Chapter 31

Chapter 31
So, are there actually two Dopamine Addicts? What on earth could that possibly signify? I reviewed the remaining communication channels as well, discovering that notifications had arrived not just within the general forum, but additionally from Home Protector and T-balnom. I restricted my inspection to the newest entries from each source.

Home Protector sent a message asking what on earth I was engaged in that caused me to overlook the messaging system. T-balnom inquired what kind of entity I actually was. Even T-balnom had reached out to me first? What events had transpired while I was ignoring the community feeds? I deduced that examining the public chat was necessary to grasp the background context of those two texts, so I skipped theirs initially and headed straight to the general room.

I informed Meursault that I was taking a brief recess. Meursault protested, stating that he had just finished explaining the high efficiency of the operational core and that a break was unnecessary. Leaving Meursault, who felt less than thrilled regarding my abrupt intermission, I walked back toward my private quarters and scrolled the message history all the way to the top. The confusion seemed to have kicked off the previous evening.

I stretched out upon my mattress and began reading meticulously through the logs from the night before. The initial participant to write had been Druggy, the player belonging to the Cocaine Area. Druggy stated that a strange messaging mechanic had been received. Shin asked what kind of weirdness they were discussing. Druggy replied that it looked suspicious no matter how one observed it and asked if anyone else failed to receive one. Shin noted that suspicious chats were common and asked if anybody understood what the matter was about. Druggy answered that if no other person obtained it, the issue would be handled independently. Dentist chimed in, asking if the strange message happened to be… Oh. The newcomer remained active and thriving. Dentist asked if it was the one originating from someone identifying as Dopamine Addict. Druggy enthusiastically confirmed that was correct.

Impersonation was something AnionnQuook had previously attempted. Had another individual chosen to try the same trick? I kept reading. Dentist mentioned staring at the notification himself while trying to figure out how to interpret it. Shin admitted that the message had arrived for them as well. The instant Shin, who until that point had been playing ignorant, confessed to obtaining the identical text, the silent participants began trickling into the channel one by one.

Ssapasuble wondered if it was not just them. Home Protector confirmed receiving one as well. Druggy asked if everybody else acquired it too. IwontCryThatsCardio asked what chat room they were discussing because nothing was visible. Home Protector assumed it was a fake and never opened it, then asked what the text stated. IwontCryThatsCardio asked in panic if they were the only person who missed out. Shin explained an intention to ignore it due to its sketchy appearance, but grew curious about the sender’s identity once learning everyone received it. IwontCryThatsCardio repeated that they did not get it. Shin shared the content, stating the message indicated that exchange was possible with all zones except Unicorn, and the sender profile was Dopamine Addict. Druggy confirmed word for word agreement. Ssapasuble questioned whether the transmission genuinely originated from the authentic Dopamine Addict. Home Protector insisted it was definitely a fake since it was not the real Dopamine Addict.

When asked how that was certain, Home Protector explained that Dopamine Addict had accepted their friend request, sounding somewhat proud of the fact. Home Protector reasoned that if that account were the genuine Dopamine Addict, a direct one-on-one chat would succeed, but direct messaging was currently blocked. Dentist mentioned having a friend request left on read, and Shin shared the exact same frustrating experience. Home Protector pointed out that the arrival of a direct message in the first place should have served as an initial warning sign, noting that direct chats require mutual friendships. Oho. Experience talking—that constituted a solid deduction. Druggy expressed that this exact reason caused the initial suspicion. Ssapasuble wondered why everyone assumed it was fake, suggesting it could be the real Dopamine Addict.

Ssapasuble asked who else among their friends would send such a text if not Dopamine Addict. Come to think of it, neither Druggy nor Ssapasuble had ever sent me a friend request. Had Druggy failed to befriend anyone at all? Ssapasuble argued that the individual differed from them, speculating that the all-area conqueror might possess privileges allowing direct messaging without mutual friendship. Shin questioned why Dopamine Addict remained silent and whether the chat was even being viewed. Dentist added a sharp, snarky remark that a person leaving every friend request on unread did not sound like someone checking message rooms religiously. Home Protector piled on with plain trash talk, asking why a rude jerk refusing friend requests would bother sending such a note. IwontCryThatsCardio wondered who else would send that kind of chat and why anyone would impersonate Dopamine Addict out of all people, especially when area-to-area contact was supposedly restricted until the Second Apocalypse.

Home Protector recalled that a blue barrier blocked traversal in the game. Ssapasuble suggested considering reality instead, wondering if inter-area barriers no longer existed. Druggy proposed that Dopamine Addict might have discovered this and attempted to inform them. Home Protector dismissed the idea. Ssapasuble argued that whether inter-area travel was actually possible remained easy to check by verifying if the blue barrier still stood. Hmm. I had not visited the boundary of my own territory either, meaning personal verification was pending. I would need to check during the upcoming subjugation campaign.

Yet the true crisis had nothing to do with the truth of that transmission. Scrolling further down revealed that at least one alternative player had identified the genuine problem. Shin stated that the situation constituted a problem even if the sender was not Dopamine Addict. IwontCryThatsCardio asked what the problem was. Shin reminded them that the chat room was restricted strictly to players who unlocked the system. Home Protector realized the implication: if the sender was not Dopamine Addict, another player must have unlocked the system. Shin noted that only a single person from each zone participated in this chat. Dentist deduced it was the player hailing from the Unicorn Area. Shin praised the newbie’s quick grasp, pointing out that only the Unicorn Area player remained unaccounted for, supported by the hint embedded within the text itself.

Ssapasuble quoted the message regarding exchanges being possible while excluding the Unicorn Area. Home Protector asked if the Unicorn player went out of their way to impersonate Dopamine Addict simply to transmit that warning. Ssapasuble questioned if usernames could even be altered or impersonated.

I shared the assessment that the sender most likely represented the Unicorn Area’s participant. How they managed to evade joining the general forum and operated utilizing the Dopamine Addict identifier remained a complete mystery. Unless the foundational rule stating that only the initial player interacting with each territory’s meteorite item could unlock the system had somehow been broken, the sole remaining candidate was the unverified player from the Unicorn Area.

Yet why the Unicorn Area’s player bothered impersonating me to transmit such a message defied all logic no matter how I analyzed it. The same confusion applied to the clause excluding the Unicorn Area. If inter-zone commerce functioned in reality unlike the game, excluding the Unicorn Area made zero sense. Even if competing zones lacked the technology to reach a floating island, the Unicorn Area hovered relatively low to the ground. Flying monsters remained nonexistent at this stage, implying that the Cocaine Area situated directly underneath could theoretically construct a sufficiently tall staircase to initiate trade.

This implied the transmission felt suspiciously like a warning to avoid approaching the Unicorn Area for now. If so, why omit sending a separate chat to me? Come to think of it, hadn’t IwontCryThatsCardio from the Chicken Area mentioned missing out on the message as well? Why skip just the two of us?

The question nagged at my thoughts, but a subsequent message from Druggy rendered it secondary. Druggy reported discovering something strange. Shin asked for details, and IwontCryThatsCardio agreed that additional weird phenomena had surfaced.

Druggy mentioned noticing a detail previously without giving it much thought, pointing out the member list inside the public chat room. The subsequent messages arrived after a brief pause. Home Protector expressed utter bewilderment. IwontCryThatsCardio refused to believe it. Dentist wondered if the anomaly represented a mere glitch.

Check the member list? I opened the roster personally and inspected the handles currently populating the general forum. The roster displayed Dopamine Addict, T-balnom, Shin, Dentist, Ssapasuble, IwontCryThatsCardio, Druggy, and Home Protector, organized by the sequence in which they joined the public room.

Everything appeared completely standard to my eyes. The oddity became glaringly obvious with the next comment. IwontCryThatsCardio pointed out that the count totaled eight people excluding himself. Excluding him, there were eight? Shin remarked that the situation grew genuinely creepy. Druggy noted previously assuming the top name appeared twice simply because that individual created the room.

Listed twice? Did that imply my handle appeared twice on everyone else’s screen? Eight individuals excluding himself, alongside my identifier written twice across everyone else’s roster? Did the roster omit displaying a user’s own handle?

I calmly selected the Dopamine Addict identifier resting at the absolute top of the list. If the account belonged to me, my personal information window ought to open. Instead, a system prompt appeared asking whether to send a friend request to Dopamine Addict.

The profile situated at the peak of the chat roster was not me. This undeniably belonged to an entirely different player—someone other than myself. Home Protector declared that the situation caused absolute mental vertigo, asking if the room contained nine participants from the very beginning. Ssapasuble concluded that two Dopamine Addicts existed.

That marked the conclusion of the chat logs. As though everyone grew simultaneously fed up with the topic, posting ceased entirely within the general room. I exited the public chat and reviewed the private messages dispatched by other participants.

First, I inspected Home Protector’s direct messages. Home Protector left laughing remarks asking if I ignored everyone else’s friend requests except theirs, urged me to check the chaotic chat room immediately, questioned whether the duplicate account was me, and repeatedly demanded that I inspect my messages without delay.

I debated an appropriate reply before deciding on a concise response stating that the account was not me. A torrent of messages appeared to flood in from Home Protector afterward, but I prioritized opening T-balnom’s chat window first. Scanning T-balnom’s messages confirmed that opening his correspondence initially was the correct choice. T-balnom asked whether that entity genuinely was not me, noting that the fake account possessed precise familiarity with every detail of our private conversations. T-balnom explained that because they were already mutual friends, the impostor was mistaken for me and engaged in conversation. T-balnom concluded by demanding to know what kind of entity I actually was.