Chapter 90 – Entrance Exam (4)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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My feelings toward the person called ‘father’ are not very good.

Going beyond being indifferent to me, that person seemed to be someone who couldn’t understand my thoughts or emotions at all.

Just looking at how he smiled and said there was no other father to my question about where my real father was, wasn’t that the case?

At least, if his son asked that, he should have asked why he thought he was not his real father.

Even for me, who has no interest in others, if my young son asked that, I would have known something was wrong with me.

But that person only laughed like someone who had heard a funny question.

In a manner of speaking, that person was… someone who was seriously lacking somewhere.

Therefore, when other people said I was like a sociopath, I only felt wronged.

Because I only acted according to what I saw and grew up with.

Growing up watching such a person, there was no way I could have learned what actions to take in what situations to avoid being treated as a strange person.

Even my mother only told me weird things like parents and children are programmed to feel sad if the other is unhappy.

Even so, if asked if I resent my father as much as my mother… that was not the case.

It wasn’t that I resented him less because he looked after me instead of my mother.

Since I did not like that person very much.

Since I thought he wouldn’t be my real father.

It was only for that reason that I did not resent him.

So I had thought that that person wouldn’t like me very much either, and since I wasn’t his biological child, he wouldn’t care even if I disappeared after possessing this kind of game.

“The one who made us possess this game… is Father?”

Although I asked that, Dopamine-Duplicate only stared at me with a terrifying face.

The guy, who was showing expressions of measuring, doubting, and fearing something, finally opened his mouth and spoke.

“You… didn’t know everything.”

What does it mean again that I didn’t know everything?

“You speak as if you yourself know everything. Couldn’t you be wrong?”

“How did you do the additional opening?”

“I don’t know either!”

Instead of answering my question again, my voice rose, exploding at the fellow who only asked what he wanted to ask.

“What do you mean it’s Father, not Mother?”

“…”

The fellow only stared at me intently without giving an answer.

He seemed to be measuring how far it was okay to tell me.

It couldn’t be helped.

“I’ve already confirmed with other players. Everyone I asked was related to Mother. No player talked about Father. Even so, it’s not Mother?”

“…So you are still at that stage.”

“What?”

The guy barely opened his mouth and spat out shortly.

“It wouldn’t be all of them, though.”

“What?”

“I mean the players. The players who said they knew about Mother would absolutely not have been all of them. Think carefully. You definitely heard about Father. Otherwise, there is no way you could have done the additional opening.”

“…”

‘That I already heard about Father…’

I retraced the events up to now.

Who on earth spoke to me about my father, and when?

This place, the Cola Zone, was completely filled with Mother’s traces, and suddenly Father at this point?

Actually, it didn’t matter whether the one who made me possess the game was Father or Mother.

Because I had no complaints about the possession itself anyway.

However, if it was really Father who was involved in the possession.

It only made me wonder what on earth were Mother’s grave I dug up and the portrait I faced at the dramatic moment all this time.

‘No matter how much I think, there was nothing about Father…’

At most, all of it was Luna asking me if I didn’t miss my real-world father.

That guy said not all players would be related to Mother, but all I heard from the players was that CornerHoney’s older sister worked at Salvation Project, T-Bastard started playing the game at my mother’s recommendation, and what I heard from Shin Eun-jo—

I stopped my thoughts there.

“The CEO of Cthulhu Games…”

Just one person.

There was a person who said they met someone other than Mother.

Shin Eun-jo.

The one Shin Eun-jo met was not my mother, but the representative of Cthulhu Games.

Hearing that story, I had thought the start of all of this was not my mother, but the CEO of Cthulhu Games.

Even if the one who possessed us in Safe Zone was Mother, the one who possessed Mother in the dating sim would be that person.

Immediately after that story, the additional opening took place without even knowing the reason.

And… strangely, since then, I had not thought deeply about the CEO of Cthulhu Games.

‘Why?’

Looking back, it seemed Shin Eun-jo had also shouted that the company name ‘Cthulhu Games’ hadn’t come to her mind until now.

I seemed to understand what those words meant.

Recalling ‘Cthulhu Games’ representative’ again like this now, I could clearly remember what conversation I had with Shin Eun-jo, but before this, it only remained hazily in my head.

‘Cthulhu Games’ representative…’

I thought that person wouldn’t be unrelated to my mother.

Otherwise, there was no way my mother could have developed a game modeled after that game.

But I hadn’t thought that the representative of that company could be my father.

Because the father in my memory always wore an apron and just cooked meals, and didn’t seem to work at a company.

“That person… is Father?”

The moment I spat that out.

A crackling sound heard from behind.

Turning around in surprise, the pattern was flashing and fluctuating.

Something like a golden electric current surged over the pattern, brightly illuminating the inside of the cave.

“W-What?!”

There was a force pulling me, flustered and stepping backward.

Dopamine-Duplicate pulled me and hid me behind himself.

But that beam of light, which flailed in the air like countless tentacles as if something was about to pop out at any moment, blinked a few times and died down powerlessly.

Only after the pattern became completely quiet was Dopamine-Duplicate heard muttering softly.

“…It’s a good thing I erased it in advance.”

At those words, I looked up at the fellow.

When I first discovered the pattern, I thought there were traces of artificial damage in parts… had this guy erased it?

Was the reason this place was not safe due to that pattern?

What on earth was that pattern.

What on earth was about to happen just now.

But instead of explaining about the pattern, the fellow spoke to me like this.

“Since it’s dangerous here, go back now. Don’t ever come back again.”

The words I wanted to hear were not like that.

“Just answer my question.”

Dopamine-Duplicate reflexively tried to frown, but realizing that what was in front of him was himself, he seemed to put on a face of having no choice.

That fellow too, if he is me, would know how stubborn I am.

And that if he didn’t convince me properly here, I wouldn’t go back quietly as he wished.

“Do you really need my answer? You seem to be sure already.”

“Let’s say my thoughts about Cthulhu’s representative are correct. Then what about Mother? Why did she make Safe Zone?”

This time, he looked at me with his brows completely knitted.

“I know because I am you too…”

The fellow spoke as he pulled away my hand that was holding his collar.

“Just talking about it now is enough. You can guess what happened.”

“Guess? What guess? Didn’t you just say that what I guessed was wrong?”

Although I sneered on purpose, the guy answered in a cold tone instead of falling for my provocation.

“Why Mother had to make Safe Zone. Why our name is ‘Lee Dam.’ You know now.”

“…”

Actually, that statement was correct.

I know now too.

Why Mother made Safe Zone.

Why my name is Lee Dam.

Assuming Mother made Safe Zone starting from when she returned to reality from the dating sim.

I had already noticed then.

Mother wanted to retrieve the child she lost in the other world.

So she named the child she gave birth to in reality Lee Dam, but that wouldn’t have been enough.

She would have wanted to make a game called Safe Zone, which was exactly the same as that world, and possess it once more.

Perhaps her disappearing from before me was also due to being possessed in the game.

But how can I accept that?

Do I have to accept that I was a existence meant to replace the child lost in the game?

And.

“If my thoughts are correct, it only means that the one who possessed us is indeed Mother.”

“Think again.”

Dopamine-Duplicate spoke in a gentle voice.

“If it were Mother, why would she set the possession time to 10 years later of all things? If Mother wanted to return to the other world, why would she need to possess so many people? And going out of her way to drag in even me, whom she abandoned.”

“…”

Right…

Having become excited momentarily, I had forgotten a few important facts.

That when I possessed, ten years had already passed since Luna Moon died.

If my mother had made the game to return to the other world, there would be no way to explain why the game story started after Luna Moon and Haydam died.

Even if she knew the real Haydam dwelled in the ring and tried to possess to wake him up, 10 years is too late.

There is no reason to possess that late.

Furthermore, the possessed player was in a ten-year-old body…

Besides, what on earth was that convenience store?

Would my mother really have a reason to use such a convenience store and possess together with other players just to return to the other world?

And would my mother, who emphasized that I must be happy right until before she disappeared, have left my possession be?

“That too… is true.”

As I barely accepted the assumption that the one who possessed us was not Mother, the guy whispered softly.

“Don’t doubt Mother. For she is a more… pitiful person than you think.”

It must be so.

How could she not be pitiful if the child she named ‘Lee Dam’ dug up her grave, acted as her son, and named her real son ‘Luna.’

The fellow spoke after looking toward the pattern once.

“You saw it too, but… it’s true that this place is dangerous. Go back now.”

He won’t explain what that was just now until the very end.

Is this guy also under some restriction?

‘Although I have no intention of believing everything this bastard says anyway.’

I believe that this guy is ‘me’ now.

Since he showed the proof.

But crucially, I cannot trust ‘myself.’

‘If it were me, I would think of even myself as a competitor.’

Even if everything spoken so far was only the truth, there would be a purpose to him letting me know that fact.

Even if this guy and I are the same person, as long as our entities are different, we are different players.

I stared at the guy for a moment and opened my mouth.

“Fine. I’ll go back.”

As I said I would return obediently, the fellow showed an unexpected expression.

“Instead, there is a condition.”

Only after adding that did he look at me with a face of ‘as expected.’

“If it’s something I can grant.”

Right, you said you would do it first if it’s something you can grant?

I offered my hand to the fellow and spoke.

“Give me one hoverboard.”

“…What?”

“I’m going to ride it back, so just give me one hoverboard. You must have put a few more in your inventory. If you are me, yours is mine, and mine is mine, isn’t it?”

“…”

Dopamine-Duplicate put on a face that asked if this was right, but obediently pulled a hoverboard from his inventory and handed it to me.

Whatever this guy is hiding, I should get what I can and leave.