"I am sorry. Could you repeat the question?" Maybe Kilby just had misheard the interviewer.

So much depended on this job interview. Kilby needed it to pay the bills. But this was not just any job. Everyone was hyped for the new virtual reality MMORPG 'Gates Of Echo Online'. And if Kilby landed this job then maybe he got to play-test the game before anyone else. So far the interview had progressed well until one little question threw him out of the loop.

"Would you mind playing female characters?" The interviewer repeated.

Kilby tried to discern what the interviewer meant by that. However, their expression was unreadable as their avatar was designed to be. Something between genders. Facial features were pretty much non-existent. Much like a humanoid robot that gave up emulating humans halfway through.

"It is not my preferred gender," Kilby truthfully admitted. In fact, even with virtual reality he never had tried a female avatar. Didn't even toyed with the idea. "But if you don't have enough female beta testers I can help out."

"That is good to hear. Although we try matching the tasks with gender to an operator with the same gender it won't always be possible." The interviewer paused for a moment. As if unsure how to continue. "However, there is a slight misunderstanding. This job interview is not for a position of a beta tester. Are you familiar with our A.C.C.S.?"

Now, Kilby was confused. Why would the company hire 'seasoned players of virtual online roleplaying games' if not as beta players? Maybe if he impressed the interviewer enough, Kilby would find out. "It is that A.I. system the company unveiled at the last expo, right? Adaptive Content Creation System if I remember correctly."

"That is right," the interviewer confirmed. "One of our main features. The following is covered by the N.D.A. you signed earlier. This system works fine for creating quests and dynamic events. However, it is still very wooden and basic for subtle things. Like NPC interaction."

NPC stood for non-player characters. So every person in the game that wasn't controlled by a player. "In some way hiring me would elevate the problem," Kilby concluded.

"Correct. Fortunately, we anticipated the problem in the conceptual stage. We developers left open the possibility for employees to take over NPCs. The employees could then 'act' as said NPC. After enough time is passed the A.I. can then extrapolate fitting behavior for the NPC."

Kilby's mind switched into high gear. In essence, they needed someone to act like the NPC was supposed to act. Didn't sounds so hard. And as a gamer, it intrigued him that this game tried to have more than cardboard NPCs with a personality so thin it was comical. Kilby also spotted a way to win this interview and the job. "If I understand it correctly, I may be more suitable for the job than other applicants. I was in my school's drama club. It is by no way on a professional level, but I do have acting experience."

"We are aware. This is why you are in a closer selection for the job." The interviewer drummed their fingers on the table. The very fact that it sounded so realistically despite being in virtual reality still amazed Kilby to this day. In fact, virtual reality had reached a point in which the experience of both was hard to differentiate.

"There are just a few more details we have to discuss. In order to fulfill the job, it would be necessary for you to work in nine-hour shifts. As eight hours is the intended length of the day in the game. Do you think you can handle it?"

Kilby did his best to not smirk. "My record stands at forty-three hours. I know. That is far beyond the limit of healthy sessions. This was in my younger years. Nowadays I limited myself to a more reasonable timeframe of twelve hours. I don't know if it helps for you to know, but I have the latest long term model of the Sinclair Industries virtual bed."

The interviewer nodded. The rest of the questions was as easy as the last one. Kilby breezed through them. Finally, he heard the words he had been hoping for. "Well, Mister Matthews, welcome to the team."

* * * * * * * * * *

Kilby logged in and found himself in a futuristic white room full of plastics, chrome, and indirect white light. The lobby for the A.C.C.S. operators. He took a seat as others appeared and waited.

As always it was with a little anticipation. He had been an operator now for a month and had his little achievements to show for. One of the first non-player characters he controlled was a wood-worker. Supposed to carve some wooden beginner weapons. But in between customers - the few beta testers they had hired - it was boring as hell. They had warned Kilby it would be. In fact, this was part of why A.C.C.S. existed. In every game, the wood-worker would stand around waiting for the next customer. Maybe going through a few predetermined motions to animate him.

Thrown into the life of the wood-worker Kilby had started to play around with the tools of the profession. He produced misshapen animals carved out of leftover wood. It was pure boredom that had Kilby take up carving. The very fact was soon forgotten until his next assignment: a bartender. One of the town's guardsmen came by and showed proudly a few carved pieces of wood. Animals and such he saw from the top of the town's fortifications. Intrigued, Kilby visited the wood-worker in one of his breaks. The shop was littered with little carvings. Much more intricate than Kilby had managed. The system had picked up Kilby's behavior and implement it. More so it had given this quirk random NPCs in the virtual world.

A day later Kilby was asked to come into the office of his boss Mister Lloyd. Bracing for having fucked up somehow he was surprised that he was congratulated. The developers loved the carving hobby that the system picked up. It inspired Kilby and since then he tried to give every NPC something unique.

"Eyes up front."

Kilby was pulled out of his musing. Carter Lloyd stood at a podium in front of the room. It was the day for new assignments. Kilby wondered what NPC he would get this time. By all means, the handed out assignments were boring. A shopkeeper here. A farmer there. With each assignment read aloud Kilby gave a quick thought of what might be a fitting quirk or hobby for such an NPC.

"Kilby! Looks like you pulled your first bender."

Kilby gulped and waved off the smirks and laughs of his co-workers. A bender was a job that put you into an NPC of the opposite gender. He hadn't really dreaded it, but certainly, Kilby hadn't looked forward to it. He had also known that soon or later he would draw a bender assignment.

The details popped into his inbox. Briana was the NPC's name. She was a teacher and shopkeeper for players of the magical variety. Located in one of the designated starting areas of the game.

"Dismissed." Mister Lloyd stepped off the podium and the people started to scatter.

One of his co-workers let his hand fall on Kilby's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Good luck popping your bender cherry. Maybe you like it. You could switch with me every time I draw one."

"Very funny," Kilby remarked and brushed the hand off. Some of his co-workers were assholes.

A few quick commands and Kilby found himself in his own private lobby. As always the near instant change made Kilby's stomach a little queasy. As much as he loved virtual reality this was an aspect that needed some more work.

His assignment floated before him like a string of text written in lines of pure light. Briana the magical teacher for newbies. There was no sense in delaying it. Kilby braced himself as he touched the assignment.

The transition that followed was harder. For a moment everything vanished. Sight. Hearing. Even his body. Then it plopped back. A wooden shack greeted him. Shelves full of strange magical artifacts and arcane books. And looking down, a body not his own.

It was amazing - as always - how real virtual reality felt. It really had come a long way since it first had been invented. By now there was hardly a perceptible difference anymore. This meant the body Kilby possessed now felt real. But most of all it felt alien. It was subtle things that threw him off the most. Sure, suddenly he had breasts. That he had expected. Not the slight change in balance that resulted by it. In fact, trying to stand as he would normally soon made him feel like losing his balance.

It followed a little dance of over-compensation in this or that direction. Until he remembered that the game had a build-in instinctual assistance for bigger body changes. It had helped Kilby when he found himself in the body of a blacksmith with a hundred pounds more on his frame than Kilby's normal body. And it helped him now. After just a second he stood firmly again. Or rather Briana did as Kilby reminded himself. He had a role to play.

For now, he ignored the strange new sensations. Like wearing a dress - technically a robe - for the first time. To have long hair pull at his scalp. Or the added weight up front. Kilby cursed under his breath. Of course, the female NPCs were all busty. Sex sells after all and no one wanted unattractive NPCs. That meant a bust size that was big enough to satisfy the eyes of male players, but not big enough to annoy the female ones.

The shack was small. The room he was standing in had one side mostly open to a small dirt path and a big counter. Fairly standard for NPC shopkeepers. There was a small backroom that acted as storage. Not much else. The offered goods looked plain. Probably as they were starter gear. After all, a game needed progression. The truly impressive equipment was wrought out of dungeons and high-level quests.

On the counter was a book Kilby recognized. It always looked the same, yet the content was different. It contained Kilby's assignment and was always easy to find when he plopped into a new NPC. To distract himself from all things strange Kilby settled on studying the book.

Briana was supposed to teach new players the basics of the magic system. This alone excited Kilby as it was the first taste of the magic system he got since starting his job. With a content creation system, controlled by an A.I., spells were never the same. Each player would craft their own version. They may resemble each other, but all had their own flourish. At least that was what the developers promised.

To start a magical career was fairly involved and Kilby had to study the details. After all, if a beta player showed up Kilby - as Briana - had to explain it. Briana was also supposed to hand out a quest. An initiation rite to one of the four elemental paths of magic. It involved some knobby stick and pretty much poking things corresponding to the element one wanted to choose. Like a little scavenger hunt for the right object to poke. Kilby found it a little lazy on the creative aspect, but no one asked him.

After binding to an element Briana was supposed to hand out a starting rod or staff of the same element. Then trying to sell the players on some equipment that would be obsolete one or two player-levels later.

Having studied up Kilby tried to come up with a quirk or hobby for Briana. It proofed harder than he had thought. The shack was outside of town close to a pond were mischievous fairies played around. They were weak starting mobs players could hunt. That meant the shack bordered a small dirt pathway and was surrounded by a few trees and bushes. No one in their right mind would open a shop so far out of town. But this was a game and normal logic didn't apply.

Soon, Kilby found himself drumming Briana's slender fingers on the counter. Once more boredom had settled down on him. Maybe this would be the quirk he would leave her. The bored drumming of fingers. After all, she was alone out in the woods. It was fitting.

After two hours it got to him. Maybe it was the boredom. Or it was the curiosity that he tried to deny to himself. Kilby had to see how Briana looked. There was a mirror in the corner that he had ignored by now. It was maybe half the height of a full-length mirror. Enough to reflect Briana's face and a good chunk of her upper torso.

"Damn!" Kilby muttered under his breath. Some developers must have sprouted a boner while designing her. The girl starring back was leagues over being a simple shop keeper. Maybe she had been designed as a princess or an important quest NPC. Then her role was scrapped and her asset was recycled here. That was the only logic Kilby could come up with.

Briana looked mid-twenties. Beautiful face with high cheekbones and kissable lips. Her skin had some darkness to it. To someone who normally saw pale skin after pale skin in his surroundings, it looked exotic. Quickly chiding himself that this color of skin might be quite normal and boring in other parts of the world. Her face was framed by long tresses of black hair that cascaded down the shoulders and her-

Kilby swallowed. Damn, her breasts were things of beauty. Hesitantly, he raised his hands. Lightly cupping them. Not even managing to cover them by half. They felt kind of nice. He gave them a gentle squeeze. It felt good. Not the good that would let him moan out loud, but somewhat close to it.

Something bothered Kilby. Tried to get his attention. Did he hear whistling? At once Kilby let his hands fall down. Hiding behind his back. He looked around but could see no one. Yet the whistling became louder. There was a melody to it.

Kilby stepped to the counter and looked around. A lone guard leisurely walked down the dirt path. Seeing, Briana he raised his hand in greeting. Not a beta-tester as Kilby had feared. Only another NPC. But was it one currently controlled by an operator like Kilby?

"Hoy Briana!" the guard greeted as he stepped to the counter. "Do'in ma rounds. All quiet around here?"

Right, now Kilby remembered. In the assignment was written that a guard came by now and then. What was his name? Kilby couldn't remember.

"You are the first one I see today," Kilby spoke out loud. "Not even one wannabe apprentice of the magic arts came by so far."

"Well, still early in tha mornin' " The guard gave Briana a more discerning look. "You a'right lass? Lookin' a bit flustered."

More blood shot into Kilby's face. Now cursing how realistically virtual reality games have gotten. What was he to say? "Well, what do you expect? I just groped myself." Certainly, that wasn't the right answer.

"It is nothing," Kilby said instead. "Had to lift a box in the backroom. Left me winded a little."

"Ah see lass. Well, ah be going. Don't want no trouble with the capt'n."

The guarded waved goodbye and left. Leaving a cringing Kilby behind. What was that ridiculous accent? The guard had to be controlled by an operator trying to give the NPC some character. A huge fail. Or maybe it was the system? Mixing two accents together?

In any case, Kilby was alone again. Chiding himself for such a lack of judgment. Groping himself like that? What was he thinking? The system could pick it up and random NPC women would start to grope themselves too. He bet that wouldn't go well with the developers. Then again-

Kilby looked around. No one was there again. He gave his breasts a slight squeeze and a small moan escaped his lips. If no witness was around then who could tell? And maybe if Kilby didn't do it that often the system wouldn't pick it up?

After all, somehow a bored shopkeeper girl had to pass the time.

* * * * *

"Harems girl," Kilby said aloud. He had revised his earlier musing. Briana looked so sexed up she clearly was meant to be a harems girl. Or a courtesan. Brothel girl?

It was the second day of three in his Briana assignment. Damn, she was sexy. He even had dreamed about her this night. Not that he minded. It had been a pleasant one.

Once again he was bored. Nothing else to do but groping himself. Or was there? Kilby felt it. Briana's arousal. It had been strange at first. But he had gotten used to it. As far as someone can get used to arousal. It beckoned him to take a step further.

The guard had already been here and there probably wouldn't be any visitor in the next hour. Or in the next few. No one would miss him, right? The backroom was cramped, but a few novice cloaks build a decent enough makeshift bed. Slipping out of the robe proofed difficult, but not impossible. Then, Kilby stood alone in all of Briana's glorious nakedness.

It was the developer's fault, Kilby reaffirmed himself. Making this world so realistic. Creating Briana so real. Down even to-

Kilby steered Briana's slender fingers down. Between her legs. To the place of need that bothered him all morning. Explored the divine that blossomed with arousal. It didn't take long and Briana cried out in ecstasy. Voicing the deep satisfaction that Kilby felt.

Then Kilby cursed. Those damned developers. Too realistic. Way too good.

He tried for a second round.

* * * * *

Kilby giggled. One that would be wrong on his own lips, but right now he was Briana. It was the last day of his assignment. Soon it would be over and Kilby would have to say goodbye to being Briana. Maybe it was for the best. How many times had he masturbated as her in the last two days? Popping his bender cherry indeed. But Kilby had to admit he was getting addicted. Starting to crave the pleasure Briana's body could give him. Being forced to stop now might save him from going down a road he refused to acknowledge might exist. He had to stop. Now. But not before-

Outside the sky was already growing darker. The virtual day coming to an end. With it, Kilby's shift would end too. He had maybe one hour left. Just enough to satisfy one last curious thought. He laid down as Briana on the bed made of cloaks. Just like a few times before. Yet this time was different. In her slender hands was the knobby stick initiates should use to bind themselves to an element. It was the closest thing Kilby had found to a dildo.

Yes, he would do it. Himself. Well, herself. As the last act as Briana, he would learn how it felt to be penetrated. He placed the knobby stick to her netherly blossom. This was it. Euphoria and dread welled in him and mixed into an irresistible cocktail. A last deep breath and came out as a long moan as Kilby pushed it in.

A few last errant thoughts drifted through him. Should he really use the initiation stick for this? What was the worst that could happen? Maybe Briana would bind to water magic? Kilby shook those stray thoughts off. Only his need counted now. And Briana's. Because for a moment both were the same.

* * * * *

"Another day. Another assignment."

Spoken out loud these words didn't calm Kilby down. Briana was done. Time for a new assignment. Was that a good thing? Maybe he would get another bender assignment? Would it be like Briana?

Kilby shook forcefully his head. Briana had messed with his head more than he'd like to admit. But she was done. Time to move on.

Kilby's eyes focused on the floating button that would transport him to the shared lobby and to his boss Lloyd. There he would get a new assignment and in time he would forget about Briana.

The world shifted as the button was pushed. But Kilby didn't where he was supposed to go. No rows of seats. None of his co-workers were present. But he was not alone. Slightly raised off the ground a long drawn out desk stood before him. Behind it sat a row of people. Carter Lloyd - his direct boss - was one of them and as Kilby noticed everyone else was higher up in the company than him. In total, a dozen faced looked down at him. It left Kilby feeling like standing in front of a court and of being in deep shit.

"Mister Matthews," Carter Lloyd spoke up. "Glad you could join us. Please, take a seat."

Kilby swallowed. Hard. While Carter's choice of words was friendly, his intonation was everything but. Looking around, Kilby spotted a lone stool right behind him. Time to face the music. He sat down.

"Tell me, mister Matthews, how was your last assignment?"

Kilby weighted the words of his boss. It felt like the question was a noose for letting Kilby hang himself. He decided to be cautious. "Pretty boring, despite being my first bender assignment. Not much happened."

"And so you decided to change that? Have a little fun?" The question came from Kilby's right. A beautiful woman stared at him as if he was a pile of dog shit that she stepped into. Kilby looked at her nameplate in front of her. The name wasn't ringing any bells for him. Thankfully her title was visible below. She was the lead designer for the A.C.C.S. system."

"Okay. Fine. I admit it," Kilby gave in. "I was curious. Masturbated. But I made sure it was out of sight. I am sorry if the A.C.C.S. picked up the behavior, but at least the NPC's won't be doing it in public. I mean-"

"Mister Matthews." Carter Lloyds voice cut Kilby off. "Do you really think you are the first person to draw a bender and get curious? Then masturbate like crazy. Eleven times in fact. Which, believe it or not, is the middle field of first benders. It is quite normal to get curious. I fact, we anticipate that the first session of a bender assignment will be unusable. Subject to approval before the A.C.C.S. gets permission to incorporate the data."

"If that is the case why am I in so much trouble?"

"Can you explain what is going on here?" A wry man with weasel-like features ask. The nameplate identified him as head of the quality testing department.

Behind the man, a screen materialized. A video started to play in a loop. It was wire frames only. The contents of what happened stripped to the bare minimum. But it was obvious to Kilby what he saw. His last session as Briana. Furiously pumping the improvised dildo in and out.

Kilby started to answer but his voice left him. They had recorded it? A wave of embarrassment swept over him. This was humiliating. "C-Can't you just fire me and be done with it?"

"Oh for Christ sake," another man cursed. "No, we can't you fool."

There was murmuring at the table, but it was Carter Lloyd who addressed Kilby. "Tell us. Why did you use the initiation stick to frick yourself of, Mister Matthews?"

Kilby shrugged. What were they even after? He answered with what came first to his mind. "It was the most phallic looking thing I could-"

"You piece of shit broke my system because you needed a penis in you?" Kilby's head snapped around to the woman who was the lead designer for the A.C.C.S. system. She looked pissed off and ready to jump over the table and strange him. "Do you know how much you fucked it up? All because you are a horny little fucker who needed something between-"

"Jennifer!" the weasel face guy shouted out. "Calm yourself. And for you Mister Matthews, she right. You fucked up. Fucked us. Figuratively while doing yourself literally. The stick you used is to initialize the bond between a player and a chosen elemental school. The system tried to interpret you poking yourself with it repeatedly. Your body, or rather the NPC you inhabited, didn't count as any element the system could recognize. So it reasoned that there must be a new type of magical category and you trying to bind yourself to it."

"The system is designed to allow for that," Carter Lloyd continued. "In fact, it was supposed to be a hidden feature. It can create any more advanced magic system you know from gaming or books. Divine magic, necromancy, and whatever else. We just never thought someone would misuse the initiation item like that." He gave Jennifer a pointed look. "Though I did warn about possible magic variants that would be hard to control."

The lead developer stared back with a poisonous glare but remained silent.

"So it will create- What? A sex-based magic?" Kilby asked confused.

"If it could, yes," Jennifer hissed. As the lead developer turned back to him, she still gave him a stare that tried to kill him on the spot. But she was calm enough again to explain. "But someone logged out too soon. Since the end of your shift, the system is dedicating more and more resources to create a matching magic system, but it lacks input. Trying to create something from a vacuum is breaking the A.I. itself."

"So you need someone to go inside and give it more information?" Kilby reasoned.

Carter sighed. "Not just anyone. You, Mister Matthews. Part of the N.P.C. teaching system is that each assignment is tied to an operator and only closed once approved. However, the dilemma we face is outside of the assignment but linked itself to it. Even if we delete the assignment data the system still would try to create the new magic system. In laymen's terms, it has to be you, in the N.P.C. named Briana, and it has to be soon."

Kilby swallowed. He thought he had left Briana behind. Her body and all her feelings had been intoxicating. Now, it looked like he had to drown in it. Or else- "What if I don't do it."

"That is easy to answer." It was a dark-skinned woman on his left that answered. She was smartly dressed and had a no-nonsense look on her face. Her plate identified her as head of the legal team. "We will sue you for kingdom come. If the system crashes because of you then you can bet that the company will take you down with it."

"If it crashes? Can't you just use a back-up?"

"It is too big," the weasel-faced man answered. "It is one of the unfortunate drawbacks of a system so complex. The data it generates is massive. Creating back-ups - even incremental ones - takes time and is very expensive. We can afford one. Per year. Unfortunately, the last complete one was ten months ago."

So it was his fault they had made bad management decisions? Kilby knew that they wouldn't care if he pointed that out. For them, he was the scapegoat. Kilby didn't doubt that they would do their most damn to make his life miserable if their company tanked. There was only one thing he could do. "I do it. Become Briana again. Help make this magic system."

Now someone spoke up who remained quiet until now. A man with grey hair and eyes that spoke of a fascination with dissecting things. The CEO. "Wonderful. Told you he would co-operate, didn't I. Not sure why you all blew such a gasket. Carter, I leave the rest to you."

The man vanished and others followed. Even Jennifer, the lead developer, gave Kilby a last poisonous look and vanished too.

"You really fucked up, Kilby," Carter said with a sigh as soon as they were alone. "Fucked us both, to be honest. You just sawed three of my four chair's legs off. Hell, same for the company."

"Sorry," Kilby volunteered.

"Sorry?" Carter leaned forward. "The CEO might play it cool, but listen. You made yourself the linchpin of this company. If you can't pull this off then- Listen. For the next few days. Weeks. Months. You will become Briana. Spend every single moment of your life that you can as her. Only get out to sleep or eat. Every other second you have to spend as her and try to create this magic system. If not a lot of people will be out of options. Got that?"

Kilby nodded. There was not much else to say. With a ding, an updated assignment for Briana appeared beside Kilby. Mentally bracing himself, Kilby accepted it.

* * * * * * * * * *

Kilby blinked a few times and tried to gather his wits. He was Briana again. The body was surprisingly familiar after only three shifts in it. But why was Briana outside of her hut? Confused, Kilby looked around. He was out in the woods, but it looked familiar. Just a few steps brought him to the dirt path that leads to Briana's hut.

It was a small hike and soon Kilby arrived. But something confused him. Another NPC stood behind the counter and gave Kilby a wide grin. "Welcome traveler," she greeted him. "Would you by any chance interested in learning the mystical ways of the mana. There are four elemental paths to walk and-"

The NPC paused and looked bemused at Kilby. "I see you are already bound to magic, but not one I recognize."

"It's a new one," Kilby managed to press out through Briana's lovely lips. "I don't know how to call it yet."

"I see." The NPC immediately cheered up. "In that case, you need starter gear! Here take this simple rod of elemental conduct and a cloak of aspiring aspirants. Those are free."

"T-thanks," Kilby pressed out. Then blushed. The very cloak he was now holding must be one of those he used as bedding when he explored Briana's body.

"I need to put you in my book as a recipient. What is your name?"

"Kil-" He broke off. "It is Briana."

"Family name?"

Kilby frowned. It had been in the orientation book for Briana. Back when it had been a simple assignment. "Something like O Rothlain or so."

"Got it." The NPC gave Kilby a beaming smile again. "Say, you look like an astute young woman. Would you mind helping me out a little?"

Kilby suppressed a sigh. It was like the NPC tried to remind him that he was now trapped as a woman for the foreseeable future. "Sure?"

"Down that path is a pond. I used to go there all the time, but lately, mischievous pixies are fooling around there. Could you teach them a lesson?"

At first, Kilby wanted to decline. It was a stupid starter quest. Barely worth his time. But then he remembered his new obligation. To flesh out this new aspect of magic he created by accident. This might be the perfect opportunity to take the first steps.

"I got it." With those words, Kilby turned around. The walk down the path was actually nice. Once again marveling about Briana's body. It was less a walk and more like gliding down the path. An elegant little dance she performed as long as Kilby let Briana's instinct take over.

All too soon the pond was close. Kilby could already see the pixies flying around. Hovering in the air in wide apart spaces so players could take on each one individually.

Kilby readied himself. He got this. Or rather Briana got it as he was her right now. To steady herself, Briana smoothed down her robe and pulled out her rod. It was time to teach those pixies a lesson. She raised her weapon and-

"Shit. I am screwed," Briana cursed aloud. Her thoughts racing faster and faster until it bubbled outward. "How the hell am I supposed to defeat anything with sex magic?!"

At that moment Kilby knew that he would be Briana for a longer time than he thought as the task was a lot harder than he anticipated. Who would he be when he eventually free himself of Briana. And by that time, would he even want to? He was fucked indeed.