Chapter 13 – Self-Introduction

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The ego dwelling in this ring was definitely someone who knew Luna Moon and Hayden.

Otherwise, the ‘Friend of Luna Moon’ title wouldn’t have worked, and it wouldn’t have reacted to Commander Hayden.

However, my deduction hit a wall there.

Because among the NPCs who knew Luna Moon and Hayden, I didn’t know of any NPC who would be sealed in a ring like this.

Moreover, an NPC who was a friend of Luna Moon and was glad to see Hayden…

‘There was no such NPC in the Safe Zone. At least, not in the game I played.’

This ‘world’ definitely had parts that were different from the game.

That this world was not completely identical to the ‘Safe Zone.’

I had to keep this in mind going forward.

For the arrogance of knowing everything could ruin everything.

For now, I would have to think about this issue slowly.

Other than emitting light and floating up when I first found it, and turning warm whenever I met Hayden, it was a ring with nothing special about it.

Since I doubted whether this ring even had any ability other than becoming warm, it didn’t seem like it would cause me any harm.

Putting aside my thoughts about the ring, as I lay in bed and reviewed the system once more, I realized a fact I had forgotten.

‘I ignored that HomeProtector bastard’s friend request all day.’

Considering we were possessed into a game where people died so easily, the fact that they created a system with a soft-sounding phrase like ‘friend request’ meant whoever possessed us was also quite malicious.

When I opened the public chat room, it seemed the other players hadn’t talked since morning.

‘Wait… did they say 1-on-1 chatting is possible once we become mutual friends?’

Since HomeProtector also sent me a friend request, other people might have also become friends with each other and had 1-on-1 conversations.

“Hmm?”

When I opened the friend request list to accept HomeProtector’s request, friend requests from other players besides HomeProtector had also arrived.

[A friend request has arrived from HomeProtector. Would you like to accept?]

[A friend request has arrived from Shin. Would you like to accept?]

[A friend request has arrived from IDontCryThatIsCardio. Would you like to accept?]

[A friend request has arrived from Dentist. Would you like to accept?]

Dentist, this person seemed to be highly wary, so it was unexpected for them to send a friend request first.

‘SsapPossible and Druggie didn’t send friend requests.’

It was either that they didn’t feel the need for 1-on-1 conversations, or they were inwardly wary of me.

After accepting only HomeProtector’s friend request, I pondered for a moment before trying to send a friend request to T-Bastard, but.

[T-Bastard has rejected your friend request.]

What.

An instant rejection?

‘This bastard was watching everything while pretending not to look after all.’

As I clicked my tongue, a 1-on-1 chat arrived from HomeProtector.

[HomeProtector: What were you doing that you only accepted it now?]

[Dopamine Addict: I was busy with the walkthrough]

[HomeProtector: If you’re in the Cola Zone, are you clearing the bastard walkthrough?]

Since this guy was my subscriber, he probably knew exactly what walkthrough I would be doing.

Of course, I also knew exactly what walkthrough HomeProtector would be doing in the Cigarette Zone.

[Dopamine Addict: You doing the disciple walkthrough?]

[HomeProtector: Yeah, even while doing that walkthrough, I was scared I’d be in the same zone as you haha]

[HomeProtector: So is your possessed name Heydam Goodman?]

[Dopamine Addict: Yeah. What did you set your name as?]

[HomeProtector: Sherlock Holmes haha]

The jobless bastard had no conscience.

[Dopamine Addict: But why did you go around spreading the address of the convenience store?]

[HomeProtector: Because it was fascinating! I didn’t know we’d get group-possessed just because I shared a convenience store address.]

Indeed, it was not something within the realm of predictability.

[Dopamine Addict: The other players think I was the one who shared it, though.]

[HomeProtector: It’s a misunderstanding. Since you’re famous, your nickname is the only one left in their heads.]

Right… Come to think of it, how could HomeProtector have known it would turn out like this?

After all, I was the one who posted about the convenience store in the first place.

Most of the players in the public chat room didn’t seem to hold any great malice toward me.

At least, on the surface.

The only problem was that T-Bastard had dropped into a zone where ill feelings were bound to develop.

‘Now that I think about it, Shin has no complaints even though he’s in the Love Zone.’

In the Love Zone, the NPCs were all… nothing but lunatics.

They were lunatics of a different breed compared to those in the Knife Zone.

But what did he mean when he said the other players decided to serve him?

Although there was a ‘Cult Leader walkthrough’ among the Love Zone walkthroughs I posted, that should have been a walkthrough that only worked on NPCs.

[HomeProtector: By the way, what are you going to do?]

[Dopamine Addict: About what?]

[HomeProtector: I mean Unicorn.]

Unicorn.

My main base zone.

The ones who opened the system were only the eight of Candy, Cola, Cigarette, Beer, Chicken, Cocaine, Love, and Knife.

Although it was possible that the player of the Unicorn Zone simply hadn’t opened the system yet.

Circumstantially, it was highly likely to be an unclaimed zone.

Although it was a pity that there was no player to roll around diligently and develop the zone on my behalf, the geographical advantage did not disappear.

In any case, since I only needed to prepare for flying monsters in Unicorn, it was worth making it a secondary stronghold.

HomeProtector probably thought so too, which was why he was asking me.

However, I pretended not to know what he meant.

[Dopamine Addict: Why are you asking me what to do with Unicorn?]

[HomeProtector: Stop playing dumb. You’re going to swallow it whole once the Second Apocalypse starts anyway, aren’t you?]

Why ask when you already know?

[HomeProtector: Don’t be like that, take me with you when you go to Unicorn.]

‘Hmm.’

As I had mentioned before, zones with low difficulty were hard to turn into shelters.

Since HomeProtector also knew that the Cigarette Zone was not a suitable zone to turn into a shelter, he probably preferred to stick to me.

However.

[Dopamine Addict: Is there any reason for me to take care of you?]

[HomeProtector: Wow, that’s seriously cold. There’s a reason why rumors spread in the community that you’re a sociopath;]

[Dopamine Addict: 🖕]

[HomeProtector: You need someone to manage the zone anyway. My nickname literally means HomeProtector. And I’m a Safe Zone veteran.]

[Dopamine Addict: If you’re a veteran too, instead of thinking about hitching a ride, how about you try to take it by force? You’re allowed to, you know?]

[HomeProtector: No. Rather than making an enemy of you, I’d rather just have an easy ride under you. I’m speaking seriously.]

I was a little disappointed by HomeProtector’s answer.

‘I thought fighting bloodily with this guy over Unicorn would also be highly stimulating…’

Disappointment aside, it was true that I needed someone to manage the zone.

Although I had planned to entrust that role to my honorary father, Commander Hayden Goodman.

‘It wouldn’t be bad to have some insurance.’

Also, it seemed like it would be highly stimulating in its own way if he betrayed me after pretending to come under me like this.

[HomeProtector: Just to tell you in advance, I really have no intention of doing anything like betrayal. If I had such a grand dream, I wouldn’t have lived as a jobless guy.]

[Dopamine Addict: Disappointed…]

[HomeProtector: You lunatic bastard]

[HomeProtector: Still, this big brother will tell you something good.]

[Dopamine Addict: Something good?]

I asked, but what came back instead of an answer was a system message.

[HomeProtector has requested an item trade.]

[Traded Item: Cigarette (12)]

[Would you like to accept?]

‘An item trade window!’

First, I pressed accept.

Not because I was a smoker, but because I wanted to quickly confirm that trading was possible with HomeProtector in another zone.

Once I accepted the trade, a cigarette icon appeared in my inventory window with the number 12 displayed above it.

‘So we can send and receive items even if our zones are different.’

At first glance, it seemed like a feature made for players to help each other survive, but.

If there were items to be traded between players, it would be around the level of food, but the resource gap between low-level zones and high-level zones was considerably large.

In other words, even if trading were possible, it meant that players in low-level zones had no choice but to unilaterally give resources to players in high-level zones.

Would any player actually try to help others without any conditions?

Even HomeProtector was probably handing over items from his own zone only because he wanted something from me right now.

[HomeProtector: I found this out while having 1-on-1 chats with other players while you were ignoring my friend request.]

[HomeProtector: Be grateful.]

[Dopamine Addict: Thank you, big brother.]

[HomeProtector: You punk haha. Anyway, I’ll take it that you’re accepting me, and I’ll go to sleep now.]

[Dopamine Addict: You go to sleep quite early, big brother.]

[HomeProtector: After rejuvenating into a ten-year-old, my nicotine addiction was cured, and I became a good child of the new nation who falls asleep by 10 PM. Bye then.]

After HomeProtector went to sleep, I tried sending another friend request to T-Bastard, but it was an instant rejection this time too.

‘Seeing the instant rejection, it seems he’s still alive.’

Even HomeProtector wanted to have an easy ride under me, so why was this guy T-Bastard refusing my help?

I could only obtain the one-shot, one-kill item if this guy made it out alive, though…

…Hmm, maybe he was rejecting it because he knew I had such ulterior motives.

* * *

The next day, I was busy from the morning.

The commander wanted to take me to the executives’ meeting to officially declare me as his son, and because I had to meet the other executives, the servants painstakingly groomed me down to my fingernail cuticles.

This was a somewhat new experience.

In the game, once you successfully cleared the bastard child walkthrough, you were known to the NPCs as the commander’s bastard child via the system, so you didn’t have to go through tedious processes like introductions.

“First, we will enter in the middle of the executives’ meeting.”

Meursault, who was clearly the commander’s aide but had somehow ended up solely in charge of me—what with the training and all—briefed me on today’s operation(?).

“The executives currently know absolutely nothing about your existence. The essence of this operation is to make them accept your existence in a daze before they can finish thinking and judging you. Therefore, you may act unpredictably just like when you met me. However, acting too conspicuously might attract excessive attention, so while greeting them politely…”

While I was dressing up, Meursault kept trying to inject model answers as if he wanted to control even the single wrinkles in my brain rather than my appearance, but I ignored him.

Realizing his words wouldn’t get through to me at all, Meursault soon gave up and muttered as he silently gazed at me after I finished dressing.

“Now that you swept your hair back, you really are the spitting image of His Excellency.”

You Western NPCs were probably the only ones who thought that, though.

Just to make it clear, I had no overlapping parts with the commander’s customization other than having black hair and black eyes.

“It is fortunate that you do not resemble your mother. They will not doubt your bloodline.”

It was fortunate that I didn’t resemble my mother.

Even though the commander himself had said I resembled Luna Moon as soon as he saw me.

‘Come to think of it…’

The only image of Luna Moon that I remembered was the white bones in that grave.

Since the commander had said I resembled Luna Moon, I wondered if she was also Asian.

A rare Asian in this world… and with healing abilities on top of that.

‘Was Luna Moon also like us…?’

No, but the assumption that Luna Moon was a player was difficult to establish.

Because at least for us who were possessed through that convenience store, even if our visit times were different, our starting points were all the same.

If Luna Moon was a player, it meant she had been possessed at least ten years ahead of us.

In that case, questions would remain as to why she alone was possessed ten years ago, and why she appeared as an NPC in the game.

Well, since there was no doubt that Luna Moon was related to the ‘Secret of the Apocalypse’ or whatever it was.

As I continued to clear the game, I would eventually learn the truth.

While we headed to the executives’ conference room on the top floor of the mansion after finishing preparation, Meursault cautioned me once more.

“You must watch your words and actions in the executives’ meeting. They are all like vipers. You must not act too arrogant, nor should you allow yourself to be looked down upon.”

He was chatting so diligently even though I had been ignoring him this whole time.

As if my thoughts were revealed on my face, Meursault glared at me lightly and said.

“And you must also be careful about showing what you’re thinking on your face. Do you understand?”

“I understand. But to be neither too arrogant nor too looked down upon, what exactly am I supposed to do?”

“Walk the line precariously, but do not hold back what you have to say.”

“I’m asking what exactly that is.”

“You are doing extremely well right now. Just keep doing that.”

This guy was subtly trolling me.

Anyway, now that the aide had given permission…

Shall I go have a pleasant self-introduction session with the executives?