MAKE-A-FRIEND

I yawned, stretching my limbs as I woke up.

I looked around with groggy eyes. I’d gotten used to seeing nothing but sand and sun for miles in all directions, so half my brain was surprised to realize I was now in near total darkness, surrounded by a stone and wooden cell.

Looking at my map, I was still underground, below a building in a city full of elves.

Elves? Hrmm… I guess they’re something like Sand Elves?

As I tapped a moving dot on my map, a panel popped up.

Please acquire the Hi-Spec System Scanner to use this functionality!

I grumbled for a moment. I’d already seen this notification back in the desert, while trying to determine what kind of wildlife and such was around. I was tempted to dish out the 50,100p required to obtain it, but so far I don’t believe I’ve actually had a need for it.

This “Pay Store” ability is extremely useful, but I feel kinda dirty using it. Like a legit cheater. That’s why everything I’ve used it on so far has been for things I absolutely needed. On top of the cheating aspect, it’s just a good idea to save on points for things I can get through normal methods.

I guess if I think of it like that, one could say I’ve been thrown into a Survival Game, and I don’t want to abuse the Pay2Win system to much…

Putting all of that aside, I stand up, my clothes reshaping from it’s half-sleeping-bag form into a normal robe. I was worried about what might happen if a guard checked in on me while I was asleep, so I transformed my Highly Adaptive Clothing into a kind of insulating sleeping-bag with a built-in pillow, that on the outside still mostly looked like the robes I was wearing when I was apprehended.

My clothes were mostly spotless, having shaken clean any dirt or grime accumulated during my nap.

“Hrmm… Am I too clean for a man that just trekked through the desert?” I hadn’t considered that until just now. That may have caused some suspicion, now that I think about it.

It might be a good idea to try to not stand out too much, at least not before I understand what sort of place I’m in first. After that, I’ll be free to stand out as much as I want.

That said… I still wasn’t sure about the place I was in. Apparently this dungeon had about 4 cells, with only mine being occupied—and only by myself, of course.

There wasn’t much to learn down here…

I wanted to go out and explore the city—this was my first glimpse at civilization in six days after all. At the same time, I wasn’t willing to immediately ruin my position in society just yet—if I even had one.

So, I sat down on the ground against a wall, and began to look through my Pay Store for something useful. Yes, I complained about not wanting to use it for cheating, but this waiting is fucking unbearable… Besides, it’s not like it’s certain I’ll actually buy something.

Just to be sure, I go ahead and set up an alert on my map in case anyone enters the dungeon. The map may not be able to accurately identify what kind of creature any point on it is, but it can still warn me if something of a specified size or larger is approaching.

So, I began to search the catalog, hoping to alleviate my boredom.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

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“The fuck is this?”

My question was heard by no one, of course. Still, I couldn’t help but mutter to myself while munching on a bread-like food.

Just a little while ago, a guard came in to leave me with some food. It wasn’t luxurious, and as an American I felt it was lacking, but it didn’t seem like they planned to starve me. The guard yesterday mentioned planning to ransom me off, which I suppose is a euphemism for sell me… do they just have a different word for “selling people”, and that’s how my translator interpreted it as?

… Whatever the case, if they want to make money off me, I have to be healthy, right?

But what has my attention isn’t anything about the quality of the food.

“Make-A-Friend workshop? Is this some kind of gag?”

Before me was an incomprehensible page of my Pay Store, that I discovered just now, hours after awaking. It seemed to be a hidden functionality of the store that sold a different kind of item.

It was similar to those web shops where you’re given the option to customize a product to your specification. For example, phone cases for different phone models, made of a variety of materials and textures, with different features and colors.

Except in this case, the product was a “Friend”.

At the top of this sub-store, was an explanation.

> Make-A-Friend!

>

> Good companions are hard to come by.

> Here at Make-A-Friend, you can create any sort of companion you can imagine, with a variety of skill-sets and personality settings, fine-tuned to our customer’s specifications!

> Need an artist, a musician or a martial artist? One of each? All three in one? Make-A-Friend has your back!

>

> Purchased items compatible with Make-A-Friend companions:

>

> * Hi-Spec System Map (Partial)

> * Hi-Spec System Storage (Partial)

> * Omnilinguistic

>

> Disclaimer: Make-A-Friend is not liable for damages caused by after purchase.

The snarky disclaimer as usual…

No, this can’t be real, can it?

I wondered for a while… but, does this mean I can create life?

Below the explanation at the top was various “templates” to start with, many of which were very familiar animals and even humans. Base price is… 1000p?!

I was shocked. Why is it such a low price?! I heard human bodies should be priced in the millions!

Ah, wait…

I see. That high estimate was pricing humans based on how much people are willing to pay for organ donations, which by their very nature are rather rare. Diamonds for example are overpriced as fuck because the people selling them intentionally limit how many there are in the market to create artificial scarcity.

So, perhaps this value is based on the worth of a human’s components? Well, that, plus maybe the work to arrange the cells into place and whatever other kind of value the system seems to think may add value to a human.

Still, I don’t think I’m in need of a “companion”…

Well…

One thing to note is that they seem to be compatible with the System Map I have. In other words, they may be able to fill in more of my map. I can’t see most of the city right now, but with someone scouting out…

Ah, but they’d have to be sneaky for that… Or blend in…

And elf?

As I considered the idea, most of the templates seemed to vanish, leaving only a few dozen “Elf” templates. Actually, all of these templates were labeled “Male Elf” and “Female Elf”, despite their various appearances. Wait, there’s also weirder options like “Futa Elf”, and some things that look like entirely different species like a “House-Elf”, which was drastically different.

Still, most had duplicate names, so I guess the need to distinguish the different types of elves wasn’t really considered except for extreme cases.

What a strange interface.

That said, I decided No.

I doubt this created elf will have implanted knowledge of elf culture, and so they won’t know their way around the city any better than me. Instead, it might be better to have something small…

A variety of small animals, rats, insects, and so on appear… there’s even some tiny humanoids that appear to be dwarves, goblins, halflings and so on…

“Hey, what about… something like…” a certain kind of creature came to mind…

What happened next, was a little… different.

Where before my thoughts and “search queries” were answered by popping item boxes in and out instantly, this was the first time that all of the items disappeared, and I was given a Loading screen for the first time.

“That’s new…” I muttered, but it only lasted for a moment.

What appeared was…