Cuteness incarnation

‘Let me just ask a few questions to make sure that everything is as it was in the description before I put my signature on it.’

‘No problem, ask about anything.’

‘What are the chances of someone picking the lock?’

‘Close to zero. Not only you need to input a correct six number code first, but it also requires a swipe of the special magnetic card. The card is made with the same technology as the most secure credit cards, so don’t lose it, there are only three of them provided.’

‘Why three?’

‘One belonged to the director, the second was given to his deputy and the third was in the hands of the cleaning lady. This is just between us, but I’m pretty sure that Mrs. Kleis has more authority in our lab than anyone else.’

‘Good. Let’s say that someone wants to prank me and sprays some kind of red fog all around it, what are the chances of it getting inside my flat?’

‘None. The door is perfectly hermetic, once we had an ebo-, ekhm, I mean an influenza virus leakage and people behind that door remained unaffected. Don’t worry, when everything was back under control, Mrs. Kleis made sure to perfectly decontaminate it and trust me, no speck of virus can evade her watchful eye.’

‘Alright… What about a brutal approach, drilling holes, using acids, stuff like that, you won’t believe what pranks my friends are capable of.’

‘Strange friends you’ve got there, but it should be alright. The guys on the wrong side of the influenza leakage were trying some pretty drastic measures themselves, but none of them had worked. Oh, the door is in a pristine condition, Mrs. Kleis removed all scratches, dents and painted them after that.’

'Glad to hear that. I’m also a bit worried about matters concerning luck, shoes and sudden disappearances. Can you guarantee that one day I won’t wake up only to see it gone?’

‘... it weighs over three hundred kilos and we will also reinforce the surrounding frame.’

‘That’s a bit heavy…’

‘Full pneumatic support and there’s this nice futuristic feel to it.’

‘The last question, please be honest with me. Why was it so cheap? I shouldn’t even be able to buy a part of that door with the money I’ve paid. Does it has some kind of a hidden defect?’

‘Hahaha, no, no, nothing like that. We’re just moving our lab to a more secure place and the old equipment is being sold for pennies. Otherwise, it would just go to the scrapyard. Just sign this and we will take care of the rest.’

‘Perfect.’

Recalling the conversation from a few hours ago with the guys that came to install my new front door put a smile on my face. I was lying well rested, with a full belly and a sense of security in my clean bed. A huge part of the stress was gone, I could finally relax and think about the future.

What a great feeling!

There was this little hope that my food delivery service would appear all by itself if I just waited patiently, but Vio didn’t come.

I will really have to visit home and check on her, but not today. The sun’s already setting and…

No, this is just an excuse. Am I really that scared of Viktoria? I hate this feeling.

Due to my chronic inability of making hard decisions, the good mood from a second ago was really close to bursting like a soap bubble, but I had a way of dealing with it.

Should I do it? Damn it’s scary, if something goes wrong it will be over. But I know myself well enough to know that if I won’t, it will just lead to losing all the progress I’ve made. I don’t want to hate myself anymore.

Clenching my fists, with closed eyes, I took a deep breath and said:

“I promise to enter the Amato family mansion tomorrow.”

There were no signs of any change, nothing that would signalize making a geas bound promise and yet I felt better. A clear goal to achieve not only saved a lot of time that would inevitably be spent on thinking in circles, but also helped to fight against countless excuses that were ready to crawl out from the dark nooks of my mind.

And even if I won’t find Vio or won’t be able to talk with her, all I have to do is to enter the mansion. That’s simple enough.

The next item on my agenda was the matter of school. It was already Tuesday the 6th, the fifth day of my life as Victor and it was high time to think about going back to it. Not to mention that not making use of this handsome face would be a crime. During my outing with Vio, I already had a small sample of how effective it can be after a little grooming. If only Viktoria wasn’t a deranged shrew we could work together as the charming duo to conquer the school.

But making a promise about it may be a bit too much, let’s try sticking to ‘one promise at a time’ schedule.

There was also the matter of finances, physical exercises and a goal to capture a maiden’s heart or two, but those could be worked on together with the previous two main points.

It was time to switch categories and move on from the daily life problems to supernatural ones. Starting with a phone called doll.

I took it out from my jacket’s pocket to take a closer look. Strangely I couldn’t find any input to connect the charger or anything similar, also it was made out of one piece of plastic, there was no indication that it could be opened in any way. There was just this one small button on the top. Last time I pressed it nothing had happened, but now it was different.

The screen lit up and a loading process had appeared. It started from zero and slowly rose. I moved to sit at the living room table and waited for it to complete. A few minutes later a simple sentence in white letters on a black background was displayed.

[0. - Do you want to create a new DOLL? (Yes) (No)]

Yes.

[1. - Choose DOLL race:

Basic - Human - No special characteristic +0% cost.
Basic - Elf - Increases the user life expectancy by 150% +60% cost.
Basic - Beastkin - Increases the user sense of smell/hearing by 75% +25% cost.
Basic - Dwarf - Provides the user with a night vision ability +30% cost.
Basic - Halfling - Provides the user with a mood checker ability +15% cost.
Special - Orc - Increases the user strength by 100% +40% cost.
Special - Angel - <Locked - the user does not meet the requirements>
Special - Demon - <Locked - the user does not meet the requirements>
Special - Vampire - Increases the user all physical abilities by 150% +User becomes unable to withstand direct sunlight.
Special - Slime - <Locked - the user does not meet the requirements>

Re-roll the special races +10% cost.

Total cost: +0%]

If Votr didn’t tell me that the thing I was holding in my hand was a prize obtained from a mana spot, I would treat it like some kind of a game.

This is for real? Physical increase and other abilities? If yes then this thing is a winner! Pure gold winner!

Heh, but there’s always a catch. The heck is that plus cost thing?

I was wavering between playing it safe and going for the ones that seemed the strongest.

What to do, what to do… and that re-roll option is looking delicious as well. What if some fancy races are hiding behind it. Let’s use it once and pick after that.

[1. - Choose DOLL race:

Basic - Human - No special characteristic +0% cost.
Basic - Elf - Increases the user life expectancy by 150% +60% cost.
Basic - Beastkin - Increases the user sense of smell/hearing by 75% +25% cost.
Basic - Dwarf - Provides the user with a night vision ability +30% cost.
Basic - Halfling - Provides the user with a mood checker ability +15% cost.
Special - Dryad - <Locked - the user does not meet the requirements>
Special - Troll - <Locked - the user does not meet the requirements>
Special - Slime - <Locked - the user does not meet the requirements>
Special - Pixie - <Locked - the user does not meet the requirements>
Special - Demon - <Locked - the user does not meet the requirements>

Re-roll the special races +10% cost.

Total cost: +10%]

“Are you kidding me? Five locked?!”

I wonder why the vampire and orc were available in the first place. Whatever, let’s not test my luck anymore and pick from the basic five.

Human’s boring, dwarf seems useless since I can do the same with a flashlight, halfling doesn’t sound too good either - you don’t have to be a genius to check that.

Elf or beastkin?

Beastkin it is! No point in living longer if I’m not even sure if I can safely last till this week ends.

[1.1 - Choose DOLL subrace: (Dog) (Cat) (Fox) (Bear) (Horse) (Lizard) (Orangutan)]

What’s this DOLL I’m creating? That’s the question.

This seemed like a purely cosmetic option so without thinking hard about it I went with a fox. It was starting to get fun, character creation part was one of the things I liked the most in games.

[1.2 - Choose DOLL gender: (Female) (Male)]

That’s easy. Female all the way.

[1.3 - Specify DOLL age.]

Oh? The keyboard has appeared, let’s make it a fluffy fur ball and go with the lucky seven.

[1.4 - Choose DOLL class:

Basic - Warrior - Improves the user sword fighting abilities by 50% +0% cost.
Basic - Mage - Improves the user spell efficiency by 50% +0% cost.
Basic - Thief - Improves the user peeking chances by 150% -10% cost.
Basic - Cleric - Improves the user chances of healing others with words by 20% +5% cost.
Basic - Monk - Improves the user martial arts by 75% +0% cost.
Special - Saber - Provides the user with a powerful special attack ability +200% cost.
Special - Archer - Improves the user sword crafting abilities by 100% +60% cost.
Special - Lancer - Increases the user chances of dying a heroic death by 66% -100% cost.
Special - Berserker - <Locked - the user does not meet the age requirements>
Special - Assassin - <Locked - the user does not meet the requirements>

Total cost: +10%]

Those special classes are useless. Two locked, one connected with swords, one wants me dead and the only useful one has an enormous cost attached. They also seem somehow familiar.

Not that the basic ones are better. I’ve got no swords, spells or martial knowledge to improve so only thief or cleric is worthy attention and I don’t even have anyone to peek on!

Cleric.

[2. - Do you want to choose DOLL outward appearance? (Yes) (No) (Randomize)]

After picking ‘yes’ it started raining questions.

…

[2.5. - Specify DOLL hairstyle.]

Something simple yet pretty, that will be easy to comb.

…

[2.11. - Choose DOLL lean to fat ratio: (1%) (5%) (10%) (15%) (25%) (75%)]

I had to think hard about this one, at the end I went with the fifteen percent option.

…

[2.24. - Specify DOLL length of the eyelashes.]

What is wrong with those questions?!

…

[2.31. - Specify DOLL toenails size.]

It was starting to get really annoying.

…

[2.40. - Choose DOLL chest size: (Justice) (AA) (A) (B) ( C) (D) (E) (F) (Plot)]

I went with justice so someone could keep Vio company.

…

[2.49. - Specify DOLL nose shape (use at least fifty words to describe it).]

There was the loophole that allowed me to repeat the words pretty and cute over and over again.

…

[2.55. - Choose DOLL chest hair ratio: (0%) (50%) (100%)]

For the love of heavens zero!

…

[2.59. - Specify DOLL clothes.]

...

There were over sixty questions and it took me more than an hour to answer them all.

[2.70 - Do you want to confirm DOLL outward appearance? (Yes) (No)]

I was starting to get worried that my final result won’t even resemble a human being, but it was the opposite.

There was a small girl displayed on the screen.

She had long light blue hair with a neatly trimmed bangs, fox ears in the same color, a really fluffy long tail with a white tip, small round face and heterochromia eyes - blue and red. A flag bearing example of the cuteness incarnation.

She was wearing a baggy dark blue t-shirt and shorts.

Yes, I like the final result.

[3. - Specify three personality traits DOLL must possess.]

Since it had allowed me to type in anything I wanted, three words had quickly appeared on the screen.

Loyal, supportive and cheerful.

[3.1 - Do you find it hard to introduce yourself to others? (Yes) (No)]

Don’t tell me that it’s going to start again.

No.

[3.2 - Do you try to respond to your e-mails as soon as possible and cannot stand a messy inbox? (Yes) (No)]

Yes!

…

[3.13 - Do you rarely do something just out of sheer curiosity? (Yes) (No)]

What is this? A personality test?!

…

[3.20 - Do you tend to get angry easily? (Yes) (No)]

“YES!”

Luckily, this time there were only twenty of them or I might have done the same thing to this phone as Viktoria did to mine.

[4. - Provide the user genetic sample (preferable blood).]

A vision of slicing my finger with a kitchen knife popped up in my head, but it was quickly replaced by one that was more to my liking, one that depicted a small needle and a single drop of blood.

I followed the latter and smeared a bit of blood on the screen.

[5. - Your DOLL is almost complete. Please wait a moment while the DOLL will analyze its new user fetishes and insecurities.]

“Huh?”

The display went off after that last message and a wave of disbelief washed over my entire mind. I placed the phone on the table and tried to massage my temples when it lit again and a cheerful girly voice came out:

“Nice to meet you, master! I was just born as master’s personal DOLL and I must say that my master is really impressive for honestly answering all the questions. Most people are so boring that they give up in the middle and just type in random answers! But not my master! Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone that my master is a lolicon bastard with a flat chest fetish or that master is secretly afraid that everyone wants to betray master! Oh, and master, please forget about the race, class and appearance thingie, it was a total bullshit.”