Infiltration of the Abandoned Factory (3)
The sound of footsteps descending the stairs echoed from afar.
The man who approached through the iron bars was dressed in loose work clothes.
He casually unlocked the cell door, picked up a food tray, and stepped inside.
A mouthwatering aroma that stimulated the appetite tickled my nose.
“How are you feeling? Body doing okay? You were a total mess earlier, couldn’t even come to your senses.”
He chuckled as he looked down at me. His attitude was like he was just bantering with a friend.
I glared at him with cold eyes, sharpening my tone.
“Get this shit off me right now. Do you even know what kind of crime you’re committing?”
I tried to sound sharp and authoritative, but my throat was already hoarse from all the screaming. What came out was less dignified and more like an angry cat’s hiss.
The man simply shrugged, as if he had expected my reaction.
“Hey, don’t be so prickly. We’ll give you a fat severance package when you quit.”
“…Quit? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Exactly what I said. Just think of it as working here.”
He leaned against the iron bars and continued.
“The work here might be a bit weird, but we feed you, give you a place to sleep, and even make you feel good. Isn’t that a dream job?”
Surprisingly, his eyes were completely sincere.
There wasn’t a trace of guilt in them.
It seemed the city-wide hypnosis had twisted even basic ethics.
These people were kidnapping women and using them as playthings, yet they didn’t even recognize it as a crime. Instead, they genuinely thought of it as a well-compensated position with great benefits.
“Make me feel good? You tie people to machines and force them!”
“Everyone’s like that at first. But you seemed to enjoy it a lot earlier, didn’t you? The girls in the refinement room cried and screamed at the beginning too, but now they spread their legs on their own without even being told.”
The man waved his hand dismissively, as if annoyed.
“Look at the girl two cells over. She threw a fit trying to escape at first, but now she’s completely obedient. Once you get used to it, this place really is paradise.”
His words made me recall the rustling sounds I had heard from the neighboring cell.
Could she have already surrendered to the pleasure?
If what he said was true, the situation was far more serious than I thought.
It meant more and more people were becoming satisfied with losing their freedom as long as they were given money and pleasure.
“That can’t be. They’re all being forced. I’m sure of it.”
“Well, believe whatever you want. Anyway, make sure you eat properly. This meat’s expensive.”
The man stood up, left the tray behind, and disappeared outside the cell.
I glared at his retreating back, fuming.
His carefree attitude was ridiculous, but I had to swallow my anger for now.
Gathering information and finding the factory boss took priority over subduing him immediately.
I quietly looked down at the tray on the floor.
Fluffy white rice was piled high with thick slices of meat.
Just as the villain had said, the food quality at least didn’t seem bad.
‘It’s probably not poisoned… or laced with an aphrodisiac, right?’
Just to be safe, I checked it with Insight, but there was nothing unusual.
In fact, it was overflowing with nutrients, perfect for recovering my exhausted body.
‘…Let’s eat first and think later. It’d be suspicious if I starved myself.’
An Awakener could go days without eating and be fine, but pretending to be an ordinary person meant acting normal.
I picked up the spoon and began eating the meat and rice.
As soon as the food entered my system, the mana I had spent in the refinement room recovered rapidly.
In the end, I cleaned the entire tray with the mindset that I would recover my mana and make them pay.
A short while later, the villain who came to collect the empty tray smiled with satisfaction at the spotless dishes.
“Oh, you ate everything?”
“…Don’t get any weird ideas. I only ate to regain the strength to escape.”
“Sure, sure. Good girl. Keep eating a lot. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
He gave a pleased smile, picked up the tray, and climbed the stairs.
Only after the iron door slammed shut and he had completely disappeared did a voice come from the neighboring cell again.
“……Hey. Don’t believe anything that guy said earlier.”
It was the same woman’s voice I had heard before.
She must have been pressed right against the wall, because her voice sounded much closer than before.
“There are a few people who genuinely enjoy this life, but most don’t. I’m the same.”
I glanced around cautiously before replying.
“Who are you? The villains said you’ve become really obedient.”
“That’s all an act. I have to make them lower their guard to create an opening for escape.”
She spoke in a low whisper, as if revealing a crucial secret.
But I was having a hard time following the flow of this conversation.
From the way she spoke, she sounded exactly like an investigator who had infiltrated this abandoned factory.
Just like me right now.
“An act? Who the hell are you?”
“My identity is top secret. I can’t reveal my name, but… just know that I’m a police officer who infiltrated this place to investigate the factory.”
“A… police officer?”
I barely held back a burst of bitter laughter.
There was no way the police would be investigating a place like this.
I had already confirmed through Uncle that the entire police organization had been taken over by the hypnosis.
Even if there were any sane officers left, there was no chance Uncle wouldn’t have mentioned it to me.
‘She’s been locked up too long and lost her mind…’
She was a pitiful victim who couldn’t endure the harsh reality and had convinced herself she was an undercover police officer on a mission.
As far as I knew, there was no police officer who had infiltrated the abandoned factory.
“The investigation is already over. I’m just waiting for the right moment to escape. Hold on for one more week. Support will arrive by then at the latest.”
Her voice was filled with baseless certainty.
Instead of shattering her delusion, I simply nodded along.
“Understood, Officer. I’ll look for a way out of here too.”
Whatever her true identity was, the situation remained the same.
My plan was to find the factory boss, defeat him, then unleash my mana to turn this place into a wasteland.
“By the way, what exactly do they do in the refinement room? The machines earlier were so……”
They felt way too good. I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.
‘No, no, what am I even thinking…’
When I trailed off and closed my mouth, she continued with a sigh.
“There’s only one thing we do in the refinement room. We produce the raw materials for the aphrodisiacs that will be spread across the entire city.”
Her voice trembled.
It seemed recalling the humiliating experience in the refinement room was causing her pain.
“A virgin’s love juices contain special components that resonate with mana. They’re using that to manufacture the drugs.”
It was exactly as I had known.
The villains weren’t just using the women as toys—they were using them as production tools.
“It won’t be painful. They don’t want to lower the quality of their product. But that’s what makes it even more dangerous.”
“More dangerous how?”
“It makes you want to stay here willingly, lost in pleasure. I’ve seen plenty of girls break that way.”
She added the warning with a serious tone.
I clenched my fist tightly as I listened to her vivid caution.
“Don’t worry. I won’t fall for something like that.”
“…I thought the same thing at first. But this place is truly vicious. Please keep your mind straight.”
No one knew better than I did just how abnormally sensitive my body was to pleasure.
Countless bad status effects were constantly watching for any chance to erode my sanity.
If I stayed exposed to this kind of stimulation for too long, even I might eventually break.
‘I need to end this before it gets dangerous.’
I set my personal deadline at three days.
If I made no progress by then, I would blow up the factory without hesitation and escape.
Then a sudden question occurred to me, and I asked her.
“Then how long have you been here, Officer?”
“…It hasn’t been that long. So don’t worry too much.”
After that answer, no more conversation passed between us.
Another day passed like that.
There were no windows in the underground prison, so I couldn’t tell the exact time, but my body’s internal clock told me it was morning.
The iron door opened roughly, and a group of villains came rushing down.
“Alright, everyone up! It’s work time!”
The cell door opened.
I deliberately acted weak as I stood up.
I wanted to meet the woman who called herself a police officer in the cell two doors down, but it seemed we wouldn’t be moving together.
“Hang in there. You absolutely cannot give up.”
A small, whispering voice encouraged me.
I took those words as a talisman and steeled my resolve once more.
After walking for a short while, we arrived again at that hellish refinement room.
A sweet, fishy scent of aphrodisiac leaked out from the entrance.
When the door opened, the empty room contained only the restraint device. But hidden behind the walls were those cold mechanical devices.
And once again, my mana would be mercilessly exploited by them.
One of the villains who brought me pulled out a phone and made a call.
“Yes. Factory Boss. Everything is ready.”
He groveled, addressing the person on the other end as “Factory Boss.”
I tensed up, wondering if he might appear in person, and scanned the surroundings, but he only received the report over the phone.
‘…Of course. Things were never going to go that smoothly.’
But on my first day, the villains who had thrown me into the refinement room had definitely said, “We can’t show her to the Factory Boss dressed like this.”
That meant an opportunity to meet the boss face-to-face would definitely come someday.
I gritted my teeth and climbed onto the restraint device.
But the moment the machine firmly bound my body and the familiar stimulation began teasing my erogenous zones—
“…Ugh! Hah, haa……♡”
I was once again forced to painfully realize just how powerless my will truly was.