NPC Code: Red Riding Hood

Match and I stood in front of the grey walls, in line with the peddlers wishing to enter the gate. Among those wanderers were the merchants, humans, intellectual creatures, and the legendary adventurers conversing with the guards. These masses even had horse-drawn carriages and tamed animals with them when setting foot inside the vast town.

Apart from the folks were the training field meant for the youngster knights. The recruits looked promising from afar, alongside the generals and mages commanding their regime.

I looked at the panels and noticed the grassy moss enveloping around it, making it seem like an ancient stone. Upon peering my eyes closer, holes became visible on the panels, creating a sense of insecurity inside of me.

Two knights, cladded with silver armour and blades as their weapon, guarded the ingress and interviewed all the individuals entering and leaving the city. These pair of guards held the fort and let through each passerby after inspecting them. Since the kingdom was the mainland among the four cities, the royalties increased their security, hence the added watchmen.

According to my system, the world had turned into chaos. Because of the monster hunt and announcements, the mainland limited the access of guests visiting the city. Inside those walls, the people could not effortlessly go outside, knowing that it would be difficult to return to their homeland. They refused to accept terrorists, criminals, and people from the borders of the world.

Two people in front moved inside, so we tailed behind. But before we could advance, the guards before us obstructed our path.

"Your identities, please." The soldier said as he raised his eyebrow and extended his arm. The soldiers felt accustomed to checking the statuses of the civilians.

"We are new here," I pleaded, concealing the worried look carved on my face.

I glanced beside me and clasped Match's hand. It was the only strength that I could have since arriving here in the kingdom.

My sweat continued dripping from my skin while thinking of another reply, lest the guards would toss us out. The man proved me correct as he retracted his hand to his pocket and averted his gaze.

"If you two do not have identification cards, we cannot permit you inside." He beckoned his hand and instructed another soldier to bring us outdoors by force if they needed to.

My sense of sight became blurry as I tried reasoning out with the armed bloke. "I am a villager in the Freiy Kingdom! We do not have any certificates to show you."

The two soldiers broaden their eyes after hearing my statement. As we opened our ears, distant murmuring noise reverberated coming from the crowd. Those groups who perceived our conversation kept their eyes locked on our direction and showed interest in listening for more trivial information.

"These two survived the catastrophe?"

"Poor children. Where do you think they will go?"

"These two young women have no future."

The mob grumbled to themselves, with their eyes still cinched onto mine. With the ears surrounding the walls, we sensed an uncomfortable atmosphere that wanted us to leave. Match and I knew that this was no place we could call home.

"Are you two villagers of the Freiy kingdom?" The knight mustered up his courage and asked me a question.

With a nod, I claimed. "Not the child, but for me."

I directed my hands to the girl beside me. Match looked at the man in the eye and shook her head.

"I came from the village without a name."

"It must be one of those villages," the guard thought to himself and added.

Little did I know that the news had already spread from every nation about the destroyed villages and kingdoms, with no known survivors.

His companion nudged the wheels before us and opened up a path. The walls diverged and revealed a narrow entrance enough for Match and me to enter inside. After hearing the wild blast, the soldiers bowed and gestured his hand, allowing us to enter inside.

"Please be careful with your life. We welcome every villager inside the Diamond City." The brave knight exclaimed.

We squeezed ourselves through the slim cavern, which was the only ingress available for the locale. Our bodies touched the quagmires stuck on the wall, but we had no other choice but to continue forward.

The royalties had another grand passageway compared to the likes of the villagers. There was a separate gate reserved for the prominent people hidden among the moss, behind the battalion of knights. I noticed the creeping vines concealing the place, blending in with the dull surroundings. Once the knights finished their exercises, they would let the panjandrum inside the castle.

"Are we there yet, Red?" Match asked while tugging the ends of my cloth. I can feel her fingers gripping tightly at each breath she took inside her lungs.

"We are almost there." Without batting an eye, I encouraged the little girl to tug along with me.

Our vision changed as we came into the beaming light radiating in our direction. The glimmer provided hope to the citizens roaming around, bringing their family to the streets or materials needed for their work.

The towering structures greeted our eyes, accompanied by the workers inside the marts. Dozens of blacksmiths welcomed our figures. They got up from their seats and waved their hands, hoping we could catch their attention.

Many of the vendors did the same thing. All of them gestured their hands, inviting us to purchase or window shop to their place with crossed fingers behind their backs. But upon seeing our sorry looks, these people averted their gaze and were on the lookout for other customers they can lure into their shops.

These people were merchants to the core, and I understood their desperate feeling.

We passed by the road filled with laughter and carefree faces. The people walking by had their carved mouths copied from each other, mimicking the same expression as the others. Their gleams never changed, regardless of what was happening around them. These individuals wore masks, with their faces smiling despite any events happening to them.

It almost felt like they were expressionless dolls, even with their bodies moving around the houses. The soldiers and the other creatures shared the exact look, making it eerier.

However, there was a group that had poles apart from facial features from the other townspeople.

These bunches were the adventurers appearing out of nowhere inside the town, using the teleportation crystal-the bluish scrolls or the shards, which was an ability that only they can use and possess. Upon their arrival, the villagers who perceived their figure never batted them an eye, instead marched forward without care.

Our tiny feet took us in the middle of the place and gawked at the gigantic obsidian obelisk. My system notified me about the location and explained we were in the heart of the famous plaza.

Match directed her gaze at the landmark, as if it was drawing her closer. Upon inspecting the monument, an azure screen popped up in front of me.

[The Diamond Obelisk caters for the quests, storylines, and events of the kingdom. It also distributes these missions to other villages, making it the flames of life for the adventurers!]

"What does it mean to distribute quests and events?" I asked, the automated voice inside my head yearning to receive an answer.

The mysterious voice replied. [Code has complete control over this world, Master Red. The eminence living in the citadel gives these instructions to the players that you call adventurers.]

A board popped in front of my sight and showed a task written inside. The designs used from the notification had inkling similarities to the announcement from the event in my village.

[But we limit these reports to players or adventurers, not to a non-player character like you] The monotonic voice appended.

"Why is there a floating box in front of you, Red?" Match pointed her forefinger at the hovering screen.

I blinked my eyes in succession since what I heard from the system defies not only me but also Match, the little girl; she is also an NPC.

The system knew what I was about to say, so it explained once again. [I am a system, yet I do not understand the phenomenon that has happened to the two of you.]

[Code is a game inside a holographic reality. Someone made the game with algorithms and scripted texts run by computers. Everyone you see here is all a product of the game developer. These people have designed everyone uniquely as the other, making various styles of characters, and you are one of them.]

Silence filled the talk as I discerned the last comment from my inner voices in my mind. However, there was truth behind the explanation, knowing that this world became different from my eyes.

All I knew about the planet I had been living on turned into a cruel yarn that cannot get entangled no matter how hard we tried changing the events. Like a change meant for entertainment, people deemed us as objects and not living beings.

Those dialogues that the neighbouring individuals spoke came not from them, but from a scriptwriter from the unknown. The places I knew were artificial lands created by the system of this world, not through natural means. All the lives I saw were not real, except for those players coming in and out of the game whenever they wanted to play!

A clunking sound rang through my ears. Upon gyrating behind, a screen materialised in front of me that came from the obelisk. The blue board flew like a box without wings, so I read it away.

[As an NPC, you may issue quests.]

[Do you wish to announce a quest for the players to help you?]