Who Are You?
Who Are You?
"Wow... Now that I'm actually here, I'm freaking nervous..."
[You're still in the Surface Layer though??]
[The Surface Layer is basically a beginner hunting ground... don't tell me you're scared of boars?]
[What a total fucking coward lol]
"N-no, it's not that. The atmosphere's just creepy. And there's a high chance of dying, so..."
[Fair enough I guess]
[The scenery is pretty, but the vibe is a bit off though;]
[Try coming here at night, you can seriously piss yourself even in VR..]
After announcing the content, Yoo Chae-rin headed straight into the forest without delay. Viewers were already flooding in right as she announced it.
Someone must've spread the word on the community boards.
That word 'first' really does have universal pulling power.
Zoning out in a situation like this would definitely bleed viewers. So Yoo Chae-rin decided to enter the Forbidden Forest quickly, even if it meant pushing her schedule forward.
[qztw12 has donated 1,000 won!]
-So what's your Assimilation Rate set to?
"Ah, that? Right now it's set to about twenty percent."
Demon's Saga has a unique feature called 'Assimilation Rate.'
It's a VR game that aims for realistic sensations, but there's still a line to be drawn.
No one genuinely wants to experience death in a game.
Even if someone did, whether it'd be morally permissible was a sensitive issue.
That's why Demon's Saga made pain adjustable through the Assimilation Rate system. The adjustment range is from a minimum of 15% to a maximum of 90%.
Most users kept their Assimilation Rate at 40% or higher by default, but when doing high-risk activities like map exploration or combat where death was likely, they tended to turn their Assimilation Rate down to the minimum.
[20 percent? 20 percent?? lololololol]
[They don't make pussies bigger than this one lolol]
[Just grow a dick then, you fucking dyke]
[Don't you worry, girl, I like you just the way you are...]
Of course, that didn't mean the mockery in the chat window went away.
Like in any community, the smaller the risk you took, the more you got called a coward as a matter of course.
And by their logic, twenty percent squarely put her in 'super coward' territory.
"I'm not a coward! It's map exploration! And I raised it a whole five percent above the minimum!"
Naturally, Yoo Chae-rin just felt wronged.
For death-reliant map exploration, setting your Assimilation Rate to the minimum was the 'unwritten rule.'
No matter how low you set it, the pain of death was beyond imagination.
Research had even shown that if you cranked up the Assimilation Rate and then died, you could end up with PTSD-level trauma.
The developers themselves actively recommended playing with the Assimilation Rate as low as possible.
So the chat window's reaction was pretty much unfair targeting...
Of course, her being right about it didn't make the chat stop mocking her.
Shhh—
While she was going back and forth with her viewers, a wind blew in from the forest. Suddenly feeling cold, she hastily pulled her collar tighter.
"Ugh... maybe because it's winter. It's freaking freezing. "
Even with the Assimilation Rate lowered, it seemed it couldn't entirely block the biting cold.
[Didn't you bring any cold-weather Magic Tools?]
"I might lose them if I die, so it'd be a waste. Magic Tools are expensive."
Even if you could revive after dying, it wasn't without penalties.
There were various penalties for death. Losing items from your inventory was one of those penalties.
Because of that, she was currently only in her basic outfit with a single thick fur coat draped over it. Underneath, she was practically just in her underwear.
Anyway, she kept chatting with her viewers as she moved deeper inside.
The steadily rising viewer count had finally stopped and settled at around 1,500.
It wasn't a huge number, but even this was a lot for a small-time streamer like Yoo Chae-rin.
As she continued her exploration, one of the viewers asked.
[Hey by the way, since you're here, how about checking out that urban legend?]
"Come on, there's no way that's real."
[You never know, maybe there's a real person lol]
The urban legend.
It referred to a single photo that briefly set the community boards on fire a few months ago.
A photo that captured the silhouette of a man deep in the forest.
Now, with the passage of time, interest had mostly faded, but a small number of people still remembered.
And among them were a few who wanted a fun situation.
[What are you gonna do if there actually is a guy?]
"What do you mean what am I gonna do? I'd just educate him. Like, 'How dare a man wander into such a dangerous place!'... hehe."
Yoo Chae-rin didn't add any further specifics about the 'education.'
She just expressed it with her whole body.
A sleazy grin on her face as she wiggled her fingers.
It looked a little vulgar, but it was excellent clowning, befitting a streamer.
[lolololol]
[This coward can't even hold a guy's hand lol]
[She's really doing the absolute most lmao]
Of course, it was something she could only do because she thought the urban legend was fake.
She wasn't naive enough to believe in something like that.
It was obviously a composite, or something had just been captured wrong.
"Ah, monsters are about to start coming out. I'm gonna activate Stealth."
With that, she blended into the natural surroundings, disappearing from sight.
It was a few hours later that she discovered the suspicious cave...
*
Two months passed.
In that time, Berserk triggered two more times, and I nearly killed myself once.
Still, after enduring with superhuman willpower, the world somehow started to look livable again.
Thanks to securing enough prey as well, I wouldn't have to suffer from food shortages through the winter anymore.
In short, I'd grown plenty comfortable.
Now I didn't have to make myself go outside so often in that freezing weather.
The only thing left was killing the countless hours I'd been given.
"Hoo..."
As you know, this place was the medieval era.
Which meant no cell phones, no computers, no TV. What was more, I was a social-outcast piece of shit with not a single friend, so I couldn't even hold a conversation.
So the boredom and loneliness that naturally set in were problems I had to deal with all on my own.
Among those, loneliness was particularly bad.
Because, like a deep swamp, if you sank into it slowly, you could end up drowning in depression before you knew it.
There was only one method for times like this.
To struggle frantically so you didn't get sucked under, by doing anything at all.
So I tended to keep a fair number of hobbies.
Cooking, tanning hides, sewing, sharpening blades, etc...
Most of them were survival-related, somehow, but they were perfect for killing time. And they actually helped my life in practice, too.
And that day, what I chose was blade sharpening.
I'd already eaten, and lately I'd been hunting often to prepare for winter, which had done a number on my edges.
It was about time to recondition my gear.
I plopped myself down on a nearby rock and set up the whetstone in front of me.
Then I laid out my armaments one by one.
Starting with the spear I used most often, then the butchering dagger, the throwing daggers, and even the axe.
Some of the weapons hadn't been maintained for quite a while, and dark, caked-on blood was clinging to them in thick layers.
Scraping that shit off was a whole job in itself, fuck.
"Should've maintained these on time..."
Regretting something already far too late, I started working.
Shhk- shhk-
The sound of blade grinding echoed through the dark, gloomy cave.
The noise of steel being worn down felt chilling in and of itself.
...From a third party's point of view, it would have been a pretty blood-curdling atmosphere.
Though whether an outsider could even find their way here in the first place was a big unknown.
As I sharpened the blades with all sorts of stray thoughts running through my head, before I knew it, I'd finished with the axe.
Maybe because it was an item I'd only ever used for chopping wood, the blade itself hadn't been all that filthy.
After I finished with the axe, I immediately picked up the butchering dagger.
Perhaps because it was the one I used most often, the dagger's condition was severe.
The edge was ruined, of course, and blood and grease were caked all over it.
I tried to sharpen it diligently, but the fur coat I was wearing kept snagging on the whetstone, being a real nuisance.
"Ah, shit..."
Complaints slipped out naturally.
The clothes were cumbersome, but I couldn't exactly take them off in winter...
Even with a campfire lit nearby, the cold pierced right through my skin. Even though I'd been living here for twelve years then, it was weather I just couldn't seem to adapt to.
Tok, t-tap...
"...?"
As I was thinking that, the sound of a rock rolling came from somewhere nearby. It wasn't a loud noise, but inside that silent cave, even that sounded loud.
The moment I sensed a presence, I raised my head.
What the hell?
Had a beast gotten in? Or a monster?
But contrary to those thoughts, there was nothing visible in front of me.
'Had I misheard it?'
I tilted my head and went back to focusing on my work.
No, to be exact, I pretended to focus.
Mishear? There was no way.
The rock had absolutely rolled.
The only thing left now was to distinguish whether that was a simple natural phenomenon or someone's mistake.
If you wanted to survive in this forest, it was always best to be on guard.
Among the animals and monsters here, there were plenty that were cunning beyond imagination.
There could easily be ones that killed their presence for an easier hunt.
Shhk- shhk-
For a while, the meaningless sound of blade sharpening echoed out.
I suppressed the aggression rising from inside me as much as possible and put on an act of everyday normalcy.
Just once, I just needed them to make a sound one more time.
Then I could throttle the bastard's throat before they even got a move off.
If you trespassed into someone else's home, you paid the price.
"..."
I thought it would turn into a pretty tedious fight, but the sound came again sooner than expected.
Ssrrk- A faint but distinct noise of something brushing against the cave wall.
It seemed the other party wasn't exactly a master hunter.
I had roughly fixed their location, so there was no hesitation in my actions.
I threw the throwing dagger beside me, then immediately snatched up my spear and charged.
The dagger was to pull their attention; the spear was the main act.
By the time their gaze focused on the dagger, my spear would already be piercing their throat.
Except, there was one thing I hadn't predicted...
I had assumed one hundred percent that the other party was a beast or a monster...
"Kyaaaaak?!"
"...Huh?"
And so, I had no choice but to be momentarily thrown by the woman's high-pitched shriek that rang out.
That was the reason I jerked the perfectly straight spear off its trajectory.
Thwack-! Thwack-!
The dagger and the spear point lodged into the cave wall in rapid succession.
Between the two weapons on either side of her, a human figure smoothly shimmered into view.
A gentle-faced woman with short silver hair and purple eyes.
The moment I saw her, I furrowed my brow and asked.
"The fuck are you?"
A strange woman had suddenly appeared in my home.