On the Way to the Examination
So this was what a P-cup actually felt like. All three of them stopped short, staring at the size of her chest.
Jia's brain had short-circuited worst of all. She still could not believe those things were hers.
It was a long while before her mother finally spoke.
"…Are you okay?"
Jia nearly burst into tears. She held them back and answered as calmly as she could.
"…It's just that the sensation is weird. My body's actually in good shape thanks to the boosted recovery and stamina. That's what's making this feel so strange. I can… endure this much."
She cupped her breasts with both hands and lifted them slightly, like a makeshift bra. The weight was staggering — the strain on her shoulders and chest was considerable. It was a colossal heaviness she had never felt in her life.
Even the pregnancy-simulation belt she'd worn back in school had felt lighter than this. Her memory of it was fuzzy, of course, but this was at least that heavy, if not more. And because they hung from both sides, swaying independently, the sensation was doubled.
The strange part was that, grotesque as the size was, they looked uncannily natural — just as the equipment description had said. They didn't look surgically enhanced so much as an extraordinary case of the real thing. Of course, she wouldn't be walking around with her breasts on display. Still, she could already guess what people would think when they saw a chest that size.
They're going to wonder what possessed her to get a boob job like that.
She wasn't overweight, so that assumption would come naturally.
Silence settled over them again. Her father, thoroughly awkward, averted his eyes as he spoke and headed for the door.
"Let's get to the guild as soon as we can and wait there. There's nothing we can do sitting around here anyway, so we might as well go ahead. There are plenty of experts on hunters, the Tower, and mana at the guild — maybe they can help. I'll have the car ready. Take your time coming out."
Telling them to hurry while also telling her to take her time — it was an odd combination. Once he'd left, her mother fetched a long-sleeved T-shirt from the bedroom.
"We should take it off and get a proper look. Is that okay?"
"Yeah. This isn't even my original body, so… it doesn't matter. Yeah. It doesn't matter."
She kept repeating it like she was trying to hypnotize herself, then pulled off the white T-shirt.
They lurched.
The sensation she'd felt when she stood up now filled her vision. Overwhelming size, with a faintly drooping yet strangely pretty shape. Her breasts had grown, but her nipples hadn't — they still sat there in the same dainty, pale-brown form they'd always had. If anything, they looked comically small against the rest of her.
A regular T-shirt would have made her nipples plainly visible, so her mother wrapped the fabric around them, covering them carefully, then tied it behind her like a makeshift support. They were on the small side, but even so, a T-shirt alone would have left two obvious little peaks.
"Nngh."
"You okay?"
"…Yeah."
Once the T-shirt bra was in place, they found the biggest oversized boxy tee they could and pulled it on over the top. Jia thought this must be what it felt like to wear a baby sling across her chest. The chest area was so huge she looked overweight, but if she just gritted her teeth, she could endure going out like this for a day.
She was worried the makeshift bra might come undone, but they'd already agreed her mother would go find a proper replacement while Jia was being examined at the guild.
"Just hang in there a little longer. Mom'll be back as fast as I can."
"Okay. Don't worry."
Even the largest bras were still made within some range of common sense, so finding one that would actually fit wasn't going to be easy. That worried her.
"It won't change again, will it?"
Her mother's worry made Jia anxious too, but she put on a brave face.
"We don't know, so let's move fast. This is a race against time."
She needed to climb the Tower before any further changes set in. Acting was better than sitting around thinking, so she decided to swallow her shame for now. Cradling her swaying breasts, she left the house and headed for the car. At least her mobility wasn't impaired. That was something.
"She's actually insane. She's going to the guild with those tits?"
While Jia's family scrambled, Minwoo was packing his own things, listening to her voice. She was trying to look composed, but her face was full of shame. The fact that she'd actually stepped outside looking like this clearly had her anxious and withdrawn. The flimsy excuse for a bra probably wasn't helping. She'd never experienced anything like this in her life.
The model of her that appeared before his eyes showed her sitting in a chair, slightly hunched over without even realizing it. Naked, it was even more extreme. A gorgeous woman with massive breasts and a heart-shaped patch of pubic hair, fidgeting in her seat. It was so far removed from reality it felt bizarre — but it was also incredibly hot. If he weren't about to leave the house this second, he would have jerked off then and there.
He stuffed the ninety materials he'd needed for the pubic hair crafting, along with the emptied liquid container that had held the milk, back into his inventory. Then he grabbed only the essentials — clothes, wallet, bankbook — and left the goshiwon.
At the same time, watching even Jia — who'd seemed so composed — shrink from a single piece of equipment, unable to climb the Tower or even find a scrap of information about him, filled him with a quiet surge of confidence.
This might actually be safer than I thought.
So instead of going far, he decided to find a motel nearby where he could use the Material Shop and stay there. One night cost a hundred thousand won.
Figures. Weekend in Seoul, plus it's in a Material Shop zone. Of course it's expensive.
It stung, but he paid willingly and headed into the room, planning to make money all night. After the goshiwon, the motel room was heaven.
He took a satisfying shower, then decided to start by offloading the materials in his inventory. It was only three o'clock. He had plenty of time. If anything, emptying his mind and stepping out of his daily routine had given him a clearer sense of how to proceed. That cramped goshiwon, the same routine every day, the convenience store job — they'd been eating away at him. He was satisfied with where he was now.
Then he checked the new recipe that had appeared after the breast recipe vanished.
"Whoa. Memorization. I want that too. Still… sticky-smelling love juices? Yeah, no."
She was running around in a panic — this was no time for love juices. She wasn't in a situation where she'd be producing any, so this recipe wasn't useful right now either.
What should I do?
The deliberation was brief.
Crafting equipment is the only answer.
He didn't feel like thinking too hard about anything, so he threw himself into crafting. Of course, "crafting" just meant clicking, dumping materials into his hands, and zoning out while he waited. Crafting from a motel inside the designated zone meant no travel time to the shop — he could sell immediately. It felt great. The more his wealth piled up, the more at ease he felt.
"This is the life."
Was this how idle-game players felt when they played?
Meanwhile, Jia seemed to have arrived at the guild — she was getting up from her seat.
She couldn't even remember the last time she'd gone outside with a completely bare, makeup-free face. Walking into the guild office looking like this felt unreal. This wasn't how she'd imagined returning to the guild when she'd enrolled in university.
Outsiders weren't allowed in, so only Jia could enter. Meanwhile, her parents headed to the exchange to find her a bra. At least, like her parents, no outsiders could come in — so the place was empty of strangers. Was that a blessing? Inside, there were only people affiliated with the guild. At the very least, the secret of her breasts would stay contained.
She walked into the office with a slightly dazed expression. A well-dressed female staff member at a bright, clean desk greeted her with a warm smile — then froze. Even walking carefully, Jia's breasts swayed. Their eyes met.
"…Hunter Kang Jia? Are you all right?"
"…"
For a moment, Jia couldn't even manage a polite lie. Silence hung between them. Facing a third party — someone who wasn't family — looking like this, the shame was even more crushing than she'd expected.
Watching Jia's face flush as if it might burst, the staff member grew awkwardly flustered and ushered her along.
"It's only 3:20, but… I think I can put in an urgent request. Please follow me."
"…Yes. Thank you."
Honestly, one look at her was enough to grasp how serious the situation was. Her hair was slightly flattened, as if she hadn't even showered. She was wearing sweatpants and a boxy tee, no makeup, looking thoroughly haggard. On top of that, she was awkwardly clutching her bizarrely massive chest with her arms as she walked, which made the whole scene feel deeply off. At first the staff member had thought she was carrying something. But there was no reason she'd be holding something like that inside her clothes. And her expression said plenty on its own. This wasn't the cheerful, sharp-minded Jia the staff member knew. Not that they'd interacted all that much.
"We've prepared the Status Window Inspector and the Ability Verification Orb as requested, but the staff member in charge of the orb stepped out briefly. If you wait about ten minutes, you should be able to go in."
"Understood."
Sitting in the waiting chair, staring blankly at her status window and equipment window, Jia felt a fresh wave of self-pity.
I never even wanted extra abilities. Why did this have to happen to me?
All she wanted was to go back to the way things were. The Unique Equipment's abilities didn't even register. All she could see were the names describing how she'd been changed.
A heart-shaped patch of pubic hair growing above her crotch, over stubble that rasped like a five-o'clock shadow — the remnants of a thick bush that had been roughly shaved and then left unmaintained. She'd never had a thick bush. She'd never shaved down there. She'd never shaped it into a heart. Dyeing the hair in that area had never even crossed her mind.
Naturally drooping P-cup breasts, as if she'd been born with them. What the hell was that supposed to mean. She'd originally been an A-cup.
"Haaah."
She'd sometimes wished she were a B-cup. Right now, she'd give anything to be an A-cup again. Was this punishment for complaining about her chest size?
She sat there in a daze, mocking herself, until the staff member approached.