Date
The setting of this novel is Earth in a parallel universe.
"Excuse me — aren't you Kim Bitna?"
"Huh?... Yes... yes, that's right."
Realizing she'd been recognized, she gave an awkward little smile and pulled off her mask.
True to her reputation as a beautiful star, it felt as though the entire steam room had brightened at once.
Emily seemed to know Kim Bitna as well. She steadied her breathing, came over, and sat down beside me.
"Oh my. It really is Kim Bitna. I'm a fan."
"Yes..."
When Emily held out her arm, Bitna shook her hand with a look of open admiration in her eyes.
Silence.
"So... how are the preparations for the 2004 Lisbon Olympics going?"
This'll be her last Olympics...
At least it was a relief it wasn't the 2005 Games.
Unable to endure the quiet any longer, I steered the conversation toward the Olympics. She seemed to relax as well, smiling as she nodded.
"Yes."
"And congratulations on second place at the World Championships — late as it is. Honestly... I never thought a Korean would take second in the hundred meters..."
She scratched her head with an embarrassed look, but she must have been proud underneath, because she broke into a bright smile.
"That's only because Eva retired. Well..."
Evelyn Florence.
A British track athlete who had announced her retirement two years earlier and sat out last year's World Championships entirely.
"But you've been getting faster and faster, haven't you? 10.58... It's not like the drug-soaked eighties, and Angelina's on the decline now too... I don't know about a world record, but a gold medal looks very possible from where I'm sitting."
It was so impressive I even memorized her time...
"Ah... thank you. You sound just like my coach."
Domestic competitions weren't even worth watching.
The gulf between the mid-eleven-second range and the ten-second range was simply too vast. She was so dominant that even in the 400 meters — not her main event — she had no rivals at home.
Was it because an Asian athlete was simply too good?
Every single meet, she was hauled in for doping tests on the suspicion that she might be using something.
She's clean. Running talent: Level 9. Of course she is. Next year, when her body reaches its peak, she'll have no rivals. And if you use the talent transfer the Constellation granted you to bring her up to Level 12... she'll be even faster. She'll become the first woman in history to break into the nine-second range.
That'd make the doping suspicions impossible to shake, though...
Moderate it, then. Even at Level 10, the gold medal is well within reach. Even if Eva comes back.
Right...
I hadn't used it on Jeong-mi or Ju-ae yet after spending it on Dahyun.
They had children, for one thing, and I wanted to talk things through properly before deciding which talents to raise. I was also still weighing whether to boost something useful for survival or simply enhance an ordinary trait.
I glanced quickly at her hips.
No sign of them having widened much — which meant she either hadn't been with many men, or she still had a virgin's build.
Whoa... I can read that now too.
I'd claimed so many virgins in such a short span that the differences from other women had started registering on pure instinct.
"You seem to like places like saunas, though."
"W-well, yes. I do. Public bathhouses are too embarrassing, so I come to jjimjilbangs like this instead."
Hmm... embarrassing?... Well, people might recognize her.
Having strangers stare at your naked body would make anyone self-conscious.
It's because of the physical trait you favor.
A pristine pussy?
The moment those words landed, a sudden possessiveness toward her flared up inside me.
Still, the fact that the woman currently wrapped in my Chaehyang was Kim Bitna — the nation's little sister, with a fanbase of at least a billion — made me a little uneasy.
Of course, if I filed a marriage registration right away, the bigamy protection laws would leave the reporters sucking their thumbs... but the real problem was her fandom.
Even knowing that posting something online could mean a ten-year sentence, there would still be plenty of lunatics willing to set themselves on fire over it.
Kim Bitna's fandom is way too fanatical.
Even now she was lying here in a steam room with a mask on, pitifully hiding from her own fans.
Stalkers got caught about once a month — that was how obsessive they were.
"Yeah, that makes sense. Other people would be staring."
"...Yes."
A flush of heat.
Something must have crossed her mind, because her face went scarlet and she nodded.
She wasn't quite on Hye-yun or Dahyun's level, but she was a considerable beauty — the kind who could slap ordinary celebrities across the face without breaking a sweat. On top of that, beads of sweat were soaking through her clothes, and her figure was every bit as fine as you'd expect from an athlete. The defined muscle below her shorts was even more striking.
Up close, that definitely isn't East Asian muscle. And the type is different from martial artists' too.
It looked like the muscle of Black sprinters.
"Are you an athlete yourself, by any chance?"
"Me? No. Just a regular college student."
"Ah... but your body... it looks better than Kim Jeongho's. You've got a perfect build for short sprints..."
If I ran, it'd be a scandal.
The moment I'd gained Divine Power 12, I'd already stepped somewhat beyond human limits. If I ran in earnest, researchers would come running.
"No, nothing like that..."
"What's your hundred-meter time, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Eleven flat, back in my sophomore year of high school."
"What?!!! On a regulation track?"
I nodded.
Dongnimmun High had been remodeled from a university campus, so the athletic field was fairly large. It even had a proper hundred-meter track.
"And you never went into the sport?"
Questions like that always made me resent Myeong-hak.
But I'd been at fault too, so I just gave a bitter smile and nodded.
I'd been recruited for soccer in middle school and track in high school... but Myeong-hak had foamed at the mouth over it, so I'd given up.
"My uncle was against it... so I couldn't."
"Ah... if an ordinary person runs eleven flat, and then you correct the form... maybe... your muscle is pure Black sprinter type..."
She looked at me with open regret, then came closer.
My thighs had been this thick even before I gained Divine Power, so I took a certain pride in them.
"Would you mind... if I touched them?"
"Huh?... Go ahead."
"Heeheehee. Honey's thighs are thirty inches. And you should see how developed his glutes are."
Emily came over, took Bitna's hand, and set it on my thigh.
Right where I'd shifted my cock.
A palm that was slightly rough for a woman's settled on my thigh, and she made a sound of pure admiration. She pressed harder and harder, kneading as she went.
"Wow... they're thicker than they were in your sophomore year, right?"
"Yeah. Back then they were probably around twenty-eight inches."
That was before the Constellation gave me my abilities.
"Have you run at all since then?"
"No."
I smiled bitterly.
I'd done plenty of running — before they issued me a delivery scooter.
"Hmm..."
Her hand kept climbing higher. Emily pulled her own hand away with a lewd little smile and watched from behind.
Bitna was so absorbed in her admiring exploration that she seemed not to notice the thick bulge jutting out — and her hand drifted steadily closer to my cock.
"What a waste. Just looking at the muscle, you could have been the first Korean into the nine-second range... What about now? Even at this point?"
"No. I like ordinary life. I don't want people hounding me anymore, and one of my wives is an actress. I've heard enough about dealing with vicious fans."
"Right. That makes sense... Wait — one of your wives?"
Bitna turned to Emily with startled eyes, but Emily just beamed and nodded.
Bitna stared blankly for a moment, and then her face grew redder and redder.
And then, without meaning to, her hand brushed the head of my cock — and closed tight around it.
Squeeze.
"Huh?"
She'd been feeling up a solid thigh and suddenly found herself gripping something soft and yielding. She looked at Emily in confusion, then dropped her gaze to my thigh.
I scratched my head, putting on a look of awkward embarrassment.
"Th-this is...?"
"..."
I scratched again, lips parting and closing, deliberately flushing my face — the expression of a man too mortified to explain.
"Y-you don't mean..."
She jerked her hand away and stared blankly at that place.
In that same moment, something was soaking through the orange jjimjilbang clothes over her lower belly.
Judging by her behavior she seemed like a virgin, but the way she recoiled at the size suggested she'd seen her share of cocks — her expression ran through a whole spectrum of reactions.
"You're Korean, right?"
"Huh?... Yes."
I wasn't entirely sure about my father.
I'd never met him.
People said his muscle had been like mine, so I sometimes wondered if there was White blood mixed in — but looking at how great warriors were described in history, the odds still favored pure Korean ancestry.
Unconsciously she opened her right hand and closed it again — closing it right around the size of my cockhead.
That was when Emily quietly slipped behind Bitna and whispered something against her ear, looking at me with pure filth in her eyes.
Bitna — I've already booked a hotel room upstairs. Want to come up with us?
Bitna flinched.
She shot me a quick glance, then turned to look at Emily — and nodded.
The way she twisted her body said she was already burning up.
Chaehyang never fails... only ten uses left, though. Such a shame...
Emily smiled brightly and linked arms with Bitna. Bitna hurriedly pulled her mask back on and let herself be led out.
"Honey. We'll head up first — are you going to stay a bit longer?"
"Nah. I'll come too."
I stood up at once and followed after them.
Huh? A lot of women covering their faces today...
As we left, two women in sunglasses stepped into the steam room behind us.
I shook the thought off without much interest and headed for the men's bath.
Sauna and jjimjilbang underground; hotel above ground.
Most hotels ran their own saunas, but this place didn't, which was mildly inconvenient — and meant paying twice.
When we entered the room, it was clear Jeong-mi had booked something excellent. It was even larger than the suite at the Stella Hotel where I'd once stayed with Hye-yun.
"We'll go wash up first."
"Sure. I already showered. Clean up and come out."
I said it as I passed through the living room into the bedroom. Bitna's face was still burning; she couldn't lift her head, and she went into the bathroom with her gaze fixed on the floor.
About 178 centimeters — tall — with long, striking limbs.
She was dressed in a tracksuit, as if advertising that she was an athlete...
Wow... Kim Bitna actually walked right into the net. Did the Constellation plan this?
Song Dahyun and Kim Bitna were not planned at all.
Huh? So everyone else was?
Yes. And I hereby inform you that, for the remainder of the tutorial phase in Korea, there are no further women the Constellation will connect you with.
Don't tell me there are women prepared in America too?
Yes. Follow the missions.
Not just eliminating Tam Reimi — women too?
A strange sense of déjà vu washed over me, along with the feeling that a woman as precious as Hye-yun was about to enter my life.
And with it came the premonition that once I slept with the woman in that déjà vu, I might never claw my way free.
The last time I'd felt something like this, I'd thought of A-jeong — but it seemed she wasn't the only one.
Ah... I really shouldn't be adding any more women for a while.
Soothing the ones I already had felt far more urgent. I considered skipping orientation, then shook my head.
It's only the first day anyway... what could possibly go wrong.
Don't worry. There will be no further Chaehyang releases in Korea for the time being. Kim Bitna was an unexpected windfall — that was an emergency release.
But you pulled all the Chaehyang out of the steam room earlier, right?
...Yes.
That pause? That's ominous...
Those women with the good figures had gone in earlier, but between the sunglasses and the masks I hadn't gotten a look at their faces.
Silence.
I'm only asking to be sure. If they walked into residual Chaehyang after we left, do they go crazy like someone hit with an aphrodisiac in a martial arts novel?
No. I regulate it and defer the effect. The moment they meet you again, they go into heat gradually over twelve hours.
Insane... those two women?
No answer.
Frustrating — but that settled it. Those women had walked straight into it.
This was a sauna celebrities frequented. Factor in the figures, and they were definitely entertainers. The way they'd covered their faces only made it more certain.
I was staring blankly into space when I heard the click of a door, and Emily walked in — with Kim Bitna behind her, wearing nothing but a bathrobe.
Think about it later. Later.
Right now, Bitna was what mattered.