In a dark room, before a large Laptop screen... a set of delicate hands fiddled around nervously upon the keyboard.. They considered a little.. than tapped their fingers on the table...

Before those hands, a blank document lay open..

What to write..

What to say..

The fingers began to type.

Hello!

My name, for those of you who didn't bother to read the summary of this book, is Jake Sanders. Or at least, it used to be.

This story describes how my identity, and purpose in life changed drastically over night.

I can tell you right now, it wasn't a pleasant experience.. nor will it ever continue to be a pleasant experience. Seriously, I am not pulling your leg when I warn you that reading this book might have certain consequences.

The type of consequences that might be accompanied by cold showers and rampant drinking of booze in an attempt to completely forget what is written upon these pages.

Destra suggested I write everything all down since I've always had an interest in making novels. But somehow I think my life not exactly 'Lord of the Rings' material. More like Sword Art Online meets Hunger Games meets er.. well.. I guess it's not Sword Art Online if I don't have a harem right?

I'm getting off the subject.

The hands paused.. then continued to type.

The point is.. while true, I'm not sure exactly how to tell my story without somebody reading this and throwing me in the nuthouse.. or just thinking I wrote some very well rehearsed story and putting me on a bestseller list or a rejected novel list..  But.. either way, I'm guessing this story has to be told, so here we go..

It all started with a game..

And as with all games.. it started with a player..

Namely me..

_______________________

His name was Jake Sanders.

A High School student America who was currently studying abroad at Sakura High School down in Tokyo.

An ordinary boy, with jet black hair, and a well fit stature, as well as a stunning height of 6ft 5, he always towered above his class mates overall. Perhaps that was why girls always avoided him.

Either way, Jake always avoided his Japanese Classmates if he could help it. Despite being an ace at learning different languages, he felt that Japanese people were a little too polite for his taste.

Perhaps it was the constant bowing, the amazing obsession about grades, or the fact that suicides around test time were rather too frequent, but Jake found socializing at his school to be a rather large bummer.

And the girls here, while amazingly cute, always gave him that scared look due to his intimidating stature.

Fortunately, Jake was not completely socially deprived.

As a lover of Online RPG video games, every time he finished his studies, his immediate action would be to pull out his laptop or his PlayStation and start playing games.

The people online couldn't see him, or what he looked like. And since he could always choose the servers.. he didn't even have to converse with other Japanese people.

It was still a lonely life though. The only person he ever talked to close up was his Landlord, a rather feisty 16 year-old girl who had inherited the place after her parents passed away.

She was constantly in his face about the rent, even when it wasn't due for another half a month.

Anyways, tonight, Jason was in his bedroom, sitting at his laptop playing his all time favorite game.

Hall of Myths was perhaps the most massively played MMORPG of the 21st century. With it's innovative graphics, and character customization so varied that one could spend hours just making a character, it was no wonder the game was so treasured.

The flaws were few and the servers never went down. There were no fees, and every character could probably be recognized by facial profiles alone thanks to the customization.

Jake had taken massive pride in constructing some pretty incredible characters on the Fantasy game.

His first character Sento, a dragon slaying samurai, had won 5 PVP world tournaments.

But now, he was returning to basics. He had spent weeks perfecting a new character of the Swordsman class from the Ice Demon clan. However, this time, unlike his other characters, this one was female.

By far, gender did have an effect on stats when it came to character building. Female characters tended to have stronger ART abilities (the equivalent of Skills in the game), and faster combat mechanics, and Jake wanted to see if he could craft a female Swordsman as fast as a male ninja..

It had taken hours of Questing to get her this far.. but the character, ice Demon Mizuki, was definitely showing some promise

He was proud of her design.

She was a young girl, of around his own age, only about 5'3 with a normally proportioned body for her age.  her eyes were a cold icy blue, and her hair was a shimmering blue that almost seemed trance like. It was cut short in the back, with two long tails coming down from the sides in front of her ears drifting lightly onto her clothes right above her shoulders.

Bluish armor adorned the shoulders of her black long coat, and under the coat, she wore a gray sailor uniform. A sword with an icy blue blade called Grindleheit was sheathed to her back.

The character bore such a natural beauty to her, even for a fictional ice demon, that Jason had taken immense pride in the sheer appearance of his creation alone, not just the perfectly compounded stats.

Jason took a big swig from a soft drink on his desk as he got Mizuki to run into a massive mine, following a few of his other friends who had been gaming with him since childhood.

Gilena, a female elf with short pink hair and a red tunic which were bare on the sides of her waist and stomach, around Mizuki's age, was a friend Jason's characters had quested with since he started the game at the age of 5 in 2016.

Zange, was a tall character with tan skin and gold eyes with red padded leather armor and a rifle at his waist. One of the few gunner class characters in the game. He had been joining Jason's parties ever since 2020.

As the characters headed into the gorge, Mizuki spoke, her girly voice masking Jason's as the advanced headset input his dialogue to the game.

"Careful." said Mizuki. "I heard this quest beat several Level 70 Mech Wizards earlier.. it'll be a pain if we have start out all the way back in town again.. stupid No Save points.."

Zange laughed. "Least we made it this far right? We got some good gear on the way here.

Gilena smiled. "No kidding, say Ja- I mean Mizu-chan! heheh! Wanna go grab some legendary gear after this? I know a place!"

"Maybe." said Mizuki carefully. "I've got a paper I've gotta write tomorrow, can't be too carried away now."

"Yeah, you're right." said Gilena glumly. "Kay, good luck on the paper though.."

"Thanks." said Mizuki as she leapt with extraordinary agility for a character of her class and ran up the side of a dungeon wall and landed on a massive boulder. "Hmmm.. interesting.."

"What do you see!?" Zange called up.

"They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!"

"Ha ha!" said Gilena, rolling her eyes. "Can we get through one day without a reference?"

Mizuki chuckled and stuck out her tongue playfully. "It's a couple of trolls.. no biggie."

Mizuki jumped down, landing lightly on her feet from a height of over 80 feet.. together, the three characters made their way further into the dungeon where two massive ogre-like monsters with clubs were seen lumbering through the cave, grunting.

Mizuki twirled her sword around and pointed it at the trolls. "Well well.. time to clean out the trash right?"

They moved as a seamless team. Zange aimed his powerful gun at each of the troll's faces in turn.

The shockwaves from the impact of the weapon caused the monsters to stagger, as Mizuki lunged in and slashed her sword in agile quick slices in between the beast's legs, causing them to fall to their knees.

The moment they hit the earth, their heads now in range, Gilena leapt into the air and drew out her massive hammer, smashing each head to the ground and finishing the trolls off, causing them to shatter into polygons.

Mizuki wiped the troll blood off her sword with a cloth.. a chilling cold came from the blade thanks to it's ice properties.

"I think we can call it a day-" Mizuki began, but froze mid sentence.

She looked over the shoulders of her allies, her eyes widening.

Standing in the distance.. was a tall man in a black trench coat similar to Mizuki's however, he was taller, and the coat didn't have any armored highlights.  He wore a gas mask with fogged up lenses over his face, along with a large hood, completely covering all his face. In his gloved hands were two long barreled guns, hanging loosely and casually at his side.

"MaskER.." Gilena whispered.

The most well known Player Killer on the American Server." said Mizuki, grinning slowly. "And the one who beat me last year during the International PVP tournament. Man... guess he's here to kill us and steal the loot we got today.."

"What do we do? Run? He's skilled enough to take on all of us." said Zange nervously.

https://youtu.be/jXpTNZH1biI

"You kidding?" said Mizuki. "Did George Washington run when the Brits came marching in?"

"No?" said Gilena.

"Did Abraham Lincoln run when he had to get out that Emancipation Proclamation!?"

"No." said Zange.

"AND DID TEDDY ROOSEVELT RUN!? WHEN HE HAD TO DO THAT THING!? THAT INVOLVED ANOTHER THING!?" roared Mizuki. At this point it was easy to imagine an American Flag waving behind her.

"Jeez, what's with the patriotism today Mizuki?" said Zange.

"I MISS MY HOME!! IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!" Mizuki screamed. "NOW!! WHOSE WITH ME!?"

"I'm with you!!" Gilena exclaimed. "Inspirational speeches for the win!!!!"

"Least it's not the King Théoden speech from Return of the King again." said Zange with a shrug. "Alright, let's do this!"

"Alright.. then let's go out there!!!" Mizuki screamed, pointing at MaskER. "AND KICK HIS ASS!!!!!"

"YEAAAAAAHHHH!!!" All of them yelled, running at MaskER, waving their weapons over their heads.

3 minutes later.

"Oh my gosh.. we.. lost so bad.... so very bad.." Jake moaned, his face on his desk as the humiliation weighed into him.

A message suddenly popped up on his inbox as Jake removed his headset. It was from Gilena.

"Come on." it said. "Don't be so hard on yourself. The fact we lasted around 3 minutes is a huge achievement in my book."

"Right." Jake typed back. "That's 3 seconds more than last time. Whoop De Doo.."

"You really miss the states don't you?" said Gilena.

"Yeah. How are things over in Georgia?"

Gilena paused for a minute to type. "It's incredible back here. I wish you were with us you know.. try and see if you can catch a flight around Christmas."

While Jake and Gilena had never actually met, Sal, which was Gilena's real name, had always found a special bond with him. Maybe it was because they had been playing online together since childhood. Jason knew what Sal looked like, they had spent time on video chats (No fake pictures or video recordings)

Sal was an average girl with mousy brown straight cut hair, and a rather 'go get em' attitude that made you want to cheer for her at every sporting event imaginable. While she seemed skinny and frail at first, whenever she stretched, you'd notice that she was actually quite toned and fit. She had to be after all, being a 2 time Gold Medalist in gymnastics.

"Can't come on Christmas." Jake typed back. "Sorry, Japanese schools don't get holidays on Christmas. They celebrate the season, but it's more for fun than any sort of Christmas spirit. Lots of anime girls in santa fan service outfits though... weird."

"You know you like it." typed Sal teasingly. "But, alright, if that's the case. Don't worry too much about it... I'll find some way for you to visit, just you wait."

The chat ended, and Jake thrust himself onto his bed..

What a day.. all that Questing for 4 hours, and he threw it away with one patriotic speech.

Then, something strange happened. His computer suddenly blinked back to life.. and on it.. was a red warning sign, the kind you usually got when there was a virus or something.

Jake stared curiously, sitting up from his bed. It couldn't be a virus right? Whenever his model of computer had one, the warning labels were quite different.

Then the sign disappeared and big digital letters spelled out.

"TAG... YOU'RE IT."

A blinking curser appeared, indicating that Jason could type back.

Jake got up quickly and began typing. His response appearing in smaller red digital letters.

"What?"

"YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO PARTICIPATE." the mysterious program explained.

"In a game of Tag?"

"YES." said the Computer. "CHOOSE YOUR WARRIOR."

And to Jake's relief he saw a bunch of pictures each one of avatars he had created in game. He had forgotten to close out his window for Hall of Myths. This must be some sort game event only available to very dedicated players, Hall of Myths did this kind of thing all the time.

Jake looked at his characters. If this was a game of tag.. perhaps speed would be key in this event. Mizuki was definitely the optimal choice, even if she was new.

Jake clicked on Mizuki.

And the strangest response came out.

"HEHEH.. ONE OF THE OPPOSITE GENDER.. HOW AMUSING."

Jake frowned. Since when did the highly interactive AI have a sense of humor? Was a Game Master handling the event distribution maybe? And considering all the male avatars he'd made, perhaps the Game Master had guessed at his gender?

"VERY WELL..." said the program. "WELCOME TO 'TAG YOU'RE DEAD'. EVENT SHALL COMMENCE AT DAWN-"

Suddenly, the computer shut down, and Jake cursed and moaned when he saw that his laptop had died, and he'd forgotten to plug it in.

Looks like he wouldn't be able to start the event tonight. crap..

Jake plugged his computer into a nearby socket, and collapsed into bed, sighing. Well, tomorrow was another day..

Jake had strange dreams that night.. He was walking through a grassy field in the light of the full moon, millions of stars filled the sky like a pile of glitter.

His body felt lighter, smaller, and his hair a little longer. His chest had a light sort of weight on it.. as if he were carrying something there... in his oddly delicate, yet strong grip, he held the sword he equipped from Hall of Myths.

He was following a little ball of light floating along before him. He tried to follow it.. running, but the faster he ran, the faster the sphere floated..

Finally he caught up with the small sphere, and reached out a joyful hand to grab hold of it-

"Urgh.." Jake opened his eyes. Sunlight was streaming through his open window, blinding him.

He felt so comfortable in his bed, he didn't want to wake up. He had to get to school though. Otherwise he'd be late.

Jake sat up, stretching and yawning. Odd, he felt far slimmer and more flexible than he ever was. And the sound of his breath as he yawned.. was lighter somehow.

Probably nothing. Huh, though the strange light weight from his dreams was still on his chest.. it would probably wear off after he took a shower.

Stranger still though, as Jake got out of bed, he felt a strange spacy feeling in the bottom portion of his PJs.. as if something was missing there.

Wow, he REALLY needed that shower. He walked over to the bathroom that adjoined his room, and came to the sink.

A strange sight was beheld in his mirror.

It was a beautiful girl. Not just beautiful.. downright gorgeous.

Her eyes glistened like the morning sun, her lips were soft looking and flawless.

It was the type of girl any guy could look at and immediately have the lewdest ideas. However, there was something strikingly familiar about her. Her hair.. her eye color.. she reminded Jake immensely of his Mizuki avatar.

The hair dye was definitely high quality, despite being such a shimmering cold blue, it looked amazingly natural, fooling you into believing that blue could be a natural hair color.

Her mouth was open in slight surprise, apparently at seeing Jake there. She seemed to be wearing similar PJs.

While many Japanese people did have that dream of waking up with a cute girl next to you, Jake felt this was downright trespassing, what right did this girl have to be surprised when she had broken into his apartment after all.

Jake frowned and was about to tell this girl off, when he noticed that the girl herself, was also frowning and opening her mouth, as if she were going to give Jake a decent scolding.

Jake felt a little mad now. She was going to scold him? This wasn't even her home!! The nerve of this beauty!

"Now listen here!!!" Jake growled.

But instead of his own voice. A lighter pitched female voice spoke out instead.

Jake gasped and covered his mouth in fright. The girl in the mirror copied his movements, looking frightened as well as she covered her mouth.

Then a feeling of dread began to dawn in Jake's groggy brain.

This girl was in a mirror wasn't she? How was she in that mirror to begin with?

Jake felt his body with his hands as the girl did the same.. His body felt.. lighter, slender..

He felt under his shirt. His skin was softer, as if he had applied copious amounts of moisturizer an hour ago..

And finally he felt his chest.. where he felt two squishy mounds..."

Jake looked down at his now female body and then grabbed his blue hair, then his.. or now.. Her... eyes widened with extreme shock.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" She screamed so loudly it probably woke all the neighbors in the building

She rolled on the floor, continuing to scream, hoping that this would wake her up, and it would all just be some sort of strange and freakish nightmare.

But no awakening came. This was real.. this was terrifyingly real.

And the worst part was... She was so darn cute!!

"Oh my Gosh.. Oh my God.." The girl clutched her head trying to shake the horror out of her system.

How the heck did this happen? It was as if Jake had turned into the Mizuki character he had made on Hall of Myths!

Another terrifying thought came to Jake as she tried to cope with her situation. How the hell was she going to school like this!?

Was Gender Bender a thing in Japan besides being just an Anime gimmick? Was this a real disease or condition? Or did somebody operate on her in her sleep?

Then again, sex change operations rarely produced such amazing results. For one thing, Mizuki was WAY more good looking than Jake ever was. Oh god! Would she have to refer to herself in female pronouns when she went back to the States!?

Jake hugged her legs, rocking back in forth, trying to find some way to rationalize what was happening... that was when she noticed something..

looking out the door of her bathroom, she saw a familiar looking blue bladed black hilted one handed long sword leaning against her window sill.

No way..

"That's right bub!! Your official debut in this Death Game has officially begun Mizuki-san!" said a voice in Japanese.

Jake stood up and stared down at her feet.

Standing in front of her was her PlayStation.

Suddenly, the PlayStation morphed, it's body glowed with light, turning green, smooth, and scaly.

A small dragon stood before Jake, with the PlayStation logo still imprinted on it's scales, it's bulbous yellow eyes surveying Jake with interest.

"Welcome to Tag You're Dead." said the dragon. "The most dangerous game on Earth."