Afterlife Dream

I squinted at the two figures that were huddling together while persistently moving forward against the fierce blizzard.

"It's an adult with a little child," I remarked.

The adult was wearing a thick straw cape and a straw hut. Going outside in such weather was already a challenge in itself, but the person actually dragged a small child with him. Or her.

"NPCs, right?"

"Should be."

"Why don't we help?" Aurendiria suggested.

"Huh?"

"Wait, I don't think that..." Alcyone extended her hand to stop Aurendiria, but the latter already marched toward the two NPCs and offered to help.

"Grandma, why are you out here in the blizzard? Can I help y..."

Aurendiria stopped talking all of a sudden. Sensing that something was amiss, I rushed to her aid.

"Auren, what is..."

My eyes were drawn to the pair of grandmother and small child. Only after coming closer did I understand why Aurendiria suddenly stopped speaking.

Both the grandmother and the small boy sported a pair of red glowing eyes. There was fright in their eyes as they stared at us.

"You are a human being," the grandmother spoke with a trembling voice. "Please don't bother us, we are not doing anything to the village."

"Grandmother, you are mistaken. We are just trying to help," Aurendiria quickly said.

"No," the grandmother stammered. "Please go away, don't bother me and my grandson."

Just then, a riotous noise was heard coming from behind us. The grandmother widened her eyes in fear.

"Oh, no," she said. She pulled at her grandson's hand and walked away as fast as she could.

A group of men with hunter dogs came behind us. Judging from their clothes, they were common villagers. Each of them was holding at least one sharp weapon, be it an axe, a sickle, or a knife. It was clear that they did not come in peace.

"Get them!" one of them shouted when he caught sight of the two figures in the snow. The others answered with a battle cry.

Ninja and PrecisionShot stood with their backs facing us. "Go," Ninja urged me and Aurendiria. "We will take care of these brutish villagers."

The remaining four of us thus made our escape with the grandmother and the little grandson. The wind was blowing fiercely against our faces. We had to put our hands against our eyes to prevent the snow from coming in.

A sudden gust of wind blew at the little boy and sent his straw hat flying off his head.

"Ah...!!!" he shouted, trying desperately to reach the hat but it was already blown away out of his reach.

I looked down at the little boy and discovered two pointy, fluffy ears peeking out of the bed of silver hair.

I could not help but gape.

The boy wanted to cover his ears up but there was nothing to cover them with. Eventually, Aurendiria, Alcyone, and Kratos also got to see his ears.

"You guys are..."

The grandmother glared at us. She pushed us all away with one shove, and then her body started to change. The skin was pulled taut, the bones rearranged themselves, and the human form was replaced by a beast form. Within an instant, she transformed into a snow-white wolf in front of our eyes.

"Dear Adventurers, the Snow Wolf has entered the scene. Please help the Snow Wolf and her grandson to escape from the villagers to clear the scene."

"..."

We were dumbfounded.

The Snow Wolf in front of us snapped angrily at us. How the hell were we supposed to help them to escape from the villagers?

Aurendiria cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Run, Grandma, RUN! Take your grandson with you!!!"

The Snow Wolf turned her head at Aurendiria. She looked rather astounded, but not for long. She grabbed her grandson by his collar and quickly dashed away into the blizzard.

The four of us went back to aid Ninja and PrecisionShot who were having a fiery argument with the villagers.

"I don't care what you youngsters say. That Snow Wolf must be killed today!" a buff man who looked like the leader of the group yelled angrily.

The others murmured their agreement.

"The snow wolves are bad news."

"They ruin the farm."

"They kill the cattle."

"And didn't they also kill the poor son-in-law of the Li family?"

"How fierce, how fierce..."

"Excuse me, what's going on?" Aurendiria asked nicely, but the leader was rather impatient.

"Little girl, please do not obstruct our job. That wicked old snow wolf and her little grandson have caused enough harm to our villages. We are here to kill them!"

"Please wait," Aurendiria said. "What if we bring them far far away that they will never come back?"

The villagers stared at Aurendiria in confusion. They were NPCs after all. It might be useless to negotiate with them. I pulled at Aurendiria's elbow to draw her attention, but then the leader growled, "Fine! Take them away from here, as far as possible!"

"..."

What the hell happened? Did Aurendiria just negotiate with the villagers? The men left just like that, and all five of us were baffled. We stood there with our mouths open until Aurendiria urged us to move.

"Come on, we need to find the two snow wolves!"

"Oh."

"Right."

We braved the snow blizzard and started looking for the two snow wolves. It was no good. We completely lost our track. The snow from the blizzard had effectively wiped out all the pawprints that could lead us to the snow wolves.

"What now?" PrecisionShot turned to ask Ninja.

Ninja shrugged. "Beats me. I don't know what to do."

Just then, we received another instruction from the game.

"Dear Adventurers, the Snow Wolf and her grandson have gone into hiding. Please find them as soon as possible."

After the instruction ended, a timer appeared on top of our heads.

Ten minutes.

"How are we going to find them in ten minutes???" Ninja roared and shook his fist at the sky.

"There is no use getting agitated at the game. Let's just find them as soon as possible," Aurendiria said.

We walked a few more steps ahead of us and the blizzard cleared up. In turn, we stood in front of a mountain with six caves at the bottom.

"..."

"..."

Six caves for six people.

"They must be hiding in one of the caves."

"Great, let's find them and kill them," Kratos said.

He moved into one of the caves, but Aurendiria held him back. "WAIT! Find them but don't kill them."

Kratos frowned at her. "Why? Are we not supposed to kill them?"

Aurendiria shook her head. "Pay attention to the game instructions. It never said to kill."

"Auren is right," I added. "The carnival told us to complete one game after another. It never said that we had to kill them."

The pairing of bosses with the tarot cards was completely misleading. We were used to killing the bosses so naturally, our first thought was to kill them again. But what if the game wanted something else?

Kratos, Alcyone, Ninja, and PrecisionShot thought about it for a while before they agreed with Aurendiria's words.

We then split up, each of us going into a cave.

I went into the farthest cave on the right side while Aurendiria took the cave next to mine.

We only had ten minutes so naturally there was no use to dawdle around. I quickened my pace to reach the end of the cave. And there I saw them. The Snow Wolf and her grandson.

The Snow Wolf was still in her wolf form. She growled at me fiercely, her pair of bright red eyes seemed to tear into my soul.

The wolf pounced at me with a roar. I jumped aside and raised my staff, preparing to attack, but then I remembered what Aurendiria said. "Find them but don't kill them."

It was one thing to find them all docile and meek, it was another thing to be attacked by one of them and still insist on not killing them!

To make things worse, the game came with another instruction. "Dear Adventurers, congratulations on finding the Snow Wolf. Please persuade the Snow Wolf to retreat from the villages and find a new place to live in."

What the hell? Persuade how?

The Snow Wolf snapped at me wildly. She clearly did not hear the game's instructions.

I dodged as much as I could, but eventually I ran out of options. I thus bolted out of the cave. And the two snow wolves did not follow me at all.

I was still staring into the darkness of the cave where I had just come out from when the others also came out one by one. I could see the irritation in their eyes, probably the same one I had in mind.

"I found them," Alcyone said between pants.

"The grandmother attacked me."

"I couldn't do anything so I ran."

Pretty much what I had done. And then I noticed that Aurendiria had not come out.