NoveLight ™
As soon as I heard about Luce, I opened my friend list.
[Friend List] [Friend Requests] [Blocked List]
[System: You have 1,182 unread friend requests.]
It hasn’t been that long since I last cleaned it up, and yet here it is again, piled up like this.
A daunting number over a thousand. That’s why I usually ignore friend requests.
No matter how many I delete, they keep coming in. The only option is to look the other way.
Recently, I’ve been a topic of conversation quite often.
There was that video incident… And today, I killed a lot of streamers just to blow off steam.
Some people might be upset that their favorite streamer got killed.
Sure, there are plenty who enjoy it, but not everyone.
But well, what can I do?
Field PK is a calculated risk on my part.
There’s a reason even top-tier guilds prefer war over PK.
That’s why they take things so seriously, even running their own grief squads while still needing someone like me.
Sometimes that comes back to bite me, but…
I’ve managed so far.
[Eldorin from Strange Forest has sent you a friend request. Y/N]
[Request declined.]
[Eldorinsuho...]
[Declined...]
[Dongtanmi...]
[Declined...]
I decided to clear out all the useless friend requests while I was at it.
After a short session of mechanically pressing the decline button, I noticed a familiar name.
[MountainBird has sent you a friend request. Y/N]
[Request accepted.]
A halfling bard I met during a party hunt.
If I remember correctly, they were the self-proclaimed "Number 1 Fan" from a passive guild.
So they sent me a request, huh? It would’ve been nice if they had said something.
No, maybe they couldn’t even if they wanted to.
I haven’t seen them since they died back then.
Only a few can face me in the field, but anyone can send a friend request.
Maybe it’s out of curiosity.
Or maybe it’s shallow revenge.
Naturally, this goes for whispers too.
If I don’t have them blocked, I can’t even use the whisper feature, so I’ve made it so that only party members or friends can send me messages.
"Next time, I’ll just hunt them down if it gets too annoying."
Up until now, it’s been fine.
Any necessary friend additions happen when I know they’re coming.
All I needed to do was accept the most recent requests.
But now that this has happened, I can’t just leave it alone.
Maybe if I hunt a few of them down, things will calm down?
And if not, well, I’ll deal with it.
As I kept declining requests, a couple of notable names caught my eye.
[Eldorin has sent you a friend request. Y/N]
[Q Prime Traveler* has sent you a friend request. Y/N]
Eldorin was the streamer I killed today.
And Traveler... it seemed like it had to be that person I knew.
The * next to their name was an in-game verification badge, like an official mark.
It made sense that Traveler would send a request.
But Eldorin? Why would they? It’s not like they would have positive feelings towards me.
After a brief hesitation, I made my decision.
[Request accepted.]
But now that I’ve accepted it…
The requests were probably sent ages ago, and there was no guarantee either of them was online now.
[Eldorin (Online) – Location: Private]
[MountainBird (Offline) – Last login: 5 hours ago]
[Traveler (Offline) – Last login: 3 hours ago]
Of course, MountainBird and Traveler were both offline.
Only Eldorin, who probably had no idea why I accepted, was online.
It seemed like they’d logged in as soon as the restrictions were lifted.
This feels a bit weird. I don’t really want to start a conversation.
Maybe they’ll ask about it later?
Just as I was about to close the friend window, whispers started flooding in.
[Eldorin’s Whisper]
Their approach was like a salesperson pushing a credit card.
I calmly adjusted my voice channel settings.
"Sure, go ahead. You’re not streaming right now, right?"
I checked the streaming platform, and Eldorin wasn’t broadcasting.
I should have checked before accepting. It’s been so long since I had to deal with this that I didn’t even think about it.
I must still be feeling a bit off. Good thing I didn’t queue for a match.
[Eldorin’s Whisper]
Ah, right, streamers.
They just seem to have so much to say. Once I started responding, the messages came in nonstop.
Oddly enough, though, it felt like it was putting me at ease.
At least they didn’t seem to hold any grudges.
Not that I was particularly interested in their story.
"So, what’s the reason you reached out? Our first meeting wasn’t exactly pleasant."
You didn’t feel bad?
Well, I guess... it’s possible.
There are all kinds of people in the world.
I added a note next to Eldorin’s name in my friend list: “Has strange tastes.”
I should be careful not to get too close.
The final phase operates as a single elimination tournament.
It’s a well-known format.
But it’s impossible to schedule matches for over a thousand players manually.
So, matches are randomized between players with the same number of wins.
If matchmaking can’t handle the load, the developers step in to schedule the games.
In the end, you have to win five consecutive matches to qualify for the main event.
Spectating is allowed, but it’s impossible to know when and how many matches will happen.
Unless pre-arranged, streaming a specific player’s match is practically impossible.
So Eldorin’s request was basically asking me to tell her when I would play.
She wasn’t exactly a big-time streamer, but she wasn’t so small that no one cared either.
For someone like me, who can’t stream, this was actually a helpful offer.
"Thanks for the offer. I appreciate it, but I’m not sure if it’s a good idea."
However, there was a reason I couldn’t accept so easily.
I can’t stream.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t appear on other people’s streams.
I had thought about trying that once… but I never followed through.
The reason was that I had too many enemies.
To take me down, people need to bring high-spec players with them.
I’m just one person, so if they keep pushing, the guilds will have to bear the losses.
But not everyone connected to me can do that.
That’s why I don’t belong to any guilds.
If they can’t get to me, they’ll target the people around me.
And since I can’t stop working, I have no choice but to keep going solo.
Even if I joined forces with a powerful guild or streamer, it wouldn’t change anything.
Those people are always tied to certain factions.
That means they wouldn’t be able to take jobs from the opposing side.
In the end, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.
"Honestly, you’d be the one in danger, not me. You know I’ve made a lot of enemies. If they can’t kill me, they might come for you."
Now that I said it, the irony wasn’t lost on me.
I was the one who killed Eldorin most recently, after all.
Who’s worried about whom here?
But I don’t like lying to people.
That kind of fake honesty – “I didn’t technically lie” – just isn’t my style.
Eldorin’s response left me stunned.
Now that I thought about it, she was right.
In this game, players who focus on lifestyle content—especially housing—hardly overlap with PvP players.
For PvP players, things like decorating are just a complete waste of time.
If she couldn’t go out into the field, she just wouldn’t.
If she couldn’t level up, she could just spend time decorating.
And she could still stream my matches. Eldorin was like the missing puzzle piece.
"Uh… sure, I guess?"
yay friend get!