Chapter 42

Watching a Fire from Across the River

[Junkie: God, you seem to think I don’t know who you are, but I’ve seen you on the forums before.]

[Junkie: You didn’t talk like that.]

[Junkie: Why are you putting on this ridiculous airheaded act?]

Apparently, Junkie knew the player called God.

Judging by the fact that God did not deny the claim that this was not his usual way of speaking, his current overly cheerful attitude really was an act.

[Junkie: The Dentist might be a newbie, but anyone who knows anything is aware that none of you are normal players.]

[Junkie: Let me make this perfectly clear while I have the chance. Any player who crosses into my district will be treated as an enemy.]

I agreed with Junkie that anyone who entered my district should be regarded as an enemy, but…

Judging by how violently he was reacting, Junkie seemed genuinely afraid of the other players.

Well, it was only natural to feel anxious after suddenly being transported into a game alongside a bunch of social misfits.

[God: Come on, why are you being so hostile?]

After remaining silent for a moment, God sent another message.

[God: Think about it logically. What could we possibly gain from becoming enemies? Though I do agree that Dopamine Addict probably won’t be of any help to us.]

How perceptive.

[TotallyPossible: I’m against meeting too.]

TotallyPossible, who had apparently been quietly watching the situation, finally spoke.

[TotallyPossible: For starters, I’m still under the ocean.]

[TotallyPossible: With the influence I have right now, I can’t even return to land whenever I want.]

[TotallyPossible: And if you’re planning to conspire among yourselves, know that I won’t just sit back and let it happen.]

[God: Conspire? Come on—]

[TotallyPossible: If any of you make contact before the First Apocalypse…]

[TotallyPossible: I’ll sink the entire submarine into the ocean.]

Sink the submarine…?

TotallyPossible continued sending messages.

[TotallyPossible: I might not be able to drag the submarine onto land, but I can still punch a hole in it and sink it.]

[TotallyPossible: So go ahead and meet. I don’t care if this submarine sinks to the bottom of the ocean and the meteorite attached to its power system is lost forever.]

[God: Wouldn’t you die too if you sank the submarine?]

[TotallyPossible: Whether I die from isolation or drown to death, it makes no difference.]

[God: Wait, are you serious?]

Even God, who had proposed the meeting, seemed taken aback by TotallyPossible’s extreme attitude.

[TotallyPossible: You all need the meteorite item from my district, don’t you?]

[TotallyPossible: I’m not the only one who thought of it, right?]

[TotallyPossible: That maybe if we collect all the meteorite items, we’ll be able to return home.]

Huh?

[ImNotCryingThatCountsAsCardio: I-I’ve never thought about that before?!]

[Dentist: We can return if we collect all the meteorite items? Is that true? Was that in the game?]

[TotallyPossible: The muscle-brained idiot and the newbie should stay out of this.]

I did not particularly agree with TotallyPossible’s theory, but the other veteran players seemed to think differently.

[Junkie: I-I did think there had to be a reason only the meteorite items possessed this kind of power…]

[God: It isn’t an unreasonable theory. If contact with a meteorite item is what activated the system, then the meteorite items must possess some kind of power.]

Silence briefly settled over the chat room before God continued.

[God: This is… unavoidable, then.]

[God: So, TotallyPossible, you’re not only refusing to meet us—you’re also opposed to anyone else meeting each other, right?]

[TotallyPossible: That’s right! If any of you interact and join forces before I can return to land—]

[TotallyPossible: I’ll sink the Beer District’s meteorite along with the entire submarine.]

TotallyPossible…

I did not remember him having such an extreme personality.

He had been trapped beneath the ocean ever since being transported here, so his mental state was probably extremely unstable.

The other players seemed to find his claim—that gathering all the meteorite items might allow us to return home—fairly plausible.

But I wasn’t so sure.

I also intended to gather all the meteorite items, but only because I needed them to clear this world.

I did not believe collecting them would allow us to go home.

Setting aside the fact that I had no desire to return…

I had a feeling this world would not let us go so easily.

That was when he sent a message.

[Dopamine Addict: That would be a problem.]

For a moment, I doubted my own eyes.

The message had appeared under my nickname, but I had not sent it.

‘The player from the Unicorn District!’

Another message from him immediately followed.

[Dopamine Addict: I’ve already met someone, you see. ^^]

‘That bastard.’

He had claimed he had no intention of harming me, but this message was obviously meant to screw me over.

If I joined the conversation now, things would only become more complicated, so I decided to watch the situation for the time being.

Sure enough, the other players were greatly startled by Dopamine Addict’s sudden appearance.

[Junkie: Dopamine Addict?]

[Dentist: Why are you only showing up now?]

[God: What do you mean, you’ve already met someone?]

[TotallyPossible: What the hell are you thinking? Was that message last time really from you?]

[Junkie: Wait, but there’s no guarantee the person sending these messages is the real Dopamine Addict, is there?]

The players erupted into confusion.

Then the player from the Chicken District cautiously asked:

[ImNotCryingThatCountsAsCardio: A-Are you really the Dopamine Addict we know…?]

I waited to see how the impersonator would answer.

[Dopamine Addict: M]

He sent nothing but a single smiling emoticon.

Was this bastard seriously trying to pretend he was me?

[TotallyPossible: This bastard isn’t Dopamine Addict.]

‘You figured it out from that?’

Apparently, the other players had also concluded that the person sending the messages was not me, because they hurriedly began wrapping up the conversation.

[Dentist: L-Let’s refrain from talking in this room from now on. Someone we don’t even know is watching everything we say.]

[Dopamine Addict: lol]

[God: Agreed. The meeting proposal is rejected, so use private chats if anything comes up.]

[TotallyPossible: Wait, where the hell are Dopamine Addict and Home Protector? Are they dead or something?]

That was the end of the conversation.

The Unicorn player did not send any more messages either, so the public chat room quickly fell silent.

Everyone scattered the moment a second Dopamine Addict appeared.

It was clear that his very existence was an enormous source of anxiety for the other players as well.

Of course, he had informed us that the barriers were gone, and he had not caused any serious harm yet…

But there was something ominous about his very existence.

It felt as though he would eventually ruin everything.

Just then, I received a private message from T-Bastard.

[T-Bastard: Is the player that impersonator said he already met… you?]

[Dopamine Addict: How did you know?]

[T-Bastard: A guy who goes around impersonating you wouldn’t be interested in any player other than you.]

That made sense.

But…

[Dopamine Addict: I meant, how did you realize that guy was an impersonator?]

[T-Bastard: Because he sounded even more obnoxious than you usually do.]

Was that supposed to mean my normal way of speaking was already obnoxious?

[T-Bastard: Did he find you first?]

[Dopamine Addict: Yeah.]

[T-Bastard: You seem fine… so I guess nothing serious happened?]

[Dopamine Addict: Hmm. I got hit by one of his bullets, but he said he had no intention of hurting me.]

[T-Bastard: What the hell does that mean?]

[Dopamine Addict: About that impersonator. What exactly did you two talk about?]

[Dopamine Addict: You said he knew about one of our conversations, so you mistook him for me.]

T-Bastard did not reply for a while, as though he had gone back to check the old chat log.

Just when I was starting to get bored of waiting, he returned.

[T-Bastard: After I received the message saying interdistrict communication was possible, I asked him if he had discovered anything.]

[T-Bastard: Then he said, “You’re always saying you’re going to kill me, but now you’re asking me about this?”]

[T-Bastard: That’s why I thought it was you. He knew I was always telling you I’d kill you…]

[T-Bastard: The other players joined after that conversation, so they wouldn’t have seen what we said.]

Before T-Bastard and I became friends, he had indeed sent me death threats through the public chat room.

‘Could he have been in that room from the very beginning? Even before T-Bastard and I entered it…?’

It had taken me an entire day to unlock the system.

If he had landed in the Unicorn District, there was a good chance he had activated his system before I did.

After all, the Unicorn District’s meteorite was the floating island that made up the district itself.

‘But how did he know T-Bastard kept threatening to kill me after that?’

T-Bastard had publicly declared that he would kill me.

But after that, he had stopped appearing in the public chat altogether and had even been the one to message me first.

Any player who did not know the true nature of my relationship with T-Bastard would have assumed we were not on particularly bad terms.

That meant the response, “You’re always saying you’re going to kill me, but now you’re asking me about this?” could not have been made through simple deduction.

‘Did he hack the system using the Unicorn District’s technology?’

No.

If that were the case, he would not have needed to come and confirm my identity in person.

If he could see all of my conversations, there would have been no reason to verify anything.

‘He can’t see our chats.’

And yet, he knew T-Bastard wanted to kill me.

…What the hell was he?

Even if he were a remnant of the AI or some version of myself who had become fixed as an NPC…

That would still only be the “past me.”

My conversations with T-Bastard had taken place after I entered this world.

The only people who should know about them were the real me and perhaps some future version of me.

‘I seriously have no idea what that bastard is…’

[T-Bastard: What is it? Did you figure something out?]

[Dopamine Addict: No. I have absolutely no idea.]

[T-Bastard: You… Are you sure it’s okay to just leave that guy alone?]

[Dopamine Addict: I’m going to think about it some more for now.]

[Dopamine Addict: By the way, apparently the barriers between districts are gone. Want to come over to my district?]

[T-Bastard: No.]

An immediate rejection?

[T-Bastard: I can handle the people in this district with this body, but I don’t think I can fight off large-class monsters and make it all the way to your district.]

[T-Bastard: I also doubt you’d come all the way here just to save me.]

[T-Bastard: Like you said, I’ll stay hidden here, build up my strength, and leave afterward.]

At first glance, it sounded like he simply intended to hold out longer for practical reasons.

But…

‘This guy… is wary of me.’

If he truly wanted to come to my district, his first question would have been whether I could rescue him.

Instead, he said he would emerge after becoming stronger.

It seemed he had vaguely realized that I was after his item and intended to meet me on equal footing after building up enough strength.

Well…

It would probably be more entertaining to meet him after he became stronger anyway, so perhaps I should leave him alone.

[Dopamine Addict: Fine. Tell me if you need anything.]

[T-Bastard: Anything I need? Hmm…]

Usually, even when I asked him something like that, he would go silent and disappear.

But today, he lingered instead of vanishing immediately.

Apparently, there really was something he needed.

[T-Bastard: Actually, there is something…]

[Dopamine Addict: There is? What is it?]

[T-Bastard: I don’t have any soap.]

[Dopamine Addict: …What?]

So… ap?

[T-Bastard: I said I need soap.]

[T-Bastard: A toothbrush and toothpaste too…]

[T-Bastard: Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you listening?]

[Dopamine Addict: Hahahahahahaha.]

[T-Bastard: Fuck you.]

[Dopamine Addict: You’re such a neat freak, you bastard. LOL.]

[T-Bastard: Stop laughing, asshole.]

[Dopamine Addict: Hahahahahahahahahaha.]

[T-Bastard: I swear, once I get out of here, I’m going to kill you.]

This bastard really was hilarious.

***

“Oh dear.”

After closing the public chat room, God of the Love District let out a disappointed sigh.

“I didn’t expect the player from the Beer District to react so aggressively… And what is Dopamine Addict thinking? Why didn’t he say anything?”

In truth, God had believed that Dopamine Addict would definitely appear if a meeting between players was arranged.

He would surely come to seize the meteorite items belonging to the other players who attended.

That was also the very reason God had tried to arrange the meeting.

‘Could it be… he doesn’t need the meteorites? No, that can’t be.’

After thinking about it for a moment, God slowly shook his head.

“Regardless, I need them. The meteorites from every district.”

To obtain them, he could not afford to provoke the player from the Beer District.

If that player truly sank the submarine to the bottom of the ocean, there would be no way to recover it.

“Then for now… I have to hide the fact that I’ve already met another player…”

He tilted his head.

“Although, since we aren’t cooperating or joining forces, maybe it’s fine?”

After muttering to himself for a while, God turned toward the “player” tied to a chair.

Smiling gently, he asked:

“What do you think, Home Protector?”