Chapter 17

Chapter 17
While reviewing paperwork inside his office, the commander glanced up upon hearing children laughing and talking outside his window. Seeing that the timing matched his expectations, a slight smile appeared on his face. He stepped away from his desk, walked over to the glass, and shifted the blinds just enough to survey the grounds. Down below, small knots of children were gathered together for an outdoor barbecue.

Spotting a dark-haired Asian boy among them took no effort at all, leading the commander straight to his own son. The larger youth standing beside him had to be Taejeong, but the blond boy was entirely unfamiliar. Dressed in a neatly tailored military uniform, the youngster looked every bit like a child soldier. Could he be another acquaintance from the slums?

According to Meursault, his son Heydam used to run alongside the neighborhood kids from the impoverished quarters, hunting wild game simply to keep themselves fed. Even when a person was shot dead right before his eyes, the boy never even blinked, proving he was far from an ordinary child. Yet when that same boy returned from a claimed hunting trip while hauling a monstrous beast many times his own size, it had triggered a deep, unfamiliar sense of panic within the commander. The impact was profound enough that the leader of an entire district felt genuinely threatened by a ten-year-old. Even Meursault—someone who rarely paid attention to anyone besides Daphne—had stood before him with an ecstatic expression, eagerly recounting Heydam’s incredible feats.

He had lured a hippo-pig by deliberately stabbing his own hand, then brought the massive creature down with a single bullet? Anyone else hearing such an account would have laughed it off as an absurd exaggeration. Commander Hayden, however, instinctively knew that every single detail was absolute truth. The quick healing ability of the wound on the back of his hand explained how he could pull off reckless tactics involving self-harm without the slightest hesitation.

From the very beginning, asking for a meal gathering to be arranged was never something an ordinary person would think of doing. Combined with his bold demeanor during the officers’ conference and the way he personally hunted a massive beast to demonstrate his marksmanship, everything he did far surpassed the commander’s initial assumptions. So even a legendary hero’s offspring turns out to be a hero as well, is that it?

Commander Hayden reminisced about the first time he encountered Heydam. Recognizing instantly that the boy offering him the ring was related to Luna Moon required no real guesswork, primarily because the child possessed the exact same gaze Luna Moon had once directed toward them—the look of an observer gazing upon beings of an entirely different species. Perhaps Heydam, much like Luna Moon, shared that same detached perspective… No, that line of thinking went too far. The commander emitted a soft chuckle and shook his head, clearing away the unfounded speculation. Heydam couldn’t possibly be identical to Luna Moon, considering Heydam was the actual child she had brought into this world.

—

Unlike the immature ShutInHubby, Taejeong offered a proper introduction.

“I’m Taejeong TaeSeBeyonce. Looking forward to working with you.”

“Taejeong TaeSeBeyonce? What kind of nickname is that long?”

“ShutInHubby is twenty.”

When that real age slipped out casually, ShutInHubby nearly leaped out of his seat.

“Hey!! Are we going by real ages here? We’re all the same ten years old!”

“Not at all. If you started the game first, you’re hyung-nim. Since you’re young, I’ll call you little hyung-nim.”

“Whatever… call me however you like.”

ShutInHubby’s initial hostility seemed to dissipate thanks to Taejeong’s smooth, polite attitude of not talking down to him over his age. Up until then, the assumption had been that they called me hyung simply because they were younger. If beginning the game earlier made someone a hyung, did that imply this Taejeong person was actually ancient? Having no desire to start using formal honorifics if ages came to light, the best course of action seemed to be leaving it alone.

“But…”

ShutInHubby, whose sharp demeanor had momentarily melted away under Taejeong’s friendly charm, turned a suspicious glare back in my direction. “Little hyung or whatever—why didn’t you enlist that bastard?”

“Because he’s already completed his service. You haven’t. Did you already forget why I enlisted you?” Having to repeat the explanation felt tiresome. “I told you you need to know how to handle firearms to survive.”

“Ah, right.”

Ah, right?

“You… are managing military life okay, right? Though I have a feeling you’re a total washout.”

“Come on, hyung-nim! That’s harsh. There’s no way little hyung-nim is a washout—he’s a player, after all!”

ShutInHubby appeared to make a deeply troubled expression, though it might have just been my imagination.

“First, let’s share our progress on the strategy. After that, we’ll plan how to proceed from here.”

“Yes, sir! Then I’ll go first. I’ve been hired as a servant at the mansion and am learning the work. I don’t have any exclusive duties yet—they just have me observing various places. What I’ve discovered is that, because they think of me as a child, everyone casually discusses confidential matters right in front of me. I believe the information I gather that way will be a great help to our strategy.”

Hmm. He had a valid point. Our greatest advantage and vulnerability both stemmed from our young physical appearance. Physically we were at a disadvantage, yet no better camouflage existed for catching people off guard.

“Anything useful among what you’ve heard so far?”

“Yes. Lieutenant General Radu is having an affair.”

“…And how is that useful information?”

“We can blackmail him with the affair later!”

Had this guy been watching too many dramatic soap operas? More importantly, the notion that a romance scandal would even function as effective blackmail material…

“Taejeong, I’m the commander’s illegitimate child born outside.”

“Oops.”

“Well, for now you’ll only be doing odd jobs, and the range of information you can hear will be limited. Once you get more deeply involved in the mansion’s work, you should start picking up more useful intel. Do your best.”

“Yes! Next time I’ll definitely bring back information that actually helps.”

Looking at Taejeong with a sense of satisfaction, my gaze then shifted toward ShutInHubby.

“Assa, what about you?”

“Me… well… nothing special…”

“Have you handled firearms yet?”

“Still stuck on basic physical training…”

The inability to hold eye contact and the way he shrank back the moment military topics arose indicated he was enduring a rather difficult time. Having gone through military service myself, guessing what ShutInHubby was experiencing required no great effort. Once he established a firmer foothold things might change, but for the present, maintaining a strict and distant boundary remained essential. Only if he truly believed preferential treatment wouldn’t automatically save him would he exercise enough caution to survive military life independently.

“Have you heard anything about the subjugation campaign?”

“Ah! I did hear I might get conscripted for the next one.”

The subjugation campaign always coincided with the season when winter snow underwent the heaviest thaw. Not far from the district stood a low mountain marked by a red flagpole; the moment the snow on its peak melted away, the campaign would officially commence. When the hunting trip with Meursault took place, that mountain remained heavily blanketed in snow, leaving a reasonable cushion of time before the next sweep. ShutInHubby should be capable of handling the event without major difficulties, but sending Taejeong into that campaign was never part of the plan. Should both ShutInHubby and I perish during the initial subjugation, another player needed to remain behind to handle the aftermath. Having never died during a first-round subjugation while playing Safety Zone, the harsh reality of the current situation meant planning for the consequences of my own potential demise was necessary.

“Now I’ll tell you what I’ve figured out. But first—”

Reaching up, I pulled Luna Moon’s ring off the leather cord worn around my neck and held it out for both of them to examine.

“Both of you, touch this ring.”

Each of them placed a hand against Luna Moon’s artifact. Judging by their facial expressions, nothing happened. Exactly as anticipated, mere physical contact with the meteoric item fell short of triggering a status window. Tucking the ring back beneath my garments, I resumed speaking.

“For starters, I’ve opened a status window.”

“You opened a status window? There is a status window?”

“There was a condition for opening the status window.”

“A condition? What is it? Can we open one too?”

My head shook in response to ShutInHubby, who asked with clear anticipation of securing a perk of his own.

“At first I thought it opened upon contact with a specific item… but it seems only the first player to make contact can open it. That’s why neither of you got a status window.”

“What? So we have to clear this without a status window?”

“Even with a status window, the only functions are character profiles, inventory, and chat. There’s also zone development, but in the Cola Area it’s meaningless. The only really important function is chat.”

“Chat? What good is that?”

“If two or more people open a status window, they automatically join a public chat room.”

Both ShutInHubby and Taejeong wore looks of surprise at that revelation. They had likely suspected the existence of players scattered across other sectors, but hearing confirmation firsthand was entirely different.

“There are currently eight people in the public chat room. Meaning, besides me, seven other players have opened a status window.”

“Damn it, how many people got possessed into this place?”

Tell me about it.

“Hey, so about that…”

ShutInHubby suddenly lowered his voice, prompting curiosity about what he intended to ask.

“Among the players who opened a status window… is DopamineAddict there?”

Why on earth was this person so fixated on me? Taejeong, who already knew my identity as DopamineAddict, stared at ShutInHubby in brief confusion before quickly smoothing his expression into an “oops” moment. He had remembered the instruction to pretend ignorance regarding my alternate persona in front of ShutInHubby. Fortunately, ShutInHubby’s eyes had been locked onto me the entire time, causing him to miss Taejeong’s suspicious slip-up. The truth would need to be shared soon enough, as maintaining secrets between only two partners hardly suited good teamwork. However, revealing my identity to ShutInHubby was planned only after establishing at least a slight debt between us, ensuring that upon realizing the person whose throat he wished to tear had actually saved his life, embarrassment would outweigh anger.

When silence met his question, ShutInHubby frowned and pressed harder.

“What? Why aren’t you answering? He wasn’t there?”

“He was. DopamineAddict opened a status window too.”

Technically speaking, that statement contained no falsehoods. ShutInHubby’s inquiry didn’t pause there.

“Which zone did that bastard drop into?”

“As if he’d tell us that.”

That particular statement was a lie.

“Yeah… no way that rude bastard would just tell us his zone.”

Actually, revealing my zone had been done first thing.

“Were there any other players in the same zone as us?”

Only when Taejeong posed that question did the conversation finally shift away from DopamineAddict toward other participants.

“There weren’t. It seems there’s only one item that can open a status window per zone. And from what I checked a moment ago, the only players in our zone are us.”

The sole children who responded to “samgyeopsal” had been ShutInHubby and Taejeong. Throughout the meal, the three of us wore rather awkward expressions, whereas the rest of the kids appeared genuinely happy. Although the gathering was arranged for a specific motive, witnessing those children eat heartily brought a mild sense of pride. Regardless, the entire population of players within our specific sector consisted strictly of us three. If the participants who selected “Cola”—including Safety No. 8, who had already retired—totaled merely four individuals, then player populations across remaining sectors likely weren’t massive either.

“And this is just my guess, but…”

Glancing back and forth between ShutInHubby and Taejeong, the final point was delivered.

“Luna Moon might have been a player.”