His friends teased him about making his character a girl in the new game, but he'd always chosen the cutest option when making a new game character. After all, apart from a few first person view only games, your own character was what you saw at least 90% of the time you spent playing. And who wanted to spend all that time staring at some artist's concept of a guy's butt? At least they generally tried to make the girl's butts look good.
And his decision seemed perfectly reasonable the entire time he spent working his way through the beginner's vale on his phone, and meeting up with everyone in the game. It seemed perfectly reasonable in fact right up until he got the chance to try his friend's full motion console. The graphics were incredibly real, and the motions synced perfectly to his own. The motions of his small delicate feminine hands, that is.
Naoki, or as she was known in the game, Nao1 jumped over the log as she chased after the rare blue butterfly that was her current quest target. Her skirt caught air as she came down on the other side and fluffed up around her for a moment. His friends had ganged up on him until he'd chosen a voice mod to go with his character's cute female form, so his gasp as she rolled forward and caught her balance again came back to his ears an octave higher.
Nao1 privately admitted that maybe choosing a girl had been a little on the weird/creepy side for this game, but nothing in the world was going to make 'her' admit it to those guys. She caught up to the butterfly again and jumped at it, with an overhanded swing of the net she'd been given to use.
The butterfly dodged erratically at the last moment and she missed again. She cursed the butterfly with a string of colorful curses learned from a pirate movie script, and a voice behind her said, "Wow, you look so cute, but you should wash that mouth."
"My mouth is none of your business," Nao1 snapped before even turning to look at the speaker.
The man chuckled and said, "I can think of any number of suggestive replies to that, but I'll be nice. Do you need help with that fearsome opponent who seems to be getting the best of you miss?"
Nao1 abandoned the chase for long enough to spin and glare at the man. The brief question of how the console allowed the player to spin without tangling something flitted past, but vanished at the sight of the character facing her.
Nao1 was no stranger to hot guys (being one himself naturally) but the face of the amused man addressing Nao1 was inhumanly beautiful. After a moment Nao1 realized that it was literally inhuman. "What are you?" she asked.
"Your savior?" suggested the man slyly, as he flicked out a hand and caught a butterfly which looked identical to the one Nao1 had just been chasing in the other direction.
Nao1 spun again, and saw the flash of blue wings vanishing between the trees ahead. She darted after the elusive creature, ignoring the strange man. Luck favored her this time, and the butterfly paused at a bright white flower long enough for her to slap her net over it.
The net glowed and the butterfly vanished. "Finally!" Nao1 shouted triumphantly.
"Oh, I see, you didn't just need a butterfly caught," the man who'd followed her commented.
Nao1 spun and demanded, "Why are you following me you creepy old man?"
He laughed and asked, "What are you 12? How can you call this face old? I was just curious."
"About what?" Nao1 asked warily, while bringing up the menu screen, to see what the lens revealed about this character.
The man grinned and replied, "About what kind of man plays as a little girl when he's not interested in men."
Nao1's eyes narrowed. The lens revealed that the man's name was "Heartbreaker". The sheer cockiness of the name set Nao1's teeth on edge.
"You're annoying, go away or some assassin will make you waste your Karma," Nao1 declared. She turned away and slung her butterfly net over her shoulder and then pelted off at her top speed. The village she wanted to return to lay behind her but she had plenty of Karma to waste some on portals.
The man spoke casually from beside her, as he paced her easily, "You're too new to be able to afford an assassination contract."
Nao1 slid to a halt. The man wasn't expecting it, and overshot her position. He halted a moment later. Nao1 faced him calmly and said, "Look, maybe you think annoying people is fun, but I'm telling you nicely, leave me alone."
The too pretty man walked back to her and smiled. "What if I don't want to?" he murmured.
Nao1 logged out. "Shin!" Naoki shouted. "Tell me how to report this guy and kill him for me until he can't revive."
Shinichi groaned and asked from his position on the couch, "What, why, and what do I get out of it? I'm busy."
"Your girlfriend can wait!" Naoki declared. "I need you to help me get rid of this creepy stalker!"
"She's still at work, and I'm working so that I can play with her when she gets off," Shinichi complained, but he set down his tablet and stared at Naoki. "Aren't you the king of scaring off stalkers?"
"I…" Naoki paused. He almost admitted that he shouldn't have made a girl character, but he lifted his chin and said instead, "Being too cute sucks in this game. No one would really enjoy having NPCs hitting on them every day would they? And I don't have any idea how to get rid of this guy. He even said he knows I'm a guy."
"Telling you that you're cute doesn't count as an NPC hitting on you," Shinichi repeated for the third time that day. "Filing a report should be easy enough even for you, just go to the help section in your menu, why do you need my help? What's the guy's name?"
"Fine, I'll do it myself," Naoki muttered. He turned to log back in and hesitated. He was afraid that guy would still be waiting.
Shinichi stood up and walked over and poked him in the arm. "Name?" he asked, while staring at his phone screen.
"Heartbreaker, and he's some weird non human bishie type," Naoki replied. He took a deep breath and prepared to log back in.
"Wait," Shinichi instructed. "Are you near someplace called Peribloom?"
"Uh, maybe, the village my quest was in was called something bloom," Naoki agreed.
"Ok, I'll contact Toshi and we'll meet you there," Shinichi replied.
Naoki logged back in, and Nao1 looked around warily and then ran for the village Aishin and SilentSky were going to meet her at. She hadn't even gotten a dozen paces when he caught her.
"I knew you'd come back if I waited," Heartbreaker murmured like an affectionate lover, and then he bit her.
It took Nao1 a moment to realize that that's what happened because the dialogue box that popped up riveted her attention. "Accept invitation to engage in intimate activity?" Nao1 slapped decline like she was cutting a zombie in half with a table knife, and screamed, "Get off!"
"I'm trying," Heartbreaker stopped biting her long enough to complain, "but you rejected me."
Nao1 ignored him and slapped the "Reject all future invitations from Heartbreaker" option.
He bit her again and she kicked him. It had no effect other than to elicit a groan from him that only made the situation creepier.
She swiped over to help and tapped report player. It was only a couple more taps to submit it, but after a brief moment of satisfaction she realized that it hadn't affected her situation at all. None of her skills looked helpful.
He clutched her tighter, although thankfully he didn't seem to be able to actually grope her. Although it wasn't from a lack of trying. She tried to log out again, but now it told her that she was in combat.
She tapped it anyway. A warning popped up notifying her that she could lose items and might not be able to revive if she logged out while engaged in combat and her character was killed. Her health was really dropping too, at a slow but steady rate.
He didn't seem to be able to talk while he was biting her, so she decided to try to provoke him into talking and try to break away again, since he didn't seem to be able to get a good grip on her body again. "Aren't you supposed to at least sweet talk a girl before taking liberties?" Nao1 demanded.
He released her body and she felt a spark of hope until he grabbed her hand before releasing her neck from his bite. His grip was too powerful. His lips were freakishly red in his pale face and he licked them before replying, "You didn't seem interested in talking sweetie."
Nao1 struggled against his grip, and a moment later he died with a creepy smile on his face. His hand finally released her and his body dropped away to reveal another man with bright blue hair holding a pair of bloody knives.
"Sky!" Nao1 shouted with relief. She looked around and spotted Aishin's dark figure as well, a glance at the body revealed that it had more knives buried in the back of its knees and neck. The two of them must have coordinated their attacks "What took you guys so long?!" she demanded.
She lunged toward SilentSky who blocked her hug with his knife. He scrambled backward and eyed her warily.
"What's with you?!" Nao1 shrieked.
"Vampire," SilentSky replied simply.
"What?" Nao1 asked blankly.
Aishin walked forward and stabbed the body with a wooden stake, and watched the ash that it disintegrated into blow away. He explained, "You might be carrying the vampire curse now. Don't move, and whatever you do, don't bite anything!"
SilentSky and Aishin bound Nao1's hands and feet and carried her off, looking like a pair of professional kidnappers. She cursed them all the way to the priest of separation, who pulled the vampire curse out of her blood for an exorbitant fee that her 'friends' insisted that she pay.
Afterward she told them, "I hate you guys!"
"You're welcome," SilentSky said simply.
"If you ever see me acting like that creep, you can hit me," Nao1 added after a minute.
Aishin replied calmly, "Don't worry, we'll always let you know when you're acting like a creep."
Nao1 raised her cute little face to look at him and said, "I know I made fun of you for waiting so long to meet your girlfriend, and how she seemed to be avoiding it, but ignore me and take your time."
Aishin grinned at her and ruffled her hair. "Doesn't he always ignore you?" SilentSky asked.
When he logged out, Naoki walked over to where Shinichi was laying on the couch again. "Thanks," he muttered.
Shinichi reached up and rapped him lightly on the head. "Anytime. Buy us dinner while I finish this?"
"I'm not that grateful!" Naoki declared.
"Starve then," Shinichi agreed equitably.