A Veteran Player is Needed in the Apocalypse

Chapter 34. Why Are You the Dopamine Addict?

With his shaggy white hair and dead fish-like eyes, his pale complexion matching the white coat he wore, anyone familiar with my AI after the Second Apocalypse would immediately recognize this face.

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

BangguseokYeoBo, with a bright smile as if he’d just met a celebrity, took a step closer to the hoverboard. But both Taejong and I instinctively stepped back, knowing full well that he was not the real ‘Dopamine Addict.’

“Don’t get too close,” I warned, making BangguseokYeoBo turn around, puzzled.

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

He still believed I was a follower of Dopamine Addict. Keeping my eyes fixed on the man in front of us, I replied, “That’s not Dopamine Addict.”

“I’m not Dopamine Addict?”

It wasn’t BangguseokYeoBo who answered, but the man himself.

He laughed aloud before slowly lowering the hoverboard.

“If I’m not the real Dopamine Addict, you could always check with a ‘viewing,’ couldn’t you?”

Viewing.

Right. By using ‘Character Viewing,’ I could immediately see his real name and information.

But I hesitated.

As he descended to the ground and stepped off the hoverboard, he looked even more like the custom character settings I often used.

While it wasn’t impossible for custom character settings to overlap… the fact that someone with those settings ended up in the Unicorn Zone was unsettling enough.

‘He looks like an adult…’

All of us had been reincarnated into this world as ten-year-olds, with no exceptions.

But he had the appearance of a fully-grown man in his twenties.

Given that he knew about ‘viewing,’ it was clear he was the Unicorn Zone player, but why was he the only one who had been reincarnated as an adult?

“Hey, do you recognize me?” BangguseokYeoBo, who couldn’t hold back, spoke up again.

The man briefly looked BangguseokYeoBo up and down.

“BangguseokYeoBo?”

“You do recognize me?!”

“Hmm… I think I remember a player with that nickname.”

“Quit pretending like you don’t know me!”

It seemed the man had used Character Viewing to read BangguseokYeoBo’s nickname.

But BangguseokYeoBo, delighted that ‘Dopamine Addict’ recognized him, smiled widely.

“He’s really Dopamine Addict. So why are you guys still pointing your guns at him?”

“……”

BangguseokYeoBo’s head was clearly full of flowers.

Taejong and I kept our guns aimed at the man, while Meursault, looking completely lost but following my lead, also raised his gun.

Meursault, tense, asked me, “Sir Hayden, do you know him?”

“I know him… or I don’t.”

“What kind of irresponsible answer is that…”

Although we had our guns trained on him, we couldn’t shoot first since we didn’t know his intentions.

If he really was from the Unicorn Zone, our outdated weapons wouldn’t even scratch him.

Even with three guns aimed at him, he just smirked.

BangguseokYeoBo, after a long pause, suddenly asked the man, “Hey, why are you in adult form? We all started as ten-year-olds.”

Now you’re curious about that?

The man glanced at BangguseokYeoBo and said, “…A bit too dumb to be a partner, don’t you think?”

“What did you say?!”

“Are you going to use Viewing, or are you scared?” The man ignored BangguseokYeoBo’s outburst and looked at me as he spoke.

I shook my head slightly. “I’m not scared. I just don’t want to act according to your plan.”

“I’m not here to hurt you. At least, not right now.”

“Sure, as if I’d believe that.”

I wasn’t naive enough to believe he wasn’t here to harm me. But I couldn’t quite figure out why I was hesitating to view his information.

So, I slowly activated the Character Viewing on him.

And what appeared before my eyes was:

**[Name: Dopamine Addict
Title: Dopamine Addict
Zone: Unicorn
Relationship: Friendly towards you.]**

“……”

As expected, he was from the Unicorn Zone.

‘This guy… his name is really Dopamine Addict.’

But what caught my attention even more than his name was something else:

**[Title: Dopamine Addict]**

‘His title… is also Dopamine Addict?’

This was a title I had never seen before.

Even though I had acquired almost every title available in the Safe Zone.

“What do you think?” The man, realizing I was viewing his information, grinned and asked, “Do you believe me now?”

“How did you do it?”

“How did I do what?”

“How are you the ‘Dopamine Addict’?”

“It’s too soon to tell you that.”

‘Too soon?’

That sounded like there was a ‘time’ when he could explain it.

And he didn’t stop there.

“Why are you hanging out with Meursault? If I were starting in the Cola Zone, I’d have poisoned him and begun there.”

‘*I* would?’

This guy… he’s talking as if he’s me.

‘Who is this guy really?’

Is he some lunatic overly immersed in his role-playing as Dopamine Addict? Or…

“Hey!” BangguseokYeoBo, who couldn’t stand being ignored, stepped in between us.

“Are you two going to keep talking without me? How are you in adult form?”

“……”

The man and I sighed simultaneously.

Then the man muttered, “What a nuisance.”

Seeing him reach into his coat, I fired my gun without hesitation.

Bang! Bang bang!

The two following shots came from Taejong and Meursault, who fired in response to my lead.

BangguseokYeoBo jumped and grabbed my arm.

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

“If I hadn’t shot, you would’ve been the one getting hit.”

BangguseokYeoBo, shocked, looked over at the man.

Despite being hit by three shots, he was completely unscathed.

As expected of a Unicorn Zone player, he was probably shielded by some electromagnetic barrier.

In his hand was a gun. If I hadn’t shot first, he would have shot BangguseokYeoBo. His aim must have been thrown off by my shot, which was why he didn’t fire.

‘So he really didn’t intend to harm me…’

He hesitated when his aim wavered. Judging by how he glanced at me right after, he probably held back to avoid accidentally hitting me.

Meursault, seeing that the man was unharmed, asked me again, “What should we do?”

“Don’t shoot.”

After ordering them to hold fire, I turned back to the man.

He stood there with a gun in one hand, sticking his fingers through the two bullet holes in his white coat and grinning.

“What’s so funny?”

“The gun fired three times, but there are only two holes.”

“……”

It was Taejong whose face turned red.

His shooting skills were awful, but I didn’t think he’d miss at such close range.

“Shooting without warning, huh?”

“Strike first, win first.”

At my response, the man smiled, looking oddly satisfied for someone who’d just been shot.

“Yeah, I’d have shot too. Good. That’s good enough for now.”

“What are you mumbling about, you lunatic? Who are you?”

“You’ve seen who I am.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that?”

He chuckled and continued, “I can’t answer any more than that. I only came to check on a few things today.”

“Check? Check what?”

“To see if you’re growing well.”

“What?”

“Seems like you’re growing fine, so I’ll be heading back.”

Heading back?

This guy was about to shoot BangguseokYeoBo just because he was annoying.

He’s too dangerous to let go.

‘Killing him here would be ideal, but with our current firepower, we can’t even scratch him.’

Looking back, he came here with nothing but a handgun, not even fully armed, just riding a hoverboard.

Should I be relieved that this guy, with his overwhelming advantages, didn’t come to fight?

‘Why is someone like him friendly towards me?’

I didn’t know the reason, but I had survived thanks to his goodwill.

Not a situation I was particularly fond of.

It felt like a veteran player had come to babysit a newbie.

“Oh, right.”

As he got back on his hoverboard, he suddenly turned back towards us.

“I almost forgot to give you a gift.”

“Gift?”

Before I could react, his gun was pointed at BangguseokYeoBo.

‘This crazy bastard.’

He was really going to kill BangguseokYeoBo before leaving.

The moment he pulled the trigger, I didn’t hesitate to step in front of BangguseokYeoBo.

With a thud, something hot and sharp pierced through my shoulder.

BangguseokYeoBo screamed in horror.

“Hey!”

“Hyung!”

“Sir Hayden!”

As I collapsed, BangguseokYeoBo caught me, while the other two, still aiming at the man, glanced over at me in confusion.

And the man…

“……!”

For the first time, surprise crossed his

usually calm face, but it quickly faded.

“Different from me, huh…”

What the hell is he mumbling about?

Holding my shoulder with one hand to stop the bleeding, I raised my middle finger at him with the other.

He chuckled.

“I’m sure you know how to treat that. I’ll be waiting for the day you come to my zone.”

With that, his hoverboard began to rise into the air.

Taejong aimed his gun upwards to follow him.

“I’ll shoot him down.”

“Don’t.”

I winced from the pain in my shoulder as I replied.

“Our outdated guns can’t hit him. It’s a waste of bullets. Just let him go. We know where he’s headed, after all.”

“Sir Hayden!”

As the hoverboard disappeared from sight, Meursault, lowering his gun, rushed over and pressed a clean handkerchief against my shoulder.

“Hold this to stop the bleeding. The soldiers should be on their way after seeing the flare. I’ll go get them.”

Unlike BangguseokYeoBo, who looked like he was about to cry, Meursault, with the composure of a veteran, didn’t panic at my injury and instead focused on what he could do.

Taejong, worried that the commotion might attract monsters, left to patrol the area.

And BangguseokYeoBo…

“Dopamine Addict is a total lunatic, isn’t he?!”

I didn’t even do anything, but I got shot and now I’m being cursed at. What is this feeling?

“Hey, just hold the pressure properly.”

“Why would you get shot just to protect a guy like me…”

“Why do you think?”

I tapped the combat ration hanging from BangguseokYeoBo’s belt.

“Start healing.”

BangguseokYeoBo stared at me with his mouth open, then spoke in a tone that suggested he was holding back the urge to throttle me.

“…You got shot on purpose to test the healing?”

“If you got hurt, you wouldn’t be able to test the healing performance.”

“You’re insane… completely insane.”

Despite his words, BangguseokYeoBo took out the combat ration and started treating me.

Fortunately, the bullet had gone straight through my shoulder, so all I needed was for the wound to close.

As BangguseokYeoBo had said, he had practiced enough to heal others through contact. I could feel the pain in my shoulder easing as he worked.

As I quietly let him heal me, I spoke up when I felt the wound had closed enough.

“Darling Outsider.”

“…Why are you calling me by my full name?”

“Since I saved your life, I have a confession to make.”

“What kind of confession? Are you trying to jinx yourself?”

Ignoring his complaints, I finished what I had to say.

“I am the real Dopamine Addict.”