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Chapter 185

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Addict II

2

Dofarming.

A new term that literally means farming dopamine.

In the past, during the era when civilization was still intact, it referred to the behavior of internet ghosts who wandered around looking for stimulating videos or news.

But even though the world ended, history progressed.

In this apocalyptic era, we have finally realised "dofarming," not just as a metaphor.

“I feel... so happy...!”

Sim Aryeon shuddered.

“What is this feeling of happiness? I just cooked and ate plain rice. All I did was consume a lump of carbohydrates! But this happiness! This overwhelming happiness is wrapping around me! Guildmaster! What on earth is this...?”

“It’s a new rice variety that will sustain the Korean Peninsula, called Dopamine.”

“It’s so delicious! Even if I eat white rice three times a day, I feel like I’d scream with happiness! I’ve been missing out on life until now... Do ordinary people really live every day listening to this dreamlike melody, with not a trace of depression?”

“No. Most people probably weren’t that happy in life...”

Who could have predicted this?

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which followed the First, Second, and Third, wasn’t about AI or robotics. It was an Agricultural Revolution .

Now, all arable land in Korea was producing dopamine.

It looked just like ordinary rice, so if a foreigner saw it, they might wonder if this was North Korea and get the year confused.

“My stomach is full, and happiness just follows... This is crazy. This crop is insane, Guildmaster...”

But did dopamine consume a lot of nutrients? Not at all.

In fact, it consumed far less than growing real rice. Just add fertilizer and diligently plant the seedlings, and dopamine would literally multiply.

Naturally, the atmosphere on the SG network changed dramatically.

- Anonymous: Confession) I used to troll anonymously and leave nasty comments.

- Anonymous: But after a month of eating dopamine, I started wondering why I lived like that. Pointing out others’ flaws never improved my life...

- Anonymous: I especially want to apologize to the regular member of the forum, Witch Judge. I’m the one who always trolled you, calling you a train otaku aunt.

- Anonymous: I used to criticize you, saying that as a prominent figure in Korea, you should maintain a better image, and that it was your responsibility as a public figure. But really, I was just trying to compensate for my unhappiness by making you unhappy.

- Anonymous: I regret my past. Will you forgive me, Witch Judge?

└[Three Thousand] Witch Judge: Of course, I’ll forgive you^^ But which city do you live in?

Even these changes were just the tip of the iceberg.

There were even more earth-shattering events.

- KoreanVillage: I’m retiring from SG Net.

Sim Aryeon announced that she was quitting SG Net!

- KoreanVillage: Life is busy.

Sim Aryeon used the word life!

- KoreanVillage: If I’ve hurt anyone during my activities, I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize. I’m sorry.

Sim Aryeon apologized!

I was so shocked that my jaw dropped.

In all 671 episodes, since the invention of SG Net and Sim Aryeon’s survival, never once had she abandoned her identity as the KoreanVillage Villain .

But now she was leaving the online world? Dedicating herself entirely to living as the Saintess of the North in Pyongyang? Could something like this really happen?

“Aryeon, are you... serious about this?”

“Yes? Yes, yes. These days, I find it much more fulfilling to live my daily life eating dopamine rather than posting nonsense on SG Net...”

Of course, after saying that, the KoreanVillage Villain secretly returned to SG Net a week later.

Leaving me with the famous line, “Guildmaster, I realized that you can’t live on happiness alone (smile).”

Still, if you look at it from another perspective, that meant the KoreanVillage Villain voluntarily quit SG Net for a whole week.

My jaw didn’t seem like it was going to come back into place anytime soon.

“Is that really such a big deal...?”

“You should try living as long as I have, Chief Noh Doha. The sun has risen in the west many times, but Aryeon has never done this before.”

“You’re more astonished by an internet troll than by celestial movements. What a worthwhile life you’ve had as a regressor...”

“By the way, Chief, aren’t you going to try dopamine?”

“No.”

Noh Doha responded dismissively. He sipped the coffee I made for him with a grimace as he flipped through some documents.

“Even though it passed 50 years of side-effect testing, why would I eat such suspicious, empty crops? I don’t intend to apply for a job as a human guinea pig...”

“But it’s practically a drug with no side effects. It makes you incredibly happy. The statistics should be there, showing that life satisfaction is higher now than when civilization was intact, right?”

“Oh. Happiness. Such a sweet sound...”

Noh Doha sneered.

“I’ve lived without that nonsense and will continue to do so. Well, I do appreciate that thanks to dopamine, crime and complaints have plummeted, and labor productivity has skyrocketed, making my job as Chief much easier...”

“Hmm.”

“And Doctor Jang, do you think I’m unaware of your true intentions? You just want to see me grinning foolishly in a state of happiness, don’t you...?”

“That’s a misunderstanding.”

How did he know? Did Noh Doha develop mind-reading abilities too? He really is like a ghost.

“By the way, the Magical Girl Association has requested some dopamine seeds. In exchange, they’re offering to expand the farmland we can use in Kyushu...”

“Is there anything to think about? Share it with them. In tough times, it’s best to share the good stuff.”

“Heh.”

Noh Doha’s eyes gleamed behind his monocle.

“Aren’t you just expanding the test scale to ensure this miraculous crop really has no side effects? Doctor Jang, you aren’t eating dopamine either, are you...?”

I remained silent.

Because he was half-right.

――In the end, all of human civilization is just a desperate struggle to achieve happiness.

The minimum condition for happiness, its average, is to avoid unhappiness. In other words, not having one’s rights violated.

As the number of members in a society increases to hundreds, thousands, or tens of millions, the happiness pursued by that society converges towards an average.

Thus, the laws of societies that grow beyond a certain size always focus on the minimum condition for happiness: preventing rights violations.

The rest of happiness must be found by individuals on their own, and social happiness and personal happiness are inherently divergent.

Achieving the gap between society\'s happiness and individuals\' happiness, which widens as the population grows into tens of millions or billions, simultaneously.

Isn’t that the ultimate goal of humanity and civilization?

“Dopamine may be the tool that allows humanity to reach the pinnacle of civilization.”

It may sound absurd, but I seriously considered that possibility.

After all, life was painful for many people.

If you could provide them with a crop that offers awakening effects, fatigue recovery, productivity boosts, and hunger suppression, yet has no side effects?

Perhaps, at long last, life wouldn’t be suffering but a lucky lottery.

As a regressor who has lived for thousands of years, I couldn’t help but worry about the world after defeating all the anomalies.

“If dopamine really has no side effects, the Sword Maiden will become the eternal savior of humanity.”

――And if you\'ve listened to my story this far, you can easily imagine it.

Unfortunately, the miracle crop that brought \'happiness\' to everyone didn\'t end with a \'happy ending.\'

"Doctor Jang."

A year later, Tang Seorin came to me and spoke.

"Not a single child was born in Busan this year."

3

The news that South Korea\'s birth rate was breaking world records daily was no longer surprising.

But there had never been a time when the birth rate hit 0%. Not even in the apocalypse when anomalies took over the world.

Tang Seorin was telling me that this record had been set in none other than Busan.

"...Not a single one?"

"Yeah. Not one."

Tang Seorin\'s tone seemed calm at first glance.

It was a kind of defense mechanism. The more serious the situation, the colder her voice became.

It was a characteristic of someone who knew that the entire organization would collapse if they wavered.

"I couldn\'t believe it either, so I verified it multiple times. But no matter how many residents there are in Busan, it\'s impossible that not a single newborn was delivered. Maybe they just didn\'t give birth in hospitals or clinics."

"......"

"But it\'s certain. This year, not a single human has been born."

To Tang Seorin, I was the one person she could momentarily let her cold facade down in front of, a confidant.

After a brief silence, Tang Seorin spoke again, layering subjective sincerity over objective truth.

"All the babies were stillborn."

According to her investigation, this phenomenon commonly occurred around the 8th week of pregnancy.

The fetus, after finding a place in the womb, suddenly \'stopped\' growing.

It even curled up and gradually shrank.

As if it didn’t want to leave any trace in this world.

As if every pregnancy was nothing more than \'imagination.\'

"......"

"......"

After receiving her verbal report and written data, I could only remain silent.

Both Tang Seorin and I had already guessed it.

We knew what was behind this bizarre phenomenon, what the cause was.

And so, without saying a word, we shared the premonition that this wasn’t just a story limited to a certain city in the southern peninsula.

"Of course, it could just be that this strange phenomenon is only happening in Busan."

But it wasn’t.

A week later, Cheon Yohwa came to Busan and said.

"Teacher, the babies are dying."

"......"

"No, I should say they\'re disappearing. They just vanish. Continuously."

The same news kept coming from Busan, Sejong, Pyongyang, Daejeon, southern Seoul, and even the Japanese archipelago, from every city and village where humanity barely managed to cling to life.

The babies aren\'t being born.

No human visits the earth anymore. No longer.

"......"

"......"

The meeting room of the Regression Alliance fell into an eerie silence.

Lee Hayul, the most recent among us to knock on the door of this world, murmured softly.

"...Maybe it\'s just this year?"

But it wasn’t.

A year later, the same reports came in.

"Busan. Birth rate is zero."

"Ugh. Not a single baby was born in Sejong either."

"Py-Pyongyang has none too......"

It was a strange thing.

There were no more unfortunate humans. Everyone was happy, except for a very small, deliberate minority who avoided dopamine intake.

Human civilization had finally reached its peak.

And at this highest point, for some reason, humanity suddenly exercised a veto on the act of repeating life.

Why?

We’ve all witnessed the phenomenon of \'not having children because life is unhappy.\'

But the opposite – \'not giving birth despite being perfectly happy\' – was a bizarre phenomenon.

There was no precedent.

But the cause was clear.

"There\'s one thing we can try."

The people in the meeting room turned to look at me.

"This is undoubtedly the work of an anomaly. Something ominous related to dopamine is happening to the fetuses."

Cheon Yowa tilted her head.

"But, teacher, we observed the fetuses in many ways, and indeed, starting from the 8th week, they suddenly began to shrink for no apparent reason."

"Yes. That was from external observation. In other words, the strange phenomenon isn’t happening to the fetus\'s appearance but \'inside.\'"

"Inside the fetus...? What does that mean?"

"Dreams."

I looked toward one corner of the meeting room. There, Fairy No. 264 was playing with Lego blocks.

Looking at the anomaly, who we called a fairy but read as a nightmare, I said,

"I will personally enter the dreams of the newborns and find out which anomaly is abducting our future."