Chapter 1: Customizing

I slurped up the ramen noisily.
Click, click, I moved the mouse with practiced ease.

‘This feels a bit off, so let’s roll it back. Maybe tweak this value a bit… and lower that one.’

Before my eyes, numbers shifted subtly, and a character’s outline changed ever so slightly in response.
Customization.

It was the part at the start of the game where you set up your character.
And in this world, there were plenty of people dead serious about their game characters.
Naturally, many were just as serious about their character’s appearance.

And me? I was a so-called customization master, making money by crafting these designs for those dedicated folks.

‘Done…!’

Finally, I smiled with satisfaction, looking at the perfectly polished customization.
Three long hours, but seeing it meet both the client’s demands and my own aesthetic sense filled me with pride.

“Okay… time to take a screenshot first…”

[Customization complete. Please send the advance payment, and I’ll share the file.]

[Wow!! It’s amazing!! Thank you!! Sending 50,000 won now!]

“This client’s not a hassle. Nice.”

I grinned, pleased at the client who paid promptly.
More often than not, people haggled when it came time to pay, throwing out all sorts of excuses.
Those arguments could give me a real headache.

But this one was straightforward, so I confirmed the payment, saved the customization file, and sent it via CocoTalk messenger.
Once they downloaded it, they could freely use the design I’d poured my heart into.

That’s one job done.

Now, onto the next…

My name is Lee Winter.
A gender-neutral name, but it’s mine, so what can I do about it?

Anyway, I made a living through customization.
No complaints here.

My gaming taste leaned heavily toward perfecting appearances, so I’d always put effort into customization.
Sometimes, I’d spend entire days just crafting game characters to pass the time.
With that kind of hobby, earning money from it actually made me pretty satisfied with my job.

If only there weren’t so many difficult clients…

‘…Alright, two jobs done today…!’

After finishing two customization requests and sending off the files, I stretched long and hard.

Crack, pop, snap.

The sound of my bones shifting felt refreshing.

“Man… I wish I could customize stuff in real life too.”

‘If I could, I’d straighten out my spine in a snap.’

I indulged in my usual daydream.
The thought of customizing not just in games but in reality too.
A silly complaint, knowing it’d never happen.

With that pointless thought, I loosened up my body, decided to rest for the day, and got up from my chair.

‘Time to wash up and hit the bed…’

And at that moment,

[Loading Customization Window]

“…Huh?”

A hallucination appeared before my eyes.

“…Am I going crazy?”

I rubbed my eyes repeatedly, staring at the holographic window in front of me.
No one in my life would pull a prank like this, ruling out a hidden camera.

And more importantly, did this kind of holographic tech even exist in reality?
Even if it did, would anyone use such advanced technology for a prank? Doubtful.
So, I was left with two possibilities.

One: I was sick or insane, seeing hallucinations.
Two: This was real.

Gulp.

“No idea what’s going on, but… let’s try it and find out.”

Swallowing hard, I cautiously reached out into the air.

[Customization]
[Subject: Lee Winter]
[Body Customization]
[Talent Customization]
[Skill Customization]

As I clicked the message about loading the customization window, the display changed.
There, under my name, were three customization options.

Swallowing again, I examined them.
Body Customization seemed to be exactly what it sounded like—altering my physical form.
Talent Customization looked like it let me freely adjust my innate abilities.
Skill Customization seemed to allow me to manipulate my skills, like adding or removing skill points at will.

“If this is real…”

Muttering to myself, I clicked on Body Customization.
A familiar interface popped up, showing my naked body alongside sliders to adjust various attributes.

It was the customization window I knew so well, letting me tweak values up or down as I pleased.

But there was a limit—a maximum cost.
I couldn’t increase values beyond the allocated cost.
To enhance one part, I’d have to reduce another or work within the given limit.

‘…Body fat and toxins are listed as positive values… If I reduce those…’

Among the stats, my high body fat percentage, toxins, and cholesterol stood out as clearly bad.
As I started lowering them, I noticed the maximum cost increasing, and I couldn’t help but smile.

Reducing the bad and boosting the good…

‘This… this is the thrill of customization!!!’

As I slashed my body fat percentage, the chubby figure on the screen began to slim down.
Lowering the toxin levels improved my skin, clearing up blemishes.

But as the fat disappeared, my skin sagged unattractively due to low elasticity.
So, I boosted the skin elasticity value, and my skin snapped back into place perfectly.

The customized me on the screen…
Was completely slimmed down.

“If this is real…”

Looking at it, I couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement.
I’d always talked about dieting but failed every time, tempted by delicious food and too lazy to exercise.
Spending all day sitting in a corner clicking away, I’d naturally gained weight.
Now, my weight was well into the triple digits.

But if this customization was real, I could achieve the kind of weight loss I’d only dreamed of, so easily…
Of course, I was thrilled.

‘But just losing weight feels like a waste.’

If I could customize, I could overhaul my plain appearance too.
Becoming the ultimate alpha male from my dreams would be a piece of cake… or so I thought.
There was one problem.

“I’ve never made a male character.”

That’s right.
All my customizations were always female characters.
I’d never touched male ones, so I wasn’t confident I could make a good one.

‘What do I do…? Just give it a try?’

With enough time, I might pull it off.
But no matter how I thought about it, a male character wouldn’t match the quality of my female designs.

‘For a male character, they need to be tall, muscular, so the body has to be bulkier. And boosting the lower body stats would take a lot of cost…’

Among the various stats, there were values for the lower body’s thickness, length, and firmness.
Raising those would leave less cost for the overall appearance.
Rough calculations told me…

‘A decently handsome guy is probably the best I could do.’

In contrast, for a female character, I could set those three stats to zero—or even negative.
Then, with a slim waist and moderate height, I’d use less cost, leaving more to invest in appearance.

But this wasn’t a game character—it was my real body.
If I made a female character, I’d become a woman.

Honestly…
Changing my gender didn’t bother me much.

I wasn’t exactly using my lower body much now, and I doubted I would in the future.
What good was being a man?
If becoming a woman meant becoming a better version of myself, I was all for it.

The real issue was my ID.

‘If I become a woman, what happens to my ID?’

If I stayed a man, I could probably explain it away—say I lost weight and changed drastically.
But if my gender changed entirely, there’d be no explaining that.

Becoming a woman would mean losing my ID completely.
Even so, that was a bit…

As I thought it over, about to customize as a man reluctantly,

[Post-customization, your ID will reflect your customized appearance.]

“…Oh.”

A timely tip popped up, wiping away my concerns.
Well then!