Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 88

Chapter 88: Night Castle 3

The old man’s attitude was very resolute, and afterwards no matter what the players said, he kept repeating that same sentence.

Alvia stood in the crowd, listening to the players saying they had sprained their feet and couldn’t walk, that it would rain tomorrow, and many other excuses, but the old man remained completely unmoved, his expression not changing at all.

He lowered his head thinking, then suddenly said to the old man: “Could we thank the castle owner in person before leaving? After all, we have disturbed so much, yet we haven’t even seen the castle owner’s face before leaving, this is too rude.”

Unexpectedly, the previously unmoved old man glanced at Alvia after hearing these words.

There’s a reaction!

The players immediately echoed in unison, one glancing at the other speaking, saying how much they wanted to meet the castle owner, and that they couldn’t feel at ease without meeting them, their tone very sincere.

Hearing the players’ praising words about the castle owner, the old man’s expression finally softened a bit: “Alright, since you all have such sincere attitudes, I’ll go ask the owner’s opinion.”

After the old man said this, he closed the stone door and walked upstairs with his cane. The players originally wanted to follow the old man upstairs, but were told by him that they could not casually enter the room where the castle owner resided.

The players could only stand on the first floor and wait for the result.

At this time, the players were arranged according to their teams. Zhou Zhou and his two teammates stood together, the other two stood together, and the remaining eight people stood in one place, occasionally glancing at Alvia.

Finally, one of the players from the eight-person group came over. Alvia’s expression was even colder than the old man’s, and there seemed to be a sense of oppression around him that made it difficult for others to approach. Even Lan Ya from the same team tried to stay closer to Zhou Zhou and didn’t dare talk to him.

The player hesitated beside Zhou Zhou for a long time before asking Alvia: “Um, could I ask how you knew to say we wanted to meet the castle owner, and that old man would let us stay?”

Alvia glanced around, but noticed Zhou Zhou was also looking at him curiously, so he began to explain: “The clothes that old man was wearing were a butler’s uniform. From the fact that he could decide whether we stay or leave, it seems the old man as the castle’s butler has quite a lot of authority. And from his words last night, he seems to highly respect the castle owner. If we want to have an audience with the castle owner, the butler has to go report it, he can’t make the decision on his own.”

Zhou Zhou realized, that’s how it is. But he was indeed very curious to meet the castle owner. Last night the old butler had repeatedly warned them not to go out at night, not to disturb the castle owner, and he didn’t know what the owner looked like or what kind of person they were.

Before long, the old man came down from upstairs: “The owner has agreed to meet with you all.”

The players immediately breathed a sigh of relief, so this meant they didn’t have to leave for now?

Just as the players were feeling happy, the old man continued: “However, he still needs to make some preparations, please wait a moment.”

The players immediately waved their hands: “No rush, no rush, take your time preparing.”

Everyone stared intently at the stairs, but after a long time, no one had come down from upstairs. The players were very puzzled, not knowing what kind of preparations the owner was making that took so long. Even the old man, standing as still as a sculpture beside them, eventually went upstairs again.

When the old man came down again, he was still alone.

“My sincere apologies, it seems the owner may need some more time. Please be patient. There are playing cards in the castle that you can use to pass the time.”

Although the old butler was elderly, his manners were impeccable, befitting someone who was a professional butler. Of course no one would object. Whether that castle owner came or not didn’t matter, as long as they weren’t kicked out.

After handing the playing cards to the players, the butler went upstairs again, his steps slightly hurried.

On the first floor of the hall, only a group of players looking at each other remained.

“Could it be that we really have to play cards here?”

“If we don’t play and they get upset and make us leave, what should we do? We might as well play, it’s better than failing the mission.”

“Alright, we can only do that for now.”

Since there were many players, everyone sat in a circle on the floor.

Each person was dealt five cards. Zhou Zhou looked at the symbols on the cards and fell silent. He didn’t recognize the symbols at all, so what should he do? One card seemed to depict a witch, another a child, and the symbols on the other cards were completely different too, so what game was this? How was it played?

He looked to the left and right, Lan Ya and Alvia both seemed very calm looking at their own cards, appearing very familiar with them.

Zhou Zhou immediately leaned towards Alvia and said softly: “Al, how do you play this?”

Although he had lowered his voice, everyone still heard Zhou Zhou’s words.

One of the players with pink hair widened his eyes: “There’s only one way to play these cards, and it’s been popular for decades, you don’t know how?”

As he exaggeratedly spoke, he looked Zhou Zhou up and down, his expression seeming to say that Zhou Zhou must have come from some remote region.

“But I really don’t know how to play.” Zhou Zhou was no longer as cautious as before, his attitude very candid, not feeling any embarrassment. Since he really didn’t know, he couldn’t pretend he did, right?

Alvia glanced at that overly dramatic player, his icy gaze enough to make the other shrink back and not dare say anything more. Only then did he briefly explain the rules to Zhou Zhou.

But his explanation was very concise, a level so brief that even the other players felt it was too simplistic and unsuitable for a beginner.

Yet Zhou Zhou nodded seriously: “Got it, I understand.”

Lan Ya wanted to say something but held back. Besides the surface rules, there were actually many hidden rules as well that one had to gradually explore through playing. Having someone explain these hidden rules could help avoid taking the long way around, but Al didn’t mention any of those.

She wanted to tell Zhou Zhou these rules, but everyone was also waiting impatiently. They decided to just play and see, since there were no penalties anyway, it was just to pass the time.

As expected, in the first round, Zhou Zhou was the first to be eliminated. He rested his chin watching the other players continue, until there was only one player left, who was that pink-haired player from before.

He took out the last card he had placed on the ground with a slight smugness, showing it to everyone: “My apologies, I won.”

This player was very proficient at the card game, having enjoyed playing it since he was little. Suddenly finding out there were actually people who didn’t know how to play, he was indeed very surprised. Newbies should just watch from the side first, after watching maybe 180 rounds they can start playing. To not know anything and just jump right in, of course you’d be the first eliminated.

But his smugness didn’t last long. Starting from the second round, Zhou Zhou seemed to have grasped the rules, becoming one of the last players remaining along with Al.

The final winner was Alvia. Zhou Zhou nearly won, looking displeased at the last card in Alvia’s hand and muttering: “I’ll definitely beat you next time.”

Alvia didn’t refute him, but the pink-haired player stared at Zhou Zhou very suspiciously. Was this really his first time playing? Could he be pretending? Just from that brief explanation earlier, then playing one round and being able to learn, gimme a break.

In the many rounds after, Zhou Zhou and Alvia won about half each. The other players on the side had become numb to it, they were really just there to make up the numbers, it seemed.

The pink-haired player kept staring at Zhou Zhou, his expression constantly changing.

“You’re not counting cards, are you?” The pink-haired player suddenly said to Zhou Zhou.

Zhou Zhou had just won against Alvia in the previous round and was feeling happy when he suddenly heard the other say this. With an attitude of wanting to learn, he asked: “What is counting cards?”

The other was taken aback, not knowing why, but suddenly feeling very stifled: “Nevermind, I’ll definitely beat you both next round!”

He huffed a couple times, gathering the cards to himself to start shuffling.

Alvia’s gaze occasionally went to the stairs. Another hour had passed and still no one had come down.

The pink-haired player was shuffling the cards when suddenly he didn’t grab them properly, and the cards scattered all over the floor around him. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, gathering the cards back together to reshuffle.

As he was shuffling, a rough large hand suddenly reached out from the side, holding a card.

It must have scattered quite far earlier, so he didn’t notice it. The player didn’t think much of it and just took the card, incorporating it with the others.

He then turned and said “thanks” to the player beside him.

“…Why are you thanking me?” That player looked very puzzled.

“You helped me pick up a card.” The pink-haired player casually said, lowering his gaze only to see the other’s slender, pale hands resting on his chin.

???

Puzzled, he lowered his head. That rough large hand was clearly right beside his leg on the right side, so whose hand was that?

He slowly turned around, but there was no one behind him at all.

Looking back down, the hand was blocked from view by his knee. Only after shifting over slightly could he finally see that it was just a severed hand there.

This rough large hand was cleanly severed at the wrist, yet seemed to move of its own volition, twitching about occasionally.

The player didn’t dare move, his pupils constricting as he stared at that nimble severed hand.

It was as if the severed hand noticed the player looking at it, actually using its agile fingers to start crawling up his knee.

The player’s eyes widened in horror as, from the knee the severed hand was crawling up, a shudder and numbness spread to his brain almost instantly. In the next moment, he was screaming and leaping to his feet, trying to shake that crawling severed hand off his knee.

The other players were also startled by his sudden movements, all very puzzled watching the pink-haired player jumping around like a madman.

“Thud.”

A severed hand was flung into the center of the group. It even seemed to be trying to use its fingers to support itself and stand up.

This was the empty area in the center used for placing cards, so almost everyone saw the twitching severed hand at the same time. The wrinkles on the fingers, the pale pink nailbeds, everything was intact. With each twitch of the hand, you could even see the bones slightly protruding under the skin. No one could say this was a model, it was clearly a real hand!

The severed hand finally used its four fingers to stand up, then started moving.

All the players freaked out. The group that had been harmoniously playing cards just moments ago abruptly leapt to their feet, scattering in all directions.

The severed hand moved very quickly, heading straight for the players. Whenever it got close to a player, it would start climbing up their ankle onto their body, the players desperately kicking their legs to shake it off.

The screams in the castle’s great hall were nearly loud enough to shatter the ceiling, anyone who saw something so bizarre wouldn’t be able to stay calm.

To get away from this eerie severed hand, several players even ran upstairs.

Hearing the screams, the old butler hurriedly came down the stairs leaning on his cane, only to directly collide with the panic-stricken fleeing players.

The elderly, frail old butler was no match for the young, robust players who were knocking into everything in their fear.

So he was instantly knocked down.

And behind the old butler was a dark gray stone brick wall.

The frantic players watched helplessly as the butler fell backwards, slamming into the wall.

In that instant, his limbs and head separated from his torso, like a doll, torn into pieces.

The players stared in horror as the butler’s head slowly rolled to their feet, the elderly, slack face directly facing them, clouded eyes glaring lifelessly.

“Thud!”

That was the last sound the player heard. His heart pounded violently, the sound seeming to resound through the entire castle. Immediately after, his eyes rolled back and he lost consciousness.