B-Class Hunter Choi Garam: Lover Play (2)
Choi Garam.
Calling her South Korea's greatest Hunter MeTuber wouldn't be an overstatement in the slightest.
More precisely, she was what people called a second-generation Awakened — someone who had appeared right in the thick of the chaos when the Gates entered their Second Upheaval.
"I've been doing Hunter work since the second grade."
She was an extraordinary figure who had started the Hunter life at an absurdly young age.
Of course, she had been far too young for real combat. After awakening when a monster appeared at her elementary school, she never actually fought on the front lines. But through her parents — who already worked in the Hunter industry — she was introduced to a string of Hunters, and she built a massive following by filming the Gates they entered.
Even after that popularity took off, she refused to coast on fame alone. She pivoted into so-called bizarre mukbang content and videos on monster butchering and cooking — safe enough to film inside a Gate, yet wildly entertaining — and the results were a smash hit.
It wasn't just the content. Being a beautiful woman was a massive bonus, and her channel grew at a blistering pace. She was now a MeTuber with a million subscribers.
She had never neglected her actual Hunter work along the way either, which was part of why her popularity had held so strong. But…
"When the hell am I supposed to get a boyfriend alreadyyy?!"
The problem was that she had spent her entire life working — and despite looks that could put most celebrities to shame, she had never once been in a relationship.
She was still a person, after all. That fact cut her to the bone.
"Ugh… I was so obsessed with making money back then that now I can't do anything…"
The truth was, if she simply set her mind to it, dating wouldn't be hard at all.
People tended to misunderstand this. They assumed she couldn't date. As if someone with her face would actually be incapable of finding a partner.
Yes, she genuinely hadn't dated up until now — but at this point, if she just made a little time, a relationship was perfectly within reach.
So why wasn't she dating?
Was it because there was no one around her?
Not even close.
If anything, her world was overflowing with influencers, and handsome men were everywhere.
There was only one reason Choi Garam wasn't dating.
"Ugh, and these people call themselves fans…"
It was because of the so-called unicorns — the ones who gave her unconditional support only so long as she stayed single.
Unicorns like these showed up in pretty much any stream that featured a woman. They had existed long before the world became what it was now. Her senior streamers had all said the same thing — that the existence of people like this wasn't particularly surprising.
But when it was just one or two of them, it was manageable. When it was hundreds — thousands — that was a problem.
If it were only the male fans, she could almost understand it.
Why are the women posting virginity stuff too?!
Her female fans had the same tendency. No — they were far more aggressive and vicious than the men.
If she so much as looked friendly with another guy? Comment terrorism was the bare minimum. They would go full murder-step mode, ramping up the harassment until Garam herself had to apologize to whoever she had collabed with.
So if the female fandom terrorized people online, the male fans… were dangerous in a different, more physical sense. There had been more than a few times when an influencer who got close to Garam nearly faced real, tangible threats.
Honestly, if it were just comment harassment, she would have tried dating. But when people were actually putting others in danger, what was she supposed to do?
Thanks to all of that, she had never managed a proper relationship — she hadn't even managed a proper almost-relationship. No, her interpersonal skills in general were a wreck.
Around decent male influencers, she always had to keep her face locked in a stiff expression. She couldn't even send a personal DM to her guy friends. She couldn't talk to them at all.
Once, a video of her casually asking a male student for directions to the next classroom had spread online — and that boy received death threats. That incident had left her with something close to trauma.
Yes. This kind of behavior had followed her since her school days.
Considering she had only just turned twenty, it was easy to see just how badly her social life had been damaged.
In an attempt to change something — anything — she had moved into a bigger place than the one she used to live in. But…
"Haa…"
In the end, nothing changed.
If anything, living in such a famous apartment complex only made her feel more watched than before.
And so, once again, Choi Garam could do nothing but sink into her chair with a deep sigh.
…Am I seriously going to die a never-dater at this rate?
She thought of her bleak future and shuddered.
That… I absolutely refuse.
Which was why Choi Garam desperately wanted out of this situation.
Sure, someone could say, just get a boyfriend and lose the virgin label already — but she didn't want to do it that way. She wanted it to be romantic.
Even though she was twenty, she had never properly dated, never even properly flirted, and rather than diminishing her fantasies about romance, that fact had only amplified them.
No — it went further than that. Her ideal type was a prince on a white horse (and no, not the one from the North).
"Haa… when is my prince going to show up~"
Naturally, that only made dating even harder for her — but there was no one around to point that out. After all, her acquaintances were well aware that the longer she clung to this fantasy, the safer everyone else stayed.
In any case, with her love life thoroughly torpedoed by these extreme unicorns, Choi Garam was under a serious amount of stress.
Not to the point of thinking about dying or anything that dramatic. No matter how you sliced it, never having dated once didn't erase everything she had worked so hard to build.
But the stress that piled up…
Mmm, that one takes too long once you get started… yeah. Let's go with this.
…she tended to relieve through masturbation.
She had never dated, after all. She had never had sex. She had never even held a man's hand.
But given that she had to constantly patrol communities to monitor what those insane unicorns were up to, it wasn't strange that she had picked up a certain amount of knowledge along the way.
Then why was her view of romance so pure and dreamy?
…That was just because she was so deep in her fantasy that other people's words no longer reached her.
Either way, Choi Garam was someone who had never dated — but was far from pure.
Today, just like any other day, she had picked up a sex toy to work off her stress and her urges. That was when it hit her.
"Ah, wait. There was that thing, wasn't there?"
She remembered the Sexual Relief Service she had stumbled across last time.
"Let's see… ah, here it is."
She wasn't sure why, but the thought had simply floated up into her mind all of a sudden.
A special service made for Hunters, or so it claimed. The first time she saw it, she had thought it was absurd that something so indecent even existed — but looking at it now, it seemed like exactly the kind of service people with problems like hers would use.
Was it okay to use a service like this when she still had fantasies about romance?
She did have a value system that treated sex as sex and romance as romance… well, honestly…
She didn't know. She just felt like applying for this service would put her mind at ease.
And besides—
If his face is decent, I'll do it. If not, I won't.
She still had her fantasies, so she had standards for the upper half more than the lower half.
She was honestly still on the fence, but…
Fine. Even if I never get to date… at least the virginity thing…
In this hopeless situation, even if romance was off the table, a physical conversation should still be possible, right?
Thinking that, Choi Garam dialed the contact number listed under the Sexual Relief Service.
He had actually done it.
After sitting in his chair for a long time, mulling it over, Taejin had finally designated Choi Garam as a Sexual Relief Service target.
Why? Simple.
They're all just internet shitposters anyway, right?
From Taejin's perspective, the people obsessing over Garam's virginity were all just online nobodies — so he figured it wouldn't make much of a difference.
Which, in fairness, was a reasonable assumption.
Taejin occasionally browsed communities, but he usually skimmed a few comments and closed the tab. To actually understand the full extent of the threats surrounding Choi Garam, you had to dive into some seriously deep, dark corners of the internet — so it wasn't strange that he didn't know.
Taejin was the type who preferred real-world social life and actual work over living online. He simply had no idea how far these lunatics could go once they grew horns and started rampaging. That was the only reason he had made the call so casually.
And so, without feeling any particular fear, Taejin hit the Sexual Relief button.
What if some ability user hacked the apartment's CCTV and was secretly peeking inside?
Surprisingly, that was already happening on a regular basis — so it didn't really matter.
What did that mean?
This was the largest Hunter apartment complex in the country. Cha Dohui herself lived here. Hacking attempts came in as routinely as meals.
And was that fine?
Of course it was fine. Shockingly enough, every single hacking attempt was being blocked.
A white-hat hacker, I think they said? Anyway, they put some ridiculously skilled person in charge of security.
He didn't know the details, but apparently there was some absolute monster of a person who had been defending this apartment against every hack for years. With that person on the job, he didn't have to worry about any information leaking out.
Feeling secure about all of that, Taejin waited for the call at his leisure.
The contact would come eventually, after all.
And just as he expected—
— Ring-ring-ring-ring!
The phone rang.
It was time to get to work.