Chen Mo's eyes fluttered open weakly to an unfamiliar ceiling, one of lesser quality than his bedroom, seemingly composed of a combination of crooked wood and bundled straws.
Then, he began registering his sense of touch. He was laid upon a bed, rough and uneven; a straw mattress veiled by a thin white cloth.
Furthermore, it wasn't just his thighs that felt unnaturally bare now; it was his entire body. His eyes darted to a corner of the alien bedroom he was in. They found the dusty window first, displaying the view of a sky more cerulean than Earth's outside. Then the walls, wooden with no wallpaper or paint; metal nails exposed for all to see. A desk came next, cluttered with papers, quills, and ink. Finally, a rack, hanging a set of clothing completely incongruent with the rest of the medieval setting. It was his goth girl outfit: the fishnet thigh-high stockings, the black denim shorts, the skull t-shirt, and the edgy leather jacket.
Next to that rack was a mirror, placed directly adjacent to Chen Mo, allowing a clear view of himself, or rather, herself, considering his current physical appearance.
The goth makeup was still on; the overdone black eyeshadow, the inky lipstick, and piercings decorating her unnaturally fair skin.
Her body lacked clothing, but the lower half was covered with a blanket, whereas her supple breasts, especially the nipples, were covered by someone else's palm.
Roxanne Lindsay's palm.
Roxanne slept soundly right next to Chen Mo, with her left arm grasping Chen Mo's mounds like pillows and her left leg confidently propped atop the blanket. The lilac-eyed, famed beauty of Chen Mo's university was also naked, with her dishevelled scarlet hair indicating an exciting night yesterday.
Or should Chen Mo say, 'an exciting vermillion yestercerulean', true to this minigame universe's peculiar dictionary.
Chen Mo sighed. The minigame started a vermillion too late for me to have sex with the prettiest girl on campus. Damn it.
Then again...
Chen Mo lifted the blanket deliberately, only to find nothing dangling between his legs anymore. Random Customization had replaced his male genitalia with a female one.
Well, I would've still taken a yuri session with Roxanne Lindsay herself. Chen Mo nodded to himself, silently approving Azuki's taste. Then, the neon-lime system flashed before his eyes:
[Werewolf By Vermillion]
[You are a Southern detective, hired by the Northern royals to solve a complex case involving a supernatural creature. It is known that the beast was a werewolf, which originated from a failed scientific experiment in Tealwood Laboratory.]
[The prologue you have witnessed was yestercerulean. That cerulean, you and your fellow hired detectives had spent all your time doing nothing but celebrating the job offer at a tavern called Seltzer's.]
[Eventually, you ended up wasted and hooking up with your NPC, Roxanne Lindsay, whom you've brought into Northaria by abusing the power of your unique badge. Yestervermillion's memories were all very fuzzy, the alcohol did its job to ensure of that.]
[Tocerulean, you woke up with a great sense of urgency, having wasted a vermillion making no progress on the case. You have two days left, and if you were to contribute the most to this case, you will be rewarded citizenship into Northaria.]
[Final Objective: Solve the Werewolf case.]
[First task: Investigate the latest crime scene at Diemer's Street.]
[Due to the world of this minigame being incredibly vast, to ease players' navigation, a map of the Northaria-Southown island will be provided. Summon it by chanting 'Open map' and close it by chanting 'Close map'.]
The first task was described very vaguely. It only asked me to investigate it, nothing more.
"Open map," Chen Mo commanded.
A scroll popped into existence above Chen Mo, then unfurled itself to reveal its contents.
The map showed Northaria, a larger, far more prosperous city with numerous labels across it, and Southown, a humbler, less complex town beneath it. The Northaria-Southown island was technically two islands rather than one, as the two nations were only connected at a single point: Klein's Bridge.
Several titles on the map caught Chen Mo's attention, namely Diemer's Street and Tealwood Laboratory, located on the western side of Northaria and the eastern region of Southown respectively. One more caught his eye, which Chen Mo assumed to be the location of the prologue: The Crystal Castle, the largest structure on the map, planted at the northernmost point of Northaria.
He will soon also notice Seltzer's Tavern, the location where the six players had apparently drank the vermillion away yestercerulean, planted Southwest Northaria.
Enough scrutinising, I should get dressed first. Chen Mo decided, not particularly worried, as he already had an outline of plans prepared for what was to come.
"Close map." He'd command, then painstakingly leave the rough, uncomfortable straw bed.
While he donned his emo outfit, his eyes couldn't help but wander back to the bed. His departure left the blanket in disarray, exposing Roxanne's entire body.
Her figure was perfection, as one would assume just from seeing her on campus. However, without clothes, she looked even more breathtaking. She had perky breasts, leading down to the slimmest waist Chen Mo had ever seen, then finally hips that were wider than her clavicles.
As Chen Mo sported the final piece, the leather jacket, Roxanne seemed to have just woken up, and she muttered, "Where... where are you going?"
Shit. Chen Mo didn't wish to involve the NPC in his plans. But it wasn't an ordeal; it was actually quite a solvable issue. "Nowhere yet."
Chen Mo extended Roxanne's NPC profile:
[Name: Roxanne Lindsay]
[Age: 20]
[NPC Power: E+ rank]
[She had been a friend of yours for a while, but always just that, a friend, even though the two of you had lived together for a long time already, until yestervermillion. You were drunk, she was too, so you two went back to your place as 'friends' and provided each other the benefits of 'friends'.]
[She is perfectly content with this hook-up. In fact, she had been waiting for it, even though she knew you already had a girlfriend. Don't worry, your girlfriend doesn't mind either.]
I have a girlfriend?
Knock knock knock
The wooden door to this cramped bedroom was knocked on a couple of times before it creaked open. Outside stood Chen Mo's NPC girlfriend, Amelia Cunningham, in yet another outfit that broke the integrity of the medieval setting: the modern high school uniform, without the dog collar or the leather leash.
Chen Mo asked in his mind, and the system replied, [All members of your harem will play as your girlfriends in every minigame. This role isn't important.]
"Hi, Xiao Bai." The silver-haired beauty tilted her head slightly, wearing a timid, concerned, almost feigned smile. "Are you... are you sure about joining this game?"
Amelia seemed to have retained her memories this time. She wasn't an NPC; she was more like a player inhabiting a character, but not entirely bound to it, unlike Roxanne.
Roxanne didn't remember herself as Earth's Roxanne, and she couldn't even hear the sentence Amelia had just muttered; it was censored for her and her alone in the room.
"Don't worry. Let me handle this," Chen Mo reassured, without a tinge of concern or emotion in his tone. "You can just compress into—"
"No!" Amelia denied fervently.
"Wow. Lover's quarrel?" the uninformed Roxanne commented lightly and inconsiderately. Being unintentionally blunt was exactly her personality in real life, proving that the NPC was actually Roxanne herself and not just an empty shell controlled by the system. The same could be said about Amelia in the last minigame.
Amelia continued, as she worriedly scampered forward with pleading eyes, "If you get in trouble, I have almost twice your power. I want to help!"
Ouch, you didn't have to remind me that you're twice my power... Chen Mo sighed as the distance between them closed to only a couple of inches. "Trust me, everything will be fine. Compress."
Amelia was still Chen Mo's slave, so she couldn't disobey orders. Nonetheless, she made one last attempt while her body began sublimating, "I want you as my mas—"
She couldn't finish the sentence, as she had already dissolved into a silver, scintillating mist, which subsequently compressed until a shining orb was formed.
Chen Mo reached out to retrieve that silver orb, which radiated an air that was inexplicably yet undoubtedly Amelia's. Chen Mo pocketed the orb into one of the many compartments in his leather jacket.
Amelia wanted to say, "I want you as my master."
Amelia was worried that Chen Mo would die in this game. If he did, Amelia would be recycled to another master. Getting someone as compassionate and dependable as Chen Mo was one in a million; she didn't wish to lose that.
Unfortunately, Chen Mo was simply too confident in his ability to not die.
"I thought Amelia would be fine with this..." Roxanne muttered, her eyes now fully open, as she lay languidly on the straw bed, still refusing to clothe herself.
"I need you to run an errand for me. Will you do that?" Chen Mo asked.
"If I can have you for another vermillion as a reward." Roxanne smirked wryly. "Actually, I changed my mind; I want two vermillions."
"Deal." Chen Mo frowned ever so slightly. This was Roxanne's true nature. Behind the confident, pulchritudinous scholarship-student facade she displayed on campus, she was an utter pervert... "Head down to Tealwood Laboratory for me."