Chapter 96 – Dopamine Addict’s 1st Playthrough Highlight Video

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Without even having time to figure out what on earth the ‘1st Playthrough Highlight Video’ was, the video began.

The first thing that appeared in the video was a convenience store.

Judging by the angle, it seemed to be a video recorded by a convenience store CCTV, and naturally, the convenience store illuminated by the CCTV was the place where we were possessed.

It was that place which I had mistaken for a Safe Zone collaboration convenience store.

‘No way, is this…’

As if my expectation was not wrong.

After a moment, a man wearing a familiar tracksuit was seen entering the convenience store.

Undeniably me.

It was Dopamine Addict.

“What is this…”

I could not take my eyes off the video.

Entering the convenience store, Dopamine Addict scanned the display stands, took photos, and then fiddled with his phone for a long time.

Since it was an action I had also done, I knew what he was doing.

He was posting a thread about the convenience store on the Safe Zone community.

‘Looking at it like this, he looks like a community addict.’

After taking his eyes off his phone a long while later, Dopamine Addict was seen moving between the shelves and picking out items.

Dopamine Addict casually passed the refrigerator containing bottled Cola and picked up a unicorn doll inside.

Because I had never even gone near a unicorn doll after entering that convenience store, I was able to immediately realize what the words ‘1st Playthrough Highlight Video’ meant.

‘The Dopamine Addict in this video is not me.’

If my guess was correct, this would be the video of the ‘me’ who chose the unicorn doll in that convenience store, the other Dopamine Addict before his possession.

As Dopamine Addict holding the unicorn doll walked with heavy steps toward the clerk, the clerk’s face was different from the one I knew.

The clerk who struck my head with the barcode scanner was undeniably a man, but the employee standing in the CCTV was a woman with short black hair.

Furthermore, she did not strike Dopamine Addict’s head with a barcode scanner until the checkout was completed, and after completing the checkout, instead of losing consciousness from being hit by a barcode scanner, Dopamine Addict walked loosely toward the door.

‘No, why was I the only one struck by a barcode scanner…?’

Standing in front of the door, Dopamine Addict paused for a moment holding the handle, then looked back.

And in the next moment, he vanished from the screen.

‘Did the other people get possessed in that way?’

I didn’t know why I was the only one who got unfairly screwed over by the convenience store clerk.

Then the screen changed, and a white-haired young child sleeping soundly appeared.

This guy was also a face I knew all too well.

‘My main customization…’

There was no longer any room for doubt.

This was the other Dopamine Addict.

It was that guy’s play video.

Seeing that it was kindly written as the 1st playthrough on the video, it seemed that bastard had actually undergone a real regression, rather than being a fake regressor like me.

After a moment, the other Dopamine Addict in the video woke up.

And his face, filled with ecstasy upon realizing he was possessed inside the game, filled the screen.

‘I feel a bit like I’m receiving mirror therapy.’

From this point on, fitting for the title of a highlight video, only scenes of the other Dopamine Addict active in the field appeared one after another.

The other Dopamine Addict, who had been in the form of a child, instantly became an adult, and the adult version of the other Dopamine Addict easily suppressed other zones as if rolling a candy in his mouth.

The strange thing was that while he was occupying all the zones, the appearances of the other players I knew were not seen at all.

During the 1st playthrough, did different players possess bodies compared to now?

Or were they possessed in different customizations back then?

While I was watching the video with such thoughts, after the screen flickered for a moment, the face of the other Dopamine Addict filled the screen.

Then letters, sentences, began to float onto the screen.

[Congratulations! You have survived in this world. Player Dopamine Addict, in return for entertaining me, I will grant you one wish.]

Staring blankly at the words floating in the air, the other Dopamine Addict tilted his head slightly.

“…A wish?”

As the other Dopamine Addict asked in a dry and cracked voice, the text in the air changed.

[Yes! A wish! Whatever you want!]

“Whatever it is…”

[Shall I revive a dead person? Or do you want to be sent back to reality? Or else, shall I make all of this as if it never happened? Now, go ahead and speak what you want!]

“I…”

The other Dopamine Addict opened his mouth with an expressionless face and spoke.

“I want greater stimulation.”

[…Pardon?]

“I won too easily. I should have enjoyed it more slowly.”

[What does that mean…]

“I will play this game once more.”

[You will play this game once more?]

“This time, by possessing not just me, but other players as well. Because that would be more fun.”

The letters appearing in the air only blinked as if flustered, and only after a while did a new sentence appear.

[Are you really going to make that your wish? An opportunity to save someone, an opportunity to turn back everything, this opportunity to eliminate the beginning of all misfortune! You’re going to use it on that?]

“Yes.”

The other Dopamine Addict continued with a low expression.

“I just want to keep playing this game until I am satisfied.”

The text in the air trembled finely as if laughing.

[It seems I must grant you a new title called ‘Dopamine Addict.’]

“I have enough titles now. There is nowhere to use them anyway.”

[Don’t worry. I will make a use for it from the ‘next’ time. Then… my precious player (PC) who received the curse of boredom. May the next game, by all means, satisfy you.]

And with a pop sound, the screen went off.

“…What did I just watch.”

This is a bit… dizzying.

I calmly replayed the video.

And rewound it to watch only the last part again.

“I… want greater stimulation.”

“I won too easily. I should have enjoyed it more slowly.”

“I will play this game once more.”

“This time, by possessing not just me, but other players as well. Because that would be more fun.”

“I just want to keep playing this game until I am satisfied.”

No matter how many times I rechecked, nothing changed.

I buried my head on the bed.

‘It was me.’

The one who dragged the other players into this game.

None other than me, not my mother or father.

It really was me!

‘I don’t think this video is a fake.’

The words the Dopamine Addict in the video spat out were all words I would likely say.

Thoughts I would likely have.

Wishes I would likely make.

“No.”

I snapped my head up from the bed and stood up.

The one who made that wish was ultimately the other Dopamine Addict.

That is, the Dopamine Addict of the 1st playthrough.

Not me.

Because I chose Cola, and exist as an entity completely separate from the other Dopamine Addict.

‘Then that guy made a wish like this in his previous playthrough, and yet came to find me and babbled that kind of nonsense?’

Now I could no longer trust any words the other Dopamine Addict said to me.

A guy who made that kind of wish tells me that the one who possessed us was my father?

No, well.

There must be someone else who possessed the very first ‘Dopamine Addict’ in the first place.

Although I could no longer believe if that was really my father.

“If it were mother, why would she bother setting the possession time ten years later? If mother wanted to return to the other world, why would she need to possess so many people? Bothering to drag even me, whom she abandoned, into it.”

Right… thinking about it, he hadn’t lied about my mother.

Since the one who needed to possess this many people was himself and not my mother, he was bound to be certain it wasn’t my mother.

However…

there was one strange thing.

‘The other Dopamine Addict’s wish was to possess other players. My existence is not explained by that wish alone.’

In the wish of the 1st playthrough’s Dopamine Addict, there was no duplicate of himself.

Even so, the other Dopamine Addict went out of his way to visit the Cola Zone and check if I was growing well.

His coming to find me meant that he also knew of my existence.

If so, what could be hypothesized was.

‘Not just a 1st playthrough, but a 2nd playthrough, or maybe even more playthroughs could exist.’

The Dopamine Addict, who must have overwhelmed the other players and survived in the 2nd playthrough as well, made a new wish.

That this time he wanted to face ‘myself.’

Because I am him, and he is me, I could tell.

If I couldn’t find any fun in the 2nd playthrough either, I would have definitely made that wish.

And if my assumption was correct, many things were explained, including the reason why he and I existed at the same time, and why his ranking was higher than mine despite my inheriting titles as a clear-all-zones privilege.

Also, that the game developer bastard had by no means sent me this video with good intentions.

‘He sent the 1st playthrough video on purpose.’

If he just wanted to warn me about the other Dopamine Addict, he could have sent all the playthroughs so far.

But the game developer sent only the 1st playthrough to me.

And he showed it by deliberately placing the scene of making a wish to possess other players at the most dramatic spot.

Originally, the timing when this video arrived was right after the additional opening.

Did he want to show that when I thought I had approached the secret of the end, the possession was actually a disaster I brought upon myself?

‘I felt it before too, but…’

the ‘someone’ watching us was definitely a viewer full of malice.

This absurd highlight video was one thing, but it was clear they were watching my reaction while deliberately showing things that would stimulate me.

This video with the ridiculous title ‘Dopamine Addict’s 1st Playthrough Highlight Video’ was the proof.

A passionate viewer who went as far as recording it and editing only the stimulating scenes separately.

The ‘game developer’ was watching me, us, treating us as content.

‘While there were times I lacked content, it’s my first time becoming someone else’s content myself.’

He probably wanted to see me shaken upon knowing that the culprit of this group possession was not the convenience store, but me.

But there was something the developer overlooked.

Even if it was me who possessed the other players in this world.

So what?

I am not a soft person who would get shocked or feel guilty over such things.

Even if he showed me this kind of thing, he wouldn’t get the reaction he wanted.

At most, if the wish of the last surviving player is to be granted, I’m just a bit concerned about what wish I should make.

At that moment, messages arrived in succession.

[Dentist Candy Zone Walkthrough Highlight (NEW!)]

[HomeProtector Cigarette Zone Walkthrough Highlight (NEW!)]

[SsapPossible Beer Zone Walkthrough Highlight (NEW!)]

[IDontCryThatIsCardio Chicken Zone Walkthrough Highlight (NEW!)]

[Druggie Cocaine Zone Walkthrough Highlight (NEW!)]

[T-Bastard Knife Zone Walkthrough Highlight (NEW!)]

[God Love Zone Walkthrough Highlight (NEW!)]

It was as if.

he was asking if I could really feel nothing even after seeing this, but…

‘Newbies!’

I played Dentist’s Candy Zone highlight walkthrough without hesitation.