Have you ever received a genuine death threat?
I never had. Not just me—most modern people likely haven’t had that experience either.
And that’s only natural.
Unless you live a life deeply entangled with death, like those in noir films or the kind of people who dwell in the shadows, living off violence, what reason would anyone have to send you a death threat?
I was no exception.
The worst words I’d ever heard in my life were just the usual vulgarities men threw at each other in jest.
At most, I’d occasionally hear something like, “I swear, I’ll kill you,” spoken in a joking manner.
But that was never meant seriously.
It was just an expression of frustration, of irritation—nothing more, nothing less.
And since I’ve always had a pretty easygoing personality, I barely even recall hearing those kinds of words directed at me.
I was the type who avoided making enemies, someone who got along with everyone in communal settings.
And yet, here I was, receiving a death threat.
From a string of floating words that appeared out of nowhere.
“Hah… What the actual fuck…”
<Special Mission!>
Become the King of All VTubers—the “VTuber Emperor”!
Time Limit: 10 Years
Failure Condition: Death
They call this a “status window,” don’t they?
I had read plenty of novels with setups like this, so the situation itself wasn’t unfamiliar.
I just never imagined I’d experience it firsthand.
It wasn’t hard to guess who was behind this.
“That bastard…”
It had to be him—the one from my last memory.
The guy who showered me with huge donations while ranting about the beauty of VTubers.
As I recalled that memory, everything started falling into place.
The one who turned me into this body, the one who gave me this mission—it was all him.
It was confirmed.
He was the one who assigned me this ridiculous mission to become some kind of VTuber Emperor.
A being capable of killing my former self and forcibly turning me into a woman.
A being with the absurd power to shove a status window in my face and demand that I complete his mission.
He must have been something akin to a god.
I never believed in any religion, but when faced with an entity capable of transcending reality like this, what else could he be but a god?
Yet, I felt no reverence. No fear.
If my friend, the churchgoer, had been in my shoes, he might have reacted differently.
But I had always been an atheist.
I had no illusions about godhood.
No religious awe for meeting a divine being.
What I felt, instead, was pure, unfiltered rage.
“You son of a bitch. You think I’m gonna become a VTuber? Fuck no! Absolutely not!”
Like a lunatic, I screamed into the empty air, stomping and flailing in place.
I didn’t particularly hate VTubers.
Hell, I didn’t even know enough about them to form an opinion.
Liking or disliking something comes after experiencing it, after all.
But I sure as hell wasn’t going to let someone treat me like a puppet.
Just because he’s some so-called god, he thinks he can control people like this?
I’d rather die than live a life dictated by someone else.
<Special Mission!>
Become the King of All VTubers—the “VTuber Emperor”!
Time Limit: 10 Years
Failure Condition: Death
<Special Mission!>
Become the King of All VTubers—the “VTuber Emperor”!
Time Limit: 10 Years
Failure Condition: DEATH!!!
It was as if he was watching me throw my tantrum in real time.
The status window kept popping up over and over again, flashing those same words in my face.
The word “DEATH” was even highlighted in bright red, growing more intense by the second.
I had to admit—it was terrifying.
This was an unreal phenomenon, something I had never encountered in my entire life.
But still—
“Nope. Not doing it.”
I gritted my teeth and held my ground.
Who the hell did he think he was dealing with?
I was the kind of person who never did anything I didn’t want to do.
Even when my parents urged me to get a stable job instead of pursuing a career in streaming, I had stubbornly refused.
In the end, they had no choice but to throw their hands up and say,
“Fine, do whatever you want.”
The only one who decided how I lived my life was me.
No one else had the right to interfere.
And this bastard?
This bastard had kidnapped me.
I had been living my life just fine, and then he plucked me from it, shoved me into a woman’s body, and now he expected me to debut as a VTuber?
He was a freak.
A perverted lunatic.
If I didn’t even listen to the parents who raised me, why the hell would I obey the orders of some goddamn kidnapper?
I didn’t know what he wanted from me, but I was never going to play along.
A brief silence settled in.
I had exhausted myself throwing a fit, so I stood still, catching my breath.
The bastard must have been contemplating his next move, because the status window stopped appearing for a moment.
Feeling triumphant, I grinned and sneered at the empty air.
“And another thing—you’re being real petty with this whole ‘failure means death’ thing. Huh? Where’s the reward? If you’re gonna assign a mission, shouldn’t there be an incentive? Some kind of success bonus? Something like, ‘If you become the VTuber Emperor, you get X’—you know, motivation? You seriously have no clue how to—”
And just as I was in the middle of ranting at the status window—
Thud—
<Special Mission!>
Become the King of All VTubers—the “VTuber Emperor”!
Time Limit: 10 Years
Failure Condition: Female Degradation
A sound echoed through my mind like the beat of a drum, and the status window reappeared.
“…What the hell is this?”
Something about it was different from before.
<Special Mission!>
Become the King of All VTubers—the “VTuber Emperor”!
Time Limit: 10 Years
Failure Condition: Female Degradation
The words were once again highlighted in red, as if to intimidate me.
My eyes widened as I read the altered failure condition.
“Female… degradation?”
Female degradation.
It was such an unbelievably crude and violent term that it almost felt unreal.
At the same time, it sent a shiver down my spine.
A woman unfamiliar with that phrase might not react as strongly, but as someone who had lived as a man, I knew exactly what it meant—down to its most explicit implications.
“So… you’re saying you’re going to turn me into some kind of broken, submissive mess?”
Goosebumps crawled up my arms as I fully grasped the meaning behind the words on the screen.
Not only would I have to act cute and flirt with men, losing my purity in the process, but I’d even end up giving birth to children who look like me… and feeling joy from it?
My breath grew ragged with fear.
A horrific image flashed through my mind.
Just imagining such a scenario felt like it was causing irreparable damage to my brain.
Would this so-called “status window” truly be able to degrade me like that?
I asked myself the question.
And I already knew the answer.
The weight in my heart tilted heavily toward yes.
This bastard had already transformed a perfectly fine adult man into a woman, completely erasing my original existence from the world in the process.
With that kind of power, turning a frail, 20-year-old quarter-Japanese college girl into some degraded, mind-broken plaything would be child’s play.
Honestly, if he really wanted to, he could’ve shattered my sanity from the start.
Like the protagonists in those grimdark novels, I could’ve been dragged through hell, reduced to nothing more than a sobbing wreck.
Maybe… maybe this status window was his final warning to me.
And I had been too blind to see it.
Up until now, I had kept kicking away his so-called “offers,” refusing to play along.
But I wasn’t an idiot.
I didn’t need to touch fire to know it would burn me.
I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but I could read the room.
If I kept resisting, I would face something far worse.
Having fully assessed my situation, I collapsed onto the floor.
“P-Please… I’m sorry…! Just don’t degrade me! I’ll do anything! I’ll be a VTuber or whatever you want… just please…!”
Bowing my head and surrendering to someone who was treating me like a toy was the ultimate humiliation.
But I had no other options.
This wasn’t a negotiation.
The other side had a nuclear bomb pointed straight at me.
Power struggles only happen when both sides have some degree of leverage.
And in this case, I had none.
My father always told me, “A real man knows when to bow his head.”
There was nothing to gain by throwing a tantrum like a reckless fool.
So I stayed low.
I kept groveling, head down, begging.
I had no idea how long I stayed like that.
But eventually, the status window flickered.
<Special Mission!>
Become the King of All VTubers—the “VTuber Emperor”!
Time Limit: 10 Years
Failure Condition: Death
The original condition had returned.
It was as if the bastard behind it all was saying:
“So… you’re going to be a VTuber now, right?”
Swallowing my pride, I slowly nodded.
“Yes… I’ll do it… I’ll become a VTuber…”
In the end, I had surrendered to a terrorist.