Pay to Win?

The first thing Luke noticed was that the interface looked snazzier than before. More professional. He then saw, in the top corner of the screen, an icon for something called 'Love Tokens'. What the fuck were love tokens? And what could they do for him? Whatever the answers to those questions were, it looked like he had thirty of them to spend.

The list of sections on the app to navigate had been significantly expanded. Before, all that was really there was the Love List, mapping system and a user guide that increasingly failed to cover the kind of things Luke wanted to know. Those were all still present, but had been joined by six new menu icons, each of them intriguing in their own way.

Girl Galleries

Advanced Mapping

Fact Files

Sex Secrets

Settings

Ask Aphrodite

While it might not have sounded like the sexiest new option on offer, Luke found himself quickly reaching for the Settings menu. To his great relief, he found he was able to adjust his notifications to only alert him when significant milestones had been hit. That was timely. The constant buzzing for everything that went right had actually been quite helpful during the first few days, while Luke was learning the ropes, but he no longer needed them and they had become a real annoyance.

Nothing else needed to be adjusted for now, so he decided to go through the other new additions in the order they were listed.

'Girl Gallery' was roughly what might have been expected - a curated collection of images for each of the women on his list, seemingly taken during the time he had spent with them since installing the app. They were nice, but there was nothing particularly noteworthy, until he clicked onto Stefanie's section.

Most of the pictures there were quite predictable after viewing some of the other galleries - Stef serving him coffee, sitting opposite him at each of their meals, sipping wine in his flat. But the final one was heavily pixelated. It looked like it had been snapped at his place a few hours back, when she wasn't wearing anything.

When he clicked on it, a message appeared.

This photo of Stefanie is candid. Would you like to unlock it for five love tokens? Please note, unlocked photos will be permanently accessible in your Girl Galleries but cannot be downloaded, screen grabbed or shared anywhere else.

That had to be worth five of anyone's love tokens. Andy clicked to confirm the transaction.

It was an explicit photo of a naked Stef from earlier that evening. She was sauntering sexily towards Luke to give him a blow job. A treasured memory indeed, and his pre-sleep wank was well and truly sorted for that night at the very least. It seemed like the Girl Gallery could eventually turn into Luke's own personal image fap site for all the hot girls he knew, if he kept adding them to his list and unlocking their hearts.

Next he moved onto Advanced Mapping, which may as well have been called voyeur mode. For five tokens he could watch five minutes of live footage of the girl of his choice - it was pot luck what they happened to be doing during that time. For ten he was offered a tempting extra option 'Most Recent Candid Footage'

He decided to check in on Jools, to see how she was winding down after her first date with him. The waitress was in her PJs in her flat, curled up in an armchair and reading a book for the full five minutes. Cute, but not exactly what he had been hoping to get from his tokens. He eagerly clicked for her most recent candid moment, but was frustrated by another popup.

Fill three of Juliet's hearts to unlock nudity options for her

Fuck it. He moved onto Stef and hit the same option. He was treated to a couple of minutes footage of her showering.

Luke convinced himself he couldn't see the harm in this. They were dating. He'd already seen her fully naked in the flesh that evening. Besides, the video was timestamped as having taken place within an hour of their date ending. Stef was clearly basking happily in the afterglow of her time with Luke. Buzzing even. Everyone was enjoying this experience.

Once the clip had ended, Luke was helpfully informed the video had been transferred to the Girl Gallery for Stefanie for repeated viewing at his leisure.

Next came 'Fact Files'. They were essentially pay-to-win cheat sheets for raising each girl's affection quickly. In addition to basic information such as age, occupation and star sign (the most notable new nugget of information - Juliet was listed as a waitress/actress), was a more substantial looking section on each girls likes and dislikes.

Where Luke had already stumbled upon a gift, or come up with a compliment one of the women on his list had particularly enjoyed, that had been added for future reference. At the top of the page for each girl was a list of 'loved' gifts and compliments, which would apparently raise affection at a quicker pace. Each was blocked by a question mark, but could be unlocked with love tokens - five for a compliment reveal and ten for a gift.

For someone like Rachel or Gina, Luke might actually have a shot at guessing some of these. For Jools, who he had his next date with, he didn't have a clue. He decided to invest his final ten love tokens to reveal one of her 'loved' gifts to help give her rating a quick boost.

It turned out she liked socks. Quirky socks, to be exact. Luke could have been given as many guesses as he wanted and he wouldn't have got that. They were also a fairly cheap gift that would also be easy to procure. It seemed like his tokens had been well spent.

The next section - entitled 'Sex Secrets' - was, unsurprisingly, the one that had caught Luke's eye the most when he initially viewed the new options. It began with a key line of information that hadn't been made available in the user guide.

In order to fill a sixth heart, connections must be fully satisfied sexually. Since most people are extremely **** to share their deepest desires even with those closest to them, the knowledge contained within this section is almost essential to reaching the full potential of your romantic connections.

Please note, you will still enjoy a rich and rewarding relationship, the type most could only dream of, with a five heart connection. However, RM users have consistently fed back that the sixth heart has raised their relationship(s) and sex life to almost unimaginable new heights.

Damn, they were really hyping that sixth heart. That also seemed to be reflected in the cost in tokens to unlock anything on this page - hot spots: 20 tokens; favoured stimulation techniques: 25 tokens, favourite sex positions: 40 tokens; hidden kinks: 50 tokens; secret fetishes: 100 tokens.

Luke looked to see how he could earn more love tokens, having already spent his. He got a measly five a day for logging in, the rest he would have to pay for.

Looking at the price list, he could see they weren't cheap. He could afford to buy some here and there, he earned decently and didn't have much else to spend his money on these days, but wanted to avoid sliding down that slippery slope. He could see now the true purpose of The Romance Mechanic. It didn't care about his love life, it wanted to reel him in then relieve him of his money. He wasn't planning to make it that easy for them.

Besides, none of this was even relevant to him until someone had a sixth heart unlocked and ready to be filled. For now, he was happy to keep working with the free version of the app.

The final new section was 'Ask Aphrodite'. This turned out to be exactly the kind of Q&A feature Luke had been crying out for, the user guide having long since become an inadequate source of information.

'Aphrodite' herself was represented by a strikingly attractive young black woman, either a stock photo or AI created, Luke figured, looking every inch a highly trained PA working around the clock on behalf of his dating life.

Whatever chat bot was providing her dialogue was quite sophisticated, as their conversation felt a lot more like he was talking to a real person than in his usual experience with those things,

Hey Luke, I'm Aphrodite! it's great to meet you! I'm sure you're going to have a ton of questions about this app, and I'm here to answer all of them as best I can, or just to talk, if you ever want to do that.

What happens when I fill the sixth heart?

Luke didn't see any reason why he should get friendly with a bot, so just came out with it.

I knew you would ask that! Unfortunately, I can't tell you. Sorry.

How do I even get one? Through an event?

That's right. Events should start unlocking once you have at least three connections on five full hearts. That's so you get to make a meaningful choice for who you would like to take. When an event comes, I can help give you tips for it in advance. They honestly aren't that hard though. And they're really fun.

How many people can I add to my Love List?

Five isn't enough for you? Just kidding! As many as you want. Seriously. You just need to meet women you find attractive and interact with them to add them to your list automatically and permanently. It's that simple!

How are you even doing this?

How does the app work on your connections you mean?

Yes

That's all down to our unique and innovative technology, which I'm afraid I wouldn't be capable of explaining to you even if I was allowed to. Just rest assured, nobody is doing anything they don't want to and everyone is happy, if that's something you were concerned about.

Okay, thanks.

Luke caught himself slowly slipping into becoming conversational with a bot. Why was he bothering to thank her?

What about other people? Isn't it going to look weird if I'm dating a dozen women at once?

No, that's all taken care of. Nobody is going to have any issues with the number of people you choose to date at once or how you publicly engage with your connections. We want this experience to be as smooth and enjoyable for you and the people you care about as possible.

Wow, thanks!

He was doing it again. Moe emphatically that time.

Don't mention it! Is there anything else I can help you with?

No, I'm good for tonight. It's getting late.

Sure, go rest up, I'm not going anywhere! Before you hit the hay though, you might want to check your Love List. I've added someone new for you. I really hope you like them!

Of course, no sooner had the conversation ended than Luke was excitedly fumbling around to load up his list, excited to find who had just joined it. He quickly scrolled to the bottom where he found the new entrant's profile.

No fucking way.