Chapter 1: Liars Will Be Punished

Yao Xiaosu: Actually… I’m a guy…

Mu: ?

Yao Xiaosu: I’m sorry. I’ve been lying to you this whole time!

Mu: I don’t care if you’re a guy. Let’s just get married first, okay? This ring gives +10 to all stats!

[The other player has gone offline.]

Mu: …

—

In a dimly lit room, the only light came from the faint glow of the computer screen reflecting on Su Yao’s face. 

After deleting all the friends on his “Yao Xiaosu” account, he logged out of the game. 

Staring at the desktop wallpaper of a cute anime girl, he let out a long, defeated sigh.

It’s over.

Those were the only words echoing in his heart.

After shutting down the computer, Su Yao stood up, stretched his stiff body, then grabbed a change of clothes and headed for a shower.

He had discovered the game back in his first year of high school. 

From the very beginning, he had played it alone—and always as a female character. 

But playing a female avatar didn’t mean he was actually female. 

In fact, real female players were few and far between.

Because of this rarity, quite a few male players would pretend to be girls to flirt with rich players. 

Su Yao… was one of them.

But to be fair, that wasn’t how it started. 

In most cases, rich players would take female characters through dungeons for free.

It was a game with a small community, and the core players were always the same familiar faces. 

Veterans typically helped out newcomers, but for a nobody like Su Yao, who had no connections, the only option was to pay to “hitch a ride” through content.

But who was Su Yao? 

Money? 

Not a single coin to his name!

For the longest time, he played the part of a sweet, clueless noob—pure as a white flower—grinding tirelessly just to afford dungeon runs. 

Everything changed the day he pretended to be a girl and got carried through a dungeon for free.

That moment marked a turning point—a descent into a whole new realm.

Then… he met that person.

Every time a new dungeon dropped, that player would take Su Yao along. 

They explained things patiently, even spent a lot of money on him. They’d chat casually, vent about life, and laugh together. 

Those days were, without a doubt, the happiest Su Yao had ever experienced.

But all of it—everything—was built on the lie that he was a girl.

And today, that person proposed to him.

Sure, it was just a proposal inside a game. 

Not even the ring animation had played. 

Still, Su Yao panicked. 

He ran—and confessed the truth.

Stupid, wasn’t it?

It’s just a game. 

And the other person was a rich player who wanted to spend money on him. 

And they’d even said it didn’t matter he was a guy.

But once you accept the in-game marriage, your relationship deepens. 

You start messaging more, getting closer. 

And Su Yao… was terrified.

He was terrified because this bond was built on a lie. So he ran.

Hilarious, right?

Lying in bed, he glanced at his phone.

Not just the game—he’d deleted every trace of that person from his socials too.

Would they curse him out? 

Would others gang up to do the same? 

Probably. 

But it didn’t matter. 

As long as he didn’t see it… it was as good as it never happened, right?

“Forget it,” he muttered.

Closing his eyes and pulling the blanket over his head, he shut himself off from the world. 

At 1 a.m., Su Yao drifted into sleep. 

In the blurred light of dreams, strange, shifting colors surged past him like a river. 

It was a realm of wonder. 

But in that vibrant haze came a sudden crack—a noise, light and sharp—followed by a storm of condemnation that poured over him like thunder and rain.

Startled, Su Yao threw up his hands in defense.

A voice boomed in his ears, deep as thunder.

It said: This is the punishment all liars must face when they toy with love.

Su Yao jolted awake, gasping for breath. It took him several minutes to shake off the lingering dread of that surreal, eerie dream. 

He scanned his familiar room, dimly lit by the nightlight. 

It was still his home. 

That brought some relief.

But his chest felt tight, and his whole body was drenched in sweat. 

His clothes clung uncomfortably to his skin. Worse still, he really needed to pee—badly.

Getting out of bed, he shuffled to the bathroom and flipped on the light.

Something felt… off. 

He couldn’t tell what exactly, but a vague sense of wrongness lingered. 

He stood in front of the toilet and pulled down his pants.

Then he saw his abdomen—smooth, flat, unfamiliar.

At first, he didn’t understand what he was looking at. 

Not until he heard the sound of water splashing below.

A long-haired girl tilted her head slightly. 

Her delicate, doll-like face was filled with confusion.

What… what just happened?

The door was wide open, and the window let in a cold autumn breeze. 

It swept across her lower body, making her shiver instinctively. 

She squeezed her thighs together—but that motion brought a strange, alien sensation she had never felt before.

“I… I turned into a girl?!”

In that moment, Su Yao finally accepted the truth.

She splashed water on her face but didn’t dare examine her new body any further. 

Though technically awake, her mind still felt hazy and unreal. 

Staggering back to bed, she picked up her phone and checked the time.

4 a.m.

Seeing that number, Su Yao collapsed onto the mattress face-first.

“This is just a dream… right?”

Too much had happened today. 

Her thoughts were a complete mess, and she didn’t want to think about any of it anymore.

Tomorrow’s problems could wait until tomorrow. 

For now, she just wanted to rest.

***

By noon the next day, Su Yao slowly opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for a full minute.

She’d had a dream—one where she turned into a girl. 

Ha! What a joke. 

This world runs on science; something that ridiculous couldn’t possibly happen~

Chuckling at the absurdity of it all, she rolled out of bed—too fast to bother with slippers—and ran barefoot across the cool tiles to the bathroom. 

There, staring at the mirror above the sink, was a breathless girl with messy long hair.

Su Yao’s jaw dropped.

Ahhhhhhh!

No scream came out, but her mind was howling.

This… this wasn’t a dream?! It was real?!

The girl in the mirror had delicate, soft features, her youthful face still marked with sleep and panic. 

Her hair, tousled and unkempt, hung over a slightly loose shirt. 

She looked like one of those lazy beauties in morning dramas—clearly late, yet too dazed to care.

Su Yao pinched her own cheek hard. 

The sting drew a sharp hiss. 

The pain was real. 

So was the gentle rise and fall of her chest… and the conspicuous absence of certain parts between her legs.

It was real. She was actually a girl.

She returned to the living room, plopped down on the old sofa, and mentally crashed. 

Long press: 10 seconds. 

Reboot complete. 

After updating her entire worldview, she finally came back online, brain error-free. 

Covering her face with both hands, she tried to scream… but all that escaped was a heavy sigh.

From shock to reluctant acceptance—it didn’t take that long, really. 

But “acceptance” might not be the right word. 

It was more like… there was no other choice. 

Life was absurd, illogical, and yet you still had to keep moving forward.

But now, a huge problem stood in her way.

She still had college.

It was the school she had worked so hard to get into, and she had already paid the tuition. Was she really going to drop out just because her body changed?

No. 

Su Yao didn’t want to quit.

But how…

Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in her head. 

She remembered something—something stashed deep in the back of her wardrobe!

Digging through, she pulled out a sleek silver storage box, hugged it to her chest, and placed it on the bed. 

After washing her hands, she returned and carefully opened the lid.

Inside was a pristine blue-and-white sailor uniform and a matching plaid skirt.

Su Yao narrowed her eyes, took out the uniform and set it aside. 

Her gaze then fell upon a wig nestled quietly at the bottom of the box.

It was a long wig, a bit rough around the edges. 

She gave it a quick trim and tucked her now-shoulder-length natural hair into a net. 

Then, she pulled the wig over it with practiced ease.

In front of the mirror, she adjusted the look.

Not bad. 

Around 60–70% resemblance to her male self.

Her features were much softer now, and her previously pale, sickly complexion had taken on a healthier glow. 

That alone changed her enough that, unless someone was staring really hard, nobody would recognize her. 

Especially since she’d always been invisible at school. 

As long as she didn’t make any drastic changes, she’d be fine.

Staring at the mirror, at the reflection of her “male” self restored, Su Yao chuckled foolishly.

Who knows, maybe by tomorrow she’ll be back to normal. 

Everything would be fine. It had to be.

But the good mood didn’t last long—her stomach made its demands known.

“Alright, alright, I’m going! Happy now?”

Opening the fridge revealed slim pickings. 

She grabbed an egg and yesterday’s leftover rice and made a quick batch of egg fried rice to tide herself over.

She glanced at the clock: 12:31 p.m. 

There was still time before afternoon classes, so she didn’t rush. 

But when she returned to her room and spotted the sailor uniform lying on the bed…

A little voice in her mind whispered: What if I wore it… just once…

“Nope! Nope nope nope!”

She immediately shut down the thought, sealed the offending outfit back into the box, and locked it away. 

Only then did she let out a breath of relief.

That uniform had been purchased long ago—back when Su Yao had just started “playing the part.” 

It held memories. 

Good quality too. It had cost a painful amount of money, so of course she’d never had the heart to throw it away.

She opened a hidden, password-protected photo album on her phone. 

There, a collection of old selfies awaited her—her in the sailor uniform, looking shy, awkward, and radiating a forbidden excitement.

Her cheeks flushed as she stared at those photos. 

She rolled onto her bed and squirmed in embarrassment.

She had deleted most of the selfies, keeping only a small selection—the ones she thought… cough… were the best.

Now that she really was a girl, the lie no longer existed. 

But could she accept that? And going back… wouldn’t that be too pathetic?

Forget it. 

Maybe someday she could make it up to that person.

***

4 p.m.

Su Yao sat in the corner of the classroom. Just as she’d predicted, no one noticed anything different about her.

She wasn’t sure whether to be happy about that or not.

After sitting through a grueling higher math lecture, she finally got to relax in an elective: Psychology and Mental Health. 

As a proud “university animal,” Su Yao lived by the golden rule: As long as I pass, I’m good. 

With her duty to slack off now in full effect, she pulled out her phone and started scrolling.

She opened her usual novel app, but a flood of notifications popped up immediately.

“You haven’t updated in days! Are you trying to starve us, Queen?!”

“How dare you ghost us?! How do you even sleep at night?!”

“I swear, if you don’t update, I’m hunting you down IRL!”

Reading through the comments made her scalp tingle.

Oh crap. 

She’d forgotten to upload the new chapter yesterday. 

The piggies were angry now—very angry.

And they were her biggest income source. 

She needed them… especially with the holidays coming up!

Frantically, she uploaded the missing chapter. 

Once the system showed it had gone live, she slumped back in relief.

Disaster averted—for now.