Chapter 94

Chapter 94
My room. Now.
The moment I returned to the Commander’s residence, I sent that message and summoned ShutInHoney directly to my quarters.
The individuals who passed the entrance exam had already journeyed up to the central district to gear up for their enrollment, meaning ShutInHoney was currently sharing living quarters with Taejeong right here. Thanks to the system interface I had unlocked, we had been exchanging casual banter via chat the entire time, but Daphne was a topic that demanded a face-to-face conversation.
It did not take long. True to form, ShutInHoney forced the door open without bothering to knock and strode right in. The very second his eyes locked onto me sitting on the edge of the bed, he blurted out straight to the point:
“You call me here because Daphne died?”
So word had already reached him. It was practically impossible to avoid hearing about it while residing in the Commander’s headquarters. With him already aware of her passing, getting the conversation rolling would prove significantly simpler.
I was still debating how best to break the news that the deceased Daphne was almost certainly his older sister when the boy pinned me with those innocent, wide-eyed stares and piped up cheerfully:
“DopamineAddict. Did you poison her?”
“As if.”
Probably because the Cola Area strategy guide I had published on the community forum kicked off with the elimination of Meursault and Daphne, he immediately jumped to the conclusion that I was responsible for her abrupt demise. I put a stop to that accusation right away.
“I have no motive to kill her now. You do remember she is a player and not an NPC, correct?”
“Of course I do. But you would still eliminate a player if they stood in your way.”
Shin Eun-jo harbored that exact same suspicion… Why does everyone automatically assume I will turn against fellow players?
The single player I had ever PK’d was Anjeon8yeok, and even that unfortunate incident had been completely unintentional. For the record, the scenario I envision involves overwhelming authority that compels people to bend the knee. This is not some battle royale event that only terminates when a solitary player remains standing. I still do not even fully understand how the logout mechanic functions—wiping out every other player and leaving only NPCs behind in this world would simply become dull.
Regardless.
“I asked you here because I need to inquire about Daphne.”
“…Me?”
ShutInHoney looked genuinely stunned that the questions were being directed at him.
“I have not even crossed paths with Daphne since I inhabited this physical vessel.”
“That otome game Daphne possessed. You mentioned your sister played it too, did you not?”
“We are suddenly pivoting to my sister?”
He tilted his head in confusion at the abrupt leap from Daphne to his sibling, but he answered willingly enough.
“Naturally she did. She was the one who dragged me into playing it.”
“Do you happen to recall the handle she utilized within that otome game?”
“My sister’s username?”
He stared at me as though I had lost my sanity.
“I remember it, but that is a remarkably random inquiry.”
All Meursault had shared with me was that Daphne’s player was originally a medical doctor burdened by a sickly younger brother. The possibility that she was actually ShutInHoney’s sibling remained merely a theory. Before I informed him that the woman who had logged out following her death was likely his kin, I required definitive verification that they were the exact same individual.
Fortunately, since he claimed to recall the designation, this would not take long.
“Just give me the username. Afterward, I will clarify why I am asking something so arbitrary.”
“Unbelievable…”
He furrowed his brow for a brief moment before smoothing it back out.
“My sister’s absolute favorite character was Meursault. So it was likely Meursault’s Wife… or Meursault’s Wife. Something along those lines.”
The exact same person.
Verification accomplished. He could not quite settle between “Wife” and a cruder variant of the term, but there was zero statistical chance that two distinct players would both adopt a Meursault-wife handle while simultaneously matching the precise real-life parameters belonging to ShutInHoney’s sister.
“All right… try not to freak out.”
“What on earth are you about to tell me?”
“Daphne did not actually die. She logged out.”
“Did not die—she logged out?”
A fleeting flash of shock washed over his face before settling into an expression of mild boredom.
” Fascinating, sure, but is that genuinely something that requires a ‘do not freak out’ advisory?”
“The complication is that Daphne’s player status window explicitly displayed the name Meursault’s Wife.”
His head canted slightly to the side, as if struggling to process the statement I had just delivered. I waited patiently until comprehension finally dawned upon him.
Eventually, he straightened his posture and stared directly at me.
“What… does that signify?”
He was not genuinely confused by the vocabulary itself. By this stage, he fully understood why I had brought up Daphne and immediately pivoted to asking about his sister—it was to convey that the player occupying Daphne’s body had indeed been his sister. Yet regardless of how meticulously one prepares for such news, discovering that an NPC you once knew was actually blood-related family is difficult to digest on the spot.
I had experienced that exact sensation when I first discovered Luna Moon might well be my mother.
“If you refuse to take my word for it, go question Shin Eun-jo. Aside from myself, she is the sole person who laid eyes on Daphne’s status screen.”
“Am I interpreting this correctly? You are seriously telling me that Daphne’s player was my sister?”
“Yes.”
ShutInHoney gazed blankly back at me with a completely blank expression.
“Why did you withhold this information until right now?”
“Because I only discovered today that she happened to be your sister.”
“No—if you had simply shared her username earlier, I would have recognized it! Who Daphne truly was! Why only after she is already dead…”
The disorientation etched across his face rapidly curdled into deep suspicion.
“You are… not fabricating this, are you?”
“Pardon me?”
“All you ever do is deceive people!”
“What precise advantage do I gain by lying that Daphne is your sister?”
“Not that! You already knew beforehand, did you not? You were aware she was my sister and simply chose not to tell me!”
To be completely fair, even if I had possessed that knowledge earlier, I likely would not have disclosed it. Daphne had already spent over a decade trapped within this zone; if she and ShutInHoney began conspiring together, my own standing could become perilous. He understood my character well enough that his distrust was hardly unreasonable.
Yet on this occasion, I genuinely had been oblivious. I had not been concealing anything. And had I learned Daphne’s true identity even after ShutInHoney threw himself in front of Shin Eun-jo’s firearm, I would not have kept quiet then either.
“I honestly had no idea.”
“You only find out after she passes away? That makes zero logical sense.”
“Right before she perished, she left something resembling a final testament with Meursault.”
“A will?”
” Stating that she had formerly been a medical doctor, and that she possessed a frail younger brother.”
I appended one final detail.
“And that she would undoubtedly return.”
Those words come back caused his gaze to waver for an instant.
“Return? What is that supposed to mean? No—before we get to that. How do you even know she logged out?”
“It requires a lengthy explanation, but it is entirely plausible. If your avatar perishes here, the statistical probability is high that you log out… that you return to reality.”
“Daphne being my sister is already completely unhinged, and now you expect me to believe dying transported her back to the physical world?”
Every conceivable emotion raced across his features before settling into stark, unadulterated mistrust.
“…I simply cannot believe you.”
“For what reason?”
“After everything I have witnessed coming from you? How am I supposed to place my trust in you! From the very first day we crossed paths, you lied and claimed you were Tvalom!”
True. I certainly had done that.
So this is what the boy who cried wolf ultimately experiences.
I could not entirely fault him for reacting this way. Discovering that a family member had been right beside you all along only after their death would make anyone suspicious of the messenger. Furthermore, the logout hypothesis was merely a deduction—I had not witnessed the event firsthand.
Nevertheless, there was one specific matter I could not simply let slide.
“However… you have been keeping secrets from me as well, have you not?”
“What? Me?”
“When I plummeted down into the crevasse.”
That struck a sensitive nerve. He visibly flinched and snapped his mouth shut.
“Dispatching the rescue squad into that cavern was not your original concept. For what reason did you conceal the note you received?”
He remained silent for a brief second before demanding,
“…How did you discover that I received a note?”
This stubborn little brat. He had not merely forgotten to mention it—he had actively hidden the evidence.
“Why did you keep it a secret? Even someone like you should have realized that a note dropping out of thin air when you lack a status window was inherently suspicious. Why conceal it? No—why lie and claim you sent the rescue team because it was a cave you were already familiar with?”
“Because I realized it did not originate from you.”
“Pardon?”
“It was not from you, DopamineAddict. It came from that impostor player stationed in the Unicorn Area. I figured that out entirely on my own, which is why I chose not to inform you.”
Not only had he recognized that the message was not from me—he had deduced precisely who transmitted it. Completely unexpected.
“You constantly refer to me as ‘Assa’ and call Taejeong by his actual given name. But that note displayed our full usernames—ShutInHoney, Taejeong, TaeSeBeyoncé. Thus, I deduced it was that individual. He is the sole person who inspected our status windows and departed.”
“Hold on a moment. So you understood the note originated from the Unicorn Area player and you still proceeded to send a rescue team?”
“That scoundrel stated that even if he desired my death, he had zero intention of inflicting harm upon you. Therefore, I simply… felt as though you might genuinely be in peril, and dispatched them. The sole reason I withheld this from you was……”
He mumbled and fidgeted uncomfortably, acutely aware of his own culpability, before trailing off into a voice quieter than an insect.
“…because I figured I would get chewed out.”
“Are you genuinely a third-grade student?”
“If I admitted that I sent a rescue squad because I trusted the impostor, you would have ripped me a brand new one!!”
He was hardly incorrect, leaving me with zero arguments in response.
“So what became of my sister? You claim she went back to reality—is there any method to verify that she is actually safe?”
“You told me yourself. Your sister abruptly quit practicing medicine and took a job at Salvation Project.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“She went back and aligned herself with that corporation. To construct the Safety Zones.”
For a fleeting second, ShutInHoney looked as though he had been struck directly with a sledgehammer.
“That is……”
He forced the words past his lips.
“That is merely your assumption… The reality could differ entirely from what you imagine.”
He voiced the objection, but the heavy distrust etched upon his face had already dissipated significantly compared to moments prior.
What he required was a slightly greater degree of certainty.
Consequently, I made the choice to inform him regarding my mother right here and now. I had no inkling how he would digest the revelation that she was the architect behind this entire game… but if I remained silent and another party exposed it later down the line, he would never place his trust in me again.
This was the definitive moment to speak up.
“The last time we spoke, I mentioned that my family also happens to be employed by that exact same company. Salvation Project.”
“Yeah. What, is your family Luna Moon or something?”
Huh. Far sharper than I anticipated.
“…Why that particular expression?”
Apparently he had merely tossed the guess out as a sarcastic joke. His expression darkened into a frown before going completely slack with sudden realization.
“For real? Luna Moon is actually your family member?”
“Yes. Exactly like your sister—she perished within the game world, returned to reality, and established a corporation known as Salvation Project.”
“”Established’ Salvation Project?”
“That is precisely why I believe your sister made the journey back as well. She was utterly obsessed with building the game, almost as if she were possessed.”
“Wait—so your sister engineered the Safety Zone series?”
“Not my sister. My mother.”
“What? M-Mom?”
He rattled violently like machinery that had just taken a heavy kick.
Yeah, discovering that the NPC I had been treating as a mother figure was actually my biological parent in the real world was bound to be quite the psychological blow…
“S-So your mother played… the otome game…? And selected the handle Luna Moon…?”
That was the detail that completely broke his brain?
…Why am I the one feeling mortified right now?