Win-Win
Win-Win
Day broke. Fortunately, I was still in one piece and perfectly alive.
Even though my mental state was shredded to tatters.
The really annoying thing about Berserk B was, the bastard knew exactly how to tease out the desires sleeping deep inside me, scratching at them little by little.
"...Haah."
Thanks to that, I always woke up feeling like shit every morning after.
Still, well... at least my body was in one piece, so that was something.
I had a few scratches, but nothing serious. The kind that healed up with a nap.
'...Tired.'
Must've been from running around all night. My eyelids were incredibly heavy.
Felt like I could fall asleep the second I lay down.
To put that into action, I headed straight back to the cave.
The good thing about the cave was, the deeper parts were always pitch-black.
Thanks to that, no matter what time I went to sleep, I could get a restful night.
The downside was, it was always so dark that staying there too long felt like it would drive me insane. Still, when it came to safety, nowhere beat this place.
So I went inside, took a quick shower,
then lay down under the blanket and tried to sleep. The cool air and lonely atmosphere welcomed me.
A gray-toned space with not a single sign of human presence besides me. Bitter as it was, this was the space I lived in. Exiled from civilization, I wasn't permitted anywhere else.
Maybe because I'd burned through a lot of Mental Power, sleep came easily.
"..."
"...Excuse me! Are you there?"
"It's me, Yoo Chae-rin...! Ah, are you not here..."
The voice that shattered my deep sleep reached me six hours after I'd drifted off.
*
This would be their third meeting.
Exactly one week after the broadcast with Yor, Chae-rin went looking for his home once again.
The reason was simple. To get his permission to upload the stream footage featuring him to YouTube.
Of course, she'd already posted something once before, but... back then she hadn't really felt any guilt about it.
For her future video activities, getting prior consent just seemed more comfortable.
Honestly... why did she even need permission from an NPC over something like YouTube?
Truthfully, she didn't strictly need to go this far.
But the reason Chae-rin did this was that she didn't want even the slightest thing nagging at her conscience.
And just because the other party couldn't see it didn't mean an NPC would never find out.
There were already plenty of cases of people getting caught. No harm in covering her bases.
Anyway, for those reasons, Chae-rin had come here today without turning on her stream.
Standing in front of the cave, she called out to him several times. But unfortunately, no answer came back.
"Did he go somewhere...?"
Since it was broad daylight now, he might be out and about.
So Yoo Chae-rin wondered if she should wait at the cave entrance like last time... she considered.
She couldn't quite bring herself to go inside his home, but sitting at the cave entrance was probably doable.
In fact, that was what she'd done last time.
...Though that had ended with her getting flicked in the forehead.
Just as she was mulling it over in her head... Yor finally burst out of the cave.
"...What."
Looking exceptionally exhausted, no less. Seeing him, Chae-rin couldn't help but swallow a startled breath.
'H-up.'
Because his attire was... remarkably bold.
Well no, actually, there wasn't much difference from what he'd worn last time.
Except that his outer coat was open a bit wider than before. Wide enough to reveal a hint of his bare skin, just a little flagrantly.
She forcibly averted her gaze and asked,
"Um... were you asleep until just now?"
"Yeah... though thanks to a certain someone, that ended."
She didn't need to think hard to know that the "certain someone" was her.
Chae-rin made an apologetic face. How was she supposed to know he'd still be sleeping when it was almost 4 p.m.?
Maybe because he'd been woken up by force midway, Yor voiced a mild complaint.
"But, aren't you dropping by here a little too often?"
"Oh, uh... was that too much for you? I'm sorry! I'll come less often from now on!"
"...No, that's not it."
When Chae-rin apologized, sounding genuinely sorry, Yor scratched his head.
Actually, she was the only one who ever came to his place, so it didn't much matter to him anyway.
Feeling slightly awkward, Yor looked at her and said,
"Come inside first."
Chae-rin nodded and followed him in.
"...So, what business brings you here this time?"
If this dark cave had another distinctive feature,
it was that—maybe because it was sealed in on all sides by walls—when silence fell, the stillness was skin-crawlingly profound.
Yor's words reverberated faintly through the cave. He was pressing his forehead with one hand, as if still not fully awake.
Judging by appearance alone, he looked like he'd had a drink the night before. That level of exhausted. Although, of course, there was no way alcohol existed out here.
Yoo Chae-rin thought to herself,
'What on earth happened yesterday...?'
She could tell he'd gone to sleep late, at least.
But judging by his state, something beyond that seemed to be going on.
Of course, the atmosphere suggested she shouldn't ask, so she didn't pry.
Another thing that stood out was... Yor's clothes were extremely casual.
And here, "casual" meant highly revealing.
All he had on were a sleeveless top and a single thin outer coat.
Even the coat had slipped off his left side, baring that shoulder shamelessly to her view. Thanks to that, her eyes kept getting drawn there against her will.
Actually, Yoo Chae-rin had seen this fashion before, occasionally.
It was the sort of thing worn by guys who prowled the streets around two in the morning—the type who looked like they had partied hard, smoked in school, and had tattoos.
The fashion Yor was wearing had exactly that vibe.
And even the aura he gave off wasn't much different. Like coming face-to-face with the kind of male delinquent you only ever heard rumors about. That unique blend of intimidation and allure, coexisting.
'He doesn't actually have tattoos too, does he?'
Chae-rin considered it for a moment, then shook her head.
Nah, no way. How could someone who lived in the forest all the time have tattoos?
The silence was starting to feel oppressive, so she gradually broached the main subject.
"So, actually, I came to ask for your permission about something."
"Huh?"
"See, in our world there's this thing called YouTube..."
She continued her explanation. Simply and specifically enough for an NPC like Yor to understand.
Of course, since Yor himself was a human who had died and come from the modern world, he caught on almost immediately.
After the explanation was over, Yor gave a lukewarm response.
"That's a little... difficult."
From his perspective, there was no real benefit in it for him.
The internet streams she did, at least, had some entertainment value since you could see the viewers' reactions.
But something like a YouTube video? He couldn't even watch it in the first place.
And yet it would still attract attention, so to be frank, it offered no advantage to Yor.
Of course, he was grateful that Yoo Chae-rin had bothered to ask permission even though he'd never see it... but that didn't make him happy about it.
However, Yoo Chae-rin had expected this level of pushback.
Which was why she'd already brought a bargaining chip.
"I-I'll pay you!"
"Money? I'm not exactly short on that myself."
"...!!"
But that bargaining chip got shut down in under five seconds.
Right... someone who could hand out Mutated Material Items as errand pay couldn't possibly be short on money.
Thinking about it, it was obvious. She'd just forgotten for a moment, maybe because this was the only card she had to play. Her face fell in an instant.
What now? She didn't have anything else to offer...
Just as Chae-rin was standing there blankly, a counter-offer came from Yor's side instead.
"...Or, how about this instead?"
"Huh?"
Yoo Chae-rin immediately perked up her ears.
"You do favors for me periodically, on a regular basis."
Let's think about this rationally. To him, YouTube honestly wasn't much of a benefit.
But this situation itself—her coming to him with a proposal—was actually pretty good.
Because it let him set several conditions.
He was already sorely lacking connections to civilization.
Even aside from human relationships, he had difficulties on many fronts, whether it was gathering information or purchasing supplies.
So he might as well use her as a bridgehead to civilization. If that worked, he stood to gain something too.
And... while he was at it, he'd make himself a conversation partner.
What Yor proposed came down to three things.
First, she would periodically supply him with bread and Holy Water, no questions asked.
Second, she would relay information about Earth and the game to him without hiding anything.
Third, if any new information surfaced in the city, she would pass it on to him.
He was slow to acquire information, so he was setting up an informant.
At this proposal, Yoo Chae-rin nodded vigorously.
"Oh, just that much! Sure!"
Because honestly, from her standpoint, it was an offer with absolutely no downside.
The first condition might be a little annoying, sure, but the other two were actually good for her too.
Now she had a pretext to interact with the NPC named Yor on a regular basis.
And so the two of them concluded the exchange in good spirits.
After the deal was struck, something suddenly came to mind for Yoo Chae-rin.
That video she'd seen a few days ago. The one about some new enemy called a Demonkin appearing.
The rumors had spread fairly wide across the continent since then, so it was a reasonably big incident.
But Yor, living out in this forest, probably had no idea.
"...So this happened a few days ago, you see."
Chae-rin immediately relayed the details to Yor.