The soft, warm sensation of her ass cheeks enveloping his cock brought Li Ke an incredible sense of comfort. What made it even better was the way the female merchant — who had shown no will of her own until now — gradually began to react. Her breathing grew heavier and more ragged, soft sighs escaping her lips as her body started responding instinctively to his movements.
Although her skin was slightly rougher than Erina's, it was still incredibly soft and plush. Her mature feminine scent was much stronger and more intoxicating than the young girl's. This slightly meaty, voluptuous body felt deeply satisfying to hold — the kind of fullness that only came with age and experience.
It was a different kind of satisfaction compared to Erina. No matter how bountiful Erina was, she was still just a girl. The woman before him was clearly a mature beauty in her late twenties or early thirties.
At first, Li Ke simply held onto her waist — which was still relatively slender but carried noticeably more soft flesh than Erina's. However, as the friction between his throbbing cock and her ass became more difficult and desperate, he needed more stimulation.
Her ass was much larger and far more perky than Erina's — the kind of ripe, juicy rear that only a fully grown woman possessed. In this harsh world, even normal women sometimes sought small primitive pleasures to relieve their stress.
But it was obvious this beautiful merchant had never done anything like this before. When Li Ke curiously slid a finger between her thighs to check, he felt a slight resistance at her entrance — clear proof of her untouched state.
He needed more.
His adventurous hand continued its journey forward, soon discovering a pair of large, towering hills. They were full and heavy, with deep, mysterious valleys between them. At the peak of each snowy mountain sat two cute, stiff strawberries. Li Ke's hands explored them with growing hunger — first gently, then more roughly, squeezing, kneading, and tugging at the sensitive pink nipples.
He pinched and rolled them between his fingers, but no matter how much he played with them, he couldn't taste any strawberry flavor. What a shame… such fertile soil, yet no fruit to harvest.
Every time his fingers slipped off due to their weight and slickness, he felt an unbearable sense of loss.
Since he couldn't enjoy the strawberries, the brave gourmet shifted his attention lower. He wanted seafood instead.
His bold hand slid down past a dark triangular patch, arriving at a moist, muddy marshland. Wet seaweed seemed to cling to the shore, and right in the center stood a proud, swollen pearl clam. There really was fresh seafood here!
To properly enjoy the clam meat, he first needed to handle the pearl. His skilled fingers began rubbing and rolling the sensitive little nub with practiced movements, trying to coax it out of its shell.
By this point, his original innocent exploration had completely changed flavor. His cock, still trapped between her soft ass cheeks, throbbed excitedly in approval — Good job. Keep going!
Thanks to his diligent work on her clit, the once dry and tight cave gradually became wetter and more welcoming. The passageway grew slick and slippery, making his thrusting between her ass cheeks much smoother and more pleasurable.
Driven by the need for even stronger stimulation, Li Ke pressed his cock harder against her. In his lustful haze, the head of his cock suddenly found her soaked entrance and pushed forward.
With one smooth, powerful thrust, he broke through her resistance and buried himself deep inside her tight, virgin pussy.
Only then did Li Ke realize what he had done.
"Ah… shit… this…"
Li Ke was certain he really hadn't intended to enter her at first. He had genuinely planned to just rub between her ass cheeks. But the moment the thick, slippery head of his cock pressed against her soaked entrance, it slid inside far too easily.
The sensation was intoxicating.
Her pussy was incredibly thick and meaty — hot, soft, and unbelievably plush. Even though the female merchant's face still wore that same gentle, unchanging smile, her body was reacting wildly. Li Ke could feel her inner walls greedily squeezing and rippling around his cock, as if trying to milk him dry. Deep inside her, another tight ring seemed to exist — constantly contracting and sucking on the head of his cock with every thrust.
"Sorry, but… I can't stop now…"
There was no turning back. Li Ke took a deep breath and surrendered to the pleasure, gripping her wide, soft hips as he began thrusting deeper into her greedy cunt.
The female merchant remained completely silent, but her body was shamelessly honest — almost too honest. Her plump ass pushed back against him instinctively with every thrust, and her inner walls pulsed and clenched rhythmically around his thick shaft.
"My god…"
Li Ke couldn't hold back any longer. He wrapped his arms around her voluptuous body, hugging her tightly from behind as he fucked her harder. After a few intense minutes, he groaned deeply and came hard, flooding her womb with thick, hot spurts of cum.
Even after he finished, the merchant's body stayed perfectly still, quietly accepting every drop he gave her without any resistance.
Li Ke leaned against the counter, breathing heavily. He looked down and saw thick white cum slowly dripping down her thighs. To his shock, his cock was already rock-hard again. The realization startled him. Even with Erina, he usually needed time — kissing, foreplay, teasing — before he could go again. But right now, he felt like he was back in his teenage years, full of endless stamina.
Except back then, he had no woman.
Now, he had this warm, soft, greedy body right in front of him.
He reached down with his fingers, trying to scoop out some of the cum he had just pumped into her. However, the moment his fingers touched her entrance, her pussy clamped down hard with powerful suction, refusing to let anything escape. The tight, fleshy tunnel sucked on his fingers like a hungry mouth.
"Fuck… what kind of pussy is this?" Li Ke cursed under his breath. "This is the kind of shit that only happens in novels…"
Unable to resist the maddening suction, he pushed his cock back inside her. The moment he entered, he was once again enveloped by that incredible "carnivorous flower" sensation — hot, wet, fleshy walls wrapping around him from every direction, sucking and massaging his length greedily.
This time, when the female merchant's body reached its limit and began convulsing violently around him, Li Ke tried to pull out so he could watch his cum flow out of her. But her pussy refused to let him go. A powerful vacuum gripped his cock, trying to keep him buried deep inside.
With a low, suppressed growl, Li Ke pressed down hard on her lower belly. Only then was he finally able to pull out. Thick, creamy cum immediately gushed out of her stretched hole, dripping heavily down her thighs and onto the floor.
"This is just…"
Li Ke was at a loss for words. He grabbed a bottle of water, wanting to clean her up, but because he couldn't change her posture, it was nearly impossible. The idea of shoving the bottle neck directly into her pussy felt too cruel and perverted, so he gave up and simply slapped her plump ass in frustration.
"This woman is really…"
With a helpless sigh, he quickly cleaned her as best as he could and pulled her clothes back on. Just as he was about to leave, a slight sense of guilt made him open her shop menu and buy a random bottle of honey.
"Thank you for your patronage," the female merchant said calmly, following the world's rules.
Li Ke froze.
The wet stains on her thighs and the floor beneath her had completely disappeared.
"......"
Li Ke fell silent for a moment. Stepping over the counter once more, he expertly unfastened the female merchant's shorts and slid his hand back into the place he had just penetrated.
It was spotlessly clean.
Everything—both his own traces and her own fluids—had completely vanished. There was only a soft, damp, and tightly squeezing sensation.
It was as if he had never been there at all.
In fact, aside from her slightly disheveled clothes, not a single strand of her pubic hair had even been displaced.
"Well, I guess that counts as a useful side effect... Huh, whatever."
Li Ke didn't even know how to begin analyzing the situational logistics, but the reality was that it had made things incredibly convenient for him—at the very least, he didn't have to stress over clean-up parameters anymore.
Still, he carefully pressed down on the unconscious NPC's lower abdomen. After verifying that everything was clear, he finally let out a clean sigh of relief.
"As long as she doesn't end up pregnant, it's fine. Then again, the system rules probably don't even support that mechanic."
To be perfectly honest, Li Ke felt like his moral baseline had shifted downward a fraction because of his recent actions. But under these survival conditions, he really wasn't in a position to overthink his choices. Hastily pulling the Trader's clothing back over her frame to make her decent, he spun on his heel and bolted toward his designated quest coordinates.
He had already blown through nearly an hour dealing with his trouser emergency. He couldn't afford to waste another second!
Moving at a brisk, energetic run, Li Ke unslung his pack and dumped every scrap of raw iron ore he had gathered earlier into the Trader's active Forge, queuing them up to refine into solid iron ingots.
In a survival crafting matrix, refined iron was the fundamental bedrock for almost every advanced tool, making it an absolute non-negotiable priority.
Arriving at the quest marker, he was greeted by the familiar, hovering yellow exclamation mark. The moment Li Ke mentally confirmed the activation prompt, a massive, multi-story residential building slammed into existence directly before his eyes. He didn't waste time looking for an entrance; he shattered a window pane to execute a clean breach, systematically dropping the four or five sleepers nesting inside the main foyer. Following the localized quest tracker, he quickly located the target courier satchel.
The moment the courier bag was secured into his active inventory slots, Li Ke whipped out his newly acquired Wrench and began aggressively dismantling every piece of household machinery in sight.
Doorknobs, television sets, desktop fans—Li Ke systematically pulled them apart to harvest mechanical parts, electronic components, and loose scrap plastics.
When it came to furniture, breaking down the bed frames yielded high-tier short iron pipes, which caused him to curse under his breath yet again at how intentionally grueling this game world's resource scarcity was. After thoroughly stripping the instance of every valuable scrap component, Li Ke sprinted back to the Trader's compound, dumping his fresh haul of scrap iron, lead, and brass into the crucible to keep the smelting queue running before finalizing the contract at the counter.
The quest payout rewarded him with another invaluable Skill Point, but the random item reward tier was somewhat underwhelming: a basic Helmet Light Mod and an Iron Pickaxe.
Since he already possessed the schematic knowledge to manually craft an iron pickaxe himself, he simply accepted the tool to save on raw materials. He didn't linger or risk allocating his points just yet; accepting the next contract from her board, he bolted right back out the door.
The operational flow of the third quest was practically identical to the first two, presenting zero tactical hazards. Aside from the final food-fetching contract—which required him to excavate a hidden supply cache out in the open wilderness, subsequently triggering a small wave of hostile infected spawns upon opening the storage box—the contracts were exceptionally straightforward and standard fare.
However, the strategic payoffs were immense. Li Ke noted a critical mechanical loophole: unlike other fetch contracts, this specific food-supply quest flagged itself as complete the moment the cache was opened, meaning the system didn't actually require him to surrender the harvested food to the Trader.
It took Li Ke a mere hour to steamroll through the remaining two contracts. By the time he walked back into the shop, the female merchant's active job queue had been completely wiped clean.
Reviewing his final two contract rewards—an Iron Axe and a bundle of 20 Molotov Cocktails—Li Ke nodded with immense satisfaction.
The system had paired the iron axe with an Insulation Liner Mod, which he bypassed without a single shred of hesitation. But when it came to the Molotovs, the alternative choice was a bundle of 100 9mm rounds. Li Ke debated the logistics for a brief moment before ultimately locking in the Molotov Cocktails.
While ammunition was still a massive bottleneck for his arsenal, he was far more desperate for high-tier area-of-effect crowd control measures to deal with massive, stampeding hordes.
Gazing down at his newly accumulated pool of three unallocated Skill Points, Li Ke tightly clenched his fist. He had already experienced the massive physical benefits of elevating his Fortitude attribute. Under normal parameters, executing this many consecutive manual clearing runs would have taken him at least two to three hours, leaving his body completely broken. Yet right now, he was still bursting with boundless energy, feeling as though he hadn't even broken a sweat.
In fact, if the Trader's daily job board hadn't run completely dry, he would have gladly pushed through another entire flight of contracts.
So... should I invest in raw Strength next, or keep stacking points into Fortitude?
Li Ke calculated his options for a brief moment before ultimately deciding to test the waters by investing a single point into Strength first.
The moment the Skill Point slotted into the Strength matrix, that familiar, intoxicating wave of pure physical comfort washed through his body yet again. Every muscle group felt as though it were being dynamically nourished and reinforced from within—and he knew it wasn't a biological illusion.
However, once the transformation finalized, Li Ke noted that it lacked the overwhelming, full-body euphoria he had experienced when maxing out his Fortitude. Instead, the most immediate physical feedback was that the heavy tactical backpack strapped to his shoulders suddenly felt as light as a feather.
There's no way the upgrade stops at simple encumbrance modifications.
Harboring a healthy amount of suspicion, Li Ke pulled his newly acquired iron axe from his hotbar. Hefteing the weight in his palm, he estimated that the tool felt more than twice as light as it had before. Executing a few experimental swings into the open air, he discovered that he needed to exert only half of his previous physical output to drive the axe at maximum velocity.
In other words, his metabolic stamina consumption rate during heavy physical actions had been cut drastically in half.
"As expected... this system is anything but simple."
Li Ke smiled as he placed the axe back into his backpack. This should be enough for now. No matter how strong he became, he still couldn't compare to the endless hordes of zombies. The most important thing right now was building proper defensive structures. With the system tools, raw strength wasn't as crucial as durability and stamina.
Just as he was about to allocate his attribute points, he remembered the awkward situation from earlier. He turned toward the female merchant and gave her an embarrassed smile. Without saying anything, he locked the door once again and blocked the windows with his coat.
Then, he walked over to her and pulled down her denim shorts along with her panties, exposing her plump lower body.
But this time, instead of going behind her, Li Ke stood in front of the seated woman, bending his waist awkwardly. He had wanted to try this for a long time, but he couldn't do it with Erina — her God's Tongue was too sensitive. She would probably throw up for real if he tried.
So, he decided to test it on this woman who had no self-awareness.
"I feel like my sense of shame is getting lower and lower…" he muttered to himself.
Despite his words, Li Ke didn't hesitate at all. He quickly allocated his remaining two attribute points into Durability. The moment he did, an overwhelming wave of pleasure surged through his body — nearly eight times stronger and longer-lasting than before.
Unable to hold back, he grabbed the female merchant's head with both hands and pushed his thick, hard cock straight into her warm mouth.
The feeling was incredible.
Her mouth was soft, wet, and incredibly warm. However, because she had no will of her own, she didn't move her tongue or suck at all. It felt strangely passive and somewhat weird. Still, the sheer intensity of pleasure from his newly boosted durability made his legs tremble.
"Fuck… this is too good…"
He held her head firmly and began thrusting into her mouth. The head of his cock repeatedly bumped against the back of her throat. After just a few minutes of intense face-fucking, Li Ke groaned deeply and came hard.
Thick, heavy ropes of cum shot straight down her throat. Because she didn't swallow, some of the excess semen overflowed from her nostrils, dripping down in obscene white strands.
"Forgot her tongue doesn't move… feels average," Li Ke evaluated honestly, still breathing heavily.
Even so, the fire inside him hadn't died down at all. He pulled his cock out of her mouth with a wet pop, a string of saliva and cum still connecting them. Then he quickly moved behind her.
Grabbing her large, soft ass with both hands, he spread her plump cheeks apart. Before pushing inside again, he spoke with a mix of gratitude and guilt:
"Sorry… I need to borrow it again."
————————
Having finally addressed his immediate physical vulnerabilities, Li Ke pivoted right back to strip-mining. This time around, his logistical preparations were exceptionally robust. Upgrading to a proper Iron Pickaxe and Iron Shovel felt like night and day compared to swinging a primitive stone axe. Better yet, Li Ke noted that as his raw Strength score increased, his physical mining block damage scaled up in perfect, linear harmony.
The pile of rotted infected corpses that had previously choked out the cave network had completely vanished. Li Ke wasn't entirely sure if this was a built-in cell-clearing parameter or a physical glitch of the reality, but the phenomenon was undeniably logic-defying. Disregarding the weirdness, he drove his tools forward, tunneling vertically downward to execute a two-phased fallback strategy.
He had absolutely no intention of simply trapping himself deep underground like a cornered rat. His macro plan was to construct a heavily fortified surface bottleneck bunker first, and then systematically excavate a vertical shaft directly beneath it, culminating in a heavily reinforced sub-surface sanctuary hidden deep in the bedrock.
While dividing his labor like this carried immense tactical risks and a brutally tight construction deadline, it was an absolute necessity. Executing this specific architecture was the only viable way to safely study how the Blood Moon horde mechanics operated, allowing him to piece together exactly how he had managed to cheat death during the previous cataclysm.
Furthermore, he desperately needed to harvest a massive stockpile of experience points to completely master the parameters of this world system. Establishing a highly efficient, repeatable combat grind platform was an absolute mandatory requirement for their long-term survival.
Otherwise, if he were forced to live out his days endlessly hiding in the dark, he felt like his sanity would slowly fragment—even if the world provided a compliant, scantily clad female Trader to act as a convenient outlet for his primal corporate stress.
After all, he knew better than to place his unconditional, unvarnished trust in strangers who had been forcefully dropped into this apocalypse alongside him. Tsunade and Kiri were legendary figures whose profiles he knew inside and out, yet despite his absolute transparency and hospitality, both women still maintained a highly guarded, defensive stance toward him.
Consequently, Li Ke realized that in a cruel universe like this, the only asset he could truly rely on was himself.
Swinging his tool at maximum velocity to extract a dense pocket of raw minerals, Li Ke was deep in thought when his pickaxe forcefully struck a solid node, unleashing a sharp, crystalline clink that echoed through the tunnel.
He froze for a fraction of a second before instant recognition slammed into his brain. He had tracked his excavation path straight into the subterranean coordinates of the Trader's outpost.
"The bedrock layer surrounding her compound is flagged as completely invulnerable down here too?"
Li Ke was utterly dumbfounded. He had tunneled down to a remarkably deep stratum, sitting nearly ten meters beneath the surface level, yet the absolute invulnerability parameters of the merchant's land-claim zone remained completely active. No matter how much raw physical momentum he drove into his swings, he couldn't leave so much as a single scratch on the target blocks.
Frowning, Li Ke adjusted his trajectory without a single shred of hesitation, aggressively excavating a five-meter trench directly beneath the barrier before executing another experimental strike against the base of the shop's structural footprint.
Clink.
The exact same high-pitched, metallic ring echoed back, causing him to click his tongue in sheer disbelief.
Initially, he didn't read too much into the structural anomaly, preparing to pivot his mining queue elsewhere. But right at that exact millisecond, acting entirely on a sudden, bizarre whim, he pulled a wooden frame from his active inventory and attempted to snap it directly onto the face of the invulnerable bedrock block.
He hadn't harbored a single shred of actual hope. Both he and Erina had verified earlier that the system strictly blocked item deployment within a hard radius of the Trader's land-claim bounds.
But this time, the rules of the environment completely glitched.
The wood frame snapped into place effortlessly. It anchored itself against the indestructible bedrock with absolute structural integrity, exactly as if he had placed it out in the neutral wilderness. Worse still...
The block text overlay prominently displayed every single baseline characteristic of an active system entity.