Chapter 94: Customization
[Edited by: Arthur300000, ArchmageNaoki, and deathbricks]
“How do you cope with all… this?” Valerie asked in a perfect sentence.
All it took was only one sitting of watching anime with her for her to open up to me like this. It seemed that her taciturn mode was just an act of shyness.
“You won't.” I bluntly replied as I tried to peek under the skirt of the magical girl on the television. Damn, even in 3D mode it couldn't be done.
“...” Valerie went quiet for quite a while then continues. “Then, how do you get along with your family?”
“Are they invading your personal space?” I referenced my experience with her question.
“Not exactly, I … also had a nosy little sister back on earth. But here… I felt my role in the family had been reversed. I don’t know how to handle an older woman while I’m … a younger girl.” Maybe the reason she could open up with me because I seemed younger than her...
“Well, I don’t know. I was alone all my life. That might be the reason why I adapt easier. Anyways, I doubt your taciturn mode is an answer.” I tried to act like an adult, being considered a kid rubbed me the wrong way.
“Try to turn from a grown-up man into a girl like me, and you’ll know how hard it is.” … You’re not the only one dude! Wait, what I told her was that this isn't my original body… Still, couldn't she guess that I was a guy? How stupid could she be?
Anyways, I didn’t think it was wise to brag about that. Plus we were still lying on the same bed, the situation might become awfully awkward if I did so. Thus, I left her misunderstanding alone and consoled her with a light tap on her shoulder instead. Then I slid off my bed and went to the kitchen.
I’ll cheer her up with some fancy cooking from Cocoa. That was my original plan. But after I checked everywhere, there was no such thing here... That girl must be really looking forward to checking out my new device and forgot everything else. I’ll have her become my hug-pillow for me tonight as punishment.
Then I checked my storage device for the next best thing, but it seemed that I already ate all my mom’s cooking and snacks during yesterday’s dungeon exploration. To make it worse, my stomach began to rumble...
“Are you hungry?” Valerie who noticed the disturbance in the kitchen, followed me and asked.
“I-I have some instant noodles. There is a taste of sea, forest, and dungeon. Which one do you prefer?” I took out three packages of my last resource. I bought them from the convenience store shopping spree a while ago.
“Don’t worry, I’ll cook.” Valerie patted my head and checked my house inventory. After she finished perusing my refrigerator and cupboard, she asked. “Do you like spaghetti meatballs?”
“Eh? It’s fine.” Surprisingly, Valerie can cook. “But the instant noodle from this world might be better than you think. It might be something extraordinary in the packages, like... a unicorn.” I pointed at the galloping unicorn picture on the taste of the forest package. They were rude creatures, but who from earth doesn’t like a unicorn?
“Haha, let's see.” She chuckled and took the package from me. Then she flipped it to the back and read.
“Hmm, ingredient list, giant mandragora flour 64%, processed monster fat 12%, spice 3%, freeze-dried lightning wolf meat powder 1%, monosodium glutamate, artificial color, and preservative. There is no unicorn in it, and the percent didn’t even add up to one hundred. I don’t think it’s a good idea to eat it.” Valerie chides me.
“Alright, I’ll help you cook them.” Since my instant noodles attempt failed, I followed Valerie’s idea. Anyways, how do I operate these kitchen devices… They didn’t seem to have buttons and knobs like the microwave that I used to work with.
“No, you should take care of yourself first. Lunch will be ready in 20 minutes, okay?” Valerie turned me around and pushed me towards the bathroom.
I felt a bit helpless. But the truth was, I didn’t know how to cook, let alone operate the stove. So I left her alone and went into the bathroom.
[Mistress, I have chosen my new body.] Skynet suddenly spoke while I undressed and almost tripped me down in the process. My feet slid on the cold ceramic tile a bit, but I stabilized myself a few milliseconds later.
[Oh! Alright, show me.] I told her as I stepped out of my panties.
[Here.] With her energetic yet monotonous voice, she brought up a window that shows the image and specification of a cybernetic body. From its description, it was a home security type. The price was 198,000 credits which were well within my budget. However, it looked like a big burly man…
[It’s strong, sturdy, and reliable. The internal frame is made of composite alloy which can be easily replaced and maintained. Also, it has a huge storage space and a powerful reactor. I negotiated for quite a while to get this price-] I immediately pressed the cancel order button. [Wait! What are you doing, Mistress!?]
[Skynet, a wise man once said that “cute is justice”. If it’s not cute, it’s surely the wrong choice.] I taught her the secret of the universe. Then I rinsed myself and soaped up my hair and body with Cocoa’s shampoo. It had become my habit to use hers, but she said a bean size is alright, so I took a droplet from her bottle every time I bath.
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[Then… there is another model, but it was a bit over the budget.] After a long pause, Skynet showed me another one.
This time, it looked like a young yet adult girl. She has cerulean eyes, blonde hair, and rose pink cheeks. There was also an array of buttons to customize her appearance, but as I tried to enlarge her boobs, the price modifier showed +1,000 credits, and it's increasing at that pace every click. So, I hit the reset button. This must be the expensive plastic surgery people were talking about. Better stay clear of it.
According to its description, this model was also a civilian model, but it focused on being a personal secretary. It also has a huge memory module. Maybe that was the selling point for Skynet. However, I was a picky customer, so I won’t easily fall for that.
I stepped out from the bathroom and rubbed myself dry with the only towel left on the shelf. While I was doing that, I looked at the other advantages of this secretary android aside from the huge memory module.
Advanced fingers and hands actuator, alright. High fidelity optical sensors, fine. Energy efficient reactor, uhu. Award winning beautiful long legs, sold! Wait, I should check the customization screen first... SOLD!
I quickly gave her a green light. But she somehow proceed on to customize her model instead.
[Don’t worry mistress, I got a free basic customization coupon.] I offhandedly suggested her to increase the boobs size a bit, but it turned out that it wasn’t included in the package. I also forbid her from touching those legs.
It took as long as I took to brush my teeth for her to finish her adjustments. The end result seemed to be more mature and smart compared to the original. However, there was still a hint of cuteness in there.
The final price was 238,520 credits. Tax and shipping cost included. I was reluctant for a short while before I pressed the confirm button for her. Damn over two thousand panties gone, just like that. Still, a promise is a promise. I already gave her my word, so I had to see it through.
I dragged my feet back to the dining table with a heavy heart but an empty stomach. Thankfully, Valerie just finished cooking. While she prepared the table she apologized for the delay. She said that the kitchen faucet was broken and couldn’t be turned on, so she had to fix that with magic.
Of course, I told her that it was alright and looked another way, pretending that it was the fault of other people. Yep, it was their fault for not shutting the tap properly, so I had to wake up and turn it off myself.
Wait, wasn’t this what they called the mood swing from premenstrual syndrome? From what I heard, it should have gone away when my period ended. But maybe I should increase the dose of vitamin C to two tablets a day just in case.
“Here you are. My special recipe, super spaghetti meatballs.” Valerie proclaimed and put an exotic looking pasta in front of me. The word super in its name and the radioactive blue noodle doesn’t give it much credibility, but its scent was an incarnation of drool-inducing substance.
I stabbed a juicy looking meatball with my fork and put it in my mouth.
“Wow, you really can cook!” I exclaimed while chewing a mouthful.
“Sure, this skill came with twenty years of taking care of my younger sister.” Valerie shrugged. “Hmm, being the one who’s taking care of others rather than being the one taken care of is more relaxing than I thought.” She seemed to have an epiphany while I slurped in the fluorescent pasta… It has a funny tingly taste that I couldn’t explain, but it went well with her sauce.
“Still, how can you know the usage of these fantasy world ingredients?” I found it strange, according to her tale, she was here for only over a week. Comparing with my more than a month experience, I still have a problem with selecting what I want from the menu.
“I tasted everything first.” She replied… I commented on her bravery.
We exchanged pointers about how to live in this fantasy world while enjoying the meal. I also suggested to her the vitamin C tablets to help with the mood swings. But as I was going to brag to her about its wonderful acting mechanism called the “placebo effect”, Skynet cut me off and somehow the subject was changed to today's plan.
“I have a biology class in the afternoon.” Valerie said.
“Oh, I’ll go with you. I need to deliver some stuff to the biology department.” It was one day overdue, but I hope that they would be understanding to my plight. Hmm, thinking about it, maybe I should also report to the police station about the bandits.
With that agreed upon, we quickly clean up our mess and left the dorm.
The noon sun was bright, but even with the full power of the sun, the temperature around here was still lower than the freezing point. Thanks to the dog-size road cleaning robot which crept past us every now and then, the walkway was free of ice patches and easy to walk on.
“This world is strange.” Valerie spoke as she led me to the opposite direction from the path I took yesterday.
“What kind of strange?” I asked. Everything was weird for me. A flying pig included.
“This is winter, right? On earth, in the winter, the day is supposed to be short. But here, it was only a few hours difference between day and night duration.” She explained.
“I don’t know, I lived near the equator. It didn’t have much difference.” I replied.
“Well, if this place is this world's equator, how hot will it be in summer? Fifty degrees celsius?” … Now I began to worry.
Anyways, I pushed that thing to the back of my mind as we walked past the commercial area. There were a lot of interesting shops and I wanted to take a look at their merchandise but Valerie said that she didn’t have much time left before her class begins, so I could only watch them through the glass windows as we quickly passed by.
There was also a short length teleportation station on the way, but according to its sign, it was closed indefinitely due to a technical issue.
I was still wondering what kind of technical issue it was as we arrived at the bus station. Maybe somebody went missing during the transport. Or maybe, they managed to merge two or more people during the teleportation!
“Waii, what cute darlings you two are. Are you two siblings?” A kind looking old woman approached us while we were still waiting for the bus. Crap, because of the lack of sleep and Valerie’s excitement, I forgot to wear my cat girl disguise.
“...” Valerie quickly went back to her taciturn mode and became useless.
“Here, have some candies and enjoy your day.” She handed some expensive looking candies to me and suddenly hugged us. Could this be considered sexual harassment? Well, I didn’t think so. Still, I took the bribe. A sudden appearance of a snack? Sweet! Wait, I should somehow test it for poison first… I handed one of it to Valerie but she rejected it.
“I don’t like sweet stuff.” She said.
The situation was better than I thought though. Even without the cat girl disguise, there was no one blocking us or asking any outrageous requests like begging me to step on them.
Still, there were some people pointing and gossiping behind our back. That old woman was the only exception that approached us, but if I got a good snack every time this happened, I didn’t think that this would be a problem though. Maybe the cat girl disguise wasn’t that necessary after all.