Love NPC in Nightmare Game - Chapter 95

Chapter 95: Night Castle 10

Zhou Zhou slowly crawled out from under the arched flesh-colored object and stood on the ground, looking for his shoes.

After putting on his shoes, he turned to look at the motionless object on the bed and examined it carefully.

“What did you do to me! Why can’t I move?” Although motionless, the flesh-colored object could speak, looking at Zhou Zhou circling around him in shock.

“Nothing, I just put a levitation talisman on you.”

This was something Zhou Zhou had bought together with Alvia after the Doll’s House instance, apart from using a few flight talismans in the Deep Sea Creature instance, he hadn’t had a chance to use the rest.

As the name suggests, the levitation talisman could make players suspend in mid-air for a while. When used on himself, it was a life-saving item, but when used on others, it became a restraining talisman.

Although Zhou Zhou’s combat power was not high, he had thought of using the levitation talisman when the other party pounced at him, and it seemed to be effective.

“You used an item? Hmph, those kinds of items all have time limits. When the time is up, you still can’t escape. Hey, what are you doing, don’t touch me randomly!” The other party’s tone changed from disdain to panic.

Zhou Zhou had been exploring all over his body for a while but still couldn’t find where his mouth, eyes or ears were. Hearing what he said, Zhou Zhou stopped exploring and pinched the thin flesh-colored flap instead.

“I find that you’re quite flexible, you should be able to do many difficult moves.” Zhou Zhou said innocently.

???

He suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

*

The castle was always extremely dim, if not for the faint lights in the hallways and rooms, the entire castle would be pitch black.

When the old butler arrived at each room with his crutch to wake everyone up, the players soon realized that the already small number of players had decreased by two more.

“Did you hear the scream last night?”

“Yeah, there was only one scream and then silence, what do you think happened?”

“Don’t tell me there really are ghosts here?”

“Who knows, but something must have happened last night.”

Zhou Zhou and the others’ rooms were on the second floor, the last to be woken up. While everyone was discussing what had happened the previous night, Zhou Zhou stood at the door looking refreshed, even smiling and greeting the others. Compared to the players who had been on edge all night, his spirit seemed exceptionally good.

Lan Ya had been worried all night, but apart from the sudden scream from outside, nothing had happened in their room.

“Lan Ya!” Zhou Zhou smiled happily when he saw Lan Ya.

Lan Ya stared at Zhou Zhou for a while, noticing that his mood seemed unusually good, and couldn’t help but ask, “Did something good happen to you?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Lan Ya caught a glimpse of what seemed to be something white in Zhou Zhou’s room from the corner of her eye and couldn’t help but take a closer look.

“Zhou Zhou, what’s that in your room?”

Alvia had just come out of the room and overheard Lan Ya’s words. Zhou Zhou’s room door was slightly ajar, and most of the view inside was blocked by Zhou Zhou standing at the entrance. Lan Ya could only see a glimpse of the space above Zhou Zhou’s head, but Alvia, being taller than Zhou Zhou, immediately noticed the strange object in his room.

The other players and the old butler also curiously looked towards Zhou Zhou’s room.

Zhou Zhou opened the door wide and stepped aside to let everyone have a clear view.

Inside Zhou Zhou’s room, there were thin membranes all over, from the bed winding around the table legs, then around the chairs several times. The entire room was like a cocoon, layered and tangled.

The originally tidy room had instantly transformed into a spider’s den, requiring caution with every step to enter.

“What is that?”

“Wasn’t it fine yesterday, how did it become like this today?”

“Did something happen last night?”

Everyone looked at Zhou Zhou in unison, and he finally told them the whole story.

Upon hearing that an unknown creature had appeared in his room, which was likely one of the previously missing players who had wanted to eat him, but was eventually restrained by Zhou Zhou with a levitation talisman.

And then Zhou Zhou, out of boredom, had stretched the originally flesh-colored arched object into an almost white, gauze-like material, after which the creature either escaped or died, never speaking again.

The players went from feeling anxious when they first heard that an unknown creature could suddenly appear in the room, to gradually becoming silent as Zhou Zhou described how he had unilaterally stretched the creature, even praising its excellent flexibility.

What should have been a terrifying incident had somehow become a one-sided torment in Zhou Zhou’s recounting.

“So, does that mean the other two players were likely eaten?” One player said dryly.

Another player looked at the equally silent old butler and carefully asked, “Um, does this mansion really have ghosts at night? Can we not stay in our rooms or maybe just stay together?”

But his suggestion was rejected by the old butler, who said if they didn’t want to stay, they could just leave.

The old butler’s eyelids twitched slightly as he glanced at the layered gauze in Zhou Zhou’s room, and said, “Today’s task is to clean the entire second floor, including this room.”

After the old butler left, the other players gathered around Zhou Zhou to ask for details about the previous night, not knowing if they might be the next target of those strange creatures, so they had to prepare in advance.

Zhou Zhou told them everything, and they went into the room to observe the white gauze, trying to analyze what it actually was.

At this point, only Zhou Zhou, Alvia and Lan Ya were left at the entrance.

Alvia looked at Zhou Zhou: “Are you okay?”

Zhou Zhou nodded, then thought for a moment and added, “I’m fine, it was quite fun.”

Alvia’s lips curved slightly. Zhou Zhou’s demeanor reminded him of the previous instances, where whether it was NPCs or high-level players, the ones who ended up suffering were always the other party when they encountered Zhou Zhou.

“That’s good then.”

Lan Ya stood between the two of them, but her height was so much shorter than theirs that even standing there didn’t affect their interaction or eye contact at all. She looked up at the two of them, feeling it wasn’t an appropriate time to speak, so she silently left to join the other players in observing the strange object in the room.

“You seem really happy?” Alvia suddenly asked.

Zhou Zhou was taken aback for a moment, then pointed to the result of his hard work in the room and said, “Because it really was fun.”

“No, I mean from the start of this instance, you’ve been really happy.”

Zhou Zhou pretended to be oblivious and laughed awkwardly, scratching his nose, “Was it that obvious?”

“Did something happen? Did you start dating someone again?” Alvia frowned, unable to think of any other reason.

Zhou Zhou: “What do you mean ‘again’? It’s because… it’s a secret!”

Zhou Zhou was caught off guard and almost blurted it out following Alvia’s words, but managed to hold back in the end. However, the radiant smile on his face was too bright, making people curious about what secret could make him so happy.

“Can’t you tell me?”

“It’s not that I can’t say, it’s just that I’m not sure until I complete it. I’ll tell you after tomorrow is over.” Zhou Zhou’s amber eyes shone brightly. After revealing his identity to Zeus and receiving an unexpected surprise, he was no longer afraid of others knowing about it, so he planned to tell Alvia about his identity.

After he goes to the outside world, he’ll reveal his NPC identity to Al. He didn’t know how Al would react at that time. Thinking about this, Zhou Zhou’s smile became even brighter.

Alvia looked at the beaming Zhou Zhou: “I actually also have something to tell you, we can talk about it then.”

“Sure, sure.” Zhou Zhou nodded happily.

The two of them had their own thoughts, but their expressions looked very pleasant. Zhou Zhou had a radiant smile, while Alvia still had an unapproachable look, but his cold demeanor showed signs of melting, causing a few players to glance at them repeatedly.

The players in the room did observe very carefully, but they couldn’t figure anything out. They had never seen what the creature looked like before Zhou Zhou stretched it, so based solely on these gauze-like materials, they couldn’t deduce anything.

One player even wanted to take a bite and taste it, but was sternly stopped by the others.

Unable to find any clues, the players could only clean first, and then discuss what to do at night.

These “gauzes” were as light as air, and when cleaning, they were easily swept away like cobwebs. So a portion of the players went out to clean, leaving only seven out of the original nine people, with only four players remaining besides Zhou Zhou’s group of three.

These four went to clean the hallway, but since there was no dust in the castle, they were just going through the motions.

One player sat on the stairs, sighing repeatedly. When they entered the castle, there were ten of them, but now there were only this few left. He didn’t know how many would remain on the third day.

“What’s wrong, just sighing here?” His companion came over and asked.

The player sighed again, propping his chin with both hands: “Do you think we can clear this instance? It looks like a simple instance, but we’ve already lost so many people.”

His companion glanced behind him. This was a blind spot, where they couldn’t see the people in the hallway, and those in the hallway couldn’t see them either.

“Anyway, this is just a game. Whether we can clear it or not, it’s not like we’ll actually die. Cheer up.”

“I know, but we didn’t clear the last instance either. If we can’t clear this one, my score will become negative. I really need money right now, sigh~” The player sighed worriedly.

“Don’t worry, as long as you don’t play Nightmare City again in the future, there won’t be these kinds of problems.”

“True, huh? But I haven’t been eliminated yet.” It was as if his companion’s words implied he had already been eliminated. The player was speechless and turned his head to tell his companion not to raise such a flag. But before he could turn his head, he was suddenly shoved hard from behind. The player originally sitting on the steps had no time to react before tumbling down the stairs.

He instinctively tried to grab onto something, but there was no railing on the stairs. He could only feel himself falling helplessly downwards. At the last moment, he finally turned and saw the person behind him. It was his familiar companion, but at this moment, the other person was smiling and waving goodbye, mouthing the words silently with an utterly unfamiliar expression.

“Be careful!” A sudden shout came from the hallway.

The two players in the hallway who heard the commotion immediately went towards the source of the sound, only to find that one player was running anxiously downwards, while another player was lying at the corner of the stairs.

“What happened? What’s going on?”

That player had already run to his companion’s side, his expression anxious as he held the motionless person on the ground: “He was just standing on the steps. I saw something behind him, but before I could see clearly, he tumbled down the stairs.”

The two players upstairs had also arrived at the corner, exchanging a glance before immediately associating it with the things in Zhou Zhou’s room.

The player on the ground had his eyes tightly shut, slowly becoming transparent amid his “companion’s” frantic calls until he disappeared.

Everyone present was clearly aware that this player had been eliminated.

Soon, Zhou Zhou and the others also came out of the room. Zhou Zhou was wearing a paper hat folded into a square shape, specially made for him by Lan Ya. There were so many “cobwebs” in the room that it was easy for hair to get caught while cleaning, especially Zhou Zhou’s slightly curly hair which was more difficult to tidy up. So Lan Ya had specifically folded a paper hat for him.

Of course, Lan Ya had also asked Alvia when folding it, but unlike Zhou Zhou’s eager anticipation, Alvia firmly declined.

The player had disappeared, leaving no trace on the ground. Even if they wanted to investigate or look for clues, there was nowhere to start.

And only that one player had witnessed the scene at the time, so everyone could only learn about what happened from him.

The player described what he had seen, but the incident happened too quickly, and he didn’t get a clear look at what the creature was.

Zhou Zhou, wearing the white paper hat, looked at the player who was recounting the incident to the others.

He tilted his head, suddenly recalling something the amorphous creature had said last night, that it would take on the appearance of others, and use the players’ identities during the day to eliminate the rest.

He hadn’t told the others about this yet, because there weren’t many people left. If he told them, the remaining players might start suspecting each other. But now that a player had indeed been eliminated, it seemed necessary to take some measures.

Zhou Zhou looked at Alvia and blinked hard at him.

Alvia: ?

He raised his eyebrows, realizing that Zhou Zhou had something to tell him, but wanted to do so without the others knowing. He nodded to Zhou Zhou, indicating that he understood.

Only then did Zhou Zhou look away, satisfied.

Lan Ya noticed their little interaction, but although she didn’t know what they were conveying, she didn’t say anything. They were a team of three, but the relationship between those two was clearly out of the ordinary. She had known that long ago, so she pretended not to have seen anything.

This incident made the remaining few players very uneasy. In the end, they formed two teams, with Zhou Zhou’s trio as one team and the other three players as another team, cleaning separately in the rooms and hallways.

Actually, the other two players wanted everyone to move together since there were so few people left. But their suggestion was rejected by Alvia and Zhou Zhou, who reasoned that the old butler would think they were slacking off if he saw them together.

In the room, Alvia looked at Lan Ya, considering how to get her to leave, since Zhou Zhou wanted to talk to him alone, and her presence was a bit of a hindrance.

However, Zhou Zhou wasn’t aware of this. In his view, Lan Ya was also their companion. His gesturing to Alvia earlier was just to tell him about last night’s events first, out of habit. It didn’t matter whether Lan Ya was there or not.

“Last night, that gauze said some other things that I didn’t tell the others.”

Zhou Zhou told the two of them what the creature had said the previous night. He now suspected that the person he had seen pushing the player down the stairs earlier was likely an imposter, the creature using that player’s identity to eliminate others. But he had no evidence.

“No evidence, then we’ll give him a chance to create some evidence.”

Alvia looked at Lan Ya and said slowly.

Lan Ya: ???

Why was he looking at her? She felt uneasy.