The Swordsmanship Forum

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠night I got home from my convenience store shift, I was lying in bed scrolling through the Hunter Gallery.

Posts on the Hunter Gallery basically split into two types: people envying hunters, and newly awakened types flexing about it. I fell squarely into the first camp.

"Ah. I want to awaken."

It wasn't about wanting an easy life or getting rich. This was a matter of survival.

Hwaseong City. The place I'd lived my whole life, and one of the most dangerous regions in South Korea.

I'm so sick of this place.

Escaping to another region took money, and a non-awakener like me could barely cover living expenses. Maybe it would have been different if I at least had family.

My parents had been caught in a Tower collapse around the time I graduated middle school.

Life.

At first I'd thought the country would do something for me, but there was no government support of any kind. Maybe that was only natural. When Korea was collapsing in real time, who had room to care about some orphan?

…I want to awaken.

I didn't have big ambitions. Just C-class. If I could reach that much, I could escape this city.

Dream on.

I closed my eyes with a short prayer that no goblin would break into my house while I slept.

—Beep-beep-beep!

The alarm dragged my eyes open. Early morning, the sun just starting to rise.

Just a little more sleep…

The urge welled up, but I forced myself upright. If I dozed off again, I might be late for my evening shift.

This job was hard enough to get. I can't afford to get fired.

Unlike the old days, finding work in Hwaseong City now was nearly impossible. I stretched reluctantly and climbed out of bed.

—Thud.

When my feet hit the floor, the impact felt heavier than usual.

The bed seems higher somehow.

More accurately, it felt like I'd gotten smaller.

Hmm.

My body felt drained, and every sensation was completely different from normal. My clothes kept bothering me the whole time I moved. Was I still half-asleep?

I should wash my face at least.

With that thought I headed for the bathroom—and then.

"Huh…?"

I saw the girl reflected in the mirror.

Black hair with a silver sheen. Red eyes like gemstones set into her face. Skin as pale as a vampire's, and a face more beautiful than anyone I had ever seen in my life. Her age… maybe around middle school?

What the hell.

My brain felt like it was about to shut down, but I checked the girl's condition first. She wore the same stunned expression I did—and she was wearing the white shirt I always wore.

Why…?

Had I gotten drunk last night and kidnapped someone? The thought flickered through my mind, but I immediately realized something was wrong.

The only person in the mirror was that girl.

Then where am I?

I looked down. Beneath a shirt so oversized it was about to slip off my shoulders, a certain part of the body was visible—two small peaks that no adult man should ever be looking at.

…No way. It can't be.

I cleared my throat and made a small sound.

"Ah, aah."

A clear, crystalline voice spilled from my throat. And then—

—Swish.

When I raised my middle finger, the girl in the mirror flipped me off right back.

There was no denying it now.

I had become a girl.

I woke up and I was gender-bent.

Becoming a girl—and one who looked like a middle schooler, at that—was a shock, but…

Still gotta do what needs doing.

I quickly sorted through my situation. First, my ID.

"Hmm. Still a guy."

My ID still showed the male version of me. Every trace of the life I'd lived was intact—only I had become a girl.

So not a parallel world.

That left one last step.

"…Status window."

I called it out, but nothing happened. Getting an awakening after a gender-bend was supposed to be the golden rule of these things. Not even that?

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠situation was pretty hopeless.

Not a parallel world where I was born a girl, no broken superpower awakening—just an appearance change into a girl?

I was basically a pretty illegal alien.

"What is this even…"

I clutched my head and tried to think. What was I supposed to do from here?

Parents I could confess everything to… already dead a long time ago.

I didn't have close friends either, so there was nobody who could vouch for my identity or help me. Should I go to city hall and tell them the truth?

No. Absolutely not.

Getting deported would be the lucky outcome. I could end up as monster bait during a subjugation, or trafficked by a criminal organization. That was how bad things were in Korea.

"Ugh…!"

No matter how hard I thought, there was no future. Just as the world was going dark in front of my eyes—

Forum…?

And "physical reconstruction"—was that referring to my transformation into a gender-bent pretty girl? Questions were still flooding my mind when another blue window appeared.

A gallery?

The blue window displayed what looked exactly like a forum interface. I skimmed through it and tapped a post that caught my eye.

At a glance it looked like any ordinary community. But looking closer at their conversations, something felt off.

They're already dead?

From context, everyone in this forum seemed to have died once already. They'd each come from different worlds, and nearly all of them had possessed peak-level swordsmanship.

But why am I in this gallery…?

The question only lasted a moment before I accepted it. I'd been gender-bent into an illegal-alien pretty girl—handing me at least one perk was only fair.

I need to use this forum somehow.

I immediately made a fixed nickname and posted a question.

After posting, a flicker of worry hit me.

Is the bait too weak?

That thought barely had time to form before—

"Whoa."

Countless comments flooded the screen in an instant. Of course, true to forum form, almost all of it was nonsense—but there were a few serious ones too.

Just as my identity was about to be locked in as a delusional old man, I hurriedly left a reply.

The forum kept mentioning the Inner World too. What on earth did that mean? It seemed like an important concept, so I asked immediately.

Amid the endless stream of question marks, one particular question appeared.

They seemed to be sizing me up as a total scrub. But I at least knew that much.

Just as the suspicious stares were piling up—

A fixed nickname with a blue mod badge appeared next to the name.

When I blew up in the comments, the gallery members finally started explaining what an Inner World was.

I actually didn't understand at all. I got that an Inner World was a mental image, but swordsmanship was pulling that into reality?

What even is that, you nerds.

It was a concept that didn't exist on Earth. I sat there blankly absorbing their explanations, and then—

I got found out immediately.

After that came several dozen minutes of nonstop explanation theater. Summarizing the information I got:

1. Only one person with the greatest talent from each world could enter the Swordsmanship Forum. On Earth, that person was apparently me.

2. There were no living people in the forum. Normally you received information about the forum right after death. Then, as you were moved into a space for swordsmanship training, the forum activated—

For a while, the entire gallery's discussion topic unified around one question: why had the forum activated for me while I was still alive?

Unknown.

Plausible theories and all kinds of garbage posts flew back and forth, but in the end nobody reached any conclusion.

Most of them seemed eager to teach me.

What should I do?

I had two options.

1. Ignore the forum and live as an illegal-alien pretty girl.

2. Learn swordsmanship and try something—anything.

…Definitely the second one.

There was nothing to debate. Awakeners climbed Towers because they were strong. Even as a non-awakener, I could still enter a Tower.

If I learn swordsmanship and get stronger?

I might even be able to become a hunter.

I asked one question to measure the combat power of the people who would become my teachers. And then—

Dozens of question marks stacked up as if they'd all agreed in advance.

Was the dragon too much?

Well, even in fantasy novels dragons were absolute beings. Obviously they'd be hard even for Sword Masters.

Huh?

Judging by the reactions, they were completely serious.

…Are their dragons different from the ones on Earth?

The thought crossed my mind, but it didn't seem worth worrying about right now. Even if dragons were different, how different could they be?

I received countless other love calls as well. But among them, one comment stood out the most.

The comments were nothing but warnings not to follow the sub-mod's advice under any circumstances.

In gallery-speak, "never do this" means you absolutely have to do it.

Having finished my forum-language translation, I left a comment.

From the vibe, the sub-mod seems like the strongest one here.

For now, I'd follow her lead.

The sub-mod replied as if she'd been waiting for exactly that.