Chapter 32

The Second Impostor

[T-Bastard: Dopamine Addict, are you certain that bastard isn’t you?]
[T-Bastard: It knows everything we discussed in our private conversations, so I find it difficult to believe it’s merely impersonating you.]
[T-Bastard: We were already friends, so I assumed that bastard was you and even had a conversation with it.]
[T-Bastard: What are you?]

T-Bastard is already mutual friends with the other Dopamine Addict…?

I cautiously sent him a message.

[Dopamine Addict: Are you sure you didn’t just accept two friend requests at once because you’re an idiot?]
[T-Bastard: I’m really going to kill you once we get out of here.]

He really was fun to tease.

[Dopamine Addict: I’m joking. There’s no way accepting a friend request would let someone see the contents of our private messages.]

That was the part of T-Bastard’s messages that bothered me most.

How did that person know what T-Bastard and I had discussed privately?

Had they hacked the system?

Or had T-Bastard simply let something slip?

[T-Bastard: I’m telling you this because I know you’ll treat me like an idiot again, but I only gave short answers.]
[Dopamine Addict: Who said anything?]
[T-Bastard: But is that person truly not you?]
[Dopamine Addict: Of course not.]
[T-Bastard: Then who is it?]
[Dopamine Addict: How the hell would I know?]

I was even more curious than he was.

Who was impersonating me this time?

And why were they pretending to be me?

It’s not like I have a particularly good reputation.

What could anyone possibly gain by impersonating me?

[Dopamine Addict: You said you talked to them.]
[Dopamine Addict: Was there nothing strange about them?]
[T-Bastard: You’re always strange, so I didn’t notice anything different.]
[Dopamine Addict: ;;]

Compared to me, an innocent and good-natured player, T-Bastard—who threatened to come kill me at the end of every sentence—was clearly the stranger one.

[T-Bastard: There is one thing I know for certain.]
[Dopamine Addict: What?]
[T-Bastard: That person is in the Unicorn Zone.]

So it really is the Unicorn Zone player.

I had already suspected as much.

Of course, mine had only been a guess. Since T-Bastard said he was certain, he must have received concrete proof.

[Dopamine Addict: What’s your evidence?]
[T-Bastard: They sent me a tangerine through item trade.]
[Dopamine Addict: They sent you… a tangerine?]

So it really is the Unicorn Zone player…

As I had mentioned before, the Unicorn Zone was home to a group of mad scientists who had lifted their entire territory into the sky so that only they could survive.

Their scientific level completely surpassed that of the other eight zones, and they had already established a self-sustaining system within the zone.

Enough to produce luxurious food such as tangerines.

Since the entire world had been covered in snow, plants and animals that required a warm climate had become difficult to find.

But Earth’s original ecosystem was probably still preserved inside the Unicorn Zone.

That made the tangerine undeniable evidence.

Proof that the person was in the Unicorn Zone.

[Dopamine Addict: I told you I was in the Cola Zone, and you still ate the tangerine that bastard gave you without suspecting anything?]
[T-Bastard: That Dopamine Addict was kinder than you.]
[Dopamine Addict: That’s exactly when you should’ve become suspicious.]
[T-Bastard: …I checked the tangerine after receiving it. It was unmistakably real.]
[T-Bastard: So I assumed you had already cleared the Unicorn Zone as well, but apparently not.]

In any case, if they had sent him a tangerine, it seemed certain that they were from Unicorn.

In that case…

[T-Bastard: Are you going there to confirm it?]
[Dopamine Addict: No.]
[T-Bastard: Then what?]
[Dopamine Addict: I’m going to leave them alone.]
[T-Bastard: You’re just… going to leave them alone?]

T-Bastard did not seem to understand my intention, so I sent an explanation.

[Dopamine Addict: I’ll let them keep pretending to be me while they clear the zone. It’s like leaving the place in their care until I go take over the Unicorn Zone later.]
[T-Bastard: …Where does that confidence come from? If they’re impersonating you, that means they know your strategies too.]
[T-Bastard: Even if the name Dopamine Addict is fake, if they act according to your strategies, then they’re practically a second Dopamine Addict. Besides, wasn’t Unicorn originally your home base? You think you can defeat that?]

What was this?

It sounded funny coming from him.

[Dopamine Addict: Weren’t you originally the kind of player who studied my strategies and countered them? Why are you talking as if there’s no way to win?]
[T-Bastard: You know… my playstyle?]
[Dopamine Addict: Of course. You appear in my AI’s records more often than anyone else. You always play specifically to counter me.]
[T-Bastard: I appear often. I see, heh.]

…What was wrong with him?

I thought I had done a decent job of cheering him up, but it seemed he was still out of his mind.

Still, this gives me some idea why they’re impersonating me.

SafeZone8 had done it, and now the Unicorn Zone player was doing the same.

It was a form of bluffing.

Just as SafeZone8 had used my name to turn an innocent player like Taejeong into his subordinate, the Unicorn player probably assumed that no one would want to make an enemy of “Dopamine Addict,” the player who had started in his original home base.

At the same time, it was also a provocation aimed at the real Dopamine Addict—me.

If I fought the Unicorn Zone player right now… my chances of winning would be around sixty percent.

I had the full-zone-clear privilege, so I was unlikely to lose outright.

However, there was a technological gap between the Unicorn and Cola Zones that I could not overcome through personal ability alone.

To bridge that gap, the Second Apocalypse would have to begin and flood the world with flying monsters.

[Dopamine Addict: Anyway, message me if anything happens.]
[T-Bastard: Okay.]
[Dopamine Addict: And tell me if that person sends you another message.]
[T-Bastard: I will.]

…He had become strangely obedient.

That was probably just my imagination.

After ending the chat with T-Bastard, I opened HomeProtector’s window. He was still sending messages.

[Dopamine Addict: Stop sending so many.]
[HomeProtector: Then check them faster:]
[HomeProtector: That really isn’t you?]
[Dopamine Addict: Yeah, it isn’t me. Just leave it alone.]
[HomeProtector: Leave it alone?]
[HomeProtector: Why are you so calm? That guy is practically a second Dopamine Addict who started in your home base!]

HomeProtector was saying the same thing as T-Bastard.

[HomeProtector: You said you’d take me to Unicorn later.]

He had unilaterally asked me to take him.

I had never agreed.

[Dopamine Addict: I’ll win anyway.]
[HomeProtector: Seriously, where does that confidence come from…?]
[Dopamine Addict: Forget that. You should check whether the barrier between zones is actually gone.]
[HomeProtector: You want to see if that guy was telling the truth?]
[Dopamine Addict: No.]
[Dopamine Addict: If there really is no barrier, the lower-difficulty zones will be raided by players from higher-level zones first.]
[HomeProtector: Ah…]
[Dopamine Addict: Wasn’t Love the zone closest to Tobacco? I don’t like the feel of that player called God.]
[HomeProtector: Ah… I found that person a little uncomfortable too.]
[HomeProtector: Fuck… I’m screwed…]

HomeProtector disappeared after that message.

He had probably rushed off to check whether the barrier was truly gone.

I should finish preparing for the subjugation campaign as well.

While hunting monsters, I could also check whether the barrier existed.

And if it really was gone…

It might not be a bad idea to visit the newbie.

I returned to the operations room, sat Meursault down, and explained my plan.

“The key to this operation is efficiency. We’ll use the smallest possible force, target only the gems, minimize the duration of combat, and reduce damage to the edible portions.”

“Is that truly possible?”

When I explained how to determine the locations of monster gems, Meursault looked unconvinced.

“I’ve never heard that the positions of the gems followed patterns. Is this something else you learned during your time in the slums?”

I had used the slums excuse too many times already.

Perhaps it was time to change my story.

“No. Mother taught me this.”

“Ah, Lady Lunamoon… She was a hero of the subjugation campaigns, so it would make sense for her to have possessed her own methods.”

Well, Lunamoon had also been a player, so it was not entirely false.

Even if the game she had played was a dating simulator.

Still, it bothers me that a dating-sim player distinguished herself as a hero of the subjugation campaigns.

“Hero of the Subjugation Campaign” was the name of a Safe Zone title.

It was not the kind of title that should have belonged to a dating-sim player.

Of course, since subjugation campaigns were held every year, it would not have been strange for at least one soldier to receive such a title.

What bothered me was that the title had specifically gone to Lunamoon, a player.

Was there something more to her after all?

“Even if Lady Lunamoon taught you this, it should still undergo at least one verification process. We cannot endanger the soldiers without testing it first…”

“You’re right. I was planning to go hunting once before the campaign anyway.”

The Commander had rejected my previous request to go hunting.

But now that he had heard my false confession about being a regressor and confirmed my abilities, he would probably let me go willingly.

“Come to think of it, how is the development of the combat rations going?”

I had entrusted the director of the Zone Security Research Institute with developing portable combat rations.

After my meeting with Daphne, Meursault had become an obedient NPC, and as far as I knew, he had been communicating with the director ever since.

“I was about to bring that up.”

“Has there been progress?”

“Yes. He said they focused on creating food that even young soldiers could carry. It isn’t finished yet, but I happen to have a prototype with me. I’ll show you.”

As he spoke, Meursault took out the prototype.

“…Star candy?”

Sitting neatly in his palm was something shaped like a piece of star candy.

It was larger than the familiar kind, and at a glance, sugar did not appear to be its main ingredient.

“How did you know?”

“What do you mean?”

“The name of this combat ration is ‘Star Candy.’”

“It isn’t actual candy, is it?”

“The main ingredient is protein. Carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and other nutrients have also been evenly compressed into it. However, because of the nature of high-temperature dried food, its hardness couldn’t be avoided. They chose this shape so it would at least break apart more easily when bitten.”

“Hmm. Have you tried it?”

“At least it didn’t taste like military boots.”

At least it did not taste like military boots?

So the flavor had improved, but it was still bad.

Still, this is better than I expected.

When players brought food close to their mouths, it transformed into blue particles and was absorbed into their bodies.

However, after testing it several times, I had learned that the food had to be small enough to fit into the mouth in a single bite.

For example, even if eating monster meat could heal us, pressing our mouths directly against an entire monster would not cause it to transform into particles and be absorbed automatically.

In that sense, this star candy was perfectly suited to players because it was made in bite-sized pieces.

It appeared they had made it small for young soldiers, but the size was ideal.

“You seem to like it.”

“Yeah. Can we get more of these? Since we’re going out to test the gem-location method, it would be good to test the performance of the star candy too.”

“I’ll inform the research director.”

Meursault really was convenient to have around because he handled work so efficiently.

I had left the combat rations to him, and the Commander would allow me to go hunting.

I should call that guy too.

A player who seemed to insist that the balance of the world required an incompetent player whenever there was a competent NPC.

Stay-at-Home Wifey.