NPC Code: Red Riding Hood

I forcefully opened my eyes after resting on this bed. There was nothing that could tell the time, since this room had no clock stuck on the wall. But I remembered that my system had an attached clock on one of its windows, which allowed players to tell the time.

Upon opening the screen, the system told me that the time yesterday still remained unchanged. I did not know why, but the time never moved at all. I tried inspecting for any errors in my system, but the magical ability did not have any.

Coincidentally, a knock came from the front door, which startled my thoughts. There was a voice that followed afterwards.

"Miss Red, are you awake? You have been sleeping for an entire day. King Stormfly is waiting for you downstairs. He said that you need to do something important, and expects you to be there in the throne room."

That voice came from the servants of this citadel. They made all the way towards this room to summon me back to the throne hall. 

"Coming! Thank you for reminding me, uh…"

"Please call us servants. We do not mind the treatment," the maids behind the front door interposed. 

"Okay…. Thank you, servants," I corrected.

After our exchange, the maids left my room and proceeded to do their tasks. I, who already wasted some time, stood up from the bed and went towards the door. 

But before I could exit the place, I opened my system once again and checked for my inventory. When I arrived in this place, I fell asleep on this foamy bed with the pessimistic thoughts still lingering inside my head. And when I did that, I did not have the time to check for the obelisks I obtained. 

Within a few seconds of fiddling around my sack, I finally found the three obelisk. And all of them remained untouched inside my bag. 

It was what Stormfly had mentioned. The obelisk inside Wonderland was still inside my inventory, together with the obelisk Stormfly had given me. Since I finally had three of them with me, it was time for me to take the fourth one.

"The Mainland….," I mumbled, and opened the creaky door.

I planned on heading towards the ruined kingdom of Mainland, since that was the place where the Diamond obelisk remained. Even though I did not have a map leading towards that Diamond obelisk, there may be something that I could get once I arrive at that place.

But I need to visit Stormfly first before taking a trip towards the Mainland.

With those thoughts in mind, I marched towards the empty hall and arrived at the throne room. The guards stationed at the front gate gave me a salute before making space for me to enter. After doing those movements, the door towards the throne room slid open, revealing Stormfly seated on his luxuriant chair. 

Beside Stormfly was a woman dressed with elegant clothing imbued with arcane surrounding her. Despite being a reptile, that female lizard had some charm that could attract their kin, but not me. 

And if I could assume the position of this woman, she might be the queen of this place. Stormfly's daughter, if I remembered it correctly, was a merchant inside a remote village. Since that girl was Stormfly's offspring, I would guess that she was in a safer place now, with all the deaths happening in Code.

I did not want to ask that question, considering my position. And I already helped Stormfly's daughter when I visited that village. 

"Please proceed towards the king, Miss Red."

The soldier standing on his post gestured his hands for me to walk forward. I heeded his instructions and trod to Stormfly. But right after a few moments, the guards signalled me to stop. Without giving it a second thought, my body froze, with my eyes staring at Stormfly.

"At ease, Red. You are in my comfort. And besides, these dragonewts would listen to you like they listen to me. They're great lizards like me!" Stormfly exclaimed. "And I want to ask if you're already healed from your surgery. The adventurers love to call in the game."

I shook my head and flashed Stormfly a smile. "The pain finally left my body, Stormfly. It's all thanks to the hospitality you gave me and your servants."

As Stormfly did his speech, those soldiers and nobles listening to him nodded their heads. They seconded his words as those lizards cheered for Stormfly. After hearing those words, those needles inside my heart excited my organ.

But I had to cut lose to this topic and directly asked Stormfly the question, "I already have the three obelisks with me, and I plan on going to Mainland soon. Is there anything I could do for you, since you accommodated me in this castle."

I wanted to be as direct and brief as possible when talking with the king. Nobody briefed me about anything inside this throne room. And the only reference I knew came from my mother who told me stories about the nobility.

After a few seconds, Stormfly gave me his answer, "You have already helped us, Red. By defeating Alice from her castle, you lent us a hand in our livelihood. And do not worry yourself about the hospitality we gave you. Red, you are my valuable customer, after all."

After our exchange, the soldier's guided me outside the citadel. Those words Stormfly spoke gave me the permission to leave this place and travel towards the Mainland. Unfortunately, the dragonewt kingdom couldn't provide me with their stables, since they needed those animals for their resources. 

Before I left, I also asked Stormfly about their current conditions. Since the dragonewts were all non-player characters in the game, those players would also hunt them down. If those players had already killed countless NPCs, they would conquer Code within months. 

Stormfly gave his answer and said, "Do not worry about those minor stuff, Red. I have a plan to stop them. And that plan includes you taking the obelisk from the humans. We also have a legend here that indicated that an NPC would free us all. And those obelisks would be the key to unlock the secret ending of this game."

I did not even know that there was a book written about that legend. But I assumed that volume was strictly concealed inside this place, and the king refused to share it with everyone. And since this merchant….Stormfly saved my life a few times, I did not want to meddle with their internal affairs.

As long as I could help Stormfly and his kingdom, I would do so. 

"Thank you again for helping me, Stormfly. I couldn't have done it without your help," I uttered, before leaving the place.

Stormfly replied, "Likewise, Red. Likewise."

As soon as we concluded our topic, I finally took my leave.

.........…

According to my system's map, the Mainland was just around the corner. It was a few miles away, but the road had a linear path for me to take. My system also told me that the terrain around here would turn pretty rough as soon as I passed by the dragonewt's borders.

The system's information was spot on when it explained those details to me. 

The dry land from the dragonewt's land turned white, with some powder coated on the ground. Those white and bluish particles covered the area and froze my ligaments. Every cell inside my body shivered like crazy as I continued on this uncharted land.

Those white stuff also rained upon me and melted when they got stuck too long on my skin. I could only deduce that these fragments came from snow, which was also something in the books my mother narrated to me. 

"Snow…..It's such a nice feeling...Match probably would've played around it. She would have curled up a ball and thrown it at me like the ones I read from the story books," I thought, while heading onwards through this lump of snow. 

I needed to exert more effort when travelling through this icy trail. It even demanded me to use both of my glowing eyes to increase my strength and stamina. Since I could use this for a long time, I did not have to worry about its duration.

However, since I was out in the open, I still needed to survey the area from bandits and players.

While that topic entered my head, the remnants of Okami entered inside my head. I did not care about Ryoshi, since he was the one who killed my sister...I did not care if he had died at all.

If Okami was here beside me, he would have already come up with a plan and a schedule that our team could follow. He was the leader of that party, since he had played this game world for a long time. 

But the situation became different, especially from what happened inside Wonderland's citadel.. I could only pray for their safety, since Stormfly said that those two were still alive.