Chapter Text
”Conquest And Gold is a terrible name for a VRMMORPG, almost as bad as calling them VRMMORPGs so I guess I can’t complain; you’re sure you got the correct game?” I looked up from my holo at my mother as we flew past the plant-covered ‘BurbTowers™’, heading back to our own after waiting in line all morning to pick up our pre-orders. “Of course I did,” my Mom said. “I made sure of it!”
“Yeah, you said that when Sanctus Lumen: Ultimate Terra came out too, so forgive me if I want to check.” I reached the bag that held the game cases.
“Come ooooon! When are you going to let that go? It was ONE time! How was I supposed to know there were two games with the acronym S.L.U.T that came out on the same day?” She pouted and swatted my arm. I gave her a flat look.
“Maybe the look the counter clerk gave you for buying a VR eroge with your 13 year old son might’ve tipped you off.” It had been years and we’d had this conversation multiple times. I still remembered the incredibly awkward conversation I’d had with the clerk when I returned it. “Pass me the bag I wanna check.”
“I can’t believe you don’t trust me!” She passed me the bag by her feet. “After you asked me to organise and pay for everything! The nerve!” She huffed as I pulled out the game case.
“No I didn’t, you asked me and I said no.” The front of the case had four generic-looking adventurers in the foreground, looking away from the camera out at a big landscape.
“Nuh uh, you said ‘Mommy, I miss playing games with you sooooo much, can we play Conquest And Gold: Everlasting Domain together?’”
I gave her a flat look. “I don’t sound like that. And don’t make me change my mind.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to abandon your poor defenceless mother to be ravaged by the cold, ruthless playerbase of a new MMO!” she dramatically placed her hand against forehead and fell daintily into my lap. She peeked open one eyelid to gauge my reaction to her antics, and upon seeing my nonplussed face she poked out her tongue.
“I’m just saying it’s a mouthful,” I changed topics as I shifted to get comfortable. “What am I supposed to tell my friends ‘Yeah I’m playing the hot new VRMMO: CAG:ED!’ it sounds fucking stupid”
“Language young man,” Mom intoned “and you won’t tell them that, you’ll tell them ‘I’m playing the hot new VRMMO: CAG:ED With my Mommy!’”
She broke into a fit of giggles as I scoffed, and flipped to the back to read the blurb.
ADVENTURE AWAITS!
The DOMAIN of the LIGHTBEARER has been shattered for a 1000 years after the CATACLYSM OF ZORN claimed her lands, leaving only the city of GOLDRIA and her surrounding towns SAFE from the FORCES OF ENTROPY.
Till Now!
Join THE RECLAIMERS in the ADVENTURE of a lifetime as you RETAKE the lands that were LOST to the CATACLYSM OF ZORN! FIGHT AND TAME the monsters of the wild! REBUILD towns and settlements in YOUR image! HELP bring back a WORLD from the BRINK of Zorn’s Corruption! Are YOU Champion enough to become…
UNCAGED?
I wasn’t sure you could use champion as an Adjective like that.
My usual modus operandi for these games was a rogue or archer, but looking at the screenshots and the blurb had me briefly reconsidering my choice of playstyle. If I had to fill my inventory with a bunch of crap to build stuff maybe I should play strength based DPS or Summoner; but… Eh, there’d probably be some way to mitigate it late game, plus I could just pawn all the heavy shit off on Mom.
Thinking about heavy stuff and my Mom made my eyes drift over to her body as it lay stretched out on the skycar seat. A touch of light turbulence caused the squishy parts of her 6 foot body to jiggle slightly. She did light workouts to keep her ‘Mombod’, as she liked to call it, in shape. My friends who had seen her IRL called it her ‘MILFbod’.
Fucking Pricks.
Her tight waist from her great genes complimented her fat ass and thighs from too many sweets; and combined with a propensity to ‘bend over’ when my friends were around made sure they never stopped telling me how hot she was. The only ‘normal’ part of her was her breasts, and they were still perfectly shaped, if on the smaller side.
All part of ‘The Package’ she liked to say. Funny name for the very not funny very expensive ‘experimental gene therapy’ treatment grandma had signed up to test on her when she was still in the womb. She’d sorted out a lot of the animosity she had with Grandma over it when I was born normal, but I still didn’t know how to feel about it.
“Oh, they put my class on the cover! I knew I made the right choice,” I snapped back from my space out as Mom smugly proclaimed her superiority in class choice from lap.
“Which one?” I turned the case over to look at the four figures on the front.
“The Amazon on the far left side,” she said, calling my attention to the figures I hadn’t noticed on my initial glance at the cover. There were actually quite a few smaller figures all looking out to the horizon, and upon looking closer I saw several of them holding exotic weapons you don't usually see in games like this.
A lot of the outfits were… skimpier than in the scant previews I’d seen. Not that there were a lot of those out there. Apparently the company that made this game was successful and had a big enough fanbase to do ‘Stealth’ launches with little to no marketing and still have their games sell pretty well. Squinting at the far left side I saw a very tall woman wearing essentially a metal thong and a couple leather straps, next to a short person wearing a dark blue outfit and a hood with cat ears.
“Doesn’t look like a Paladin.”
“She’s a Paladin of Light,” she said with amusement in her voice.
“More like Paladin of Light Armour with what she’s wearing,” I muttered.
“I haven’t played Tank in a while so I wanted something familiar to the Paladin I played in Demons Invisible Crusade. So Nostalgic,” Mom sighed wistfully as she recalled her time playing the non-VR MMO.
“Still can’t believe they gave that game the acronym Dick”
She blew a raspberry at me.
—xxxxxx—
Feeling extra strong after carrying all of our grocery bags inside in one go, I went and had a shower to get rid of all the sweat and to prep myself for a full weekend of Neurodive™ gameplay. I went out to the kitchen for dinner dressed in a graphic t-shirt that said ‘Eat, Sleep, Game, Repeat’ and pyjama pants with game controllers all over it; a gift from Grandma, I’d never actually used a handheld controller.
I set the table as Mom put the finishing touches on two towering Hamburgers before sashaying over to the table, showing that her years of table serving hadn’t gone to waste. She was also sporting pyjama pants with retro VR headsets on them, but you could hardly tell that as her legs stretched the fabric. Her shirt by contrast was completely legible and read ‘Don’t piss me off, I’m close to levelling up and you look like just enough XP’ with a cool skeleton holding a gun. Grandma had a weird taste in gifts sometimes.
“Is Grandma gonna join us for launch? She blew me off with the Raubahn Extreme story last time I asked,” I said as we sat down “Did you tell her about the staggered launch?” The launch of a new VRMMO always had issues, and staggered launches were just one of the ways they tried to combat them.
“I told her that we’re playing together and that we’ll be in the first time slot, but… we’ll just have to see when we get on,” Mom pouted around her burger and the mood turned a little sour.
Grandma was a hardcore gamer, and hated the ‘E-Girls who were just there to flirt while dressing like sluts and not play the real game’; and while I didn’t totally agree with her… She wasn’t entirely wrong. Which became an issue because her daughter was one of those ‘E-Girls who liked to flirt and dress like a slut’. There was usually nothing serious about it, just ‘harmless teasing’, but it was kind of embarrassing watching your Mom flirt with dudes that were probably your age.
It’d gotten bad enough while we were playing Valkyria on launch together that Mom and Grandma’s regular snide back and forth had escalated into a full blown fight, with name calling, personal attacks and old real life arguments brought up. When my attempts to mediate were met with dismissal by Grandma and were outright ignored by Mom; I snapped.
I’d said a couple things I’d regret later, quit the party, quit the family guild, and fucked off into the wilderness. I ignored their messages and invites, refused to talk to either of them and went so far as to join another guild. It had been a rough month for our small family and in the end some family friends had to get involved to get us to play together again.
We’d bounced back since, but with the launch of a new game there was a little bit of worry that the same argument would reignite. So it was likely just going to be Mom and me for the first day or two, which sucked but… maybe I’d send Grandma a message or something.
We ate in silence for a little bit, but it was broken by the scraping of my chair as I got up and stuffed the rest of my burger into my mouth.
“Slow down or you’ll choke,” Mom’s mothering instincts kicked in. “Alex I know you're excited but you can't just inhale your food like... Oh shoot, look at the time, let’s go!” She mirrored my actions after seeing the clock, saying something unintelligible while skipping out of the kitchen. After gathering up the plates into the dishwasher I headed for our shared office room.
Mom was setting up her Neurodive chair as I walked in. “You remember where to meet?” I nodded and began setting up my own machine. “I’m really glad we’re playing together again, Alex.” She smiled at me as she finished setting up.
“I’m sorry about… last time. I can change my class if-”
“It’s okay Mom, you can play your slutty Paladin, just… tone down the flirting.” I appreciated the thought and I could deal with her wearing basically a bikini, but I just wanted her to not act like a bimbo with everyone we interacted with.
“Okay honey, I’ll try. Maybe I can find some armour that covers more too.” Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but her even bringing it up meant she was serious about it if it meant we could play together again.
“Ah! Servers up! I loveyouhoneyI’llseeyouinside!” Her eyes fluttered and her body slumped into her chair as she logged in. I finished my final checks and pulled my helmet onto my head.
Before logging in myself though, I sent a quick message to Grandma over the interface. Just a simple ‘I hope you come play with me and Mom’ with our meet up place and in-game names. Launch was always a fun time, and I’d never admit it but I’d missed playing with Mom and Grandma. I hope she showed up.
I hit the digital button and I entered the world of Conquest for the first time.
—xxxxxx—
It felt like I was underwater. I didn’t feel the need to breathe, and was content to drift in the water, but after a second felt a tug. My brain reengaged and I followed the pull as it grew more and more insistent. It pulled me towards a barrier of some kind, and I had to put some actual effort in to swim through it. It took some struggle, but right when I was on the verge of giving up I suddenly popped out onto a pristine white floor.
It took me a second to get my bearings, looking down at my body to centre myself. I was made up of a vaguely human shaped Astral cloth, stars trailing into a deep void that moved and changed as I waved my hand. Looking up, the sky was made of the same texture as my body, a vast array of stars and galaxies, in stark contrast to the shining white floor that seemed to stretch into the infinity. The only thing I could see was the giant swirling vortex of water behind me that I’d fallen out of.
I stared at the sky. This was one hell of an opening, most games opened with a monologue by some goddess or other-
My stargazing was interrupted by a pair of massive jiggling juggs as a Goddess zapped into existence in front of me. “Ohmygosh I’m like, so sorry, I hope you weren’t waiting long!” I would have been mad if my entire attention wasn’t taken up by her jiggle physics.
She pulled something out of her cleavage and began to read off some probably important worldbuilding or game intro that I couldn’t focus on because her tits seemed to be trying to escape from her fusion Greek toga/Chinese qipao dress. Her tits heaved at the slightest movement and even when she was standing still they wanted to burst from their confines and unleash a glorious sight on any present.
“...And so, uuuuh, Reclaimer? No that’s not right, uuuuh, Champion! Yeah! Ahem. And so Champion, it is up to you to fu-fight back the monsters, retake our lost lands, and bring an end once and for all, to Zorn! Now, reclaim your mantle!”
I had been so absorbed in her boobs that I only caught the end of her exposition as she swept her arms to the side, sending her gargantuan chest wobbling and drawing my vision towards a bunch of indistinct figures standing all around us.
They were all dressed in fantasy armour of varying type, weight and function. There was a tall and imposing figure with a large breastplate and two big swords. Another, stocky and broad wielding some kind of crossbow with a contraption on the side. Another wearing a metal skirt, huge tits barely covered by some kind of half-chestplate that showed an egregious amount of underboob.
In fact a lot of the figures seemed to be wearing clothes and armour that could be charitably described as… slutty. Tight shirts that showed off lithe muscles, skirts short enough to hint at what was underneath, armour that was cutoff to show more stomach than was maybe necessary, and A LOT of very high heels. I guess it was gonna be one of those games. At least Mom wouldn’t be the centre of attention if everyone was hot like this.
There were enough shadowy figures to make up a battalion, and honestly I would have sat there for hours trying to pick my class if I hadn’t already narrowed it down to Rogue DPS of some description. It might’ve taken me an hour anyway if I had to walk up to each figure to check what class they represented.
“Uh, is there a search function or something? I wanna play a Rogue,” I turned back to the Goddess, but kept my eyes firmly on her face, lest my gaze be trapped by her beguiling bosom again.
“Okay Champ, like, lemme just…” A look of concentration crossed her face and her tongue poked out between her lips. Suddenly, the majority of the figures backed away, becoming a hazy faceless crowd surrounding me and leaving only five figures standing in a circle close to me.
“Cool, thank you,” This was much more manageable.
“Like, you’re welcome Champion! You should pick Kunoichi btdubs, they’re suuuper cute and I’m their patron demi-goddess, hehe!” It was a little strange that an NPC was pushing me towards a specific class, but I let it slide.
I walked forward to examine the closest figure.
—xxxxxx—
Unfortunately the first three of the array of rogue classes didn’t seem that good. A combination of a bland stat array with no standout and generic abilities that amounted to ‘Good Stab’, ‘Good Shot’ and ‘Dodge’ really made me reconsider my first port of call for these kinds of games. Ranger was even worse than Rogue and Archer as it forwent ‘Good Attack’ for ‘Walk Fast’. Not even in stealth, just ‘Walk Fast’. At least the Mindthief seemed like it had some cool and unorthodox skills.
[Sightsteal]
[Light Hallucination]
They were both cool spells, and the stats were pretty interesting. But… I wasn’t feeling it. Maybe if I decided to reroll. The last class seemed more my style anyway, and it was the one the demi-goddess recommended.
Class
Stealth/DPS Archetype: Kunoichi
Kunoichi
Attributes
[Kage Mantle]
[Summon no Jutsu]
Confirm Choice
The Kunoichi spells seemed way more up my alley. Who didn’t want an afterimage? And I could probably distract Mom with a cute animal summon if she ever got on my nerves. The outfit was pretty cool too, with a black skinsuit under some kind of foldover half coat on top and baggy trousers on bottom. It had a pull-up face mask covering the lower half of the face and a hood attached to the jacket.
The model was female, but I reckoned I could make the outfit work once I finished making my character. Making my decision, I hit the ‘Confirm’ button. A little too hard as I saw another screen pop in where my ‘hand’ was, already on the ‘Accept’ button, and it flickered away before I could read anything. I tried to go back and read it, but I couldn’t find a way to un-initialise character creation.
Oh well, it can'tve been that important.
—xxxxxx—
Character Details
PLAYER Alex
USERNAME Armageddon LEX
CLASS Kunoichi
RACE Lightsworn Elf
GENDER male
HEIGHT 5’4
HAIR Black
I hit the finish button to finalise my customisation. The body in front of me was close enough to what I wanted, with an idealised approximation of my face and body, though annoyingly I couldn’t get my actual height, because apparently Kunoichi had a height limit to join or something. I closed my eyes, and felt my cloth body ‘pull’ into my new character avatar.
After the initial disorientation of having a proper body again wore off, I went through a couple of stretches I knew would help get my brain used to my new body height. I could immediately tell playing this class was gonna be fun when I almost bent completely in half, backwards, with no ill effects or disorientation. The adjustment stretches became a test of how far I could push myself, the answer being to the point of hypermobility in my joints. I could jump and twist in midair to reposition myself for a controlled fall. It felt fantastic!
I stopped amusing myself with how I could now do axe kicks when I remembered that I probably had a tutorial to do. I spun around to search for the buxom demi-goddess I didn’t know the name of, spotting her a short distance away, reclining on a seat that she had pulled probably from between her gargantuan tits as I didn’t see where else it could have come from. As I turned towards her I started to feel a little self conscious being in a skintight suit in front of a gorgeous woman. Why? I was technically wearing three layers, my avatar didn’t have a dick and she was just an NPC- wait a minute did I have a dick?
As if in response to my realisation (and to the Goddess on display) I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my crotch, and a sudden pang of fear shot through me. What if that beautiful Goddess could see my growing erection?
I looked down. You couldn’t tell. I felt a little silly, getting all flustered about this kind of thing. It was just a game Alex, cmon. Get yourself together.
I made my way over to the wet dream lying on her couch reading a… magazine? “Uhhh… I’m done character creation? Do you send me somewhere or something?” As I spoke the Goddess startled, causing her tits to wobble.
“Eeep! Ahah, you spooked me Champion! Oh em Gee, you picked Kunoichi! No wonder you’re so quiet! And you’re like, soooooo CUTE, you’ll have a bunch of fun, I promise! Okie, lemme just…”
She shuffled onto her knees and started searching behind the back of the couch, wiggling her massive barely covered asscheeks in my face. I was lucky my face was covered, because it must have been bright red as the bimbo demi-goddess basically twerked in my face. It wasn’t a sight I’d be forgetting any time soon.
She finally found what she was looking for, and held up a strip of the Astral cloth my earlier body had been made from in triumph. “Aha! Found it!” She turned around and stood up, a proud smile on her face. “Alright now, let’s see, umm…” she pulled out more papers to read from her cleavage.
“Ahem. Steel yourself Champion, for your fight will be, huff, fraught with danger, lots of fighting and building and blah blah blah gosh, did she really read all this?” She began flipping through pages “Some more stuff about building, the evil of Zorn, blah blah blah, pfft, long and hard monsters, gee She really wrote a whole big speech huh?” She threw the papers over her shoulder.
“Whatever, if She wanted me to read all that, She should’ve been here.” She flopped back down onto the couch. “Anyway, Lexi, here.” She held the Astral cloth out for me to take. “Take this part of- piece of cloth and hold it to your chest.”
I frowned and gingerly held it between my fingers. It felt strange, like warm pudding?
“Like this?” I held the cloth to my chest, feeling a weird comfort radiating from it.
“Yup yup, just like that. Now, put your tongue on the roof of your mouth, clench your jaw and hold still.” My eyes widened.
What?
Before I could react she put a hand to her lips and blew a kiss. A sudden force yanked my body and I whipped out into the vast expanse.
I tumbled through a tunnel of stars for a few seconds, before I was almost blinded by a bright light. I managed to turn my tumbling into a controlled fall by twisting around using my super agility, and almost lost control again as I got my first look at the game world.
An enormous city was settled in a crater, almost spilling over the sides and filling every inch of available space. The golden twilight reflected dazzlingly off golden streets and lofty towers, waving dozens of different flags from their soaring peaks. Forts dotted to the outside slopes, which gradually evened into plains covered with fields and farms broken up by the occasional town and forest; before coming to an abrupt stop at a roiling wall made of an astral tapestry streaked with golden light. Past the wall was an indistinguishable mass of clouds and peaks, shifting and changing second by second.
Unfortunately my sightseeing skydive came to an end as the fast approaching ground was replaced with streaks of golden light wrapping around my body. I shut my eyes to shield them from the bright light, and a second later felt my body go slack and my consciousness fade.
—xxxxxx—