Branch Point
Anton just stared at me with his mouth hanging open, as if he couldn't find a single word to answer my brazen declaration of usurpation.
I must look like a complete lunatic to him.
I'd just boldly confessed to a high-ranking officer from a rival faction—not even Meursault—that I intended to seize my father's position. A reaction like that was only natural.
But the timing couldn't have been better.
It was time to begin the "usurpation" route.
For one thing, I had no intention of choosing the meek option of simply inheriting the seat after the Commander died of old age.
With the barrier gone, there was no telling when some other zone's forces might come pouring in. I couldn't afford to sit around waiting for the Commander to grow frail and hand the position over to me.
Of course, even with the barrier down, Ssapasuble's submarine hostage stunt had cut off official inter-zone contact, and every zone was too busy clearing its own territory to spare attention for anyone else's. Outside of places like the Cola Area—where a military clique meant that seizing the Commander's seat gave you total control—or zones like Shin Eun-jo's, where the players had colluded from the start to possess their hosts, everyone would be frantic right up until the Second Apocalypse.
Which meant I needed to become Commander and lock down the zone before the Second Apocalypse hit.
Right now my regressor declaration had earned me a certain amount of influence with the Commander, but I couldn't keep solving every problem by talking him around forever. If he figured out I wasn't a regressor—that I wasn't "Haydam" but a "player"—before I had the zone in my grip, everything would get a lot messier.
That didn't mean I planned to pull some video-game-hero act of "I'm succeeding the throne, Father."
What I wanted was for the Commander to realize that handing the seat to me was the more efficient choice, step down quietly, and stay on as Hayden Goodman—my father—to help me run the zone.
For that to happen, the officers had to support me. With Yosef, the top pro-Hayden officer, gone, the only man who could swing the rest of them was Anton.
And Anton already nursed no small grudge against Commander Hayden.
He might be gaping now, but the moment he understood that I, the son, meant to take the seat, he would welcome me with open arms. Once his reason returned, he would quickly calculate just how profitable helping my usurpation would be for him.
"Are you in your right mind?"
After a stretch of silence, Anton finally spoke, face twisted with shock.
"The instant you said that to me, even if you are his own son, you are a traitor."
Words he doesn't mean in the slightest.
I knew Anton far too well. This was just him running the numbers on the usurpation and deliberately playing the horrified card to test how serious I was.
"Go ahead and tell His Excellency."
I answered without wiping the smile from my lips.
"Tell him your son is planning a coup. Whether he believes you or not is another matter."
"I could at least plant the seed of suspicion."
"Could you?"
When I looked him straight in the eye, I saw Anton swallow hard.
I held his gaze a moment longer, then put on a theatrical tone, resting one cheek against my hand.
"It couldn't possibly have been a serious talk of usurpation. I only said it because otherwise Anton looked ready to drop dead on the spot the moment he left Platon with me."
The sudden shift in my manner made Anton flinch and step back. He already knew what was coming next.
"—If I put it that way, do you really think Father could refuse to believe me? Right now you… don't exactly look like a man with much will to live."
"You can't just decide everything however you please, Lord Haydam—!"
Sensing his resistance was about to drag on, I cut him off cleanly.
"Sorry, Anton, but you've already lost. The moment I found out how much you dote on Platon just now, the game was over."
Even Anton couldn't keep his expression from crumbling; a flicker of despair crossed his face.
"So you mean to take Platon as a hostage… and force me to live?"
I nodded without hesitation.
"As long as you cooperate with me, I won't lay a finger on Platon. I like competent people. I like people who are loyal to me even more."
"……."
Anton no longer bothered hiding the calculation on his face—openly weighing which choice would profit him more.
After a long stretch of mental arithmetic, he asked carefully:
"Will you… truly make my son your adjutant?"
"Making Platon my adjutant is no empty promise."
Here I added, in a gentle tone calculated to soothe him:
"You'd rather watch Platon become the Commander's right hand while you're still alive, wouldn't you?"
"……."
Anton hesitated a moment longer, then gave his answer.
"For now… I'll pretend I didn't hear any of this."
I grinned.
"For now" I'll pretend I didn't hear it meant he wouldn't report my talk of usurpation to the Commander.
In other words, he wouldn't stand in my way.
He hadn't yet offered active cooperation, but a man as sharp as Anton would never leave Platon in my hands and then take the Commander's side.
With that, the usurpation route had taken its first step.
After all, I had promised to protect Commander Hayden—not to protect the Commander's seat.
Even if he wasn't my real father, he was the man my mother had loved. Getting him to retire early so he could rest in peace…
Wasn't that true filial piety?
[Meowww…….]
Luna, who had been receiving pets from Shin Eun-jo, suddenly gave a full-body shiver. Shin Eun-jo looked down and asked,
"What's wrong, Lady Luna?"
[I just… feel like my little brother is having another ominous thought.]
Saying so, Luna rose to her feet and began stretching, as if trying to shake off the unease. Shin Eun-jo watched her quietly and thought,
"Little brother"… that has to mean Dopamine Addict.
Ever since Dopamine Addict had granted her permission to remain in the Cola Area, "Luna"—the divine proxy—had never left her side.
It was obvious he had attached the cat as a living CCTV because he didn't trust her, yet life with Luna wasn't bad. Part of it was simply that Luna was a soft white kitten with jelly-like paws. But more importantly, because Luna was known as Haydam's cat, the zone's NPCs neither suspected Shin Eun-jo nor treated her roughly.
In short, Luna was both a surveillance tool and a shield against the Cola Area NPCs.
Without Lady Luna I wouldn't have understood half of what ShutInDarling said.
Shin Eun-jo had obtained information on the Unicorn Area players in exchange for handing Dopamine Addict the Meteorite Pistol. The problem was that the middleman delivering that information had been the player ShutInDarling.
Every conversation with ShutInDarling left her ready to explode from sheer frustration.
An ability to drive people to death by sheer aggravation without a shred of malice…….
Fortunately Luna, who had overheard every word, had declared that "my brother's prank has gone too far" and supplied a concise summary in ShutInDarling's place, so Shin Eun-jo at least got a description of the Unicorn Area players' appearances.
Because of all that, she had no real complaints about living with Luna. What she did keep wondering about was the way Luna called Dopamine Addict "little brother."
Until now she had bitten her tongue, not wanting to look suspicious by asking about him. This time she couldn't hold back.
"Lady Luna… why do you call Dopamine Addict your little brother?"
She had asked as carefully as she could, yet Luna answered with wide blue eyes as if the question were the most obvious thing in the world.
[Because he is my little brother?]
It doesn't sound like she's just calling him that because he's younger…….
If that were all, she wouldn't keep adding the possessive "my."
A player whom a divine proxy calls "little brother"…….
In Shin Eun-jo's estimation, Dopamine Addict was clearly connected to the representative of Cthulhu Games. Their looks were far too similar, their atmospheres, even their speech patterns. Sharing a zone with him had only strengthened that conviction.
At first she had even wondered if they were the same person.
If Dopamine Addict is the son—or an avatar—of the Cthulhu Games representative, everything falls into place.
The absurd stats, the unbelievable clear speed, and the fact that a divine proxy called him little brother—all of it would make sense.
Because the representative of Cthulhu Games… that man seems to be the one who created this world, something close to a god.
No—thinking back, the representative had spoken of "Father" in front of her. Perhaps that "Father" was the true god.
That was also why she never doubted Dopamine Addict's claim that Luna was a divine proxy. She simply assumed Dopamine Addict himself was a god's son.
"Lady Luna."
[Mrow?]
"Do you happen to know a man with black hair and black eyes… someone who gives off a slightly insane vibe?"
Luna blinked twice, then answered with absolute confidence.
[Dopamine Addict!]
"No, no. Not that crazy person. The slightly less crazy one."
[Commander Hayden.]
"Not an NPC from this game!"
[Meow… both you and Dopamine Addict keep using that word "NPC," but all I know is that you people are players who possessed bodies in this world!]
Damn…….
Luna had spoken so casually about players that Shin Eun-jo had assumed the cat knew at least something about the real world. Apparently not. Being a divine proxy, perhaps she only knew exactly as much as she was meant to proxy.
So she might not know the Cthulhu Games representative either…….
Still, Shin Eun-jo refused to give up.
"Let me summarize. Black hair, black eyes, pale skin, a smiling face, not one-eyed, not a child, looks about mid-thirties… no, forget the age. A lot of time may have passed since then. Anyway, the way he talks is similar to Dopamine Addict or Commander Hayden, only a bit more cheerful! And he's not from this world."
[Uh, that's hard…….]
Seeing Luna struggle, Shin Eun-jo searched for another trait, then lit up as if she'd remembered something crucial.
"His verbal tic is 'Father.'"
[What does a verbal tic of "Father" even mean?]
"Like everything he does is according to Father's will… or because of Father?"
[Sounds like Bones.]
"Completely different!"
So even Lady Luna didn't know.
I wanted to meet him one more time…….
Originally Shin Eun-jo had only come to observe Dopamine Addict, yet she had suddenly decided to stay in the zone because she felt that man might reappear if she remained by Dopamine Addict's side.
Half resigned, she muttered,
"He told me the reason I never received a divine possession was because Father took a liking to me……. I really want to hear what that meant."
It was pure grumbling, yet Luna's ears perked straight up.
[Ah, that Father.]
That Father?
"You know him?!"
[I don't know the man, but I know the "Father" who likes you.]
"H-how? What kind of person is that Father?"
Luna tilted her head.
[Father isn't a person!]
"N-not a person? Th-then a god? So he really is the god of this world?"
[Not exactly. Father is an Outer God from outside this world.]
The moment she heard "Outer God," Shin Eun-jo realized this was some kind of Cthulhu story. The problem was that she didn't know much about Cthulhu mythos.
It would be weird for a Korean shaman to be an expert on Cthulhu mythology anyway!
Still, the knowledge that she had taken one step closer to that man lifted her spirits.
"So 'Father' really was a god, not a human. And if a god famous enough for Luna the divine proxy to know him took a liking to me and prevented the possession… doesn't that mean my shamanic talent is actually incredible?"
[…You seemed relatively sane. Now I understand why you got possessed.]
"What is that supposed to mean?"
[Meow—you'd never understand even if I explained! Just keep petting me.]
"Yes, yes……."
Luna flopped bonelessly across Shin Eun-jo's lap again, accepting the strokes. For a moment she glanced up at the rippling thread of light that stretched from the far reaches of the cosmos and connected to the top of Shin Eun-jo's head… then closed her eyes as if she had seen nothing.
When these children grew up and learned everything, she could only hope they would not hate her too much.
Six years later.
Spring of his seventeenth year.
"General Haydam."
Both Luna and I looked up from the documents at the same time toward the doorway. Major General Platon, dressed in a pure-white military uniform, spoke.
"All players are standing by for deployment."