Chapter 77 – Divorce (3)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“…”

“…”

The inside of the drawing room was quiet.

Amidst no one opening their mouth first.

I stared blankly at Shin, who was sitting opposite me.

‘Although I expected it… it is indeed surprising to see her actually here.’

A pure white dress like mourning garb.

The Love Zone was a place where East and West were subtly blended, so it was an understandable outfit.

However, what did not make sense was the presence of the meteor earrings dangling from her ears.

‘Coming into my zone… and she didn’t even put it in her inventory?’

There was only one thing I demanded when I sent Shrike back to the Love Zone.

If you want to prevent the Second Apocalypse, bring the meteor items to me.

…I think I might have said it a bit more gently.

At any rate, it was no different from me abruptly demanding the meteor items through Shin’s messenger.

‘Although I thought she would make a bold choice…’

She could have ignored my words, but to think she would appear before me wearing even the meteor items as if showing them off.

“…By the way, why is no one saying anything?”

Unable to endure the silence, Meursault was the first to speak.

Meursault glanced back and forth between me and the Commander, then asked cautiously as if unable to contain his curiosity.

“Uh… I heard that the young lady came looking for Lord Haydam directly, is that correct?”

At Meursault’s question, Shin only nodded with an incomprehensible smile on her lips.

Whether he took Shin’s nod as meaning he could ask anything, Meursault suddenly leaned closer to Shin and asked.

“By any chance, what is your relationship with Lord Haydam…?”

“Meursault.”

When I called his name with the meaning to cut it out, Meursault wore an aggrieved expression.

“No, of all things, she is a guest who came from the Love Zone, which has a significant name, so can’t I ask what kind of relationship you have?”

Of all things, he was talking about the Love Zone having a significant name.

Even if exchanges between safe zones were rare, they would still have all the names of other zones figured out.

It was not as if he was a middle-aged man anxious to hook up young kids whenever he saw them.

“Father.”

As I looked at the Commander, signaling him to send Meursault out, the Commander nodded and said.

“It is not a strange thing, since I also crossed over from another zone and met Luna Moon.”

These old men, they don’t listen.

Come to think of it, this bastard Meursault had admired Daphne all his life without even sharing a cup of tea, and the Commander was a legendary romantic who, despite being married, babbled about taking responsibility for the woman Luna Moon entrusted to him.

Perhaps because they were from a dating sim, they were of no help in this kind of conversation.

“We’ll talk in private for a moment, so please step out…”

“Nothing hard about that.”

“Oh dear… my apologies. We were tactless.”

I was certain he was acting cheeky on purpose.

“Get lost quickly, Meursault.”

“Just in case, I will leave the door open before going.”

“Is he a lunatic…?”

After raising my middle finger to Meursault, who was talking nonsense till the end, and kicking him out, a small chuckle was heard.

It was Shin’s laughter.

“Why are you laughing?”

“No…”

When I asked in Korean, Shin also replied in Korean.

“It seems I misunderstood you all this time.”

“What misunderstanding?”

“I thought you were a hopeless psychopath.”

What?

No, although this fellow indeed seemed to think of me that way.

To say that right to my face now… had she changed her mind?

“I did not expect you to call Commander Hayden ‘Father’ so familiarly. And it seems you didn’t poison Meursault, either.”

It was not simply a sarcastic tone accusing me of playing house with NPCs.

It was a murmur that sounded somewhat relieved.

A murmur that seemed to have found some possibility.

“You, you didn’t do that in the original walkthrough. Why did you keep both of them alive?”

“That’s because they are necessary.”

“If they are necessary, you don’t harm them. Is that your rule?”

I had never particularly thought of it as a rule, but since Shin asked with a rather serious face, I gave a brief nod.

“Well… yes.”

“If that’s the case, it seems I don’t need to fear you right now.”

I didn’t know what she was talking about since earlier, but seeing how I got along with the Cola Zone NPCs, she seemed to have judged that it was different from what she thought.

It meant that, at least judging from what she saw directly, I wasn’t to the level of a psychopath.

“Why do you fear me? I don’t harm players. I even let your messenger go alive.”

“That would be because he was ‘necessary’.”

Shin left a brief word filled with her own insight and smiled faintly.

“Honestly, when I heard from the messenger that you seemed to have already seized control of the military… it was truly terrifying.”

“Seizing control of the military? Did that guy Shrike or whatever say that?”

“Yes. Since he said you were commanding the military instead of the Commander, I thought you had already killed the Commander and Meursault. It seems my messenger misunderstood something.”

That fellow Shrike, he must have exaggerated tremendously after returning to the Love Zone.

It was worth scaring him.

I stared at Shin blankly and said.

“You are similar to what I thought.”

As I said that, Shin’s eyes widened as if surprised.

“Similar to what you thought? What did you think of me?”

“I thought you would be bold. Though I didn’t expect you to visit in person. By the way…”

Resting my chin on the armrest of the chair, I asked.

“Did the messenger not convey other words?”

“Other words?”

“He must have conveyed more important words.”

“Ah… that story. Actually, I still don’t know how to take it, but…”

Shin kept her eyes lowered for a moment, then murmured quietly.

“All-zone clearer perk…”

Shin, who pronounced the words smoothly as if rolling a bead in her mouth, looked at me and asked.

“Dopamine Addict. Is it true… that you can prevent the Second Apocalypse?”

“Of course it’s true.”

As I spun the lie instantly without even a change in expression, another voice, not Shin’s, pierced my mind.

[You really have no conscience…]

‘…!’

Although I froze for a moment at the sudden voice, I soon realized it was Luna’s voice.

‘Have you become able to send telepathy now too?’

I murmured inwardly, wondering if she could hear my thoughts, and fortunately it worked as a reply came back from Luna.

[It’s because other meteors are nearby.]

‘Other meteors? Those earrings?’

[Yes. The more meteors gather, the more I can use the power of my main body.]

The power of… the main body?

I didn’t think that small, squishy, fluffy body about the size of a fist I had seen so far would be called the main body.

‘So that wasn’t your main body?’

[Of course not! I told you, I was born much earlier than you. I wasn’t originally a baby like this.]

Hmm.

No wonder she looked too young to have been born more than ten years ago.

So this wasn’t her main body?

Her mental age fits her current size perfectly, though…

[Don’t think rude thoughts! I can hear everything right now!]

While Luna grumbled via telepathy, Shin just stared at me intently, as if deep in thought.

Shin, silent for a long time, opened her mouth and said.

“You can prevent the Second Apocalypse? Don’t lie.”

[This girl isn’t falling for it.]

Well, if she had believed it immediately, that would have been disappointing in its own way.

Shin raised her eyes, stared quietly at me, and began to speak softly.

“Gathering nine meteor items will grant the power to prevent the Second Apocalypse… No matter how I think about it, there’s no way the all-zone clearer perk would be that vague. You must have received something more specific as a perk.”

“Are you saying I lied about the contents of the perk?”

[Even though you actually did…]

Listening to Luna’s voice murmuring as if it were the voice of my conscience, I continued.

“Tell me what you think the all-zone clearer perk actually is.”

“At most, it would be letting you use titles or items as they were.”

[Sharp.]

I agreed that Shin was far sharper than expected.

I only thought she wouldn’t believe what I said; I didn’t know she would go beyond that and predict it accurately.

‘At this rate… it seems I can entrust about one meteor item to her.’

As I said before, I have no intention of holding all the meteor items myself.

Because I have no intention of becoming a target due to greed.

Having all the meteor items in my hands must wait at least until after I deal with the player of the Unicorn Zone.

So the statement that I don’t harm them if they are necessary is true.

Since she is the first system-unlocked player I have met, excluding the guy from the Unicorn Zone.

If I could coax her well and make her peacefully transfer ‘one of the meteors she possesses’ to me, it would be absolutely perfect.

[Gasp! How did you know she has more meteors besides the earrings? By any chance, can you feel it too?]

Seeing her ask if I could feel it too, it seemed Luna was indeed capable of detecting the presence of other meteors.

After all, she did say earlier that it was because the meteors were close that she could send something like telepathy.

Thanks to that, I was able to know that she possessed other items besides the earrings.

‘You said meteors in the plural. Even if the earrings are a pair, I didn’t think you would refer to them in the plural.’

[Meow! Right, that’s what I did…]

Since Luna kindly re-confirmed that there were multiple like this, the items Shin currently held were probably two.

A pair of earrings from the Love Zone, and…

‘Is it the pistol seized from HomeProtector?’

It would be better to receive the earrings from her if possible.

Having decided so, I opened my mouth and spoke.

“Shin. Your words make sense too. But there is something you don’t know.”

“Something I don’t know?”

“A ‘God’ really exists in this world.”

[What?]

“What?”

Luna, why are you getting surprised along with her?

“I wondered what you were going to talk about…”

Shin wore a contemptuous smile on her lips.

“Are you trying to counter-walkthrough me, who is running a cult walkthrough? Surely, you don’t think I’ll fall for it, do you?”

[Ah, what.]

Complaints also burst out from Luna.

[You said there is a God, so I wondered what you were saying, but it was just another scam?]

‘Could you call it a walkthrough instead of a scam?’

“Shin.”

I added in a soft voice.

“Have you ever thought about the reason we were possessed into this world?”

While looking suspicious of the intention behind the question, Shin answered me readily.

“We went to the convenience store at the address you posted and got possessed. Weren’t you also possessed at the convenience store?”

“That is the method of possession, not the reason.”

“Are you trying to say there is another reason for our possession?”

“Yes. Precisely, there was a ‘purpose’.”

“A purpose…?”

Even if she didn’t believe me, Shin’s head tilted slightly toward me, as if curious about what I was trying to say.

I smiled faintly and continued.

“The purpose of possessing us into this world. That is to prevent the end of this world.”

At that, Shin scoffed.

“Possessed to prevent the end? I can say such things too.”

I regardless of whether Shin ridiculed me or not, I continued.

“A player of ‘your level’ must already know that this world isn’t just inside a game.”

“…Of course I know this isn’t a simple game.”

As I spoke with a nuance of acknowledging her, Shin admitted my words without much resistance.

That didn’t mean she accepted the existence of God, though.

“But that doesn’t prove the existence of God.”

“Why do you think they didn’t just possess us directly, but went out of their way to make us run walkthroughs for years in the ‘Safe Zones’ identical to this world?”

When I asked that, Shin’s eyes wavered slightly, as if it was a part she hadn’t thought about deeply.

“That was practice for saving this world from the end. Because the God of this world needed ‘veterans’ to save the world.”

“Needed… veterans?”

“Yes. And among them, I, who cleared all zones, was granted the power to prevent the end.”

[Even though I know you’re just talking nonsense, it sounds plausible. That is also a talent of sorts.]

Shin fell silent for a moment, then replied with a still-smiling face.

“It was plausible, but I cannot believe the words that God ‘possessed me’ because He needed me. Since you don’t know about my ‘possession,’ it’s a pity I cannot acknowledge the existence of ‘God’ either.”

Although she was saying she couldn’t believe me, unlike a moment ago, it was a stiff smile.

If so, I should drive the wedge home here.

I opened my mouth and said.

“You chose the Love Zone on purpose, didn’t you? Even though you knew you would get possessed.”

“…!!”

At my words, Shin looked at me with startled eyes.