179. Jukai Forest (4)
179. Jukai Forest (4)
"Aah─ so that's the concept?"
My eyelids fluttered, taken aback.
For good reason.
'This woman, she's not listening to a word I say...?'
No matter what I said, she replied like a parrot: "Are you trying to deceive me the same way again this time?"
Her expressionless face and dry voice were as solid as an impenetrable iron wall, showing no gaps.
So I ended up just closing my mouth and observing her.
'Hmm, it doesn't particularly look like she's suffering from Dream Erosion...'
Dream Erosion.
The theme of this Jukai Forest is "dreams."
A dungeon that confuses dreams with reality, imposing a mental trial on everyone who enters the forest.
In the original game, once a character was devoured by a dream,
their combat ability would plummet,
they would refuse the Player's commands and rush ahead on their own,
they'd fall into status ailments like fear, panic, or confusion and even mistake their own allies for enemies and attack them—a truly troublesome dungeon.
And if someone failed to escape the Dream Erosion and fell completely into it, you'd get to see a pretty memorable scene.
For example, in Gukbap's case:
— Wow, all this is money!? It's really my money!!? Mom, Dad!! We don't have to worry about money anymore!!! Let's stop worrying about debts and stuff and live happily in a nice house!!!
And in Kang Do-hee's case:
— Hmph, is there no longer any foe who can defeat me? Ha, how dull. Very well, I shall stand in the heavens.
Like that—they would murmur their own wishes and laugh. Then they'd end up being incapacitated and collapsing on the spot. The end.
'Hmm, well... before it gets to that point, you can just use an item at the right timing or avoid the trigger with good movement. There's hardly another hunting ground this sweet...'
Anyway, the woman lying with her head on my lap was different.
Normally, the scariness of Jukai Forest comes from how victims of Dream Erosion accept the delusions in their dreams and self-destruct,
but this woman wasn't murmuring any wishes or smiling blissfully.
On the contrary, she was deflecting and rejecting everything.
'Judging by her clothes and overall condition, she seems to have been here for quite a while... Does she have insanely strong mental fortitude?'
But that was when the anomaly occurred.
Slide—
'Huh...?'
The woman's hand moved—the hand of the woman who had been lying on my lap, just staring up at me without a twitch.
Her hand touched my face.
Grope
Grope
"......"
Her hand slowly descended from my face and reached my chest.
"Uh, um... but what exactly are you doing right now...?"
At that, the woman let out a hollow laugh with an expressionless face.
"Ha, why? You like this sort of thing, don't you? You said it feels great to see how honest my body is even as you hold me in such contempt."
"...Excuse me?"
"You bastard. You're pretending not to know now after you made me like this? After you got me so desperate with lust."
Fondle
Fondle
"Um, you're the one touching me of your own accord, you know...?"
"Aah, so that's the concept? You corrupted my body like this and now you're going to act like an innocent man? You even want to heap shame on me on top of it now. You really are a filthy incubus."
"......"
"But no matter what you try, you'll never break my spirit, because I truly despise this sort of thing."
Her tone was cold and full of contempt.
But her actions were still the complete opposite.
"Sss. But you're even more repulsive today—did you go somewhere and work out or something."
Her hand clung greedily to my chest as if it were sticky, and violated it mercilessly.
Swish—
And then, for the first time, the woman's expression changed.
"Ah, no... until now, I'd absolutely never gone further down... you piece of trash. After all that, to seduce me with your looks..."
Her touch was gradually growing rougher, and her hand was starting to descend from my chest down over my stomach.
Soon, her hand, having settled on my thigh, was about to head deeper inside.
I had no choice but to spring to my feet.
'No matter how much I'm from a place where gender common sense is reversed, and I don't really have any resistance to being touched on the body...'
Even so, the parts further down are a different story, aren't they.
Thud!
Because I suddenly stood up, the back of her head hit the ground.
At that, she looked at me with eyes that had become extremely reproachful for some reason.
"To pull your body away at the decisive moment— truly, your baseness makes me shudder. I'm telling you again, this isn't my own will. I absolutely, not one bit, do not long for your body or anything."
Her voice, as if she were angry, was tinged with firmness.
While both of her raised hands endlessly groped the empty air, as if full of lingering attachment.
"But pulling your body away just now was a fatal mistake. In case you'd forgotten, this is my domain."
She swung her arm wide.
Slooowly—
Then, the black shadows around us writhed and rose, their forms undulating before they turned their heads toward me.
— Uh, um, b-but that g-guy isn't a D-Dream Demon...
— It's no use. I don't think she can hear us right now.
— We just brought him because Ichika said she wanted to see a handsome living man who isn't a Dream Demon!!
— Uh, um, s-sorry in advance? W-we can't refuse Ichika's orders—!
The flustered-sounding voices of the shadows reached my ears once again.
* * *
Meanwhile, the Utopia Party without Jin Yu-ha was slowly advancing through the forest.
A dark and dreary atmosphere.
Thick fog hung so heavily that even the back of the person walking ahead was only hazily visible.
It was an environment where it wouldn't be strange for a monster to jump out at any moment, so everyone pressed forward with heightened tension.
"Nngggggghhh... this stings way too much."
Im Ga-eul murmured in a tearful voice as she walked.
Tears were actually welling up in her eyes.
"Sunbae, even if it stings, y'gotta bear it. If y'rub your eyes just 'cause they sting, y'might not be able to open 'em for a while. Visibility's already bad from the thick fog, so unless y'plan to give up on sight entirely, please hang in there."
Sofia scolded her from the side, but Sofia's own eyes were just as red and inflamed.
That was because all the party members had applied patches under their eyes before entering the forest.
Thanks to that, drowsiness and the like didn't even have a chance to creep up on them.
"Ugh, I-I know. But I can't see ahead because of the tears either... And there's so much fog— Huh? Wait, something here... I feel like I saw a similar spot just a moment ago, am I imagining it?"
"......"
When no answer came back, Im Ga-eul turned her head.
"Sofia—. Huh?"
But Sofia, who had clearly been walking right beside her just moments ago, had vanished without a trace.
Startled, Im Ga-eul quickly looked around.
"Uh, Yu-ri hoobae? Do-hee hoobae?"
The same went for Lee Yu-ri and Kang Do-hee, who had been walking ahead.
"G-guys...?"
Shhhhaaaaaaak─!!!
Panicked, she clutched a Magic Stone and shot threads in all directions, but nothing caught except the trees surrounding her.
"J-juniors─!? W-where are you─!!!?"
The fear of suddenly being left all alone in this dangerous forest—the terror—assailed her.
But she couldn't just do nothing and stand still.
Quivering, she kept pressing forward while staying on guard against her surroundings.
It was then that a hazy human figure came into her view.
She slowly dragged her feet closer.
What she saw was.
Jin Yu-ha, bleeding from the shoulder and collapsed against a tree.
"J-Jin Yu-ha hoobae─!!!!!"
Im Ga-eul, utterly shocked, rushed toward Jin Yu-ha with urgent steps.
At the sound of her calling voice, Jin Yu-ha slowly lifted his head and looked at her.
His eyes widened roundly. Then, profound relief flashed through them.
"Ah, it's Ga-eul sunbae... I'm really glad."
"What on earth happened to you! Hoobae! Are you okay? Can you move, can you even move your body!?"
"Ghk! I got dragged away and beaten earlier. But, the other girls...?"
"I-I don't know. Everyone suddenly scattered into different directions at some point..."
"Th-then, does that mean you're not with them, Ga-eul sunbae...?"
Jin Yu-ha couldn't hide his flustered feelings, as if this were an unexpected situation.
"Uh, well, y-yeah, I guess?"
"Then this is a really huge problem. For you, sunbae, to not be with the other party members... Ga-eul sunbae is the key to this dungeon run..."
"......What? I-I am?"
Im Ga-eul asked, very startled.
She had never imagined that she herself would be the key to the strategy for this dungeon.
"Yeah, I didn't get to tell you earlier because I was suddenly dragged in... but Ga-eul sunbae was the key to this run."
"I see... No, wait, that's not the important thing right now. You're hurt! Quickly, quickly, your wound! Show me your wound first!"
"Ah, yeah, please take care of it..."
Im Ga-eul opened the emergency medical kit from her Subspace Tattoo and took out medicine and bandages.
Then she carefully tended to Jin Yu-ha's wound.
"Hah— hah— I'm really relieved. That you found me, sunbae. Meeting you here is heaven-sent luck..."
Jin Yu-ha looked at Im Ga-eul with eyes thickly laced with gratitude.
"...I'd like to go find the other party members right away, but with my body in this state, I can't seem to move. Sunbae."
"Y-yeah, you're right. Moving now will only make the wound worse. Recovery comes first, hoobae."
"I'm a little dizzy and out of it... is it okay if I lean on you for a second?"
"Uh-uh, o-of course it's okay! Lean on me, lean, just lean comfortably!"
Plop—
Breathing roughly, Jin Yu-ha leaned his face against Im Ga-eul's chest.
At that, Im Ga-eul adjusted her body's position to make it as comfortable as possible for him to rest.
And at the same time, she reached out her hand and stroked Jin Yu-ha's hair.
Gulp—
Im Ga-eul's throat bobbed heavily.
A situation where she became someone's pillar of support, which she had always dreamed of.
On top of that, the one she was supporting was Jin Yu-ha.
The guy for whom everything had always been too perfect, and there had never been a single thing she could do for him.
To think that this same Jin Yu-ha would appear before her in such a weakened state, leaning on her like this.
Telling her, who had only ever shown her shortcomings, that he needed her, entrusting his body to her by saying he wanted to lean on her—the feeling was...
Truly—
A fulfillment that made her heart ache.
'Come to think of it, Yu-ri hoobae said something... What did she say...?'
Lee Yu-ri's words from before they entered this place faintly surfaced in her mind.
But they soon vanished from her head.
'Well, it probably wasn't important.'
That was when it happened.
Suddenly, Jin Yu-ha, who had been leaning on her, lifted his head and met her eyes.
"Winter sunbae."
"......Huh? Why are you calling me— Wait. My name is Ga, Ga-eul, you know?"
"Sunbae, why are you so incompetent?"
Startled by Jin Yu-ha's sudden change in attitude, Im Ga-eul's eyes shook violently.