When he opened his eyes, an unfamiliar space filled his vision.
‘Where…?’
Yuhyun, feeling a wave of confusion, rolled his eyes to scan his surroundings.
He was lying in what looked like a coffin-like pod.
Through the translucent lid, he could see a square light fixture embedded in the center of the ceiling.
“…!”
Just an ordinary, plain ceiling!
How he had missed this.
Not the crudely made wooden ceiling of an inn, nor the ornate silk-embroidered ceiling of a noble’s mansion, and certainly not the damp, grotesque ceiling of a cave crawling with monstrous leeches!
“Ah…”
Yuhyun let out an involuntary gasp of awe, reaching upward with his hand.
Whoosh—
With a sound like air escaping, the translucent glass lid of the pod slid open.
Yuhyun slowly sat up, taking in his surroundings.
An ordinary bed, ordinary wooden floor, ordinary desk and chair, an ordinary kitchen, and an ordinary flush toilet with a bidet!
Everywhere his gaze landed, a fierce wave of emotion surged within him.
Sure, the place was a bit cramped, like a chicken coop, but to him, that didn’t matter one bit right now.
He was still basking in this overwhelming sense of nostalgia when—
Zzt—
“Urgh!”
A sudden, splitting pain, like twin axes cleaving his skull, struck him, and unfamiliar memories flooded in.
They were the memories of the body’s original owner in this parallel world, now deceased.
A moment later—
“Crazy.”
Dizzy and staggering, Yuhyun clutched his head and muttered a short curse.
He now understood what kind of place this parallel world, supposedly similar to his own, really was.
“No, damn it… The ‘social and cultural difference’… was a gender-reversed world!?”
Absurdly, everything here was flipped.
Unlike the Earth he’d come from, women held the reins of society in this world.
Traditionally, physical labor and strength were considered women’s domain, while men were seen as beings to be protected.
That didn’t mean all women had brash, masculine personalities, though.
Their speech and behavior weren’t all that different from the women he knew—only their social roles were reversed.
Women were slightly more assertive, and men tended to be, well, softer and more submissive.
That was the extent of it.
It was all a bit strange.
And as a result of this odd gender reversal, even notions of chastity and relationships were peculiar.
In this world, regardless of gender, it was legally acceptable to have multiple partners if you had the ability to support them.
Of course, most people still lived in typical monogamous relationships.
“Ha, a world where women are inherently strong and men are weak… This is seriously wild.”
As Yuhyun sifted through the memories, a sudden curiosity struck him.
In a gender-reversed world, what had become of his own body?
Almost entranced, he walked to a corner of the room and stood before a full-length mirror.
“…What the hell is this?”
Yuhyun’s eyes widened in shock at the reflection staring back at him.
Perhaps because this was the parallel world’s version of himself, the basic facial features were still his own.
But the muscles and scars earned from ten years of life-and-death battles with demons, the hideous wounds, and the rotting marks from curses—all of them were gone.
Of course, he’d expected as much, having crossed into a younger body from a parallel world.
But what threw him off was something else entirely.
His once-ordinary features had been subtly refined!
His nose was sharper, his eyes more striking, and his jawline more chiseled.
Add to that smooth, fair skin and a lean, well-proportioned frame, and he looked like an idol or a handsome actor.
“Did this guy just never go through hardship or what…?”
But as he poked at his soft, dough-like cheeks and cross-referenced the body’s memories, it became clear.
For some reason, his appearance had received a buff.
“Ah, was this the ‘blessing’ that Ball of Light said she’d give me?”
The blessing she’d promised in exchange for giving up all his power to come to this parallel world.
This must be it.
“Well, a better face isn’t a bad thing. It’s not even that different from my original look.”
Yuhyun, with a shameless nod, muttered this rather self-serving statement.
“Alright, fine. I can live with this.”
No longer avoiding the inevitable, Yuhyun turned his head toward the massive object dominating the center of the room.
The coffin-like pod he’d been lying in moments ago.
Taking up a huge chunk of the tiny studio apartment, the machine was the size of two refrigerators bolted together, with the flashy logo [NEO-DIVE] emblazoned across it.
“Crazy bastard.”
Now armed with the body’s memories, Yuhyun knew exactly what a massive headache this machine was.
A full-dive VR gaming system.
The pinnacle of this world’s cutting-edge technology.
And a colossal debt trap he’d never pay off in a lifetime.
Full-dive machines were considered luxury items here.
Even cheap, second-hand models cost thousands, so most people settled for spectator headsets or visited “capsule cafes” once or twice a week to enjoy them briefly.
But Yuhyun—or rather, the original owner of this body—was an orphan with no inheritance to speak of. That was the same in this parallel world.
So how had this guy managed to bring such an expensive machine into his home?
The answer: a rental!
In other words, he’d borrowed it.
The body’s original owner had impulsively signed a predatory rental contract to get his hands on this costly gaming system.
A five-year commitment, 3 million won per month, and no option to cancel early—a hellish deal.
Yuhyun picked up the smartphone lying on the floor.
Opening the photo gallery, he saw a slew of cringeworthy selfies from the body’s owner, posing with exaggerated expressions, alongside a recent photo.
It showed the full-dive machine in the background, taken in what looked like a parking lot, with a woman holding a banner that read “Contract Complete.”
A hollow laugh escaped him in disbelief.
“Ha, props to him for scraping together 12 million won for the down payment. Damn it.”
Yuhyun scrolled through the phone, piecing together the exact terms of this cursed rental contract.
After the 12 million won down payment, starting four months from now, he’d need to pay 3 million won monthly.
Miss a payment, and it’d pile up as debt.
Canceling early meant a 1 billion won penalty and losing the machine.
There was an option to buy it outright for 300 million won, but—
Either way, it was an astronomical sum.
“…I came here for a peaceful life, and this guy turned on hell mode.”
Even after ten years of surviving another world, Yuhyun couldn’t ignore how massive this amount was for an ordinary person like him.
But how could he manage?
“What if… I just kill everyone at the rental company? If they’re all dead, there’s no debt to pay, right?”
For a fleeting moment, the convenient, otherworldly solution crossed his mind, but he quickly shook his head.
Unlike the lawless, violent world he’d left behind, this was a modern society with rules and order.
‘…Let’s keep that as a last resort.’
After agonizing for a while, hands covering his face, Yuhyun’s gaze drifted back to the full-dive machine.
“This guy didn’t borrow it without a plan.”
The original owner of this body had a strategy: use this to turn his life around in one big shot.
The status of VR games in this world was completely different from the one Yuhyun knew.
They’d essentially replaced traditional sports.
A virtual reality more vivid and thrilling than the real world offered unmatched entertainment, immersion, and dopamine hits, leaving conventional sports in the dust.
On days of international tournaments, VR game broadcasts dominated major TV channels.
Top streamers who appeared on these channels were treated like sports stars from his old world, raking in massive profits.
Big corporations even had dedicated divisions to train and promote streamers for advertising!
The body’s original owner had harbored a grand dream of rising from the bottom to become a top streamer, all on his own, without corporate backing.
‘And then he died of a heart attack. What a moron…’
But what if he took this on?
The original owner was a frail coward, keeling over from a heart attack just from locking eyes with a virtual monster.
Yuhyun, however, had lived, eaten, slept, and even bathed alongside far more terrifying creatures.
No matter how realistic this virtual world was, fighting and slaying monsters was his specialty.
If he could get famous, he could earn astronomical sums.
And canceling the contract wasn’t an option anyway.
“…This might not be a bad idea?”
His mind gradually leaned toward giving this money-making scheme a shot.
Besides, the novelty of this unfamiliar technology piqued his curiosity.
Yuhyun sprang to his feet and strode back to the capsule, lying down inside.
“Damn, I could just sleep in here, couldn’t I?”
The expensive machine lived up to its price, offering the comfort of a plush bed.
As he pressed a button to close the lid, a translucent screen popped up before his eyes.
[Welcome, Baek Yuhyun.]
[Would you like to continue streaming?]
He pressed the ‘Yes’ button.
In the top right corner, a title appeared: “Newbie Male Streamer Day 1 – 【Tangle Yuhyun】” alongside an ON AIR indicator.
“Tangle Yuhyun…? What kind of ridiculous…”
Before he could curse the absurd naming sense—
ROOOAAAR!
A guttural roar erupted, and a rotting face loomed large before him.
This was the very thing that had sent the parallel world’s owner into a fatal heart attack.
[Escape: Would you like to start the game?]