Setting up the (Adult) Video Store

The next morning, Wise woke up and got ready for the day.

"...Hopefully we can figure out the deal with that USB drive," he muttered.

He walked downstairs to open up the video store. Quickly scanning the shelves, he noticed that the Oh~ Sweetie videotapes seemed to be running low. He quickly ran to the back of the store to restock the shelf, and began putting the tapes on the shelf.

Until he noticed something off.

"...Huh?" Wise asked. The cover of Oh~ Sweetie was different than he remembered. The woman on the cover was now completely nude. He scrutinized it very heavily, until he reread the title. It said, Oh~ Sweaty.

"Dammit, Belle," Wise muttered. "You picked up a porn parody instead of the actual film!"

He began taking the tapes off the shelf, until he realized that the Oh~ Sweetie tapes weren't the only videotapes that had been swapped out. There looked to be a Starlight Knight parody, a Ridu Tour parody, and a bunch of other pornographic videos that he had never seen before. There was not a single normal video left on the shelf.

Just then, Belle came down the stairs.

"Belle," Wise said. "What happened down here?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, yawning.

"All the videos in the store have been swapped out with pornographic versions! Look at this!"

Wise handed Belle the Oh~ Sweaty videotape.

"...What about it?" Belle asked.

"Did you pick these up on your restocking run yesterday?"

"...Yes?" She replied, confused. She was playing dumb... or she actually was dumb.

"Belle, this isn't funny," Wise replied. "What if a customer walks in? The store's about to open in a few minutes. Help me take this stuff down!"

"Wise?" Belle asked. "Are you feeling okay?"

"No!" Wise replied. "Why are you so nonchalant about this? If this is your idea of a joke, it's not funny. We can get sued for this if a minor walks in!"

"...Wise, did you forget?"

Belle walked over to the front door and opened it wide.

"Belle, close that door right now!" Wise shouted. "We don't want people to think we're open yet!"

Belle pointed down to a sign in front of the door.

18+ Only. No minors allowed.

"When did that get there?" Wise asked. The sign looked professionally made. Belle couldn't have just made it overnight.

"We're an adult video store," Belle said. "We've had this stuff for years. Why are you freaking out? People know what they're getting when they walk inside."

"No, we're a normal video store," Wise replied. "Belle, quit joking around. It's irritating me."

"Wise, are you okay?" Belle asked. "Don't tell me all that Nitro Fuel that Burnice brought over is messing with your head."

"I- wait, Burnice came over last night?"

"Yeah, in the middle of the night for some homecoming gift. She wouldn't stop ringing the doorbell, and you were sleeping through it, so-"

"That's not important. Just help me take these things down."

Wise sighed and began taking the films off the shelf, as Belle stared at him in a combination of confusion and worry. Just then, a customer walked in.

"Huh?" Wise asked, standing up and shaking his hands. "No, no, please don't come in, we're just having an issue with our inventory-"

Belle turned to the customer. "Please ignore my brother for now. He drank something weird last night and went a little loony. What would you like to rent?"

"I'm looking for anything that has femdom," She said. "Not quite ****, but like, extremely dominant female. Do you have anything like that?"

"Oh, alright, I've got something for you, please come to the counter."

Wise looked up at that conversation in shock. What just happened? The woman was looking for a porn video? They don't sell those! At least, they didn't usually, but apparenly now they did?

Another voice pulled him out of the shock.

"Manager!"

Wise knew that voice from anywhere. he turned around and looked up at Nicole, who was standing at the door.

"Oh, Nicole," Wise said. "Ignore all this, Belle's just trying to pull some kind of prank or something."

"What prank?" Nicole asked, looking around. "Anyways, do you have any progress on that thing I asked you about yesterday?"

"Oh, right," Wise said. "It seemed like some dumb joke, but it refused to leave our computer after we plugged it in. I gave it to our AI assistant to analyze overnight, just in case it was something more. Give me one second."

He shut and locked the front door and ran to the back.

"Huh? Wise!" Belle shouted. "We're open right now!"

"No we're not!" Wise shouted, running into the back room. "Don't let anyone else inside!" Nicole gave him a glare of confusion, but followed him.

"Fairy," He said. "How did the analysis go?"

"Master, the program appears to be extremely strong. I am unable to modify it in any way."

"But... do you have any idea of what it is?" Wise asked.

"The results have not been conclusive, but there is not enough evidence to say that its appearance is deceptive."

"...That means?" Nicole asked, confused.

"It could very well be exactly what it says it is- a device that manipulates reality."

Wise stood there, flabbergasted. "A- A device that manipulates reality?"

"There is still a possibility that it is something else, but I could not find any evidence that suggests an alternative explanation."

"Wait, wait," Wise said. "Could this be the reason Random Play transformed into an adult video store?"

"...Transformed?" Nicole asked. "Manager, haven't you always run an adult video store?"

"Master, you have always run an adult video store." Fairy affirmed.

Wise walked up to the computer and pulled up the app. On its front page were the words: Reality Timer: 8 Hours, 6 Minutes Remaining. He clicked around until he landed on the "Log" page. There, it said in plain text, Random Play is an adult video store.

"No way," Wise said.

"Move over, Proxy," Nicole said, walking up to the HDD and pushing Wise out of the way with the side of her body. "If this thing can change reality, maybe I can use it to get us out of debt!"

Wise felt some pounding in his chest. All of his instincts were telling him to get Nicole away from the HDD. However, he wasn't entirely sure what would happen. If this program was the cause of this, maybe getting Nicole and the other Cunning Hares out of debt would be a good thing, right?