The Importance of Early Education
After the graduation ceremony came the assignments for the newly commissioned officers’ subjugation campaign.
This time the old unit structure had been torn up by the roots. Only a carefully handpicked handful of people—chosen by me and the Commander—would be split into ten teams and sent into the field. The ten teams would not move as a single mass; instead they would fan out in a wide arc, searching zone by zone.
Of course, no team had more than ten members, so we were not about to charge straight into monsters. After the search we would regroup at base camp, share the locations and movement paths of the large-class monsters, and only then begin the actual hunt.
The Commander took Team One with the seasoned soldiers and held the center. I would move with Team Ten and the new officers.
“The subjugation’s barely even started and he’s already dumping exam-writing on me.”
“Please do not grumble so loudly, Sir Heydam. The team members can hear you.”
At Meursault’s words the team members all put on faces that said they had heard absolutely nothing and looked studiously elsewhere.
Why the hell was Meursault even in Team Ten instead of the Commander’s Team One? All he was doing was crushing the new officers’ spirits.
For the record, Platon’s ability had been recognized; he was leading the other new officers as Team Nine’s captain. The Shut-in Darling I had planted in the subjugation force was somewhere among the ordinary-soldier teams, Three through Eight. The only faces I actually knew in my own team were Lucas and Bones. The two of them apparently did not count our past encounters as fond memories; the moment I glanced their way they startled, declared they would search farther out, and vanished.
The sector we had been given was the outer edge of the zone—exactly where the barrier ought to have been. Large-class monsters rarely appeared here, so it was perfect for green officers who had never seen real combat, and equally perfect for me while I checked on the barrier.
Still no barrier in sight. Meursault spoke again.
“By the way… I never expected you would go so far as to make Cadet Platon do something like that.”
“Something like that? It wasn’t as if I told him to commit a crime.”
“But you knew, didn’t you? You knew that graduation speech would make things difficult for him from now on.”
I gave Meursault a lopsided smile.
“Since when did you start worrying about other people? And he’s not a cadet anymore—he’s a second lieutenant.”
Platon and the rest of the academy graduates were no longer cadets; they were proper officers wearing the rank of second lieutenant. Of course, with zero experience the rank was basically meaningless…
“It seems Sir Heydam’s own rank was never decided in the end.”
I had expected the Commander to settle my rank once the subjugation began. Maybe he had noticed that I already spoke casually to Meursault, a major general, or maybe he simply foresaw that giving me any ambiguous rank would guarantee insubordination. Whatever the reason, he had not pinned any rank on me at all. In the end, sticking me with the vague title of “team leader” was probably the best solution.
“Don’t worry about Platon. His father’s a general—what’s the worst that could happen?”
“You are remarkably cold-blooded.”
“Meursault. Platon is the type who makes trouble for other people, not the type who gets into it himself.”
“That… is true.”
Meursault closed his eyes for a moment, no doubt remembering the graduation speech that had dragged my past into the open. Fortunately—if that was the right word—the Commander seemed to have decided to let the whole affair drop. He might have given Platon a private dressing-down when I was not around, but the boy’s limbs had all been attached when we set out this morning, so nothing too dramatic had happened.
“I nearly blacked out myself that day.”
“Good thing it blew over.”
Meursault nodded, finally convinced that fretting over Platon was pointless, then continued.
“I understand I need not worry about Platon, but…”
“But?”
“I would also like to say that you must not trust him too much either. That sort of impulsive behavior is hardly limited to something as small as a graduation speech.”
I already knew Platon’s outbursts occasionally crossed the line, but Meursault’s lecture mode was running especially long today. For someone who had claimed joining the subjugation was no big deal, he seemed a little tense.
“Still, you were moved, weren’t you?”
“Me?”
“Weren’t you? You clapped pretty hard.”
“Ahem… Ah, you there—look this way a moment.”
Meursault cleared his throat awkwardly, then strode off toward some direction that made no sense, addressing someone who was not even there.
Honestly, that guy can’t even admit it.
Meursault was an NPC who had never gotten into the academy; he had started as a common soldier and clawed his way up to major general on sheer ability alone. Along the way he must have been battered from every side by academy graduates. Even after he reached that rank he would still have been looked down on by the officers those same people had sponsored and raised. Now that the entire rotten system had been wiped away, he had to feel a deep sense of relief. The uncharacteristic worry he showed for Platon was probably guilt—guilt that a young cadet had been forced to do the dirty work Meursault himself should have done.
He claimed that making Platon do that would cause him trouble later. What he had not yet realized was the opposite: precisely because Platon had done that, Meursault could now treat Anton’s son without prejudice even though the boy was the pro-Daphne faction leader’s child.
Come to think of it, Anton must have known I was the one setting the exams, yet he hasn’t reacted at all…
Just then the team members walking ahead grew noisy.
“What’s going on?”
“Sir Heydam—Lucas and Bones…”
“Move.”
The names of the two who had deliberately gone far away just to avoid me made me wonder if they had been hurt. I shoved through the others and stepped forward.
“…What the hell?”
In their hands they were holding something that absolutely should not have been here.
Love Area player: Long-tailed Tit.
Before possession he had been a survival specialist. He had caught the eye of the Love Area’s All-God, the player known as “God,” and been given a special mission: go to the Cola Area and dig up information on Dopamine Addict. For that purpose, the All-God had even authorized the torture of Cola Area NPCs.
Long-tailed Tit had asked what he should do if the Cola NPCs knew nothing about Dopamine Addict. The All-God had answered that Dopamine Addict was currently running the bastard route, so gathering information on “Heydam Goodman” would be enough.
As expected, the All-God knows everything!
A few irreverent players doubted the All-God’s power, but Long-tailed Tit believed with absolute faith. That was why he had willingly undertaken the grueling journey from the Love Area all the way to the Cola Area in the body of a child.
As a player, Long-tailed Tit already possessed a fair amount of knowledge about the Cola Area. He knew that around this time of year Cola Area NPCs swarmed outside the walls for monster subjugation. Yet when he timed his arrival perfectly, one major trial awaited him.
There are… a lot fewer soldiers than I expected?
Whatever had happened, the usual human-wave flood of Cola troops was nowhere to be seen. All he spotted were a few pairs of soldiers who looked to be on reconnaissance.
This is a problem…
Just as the saying goes that you hide a tree in a forest, Long-tailed Tit had planned to slip in among the throngs of soldiers and pretend to be a new recruit. With so few people, a child like him would stand out immediately.
Had Dopamine Addict already gotten involved in troop deployment? If their starting conditions were the same, Dopamine Addict should still be only a ten-year-old boy. Yet he was already moving an entire army?
Now I understand why the All-God ordered me to investigate him.
In truth, Long-tailed Tit had always found the Dopamine Addict worshippers in the Love Area rather annoying. Seeing the situation with his own eyes, however, he finally understood why those people were so desperate to confirm whether Dopamine Addict was on their side or not. While the Love Area’s leader, “God,” was still only able to move players like himself, Dopamine Addict was already commanding an NPC army.
I need to change the plan.
Originally he had intended to blend in with the soldiers and fish for information with casual questions like “What’s Sir Heydam like?” Pretending to be a soldier was no longer an option.
But I’m a player. I can talk circles around Cola Area NPCs any day of the week.
Every player knew that Cola Area NPCs traded intelligence for kindness; they were dimmer than NPCs from other zones but far more good-natured. Right now Long-tailed Tit looked like a ten-year-old child. What would Cola Area NPCs do if they found a child wandering alone in a snowfield? If he claimed he had injured his foot and could not move, they would approach without suspicion and try to help. The moment the first one came close he would slash the man’s throat, then overpower the second while he was still frozen in shock and drag him away. Done.
Conveniently they seem to patrol in pairs—perfect for killing one and keeping the other for information.
They would never imagine that a ten-year-old child could harm them, never imagine that trained soldiers could be taken down by a wounded kid abandoned in the snow. He could hardly wait to see the looks on their faces when they realized they had been played.
This is why I play Safe Zone.
Possessing a ten-year-old body might look like a disadvantage at first glance, but as a veteran Safe Zone player he knew exactly how to exploit it to the fullest. No matter that this was the Cola Area where Dopamine Addict resided—NPC intelligence was an unchangeable constant. If he could use Cola Area NPCs to screw over Dopamine Addict here, even the Love Area worshippers would shut their mouths… or so he thought.
Completely unaware of the fate that was about to befall him, Long-tailed Tit collapsed onto the snow and waited for Cola Area NPCs to approach.
“—Lucas.”
Before long a deep, rough voice carried from not far away.
“Unless my eyes are completely fucked, there’s a kid sprawled out in the snow over there.”
“What?”
Lying in the snow, clutching his knee and moaning as if in pain, Long-tailed Tit thought:
Lucas… that new officer? And from the way he talks, the one with him is Bones.
Quickly identifying the approaching Cola Area NPCs, Long-tailed Tit cheered inwardly. Lucas and Bones—freshly commissioned second lieutenants.
This’ll be easy.
Bones was all bark and no bite; even if Lucas died right in front of him he would hesitate to attack a child. Lucas, on the other hand, was rational but rigidly principled—so he had to die first.
Kill Lucas, torture Bones.
With that settled, Long-tailed Tit covered his mouth with his shoulder so they would not see and smiled faintly.
Rookies on their first subjugation? They’re no match for me.
He waited for them to come closer…
Something was wrong.
Why… aren’t they coming any closer?
Unable to restrain his curiosity, Long-tailed Tit twisted his body as if in pain and sneaked a glance in the direction of the voices.
There stood Lucas and Bones, looking down at him with eyes colder than ice.