Chapter 58: Equipment Durability Panties : 0% (R-18)
With a quiet sigh, Zerena wrapped her hand around him once more.
Her free hand slipped behind his head as she shifted closer, rising onto her knees until she was almost pressed against him. The movement brought her chest directly in front of his face.
"Just... suck on them," she said with another tired sigh. "See if that helps."
There wasn’t even the faintest hint of seduction in her voice.
She sounded worn out.
Like someone trying one last solution simply because nothing else had worked.
Not out of pity.
Not because she wanted to.
Simply because she’d rather finish this ridiculous task and move on with her evening.
Max, however, wasn’t the least bit discouraged.
The moment her breasts settled in front of him, whatever remained of his self-control quietly excused itself from the conversation.
He’d spent the past several days becoming intimately familiar with them.
This time, though...
The situation was different.
Now she was stroking him while offering them to him at the same time.
The thought alone was enough to make his heart race.
Without wasting another second, he leaned forward eagerly. His hands slipped beneath the soft weight, lifting each breast gently before giving them an instinctive squeeze, his fingers pressing just enough to make the already sensitive nipples stand out a little more.
Then he drew one into his mouth again.
His enthusiasm returned almost immediately.
"—Ngh..."
A quiet moan escaped Zerena before she looked down at him with weary eyes.
"Not so hard..." she murmured.
There was no real anger in her voice anymore.
Max didn’t listen this time.
He continued with the same stubborn enthusiasm, drawing her into his mouth just as firmly as before.
Seeing that words weren’t accomplishing much, Zerena simply tightened her grip and resumed stroking him, her hand moving noticeably faster than before.
’Just cum already...’
’Come on...cum.’
’Please... just finish...’
The thoughts repeated endlessly inside her head.
If she could’ve forced the task to end through sheer willpower alone, she would’ve happily done so. Her wrist was already beginning to complain, and she was fairly certain the joints in her fingers were preparing a formal protest of their own.
Her free hand wandered into his hair almost absentmindedly, gently combing through it whenever he slowed, encouraging him back toward her chest.
Max needed no further invitation.
He eagerly continued, his tongue circling one hardened nipple before drawing it back between his lips. His breathing gradually became heavier, his movements losing the steady rhythm they’d held only moments earlier.
Then she felt it.
The sudden tension running through his body.
The heat building rapidly beneath the black lace.
His penis throbbed heavily in her hand, growing noticeably hotter with every passing second.
’...Too late.’
The realization came an instant before his hips jerked upward.
Warmth burst against the fabric.
The black lace absorbed the first wave before immediately giving up the struggle, the heat quickly soaking through until she felt it against her fingers.
Zerena’s eyes widened.
’...That’s so much.’
She hadn’t expected anything close to this.
Even as the first release ended, another followed almost immediately, then another, forcing more warmth through the already drenched lace.
’...How could someone even cum that much?’
The thought crossed Zerena’s mind in genuine disbelief.
She stared at the black lace wrapped around him, momentarily distracted by just how thoroughly it had been soaked. Even after everything she’d witnessed over the past week, this still managed to catch her off guard.
Without really thinking about it, she continued the same slow rhythm for another few moments, only stopping once she was certain the last of the tension had finally left his body.
Meanwhile, Max hadn’t stopped kissing her chest until the very end.
Only after the last tremor faded from his body did he finally pull away, his breathing still uneven. His legs felt strangely weak, leaving him with the distinct impression that standing up immediately would be an unnecessarily optimistic decision.
As the lingering haze gradually cleared from his mind, he looked up at Zerena.
She, however, wasn’t looking back.
Her gaze remained fixed downward, still staring at the thoroughly soaked black lace in her hand as though trying to process what had just happened.
"...Thanks," Max murmured quietly.
The simple word finally drew her attention.
She looked up at him.
Instead of softening...
Her expression immediately hardened.
"Why are you thanking me?" she asked, sounding faintly irritated. "I’m not some prostitute."
The words hit Max almost instantly.
His smile disappeared.
"...Sorry," he muttered, lowering his head without another excuse.
Looking down at the black lace now thoroughly soaked, Zerena’s face twisted into visible disgust.
Even though her own fingers were in much the same condition, she carefully pinched the panties between two fingers before sliding them off him with obvious reluctance.
Doing so left his now only partially erect penis exposed, still glistening from the aftermath.
She looked at the ruined lace for another second before letting out a long sigh.
"You ruined them..." she muttered, holding them out toward Max as though they were some particularly unpleasant piece of evidence.
"Throw them in the trash."
Max accepted them just as carefully, instinctively pinching the fabric between two fingers as well.
"And since you’re probably going to ruin plenty more in the future..." Zerena continued with an annoyed glance, "...the replacements are coming out of your pay."
Max would’ve preferred collapsing onto the bed for a few minutes first.
His legs still felt strangely unsteady.
Still, he got up without complaint and walked over to the trash bin, dropping the ruined panties inside.
A broad grin quietly spread across his face.
Despite everything that had just happened, one completely different thought had stolen his attention.
It was another first.
Back on Earth, he’d never once imagined he’d end up buying replacement underwear because he’d personally ruined the previous pair.
Honestly...
The more he thought about it, the less it sounded like a punishment.
If anything, it sounded suspiciously like permission to choose the replacements himself.
His imagination immediately began supplying entirely inappropriate shopping suggestions.
After tossing the ruined panties into the trash, Max turned back.
Zerena was already wiping her hands with one of the paper napkins that had come with their dinner, her expression carrying the tired look of someone whose evening had taken a truly bizarre turn.
Without looking up, she asked,
"So... we have to do this every three hours?"
The annoyance in her voice was impossible to miss.
Max nodded with a grin that looked entirely too cheerful for the situation.
"Until the system gives us new tasks."
Zerena closed her eyes for a brief moment.
"...And does it always take you that long to cum?"
The question came out sounding less curious than mildly offended on behalf of her wrist.
Before Max could answer, however, she immediately raised a hand.
"No."
She let out another long sigh.
"Don’t answer that."
"The last thing I want is to spend tonight lying awake wondering how to make you orgasm faster using my own panties."
Max wisely kept his mouth shut.
Some instincts were worth listening to.
With another tired sigh, Zerena slowly slid off the bed.
Even then, her thighs remained pressed firmly together out of habit, refusing to part despite the fact that the task had already ended.
Max’s eyes followed her almost automatically.
"Slide me the slippers," Zerena said, pointing toward the pair lying behind Max near the foot of the stairs.
By now, the lingering haze from his orgasm had mostly cleared.
A small smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Instead of nudging them across the floor, he simply stood up, picked them up himself, and walked over to her.
He bent down to place them neatly in front of her feet.
Then—
He froze.
Somewhere in the deepest, most dangerously overeducated corner of his brain, a completely useless fact abruptly resurfaced.
’The human brain can recognize an image in around thirteen milliseconds...’
Back on Earth, he’d dismissed that as one of those random trivia facts people loved posting online.
Now...
He was beginning to believe it.
Because in what couldn’t have been more than the briefest glance, his brain had already committed an alarming amount of information to memory.
The dark hair between her thighs hadn’t hidden nearly as much as he’d always imagined.
Instead, it framed everything beneath it.
The soft folds, still carrying a faint sheen of moisture, the deeper shade of skin hidden beneath the neatly gathered hair, and the way the dampness caught the light for just an instant before Zerena shifted ever so slightly.
It hadn’t been enough to study.
Not even close.
Just enough for his hopelessly overactive imagination to immediately start filling in every detail it hadn’t actually seen.
His previous-life self would’ve happily spent several sleepless nights trying to recreate that single glimpse from memory alone.
His current self wasn’t doing much better.
The evidence appeared almost immediately.
His body, having only just begun recovering, abruptly abandoned that plan altogether.
Zerena noticed at once.
Her eyes dropped for only a moment before widening in disbelief.
Then she looked back at him, somewhere between annoyed and utterly baffled.
"...You’re hard again?" she asked, her voice rising just enough to make it painfully obvious she hadn’t expected that to happen.