The Deal

What pulled me out of the long darkness was a bone-deep chill.

I was used to it—I'd always had the habit of sleeping curled up in corners. But the cold that greeted me went far beyond anything I was used to.

"Ugh..."

A clear, pure voice. It should have been rough and cracked first thing in the morning, yet it rang out with crystalline clarity.

An unfamiliar body that somehow still felt familiar. This was the moment it truly sank in—I had opened my eyes in another world.

A sound that jolted awake the faint hope I'd been clinging to. A notification chime swept through my mind.

"Ah…?"

I rubbed my eyes. I squeezed them shut, then opened them again—but the hologram floating in front of me refused to disappear.

"What… is this…"

Piece by piece, I began to dig through my memories.

On the Han River, right before I tried to kill myself, I had made a deal. A world where the roles of men and women were reversed—a gender-reversed world, she'd called it.

It was like fog lifting from my mind. A clean, bracing clarity washed through me. I was still in my twenties, but the alcohol-soaked brain was gone—replaced ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by one that had never once been touched by liquor. A sound mind. A healthy body.

"Ha… haha. It was real. It was actually real."

A hollow laugh slipped out of me. I looked down at both hands—the body from my previous life was gone. The calluses were gone; my palms were soft. The voice that had been cracked raw by crying and alcohol was gone too.

"What…?"

Pain forced its way into my skull—sharper than an ordinary headache. And it wasn't just pain. A new world. New information. The name and age of this body. The life it had lived, and the life it was supposed to live. All of it flooded in at once.

"Hah… hah…"

"Wait—what do you mean—"

The words rose all the way to the tip of my tongue and died there. Because I had just remembered the conversation with her right before I died.

She had definitely called it a deal. She'd promised me an easy life—but she never told me what she wanted in return. Under normal circumstances, that was the first thing I should have asked. I hadn't. I'd written it off as nonsense and never pressed her.

Who could have known I'd actually die and wake up in another world?

My head went cold. I forced myself to face reality and sort out my situation. I still knew almost nothing about who she was or what kind of power she held—but one fact was certain.

I had opened my eyes in her world. And I had already entered a deal I could never walk away from. I had no idea what she was about to demand of me. Fear stirred.

Then—as if she had read my mind—the hologram, the god, sent me a message meant to calm me down.

"And what is that…"

"…?"

Confusion hit me—of course it did. Wasn't she the all-powerful being who had sent me here? Why would a woman like that need help from me?

The hologram's sentences began to line up one after another. Reading them carefully, I found I could follow. It was almost exactly like a game.

To put it briefly: this world was held together by world scores—by WP, World Points. The woman who called herself both Administrator and god had brought me here to stop the world from collapsing.

The deal was this. I would earn large amounts of WP and save the world. In return, she would give me an easy life inside the world I had saved.

Simple enough—and yet the questions that still clung to me twisted uncomfortably in my gut.

So how, exactly, was I supposed to earn World Points?

She answered.

"…?"

"Amplify?"

"What about happiness?"

"So what the hell am I supposed to do, then."

It wasn't a voice—just plain text. And yet those words drove into my heart like a blade.

Countless pieces of the past rose unbidden: the pain, the hurt, and the brief flashes of pleasure.

"Ha… haha… hahaha!"

A bitter laugh spilled out of me. I remembered what had happened on the Hangang Bridge. The answer to the question of why it had to be me.

I thought I finally understood why.

I knew better than anyone how to hurt the person you love. Because I was the one who had been on the receiving end. Because I had spent endless hours replaying it, dissecting her every action and every motive, drowning in regret.

"A selfish life?"

I had spent my whole life as a doormat. Always the nice guy. Always the one who helped others. Wasn't I allowed to be a little selfish for once?

Out of that brief moment of thought, my first selfish impulse surfaced—a small act of rebellion, a declaration of war against the person I was becoming.

"Why should I? Give me one reason I have to go along with this deal."

Even the hologram fell silent. Not the kind of silence that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sends an ellipsis—the hologram itself simply failed to appear.

Five seconds, maybe.

"…Remaining time?"

A curse rode out on my breath. What was this? Was it what I thought it was? My miserable doubts and fears had a habit of landing right on target.

"Bullshit. Why the hell are you doing this to me."

"Ha…"

Something about the hologram felt off. As if emotion were bleeding through. The Administrator—she—was hesitating.

"…?"

Was a hologram even allowed to sound this frustrated? It felt exactly like watching an incompetent junior flounder on the job.

"Stop dancing around it and just say it."

"And when it runs out? What happens then."

"And my body back there? Ha—don't. I already know."

It would be lying underwater, cold. I already knew how that life had ended.

I pressed both hands over my eyes. The headache was gone, but the sheer volume of things I had to think about left a dull ache behind.

In the end, I decided to keep it simple.

"Fuck… so if I want to live, I have to earn points."

A sigh slipped out. I had suddenly become a debtor, but the role was familiar enough. I'd been one in my previous life too.

It was strange how deciding to take it easy actually made things feel easier—but given how things had turned out, I chose not to think of it as a bad deal. If I hadn't met her, I would have thrown myself off that bridge for certain. I was already a dead man. Chasing the easy life she had promised was the right call.

Before that, though, there was something I absolutely had to confirm.

"How long do I have to keep paying this off? Don't tell me you want me grinding points for the rest of my life."

That was the most important part. From a debtor's perspective, the first thing you check is whether the debt is even repayable. Since I'd been forced into this loan, I had to know.

"How much."

The way she kept dragging it out made me deeply uneasy.

"Haa…"

Not a small number by any stretch. Ambiguous, too. Without knowing how many points I could earn at a time, it was impossible to gauge how long it would take—or even whether it was realistic.

"How generous of you."

A deeply reassuring line, that. I still had plenty of questions.

"Important Souls? How do I even tell them apart? Any tips? You're the Administrator—you should know. Give me a cheat sheet or something."

"Faster!"

"That's vague."

"…Fine."

"Cheat sheet!"

Did people really only listen when you raised your voice? What an exasperating Administrator. Was it different because she was a woman?

While I was briefly lost in that thought, the content that appeared on the hologram was something no fully sane mind could easily accept.

"What… did you just say?"

The hologram appeared half a beat late. Similar wording—but this time it was a definitive statement. She wasn't actually embarrassed, was she?

Whether from embarrassment or something else, her explanation ran long. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Stripped down to one sentence: do to them exactly what had been done to me. Sex was just the bonus on top.

The more negative the emotion, the greater the points earned. I would perform better in passive situations than in ones where I took the lead.

Countless scenarios rose in my mind. The sheer absurdity of the person I was becoming pulled another hollow laugh out of me.

Just as she had said—I was the right man for earning points.

The conclusion was already set.

I would have to get fucked to survive.