Surviving for 21 Days
Surviving for 21 Days. While the others had to suffer through all manner of hardships, Cheon Hayeon was the sole exception. Finding drinking water, building shelter, foraging for food, avoiding the heat and venomous insects... tasks that demanded tremendous effort from everyone else, Cheon Hayeon didn't need to bother with at all. Her body regulated everything it required through internal energy circulation. A few months might have been different, but twenty-one days was well within her capabilities. Since she wasn't eating, there was no need to expel waste either. To Cheon Hayeon, who had reached the realm of being impervious to heat and cold, the scorching tropical sun felt no different from the gentle warmth of a spring day. In short, enduring twenty-one days was child's play for her, even without proper survival activities.
That was what Cheon Hayeon had believed—until she overheard that suggestive conversation while circulating her energy. As night fell, she had watched the two of them eat with quiet contentment before climbing a tall tree, settling into a lotus position, and beginning her energy circulation in silence. Under normal circumstances, she would have spent the time until morning in peaceful meditation.
The moment she heard the word "do it," Cheon Hayeon's energy circulation came to an abrupt end. The lustful demon she had banished began to reclaim her mind once more. In the end, even knowing it was wrong, her gaze fixed on the shelter Kim Mugong had built. Just as the noisy chirping of insects all around failed to block her ears, the shelter failed to block her eyes. The walls patched with palm leaves had tiny gaps, and when she focused her inner vision, the scene inside became perfectly clear.
The instant she saw Han Yeoreum straddling Kim Mugong in the nude, Cheon Hayeon nearly missed her footing on the branch. Their posture made it obvious what they were about to do. She resolved herself and turned to leave, but a suggestive moan rooted her feet to the spot. Her head naturally turned back toward the shelter.
...I've gone mad.
Feeling her lower body gradually grow damp from lack of control, Cheon Hayeon sank down in self-loathing. Fragments of their conversation occasionally reached her ears, but her mind was already filled with stimuli she had never experienced in her life. To harbor lust while watching two people she considered close friends share intimacy—this was disqualification as a human being, even before she was the Young Heavenly Demon. Knowing this, Cheon Hayeon still sat there in silence, watching the two of them have sex until their movements finally ceased.
***
Chirp— The birds announcing morning were loud. The moment she regained consciousness, a strong scent of night flowers assaulted her nose. Yesterday, they had kept going until Han Yeoreum cried out that she gave up, then collapsed like broken dolls and fallen asleep. Naturally, neither of them had thought to clean up afterward, and dried white semen clung to them everywhere.
When I shifted slightly and cracked my eyes open, Han Yeoreum's eyelids slowly lifted as well.
"...Beast."
Her lips moved as she looked at me.
"Sorry."
Honestly, even I thought I'd gone a bit overboard. With my Extreme Yang Body combined with the stamina from martial arts, my cock got hard again the second I finished, like some kind of perpetual motion machine. At some point it had just become thrusting and finishing, over and over. Even Han Yeoreum, who had been stubbornly holding onto her pride, had eventually sobbed and begged to stop.
"It's hard again."
With a disgusted expression, Han Yeoreum poked my cock with her finger. Because we'd passed out, we were both still naked.
"Your body's just too damn tempting."
Facts were facts.
"Eek...!"
Han Yeoreum frowned at my unexpected counterattack. That tsundere reaction was getting more entertaining the more I saw it. Teasing her really was the best.
"Want to have morning sex?"
"...I'm good."
After a moment of thought, Han Yeoreum nodded. Her stamina had improved quite a bit too—she really was strong. I was just the irregular one. Still, unlike my steel-like lower body, she looked like she needed some recovery time.
"Let's at least clean up first."
No need to push it. Today wasn't the only day we had.
Smack. I gave Han Yeoreum a light kiss on the lips and stood up.
"Mmm."
She nodded obediently and started putting on her clothes. I opened the door wide to air the place out, then headed to the stream where we showered together.
"Good thing I can handle contraception myself."
While we cleaned up the shelter together, Han Yeoreum spoke up.
"Yeah. Regular condoms wouldn't have been nearly enough."
"My back hurts."
"Lie down."
"Like this?"
"Yeah."
It would've been nice if I could use acupressure techniques, but unfortunately my level wasn't high enough for that. I gently massaged Han Yeoreum's lower back as she lay prone.
"Hng...!"
"Why are you moaning like we're having sex again? It's just a massage."
"This is... a natural reaction."
"Just kidding."
"Ugh...! Damn it...."
I pressed and kneaded all the tight spots.
"Feeling better now?"
"Oh. Much better. Where'd you learn how to massage?"
Han Yeoreum sat up and stretched her back while chattering.
"Cheon Hayeon taught me. Said which spots to stimulate."
"...Huh?"
"You know, while we were touching each other?"
Han Yeoreum narrowed her eyes and glared at me.
"It was just a massage. What are you imagining?"
"...Cheon Hayeon's a girl."
"Jealous?"
"I don't know. Whatever you do with anyone else has nothing to do with me."
"Sure looks like it has everything to do with you."
Thud— I caught Han Yeoreum's lightly swung fist in my palm.
"You're pissed. Would it kill you to take a hit? What if I went around doing that with other guys?"
"Don't."
"Huuung...? Jealous?"
"Yeah, I'm jealous. If that happened, I'd go settle things with that guy once and for all. One of us would die that day."
"That's hypocritical of you."
"Doesn't matter. Still not happening. Try holding another guy's hand and see what happens."
"Cute. Don't worry, I won't ever do that."
Watching her grin with the corners of her mouth raised was pretty irritating. It made me want to shut those lips with my own, see her get flustered and disheveled.
"Seriously, just—"
"Pounce on you?"
"...I want to, but we've got work to do. Can't starve to death while having sex. It's all about energy consumption."
The wind was just wind. Thanks to thoroughly releasing everything last night, I had regained a decent amount of rationality.
"True. So what are we doing today?"
"First, find some proper food. Can't live on coconuts alone. We should expand the shelter too."
Strictly speaking, we could survive twenty-one days on coconuts, but I didn't want to. You get sick of anything if you eat too much of it.
"What should I do?"
"Come here."
I took some leftover bamboo from building the shelter and whittled it with the machete into something like a spear.
"Catch fish?"
"Yeah. We could use fishing or traps, but just spearing them will be easier for us."
With our overwhelming physical abilities, there was no need to wait for fish to come to us. We could just stab whatever we saw.
I made a few more similar spears and laid them out on the ground.
"I'll catch the fish."
Han Yeoreum picked up one of the sharp bamboo spears and swung it around.
"Wait a second."
I went into the nearby forest and cut down more bamboo.
"Coming with me?"
"Got something to make."
Carrying an armful of bamboo, I headed to the beach and picked a spot. Thud— Thud— I drove long bamboo poles into the sand near where the seawater came in, creating a denser trap.
"Oh. So we put them in here?"
"Do you know how to clean fish?"
"I think I've heard the basics."
"Wait here."
I grabbed a spear, immediately stabbed a visible fish, pulled the spear out of its body, made a small cut near the tail with a knife, then tossed it straight into the trap I'd just made. Dark red blood slowly drained out.
"That looks kind of pitiful."
Han Yeoreum stared at the flopping fish with a sunken gaze.
"...We have to bleed it. We need to eat and survive too."
"I know, but still."
After a long struggle, the fish stopped moving and no more blood came out. I pulled it from the water.
"Remove the head and guts like this."
"How?"
"We can freeze seawater to store them like in a freezer. Same as a fish market."
With the Water Yin Art, this was basically cheating. In this climate, fish would normally spoil quickly and require smoking or salting, but with ice, we could just clean and store them. Han Yeoreum would have to work a little harder, but it was a worthwhile trade for fresh food.
"Got it completely."
"Really?"
"I'm good with my body, remember? Trust me."
"More importantly, you can tell what's edible, right? Don't catch anything like pufferfish."
Even for a martial artist, pufferfish poison was scary.
"You think I'm an idiot? I memorized all the dangerous ones like my life depended on it."
"Good work. I'll trust you then."
"Yeah. Don't worry."
"Don't push yourself too hard."
"Roger. What are you gonna do?"
"Reinforce and expand the shelter... and I should make a map. We need to figure out what's around here. If I have time, I'll hunt some wild boar too."
A rough map that only showed coordinates wasn't much use beyond navigation. We had to discover what was where from now on. If Han Yeoreum handled the food, things would be much easier. There was no rule saying we couldn't cooperate for the evaluation.
***
I cut down trees to set up sturdier supports and reinforced the roof so it could withstand wind and rain. After coating it with clay and tying everything with tough vines, it would hold up fine unless a typhoon hit. Even if it rained, there was no worry about leaks. In a tropical climate, sudden downpours could come at any time, so this kind of reinforcement was essential.
I expanded the shelter bit by bit, almost like adding a new room. Having done it once already, the process was much smoother this time. While going to gather coconut leaves, I checked on Han Yeoreum—she was staring intently into the water and stabbing with her spear. Thanks to using the Water Yin Art to drastically lower the surrounding water temperature, fish were coming up with every thrust.
No need to worry about her. Once the shelter reinforcement was done, it was time to head outside. The goal was to scout a route to the center of the island. Naturally, there were no proper paths. I'd have to cut through the dense jungle myself.
I packed some tools in my bag, grabbed the machete, and set off. Even though it was daytime, the dense jungle canopy blocked most sunlight, making it feel like the maw of a tiger.