Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 94

Chapter 94: Night Castle 9

The players gathered on the first floor and discussed for half a day, but they didn’t discuss anything valuable, after all, those players only said a few words and then disappeared, and no one knew the specifics.

According to the rules from last night, they had to return to their rooms after nightfall. However, the players received information that something unknown would come to find them at night, so staying alone in a room might cause something to happen.

“Why don’t we go find the butler and ask for some information?”

“They probably won’t tell us these things, right?”

“For such an ancient castle, there might be some strange legends. If we ask, we’ll know for sure.”

One player, with a grave expression, looked at everyone and hesitated to speak: “Did you notice? When the severed hand appeared earlier, several players ran upstairs and never came back down.”

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, the player continued: “When I was cleaning the hallway, I saw my companion, who had previously run upstairs and never came back down. The butler didn’t mention this either. I thought he had been eliminated, but when I was cleaning, the one who talked to me was him.”

This player happened to be one of a two-person team, and his partner had run upstairs and never came back down. This remark drew everyone’s attention.

The others had also noticed this. They thought those players had been eliminated, and although they didn’t see anyone come down, in many instances, after being eliminated, they would simply disappear on the spot, leaving behind only a corpse or turning into a ghost.

Zhou Zhou immediately raised his hand and said, “I’ve seen them before.”

Previously, when he and Alvia were searching for Lan Ya, they saw several players hiding in various places. At the time, they only glanced at them and didn’t communicate, and no players followed them downstairs. After that, they never saw those people again.

Zhou Zhou told everyone this, and everyone looked serious. Someone suggested asking the butler or Locke, although they weren’t sure if they could get any information from them, but it was still better than guessing blindly here.

The clock in the castle pointed to seven o’clock, and the old butler finally came down from upstairs.

He leaned on his cane, inspecting each floor, with the players following behind him. While watching him walk back and forth, checking every nook and cranny, they probed and asked about the whereabouts of the other players.

“The others? Aren’t you the only ones here?” The old butler’s attention was focused on the hallway illuminated by the lamps, as he examined the floor inch by inch, seemingly searching for any remaining dust.

“When we came in together, there were fifteen of us, but now there are only a few of us left. Were the others eliminated?” the player asked impatiently.

The old butler stopped talking and bent down, holding the lamp to inspect the corners of the walls.

The player took a deep breath. Facing an uncooperative and tight-lipped NPC who refused to say anything, he couldn’t very well beat him up.

“Someone else ask again. I can’t get anything out of him.”

The others also took turns asking, whether it was beating around the bush or being direct, the old butler was very tight-lipped. When faced with overly direct questions, he would pretend to be inspecting the cleanliness, acting as if he hadn’t heard anything.

The players all left empty-handed, and now only Zhou Zhou’s group of three had not inquired yet.

Everyone’s gaze fell on them. Seeing this, Zhou Zhou could only step forward and ask, but since everyone had already asked all the questions, it was his turn, and he had nothing left to ask.

Zhou Zhou thought for a moment and asked, “Where did the others go?”

This question had been asked before, and the old butler had only said he didn’t know and wouldn’t answer. Asking was pointless.

However, to everyone’s surprise, the old butler actually answered.

“The others are all dead.” The old butler straightened his body and said in a weathered tone.

Players: ????

What happened? Earlier, when asked, he clearly said he didn’t know, but now he suddenly knows?

Seeing that the old butler had responded, Zhou Zhou asked again, “Why did they die?”

The old butler shook his head, “I’m not sure either. I only heard a long time ago that this castle is strange, but I’ve been here for so many years and haven’t encountered anything. However, some previous travelers have died inexplicably.”

The player immediately asked, “How did they die, and where?”

The old butler lowered his head and started inspecting the cleanliness again.

Player: “……”

The player took a deep breath and helplessly said to Zhou Zhou, “You might as well ask.”

Zhou Zhou nodded and asked the question the player had just asked again. This time, the old butler also responded, practically taking double standards to the extreme.

“I heard that after the previous travelers died, their souls lingered in this castle, and they need to find a scapegoat to leave.”

Hearing that there were ghosts here, Zhou Zhou immediately perked up, “What does the scapegoat look like?”

The old butler shook his head, “I haven’t seen them, so I don’t know what they look like. Alright, you’ve all cleaned up nicely, so you should go back and rest.”

The players still had many questions they wanted to ask, but the old butler treated them like air. Whenever they asked a question, he would start inspecting the cleanliness everywhere, only answering one or two questions from Zhou Zhou and Alvia. Lan Ya also asked, and although the old butler didn’t ignore her like he did the others, whenever she asked a question, he would just snort coldly in response.

It seemed that Locke must have reported to the butler, which was why the butler treated Lan Ya this way.

“Why do you answer when they ask questions, but not when we do?” Finally, one player couldn’t help but ask.

The old butler still pretended not to hear anything and led them back to their rooms.

The other few players glanced at Zhou Zhou and Alvia standing aside, hesitating, “Maybe it’s judging by looks?”

“Damn! Even the NPCs are starting to judge by looks now. This game is unplayable.”

“Are you guys stupid? Who cares if it’s judging by looks or by figure? As long as they answer when asked, don’t we all hear it?”

“What do we do now? We’re about to go back to our rooms, but we still have a lot of questions.”

Standing in the crowd, Zhou Zhou heard them say this, so he turned to everyone and said, “Actually, based on what the old butler said, we can already piece together what’s going to happen.”

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Zhou Zhou smiled slightly and continued, “It means that at night, there will be ghosts entering our rooms. To leave the castle, they will take the opportunity to kill us and make us their scapegoats. The two players who died last night and the players who disappeared today were all killed by those ghosts. Tonight, it’s our turn.”

Although Zhou Zhou had a delicate and noble appearance, in the dim light of the hallway, half of his face was hidden in the darkness, while the other half was tinted with a layer of hazy glow from the orange lamps. The curve of his raised lips at this moment seemed somewhat eerie.

He spoke the most terrifying words in the calmest tone, successfully stopping the players in their tracks.

Gazing at the rooms they were about to reach, the players all hesitated.

Could they not return to their rooms? They didn’t want to die!

The old butler didn’t turn around, “If you’re not satisfied with the guest rooms here, you can go find somewhere else to stay outside the castle.”

The same line he said last night. To pass the instance, the players could only follow the old butler dejectedly toward their rooms.

Although there were fewer players, the rooms remained the same. Whichever room they stayed in last night, they would stay in the same one for the next three days. Knowing that staying alone in a room was problematic, but since those were the rules, they could only comply, hoping to survive the night.

The players entered their rooms one by one. Before entering his room, Zhou Zhou saw Lan Ya tightly biting her lips, her expression showing a hint of panic. He walked up to her and whispered, “If anything happens, shout loudly, and Al and I will come to rescue you.”

Their three rooms were adjacent to each other, so any sound would definitely be heard with their keen hearing.

Lan Ya forced a smile, “It’s fine. If you leave your room, you’ll be eliminated. Don’t worry about me. Don’t underestimate me just because I’m a little timid. I’ve had quite a bit of luck before, and when I cleared the instance with Yue Ling, everything went smoothly.”

The old butler raised his eyelids and glanced at Lan Ya with disdain. Alvia keenly noticed the contempt in his eyes. It seemed that due to the incident with Locke, the old butler was very displeased with Lan Ya.

“Whether we can clear the instance or not is not important. The important thing is that the three of us are on the same team, so it’s normal for us to help each other,” said Zhou Zhou.

Now that Zeus existed, Zhou Zhou no longer had to worry about dying if he was eliminated from the instance. He could do much more, but he also had fewer concerns.

Lan Ya felt a warmth in her heart and nodded at Zhou Zhou and Alvia before entering her own room.

Afterward, all the players entered their rooms. Even those who tried to dawdle and delay were warned by the impatient old butler and obediently went inside.

It was very quiet in the rooms, with players sitting on chairs or beds, waiting for the arrival of the unknown entity.

“They will come to find you at night.”

This weighty sentence weighed heavily on everyone’s mind. The players held “weapons” in their hands, candlesticks, chairs, etc. from the room, staying vigilant.

Among these people, only two were the most relaxed.

The room’s drawer contained a few books. Alvia, with nothing better to do, sat leisurely at the bedside reading a book. He had already thoroughly searched the room the previous night and had checked it again upon entering. Finding nothing unusual, all he had to do now was wait.

Unlike the vigilant and guarded state of the others, his demeanor was very relaxed. After all, even if there were ghosts in the room, it wouldn’t be much of a problem for him.

The other relaxed person was Zhou Zhou.

He had fallen asleep again.

After all, it was night, he couldn’t go home, and no one was there to play with him. He had already read the books in the room earlier, so there was nothing else to do but sleep.

His sleep was light, and he would wake up immediately at the slightest sound. He didn’t need to worry about not hearing any noise from Lan Ya’s room.

As for Lan Ya, although she had claimed at the door that she could handle it, she actually hid under the covers, curled up into a ball after entering her room. Ever since hearing Zhou Zhou’s conclusion in the hallway, she had been afraid, but to avoid troubling her teammates, she had to force herself to suppress her fear.

As long as she couldn’t see it, it didn’t exist!

The lump under the covers on the bed seemed to be trembling, and Lan Ya closed her eyes, mumbling to herself, trying to lull herself to sleep in this way.

Time passed minute by minute, and soon it was midnight in the instance.

At midnight, a few figures suddenly appeared in four of the players’ rooms.

The moment Zhou Zhou sensed someone appearing in his room, he woke up.

He sat up in bed, his messy curly hair in disarray, gazing at the person who had suddenly appeared in his room, the same player who had appeared in the hallway that afternoon, warning him to leave this place as soon as possible.

So, was he a ghost?

Zhou Zhou wasn’t sure, so he sat on the bed, motionless, staring at him.

The other person also remained motionless, smiling at Zhou Zhou. His unchanging posture for a long time made him look like a mannequin. However, Zhou Zhou was no less skilled, having played the role of an NPC before. He was well-versed in this line of work and could sit on the bed without moving for a long time, not even blinking.

The two “dolls” stared at each other across the distance, neither speaking nor blinking.

It wasn’t until a player’s scream suddenly came from the hallway that their wooden doll game ended.

The other person reached out his hand toward Zhou Zhou, “This castle is dangerous. Before they come, let me take you away from here.”

Zhou Zhou remained unmoved and glanced at the floor, asking, “Who are they? Who is coming?”

The other person seemed to have some unspoken concern, his brow furrowing slightly, hesitating. After a long while, he still didn’t say anything but looked at Zhou Zhou sincerely and said, “Please trust me and leave this place quickly, or something terrible will happen.”

“What terrible thing?”

“You might die.”

“Oh, anything else?”

Their conversation was meaningless, and Zhou Zhou’s attitude didn’t change at all. He remained under the covers, sitting on the bed, making it hard not to suspect that if the person in the room left, he would be able to take another nap.

The other person gradually lost patience. Maintaining his outstretched posture, he approached Zhou Zhou, unable to stop the corners of his mouth from turning downward, “Don’t you want to know what terrible thing will happen?”

He walked closer and closer to Zhou Zhou, his entire appearance completely different from when he first entered. His features gradually faded until he had a featureless face. His fingers also gradually melted, with the fluid-like substance slowly dripping downward, resembling a pool of flesh-colored sludge.

“What terrible thing? Of course, I’ll turn into your appearance, and by daylight, I can eliminate the other players using your identity. No one will be able to tell the difference.” The other person grew more and more excited, as if he had already imagined himself taking on Zhou Zhou’s appearance and eliminating all the players.

Unconstrained by its original shape, the flesh-colored sludge slowly thinned and expanded, like a massive blanket trying to envelop the seemingly petrified Zhou Zhou on the bed.

The room’s dim lighting was further obscured by the unknown object, gradually enveloping Zhou Zhou in the other’s shadow, about to devour him.

Zhou Zhou was indeed surprised, but his point of surprise differed from others. Observing the other’s indistinguishable head and tail, he suddenly asked, “After your mouth disappears, how are you speaking?”

Zhou Zhou’s wide eyes weren’t because he was petrified but because he discovered that the other person no longer had a mouth, yet he could still hear his voice, so he was very curious about this.

The flesh-colored mass approaching Zhou Zhou paused for a moment, then said through gritted teeth, “You should be more concerned about being eliminated soon!”

Originally intending to slowly approach Zhou Zhou and savor his struggle and despair, the other person’s lack of reaction made him feel an absence of accomplishment, so he decided to act swiftly.

The previously slow speed suddenly accelerated to the maximum, and the massive shadow in the room instantly expanded, enveloping the disheveled-haired person on the bed.

When a player is covered and devoured by the flesh-colored substance, they will be eliminated, and the other person will then assume Zhou Zhou’s appearance to continue deceiving and devouring the other players until all of them are eliminated.

At the moment the other person covered and began to devour Zhou Zhou, the room fell silent, as if time itself had frozen.