Here’s the continuation and completion of Chapter 43 of Popular NPC in a Gender-Reversed Game:
I quickly apologized.
“No, um... I’m sorry. Just forget what I said. I’m a bit on edge right now.”
“Uh... it’s fine. No problem.”
I had snapped at her for a moment, but I knew it wasn’t good to act based on my emotions. She had come all the way here, and my attitude was far from pleasant.
After gathering my thoughts, I told her to come inside. Honestly, I wasn’t in a state to receive guests, but it felt wrong to send her away just like that.
As we walked deeper into the cave, I could feel her eyes on me. They were filled with concern. She seemed to be wrestling with her curiosity, opening and closing her mouth as if unsure of what to say. Eventually, unable to hold back, she cautiously asked me,
“Um... what happened yesterday?”
She usually knew I didn’t like to talk about such things, but this time, her curiosity was evidently piqued. If I were in her shoes, I would definitely want to know the circumstances behind seeing someone covered in blood.
I gave a vague response.
“Menstruation.”
“...What?”
“I said it’s menstruation.”
“........?”
Was that accurate? It happens roughly once a month, and there is bleeding, so it could be considered somewhat similar.
She tilted her head, clearly confused, but that was the best explanation I could give. I certainly couldn’t explain Frenzy, and right now, I didn’t have the energy to entertain any questions.
As I walked further into the cave, I pondered internally.
‘What do I do with her now...?’
I had let her in, but I didn’t have the strength to deal with her. My mind was hazy, and my body felt as heavy as lead. I was just so tired.
The Frenzy had kept me awake all night, and I had exhausted both my mental and physical strength.
Normally, after a Frenzy, the rule was to sleep the entire next day. That was the only way to return to normalcy.
‘Should I have her keep watch...?’
With that thought in mind, I considered the possibility.
Sometimes, the blood scent from my injuries attracted monsters into my cave.
Although the smell didn’t permeate far from the depths of the cave, the monsters' sense of smell was beyond imagination.
As a result, I had experienced a few monster attacks while sleeping. Each time, I woke up just in time to save my life, but the anxiety lingered.
Of course, it was uncomfortable to have someone else nearby while I slept...
‘Hmm...’
I found myself pondering this for a moment. Would it be better to send her away and sleep defensively, or would it be right to keep her around for comfort while I slept?
Fortunately, I didn’t dwell on it for too long. I asked her,
“Would you like to do me a favor?”
A little while later...
“If someone comes, wake me up immediately. And absolutely don’t go inside.”
“Sure, sure.”
“Just to say, don’t do anything weird. I have sensitive hearing while I sleep.”
“Look, I can’t do anything even if I wanted to, right? Just go take a shower and sleep.”
“...Fine. If you get bored, you can turn on your stream.”
Chae-rin accepted Yor's request for protection. Amazingly, a quest popped up this time. The task was to guard the area until Yor woke up, and the quest reward was a small payment for her trouble. It was such a simple mission that there was nothing to hesitate over.
Even if there hadn’t been a quest, she had already intended to help him. He looked so worn out and vulnerable.
With a troubled expression, she thought,
‘What on earth happened yesterday...?’
She had planned to share her Arena story while being cheerful, but who would have thought she’d find him covered in blood as soon as she arrived? It was obvious that something had gone down at night.
While there were no visible wounds on his body, the amount of blood smeared on him looked as if he had juiced a person. His complexion looked terrible and fatigued.
Honestly, when she first saw him, she nearly fainted from shock.
The only reason she didn’t fall over was that her body had frozen in place. It was that shocking of a sight.
But when she finally mustered the courage to ask, the answer she got was... menstruation.
“Hm...”
After thinking for a while, she simply turned on her stream.
Despite it being a sudden morning stream, viewers started flocking in. This meant her channel had grown.
[Oh, I see]
[Yoo-ha]
[Huh?]
[What’s with the morning stream?]
As she greeted her viewers, she asked seriously,
“Hey guys, do men menstruate...?”
[?]
[What the hell is this nonsense right when you log in? lol]
[Can you even do that? Damn it]
[Please understand~ The owner has never met a guy before, that’s why~]
[Didn’t even get basic education wwww]
The chat filled with insults as a reaction to her question. Watching this, Chae-rin nodded along.
“Hmm.”
Under normal circumstances, the chat would have earned a timeout, but she didn’t feel offended at all. At least, she realized her understanding wasn’t completely wrong.
‘Then what could it really be...?’
As a result, her curiosity only grew. The frustrating part was that she couldn’t ask more questions here.
He had a tendency to dodge questions about himself, so it was unavoidable that she could tell he had many secrets.
And honestly... she felt that if she asked him anything now, he might actually snap at her.
‘Ugh, forget it.’
After contemplating for a moment, she decided to let it go. While she was incredibly curious, she had no way to find out. She figured that if she had the chance later, her questions would be answered.
“Are you streaming now?”
As she organized her thoughts alone, he returned.
As he had mentioned earlier, he had taken a shower.
The blood-soaked appearance was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a much tidier version of himself.
[A sudden morning stream with Yor too?]
[What kind of celebration is today?]
[Yoo-ha]
[Did you shower? Your hair is all damp, lol]
[Wet Yor, ohhh]
“Alright, I’m going to sleep. Keep watch.”
[Sleeping?]
[It’s still morning..?]
[He does look a bit tired though]
[I can sleep too, lol]
[Should we sleep together? ㅎㅎ]
The chat exploded as Yor looked more defenseless than usual. Chae-rin couldn’t help but say something.
“Hey, could you at least type in the chat nicely? Do you think I can’t use the kick function?”
It was too early in the morning for her stream.
Perhaps because her manager was still asleep, the viewers’ brakes seemed to be malfunctioning. Nevertheless, her words managed to calm things down a bit.
[So what are we doing today?]
As Yor went deep into the cave, the viewers asked her.
Seeing that, Chae-rin took a moment to adjust her stream title.
It was a simple broadcast, but the more viewers, the better.
So, she tried to draw some attention...
[While Yor sleeps, doing various things.avi]
It wasn’t an inaccurate statement.
After seven hours of Yor sleeping, she did various things to kill time.
Although she had accepted the guarding quest, to be honest, there wasn’t much to do.
There were no monsters invading, and it wasn’t like she was guarding against bandits on a cart.
She even felt guilty about getting away with doing nothing in such a quest...
So, while he was asleep, she decided to do something.
She cleaned up the blood he had dropped on the floor, chatted with her viewers, and even pulled out some preserved food from her inventory to make a light soup.
Her experience living alone shone through in this moment.
Of course, every time she did this, her viewers clamored to barge into Yor’s room, but she ignored them. She didn’t want to have her throat cut.
Being a guest, her range of movement was somewhat limited.
But she could tell this cave was spacious.
From what she observed about his living arrangements, it seemed he had bathing facilities and a storage area inside.
Everything a person would need to live was present.
“.........”
She tried hard to ignore the subtle scent of blood emanating from the back. It was clear that this was not a scene one should be aware of.
‘...Maybe he just killed a monster, right?’
She simply pushed her curiosity aside and thought that way.
After another two hours had passed, Yor finally woke up.
He approached from a distance, rubbing his eyes. He looked like he hadn’t fully woken up yet. Chae-rin said to him,
“Are you still tired after sleeping so long? You could sleep more.”
“...No. It will be sunset soon, and you need to head back.”
Hearing that, Chae-rin looked outside.
The orange glow of the forest was softly settling in. The sunset was painting the sky.
If time continued like this, it would soon be fully night.
Chae-rin smirked slightly.
‘Guess I’ll have to talk about the Arena later...’
She felt a twinge of disappointment, but there was no helping it. She didn’t feel confident about going back at night.
“Let’s go, I’ll walk you back.”
At Yor’s words, Chae-rin nodded.
While she could return on her own, having him accompany her felt reassuring in a whole different way.
It was much more comfortable to walk with him keeping watch than to stealthily navigate her way back alone.
They could chat casually while walking too.
Thus, Chae-rin and Yor sipped their soup and headed out of the cave.
Fortunately, no monsters attacked them.
It was late afternoon, and the recent monsters in the forest had their attention spread out across various locations.
After walking through the forest for a while, they spotted a group approaching from the opposite direction.
“Found you!”
“Wow, the forest feels the same everywhere. It’s super hard to meet up.”
They were otherworlders identical to Chae-rin.
It had been a year since the release of [Demons Saga]. In that time, the average player level had increased quite a bit.
Consequently, many were challenging the "Forbidden Forest."
Of course, only about 5% of them succeeded in reaching the mid-level milestone... but that meant 5% were still able to reach it.
Thanks to that, the forest had become rather lively recently.
Every now and then, while wandering through the woods, you could spot items dropped by players who had met their demise.
In a sense, Yor’s prediction had been spot on.
“Hello, we’re fans.”
“Here’s a gift.”
This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.
And this time, the otherworlders they encountered were viewers from Chae-rin’s stream.
As soon as they saw Yor, they pulled out bread from their inventories to hand it over.
“...?”
Yor stared at them with wary eyes and accepted the bread with a bewildered expression.
It was a sugar-coated donut.
“Hey, let’s hurry up and leave. I’m out of mana and about to die.”
“Then we’ll take our leave. Good luck with your stream~.”
With that, the viewers, who had made a real-life donation, casually left the forest.
A few similar encounters happened afterward.
The viewers who had found Yor approached to greet him.
Each time, he would either receive gifts or be asked for autographs.
“...?”
Yor wore an ambiguous expression.
What was going on? It felt like he had become a zoo monkey after a long absence.
While receiving gifts felt nice, there was a lingering discomfort.
He looked at Chae-rin with a dazed expression.
She answered awkwardly.
“Ahaha, it’s fascinating, isn’t it...?”
“Were there really that many powerful viewers among the audience?”
“Right? I’m a bit surprised too.”
Seeing Yor's confused expression, Chae-rin glanced at the chat and said a few words.
While she was grateful at heart, she wished they would stop coming around.
Right now, the viewers were pretty nice, but who knew when a more intimidating viewer might show up? After all, not everyone was normal.
Regardless, they continued onward.
Not long after she had deterred the viewers, they encountered two more people.
When Chae-rin spotted them, she was about to say something.
“Guys, I appreciate your kindness, but could you please stop coming around—”
And then it happened.
Thud.
Yor stepped in front of Chae-rin. She looked at him for a moment.
His amber eyes were filled with wariness.
He then asked fiercely,
“What do you want?”
Chae-rin didn’t know, but at that moment, a spear seemed to rise in Yor’s eyes.
It was a different spear than any she had seen with the viewers thus far.
[Conditions not met!]
['Player's Eye' cannot be used on these targets!]
In other words, they were not otherworlders.