You could do so many things in the game. You could go anywhere. It was a great game. That was not the case for the test NPC trial run. Having the experience before a final decision for the real game was a big game changer from other games in this genre. It was a novel idea and I benefitted from it. The trial runs last for one hour, which is about one day in game time. At the end, you could choose to make a new character in the character generation screen or make the trial avatar a real character for the game. I really liked this body and I really liked the storyline that was going on. To be honest, it was a no-brainer for me. I chose to make it real and permanent. Now that it was a real avatar, I could have more agency. Before I was limited in what I could say or do. As a slave, I would never be able to get out of slavery. As a gladiator, I would have to fight until I died in the pits. That could get boring if that was all I could do. Now, I could do anything that I wanted to do as Kyo Calico the nekojin gladiator. I could even try to escape or to make other relationships with all of the other slaves in the pits.
As the day closed, Fimzi, Nuzri and I were all at 2 out of 10 wins needed to get out of the pits. Chonmo and Anda were still at 1. That meant that they were going to have to make it up at some point to get their freedom along with us. It was not a guarantee that we would even be able to do that. We were 5 out of 50 slaves in the pits. Rich people also had their own private gladiator slaves as well. There was no telling when or what you were going to fight when you were down here. Popularity and fame also played a role in it as well. The cannon fodder was always churned out for people to watch them get slaughtered. However, if you were really popular or infamous with the crowds, they would trot you out more. On the other hand, that also might mean that they would hold you back for the special fights for big paydays. We were just starting out here, so it could be that we could be waiting for a while if we did not get the crowd going. And that was not the only concern either. The other slaves were a big and constant danger. If you were on the opposing side from them, all bets were off.
Being that there are so many types of slaves of different races, there were a lot of tensions that could pop off. It basically broke down into humans and demi-humans. If I was to be considered as a nekojin, that puts me on the side of the demi-humans. There were 2 slaves that had 8 wins each in the pits. One was Clover, a dark gray draft horse male centaur. He was known as "The Dark Horse" by the fans in the audience. The other was Alvin. He was a wheat blond, tanned young man with sky blue eyes that looked cute. He was called the "Golden Boy" by the fans. Both of them were undefeated. As a matter of merit, they were both famous. It also meant that it was a big deal to get their attention in any way. However, this was the gladiator pits. Nothing was so simple. Anyone who wanted help from them would need to give them a "favor" as payment. Since they had influence, they could get you an easier or harder fight. They could also arrange for you to get some tools or good potions that were of much better quality than what the slavers gave out. Their favors could be a bit too much though.
Casual sex and cruelty was not uncommon in the pits. The slavers would not get involved in any way as long as there were enough bodies to put on a good show. There was the Golden Boy that liked to fuck. That was not much of a surprise. If he did you a favor, he expected you to bend over and let him fuck you in the ass at the end. If you helped him out in some meaningful way, he would let you use his thighs to get off. Clover was similar. He was a big creature. Suck his dick and he'd do you a favor. I marveled at the blatantness of the situation. Do him a service and he would personally carry you in your next fight. Obviously, the rivalry between the races meant that they only honored favors of their sides. It did not mean that they would ignore a service done for them though. Even humans on the outs would side with a demi-human like Clover if it meant that they would survive. From what the other slaves told me, if such a thing happened, they would spare your life once if they met you in the arena as opponents. It was a disappointing state of affairs. I hoped that I would not need him.
