This Universe Needs Old People - Chapter 52



Only Noblemtl

Apocalypse Needs Old People Episode 052

52. Salvation

actually.

I didn’t care because it was something like my origin that didn’t matter if it was revealed.

The commander went so far as to shoot and kill Lieutenant General Bottom during a staff meeting to keep my origins out of the spotlight.

At the executive meeting, I warned my mother not to even think about tripping up Luna Moon.

Perhaps because of that influence, most of the cadets, unless they were children of high-ranking officials like Plato, did not know much about my origins.

Even the children of high-ranking officers did not talk about my origins carelessly, so while I was attending the military academy on the orders of the commander, everyone seemed to think that I was so outstanding because I grew up receiving training as a successor, so they appropriately went along with my orders.

I didn’t know Plato would make such a sudden move.

Well, it would be helpful at this point to reveal that I have no formal education… … .

‘Plato, this guy really doesn’t think about the future.’

He’s not the type of guy who would do something rash like this just because he trusted me, so he must have done this because he sincerely prioritized completing the tasks I asked him to do.

Meanwhile, the commander’s expression was so cold that it was as if the second apocalypse had descended upon him.

If you asked me what I was thinking right now, I thought I would say, ‘I’m thinking about killing that bastard,’ but I didn’t think I would do anything to Plato right away, so I left him alone for the time being and listened to Plato’s speech that followed.

“It has only been three months since Heydam, who had disappeared for some reason in the past, returned. That means he has not even had a proper meal, let alone successor training. Heydam challenged our cadets in a training simulation and achieved two great victories. If we had not found him by now, it would have been impossible for him to challenge the training simulation. Even though he was already capable of overwhelming the graduates at the age of ten.”

Only then did Plato look away from me and look at the crowd.

“We may have missed many ‘Haydams’ so far. The population of our district is increasing day by day, and the food shortage to support them continues. You are young men with healthy bodies and minds now, but youth does not last forever. We will all grow old and tired someday, and it will be other children who will support you. So, I ask all the 11-year-old children in this district to allow admission to the military academy, to the graduates here, their fathers, mothers, and sponsors, and to the honorable commander. Thank you.”

After the speech, silence fell over the graduation ceremony.

The silence continued even as Plato returned to his seat next to me, looking at me with a pleased face.

Next was the commander’s turn to give a congratulatory speech, but the principal was too hasty to step forward and was just sweating profusely.

The smile had still disappeared from the commander’s expression, but the murderous intent that had filled his face just a moment ago had faded.

Just a face that is thinking deeply before deciding on something.

Then, unexpectedly, it was Lucas who broke the silence.

-Clap clap clap… … .

Lucas, who was sitting in the front row, was applauding.

Everyone’s eyes turned to Lucas as the sound of applause echoed through the silence.

Lucas slowly got up from his seat, stopped applauding, and spoke.

“I also ask you to do the same.”

Then, Bones, who was sitting next to me, was seen whispering to me with a very bewildered expression on his face, asking if I was crazy.

Lucas looked up at the commander and said, ignoring Bones.

“To be honest, I always thought that since Haydam grew up in a better environment than I did, he was a better person than me. When I heard that Haydam refused to enroll in the military academy, saying that it was a waste of time, I thought that the noble young master who received successor training was ignoring us.”

The fact that I had been rejected for admission was something I had never hidden, but the other cadets were in an uproar for a moment as if they were hearing this for the first time.

Lucas waited for the room to quiet down before opening his mouth again to speak.

“But now that I look back, I have this thought. Why did I hold a grudge against Heydam, who refused to enter this military academy that only the children of high-ranking officers or those sponsored by high-ranking officers could enter? I think that is a real sense of entitlement. And now, I have this thought again. If I had not found Heydam, and if he had not been here, I think we might have lost a great commander who was respected by countless cadets.”

At some point Lucas was looking at me.

Lucas continued speaking.

“I dare say this to your Majesty the Commander. In order to find one Heydam, we must raise a hundred children. As a cadet, as a child raised by this district, I ask you to do so.”

Then he turned around and spoke to the numerous cadets behind him.

“I would also like to ask other cadets to please support Cadet Plato’s graduation speech with a loud round of applause.

After Lucas finished speaking, there was a very short silence.

“Oh, shit! I don’t know.”

Bones, who had been sitting next to him, suddenly stood up and swore.

Bones roughly loosened his tie, which didn’t suit him at all, looked straight ahead, and began to clap loudly.

Just as Lucas smiled faintly, the other graduates also stood up and began clapping their hands, and a huge round of applause reverberated throughout the graduation ceremony hall.

‘I never thought you would do this much… … .’

I just thought Plato and the commander would put on a good show.

Little did he know that Lucas would step forward and help, and that everyone would rally behind Plato.

Because that wasn’t in the game.

I just thought of them as NPCs, so I didn’t care what they thought when they saw me.

My origins and my refusal to enter the military academy were for strategic reasons, as Lucas had said, and there was no plausible reason for that.

When the Second Apocalypse comes, I am only thinking about leaving this area, and these numerous cadets were expecting me to become their commander and lead them one day.

At that moment, the commander’s voice was heard softly.

“You really… always exceed my expectations.”

The commander’s cold expression disappeared, he smiled at me, then stood up and walked towards the microphone.

As the commander grabbed the microphone, the applause stopped.

In the tense silence, the commander spoke in a flat voice.

“For the sake of one Haydam, one hundred children must be raised… … .”

As the commander opened his mouth, the cadets who had risen from their seats to support Plato froze and the sound of them swallowing dryly could be heard here and there.

The commander, seeing that sight, added with a considerably softened attitude.

“How could I, as Haydam’s father, refuse that request? I will gladly become the father of a hundred children.”

After the commander finished speaking to the cadets, he looked at the officers sitting behind the graduates, who had obviously embarrassed expressions on their faces, and declared:

“Starting this spring, after the punitive expedition ends, admission to the military academy will be by examination rather than recommendation, and all 11-year-old children in this area will be eligible to apply. If you have any objections, speak up now.”

There was no executive stupid enough to object to this situation, and no executive bold enough to take action in the absence of Anton, so the backrooms were quiet.

Because of this, the commander’s subsequent words sounded particularly loud.

“Okay, congratulations on your graduation.”

* * *

… That’s how it ended.

As soon as Anton heard the graduation speech, he became lost in thought and ran out of the underground bunker, leaving Banggu Seok Yeo-bo and I alone.

Since Meursault is cleaning up the upper part, you can slowly go up after hearing a general story about what happened with Anton.

“Wow, hey!”

Banggu Seok Yeo-bo approached me with an admiring look on her face.

“How do you show up with such perfect timing? You’re awesome!”

I glanced at that corner lady.

“Are you a player kidnapped by an NPC? Do you know what will happen to you and follow me here?”

“You didn’t believe me when I said I was being threatened earlier? And nothing really happened.”

Look at this guy.

“Be careful. If I hadn’t told Plato about the adjutant, you might have been tortured today.”

This is not just nagging.

If Anton hadn’t really made a way out in advance, Banggu Seok-yeo would not have returned safely.

Because this is the official safe zone torture restaurant.

But it seemed like nagging that didn’t reach Banggu Seok-yeo-bo, and she reacted more violently to other words than the mention of being tortured.

“Come to think of it, are you really going to make Plato your adjutant?”

“uh.”

“Then me?!”

Wow, this guy really seems to be feeling wronged.

“I don’t know why you thought I would make a guy like you my adjutant, but… even if I wanted to, you wouldn’t be able to become my adjutant any faster than Plato.”

“Oh, so when I grow up, you’ll hand over the position of adjutant?”

Well… well, let’s just leave it to your own devices.

“So, you, go to school.”

“Last time they told me to go to the military, but this time they’re telling me to go to school.”

“Plato asked for mandatory admission to the military academy in his commencement speech. The commander accepted it.”

“What would change if we made admission mandatory?”

“You and Taejung will be able to enter the military academy this spring. The age for admission to the academy is 11, and our possessed bodies are exactly 10 years old.”

As I said that, I quickly added, worried that Banggu Seok-yeo might start complaining about not wanting to go to school twice.

“Surely you wouldn’t say no to me asking you to go to school twice after I saved your life twice, right?”

“Huh? No, okay. I’ll go to school.”

“… Are you serious?”

This guy… He was like that when he told me to join the military, and he has less ego than I thought.

“So, how much did you tell Anton?”

“How far did I leave off?”

“You’re probably calling me to ask me things like, did I really grow up in the slums? Am I trustworthy? And things like that?”

“Wow, how did you know that? You must be smart.”

That’s just because you’re stupid… No. It’s just because my mouth hurts.

“Anyway, I don’t think you’d keep your mouth shut or lie. How much did you say?”

“I told the truth, but they thought I was acting.”

I didn’t understand what he was saying, so I asked him again.

“What did you say?”

“I’ve only known you for three months and I don’t remember anything before I was ten. You even gave me the name Darling Outsider.”

Hmm. I see.

It would have been hard for me to believe it, too.

“Is that all?”

“Oh, Anton has a hidden daughter.”

“Daughter? Could it be Daphne?”

“You should stop reading novels too.”

What a novel! It’s almost an established fact among players that Daphne is Anton’s biological daughter!

“He showed me a picture of his daughter, saying that he would tell me his secrets and that I should tell him mine too. It wasn’t a picture, it was a portrait.”

A portrait… I don’t think so.

“Are you an Asian woman with a mole under her eye?”

“Oh! That’s right. How did you know?”

‘I see what happened.’

It seems that Anton showed Luna Moon’s portrait to Banggu Seok-yeo-bo to see if she was okay.

“Hey… You already knew that?”

“Anton doesn’t have a daughter.”

“None?”

“That portrait is Luna Moon.”

“Luna Moon… you say? That’s it?”

The look on her face was that of a woman in a corner of the room who didn’t understand.

“Why did you show me the picture of Luna Moon as if it were your daughter’s?”

“You said you’ve only known me for three months, so I guess you wanted to show me Luna Moon to see my reaction. You did the same to me.”

“He did that to you too?”

“It seems like he suddenly suspected that I was a fake, so he drew a portrait of Luna Moon and brought it to me as a gift. He wanted to see if I recognized him or not.”

“What? No, but you don’t know Luna Moon’s face, right? Because she appears as a skeleton. … Huh?”

The woman in the corner of the room who had said that looked at me with a face that realized something.

“But doesn’t that mean you’ve gotten away with it so far without being caught as a fake? Wow, how did you pretend to know that portrait?”

“Somehow well.”

It’s something that’s hard to brush off with the words ‘somehow well’, but I thought that if I just said this much to Banggu Seok Yeobo, she’d think ‘okay, I see’ and move on, so I said it roughly. As I expected, Banggu Seok Yeobo looked somewhat convinced by those words.

“Ah- So that’s why you said to me earlier that there shouldn’t be two kids who act as well as you? Now I understand.”

But there was still one part that I didn’t understand.

“But why don’t you recognize Luna Moon’s face? You’ve been a mystery. If you had seen the portrait, you would have pretended to recognize her and been suspected.”

I naturally assumed that Luna Moon’s face would appear in the preview that Banggu Seok-yeobo had played, and if Banggu Seok-yeobo didn’t recognize the face, I thought it might be because she had a bad memory and forgot its appearance, but the answer I got from Banggu Seok-yeobo was unexpected.

“You’ve never really played a minor before, have you? Minority players don’t have faces.”

Minor players don’t have faces…?

“You’re saying there’s no karma?”

“Yeah. Even if the appearance is shown, only illustrations with long bangs and a face hidden are shown. That’s the rule. Because the player has to be immersed.”

The woman in the corner of the room who had been talking up to that point spoke as if she had realized something.

“Then that picture from earlier must be Luna Moon Player’s face.”

When I heard that, my heart sank as if I had been confirmed dead.

Because there is now a possibility that the player possessed by Luna Moon’s body may really be my mother.

But soon I denied it.

‘No, this is just this guy’s guess.’

The NPC I’m pretending to be my son is actually my biological mother.

It’s something that is simply unbelievable, and I won’t believe it.

Unless clear evidence that she is my mother is thrust before my eyes.

“Wow, dude, but how come your character looks exactly like mine? It’s so weird.”

“… The faces of Asians that Westerners see are all the same.”

I answered like that, trying my best to remain calm.

Banggu Seok Yeo-bo tilted her head and said.

“Hmm? A Westerner?”

“Square Soft, you know. They probably just used any Asian face they could find to make this game.”

“No.”

“What isn’t it?”

“The company that made this game. Not Square Soft.”

I was speechless for a moment, then asked slowly.

“… What does that mean? Then where did you make it?”

“Apocalypse: Safe Zone 1 was made by a Korean company. The next series were acquired and produced by Square Soft.”

“A Korean company?”

“Yeah. It’s called the Salvation Project… … .”

“…what?”

Salvation Project.

It’s a company I know.

The company my mother started.

Why is that company’s name coming out of Banggu Seok Yeo-bo’s mouth now?

I have no answer to the cognitive dissonance.

The words from the corner of the room that followed stuck like a knife.

“It’s a small game company my older sister worked at.”