"It's getting colder..."

  Lucian muttered as he stared at the sky, still pouring nonstop. As he gazed at the cloudy sky, suddenly, he felt a chill. A feeling that crept up his spine.

  He couldn't explain it with words. Simply, it was as if he got goosebumps. As if someone had just hung a blade against his neck.

  "No..."

  Thinking that he might've caught a cold, he turned around and went back. He had been in the rain for way too long. His steps felt faster for no particular reason.

  After a bit of a walk, he arrived at the concrete bunker.

  Slowly, he turned the wheel, unlocking the hatch. Climbing halfway down the ladder, he remembered to reseal the hatch and even "locked" it using a simple metal stopper nearby.

  As he slid down, a voice called out in a worried tone. "Who's there?"

  Lucian recognized the voice. Rather, there was nobody else inside but Kathleen, anyway.

  "It's me, Lucian."

  He replied, before appearing from the steps, keeping his distance so as not to scare her.

  "Lucian...?" Kathleen muttered to herself, trying to think who it was—until the man's face became visible through the faint lights. "Ah, the one who helped me!"

  Her senses were amiss back when Lucian was tending to her.

  Although she could see his outline, her eyes were so blurry she couldn't even recognize his face. Even his voice felt different when she heard it for the first time.

  Still, his brown hair and piercing red eyes stood out. Memorable features she firmly remembered.

  Lucian nodded while scanning her figure.

  She was in the same corner as before but was now covered in a white blanket. Her hair and face were now clean, as if she had washed up, revealing her bright red short hair, matched with lively brown eyes. She could be said to be a cutie rather than a beauty.

  Before her, a small, standard electronic heater stood, releasing warmth.

  "Since you returned, it must be nighttime now?" she asked while pulling the white blanket tighter around her body. "There's a barrel of water there, you can use it to wash up. You wouldn't want to catch a cold in this place..."

  Following the dainty finger peeking from under the blanket, Lucian found the barrel. It was large, as big as a regular oil drum. Inside, it was filled with water as she declared, and there was even a plastic dipper floating inside.

  Lucian looked at himself objectively.

  He was wet from head to toe. His shirt was beyond dirty. Enough to be called rags rather than clothes, from rolling around the forest. Even his pants were thick with patches of mud.

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  "... I guess I should." He sighed.

  But of course, before he began, he scanned the System Shop.

  He wouldn't be able to use these clothes for the night, as they were wet. He needed some spare clothes to change into.

  After typing in "clothes" in the search bar, various apparel items showed up. There were male, female, and unisex clothes available.

  However, they didn't come in singles, but in sets.

  Lucian checked the cheapest male set—a white shirt, gray boxers, and black nylon pants. The set costs 30 days of [Life]!

  'Is this cheap, or expensive?' Lucian was conflicted, brows furrowing.

  However, they were necessities, so he didn't hesitate and bought a set.

  After securing a change of clothes, he no longer dallied. He removed his shirt carefully, along with his pants, and placed them on the floor. He stood up on the clothes, planning to use the water he poured on himself to rinse the clothes at the same time.

  As he was washing himself with great focus, a pair of innocent eyes stared right at his figure. Kathleen.

  She didn't think he'd just strip down to nothing but his boxers and wash himself like that. She felt secondhand embarrassment from his brazen actions... but at the same time, her body felt hot too.

  Kathleen kept sending glances to Lucian, checking him out.

  He was pretty tall, standing at 180 cm (5'11"). His arms and legs were slim, but upon closer inspection, they had muscles so streamlined it was as if she were looking at art itself.

  A wide, muscular back. A thick chest. And most of all, a well-chiseled, ten-pack abdomen, leading toward the Tensor Fasciae Latae (TFL) muscle, giving his hips a nice shape.

  In her books, body-wise alone, Lucian would be a 10/10.

  "Ah...!"

  Feeling something sliding down the side of her jaw, Kathleen returned to her senses. Without her realizing it, she had been drooling for him—literally!

  She wiped her drool clean before averting her gaze, fanning her face lightly to relieve the "heat."

  Although he was a ten for her, making a move would be postponed for later. After all, she wasn't sure what Lucian wanted from her after saving her. If he asked for her body...

  Her throat moved, gulping hard.

  Kathleen imagined it, and her desire to resist faded like it never existed.

  'No, wait! I'm not that loose a woman...!' she shouted to herself, fixing her line of thinking. 'At least, I need to ensure he doesn't have any intent of hurting me first.'

  Before all else, first, she had to get to know him well.

  Both of them practically knew nothing about each other. Just strangers brought together by ill fate. At least, she wanted to know his full name... His favorite food... His hobbies...

  'No, this isn't a matchmaking date!'

  Kathleen slapped both her cheeks, trying to return to her senses.

  Lucian, hearing the loud noise, turned to look, only to see Kathleen's figure half-covered. Under the white blanket that slid down, she wore nothing but a pair of risqué, black, lacy underwear.

  Unlike her cute appearance, her underwear choice was quite aggressive.

  "..."

  Lucian pretended not to have seen anything. No, in the first place, parts of his memories were missing. Knowledge in "that" region was included in the missing areas.

  Though as a man, he did "feel" something, enough for his lower body to react slightly. Only slightly.

  Shrugging, he continued washing off the mud and grime from his body.

  He was so dirty that the water reaching his feet turned from clear to a deep brown.

  The clothes that he planned to wash with the second-hand water became even filthier. It was to the point he hesitated to think they could be reused again. They were more fit to be used as rags than as clothes now.

  Thirty days of life for a pair of clothes wasn't cheap. But seeing how in just half a day, he got about 145 days' worth in total, he felt that it wasn't too expensive, at least.

  But that changes from person to person.

  For example, Kathleen.

  She, who had an entire closet of clothes back in her home base, didn't bother wasting her Lifespan for a new set. After all, she had just incurred three years' worth of expenses for a potion. She needs to be frugal for a while.

  She just set her wet clothes aside, near the heater, and waited for them to dry.

  Two people with different aims.

  One closed room.

  One heater.

  Adding these things, thinking that nothing would happen... seems impossible.