“Your dad still home?” John asked, while Rave searched for her keys.
The trio stood in front of her home, the dull grey walls hiding the crazy colourful jumble within. A couple of people shot them curious stares. None of those stares were directed at him. Much like the dull building, he was ignored, standing between two Asian women (half-Japanese and Japanese in design, to be more accurate) of outstanding looks, colours, and outfits. Rave in her skimpy outfit, Aclysia in her cosplay, the shortness of her skirt bordering on provocative. They were bound to attract lustful, condemning and confused eyes – sometimes all three belonged to the same person.
“He’s in town until the end of the month, if that’s what you’re asking.” Rave put the key in the lock and turned it. “But he’s not around right now.” She gave him a little wink.
“Wonderful,” John hummed. It was pretty early in the day compared to when they usually made it to her place. They probably could have grinded out another boss kill if they had really wanted. That would have involved dealing with the spawning face without a bazooka though. Doubtlessly doable and a pain regardless.
Important was that he had gotten the money and a few key advances. Aclysia asked, “Why does it matter that he’s gone?”
“Because Jane and I plan to have sex,” John told her, while they walked into the hallway. That didn’t suffice for Aclysia, so he expanded. “It’s really awkward to do sexual stuff in front of parents.”
“I don’t mind that much, but John’s super shy about it.”
“Why?” Aclysia asked.
“Because incest is a bad thing.”
“Why?”
“Because of genetic defects, for a start.”
“Why?”
“Just google it, chatterbox!” Rave put a period to the line of questioning, just as they entered her personal area of the spacious house. The outcry made John chuckle a bit.
“Google… an internet search engine,” Aclysia summoned the knowledge from what she had been bestowed with during her creation. She blinked a couple of times, like someone that dragged out a distant memory. “It is becoming easier to access this… common sense information.”
“I probably need to raise your Intellect so you can draw common sense conclusions too,” the Gamer said and scratched the back of his head. “Sorry if your early life is a bit messy because of me.”
“I do not mind, Creator… it is not displeasing, just confusing.” She looked at him quizzically. “It occurs to me progressively that you are a person, not my task. I wonder where this knowledge leads?” John would have loved to know just as much as she did. “Are my questions annoying you, Creator?”
“Sometimes, but I’d rather you ask them than you stay confused,” John admitted.
“And I’d rather not have our couple time interrupted by all the talking. You!” Rave pointed at Aclysia, who once more tilted her head. “You’ll do the googling thing.” John trotted after his girlfriend, as she pushed Aclysia to the video game room. “Ya know how to use this?” She softly kicked the side of the computer.
“Yes,” Aclysia responded with a strong, if mechanical, nod. “Computer and software interactions are among my more intense inherited knowledge.”
“Great, then ya can use the browser and look into all your questions. John and I are gonna hang out in my room.”
“If you need something, you can always contact me.” John tapped his head. The mental connection was still intact and, although they hadn’t distance tested it so far, the building wasn’t so enormous that it should be taxed.
Aclysia nodded, then sat down and began with a pretty heavy question: ‘What is sapience?’
She would probably be occupied reading answers to that alone for at least twenty minutes.
John and Rave walked away, leaving the plastic woman in the chair. Once in Rave’s room, they took their usual positions. She sat down by the table and he grabbed one of the beanbags, pulling out his phone to check on his mobile games. They fully intended to engage in lewdness. That didn’t mean they had to do it immediately.
“Jumpa uploaded something,” Rave mumbled in the semi-excited tone only someone in front of the computer used. A click later, a soft female voice sang repetitive lyrics over a strong beat and a fast melody.
“Honestly surprised you don’t have giant speakers in this room,” John commented, while his finger swiped over the display. He primarily played logic games these days. He was enjoying the novelty of his increased Intellect, although he reckoned he would get tired of it eventually. The puzzles weren’t as engaging when he could solve them almost intuitively.
“We have a sound room, I just go there if I wanna turn it up.”
“Should’ve expected that,” John half-laughed to himself. A moment later, his girlfriend’s feet landed in his lap. Her toes wiggled to the beat. “I should apologize to Victoria tomorrow…”
“Yeah, ya should,” Rave agreed, her eyes on the screen of her laptop.
“I still don’t think you should’ve told her though.”
“Huh? I thought ya agreed it was better to tell her early than late?”
“I agree with that point in general, but I still don’t really trust Victoria,” John responded. “I only met her yesterday and the entire Abyss loves to find out things about me they shouldn’t.”
“Ya only met me two weeks ago and that worked out fine.”
“Yes, but you’re special – besides weren’t you the one that kept my Loot abilities from Travolta initially?”
“Yeah, because he’d get nosey, not ‘cause ya can’t trust him,” Rave responded, now looking at him with furrowed eyebrows. “Ya gotta be more spontaneous if ya want to have fun in life, Johnny. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
They stared at each other for a little while, then John let out a long sigh. “I just hope you’re right,” he budged. He didn’t want to have this fight and trusting in Rave hadn’t steered him wrong yet. He would keep an eye on Victoria covertly.
Minutes later, Rave clicked her tongue disapprovingly. John figured the argument was about to flare up again, but she instead waved him over. “If ya wanna look at something actually worrying, check this out.”
John was annoyed the moment he peeked over her shoulder. On screen was the Abyss Auction. Specifically, the page of the information bundle about him. Rave had bought the highest tier by now, of her own volition, so she got all the updates immediately. Through her, he was clued in. They did it in hopes of finding the culprit eventually – or at least get a clue of their methods.
Displayed was a picture of Aclysia, followed by a short list of what she could be. Every suggestion was the name for some kind of golem or elemental, so they were pretty close. The photos close to the house were blurred and Rave had been skilfully edited out of all of them. Her dad’s protection still hung over her.
“We need to take care of that stalker eventually,” John complained and stomped over to the window. He drew the curtains shut. He had no idea if that did anything, but he would try.
“He’s a slippery cunt,” Rave agreed. “Problem is he has either really good equipment or pretty good abilities – or both. It’s gonna be a pain.”
“Well, we can guess he also sold that monster control rod thingy. He can’t be an absolute pushover if he can tame monsters around that level… what’s so funny?” At some point, Rave had started to giggle.
“The guy enabled the comment section. Listen to this: ‘That John Newman fellow has absolutely no taste in waifus. We all know that short hair is superior. If I could create a golem like that, it would look like shorthair Senjougahara, the greatest of all waifus.”
John groaned and rubbed his forehead, “Fucking weebs.”
“Ey, don’t ya mock my animes – I’ll replace ya with a body pillow!” Rave threw a joking threat in his direction.
Before John could put together an appropriate or hilariously inappropriate response, the page refreshed automatically. Both their attention was pulled back to the screen. “Would ya look at that, he added a link to a Discord server for top level customers…”
“The Abyss uses Discord?”
“An Abyss Auction subsidiary made Discord… Abyssal version is more secretive and customizable though,” Rave responded. “’Cause it's lined up with the AA, they won’t sell anyone’s private intel. Traffic is nicely hidden under all the mundane stuff too… Wanna check it out?”
That was a great question, did he want to join a Discord server where a bunch of strangers were chatting about his life? “Not really,” he groaned, “but we might learn a bit more about whoever is tracking me…”