Chapter 91 – Daphne (1)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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I did not know in what state of mind I finished the entrance exam.

First of all, I remembered that not to mention the applicants, even the cadets who came out as proctors kept their mouths wide open and could not say a word upon seeing me appear in the air riding a hoverboard.

I passed the guys who moved first to catch me even though I was riding the hoverboard, and the guys who calmly formed a group and rushed at me as soon as I got off the hoverboard.

And in the meantime, there was also one guy, whether bold or stupid, who rolled in the snow after rushing to ride the abandoned hoverboard.

Since the idea was decent, I passed that guy as well and decided to give him player training.

Tae-jeong, CornerHoney, and Shin Eun-jo also passed without much trouble.

Only after the guys passed did I explain the player mass-production plan to them.

Having heard the entire plan, CornerHoney spoke in admiration.

“You really only think about scamming people.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“But is it okay to say this when a player from another zone is listening?”

“I didn’t really want to listen either.”

Shin Eun-jo, who was gently stroking Luna Moon in her arms, glared at CornerHoney once and then looked at me.

Her face looked somewhat uncomfortable about having overheard my plan.

“It is true that I asked to take the entrance exam, but… I am going back to my zone soon anyway. If you are thinking of not letting me go back…”

“That won’t happen. I don’t want you staying here for long either.”

Anyway, she had to stay for the time being.

Because I had to pry more out of Shin Eun-jo about the CEO of Cthulhu Games.

‘But I have to ask carefully.’

Hearing the story of the other Dopamine Addict, the additional opening condition seemed to be related to my father possessing us…

I thought that the reason why the additional opening had not occurred yet, even though Shin Eun-jo had met the CEO of Cthulhu Games, might be related to her not remembering the name of the game company, Cthulhu Games, until recently.

If I asked about my father in the wrong way and suddenly triggered the additional opening of Shin Eun-jo’s system, both Shin Eun-jo and I would be in trouble.

It would be better to approach carefully.

At that moment, Tae-jeong raised his hand and asked.

“I understand that we are training NPCs to be players. But to train players… the one doing the training should also be a player. Who will train them?”

“CornerHoney will be in charge of the player training.”

Reactions were split at the words I blurted out casually.

First, CornerHoney.

“Oh yeah! I’m promoted from student to teacher!”

Hmm, he was in his usual state of having flower fields for brains.

I thought it was highly possible that a guy like this, who even received a note from the other Dopamine Addict and didn’t show a hint of it to me, had completely forgotten that he had received it.

‘Should I ask about the other Dopamine Addict’s note later?’

If he found out that I had met that guy in the meantime, he would ask what we talked about.

Anyway.

Unlike CornerHoney who was excited, Tae-jeong and Shin Eun-jo…

“Re… ally?”

“Are you out of your mind? Whom are you entrusting what to?”

No doubt this was the reaction of a player with a brain.

Perhaps finding the two’s reactions quite unpleasant, CornerHoney flared up and shouted.

“What! Why! Dopamine Addict said he would entrust it to me! Your attitude toward the teacher is disrespectful, you know? Shall I deduct points from both of you?”

“…You really plan to entrust the training even when he is like that?”

Shin Eun-jo stared at CornerHoney with a fed-up expression, but…

CornerHoney’s appearance like that was actually what I wanted.

“Seeing that makes me even more confident.”

“What?! …Are you perhaps crazy?”

“Brother… you aren’t sick anywhere, right?”

I shook my head at the two and said.

“If we’re going to raise fake players anyway, isn’t it better to breed bastards like CornerHoney?”

“……Ha?”

As I had mentioned before, the intelligence of the NPCs in the Cola Zone was not very high.

Therefore, mass-producing highly intelligent players was a very difficult task.

But what if the player model was CornerHoney?

It meant we could mass-produce them as much as we wanted.

“It would be great if their way of speaking became similar to that guy’s. Then they could execute mental attacks just through conversation.”

“Wasn’t the personality of the NPCs in this zone their only advantage…?”

At Tae-jeong’s words, I asked back, truly unable to understand.

“Why is a good personality an advantage?”

“That is a truly psychopathic remark.”

Dismissing my question as a psychopathic remark, Shin Eun-jo spoke.

“Right… now I know why it was fine even if I heard it. Because I would absolutely never do something like raising the children of the zone into CornerHoneys just to screw over players of other zones. You really plan to do anything to win. You are really… a scary person.”

“I’m also scared of you, brother…”

Did these two forget that CornerHoney was listening to everything right next to them?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but anyway, Dopamine Addict, you want more players like me in this zone, right?”

Hmm. Fortunately, he only heard what he liked.

“Yes. That’s right.”

The fact that he didn’t understand met my desired conditions perfectly.

I wanted the NPCs to look like players, not for them to become smart and covet my position.

…Was this a somewhat dictator-like thought?

CornerHoney raised both fists with an enthusiastic face.

“I will do my best, Dopamine Addict!”

“Sure. Fighting.”

And what kind of results this would bring in the future,

I did not know at the time.

* * *

An executive who could be said to be the only survivor among the original members of the pro-Daphne faction.

Lieutenant General Radu made a very big resolution today.

‘Today, I will poison Haydam to death.’

There were several reasons for making such a resolution.

First of all, the poisoning attempt was not actually the first time today.

Ever since Haydam appeared at the executives’ meeting, said he knew them well, and asked about the well-being of his child.

Radu had been demanding his lover, who was his affair partner and a servant at the commander’s residence, to poison Haydam’s food.

Although he was a father who committed an affair with a servant of the commander’s residence, his child was still precious.

He couldn’t leave Haydam, who brought up his own child at the very place where Lieutenant General Bartom was shot dead, alone.

However, the news of Haydam being poisoned was never heard.

His lover felt wronged, saying she really did put in poison every morning, but Radu did not believe her.

Without a doubt, her tender heart must have prevented her from putting poison in the young Haydam’s food.

Fortunately, despite mentioning his child at that place, Haydam seemed to have no interest in him or his family.

Therefore, Radu gave up on poisoning him and wanted to live peacefully maintaining two households, but…

Haydam made Anton retire—although Anton retired voluntarily, Radu thought it was Haydam’s fault because Anton gathered the executives and said he was retiring because he couldn’t beat the young man’s folly—and next, he framed Lieutenant General Max as the culprit of the soldier murder case.

‘Anton, the former commander, aside, Max is really not the kind of person to do that…!’

Radu thought Max was framed, and in fact, that thought was not wrong.

Therefore, he again felt that Haydam should not be left like this.

‘I must do something.’

While having such thoughts, he ended up hearing that news.

“Lady Daphne… is divorcing?”

The thunderbolt-like news that the commander-in-chief and Lady Daphne were divorcing.

Although Radu also knew that the relationship between the two was not passionate, and he knew the successor position would pass over since Haydam appeared.

Even though the commander-in-chief had no interest in Lady Daphne, he had never mistreated her for over ten years, so Radu had never imagined they would divorce right away just because Haydam appeared.

The news that followed next made Radu faint for a moment.

Daphne’s partner for remarriage was Meursault Pendleton.

Because he had heard that he was the bastard who shot and killed Lieutenant General Bartom.

Even after waking up from fainting, Radu could not believe the reality and trembled with both hands.

“Lady Daphne, who should be the most… noble in the zone…!!”

The pro-Daphne faction executives were all people who had received great favors from the former commander.

Because the former commander, unlike the current commander, was a dictator full of humanity.

The phrase ‘dictator full of humanity’ might sound strange, but anyway, he was.

Therefore, the pro-Daphne executives cherished Daphne, the daughter of the former commander, like their own child, and Daphne also possessed a charisma that strangely captivated people, so they were serving her sincerely in place of the former commander as their lord and their daughter born of the heart.

Such a woman was demoted from the commander’s wife to the wife of a mere major general?

The commander-in-chief allowed Lady Daphne to remarry Meursault?

It was impossible.

If something that hadn’t happened until now suddenly occurred, it meant that something newly appeared had changed the situation.

Namely, Haydam.

The commander’s bastard child who suddenly appeared one day.

‘That child finally…!!’

That Meursault Pendleton had dared to keep Lady Daphne in his heart in the past was something none of the executives did not know.

However, because Lady Daphne married Commander Hayden and Meursault also became Commander Hayden’s adjutant, they had thought he folded those feelings.

That he could openly propose to Lady Daphne now was without a doubt because Haydam egged him on from the side.

‘Even though I warned Lady Daphne like that…!’

Although Haydam was a bastard child.

There was also no executive who did not know that Commander Hayden and Luna Moon had been lovers even before Commander Hayden and Lady Daphne married.

From Haydam’s perspective, the one who stole his father was ultimately Daphne.

He was a dreadful child who didn’t even bat an eye when someone died right in front of him.

Naturally, he would want to take revenge for his mother.

‘I knew his very gaze when looking at the portrait gifted by former Commander Anton was uneasy…’

Haydam had finally taken revenge on Daphne.

Even by dragging her down to the position of Meursault’s wife.

“At this rate… I cannot live out of guilt toward the former commander-in-chief.”

That was how Radu made up his mind to poison Haydam directly.

Holding chocolate loaded with poison, Radu waited to ‘accidentally’ run into Haydam.

Because Haydam was very clever, if he went to find him on purpose, he would surely suspect the chocolate he offered.

Meanwhile, he obtained information that Haydam was visiting the military academy to prepare for the entrance ceremony.

Heading to the military academy under the guise of visiting his sponsored child, Radu was able to meet Haydam without difficulty.

“Are you not Lord Haydam? You have grown a lot since I last saw you.”

He exerted his last remaining acting skills to pretend to be as friendly as possible, but Haydam welcomed him with a cold smile.

“Why are you here?”

Seeing how he immediately suspected him as expected,

it was a good decision to choose to run into him accidentally.

“I came to check on my kids. Since they have advanced a grade now.”

“Ah…”

“Oh, I brought this to give to the children. Please have one as well, Lord Haydam. It is chocolate.”

There was also a reason for preparing chocolate.

In the zone, cookies could still be easily obtained, but obtaining chocolate, which had a complex processing method, was a truly difficult task.

Therefore, as long as Haydam was also a young child, Radu thought he wouldn’t refuse if it was chocolate.

And according to rumors he heard, he grew up starving in the slums and was obsessed with food.

‘There is no way such a child would refuse chocolate.’

And just as Radu wished, Haydam slightly raised the corners of his mouth and accepted the chocolate Radu offered without any reluctance.

“Eat it quickly before others see.”

Since he had also heard stories that Haydam cherished the children of the zone.

Lest he might not eat it himself and yield it to another child, Radu hastily added for him to eat quickly.

For some reason, Haydam suddenly laughed heartily and then nodded his head in greeting toward him.

“Thank you, I will eat it well.”

He was slightly flustered by the brighter and more polite appearance than expected, but the milk was already spilled.

Haydam popped the chocolate into his mouth in one bite without any hesitation.

Radu watched Haydam, extremely tense.

“But…”

When Haydam opened his mouth again, the chocolate had disappeared without a trace, so Radu thought it wouldn’t be strange if Haydam coughed up blood and collapsed the very next moment.

However, with extremely clear pronunciation, Haydam spoke as follows.

“You must be busy having an affair?”

“…Pardon?”

Radu doubted his ears, wondering what he had just heard.

“Honestly, since you have a moral issue, it is annoying every time I see you, but technically speaking, my father also had an affair and Meursault also had an affair, so I have nothing to say. Keep living like that.”

Haydam still wore an angelic smile on his lips, but the words pouring from that mouth did not match his appearance at all, causing cognitive dissonance.

Furthermore,

‘Why… isn’t he… dying?’

Haydam walked past him nonchalantly.

‘I clearly poured in so much poison that even a large-class monster would collapse in one shot, stuffing it full inside the chocolate.’

Since he had put it in himself and delivered it in person, there was no way it could have been misdelivered.

Even so, Haydam walked away with brisk steps and vanished from his sight.

Hoping the poison would manifest later, he waited for news of Haydam’s death, but…

The next day, and the day after that.

News of Haydam’s death never came.

And when the news of a death finally arrived,

it was not the news of Haydam’s death that Radu had been waiting for, but

the news of Daphne’s death.