Have you ever experienced general anesthesia?
After the anesthetic flows through your veins, someone tells you to count backwards from a hundred.
You do so faithfully, but before you know it, the nurse's voice calling you back to wakefulness reaches your ears. You open your eyes, and everything's already over.
All the changes that reshaped you completely happened in a blink—an instant so fleeting you can't even remember it.
That's exactly how it felt right now.
'Where... am I?'
I opened my eyes to find myself standing in some strange back alley.
It was a world away from my cramped studio apartment, where just seconds ago I'd been sitting at my computer playing a game.
The cold, dry outdoor air chilled the tip of my nose as it brushed past.
I froze in place like a block of ice, too stunned to move for a moment.
Then I sensed something was off.
This was already bizarre enough, but it was more than that—a visceral wrongness I could feel in my gut, beyond words.
I glanced around absentmindedly, then took a slow step forward.
I stopped in front of a grimy, dust-covered glass window in the corner of the alley.
"......"
I raised my right hand—which looked unusually small today—and wiped away the dust from the glass.
The reflection staring back from the cleaned pane was utterly unfamiliar. It should have been my face, yet it felt alien. Not just the features or expression, but the age, race, and even the gender were completely opposite from what I knew.
'What the hell is this...?'
A blue-eyed beauty gazed back at me in bewilderment.
Silver-white hair cascaded over her shoulders, framing a delicate, slender figure.
It was like something out of a meticulously illustrated artwork—a girl whose beauty could grace any fantasy novel cover—blinking back at her own reflection.
Every time I turned my head or shifted my gaze, she mirrored me perfectly.
That's when the horrifying truth hit me.
'No way... this is me?'
My mind reeled.
"Calm down. First, figure out what the hell's going on..."
Even the voice of my own mutter was so unfamiliar that I flinched again.
I shuddered, slapping both cheeks to snap myself out of it.
Forcing myself to take stock of the situation, I noticed something oddly familiar.
'Wait, looking closer... isn't this...?'
The girl's appearance matched the saintess character I'd customized just before in the game Cinder Knights.
The overall look was spot-on. The black habit. The star-patterned rosary around her neck. She looked like she'd stepped straight out of a medieval church era.
'But...'
I looked up, and towering skyscrapers pierced the sky.
Yet it wasn't quite like a modern cityscape.
Gaudy neon signs. Passenger drones zipping through the air. Holographic billboards sweeping across the view—a near-future metropolis crammed with them.
That sight felt familiar too, and realization dawned.
'This is... Omega Detroit?'
The backdrop of Neofront Cybercity. A city brimming with technology, vice, and violence—a land of opportunity.
Realizing I was standing right in the heart of it left me dumbfounded.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
'No, no no no, hold on—'
The situation was such a chaotic mess that my head was spinning.
'Cyber City' and 'Cinder Knights' were fictional worlds from a game—pure fantasy.
It was hard enough to believe I'd ended up inside one, but seeing a strange girl's face in the mirror instead of my own? I was on the verge of losing it. Was I still dreaming?
But no matter how I thought about it, everything felt too real.
The chill air, the stench of the alley, every puddle on the ground.
The cold prickle on the back of my neck told me this wasn't just a nightmare.
In the midst of my panic, a sudden noise shattered the silence.
Clang!
"...!"
I jumped and whipped around, but no one was there.
The empty alley fell quiet again.
'Probably just the wind.'
But my already rattled nerves made even the same scenery feel eerie now.
Belatedly, I remembered this place wasn't safe.
'If this really is Omega Detroit...'
The city's crime rate was insane in the lore—dozens of times higher than the worst spots in real-world South America or Africa.
The penthouses at the top might be fine, but down here in the lower alleys? Kidnappings, muggings, even murders happened without a second thought.
People vanished all the time, and the cops wouldn't even pretend to look.
Which made my current state pretty damn precarious.
For starters, my outfit didn't fit this cyberpunk future at all. In an era where advanced tech had killed off religion, a nun's habit? It was like cosplay on public transit—pure attention magnet. Prime target for trouble.
And worse, my looks...
'Way too eye-catching.'
The saintess face I'd customized for fun was stunning—even I was momentarily mesmerized seeing it in person.
In this world, you'd have to be a celebrity to pull that off.
Put bluntly, perfect bait for getting snatched in a dark corner.
Stepping out like this? I'd be lucky to make it a block before disaster struck.
And after that? Nothing but nightmare fuel.
'Ugh... never thought I'd be worrying about that...'
As a guy originally, I didn't even want to think about it.
Not to mention, where the hell was my maxed-out cybernetically enhanced player character after hundreds of hours invested? Why was I stuck as this fragile girl? With that build, I wouldn't have these worries.
But what was done was done. Time for solutions, not fretting.
I scanned around and spotted a trash container nearby.
An idea sparked.
"......"
I hesitated.
Was this the best option?
Did I have to?
I wrestled with it for a bit, but yeah—safety first.
"Hng—!"
Holding my breath, I dove in.
Right into the bags reeking of rot.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Under the hood pulled low over my face, I saw the shadow of an approaching pedestrian.
I tensed as the distance closed, but...
"Ugh? Gah—"
They pinched their nose first, grimaced, and veered wide to pass me by.
"......"
Probably the stench wafting off me.
I'd rummaged through the trash like it was a pool and scored a tattered black vinyl raincoat.
Hood down low, smeared with grime—it was perfect hobo camouflage.
The eye-watering stink was brutal even for me, but better this than getting jumped.
See? Looking like a bum, and no one spares me a glance.
'Man, this really is cybercity.'
I'd recognized it from the skyline peeking over the alley, but...
Out on the bustling streets with actual people, it hit different.
Futuristic car designs. Avant-garde fashions on pedestrians.
Metal cyberlimbs instead of flesh-and-blood ones everywhere, studded with wild implants.
The skyline—denser, more vertical than any modern city, packed with glowing signs—was straight out of another world.
I gawked like a country bumpkin for a while, then reality crashed in.
'Now what?'
I'd MacGyvered a short-term disguise, but the future looked bleak.
One second gaming in my room, next I'm a lost kid in a strange world.
What did I do to deserve this crap?
My mood sank lower.
Thoughts swirling, my eyes and nose started to tingle.
"Sniff—"
But I shook my head to clear it.
'Did this body turn me all emotional too?'
Moping over something so minor wasn't my style.
Life never went according to plan anyway. Just charge ahead.
No matter what, I'd find a way back home.
'Yeah, I can do this. I will.'
Chanting that to myself, I mustered some forced optimism and kept moving.
I finally reached my destination after a long trek.
'There it is.'
I let out a silent sigh of relief at the sign before me.
A dingy corner of a maze-like apartment complex I never would've found without game memory.
[K Fixer Office]
Standing before the door with its shoddy LED sign, I steeled myself and rang the bell.
A faint chime echoed from deep inside.
Ding-dong, ding-dong—
"......"
I waited ages before the door creaked open.
Stepping cautiously inside revealed a cramped single room.
A table and chairs on either side—bare minimum for a reception area.
Sitting across from it was a woman in her mid-to-late thirties.
Her youthful vibrance had faded a bit, but she was still strikingly beautiful.
Her drowsy eyes flicked over me and immediately scrunched up.
"Ugh, what is that smell?"
She pinched her nose, her face twisting like she was debating kicking me out on the spot.
Panicking at the thought of getting turned away, I hurriedly shed the filthy raincoat.
"W-wait! I'm not a bum. I'm here for a job."