Chapter 130
Seol-ah brought the people with her. They were players who had been staying in her building, and every last one of them was a child. Out of roughly thirty people, about three-tenths were kids. I wondered how the hell she had gathered them all.
“I started by protecting one or two, and before I knew it, the numbers kept growing.”
Seol-ah scratched the back of her head with an awkward laugh. She said the person who had handed over the building to her had reacted the same way.
“Just settle down around the shops for now. If there are any empty buildings, feel free to take them.”
“Thanks.”
The moment the kids heard me, they scampered off. A few adults tried to keep them in line, but the little shits didn’t listen. Seol-ah, who had been watching them closely, spoke up.
“…At first I thought you were just some perverted bastard, but you’ve got a surprisingly decent side too. Color me impressed.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult?”
“A compliment.”
Seol-ah smiled faintly. I could feel that she meant it.
“…There are plenty of guys who are trash without even committing rape. If you rape people and still act like this, you’re basically the epitome of a man. You own a shop on the second floor, after all. Who gives a shit about rape at that point?”
“I guess that’s true.”
“Sticking your dick in a hole isn’t that big a deal. The pure days when I would’ve screamed during rape are long gone—ruined by some truly fucked-up bastards. Compared to them, you’re not so bad.”
“That’s kinda sad.”
“Later, if you come find me in secret without Dahui knowing, I’ll give you some real thick service.”
Should I tell her the truth? That Yu Dahui is actually younger than her. I kept the truth hidden and asked,
“What kind of service?”
“…It means I’ll suck you off properly. Until you lose your mind.”
Seol-ah shamelessly kneaded my ass.
“You’ve completely lost your fear, huh.”
“After seeing you get stepped on by Dahui and the other girls, how could I possibly be scared of you?”
“That and me killing you are two different things.”
“Really? Then I’d better survive.”
Seol-ah gave my ass a couple of light pats as if to say she was done, then ran off to help her group.
Even after Seol-ah left, someone was still rubbing my ass. Elena, who had approached without me noticing, was groping me.
“…Did you put honey on my ass or something? Why is everyone so obsessed with touching it? Why does everyone want to lick it so badly?”
“…That girl was touching it earlier. Is there any reason I can’t touch it too?”
“No. There isn’t. It’s just ridiculous to see you doing it, Elena.”
“Kids these days have no manners. No manners at all. Tsk tsk…”
Elena didn’t answer me. She simply clicked her tongue while staring at Seol-ah’s retreating figure. Then her hand naturally fell away. When I looked at her face, it was flushed—she seemed to have kneaded my ass to her heart’s content.
What the hell is wrong with her.
Why did she touch my ass? With that ridiculously brazen and confident expression, I was at a loss for words.
“I’m going to go touch Elysha’s ass as much as you touched mine. Just so you know.”
“W-what!? You piece of trash!”
“Got a problem with that?”
“I do! The skinship we shared—why are you dragging Princess Elysha into it? Just touch my ass instead! That would make it fair!”
Elena shrieked and grabbed my hand, dragging it toward her own rear.
“Princess Elysha is off-limits. You can pour all that lust onto me instead. And if you record it and give it to Lady Dahui, everyone will be happy… hehe…”
There were more than a few people I couldn’t understand. Actually, I couldn’t understand any of them. Except for Yu Dahui, I understood the male characters far better than the female ones. Especially which spots were sensitive and what kind of play would satisfy them…
Fuck.
Information I didn’t want to know. Delete.
“Mmm… Doing something like this in such a wide-open place… You really are trash…”
I continued kneading Elena’s ass while lost in thought. I had tried normal training and indulged in reckless PK to my heart’s content. What could be a better method? I knew the answer was time, but waiting felt too agonizing.
A path to grow as quickly as possible… In terms of pure combat strength, my level was already quite decent. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call me one of the top players on the second floor. Even on the third floor, I wouldn’t be lacking for a human. After all, truly exceptional beings sometimes reached the seventh floor in just half a year.
But if my goal was to clear the Tower of Struggle, that became a problem. Why did I even want to clear it? My quality of life was better right now.
Because that’s what this novel is about.
I instinctively knew it was the right thing. Reaching the top of the tower alongside Yu Dahui. My subconscious was telling me that was the only way to escape this novel.
At that moment, Elena whimpered and muttered,
“How long are you going to keep touching it, you trash… The kid is watching…!”
“Ah.”
I had gotten too lost in thought without realizing it. I hadn’t even noticed someone approaching and had been completely absorbed in Elena’s ass. I glared at the little kid who was staring at us with wide eyes.
“What are you looking at?”
“Chirp-. Human brother.”
The kid was a beastkin with a bird head. Some beastkin only had partial animal features, but there were also grotesque ones like this whose entire head was avian. The beastkin race had quite a high random factor.
“Chirp chirp-. Is elf sister’s butt squishy?”
“Of course it’s fucking squishy. Why? Wanna touch it?”
The bird-headed brat asked boldly, and I answered as if it were obvious. Elena’s trained ass was plump and satisfying to squeeze.
“What did you just say? What the hell did you say?!”
“Chirp-. Can I really touch it?”
“You think you can? If you say something like that, I won’t go easy on you just because you’re a kid!”
Elena was having a fit while the bird-headed brat looked ready to actually touch it.
“No way. Go build your damn house already.”
“Chirp chirp-!”
The bird-headed kid scampered off. He must have come over out of pure envy that someone was touching a butt.
“Anyway, give me a hand.”
I had been deep in thought, but the bird kid ruined it. Thinking any deeper would just be a waste of time. Whether it was training or PK, it was better to take action. I drew my sword.
* * *
Late afternoon. Dinner time.
Elysha, who had claimed a seat at the large dining table, looked at Elena and asked,
“Captain Elena. Did you beat the crap out of that guy today?”
Elysha had watched my spar with Elena. Every time I went tumbling, she had cheered.
“Yes. I beat him thoroughly. If we hadn’t had potions, he probably would have broken something and been bedridden for a month.”
“Hehe, make it even harder tomorrow. Beat him so badly he can’t even twitch.”
Elysha cackled like an evil witch.
That trash is corrupting so many elves…
The refined laughter that Elysha had once possessed was completely gone. Elena couldn’t shake the pity she felt.
“If I had been a knight, I could have beaten him myself. This is when I regret learning spirit magic.”
Her slender arms looked like they would snap with a single tap. Elena was actually relieved that Elysha was a spirit mage.
The conversation between the two elves suddenly cut off. They had been exaggerating their talk to dispel the awkward atmosphere.
Elysha glanced at Yu Dahui, who was sitting there blankly. She had been acting strange since this morning.
What on earth happened?!
Even when asked, she wouldn’t answer. Not Yu Dahui, not Isilia, and not even Elena. They all kept their mouths tightly shut about what had happened to Yu Dahui.
At that moment, Yu Dahui and Elena’s eyes met. Elena sent some kind of signal, and Yu Dahui somehow caught it.
“I’m full. I’ll head up first.”
Yu Dahui stood up first.
“Not having shaved ice?”
At Isilia’s question, Yu Dahui looked over with a dazed expression. Isilia was making shaved ice in a cute ice bowl. Ice shavings were falling from her fingertips…
“I made it super cold and sweet. Eat some before you go.”
She was kind to Yu Dahui. They had been fated to become friends anyway, but their relationship had accelerated because of me. The bullied Isilia had submitted even faster.
The hierarchy of Yu Dahui > Kim Jinwoo > Isilia > Elena had been flipped to Yu Dahui = Isilia > Kim Jinwoo > Elena.
But Yu Dahui’s energy was lower than usual. Even the sweet treat didn’t appeal to her.
“I’m good. I don’t really feel like it today.”
Yu Dahui rejected Isilia’s kindness and headed upstairs. She flopped onto the bed and poured out her resentment toward me.
“Kim Jinwoo… I really, really hate you…”
She wanted to masturbate but couldn’t. She wanted to have sex but couldn’t. She had grown so used to her rather vulgar lifestyle that it had become a part of her. Suddenly being told to hold back wasn’t something she could just do.
Then she sensed a presence at the door. Yu Dahui already knew the footsteps belonged to Elena.
Knock knock-.
“Come in, Elena.”
—Excuse me.
The door opened and Elena entered. She seemed quite used to this kind of relationship; there wasn’t the slightest hesitation. Once inside Yu Dahui’s room, Elena took several Recording Crystals out of her inventory.
“These are the things that happened while Kim Jinwoo was training.”
What Elena handed over were training videos shot from various angles.
“He did that even while training?”
“Yes. He insisted on it no matter what.”
Yu Dahui fiddled with the crystal before checking the video. It showed ordinary training scenes.
“He’s working hard…”
Watching me roll around on the dirt floor, Yu Dahui’s face flushed. She even forgot that this was supposed to be a skinship video and became absorbed in my focused training.
"— Feeling like your growth is blocked?"
"— How did you know?"
"— You can tell after exchanging blows a few times. Like there’s a wall in the way."
In the video, Elena gave me generous advice. They were tips that would become blood and flesh for a weak human.
"— If nothing works, how about giving yourself some clear motivation?"
"— Motivation?"
"— …Something like a bet. It creates a reason why you can’t stop."
At the words Elena spoke in the video, Yu Dahui glared at the real Elena. She instantly understood the intention behind those words.
"— What kind of bet?"
Kim Jinwoo asked dumbly. He was walking right into the trap Elena had set.
Agh, you idiot!
Yu Dahui felt a burning rage inside her chest. Strangely, that bubbling sensation wasn’t entirely unpleasant. If only she could masturbate, it would have been perfect.
So annoying!
Unable to touch herself, Yu Dahui focused on the video.
"— Here, do you know what this is?"
"— It’s just a rock."
"— It looks like a rock. But…"
In the video, Elena held the stone and circulated her mana. Watching the stone that didn’t budge an inch, I let out a surprised gasp.
"— Whoa…"
"— It endlessly devours mana like this. No matter how much you pour in, it doesn’t break."
"— What do you use it for? Sounds fucking useless."
"— Tsk. Do you know the best way to increase the mana inside your body? It’s to completely exhaust all the mana you have. Empty it, empty it, and empty it again, and you’ll hold a higher concentration of mana than the day before. And the advantage of using this stone is…"
In the video, Elena retrieved the mana she had injected into the stone. Although some of it scattered into the air, it allowed her to recover mana far faster than normal recovery.
"— You only need to rest a little before continuing."
"— Oh, that’s pretty good."
The first time I saw the stone, I was able to recall the training method. It was a conversation that Yu Dahui and Elena had in the novel, which I hadn’t remembered at all until now. The problem was that the Void Stone itself could only be obtained from the upper floors, so I hadn’t given it much thought.
"— But what kind of bet are we making with this?"
"— If you break this Void Stone by the end of today, you win. If you can’t, I win."
"— …How do I break it?"
"— From now on, I’m going to pour my mana into it. If you pour in as much mana as I did, you can break the Void Stone."
In the video, I looked at Elena with interest.
"— You must have something you want too, huh? I won’t accept anything like releasing the Submission Oath though."
"— …At this point, I don’t even want you to release it anymore."
Elena grumbled indifferently. Yu Dahui’s eyes widened in shock. It was a reaction of disbelief.
"— Then what is it? What do you want as your wish?"
"— What I want is…"
At that moment, the video cut off. The crystal was damaged, so the recording hadn’t been saved properly.
“Ah!”
Flustered, Elena tried to repair the crystal with her mana, but it was impossible. A crystal broken by mana manipulation could not be fixed.
“I’m sorry, Lady Dahui…”
“No, it’s fine. These things happen.”
Yu Dahui looked at Elena with ice-cold eyes. A blue light swirled around her eyes.
‘Insight’s Blessing’ has been activated.
“It seems there was some problem with the crystal.”
Elena glowed blue. Truth.
“How could this happen? Why would a perfectly fine crystal… I’ve never heard of anything like this…”
“I don’t know either.”
Elena glowed red. Lie.
Elena knew exactly why the crystal had ended up like this.
Fuck, that Insight bitch!
Damn it, Kim Jinwoo… If you pull something like this, I’m the only one who gets hated by Lady Dahui. Look at her expression…!