001. Streaming as a Hobby
001. Streaming as a Hobby
My parents were dead.
‘Phew. Getting dumped into another world was chaotic enough, and then all kinds of shit had to blow up the very next day.’
My name was Gye Se-hun.
I was a 22-year-old man who had swapped bodies with "me from this world" just yesterday.
So basically, you could say I'd come to a parallel world.
Well, my life hadn't changed much.
My name, my looks.
My age, my gender.
The 70 billion won sitting in my account...
Ten billion had shrunk, but I didn't fucking care.
Anyway, everything important was the same.
‘Other than having parents, nothing really changed...’
Ah. Now that I thought about it, there was one important thing.
The fact that the roles of men and women had been swapped.
A world where women were physically stronger, had higher sex drives, and shouldered the duty of national defense.
It was a so-called Gender-Reversed World.
The population ratio was two men to eight women, apparently.
I knew this because the memories from my parallel-world self remained.
‘But shit. I had barely gotten out of the army, and now I felt cheated. I should have been discharged earlier. If I had known I was coming to this world, I would not have volunteered.’
Because of some petition by a gendered organization, the wartime labor conscription category for being an orphan had been abolished in my original world.
If you were a man, you pretty much had to go active duty.
I lamented my fate and scrunched up my face.
Just then, I felt gazes from nearby, watching me unpleasantly.
I could also hear the murmurs.
"Look at that rotten bastard. His own parents are dead, and he hasn't even batted an eye."
"He's been like that since he was a kid. Never smiled, acted like he'd seen everything in the world, always getting into fights even though he's a man. Just leave him alone and ignore him."
My relatives were openly disparaging me.
People I'd had no connection with in my previous world.
"Only his face is handsome. His personality is total trash."
"Should've beaten him more when he was young to straighten out his character. Those parents of his were way too soft."
"For a man, his heart is more important than his face, tsk tsk."
What were they, rats? All that squeaking was annoying.
Looking at the man who said heart was more important, his face was a tier below a deep-sea fish. Even with a beautiful heart, he looked like he'd have a hard life.
Anyway, if you're gonna talk shit behind someone's back, shouldn't you lower your voice a bit? That was just talking shit to my face, wasn't it?
The relatives' slander didn't stop.
They didn't seem to know the meaning of moderation.
In the end, I spat out a curse irritably.
"Shut your fucking traps, goddammit. Blood's about to leak out of my ear holes."
"Wh-What?! You ill-mannered brat, to an adult...!"
"An adult should act like one. My parents beat me for twenty years, and now they're dead. What kind of adult thinks the abused kid should cry and grieve? Anyway, I can't stand it here anymore, so I'll be going."
"You son of a bitch! This is your parents' funeral! Where the hell do you think you're going!"
I brushed past the bald woman who was pointing a finger at me and walked right out.
I could still hear things behind me like 'Is that bastard really leaving? He's not coming back?' but I just ignored them.
They could handle the funeral themselves.
They weren't my real parents who died anyway.
They were just my parents who had lived in the parallel world.
And if they had been my real parents, I wouldn't have come to the funeral at all.
Those guys were the human trash who dumped me—a newborn baby—in an orphanage and ran away.
...No, wait. Would I have come?
Because I'd need to joyfully tap dance at the funeral hall.
Anyway, there was absolutely no reason for me to pay my respects.
Whether it was the parents from my old world or the parents from this world.
‘Since the parents on this side were garbage just the same.’
From my memories, the parents here were not normal either.
They didn't abandon me in an orphanage, but they were scumbags who abused me like it was a daily meal.
Their attitude changed only after I became an adult.
Once they learned I'd lucked into a fortune with crypto, they started acting like good parents as if the past had never existed.
‘Did that mean people's fundamental nature didn't change, even in a different world?’
Anyway, coming here had only soured my mood.
I should've skipped it like I'd originally thought.
I'd come because I thought staying away might cause trouble for my relatives, but who would've known those relatives were such shitheads?
‘Phew. I should just go home.’
I got into my car.
It was a 1-ton freight truck, the 'Porter2', I'd picked up before coming to the funeral home.
‘A truck really was the way to go for a man.’
For reference, the me of this world didn't have a car.
I'd been devastated by the fact that my beloved car 'Bbung-Bbung' was gone, but since I had money overflowing, I'd just bought a new one right away.
‘It was a bit of a shame it was automatic.’
I was originally a stick shift guy.
That was a taste I'd acquired while serving as a driver in the military.
Maybe it was because my first experience was with a manual.
When I drove an automatic, it felt a bit dull and boring.
But for now, I had no choice but to compromise with an automatic.
Because the me of this world only had a Class 2 license.
‘I'd have to upgrade to a Class 1 regular license later. Or getting a Class 1 heavy vehicle license while I was at it wouldn't be bad either.’
I started the engine and headed straight home without any detours.
***
My house was a country home located on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
I'd had it newly built for five billion won.
I thought it was a reasonable price, considering I'd also bought the land and built additional facilities.
‘I was really worried this house might have evaporated too, just like Bbung-Bbung, so that was a real relief.’
I passed the swimming pool in the yard.
After entering the house through the front door, I stood immediately in front of a full-length mirror.
‘Hmm.’
Like I'd said before.
My appearance was the same.
I hadn't measured my height, but it seemed to still be 185cm.
However, there was a slight sense of dissonance.
‘What was it? Why did I look more handsome?’
I didn't know what was different.
Nothing had really changed at all.
But nonetheless, I looked more attractive than the me from my old world.
‘Shit. That kinda made me sound like a narcissist...’
I turned my eyes away from the mirror and threw myself onto a couch as large as a bed.
Then, with my head tilted up, I stared blankly at the ceiling.
A fancy chandelier came into view.
‘...’
Absence of thought.
I just had no thoughts at all.
"Sex."
It was tedious and boring.
At first, the fact that I'd come to another world had made me feel a little excited. I'd even been chaotic.
Not anymore.
On the way home, I'd thought about it slowly, and coming to this world hadn't changed my life at all.
‘...What was I supposed to do now?’
It was the same.
My old world and my current world didn't feel all that different.
Once I'd realized that, I felt lethargic again.
I'd felt this way ever since I got discharged.
I was so bored it felt like I'd go crazy.
Should I re-enlist?
The moment that thought crossed my mind, I shook my head quickly.
‘No matter what, re-enlisting was out of the question. Almost did something insane there.’
Still, in this world, it would be like being a female soldier, so wouldn't military life be fun? A temptation like that bloomed, but the army was the army. It was definitely not a pleasant place.
‘Or, should I get a job as a hobby?’
With only a high school diploma, there was no way I could get hired at a proper company.
So I could just do a simple part-time job, but...
‘Nah, that wasn't it either.’
No matter how I thought about it, working as a hobby felt like a pretense. I wasn't poor, so I'd just half-ass the work, too.
My personality was also a problem.
It was a bit difficult for me to become a functioning member of society.
‘I'd probably just end up fighting with people like earlier.’
It was a little weird to say it myself, but, the thing was, I was kind of a rag.
I didn't mean my body was a rag.
I meant I was a mouth-rag who couldn't control his swearing.
In the army, too, I was initially a soldier requiring special attention.
I cussed out my superiors and base personnel.
Getting thrown into military detention was the natural course of events.
Later, even the officers and senior soldiers adopted the attitude of, ‘This bastard did not change even after detention. Just let him do whatever the fuck he wants,’ and started letting my behavior slide.
Swears like 'Oh! Fucking loyalty!' were let slide as a cute quirk.
Of course, that was only possible because I drew a reasonable line.
Unless I was pissed off, or excited, or chaotic, or zoning out, I could control my swearing.
‘The army was a shitshow... but looking back, the base personnel and superiors were all good people.’
It hadn't even been a year yet, but I already missed them.
I was also curious what those people were doing in this world.
‘I wanted to meet up and had a drink... since there was nothing as fun as talking army stories.’
Unfortunately, I had no way to contact them right now.
I'd never had any connection with them here, so I didn't have their numbers, and I didn't use social media.
"Haaaa."
I let out a deep sigh and lay down on the couch.
Then I rummaged through my memories.
The memories of the me who had lived here.
‘While I was in the army, the me in this world was... shit.’
I'd recalled the memories, wondering if he'd been doing something even remotely fun, but this bastard was exactly the same as me.
He was a guy whose daily routine was zoning out at home.
He was a human ATM who just stayed at home and dutifully wired money whenever his parents told him to.
‘He lived an even shittier life than I did.’
He led a life where, until this house was completed, he'd never invested in himself, just surviving day by day in a single-room apartment with a 300,000 won monthly rent.
Just recalling it made me feel impoverished.
"AH!!! FUCK!!!"
Before I could get even more depressed, I jumped up from my spot and let out a scream of profanity.
If I stayed like this, I was going to become a total wreck.
I had to just do something, anything.
Since I didn't want to work, I'd find something to do as a hobby.
‘First, I should try games. It was the most common hobby, after all.’
I turned on the computer and downloaded every game I could, willy-nilly.
A day passed like that.
Two days passed...
On the third day, I tried to force myself to get into the games, but it wasn't the least bit fun.
I'd even watched livestreams, studied guides, and memorized strategies to try and drum up some interest, but...
Wait.
Livestreams?
‘...Should I try livestreaming? Everyone in those streams had a face that looked like they were having the time of their life.’
That was how I got into livestreaming.
*
*
*
Once I thought of something, I put it into action immediately.
That was my creed.
Though, admittedly, it was a creed I'd developed today.
Anyway, I immediately turned on the stream and waited listlessly for a viewer to come in.
These days, blunt, unpretentious men were the trend, right?
Well, I had no intention of forcing a nice-guy concept anyway.
A false front was bound to be exposed someday.
And I didn't have the confidence to control my shitty personality and rag-like mouth.
Yeah. I'd just boldly show my true self from the start.
It was while I was thinking that.
『'Toothpicks Deep in Yoho's Hole' has entered.』
Finally, my first viewer had come into my stream.
The wait had been worth it.
I greeted them happily.
"Oh. Nice to meet ya? If you're here, shoot some money at me. You fucking bitch."
『'Toothpicks Deep in Yoho's Hole' has left.』
...Maybe that wasn't the right move?