ALL NOVEL Chapter 19 - The Worst and Lowest Human Being
Chapter 19. The Worst and Lowest Human Being
After retiring from the organization, Tbalrom began playing a game called
The nickname ‘Tbalrom’ was also given to him by his junior, and he didn’t even know what it meant exactly.
The junior said it was a very difficult game to conquer and that he wouldn’t have time to be bored, but…
‘It’s nothing special.’
Starting from the lowest-level Candy Zone, Tbalrom felt bored with the long nurturing period.
It was already frustrating to start as a ten-year-old child, and no matter what choice he made, everyone worshipped and revered him.
However, when the second apocalypse began, and he suffered a surprise attack from another zone, resulting in a dead end for the entire zone, Tbalrom finally found it interesting.
‘If you choose a low-level area, it becomes inevitably difficult to survive in the survival mode.’
Tbalrom liked the lesson that living a lavish life in abundant resources meant you couldn’t survive in survival mode, so he gradually raised the zone levels.
By the time he reached the Candy, Cola, Cigarette, Beer, Chicken, and Cocaine Zones, he realized something.
‘You need strategies. You can’t clear this without strategies.’
The Safe Zone fundamentally didn’t support multiplayer, but survival felt like playing multiplayer because the AI of each zone started the survival based on the strategies learned from previous players.
The problem started from there.
Since the AI was matched to the player’s strategy level, Tbalrom had faced various players’ AIs until the Cocaine Zone, but then it started being dominated by a specific player’s AI.
[Candy Zone – AI HomeProtector]
[Cola Zone – AI Dopamine Addict]
[Cigarette Zone – AI HomeProtector]
[Beer Zone – AI Sapppossible]
[Chicken Zone- AI TaejongTaeseBeyonce]
[Cocaine Zone – Me (Tbalrom)]
[Knife Zone – AI Operator]
[Love Zone – AI Dopamine Addict]
[Unicorn Zone – AI Dopamine Addict]
“Is it you again, Dopamine Addict……!”
Tbalrom was utterly crushed by AI Dopamine Addict.
By this point, he had no choice but to look it up, so he entered the Safe Zone community.
What he learned there was that frequently seen players like ‘HomeProtector,’ ‘Sapppossible,’ and ‘TaejongTaeseBeyonce’ were also derivatives of Dopamine Addict’s strategy.
‘Is Dopamine Addict’s strategy that great?’
After reading a few community posts, he found that overseas users were also stealing Dopamine Addict’s strategies.
Safe Zone was a game with high freedom.
There wouldn’t be any fun in playing the game if you just followed another player’s strategy.
Thinking that way, Tbalrom opened Dopamine Addict’s Cola Zone strategy post and was shocked.
‘What is this? There was a grave in the slum? No, why did you dig up the grave in the first place? What’s this? Poisoning the NPC after pleasing them as much as possible? Is he insane?’
Before he knew it, he was looking up other strategies of Dopamine Addict.
Then Tbalrom learned another fact.
Many people said that Dopamine Addict’s strategies were something only Dopamine Addict could do.
His strategies had high views because they were unethical, immoral, and provocative.
‘I think I know what strategy to set up now.’
Tbalrom decided to strategize against Dopamine Addict’s strategy!
After all, the only players who succeeded in Love and Unicorn strategies were those who followed Dopamine Addict’s strategies.
Tbalrom managed to succeed in the Cocaine Zone strategy by inversely utilizing Dopamine Addict’s strategy.
‘Though there’s a strategy for the Cocaine Zone by Dopamine Addict… I’ll never follow that bastard’s strategy.’
In the meantime, Dopamine Addict’s new strategy was posted.
[Dopamine Addict] Hidden Safe Zone ‘Knife’ Starting Strategy
“……!”
As soon as he saw the post, Tbalrom jumped up from his seat.
‘Knife… was a hidden zone?’
Was it not a zone that couldn’t be chosen?
‘No, can a ten-year-old survive in a zone full of psychopaths?’
With many thoughts running through his mind, Tbalrom hurriedly left a comment.
Tbalrom: But how did you open the hidden zone?
└Dopamine Addict: It’s simple. Just clear the starting endings of all other 8 zones.
“…….”
Tbalrom had thought this for a while, but Dopamine Addict was really annoying.
Thinking that, Tbalrom smiled at the comment below.
└BangguseokYeoBo: Easy for you, you b*stard
‘That feels so refreshing.’
But Dopamine Addict still replied in an annoying manner.
└Dopamine Addict: I must have posted all the starting strategies for the other 8 zones?
└BangguseokYeoBo: Was that strategy meant for others to follow?? Is he crazy?
└Dopamine Addict: I’m blocking you.
Tbalrom fully agreed with BangguseokYeoBo’s thoughts, but it would be troublesome if he got blocked and couldn’t see the Knife strategy, so he kept quiet.
‘I need to open the hidden zone faster than anyone else.’
Currently, the only player who had conquered the Knife Zone was Dopamine Addict.
If he became the second player to conquer the Knife Zone?
‘Dopamine Addict’s AI Tbalrom will be matched in Dopamine Addict’s Knife Zone.’
With the sole purpose of appearing on Dopamine Addict’s AI list, Tbalrom skipped meals and pulled all-nighters to conquer the Love and Unicorn zones.
When conquering Love and Unicorn, he threw away all pride and followed Dopamine Addict’s strategies.
His mind knew that it was the fastest way.
After several trials and errors, Tbalrom opened the hidden zone and entered the community to announce that he was the second to open the Knife Zone.
Unexpected news greeted Tbalrom.
“Heavy users… missing?”
After Dopamine Addict posted the address of a convenience store collaborating with the Safe Zone in the community, heavy users, including Dopamine Addict, had vanished like smoke.
However, even when checking the community or game connection records, there were no signs of life from the heavy users.
Tbalrom also thought he should visit that convenience store.
‘Not all heavy users disappeared. However, those who said they would visit the convenience store in their posts all disappeared.’
The users’ last destination was the convenience store.
So, something must be there.
‘Dopamine Addict was strangely obsessed with announcing strategies. He might have been trying to lure people in by increasing his recognition.’
Dopamine Addict might have been just a clout chaser, but Tbalrom, with his life experience, naturally thought there must be some conspiracy.
When he got the address and arrived at the convenience store, there was someone else there.
“…You look familiar. Are you a former national representative?”
“Haha, how long has it been since I retired? You’re here because of Safe Zone too, right? My in-game name is TaejongTaeseBeyonce. What’s yours?”
‘One of Dopamine Addict’s followers.’
It was suspicious enough that a retired national representative was at a game collaboration convenience store, but also a follower of Dopamine Addict?
Raising his guard, Tbalrom answered, pretending to browse items and stepping back from TaejongTaeseBeyonce.
“I’m Tbalrom.”
“I think I’ve seen you on the community. Wow, they have bottled cola here?”
While TaejongTaeseBeyonce was distracted picking items, Tbalrom grabbed a knife among the displayed items.
“Oh? Are you buying a knife?”
Tbalrom had chosen the knife to prepare for any unexpected situation, but he responded in a casual voice to the voice from behind.
“It looks cool since it’s the Hidden Zone symbol. I plan to start strategizing now that the Knife strategy is up.”
“You’re following Dopamine Addict’s strategy, huh!”
Guessing that TaejongTaeseBeyonce was about to ramble about Dopamine Addict, Tbalrom quickly moved to the cashier to escape.
However, he unexpectedly had to argue with the cashier.
“Are you serious? Are you really going to pick the knife? Think again. Think carefully.”
‘Why is this cashier acting like this?’
The cashier also looked strangely familiar, and he kept trying to dissuade Tbalrom from buying the knife.
Growing more suspicious, Tbalrom decided he had to buy the knife.
“Just ring it up.”
“…As the first customer to pick the knife, it’s on the house. Congratulations.”
‘It’s free? No, the knife didn’t even have a price tag or packaging in the first place……?’
Feeling very uneasy, Tbalrom managed to get the knife.
He thought he should leave the store like an ordinary customer and observe the convenience store’s movements from outside.
As he stepped out, he heard the cashier mutter with dead eyes.
“Idiot……”
‘What a rude bastard.’
Clicking his tongue inwardly, Tbalrom stepped outside the convenience store.
Then, he was transported into
In the Knife Zone, inside the body of a ten-year-old child.
Shit.
‘Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.’
He had no idea how he escaped.
After waking up in a ten-year-old’s body and c
ursing out of shock, he was caught by psychopathic killers and tortured until he passed out.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the thrill-killers didn’t easily kill the child they found, allowing Tbalrom to survive the first day without dying.
Barely retaining his sanity after being tortured for a day, Tbalrom managed to recall Dopamine Addict’s Knife strategy.
Acting like he had lost his mind, he made the killers lower their guard and escaped.
Then, he moved to acquire the Meteor Knife.
The man holding the Meteor Knife was the actual boss of this zone, a lunatic who liked to eat children’s flesh.
Tbalrom disguised himself as a corpse using his tortured body and, when the cannibal tried to eat him, stabbed the man in the neck with a fork and stole the Meteor Knife.
Stabbing everyone there and fleeing madly, Tbalrom hid in a narrow space where the killers couldn’t reach.
Overwhelmed by the fear and injustice of this mysterious possession, he cried uncontrollably.
‘I should commit suicide.’
There was no way he could survive in this place, in this body.
Maybe he could return to his original world if he died.
Just as he was about to choose to escape by ending his own life, the system opened.
[‘Dopamine Addict’ has entered the public chat room.]
‘Dopamine… Addict?’
Seeing that system message, something began to grow inside Tbalrom.
It was a desire for revenge and a will to survive.
He swore to kill that bastard if he ever made it out alive.
Whether Dopamine Addict was the root of all this or not didn’t matter to the crazed Tbalrom.
All he needed was a reason to survive.
“…But now it’s over.”
Even if he had a weapon that could kill any opponent with one stab, there was no cure for being ganged up on.
Barely managing to hide in his hideout after sustaining fatal wounds, Tbalrom knew he would die from excessive bleeding soon.
Dopamine Addict said he could heal his wounds by eating, but shit!
This zone was fundamentally about cannibalism.
There was no way there was any decent food around.
Hunting monsters was impossible, with so many killers lurking around outside.
So, Tbalrom barely healed his initial wounds by eating the materials the cannibal had prepared as side dishes, but he was still in poor condition.
‘Dopamine Addict… what would that bastard do in this situation?’
Dopamine Addict’s strategy advised cannibalism to survive, but while he could kill, he couldn’t bring himself to eat people.
‘If that bastard Dopamine Addict were in the Knife Zone, would he have survived by eating people without a second thought?’
Come to think of it, that guy persistently sent me friend requests.
Tbalrom, filled with hatred for Dopamine Addict, had rejected all friend requests.
Now that he thought he might die soon, he strangely wanted to talk to Dopamine Addict.
Impulsively sending a friend request to Dopamine Addict, Tbalrom immediately regretted it.
‘After all my refusals, there’s no way he’d accept my friend request now…….’
Just as he thought he had done something pathetic, thinking he might die soon.
[Dopamine Addict has accepted your friend request.]
[Dopamine Addict has entered the 1:1 chat room.]
[Dopamine Addict: Have you finally decided to talk to me?]
Seeing the continuous messages, Tbalrom felt a strange sense of relief.
So, he continued the conversation with a bit more goodwill than before.
[Tbalrom: I won’t be able to come to kill you.]
[Dopamine Addict: What are you talking about.]
[Dopamine Addict: Did you fail the strategy?]
[Tbalrom: I couldn’t find any food.]
[Tbalrom: I didn’t want to resort to cannibalism, even if it’s just a game.]
[Dopamine Addict: …….]
With no response from Dopamine Addict, Tbalrom felt sure he was being looked down on for prioritizing survival over eating NPCs.
‘Dopamine Addict… you might have been the best player, but you’re the worst and lowest human being.’
Just as Tbalrom thought it was fortunate he could die with his dignity intact as a human.
[Dopamine Addict has requested an item trade.]
[Trade Item: Cookies (15)]
[Do you accept?]
The hand of salvation arrived from the worst and lowest human being.