Meanwhile, At That Very Moment
Somewhere inside a gate in France.
—Thud.
A woman drove her blade into the corpse of a monster already cold and dead.
"Haaaah..."
Her name was Han Seoyoung.
Currently, she was the one stuck busting her ass inside a French gate.
She let out a long, heavy sigh and wondered, not for the first time, what the hell she was even doing here.
And as she exhaled that deep breath, a man approached her.
"What's wrong, Seoyoung~? Sighing like that isn't good for you~"
It was Maresang, the French A-class Hunter.
He sidled up with that greasy voice of his, and Seoyoung looked at him and said,
"It's because of you, you crazy woman-chaser."
Naturally, saying something like that to his face should have made him angry.
"I didn't catch that~?"
Seoyoung had already noticed he wasn't wearing his translator, so she had deliberately said it in Korean.
She sighed once more and switched to English.
"It's nothing. Let's just head back already. We still have to file the report."
"If the lady is tired, of course we should. More importantly, later, if you have some ti—"
"I don't. Move."
She shut him down cold, shook off Maresang's latest attempt at hitting on her, and headed for the gate exit.
She hated this life.
No — "hated" didn't even cover it.
God, I want to just kill every last one of them.
A fierce murderous impulse was simmering under her skin.
If anyone asked why, the answer was simple.
I'm getting real sick of going to restaurants and getting ripped off by the waiters...
She had lost count of how many times she had been hit with racism since arriving. Pickpockets and muggers were baseline. She had run into would-be rapists more times than she cared to remember.
France's greasy flirting was practically cute by comparison.
It sounded like a lie — but shockingly, it was all true.
Back when the Gate Era had first opened, France had aggressively pushed immigration policies for Awakened individuals, desperate to bring in as many Hunters as possible. Plenty of them came.
The problem was that a significant number of those arrivals turned into criminal organizations.
As a result, France — and several neighboring countries that had run similar policies — had become dens of crime. Even the average citizen's character had gone completely to hell.
In most other nations, Hunters still carried a decent image. Here, because Awakened people kept committing crimes left and right, the Hunter reputation was in the gutter, and people constantly pulled weird stunts because of it.
And the racism? That was just the free bonus service.
So Seoyoung, deep in the existential crash of working in this half-assed excuse for a country, thought to herself,
Ah, maybe I should just quit being a Hunter.
Honestly, she wanted to drop the whole thing and hole up at home. But—
Haa... well, I've already taken the money.
Having already pocketed a considerable fee, she dragged her half-dead face outside to go eat.
The only real comfort left was that the food at the Korean Hunters' lodging cafeteria was actually pretty good.
I wonder what my dongsaeng is doing right about now.
On the way back, Seoyoung thought of her cute little toy... no. Her dongsaeng.
The one who diligently worked as a security guard at Hunter Apartment so he could support his mother.
In a way, he was one of the rare filial sons left in this era.
He was also pretty good-looking, and yet the poor kid had never even dated.
When I first met him, I never thought it'd turn out like this.
The reason she had gotten close to him was nothing special, really.
She had just been curious when someone else showed up during the hours she usually had to herself. After watching him a few times and striking up a conversation, she found he was a surprisingly decent kid, and they hit it off.
Though feeling that little generation gap every time we talk is kind of sad...
Anyway, he was a good kid who knew how to look out for other people.
And—
Ah, I miss my dongsaeng.
If someone asked whether she had feelings for him or not, the answer leaned toward yes.
After all, in times like these, kids that earnest — and that fun to tease — were hard to come by.
Though the biggest reason, if she was being honest, was still—
Because of what happened with Sohee.
It was because of that incident with Sohee.
After hearing what had gone down back then, Seoyoung had definitely developed a soft spot for Taejin.
I'd never seen a guy that manly before.
And yet the way he completely fell apart in front of women was its own kind of reverse charm.
In any case, Seoyoung had her own quiet fondness for Taejin — but she never really showed it.
Because there was already a woman who liked him even more than she did.
I wonder if Sohee will be okay.
She had brightened up a bit lately, but before Taejin showed up, she had been the kind of kid who could barely even talk to people.
So while Seoyoung fretted over Sohee, she also thought:
If a few years down the line Sohee still hadn't claimed him, and her dongsaeng was still single...
Then I'll take him myself♥
She thought that to herself, tuning out Maresang's endless chatter beside her as she headed back to the lodging.
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
"Achoo!"
Taejin, hard at work in the apartment, sneezed hard and sniffled.
Is someone talking about me?
He figured it was just his imagination and blew his nose.
About a week had passed since he had sex with Garam.
After getting thoroughly wrung dry that day, Taejin had staggered home half-exhausted.
Since it was Garam's first time, she had zero sense of pacing and had milked every drop of semen out of him in no time flat.
So of course, by the time Taejin — whose cock had felt like it was about to get ripped off from how hard she squeezed him dry — made it home, he was half-collapsed from exhaustion.
Anyway. A week had gone by since then.
The day after, once she had cleaned up the house, she had quickly gone live to apologize for vanishing without a word (she was the type who streamed pretty often). And then—
Choi Garam ran her stream in a far more energetic state than before.
Her viewers figured she must have completely beaten the burnout. Meanwhile—
A handful of viewers eyed her much brighter demeanor with suspicion.
Of course, all of those opinions got completely ignored.
Anyway, most of the audience was happy to see her looking better, and Taejin watched her MeTube for a bit before switching screens to check the messages on his phone.
Okay. So the bright, energetic girl on stream was sending him perverted photos on his phone.
Taejin felt a little dizzy.
To explain why she was sending pictures like this, you had to go back about a week.
A week ago, right before he left Garam's place after sex, she had grabbed him and made him save her number.
"I want to be able to contact you when I feel like doing it again. Do you have a personal number?"
"Ah, of course. Here, I'll type it in—"
"No! Let me do it!"
"Uh, well, if you insist."
More precisely: he handed her the phone, she rattled away on the keyboard, entered the name herself, and handed it back.
"Wait. Why is there a heart—"
"So you can tell it's me for sure!"
Faced with that, Taejin couldn't be bothered to change it, so he just nodded and accepted it.
Anyway, it was saved like something you'd put for a girlfriend, but Taejin didn't particularly care.
It didn't seem like she actually had romantic feelings for him, after all.
The problem started a few more texts later.
No, seriously — why does this girl keep sending nudes...
The sudden dirty photos.
At first, Taejin had been thoroughly flustered by Garam's behavior.
Of course he was. The pure kid who had asked for lover play when they first met was now sending him lewd pictures — how was he supposed to not freak out?
So he told her maybe she should tone it down a little, and she came back with:
Faced with that, Taejin couldn't bring himself to refuse, and in the end he just let her send the dirty photos as she pleased.
...Whether never having to worry about jerking off again was a pro or a con, Taejin still couldn't decide.
Anyway, he texted Garam back.
It might have looked dry, but in Taejin's mind, that was the final Maginot Line for any number of reasons.
Taejin leaned back in his chair, looked at Garam's reply, then turned off the screen.
Garam's texts mattered, sure — but there was something even more important.
Specifically:
* WARNING
An intruder with impure intentions toward residents has infiltrated the apartment complex.
Because a message he absolutely could not ignore had just come through.