Chapter 34 – Why Are You Dopamine Addict

===================

Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

Shaggy white hair and dead fish eyes.

A complexion as pale as the white coat he wore.

A face that any player who had frequently clashed with my AI after the Second Apocalypse would recognize at once.

“Dopamine Addict! You are Dopamine Addict, right?”

For some reason, CornerHoney looked so glad that color returned to his face as he took a step toward the hoverboard, but

Taejeong and I, who knew that he could absolutely not be ‘Dopamine Addict,’ instinctively backed away.

“Don’t go near him.”

As I gave the warning, CornerHoney turned to look at me with a puzzled face.

“What? Weren’t you a fan of Dopamine Addict?”

He still believes I am a follower of Dopamine Addict.

Without taking my eyes off ‘him,’ I spoke.

“That thing isn’t Dopamine Addict.”

“I’m not Dopamine Addict?”

The one who answered my words was not CornerHoney, but that guy.

The guy let out a laugh, and soon slowly lowered the altitude of the hoverboard.

“If you ‘view’ me, you will know right away whether I am the real Dopamine Addict or not.”

Viewing.

Right. If I used ‘Character Viewing,’ I would be able to know his real name and information immediately.

However, I hesitated slightly.

Seeing him up close as he landed on the ground, stepped off the hoverboard, and stood on his two feet, he resembled the customization I frequently used even more.

Although it wasn’t like customization overlap never happened… in this situation where it was already unpleasant that someone with that customization had possessed a body in the Unicorn Zone.

‘He is in his adult form, though…….’

We had possessed bodies in this world in the form of ten-year-olds, without a single exception.

Yet he already had the appearance of a twenty-year-old youth.

Seeing that he knew of ‘viewing,’ he was undoubtedly the Unicorn player who had unlocked the system.

Why on earth was only that guy possessed in an adult form?

“Hey, do you recognize who I am?”

While I hesitated, CornerHoney spoke to the guy.

The guy scanned CornerHoney up and down.

“CornerHoney?”

“You recognize me?!”

“Hmm… I feel like there was a player with such a nickname.”

“Man, why are you pretending not to know?”

Although it seemed the guy had simply read CornerHoney’s nickname through Character Viewing.

CornerHoney laughed as if he felt good, perhaps because ‘Dopamine Addict’ recognized him.

“He is Dopamine Addict. But why is everyone pointing guns?”

“…….”

It seemed CornerHoney’s head was exceptionally flower-filled.

Taejeong and I were still pointing our muzzles at him, and Meursault looked like he had no idea what was going on, but he had followed me and aimed his gun at him belatedly.

Meursault asked me with a tense face.

“Lord Haydam. Is he someone you know?”

“If I know him, I know him. If I don’t, I don’t.”

“What kind of irresponsible words are……”

Although we pointed our guns, it was impossible to fire a preemptive shot as long as we did not know what intention he approached us with.

If he really came from the Unicorn Zone, we wouldn’t be able to leave even a scratch on him with the outdated guns we had.

The guy only smirked even upon seeing the three muzzles pointed at him.

CornerHoney, who was staring blankly at us, asked him as if he suddenly remembered.

“Hey, but why are you in an adult customization? We all started as ten-year-olds?”

Are you just now curious about that?

The guy scanned CornerHoney once, and then

“…Isn’t he a bit too stupid to make a partner?”

he said.

“What?!”

“Aren’t you going to view me? Are you afraid?”

Regardless of whether CornerHoney flared up or not, the guy looked at me and asked.

I shook my head briefly.

“I’m not afraid. I just don’t want to move according to your intentions.”

“I didn’t come to harm you. At least not now.”

“Yeah, right……”

Although I was not naive enough to believe his words that he hadn’t come to harm me,

because I myself didn’t know the reason why I was hesitating to look at his character information,

I slowly opened his Character Viewing.

And what rose before my eyes was:

[Name: Dopamine Addict

Title: Dopamine Addict

Zone: Unicorn

Relationship: He is friendly toward you.]

“…….”

As expected, his zone was Unicorn.

‘This guy, his name is really ‘Dopamine Addict’.’

But what caught my attention even more than his name was something else.

[Title: Dopamine Addict]

‘The title is also… Dopamine Addict?’

It was a title I was seeing for the first time.

Even though I was someone who had acquired almost every single obtainables title in the Safe Zone.

“How is it?”

Noticing that I was viewing his information, the guy smiled and asked.

“Will you believe me now?”

“How did you do it?”

“What do you mean, how did I do it?”

“How are you ‘Dopamine Addict’?”

“It is still early to tell you that.”

It was ‘still’ early?

It was as if he was saying there was a ‘time’ when he could tell me.

The guy’s words did not stop there and continued.

“Why are you hanging around with Meursault? I thought that if I started in the Cola Zone, I would naturally poison him first and start.”

‘I’?

This guy, his pronouns are strange.

‘What is his identity?’

A madman overly immersed in acting as Dopamine Addict?

Or…….

“Hey!”

Unable to hold back in that short moment, CornerHoney hastily intervened between the two of us.

“Are only the two of you going to talk? How are you in an adult form, you!”

“…….”

The guy and I let out a sigh simultaneously.

And the guy muttered.

“How noisy.”

The moment I saw him put his hand inside his coat, I pulled the trigger and shot.

Bang!

Bang, bang!

The consecutive two gunshots were the sounds of Taejeong and Meursault shooting him following me.

CornerHoney jumped in place and pulled at my gun.

“Hey! What are you doing? Why are you shooting a player!?”

“If I hadn’t shot, the one getting shot would have been you.”

At my words, CornerHoney was startled and only then examined the guy.

A figure too perfectly fine to have been hit by three bullets.

Since he was a Unicorn Zone player, he must have a magnetic shield wrapped around his body.

In his hand, a handgun was held.

If I hadn’t shot first, he probably would have shot CornerHoney with that.

He simply hadn’t fired because his aim shook from being shot.

‘Is it true that he has no intention of harming me?’

The guy hesitated to pull the trigger when his aim shook.

Judging by how his eyes scanned me first for a moment, he must have hesitated out of fear of hitting me by mistake.

Confirming that the opponent was fine, Meursault asked me again.

“What should we do?”

“Don’t shoot.”

After ordering them not to shoot for now, I looked at the guy.

Holding the pistol in one hand, the guy was smiling while poking his fingers into the two bullet holes in his white coat with his other hand.

“What are you fucking laughing at?”

“The gun sounded three times, but there are only two holes.”

“…….”

The one who blushed at those words was Taejeong.

I knew his shooting skills were a mess, but to think he would miss even at this distance.

“Shooting right away without warning?”

“Because the first strike wins.”

At my reply, the guy showed a smile so satisfied that it was hard to believe he had just been shot by me.

“Right, I would have shot too. Good. This much is fine.”

“What are you muttering to yourself, you lunatic. Who are you?”

“You must have seen who I am.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

At my refutation, the guy smirked and continued.

“I can’t answer beyond that. Today I only came to quickly confirm.”

“Confirm? Confirm what?”

“Whether you are growing well.”

“What?”

“Since you seem to be growing well, I shall return now.”

Returning?

He tried to shoot CornerHoney simply because he was noisy.

A fellow player.

He was too dangerous of a guy to let return alive.

‘It would be right to kill him here, but… with our current strength, let alone killing him, even wounding him is impossible.’

Thinking about it now, the guy had come all the way here riding only his hoverboard, without any armament other than his handgun.

The Unicorn Zone, which possessed overtechnology, and his adult appearance.

Should I say it was a relief that the guy, who possessed overwhelmingly advantageous conditions, hadn’t come to fight?

‘Why is a guy like that friendly toward me?’

Although the reason was unknown, we had practically saved our lives thanks to his favor.

It was not a situation I particularly liked.

Doesn’t it seem like a veteran has come to raise a newbie?

“Ah, that’s right.”

The guy who was climbing onto the hoverboard looked back at us again as if he had forgotten.

“I should finish giving you the gift.”

“Gift?”

No sooner had I asked back than his pistol pointed at CornerHoney.

‘Crazy bastard.’

It seemed the guy intended to kill CornerHoney before leaving no matter what.

The moment he pulled the trigger, I stood in front of CornerHoney without hesitation.

With a thud, something hot and sharp pierced my shoulder.

CornerHoney shrieked in horror.

“Hey!”

“Hyung-nim!”

“Lord Haydam!”

As CornerHoney supported me as I collapsed, the other two looked in my direction in panic, still pointing their muzzles at him.

And the guy,

“……!”

a feeling of surprise nested in his relaxed expression for the first time, and then it was seen slowly calming down.

“Is he different from me…….”

What is he muttering?

When I applied pressure to my shoulder with one hand and flipped him off with the other, the guy smirked.

“You must know how to heal at least that much, right? Then I shall look forward to the day you come to my zone.”

As the hoverboard he rode soared into the air with those words,

Taejeong raised his muzzle upward following the hoverboard.

“I will shoot it down.”

“Don’t shoot.”

Frowning at the sharp pain felt in my shoulder, I spoke.

“We can’t catch that with outdated guns. It’s a waste of bullets. Just let him go back. I know where he went anyway.”

“Lord Haydam!”

Meursault, who only lowered his muzzle after the guy on the hoverboard began to recede from view, hurriedly approached me, pulled a clean handkerchief out of his pocket, and pressed it against my shoulder.

“Keep applying pressure. If they saw the flare, the soldiers should be on their way. I will go and bring them.”

Unlike CornerHoney, who had a face looking ready to cry since a moment ago, Meursault did not show signs of agitation at my injury as if his experience as a director was not for show, and instead went to do what he could.

Taejeong left the spot to patrol the surroundings, perhaps worried that monsters might gather due to the commotion just now.

In contrast, CornerHoney…….

“Isn’t that bastard Dopamine Addict a complete lunatic?!”

What kind of feeling should I call this, getting cursed at when I was the one who got shot, even though it wasn’t my doing.

“Hey, apply pressure properly.”

“Why on earth did you get shot trying to protect someone like me……”

“Why do you think.”

I tapped the combat rations hanging at CornerHoney’s waist and spoke.

“Heal me.”

At that, CornerHoney stared at me with his mouth agape for a moment, and then asked in a tone that sounded like he wanted to grab me by the collar right now but was holding back.

“…Did you seriously get shot on purpose to test the performance?”

“If you get hurt, we can’t test the healing performance.”

“Crazy bastard… you are a truly crazy bastard.”

Even so, CornerHoney pulled out the combat rations and began to heal me.

Fortunately, the bullet had penetrated my shoulder, so it was a wound that only needed to close up.

As if his words about practicing to the point of being able to heal if in contact were not a lie, I felt the pain in the shot area ease significantly just by CornerHoney keeping his hand on it.

While quietly receiving treatment, as I felt the wound had closed to some extent, I opened my mouth and spoke.

“Darling Outsider.”

“…Why are you calling me by my full name so ominously?”

“Since I saved your life, I have one confession to make.”

“What confession all of a sudden? Hey, this is a death flag.”

Ignoring CornerHoney’s interruption, I spat out the remaining words.

“I am Dopamine Addict.”