No Feeding the NPC Cub! [Infinite]

Gu Rong is a two-year-old zombie toddler. Because he’s so tiny, his little legs can’t carry him fast enough to catch any prey, leaving him with an empty tummy every day. Prey would practically stroll right under his nose, and just as he’d try to scramble up to chase them, thud – he’d faceplant.

Then, Gu Rong wakes up to find he’s been transported into a horror game, becoming the smallest NPC in the whole thing. NPCs make their living by scaring players, but Gu Rong is just too darn cute. His soft, squishy appearance isn’t scary at all. Players take one look at this miniature NPC, do a double-take, and then completely melt!

Gu Rong wraps his arms around a player’s leg, tiny fists pummeling their shin in what feels more like a tickle: “Gonna get you, gonna get you!”

A player offers him a dried fish snack.

Gu Rong clutches the little fish and gobbles it down with gusto, making happy “mmm” sounds.

Believing he’s earning his food by scaring players, Gu Rong sets off on a path of, well, terrifying (read: endearing) the players to death.

The little zombie cub hops and skips, but he can’t even jump over a measly twenty-centimeter “chasm.” The poor kiddo has to take a detour, going a whole hundred meters out of his way. By the time he gets there, the player has effortlessly hopped across. The little zombie keeps hopping, and after an hour, he’s so hungry he’s hopping and wiping away tears with his tiny hands.

A player rushes over and scoops up the little zombie. They dig into their own pockets, using their points to redeem a huge bag of food for the little cub.

Player: “Okay, okay, I’ll just come to you so you can scare me, how about that?”

The player even coaches the little guy on how to be scary: “Good, good, hold that pose. You’re already, like, two percent scary.”

Players enter the game, all eagerly waiting for the little cub to pop out and “scare” them.

Players, loaded down with piles of snacks and drinks, sit waiting: “Why isn’t he out yet?”

Livestream chat: “This is a horror game! You’re supposed to be beating levels, not feeding the NPC cub!”

Audience: “Form an orderly line, please! No shoving, no fighting, and absolutely no junk food!”

Whenever a player shares the screen with the little cub, their livestream viewership explodes.

Players: “You’re here to watch us beat the game, not to watch this little guy!”

But later…

A player is trying to complete a task, and the audience is having none of it: “What are you even doing? We want to see the cub! Show us the cub!”

The player, down to their last sliver of health and about to die: “…” “You guys don’t care about me at all, do you?!”

Players gradually realize that the more they’re on screen with the little cub, the more viewers they get. They’ve instantly cracked the code for getting views.

Now, every player who enters the game starts actively searching for the cub, eagerly volunteering to be “scared,” and, of course, showering him with all sorts of tasty treats and drinks.

The little cub, who used to be constantly hungry, is now plump and round, like a little dumpling. He still believes he’s so scary that players are willingly offering him food.

The little cub screws up his face in a “scary” grimace and toddles off to “terrify” another player, letting out a ferocious roar: “Rawr!”

A story about group pampering and raising a cub, featuring childhood sweethearts.