Abandon Shame, and the Star Candies Multiply
The moment my first stream fully ended and I hit the end-broadcast button, a heavy silence settled over the room as if the whole night had been a lie.
“Haa…”
The second the tension drained out of me, cold sweat trickled sticky down my back. When I cupped my face in both hands, my cheeks burned hot enough to scorch my palms. I still could not believe that the woman who, only moments earlier, had been squeezing her own breasts on camera while soaking up every filthy compliment the monitor could spit out—was me.
The pathetic ego of Hong Yeon-woo, the loser who had still been chewing discarded triangle kimbap in the corner of a goshiwon just a few hours ago, came roaring back and screamed.
You crazy bastard. Money really does make you do every goddamn thing under the sun.
I was so disgusted and ashamed of myself I could hardly stand it. That was exactly how I felt—right up until the crushing self-loathing drove me to grab the mouse and open the settlement page.
Click.
The screen flipped the instant I clicked, and the total number of Star Candies I had earned in that short stretch of night flared into sharp relief.
Star Candies Received Today: 850
Rough math said that even after the platform cut, I was holding nearly sixty or seventy thousand won for a few dozen minutes of work. That was the kind of money you only saw after grinding all day at today’s hourly rates. And I had pulled it in just by fondling the chunks of meat attached to this artificial body a few times and slipping a couple of shoulder straps down.
“Ha… haa…”
A breath that was almost a laugh slipped between my lips. The shame that had been strangling my heart cooled in an instant, and a bizarre thrill flooded into the empty space. I had known money was king ever since my dirt-poor days as a welfare recipient, down to the bone. But I never imagined a world existed where you could stuff your wallet this easily.
A man’s pride? In this gutter of a reality that shit was worthless. What put meat on the table tomorrow and covered the rent on the new room was not some noble spirit—it was the cash sitting right in front of me.
I stood up and raked my fingers through my hair in front of the mirror. The reflection that stared back was heaving its full upper body up and down with every breath. And the pale skin showing through the gaps of the slipped clothes snagged my eye harder than anything else.
“What’s the big deal if I show off this body a little? It was never mine to begin with.”
I twisted the corner of my mouth upward like I was putting myself under hypnosis. The taste of capitalism was racing through every vein in my body. Once the dopamine floodgates opened, there was no shutting them. Without a second thought I stretched out on the bed and started calculating the perfect timing to hit the next stream. Just picturing suckers like Wolf King flinging their wallets open already made my fingertips tingle. But the exhaustion hit hard, so I decided to leave it for tomorrow and slowly closed my eyes.
The next night, the second the promised hour arrived, I hit the start-broadcast button without a shred of hesitation.
Click.
Having done it once yesterday gave me a little confidence. Tonight’s outfit was a black lace dress cut so deep it nearly reached my navel. Since my name was Cherry I had thought about wearing red, but black that contrasted with my hair color was far more provocative. I also made sure to tilt the camera angle slightly upward so the cleavage would pop even harder.
The moment the stream went live, the same guys who had flooded in yesterday piled into the room like they had been waiting.
The chat window lit up and raw comments immediately plastered the screen.
This time their filthy appraisals did not even make me frown. Instead my mouth watered with anticipation over how much cash these suckers would drop tonight. I wet my lips lightly and gave the camera a smiling wink.
“Hello, Oppas… It’s only my second stream, but you came back for me. I’m so happy.”
A nasal falsetto flowed out even more naturally than yesterday. Hearing myself make those sounds still felt ridiculous, but the reaction on the other side of the screen exploded.
Wolf King donated 100 Star Candies!
Watching the number stamp itself across the top of the screen, I smiled without a sound.
“Waaah, Wolf King Oppa is the best… Giving me this much right at the start makes Cherry so shy.”
That instant the viewer count broke twenty and the chat started climbing nonstop.
“The more the better~! Shall we see just how much firepower you Oppas have?”
The viewers got worked up and Star Candies started popping off five or six at a time. Watching money roll in real-time was great, but my stomach still churned no matter what.
Ugh, I seriously feel like throwing up. The money’s good but this is fucking creepy. How do other girl streamers even put up with this shit?
My insides were a mess, yet I kept the capitalist smile plastered on and scanned the chat. The more I read, the more I felt in real time just how destructive this body was. And every time, the brakes inside my head ground a little further down. My mind still recoiled, but my lips were already shaping the coquettish lines the wallet-openers loved.
“Today’s mission is… um, if you Oppas tell me what you want, Cherry will think about it~”
After saying that I twisted my body just a little on the chair, emphasizing the lines, and the wolves everywhere went wild.
Once I caught the scent of money I no longer hesitated. Just the way they wanted, I dipped my head a little, acting shy, and slowly brought my fingers to the hem of the skirt. Then, very carefully, I began to draw the scrap of fabric upward so the skin would show.
The second those pale, smooth thighs filled the camera frame, the donation alerts exploded without mercy.
Star Candies worth thousands… tens of thousands of won flooded the center of the screen!
Watching the money pour in without pause made the dopamine detonate. Once my brain was pickled in the taste of cash, the shame dulled more and more; right now I was only calculating how to clean out these brainless bastards’ wallets even more thoroughly.
I stared straight into the camera and lightly stroked my thigh with a fingertip.
“Oppas… does Cherry’s thigh look soft…?”
As the chat ignited, the urge to bleed those bastards dry even harder surged through me. So I just threw it out there cold.
“Aww, even showing my thighs took Cherry a lot of courage… If you want the chest too, you Oppas will have to show more firepower!”
Wolf King donated 500 Star Candies!
Watching Star Candies explode across the whole screen, an unstoppable smile spread on its own. Five hundred pieces meant over thirty thousand won even after the cut. In the face of this miraculous reality where a single sentence dropped thirty grand, a man’s pride evaporated completely.
“Kyaa! Wolf King Oppa! You’re so cool! Amazing… Cherry keeps her promises, you know that right?”
I let the coquettish voice pour out and slowly brought both hands to my chest. My fingers settled over the black lace dress. When I squeezed hard, the heavy, soft give of flesh transmitted straight through the fabric.
“Ah… nnh…”
The moan that slipped out before I could stop it flipped the chat completely upside down.
Passing Dog donated 500 Star Candies!
Another massive sum detonated and my reason went completely numb.
Stick my hand inside the clothes? What’s the big deal. The money’s going into my account either way.
I gazed seductively into the camera and slipped my hand into the deep neckline of the dress. The sensation of bare skin under my fingers was electric in a way yesterday could not even compare to.
“Aaang…! Oppas… my skin is so soft. You want to touch it too, don’t you?”
Their demands grew bolder by the second, and my hands moved just as boldly to match. But I still would not show a nipple.
“I can’t… You can’t get full on the first spoonful, right…? If Cherry shows too much today, you Oppas won’t come tomorrow.”
I panted and threw a wink at the camera.
“Cherry… loves you Oppas so much too… Hehe. You have to come tomorrow and spoil Cherry, okay?”
It was only the second stream, yet every trace of awkwardness had vanished; standing there now was the perfect shape of a girl streamer forged by capitalism itself. The heat of that tiny room—shame and corruption and the taste of money all tangled together—only burned hotter the deeper the night grew.
Of course, the fact that this world was nowhere near that easy, and that a massive storm was already on its way to seize everything I had and shake it by the roots… that was something I still had no idea about, not even in my dreams.