Progression Log

—Volume 1: Chapter 1: Off Screen, before the arrival—

• Starting World: Highschool of the Dead, Tier 3, +85 Credits.

• Possession: Komuro Takashi, Tier 2 (-2)

• Stamp (Free): A magical tattoo that ensures a waifu's loyalty, friendship, and romantic and sexual interest in you, and nudges them in that direction toward your other waifus. Bonds between your waifus grow more quickly with increased interaction, but will not override familial relationships without significant pressure.

Waifu's obedience is not absolute. In general, waifus put the spirit of your orders over the letter. Strong-willed waifus may elect to ignore disliked orders and follow their initiative; more often, a competent waifu whose moral alignment conflicts with an order's means or ends will raise an objection and the two of you will have to argue it out. Bound waifus are also somewhat more likely, depending on their moral alignments, to consider "Just bind them and make them one of us" a valid solution to any problem involving a waifu candidate. Even the purest-hearted waifus can find themselves seduced by the power to turn any enemy into a friend.

To capture waifus, you may apply this tattoo using a thumb-sized ink stamp. Only you and your purchased and captured waifus can perceive the stamp when it's not in use. The most popular stamping sites are typically to the pubic region, lower back, or back of the neck. The inked part, on one end, contains the tattoo's core, a circular design that serves as your emblem. Newly-applied tattoos require 72 hours to ramp up to their full effect. Stamped targets only count as captured when the tattoo completes. A stamp's location on a target's body may be repositioned after the fact through the company app; a generated 3D model of the target serves as a reference.

During the ramp-up period, additional ink will fill itself in around your emblem to form a much more elaborate design, about the size of the waifu's palm, that represents her history and personality. Captured waifus and people they know will not notice a tattoo-in-progress until it completes itself, at which point they'll rationalize away its sudden appearance. Completed tattoos are always perceptible. If a tattoo's location is ever damaged or severed, its effects will continue and it will reappear when the skin is regenerated or the body part replaced.

The stamp never runs out of ink and cannot be used accidentally. If you are stamped, by yourself or another, it will only have cosmetic effects. If one of your waifus marks a new girl with it, the new girl will feel its effects as if you had used it on her yourself. The anti-lost, anti-theft, and anti-destruction measures on the Company's smart device also apply to this stamp.

• Sticky Fingers (-5): You know all the points that make a waifu melt. You can play her like a piano. Your very touch is electrifying. You are also a sexual savant. Keep a waifu on the edge long enough, and she'll promise anything to make it stop. With your skills, she'll be sure to keep that promise. This lure cannot affect targets who lack a sense of touch.

• Pocket Space (-5): You now possess a timeless extradimensional inventory space. This inventory may be accessed via an app on your smart device, Apportation, or certain Heritage perks. Transferring an item into the inventory via the app requires it to be in contact with you before transport. An item pulled from the inventory via the app will be deposited into your hand or within one meter of your position.

Your Inventory has a volume of 1x1x3m³. Living beings may be stored within, but not any resisting or unwilling ones. Stamped or otherwise bound waifus always count as willing and unresisting. Time does not pass within your Inventory, for good or ill.

• Body Talent (-10): You lift. Your body is now in perfect fitness and health, with significant muscle growth, within healthy human standards. If your natural height was less, you are now at least 190 cm tall — or will be, if you aren't yet fully grown. Your clothes are all resized and your muscle memory adjusted to fit. (You can ignore this height increase.) In the event of a mismatch, your body will retroactively change to match your gender identity, unless you created or maintained a mismatch with your choice of targets for Substitute or Possess. (You knew what you were getting into when you did that.)

All unwanted pre-existing medical conditions, from skin blemishes and unwanted body hair to chronic disease, missing limbs, detrimental genetic irregularities, and physical transformations are erased. (Cyborgs will find their reproductive system restored and augmentations optimized within their technological base.)

You are immune to further minor illnesses, but not diseases or injuries. All healing or medical operations performed on you will be complete without complications, residual pain, or unwanted scars.

This full heal will automatically trigger only once for each member of your waifus, including yourself: when you first purchase Body Talent or when the person joins your waifus, whichever happens second. The individual benefits of this Talent may also apply, at your discretion, to any/all of your purchased and captured waifu. Unwanted conditions are erased according to your wants, not theirs. If you purchased Extra, Substitute, or Possess, this perk will be retroactively applied to your new body, with the exception noted above.

Additionally, you can rapidly learn any non-supernatural athletic skills you encounter: acrobatics, physical sports, parkour, swimming, etc. Skills directly related to combat fall under Martial Talent instead, while supernatural extensions of skill are affected by Psychic or Soul Talents. This is an experience and skill acquisition multiplier, not a flat improvement, and scales to the strength and skill of your opponents and trainers: the better they are than you, the faster you learn, until you've caught up to them.

• Martial Talent (-10): You fight. You have prodigious martial talent and can rapidly learn any personal, non-supernatural combat skills you encounter, whether melee or ranged. Supernatural extensions of martial skill are instead affected by Psychic or Soul Talents. This is an experience and skill acquisition multiplier, not a flat improvement, and scales to the strength and skill of your opponents and trainers: the better they are than you, the faster you learn, until you've caught up to them. This also applies to command ability, not just personal skill.

• Wild Talent (-5): You camp. You have a knack for living in the wilderness, with a natural feel for how to identify and make use of edible food, potable water, suitable shelter, animal tracks, etc. You know how to ride a mundane horse. In worlds that don't use horses, you can quickly adapt your riding methods to whatever appropriate beasts are available.

• Body Defense Lv2 (-10): Requires Body Talent. You are immune to diseases, toxins, and targeted radiation. The immunity to certain afflictions is only acquired after you're infected with diseases, toxins, and targeted radiation. This is like how your immunity is building a resistance, though it is supercharged in this case. This perk still does not protect against injury or provide any sort of healing factor.

• Stress Defense Lv2 (-10): Get that dirt off your shoulder. You can act calmly under pressure and are immune to degenerative mental effects.

• Sexual Calibration (-2): The little inconveniences that can make sex less fun no longer apply to you. Your partners will always be as clean as needed and smell just as you like. If you have a refractory period, it is removed. Any unintentional or incidental damage that your sexual sessions might cause simply doesn't take place. This includes unwanted pregnancy and any complications of pregnancy; note that this perk cannot guarantee the desired pregnancy. Exhaustion will not be an issue for any participant in your sexual sessions until at least you are satisfied. You can extend all of this to your partners as well.

• Exit Stage Left (-5): The Company app in your smart device has a new feature. Its main display is simply a progress bar that measures everything you do in your current location, whether that's capturing local waifus, defeating baddies, or otherwise accomplishing story goals. Once the bar is full, a button on the screen will light up that opens a portal to a randomized new world within one danger level of your current one. These portals are one-way only and will last no more than two minutes or until you and all of your waifus have passed through, whichever is shorter. If any of your waifus stay behind, this perk will not help you retrieve them. If your destination world has a lower danger rating than your current one, a second "penalty" bar will appear above the regular progress bar. It must be filled before the regular progress bar will start to move. The larger the gap between the two ratings, the more work you'll need to do in the new world.

• Mapper (-10): This app offers maps of the current world you're on, with points of interest annotated. No information that could not be discovered by casually asking around is listed, so while a public-facing organization like a merchant's guild will be annotated, the local thieves' guild will not. This map will update itself if you discover a point of interest that would normally be left off of the map. You are also able to search for points of interest. Tapping on a point of interest (or the equivalent for your smart device) will bring up a short description of it. You can add any number of your own annotations to the descriptions. Descriptions will update in real-time if there are significant changes, such as a store closing.

• Target Tracker (-10): Requires Mapper. This app adds the ability to track any mobile target you take a picture of, whether it's a person, a vehicle, or anything else capable of moving under its own power, appearing as a stylized but recognizable icon of the tracked target. Basic status information will also be displayed if you tap on the icon. You can hide specific icons and cancel the tracking of a target at any time. You will need to take a new picture of a target once you cancel tracking if you want to resume.

Budget: 1

—Bought after the arrival—

• Siren's Song (-100): Your voice is supernaturally compelling. A whisper in the ear can give specific commands, a song can rally a crowd, and if you add musical accompaniment…

Additionally, take Performance Talent for free. Beings with sufficient willpower can resist or even block this lure. It will never affect someone who lacks a sense of hearing.

• Performance Talents (Free/Siren's Song bonus): You express. You have a prodigious talent in the kinesthetic arts: music, dance, acting, etc. This is an experience and skill acquisition multiplier, not a flat improvement, and scales to the skill of your trainers, cohorts, and competition: the better they are than you, the faster you learn, until you've caught up to them. Audiovisual and stage production are instead covered under Engineering Talent.

Credit: -99