Snake Venom Ch 5

Chapter 5

As long, pale fingers moved without finesse, the friction caused the member to slowly swell. The tip peeked out and disappeared again between the hastily moving fingers, but the owner bit his lip in frustration. He couldn’t quite get aroused with forced stimulation, hounded by anxiety and unease.

His face, tinged with a faint flush, twisted occasionally, and his clumsy hand movements continued mechanically. As he struggled, Shin Junseong muttered while watching the screen.

“Is he acting? I almost want to touch it for him.”

The statement wasn’t even an exaggeration—he was acting as if it were his first time masturbating. RatPuppy kept switching his gaze between the exit and his lower body, alternating between stroking and squeezing. Somehow, the feeling of climax seemed to be approaching. RatPuppy flinched for a moment and bowed his head low. His movements became hurried, jerking his hips up as the legs planted on the floor trembled and began to fold inward.

As the tip grew wet, his previously hesitant movements became stickier. Though still awkward, there was something erotically suggestive about the act. Biting his lower lip relentlessly and panting quietly, the chat window erupted once again. In a channel where sadistic sex made up more than half the content, even a simple act of masturbation had caused a commotion.

Unaware of the attention, RatPuppy fumbled for a cloth and wrapped it around his member. Hunching his shoulders, he shook violently. As he desperately suppressed the impending climax, the man’s gaze landed on him.

“……”

It was an unreadable expression. Just as the silent man’s tongue faintly grazed his lower lip, his once-steady gaze melted into a subtle frown.

“Such a slut.”

The mumbled words went unheard by anyone.

In contrast, Shin Junseong, desperate to catch even a thread of moaning, frantically turned up the volume.

“Fuck! This is the max!”

Meanwhile, RatPuppy wiped off his spilled semen with the remaining piece of cloth and the wall. His face wasn’t clearly visible, hidden under a curtain of hair and bowed head. With a deep sigh, he resumed running down the corridor.

The strategy had worked. While the beastmen fought among themselves, lured by the scent of his semen, ten minutes had already passed. RatPuppy had won again.

As the game-ending alert sounded, Shin Junseong held his head in both hands and exclaimed.

“Wow, he actually jacked off!”

He couldn’t calm his excitement. Jumping to his feet, he shouted, “And he’s fucking terrible at it!” Behind him, the man took Shin Junseong’s tablet.

“Mr. Shin Junseong.”

“What’s with the sudden formality? You’re scaring me.”

Smiling, the man pointed to something in the video.

“I want to fuck this one.”

Narrowing his brows, Shin Junseong looked at the screen. The man was pointing at a massive brute who was still attacking his opponent even after the game had ended. It wasn’t enough to pummel them with his fists—he bit their neck and swallowed the flesh. He was a carnivorous beastman. Shin Junseong glanced back and forth between the man and the video and said,

“You have a surprisingly savage taste for someone so picky.”

As the wind blew, trees rubbed against each other, creating a refreshing hum. At a park basking in the setting sun, there was only an old woman and the young Lee Yeonwoo. Yeonwoo hesitantly approached the woman in a wheelchair who was gazing at the sky.

‘Um… Grandma.’

Her eyes widened slowly when she saw him. Her sickly face brightened, but only for a moment. Her withered, ashen features mouthed silently,

‘No… that’s not him.’

She murmured blankly and looked back up at the sky. As always, her dry disappointment left a small hole in Yeonwoo’s heart.

Suddenly, Yeonwoo was no longer a child, but a young man. He held an urn in his arms, facing his grandmother’s framed funeral photo. Unable to look at her smiling face, he lowered his gaze. At that moment, a voice slipped into his ear.

‘No need to check. You look too much like him.’

Turning toward the voice, the black dome in the photo his grandmother always carried around began to writhe, and a man who looked exactly like Yeonwoo emerged, smiling feebly and rolling his eyes.

‘You don’t drink or smoke, do you?’

A hand rose and waved something—an eternal debt contract.

Before resentment or longing could surface, even the faintest hope was trampled. As darkness descended, the sound of heavy shoes echoed. Park, the boss, appeared with a smirk, blowing out a thick cloud of smoke.

‘Hey, pretty.’

At the same time, a high-pitched ringing filled his ears. Yeonwoo was now running through a dark corridor. Unidentifiable breathing, cursing, and sticky moans twisted inside his head. He shook his head, trying to cast out the noise. Not knowing what was chasing him, he kept running and running.

He had to escape.

He crashed into invisible walls and tripped countless times, but he couldn’t stop.

His breath rose to his throat, limbs creaking like he was drowning. The growling and ravenous snarling behind him seemed to claw at his nape. Then, suddenly, someone grabbed his forearm.

A beast with vicious teeth loomed just in front of Yeonwoo’s face. He recoiled and jerked his arm free.

If caught, he would die.

His bones would be crushed, his skin torn, and he would perish in excruciating pain. Staggering from the overwhelming force, dozens of hands reached for him. Each was smeared in blood and filth, all reeking of rot. The nausea was unbearable.

Scrrkk—the sound of something sharp scraping his nape.

As Yeonwoo convulsed, his mind flooded with absolute denial. No. I want out. The truth was, he just wanted to let everything go. All the emotions he had fought to suppress every night exploded. Behind him, the boss cackled.

As Yeonwoo thrashed, he was sucked into a pitch-black void. Falling endlessly, black sludge clung to his body. When the bizarre pain, like chains wrapped around each hair on his body, reached his throat, a small whimper escaped.

“Hhkk…!”

Bloodshot veins burst in Yeonwoo’s widened eyes. Tears—or maybe cold sweat—trickled down his cheeks. Even then, he clenched his jaw tightly to avoid making a sound.

He saw his clasped hands before him. He had been gripping them so tightly in his sleep that nail marks were etched across the back of his hands.

Waking up from a nightmare like this had become frequent.

Yeonwoo barely managed to move his frozen body and stared up at the ceiling. He took deep breaths and tried to release the tension in his muscles, but the sharpened nerves refused to calm down. And more than anything… Yeonwoo glared at the dim ceiling light until his eyes welled with tears.

“……”

It felt like he’d reached his limit in rejecting the darkness.

How much longer could he endure? The nightly chase with death showed no signs of ending. His hands and feet had long been blistered, and it had been ages since he’d had restful sleep in this cold cell with nothing but a thin blanket. To survive, he had sharpened his senses so much that they now cut into himself.

Rubbing his palms together for warmth, Yeonwoo placed them over his eyelids. But it wasn’t long before he opened his eyes again, gasping for air like someone who had been holding his breath too long.

“……”

He was utterly sick of the darkness.

From afar came the sound of a metal door opening. As the noise rang out, Yeonwoo, his body slackened as if his strings had been cut, turned toward the door. It was a loud, heavy clanging sound that came at set times—the only way to gauge time in this place where the sense of time was all but lost.

Next came the sound of a cart being pushed. Faint traces of food smells began to drift in. It was mealtime, which happened twice a day. A tray was shoved into Yeonwoo’s room at the far end of the corridor. Today’s dinner was two rice balls and a lump of some unidentifiable mash.

One rice ball was completely unsalted, and the other was so salty it was almost bitter. Yeonwoo thought he should have mixed them and scooped up the mash with a spoon. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be potato salad. It tasted better than the rice balls, so he scraped the bottom clean.

After inhaling his food as if it had vanished into thin air, Yeonwoo stared down at the spotless tray with forlorn eyes. Why did the portion feel so small today? His stomach, now fully awakened, sent intense signals of hunger.

To live like a human here, one had to give up hope. Everything cost many times more than outside, and it was all bought on credit. The more he longed for a normal, human life, the farther his release was pushed. As he stared at his frayed toothbrush bristles, Yeonwoo sighed.

Then came the sound of another metal door, echoing again down the corridor that was usually quiet. Simultaneously, a piercing scream rang out, making Yeonwoo flinch.

“No! Please, no! Please save me!”

The time between morning and afternoon was when dead participants were replaced. So whoever just arrived wasn’t a new contestant.