Um, Actually...

"Oh wow, this was a very close one! But with 34.96% of the vote, the winner is 'Um, Actually'!"

Eve wasn't sure if this was going to be better or worse than the runner-up 'Genius in Isolation', but she was about to find out. The collar activated again, and this time Eve felt a momentary fogginess in her head as her mind was rewritten, before returning to clear-headedness just as Jack began explaining the modification to the audience.

"So Eve is mostly the same as she used to be, but from now on when anyone corrects her on anything she'll be unable to counter their argument in a way that doesn't make her look stupider than the person who corrected her. The best part is that the 'correction' doesn't even have to be right. Eve's only options when corrected now are either agreeing with the other person that she was wrong or humiliate herself trying and failing to prove them wrong. How about a demonstration, folks?"

"Do we have to?" Eve asked, but her hesitant question was drowned out by a roar of applause from the crowd.

"Seems like we do, if we don't want to disappoint the audience," Jack answered, "Now Eve, what's two times two?"

Eve knew this easy question was a trap, meant for her to get right only for Jack to 'correct' her anyway and trigger the effect. However, she also knew there wasn't any way she was going to get out of this, and on some level Eve was herself curious as to what would happen. So it was with some **** that she answered, "Four."

Jack smirked, "Um, actually, two times two is twenty-two." He turned to the audience and added, "You don't have to say that every time, but it sure is fun."

Oh come on, really? Twenty-two? Eve thought, It should be easy to disprove this.

"That's wrong!" Eve said, "Twenty-two isn't even a real number!"

Laughter erupted from the audience, and Eve felt her face grow hot with embarrassment. That wasn't what she meant to say.

"Sorry sweetie, but twenty-two is a real number," Jack said, "And it's what you get when you multiply two by two."

"No it's not!" Eve snapped, "Look, I'll show you!"

She held up two fingers on each hand and counted off the fingers on her left hand, "One, two..." Then the right, "One, two... That's two, two times... makes it... Two-two!"

More laughter, and in her head Eve was panicking. Two-two? What the hell, that wouldn't be right even if it was twenty-two!

"That's not four though, sweetie," Jack said, "When you write two twos next to each other, what number do you get?"

"Uh, two-two!" Eve repeated, to more laughter from everyone. Well, except for...

"Hey, she's right!" Chrissi said, mimicking what Eve was doing with her own hands, "Two, two... two-two! Jack, I don't think the collar thingy worked on her."

Eve sighed. Was this really what she was going to be reduced to if she tried to prove anyone wrong about anything?

"No, the number is called twenty-two," Jack repeated over the laughter, "Why don't you quit embarrassing yourself and tell me I'm right, Eve? We've got a show to get back to."

"I know I'm right!" Eve shouted, her pussy tingling even as she stood there completely frustrated, "It's four! Look!" She starts counting off again, this time on one hand this time, "One, two... um, what number comes after two?"

Are you kidding me?!?

"Ooh, I know! It's three!" Chrissi said happily.

"That's right, Chrissi! Looks like even you are better at math than Eve!" Jack said, before saying to Eve, "You really need to stop straining yourself. You won't prove me wrong."

Eve grumbled and squeezed her legs together, fighting the urge to rub the front of her pants with her hand while everyone was watching, "F-Fine. You're right, it's twenty-two. Can we move on?"

"Thatta girl," Jack said, sending another small jolt of pleasure through Eve's body, "Now, that was your fifth case, so now you have the option of either backing out now, keeping your changes and the $100,000 you have already won... or you can try your luck and pick another case! I will remind you that if you manage to find all ten reward cases, all of your punishments will be reversed."

Eve thought it through. $100,000 is less than what she was hoping for, but it would actually be enough to pay off pretty much all of her debts. She could back out now with only three changes and come out ahead. However, this most recent change was very bad for her. If she couldn't properly disagree with anyone about anything, her life would become a humiliating nightmare. Then again, was that really so bad?

Dammit, that was her other punishment talking, not her! That one could be a problem too, but it was more annoying than life changing. Dammit, if only she had gotten one of the other reward cases, like the Wish or the Back Arrow...

Wait a second, that could work! From now on, she would get a chance to back out after each case, so she didn't need to find all ten reward cases. She just needed to find one that would allow her to reverse this Intelligence change, then she could duck out with her winnings and two tolerable changes. But there were 7 Reward cases and 8 Punishment ones left, meaning it was more likely she was going to pick another punishment. And while she might get lucky and get something mild, she could also end up with something even worse than what she already has, and end up playing further to reverse that, which could lead to more punishments, and...

"Tick tock, Eve," Jack said, "We don't have all day here. You need to make a decision. Are you staying or leaving?"