Chapter 2 : Failure – Death

One morning, after having a strange dream, a man woke up to realize that he had transformed into a young girl in his bed.

Moreover, he became aware that he was no longer a man and that the bizarre dream he thought he had while sleeping was not actually a dream at all.

For a moment, he was dazed, but soon enough, he pulled himself together and headed straight to the bathroom.

And there, in the mirror, he was able to face his true self.

Silky silver hair.

A small face with delicate and finely arranged features.

Below that, a chest that insisted on making its presence known, along with a slender waist.

A stunning beauty with exotic blue eyes was staring right back at him.

“…What the…”

As he let out an incredulous, breathy sound, the woman in the mirror mimicked his lips moving in sync.

Yes, it was him.

It could only be him.

Even an elementary schooler knows that the person standing in front of a mirror and the one reflected inside it are the same.

“…Who are you?”

But asking the mirror wouldn’t bring an answer.

His empty question simply lingered in the bathroom, lost without direction.

The silver-haired, blue-eyed beauty in the reflection blinked in confusion.

She looked so pitiful, so breathtaking, that it seemed unbearable without someone nearby to comfort her.

“…Shit.”

Yet, instead of despair, he could only let out a curse.

The sensation of his throat tightening with the words, the clear and crisp voice echoing back to his ears—it all felt unbearably unfamiliar.

So this is really me.

For real.

“Hah…”

It was obvious, but this wasn’t a dream.

He knew himself well enough to understand that he wasn’t imaginative enough to dream up something like this.

Denying reality wasn’t an option.

Understanding the situation came first.

Gripping his spinning head, he returned to his room.

“What’s with her today? Is something wrong with you?”

“No, it’s nothing serious.”

Muttering that, he heard a familiar voice through the receiver.

“Nothing serious, my ass. First, you randomly start asking about old times, then the kid who never used honorifics suddenly starts talking politely. Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t sound right. That’s it. Mom’s coming over now.”

“Ah, no, don’t! I’m really fine, so please don’t come. Seriously, don’t.”

Only after pleading multiple times did he finally manage to stop his mom from coming over.

He was already confused enough.

If his mother showed up now, it would only make his head hurt more.

On that note, it seemed like the “him” from this world spoke informally to his mom.

Well, that made sense.

Even in his original life, once he got close to thirty, he started mixing formal and informal speech with his parents.

Through the phone call with his mom and about an hour of gathering information, he managed to piece together a few key facts.

First, “he” was still himself.

This unfamiliar body had inherited his identity without change.

It was as if he had slipped into a parallel world.

His mom was the same, his dad was the same, and all his memories—from childhood to school years—were identical.

The only real difference was that, instead of him being a man, this world had always known him as a woman.

That was why he would call his mom in the first place.

His phone’s contact list still had her number saved, just as before.

When he hesitantly dialed, half-expecting to hear a stranger ask, “Who is this?” he was relieved when that didn’t happen.

Thanks to that, he was able to gather information from her without much difficulty.

It was a small mercy in this bizarre situation.

Though he had never been particularly close to his family, the thought that he might have been separated from them forever just because of this transformation…

It was terrifying.

But after checking, he found that his family, his friends, and all his other acquaintances remained unchanged.

The only thing that had changed was him.

In his original world, he had just turned thirty, a man entering his next phase of life.

But here, he was a woman—just twenty-one years old.

And the moment I turned twenty, I became independent.

How did I manage to live on my own at twenty?

Simple—my family was loaded.

The building itself was under my uncle’s name, so when his niece wanted to live alone, giving up a studio apartment was a piece of cake.

“…Should I be happy about this or not?”

At that moment, I felt a strange sense of disillusionment.

In my original life—when I was still a man—I only managed to secure my own place in my late twenties, after my streaming career finally took off.

And that very place was where I was living now.

But here?

This version of me got it handed to her the moment she turned twenty, just because she casually mentioned wanting to try living alone now that she was in college.

“…Hah.”

Well, whatever.

That’s not what’s important right now.

At the end of the day, she is me, and I am her, right?

If my family is rich, that’s a good thing.

If I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, then great—I can finally enjoy the luxury life I never got to have before.

Cheers to that.

With my newfound ultra-positive mindset, I decided to move on.

The second major revelation?

My original identity had been completely overwritten by this body.

Oh, right—my name had changed.

And it was… kind of unusual.

The female version of me was named Sera.

Last name Kang, first name Sera.

A bit of a foreign-sounding name, huh?

Well, there was a reason for that.

“Your grandfather was deployed to Korea during the Korean War and ended up staying after meeting Grandma. Isn’t that romantic? But why are you suddenly asking about this…?”

To my surprise, this body was mixed-race.

Or more accurately, a quarter.

Foreign blood ran through my veins!

No wonder the silver hair and blue eyes felt unnatural.

Turns out, it was all thanks to the genes passed down from my American grandfather.

In my original world, my grandfather was Korean—at least, that’s what I had been told.

He passed away early, so I never got to know much, but I was under the impression that he was a full-blooded Korean.

“…I’m sorry, Grandpa.”

Caught up in this bizarre phenomenon, I suddenly found myself apologizing to my grandfather, whose nationality had been unceremoniously swapped.

What a headache.

But wait—could Americans even have naturally silver hair?

Blue eyes, sure, but isn’t blonde the most common hair color?

The thought crossed my mind, but I decided not to dwell on it.

I mean, when you think about it, isn’t the bigger issue the fact that my grandfather’s nationality changed and that I turned into a woman overnight?

Who knows—maybe some weird genetic mutation happened, or maybe my grandfather had an ancestor with silver hair.

Anyway, that was the biggest difference between my old life and my new one.

I had become a woman, I now carried one-quarter American blood, and my personal history had been rewritten accordingly.

The scale of the change was massive, sure, but it wasn’t something I couldn’t accept.

What else could I do?

If this was my new reality, I had no choice but to live accordingly.

So, in summary—

I was now Kang Sera, a 21-year-old rich college girl.

Honestly, just looking at it from an objective standpoint, there wasn’t much to complain about.

Sure, I lost the streaming career I worked hard to build… but let’s be real.

That was nothing but a self-indulgent, ego-feeding stream with a handful of dedicated viewers.

I never had much attachment to it anyway.

I also transformed from a man into a woman, but I was nearly a decade younger now.

On top of that, I had become a drop-dead gorgeous beauty, the kind you rarely see in real life.

Long limbs, a stunning face, and—if my earlier conversation was any indication—a beautiful voice.

From a purely practical perspective, this was a ridiculous cheat code.

Modern-day Korea is an appearance-obsessed society.

At this level, I wouldn’t have to worry about making a living at all.

I could be a model.

An idol.

Hell, I wouldn’t even need to leave my room—I could just become a streamer again, but this time as a face-cam VTuber and rake in ridiculous amounts of money.

…Wait.

That’s when it hit me.

I didn’t even need to work.

Why?

Because this body was filthy rich.

I didn’t know the exact details, but if my uncle could casually hand over a studio apartment to a twenty-year-old just because she wanted to try living alone, that meant my family’s wealth was on another level.

Even earlier, my mom had offered to send me an allowance like it was nothing.

They probably wouldn’t mind even if their precious daughter became a total NEET.

They might sigh in disappointment, but they wouldn’t kick me out.

And if I ever felt like trying something new, I could probably just get financial support from my family.

When I weighed the pros and cons, it was clear—this was an upgrade.

I’d always dreamed of living a carefree life.

Now, I wouldn’t have to stress over how to make ends meet or struggle to survive.

All I had to do was exist and enjoy life.

So why wasn’t I laughing?

Why did I still feel uneasy?

Because of this.

<Special Mission!>

Become the King of All VTubers!

Time limit: 10 years

Failure = Death

This had been floating in front of my eyes for a while now.

“…Ha. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Another curse slipped from my lips.

It was a crude, unrefined swear word—completely unfitting for my elegant voice and stunning face.

But how could I not curse?

How the hell was I supposed to react normally to this?!

“Failure equals death?”

It had been less than a single day since I became a woman.

And now, I was being threatened with death by some unseen force.