A Veteran Player is Needed in the Apocalypse

Chapter 35: How Can You Be a Dopamine Addict

Telling BangguseokYeoBo that I was a dopamine addict was something I had decided to do only after creating a life-debt with him.

And now that I had taken a bullet for him, it was the perfect timing to confess that I was a dopamine addict.

I didn’t want the Unicorn Zone player to mistakenly think that they were dealing with the real dopamine addict.

BangguseokYeoBo, looking bewildered, barely managed to ask me.

“You… what did you say?”

“You heard me.”

“How can you be a dopamine addict?”

He exclaimed, his voice rising with agitation.

“How can you be a dopamine addict? Aren’t you Tbalrom? If you’re a dopamine addict, then what was that guy just now? No, why are you telling me this now?”

‘He’s saying all this without even pausing for breath.’

Thinking that I needed to calm BangguseokYeoBo down a bit, I opened my mouth.

“It’s not that I didn’t hide it on purpose… No, I did hide it on purpose.”

“What?!”

“If you knew I was a dopamine addict, would you have cooperated with me this much?”

“……”

Maybe he remembered the time when we first met, and he had insulted me, calling me a dopamine addict. BangguseokYeoBo fell silent for a moment.

But, probably still feeling wronged, he raised his hand.

“You bastard, no matter what!!”

“I’m a patient.”

“Ah, damn it……!”

BangguseokYeoBo was pissed off, but perhaps because I had taken a bullet for him, he continued treating me without hitting me.

“No, this is seriously unbelievable… No wonder you’ve been acting like you’re out of your mind…….”

“Don’t treat all of it. When Meursault gets back, make it look like I was more lightly injured than I really was.”

“Damn it, you sure do talk a lot. You kept your mouth shut just fine when you were deceiving me until now.”

This is going to drag on for a while.

As he focused on treating me, BangguseokYeoBo suddenly looked over at Taejong with a face that seemed to have realized something.

“But judging from how he reacted earlier, that bastard over there seemed to know you were a dopamine addict?”

“Oh, right. Taejong knew.”

“What? Why did you tell that bastard but not me……!”

“There was a reason.”

“What reason?”

“There was a player hanging around with Taejong who was impersonating me.”

“Impersonating? Was there such a player?”

“I think that guy just now was an imposter too. Probably.”

BangguseokYeoBo showed an expression of disbelief.

“What kind of a lunatic would impersonate you! What’s there to gain from impersonating a sociopath like you?”

I had thought the same, but hearing it from this guy’s mouth somehow ticked me off.

“Anyway. The first guy who impersonated me failed the strategy and died, but the guy from before is a bit dangerous.”

“You don’t need to tell me that. He even copied your entire character customization. Creepy.”

“…It’s not just that he was copying me.”

Feeling somewhat better, I raised myself up and sat down.

“That guy is a player from the Unicorn Zone who, like me, has unlocked the system.”

“Unicorn? Ah, so that’s why he had the hoverboard…….”

“And for some reason, he went out of his way to impersonate me and send messages to other players.”

“He sent messages to other players? What kind of message?”

“That inter-zone communication is possible… Ah.”

At that moment, I realized something.

“The fact that he made it here probably means the barrier is really gone.”

“The barrier is gone? Does that mean we can go to other zones even before the Second End?”

“Seems like it… hmm.”

My shoulder throbbed, so I paused for a moment, and BangguseokYeoBo grabbed my arm, saying he’d treat it a bit more.

As he treated me, I continued talking.

“And… you saw it earlier. That body.”

“Yeah! How was he the only one with an adult appearance? Could it be some forced growth using Unicorn’s science?”

Forced growth using Unicorn’s science.

It wasn’t something I had considered, but it wasn’t impossible.

But…….

“I don’t think it’s just forced growth. There’s definitely something more.”

‘Though I don’t know what that is…….’

Ever since I saw that guy, something had felt off.

He was impersonating me as a dopamine addict, but… for an impersonation, it was too perfect.

His speech was more annoying, but how did he even manage to mimic my gait?

The fact that he said he came to check on how I was growing also bothered me.

Hearing that there might be something more, BangguseokYeoBo made a very uneasy face but then shrugged it off like the airhead he was.

“We were going to Unicorn after the Second End anyway. This works out. Now we have a solid reason to go to Unicorn.”

“Well… I suppose…….”

At that moment, Taejong, who had been on guard, came over and whispered.

“Meursault is returning.”

Looking up at his words, I saw Meursault leading a group of soldiers, running towards us from not far away.

“We’ll talk later. And if anyone asks about what happened today, don’t say a word.”

“Got it.”

“Roger!”

As soldiers rushed over with Meursault and hurriedly loaded me onto a stretcher to treat me.

We stopped talking and pretended that I was seriously injured by the gunshot.

* * *

By the time Meursault returned, most of my wounds had already been treated by BangguseokYeoBo.

To the other soldiers, it would have looked like I’d just been grazed by the bullet.

Even though I wasn’t seriously injured, Meursault insisted on admitting me to the infirmary.

And that was where the Commander came to visit me.

“How’s your condition?”

“As you can see, I’m fine.”

Since the Commander knew I had a healing ability like Luna Moon’s, he wasn’t particularly concerned about my injury.

He didn’t come right away after hearing I was injured, only showing up late at night after finishing his duties.

Because of that, the nurses would gossip, saying he was a cold-blooded dictator who wouldn’t even flinch if his own son were hurt.

It was a very cool-headed and accurate decision not to come straight away, but I felt a little disappointed.

If the Commander had rushed over to see me, it would have given me a bit more leverage…….

Then again, I understood that the Commander didn’t want to make me a weakness.

If the Commander had run straight to me, those who didn’t like him would have immediately tried to take me hostage.

Of course, if I were taken hostage, I could have just walked out on my own, so it would have been better if the Commander favored me.

The Commander looked at me silently before asking.

“Who is that man?”

Is that the first thing he asks?

He must have already heard from Meursault about how I got shot.

He was the one who wouldn’t give me permission to go hunting because it was too dangerous, but now that I got shot as soon as I went outside the zone, he might not give me permission next time.

But still…….

‘I wonder how much Meursault remembers and reported?’

Did he tell him that the guy’s name was “Dopamine Addict”?

Since the guy was mumbling in Korean, no matter how good Meursault was, he wouldn’t have been able to report the entire conversation to the Commander.

But since BangguseokYeoBo called him ‘Dopamine Addict’ several times, Meursault probably noticed that was his name.

I reviewed the conversation I had with the Unicorn player.

‘We didn’t really say anything significant…….’

The Unicorn player avoided answering, just muttering things we couldn’t understand before disappearing.

Now that I think about it, BangguseokYeoBo carelessly mentioned the word ‘player.’

So…….

“I don’t know either.”

“You don’t know?”

He didn’t say the first part, but it was clear he wanted to ask if I, a regressor, didn’t know.

Since there were others in the infirmary, he was careful with his words.

It seemed like the Commander was intent on keeping the fact that I was a regressor a secret.

That actually made it easier for me to move as well.

“Meursault said that if you know, then he knows, and if you don’t, then he doesn’t either.”

…It seems Meursault is still more loyal to the Commander than to me.

Well, it’s not hard to explain this away.

“It’s as he said. I knew him once, but now… he’s someone I don’t know.”

One of the Commander’s eyebrows raised at my words.

“So that means……”

He seemed to quickly grasp that I was implying I knew him in the future before regressing, but now, in the past, we were strangers.

Of course, it was a lie.

“Everyone, leave us.”

At the Commander’s words, the soldiers who had accompanied him and the nurses who had been waiting nearby all left the room, leaving just the two of us.

“Now tell me. Is he someone you knew before you regressed?”

From here on, I had to be careful with my words.

I needed to be consistent.

And I couldn’t let him find out that I was a player, not just a regressor.

“If my memory serves, he’s someone from the Unicorn Zone, but I don’t know why he came all the way here. Maybe he regressed

too.”

“He might be a regressor too?”

“He could be. Because…….”

Seeing that the Commander seemed eager to ask more questions, I quickly cut in.

“He called himself a ‘player.’”

“…I see. Meursault mentioned that the guy said something about being a ‘player,’ so I was going to ask you about that.”

Ah, so he did tell him about the word ‘player.’

It’s a good thing I brought it up first.

Fortunately, since that guy appeared in an adult form like Luna Moon, we kids wouldn’t be suspected of being ‘players.’

Though I still needed to make sure BangguseokYeoBo kept his mouth shut.

…Could it be that the Unicorn player wanted to eliminate BangguseokYeoBo because he thought he’d get in my way?

Hmm.

I continued to speak.

“If he’s a real player, it explains why he recognized me. Like my mother, he would have watched this world through a game, so he would know me.”

“A new player, you say?”

“Maybe when I regressed, a new player was triggered.”

“…….”

The Commander seemed to accept my explanation, thinking it made sense, and after pondering for a moment, he spoke to me.

“Go to the Academy.”

The Academy again?

“Wasn’t that discussion already settled?”

“Even if you’re a regressor, your young body must be unfamiliar to you. That’s probably why you got injured.”

It seems the Commander thought I got hurt because I wasn’t used to being in a child’s body.

Well… it was hard to explain why someone like me, who could defeat eight cadets about to graduate from the training simulation, got shot just to protect BangguseokYeoBo.

In the first place, I didn’t get shot because I couldn’t dodge. I intentionally took the hit to create a life-debt and to test his healing ability.

But.

“It’s a wound that’ll heal quickly once I use my power anyway.”

“That kind of attitude is dangerous.”

For the first time, the Commander responded in a firm tone.

“You could lose your life from a single mistake. Remember, even your mother, Luna Moon, who had the same power as you, eventually died from a plague.”

“…….”

Bringing up Luna Moon’s death like this showed that he was genuinely worried about me dying.

Luna Moon probably died because she failed the strategy…….

‘If he knew that his marriage to Daphne might have caused Luna Moon’s death, he would be devastated, wouldn’t he?’

It seemed that Daphne hadn’t told the Commander that Luna Moon might have died because she failed the strategy.

Right now, I needed Daphne’s cooperation, so I had no reason to bring up something that could strain their relationship.

But I wasn’t keen on the Academy.

“But… you know there’s no time?”

“I’m not saying you should attend for six years. Just stay at the Academy with the cadets until you get used to your body.”

“Until I get used to it? When would that be?”

“Until you can dodge a flying bullet.”

He’s joking, right?

Seeing my ‘are you serious’ expression, the Commander chuckled and continued speaking.

“At least until the next subjugation operation… You have to attend the Academy, even for a short time, so it’ll be easier for me to give you an officer’s position.”

Ah… right, I can’t be involved in the subjugation operation without any rank.

Well, I suppose I can think of it as a short rest.

Though I’m pretty sure the cadets won’t like it more than I will.