At this point, I was back at work with renewed energy. The moment I started moving, my whole body ached, and I knew I couldn't get through the day without some good food. Otherwise, the few bucks I made each day wouldn't even cover my medical bills. But just thinking about clocking out, relaxing in my warm little apartment, eating takeout, and watching anime filled me with happiness.
Hurry up and clean up! As soon as I'm done, I'm heading out to work. I have to be the first to check in—no one is getting in my way.
At exactly 8 o'clock, all the dungeons opened up—playgrounds, quests, characters, and NPCs all refreshed. I had just finished stitching up my wound in the Quack Doctor's clinic, hadn't even had time to fix my eye, when suddenly I appeared with my delivery van in the food district.
If you want to know the biggest difference between working in a horror game and real life, it's definitely the commute time: zero. The moment your shift starts, no matter where you are or what you're doing, you instantly teleport to work.
I accepted the first order from a player while slipping on my yellow jacket.
Ding ding ding...
A different phone in my pocket chimed, letting me know the money had hit my account.
I opened the green delivery app to check—none of the bosses who ordered yesterday had requested a refund. In fact, they'd all confirmed receipt in the customer app and left even more positive reviews.
Reading those warm messages made my eyes sting. For things like this, I, Emma Walker, could keep delivering for another hundred years.
The days that followed were business as usual, except tonight the number of orders doubled. Even though I was busy, I was thrilled—more orders, more money. To boost my efficiency, I made a big investment and upgraded my ride from a two-wheeler to a four-wheeler.
But the joy didn't last long. This time, it wasn't my deliveries that got stolen—I was the one who got robbed.
That day, I was delivering food to a player in the dungeon "Haunted Toys Looking for Mom." The moment I entered the dungeon's area, my tire ran over something and blew out.
When I got out to check my bike, I suddenly felt a blow to the back of my neck. The next thing I knew, I was tied up in a sack, head down, slung over someone's shoulder.
The person carrying me lowered their voice and said, "Maka, are you sure about this? If we can just get this delivery girl, we'll clear the dungeon fast and rank up instantly."
Before he could finish, Maka cut him off: "Nonsense! My uncle's distant cousin on his mom's side—he cleared the dungeon when he was still young and made it back to the real world. Now he's financially free, doesn't have to go out, and never worries about food. Before he entered the game, I asked him for his secret, and he only said three words: 'The delivery girl.' There's only one delivery girl in this whole horror game world—if it's not her, who else could it be?"
Another voice chimed in, "Yeah, and she even drives a delivery truck with all those meal boxes. That's not normal—there's definitely something fishy about her."
Maka continued, "So what, you want to kill her?"
"No way, I wouldn't dare. I'm not killing anyone. We're just taking her back to study, that's all."
"Enough with the chatter, kid. Get to work!"
A while later, the person carrying me spoke again: "She's got way too much food in her truck. Go grab a few more boxes, just leave some cash behind. I'm starving... But is eating more important than clearing the dungeon? Useless."
At first, I listened in closely, but maybe their voices were too soft—after a while, I started to doze off.
As long as they weren't planning to kill me, I could relax. Even if they did, it wouldn't matter much—I just learned some new stitching techniques from the Quack Doctor. My sewing skills are top-notch now, and after working nonstop for days, a nap sounded perfect.
The person carrying me was surprisingly gentle, swaying as if rocking me to sleep. I closed my eyes and quickly drifted off.
Just before I fell completely asleep, I vaguely heard the person carrying me panting, "Maka, Maka, why did this NPC suddenly stop moving? Did she suffocate? What do I do? I swear I didn't do anything..."
When the clock struck midnight, as usual, the bosses showed up right on time, dragging their tired bodies out of the dungeon. Those who had anxiously placed their orders before closing time realized something was wrong tonight. After placing their orders, the app displayed: "The restaurant is calling a delivery driver." No matter how many times they refreshed, nothing changed.
Time ticked by slowly, and everyone started asking:
[@Dragon Knight, why aren't you taking orders tonight? Is your truck broken? (bows)]
[@Dragon Knight, hey sis, I'm starving, food please~ (holding bowl jpg)]
[@Dragon Knight, Knight, Knight, I'm a princess, I'm about to starve to death (little cat sighs).]
As more and more messages poured in, the oddball bosses realized they weren't the only ones having trouble. Remembering the time their food was stolen before, they all thought the same thing: Something must have happened to Dragon Knight.
Late at night, out on the street, the bosses gathered again, moving in packs and groups. This time, it wasn't for food—it was for the delivery driver.
"This is unacceptable. Stealing our orders was bad enough, but now they're stealing the delivery driver too?"
"Hurry up and give Dragon Knight back, or else you'll pay for it!"
"Let me order food for you, okay? Just give us back Dragon Knight, and I'll take care of all the food and drinks in the game for you."
Unlike last time, this time the group didn't get any messages from Dragon Knight. They searched every street and alley, but found no sign of the players. Even the safe zones where the NPCs closed up at night were checked, but still nothing.
Chàng Trai Xúc Tua scratched his head frantically. "What do we do now? If Dragon Knight falls into the hands of the players, she's doomed. Last time, just a few of them beat her up so badly."
Blood Baby wiped away tears and started crying. "No, I don't want Auntie Phi Phi to get hurt... Oh, I don't want to work anymore... I want to go home... go home to find my mom..."
The Quack Doctor suddenly stood up, not even bothering to pick up the scalpel that fell to the floor.
He told himself, "Right, time to get to work. As long as I start the instance, everything will be fine."
Khẩu Liệt Nữ also realized the problem: "At this point, there's only one option left—start the instance ahead of schedule. And it's best to merge all the instances together to speed up the search."
Headless was the oldest in the group. He thought it over for a long time, but this method would definitely violate employee regulations.
This time, things were much more serious than before—they could even lose their "livelihood."
Chàng Trai Xúc Tua paced anxiously across the floor. "What are we waiting for? It's just a job. If it doesn't work out, I'll just jump over to the cooking game next door and be an octopus ingredient."
The other bosses all nodded in agreement.
Five minutes later, the in-game world clock let out a series of short, urgent beeps: "Beep—beep—beep—"
The hour, minute, and second hands spun wildly. Finally, with a "ding," they stopped right at 8:00.
Players who were sound asleep were jolted awake by the emergency alarm: "Attention, players: the 'Find Phi Phi' instance is about to begin. Countdown: 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…"
Immediately, all players were forced into a brand-new instance.
Players needed to know two simple things:
* Mission: Turn in or find Phi Phi, who is out making deliveries.
* Reward: 10,000 points.
Players slung weapons over their shoulders and clutched items in their hands, staring at each other in shock. Many were still in pajamas and slippers.
"Oh my god, I thought we were going to war, but it's just this? And they call this a horror game? The mission is so gentle!"
But the very next second, the tempting reward caught everyone's attention.
Normally, clearing an S-level instance only earned you 1,000 points, and even an SSS-level instance was just 3,000. Now, all you had to do was find Emma Walker—the difficulty was cut in half, and the top players could shoot straight to first place.
The players sprang into action immediately.
It didn’t take long for everyone to realize that this supposedly “gentle” instance was actually full of danger.
No matter where you went, a boss could appear at any moment—even cold-blooded SSS-level monsters were lurking in this instance.
Walking down the street, no one knew which boss they might run into in the next second.
A player was suddenly snatched into the air by tentacles, thinking they were about to die—only for the tentacled boss to anxiously ask, “Have you found Emma yet?”
The player shook their head. “Not yet. What about you?”
The other replied, “I’m still looking.”
“Hurry up! If we don’t find Emma today, forget about completing the mission.”
The Tentacle Guy’s face turned serious as he set the player back down on the ground.
Elsewhere, the Quack Doctor stood at a street corner with arms crossed, directing, “You all head that way—this area’s already been searched.”
Blood Baby skipped and bounced down the street, somehow managing to look both bizarre and oddly heartwarming.
Meanwhile, in a corner of the instance, I groggily opened my eyes. “Man, that was a good nap…”
I heard frantic voices: “Oh my god, you’re finally awake! The world out there has gone completely nuts—they’re coming! Tell the boss we didn’t do anything to you. I even sprayed Yunnan Baiyao on the back of your neck…”
It was a player carrying me, looking pretty young. The kid was on the verge of tears from worry: “Say something!”
A bald guy next to him said, “We just wanted to finish the mission quickly. I can’t believe Hoang tricked me. I just logged off—he clearly died in the game and only came back to the real world because of that. It’s not some ‘free rest’—he got hurt and now he’s too scared to go outside.”
Finally, I understood: they’d heard some rumors and tried to take a shortcut, hoping to clear a tough instance and level up fast. Luckily, nothing disastrous had happened yet.
“I had to risk one leg just to get into this instance. If you die in the game, you’ll be crippled in real life…”
“Please, let us go. We won’t do it again.”
With the boss risking everything to merge instances, I couldn’t promise anything on their behalf—I hurriedly rushed out.
As soon as I reached the first turn, a small figure darted over: Blood Baby poked its head out from my arms. "Aunt Emma, are you okay? Did they do anything to you?"
Then all the bosses gathered, ignoring the players, to get to the bottom of things. In the end, they agreed: those players would be punished by having their points wiped and being permanently banned from the game.
"And you all, merging instances without permission—how are you going to explain that to the higher-ups?"
Headless slapped her thigh. "I'll go reset the world clock, just switch it back and we're done. Or just let me go, with pay this low, none of us want to stick around anyway."
Time and space returned to normal, and both bosses and players shouted in unison: "Why is it only 7:30? We thought we wouldn't have to work today!"
Years later, in the horror world, the legend of Emma spread from person to person—from Emma, to Emma Walker, to Princess Emma, until it became the tale of a max-level hidden boss.
One day, while I was delivering food to a group of new players, I overheard their conversation:
"Hey, did you hear? There's a hidden boss in the game named Emma Walker—she's mysterious and shows up in every instance."
Another player nodded in agreement. "Yeah, yeah. The legend says Emma Walker has max combat power—one word from her and every boss has to obey."
A veteran player chimed in: back in the day, all the bosses joined forces to open every instance, just to win the princess's favor.
I parked my truck, rummaged through the food containers, and found box number 8820. "Your food's here."
The player took it, said "thanks," then shook their head regretfully. "It's a shame—even last year, someone cleared every instance and still didn't get to meet Emma Walker."
Of course they didn't—because she's really just an ordinary delivery girl.
As dusk fell, I sped off to make my deliveries, the propeller on my cap spinning nonstop.
At the start of the new year, the horror world launched a new game instance: "What If Your Food Gets Stolen One Day."
At exactly 8 o'clock, the entrance to the new instance opened. The new players stepped in, reading the game info and chatting excitedly: "You get robbed at school, robbed at work, and now even your food gets stolen in a game... When will this ever end?"
I've had my food stolen plenty of times before, but I always caught the thief. Today, I'll show off my skills.
At that moment, the boss pulled me aside to write a message for the player who had just completed the final quest. I'm not much of a writer, so after thinking it over, I finally decided: "Wishing everyone full bellies, a good life, and food that never gets stolen."
-END-