Chapter 1
I turned on a survival documentary like usual.
My hobby was watching survival-related videos.
I'd already gone through every show with "my big bro" in it.
Deserts.
Jungles.
Snowy mountains.
Deserted islands.
I'd even watched videos about purifying shit water.
So lately, I'd been looking for other survival shows, and one title caught my eye.
<Survival Men and Women>
A man and a woman surviving together?
I paid for it on the spot and started watching in earnest.
I sprawled across my bed, hugged a fluffy pillow, and watched the wall-mounted TV.
Now this is living.
The format of the show was simple: a man and a woman were paired up to survive in the wild, and if either partner gave up, both were eliminated.
The prize money was a whopping 300 million won.
Maybe because it was a foreign show, they really went big.
"No, seriously, why did that woman even sign up if she was going to act like that?"
The villain showed up right from the start, and it made me frown automatically.
Onscreen, a muscular bald guy was chopping wood, drenched in sweat from head to toe.
He was building a shelter, one of the essentials for survival.
But beside him, the blonde woman in a tank top that showed half her chest was—
-It's way too hot here....
-Doesn't this look too shabby?
-My arms hurt. I want to go home. I miss my mom. Boo hoo.
She'd been grumbling nonstop from the beginning, and now she was even turning on the waterworks.
"Ugh! I want to punch her in the stomach! Seriously!"
The guy had worked his ass off to build a shelter for the night, and he even got a fire going,
-The smoke's blowing this way... Ugh, so annoying.
pulling that shit.
In the end, I couldn't hold it in and shouted.
"Ugh! That aggravating bitch! Does having a p*ssy make her some kind of royalty? Quit whining and do some damn work already!"
My pet savannah monitor lifted its head in surprise.
Its yellow slitted eyes stared fixedly at me.
"...Ah, sorry, Baby."
Wearing an awkward expression, I scratched his head.
He stuck his tongue out in a lazy, drooping pose.
Lizards and humans can't communicate, but
—There you go getting way too invested in something weird again.
that was the sort of thing it felt like he was saying.
"...No, but seriously, isn't she frustrating?"
The guy was building the shelter alone, making fire, finding water, even hunting.
Meanwhile, the big-chested blonde just spent all day whining.
I let out a deep sigh.
"That bald bro's blood pressure has to be through the roof right now. If this weren't on TV, he'd have decked her already. If that's how she was going to act, she should've stayed home stir-frying pork instead of signing up just to do this!"
I meant it.
No, seriously. If you came to film a survival show, then survive.
You can't just film solo misery porn out there.
Frustrated, I raked a hand through my hair.
In the interview cut where the guy spoke without his partner, he said,
-The most important thing in survival is your mental state. It's directly tied to whether you live or die. No matter how hard things get, you have to overcome it.
Looking at Bald Bro, I nodded vigorously.
"Wow, that's cool as fuck."
Looks like I've got one more big bro now.
*
My body had turned into a woman.
There hadn't been any warning signs at all.
My junk hadn't started hurting in my sleep or anything.
I'd never even once thought about wanting to become a woman.
...If I had to think back on what happened yesterday,
all I'd done was curse out the villain while watching a survival show.
No way.
Did some goddess punish me just because I talked shit about a woman?
"......"
I stared blankly into the mirror, unable to believe what I was seeing.
"...Wow, I kind of want to bite my tongue and die."
I sincerely wanted to die.
The woman in the mirror
looked dopey as hell.
Like, seriously.
She had gentle, drooping eyes and soft-looking white skin.
A small, round face and well-defined features.
Her slightly parted lips looked weirdly plush, and maybe because she'd just gotten out of bed, her tousled hair somehow brought out every protective instinct.
More than anything,
"why does she look so vacant?"
The overall vibe was the problem.
She looked exactly like the kind of girl who'd just
go, "Ehehe...."
with a goofy smile,
then follow a stranger off somewhere.
Anyone could tell she had that socially-awkward small-animal look.
I touched the one place on my face that had a little meat on it—my cheek.
Squish.
"Oh. It's like mochi."
My skin was ridiculously soft. After spending a while playing with my cheek, my gaze naturally dropped lower.
Under the baggy T-shirt,
"...."
I carefully poked my chest with a finger.
The heavy sensation that hadn't existed before should've been making its presence known,
but it wasn't.
"...Damn. This cliff is so sheer, you could go cliffhanging on it."
Just as I was looking over my body in fascination,
Sliiide.
Baby slipped naturally out of his enclosure, looked at me, and tilted his head.
Smart little guy.
He'd often stick his tail through the gap in the enclosure and open the door himself.
Those yellow slitted eyes stared right at me.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
-Who are you?
That was the kind of expression he seemed to be making.
"It's me."
Baby stared blankly at me for a while, then, as if giving up, slowly came over and rubbed his face against my foot.
"So you recognize your owner even if my body's changed. My adorable little baby. What a good boy. Yes you are."
With Baby resting on my stomach, I stared blankly at the ceiling.
Did this make any sense?
A man had turned into a woman overnight.
And not just any woman,
but a ridiculously dopey-looking girl.
"...Wait."
I bolted upright.
It was today.
The interview for Mister Rich's deserted-island content.
"Ah."
Sitting on the bed, I could only blink.
Mister Rich.
Korea's number-one YouTuber by subscriber count.
And the only YouTuber I subscribed to.
The reason his streamer name was Mister Rich was simple.
He spent money like a madman.
He casually launched content that cost tens of billions of won.
He rented out an entire cruise ship.
Blew up supercars.
Gifted a house to a homeless person.
He was the kind of man who made the things people only imagined in their heads happen for real.
This project in particular was insane.
《14-Day Deserted Island Survival Project》
Twenty streamers would be dropped on a deserted island and made to survive there for fourteen days.
The winner would get 200 million won.
On top of that, unless they used the special system, every donation viewers sent to the streamers would be paid out in full.
For someone like me who loved survival, it was pure wish fulfillment.
The problem was
that participation was limited to streamers.
So I started streaming.
...Though honestly, I never thought they'd actually ask me to come in for a real interview.
I'd filled out the application with a screw-it, whatever-happens-happens attitude.
"Wasn't a tiny nobody like me supposed to get auto-rejected?"
I muttered as I scratched my itchy head, but my mind was full of questions.
This was a project from Korea's number-one YouTuber.
Streamers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers and average viewer counts in the thousands had probably been lining up to apply.
So why pick a nobody who'd only just started streaming?
-Ah, yes~ We'll get back to you~
then toss my mail into some forgotten corner of the inbox—that would've been the normal response.
But I actually got an interview email.
And it was incredibly polite, too.
"...This isn't an impersonation scam, is it?"
I suddenly got nervous.
What if I went there and found a bunch of human traffickers waiting or something?
I looked down at my body.
Soft thighs.
Slender wrists.
Arms that looked like they had no strength in them whatsoever.
A face with a vaguely vacant look.
"...I wouldn't even be able to fight back in this body."
Wasn't that a serious problem?
The world's a scary place these days.
And on top of that, visas for Chinese nationals had been loosened recently too.
Wearing a grave expression, I slumped down onto the bed.
Right then,
Baby licked the back of my hand.
"......"
The touch was cold and wet.
I looked blankly at him.
His yellow eyes were fixed on me.
"...Baby."
You don't mean...
are you trying to tell me to be brave?
I held his gaze for a moment, sharing a silent bond.
—You got this!
"Alright."
And I sprang to my feet.
"If they are human traffickers,"
I muttered with a serious face.
"I'll just kick them in the balls."
I headed straight for the closet.
@
Mister Rich's headquarters was a massive building right in the middle of Gangnam.
"...Whoa."
Maybe because I'd gotten shorter, the already huge building looked even bigger.
I craned my head all the way back.
The glass exterior gleamed brilliantly.
Luxury foreign cars stood lined up in front of the entrance.
The sheer size of the building was overwhelming.
"Just how much money does he even make...?"
Honestly, I couldn't even begin to imagine it.
Blowing up supercars.
Renting cruise ships.
Running a deserted-island survival project—I knew he wasn't on an ordinary level, but
seeing it in person made it feel even crazier.
So there really was a reason people called him a walking conglomerate.
Completely cowed by the overwhelming grandeur, I stepped into the flashy building.
"Huh? Hey, kid."
One of the staff members in the lobby spotted me and came over.
A woman dressed neatly in a suit.
"Yes?"
"You can't just come in here like that."
"...?"
I only blinked, like an owl that had missed its prey.
Wasn't that a bit much to say to a guest who'd been invited?
And I wasn't a kid,
I was twenty. A full-fledged adult.
The employee glanced around with an awkward expression.
"You're a Mister Rich fan, aren't you?"
"Not a fan exactly, but I am subscribed...."
"No, it's okay. I understand."
The employee smiled like she was used to this.
"We get lots of kids showing up like this sometimes."
"...."
This was so unfair.
I really had come for an interview.
"I-I was invited."
The employee gave my outfit a quick once-over.
My baggy hoodie hung all the way down to my knees,
and the sleeves covered half the backs of my hands.
On top of that, my Crocs didn't even fit my feet, so I was practically dragging them.
They flapped around with every step.
Honestly, even I would've thought I looked suspicious.
Anyone would think I looked like some poor kid who'd lost their mom.
In the end, the employee sighed.
"Kid."
"I'm not a kid..., I'm an adult."
After a brief silence, the employee stared straight at my face, then gave an awkward smile.
"Lying is bad."
"...But it's true."
I was so wronged I could go crazy.
Should I just show her my ID?
There wasn't much time left before the interview.
"I-I really came for an interview!"
Hearing the urgency in my voice, the employee bent her knees to meet my eyes.
A waft of perfume hit me.
"You know the saying, a needle thief becomes a cow thief? If you keep telling little lies, later you'll tell big ones without thinking twice."
"...."
I found myself pouting for no reason.
The atmosphere made it feel like she wouldn't believe anything I said.
"...Should I show you my ID?"
"These days, people can fake IDs pretty well too."
"No, I'm serious."
She still clearly didn't believe me.
If anything, she was even looking at me a little pitifully.
"Do you want to see Mister Rich that badly?"
This woman.
She had completely mistaken me for some obnoxious little brat who'd snuck into the building because they wanted to see Mister Rich.
"...The interview."
"Mm-hm."
"For real."
"Sure~"
Ha.
In the end, I sighed and pulled a smartphone bigger than my palm out of my hoodie pocket.
Then I shoved the interview email in front of her.
At first, she just looked at the phone with a casual smile, but then her expression froze.
"...Huh?"
Her fingers slowly zoomed in on the screen.
Like she genuinely couldn't believe it.
《Interview Notice for Participation in the 14-Day Deserted Island Survival Project》
Participant Name.
【Reels】
"...You really were here for the interview... miss?"