#62. The Dog (Part 1)

Since Yoo Dahui was already sealed and unable to regress, I had to prioritize rescuing her at all costs. Alone and captured, I had no other choice. The moment I died first, who knew if regression would even be possible? Even as I thought it was too exaggerated to consider, it was a perfectly reasonable assumption given the situation. My plan was to break Yoo Dahui's seal and wake her up to regain her regression ability. That was the objective of this loop.

“Now that you’ve figured out the main point?”

I activated Poison Insight while staring at Orihime. It was to see if I could figure out where Yoo Dahui was hidden. “Kuaaaaaak!”

“What the hell is this all of a sudden?”

But it was impossible. There was too wide a gap between Orihime and me, and even my Black Magic couldn’t read her mind. “Elena… that must be because of the Submission Oath…!”

Pain threatened to split my head open as I canceled Poison Insight. My roughened breathing didn’t settle. “Kuh…”

“Stop bullshitting. Just lift this goddamn head and beat me when I tell you to.”

Orihime tormented my cock. Right after I came, it was hypersensitive, and she didn’t care. She gripped and roughly shook it, her calloused palm sliding over the tender head. “You fucking bitch, be gentler!”

“Gentler? For a slave, you want way too much.”

Thud!

Orihime grabbed my head and slammed her fist into my stomach. The heavy impact echoed inside me. “Guh…”

“Dogs that bite their master get killed. Then what about the ones that keep fighting without permission?”

“Ugh! Stop…!”

Orihime squeezed my glans tight, her grip carrying no mercy at all. “Naturally, I’ll have to give you sado-masochism training.”

“……”

At this point I’d rather lose my balls. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠converted my cock to Light Penis Mode, activating the divine-infused state. The light particle body vanished instantly. “…Can’t make a cock?”

“Huff…!”

As soon as my cock disappeared, Orihime punched me. She unleashed merciless violence, pounding my entire body while sitting on top of me. Thud!Thud!

“This bastard thinks his cock is so great!”

Thud!Thud!

“Acting like he’s done something, the human trash!”

Thud!Thud!

“You’re weak. You can’t even take this much!”

Smirk.Smirk.

The last sound I heard was her laughter as the anger faded. “You said you wouldn’t make me hurt, right? What a dumbass.”

“……”

“If you try hiding your cock like that, what am I supposed to do?”

“Then, how about I seal you too?”

“Not a bad idea.”

“Fine, you handle the small stuff. Go ahead and improvise.”

“You want me dead?”

“……”

“Well, whatever.”

“Jinwu, get treated and rest. Put you somewhere you can move freely and remove the chains properly.”

I snapped back to my senses. The moment I did, I started feeling my body. It was supposed to be pulp, but it felt surprisingly healthy. “She healed me.”

Remembering what happened earlier, I felt like I had PTSD. A monstrous beating that no defense could stop. There was a huge difference in strength between me and Orihime. Maybe because I only faced girls who couldn’t move once my cock was inside, I was completely helpless against this stupid brute who only relied on power. “Where the hell is this place?”

All stats were sitting comfortably in the 10s. Plus the collar. “Ninety percent, huh?”

My current status was a single digit. It had dropped to the level of the early days of the Tower of Struggle. Just how weak my body was for someone with these stats. “Shit….”

I got up from the bed. The room was overall shabby. A tiny one-room size, maybe four pyeong at most. “How does anyone even live in a place like this?”

But people were living here. Orihime’s slaves lived in prison-like rooms and endured the labor. They received tiny copper coins as daily wages. Knock knock knock!

“You damn mutts, get out here! Rest time’s over!”

The loud voice echoed from below. I wanted to punish that woman with my cock. How the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hell could she keep making such a fuss while being penetrated by it? “Not coming out?!”

As I stood there dumbly, the guard (or whatever she was) came all the way to my room. Her eyes were sharp and vicious right in front of the iron bars. The same loud voice from downstairs. “Troll, right?”

My dick shriveled instantly. “How do I get out?”

“How do you get out…?”

The troll guard sneered at me. Exactly. Her gaze kept lingering on my neck. There was a collar around my neck. A dog collar. “You….”

The troll’s tone softened the moment she saw the collar. She clearly knew what it meant. “Orihime, you fucking bitch.”

She beat me like this just because I hid my cock? It wasn’t like I couldn’t feel pain even if I couldn’t regress. Unlike Yoo Dahui, I didn’t have Analgesia Nullification. I felt every hit, every cut. I almost passed out from the beating by Orihime, and I really had passed out. I was terrified that even death might be possible for a moment. “I can’t die.”

I had to break Yoo Dahui’s seal. Until then, I absolutely could not die. “Place your hand on the bars and it will open. But only when the lock is released from the central control room. Otherwise the bars will shock you and you’ll be publicly pissing yourself for touching them without permission.”

The troll guard kindly explained. I followed her words and placed my hand on the bars. Clank!

It opened automatically. A strange structure. “Follow the others. Hurry up, what are you dawdling for!”

The troll guard shoved me into the crowd and went to punish the slow ones. From afar, I heard the crack of a whip and screams at the same time. “Shit….”

Prisoners? I guess that’s what they were. Orihime’s slaves walked in one direction in a big group. Their faces looked utterly powerless. Up, up, continuously climbing. It was so deep I couldn’t tell how many underground floors. Forging such a prison and exploiting players for Orihime’s stolen coins was unforgivable. I really wanted to punish her with my cock instead. “Go where you’re told! Move quickly! Stop wasting time thinking!”

Outside the building was a small training field. Doors opened to all four directions. Each led to a different labor site. Paddy fields for food, mines for minerals, factories for crafts, and the training grounds for men who wanted to challenge Orihime. Pushed into the crowd, I had to choose one labor site, and an old man next to me spoke to me. “Interested in the training ground?”

“……”

“No? Good. You shouldn’t be interested in that. There’s no chance you can beat her.”

You had to challenge her within a month and died the moment you lost. The cost of using the training ground was too high. “……”

“But who are you?”

“You don’t recognize me? You just got here, huh?”

“Seen you for the first time today.”

“Ah, I’m Rock Thunder. I used to be a spirit mage and make a name for myself.”

I didn’t remember. My brain wasn’t that sharp, especially when the male characters in the novel always had some great advantage. Big cock, thick, great technique, high stamina, or whatever. It was impossible to remember an old man like this today. “There’s a familiar scent from you. The scent of a spirit. That’s why I approached you.”

“Ah….”

“We spirit mages should stick together. I’ll tell you everything I know in various ways. How about coming to the mine with me?”

I followed Rock Thunder’s words and headed toward the mine. [Current location of the room is 830. 421.]

One step further and a line of men and women appeared, looking like managers. They handed each slave a pickaxe and sent them in one by one. “If you don’t fill your quota, no coins! If you go over, you get more coins. Move quickly!”

It was an unpleasant voice. The tone irritated people’s nerves. I scowled and accepted the pickaxe. Most of them seemed friendly toward me. “Why aren’t you moving?”

“Y-yes! Understood…!”

Compared to how Rock Thunder was treated, “…work carefully.”

“Yes.”

Like night and day. “This dog collar is real, huh.”

There were classes even among the slaves. I could feel it. [Current location of the room is 833. 428.]

The managers had come into this invisible area. The dark room was filled with gray rock. Traces of digging were everywhere. “That collar looks new…”

Rock Thunder examined my dog collar closely. “The male the oni woman favors doesn’t get good treatment even as a slave. That’s the best it gets. But compared to the other slaves, you’re living easier.”

“That’s not comforting at all.”

“But the collar those guys wore wasn’t like that. The one you’re wearing, even I have never seen before.”

Rock Thunder spoke with pride. Pride at surviving as Orihime’s slave for a long time. “Tsk.”

Though unbelievable, I had extracted plausible information. “Just fill the quota. Going over doesn’t do anything.”

“Communism can’t work, can it.”

“Paddy fields or factories are harder. More managers than in the mine.”

“Working under supervision is better than this, huh.”

Sweat poured down like rain. With stats stripped and a battle-hardened body, even swinging a pickaxe was hard. I kept wondering why I had to do this. “By the way, do you know a guy named Hoseon?”

“……”

“Hoseon? Why that guy?”

Rock Thunder warned me the moment he heard the name. His face clearly showed he didn’t like it. “I wanted to meet him.”

“You shouldn’t meet him. It’s a warning from me.”

Even though no one else was around, Rock Thunder kept glancing around. “Why?”

Because he reacted so loudly, I wanted to meet him even more. “Those guys are plotting to escape or something. If they do that, people who were just living normally will get hurt too. Filthy bastards.”

“……”

“Did you receive a direct proposal? To work together?”

“No.”

Rock Thunder swung his pickaxe. Clang!

Sparks flew everywhere. His grip wasn’t even sore, yet he swung it casually. “His stats must be higher than mine.”

Thanks to the double cutting, my stats had sunk to the level of garbage. “Can secrets stay hidden in such a narrow place? Never. Even if you give the proposal to trustworthy people, rumors will spread.”

“That’s true.”

I had no idea how he planned to increase slaves. But Hoseon’s plan seemed to have turned into bubbles. If he knew even this useless old man, there was probably no one left he didn’t know. “It doesn’t seem to have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reached the ears of that oni woman yet… It’s just a matter of time. When she moves, even this calm prison will turn into a madhouse. People who don’t have to die will die.”

Rock Thunder had quite strong survival instinct. He was a slave but didn’t want to die. “Life here isn’t that bad. Especially for an old man like me… I don’t attract the oni woman’s attention, and I don’t get special threats. I earn enough coins to satisfy my lust and live…”

“Lust?”

“……Do you think I don’t have lust? Haha, you must be looking down on me.”

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

“No, I didn’t mean that.”

Rock Thunder’s impotence was the last thing on my mind. “How do you handle lust here? Masturbate?”

“……You can earn coins and trade. This prison has way more women. You can guess the reason.”

“Because that oni woman eats men, right.”

“That’s right. But it’s not like women don’t have lust either.”

“Oh.”

Interest suddenly rose. My focus on slaves shifted. “If I give you enough coins, even an old man like me can hug a woman. How wonderful.”

I was buried in slave mentality. “The player who climbed the Tower of Struggle is satisfied living in a broken prison like this.”

“It doesn’t seem bad.”

I swung the pickaxe vigorously. “Surprisingly not bad.”

Rock Thunder matched my rhythm. We filled the quota. It was the amount you could finish in a day with moderate breaks. “Cunningly intelligent.”

A precisely calculated capacity, earning coins while rolling the slaves. Orihime sat on her throne ruling the kingdom. “See you tomorrow.”

“Yes, please enter.”

The time to buy women was limited. Slaves didn’t have free contact with each other, so I had to time it carefully. For example, the meat party once a week or the fighting tournament once a month. I dragged my heavy body to the bed and lay down. Creek, creak.

The shabby bed screamed loudly. Just as I had been lying down for a while, the guard called me. “Kim Jinwu, Lady Orihime is looking for you.”

Clank, clank.

She unlocked the iron bars of my room with a key, then beckoned me. “Follow me.”

I thought she would call me slowly. Until my head flew off, there weren’t many hours left. “Either I enter my own room or belong to Orihime’s room.”

The first option was completely impossible, so I had no choice but to rely on the latter. Orihime was calling me to turn me into a slave. “Enter.”

The woman who guided me stepped back. She seemed to want me to enter alone. I pushed the door open as bravely as I could. I didn’t have the strength to force it. [Current location of the room is 800. 420.]

It was a Japanese-style room, I supposed. Thick blankets were spread over the elegantly decorated space. On top of it, Orihime in nothing but underwear stared at me. And she grinned and wiggled her finger. “I want to live. Crawl over here.”