They Are Very Hospitable (4)
Because of the anger, his lips, which were pressed tightly together, turned a brighter shade of red. His already round and soft eyes appeared even clearer. People who were attractive even looked charming when they were angry.
Fu Moyang watched with great interest, his hand still not lowered, leaning a little closer: “Eat.”
This time, his tone was a little softer, but his eyes still held the same amusement.
He had indeed killed many NPCs, even some of the guide NPCs that were independent of the instance. Because of that, those NPCs would behave differently when they saw him, toning down their usual intimidation. They maintained a delicate balance, acting out of a mutual understanding of ‘I won’t mess with you if you don’t mess with me.’ While they would still try to scare other players, they would keep their distance from him. But this was the first NPC he’d met who was this scared of him.
Was he really an NPC? Or could he be some lost little sheep who accidentally wandered in?
In a sense, he was right in his guess.
The man leaned in slightly, his height creating a natural sense of pressure. Chen Li, after trying to call the system with no result, finally started to calm down.
He couldn’t help but glance at the man’s hand holding the spoon. Even the black fabric couldn’t hide the muscle lines. It looked like he could kill him with just one hand. After a brief hesitation, he finally opened his mouth and ate the spoonful of food.
Even though he was still scared and angry, he didn’t speed up his chewing. He chewed slowly, as was his habit, swallowing only after chewing each bite about fifteen times.
This was the first time Fu Moyang had seen someone eat so obediently. Without a word, he grabbed the food box with one hand and started feeding him with the other hand.
Like a little rabbit being fed one blade of grass at a time, Chen Li chewed quietly, focused.
The meal ended in this somewhat bizarre atmosphere.
Chen Li patted his round stomach, rarely feeling so full. He warily watched the man’s every move. As Fu Moyang stood up and walked to the other side of the room, his bad premonition grew stronger.
As if he knew what he was thinking, Fu Moyang directly sat on the other bed and raised an eyebrow at him. “Good night, roommate.”
Seeing his eyes widen in disbelief again, he couldn’t help but show a mischievous grin.
It was just so fun to tease him.
. . . . .
When Chen Li woke up the next day, his first instinct was to glance at the bed beside him, only to find it empty, the blanket in a messy heap.
The night before, after he finished washing up, Fu Moyang had already gone to bed, and this morning, he had left without waking him.
It seemed that, aside from the strange feeding behavior, this person wasn’t all that bad.
As he neatly folded the blanket, Chen Li lost himself in thought.
Maybe he’s not someone who would unnecessarily harm NPCs.
[Ding-dong.]
A sudden sound rang in his head.
Chen Li: [System?]
System 001: [This lord, 001, is back!]
Chen Li: [Where did you disappear to last night?]
System 001 hesitated for a moment: […System maintenance.]
Chen Li didn’t doubt it and nodded.
His role in the story had mostly ended after escorting people to the village yesterday. The only thing left to do was to wait until the fifth day’s celebration, then check who was still alive in the village and send them away by bus.
So today felt especially relaxed.
System 001 couldn’t help but gloat: [Being an NPC is easy. You don’t have to fight for clues like the players.]
Chen Li opened the task panel: [But there’s still a fear level to increase.]
He opened the panel and saw that his fear level had increased from 20 to 30.
System 001’s tone suddenly became awkward: [Fear levels are determined by fear and death rates in the game instances. Typically, guide-type NPCs try to scare players early on to encourage task completion, but your increased fear level originated from when Fu Moyang bullied you yesterday.]
Chen Li thought for a moment, then suddenly realized why the system’s tone was so awkward.
System 001 continued, chattering away: [The more scared the player is, the higher the fear level generated. It’s the first time I’ve heard of fear levels increasing because an NPC was scared by someone. You’ve opened up a whole new world of possibilities.]
Chen Li suddenly caught the main point: [Wait, weren’t you supposed to be in maintenance? How do you know he bullied me?]
System 001: […]
It suddenly went silent, pretending not to respond.
Chen Li was shocked: [Are you ignoring me on purpose?]
System 001: [How could I? There’s a reason for everything. Oh, right, you need to go collect horror points. Horror points are like the players’ scores, they’re the currency for NPCs. If you want to survive, you need to work for the game.]
Chen Li’s attention was quickly diverted: [Even NPCs have performance quotas?]
System 001: [Of course! If a guide NPC can’t rack up high horror points, they’ll be demoted to a clue NPC and randomly dumped into some instance to work. Then, they’ll lose their memories, only retaining their character setting and basic thinking.]
Basically, becoming a true tool.
Chen Li didn’t want to end up like that, so despite still feeling a little scared, he pushed open the door and stepped outside.
The yard was empty; everyone was already awake, earlier than him.
They carried the heavy responsibility of finding clues to survive, and with the daytime death rate being lower, no one would sleep in until 9 AM on a precious morning.
Following the system’s guidance, he found Sister Huang and Baldy talking to the villagers.
Yiyi was standing beside them, clearly still unsure how to gather clues in her first instance. She awkwardly stood aside, biting her lip.
When Chen Li walked over, she instinctively straightened up, her face flushed a little.
Although she had been constantly reminded that guide NPCs were terrifying, she still couldn’t feel much wariness toward someone with Chen Li’s appearance.
To avoid interfering with the players, Chen Li stood at a distance where he could just hear their conversation but wasn’t too close.
System 001 expressed dissatisfaction in his mind: [Why do these humans seem so relaxed? Not a single one died on the first night?]
Death was the fastest way to increase the fear level.
Some guide NPCs, even if not bloodthirsty, still mislead the players for the sake of fear level.
Chen Li ignored the system’s comment and focused on listening to their conversation.
Baldy: “Our arrival must have caused you quite a bit of trouble.”
A seemingly honest-looking villager smiled: “Not at all! If anything, we should apologize for not being more hospitable. But don’t worry, you’ll get meat to eat when the celebration comes.”
The villager seemed very warm, fitting the name of a hospitable village.
Sister Huang casually asked about the details of the celebration.
Celebration?
Chen Li pondered for a moment. The mention of meat at the celebration had come up twice now. The first time was from Sana, who brought food yesterday.
What did it mean, and what kind of meat would they have at the celebration…?
Though the sun was shining brightly, a cold sweat broke out on Chen Li as his imagination ran wild.
When he snapped back to reality, he realized that Baldy and the others had already moved on to the next villager’s house.
The structures of these villagers’ houses all resembled ordinary houses. It seemed that the reason their homes were built in a row of rooms was to accommodate guests.
Why would a village so poor that they couldn’t afford meat be so eager to entertain guests?
In their eyes, were the guests really guests… or sources of meat?
His instincts told him that his suspicions were probably very close to the truth, but many details were still missing.
These details were crucial to ensuring they survived until the celebration ended.
System 001 reminded him: [Don’t forget, you’re an NPC. As long as you don’t do anything reckless, these villagers won’t harm you. The humans have nothing to do with you.]
The system said this in its cute, childlike voice, utterly indifferent to placing itself on a different moral level from humans. It was just a system, concerned only with maintaining the interests of its host and itself.
Chen Li lowered his head and walked silently. He soon found the others. Everyone, except for the red-haired guy and his new sidekick Jiao Ye, was seriously searching for clues.
The red-haired guy boasted loudly: “I’m telling you, I made it through my first instance just by going with the flow. Let those troublemakers do their thing. The more they stir things up, the faster they’ll die. Anyway, there’s a big shot in this game who will definitely find the important clues.”
Jiao Ye nodded quickly: “Yes, yes, you’re lucky, meeting such big shot in the game.”
The red-haired guy felt extremely flattered, as if he were the powerful big shot himself.
Chen Li didn’t want to get involved with such people. After walking for a while, he found a shady spot in the village to sit down and let his thoughts wander as he looked at the scenery.
In fact, this terrifying instance was almost identical to the real world. The scenery here was just as beautiful. As an art student, he couldn’t help but appreciate such colorful and scenic places, instinctively drawn to them.
System 001: [Do you want to paint?]
Chen Li shook his head: [This is not what I want to paint.]
System 001 paused, remembering the sudden shift in the host’s art style a few years ago. It couldn’t understand why someone who seemed so timid and scared of ghosts would be drawn to creating paintings with a horror atmosphere.
The conversation about painting ended there, and Chen Li couldn’t help but think of other things.
He thought about those silver-gray eyes, dangerous like a wolf.
He wondered where Fu Moyang had gone—he hadn’t seen him at all along the way.
System 001 interrupted his thoughts again: [Do you want to eat?]
[Yeah, thanks.]
Another food box appeared in his hands.
Chen Li opened it without thinking. Inside was a duck leg almost as big as his face, accompanied by vibrant green vegetables, all resting on a bed of rice soaked in a rich gravy.
System 001 was very proud: [It’s duck leg rice!]
Hmph, it was truly a dedicated and professional system.
Chen Li took a bite, and the juice from the duck leg filled his mouth.
“The meat smells so good…”
“The meat… it smells so delicious…”
Chen Li felt a little scared: [System, do you hear anything?]
System 001’s voice suddenly became serious: [Wait, there are villagers coming from your two o’clock and right side. Something doesn’t feel right.]
As soon as the words left its mouth, footsteps and voices grew louder.
System 001 immediately commanded: [Run!]
His mind went blank, and without thinking, Chen Li started running.
The villagers behind him, who were acting strangely, also sped up.
Compared to these villagers who worked the land every day, Chen Li, who usually never exercised, was no match. After running just a few steps, he was already out of breath.
Just as he was about to be caught, he let go, and the duck leg rice spilled to the ground.
The giant duck leg rolled twice on the ground, picking up dust.
The villagers shouted: “Meat! It’s meat!”
Their eyes turned green as they rushed to the ground, fighting and tearing each other apart for the duck leg, leaving their heads bloodied.
Chen Li’s calves were shaking: [Is this all they want?]
It seemed like they had become obsessed with meat and couldn’t resist the smell.
System 001: [Be careful, Sana’s expression is off.]
Chen Li noticed that among the villagers, Sana, the dark-skinned girl who had delivered food yesterday, stood at the back. Unlike the others, she didn’t fight for the meat on the ground. Instead, she strangely smiled at him: “You smell so good.”
That smile was unsettling, filled with a chilling aura.
System 001: [Run!]
Chen Li: [I… I can’t. I can’t run anymore.]
He had just relaxed, and now his legs were too weak to move.
Sana swiftly bypassed the struggling villagers and lunged at him, stopping just a meter away. Her eyes were dazed: “I like… “
Chen Li was too scared to hear clearly. After stumbling backward a couple of steps, he fell to the ground, and soon, his slender ankle was grabbed tightly.
Sana looked thin, but her strength was terrifying. She left red marks on his pale ankle, trying to drag him toward her.
“No… no…” Chen Li’s voice cracked with desperation.
Not far off, the villagers had torn apart the duck leg, chewing on the bones and swallowing everything.
Sana’s gaze toward him was far more terrifying than that of the other villagers. Her face twisted into a grotesque expression, too hideous to describe.
He was going to be torn apart… bitten… his throat was going to be ripped out…
“What’s all the noise?”
A lazy voice came from above, with a familiar magnetic tone.
Chen Li, with his eyes red like a rabbit cornered, froze when he heard the voice. He looked up and met the defiant eyes of Fu Moyang perched on a tree.
Author’s note:
Quick, save Li Bao! Comfort him!!
He couldn’t keep up his appearances for more than a day 😭 At least it was just Fu Moyang who saw him. I do hope he improves tho