"Alright, today's class ends here. I hope everyone reviews the important content we covered today at home. And... Lee Se-won?"
"...Yes?"
"It would be nice if we could see each other often in the future."
"Haha... yes."
With the professor's final words, I headed out of the lecture hall. My steps were quicker than ever.
I wanted to return to my nest as soon as possible.
Fortunately, the whispers among the students stopped around the middle of the class, but my mental energy was already drained.
I stepped outside the building and let out a sigh.
'Phew... that was tough.'
I couldn't remember how uncomfortable I was in the classroom...
Thanks to that, I couldn't even remember what the professor was talking about.
It was something about how microeconomics applies to real society... but to me, it was like a foreign language.
The only good thing was that there were many women in the classroom.
The gender ratio of the Economics Department, which was usually 7:3 male to female, was reversed to 7 females to 3 males. This was good news.
Even though the brains were reversed, their appearances were pretty, so I could feel like I was surrounded by women during the lecture.
But still...
'When I think about it, it's annoying.'
Why did 'Lee Se-won' choose the Economics Department?
There were departments similar to his major, like Visual Design, so why Economics? I couldn't understand it at all.
Was it because he didn't meet the grade cut-off?
I wondered for a moment, but decided to let it go.
"Well... what can I do?"
It was already halfway through the second year of the first semester, making it impossible to change majors.
Complaining wouldn't change anything.
What can I do? I just have to keep going.
Fortunately, the only good thing was that there was only one class today. Even though that class was three hours long, I could go home leisurely now that it was over.
'First, let's sleep a bit.'
I was feeling the lack of sleep from last night.
I needed to recharge my mental energy by sleeping.
I trudged towards the subway.
After about 20 minutes on the train, I could arrive home quickly. As soon as I arrived, I lay down on the mattress bed. The tension eased, and my body felt drowsy.
As my body relaxed, my eyes closed easily.
I fell asleep like that.
"...zzz"
*
I opened my eyes. As soon as I woke up, my hand naturally reached for my phone. I turned it on and checked the current time.
[16:35]
4:35 PM.
It was a time that was neither late at night nor completely reversed day and night. I had slept for about 4 hours, so I wasn't too tired.
I let out a hollow laugh.
"Haha."
Good. It seems like another productive day is starting.
It looked like I would go to bed at 6 AM again tonight.
And that snowball would likely roll over and crush tomorrow as well.
But I didn't show it. I wasn't the type to be overwhelmed by such things. I was someone who changed my lifestyle pattern several times a month.
I knew how to postpone tomorrow's fatigue to the future me.
Huh? Tired future me?
'Yeah, whatever~ I'm feeling great right now~.'
With such silly thoughts, I got up from the bed.
Growl...
Just then, my stomach growled. It was a signal asking for food. I briefly looked around the house to see what I could eat.
'One pack of Shin Ramyun, one can of beer, half-eaten butter squid...'
There was no rice, and not much in the way of side dishes. In short, there was nothing to eat. Come to think of it, I was a self-boarding student... not someone who managed the household. So, there was nothing to eat at home.
'What should I do...'
I didn't feel like eating ramen, and I was too lazy to go grocery shopping and cook. So, I had no choice but to order delivery food.
These days, the delivery system was so well established that anything I ordered at home was delivered quickly.
Thanks to that, there was no need to go out.
'I feel like having some Chinese food today.'
When it comes to delivery food, the first thing that comes to mind is Jjajangmyeon.
I decided to order Jjajangmyeon after a long time. I casually chose any restaurant, went in, and ordered one spicy Jjajangmyeon and one steamed dumpling. Including the delivery fee, it quickly exceeded 10,000 won. Even in a world where the gender ratio was reversed, the price of water was still expensive.
Still, I ordered it. I was hungry.
The delivery was quite fast.
"Delivery is here... huh?"
"Thank you."
I quickly tidied up my hair and hurriedly took the food, closing the front door. The female delivery person seemed a bit flustered, but I let it be.
If I opened the front door and a woman in her underwear came out, I would be flustered too.
In a reversed world, this was just a light incident.
More importantly, the Chinese food was important.
I quickly unwrapped the food and tasted the Jjajangmyeon.
The well-cooked onions and the fried Chunjiang sauce created a perfect sweet and salty harmony. The pork's meaty flavor added a rich taste, leaving a lingering sensation in the mouth. Adding the dense steamed dumplings to that... it was truly heavenly.
Thanks to that, the bowl was quickly emptied. As the bowl emptied, the fullness in my stomach rose.
Indeed, Chinese food was the best.
"Ugh, I ate well."
Eventually, all the bowls were emptied... and I let out a light burp. Sleeping, eating, and burping... I was no different from a beast.
But I liked that beastly side of me.
Sometimes, people need to be off and comfortable.
Only then could they endure the trials that would come next.
"..."
Now, it was time to face that trial.
I picked up my phone and looked at a notification at the top.
It was a cold text from the bank when I paid for the Jjajangmyeon earlier.
I checked the notification with a sense of dread.
[Dear Lee Se-won customer. We inform you that a payment of 12,000 KRW has just been deducted from your ○○ card.]
[Current remaining balance: 116,100 KRW]
116,100 KRW. That harsh reality gouged my chest.
Just from ordering one Jjajangmyeon... my bank balance had dwindled. It was an excessively sad situation.
I might not even be able to make it through this month.
"Money... I need to make money."
The situation was quite serious. This amount of money would disappear after about twenty orders of Jjajangmyeon. Twenty orders of Jjajangmyeon only amounted to 20 meals. There was no way I could survive.
The problem was how to make money...
But I did have a vision. I opened the Pixiv app on my phone. Fortunately, 'Lee Se-won' had already created an account.
Nothing was uploaded, but since he was an artist, he must have obligatorily signed up for Pixiv.
Thanks to that, I could skip the tedious sign-up process.
I had uploaded one picture with this account.
It was my passionate work that I had drawn for a whopping 12 hours yesterday. A picture of a naked woman with pink nipples as the highlight... In the original world, it would have comments like "[Wow, amazing!]" or "[Teacher, this is so hot, hehe]."
But in this world...
[Why is it a woman? Why is it a woman? Why is it a woman? Why is it a woman? Why is it a woman? Why is it a woman? Why is it a woman? Why is it a woman? Why is it a woman? Why is it a woman?]
[The breasts are huge lol Is the artist a lesbian? lol]
[This has... no narrative... no emotion... and it's not even sexy... I give it 1 point. Tsk... But the drawing is pretty, so I added 1 point.]
[This is just entrance exam level lol Can't read consumer preferences at all lol]
The comment section was a mess. Maybe because I tagged it all over, various female fans came to evaluate my drawing. All the comments were about how it was wrong. It made my head spin.
"No! Nooo!"
It's not me who's wrong!!
The world is wrong! I'm the only normal one, and all of you are crazy!!!
But minority opinions are always suppressed...
My cry did not reach the world and just died out. If I shouted again, I would be labeled as a madman, so I had no choice but to suppress my anger.
"Phew... haa..."
I sighed once and analyzed the situation calmly.
As expected, in a world where genders were reversed, there was no demand for pictures of women.
[Why are the comments like this? ㅠㅠ I like it, author! ㅎㅎ I finally found a good picture! ㅎㅎ Fighting~]
...Well, there were some, but they were a minority.
Pixiv was a place where both male and female users mixed, but it was inevitably dominated by 'female' users.
That's because the site was connected to the underground, so the relatively more sexually driven gender took over the community.
And since the more sexually driven gender in this world was women, it was somewhat inevitable that the comment section was a mess.
Women looking at erotic pictures and masturbating... It was a bit exciting to imagine, but it wasn't very helpful information at the moment.
I fell into deep thought.
'...How about just targeting men?'
I draw the pictures I want and receive sponsorship from the minority male audience... that is, 'male' audience. If it was a method, it was a method.
"...No."
But I soon shook my head. It was obvious that the earnings would be low.
It's not that I was ignoring the capital power of 'male' audiences. They also tended to sponsor generously if they liked the artist.
But still, I couldn't beat the sheer number.
If men were 20%, then women were 80%.
Naturally, targeting the 80% would have a higher return.
Since the situation was desperate, targeting 'female' audiences was the right answer.
But then... then...
"...Do I have to draw men?"
Big muscular chests, well-endowed shotas...?
Focus on men when drawing sex...?
Including the story...?
"No... I can't do that, damn it..."
I felt dizzy.
I couldn't do that. No matter how bound I was by capitalism, I couldn't do that!!
But reality, my bank balance of 110,000 KRW, was urging me to draw gay pictures.
I had to draw them.
I had to draw them to eat and live.
Because of that, my convictions were shaking.
A hungry Socrates or a well-fed pig... a cruel dilemma.
It made me feel like crying.
I thought and thought again. It felt like I had been thinking for hours.
"Phew... alright."
Thus, I reached a conclusion.
A compromise of sorts that I had derived through leaps and bounds.
"...What if I cut everything off?"
It seemed like too much of a leap, but anyway.
I had to make money. But drawing only male characters was too harsh.
Then.
I just had to cut everything off.
Arms, legs.
Instead of a normal male nude, I would draw a male nude with limbs cut off.
Fortunately, I was more tolerant of gore pictures than male erotic pictures. No, I was very good at drawing gore pictures!
That would do.
If the best wasn't possible, then the next best.
If even the next best wasn't possible, then the worst.
Then, in the end, the worst becomes the best method.
From today, I was a gore erotic artist.
The king of abnormal sexual desires who mainly drew hard stuff.
This was the conclusion I had reached.
My hidden piece.
'Alright.'
It felt like I had grown mentally.
Or maybe something inside me had broken.
'First, I need to change my nickname.'
The current nickname on Pixiv wasn't my nickname from the original world. It seemed that 'Lee Se-won' in this world used a different name.
A big job required the first button to be right.
I needed to change my nickname.
With that thought, I went into the settings and pressed the 'Profile Change' button. Without hesitation, I erased the nickname and wrote a new one.
A name I had used for a long time.
'Hala'
In Korean, 'Hala.'
Thus, I decided on my nickname.