Reborn in another world as a Hermaphrodite

"Dang it, fuck!"

As Alex panted for breath, everyone around him had disappeared. With the race track itself now gone.

His lungs were working in overdrive, trying to get in as much breath as possible. Yet, his eyes were blacked out.

His legs and hands were shaking from how hard he had put them through. It was the fastest he had ever run, but as the score was revealed, it was still not enough.

Fifteen people were all ahead of him, and the only person he knew on the list was Camille, who reached fifth place on the leaderboard.

"Congratulations, you have gotten... Sixteenth place. Please enjoy the break we had set up for you."

Before Alex could scroll down to check his sister's score, his surroundings had turned completely dark.

---

With the blink of an eye, he was in a new place, brightly illuminated by some sort of ceiling light inside.

"What is this place?"

As he looked at the light orb, it disappeared right before his eyes, leaving him alone in some sort of glass airlock entrance.

With no other choice, Alex took his first step forward, pushing the glass door to spin forward.

"Woah..."

Inside, Alex was a little shocked by the rows upon rows of goodies, from food to every drink.

They were all lying on the store shelves, neatly placed next to each other, almost like a modern grocery store.

From the white ceiling to the blue background in between the aisles, it was almost as if it were straight out of his memory.

However, seeing the potion section on the 2nd row quickly dismissed the thought of it being out of his memory.

"Energy drink...?"

With zero hesitation, he quickly grabbed a bottle of it, pulling the cap off and chugging it down.

It tasted a little sweet, with a little sparkling taste, almost like sparkling water without the bitterness.

He could feel his body's energy rapidly recharging, becoming more energetic than when he started the race.

"Woah... What the hell is this made out of?"

Unfortunately, Alex couldn't find anything useful after searching around the potion and the aisle for information.

With the empty glass in hand, he quickly puts it back onto the shelf before seeing it vanish right in front of his eyes.

"What do I do now?"

As Alex headed down the aisle, he saw more and more food and drinks that he had never seen before.

He considered taking a bite, but he immediately dismissed the idea when he saw the clock at the end of the aisle.

In bold, it stated nine minutes remaining, seemingly indicating that the break was going to end afterward.

Having nothing else to do, he headed over to the sofa next to the clock. Closing his eyes, he began attempting to enter meditation.

After an entire minute, he couldn't feel any mana at all. For a second, an idea suddenly popped up in his head.

"Is this really my body?"

Alex started reaching his hand inside his clothes, only to find everything fully intact—not a single bit of difference.

Everything seemed to be the same except for the ability to cast magic. To test his theory further, he closed his eyes again and began calling for Sarah internally.

However, there was zero response.

"Is this a made-up world like the one in Sarah's? Everyone's soul is transported to conduct this test?"

Thinking more and more only confirms his suspicion, as it makes sense that an archmage would be able to set this up.

"Wait... Is my memory being read again?"

Alex immediately got up from the sofa. Running down the aisles in an attempt to find something familiar from Earth.

But after going through the entire store, he couldn't find anything that resembled a modern grocery store.

Upon closer inspection, the lighting was more like middle-aged chandeliers, with the aisle made out of wood.

Even the glass airlock and the clock were just standard things he had seen in the past when walking in the commercial area on campus.

"Maybe I'm overthinking it..."

Just as Alex took a seat back on the sofa, the clock behind him suddenly started ticking louder and louder.

"One minute remaining!"

The light orb finally reappeared next to his right hand, with a little projection right above it showing some sort of track.

"Your next challenge is Swimming!"

"Swimming? That isn't even part of the PE curriculum... What kind of rigged test is this?"

Despite Alex's complaint, the light orb didn't react at all. With nothing else to do, he began checking out Projection's swimming track.

It was almost a whole basketball court in length, much longer than he had expected it to be when it first appeared.

"Half of the class is going to fail this... No, probably more than two-thirds of the school."

Before he could think back to all his experiences swimming, a bright light suddenly appeared before him.

"Times up! Good luck!"

---

When Alex could see again, he was in some sort of changing room, with a single drawer ahead of him.

Looking around, thankfully, no one else was inside the room.

Heading over to the drawers and opening them, he could see two options in front of him—a loose pair of swimming shorts and a one-piece swimsuit.

With zero hesitation, he takes the pair of swimming shorts before slamming the drawer shut.

As Alex began taking off his clothes, he quickly noticed that the swimming shorts happened to fit perfectly.

"How nice... Fuck, worst case scenario."

Right before his eyes was a pair of slightly bumpy chests, a thing that he could usually hide, but now, with his shirt off, it was open for everyone to see.

The last thing he wanted was to have a nickname like the "manboob guy" at school. Or even worse, where his peers assume him to be a perverted woman.

"Fuck fuck fuck... Maybe I should wear that swimsuit? But then people are going to be assuming I'm a woman."

Alex's brain started to overheat as he tried to think of a solution to hide his chest. But it kept on returning blank solutions.

The thought of all the other competitors looking at him with weird looks, some with disgust, while some with looks that fear him to the core.

"Three minutes left. Please leave the changing room when you're done."

"Fuck! Shit! Come on, think of something."

As his thoughts started leaning toward the one-piece swimsuit, he began to convince himself that maybe others wouldn't recognize him.

Perhaps everyone wouldn't connect him with the woman's swimsuit. Even if others reorganized his face, they had no camera proofs.

"No, no, no, what if Evelyn or Chloe sees me? Or even Camille? They would instantly recognize me no matter what and laugh at me until I'm dead."

The risk was too great, so Alex eventually closed the drawer back up and headed over to the exit with only a pair of shorts.

"Maybe there's no one outside... Maybe I'm just overthinking it."

Just as Alex reached for the exit, his mind suddenly came up with an idea at the very last second.

He quickly ran to the drawer again, taking the shirt he had on earlier before putting it back on.

With the shirt and swimming shorts together, the chances of having it fully exposed were now drastically reduced.

"The water wouldn't make it that obvious, right?"

Before he could calculate whether his wet shirt could expose his chest, the exit door suddenly opened by itself.

"Please exit the changing room. Your time is up."

Taking his first step forward, Alex quickly let out a sigh of relief as the shirt he wore remained on his body. More importantly, no one was on his left or his right.

In other words, he had the entire swimming pool to himself—no one to be scared of. Still, he kept his shirt on just in case.

"Seriously? Did I really worry over nothing?"

As Alex began contemplating his panic earlier, he began walking towards the swimming pool, only to be stopped by an invisible wall.

"Please wait. Others are still getting ready... The exam will start in one minute."

"Are we just swimming to the other side?" Alex curiously asked.

The light orb didn't answer back right away as it started to flicker until it suddenly stopped.

"Your objective is to swim to the other side. Drowning will automatically disqualify you from the test."

"Okay."

With no time to waste, Alex quickly began stretching his body, trying his best to warm it up.

"This should be easy peasy... But I haven't gone swimming a single time in this body before."

As memories of his past life began to flood his mind, his arms began to move on their own.

Butterfly strokes, freestyle, and backward strokes are the three basic styles that a mysterious figure had taught him in the past.

"Get ready! We are starting in ten seconds!"

Sweat began to roll down Alex's face as a countdown appeared right before the corner of his eyes.