Chapter 8: The New Moon is Terrifying

Did Yoo Chae-rin make it back alive after spending a night(?) in Yor's cave?

Unfortunately not.

Chae-rin immediately turned on her stream and continued exploring the Forbidden Forest after waking up.

And within minutes of entering the Deep Layer, she died.

After all, monsters at that level can detect that level of stealth with their eyes closed.

Well, just because you're invisible doesn't mean all traces of your presence disappear. Sound, footprints, scent, etc. There were too many weak points.

And so her [Forbidden Forest Exploration Day 2] ended before even a few hours had passed.

While it was a somewhat disappointing ending considering her ambition to explore until the end... at least the viewer count was high, so she decided to be satisfied with that.

She got quite a few entertaining scenes too. Especially the part where she screamed after getting caught by the mutant wolf - that gave the viewers quite a laugh.

After finishing the stream, Chae-rin immediately sent the footage to her editor. It was for editing and uploading to YouTube.

While the stream itself is tasty enough, it becomes much easier to digest after going through a skilled chef's hands. The viewer base on YouTube was overwhelmingly larger anyway.

[Black Cat: Should get about 3 episodes out of this]

[Chae-rin: Oh really?]

[Black Cat: Yeah, lots of good material to work with]

Three YouTube episodes from just one day of streaming. Even to the editor, yesterday's stream must have been quite entertaining.

It was worth learning the stealth skill and going to a high-level zone after all.

The editor briefly explained how the videos would be uploaded. The first episode would cover entering the forest, the second would focus on meeting that man, and the third would cover everything from leaving the cave until dying to the monster.

They also expressed their ambition to upload one episode every two days, saying speed was crucial for this kind of content.

One episode every two days - Chae-rin knew how time-consuming video editing could be.

With genuine concern in her heart, she asked:

[Chae-rin: Unnie, you sure? Isn't that too much?]

[Black Cat: dw, since it's all from one video I can get them done quick]

Chae-rin felt lucky to have such a capable editor.

Time flew by quickly after that.

6 days passed and all three videos were uploaded.

Yoo Chae-rin couldn't help but be shocked when she saw the view counts.

"Holy shit..."

All the uploaded videos had surpassed 200,000 views. Considering she only had 70,000 subscribers and the videos were uploaded recently, this was incredible growth.

Even accounting for repeat views, how many people must have watched them?

At this rate, they might even break 1 million views.

What's even more interesting was that Episode 2 had higher views than Episode 1. Putting Yor's silhouette in the thumbnail seemed to have quite an effect. The laws of instinct clearly applied to YouTube as well.

The law that putting a handsome or fit man in thumbnails and covers leads to higher view counts.

Episode 2 contained everything from witnessing Yor sharpening his knife, to Chae-rin being threatened with said knife, to getting kicked out of the cave.

Yoo Chae-rin immediately went to check the comments on that video.

[His face is seriously handsome wow wow wow]

[ㄴ But his personality's kinda messed up]

[ㄴ Would you be nice if someone broke into your house and watched you without permission??]

[ㄴ The best part is how he lets her in at night without saying anything lol]

[ㄴ A man who prioritizes life despite being watched....]

[Why isn't Chae-rin fighting back?]

[ㄴ For the 524631st time, she has all her equipment removed rn]

[ㄴ Still can't take down one dude even without equipment?]

[ㄴ Why don't you go try it yourself lol]

[Visit him again in summer Chae-rin! The fur clothes are too much of a shame]

[ㄴ fr his body looks like it'd be hot but can't tell with the thick clothes lololol]

[ㄴ Wtf you disgusting potential criminal]

[ㄴ What did you expect lol obviously covering up cuz he's not confident about his body lol]

[ㄴ Ugh the spam accounts are acting up again]

[ㄴ He's covered up cuz it's winter, maybe you should cover up your inferiority complex]

[ㄴ lol he's clearly built you bouncy girls lol maybe think about yourselves]

[ㄴ You're pretty built yourself lol]

[But why does he live there?]

[ㄴ idk]

[ㄴ Can people even live there...?]

[ㄴ Kinda random having a male NPC show up in a weird place lol]

There were a ton of comments. While there were both negative and positive opinions, most were about that man. Even though he was an NPC, the man had a charm that drew people's attention.

Well, the NPCs in this game were remarkably lifelike anyway.

Either way, she was happy to have filmed videos with such high views after so long. Maybe she should treat herself a bit.

Yeah, she'd order chicken today. From somewhere really expensive too.

Just as she was thinking that.

Bring bong bong~ Bring bong bong~ bong

Suddenly her phone started ringing. Checking it, she saw it was a call from her editor. Chae-rin answered.

"Hello?"

"You absolutely have to catch that NPC."

Skipping any light greetings and getting straight to the point - her editor.

Hearing those words, Chae-rin showed a troubled expression.

"Um, unnie about that..."

Then she brought up what happened after yesterday's stream ended.

How she kept talking with the man called Yor through the night, how she fell asleep and he woke her up by nudging her with his foot in the morning, and finally what he said when they parted after breakfast...

-Get lost and don't come back.

When she heard those words, Chae-rin was a bit hurt inside. Being someone without much immunity to 'men', those words hit her particularly hard.

For her own mental health, she could only think 'He must have his reasons...'

Anyway, after hearing words like that, she couldn't help but feel reluctant about going back.

"You experienced something that interesting and didn't turn on the stream...?"

Of course, her editor didn't seem to give a fuck about her feelings.

"Hehe... I forgot to turn it on."

"Nice job. Anyway, go back later and try talking to him again."

"Did you actually listen to what I said?"

"You want to just leave that view-copying machine alone?"

As she said that, she compared her YouTube view counts.

While these three recent uploads weren't her most viewed videos, they were already among the top ranks. The growth rate was incredible.

"Honestly, who cares if an NPC says some harsh words? We need those view counts."

"Nngh..."

She had a point. For just a bit of mental damage, she could get views.

For someone who made streaming their profession, view counts directly translated to money.

Because of this, her worries only grew deeper.

'I wonder what he's doing right now?'

With useless thoughts like that mixed in.

*

The crescent moon is reassuring, while the waning moon is frightening.

Someone who doesn't know much about the moon might ask.

What's the difference between them?

Looking at photos, the only difference between the two phases seems to be their direction.

They're both the same thumbnail shape, and the amount of light coming down is similar.

But to me, it was like an omen foretelling the worst day that comes once a month.

The crescent moon means the full moon is waxing, while the waning moon means the new moon is approaching.

And the new moon was an unpleasant day that reminded me of my existence.

When darkness grows stronger, demons thrive.

Therefore, the new moon - the day with the least light - was no different from the day demons become strongest.

And for someone like me with the trait of Demon's Blood, a really troublesome thing happens. Namely, that fucking thing called 'Rage Mode'.

'What is it this time?'

In the deepest part of the cave.

I thought while biting the flesh of my thumb. Not that it mattered much since it would regenerate quickly anyway.

I divided Rage Mode into A and B types according to my convenience.

A affected the body, or more precisely, the blood. B affected the mind more than the body.

They're both dog dick-like, but personally I preferred B.

While it makes you depressed and angry for a while when it hits, at least it doesn't hurt.

But this time...

Squirm squirm.

"...fuck."

Unfortunately, it seemed to be A.

As night fell and darkness came, my blood suddenly started squirming.

Like a living creature, it thrashed about wildly beyond my control. The more it did, the tighter I gripped the dagger in my right hand.

Even with my good regeneration and toughness, when blood goes wild inside your body, all sorts of problems occur.

The blood makes skin separate from flesh, and blood vessels burst.

Once, the blood went so wild inside that it shattered my ribs.

"Kuk... kkeuk......"

Fortunately, there was a way to deal with this.

Generally, the blood tends to gather and thrash about in one place. Blood that's beyond control - you just need to drain it out.

Thinking that, I immediately took my dagger and tore my flesh.

The location was my left shoulder. When I cut through skin and flesh, the violent blood inside burst out uncontrollably. The burning pain was a bonus.

Thankfully, the blood without its host couldn't thrash for long and died. All that remained was a splash of red blood on the cave ceiling.

I muttered to myself as if in self-comfort while sweating:

"...It's fine. It's okay."

This is something I've repeated dozens of times over several years, I've endured it well so far. Just one day out of a month... no, just one night to endure.

Now I just need to repeat this all night long.

Squirm squirm...

Soon the next reaction came. Unfortunately, the location wasn't very good this time.

Right side of my ribs. Pain was coming from something thrashing deep inside.

I'd like to leave it be, but if I did, it would definitely wreck my bones and organs.

"Ha... fuck......"

So I had no choice but to curse and stab my own side.

The one fortunate thing is that even such wild blood can be controlled ever so slightly.

So even if blood goes wild in places like the heart, it's possible to shift the location of the thrashing slightly. Meaning vital spots can be avoided.

Of course, it still needs to be drained out in the end anyway.

Once again as I cut my flesh, red liquid with will gushed out of my body.

This makes me look like someone obsessed with self-harm.

No, can unwanted self-harm even be called self-harm?

I don't know. My mind was hazy from the pain. But even in such pain, unpleasant thoughts kept surfacing.

This is your true nature.

You were a sinner with demon's blood from birth, don't forget your essence.

So rather than suffering periodically like this, you should either die or surrender your body to demons.

"F-fuck..."

Whenever such thoughts came, I cursed to drive out the demons in my head.

This cycle of blood squirming, cutting flesh, and cold sweats repeated several times.

Without checking the time and just enduring... suddenly I felt my blood grow calm.

The reason was simple. The long night had passed.

"Haa... haa......"

I looked around with an utterly exhausted face. Blood was everywhere.

The floor was covered in blood that was starting to turn black, and nearby were bloodstains that had already dried and turned into marks.

I had endured dozens of instances of pain here. The traces remained as stains all around this space.

Looking at the grotesque scene, I let out a small sigh.

Because the scene before me was disgusting?

No, because I have to clean up all that blood.

'Let's do it tomorrow. Tomorrow...'

Muttering that to myself, I washed my face briefly and went outside the cave.

"...hehe."

The world was bright as if nothing had happened. The sun always rises in the east, and the trees stretch eagerly as if to receive that sun.

Looking at that scene, I quietly muttered.

"What a dog's life of a world."

It was truly a difficult place to live.