Chapter 78

Divorce (4)

“What…? How do you know that…?”

Shin looked visibly flustered, as though she had just heard something that should never have come from my mouth.

I had my suspicions, but it looks like I was right.

In truth, I had been suspicious about how the Love Zone players were transported here for quite some time.

It didn’t feel like a coincidence that someone with the traits of a shaman had ended up in the Love Zone.

On top of that, on the day the public chat room first opened, she had said the other players had decided to worship her.

That wasn’t something she could have accomplished in such a short amount of time.

And if she had built a cult to that extent, there had to be a considerable number of players transported into that zone.

Because of that, I had wondered whether the players who landed in the Love Zone had known each other even before being transported.

Most importantly, the item in the convenience store that symbolized the Love Zone had been none other than a condom.

There was no way the shaman sitting before me was the type to buy condoms for fun in a place like that.

The others were probably the same.

A bunch of hardcore shut-ins addicted to some filthy dating game wouldn’t have had the courage to confidently buy such a thing at a convenience store, nor would they have had any use for it.

Unless someone had incited them to do so.

[I don’t entirely understand what you’re saying, but I can tell it’s incredibly insulting.]

It might have been insulting, but objectively speaking, it was true.

That was why I had continued to suspect it.

Perhaps these people had deliberately chosen the Love Zone’s symbolic item as a group.

Taejeong said he had heard that the veteran players who visited the convenience store had gone missing.

Shin and the other players must have heard that rumor too.

I couldn’t be certain whether Shin had deduced from the rumor of people “going missing” at the convenience store that they would actually be transported into another world, then united the others and persuaded them all to choose the same item.

But at the very least, Shin had probably been the one who lured the others into conspiring to select “the same product.”

If they had trusted Shin’s persuasion, chosen the item, and then found themselves inside the game, it was only natural that they would become fanatically devoted to her afterward.

If Shin was a “shaman” who had predicted their transportation, then even the boundless faith of that long-tailed tit—or whatever his name was—could be explained.

That was why Shin’s earlier words—

As long as you know nothing about my “transportation,” I can’t acknowledge the existence of your so-called god. What a shame.

—had convinced me.

They hadn’t been forcibly transported.

They had chosen it.

“How… do you know?”

Shin asked me in disbelief.

“Did you interrogate the messenger I sent?”

The fact that she didn’t even consider that I might merely have been probing blindly meant she was already halfway convinced.

“I didn’t touch a single hair on your messenger’s head. Besides, if I knew nothing about your transportation in the first place, I wouldn’t even have thought to interrogate him about it.”

“Then how in the world did you…?”

“How else would I know? I thought I had already explained enough.”

When I answered with a smile, Shin’s fingertips began trembling faintly.

“Was there really… some being that wanted us to be transported?”

“Have you never questioned it yourself? A shaman exactly like you was transported into the Love Zone, with a whole string of others following behind her. Didn’t you ever wonder whether it was all arranged by someone?”

“That’s…”

Shin appeared considerably shaken.

She was probably thinking that without the aid of some absolute being, there was no way I could have discovered the truth behind their “transportation.”

“You’re saying everything that happened was arranged from the beginning? Who would believe something like that? We—no. At least I chose to be transported of my own will!”

I couldn’t tell whether she had truly been certain that she would be transported, or whether she had simply been transported by chance and was now rationalizing it.

But the fact that her voice was rising meant she was being persuaded.

Then it was time to offer her room for self-justification.

“Why don’t you go back and tell your followers?”

“What?”

“Tell them that the Safe Zone was training meant to prepare us for preventing the apocalypse, and that we were chosen by the god of this world to stop it. Tell them that none other than Dopamine Addict said so.”

“……”

This time, Shin fell silent instead of immediately arguing back.

“…Do you understand what you’re saying right now?”

“Of course. I’m saying I’ll cooperate so that you can continue reigning over the other players as their cult leader, divine shaman, or whatever else you call yourself.”

Shin was visibly shaken.

Naturally, she must have assumed that I had brought up the existence of a god because I intended to use my alleged ability to stop the apocalypse as an excuse to steal her items and drive her out of her position as cult leader.

I did intend to obtain her earrings.

But not right now.

There’s no reason to rush.

Eventually, she would hand them over to me of her own accord.

To make that happen, it was more important to earn her trust first.

“Are you… serious?”

“Did you forget that I sent your long-tailed tit back without telling him anything about the system? I never intended to interfere with your cult route from the beginning.”

Though I did intend to make use of it.

“Why are you… helping me?”

“Because the god of this world really does exist. If you want to act as a cult leader, go ahead. I absolutely hate that kind of role.”

Shin appeared uncertain whether to believe me.

It was difficult to believe my claim that the “god” of this world had given me the power to stop the apocalypse if I gathered nine meteorites.

But if a god truly existed and I was merely relaying its revelation to her, then it wasn’t necessarily disadvantageous to her.

There was only one real reason Shin was desperately resisting my story.

She simply doesn’t want me to use it as an excuse to take her item.

Saying first that I wouldn’t steal her item and asking her to trust me would have been amateurish.

That was exactly what a scammer would say.

So I needed to wait for the right moment.

“I still… can’t simply believe you.”

“Being suspicious is a valuable trait for a player. That’s why… I’m going to show you.”

“Show me… what?”

[I’m curious what you’re going to show her too.]

Listening to Luna’s voice, filled with curiosity, I answered briefly.

“God’s representative.”

“God’s… representative?”

[There was something like that?]

[…]

Luna looked just as bewildered as Shin.

Even so, I spoke confidently without hesitation.

“Everything I’ve told you so far came from that representative. Once you see them yourself, you’ll have no choice but to believe me.”

[Hey… what exactly are you planning to show her?]

Luna asked anxiously, while Shin looked at me with an even more suspicious expression.

“…Fine. I don’t know what you’re planning to show me, but I’ll meet this so-called representative of God.”

Once she agreed, I nodded and whispered toward my ring.

“Since things have come to this, would you please come out for a moment and assist me, Lord Luna?”

Luna seemed to be at a loss for words and didn’t answer for a while.

Come out, Luna.

[…So I’m what you were planning to show her. You want me to pretend to be God’s representative.]

Please, Lord Luna.

[Why are you dragging me into this?! Unlike you, I’m a good kid!]

Help me just this once. Your little brother is asking for help. As his big brother, can’t you do even this much? Hm?

[You never call me your big brother at any other time…!]

Since I had no pride to speak of, I continued pestering him without hesitation.

Biiig brother, please! Dear brother!

[…Only this once. There won’t be a next time.]

Yes, dear brother! Of course!

[I’m really bad at lying!]

Unable to withstand my big-brother attack, Luna finally appeared.

“W-What is that?!”

When something pale suddenly shot out of my ring, Shin leaped up onto the chair in surprise.

However, once she realized that what had landed on the reception-room table was a snow-white kitten, her expression became half relieved and half dumbfounded.

“It’s just a cat.”

[Just a cat?]

“…It talks?”

Luna haughtily raised his chin and toddled toward Shin.

[How insolent. To compare me to such a lowly creature. I am the representative of God.]

For someone who claimed to be terrible at lying, his delivery sounded remarkably natural.

Maybe this guy really was my mother’s son.

Shin stared down at Luna in disbelief for a moment before pointing at him and asking me,

“…Dopamine Addict, this is the representative of God you were talking about?”

[“This”?!]

Shin carefully picked up the indignant Luna with both hands and began feeling around his body.

[W-What are you doing?!]

Luna struggled, but he couldn’t escape a player’s grasp.

“There doesn’t seem to be a gem, so I suppose it isn’t a monster…”

Ah, so she had been checking whether he had a gem.

Though she still seemed to be petting him even after finishing the inspection.

[M-Meow! Stop touching me!]

“Ah, sorry. You were so soft that I couldn’t help myself.”

Shin carefully set Luna down and looked at me as though she had no idea how to process what she had just witnessed.

“A talking cat emerging from a ring certainly wasn’t something that happened in the game…”

“You still doubt me?”

“……”

Shin seemed to think for a moment before turning to Luna.

“Are you truly God’s representative?”

[Indeed.]

“Then is Dopamine Addict’s reward for clearing every zone really capable of stopping the apocalypse?”

She never spoke respectfully to me, but she immediately used honorifics with Luna.

[Of course it can. He was summoned here to save this world.]

Luna seemed to possess a surprising talent for fraud.

Shin stared at him with an unreadable expression before asking with a mechanical smile,

“What kind of power can stop the apocalypse?”

[Huh? Well, that is…]

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Luna instinctively looked toward me.

It seemed this was as far as I could leave things to him.

Before Shin could become suspicious, I stepped in.

“You’re asking me to demonstrate it personally. Understood.”

Luna, who naturally knew exactly what my reward for clearing every zone truly was, widened his eyes in alarm.

His expression clearly asked, What the hell are you planning to show her?

His tail struck the table several times in anxiety.

There’s no need to be so nervous.

Everything I had said about this world needing veteran players, God’s representative, and all the rest had merely been groundwork to make her witness this “power.”

“Now that God’s representative has granted permission, I’d like to show you what power I received. Do you consent?”

“If it was something you could show me, shouldn’t you have done so from the beginning?”

“Demonstrating this power requires both permission and consent.”

“I don’t know what you’re scheming… but fine. Seeing it myself will be far more convincing than all this talk about a representative of God.”

“Then I’ll take that as consent…”

I held out my palm toward Shin.

“Let me borrow one of your earrings.”

“…Ha.”

Shin pressed a hand to her forehead as though she had suddenly developed a headache, then spoke slowly.

“So in the end, all of this was a lie so you could take my earrings. Sorry, but I’m not as stupid as the other people you’ve dealt with…”

Everyone who said something like that ended up falling for my tricks anyway.

“I clearly said I wanted to borrow it. You don’t have to give me both. Just hand over one. Then I’ll show you the power that can stop the apocalypse.”

Shin’s expression became subtle.

I knew that look.

It was the face of someone whose suspicion toward me was losing to the dopamine-fueled urge to find out what kind of insane stunt this lunatic was planning.

Nothing serious should happen if I only hand over one earring… and if he tries anything, I can shoot him with the pistol hidden inside my clothes.

That was probably more or less what she was thinking.

I beckoned invitingly with the fingers of my outstretched hand.

“The earring. Hand it over. You want to see it too, don’t you?”

“…I truly have no idea what you’re planning.”

Shin raised one corner of her mouth in a crooked smile, removed one earring, and placed it in my palm.

“Don’t forget that I’m a player too. If you’re planning something, you had better be prepared.”

“I would expect nothing less.”

After receiving the earring, I closed my fingers around it and walked toward the window.

I could feel Luna watching me anxiously.

Giving him a relaxed smile, I threw the reception-room window wide open.

Whoosh…

The heavy snowfall outside swept into the room for an instant.

The snow had been falling without pause since morning.

Shin had also fought her way through that blizzard to reach this place, so she must have known it wouldn’t stop easily.

When I looked upward, I saw dark clouds densely packed between the falling snowflakes.

After confirming the sea of clouds overhead, I beckoned Shin closer.

“Come over here and watch.”

“…You’re not planning to push me out, are you?”

“What do you take me for?”

Still suspicious, Shin refused to stand too close and stopped a short distance away.

“Look at the sky.”

“The sky?”

“With only one and a half meteorite items, I can show you only this much power. But I trust that someone like you will understand its potential.”

“What? What are you even—”

Even as Shin tried to question me, her gaze followed my instruction and remained fixed on the dark clouds.

Once I confirmed where she was looking, I raised the fist holding the earring toward the sky.

A moment later, Shin’s eyes widened in shock.

Beyond my raised fist, the sky had begun to clear.

Now it was time to drive the final nail in.

“A miracle of God.”

I looked at her.

“Do you believe me now?”