Chapter 1: The broadcast was opened by force

When I became a college student, I naturally scrambled to adjust to university life.
I felt a sense of injustice for having started off on the wrong foot.
When I went to the orientation, my grandfather passed away, so I had to take a taxi to the funeral hall in the middle of the night.

Naturally, by the time I saw everyone again, they had all become friends.
Still, it wasn’t entirely difficult to blend in.
The people who were in the same room during orientation did look out for me.

“Yeseung, we’re going for drinks today, want to come?”
“Are you free during the 4th period? We decided to have lunch.”

Was it because it was a large department?
There wasn’t an atmosphere of openly ostracizing me for being an outsider.

Come to think of it, we were all freshmen, and anyone would probably be the same.
At the beginning of the semester, everyone makes an effort to get to know each other, and there was no reason I would be an exception.

So I also tried my best to fit in somehow.
I drank.
I even followed them to karaoke even though I couldn’t sing.
I fretted over what others thought of me, and in case I came off as a loner, I even took the initiative to set up meal plans.

‘So tiring…’

But all that remained was the feeling of wearing ill-fitting clothes.
It’s tiring.
It’s annoying.
It’s not fun.
I didn’t see the reason to drink until my stomach was ruined the next day.
The awkwardness when I barely managed to sing a song, unable to be the only one to sit out, was also dreadful.

I’m more comfortable alone.
It’s not that I wanted the hollow title of a ‘voluntary outsider,’ but with over 300 freshmen in the department, my absence doesn’t even make a difference.
So in the end, without even trying to fit in for a full semester, I locked myself in my room.

“I should have done this from the start.”

Then there wouldn’t have been any awkwardness when I ran into people I knew.
Still, I could feel them gradually starting to ignore me.
From my perspective, that was better.
School was just a place to go and attend lectures.

After my lectures, the time I spent watching a movie in my room with a can of beer and a skewer was happier.
I played League of Legends so incessantly that I suddenly reached the Master tier.
Rather than thinking I was good, I figured it would be stranger not to reach it after playing 1000 games.

Anyway, before a single semester was over, I had completely devolved into a homebody loner.
That fact wasn’t particularly despairing or frustrating, but if I were to just state the facts, that’s what it was.
Everyone has their own disposition and a life that suits them.
It might seem pathetic in someone else’s eyes, but in the first place, hardly anyone knew I existed.

I was a little worried about getting a job, wondering if anyone would want to hire a guy with such poor social skills.
But that was still a long way off.
For now, I was focused on living however I wanted.

Certainly, that was how it was until yesterday.

[Starting the broadcast.]
[Opening your channel to approximately 10,000 people.]

“…What is this.”

I woke up and had become a woman.
And as if my mind had gone strange as well, a weird system message was appearing before my eyes.

Looking in the mirror, I saw a woman with tired eyes and messy hair.

Her black hair that reached her back and her fair skin were noticeable.
She kind of looked like my younger sister, except for the eyes.

Overall, she gave off a pretty impression.
The problem was that this was my reflection.

‘What on earth is this?’

My mind couldn’t keep up with the situation.

The room was definitely my room.
But the types and arrangement of objects were subtly different, and when I opened my wallet, I saw a changed ID card.

『Han Yeseung』

The name was the same, but the photo and gender were different.
Naturally, the latter part of my resident registration number was also a woman’s.

The man I used to be had disappeared, and only the evidence of a female Han Yeseung remained.
It was a maddening situation.
No matter how much I thought about it, understanding was impossible, but accepting reality was also difficult, so I just gave up thinking.

Would my family still be the same?
My parents and older sister were objects of love and hate to me.
I didn’t particularly resent them, but I didn’t love them either, and I hadn’t contacted them since leaving home.
I couldn’t tell if they were precious enough for me to check on immediately.

I was worried about my younger sister, though.
But right now, I just didn’t have the courage to call.

Even if my appearance had changed, couldn’t I just live cooped up in my room like before?
Thinking positively, that was the case.

[The viewers are confused. Check the community reaction.]

Until another message appeared in mid-air.

“Reaction? What are you talking about?”

The moment I asked, my open laptop automatically turned on.
As if that wasn’t enough, it even navigated to an internet site.

A chill ran down my spine at the bizarre phenomenon.
It meant that my transformation into a woman and the strange messages appearing before my eyes were the acts of some transcendent being.

The site it connected to was one that collected various galleries.
Among them, the one it accessed was the ‘Han Yeseung Gallery’.
I suspected as much, but considering the circumstances, it seemed to be my name, Han Yeseung.

First, I skimmed through the list of posts.

[Hey guys, can you see this too?]
[Booked an appointment at a mental hospital. I’m checking out, fck.]
[I asked my family if they could see some woman in front of me and they treated me like an idiot. It’s so fcking unfair.]
[Here’s my theory. That woman is probably Han Yeseung, and it seems only certain people can see this. Judging by the post refresh rate, there are quite a few, but I don’t know the purpose yet.]
[That’s not a theory, everyone knows that already.]
[But honestly, the Gallery Master is pretty, right?]
[Gallery Master lol, are you f*cking crazy?]
[Wait, isn’t she looking at the gallery right now?]

It was terrifying.
What is this.
They can see me?
In their eyes?

Only then did I understand the content of the strange system message.
I didn’t want to understand, but I had no choice.

It meant my actions were being shown to 10,000 people.
This was more shocking than turning into a woman.

“Can you… see me right now?”

I muttered to the empty air.
If I was mistaken, it would just be me making a fool of myself.
If it was just me fooling around, it wouldn’t matter since no one would see.

But if they were really watching…

[Yeah, we see you.]
[You b*tch, explain what’s going on.]
[Aargh!! Get out of my sight!!]
[The Gallery Master has a nice voice too.]
[lol looks like she doesn’t know what’s going on either.]

Crazy.
It seems to be real.

“What is this…”

My vision spun.

My mind felt like it was turning completely white.
I didn’t know why I had turned into a woman, and now my actions were being broadcast live to thousands of people.

Wondering if there was a camera, I searched the room thoroughly.

[lol she’s looking for a camera?]
[It’s not that kind of angle lol. At least there’s nothing on the ceiling.]
[As if it would be a camera. It’s appearing directly in people’s eyes, it’s funny she’s trying to understand this with common sense lol]
[Gallery Master seems a bit of an airhead lol]

“Shut up for a bit. You’re saying that because it’s not your problem.”

I got angry at the people chattering as if it was someone else’s business.
What kind of act was it to laugh when I was dead serious?

[That contemptuous voice… holy.]
[But it must be f*cking scary. If the Gallery Master didn’t cause this, it means it happened to her without her knowing. That sounds truly terrifying.]
[Do we have to care about that?]
[Hey guys, did you know there’s an ON/OFF function on the screen? When I turn it OFF, she completely disappears from my sight.]
[Already turned it OFF but got bored and turned it back on lol]

“Really? There’s an OFF function?”

[Yeah, usually the Gallery Master’s image appears in a split-screen in a corner. If you press OFF, you can escape being a lunatic.]

“I don’t see anything like that…”

[Why would you have it, you airhead?]
[Guess it’s only for viewers.]
[Looks like you’ll be broadcasting 24/7 lol]

“Th-then, couldn’t everyone just turn it OFF?”

[Nah, is that how you ask for a favor?]
[Why would we turn it OFF? lol We can just watch the Gallery Master shower and go to the bathroom and everything lololol]
[Wow, this guy is a real psycho.]
[Bullsh*t, you know you’ll watch too.]
[Honestly, I’m scared I’ll get handcuffed for this lol]
[What lol what evidence would they use to arrest you? Are you gonna go and say you see a woman’s video in your eyes?]
[But for real, what’s gonna happen to the Gallery Master’s life?]
[Has anyone figured out who the Gallery Master is? Is she a regular person?]
[Scoured the internet but found nothing.]

My head ached watching them laugh among themselves.
The system had said the channel was opened to 10,000 people.
I didn’t expect them all to turn it OFF.

If such a thing happened to me, my curiosity would probably take over.
And if I could turn it OFF, it wouldn’t disrupt my life.

In other words, I was the only one in a serious situation.
It seemed those people didn’t know I used to be a man.

Even if I had originally been a man, how could I go to the bathroom or be naked while thousands of people watched me live?
I felt a great deal of shame just being like this in my room.

“Ugh…”

No matter how much I thought about it, I didn’t know why this was happening only to me.
I may not have lived a kind life, but I never lived while causing harm to others.

I wonder if the system had at least a shred of conscience.

[Tip. You can manipulate the channel to turn it OFF for 50 minutes a day at any time you wish. The time can be used in second-long increments.]
It was… a tearfully grateful piece of news.