Chapter 42 – Watching a Fire Across the River

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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[Druggie: God, you seem to think I wouldn’t know you, but I’ve seen you in the community before, you know?]

[Druggie: You didn’t speak with that kind of tone.]

[Druggie: Why are you acting like your head is full of flowers when it doesn’t even suit you?]

It seemed Druggie knew the player named God.

Seeing that God did not refute the claim that he didn’t originally talk like that, was his current high tension indeed fabricated?

[Druggie: Even if Dentist, who is a newbie, doesn’t know, anyone who knows anything knows that you guys are not normal players.]

[Druggie: I’ll make it clear this time. Any player who crosses into my zone will be considered an enemy.]

Although I shared the same opinion as Druggie that anyone who crossed into my zone was an enemy…

Seeing him react this violently, it seemed Druggie was feeling fear toward the other players.

Well, it was only natural to feel anxious if one was suddenly possessed into a game and the people possessed alongside him were social misfits.

[God: No, why are you so prickly?]

After remaining silent for a moment, God sent a chat.

[God: Common sense-wise, what do we stand to gain by being hostile? Although I agree that Dopamine Addict won’t be of any help to us.]

How sharp of them.

[SsapPossible: I’m also against meeting up.]

SsapPossible, who seemed to have been quietly watching the situation, said.

[SsapPossible: In the first place, I’m still in the sea, you know?]

[SsapPossible: With my current influence, I can’t even go up to the land at will.]

[SsapPossible: If you guys are planning to plot among yourselves, I won’t just stand by, so keep that in mind.]

[God: No, plotting—]

[SsapPossible: If any of you contact each other before the First Apocalypse.]

[SsapPossible: I will sink the submarine itself into the sea, so keep that in mind.]

Sink the submarine…?

SsapPossible’s chat continued to flow.

[SsapPossible: Although I can’t drag the submarine up to the land, I can definitely make a hole somewhere and sink it, you know?]

[SsapPossible: Even if this submarine sinks to the bottom of the sea and the meteor attached to the propulsion engine can never be found again, I don’t care, so go ahead and meet.]

[God: If you sink the submarine, wouldn’t you die too?]

[SsapPossible: Whether I die from being isolated or die from drowning, it’s the same anyway.]

[God: No, are you serious?]

God, who had proposed the meeting, also seemed flustered by SsapPossible’s extreme attitude.

[SsapPossible: You guys need the meteor item in my zone, don’t you?]

[SsapPossible: I’m not the only one who thought about this, right?]

[SsapPossible: Maybe if we gather all the meteor items, we might be able to return home.]

Eh.

[IDontCryThatIsCardio: I-I’ve never thought about that?!]

[Dentist: If you gather all the meteor items, you can return? Is that true? Does that appear in the game?]

[SsapPossible: The bastard whose brain is all muscle and the newbie should stay out of this.]

Although I didn’t particularly agree with SsapPossible’s thoughts… the other veterans seemed to think differently.

[Druggie: I… I also thought it wouldn’t be for no reason that only the meteor items have this kind of power…]

[God: It’s not without sense. If the system opened upon contact with a meteor item, then it’s certain that the meteor item has some power.]

A brief silence hung over the chat room, and God sent the rest of his message.

[God: This… can’t be helped then.]

[God: So, SsapPossible, you are not only refusing to meet with us but also opposing other people meeting up, right?]

[SsapPossible: Yes! If any of you interact and join forces before I go up to the land—]

[SsapPossible: I will sink the Beer Zone’s meteor along with the submarine.]

SsapPossible… I was certain his personality wasn’t this extreme before.

Since he had been only in the sea since possession, his mental state must have become quite unstable.

The other players seemed to think there was credibility to the claim that they could return home if they gathered all the meteor items.

Well.

I was a bit skeptical.

Although I was also trying to collect all the meteor items, it was purely to conquer this world.

Even if I gathered them, I didn’t think I would be able to return home.

Regardless of my feeling of not wanting to return home… I felt like this world wouldn’t let us go that easily.

It was then.

That ‘he’ sent a chat.

[Dopamine Addict: That would be troublesome, though?]

I doubted my eyes for a moment.

Although it was a chat uploaded with my nickname, it wasn’t a chat I sent.

‘The Unicorn Zone player!’

Another one of his chats followed immediately.

[Dopamine Addict: Because I already met them ^^]

‘This bastard?’

He said he had no intention of harming me, but no matter how I looked at it, this was a chat sent to screw me over.

Since it seemed things would get more complicated if I intervened as well, I decided to watch the situation for a moment.

Sure enough, the other players were greatly flustered by the sudden appearance of Dopamine Addict.

[Druggie: Dopamine Addict?]

[Dentist: No, why are you only appearing now?]

[God: What do you mean you already met?]

[SsapPossible: What are you thinking? Did you send the last message?]

[Druggie: No, but there is no guarantee that the side sending messages now is the real Dopamine Addict either, is there?]

The players buzzed with excitement for a moment, and then the Chicken Zone player asked cautiously.

[IDontCryThatIsCardio: Is, is that the Dopamine Addict we know…?]

I watched to see what the imposter bastard would reply.

[Dopamine Addict: ^^]

The guy just sent a single smile emoticon.

No, is this bastard really planning to pretend to be me?

[SsapPossible: This bastard isn’t Dopamine Addict.]

‘He recognizes it from that?’

However, the other players also seemed to have judged that the one sending the message now wasn’t me, as they quickly began to wrap up the chat.

[Dentist: Let’s, let’s refrain from chatting in this room now. A person we don’t know is watching our conversation, after all.]

[Dopamine Addict: haha]

[God: I agree. The meeting is dismissed, so if anything happens, do it through one-on-one chat.]

[SsapPossible: No, where did Dopamine Addict and that HomeProtector bastard go? Did they die?]

With that conversation as the last, the Unicorn player bastard also sent no more messages, so the public chat room quickly fell silent.

To scatter as soon as a second Dopamine Addict appeared.

It was clear that his existence was a huge anxiety factor for the other players as well.

Although he had informed them that there was no barrier and hadn’t done any great harm yet… his existence itself felt somewhat ominous.

As if he would ruin everything someday.

It was then that a chat came from T-Bastard.

[T-Bastard: Is the player that imposter said he already met by any chance you?]

[Dopamine Addict: How did you know?]

[T-Bastard: Because there’s no way a guy running around impersonating you would be interested in players other than you.]

It made sense. However.

[Dopamine Addict: What I asked was, how did you recognize that he was an imposter.]

[T-Bastard: Because the way he talked was even more obnoxious than usual.]

Does this mean the way I usually talked was indeed obnoxious?

[T-Bastard: Did that guy come to find you first?]

[Dopamine Addict: Yeah.]

[T-Bastard: Seeing that you’re fine… nothing happened, I guess?]

[Dopamine Addict: Hmm. I got shot once by the gun he fired, but he said he has no intention of harming me.]

[T-Bastard: What are you talking about?]

[Dopamine Addict: About that imposter. What exact conversation did you have with him?]

[Dopamine Addict: You said you mistook him for me because he knew the conversation we had.]

To my question, T-Bastard did not reply for a moment as if he had gone to check the chat logs of that time, and then reappeared just when I was getting bored of waiting.

[T-Bastard: After receiving the text that exchange between zones is possible, I asked him if he had found out anything.]

[T-Bastard: Then he said, ‘You always said you’d kill me, yet you’re asking me about this?’]

[T-Bastard: So I thought it was you. Because he knew I told you I’d kill you every time… The other players entered after that conversation, so they wouldn’t have seen what we talked about.]

Before making friends with T-Bastard, he did indeed send me death threats through the public chat room.

‘Could it be… that he was in that room from the very beginning? Even before T-Bastard and I entered the public chat room…?’

Since it also took me a day to open the system.

If he fell in Unicorn Zone, the probability that he opened the system before me was indeed high.

Unicorn Zone’s meteor… since that was the ‘floating island’ itself that made up Unicorn Zone.

‘But how did he know that T-Bastard kept threatening to kill me even after that?’

Although T-Bastard declared he would kill me in the public chat room.

Since he did not appear in the public chat room at all after that and even sent a chat to him first.

A player who didn’t know the relationship between T-Bastard and me would have thought that the relationship between T-Bastard and me wasn’t bad if they received that message.

Therefore, the answer ‘You always said you’d kill me, yet you’re asking me about this?’ could not have come from simple speculation.

‘Did he hack the system with Unicorn’s scientific power?’

No, if that were the case, he wouldn’t have bothered to come confirm me.

If he could see the conversations I had, there would have been no need for confirmation.

‘He cannot see our conversations.’

However, he knows that T-Bastard wants to kill me.

…What is he really?

Even if he was a remnant of an AI or myself who had hardened into an NPC… that was strictly ‘the past me.’

The conversation I shared with T-Bastard was a conversation shared after entering here.

Could it be that the ones who know that are only the real me and the future me?

‘I really have no idea what kind of guy he is…’

[T-Bastard: What is it? Did you find out something?]

[Dopamine Addict: No, I have no idea at all.]

[T-Bastard: You… is it really okay to just leave that guy alone?]

[Dopamine Addict: I’m planning to think about it a bit more for now.]

[Dopamine Addict: Come to think of it, they say there is no barrier between zones. Do you want to cross over to my zone?]

[T-Bastard: No.]

A flat refusal?

[T-Bastard: Even if I can handle the local residents with this body, I don’t think I can reach your zone while handling large-class monsters. I don’t think you’d come all the way to this zone just to save me either. As you said, I will hide here, build my strength, and then go out.]

Although it sounded like he was saying he would endure more for realistic reasons on the surface…

‘This guy… is wary of me?’

If he really wanted to come to my zone, asking me first if I could come save him would be the priority.

However, he said he would come out after raising his strength more.

It seemed he had vaguely realized that I was aiming for the items, and was planning to meet me on equal footing after building his strength.

Well… since I also thought it would be more fun to meet him after he became stronger, should I leave him be?

[Dopamine Addict: Fine. Let me know if you need anything.]

[T-Bastard: Need anything? Hmm…]

Usually, he would dive and disappear even if I asked like this, but seeing him linger without disappearing immediately today, it seemed there was indeed something he needed.

[T-Bastard: Actually, there is something I need…]

[Dopamine Addict: There is? What is it?]

[T-Bastard: There is no soap.]

[Dopamine Addict: …Huh?]

So…ap?

[T-Bastard: I need soap.]

[T-Bastard: A toothbrush and toothpaste too…]

[T-Bastard: Why are you quiet? Are you listening?]

[Dopamine Addict: Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha]

[T-Bastard: Fuck.]

[Dopamine Addict: This bastard is so freaking clean hahahahahahahahahahahahaha]

[T-Bastard: Stop laughing.]

[Dopamine Addict: Hahahahahahahahaha wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww]

[T-Bastard: I will really kill you when I get out of here.]

This guy is really a funny bastard too.

* * *

“Oh dear.”

Closing the public chat room, God of Love Zone let out a deep sigh of regret.

“I didn’t expect the Beer Zone player to act this firmly… What is Dopamine Addict thinking that he remains completely silent?”

Actually, he had thought that if he arranged a meeting between players, Dopamine Addict would definitely show up.

To extort the meteor items of the other players who appeared at that spot.

Since he himself had also tried to arrange the meeting for that very purpose.

‘Could it be… that he doesn’t need the meteors? That can’t be…’

Thinking quietly, God shook his head.

“In any case, I need them. The meteors of all zones.”

For that, he must not stimulate the Beer Zone player.

Because if he really sank it to the bottom of the sea, there would be no way to do anything about it.

“Then for now… it means I have to hide that I met another player… Ah, but since this isn’t cooperating or joining forces, would it be fine?”

After mumbling for a long time, God looked back at the ‘player’ tied to the chair.

Smiling at him, he asked softly.

“What do you think, HomeProtector?”