What It Means to Become a Girl...
What it meant to become a girl...
Overnight, a nationwide—no, a worldwide—grimoire vanishing incident had broken out.
Every single grimoire, including the ones that had served as symbols of power for certain mage-class hunters, had simply disappeared.
And every hunter who'd had one taken from them saw the exact same notice.
By order of the Basement Manager, the grimoire has been reclaimed.
Just one line. But the shockwave that single line sent through the world was enormous.
A precious grimoire—something you could only get by being chosen by a Constellation—confiscated by the Basement Manager?
That alone was enough to throw society into chaos.
You clawed your way up to the fortieth floor, pouring out blood, sweat, and tears, grinding Constellation favor like your life depended on it, and after every last scrap of hell you could endure, you finally got yourself a single grimoire—only for someone to snatch it away.
Insane.
"I never even got to use it! Does this make any sense?! What about my three years? Three years I poured into this, and you're just going to take it? Basement Manager!! I'll kill you!!!"
That was the standard reaction from hunters who'd lost their grimoires.
Put simply, some nobody called the Basement Manager had just yoinked every nation's nuclear warhead. That was the situation.
"I never thought anyone would pull something this ridiculous."
"If they reclaimed the grimoires... doesn't that mean they can reissue them?"
"We can stop sucking up to those bastard Constellations. If we just get our hands on the Basement Manager... we can monopolize every grimoire."
And that was the rankers' reaction.
They grasped the essence of it in an instant.
Right. Get the Basement Manager, and the grimoires come with them.
And with more than forty reclaimed grimoires already on the board—if you monopolized every last one of them?
The birth of the world's strongest magical superpower.
Everyone thought the same thing.
Korea could not be allowed to monopolize the basement.
"Korea must immediately and fully disclose the identity of the basement opener!"
"You confiscate grimoires without so much as a word of consultation—what the hell are we supposed to do?!"
"This is a clear act of hostility! Korea must be sanctioned at once!"
Condemnation and outrage poured onto the Korean government. China and Japan in particular were furious, and the United States raised issues of its own.
"What?! Why is this our fault?! There's no law that says the basement opener has to be the basement's manager, either. You just got your stuff stolen by some random person and now you're yelling at us!"
"Nothing we can do. We're the ones who have to take the heat. Don't like it, raise the country's standing."
"So when is this basement opener—or manager, or whoever—actually going to show themselves?!"
Ji Cheonwoo still hadn't revealed her existence.
And in that situation, how was a Korea that hadn't even cleared the twenty-eighth floor supposed to push back against their anger and rage?
Even if it stung, you just had to take the abuse.
A Tower backwater couldn't help it.
Watching the great powers' faces was simply the natural order of things.
Of course, there was one person here who didn't watch anyone's face at all.
"Hey! Lee Jihye! Over here!"
"W-who... are you?!"
Using her leave to come outside the Tower, Cheonwoo had called up her friend Lee Jihye.
After normalizing the third-floor library and reclaiming every volume that had been scattered across the world, I used one of the three days of leave I still had left.
And the moment I got home, I was set to meet my friend Jihye!
At least to the friend who was probably worrying herself sick over me, I figured I owed her some news.
"So. You're saying you're Cheonwoo?"
"Yep. Your friend Cheonwoo. Me. Right here."
"....."
"What? Why that look? Unclench your face."
"You have to say something that makes sense for me to believe it, kid. You shouldn't tell lies like that."
"It's not a lie!"
No, it really is me!
Of course it's hard to believe. I get that.
But you have to believe me completely!
If you won't, then I've got no choice anymore.
If you refuse to believe me, I'll have to air every last piece of your dark history.
Starting with what happened on that MT trip....
"S-stop! Fine! I get it, okay? You're Ji Cheonwoo. I get it."
"Believing me a little better now, Diaper Baby?"
"Haaah. You little shit... no—how the hell did you end up like this? You're just a full-on little girl. And the thing that used to hang...?"
"....Don't ask."
"It's gone, huh. Oh no."
What a gutting question to ask.
Urgh... yeah. It's gone.
My Extreme Dark Armstrong Cannon is no more!
But it lives on forever, one with my heart! Probably...
"It's like that..."
"What do you mean, 'it's like that.' So you're a girl for life now?"
"There's no way to bring back what's gone, Jihye. That's life. It scatters like dust. I'm... a girl now. Same as you."
"Whoa. Th-then... we can bathe together?"
This insane woman!
What kind of thing is that to say.
If you spring a question like that on me out of nowhere, my brain starts glitching!
I have to look at the naked body of a girl I've been friends with for over seven years, a college classmate?
Th-this world... my brain is going to be destroyed!
"Hey! What do you mean, bathe together?!"
"Why not?! We're the same gender now! You said it's not hanging there anymore, right? Doesn't that mean we can go to the bathhouse together? I've always wanted to go to a bathhouse with a friend!"
"Th-then go with one of your girl friends!"
"I don't have any other friends. You know that."
"....Ah."
We were each other's only friend.
Damn... the loneliness of the antisocial.
"Fine. Let's go to the bathhouse."
"For real?! Really? Yes!!"
"But it's the women's side.."
"Well, yeah—you're a girl now. Of course we go to the women's side."
Is that how it is.
Do I have a legal free pass to the women's bathhouse now?
I'd never even imagined it.
The women's bathhouse.
"Hey! Going to the men's side is the illegal option now. And from now on you have to use the women's restroom too. You have to sit to pee. Got it?"
"....."
Well, I'd been sitting to pee the whole time since I got dragged into the basement.
But the moment I thought about having to use the women's restroom... it felt like I was doing something illicit.
Women's bathhouses and women's restrooms.
Strange, weird, faintly indecent words that had never had any connection to my life before.
I don't know why, but my heart was pounding!
It felt like I'd unlocked a hidden map location.
The women's bathhouse! I was legally required to go into the women's bathhouse!
So this... is a girl?
"Right. You're a 'little girl' now. Dress modestly, okay? You can't just wander the streets in a sleeveless camisole and dolphin shorts the size of panties. That's full-on pajama mode. Way too much skin."
"Is that how it is?"
"Yes! And you... where's your bra?"
"...?"
"Oh no. You came out without one. I thought something felt off. Haaah."
A bra.
I knew nothing about such feminine objects.
Come to think of it, Mom hadn't mentioned it either—probably so panicked by her son suddenly turning into a little girl that she completely forgot.
"We're buying underwear first."
"My chest is so small I don't even need one! A bra is too embarrassing.."
"Hey! If you walk around without one and they rub, they'll get sore later, you know?"
"F-for real? I've just been wearing bandages."
"What? Bandages? Uh, show me."
I dragged Jihye into the bathroom, lifted my clothes, and showed her the bandages.
I'd figured sticking these on would be enough.
"Well, at least the bandages kept them from chafing. Still, even if you're small, a girl needs at least a sports bra. It's basic etiquette."
"So that's how it is. Okay..."
And so I went underwear shopping with Jihye.
But the content was so vulgar I can't bring myself to put it into words...
"All bought.. I feel drained..."
"Well? Perfect fit?"
"Yeah. Kind of a stable feeling? Also a little constricting."
"You have to endure that constricting feeling to become a true girl."
"So that's how it is..!"
Senior girl Jihye was right.
Enduring this tightness—that was the path to becoming a girl...
"It seems like such a hard path. I... I don't think I want to be a girl after all.."
"Enough! Now come eat spicy mala tteokbokki with me."
"W-what!? Mala what?"
"Mala tteokbokki. You could call it a symbol of girlhood."
For the record, I used to utterly despise mala tang and tteokbokki—a true man's... wait, I'm not a guy anymore.
I'd just become a girl.
Mala tteokbokki, huh. Should I try it once?
Honestly, I was a little curious.
"What is this! Why.. why does it taste good?"
"See? I told you it was good! You used to only stuff your face with spicy pork and sundae soup. How is it? New? Fresh?"
"...Yeah. It's good."
Embarrassing. Humiliating.
Having to accept this version of myself.
But mala tteokbokki—honestly, it was delicious.
How do I put it. Food my old self would have hated with a passion.
So why did it sit so perfectly on my tongue now?
"Next stop: macarons."
"I-if I touch even those, I won't be able to hold on to myself anymore..."
But those fat Korean-style macarons looked so dazzling.
The moment I saw them, some unknown craving inside me ordered me to eat them.
Was this what they called a categorical imperative?
"What is this. I-it's delicious!!!"
"Heh. I knew you'd like them."
"What the hell, Lee Jihye. Do you have a strategy guide for me?"
"It's not just you. Girls pretty universally like this stuff. Meaning you're officially confirmed as a girl now."
"...Kh."
I had no choice but to admit it.
My palate... was completely a little girl's!!!
I never thought I'd fall into female corruption this easily...
Lee Jihye, you terrifying woman!
You kept singing about wanting a girl friend, and in the end you corrupted me.
"Next..."
"W-wait!"
"Hm? What? Is there somewhere you want to go as a girl? Want to put on school uniforms and hit the amusement park together?"
"No.. that's not it. I still haven't told you why I asked to meet today."
"Huh? Weren't we meeting just to hang out?"
"No. Something way more important than that."
If I got dragged around any further, I might just blow the whole day playing girl games with Jihye.
Honestly, it wasn't like I had zero desire to keep playing those girl games with her, but still! I was a working adult with limited leave.
I had to give her this before the day was over.
"What is it. Just come all the way to my place."
"Your parents aren't home, right?"
"Nope. They're out on a business trip."
"Whew..."
It had been a while since I'd been in Jihye's room.
Still pink as ever.
"So, what's this present you wanted to give me? Something you brought from the Tower?"
"Yeah. But it's... hmm. Just look first."
I opened my bag and pulled out what was inside.
A bright red sphere and three books.
"....What is this. Even at a glance it looks dangerous and ridiculously valuable."
"Right. Insanely valuable and dangerous."
Agni's Heart.
An item that, if a climber obtained it, could change their class to Agni's Avatar.
And if someone who wasn't a climber obtained it...
"You can receive the Tower's selection and become a climber. Class: Agni's Avatar. It won't be some ordinary class."
"Whoa. Wait, can you just hand me something like this? Wouldn't this sell for hundreds of millions?"
"It would go for about that much. But if you sell it, it's a hundred percent getting smuggled overseas. All my info gets scraped too. I don't trust this country's Association. So you eat it and climb the Tower."
The reason I was giving Jihye a mythic-grade item.
No matter how I looked at it, this girl was never going to get a real job!
So you come to the Tower too!
This was a kind of investment. I'd support you, so slap on a ranker badge and do me a few favors.
"I'll get you hired by the Tower!"
"Hey..! Ji Cheonwoo. You are the soulmate of my soul!"
"Kyaha!"
Even if you just clear everything on the easiest difficulty and keep climbing, you make money while picking your nose!
Getting a normal job is brutal! Climb the Tower and turn your life around!
This is what friends are for.
"Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to. I'm not forcing you. I just asked because you're my friend."
"Hey! I'm doing it for sure. I can finally ditch this soul-crushing studying too."
"Great. Then take these too!"
"And what are these?"
"Grimoires confiscated from rankers!"
"What!? These are those grimoires? Oh my god.. something this precious."
Three grimoires.
One was the Crimson Grimoire I'd taken from that guy Shen Zhao. Another was the Blue Flame Grimoire a German ranker had been holding. And the last...
"The Calamity Flame Grimoire?"
"Yep. Belonged to some old British archmage. Anyway, these are the three best-performing fire grimoires out there. With these, you should be able to punch straight through the twenty-eighth floor."
The basement will back you up.
So become the strongest ranker in the world.