Abandoned Footprints
Abandoned Footprints
Hunger is an equalizer.
A person going just one day without food becomes lethargic and desperate.
"Haa... I can't go on...."
The groan came from Mirkella.
She lay sprawled in the grass like a dead woman, her mind gone.
Of course, she wasn't the only one.
The rest of the group was also nearing their limits, their words dwindling as they stared blankly into the void.
The only one who remained calm was the old man.
He seemed to have reached the state of Buddha, remaining unchanged throughout.
Like Number 5, he sat cross-legged in an unmoving posture, so still I wondered if he was dead.
I crunched on the ice Kim Ha-yoon had created, trying to fill my stomach with water.
But you know what?
The moment that water digests, an even worse hunger sets in.
It was only a stopgap.
"Munch munch... Hmm, even I'm finding this a bit tough."
Angelica was tearing up grass and chewing it like a goat.
It had only been two days, but we looked absolutely terrible.
Dust, dirt, and the occasional blood spatter from dealing with competitors made us look filthier than any vagrant.
Thankfully, we could replenish water by melting the ice Kim Ha-yoon created, but water alone only made us more exhausted as time passed.
"Seriously... doesn't anyone carry convenience food? Even the guys we took down had nothing to eat on them?"
I searched the defeated participants for anything edible, but all I found was a speck of dust.
These bastards, just like us, had figured the theme would be urban and hadn't brought anything.
Plus, this environment... strangely enough, though this was a forest, there wasn't a single animal in sight.
Only grass, trees, and flowers.
"Angelica... does that stuff actually go in your mouth?"
"It's edible once you get used to it. I peeled some tree bark earlier, want some?"
"Tree bark...? Well, give me some."
I barely lifted my upper body to take the bark Angelica was offering.
Suddenly Mirkella sprang up and snatched it away.
"Ugh...! Ugh... it's gross...."
"Of course it's gross, dummy. And did you really have to take it...?"
Mirkella, who'd casually stuffed the bark into her mouth and chewed, spat it back out with an expression like she'd bitten into a bug.
I was dumbfounded.
This girl, when she's starving, she really doesn't care about anything.
I was starting to worry she might actually end up eating a dead body.
"How many are left now...?"
Kim Ha-yoon asked in a voice that sounded half-dead.
She didn't seem to have the energy to move.
She nestled in my arms and stared at me with a gaunt face, her eyes brimming with meaning.
As if telling me to do something about this situation.
'Don't look at me like that. What the hell can I do in this space?'
The hologram window high in the sky displayed the number 51.
"Just one. If we just take out one more... but the number isn't moving."
"Really...?"
"Of course it's real."
They said it would continue until only 50 remained, so we just had to hold on a bit longer.
But the number hasn't budged for three hours.
We only need to send off one more, but for some reason the count hasn't changed.
This suggests that other groups are probably in the same situation as us.
That damn last person must be hiding somewhere after losing their companions, digging in and waiting it out.
"Ah, damn... we should start moving soon...."
Since we had been hunting participants on the outskirts, we were quite far from the center.
So even though we were hungry and exhausted, the fact that we had to move inward to avoid the encroaching darkness was mentally draining.
"Hee... hic... hee-yaaaang!! I can't take it anymore! I can't do this! Take off your pants!"
Just as I was about to get up and start moving...
Mirkella, panting and suddenly letting out a shriek, grabbed my pant leg and yanked it down.
Since I wasn't wearing a belt, my pants slid right down, fully exposing my dangling parts.
"...What are you doing?"
"I'm hungry! Hungry!"
"...So?"
"What do you mean so?! I'm going to fill my stomach with your semen!"
She was utterly shameless.
It was so absurd that I couldn't even get angry, I just let out a hollow laugh.
"Hey, why don't you just ask Ha-yoon for some ice? Honestly, I'm too tired...."
"It's tasteless, I said tasteless!"
"Semen is tasteless too."
"I mean I need to feel something! At this rate...! I can't stand it! I can't bear it unless I eat your semen!"
Her outburst was ridiculous, but it seemed she was dead serious.
Without hesitation, she took the thing into her mouth and desperately worked her tongue.
Honestly, I didn't expect this.
I flinched, completely bewildered.
"Ah, no! Hey! What the hell are you doing all of a sudden...!?"
"Mmph! Slurp...! Just cum already...!!"
Her movements became more intense.
She licked my shaft this way and that, and the sticky membranes of her throat sent waves of intense pleasure through my exhausted body and mind.
"Ugh, you cr-crazy bitch...!"
Maybe it was the hunger, but as much as I wanted to push her away, I couldn't.
I tapped Kim Ha-yoon, who was stuck to my side like gum, on the arm, asking for help, but she just shook her head weakly, not even having the energy to respond.
"Hey, hey...! Angelica! At least you help me...!"
"Uh... um, actually, I don't think that's such a bad idea. After this girl, I'll go next."
Damn it.
Unfortunately, Angelica sided with Mirkella.
She was the one with the most stamina left, but seeing Mirkella's sudden outburst had excited her, and she was blushing and breathing heavily.
This isn't good.
At this rate, I'd be completely wrung out and only I'd suffer more.
'These fucking bitches, think about the situation a little...!'
I was seething with anger, but I didn't even have the energy to shout.
The choice always lies with the strong.
Right now, all I could do was hope they'd be merciful and let me off easy.
Squirt, squirt! Squirt—!
The semen finally poured out.
Once the ejaculation started, it gushed out like a broken dam, sliding down Mirkella's throat with audible gulps.
It felt good, but... the aftertaste lingered.
Maybe due to fatigue and my worn-out state, the drain from ejaculating lasted longer than usual.
"Huff... huff.... Are you satisfied now...?"
"No... it's not enough..."
Mirkella, who'd been out of breath, panted heavily.
Her dazed eyes soon glinted with greed, and just as she was forcing my cock back into her mouth—
"Wait. Now it's my turn. You've had your go—isn't that enough?"
"Nuh-uh... I'm not done..."
Her pronunciation was a mess, as if even her tongue had gone limp.
Right then.
Kim Ha-yoon, lying next to me, went, "Hmm...?" and looked puzzled.
Her uncertain expression soon turned to certainty, and her droopy eyes suddenly flew wide open.
"Th-that! Isn't that a mouse?!"
A startled cry.
Instantly, everyone's gaze followed Kim Ha-yoon's pointing finger.
Me too.
Normally I would've brushed it off as nonsense, but now things were very different.
A mouse.
One we could eat, right?
We were that desperate.
"Uh, uh?! It's real!"
The mouse, which had been creeping quietly, turned its head toward Mirkella's shout and froze for a moment when it met our eyes.
Then....
"Shit! It's running! Get it!!!"
We sprinted breathlessly in the direction the mouse fled.
In the chaos, we tripped over each other and tumbled to the ground, but we were so blinded by hunger that we didn't care.
We just stepped over fallen comrades and kept going.
"Ack! Wa-wait! Ow! You stepped on me!! I said you stepped on me! Hey, heeey!!!"
"...You shouldn't have fallen in the way."
"Wh-what!!!"
So that was you, Mirmir.
I didn't look back so I didn't know.
Anyway, that's not what's important.
What's important is that we found a piece of meat we could put in our mouths.
I mustered every last ounce of strength I'd had since I was a suckling babe, and reached out my hand.
Inwardly, I chanted, 'Pull! Come here!'
At the same time, an unprecedented force seized the mouse that was darting around nimbly.
And it was pulled toward me naturally.
"Hahaha!! Yes, that's it, this is it!"
My joyful cry was short-lived.
Midway, Angelica snatched the mouse with her telekinesis.
"Hey! Have you no business ethics!?"
"I don't care! Honestly, I've been holding back too!"
Using her characteristically long limbs, she began putting distance between us.
"Th-that...! You cheeky bitch...!!"
Panting, I chased after her desperately.
Honestly, I knew this would only make me hungrier, but my heart wouldn't allow me to stop.
'...I have to eat that thing no matter what!'
You could call it a kind of madness.
Such is the unparalleled cruelty of hunger.
"Hahaha! Good, very good. If I just eat this in one bite, at least...!"
Thud.
Just then.
Angelica, about to shove the mouse into her mouth, slipped on a patch of ice that shot up from the ground and dropped it.
"Kim Ha-yoon...! I didn't know you had it in you!! Don't you know respect for your elders!?"
"Shut up, shut up! Before I marinate you in accordance with respect for elders!"
This time, Kim Ha-yoon picked up the mouse.
She had blocked its path with ice and lured it toward herself, obtaining it with ease.
But even that was only a momentary victory.
"Aaaaugh!!!! It's miiine!!!!"
Shadow.
Mirkella, rising into the air on wings of pitch-black, sticky shadow, swooped down like a bird of prey and snatched the mouse from Kim Ha-yoon's grasp.
"Hehehehe! Heh!"
Crazy bitch! That's her full-power form, isn't it?!
It must consume a huge amount of energy, and she's using it here?
I was flabbergasted.
Mirkella leisurely flew up and held the mouse aloft triumphantly.
"This is it...! Yes, with this, my stomach won't make weird noises anymore...!"
She opened her mouth greedily, but—
Slice.
A slash flew in from somewhere and cleaved just the mouse clean in half.
At the same time, Mirkella's hysterical scream rang out.
"Kyaaah!!! No, no, noooo!!!"
The bisected mouse dropped straight to the ground.
And then another slash came and minced the mouse into tiny pieces.
Watching this spectacle, I stood there dazed, feeling utterly deflated.
Right after, someone trudged over from behind.
"That's enough. That wasn't a mouse."
"...What do you mean?"
"It was a Polymorph. Clearly a trait that transforms into an animal."
"Huh...?"
I didn't understand.
Maybe from the sudden full-speed sprint, my body and mind were exhausted and my head was slightly dizzy, so I frowned and asked again.
"You can see for yourself. Look up."
Having lost the precious food we'd found, we stared at each other with dazed eyes, then all looked up at the sky at once.
And astonishingly, the hologram now showed exactly 50, where it had been 51.
"Uh... that was really a person?"
"That's right. There were no animals in sight from the start, so a mouse suddenly appearing was rather suspicious."
"Uweeegh...."
When the old man confirmed it as if it were nothing, Mirkella immediately vomited, producing nothing but stomach acid.
Was it so shocking that she'd nearly committed cannibalism?
Or was it regret over desperately pouncing on a single mouse?
Who knows, maybe both.
"Looks like it worked out somehow."
"Yeah... true."
Angelica patted my shoulder, and I replied weakly.
After all that insane effort, the result feels kinda anticlimactic.
Starting with a growl from Kim Ha-yoon's stomach, howls erupted from everyone's bellies.
And Park Soo-jin and Kim So-jin, the mother-daughter pair, were staring at us as if we were beyond belief.
...What are you looking at, you bitches.
*
"Puhahaha! What are they doing?"
Watching the hologram footage that appeared in the street, Ha Hui-ryeong burst out laughing, clutching her stomach.
From the tears welling in her eyes, she seemed genuinely amused.
Jeong Ji-min, beside her, let out a light chuckle as well.
"Heh, oppa and the unnies are really suffering. Doesn't it seem like we made the right choice staying here?"
"Seeing them like that, I'm glad we didn't go. Heh heh, I'm gonna tease them like crazy when they get back."
Ha Hui-ryeong blew out a puff of smoke with a gleeful expression.
Jeong Ji-min didn't smoke, but she'd come out just to keep her company.
Im Soo-ah was also there.
She wore a wry expression and smiled awkwardly.
"Haha, since they've been through a lot, we should comfort them when they return."
"Comfort? Ha, aren't you just wanting sex?"
"Ah, no, no. How could I...!"
"Yeah right. Your ulterior motives are plain to see."
Ha Hui-ryeong snorted and flicked the finished cigarette butt away.
If you want to deny it, do it properly.
Shaking your head with a red face and flustered eyes—to her, you just looked ridiculous.
"Well, when he comes back we'll wring him dry. He's been neglecting us, so we have to squeeze him."
"But it's only been a few days, hasn't it?"
"Hey, it's been almost a week. Honestly, why did you stay at the lodgings? You could've just stayed here then gone."
"Didn't you agree at that time, unnie?"
"That was then. And you've been back-talking a lot, haven't you?"
"Aah! That hurts...!!"
Jeong Ji-min, her cheek being pulled, cried out in pain.
Im Soo-ah watched that scene with a faint look of envy.
Even though it was a bit rough, it looked like they were close.
Just then.
"Hm?"
Kang Ha-rin, leaning against the camper van and quietly watching the hologram screen, let out a sound of surprise, because someone was approaching.
A shaggy head of hair and tattered white clothes.
And a thick, unkempt beard.
At a glance, he looked exactly like the fighters we'd encountered here.
But wasn't his clothing similar to what Mirkella wore?
Right, the priestly robes provided by the Order.
"What's this? I don't accept peddlers."
As the distance closed, Ha Hui-ryeong let go of Jeong Ji-min's cheek and waved her hand as if shooing away a bothersome fly.
It happened sometimes.
Whenever they went outside, there were always pests drawn by their looks.
Of course, those insolent ones got thoroughly schooled by Ha Hui-ryeong's bat.
"Hey, if you come any closer, I won't be gentle."
Most don't understand until they get hit.
People only learn through experience.
So Ha Hui-ryeong hefted her bat onto her shoulder and glared menacingly.
It was her own state of alert, ready to strike at any moment.
"...Ha Ah-ri."
But what's this?
"What? Why do you know that name?"
The name of her mother unexpectedly came out of the mouth of the man who had been fearlessly approaching.
Because of that, Ha Hui-ryeong stared at him with eyes as wide as saucers.
"...As I thought. You're her daughter, aren't you?"
"I'm asking the questions. Why do you know that name?"
"Well...."
He paused a beat before continuing.
"Because I'm your third father."
"...What?"
Ha Hui-ryeong was so taken aback that she froze like a statue, then asked again after a long pause.
The shock and absurdity were that great.
Third.
In other words, he's the son of Oh Chang-o we met at Hansarang Apartment.
The young lad who fell for her mother and eloped with her.
That means the man in front of her is that guy.
"You said you're looking for your mother? That's good, because so am I."
Even now, the abandoned man still couldn't forget his love.