A Veteran Player is Needed in the Apocalypse

Chapter 52. Salvation

To be honest, I never really cared if my background got revealed.

The Commander had gone so far as to shoot General Batom dead during an executive meeting just to make sure my origins wouldn’t draw attention.

He even warned them during the meeting not to bring up my mother, **Luna Moon**.

Maybe because of that, unless they were someone like **Plato**, a child of a high-ranking officer, most cadets didn’t know much about where I came from.

Even the high-ranking officers’ children didn’t talk recklessly about my origins, and thanks to the Commander’s orders, everyone seemed to think I was excelling because I grew up receiving successor training. I just played along and went with the flow.

I didn’t expect **Plato** to make such a sudden move like this.

Well, it would be helpful if I revealed now that I didn’t receive formal education, but…

‘That guy Plato really isn’t thinking about the consequences.’

He wasn’t the type to make such impulsive moves, trusting only me. He probably thought completing the task I gave him was the priority, and that’s why he acted this way.

Meanwhile, the Commander’s expression had dropped to a temperature that felt like **The Second Apocalypse** had descended.

If I asked him what he was thinking, he’d probably answer, “Thinking of killing that bastard,” but it seemed like he wasn’t going to do anything to Plato just yet, so I kept listening to Plato’s speech.

“Lord **Haydam** returned only three months ago after being missing for some reason in the past. This means he hasn’t even had time to undergo successor training, let alone enjoy proper meals. Despite that, Lord Haydam challenged the cadets in the **Training Simulation** and achieved two great victories. If we hadn’t found Lord Haydam by now, it would’ve been impossible for him to take on the simulation. This is someone who, at the age of ten, had the ability to overwhelm graduates.”

Plato finally took his eyes off me and looked at the audience.

“Up until now, we may have missed out on countless ‘Haydams.’ The population in our zone continues to grow, and yet we face an ongoing food crisis. You all are healthy young men and women with sound minds, but youth is not eternal. Someday, we will all age and tire, and it will be the next generation of children who will support you. So, I ask everyone here—the graduates, their fathers, mothers, sponsors, and most of all, **His Excellency** the Commander—to permit every 11-year-old child in this zone to enroll in the Academy. Thank you.”

As his speech ended, a heavy silence settled over the graduation hall.

Even though Plato returned to his seat next to me with a satisfied look, the silence persisted.

It was now the Commander’s turn to give a congratulatory speech, but the headmaster stood there, unable to move, sweating profusely.

The smile had yet to return to the Commander’s face, though the murderous aura that had consumed him earlier seemed to have subsided.

Instead, he had the look of someone deep in thought, deciding something important.

The one who unexpectedly broke the silence was **Lucas**.

*Clap… clap… clap…*

Sitting in the front row, Lucas began clapping.

As the sound of his applause echoed in the quiet hall, all eyes turned toward him.

Lucas slowly rose from his seat, stopped clapping, and spoke.

“I ask this of you as well.”

Next to him, **Bones** seemed flustered, whispering angrily, asking if he’d lost his mind.

Lucas ignored him and looked up at the Commander as he continued.

“To be honest, I always believed Lord Haydam was naturally better than me because he had grown up in a more privileged environment. When I heard the rumor that Lord Haydam refused to enroll in the Academy, calling it a waste of time, I thought it was just an arrogant heir looking down on us.”

I had never hidden the fact that I refused to enroll, but hearing it now for the first time seemed to stir up a murmur among the cadets.

Lucas waited for the noise to settle down before speaking again.

“But now, looking back, I’ve come to realize something. What is this Academy, which only admits the children of high-ranking officers or those with their sponsorship, that I should feel resentment toward Lord Haydam for refusing to attend? Isn’t that just an inferiority complex on my part? And now, another thought comes to mind: if we hadn’t found Lord Haydam—if he weren’t here with us today—we might have lost a truly great commander, one who commands the respect of countless cadets.”

At some point, Lucas had started looking directly at me.

He went on.

“I dare to say this to His Excellency the Commander. To find one Haydam, we must nurture a hundred children. As a cadet, as a child raised by this zone, I humbly ask this of you.”

He then turned around to face the many cadets.

“I ask this of the other cadets as well. Show your support for Cadet Plato’s graduation speech with a round of applause.”

After Lucas finished speaking, there was a brief moment of silence.

“This is nuts! I’m done holding back.”

Then **Bones**, who had been sitting next to him, cursed and shot up from his seat.

He violently loosened the tie that didn’t suit him in the first place, faced forward, and started clapping loudly.

As Lucas gave a faint smile, the other graduates began to rise from their seats one by one, joining in with resounding applause that filled the hall.

‘I didn’t expect it to go this far…’

I had only thought it would be enough if Plato and the Commander put on a decent act.

Never did I expect Lucas to step in and help, nor did I think everyone would rally behind Plato.

After all, none of this had been part of the game.

I had always thought of them as just NPCs, never bothering to care about what they thought of me.

My origins, my refusal to attend the Academy—all of it was simply strategy. There was no grand reasoning behind it, like Lucas had implied.

But now, all these cadets were looking to me, hoping that I would one day become their commander and lead them.

At that moment, I heard the Commander’s voice, low and quiet.

“You… always exceed my expectations.”

The Commander had already dropped his cold expression and was now smiling at me as he rose from his seat and approached the microphone.

As soon as the Commander grabbed the mic, the applause ceased.

In the tense silence, the Commander spoke in a calm voice.

“To find one Haydam, we must raise a hundred children…”

As soon as he started speaking, the cadets who had stood to support Plato tensed up, and the sound of nervous gulps could be heard here and there.

Seeing this, the Commander softened his tone and continued.

“As Haydam’s father, how could I possibly refuse such a request? I will gladly be a father to a hundred children.”

After addressing the cadets, the Commander turned to face the officers sitting behind the graduates, all of whom wore expressions of confusion and surprise, and made an announcement.

“Starting this spring, after the subjugation campaign, admission to the Academy will no longer be based on recommendations but on an entrance exam. Eligibility to apply will be given to every 11-year-old child in this zone. If anyone has objections, speak now.”

No officer was foolish enough to raise an objection, and with **Anton** absent, there wasn’t anyone bold enough to take action. Thus, the back row remained silent.

Because of that, the Commander’s next words rang out louder than ever.

“With that said, I congratulate all of you on your graduation.”

—

And that’s how it ended.

As soon as **Anton** heard about the graduation speech, he went pale and stormed out of the underground bunker, leaving me and **BangguseokYeoBo** alone.

**Meursault** was taking care of things upstairs, so we could slowly make our way up after hearing about what happened with Anton.

“Wow, man!”

BangguseokYeoBo approached me with an amazed look on his face.

“How do you always show up at the perfect time? It’s incredible!”

I shot him a look.

“Since when does a player let themselves get kidnapped by an NPC? What if something had happened to you? Why’d you follow me all the way here?”

“You didn’t believe me when I said I was being threatened earlier, did you? But honestly, nothing serious happened.”

Look at this guy.

“Be more careful. If I hadn’t spoken to Plato about making you his lieutenant, you could’ve been tortured today.”

This wasn’t an empty warning.

If I hadn’t left an escape route for Anton, BangguseokYeoBo might not have made it back in one piece.

This place was notorious for being **Safe Zone**’s official torture headquarters, after all.

However, BangguseokYeoBo didn’t seem too moved by my warning. Instead, he reacted more strongly to something else.

“Wait, are you seriously going to make Plato your lieutenant?”

“Yes.”

“What about me?!”

Wow, he really seemed upset.

“I don’t know why you ever thought I’d make someone like you my lieutenant… Even if I wanted to, there’s no way you’d become my lieutenant before Plato.”

“Oh, so you’ll give me the lieutenant position when I grow up?”

Hmm… Well, I’ll just let him believe that.

“By the way, you should go to school.”

“First you told me to join the army, now it’s school?”

“Plato requested mandatory Academy enrollment during his graduation speech. The Commander accepted it.”

“What difference does mandatory enrollment make

?”

“It means you and **TaejongTaeseBeyonce** will be able to attend the Academy this coming spring. The Academy entrance age is 11, and our current bodies just happen to be 10 years old.”

Before he could protest about not wanting to go to school twice, I quickly added.

“Surely you won’t complain about having to go to school twice when I’ve already saved your life twice, right?”

“Wait, no, it’s fine. I’ll go to school.”

“…Are you serious?”

This guy… Even when I told him to join the military, he didn’t seem to have much of a will of his own.

“So, what exactly did you tell **Anton**?”

“What do you mean, ‘exactly’?”

“Did he ask if I really grew up in the slums, or if I’m trustworthy, stuff like that? Isn’t that why he called you in?”

“Wow, how did you know? You really are smart.”

That’s just because you’re… No, never mind. I’m wasting my breath.

“Anyway, knowing your personality, you wouldn’t have kept your mouth shut or lied. So, what did you tell him?”

“I told him everything, truthfully. But he thought I was acting.”

I couldn’t understand what he meant, so I asked again.

“What exactly did you say?”

“I told him I’d only known you for three months and that I don’t remember anything before I was ten. I also said you gave me the name **Darling Outsider**.”

Hmm. That explains it.

Even if it were me, I’d have a hard time believing that.

“Is that all?”

“Oh, Anton has a hidden daughter, by the way.”

“A daughter? Don’t tell me, **Daphne**?”

“You really need to stop reading so much fiction.”

What do you mean ‘fiction’? Everyone in the player community almost unanimously believes Daphne is Anton’s biological daughter!

“He told me he’d share his secret if I shared mine, and then he showed me a picture of his daughter. Well, it was actually a portrait.”

A portrait… Wait, could it be?

“Was it a picture of an Asian woman with a mole under her eye?”

“Yeah! That’s right. How did you know?”

‘Now it makes sense.’

Anton must’ve shown him **Luna Moon**’s portrait to test him.

“Wait… You already knew?”

“Anton doesn’t have a daughter.”

“He doesn’t?”

“That portrait was of **Luna Moon**.”

“Luna Moon? That was her?”

BangguseokYeoBo looked confused.

“Why would he show me a picture of Luna Moon and pretend it was his daughter?”

“Since you said you’ve only known me for three months, he probably showed you Luna Moon’s portrait to gauge your reaction. He did the same thing to me.”

“He did that to you too?”

“He must’ve suddenly started doubting if I was real. He brought me Luna Moon’s portrait as a gift, trying to see if I’d recognize it.”

“What? But wait, don’t you not know what Luna Moon looks like? Isn’t she always depicted as a skeleton?… Oh?”

At that moment, BangguseokYeoBo seemed to realize something, looking at me with a face full of realization.

“But then, doesn’t this mean you successfully fooled him since he didn’t realize you were a fake? Wow, how did you act like you recognized the portrait?”

“I managed… somehow.”

It was actually a situation that couldn’t be easily brushed off with “I managed somehow,” but I figured BangguseokYeoBo would accept that as an explanation. Just as expected, he seemed to be satisfied with my vague answer.

“Oh, so that’s why he was saying earlier that there shouldn’t be two kids as good at acting as you, huh? Now it all makes sense.”

However, there was still one thing that I didn’t understand.

“Then why didn’t you recognize Luna Moon’s face? Haven’t you played a **visual novel** before? If you’d seen the portrait, wouldn’t you have recognized it and gotten yourself in trouble?”

I naturally assumed that Luna Moon’s face had appeared in the visual novel that BangguseokYeoBo had played. I thought maybe he’d just forgotten her appearance due to a bad memory. But the answer that came from him was unexpected.

“You’ve never actually played a visual novel, have you? The player character doesn’t have a face.”

The player character doesn’t have a face…?

“You mean there’s no character customization?”

“Yeah. Even if they show the character, it’s always with long bangs covering the face in illustrations. That’s the standard rule. It’s to help the player immerse themselves.”

At that, BangguseokYeoBo seemed to realize something.

“Then that picture must’ve been the face of Luna Moon’s player.”

Upon hearing that, it felt like my heart dropped, as if I’d just been dealt a finishing blow.

If that portrait was truly the face of the player possessing **Luna Moon**, then there was a possibility that the player could really be my mother.

But I quickly dismissed the thought.

‘No, that’s just another one of this guy’s wild guesses.’

The idea that the NPC I was pretending to be the son of was my real mother… It was too absurd to believe. I wouldn’t believe it unless clear, undeniable evidence was right in front of me.

“Wow, but how could she look exactly like your character? That’s seriously amazing.”

“…To Westerners, all Asian faces probably look the same.”

I tried to answer as calmly as possible.

But BangguseokYeoBo tilted his head and asked.

“Huh? Westerners?”

“I mean **Square Soft**. When they were making this game, they probably just used any random Asian face they could find.”

“That’s not true.”

“What’s not true?”

“This game wasn’t made by **Square Soft**.”

I paused for a moment, then slowly asked.

“…What are you talking about? Then who made it?”

“**Apocalypse: Safe Zone 1** was made by a Korean company. After the first game, Square Soft acquired it and produced the later series.”

“A Korean company?”

“Yeah. The project was called **Salvation Project**…”

“…What?”

**Salvation Project.**

I knew that company.

It was the company my mother founded.

Why was the name of her company coming out of BangguseokYeoBo’s mouth right now?

I couldn’t say anything due to the sheer mental shock I was feeling.

Then, like a dagger to my heart, his next words pierced through me.

“It was a small game company where my sister used to work.”