I Obtained the X-Ray Lens

"Goodbye."

The moment I stepped out of the convenience store, a wall of scorching heat slammed straight into my face.

Even in the dead of night, August's hellish weather held steady at thirty degrees Celsius, greeting me like an open furnace.

"Haa... damn, it's hot..."

At the same time, Lee Hyesu shimmered before my eyes like heat haze—the same girl who had crushed me in that retro fighting-game bet and then mocked me for the ice cream she'd just won.

"Ugh, shit. Why the hell is she so good at retro games anyway?"

The image of her picking some broken character, stomping me into the dirt, and then talking trash with absolute confidence refused to fade.

Ha! I told you you can't beat me, Kim Dohyun.

I hadn't been able to accept the loss, so I'd demanded a rematch—this time with the ice-cream tab on the line as well.

And then she cleaned me out down to my soul.

What the hell. You really are trash, huh?

In the end she had only used light attacks, toying with me like a cat batting around a half-dead mouse. That final scene was still burned into my mind.

You didn't forget, right?

...

I'll take the usual.

Oh come on, pick something else! Do you know how expensive that is?!

The world of competition is cold and ruthless. Go buy it already.

"...You evil bitch."

Since I'd been the one who asked for the rematch, I had zero grounds to argue. In the end I grabbed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my wallet and left the house.

Well... the convenience store was only a five-minute walk away, yet today the distance somehow felt endless.

I pressed the cold plastic bag against the back of my neck and trudged home.

"Haa... so damn hot..."

I hadn't even been outside that long, yet sweat poured down my face, stinging my eyes. I tilted my head up to wipe it away—and the night sky filled my vision.

"What the hell? Why is the sky so clear? Because it rained earlier?"

I closed my eyes for a second. When I opened them again, I was standing in some completely alien space.

"...What is this?"

Everything was silver.

Walls and floors made of some seamless, polished material. Machines whose purpose I couldn't begin to guess packed the room, while blue-glowing tubes crammed the ceiling.

A translucent screen floated in mid-air, streaming unfamiliar characters at blinding speed.

And standing right in front of me were two people.

Re...searchers?

Both of them wore white coats that looked exactly like lab coats.

One was a Caucasian man with short blond hair swept back; the other was a Caucasian woman with red hair.

The moment they noticed me they waved cheerfully, as if delighted.

"Rad vstreche!"

"...?"

Blue eyes, a square jaw, pale skin—definitely not Korean.

Foreigners?

But why were foreigners here?

And where the hell even was "here"?

I stared at the man with a thoroughly confused expression. He tilted his head in return, then suddenly switched to English.

"Hello!"

English...?

At least it was a language I recognized, even if I wasn't great at it.

"He-hello?"

I'm not fluent, but...

If I threw in enough body language maybe I could ask what was going on.

I let out a small sigh of relief at the thought that conversation was even possible. Then the woman cocked her head at my reply and started speaking Chinese to the man.

"Why is an East-Asian-type specimen speaking English?"

"He used English."

"Isn't that just because you spoke English first and he copied you?"

Chi...Chinese?

Out of nowhere?

They looked Western, so I'd expected English—now they were suddenly using Chinese.

Nothing made any sense.

The woman watched my expression for a moment, then tried a more familiar language.

"Konnichiwa!"

Japanese.

Ja...Japanese?

Konnichiwa meant "hello," right?

Okay, if it's Japanese I can actually talk.

Back in high school I'd chosen Japanese as my second language instead of Chinese, so this was a rare stroke of luck. The moment I realized proper conversation was possible, relief washed over me—only for fresh suspicion to take its place.

But why aren't these Western-looking people just using English?

I eyed the researchers with open doubt. The man noticed, sighed, and casually smacked the woman on the back of the head.

Thwack!

"Ow! Why'd you hit me?!"

"I told you to check the local language and set it properly."

"Isn't this the normal language for East Asians?"

"That's just the garbage material you watched last week."

Suddenly the man began speaking awkward Korean.

I stood there with my mouth hanging open at the sheer absurdity of it all.

"What the hell. You can speak Korean?"

At my reply the man suddenly started saying something even weirder.

"Please wait a moment. Adjusting external appearance as well."

"Appearance?"

I nearly fainted on the spot.

"Huh?"

Right before my eyes the man's skin began to ripple and sink inward.

His irises rolled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠back into the whites before turning pure black. With a wet cracking sound his nose bridge flattened. Then his hair fell out in clumps until he was completely bald—only for a new crop of black hair identical to mine to erupt with a soft pop. In the blink of an eye he had transformed into a man who looked roughly like me.

It was exactly like watching an alien transformation scene from a movie.

Ho...holy shit... what the fuck is that.

I screamed and toppled backward at the grotesque spectacle.

"Aaaagh!"

Thwack!

The moment I screamed, the woman smacked the man on the back of the head in return.

"Again! You're doing it again! I told you not to do that in front of humans!"

"I thought matching the language would stabilize him."

"Are your eyes just decoration? Huh?"

"Fear levels have exceeded the safety threshold."

"Haa..."

I stared at the two monsters casually arguing while completely ignoring the terrified human right in front of them.

Strange machines, shape-shifting, instant language learning...

Th...this... are these actual aliens?

And if aliens had just abducted a person...

Am...am I going to die?

The second that thought hit me I dropped face-down on the floor.

"P-please spare me! I'll do anything, just please!"

"..."

The moment I begged while trembling, the entire area fell silent.

I don't know how long that silence lasted.

"Um... excuse me, human male?"

"..."

"Please calm down. We have no intention of harming you. We simply came to make a trade."

A soft, gentle voice slipped into my ears.

It was the kind of sexy voice you only heard in ASMR videos.

Entranced, I lifted my head and found the woman smiling down at me.

Whoa... she's ridiculously pretty.

Had she changed her appearance too?

She was gorgeous—celebrity-level gorgeous.

Bewitched by that face, I quietly nodded.

"A...trade?"

The instant I mentioned a trade, both aliens' gazes dropped at the same time.

Straight to the bag in my hand.

The pretty noona's eyes sparkled.

"That."

"Yes?"

"The refrigerated food you've been holding this whole time..."

She swallowed hard.

"It's ice cream, right?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Could you give us just one?"

"...What?"

I couldn't process the situation.

When a UFO abducted someone, weren't they supposed to harvest an organ or something and then let you live?

"...We don't do anything that barbaric. Besides, we have no need for... ahem, human body tissues."

"O-oh, really?"

I had accidentally just committed alien discrimination.

"...Please be more careful next time."

"Yes, ma'am..."

I stood there awkwardly like an idiot until the blond man—no, the black-haired man now—pointed at the convenience-store bag I was holding.

"Last time an observer conducting a ground survey brought some back. It was incredible. Especially the brown flavor."

"Chocolate?"

"Yes. Chocolate."

The man rummaged through a device beside him and pulled out something that looked like a transparent glass shard along with a small vial of silver liquid.

"Demanding something without offering compensation is classified as robbery in human society."

"So?"

"We propose an exchange. The ice cream for these."

He held up the transparent object.

"This is a Multi-Penetration Observation Lens. The wearer can freely adjust the surface transmittance of any object they look at."

"Multi... what?"

The man kept spewing technical jargon I couldn't follow. The noona cut in.

"Simply put, it lets you see through things."

"Ahh."

I made a gesture of understanding. The man then shook the vial of silver liquid.

"And this is an Invisible Remote Tactile Assist Device. A swarm of micro-machines analyzes the wearer's neural signals and forms virtual hands within their field of vision."

"Basically you can touch whatever you can see, even from far away."

"Do not oversimplify the explanation."

"...Ever heard of teaching at the student's level?"

The woman stepped closer and lowered her voice.

"We've heard that human males take a strong interest in the human female body."

"What?"

"So we made this. When we only included the observation function, satisfaction ratings came out low, so we added the tactile function as well."

I stared blankly at the lens and silver vial held out in front of me.

It was suspicious, but...

How the hell do you refuse shapeshifting aliens...?

Besides, she was hot.

If they were just any aliens I might have been more cautious, but the friendly attitude felt like a clear signal they wouldn't hurt me.

Still terrified, I opened the bag with trembling hands.

"If I give you this, you'll send me back, right?"

"I just told you not to discriminate... Yes. We'll send you back."

The pretty noona carefully accepted the bag, stared at the ice cream with glittering eyes, then ordered the man.

"Install it for him."

"Beginning exchange procedure."

The man pulled something like a strange tentacle from behind his back, used it to pick up the lens, and approached me.

Alarmed by the ominous sight I urgently called out to the woman, but—

"W-wait a second! Can't I put it on myself?!"

"It is an automatic installation method."

"Automatic?"

Before he even finished speaking the tentacle roughly seized me, restrained me, and forced my eyes wide open.

"Huh?"

Transparent liquid sprayed from the tentacle and soaked into both of my eyes.

"Huhhh???"

There was no pain at all, yet I thrashed in pure panic. Then the silver liquid rose out of its vial.

It split into hundreds of fine threads that wrapped around both of my hands and vanished into my skin in an instant.

"Gyaaaaaah! Aaaah...?"

"Installation complete."

"What the—it doesn't even hurt?"

Just like with the lens, I felt nothing. I stared at my hands in wonder.

"Alright. Even if you try not to remember, the usage method has been imprinted, but I'll explain it one more time just in case?"

"Explain what?"

"How to use those."

The alien noona was already eating the ice cream with an utterly blissful expression.

"Okay. If you only want to see underwear, you'll only see underwear. If you want to see someone naked, think about them naked and you'll see them naked. The default is fully naked, and the penetration depth changes according to what you think."

"..."

The second she said that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I looked straight at the noona in front of me.

And then I blacked out for a moment before coming to again.

"Hah...!"

"Honestly... human males... You just tried to look at me, didn't you?"

"H-how did you—?"

When I panicked she let out a sigh.

"I erased the memory just this once. Here's some free advice: don't use it on... no, don't use it on aliens. Got it?"

"...Yes, ma'am."

"And the gloves let you feel the sensation of whatever body part you're focusing on. The other person feels it too, of course."

"Yes."

"Alright, sending you back now. Ah! The ice cream was delicious!"

I closed my eyes. When I opened them again I was standing in a familiar alley.

Under ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the old streetlight I stood in exactly the same posture as before.

No ultra-gorgeous noona. No weird black-haired man.

"What the fuck."

Had I gotten heatstroke or something? Was that why I'd just been standing here spacing out?

I started walking home with the convenience-store bag—except...

The bag... was gone?

"What the hell. Where's my ice cream?"

I checked my phone. The banking app clearly showed the transaction history.

— 8,900 won charged.

It wasn't a dream?

And I had actually met aliens and survived?

I stared up at the sky for a long moment, then let out a deep sigh.

"Guess I have to buy the ice cream again."

Only after making a second round trip to the convenience store did I finally reach home.

Beep... beep-beep-beep.

The door lock opened, and from deeper inside came the sound of running feet and a loud voice.

"Hey! What the hell took you so long?"

"No, wait—"

"Did the convenience store move to another neighborhood or something?"

Hyesu didn't even wait for my answer; she just snatched the bag out of my hands.

"If it's melted you're actually dead."

"Hey, hold on."

"It's chocolate, right? If you bought vanilla you're going right back out."

Hyesu bent down to check inside the bag.

At that exact moment, strange blue text appeared in the corner of my vision.

The same kind of text the aliens had been manipulating on their panels earlier.

But unlike the gibberish I couldn't read before, this time it displayed perfect Korean.

"Huh?"

My vision blurred for an instant, then sharpened again.

The problem was...

Uh...??!

The colors of the clothes Hyesu was wearing began to fade.

Ssshhh...

The surface of her white t-shirt and dolphin shorts slowly turned transparent.

And the contours hidden beneath them emerged with perfect clarity.

Black.

And lace.

I froze solid.

"What?"

Hyesu lifted her head and looked at me.

"Why are you staring like that?"

"..."

Same expression as always. Same reaction as always.

Definitely not the reaction of someone whose underwear was fully exposed.

It... it was real? The X-ray lens?

But whether I was shocked or not, the black lace bra and panties began to fade just like the clothes had a moment ago.

Uhhh??

And in the end...

Not a single thread left on her body, Hyesu stood right in front of me, every precious part of her completely exposed.