Bounty Harlot

by Alexei Tripmiov

  But first things first. “How long have you been in the game?”

  “I just got here.”

  “Have you accessed your inventory screen yet? Learned about your character?”

  “I was just doing that when I was jumped by…ick. By those three.” She gestured to the three corpses that lingered nearby. Tasha thought about moving, then decided, Screw that. If the three amigos came back on a corpse run she’d gladly kill them again. Those guys weren’t that tough.

  “What did you learn about yourself?” she asked Kat.

  “I’m a prostitute here…great. Just what I was trying to get away from.”

  “Me too. Don’t worry about it. What else?”

  “I guess I’m kind of a bard, too, which is sort of a musician…appropriately enough, as I was a singer. Which reminds me.” She stood up and folded her hands in front of her. “There’s one song that I was born with, a healing song.”

  Orlando’s eyes brightened. “That is very good news,” he said.

  The girl began to sing,

  “In dark of night

  Or day’s bright light

  The god of love will bless you.

  Your wounds will find

  The will to bind

  As the god of love doth bless you…”

  A twinkle of light like fireflies descended around them, and the sundry aches and pains from the recent battle lifted from Tasha like a shroud being carried away by cherubim. A surge of good feeling coursed through her and, glancing at her health bar, she saw that it was almost full.

  The girl sat again. “Thank you,” Orlando said.

  “Yes,” Tasha added, standing. “So tell me. Have you been to the Harlot’s Guild yet?”

  ……….

  No, she hadn’t, and a course of action was decided on. The women would go into the city, get Kat introduced to Ruby, then buy supplies for the three of them with the hundred platinum coins they had looted. Orlando decided he would have to choose his own armor, but he told them explicitly what sort of sword and shield to get him. “A rolled steel bastard sword and a kite shield. They should come to about 20 plat. Don’t pay more for them.”

  I’ll probably get them for a lot less, actually, Tasha thought. The high charisma score was a handy thing.

  “I’ll do much more damage with that sword,” Orlando said.

  “What weapon would you recommend for us?” Tasha asked.

  He considered it. “Have you skills with the rapier? If not, I can train you.”

  “Hold on.” She went into meditation mode, checking her player stats and info. Couldn’t use a regular sword, but a rapier was fine. With her low strength, smaller and lighter weapons were the only option.

  “Yes,” she told him. “A rapier should be fine for both of us.”

  “Actually, a harp or lute would probably be better for her,” Orlando said, gesturing to Kat. “It’ll make her magic more effective. Maybe a decent dagger for in a pinch, something in the four or five plat range. And for you, I recommend a parrying dagger in your off hand. Thrust and parry can be pretty effective for a clever girl like you, getting in behind and backstabbing while I bash the hell out of whatever comes our way…with the songbird there singing her healing spell if we are injured.”

  Tasha felt a lightness of spirit suddenly come over her as she admired his animated enthusiasm. She went to him suddenly and embraced him, clutching his hard body to hers. Looking up into his craggy face, a pale silver in the twin moonlight, she said, “You seem happy.”

  “I am.”

  “Even though you’ve lost your job…your possessions…” And several levels of experience, she wanted to add, but didn’t know how to phrase it so he would understand.

  “Even that. It’s strange, I admit, but I feel so free now.” He gestured out into the cold night, the expanse of hard desert floor and the moonlit sky above them. “I feel that I’ve been reborn. My entire life…it’s strange, but I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t manning that stretch of street in Elsinore, or sitting in the Glowing Wyrm listening to some traveler tell me of their adventures. For the first time in my life I feel that I’m…that I am the one having the adventure.”

  Tasha pulled his head down so she could give him a peck on the cheek. She felt stubble and pliant skin. She smelled the strong odor of unwashed man-flesh, pungent yet appealing. He felt like a real person, and he was behaving like a real person. The artificial intelligence program that animated him was strong…and how strong did it have to be before the word “artificial” could be dropped from that phrase?

  “We should get going.”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “I’ll feel better when we have decent weapons.”

  She gestured to Kat. “Come on, girl. We need to get you to a bordello.”

  ……….

  But first things first: the Enchanter Guild, for her, and the Hall of the Bards for Kat.

  She could have dallied for hours with the odd breed of spellcasters who identified as enchanters. Her high charisma score had made enchantress a natural for sub-class, and she marveled at the feats of magic she saw around her. One lithe young man entertained his fellows by seeming to become first an ogre, then a troll, imitating them and doing a comedy routine while in character, then back to his actual self, she assumed, a black-skinned young elf with platinum hair hanging down to his waist. He bowed to the audience that had formed in the hall’s central area, gladly accepting the coins handed to him. Tasha had read enough about the enchanter class to know that he didn’t actually transform into those other creatures but merely cast a spell of illusion so that he appeared to. There would be any number of occasions where it would be wise to not appear to be what she was, a voluptuous young harlot whose sole purpose in this sick world was to be used and abused.

  The guild hall itself seemed to be a magnificent series of palaces and out-buildings constructed of pink marble and bedecked in glittering tapestries. From a spell vendor in the central courtyard, though, she bought and tried the low-level spell called See Through Illusion…and chortled loudly when she did so.

  What had seemed pink marble was cheap timber and lath. The rococo tapestries worthy of an emperor were animal skins and a thin coat of paint. The vendor, who had seemed a stately high elf with the features of a movie star was actually a grizzled old gnome who came up to her bare midriff. Which he seemed to be enjoying quite a bit, his hand actually straying down toward –

  “Sheesh,” she said, “you’re not playing with yourself, are you?”

  “Me? Huh? What?” He pulled his hand away from the tiny bulge in his trousers. “No offense intended, oh luscious one…”

  “Jeez.” She rolled her eyes at Kat, who seemed both disgusted and amused by the elderly gnome. “Give me a good deal on this impersonation spell and I’ll forget about it.”

  He did, selling her the spell for half its asking price: Impersonate Ogre. Never knew when that might come in handy.

  “You’re next,” she said to Kat. “Time for the bard’s guild.”

  They wound their way through the dark streets of Elsinore, still vibrant with life and motion despite the late hour. This was truly the city that never slept, with players and NPCs interacting loudly, shouts and arguments, laughter and music. What sounded like Nordic black metal pounded out of one drinking establishment, a seedy looking bar called Mayhem, and at another, Purcell’s Place, she heard what sounded like elegant Renassisance music.

  “Hey bitches!” called out a young troll urinating in the gutter. “Show me your boobs!”

  “Ick,” Kat grunted.

  “He’s drunk. And alone. Ignore him.” But she drew her dagger just in case. She considered using the newly purchased Impersonate Ogre spell, but it was limited to her, not Kat. Instead she stopped at a clothing and sundries store and haggled briefly with the halfling shop owner for a pair of hooded cloaks. Now that their outrageously proportioned female parts were better covered, they received somewhat less attention, though the swell of
massive bosoms were still visible through the folds of cloth.

  The Hall of the Bards was all music, more music, and everything related to music. As Kat went about her business, Tasha lingered near a young folk singer, a slender boy with a lute singing a Kurt Cobain song. He looked to be about 18 or 19, and was incredibly cute, with long blond hair and a dewy-eyed baby face. She applauded loudly when he was finished. He bowed and smiled when she dropped a silver coin into the upturned hat on the ground in front of him. “Thank you, pretty lady. Every little bit is appreciated.”

  “You’re uh, you don’t mind me asking, but you’re a real person, right?”

  “Huh. I see you’re not much into the roleplaying thing here.” She was about to apologize, but he held up a hand and laughed. “No worries. Some folks are, some aren’t. Yes, I’m actually sitting in Sydney, Australia, messing around for a couple hours before I start work for the day. Well, not actually sitting. I’m in my immersion bed, hooked up with all the electrodes and shit, know what I’m saying?”

  “I wanted to ask you about that. It’s called ‘immersion,’ but I’m curious, is it like in a tank of water?”

  “Naah, you just have a metal skullcap on, and a cable jacked into your implant. But you’re a player too, don’t you already know this?”

  “It’s complicated.” She thought about telling him that she was here in this world against her will…but what good would it do? For one thing, he might not even believe her, just think she was some weirdly conflicted person, like a sex addict who had to concoct an excuse why she was playing a busty whore in a fantasy game. “I kind of forget things when I’m in game,” she said. It sounded lame, but he seemed to take her seriously.

  “You should probably get a technician out to check your interface,” he told her. “I’ve never heard of any damage coming from a glitchy interface, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful.”

  “Thanks…one more thing. Are you a good singer in real life, too?”

  “Naah. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket. But here I get to live out my fantasies, singing like an angel. One of the things I love about this game.”

  “Sure, I can see that.”

  “Like you,” he went on, “I mean, I don’t want to make any assumptions, but some girls who aren’t, you know, all that hot, like to pretend they’re, uh…” He made a gesture at her curvaceous body, visible through the robes. “I don’t mean to imply that you’re not…hell, maybe I should just quit talking and sing another song.”

  She laughed at his discomfort. “No worries, as you say. I’m cute enough in real life, but I’m quite thin, nothing at all like this.” I was cute, anyway, she thought. God knows what I look like now… He launched into another song, this time some syrupy Justin Bieber sounding thing. Several women flocked around him. He was having fun, obviously, playing the game to live out his pop star fantasies, get the applause and the groupies.

  Kat returned about ten minutes later as the young guy was in mid-song, something about dragons and dungeons and stuff. He paused abruptly and stared at her, slack-jawed. Tasha had been thinking he had the hots for her, but Kat totally floored him. “You get everything?” Tasha asked, noticing the small stringed instrument Kat held. It looked like something you might see in a TV show about Vikings.

  “Yes. A couple new spells and this harp.”

  “Okay, now the harlots guild, then a weapons shop, then we’re out of here.”

  ……….

  An incident on the way to the harlots guild showed them just how much the young bard was infatuated. A pair of drunken louts started following them down one of the side streets to the guild, commenting on the women’s various body parts visible through the thick robes they wore. “Come on,” one of the stalkers shouted. “Take that crap off and show us what you got!” He was human, probably a warrior, probably a higher level than the two harlots, or so Tasha assumed from his glittering armor and the fancy weapon he bore, a metal club with spikes –- a morningstar, she realized she knew. His partner was a man-sized lizard with a whip. He cracked it once and hissed, “You have not had ssssssex until you have been sssssscrewed by your lizard-masssssster…”

  His human pal laughed loudly at that. Tasha wondered for perhaps the tenth time since she got here just how young most of the players of Brualia really were. “Ignore them,” she said to Kat, walking faster.

  But there would be no ignoring them. The man and the lizard sped up, and the two women both turned and drew their daggers before they were overrun. The daggers looked very small compared to the weapons they faced. They were out-classed, obviously. “Come on,” the human said. “Just give us a blowjob each, and we won’t kill you for the bounty.”

  For about the hundredth time Tasha cursed the developers of the game, and cursed Yuri for trapping her in it.

  She braced herself for a fight she knew she would probably lose, and for a death that would be preferable to the alternative. But suddenly the young performer from the Bard’s Guild was behind the pair of punks, playing a song on his lute. It was a spell, obviously, and it resulted in lizard guy turning to stone, whip raised in mid-strike.

  The human scum was on his own. He turned to the bard, morningstar poised to strike in the small alley…leaving his back to Tasha, her favorite place in a battle. She plunged her slender blade between his ribs…he crumpled but didn’t go down; probably a lot of hit points with this one. But Kat was on him then, too, thrusting with her own blade. Blood spurted from wounds on his neck and face, and Tasha stabbed again at him. Their bard friend drew his own weapon, a long rapier, and moved in for the kill. The human crumpled, then the three of them turned to his companion, Mr. Lizard, and hacked at him until he too fell. Tasha had hever known that killing could be so easy, or so satisfying, but these two scum, she decided, definitely deserved it.

  The bard saluted the ladies with his rapier, then, backing away, gestured to the corpses. “The loot is all yours, madames.”

  “No,” Tasha said, “we couldn’t do that. You saved us from certain death, so please, you go first.”

  “We’ll share the coin,” he insisted, bending first to the human. The newly dead had a few gold pieces between the two of them, and a few jewelry items. The bard kept an armband that increased his stamina, resulting in a few more hit points, she learned, and to Kat he gave a ruby pendant.

  “This,” he said, “is quite a find. I’m surprised a guy like that even has it. Probably a twink who bought it with Daddy’s money.”

  “What does it do?” Kat asked. “It’s beautiful and all…” She tried it on. “Wow. It really increased my charisma.”

  “That, plus it has a one-time augment spell that’s off the charts.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Any of your spells, it will increase its efficacy by as much as a hundred-fold, depending on the die roll. So you can take on a bright red mob sometime, if you’re so inclined.”

  Bright red, Tasha had learned, meant super high level, compared to your own.

  “It works just once, though,” the handsome young man continued, “so use it wisely.” He grinned. “It will always give a charisma boost, though. I didn’t think it possible, but you’re even more beautiful.”

  With that, Kat burst into tears.

  ……….

  The three of them sat in a tavern as Kat told the young bard – Brand, he said his name was – her tale of woe. Tasha didn’t like keeping Orlando waiting alone – she was learning that the world of Brutalia was much easier to survive in a pack – but Kat was a wreck, barely able to walk. They got her into a place called The Double Unicorn and poured a shot of liquor down her. The effects of alcohol in this world were similar to what she knew, just as pleasing, but definitely with less of the downside, the impairment and the hangovers. “I’m not beautiful at all,” she told him. He tried to tell her that was okay, starting on a riff about how great the game was, that people could be something other than they weren’t, but Kat raised a hand and said, “You have no idea, Br
and. Let me continue.” He shut up.

  “I’m not here of my own will. I’m lying in a hospital bed somewhere hooked into a machine as my wannabe pimp tortures me here in this crazy game.”

  His jaw fell open. Tasha put her hand on Kat’s and said, “Same story as me. We were forced into a life of prostitution in real life, and when it didn’t work out we were compelled to play this…this game.” Kat’s tears were beginning to prompt a few from Tasha, as well.

  “I’m not attractive at all anymore, Brand,” Kat continued. “I fell through a window trying to escape and I’m…disfigured. They let me look in a mirror before drugging me and sending me here…”

  Tasha squeezed the girl’s hand harder. “Similar story here,” she murmured. “I jumped out of a car, so I’m probably, God know, paralyzed or something, and Yuri is getting his kicks out of torturing me. In here.”

  She looked around the place, old beams overhead flickering in the light of a huge hearth fire, the gaiety of voices and the press of people and creatures of all sort as they drank and laughed. She supposed the game could be fun if she weren’t forced into it, and if she wasn’t a target for every young male in the world, a sluttish-looking harlot with a bounty on her head.

  “That’s an amazing story,” Brand said softly.

  “It’s not a story!” Kat looked ready to pull her dagger again.

  Brand raised a hand. “I didn’t mean it that way. Look, I believe you, okay? I, uh, I work with computers, I guess you could put it that way, in real life. I spend a lot of time on the internet.” He knocked back the rest of his drink. “Okay, just to get real, I’m what you might call a hacker, and I spend a lot of time on the dark web. I’ve heard stories similar to yours.”

  “For real?” Tasha said.

  “For reals. The owners of the game, the story goes, are totally indebted to the mob for all their start-up venture capital. They have to generate massive cash to pay them off, and they do it by charging a hefty amount for the full immersion experience. That full immersion is worth it to a lot of guys because of, frankly, great sex. The harlot class, which you two ladies are stuck with, is a huge part of the success of Brutalia. A lot of guys especially get off on the idea that some women are forced to play your class. There are even…wow, I don’t know if I should tell you this.”