Thirty Minutes
Everyone knows this story, right? You're lying, aren't you? Thirty minutes.
The time it took, from opening my eyes in this studio apartment I'd never seen before in my life, to accepting the fact that I had become a woman.
No matter how much my head throbbed, one look at the bra and panties hanging on the drying rack told me this wasn't my room.
"Where the hell is this? Whose house is... huh?"
Instinctively blurting it out in shock, I heard an unfamiliar woman's voice and knew right away.
The hairs on my body stood on end. Panicking, I rushed into the wide-open bathroom and confronted my reflection in the mirror. Denying that I was now a woman would have been plain stupid.
The bathroom was spotlessly clean, not a speck of mold anywhere.
Apart from the neatly arranged shelf of products from women I didn't recognize, it was just a bathroom.
"……"
The face in the mirror was ridiculously clean and beautiful.
I was so stunned that I figured my twenty-odd years as a guy had just been a demo version. She was that stunning.
"My head... what's up with this? Did she dye it?"
But her looks were so striking they made me mutter to myself.
Her hair was a sparkling pure white—natural, not dyed. I checked the roots, and they were white too. Even her eyes were red.
Running my hands down from my face, I felt heavy breasts that were a bit of a handful. No bra on, obviously. Lower still, and there was no doubt left that I was a woman now.
...Fine, I accepted I was a woman. But who the hell was I?
Luckily, the smartphone in the pajama pocket worked fine.
> Baedal's Minion
> Hanseong Delivery
> Post Office Delivery
> Lost of Fantasy
Calmly tapping KakaoTalk to check contacts, the chat rooms that popped up were just delivery apps.
This pretty mystery girl wasn't even in a single group chat.
Right, who uses KakaoTalk these days anyway?
Thinking that, I poked around for Instagram or other SNS, but nothing came up.
...No Instagram? Worst case, I hoped for Twitter at least, but nada?
Jeong Hana
Thankfully, digging through KakaoTalk revealed her name right away.
"Jeong Hana... Jeong Hana..."
Muttering it over and over, I slumped onto the toilet and clutched my head with both hands.
"I'm... not crazy. I got discharged from the army properly, no truck accident yesterday, never left a bad review, no shady gallery comments..."
Thirty minutes.
The time it took to accept that my twenty-something years of life had been a demo.
"So... no friends, no parents. That's the woman I've become..."
Back on the bed, I dug deeper into KakaoTalk and texts to piece together what kind of person Jeong Hana was.
For starters, she was an orphan.
The 4.2 million won in her bank account was from the orphanage. A quick search confirmed it.
Texts politely exchanged with someone called "Sister" sealed it—no mistake.
And that was it.
"......Hoo."
Guri-si, Gyeonggi-do.
A rundown studio tucked in a corner of this small city near Seoul.
Rent was 250k because the landlady pitied her.
No college—zero interest in studying. Odds-and-ends short-term gigs otherwise.
Her bank statements screamed it: a life that fit on one glance. That was 21-year-old Jeong Hana in full.
"This is too much... Usually when you become a girl, you get to be a chaebol heiress or my fave vtuber or some romance-fantasy lady, right?"
Sure, big boobs and a killer figure.
But a legendary restart with zero other perks? Is this okay?
The soul-searching journey that started on the bed ended fast.
Jeong Hana's life had nothing remarkable.
Meet a diverse cast of characters in the new Alfheim!
Opening today at 1 PM!
[*This message sent only to pre-registration users.]
With an empty fridge forcing a delivery order, this KakaoTalk ping arrived—welcome, but absurd.
Lost of Fantasy.
A game so familiar it turned my stomach, but in Jeong Hana's world, it was a "new release."
Why had she pre-registered, though?
Harsh to say, but MMORPGs aren't exactly chick bait...
"Damn, nice specs..."
Not just the PC— the installed games were top-tier, enough to brag about anywhere.
Fired up Legend of League, battle royale, Escape of Paradise, Darkwatch 2, even otaku stuff like Red Archive. Genre-spanning.
Looked like Jeong Hana wasn't your average girl—she was a gamer.
And Lost of Fantasy sat there, icon matching my memories, fully installed.
But I had zero plans to touch it.
Absolutely not.
No way I'd replay the game that devoured ten years of my life, now as a woman—unless I couldn't pay rent tomorrow.
Anyway, couldn't eat chicken alone, so I hit Nutube for background noise.
"Official Launch at Last!! What Job to Pick in Lost of Fantasy?"
"PC Bang #1 Incoming! What's Lost of Fantasy?!"
"Ex-Pro Gamer Recommends: Rogue All the Way!"
"So, What's Lost of Fantasy?"
"Beta Conquered! | Just Follow: Boost Combat Power Fast!"
Jeong Hana's life screamed hardcore gamer.
Nutube's front page was an endless scroll of Lost of Fantasy vids.
Wait, was it that huge here? Million-view counts?
"A Game Like None Before? Lost of Fantasy Review!"
"It's Insanely DIFFICULT! Lost of Fantasy Endgame!"
What was this hype?
Not that revolutionary...
Phone calendar wasn't far off—ten or twenty years back, I'd be screaming and buying Bitcoin. Hell, stocks popped to mind from ten years ago...
Curiosity won; clicked a 2M-view vid.
"Hey everyone! Rice here. Today, introducing Lost of Fantasy..."
Rice: ex-pro with Legend of League wins.
Her world seemed close to mine...
But an ex-pro shilling LoF? In Korea? Legendary, sure, but...
"Lost of Fantasy is an RPG from Frost."
Standard stuff.
"I've played tons of RPGs—Underground Castle and Hero, Thor of Execution Sword, Mushroom Story. You've all tried 'em, right?"
Classic hits, still popular.
No Korean gamer skips those three.
"But... Lost of Fantasy is totally different! Frost invited me HQ for 20 hours of play..."
Fans might say that, but...
In Korea lately? Nah. Even after 10+ years, I wouldn't hype it that hard.
"Open-world vibes—go anywhere, hunt dungeons. Jobs are super detailed."
No way—is this for real? Ex-pro hyping like this okay?
And chat's wild—what's going on?
"Endgame! RPG fans gotta talk it—beyond dungeons, raids. Parties team up on massive bosses. Insane fun."
...Huh?
"Anyway, intro over! Not just any ex-pro—two-time champ here. Job picks incoming."
Pro, viewers—what are they on about?
...No raids?
Why? Lost of Fantasy launched twenty years ago, but MMORPGs existed before and after.
Even if today's launch here made it flagship...
"Wait... no way."
On a hunch, searched "raid game," "indun."
The results made me snort in disbelief.
"...Possible?"
Her world had Legend of League.
Escape of Paradise.
Battle royale.
Underground Castle and Hero...
Tons of games existed, but
"No raid games...?"
Tank-DPS-heal, raids.
That meta was blooming right now, today.
"Then yeah, I could play again."
I knew Lost of Fantasy best—what happened, the metas. Worth the grind? Hell yes. No reason not to. I knew it all.