Chapter 41 – Reputation Growing on Its Own

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

Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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

Returning to the military academy after completing the private audience with the commander, I felt an inexplicable sense of incompatibility.

‘…What?’

Why were the cadets looking at me with such sticky gazes?

I was able to hear the answer to that from Plato, who was standing in front of my private room.

“It is not a sticky gaze, but a gaze of respect, Lord Haydam.”

At Plato’s words, I furrowed my brows.

“What respect all of a sudden?”

“As a result of this training simulation, the number of cadets who respect Lord Haydam has increased.”

Ah, because I won the training simulation this time too by eliminating the entire opposing team?

‘They ignored me like that when I won last time, but since I won in a row, they must have realized it wasn’t a fluke.’

But still, respect was a bit much.

“Fortunately, the results of this training seem to have been recognized. However, it couldn’t have been a strategy grand enough to warrant talk of respect, could it?”

Although I had won in the end, as the commander pointed out, it did not seem likely that the cadets of the military academy would positively accept a strategy that used a child as bait.

It was an operation that wouldn’t be strange to be criticized as mean or unethical.

However, the reactions of the other cadets I ran into just a moment ago were indeed gentle.

However, Plato’s following answer was also somewhat strange.

“I was waiting to apologize regarding that.”

“…Pardon?”

Not being blamed, but being respected… an apology?

“First, I will hear what you want to apologize for.”

“I failed to keep my promise to Lord Haydam.”

“A promise?”

If it was a promise made with Plato… that thing about becoming my adjutant after graduation?

“Are you saying you cannot become my adjutant?”

“No, I definitely want to do that.”

What is it?

“Then what promise did you fail to keep?”

“You told me not to speak about Lord Haydam’s injury, did you not?”

It was such a trivial matter that I had forgotten about it.

“I did.”

When I answered calmly, Plato immediately bent his waist at a ninety-degree angle.

“I am sorry. I ended up telling the other cadets. That Lord Haydam’s injury has not healed yet. It seems that the cadets who heard that story came to respect Lord Haydam, regardless of age, for going out to train for the honor of another cadet even with such a body. It is my oversight.”

Hmm.

The content of the apology was a bit strange, though.

In other words, even though I hadn’t asked him to, Plato had taken it upon himself to build my image for the surrounding cadets.

‘It worked out well because Plato is a stubborn fool who values his own beliefs more than promises.’

The other cadets probably knew better than anyone else that Plato had a rigid personality even in the military academy, and was not the type of person to falsely praise someone.

Because Plato spoke, it would have sounded more genuine.

Thanks to Plato, I got to build my image, and I also cleared Plato’s personal debt of mind for not keeping his promise, so it was a good thing.

Still, it would be better to act like a broad-minded person here.

“Do not worry about that. Even if Plato had not said it, everyone would have noticed eventually.”

“Lord Haydam…”

“If it really weighs on your mind, there is one favor I would like to ask.”

Acting like a broad-minded person is one thing, but I have to take what I can get.

Plato asked me with a rather delighted face.

“What kind of favor is it?”

Then, after a moment, his expression darkened.

“If you are perhaps telling me to go around badmouthing again…”

A face terrified in advance that I might tell him to go around badmouthing again.

It seemed that going around swearing at us did not suit his temper at all.

Of course, I also have no intention of making Plato do such things anymore.

Since I learned well from this opportunity that Plato has no talent for badmouthing.

“Not that. There is a graduation ceremony coming up soon, isn’t there?”

“Ah, yes. That is correct.”

Plato said with a proud face.

“I will graduate from the military academy soon. Since we can decide our affiliation after fighting the first subjugation battle, when that time comes, I will definitely apply to be Lord Haydam’s adjutant.”

I don’t even have any rank yet, but he speaks so easily of applying to be my adjutant.

Well, I am scheduled to get a rank starting from this subjugation battle too.

Although I don’t know what rank my dictator father will give me, since my appointment as an operations officer will be at least at the battalion level, it will probably be captain or major.

But what I want to request is not a story of after graduation.

The fact that this guy is coming as my adjutant is already decided by me.

“What I want to ask is not about after graduation.”

“Then…?”

“I understand that Plato will be giving the graduation speech at this graduation ceremony, is that correct?”

Plato showed an expression as if he had heard something unexpected.

“Do you mean the graduation speech?”

“Yes.”

“I am indeed doing it, but… the favor you want to ask is…”

Toward Plato, who already wore an anxious expression, I said with a smile.

“During the graduation speech, there is one thing I want you to do.”

* * *

After sending Plato back, I lay down on the bed in my private room.

‘I can finally get some rest now.’

Although I had been hospitalized for a while after being shot by that Unicorn player bastard.

There were too many eyes watching in the hospital, so I couldn’t even rest properly.

Come to think of it, since I always had to act repeatedly even at the commander’s residence, this private room might be the freest space.

‘Now that I think about it, I should also set up a countermeasure against the Unicorn player bastard.’

Although that guy said the one he wanted to kill was CornerHoney, and he had ‘no intention yet’ of harming me.

I couldn’t just sit still relying only on the fact that he was favorable to me now, could I?

It was right at that moment that the notification of the public chat room rang.

[God: I have a proposal for everyone~]

‘A proposal?’

The player of Love Zone, God.

He is a strangely uncomfortable fellow.

Should I say it felt like… he was talking with a forced high tension?

Seeing that even that HomeProtector guy said it was uncomfortable, I probably wasn’t the only one feeling this way.

‘He didn’t seem to be doing any conspicuous actions so far… and suddenly he has something to propose?’

The following chat of God was an interesting topic for me as well.

[God: You know, I confirmed that our Love Zone doesn’t have a barrier between zones!]

That’s fast.

Did he already go all the way to the border between zones where the barrier is?

‘The closest zone to Love Zone… is Cigarette Zone, where HomeProtector is located.’

Since the land where humanity could live after the First Apocalypse was not much.

Except for Unicorn Zone, which was a floating island, and Beer Zone, which was a large submarine, you could think of us as living divided into zones on a landmass about the size of the Korean Peninsula.

If Cola Zone, which was the northernmost, was assumed to be around below North Hamgyong Province, the closest to us was Cocaine Zone, which was around Gangwon Province.

Floating above that was Unicorn Zone, and the one located around Busan was Knife Zone.

Love Zone and Cigarette Zone were around Gyeonggi Province, and Chicken and Candy Zones were around Jeju Island?

Anyway, the closest one to Love Zone, where God was, was HomeProtector.

Even though God sent a chat saying he confirmed there was no barrier, HomeProtector was not appearing in the chat window.

‘The guy who usually checks instantly whenever a chat comes…’

Although it might be because he wasn’t unemployed anymore and couldn’t appear first.

It didn’t seem likely that HomeProtector was ‘coincidentally’ busy when God sent this kind of chat.

He hadn’t sent me chats lately either.

‘Either something happened, or he already made contact with that God fellow… is it one of the two?’

When no one replied, God sent another chat.

[God: So, I’m going to make a proposal to you guys~]

God’s chat stopped there.

Only then did the other players appear one by one.

[Dentist: What proposal are you talking about?]

[Druggie: Is that… related to the lack of a barrier?]

[SsapPossible: Just tell us what the proposal is.]

It seemed the other guys were also watching the chats sent by God.

To the question of what proposal it was, God replied.

[God: Let’s meet up!]

Meet… up?

‘With what thoughts in mind is he saying this?’

As if I wasn’t the only one flustered, no more chats were uploaded, and there was a brief hesitation.

The first to ask back was Druggie.

[Druggie: Meet up…?]

[Druggie: Do you mean meeting in person?]

[God: Yeah! We’re curious about each other!]

[Druggie: What are you going to do after meeting?]

[God: Well, eat some food and chat a bit?]

[God: Has everyone never done an offline meetup while gaming? haha]

Meeting other players just to hold an offline meetup?

[IDontCryThatIsCardio: Oh! I’ve never done an offline meetup. It sounds like fun!]

Although the Chicken Zone player sent a positive reply, the reactions of the other players to God’s light proposal were not good.

[SsapPossible: His head is a flower garden.]

[Druggie: I didn’t do offline meetups to begin with…]

[Dentist: I hate to say this, but I think you probably have a lot of cavities.]

Amidst the flood of malicious comments.

SsapPossible seemed to think God was making such a proposal because his head was a flower garden, but my opinion was a bit different.

‘There is no way he would have confirmed the presence of the barrier this quickly without any thoughts.’

God was definitely proposing a meeting with a certain purpose.

Seeing how he even confirmed the presence of the barrier before proposing this meeting, it seemed certain that he had an intention.

‘Why is he trying to meet other players?’

If I had confirmed that the barrier disappeared, I would have strengthened security first.

Because I had no intention of contacting players from other zones until the Second Apocalypse arrived.

Right now, everyone is a ten-year-old child lacking power and a foundation.

I don’t think they would want to show themselves in front of other players in this state.

‘God… how likely is it that this guy also has an adult body like the fellow from Unicorn Zone?’

While God’s motives were suspicious, Druggie spoke up first.

[Druggie: If you have a purpose, I’d rather you be honest about it.]

[God: A purpose?]

[Druggie: You are extremely suspicious right now…?]

[God: My, my~ I proposed this out of goodwill, though.]

Despite Druggie’s pointing it out, God answered slyly.

[God: We are a community of destiny that suddenly possessed a game one day, after all.]

[God: If we can’t trust each other, how will we prevent the apocalypse in the future~?]

[Druggie: How can I trust and meet you, or rather, the people in this room? Especially since we found out just a while ago that there were two Dopamine Addicts in this room.]

Ah, am I being mentioned here again?

[Druggie: Dopamine Addict, that person is a famous hedonist…]

It was news to me that I was famous for such a thing.

[Druggie: No, in the first place, seeing how he hasn’t made a single explanation even though it was noisy with two Dopamine Addicts, it’s clear that he has no intention of cooperating with us, isn’t it?]

[God: I don’t think Dopamine Addict will cooperate either~]

[Druggie: And T-Bastard in Knife Zone? It was strange from the beginning that he only contacts Dopamine Addict. HomeProtector, who hasn’t appeared yet, is also famous as a follower of Dopamine Addict, and so is SsapPossible.]

[SsapPossible: Why bring me up when I’m minding my own business?]

This is the first time I’ve seen this Druggie person talk this much.

[God: Well, although I said at first that I’m a fan of Dopamine Addict~ I am purely a good-natured player, but—]

While God was making some excuse, Druggie brought up unexpected words.

[Druggie: God, you seem to think I wouldn’t know you.]

[Druggie: I know you.]