Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Wouldn’t it be better to just choose a female body instead?
The reason that thought crossed my mind was simple.
If I chose female, then I wouldn’t need a man’s pride.
Which meant I could secure an extra fifteen stat points.
And to explain the benefits simply—
If a man didn’t have one, he was a eunuch.
If a woman didn’t have one, she was just a woman.
Who knew such an obvious fact could sound this comforting?
And even if I ended up slightly shorter because of it—
As long as my appearance was average, I’d probably avoid a lot of the poor treatment that came from social interactions.
Of course, that didn’t mean I immediately wanted to become a woman.
I had already lived twenty-five years as a man.
And not just any man, but a top contender.
Survival and efficiency came first, sure.
But I still had some basic pride as a man.
If the advantages weren’t overwhelming, then I had no desire to live as a woman.
Still, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
That meant I had to be careful.
If the difference between male and female stats wasn’t too large, then the advantages were definitely worth considering.
And it was also obvious that spending points on that thing was horribly inefficient.
There were more than enough reasons to check the female stats as insurance.
I immediately switched genders and compared the default stats between men and women.
Female Male
Strength: 6Strength: 10
Vitality: 6 Vitality: 8
Agility: 5 Agility: 6
Intelligence: 5Intelligence: 5
Wisdom: 5Wisdom: 5
Charm: 9 Charm: 5
Dexterity: 8 Dexterity: 5
The difference was meaningful.
Not massive, but impossible to ignore.
More importantly, the only significantly higher stats were Charm and Dexterity—
The exact stats I didn’t care about.
Meanwhile, Strength and Vitality were noticeably lower.
If I abandoned fifteen centimeters of “manly pride” and became a woman, I would gain twenty-five stat points in return.
Compared to the ten extra points I had as a man, that definitely wasn’t a small difference.
But if I used those points to raise the stats to the same level as the male character I’d created earlier—
Gender — Female
Strength: 13
Vitality: 11
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 6
Wisdom: 5
Charm: 9
Dexterity: 5
Stat Points: 8
“…Eight?”
I’d only gain eight extra points in exchange for giving up being a man?
Was that really worth it?
…No matter how I looked at it, the answer was no.
The trade-off felt awful.
It wasn’t a tiny amount, but definitely not enough to sacrifice my masculinity for.
If there was one advantage, it was the overwhelmingly high Charm stat.
But what exactly was I supposed to do with being pretty?
I was still a man mentally, so naturally I liked pretty women.
But unless I turned into some narcissist and fell in love with myself, it was meaningless.
I was considering becoming a woman to grow stronger.
What use was being popular with the opposite sex?
I didn’t even want to imagine creepy situations where men started flirting with me.
Still, I didn’t dislike the high Charm stat itself.
If my default Charm was this high, then the average women of that world were probably pretty attractive too.
At least my eyes would be blessed once I got there.
“Hm?”
Suddenly, a disturbing thought crossed my mind.
A man’s parts only appeared after investing points.
So wouldn’t the female equivalent work the same way?
“…Why is that actually true?”
Of course it was.
As if proving it, there was absolutely nothing there.
Smooth like a mannequin.
Not unpleasant to look at, but definitely not something a human body should have.
Could it be that human reproductive organs were considered valuable enough to count as an entire lifeform or something?
Even I thought that sounded ridiculous, but given the circumstances, maybe it was actually true.
Weirdly enough, it almost made sense.
If a man didn’t have one, he was a eunuch.
If a woman didn’t have one, she was just a woman.
But even then, could someone really live without those parts?
Probably not.
How would you even use the bathroom?
Besides, reproductive organs weren’t simply for excretion.
Their primary purpose was hormone production and reproduction.
As someone who used to be a man, the second function didn’t matter much to me.
But the disadvantages of losing the first one would probably be enormous.
“Hmmm…”
So in the end, I really was stuck being a man.
There was no room for compromise.
A life as a tiny but absurdly strong dwarf with a little bit of pride.
It sounded awful, but it increasingly felt like that would definitely become my second life.
“……”
I blankly stared into empty space.
The fantasy novels I knew definitely didn’t go like this.
Beautiful noble women falling in love for no reason.
Unlimited stat growth.
And apparently these days, reincarnated protagonists were supposed to be taller and more handsome than before.
Even the status windows in those stories were way more overpowered than mine.
“Why the hell is this happening to me…”
Reality was completely screwed.
Forget “long live another world.”
This was “fuck this other world.”
Was it because I hadn’t gotten hit by a truck?
Ah, screw it.
I’ll just mess around with the body settings a few more times and accept life as a ridiculously strong short guy.
Besides, if women had to spend points on their parts the same way men did, then there was basically no reason to become female anyway.
With that thought, I decided to invest points into creating female anatomy.
I was still planning to be reborn as a man, but I was curious whether the point system worked the same way.
Stat Points: 1
“Hm…?”
Stat Points: 5
Something felt strange.
Stat Points: 10
As the female anatomy took shape—
Stat Points: 15
My extra stat points kept increasing instead.
What the hell was going on?
Stat Points: 20
Even after several minutes, the points remained.
Only then did I realize this wasn’t my imagination.
It was real.
Why?
Why?
How?
I sank into brief thought.
I needed to figure out why this happened.
Let’s see.
Thinking about it carefully…
Unlike men, female anatomy formed inwardly.
So investing points didn’t make it larger or longer—
It technically made it shorter or smaller.
Which meant the system interpreted it as a “loss” of height and rewarded me with extra stat points…?
It was a hastily-made theory, but it fit surprisingly well.
No—
That had to be it!
“Whoa…!”
Was this a dream or reality?
“WOOOOOOH!!!”
A delayed wave of overwhelming excitement surged through my entire body.
And in that moment—
I became certain.
Columbus discovering the New World.
Archimedes realizing the concept of buoyancy.
Armstrong landing on the moon.
Not even they had experienced the level of emotion I was feeling right now.
Evidence?
Who cares~
Anyway, this was an incredibly important discovery for me.
“WOOOAAAHHH!!!”
And I truly was ecstatic.
To the point where I ran laps around the solitary room like a lunatic.
I found a loophole in the system!
I can control this system!
Long live the other world!
Thank Godddddd!
After enjoying my victory for a while, I continued gathering more stat points.
As if I intended to turn myself into a bottomless abyss.
Since I wasn’t going to use it anyway, I pushed things as far as possible to maximize my stats.
Ding!
But there was one thing I overlooked.
The human body had limits.
As if proving that fact, the moment my extra stat points reached twenty-five—
< Creating a body with the current settings will result in a physical penalty! >
Then, when the depth reached thirty centimeters and my bonus stat points hit thirty—
Ding!
< Creating a body with the current settings will result in fatal organ damage! >
…Okay, maybe that was too deep.
My excitement had blinded me for a moment.
Whether male or female, if things became excessively long or deep, it would obviously interfere with normal life.
And if I overdid it like this, I could genuinely die.
“Hoo…”
Calm down.
I repeated those words to myself and steadied my breathing.
This was a precious opportunity.
I had to be careful.
And I had plenty of time.
There was no need to rush.
All I had to do was think carefully and make the best possible choice.
Slowly.
One step at a time.
I wasn’t particularly smart.
But I wasn’t stupid either.
At the very least, I could think rationally.
Keeping important points in mind, I continued adjusting the body settings.
Since I’d be entering a completely unknown world, combat power was the highest priority.
Which naturally made stats the most important thing.
Stop increasing the female anatomy before physical penalties occurred.
Since I was becoming a woman, keep the height reasonable while considering reach.
After finalizing everything, the total extra stat points I naturally secured reached a staggering fifty.
Just by changing genders, I’d obtained a completely broken cheat-level amount of points!
It didn’t matter if women naturally had lower strength than men.
With this overwhelming number of points, I could easily compensate for it.
“Hahaha!”
Just moments ago, I’d been going back and forth between heaven and hell.
No wonder laughter kept bursting out of me.
Maybe I would’ve been pretty smart if I’d focused on studying instead!?
Using my abundant stat points, I carefully worked out the final compromise.
Gender — Female
Height — 170 cm
Pride — -20 cm
Strength: 25
Vitality: 23
Agility: 15
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 7
Charm: 9
Dexterity: 8
“Mm!”
I was satisfied with this.
Charm and Dexterity felt mostly unnecessary.
I invested just enough into Intelligence and Wisdom to avoid being called an idiot.
Everything else naturally went into combat power.
This body was more than enough to become a warrior.
Being a mage didn’t sound bad either, but since I couldn’t use Mana, I only had one path available.
Honestly, I wanted to become some two-meter superhuman.
But considering the limited resources, this was already more than good enough.
I was shorter than in my previous life, but becoming a woman somehow made it easier to accept.
And deep down, I’d also realized that Strength and Vitality mattered more than height.
If I got greedier than this, I’d probably get struck by divine punishment.
Now all that remained—
Was pressing the “Start” button.
“……”
As the final moment approached, a strange sense of regret welled up inside me.
Regret that I wouldn’t be reborn as a man.
Was it really okay to become a woman like this?
Could I really abandon life as a man?
I never even had a girlfriend in my previous life because I was too obsessed with fighting.
“……”
But the more I thought about it, the more pointless those thoughts felt.
If I died because I failed to secure my survival, none of it would matter anyway.
And since this was another world, maybe there was magic that could change genders.
As long as I stayed alive, I could search for possibilities later.
Besides, as a fighter, physical strength mattered more to me than gender.
The fact that I’d have to grow up from childhood again bothered me a little.
But if I was born into a normal family and lived quietly until adulthood, things would probably work out somehow.
For now, this was enough.
There were only four things I needed to prioritize.
First—
Survival.
Second—
Living freely without being controlled by others.
Third—
Not forcing myself to live as a good person anymore.
The last two were ultimately connected to survival too, but they were also personal desires.
I wasn’t actually a kind person.
The only reason I kept helping others was because my father’s final words became a habit burned into me.
Even when people called me kind, I never felt particularly proud.
Honestly, there were many times I neglected myself while taking care of others.
I also spent years getting dragged around out of gratitude toward the coach who raised me.
But looking back now—
What exactly did I receive in return?
Honestly, almost nothing.
Good deeds weren’t supposed to be done in expectation of rewards.
I understood that perfectly well.
In the end, all that remained was self-satisfaction.
And if helping others didn’t even bring self-satisfaction, then maybe it wasn’t worth doing at all.
The more I thought about it, the more foolish it seemed.
Doing things nobody asked me to do, only to regret them later.
I didn’t want to be a fool anymore.
I’d finally realized that I wasn’t someone who found fulfillment through self-sacrifice.
The only thing I thought now was—
What if I’d spent all that time on myself instead?
As for my bad habit of never forgetting favors…
Maybe I just needed to stop letting people put me in situations where I owed them too much.
Even if I received help, I’d only accept as much as I could repay.
“…Still, fighting…”
That was the one thing in life I genuinely enjoyed.
Thinking back on it, winning the championship belt in a small organization had actually felt more fulfilling than everything that came afterward.
So if I ever had the chance—
I wanted to challenge the top again.
Especially if it was something physical like before.
Anyway.
Now that I’d sorted out my thoughts, there was no reason to hesitate anymore.
No matter what kind of world awaited me, I just had to live faithfully within it.
A life for myself.
Keeping only that in mind.
Having made my decision, I moved my finger toward the translucent “Start” button.
Ding!
< Achievement completed through special conditions! >
< Reward: Title acquired >
< Title: Deep Woman >
< Effect: Charm +3 >