Chapter 9 – Thank you, my best friend, the Internet

As someone born and swimming on the Internet for as far as he could remember, it didn't take long for Benjamin to find all sorts of information about the differences between this world and the old one. After some hours of research and reading, he managed to get a good idea about the changed values of this new society.

First of all, he confirmed that there were subtle differences in history compared to what he remembered. Mostly some minor events and a lot of historical characters being of the wrong gender. However, overall the global international situation seemed to be mostly the same. The countries and country relationships were pretty much unchanged, which was quite comforting to him.

The next topic was about the change in gender values. He found out that his initial guesses were mostly correct. Women were expected to be "womanly", which was the equivalent of the "manly" concept he knew. They had a higher rate of working in couples, were expected to be the ones seducing the men in most cases, and were supposed to be the pillars of families. As for the hormones, it seemed their sexual urges were even worse than what he knew about men in the previous world. As his friends remarked, describing them as constantly horny wasn't very far from the reality. The rate of sexual crimes was very high and women of all ages had a hard time restraining themselves. There were many articles aimed at teenage boys warning them to careful around the opposite sex, describing some examples of what could happen to them, most of which appeared really hot to him.

On the other hand, men had a low libido and a limited amount of interest in sex. They were careful and selective about their partners, rarely moving things forward before they knew more about the woman, and were much more interested in stable and romantic relationships. Their place in society was still very much oriented toward the traditional values of taking care of the house and the children, playing the role of keeping everything household related in place.

All in all, it looked like the values of gender equality were less advanced here than in his world, masculinism movements only having started recently while sexism still wasn't penalized, even though it wasn't well regarded either.

Strong with all this new information, he could now attempt to research his previous questions. The first one was still about who he should have sex with. Being a horny virgin teenager, he didn't mind too much about who he could have sex with, as long as it was safe. In conclusion, his potential targets were most of the female population. He always believed it was important to dream big.

Next was about how he could get laid. Remembering what happened on his way back from school, he didn't think that it would be much of an issue. Still, it didn't hurt to have a more precise idea about the different things he could try to facilitate the process. After mixing some plans in his head for some time, he kept in mind some of the things he might use in the future. Some of his thoughts even made him laugh alone since they were so crazy. Even though, from his point of view, it was this world that was a crazy place, so... why not?

The most important point he should focus on was safety. Benjamin went back to search for data about the subject. After a short while, he sighed in relief: the results were pretty satisfying. STDs were almost inexistent in this world, probably due to the gender reversal values. The reason the rate was so low wasn't exactly clear because the number of cases of STDs was very limited in the first place.

Most women went on the pill from a very early age. The main reason for that was due to their delusion that if they claimed to be on the pill, they could have sex much more easily. Even better, they might be able to get raw sex, since the risk of pregnancy was practically non-existent. Of course, in reality, a lot of men still used condoms to be extra sure nothing would ever happen.

Finally came the problem of maintaining his reputation. Truthfully, he still wasn't exactly sure how others viewed him in this world. He had to come up with something to be able to have fun without making everyone around him cringe. It meant that he had to hide his sexual adventures from the people around him, which wouldn't be easy since people talk and hearsay propagates quickly.

After thinking about this issue some more, he came up with a few ideas. The most obvious one was that if he had to hide from his surrounding then he could just try to have sex far away from his home, for example in a different town where no one would know him. To be even safer, he could try to keep his relationships casual by making clear that no feelings were involved right from the start. He could also potentially try dating apps. The idea was interesting since the concept was quite foreign to him. He was just a high school freshman after all and those apps were more aimed toward adults.

He suddenly heard a knock on his door, making him jump in surprise. Rising from his chair, he went to open it and saw his big sister Grace waiting for him. Remembering that he still had to be very careful with his attitude, he asked her what she wanted with a very neutral:

"Yes?"

She sent him a worried look.

"Are you not going to make dinner today, Ben? Are you perhaps not feeling well?"

Even though he tried to be ready for anything, this still took him completely by surprise. Right, men were supposed to be the home-oriented ones in this world and he was the only man in the house. Except he had never cooked anything before in his life.

Damn!