The Damaged Prison

One number, and two characters.

Sion sank back into the worn leather chair and stared down at the results window on the screen for a long while.

…A lot, or not much?

He had no feel for it. It was the first time he'd ever ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gathered any.

"You gathered a ton~! For a first hunt, that's really great!"

Redi bounced up from the corner of the screen with a pop.

"I'd need a baseline before I could tell if it's a lot or a little."

"Mm… well, if you want to pull one more monster, this is a little short. So for now it's just a teeny bit?"

"…A teeny bit."

Sion's red eyes narrowed.

…The feeling of opening your account after your first paycheck.

A few entries floated faintly above the console.

Every line was stamped in red with insufficient.

…This is short. That's short.

A screen he'd seen plenty of times. Like a bank balance at the end of the month.

"Everyone starts like that! You just fill them in one by one~"

Then—

Beep— beep—

A low alarm rang through the Command Room. A red dot on one side of the console flashed in rapid pulses.

"Uh-oh? Oh no…?"

Redi's icon swayed left and right, plainly flustered.

"Administrator? Um, the prison is a little…"

The screen switched on its own.

Two bars of the solitary cell had bent and spread like pulled taffy. From inside that gap, a greenish-gray back was heaving.

An orc.

It had Park Hyejin lifted from behind, an arm hooked under her thighs, holding her up with her legs spread wide, and it was shaking her wildly up and down over its groin.

"Grrk! Grrrk! Grrrrk!"

A sound of excitement it couldn't contain. Every time it snorted, spit strung between its tusks and dripped onto the crown of Park Hyejin's head. There was no rhythm to it. It drove up into her three or four times in a row, stopped to grind its hips, then seemed to remember itself and slammed upward again.

Park Hyejin was half collapsed.

Her head hung broken over the orc's shoulder, lolling with every thrust. Beneath half-lowered lids, unfocused eyes had rolled upward, and from the tip of the tongue spilling past her open mouth, spit ran in a thin thread. Her white knit had rolled up above her chest, and the breasts bared with every upward slam swayed and bounced.

"Ah… ahh… again… againn…♡"

Broken scraps of words came out, impossible to tell as refusal or urging.

Every time the cock pulled free, white foam pushed from the rim of her pussy. It had come once and never pulled out, just kept pounding, so the semen held inside was crushed and overflowing with the thrusts. What spilled ran down the inside of her thighs, all the way to the heels hanging in the air, and dripped into the puddle on the iron floor below.

Thud— every time it sank in, the toes in the air kicked.

"…That bastard."

"I-I didn't tell it to! It did that all by itself!"

Sion glared at the screen.

He hadn't sent down an order. He'd only left it in front of the prison. And with no command, it had smashed into its own cage and was doing this.

Intelligence E. No orders, and it's instinct.

…Leave a dog to watch the house and it raids the fridge.

But—

Something was moving in the corner of the screen.

The Magical Power figure. The number that should have been stuck at 412 was climbing a tick on its own every time the orc thrust up.

"…This."

"Ah, that? Whatever the prisoner feels, all of it becomes Magical Power! Scared, hurting, feeling good~"

Sion watched the number.

It was slow. Different in texture from when he'd first dragged Park Hyejin in, back when she'd been chattering her teeth in front of the bars. The terror from then had already bottomed out. What was being wrung from that body now was only what remained beneath it—what a broken body felt on its own.

Terror ends once it's broken.

But that… doesn't dry up.

Slow, but unbroken. Every time the orc thrust, every time her toes twitched, the number climbed a steady tick.

And he himself was not there.

…It comes in even without me.

The monster wrung it out in his place, and the prison held it. Then a monster wasn't a subordinate, but a harvester—and the prison was the harvest floor.

Only that harvester had started by tearing the door off the floor it was meant to reap.

"Ah, but, Administrator."

Redi popped one more small window into the corner of the screen.

"If her stamina bottoms out, nothing comes out after that! Break her completely and that's the end~"

"…The end."

"Yeah! Same as something that's broken!"

Sion stood from the chair.

When the elevator's iron door opened, a raw smell pushed in first.

Semen and slick, rust-water, sweat. All of it sat thick and damp in the narrow iron corridor. Beyond the bent bars, the wet slap of flesh was still going—plap, plap.

"Stop."

The doubled voice rolled down the corridor.

"G-grrk?!"

The orc froze with Park Hyejin still in its arms. It snapped its head around to look at Sion, looked down at the woman in its hold, then looked at Sion again. Regret filled those bean-sized eyes to the brim.

Its hips gave one very small extra hitch.

Red eyes looked quietly down at the thing.

That was enough.

"…Grrrk."

The orc slowly lifted its hips.

Pop…

With the sound of the cock pulling free, it set the woman it had been holding down on the iron floor.

Then, head hung low, it squeezed awkwardly out through the gap in the bent bars. Its shoulders drooped. The iron rang with every step—thud, thud—but even that sound was somehow deflated.

It squatted in a corner of the corridor. Whatever was below hadn't settled yet; it hugged its knees and only snorted, breath huffing. Even so, its eyes kept sneaking glances toward the solitary cell.

Sion looked down into the cell.

Park Hyejin lay on her side on the floor. She didn't even have the strength to close her spread legs, so her thighs stayed open, and something white seeped slowly from her gaping pussy and spread across the iron. The knit hung rolled up over her breasts. Now and then her lower belly twitched and spasmed all on its own.

Her eyes moved slowly.

Focus reached Sion. Whether she recognized the red eyes or not, her lips stirred.

"…Ah…"

That was all. No scream, no plea. Hazy eyes looked up at him for a long while, then slid shut again.

…Half gone.

Sion went down on one knee and lifted her chin with his fingertips.

A flinch.

The sinking eyelids flew open. Fear spread hard through the slack pupils, and the thighs that hadn't had the strength to close trembled inward and drew together.

The number in the corner of the corridor wall screen didn't jump one tick. It leapt several at once.

…Not completely dry yet.

Sion let go of her chin. Her head dropped onto the iron with a thud.

He gripped the bent bars. When he put strength into his hand, the iron rods creaked and straightened a little—then the rusted root snapped with a tok.

The number didn't move.

"I told you that doesn't get fixed by hand~ You need Materials!"

Redi popped out of the small screen on the corridor wall.

"Materials. I just sortie and gather them."

"That's… Administrator. I'll be honest."

Redi lowered their voice a little.

"You already sortied once today, right? With your Vessel as it is now, that was the whole day's worth."

"Vessel."

"Yeah. You know the gate that sends the monsters out? That doesn't open with stored Magical Power. It opens with the power held in the Administrator's body. That Vessel is still small, so once you open it, it's empty. It fills again the next time you log in."

He thought of the rift that had torn open in the air. The rift the orc had pushed its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠body into.

"I just watched the Magical Power go up. Not one or two ticks."

"Ah, that!"

Redi shook the icon side to side, as if waving him off.

"You can't use that right away. Magical Power sucked from a prisoner is raw, so it needs time to refine. And even refined, it can't open the gate~ The gate opens with the Administrator's Vessel!"

"How long does it take."

"Mm… it depends!"

…Brushing past it.

It did come in. Just not something he could hold right now—and even if he held it, it still wouldn't open that gate one more time.

"Instead!"

Redi bounced up.

"If you keep gathering it steady like this, the Vessel grows with it! Around next month, three times in two days? Twice a day? You'll get there fast!"

"Next month."

A vague thing to say. But if the only card he held was once a day, he had to decide first where to spend that once.

Gather Materials, and the prison gets fixed. That day: no monster, and no prisoner.

Gather biomass, and he could work on the monster. That day, the prison stays as it is.

And this prison was one that got breached eight times out of ten.

Sion looked down at Park Hyejin on the floor again.

"…Tell her to run."

"Eh? That's a waste! She's the first prisoner!"

"It's still inside this world. Run all she wants, she's on the map. Catch her again and that's that."

"Ah, but a girl who runs forgets everything here once the session ends? This prison, you, the orc, all of it~"

Redi added it as if it were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nothing.

Sion's eyes narrowed.

Forgets.

…Then she'll be afraid all over again, from the start.

Terror that had bottomed out would come back full.

Not bad.

"Okay, that's it for today!"

Redi spun once on the small screen on the corridor wall.

"You overdid it from day one~ Time to head back to reality!"

Sion looked down at Park Hyejin on the floor for a moment. The face that had always looked down on him from across the store counter was now crushed against the iron.

"…Yeah."

Sion took his hand off the bent bars.

Behind him, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Park Hyejin's lower belly twitched once more, all on its own.