2 [REVAMPED] Abysmal Karma Starting Experience (Part I)

Akira Maximillian was an 18-year-old billionaire had found himself inside of a cage. 

Foul odors of blood and sweat and dirt and mildew bombarded him from everywhere. The panicked screams and pleading wails of victims to unseen tortures assaulted his eardrums nonstop.

Just what kind of Hell was this?! He thought in alarm. Then glancing straight forward, he jumped back when he noticed a young lady of fair skin with long wavy blonde hair and serious blue eyes, dressed in only a scant brown loincloth bikini. She had a tall, slender build and a pretty, mature face with an elegant stare and delicate lips. But most notably, she bore the curved horns of a goat and slender cloven-hooved white-furred legs. 

She was standing with her hands on her thin, elegant hips, appraising him with an irritated stare. "Oh, good. You're finally awake."

"I was sleeping?" Akira asked in confusion.

"There's no time to explain. We have to focus on getting out of here, first."

"Sorry, but I don't like being dragged around without any idea of what's going on." Akira huffed back at her. And it was then that he glanced around, past her, to see there were others in the cage with them—four in total: all young women dressed in the same scant rags as the blonde girl, likewise with visible features reminiscent of all different species of animal.

Something didn't make sense about this.

"You're all a bunch of weird animal girls," Akira observed. "But I--"

Just then, something waved past the corner of his vision.

Curious, he reached for it and stroked it gently, running his fingers through tufts of smooth fur. Pulling on it a little, he felt a slight pressure all the way up in his spine. 

"Is this...a tail?!" His face melted into a horrified frown. "My tail? But then, does that mean--"

He traced his hand along the tail, all the way to the base, immediately gasping at what his hand had unexpectedly encountered there.

"And this--" Squeeze. Squeeze. "Since when did I have so much junk in my trunk?!" Conversely, his hands were now slim and dainty like a princess's, with skin dyed a warm caramel-brown tan. His thighs were thick and squishy, yet firm. Definitely not a male body, and yet his voice had remained unchanged.

Furthermore, he laid his eyes upon...a massive pair of breasts! Dressed in the same skimpy cloth rags as the other prisoners, much of the enormous cleavage was freely exposed.

"You have to relax," the goat girl said, kneeling to touch his shoulder.

"Relax--but how?! None of this merchandise belongs to me!"

"Because we should really get to discussing our—"

"You, there!"—Akira snapped his fingers—"Goat girl, fetch me a mirror!"

"Excuse me?!" The blonde girl answered with a glare. 

"I have to see my beautiful face! I mean, I'm assuming it's beautiful because this body is a sculptor's marvel."

The blonde girl sighed, rolling her eyes. "Just my luck! I had to go and get stuck with a pervert."

Akira grinned. "Maybe a pervert, but also the MC."

Lazuli rolled her eyes dismissively. "Right...and it's painfully obvious that you've only just arrived in this world."

Akira nodded.

"You probably don't have a single idea of what's going on."

Akira nodded—again—more emphatically.

The blonde girl sighed. "Well, there isn't enough time to catch you up to speed. I just need you to do as I say, and we might just be able to make it out of here alive." She laid her hands on Akira's shoulders, staring deeply—intensely—into her eyes. "Can you manage to keep from touching yourself for that long?"

Akira was blushing. "Y-yes ma'am."

~~~~~~~~

Party member has enlisted: Lazuli Miércoles!

~~~~~~~~ 

"Just call me Lazuli."

In the moment, on the fly, our MC came up with a fake name: "I'm...Akira." Then paused, for a bit, contemplating what would be the most suitably awesome fake surname. Ultimately deciding on—

Lazuli had an amused face. "Akira...Maximilian?"

"Yes." He gave a stern nod. "That is my name."

"Sooo, about this plan of mine…"

"About this plan of yours..."

"I'll get the keys from the guard, and you'll take the others and run."

"And?" Akira was wide-eyed, expecting more.

"And nothing," Lazuli said. "That's it."

"But what about you? Do we just"—he gave a sharp exhale, his face crinkled up in disturbance— "leave you behind?!"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about me; you're the newbie here."

"Exactly! I'm a newbie, so why ask me for help?"

"Look...everyone else here is a newbie, but you're different," she said with a sultry smile, running a hand through Akira's sexy squirrel girl avatar's spiky red hair. "I can tell you have tons more...experience. In a lot of situations."

Akira stared at her blankly, first. And then his eyebrows did a little flirtatious dance. "I'm plenty experienced."

"Good! Then I can count on you to do exactly as I've said without straying whatsoever."

Akira was watching her, like a dog eyeing a piece of meat, when he gave a little shrug. "Sure thing: if you wanna get fattened up like a cow and eaten by minotaurs...that's your own business." He breathed deeply, adding in a faint high-pitched squeak while at the top of his breath,

"Well you can keep on imagining, because it's not going to happen," she said confidently.

"Depends on how fucked up the author is feeling these days."

She blew through her lips dismissively. "This is a comedy, and everyone knows nothing super fucked up happens in comedies." She fixed her serious gaze firmly on Akira. "So after all this is done, we'll meet up later in Acquama Town...for donuts, and a cup of coffee." She gave a sweet, brief—blink and you miss it—ear-to-ear smile and a wink. "My treat."

Akira liked how she didn't ask, but rather made it sound like she was demanding they go in a date.

And if there was anything Akira appreciated, it was a woman with a strong backbone.

"You've got a deal. I'll catch up with you later, in..."

"Acquama Town. It's basically the newbie-friendly starting town of this game."

"Yeah, Acquama Town. Acquama Town, Acquama Town..." Akira kept repeating it, so that he would remember, while thinking it sounded vaguely Italian—like all the good name brands.

Until suddenly, Lazuli slapped her hand over his mouth.  "Shh! It's almost time."

The creature resembling a minotaur that had been hauling the cage had finally stopped.

It was set it beside a row of straw-laden pens, divided by long food and water troughs. Much like you would find in a cow farm...

However, these pens definitely weren't being used to hold cows.

Instead of animals...there were people: Dozens upon dozens of young women, of varying kemonomimi species, all dressed in rags positioned on all-fours to eat and drink from the troughs. Some wore blank, hollow stares while others engaged in cheerful side-chatter with one another—not unlike co-workers in an office meeting at the water cooler. While others looked as though a grey filter was applied over them, remaining still as statues, with a blaring red 3D banner rotating around them which read in wide, black text: "Offline."

Their body sizes ranged on a scale from slender to enormously fat, as the actual purpose for them being there was made immediately and abundantly clear:

Chop. Chop. Chop.

Akira heard a sound, like a butcher's knife, cutting through meat on a chopping board. Set against an equally stomach-turning ambient sound of boiling liquid, with a smell of cooking meat. A sight of a minotaur in a tall white [Chef's Hat] bobbing and down behind a giant steaming cauldron in the distance.

Akira needed no further hints to know what was happening: his imagination could fill in the blanks.

"So now, you see…" Lazuli said to him solemnly, while observing the terror shown upon his horrendously gawking face.

"I guess this game appeals to"—he gave a nervous laugh—"all kinds of fantasies."

"The problem is that the minotaurs don't ask first for permission: if they trap a new player character here, it's trapped for good. Until you're nice and fat and ready to be eaten."

"And then what?" Akira asked warily. "If you die in the game...do you die in real life too?"

"No," Lazuli said, "something that dangerous could never be allowed to exist on the open market. You'll just have to make a new character."

Akira felt a slight relief. "I guess that's not so bad then."

"Actually," Lazuli said, her eyes narrowed in silent rage, "I would say the reality is far worse..."

She then went on to explain, remaining as dead-serious and distantly cold as a combat veteran recalling a grim flashback to their life in a POW camp: what it's like to be fed against your will, knowing it was your only means of escape. How, because the feedings only take place at certain times of the day, you'll have to make room in your schedule...just so you can eat more.

"Sheeeesh!" Akira declared loudly. "I never imagined this game would be so dark."

"Me neither. It's a fad in gaming these days for everything to be gritty and realistic, but I never expected a player-run cannibal slave dungeon. Until I became more acquainted with this world..."

She stared Akira dead in the eye, plainly telling him the darkest truth about Maiden Quest:

"Akira-san, there's no moderation in this game at all."