Chapter 7
by 
MidbossMan
Where to next?
Loverboo's New Eridu Season Tutorial and Voting
Wise found himself missing that big plush bed in his new VIP suite as he followed after Loverboo. He felt like he was spending an awful lot of time in this scenic beach resort looking at the same scenery, watching the back of a weird, off-brand Bangboo that he hated as it walked over rose petals.
It turned again, fixing its heart eyes on him. "So, there's something I've been meaning to tell you. As much fun as we've been having together, me waddling, you walking really slowly like you've missed the run button in order to avoid outpacing these stubby legs, I'm not going to be around you all the time. Believe it or not, some times, it will be much more relaxing or mood-setting to be alone with a woman-- and a viewing audience, but not an obtrusive Bangboo. In times like those, when you might choose to wander, we can't have you getting lost in the revered expanse of this hotel. Should you ever lose your way, look for these red rose petals scattered on the ground. They form a trail, like bread crumbs. If you follow them, you'll end up at the stage for the contest in question. This can be helpful for the contestants, as well-- they've already learned all this," the Loverboo explained. "Of course, if I get really impatient, I'll have to bring them to the contest myself. There are monitors everywhere, so they'll have no excuse for not knowing. If they should defy me or sleep through the contest-- looking at you, Ellen Joe-- there will be dire consequences."
"What if they follow the rose petals the wrong way? Backwards instead of forwards?" Wise asked, wearing a wry smile. He was just pushing the Loverboo's buttons.
"No one is that directionally challenged!" Loverboo growled, reaching for its bow again. As its paw reached the pink plastic surface of the bow's grip, the Loverboo stopped, then its eyes curled into happy crescents. "No. I'm not going to keep rising to your back-talking, because I don't need to. Soon, I will have a good chance to show you a real demonstration of what the contestants are in for. Then, you can decide if you want to keep picking all of the joke answers in this little game of yours."
Wise silently tensed his brow. He had a bad feeling about this rose petal path he was following back downstairs... that at the end of it, he would end up at an event that would change his relationship with the others in a way much more obtrusive than seeing Zhu Yuan on the toilet.
The monitors going off across the hotel were a constant nuisance. At the best times, the hotel had a peaceful aura, with the floors glowing softly, the sound of a harp coming from somewhere difficult to place, and no other sound besides the occasional operation of machinery in relevant rooms or the plop plop plop of servant Bangboo feet. This was disrupted in a totally off-putting way every time one of those announcements popped up, as Loverboo cut through the relaxing atmosphere with another innuendo-drenched spiel about the contestants. Monitors appeared from places one would never expect and words blasted seemingly from thin air at an impossible to ignore volume.
Nicole hated it. She clenched her teeth as another one popped up, with the voice of Loverboo telling her to get to the first floor showroom. "Ugh! I haven't even had a chance to hit the beach yet." Her bag was full of all kinds of free things she'd managed to collect so far, including toiletries, food, and even some silverware from the kitchen. That hadn't been given to her so much as she'd stolen it so that she could eat certain food articles in her room later. She didn't have a lick of guilt, taking from the creepy ownership of this hotel.
"If they're going to have so many television sets, they ought to show movies," Anby remarked. The sound of the announcements wasn't bothering her so much, seeing as she typically wore headphones, but the sight of the TVs being used for all these sensationalist blurbs instead of proper television or movies was nearly as bad. The flat-screen monitors were very interesting to her, seeing as all of the TV sets in New Eridu were CRT types, but she didn't have a chance to look at the monitors before they flipped back into the scenery every time. "I hope our room has a TV."
"That's the last thing I'm thinking about right now," Nicole sighed, grabbing a free towel from a Bangboo as she walked past and stuffing it into her hip bag. That bag was, unfortunately, shaped like a green-colored Bangboo... she didn't want to look at a Bangboo with all of this going on. "Although I guess for you, it'd be kind of insufferable to be in here without a TV set. As for me, I'm still trying to adjust to a world without currency! Kind of turns everything on its head, you know?"
"Nicole, you did not read the rules. There will be currency..."
"B-But everything's free! Isn't it?"
Anby cleared up the rules about BP, which everyone else had already gotten the gist of, while the two continued in stride. When they arrived at the showroom, they found themselves the first arrivals among the contestants, but Loverboo was already bobbing in place in that bouncy, Bangboo way next to the guest of honor. Wise was seated in a big, cushioned red throne, sitting at the back of the stage with red curtains parted. There was a huge auditorium, but the only people seated there were Bangboos, spread out to fill seats.
"This seat wasn't my idea. I'd rather be out there," he defended.
"Yeah, yeah. All hail King Wise," Nicole teased, placing one hand on her hip. "Where do I sit?"
"Darling, you're a contestant. You don't sit. You stand. Or you can sit in Wise's lap if you'd like to try to earn some early VIP," Loverboo instructed, gesturing towards the big throne. "Either way, you do it up here on stage."
With a sigh, Nicole walked her way onto stage, while Anby instead opted to leap up, taking a spot next to Wise. When the Loverboo shook its head and pointed to a marked spot, with a standing marquee reading "CONTESTANT #2," she went to wait there instead. "This appears to contradict your earlier advice that I should sit in Wise's lap."
"I'll move the marker if you're interested in doing that," Loverboo scoffed, rolling its eyes and seeming to understand already that Anby wasn't going to do that.
"I'm glad you two both showed, though. I know it's hard to make yourself answer orders like this," Wise interjected.
At that thought, Nicole and Anby exchanged a glance. They had gone along with it pretty easily, hadn't they? They hadn't even made a plan yet, despite the fact that all of the contestants were about to be gathered together in one place-- possibly their best chance to turn the tables on Loverboo before they started to fall further into the trap. Shouldn't they have at least stalled? Nicole clicked her teeth, realizing that either the visuals from the monitors or the sound from the speakers may have included some subtle hypnotic effect... or it might have been magic, plain and simple.
As the rest filtered in, it became pretty apparent that they were all under the same influence. Grace arrived, dripping wet. Koleda arrived without any shoes. Zhu Yuan arrived, seeming as though she was just zipping up her pants, with Qingyi behind her.
As Ellen walked in, clad in her blue, shark pajamas, she pulled a strawberry sucker from her mouth and pointed it towards the stage. "Woah, it's Wise. I think I saw you in a dream or something. You were all up in my face. Kind of embarrassing, really."
Rina was the last contestant in and her change in wardrobe was the hardest to believe-- she arrived wearing nothing but a transparent nightgown with a bra and panty set underneath, crossing her hands at her lap for as much modesty as she could manage.
"H-Hold up! Are you already trying to get VP?!" Nicole asked, covering her mouth in shock. "Also, I don't remember seeing Wise hanging out with a knockout like her. Are you hiring other agents behind my back, you traitor?! What happened to loyalty?! We practically made you an honorary member!"
"Ha ha ha... I can't hire the Cunning Hares for everything," Wise laughed, trying to defuse the tension.
"Oh, but you can hire her for some things you wouldn't hire me for. I see! You know I don't answer invites that ask me to strip down to my underwear," Nicole huffed, crossing her arms.
"Ahem, Miss Nicole, please... This isn't actually my doing," Rina explained, wringing her hands and watching the floor bashfully as she floated above the 8th contestant spot. "Remember, we mustn't turn against one another."
On some level, she already knew that, but she was a little miffed, seeing that other contestants already seemed to be chasing the carrot-on-a-stick that was coming in first in this inane contest. She tilted her chin up and spoke to Loverboo. "Alright, bunny. Why are we here?"
"Because the contest is finally ready to start, darling! Welcome to the official kick-off for Harem Hotel: New Eridu Edition! Featuring eight lovely contestants of varying shapes and personalities, each vying to become the main squeeze in our master's personal harem. None of you opted in, but you can't opt out, so I highly recommend you all let your hair down and enjoy yourselves! It'll be more fun for everyone. Well, besides the members of the audience who get off on watching you ladies squirm. There are certainly some of those," Loverboo began. "All of you have read the rules already, I made sure of that. But did you know? This extra special edition of Harem Hotel is going to have a few additional rules as well. Please, divert your attention to the DMs on your smartphones."
At her behest, they all fished in their pockets and retrieved their phones, mostly forgotten due to lack of Inter-knot access. Rina didn't have her pockets or her phone, so she watched along with Ellen Joe. For the benefit of the audience, monitors activated, showing the same information.
HAREM HOTEL: NEW ERIDU EDITION
Supplemental rules!
The game will be conducted in teams of two, divided up by faction: The Cunning Hares, Belobog Industries, New Eridu Public Security, and Victoria Housekeeping.
As such, the winning VP total is upped from 100 to a combined 200 total between two contestants. However, VP per contestant is still counted separately.
If any contestant's VP falls below 0, before they would be eliminated, their partner has the option to spend VP to bring their total up to 0, even if this would bring them to a negative value themselves.
If a contestant is eliminated, the remaining player may continue by themselves, but they will be expected to reach 200 VP by themselves.
At any time, either contestant may choose to break their team up. In doing so, they will each be expected to reach 200 VP by themselves.
Transformations will be distributed in the form of Resonium, in line with New Eridu's hollow explorations. "Resonium" is a special material that grants agents effects inside the hollows-- here, it will do similarly. Functionally, these are basically the same as the contest's ordinary transformations with a few distinctions:
Resonium has a rank: A or S.
A rank resonium can be assigned as penalties or gathered during audience vote.
S rank resonium are accumulated when a contestant gathers 4 A rank resonium or is eliminated. These are written in during audience votes, stored in a bank until deployed, and may be especially pronounced in effectiveness.
Each Resonium has a classification: Physical, Mental, or Treatment.
Physical denotes the contestant's body or appearance.
Mental denotes their personality, behaviors, or self-perception.
Treatment denotes how others treat them, be it the master, the contestants, or everyone.
BP will be referred to as Gear Coins. The starting amount that each contestant starts with will be determined by an initial audience popularity poll. They are functionally the same as BP and will be awarded at the host's digression, be that as contest rewards or other means.
"We're in teams? I mean... I guess we were already planning to act as teams anyway," Koleda grumbled, scratching at her pigtails irritably. "It's actually better if they just make it official. That way, we can work together without screwing ourselves over so much."
"I think there might be another angle. If you were to lose your teammate, you'd end up in a nearly impossible situation and be driven to work much harder to win. You'd be working extra hard to raise yourself out of the hole. I think the host wants to make people angry and ****-- to foster drama, in other words," Zhu Yuan mused, looking remarkably calm and cool for someone who'd entered the room mid-zipping her pants. "I never did like reality TV."
"'The cornered beast fights the hardest,' as they say," Qingyi nodded in agreement.
"Oh, please. You girls control how hard you do or don't fight. Why not just take it easy? Get yourself eliminated. I'll have the audience come up with some really delightful S rank resonium to distribute if you do," Loverboo cackled. "Looking back to the audience, we have a few initial VP to distribute. We'll focus on the positives for now, since you all have been so kind in not trying to attack the master, destroy me, or escape through the front door yet. Ahem..."
+2 VP to Koleda Belobog for flattering the Master by huffing his shirt
+3 VP to Zhu Yuan for flashing the Master with her pants down on the toilet
+2 VP to Ellen Joe for sharing a bed with the Master
+3 VP to Alexandrina Sebastiane for showing off her sexy lingerie to the Master
"H-Hey! We don't get any VP at all?!" Nicole protested, throwing her fists down to her sides and leaning in towards the host. "We gave him a boob on each side earlier, didn't we? Doesn't that count?!"
"Sweetie, you might be used to instant coffee and discount noodles, but around here, we expect excellence. Up your game, then you'll get your VP," Loverboo giggled, then gave a dismissive shrug.
Ellen's tail seemed to whip into motion, sweeping across the floor behind her in an instinctive but cryptic gesture. "Huh? You got in the bed with me, Wise?" the girl asked, raising one eyebrow with a grossed out frown. "Rina didn't mention that. You did that while I was asleep and made her strip to her underwear? Perv."
"Not on purpose!" Wise hissed, shrinking into his throne in embarrassment.
Zhu Yuan said nothing, just covering her reddened face with one gloved hand while Qingyi pat her on the back to cheer her up. Grace pat Koleda on the head with a similar intention, meaning to be soothing, but it just seemed to be pissing the Belobog CEO off worse.
"Keep up the good work, girls, and you'll snag more and more VP. Tiny steps towards the goal-line in sight! You all don't want that hoity-toity Victoria Housekeeping to beat you, do you?" Loverboo cooed, jumping up into Wise's lap and kicking its feet whimsically. "Now, on to the really fun part: First round voting! This is the part that our loyal audience has been eagerly anticipating, I'm certain. This is where your vote makes a difference! This first vote might be the most important, you know? You all will get to vote in an initial popularity ranking that affects starting Gear Coins, but also, you all get to take your first stab at saddling our contestants with erotic Resonium! Don't be shy, now. Vote, vote, vote! We'll put the results up on screen when it's finished, but we want to give everyone a nice, ample opportunity to place their answers first. While you're waiting, girls, why not switch places with me? Any takers on Wise's lap?"
The girls all either stared at their feet or glared at the host in response while Wise smiled sympathetically, wishing he knew the right way to keep everybody calm. It didn't feel like the right time for a joke.
The Loverboo raised its hands in a shrug and shook its head. "Oh well. We'll see if you all have a change of heart after getting your first Resonium. Since it's our first contest and you all could use a little tweaking to get into the spirit of things, we'll focus on Mental Resonium to start with. Later on, we can start mixing up appearances and all that goodness. Oh, I'm positively abuzz with excitement to see those do-gooders finally get what's coming to them..."