Chapter 112

Chapter 112
I intentionally maneuvered This Zone’s Troll into making a confession right within earcasting distance of the Dentist. That much was factual. Despite being a complete novice who understood zero strategies, the Dentist had dedicated his entire heart to the Candy Zone and earned the title Saint of the Christmas Forest. This meant he guarded the zone’s non-player characters as if they were his own flesh and blood. If he ever came to believe that I was the one who ignited the Christmas Forest, our dynamic would become painfully awkward from that moment forward. That outcome was glaringly obvious.

Consequently, after accepting the Dentist’s friend request, I messaged him directly to state that I would clarify the truth and instructed him to conceal himself behind the meteorite. Then I went ahead and provoked This Zone’s Troll into revealing everything. I simply did not anticipate that the Dentist would immediately swing an axe and sever the guy’s head while still actively displaying his Saint title. Well, being the Saint of the Christmas Forest signified that he held that sacred status for the Candy Zone inhabitants rather than for the actual players.

How could he possibly resort to such an extreme act just to secure my exit? Standing before the remains of This Zone’s Troll, the Dentist wept for a prolonged period. Having just learned that the deceased man plotted to obliterate every single soul in the zone strictly to smuggle him out safely, he seemed consumed by an intense weight of guilt that didn’t even belong to him.

I walked away and let him cry. I lacked the standing to offer immediate comfort. After all, I still casually referred to the residents of this realm as non-player characters myself—making me a player fundamentally no different from This Zone’s Troll. Only when he was completely depleted of tears did the Dentist finally cease crying and raise his gaze toward me where I rested atop the meteorite. He wiped his face using his sleeve and spoke.

“Thank you, Senior.”

“Thank you?”

I had been guessing what he might say next, but this response caught me entirely off guard. Had he even listened closely to the confession? That guy just admitted he went this far entirely because he noticed I wanted to bring you along with me. Up until that point, This Zone’s Troll had lived quietly while masking himself as a non-player character. If I had never intervened in this sector, zero casualties would have occurred, and their neighborhood might never have caught fire. Yet he was offering gratitude instead.

However, the Dentist perceived the situation through a completely different lens. He shook his head with conviction and explained that the man chose to burn down the forest simply because he was inherently malicious.

“And am I not?”

“Senior… you are my savior.”

The Dentist stood upright and offered a deep bow from the waist. “Thank you, Senior, for aiding the people living in our sector and granting them a fighting chance at survival. Thank you.”

In truth, I had only acted for my own personal advantage.

“Just as I figured, Senior, you truly are the person I remember.”

Ah, referring to that specific Senior who could never simply walk past someone facing distress? Honestly, that description felt entirely inaccurate for me, but from the Dentist’s perspective, it surely appeared as though I had extended help to the Candy Zone populace completely out of goodwill—even though my actual compensation involved acquiring both the meteorite and the Dentist himself.

I would need to leave the meteorite in the care of the Dentist for the time being. A celestial stone of this scale was much too massive for me to transport manually, and I could not guarantee its safety if loaded onto the unicorn airship that Ttopamine Addict had previously supplied. Having resolved to store the object inside the Dentist’s inventory system, I stepped down beside him and instantly detected a peculiar sense of wrongness.

The blood evidence was missing. The blood from This Zone’s Troll that should have sprayed in every single direction when the heavy axe came down was entirely absent from the meteorite’s surface. Splatters reached right up to the very base of the stone, but as long as basic physics applied in this universe, it was impossible for none of the spray to hit the actual rock. When I stared intently at the object, the Dentist seemed to pick up on the weird anomaly as well. He gazed at the exact same spot and tilted his head in confusion.

“The blood marks are gone? Do meteorites actually consume blood or something?”

The idea of a meteorite feeding on blood sounded creepy on the surface, but not to me. After all, this specific stone functioned as a high-stimulation artifact that had previously provided me with an intensely euphoric rush. Anything capable of generating that kind of dopamine could hardly be dangerous. I casually placed my hand directly against the stone surface and instructed him to store it in his inventory.

“What? My inventory? Wait a second—more importantly, I literally just pointed out that this rock might have swallowed that guy’s blood, and you want me to stash it in my personal inventory?”

“I cannot place it into mine. This meteorite belongs to you.”

“This isn’t about whether my capacity allows it or not…” The Dentist looked thoroughly distressed as he tried to reason through the situation before finally giving in with a sigh. “Fine, if that is your wish, Senior… Exactly how do I deposit an item into this inventory feature anyway?”

Since this was his very first personal possession, he naturally lacked familiarity with storage mechanics—though the way he spoke suggested he had zero prior knowledge of what an inventory even was. If he truly had no concept of an inventory, he likely had never played a video game in his life. Well, that background probably explained how he ended up pursuing a medical career.

I patiently broke it down for my valuable newcomer. “Just picture slipping this meteorite right inside a virtual storage pouch.”

“I will give it a try.”

The Dentist shut his eyes tightly for a brief moment of intense concentration, and immediately afterward, the large meteorite disappeared completely from our sight. He must have physically felt the sensation of the object registering inside his storage space. He blinked his eyes open, verified that the stone was entirely gone, and stared at me in pure astonishment.

“Did it actually work?!”

“Yes.”

“Incredible. Am I able to store other miscellaneous objects as well?”

“Yup. Though that airship won’t fit inside.”

“…You actually attempted to store an entire airship inside your inventory earlier?”

“Leaving it out in the open makes me anxious.”

“Senior, your obsession with absolute control is still running wild. Still, it appears living people cannot be placed into storage. Knowing your personality, if that were physically possible, you probably would have shoved me inside by now.”

“Stashing people inside an inventory? I honestly hadn’t considered that possibility.”

“Wait, so if you could do it, you actually would?”

“I just tested it mentally, and the system rejects it.”

“You literally just tried to put me into your storage?!”

Hey, he was the one who originally brought up the hypothetical scenario. Did he really need to freak out to that extreme degree over a minor test? While I refused to accept his label of being a control freak, listening to him chat really made it feel as though we shared a close history previously. No matter how hard I searched my memory banks, I could not pull up a single recollection of anyone close to me from my college days, which felt deeply frustrating.

“Who exactly is that gentleman standing over there?” The Dentist asked, shifting his gaze toward Tae-jung, who had remained behind with me in the scorched woods.

When we originally loaded the Candy Zone residents onto the flying vessel, I assigned Miki Parker to handle the piloting duties while keeping Han Yeo-bom and Luna on board to supervise him, leaving Tae-jung as the sole companion lingering behind. I planned to have Tae-jung introduce himself first and follow up with introductions for the other two once they returned.

“Tae-jung, come on over and offer a greeting.”

“Yes, hyung.”

“Hyung?”

The Dentist tilted his head once more, clearly puzzled by the specific term of address Tae-jung used for me. I quickly fabricated an explanation on the spot. “He’s a fellow player who grew up alongside me in my home sector since our childhood days. He’s like a younger brother to me.”

“Ah, so this gentleman is a player as well.”

“From now on, whenever you cross paths with someone close to your age bracket, you really ought to build the habit of inspecting their character profile.” Of course, I had initially mistaken This Zone’s Troll for a standard non-player character and failed to inspect him either. Still, while herding the Candy Zone survivors onto the airship just prior, I had carefully scanned every single individual with a character inspection sweep, just to be thorough.

I had actively searched for any hidden players concealing their identities, but fortunately—or unfortunately—no other players existed in this zone besides the Dentist and This Zone’s Troll. The upcoming Chicken Zone on our itinerary should house a substantially higher player count. During our initial text chats, a player whose handle sounded something like Cardio had mentioned the presence of multiple players in his sector who had chosen to form an alliance.

As for the Tobacco Zone, Home Protector did not look like he would offer much practical assistance, meaning I would likely need to handle the legwork myself. If Ssapasuble was telling the truth, the entire roster of Beer Zone players had been wiped out while pursuing an identical strategy to his own. Within the Knife Zone, even if alternative players had existed besides Cha Yul-beom, they could never have survived six full years without wielding the Meteorite Knife, making it safe to deduce that Cha Yul-beom stood as the sole survivor. The Love Zone would contain the individuals brought along by Shin Eun-jo.

The sectors completely blank to me were Cocaine and the Unicorn Area. As for that alternate version of myself—since he specifically warned me against approaching via that route, he must be planning to handle the responsibility himself. Well, if the logout function remained inaccessible even after clearing out the remaining sector players, I could always track down Ttopamine Addict later. For the present moment, I pushed that complication aside.

“I am On Chi-yeol. The designated name displayed by the system interface is Dentist.”

“My in-game handle is Taejongtaesebeyonce.”

Tae-jung exchanged formal pleasantries with the Dentist while introducing himself with an absurd in-game nickname that completely clashed with his naturally polite demeanor. By choosing to provide his handle instead of his actual legal name, he demonstrated that he still preferred keeping his true identity as Kim Tae-jung under wraps.

“However…” Tae-jung paused momentarily before continuing. “Doctor, you keep addressing hyung as ‘Senior’… do the two of you actually know each other from before?”

“I certainly recognize Senior, but it appears Senior has forgotten me entirely.”

Hearing that confession, Tae-jung wore a complicated expression. “It seems that becoming someone else’s forgotten acquaintance is turning into a recurring theme for me.”

Hmm. Was he still quietly bothered by the fact that Miki Parker failed to recognize him?

“Wait regarding Miki Parker. Didn’t you claim he was a complete stranger initially?”

“That is true, but while both of you were away handling business in the Candy Zone, I guarded the airship completely alone alongside Mr. Parker, did I not?”

“You did.”

“And as I observed him closely, his entire behavioral pattern mirrored that specific friend of mine.”

So based on his actions, it truly was the exact Miki Parker that Tae-jung recognized? Could my own inability to recall the Dentist stem from a parallel phenomenon? Sure enough, the Dentist arrived at the exact same conclusion. He abruptly stepped closer to Tae-jung and chimed in with visible excitement.

“Then!! Perhaps the primary reason Senior fails to remember me involves that exact same kind of situation?”

“That is precisely why I brought the topic up.”

“I knew it. There is simply no logical way Senior would ever forget about me.”

Convinced that I hadn’t merely forgotten him by chance—and that I had instead lost my memories of him due to external circumstances—the Dentist gazed at me with a look of profound sympathy.

“Senior… you were possessed into this hostile, hazardous world completely stripped of your memories… yet even under those conditions, you still stepped up to protect the citizens of our zone? Please do not stress over it anymore. From this point forward, I will personally shield you! I am remarkably sturdy, you know!”

Hmm. He happened to be the very first player since my arrival in this game world who offered pure, unconditional protection, prompting me to respond with a gentle, reassuring smile. Newbies really possessed a distinctly refreshing flavor. Tae-jung, meanwhile, cast a look toward the Dentist that clearly communicated a silent thought: Just who exactly does this novice think he’s planning to protect?

“You don’t need to worry about protecting me. However, I would deeply appreciate your active assistance with my upcoming plans.”

“Plans of yours?”

“We are going to initiate a logout.”

I brought back up the logout discussion that I had previously attempted to explain to the Dentist before getting abruptly interrupted by Argon’s summons.

“Log out… what does that terminology actually signify?”

“It means exactly what the literal words imply. Returning safely to reality.”

“We possess the capability to return to reality?!”

Technically, the plan involved going back and potentially returning, but—

“Certain strict conditions apply, but with your cooperation, pulling it off should be entirely feasible.”

“If that is the case, I will assist you with every ounce of effort I have! Honestly, my mind has been entirely consumed by constant worry over what might have happened to my reserved patients back home…”

Even after enduring six full years of possession in this alternate realm, he was still agonizing over his waiting clinic patients? Between his absolute insistence that we shared a tight bond and this level of dedication, he clearly qualified as a rather eccentric individual. He was precisely the kind of person who would listen politely if a stranger on the street interrogated him about cult beliefs and probably even purchase them a beverage afterward.

“You possess a completely different personality vibe compared to hyung. In a favorable sense, naturally…”

In a favorable sense? Tae-jung, what are you implying by that remark?

“Pardon me, Senior. I am extremely eager to learn more details regarding this logout procedure.” The Dentist displayed intense motivation—a textbook beginner who seemed fully prepared to follow my lead.

After casting an approving glance toward the Dentist, I turned my attention to Tae-jung. “Tae-jung, break down the details for Denti—no, for Chi-yeol.”

“I am the one tasked with explaining?”

Tae-jung knew full well that when handling critical agenda items—especially outlining long-term strategies—I never delegated the duty to anyone else, making him visibly puzzled as to why I was suddenly dumping the newcomer into his lap.

Yet I had no other choice remaining. My personal limit had officially been reached.

“I need to… take a brief rest…”

The moment I voiced my need for rest, both Tae-jung and the Dentist stared at me with expressions of shock.

“Senior, are you feeling fatigued?”

“Are you experiencing extreme exhaustion?”

“It isn’t that. It’s simply… I am experiencing a slight feeling of hunger.”

“What?” Tae-jung tilted his head in visible confusion before a sudden realization seemed to dawn on him. “Ah, you mean you require a meal. I will explain the logout framework to the doctor, and the two of us can search for some nourishment together.”

“…Right.”

I delivered that vague confirmation and walked away from the pair, slipping inside a nearby dwelling that still bore faint traces of soot to get some quiet downtime.

However, what my body craved was not a traditional meal. Because every single one of us had been trapped inside this possessed realm for six long years without experiencing physical hunger, they had no alternative interpretation for my statement other than assuming I needed standard food to restore my vitality.

Yet this was neither a figure of speech nor a joke. I genuinely felt ravenous. I was so intensely hungry that even the sharp scent of fresh blood drifted toward my senses like an appetizing delicacy. Battling fiercely to suppress an insatiable appetite that felt utterly incapable of ever being satisfied, I forced myself to drift off to sleep.