Three Women

"I'm Kim Yoorim."

"I'm Joo Ahyeon!"

Since they had politely introduced themselves, even stating their names, I replied in kind.

"I'm Kang Minjun."

As a rule, kind words invite kind words in return.

"Ah, Mr. Kang Minjun. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you."

"Since meeting like this must be fate, would you like to join our party?"

Of course, words and actions were separate matters.

There was a gap between the courtesy people offered with their mouths and the self-interest they pursued through their actions. Survival in the Selection Process depended on how well one handled that discrepancy.

"I'm sorry. I have something else to take care of."

Ah... The women looked disappointed.

Kim Yoorim, who seemed the oldest of them, in her late twenties, soon nodded as if she understood.

"You're looking for the remains, aren't you?"

"Ah, yes, well."

It wasn't exactly that, but I had no better excuse, so I nodded.

"We've been looking for seven days too, but we haven't found them. Ms. Han Sohee? The woman with the hood pulled low came earlier than we did, and apparently she's been wandering around for eleven days now."

Huh, eleven days? Had she rested for just one day at the Shelter and come straight here?

While I was surprised by the topic Kim had brought up, Joo clutched her head and let out a sigh.

"Ugh. Has it really been that long already...? Yoorim unni, at this point, maybe the remains don't even exist? Or maybe someone else already found them all."

"Who knows...."

Despair rose on Kim Yoorim and Joo Ahyeon's faces. Joo lowered her head, crouched down, and sobbed.

"Sniff. I hate this. I just want to get out of this dark, horrible place. We have to stay here forever...."

There was no such thing as forever. If they failed to move on by the deadline, they would simply disappear along with the trial area.

Either way, the future was bleak, but if they learned even that truth... perhaps they might soon lose their minds.

'There are already some signs of it.'

Kim Yoorim, who had been talking to me, would intermittently stare blankly into space, then blink and come to her senses.

Beside her, Joo kept muttering to herself despite having someone right in front of her.

"Will I ever get out? I miss Mom. And my boyfriend.... Fuck, this sucks. Everything fucking sucks. Sniff."

'These two have lasted seven days, and the chaebol heiress has been here for eleven? They've been here a long time.'

Honestly, it was surprising. To last that long in this eerie, dark place... An ordinary level of mental strength wouldn't have been enough.

"Ms. Yoorim, what did you do while you were on Earth?"

"Pardon? Ah, my job. I was a soldier until recently. I left the military as a first lieutenant."

"...You were a soldier. But your way of speaking... Doesn't the military use the 'da-na-ka' speech style?"

I had never served in the military, but I'd heard that from the media or other people. Kim smiled and answered.

"That was abolished ages ago. Of course, people still use it, but... these days everyone speaks more casually."

She claimed, or something, that her face looked a little weathered because she'd been in the military. I was a little surprised that she was only a year older than Joo, who looked to be in her mid-twenties.

"What about you?"

"I was a badminton player. Not on the national team, though."

Kim Yoorim was a soldier.

Joo Ahyeon was an athlete.

'Those are certainly professions that could help someone endure this fucked-up place.'

If they'd been ordinary civilians, they would have whimpered at the slightest hardship, despaired over the world, blamed others for everything, and eventually met their deaths that way.

Most of the people I'd seen had been like that.

At least their earlier experience of physical hardship was helping them cling tightly to life.

"What about you, Mr. Minjun?"

"I was an ordinary student."

"Oh, a college student?"

I nodded.

Once we'd finished introducing ourselves, our gazes naturally turned toward the last person.

"……."

A chaebol heiress in her early twenties, appearing only a year or two younger than me.

Han Sohee silently turned her head away. Joo furrowed her brow as if the girl's behavior displeased her.

"Don't mind her. She barely spoke and kept her distance from the moment we met her."

Of course she did. If her identity were exposed in a place like this, there was no telling what kind of abuse she might suffer.

If the people traveling with her had been men, she could have been raped the instant her identity was discovered.

No, she would have been raped even if they weren't men.

After all, with such a noble, high-and-mighty heiress right there beside them in a place where they could die at any moment, how could they resist the impulse?

'With all that stress building up, they'd torment her in one way or another right away.'

In fact, I'd seen people hunt down those who had been successful on Earth, cut off all their limbs, and drag them around as sex slaves.

To them, it was a kind of triumph and pleasure.

At the same time, it was an outlet for relieving the stress that came from the fear of death.

'Fear and desire are separated by the thinnest of lines. Humans can never tear those two things apart.'

Most incidents and accidents that occurred during the Selection Process were caused by those two emotions.

In the end, unable to get an answer, Kim turned her head back. Or rather, she stopped abruptly halfway through turning it toward me.

"Right. Are you going to use those Specters? If not, would you mind if we took a little liberty before things reset?"

I shrugged and answered as I looked at the Specter corpses strewn across the floor.

"Go ahead."

"Wow, thank you."

No sooner had I answered than Kim and Joo sprang into action and dashed toward the Specter corpses.

I gave them away because I had no use for them, but as I wondered what they could possibly want with them, I caught sight of their haggard faces.

'Ah, so that's it.'

Sunken cheeks from hunger. Greedy eyes fixed on the corpses. Throats bobbing dramatically up and down.

Gulp, gulp.

Kim and Joo began scooping up and eating the Specter corpses with their hands.

From their perspective, they were excellent food that could satisfy both hunger and thirst.

'I had been a little curious how they'd survived that long. So that's how.'

The two women's hands and mouths grew busy. Seeing them ravenously devour a monster raw was grotesque at a glance.

It was madness itself. And someone else was just about to join that bestial scene.

Flinch.

At my obvious stare, Han Sohee faltered and gauged my reaction.

Various emotions filled her eyes.

The heir to South Korea's number-one corporation.

The crown princess of Cheongseong Group, born into an entirely different world and designated as a future leader who would guide the Fourth Industrial Age.

She trembled as she held what was in her hand, agonizing over it again and again.

Torn between hunger and dignity, she finally tried to put down what she had picked up, so I abruptly turned away and stepped aside toward the railing.

"Ngh."

Soon, along with the hesitant rustling behind me, I heard the faint signs of someone cautiously appeasing her hunger.

'Had she been abandoned?'

Abandoning or betraying someone was commonplace during trials. Even so, it was a little strange.

-You aren't very good at lying.

I couldn't say about the others, but that man from back then certainly hadn't seemed like the sort of person who would abandon his master.

'I don't have anything in particular to do until Lee Sera comes back. Maybe I should watch them for a while.'

As I watched the two women crouched over the monster corpses and devouring them greedily like ghouls, along with the chaebol heiress satisfying her hunger with a miserable look on her face.

I decided to observe this party for a while.

***

"Freshness is what matters. After a Specter dies, it gradually hardens and starts to smell after five minutes."

Kim, the former soldier, explained it that way. I already knew, but pretending not to, I ate some of the Specter's corpse beside her.

'It's like eating jelly with all the sweetness drained out.'

It melted smoothly in my mouth, but left a tingling sensation at the end. There was also a feeling of my head going slightly hazy, then clearing.

It meant that, although only a little, exposure to an unpleasant energy had reduced my mental strength.

"But do you really have nothing else to eat?"

Kim's eyes shone as she looked at my backpack. I tapped the canteen hanging from its side.

"As you can see, it's all water. I never imagined there wouldn't be anything to eat in a trial area."

"I know what you mean. We didn't either."

Her suspicious gaze lingered on my backpack for a moment, but since I was clearly eating Specter corpses, her doubts soon faded.

"But are you really not thinking of moving with us? The survivors should stick together."

"Haha, I don't know."

I turned my gaze from the former soldier subtly urging me to join and looked at the other two.

Joo was too preoccupied with eating to care, while Han Sohee had only begun timidly picking at the corpse after seeing me shovel it into my mouth, and was gradually increasing the amount she ate.

Flinch.

Of course, whenever her eyes met mine, she immediately stopped eating and hung her head.

'Is she embarrassed? I guess she's still holding together.'

Anyway, I tagged along with the party of three women and observed them.

They searched all over the chapel for [Bardo's Remains], but still hadn't found a single one.

It was only natural, since there were no remains in the middle level to begin with.

"But why don't you go over to the stage?"

"Ah, it's dangerous over there. Quite a few Specters roam around in the fog. Seventeen of our party members have died trying to search that area."

They simply didn't have the courage to search that area again with three people when they'd only barely survived it with a party of more than twenty.

In the end, without even knowing the deep level existed, the three women wandered around the middle level endlessly, repeatedly hunting Specters to fill their stomachs whenever they grew hungry.

I paid close attention to their hunting method.

"I'll take the left!"

"Then I'll take the middle!"

"……."

Specters normally traveled in groups, but these women only made their move when there were two or three of them.

The three women split up and each drew the attention of a Specter.

Being focused down was dangerous, but each could kill a single Specter before her mana and stamina ran dry.

'Pretty clever. Let's see, did they get those weapons from killing skeletons upstairs?'

<Item>

Name : Dagger

Grade : High

Description : Adds 5% Dark-element damage upon attack.

Holy and Dark attributes had somewhat unusual properties.

Holy was the only attribute capable of dealing bonus damage to Dark-attribute monsters, and in exchange, critical hits applied to all attacks.

Dark, on the other hand, could deal damage to all beings, even monsters with the same Dark attribute.

Its drawback was that the percentage value wasn't high.

"Die!"

「Gaaaaah…!」

Every time the women swung their weapons, the Specters let out agonized screams. Their movements were somewhat unsteady, but they were steadily dealing damage.

'Daggers. They have pretty good instincts. They're making up well for the disadvantages of being women.'

All women had low Strength stats by default.

Unless they spent their bonus stats on Strength, they would have trouble even wielding a weapon, let alone smashing through a skeleton's bones.

In that respect, choosing daggers was an excellent decision.

'If they'd faced a skeleton one-on-one with daggers, their limbs would have been hacked off in an instant, and they'd have crawled around frantically before their heads were cleanly severed.'

But at least when fighting Specters, they didn't have to worry about that.

Since Specters lacked physical attacks, they didn't need to think about how to defend; they simply had to cling to them recklessly and deal as much damage as possible by swinging their blades quickly.

Of course, the drawback was obvious too.

"Damn it, eleven more just appeared over there! Let's run!"

Since Specters moved through walls, it was common for another group to suddenly pop into the middle of an engagement and join the fight.

"To the entrance!"

Even when too many gathered, they had a strategy for that too. Those things couldn't leave the chapel through its doors.

That was why they'd been frantically running for the exit when I first encountered them.

I drew my sword.

"Let's just kill them."

"Ah."

The women, who had been fleeing, stopped upon belatedly noticing me.

"I'll draw their aggro, so each of you lure one away and deal with it."

"Are you sure?"

"I think we'll manage somehow."

I wanted to know.

I needed to find out how long I could hold out against those Specters now. Only then could I decide whether to descend to the deep level.

「Aah…!」

"Here I go."

I charged toward the group of Specters. Breaking through at speed, I slashed one of them with my sword.

Then I drew the remaining ten's attention and sidled little by little to the opposite side from the women.

"I'll take the left again!"

"I'll take the middle!"

"……."

The three women each chose a target and began attacking three Specters.

The three Specters that had chased after me turned their heads toward the culprits as the damage kept coming in.

「Kyaa…!」

I led the remaining Specters away and retreated a good distance.

'I can take hits from around ten of them.'

My mana pool seemed larger than I'd expected.

Then again, I was currently in a [Bond] state with Shin Seoyeon. Shin Seoyeon, who was S-rank like the Saintess yet had overwhelmingly greater Intelligence, had done the insane thing of putting all her bonus stats into Intelligence.

Thanks to that, my mana was high enough that even most mages couldn't compare.

'And I have Magic Resistance on top of that.'

Perhaps because of the snowfield accessories' effect, the enemy's magic attacks had little effect, and even while they poured curses on me, they didn't seriously hinder my movements.

'I think I've learned enough.'

After calmly letting them hit me for about a minute, I swung my sword in a flash and dealt with all the Specters.

The three women, who had come to help me after barely managing to defeat one Specter while drenched in sweat, stopped short. Seeing my skill with the sword, all three of them gaped.

"H-how did you kill them so quickly?"

"Unni, I'm more curious how you managed to endure it. How are you perfectly fine after being attacked by that many Specters?"

Impressed by how casually I'd fought ten monsters, Kim and Joo rushed over and peppered me with questions. Naturally, they'd nearly died just killing one each.

"I killed them quickly because of my weapon and Strength. I put all my points into Strength."

"Ah."

They wore understanding expressions. Then Joo cut in again.

"But then your Vitality and Intelligence must be low, so how did you last? That makes no sense. It felt like almost a minute passed."

After hearing Joo, Kim joined in with the same puzzled question.

"What's the trick? At a glance, you don't seem very affected by the curses either."

"It's not really a trick..."

"Then what is it?"

Seeing the women's greedy looks and goodwill, I thought for a moment before answering.

"Actually, it's because of this."

I showed them the ring on my finger.

"What's that?"

Three pairs of eyes converged on it.

"It's a snowfield accessory, an item that raises Magic Resistance. Wearing it reduces the damage I take and lessens the effects of curses, including the fog's curse."

"!!"

The women's eyes widened.

Their faces showed different kinds of astonishment.

It made sense. Some people were fighting for their lives and working themselves raw because of that damned curse, while others could simply equip an item and barely feel its effects.

"Amazing...."

"That's awesome."

The women exclaimed in admiration. Yet only one of them wore a complicated expression.

It was Han Sohee, who, like me, had [Fang of the Snowfield] hanging from one ear.

"Is it effective?"

"By feel, I'd say each one reduces damage and curse effects by around 10%."

"Wow!"

Kim and Joo's eyes sparkled.

"Do you happen to have any spares?"

"Yes. I have plenty of spares. However..."

As I let my voice trail off, the women nodded as if they understood what I was getting at.

"What would you like in return?"

I considered what to ask for.

But they had nothing. One weapon apiece. They even discarded the Specter's Soulstones as they traveled, apparently thinking them a hindrance to movement.

The one thing they had was this:

They had survived for over seven days in [Lair of Evil Spirits], the most brutally difficult area of the first trial.

'That was actually enough.'

As useful contacts, that was. I wasn't sure about making them party members, but simply being on good terms—someone I could greet cheerfully whenever our paths crossed—would be enough.

So my proposal was simple. I tapped my dick a few times and said,

"I'll give you one for every time you get me off."

Nothing forges a bond in the Selection Process like sex.