The Cosmic Fail of a Gender-Bender Artist
How was an artist supposed to make money on Paxiv?
Obviously, just uploading drawings wasn't going to bring in any income. Paxiv was nothing more than an art-sharing community—not some charity run by donation angels. More views didn't magically equal more cash.
Sure, you could build a name for yourself, but that was about it. Fame alone wouldn't fill my empty stomach.
So how exactly did smut artists earn a living?
There were a few routes, but the most common one was the patronage system. You built a following on Paxiv, then leveraged that fame to lock down supporters on a separate donation site.
Take a simple example. Say I'd drawn a comic and wanted to monetize it. When I posted it to Paxiv, I'd deliberately upload only part of it—mosaic the important bits, or just chop the piece in half. Then I'd drop a link saying the full version was up on the patronage site. Anyone who liked the work enough would pay to see the rest.
They got quality fap material; I got paid. Everybody won. That was the classic smut-artist hustle.
I'd made money the same way in my old world, and the income had been pretty solid. The big-name artists could clear over thirty million won a month. Even better, once the work was up, the money kept rolling in as long as the account stayed active. Pieces lived forever, and traffic found its way in somehow. It was like a stock chart that only ever went up and to the right.
Which was why any underground artist with a bit of experience usually opened a patronage account. Even dumping a few pieces on there brought in side income—no reason not to.
…But that method required a certain amount of career and name recognition. For someone who'd only uploaded four drawings, it was a dead end. Who was going to seek me out by name and throw money at me?
It also took forever. Patronage work still needed decent quality, so people usually posted full comics with actual stories instead of one-off illustrations. Even a rough concept-to-finish cycle ate at least a week. In a week I'd be dead of starvation. A patronage account was way too early for me.
So I went with the second option: taking commissions. Someone wanted a picture; I drew it and got paid for the labor. You didn't need a long résumé—just enough skill—and the turnaround wasn't bad. All I had to do was render whatever they asked for. I could finish a piece in two or three days. Hell, with desperation as fuel, I could probably do it in a single day.
"Alright. Time to get this done."
Decision made, I immediately slapped a bold post up on BC. Dropping a notice on Paxiv alone wouldn't get me anywhere—I was still a nobody artist. I needed the publicity.
I deliberately set the price a little high. Whatever else I lacked, I was confident in my art. Sure, I'd failed to get into the college I wanted—but that was all. In my original world I'd been a pretty well-known smut artist. A year of drawing that stuff had sharpened my skills a lot. Back then I'd regularly charged over 200,000 won a piece. At 90,000, I was practically giving it away. So yeah—I had confidence.
…And yet.
The reaction was ice cold.
"What?"
Why? Objectively speaking, the art was good. Clean, thin linework; detailed, appealing shading; even the fluid dynamics of the blood. It was a solid semi-realistic style. Throw in a proper background and it could go toe-to-toe with most illustrations.
I hammered out a reply. They weren't wrong about the arrogance, so this time I mixed in some polite speech.
Thankfully, my tearful appeal seemed to land. The collapsing public opinion started to climb back. You really did have to appeal to lust. Nothing pulled sentiment around faster than horniness.
But the next wave of comments hit right away.
"Ugh…"
I let out a low groan. This was exactly why I hadn't wanted to jump into commissions too early. Without a name, even good skill often failed to command a fair price. I'd wanted more experience under my belt first—but I was broke.
"No choice."
Ninety thousand really was a lot of money. Art enthusiasts might spring for it, but ordinary people weren't going to drop that just for a single eyeful. So I typed again. Special loss-leader service.
Seventy thousand was a fair sticker price. Nobody could complain it was expensive now.
Good. Satisfying. Seventy thousand would keep me alive for about a week. Extending my lifespan and recovering public favor—that was value you couldn't buy for a mere twenty thousand won. I smiled at the result.
And right as I was grinning and about to open the Kakau chat…
Another comment dropped.
Like past karma surfacing from the depths. A few more users piled on as if on cue.
Uh-oh?
Public opinion… public opinion was in freefall!
They still remembered the spam-terror incident from a few days ago. The comment section flooded with fresh curses. A full boycott kicked off—people swearing they'd rather die than commission me.
All because of that terror bastard. I remembered the guy from that dawn—the one who'd alternated gore shots and naked female characters just to farm aggro.
Damn it, what kind of walking public nuisance spam-floods a board like that?
…It was me.
It had been me. I'd spammed it myself for promo, to gauge reactions. I'd even used disposable alt accounts and gone at it hard.
Ha, fuck. Looking back at myself from a few days ago just made me laugh hollowly.
This wouldn't do.
"I have to salvage public opinion."
Clack-clack-clack!
I worked the keyboard and pleaded my innocence.
Truth was I was the terror culprit, so there was nothing to feel wronged about. But I felt wronged anyway!
I'd used a proxy IP for the spam, so they had no way of knowing it was me. Under the veil of anonymity, the terror guy and I were complete strangers. No evidence meant whatever I said was the truth. Hell, truth didn't even matter in this world.
So I needed to pour real sincerity into the appeal.
Right now I was just a poor smut artist who'd been hit by the same mysterious terror as everyone else. A single, blameless victim. I prayed this heartfelt plea would land.
However—
"Haa……"
A sigh came out on its own. The move I'd thought was my best option had come back like a boomerang and turned into a complete blunder.
"Ugh… Lee Se-won, you stupid bastard……"
There was only one way left to soothe the enraged users.
Drop the price again.
Only then did the roaring public opinion start to cool. I decided to look on the bright side.
"Yeah……"
I'd recovered the crowd—that was enough. In my situation, even 50,000 was a blessing. Keep the discount for about two weeks, then ease back to normal price and the kids would be happy. After that I could nudge the rate up little by little.
I sketched out a rough future plan from there.
…Which was probably why I answered that question so casually. My mind was elsewhere.
Looking back now…… I really shouldn't have.
I still had no idea how deviant desire manifested in a gender-reversed world. What kind of abyss was waiting down there.
And then people started joining the open chat room.
"…Ah?"
Faced with those abyssal nicknames, I briefly lost consciousness.