoring Zhou Zhou’s explanation and insisting, “You did save me.”

“Are you a whale or a player? Players under eighteen aren’t allowed in the game, how did you get in?” Zhou Zhou looked at the part of the other’s body still submerged in the water and extended his hand towards him. Although he was just an NPC, Zhou Zhou had heard about some of the rules in the Nightmare City game from others.

Zeus’s heart leapt with joy and he quickly grabbed Zhou Zhou’s hand to climb out.

He was naturally the most familiar with the game’s rules. At first he had wanted to say he was a minority race, which allowed him an exception to enter the game, but that excuse had already been used by the little spirit boys.

Zeus had to think of something new. Seeing the little octopus snuggled up to Zhou Zhou’s shoulder, Zeus suddenly thought of something. “I’m a merman from the Deep Sea Creature instance. When you completed that instance, I came out with you all, but then I couldn’t go back.”

He even squeezed out two tears, his eyes welling up as he gave Zhou Zhou a pitiful look.

Zhou Zhou had been helping wipe the water off the little boy’s face, but when he heard those words, his hand suddenly paused. He pursed his lips, looking down at the little boy’s teary eyes, and suddenly said, “If you don’t have anywhere to go, do you want to come home with me?”

Zeus: There were opportunities like this!

He had originally just wanted to get acquainted with Zhou Zhou. Being able to go home with him was the best outcome. But he clearly hadn’t even said the rest of what he was going to say, so why had Zhou Zhou taken the initiative to invite him?

Zeus didn’t understand, but at this moment, he didn’t need to understand. He quickly grabbed Zhou Zhou’s hand and gave him a sweet smile.

Zhou Zhou held the stool and fishing rod in one hand, and grasped the little boy’s hand that had slipped into his palm with his other, walking home together with him.

As Zeus followed Zhou Zhou home feeling perfectly content, news of the reigning emperor Alvia being attacked and severely injured spread rapidly from the imperial palace.