Despair, Fear, and Anger (1)
Despair, Fear, and Anger (1)
The living room was filled only with the sounds of crunching and smacking.
We silently tore into the chicken.
Ji-hye, perhaps wary of me, didn't dare touch the drumsticks and quietly ate only the dry breast meat.
In this world, is it considered a virtue to yield the tasty parts to men?
"Hey, you eat the drumstick."
"Huh? Ah, no... Oppa, you eat it..."
"I like dry meat. Muscle loss(?) you know."
I tossed a drumstick onto Ji-hye's small plate. Her eyes widened, and with a moved expression, she carefully picked up the drumstick.
As we were chewing on radish for a while, Mom suddenly asked.
"Son, are you going to your studio apartment tomorrow?"
"Yes. Around lunchtime."
"Really? You must have a lot of luggage. I'll give you a ride. I packed some side dishes, so take them and eat well. Don't go around hungry."
"Really? Oh, thank you."
There's no one like Mom.
I happily chugged some cola. Then suddenly, something I'd been curious about came to mind.
"Oh, right. But Mom."
"Huh? Why?"
"Big sis and you, you both served in the military, right?"
Mom stopped her chopsticks and answered as if it were obvious.
"Of course. These days, if you're a Korean woman, it's common to go to the military."
That's common sense in this world.
I deboned the chicken and asked casually.
"Wow... Where were you stationed? Army? Navy? Air Force?"
"Ji-eun served in the Air Force... She's smart, you know. Got into the computer unit, so it was a bit easier for her."
"What about you, Mom?"
"Your mom..."
Mom paused for a moment. Her gaze wandered in the air, then she answered as if mumbling.
"...Served in the Navy."
She trailed off oddly.
Normally, when military talk comes up, it's common to excitedly tell war stories. I figured she must have been a cook or admin so there wasn't much to say, and let it go.
"Wow, Navy. You must have been on ships. Did you play some soccer in the Gundaesliga?"
"Uh... yeah, I played... but why are you asking suddenly?"
"No reason, just curious."
I threw the chicken bones into the bone bin and nudged Ji-hye sitting next to me.
"Hey, Seol Ji-hye. Big sis Air Force, Mom Navy. If you go Army, our family gets the Army-Navy-Air Force Grand Slam?"
"Huh...?"
Ji-hye choked on her cola and coughed. Her eyes went wide.
"Me.. me?"
She was clearly flustered.
"Of course. Any woman with Korean citizenship has to go."
Of course, the option of me going doesn't exist. Men can volunteer as officers or non-commissioned officers if they want, but who would willingly walk into that madhouse?
I casually tossed out a bit of information that came to mind.
"Oh, Ji-hye. I looked it up, and apparently there's a lottery spin that gives a 25% chance of exemption..."
At that, Mom, who was listening, clicked her tongue and cut in.
"Your sister Ji-eun believed that and foolishly did the lottery, but she got a dud and ended up serving full two years."
"...Really??"
I asked with wide eyes. That smart sister of mine actually took such a reckless gamble.
"That's right... Ji-eun kept saying she should have just volunteered quietly back then. Every time she came on leave, she hit the ground and regretted it. She ended up doing two years when it could have been one."
Mom's calm testimony. Ji-hye's face, hearing that horrifying true story right next to her, had already turned pale.
Frankly, this world's military system is a bit messed up.
If you volunteer, it's a clean one year. On the other hand, if you spin the lottery hoping for luck and fail, it's an uncompromising two years of service.
I heard that the original world's Thailand or Vietnam uses this system, but to think it would be adopted in this world's Korea.
First of all, in this place where the gender ratio is completely screwed, there's no full exemption unless you're pregnant or have a serious disability.
What's more serious is that to have a child, you have to go to the military.
Because the eligibility to use the state-operated Sperm Center is only given to those who have completed military service (or legal exemptions).
Anyway, in this world, unless you manage to directly hook a rare man and succeed in natural pregnancy, military service was an unavoidable duty and right.
Anyway, Seol Ji-hye, you're going to be dragged in without exception, that's what this means.
"Good luck with the spin."
"Woo..."
I heard my sister's pitiful crying, but I let it go in one ear and out the other. Because as long as it's not me, it's fine.
So we ate chicken cozily and went to bed.
And the next morning.
Mom, as promised, packed a bunch of side dishes and drove me to my studio apartment.
Indeed, a car is fast. The distance that would take an hour and a half by bus was covered in 40-50 minutes by car.
I thought it would be nice to have a car at times like this, but although I got my license right after the college entrance exam, I got it with the intention of putting it in the closet, so it's ambiguous to buy a car.
It's not like I'm the type to go gallivanting around.
"Thank you, Mom."
"Yeah. Come home again when you have time."
Mom coolly drove off.
But thinking about it, if Mom was going to drive me anyway, I wonder if there was even a need to go to the family home in the first place.
Well, whatever. I saw my family's faces, so it's all good.
I shouldered my bag and moved to my studio apartment again. Opening the front door, the familiar scent of a bachelor's den... No burglars. Well, what thief would break into a shabby bachelor pad? The only thing to steal is a single desktop computer.
'...Wait.'
In this reversed world... no way. Could there be a pervert who steals men's underwear? It's a plausible scenario.
Just in case, I flung open the closet. I rummaged through the underwear drawer, but there were no signs of disturbance. Well, there's no way in just a day or two of being away. I'm being too paranoid.
I threw off my outerwear and turned on the computer first. Not having played games for a few days, my fingers were itching and I felt withdrawal symptoms.
'The noona upstairs...'
I checked the Battle.net friend list. [Offline]. Not logged in. Or maybe she's playing Rel? I should exchange numbers when I get a chance. Game friends are precious.
A blue logo sitting alone on the desktop caught my eye. [Heroes: arena of the Storm].
'Hmm... S-Gong... S-Gong...'
To play or not. Play... or not...
'...Let's pass.'
This game is already lost the moment you think about 'to play or not play.' It's a game you shouldn't even engage your brain over.
I moved the mouse to another icon.
'Might as well browse Stem a bit.'
I should explore my lost paradise that completely disappeared in exchange for military exemption.
I'm also curious how this world's game ecosystem is doing.
I first turned on Stem. I skimmed the store, and fortunately, the big titles were alive.
Hmm... 'Red Dead Revolver 2', 'Dark Spirit', 'Shadow Dead Twice', 'Beast Hunter: World'... They're all here.
The storylines and settings didn't seem to have changed much.
Because they are games based on historical research or set in a fictional background with a 1:1 gender ratio from the start.
No matter what reality is, it's a biological fact that human genders are only male and female. Unless delusional PC crazies who claim their gender is 'Apache helicopter' start causing trouble.
But... the more I scrolled down, the more a sense of dissonance set in.
The problem was the lineup of so-called 'otaku games' or 'fetish games.'
'...No female characters.'
On thumbnails that should have pretty girls giggling, there were swarms of slender pretty boys. The titles were also ridiculous.
'Pretty Boy Love Simulation: Doki Doki Prince'
'Idol Raising: Side M(an) Only'
'Flash Rampage: Oath of the Fundoshi'
Thinking about it, it's natural. This world's gender ratio is 1:9. The main consumer base for games is overwhelmingly female.
So it's a perfectly logical result under capitalism that the target of sexual commodification is not women but men.
'Ha... my eyes...'
Disgust washed over me, but I moved the mouse just in case. Human curiosity is really scary. Even knowing it's Pandora's box, I end up opening it.
With trembling hands, I clicked on the [Adult Only] category.
"Fucking hell."
The curse burst out audibly.
I lifted the curtain and peeked at the possibilities, but there was only despair.
Illidan, you were right. Better to blind myself than see this kind of thing.
What filled the screen... was a fucking massive dick so huge it was overwhelming at first sight.
Not just big, but a fucking huge dick with veins bulging, a weapon-grade monstrosity dominating the center of the monitor.
Each thumbnail had a different genre. Muscular orcs, slimy tentacle monsters, rough big guys... wide-eyed shota boys, delicate pretty boys that trigger protective instincts, male monster boys with snake lower halves.
And every single one of them was naked, proudly displaying their massive thing as big as their own torso.
"Fuck... my eyes..."
I frantically mashed the back button. I feel like my optic nerves are being raped. I think I'll get an indelible trauma.
But human greed is endless, and they say we repeat the same mistakes. Even after tasting despair, primal human curiosity didn't stop.
'...If PC is like this, what about mobile?'
How had the mobile gacha games that used to drain my wallet in the original world changed? With trembling hands, I took out my smartphone and accessed the 'App Store.'
[Revenue Rankings]
"...?"
As soon as I checked the rankings, I was speechless.
"What is this... This again..."
In the spot where there should have been a refreshing game called [Blue Academy], there was no trace of the blue-haired girl who always gave blue envelopes and exploded players' moods.
Instead, a game called [Red Academy], which from the name felt like a red revolution, was firmly holding its place.
The icon showed a red-haired boy smiling brightly, but for some reason, I still felt like smashing his head in.
Below that was also a sight. The ancestor of gun moe games, [Girl's Battlefield] had changed to [Man's Battlefield]. Seeing male characters in the thumbnails naked, wounded, and making strange expressions made my stomach churn.
And besides that... Instead of [Horse Daughter: Pretty Runway], [Horse Sons: Handsome Runway] was sprinting, and the doctor of [Today's Ark] was still of unknown gender, but the operators had all been replaced with handsome men with animal ears.
"...It's over."
There's no place for me here either. This world's subculture was thoroughly excluding me.