Forced Labor
The moment my words ended, everyone sprinted for the pickaxes.
One by one they seized them, hurried to the spots marked by flags, and set their stances. Arms rose high; the blades came crashing down.
— Crack! Crack!
Thankfully the earth was soft. Every time a pickaxe bit in, soil shattered and flew.
“Hoo… haah… Nayun. You’ve got to grip it properly and drive it down. You’ll wreck your wrists if you keep swinging from over your head like that. Treat it more like an axe—short, controlled arcs.”
“Nngh… okay. Haa… ugh…! Ugh-haah…”
It was the first time any of us had used the tools, yet Jaehee’s experienced guidance made the digging manageable. That did not mean the work was easy. Unfamiliar muscles protested after only a few swings; my arms already ached. Just as Jaehee had warned, a few bad early strikes left my lower back tight and throbbing.
And the greatest problem of all—
“Haahk! Ah… aah!”
The writhing of the Stimulation Spores was far stronger than I had expected. The one mercy was that they leaned more toward pain than pure arousal. Between swings I could crush my nipples hard enough to keep working, just barely.
— Crack! Crack! Crack!
“Ugh-ha… uuuh… nngh…!”
I swung with everything I had, trying to bury the stimulation under pure force. Leviathan’s rules left us no choice but to hurry. The work had to be finished inside the time limit, and I in particular had to finish my pit first. If the others went easy on me, every one of us would suffer. On this prison island, Demeanor Penalty Points translated directly into agony. Even if it killed me, I had to give everything. Failing to take first place and failing to finish would be the worst possible outcome. Even if I abandoned first place, the others would still have to dig my share, and I could already see how that would weigh on them. So I had no choice but to pour every last scrap of strength into the work—if only so that, no matter how the day ended, we could all tell ourselves we had done our absolute best.
— Crack! Crack!
“Haah… uuuh… nngh-it♡! Haa…”
I knew perfectly well how hard the road ahead would be. Unlike usual, the spores shifted the type of stimulation every few minutes, tormenting me without pause. It felt as though Leviathan was either running some program or watching the CCTV in real time and mashing the switch himself. This time the spores writhed like someone’s fingers. That particular sensation had always been my weakness.
“Haah… ah, aah…”
I had no choice but to stop. Even when I tried to swing, the sensation at the tips of my breasts stole all strength; the pickaxe slipped from my hands. It hurt so much… this was too much…!
In the end I could not hold back and twisted my nipples hard. I knew it would not make the stimulation vanish, yet days of torture and the brutal environment had left my body hypersensitive.
“Uu… nngh…! ♡”
Pleasure began to climb. At this rate… just touching my chest might be enough to push me over. Just a little more… a little more…
But then—
“Kek…! Kuh!”
A comrade’s strangled cry yanked me back to reality. I clenched my teeth and turned to Ruia, who stood beside me clutching her throat.
“Hnn… Ruia. I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. It’s okay… hit me… hurry!”
“Kehek… Unnie…!”
Ruia was suffering. She could not bring herself to strike me while my hands were still, yet she still gripped the switch. Her collar was choking her—Leviathan’s way of teaching her exactly what happened when she failed her assigned role. The pressure was so vicious her face had flushed dark and wrinkled marks ringed her neck. Because of me… she was enduring that.
I could not allow it.
“It’s okay… even without this… the spores are… already too much… haah♡… I was already… struggling… so hit me hard enough that the pain can drown it out… hurry…!”
“Unnieee…!”
“Hurry!”
I shouted louder, packing every ounce of apology into the word. It’s fine! Just hit me!
Willingly I picked the pickaxe back up, gripped it in both hands, and turned my back to her. The switch came flying.
— Whish! Crack!!
“Kyaah…!”
Her heart had clearly softened; the blow was weaker than anything Leviathan himself would have delivered. That must have been why—
“Keheuk…! Kahk…! Keheuk! Kkeueuk!”
—the choking never stopped. From the way she struggled I understood at once: the last strike had not been nearly enough.
“Haah…! Ruia! Harder…!! Hit me! Please…! Hurry!! If you don’t… both of us… haah… nngh…♡ ah… aah…! Hurry!!”
“Keheuk… Un… nie…”
Staggering, Ruia raised the switch again. I saw the resolve flooding her hands and bit down hard.
— Whish! Slap!!
“Kyaaugh!! …!”
“Haa. Haa. Haa. Unnie… haa. Haa.”
A heavy impact slammed into my back. I did not need to see it. Skin swelling, flesh quivering under the strain—the pain raked across my back so fiercely I could only endure it by clenching my teeth until my breath nearly stopped.
“I’ll… work hard. Haa… uugh…!”
“Haa. Huaah… ah… Unnie,”
Before the pain could fully settle I glanced once at the CCTV and murmured something that was half to myself, half not. Then I lifted the pickaxe again.
“It’s okay, Ruia. Before you have to hit me again, I’ll hurry. I’m sorry for making this so hard on you.”
“Unnie… I’m sorry.”
“Then let’s stop apologizing to each other. After all… this won’t end with just one time.”
“…Unnie.”
I soothed Ruia, who was staring at me with worried, pitying eyes, and returned to the digging. In truth the whole exchange had been theater. Digging one extra stroke would have helped the work more than offering my back, yet I needed to show this at least once—to let Leviathan see my resolve, to lighten the burden on Ruia, and to signal to the others that since I had taken the first blows, they could focus on the labor with lighter hearts.
“If you don’t want to get hit again, you’d better hurry, right?”
“Hnn… if it weren’t for these damn spores… I would’ve beaten you easily.”
“Looking at a body like mine and you still say that? Honestly. Fine—I’ll dig first then~!”
“Kuh!”
Thankfully the message had landed; Yejin tossed out a joke. Even while talking she matched her swings to my pace, driving her pickaxe down in time with mine. Her playful encouragement lent me strength, and I pushed harder to match her tempo.
— Crack! Crack!
— Crack! Thud! Crack!
— Thud! Scrape-scrape— Crack!
After that we worked in silence, swinging again and again. For hours we tore at the earth. The soil was soft and the ground sank a little with every blow, yet something that could truly be called a pit refused to form easily. The unfamiliar, repetitive motion, the lack of rest, the continuous abuse of already exhausted bodies—soon enough we understood just how unforgiving the task was.
“Haa. Haa. Hn…! Hoo.”
I paused mid-swing to catch my breath. Even so I could not take more than five seconds. The moment the limit slipped past—
“Keheuk… ugh!”
“Ruia! Hit me!! Hurry!”
“Yes! Unnie…!”
—Ruia’s collar tightened and she choked.
— Whish! Slap!!
“Kyaugh!! Haa. Ugh…”
“Yejin-unnie…”
“You little… I told you to stop calling me unnie. Ah shit… that fucking hurts.”
“Sorry…”
“Stop saying sorry too.”
“…Yes.”
As time dragged on we grew more exhausted and Ruia grew busier. Every time her collar choked her she had to scan the group, rush to whoever had stopped, and swing the switch. After dozens, then hundreds of hard strikes, even her hands began to tremble from fatigue.
“Haa. Haa. … Fuck… how the hell… three meters…”
Yejin, who had been digging the fastest, panted as she shoved soil out of her pit. She had managed something that almost looked like a proper hole and climbed inside to push dirt outward. The body that had been clean after the recent bath was now filthy with dust; the newly issued prison uniform had turned the color of earth. The brown stains that had already been there simply spread—proof of how physically brutal the work truly was.
More time passed. Being outdoors made the hours tangible. The sun that had hung against the right-hand wall now stood almost directly overhead. Autumn’s fierce light poured down; the ambiguous warmth only added a useless drowsiness that deepened our fatigue.
— Crack! Crack!
“Ahk… uu… nngh-it…♡ ah… aah…”
Still we had to dig. The longer the hours stretched, the fiercer the stimulation became—not because the spores themselves intensified, but because my body grew ever more sensitive. Even mild torment now left me trembling all over. Clear urine had already leaked from me several times; twice I had climaxed in complete silence. What expression must my face have worn while I flinched and clenched my teeth? The answer, cruelly enough, came from Ruia’s mouth.
“Unnie…”
“Ah… yeah…”
— Whish!! Slap!!
“Kyaah… ah… ahk…”
Another wave of stimulation forced me to clutch my chest and freeze; Ruia hurried over and brought the switch down. After dozens of repetitions, apologies between us were no longer necessary. We simply did our assigned roles as best we could.
This time, though, something was different. Through the tearing pain of the strike I raised the pickaxe again. Mid-swing, Ruia asked,
“Unnie… I’m worried, so I have to ask—are you really okay?”
“Uu… uuhk… ah… the spores are… already making it hard enough. But… why? Is it that obvious?”
“No. It’s not that…”
“Then what? Just say it.”
Ruia hesitated mid-sentence. Had the skin on my back split? After so many blows it would have been stranger if it hadn’t. Even a quick glance showed Jaehee and Yejin both on the verge of having their backs torn open by the heavy thrashing. Yet Ruia said something unexpected.
“It’s not that. Unnie… you’re smiling again.”
“Haah… what…?”
“I’m worried the guards will punish you again for it… hnn…! Unnie!”
“Ah… sorry, nngh…! It’s fine. Hit me.”
— Whish! Slap!
“Kyaah… ah… uuhk…!”
The shocking words made me freeze for a second too long; five seconds had already passed. After the blow I returned to digging, yet a question had taken root.
Why… did I smile when things got hard?
I was no Pavlov’s dog, yet the mere fact of being struck and driven into misery made my face bloom with smiles again and again. My mind, however, felt none of it. I was clearly suffering. Exhausted. Miserable. Even now, while carving out a hole barely large enough for my own body, I was being tortured for hours by the Stimulation Spores.
“Ah…”
Suddenly I felt the wetness between my legs. Ah. So that was it.
“Ha… haha.”
“Unnie?”
“It’s nothing, Ruia. Maybe… haah…! it’s just too hard? The laughter keeps coming out… I guess… nngh…!♡ I’m the type who laughs when things get tough. Uugh…!”
“Oh… is that what it was…?”
“Yeah. So… sorry, but could you hit me a bit more? Hard enough that I can… forget the spores for a while… just… haah…! about five times in a row. It’s so hard… I think that would help.”
“Uh… really?”
“Yeah.”
“All right.”
— Whish! Slap!!
“Nngh…! Haah…!”
— Whish! Slap!!
“Kyaahk…! Heeung♡”
The moment the consecutive blows landed, doubt hardened into certainty. So that was it. I was… a woman who smiled the instant she crossed her limit.
“Nayun, are you okay?”
“Jaehee. Just hurry for now. We’re… running out of time.”
“Y-yeah…”
Yes. That was the difference between me and the others. I finally understood what Machia, the transport officer who had brought me here, and Leviathan, who had greeted me on arrival, had both meant. The question that had circled endlessly since the day I set foot on this prison island finally turned from a question mark into an exclamation point.
Yes. I truly was a woman perfectly suited to this place…
At last I could be certain of it.
— Whish! Slap!
“Kyaugh…! Ang♡ haah… ugh-ha…!”
Being hit hurt. The stimulation was agony. Every swing of the pickaxe made my lower back creak; the dizziness from sleepless nights kept the smile on my face. Haha. Good… so this was it.
And so, for the entire duration of the forced labor, I kept swinging the pickaxe with cuffed hands, climaxing again and again. The insides of my thighs were already coated in a glossy film of fluid that gave off a thick scent.
And in the end…
“You dig until nightfall and this is all you manage? Answer me, Number A522. Is this supposed to be a three-meter pit?”
“…No, sir.”
“All of you will receive one hundred Demeanor Penalty Points. Number A713, an additional two hundred—three hundred total. Understood?”
“…Yes, sir.”
We had failed to complete the work.