Female Streaming? But I'm a Guy!

A brutal day.

I shoved open the door to my studio apartment with my foot, dragging a body caked in sweat and dust.

Creeeeak—

A faded mattress and damp air thick with mildew greeted me.

"Uuugh…"

A groan slipped out before I could stop it. I didn't even have the strength to stay upright, so I just collapsed onto the floor.

Thud.

My back hit the ground and every muscle in my body screamed. Of course they did. The construction site I'd thrown myself into today had been pure hell.

That morning the labor agency boss had called, offering double the usual rate if I could fill in on short notice. An absolute golden opportunity—I'd accepted without a second thought. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd spend the entire day hauling bricks on my back.

I should have flat-out refused pure, brainless grunt work. Thanks to that, there wasn't a single part of me that didn't hurt—hands, shoulders, arms, lower back, knees, feet.

"Life… shit."

This goddamn life.

Looking back, it had been like this from the start. I opened my eyes in a dirt-poor one-room shack. Never even met my mother. The bastard who called himself my father spent every day pickled in booze, swinging his fists around. I couldn't take it anymore, so at nineteen I ran straight into the military—and cut ties with him for good.

Two months since discharge now. In a mildew-stinking semi-basement I'd barely scraped together with my military savings, I was keeping myself alive day by day through construction labor.

An exhausting, grinding routine. How long was I supposed to keep living like this?

"Hah… just wash up and sleep."

I shook off the negative thoughts with a single sigh. No point stewing over it—my life of hauling bricks wasn't going to change either way.

The moment I pushed myself up off the mattress to rinse the grime from my body—

Bold red letters on a crimson background floated right in front of my eyes.

"…What the hell is this?"

"…What?"

A translucent red window hovering in midair. Some bizarre phenomenon that looked exactly like a status message from a game. I rubbed my eyes.

The window still didn't disappear.

"Female streaming is the only way to live?"

Female streaming—of course I knew what that was. Coming home from work, flopping down, and putting on a stream was the one bright spot in my life. From the biggest AOS game broadcasts to variety shows to mukbangs, I had a rough handle on how the whole scene worked. Female streaming, though? Never really paid attention to it.

Not that I hated it. It just felt… a little too blatant, you know? Watching it always made me weirdly embarrassed.

So why the hell was that floating in my field of vision?

Female streaming was something women did, right? I was a guy.

"Did my brain short-circuit? A guy doing female streaming?"

My brain had clearly gone off the rails. I'd been breathing construction dust all day—hallucinations made sense. Or maybe I'd inhaled paint fumes.

"Maybe I should go to a hospital. First, wash my eyes out."

I swatted at the translucent window floating in front of me, and it scooted off into the left corner of my vision.

Wait—it still wouldn't go away even after that?

Whatever. I ignored the alien window, pushed myself up, and stood in front of the bathroom door. Something felt off, though. How to put it… the doorknob seemed a little higher than usual?

"Am I actually losing it? What's going on?"

I shoved the strange sensation aside, grabbed the bathroom doorknob, and opened the door—

And I couldn't help but scream.

Because a woman I didn't know was standing there.

"Gyaaaaaaah— wh… who are you?!"

A woman's voice, clear as day. A woman repeating the exact words I'd just said.

The weird part was that I couldn't hear my own male voice at all.

And then the terrifying realization hit me.

The woman I'd found was standing… inside the mirror.

Which meant that woman was—

No way.

"That's me in the mirror?"

I stepped toward the mirror one pace at a time. Then I pressed my hands all over my face.

Soft, springy skin. Black hair that looked like it'd been growing for three years. Black eyes.

She was so beautiful I couldn't believe it was me.

Even trapped in a situation I couldn't possibly keep up with, my brain kept grinding.

"R… reincarnation? Or did my body get swapped?"

But there was evidence that flatly contradicted that theory: the clothes I was wearing. Dust clung to my black T-shirt in patches, proof I'd just come rolling off a construction site.

In other words—I couldn't believe it, but I'd become a woman.

Stone-cold sober.

"Ah… no. I'm a guy."

This wasn't real. I was a man. I had to be a man.

But the reflection in the mirror was far too pretty to call male.

"Ah— r-right, my ID card!"

My resident registration card. That would still have proof that I was a man.

I bolted out of the bathroom and flipped open the wallet on my desk. Two ten-thousand-won bills and a single debit card. I pulled out the ID inside—

Huh?

Why… why does the last digit start with 4?

"Uh… uh?"

A dumb sound spilled from my mouth. In the middle of this unbroken chain of impossible events—

Ding—

A sky-blue window appeared in my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠vision.

With that window as the last thing I saw, I blacked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out.

An unfamiliar ceiling.

No—of course it wasn't. It was my own ceiling.

I raised my right hand and spread it toward the ceiling. Instead of the solid forearm with veins standing out, I saw a pale, slender arm. Every scrape and bruise from construction work had vanished without a single trace.

"R… right. Let's just treat this as reality for now. In that case…"

I dragged the window that had been shoved into the corner of my vision back over with my hand.

Already six hours since I passed out?

I barely managed to sit up. I went over everything that had happened, trying to organize the situation as best I could. A mission that suddenly appeared in front of my eyes—and at the same time, I turned into a woman. Wasn't this basically the same as the awakenings you saw in so much media?

"…Status window?"

No way that would work, right? I was just saying it because of the situation—

…It actually worked?

I slowly read the status window floating in front of me from top to bottom.

"Name's Ryu Ari? It even renamed me on its own… and why the hell does a female streamer need a level?"

I wasn't a hunter. What use did a female streamer have for something like a level?

The stats below that were even more ridiculous.

"Shame? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

A stat window I couldn't make sense of. But nobody was around to answer my questions.

And the most baffling item of all—the very bottom entry on the status window: Manly Man.

I had no idea what it meant, so I poked around and finally tapped it with my finger.

BAM!

In a flash of pure rage I slammed my hand into the floor. I didn't even feel the pain.

"You… you little shit. You know I'm a guy and you're mocking me, aren't you."

I spat the words out in fury, but the status window gave no reply. It just floated there, lofty and silent.

"Won't even answer me, this damn status window…"

I barely managed to rein in the anger boiling in my chest. There was nothing I could do right now anyway. For the time being, I had to do what the status window told me.

The condition: start a broadcast within twenty-four hours.

The problem was that wanting to stream didn't mean I could just do it. I didn't have a single piece of streaming equipment. All I owned was a gaming laptop for killing time—nowhere near enough to go live on.

"Status window. You want me to stream without a computer? You're gonna help me out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with gear, right?"

I complained about being ordered to stream without being given any equipment, but no answer came back. I clicked my tongue at that and picked up my phone first. I needed to check my bank balance.

Everything left after peeling the security deposit for rent, living expenses, and utilities out of my military savings.

"I… I really have to spend this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠money?"

Crisis. This money was a full three months of living expenses. My mentor's advice had always been to keep at least a million won in reserve no matter what. The second I spent this, I'd be a total beggar overnight.

"Please, please let there be something good."

I dug through the internet hunting for decent gear, but with money that was already tight just for a bare PC tower, putting together a streaming setup was impossible.

"…Last resort."

I opened the local used-goods app. I searched under every keyword I could think of—gaming PC, streaming set, broadcast equipment—but the prices hammered my mental state. RAM prices were completely unhinged.

"You insane AI bastards…"

Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. Still, I refused to give up and kept scrolling—

Eureka.

Found it. My savior.

I hit the chat button without a second of hesitation. No matter how I looked at it, I wasn't going to find a cheaper opportunity than this.

After barely securing a computer, I flopped back down on the floor.

No matter how many times I thought it over, the whole thing still felt like a dream. Becoming a woman and suddenly having to start streaming…

Still, let's try to look on the bright side. Wasn't I barely scraping by on construction work anyway? Getting a chance at a whole new life wasn't a bad thing—

This goddamn life.

Or wait—this dickless life?