Chapter 1: The Transformation

The warm morning sun was shining.

“Huh?”

A dumbfounded voice, several times higher in tone than usual, echoed within my small apartment.

“What the hell is this.”

As if not knowing the situation, unanswered questions wandered in the air.

I, too, looked bewildered as I touched my body, which had undergone a sudden change.

I could feel the slightly protruding chest and the barren plains of my groin, the skin was so white and delicate that I doubted whether blood could flow.

Furthermore, with a small height exceeding 140 cm, a pure voice that hadn’t been tainted, and small hands and feet, I could deduce that my body’s chromosomes had changed, meaning that I had transformed into the body of a young girl.

“This f*cking…”

As the chaos of my mind was filled with this sudden biological change, I frowned and went in front of the full-length mirror next to the closet.

Was it due to the exceptionally low field of vision? With every step I took, I felt severe seasickness, as if I were on a ship.

“……”

Suppressing the surging bewilderment, dizziness, and vertigo, I slowly examined the figure of a girl reflected in the mirror.

“……”

Two horns, rounded like those of a mountain goat, Shoulder-length, soft pink hair, Red eyes full of curiosity, And a sharp nose and red lips.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that I had transformed into the final boss of the 3rd-generation virtual reality game, ‘Arising’, [Oxian].

“Oxian?”

Like shouting the name of an ex-girlfriend I met on the street, a foolish voice slipped out of my mouth.

The problem was that the subject wasn’t my ex-girlfriend but myself.

I grabbed the full-length mirror as if I were shaking someone’s shoulders, then began to shake it frantically, as if I were confronting a swindler.

“What’s going on? Why am I…”

The sorrowful questions that made me feel like I would collapse at any moment filled my small apartment.

But the mirror in my house wasn’t the mirror of Snow White, and it didn’t give any answers to my questions.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

Like failing the first question in math, like being dumped by a girlfriend I believed in, thoughts that I couldn’t understand the reason for, churned in my mind.

“……”

In the end, my legs gave way, and I slumped to the ground.

As I sat on the hard wooden floor, I felt the ache and discomfort, but now wasn’t the time to worry about such things.

“Hah.”

A ridiculous laugh scattered in all directions.

Was it because my mind couldn’t fully accept the two facts of ‘my gender changed’ and ‘I became a game character’? Only a silly laugh kept coming out of my mouth.

…High autonomy, excellent graphics and background music, and a novel storyline.

‘Arising’, a 3rd-generation virtual reality game that has been praised for its perfection and has tens of millions of players worldwide.

Among the many NPCs in Arising, the boss monster ‘Oxian’ from seasons 18 and 19, was attracting great attention thanks to her cute appearance, unique strength, and the setting of being the strongest in the world.

Moreover, because no one had managed to clear her, she was receiving even more attention than the new season’s boss.

Yes, so far, so good.

I was also a member of Oxian’s fan club, and I was so interested in and fond of Oxian that I even bought various accessories and figurines.

But this was purely a ‘fan’s heart’, not that I wanted to become Oxian myself.

I always wanted to remain an ordinary young man from Korea, and I had never asked for my gender and body to be changed.

Moreover, my life goal wasn’t world domination, and being the strongest in the world wasn’t my dream either.

So, in a word, I was in a situation that I couldn’t understand, nor did I want to accept.

I wanted someone to shout that this was a dream, that it was just my delusion, right now.

“Fir, first, 119, yes 119…”

I put my distracting thoughts aside and picked up my phone with trembling hands.

I was confident that South Korea, a medical powerhouse, would somehow solve the mystery of my physical transformation, so I carefully entered 119 on the keypad.

And as I was about to press the call button, swallowing hard,

“Kyaaah!”

“……?”

A scream that would shake the world came from outside the window.

I put down my phone for a moment and ran towards the window where the sound had come from, like a child going to see a toy.

“……That’s!”

Then what came into my eyes, Holding a luxurious handbag, wearing elegant shoes, and clutching her head as if she had a severe headache,

“Lizardman…?”

I rubbed my eyes several times to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating, and even slapped my cheeks dozens of times to make sure I wasn’t crazy, but the creature sitting on the side of the road was undoubtedly a Lizardman.

Unlike the usual green Lizardmen, its skin was blue, so it was certain that this was the Lizardman chieftain that appeared in ‘Arising’.

Moreover, seeing that it was wearing a handbag and shoes, and a luxury coat that only 21st-century Korean housewives would wear, I could instinctively realize that the Lizardman had also undergone a sudden change like me.

[UwoooOOoooOOoo!]

“Huh?”

And another roar coming from over there.

The sound of heavy metal dragging on the ground, and a creature that couldn’t be seen in reality, slowly revealed itself as it turned the corner.

“Minotaur?”

[UwoooOOoooOOoo!]

The Minotaur, a monster with a bull’s head and a human body, smashing the cars parked on the side of the road with a giant axe in its hand.

[Kyaaaah!]

“Huh?”

And in the opposite direction, ‘Mister Hydra’, the signature monster of Arising, appeared, flaring its formidable pincers.

[Kyaaaah!]

Mister Hydra, a worm-like monster about 2 meters long, often appeared in the dungeons in the game and was called the representative monster of Arising because of its strong appearance, similar to a stag beetle.

“Oh my…”

And the former Korean housewife, now Lizardman chieftain, who was caught between the two, fainted on the spot as if she had seen a ghost.

“Lizardman, and Minotaur, and Hydra?”

I didn’t know what the situation was, But I felt that this was definitely not a normal situation spreading all over my body.

“Am I crazy?”

It wasn’t a coincidence, and it wasn’t just one.

Nor was it temporary, but the monsters of Arising kept appearing, and I frowned and picked up my phone again.

Then, I deleted the 119 I had entered earlier and pressed 112 again.

Hospitals were no longer important. The priority was to eliminate those monsters that seemed about to enter my house right now.

[Jiiiiing-]

“Oh, what now?”

…As I was about to press the call button, I frowned at the vibration that sounded at a perfect timing, as if to interrupt me.

A text icon indicating that a new message had arrived on my phone’s notification bar.

“Why a text all of a sudden…”

My parents were traveling in Europe and didn’t contact me often, and I didn’t have any siblings or even any acquaintances who I usually contacted, so there was no one who could send me a text.

“Safety alert?”

I frown even more when I see the source of the text.

And I read the contents of the text out loud.

The message that the state sent to the citizens, filled with a soft voice, echoed inside my apartment.

“From the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, today, at 10:00 a.m., a large-scale appearance of monstrous creatures and abnormal physical changes in most citizens in major cities nationwide. Please refrain from outdoor activities until further notice from the state.”

Unable to believe the contents, I looked dumbfounded and went to the internet to check the news instead of calling.

As expected, ‘Monster Appearance in Seoul’ was on the front page.

The news reported that monsters had suddenly appeared in cities across the country, and that many citizens had changed into monsters or characters from the virtual reality game, ‘Arising’.

As befitting this insane news, the comment section was also lagging heavily, with countless comments coming in every time I scrolled down.

[Hey, isn’t this the end of the world?]

ㄴ[Who cares, I’d rather it end]

[I changed into my character, I’m so handsome]

[Hey, this is opening a status window and I can really use skills]

[My mom suddenly turned into a spider, what should I do? Please hurry]

ㄴ[Kill it and eat experience points]

[I’m a Rain Knight. Come at me, you bastards]

ㄴ[? Is that a rare job?]

ㄴ[Yeah, lol]

ㄴ[But anyway, Oxian is the best]

ㄴ[R.O.L.L. lol]

“…”

I could feel my pupils shaking as I read the various comments.

If the contents of those comments were true, the citizens of South Korea were currently turning into NPCs, characters, or monsters of Arising.

Although the exact cause and reason for this phenomenon had not yet been revealed, one thing was certain: this was a large-scale phenomenon happening right now, and it was related to the 3rd-generation virtual reality game, Arising.

“…”

I got up weakly and looked at the mirror again. In the mirror, a beautiful girl with devil’s horns was frowning.

“…”

Without a word, quietly, surrounding the space in silence, I stroke my own cheek.

The rough skin I had felt until now was gone, and the plump and smooth texture was conveyed through my small hand.

“Ah.”

…After staring blankly for a long time, as if admiring her appearance, the girl in the mirror whispered softly.

“F*ck.”