Chapter 34 by GavDark

What's next?

A Lightbulb Moment

Hey guys! GavDark here! I'd like to take a shot at this. I liked the alternative Cotton idea from Jim_Jones' branch, but will follow my own take. I like everything else psuedoless has done, so starting here skip everything that happened to Cotton after her reading quest (IE the Secretary class). I'll follow the theme of the power slowly turning John into a chessmaster type. Still mostly a good guy, but becoming more ambitious and scheming.

(John’s PoV)

I sat on the couch, just looking at the ribbon in my hand. I can’t believe this happened to me. I thought the shy nerdy girl needed to get out of her shell for a while. Never did I expect to be the one dating her. I should check the relationship page in Life Quest.

Matt bought the Femininity III perk for 3 points.

Casanova: Target of a desire for three targets [Hypergamy I perk and unlock Quest Master's relationship type]

Three targets? I knew about Maria and Rita, why would Cotton desire me? I open up the Relationship graph and drop my phone in shock.

The graph defaulted to Matt, with my name highlighted. It said Best Friend before. Now, it says Secret Crush.

It felt like a lightbulb turned on. Matt’s strange quest rewards, the conversation he had about his continued feminization, the disappointment when he found that Sandra was moving in. All of this made sense.

I’ve been so dense! I have to fix this! Oh God, what does “fix” even mean in this situation?

It’s too late to stop Matt’s transformation and I don’t want to work against my friend. I’m not interested in a guy cosplaying a woman, maybe the app could finish Matt’s transgender transformation. Having a vtuber housewife who took care of me would be nice.

Matt was upset by having one of my oldest and most painfully platonic female friends move in. How would he react when he finds out I have a girlfriend? I should have picked the “delay Sandra’s move in date” reward. This mess needs to be figured out first.

I’m not sure how long I sat there stunned before I was startled by a vibration on my leg. It was my forgotten phone. Must be a new notification.

Matt completed a basic quest. [+5 xp] [+5 bonus xp]

Good I can give Matt a new quest. I've got to buy time before Sandra complicates things.

Matt will receive the following quest :

Buy groceries for a new dinner recipe.
Cook new dinner recipe.
Share dinner with someone.

Select a reward from the three choices:

**Cooking II** perk
A thank you kiss from John
Delay Sandra’s move by a week

How was I so dense to miss these signs?

Reward: Delay Sandra’s move by a week

That buys some time. Now what to do about Rita and Matt. I should check the my new perk.

Hypergamy I : If a target sees that another person is attracted to the user, target’s attraction increases based on how high status the observed person is.

That sounds like it could get messy. I don’t want to start a competition

Warning : A relationship type can only be selected once. However, if your actions lead to another type, your relationship type will change and any benefits and advanced perks will be lost.

This is what I was hoping for. I can pick something, but I have to be loyal to my choice. It looks like they're on a scale.

Monogamy-ish : You will have one wife who will gain secondary access to your Quest Master role. This partner will expect exclusivity. There is a penalty for divorcing your wife.

Tiered Household : You will be able to maintain three tiers of partners, wives, concubines, and mistresses. Mistresses have no restrictions or bonuses other than a desire to move up to concubines. Concubines are added as targets without using slots, and can set their own goals within Life Quest. Bonuses are given for helping concubines reach their goals. Wives gain secondary access to Quest Master role and will jealousy guard their position. There is a penalty for removing concubines and a greater penalty for divorcing wives.

Exclusive Harem : Haremettes can set their own goals within Life Quest. Bonuses are given for helping haremettes reach their goals. Haremettes expect you to be exclusive to the harem. There is a penalty for removing haremettes.

Open Harem : Haremettes can set their own goals within Life Quest. Bonuses are given for helping haremettes reach their goals. Haremettes compete for your affection with whoever else finds your interest. Relationships out side the harem can challenge haremettes for their position. There is no penalty to replacing haremettes.

Wild Oats : You are free to pursue anyone you want with no penalties or bonuses. Women involved with you have no expectation of exclusivity or loyalty and provide neither.

Wait, I am seriously considering the harem path? How did I get here? Well, I did make my roommate a housewife who cooks and cleans for me, and my coworker in to a hot yoga mom... who also cooks for me. To top it all off, I started dating some random college girl. And I have my eye on the boss' daughter. Looks like I already decided on the harem path. Monogamy-ish is out.

I want to be in a loyal relationship, just with some room to grow. I also don't like the idea of competition from Tiered Household and Open Harem. That seems like more drama than I want in my personal life.

That leaves Wild Oats and Exclusive Harem. Interestingly, it says nothing about the relationship between harem members. I wonder if that's a perk for later. At least this should help Matt and Rita accept the idea. Wild Oats sounds a bit to free spirited for me.

I select Exclusive Harem. A new option shows on my menu Harem Management. I open it.

Manage Harem

Haremettes : 0/3

Harem quests completed : 0

Exclusivity : 100

Members :

None

Potential Members :

Maria Finocci
Matt Weaver
Rita Torres

I only have 3 slots for harem members. I'll need to find out how to expand that.

About that Hypergamy I perk, it might help keep people interested, but it doesn't help them get along. Let me check the upgrade and see if that helps.

Hypergamy II (2 perks): Targets are willing to share user with reduced jealousy.

That does a bit to reduce jealousy. I still need to be careful. I want the girls I pursue to get along. I don't want a bunch of jealous girls catfighting over me. I'll need to keep my eyes open for a better perk.

I need to be more careful about my next target. In the mean time, I need to be smart about my current targets to smooth this situation. For now, I'll need the reduced jealousy, so I buy Hypergamy II and then look at the active quests.

I should take care of my new girlfriend with a repeating quest.

Rita will receive the following quest : “Post a picture in cosplay”

Reward: Quest becomes permanent

That should do for her.

Thinking about Maria, I check Character Editor and it looks like her exercise led to her putting on a bit of muscle, she’s up to 52 kg. I decide to help it go to the right place. Her current cup size is B. Let's see how she likes C-cups.

My consideration was interrupted by a text from Rita. I open it up and it’s mirror selfie where I can see her front and back. Her dress is unzipped and open in the back and she’s holding it up over her chest with her phone blocking her facial expression. The caption read “This dress and this girl had a good day. Time for both to go to bed XOXO.”

The combined effects of Photogenic II and Model II are striking. Rita must’ve taken Maria up on her training offer. I spent the day with her in person, but this picture feels like the first time I'm seeing her.

When I'm not nervous, I can really feel her presence in the picture. I send her an approving reply, which she leaves on Read.

That reminds me, Rita wanted to be taller, I open her Character Editor and increase her height again with my upgrade I can add 5cm every 48 hrs, so I can bring her to average height at 1m61 and see how she feels about it.

Rita completed a basic quest. [+5 xp] [+5 bonus xp]

That was quick! She must’ve been planning to post something. Let me look at my girlfriend’s Stargram.

She definitely had this one already prepared. It’s a cute picture of her studying like the lo-fi anime girl.

If my girlfriend is willing to work this hard, I should too. Maria can help me get in shape. Let me focus her quests on developing as a trainer. Until then, I can benefit from sharing her Training Efficiency II and her using Coach I to train me. I'll send Maria a text asking to join her at the gym tomorrow and focus on Rita again.

I should give Rita a second class that will help with her goals. I pull up the class list and see a few that might work.

Academic
Engineer
Genius
Physicist
Perfect Student

I should take some time and give my next move some thought. Since classes are permanent and can mold her future, I should pick something that will help Rita become who she wants to be. That puts Academic and Student out, she wants to do things with her degree. I'm sure she'd appreciate some perks that help her at school.

She said she wants to be an Engineer, so that seems like the best fit.

Rita has been assigned a class. You might now gain more xp when they finish a class-themed quest.

There's so many things I want to do for her. I don't know what classes she's taking or what her exams and projects look like. Let me give her a quest that will get her to talk to me about it.

Rita will receive the following quest : "Have a study session at the library."

Select a reward from the three choices:

Improve relationship with teachers
Greatly increased understanding of topic studied
A gift from John for working so hard

Reward: Greatly increased understanding of topic studied

She should like that.

I see that Maria texted me back while I was taking care of Rita.

[I knew you'd be back! Let's go tomorrow morning before work. Start the day off right!]

I don't love the idea of getting up early. Then I think of seeing Maria's progress. I agree to the morning session. I thumbs-up Maria's happy reply and get back to my last target, Cotton. What to do with her? Let's start with something simple to get her hooked.

Cotton will receive the following quest: “Get dressed up”

Select a reward from these three choices: