"Ugh... Wha... so bright...!"
With a groan, the young man quickly lifted his hand to cover his eyes. Everything around him was blindingly white.
Then, with a sharp click, the light vanished. He waited for a few moments, letting his eyes adjust before lowering his hand.
He was inside a closed room, something that felt like an operating room in a hospital. When he tried to sit up, he realized he had been lying on what looked like an operating table.
"Welcome back, Iceman!"
A woman's voice echoed from one corner of the room, where a desk stood covered with blue flickering screens and complex, high-tech machinery.
She was standing there, her beautiful golden hair flowing down her slender shoulders. Dressed in a white coat and bathed in soft light, she looked almost divine.
"Are you an angel?" he asked, still uncertain if this was reality or a dream.
Somewhat surprised by his question, the woman — who looked to be in her thirties — burst out laughing. Her ample breasts bounced around as she did and her coat was opened, putting her shapely legs in full display. Her lovely face softened into a teasing smile that made her seem even sexier.
The young man glanced down awkwardly, apparently a certain part of his body gave a very strong reaction to her. His loose hospital gown didn't help much in hiding his current condition at all.
"Oh my," the woman said, covering her mouth in mock surprise. Instead of looking embarassed, her eyes sparkled with burning lust.
"You really are full of energy, aren't you? Well, I suppose that's understandable…"
She stepped closer and whispered into his ear, her tone playful. "After all, it has been three hundred years."
That cleared his head immediately.
"W-what?! Three hundred…" he stammered, his mind struggling to process her words.
Before he could finish, the woman gently placed a finger on his lips.
"The long explanation can wait," she giggled. "What's urgent right now is to take care of this little... nah, this huge situation of yours~"
Her eyes glimmered with mischief as she used the other hand to caress his hard member over the gown. He groaned with pleasure.
"You need immediate attention. Incidentally, I'm a doctor. And a doctor are responsible for relieving her patient of anything that is making him... uncomfortable~ What do you say?"
He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. His thoughts were scattered, instinct overriding reason.
Then, with another sharp click, the room fell into darkness.
-----
The lights only came back two hours later.
The female doctor, Rosaline, was fixing her crumpled white coat. He had learned her name during their... "healing procedure" earlier.
Despite that, he still didn't know his own name. Rosaline kept calling him Iceman, but he was certain that wasn't it. It sounded more like a codename or something like that.
"How's your head? Did you remember anything?"
Rosaline's voice was calm and professional now. She held a penlight and moved it carefully, checking his pupils.
"I'm not sure," he replied. "My head feels like a messy room, and I can't make sense of anything inside."
He tried to remember at least his name, but it was like chasing a feather in the wind. He knew it was there, right in front of his eyes, yet it slipped away every time he tried to grasp it.
"Don't rush. It'll come back eventually. Maybe even faster than you think~" She winked at him. "We can talk about other things while we wait instead."
That reminded him of something, so he asked, "Why do you call me Iceman?"
"Because we dug you up from the ice, hon," she answered teasingly.
"What? Where?"
"Neo Antarctica. That's where we found you."
He frowned at the unfamiliar name. "Neo Antarctica? Where's that? Is it related to Antarctica?"
She looked mildly surprised, then seemed to remember something.
"Oh, right. Back in your time, they called it Antarctica. Yes, it was Antarctica, but now the WUG has renamed it Neo Antarctica."
"WUG?" he asked again.
"World United Government," Rosaline sighed. "I'm sorry to tell you, but there's three hundred years of history waiting for you to catch up on, hon. I hope history was your favorite subject back in school."
He shivered. Somehow, that sounded even scarier than the fact that he had been frozen for centuries. History clearly wasn't his favorite subject.
"Wait," he said slowly, "I didn't even go to school."
Rosaline's eyes widened. Looking at her, he realized what just happened.
"Did I just say I never went to school?"
"You did, oh you delinquent~" Rosaline replied with her usual teasing voice.
Well, he was pretty sure he wasn't a delinquent. But what had he been doing that he never went to school? Hopefully nothing criminal.
"On that topic, how old were you?" Rosaline asked casually while he was still lost in thought.
"Twenty-one."
The answer slipped out before he even realized it. Then another memory surfaced just as instinctively.
"And… I was a virgin."
That made Rosaline freeze up for a moment. Then, a few seconds later, she burst out laughing.
"Ahahaha! I landed myself a three-hundred-years-old virgin! Good job, Rosaline~ The girls are gonna be so jelly at the next ladies' night."
He decided to say nothing to that.
"How long has it been since I was dug up?"
Rosaline took a moment to compose herself before answering.
"As of today, it's been exactly three years."
"What? It took that long for me to wake up?" He looked genuinely baffled.
"Of course," Rosaline said with a smirk. "Did you think someone could be buried deep in the ice, frozen for three hundred years, and just wake up bright and lively right after being dug up?"
Actually, that was exactly what he had thought. Hard to blame him, considering his lack of education.
"To be honest," she continued, "even though your brain miraculously survived somehow, your body was... well, let's just say it was way past its expiration date."
"My body was—what?!"
He immediately looked down at himself in panic.
"Relax, your body is fine now. Better than fine, actually." Rosaline licked her lips, her face blushed a little remembering their "healing process" just now. "I guaranteed it~"
That was good to hear. Still, his head was full of questions about what had happened.
"Lucky for you, cryogenic sleep is something we've been researching for a long time," Rosaline said. "Unfortunately, without much success. No matter what we do, the human brain just can't survive the process. The body, however, is a different story. We've perfected the regeneration procedure for those coming out of cryogenic stasis."
She pointed her finger at him.
"If you had been found ten years earlier, you'd have been a lost cause. You really have the luck of a devil."
That same playful finger began tracing slow circles on his chest.
"Of course, it was lucky for us too," she added with a grin. "Finding you was like a miracle. A frozen man with a functioning brain — who wouldn't be excited?"
"Wait a minute!"
He pushed her hand aside, his tone sharp. The story was heading somewhere he didn't like.
"Don't tell me… you used me as some kind of experiment subject?"
Rosaline looked startled.
"Of course we did. We're scientists, how could we not? You were a perfect sample."
Seeing his expression darken, she hurried to clarify.
"Don't worry, we didn't chop you up or slice your brain or anything barbaric like that. Those primitive methods were abandoned long ago. Now we use molecular scanners and advanced analyzers — equipment that lets us study the brain completely without ever tampering with it."
That calmed him down a little. She didn't look like she was lying either — and really, why would she? If they'd wanted to dissect him, they could have done it long ago and thrown the remains away without a second thought.
"Thank you," he muttered after a moment of silence.
Rosaline blinked, caught off guard.
"You're a strange man," she said. "Most people would be furious, let alone grateful."
"I was, a little," he admitted. "But if it weren't for you and your team, I'd still be a block of ice. You brought me back to life, so even if you experimented on me, that doesn't change the fact that you saved me."
He answered honestly. His master had always taught him to show gratitude to those who helped him, for nothing was more shameful than an ungrateful man.
Hmn... His master? Did he had one? For what?
His train of thought was interrupted when Rosaline suddenly pushed him back onto the operating table and climbed on top of him, her eyes gazing at him seductively.
"Such a bad boy. You're so honest it makes big sis here horny. Did you do that on purpose?"
Being an "honest boy," he shook his head. Rosaline licked her lips again. They should ban beautiful women from doing that, it was such a deadly weapon.
"Mmn… must be a born lady-killer, then. Hey, listen…"
He listened.
"Research shows the best way to jog the memories of a body that's just woken up is… a little workout."
"I thought we did that earlier. Also, are you sure about the 'little' part?"
"Okay, maybe a lot. The more, the better…" Rosaline slipped off her clothes, doing it slowly so he could admire her perfect body under the light.
She flicked her finger, and the light went out instantly.
"Turn it back on. I want to burn every nook and cranny of your body into my memory this time," he protested.
"A delinquent, indeed~"
Rosaline flicked her finger again.
-----
Three hours later, Rosaline lay in his arms, too exhausted to speak.
"Maybe… we overdid your body treatment a bit…" she panted. "How are you so… virile… so relentless…"
He closed his eyes, gathering his thoughts.
"I think I have an answer for that."
Rosaline gasped, looking at him.
"Yeah, that research seems pretty accurate."
He grinned, shooting her a teasing glance.
"Nice to meet you. The name's Kang."
"Kant?" She blinked.
"No, Kang. K-A-N-G," he corrected her.
"Weird name~"
"In my country's language, it means 'steel.'"
Rosaline blinked again, then smirked wickedly, her hand drifting toward his private zone.
"Oh, I see. A very fitting name indeed~"
"Hey, stop that unless you want to wake the sleeping beast!" Kang warned her.
Rosaline immediately yanked her hand back.
"So, is your name the reason for your stamina?" she asked, her voice laced with mischief.
"No, it's probably because of my… profession, I think."
That piqued her curiosity.
"And what's your profession?"
"I'm a…"
Kang's voice rang with pride and confidence.
"…Martial artist!"