Chapter 77

Chapter 77
The reception area remained entirely quiet, with no one stepping forward to speak first. I sat quietly, gazing across the table at Shin. Even though I had anticipated something of this sort, seeing her standing right here in person felt completely different. She wore a pristine white dress that looked almost like mourning attire. Because Love Area served as a strange melting pot where Eastern and Western styles blended together, her outfit made a certain amount of sense. What failed to make sense, however, was the sparkling meteor earring dangling directly from her earlobe. She had wandered right into my territory without even bothering to stash it away in her inventory.

When I previously sent Sunken Eyes back to Love Area, I had given him one explicit instruction: if they wished to halt the Second Apocalypse, they needed to bring me the meteor artifact. Granted, I might have phrased the demand a bit more softly than that. Regardless, through her own messenger, I had practically commanded her to surrender the meteor piece on the spot. I figured she might pull off a bold stunt, but I never imagined she would show up before me openly wearing the item for everyone to see.

“So, is anybody going to say anything?” Meursault finally broke the silence. After throwing a quick look between me and the Commander, he could no longer contain his growing curiosity. “I heard that the lady actually came looking for Master Haydam herself. Is that true?”

Shin merely offered a nod, an unreadable smile lingering on her face. Taking her gesture as an open invitation, Meursault leaned further across the table. “Might I ask what kind of relationship you share with Master Haydam?”

“What? The guest happens to be from Avan of all places—Love Area of all places, he says. Safe zones might not trade heavily with one another, but everyone still recognized the names of the other sectors. He was certainly not some middle-aged matchmaker eager to pair up every young couple he crossed paths with.

“Father.” I shot the Commander a look that clearly begged him to remove the man, and he nodded in understanding.

“I originally came from a different zone and met Luna Moon as well. It is not all that unusual.” Those two were simply impossible. Come to think of it, Meursault had spent his entire life pining for Daphne without ever sharing so much as a cup of tea with her, while the Commander—a married man—had continuously stressed the need to take responsibility for the woman Luna Moon left behind. They were quite the pair of legendary romantics, perhaps stemming from otome-game origins. Either way, they proved entirely useless in a conversation like this.

“We need to talk privately for a bit. Could both of you step outside?”

“No trouble at all.”

“Ah, our apologies. We were being quite tactless.” I was thoroughly convinced they were doing it on purpose.

“Just get lost already, Meursault.”

“Just in case, I will leave the door slightly open.”

“Is this guy out of his mind?” I flipped him the bird and shoved him out the door, immediately followed by a soft, delicate chuckle from Shin.

“What is so funny?”

“Nothing at all.” We spoke in Korean, and she replied in the same language. “I believe I may have misjudged you. I honestly thought you were a hopeless psychopath.”

What? Well, she certainly seemed to have believed that about me before. Voicing it out loud now suggested her perspective had shifted.

“I never expected you to address Commander Hayden as ‘Father’ with such ease. And it certainly does not look like you have poisoned Meursault either.” Her words lacked any mockery regarding playing house with non-player characters. Instead, she sounded genuinely relieved, as though she had stumbled upon a new possibility. “You never did any of that in the original route. Why keep them both alive?”

“Because I happen to need them.”

“When you require someone’s assistance, you do not inflict harm upon them. Is that your personal rule?” I had never really classified it as a rule, but because she asked with such earnest seriousness, I gave a brief nod.

“Yeah, something along those lines.”

“If that is true, then I do not need to fear you at the moment.” I still remained uncertain what she was getting at, but after observing my interactions with the Cola Area non-player characters, she had concluded I was not the monster she originally pictured. From what she witnessed with her own eyes, I was far from a total psychopath.

“Why would you even be afraid of me? I do not harm fellow players. I even sent your messenger back home alive.”

“That was simply because you needed to.” She left that subtle insight hanging in the air alongside a faint smile. “Honestly, when my messenger reported that you had already seized control of the military, I was genuinely terrified.”

“Seized control of the military? Did that Sunken Eyes guy actually say that?”

“Indeed. He claimed you were commanding the troops in the Commander’s stead, so I naturally assumed you had already eliminated both the Commander and Meursault. It appears my messenger misunderstood the situation.” Sunken Eyes must have exaggerated wildly upon returning to Love Area. It certainly justified scaring him the way I did.

“You are pretty much what I anticipated.” Her eyes widened in genuine surprise.

“Similar to what you expected? How exactly did you picture me?”

“Bold. Although I honestly did not think you would show up in person. But…” I rested my chin against the armrest. “Did your messenger fail to pass along anything else?”

“Anything else?”

“He really should have delivered a much more important detail.”

“Ah, that part. To be frank, I am still trying to figure out how to interpret it…” She lowered her gaze for a brief second before murmuring, “All-Zone Clearance Privilege…” She rolled the phrase around her mouth like a smooth pebble before looking back up at me. “Dopamine Addict. Is it actually true that you possess the ability to halt the Second Apocalypse?”

“Naturally, it is true.” I lied without a single muscle twitching in my face—and a completely different voice dug straight into my mind, belonging to someone other than Shin.

You truly have no conscience whatsoever. I stiffened for a split second before recognizing the tone as Luna’s.

You are capable of sending telepathic messages now? I tried broadcasting the thought back toward her, and fortunately, an answer echoed in my head.

It happens because other meteors are currently nearby.

Other meteors? You mean these earrings?

Yeah. The more meteor fragments gather in one place, the more of my true body’s power I am able to access.

Your true body’s power? That tiny, soft, fluffy, fist-sized body I had been dealing with hardly felt like a true form. No wonder she appeared far too young to have been born over a decade ago. So that shell was not her actual body after all. Her mental age matched that miniature size perfectly, though.

Do not think rude thoughts about me! I can hear everything passing through your mind right now! While Luna grumbled over our telepathic link, Shin simply stared at me, completely lost in thought. After maintaining a long silence, she finally spoke.

“You can actually stop the Second Apocalypse? Do not try to lie to me.”

This girl is not buying it at all? Well, had she believed me straight away, it would have been disappointing in its own right. She raised her gaze and continued in a quiet, steady tone.

“If collecting nine meteor items grants you the power to stop the Second Apocalypse… no matter how I look at it, an All-Zone Clearance Privilege cannot possibly be that vague. You must have received instructions that are far more specific.”

“Are you accusing me of lying about the privilege?”

You definitely lied, though… With Luna chiming in like the voice of my own conscience, I pushed forward. “Then tell me what you honestly believe an All-Zone Clearance Privilege entails.”

“At best, it is merely a title, or perhaps the permanent right to keep utilizing an item as it is.”

Sharp observation. I had to mentally agree that she was far sharper than anticipated. I had assumed she would simply doubt my claims, but I never expected her to leap right past skepticism and land squarely on the truth. At this tier of intelligence, I could safely entrust her with a single meteor item. As I had mentioned previously, I had zero intention of hoarding every single meteor piece myself. There was no point in growing overly greedy and turning myself into a primary target. I would only gather the rest once I dealt with that Unicorn Area player.

If I could sweet-talk her into peacefully handing over one of the meteor pieces she possessed, that would serve as the ideal outcome.

Gasp! How did you figure out that she is holding more than just the earrings? Can you sense them as well?

The fact that she asked whether I could sense them implied Luna possessed the ability to detect the presence of other meteors. She had just mentioned being able to transmit telepathic waves because other meteors were in close proximity, which explained how she knew about the extra item in the first place. I had used the plural form “meteors,” and even if the earrings constituted a pair, that phrasing pointed to more.

Meow! Right, I slipped up… Since Luna had so conveniently confirmed the existence of multiple items, Shin currently held at least two pieces. The Love Area earring set, and most likely the pistol she confiscated from Home Protector. It would be wise to relieve her of the earrings if the opportunity arose. Having made up my mind, I spoke aloud.

“Shin, you make a fair point. However, there is a crucial detail you are completely unaware of.”

“Something I do not know about?”

“In this realm, a literal God truly exists.”

What?

What? Luna, why are you acting so surprised right along with her?

I was merely wondering what ridiculous excuse you were going to pull out next… She flashed a mocking little smile. “Are you trying to recruit me back into some belief system while I am in the middle of a cult playthrough? You do not seriously expect me to fall for that, do you?”

Oh, what the heck. Luna started complaining as well. You claimed there was a real god, and I thought you were talking about something legitimate, but you are just running another scam?

“Shin.” I lowered my voice into a gentle tone. “Have you ever paused to consider the real reason why our consciousnesses were possessed into this world?”

She looked deeply suspicious of my underlying motives, but she answered anyway. “We got possessed right after stepping into the convenience store at the address you published online. You ended up possessed at a convenience store as well, didn’t you?”

“That merely describes the method of possession, not the underlying reason behind it.”

“Are you suggesting our possession served a completely different purpose?”

“Precisely. To put it more accurately, it had a distinct objective.”

“An objective…?” Even though she harbored deep distrust toward me, her curiosity was piqued. Her head tilted slightly in my direction. I offered a faint smile and kept going. “The purpose behind possessing us into this world was to stop the impending apocalypse threatening it.”

She let out a scoff. “Possessed just to stop an apocalypse? Anyone could make up a claim like that.”

I pressed onward, regardless of whether she mocked my words. “A player of your caliber should already realize that this world is much more than a simple game.”

“…Naturally, I know it is not just a basic game.” When I framed my argument by acknowledging her high skill level, she accepted it without resistance, though she still refused to swallow the notion of a divine creator.

“Even so, that does not prove that any god actually exists.”

“Why do you suppose we were not simply possessed immediately—why do you think we were forced to clear those identical Safe Zones for years first?” Her eyes wavered for a split second, revealing she had never considered the matter from that angle. “It served as training to prepare us for saving this world from its ultimate destruction. Because the god governing this realm required veteran players who…”

Needed veteran players?

“Indeed. And among all of them, I—the ultimate all-zone clearer—was granted the specific power to bring the apocalypse to an end.”

I know it sounds like pure nonsense, but somehow it carries a plausible ring to it. I suppose that counts as a talent of its own.

Shin remained quiet for a brief moment before responding with that same tight smile. “It sounds convincing, but I still cannot bring myself to believe that a god possessed me simply because it needed me. As long as you remain completely in the dark about the true nature of my possession, I refuse to acknowledge any god either. Too bad.”

She claimed she could not trust me, yet her smile looked significantly more strained than before. It was time to drive the final wedge into her defenses. I opened my mouth once more.

“You deliberately chose to enter the Love Area, didn’t you? Fully aware of what would happen when you got possessed.”

Her eyes flew wide open as she stared straight at me in absolute shock.