Five Grains Reboot

Chapter 5

—–CROW—– 

“Ugh…!”

Was I too loud?

Of course I was loud! I was screaming!

A fleeting memory from the past.

“This is your landlord. We’ve received numerous noise complaints about shouting and loud music at night. Apartment buildings are not soundproof, so please be considerate of your neighbors^^”

“Uh, ugh, ah… Ugh…!”

My natural-born loser instincts kicked in, and the furious, screaming monster vanished, deflating like a popped balloon.

The moment I realized those footsteps were headed for my door, my mind went blank.  Classic basement-dwelling warrior.

*Knock, knock, knock.*

“Excuse me.”

A sharp, slightly irritated female voice called from outside.

Oh, I was fucked. Fucked. Really fucked. This was a hard-won, conveniently located, affordable apartment, and I absolutely couldn’t afford to piss off the landlord!

“Excuse me. I heard you screaming just now, so please open the door.”

I held my breath.

Pretending I wasn’t home… wasn’t going to work…!

“Excuse me! Can you hear me?”

Without any excuse prepared, I opened the door.  The woman standing there seemed slightly surprised, her eyes widening.

‘Ah. I remember.’

The memory of meeting the landlady, whom I’d barely interacted with, surfaced.

I’d briefly seen her in the winter when I first went to sign the lease with the real estate agent.

It was years ago, but the memory was vivid.

The landlady, bundled in a thick coat, had looked at me with a displeased expression. The contract discussion seemed to be going smoothly, but then she took the agent aside and talked for a long time, leaving me standing there.

I couldn’t hear everything, but it was clear she didn’t approve of me as a tenant.

A normal person might have confronted her about her rudeness, but I just stood there frozen like a loser in front of a scary delinquent girl, head bowed.

I couldn’t even make eye contact, so I barely remembered what she looked like.

All I remembered was a strong, intimidating landlady, someone I should never meet again, with a sharp, scary voice…

“Um, well, uh, I’m sorry…  I was being loud.”

I apologized first.

The owner of Sae-gyeong Villa was a slender, attractive landlady.

My eyes widened. Unlike before, she was wearing a so-called “Dongtan dress,” a form-fitting outfit that revealed her figure.

…Amazing breasts.  They reminded me of my lost Genatia-chan!

She had a sharp gaze and a pretty face, the kind that probably kicked a lot of losers in school.

Her long hair, pulled back from her forehead, reached her waist.

She stood with her arms crossed, looking ready for a confrontation. She looked down at me, but she didn’t seem intimidated at all.

“…A man.”

She muttered to herself.

…’A man.’

Didn’t she know? That I was a man?  She hadn’t seen me since we signed the contract either…

She looked me up and down, then spoke in a slightly calmer tone.

“I’ve received a lot of complaints. From the next-door neighbor and the downstairs neighbor.  I heard you screaming just now, too.”

“I’m sorry…”

“…”

She was scrutinizing me even more intensely than I had scrutinized her.  The landlady seemed displeased.

“Yesterday, I also heard what sounded like a woman moaning…”

Moaning? Was that Ji-min…?

How bad was the soundproofing?!

I tried to be careful, but sometimes, I couldn’t help my outbursts…

“…I came here wondering what kind of woman it was. But it was a man.”

“Huh?”

“It was a man.”

“Y-Yes, that’s right.”

As you can see, I’m a man.

“Well… since you’re a man.  I’ll let it slide.”

“Huh?”

Was I mishearing things because I was a socially inept loser?

She’d let it slide because I was a man?  What did that even mean?

“You couldn’t help it because your sexual frustration built up, right?  *Chuckle*.”

???

What?

I was taken aback by her seemingly playful sexual harassment.

A normal reaction would be to ignore me.

Women didn’t talk about sex with men they weren’t interested in.

Even if they were interested, they wouldn’t do it upon first meeting.

“Does it get hard all the time?”

“…Uh?  Huh?”

“Why? Are you uncomfortable? Hmm…”

“What are you talking about…?”

“Your dick.  Your dick.”

…I reacted.

It was hard not to when a woman like this was giggling and talking about dicks in front of me.

This was like something out of an ero-manga.

“Well.  I’ll leave before I actually report you. Be careful next time.”

“Oh, okay…”

“Oh, and…”

She smoothly approached me, placed her hand on the door chain, and looked at me.

“You should be careful.  Since you’re a man.”

“???”

“Everyone else in this building is a woman.  You never know when a strange man might barge in.”

Was she worried about me (because I was a man)…?

“See you.”

I couldn’t tell if she was kind or malicious.

She left as suddenly as she’d arrived.

She even flaunted her large buttocks as she walked up the stairs.

“Phew…”

I closed the door and took a deep breath. The more I thought about what I’d just seen and the situation I was in, the more aroused I became.

Back in the comfort of my own space, my dick hardened uncontrollably.

‘Hmm…’

Where was the lease agreement…?

I looked at the contract with the landlady’s name on it.

‘Name: Ryu Ha-rin.’

Even her name was pretty…

My dick was twitching even after being denied like that.

And those breasts…

It was enough to soothe my wounded heart.

I couldn’t speak in front of intimidating, delinquent-type women, but it was such a stimulating experience for a loser like me.

They inevitably became the subject of my fantasies.

Should I go see Ryu Ha-rin?

I’d burst through her door and yell, “Spread your legs, bitch!”

…Seriously?

Typical loser fantasy.

As if she’d give it up so easily.

Even if the world had gone crazy, that was a bit much.

After my gacha game characters were all sex-changed, I did some research online.

Now I understood why the algorithm was messed up yesterday.

Currently, men and women’s perceptions of chastity were reversed.

Actually, that wasn’t the only thing that had changed.

Considering Ji-min’s irrational behavior and the landlady’s bold sexual harassment…

…Men’s sexual value had skyrocketed.

Even an ugly man like me.

So how advantageous was it for handsome men?

Apparently, not that much.

“Men” themselves had become incredibly rare.

For some unknown reason, there had been a change in male hormones.  Most newborn males were now born with androgynous, almost feminine features, and their reproductive abilities were significantly weakened.

They’d been massively nerfed.

On the other hand, women had become more feminine, with more developed breasts, longer fertility periods, and the ability to maintain a youthful appearance well into their twenties.

The explosive increase in women’s libido seemed to stem from this singularity.

The reversed chastity norms of society also played a role.

The value of men, or more accurately, the value of “dicks,” had become ridiculously high. The uglier the man, the higher the expectations for his “dick’s function,” making them more desirable to women.

Hmm.  I didn’t quite get it, but that was the theory.

In short…

The world had become a chastity-reversed world where effeminate, impotent men made up the majority of the population…

‘This is complicated.’

Let’s just call it the ‘Reboot World.’

Judging by the fact that the envelope of money was still there, it didn’t seem like I’d been transported to another world.

The elements of the original world had simply changed.

That could only be explained as a reboot.

“Ahh, so it’s been normalized…”

Wasn’t this my victory, the one who’d waited for the Reboot World?!

I quietly clenched my fist.

Good thing I didn’t bother working!

From now on, I’d be like those popular guys, picking up women and having sex parties 365 days a year!

“Sex party!”

I cheerfully raised my arms and shouted, then looked around my quiet room.

“…”

Sex parties like a popular guy?

Me?  The guy who could barely hold a conversation outside his own apartment?

“As if…”

I slumped down and looked at my mobile game accounts, the culmination of my labor—300 hours of rerolling—and money.

Edelwyn: “Eek, my balls… they’re not that big…!  Don’t stare at them!”

“…I’ll sell my accounts.”

I was quitting these games.

Most popular games had switched from male-oriented to female-oriented.  My little sanctuary within my phone was gone.

This was the moment mobile games, which I thought I could never quit, disappeared from my life.

I listed my accounts on a trading site and pondered while scratching my feet.

“So what do I do now?”

Hmm.

Nothing really changed.

I understood that it had become the Reboot World… but so what?

It wasn’t like 10 billion won had fallen into my lap. My life hadn’t really changed.

Actively going out and picking up women was impossible.

Just having Ji-min was enough…

“You couldn’t help it because your sexual frustration built up, right? *Chuckle*.”

I remembered Ha-rin’s mocking laughter and felt a tingling sensation.

I didn’t want to go out.

I didn’t want to actively pursue relationships.

I hadn’t suddenly changed as a person.

But the events of the Reboot World were stirring something within me.

“I’m really going to suck it? Really, really suck it?”

Ji-min’s sweet voice, her pleading tone…

It was awakening the frustrated desires within me.

It would be nice to play with pretty, busty women…

I used to shake my head at such thoughts, thinking they were beyond me.

‘But this is the Reboot World…’

Wasn’t it okay to have such thoughts?

“Should I play a game of LoL?”

League of Legends.  LoL.

You picked one of hundreds of champions, chose a position—top, mid, jungle, bottom—dominated your lane…

And destroyed the enemy Nexus to win.

Fortunately, in games like LoL, the characters’ genders were the same as I remembered.

Everything else…

[Game Start]

[PregnancyMachineOfDoyanggu: There’s a man on our team lol]

[EasyLayMan: lol Jang-seok, wanna give me your dick? Should Noona come over?]

[HugeClitoris: DICKCOCKDICKCOCKDICKCOCK]

What was with these nicknames?

Most of the players were women, and they were serious about sexually harassing men.

It used to be the other way around, with women being harassed in games like this.

‘Wait?  Did I just… feel offended?’

Well, it was natural to be offended by idiots.

It was a bit disconcerting because it was an unfamiliar atmosphere.

‘The enemy team’s nicknames are normal, though.  Fuck.’

Just as I thought this game was a lost cause, I felt a strange sense of dissonance.

[PregnancyMachineOfDoyanggu: Jang-seok, spread your balls so I can see them, or I’m not ganking.]

[SoloKillMachineJangSeok: I’ll show you my balls, come get ’em.]

[Double Kill!]

“No, fuck!!  You’re supposed to wait for me to engage! Now I’m dead!”

[Triple Kill!]

[An enemy is on a rampage!]

“Wow, why are there so many people top?”

They never came top even when I asked them to… Now both teams were teleporting top like crazy.

Were they all on drugs?

[Everyone’sGirlfriend: lol Jang-seok, thanks for the dick♡]

[HotGuyWhatsTheProblem: Did you cum inside a lot?  Give me some~]

[WhyIsOurTeamLikeThis: lol Jang-seok’s a total cumdumpster lol  My womb is full.]

I frowned at the barrage of messages from the enemy team after the game ended.

How many verses of unfunny sex jokes were they going to make?

Four out of the ten players sent me friend requests.

‘Seriously…?’

Could all of this be because my nickname had a male name in it?

Because I responded to one sexual joke in team chat?

‘Huh?’

[MintBee sent you a friend request.]

[Accept Y/N]

One of the enemy players sent me a friend request too.

Honestly, she was incredibly good, almost intimidatingly so.  She played AD Carry.

No deaths, 18 kills, 12 assists.

Was this a smurf account?  This was a normal game, but her skill level was way beyond what I’d normally encounter in ranked.

“Well…”

Her nickname seemed normal enough.

I’d accept.

[MintBee: Hi]

[SoloKillMachineJangSeok: Hey]

[MintBee: Are you really a man?]

Wait, was she here to hit on me too?

[SoloKillMachineJangSeok: I’m a man]

I replied curtly, feeling annoyed.

[MintBee: Wanna duo? lol]

Hmm… Duo?

Play together? She was way better than me.

[MintBee: I’ll boost your ranked tier too.  We’ll hit Master in no time if we play bottom together.]

That was a tempting offer.

My peak rating was Gold, and Master was… uh, Platinum, Emerald, Diamond…  That was a three-tier jump.

[SoloKillMachineJangSeok: I’m not a support main, is that okay?]

[MintBee: It’s fine lol  Just play Min-jun support.]

“?”

Min-jun support?

I looked it up on Namuwiki and learned it was the Reboot World’s equivalent of a “Hye-ji support” (a derogatory term for a female support player who relies on their male ADC to carry them).

“Should I get carried?”

At first, we lost a few games, but once we got on a roll, we started an incredible winning streak.  I started to think she was actually a Grandmaster or higher tier ADC main.

‘I was skeptical at first.’

A female Grandmaster++ ADC main…?

The very fact that a Grandmaster-level ADC player was a woman was so fascinating that I kept playing with her.

Of course, there was a chance she was a man.

[MintBee: Jang-seok, is your dick big? lol]

…

If this was some gay guy messing with me, I would have punched him.

In this Reboot World, I should probably consider this to be the average female behavior…

[MintBee: Is it small? It’s okay even if it’s small.]

My pride flared.  Why did she assume it was small?

[SoloKillMachineJangSeok: It’s over 20cm.]

[MintBee: lol  Don’t lie.]

Having a big dick was one of my few bragging points.

In the pre-Reboot World, it was just a pee stick, nothing more, nothing less.

[MintBee: If we win this game, can you show me your dick?]

Hmm…

Well, I didn’t have a reason not to show her…

But this whole situation felt like a creepy, gender-swapped version of those thirsty guys in games trying to get laid, and the fact that I was the target was quite unsettling.

‘Even in games, there are so many people desperate for sex…’

I wasn’t like that.  I didn’t send dick pics through Instagram DMs or try to pick up girls in games.

I couldn’t even if I tried…

“Fine.”

It wasn’t like it would shrink from being seen.

I was also curious about her reaction to my king-sized dick, so after exchanging numbers with her…

We started a video call.

—–CROW—–