I Became a Mother
I Became a Mother
30 years ago, the world changed.
With the sudden appearance of Gates, Awakeners began revealing themselves one by one.
Gaining status windows that looked like something out of a game, along with powers called unique traits, they called themselves Hunters and hunted the monsters pouring out of the Gates.
In short, the world had become like something out of a web novel.
Of course, all of that had nothing to do with me.
The elderly folk still recalled the world of 30 years ago and longed for those days.
But for someone like me, born after the event known as the Great Cataclysm, Gates, monsters, and the existence of Hunters were nothing more than everyday occurrences.
Sure, when I was young, I dreamed of becoming a Hunter too.
After all, Hunters who hunted monsters with overwhelming power were the dream job of every child back then. Even now, in the present day, it's a dream occupation that everyone aspires to.
Of course, as I grew older, I came to realize the reality of things and gave up on the dream of becoming a Hunter long ago.
That doesn't mean I ended up living like some kind of social garbage, though.
I was born an orphan and raised in an orphanage, but I managed to get a decent job. Thanks to my modest income, supporting myself alone wasn't an issue at all.
It might look like a monotonously ordinary existence in someone else's eyes, but there's nothing wrong with an ordinary life.
At least I don't have to worry about losing my life fighting monsters like Hunters do.
I don't have to struggle at the bottom of society, agonizing over how I'm going to get by day by day.
At least... until yesterday, that was definitely the case.
Just yesterday, I clocked out in a good mood, drank some beer, played the game I'd enjoyed as a hobby since childhood, and fell asleep. That's all.
So why the hell...
"Why did I end up turning into something like this?"
Kang Yeo-ryeong tilted her head as she spoke, looking at her reflection in the mirror—a self that had transformed overnight.
I look into the mirror.
In the mirror stands a beautiful woman I've never seen before in my life.
Black hair that falls to her waist, and black pupils.
Black hair and black pupils—that's nothing strange for a Korean.
What's strange is everything else.
First of all, I'm a man.
A proud son of South Korea. I grew up an orphan, but I even served in the military.
I'm a man with a face that's neither handsome enough to boast about nor ugly enough to complain about.
But what's reflected in the mirror is a woman.
A woman so beautiful that anyone could tell at a single glance.
If someone asked whether the woman in the mirror was pretty, every single person out of a hundred would say yes—that's how stunning the beauty in the mirror was.
At first, I thought it wasn't me.
But when I raise my hand, the beauty in the mirror raises her hand. When I tilt my head, the beauty in the mirror tilts her head exactly the same way.
Unless a monster that crawled out of a Gate is mimicking me, a mirror can only reflect what's in front of it.
In other words, the fact that the beauty in the mirror moves exactly as I do means that the beauty in the mirror is me.
More than that, the me in the mirror has a voluptuous chest.
Every time I move my body, my breasts jiggle, catching my attention.
At the same time, I finally understood why women with big breasts always complain about their shoulders hurting.
This mass of fat—these full, firm breasts with not a hint of sagging, perfect in shape—are incredibly heavy. I'd say each one must weigh at least 3 to 4 kilograms.
Since there are two of them, it's essentially like wearing a backpack weighing over 8 kilograms strapped to my front.
After checking various other things, I barely managed to accept the fact that I had become a woman.
However...
"Is the problem just that it's only on the outside?"
Kang Yeo-ryeong said, looking down at her own body.
Of course, even when I look down, all I see is that annoyingly voluptuous and pointlessly heavy chest.
To be honest, I already know what I am.
I already know what I can do and what I can become.
It's not something I found out through a status window like other Awakeners.
Unfortunately, I don't have a status window.
It's more like...
Just as a newborn baby instinctively moves its body and breathes.
As soon as I woke up this morning and realized I had become a woman, I intuitively and naturally understood what I am and what I can do.
Of course, I still don't know why I changed like this.
I can only make careful guesses about the reason for this transformation.
The reason I ended up like this is probably the game.
The game I've been playing since I was growing up in the orphanage.
The game is simple.
You become various Outer Gods—commonly called things like Outer Gods or Great Old Ones—and travel through the worlds within the game.
Looking back on it now, I do find it strange that I was so obsessed with the game.
It's not like the graphics were particularly good.
It wasn't a user-friendly game either.
There was no story, and the purpose of playing the game wasn't clearly defined.
But still, I was obsessed with the game, as if possessed by something.
I played various Outer Gods. The last Outer God I played before falling asleep yesterday was one that the game's community called "Mother."
And considering that I've now become exactly that Outer God called "Mother"...
Maybe the game really was the cause.
Of course, all of this is just pure speculation.
Even when I tried to look up the game I used to play, I couldn't find anything.
The site where I could download the game.
The community where we exchanged information about the game.
Everything related to the game has disappeared from the internet.
But—I don't really care.
Just because I became the Mother doesn't mean I feel any urge to destroy this world.
I'm still just me.
I simply went from being an ordinary young man you could see anywhere to becoming the "Mother," wrapped in the human shell of a beautiful woman.
I'm still me.
It's easier to just think of it as an Awakening.
Just a special Awakening that's a bit different from other people's.
So, I'll just keep living like a human being, same as always.
Of course, I can't continue living exactly the way I did before.
The me now is not the human Kang Yeo-ryeong.
The me now is both the "Mother" Kang Yeo-ryeong and the "Awakener" Kang Yeo-ryeong.
So then...
"Should I show off a little?"
Sitting in front of the computer, Kang Yeo-ryeong entered the Hunter Gallery without hesitation and started writing a post.
Humans are creatures that show off.
When something good happens to them, one of humanity's basic instincts is to want to brag about it.
So, even if this Awakening was a bit special... now that I've awakened in a way that the vast majority of humans desperately desire, wouldn't it be okay to "show off" a little?
With that thought in mind, Kang Yeo-ryeong posted something on the Hunter Gallery.
[Title: I woke up and suddenly awakened]
(Common internet meme image)
I woke up and awakened
But my unique trait is... M-mother? Is this a good trait?
Unique trait being Mother LMAOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ Please don't swear
ㄴ What kind of bit is this?
ㄴ Weak bait. 3/10
Are you a girl?
ㄴ Since your unique trait is Mother, probably a girl?
ㄴ Hnnnnggggh
Momma! Baby want milk!
Mod, you son of a bitch! Can't you manage this gallery properly?!
Wtf lmaooo how tf is your unique trait Mother lmaoooo
As soon as the post went up, comments came pouring in rapidly.
Among them were people swearing at me, treating it as obvious trolling. People asking if I really awakened. And even some girl-simps who latched onto the word "Mother" and assumed I was a woman.
All kinds of people were writing comments.
But one surprising thing was that despite looking like a obvious bait post, it was getting quite a lot of upvotes.
"I have no idea why."
Kang Yeo-ryeong tilted her head and said.
Even now, comments were still coming in, and among those comments, a colosseum had opened up with various people fighting each other.
About topics that had absolutely nothing to do with the post I made.
What on earth could they be so fixated on that they'd fight so passionately about something completely unrelated to the original post?
Kang Yeo-ryeong thought that although she herself had been human until just yesterday, humans truly were incomprehensible creatures.
"Well, they'll calm down eventually. Anyway."
Her interest in the post that had become a fighting pit wore thin, and Kang Yeo-ryeong stood up from her seat.
Since I now looked like an Awakener on the outside, I planned to go to the Korea Hunter Association—Hun-hyeop for short—tomorrow to register as a Hunter.
But to do that, I needed to create a status window, which I currently don't have.
And to create a status window, I needed to refine my power a bit more.
Hunters have a main branch called a unique trait, and from that branch extend derivative skills.
And all of those things can be intuitively verified through a status window, which can also be shown to others.
Of course, the prerequisite for seeing someone else's status window is that you yourself must have awakened first.
After organizing her thoughts, Kang Yeo-ryeong raised her hand.
She slowly spread her raised hand wide open, looked at her fully extended palm, and whispered.
【Conceive.】
Kwajik—!
The whisper Kang Yeo-ryeong uttered disappeared as if melting into the air, and above her fully spread hand, a crack formed in space with a gruesome sound. Soon, it collapsed, creating a small hole.
Beyond the hole, only darkness could be seen.
From within that darkness, a small, egg-like object popped out and settled onto her palm.
The hole that had spat out the small egg closed up and vanished in an instant.
Kang Yeo-ryeong looked at the small egg resting on her palm and whispered once more.
【Bloom.】
Creeeak—.
Just as when she had created the hole in space, her whispered voice melted into the air and disappeared. A crack formed on the egg resting on her palm.
The crack, like a fine hairline fracture, spread rapidly and engulfed the small egg.
The small egg, consumed by the cracks, soon collapsed, and something revealed itself from within.
What emerged from the egg was a tentacle.
It was only about the size of an earthworm.
However, this extremely small tentacle had thousands of eyeballs writhing independently on it, and just by existing, the tentacle that came out of the egg affected its surroundings.
Everything around the tentacle began to distort.
Everything was warping in a way that was so blasphemous and depraved that words couldn't describe it.
Startled by this, Kang Yeo-ryeong instinctively clenched her hand tightly, and with a gruesome kwajik!, the tentacle vanished without a trace.
With the tentacle gone, the surroundings stopped distorting.
Except for the things that had already been warped by the tentacle's influence.
After silently looking around at the distorted surroundings for a moment, Kang Yeo-ryeong said,
"Yeah, okay. Conceiving things on Earth might be a bit dangerous."
Even though she already instinctively knew what effect her conception would have on Earth, seeing it with her own two eyes made Kang Yeo-ryeong think she'd need to handle the "Conception of Life" a little... carefully.
Just a little.