A Tour of the Forbidden Forest
A Tour of the Forbidden Forest
What kind of bullshit was this?
That was what Chae-rin first thought after hearing Yor's question.
Had she heard him correctly?
He'd asked about something like a "relationship" out of nowhere.
In the first place, what he meant by the word "relationship" right now wasn't even clear.
The meaning of "relationship" was incredibly broad, wasn't it?
He could simply be asking about becoming friends, or, looking at it more comprehensively, how to get closer to someone.
After all, friendships between Otherworlders and NPCs weren't exactly easy to come by.
The probability that he wasn't asking about what her own rotten brain was imagining was greater.
So Chae-rin asked Yor again to clarify his meaning.
"Uh, when you say forming a relationship, what kind of relationship are you asking about...?"
"Ah, sorry. Was I beating around the bush too much? Obviously, se—"
"Stop! Stooop!! Not another word!!!"
Of course, Chae-rin's suspicions turned out to be right.
Chae-rin hurriedly cut off what Yor was about to say.
First of all, carelessly mentioning something like that on her all-ages-safe stream could get her suspended.
Though the first word had already slipped out, so the chat window was gradually descending into a chaotic maelstrom.
[Ahh... so it's that?]
[Our young lad... a bit curious about that, is he..? lol]
[If you're curious, I could teach you myself... heh heh]
[I'll teach you 'sex']
[↳ Kicked by a manager]
[Suddenly feeling dizzy lol lol lol]
Chae-rin felt bewildered.
To be honest, it was simply too out of the blue. There was literally no context. They had clearly been having some light chit-chat, and then suddenly the topic had veered off into this territory.
For now, she wanted to at least know the other party's intentions.
"But why are you suddenly curious about that?"
"You know... that incident the other day?"
'That incident' referred to the event back when a malicious user had come to this forest and tried to assault him.
It was an awkward topic for both of them to bring up, so they usually danced around it by calling it 'that incident'.
Anyway, according to Yor's explanation, it had just occurred to him and seemed a little strange.
Back then, that bastard had clearly been an Otherworlder, and he himself was a person living in this world.
So, was something like that even possible?
At least as far as Yor knew, to Otherworlders, this place was a 'game'.
A game that everyone in the whole world played, which you could call a general audience game.
So, all of a sudden, a 'relationship' in a game like that?
He was questioning whether it was systemically possible.
From Yor's perspective, it was a fairly reasonable doubt. Having been a modern person in his past life, he knew a lot about the restrictions placed on a 'game'.
But from Chae-rin's point of view, it was still a question out of nowhere. The answer was too obvious.
It was because this game had a 19+ Mode, so it was possible...
'...Ah!'
Chae-rin, who'd been thinking that far, realized one fact.
Now that she thought about it, she had never told Yor about the '19+ Mode' system!
No matter how much she was his information provider, she didn't need to tell him every single detail like that.
Besides, he and she were, regardless of anything else, in a male-female dynamic.
And she herself, whether the other party was an NPC or not, was a woman with zero experience with the opposite sex.
So inevitably, she could only be reluctant to bring up that topic first.
Even if she was the one who provided information.
But if the other party asked this directly, she couldn't avoid it any longer.
And so, Chae-rin had no choice but to explain, even while enduring the embarrassment.
"Uhh... actually, there's a system called '19+ Mode'..."
Her face gradually became flushed red. Maybe because she was embarrassed, her face felt hot every time she continued her explanation.
[Feels like teaching a kid]
[Ah lol, so he didn't know until now lol lol lol]
[The streamer's face is about to burst..]
[Is anyone gonna understand with an explanation like that?]
[fr lol, nothing beats the real thing I say. Wait, I'll personally go and teach him]
[↳ Kicked by a manager.]
Of course, the viewers were just munching on popcorn.
For them, always craving dopamine, it was nothing short of a highly amusing scene.
Even though the manager was working hard to moderate, vulgar comments occasionally popped up.
"Anyway, there's nothing particularly different when you... have relations with the people here."
Once all the explanation was done, Yor smacked his hands together as if he understood.
Then he said:
"Aha, so Otherworlders don't have any particular restrictions when having sex either, huh?"
"Didn't I ask you not to mention it outright!"
Chae-rin let out a sigh, "Hoo."
He was marveling in front of her, saying "Man, you guys sure live comfortably in your world," but she ignored him for now.
Calming her own burning face was the first priority at the moment.
What kind of 'guy' mentioned stuff like that without any hesitation... Anyway, he definitely wasn't a normal category of human being.
Or, well, she'd gotten some YouTube-worthy content out of it, so was it fine?
Feeling that the atmosphere was awkward, Chae-rin decided to just quickly switch to another topic.
"Ah, let's stop this and head out quickly!"
The reason she was doing a collab stream with Yor for the first time in a while today was that she had actually prepared some content.
It had already been over nine months since the game [Demon's Saga] had launched.
Having played the game nonstop during that time, her level had already surpassed 80.
Of course, as the overall level of players improved, level 80 no longer meant you were a ranker...
But anyway, it was clear she was a considerably high-level user.
So today, to commemorate reaching Lv 80, she planned to hunt a monster in the 'Forbidden Forest'.
For example, getting her revenge on the Mutant Wolf that had taken her life a few months ago.
Well, something like that.
"You have to watch over me carefully. Got it?"
"All right, all right, I said I got it."
And Yor's role today was to be a bodyguard.
*
As was the case with most action games,
[Demon's Saga] also required a certain degree of control.
No, to be honest, the difference in control between users was more severe than in any other game.
Because it was a VR game, you had to move your body directly and fight.
The courage needed to fight monsters, reaction speed, physical movement—this game truly required many things.
And if your control was good enough to back it up, you could sufficiently fight an opponent several levels higher than you. Of course, the opposite was also quite common.
Anyway, that was the reason Chae-rin had prepared today's content.
Objectively speaking, her level wasn't high enough to hunt the monsters of this forest yet.
Just like the Owlbear she'd seen last time, the monsters inhabiting the middle layer started at a minimum of level 80.
But that was no reason to avoid them.
As previously stated, even a somewhat strong monster could be hunted if you just controlled your character well.
On top of that, doing this gave way more experience than picking on low-level monsters.
The problem was that the risk of dying was a bit higher this way...
'Well, that guy will protect me well... right?'
That was why she'd asked Yor today.
The price needed to ask him was just three loaves of bread from the city.
It was absurdly cheap, considering his skill. She didn't know what the hell was so special about that pastry that he was so fixated on it.
Well... it was a gain for her, so she decided to let it slide for now.
And so, Chae-rin moved far away from Yor's cave before turning the stream on again.
[Here.]
[The waiting screen is familiar now...]
[I hate the dark I hate the dark]
As soon as she turned the stream on, viewers quickly entered. Maybe because they were in the waiting room, it filled up with people in no time.
After watching the viewer count rise like that, Chae-rin moved to find a monster.
Naturally, she respected the territories of the surrounding monsters to some extent.
What she wanted was a monster only one or two levels higher than herself.
Not a monster like an Owlbear.
After walking for quite a while, she was finally able to meet one monster.
The monster's name was the very Mutant Wolf she wanted revenge on.
Though the level was a bit higher than she wanted.
"Grrrr..."
[Mutant Wolf Lv 91]
It was a whopping 91. Compared to the one she'd met last time, it was a full 9 levels higher.
"Huh?"
She tilted her head.
She knew each individual's level differed, but it differed by this much?
Not only that, it even looked 1.5 times bigger than the one she'd met that time.
Perhaps thinking of Chae-rin as prey, the wolf across from her bared its teeth.
Instantly, as if remembering the past, Chae-rin's face went pale.
"Ah, this won't do."
And it was just then. Yor, who had been eating bread behind her, stepped forward.
It seemed he had instantly recognized her level wasn't enough just by looking at the opponent.
Yor picked up his spear and threw it straight at the bastard.
A clean and powerful throwing spear.
Psshhk—!
In that single strike, the wolf's glabella was pierced.
It didn't even take ten seconds for that fierce-looking giant body to die.
"Whoa, no way..."
Chae-rin was dumbfounded when she saw that.
Of course, she knew he was strong... but to think he'd so easily take down a monster she couldn't beat even after charging in dozens of times.
She felt a bit dejected, and somehow, her pride as a 'woman' seemed to be taking a small hit.
How much time would she need to become like that?
As she stared blankly for a moment, Yor spoke up again.
"Let's go. We should find you something you can actually handle."
"Ah, yeah..."
She nodded.
Even before she'd started hunting, her spirit was already a bit dampened.