NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3
“Are you really sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?”
My mother asked with a worried voice, but I slowly shook my head.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Common sense would say that I should definitely go to the hospital to check out this strange situation I’m in.
But since I didn’t have any pain at the moment and even my health had surprisingly returned, I didn’t feel the desire to go.
Most of all, I had already lived as a rare patient with unprecedented conditions.
“Is that the patient?”
“Yes, Professor.”
“Hmm…”
I hadn’t directly suffered any harm, but sometimes I felt like a lab mouse under the gaze of doctors looking at me.
Of course, I knew they meant no harm. They were simply doing their jobs and were, in fact, searching for ways to help me.
But… despite that, I didn’t want to feel that way again.
Especially since this time, my gender had literally switched.
The attention and interest I would receive from this change would be nothing compared to the rare disease of muscle contractions I had before.
“Alright. But if you feel any pain at all, you have to tell me. Got it?”
My mother nodded, agreeing that she didn’t want to expose me to the world as a guinea pig.
“Okay.”
“…Yeah, let’s do that.”
Standing at the door, my mother glanced back at me as if she still wasn’t ready to leave.
“If you need anything, just call for me, okay?”
“Got it.”
“Oh, wait.”
Finally recalling something, she walked over and grabbed a few strands of my hair.
“Just a moment.”
Snip—
“Ow!”
And there it was, the silver hair shining in her hand.
Even though I was watching it happen, it felt completely surreal.
“Alright, that’s done. Get some rest.”
My mother hurried out of the room, clutching the silver hair as if she were being chased by something.
“…”
I could guess why she was rushing and where she intended to use the hair, but I didn’t feel the need to point it out.
In a single morning, her son had become a daughter.
It was only natural that she needed grounds that made sense of this.
‘Wait a minute…’
Suddenly, an ominous thought crossed my mind.
The changes that had occurred in me were definitely not minor. Besides switching genders, my whole physique had changed completely.
With such a drastic change, it wouldn’t be weird if my original genes had all vanished.
‘Oh, come on… It’ll be fine.’
What if, just what if, the paternity test came back saying I wasn’t her child…?
‘Would I get kicked out of the house?’
No, if it came to that, it wouldn’t even be the worst-case scenario.
In the worst case, I might get punished somehow due to the missing ‘Yujin.’
There was no way I had an identity anymore, so I could end up in prison as an unidentified person.
“…I don’t know.”
I quickly stopped my thoughts.
Things would work out somehow.
If push came to shove, I figured I could stretch all the memories of my family in my head, crying and sniffling as I reminisced, and flopped onto my bed.
“Ugh.”
As I laid my head on the pillow, my unfamiliar silver hair tickled my nose.
I had never had hair this long before, so I couldn’t quite get used to it.
“Achoo!”
After a few sneezes, I gave up on falling asleep.
Considering I had fainted earlier, there was no way I was going to fall asleep again.
“Hmm…”
Slowly getting up from the bed, I looked at the mirror hanging on my wall.
‘I can do this… right?’
The concept of walking on two legs was still incredibly foreign to me.
But everything is difficult at first.
Step by step.
I took my time with each step.
Before I knew it, I didn’t feel as awkward moving my legs as I did at first.
“Ha!”
After a short but intense journey, I finally stood in front of the mirror.
It was time to inspect my appearance again, which I hadn’t properly seen amid my earlier chaos.
“…This is really me?”
I was probably about 160 centimeters tall?
It didn’t seem like a big difference compared to my previous height of 161 centimeters.
‘This angle is something new.’
I felt the realization sinking in that I was standing on two legs.
As I slowly reached out my hand to the mirror, the silver-haired girl on the other side mirrored my movements.
Long silver hair down to my shoulders.
Eyebrows also dyed silver.
Mystical eyes, harmoniously blended with hints of red and brown.
It struck me again how beautiful it was—it could only be described as stunning.
How could I look at myself and see beauty…? It felt almost vain, but facing those red eyes made me hesitant to deny it.
“Hm.”
My gaze slowly traveled down from my neck.
The first thing I noticed was the gently rising chest beneath my loose t-shirt.
Not too big, but not small either—just the right size.
I wasn’t an expert on women’s breasts, but at least to my eyes, it was perfect.
“Really pretty.”
The face, the figure, not to mention the mysterious aura radiating from me.
Everything was flawless.
If a goddess truly existed and appeared in the world, wouldn’t it feel something like this?
If my vocabulary were a bit better, I could probably express it differently, but sadly, I hadn’t been the most enthusiastic in class.
I mean, it was no surprise that my tutor had practically given up and just coasted through lessons.
‘Well, that’s not what’s important.’
After my little self-appraisal, I slowly shifted my gaze elsewhere.
If I could walk again, what would I want to do?
That had always been a dream—a hope for me, yet also a despair I thought I could never achieve.
But reaching this point, that hope had become a reality, and I finally gained my freedom.
Long ago, I wanted nothing more than to rush out to a playground and play with kids my age.
However, now that I was older, of course, I didn’t feel like doing that anymore.
“Guess it’s just this.”
Finally arriving at a conclusion, I found myself doing what I always did—sitting in front of my computer.
You know what they say, you can’t change what you’ve lived your life on—it’s not easy to change a life that’s been spent mostly in bed or in a chair.
At least I had managed to get up from bed and sit in a chair, which was one of the biggest changes I could claim.
‘And… there’s something I truly wanted to do.’
Having wrapped up my thoughts, I powered up the computer and went to my stats-checking site.
It was sort of a ritual—something I did every time I turned on the computer.
+
[Prisoner]
Rank 4
Solo Rank
– Challenger
– 1,588 LP / 239 Wins 172 Losses
– Win Rate 58%
+
I hadn’t played ranked games much over the past few days, so my rank had slipped a bit.
‘But I don’t care.’
Back in the day, I would’ve fought tooth and nail to maintain the number one rank, but doing this for the eighth year now, I’d come to terms with it.
What was once my ambition to maintain a top solo rank had shifted now—I no longer felt the need.
‘Shall I play a game?’
It was now midnight.
This is when most current pros finished scrims and started solo ranking, meaning I could match up with some high-tier players.
[Login]
As I logged into the Prisoner account, the first thing that caught my eye was the friends list.
“Let’s see…”
+
[3 Min Top School Honorary Member]
In Game.
[SCV KING]
In Game.
[Carry Well]
In Game.
+
My main position is jungle.
Originally, I was a mid laner, but since my physical abilities weren’t as strong as others, I had to switch positions to climb higher.
Of course, it’s not that I dislike jungle.
Even though I was originally a mid laner, I found reading the map and the strategies required in jungle pretty fun, and honestly, it’s something I’m quite good at.
Anyway, the reason my friends list is mostly top laners is also because of this context.
With the position being what it is, top laners often send me friend requests first.
“All of them are in a game, huh?”
That said, my friends list wasn’t exclusive to top laners.
Though the numbers were smaller, I had friends from other positions too.
For example… a proud Red Cup champion.
+
[SY Rainbow]
Searching for Game…
+
“Rainbow is here too.”
Rainbow.
A mid laner who recently won the Red Cup twice and had mentioned me in an interview not too long ago.
While I had mixed feelings about that interview, I could certainly say we were quite friendly.
“Will I get matched with them if I queue now?”
Rainbow’s current rank was 1400 points.
It was hard to believe this recent uptick was after participating in an international competition.
“Dropped from inactivity and gained 1400 points in just a few days? That’s insane…”
Winning the Red Cup twice isn’t something just anyone can achieve.
Lost in my thoughts, I realized my queue was finally matched.
[Game Found!]
[Accept / Decline]
Finally, a game was found, and the usernames of my teammates started appearing in front of me.
Familiar usernames.