Chapter 52

Salvation

In truth,

I did not particularly care whether my origins became public.

The Commander-in-Chief, however, had gone so far as to shoot Lieutenant General Batum dead during an officers’ meeting to keep my background from drawing attention.

He had also warned them not to drag my mother, Luna Moon, into their arguments.

Perhaps because of that, most cadets who were not children of high-ranking officers like Plato knew very little about where I came from.

Even the children of senior officers did not speak carelessly about my past. Since I attended the academy under the Commander-in-Chief’s orders, everyone seemed to assume that I was so capable because I had been raised while receiving an heir’s education.

I had simply gone along with that assumption.

I never expected Plato to suddenly go this far.

Admittedly, revealing at this particular moment that I had never received a formal education would help our argument, but…

Plato really never thinks about what comes afterward.

He was not the type to take such an unexpected action merely because he trusted me.

He had probably done it because fulfilling the task I had given him was genuinely his highest priority.

Meanwhile, the temperature of the Commander-in-Chief’s expression had fallen beyond mere coldness. It looked as though the Second Apocalypse itself had descended upon his face.

Had I asked what he was thinking, he would probably have answered, How to kill that bastard.

Still, he did not seem likely to do anything to Plato immediately, so I left him alone and continued listening to the speech.

“Lord Haydam, who disappeared in the past for reasons unknown, returned only three months ago. That means it has not only been a short time since he began receiving an heir’s education, but even since he first began eating proper meals. Despite that, Lord Haydam challenged our cadets in two training simulations and achieved overwhelming victories both times. Had Lord Haydam never been found, it would have been impossible for him to participate in those simulations, even though he already possessed the ability to overwhelm graduating cadets at only ten years old.”

Only then did Plato take his eyes off me and look out over the audience.

“Until now, we may have failed to discover countless other ‘Haydams.’ The population of our sector continues to grow by the day, while the food shortages required to sustain it continue as well. All of you are currently young men and women with healthy bodies and sound minds, but that youth will not last forever. One day, every one of us will grow old and weary, and it will be other children who must support you then. Therefore, I ask the graduates gathered here, their fathers and mothers, their sponsors, and our respected Commander-in-Chief to permit every eleven-year-old child in this sector to enroll in the military academy. Thank you.”

Silence settled over the graduation hall after the speech ended.

Even after Plato returned to the seat beside me with a proud expression, the silence continued.

The Commander-in-Chief’s congratulatory address was supposed to come next, but the principal could not bring himself to step forward and merely continued sweating.

The Commander-in-Chief’s smile was still gone.

However, the murderous intent that had filled his face moments earlier had faded.

Now he merely looked deep in thought, as though carefully considering a decision.

Unexpectedly, it was Lucas who broke the silence.

Clap. Clap. Clap…

Seated in the front row, Lucas was applauding.

The sound of his hands echoed through the quiet hall, drawing everyone’s attention.

Lucas slowly rose to his feet, stopped clapping, and spoke.

“I would like to make the same request.”

Bones, seated beside him, looked deeply alarmed and whispered that he must be insane.

Ignoring him, Lucas looked up at the Commander-in-Chief.

“To speak honestly, until now I believed it was only natural that Lord Haydam was superior to me because he had been raised in a better environment. Even when I heard that he had refused to enroll in the academy because he considered it a waste of time, I assumed that some pampered young master who had received an heir’s education was looking down on us.”

I had never hidden the fact that I had refused admission, but judging by the sudden murmurs, many of the other cadets were hearing it for the first time.

Lucas waited for the hall to quiet before speaking again.

“But when I reconsidered it just now, another thought occurred to me. What is so remarkable about an academy that only admits the children of high-ranking officers or those who receive their sponsorship? Why did I resent Lord Haydam merely because he refused to enroll here? Was that not simply my own inferiority complex?”

At some point, Lucas had begun looking directly at me.

He continued.

“And that led me to another thought. If Lord Haydam had never been found and were not here today, perhaps we would have lost a great commander who might one day earn the respect of countless soldiers.”

Lucas turned his gaze back toward the Commander-in-Chief.

“I dare to make this request of Your Excellency. To find a single Haydam, we must educate a hundred children. I ask this as one cadet and as one of the children raised by this sector.”

Then he turned toward the many cadets seated behind him.

“I ask the other cadets as well. Please show your support for Cadet Plato’s graduation speech with a resounding round of applause.”

A very brief silence followed the end of Lucas’s words.

“Ah, damn it! To hell with it!”

Bones cursed and shot to his feet.

He roughly loosened the tie that had never suited him in the first place, faced forward, and began clapping loudly.

The instant a faint smile appeared on Lucas’s face, the other graduates also rose and brought their hands together.

A thunderous ovation spread through the graduation hall.

I never thought they would go this far…

I had assumed that Plato and the Commander-in-Chief only needed to put on a convincing performance.

I had never expected Lucas to step forward and help us.

Nor had I imagined that everyone would show their support for Plato.

Because none of this had happened in the game.

I had thought of them merely as NPCs, so I had never cared what they thought when they looked at me.

My background, my refusal to enroll in the academy—none of it had been driven by the noble reasoning Lucas had described.

I had done all of it merely to clear the game.

And yet these cadets expected that one day I would become their commander and lead them.

Even though all I had been thinking about was leaving this sector when the Second Apocalypse arrived.

Then the Commander-in-Chief’s quiet voice reached me.

“You truly do surpass my expectations every time.”

The cold expression had vanished from his face.

He smiled at me, rose from his seat, and walked toward the microphone.

The applause stopped the moment he gripped it.

Amid the tense silence, the Commander-in-Chief spoke in a flat voice.

“To raise a hundred children for the sake of finding a single Haydam…”

The instant he began speaking, even the cadets who had stood to support Plato stiffened.

Here and there, I could hear people nervously swallowing.

Seeing their reactions, the Commander-in-Chief softened his tone.

“How could I, Haydam’s father, refuse such a request? I will gladly become the father of a hundred children.”

After addressing the cadets, the Commander-in-Chief looked toward the visibly flustered officers seated behind the graduates and made his declaration.

“Beginning this coming spring, after the subjugation campaign has concluded, admission to the military academy will no longer be based on recommendation. It will be determined through examination, and every eleven-year-old child in this sector will be eligible to apply. Anyone with an objection may voice it now.”

None of the officers were foolish enough to object under the circumstances.

And with Anton absent, none of them had the courage to step forward on their own.

The rear of the hall remained silent.

Because of that, the Commander-in-Chief’s next words sounded especially loud.

“That is all. Congratulations on your graduation.”

…And that was how it ended.

The moment Anton heard what had happened during the graduation speech, his face went pale and he rushed out of the underground bunker.

That left Stay-at-home Wifey and me alone.

Meursault was handling matters upstairs, so I could hear a rough account of what had happened between Anton and Stay-at-home Wifey, then head up at my leisure.

“Whoa, hey!”

Stay-at-home Wifey approached me with an impressed expression.

“How did you appear at exactly the right moment? That was amazing!”

I glared at him.

“What kind of player lets himself get kidnapped by an NPC? You had no idea what they might do to you, yet you followed them all the way here?”

“You didn’t believe me earlier when I said he threatened me. Besides, nothing actually happened.”

Look at this guy.

“Be more careful. Had I not discussed making Plato my adjutant, you might have been tortured today.”

I was not nagging him for no reason.

Had I not given Anton a way out beforehand, Stay-at-home Wifey would not have returned unharmed.

This was the most famous torture spot in all of Safe Zone, after all.

However, my warning did not seem to register with him. He reacted far more strongly to something else than the possibility that he might have been tortured.

“Come to think of it, are you really going to make Plato your adjutant?”

“Yeah.”

“Then what about me?!”

Wow.

He actually looked genuinely wronged.

“I don’t know why you ever thought I would make someone like you my adjutant, but even if I wanted to, you couldn’t become my adjutant before Plato.”

“Oh, so when I become an adult, he’ll hand the position over to me?”

Hmm…

I might as well let him interpret it however he pleased.

“Anyway, you’re going to school.”

“You told me to join the army last time. Now you’re telling me to go to school.”

“Plato proposed mandatory military-academy enrollment during his graduation speech, and the Commander-in-Chief accepted it.”

“What changes if enrollment becomes mandatory?”

“It means you and Taejeong will be able to attend the academy this coming spring. The enrollment age is eleven, and the bodies we possessed happen to be exactly ten.”

After saying that, I quickly added something before Stay-at-home Wifey could throw a fit about having to attend school twice.

“I’ve saved your life twice now. You’re not seriously going to refuse just because I’m asking you to attend school for a second time, are you?”

“Huh? No, that’s fine. I’ll go.”

“…Are you serious?”

This guy…

He had been the same when I told him to join the army. He had far less of an independent will than I had expected.

“So, how much did you tell Anton?”

“What do you mean?”

“He must have brought you here to ask whether I really grew up in the slums, whether I can be trusted, and things like that.”

“Whoa. How did you know that? You really are smart.”

No, you’re just stupid…

Never mind. Saying it would only tire me out.

“Anyway, knowing your personality, I doubt you kept quiet or lied. How much did you tell him?”

“I told him the whole truth, but he thought I was acting.”

I could not understand what he meant, so I asked,

“What exactly did you tell him?”

“That I’ve only known you for three months, that I don’t remember anything from before I was ten, and that you were the one who gave me the name Darling Outsider.”

Hmm.

That explained it.

Even I would have found that difficult to believe.

“Was that all?”

“Oh, Anton apparently has a secret daughter.”

“A daughter? Don’t tell me it’s Daphne.”

“You should stop reading so many novels too.”

What was he talking about?

The theory that Daphne was Anton’s biological daughter was practically accepted as fact among the players!

“He said he’d tell me one of his secrets if I told him mine, then showed me a picture of his daughter. Though it wasn’t actually a picture. It was a portrait.”

A portrait…

Could it be?

“Was she an East Asian woman with a mole beneath her eye?”

“Yeah! That’s right. How did you know?”

I see what happened.

Anton had apparently shown Stay-at-home Wifey Luna Moon’s portrait to test him.

“Aw… You already knew about her too?”

“Anton doesn’t have a daughter.”

“He doesn’t?”

“That portrait was of Luna Moon.”

“Luna Moon…? That woman?”

Stay-at-home Wifey looked confused.

“Why did he pretend Luna Moon’s portrait was a picture of his daughter?”

“You told him you’d only known me for three months, so he probably showed you Luna Moon to see how you reacted. He did the same thing to me.”

“He did?”

“He suddenly began suspecting that I might be an impostor, so he had Luna Moon’s portrait painted and brought it to me as a gift. He wanted to see whether I recognized her.”

“What? But you really didn’t know what Luna Moon looked like, did you? She only appears as a skeleton. Wait…”

Stay-at-home Wifey stopped speaking and stared at me as realization dawned on him.

“Then if they still haven’t discovered that you’re an impostor, that means you managed to fool them, right? Whoa, how did you pretend to recognize the portrait?”

“I managed somehow.”

It was difficult to dismiss what had happened with nothing more than I managed somehow.

However, I had assumed that would be enough for Stay-at-home Wifey to accept it without further thought.

Just as expected, he looked reasonably satisfied with that vague answer.

“Ah! So that’s why Anton said there shouldn’t be two children as good at acting as you or something like that. Now I get it.”

However, there was still one part I did not understand.

“But why didn’t you recognize Luna Moon’s face? You played the dating simulation. If you had seen her portrait before, reacting to it could have made him suspicious.”

I had naturally assumed that Luna Moon’s face appeared in the dating simulation Stay-at-home Wifey had played.

If he failed to recognize her, I thought it was simply because his memory was terrible and he had forgotten her appearance.

His answer, however, was unexpected.

“You really have never played a dating sim before, have you? Dating-sim protagonists don’t have faces.”

Dating-sim protagonists did not have faces?

“You mean there’s no character customization?”

“Right. Even when they show the protagonist, it’s always an illustration where long bangs cover the face. That’s the standard rule. It helps the player immerse themselves.”

After saying that much, Stay-at-home Wifey seemed to realize something.

“Then the woman in that picture must be the face of the player who possessed Luna Moon.”

The moment I heard those words, my heart dropped as though he had delivered the final blow.

It meant there was now a genuine possibility that the player possessing Luna Moon’s body had truly been my mother.

But I immediately rejected the thought.

No. This is only his speculation.

The NPC whose son I was pretending to be was my biological mother?

It was far too absurd to believe so easily.

And I refused to believe it.

Not unless undeniable proof that she was my mother was placed directly before my eyes.

“Whoa, but how does she look exactly like your customized character? That’s seriously fascinating.”

“…Westerners think all East Asian faces look the same.”

I answered as calmly as possible.

Stay-at-home Wifey tilted his head.

“Hm? Westerners?”

“I mean Square Soft. They probably just grabbed some random East Asian face when they made the game.”

“No, they didn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“The company that made this game wasn’t Square Soft.”

I fell silent for a moment before slowly asking,

“…What are you talking about? Then who made it?”

“Apocalypse: Safe Zone 1 was developed by a Korean company. Square Soft acquired the series and produced the later games.”

“A Korean company?”

“Yeah. It was called the Salvation Project…”

“…What?”

The Salvation Project.

I knew that company.

It was the company my mother had founded.

Why was that company’s name coming out of Stay-at-home Wifey’s mouth?

Unable to respond through the sheer cognitive dissonance, I remained frozen.

Then Stay-at-home Wifey’s next words pierced me like a dagger.

“It was the small game studio where my older sister worked.”