Chapter 2: This Is Not Enough

I barely avoided being late and somehow managed to get to school on time, but…

My hazy memories of my middle school friends, and even the girls I would occasionally talk to, all thought it was perfectly normal for ‘Hayoon’, who had become a woman, to come to school wearing a skirt.

They only glanced at me, when I arrived at school while everyone else was already sitting for the morning assembly, and no one questioned my existence.

And me…

‘Is my seat over there…?’

After checking the printed seating chart attached to the teacher’s desk, I found my seat, hung my bag on the hook of the desk, and sat down.

‘Hmm…’

From then on, she was plunged into deep contemplation.

“Kim Moonkyung.”

“Yes!”

While the homeroom teacher, who had come in at some point, was calling the roll, I quickly reviewed the situation I was in.

‘First of all, I’m Min Hayoon.

I’m a woman now, right?

The people of the world are taking it for granted and don’t have even the slightest bit of doubt.

It’s all because of the status window, that damn furry.

And that means…

The status window can make me into a furry…?

This furry status window is capable of throwing a perfectly healthy adult man back to 2019, and even changing his gender to a woman.

If that’s the case, then it would be possible to turn me into a real female furry.’

That was terrifying.

‘If I became a female furry in the wilds of a fantasy world, my basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter would be threatened, and if i became a furry in modern society, I might be caught by research institutions and be subjected to interspecies breeding experiments with humans.

“Min Hayoon.”

“…”

“Min Hayoon?”

“Ah, yes?”

“Answer immediately next time. Next, Sung Sua.”

“Yes.”

While having those terrible thoughts, the attendance was completed before I knew it, so let’s get back to the main point…

‘I need to make ten million won…?’

[Alternative Mission!]

-You, ‘Min Hayoon,’ have a strong conviction as an illustrator!

We highly value that conviction!

We will respect your wishes.

Instead, earn 10 million won with your illustrations before the end of 2019!

Success Reward: ‘???’

Failure Penalty: You will become a furry.

The mission that this damn status window presented…

Make ten million won within the year 2019…

‘It shouldn’t be that difficult.’

My art style was already complete long ago and its commercial viability has been proven.

Due to the issue of leaks, which is common in this industry, I have never made hundreds of millions in profit, but my loyal fan base is solid, so I earned several thousand dollars per year as if it were given.

The problem is the equipment.

‘Ha, my money…’

The millions-of-won liquid crystal tablet I painstakingly bought, saving every penny of the thousands I earned…

Is now gone.

At least, my phone is a Note 10, which my parents bought for me, saying I could draw anytime, anywhere…

‘It’s a bit lacking with just this…’

No matter what, if I have to switch from using a liquid crystal tablet, which professional illustrators use, to working with a smartphone, my posture will suffer, and it will affect my back…

‘I should check if there’s anything usable at home…’

If there was even an old iPad lying around at home, I could borrow that, and use it…

It seems like I’ll have to check that at home…

“Um…excuse me…”

“What?”

“We have to go to music class…”

“Ah…”

It was time for a class change.

The nervous-looking student in charge this week was standing there with the attendance book, looking like she was about to cry, so I nodded, saying that I understood, and grabbed my recorder to head to the music room.

***

It took a full 8 hours for Hayoon, who left home at around 8:40, to return home.

“I’m back… Ah, they won’t be here.”

And at this time, my parents are not at home.

My father is an ordinary office worker, and my mother runs a model photography studio.

Phew, I sighed, went to my room, threw my bag down, and sat on the plush mesh chair.

“Haaah…”

It was a truly hellish 8 hours.

‘How did my past self go to school while doing such a waste of time?

I just want to look into taking the high school equivalency exam.

After all, even before I became a woman, my parents were of the opinion that I didn’t have to go to college as long as I made good money.

“If I try to talk them into it, I think they might say that I don’t have to go to high school…”

What’s important right now isn’t a high school equivalency exam.

Right now it’s the beginning of October 2019, and there are less than 90 days left until 2020.’

“Ten million won…”

‘I need to make 10 million won within 90 days.

For an average middle schooler, this might be a very difficult problem, but for me right now, it wasn’t so difficult. If I break through this head-on with my unique, arousing art style, somehow it will gain word-of-mouth and create a steady income.’

“First, let’s make a Pixiv account.”

I opened the laptop that was in the middle of my desk, immediately typed Pixiv into the search bar, and completed my membership using the ID and password combination I often used.

Signing up with a social account like Naver is simple, but if income is generated with a domestic social account, it can be backtracked, and your personal information can be exposed.

That was something I was extremely careful about since I was a man.

I didn’t want to be disgraced by being caught as a sex offender just because I drew lewd pictures.

“Well, now that I’m a woman, it’s unlikely that anything would happen even if I get caught…”

There’s no harm in being careful.

With the variable removed, it was time to make a pen name…

“Hmm…”

‘When I was a man, my pen name was Natsu.

It means summer in Japanese, and I personally like summer, and I couldn’t let anyone know I was Korean if I wanted to sell lewd art, so I had no choice.’

“But…

I can’t use Natsu anymore.”

I knew.

The summers to come will be seasons where saying ‘I like summer’ would get you more than enough criticism.

So, if I had to use a season as a pen name…

“Haru?”

Wouldn’t it be better to use Haru, which means spring?

‘The illustration market is vast.

And my art style is one that works best in Japan and Korea.

I don’t know when the status window might threaten me to make money like this again, so it would be better to approach Japanese fans with a Japanese nickname to make them feel familiar.

‘Of course, some people might curse me, saying ‘Why would a Korean use a Japanese name…!’ but by 2022, Japanese names will become widespread.

That’s right, in the streaming market.

A considerable number of streamers and YouTubers use Japanese names for their debuts, so that resistance will quickly decrease.’

“I’ll only get cursed for a little bit.

At most, two or three years?”

I knew this market well.

After all, the people who would hate you just for using a Japanese name are the ones who have no interest in this illustration market in the first place, and for the people who know and like this market, a Japanese name isn’t even considered a flaw.

“Rather, if I go viral and the Pixiv algorithm works well, I might earn a lot more than before.”

Once the thought had reached that point, I became even more convinced that I should use a Japanese pen name.

Using a translator, I wrote ‘Haru’ in Hiragana, and then quickly created her Fanbox and Patreon accounts.

“A support plan of about 8 dollars a month…”

Next up is the real money issue.

“If a thousand people support me, that’s 8,000 dollars, or ten million won, and since it’s unlikely that I’ll have a thousand supporters from the first month, should I aim to gather about 250 supporters in the first month, and then increase by 100 each month?”

Of course, this is a very optimistic calculation.

No matter how good you are at drawing, it isn’t easy for a rookie artist who hasn’t proven their consistency to gather a thousand supporters from the first month.

Support is an issue of trust between the artist and the supporter.

How many people would consistently pay ten thousand won a month to a newly debuted rookie?

“Then…

I’ll get commissions too.”

A plan that could fall apart from relying only on support funds is supplemented by actively getting commissions.

With an art style like mine, there would be plenty of people drooling and rushing to come.

‘If I sell them for about 400,000 won on domestic commission sites like Art Cafe, that will work.’

“Even if I sell ten, that’s 4 million won, there’s no way I won’t be able to make ten million won.”

I finished creating the accounts, as if I had no worries, and started looking for an old iPad or something similar that my parents didn’t use to draw pictures for her portfolio.

“Oh, I found it.”

It just so happened that an iPad and a stylus were in the storage room, so she quickly brought them out and began to show off her skills.

***

Exactly one month had passed since I uploaded three portfolio pictures to the domestic illustration commission site, Art Cafe, and Pixiv…

“Hmm…”

On my status window with a troubled expression:

[Current Earnings / Target Earnings]

1,304,891W / 10,000,000W

The earnings were far below what was expected.

Now there are only about 60 days left.

I have to make more than 8 million won.

The flow wasn’t good at all.

This was a point where I desperately needed to secure an additional source of income