The Testing Area

Mike had finally entered the slums and was now moving around the near-deserted streets in an attempt to find someplace that was not occupied where he could test out the effects of his new accessory the [Fear Mask]. Unfortunately, it seemed like that all the dark decrepit alleyways were occupied by street thugs and gang members beating up people or threatening them so Mike could not use them right now.

'Where the heck were they when I was being chased?' Mike thinks to himself as he just avoided those places as he did not want to get involved with them

So Mike instead has to go someplace that he never thought that he would ever step in no matter what world he was in. Mike walked into a brothel. (Authors notice: Get your mind out of the gutter this is not that kind of story I am not going to write anything R-18 for the novel and as for this situation I try my best to come up with situations that I find particularly funny alright. I mean testing new items effects at a brothel is something interesting)

Entering the brothel Mike could see that this was a lot more different than he expected it to be as this place seemed to be a lot cleaner than expected as the outside of the building was actually quite crappy compared to the cleaner interior that was laid before him. The area he was in reminded him of a receptionist's area as there was a small wooden counter ahead of him that with the rest of the place was surrounded by heavy set velvet curtains that prevented Mike from seeing anything else.

As for how he knew this was a brothel well besides the decor, there was also a wooden sign that had a lady on it, and also the occasional person entering the place while watching their back kinda gave it away unless Mike was completely wrong. Still, Mike decided to do it here as he could potentially find a good person to use his future non-lethal items on as a test to see the effects that they did.

"Oh hello, sir how may I help you?" A lady with slightly white skin comes up to him from beyond the curtains wearing scantily dressed clothing which would draw the attention of any man to her body easily

Mike however was a man of principles and gusto so he was not affected by her womanly charms from her meager and dainty clothing as he had an iron will forged through roleplaying games and similar scenarios. Plus he had average looks in his opinion so Mike knew that this lady was not attracted by that but the potential size of his wallet if he had one back on Earth. So his gaze stayed true as he looked into her eyes instead of elsewhere.

"Hi, I was wondering if you offer private rooms?" Mike asks

"Ha looking to have some fun eh bro?" Abbey says

'Can it alright you know why I am here in the first place. This the only place nearby that had someplace I could test my new mask without raising suspicion or getting myself in trouble with the local gangs alright' Mike replies to her

"Yeah right you could just have gotten more towards the center of the slums or looked around harder but you gave up so easily and came in here, you wanted to have some fun right?" Abbey asks again

'...' Mike does not reply to this as he soon realized that her thinking was right

'Yes...'

Mike finally answers Abbey prompting her to shout for join in his mind as she was happy that for some reason. Apparently, Mike did not have an iron will and still was unable to go against his human nature.

"Um, sir?" The lady says pulling Mike away from Abbey

"Ah sorry I zoned out from your beauty," Mike says

'Wait why did I say that!' Mike was not one for relationships and here was in a brothel and flirting with one of the employees of the business

"Nice try I give that a 5 out of 10 on that attempt buddy," The lady says as she thinks that Mike is just trying to get a lower cost out of her or something

"Ah sorry about that. You were saying?" Mike asks clearly embarrassed by what he had just said

"We do offer private rooms to use they cost 3 gold coins per hour for the regular rooms, 8 for the premium, and 25 for unrestricted premium," The lady says

"What are the differences between them?" Mike asks as he wants to show that he actually is interested

"The regular rooms have less room and are a bit lackluster when compared to the premium rooms but the premium rooms are a lot more comfortable and you can gain more access to some of our more experienced workers here, Unrestricted premium allows you to take as many workers as you can, handle," The lady says really casually scaring Mike a bit

"I will go with the regular premium I don't need unrestricted," Mike answers as he takes out eight gold and hands it to the lady

She accepts it and places it on the unmanned counter and brings Mike behind the curtain. Mike was not really sure what he was expecting but it was just the rest of the building that had a similar layout to a tavern or inn but it was a lot larger, with more rooms on the first floor, and even a stage in the middle of the place. Since it was in the middle of the day Mike saw that there were not that many people 'working' right now. Still, the lady that Mike was talking to led him down the hall past many open doors and up a set of stairs to probably the premium area.

The second floor was just a hallway with multiple doors that were open as well.

"No one is really here know so you can use any room you want for however long you want," The lady says as she gestures to the rooms

"Is there soundproofing in them?" Mike asks

"A few of the rooms do," She says as she leads him to a room and gestures inside

Inside there was a very big bed up against the wall that could easily support three to four people lying on it while there was a couch on another wall with a dancer's pole was in front of it.

'What did I get myself into' Mike thinks as he enters the room and looks around

"Rules are you-"

"I am gonna cut you off there alright" Mike cuts in

"I don't plan on doing anything here I just wanted someplace to be so you don't really need to tell me any of the rules regarding what I can and cannot do in this place as I am not really planning to... you know?" Mike goes on

The lady just raises her eyebrows in confusion at what Mike just said not sure if he was telling the truth or just spewing bull about not planning to do anything.

"Alright then, but I still have to tell you the rules," She says

"Fine then just do it"

"No harming our workers if you do you won't be allowed to leave without losing something" She starts causing Mike to unconsciously gulp

"No damaging of property or else you are gonna have to pay or lose something, you should tell us if you have anything contagious as we don't want to lose one of our workers anything, and finally don't cause trouble for anything else alright?" The lady says

"Um... yeah but how exactly do I get someone here?" Mike asks

"Pull that cord over there and someone will hand you a list of people that you can have in here. Anything else?" She asks as she pointed to a string that went into the ground near the door on the inside

"No I am good thanks," Mike says and the lady leaves

'Jeez' Mike thinks to himself as he sits on the giant bed

"So what you gonna do first?" Abbey asks

'Revaluate my morals and life choices' Mike says sarcastically

"I don't think that will help someone like you," Abbey retorts

With that Mike closes Abbey off and moves to the string that the lady mentioned and pulls as he has resigned himself to following through with his decision. After he pulled on the string he takes out the [Fear Mask] from his inventory and tosses it onto the bed to test it out soon.

A few moments later a knock on the door is heard and Mike opens it to see a short-statured girl standing there in similar skimpy clothing as the first lady, just in different colors.

"You rang?" The girl asks

"Um yes I did," Mike answered as he pulls open the door and allowing the girl to come in

"So how does this work?" Mike asks

"Oh I am here to please you," The girl says extremely causally like the first girl

"..."

Mike has nothing to say to the girl as he is not here to indulge in his primal desires but to just test his new equipment from the system.

"Did the lady who brought me here not mention anything?" Mike asks

"No, she just said that you were a strange customer that I had to be careful with"

"..." Mike has nothing to say

"So are we going right into it or are you wanting a show instead?" The girl asks

"Ah! Neither I don't want to do anything with you alright!" Mike says quickly as the girl was moving towards the bed

"Oh, so you don't like me?" The girl asks

"No that is not it, I just don't want to do anything here with anyone alright I just came here to test something alright," Mike says

"Test something?" The girl asks as she is confused and starts thinking about something

Now that the girl was in the room Mike actually had a good look at her since his eyes suddenly decided that wandering was one of their tasks for the day.

The girl was short and only went up to Mike's chest at best, with a decent figure with nothing being too enormous or taking up to much of her body, a sort of natural beauty that did not need any sort of makeup, emerald green eyes, blonde hair, and slightly tanned skin.

'Why in the Nine Hells [1] am I here?!' Mike shouts out in his mind

"Ah, so you have some sort of fetish!" The girl says out loud as if she had made a huge discovery

"I don't have a fetish!" Mike shouts

"Sure..." Abbey chimes in

'I am not going to deal with two of you at the same time alright!' Mike yells at Abbey as he restricts her in his mind as best he can as he just cuts the connection between them

"Look I don't think talking to you will help anything so here is what I want you to do. Go sit on that couch and don't take off anything or move while I get ready, alright?" Mike says as he tries to calm down and do what he came to do

The girl just nods her head in confirmation as she goes over and sits on the couch waiting for Mike to 'prepare' himself.

Mike rubs his temples as he feels a headache at doing something so simple at some place so weird and the fact that he is having trouble testing the mask is just annoying him tremendously. He would love to just leave but he already paid and wanted to get his money's worth from this place and get out as quickly as possible. So without further ado, Mike puts on his [Fear mask].

Surprisingly he can actually see through it even though it looked like he could not while he also found that it was not that difficult to breathe in it. Still, Mike only came to test its effects so he turns around looks at the girl who was just sitting on the couch, and activates the mask's effects.

______________________

1. Nine Hells- Hell consists of nine layers in the D&D world with layer each having all sorts of demons, creatures, and a singular being on each that could destroy a continent or world easily if given the chance. Want a more detailed explanation than just search it up online as it comes from D&D.