Chapter 7: Living life on easy mode (planned)

The build research was nearing completion.

Starting with the Zombie Camilla build, which focused on lifesteal and chasing down enemies, then moving to the tanky Camilla, and finally to the Scourge Camilla, whose sole purpose was to take down the enemy ADC in a mutually destructive trade.

Among them, there were four builds I deemed viable, worth holding on to.

Considering I had originally come up with around twenty builds, a success rate of one in five wasn’t bad at all.

‘Especially since I used to only rely on two builds.’

The situation was much better than when I could barely make do with just two builds, swapping them in and out depending on the situation. Things felt a lot less restrictive now compared to back then.

There were several reasons why the number of builds had increased.

For one, the meta had changed since my original playtime, and research had become smoother than before. But the biggest reason was, without a doubt, this changed body.

‘The physicality is unbelievable.’

I wasn’t exactly lacking in physical skill before, but this body was on a whole different level.

The more I adapted to it, the more plays I could pull off.

I realized that the plays I had only imagined in my head—the kind of plays that only the very top-ranked players or pros could execute—could now be performed in reality.

It was like a whole new world. My reaction time and visual acuity had transcended human limits.

‘Is it because I’m a game character?’

For some reason, my body overall felt healthier. Embarrassing as it is to admit, even though my old body was male, I’m confident it was weaker than this one. It’s no surprise, really, since I barely exercised and spent all my time gaming.

But what about Camilla?

Her body is fundamentally built for the battlefield. According to Abyss lore, heroes have mana flowing through them, allowing them to use skills, though I don’t know about that part. But I can tell she’s physically robust.

“I can sit in front of the computer for hours and still feel fine.”

Ever since I woke up with this changed body and the game became a great game, all I’ve done is play.

I’d been sitting for an entire day, snacking on junk food in between, yet my body didn’t feel the slightest bit tired.

Back in the day, I could manage, at best, twelve hours before I’d start to feel sick and collapse onto my bed.

‘My stamina is…’

But now? I had only stopped playing Abyss because I thought I’d had enough for the day. My body still felt as fresh as ever, and I could easily keep playing if I wanted.

Even after staying up all night, I didn’t feel sleepy at all. It’s as if I had transcended humanity.

‘Should I test this out later?’

Maybe I could see how long I can go without sleep. I’m also curious about my overall physical specs—how fast I can run 100 meters, how much I can lift in the three major lifts, and so on.

But that would have to wait. There was something else I needed to do first.

In fact, it was something I should have done right away, but I had been too engrossed in the game.

I must have really lost my head to ignore it for this long.

At least I was getting back on track now.

“What should I look for first?”

I placed my hand on the desk and scanned the area around me.

Should I turn this place upside down? I might have to if it comes to that.

Letting out a sigh at the thought of the hassle, I started rummaging through the shelves.

It was time for information gathering.

“Hm…!”

Contrary to my expectations of a long and tedious search, the investigation ended up being much easier than I had anticipated.

There was no need to rummage through shelves or drawers. Just opening an old wallet was enough.

Inside the wallet were a familiar brand of cards and a few bills.

Among them, I picked out something unfamiliar.

It was a card featuring the face of a woman with an appearance that could never be mine, yet now felt familiar.

An ID card. The ID that should have contained my original name and face was now filled with something else.

• Mun Ah
  [XX Road, Dobong-gu, Seoul]

Silver hair down to the shoulders. Blue eyes, rare for a Korean, and skin as white as snow.

The kind of beauty that would make anyone gasp in awe was printed on the ID card.

Along with a name I had never seen before.

“Mun Ah…”

Is that a single-character name? The surname is Mun, and the name is Ah?

It’s an unusual name. Though it did follow my original surname, Mun.

“Mun Ah, Mun Ah… Mun Ah.”

As I repeatedly called the unfamiliar name, the strange feeling I got was fleeting, and soon, I realized something.

This woman, with her otherworldly beauty that seemed like she shouldn’t exist in reality, was now proven to exist through this ID card.

And that ID card had once been mine, and it was clear it still belonged to me now.

Which meant, I had truly transformed into the character from the game.

Further investigation of my graduation album or other photos I had taken confirmed the same. All had changed, not to the original me, but to Camilla—no, to Mun Ah.

Without needing to take any action, my entire existence had been altered. This matched one of the possibilities I had considered, so I wasn’t too surprised.

“At least it saves me the hassle.”

The fact that I didn’t need to do anything was a relief.

In the worst-case scenario, I had considered that the original me might be declared missing or dead, and that I would now be a person with an unknown identity.

If it had turned out that way, I would have had to track down a broker like in the movies to get a new identity.

The history itself had changed. It seemed that Mun Ah had taken my place in the world, and people’s memories had naturally shifted along with it.

The fact that I hadn’t had much interaction with others worked to my advantage in this case.

“So, the next thing I need to do is…”

I guess, nothing?

Even after searching my mind, nothing came to mind immediately.

I had been living as an unemployed recluse. I had no one to contact, no appointments to keep.

It wouldn’t have been surprising if I had just kept playing games in my room until I died alone. But now, I had suddenly transformed into a game character.

If I had to weigh whether this was a gain or a loss, it was clearly a gain.

A useless person who couldn’t function properly in society, whose only skill was playing games, and even those games were failing. Now I had become a TS (gender-swapped) beautiful girl with endless new possibilities.

On top of that, the only game I had played for so long had somehow transformed into a masterpiece.

“The top-ranked player who suddenly appears in a god-tier game turns out to be the most beautiful girl in the city? No one can stop this…”

It feels like my life has suddenly shifted to easy mode. Soon, I’ll start streaming and get showered with large donations from suspiciously wealthy viewers, while everyone praises and adores me.

The world is going to worship me!

As I grinned, imagining a life I could easily coast through, my thoughts were abruptly interrupted.

“Ah.”

A sharp signal from my stomach had me clutching my abdomen with both hands.

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten a proper meal all day. I’d just snacked on a few chips while gaming.

“Guess I should eat something first.”

There was no rush to plan for my rosy future, which might not have arrived yet, or perhaps had already begun.

The game Abyss had grown so large that the community surrounding it had expanded massively as well.

From places sharing game information to finding ranked partners, pure strategy boards, and forums dedicated solely to the professional league, Abyss‘s player base had fragmented into countless specialized groups. It was almost impossible to count how many.

But amidst this vast sea of communities, one could be considered the foundation:

[Abyss Gallery]

The gallery had existed since the dawn of Abyss, when it first launched.

Currently, a highly recommended post was trending there, receiving a flood of comments below.

<Kayak, you’re still alive ᅲᅲ>
You haven’t logged in for a while… glad to see you’re playing again.*

Normally, this kind of post would have gone unnoticed, but the reason it garnered so much attention was because of the author.

The poster was the gallery’s admin, who had been managing Abyss Gallery since the very early days, long before Abyss became the masterpiece it is now.

Naturally, the gallery regulars couldn’t help but take an interest. The admin rarely posted anything, silently managing the gallery in the background.

• ?? Who’s Kayak?
• Ah ᄏᄏ You don’t know Kayak?
• ‘The Return of the King’
• Father of Abyss, Camilla’s boyfriend, the romantic Kayak from Season 4—how could you not know?
• Newbies, how adorable ᄏ
• He’s from the days when there were only 2-3k concurrent players, so it’s normal not to know him.
• I saw that name before, must be someone famous.
• Pretending to know everything so hard, huh? These guys…
• The admin’s dropping his own name, interesting…
• Should we? Impeachment…
• So, does Kayak still play the game?

ᄂᄋᄋ He was on Nicang’s stream yesterday.
ᄂ He got matched with Nicang six times in a row.

ᄂ This guy’s a stream sniper now, huh? Hahaha.

• Wasn’t he the one who used to stream occasionally for game promotion? Does he still stream?

ᄂ Kayak streamed?

ᄂ Yeah, yeah, people from the gallery would go watch, but it was only like 30 viewers at most.

ᄂ No mic, no cam, challenger-climbing streams… ah, the old days…

• I was curious, so I just checked Nicang’s VODs. Who is this guy?

ᄂ Why?

ᄂ He’s insanely good sometimes, then terrible the next moment… it’s weird.

ᄂ I saw that too, seems like he’s in some “old man refining builds” mode.

ᄂᄏᄏ Not normal, in both good and bad ways.

ᄂᄅᄋᄏᄏ Who plays thousands of Camilla games in a single season? Definitely not normal.

ᄂ Even pros gave up on Camilla because she sucked, but this guy still pushes her to challenger? Incredible.

ᄂ I don’t know who this guy is, but the way you describe him is dizzying.

ᄂ He’s just a madman, honestly.

ᄂ What the heck is Kayak even up to these days?