VR Stress Management: Virtual Reality Experience Program
> Well then, I shall begin the procedure! I'll explain as we go! First, we open this packaged liquid-metal nanomachine…
"It was… stored inside you…? Wait — was it built in…?"
> Hmm… I… understand your meaning, Miss Sonia! Since it was stored inside my body, I believe "built in" is the correct expression, Miss Sonia!
Sonia had imagined a syringe-like apparatus shooting out from somewhere deep within the machine. Instead, two small robotic arms emerged.
One held a tiny eyedropper bottle of the sort you might find at a department store or a repair shop; the other was already peeling the packaging from the bottle with practiced ease.
With a soft slosh-slosh, the arm gave the bottle a gentle shake so the mercury-smooth silver liquid mixed thoroughly. Then the other arm carefully tugged the skin around Sonia's navel outward on both sides — ensuring the nanomachines would soak all the way into the hollow of her belly button.
> The Navel Plug Port draws its power directly from the body's own nutrients, so it is a semi-permanent modification requiring no additional nutrient fluid or maintenance!
> The procedure itself ends once this organic-erosion nanomachine — the liquid metal — has filled your navel completely. However, you will need to remain lying in this position until the nanomachines have fully integrated, Miss Sonia!
"Oh… that's surprisingly simple! I thought the upkeep would be a hassle…"
The explanation that she need only leave it alone like an ordinary navel left Sonia genuinely astonished. This was the first time she was experiencing cutting-edge technology firsthand, with her own body. Wonder lit her golden eyes with bright curiosity.
> Very well — beginning now!
The two robotic arms moved in perfect coordination. One inverted the eyedropper bottle of silver liquid and locked it directly above Sonia's navel; the other continued gently spreading the skin so the navel formed a little recessed bowl. Then, drop by drop — just like administering eye medicine — the liquid-metal nanomachines began to fall into Sonia's belly button.
Plip… plip… slosh… plop… plip…
"I-it tickles… ahah… nn… I-I can't move, though… nn…"
She knew she wasn't supposed to move, yet every time a cold droplet touched the sensitive flesh inside her navel, her body gave a little twitch. The sensation of mercury-like nanomachine beads filling a place she almost never even touched — the strange feeling of her skin seeming to suck the cold liquid inward, slick, slick — left Sonia barely able to hold back her soft moans.
It wasn't that Sonia's skin was accepting the nanomachines. The organic-erosion nanomachines were rewriting Sky City hero Sonia's soft navel from the inside out, reshaping it to cold, rigid machine specifications.
> Time remaining until procedure complete: 8 hours 58 minutes, Miss Sonia. To ensure a comfortable integration, I will induce sleep. Is that all right?
"Yes… please… do…"
Exhaustion crashed over her all at once. The moment Sonia accepted the AI's suggestion, the deep, dark optical illusion she had seen earlier reappeared before her eyes. Her consciousness slipped without resistance into the black spiral, and she sank into a profound sleep.
"Nngh… aaah…"
Blink… blink… The deep, peaceful curtain of dreamless sleep lifted away.
Sonia's eyelids fluttered and slowly opened. Through still-hazy vision, the familiar ceiling of her own living room came into focus.
She was still inside the machine apparatus, her body lightly secured and reclined against the backrest. The sensation of her body responding before her brain had fully woken was vivid and sharp.
A Sky City hero's physique — far sturdier and healthier than any ordinary person's. The moment the sleep-induction pattern vanished at the precise end of the procedure, Sonia's body woke as naturally as if responding to the morning birdsong drifting in through the window.
She stretched with a long mmph, and every muscle that had stiffened over nine hours relaxed with delicious relief.
> Are you awake, Miss Sonia? Please check your Navel Plug Port! The cyber-implant body-modification procedure has been completed perfectly! There are absolutely no side effects! You can now use this device at full capacity, Miss Sonia!
> If you have any personal appointments to attend to, please prioritize those, of course!
Along with the cheerful guidance tone, the backrest that had been holding Sonia reclined shifted smoothly upright again.
With a soft hiss, the door opened, and the warm sunlight of a late morning — half breakfast, half lunch hour — poured in through the living-room windows.
On any other day she would have sat down at her computer as usual. She would have browsed the Sky City public request board for technical jobs like facility inspections or safety management and gotten ready to head out.
(It was just a simple patrol mission… but for a while, at least, I won't have to worry about the Nebulix monthly subscription or grocery money…)
A warm sense of relief spread through Sonia's chest. Of course, she hadn't written a single false word in her report.
That the Association had accepted without question her almost unbelievable combat record — neutralizing dozens of drones in a chain of explosions — and immediately deposited a generous corresponding reward was, she believed, entirely thanks to the Association's trust.
Sonia did not realize. That was not trust.
Megacorp had, through its "Association Regulations Training," engraved into Sonia's subconscious the ironclad principle of reporting to the Association with absolute honesty.
They weren't trusting Sonia. They were trusting the perfection of their own mind-modification technology.
Processing the report without suspicion was nothing more than a verification step confirming that the brainwashing had been successfully completed.
Sonia simply and pure-heartedly mistook it for the Association believing in her because she was an honest hero who had completed her training well — and she felt a swelling, heartfelt emotion.
Of course, with not a single coin of savings to her name, she was destined to keep working as a hero eventually. But for at least a few days, it was enough money to lounge around the house enjoying potato chips and cola.
(…Honestly, if I'd just gotten my proper share of the money from selling that wizard's hat — that rare item — from Luce, I could have loafed around for another whole month…)
Rather than thoughts of saving, it was that money she was supposed to receive split eight ways. Remembering her share that had vanished into thin air because of that pathetic knight from Luce's party, Sonia clicked her tongue.
— "Ahem… My apologies. I am thoroughly ashamed."
— "I never said I wouldn't pay. I'd simply prefer you not mention this to the others."
"Ugh…"
Recalling the Knight's shameless attitude, irritation creased Sonia's brow again.
The way Luce — who bore responsibility for managing the party members — had bowed her head and apologized in the Knight's place only made Sonia feel more uncomfortable.
Half of her wanted to report the whole thing to the police or the Adventurers' Guild right now; the other half insisted she hold back for her friend Luce's sake.
> You're up, Miss Sonia! The Navel Plug Port modification is complete! Please be careful not to disrupt your daily rhythm, and when you wish to use the device again, simply insert your ID card. It has an automatic power-saving function, so there's no need to unplug the cord — just for your reference!
> Oh, and! A package just arrived at your door. Please check it. Now then — shutting down the system.
Thwip…! Clack.
Like a card payment terminal, the machine lightly spat out Sonia's resident registration card it had swallowed, and with those final words every light went dark as it fell into silence.
"…Ah, a package?"
Standing there blankly for a moment at the absurd sight, Sonia remembered the AI's last words and headed for the front door.
Slightly oblivious, she failed at first to notice the plastic pack hanging from the doorknob and muttered, "There's nothing here… oh?" — before finally finding it.
Inside the sealed plastic pack stamped with the seal of the Association she had just joined was the Type-A bodysuit she had seen in the catalog.
It was a clean, futuristic design of dazzling pure-white latex, with cybernetic lamps fitted here and there across its surface.
A full-body bodysuit-type armor that left her deep cleavage and navel fully exposed — quite revealing, but guaranteeing correspondingly superior performance. Thoughtfully, a dedicated application powder for putting it on had been included as well.
"Sh-should I… try it on…? Just once… it's my first time…"
Holding the custom-made bodysuit the Association had sent her, Sonia swallowed dryly.
A white bodysuit that boldly exposed the lines of her chest and navel, yet had cybernetic parts layered over each joint of her body.
Oddly, a pair of parts shaped like mechanical cat ears had been included separately. They weren't a headband, so without some kind of Lego-block-style socket to plug them into on her head, she had no idea how they were supposed to be used.
It was as if the blank-faced Association staffer's expression — the one that had said, "This much is common knowledge, isn't it, Miss Sonia?" — was floating before her eyes again.
"Ah, right… I got the navel modification… I don't feel anything different, though…"
Before trying on the latex bodysuit, Sonia decided to stand in front of the mirror and check her navel.
After nine hours of procedure, her ordinary belly button had been remade into a cyber-implant: the Navel Plug Port.
At a glance, the reflection in the mirror looked no different from before. Still that ordinary, faintly lewd navel tracing an alluring curve. Even if she walked around in the Association-issued bodysuit with its high exposure, no one would think anything of it.
Press…
"Ah…? Euhah?! Hnngh… haaah…♡"
Out of curiosity, she pressed a finger lightly against the modified spot — her navel. A faintly firm texture beneath the skin. The moment Sonia pushed a little harder inward, the port — mistaking it for a connected data cable — threw an error signal.
A powerful electrical pulse raced from her fingertip through every nerve in Sonia's body.
The result that formed in her mind, the reaction her body produced, was not pain but a pure storm of pleasure.
Her chest trembled as she gasped for breath. Her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the living-room floor — an inevitable result. In the shock, Sonia's nipples stiffened hard, announcing their presence.
"Eh… uh… amazing… it's amazing… this is weird… I only… pressed my navel… and it feels… it feels…"
She almost pressed her navel again to feel the sensation once more — nearly flinging open the door to a whole new world of "navel masturbation."
Whether lucky or unlucky, a loud gurgle from her stomach managed to catch the fraying thread of her reason.
"Eek… come to think of it, I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday… I went to the Association at lunchtime… rode the Slave Walker… ugh… just thinking about it makes me feel weird…"
And so, after finishing breakfast, Sonia — who would normally have pressed the computer's power button with her usual greasy fingers to look for requests — found those same greasy fingers reaching for a different machine today. The large refrigerator-like silver box: the virtual-reality VR experience device.