Chapter 9
A month passed and the crescent moon returned.
Which means I'll be safe for the next month.
Fortunately, there's only one moonless night per month.
If it was 2-3 days, I probably would have killed myself long ago.
The day after enduring Rage Mode, I slept the entire day.
While Rage Mode B might be different, Type A consumes a lot of stamina.
After pulling an all-nighter and going through Rage Mode A, sleeping had become something of a routine.
After sleeping another full day, I started cleaning up my blood.
Walking deeper and deeper into the cave. When I shone light into the dark cave, I could see walls stained with dried blood and floors soaked in blood.
I let out an exclamation.
"Wow."
It felt like looking at a serial killer's workshop. Anyone who saw this would think several people had been butchered here.
Unfortunately, the only one being butchered here was myself.
Sadly, I couldn't even clean those stains.
After blood had splattered and dried dozens of times, the stains were deeply embedded like blotches.
Well, what can you do. Since I only come here during Rage Mode anyway, I'll just leave it.
After cleaning up my blood fountain show, I started taking a shower.
One advantage of this cave is that groundwater flows through the inside. Thanks to that, I rarely needed to go all the way to the stream to bathe.
Of course, sometimes when the groundwater freezes I have no choice but to go to the stream... but fortunately not today.
"Ugh, cold."
The disadvantage is that it's brutally cold in winter. In a cave with only a bonfire for heating, you can't expect anything amazing like floor heating.
Thankfully I can heat the water, but today I was too lazy and just washed with it cold.
Being a Demon's Blood Manifestor, I don't catch colds easily anyway.
After finishing my shower, I started doing laundry while having a light meal.
After enthusiastically spraying blood yesterday, I had blood-soaked clothes to wash too.
Sometimes I face Rage Mode naked to avoid laundry, but unfortunately that's not possible in winter.
"Phew, done."
After hanging the laundry outside the cave, I lightly brushed my hair.
Besides dealing with post-Rage Mode cleanup, this was my typical daily life.
Eating, showering, doing laundry. If there's time left, gathering food.
No different from an unemployed person living alone. Even the part about having no friends to meet is similar.
'I want to make friends too.'
I quietly mutter another wish that will never come true.
Life in the forest was usually boring and lonely. Enough to have thoughts like this.
'...I wonder if someone else will visit?'
What suddenly came to mind was that streamer woman Yoo Chae-rin from a few days ago.
Geez, here I am thinking this after explicitly telling her not to come back.
Even I know I'm a contradictory person.
But I couldn't help it. Reason and desire are different things.
I know contact with society threatens my safety. But I was so starved for conversation that I could momentarily forget that.
"Haah..."
Of course, just because I wanted it didn't mean my desires would come true.
Today too was another safe day in the forest.
*
Yor's face appeared on YouTube.
And the impact was quite remarkable.
Remarkable enough to take up half a page of hot posts on the "Demons Saga Gallery", or "Evil Gallery" for short.
After a long time, a handsome NPC had appeared, and in the completely unexpected location of the Forbidden Forest no less.
Moreover, he was a man who had been mentioned once before in the past.
After all, his silhouette had been captured in some user's screenshot months ago.
Back then it was concluded to be either photoshopped or an urban legend.
But that urban legend turned out to be a real man!
Whether as humor or gossip material, Yor had all the qualities to be excellent fuel for discussion.
Of course, half a page of hot posts on Evil Gallery... compared to all the trending topics in the world, it was barely a ripple in a teacup but...
In other words, he managed to create even that ripple. That's how good of discussion fuel Yor was.
Most people just consumed this topic as gossip.
But just as gathering hundreds of people will produce dozens of idiots.
Communities don't only gather clean users.
Like any other game, [Demons Saga] has malicious users.
The difference from other games is that the malicious users here are particularly bad.
From the start, the game itself aims to be "another reality" to the point of being extremely realistic.
The degree of freedom is also ridiculously high. When the game itself supports an "18+ mode", what more needs to be said?
Without a single lie, most things players can imagine are possible actions.
However, this creates one small problem...
Some people try to commit dark crimes in the game that they can't do in reality.
'Stupid bitch.'
A good example was 27-year-old basement-dwelling virgin Bang Ji-woo who lives for the game.
She was currently heading into the "Forbidden Forest" shown in the stream. Obviously to meet Yor who lives in the forest.
'When there's such a nice doll here, why isn't anyone trying to find him?'
To be more specific, to subdue and forcibly rape him.
She had already watched Yoo Chae-rin's stream dozens of times and memorized all the routes.
Though the forest paths all looked similar, she was able to map out the route with desperate dedication.
It also helped that she was a thief class like Chae-rin.
'Good thing I saved up those points.'
She praised her past self internally.
Thanks to that, she could learn the "Stealth" skill without much leveling. Everything was falling perfectly into place.
At this point, one might wonder.
No matter how high the freedom, how could an open RPG include things like rape?
Of course it can't.
That's why malicious users who commit such crimes get permanent bans whenever they're caught.
From the start, the perception among normal users is almost at the level of food waste.
Additionally, customization is limited to within 5% of real appearance, so they can be identified and documented.
There are various safety measures in place.
However, as the principle goes, if you don't get caught it's not a crime.
From the start, getting permabanned usually happens after getting caught by users or NPCs and going to prison.
In other words, as long as there are no witnesses, even crimes don't matter.
In that sense, Yor was excellent prey.
The Forbidden Forest had rough paths and strong monsters, so there wasn't a single person around.
If she just handled the target Yor well, she could dream of a perfect crime. Like killing him for example...
Uniquely in this game, NPCs don't respawn when they die. Death is permanent.
Rape and murder at once... However, Bang Ji-woo felt no particular guilt having such thoughts. Partly because of her antisocial tendencies.
'He's just an NPC anyway.'
This thought was underlying everything.
It's all just an illusion anyway. While it's a shame for an NPC to permanently disappear, that's all it was.
What's the problem when it's not a real person dying? If anything, the other users trying to protect 2D rights are the weird ones.
She wasn't worried about subduing Yor either.
After all, she was quite a high-level user despite her appearance. Her level was a whopping 79.
Considering the current world rank 1 user had barely passed level 90, she was an incredible powerhouse.
Of course, she was slightly nervous since this was also an incredibly high-level zone... but she thought subduing one "man" wouldn't be a problem.
After some time passed, she finally arrived at the cave.
Clothes hung on nearby trees, presumably from doing laundry. The man from YouTube was currently gathering those clothes.
He was still wearing fur clothes, probably because it was still winter.
Like a proper thief, she crept up behind him and struck his head hard with a hammer.
Just enough to knock him out, not kill him.
Thwack!
With a dull sound, the man's body collapsed limply to the ground.
Still, being hit with a hammer, thin streams of red blood flowed from his head.
"Hehe..."
She let out a small laugh and immediately approached him. The sexual desire built up since watching YouTube was gradually bursting forth. Indeed, his visuals were quite arousing even in a bloodied state.
She didn't stop there and started undoing his fur clothes. Obviously there would be issues doing anything with those thick clothes on.
Undoing the fur clothes and lifting his top revealed the man's body clearly.
Six-pack abs carved like sculpture, broad shoulders. Seeing this, she unconsciously let out a curse in admiration.
"Holy shit..."
The man on YouTube was wearing fur clothes.
Thick fur clothes that completely obscured his body shape at that.
Because of that, the comment section sometimes had speculations written by those with inferiority complexes. That surely his body must be terrible despite his face.
Of course, she had scoffed at such baseless claims.
However, it's true there was anxiety in a corner of her mind. What if his body really was terrible like the comments said?
Like Schrödinger's cat, there was no way to know until opening the box.
Such worries were completely resolved upon opening the box.
Terrible body? No, if anything it was an even bigger jackpot than his face. A well-trained body that seemed to perfectly embody women's ideals appears.
How do men's bodies grow muscles so erotically like this?
Growing uselessly big like this is why the body is weak.
Split abs, pure white skin without a single blemish, firm chest and more. Just looking made down below ring.
Thanks to that, she was about to pounce on him half out of her mind.
But that's when it happened.
"...What a shame."
The voice of the man who was supposed to be unconscious was heard.
What? He clearly wasn't moving though? Did he wake up already?
Various questions arose in her mind. But those questions didn't last long.
"If you were a bit prettier, I might have considered just letting you have your way."
Shuck!
Because her wrist getting cut off was faster.
Terrible pain arrived as her wrist flew off.
"Kyaaaah!"
Having maxed out her Synchronization Rate before coming here, the pain was beyond imagination.
Clutching her severed wrist, she thought with a confused mind.
What? He had a weapon? But I didn't even see him swing...?
She had all her armor equipped from the start.
Even accounting for thieves having lower defense, she should have been much tougher than normal skin.
Surely that was the case, yet she was cut like this.
Various questions arose in her mind.
Regardless, the man continued his actions. He kicked over the whimpering woman and pinned her down.
Now visible was a dagger in his right hand. Apparently it had been hidden in his fur clothes sleeve.
Pointing the dagger at her neck, he spoke.
"Yep, you're ugly indeed."
Whether from pain or sadness, she wanted to cry.