256 – Nymphs and the Escapees of Hell #4
Bang-!
A powerful fist struck Jin Riyeon’s face.
As she flew about 10 meters, memories from long ago flashed back in her mind.
Seven years ago.
Jin Riyeon was a 25-year-old ordinary office worker.
To be precise, she was a kindergarten teacher.
But.
The kindergarten where she worked closed down within three months.
It was due to the low number of children.
Birth rate in the metropolitan area: 0.3.
The severe underbirth that plagued Korea.
Jin Riyeon went hungry and was driven onto the streets because she couldn’t pay her rent.
One day, having lost her home, she dreamed while sleeping in a public restroom.
It was a simple dream.
“Thrive.”
A revelation in a single sentence.
The dream struck Jin Riyeon’s mind like lightning.
Thrive.
To grow.
To expand.
“Increasing humanity… The rise in birth rates is the very salvation of the world…!”
The ‘Awakened Jin Riyeon’ thought that the increase in humanity was the truth, and everyone should become an ‘Enlightened One’ like herself.
That day, she became an unregistered Awakened.
An unprecedented awakening in adulthood.
Her growth speed was even more astonishingly fast.
In just two years after awakening, she reached the unofficial A Rank, which could be said to be abnormal.
Her followers increased day by day, forming a sect, and within two years, they gained substantial power.
However, among her followers were crows mixed in.
A woman wearing a beak mask rushed in and subdued Jin Riyeon, who then had to be imprisoned for five long years without even sunlight.
But—.
Through a certain incident, Jin Riyeon was released and seized the opportunity to leap once more.
Swish-.
Rising from her place, Jin Riyeon wiped the blood flowing down her mouth and said,
“This time, I will make humans breed and thrive. I will cover this blue planet with the flesh tones of humanity. Virgin Lee Jin-A, you must become the cornerstone for that.”
Crumple-.
Lee Jin-A frowned overtly at Jin Riyeon’s words.
“A cornerstone?”
“If I capture you, I’ll also capture that man next to you and make you bear a minimum of five children together. No, you seem like a strong woman, so if you try hard enough, even ten should be enough.”
“…You say if I get captured, I’ll be made to have a child with Haildo? What kind of crazy talk is that? What on earth do you plan to do?”
“Usually, prophets are called crazy. But looking closely, that man possesses very excellent life energy. You alone cannot handle it… at least five women should be tied to him…”
The power Jin Riyeon wielded was “Organisms.”
It could be described as life itself.
Jin Riyeon could feel great vitality from the man Haildo, and it had the potential to expand endlessly.
“Five… No, six…? No, more than that…!? What on earth is the expansion potential this man possesses…!”
Crackle-!
Jin Riyeon felt the truth swirling in her mind like when she received a revelation in that old dream.
Life expansion.
Expansion.
The endless possibility of creation exists within that man—,
As that thought crossed Jin Riyeon’s mind, she could no longer contain herself.
“If that man is here, the Truth Mandala will be able to revive like before! No, even better than before…! It could completely overturn the world…!”
Her body felt hot with excitement.
Full of various emotions, Jin Riyeon licked her drying lips and writhed like a tentacle.
But soon a question arose.
It was because she realized the direction of her excitement was not towards the man but towards Lee Jin-A. Every cell in Jin Riyeon was showing interest in the woman, Lee Jin-A, not the man Haildo.
“What, what is this…!?”
“You licked my cheek with that tentacle? From the looks of it, that tentacle is like your tongue. Of course, you wouldn’t be able to escape my allure. Having consumed my bodily fluids, there’s no way you can defeat me now.”
Allure.
Jin Riyeon had heard for the first time that such a power existed.
“To make someone fall in love as if under hypnosis…? Isn’t that also the ability I’ve been searching for in my dreams…!?”
If Lee Jin-A had that ability, increasing the population would be an easy task.
Two would become four, four would become eight, eight would become sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one hundred twenty-eight, two hundred fifty-six—.
It would grow exponentially and soon dye this planet with flesh tones.
However, that ability was stronger than Jin Riyeon had imagined.
Every time Jin Riyeon looked at Lee Jin-A, her heart raced, her face burned, and her legs trembled.
This sensation was fatal to Jin Riyeon.
“I can’t believe I’m falling in love with a woman…! A woman and a woman… can’t give birth to anything…! It’s merely a negative relationship that just decreases instead of increasing…!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll throw you back into prison in no time!”
Pavatz-!
Lee Jin-A, having quickly jumped in and closed the distance, dove at Jin Riyeon and punched her in the stomach.
Puff-!
“Oogek!”
Bada-bat-.
A body blow was followed by consecutive left and right straights.
“Core Combination!”
“Guaak!”
Jin Riyeon fell without much resistance at all.
It was a dizzying punch.
The bones resonated with pain.
“T-This is! I’ll make it slippery for you!!!!”
Pat-!
Jin Riyeon struck the ground with her palm.
The organisms scattered on the floor coiled around Lee Jin-A’s arms and legs in a tentacle form.
“A woman knows a woman’s body well! I’ll make you faint in less than five seconds!”
Wriggle-wriggle-.
Jin Riyeon had been single until the age of 25.
She was confident that no one understood a woman’s body better than she did.
However, the tentacles wrapping around Lee Jin-A’s body became a critical weakness for Jin Riyeon.
“Ah…! W-Why…!? Eeek…!”
Every time the sensitive tentacles touched Lee Jin-A’s surface, Jin Riyeon’s body convulsed with unbearable tingles and warmth.
In the end, the binding loosened, and Lee Jin-A dove right into Jin Riyeon, applying a triangle choke.
“Pseudo woman, you cannot defeat me with your ability.”
“Hiiiee…!”
Jin Riyeon’s consciousness was slowly fading along with the tightening grip.
If she fell like this, she would sink back into endless darkness.
Thinking she had to do something, as she prepared her ‘trump card,’ Lee Jin-A whispered very quietly.
“And, even if you don’t use any tricks, eventually, I will also give birth. About seven or so. I know that having a large family is best. A noisy dinner table is always much better.”
“H-hah…!”
# # #
Among the Awakened, there existed an element of compatibility.
Fire attribute users are weak against water attribute users, mentalists are strong at long range, but body enhancers are strong at close range—this sort of thing.
Of course, S-rankers generally have ways to counter such elemental relationships, but what I want to say is that even if someone is more skilled than me, if weaknesses and compatibilities are skillfully targeted, one can win.
Compatibility is that important.
In that sense, the compatibility between Lee Jin-A and Jin Riyeon clearly favored Lee Jin-A.
Lee Jin-A was a very powerful mentalist who could allure her opponents in various ways, whereas Jin Riyeon was an organism user who utilized her tentacles like her tongue.
Jin Riyeon’s ability required unconditional contact, thus putting her at an extreme disadvantage in compatibility against Lee Jin-A, whose alluring ability became even stronger upon contact.
When Lee Jin-A said, “I’ll handle that guy by myself, so you stay out of it,” it wasn’t just boastful, it was an effective strategy.
Had I intervened, I would have fallen into Lee Jin-A’s allure and caused chaos in reverse.
“Wow. Lee Jin-A is incredible, huh? She didn’t rank A just for show. Her combinations were impressive too! She must have talent in martial arts.”
As I commanded the honey ant knights and rushed through to the 51st floor, I thought, “Can the world be this easy?”
But it seemed there was always someone above the ones who jump, as Lee Jin-A won without a scratch against the A-ranker irregular known as a national-level disaster.
Strong abilities and talents were truly enviable.
Indeed, she was one of the promising candidates of the third generation of Awakened alongside Cha Yura and Han Ju-Ryun.
“But what did she say at the end? Jin Riyeon stopped resisting and collapsed as if giving up.”
Lee Jin-A’s securing choke.
At that moment, Jin Riyeon resisted and looked as if she were trying to use some ‘trump card.’
But when Lee Jin-A whispered something in Jin Riyeon’s ear, Jin Riyeon seemed to surrender as if she had found enlightenment under a Bodhi tree.
When I asked, Lee Jin-A, brushing off the slime on her body, said,
“It’s a secret. Ugh, it’s sticky. I want to wash up.”
I see.
Did she perhaps use “Core’s Whistle” or something?
Everyone should have at least one secret technique as a joker card among the Awakened, so I decided not to ask further.
“Then, in this moment, shall we beat up this slippery octopus woman…!”
“Of course…! It’s truly a tentacle party…! Just like the Pirates of the Caribbean…!”
“This Coris finds great joy in beating up villains…!”
Dududududududududududududud-.
The Nymphs’ Trinity Punch exploded onto the unconscious Jin Riyeon.
It was a punch both merciless and righteous, and not a single villain could withstand the Nymphs’ punches.
That was the truth of the world.
With that feeling, we safely subdued Jin Riyeon, one of the level zero monsters known as the Seer.
When she wakes up later, I’ll have to ask why this happened.
Now, where are the other two monsters?
I walked over the muddy ground and examined the interior of the 51st floor further.
And I was surprised.
“Hey, Kang Cheol-Min, what are you doing?”
“I’m locked up.”
I saw Kang Cheol-Min sitting quietly in his place, all restraints removed.
There were no iron bars, no reinforced acrylic.
No handcuffs, no mouth guards, and no injection tubes in his neck, yet he was sitting quietly without attempting to escape!
“Kang Cheol-Min, aren’t you going to escape?”
“I’m a prisoner. It’s my role to be locked up. Why would I escape?”
That was indeed the right thing to say.
It was correct, but he seemed like a crazy person whose mind was a bit off.
In such a situation, he just sat still without escaping.
“Of course, the other guy has escaped. I didn’t even have a moment to stop him. That’s just who he is.”
