Chapter 90

Chapter 90
My feelings toward the man called Father were never particularly positive. Apart from showing simple indifference toward me, he struck me as someone utterly incapable of grasping my thoughts or emotions. Consider how, when I inquired about the whereabouts of my actual father, he merely laughed and asserted that no other father existed. If his own child had posed such a question, he should have at least pondered why the boy believed he was not his true parent. Even I, who pay so little attention to other people, would have recognized that something was amiss if a young son asked me a question like that. Yet that man simply chuckled, acting as though he had heard something amusing. In short, he was someone who had crucial elements missing from his personality. Consequently, when people suggested I came across as a sociopath, I felt entirely wronged. I was merely behaving the way I had learned by watching him grow up. How was someone raised by such a person supposed to figure out which actions in a given situation would prevent him from being viewed as strange? Even my mother never offered me anything beyond that bizarre refrain about how parents and children are instinctively programmed to experience grief if the other is unhappy.

That said, do I resent him as much as I resent my mother? Not really. It is not that I harbor less resentment toward him because he looked after me in Mother’s place. Rather, I simply do not care for that man very much. I do not believe he is my real father, and that is the only reason I hold no resentment toward him. Hence, I assumed he would not care much for me either, and since I was not his biological child, he would not have minded even if I had acquired this cursed game and vanished entirely.

You are telling me that Father is the person who caused me to enter this game? I asked, but Ttopamine Addict merely fixed a terrifying look upon me, filled with calculation, suspicion, and fear. Finally, he parted his lips to speak. You did not know everything after all.

What did he mean by saying I did not know everything? You talk as if you possess complete knowledge yourself. Have you ever considered that you might be mistaken?

How did you manage the Additional Opening?

I do not know either!

Instead of addressing my inquiries, he countered with a question of his own, causing my voice to rise in irritation. What do you mean it was Father, not Mother?

He merely stared right through me without offering a reply, as though he were measuring how much information he could safely disclose. Very well, then. I have already verified things with other players. Everyone I questioned had ties to Mother, and not a single player ever mentioned Father. Are you still going to claim it was not Mother?

So you are still at that stage.

What?

He forced his mouth open and muttered a brief sentence. It would not have been all of them.

What?

The players. The ones who claimed to know about Mother, there is no way that encompassed every single one of them. Think carefully. You definitely heard something regarding Father, otherwise you never could have executed the Additional Opening.

I had heard something about Father, had I? I retraced the events of the journey so far. Who had ever mentioned my father to me, and when? This location, the Cola Area, was saturated with Mother’s presence. So why suddenly bring up Father? Frankly, whether Father or Mother was the one who pulled me into the game did not truly matter, and I had no complaints about the possession itself. However, if Father was genuinely involved, what on earth was the meaning behind Mother’s grave that I had excavated, or that portrait I had confronted at a critical juncture? No matter how hard I racked my brain, nothing came to mind regarding Father. At best, Luna asking whether I wanted to see my real-world father was about the extent of it.

He maintained that not every player was connected to Mother, yet all the information I gathered from other players consisted of RoomCorner Darling’s older sister working at the Salvation Project, Tibalom initiating the game on my mother’s recommendation, and what I learned from Shin Eun-jo. I halted my train of thought right there.

The Cthulhu Games representative…

Just a single individual. Someone who stated they had encountered someone other than my mother. Shin Eun-jo. The person Shin Eun-jo met was not my mother, but the representative of Cthulhu Games. Upon hearing that account, I had assumed that the root of all this lay not with my mother, but with the Cthulhu Games representative. Even if Mother had been the one who deposited us into the Safe Zone, the entity who placed Mother into that otome game must have been that very person. Immediately following that conversation, the Additional Opening had activated for reasons beyond my understanding. Strangely enough, after that moment, I had stopped reflecting deeply on the Cthulhu Games representative altogether.

Why? Looking back, Shin Eun-jo had also shouted that she had been unable to recall the corporate name Cthulhu Games until that exact moment. I thought I grasped the significance of that. As the Cthulhu Games representative returned to my thoughts, that conversation with Shin Eun-jo rushed back vividly, though up until now it had remained a hazy memory.

The representative of Cthulhu Games…

I had assumed that person could not be entirely unrelated to my mother, otherwise Mother would never have been able to design a game modeled after it. Yet the notion that the company representative might actually be my father was something I had never entertained. After all, the father lingering in my memories perpetually wore an apron and prepared meals; he never resembled someone who commuted to an office.

That person is Father?

The instant those words left my mouth, a crackling noise erupted from behind me. I spun around in alarm. A geometric pattern flickered and thrashed while golden electrical arcs danced across the design, illuminating the entire cavern.

What on earth?!

As I staggered backward in a panic, a firm grip jerked me backward. Ttopamine Addict had pulled me behind him. However, the glowing threads thrashing through the air like countless tentacles, as though something was about to burst through, flickered erratically before fading into a weak nothingness. Only after the pattern fell completely dormant did I hear Ttopamine Addict murmur softly to himself.

It is a good thing I erased it beforehand.

I glanced up at him. When I had first stumbled upon that pattern, I noticed signs of deliberate tampering in certain spots. So this guy was the one who had cleared them away? Was this area hazardous because of that pattern? What exactly was that design, and what had nearly transpired just moments ago?

Instead of providing an explanation about the pattern, he turned to me with these words: This place is dangerous, so turn back now. And never come back here again.

That was far from the answer I sought. Answer my question.

Ttopamine Addict reflexively began to frown, then caught himself realizing he was staring at his own face, wearing an expression of resignation. Knowing me as well as he did, he understood my stubbornness. He knew that without a proper explanation, I would refuse to leave quietly.

Do you even require my answer? You already appear convinced.

Suppose I am correct about the Cthulhu representative. What about Mother, then? Why did she establish the Safe Zone?

This time, he glared at me with furrowed brows. I understand because I am you as well. He peeled my hand away from his collar as he spoke. What we have already discussed is sufficient. You can deduce how it unfolded.

Deduce what? Did you not just claim my assumption was erroneous?

I deliberately provoked him, but rather than taking the bait, he replied in an icy tone. Why Mother had to construct the Safe Zone. Why our designation is Lee Dam. You are aware of the truth now, are you not?

In truth, he was right. I knew now as well. Why Mother had forged the Safe Zone. Why my name was Lee Dam. Assuming Mother built the Safe Zone following her return from the otome game realm to reality, I had already pieced it together back then. Mother had wished to retrieve the child she lost in that alternate world. Consequently, she named the child she bore in reality Lee Dam, but that measure alone proved insufficient. She engineered a game called the Safe Zone that served as an exact duplicate of that universe, intending to re-enter it through possession. Perhaps even her disappearance before my eyes occurred because she had possessed the game. Yet how was I expected to accept that? Was I supposed to swallow the fact that I served merely as a replacement for the child she lost within a game?

Furthermore…

If my reasoning holds true, the inescapable conclusion is that Mother remains the one who orchestrated our possession of the game.

Think about it again. Ttopamine Addict spoke in a gentle tone. If it were Mother, why would she schedule the possession point ten years later? If her goal was to return to that other realm, why would she need to possess so many individuals? And why drag even me, the child she abandoned, into the process?

He had a point. I had become so worked up that I had overlooked several crucial facts. At the time of my possession, Luna Moon had already been deceased for a decade. If Mother had designed the game to return to that alternate reality, there was no way to account for why the narrative commenced after both Luna Moon and Haydam had perished. Even if she knew the true Haydam resided within the ring and sought to possess it to awaken him, a ten-year delay made no sense. There was no logistical reason to possess subjects that late. Moreover, the possessed players inhabited ten-year-old bodies, introducing far too many superfluous variables for this to be a simple quest to return to another world.

And what on earth was the deal with that convenience store? Would my mother truly have had any reason to set up such an establishment and undergo possession alongside random players merely to get back to another world? And would the mother who emphasized until the moment she vanished that I needed to be happy simply leave my possession unattended?

You are right about that as well. When I grudgingly conceded the premise that Mother could not have been the one to possess us, he whispered softly. Do not doubt Mother. She is far more pitiful than you realize.

Indeed, she probably was. If a child she named Lee Dam dug up her resting place, played at being her son, and subsequently named her actual son Luna, how could she fail to be a tragic figure?

He cast a final glance toward the pattern before speaking. As you witnessed for yourself, this location is genuinely hazardous. Return home now.

Still he refused to explain what that earlier entity had been. Did this guy labor under some form of restriction as well? Not that I intended to swallow every word this scoundrel uttered in any case. I now believed he was indeed me, having provided sufficient proof. Ultimately, however, I could not trust myself. If the situation were reversed, I would treat even my own duplicate as a rival. Even if everything he had stated so far was absolute truth, he had a hidden motive for sharing those details. As long as we remained separate entities, we were distinct players, regardless of sharing the same identity.

I studied him for a moment before speaking. Very well. I will head back.

When I agreed to leave without a fight, a look of surprise crossed his face. On one condition.

Only after I appended that caveat did he wear an expression that clearly said he had expected as much. If it is something within my power to grant.

Naturally, you would agree if it falls within your capabilities, correct? I extended my hand toward him. Just hand me a single hoverboard.

What?

I intend to ride it back, so provide me with a hoverboard. You have a few more stashed away in your inventory, do you not? If you are me, what is yours is mine, and what is mine is mine, isn’t that right?

Ttopamine Addict wore a look suggesting this arrangement was far from fair, but he obediently retrieved a hoverboard from his inventory and passed it over. Whatever secrets this fellow was withholding, I intended to secure what resources I could before taking my leave.