The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1154: NPC

Third Hospital, ten minutes later.

Nine Frost locked the door of the patient ward. Chen Ying made sure there was no threat with Sensory while walking up to the window to draw the curtains.

One Stone gave a crash course on the awakener organization and the purpose of this visit. Young Sun and Old Tang sat on the lower bunk and listened. Only one of them understood the explanation, but both were calm.

Young Sun introduced himself simply, “I’m Sun Hu, twenty-five years old, awakened for seven years.”

“Seven years!” Hong Xiaoxiao blurted in surprise. “And you’ve been hiding here?”

Young Sun scratched his head. “Not in the beginning...” He trailed off, seemingly remembering an unpleasant memory. Instead of talking about it, he turned to One Stone and asked, “How did you discover us? Old Tang and I have been hiding well. No one had ever noticed us.”

One Stone chuckled. “During the Lunar New Year, the organization I belonged to then stayed at the Third Hospital for a while.”

“Oh, I remember,” Young Sun said. “There were suddenly many new staff, and then they all left not long after. I thought they were sent from another hospital for an exchange.”

“Those were us.” One Stone turned to Sun Hu. “I had nothing better to do outside of observing the patients. You and Old Tang stood out to me.”

“How so?” Sun Hu asked.

“You made an interesting couple—ahem.” One Stone quickly corrected herself. “You two seem too much like psychiatric patients.”

“Huh?” Sun Hu asked in confusion.

“You seem too much like the stereotypical psychiatric patients,” One Stone said, pleased with herself. “I observed the other patients, too, and they were normal outside of when their illnesses acted up. The two of you, however, were acting strange almost all the time, yet in a mild, harmless way. The precarious balance seems forced, and I noticed. It was only a fleeting hunch, though, and I quickly forgot about it.”

“Amazing,” Sun Hu said.

Chen Ying came up to them with a smile. “I’ve been looking for unaffiliated awakeners without success. When I talked to One Stone about it, she was reminded of you two. She took us here and bingo, we found you.”

After a moment of silence, Sun Hu made up his mind to come clean. “Old Tang and I didn’t plan to stay low like this. We only came up with the idea because we were too scared. Old Tang said that the most dangerous place was the safest. We came to the hospital to hide for a while. Then something went wrong, and here we are...”

“Take your time.” Nine Frost leaned against the door, his cool eyes fixed on him.

Sun Hu became even more nervous when he saw Nine Frost’s impassive expression. “My-my first Talent is Actor.”

“Actor, serial number 142, Support-type. It grants masterful acting skills, allowing you to assume any role perfectly.” Hong Xiaoxiao recited from the Talent list.

“Yes, I’ve been playing a mentally ill person.” Sun Hu glanced at Old Tang. “Old Tang’s first Talent is NPC.”

Hong Xiaoxiao rattled off, “NPC, serial number 110, Miracle-type. It turns one into an NPC.”

Sun Hu sighed and went into their past.

Seven years ago, Sun Hu and Old Tang were eighteen. Fresh out of high school, they went to swim in a river in the countryside with a few friends. When Old Tang drowned, Sun Hu went off to save Old Tang, only to suffer a cramp.

Just when they were both going to suffocate, they suddenly learned to swim and get onto the riverbank.

Their awakening had saved them.

Excited, they shared the fact with their friends. Three of them blacked out then, and one turned into a human-eating monster—a devourer.

They almost died, but an awakener passing by saved them.

The awakener was quite unlucky. He had taken his girlfriend to a ranch on a moped, but his girlfriend turned out to be a wrath monster. She transformed...then died at his boyfriend’s hands.

After killing his girlfriend, the awakener killed Sun Hu and Old Tang’s friend, saving them.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

“Then...we said goodbye to our past and went to his place, staying there as his distant relatives. We didn’t know his name. We just called him ‘cousin’.”

Sun Hu looked up. When no one interrupted him, he continued, “Cousin told us many things and taught us ways to survive, but he was mysterious. He spoke little of himself.”

“...He was a real playboy though. He changed girlfriends all the time and brought them home, all wanderers. Old Tang and I complained to him about it, but he said it was a necessary cover...” He looked up and licked his lips. “I’m digressing.”

“Keep going,” Nine Frost said.

“That was how things were for a while. One day, Cousin said he was going to take care of something, but never returned home that night. Old Tang and I were terrified. We followed his instructions and left his place, going into hiding. It turned out that he had died. His relatives arranged a funeral for him, saying he got into a car accident. That couldn’t be the truth. He must have gotten killed by another awakener...”

“Why not a monster?” Nine Frost asked.

Sun Hu answered after a pause, “Because Cousin was strong. No monster could hurt him. And he told us that he was in touch with a mysterious organization but hadn’t confirmed if they were trustworthy. Cousin must have gotten killed by them.”

“That’s why you were scared when you saw us,” Chen Ying realized. “You believed awakeners to be more dangerous than monsters.”

Sun Hu nodded. “Old Tang and I trusted no one after Cousin died.”

His expression turned pained. “I didn’t even want to remember those days. We went from one hiding place to another, always scared and almost got killed by monsters on several occasions. We were close to breaking down and even considered committing suicide together.”

He snorted suddenly. “One day, Old Tang and I went to a river and were going to jump in together. Then a man rushed over, yelling, ‘I wanna have sun, I wanna have sun’. He was soon whisked away. It turned out that he had run away from a psychiatric hospital...”

“That tickled both me and Old Tang, and suddenly, we didn’t feel like killing ourselves. We basked in the sun for a while. Then Old Tang suggested we go to the psychiatric hospital. It seemed like a good place to be.”

“So we did. Old Tang created an NPC identity as a psychiatric patient, while I played the role. It was easy for me since I had Actor.”

One Stone chimed in, “But something went wrong.”

Sun Hu nodded, glancing at Old Tang, “Old Tang...seems to have become a psychiatric patient for real.”

“What do you mean?”

Sun Hu turned around and rummaged inside a pillowcase for a worn wallet, taking a small photo out.

“See for yourself.”