Chapter 34

Chapter 34
With pale skin reminiscent of a lab coat, shaggy white hair, and blank black codfish eyes, the individual possessed a face immediately recognizable to any player who had spent significant time alongside my AI following the Second Apocalypse.

“Dopamine Addict! You’re Dopamine Addict, right?”

Shut-In Honey’s face lit up with enthusiasm as he took a stride toward the hoverboard. Fully aware that the person before us was not actually Dopamine Addict, Taejeong and I instinctively pulled back.

“Keep your distance.”

At my warning, Shut-In Honey looked at me with a confused expression.

“What? Weren’t you a fan of Dopamine Addict?”

He still assumed I was a follower of Dopamine Addict. Keeping my gaze fixed on him, I stated,

“That thing isn’t Dopamine Addict.”

“I’m not Dopamine Addict?”

The man himself answered rather than Shut-In Honey. He gave a loud laugh and gradually brought the hoverboard down closer to the ground.

“Whether I’m the real Dopamine Addict or not, you would figure it out instantly by using Inspection.”

Inspect. That was right. Executing a Character Inspection would instantly display his true identity and details. Yet, I hesitated momentarily. Once he dismounted the hoverboard and planted both feet on the ground, his appearance bore an even closer resemblance to the custom avatar I frequently utilized. While custom avatars occasionally overlapped, anyone entering this world was supposed to take the form of a ten-year-old without exception. However, this individual already looked like a twenty-year-old young man. Because he understood Inspection, he was clearly a Unicorn player who had unlocked the system. Why had only this person managed to retain an adult body?

“Hey, do you know who I am?”

While I remained hesitant, Shut-In Honey addressed him. The man looked Shut-In Honey over carefully.

“Shut-In Honey?”

“You know who I am?!”

“Hmm… I believe there was a player with a moniker like that.”

“You punk, why are you pretending you don’t know?”

The man appeared to have read Shut-In Honey’s handle through Character Inspection, yet Shut-In Honey beamed, thrilled that “Dopamine Addict” had acknowledged him.

“So you really are Dopamine Addict. But why is everyone aiming their weapons at you?”

Shut-In Honey seemed to have flowers rather than thoughts inside his head. Taejeong and I still kept our barrels trained on him, and Meursault, despite looking entirely bewildered by the situation, followed my lead and belatedly aimed his gun at the man as well. Meursault asked me with noticeable tension,

“Lee Dam, do you know this individual?”

“In a sense I do, and in a sense I don’t.”

“What kind of unhelpful reply is that…”

Even with firearms pointed his way, we could not fire preemptively without understanding his intentions for approaching us. If he genuinely originated from the Unicorn Area, our outdated weapons would likely fail to cause even a scratch. The man merely smirked at the three barrels directed at him.

Now he felt curious about that detail? The man glanced briefly at Shut-In Honey.

“…A bit too foolish to take along as a companion, wouldn’t you agree?” he remarked.

“What?!”

“Aren’t you going to Inspect me? Are you frightened?”

Regardless of whether Shut-In Honey grew irritated, the man looked directly at me and posed the question. I offered a brief shake of my head.

“I am not scared. I simply prefer not to act according to your design.”

“I did not come here to harm you. At least, not at the moment.”

“Right, sure…”

I lacked the naivety to believe he arrived with entirely peaceful intentions. Even so, I could not fully explain why I hesitated to check his character data. Slowly, I opened his Character Inspection interface. The information that materialized before my eyes read as follows:

CHARACTER INSPECTION
Name: Dopamine Addict
Title: Dopamine Addict
Affiliated Area: Unicorn
Relationship: Friendly toward you.

Just as anticipated, his designated region was Unicorn. This guy… his name genuinely was “Dopamine Addict.” Yet, a particular detail drew my attention even more than his name.

Title: Dopamine Addict
His title was also Dopamine Addict? I had never encountered such a title before, despite having collected virtually every title obtainable within the Safety Zone.

“Well?”

Noticing that I was reviewing his statistics, the man offered a broad grin.

“Do you believe me now?”

“How did you pull this off?”

“Pull what off?”

“How are you listed as ‘Dopamine Addict’?”

“It remains a bit too early to disclose that to you.”

Too early? It implied that a specific time would eventually arrive when he could reveal the truth. His remarks continued without pause.

“Why are you traveling alongside Meursault? If I were beginning in the Cola Area, I would have poisoned him right from the start.”

Some lunatic who became far too immersed in solo play as Dopamine Addict? Or perhaps something else.

“Hey!”

Unable to contain his frustration any longer, Shut-In Honey pushed his way between the two of us.

“Are you two just going to chat amongst yourselves? How did you manage to maintain an adult body, anyway!”

The man and I let out simultaneous sighs. Then, he muttered under his breath,

“Loud.”

The instant I watched him reach inside his coat, I pulled my trigger and fired.

Bang!
Bang bang!

The two rapid gunshots that followed came from Taejeong and Meursault, who opened fire immediately after me. Shut-In Honey leaped upward in surprise and yanked backward on my weapon.

“Hey! What on earth are you doing? Why are you shooting a fellow player?!”

“Had I not fired, you would have been the one struck by his weapon.”

Hearing my words, Shut-In Honey looked startled and finally turned his attention toward the man. He appeared far too uninjured for someone who had absorbed three bullets. As a player from the Unicorn Area, he undoubtedly maintained a magnetic field shield protecting his body. Held within the man’s hand was a single pistol. Had I not acted first, he likely would have shot Shut-In Honey with it. He had simply refrained from firing because his aim wavered upon being hit. Consequently, his assertion that he meant me no harm might have actually been true. When his aim wobbled, the man had hesitated before pulling the trigger.

Confirming the status of the other party, Meursault asked me once more,

“What course of action should we take?”

“Hold your fire.”

I instructed them to stand down for the moment and observed the man. Holding a pistol in one hand, he chuckled while poking his fingers through the two bullet holes in his white lab coat with his free hand.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Three shots were fired, yet only two holes were made.”

Taejeong’s face flushed red at that observation. His marksmanship was already subpar, but missing from this close range…

“Do you always open fire without a warning?”

“Because the first strike secures the advantage.”

At my reply, the man smiled with a level of satisfaction that seemed entirely inappropriate for someone who had just been shot by me.

“Indeed, I would have fired as well. Excellent. At this standard, there should not be any issues.”

“What are you muttering about by yourself, you absolute maniac? Who are you?”

“You already witnessed my identity.”

“And I am supposed to accept that at face value?”

In response to my retort, the man smirked and pressed on.

“I cannot offer any further details than that. I only came by today to conduct a brief check.”

“A check? What kind of check?”

“To see whether you are developing properly.”

“Pardon?”

“You appear to be coming along well, so I will take my leave now.”

The man had attempted to shoot Shut-In Honey simply because he was noisy. He was a fellow player, yet far too hazardous to allow to walk away alive. Eliminating him here would undoubtedly be the correct strategic choice… yet with our current capabilities, we could not even inflict a wound upon him, let alone defeat him. Reflecting on the situation, the man had traveled all the way here equipped with nothing more than a pistol and a hoverboard. He possessed advanced technology native to the Unicorn Area alongside an adult physique. I ought to consider myself fortunate that someone possessing such overwhelming advantages had no intention of fighting. Why did an individual like that harbor goodwill toward me? The reason remained unclear, but thanks to that goodwill, my life had essentially been spared. It was hardly an ideal scenario. It felt rather like a veteran player returning to check on a beginner.

“Ah, right.”

As he climbed back onto his hoverboard, the man glanced over his shoulder as though recalling something forgotten.

“I still need to deliver your present.”

“Present?”

Before I could even respond, the man’s pistol swung toward Shut-In Honey.

Insane bastard. He intended to assassinate Shut-In Honey before departing after all. The exact moment the man squeezed the trigger, I stepped directly in front of Shut-In Honey without a second thought. With a sharp thwack, a hot, piercing projectile tore straight through my shoulder. Shut-In Honey cried out in distress.

“Hey!”

“Hyung!”

As I dropped to the ground, Shut-In Honey rushed to support me while the others kept their barrels aimed squarely at the man, expressions filled with panic.

And the man—

For a fleeting second, surprise flickered across his relaxed expression before quickly settling back into composure.

“Different from me, are you…”

What was he muttering about? Stanching the flow of blood from my shoulder with one hand while extending my middle finger with the other, I watched the man smirk.

“You know how to treat a wound like that, correct? I shall look forward to the day you finally arrive in my Area.”

With those words, the hoverboard shot upward into the sky. Taejeong raised his barrel, tracking the vehicle’s ascent.

“I will shoot it down.”

“Don’t bother.”

I muttered, wincing from the burning agony in my shoulder.

“You cannot bring that down using obsolete firearms. It is simply a waste of ammunition. Let him go. We already know where he headed anyway.”

“Lee Dam!”

Only after the man on the hoverboard vanished completely from sight did Meursault lower his weapon, hurrying over to press a clean handkerchief from his pocket directly against my shoulder wound.

“Please maintain pressure on it. If they spotted the signal flare, the soldiers should be on their way shortly. I will go fetch them.”

Unlike Shut-In Honey, who looked on the verge of tears the entire time, Meursault showed zero panic regarding my injury—a testament to his extensive experience as a major—and immediately focused on what needed to be done. Taejeong departed to patrol the surrounding perimeter, concerned that monsters might be drawn in by the earlier commotion.

In stark contrast, Shut-In Honey…

“Isn’t that Dopamine Addict lunatic a complete psycho?!”

How was I supposed to process the feeling of being cursed at when I was the one who took a bullet for something entirely unrelated to my own mistakes?

“Hey, administer the first aid properly.”

“Why on earth would you take a bullet to protect someone like me…”

“What do you think?”

I nudged the combat rations strapped to Shut-In Honey’s waist and instructed,

“Heal me.”

Hearing that, Shut-In Honey stared at me with his jaw hanging slack for a moment before speaking in a tone that suggested he desperately wanted to grab me by the collar but managed to restrain himself.

“…Don’t tell me you allowed yourself to get hit purely to test the healing performance?”

“Had you been injured, I would not have been able to test the healing capabilities.”

“You absolute madman… you are genuinely out of your mind.”

Even so, Shut-In Honey retrieved the combat rations and set to work treating my wound. Fortunately, the projectile had passed completely through the shoulder muscle, meaning the task required merely closing and healing the tissue. His assertion that he had practiced enough to administer treatment through physical contact alone proved true; the moment his hand touched my skin, the searing pain from the gunshot subsided noticeably.

Accepting the treatment quietly until I sensed the injury had sealed to a satisfactory degree, I broke the silence.

“Darling Outsider.”

“…Why are you addressing me by my full handle in such an ominous tone?”

“Since I just saved your life, there is one detail I ought to confess.”

“What kind of sudden confession is that? That sounds like an absolute death flag.”

Disregarding Shut-In Honey’s protest, I delivered the final words.

“I am Dopamine Addict.”