Chapter 95 – Daphne (5)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“What kind of person was your mother to play a middle-aged men dating sim…”

I also did not know how she ended up touching that game and getting possessed, so I had nothing to say.

‘It is a strange thing.’

As far as I remembered, she didn’t seem to have any interest in such things.

Still, CornerHoney no longer seemed to suspect me.

It seemed he thought that no matter how much of a liar I was whenever I opened my mouth, I wouldn’t sell out my mother for something like this.

“Huh? Wait a second. Aren’t you currently clearing the bastard child walkthrough?”

“That’s right.”

“No, then… that grave… was…”

CornerHoney’s face sank into shock and horror as he recalled whose grave I had dug up to be in this position, and then he looked at me as if realizing something.

“So that’s why you asked if I knew Luna Moon’s face last time! Because the portrait was really your mother’s face. No wonder she resembled you… wait?”

Suddenly, CornerHoney tilted his head and spoke.

“But it’s strange. We were possessed as our game customization, not our real bodies. How could you and Luna Moon resemble each other then?”

“There’s nothing strange about it. I just used the customization that scanned my face to clear the bastard child walkthrough.”

The Safe Zone customization is basically a system where you scan your own face and then add various adjustments on top of it.

Because there are many gamers in the world who find customization tedious, surprisingly many players use their real faces as they are.

Of course, it wasn’t because I found it tedious, but simply because I had to do an Asian customization to clear the bastard child walkthrough.

When clearing zones other than the bastard child walkthrough, I used a customization with white hair and dark circles… exactly like the current Unicorn Zone player, and since that customization was the most representative, other players would also remember me by that face.

Come to think of it, Korean players especially tended to modify their characters a lot.

CornerHoney, who had probably heavily modified his character, looked at me with surprised eyes.

“What? Th-then is that your real face right now?”

“Yes.”

“No way, with your personality having a face like that… What a waste of a face, seriously.”

“……”

Does this guy not look in a mirror?

Even if my face is a waste, your customization is a million times more of a waste.

While I was thinking that, CornerHoney unexpectedly said something useful.

“Then the Unicorn Zone impersonator must have been possessed in a character that copied your customization and is pretending to be you.”

“Hmm.”

Although that guy was not an impersonator but the real ‘me,’ it was something worth thinking about that he was also ‘me’ yet possessed in a different customization.

Why are both of us ‘me’ but the customizations are different?

‘When I asked if he was me from a parallel world, he avoided answering.’

If so, the closest to the correct answer was ‘the me of a parallel world who chose Unicorn at the convenience store.’

But judging by his bizarrely vast amount of information or the number of titles,

and seeing how he told me that I ‘did the additional opening faster than him,’

that guy was absolutely not someone possessed at the same time as us.

Since it didn’t seem he was possessed in the past like the dating sim players either,

the conclusion I reached was one.

‘This possession. It is not the first playthrough.’

At least the Dopamine Addict of the Unicorn Zone has played through this possession ‘more than once.’

That many titles, and that information.

If it was information obtained in a previous playthrough, it made sense.

I didn’t know why he alone was in an adult form, and why he and I,

two Dopamine Addicts, existed at the same time, but…

Well, it wasn’t like I could find out just by thinking about it now anyway.

‘In a way, it is for the better.’

If the opponent was at least ‘me,’ he would entertain me more than other players.

I want to enjoy this world for a long, long time.

Even for that sake, it would be good to properly know ‘why we were possessed.’

If there was a purpose to possessing us, wouldn’t there be a possibility of returning us to the real world when we achieve that goal?

Because what I want is an infinite supply of dopamine, not returning to reality, I must understand ‘possession’ and be able to control it.

And it seemed that the ‘logout’ system was what existed for that.

“Anyway, to verify about my mother and your sister, I also plan to attempt a logout.”

At that, CornerHoney was startled.

“What do you mean by attempting to log out? Are you saying you’ll die or something?”

Come to think of it, although I had explained about the system opening rights and points to show off that I did this much for them, I had never explained that my system underwent additional opening and got ‘logout’ as a result.

“’Logout’ exists in the system.”

“What?! There was no such thing in my system.”

“It is in my system. Because I did what is called an additional opening.”

“So that’s why you could open up the systems too. Wow… we were possessed equally, so why do you alone stand out like that? The caliber of the clear-all-zones player doesn’t go anywhere.”

‘Come to think of it, that other Dopamine Addict also said I was faster than him…’

That was probably because I started in the Cola Zone, no matter how I thought about it.

Because had I started in the Unicorn Zone or other zones, I wouldn’t have known Luna Moon’s identity, nor that Daphne was a player.

If I hadn’t obtained Luna Moon’s ring, I wouldn’t have inherited the Snow Giant’s ability, and if so, I wouldn’t have been able to persuade Shin Eun-jo either.

‘Was it… really a coincidence that I started in the Cola Zone?’

Although choosing Cola was indeed my own will.

A somewhat unknown uneasiness remained.

For now, I should finish talking about the logout.

“Anyway… the existence of ‘logout’ as a system must mean that ‘login’ is also possible. It will definitely be different from returning to reality by dying. It has to be.”

“It has to be different?”

“Because I plan to come back once the questions about my mother are resolved.”

I thought he might look at me strangely for intending to return to this world again, but CornerHoney had a surprisingly calm face.

“That… is the same for me.”

“It’s the same for you?”

“As I said, I want to live long.”

Ah… come to think of it, did this guy say he wouldn’t have lived long if he were in his real body?

“Once I confirm that my sister is safe, I want to return to this world. If returning is possible, I am also in favor of trying to log out. This logout thing, how do we do it? Is it something I can do too?”

“Hmm.”

Because it was only written in the system that the logout function would be activated when all players opened their systems.

It was unknown whether only the players who did the additional opening could use the logout function, or if it was a function opened to all players once everyone opened their systems.

For now, it would be faster to confirm how logging out works after achieving the minimum condition for logout, ‘opening the systems of all players.’

“There is a condition to opening the logout system.”

“A condition?”

“All players must open their systems.”

“What? We don’t even know how many people are possessed… is it possible to make them all open it? I heard it costs a lot of points or whatever to open a system.”

“That’s why.”

I held up two fingers to CornerHoney.

“There are two ways to open the logout.”

“Two ways?”

“One is…”

I said as I folded one of my extended fingers.

“utilizing the system-opened players of other zones. Because I alone won’t have enough points.”

At those words, CornerHoney crossed his arms as if in deep thought.

“Shin Eun-jo aside, I don’t know if players from other zones will cooperate. Would they want to log out even at the cost of using that many points? While we have a purpose of returning to reality… I don’t think the game-addict bastards who played Safe Zone would want to return to reality. Tae-jeong also seems to like his life here better.”

Tae-jeong certainly said from our first meeting that he liked being able to clear this world together with me.

As I had thought once before, it seemed they had gathered and possessed only such guys, so there wouldn’t be many players who would cooperate with me for the logout.

Although T-Bastard in the Knife Zone or the Dentist who didn’t even know what this game was would likely be cooperative with me to return to reality.

“I know a few players who might come out cooperatively, even if they aren’t many.”

“You said the points to buy the system opening rights also only appear when you can do the additional opening.”

That is true.

The problem even greater than the points was indeed this additional opening.

I didn’t have the slightest clue how on earth to trigger that additional opening.

I didn’t even know if I could help other players trigger their additional opening.

But fortunately, I had thought of a backup plan as well.

“If points are insufficient, we can use another method.”

“There’s another method? What is it?”

I folded my remaining finger as I spoke.

“Killing everyone except the system-opened players.”

“…Huh?”

“If only the system-opened players remain, the logout will open too. Since all remaining players will have the system.”

“Why is your thinking really so atrocious?”

“I am just being efficient.”

“Sure, well… that might be faster than making them open it. As long as I am safe.”

This guy is also gradually coming to think in a sociopathic way.

“But how are you going to contact the players in other zones?”

“The day you guys graduate from the military academy. I will go to other zones.”

At that, CornerHoney widened his eyes.

“You plan to go… to other zones?”

“There is no other way.”

“B-but there are still six years left to graduate from the military academy?!”

“We will leave after we grow a bit more. Because going to other zones will be on a completely different level from staying in the Cola Zone so far. Also, we don’t know how Shin Eun-jo might suddenly change if we leave the zone empty now.”

“Ah…”

Even if it wasn’t Shin Eun-jo, we didn’t know what might happen while we left the zone empty.

It was a situation where Daphne died just today, not to mention that Radu guy who tried to poison me just a little while ago, Meursault being in an unstable state, and Anton who would have likely attempted suicide.

Since the NPC bastards could cause trouble, we had to stay in the zone for the time being.

And the difficulty of our zone was ultimately Low.

NPCs of other zones might be too much for us to handle on our own.

So we must move only after our bodies have grown to a certain extent at least.

Seventeen years old.

That will be the day we leave the zone.

And…

‘Now I should open it.’

The message still flashing when I opened the system.

[There is 1 message from the game developer. Would you like to check it?]

I was now prepared to open this message.

As long as I knew that either my mother or father was involved in the game’s development.

I was confident I wouldn’t be surprised no matter what message was left.

After sending CornerHoney back to his room like that and opening the message, I

couldn’t help but be shaken, contrary to my preparedness.

Because as soon as I opened the message, what unfolded before my eyes was a single video.

And at the top of that video, the following title was written.

[Dopamine Addict’s 1st Playthrough Highlight Video]

…No.

What on earth is this.