CHAPTER 36: PIMP

I woke up to the smell of pine and smoke.

Not the acrid, digital smoke of burning polygons or fake embers looping on a particle effect, no, this was wood, real wood, or at least, the VR-chemical simulation that my brain swore was real wood because the pod knew exactly which sensory memories to hijack.

Somewhere behind that, the faint, earthy tang of moss, and the damp air of a forest that actually felt alive. The oppressive weight from before was gone. No more stuttering trees, no broken marionette limbs scratching the edges of my vision. No Null Shepherd.

For the first two seconds, my chest wanted to believe it was over. Then my eyes found Hailie.

She was slumped in a chair, breathing, but her gaze was still wrong in a way. Her glassy pupils dilated to the size of coins, like she was staring past the walls into somewhere that still belonged to the Wroeg’s Hollow. Her fingers twitched every now and then, and her lips parted in silent little breaths that came in quick bursts, too shallow, too fast.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance, knowing that the thing didn’t have to kill you to break you. And I could feel the static memory of its presence still scratching the back of my skull like leftover brain eating germs.

"Hailie." My voice cracked, I hated that it cracked.

I kneeled in front of her, put my hands on her shoulders, "Hey, you’re not there anymore. It’s not here."

Her eyes shifted, just a little, but not enough. I leaned closer until my forehead was nearly touching hers. "You’re in a cabin, the woods, we’re out... You’re safe, I protected you."

I kept talking like that slowly, steadily until her eyes began to focus. Not on me, exactly, but at least not on whatever void the Null Shepherd had left behind as the trembling in her breath faded. She blinked once, twice, and finally, her lips pressed together, as if testing whether her own muscles still belonged to her.

When she finally looked at me, I forced a small smile. "There you are."

That’s when the footsteps came from behind. Heavy enough to be human, light enough to mean they didn’t care if I heard them coming.

I turned.

She was leaning against the doorframe like she’d been there the whole time, hands buried in the pockets of a long, battered coat that had definitely seen more winters than most players’ patience. Her hair was that of a dark brown color, streaked with silver at the edges, fell loose over her shoulders, she was on the chubby side as I can see her triceps, waist and cheeks being tad bubbly. But honestly, everyone’s chubby when you’re malnourished like me.

She was smiling at me, the kind of slow smile that made you think you’d just been sized up for something.

Ann Murphray.

I hadn’t said her name in months, last time we met was the Early Access of Darkmoon Adventure VR. So I didn’t expect that she would be online at this hour, but here we are...

The first time we met, we’d been standing in a glitched-out river during the PC version back when it was still primal and had way less patch notes, laughing our asses off because our senpai managed to stack four different lag machine into one unloaded area and fucked up the server’s bandwidth, forcing a shutdown for 12 hours.

It was the golden era of exploiting games, back when all three of us—me, Ann, and him—thought the game was just a game. Before the team’s leader was gone.

Glorious yet not shiny, as ups and downs are impermanent. I remembered those words on the back of my mind.

Ann’s eyes darted from me to Hailie, taking in the scene like she was already calculating its weight. She didn’t speak right away, just stepped inside, pulled out the third chair, and dropped into it with the kind of ease you only have when you own the space you’re in.

I sighed, adding Ann to the party of me and Hailie, gesturing between them.

[CJS69Real]: Hailie, this is Ann Murphray. Ann, this is Hailie Sonder. We’re in a quest and she’s conditioned to the Deafness debuff so we’ll talk in party chat.

[Hailie]: Hi Ann...?

[Ann]: Hello, isn’t that the lastname of the Sonder Interactive Group?

[Hailie]: Oh... Um, it is! My dad’s the founder.

Hailie was still dazed, I think, as she awkwardly try to stand up on both legs to politely and gracefully greet Ann.

We sat down right there in a little awkward triangle. Three people in the same room, no one making a sound, fingers tapping at invisible keyboards that only existed in our own UI. Watching each other’s eyes flicker faintly as we read the messages. It was weird in that sterile, disconnected way VR socializing sometimes got when voice wasn’t an option.

Hailie smiled politely. Ann nodded once, a polite, shallow kind of acknowledgment, and then her gaze slid back to me.

I wasn’t expecting her tongue to flick over her lips. Not in that way, why the fuck was she getting sexual with me when another woman was in the room?

Of course... Our relationship escalated before but, have some modesty, god damn.

A cold prickle ran down my back, and that was rare, mind you. I’m usually the one making inappropriate mental notes about women in close proximity, the one who groped both Hailie’s and Eirlys’ boobs. I’m the one who leans into scenarios I have no business imagining in filthy details, but Ann was... different.

Because Ann wasn’t any woman I can read.

If I recall the Forum thread about giving the top 50 all-time players individual nicknames... She was given [Giantess], top #45 player worldwide, infamous on every roleplay forum worth its salt.

What’s the word for a female pimp? Yeah, that word, here.

The 31-year-old quiet matriarch of an erotic roleplay network so sprawling it practically had its own postal code in Darkmoon Adventure’s social economy. She never bragged about it, never needed to, her name was the kind that traveled on whispers and screenshots, she never did any ERP specifically, but she was the middle-man and even built a survey thingy where people can pick and choose traits they want in their partner.

And if you didn’t know, ERP means Erotic Roleplay, basically, roleplay sex, god, it’s like talking to a baby.

Nobody knew how deep it really went, or what she’d been doing since VR dropped. And honestly, I didn’t want Hailie knowing any of it, because she seemed to dumb to grasp the concept, and Eirlys would be pissed. I kept my face neutral as she didn’t need to read between those lines.

Ann’s smile grew just a fraction, like she could smell the thought I was hiding.

"So," she said, finally breaking the silence with an actual voice, "What happened?"

"A Warlock quest... Requiring me to escort someone through the Cleric quest, I got the Pacifistic Curse, she got the Deafness curse... Then I realized we were in another dimension, facing the Null Shepherd."

Ann raised her eyebrows,

"At this level?" She asked,

"At this level." I nodded.

She chuckled amusingly as she leaned forward, "Then I pulled you out of the biggest pickle there is."

Hailie tilted her head, glancing at me for translation, so I typed with hesitation.

[CJS69Real]: She says we owe her.

[Hailie]: Oh... Um, we do, how can I repay her? She saved my life!

Ann read that and glanced towards Hailie, leaning back in her chair, boots propped casually on the edge of the table like she was settling in for the long game.

"That means honey, you owed me big time. Building that contraption on such short notice? You’re lucky I have enough material, saving your speedrunning butt? Not cheap, and definitely not something that could’ve been done without me." She twirled one finger in the air like she was stirring the thought. "I don’t need your payment now... In fact, I’ll help you finish your quest. But when it’s done... you will pay it back."

I didn’t like the way she said "pay." Or the way her eyes stayed on my flat and bare tits me as she said it, like there was already a line item written under my name.

"What kind of IOU are we talking about?" I asked, keeping my voice as flat as I could.

Her smile stayed in place. "I’m not mentioning that right now."

My stomach tightened. I knew exactly what that meant. Not the details, not the terms, but I knew that it was going to be the kind of thing you couldn’t laugh off or dodge without losing more than you wanted to.

Hailie’s fingers moved.

[Hailie]: What’s wrong, Cory? You seems pale.

I wanted to say no, Ianted to drag us both out the door and deal with the Hollow on our own, IOUs be damned, I could live the rest of my life as someone who ran out on repaying a favor.

But the image of Hailie hanging in the air, that thing drinking her mind through her eyes, still lived behind my eyelids.

Ann leaned forward, elbows on the table now, her voice dropping just enough to make the space between us feel smaller. "So. We have a deal?"

...

...

A whole 10 seconds of silence between the three of us.

I swallowed as I typed in the party chat for Hailie to read.

[CJS69Real]: It’s okay... She’s going to help us at no cost.

I lied through my teeth, but seeing Hailie smiled and profusely thanking Ann with slurred words was a sight that eased the pain.

There was genuine fear sitting low in my chest now, tangled with a knot of anticipation I couldn’t pick apart. I’d missed her, in a way I didn’t want to admit, even knowing the trouble she brought with her.

Then, Hailie tapped me on my shoulder.

[Hailie]: Sorry guys... I got to go, time’s for my class, but I’ll get more playtime soon in the future!

[CJS69Real:] I’m going to stay back a bit, so you go ahead with your class, okay? See you at dinner.

Her avatar flickered as she logged out successfully this time, considering how we weren’t in the other dimension anymore.

And it was just me and Ann, alone in the cabin, the deal hanging in the air like smoke that wouldn’t clear.

"So..." I cleared my throat, "What you’ve been up to lately?"