Chapter 4

 I Am Dopamine Addict

I had posted the Safe Zone Cola bastard child strategy on the Safe Zone community.

But I had not written down everything I knew.

In my guide, I had written that you just had to dig up the grave and bring back “Lunamoon’s belongings.”

The player who got to this grave before me probably read my guide and assumed that the belonging in question was the “dog tag.”

Of course, as long as you had an East Asian character model, bringing only that dog tag was enough to be recognized as the bastard child.

Commander Hayden, who was tormented by guilt over abandoning his lover and child, would accept an East Asian child with Lunamoon’s belongings without much suspicion.

There was one thing to be careful of.

The commander I knew was, after all, only part of the game’s setting, so the commander here might suspect a self-proclaimed bastard child.

But I knew of a perfect proof that would make it impossible for the commander to doubt me.

The real “proof” Commander Hayden gave to Lunamoon was not the dog tag, but a ring.

A ring with a meteorite embedded in its center.

A meteorite said to have been made from a fragment of the meteor that brought destruction to this world.

An impossible-to-forge, genuine proof.

The reason I did not write this in the guide was… simply a whim.

The ring that served as the proof was inside the skeleton Lunamoon’s mouth.

That meant Lunamoon had died with the ring held in her mouth.

She probably did not want the ring, at least, to be taken from her even if her grave was robbed later.

That was why, even though I knew this was the true proof, I had not written it in the guide. And after discovering this ring for the first time, I had benefited from this proof exactly once and never used it again.

…If you ask why I opened the mouth of a skeletal corpse when all I had to do was take the dog tag, I have nothing to say.

It wasn’t like I dug through it on purpose. When I dug up the grave, moonlight shone on the skeleton, and something flashed between its clenched teeth.

It did feel a little uncomfortable, so after that, whenever I cleared Cola, I came to this grave, paid my respects, and poured out alcohol for her.

In Safe Zone, if you repeated an action, you could obtain a “title.” How often must I have done it to even gain the title “Lunamoon’s Friend”?

“Anyway… Originally, I was planning to just take the dog tag too. But since someone beat me to it, I have no choice.”

I clasped my hands for a moment and offered a prayer of apology to Lunamoon.

I had never gone this far while playing the game, but now that I was facing a real skeleton, I felt that I should properly apologize.

“I’m sorry for disturbing your eternal rest, Lunamoon. I also apologize for planning to pretend to be your child from now on. In exchange, if I become Hayden’s heir, I’ll sincerely regard him as my father and do my best so he doesn’t die in the apocalypse.”

After finishing my prayer of apology, I reached toward the skeleton Lunamoon’s mouth.

Then something strange happened.

Lunamoon’s skeleton seemed to glow brightly, and the ring began to rise through the hollow eye socket.

The meteorite at the center of the ring, which usually gave off a dull light, was shining brilliantly.

“Wh-what is this?”

‘This event never existed before.’

Afraid that people might see this light and gather here, I quickly grabbed the ring with both hands and tried to cover the glow.

And the moment the ring touched my hands…

I heard a whispering voice.

[You have taken one step closer to the secret of the apocalypse…]

Before I could react, messages began appearing one after another before my eyes.

[Part of the system will now be unlocked.]

[There is a special privilege for a player who cleared every zone. Would you like to check it?]

“This…”

This simple UI was unmistakably Safe Zone’s system notification message.

Until I spoke with RoomCornerWife, I had thought they had not given us any privileges at all.

So both the system and privileges had to be unlocked by fulfilling certain conditions?

I still did not know why one of those conditions was obtaining Lunamoon’s ring.

First, I checked what parts of the system had been unlocked.

[System Messages: Activated]

[Character Inspection: Available]

[Inventory: Available]

[Chat: Locked]

‘There’s a chat function too? If that gets unlocked, does that mean I can chat with the other players?’

Just then, as if urging me, the message telling me to check the privilege started blinking.

I wanted to look around a little more and see just how much of the game system I could use, but…

‘Check.’

As soon as I thought that inwardly, the message opened, and I was able to check the privilege.

[Player “Dopamine Addict,” welcome to this world.]

[The only player who cleared every zone, “Dopamine Addict,” is permitted to inherit titles.]

[*Title effects cannot be stacked.]

‘Oh.’

So the privilege for clearing every zone was title inheritance.

As I said earlier, in Safe Zone, if you repeated the same action, you gained something called a “title.”

When you started a new clear, the stats, skills, and inventory you had built up in the previous clear would all be reset, but only these titles would remain.

The effects of a title were related to the repeated action through which you obtained that title.

For example, if I equipped the “Lunamoon’s Friend” title, I could easily gain favor from NPCs who were friendly toward Lunamoon.

[Lunamoon’s Friend]

[Poisoning Expert]

[Eternal Commander]

[Goodman Family’s Natural Enemy]

[Hero of the Subjugation War]

‘I need to meet the commander tomorrow, so it would be best to equip Lunamoon’s Friend.’

Since only one title could be equipped at a time, I activated the “Lunamoon’s Friend” title from the seemingly endless list of titles.

‘I thought clearing it without any titles would be fun too…’

Seeing as they even gave me a privilege like this to stop the apocalypse…

Perhaps whoever possessed us into this world also wanted us to stop the apocalypse.

‘But if this is a privilege for someone who cleared every zone… that means everyone else has to start from scratch…’

For now, I decided to think about the intentions of whoever possessed us later.

The ring that had been shining brilliantly had already lost its light and returned to its original dull color.

Without thinking much of it, I tried putting the ring on my finger.

Since it had been made to fit Lunamoon’s finger, it was naturally loose on me… but at that moment, a message was activated.

[The effect of the title “Lunamoon’s Friend” is being applied to the target.]

‘……?’

This kind of message only appeared when an NPC who would be affected by the title was nearby.

But my surroundings were silent as death, and the only ones here were me and Lunamoon’s skeleton.

I tilted my head, took the ring off my finger, and then put it on again.

[The effect of the title “Lunamoon’s Friend” is being applied to the target.]

The message appeared again without fail.

‘……?’

I felt that something was strange, but if I stayed at the grave any longer, there was a chance someone would see me on the way back.

In any case, if this title effect was being applied, then it had to be an NPC who felt favorably toward me.

I checked that the coffin lid had been properly closed, then carefully covered it with soil again and left the graveside.

‘But has the guy who took the dog tag already headed to the commander’s residence?’

A pitiful, sharp-eyed, diligent player who had merely tried to follow a perfect strategy.

And now I had to personally drive them out of the commander’s residence.

It hurt my heart.

I decided to sleep in the abandoned cathedral tonight and go to the commander’s residence as soon as day broke.

Two soldiers were guarding the front of the commander’s residence.

Even so, getting inside was not difficult.

These soldiers had received orders from Commander Hayden to let in anyone who came claiming to know about Lunamoon.

Even when I approached the main gate, the soldiers did not look particularly wary.

“You there, stop. What business do you have at the commander’s residence?”

I repeated the line I had memorized while playing the game.

“I heard His Excellency is searching for a certain woman and child. I have something to tell him about them.”

“Hmm?”

The two soldiers looked at each other and exchanged glances.

They did not seem suspicious of me, but they looked somewhat troubled.

“His Excellency originally ordered us to let in anyone who knew about those two, regardless of status, but…”

“Things have gotten a little strange. Yesterday, a boy about your age came in saying the same thing as you. But…”

The soldier stopped speaking, glanced around, then whispered quietly to me.

“He hasn’t come back out since. It feels like something happened inside… I wouldn’t recommend going in right now.”

Oh…

Were they worried that I might go in and never come out either?

This zone had a low difficulty, so the NPCs’ moral standards were pretty high, but these were still kind soldiers.

‘Anyway, as expected, the guy who took the dog tag made the first move.’

In any case, the fact that the player who went in first had not come back out meant the bastard child strategy worked even in this world.

I had been wondering if, unlike the game, I might get thrown out even if I brought proof, but…

In that case, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.

“Thank you for telling me, but if that’s the case, I think I should go in even more. The boy you mentioned seems to be someone I know.”

“Oh dear, did you come looking for a friend?”

“He’s not a friend, but if I tell His Excellency what I know, I should be able to bring him out.”

Rather than bring him out, I would be driving him out, but anyway.

The two soldiers still seemed a little worried about me and hesitated, but they were soldiers who had to follow the rule of “let in anyone who knows about Lunamoon and her child,” so they nodded as if they had no choice.

After patting down my body to check if I had any suspicious items or blades, they opened the small visitor’s door attached to the edge of the main gate.

Unlike last night, Lunamoon’s ring had lost its light and looked like nothing more than a cheap ring. So even though I was wearing a large ring that did not fit my finger, the soldiers showed little interest in it.

There was a high chance they had also simply assumed that the guy who entered before me, who had brought the dog tag, was a kid who had enlisted early, without examining it carefully.

The NPCs in this zone had good character, but their intelligence was generally low…

Once I entered through the visitor’s door, I saw a sign that seemed to tell visitors to go this way.

Following the sign, I arrived at a path leading to the back of the mansion. A soldier sitting in a small booth behind the mansion flinched when he saw me.

“…Strange. I never thought we’d receive such young visitors two days in a row.”

He must be talking about the player who came yesterday.

“Kid, what brings you to the commander’s residence?”

“I know about the people His Excellency is looking for.”

At that, the soldier’s expression turned peculiar.

“…So what the young master said was true. You really came.”

“……?”

That was not the reaction I had expected.

‘Young master…? Really… came?’

By young master, could he mean the player who entered before me yesterday?

The soldier gestured inside with his chin and said,

“Go in and wait. I don’t know why, but we were told not to just send you away.”

“……”

Apparently…

The player who took the dog tag was also waiting for another player.

I was also interested in the existence of a player other than RoomCornerWife, so I obediently went inside and waited for him to come.

But unexpectedly, it was not one person who entered the room.

There was a boy with the same black-haired, black-eyed East Asian character model as me, and another boy with a red-haired, freckled Irish character model.

The boy with the Irish character model already looked somewhat large, to the point that it was hard to believe this was a ten-year-old start.

Even so, I recognized that he was also a player because I used the unlocked system’s “Character Inspection” to check their information.

[Name: Safe8Zone]

[Title: None]

[Affiliated Zone: Cola]

[*This player has not unlocked the system, so friend requests are unavailable.]

[Name: TaejeongTaeseBeyoncé]

[Title: None]

[Affiliated Zone: Cola]

[*This player has not unlocked the system, so friend requests are unavailable.]

I knew both of them.

They were the guys who had left comments even when I uploaded my final guide.

Both of them had fallen into Cola…

Well, I guess bottled cola was hard to resist.

But putting TaejeongTaeseBeyoncé aside, hadn’t this bastard Safe8Zone clearly said that my guides were just something to read for fun?

Why was he following my guide instead of enlisting?

“Hello.”

When I merely stared blankly at the two of them, Safe8Zone, who had probably taken the role of “bastard child,” spoke to me first.

Around his neck hung what seemed to be Lunamoon’s dog tag.

“You’re a player, right?”

When I nodded, Safe8Zone smiled and added,

“There’s no need to be on guard. I don’t know if you already know, but this place doesn’t have a language patch, so if we talk in Korean, they won’t find out that we aren’t people of this world.”

Seeing as he was giving me information, he did seem favorable toward other players, but…

“Why were you waiting for another player?”

“You’re impatient. It wouldn’t be too late to discuss that after introducing ourselves.”

At those words, I suddenly realized.

‘These guys haven’t unlocked the system, so they can’t see my information.’

Then I could probably just deceive them by saying I was T-Bastard, like I did with RoomCornerWife, and move on.

Or so I thought.

“I’ll introduce myself first.”

Safe8Zone started saying something completely insane.

“I’m Dopamine Addict.”