Chapter 89 – Entrance Exam (3)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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‘I sent you back with effort, yet you are here again…?’

It was a statement with too much room for interpretation.

As if he claimed to have sent me back himself.

Words that seemed to indicate he knew I was here before as well.

I slowly stood up, keeping my guard against him.

“What do you mean you sent me back with effort?”

When I asked that, he showed a rather puzzled expression instead.

The guy, who seemed to think of something for a moment, smirked and began to slowly lower the altitude of the hoverboard.

“Seeing that you don’t know what I mean, it seems that fellow called CornerHoney really didn’t speak of it.”

“What?”

‘Why is CornerHoney coming up here?’

Could it be that CornerHoney knowing about this cave was related to this guy?

While I was lost in thought with knitted brows, ‘Dopamine Addict’ got off the hoverboard and walked toward me with heavy steps.

I reflexively tried to pull out the knife from my waist, but stopped.

Because he did not seem to have any intention of harming me this time either, just like last time.

I relaxed my posture, stood comfortably, and asked.

“What is it that CornerHoney didn’t tell me?”

CornerHoney said he could send a rescue team because it was a cave he knew, but even back then, I felt that his words were somewhat fishy.

However, since pressing CornerHoney to say how he knew it wouldn’t result in a proper answer anyway, I had returned to the cave to check it directly myself.

To think the Dopamine Addict of the Unicorn Zone would pop up here.

Between CornerHoney and the other Addict… no, it’s too long, so from now on, I will just call him Dopamine-Duplicate.

At any rate, if there was really something between CornerHoney and Dopamine-Duplicate.

Why did he keep it a secret from me?

Dopamine-Duplicate did not answer my question but stared up at the empty air for some reason, then smiled gently at me.

“Check your messages.”

At that moment, a message window popped up in front of my eyes like a pop-up.

[Dopamine Addict: CornerHoney, send a rescue team here. The detailed location is…]

A message written with my game nickname arrived for me.

I was not greatly surprised.

‘As expected, he did the additional opening.’

The reason he could send a message despite not being in a friendship relationship with me was probably because he bought a message from the shop.

Sensing that I had checked the message, Dopamine-Duplicate continued.

“I sent a message with the exact same content to CornerHoney.”

‘He sent the exact same message to CornerHoney?’

If he really sent that message to CornerHoney.

Since it was before I opened CornerHoney’s system when I fainted in the cave, it meant that messages could be sent to all players regardless of the system.

‘Well, the item description did write ‘a player who is not a friend’ rather than a system opener, after all.’

But judging by the content of the message.

That fellow Dopamine-Duplicate had impersonated me to send a message to CornerHoney, and CornerHoney, completely falling for that message, seemed to have sent a rescue team to the location he provided.

There were a few points I couldn’t understand.

“How did you know to tell him to send a rescue team? No, in the first place, how did you know I was here right now and came to find me?”

Even though I asked, Dopamine-Duplicate only stared down at me quietly with eyes full of dark circles, with only a smile on his lips.

“And… if you sent that message, why has CornerHoney not mentioned it to me until now?”

“I can answer that.”

Does that mean he has no intention of answering the first two questions?

Dopamine-Duplicate seemed to look at the empty air again, and soon one more message flew in.

[Dopamine Addict: And don’t mention that you received a chat from me to anyone, including myself. Because Taejeongtaesebeyonce must not know. It’s a secret just between you and me.]

“…”

I was lost for words for a moment, then asked.

“So… he didn’t tell even me because of a single childish message like this?”

“At a glance, he seemed like a child who needed attention.”

There was no room for refutation.

“But actually, even after sending it like this, I thought that guy might run his mouth around. It seems he hasn’t told you until now either. He was tighter-lipped than I thought.”

I am also surprised that CornerHoney did not show any signs at all even to me after receiving such a message.

What was even more surprising was that fellow Dopamine-Duplicate, who burned 100 points on CornerHoney just to save me.

‘No, it’s also surprising that he spent another 100 points in the shop just to explain this one thing to me in the first place.’

I didn’t know how many points he had accumulated, but…

One thing was certain.

This guy really has no intention of harming me.

Because if he had come with the purpose of harming me even now, there would be no reason to kindly answer my questions while wasting points.

The line he threw as soon as he arrived.

Judging by the words, ‘I sent you back with effort, yet you are here again,’ it was clear he had come to check if I was currently in a safe state.

‘Why does that guy keep trying to check if I am growing well?’

Until now, even if I tried to find out about him, there was no way to do so, so I purposely tried not to think about it.

But since he appeared on his own like this, I must not miss this opportunity.

I asked Dopamine-Duplicate.

“You. Are you really ‘Dopamine Addict’?”

“Can’t you believe it even if you check with the system?”

Because Dopamine-Duplicate had a genuinely puzzled face, I knitted my brows.

“Just because Dopamine Addict is written in the system, how could I possibly believe it?”

“Why can’t you believe it?”

What do you mean why can’t I believe it.

Asking with that customization like a crazy scientist made him look like a real madman, but…

I answered honestly.

“It’s strange that you are also ‘Dopamine Addict’ when I am ‘Dopamine Addict.'”

“What part is strange?”

“Because that means you… are ‘me.'”

At that, Dopamine-Duplicate began to laugh as if it were funny.

That guy… is he really roleplaying a mad scientist?

“It’s exactly as you say. I am ‘you.'”

“What?”

“I’ve never hidden that in the first place. Even last time, I said that if I started in the Cola Zone, I would have poisoned Meursault first.”

He did say that, certainly.

So I thought the person of speech was strange.

“Are you an AI?”

“Funny. But wrong.”

“Then am I an AI?”

“An interesting opinion. But that is also an incorrect answer.”

Dopamine-Duplicate, as if becoming slightly bored, cast his gaze down and spoke.

“Me being ‘you’ means… literally that I am ‘you.’ Neither of us, you or me, is a clone or an impersonator.”

I quietly stared at the fellow claiming both of us were the real ‘Dopamine Addict’ and asked.

“Say my name.”

“Your name?”

“I mean my real name. If you are ‘me,’ you should know.”

“Ah… right. You want to verify if your memory and mine match. If I do that, you won’t doubt me anymore. Fine…”

Dopamine-Duplicate muttered while stroking his chin as if it were a good idea, then spoke.

“My real name is… Lee Dam.”

I felt my heart plummet.

Lee Dam.

Because it was indeed my real name.

‘No, but.’

A name could be found out through the game ID registration information.

He might have found out that much to thoroughly disguise himself as me…

However.

“Your name is Lee Dam, but it doesn’t take either your father’s or mother’s last name.”

The guy’s words did not end there and continued without hesitation.

“The reason I thought of the bastard route for conquering the Cola Zone was also because of that name. Haydam. Seeing that name, I felt it was similar to me.”

There was no trickery whatsoever in the words that followed.

Concerning my last name.

Concerning the bastard route.

For I had never spoken of them even once to anyone else.

“What more must I say for you to believe I am you? That our mother didn’t look after me because she ran a game company called Salvation Project? That we don’t even know our father’s name and aren’t even sure if he is our biological father? Or that chasing dopamine was actually to become happy, just as promised to our mother—”

“Stop!”

Having shouted it out before I knew it, I flinched and spoke in a low voice again.

“Stop talking. That is enough now.”

It seemed no further proof was needed.

This guy is me.

This guy was undoubtedly me.

“I don’t understand.”

At the words I barely spat out, Dopamine-Duplicate smirked.

“Now it’s not that you can’t believe, but you don’t understand?”

“If you are really me, why were you possessed in an adult’s form?”

“Hmm… from there, it is an area that cannot be explained.”

While he could speak without hesitation about being ‘me.’

He says he cannot speak of why he is possessed in an adult’s form?

“Are you… by any chance a parallel-universe version of me who chose the unicorn doll at the convenience store?”

When I asked that, the fellow opened his eyes wide and pretended to be surprised, then shook his head.

“As expected of me, you are smart.”

Ha… just looking at how this guy talks, I can see why other guys find me obnoxious.

The fellow who responded slickly erased his smile a bit and spoke in a low voice.

“But the twenty questions about my identity are over now… I only proved it because I thought you would waste time with useless thoughts.”

Did he answer because he was worried I would waste time doubting that he was ‘me’?

Why does this guy want me to ‘survive’ so much?

To say he wanted me to survive just because I was himself… there seemed to be some other purpose.

He wouldn’t answer even if I asked, though.

“Now that the talk is over, return to your zone. This place is not safe.”

This place is not safe?

“I find you, who tracks down where I am every time like a ghost on a hoverboard, much scarier.”

“Haha.”

He is said to be ‘me’ too, but his personality seems quite different.

That guy really seems a bit out of his mind.

“You won’t tell me why this place is not safe either, will you?”

At my question, the fellow only smiled.

I let out a small sigh.

I hesitated slightly, then spoke.

“If you are really me, there is something you must know.”

“Something I must know?”

If this guy is indeed me.

That is, if he is ‘Lee Dam.’

The Lee Dam of the Unicorn Zone must also know.

About my… our mother.

“I think our mother possessed this place before.”

“Ah.”

The fellow answered with a face that showed not a shred of agitation.

“You mean Luna Moon.”

Conversely, it was I who was dumbfounded.

‘He knows even this?’

Come to think of it, since he did the additional opening before me, is it natural?

But the zone that guy possessed was the Unicorn Zone.

I was able to approach the truth of Luna Moon because I possessed the Cola Zone.

How on earth could he reach the truth that Luna Moon was our mother in the Unicorn Zone?

But the strangeness did not end there.

The fellow threw a question at me instead.

“If you know that much, did you also wake up Brother?”

“What?”

“You know, the one dwelling in the ring…”

‘He knows even the fact that an ego dwelled in Luna Moon’s ring.’

But judging by the nuance, it didn’t seem like he had checked Luna, who dwelled in the ring, himself.

But seeing that even that fellow calls him brother, it seems Luna really is Haydam.

“How do you know about Luna?”

“Luna?”

Only then did the fellow cover his mouth with a face of shock.

“Don’t tell me… did you name Brother ‘Luna’? Isn’t that too cruel…? Are you a psychopath?”

Asking me that with that customization really makes me speechless.

“I didn’t know he was my brother. Is he even really my brother in the first place?”

“It seems you are wearing the ring… but he didn’t come with you. You should have brought him. I wanted to see him once.”

“How on earth do you know about Luna?”

“Then have you already done the additional opening too?”

As if he had no intention of talking more about Luna either, the guy turned the conversation.

Although it was extremely annoying that he only asked what he was curious about without answering my questions.

Since that fellow is also me, cursing him would only be spitting on my own face.

I might have a very bad personality, perhaps.

“I didn’t know you would do the additional opening this quickly. Is it because you woke up Brother… you are faster than me.”

“What are you talking about? You opened it first.”

“…”

The fellow showed a smile of unknown meaning.

That was the smile built to smooth things over when making a slip of the tongue.

I stared at the fellow for a moment and spoke.

“If you know that Luna Moon is our mother and have also done the additional opening. You must know it too, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“That the one who possessed us through Safe Zone is…”

Dopamine-Duplicate nodded as if he knew what I was trying to say.

And we spoke at the same time.

“Mother.”

“Father.”

A brief silence flowed.

“What?!”

“What?!”

Bewildered voices echoed in the cave at the same time.