Chapter 79 – Divorce (5)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Love Zone player Shin.

Shin Eun-jo’s grandmother was a famous Korean high shaman.

Whether it was a politician with massive power or a globally famous star, anyone who came to ask her grandmother for help behaved politely even to her, the grandmother’s granddaughter.

Shin Eun-jo did not dislike people bowing down toward her.

Ten years old.

When she began to suffer and waste away from an illness of unknown cause.

Shin Eun-jo did not doubt that she would become the next great shaman, and she wanted to.

However, the very day before she was to receive the initiation rite.

‘It wasn’t a spirit sickness…’

Even without receiving the initiation rite, the illness had cleared up completely.

Since her grandmother’s spiritual daughters had already been gathered for Shin Eun-jo’s initiation rite, Shin Eun-jo thought she would be severely scolded.

However, her grandmother did not rebuke Shin Eun-jo.

“…So it has ended up like this after all.”

It was as if she had known that Shin Eun-jo’s illness was not a spirit sickness, but.

Shin Eun-jo, whose feeling of apology toward her grandmother was greater, did not press further for the meaning of those words.

An illness that made her live in pain for a year, only to disappear overnight.

What was stranger than that was that from that very day, her grandmother began to teach Shin Eun-jo the things she needed to learn to live as a ‘shaman.’

Shin Eun-jo did not know the reason, but because she respected her grandmother, she did her best to learn.

Since her grandmother taught Shin Eun-jo many things and bequeathed many things to her.

The knowledge she learned in that way became a great help to Shin Eun-jo later when she played a fake shaman.

Around the time Shin Eun-jo turned twenty.

To her, who had spent a normal school life, no belief in shamanism remained.

Because she considered her spirit sickness to be merely an unknown rare childhood disease, and that her grandmother also knew this, and that the initiation rite was merely a noisy scam.

‘So my grandmother, who was respected and called a great shaman, must have simply been a human with outstanding insight.’

Thinking so put her mind at ease.

Because while she was attending school in Seoul, the ‘great shaman’ met her death from an assault by some thug claiming he did not believe in ‘superstition.’

‘If she were a real great shaman, there’s no way she wouldn’t have known she would die.’

If she had known in advance, even if it were an unavoidable death.

She should have left at least a word for me.

“…So, it has ended up like this after all.”

On days when the words her grandmother had said when her spirit sickness was cured suddenly came to mind, she suffered terribly.

Because it felt as if she would have accepted her own final moment in that way.

After agonizing for days on end, Shin Eun-jo made up her mind one day.

That she would not let that fucking bastard who killed her grandmother—a normal person who was just good at giving advice, leaving behind more words to help others than words left for her own granddaughter throughout her life—go unpunished.

However, by then, that bastard was already in prison, and since his sentencing was not light, even if he were released as a model prisoner, there was no telling when it would be.

Therefore, Shin Eun-jo used the things she inherited from her grandmother to begin playing a fake shaman.

If she couldn’t take action herself, to make that bastard suffer for the rest of his life by using other people, power, and connections.

‘Although I resolved so…’

Imitating a shaman was not easy either.

The things that looked easy when her grandmother did them did not go as she wanted when she tried to do them herself.

Although she was well-versed in knowledge like physiognomy and feng shui learned from her grandmother, reading through people was a tremendously difficult task.

To the point where she wondered if a god had indeed possessed her grandmother.

“It would have been nice if I could have received the initiation rite back then.”

Sitting in the empty shrine without a single customer, Shin Eun-jo murmured in hollow defeat.

If that had really been a spirit sickness back then, perhaps I might have known in advance that Grandmother would pass away.

At that moment when, due to the impulsively set up shrine, the revenge she hadn’t even started, and the despair that felt as though she could never even catch up to her grandmother’s toes, tears rolled down from one of her eyes without her realizing.

That man came visiting.

Black, pitch-black hair.

He was a man with hair so exceptionally black even for a Korean that it made her stare at it blankly.

That man opened his neat lips.

“Why are you crying?”

When he asked that, Shin Eun-jo blurted out everything before she knew it.

Her revenge plan, her grandmother’s death, her past of wanting to become a shaman, and even her failure to receive the initiation rite.

The man listened to her story to the end with a face that hid what he was thinking.

However, she remembered clearly that he did not look bored in the slightest.

After pouring out everything, Shin Eun-jo wiped her tear-stained face and said.

“I, I don’t have any god I serve. So you just go back, mister. I’m sorry for trying to deceive you.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. The reason you weren’t permitted another god is because of my father.”

“What…?”

When Shin Eun-jo was puzzled by the sudden mention of his father, the man wore a handsome smile and added.

“My father likes you. Someday, you too will receive the calling of the Father in heaven.”

“Ah… that father…”

‘Is it okay for a Christian to come for a shamanic reading…?’

He was a strange man, but it was comforting.

“More than that, I came because I have something to ask you.”

“You’re trying to ask me even though I’m a fraud?”

“Unfortunately, there is no one else who can give me an opinion besides you.”

With that, what the man pulled out from his suit bag was.

“A game cartridge…?”

“I made a game according to my father’s will. I am curious if this game will appeal to young people.”

“Ah…”

Wondering if he had developed some Christian game, Shin Eun-jo received the game cartridge the man handed over and read the title written on it without thinking.

“Middle-Aged Handsome Men Dating Simula… tion…?”

“How is it? Is the title seductive from the start?”

“…”

‘Was it not Christianity but a cult?’

Although the title of the game, Middle-Aged Handsome Men Dating Simulation, was strange, Shin Eun-jo, who had already received considerable comfort from the man, promised to play it herself and tell him her thoughts.

“Even though I’m not a real shaman… I am a young person. If I play it, I think I can tell you whether it will appeal to young people.”

“I would be grateful if you did. In return, I will grant you one wish.”

“My wish…?”

‘Is he doing this because he’s afraid I’ll ask for a consultation fee…?’

Since she had no intention of receiving a consultation fee from that man anyway, Shin Eun-jo nodded.

“Ah, my wish is…”

“There is no need to speak it.”

“Yes?”

“Because it has already been granted.”

“…”

‘He must have said that because he was really afraid I’d ask for a consultation fee…’

If he came to find a fraud shaman to ask if the game he made was fun, his financial situation was likely not good.

“You… don’t have to pay a fee.”

When Shin Eun-jo spoke so, the man chuckled.

“You do not believe my words. But you will believe them soon.”

Then he added in a soft voice.

“God’s miracle.”

‘A cult…’

With those final words, the man left the shrine.

Shin Eun-jo played Middle-Aged Handsome Men Dating Simulation all night, and barely saw one ending.

She wrote down her impressions to the email address in the business card the man left behind.

[Recipient: [email protected]

Hello, mister. I am the owner of the shrine who came for the reading today… (omitted) In my opinion, no matter how much it’s a middle-aged handsome men dating game, Hayden’s age seems too high, and it’s also a bit of a shame that the playable point is limited to being a soldier. By the way, is the Commander’s face modeled after you, mister? You are handsome, mister, but the players of this game might feel a bit uncomfortable… And… ]

No reply came to the email she wrote so honestly.

Seeing that not even a read receipt was checked all day, let alone a reply, she thought there might have been a typo in the email address on the card, or the man might have blurted out anything in embarrassment after hearing she was a fake shaman.

And the next day.

She heard from the detective in charge that the thug who killed her grandmother was found dead miserably inside prison.

“The guard said it looked exactly like he was bitten to death by a beast. And a beast with countless teeth at that.”

Why she thought of that man’s voice saying she would soon believe in God’s miracle at that moment was a mystery.

Shin Eun-jo was seized with an unknown terror, and by the time she regained her senses, she had deleted all traces of her play and the impression email.

The object presumed to be the game cartridge she received from the man lay burned to ashes inside the sink.

And starting from that day.

She began to read other people’s thoughts clearly.

Shin Eun-jo decided to think of this as the ‘granted wish’ the man spoke of.

The business card had vanished somewhere anyway, and no matter how she tried, she couldn’t remember the email address.

In that way, she lived forgetting that man for a while.

Until she learned of the existence of ‘Apocalypse: Safe Zone,’ which was an homage to ‘Middle-Aged Handsome Men Dating Simulation.’

“Oh? This…”

In that game, Hayden appeared as a young man of about thirty, and besides Luna Moon, who was presumably the dating sim player’s perspective, a female NPC named Daphne was added.

Though Hayden’s face still resembled that man.

“…So you did read my email.”

Since the game titled ‘Middle-Aged Handsome Men Dating Simulation’ was never released after that, she had forgotten it completely, but.

When she received proof from an unexpected game that the incident with that man was not a dream or an illusion, she somehow became afraid, and at the same time, wanted to verify the end of this game.

In that way, Shin Eun-jo started Safe Zone.

And she came to know about Dopamine Addict.

At first, she thought Dopamine Addict was that man.

Because the atmosphere radiating from the customization of the Cola Zone was somehow similar to that man.

‘He probably just customized it to look similar to Commander Hayden. He is the creator of the bastard child walkthrough, after all.’

But then, another strange thing happened.

The veterans who headed to the convenience store address posted by Dopamine Addict began to go missing.

Since Shin Eun-jo had already experienced the mysterious event of the sudden death of her revenge target long ago.

She instinctively felt that it was not a normal disappearance.

‘I must go too.’

Since her revenge had ended so hollowly, she had lived without any goals or purpose.

Therefore, even upon hearing the news that people were going missing, her desire to verify with her own eyes felt stronger than fear.

Without knowing what on earth was waiting in that convenience store, Shin Eun-jo decided to go there.

During her first visit, she left without choosing any item.

No matter who looked, they were symbols pointing to the nine Safe Zones.

Perhaps, this was an opportunity.

The last opportunity to escape a false life in which she would have to live as a fake shaman forever.

Directly, Shin Eun-jo gathered other players and made them choose the symbol of the same zone as her.

In that way, she was possessed into the game.

And at this very moment, she was looking at the unbelievable landscape created by Dopamine Addict.

“Unbelievable…”

The dark clouds swirling and dissipating following Dopamine Addict’s hand gestures were a bizarre scene that could never be processed by the cognitive ability of an ordinary human.

A feeling that her mental strength was being drained just by watching.

A terror that made her feel as if she were overwhelmed and the tongue in her mouth would stick.

What was more terrifying was that the party exercising that power did not even know how nonsensical his power was—no, he didn’t even seem to have much desire to know.

Dopamine Addict, no.

The boy who looked like nothing but chaos itself spoke toward her in a soft voice.

“God’s miracle. Do you believe it now?”

Just like that man of that day.