Chapter 101

Chapter 101
During the past six years, the conditions inside the Cola Area experienced a steady evolution rather than massive upheavals. Shin Eun-jo lingered for a few extra days before making her quiet departure back to her own zone, dropping a hint on her way out that holding the Meteorite Pistol would allow communication with Home Protector, though I never bothered reaching out to him. The moment I did, Home Protector would instantly realize the weapon was in my possession—which presented a minor complication—but more importantly, I had zero intention of going to his rescue or giving the pistol back. After all, an unguarded dwelling is much easier to plunder. While Home Protector remained confined within the Love Area, my objective was to clear out the Tobacco Area next. He had previously claimed to be the sole player there, but he was far too sharp for me to take his word blindly, and since the exit requirements mandated that every single player reveal their system interface, missing even one person was out of the question; absolute verification was required.

Once Shin Eun-jo departed, daily life settled into a comfortable rhythm of training academy cadets and leading annual extermination missions. Meursault and Max secured promotions to colonel on schedule, while Platon made major the previous year, and a military title was finally conferred upon me as well. Realizing that assigning me some meaningless, subpar rank would only foster disobedience, the authorities dissolved the long-standing dual-colonel system and promoted me to colonel too. Even so, Meursault and Max continued to treat me with formal deference, meaning I functioned in practice as the supreme colonel above them all. Everything moved forward smoothly, heavily aided by Anton’s behind-the-scenes backing. Oh, and both Shut-in Darling and Taejeong earned their commissions as second lieutenants that spring. Shut-in Darling had skipped two ranks at once due to his performance in the initial campaign, and rumors suggested he used that authority to push around every academy cadet he could find.

The next major shift involved the presence of the “Players.” I took a subset of the cadets I had enrolled half a decade ago and established a brand-new faction named the Players. When I informed the Commander that this moniker honored former players Luna Moon and Daphne, he raised no objections whatsoever.

“You truly are a shameless rogue who will stop at nothing, aren’t you.” Luna was completely exasperated with me, but the trauma of being left exposed under Shin Eun-jo’s surveillance equipment clearly left a deep mark, as she refused to leave my side for even a moment.

By this point, the term “Player” carried an entirely different connotation within our zone. It no longer pointed to dimensional travelers trapped in physical shells, but rather designated the elite group personally trained by me, Heydam Goodman. Consequently, if outsiders from foreign zones ever arrived and accused me of being a Player, the label would never carry their intended weight. Unfortunately, no new players had wandered into our zone following Shin Eun-jo’s visit. Whether because of the Unicorn Area player’s influence or simple caution, everyone else seemed to be proceeding with extreme warfulness. Public chat channels were virtually dead, save for Ssapasuble’s periodic frantic accusations about land-dwellers forming conspiracies. Tibalom used to send consistent supply requests until about three years ago, but communication had dwindled, suggesting he might have finally achieved self-sufficiency inside the Knife Zone. Player highlight clips also stopped arriving, meaning any investigation into other zones required going out to look firsthand.

This made the upcoming annual campaign crucial. It marked the graduation period for the cadets I had raised—largely under Shut-in Darling’s supervision. Deploying the Player cadets, already recognized as an elite force, into a military sweep that had evolved into a small-scale elite operation was the logical next step. If they excelled, the Commander would finally feel secure enough to grant me permission to leave the zone. Repeated requests to explore beyond the walls had been continually blocked at the Commander’s level, and while staging a full takeover would simplify travel, it was still too early for a usurpation route. Once this campaign concluded, however, I intended to embark on a long journey across the other zones.

“Now then…” Inside the campaign tent, I had sent all the other cadets out on scouting duties, leaving only Shut-in Darling and Taejeong behind. The moment the others cleared out, Shut-in Darling collapsed onto the folding sofa while Taejeong took a seat opposite him with rigid posture. “Since we’re seventeen now, let’s update the strategy.”

Seventeen years of age—yet physically we already resembled full adults, aligning with nineteen by Korean reckoning. Shut-in Darling had stretched out so much that his shins dangled past the edge of the furniture, but Taejeong had grown to an astonishing physical scale. Where Shut-in Darling’s development drew admiring glances, Taejeong’s sheer mass commanded respectful stares from men. The fact that this physique had been built entirely through raw training without any title buffs or player assistance never ceased to amaze me. Shut-in Darling’s musculature remained comparatively lean, though his face had grown handsome; since crossing a certain threshold of attractiveness has its uses, I frequently reminded him to maintain his appearance. I had grown considerably myself, remaining shorter than the other two—both of whom had cleared 180 cm—but at only seventeen, time was still on my side.

Shut-in Darling kept eyeing me and deliberately slouching whenever he stood near me, a habit that annoyed me endlessly. Compared to a ten-year-old frame, my current mobility was plenty comfortable, and I was content. Beyond that, my appearance had barely shifted, though Meursault recently observed with a melancholy expression that while my childhood angelic features remained, my gaze carried a far more unhinged edge than before. It hardly mattered; no NPC left in this zone was foolish enough to fall for my innocent smiles anymore. Except for the Commander, who insisted every year that I looked more and more like Luna Moon, meaning my smiles still worked on him without fail.

“To me, you’re still just a little kid.” Luna murmured this from her perch on my shoulder, though she had not grown a single millimeter in six years and still looked precisely like a tiny kitten. The local inhabitants, who had never encountered ordinary cats outside of monsters, simply assumed felines naturally came in that miniature size.

“So we’re finally heading out of the zone, then.” Shut-in Darling’s voice held an unmistakable trace of excitement. “I’m sort of curious what Shin Eun-jo’s been up to.” Since they hadn’t appeared particularly close before, this was unexpected; perhaps they had grown fond of each other during that brief window. Taejeong looked equally surprised, glanced at Shut-in Darling briefly, and then turned to me. “Where are we heading first, hyung?”

“I was thinking of prioritizing the Candy Zone… what do your opinions look like?” Shut-in Darling pushed himself upright on the couch.

“What’s there to deliberate? If that’s your choice, we go.”

“If that is what you desire, hyung, the destination order makes no difference to me either.”

“Taejeong is one thing, but… wow, you too?” Shut-in Darling shot me a sharp look. “I have my own reasons for needing the Logout function, so I’ll cooperate however I can. And that Dentist guy from the Candy Zone is a newcomer, right? I want to check out a newcomer too.” Taejeong appeared equally intrigued by the rookie player.

“I still never imagined someone who never even experienced Safety Zone would end up possessed.”

“Right? No wonder that guy turned into a dopamine addict. If his stories are true, that rookie’s probably a real piece of work too. I’m genuinely curious.”

I had actually attempted to show them the Dentist’s highlight footage, but because the interface was tied to my system, they saw absolute blankness when I played it. Trying to transfer the file via chat yielded a system notification stating file sharing was blocked, forcing me to give up and offer a verbal summary instead, which left both of them deeply fascinated. Consequently, there was zero disagreement about targeting the Candy Zone first.

“The real complication is how we get over there.” The regions closest to Cola were Cocaine and Unicorn, followed by Love and Tobacco, while Knife sat somewhat further away, and Chicken and Candy rested at opposite extremes akin to the two ends of the Korean Peninsula. While any of them could be reached by car within a day under normal circumstances, this world swarmed with hostile mutants and deep snowdrifts, imposing strict limits on vehicle travel. That explained why both Omoknun and Shin had required days to reach us, meaning a trip to Candy could easily stretch into weeks.

The fastest available alternative was the hoverboard I had extorted from Ttopamine Addict, which bypassed monsters and snowfields entirely through flight. However, strapping two extra people onto a single hoverboard exceeded even my risk tolerance. Perhaps I should have shaken him down for a couple more… I turned my gaze toward my companions.

“On the way there, should we drop by the Unicorn Area and shake them down for an airship?”

“……What?”

“Where on earth do you find the nerve to shake down an entire zone for their airship?”

“I’m just joking.”

“No, that comment right now was definitely not a joke. Do you think I haven’t spent years watching you?”

Fair enough. Just as I had learned their tendencies, they had grown far too familiar with mine. Shut-in Darling was correct; I had been entirely serious. The Unicorn zone was close, and Ttopamine Addict typically appeared on his hoverboard the moment I approached, almost as if he could sniff me out. There was no guarantee he would remain friendly now that I was seventeen, but if he truly shared the traits of a Dopamine Addict, he would likely leave me alone at least until the Second Apocalypse, which could prove entertaining. Then again… resolving every problem the easy way tended to ruin the fun. While he might surrender a hoverboard, marching up and demanding an airship as though he had been holding it in safekeeping would definitely sour the interaction. I promptly abandoned the scheme of extorting an airship from Unicorn.

“Even if it demands time, we’ll just have to travel the hard way.”

“Or we could hit the closest regions first?”

That wasn’t a terrible proposition, as clearing them sequentially by distance would optimize our route. However— “We need to begin with the lowest-difficulty zones, because we still don’t know how much the three of us can realistically handle.” Starting with easier targets and building up to harder ones offered better entertainment value. Shut-in Darling looked unconvinced.

“With you around, is that even an obstacle?”

I appreciated the confidence, but— “We require the newcomer, so Candy has to come first.”

“Why?”

“If we start clearing out zones and the other players begin exchanging intelligence, the rookie might grow suspicious of us.”

“Valid point. So Candy first, then we tackle the nearest ones after that?”

“That sounds like a better plan.”

“Then the sequence is Candy, Chicken, Knife, Tobacco, Love, Cocaine, Unicorn…?”

I was just reflecting on how Shut-in Darling’s intellect seemed to have expanded over the past six years when Taejeong chimed in. “You mentioned earlier that we would bring Tibalom along from Knife as well, is that correct?”

“Yeah. Though he might attempt to murder me on sight, so remain alert.”

“What? Did you get caught impersonating him back then?”

“No. He just endured a rough time inside the Knife Zone.”

“When I encountered him at the convenience store, he struck me as a relatively civilized gentleman…”

The motivation for bringing Tibalom alongside the Dentist was simple: he possessed a connection to my mother. While his exact age was a mystery, if he predated her era, he might hold deeper insights concerning my father or the mechanics of this world. Furthermore, I preferred keeping the Meteorite Knife he carried out of the hands of the Unicorn Area player. Even if I didn’t confiscate the item immediately, keeping it within my field of vision was a priority.

“So the only players we’re recruiting are the Dentist and Tibalom—just two of them?”

“Correct.”

“What about the players in the remaining zones?”

“If they cooperate with the Logout process, I’ll brief them on the extra openings…”

“And if they decline?”

“I’ll eliminate every single player in those zones who fails to open their system.”

At that exact instant, a deafening roar smashed against our eardrums. A violent gust of wind whipped through the structure, causing the canvas walls to flap wildly.

“What now?!”

Shut-in Darling, Taejeong, and I bolted out of the tent—and came face to face with the colossal silhouette of an airship looming directly over our entire encampment.