Chapter 91

Daphne (1)

I had no idea how I managed to finish conducting the entrance exam in that state of mind.

I remembered appearing overhead on the hoverboard and seeing not only the applicants but even the cadets serving as proctors staring at me with their mouths hanging open.

I passed those who immediately moved to catch me despite the fact that I was riding a hoverboard, as well as those who calmly formed groups and charged at me after I got off.

There was also one applicant—whether brave or stupid, I couldn’t tell—who climbed onto the unattended hoverboard and tried to charge at me, only to tumble into the snow.

The idea itself wasn’t bad, so I passed that applicant too and decided to have them undergo player training.

Taejeong, Stay-at-home Wifey, and Shin Eunjo also passed without any trouble.

Only after they had passed did I explain my plan to mass-produce players.

After hearing the entire plan, Stay-at-home Wifey said admiringly,

“You really think about nothing but scamming people, huh?”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“But is it okay to say all this when a player from another zone is listening?”

“I didn’t particularly want to hear it either.”

Shin Eunjo, who had been gently stroking Luna Moon in his arms, glared at Stay-at-home Wifey before looking at me.

He seemed uneasy about having heard my plan.

“I did ask you to let me take the entrance exam, but… I’m going back to my zone soon. In case you’re thinking of not letting me leave…”

“That won’t happen. I don’t want you staying here for long either.”

Still, he needed to remain here for the time being.

I had to question Shin Eunjo further about the CEO of Cthulhu Games.

‘But I need to ask carefully.’

Judging from what the Other Dopamine Addict had said, the condition for the additional unlock seemed related to the fact that my father had sent us into this world…

Despite having met the CEO of Cthulhu Games, Shin Eunjo still hadn’t triggered the additional unlock.

Perhaps that was connected to how he hadn’t even been able to remember the name of the game company, Cthulhu Games, until recently.

If I carelessly asked about my father and abruptly triggered Shin Eunjo’s additional unlock, it would cause trouble for both of us.

It would be better to approach the subject cautiously.

At that moment, Taejeong raised his hand and asked,

“I understand that you’re going to train NPCs to act like players. But if you want to give them player training… shouldn’t the person teaching them also be a player? Who’s going to teach them?”

“Stay-at-home Wifey will handle the player training.”

The reactions to my casual declaration were divided.

Stay-at-home Wifey reacted first.

“Oh, yeah! So I’m getting promoted from student to teacher!”

Mm.

His head was as full of flowers as ever.

It was hard to believe someone like this had received a private message from the Other Dopamine Addict and hadn’t shown even the slightest sign of it to me.

There was a real possibility he had completely forgotten receiving the message.

‘I’ll ask him about the Other Dopamine Addict’s message later.’

If he found out I had met the guy in the meantime, he would ask what we had talked about.

Anyway.

Unlike the excited Stay-at-home Wifey, Taejeong and Shin Eunjo reacted quite differently.

“Are you… serious?”

“Have you lost your mind? Who are you entrusting with what?”

That was probably the natural reaction of players capable of rational thought.

Offended by their responses, Stay-at-home Wifey snapped,

“What?! Why?! Dopamine Addict said he’s putting me in charge! Show some respect to your teacher, will you? I’m going to deduct points from both of you!”

“…You’re seriously going to put someone like that in charge of teaching?”

Shin Eunjo stared at Stay-at-home Wifey with a disgusted expression.

But that behavior was precisely what I wanted.

“Seeing him like this only makes me more certain.”

“What?! Are you… insane?”

“Brother… you’re not sick or anything, are you?”

I shook my head at both of them and said,

“If we’re going to raise fake players anyway, wouldn’t it be better to mass-produce people like Stay-at-home Wifey?”

“…Huh?”

As I had mentioned before, the NPCs of the Cola Zone were not particularly intelligent.

That made it extremely difficult to mass-produce highly intelligent players.

But what if Stay-at-home Wifey was the model?

Then we could produce as many as we wanted.

“It would be even better if they started talking like him. Then they could launch mental attacks through conversation alone.”

“Wasn’t the only redeeming quality of this zone’s NPCs that they were good people…?”

I genuinely failed to understand Taejeong’s point.

“Why is having a good personality an advantage?”

“That is an incredibly psychopathic thing to say.”

Shin Eunjo dismissed my question as the statement of a psychopath and continued,

“Right… Now I understand why it was fine for me to hear your plan. I could never turn the children of this zone into copies of Stay-at-home Wifey just to screw over players from other zones. You’re really willing to do anything to win. You’re genuinely… terrifying.”

“I’m frightened of you too, Brother…”

Had these two forgotten that Stay-at-home Wifey was standing right beside them and hearing everything?

“I don’t really understand what you’re talking about, but basically, Dopamine Addict, you want more players like me in this zone, right?”

Mm.

Fortunately, he had interpreted it however he pleased.

“Yeah. Exactly.”

Even his failure to understand fit my requirements perfectly.

I wanted the NPCs to look like players.

I didn’t want them becoming intelligent enough to covet my position.

…Was that a little too dictator-like?

Stay-at-home Wifey raised both fists enthusiastically.

“I’ll work hard, Dopamine Addict!”

“Yeah. Good luck.”

At the time, I had no idea what consequences this decision would eventually bring.

***

The only surviving officer who could still be called a member of the pro-Daphne faction—

Lieutenant General Radu made a momentous decision that day.

‘Today, I will poison Haydam.’

There were several reasons behind that decision.

First of all, this was not his first poisoning attempt.

Ever since Haydam had appeared in the officers’ conference room, claimed to know everything about them, and asked after Radu’s child, Radu had repeatedly ordered his lover—who was both his affair partner and a servant at the commander’s residence—to poison Haydam’s food.

He might have been a father who carried on an affair with a servant at the commander’s residence, but his child was still precious to him.

He could not ignore Haydam after the boy had brought up his child at the scene where Lieutenant General Batom had been killed.

However, news of Haydam’s poisoning never came.

His lover insisted that she had put poison in Haydam’s breakfast every morning, but Radu did not believe her.

She was softhearted.

She must have been unable to poison the food of a child as young as Haydam.

Fortunately, despite mentioning Radu’s child at the time, Haydam appeared to have no interest in either Radu or his family.

Radu had therefore given up on the poisoning and planned to live peacefully while maintaining his two households.

But then Haydam forced Anton into retirement.

Of course, Anton had retired voluntarily.

However, in front of the assembled officers, Anton had claimed that he was stepping down because he could no longer keep up with the recklessness of the younger generation, so Radu blamed Haydam.

After that, Haydam framed Lieutenant General Max as the culprit behind the soldiers’ murder.

‘Anton, perhaps—but Max would never do something like that…!’

Radu believed Max had been falsely accused.

And that belief was, in fact, not wrong.

That once again made him think he could not leave Haydam alone.

‘I have to do something.’

While thinking that, he heard the news.

“Lady Daphne is… getting divorced?”

It was like a bolt from the blue.

His Excellency the Commander and Lady Daphne were getting divorced.

Radu knew the relationship between them was not passionate.

He also knew that with Haydam’s appearance, the position of successor would pass to the boy.

Even so, the commander had never mistreated Lady Daphne during their ten-plus years of marriage.

Radu had never imagined that he would divorce her immediately after Haydam appeared.

The next piece of news nearly made Radu faint.

Daphne’s new husband would be Meursault Pendleton.

The bastard who had shot Lieutenant General Batom to death.

Even after regaining consciousness, Radu could not accept reality.

His hands trembled violently.

“Lady Daphne, who should be… the noblest person in the entire zone…!”

Every officer in the pro-Daphne faction owed an immense debt to the former commander.

Unlike the current commander, the former commander had been a compassionate dictator.

The phrase “compassionate dictator” might sound contradictory, but that was simply what he had been.

Because of that, the pro-Daphne officers cherished the former commander’s daughter as though she were their own child.

Daphne also possessed a peculiar charisma that drew people in.

They had regarded her as both a daughter born from their hearts and their rightful lord, sincerely serving her in place of the former commander.

And now she had been demoted from the commander’s wife to the wife of a mere major general?

His Excellency had allowed Lady Daphne to remarry Meursault?

Impossible.

If something that had never happened before suddenly occurred, it meant some newly introduced factor had changed the situation.

Haydam.

The commander’s illegitimate son who had appeared out of nowhere.

‘That child finally…!’

Every officer knew that Meursault Pendleton had once dared to harbor feelings for Lady Daphne.

But after Lady Daphne married Commander Hayden and Meursault became Hayden’s aide, they had assumed Meursault had abandoned those feelings.

The only reason he could openly propose to Lady Daphne now was surely because Haydam had encouraged him from the side.

‘I warned Lady Daphne so many times…!’

Haydam might have been an illegitimate child.

But every officer also knew that Commander Hayden and Luna Moon had been lovers before Hayden married Lady Daphne.

From Haydam’s perspective, the one who had stolen his father was none other than Daphne.

He was a vicious child who would not even blink if someone died right in front of him.

Naturally, he would want revenge for his mother.

‘I knew the way he looked at the portrait former Captain Anton gave him was unsettling…’

Haydam had finally taken revenge on Daphne.

Even if it meant dragging her down into the position of Meursault’s wife.

“At this rate… I’ll be too ashamed to face the former commander, even in death.”

And so, Radu decided to poison Haydam personally.

Carrying chocolates filled with poison, he waited to “coincidentally” encounter Haydam.

Haydam was extremely cunning.

If Radu deliberately sought him out, the boy would undoubtedly suspect any chocolate he offered.

Then Radu received information that Haydam would visit the military academy to prepare for the entrance ceremony.

Pretending he was going there to check on the children he sponsored, Radu headed to the academy and encountered Haydam without difficulty.

“Isn’t that Lord Haydam? You’ve grown quite a bit since I last saw you.”

Radu mustered the last of his acting skills and spoke with exaggerated warmth.

Haydam greeted him with a cold smile.

“Why are you here?”

As expected, the boy’s first response was suspicion.

Radu had made the right choice in arranging an accidental meeting.

“I came to check on the children under my sponsorship. They’ve advanced to the next grade.”

“Ah…”

“Oh, I brought these for the children. Please have one too, Lord Haydam. They’re chocolates.”

There was a reason he had chosen chocolates.

Cookies were still relatively easy to obtain in the zone.

But chocolate, with its complicated production process, was extremely difficult to acquire.

Since Haydam was still a child, Radu believed he wouldn’t refuse something as rare as chocolate.

Rumors also said the boy had grown up starving in the slums and was obsessed with food.

‘There’s no way a child like that would refuse chocolate.’

Just as Radu hoped, the corners of Haydam’s mouth rose slightly.

He accepted the chocolate without the slightest hesitation.

“Please eat it before anyone else sees.”

Radu had also heard that Haydam cared for the children of the zone.

Worried that the boy might give it to another child instead of eating it himself, Radu hurriedly urged him to eat.

For some reason, Haydam suddenly burst out laughing.

Then he gave Radu a small nod of acknowledgment.

“Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”

His unexpectedly cheerful and polite demeanor caught Radu off guard.

But it was already too late.

Without hesitation, Haydam tossed the entire chocolate into his mouth in a single bite.

Radu watched him with intense tension.

“By the way…”

When Haydam opened his mouth again, the chocolate had vanished without a trace.

Radu expected him to cough up blood and collapse at any moment.

Instead, Haydam spoke with perfectly clear pronunciation.

“You must be busy with your affair, aren’t you?”

“…Pardon?”

Radu doubted his own ears.

“Honestly, seeing you always annoys me because you’re morally reprehensible. But technically, my father had an affair too, and Meursault is also an adulterer, so I suppose I have no room to talk. Please continue living exactly as you have.”

Haydam still wore an angelic smile.

But the words spilling from his mouth were so completely mismatched with his appearance that Radu experienced a moment of cognitive dissonance.

More importantly—

‘Why… isn’t he… dying?’

Haydam casually walked past him.

‘I poured enough poison into that chocolate to kill a large-class monster in a single dose.’

Radu had prepared it himself and handed it over personally.

There was no possibility of having given him the wrong chocolate.

And yet Haydam strode away as though nothing had happened, disappearing from Radu’s sight.

Radu waited for news of Haydam’s death, thinking the poison might take effect later.

But the next day passed.

And the day after that.

No news of Haydam’s death came.

Then, at last, news of a death arrived.

But it was not the news Radu had been waiting for.

It was not Haydam who had died.

It was Daphne.