Chapter 99: Loss
Chapter 99: Loss
#
Rustle. Thud.
I hurriedly stripped from the waist down and opened the drawer.
I tore open a condom, rolled it over my aching cock, and squeezed some lube into my palm.
I moved close behind Na-yeon.
Rub, rub. Squelch.
I toyed with the cleft between the cheeks she had thrust toward me.
It had been a long time since I had touched a woman's bare skin.
Still burying her face in the mattress, Na-yeon reached back with both hands and spread her cheeks.
I carefully spread the lube between her parted lips.
"Stop playing around and just start already."
"Got it."
She'd been rushing me from the beginning.
At her insistence, I coated the condom with lube as well.
I was just as impatient, so I pushed straight inside her.
"Huhh... ugh... Why is it so big? Mmph."
I pulled back, then thrust into her again.
Gripping her small hips, I gradually increased my pace.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
"Mmm... ah. Ngh. Ngh. Ngh. Ngh. Shit, I'm getting the short end of the deal... mmm~"
As I continued thrusting, Na-yeon began to moan.
I had no idea what she thought she was losing, but I worked my hips vigorously.
It was rushed, instant sex without any foreplay.
There was no emotional connection, and she didn't even know my name.
Even so, perhaps because it had been so long since I had touched a woman, the urge to climax rose quickly.
If I came now, I would look hopelessly premature.
"Do we have to stay in this position the whole time?"
"Mmm... hah. Fine. Ahh. Lie down."
I gave her several deep, forceful thrusts, then pulled out.
Heat flooded my body, so I stripped off my shirt and tossed it aside.
I lay on the bed, and Na-yeon crawled on top of me.
She wrapped her small hand around my cock and slowly lowered herself.
"Haaah... ah. Shit, it feels so... ngh, so good. What's wrong with my body...? Mmm. Why does it feel this good...? Ahk."
She took me to the base, rocking her hips back and forth while swearing about how good it felt.
I reached up to knead her small breasts and roll her light-brown nipples between my fingers.
Before long, Na-yeon planted her knees and crouched over me in a frog-like position.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
"Haaah. Ah, ah, ah, ah. Harder... harder. Ngh! Touch me."
Na-yeon leaned forward, braced both hands on the mattress, and began riding me.
She looked slender, but her legs were strong. She repeatedly slammed her hips down hard and fast.
Slurp. Smooch. Smooch. Slurp.
Right after asking me to squeeze her breasts harder, she pressed herself against me and showered me with deep kisses.
Perhaps she grew tired, because her powerful movements gradually slowed.
I lowered my hands to her hips and began moving her myself.
I drove upward into her from below.
My hips moved faster and faster, as though a motor had been attached to my waist.
I pulled her hips down in time with each thrust.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
"Ngh. Ngh. Haaah! S-stop... Hiiing... Ghh..."
I drove into her so forcefully that she nearly bounced off me.
It felt as though some unknown tension were melting away.
#
Our sex ended while I was still pounding into her from below.
I came hard, and she seemed satisfied as well, collapsing on top of me.
After lying tangled together for a while, we cooked some ramen.
"Seriously? What day in June?"
"Today is... Does that even matter? Slurp. Wait. Look at this."
Na-yeon slurped up a mouthful of noodles and showed me the desk calendar that had been beneath the pot.
She pointed to the dates she'd crossed out.
It was real...
"So the men who usually came stopped showing up, and you've been eating only one meal a day?"
"That's what I said. I guess they all got themselves killed somewhere..."
Perhaps because we had slept together, the distance between us had narrowed considerably.
We shared the ramen, with a can of ham added, while I listened to her story.
"Or maybe they got tired of my body. Or found some other bitch..."
"In that case, wouldn't it be better for you to go out and—"
Na-yeon had been trading her body for food and other necessities.
Several men had dealt with her, but one by one they stopped coming until eventually no one visited at all.
She offered several possible explanations, but those weren't what mattered.
"That's why I let you in without much suspicion. I couldn't simply starve to death."
My memories and the timeline she described were far too different.
But no matter how hard I tried to remember, my head only hurt and nothing returned.
I needed more information...
"Hey. Hey?"
"Huh?"
"Why are you suddenly spacing out? Did you hear me?"
"Ah, sorry. I was thinking. What did you say?"
"I asked when you're leaving. Where do you live?"
"I'm not settled anywhere. I've been wandering."
Jin-su's final words returned to me.
The company outing had been near DMC Station, while this was Cheongnyangni. I must have been traveling.
If Na-yeon was right, I still hadn't escaped Seoul after more than a month...
"Why? Do you have somewhere to go? Your parents?"
"Not exactly. Someone asked me to do something."
She kept speaking from beside me, repeatedly breaking my train of thought.
I needed to go outside and organize my thoughts.
I also needed to find food.
"Na-yeon, can you tell me about anything unusual nearby? Anything else you know?"
"It's all only stuff I heard..."
"That's fine. Just tell me everything that happened while you were here."
I asked her to tell me everything she could remember.
Except for the first day, Na-yeon had remained inside her apartment, so she didn't know much.
She said the internet and phone service had stopped working some time ago.
The university was inaccessible because of a massive zombie horde, and she'd heard that beasts the size of cars roamed the streets, though she'd never seen one herself.
As I listened to her survival story and what she knew about the area, I considered several possibilities.
At first, after seeing my younger face, I'd thought I might have regressed into the past.
But considering my increased muscle mass, my current location, and the zombies, that couldn't be true.
Memory loss.
Somehow, more than a month of my memories had vanished completely.
My younger-looking face remained a mystery, though.
"You really have to go, don't you?"
"I should."
"Sigh... Hey, what if..."
I dressed and prepared to leave.
Na-yeon had been too frightened to go outside and had survived by staying in her apartment. Now that the people who traded with her had stopped coming, she seemed at a loss.
It was not as though I could take her with me and live here.
"Could you stop by once more before you leave the area?"
"If circumstances allow. You should think about what to do as well."
No matter how I considered it, hiding in her apartment forever led to an all-too-predictable future.
Her apartment still held a fair amount of stockpiled food.
But food didn't reproduce on its own.
Adapting to the changed world by learning to fight zombies seemed more conducive to survival, but I didn't press the point.
Na-yeon understood the current situation better than I did, and she had presumably made her choice after careful thought.
After a brief farewell, I left the building.
I did not know whether I'd ever see her again.
We had no way to contact each other.
And in this world, suddenly dying in the street wasn't unusual.
Even I, who had suggested she go out and scavenge, might someday die alone on some road.
Would I regret all my wandering when that moment came?
I set aside the pointless speculation and considered what I needed immediately.
Come to think of it, I needed a map as well.
At first, I'd tried to search for information on Na-yeon's computer.
But when she mentioned that the internet no longer worked and she was bored all day, I gave up.
So what did I need most urgently?
Food and a map, first.
Other survival gear could wait. I'd collect it gradually.
'Status Window.'
I wondered how much had changed during the month missing from my memory.
I trusted you, past me.
You must have killed at least a few zombies.
* Transformation: Optimization
* Enhanced Recovery (?) Body Enhancement (?) Body Enhancement II (?)
* Mental Resistance
* Available Points: 22
What the hell was this?
Besides Enhanced Recovery, several unfamiliar traits had appeared.
But I couldn't see their actual values.
'Should I spend some Available Points?'
I couldn't increase any of the other abilities. Only Mental Resistance responded.
I considered it, but there was nothing I could determine immediately.
I raised Mental Resistance to an even twenty and let the matter go.
'Past me... what the hell happened to you...?'
At least I could infer that I hadn't merely been hiding.
I now had more abilities and Available Points in the double digits.
The changes to my body and appearance were probably due to Body Enhancement...
And judging by my current resolve, perhaps my past self had also fought the zombies aggressively.
I would start again.
My memories would return someday.
'First, I would check that convenience store.'
I tightened my grip on the baseball bat and headed toward the convenience store ahead.
I constantly scanned my surroundings and listened for every small sound.
I searched the entire store but found no zombies.
Unfortunately, there was nothing worth salvaging either.
The convenience store had been stripped of supplies.
How was there not even a single pair of underwear?
The fruitless search continued.
To learn the streets, I divided the area into arbitrary zones and searched several buildings.
I focused on commercial establishments such as restaurants, convenience stores, and cafés.
But by sunset, I had found neither zombies nor food.
I continued wandering after dark, but still found nothing.
As night deepened, I entered a café on the second floor of a building.
'I suppose this really was a college district. There were cafés everywhere.'
Most shops I'd entered were spattered with blood.
Scattered furniture and signs of destruction had become almost normal.
But this café had no bloodstains and remained relatively tidy.
It seemed suitable enough for spending the night.
After checking the interior, I decided to rest there.