Why Are My Feelings...
Why Are My Feelings...
Truth be told, Chae-rin had been a little busy lately.
For the sake of higher-quality broadcasts, she'd been investing more time in leveling than in streaming.
The shock she'd taken back when she dueled that rabbit had been pretty substantial, if she was being honest.
After all, level 80 put you in the top four percent of all users.
If you used the OLO analogy from that old game everyone used to play, it was roughly upper Diamond tier.
Which still meant you sat in the absolute top bracket among ordinary players.
Sure, that fell a bit short compared to the Rankers, who had to burn through all their time, talent, and money.
But still—couldn't even handle one rabbit properly.
Of course, Yor had praised even that as incredible, but hearing it from someone who could one-shot a Mutant Wolf just felt like getting teabagged.
So she'd put even the fun of streaming on hold and thrown herself into leveling for a while.
Because at the very least, she wanted to absolutely crush that rabbit.
Luckily, maybe thanks to all those hours she'd grinded, she'd made some real progress.
...But seriously, she'd never expected to come across something like this on the internet.
"...What the?"
She muttered it aloud and leaned closer to the monitor.
It was probably just her imagination. The NPC in the photo was wrapped in such a thick hood that the contours of their body were almost completely hidden.
On top of that, according to the users who'd been on the scene, the person had brown hair and blue eyes. Though they did say the face wasn't clearly visible.
In other words, the person didn't share a single point in common with the Yor she had in mind.
Why would he, a guy who lived in the forest, ever show up in a city in the first place?
She didn't know the full details of his situation, but as someone who visited him often, she'd pieced together the gist of it. He was reluctant to leave the forest.
So the odds were high that the person in the photo wasn't Yor...
But her gut wouldn't leave her alone. She just couldn't let this photo slide—something about it nagged at her.
No, assuming for a second he had left, why had his hair and eye color changed?
And if someone had altered them for him, who was it?
"Hmm..."
Thanks to that, her thoughts only spiraled deeper.
*
And a few days later.
Well, checking it out can't hurt...
She finally headed out hunting with her editor for the first time in a while.
Why had she deliberately arranged to meet Ha-neul instead of Yor? Because Chae-rin had a hunch.
They met in real life too, but honestly, she and Ha-neul saw each other more often inside the game.
Playing together made leveling easier, and truthfully, there wasn't much difference between here and real life anyway.
Of course, her reason for partying up with her today after so long wasn't just about making the hunting a bit smoother.
Now that I think about it...
Recently, her editor had picked up one more skill.
She even used it sometimes during combat. From what she'd heard, it was a magic spell that tricked the opponent's eyes and caused confusion.
Wasn't the skill name 'Illusion Sight'?
She was good at using that spell to put up imaginary walls in front of monsters or conjure phantoms to disorient them.
Thanks to her support, taking down monsters had gotten a bit smoother, but still, a question kept surfacing.
Why did she learn that skill?
There must have been clear alternatives to invest in other magic instead. And to be honest, those would've been more efficient.
Because even though she did use the 'Illusion Sight' spell well, something with actual substance was always better.
And the timing was just too coincidental. So Chae-rin asked her, casual but pointed.
"Come to think of it..."
"Yeah?"
"You know Yor, right?"
"...Of course I do. He's our channel's number one contributor."
Up to this point, Ha-neul hadn't shown any particular reaction. Well, it was no different from ordinary everyday conversation right now. Honestly, getting flustered here would've been weirder.
Ordinarily, the next question was supposed to be, 'Have you ever met Yor?'
Conversations were supposed to follow context, and context had its own set order.
But this time, Chae-rin intended to skip one link in that chain.
Because asking bluntly was bound to rattle Ha-neul that much more easily.
And so, she asked her editor.
"By any chance, did you go out to the city with Yor recently?"
"..."
And Chae-rin's prediction hit dead center. For a moment, Ha-neul's pupils shook violently. Maybe because of the sudden question, Ha-neul fell silent for a beat.
On top of that, the answer she finally gave after all that deliberation came with a slip of the tongue mixed in.
"What are you talking about? He's an NPC who can't even go outside. How could he go to the city?"
"...I don't remember ever saying Yor can't go outside?"
Like a ghost, Chae-rin bit down on that slip-up.
She thought to herself that she was truly grateful her editor was so bad at lying.
Thanks to that, her intuition was screaming louder than ever.
Now that she thought about it, the wand her editor had been using lately had changed too.
Before, it had been just a wand made of plain old wood, but at some point, a huge bead had been socketed into its center.
Even the bead set in the middle looked quite expensive.
She didn't know exactly whose bead it was, but the quantity of Magical Power packed inside it was no joke.
At the very least, it wasn't a material someone could get with her own wealth and level.
"Speaking of which, when did you change your wand? I've never seen a bead like that on the market."
And so Chae-rin kept pressing. Each time, Ha-neul stammered and averted her eyes.
The way she couldn't answer properly, just hemming and hawing, was—to anyone watching—the textbook image of someone with something to hide.
Lacking social skills, Ha-neul couldn't handle the sudden situation and simply panicked.
Bombarded by the relentless cross-examination, Ha-neul thought:
Fine. Let's just say it.
Wasn't there no reason to hide it in the first place? It was just that she'd met with an NPC a few times, and happened to go to the city together once.
Of course, there had been a few incidents along the way... but anyway, she wasn't dating Yor or anything, and she certainly hadn't slept with him, right?
So she laid out the facts to Chae-rin, lightly.
How she'd gone to visit him once a while back out of curiosity, how that had somehow turned into a connection that led to them going to the city together, and so on.
Naturally, as she spoke, she completely omitted any mention of the 'Demon's Mark.' There was no way she could tell anyone else about that, no matter what.
She was just relaying the story, but for some reason, Ha-neul felt a strange sense of guilt.
After hearing all of it, Chae-rin let her displeasure out first.
"How could you...!"
Because she felt a sense of betrayal. Her closest acquaintance was secretly friends with the guy she, Chae-rin, was friendly with.
She kind of felt like a tragic heroine in a drama... anyway, it stung a bit.
But that lasted only a moment.
'...Huh?'
Right as the annoyance was about to kick in, she caught a contradiction inside her own heart.
...Wait, was this even something she had the right to get angry about?
Sure, Chae-rin was the one who met Yor the most, but at the end of the day, they weren't dating or anything. They were just acquaintances.
And wasn't her editor free to enjoy the game however she wanted?
Ha-neul had simply used her own free time. That was all.
Sure, the fact that Ha-neul had hidden meeting him was a little disappointing, but Chae-rin had very little real justification for being upset.
Of course, if this were real life, the story would be different. Emotions were a major factor, after all.
But this was inside a game. And Yor wasn't an actual guy in real life—he was an NPC living inside it.
Making a fuss over a fictional character was laughable in itself.
Because of that, Chae-rin could do nothing but stare at Ha-neul, unable to say much of anything else.
It wasn't just that she had nothing specific to say—she herself was a little confused by the feelings she was going through.
'Why am I trying so hard to get angry?'
No way, could I...?
Nah, no matter how you looked at it, that was too much.
She still didn't want to turn into one of those 'real' people who took a virtual character that seriously.
"Still... if something like that happens from now on, tell me too, okay?"
"Ah, okay... Sorry."
In the end, after all that agonizing, the only thing that came out was that one piece of advice.
After that, they hunted a bit longer before parting ways soon after.
The meeting had been set up for questions from the start, and her mood was visibly unsettled even to her own eyes.
All sorts of thoughts kept popping into her head. It was amazing that Yor really was that hooded NPC, and it was shocking that he was strong enough to slice off Seere's left arm.
But even more shocking than that was the fact that Ha-neul and Yor had gone on a city date together.
In the end, Chae-rin logged out of the game without having properly grasped her own feelings.
Even so, one part of her thinking had changed.
'I'll have to visit him more often from now on.'
Since she hadn't been able to get to the forest much lately, she'd use this as an excuse to go hang out more often.
It absolutely wasn't like she'd suddenly become conscious of new feelings for an NPC because of this incident or anything. Really.
Whatever the case, it was a line of thinking that sounded pretty annoying—at least if Yor ever heard it.