I doubt it.. they wouldn't put a step in the plot that is NC related. People would babyrage so hard. Especially since NC isn't available in every country (pretty sure) even if you could find a way to get it online. It would just be a super poor choice on their part. It's probably either donating to something like the money tree or even simpler like clicking a link similar to how they have you click to make the potions.
Whether you like it or not it's not uncommon for most games these days to require you to pay something to be able to complete an event. The people who buy things on the site are the ones who are keeping it alive for everyone. Need to be able to see both sides of why they would do something. Is it fair? Idk.. but I hope it would bring them enough money to keep creating more better content in the future. Wait until they go mobile and have more games that will require in app purchases to be able to get to the higher levels. Neopets needs to keep up with the times.
The additional potion achievements have been removed