Emily was walking on the road for what felt like an hour. It had gotten more lively once Karyn came back, but it was still kinda boring. The game had been mostly silent since it brought back the tutorial, only answering questions about the game like it did before. They quickly understood they would have to wait for it to choose to talk to them if they wanted to know more.
And so, they decided to concentrate on what they could do for now. That meant doing the tutorials she skipped for Karyn and walking for Emily. They learnt some items would have special properties that could be detected with the magic eyes, Changing their descriptions and adding stars to their names.
A full star★ meant they had discovered one of these properties while an empty star☆ meant that there were some still undiscovered. There could be up to five full stars★ attached to an object but only one empty star☆, meaning Emily and Karyn wouldn't know how many effects an item had before discovering all of them. While Karyn was struggling with the concept, Emily liked it a lot, saying it was something she'd like to see in other video games.
The rest of the tutorials were less interesting for Emily, but she still learned some things. The abilities were indeed passive, but that made them impossible to level up normally. Instead, they would level up when they'd accomplish certain requirements, though the game didn't give any example.
They also learned a bit of backstory. Apparently, the house they'd came from was Emily's brother's, who had disappeared a week ago, and Emily had come to try to find him, only bringing the clothes on her back with her. When she arrived, the evening before, she found the house empty but full of junk everywhere. But it was late and so she decided to go to sleep and start her search in the morning.
"Well... It looks like the search for this brother will begin with buying new panties." Said Emily while scratching herself and blushing. She still wasn't used to the sensations it gave her, but she wasn't going to ignore her urges anymore. "I'm supposed to have only come here with these clothes, couldn't they at least be comfortable?"
"Yeah! And who travels with only their clothes and not even a little money?" Karyn added.
"That's probably just a pretext to make us start with nothing." Explained Emily. "Almost every game is like that. You start with nothing, or if you don't, you quickly lose what you have."
"That's not very well done here."
"A lot of the time, there's not even an explanation as to why you have nothing, you just start that way or with very little... Though I guess they at least have clothing on to begin with..." Emily complained.
Karyn just nodded a little and they stayed in silence for a minute, Karyn simply watching Emily walk. The town was now close enough to discern the different houses but there were still some times before they got there. "Hey, J... Emily!" Karyn sighed. "I promise I'll get it right one day!" She said jokingly, making Emily laugh a little, but she soon got serious. "Emily, do you... Do you want to be a girl?"
That made Emily stop. "What? No! Why would you ask that?"
"Well... You wished for a game you would enjoy, and until now, a lot of it has been making you more feminine and... I can't talk in detail about the punishments, but... The one I gave you should tell you something about the rest."
"I promise, Karyn. I never wanted to be a girl!" Emily answered without hesitation. "I don't know why the game I'm supposed to be enjoying would do that. I'm not even sure if I really wished to enjoy it at that point. Maybe I thought I did, but I never read the last part aloud."
"Maybe you actually want to be a girl but never realized it?" Karyn proposed.
"I can assure you it never even crossed my mind. And even in the unlikely event I end up feeling better as a girl, why would a game I enjoy give me punishments or itchy underwear... That doesn't make sense."
Karyn hesitated. "Well... I suppose you're right... But I don't think you would be so careful as to write your wish and so careless as to not read part of it..."
Emily shrugged as she started walking again. "Your guess is as good as mine... I can say there's at least some aspects of the game I enjoy. The system with the magic items looks like it could be really cool, and just looking through the menu feels pretty close to what I imagined when I made the wish. But there's a lot more I don't like."
Karyn stayed silent, not knowing what to say, until Emily added. "You know, you can speed up time if you want. I appreciate you wanting to stay with me, but it looks like it'll take at least fifteen minutes more before we reach the town."
"Are you sure?" Karyn asked. "It doesn't bother me to stay with you."
"Don't worry." Emily reassured her. "If this is only the tutorial, there will probably be a lot of much longer road than that later, Might as well get used to it now while it's still not too long." She saw Karyn was still hesitating, so she added. "Go! You have other things to do, unlike me. We might as well get as far as possible while you can still play!"
That seemed to convince her. "Alright J... Emily. You're right. Then I'll see you in town?"
Emily smiled. "See you in a bit!" And with that, Karyn nodded and pushed the speed up button.
