The Lodgings

The women spilled out remarks that could have been either complaints or exclamations of admiration.

"It's huge! The space is almost twice as big, isn't it?"

"…The bathroom is three times as big, too."

After looking around my lodgings, Shin Seoyeon shouted as though she were delirious with excitement, while Han Sohee, who had already snooped around the bathroom, responded with an envious expression.

The Saintess raised a finger.

"There's a balcony too!"

"Wow! One entire wall of Oppa's lodgings is glass!"

Lee Sera, who had followed the Saintess toward the balcony, ran over with her eyes sparkling.

It was night now, so unlike earlier, the scenery was shrouded in darkness, but the view beyond the enormous glass doors had an indescribable charm.

I could vaguely make out the tranquil lakeshore, the hillside sloping down toward it, and the short grass swaying gently in the breeze.

And when I looked up….

"Amazing."

Countless stars filled the night sky and looked down at us. The moonlight scattering its gentle radiance inspired nothing but admiration in those who gazed upon it.

Shin Seoyeon suddenly grabbed me by the collar.

"Black Dick! What the hell happened here? Explain it now! What did you do to make the lodgings change this much?!"

The others also looked at me as if they were curious and wanted me to tell them at once.

"I don't know. It just did it for me."

"Huh? Can't you give me a straight answer? I'm not in the mood to joke around! I'm completely worked up!"

It certainly looked that way to me. But I couldn't exactly tell them that I had received a free upgrade through my 'Resident privilege.'

So I gave them a vague explanation.

"Remember the weapon shop? Unlike you guys, I could buy different items there."

"Of course I remember. You said that was because of your ability."

"This seems to be an extension of that. It asked if I wanted to upgrade, so I said yes, and it did this."

Shin Seoyeon then tightened her grip on my collar and trembled before speaking in a low voice.

"…Fuck, I'm so jealous."

"Hmm, really?"

In truth, I had no particular fantasy about lodgings, so I wasn't especially moved.

In my first run… I had spent a long time living at the bottom and had no trustworthy companions, so I had never had anyone to invite over to my lodgings.

So eight pyeong had been plenty of space for me, someone who needed a place to rest mentally.

But as I listened to the others, I realized I could understand why they might be envious.

"Amazing, Oppa. Your lodgings are amazing. There's even space to lie down on the floor. My lodgings have a sofa and a tea table, so I can't even roll around like this."

"Four people could lie down and sleep comfortably on the floor here."

Lee Sera rolled around on the empty floor while Han Sohee measured its size from one side and nodded.

"Mm! The night air is lovely! It would be perfect with a cup of tea!"

"Tea, my ass! You need alcohol in a place like this, sis!"

The Saintess and Shin Seoyeon had already gone out onto the balcony, enjoying the air outside and joking about how they needed alcohol.

After enjoying the outdoor breeze to her heart's content, Shin Seoyeon suddenly turned toward me.

"Black Dick!"

"Yeah, no."

"Let me live here!"

"Yeah, so I said no."

Even if the place was spacious, it wasn't large enough to live with other people. There was only one bed, for starters.

"Come on, Minjun~."

But Shin Seoyeon clung to me and began acting coy.

Lee Sera, who had been rolling around on the floor, saw this, widened her eyes, sprang to her feet, and latched onto me in the same way.

"Oppa, Sera wants to live here too."

The two women whined together.

"Yeah, no."

"Why not?"

"Don't I need some time to myself too?"

"Take it in the bathroom. I'll pretend not to notice even if you jerk off."

"……."

Then they started whining again.

"Come on, Minjun~!"

"Oppa~!"

The two of them certainly worked well together at times like this.

When I remained steadfastly silent, the Crimson Flame Witch and the Reaper looked at each other.

Had they decided that the two of them didn't have enough firepower?

"Big-breasted sis, don't you want to live here too?"

"What about you, Sohee?"

"Huh, me?" When the question came flying at her, the Saintess, who had been standing a step behind, spoke in a flustered voice.

Han Sohee glanced at me and let her voice trail off.

"…I don't know. I would like to stay somewhere like this too, but if the owner is uncomfortable…."

"Okay! You heard her, Minjun? Everyone wants to stay in these lodgings."

And so the ball Shin Seoyeon had tossed into the air finally landed successfully. When I sighed, she became certain her plan had worked, hurried over, and presented her proposal.

"If you let us live here, we'll do all the housework. Cleaning, laundry, everything. Okay?"

"……."

"Do you know how annoying it is to wash your clothes? The blood and musty smell we bring back from the trial zones don't come out no matter how many times we wash them."

That was true. It was hardly a minor inconvenience.

After returning from a trial zone, I could easily lose an entire day just maintaining my equipment.

But still.

"I don't have to go through either of those hassles."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Cleaning can be reset for money, and for laundry, what do you think this is?"

I tapped the piece of furniture standing against one side of the lodgings like a wardrobe.

"Oh, come to think of it, what is that? I was curious because I didn't have one in my lodgings."

"It looks exactly like a clothing-care machine."

The women showed interest when they saw the [Fresh Core]. I opened the machine and held out my hand to Shin Seoyeon.

"Give me that spellbook for a moment."

"Huh? Why?"

I took it, put it in the machine, and turned it on. With a brief whirring vibration, the device changed from a red light to a green one. When I opened it again, the [Necromancer's Book] inside had become as good as new.

"Huh, huh?"

Shin Seoyeon was stunned.

"Wh-what is this? Why is the book like new? The old-book smell is completely gone, and it smells nice now!"

The old, worn cover was clean and glossy as if it were new, while the pages inside displayed an ash-gray hue almost close to pure white instead of yellow.

The other women all stared wide-eyed when they saw it.

"See? With this here, I don't need to do laundry or maintain my equipment separately. So—"

I was speaking when I suddenly made a startled face. Shin Seoyeon had abruptly begun stripping off her clothes.

The Saintess and Han Sohee were also startled and hurried over to stop her.

"Huh? S-Seoyeon."

"What are you doing?"

"Ah, you two be quiet for a moment. Black Dick and I are childhood friends, so we've seen each other naked plenty of times."

She then stripped off her panties as well and began putting everything into the [Fresh Core]. As if I absolutely shouldn't see, Han Sohee hurried over and covered my eyes.

It was meaningless, considering I had already tasted not only the shape of Shin Seoyeon's pussy but even the hole inside it.

Whirr—

The machine ran, then stopped with a beep, and Shin Seoyeon flung open the door.

"Fuck, this is amazing. It's fucking amazing."

"…The clothes became new?"

Visible between the gaps in Han Sohee's fingers, Shin Seoyeon's clothes had vivid colors like they had just been purchased, and all the pilling was gone.

Seeing that, Han Sohee suddenly dragged me away and shoved me into the bathroom.

"……."

The sound of the [Fresh Core] running continued. When the bathroom door opened again, the women's faces held deeply satisfied smiles, and their eyes were filled with fervent desire.

"M-Mr. Minjun. I want to stay here too."

"Ahem. I shall try not to inconvenience you. And if you need to… take care of matters by yourself, I shall pretend not to notice."

"……."

In the end, all four women decided to move into my lodgings.

I pressed a hand to my forehead.

'How did things turn out like this….''

No, let's look on the bright side. I was living with four beautiful women who would turn heads anywhere.

I should think positively. It was just when I was thinking that—

"Huh? You haven't drunk this yet."

Shin Seoyeon opened the refrigerator in the lodgings and promptly took out a drink. Since the lodgings were modeled after a motel, the refrigerator contained two bottles of water and two canned drinks.

There were also condoms, feminine wash, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and so on on one side of the table… No, that wasn't important.

"Hey!"

"Huh? Why?"

Shin Seoyeon and Lee Sera had polished off one of the only two modern drinks, and she was handing the remaining one to the Saintess and Han Sohee to share.

"……."

I had originally planned to save them for as long as possible and drink them before their expiration date.

"…Never mind."

"How boring!"

"Ahh! It's cold and delicious!" Shin Seoyeon even made a sound like an old man. She was acting as if this were her own house.

Fortunately, Lee Sera, who had spent less time with me and still knew to watch my mood, quietly approached and pressed something into my hand.

"A housewarming gift."

[Strength Fragment]

"Hmm? Where did you get this?"

"I picked it up before we ate."

Ah, she must have picked it up when Han Sohee killed the seven men. Even amid all that chaos, she had done her part well.

"Good job."

"Yeah."

[The Strength stat has increased by 1.]

"Hey, what are you two whispering about?"

Lee Sera stepped away, and Shin Seoyeon strode toward me.

Her face wore a sly grin, and her eyes darted around.

Based on my long experience with her, that was the expression she made whenever she came up with what she thought was a brilliant idea and began dreaming of a rosy future.

"Black Dick, can we upgrade it even more from here?"

I had no idea what she was plotting this time, but I nodded.

"Well, yeah."

"What can we do?"

I activated the lodging upgrade window. The relevant options immediately lined up before my eyes.

[Indoor Expansion]

[Outdoor Expansion]

[Theme Change]

[Add Interior Furnishings]

"We can expand indoors and outdoors, and add other furnishings too…."

"You can make the space even bigger from here?"

Shin Seoyeon widened her eyes. The other three women were startled in turn.

"Then can we make the balcony bigger too?"

"Can we add rooms?"

"Oppa, I want a bed too."

The other women gathered in front of me, claiming it was interesting, their eyes sparkling. Their gazes were so full of longing that they looked like pets gazing up at an owner who had appeared with feed.

"Uh, um…. We can expand sideways or up and down, right? We can increase the floor area, or since this is the second floor, we can expand the space down to the first floor first…."

"Oh."

"Ms. Hana, did you say balcony? It seems that can be expanded further. Rooms can be added too, and beds as well, let's see…. Yes, we can put them in."

The women then leaned their faces close to mine, their eyes sparkling. They stared at me with gazes that clearly said, 'Do it! Do it!' As a result, my field of vision was filled with the faces of four beauties.

"Minjun~ You'll do it for us, right?"

The Crimson Flame Witch made her demand openly with words. I cut her off flatly as if it were out of the question.

"Sorry, but it costs a lot of money. No."

The women looked troubled as soon as money entered the conversation.

"I-I suppose it does require a lot of money."

The Saintess drooped and lowered her head dejectedly. Then she gazed at the balcony with an expression full of regret.

'Ah, I want to grant our adorable Saintess's request.'

But if I granted one request, the other three would rush at me demanding that I grant theirs too.

Unfortunately, I couldn't make an exception this time.

Spending money to remodel a residence…. From my perspective, after living comfortably in eight pyeong for ten years, there was no more wasteful use of money.

So I was about to ignore them when Shin Seoyeon spoke.

"Then how about we all pool our money and take care of it?"

"Pool our money?"

"It would be too much for Black Dick to handle alone, so the five of us can contribute. It's our home too, after all."

"Hmm. That is reasonable."

"…Leave me out."

When I tried to quietly slip away, Shin Seoyeon grabbed me and asked where I thought I was going. Then she abruptly pushed me toward the Saintess.

The Saintess caught that pass, pulled me into her arms, and looked at me with teary eyes.

'That Shin Seoyeon is quick on the uptake.'

How had she known I was weak to the Saintess?

When I turned my head, I saw the Crimson Flame Witch grinning slyly.

Ah, seeing her hateful behavior, I couldn't just let her have her way. So when I immediately tried to stand up, Shin Seoyeon seemed to sense my intentions, clicked her tongue, and raised both arms.

"Fine, Black Dick, I'll leave you out. Just stay there and listen. We'll pay among ourselves. Everyone agrees, right?"

The other women nodded.

"Indeed, if you have already proceeded with renovations to this extent, you must have spent a great deal of money. Further investment would be burdensome for my lord. Perhaps he even sold off a considerable amount of the items he farmed in the trial zone."

"That makes sense. Then let's pool our money."

"Yeah, good idea."

They then began discussing the upgrades they wanted among themselves. In short, each person would name one thing they wanted, pool their money, and carry out the upgrades one by one.

"How should we decide the order?"

"Let's settle it fairly with rock-paper-scissors."

The four women played rock-paper-scissors.

The final winner was Shin Seoyeon. Ah…. The Saintess, who had wanted an outdoor expansion, and Han Sohee, who had wanted a private room, looked disappointed.

Lee Sera looked happy with anything.

"Here, take it. You said 700 points, right?"

Shin Seoyeon gathered the money and handed it to me.

The reward for the first trial had been 200 points. To squander nearly 90 percent of that money on something like this…. Even though they had thoroughly looted the treasure vault, these four women's spending habits were deeply worrying.

'Still, it's not really my place to say anything.'

As Shin Seoyeon wanted, I added a furnishing in the empty space on one side of the lodgings, beside the [Fresh Core].

Shin Seoyeon had wanted a vending machine.

"Ohhh."

A gigantic vending machine took up an entire wall of the lodgings.

It contained not only drinks but also snacks and alcohol. It was a fairly large machine stocked with thirty different kinds of items in total.

"This is fucking awesome. It looks better than the one in a convenience store!"

"It's wonderful. There are so many things I want to try."

"Wow, Oppa. What's this?"

The area Lee Sera pointed to contained adult products as well.

"…They have things like that, kid."

I couldn't tell whether she had asked to tease me or because she genuinely didn't know, but it was still fascinating that the vending machine sold all sorts of things.

"But the prices are high."

Naturally, the vending machine wasn't free. The prices averaged around five points.

"We can earn more money! What's the problem?"

The Crimson Flame Witch hummed as she peered into the vending machine. Shin Seoyeon in my first run had been exactly the same. Whenever she got money, she spent it freely and demanded that people around her buy things for her.

'…But is she a little different from the Shin Seoyeon back then?'

The Crimson Flame Witch had spent so lavishly that even her former boyfriend, the No. 1-ranked player, had buckled under the strain, with her sucking his pockets dry. Yet for some reason, she didn't reach into my pockets today.

Rather, seeing how she kept me out of their spending, perhaps she really was somewhat different from the woman she had been in my first run.

"Come on! My treat! Let's really go all out tonight!"

"……."

Even so, she still had a tendency to spend money recklessly.

'She isn't going to change her personality overnight.'

Shin Seoyeon bought twelve bottles of alcohol, spending even the money she had received during the tutorial, and shouted.

"Everyone gather around! No one is allowed to sleep until we've finished all of this, so prepare yourselves!"

…Four hours later.

"I shall return to my lodgings now."

Han Sohee, saying that she had enjoyed the drinks, rose from her seat and straightened her clothes. I also stood and walked with her to the entrance.

"Why not sleep here?"

"No. It is cramped, so I would be imposing. More importantly, I want to sleep comfortably in my own shelter, at least."

I nodded. Well, if that was her reason, then fine.

"Then what time shall we meet tomorrow?"

"Since we've been drinking, let's meet at 13:00 in front of the lodgings."

"Very well."

I saw Han Sohee off to the front of the lodgings and confirmed that she safely entered her own lodgings.

When I returned, the Saintess and Lee Sera had claimed the bed and were sleeping soundly.

"Are you two all right?"

"Mmm. Mmm…."

They seemed completely drunk; even when I lightly slapped their cheeks, neither of them budged.

I covered them with blankets and approached the one person who was still drinking.

"……."

Countless empty bottles of alcohol were scattered around Shin Seoyeon. I sat beside her and asked a meaningless question.

"Are you going to drink more?"

"…Damn it."

Shin Seoyeon spat out a string of curses. It was, in fact, a perfectly natural reaction.

"Damn, damn, damn! I'm not drunk at all!"

It was because of [Primordial Fire].

Her body had undergone the equivalent of the Bone and Marrow Transformation from martial-arts novels. Not only was she highly resistant to poison and disease, but even if she drank liquor strong enough to floor anyone else, her body expelled it almost instantly, making it impossible for her to get drunk.

'Maybe there was a reason Shin Seoyeon spent money so freely in my first run.'

While everyone else relieved stress with alcohol, she couldn't do that.

She might have been better off if she had smoked like she did on Earth, but she had even quit that to maintain her image.

As for relieving stress through sex, she only had sex with her boyfriend a few times a month because her pride was hurt whenever she had to ask first.

Chris had naively believed her coy refusals every time, taking them at face value.

'So she must have relieved her stress through shopping. When I think about it, she really does live an exhausting life.'

I spoke to Shin Seoyeon.

"Hey, if you're done drinking, clean up."

"Huh? Can't I just pay to have it cleaned up?"

"Remember what you said earlier? If I let you live here, you'd do all the housework like a maid."

"Hey, that was…! And I'm not the only one!"

"The other two are passed out because you got them drunk. Clean up, unless you want to be kicked out."

Tsk, Shin Seoyeon rose from her seat and obediently began clearing away the bottles and snacks.

As recently as yesterday, we had been more or less equals, but now a superior-subordinate relationship had formed between us.

The same was true of the other women as well.

I was the one who fed them, and I was the one providing them with a place to rest.

'Who could have predicted that a lodging this incredible would be provided right in the middle of the Selection Process?'

At least as long as these lodgings existed, the women couldn't stand against me.

They couldn't leave, and the more they upgraded the lodgings to improve their quality of life, the more dependent on me they would become.

"Ah, damn it, how far is this bottle going to roll?"

I turned my gaze forward. A bottle that had escaped Shin Seoyeon's grasp rolled away, and she crawled on all fours after it to catch it.

I approached her, grabbed her hips, and pressed my erect cock against her buttocks.

"Eek."

Shin Seoyeon stopped while chasing the bottle and spoke.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"I was really going to avoid bothering you until you finished cleaning, but our maid keeps wiggling her pretty butt and seducing me, begging me to fuck her."

"…I wasn't doing that."

Rub, rub.

I climbed onto Shin Seoyeon as she lay facedown and rubbed my cock against her pussy, making her tremble and quiver her hips without resisting.

When I reached out and pulled her pants and panties down below her thighs, she finally realized what was happening, startled, and whipped around to look at me.

"Are you crazy? They're right beside us."

"So what? Thanks to you, they're all dead drunk."

"Th-that's true, but…."

Shin Seoyeon glanced anxiously toward the bed. I began lowering my pants.

"Besides, our Seoyeon has a debt to repay me, doesn't she?"

"Wh-what debt?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

When I took off my pants and underwear and tossed them aside, Shin Seoyeon saw my massive, swaying cock and made a helpless expression.

"Our Seoyeon has to grant me two wishes, right? I was thinking we could have some special fun tonight."

"Eek."

Shin Seoyeon looked at me with a flushed face and let out a soft moan.

It was as if she had a vague idea of what was about to happen.