Chandra Alistair is a competitive gamer, which might not mean much to most people. But in an era where realistic VR games dominate the market, some obviously better than others, that niche has seen an explosion of genuine talent and wannabes. Chandra herself is at the top of her game, and 25 years of age, she is the holder of several world championships for a variety of games. All is going well in her little corner of the world she’s managed to carve out for herself, until the day her rig sent her somewhere new shortly after a mandatory update period has elapsed.
Chandra finds herself in a fighting competition, one that uses her own body’s stats as her avatar. In this place, she is dressed in what looks like a cross between a wrestling outfit and martial arts outfit worn by martial arts archetypes in most games. She finds herself there with dozens, possibly more women when the ominous voice of a male announcer broadcasts to all the women there that they have been selected for a special competition, the “Cerebral Brawl,” the rules give her and several other women that are panicking pause. The rules state the winner of each round will be gifted a random physical improvement to their avatar, but there is a catch, all loser of the matches will have their tactical and threat assessment abilities given to their opponent, and they will be forced to spin a wheel that enforces set physical changes that can be as potentially beneficial as they are detrimental with an added punishment that alters their mindset, three trips to this wheel and all changes are permanent. What they aren’t told, and discover later, is these changes, both mental and physical, don’t stay in the game but also crossover with them to the real world when the whole thing is finished. And they can’t log out until they complete the tournament. They are also told that if certain changes are extreme enough, then they’ll just get isekaied to another world and all evidence of their existence in their original world will be purged.
So now, Chandra has to find a way to keep her brain and get everyone out with minimal changes, minus the mean bitches that she thinks deserve to be punished. The changes do mildly appeal to Chandra, mainly because her looks are slightly above average. As she wins and climbs the ladder, Chandra watches as cunning foes turn into airheaded bimbos with a rather overt sex drive, and are openly opportunistic about their partner regardless of what their potential partner’s sexual orientation and/or preferences are. Chandra is liking her buffs as she climbs the ladder, at least until she starts noticing that she is growing progressively more…
That part is left intentionally openly vague to allow for the story to have diverging variations. What changes will Chandra go through? Will she win the crown? What will complete victory mean for her? Why do some of her “buffs” feel more like penalties? Who and/or what is behind this sick and twisted game she has found herself in?
4 Responses
Its a nice set up a mix of “Sword art online” and one episode of the old Teen Titan’s show episode “winner take all” which ends with a contest of heroines.
I can see potential plot hole, how would they discover the changes carry over to the real world if they can’t log out until the game finishes. That’s a sort of catch 22 situation I believe, they would only have the announcers word on that, unless you make it where they can log off between rounds but impose some penalty if they don’t log back in or try to inform anyone but that again opens as many potential plot holes as it closes.
Best half solution is that the person is still physically aware enough of the real world to feel changes like clothes pinching etc.
I would recommend talking out transport to another world perhaps, its easier to believe that the announcer has people to collect the losers in the real world and the company that developed the tech keeps it quiet to prevent a drop in sales.
Is this supposed to be mainly tech bases with nanites as an explanation for the real world changes or are we seeing a blend of science and sorcery here?
How are the women competing, with the three strike concept I can’t see a tournament style with tiers one moves up working. Are matches determined by random draw or spin or winners vs winners and losers vs losers as things progress?
I think the first round should be a bit of a free for all, some form of obstacle course with however comes in last is immediately given three strikes and out with her assets parceled out to all contestants. It would be a quick way to show both carrot and stick are real, the winners see the benefits and they see the ultimate negative fate as the one player is eliminated from the game.
I feel it might be good where a few of the characters know each other, either personally or by reputation. It would allow for some immediate and personal bad blood between certain characters to build tension.
“their tactical and threat assessment abilities given to their opponent” This amounts to what? That their brains or reflexes are stripped from them or do you mean they lose some positive physical attribute.
The comment on the wheel giving good as well as bad I can say from a randomizer perspective is interesting, but doesn’t work so well if this is meant to be a punishment. I assume the comment on the result maybe being as bad or good would depend on what the challenges or games they are playing are. I.e. giant breasts would be a detriment in a race or balancing contest, but not if the goal is to get a male NPC warped in for the game to cum.
There’s a story I recall, Crime and Punishment Bimbomania by Chrystal Wynd, that has some similar concepts to what you have laid out here that could be good inspiration on this, it was three contestants on a gameshow setting where each failure in a round got them a strike that worked like hangman spelling out the word Bimbo, where you lost once you had all five letters, and the transformations for losing were as beneficial as unhelpful for each round.
I used some terms to sort of speed things along, by saying they “discover” the changes are permanent outside the game, I was basically saying an event in the game reveals the truth of the changes in world outside the game, and it’s kind of implied reality warping will be happening with that line about the whole extreme changes result in an isekai scenario bit that is also mentioned. It’s more a case the smarter ones quickly puzzle it out, and are shown confirmation upon their guess.
I admit the line about their tactical and threat assessment being given to their opponent was poorly worded, and the best wording I could think of at the time. Basically, it was sort of shorthand stating all of their opponent’s advantages, in and out of the game, are transferred over to their opponent in what I thought was a more vague use of terminology. It’s more implied that the universe will be altered around the changes the competitors experience in the game, good and bad. For example, someone’s model-quality figure being transferred over to their opponent after they lose or someone gaining their opponent’s financial advantages upon victory are just as likely as someone gaining their opponent’s tactical thinking capabilities upon victory or losing their reflects to their opponent upon loss.
I also like think it’s implied that even though the isekai thing overtly stated as a punishment for the losers that got some rather extreme changes on the wheel that couldn’t just be reasoned away IRL when whole thing is over, the victor can technically choose it as a reward with all the benefits they won being appropriately transferred to the setting they choose to go to upon victory; assuming the victor has decided their home world is of little interest before the final match.
I also like to think this can open up story possibilities, and some interesting follow-ups in the way it’s all worded.
It might be better to simply things where in the case of the end of a round the winner gets to choose an attribute of their opponent to swap with their own, leaving the aspect of whether what they choose helps or hampers them in future rounds entirely on their own heads. This can bring in the aspect of someone swapping a trait out of envy or to punish their opponent rather then tactics which can then come back to bite the player later on. If you want to keep a random factor the winner can choose an attribute they want, its placed predominately on a wheel with other aspects and she has to spin to see if she gets that or something else on the wheel.
though the wheel aspect might better serve as some special ability that needs to be charged up or penalty for breaking rules, for whomever comes in last place or some form of hail mary strategy the person in last place can play, where all of the players attributes are placed on the wheel and they have to spin for them randomizing who gets what, thereby pulling away advantages the lead player had and perhaps re-leveling the playing field. Or would it be more amusing to have that done at the start of the game where then some players are simply desperate to get back what they lost while some want to keep what they acquired where only a few are really thinking tactically.
I think you have enough moving parts without adding being Isekai to the mix. If you want to keep it in this is my proposal, place this far enough into the future that being isekai means being shipped off to some alien world or lover. It might even work where you make the rigs more pods, your main character is at an underground/ black market /unsanctioned contest where she meets the other players IRL before they get in the pods and the host can bring them back to reality, strapped into the pods so they can’t escape to show the proof of the real world changes. This set up I think leaves the least number of potential plot holes.
I do like to think it is implied the victor of each match decides what they want as their “trophy” for defeating their opponent after each match. But the idea of a roulette going for each combatant as they are getting ready for the start of the match giving them what is essentially a random bonus or ability for the fight does sound interesting and in the spirit of the setting.