Chapter 187 Naught Vivian 01

Chapter 187 Naught Vivian 01

The restaurant was bustling with people.

Players and NPCs alike shared the same purpose, closely watching everyone passing by, yet no one noticed that three figures suddenly vanished from a corner of the restaurant.

Only the shrill laughter of a child lingered in the air.

"Giggle, giggle, giggle..."

...

"Congratulations to the player for triggering the legend: Naught Vivian!"

The intermittent mechanical system notification sounded in his ears.

Qin Fei felt himself lying face down on the floor.

The cold sensation beneath him seeped through, and the smell of dust and mildew filled his lungs.

A wave of oppressive pain surged through his limbs. Qin Fei tried to open his eyes but failed; his limbs were as limp as noodles, lying helplessly beside him.

"Attribute panel."

The young man spoke silently.

Even though he couldn't open his eyes, it didn't affect the appearance of the attribute panel.

A fluorescent screen appeared in the darkness, and under the "Current Scenario" section, a new text had emerged.

"Legend Name: Naught Vivian"

"Status: In Progress"

"Legend Description:

Naughty Vivian wandered around the restaurant, and when she realized, her mother had disappeared!

To soothe the angry Vivian, please take her storybook and perform a perfect fairy tale play according to its plot!"

"Legend Hint:

A once-in-a-century storm rages in the seaside kingdom, and several beautiful princesses knock on the palace gates in the rain;

A cruise ship capsizes in the vast ocean;

The noble Duke Bluebeard, along with his beautiful wife, boards a carriage racing through the rain, arriving at the royal ball three days later.

—Excerpt from Vivian's Storybook"

"Clearing Requirements: Survive and complete the storybook."

The heavy pressure on his body gradually dissipated, and Qin Fei moved his fingers.

His eyelashes fluttered, and finally, he could see where he was.

This was a dusty, semicircular small room with an exaggerated pointed roof and a stone fireplace, which was burning brightly.

The floor was made of polished stone slabs, and the room was cluttered with various cleaning supplies and piles of boxes of different sizes.

A storage room?

But who would install a fireplace in a storage room and keep it blazing so intensely.

Qin Fei's gaze swept over a pile of straw in the corner, covered with a thin, unappealing blanket, and he immediately understood.

This was a resting room.

One specifically for servants.

Qin Fei looked down and saw his outfit, causing a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Draped over him was a black-and-white maid's dress, already quite old, with a wide skirt covered in dust, and the once pristine collar now slightly yellowed from years of washing.

The player's expression turned subtle, and he opened the chat panel. Sure enough, the audience in the live stream was cheering enthusiastically.

"Wife!! This time, you really became a wife, hahaha!"

"I can only say—the system knows what we love to see~"

"Wife looks so pretty in a dress, mwah mwah mwah~"

"Pity about the hairstyle; if it were paired with long braids, it would be perfect."

...

The pain in his body persisted.

His head also throbbed.

Qin Fei forced a smile and closed the chat panel.

His head buzzed as if struck by something heavy. He raised his hand to touch the back of his head but found a crumpled paper in his hand instead.

Perhaps due to being unconscious for too long, his arm had gone numb, and he hadn't noticed holding anything.

Staggering to the side of the straw pile, he unfolded the paper in his hand.

"Dalia! Dalia!"

As soon as his gaze touched the paper, a harsh and unpleasant shout came from outside the door.

Qin Fei quickly stowed the slip of paper into his personal space.

The tightly closed wooden door was suddenly pushed open with a bang, and a tall figure barged into the room.

"Dalia!"

The newcomer wore the same maid's outfit as Qin Fei. She waved a thick mop handle and walked towards Qin Fei, "It's raining heavily outside. What are you still doing here? Hurry up and go get the clothes!"

Qin Fei remained silent, his eyes lowered.

Beside the haystack, the slender and petite short-haired maid kept her head down, her bangs and eyelashes concealing all expressions and emotions.

The dim yellow light flickered on and off, casting a shadow over him.

"Dalia, why aren't you answering me!" The NPC approached step by step.

Qin Fei did not respond, remaining motionless, as if he had fallen asleep sitting there.

The NPC stood in front of Qin Fei.

She towered over him like a mountain, blocking out the light. Looking at the overly delicate face before her, a twisted expression flashed across her face. With hands like hammers, she raised the mop handle high—

Bang!!

The sound of something heavy hitting the ground echoed loudly, almost shaking the floor.

But it wasn't the sound of the mop handle striking Qin Fei's head.

The NPC looked at the short dagger embedded in her chest, her eyes filled with disbelief, but she could no longer speak.

Her lips trembled, and blood gushed out from her chest and mouth.

A moment later, the NPC lying on the ground tilted her head to one side, completely losing her breath.

"???????"

A series of question marks scrolled across the screen.

The spirits watching in the live stream were stunned by Qin Fei's sudden action.

"Holy crap, what's going on? Why did the streamer suddenly kill the NPC???"

Although this NPC did seem to have some ulterior motives.

But!

Killing someone outright—wasn't that a bit too extreme?

Qin Fei had just killed someone, yet his mood seemed unaffected. There was even a casual smile on his lips.

The young man slowly walked to the dead NPC, pulled out the dagger from her heart, and used the hem of her dress to wipe it clean of blood.

Then he lifted his face.

That beautiful, delicate face, like the petals of a blooming rose, carried an innocent sigh.

"I didn't want to be so violent."

The young man, dressed in a neat maid's dress, frowned slightly.

"But..."

He held a piece of paper between two fingers and raised it in front of him.

It was the crumpled paper ball from his palm, covered with densely written rules.

And the first rule stated:

"There can only be one maid in the castle."

"The Pea Kingdom Castle Daily Rules," Qin Fei read aloud.

1. There can only be one maid in the castle.

"Please remember this! Encounters between multiple maids will lead to very bad things happening. Please be aware!"

2. The castle is hospitable. The castle welcomes all guests.

3. The castle does not welcome false nobles.

4. No guests will visit during rain.

5. Pea porridge must be served every Monday and Friday in the castle.

6. Keep the castle floors clean, especially in front of guests.

Peas.

The rules mentioned peas several times.

The fairy tale related to peas that Qin Fei could think of was "The Princess and the Pea."

But so far, the development of this strange tale did not align with the traditional story of the princess and the pea.

This was not surprising.

The rules mentioned that players needed to complete the content of the fairy tale book to pass. If the strange tale followed the widely known version exactly, it would be too easy for the players.

The maid NPC rushed into the room just as Qin Fei was reading the first rule on the paper. He had indeed harbored doubts about the authenticity of these rules.

But the pain in his head was undeniable, and the mop handle in the approaching NPC's hand seemed to have a trace of blood on it.

In inconspicuous places—on the hem of the NPC's skirt, under her fingernails, and at the corners of her shoe soles—there was blood.

Qin Fei couldn't help but be cautious.

From the moment the NPC fell to the ground until now, only two minutes had passed, yet the corpse on the floor had mysteriously vanished without anyone noticing.

Neither the audience on the other side of the light curtain nor Qin Fei in the room had noticed how the body disappeared.

The body was gone, but the large pool of blood it left behind remained.

Qin Fei thought of the sixth rule. Although he didn't know where the guest was yet, he still found a mop and a cloth from the pile of tools nearby and began to clean the stains on the floor earnestly.

As Qin Fei was wiping the floor, he secretly released the ghost infant. The ghost infant shook its head happily upon touching the air and sped towards the outside of the storage room.

Unlike the situation in the Underground Research Institute, where it could barely move, the ghost infant moved freely within this haunted castle.

It quickly circled around the castle and then returned to the storage room, climbing back onto Qin Fei's shoulder.

The ghost infant brought Qin Fei a message.

This castle was not very large and, apart from Qin Fei, there was no one else inside.

Qin Fei pursed his lips.

He had already cleaned the floor and now held the dagger tightly in his hand, hiding it with his long sleeve, and slowly walked out.

In the traditional version of the story of the Princess and the Pea, this castle belonged to a prince of a small country who desperately wanted to marry a true princess, but none of the candidates he found were satisfactory.

Until one day, on a stormy night, a soaking wet girl knocked on the castle door.

...

The castle was dimly lit, so Qin Fei had to take out a spirit candle and light it, walking along the wall.

Just as the ghost infant had reported, this castle was surprisingly small for a castle.

Although it had tall spires, it consisted of only one floor.

One hall, a few bedrooms, plus the essential kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and storage room filled up all the space.

Qin Fei spent less than ten minutes touring the entire castle.

During the tour, he saw a pool of blood outside one of the guest bedrooms.

Fresh and not yet congealed, but there was no corpse.

Perhaps someone was injured and hiding.

But more likely, another maid was killed, and her body, like the one Qin Fei had disposed of, had been refreshed by the castle.

"Earlier in the storage room, beside the straw bed, I saw three sets of maid uniforms hanging on the wall."

They were different sizes. According to the logic that "one set is worn, and one set is washed and dried," there were probably three maids in the castle.

One was Qin Fei.

The other two were out of commission.

"The first rule has temporarily lost its threat," Qin Fei narrowed his eyes. "But that doesn't mean it's completely safe."

The background of this tale is a fairy tale world, where anything absurd can happen.

If corpses can be refreshed like in an online game, perhaps the dead can also resurrect like game characters.

Qin Fei must remain vigilant to prevent any counterattacks from NPCs.

Qin Fei wiped away the blood outside the guest bedroom and stood by the closed window, holding the candle and quietly looking outside.

During his initial inspection, he found no valuable clues in the castle.

No text, no suspicious objects, nothing.

There was only himself in the castle. How would the story continue?

Outside the window was a shapeless darkness, no trees, no roads.

Qin Fei tried pushing the window, but it wouldn't budge.

It wasn't just closed or locked; it was completely welded shut.

Unless he broke the glass and cut through the steel bars, the window couldn't be opened.

What kind of castle needs to be built like a military fortress?

The sound of rain filled his ears, and a lightning bolt split the sky, illuminating the night.

Boom!!

The thunder sounded like a cannon firing.

The thunder was so close that it made Qin Fei's eardrums throb, and the wind and rain seemed to penetrate the gaps in the castle walls, causing the candlelight in his hand to flicker.

Although there was no prince, a princess might still be worth waiting for.

In the original story, the true princess with her delicate skin, who could sense the presence of a pea beneath dozens of mattresses, arrived at the castle on such a stormy night.

Thinking about this, Qin Fei, having nothing better to do, headed to the guest room.

He pulled out mattress after mattress from the closet and stacked them on the bed like a game of Jenga.

After finishing this task, the player went to the kitchen. True to its reputation, the kitchen of Pea Castle was not well-stocked with other ingredients, but it had two large sacks full of peas.

Qin Fei picked out the roundest and prettiest pea and placed it at the very bottom of the mattresses in the guest room.

"..."

Qin Fei propped his chin up and sat on the floor by the bed, utterly bored.

Upon entering the eerie tale, even the Guild's chat screen turned gray.

Qin Fei had never encountered such an odd instance before. Apart from a single monster at the beginning, there was no danger or clues, leaving him with no choice but to wait.

Hours passed, long enough for the twilight to fade, when suddenly, a series of hoofbeats echoed outside the castle gates.

The player, nearly dozing off, abruptly lifted his head, his eyes gleaming as he rushed to the main door.

At the same time, rhythmic knocking sounded.

Qin Fei flung open the castle gates.

Standing there was a maiden in a peach-pink puffy dress. Although the rain had stopped, her hair and clothes were drenched, making her look quite disheveled.

However, this did not diminish her beauty.

She raised her gaze, her eyes filled with a shimmering light as she looked at Qin Fei, momentarily stunned upon seeing his appearance.

"..." She quickly composed herself. "Hello, I apologize for disturbing you at this late hour, but the rain was too heavy—

—there is water everywhere on the road. Could I stay here for the night?"

As she began speaking, a short-haired maid with stunning features standing by the warm lights of the castle entrance suddenly broke into a wide, overly enthusiastic smile, almost like a kidnapper.

"Please come in! Pea Castle welcomes guests anytime!"

Qin Fei's gaze casually swept over the NPC's head.

"Peach-Dressed Princess from the Neighboring Kingdom: Affinity 1%"

A princess!

An actual princess!

The plot character had finally appeared, and Qin Fei couldn't wait to carry the princess and throw her onto the guest room bed.

The peach-dressed princess stood dumbfounded at the door, startled by Qin Fei's sudden enthusiasm. She hesitated for a moment, about to speak.

"That's wonderful, sister, let's go in right now!"

A voice came from behind the peach-dressed NPC, and a girl identical to her but wearing a yellow dress emerged from behind the horse.

"Yellow-Dressed Princess from the Neighboring Kingdom: Affinity 1%"

Qin Fei: "?"

Two princesses?

"Yes, yes!"

Another voice chimed in.

"What are we waiting for!"

"Green-Dressed Princess from the Neighboring Kingdom: Affinity 1%"

Qin Fei: "..."

? ?