“Wele back Alex,” my arms jerked up to cover my ears as my AI’s voied out around me. Of course, the lid of the pod was only partially open. Both arms figured this fact out as my hands smashed into the damn thing ao an awkward angle.

  “God damn it,” I cried out as tears streamed down my face from the sheer amount of pain. “Turn down your fug volume.”

  “Volume adjusted,” the AI responded.

  As the pain faded away, I found that the AI wasn’t the only thing that was too loud. Ducts chattered high above as the motors vibrated against their mounts. High-voltage wires and other uifiable objects released a litany of buzzing hrough the cacophony of modern noise, people in nearby apartments chatted away. Kids ughed, adults cried, and various shows pyed. It was all too much. I would go crazy if nothing ged.

  Curled up in the pod, my hand held my new ears as I tried to ignore all of it. As if someohought I wasn’t being tortured enough, a new, cutting series of notes filled the air. A momehe noise faded, taking the sounds of the modern world with it. “Active noise celtion protocols in effect.”

  My body rexed as I sighed in relief, “Thank you.” As I said the words, I heard my voice. It was the same as it had been in the game. High-pitched and, more importantly, not male.

  If that wasn’t enough to vince me that my body had ged to match my in-game character, the AI spoke up. “Body ges detected. Initiating full body s.” Lights flickered high above as the system did whatever it o do. The system eventually spoke up. “ges have been cataloged. Would you like to hear the results?”

  Damn the AI and its o be helpful. I mean, who would want to hear just how much their body had been ged? Well, then again, maybe I should let it tell me. Just so I know what to expect. “Why the hell not.”

  “Gender has been switched. Hormones are off-nominal for someone born female. Possibly due to the nature of the ge. I will keep monit but I predict that it will stabilize without intervention. Bones have been reformed from the male rao female nominal. Anomalies detected; human ears are missing. Viable fox ears detected. Viable fox tail detected. Ovaries are preparing to start the produ of eggs. Fertility to be determined.”

  Oh, fuck. I had ovaries. I mean, I knew women had them, but I never expected that I would end up with the bsted things. Every one of my girlfriends pined and cursed the fug things, more adamantly at times than others. Wait, did that mean I could get pregnant? Just what did I do to piss the gods off to end up in this situation?

  This had to be a a. Or a nightmare. Please let this be a nightmare. “ALERT! Worldwide broadcast from the developer of the game Ast to Aetheria. It is reehat you watch it.”

  “Reended by whom?” And why? I mean, there was no way I had caught anyone’s attentioly.

  “The developer,” was all the AI said in response.

  Fuck it, what else was there to lose at this point. Maybe they would expin that this was all a big mistake and work to rectify the situation. I sat up and twisted around to face the windows. With a fliy hand toward the one I said. “Sure, whatever, put it on the s.” Before the system turned on the s, I saw my refle in the dark gss. The woman who looked back at me was breathtakingly beautiful. I mean, I khat people plimented my old feminine looks, but the transformation had kicked it up a notch. Add to that the fox ears and I found myself lusting after my own body.

  A momehe woman disappeared, repced with an u man in a cluttered room. From the desks to the chairs, walls to the floor, every surface was covered in an assortment of items, dots, and holograms. But my eyes only gnced over all of that. Instead, they were drawn to the man.

  I found that the messy hair, oil-stained and roughened fingers, as well as the tattered overalls, suited him. But what stole my breath was his pierg blue eyes. They were not a normal blue but a mix of both sky and sea coupled with the occasional burst of lightning. “Hi, my name is Hephaestus. I am a god and the creator of Ast to Aetheria.”

  He paused for a moment before tinuing. “I created the game, not because I was bored or wanted money, but because it was iable that the walls built up around your p and Paradox would, eventually, fall. Instead of letting this world crumble as monsters and magi rampant as they have doo many others, I decided to try something else. Something that I hoped would prepare as many people as possible for the ge.”

  The man closed his eyes and sighed. “It has not been as smooth as I had hoped, but that is, in part, my fault. I sometimes fet the level of human greed. Still, despite the setbacks and limitations, a sizable part of the human popution has been able to grow and build a pce for themselves in another world.”

  Wait, was this guy seriously saying that the world in the game was real? He must be crazy to think such a thing is possible. A soft brush of my tail against my bare back reminded me that it existed. That it wasn’t some prosthetic or hologram. That this ‘game’ had mao affect reality.

  “I knoeople will say I am crazy. There is nothing I do about them. No matter what evidence I provide, they will e up with some excuse or tri one breath before demanding more proof with the .” His eyes pierced into me as he said, “I will NOT participate in such a pointless exercise. If you roof, go get your own. I don’t care. What I care about is finding a way to help various species survive as their world joins the rest on the world tree.”

  “Now, with that out of the way,” his tone had a tinge of sadness as he tinued. “You may have noticed that demons are pushing their way into Paradox. Using the chaos of your arrival to get their cws into the world in a bid to take it over.” That expihe world quest from before. “I and a few others would wele you into the higher worlds and protect you from the hordes, but the decision was not up to me. The cil decided, unanimously, to lock down every portal and eg between Paradox and the worlds above for as long as the threat of demons climbing the tree exists.”

  I had wondered why anyone would go to the trouble of creating a system to help us adapt and survive whatever was happening to Earth, but now it made sehe gods were n to help us. They were trying to protect their asses. They would use us as little more than on fodder in their war against the demons and then give us a pat on the head before likely kig us out.

  “Everything rovided you with is yours, to use and exploit as you wish. This includes all the blessings and ges that some of you have been lucky enough to receive.” Why did I think that he was talking directly to me? “In fao power other than that of a god will be able to undo any of the ges.” God damn it, he was.

  “Now, I o return to work. Many things to build and fix.” His sudden swing in tone from serious to cheerful was jarring. “Beat back the hordes and do away with the demonic threat as fast as you so that you start to work your the tree.” With that, the man disappeared in a fsh of light. Everything, from the scattered pages to even the desks, vanished with him.

  A moment ter, I was left to stare at the gss and my refle as the s turned off, but I didn’t notice or care. My mind was too busy going over everything he had said. While I was a bit irked and fused about the way the gods had gone about preparing the world, the information he provided was the light at the end of my tunnel. He had practically told us how to reverse our ges if we wanted. Not that it would be easy. Not when we o find a god and vihem to work magi us. Which, of course, would require that we remove the demons from Paradox.

  Would that be easy? Not that it wouldn’t stop me. If I o, I would personally beat back the armies. Well, maybe not yet. I o get stronger if I truly wao have a ce.

  Which meant going back to Paradox. At least there I didn’t o worry about money, yet. Or did I? What would happen if I lost access to my pod? Would I no longer be able to return to Earth or would it default to some other location?

  “Is there any information on what might happen if I lost access to my pod for some reason?” I asked my AI.

  “Unknown,” it replied. Not that I expected much. Pretty sure this whole transportation aspect of the pods is a new and hiddeure. Wait, that isn’t quite right. What’s her name had called it a transfer device when she helped to set up my at names. She also mentiohat she was a goddess. Likely, she was now gone from wherever that space had been. She robably with the rest of the gods, hiding out in their worlds. Too bad, talk about a missed opportunity to get answers.

  As I slid off the edge of the pod I found that women truly had smaller bdders because mine was already demanding that I relieve it. Moments ter, I found myself sitting awkwardly ooilet as liquid practically gushed out. It wasn’t like the ream that came out of my penis. The piss sprayed uably as various pieces of skin got in the way. My bdder mao empty itself before I could find the right position. Hopefully ime I would be able to find it and have a less, messy, experience.

  With a long sigh, I didn’t even try to the mess up. I o take a shower anyway. As I stepped in, my hair pstered itself to my back. It felt weird, especially sidering that ses reached the top of my ass. The lo I had ever grown my hair was maybe three inches.

  Of course, this meant that, when bined with my naturally thick hair, it took a ton of shampoo and ditioo it. Unsure of what to do about my fur, or was it hair, as well as the rge scoops that were my new ears, I worked around them. o get swimmer’s ear or chemical burns after all.

  Uo avoid the iable, I grabbed my soap and started to tentatively wash my body. Every time my hands rubbed against my breasts I had to stop as the sensitive flesh sent a bolt of pleasure through my body.

  If I thought that that was distrag, it didn’t hold a dle to the tingling feelings that emanated from my lower half as I washed between my legs. They were nearly enough to knock my feet out from under me. I almost couldn’t trol myself. To stop myself from expl my body.

  It was a fight between my curiosity and my fear. Curiosity because it was a woman's body — how could o wonder how the other side differed, felt, lived? It wasn’t something most people got a ce to explore and something told me I would be a fool if I didn’t at least give the idea some serious thought.

  It didn’t help that my body wao keep expl, but the fear twisting my gut spoke up. It repeatedly asked me what would happen if I found that I liked the feelings too much. What if I found that I never wao ge baeither were questions I could just ht dismiss, but for now, I had time to think about them. After all, it wasn’t like I had to decide right this moment. So, with a relut sigh, I gave into the fear and yanked my hand soap-covered hand away. My body yearned for my hand to return. In a bid to keep my hand occupied, I grabbed the shower head and used it to wash everything off as fast as I could before stepping out of the shower.

  The oowel I owned was rge enough to cover my chest aher region but it did nothing to help with my hair. A stream of water poured out of the strands and down my back as I looked for somethiually, I simply tried to squeeze the moisture out of it. My work wasn’t even passable by my standards when the mirror finally cleared. Yet the moment it did I found myself frozen as I got a nearly unobstructed, full-color view of my upper body.

  My toasted chestnut hair had darkeo something closer to a dark brown with a dark blue undercolor. It retty strange bination given the rarity of blue in nature. Unfortunately for me, the hair wasn’t the oddest part. Every blue in the color wheel was represented on my tail and ears. They were even sorted from darkest to lightest in color. Though, the tips of each were topped with tufts of a nearly pure white color.

  Eyes closed, I once again forced myself to move on. To ignore what I saw so that I could get on with what I o do. I didn’t bother to open my eyes as I walked across the apartment. I sort of expected to stub my toe or smato something but I didn’t. Somehow, miraculously, I was the same height and didn’t o re-memorize the pce.

  I didn’t bother to open my eyes as I dropped the towel and slipped into the pod. I only had to be mindful of my tail so it didn’t catch or snag on any of the gaps es. As the pod gently rocked under my shifti, something rolled across the pstic surfad into my hand.

  It felt like a marble and only took a g as the object Xander had hao me. It was something that shouldn’t have been able to follow me given that nothing else did. But apparently, it didn’t get the memo because here it was.

  Its smooth surface felt f as I rubbed my fingers across it. They caressed it as my mind drifted over everything I o aplish. Only, my problem was te. My goal was too ambitious. Absurdly so.

  One of the things my eighth-grade teacher loved to ask was: “How do you eat an elephant? Oe at a time.” Everyone in the css would groan whenever he said this, as he overused the saying. But it was his way of pointing out that no task was te to tackle; one just o break it down into manageable sizes. And that is what I o do here. I o break down my goal of reag the gods into pieces I could aplish.

  First things first, I o level up, a lot. Which means I o find a pce I could use to hunt. It also o be safe enough for me to experiment with my magic. Xander might knoce but if he was busy I would have to find and talk to the adventurers' guild. So, first talk to Xahen the guild before heading to in whatever dire they pointed me in.

  Satisfied with my initial pns, I pressed the button and allowed the pod to returo Paradox where, at least for now, I had a goal to aplish.