Escape (2). A Meat Feast.
A week of grueling hardship, and Orihime granted the slaves a rare moment of true freedom. They could now wander the prison freely. She had gathered every slave in one spot. I still couldn’t believe it would actually work, but the message had spread to the far corners of the cafeteria, and it seemed to have landed. After all, each floor’s prison didn’t hold nearly as many slaves as I’d imagined.
From that moment on, I became the most watched person in the room. The guards had clearly passed the word along. Several of them even delivered the same line with a knowing smile: “It’s good to have you back.”
“You’ve come back alive,” Rocksunder said, his face grim. Dealing with Orihime wasn’t easy. Surviving her was even harder.
“Full-grown men either died the day they were taken or died after challenging her. Either way, they’re dead. Most of the men wearing that collar as her pets ended up the same.”
“I’m different,” I said.
“Impressive.” Rocksunder actually looked at me with genuine respect. I kept my eyes down and asked, “Are we really allowed to be let out?”
“Why not? Other players? Forget it. An Oni girl like Orihime? Sure.”
Rocksunder downed his beer in one long pull. Kyah-! The way he drank, I could feel my own mouth watering.
“I thought no one had tried to escape before. Turns out there were plenty. The ones I saw alone filled up entire wagons. The longer the days went on, the less escape fever kicked in. You know why?”
“What? Maybe it just wasn’t worth the hassle.”
“Exactly. The ones who did escape got caught anyway. Orihime doesn’t just kill the runaways. She drags them back in front of the other slaves and tortures them to death… with every brutal method you can imagine.”
Rocksunder ripped into a rack of ribs. Crack-crack-crunch-. This old man would make a perfect food-streamer someday. I had that thought.
“She pressures them just enough to keep them in line, but she lets them off the hook once in a while. They learn on their own to give up resisting.”
Everyone here was surviving just fine. I sat there eating and chatting while they tore into their meat. It felt so relaxed I almost wondered if this really was a slave pen.
“Come to think of it, the work here isn’t that brutal. Give up a little freedom and you can live comfortably.”
“Really?”
“Back in the Trial World, they weren’t exactly free either. But at least it was predictable.”
They fed us, gave us beds, even let us use the toilet when we needed it. Rocksunder seemed genuinely content with his life. He didn’t want to risk his neck chasing a death you couldn’t predict in the Tower of Struggle.
Orihime wasn’t just locking the slaves behind iron bars—she was keeping the outside world out with a wall of protection. “Where are the guards all hiding?”
“They’re on break during afternoon hours too.”
“Feels like they’re just leaving us alone.”
“If you’re brave enough, go ahead and try. You’ll just get caught, tortured to the brink, then killed. That’s the deal. Potions are too damn strong for that.”
Just imagining it made my skin crawl. Every time, I envied that Null Pain Barrier so badly. Even if I could regress, knowing I’d still have to feel all the pain sucked.
I’m asking for a lot, aren’t I. Even to myself, I was a shameless bastard. I picked up a variety of meat cuts and chose the juiciest ones.
Everyone was laughing and getting loud over beer and meat. The atmosphere in the slave pen was almost cheerful. Yeah…
Orihime’s goal was simple—find a strong male to breed and pass on her lineage. The other slaves were just extra. She didn’t push them hard; she just ran them at an appropriate level and drained their coins.
Smart. She kept the line sharp. It looked like she knew how to handle people.
“I should go.”
“Huh? Where are you going?”
Rocksunder stood up. His stomach was full, but he wasn’t drunk yet. “Don’t get too drunk. Everything in moderation is best.”
Aha. Rocksunder was about to spend his coins on a quick fuck. “Want me to go with you?”
“…” He gave me a look like he was hoping for something. What the hell was this old man expecting from me?
“I’ll do it for you.”
“Oh! I knew I could count on you!” His face lit up. He was clearly happy to have a chance to score.
“Pick any woman you want once. I’ll service you.”
“R-really?!”
Rocksunder had done me plenty of favors already. He’d spilled information that kept me from getting bored. I changed my mindset completely. I came here with one goal: sex. I looked around.
The vibe was definitely different. This place is a mess everywhere. Pussy glistening, cocks throbbing. They were all sizing each other up carefully.
It felt like a full-on orgy could break out any second.
“I think that girl over there looks good.”
“…She’s an elf. Are you insane?”
“Even if she is, I’m older than her…”
“My fist doesn’t care about age. Pick someone else.”
Hmph. Rocksunder scanned the room, clearly disappointed. I saw couples exchanging subtle signals. Already trying to sneak off. This was a whole different level of show.
And the cafeteria was brightly lit from every side. Even with everyone watching, they were still acting like this. Creak-.Chomp-.
“This is fun.”
Across the room, an orc and a dark elf were kissing, lips locked. The orc was female, the dark elf male. Rules against women are rules for a reason. Supply and demand. Give and take.
“What about that girl?”
“…You like blondes?”
“She’s attractive.”
Rocksunder’s target turned out to be a dwarf. A blonde dwarf. Are you fucking kidding me? I was supposed to respect the old man, yet I was already imagining smacking him. That was disturbing.
I handed him the coins and sent him on his way. He walked straight to the dwarf, and they started chatting. The clink of coins made the dwarf stand up. She didn’t get caught? Nice.
Even as she headed upstairs, Rocksunder didn’t stop her. He just waited a moment, then followed. Oh. In this world, coins could buy anything. Fucking by force was fun, but buying it with money had its own charm.
Both ways, the stronger party was taking. When I was alone again, the lively noise around me felt hollow. Anyone coming?
Everyone else just stared. No one approached. I thought they would. My collar on my neck was both an honor and a brand. An honor for returning alive as Orihime’s pet. A brand that said touching me could get you killed. But there was one thing that cut through that fear—pure curiosity.
How did I even come back alive? That curiosity kept the female slaves from leaving me alone. Pick one and be done with it.
“Excuse me. Mind if I sit next to you?”
“Of course.”
One woman approached first. She looked sly for a slave, but she wasn’t ugly. I could’ve taken her if I wanted.
“I heard from Hoseon that you’re helping us.”
“…” My cock instantly deflated. I thought she’d come here because she wanted to taste me and was willing to risk it. Turns out it was something else.
“Hoseon said not to talk about the plan, but I think we can chat a little. You feel like the commander of the whole operation, don’t you?”
She took a long drink of beer. Kyah-. Far more relaxed than Rocksunder. It was like my hard-on was deflating even more.
“Human?”
“Yes, human. I used to be a knight.”
Here, survival rate was ninety-nine percent. This was a dangerous job, but dying wasn’t easy.
Male knights die left and right… I quickly pushed the thought aside.
“You’re human too, right?”
“Yes.”
“Wow, a human body…”
She scanned me up and down with wide eyes. That gaze made my lower half twitch without my permission.
“Surviving Orihime… That’s incredible.”
She sounded sincere. Physically or mentally, beating Orihime was an achievement no matter how you sliced it.
Ryan… thanks, brother. The second teacher, Ryan. Thanks to the Shinsung he left me, I could keep going.
“You must have come looking for something specific. Don’t beat around the bush.”
Ahaha, right. She smiled awkwardly, then got serious. “When do you plan to start the escape?”
“All of you are pretty obsessed, huh?”
“We’ve been waiting for this day.”
There were always people like that—those who hated being pushed around and suppressed more than anything. Slaves were exactly that kind of group.
Do they really want freedom? Not sure. It’ll be hard.
Floor 4 sat right below Floor 5. Floor 5 was where regressors reset their starting point. That was why Floor 4 was harsher than the others. You couldn’t survive on one room alone. You had to steal another room, and rivalry bred more rivalry. Random rooms got neutralized, and everyone fought to claim them. In that kind of mess, Orihime’s slave pen might actually be peaceful, just like Rocksunder said.
They’ll figure it out themselves. I didn’t care. Sodahui hadn’t been too close to the Slaves either. During the war between Christina’s Alliance and Orihime’s forces, the resistance that kept popping in and out felt like level one.
“I can’t give you an exact date.”
“Why?”
“Level one secret. I haven’t decided yet. There’s no way I’d announce the exact day now.”
Our scenarios were different. The Slaves’ main quest was escape. Mine was training with Yoo Dahui. “Oh, I see. Understood.”
She nodded seriously at the word “secret,” as if she’d already understood everything. Too invested? She was acting like she’d joined some secret society. Watching from the outside with no risk, I just felt it was ridiculous.
“Anyway.”
She was a former knight. Let’s fuck and think later. “What’s your name?”
“Rina.”
“Rina, got it.” I looked at her and asked, “How much would you charge?”
“Huh?”
Rina blinked, clearly surprised. “You’re not the type to sell your body.”
She frowned at me. She was genuinely angry. My eyes dropped to her left hand. A ring was on her ring finger.
“You have a boyfriend?”
“…”
Good. I was already looking for married or attached women. “How much, then?”
“…No need for coins.”
“Resistance support money too?”
Rina’s body jerked. She knew how much I’d given her, so she couldn’t just jump up.
“I could go tell Hoseon to hand over the support money right now.”
“Don’t—”
“So, how much for that pussy?”
I took out coins from my inventory. “How much should I pay?” She said a pretty slave costs ten thousand coins, right? Let’s multiply by five. “Fifty thousand.”
Rina’s eyes went wild. Not for the coins. Because of my stare—pure, hungry lust. “Why do you want to—”
“Shut up.”
“Please, pick another woman. Fifty thousand coins and I could spread my legs for several—”
“You want me to spread my legs for you today?”
“Even if it’s just because of Hoseon… please, just once?”
“Huh?”
“Hoseon?”
“My boyfriend… Hoseon…”
“I’ll give you another million if you help the resistance.”
“Ah…”
Rina let out a tragic sigh. She couldn’t hide her disgust. But her sigh slowly turned into a moan, and it didn’t take long.