Chapter 77

Divorce (3)

“……”

The reception room was silent.

No one spoke first.

I quietly studied Shin, who sat across from me.

I expected this, but it’s still surprising to see her actually sitting here.

She wore a pure-white dress resembling traditional mourning clothes.

The Love Zone was a peculiar blend of Eastern and Western cultures, so her outfit was understandable.

What I couldn’t understand was the pair of meteorite earrings dangling from her ears.

She entered my zone… and didn’t even put them in her inventory?

I had made only one demand when I sent the long-tailed tit back to the Love Zone.

If she wanted to stop the Second Apocalypse, she had to offer me her meteorite item.

…Though I might have phrased it a little more gently than that.

Regardless, it was practically the same as abruptly demanding that Shin hand over her meteorite item through her messenger.

I knew she’d make a bold choice, but…

She could have simply ignored my words.

I hadn’t expected her to appear before me in person, openly wearing the meteorite item as if she wanted me to see it.

“…Why isn’t anyone saying anything?”

Unable to endure the silence any longer, Meursault was the first to speak.

He glanced between the Commander and me before cautiously asking, seemingly unable to suppress his curiosity.

“I heard that this… young lady came here specifically to see Lord Haydam. Is that correct?”

At Meursault’s question, Shin merely nodded with an enigmatic smile.

Apparently taking her nod as permission to ask anything he wanted, Meursault suddenly leaned closer to her.

“May I ask what sort of relationship you have with Lord Haydam…?”

“Meursault.”

I called his name in a tone that told him to stop.

Meursault looked aggrieved.

“No, but she’s a visitor from the suggestively named Love Zone. Isn’t it natural to ask what sort of relationship you have?”

What did he mean, “the suggestively named Love Zone”?

There might not be much interaction between Safe Zones, but everyone should at least know the names of the other zones.

He was acting like some middle-aged man who couldn’t resist trying to pair up every young person he saw.

“Father.”

I looked at the Commander, silently asking him to send Meursault away.

Instead, the Commander nodded and said,

“I also crossed over from another zone and met Lunamoon, so there is nothing particularly strange about it.”

These old men were impossible to communicate with.

Now that I thought about it, Meursault had spent his whole life pining after Daphne despite never even sharing a cup of tea with her.

The Commander was married, yet he was also the unparalleled romantic who had declared that since Lunamoon had entrusted a woman to him, he would take responsibility for her.

Maybe it was because they came from a dating simulation, but neither of them was helpful in a conversation like this.

“We’re going to talk alone for a while, so could you both leave…?”

“That will not be difficult.”

“Oh dear… My apologies. It seems we failed to read the room.”

I was certain Meursault was deliberately being even more annoying.

“Get the hell out, Meursault.”

“I’ll leave the door open, just in case.”

“Are you insane…?”

After raising my middle finger at the ridiculous Meursault and driving him out, I heard a quiet giggle.

It was Shin.

“Why are you laughing?”

When I asked in Korean, she answered in Korean as well.

“No particular reason…”

She looked at me.

“I think I may have misunderstood you all this time.”

“What misunderstanding?”

“I thought you were a completely hopeless psychopath.”

What?

Well, it was true that she seemed to have thought of me that way.

But the fact that she was saying it directly to my face now meant… had she changed her mind?

“I didn’t know you were calling Commander Hayden ‘Father’ so affectionately. And it seems you haven’t poisoned Meursault either.”

Her tone wasn’t simply mocking me for playing family with NPCs.

She sounded somewhat relieved.

As though she had discovered a new possibility.

“You weren’t like this in your original playthrough. Why did you let both of them live?”

“Because I need them.”

“So you don’t harm people as long as you need them. Is that your rule?”

I had never really considered it a rule.

But Shin was asking with such a serious expression that I gave a brief nod.

“Well… more or less.”

“In that case, I suppose I don’t need to be afraid of you right now.”

I still didn’t understand exactly what she had been talking about, but after seeing how I lived with the Cola Zone NPCs, she seemed to have decided that I was different from what she had imagined.

At the very least, she must have concluded that I wasn’t a complete psychopath.

“Why are you afraid of me? I don’t hurt players. I even sent your messenger back alive.”

“That was because you ‘needed’ him.”

Shin left that brief remark, filled with her own insight, and smiled faintly.

“To be honest, when my messenger told me that you seemed to have already seized control of the military, I was truly… terrified.”

“Seized control of the military? Did that long-tailed tit or whatever he’s called tell you that?”

“Yes. He said you were commanding the army in place of the Commander, so I thought you had already killed the Commander and Meursault. It seems my messenger misunderstood something.”

That long-tailed tit bastard must have greatly exaggerated things after returning to the Love Zone.

At least intimidating him had paid off.

I quietly studied Shin before speaking.

“You’re similar to how I imagined you.”

At my words, Shin’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Similar to what you imagined? What did you think I would be like?”

“I thought you’d be bold. Though I didn’t expect you to come here personally. But…”

Resting my chin on the armrest, I asked,

“Didn’t your messenger tell you anything else?”

“Anything else?”

“He should have delivered something far more important.”

“Ah… You mean that. To be honest, I still don’t know how I’m supposed to interpret it…”

Shin lowered her eyes for a moment and murmured,

“The reward for clearing every zone…”

She pronounced the short phrase smoothly, as though rolling a bead around inside her mouth, then looked at me.

“Dopamine Addict. Is it true that you can stop the Second Apocalypse?”

“Of course it’s true.”

Without the slightest change in expression, I immediately lied through my teeth.

Then another voice—not Shin’s—pierced my mind.

[You seriously have no conscience at all…]

“…!”

I froze for a moment at the sudden voice, but soon realized that it belonged to Luna.

You can use telepathy now?

I muttered internally, wondering whether she could hear my thoughts.

Fortunately, it worked, and Luna answered.

[It’s because the other meteorites are nearby.]

The other meteorites? Those earrings?

[Yeah. The more meteorites gather in one place, the more of my true body’s power I can use.]

Her true body’s… power?

Surely she wasn’t referring to the tiny, soft, fluffy, fist-sized body I had seen so far as her true body.

So that isn’t your real body?

[Of course not! I already told you—I was born long before you! I’m not actually a baby like this.]

Hmm.

No wonder she looked far too young for someone supposedly born over ten years ago.

So that wasn’t her true body?

Her mental age perfectly matched her current size, though…

[Stop thinking rude things! I can hear everything right now!]

While Luna grumbled through telepathy, Shin continued staring intently at me, apparently deep in thought.

After a long silence, she finally spoke.

“You can stop the Second Apocalypse? Don’t lie to me.”

[She isn’t falling for it.]

Well, I would have been disappointed in her if she had believed me immediately.

Shin raised her gaze and calmly began to explain.

“Gathering nine meteorite items grants you the power to stop the Second Apocalypse… No matter how I think about it, a reward for clearing every zone wouldn’t be that vague. You must have received something far more specific.”

“You think I lied about the reward?”

[You did lie…]

Listening to Luna mutter like the voice of my conscience, I continued,

“Then tell me what you think the reward for clearing every zone actually is.”

“At most, it probably allows you to retain a title or an item.”

[She’s sharp.]

I agreed that Shin was much sharper than I had expected.

I had assumed only that she wouldn’t believe me.

I hadn’t expected her to see through the lie and predict the truth so accurately.

At this level… I think I can trust her with at least one meteorite item.

As I had said before, I had no intention of keeping every meteorite item in my possession.

I wasn’t planning to become a target out of greed.

All the meteorite items would enter my hands only after I dealt with that player from the Unicorn Zone.

So when I said I wouldn’t hurt people I needed, I had been telling the truth.

Aside from the Unicorn Zone bastard, she was the first system-unlocked player I had met.

If I could coax her into peacefully handing over “one of the meteorites she possessed,” nothing could be better.

[Gasp! How did you know she has more than the earrings? Can you sense them too?]

Judging from Luna’s question, she could apparently detect the presence of other meteorites.

That made sense.

She had just said that the nearby meteorites were what allowed her to send something resembling telepathy.

That must also have been how she knew Shin possessed another item besides the earrings.

You said “meteorites” in the plural. The earrings may be a pair, but I didn’t think you’d refer to them as separate meteorites.

[Meow! Right, I did…]

Now that Luna had kindly confirmed there were multiple items, Shin probably possessed two meteorite items at present.

The pair of earrings from the Love Zone, and…

The pistol she took from Home Protector.

It would be preferable to receive the earrings from her rather than the pistol.

Having reached that conclusion, I spoke.

“Shin. What you said makes sense. But there’s something you don’t know.”

“Something I don’t know?”

“A true ‘God’ exists in this world.”

[What?]

“What?”

Luna, why were you surprised too?

“I wondered what you were going to say…”

Shin smiled as if she found the idea absurd.

“Are you trying to counter-capture me while I’m in the middle of a cult-leader route? You don’t seriously think I’ll fall for that, do you?”

[Oh, come on.]

Luna complained as well.

[When you said there was a god, I wondered what you meant. Are you just trying to scam her again?]

Call it攻略—winning her over—not scamming her.

“Shin.”

I continued in a gentle voice.

“Have you ever wondered why we were transported into this world?”

Shin looked suspicious of the intention behind my question, but answered readily enough.

“We were transported after visiting the convenience store at the address you distributed. Weren’t you transported from the convenience store too?”

“That explains how we were transported, not why.”

“Are you saying there was some other reason behind our transportation?”

“Yes. More precisely, there was a ‘purpose.’”

“A purpose…?”

She didn’t believe me, but she seemed curious about where I was going with this.

Her head tilted slightly toward me.

With a faint smile, I continued.

“The reason we were transported into this world was to prevent its apocalypse.”

Shin scoffed.

“We were transported here to prevent the apocalypse? Anyone could make up something like that.”

I continued regardless of her ridicule.

“A player ‘of your level’ should already know that this world isn’t merely a game.”

“…Of course I know this isn’t just a simple game.”

Since I had phrased it in a way that acknowledged her abilities, Shin accepted my statement without much resistance.

That still didn’t mean she accepted the existence of a god.

“But that doesn’t prove a god exists.”

“Why do you think we weren’t simply transported here immediately? Why were we made to spend years clearing a ‘Safe Zone’ identical to this world first?”

At my question, Shin’s gaze wavered slightly, as though she had never considered that aspect deeply.

“That was practice for saving this world from the apocalypse. The god of this world needed experienced veterans capable of saving it.”

“It needed… veteran players?”

“That’s right. And since I was the one who cleared every zone, I was granted the power to stop the apocalypse.”

[I know you’re making this up as you go, but it sounds strangely convincing. I suppose that’s a talent in its own right.]

Shin fell silent for a moment before answering with the same smile still on her face.

“It sounded plausible, but I can’t believe that a god ‘transported’ me here because it needed me. As long as you know nothing about my ‘transportation,’ I can’t acknowledge the existence of your so-called god. What a shame.”

She said she couldn’t believe me, but unlike before, her smile had become stiff.

In that case, it was time to drive the final nail in.

I opened my mouth.

“You deliberately chose the Love Zone, didn’t you?”

I looked directly at her.

“You knew you were going to be transported.”

“…!!”

At my words, Shin stared at me with wide, startled eyes.