Journey bowed her head in a plea.

She didn’t expect people not to find out about Kana.

All she was asking for was the chance to keep her promise to Kana.

She pleaded with the viewers to pretend, at least within the game, that they didn’t know Kana’s name. But soon after, her broadcast and Kana’s name spread like wildfire across various online communities.

Journey’s stream caused quite a stir.

• "I’m not planning on going there anyway, so whatever."
• "Kana-chan is a baby... We have to protect her..."
• "She’s the only NPC we can interact with, so what choice do we have?"
• "Hehehe, Journey noona..."

Even among people who usually argued and fought with each other, there seemed to be some inherent goodness.

Each person had their own reason, but many were moved by Journey’s heartfelt request and decided to respect it.

Of course, there were those who weren’t as happy about it.

• "Who does she think she is, telling us what to do?"
• "We’ve already waited a week, isn’t that enough? Now she’s asking for more time??"
• "If she wants to play the way she wants, she should go play single-player games."
• "Does she think being a streamer makes her royalty? LOL."

Those dissatisfied with Journey’s request voiced their frustrations.

Whether their complaints were valid or not, the community quickly turned into a battleground.

• "She’s not telling anyone what to do, she’s just asking them to pretend not to know." ┗ "That’s still telling people what to do." ┗ "Does this guy not know the difference between a request and an order?"
• "Who said anything about waiting? She’s just asking people not to act like they know, and you can’t even understand that?"
• "If you don’t like it, why don’t you become a streamer too?" ┗ "Why wouldn’t I? Streamers get to do whatever they want while fans defend them."

Supporters, detractors, trolls, and passive bystanders all joined the fray. The battlefield was filled with chaos, with no end in sight. Trolls hurled themselves into the fire, attracting even more mayhem.

In the midst of this growing conflict, some previously silenced troublemakers reappeared. They grabbed their pitchforks and lit torches, diving right back into the battle, as if resurrected from the ashes.

• "We should never have left any room for ambiguity."
• "That ‘Hawaiian Pizza Truce’ or whatever, not trying for a week was ridiculous. Does having first-clear privileges mean they’re always right?"
• "I knew this would happen when the noobs started making a fuss. Sigh."

As the situation reached critical mass, even the invisible hands trying to moderate it withdrew. The battlefield was left without any control.

Just when it seemed like the situation would escalate to the point of no return, someone offered a new perspective.

“Wait, do we really need to be fighting like this?”

“What?! Are you giving up?”

“No, I’m saying instead of fighting here, why don’t we just go to Silia and deal with it directly? Block the mountain path, kill the streamer, or just mess things up.”

“…!”

It was as if this single remark had shifted the paradigm of the ongoing conflict.

Journey, who was about to log into Silia as usual, froze in place.

“War?”

• "Yep, yep, yep, yep!"
• "Incoming airstrike!"
• "Air raid warning! Air raid warning!"
• "Guilds are being mobilized like crazy right now."

"...Why?"

Confused and still trying to grasp the situation, Journey opened the community forum.

From her experience, she knew that if things were escalating this quickly, the community was probably to blame.

Just as she expected, the forum was in complete chaos.

As she carefully scrolled through the posts, she felt a headache building.

"Is this… my fault?"

• "Nah, it’s just the trolls being trolls."
• "LOL, did you think being a streamer gave you any real power?"
• "Looks like we’ve got a troll in here too, smh."
• "Journey did nothing wrong, ㅠㅠ."

"Haaa…"

This wasn’t the result she had intended, but it was clear that her words had planted the seed of this conflict.

How did things get so out of control?

Journey tried to clear her head and focused on reading the posts again.

While people had been arguing in the community, someone suggested a new idea, and suddenly, players were heading en masse toward the mountain where Kana lived.

Their plan was either to block Journey from getting to Kana or, more childishly, to rush over and tell Kana everything.

Of course, they would likely be cut down by Kana’s sword before they could even open their mouths, but it wasn’t a terrible plan in theory.

But as light and darkness always exist together, when one side made a move, the other followed suit.

A group calling themselves the "Kana Corps" soon emerged, driving out the players who had set up camp and taking over their position.

Then the opposition, calling themselves the "Outlaws," came charging back in.

Both sides began calling for reinforcements, and soon even those who had no stake in the matter, players who simply enjoyed PvP, or others who were just bored, joined in. The conflict snowballed into an all-out war...

And so the war began.

“How am I supposed to deal with this…?”

It hadn’t even been a full day, but the situation had already escalated far beyond what Journey could handle.

Even if she were to shout, "Please stop fighting because of me!" would the war actually come to an end?

"Kana’s going to think something is strange..."

Kana had finally started to open up to her, and now, if she suddenly stopped showing up, Kana would definitely find it suspicious.

As she panicked, unsure of what to do, a private message appeared in her inbox.

[Sender: Pine – Journey, are you logging in soon?]

The message was from Pine, a fellow streamer and the leader of the "Pizza is Best with Pineapple" guild.

Journey quickly apologized to her viewers and temporarily hid her stream.

[Journey: I was just about to log in...] [Pine: So, I’m guessing you know what’s going on?] [Journey: Honestly, I don’t fully understand it.] [Journey: I didn’t think things would blow up like this...] [Pine: Don’t worry about it too much.] [Pine: This is all part of the charm of RPGs, right?] [Pine: If people don’t like something, they can fight over it.] [Pine: That’s what PvP is for, after all.]

Was Pine trying to comfort her?

Journey wasn’t sure of Pine’s intentions, but his words did help calm her down a little.

[Journey: Are you fighting too, Pine...?] [Pine: Yeah.] [Pine: Oh.] [Pine: But don’t worry, I’m on Team Kana.] [Pine: Most of the Pizza Guild is on this side.] [Journey: Really?]

Wasn’t the Pizza Guild one of the groups most eager to take Kana down?

Journey was confused, unsure why they would be helping her.

[Pine: The Outlaws picked a fight with us first.] [Pine: And if we back down from a fight, we wouldn’t be true men, right?] [Pine: Besides, there’s no point joining the Outlaws if we won’t gain anything from it.]

In other words, they had no reason to bend to a group they were already at odds with.

‘That makes sense. The Outlaws just want to mess with me.’

From the start, the Outlaws’ goal had been clear.

They didn’t like Journey, so they wanted to cause problems.

Blocking the path, starting a war, tattling to Kana—it was all just a means to that end.

[Pine: Why don’t you log in now?] [Pine: If you come to our side, I’ll explain everything.] [Journey: Alright, I’ll log in right away.]

After finishing her conversation with Pine, Journey quickly logged into Silia.

Clang, clang!

"Kill him! Finish that bastard!"

"What’s the mage doing? Cast something already!"

Normally, Journey would be greeted by fresh air and peaceful birdsong, but instead, she was met with the sharp sounds of clashing metal and the tense atmosphere of battle.

Since she had logged out not far from the mountain, she could immediately see players fighting as soon as she connected.

Seeing the chaos and the large crowd of players, Journey lowered her voice as much as possible.

"...This is worse than I thought."

• "Looks like all the nearby players have gathered here."
• "It’s morning, and it’s already this packed?"
• "Who am I? 'Time Bill Gates.'"

Carefully making her way through the chaos, Journey eventually found her ally.

"Journey! Over here!"

Spotting Pine waving his arm, Journey quickly walked over to him.

His armor was covered in blood and dust, likely from the earlier fighting.

"I came because you called, but... where is everyone else?"

"They’re all still fighting. I stepped out for a bit just to meet you."

Pine led Journey to a temporary tent they had set up.

"To be honest, the situation isn’t looking great."

Pine got straight to the point.

"Are we losing?"

"It’s not about losing... The problem is the win conditions. We don’t have one, but they do."

"Ah..."

"We have to keep holding the line, but they only need to break through once to win."

"A win condition..."

Journey wracked her brain, but nothing useful came to mind.

Even if she went to Kana, what could she possibly say?

‘There are people trying to interfere with our relationship, so just ignore them!’

...Yeah, that would be convincing.

Besides, she couldn’t even say a sentence that long to Kana, and even if she did, Kana wouldn’t believe her.

She was the only one who had communicated with Kana, so if a group of thugs suddenly showed up, who would Kana blame?

‘And it’s not like I can tell Kana the truth.’

I’m a streamer, Journey, and this all happened because of my broadcast. I’m sorry!

Even if she tried that, Kana wouldn’t hear it because of the NPC filter. And even if there were no filter, she’d probably just come off as crazy.

Journey’s dilemma only deepened as she realized how little control she had over the situation.