Log Horizon

[Kraco]

you can't add him to your f-list, but you can join a group with him

What's the group? Isn't it something they just decided verbally?

you can use telepathy to tell him things (adventurer ability?)

No, you can't. The telepathy is basically using the interface to make an internal phone call to somebody on your friend list. Rudy can't be on a friend list -> no telepathy.

he can level up just like everyone else
he uses a cooldown system (knowingly)

his character is not following the rules of the game for sure and I don't like the "everything has changed after the apocalypse" development, its the perfect excuse for ass-pulling... and I hate that

I've been advocating for a while a theory where the players aren't that different from the NPCs, or rather the NPCs not so different from the players. They have had a health bar from the beginning, for example, and the NPC mage that contacted Shiroe summoned those windows that looked like they belonged to a game interface. In my opinion it makes sense the NPCs develop in the same way as the players. I don't see the need for redundant experience/skill systems.