What malicious intent could NPCs possibly have? C2.2

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Chp2. part2

The countdown stopped, the guillotine hanging over their heads was gone, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Ning Ge had posted the task herself, done it herself, and then acted as the front desk staff, distributing the room cards—complete the warm-up task without making a sound.

Someone whispered, “This bracelet is so affectionate, is it some kind of Taobao customer service representative who has come to life?”

The bracelet spoke enthusiastically, but there was a hint of malice and sarcasm in its tone, making you want to drag it out and beat it up.

A new task immediately followed:

There are only five rooms in total. Who will you be most fortunate to have a room with? Look forward to a romantic encounter!

Ning Ge scrolled down; there was more to come:

[Task: Assign rooms. Instructions: Two-minute time limit. Penalty for failure: One player will be randomly selected and eliminated.]

Below is a button icon labelled “Draw Room Number”.

Ning Ge paused for a moment: Regardless of what this bracelet is, is it really okay to execute players so easily? No wonder people say the death rate in dungeons is too high. If you keep playing like this, it would be strange if it wasn’t.

Everyone clicked the button to draw their room number.

The countdown ticked away, Ning Ge’s finger hovering over the button.

Everything was incredibly abnormal. The familiar surroundings felt strangely unsettling.

The small inn was empty, yet the door was unlocked, the room key was hidden in the ceiling fan blades, and lines reminiscent of quest NPCs inexplicably popped into her head.

Could this really not be a real world?

If not, then what was she?

Although Ning Ge was reluctant to admit it, reason told her that the dungeon thing seemed real.

If it were real, she would be doomed.

Once the death rate of these players exceeded fifty per cent in eight hours, this world would fail the test, and she would disappear along with it.

The bracelet’s owner was dead. Of the remaining nine people, at least five had to survive for this small inn, and for Ning Ge to continue existing.

Everyone else pressed the button to draw room numbers, but the bracelet remained silent. It mistakenly identified Ning Ge as a player and was still waiting for her.

Let’s get through this first.

Ning Ge also tapped.

The bracelet immediately vibrated: [Room assignment successfully completed! Your room number is: 203]

Since there were five double rooms, the ten people were automatically paired.

Pei Han glanced down at his bracelet, then at Ning Ge’s, his expression unchanged.

Ning Ge had also noticed that her “romantic encounter” was with Pei Han, his bracelet also showed room number 203.

The bracelet remained silent, seemingly giving them time to go upstairs.

Granny-grey hair suggested, “It’s fate that we’re going to do this dungeon together, so let’s all introduce ourselves first?”

“That’s right, it’ll be easier to cooperate if we get to know each other.” Everyone agreed, taking turns introducing themselves.

There were ten people in total, men, women, young and old. Among them were trembling newbies pulled into the dungeon for the first time, and experienced players like the granny-grey hair.

There were too many people, and Ning Ge couldn’t remember any of their names.

However, Ning Ge remembered the guy who was initially called Pei Han Alpha, because he stood out from the crowd and gave a flamboyant English name: Owen.

This Owen did indeed look like he was of mixed race, with beautiful features, slightly long, soft-brown hair curling at the ends of his neck, and a strangely tailored jacket hanging loosely on his shoulders, revealing a white T-shirt underneath.

He noticed Ning Ge looking at him and greeted her with a smile.

Ning Ge nodded slightly to him expressionlessly and looked away.

A young woman dressed like a sales clerk, with a brand logo on her chest, asked softly, “We’ve been brought to this place, how do we get out?”

“First time entering a dungeon?” Owen smiled warmly at her. “We need to find the anchor point of this dungeon. Once we find it, we can leave.”

Ning Ge thought, I think I saw the word ‘anchor point’ in the quest description just now, but I was too high of adrenaline at the time, and my attention was focused on the realism of this world, so she didn’t pay much attention.

The sales clerk also asked, “Anchor point? What’s an anchor point?”

“An anchor point could be an object, a person, a scene, a line of text, anything is possible, in short, it’s very difficult to find,” Owen explained. “Once you find it, just scan it with your bracelet.”

He reached out and flipped through the sales clerk’s bracelet, finding an interface labelled “Anchor Point Scan.”

Below was a camera lens symbol.

Owen clicked on the words “Anchor Point,” and an explanation immediately popped up:

[After successfully scanning the anchor point, you can leave the dungeon world.] Note: This instance has an eight-hour time limit, and you can only attempt to scan three times.

“Keep searching,” Owen said. “I hope you survive until you find the anchor point.”

He said this with a smile and a sincere tone, yet it sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

Everyone went upstairs together.

The upstairs corridor was carpeted in dark layers, the wallpaper patterns were layered, and there was a faint musty smell in the air, like a person hanging on by a thread, struggling to survive.

One side of the corridor was lined with rooms. Their five double rooms were arranged in a row, from 201 to 205, with Ning Ge’s room 203 in the middle.

As soon as everyone entered the corridor, their bracelets immediately vibrated.

[You must be exhausted from your journey. Please go to your rooms and rest.

Task: Rest.

Note: Every twenty minutes of rest, you can move around freely for ten minutes, and so on. Do not open the door during the rest period.]

Everyone looked at each other. Anyone with a brain knows that this forced twenty-minute “rest,” while sounding nice, is definitely not a good thing.

No one dared to move.

Only Pei Han, with two long, elegant fingers holding the key card, walked to the door of room 203 and deftly inserted it into the slot.

The lock beeped open, he inserted the card to get power, all in one smooth motion.

His movements were so swift that Ning Ge inexplicably thought of the phrase, “rushing to be reborn.”

The room was brightly lit.

Near the door was a small bathroom, and further in was the sleeping area. Besides a table, a chair, a double bed, and two bedside tables, it was nothing special, except for the slightly outdated decor.

“There are no windows in this room?” Granny-gray hair peeked inside.

Ning Ge knew this, of course. Not only this room, but all the rooms here had no windows.

Pei Han entered the room, and Ning Ge followed him. Seeing them lead the way, the others swiped their cards to enter.

The bracelet buzzed: [This is a reminder: For your personal safety and the safety of your belongings, please lock the door!]

The bracelet seemed fixated on the door, sending the same two messages twice.

Ning Ge casually closed the door. With a soft click of the latch, the twenty-minute “rest” countdown on the bracelet began.

With the door closed, only the two of them remained in the room.

Being locked up with a complete stranger, Ning Ge felt a little awkward. She silently scooped a string of bamboo shoots from a paper cup.

Pei Han, hands in his pockets, wandered around the room, occasionally picking up towels and soap to examine them, as if visiting a museum.

The soundproofing wasn’t great, they could hear doors closing and people talking next door.

Pei Han finished his tour and returned to the bedside.

His last focus was on the most conspicuous thing in the room, the one you could see as soon as you entered—

The decor above the bed was peculiar, a wooden picture frame stuck to the wall, with an old newspaper neatly pasted inside.

Pei Han walked to the wall and examined the newspaper.

The newspaper was only pasted to the four edges, the middle slightly raised. He gently pressed it down with his finger.

“There seems to be something under the newspaper.”

He suddenly spoke, startling Ning Ge.

Of course, there was something. Ning Ge took a bite of a bamboo shoot. Underneath the newspaper was a movie poster.

His brother liked horror movies, every room here had a classic horror-movie poster he treasured, pasted in a picture frame above the bed.

The images were all pretentious and grotesque.

It was a prank, the kind meant to scare people.

In her memory, the small inn wasn’t doing well—it would be strange if they did well with posters like this. Ning Ge insisted on tearing it down, but the poster was stuck on too firmly, it would tear easily. Her brother couldn’t bear to do it, so the compromise was to paste it back on.

Ning Ge herself pasted it on with a newspaper.

Whether this memory was real or not, Ning Ge had this scene in her mind.

Pei Han reached out to peel the newspaper off.

“No,” Ning Ge stopped him.

Pei Han turned around, his eyes clearly asking, “What’s wrong?”

Ning Ge finished eating the bamboo shoots and took out the small stick with the radish skewer. “I’m eating. What if what’s underneath affects my appetite?”

The poster wasn’t pretty, Ning Ge didn’t want to see it.

Ning Ge added, “At least wait until I finish eating. The bracelet tells us to rest, so let’s not do anything and just rest here, okay?”

Pei Han raised an eyebrow slightly and actually withdrew his hand, sitting down on the nearby bed.

The room wasn’t large, containing only the two of them and a huge bed that took up almost the entire space, creating an ambiguous atmosphere.

It wasn’t exactly ambiguous, though, because the aroma of oden filled the air.

Ning Ge sat down in the chair furthest from him, raising her paper cup across the bed.

“Want a skewer?” Her tone was completely insincere.

“Thanks, no, thank you.” Pei Han refused. He glanced at Ning Ge and suddenly asked, “Newbie?”

Ning Ge hummed in agreement.

No one else seemed to think she was a newbie, she wondered how he knew.

Neither of them spoke again.

Ning Ge focused on her oden, but instinctively felt a gaze fixed on her.

Ning Ge looked up abruptly and saw Pei Han slightly turn his head, examining the wall beside him as if it were adorned with flowers.

Ning Ge held a radish in her hand, eating while staring at him.

He had a handsome face, and his eyes were quite appealing.

After she finished the radish, she ate the skewer of fish balls.

Ning Ge’s eyes were dark and deep, most people would feel uneasy under her gaze.

Pei Han didn’t meet her eyes, but he didn’t seem intimidated either. He stubbornly stared at the empty wall for a while, finally unable to hold back, leaning against the headboard and closing his eyes.

Ning Ge then looked away.

Everything was quiet, nothing seemed amiss. Perhaps the “rest” the bracelet had mentioned truly meant everyone should rest.

Ning Ge finished her oden and had just put down her cup when she heard arguing coming from next door.

“Someone’s trying to tear up the newspaper,” Pei Han said softly, opening his eyes.

Ning Ge recognised the voices. It was the chubby middle-aged man and the cautious man in the plaid shirt in room 202. The middle-aged man insisted on seeing what was hidden under the newspaper, while the man in the plaid shirt was hesitant.

The argument next door lasted a while, then suddenly fell silent.

Not a minute of silence passed before a series of piercing screams erupted.

One scream after another, heart-wrenching.

Something serious had really happened.

Two people were locked up next door. Ning Ge needed to ensure a 50% survival rate, she could afford no more than 4 players to die.

The dungeon had only been open for less than an hour, she absolutely couldn’t let them die so easily.

Ning Ge quickly walked to the door and tentatively turned the doorknob.

The handle seemed welded shut, it wouldn’t turn.

“The twenty-minute countdown hasn’t ended yet, the door might not be open,” Pei Han’s leisurely voice came from behind her. “You want to go next door?”

Ning Ge turned around and nodded.

Pei Han didn’t move. He leaned back against the headboard, arms crossed, slightly raising his chin as he scrutinised her.

“People are dying next door. Do you really want to go and join the fun? I’ve run so many dungeons, and I’ve never seen a newbie make such a suicidal request.”

He spoke unhurriedly.

“Don’t even mention the door can’t be opened. Even if you could pry it open, opening the door like that, aren’t you afraid of being punished?”

The screams from next door grew louder and louder, like a murder scene.

The situation was urgent. Ning Ge didn’t have time for idle chatter. She went back, grabbed the chair she had just been sitting on, went to the wall separating the two rooms, and swung the chair, smashing it against the wall.

She actually managed to knock a hole in the wall.

Ning Ge knew very well that all the rooms here were partitioned at the back. The section of this wall near the wardrobe wasn’t brick, but a thin panel wall, which could be easily smashed open.

As Ning Ge raised the chair, ready to try again, someone took it away from behind.

It was Pei Han.

He didn’t say anything, took the chair, and in a few quick movements, he knocked a large hole in the wall.

He first peered into the next room, and Ning Ge immediately followed.

The bracelet only said “Doors must not be opened during rest periods,” it didn’t say “Doors must not pass through walls during rest periods.”