Clinging to the Strong
Standing in front of Yoon Iseo’s door, Song Dayeong let out a heavy sigh, her chest tight with nerves. “Huu… It’s no big deal. I’ve already done it once before.”
It had been over two weeks since they arrived at the Cradle of Heroes, and now they were entering the third week. During that time Song Dayeong had done a lot of thinking. Her biggest worry was simple: how the hell was she supposed to survive from now on?
She had succeeded in earning five hundred points by giving her body to Yoon Iseo, but the only talent she had unlocked was Archery (Low). Thanks to that she had been able to look decent during the requests, but that was all. With nothing but Archery (Low), she knew she couldn’t survive in this brutal world.
So after the request ended she had immediately offered the goblin byproducts to the goddess, converted them into points, and checked the shop to see what was available.
What the hell are these insane prices?
They were expensive beyond reason. Maybe the talent unlock had been cheap because it was still the tutorial. Here, each one cost ten thousand points. She could have understood if they gave out a lot of points, but after processing the goblin remains she had only received two points total. In the tutorial they had given five points per goblin, and she had turned in plenty, yet here she got almost nothing.
The shop even had a notice saying the points you could earn varied depending on how many months you had survived and your overall level. It did give bonus points for killing enemies stronger than yourself, but that was easier said than done. If it were easy, everyone would already be strong enough to go cut off the Demon King’s head.
In the face of such a harsh reality, Song Dayeong had agonized for days. Should she go to whatever place would take her, or should she cling desperately to the strongest lifeline she could find?
She had thought about it endlessly for two whole weeks, but today she had finally reached a decision.
“If you can, you have to go somewhere with a real name. Forget that nonsense about being the head of a snake. And watch out—there are tons of trash places.”
“How do you tell the difference?”
“Luck?”
“Huh?”
“And even if the rumors are bad, a big organization is usually fine. Those people take care of their own.”
Kim Dajeong had offered the advice freely, giggling the whole time as if something about it was hilarious. In the end her counsel could be summed up in one line: never go to a nameless place. If you did, you’d end up dead before you even realized what was happening.
“Even a slave should be a slave in a rich household, kids. You might not get to play hero like you’re dreaming, but if you have the chance to enter a powerful house, take it. That’s the only way to live long.”
It was the sort of cynical wisdom anyone who had lived in Korean society would have heard at least once. Yet coming from someone who had actually survived in this world for years, the words carried real weight. Song Dayeong made up her mind.
No matter what, I’m going to cling to Senior.
Her body was already ruined anyway. With the absurd mental victory of If one person keeps using you, maybe it doesn’t count as being thrown away, Song Dayeong knocked on Yoon Iseo’s door.
Not long after I returned to my room, Song Dayeong came looking for me. Still lying on the bed, I asked her directly.
“Why are you here?”
“Why are you so curt? I came to talk about something fairly serious.”
“Serious to you, maybe.”
At my indifferent tone she pouted, clearly upset, but I kept my attitude the same.
“If you have something to say, say it fast. I used up a lot of strength today and I’m tired.”
“You don’t get tired even after fighting all day, but you’re tired after sparring a little with that woman?”
“Well, some days are like that.”
My half-hearted answer made her expression twist for a second, but she must have come with a clear purpose. She quickly put on a sweet smile, approached the bed, and sat down neatly at the edge.
“Oppa.”
“What?”
“Can’t you grant me one favor?”
“Why should I?”
“Don’t be like that—just hear me out~”
She was even acting cute, something she rarely did, trying to butter me up. When I jerked my chin to tell her to go ahead, she cleared her throat nervously and spoke.
“Senior, after the Cradle ends… can you take me with you?”
“Hmm… I think that’s something we’ll have to decide when the time comes.”
I meant it. I hadn’t even chosen where I was going yet; I couldn’t start promising to bring someone along.
“But with your level, Senior, they’d listen if you asked, right?”
“Well, if I wanted to, I could.”
I didn’t know exactly how strong Kim Dajeong and Lee Changhwan were, but even if they were only average for Hero Candidates, organizations would line up to recruit me. Adding one extra person in a place like that didn’t seem like something they would refuse.
But that wasn’t what mattered right now.
“If I do that, what will you do for me?”
What I could gain from this transaction—that was the real issue. Honestly, what could Song Dayeong offer me? Nothing but her body.
She had sold herself to open her Archery talent, but it was obvious the grade wasn’t high. Her bow form was clean enough that she didn’t look like a total beginner, but her accuracy wasn’t good enough to suggest a particularly strong talent. Compared to the High-Intermediate One-Handed Sword talent I had unlocked, hers looked like Mid-Low at best.
That’s why she came to me.
If her talent had been high, she would have been able to survive on her own and never would have crawled this far. Knowing that, I already knew exactly what she would offer as payment.
And I was fully prepared to accept—if she gave me enough to be satisfied.
“…I’ll let you do whatever you want with me, just like in the tutorial.”
She must have expected as much; the answer came right away. But this time I wanted to make the terms crystal clear.
“How far does ‘whatever I want’ go?”
“…Excuse me?”
When she asked back in confusion, I spelled it out slowly.
“I’m asking exactly how far I can go when I do whatever I want.”
After being with the Hanna and Eli sisters, I had realized my tastes weren’t entirely soft. I wasn’t into beating women to death or anything extreme, but I wanted to be able to enjoy threesomes and light SM without complaints—things that weren’t easy to ask for back on Earth.
The question was whether Song Dayeong, who had also come from the modern world, could accept that.
Our tastes might match, but…
The odds seemed low. That was why I needed to settle this now, so she couldn’t complain later and would follow my lead.
“If you need time to think, you can go back and consider it. We have plenty of time.”
She stared at me for a long moment, lips trembling, then squeezed her eyes shut, climbed onto the bed, crawled between my legs, and started pulling down my pants.
“You can’t throw me away later and say something different.”
I grinned at her, grabbed her head, and pulled her face toward my cock.
“You’re the one who better not complain.”
The joint classes with Kim Dajeong and Lee Changhwan continued for three days. Their real-world experience and sparring sessions were incomparably more useful than the history lessons from the first week. The classes were so good it was a shame when they ended.
But it was too early to feel regret. We still had to complete one request assigned by the Cradle together with them, so even if there were no more formal lessons, we could at least receive advice during the remaining time.
That evening, after class, I asked Gillen directly what the request would be.
“Bandit subjugation… that means we have to kill people too, right?”
“It’s your first time. We ran into it once during our first request.”
“Really? How was it?”
“…How do you think? It was shit.”
Everyone looked worried at the mention of bandit subjugation. The party I had been with had encountered them once after being ambushed mid-request, but the others seemed to be facing it for the first time and kept asking the experienced ones for details.
“This request should be safe though, right? We have two veterans with us.”
“Probably.”
If an accident happened with two veterans present, it wouldn’t be an accident—it would be a catastrophe. The request wasn’t scaled to their level; it was set at a difficulty we could normally clear, so nothing should go wrong.
That aside.
“Come up tonight too.”
“Again?”
“Is that already backtalk?”
“No, how can a person not rest for even one day?”
Song Dayeong looked at me like she was sick of it, but I only shrugged. Honestly, I no longer understood what was happening with my own body. I had no idea how long this would last, so I had given up on understanding it and simply decided to enjoy it.
The next day, Song Dayeong—who had been tormented by me all night—showed up with dark circles reaching her cheekbones, arriving just in time for assembly.
“What’s wrong? Couldn’t sleep because you were nervous?”
“Shut up.”
“I’m worrying about you and you still curse at me.”
Watching Song Dayeong and Kim Daekwon bicker, I saw Kim Dajeong and Lee Changhwan finally appear on horseback. They already gave off a veteran aura, but seeing them look down at us from atop their mounts made the gap feel even wider.
“Everyone’s full of energy in the morning. Youth really is nice.”
“You’re still in your twenties—stop talking about youth.”
“Oops. I said something rude in front of thirty-five-year-old Uncle Changhwan.”
That face was thirty-five…? He must have gone through a lot since coming here. His face looked completely worn out, as if he had absorbed every harsh ray of sunlight alone.
Anyway, aside from Lee Changhwan’s aged appearance, the request itself went quite smoothly.
“Something’s coming.”
Thanks to his bow training, Lee Changhwan’s eyesight was excellent. He spotted the enemy before they appeared, giving us time to prepare.
“Archers fire first, then the warriors charge in and finish them off!”
Kim Dajeong handled all the combat orders, so all I had to do was charge in and go wild. With twenty people moving together, we didn’t even need to set a night watch every day.
Because of that, we reached the bandit stronghold we were supposed to clear out more comfortably than expected.
The two veterans continued to shine there as well.
“Looks like there are no traps.”
“Then let’s move immediately.”
“The archers will take care of the lookouts.”
“Okay, give the signal.”
After identifying the traps and finalizing the plan, the extermination began in earnest with Lee Changhwan and the archers’ opening attack.
Twang!
“Urk!”
“Fuck! It’s an amb—urgh!”
The two men standing guard on the wooden palisade had their foreheads pierced instantly. They died with nothing but a short scream.
“Yoon Iseo, go break down the gate!”
Taking that as the signal, I followed Kim Dajeong’s order and sliced through the tightly shut door with sword energy.
Slice.
“Now! Kill them all!”
The moment I cut the gate in two with a single slash, Kim Dajeong charged inside with her axe, rampaging like a demon.
“Y-you! You crazy bitch, do you know where you are?! Urk!”
“Who are you calling a crazy bitch?”
At first the bandits had charged in looking down on Kim Dajeong for being a woman, but her overwhelming strength quickly broke their spirit. They could only run away. We hunted them down one by one, thinning their numbers until the entire stronghold fell silent.
“Uwek!”
With the tension gone, some people finally registered the horrific scene and started vomiting. Kim Dajeong clicked her tongue.
“Hey, leave them alone. It’s something you all have to get used to anyway. There might still be survivors, so leave a few people here and let’s loot the inner areas. Clearing out a bandit den usually gives pretty good side income.”
Covered head to toe in blood and rubbing her hands together, she looked like a human butcher. But I wasn’t any different, so I followed her deeper into the stronghold.
The wooden buildings the bandits had thrown together to survive were crude, but they had still tried to live like people. There were a surprising number of household items, chairs, and tables. I opened everything one by one, searching for anything worth money.
“Ugh, ptooey. Don’t these guys own anything?”
After searching for a while with nothing to show for it, Kim Dajeong spat in irritation and started kicking and smashing furniture. I thought it was pointless, but then—
“Bingo. Hey, I found something! Everyone gather over here!”
Beneath a large dresser was a clearly suspicious door.
“I’ll go in first. Follow after me.”
True to her veteran status, Kim Dajeong opened the door and went down first. We followed behind her. It must have been used often; a torch on the wide staircase was still burning brightly.
Even so, it was quite dark. We descended carefully, and when we reached the bottom Kim Dajeong suddenly stopped, staring down the dark corridor.
“Why did you stop…”
I was about to ask why she wasn’t moving when I saw what lay beyond the corridor and lost my words.
“Ha, they really were fucking trash.”
At Kim Dajeong’s mutter, I quietly nodded. Anyone who saw this would have to say the same thing.
The basement of the bandit stronghold was a prison.
Not a prison for criminals.
It was a prison where the women they had raped were locked up so they could never escape.