I had never used Player’s Eye before.
That’s because I had never encountered an otherworlder. Actually, I hadn’t even seen another person in quite a while.

So, up until now, I could only imagine what Player’s Eye might be like.

What kind of ability did it have? What would happen when I used it? What did it mean to see through a player’s eyes? And most of all, who or what was a "player"?

The only clue I had was the name of the skill, so I could only speculate. Luckily, I had an abundance of time to think it over.

I didn’t know who the players were.
But based on the name “player,” I guessed they were living in some sort of game-like world. Maybe they even had status windows like me.

If that was the case, Player’s Eye probably allowed me to see the world through their eyes.
I didn’t know where these otherworlders came from, but this seemed like the most reasonable explanation.

Turns out, my guess was correct. The problem was... it was more than I expected.

[Ask him to move the knife from your neck.]
[Impossible. She’s too scared to talk...]
[This reminds me of my school days... my hands are shaking...]

What the hell was that? It looked like a swarm of people were having a conversation, with text flooding the screen.

And strangely enough, I had a faint idea of what I was looking at. The design was something I had seen often... decades ago.

Twenty-two years ago, when I was still living in the modern world, the chat window looked just like this during livestreams.
I never thought I’d see it again, but here it was, a relic of my distant past, right in front of me.

“Uh, I won’t do anything, but could you please back your face away? You don’t have to move the knife, just... your face, at least...”

[Lolololololol.]
[She’s asking him to move his face, not the knife, lol. What a lunatic.]
[Chaerin has a special trait—she gets terrified in front of hot guys.]
[Honestly, I’m more scared of the guy than the bloodstained knife, lol.]
[Isn’t this a reward in itself...?]
[This guy looks like something out of the 4th Knight's Division, lol.]
[Eh, not that good, but close.]

At that moment, a grim thought crossed my mind.

Wait. If this really is what I think it is, then it doesn’t matter whether I kill her or silence her—nothing’s going to change.

“...Ah, shit.”

“Hiiik, I’m sorry!”

I backed away from her, my face pale.
Maybe it was because I swore under my breath, but she looked even more terrified.
But the truth was, I was the one who should’ve been scared.

With a serious tone, I asked her:

“When did you get here?”

“Huh?”

“When did you start watching?”

She hesitated, stammering out a reply.

“I think... about five minutes ago...”

[She’s confessing to peeping, lol.]
[Don’t lie, Chaerin. We all know you’ve been watching for over 15 minutes.]
[She’s saying whatever she wants, thinking he won’t know.]
[You’ve been watching for exactly 15 minutes and 37 seconds.]
[Pervert, lol. You’ve got no excuse.]
[To be fair, she didn’t know it was a guy at first!]

Fifteen minutes, huh...
Even if she started watching late, it was clear that it was already far too late. Fifteen minutes? That was more than enough time to be caught.

The only saving grace was that she hadn’t seen the mark on my collarbone, but the fact that she discovered my existence at all was a problem.
Now what was I supposed to do?

My mind was racing with confusion. The panic and tension made it impossible to think clearly.
I hadn’t been exposed to this many eyes since the day I got captured.

I’d been living in isolation for 12 years, and now, all of a sudden, I was exposed to countless people?
Holy shit, I think I’m gonna be sick. I quickly snapped at her.

“...Get out.”

“What?”

“I said get out of the cave, now!”

“Y-yes!!”

I banished her immediately.
It was the only decision I could make, caught between killing her and silencing her.
With that, she bolted out of the cave in a hurry.

“Whoa... what was that? I was seriously terrified.”

[Lolololololol]
[So that ghost story was real after all, huh?]
[To the guy who posted that, I’m sorry for doubting you...]
[Chaerin, you’re such a scaredy-cat.]
[If that were me, I would’ve gotten his number right away.]
[Where’s all that confidence you had when talking to us? lol]
[For real, it was probably just an NPC, you should’ve done a wall slam!]
[Looks like you’re the one who got slammed against the wall, lol.]
[Chaerin, if you’re going to waste that face, just give it to me.]

After leaving the cave, Chaerin took a deep breath and shared her thoughts on what just happened.
If she had to sum it up in one word—it was terrifying.

She had always been the typical "forever alone" type, having attended an all-girls middle and high school, followed by a technical university.
She had zero experience with men, let alone any kind of "immunity" to them. She hadn’t talked to many guys, and of course, she had never been in close proximity to one.

Even now, after her stream had gained some traction, not much had changed. She had spent nearly her whole life without a “man” anywhere in the picture.

And then suddenly, today, a guy had held a knife to her throat and even cursed at her!

Even if he was just an NPC, it was still scary enough to haunt her nightmares.
His face reminded her of the delinquent guys who smoked in the back alleys, which only made it worse...

[But to be fair, he was really hot.]
[I wanted to see his face more clearly, but it was winter and he was all covered up. Sad times.]
[User has been banned by the moderator.]
[Come on, mod, you wanted to see it too, didn’t you?]
[For all we know, there’s a massive layer of fat hiding under all that fur, lol.]
[Nah, no way.]

Naturally, the next thing she felt was admiration. He was seriously good-looking.
Even in this day and age, where you can see beautiful faces all over the internet, she was impressed.
And to find someone like that in this remote forest? The impact was undeniable.

‘Wow... my viewers...’

Thanks to that encounter, her viewer count had skyrocketed. Even after leaving the cave, there were still 3,400 people watching.

If there were that many now, how many had there been when she was in the cave? She quickly checked the peak viewer count.

‘Oh my god, 6,500?!’

She wasn’t a nobody, but she wasn’t a huge streamer either, so this was an astonishing number for her.
Normally, her streams barely reached 1,000 viewers. This was an extraordinary event.

[But why didn’t you do anything?]
[For real, Chaerin, you should’ve pulled out a weapon and said, “Hey, let’s talk this out, you jerk.”]
[She didn’t have any gear on her, and even if she did, it’s not like she could’ve won.]
[Come on, how strong could he be just because he’s a guy, lol?]

The chat continued to buzz about the guy for a long time.

“Alright, alright, everyone, let’s stop chatting about that and continue exploring.”

Eventually, Chaerin decided to switch gears and refocus the stream on exploration.
There was still a long way to go before they reached the deepest part of the forest. There was plenty of content to squeeze out of this.

By now, quite a bit of time had passed, and the entire forest was bathed in a reddish hue.
The setting sun had cast its light over the landscape.

The red-tinged forest gave off a dreamlike, almost ethereal atmosphere. Chaerin paused for a moment, admiring the view along with her viewers before continuing deeper into the forest.

When someone is swept up in a sudden storm, panic is the natural response. And right now, I was that someone caught in the storm.

After sending her away, I had to take a moment to calm myself.
The 12 years I had spent hiding had been rendered meaningless in an instant, as I was exposed to countless people all at once.
And, of course, that was a huge deal—on par with the time I faced off against the mountain beast a few years ago.

In short, I was royally screwed.

‘What do I do now?’

I couldn’t help but think over my situation for a while.
Was sending her away the best option? Honestly, it wasn’t. It was a rushed decision, made because I wanted to be alone in the confusion. Decisions made out of emotion are rarely the best ones.

But even now, I couldn’t come up with a better solution.

Should I move?
That was a decent option.
Even if I’d been exposed, if I went deeper into the forest, it would be too difficult for anyone to track me. The problem was that even I would struggle to survive there, but with my current strength, I could probably manage.

Still, there wasn’t any immediate reason to act. Moving too hastily would be a mistake.
Besides, I had a lot of resources stored in this cave.

To be honest, I didn’t want to give up this comfortable life...

I kept thinking about different possibilities. Would someone come after me? Would the Empire get involved? Or would nothing happen at all?

No matter how much I thought about it, there was no clear answer.

“Haa...”

After a long period of agonizing over it, I made my decision:
I would do nothing for now. If something happened, I could deal with it then. I didn’t want to waste my energy, especially since my next berserk episode was approaching.

‘Still... she was pretty.’

After all that overthinking, my thoughts drifted to something simple.
It had been so long since I’d seen a normal person.
She was far better-looking than the filthy thugs I’d encountered in back alleys.

Meeting a normal person like that sometimes made me wonder...

‘If I’d lived a normal life, would I have been able to talk to people more easily?’

Living like an ordinary person in this medieval world, meeting friends, and chatting with them...
Maybe someday, I could’ve met someone special.

But, of course, that was just wishful thinking. I was cut off from civilization, and my chances of meeting people were practically nonexistent.
Pondering these things only made me sad.

I sat there for a while, lost in thought, until I realized night had fallen.
The already dark cave became even darker, with only the flickering fire pushing back the shadows.

The atmosphere was eerie, but I had lived here for so long that I had gotten used to it.

‘Time for dinner and bed.’

As I began preparing for my evening meal, I suddenly heard a voice from outside the cave.

“Excuse me! Are you still there, mister?”

It was the voice of the woman from earlier. Startled, I quickly grabbed my spear and stepped outside.

“What do you want?”

She stood outside the cave, shuffling awkwardly.

“Uh, hi... hehe.”

I remained cautious.

“I told you to leave. Why are you back?”

“Well, um...”

I lowered my voice as I pointed my spear at her, making it clear I wasn’t in the mood for games.
She flinched but didn’t run. It seemed like she had something to say.

After hesitating for a while, she finally acted, as if she’d made up her mind.

“P-please!”

Suddenly, she dropped to her knees, groveling like a beggar!
She looked so desperate, I was momentarily stunned.

“Just for one night! Please let me stay just for one night! I won’t do anything, I promise! I’ll just stay quiet!”

“What...?”

“Wahh! It’s too scary outside! It’s so dark, I can’t see anything!”

“...”

Her pitiful display left me speechless for a moment.
I didn’t know what to say.