Go big or go home!

Grinning to yourself, you pick the troll. You've never been a big guy and sweating for hours in the gym didn't appeal to you much, either, so here's the chance to try something that would put Arnold and Sylvester to shame out safely.

As soon as you reach for the toll shape, the others vanish and are replaced by a massive selection of different trolls. Surprised, you scroll through a dozen or so and are amazed by the variety in coloring and the general size and the shape of the horns. You end up picking one of the larger ones, reaching three meters tall and clocking in at three hundred kilos. It has symmetrical horns that slope backward along the otherwise bald skull and relatively small tusks. For extra fun, you customize it with a bright orange beard and mustache.

You touch the body and feel a weird sensation as you're sucked inside and suddenly you are the troll. You can feel the power coiling in these massive muscles, just waiting to be unleashed. Somehow the VR machine must be adjusting your sensations, as movement feels completely comfortable even though you've more than doubled in size. Still, better this way than constantly tripping over.

You are standing in a futuristic shopping mall, though you are all alone. There are several interesting looking shops around you but you head towards the Cybernetics Surgery immediately. As you step inside, a holographic display lights up and lists a dizzying amount of options. You pick the 'headware' list first and start choosing stuff:

-Datajack, so you can connect to smart-linked weapons, with an Attention Coprocessor to help out
-Commlink, you're always losing your phone somewhere but with one installed in your head, never worry! Since you want to be a badass, you go with Singularity Battle Buddy
-Orientation System, with an inbuilt GPS receiver and a tiny gyroscope. Never get lost again!
-Radar System, so you can see through walls
-Cybereyes with image link (to project images directly on "top" of your vision) and recording unit, and you add a smart link, flare compensation, 50x magnification, eye laser microphone, vision enhancement and protective covers
-Cyberears with a sound link (to project sounds directly to your ears) and recording unit, and you add audio enhancement, damper, spatial recognizer, select sound filter and balance augmenter

You then proceed to bodyware and start selecting even more cybernetics:

-Biomonitor, to keep close track of your system
-Blood Circuit Control System, to minimize blood loss from wounds
-Titanium Bone Lacing, to ensure you won't get broken bones easily
-Dermal Sheath, to make his skin resistant to both bullets and blades, though it did make him look more like a robot
-Muscle Replacement, making him even stronger
-Move-By-Wire, turning him into an inhumanely fast thing
-Reaction Enhancers, ensuring that he would always be the first one to act

You were ready to move on but then you spotted the customization functions. You think for a moment about getting a tail but decide against it. Same with the tits. But the penis intrigues you. You look down and sure enough, your troll dick is pretty fucking massive. You think about it for a moment and realize that you're probably going to want to fuck some sexy elves and humans, and your horse cock might not be appreciated. Shrugging, you add the penis implant, which will allow you to control your erections but also the general size of it.

Then you move to the cyber limbs but the shopping list flashes red and a warning text pops up:

"WARNING! ANY FURTHER SURGERY MEANS GRAVE ESSENCE THREAT - SUBJECT CANNOT HANDLE FURTHER CYBERNETIC IMPLANTS!

Oh. Well, you guess you'll have to be happy with your troll legs and arms then. Wolverine blades in your hands would've been cool.

You black out for a second and as your consciousness returns, your body has been modified. Your vision is incredibly clear - you can easily discern individual hairs on your arms. There's an augmented reality overlay that tells you your heart rate, blood pressure, core temperature and general nutrition level. With a thought, you minimize it but set-up warnings to pop-up at critical points.

Strolling out, you pop next to a fancy looking Dojo. From the list that again materializes in front of your face, you select Kickboxing. As there are several practice dummies around, you flex a little and go to town on them. In a mere minute, you utterly wreck the place. It's hard to believe how strong and fast you are. And you didn't even break a sweat.

Giggling to yourself, you move next to the Equipment Emporium. First order of business, clothing. Considering you look like a nightmarish child from an unholy union of Lord of the Rings and Terminator, you decide against anything revealing. You go with black combat boots that are shock-resistant and flame-retardant, urban camo trousers with side pockets and a long-sleeved military-style jacket in the same fashion. Over that, you grab a modular combat vest made out of kevlar and housing both ceramic plates to stop bullets and plentitude of pouches and pockets to hold stuff. On both legs, you add thigh-holsters. Fingerless gloves perfect the outfit.

Moving on, you find the weapon shelf. Once more, the holographic list pops out. The **** cannons and heavy machine guns look quite enticing but at the dojo, you realized that you are completely ambidextrous. A flash of inspiration from the Matrix and you choose two menacing looking pistols. Well, they would probably look impressive in human hands but in your massive paws, they come across as pea shooters. You toss them aside and scroll to the **** rifles. You pick one gun randomly and shop out two copies, just to try it out. Sure enough, you are big and strong enough to dual-wield **** rifles. As soon as you grab hold of them, the Smartlink system in your head activates and connects to the guns. The login and first-time initialization take few minutes but afterward, you have two targeting reticules hovering in your field of vision. You point the guns towards different targets to test them out and the system seems to work. Encouraged, you toss them aside and delve into the list, aiming to find the perfect guns.

It takes some searching but finally you shop two Onotari XFactor III **** rifles. Their bullpup design makes them easy to handle simultaneously and they have big magazines. But the clincher is their underbarrel additions. One will carry a shotgun and the other a grenade launcher. As your Smartlink-Smartgun system allows you to fire them with a thought, in either mode, this means that you can lay down different combinations of ballistic ****.

The thigh holsters are big enough hold the rifles strapped against your sides. You won't be subtle, but that's acceptable. Anyone wanting to start something with you better bring a tank or something. Just for completion's sake, you add a wicked looking monofilament knife in a hidden sheath against your lower back and fill out all your pockets with rifle bullets, shotgun shells and mini-grenades for the launcher.

Satisfied, you walk out and head to the exit. As you near it, the warning screen pops up again:

"WARNING! PURCHASES GO BEYOND REGULAR CHARACTER CREATION - YOU WILL BE INDEBTED TO UNSPECIFIED GROUP OR ORGANIZATION IN-GAME!"

Huh. You had idly wondered why you could just get anything and everything you wanted. But fuck them, what could they do to you? You're a walking, talking killing machine! You dismiss the warning and walk out.

The mall instantly vanishes and you find yourself sitting in a darkened room, illuminated by the glow of various display screens. A well dressed human man is standing in front of you. More pressingly, the same blue holo-display pops up again:

"MISSION BRIEFING:"

Retrieve the stolen prototype

Rescue The Fox

Kill the rogue Syndicate boss

Escort service