Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 76

Chapter 76: Mirror World 9

Zhou Zhou was perplexed: “Why would he be eliminated?”

One of the drivers sat back in the chair, legs crossed while continuing to eat the lamb skewers in his hand: “Do you know why we pull players into the mirror?”

Zhou Zhou shook his head.

“After entering the mirror, you’ll fall into an illusion and see what you fear the most. If you can’t realize that what you’re seeing is an illusion before time runs out, you’ll be eliminated. Of course, if you can snap out of it, you’ll end up here like you did.”

Zhou Zhou was very puzzled: “But after I entered the mirror, I just ended up in the hallway. I didn’t see any illusions. Are you an illusion appearing to me?”

The drivers: “…You went straight to this place after entering the mirror?”

The other drivers gathered around in surprise, looking Zhou Zhou up and down: “Could it be that you’ve never been afraid of anything in your life?”

Zhou Zhou answered without hesitation: “I’m very afraid of being alone.”

“Then why didn’t you fall into an illusion?”

Zhou Zhou didn’t know.

The drivers didn’t understand either. They circled around Zhou Zhou, even stroking their chins as they observed to see if there was anything different about him. In theory, their instance had been tested in advance, and every player who had previously entered the mirror had invariably fallen into their own illusion. There shouldn’t have been any errors.

The driver lying on the chair saw his companions still foolishly circling around a player and couldn’t help but roll his eyes: “Who cares why he didn’t have an illusion? It’s happened before, and it doesn’t affect anything. Just have him pass the final stage and leave. It’ll be fine.”

But his companions didn’t seem to think so: “What if other players are like him too? Then the difficulty of the instance we painstakingly designed will decrease, and we’ll get fewer credits. Is that not a problem?”

“Yeah, we have to know the reason.”

After observing fruitlessly, the driver directly asked: “What were you thinking when you entered the mirror?”

Zhou Zhou was stumped. What was he thinking? It seemed like he was thinking about apologizing to the mirror person as soon as possible? No, that was his thought before entering. When he actually stepped into the mirror… he didn’t seem to be thinking about anything.

Zhou Zhou remembered. When he crossed into the mirror, Al had grabbed his hand from behind. Then he felt his heart settle, and the next moment he appeared alone in the hallway.

He honestly told the drivers in front of him about this, and they huddled together discussing something. Meanwhile, the driver in the chair didn’t seem interested at all. After finishing the lamb skewers in his hand, he took more from the grill, completely unconcerned with what his companions were doing.

Seeing the young player standing there staring at him expectantly, he thought for a moment and offered Zhou Zhou a skewer: “Eat?”

Zhou Zhou hurried over and took it: “Thank you.”

The driver put one hand behind his head as he continued eating the lamb skewers: “If you want more, get them from the rack yourself.”

“Thank you.” Zhou Zhou thanked him again, but looking at the lamb skewer in his hand, he took out a few bottles of drinks from his system: “For you.”

The driver glanced at the drinks in Zhou Zhou’s hand and took them without hesitation: “Not bad.”

He watched Zhou Zhou seriously blow on the lamb skewer before taking small bites, and found this person rather interesting. After all, at this early stage of the game, using credits to buy food that had no real use was still quite rare among players.

Not only did Zhou Zhou take out some drinks, but he also took out other foods, and the two of them started eating together.

“Can I ask you a question?” Zhou Zhou said to the driver in the chair.

Driver: “As long as it’s not about how to pass the final stage, anything else is fine.”

“Do you all look like this?” Zhou Zhou had wanted to ask this before, but hadn’t found a good opportunity. If these drivers could take on the appearances of other people, what did they originally look like? Was it their current appearance? Or did each person look different, only taking on the same appearance for the needs of this instance?

The driver snorted with laughter: “This is related to passing the instance, but since you seem alright, I’ll tell you. Only one of us actually looks like this. The others all have different appearances. The Mirror Race can use special mirrors to take on the appearance of anyone whose reflection has been captured in those special mirrors. They can also use those mirrors to freely travel to other places.”

“But you don’t need to worry. In reality, only our own planet has those kinds of mirrors. They won’t be sold to people from other planets. There are strict rules within our race, and we won’t do anything like peeping or secretly entering other people’s homes.”

Zhou Zhou marveled: “That’s amazing.”

“Amazing?” The driver raised an eyebrow, but his attitude visibly softened a few degrees: “You don’t think it’s weird or disgusting?”

“Being able to travel through mirrors and take on the appearances of others is really amazing. I wish I could do something so amazing too.” Zhou Zhou didn’t know how sincere his expression looked as he admired the other, his eyes practically sparkling with little stars.

The other drivers had finally finished their discussion and happened to overhear Zhou Zhou’s conversation with their companion.

Driver 1: “Come, eat eat eat.”

Driver 2: “Drink drink drink.”

Driver 3: “Want some extra spice?”

Driver 4: “Sit down and eat, sit down and eat.”

The other two drivers also enthusiastically ushered Zhou Zhou into a chair.

The lamb skewer Zhou Zhou had finished eating was replaced by Driver 5 with a generously portioned meat skewer.

Seeing these drivers who had suddenly become so welcoming, Zhou Zhou was a bit bewildered. What was going on with them all of a sudden?

The drivers seemed to have perked up, eagerly inviting Zhou Zhou to eat the barbecue.

“Hahaha, we just analyzed it, and we think it’s because your deep-seated fear was soothed by your companion at the moment you entered the mirror, so you directly broke through the illusion and appeared in the hallway.”

“Hehehe, you got pretty lucky there. Making it here on the second day means you’ll definitely get a lot of credits. The most important scoring metric in the Mirror World is how quickly you complete it, after all.”

“Hehehe, that’s true, but your companion wasn’t so fortunate.”

“Hehehe, let me help you check if your companion has already been eliminated. You can go straight to the revival point to find him after you leave.”

“Hahaha, do you know which revival point? Let me check for you.”

These drivers, each opening their mouths with a string of eerie laughter, had such a bizarre attitude that Zhou Zhou ended up feeling uneasy. What was going on with them?

The driver still sitting in the chair seemed more reliable. Seeing these idiots had scared the poor young man silly, he could only helplessly and amusedly reassure Zhou Zhou: “These people are crazy, don’t mind them. You eat first, and then you can go to the final stage after.”

Zhou Zhou nodded, taking a bite of the meat skewer. Then he looked up at one of the drivers a few times, wanting to speak but being asked eagerly if he wanted more barbecue instead.

“Um, you just mentioned helping check where my companion is?” Zhou Zhou asked softly.

That driver had already opened the task panel earlier, but hadn’t looked at it carefully yet. Hearing Zhou Zhou ask about it directly, he immediately checked it.

“Hm?” The driver frowned.

Zhou Zhou immediately asked: “What’s wrong?”

“Your companion sure went far, didn’t he? It’s only been a short time and he’s already reached the third layer of illusion. Have any of us ever had someone go to the third layer before?” Driver 3 asked his companions.

Driver 5 pondered: “Most are in the first layer. A few particularly timid ones have entered the second layer, but no one has gone to the third or fourth layers.”

Driver 2 passed Zhou Zhou another skewer of barbecue. “Is your companion a real scaredy-cat?” he asked.

Not understanding what they meant by first layer or second layer, Zhou Zhou felt anxious: “Thank you, but you really don’t need to give me any more. Al isn’t timid at all, he’s very capable, the most capable person I’ve ever met.”

“That’s strange then, how did he end up there?”

The driver lying in the chair, Driver 6, saw Zhou Zhou looking utterly clueless as he listened to them talk, clearly struggling to understand, so he explained: “The illusions evolve from a person’s deepest fears, and each layer is classified by the degree of that fear. The deeper the fear, the deeper the level of illusion one falls into, making it increasingly difficult to wake up.”

“What can we do then?” Zhou Zhou understood this time.

“In a situation like this, he won’t be able to get out on his own. We’ll need to go in and bring him out,” said Driver 6 as he stood up from the chair. “I’ll go.”

Driver 1 headed straight for a nearby hallway, then brought out a huge mirror and set it on the open ground.

Driver 6 finished the meat skewer in his hand, dusted off his palms, and headed towards the mirror: “I’ll bring him directly here shortly. Even if you two manage to exit through the completion gate together, he’ll still be eliminated.”

With that, he stepped into the mirror. Zhou Zhou stood in front of the mirror and waited, while the remaining five drivers continued grilling and kept passing skewers to Zhou Zhou for him to eat more.

Zhou Zhou couldn’t refuse, so he sat in the chair Driver 2 had moved beside the mirror, eating while waiting for Driver 6 to return with Al.

It didn’t take long before Driver 6 came back, but his return was rather unconventional, he flew straight out of the mirror.

“Ow, what’s up with this kid?” Driver 6, who had flown out and crashed to the ground, cursed as he stood up. The other drivers, curious about his peculiar return, abandoned what they were doing to crowd around him.

But where was the person he was supposed to bring back? The player hadn’t come out?

Zhou Zhou also hurried over and immediately noticed Driver 6’s bruised eye sockets.

“…What happened?”

The other sneered in response: “Your precious companion did this!”

Instead of showing any concern for their injured companion, the other drivers pointed at his eyes and roared with laughter: “You actually got beat up like this by a player stuck in an illusion?”

Driver 6 huffed coldly: “You guys don’t know how high that kid’s combat stats are, and how wary he is…”

“Hahaha…”

“Hehehe…”

Driver 6 grew angry: “Then you go in and bring him out!”

Driver 5 turned to Zhou Zhou: “Don’t worry, this guy will lie down at any opportunity instead of sitting, he’s totally useless. We’ll go bring your companion out.”

Zhou Zhou recalled Al’s combat stats displayed in the game and had a feeling the remaining drivers would probably…

After mocking his companion, Driver 1 confidently stepped into the mirror, assuring Zhou Zhou beforehand that he wouldn’t end up powerless like Driver 6.

It didn’t take long before Driver 1 also flew back out, his face now bearing a bruised eye socket as well.

Next were Drivers 2, 3, and 4…

Zhou Zhou couldn’t stop them. He guessed that the illusion of Al would be on guard against any strangers, and the drivers were no match for him. He didn’t want the others to keep getting hurt, but the drivers felt that the Mirror World was their home turf, how could they call themselves capable if they couldn’t even handle one player? They thought the reason the others got beaten was because they were too weak, and that they themselves could definitely bring the player out unscathed.

With that mentality, all six drivers ended up with bruised eye sockets. And Al must have gotten irritated by their pestering in the illusion, because the last one to go in, Driver 5, came back with two black eyes.

In the end, all the drivers were lying on the open ground, but Al still hadn’t come out.

“Damn it, by the time I went in he had already reached the fourth layer. Should we report it to the system and force him to log out? Otherwise he might not wake up at all,” said Driver 5, clutching his two bruised eye sockets and gritting his teeth.

“What do you mean might not wake up?” Zhou Zhou felt alarmed.

“The fourth layer means he’s constructed his own world. It’s possible he could remain trapped in that world and never wake up. Forcing a logout through the system is the only way to bring him back to his senses now,” Driver 6 explained with a furrowed brow. Who could have predicted this situation occurring in an instance that had been running smoothly? If the player didn’t wake up, they would definitely be penalized too.

“Will forcing him to wake up have any effects?” Zhou Zhou asked.

Driver 1 gestured with his finger: “There might be a tiny bit, but nothing major.”

“I told you not to make the illusion part so in-depth, but you all insisted that no player would ever go that far. Well, now look what’s happened, we nearly killed someone,” Driver 2 scolded.

“Killed!”

“No no, he’s exaggerating. There won’t be any deaths. It’s just that your companion must have some serious psychological trauma, which is why this happened. These illusions could trigger his negative emotions, so even if he wakes up, it might take some time to process all of it.”

Zhou Zhou watched the drivers open the task panel to submit a report, then looked back at the mirror behind them and asked, “Can I go in?”

Driver 5’s eyes lit up: “Yeah, you go in and bring him out, then our instance won’t be affected.”

He was kicked by Driver 6: “Are you kidding? What if this one gets stuck in there too after the other one comes out?”

Driver 5 said angrily: “But they’re companions, right? That player definitely won’t be as guarded against him. Just bring the guy out, it won’t affect that player either. It’s a win-win, and Zhou Zhou didn’t fall into any illusions before, so he won’t get trapped at deeper levels and can remain totally lucid.”

Driver 6 fell silent, as this method did seem better than forcing the player to log out of the game.

Zhou Zhou immediately said, “I’ll go.”

The other drivers looked at each other, but ultimately agreed to Zhou Zhou’s proposal.

They gave Zhou Zhou a small mirror and told him that once he found his companion, he had to make the other realize that the place he was in was just an illusion. Then Zhou Zhou should shatter this small mirror, and an exit would appear in front of them.

If his companion refused to leave, Zhou Zhou couldn’t force it. He should just crush the small mirror himself and leave, and then they would submit a report to force the other player to log out and regain his senses.

Zhou Zhou tightly gripped the small mirror and stepped into the larger one without hesitation.