Sweet Special Event 4

Shugo groggily rubbed his head as he lay on the grassy green ground of the field, Hotaru’s Grunty standing over him, sniffing his face.  It paused for a second and tilted its head to the side before bending over and licking him across the face a few times, causing to chuckle as he began to come to his senses.

“St...  Stop it Grunty...” Shugo blurted out as he attempted to sit upright, finding it much more difficult to stand up with Grunty’s tongue in his face.  “I didn’t know virtual drool is supposed to feel so realistic!” He spoke through his laughter as he frantically began to wipe the cyber saliva off his face, disgustedly swiping it off of his sleeve and onto the ground, before finally managing to sit upright, Grunty falling to his lap.

“Huh?  Rena?  Ouka?” He slowly pulled himself to his feet, Grunty standing at his side and staring ahead vacantly.  “Mireille?  Hotaru?” He looked down to find Grunty staring back up at him.  He began to rub his forehead as he let out a deep sigh when he finally remembered why the girls where nowhere to be found.  “They must have ran through that portal after I told them not to!” Shugo quickly pivoted towards where the portal once stood to find nothing but grass and a few stray rocks stuck into the dirt.  Grunty bounded to where the portal once stood and began to sniff the ground.  It paused for a second, walked around in a small circle, let out a long yawn, and sat down on his lap.

“This isn’t nap time!” Shugo barked at Grunty, who just yawned back at him.  Shugo sighed as he began to stare at the ground.  “Rena had to knock me down and keep me from coming with them...  But now I have no clue what they’re up to or how long they’ll be stuck in there!” Shugo had only been on the ground for ten seconds, but he was already beginning to formulate all sorts of potential terrible fates for his party mates, most of them involving large, angry monsters.

“That event must have been hard to access for a reason...” He thought aloud as Grunty watched him pacing about the empty field.  “I mean, if they didn’t want anyone finding out about it I’m sure that more people than Mireille would have found out about it...” His pacing grew more frantic, to the point where Grunty simply quit watching him.  It was too tough for the poor critter’s neck to keep looking back and forth at that point.  It let out a short yawn and sprawled out in the grass once again, still blankly staring ahead as it waited for Shugo to do something more entertaining.

“That must be it, it must be a really high level special event!” Shugo declared as he raised up a fist determinedly.  “That’s it!  But if that’s true... Rena has to be in danger!” He finally stopped pacing about, trembling in terror as all sorts of far worse fates invaded his thoughts.  Had he taken a few moments to think clearly he would have remembered that Ouka would have little trouble taking whatever The World had to offer, be it dragon or demon.  However, Shugo’s judgement was not quite at it’s sharpest at the moment.  He rushed over to Grunty and quickly picked it up, waking the hapless critter from its nap, before he began to rush off in the direction of the nearest town.

“I hate to say it, but there’s only one person who can tell us just what’s going on right now...” Shugo told Grunty as he ran as fast as he could manage.  “I just hope he’s where I think he is right now...”

---

Shugo stumbled through the busy town with little concern for who or what he was bumping into.  He had definitely chosen a poor time to haphazardly rush through the town, as the afternoon was prime time for players of the world to gather and discuss trades, parties, battle plans, or even that cute girl they ran into while looking for treasure in the mines. None of this mattered to Shugo at the time, as he rudely ran through a lot of small groups, prompting all sorts of angry and uncouth yelling at him, all of which he ignored as he continued barreling through the town.  Surprisingly Grunty was barely stimulated by any of this; it simply yawned and gazed ahead as it bounced about in Shugo’s loose grip.  

“Hey, hey, you there!  Calm down and sit for a spell, I’m sure it could do a lot for you at the moment!” Shugo could recognize something about the calm, suave voice calling out for him from a nearby café, however he chose to keep running.

“Sorry, too busy right now, gotta go!” Shugo replied as he ran ahead, before quickly halting when he realized who was addressing him, nearly stopping with enough force to send Grunty flying out of his arms.

“You were looking for me, weren’t you?” Shugo turned around to see Balmung relaxing in a nearby chair, smiling wryly at Shugo as he tapped his hands on the table.

“I hate to say it, but yeah, I was looking for you.” Shugo had to swallow his pride to say this, and with all his pride it was very lucky that he didn’t choke.

“Funny things turned out that way, eh?  Well then, grab a seat.” Balmung grinned confidently as he extended an arm towards a nearby chair.  “No use standing around at a nice café like this, right?”

“I don’t have time to sit, I’m in a real hurry!” Shugo sternly replied as Grunty squirmed around in his arms.  Shugo may not have wanted to rest, but Grunty definitely did.

“You are?” Balmung sighed and shook his head in disappointment.  “Well, if you’re in such a hurry then how come you had time to talk to me?  Where are you headed off to?” Balmung paused for a second and leaned forward.  “And where are those girls you’re always hanging out with?  Don’t tell me you’ve scared them off!”

“Actually, they’re exactly who I wanted to see you about...” Shugo replied as he sat Grunty down in a nearby chair.  “4:32 today a portal appeared in a small field near one of the newbie training areas.  The girls all entered it and pushed me away before I could follow it.  I haven’t seen anything of them sense then.”

“Have you ever thought that maybe they just haven’t finished it yet?” Balmung asked, curiously.  “After all, it’s only 4:40...  It takes a little longer than 10 minutes to finish an event, though.”

“That’s not even the point!  We had just found out about this special event from a friend, and we were the only people that showed up!” Shugo yelled, startling a few of the other customers at the café.

“Well, that does happen sometimes.  News doesn’t always spread that fast, you kn-“ Balmung paused for a second as a look of mild worry came across his face.  “Wait...  You said the portal appeared at 4:32, right?”

“Yeah, I did.  Why?” Shugo replied.  He looked over to see Balmung chuckling to himself, shaking his head slightly.

“Oh dear...  Isn’t this a funny situation...” He seemed to be grinning in spite of himself.  “The bosses sure aren’t going to be pleased when this comes out...”

“What do you mean?  What are you going on about now?”   Shugo shouted, scaring away a few more customers in the process.

“Well...  There’s a pretty funny story behind this...  Well, I shouldn’t say that it’s funny now that your friends have been dragged into this affair...” Balmung paused and began to snicker.  “It’s still quite amusing...”

“And what’s so funny?” Shugo growled, growing tired of Balmung’s antics.

“Well, not so long ago a few advertising heads thought that The World just wasn’t as immersive as they would have liked it to be.  They decided that since no one in real life actually drinks a magical potion when they’re feeling weak, no one in The World should either.”

“I...  I guess that makes some sense.” Shugo replied.  “I mean, I’ve never seen anything like a potion in real life...  But still, what do food and potions have to do with anything?”

“Well, if you’d be a little more patient, I haven’t even gotten to the moral of my little story.” Balmung noted suavely.  “Anyway, one of the little geniuses down at programming wasn’t so pleased with the constant demand to make The World so realistic, so he felt that if the food should be realistic, then it should be totally realistic.”

“Totally realistic?” Shugo was getting more confused by the second.  “What do you mean by that?”

“It would be a bit of a hassle to explain it, so I think I would be better of just showing you...”

“Showing me?” Shugo shook his head.  “Quit being so cryptic!”

“Kamui, get on out here, we have a guest!” Balmung yelled out, doing his best to hold back his laughter.

“Her!” Shugo yelled, his glare narrowing upon hearing that name once again.  Although they were on far better terms than the whole Zefie incident, they were definitely not ready to hold hands and be best friends yet.

“Wh...  What is it Balmung?” She shouted back from inside of the café.  “Don’t you know I’m busy?”

“Oh, it won’t hurt you to come out for a second to see a friend, now would it?” Balmung chuckled under his breath as he leaned back in his chair.

“Well, if you insist, you could have chose a better time...” Something definitely seemed different about her voice.  It seemed much more huskier, definitely meatier than before.  Shugo and Balmung waited for a few seconds, hearing hurried panting coming from inside of the café, before out waddled Kamui, all 900 pounds of her, her pudgy face glistening with sweat.

“What in the world?” Shugo shouted at the sight of the massive Kamui.  She waddled forward a couple more steps, panting the whole way, and let out a long, exasperated sigh.  Her once sleek leg, which always rested outside the slip on her dress, was now practically barrel sized at the thigh. Her fleshy, pale belly apron also peeked out from the side of her dress, a pale veil of skin in near constant motion.

“What is it?  What did you want?” Kamui asked, sounding quite frustrated at the moment, before greedily gobbling down a small pastry.

“Wow, what happened to her?” Shugo asked, snickering.  “Did she unlock the new sumo job or something?”

“Sumo job?  What do you mean?  Was that meant to be an insult against me?” Kamui lumbered to turn around, the sheer size of her thighs and the hang of her stomach turning such a simple motion into an awkward affair.

“How the heck did she end up like this?” Shugo asked, taking the situation slightly more seriously.  “There has to be an amazing story behind this!”

“Well, whoever programmed the food in also decided to add a new feature the good folks down at research and development had been toying with...”

“A new feature?” Shugo paused.  “What sort of new feature?”

“Well, it was another part of the whole immersion deal.  They decided that if there should be food, it should be fattening as well.  Then, on top of that, they played around with something they shouldn’t have...”

“Something they shouldn’t have?” Shugo asked.  “Can you just quit it with all of these dramatic pauses and finish your story?  The sooner the better you know, I don’t have a lot of time to waste!”

“Ha, of course, you’re a busy one, how could I forget that...” Balmung smirked as he leaned forward onto his desk, resting on his elbows.  “It must have took a lot of bribery and favors, but they managed to get a hold of some really advanced taste technology that the big wigs wanted to keep swept under the rug.  Let’s just say...  That was a bad thing.”

“Taste technology?  You mean...  They could taste the food too?  Like smell-o-vision with tasting?  Why was that a bad thing, then?”

“It was never meant to be used with The World at all.  It was developed for cooks to use so that clients could sample their food from a distance, and in very small amounts, too.  If it’s used for more than a table spoon’s worth of taste, then it becomes terribly, terribly addictive.  Add to that a couple... At the risk of sounding cliche...  Big glitches in the weight gain programming, and...  Well...” Balmung motioned towards Kamui.  “Exhibit A.”

“Wait, so you’re saying that food is making people’s avatars bloat up?” Shugo asked.  “I didn’t think things could get any more...  Goofy...”

“Well, fortunately we managed to nip it in the bud and dispose most of the food...  Well, Kamui managed to dispose of most of it, actually.”  Shugo looked over to Kamui, who was greedily eating a small roll, what he could see of her belly wobbling violently, and blinked a few times.

“I can tell...” Shugo blankly observed.  “But...  How did you get her to agree to do that?  I know Kamui hates glitches more than anything, but I don’t think anyone in their right mind would be willing to pack on so many pounds in the name of justice...”

“Well, fortunately for the testers Kamui had been visiting her family that week, so she never had a chance to hear about this whole incident.”

“Wait...  Wait!” Shugo began to rub his eyes in disbelief.  “You mean...  You mean she has a life outside of this game?  I mean...  I would’ve thought she would’ve abandoned her family for the sake of The World...”

“Honestly, half of the staff reacted the same way when they heard that she would be taking a vacation.”

“Wh...  What do you mean by that?” Kamui struggled to put her hands on her hips, which had grown too wide for her to reach.  “I may be a bit extreme at times, but that doesn’t make me heartless!” Shugo pondered Kamui’s reaction.  Her demeanor definitely seemed different, almost as if her personality had softened as much as her body.

“So why would she agree to go through something like this after she started to get fat?  I mean, wouldn’t that cross the line?  I don’t know any girl who would let something like that happen and not complain for days about it, I mean my sister whines enough when she think’s she’s put on one pound!”

“Ah, remember remember!” Balmung shook his head at Shugo.  “When I said it was addictive I wasn’t lying...  By time Kamui had realized what was going on her brain chemistry had been altered too much for her to care...  Since then she’s been spending all her spare time in The World tracking down all of the food and gobbling up.  Fortunately enough for her she hasn’t became addicted to real food yet, or else she’d definitely be raking in the disability checks by now...”

“How is this all linked together, then?  Is this special event...  It’s linked to that food?” Shugo asked.

“Indeed it is.” Balmung nodded his head.  “Originally it was going to be used to unveil the new feature.  There would be a large house made of candy, you know, based off that Hansel and Gretel story...”

“Hansel and Gretel?” Shugo inquired.

“That’s not too important... but anyway, the goal of the event was to eat as much of the house as possibe. Whoever ate the most would get a special item.  Once word got out the event was supposed to be canceled and the food deleted...  Unfortunately, we couldn’t delete all of the food in time so the best we could do was make it difficult to access.  We didn’t think that news of it would have reached someone as sneaky as your friends, though...”

“So...  But wait, with all of that food there...”   Shugo turned to Kamui, who startlingly enough, looked even bigger than she had before.

“If they’re not that huge now, they will be soon.” Balmung acknowledge, looking at Kamui as well.

“Well...  I can’t just stand here if that’s going to happen!” Shugo shouted as he held Grunty tightly.

“So, Shugo the hero is going to make things right?” Balmung chuckled lightly to himself.  “Come on Kamui, we’re coming too, then I have to see this.”

“We...  We are?” Kamui stared at Balmung.  “But...  The food, you wouldn’t deny me the food, would you?”

“There will be more food, Kamui...  Better food.”

“Then I have to come!” Kamui waddled forward, her gait now quite comical due to her bulk, as she dropped her snack on the ground.

“I can’t believe those two are tagging along too...” Shugo sighed as Grunty began to fall asleep in his arms.