I’m Just Cannon Fodder NPC in a Horror Game

For seven years, a woman has served as a disposable NPC wife in a horror game, caged by the monstrous Boss, Count Alistair of the Dread Castle. By day she plays his adoring thirteenth wife; by night she lures players toward the last room on the second floor, where none ever survive. She endures it all because the Count resembles her long-lost first love.

Then a player named Addison arrives looking exactly like that lost love, kills the Count, and offers her his hand. Glowing chat logs warn her that the Boss faked his death to test her, that Addison only wants her unique NPC biology to carve flesh from her for healing, and that she is merely a tragic side character.

Addison presses the charred tentacles into a jar for her to keep, and she follows him into the players' safe zone, where he introduces her as Esme and claims he is only looking after her.