Chapter 85 – Player Dialogue (1)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Well, I understood Meursault’s feelings.

He couldn’t possibly give his unborn daughter to a prospective dictator who was ten years older.

It didn’t matter to me anyway, since I would never make the foolish choice of forming a marital bond in this world like my mother did.

More than that, organizing the situation with the players staying in my zone was the priority.

Leaving the commander and Meursault alone and returning to my room, I asked Tae-jeong to gather CornerHoney and Shin Eun-jo.

CornerHoney, dressed in a military uniform, entered slouching in a manner that didn’t suit his youthful appearance.

“Hey, congratulations on the divorce.”

Anyone hearing that would think I was the one who got divorced.

“Meursault will do anything if it’s your business now.”

“It didn’t turn out that way, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Rather than that, Outsider, you two are meeting for the first time, right? This side is ‘God’ from the Love Zone. You can call her Shin Eun-jo.”

Unlike Tae-jeong, since Shin Eun-jo and CornerHoney were meeting for the first time, they might have greeted each other.

Yet for some reason, they turned their gazes away from each other as if unwilling to mingle words.

“By the way, Shin Eun-jo… aren’t you going back?”

“I have a favor to ask before I go back.”

“A favor?”

Since she had helped with Daphne’s matter before, I nodded, thinking I might grant it if it was a simple favor.

“Tell me for now.”

“Let me take the entrance exam.”

“You want to take the entrance exam?”

No wonder she didn’t seem to have any intention of returning even after Daphne’s divorce was decided; was she staying behind to take the entrance exam?

I didn’t know why on earth she wanted to go to school in our zone, but…

“Isn’t that a strange favor to ask before returning? The military academy is a six-year course.”

“Right. I’ll stay for just six years and then go back.”

“Stop talking crazy and go attend school in your own zone.”

“Just think of it as being an exchange student.”

As if that would work.

“You aren’t planning to settle down here for good, are you…?”

“That wouldn’t be bad either. My goal is to survive anyway, not to become a dictator of a zone.”

For me, whose goal was to become the dictator of a zone, it was hard to understand.

‘Still, seeing her speak like that, it doesn’t seem like she really intends to settle down.’

Although I suspected what her scheme was, I decided to allow her to take the entrance exam.

Just as Shin Eun-jo stayed in this zone to watch me, I also needed to gauge Shin Eun-jo’s abilities.

However, since keeping Shin Eun-jo, who held a title like ‘Cult Leader,’ in my zone was too dangerous.

Should I set up a few safety measures?

“Instead, hang out with Luna while you stay here.”

[What?! I don’t want to! I want to go back now!!]

Luna already had a lot of complaints since I had made her stay with Shin Eun-jo while I was straining to divorce Daphne.

But there was no personnel as suitable as Luna.

No matter who else I attached as a watcher, there would be gossip.

“Please, Brother.”

[Eeeek…! He only calls me brother when he’s at a disadvantage…! This is why I didn’t come out of the gem, fearing I’d be used like this!]

Ah, so that was why he didn’t show himself until I was right on the verge of breathing my last?

Although there was some resistance, Luna soon resigned and accepted his fate.

“You really are a scary person. To think of using the Messenger of God as a CCTV.”

Although Shin Eun-jo seemed to interpret it differently.

“And… since having a player with an opened system from another zone stay will make you two anxious as well. I’m planning to prepare a safety measure.”

“A safety measure? Are you going to give us a personal safety alarm?”

“Well, something like that.”

I looked at CornerHoney, who didn’t seem to expect much, and Tae-jeong, who had a curious expression, and spoke.

“I will open the system for you two.”

“…What?”

“Pardon?”

Unlike the two who were dazed, Shin Eun-jo seemed to understand what that meant immediately and thrust her face in.

“You, you can open the system too?”

“Can’t you?”

“Of course I can’t!”

She doesn’t seem to be lying… has Shin Eun-jo not opened the additional system yet?

‘Shin Eun-jo even knows about the CEO of Cthulhu Games, so why is her additional system not opened?’

Whatever the secret of the apocalypse is exactly, since it opened after hearing the story of Cthulhu Games, it wouldn’t be unrelated to that CEO.

Seeing that she did not deny the group possession in the Love Zone, Shin Eun-jo seemed to have expected to be possessed from the beginning, triggered by her meeting with the CEO of Cthulhu Games.

Even so, why can I do it and Shin Eun-jo can’t?

The only difference in information between Shin Eun-jo and me is the existence of my mother, though…

‘Well… she might have already opened it and is hiding it from me.’

The problem was that since even I didn’t know exactly what achievement conditions were required for additional opening, I couldn’t even probe Shin Eun-jo.

But she didn’t seem to be hiding it from me, as Shin Eun-jo immediately collapsed onto the bed with her hand on her forehead in shock.

“Did you receive even that kind of authority from God? We clearly possessed at the exact same time, so why is there such a huge gap between us…?”

Shin Eun-jo seemed to despair over the fact that the gap between her and me was larger than she had thought.

“Wait, what does that mean?”

Seizing the moment when Shin Eun-jo was despairing, CornerHoney asked me.

“Does it mean that you, Dopamine Addict, can open the system for us?”

“Yes. It became possible not long ago.”

“Crazy!!”

“Was that possible?”

“Open it quickly! Let me shout ‘Status Window’ too!”

Although ‘Status Window’ was not a starting word.

There was no reason to hesitate further, so I used the system opening ticket on CornerHoney and Tae-jeong.

[Using the System Opening Ticket on player Taejeongtaesebeyonce.]

[Using the System Opening Ticket on player CornerHoney.]

The points received as a reward were only 50, but I ground up the titles I had to fill the lacking points.

‘I thoroughly ground up titles like Magic Marksman, which were nothing but time bombs if I held onto them.’

I ruthlessly ground them up, thinking it didn’t matter if I fell to 9th place since 2nd to 9th place received the same reward anyway.

While my three-digit titles went down to two digits, there was no change in my ranking.

The number of titles left after grinding was 99.

That meant those in 3rd place and below did not have a three-digit number of titles yet.

‘Then how many titles does the Unicorn Zone player in 1st place have?’

Well, since there is nothing I can find out about that guy for now, let’s set it aside…

“Status Window!”

Shin Eun-jo, who was lying face down on the bed, looked at CornerHoney, who was shouting status window at the top of his lungs, as if he were pathetic.

“Right… the gap is only large with Dopamine Addict, not the other guys.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“Try viewing Character Info first.”

“Character Info?”

The moment CornerHoney spoke while looking at God.

A system window popped up in front of CornerHoney’s eyes.

[Name: God

Title: Cult Leader

Region: Love

*Master’s permission is required to request friendship.]

‘…Hm?’

Why… was CornerHoney’s system window visible to me too?

And what was this about Master’s permission being required to request friendship?

“What, the nickname is God? Then is Shin Eun-jo her real name?”

“Are you looking at my Character Info? I didn’t mean for you to open mine.”

‘Seeing her speak like that…’

Was CornerHoney’s system window not visible to Shin Eun-jo?

At that moment, another system window popped up to the side.

[Name: Dopamine Addict

Title: Luna Moon’s Friend

Region: Cola

Relationship: Master]

Since it was a system window that popped up over Tae-jeong’s head, it seemed Tae-jeong had opened my Character Info.

A word that couldn’t be ignored was written in it.

‘…Relationship: Master?’

It’s not like these guys are my servants, so why is the relationship listed as Master?

‘Ah, don’t tell me…’

Feeling an unknown sense of mismatch, I brought up the Character Info of both CornerHoney and Tae-jeong.

[Name: CornerHoney

Title: B-Rank Soldier

Region: Cola

*This system is bound to player Dopamine Addict.]

[Name: Taejeongtaesebeyonce

Title: A-Rank Butler

Region: Cola

*This system is bound to player Dopamine Addict.]

‘Oh dear…’

It seemed that when a system was opened using the System Opening Ticket from the shop, the system became bound to the person who opened it.

Seeing it written at the bottom of Shin Eun-jo’s Character Info that friendship requests were unavailable, it seemed that interactions through the system were set to be impossible with anyone other than me, who was registered as the Master.

‘I didn’t mean to bind them to me, though…’

Since the item in the shop had no more than a single line of explanation, I only learned about this after opening the systems.

‘Well, it can’t be helped.’

“Try sending a chat to me.”

“Chat?”

CornerHoney opened this and that even after I told him to send a chat, before finally sending a line of message to me.

[CornerHoney: Dopamine Addict is a dummy]

[Dopamine Addict: Are you an elementary schooler?]

CornerHoney, who received my message, flared up and shouted.

“Who’s an elementary schooler! I told you, I’m twenty!”

‘I find it harder to believe that he is twenty than that Shin Eun-jo hasn’t opened the additional system.’

At any rate, this made it clear.

That if a system is bound to me, chats can be sent even without forming a friendship.

And judging by that phrase earlier, it was clear that the setting prevented sending and receiving chats with others without the Master’s permission.

Not only was the system window visible to me, but I could even check the detailed contents.

Naturally, I checked the number of titles of CornerHoney, who was ranked 9th, first.

‘What? 7?’

Since it had been less than a year since starting the game, the number 7 couldn’t be called small.

But if a guy with 7 was 9th… perhaps other players had their number of titles barely staying in the double digits.

Next, the number of Tae-jeong’s titles I checked was 3.

Then would the Dentist, who was in 10th place, have between 4 and 7 titles?

‘Not bad for a newbie.’

At that moment, one more Character Info of mine popped up in front of my eyes.

It seemed CornerHoney had closed Shin Eun-jo’s Character Info and opened mine.

“Oh. You really are Dopamine Addict.”

“Of course I am Dopamine Addict.”

“I suspected that the guy doing your customization might be the real Dopamine Addict, but now there’s no need to suspect.”

You were still suspecting that until now?

“But why is ‘Master’ written in your relationship column?”

“It’s nothing. It’s because I opened your system. It must be written as Master for Tae-jeong too.”

“Tae-jeong, is that so?”

“Pardon? Ah, yes, it is written as Master… no, it is written.”

“Then does it mean Dopamine Addict has to approve to request friendship with you? It feels like borrowing Wi-Fi.”

Unlike CornerHoney, who thought nothing of it even after seeing the phrase that Master’s permission was required for friendship requests, Tae-jeong seemed to have noticed what me being ‘Master’ meant, but he soon shut his mouth.

Probably because Tae-jeong also knew CornerHoney would run wild if he found out I had become the owner of his system.

“Wait.”

Shin Eun-jo, who was quietly listening to the conversation, suddenly cut in.

“A statement that I absolutely cannot just let pass by was mentioned just now…”

Shin Eun-jo asked me with confused eyes.

“What do you mean by the guy doing your customization? Did you guys by any chance meet another Dopamine Addict?”

Hm.

I had thought Shin Eun-jo might catch on immediately since the moment CornerHoney spoke carelessly, and sure enough.

I pondered for a moment.

Regarding the Unicorn Zone player, frankly, I did not want to talk about him in detail to other players.

Since even I knew next to nothing about that guy.

‘But Shin Eun-jo is…’

Perhaps the only person among us who met the CEO of Cthulhu Games.

Seeing her mention the email address and such, it seemed she even received his ‘contact information.’

If we succeed in ‘logging out.’

Shin Eun-jo might be the only channel to contact that CEO.

‘She seems to have better insight than the other guys too…’

So I would like to share information and hear her opinions if possible, but…

The problem was that this girl was an aggressive player who was a cult leader in the Love Zone and even extorted HomeProtector’s meteor item…

‘…Should I try it like this?’

I didn’t know if Shin Eun-jo would accept this proposal.

Judging by her behavior so far, Shin Eun-jo did not want to hostilize me.

No, rather, seeing that she didn’t leave this zone, she seemed to want to be under my influence.

If so, there was only one way to tell her everything while preventing her from betraying me in the future.

“Do you want to hear about the other Dopamine Addict?”

“What? Of course…”

Shin Eun-jo, about to answer that she naturally wanted to hear, knitted her brows slightly.

“But you have no intention of telling me. You didn’t even tell me the reason Daphne is a player.”

I wondered if she wasn’t curious since she didn’t ask me why Daphne was a player, but was she just waiting for me to explain first?

“I can tell you everything if you grant me one request.”

“Every…thing?”

“What do you mean everything, hey!”

CornerHoney cut in from the side as if that shouldn’t be allowed, but I raised one hand and made a gesture to stay quiet.

“Yes. Starting from why Daphne is a player, all the way to the story of meeting the fake Dopamine Addict. You will get to know at least what these two guys here know.”

Shin Eun-jo looked at me with a suspicious expression for a moment, then asked me in a small voice.

“What… do I have to do?”

“Give up your rights to the meteor item.”

At my words, Shin Eun-jo opened her eyes wide and stared at me.

“Does that mean I can only hear everything by giving up the system?”

“I will open your system again.”

“…What?”

The system opened by me directly would be bound to me, allowing chats only with me.

In other words, it meant there was no worry about information leaking through the system at least.

If I helped open Shin Eun-jo’s system additionally after binding it to me, I could view her system window, so I could also look into what conditions lead to additional opening.

“Give up the meteor item and leave your system to me. If you do that, I can tell you everything. If you are bound to me, there is no reason to be hostile to you either.”

Shin Eun-jo was staring at me quietly with a face that made it impossible to know what she was thinking.

“What will you do?”

When I asked that.

Shin Eun-jo, who was quietly staring at me, pulled a pistol from her chest and aimed it at me.