Cat 285: The NPC Younger Brother

Chapter 285: The NPC Younger Brother

Yan Jiyun hadn’t yet seen the end of the dungeon and couldn’t be certain if the zombie storyline would play out as the bullet comments in the livestream suggested.

If it were another player tackling the zombie stage, he might not care so much, but this was Qi Feng’s run—he watched every detail, closely.

After meeting the woman, there hadn’t been any scenes of Qi Feng and her holding hands. Once they’d rested and found some food to replenish their energy, they set off to regroup with their teammates.

At this point, Qi Feng and Su Qiuming were still friends. Each instance provided players with a means of contacting each other, and as they passed through an area, they’d leave marks behind; no matter if someone got left behind, finding the markers would point them toward the main group.

With masses of zombies out on the streets, a direct dash through was impossible.

They waited—waited for the city’s zombie-sweeping teams to clear the streets. In the process, the two of them hitched a ride to the terrifying city center.

Player tasks were always the toughest, and on top of that, Qi Feng had triggered a quest involving the woman; she was apparently a key NPC who must be helped to find her younger brother.

There was a small remote on the side for Yan Jiyun—action sequences could be fast-forwarded. Whenever Qi Feng interacted with the female NPC or any other NPC, Yan Jiyun would rewind, uncertain as to who had brought him here.

Thinking over his journey through the championship so far, the earlier stages had seemed normal—players cleared challenges, audience members joined in as NPCs, and sometimes the players interrogated them for answers. Even up to now, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But then, the turning point: he’d used a tool, encountered an NPC, and almost certainly increased his favorability with them—whenever the black cat appeared, NPC favorability rose.

Was Si Weiran a special NPC? Perhaps his use of the black cat had triggered some special mechanism and led him to this stage.

Thinking about it like this, it all made sense.

Could his true form (the black cat) be the key to it all?

Then again, perhaps he was overthinking things. To date, he was just an ordinary player, with no special skills, no extraordinary combat power, certainly no godlike ability to control the game’s fate.

Maybe he’d just been too “unlucky” and got sucked in here. Overturning his earlier theories, this explanation felt more believable than all his prior speculation.

Some of the pressure on Yan Jiyun’s chest finally eased.

Of course, there was another possibility—maybe his being pulled in here was simply part of this stage. Who could guarantee that the footage he was watching was even real?

At last, the image showed Qi Feng and the female NPC reaching the temporary city-center shelter after countless hardships; there, they found Su Qiuming, who looked far less battered and worn than Qi Feng did.

Su Qiuming offered Qi Feng food and drink—their bond still seemingly intact.

Qi Feng explained that the female NPC was a key part of the mission; she needed to find her brother. Su Qiuming and the rest of the team began searching the city center for the NPC’s brother. After half a day with no luck, a player completed a side quest and learned that a serum had been taken by an NPC—if the players could deliver the serum to the scientist at the research center, they could clear the dungeon.

So now, they needed to find the NPC who took the serum—and then find the research center’s scientist.

Qi Feng and Su Qiuming lived up to their reputation as a celebrated pair; their teamwork yielded results greater than the sum of their parts. They not only located the research center but also figured out the purpose of delivering the serum to the scientist: within twenty-four hours, the scientist had to be injected. If he died, there would be no one capable of continuing the research to cure the zombie infection, and he was only one step away from a breakthrough. Unfortunately, one of the scientist’s assistants had turned zombie and bitten him.

That, in essence, was the story: the challenge of the dungeon lay not in convoluted reasoning, not in finding a killer, but in the horrific environment. With zombies everywhere, players had to complete their objectives—one bite, and they died.

By the time the players were chasing the serum, it was already a late-stage quest: locate the NPC who stole it, deliver it to the scientist, and win.

In a piece of good news, Qi Feng managed to find the NPC’s younger brother during a night mission. The boy was hiding in the locked compartments for water meters on each floor of a mall.

The brother looked like a recent university graduate, skinny and dressed in a lab coat. Even with grime smeared on his face, it was clear he was more handsome than his sister, his eyes expressive—almost as if they could speak.

Yet the siblings looked nothing alike.

At this point Yan Jiyun’s brows knit even tighter.

Qi Feng now spent more time watching the NPC brother than the NPC sister.

The NPC brother was a researcher, and the lab coat was no disguise.

Qi Feng and Su Qiuming guessed that the brother might be the one who had taken the serum.

They decided to sound him out. The brother was wary of everyone, only willing to sit by his “sister,” and otherwise rarely spoke—a silent presence, carrying nothing that suggested he’d taken a serum.

It fell to Qi Feng to talk with him, since he’d been the one to save him—and the brother trusted him, at least to some degree.

At this stage, Qi Feng hadn’t been playing the game very long and still had unflagging spirit; he didn’t speak much as a rule, but he was perfectly capable of conversation when it mattered. With the NPC brother, he went from a few monosyllables to light-hearted exchanges within an hour. The best video game console.

The NPC brother confided that he and the sister weren’t blood relatives: they were step-siblings from a blended family. The sister had raised him from childhood, so their relationship was closer than biological siblings.

Qi Feng got along well with the brother, though the NPC still kept some reserve and never mentioned the serum. Wisely, Qi Feng didn’t bring it up either.

Dawn approached, and the group resting in the mall was interrupted by a massive zombie riot—someone had foolishly used an item that attracted zombies, surrounding the mall in a sea of monsters.

The zombies, drawn by the scent of humans within, kept storming the malls; Qi Feng and Su Qiuming discussed escape routes. The way upstairs was blocked, and they chose to slip out through the basement garage.

The dungeon’s climax followed.

Yan Jiyun shifted from lying down to sitting: an onslaught of zombies filled the screen—truly revolting.

Qi Feng’s dungeon journey was as grueling as his own—forever running, forever hiding. The constant pressure of such an environment, day after day, wore down even the sturdiest mind.

Now, in the video, Qi Feng was dragging the NPC brother along—not the sister. The brother was in poor health, gasping after just a few steps. Near collapse, Qi Feng nearly offered to carry him, until, just in time, they found a freight container by the mall’s shuttle bus stop.

Qi Feng and the others, along with the key NPC brother, hid inside.

As they waited for the zombies to disperse, Qi Feng and Su Qiuming reviewed the situation.

They’d found the siblings, but no serum. Without it, the mission was stalled.

The NPC brother, being close, overheard their talk.

Perhaps grateful for Qi Feng’s repeated rescues while fleeing zombies, after a long silence, the brother quietly told Qi Feng he could lead them to the serum. He was an intern in the lab and had a pass card.

Yet Qi Feng and Su Qiuming had heard the last vial was already taken. How did the brother know there was still another serum?

The brother didn’t reply, only asked if they trusted him. Qi Feng chose to believe him.

At this point, they had no choice but to trust the NPC brother.

Once the zombies thinned out, they ventured from hiding.

With the two siblings, Qi Feng and his team headed to the original zombie research center—not far from the mall.

The research facility had long since fallen. Qi Feng’s party dispatched yet more zombies before arriving, finally reaching the most secure area with the siblings.

The brother, trusting Qi Feng, led them into the cold storage room for medical supplies. In the least conspicuous corner, they found the serum, and a good cache of other medicines.

Before Qi Feng realized it, the brother had stashed several vials of blood and medication inside his own lab coat.

At this stage, the players didn’t care what he’d taken; all they wanted was the serum, and now they had it.

They simply needed to deliver it to the new research center doctor within two hours.

The old center was a ninety-minute drive from the new facility.

Time was scarce: just four hours until the doctor transformed into a zombie. They had to escape the city center immediately.

There’s always a way—Qi Feng and Su Qiuming found a few abandoned cars in the research center garage.

The group drove toward the new research facility.

Along the way, they inevitably encountered zombies; the road was rough and fraught. Just five kilometers from their destination, a high-level zombie appeared—a monster capable of rallying others into a formidable horde.

While battling the super-zombie, disaster struck: the NPC brother tumbled from the car!

Qi Feng had grown close to him—the brother had guided them to the serum. He figured, once the instance ended, it mattered little whether the boy became a zombie. If he did, Qi Feng would put him out of his misery.

Yet, the brother remained human, and Qi Feng wanted to save him.

But Su Qiuming disagreed, arguing that as an NPC, his brother was already doomed, likely bitten and infected—he’d imperil them all.

The two began to quarrel. The sister had just lost her life saving her brother, begging Qi Feng, in her last moments, to protect him. Now her brother was in jeopardy once more.

No one could have foreseen disaster striking at the finish line.

The NPC brother didn’t lie down and accept his fate either—after falling from the car, he scrambled for the nearest cover.

From Qi Feng and Su Qiuming’s vantage point, he seemed to be swallowed by zombies.

Qi Feng scowled and raised a concern: they’d never actually seen this so-called doctor—he didn’t want to hand the serum over.

Su Qiuming argued back: with the new research center just within reach, was it not too late for second thoughts?

And at that moment, Qi Feng’s arm was slashed by the super-zombie’s claw!

Su Qiuming and the other teammates were horrified.

Everyone knew: if a player is bitten by a zombie, they become one themselves.

There was only one vial of serum. The stakes: the mission, versus a teammate’s life.

The serum could save Qi Feng, but without it, the mission would fail and everyone would die.

At this crossroads, with only one serum, the team hesitated.

The serum was in Su Qiuming’s hand. As he wavered, someone knocked him out, and the exhausted Qi Feng was left behind.

At that moment, Qi Feng experienced a betrayal unlike any before. Staring at his bleeding wound, he ran toward where the NPC brother had gone.

For the first time, he felt his teammates were more loathsome than zombies.

As his head buzzed from the shock of betrayal and he was almost bitten by the next zombie, a hand pulled him into a filthy breakfast truck covered in greasy ads.

The NPC brother, worried about his wound, said, “You’re hurt.”

Qi Feng sighed, asking, “Do you have any last wishes? I’ll try to grant them before I turn.”

The brother’s beautiful eyes fixed on him, breaking into a soft laugh—a tone Qi Feng had never heard before, with a touch of enchantment.

Suddenly, the brother leaned in close to Qi Feng’s face. “Really? Anything? Did you want to save me just now?”

Dazzled by his bright eyes, Qi Feng said, “Yes. I wanted to save you.”

The brother said lightly, “But I’m just an insignificant NPC.”