Chapter 16: Kim Ji-hee
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 16: Kim Ji-hee
Kim Ji-hee let out a long sigh the moment she opened her eyes in the morning.
At least while she was asleep, she could forget her memories, but the moment she woke, the bitter recollections came flooding back.
Lately, Kim Ji-hee hadn't had a single good memory.
The day the Zombie Apocalypse broke out.
The disaster had struck while she happened to be at her aunt’s house.
She remembered the streets descending into chaos and her desperate flight for survival.
She remembered the zombie chasing her, and the man who appeared like a miracle to save her.
He wasn't particularly handsome.
He was just an ordinary-looking man you might see walking down any street.
But in that moment, he had seemed more handsome and reliable than any man she had ever met.
His back, which wasn't even that broad, looked wide enough to shield her from everything in the world.
But then, the man had turned around and lowered his pants.
Without even wiping the blood splattered on his face, he had offered her his cock with a smile. To her, it was nothing short of a total shock.
That day, she had sucked a dick for the first time in her life.
She still couldn't forget the sensation of semen pouring into her mouth, some of it sliding down her throat.
She had thought there could be no nightmare worse than that.
In that moment, funnily enough, she normally would have trembled with humiliation and been filled with rage. However, the world had become so strange that the idea of it being a trade—her life in exchange for a favor—actually felt somewhat reasonable alongside her desperate will to live.
Even after she escaped, the word 'revenge' didn't really cross her mind.
She realized for the first time that revenge was a luxury only those with peace of mind could dream of.
Once she reunited with her aunt, time moved so frantically that she didn't even have the chance to dwell on that nightmare.
They stayed cooped up inside the house, and the lack of food combined with the sounds coming from outside amplified her fear for survival.
Her aunt and uncle didn't provide much comfort.
On the surface, they were her benefactors who had raised her in her parents' stead, but in reality, they only cared about her debut when she was a minor.
They had wanted the position of legal guardian just to get their hands on the money she would earn if she succeeded. Even in the midst of this catastrophe, she was disgusted to see them asking if she had any saved cash or gold they could have.
But even with people like that, she was currently in a situation where she had no choice but to rely on them.
To a girl who had only recently turned twenty, the world was still a dangerous place to stand alone.
In the midst of such danger, the title of an influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers was of no help at all.
If anything, it only made her prey.
Upon hearing about her Mode, her aunt’s first suggestion was that it would be helpful if she offered herself up to the local thugs. In fact, Ji-hee felt their creepy advances every single day.
While they didn't lay a hand on her directly yet, all sorts of sexual harassment were par for the course. They would say, loud enough for her to hear, that a woman's role in this kind of situation was to serve as a sexual outlet for men. They also controlled her food rations and her placement in hunting squads.
It was all so obvious and petty, but the fact that she couldn't do anything about it made every day a living hell.
Lately, she had even reached the point of wondering if she should just go back to the man who had shoved his cock in her face.
Would that be better?
Just like that man said.
If she stayed here, it wouldn't be strange if she ended up being used as a flesh toilet to satisfy the lust of an unknown number of men.
Her ability was Healing, and while many people praised it as something great and wonderful, the looks in their eyes said something else entirely.
Gaslighting.
Even her aunt and uncle, who lived with her, would say things like, "Shouldn't you do your part so we can be treated well?" It felt like she was going to go insane.
Should she just do what they wanted?
Would that make things easier?
The world had changed.
A former trainee. The main vocal of a debut group.
These things were now just a pretty face and a pretty body.
They held no more value than being good conditions to get more in return for putting out. From what she could judge, the Seongsu Apartment Faction was a fairly large organization in this neighborhood, even if their leaders were clearly thugs.
Would it be any different if she went somewhere else?
It probably wouldn't.
If anything, it would be worse.
If it were a faction of this size and scale...
Could she find a group that would recognize the value of her Level 4 Healing skill and treat her properly?
Could she head back out into the dangerous streets for that small, low probability?
Kim Ji-hee was afraid of that.
She knew now that the clumsy zombie she had been chased by was a Level 1 zombie.
But even now, when she went out with the hunting squad, she couldn't kill a zombie herself.
Even the men in her squad noticed her situation and tried to give her coins.
There was no such thing as a favor without a price.
She didn't need a woman's intuition to know that it wasn't just the thugs; there were men everywhere eyeing her.
The funny thing is, humans eventually end up choosing the lesser of two evils.
The man who, in that moment, she thought couldn't possibly be worse.
Before she knew it, she was knocking on that man's door.
"What? Why are you here again?"
"..."
This man was alone.
Even though he was alone, for some reason, he felt more reliable than all those people at Seongsu Apartment.
Kim Ji-hee had seen that it wasn't just a feeling.
Their first meeting.
The way he slit the throat of a zombie—something that looked like a human—without a moment's hesitation.
The way he instantly suppressed a man with an intimidating physique and aura when she went out with the hunting squad, and the way he acted so confidently even when surrounded by dozens of people at Seongsu Apartment.
He seemed to have something.
He seemed to have something to back up his confidence.
That was why she told him.
Even though he was the man who had shoved his cock at her, made her suck it, and came in her mouth.
She felt it instinctively.
She might be safe if she was by this man's side.
If not here, then nowhere.
She couldn't just let him die.
It might have been her own way of weighing her options.
But the man had sent her back, saying he was fine.
She hadn't been able to visit since then...
But he looked perfectly fine.
In fact, his expression was even brighter.
The sight of him opening the door while drinking some black liquid—maybe cola—from a beer mug filled with ice almost made Kim Ji-hee do a double-take.
Is this person on vacation?
Funnily enough, the moment she saw that bright and relaxed expression, her tension melted away.
It wasn't a total certainty yet.
But she felt a slight desire to lean on this person.
So, she spoke up.
For the first time, she was the one to start.
"I ran out of coins... I have to fill ten coins today..."
"Wow. Are these bastards finally going into heat? Because you won't put out? They must know you can't even manage five coins, so increasing it to ten just means 'put out quickly or go die.'"
"..."
The man knew her situation exactly.
This was another reason Kim Ji-hee wanted to rely on him.
Familiarity.
The way he seemed to see through this world as if he were used to it gave her a strange sense of trust.
It gave her the conviction that maybe this man could help her.
Of course, even if he explicitly stated that the price for his help was her body.
It was the same now.
"I believe I told you it wouldn't be a free service from now on?"
"...I know."
This man was too quick on the uptake.
Even though she hadn't said it directly, he grasped what she meant and grabbed her wrist, leading her inside.
Click. The door closed.
The interior of the house, which she was visiting for the second time, had changed a lot in just a few days.
It wasn't a massive change, but there was a freezer sitting in the already cramped room. It was so packed with things that it was startling even from a distance.
"What are you doing?"
"Huh?"
While she was momentarily distracted, the man asked.
Before she could turn her head back from the freezer toward him, his hand was already pressing down on her shoulder.
This was also the second time.
She naturally knelt on the floor, her gaze level with his pants instead of his eyes.
"Suck it."
This was the second time she had heard those words, too.
She was trembling less than the first time.
However, even though it was the second time seeing his cock, she wasn't used to it.
It was quite large.
Since this man's was the first one she had ever actually seen, she had nothing to compare it to, but it was large enough that she knew it instinctively.
Even though she knew it wouldn't be small, considering it had filled her mouth so much she could barely breathe.
The memories came back, making her hesitate.
Still, she carefully licked the glans and used her tongue to spread the pre-cum evenly over it.
She swallowed slowly and took him deep.
Maybe because it was the second time.
It didn't feel as repulsive as she expected.
Was it because she also thought of it as a price?
A thought suddenly occurred to her.
If this was the price, and if she could use him against the thugs at Seongsu Apartment, wouldn't it be okay?
Was she just being too conservative and fearful?
But as soon as she pictured the faces of the thugs who followed and pressured her every day, her skin crawled and her expression soured.
Was it okay because it was this man? Why?
"I guess you're getting the hang of it now?"
"..?"
"You're daydreaming."
Suddenly, her mouth was freed.
The man pulled his cock out and lifted her up.
In an instant, her body was flipped around, and her pants were pulled down along with her panties.
"...W-Wait...!"
She didn't even have time to react.
He was so strong that she was dragged along like a piece of paper.
With her body pressed tight against the wall, she felt the man's weight behind her.
And her panties were gone. She felt the man's hard thigh against her buttocks, and then his thick cock piercing through her wet pussy.
"...!"
"Ten coins is a bit expensive."
She didn't hear the words whispered in her ear.
A distant pleasure pierced through her mind.