Chapter 12
After that first day when Chae-rin dropped by, many people apparently came to visit the forest.
And among them were some rather nasty individuals.
And one of those nasty individuals tried to forcefully have their way with Yor.
Yor (barely?) managed to kill that bad person and got some loot.
He showed her that loot while explaining what had happened, with a rather displeased expression.
'... Holy shit.'
After hearing the whole story, Chae-rin cursed internally.
Even she could see clearly who was at the root of this incident.
'It's because of me.'
Sure, the one who committed the act was that nasty piece of work.
But ultimately, the fundamental cause lay with her. And besides that, apparently quite a few unwanted visitors had shown up.
Her sins ran deep and deep...
And separate from that, something else caught her eye. Namely, the dagger right in front of her.
She'd thought it was high quality from the start, but after looking at it more, she realized what it was.
'That's a dagger with a level 75 requirement...'
She remembered wanting to buy it once her level was high enough.
Even now that she was over level 70, she still couldn't use it, yet here it was.
Since he said it was loot, it was obvious who it originally belonged to.
The thought naturally followed.
Wait, so this man beat a player who was level 75 or higher?
'Just what level is he...?'
She'd already felt this NPC was unusual just for living in the 'Forbidden Forest'.
But to tear apart such a high-level user... just what level could he be?
Chae-rin made a mental note not to mess with him anymore.
"Sigh..."
Having finished his explanation, Yor let out a sigh.
Though his expression was still fierce, he didn't seem to want to blame her anymore.
From Yor's perspective, he hadn't really been looking for a solution when he spoke. He just wanted to vent.
Seeing this, Chae-rin felt quite guilty.
This was one of the strange things about [Demons Saga]. How her streams and community posts could actually affect the game.
The reason being that this game was a real-time open RPG.
The moment a certain area or NPC becomes well-known, countless players would flock there.
Then [Demons Saga]'s high-performance AI would interact with all those players and produce results.
It happened occasionally. NPCs expressing dissatisfaction like this when their popularity rose. Notable examples included the Empire's Fourth Knights' Order Commander and Kyle the Guild receptionist.
Of course, she had her excuses.
Well, how was she supposed to know!
Who would've thought someone lived in a cave like this!!!
She'd gone in and found this NPC, and coincidentally it was while she was recording content so viewers flooded in.
Thanks to that she'd gotten some nice view counts but... anyway, she did have her excuses.
Of course, attempted rape was still quite a serious incident. Though things had stabilized now, with so many users, things like this happened occasionally.
After thinking for a while, Chae-rin spoke up.
"... Well, there might be one way to catch that bad person."
"... What?"
At those words, Yor's eyes lit up with interest. A gleam entered his amber eyes.
He really is handsome... She thought to herself before speaking again.
"We can put out a stream to ask around."
She didn't currently have her stream on.
After the Fourth Knights' Order Commander incident, it became known that excessive streaming could lower NPCs' affection.
Well, that and she was honestly too scared of getting kicked out right away to turn it on.
She praised her past self extensively for holding back on streaming.
She'd almost exposed the route to this cave again.
But now was the time to use the power of streaming. After all, such malicious users needed to be caught from the players' perspective too.
Of course, Yor's initial reaction was negative.
"What? You want to do that streaming thing again when that's what caused this in the first place?"
"Don't worry! Since we're inside the cave, they won't be able to pinpoint the location!"
"Well that's an issue too, but. I find it burdensome."
"Then should we just leave that bad person be? They might come back for revenge later."
"... Hmm."
But even Yor had to nod at Chae-rin's persuasion.
*
"Look here. See this red dot next to me? Usually when this appears it means we're streaming, so it'll be easy to tell in the future."
Actually, the 'Player's Eye' made it possible to tell already.
But this was new information to me. That the red dot there was visible to everyone.
Well, I suppose the people here would need some way to tell too.
'But it seems that's not visible.'
While listening to her explanation, I looked at the window that appeared next to her field of vision. What I knew to be called the 'chat window'.
Since she didn't mention anything besides the red dot, it seemed other people couldn't see the chat.
Since the stream had just started, the chats were just light greetings.
[hi]
[heyhey]
[oh what? that NPC?]
[you're meeting him again?]
[damn~ I believed in you!]
Among them were quite a few who recognized me and reacted. Since the stream just started there weren't many people, but it was attention nonetheless.
To me that attention was both burdensome and quite fascinating.
[btw NPC's clothes got thinner than last time...hehe]
[wow chest OwO wow back OwO]
[just looking at that body you know it's gonna be hot af lol]
[chae-rin ask him to take off just one more layer]
[ㄴ guys that's kinda gross;-;]
For reference, I'm currently wearing a leather tank top and a fur coat.
Though spring had come, the cave where sunlight barely reached was still cool.
Even if not the thick fur clothes from before, some cold protection gear was still necessary.
Of course that meant my clothes were a bit thinner but... I hadn't expected such reactions from just that.
'They were weird from before...'
Thanks to this I could be more certain of my suspicions.
Something felt off about the chat reactions from before. Come to think of it, even for otherworlders, it was strange for a woman to try to rape me.
I'd had suspicions before, but seeing these chat reactions confirmed it.
That gender roles were reversed on that Earth too.
I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed about this.
I'd thought maybe it was connected to where I originally lived... but apparently not.
Still, my disappointment was limited because these reactions themselves felt quite good.
Though there was some lust mixed in, attention was attention. For someone like me who had no connections with others, receiving unconditional attention felt quite nice.
[but why's the host's forehead so red??]
[looks like someone hit them hard...maybe? lol]
[chae-rin you getting beat up now too...]
After observing the surroundings for a while, viewers started teasing about her forehead.
Originally streams were mainly about back-and-forth between viewers and streamer. So they eagerly jumped at anything they could tease about. At least that's what I knew.
Usually she would react, but this time she was a bit more serious.
"Everyone wait, I have something serious to tell you."
With that she told the viewers what had happened to me.
That among those who watched her stream was someone with bad intentions. And that person ended up doing something. Thanks to that an unfortunate incident almost occurred, but Yor here (barely?) dealt with them.
The chat reactions to this were varied.
[so his name was Yor...taking notes....]
[should've told us the name sooner chae-rin]
Starting with those just reacting to the name.
[things were quiet for a while but trouble again]
[anyway those bitches need to get permabanned]
[but if it's an NPC does it really matter...?(genuinely asking)]
[you think you're the only one who can use that NPC you selfish fuck]
[what'll you do if the NPC dies? you won't be able to interact with them again]
To those outraged at the incident.
"So I was wondering if we could track them? We have clues here..."
[it's a dagger]
[isn't that the level 75 dagger?]
[good for narrowing it down since it's high level. obviously a thief.. dunno about others but people will find them]
[go ask the auction house NPC. that lady's got good memory and records]
[but wtf they killed a level 75 thief? then what level are they supposed to be wow]
[just got lucky maybe?]
What surprised me here was that the chat reactions were more serious than expected.
Since this was just a game to them, they could have just ignored it.
Apparently NPCs were more precious to them than I thought.
For me, who thought of myself as human but was in an NPC position, this was quite good news.
Thanks to this my hostility towards the otherworlders decreased a bit.
Just as I was feeling somewhat relieved and leaning back slightly.
Rustle-
"Ah."
"Oh."
With the sound of cloth sliding against skin, the front of the coat I was wearing opened up. Since I was just wearing it draped over, the clothes slipped down.
Thus revealed was the plunging neckline of the tank top I wore underneath, and parts of my body.
The reactions came immediately.
[OwO OwO]
[O w O O w O ;-;]
[look at that chest gap holy shit..]
The face of Chae-rin before me turned red. Her eyes darted around, seemingly unsure where to look. After a moment, she spoke in a tiny voice.
"Uhm... it's a bit dangerous so could you cover up again......"
I smirked. Then hooked a finger under the front of the tank top, lifting it slightly as I said.
"Why, want to see more?"
Though this action felt a bit gross even to myself, the reactions were entertaining.
[yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes]
[th,this kind of,,,fanservice,,,]
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-fuck chae-rin you're the best
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-oppa I love you
I thought the otherworlders looked at me like a monkey in a zoo.
And in reality it wasn't much different.
The only difference from what I expected was that I thought that gaze would feel unpleasant.
Why did I think that? I've never been in a zoo monkey's position before?
'Ooh ooh ah ah.'
Zoo monkey, this doesn't seem too bad actually.