The pressurized doors opened and shut swiftly behind them once the two stepped through into the first of the chamber. The second set of doors opened up soon after, exposing the interior of the Blow Your Mind Kitchen to them. Belle turned around and placed a small badge upon Sam’s chest, a ring of blue light circulating all around before a light shield surrounded and hovered about an inch over his body.
It was a small suit of armor of sorts, which Sam assumed was used to make sure that he doesn’t accidentally die. Similar badges were worn by the receptionist who appeared to be an octopus being which had a projection of a human being over his face once the approach for the two was detected.
“Welcome to Blow Your Mind Kitchen, travelers.” A synthesized voice came passing through the shields as Sam watched the projection’s mouth move completely out of sync, “How may we blow your mind today?
“Full experience for two!” Belle said, pointing to the scribbled words on the projection overhead before looking back at Sam, “What do you think?”
“My mind is ready to be blown.” Sam bowed his head forward, and the projection of the human worker and the octopus bowed forward as well, though what appeared to be the brain of the octopus in underneath the sack nearly rolled out of place if not for the exosuit holding that thing back.
“So…this is how it works. Here, we hunt for what we eat, and they then cook it in front of us, hibachi style.” Belle said, stopping at the first of the space habitats after the two of them went passed the receptionist’s desk and into the soft pipe system behind him that connected to the rest of the experiences. The drum of the space habitat was expectedly shaped as a wide cylinder, and like the rest of the drums, the entirety of the habitat is built inside the stomach of an asteroid.
A small room greeted them upon entry immediately, and their guest passes were quickly scanned before a pair of rifles materialized from what appeared to be a white pool located on the wall beside them. The surface of the pool appeared visually looked like whiteboards when solid, though it become soft and fluid once the rifles emerged. Belle turned and tossed one of them towards Sam who caught it with one hand, and as Sam’s hands wrapped around the handle of the rifle, a soft blue material then grew from the front and back of the rifle, looping around his back automatically. Besides them, the regular clothes that they came in with were replaced with slick-looking jumpsuits, though Belle seemed to be wearing something far more advanced-looking and skin-tight underneath.
But still, that's a hell of a physique she's got. Belle caught him staring at her, and she gave him a wink before twisting her hips to the side as Sam very politely looked down at the rifle instead.
“So space is the land of the free…” Sam remarked when a single blue bucket materialized from the pool next, “That's the bucket?”
“Anything that we need here goes in the bucket.” Belle picked up the bucket into the air before letting go, and it simply floated right beside the two of them like a guardian angel, “Come on, let’s go hunt.”
As the two walked out of the room and into what appeared to be an alien jungle outside filled with tall trees and bright orange soil, Sam immediately started to feel a heaviness in his steps and blood pooling down to his feet with his head feeling light. The crumbly soil under his feet also seemed to be sucking away his energy with every step, and he watched as Belle leaped forward effortlessly until she stopped behind one of the bedrocks and peeked over.
When her gaze fell onto him, Sam was still struggling his way around the trunk of the first sky-scraping tree in their tracks, and some strange tendrils had extended out from the trees to try to grab onto him, which ironically helped stop him from falling on his face and not able to get up for his first hunt.
“Bucket, what’s the gravity like?” Belle asked before she leaped to Sam, and the bucket followed her back.
“Fifteen accelerations per square of lengths.” The bucket responded.
“That’s the least helpful unit I have ever heard.” Sam straightened his body before being forced to press his arms on his knees again, “Around one point five times Earth’s gravity? I am fit enough to probably deal with that…”
“It’s a little higher than that…” Belle spoke after looking up from a small projection on her wrist, “I can share my suit with you, it will lighten the burden. But…it’s gonna be a little embarrassing…”
“You are saying that like I am not in another solar system just for this date,” Sam said, trying to straighten up once again, but felt something pop in his back before he was folded in half.
Belle nodded, and she came over to right behind Sam before leaning forward, her soft body pressing into his back as he felt her arms looping around his chest, his shoulders, his stomach, his crown jewels, and his legs…Those can’t possibly all be her hands, right? Also…what’s with the extra pressure between his legs?
He glanced down, and light blue extension from the stomach and chest pieces of her body armor had looped around his entire body and he was lifted up and attached to Belle's front side. He felt the pressure tighten all around him initially before softening, and a gentle heat pad kept him nice and warm.
“Am I in a… kangaroo’s pouch?” Sam asked, looking up but only seeing Belle’s massive breasts obstructing the view, or rather…those were the views.
“I made extra paddings and gave it some warmth~,” Belle said from above, “What do you think?”
“It’s..quite something…” Sam rolled his head around and felt support in his back and legs, then, he found the line in between her abdominal muscles a perfect place to line up his head, “Did I get smaller or did you get bigger?”
“I got bigger so you can fit well.” Belle leaned down and gave Sam’s head a light pad, “Do you like it? Is it too embarrassing for you?”
Sam glanced up at the twin peaks, and he closed his eyes.
Thank you, Buddha.
“No…it’s perfect, Belle.” Sam said, focusing forward, putting his hands on the ledge of the pouch and resting his rifle right in front of his body, “Let’s go hunt.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Bucket, show our target and our ingredients.” Belle smiled, and she looked to the side as the bucket showed a projection of a mechanical beast in the shape of a crocodile with large pieces of metallic armor covering its entire body, a tail with a massive chainsaw blade attached at the back, and a pair of horns protruding over its head.
“The Snapjaws are your target.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Sam raised both hands in protest for just a split second before gravity brutally suppressed his gesture, “Which of that thing can we eat?”
“The blazing oil located within the horns of the Snapjaw will be used as the cooking oil.” The bucket replied.
“You gonna tell me that we are going to fight the Kraken to get some sea salt next?” Sam asked, and there was no response from the bucket, “You know what, I don’t even want to know.”
According to the ping on the map, the Snapjaws’ pit is located towards the center of the orange forest that they are in, and Belle had already elegantly navigated up the trees as Sam was still reading the map, the rapid movement nearly ran his face along the surface of the tree trunk. Instead, he simply got his nose tingled while the skin-soft shields took care of the rest.
As Belle nimbly stepped from one branch to the other, stopping eventually atop the last of the high-rising trees overlooking the small pond, Sam had learned to just enjoy the ride. Occasionally when she’s bent over, Sam also enjoyed a couple of pressure points over his head in silence.
“There they are.” Belle said, pointing to what looked like a stack of armor half-submerged in the water with jets of steam exiting through the cracks at regular intervals similar to water holes of whales. There was a trio of Snapjaws, though Sam’s yet to witness those snappy jaws.
“Have you hunted something like this before?” Sam asked, “Which of the alien world is this from? Where do you even get started with these…”
“I’ve come across the survivors of this world a few times, actually.” Belle said slowly, “A quarantined world that’s been grey-gooed by machines. They also use it as teaching points against unchecked self-replicating swarms at the Basic School of Basics.”
“And…we are hunting it for cooking oil now?” Sam asked, “Do these rifles even do a thing?”
“You are free to use whatever weapons you see fit, though you will be expelled and charges confiscated should you damage the habitation drum.” The bucket reminded me.
“Well, for maximum authenticity, the rifles will transform into the weapons of the choice for the locals…” Belle said and looked down as the generic blue rifles in her hands had already morphed into sets of bows and arrows, while the one in Sam’s hands transformed itself into a slingshot.
“Um…is this right?” Belle and Sam both looked at the bucket who chose silence at the worst possible time, “There’s no way.”
“Rar…RARRR!” Three pairs of eyes appeared atop one of the Snapjaws, and it rotated its head in the direction of Belle and Sam before it rotated up, its head cocked back, and a massive jaw that’s at least the length of half its body emerged from underneath the water’s surface.
Its mouth opened, and a pair of cannons formed from within before a pulse of energy originated from the tail of the beast and ended as a pair of energy orbs at the cannons.
“Oh hell no.” Sam tried dunking into the pouch, but what was once steady support now locked him in place as Belle immediately moved, the energy orbs fired off from the cannons and cutting through the distance in an instant, nailing the top part of the trees cleanly as Belle’s hands clawed into the sides of the trees while everything was at an angle for Sam.
The pieces of armor shifted around her legs, and a pulse of warmth passed by Sam’s lower body before a few extra pieces grew out from under her feet and dug into the trunks instead, freeing her arms as she slit a trio of arrows in between her fingers and loaded it on the bow.
With one eye closed for an instant and a projection of a target forming over her right eye, she then let it go.
“Wow, aim to assist in real life,” Sam said as he tracked the arrows as they bounced off the head armor of the horns and let out a chime that drew the attention of the other two Snapjaws, and now, eighteen total pairs of eyes were locked onto them.
“That did about…zero damage…” Belle said before she rapidly jabbed to the side to avoid the three strings of energy orb shots as the trees that they were on were cut down, and the massive trunks bumped into the neighboring tree before tilting and falling onto the pond, creating massive splashes of water and isolating one of the Snapjaws from the rest.
“Remarkable to think that the native people fought and hunted these machines with nothing but these dinky weapons.” Belle said quietly before loading another three arrows.
“There’s no way they actually did that…” Sam shook his head, “What am I supposed to do with these slingshots? There must be more than just straight physical attacks that we can use!”
“Let’s see…” Belle pushed her boobs aside and glanced down at the slingshot, and a trio of markings with the symbols of flames, snowflakes, and lightning bolts accompanied each of the tiny buttons on the side. Then, she glanced down at the same slot on her bow, and only two slots remained, one showing what appeared to be a vortex with the other showing what was probably the basic arrow shot.
“We’ve got some options here with what we can fire off beyond the normal arrows,” Belle said, toggling the button on the bow to the vortex and downsizing the number of arrows to just one before she aimed way above the Snapjaws, firing one into the woods behind them before a loud bang sent shock waves flying past the beasts, causing them to turn around and fire in the direction of the noise.
“That’s…one way to use the arrows…” Sam asked, “I doubt they will give you a whole set just to…miss the actual target, right?”
“Let’s see then.” Belle leaped off the tree and slammed her feet into the ground with the arrow at the ready, and as the isolated Snapjaw turned its eyes towards her, she nailed the shock wave arrow straight on its head.
After impact, there was a moment of delay before a shock wave was unleashed upon the head plate of the mechanical beast, and pieces of its armor came raining off.
“Now we are cooking with gas!” Sam exclaimed excitedly, loading up his slingshot and firing off the first ammo that he got his hands on. Then, the projectile was lobbed way short before a burst of flames exploded on the ground and started burning the grass and the trees in front of them.
Sam gave the Bucket a nervous look, but it gave nothing back to him.
Sure would be nice if I don't suck.