Yimo only felt his body growing light, as if he’d lost all his weight. When his consciousness returned in a daze, he was already standing in a pure-white space.

Standing in the void should’ve been terrifying, yet for some reason, he felt safe.

Just then, a pleasant loli voice echoed inside Yimo’s mind.

『Game begins in 10 minutes.』

『Game title: Killer in the Mine.』

『Game type: Survival.』

『Other information: Not available.』

『Please select the items you wish to purchase, then set your nickname and appearance for this game.』

“W-Wait!!!!”

Yimo instinctively reached up to clutch his head, trying to interrupt the loli voice that kept echoing inside his skull.

He was completely dumbfounded…

If he remembered right, he’d been worrying about how to shut off his phone after it caught a virus. Then, the next moment, he’d appeared in this bizarre place.

Yimo looked around. There was nothing but empty, milky white space, as if he were inside a giant box.

If he had to say, the scene felt like something he’d seen in a movie, but he couldn’t remember which one.

Whatever the case, this kind of place definitely didn’t exist in reality.

This wasn’t a sci-fi movie, so how could a space like this even exist? It was way too weird!

And then there was the loli voice echoing in his mind.

It sounded pleasant, but when he thought about it, it was downright terrifying.

It was as if the other party knew everything he liked and was deliberately using a voice tailored to his tastes.

The odds that he’d been kidnapped and locked up in a place this strange were tiny.

Being injected with a hallucinogenic drug didn’t seem very likely either.

A dream was probably the most likely explanation, but wasn’t everything in front of him just way too real?

This… didn’t feel like a dream!

If this was VR, the technology couldn’t possibly manage full dive yet. Besides, he didn’t think he owned that kind of equipment.

After turning it over in his mind, Yimo decided he’d probably encountered a “ghost”…

Otherwise… there was just no way to explain what was happening.

As a professional solo VTuber, Yimo had plenty of experience with novels, anime, and manga. But no matter how he looked at it, actually crossing into another world or entering a game would feel unreal, like a dream.

But there was a countdown in the upper-right corner that followed his field of vision, along with the words “game type”…

It was enough to make Yimo feel uneasy.

He had no idea what was going on, but since he couldn’t leave, he might as well look around.

If this really was a dream, he’d probably regret not doing more crazy stuff once he woke up.

After all, everything in front of him was beyond reality!

Yimo looked at the empty nickname field. Since he might be taking part in a game, he figured he should pick a cool name.

Without much hesitation, four characters appeared in the nickname field, just as he imagined them.

『Nickname for this game: Kirigaya Kazuto. Confirm?』

Yimo clicked confirm.

There were still five minutes left, so he started looking into the shop and the character appearance settings.

The shop had plenty of items, but they all cost points. His balance in the lower-right corner showed 0. With time running short, Yimo didn’t browse any further and went straight to the appearance customization screen.

In other words, character creation.

And according to the prompt, this feature seemed to be free for newcomers during their first game.

Yimo gave it a try. When he selected the option, a full-length mirror appeared in front of him, and he could adjust his appearance a little to match what he imagined.

Now, there was one thing!

It was embarrassing, but since this was probably a dream, Yimo boldly imagined a beautiful girl who matched his preferences perfectly.

『Gender cannot be changed.』

『It may be a game, but it’s still reality, you pervert!~』

But the system’s loli voice poured cold water all over him, then mocked him with a sweet laugh.

What could he say?

That was insanely embarrassing!

But no one else was around, so Yimo stopped thinking about it and tried adjusting his appearance.

He could freely change all kinds of traits, like age, height, and build. The weirdest option even let him choose to have an illness. That meant he could become a quadriplegic if he wanted!

Yimo was curious, but he wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t about to do something that stupid.

There were also things men couldn’t do, and Yimo—with his endless curiosity and wicked sense of humor—gave one of them a try.

But, just as expected, the system’s loli voice coldly refused him again.

『Hey, hey! We called you a pervert, and now you’re really trying your hardest to become the ultimate super-pervert?』

And then it went and mocked him like that. Wasn’t that just ridiculous?

Yimo even wondered if the voice in his head belonged to a real person.

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

Yeah… of course…

If it was real, then someone else would know all about his perverted, weird thoughts, wouldn’t they?

That would be even more embarrassing than standing in public with his pants unzipped and a thong on!

So Yimo immediately struck that possibility off the list.

There wasn’t much time left. Yimo couldn’t keep messing around, so after thinking it over, he chose a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s.

It wasn’t because he was particularly into muscles. He just wanted to win the game.

He was a professional gaming VTuber. Over the past two years, he’d been almost unbeatable in multiplayer games and had cleared every high-difficulty single-player game.

Beating the game was what mattered.

Based on what he knew, the title “Killer in the Mine” could only make Yimo think of a few possibilities.

A combat game, a survival game, a detective game, or a horror game.

The information said the game was a survival game.

That probably ruled out the detective angle.

Combat and horror could both fit under survival, though, so neither was ruled out.

Combat games depended on physical ability. Yimo was the kind of guy who might not even be able to beat a sturdy old man in a fight, so he was clearly in trouble.

That made a build like Schwarzenegger’s the best choice.

As for horror games…

If he could beat the threat with brute force, then the same choice was best.

But if it was something supernatural…

Yimo figured that even if he made himself look like Lam Ching-ying or Zhong Kui, he’d only have the appearance. It wouldn’t actually help.

It was worth pointing out that Yimo had adapted and thrown himself into all this so quickly for one simple reason: he couldn’t find a way out. His curiosity and professional gamer instincts had done the rest.

Besides, everything happening now…

Wasn’t it pretty interesting?

That was what he thought now.

Yimo looked at the 2,999 points required for the appearance he’d designed.

That was a pretty steep price.

From his tests, the more his appearance differed from his real one, the more points it cost.

The most interesting part was that there was even an option to change his appearance in reality, too.

But that required 59,998 points.

A full twenty times as much.

He still had no real sense of what points were worth.

But the final ten seconds of the countdown didn’t give Yimo any more time to think.

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, and he clicked the confirm button without hesitation.

“This is the best answer!”

“Heh. If it’s a game, there’s no way I can’t beat it!”

『Confirm that you want to use your adjusted appearance?』the loli-voiced system prompt asked.

Yimo saw that there were less than eight seconds left on the countdown and hurriedly urged it on. “Yeah, yeah! That one!”

“Come on! Transform!”

Seven seconds, six seconds…

As the countdown ticked on, Yimo started getting impatient.

He’d figured out the best choice himself. He couldn’t let this slowpoke of a system mess it up completely!

Wouldn’t that be a huge loss?

Five seconds, four seconds…

“Hurry up, hurry up! We’re almost out of time!”

Yimo kept urging it on, and at last the system gave him a delightful response.

『Sorry, you don’t have enough points to adjust your appearance. Please choose a different appearance.』

The loli voice was still pleasant to listen to.

But its laughter left Yimo frozen.

Three seconds… two seconds…

“W-Wait!!! Pause!!!”

“But you said it was free for new players…”

One second…

『Game entry successful. Do whatever it takes to survive~』

That mocking tone echoed in Yimo’s mind.

“Fuck!”