Player Privileges
Come to think of it, a full day had passed since I'd been possessed without eating a single bite, and yet I wasn't hungry.
I hadn't even thought about needing food. I hadn't gone to the bathroom either.
And when the subject of meals came up, the way Taejeongtaese's face had darkened so abruptly stuck with me.
"Now that I look at you, you're still here."
Whether because my gaze had shifted to Taejeongtaese, the Commander only then seemed to register that someone else was present and turned to look at him.
The instant their eyes met, Taejeongtaese dropped to his knees on the spot.
He was probably about to say, just as I'd advised, that he'd simply been deceived.
"I-I really didn't know!! I'm sorry, I'm sorry…! I was just hungry… I'm a complete idiot! I'm the biggest bastard under the sun!!"
…Ah. So this guy couldn't speak English either.
"I'm truly sorry…!"
There was no coherence to Taejeongtaese's apology, but the sincerity seemed to land. The Commander was silent for a moment, looking thoughtful.
It was galling that the kid had arrived with the one impersonating his son—but the Commander himself had been fooled. What could a child have done? And the one who'd done the deceiving had just died as if struck by divine punishment.
Punishing the remaining companion would be awkward either way.
If I asked him to forgive them, he would. But…
If I "requested" that he forgive this guy and let him stay at the Commander's residence, it might get deducted from the Three Rewards.
The fortunate part was that the Commander likely didn't want to send Taejeongtaese outside the residence either.
If the kid went out and carelessly started talking about the bastard son, that would be a problem. And if word got out that the impersonator child who'd come with them had met with misfortune at the Commander's residence, that would be troublesome too.
I carefully opened my mouth.
"Um… if you only followed us because you were hungry, why don't you eat here before you go?"
Asking the Commander directly risked deducting from the reward count. An indirect request like this wouldn't. In other words, a passive demand that he take the hint and do what I wanted.
The Commander looked at me with mild surprise.
"You're covering for that child?"
"It's cold and hungry out there…"
"…"
When I—who until moments ago had been a cold, hungry orphan myself—said that, something seemed to register with the Commander. He helped Taejeongtaese to his feet and ordered him to stay and eat with us.
"There's a great deal I want to ask about how you've lived until now, and what became of Luna Moon… but let's save the detailed talk for after dinner. I'll step out for a moment. There are matters that need priority handling if you're to stay here from now on."
Come to think of it, even when I'd played the game, the Commander had been so busy that chances for a private audience were rare.
If he was coming back to see me this evening, I needed to have the second reward ready in my mind.
"A servant will come for you when the meal is ready. Wait quietly… and if anyone ignores or doubts you, you may treat them however you like."
With those final words, the Commander left the room again.
Taejeongtaese let out a long sigh as the tension drained from him.
"I should've studied English more."
"A kid speaking fluently would actually be less natural."
Since the apocalypse, plenty of children hadn't received a proper education. People like me or Anjeon8yeok, who could form decent sentences, were the unusual cases.
"By the way… do you not feel hunger either?"
At my question, Taejeongtaese blinked.
"Ah, so the hunger talk was just an excuse. I was wondering if maybe only hyung could feel hunger."
"'Only hyung'—meaning Anjeon8yeok also didn't feel hunger?"
"Yes. It seems players not only don't feel hunger, but also…"
His expression grew grim as he continued.
"…It looks like hyung hasn't eaten in this world yet. You'll understand once you try."
What?
Was the food just that disgusting?
Well—this world did have a severe food shortage…
Before long a servant appeared, and under his guidance we arrived at the dining table—just me and Taejeongtaese.
The servant left only the words "His Excellency will arrive late in the evening" before vanishing from the dining hall.
Taejeongtaese was staring at the food laid out on the table as if it were garbage.
Why that reaction?
Despite his contemptuous gaze, every dish on the table looked perfectly normal.
Of course, this being a post-apocalyptic world, it was nowhere near abundant even by the most generous standards. And the fact that most of the meat came from alien creatures outside the zone could be a bit off-putting.
Food shortage is the biggest problem in the apocalypse world.
In the game, most safe zones solve their food needs with monster meat from outside the walls, or plants that grow on monsters—and only very rarely gather wild vegetables or fruit after subjugations. The reason corpses are dumped outside is so monsters can grow enough to yield meat.
Everyone knows monsters grow by eating corpses. There's no choice. You eat to live.
There were occasional NPCs who expressed revulsion at the meat, but no residents found the act of eating monster meat itself strange.
Some other zones manage self-sufficiency within their walls—but in the uniquely cold Cola Area, that's impossible. There might be a small greenhouse at the Commander's residence. Eating vegetables or fruit other than monster byproducts in here is a privilege of high-ranking officers.
The meal set before us now: corn bread, potatoes, meat boiled and tied with string, and a salad tossing together at least two kinds of vegetables.
For a meal, this was excellent.
And yet Taejeongtaese still wore that bleak expression.
Don't tell me he's the type bothered by meat from monsters that grew on corpses?
That didn't track either—he wasn't even touching the vegetables and was moving the meat onto his own plate first.
Is it really a taste problem…? I thought, and shoved salad into my mouth—
"……?"
This world's "meals" far exceeded my expectations.
After the meal.
No—I wasn't even sure whether that could be called a "meal."
Anyway, Taejeongtaese and I were shown to a place with plush sofas and served tea and snacks.
But neither of us touched the refreshments.
I spoke with a grave face.
"This… isn't a matter of whether it tastes good or bad. 'Absorbing' is more accurate than 'eating.'"
The reason I said that:
The moment I'd brought the food to my lips, I'd felt something warm dissolve and be absorbed into my body.
Water, meat—everything was the same. Exactly like in the game, where food didn't get truly eaten but turned into blue particles and vanished.
"Was it like this for both you and Anjeon8yeok?"
"Yes. We dined with the Commander last night. We were both so startled we stared at the other NPCs eating, but they ate normally. Hyung… no, Anjeon8yeok told us not to panic and just pretend to chew normally, so we got through it without looking weird."
"What the hell…"
Did they really need to implement something like this just like the game?
There was more than one strange thing.
A body that didn't feel hunger. I'd forced myself to "absorb" a few things just now, but there was no sense of fullness either.
Then maybe it isn't that we don't feel hunger—maybe our bodies don't need to eat in the first place.
Even stranger: though eating the food hadn't produced fullness, another bizarre phenomenon had occurred.
"The little scrapes on my fingers are gone."
Last night, digging up Luna Moon's grave by hand, the tips of my fingers had been raw and torn—but after the "meal," they'd healed completely without a trace.
Taejeongtaese's eyes went round; he apparently hadn't experienced this.
"What? Really?"
"This didn't happen to you guys?"
"Hmm…"
He thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"Honestly, I don't know. We weren't injured to begin with…"
"Testing it will be faster."
"Huh?"
I picked up a fork from the tea table and stabbed it hard into the back of my hand.
"Are you insane!!"
Taejeongtaese's shocked cry came from beside me, but I ignored it and stuffed a cookie from the table into my mouth in one go.
The cookie vanished the instant it touched my lips, and a warm energy soon seeped into my body.
"…Oh."
After a brief wait, I could see the wound closing. The speed was a little slow, but it confirmed that consuming food healed wounds.
"Alright. Now you stab yourself too."
"What?!"
"We need to see if this ability is only mine or if other people have it too."
"N-no, but with a fork…"
Taejeongtaese hesitated for a very long time, but eventually managed to stab the back of his own hand hard enough to draw blood.
He made an enormous fuss as he put a cookie in his mouth—and the wound on his hand began slowly closing as well.
"This is a common player privilege."
"Privilege?"
"In the apocalypse, not needing to eat is an enormous privilege. Once the Second Apocalypse starts, even ordinary food like this gets hard to find. Hunting monsters to eat isn't easy either. But we don't have to eat at all unless we specifically need to heal wounds. And if we do get hurt, we just have to eat food… no, just put it to our lips, and it heals. I don't know yet how severe a wound can be healed with how much food, though."
Recovering the body by eating food.
It had been obvious in the game—but for it to apply directly to reality…
I'd thought we'd been possessed into the game without any privileges at all.
From the start, every player had been possessed with privileges.
No—not complete privileges.
"Taste" is a pretty important factor in living life. But every player had become a body that couldn't taste anything.
Beings who only eat for the purpose of healing.
Isn't that closer to a "tool" than a "living creature"?
I did think there was a reason we were the ones possessed.
The status window that only opens when you approach the Secret of the Apocalypse. The privilege given only to me, the clear-all-zones veteran. And now the ability to recover the body through meals.
Putting it all together—there's definitely some purpose behind possessing us.
Just who… for what. Why specifically shut-in losers like us?
Whether it's the secret of the apocalypse or the real reason we were possessed—I'll find out as I keep clearing the game.
I succeeded in the Bastard Route, and I've learned this body has excellent cost-performance. For now, I'll be satisfied with that.
Or so I thought.
Late that night, the Commander came to find me, checked the tips of my fingers, and spoke in a trembling voice.