What malicious intent could NPCs possibly have? C2.1

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Chp2. part1

“Randomly select one player to be executed.”

These words silenced everyone.

A balding, pot-bellied middle-aged man suddenly spoke up: “What do you mean, ‘dead or alive’? Are you kidding me? How are we supposed to get out of here? I have an important meeting later.”

“Who’s kidding you? Never been to a dungeon? You’ve at least read some infinite flow novels, right?”

Granny-grey hair scoffed.

“Didn’t I just tell you newbies? Death is real death. If you die here, you die outside. You’re going to lose your life anyway, and you call that an ‘important meeting’?”

The middle-aged man looked unconvinced, glancing disdainfully at Granny-grey hair, and remained silent.

Several people turned pale upon hearing Granny-grey hair words.

In the silence, a few low sobs were heard, it was a little boy of about ten years old in the corner.

Beside him was a young woman in a suit, who, perhaps feeling sorry for him, gently patted his back.

Ning Ge glanced around, sensing the heavy atmosphere. The unease and fear on these people’s faces seemed genuine, not feigned.

The man in the plaid shirt muttered under his breath, “The receptionist hasn’t come yet, how are we supposed to check in?”

Ning Ge silently retorted, “What do you mean the receptionist hasn’t come?” I’m the receptionist myself!

Pei Han had already come down the stairs. He walked over and started rummaging through the front desk. “I checked upstairs, all the rooms are locked, there’s no receptionist. We’ll probably have to find our own room keys.”

Then he looked up at everyone. “Aren’t you coming?”

Everyone snapped out of their daze and swarmed forward, crowding into the cramped front desk area, frantically searching everywhere.

The green-haired man seemed experienced. “Luckily, we were given ten minutes, which should be enough time.”

Pei Han glanced at him but didn’t speak.

Under the threat of a countdown, the group turned the front desk upside down. As the receptionist, Ning Ge watched everyone scrambling around, also trying to remember where she had put her room key, but she couldn’t recall.

Suddenly, a strange thought popped into her head.

It was a pure thought, without sound or words, yet like a subtitle, it was deeply imprinted in her mind:

[Brother must have put the room key away again.]

Consider it correct.

If someone had put the room key away, it must have been her brother—if such a brother truly existed.

The front desk wasn’t large. Afraid they might knock over the oden cups, Ning Ge held the cup in her hands and took a sip of soup.

The subtitle in Ning Ge’s mind continued to appear:

[Want me to help you find your room key? No problem.]

[But I’m a little hungry. When you’re hungry, your brain doesn’t work fast. I’ve finished the oden, so why don’t they run an errand and go downstairs to buy another one?] [Fifteen yuan a serving. Let them guess my five favourite dishes. I can only help if they buy the right ones!]

Ning Ge almost spat out the mouthful of hot soup in her mouth.

What kind of NPC speech is this?

The subtitles added: [Give them a little hint for every mistake, after all, I’m so kind.]

Kind-hearted Ning Ge: “…”

A surging, overwhelming urge to say those lines was ruthlessly suppressed by Ning Ge’s clear mind.

This was a distorted thought, not Ning Ge’s own, someone had inserted it.

Saying those lines was exactly like an NPC issuing a task.

Could she really be an NPC with lines to recite? Like that cashier downstairs who keeps repeating “Hello, that’s fifteen yuan” when she can’t collect payment?

Ning Ge glanced at the countdown timer on her bracelet.

Two minutes had passed, eight minutes left.

The convenience store’s oden pot was arranged in four rows and three columns, with twelve ingredients in total. If you were to guess blindly, randomly selecting five of those twelve would result in hundreds of possible combinations.

Although there were other clues, guessing correctly within eight minutes wouldn’t be easy.

Granny-grey hair man was a bit off earlier, the task time was limited, and someone could easily die.

This warm-up task was just a trap.

Ning Ge could, of course, deliberately go easy on them and directly order them to buy her five favourite items, but with only eight minutes, a round trip, waiting for the clerk to serve the oden, and paying, time was very tight.

Ning Ge sighed silently, looking down at the oden in her hand.

The paper cup was overflowing.

Radish, bamboo shoots, fish balls, scallop skewers, and rice cake dumplings were all crammed together, all her favourite flavours.

Because of a series of strange events that followed her purchase, the oden in the cup was barely touched, it hadn’t been eaten at all as the dialogue suggested, but rather, not a single piece was missing.

Ning Ge nudged Pei Han, who was rummaging through things next to her, and offered him the paper cup of oden.

“Could you hold this for me?”

Pei Han hesitated for a moment, but still took the cup.

Ning Ge put the bracelet on her wrist and took the cup back from him. “Thank you.”

The full cup of oden was handed from player Pei Han to Ning Ge.

This action, as expected, elicited a reaction from the subtitles in Ning Ge’s mind.

[Ah!!!]

Ning Ge jumped at the exclamation.

Subtitles: [Radish, bamboo shoots, fish balls, scallop skewers, and rice cake pouches—these are truly my five favourite foods, and not a single one is missing! They’re amazing!!] 

Ning Ge: “…”

Ning Ge: Even if I’m an NPC, can’t my dialogue style be a little less dramatic?

The subtitles in my head continued: [“I suddenly remembered, the room key must have been hidden on—up there.”]

Ning Ge looked up.

Ahead of the reception desk hung an old-fashioned bladed ceiling fan, looking like it hadn’t been turned in a hundred years, its blades covered in rust.

Ning Ge silently pulled over a chair, stepped onto it, intending to climb onto the table.

Everyone looked up at her, puzzled.

Ning Ge clutched her skirt, pointed to the ceiling fan, and explained, “I wanted to see if it was hidden there.”

Pei Han’s gaze swept over her skirt, which was prone to revealing too much. “I’ll do it.”

He lightly braced himself on the table with one hand and silently leapt onto it.

His black high-top boots landed on the old tabletop, and he reached out and touched the dusty blades of the ceiling fan.

He seemed to have touched something. He paused, glanced down at Ning Ge, and then removed the object from the fan blades.

It was indeed a small stack of room cards.

He handed the cards to Ning Ge, nimbly jumping down.

“Really hidden in the ceiling fan?” Granny-grey hair looked at Ning Ge in surprise. “You managed to find it in a place like this?”

Ning Ge counted out five room cards and placed them on the front desk.

This action seemed to have been done countless times, so practised and natural that Ning Ge felt an urge to casually say, “Please keep your room cards safe and have a pleasant stay.”

Everyone’s bracelets vibrated simultaneously:

[Congratulations! You have successfully checked in!]