A Succubus of a Game

By Mikka Blane

There was no going back for the awkward teenage boy, not after seeing his body apparently turned to dust, as he was put into this probably alien computer game

"In all the games I had ever played I was a Paladin. This one was wrong, all wrong!"

Charles isn't the smartest of guys, but he knew he was in a game. There was a game UI, even if broken, and the world felt... so real, yet, false. This was a better looking, and feeling, game, than the VR one he and his friends were playing.

He might never get used to looking like this... thing, this Succubus. He might never get used to looking like a buxom woman, or being called Alice. Those he could live with not accepting. But would he ever be able to accept doing what a Succubus craved more than anything, and what they needed to eat to live. Finding out what particular fluid a Succubus required to live might be too much for him to bear.

Could he survive, in this useless and weak thing that he was, when he was used to being a Heavy Armored tank of a Paladin. Would he find friends, acceptance, love?

Warning: This book contains adult sexually explicit, and fetish content.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mikka Blane
• Release date: Aug 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370422395

Book preview

Chapter 01: Creation Screen

I swung my broadsword. It was weighty, which I didn’t expect. I checked my settings. I wonder if that was how it was suppose to work in this game. Or was it something I was doing wrong?

The game was actually helping me hit with my sword, as I wasn't trained in real-life for it. I probably wasn’t even strong enough to swing it in real-life! My arms were skinny, like the rest of me, just like the rest of my friends though. We were all four of us, me, Danny, Kurt, and Wally trying this new game today.

So, I guess I fit in with my other nerdy friends at least. None of us was anything special, in physical size, or mental prowess really. We were all brown haired and brown eyed, and quite frankly, we all looked normal, just boringly normal.

I double checked and all my VR settings were correct. Still this training dummy was giving me a real workout!

I sighed and put my large sword down so I could take a breather and give me a second to look around again. This place looked very good for a virtual world. You could see some of the pixelization but not enough to break the feel and belief in the world.

Were my friends having issues with this combat as well? I saw Kurt was stabbing the test dummy quickly with his two daggers, he stopped and started breathing deeply as well.

He saw me watching and he said, This is hard work!

I said, I guess we'll be getting our exercise? Or does this still count as sitting on our butts all day, doing nothing?

He shrugged, "Does it even feel like a game, with it being like hard work?

I shrugged, Hrm. Well it has a game user interface. Popup menus and screens you could pull down to get extra details. I pulled down my friends list and made sure everyone was on it.

He added, I know that it’s really a game, I meant about how much actual physical work we’re doing.

I shrugged, Well…

A giant male Orc lumbered over to the test-dummy I was at. I smiled up at him and said, Sorry. I think I’m done here if I’m in your way?

Kurt snorted. Probably thinking I was intimidated, but I was just trying to be nice. I was a Paladin anyhow, and playing a good guy.

The Orc smiled and said in a squeaky little female voice, Oh hey! No, I was just wandering around the area!

I smirked, I couldn't help it. Even if my own voice wasn't that low pitched either, and probably didn't match my own guy.

I wonder how old she was. Voices could be deceiving but she had to be eighteen like the rest of us though, per the rating on the game.

The giant Orc sighed, You'd think they build in voice modulators into the in-game chat, huh.

She had such a cute and tiny voice too, almost squeaky, and very feminine.

I nodded, You'd think.

Danny laughed at me, Yep, then Charles here would sound like the hero he wants to be.

I sighed, and shook my head. Thanks a bunch for the support Danny.

The Orc asked, So you want to be a hero huh? That’s cool. I'm just here because my little sister wanted to play, and I guess I stayed because I can be something like this!

She giggled as she flexed her huge muscles on those tree trunk sized arms.

I grinned back, Nice.

Danny cast a spell and out of his thin-old fingers came a blast of fire. It was headed right at the dummy, but it was the dummy behind me!

I pulled up my shiny shield just in time of it to hit that instead of my face. I felt the heat through it and saw in the notifications that a few of points of my health had ticked away.

I looked at our player tags with concern. No I didn't see any player-vs-player tags popping up. So why did that hurt me?

Wait, I said. Is PVP on?

Danny shrugged and I saw Kurt trying to sneak up behind me.

I said, If you pick my pocket I will squash you and then we’ll really see if PVP is on.

Kurt laughed, Hey! I'd never… get caught.

The Orc asked, So, what do you think about this game world?

I shrugged, It’s okay I guess, but we just got here.

Oh, I've been waiting around for something to happen for like half an hour!

Oh?

There were signs all around, asking us to wait here for a few more minutes and get familiar with the game world and history.

She nodded, Yeah. I like how you can turn off UI stuff to get a better immersive experience!

Sure, I nodded. What can you turn off?

Oh! You can turn on and off logging, combat, global chat, and the rest!

I looked at my settings, each could be concentrated on and then toggled.

She went on, Did you notice the return-item, to the Inn in town, but it doesn't work yet. I was given this big axe and um, well, I guess I can speak three languages, like Orcish, Goblin and Common. We’re talking in Common now, but I guess you probably knew that.

Mhmm, Kurt sighed. He was easily annoyed by chatter and small-talk.

I shrugged, trying to be nice to the over talkative girl. I said, Neat.

The Orc ignored him and turned to me to say, We have a built in wardrobe too! My guy came with three outfits! Do you want to see them?

Kurt said, Oh, goodie!

Danny, Kurt and even Wally laughed. I looked away, sometimes they were overly mean, but they were my friends. They’d been since middle school and were still, and I hoped we’d be when we all went our separate ways to colleges. It’s not like my family was around. They were what I had. My father wasn’t in the picture, my mother was barely and my brother was fourteen and had more friends and experiences than I had! We didn’t get along.

In my wardrobe I could change to a lighter set of armor and some plain clothes that made me look a little bit like a lumberjack, but that was okay. I was fine with what I was wearing now, as it was a full set of armor.

Danny laughed, I’d rather see the different outfits Wally’s got!

They laughed again, but at Wally. Over his avatar’s head was a floating tag, there it was written that his character’s name was Princess Aelita, and under that was the tag Elven Priestess. Since we were friends I could see his player-tag too, ‘Wally Beaton’.

I looked over to see Wally blushing. His character had visible cleavage and it wasn’t just painted on either! It looked real enough for a game. Real enough for me too, it was more than I saw off the computer anyhow.

Good graphics, Kurt grinned. Good jiggle physics too.

The Orc sighed.

Wally was looking down her, or his, shirt.

Danny asked, Good view?

Wally blushed and stopped bouncing as they laughed at him.

Wally said, in his deep voice, What? You're just jealous!

Not me. Danny shook his head at me as he said, Charles is. Charles why can't you ever branch out a little with your characters? There were so many choices too! How did you end up playing here the same thing you always play?

I shrugged. If I'm going to judge a game, I need a common starting point.

He nodded, I guess that makes sense, but don’t you get tired of playing the good-guy Paladin? Some of us would like a break from you and that.

My friends laughed at me. Of course, he always played magic users and Kurt always played thieves or rogues.

I just shrugged and perhaps felt a little hurt, but it was better to just shrug it off for them, or they’d keep at it, like pit-bulls.

I liked playing this kind of person, it made me feel good. It’s not like I actually did anything in real life anyhow, nothing useful, or helpful, I was useless. I also didn’t like playing a female character. It made me constantly worried, not about my sexuality per-se but more that I’d have to tell someone, at any time, that I wasn’t really a girl.

If anyone was nice to me or anything like that, I’d worry that it was just because they thought I might be female in real life.

We all were quiet for a little bit and I looked around. There were about a hundred more people gathering in this square now.

Some of them were also eyeballing my friend Wally’s avatar. That was going to make a funny picture when I drew it later tonight to show him tomorrow. I did that a lot, it was my way.

I asked, I thought this was a private game, Kurt?

He’d gotten us the invites. He said they were early access and private invites. There seemed to be more people here than you’d expect if that was the case.

Kurt said, I guess they handed out more invites than I thought they would. Anyhow, Charles, what kind of name is 'Nethpoteca', especially for a Paladin? Why not Arthur or something with ‘Dragon’ in it?

That’s too obvious and anyhow, you rushed me.

Kurt laughed, You were looking at the hot nymphs on the menu screens, and seeing how big the boob slider went too, right!

I sighed, Actually, no. Maybe a little, but that was healthy!

Danny asked, How big does it go?

Kurt smirked, Just look at Wally’s avatar, he got close to the edge.

Wally blushed. Did not. I didn’t push them too much more than a little over normal!

His priestess did look a bit top heavy, not too bad though, but they were a little gravity defying and overly round.

We laughed at him more of course. A little, over normal? He had soccer-balls glued to his avatar’s chest!

We waited around a little bit more. When would the game actually start?

When I got home this evening I had started playing, I wonder what time it was now.

* *

I remember looking over the splash page after I got home from school and washed up.

It was a fantasy game, with the appropriately themed colors, backgrounds, overly sexualized women on the backgrounds, etc. It had a generic name too, Fantasi Quest.

A misspelled name in the game's actual name? How irritating! I had never even heard of this title either. I guess that made sense, since Danny got a special invite for us four to this private showing. I just wondered how alpha it would be and what would actually be finished.

I couldn't identify the game-engine though yet, but this was just the character creation. It looked to have a pretty standard game creation selection as well. Pick your character's gender, then pick your race and your class.

I blushed as I read the gender selection: Male, female, no-gender, Futanari? What the? Well this was already odd, and certainly out of my comfort zone! I know I led a pretty vanilla life.

I looked around my empty room. I was alone and my door was locked, as usual. Mom was home, I think, so was my younger brother. Dad was… who knows.

Why did Danny pick this game? I wonder if Danny knew anything about this particular feature when he gave us the codes and address? If he didn't, was he blushing now, like the rest of my friends probably were. Danny might not admit it, nor would Kurt, but I knew they would be at least a little embarrassed when they read these options.

This was the last month of summer vacation before we'd all go off to the colleges we'd picked. Not all of us were going to the same ones.

The game’s graphics looked good enough though, especially for an alpha. Let's see how much functionality was actually made and not vaporware. I wonder if there was even anything beyond this creator as some alphas stopped there.

I picked male, like myself. I didn't want it to be weird when we four guys got together in a party.

Wally had once picked a female character in another fantasy game and we'd all had a laugh at him and the new barely-there armors he'd been forced to wear. It was funny when the plate mail armor that my warrior wore and covered him like a tank, had only been a bikini on Wally's character!

Good times, but embarrassing and Wally hadn't been happy about it.

I'd drawn his character with his face in his notebook when he'd went to the bathroom. He had come back with a huge blush. So funny!

Sure someone still sometimes couldn't resist the urge, and we all got a good laugh, it wasn't going to be me this time and they probably all knew that already.

I clicked through a few archetypes and found the Paladins. It wasn't a set class though. Interesting, a skill based character progression game? Another complexity I didn't expect.

I usually played a Paladin in fantasy games, they were a good mix of being an evil-destroying warrior and naturally-helpful person, the kind of character that I liked.

A priest or pure healing type was too squishy for me, I liked to charge in and hit stuff, but I also liked to role-play someone who was pure, and… well, and a helpful, nice guy. That way my friends couldn’t try to get me to do stuff that I didn’t really want to do, as it was out of character. Of course that wasn’t really me, not in real life, I was an introvert.

Yes, I always played that type of character, no one ever said I was creative, or much of anything about me actually. I sometimes wondered if I was really a person at all, or ever going to do anything with my life. I almost cared, but then, depression set in again and it was too hard to care.

There was a picker wheel of the races you could choose. I'd probably just be an Elf or a Human. It was a pretty wheel, if you were into that kind of thing, I wasn’t into art but I think the colors they picked matched very well.

You could pick from about thirty races, which was unusual because of all the time it would take the developers to create the art, animations and clothing looks for each of them! Even odder, there was a drill down in each one that got more detailed.

Even odder, this game's races spanned from the normal human to other weird ones you didn’t usually see playable. You could play monsters!

Weird. I looked over the list and saw that everything playable was more-or-less humanoid and about the same size as a human, nothing like a dragon or anything cool. That was okay though, for balance. There were some ugly races too! Oh, crap, and pretty ones. The Nymphs were… wow.

They were about naked in these pictures! What was the ESRB rating? Mature. Okay then. Wow, she had big boobs. I looked behind me, just to make sure no one saw me getting a boner at pixels. My room’s window was opened to the cool night air, but my door was closed.

I got up to make sure the curtains were closed, just in case there were more pictures like that. I was only eighteen and a half, and so technically a teenager. Yes, I was a late bloomer, and still had the raging hormones of one. Useless hormones too, it wasn’t like I could even talk to a girl, especially not about that!

I looked though the list more to see other playable monsters like Fey, Dark Elves, a Centaur, a few draconian things and lizard like things. There were even some evil looking monsters, like the undead!

Weird. What was the gameplay like of a non-human? Would they be on the opposite team or side to the Humans in this game and automatically evil? No. It looked like not.

Could I be an undead paladin? Yes I could. How odd!

You could be a plant thing too? Weird. I saw a Jelly, but a humanoid one. It looked like some sort of customized race. Very detailed racials as well.

How many playable races were in this game? I could be a wererat? My eyes glazed over and I went back to my Paladin. What race should I be for him? He was a good guy, he was helpful and productive. I didn't want to be an evil looking guy, or anything like that. Again, probably an elf or human. Something normal and good.

That was boring I know, but it was what I was comfortable with. Perhaps I was projecting what I wanted to be and just couldn’t. But I wasn’t going to be a psychology major. Not that I knew what I wanted to do, besides play computer games though.

Around the picture of my Paladin, who was currently a mostly nondescript human, were pictures of other things. Was it suppose to be a 'what's related list' behind my character? No, it had to be an opposite selection as they made the guy as I created him, look boring.

There were quite a few sexualized females pictured on my screen even though I'd picked male! Was this suppose to get me interested in the game? Or make me think of harem ideas? Just one girl would be nice to have, let alone many!

Like I would know what to do with one girl. I was smart enough to know that porn wasn’t real life, everything I knew was probably wrong. What girl would really like to gag on a large dick or like to touch herself like boys did, or like two guys or any of that. It was all fantasy. I knew this.

Anyhow, my character wasn't that kind of guy! He didn't care about that stuff, or porn, or creampies, or any of that. He wasn't lonely and unable to speak to women. It wasn't like it mattered to him. He was all about the next quest, the next mission, the next monster to be slain.

That was what life should be like, ordered, clean, and make sense.

I saw a few demonic races around me, pickable with a spin of the mouse along the wheel of them around my avatar. I hadn't even begun to customize him the way I wanted to yet! Sheez.

That one was a Succubus, with her bat wings and tail, and she was barely wearing clothes! I could get a sock and… no. She was sexy, but you knew she was deadly, so it was hard to get into her.

The profile next to her was some sort of priestess, she was wearing only bandages over her chest and hips! Holy crap! I wanted to spin her around on her pedestal to see if they would gap or open as she moved. Maybe she’d be cute in the game? No.

I was playing with my friends, being a female would be weird, especially one that at some point might be wearing armor like that! I knew that by example, yet it was hard not too look. I was already hard and ready, too bad I didn't have a girl anywhere in my life! I definitely didn’t have a girlfriend.

Yet I knew myself enough to know that I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t even a real person and had absolutely nothing to offer a girl. What would be the point of me to a girl? There was nothing I could offer or do for her that someone wouldn’t do or have better. Even if I had a girlfriend, I don't think I was ready for that kind of thing, even if sometimes I wanted it, it was just useless hormones.

My younger, fourteen year old brother, was way more into girls than I was, to mine and his embarrassment. He already had a girlfriend. I didn't ask or want to know what they had already experimented with. I knew he had done a lot more than I had.

He was shorter than I, but had broader shoulders and a much manlier self. Sometimes he spoke to dad on the phone, dad never asked for me, I know why. I was a disappointment with my chicken arms and my sloping shoulders. How many times had he told me to stop slouching? I knew and it felt like it was infinite.

I sighed to myself. I wonder how far this character creator would go into the wet-dream territory? And what content was actually in this game if that's what they had the women to look like?

I picked my male, human, paladin. Boring I know, but what was I going to do? Pick a female, wererat, with huge boobs and a whip? No.

Not this time, not with my friends. I knew them too, I knew they’d tease me.

Maybe if I got hooked up with a new invite and made a secondary account? I’d done that before, just to play around. I had more friends on that account than my main one too. I know it was sad.

Of course, I had actually gone against my grain and played a small, quiet and nice girl there. I could be anything I wanted there without my friends knowing I was online. I couldn’t use voice chat though, which made it was harder to group up, but texting people was more fun. It was nice, fake though, and I felt bad, but it was okay – peaceful even.

The next page, I styled his hair and other features, it was quite detailed too. So what kind of world was I entering? This creator had a lot of customization, but no real details on the game, which was surprising. I saw no history or political elements introduced here. Would they later? Or perhaps it wasn't that detailed of a game past the looks?

I switched from male to female and saw the creator effortlessly take my customizations and put them on the female form.

My tall, large Paladin became a well-build woman Paladin. Her armor didn't look that skimpy, except for the fact that the cross across her chest was now a cut-out that showed her skin, rather than the silver it was on the male. She’d apparently have a huge chest. Still, it was nothing like some of the other races might look. I switched her to a Nymph and about fell out of my chair.

Her boobs popped out at you! The virtual reality button was enabled for this screen so you could see yourself as you would appear in VR if you chose to.

I didn’t turn it on, I wanted to see what it had for normal 3D graphics before I did that. Also, it was embarrassing to see your hand moving virtually, as you stroked yourself to an animation.

I switched some sliders to make her shoulders smaller and her arms more slender. Her strength lowered which was interesting as it matched more with reality. That would be detrimental to my character’s role, but it looked really cute.

My chat server beeped.

My friend Kurt messaged, Come on, Charles, stop jerking to the pixels and get in here!

Bastard!

I sighed, how embarrassing!

Kurt added, You too Danny and Wally, get your hands on your keyboards and let’s go! I'm bored of waiting for you!

Fine fine. I typed back, Shut up. Just got a drink and finishing up.

I switched my character's gender back to male and saw him standing there, looking wimpy. Like me.

Charles Hutton, a normal guy, 5'8", barely 130 lbs, with brown, nondescript hair and brown nondescript eyes. My nose was too wide, and my chin and ears were too small. That was okay, at least I didn't look like an elephant with this face as big ears would have made me look like one.

I was boring. It was no wonder the women ignored me. I guess I had hope, for later, when they wanted to settle down with a man who brought in money, even without looks. I guess. But for now, I was sad and lonely. I was a loser in this life. My Paladin would not be me! I broadened his shoulders and muscled him out. I nodded at myself, that was much better.

He was what I was not, a real man. I was a child still, mentally and emotionally, I knew it. I could blame my mother and father, but it didn’t matter. At some point I would grow up, I knew it, as everyone got there at some point. I was a little immature and I played games in all my spare time. I wasn't ready for anyone else to share my life with.

I knew that was it, really, that stuff that made me not ready to have anyone in my life like that, but in my self-doubt I always went to that dark place, of me not being good enough, and not manly enough.

It was all on me, I knew this, at least the adult part of me did. I knew I'd grow up sometime. The child part still worried that I'd always be alone. My face and body would grow up too at some point. I told myself, even if I might not believe it right now.

I'd always been skinny, forever, well except as a baby. Apparently then, I'd been chubby. Now I had bad skin, no confidence, and a boring face and body. I hoped I'd be able to change my confidence in college, especially once I was away from highschool. Bleh. The things I had to deal with there. The pettiness of the other boys. The girls… well I think they pitied me. Which wasn't so bad as I got some attention and smiled, it just wasn’t really what I wanted.

I make my character's face a little more square. Nice. Now there was a half naked girl, in the background dancing. She spun in a small circle and I saw her bat wings. Great. Was that going to be my opponent or my nemesis? I guess it could be, since I was a Paladin and I was going to do good in this world!

I hit finalize. Now to pick a name. Bleh! I hated that part the most.

Arthur something, or Garrett something? No. To obvious and too plain. I wanted something with more oomph. Something different enough to be memorable. I typed my character's name. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but that would do I guess, for the memorable part. Ah well. I moved on to the next step.

My computer monitor blinked.

Did it turn off?

Oh, no, that was odd, and scared me for a moment. Now I saw the loading progress bar and the game initialized. It had decent graphics too.

We were apparently just outside of a walled in fantasy town. I saw a little dark looking guy with a robe on, a scantily clad, Elven priestess, and some old wizard looking guy.

I was looking at the world right now in a third-person view. So I turned on my VR gear to take a look that way."

I quickly looked over the controls, switched my VR sensors on and my view changed from third-person to first.

It still looked very good for a virtual world. You could see some of the pixilization still, but it wasn’t enough to break the immersion.

* *

The Orc guy, or girl, was still here after my trip down memory lane. So I looked over the game’s story.

We were heroes. Good.

We were gathering here to fight evil." Good.

We all lost and died. What?

Your actual story begins after being reborn ten years later.

Reborn? So what killed us? How were we back?

You awaken reborn, but knowing not what brought you back or why. That didn't sound good.

Apparently We could never get back to our old bodies. Old bodies? What did that mean? Did that mean we were getting new bodies or was this it—this paladin? Or was that entire character creator for nothing? No, that didn’t make sense.

The Kingdom is in ruins, most people are dead or have left this area of the world.

Did that mean there wouldn’t be a lot of NPCs?

Monsters have taken over the land.

That was standard, as the wilds were usually wild.

I asked, I’m confused. We're going to die? Or have already died and been reborn?

The Orc looked down at me, I don't know. I assumed this was the start of the game, after all that nonsense.

Nonsense, yeah, I nodded. It would have to be, right? Or the character creator would be…

For nothing, I know! Her voice squeaked so cutely.

I said back, Which would be odd and pointless?

Right! And who puts that much effort into a thing to not use it?

It was so funny to hear a huge, tall and ugly Orc guy talk like a cute girl.

I smiled, she seemed really friendly and nice.

I looked away. I was not going to hurt our budding friendship with crushing on a girl I just met.

She smiled down at me, You're nice, it's good to meet nice people online. Most people are irritatingly rude and self-centered when they’re here.

Yeah. I smiled at her and turned away quickly. Taking compliments was also something I wasn’t good at.

Kurt whispered, Charles has himself an online boy-friend.

Like my friends. Ugh! Just shut up!

I smiled at her and turned away quickly again.

She sighed, Oh, well. We’ll met up later, right, um, Charles?

I nodded, barely able to do even that with the crushing embarrassment and the hint of a girl liking me, or me liking her. Either was just as devastating to my ability to think or talk. Even in a game with a pixel avatar I wasn't a real man, was I. Nope. My dad told me that enough.

She called out, Later guys.

I turned back as she was leaving, I waved to her and she waved back.

Kurt laughed at me, And now, I guess not.

I sighed, Yeah, thanks a lot for that. She was a nice person and you just chased her away.

Kurt laughed, Just pixels man, just pixels.

Danny said, Perhaps that big Orc would take you on a date later, Charles, you stud.

I sighed, Nice. Thanks for all the help, buddy.

Kurt grabbed at Wally, Or maybe you want a piece of Wally here's sexy body?

Wally jumped away, Eww, what's wrong with you?

Blech!

Danny laughed, You made that character to tempt a new boyfriend right, Wally?

I hissed, Just stop it. What's wrong with you two tonight?

Danny shrugged, Sorry man. We just got carried away.

Sure. Ugh!

Kurt said, Yeah, sorry, I guess. So who was that Orc? We don't know them, right?

I don't think so.

Kurt said, They sounded like they were younger. Too young.

No, I’m sure she was our age. I think that was just her voice. This game is rated mature, so everyone here should be 18, even her younger sister.

Kurt asked, She had a younger sister?

Didn’t you listen when she said that?

Kurt laughed like I should know the answer, No.

Danny laughed too, Right, listen to a girl sure, Charles.

Text started to move on the signs and on the sky, we all looked up. It was big and important looking.

Was this the real start of this game?

Text scrolled by that read:

This is the beginning of the end.

Say goodbye to your friends, loved ones, new acquaintances and old friends.

The time is now for you all to be remade.

This is both a blessing and a curse, but it is final. You have all been chosen and there is no going back, ever. The decisions have been made for you, by you. Your new bodies and lives await you here in this world the old world is gone to you forever.

There were many upset noises by people. After reading that. It sounded ominous and actually, a little silly.

Someone said, What the hell?

Kurt shook his head, Freaky developers in this game.

Most of the people around us looked confused, not scared. Then a man who was standing next to me suddenly disappeared. What happened to him!

Kurt laughed, Leaving so soon? I guess it’s too weird for them, hrm?

Danny shrugged, It was a bit lame though, what are they going to do really.

Kurt said, I guess that could be cool right? Pretending this is real? It’s got to be better than real life, that’s for sure.

Danny shrugged again, Whatever.

I gasped as I saw another person just disappear even as I was looking right at them. It hadn’t looked at all like they were about to log off as they were looking around in confusion like we were.

I sat up and threw off my VR helmet and flipped the switch to the sensor off too, that was too creepy!

Danny laughed, Charles? You took off your VR stuff? Really? That's dumb, it's not like they can really hurt you in here. It's all virtual man, you know that.

Kurt looked up at something above him as he asked, What the?

There was nothing on the screen there, but suddenly he was gone.

Danny sighed, Dammit Kurt, stop playing around.

I flipped to our chat window, it was an external program we always used to enable us to have a continuous group-chat no matter what game we were in. It had both audio and video so I saw him for real. He was standing in the middle of his room.

Charles, thank fuck! Kurt asked with clear worry, Do you see that?

Kurt? See what?

He was looking off camera as he said, Those lights, outside.

Was there a light show or something going on out there in the city?

I asked, No, what lights? Are you playing a joke on us?

He was just looking out there so I sighed as I went along with this, and leaned over to look out of my window. I gasped when I saw something. What the?

There was something up in the sky and lights shown down from it onto the buildings below. A search light also shown up from somewhere in the city below. The light reflected off it as if they thing floating above the city was mirrored. There was no way that existed! It just couldn’t be there! It was huge, perhaps a few city blocks across and just floating there!

I asked, Kurt? Guys? What is that?

Kurt looked up above him and gasped. Then I saw something that looked like a stiff and metal, coiled rope fall down over him. It surrounded him, like he’d been lassoed. He looked out through the gaps in it, and I jumped as he screamed in pain! Then there was a flash of pure white light and he was gone!

He just disappeared! In reality now!

I saw the metal coil move upwards and out of view of the camera.

Then his chat window went blank as his computer disconnected from the chat or the camera died, or his computer did!

The game window flashed and I flipped to it. I was still connected to that game? I saw everyone but Kurt of my friends was still connected. There were a lot less people standing in the square around us now though.

The window from our group chat blinked. I opened that and saw Wally's face. He looked scared.

Wally asked, Charles, do you see that space ship?

I asked, even sort of knowing but not believing. Was that what that was? It can’t be, can it?

Danny cried out, Freaking aliens man! Charles wake up, you stick-in-the-mud! They’re real!

We were seeing a space ship? Aliens? I still said, No way.

Fine, whatever. Wally asked, Where is Kurt? He’s not connected anymore to the game or chat?

I shrugged, I saw him and then he… he was gone. There was something that looked like… ropes, rings of ropes and they-they… I don’t know!

Danny asked, He disconnected from chat as well as the game?

Wally looked back and asked, Did you hear the reports?

No, what?

People are going missing! They're just gone!

I asked, Missing? How?

Wally said, Like as in… missing, like they are not in their homes anymore. It’s been going on all night!

Danny asked, Abducted?

Wally nodded, That's what they said on the news!

Danny laughed, nervously, Alien abductions? That has to be a joke, right, Wally?

Wally said, Apparently it's been going on in other places before this!

Danny asked, What?

I asked, How many places? Where?

Wally hissed, I don't know Charles! I just saw it on the news! It’s going on everywhere, all over, China, India, Africa, everywhere!

I gasped, But this just happened, right? Even if that thing is alien… it just appeared! Didn’t it?

Crap, what was going on here? This wasn’t reality was it? Were we still in the game somehow?

I sighed, You think Kurt’s okay?

They shrugged, and looked back at other things. Did they not even care?

Danny said, I think I'm going to go hide in my basement.

I said, You can't just hide!

Danny said, Yes, yes I can!

That was not the right thing to do, I knew it, but would I be able to actually do the right thing?

I asked, But what about Kurt?

He's not connected yet? Then he’s not connecting. He’s probably hiding as well. Later, Charles, Wally. Good luck!

Danny disconnected from the chat.

Wally said, Um, I think I’m going to wake up my folks and see what they think.

Right. Probably a good thing to do. Later, good luck.

You too, Wally disconnected.

What do I do now? I started to get up, to perhaps tell my mom what was going on, or my brother.

I stopped and sighed.

She probably didn’t know, and probably wouldn’t care enough to wake up to help. My brother would... yell, or hit me. I sighed again, there was nothing I could do for them. So, now what? Oh, I could check the news. Yes, that’s what I’d do. A light shone through my window and I gasped.

Idiot, I sighed at myself. I was freaked out by a simple light like a kid?

It was like a search light though so what was it doing pointed down here, at my house? It was probably just coincidence, the thing was mirrored anyhow, that light had to be reflected down here from somewhere.

My computer hissed and suddenly turned off!

What the heck!

The light shown brighter into my window. I felt it shine on my shoulder and I shivered. It was a cold light and it was almost a violet light now. I moved to it wouldn't hit me again. It didn't feel right, if there was such a thing, especially since it was a light, not something else that should actually feel cold.

My curtains whipped aside and something metal and silver came buzzing into my room, and fast. It was that whip-like object I'd seen through Kurt’s camera!

I backed off and grabbed for anything to defend myself with. I grabbed a lamp and threw it. The whip thing barely moved and suddenly there was blue dust from the lamp all over the floor. I threw the next thing, a blanket at it.

As soon as it touched the metal it was pulled from my hands and shredded. Oh crap, I was so dead!

The light hit me again, and I again felt cold all over. It was so cold my muscles tensed and stopped even working. The coil floated above my head as I was still frozen under it!

My hair was being pulled upwards! It was pulling hard too! My hair was short, so didn’t move much, but yet it still hurt!

The coil moved down around my head, it was mirrored on the inside. I could see myself in it as it descended down past my plain brown eyes and my wide nose.

I was so normal looking! That was why I always made my characters with strong chins and manly faces! Because it wasn’t me! The ring seemed to expand around my shoulders to just skim past them.

It wasn’t like it needed to grow much though as I didn’t have much of a body to speak of.

Typical me, I was putting myself down, even if I was about to be killed, or if I was lucky, abducted—which wasn’t really that lucky.

The ring descended to my waist as another took its place at my shoulders and another at my face. I could just barely look down to see them going down me or I could stare at myself in the mirror. I looked downwards, and not in curiosity, I didn’t care for my face.

The ring were the same size from my shoulder down to my legs where they seemed to compress again. I shivered as the violet light shown down on me from above as I stood here immobile and shaking, mostly from the cold and a little in fright.

If they hurt my friends, or my family, I’d... could I do anything at all? I wanted to, but that just didn’t seem to ever be enough. Then I couldn’t move at all and then... then I felt pain.

* * *

---

Alice in the Game

---

Chapter 02: Staring Area

I opened my eyes and that was all I could do.

I was surrounded by people all around me, and they were way too close. There were people inside my personal space!

But that wasn’t the only thing stopping me from moving.

Wait a second! Was I back in the game? I could see what looked like the edges of pixels along the edges of people’s forms.

It looked like the game, but just slightly different enough to make me question that. The sky looked a lot more real. The clouds were actually moving and looked very realistic, yet… they were obviously not. The resolution was absolutely amazing though.

So I was back in the full VR mode of the game? Had the ship and rings been a dream?

There were lots of normal looking people, in odd clothing, but there were also a lot of monstrous people. Just like in the game’s character setup pages!

Text in a giant, white font appeared in front of my eyes, I tried to move away from it but I was still restrained from moving any of my muscles.

The note read:

As foretold this is your new beginning. Take it slow and take it seriously, and you might survive.

I saw everyone around me looking as if they were looking at the text as well. I couldn’t see theirs, just mine, which made sense in a game.

The text scrolled on and I read:

There are rules, like in any world, in any universe. There are physical rules and there are mental rules.

There is one more rule, specific to this environment. It is important enough that you are being told now, at the start, directly like this, so beware.

You can not talk about your previous life.

Anything you were or knew in your old lives have no place here and you will be penalized for showing it to another.

There are automated system’s that will respond and punishment the transgressor. That could include pain or very bad luck. The later can actually be worse in most ways here. So beware.

What the? What was that for? To keep immersion of for roleplaying or something?

I still couldn’t move! Or hit any controls.

I recognized the fountain at the edge of the crowd, wait, were we back in that same square too? Yes, even without turning my head I knew that we were.

It looked a little different though, I think, or perhaps it was the angle I was now at. There were certain details that looks just so much more real though.

There were certainly more people here now too as there were about a hundred people around me, crowding and making it hard to see.

Of course, not being able to move my head created more of a visibility issue. Yet, the colors and the textures here were a million times better than even my expensive VR system could create! What was this system, what happened to me, to those metal coils? Were those things real? Or was that part of this game? What about that saucer and what Wally had said was aliens? Was any of that real?

The text scrolled across again with another warning. It read:

It is imperative that you understand how bad it will be for you to violate that rule. It is a simple rule and comes down to this: you must interact in-character at all times here, if you do not, you will be severely punished.

Okay, so this was a role-playing enforced server? They usually had stricter rules on chatting, conduct and names, yet they usually had ways you could talk out of character. These rules seemed more serious than any of that, way more. Something was wrong here. I tried to look around again and failed to turn my head. At least I could see in front of me though.

The text scrolled with a new message, Your old lives are gone. Forever. If you die here you will not even come back to this one.

What did that mean? Were their different servers that were completely separate?

The man directly in front of me had long blond hair and a small beard. The resolution on his hair wasn’t amazing, but it looked real. There were no pixels and I could see the individual strands and how it flowed like real hair.

Could he move? His hair was. I felt the wind blowing slightly. I guess that was what was moving his hair, so it was just us players that were frozen.

Wow. The leather armor he was wearing looked real too. It looked like real leather that someone wore. That was amazing detail! How long did it take to create that art? Someone, some team, had spent a very long time on it.

I looked around, perhaps to see more, even if I could only move just my eyes. My hair looked weird as it framed my face, it looked darker, black even in this light. I couldn’t see details this close though, which was odd for a game and more like reality. In any case, my real hair was really brown, a normal and boringly blah-brown.

Ignoring my hair for a moment, I think I saw a green fellow, or rather, I think that was a woman! She was wearing a leather harness, but this one was more orange, a red-orange. It went over her shoulders with straps and hooked to her pants, I think. I couldn’t quite see though, not with everyone’s bodies up against each other. I don’t think that she was wearing a shirt either. I could see a lot of her green skin on her back and I could imagine what her front might look like. If she was showing as much from the front… wow. I wonder how weird that would look like to see that much of her front with her being green skinned.

The white text scrolled again and this time it read:

The system is making adjustments, enabling functionality and creating and adding content as we proceed, so please be patient. As more things come online there will be a whole world to explore, in and out of, around and beyond!

I could see a menu and a few items but they were transparent looking. I started trying to hit those virtual buttons anyhow. Something, anything, had to work to let me move. I especially was looking for a logout button.

I know my friends all thought I was too vanilla and boring, and I might be, but I didn’t like this at all. I just wanted to get home to make sure everything was okay.

Something about this situation didn’t feel right. I still remember seeing those bad things happening. I still remembered Kurt’s scream, I remembered the lamp shattering and the metal loops. I was worried.

I checked for anything a second time, still nothing worked. I even looked at the controls for movement as these people were way too close to me. It was wigging me out! Because of them I couldn’t even see downwards with just moving my eyes! There were just too many people to see anything but them! It was quite irritating.

My wardrobe section popped up like in the game and I saw the outfits I was given to use. I gasped. Those were not mine! The last time I was in this plaza I was wearing a heavy armor set. I remember that the optional outfits in my wardrobe were a light armor set and a lumberjack like outfit.

I closed the interface and concentrated on it again, but they were still there! What the heck were pretty and feminine articles of clothing doing in my Paladin’s wardrobe? Why the hell did they think I was going to wear those? Ever? This set of clothing cycling past my eyes was nothing like that!

Now I saw dresses or lingerie, or whatever that was! They were pretty… things too, but way too sexual, for me, for here. I felt a tingle and now I worried that I could be already popping a boner from just seeing those feminine articles of naughty clothing! That would just be odd here with all these people around, and so close! Someone might notice!

In my wardrobe there was a model, well, more like a mannequin. She was female though, so probably a generic model. I could spin her around on a pedestal and she was wearing a dress thing that looked like lingerie! I blushed to even see her doll-like body wearing that skimpy piece of clothing!

I really hoped that was a mistake and that those were the default pictures available for those things! That had to be it. Of course. This message said things were being worked on in the game, this was clearly one of those things and it was broken. Of course that was it. That had to be it. This game was so beta!

I looked over those four outfits again. Three were all really delicate and pretty things, and the last was an elegant but tight looking, dark-red dress. The bottom edge of it floated out below it incredibly far!

Two of the lingerie things had robes, the other was nothing more than a very see-through white dress. It was at least striped white in some places, but the rest was very see-through. I was already salivating and feeling the tingles that meant I was about to get hard. It had white garters and-and wow, it was so short you could see the bottoms the mannequin was wearing! The underwear on that it-it was so small and completely visible!

I spun the black lingerie outfit around and saw that it had a black hood attached to the open black robe. Odd little leg warmer like things covered the generic model’s lower leg, only, leaving her thighs exposed on her legs. Her stomach and the top that just covered her chest were well exposed though. What kind of armor was this! Did she even have shoes? Oh wow, sure, but they were-they were… stripper shoes!

I heard complaint noises around me and looked up, wondering if everyone else was looking at the odd clothing in the wardrobe?

The fur lined white outfit I had just selected was… wow, just wow. That thin robe was tied shut around the waist by a large satin looking bow. Those panties were… showing and ivory colored like the robe, but they were fur-lined, white, pretty and… it looked like such soft fur. I wanted to touch it. Which was weird, but it was so soft looking. I felt that tingle again. I guess that’s why they made lingerie like that. Wow. Ugh. Okay, looking away from the sexy clothing and back around me again now before I embarrassed myself more and showed everyone just how much of a stupid virgin I was.

I could see that some people were moving. At least the front row of people in this square up by the fountain were. If I remembered right, there was a fountain on the other side as well, which should be behind me a ways off. It was a big square out side the town here. The towns walls would either be to the right or left of me as I faced towards one or the other fountain. I couldn’t turn my head still to see though.

I tried to move something, anything, and couldn’t. Not even a finger! Ugh, how frustrating! My head wouldn’t move, I tried to speak… nothing.

The people up front could talk now though, as one of those people called out, What the fuck is this? What happened? What was that thing?

There were grumbles and other calls.

A scantily clad woman, climbed up onto the edge of the fountain and called out in a very fitting voice for an Elven priestess. Whoever you are! Tell us what’s going on! What happened to me, and what happened to my voice!

Her pretty voice was clear with honest sounding confusion and worry.

A large green Orc climbed up there and stood with her, My name’s Albert, Albert Tawny, are any of my friend heres? Mick? T…

Then he fell to the ground, screaming.

The white text came back to read:

This system detected a violation of the rules. Please all bear witness to his punishment so it doesn’t happen to you.

That last part of the message didn’t seem automated. That was interesting, in a horrible way, as he continued to scream.

Someone laughed and so did someone else, I think it was nervous laughter, no one knew what to make of this

I tried to move again, but nope, no such luck. Voice? Nope.

I saw the Elven princess moving away from the fountain, like the others were, in an effort to get away from the Orc. That Elven woman looked really hot in her almost sheer, white, princess gown. I wonder what quest she was part of. No, wait, she had spoken like a person, but there was no name tag above her head and no quest marker. She had to be a player, right? Her voice sounded feminine and natural, so why did she say that her voice had changed?

The crowd continued to move sideways, clearing away from the Orc as he was flailing his large arms. Worse, he was still crying out in pain. Even worse perhaps, was that his screams sounded real to me now. Just as this place looked so real.

This was a game though! I could see the remnants of the game interface, even if now most of it wasn’t working. It looked a lot like the interface from before, but there were some major changes, even if they were not enabled. I didn’t see a main menu, but still, there was a game interface in my vision. That meant that this was a game and it wasn’t real.

It sounded like he was in real pain, but he couldn’t be! I think that I felt real enough, but that was VR for you. I could feel my body even in the game. I was worried more now though. What was going on?

The Orc stopped crying out, but I didn’t hear anything else from him to tell me he was okay, or even alive! But it was a game, right? Right?

The white text scrolled again, it read:

Now you have seen firsthand what will happen if you continue to reside in the past. This world is for the future you, not the past you. There is no going back either, ever. There is only going forward.

That felt like another threat! What was with the people running this game? And when would they let me move?

The white text changed again, to read:

Your first real new memory begins now!

You wake up and even if you can’t remember much, you remember the shadows of the monster hordes, coming, killing and destroying everything. You can barely remember much more that that though. You can just barely, remember what side you were on, or what you were back then. You decide that it might be best you kept that to yourself for now.

Were you a villager, or hero, or something else? Whatever you were, or think you were, is not what you are now. What you are now is a piece of your soul come back to life, and what you make of that new life is up to you.

Finally! I could move my head!

The bearded man and the green woman were still standing right in front of me, neither of us were freed to move our bodies yet. I could now see that there were two large creatures, like Orcs to either side of me.

The man in front of me actually looked human, as did most of the people I could see. Good, there were not a lot of monster players.

Players could be monsters, per the character creator, and some were very big and perhaps quite powerful, but if there were more humans that would balance that out a bit.

I looked down, I was still squished awkwardly against the man in front of me, there were swells of white flesh-colored skin filling the space between him and I. I gasped. They looked so tempting, so round, so alluring, they were pointing out… from me? I-I-I had…? I had boobs? Wait, was that really me? How could that be me? That had to be an illusion!

Those orbs were covered by a white softness of cloth, which looked to be edged in white fur! It was even just barely covering those curvy spheres of-of those things as well. I continued to stammer in my head. I-I… They were huge things too!

I remembered what Willy’s avatar looked like, she’d… he’d been very top heavy with those sphere like soccer-balls glued to his chest. These looked bigger!

They were so soft looking though, and… making me uncomfortable.

I swallowed, instantly feeling myself getting turned on as I saw the huge melons thrusting outwards there and exposed to view. What was I wearing! What body was I wearing!

I couldn’t move my head much still, but even so, I couldn’t see past them! I couldn’t see my feet! Okay, so they were squished up behind the man in front of me, and that blocked my view, but the sheer amount of curvy skin showing and pushed up between us, was making me very uncomfortable.

I looked down the large vee-shaped opening in the white... gown or robe thing I was apparently really wearing. The edge