Harem Reborn c1-297

by Author：Magic_

  "You will see, we have no need to upgrade the large armor, and a single huge upgrade would take all ten gems. Let's go eat; I'm sure you are all starving; everyone did great today!"

  We all followed Jill back to the cafeteria, and everyone got their food and sat down. Everyone was tired, and the food went down quite smoothly, but everyone was quiet. The day was heavy on all of us, and I was glad to retire to my bed, but there was a knock at my door as I lay down.

  "Yeah?"

  "Can I come in?" Mikota's voice asked from the other side of the door.

  "Yeah."

  Mikota slipped into my room wearing a flowered kimono and looked very attractive, but then she locked my door. Mikota moved to my bed, letting the kimono hit the floor, her tanned naked flesh in front of me. I rose to meet her and took Mikota in my arms, pulling her back down into my bed. I was glad I could catch some sleep in the shuttle on the way back because I did not get much after that.

  Chapter 78: Skipping Out On PT

  I woke up in my bed feeling refreshed but alone. Mikota had kept me awake for along time, and she had fallen asleep in my arms, but she must have woken up and left early. Mikota probably didn't want the girl to see her come out of my room in her nighty.

  I sat up in my bed, looking around the room. It was pretty spartan, with only two small shelves and a small wardrobe. Besides that, there was my bed with a trunk at the end. I got up and walked over to my closet and pulled out one of the bodysuits that I was getting used to wearing now, pulling it on and heading over to the chest.

  When I got there, I tried to open it, but the thing wouldn't budge. I went down on my knees to see if I could fidget with the lock, but the was nothing to mess with. The entire front was just a normal chest with no lock, but no matter how hard it tried, nothing would open it.

  I finally gave up and was about to open my door when I hear a ding and then a voice over the room's speaker.

  //Dave? Are you awake?-Irellia

  I opened the door, and Irellia stood in her own uniform, with a large smile plastered on her face. She grabbed me by the hand and started to drag me toward the hangar bay. I just tried to keep up with her, just short of jogging, but everyone was waiting when we got there.

  The girls were each standing by their MAS suits and waiting with eager smiles. Irellia motions for me to take my place beside Diamond Edge, and then she took her place with Jill. We all looked to the cart in front of Jill that had six crystals in a row.

  "Thank you for joining us, Dave. We all wanted to let you sleep for a bit since you did find them, but everyone is excited to try the crystals out."

  "It's ok. I was already up and dressed when Irellia came to get me. Sorry I kept you all waiting, but now that I'm here, how does this work?"

  "Inside each crystal is a form of condensed Dynam found only in monsters, and it feeds the MAS units internal AI. You probably all noticed how the suits know how to react sometimes to help you or if you promote it to? Well, each upgrade increases that response time to be faster and the thoughts more complex."

  "Interesting, so the more crystals like this we get, the better?"

  "Yes and no, we need to collect strong ones for level 3, Chaos Dynam, four is Monstrous Dynam, and five is legendary Dynam gems. And we need more than one of each, so we have a ways to go. Regardless, this is a great start!

  With that, Jill and Irellia started to hand us each one gem. The girls each accepted the gems with reverence and held them carefully, but I didn't think they would be so easy to break. Though I received mine gingerly and cradle it in my arms, Irellia instructed us how to use the gems after all were handed out.

  "Hold the gem against the inside of your suit, and it will be absorbed. The first time I will only need one; the next upgrade will take three gems. After you are finished, you can step into your MAS and test it out, but be careful; there will be some noticeable changes. Today we will be working on getting comfortable. Tomorrow you will be doing more PT and running until we get to Prime."

  Everyone groaned, but complaints were lost in the girls' excitement, and I started to press our gems into our suits. Each time a suit would flash a rainbow of colors that made the girls crying out in excitement each time like it was the first. I, myself, had to admit the colors were fascinating to watch, and I waited to do mine until everyone was finished.

  I took my crystal and pressed it to the back, feeling the crystal get smaller in my hand until it was gone. My gray MAS flashed the same rainbow across its hexagon patterns and then back again. I guess that was all? Now I just needed to step inside and see if there were any changes.

  I looked over before getting nad and saw that everyone else was ready to move around, but their movements were off, almost like a newborn trying to walk again. I studied them for a minute and then realized what it was; there must be a big calibration difference since the gems should give the AI more pure energy to grow with, so both the AI and pilot are learning together again.

  Backing into my suit, I took a deep breath as my suit closed around me. It was the same feeling at first when I got in, all the small displays that popped up were normal, and nothing seemed new. Then I tried to walk, but my suit thought faster than my thoughts, and it happened partway through the idea.

  "Now I can see why everyone is having trouble, we made the AI smart now, and it can read out thoughts before we can put them into action. How can we fix it?"

  "By doing this, just practicing. he AI need to calibrate to us again, think of it like a system update that upgrades everything. Since everything is new, none of the old commands work, so it's trying to figure out our movement patterns and how it can help to improve them."

  I went back to my awkward gate across the hangar bay, trying not to run into the others. The whole thing looked ridiculous, but soon we started to get the hang of it, and the computers started to adapt to our movements. Soon, we all were moving faster than we had been before.

  It was nearly lunchtime after we finished, so we decided to relax while our food was made since we were done our bit of fun for the day. After we ate, it was going to be back to the grindstone again, run run run, and then run some more. I wasn't going to complain. It would get more comfortable, and then we will be able to better use our MAS units and have a chance to win the race.

  Each got our meals and sat down at the table; this time, I sat between Kyrina and Kyrin. I had completely forgotten about them and only just realized that they weren't at the hangar with us. I guess it made sense since they could transform and all, but why didn't they have to do PT. Even asking the question in my own head made me feel like a bitter child watching others had fun while I worked.

  Kyrin noticed my inner dilemma and explained that they were doing some special work on the ship and the suttles, but he wouldn't go much more into details, so I didn't push. Kyrina was eating a bowl of consume soup with some kind of steamed dumpling; part of me assumed they would have eaten a different type of food to support the android type of body, but Kyrina was thoroughly enjoying her soup. I turned back to my plate of fettuccine alfredo and started to eat, and soon I was finished.

  I leaned back and stretched my arms out, then Kryina pressed into my side, making me close my one arm around her. I looked down, and she had a slight blush on her face, so I pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. I was sure I could feel Kyrin's gaze on me, but it didn't have any killing intent, so I figured it was just the natural big brother effect.

  After finishing our meals, everyone except for Kryina started to leave; even Kyrin was following them. I tried to go with them, but Jill stopped me.

  "I would like you to work with Kyrina, int the other hangar, Diamond is already over there, but I want you to get used to working together. One of the things that weren't mentioned about the race is that it is done in pairs, only two people can enter together, so everyone will be paired off for the next week while traveling inside the system. After that, we will be heading down to the surface o try to find the la
st part of our crew before the race starts."

  Last part of our crew? Did they already find the person?

  "No, but we have suspicions about them showing up with an event like this; there might even be more than one. We don't know, this is all just guessing right now, but we will know more when we can scan the planet. It will just be harder to pinpoint since we would have time to do that type of scan."

  "How will we know if they are one of us?"

  "None of us will know, but you will know. You can sense more than just the normal things in this game, right? You know what the so-called lost souls feeling like, right?"

  "Yeah, you have a point. I guess I will just have to pay close attention while om down there. Thanks for the update; I will go with Kyrina and help her out and do the best I can."

  Jill smiled at me and patted me on the shoulder before turning and leaving the room. I turned back to Kyrina, who was waiting at the table out of earshot; she was such a nice and timid girl. I wonder what she was working on? I walked over and stretch out my hand to her.

  "Ready to go?"

  Chapter 79: Talk Of Suspicions

  We both walked out of the cafeteria and started to walk down the metallic hallway. I was thinking about taking Kyrina's had as we walked, but I decided against it. Even though she had been cute inside, I knew she had a shy personality, so I didn't want to push her. Instead, I would let her come to me.

  "What's it like to be a Beastarion?"

  "Hm? Well, I can feel the metal, but it doesn't really feel a lot different than before. If I shift, my body feels like it's stretching and expanding, but it doesn't hurt me. I like being a tiger, and I love the things I can do!"

  Kyrina was very excited and started to lighten up, opening me to her real personality. I listened as she talked about the different things she could do with the lasers her eyes emitted. They were not just laser, but some kind of transfer beam that gathered particles and then built them the way the user wanted. It was really the ultimate form of expression for someone like an artist, which seemed to be Kyrina's passion.

  We made it to the hanger, and the ship that had been badly damaged was here now swapped out for the one I had arrived on. Kyrina told me to get my MAS on, and she would change, but I asked her if she minded if I watched her change. I think she took it the wrong away at first, but she still asked me to turn around when it happened.

  I did as she asked, and I thought back to the cave, and neither Kyrina nor Kyrin had shifted into their other forms. Suddenly, I heard shifting plates, gears, and then scraping of metal. I wanted to turn around so bad, but I kept myself still, waiting.

  "You can turn around now."

  I did so excitedly, and I turned to find that Kryina was now a silver tiger. She came up to my waist and was at least three meters long, head to tail. Her voice had come out with a more synthesized quality, and her eyes glowed amber, and I thought I could see a smile on her tiger face. I noticed there was a suit on the ground below the tiger now, and it all made sense why I needed to turn around—silly me asking really if I could watch her change out of her clothes.

  I shook my head, smiling, and went over to my MAS unit, putting my hand to the faceplate. The suit opened up, and it turned, backing into the suit, watching it smoothing cover my body. Soon, I was able to move, and it moved out of the rack and walked back over to Kryina, who had moved over to inspect the ship.

  Her tiger form was smooth and silver but not overly reflective, which was a good thing, or she would make an easy target in space. I wasn't much to talk with my glass like shielding and all; I was almost like a disco ball. I walked over to the damaged shuttle and stood beside Kyrina.

  "So boss, what can I help you with?" I asked in a cheerful tone.

  "I need you to help hold up damaged parts while I rebuild the missing or damaged parts. The rest of the time, I will be getting you to hook up everything we fix and test it. We have to be thorough when doing this since you will all die in the vacuum of space."

  "You? Does that mean you don't need oxygen to survive?"

  "We still breathe, but we collect air in a small tank, and we can survive off that small amount for up to two years, so we don't really worry about it. You and the others do need it all the time, so we have to make sure everything works properly."

  "OK then, lead the way!"

  I wasn't overly excited, but I was glad to spend some time with Kyrina and away from Irellia's PT. As I followed Kyrina inside the shuttle, I wondered o myself when Armond was going to start training us? We hadn't really seen him around much since Irellia showed up and introduced us.

  Kyrina led me to the big tear and the cargo bay and then started to direct me to pieces that had been gathered by the ship's worker drones. All the drones were controlled by Alta, so most scrap pieces were found and brought back. As I picked up the pieces, Kyrina would laser them into place, making it look like there was never any damage in the first place.

  "You're really good at this; the real you must have been quite the artist!"

  "Real me? Ah, that's right, you said we are all in a game! I still hadn't recovered any memories yet of who I was before I came to this game or even before the last life."

  "Don't worry, those things will come with time. That's why I brought you all out of that life so you could start playing the real game and having fun with everyone. That was the fundamental idea when we all joined the game, but something happened. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I have my suspicions.

  "You think they did this on purpose?"

  "Yeah, but I don't have enough proof yet, so it doesn't really matter. What does matter is people like you getting lost in the game, that why I gave spent every gameplay trying to bring more people into the games, so you don't have to keep living pointless lives that are hard for no reason."

  "That's really nice of you, then do you know some of the people here? Like Iona and Tilly?"

  "Yeah, when I met you all in Shadeholm, I was in the middle of a game with them, and they were the lost souls, but now they are players, and some are even taking a break. Well, one is taking a break; Irellia decided she wanted to get in on the action this time. There are more players in other games going on in other worlds; every once and a while, I meet other groups like me trying to help guild the new players."

  "Ah, that would be interesting! It would be fun to hear stories from other worlds and the people's experiences!"

  "One day, we will run into some; we just have to work on playing our games to get to that point."

  After helping hold all the parts in place, all that was left was the rips in the hull and some hookups. We had already been working for four hours, and we decided to go get a bite to eat and see how everyone else was doing. I went and put away my MAS in its rack and then turned for Kyrina to shift back.

  After the sounds of her shift quieted, I was told to turn. I must have reacted faster than she had expected because I cause a glimpse of her smooth chest as she zipped up her suit. I looked p really fast, but she had caught me, and my face was red. Dang, now I look like a pervert, but she just smiled at me and waved for me to follow.

  We walked in silence, and I felt stupid for being such a guy and letting my eye wander to the first piece of bare and open flesh I saw. Suddenly, Kyrina spoke up.

  "Thanks for helping! It was really nice to be able to talk with you."

  "I enjoyed it as well; if you want, we can go back after and work some more?"

  "Hmmm? We will see after we eat. Let's see what everyone else is doing before we make any plans, OK?"

  "Sure, that sounds good!"

  We made our way back to the cafeteria, talking about the different things we worked on. When the doors opened, everyone inside looked like they had been through hell. Part of me wanted to just leave in fear that me getting to skip out on this hell run might make the others envious, but Kyrina grabbed my hand and pulled me in.

  Tama was laying on Mikota, who was leaning on Sasha; all three looked abo
ut to pass out at any moment. Jill looked as beautiful as ever, able to skip out the hell run of ship duties with Alta, but even Maxine looked damp, not a single wisp of sand showing. Tilly looked to be the only one actually sitting up, but I could see that she had fallen asleep sitting upon closer inspection.

  What had Irellia put these people through? I turned to look at Jill, but she just smiled at me; well, I guess Irellia would get everyone into shape whether they wanted to or not. That reminded me, where were Irellia and Kyrin?

  "What happened to Kyrin? Did Irellia push him too hard?" I asked the group.

  "No, he is the reason we are all in this bad of shape! He kept pushing Irellia, saying this is nothing, and she just kept getting madder and making us work just as hard as him. Finally, she let us all stop and told us to go eat while she dealt with his Gung-Ho attitude," Sasha half explained, half complained.