Before Conquering Floor 50 of the Tower of Lust, the Women Grow Ever More Suspicious

"…Why the hell does it have to pick this exact moment to evolve, for fuck's sake."

An hour after that, I had finally wandered out of the love hotel to sulk on my own. The women who'd spent the night with me never did manage to stand back up, and judging by the state of them, they wouldn't be getting up until tomorrow at the earliest.

All three of them had been sprawled out side by side, twitching like fish fresh off the hook…. Which was how I came to be standing on a darkened street, puffing away at cigarette after cigarette by myself, eyes fixed on the 'golden' card resting in my palm.

So I've finally gotten my hands on gold. An A-rank, no less. It was supposed to be one of the things I'd dreamed about my entire life… and yet, now that it was actually here, I felt neither awe nor excitement. It wasn't a skill that made hunting monsters any easier, and it certainly wasn't the kind of thing you brag about to other people. Besides—wasn't I already stronger than any middling hunter scraping by on his skills?

Handing a guy a sex skill at a time like this… what exactly am I supposed to do with it? Sure, the foursome with a pack of top-rank hunters must have banked me plenty of experience, but I never imagined it would evolve right then and there.

…And on top of everything, this was the effect I got. I thought it was just a pleasure-type skill—now out of nowhere it starts meddling with souls too?

As far as I knew, this was the skill the Tower Lord had planted in me alongside Seongyeon's curse, claiming it was high time I had my share of 'woman trouble.' If it truly granted pleasure to the soul itself, then that would mean Seongyeon had collapsed because of this. I'd always known it wasn't built for combat, but at this point I was fuming. At this rate I can't even fuck at full throttle anymore. Would I have to grind through grueling foreplay and milk out a bit of the load beforehand just to keep things safe?

………

…My cock hung heavy as a hammer, and my lust was still boiling over. It felt like being caught by your parents halfway through jerking off and forced to stop. Irritation rocketed straight through the roof.

"Ah, for fuck's sake~! What the hell is this! I was trying to blow a nice fat load, and I straight-up KO'd every one of the girls!!"

Granted, all three of them had climaxed looking blissful as could be, but that had clearly been no ordinary orgasm. I had no idea what 'leading souls to pleasure' actually meant, and it might well be dangerous. What if my girls end up broken wrecks because of this?

…That said, Seongyeon was still forming actual words between the convulsions, so I'd figured she'd be fine and left her where she lay. The other two were, well, still breathing, at any rate.

With my lust forcibly crammed back down and my temper cooling along with it, I set out for a walk to clear my head. Everything around me was drenched in blood-red light, drumming it in that this was the Madam's domain, run under the banner of 【OP】.

Ah, shit. I can't stay here. The smell of pussy is practically vibrating off the pavement. No doubt about it—this was the fault of the succubi I'd started raising out in the boonies. With Floors 31 and 39 thrown open, docile succubi had become easy to procure, and the effects were starting to bleed into the night streets.

"Step right up! Tons of pretty succubi in here!"

"All kinds of cosplay, SM, and every fetish you could ask for!"

"How about some NTR play, sir!?"

"We've even got succubi who won't refuse a single act~!"

"Aw, come on, of course they're safe! Every Floor 31 succubus is!"

"The snuff stuff…? Yes, yes. Of course we can. Succubi don't have human rights, after all."

"Welcome, welcome to the beastkin-specialty succubus house!!!"

The touts hawking for customers on every corner were no different. One and all, they pushed docile, girlfriend-type succubi (Floors 31 through 39, origin certified) as their flagship product. Every single signboard bore the word 【OP】, making ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it abundantly clear that every parlor here operated under the Madam's management.

Staying in this place any longer would rot my brain. Fleeing the scent of women, I moved my feet toward the beachfront just beyond the red-light district. I wanted to breathe, watching the fake sun slowly sink toward the horizon.

…Three whole days gone already. Suni hadn't moved. Neither had the Madam. The latter had even texted me first thing, going so far as to send her congratulations—"Congrats on clearing Floor 40."

Me, I trusted my women's judgment, but with Rhea's situation stacked on top of everything, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I couldn't even begin to imagine how this whole mess would resolve.

Haah. Scratching away at the back of my head, I earned a few odd looks from passersby before they drifted off. The beachfront was thick with high-ranking officials from outside, and not one of them a hunter, so nobody here recognized me. Thanks to that, I could stretch out, unwind, and let my mind go blank—savoring the sea breeze for the first time in ages.

"And of all times, my own cock has to stir up trouble… What did I ever do to deserve this…"

Even so, the anger cooled fast. Maybe it was the scenery, but my lust guttered out, and the heavy weight in my groin felt fine again now. Just as Seongyeon had guessed, the two of them must have reclaimed their memories, and the experience—or the soul—had come flowing back to me. So the me from the previous cycle really was a merciless bastard.

………

"Haah…"

Either way, it would probably be fine. Useless thoughts kept creeping back in, but I shoved them aside and pulled out my phone. First things first, let me try Ian. From the look of it, he'd called earlier about business—right when I was busy pounding away, which is why I'd missed it. Half expecting him to be pissed, I steeled myself and hit dial, but—

…He hadn't just dodged the call; the thing was powered off entirely. If it wasn't Seongyeon and he'd gone out of his way to ring me, it had to be about the Tower. I was just starting to wonder whether Ian might be climbing it himself when—

"…Changki, sir?"

The voice at my back made me flinch, and I spun around with a glare. A familiar voice.

"Nayami."

"Yes. It's been a while."

She dipped her head in a small bow. A shortstack cutie with long black hair and a chest about to burst clean out of her blouse, bowing to me in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a black suit. Those enormous tits of hers deserved something looser, and the outfit was visibly strangling her—yet there she stood, gray and gloomy as a rainy afternoon.

"What are you doing out here?"

"The same as you, Changki, sir. Getting some air to clear my head."

This was a girl who should have been back in a single day, and she'd only just returned now. The funeral clothes said enough; I didn't need to ask why she was late. The two of us drifted, without another word about it, to a bench on the beach nearby.

………

Right beside the sea, yet the seat was spotless, as if somebody had just wiped it down. We sat there for a long while without speaking. She seemed even further gone in her own head than I was—I doubted she'd open her mouth unless I spoke first.

"…The funeral for your father—did it go alright?"

"Yes."

"And your mother?"

"She cried and carried on, begging me not to go… It broke my heart…"

She lowered her head. Her husband had only just been laid to rest. Amid all that, no mother would have wanted to ship her daughter back off to foreign soil on top of it.

"Even so, I had no choice but to come. I'm still officially a terrorist—just attending the funeral was extremely dangerous."

"Nobody ambushed the place or anything?"

"Keeping my identity hidden all this time ended up helping. Some hunters came out of the woodwork when word of my father's death spread, but they looked right at me and never noticed a thing."

"Because they all believed you were a man?"

"…Yes."

Now? Any way you looked at her, she was a woman. No fool alive would glance at that bombshell figure and think man.

"Instead, it was a government official who approached me knowing I was a woman. Said they'd been in contact with Song Seongyeon, and that the misunderstanding would be cleared up soon. That's what finally let me talk my mother around."

"You talked her into letting you come right back, then?"

"Yes. Honestly, I wanted to stay longer, but the situation wouldn't allow it. The official pressed me to get myself somewhere safe first, saying they'd handle the rest."

And she'd left her mother behind in the middle of all that. Of course Nayami was hollowed out. Escaping Natalia's clutches had been a stroke of luck, but the timing couldn't have been worse. I felt so sorry for her that I forgot every worry I'd been chewing on minutes ago and heard myself say, half-teasing:

"Once the negotiations with the government wrap up, let's go pay our respects at the grave together."

"Together… with me?"

"Why? Not allowed?"

"There's no need for you to do that, Changki, sir. You don't even know my parents. Besides, it's a whole other country."

"We're work colleagues, and there's the whole Natalia mess on top of it—we're hardly strangers, are we?"

"That's quite the stretch. In an age where even lifelong lovers don't visit each other's parents' graves, a 'colleague' going that far is a bit…"

"…Is it really that weird?"

"I always knew you were a kind person, but somehow, knowing it and seeing it still took me by surprise."

I'd meant it as a courtesy, sure—but if it only burdened her, there was no reason to force the point. Using the rolling crash of waves as my background music, I asked instead:

"So what will you do now?"

"I'm back far later than planned, after all. First I'll return to the guild and take stock. Lady Uhwudong has been covering for me even while she's unwell, so I'll hand over my duties and send Ian word that I'm back."

And there she was, talking shop not a day after all of that. She was so pitiful it made my eyes sting.

"What about Natalia? She is your vice-guildmaster, after all. Want me to send her back if you need the hands?"

"Bronze Shield was always a guild built around me and my own members, from the very start. Natalia was next to useless, aside from the big heavy lifting."

She shot to her feet. Apparently even the sound of Natalia's name turned her stomach now; her eyes went frost-cold.

"Please just deal with her however you like on your end. We sent her over to serve as your sex slave in the first place, so treat her accordingly—it's no concern of ours."

I didn't mention that she was already receiving treatment perfectly befitting her station. For someone who'd come all this way, she seemed to have nothing else to say, and made to leave.

"Hey, hold on. Now that we've run into each other, let's talk a little longer—"

Just as I stretched out a hand to stop her—

Tiiing-a-ling!

With a bright chime like a dropped wineglass, something hit the ground. Unless I was hearing things, the sound had come from inside my coat.

Huh?

The last faint glow of sunset lit up the fallen thing. A dazzling turquoise piercing rolled like a wheel across the ground, headed straight for Nayami's feet.

What the—how did that get out of my pocket? The inner pocket of my coat had a zipper on it; there was no way for anything to slip out unless I opened it myself. Yet somehow the zipper had been undone, and I was left flabbergasted by the sheer audacity of the thing—escaping my coat and making a beeline for Nayami.

"……? That's an odd color. Is it a ring, perhaps?"

Nayami reached down for it in my place. No doubt she meant to hand it right back to me.

"…Huh?"

But the moment her fingers closed around it, the piercing scattered like sand and vanished. If my eyes weren't deceiving me, the crumbled ring ran up along her finger and soaked into her body.