Chapter 19 – The Worst and Lowest Human

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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T-Bastard, after retiring from the organization,

started a game called on the recommendation of his junior.

Even the nickname ‘T-Bastard’ was created by his junior, so he didn’t even know exactly what it meant.

His junior said it was an incredibly difficult game to conquer, so he wouldn’t have time to be bored, but…

‘It’s nothing special.’

Starting his clearing process from the lowest-level Candy Zone, T-Bastard felt bored during the long growth period.

It was frustrating enough to start as a ten-year-old kid, but no matter what choice he clicked, everyone revered and adored him.

However, when he saw the dead ending of the entire zone due to a surprise attack from another zone as soon as the Second Apocalypse began,

T-Bastard finally felt a sense of enjoyment.

‘If you choose a low-level area, it inevitably becomes difficult to survive in the Survival.’

T-Bastard, who liked the lesson that living like a naive flower-head amidst abundant resources would prevent one from surviving in the Survival, gradually raised the level of the zones,

and by the time he reached the Candy, Cola, Cigarette, Beer, Chicken, and Cocaine zones, he realized one thing.

‘I need a guide. I can’t beat it without a guide.’

Basically, Safe Zone did not support multiplayer,

but the Survival gave the feeling of playing multiplayer.

The reason was that the AI of each zone learned from existing players’ strategies and started the Survival with that data.

The problem originated from there.

Because the AI was deployed according to the player’s strategy level, he had faced the AIs of various players in the previous zones,

but around the Cocaine Zone, it began to be dominated by the AI of a specific player.

[Candy Zone – AI HomeProtector]

[Cola Zone – AI Dopamine Addict]

[Cigarette Zone – AI HomeProtector]

[Beer Zone – AI SsapPossible]

[Chicken Zone- AI Taejeongtaesebeyonce]

[Cocaine Zone – Me (T-Bastard)]

[Knife Zone – AI Admin]

[Love Zone – AI Dopamine Addict]

[Unicorn Zone – AI Dopamine Addict]

“You again, Dopamine Addict…!”

T-Bastard was literally utterly crushed by AI Dopamine Addict.

Because it had come to this point, he couldn’t help but look it up, so T-Bastard entered the Safe Zone community,

and what he learned there was that the guys who frequently appeared, like ‘HomeProtector’, ‘SsapPossible’, and ‘Taejeongtaesebeyonce’, were also guide-makers derived from Dopamine Addict.

‘Is Dopamine Addict’s guide that amazing?’

Reading a few community posts, it was said that even overseas users illegally copied and took Dopamine Addict’s guides,

but Safe Zone was a game with a high degree of freedom.

There wouldn’t be any fun in playing the game if one just blindly followed another player’s guide.

Thinking that, T-Bastard opened Dopamine Addict’s Cola Zone guide post and was shocked.

‘What is this? There was a grave in the slums? No, why did he even dig up a grave in the first place? What is this again? Poisoning the NPC after matching their mood to the maximum? Is he in his right mind?’

When he came to his senses, he was somehow looking up Dopamine Addict’s other guides.

Through this, T-Bastard learned another fact.

There were many reviews saying that Dopamine Addict’s guides were strategies only Dopamine Addict could pull off,

and that his guides had high view counts simply because they were unethical, immoral, and sensational.

‘I think I know what kind of strategy I should set from now on.’

T-Bastard himself just had to counter Dopamine Addict’s guides!

Since the only players who had succeeded in clearing Love and Unicorn at all were those who had followed Dopamine Addict’s guides anyway,

T-Bastard barely succeeded in clearing the Cocaine Zone by using Dopamine Addict’s guide in reverse.

‘Although Dopamine Addict’s Cocaine Zone guide exists… I’ll never follow that bastard’s guide, even if I die.’

Meanwhile, a new guide by Dopamine Addict was posted.

[Dopamine Addict] Hidden Safe Zone ‘Knife’ Starting Guide

“……!”

The moment T-Bastard saw that post, he jumped up from his seat.

‘Knife was… a hidden zone?’

Was it not an unselectable zone?

‘No, it’s a zone with nothing but homicidal maniacs; is it even possible to survive with a ten-year-old starting character?’

Many thoughts crossed his mind, but T-Bastard hurriedly left a comment first.

T-Bastard: But how did you open the hidden zone?

└Dopamine Addict: It’s easy. Just see all the starting endings of the other 8 zones.

“…….”

He had thought about it before, but this jerk Dopamine Addict was really obnoxious.

Thinking that, T-Bastard smiled when he saw the comment below.

└CornerHoney: It’s only easy for you, you piece of shit.

‘That’s so refreshing.’

But Dopamine Addict still replied in an annoying tone.

└Dopamine Addict: I believe I already uploaded guides for all the other 8 starting zones, though?

└CornerHoney: Was that a guide made for people to actually follow?? Are you fucking crazy?;;

└Dopamine Addict: I’m blocking you.

T-Bastard also fully agreed with CornerHoney’s thoughts, but he remained quiet because it would be troublesome if he got blocked and couldn’t see the Knife guide.

‘I have to open the hidden zone faster than anyone else.’

Right now, the only player who had cleared Knife was Dopamine Addict.

If he became the second to clear Knife?

‘AI T-Bastard would be matched in Dopamine Addict’s Knife Zone.’

With the single-minded goal of appearing on Dopamine Addict’s AI list, T-Bastard skipped meals and stayed up all night to clear Love and Unicorn.

When clearing Love and Unicorn, he threw away all his pride and followed Dopamine Addict’s guides.

Because his head knew that was the fastest way.

When T-Bastard, who had unlocked the hidden zone after several trials and errors, entered the community to announce that he had opened the Knife Zone second,

unexpected news welcomed T-Bastard.

“Heavy users… missing?”

The absurd story that since Dopamine Addict spread the address of the Safe Zone collaboration convenience store in the community, the heavy users, including Dopamine Addict, literally vanished like smoke.

However, when he actually checked the community and game connection records, he couldn’t find any sign of life from the heavy users,

so T-Bastard also thought he should go to that convenience store.

‘Not all heavy users disappeared. However, all the heavy users who left posts saying they would go to the convenience store have vanished.’

The final destination of the users was the convenience store.

In other words, there must be something in that convenience store.

‘Dopamine Addict was strangely obsessed with making his guides known. Maybe he wanted to raise his recognition to lure people in.’

Dopamine Addict was merely an attention seeker, but because of the life T-Bastard had lived, he naturally thought there must be some kind of conspiracy,

and by the time he found the address and arrived at the convenience store, there was someone else besides him.

“…You look familiar. Are you perhaps a national athlete?”

“Ahaha, it’s been ages since I retired. You came because of Safe Zone too, right? My in-game nick is Taejeongtaesebeyonce. What’s yours?”

‘He’s one of Dopamine Addict’s devotees.’

It was suspicious enough for a retired national athlete to be at a game collaboration convenience store, but he was even a devotee of Dopamine Addict?

Raising his guard to the maximum, T-Bastard replied after taking a step back from Taejeongtaesebeyonce while pretending to pick out items.

“I’m T-Bastard.”

“I think I’ve seen you on the community. Wow, but they have bottled cola here?”

Taking advantage of the moment Taejeongtaesebeyonce was distracted by choosing items, T-Bastard picked up a knife among the displayed goods.

“Oh? Are you going to buy a knife?”

He chose the knife to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances,

but at the voice coming from behind, T-Bastard replied in as casual a voice as possible.

“It’s the hidden zone symbol, so it looks cool. Since the Knife guide has been posted, I’m thinking of trying to clear it from now on.”

“You’re reading Dopamine Addict hyung-nim’s guide!”

Guessing that Taejeongtaesebeyonce was about to pour out stories about Dopamine Addict, T-Bastard quickly walked to the counter to escape.

However, he unexpectedly had to argue with the clerk at the counter.

“Are you serious? Are you really going to choose Knife? Why don’t you think again. Think *real* carefully.”

‘What’s wrong with this clerk too?’

The clerk was strangely familiar, just like Taejeongtaesebeyonce, and he strongly discouraged T-Bastard from buying the knife.

Becoming even more suspicious of the clerk’s attitude, T-Bastard made up his mind to buy the knife no matter what,

“Just check it out.”

“…Since you’re the first customer to choose Knife, I won’t charge you. Congratulations.”

‘He’s not taking money? No, in the first place, this knife. It wasn’t even packaged, let alone having a price tag…?’

It felt highly uneasy in many ways, but he did succeed in obtaining the knife.

He thought he should leave like a normal customer for now and observe the convenience store’s movements from the outside,

but he heard the clerk mutter softly under his breath, with eyes like a dead fish.

“Dumbass…”

‘What a rude bastard.’

The moment he clicked his tongue inwardly and took a step out of the convenience store,

T-Bastard was in ,

specifically, he was possessed into the Knife Zone.

In the body of a ten-year-old child, that was.

Fuck.

‘Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.’

He didn’t even know in what state of mind he had run away.

Immediately after waking up in the body of a ten-year-old child, he was caught by psychopath homicidal maniacs who flocked to him because he spat out curses in shock,

and he was tortured until he fainted.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the bastards who were basically pleasure killers had no intention of easily killing the child they found,

and thanks to that, T-Bastard, who survived a whole day without dying, barely managed to recall Dopamine Addict’s Knife guide right before completely losing his mind.

After succeeding in making them let their guard down by acting as if he had lost his mind first and escaping, T-Bastard moved to get his hands on the meteor knife next.

The guy with the meteor knife was the practical leader of this zone, a crazy bastard who liked the meat of young children,

but T-Bastard, using that habit and his own body which had become tattered from torture, sneaked in by disguising as a corpse, and then drove a fork into the neck of the perverted cannibalistic killer who was about to eat, before snatching the meteor knife.

After stabbing everyone there to death and running away like crazy to hide in a space so narrow that they couldn’t enter, T-Bastard,

shed tears continuously due to the fear and injustice of the incomprehensible possession, and physical and psychological exhaustion.

‘Let’s commit suicide.’

He absolutely could not survive in a place like this, with a body like this.

If he died, he might be able to return to his original world.

Just as he was about to choose to end his own life as a way of escape,

it was at that very moment that the system was opened.

[‘Dopamine Addict’ has entered the public chatroom.]

‘Dopamine… Junkie?’

The moment he saw that system message, something began to grow inside T-Bastard.

It was a desire for revenge and the will to survive.

He would definitely survive and kill that bastard.

He had no way of knowing if Dopamine Addict was truly the culprit behind this entire situation, but

for T-Bastard, who was out of his mind, it was none of his business.

Since what he needed right now was a reason to survive.

“…But this is the end of that too.”

Even if he had a weapon that could kill any opponent with a single stab, there was no match for being ganged up on.

Although the fatally wounded T-Bastard barely succeeded in hiding himself in his hideout,

he knew very well that he would soon die of excessive bleeding.

Dopamine Addict said that wounds could be treated by consuming food, but, fuck!

This zone was basically a cannibalistic zone.

How could there be any normal food?

Even if he wanted to hunt monsters, the homicidal bastards he would encounter while going out of the zone were a truckload.

Because of this, T-Bastard had only barely treated the wounds he received on the first day by eating the ingredients the perverted cannibalistic killer prepared to serve as a side dish, and his physical condition was still not sound.

‘Dopamine Addict… what would that bastard have done in this situation?’

Dopamine Addict’s guide said to survive by cannibalizing, but while killing was possible, cannibalism was out of the question.

‘If that bastard Dopamine Addict had dropped into the Knife Zone, would he have casually cannibalized and survived?’

Come to think of it, that guy had persistently sent me friend requests.

Although T-Bastard had rejected all friend requests out of hatred for Dopamine Addict,

thinking that he would die soon, he strangely wanted to talk with Dopamine Addict.

After impulsively sending a friend request to Dopamine Addict, T-Bastard immediately regretted it.

‘There’s no way he would accept my friend request now after I rejected him like that…’

Just as he thought he had done something too pathetic when he might die soon,

[Dopamine Addict has accepted your friend request.]

[Dopamine Addict has entered the 1:1 chatroom.]

[Dopamine Addict: Do you finally feel like talking to me now?]

At the messages popping up one after another, T-Bastard felt a strange sense of relief.

So he continued the conversation with more goodwill than before.

[T-Bastard: I don’t think I can come kill you.]

[Dopamine Addict: What are you talking about?]

[Dopamine Addict: Did you fail the guide?]

[T-Bastard: I couldn’t get food.]

[T-Bastard: I didn’t want to cannibalize. Even if it’s just in a game.]

[Dopamine Addict: ……]

Seeing that no reply came from Dopamine Addict,

he was surely thinking him pathetic, wondering how it could be cannibalism to eat a mere NPC when survival comes first.

‘Dopamine Addict… you might have been the best player, but you are the absolute worst human.’

The moment T-Bastard thought it was fortunate that he could die while preserving his dignity as a human,

[Dopamine Addict has requested an item trade.]

[Trade Item: Cookie (15)]

[Do you accept?]

The hand of salvation arrived from the absolute worst human.