Michael felt a little dizzy, then he was engulfed in a blinding light and reached level thirty-three. All of the nausea and discomfort was instantly quelled and he invested all four stat-points into Intelligence.

“Ugh, are we supposed to take all of this shit by ourselves?” The Nephilim quickly ‘Scanned’ a few items that were lying upon the table and felt a sharp pain surging through his head.

Alice snickered, grabbing a syringe filled with bright-blue fluid and injecting it into her left forearm. Her serpentine pupils dilated and her bronze skin gained an azure tint, as veins started bulging uncontrollably.

However, a few seconds later, she returned to normal and grumbled “The effects aren’t nearly as potent as I had expected them to be… Still better than nothing I guess?”

Then she received a message: “Stats have increased: +7 Willpower, +5 Luck, +4 Perception, +4 Charisma. Your Aura stat has dropped to 120.” Compared to the losses, the gains were far superior, since it was ‘relatively’ easy for her to improve her Aura.

As he was reading that, Michael checked the dragon-girl’s status-screen and complained “Oi, what the fuck! How the hell did you get so much stronger than me? Damn it, drugs are cheating!”

She snickered, revealing “All Professions have ways to improve stats and give experience… Maybe if you spent less time having sex, you’d be able to figure out a way to use your ‘Summoning’ to get stronger. Talia… I didn’t even know it was possible to go past level-ten in the beginner rank of a job, but she’s reached forty-seven; yet, she rarely receives any benefits from being a Musician because she hasn’t reached the next stage. As far as Necromancy goes, the most obvious way is to just make a bunch of golems and use them to fight… still, there’s probably a couple other secrets involved. Gaining experience through combat is pretty easy, but you can’t really get the extra ‘stat-bonuses’ that way. Here, take this silver pill… Everything else is meant for the others.”

Without hesitation, the Nephilim grabbed the surprisingly large bead and threw it into his mouth, using telekinesis to swallow more efficiently. As he was waiting for it to dissolve in his stomach, he muttered “How the hell do I raise my ‘Summoning’ proficiency though? Like, aside from shoving souls into golem bodies, I don’t really understand what needs to be done… Maybe there’s a way to, ugh, argh~! Gah~?! Ow-ow-ow-ow~! Okay, I’m gonna go, cause I think I’m about to have explosive diarrhea, but good talk!”

He stood up, ran over to the control-panel and teleported directly into the living room, leaving Alice alone in her ‘laboratory’. There was silence for a few moments, before a loud and deep humming noise emanated from the southern shore.

“Nyahahahaha~! Ally~, come play with me~!” A naked cat-girl was riding a neon-orange jet-ski across the surface of that deep-blue lake. When sleeping in her ‘Slime-Form’, Jasmine barely needed any time at all to be completely rejuvenated. However, that had more to do with the fact that she ‘napped’ every few hours, rather than engaging in a deep slumber.

The red-robed, bronze-skinned elven woman, stood up and walked over to the edge of the beach. She smiled, yelling “I’m sorry JJ, but I need to get back to work… Why don’t you come here for a second though, I have some tasty ‘candy’ for you~!”

 

While everyone else was off ‘hunting’ or taking experimental drugs, Talia was half-conscious, babysitting a thirsty vampiric baby Lamia. Unlike the others, she wasn’t able to magically reinvigorate her exhausted body, other than eating food…

In fact, as Rachael was violently draining blood from her left nipple, the naked High-Elf was sitting at the kitchen table. She had broiled at least six pounds of fresh, Aqua Dragon meat, along with plenty of other random things that she found in the refrigerator.

At a certain point, something unexpected happened: She started getting chubby. It wasn’t just her belly, but even her neck and face gained noticeable weight. However, she also obtained a new Passive ability.

“Mana Retention Level 1: Able to store excessive amounts of mana within fat-cells, for later use. 1 pound of fat will be ‘refined’ into 1 experience point, every hour.”

Hysterical laughter erupted from behind her back, as Michael entered the room. His Aura had dropped by ten points, but his level went up to thirty-four; he also increased his Strength, Vitality and Endurance to exactly fifty-five each. However, he wasn’t cackling because of his drug-related power-up; he had come into the kitchen, just in time to witness the plump High-Elf receive her disastrous message.

Talia swiftly came to her senses and stopped stuffing her face, turning towards her husband and shouting “Is this truly so humorous to you?! Perhaps you do not even care for my appearance, since you still have the rest of your harem!”

The Nephilim sighed dramatically, walking over and sitting down next to her; he carefully examined her body and noticed that the ‘fat’ was constantly changing. She burned it so quickly that it was difficult for her to even stay chubby.

Michael snickered, “Seriously, you’re freaking Rei-Rei out… Besides, even if you were the size of a hippo, like literally, I’d still have sex with you. We’re ‘soul-mates’, right? These bodies… how many times have we gotten completely new ones, since we met? We both have spells that can turn us into giant monsters, and the others are the same. The physical nonsense doesn’t really matter; all that’s important is how we ‘feel’ about each other. Te amo Talia… Aishite imasu… Wo ai ni… umm? Amin mela lle, might not count, cause it’s not a ‘real’ language, but still… I can’t really think of any other ways to say ‘I love you’, so hopefully you can settle for that. Anyway, that dragon-meat looks delicious, can I have some?”

After a few seconds of silence, she frowned, muttering “I shall prepare a more substantial meal for us to enjoy… Please hold Rachael for me.”

As he pulled the suckling baby off of the elf’s incredibly swollen left teat, Michael received a written and auditory notification; each of his Companions could hear and see it as well. “The Game Settings for all nine remaining solar systems have been changed for balancing purposes.”

[Gameplay

Difficulty: Hardcore
Realism: 100%
Pain: 100%
Gore: Extreme
Sexual Content: Consensual Only
Current Number of Players: 1017
Maximum Level: None
Starting Equipment: None
Starting Stats: Extremely Low
Death Penalty: -1 Level
Respawn Timer: 1 Minute x Player-Level
Friendly Fire: Off]

 

“Oh god no! This is bullshit! Arcana, that lying bitch! Don’t you realize what this means?” Michael was surprisingly upset about the sudden change in rules, but Talia didn’t seem too concerned.

She was standing there naked, but swiftly equipped her skirt and jacket to cover her chubby flesh. “Why are you so distraught?! As long as we refrain from dying, this ‘Death Penalty’ should not even affect us!”

However, he just sighed dramatically and allowed Rachael to crawl on his head. Finally, he grumbled “I thought I’d have so much more time… but it’s coming prematurely! Pft~…”

Talia groaned, before reluctantly asking “What is it that has you so concerned?”

Michael had an unusually serious expression on his face, as he whispered “Noobaggedon…” A few seconds of awkward silence passed, and he muttered “Would Noobpocalypse be better? Or maybe Noobocalypse? Hmmm, Noobnarok, Noobs Day… Yeah, Noobaggedon sounds the best.”

The irritated Huntress smiled wryly, “Miguel used to call it ‘The Dawn of the Newbs’ or ‘The Nooby Era’… He was always very vague when I questioned him about it, but he did mention that there would be a large influx of new Players.”

He glanced up at the giggling little girl, who was urinating in his hair, and firmly decided “It’s time to hardcore power-level! We need to get way fucking stronger and we probably only have two days to do it! The only problem is that we need to find a babysitter for Rachael…”

At that moment, a gorgeous, two-meter tall, blonde-haired and green-eyed High-Elven woman entered through the kitchen doorway. She was wearing blue skinny-jeans and a floral pink blouse, which showed a bit of cleavage, though her breasts were extremely small.

As Talia merely stood there, gasping in shock, that not-so-mysterious girl said “I have spent so long caring for the children of others, that I managed to become a Grandmaster Babysitter… I believe I should have the proper qualifications to take care of my own granddaughter.”