The Virginity Appraiser
Yeah, this is the average lobby of the game I play every day.
This ancient game, which has been in service domestically for eight years now.
It's still popular worldwide, so there should be plenty of newbies flowing in, but...
For some reason, the higher your tier, the more you keep running into the same people. Because of that, cliquey behavior is a given, psychopaths pick fights over the smallest things, and profanity flies around like it's nothing. It's a popular game with plenty of people starting out, but... the number of players who actually make it to the high tiers is extremely small. So, at an early morning hour like this, you start seeing the same old usernames.
Usually, they just play in silence and say "good game" at the end, but...
It seemed a rare baby newbie had finally climbed up to the high tiers.
And that was why... my first match of the day started off in this absolute state right from the champion select screen.
How is it like this from the very first game? Seriously.
Sigh.
But the sadder part was that I couldn't say I was entirely blameless.
After all, it was my username alone that had ruined everyone's mood before the game even started.
Technically, since I was the one who provided the trigger, I had no right to complain.
I was well aware that the username representing me on the internet was far from sane.
'VirginityAppraiser'
...A username I've kept for eight years, to the point where even I wonder why it hasn't been banned.
I made it just to troll, so I wouldn't have minded if it got banned. But since it never did, I was still maintaining the persona, playing this globally famous game, Legend of Fantasy—or 'Leo-pan' for short—with this trashy name.
Why did I make such a name at my age?
Because one day, an older girl I liked and had known for a long time suddenly told me she was pregnant, and I just felt like making a name like this.
...Fuck. On the day I realized that the only good and pure women in the world are virgins, I started this game and created this username.
And the moment I started the game with this username, I decided which characters I would play out of the pool of over 120.
Naturally, they were all female characters, and specifically ones that looked like virgins.
In this game where hatred for female characters was rampant, I only played trash-tier female characters who seemed like virgins.
Pretty female characters, young female characters... Every female character in Leo-pan belonged to the category that tugged at my heartstrings and made me want to give a standing ovation.
With picks that made everyone think, Welp, we lost, the moment I locked them in, I was a high-tier roleplayer and a one-trick-pony.
Normally, seeing the lobby ruined from the start would make most people use the wonderful feature called "dodging," but since I was basically Bill Gates when it came to free time, I didn't care whether I won or lost. I had the skill and the time to recover my points easily.
That was how confident I was in my skills. I mean, if I'm playing games first thing in the morning, I should at least be this good.
And so, the outcome of this game, which I had half-abandoned to look forward to the next one, was...
The blue background and text popped up on the monitor. Unlike a defeat, it evoked a deep blue ocean, putting the viewer's mind at ease.
In other words, it was an incredibly smooth win.
Why?? Why on earth?
Honestly, even I didn't know how we won.
Looking at the lobby, it was a game anyone would expect to lose, but it ended cleanly at the 15-minute mark with an enemy surrender.
You know those games sometimes.
The ones where anyone would say, "Welp, we lost lol fuck," but you couldn't dodge in time, so you were forced to play.
Yet somehow, every single lane wins, and you easily get the enemy to surrender... The kind of game that happens maybe once in a thousand matches.
This was exactly that kind of game.
Sigh.
It's a game I always tell myself I'm going to quit, but after saying that for eight years, I still haven't. I felt deeply ashamed of myself every time I ran into people like them.
Thinking that those people probably have part-time jobs, careers, and live much more human lives than me in the real world made my stomach acid churn. *Ugh... fuck...*
...And with that, I shut down the game. The thought of those bastards, who acted like keyboard warriors online, living more decent lives than me completely ruined my mood to play. In the end, I closed the game after just one match.
...I play games to escape reality and relieve stress, but for some reason, this trash game only piles on more stress from arguing with others.
Of course, the main reason I get targeted is my username.
Do you know what buoyancy is?
Yeah, the force that makes things float... Ah, fuck, sorry for being a humanities major. I don't know the details. I'll search it on Namuwiki later.
Anyway, buoyancy is basically what they call it when something floats in water... right?
I had never believed in it. Even though it's scientifically proven, since I was someone who had never floated in water, I wondered if buoyancy was actually a fake concept.
But now, I've come to believe in buoyancy. Just like biblical figures who saw Jesus in a dream and praised God with fervent faith ever since.
...The reason was simple. Right after finishing that single game I had turned on for a quick match.
"What is this smell?"
As I lay down on the bed, a smell like a pigsty wafted over. There was no way this smell could come from a human's room. Wondering if it was coming from my own body, I sniffed myself, but my body smelled of sweet citron. A sweet, tempting scent of fruit that made me want to keep smelling it.
Wondering where the hell this awful smell was coming from, I braced myself and sniffed the bed and the blanket...
"Wow, holy shit."
A scent so powerful it almost made me lose consciousness hit my nose.
What kind of piece of trash was I to have never cleaned up until it smelled like this?
It was a one-room apartment, filled with un-recycled plastic delivery containers and dishes strewn about haphazardly.
A horrific place where bugs could crawl out at any second. Actually, they had crawled out a few times.
Normally, people wouldn't leave it uncleaned to this extent. Just how deeply despondent had I been to not clean any of this...
Ah.
...The answer to the question immediately flashed in my mind. The reason why I could have fallen into such despair came back to me.
I was originally a disabled person who couldn't even move.
I managed to order food and crawl to the door so I wouldn't starve, but doing laundry or cleaning was something I couldn't even dream of.
Things that were so obvious when I thought about it. A body that couldn't do the things it naturally should. Having lived in that body for over twenty years, was it any wonder I had dark thoughts?
Honestly, I still couldn't believe my mindset had changed this much just because my body had changed.
Just a few hours ago, I was wishing for death, doing nothing—not even playing the games I loved or listening to music—just sleeping helplessly day after day.
...Well, that miserable past didn't matter anymore.
Now, my former vessel... saying it like that makes me sound like a chuunibyou.
Anyway, I had bid farewell to my old body and obtained a new one.
Since I had never done it before, I watched videos on streaming platforms and cleaned up everything in the house that had been left neglected.
...Only then did it feel like a human lived here. The feeling of actually living filled my chest with emotion. And all I did was clean.
When I finally finished the cleaning, which took several hours, I felt a sense of accomplishment I hadn't felt in ages. It felt like monsoon rain finally falling on a parched, drought-stricken land.
And, while I was at it, I decided to wash my body.
Even if I smelled nice, remembering that I hadn't washed in months made me feel a bit gross.
A strong urge to lather my body with soap and shampoo my hair washed over me.
In my apartment, the bathroom doubled as a shower room. In that shower-like bathroom,
there was a small bathtub just big enough to fit a single body. A half-body tub that could submerge about half of this body, which didn't seem to exceed 170 centimeters.
I hated washing, but I was a contradictory person who loved filling a tub with warm water to relieve fatigue, which was why I had it. Though I had never used it.
In that unused, virgin bathtub... I finally decided to run the water and try taking a half-bath.
Whoosh.
The sound of my precious water bill ticking up echoed.
Just as there are limits to how hot water should be, I adjusted the temperature to a comfortable level and finally started filling the tub.
Since it was a tiny tub meant for just one person, it didn't take long to fill.
I picked up the showerhead that was filling the tub and slowly began to wash my naked body.
...The stream of water was so warm. For some reason, the shower I used to hate so much brought peace to my mind.
"Time to get in."
I did a basic shower, washing my hair and body.
When the water first hit my skin, I thought showering for the first time in a while wasn't so bad, but unfortunately, that thought was instantly shattered by my long hair.
It's not like I can just chop it off.
I do like shoulder-length bobs,
but as someone who preferred feminine things, I liked this long, lively hair the best. So, even if it was a hassle, I was going to keep it.
With those thoughts, I slowly lowered my body, starting with my legs, into the tub filled with warm water.
Feeling the illusion that the slowly rising warmth was healing my tired body, I submerged my entire body except for my head...
"Huh?"
...My breasts... started floating in the water...
"Ugh..."
Only then did I truly believe the already proven, obvious fact that the human body floats...
...It was embarrassing. These floating breasts, with no one but myself to see them, were so, so, so, so, so embarrassing...
The most embarrassing part was me, looking down at my own floating breasts with somehow lecherous eyes.
Even though it was my own body, my brain hadn't fully accepted it yet, and my head throbbed from the sudden surge of excitement.
...I did get in here planning to enjoy this to some extent, though.
I did get in here expecting this to some degree, though.
Honestly, even before taking a bath, I could tell this body was incredibly hot. As a foolish mortal who had succumbed to the lust right in front of me, thinking it would be even hotter naked...
I had forgotten a simple, absolute truth.
The wise saying left by sages that stripping completely naked actually makes it less hot, and the fact that this "less hot" body was my own.
"Sigh..."
Since there wasn't even a common mirror in the bathroom, I looked at my reflection faintly cast on the water in the tub.
Of course.
It was a beautiful body, beautiful enough to make the urge to date her dominate my brain... but in the end, this was my body.
My inside was like a sheet of paper that had been stepped on, folded, and torn to shreds countless times. But my outside was like a flower blooming on a cliff, looking as if it had never been defiled by anyone.
It was still too much for someone who, until recently, was wishing for death out of self-loathing, to suddenly practice narcissism and fall in love with myself. Narcissists are crazy people who love even their own inner selves.
Regaining my cool, I managed to calm my head, which felt like it was going to explode from excitement, and curled up to submerge myself back into the tub. Then, I organized the situation.
I became a woman. And I can walk...
...Honestly, none of it is believable.
Everything that had happened lately was like that.
But if there was just one thing out of all this that I could proudly tell others,
"Phew..."
it was the single fact that my breasts, which kept trying to float up even when I curled up, were absolutely amazing.