Popular NPC in a Gender-Reversed Game – Chapter 8

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Did Yoo Chae-rin, who spent a night in Yor’s cave, make it back safely?

Unfortunately, no.

As soon as Chae-rin woke up, she immediately turned on her stream and continued exploring the Forbidden Forest.

And not even a few minutes after entering the deep layer, she died.

Monsters living in the deep layer could easily detect her level of stealth with their eyes closed.

After all, just because her body was invisible didn’t mean all traces of her presence disappeared.

Sounds, footprints, smells… there were too many vulnerabilities.

Thus, her [Forbidden Forest Exploration Day 2] ended in just a few hours.

Considering her ambitious goal of exploring the entire forest, it was a somewhat disappointing ending, but… she was satisfied with the high viewership.

She had also captured several entertaining scenes.

Especially the scene where she screamed after encountering a mutated wolf, which made her viewers laugh a lot.

After ending the stream, Chae-rin immediately sent the footage to her editor.

It was time to edit it properly and upload it to YouTube.

The raw footage was good, but with the touch of a skilled chef, it could be made even more palatable.

Besides, her YouTube audience was significantly larger.

[BlackKitty: This should be enough for three videos.]

[Chae-rin: Oh, really?]

[BlackKitty: Yeah, there’s a lot of good material, so we can stretch it out.]

Three YouTube videos from just one day’s worth of streaming.

It seemed yesterday’s stream was quite entertaining, even from her editor’s perspective.

It was worth learning the Stealth skill and venturing into a high-level zone.

The editor briefly explained how the videos would be uploaded.

The first video would cover entering the forest, the second video would focus on encountering the man, and the third video would show the process of leaving the cave and dying to a monster.

She also declared her ambitious plan to upload a video every other day, emphasizing that speed was key.

Every other day?

Chae-rin knew how time-consuming video editing was.

Chae-rin asked her editor with genuine concern,

[Chae-rin: Are you sure you’re okay, unnie? Aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?]

[BlackKitty: It’s fine. It’s all from one video, so I can edit it quickly.]

Chae-rin considered herself lucky to have such a capable editor.

Time flew by.

Six days later, all three videos were uploaded.

Yoo Chae-rin was astonished when she saw the view counts.

“Holy…”

All three videos had surpassed 200,000 views.

Considering she only had 70,000 subscribers and the videos had just been uploaded, it was an incredible growth rate.

Even taking into account repeat views, how many people had watched them?

At this rate, they might even surpass 1 million views.

What was even more surprising was that the second video had more views than the first.

It seemed that putting Yor’s silhouette on the thumbnail had a significant effect.

The laws of nature applied even on YouTube.

The law being, thumbnails or covers featuring attractive men resulted in higher views.

The second video started with her encountering Yor sharpening his knives, then showed her being threatened with a knife, and finally, her being kicked out of the cave.

Yoo Chae-rin immediately clicked on the video and checked the comments.

[His face is seriously handsome lol]

[His personality is kinda trash, though]

[If someone broke into your house and spied on you, would you be nice to them??]

[The best part is how he lets her in without a word when it gets dark lol]

[A man who prioritizes life even after being spied on…]

[Why didn’t Chae-rin fight back?]

[I’ve said it 524631 times, the streamer has unequipped all her items]

[Even so, she can’t take down one guy?]

[Then you go and try it lol]

[Please visit him again in the summer, Chae-rin. It’s too bad he’s wearing a fur coat]

[Yeah lol I bet he has a hot body, but I can’t tell because of the thick clothes hahaha]

[What a disgusting, creepy potential criminal]

[What do you expect? She’s probably covering up because she’s insecure lol]

[Ugh, here come the trolls again]

[She’s bundled up because it’s winter, bundle up your insecurities too]

[Well, she’s big, you flat-chested bitches lol Think about your own bodies]

[You’re big too lol]

[But why is he living there?]

[Who knows?]

[Can a person even live in that place…?]

[It’s weird to see a male NPC in a place like that lol]

There were tons of comments.

Positive and negative, but most of them were about the man.

Even though he was an NPC, men had a certain charm that drew attention.

Well, the NPCs in this game were incredibly lifelike.

Anyway, she was happy to have finally made a video with high views.

Maybe she deserved a little luxury.

Right, tonight she was ordering fried chicken.

From a really expensive place.

Just as she was thinking about it…

Ring ring~ Ring ring~ Boom

Her phone suddenly rang.

She checked her phone and saw it was her editor calling.

She answered the call.

“Hello?”

“You have to capture that NPC, no matter what.”

Her editor went straight to the point without any pleasantries.

Chae-rin seemed troubled.

“Well, unnie, about that…”

She started to explain what happened after the stream ended.

That she talked with the man named Yor all night, that he woke her up by nudging her with his foot in the morning, and even what he said when they parted ways…

Get lost and don’t come back.

Hearing those words, Chae-rin was slightly hurt.

Having little experience with “men,” his words affected her deeply.

She was trying to protect her sanity by thinking, ‘He must have a story…’

Anyway, after hearing those words, she couldn’t help but feel reluctant to go back.

“You had such an interesting experience and didn’t even stream it…?”

Of course, her editor didn’t seem to care about her feelings.

“Hehe… well, I turned it off and forgot.”

“Nice going. Anyway, go back and at least try to talk to him.”

“Did you even hear what I said, unnie?”

“You want to let this viewership goldmine go?”

Her editor compared their YouTube view counts.

The three videos she had just uploaded weren’t her highest viewed videos, but they were already in the top rankings.

It was an incredible growth rate.

“Honestly, he’s just an NPC. What’s the harm in getting yelled at a bit? We need to capitalize on this.”

“Hmm…”

It was true.

All it would take was a bit of mental torture to gain views.

As a streamer, viewership was directly linked to her income.

Her worries deepened.

‘I wonder what he’s doing right now?’

She even had such pointless thoughts.

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A crescent moon was reassuring, a waning moon was frightening.

If someone wasn’t familiar with the moon, they might ask, what’s the difference?

The only difference between the two phases, as seen in pictures, was the direction of the crescent.

Both had the same thumbnail shape, and the brightness of the moon was similar.

However, to me, it was a sign of the worst day of the month, a day that came once a month.

When the crescent moon appeared, it meant the full moon was approaching, and the waning moon meant the new moon was coming.

And the new moon was a disgusting day that reminded me of my existence.

Demons thrive in darkness.

Therefore, the new moon, the day with the least light, was the day when demons were at their strongest.

And for me, someone with the Demon’s Blood trait, a very troublesome thing would happen.

That damn “berserk phase.”

‘What is it this time?’

In the deepest part of the cave.

I chewed on the flesh of my thumb as I pondered.

It didn’t matter much because it would regenerate anyway.

I categorized the berserk phase into two types: A and B, for my convenience.

Type A was a berserk phase that affected my body, more precisely, my blood.

And Type B affected my mind more than my body.

Both were a pain in the ass, but I personally preferred Type B.

It would make me depressed and irritable for a while, but at least it wasn’t physically painful.

But this time…

Wiggle wiggle.

“…Shit.”

It seemed to be Type A, unfortunately.

As night fell and darkness descended, my blood started to squirm for no reason.

Like a living being, it went on a rampage, beyond my control.

I gripped the dagger in my right hand even tighter.

No matter how good my regenerative abilities were, or how durable I was, if my blood went berserk inside my body, all sorts of problems arose.

My skin would swell and detach from the flesh due to the blood pressure, and my blood vessels would burst.

Once, my ribs were shattered because of my rampaging blood.

“Ugh… ugh…”

Fortunately, there was a solution.

Blood tended to gather and rampage in one specific area.

If it was out of my control anyway, all I had to do was get it out of my body.

Thinking that, I grabbed the dagger and sliced my own flesh.

I chose my left shoulder.

As I cut through the skin and muscle, the violent blood within erupted uncontrollably.

The burning pain was a bonus.

Thankfully, the blood, now freed from its owner, couldn’t rampage for long and died.

All that remained was a pool of crimson blood on the cave floor.

I broke out in a cold sweat and muttered to myself, as if to comfort myself,

“…It’s okay. It’s okay.”

I had already endured this dozens of times over the years.

I had overcome it every time.

It was just one day out of the month… or rather, one night.

All I had to do was repeat this process throughout the night.

Wiggle wiggle…

Soon, the next wave hit.

Unfortunately, this time the location wasn’t ideal.

My right side.

Deep inside, a throbbing pain was building.

I wanted to leave it alone, but if I did, it would surely damage my bones and organs.

“Ha… shit…”

So, cursing under my breath, I was forced to stab my own side.

The one saving grace was that I could control the rampaging blood to a very small extent.

So even if my blood went berserk in my heart, I could slightly shift the location of the rampage.

I could avoid vital areas.

Of course, I still had to get it out of my body eventually.

I cut my flesh again, and the blood, now with a will of its own, gushed out.

I felt like a self-harming maniac.

But could this involuntary self-harm even be called self-harm?

I don’t know.

The pain was making it hard to think straight.

But even through the pain, unpleasant thoughts kept surfacing.

This is your true nature.

You were a sinner born with the blood of a demon, never forget your essence.

So, if you’re going to suffer periodically like this, it’s better to either die or surrender yourself to the demon.

“Fuck… that.”

Every time I had those thoughts, I cursed to drive away the demons in my mind.

The cycle of writhing blood, cutting flesh, and breaking out in cold sweat repeated itself several times.

I just focused on enduring, without checking the time… and then suddenly, I felt my blood calming down.

The reason was simple.

The long night had passed.

“Haa… haa…”

I looked around, my face exhausted.

Blood was everywhere.

The floor was covered in blood that was starting to turn black, and nearby, dried blood had turned into dark stains.

I had already endured dozens of cycles of pain in this place.

The remaining traces were etched all over the space as bloodstains.

I sighed softly as I looked at the grotesque scene.

Was it because the sight in front of me was disturbing?

No, it was because I had to clean up all this blood.

‘I’ll do it tomorrow. Tomorrow…’

Muttering to myself, I washed my face and stepped out of the cave.

“…Huh.”

The world was bright, as if nothing had happened.

The sun always rose in the east, and the trees stretched towards it as if to greet it.

I looked at the scene and muttered quietly,

“Damn world.”

It was truly a harsh place to live.

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[Poor dude its cant wait to see the second type]