A Veteran Player is Needed in the Apocalypse

Chapter 48: BangguseokYeoBo

In the Safe Zone, my nickname was ‘BangguseokYeoBo.’

I grew up under wealthy business parents and never lacked anything materially. However, I had been frail since childhood, frequently cycling in and out of hospitals, which meant I couldn’t attend school properly.

When I got older and was finally able to go to school, my personality had become so warped that it made it hard to form normal friendships.

It wasn’t just my parents, but also the doctors, nurses, and even my ill-tempered older sister who constantly yielded to me because of my frailty. As a result, I never learned how to be considerate of others.

I did try to fix my personality eventually, but instead, I ended up being bullied, a type of school violence where my affluent background made me an easy target for extortion.

When my parents found out, they immediately had me drop out and brought me back home.

“Yebom, it’s okay if you don’t go to school, don’t go to college, or don’t have a job. You can live however you want, doing whatever makes you happy.”

My parents said this not because they genuinely believed it was okay for me to live like that, but because they knew my illness wasn’t completely cured. The fact that I was still alive was already a miracle, and the doctor advised them to let me live the rest of my life comfortably. I wasn’t oblivious to that.

‘What do I want to do…?’

I wanted to go to school and have friends my age.

When my parents asked why I hadn’t told them I was being bullied, the truth was, I hadn’t even realized it was bullying. I had treasured those brief moments when the kids would occasionally share snacks with me or wait for me when I lagged behind.

‘I don’t want to worry my parents if I won’t live long anyway…’

And so, I stopped going outside. Instead, I became a shut-in gamer, venting all the frustrations I couldn’t express to my parents or friends through the internet.

‘A guide on DopamineAddict just got posted!’

DopamineAddict.

It all started with my sister forcing me to play a mid-aged-man dating simulation game. The player ‘DopamineAddict,’ who was clearly inspired by that game and now played ‘Apocalypse: Safe Zone,’ became one of the people I admired.

Despite being known for his ruthless personality, he kept posting his game guides on the community board, and I found it impressive.

I envied the way he never seemed to care about getting along with others, yet his morally questionable guides still managed to attract a large following.

‘I want to get close to him too.’

In an effort to get closer to DopamineAddict, I applied the techniques I had learned from dating simulations.

‘Everyone else calls him “Hyung” and showers him with praise, but I need to approach him differently.’

I knew I had to make myself stand out. Only then would DopamineAddict take notice of me. It was obvious what kind of person he, someone who enjoyed the attention from posting sociopathic guides, would like.

I confidently left a comment.

BangguseokYeoBo: ㅅㅂ Are you out of your mind? How the hell are we supposed to follow this? You psychopath.

‘Hmph.’

The skill of subtly praising someone through a rude tone. This was one of the top three things that a person posting such a morally dubious guide would want to hear. Comments like ‘The author is a psychopath,’ ‘Is this for real?’, and ‘Only you could pull this off’—I mixed these sentiments perfectly into my reply.

With such advanced tactics, I was sure DopamineAddict would soon take an interest in me.

Unbeknownst to me, the rude comments I’d been posting were all being deleted by DopamineAddict. I kept leaving recommendations and comments on his guide, completely oblivious.

‘I got blocked…?!!’

It was only after getting blocked, right after a guide on ‘Knife’ had been posted, that I realized something had gone wrong.

“Why!! Why the hell!!”

I cried harder than I had the day I was forced to part ways with my friends due to the bullying.

For several days, I wallowed in depression and didn’t log into the game. When I finally made a new account and rejoined the community, I stumbled upon an unexpected rumor.

‘Heavy users have gone missing?’

I quickly checked DopamineAddict’s account, and sure enough, there had been no activity for several days.

‘He’s been known to disappear for days before, but…’

As I continued checking other heavy users’ records, I was shocked to find that even ‘HomeProtector,’ who acted overly familiar with DopamineAddict, hadn’t been online.

‘Wait, he’s not logging into the game? Could they actually be missing?’

I started digging into the disappearance of the heavy users, and not long after, I received an address to a convenience store from another player.

It was the address shown in a post by DopamineAddict right after he had blocked me, related to the Safe Zone collaboration event.

I immediately headed to that convenience store, and after discovering it was pretty unremarkable, I bought a cola and was on my way out when it happened—I was possessed.

Despite being forced into military service by Tbalrom and undergoing grueling training, life wasn’t so bad. The body I was possessed into was not only healthy but also had self-healing abilities.

And the player I thought was Tbalrom turned out to be the real DopamineAddict.

‘As long as DopamineAddict is on my side, the apocalypse won’t be a problem.’

Thanks to him successfully infiltrating as Lord Haydam, military life had gotten much easier.

“Right as the fur crocodile’s tail was flying at me, Haydam stepped in front of me and—wham!”

“Gasp, no way!”

“Yes, Haydam took the hit for me.”

At that, one of the senior soldiers listening to my tale got excited and yelled.

“Crazy, so the injury he got in the fight with that fur crocodile was to protect you?!”

“Exactly.”

“Wow, that’s insane!”

Another senior soldier, however, looked doubtful and asked skeptically.

“That’s hard to believe. Why would someone like him protect a weakling like you?”

“I’ve told you already, Haydam has been saying from the start that he would take me under his wing.”

“No, seriously, why you? When he has someone as amazing as Commander Meursault by his side?”

I glared at the senior soldier.

“I can’t go into details, but I have an incredible talent.”

“What talent? Annoying people?”

“Man, just hearing you talk about ‘talent’ pisses me off.”

“Are you questioning Lord Haydam’s judgment right now?”

“I-I’m not saying that.”

The senior soldier backed down, as he had seen me get called in by Haydam multiple times. Knowing that I had a somewhat close relationship with Haydam, they treated me as a deadbeat but refrained from bullying me after the day we first had a barbecue party.

At that moment, a soldier emerged from the barracks and approached me, calling out loudly.

“Hey, outcast. You’ve got an outing pass.”

Hearing that, I smirked confidently.

“Looks like Lord Haydam is calling for me again, as usual.”

“You say the weirdest things sometimes. What’s this about a tiger? You mean a butterfly tiger or something?”

**”Why does the butterfly tiger come when I talk about it?”**

BangguseokYeoBo ignored the ignorant game NPCs who didn’t understand Korean proverbs and asked the soldier, “Is it the Commander’s Residence again?”

“No.”

The approaching soldier handed him an outing pass and said, “This time, it’s an errand. You’re from the slums, right?”

“Ah, yes.”

I nodded, recalling Haydam mentioning that he had written ‘orphan from the slums’ on my enlistment application, and the soldier continued, “They want you to go to the slums and bring something back.”

“What… exactly?”

“They said you’d know what to get once you arrive at the slums.”

I’ll know once I arrive at the slums…?

‘Is this DopamineAddict’s doing?’

The only person at this point who would send me on an errand to the slums was DopamineAddict. However, if it were him, he would’ve told me directly, rather than going through a soldier, so I knew I shouldn’t ask, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Whose orders are these?”

As expected, the soldier immediately gave me a stern look.

“Why do you care? Are you planning not to go depending on whose orders it is?”

I had a sudden urge to throw a tantrum, shouting, “Do you even know who I am? I’ve eaten with the commander’s son and gone hunting with him!” But the soldier in front of me belonged to the line that had just been promoted to major general. In other words, he was under the Pro-Daphne faction, which meant Haydam’s name wouldn’t carry much weight here.

“No, sir. I’ll go.”

I barely managed to suppress my bad attitude and responded.

I figured there wouldn’t be much of a problem since I knew the slums of the Cola Zone better than anyone in this world.

* * *

As I was getting ready to attend the Academy graduation ceremony, I heard a shocking story from Meursault.

“Darling Outsider isn’t in the barracks?”

“Yes.”

“He’s finally deserted, then.”

I said it as a joke, but Meursault’s expression didn’t change.

“…Wait, seriously?”

“It’s a bit unclear.”

“What do you mean, unclear?”

“According to the other soldiers, he went on an errand to the slums.”

“An errand?”

I frowned and asked, “Who would send him on an errand besides me?”

“They didn’t know.”

“Did you check the slums?”

“Yes, but by the time I arrived, he had already moved on.”

“He moved somewhere else? A soldier went missing, and you’re just letting it slide?”

“They said his outing pass is valid until midnight, so they advised waiting until then.”

“A kid’s gone missing… Actually, never mind.”

Come to think of it, this is the world of the apocalypse. A child soldier going missing isn’t exactly unusual. I reassured myself that BangguseokYeoBo wasn’t an actual kid, and as a player, he probably wouldn’t be in too much danger.

‘He said he’s 20, right…’

From my perspective, 20 years old is still a kid.

‘I’ll have to go look for him after the graduation ceremony.’

As I thought that, Meursault, as if reading my mind like a ghost, said, “I’ll have the vehicle ready after the ceremony.”

“…Yeah. Thanks, Meursault.”

I was halfway through putting on my jacket when I asked him, “But are you really going to participate in the subjugation battle?”

“I don’t understand why everyone’s so worried. I am a soldier, after all.”

“It’s because you don’t usually do this.”

“I’ve participated in subjugation battles before. I was in the rear, though.”

“This time, you’ll be moving with me. On the frontlines.”

“I’ve calculated my odds.”

“What odds?”

“That staying near Lord Haydam is safer than being in the rear.”

“……”

It’s not a bad calculation, but if he’s openly sticking by me because he thinks it’s safer, I won’t be able to explain myself to Daphne if something happens to him.

Well, not that anything would happen…

“By the way, what kind of scheme are you plotting with Cadet Plato?”

“Scheme? You make it sound like I’m planning some kind of conspiracy at the kids’ graduation.”

“Aren’t you?”

Meursault replied, tilting his head slightly in curiosity, then muttered under his breath, “Kids’ graduation? You’re even younger than they are…”

“Meursault, are you going to keep mumbling? We’re going to be late at this rate.”

“Are you really not going to tell me what you’re planning?”

“Just come and find out.”

I dismissed him with that, but I smiled playfully at Meursault and said, “By the way, Meursault, you didn’t graduate from the Academy, did you?”

“No. As you know, connections are crucial for getting into the Academy.”

In this zone, more than 80% of people are orphans, but even here, a bourgeois class exists that has accumulated wealth.

People like Plato, the son of high-ranking officers.

Or like Bones, who’s a ward of a general’s family.

Only kids like that can get into the Academy.

Meursault, who had enlisted as a child soldier and clawed his way up to a colonel, probably developed his attachment to family because of that unfair system.

“Connections… I really hate that kind of thing.”

“Excuse me? If anyone else said that, it would be fine, but coming from someone who’s used his family’s connections more than anyone else, it sounds like a joke.”

“That might be true.”

“Wait, don’t tell me…”

Sensing that Meursault had caught on to something, I grinned at him.

“Look forward to Plato’s speech.”