Cultivating Anthro CEO RPG Hero Harem Reincarnation In Another World

Akira reached [Level 2] from going won to hunt many more [Starved Wolves], while Vash mostly stayed back to watch and provide occasional medical assistance.

Throughout her battles, many of what Vash referred to as "drop items" were attained, since the way it worked--much to Akira's bafflement--was that, sometimes, when a wolf would disappear after being killed, an item would be left lying on the ground. Mostly, it was predictable, "normal" things like [Wolf's Fang] or [Mangy Fur], but occasionally really weird stuff like [Tapioca Pudding] or the armor pieces Vash had mentioned.

"Wait, no!" Vash hurried to try to stop Akira from dipping her tongue into the [Tapioca Pudding], which was brightly orange colored and came in a palm-sized plastic sealed cup. 

However, he was too late, as Akira's face was filled with instant regret.

"Ppfft!" As soon as she'd lapped some up, she immediately spat out the horribly, slimy, disgusting goo that tasted like raw soil--with a gooey, mushy texture not unlike pond scum.

"Why didn't you say anything?" She snapped at Vash, tossing the rest of the gruel away with a sweep of her arm.

He fell back, rolling in laughter. 

"It isn't funny, you asshole!" Akira seethed.

"Why did you just eat something you just picked up off the ground, though?"

"I-I-I don't know!" she stammered, crossing her arms as she stuck up her lip and showed him her side. "This world doesn't make any damn sense!"

Still, in a way it came as somewhat of a relief to Akira on a deeper, primal level. If only because a world in which unlimited supplies of high quality items could be easily obtained, from simply killing wolves and the like, sounded terrible for business.

Regardless of her concerns for theoretical profit margins being satiated, her stomach groaned from having been denied its sustenance yet again. 

"Aww. It looked so good, too…"

Ceasing his laughter, Vash rested a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. 

"Disappointing, I know. Food dropped by monsters heals a small amount of HP, but always tastes bad," he said, his eyes unconsciously wandering over Akira's body...

She was fully decked out in a set of new armor parts dropped by the wolves, with a pair of fingerless brown wolfskin gloves. Rugged grey hide sandal boots. A fur-collared grey wolf's hide midriff top, with exposed cleavage, and exposed brown wolfskin bra through the gaping side windows. A white fur-coated miniskirt bottom, with a hiked brown wolfskin thong--all of it combining to give Akira a look best described as 'a gritty, lowbrow Fantasy furry hooker.'

Vash had shown her how to equip the [Howling Set], as it was called, through her inventory. Which caused them to instantly appear on her person, in a stream of data symbols, with the [Slave Rags] she'd been wearing before being automatically stashed into the inventory.

"It's so weird," Akira remarked, while the two were returning to Vash's camp as the sun was setting--its dying light casting the whole forest in a hazy orange filter.

Vash shook his head, stirring himself from gazing at her breasts again.

"Huh? What is?" he said, flustered.

Akira could tell he was staring, finding it to be amusing. 

Smiling, pushing back her butt, licking her lips as she examined herself--liking every last bit of it she saw. "Well, not that I'm complaining, but this outfit I'm wearing now looks so different on me than how it appeared in the inventory, or when I first picked it off the ground."

"Ah...right...how observant!" Vash said, with a nervous laugh, as he stooped to toss a few [Sticks] he'd gathered until the Survival Pit. "Armors change appearances based on the race of the player."

"I see," she said, lightly pressing a set of fingers into the plush fat of her waist.

"Squell clothes are notoriously...risque."

Akira yawned, plopping down to sit cross-legged by the survival pit.

"I picked the correct race, in that case."

With enough sticks lined up and neatly arranged, Vash conjured a small spark of fire to light them. After which he snatched one of the leftover fried fish from the spit, and went to sit across from Akira.

"There's actually no option for race selection in the system."

Akira's ears twitched. "Is that so?"

"Yeah. The system chooses for you itself. No one's sure how it makes that choice, or whether it's completely by random, though…"

Akira watched him proceed to greedily eat his fish, frowning.

She couldn't be more hungry!

Glancing over, she was relieved to see one fish left remaining on the spit and nabbed it.

"I wish Squell existed in real life!" she said, closing her eyes to picture it: "I'd have a whole mansion full of them, all lining up to greet me every evening with their tails wagging, looking all cute and sexy in their maid aprons, swimsuits and tight lingerie."

Akira was bringing the fish to her lips but stopped, when she noticed Vash had suddenly grown quiet with a serious look.

"Huh? What's the matter…?"

Vash shook his head, putting on a fake smile.

"Forget about it. It's nothing."

It certainly didn't seem like "nothing," but Akira didn't press it--mostly because she didn't really care all that much. After all, it was only a matter of time before she left this world behind and none of it would matter.

The long-anticipated fish wasn't even that good anymore, either. Not after sitting out for so long.

So, after hearing her complaints, as sunset turned to night Vash tried to teach the still-hungry Akira how to catch more: taking her to the nearby stream, where right away she proved to be too impatient—letting fish after fish go, because she would be too hasty when it came to reeling them in.

"Argh!" She protested, after yet another nibble on the line yielded nothing.

Nothing, save for what would've surely resulted in another bruise on the ass, if not for its ample padding. "I didn't bust my now beanbag-like butt to become a billionaire CEO, just so I would have to catch my own damn food!"

Vash calmly took the fishing rod from her, recasting the lure into the shimmering moonlit waters.

He chuckled. "Billionaire CEO, you say?"

"That's right! The youngest, richest, uhh...handsomest…" she was listing all the titles off on her fingers, but still forgot.

"It explains why you're so helpless."

"What do you mean I'm helpless!?" Akira snapped, her competitive nature shining through. "I thought we already confirmed that I'm a 'noob,' and you're obviously some kind of expert."

"I'm only Level 10." Vash replied, giving a shrug and a sheepish smile.

"So? Level means...what exactly?"

"Consider it like a scale of how tough you are, and your experience as a player," he explained. "Levels are gained from engaging in all sorts of interactions with the world: killing monsters, cooking and fishing, adventuring to places you've never been before…"

"See?!" Akira pointed. "You're like a frigging encyclopedia!"

Vash was still focusing intently on the line, bobbing gently in the water. "I just read through the manual a bunch, is all. I've actually spent most of my days camped out in these woods, killing off wolves."

"Is that really all you do? So boring!"

"Well, I go into town every few days to sell my extra junk, and--"

Just then, Vash stopped abruptly--reacting to a yank on the lure. He gave a hard pull back on the fishing rod, drawing out the line with a large fish attached to it. 

Akira stared jealously at the sizable catch as it was then deposited unto the bank of the stream, flopping and waving its fat silver body in desperation. Then she turned back to Vash with a bitter look, as he tipped his hat at her with a grin.

"Sure, I make it look easy," he said, "but it actually took weeks of honing my Fishing Cultivation to reach this point."

He continued: "That's because this game, much like real life, is all about the grind. Your ability to do anything that grants you experience toward levelling is tied to a 'skill cultivation' with a level of its own--increased by remaining diligent in your efforts, and humble in your failures."

Akira laughed coldly at these words as she stood up sharply, hands on her hip.

"A game, being like real life?!" She laughed. "I bought my first summer mansion while YOU were probably off stocking shelves in a convenience store, and wasting away hours playing stupid games like this!" 

She leaned forward, her ludicrously large breasts sloshing in their weak restraint. 

"I don't need any advice on how to work hard to achieve my goals. And xertainly not from a lowly gamer such as yourself, trying to sound like a wise old sage."

For a while, a tense silence prevailed in between the two.

Akira was continually staring into Vash's face, watching for any changes. Waiting eagerly for any perceptible shift—even the slightest—in his obnoxiously upbeat demeanor, which she was certain to only be a front for his lustful feelings toward her.

However, Vash just shrugged, as he shook his head with a casual sigh.

"I suppose I have been babying you a bit..." he said, yawning as he stood up, then proceeded to walk leisurely toward his tent. "Since I've already eaten, I guess I can just leave you to cook the fish all by yourself."

"Wait!" Akira cried without thinking, with a nervous glance down at the fish.

Watching its pathetic floundering...she couldn't help but feel she was in a similar state, as it seemed to be staring straight back at her through its one big, glistening eye.

But Akira was stubborn.

"F-f-fine! Be that way!" she huffed, shaking her fist at the tent. "I'm not all that hungry anyway!"

She poked her head inside, glowering at Vash where he lay with his hat fallen over his face, and arms crossed behind his head. "Anyway it's cramped in here, so you'd better make more space than that!".

"I think not, fair lady!" Vash said, putting on a posh accent. "It would be most indecent of us to sleep in such a close space together." Tilting the brim of his hat upward with one hand, he revealed an amused grin. "I'm sure there's a 5-star Hotel somewhere nearby..."

"Bastard!"

Akira stormed out of the tent, fuming, with a growl of frustration.

'I know what he's trying to do!' She thought furiously, moving to a tree at the center of the camp. 'He wants me to get down on my knees, grovel for forgiveness, and then probably do something else that'll make a lonely loser like him feel special!

'But I'll show him: As a smart, successful, independant CEO squirrel-woman—I don't need his help!'

Akira jumped at the trees with her claws drawn, becoming hooked into the bark. Thus, she was able to scramble up the tree effortlessly, and nestle herself comfortably in the branches. It would serve as an alright bed for the night, with her wrapped tail serving as a far cozier blanket than any amount of money could buy.

Akira contemplated Vash's words as, in her mind, it was clear he was one of 'those' who operate by the delusion that a rich person has never known any hardship.

'I've only known hardship since arriving here…'

She thought back to her old life, and whether the company was running fine without her. She thought about her parents and her sister, and how they were probably grief-stricken by his sudden disappearance.

How'd she even come to be in this world?

Lazuli made it sound as though she was being punished...but...

If this place is something like Hell…

Wouldn't that mean…?

Akira shook her head. 'No! I won't believe it.'

The last Squell Cattle had died before telling Akira what grand secret she knew. Something she made seem like it would come as a huge shock, right when Akira was talking about returning to the real world.

It made her wonder if, maybe, the secret could have been that…

There really was no turning back? 

That perhaps she was going to be stuck in this world, in this form, forever?

But, no...that couldn't be!

This was just a video game, wasn't it?

However...what if--

Thinking back, the last thing Akira remembered seeing, before somehow ending up in this world, was--

Blinding lights. A fast-approaching truck.

Akira remembered somebody had pushed her out into the street. After which, she awoke to the floating green text, condemning her to a fiery demise...

No way was it a coincidence.