Chapter 96

Chapter 96
Before I could even comprehend what a first playthrough highlight video was meant to represent, the playback commenced.

The screen initially displayed a convenience store, and based on the camera angle, the footage appeared to originate from security cameras. Unmistakably, the establishment in view was identical to the location where we had all been transported—the very venue we had mistakenly believed to be a cooperative Safe Zone convenience store.

Could it really be…

My suspicion proved accurate. Moments later, an individual dressed in a recognizable tracksuit walked through the entrance. There was no room for doubt; it was me, Dopamine Addict.

“What on earth is this…”

My gaze remained glued to the screen. Inside, Dopamine Addict inspected the merchandise shelves, captured a photograph, and tapped away on his mobile device for an extended period. Having performed those exact actions myself, I understood precisely what he was doing: publishing a post about the convenience store on the Safe Zone community board.

Observing it now, he genuinely resembled a community-obsessed regular.

Eventually, he lifted his gaze from the device and began wandering down the aisles to select various items. Completely bypassing the refrigerator containing bottled cola, he reached toward the back of the shop and pulled a unicorn plush toy from the shelves.

Since I had never approached that unicorn plush during my own visit, the implications of a first playthrough highlight video became instantly clear.

The Dopamine Addict featured in this recording was not me.

If my deduction held true, this was footage depicting the version of me who had selected the unicorn plush at that specific store—Ttopamine Addict—prior to his own transit into this reality.

Clutching the plush, he trudged toward the store clerk. However, the employee’s appearance differed entirely from my recollection. While the person who had struck me over the crown with a barcode scanner was undoubtedly male, the figure stationed behind the security monitor counter was a woman sporting short dark hair. Furthermore, she never swung any scanning device at Dopamine Addict’s head. Following his payment, rather than losing consciousness from physical trauma, he merely shuffled toward the exit.

Why was I the sole person subjected to a barcode scanner strike…

At the doorway, he grasped the handle, paused for a fraction of a second, glanced backward, and vanished from the picture entirely.

So that explains how everyone else crossed over?

I remained utterly clueless as to why I alone had been targeted by the store employee’s hostility. Then, the display flickered, revealing a sleeping white-haired boy. That countenance, too, was intimately familiar to me.

My primary custom avatar…

All doubts evaporated. This was Ttopamine Addict and his corresponding playthrough record.

The helpful designation labeling it as an initial playthrough indicated that the scoundrel was not a simulated time-looping anomaly like myself, but had genuinely cycled through reality multiple times.

Shortly afterward, Ttopamine Addict woke up within the frame, his expression radiating the unadulterated, intoxicating euphoria of realizing he had been cast into a video game setting.

It felt somewhat akin to being forced to undergo mirror therapy.

From that point onward, true to the designation of a highlight compilation, the footage transitioned directly into a sequence of Ttopamine Addict’s greatest achievements. His younger incarnation matured into adulthood in an instant, and this mature version swept through subsequent zones with the casual ease of rolling a sweet treat across one’s tongue—total, effortless domination.

The peculiar circumstance was that, throughout his conquest of region after region, none of the familiar players crossed my path. Had entirely different individuals been transported during the inaugural run? Or had they simply inhabited alternative custom avatars?

As these inquiries spun through my mind, the display crackled with electronic noise before locking onto the face of Ttopamine Addict. Textual characters began emerging over the visual, coalescing into coherent statements.

SYSTEM MESSAGE
Congratulations! You have survived this world. Player Dopamine Addict—as a reward for entertaining me, I shall grant you one wish.

Ttopamine Addict stared blankly at the floating typography before tilting his head slightly.

“A wish?”

His tone emerged parched and gravelly, prompting the overhead text to rearrange itself.

SYSTEM MESSAGE

“Whatever I desire…”

“….”

Indeed! A wish! Whatever your heart desires!

OFFERING
Shall I bring the dead back to life? Or send you home to reality? Or wipe all of this away as if it never happened? Come now—tell me what you want!

Ttopamine Addict parted his lips with an expression completely devoid of emotion.

“I want a bigger thrill.”

SYSTEM MESSAGE
Excuse me?

“I won too easily. I should have taken my time and enjoyed it more.”

SYSTEM MESSAGE
What on earth…

“I want to play this game one more time.”

SYSTEM MESSAGE
Play this game… one more time?

“And this time, transmigrate other players too—not just me. That’ll be more fun.”

The hovering characters flickered as though gripped by panic, and only after a brief pause did a fresh sentence materialize.

“Yeah.”

CONFIRMATION
Are you truly going to spend your wish on that? A chance to save someone—a chance to undo everything—a chance to erase the beginning of every tragedy—and you would use it for this?

Ttopamine Addict continued in a subdued tone.

“I just want to keep playing this game until I’m satisfied.”

The letters suspended in the air shuddered with rapid, minute vibrations, closely mimicking the cadence of silent laughter.

TITLE GRANTED
It seems I ought to bestow a new title upon you: Dopamine Addict.

“I don’t need a title. Nowhere to use it.”

CURSE OF ENNUI
Don’t worry. From the next run onward, I’ll make sure it’s useful. Then… my precious player, cursed with boredom. May the next game, at last, be enough to satisfy you.

Accompanied by a gentle popping sound, the display faded to absolute darkness.

“…What on earth did I just witness.”

This development felt somewhat excessive. I calmly initiated a replay, skipping straight to the final sequence.

I want a bigger thrill.
I won too easily. I should have taken my time and enjoyed it more.
I want to play this game one more time.
And this time, transmigrate other players too—not just me. That’ll be more fun.
I just want to keep playing this game until I’m satisfied.

No matter how many times I reviewed the sequence, the reality remained unaltered. I buried my face straight into the mattress.

It was me.
The individual responsible for dragging the other participants into this ordeal. Neither Mother nor Father. Me. It genuinely was me!

Not for a single second could I convince myself that this video was fabricated.

Every single remark uttered by Dopamine Addict on screen mirrored thoughts I could easily formulate myself, reflections I might harbor, and wishes I might articulate.

“No.”

I abruptly jerked my head upward from the bedding and assumed an upright posture. The person who formulated that specific wish was Ttopamine Addict—the participant of the initial playthrough. Not me. I had opted for the cola instead. My existence remained entirely distinct from that of Ttopamine Addict.

Thus, after formulating such a wish during his preceding loop, he tracked me down merely to utter all that nonsense?

Trusting anything Ttopamine Addict had ever communicated to me was no longer possible. How could I believe an individual who made such a wish when he claimed Father was the mastermind behind our transmigration?

No—very well. Someone else must have engineered the original transfer of the first Dopamine Addict. Whether that entity truly was Father… I could no longer accept on blind faith.

If Mother had been responsible, why establish the arrival point ten years later? If her goal was returning to this alternate realm, why drag such a massive multitude along? And why pull me into it—the child she previously abandoned?

True… upon reflection, his statements regarding Mother contained no falsehoods. The necessity of transporting a multitude stemmed from his actions rather than hers, ensuring his absolute certainty that Mother was uninvolved.

Yet a singular detail continued to defy logic.

The wish made by Ttopamine Addict involved transporting other players. That desire failed to account for my personal existence.

The initial-playthrough Dopamine Addict’s wish had excluded himself from being brought back in that manner. Yet Ttopamine Addict had gone out of his way to journey directly to the Cola Area merely to verify whether I was developing properly. Locating me implied he already possessed prior awareness of my existence.

This left a single viable hypothesis.

The process involved more than just a singular initial run. A second playthrough—or potentially even more iterations—might have occurred.

During a subsequent run, Dopamine Addict would have presumably crushed his fellow players once more, survived, and formulated an alternative wish. On that occasion: I want to fight myself.

Since he was me and I was him, the conclusion was obvious. If the second cycle still failed to provide adequate entertainment, that represented the precise wish I would have generated.

With that hypothesis in place, numerous inconsistencies fell neatly into alignment—explaining why he and I coexisted simultaneously, why his ranking surpassed mine despite my inherited all-zone conqueror privilege, and related matters. This included the realization that the malicious game developer had not delivered this recording out of pure goodwill.

The footage of the first playthrough had been transmitted intentionally.

Had his sole intention been warning me about Ttopamine Addict, he could have provided records of every loop up to the present. Instead, the developer supplied only the inaugural cycle, strategically staging the wish responsible for mass player migration at the most theatrical juncture of the reel.

The timing of this recording’s arrival coincided precisely with the recent secondary unlocks. Just as I believed I was unravelling the core mysteries of the apocalypse, was he attempting to demonstrate that the entire catastrophe was a disaster of my own creation?

This sensation felt remarkably familiar…

Whoever monitored our actions was unquestionably a spectator overflowing with malice. This absurd highlight compilation, alongside every other provocation dangled before me, indicated that someone was deliberately observing my reactions. The ridiculous designation itself—Dopamine Addict’s First Playthrough Highlight Video—served as definitive proof. Only an individual fanatical enough to record, trim, and compile solely the most compelling segments would do such a thing.

The game developer was treating me—treating all of us—as mere entertainment content.

Periods of creative drought had occurred in my past where content was scarce. However, serving as someone else’s source of entertainment was entirely unprecedented.

He likely anticipated watching me panic upon discovering that the convenience store was not the catalyst for mass transportation—that I was the culprit. Nevertheless, the developer overlooked a crucial detail.

Even if I proved to be the person responsible for projecting other players into this universe… so what? My constitution was not so fragile as to collapse in shock or drown in overwhelming guilt. Exhibiting this footage would fail to elicit his desired reaction. At most, it merely left me mildly preoccupied regarding what wish to request if the final surviving participant genuinely secured a granted desire.

Subsequently, additional notifications materialized in rapid succession.

NEW VIDEO
Dentist – Candy Zone Clear Highlights (NEW!)

NEW VIDEO
Home Protector – Tobacco Zone Clear Highlights (NEW!)

NEW VIDEO
Ssapasuble – Beer Area Clear Highlights (NEW!)

NEW VIDEO
IWontCryItsJustCardio – Chicken Area Clear Highlights (NEW!)

NEW VIDEO
Druggy – Cocaine Area Clear Highlights (NEW!)

NEW VIDEO
T-balnom – Knife Zone Clear Highlights (NEW!)

NEW VIDEO
Shin – Love Area Clear Highlights (NEW!)

The sequence felt almost like a test to see whether witnessing all of this would leave me entirely unfazed.

Newcomers!

Without a moment of hesitation, I activated the playback for the Dentist’s Candy Zone clear highlights.