The Game of Love

Jenna, not usually one to even attempt to curb her impulses, was currently fighting against the most powerful wave of temptation she had ever experienced. She was now able to get Cassie naked, and have her pose pretty much however she demanded, at the mere press of a button. Or she could view genuine footage of her long term crush undressing and showering at the end of their evening together under the stars. The urge was almost completely overwhelming.

But something told her to hold off, for a little while at least. Jenna had been waiting as long as she could remember for the chance to get Cassie's kit off and, when the big moment finally arrived, she wanted it to be perfect. At present she was still half drunk and not thinking clearly enough to pick a perfect debut porn pose for her buddy. Jenna wanted to ensure she came up with something that was as hot as humanly possible.

She was, however, currently in the perfect mindset for a date with Celestia. Sure it was late, but Jenna was a night owl by nature and buzzing way too much from her evenings activities to stand any chance of sleeping now. Also, as far as she understood it, her connections had to date her pretty much whenever she told them to.

She logged into the Consult Celestia section of the app with haste and got straight to the point.

Hey, can I date you right now?

Of course! Though I live in Vancouver so I can't do face to face meet ups with you on only one heart. We could have a video date though? Or a streaming date?

Jenna's heart sank. Vancouver was probably an eight hour flight away at the very least. Suddenly her chances of ever getting to fuck Celestia didn't seem so high. Still, the girl was so much Jenna's type that it would be worth raising her up through the heart chart anyway, just for the porn that would unlock. And streaming with her might be fun.

Okay, what game do you wanna play?

I have something perfect in mind. Switch your PC on and I'll set it up real quick.

Jenna booted up her gaming laptop and, pretty much as soon as she had logged in, was greeted with the title screen of a game called - The Romance Mechanic? And wait, was that Celestia on the front page, dressed as a sexy farmer girl? Damn, she was fine.

"Hey Jenna! it's great to finally speak in person! Well, kinda in person" Celestia announced cheerily as her pretty face appeared in the corner of the screen, framed by the cap she always seemed to wear and a large pair of blue headphones.

Jenna had always found the North American accent cute, and the girl talking to her through her monitor was every bit as gorgeous as her pictures had suggested. Jenna's crush on Celestia was deepening already - too bad it seemed there was fuck all chance of them ever actually meeting,

"There's a Romance Mechanic game?" Jenna asked by way of a greeting.

"Yeah, it's actually pretty fun. And it gives me a chance to meet you in your village. Maybe we can go for a drink together there?"

"Huh?"

Jenna clicked on the start button and saw a little pixelised representation of herself standing in the middle of a video game version of her actual village square. The art style and set up was just like Stardew Valley or a Story of Seasons game, but it appeared The Romance Mechanic was set in her home town and featured herself as the main, playable character. Which was pretty fucking awesome. She wandered around the village square for a while to confirm that everything was where it should be. Indeed, all was present and correct - the pub, the bakers, Imogen's shop - all there in cute digital form.

Jenna walked into the pub and was surprised to see Cece behind the bar and Grace sitting at one of the tables at the far end of the room with a gin and tonic in her hand. Everyone else in the venue was just a generic NPC that didn't appear to be based on anyone real. The pub door opened and a particularly adorable little sprite that Jenna instantly recognised as Celestia walked towards her own character.

A speech bubble popped up over her head.

Pretty fuckin' cool huh?

"Is this shit for real?" Jenna asked, using her actual voice.

"Yeah" the original version of Celestia answered over the screen "It's a new feature they're rolling out. You're actually one of the first people to get access to it."

Jenna began playing around with the tabs in the menu. Her Love List had been replicated in full, and she quickly noted something interesting about it.

"Everyone is on the same number of hearts here as they are in real life!"

"Yeah, they are"

"So if I raise my connections affection level in the game does it raise it in the real world too?" Jenna asked hopefully.

"'Fraid not. It would be cool if it worked like that, but RM want you to interact with people in real life. Otherwise you could theoretically introduce yourself to a bunch of hot chicks one time then raise them all up into five heart sluts without leaving your bedroom."

"Damn, that would be awesome!"

"I know, right?"

Jenna had noticed that Celestia was quite different in person - or at least virtually in person - to how she was as a talking avatar. She seemed much less on brand. Not only had she agreed with Jenna's view that being able to level up multiple girls with minimum effort via a computer game would be a good thing, but she actually used the phrase 'five heart sluts'. Jenna was pretty sure that wasn't officially approved company terminology, and it was especially strange coming from someone who could easily be turned into one of those herself.

"Does what I do to my connections on here effect them in real life at all?"

"Not really. In fact, even if you raise their hearts in the game, they'll reset to the real life level next time you boot it up."

"Seriously?" Jenna sighed with immense disappointment "So what's the fucking point of it then?"

"Well, I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but it does have one very neat function"

"Which is?" Jenna was instantly sounding more upbeat again.

"The behaviour of your connections is simulated extremely realistically. And it's modified to take into account the number of hearts they're on. So, if you want to test an action out to see how it would go down in a real life situation without the risk of being slapped, you can experiment with it on here. It's also a great way of working out who likes which gifts without having to waste perv points. Just spam the fuckers with every item there is until you find the ones they lose their shit over."

"That actually is pretty damn convenient" Jenna admitted with a nod of approval.

She then walked over to Grace's character to test the function out.

Sit on my face, slut!

Digital Grace responded to such an impolite and inappropriate demand by turning and throwing her G&T all over Jenna.

"Hah! That definitely checks out!" the real one grinned.

"And if we play together on this you genuinely can raise my level" Celestia shrugged "If that's something you're interested in."

"Of course I'm interested! You're, like, super hot and I feel like you have more in common with me than almost anyone in the village does. But will you ever leave Canada for me?"

"Sure, that's what I signed up for. But I need to know you're serious first. So lets make a deal, if you get me up to four hearts, I'll move to your village permanently."

"Fuck yes to that!" Jenna agreed excitedly "But what about when you get to two hearts and the physical stuff unlocks?"

"Yeah, I can't really do much about that unless you're willing to jump on a plane" Celestia admitted "But to make up for it, when you unlock all the nudity shit at level three I can go a little further than the others probably will. Like doing private webcam girl style request shows for you. If you think you'd be into that?"

Jenna did think she would be into that. It was strange to hear one of her connections talking so openly about what could be done to them as their affection level was raised, though. Strange and extremely sexy.

"I'm gonna be doing everything I can to raise you through the ranks at lightning speed, girl!" she warned her new friend.

"You'd best get on with your challenges then. I'm gonna have to love you and leave you for tonight, but I've added three new ones to the app. Depending on how you get on with them, I could be stripping for you pretty soon!"

There was no sweeter goodnight that Jenna could have been given by her newest love interest. But she wasn't ready for bed just yet. She was going to see just what she could do in this crazy game first. In particular, there were some important things she could finally say to Cass without fear of the long term consequences to their friendship.