Chapter 4
A sensation that felt similar to floating through water surrounded Dwight, where he drifted slowly through a seemingly infinite expanse of bright light that felt as if it were going on for several minutes. His sense of time snapped back to reality, however, as the large-chested, feminine avatar abruptly emerged from the other side of the gate. Spotting Mister S.A and McWanda a few feet ahead of him, Dwight blinked under the dimness of a new sky, looking towards the heavens as thick, dark clouds stretched far off into the horizon, lightning occasionally illuminating parts of the heavy blanket. In the distance, towering smokestacks belched coal-black soot high into the air, while a dense, humid breeze wafted the scent of burning chemicals and ash. This was the dark, dreary, heavy-industry realm of Acidystopia.
“So, Dwight, did you ever come here on your ‘game’?” the hamster assassin asked, leading the trio forward and away from the gate, which seemed to be situated in the middle of a park with brown, dead grass and eroded stone walls.
“Yeah, although I definitely didn’t visit this realm too often,” the mint-haired avatar replied. “It wasn’t a very popular place among players, I guess we sort of found it to be an overall ugly place. The game developers ended up adding a lot of quests to incentivize people to visit it more.”
“Well I can see why, this place smells like an ashtray!” Wanda coughed, fanning the air around her as she gazed around the decrepit place. “Dang, why didn’t you guys warn me that this first realm we visit was going to be more depressing than a bun with no burger?”
“You never asked, darling,” Mister S.A replied with a shrug.
Surrounding the dead park were scattered bunches of houses that seemed to be comprised of tin and corrugated metal, giving the clumps of buildings a patchwork appearance. A low fog drifted over the dusty, dimly lit streets, where groups of people could occasionally be seen slowly marching along together.
Coughing on the foul air, Dwight found it even harder to catch his breath as he lugged along his heavy chest, where he had to briefly stop against one of the stone walls near the exit of the park.
“Ah, sorry Dwight, just let us know when you need a breather,” the rodent hitman said as he slowed his pacing, before turning to look at both his companions. “Actually, fellows, are you guys both in need of rest? Would you like to stop for the night before we go any further?”
Panting, the recluse-turned-bombshell realized that he’d been running on only a few hours of sleep back in his own world, where now he’d since been subjected to the most physical activity that he’d experienced in years by carrying around the weighty bosom of his new body. He was indeed very tired.
“Now that you mention it, I wouldn’t mind getting a little shut eye,” Dwight replied as he rubbed one of his blue, anime-girl eyes.
“Splendid, I shall find us accommodations for the night then,” Mister S.A nodded, where he then scampered off on all-fours, disappearing around one of the street corners.
“Geez, we just left my apartment, guys. If you wanted to rest, you could have just crashed on the couch or something,” Wanda giggled, before continuing to look around. “I guess this is why I wanted to travel, though. Experience new things.”
“ULife had ‘hotels’ where you could have a little ‘privacy’ with other players,” Dwight began with a smirk. “But let’s just say that Acidystopia wasn’t known for its honeymoon suites…”
The two waited around for a few minutes, watching the infinite clouds up above slowly pass over them as the hum and clanking of distant machinery permeated the entire town. The clown-girl was especially absentminded as she nervously twisted her red pigtails, not noticing the presence of someone looming behind them.
“Greetings, travelers,” a cheery voice suddenly announced. “Can I assist you with anything? Directions, maybe?”
Turning around, the pair looked in shock at the monstrosity that had appeared behind them.
“Ah, a talking toilet, of course,” Wanda observed with a light laugh.
“Hah, look at that, that’s the platinum event skin from that set of quests we had a few Halloweens ago in Nervovania,” Dwight chuckled. “It was a spider skin with a toilet body! New players loved over-wearing these things well into the holiday season.”
As the big-boobed player had said, what now stood before the duo was what appeared to be a classic, white, porcelain toilet- that crawled upon 8 large, hairy spider legs.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, gorgeous, but I’d be happy to point you in any direction you need to go,” the toilet replied with a bow towards Dwight. “My name is Tank, I’m a tour guide of the wonderful, quaint town of Vilesburg.”
“Vilesburg, eh?” Dwight asked, again looking around at the dismal area. “I remember Acidystopia was kind of filled with these scattered towns and villages among all the oil fields and coal mines. What’s there to do here?”
“I’m glad you asked!” Tank answered excitedly, crawling to the front of the pair as the toilet’s seat flapped up and down while he talked. “The Gate to Southopolis is here, of course, so we get a lot of people from other realms coming and going. There are hotels on this block, a few shops down the street, and what’s left is pretty much housing for workers from the Lungestion Coal Mine.”
“Not a single burger restaurant? A travesty!” McWanda sighed as she shook her head.
“Ah, if it isn’t my Porcelain protégé!” Mister S.A’s voice could suddenly be heard as his small, rodent body appeared from the low fog over the streets. “I see you’ve met the couple of compatriots that I’ve acquired.”
“Oh, well if it isn’t Mister S.A, how have you been, my furry friend?” the talking toilet replied, striding forward. “I was wondering what kind of job you might be doing with these two lovely ladies.”
“I’m out of the business now, Tank, I’m just helping the fellow who killed my last target get home,” the brown and white hamster responded, hopping on top of Dwight’s right shoulder and turning to face his new acquaintances. “Tank here used to work as one of my informants. As a tour guide, he was able to get me a lot of information on the people that came and went to this realm. Made tracking down some of my targets much easier.”
“Being a hitman sure seems ripe with networking opportunities,” the mint-haired gamer smiled.
“You have no idea!” Mister S.A replied, before hopping back to the floor. “Anyway, I got us a room at the Purple Pipeline. It’s one of the fancier hotels of this realm, so hopefully we can get a proper sleep. It was nice seeing you, Tank!”
Waving goodbye to the part-arachnid, part-toilet, the trio walked deeper into the town of Vilesburg, where Dwight sucked up his exhaustion to keep pace with the other two, putting his arms around the jiggling masses on his chest and trying to lift them as he moved along.
For his sake, they’d soon arrive at a building that towered over most of those around it, despite only being four or five stories. It was cylindrical in shape, and had a faded purple paint job over most of the exterior. Glass windows overlooked the streets below, where the flashing neon sign “Purple Pipeline” illuminated a gap in the smog hanging over the town.
Panting as he dragged his massive breasts through the doors and into the dusty lobby, Dwight watched as S.A spoke to the innkeeper, who seemed to be an ashy-skinned, metal bra-wearing woman who had what looked like a robotic left arm.
“Your room is ready now, you three are all set,” she said as she handed the hamster a rusty key, before taking a long drag of a cigar that was in her metal hand and pointing towards a staircase starting at a corner. “Room 204, first door on the right at the top of the stairs.”
“Much obliged, darling,” Mister S.A replied as he nodded his head and tipped his sunglasses to the lady, before turning back to his accomplices. “Shall we then, troupe?”
Dwight thought that he was going to collapse from exhaustion as he neared the top of the chipped, concrete staircase (where his two companions had deliberately walked ahead of him in order to avoid the risk of being crushed by falling boobies). He staggered into the red metal door with a white “204” written at the top behind Wanda, where Mister S.A then jumped to hit the light switch , illuminating their accommodations.
“Well, this squalid room is certainly a far cry from some of the places that I’ve stayed, but it’ll do,” the hamster commented as he scampered inside. Clutching his sweat-saturated tank top, Dwight thought that the room didn’t look too bad. Lined with a fading, morning-blue wallpaper, the room was adorned with two queen-sized beds with thin, red sheets atop them, a small bathroom near the front, and a crooked wooden desk between the beds that sat a black, dim lamp.
“Whew, dibs on the bed by the window!” Wanda exclaimed as she jumped onto the springy mattress closest to the foggy glass that overlooked the darkened street below, where what little natural light remained was quickly fading as the realm turned to night.
“Sounds good, I figured we’d split the beds up by gender anyway,” the hamster assassin said as he loosened his black tie and threw it onto the desk. “You ladies share that one bed, and I’ll hop in this one here.”
“Whoa, hold on, S.A, I’m actually a dude, remember?” Dwight interjected, though he soon bit his tongue at thinking about the possibility of sharing a bed with a real girl.
“Awe, what? Booo, Mi- I mean, Dwight’s boobs will take up most of the bed!” Wanda complained, undoing her red hair and letting it flow over her shoulders as she laid back.
“Fine, I suppose Dwight will have to sleep with me then,” Mister S.A relented with a sigh, hopping onto the other bed and patting the top of the mattress. “You’d better keep those giant balloons on your side of the bed, though.”
“I-I’ll try,” the massive-breasted avatar replied, subconsciously pulling his pink tank top over his mint-haired head. “Gosh I’m beat, lugging these things around has been some of the most exhausting work I’ve ever done.”
His now-naked mammaries bouncing wildly as they jiggled down out of their thin, pink prison, it took Dwight a second to realize that he had just exposed his gargantuan rack to everyone else in the room, where he felt a sudden light-headedness at the excitement of seeing a pair of the biggest knockers he’d ever seen- even though they were his own.
“Have some decorum, Dwight, and put those things away!” Mister S.A gasped in shock at seeing the naked boobs.
“G-gosh darn, they’re enormous!!” Wanda stammered, her mouth wide-open. “They’re even bigger in the nude! Like a couple of pale-skinned planets or something.”
“Okay, okay my bad,” Dwight chuckled as he threw his pink top back over his head, again stretching it over his immense, weighty bosom. “It was a force of habit. I’m used to sleeping with my top off back in my world.”
Sitting down on the bed next to the rodent hitman, the gamer spent the next few minutes trying to find a way to get comfortable, though he eventually resorted to laying on his stomach and using his boobs as a sort of large, plush pillow. Mister S.A meanwhile curled into a ball after taking off his suit jacket, his little sunglasses still on his head.
“G’night, fellas,” McWanda whispered as she turned off the lamp, sneakily munching on a burger that she’d somehow procured as she turned over under the covers. As exhausted as he was, Dwight fell asleep within seconds of laying down, snoring loudly into his own chest as he fell into a deep slumber. His head descended into dreams of that day’s adventures, where the reclusive 35-year-old wondered if he’d wake up back in his apartment as he drifted off.
“Top of the morning, Mister Dwight!” Mister S.A’s voice chirped energetically, pulling Dwight out of unconsciousness. “Care for some hot coffee? Perhaps a spot of tea?”
Rubbing his character’s large, anime-like eyes, the gamer lazily pushed himself up from his face-down position in the bed and rolled over to sit down on his butt. The hotel room was now more adequately lit, where clear daylight shone through the window despite the constant blanket of clouds outside. Mister S.A was standing on the table between the beds, where a tray that held a teapot, a coffee thermos, and some china mugs had been placed.
“Uhhh no thank you,” Dwight replied, scratching his long nails through his mint-blue hair. “How long were we asleep for?”
“6 or 7 hours I think,” McWanda answered from across the room, kneeling next to a miniature charcoal grill that was adding a layer or smoke to the room as she appeared to be grilling several hamburgers.
“Wow, I usually sleep a lot later than this back in my world,” the man-turned-bombshell commented, growing fixated on Wanda’s grill. “Where the heck did you get that?”
“I figured that we’d get an early start on today, there’s no telling how long it’ll take us to find the lady that those two odd furries mentioned,” Mister S.A explained, donning his suit jacket and wiping his sunglasses. “She’s the only lead we have so far, so locating her should be our utmost priority.”
Before the trio departed their room, Dwight figured that he’d take a shower given how much he’d been sweating the prior day thanks to the laborious task of carrying his breasts. The task proved difficult for him, however, as the male-born avatar was perplexed and enamored by his own, feminine, massive-boobed body.
“Uhhh Dwight, you okay in there?” McWanda asked as she sheathed her spatula sword, where she and their hamster companion were waiting patiently to leave the room.
“Y-yes, I’m just fine,” Dwight replied, his pale hand wiping some blood that was trickling out of his nose as he stared fixated at his naked body in the faded bathroom mirror, which was still lathered in soap. “I-I’m almost done.”
Using two towels just to properly dry between his immense chest, the avid gamer eventually emerged from the lavatory fully-clothed and freshened up for the day ahead. Joining his new acquaintances at the door, the trio departed the room and checked out of the Purple Pipeline, emerging into the street that was slightly more lit than it was when they’d come down the night before.
The dark-grey clouds above the town swirled slowly as they were fed a seemingly-infinite amount of black ash that was emerging from the distant, towering smokestacks. Mister S.A took the lead, motioning the other two to move forward as he began to head in the direction that Dwight recognized as leading back to where the gate was. The streets were rather empty, where there was only a green-haired man whose lower half seemed to be that of a slug, where he slowly slithered alone down the dirty, ill-paved road, leaving a trail of slime in his wake.
“The people here a little bit stranger than those from Southopolis, eh?” Dwight asked as they passed what resembled a golden retriever with Human feet, the dog grunting a simple “Good morning” to the trio as it shuffled by.
“The SSVC would be of great assistance to these guys,” Wanda commented. “It must be a little hard to work job with all these debilitating figures. I mean, just look at your toilet friend, Mister S.A.”
“Indeed, it’s as I’ve said,” the hamster hitman began as he continued pulling his group in the direction of the gate. “The people of this world are not created equally. Those who are born into bodies that make everyday tasks difficult are usually forced into the labor jobs that Acidystopia provides, and these fields of employment are certainly not very high-paying. In a way, this realm is home to much of the underclass.”
“That’s so sad, so a lot of people are here because they didn’t really have a choice to work anywhere else?” the clown girl asked, now looking upon some of the people that they passed with a sort of pity.
“I’d say that a vast majority of the laborers here would rather be in different realms, but the plants and factories here are the only place that will hire them,” S.A explained. “It’s hard doing things like craft work or trade jobs, when all you have for limbs are say, 8 hairy, spider-like appendages.”
Dwight thought for a moment at how much it made sense that such unspoken rules applied to the strange, new world. It was as if the game of ULife had become a reality, with the key difference being that real-world physics had been applied. Naturally, those who had bodies and forms that represented the more extreme examples of what players could customize in the game had a harder time existing. In ULife, one would have no trouble playing as something wacky like a toilet with spider legs, but in this reality where the game had seemingly been brought to life, it was no longer funny. These people still had to live and work in these bodies.
“Well, well, well, Mister S.A and his friends twice in the span of a day?” Tank chuckled as he crawled out from behind one of the shanty, decrepit buildings that the trio was on the verge of moving past. “What a treat indeed!”
“Top of the morning, Tanky old boy, I was hoping we’d find you hanging around by the gate” the hamster replied. “We’re here in need of some of your extensive knowledge on Acidystopia. We’re looking for- blast, what was the name of the power plant again?”
“Fumageddon, it was the Fumageddon power plant,” Dwight chimed in, proudly putting his hands on his womanly, shorts-clad hips. “When you’ve had to memorize as much detailed game knowledge as I have, you-”
“Stupendous, Dwight, I’m glad one of us remembered!” Mister S.A interrupted, before looking back to the 8-legged toilet. “Would you be so kind as to point us in the direction of the Fumageddon power plant?”
“Ah, that’s one of the realm’s biggest coal-fired plants,” Tank replied cheerfully, walking towards the street that the three stood on. “Keep following this road north, and when you get to the end, just keep on going for a few miles. You’ll see the place ahead of you from a ways back, there’s just no paved roads leading into it.”
“Wait- we have to walk how many miles exactly?” the massive-breasted avatar spoke up again, fearfully squeezing the weighty globes hanging from his chest, already feeling a pain seize his back.
“It’s one of the realm’s biggest plants, but it doesn’t even have a road leading to it?” McWanda inquired further. “In Southopolis, everything important has a direct path leading to it.”
“Yeah, well tell that to the Governor and his new budget cuts for public infrastructure,” Tank chuckled. “Yet, he’s always raising taxes, so where are our Upoints going?”
Mister S.A made some small talk with his former associate for a little longer, before bidding the walking toilet farewell and resuming command of the trio as he led them down the street in the direction that they was instructed. It wasn’t long before Dwight felt a noticeable strain on his back, where he hunched over and gingerly stepped behind the other two. Still, the gamer didn’t want to be any hindrance to his new companions, so he kept his mouth shut despite his freshly-showered body already accumulating bits of sweat, where the humid, muggy air started making his mint-blue hair go frizzy.
The three followed the road for around 10 minutes, passing several more large, multi-unit metal houses, as well as a handful of the realm’s oddball residents. Eventually, the near-empty street ended at a large, empty field that was mainly comprised of mud and ridden of any sign of vegetation, and which seemed to stretch out for several miles before stopping at a massive, dark-grey concrete building in the distance. A sign reading “Vilesburg Town Limits” sat crooked at the edge of the road, telling the group that this was likely where they needed to be.
“I’m guessing that’s Fumageddon over there,” Mister S.A said, nodding towards the industrial building as thick, black smog belched out of several towering smoke stacks that lined the structure’s far side. “It’s probably going to take about an hour to reach it given the terrain ahead of us- Dwight, you going to be okay, mate?”
“What? Oh yeah, no sweat. Don’t worry about me, guys,” Dwight replied nervously, gulping as he examined the distance ahead.
“Very well, let us proceed, then,” the hamster announced as he began to scamper forward on the bumpy ground, where McWanda followed him with a shrug. Sighing, the large-chested gamer pushed his overly-busty character forward, following the other two up and over a small mound before they descended into the field, beginning a laborious walk to the power plant ahead.
Despite dreading the multi-mile journey, the walk ended up not being as bad as Dwight expected it to be. Although nearly drenched in sweat half an hour later, where his legs throbbed and his aching back screamed for mercy, the optimistic 35-year-old man pushed on, noticing that while still exhausting, his new body was gradually getting more accustomed to his weighty boobs. Knowing how difficult the walk was, Mister S.A was very fair and made sure that the trio stopped multiple times to give Dwight some reprieve, though it certainly slowed their progress. An hour into the journey, where even McWanda was beginning to feel the burn on her slender calves, the three eventually noticed a pair of large, dark shapes moving in the dense fog that hung nearby the plant.
“Freeze, and hold position,” the hamster hitman hissed, motioning for the other two to get low. “I don’t know what those things are, but stay out of sight for now.”
His heart already racing from the physical activity, Dwight gulped loudly as his body was overtaken with nervousness. The shapes were large and bulky, where their true forms slowly became visible as they got closer to the trio.
“D-did that toilet-dude say anything about flesh-eating monsters patrolling these wastelands?” Wanda asked, unsheathing her spatula-sword as she backed up a little. “Because I think I’d rather deal with a meatless hamburger than deal with one of those.”
“Ah, relax guys, false alarm,” Mister S.A sighed with relief. “It’s just a couple of Coal Counters.”
“Coal…what?”
Out from the fog emerged two towering, 12-foot-tall rock golems that appeared to be comprised entirely out of coal, their eyes a pair of individual glowing chunks of the black substance, where they walked upon legs made of thick stacks of the soft rock, with featureless arms of similar composition hanging to the sides of their massive bodies.
“The Coal Counters, they’re the designated law enforcement for this realm,” the suit-clad rodent explained. “Southopolis has their little police department, while Acidystopia has the Coal Counters. They’re dumb as a pile of rocks, but they’re bloody strong.”
“Those are supposed to be the cops of this place?” Dwight stammered in disbelief. “In ULife, those coal-golem things were just background set pieces for this realm.”
“GOOD MORNING,” one of the lumbering rock monsters groaned in a deep, gravelly voice as it approached the trio. “ARE YOU THREE FROM THE KYROSHI SYNDICATE?”
The group exchanged looks of bewilderment, the strange question prompted by the so called “Coal Counters” an enigma for the three. However, the rodent hitman that had been leading them spoke up first.
“Yes, yes that’s us,” Mister S.A replied cheerfully. “Three of the Kyroshi Syndicate’s finest.”
“VERY GOOD, WE HAVE BEEN EXPECTING YOU,” the golem replied, before it and its partner stood aside to allow the trio to pass by them. “PLEASE PROCEED TO THE PLANT. TRY TO AVOID CASUALTIES.”
Tipping his sunglasses, the hamster scampered forward with Dwight and McWanda in tow, who both looked up towards the lumbering rock beasts with fearful eyes as the glowing, hollow coals stared back at them.
“What the heck? Why were those things expecting people from the Kyroshi Syndicate?” the heavy-chested avatar asked, wiping his sweaty, mint bangs from his forehead after the group had gotten far enough away from the golems. “You said that those monsters were the cops of this realm, and if that’s the case, then what’s with them expecting the members of a street gang?”
“The Kyroshi Syndicate is far more than just a street gang,” Mister S.A explained as they continued through the hazardous terrain, stepping past the shores of a bubbling, green acid lake. “Still, they are definitely criminals, so they don’t typically get along well with law enforcement. I wonder what’s going on.”
Dwight didn’t ask any more questions after that, for every minute that he spent in the new, bizarre world seemed to bring with it another 10 queries for every 1 answer that he got. Gripping his aching back, the big-breasted bombshell was about to ask his companions for another break- only to realize that they’d just stepped into the shadow of the immense power plant that they’d been venturing to over the last hour.
“It’s huge!” Wanda exclaimed as she looked up at the building’s towering, concrete entrance, which loomed over them like the gaping mouth of a monster. “This thing looks like it’d fit right in with Southopolis.”
“FUMAGGEDON COAL AND POWER” was scrawled in deep, black letters over the massive metal doors that stood before the trio, where a hot, heavy air seemed to be wafting around the building while a thick cloud of ash that was constantly churning out of the plant’s many smoke stacks swirled high overhead.
The party looked amongst themselves again, before Mister S.A naturally stepped forward and jumped high into the air, rapidly kicking one of solid doors before landing on his two hind legs.
Putting his slender, feminine hands into the pockets of his jean short-shorts, Dwight nervously shuffled in place as a pair of thundering footsteps sounded from behind the plant’s entrance. The entire group backed away as the two metal doors rattled, before they both flew open as a towering shadow glared down at them from the doorway.
“Ah, are you three the new hires?” a deep voice asked, where the speaker stepped into the dim midday light. “You guys weren’t supposed to start until tomorrow, but I suppose I can give you a quick orientation this morning.”
