Chapter 226: Broken (1)

"It’s good to see you again, Moon You."

Verso spoke with a broad, toothy grin.

But his words left Ethan utterly stunned.

"What did you just say?"

"Hmm? Moon You. Isn’t that your name? Or at least the name of your channel? Hahahaha!"

Verso burst into enthusiastic laughter, while Ethan remained frozen in place.

The man standing before him wasn’t merely another player who had been transported from a different world.

He was someone who knew Ethan’s former identity.

In other words... a player from Earth. Someone who was familiar with the gaming channel known as Moon You.

Then, all of a sudden, Ethan noticed an important detail.

"Wait... You just said you were happy to see me again?"

"Yeah! I’ve wanted to meet you ever since that eccentric developer told me about you!"

"Hold on... I’m having a hard time keeping up with you. When exactly did we meet before? And what did Ishizaki tell you?"

Ethan pressed a hand over his right eye, feeling a genuine headache coming on from everything that was happening.

A transported player who knew his identity, and who had apparently known that Ethan would eventually arrive in the world of Ordeal.

It was a disturbing claim.

After all, it implied that Ishizaki had planned the whole thing long in advance.

Unlike the increasingly bewildered Ethan, Verso remained perfectly composed.

"We’ve never actually met in the literal sense. Not face-to-face, at least... But we used to talk all the time during your streams!"

"Man, you have no idea how shocked I was when I saw you suddenly collapse after beating the game. It was such a shock that I actually shed a tear! Can you believe that?"

Verso pulled an exaggeratedly tragic expression, as though he’d just been moved to tears by some heartbreaking drama.

Yet every word out of his mouth was another bombshell, leaving Ethan with an increasingly painful headache.

"You saw me collapse? But you arrived here before I did..."

Ethan took a few steps backward, struggling to make sense of the sequence of events.

"Ah... I don’t know about that. I actually lived for a while after you suddenly disappeared. Then, one day, BOOM!! Truck-kun came out of nowhere and sent my body flying!"

"Next thing I knew, I was standing in front of that four-eyed guy. A classic shonen protagonist reincarnation, don’t you think? Hahahaha!"

"What the hell is wrong with you? Do you think this is some kind of joke?"

Ethan frowned, fighting the urge to punch the man standing in front of him.

Of all the people he’d encountered throughout his life, Verso was probably the strangest by a considerable margin.

"All right, all right... Don’t get mad! I’m just joking around, you know, trying to lighten the mood."

"Take this seriously. If you died after me but arrived here before I did... that means I remained dead for some time instead of being reincarnated immediately."

As he considered the implications, Ethan realized he’d severely underestimated what had happened in the place Ishizaki called the Transit Zone.

He’d always assumed that he’d appeared there immediately after his death.

But reality seemed to be different.

There had been a gap between his death and his reincarnation, one that, judging by Verso’s account, must have lasted at least several years.

During that time, Verso had arrived in the world of Ordeal and spent a considerable period living there before Ethan finally appeared.

’That explains how Ishizaki knew I’d be coming after him...’

Ethan’s mind began filling in the missing pieces.

If he’d remained dead throughout that period, somehow preserved in some unknown place by an extraordinary power, then it made sense that Ishizaki would know about his eventual reincarnation.

But more importantly...

Verso knew him.

"Wait... You said we used to talk during my streams. Do I know you?"

"What?! You don’t remember me?! And here I thought we had something special between us!"

Verso launched into another dramatic performance, much to Ethan’s irritation.

"Just tell me who you are and stop messing around."

"Oh, you never used to get angry this easily! Though I guess it makes sense. I was one of your biggest supporters, after all! Even if most of my donations were only one dollar! Hahahaha!"

Verso burst into loud laughter once again.

But this time, his words stirred a particular memory in Ethan’s mind.

A memory of someone who would donate a single dollar just to send ridiculous messages through the donation chat.

Someone Ethan had wanted to ban on several occasions but couldn’t bring himself to, because that same person would occasionally donate substantial amounts of money.

"Wait... You’re... Square Dick?"

"In the flesh! Though I’m not sure whether a dick actually counts as flesh. Does it? Ah, whatever! Hahahaha!"

Ethan slapped a hand against his forehead as another mild headache began to form.

’Of course it’s him... They’re both completely insane weirdos...’

The more he compared them, the more similarities he found.

Verso was exactly the kind of deranged lunatic who would willingly call himself Square Dick.

"That bastard Ishizaki does nothing but lie. He said he was sending heroes, but all he’s actually doing is sending random people!"

"Man, I feel like I was just insulted. I might not be as great as the legendary Moon You who beat the game, but I was there for every single one of your streams, you know."

"My knowledge of the game probably rivals yours."

Verso was still smiling, though his expression had grown noticeably more serious.

"Yeah, yeah... Let’s forget about that for now. Instead, tell me something. Have you encountered any other transmigrators besides the two of us?"

It was an important question.

If both Ethan and Square Dick had ended up here, there was no guarantee that others from their world hadn’t followed.

Verso shook his head.

"I haven’t encountered anyone besides you. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t others hiding their identities."

"After all, I only managed to figure out who you were because that four-eyed guy gave me a hint about your arrival beforehand. Without that, I probably never would’ve recognized you."

"That makes sense..."

Ethan nodded.