Chapter 87: Night Castle 2
Before the players could digest this, the old man continued, "There are fifteen empty rooms, one for each of you."
Immediately, a player asked, "Can a few people stay in one room?"
The old man didn't turn around, "If you're not satisfied with the guest rooms here, you can find another place to stay outside the castle."
The player immediately fell silent, it seemed they had to stay one person per room.
The old man opened the nearest room on the second floor, and the players immediately peeked inside, afraid that some strange thing might pop out.
The room was very clean and tidy, looking quite modern, with all the necessary household items. There were no windows, so it was a bit dim.
The square small windows they saw outside were on the fourth floor and the few pointed towers at the top of the castle, which the old man had strictly forbidden the players from entering.
There were eight empty rooms on the second floor and seven on the third floor. After discussion, the ten-person squad split into two groups, with five staying on the second floor and five on the third floor. Zhou Zhou and his group were on the second floor, and the other two players were on the third floor.
After the other players chose their rooms and went inside, the old man kept staring at them until someone went in and closed the door before he would move on to the next room.
The players had originally wanted to explore the castle further for clues, but the old man's attitude was so resolute that if they didn't want to stay in the guest rooms, they would have to leave the castle. The players could only slink into their rooms.
Zhou Zhou and his group were in the three rooms at the far corner of the second floor. When the old man started staring at them again, Zhou Zhou, standing at the door, suddenly asked, "Isn't it always night here? So when is tomorrow morning?"
Since the Dark Forest only had night and no day, when the old man said he would call them in the morning, what time would that be? Was there a morning here?
The remaining players only then realized this and all looked at the old man.
"I will come and call you all in three hours. Please rest well during this time and do not leave your rooms," the old man warned with a tone of warning, leaning on his cane.
The remaining players all nodded in agreement. They didn't want to risk being kicked out and unable to complete the mission.
Zhou Zhou went into his room first, while Lan Ya and Alvia went into the other two rooms.
The sound of the cane and footsteps gradually faded away as the remaining seven players followed the old man to the third floor.
Standing in the room, Zhou Zhou examined the surroundings. The bedding didn't have a single wrinkle, and there was no dust on the table. The room even had a faint fragrance, feeling very comfortable overall.
Unable to send messages to his teammates or leave the room in this instance, and after pacing around not knowing what to do, Zhou Zhou's gaze fell on the soft large bed, staring at it for a while.
A few minutes later, Zhou Zhou lay on the bed, covered himself with the blanket, and closed his eyes. He would sleep for three hours and wake up when the old man called.
He lived a very regular life in the Dating Academy game, sleeping when it was dark and waking up when it was light.
In Nightmare City, Beginner Village, and instances, the flow of time was different, and Zhou Zhou always felt like his biological clock had been disrupted. Sometimes he couldn't rest for several days in an instance, so whenever he had a chance to sleep, he had to seize it.
As Zhou Zhou fell into a dream on one side, Alvia entered his room and carefully searched every corner, since there might be some valuable clues in the room.
In the room at the far corner, Lan Ya felt a bit uncomfortable being alone in the room, as she was timid. When doing instances, she was always inseparable from Yue Ling. Today, she happened to see Zhou Zhou's invitation message and accepted it without much thought.
After all, everyone saw Zhou Zhou's performance in the Deep Sea Creature instance. Following him not only meant no worries, but also increased the chances of clearing the instance.
However, now she was regretting it a little, not because of Zhou Zhou and his group, but because she was afraid of holding them back. Her courage was really small, and she would scream in fright at anything that suddenly appeared. If it weren't for the need to increase her spiritual power, she would never dare to play this kind of game. In the previous instances, except for Deep Sea Creature, where nothing too scary appeared, the other instances were each more frightening than the last, and her performance in them was also poor.
She just hoped that nothing strange would appear this time.
Lan Ya sat on the bed, sighing worriedly as she quietly waited for the three hours to pass.
The players on the second floor didn't hear any movement or even the sound of a cane, as if the old man had disappeared.
Suddenly, one of the rooms on the second floor was quietly opened a crack, and a head peeked out, looking left and right.
The dimly lit hallway was silent and still.
The player tiptoed out, gently opened the neighboring room's door, and slipped inside.
None of the rooms were locked, so it was easy to enter and exit. After going in, he gently closed the door, making almost no sound throughout the process.
"What are you doing!?" The player who saw his companion sneak in was very surprised.
"Shh, keep your voice down. It won't be good if the NPC finds out," Player 1 whispered.
Player 2 was speechless, watching his companion crouch by the door and listen for sounds outside. "But that NPC said not to move around freely."
Player 1, seeing no one had discovered him outside, turned around and sat nonchalantly on a chair, "He said not to make noise and not to disturb the castle owner, but he didn't say we couldn't visit the neighboring rooms."
These two had entered their rooms before Zhou Zhou, so they didn't hear Zhou Zhou's conversation with the old man and were unaware that the old man's final warning was not to leave their rooms.
Player 2 thought about it and sat down on the other side.
"Do you really think the clearance mission this time is just to stay here for three days?" Player 2 asked.
Player 1 picked up a teacup from the table, snorting with laughter, "You know the nature of instances. How could they let us clear it so easily? In my opinion, it definitely won't be that simple."
"What do you mean?" Player 2 asked curiously, sensing that his companion had made some discovery.
"Take another good look at the mission details and see what it actually says."
Player 2 reopened his mission panel and carefully examined the mission content: "Stay as a guest at the castle for three days." He pondered these words carefully before suddenly having a realization.
"You mean… as a guest?"
Player 1 put down the teacup he had been toying with and analyzed, "Yes, look at it, it says 'stay as a guest.' What does it mean to be a guest? Either you're invited by the host or you visit on your own initiative. Which one are we?"
Player 2 recalled the old man's words when they entered the castle and hesitated, "Neither, I guess."
When they entered the castle, the old man treated them as travelers and only let them in to take shelter from the rain. They were supposed to leave early the next morning, at most only being housed for one night, which could not be considered "staying as a guest" by any means.
Player 1 sneered coldly, "Hmph, if we foolishly just stayed here for three days, the instance would probably only judge us as having failed."
"What should we do then?" Player 2 frowned.
Player 1 didn't speak, but meaningfully pointed his finger upward.
"You mean…" Player 2 seemed to understand his meaning, but then frowned again, "Should we call the other players to join us?"
"Too many people will be noticed. Just the two of us should go. Besides, the players who came together are all restless. No telling when they might cause trouble. You're one of the more steady ones, so I purposely got the neighboring room to find you. Furthermore, we both have items, so even if something happens, we can deal with it using the items."
Player 2 hesitated for a moment, "Okay, let's go."
It seemed the rain outside had stopped. The entire ancient castle was eerily quiet, with the wall lamps in the hallway casting flickering orange circles of light.
Suddenly, two black shadows appeared on the dim hallway walls, slowly expanding into human shapes.
The two players hunched over, sneaking upstairs from the second floor.
The structures of the second, third, and fourth floors were almost identical, with the hallways, number of rooms, and even the positions of the wall lamps looking nearly the same. At a glance, they almost thought they were still on the second floor.
However, continuing upwards from the fourth floor, the staircase became narrower, changing from a width of four people walking side by side to only two people.
The two players continued climbing to the fifth floor, being careful not to make any noise.
Turning the corner of the staircase, they found a heavy antiqued metal door at the end, which must be the residence of the castle owner. The two players exchanged a glance and slowly pushed open the door…
On the second floor, Alvia discovered a strange passage in his room, though "passage" wasn't quite accurate, it was more like a hole. At the base of the bed, there was a head-sized hole in the wall. A normal person shouldn't be able to pass through this hole into the room, so what was this hole for?
Moreover, the opening didn't lead to the neighboring room, so where did it originate? Did every room have one, or only some of them?
These questions might not be answered until tomorrow. Alvia sat on a chair, his eyes fixed on the area under the bed, which people generally wouldn't notice since it was mostly obscured by the bed. Putting up the players as guests might have other purposes.
Alvia pondered many questions in his mind, though most of them currently had no answers.
As for Lan Ya, she was pacing around the room, trying her best to encourage herself. No matter what she saw in the instance later, she had to remain calm and not hold her teammates back due to excessive fear.
Lan Ya, you can do it!
Meanwhile, Zhou Zhou: Zzz
"Aaah, a ghost!"
A shrill scream tore through the castle's tranquility, followed by the dull thud of something rolling down the stairs.
It sounded… like a person.
The players on the second and third floors all heard the noise. Driven by curiosity, a few of them quietly opened their doors to see what had happened outside.
Before they could see anything, they noticed the old man standing ghost-like at the foot of the stairs, staring at them. His loose skin looked like it was hanging from his face in the lamplight, and his complexion was ghastly, with a downturned mouth as he coldly eyed the peeking players.
Players: "…"
They silently closed their doors.
Some players had already recognized the voice as belonging to their teammate, but there was no use worrying. They couldn't leave their rooms until the designated time, and the old man was still guarding outside.
Lan Ya, who had been encouraging herself, was startled by the scream and almost cried out herself. In the end, she managed to hold it in, covering her mouth and suffering through the wait.
Zhou Zhou was also awakened by the noise. He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling for a while. Hearing no further sounds, he closed his eyes again.
For most players, these three hours were agonizing. They didn't know what had happened outside or how their teammates were doing. Furthermore, they couldn't do anything in the rooms. Unlike some carefree players who could still sleep, they anxiously paced around their rooms.
Finally, the sound of the cane echoed on the second floor again. The old man lightly knocked three times on each door before moving to the next.
Players who could barely hold back any longer were already standing by the door when they heard the cane. As soon as they heard the knocks, they immediately came out.
After exiting, many players' first glance was toward the staircase, though it was too dim to see if anything had happened.
Zhou Zhou had woken up right at the three-hour mark. After making the bed look pristine without a single wrinkle, he nodded in satisfaction and came out of the room.
As soon as he stepped out, he greeted the old man, "Good morning!"
Having slept well, Zhou Zhou was in high spirits.
The old man still had the same icy demeanor and didn't respond, continuing to knock on the next door instead.
Lan Ya finally heard the knocking and came out. The first thing she saw was Zhou Zhou standing behind the old man, smiling and waving at her. She almost cried, being alone in a place like this was really hard to endure.
After all the players on the second floor had come out, the old man shakily made his way to the third floor with his cane to call the others.
In the end, there were only thirteen players gathered. The two who had been staying on the second floor were missing.
Everyone understood that the previous noise must have been related to the two missing players, but there were no traces left on the stairs. They couldn't determine what had happened.
Moreover, the previous scream had mentioned seeing a ghost? What did they see? A phantom?
Everyone had many doubts and speculations, whispering amongst the familiar players, but no one asked the eyewitnesses.
Zhou Zhou was the first to ask the old man, "Old Sir, what happened last night? And where did those two players go?"
The other players immediately perked up their ears to carefully listen to the old man's response.
"They didn't like it here, so they left last night," the old man calmly replied as he walked with his cane.
Lies! They had clearly heard that something happened!
Zhou Zhou blinked, wanting to ask more, but the old man had stopped walking.
After coming out of their rooms, they had been following the old man's footsteps, but he had now brought them to the entrance on the first floor. When the old man stopped, the players also stopped.
"The rain has stopped outside. You travelers should continue on your way. Perhaps we'll meet again someday." After saying this expressionlessly, the old man opened the stone door.
A chill breeze rushed in. Outside the stone door was still pitch black, though the storm had dissipated, leaving an eerie silence.
The players looked outside and silently took a step back.
No way, they wouldn't leave even if they were killed.
One player asked, "Can't we stay here for the full three days before leaving?"
The old man acted as if he hadn't heard and simply repeated for the players to leave.
The players dug in their heels, refusing to leave no matter how many times the old man told them to, stubbornly refusing to budge.
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