The soldier walked away, leaving Andrew alone. He looked around confusedly at the racks of military equipment for a few seconds, before time seemed to grind to a near-halt and the booming male voice returned.
"Amateur detected." it stated loudly, before lowering its volume. "I am Argent, Arcade Holodeck Support AI number 16. Do you require assistance with Protagonist Mode in this playable movie?"
"Um, yeah." Andrew said. "Isn't this supposed to be, uh...a movie?"
"Playable movie." Argent clarified. "Here at All Time Arcade, transcendent reality-transform nano-magic allows us to convert fictional work plans into virtual worldspaces interactable with primary reality. By altering the reality parameters and combining user existence data, us artificial intelligences can achieve full immersive reality-deck holography interface. Put simply, we made the game a controllable basement universe with magic and control how you exist in it...or don't. Protagonist Mode allows you to directly replace a lead role through self-transformation rather than control or observation, with or without plot guidance and clearly demarcated option paths. Adult content is expected, including large-scale modifications and accurately modeled intercourse. Transformations can be customized through play, and rejected or accepted on exit, though society-endangering processes will be curtailed to ensure user control. Time compression will avoid issues with extended stays in virtual worlds. Existoparameter data will be logged and rights shared with the creating user. In the event of user termination, user will be reconstituted and events edited if necessary, such as to retry fights. If you have any requests, merely vocalize them toward non-character areas, direct AI manifestation characters, or direct your thoughts with particular concentration. This is merely to avoid confusion of conversational implications with truth: all characters are AI-controlled, but may act against your word for obvious reasons like being antagonists. As an example-demonstrating question, would you like to swap to observer-possessor mode, or support character mode?"
"Um, what does that do?" Andrew asked.
"In observer-possessor mode, you may observe events as an untouchable ignored presence, allowing you to skip to important narrative points, and possess or direct individual characters as you see fit without bothering with the fun of transformation." Argent stated. "In support character mode, the lead roles will be filled by AI-controlled characters and you are free to wander or manipulate the setting as an individual without such plot-armored guideposts."
Andrew thought to himself for a moment, putting right fist to mouth before vocalizing "I'd like to switch to Support Character Mode, please."
Almost immediately, a muscular blond man in vaguely-futuristic grey army fatigues popped into existence, flexing his arms and eyeing Andrew through classic shades as time stopped feeling so slow. "So you're the new Free Agent, huh?" he said, vaguely displeased but mostly implying his own superiority. "Scrawny little thing, the alien robots aren't gonna fight themselves."
He turned around and busied himself with the weapon rack, hefting various guns and making disapproving 'hmm' noises.
"Is this protagonist acceptable?" Argent asked neutrally.
"Yeah, but make him wear less and have a bigger butt." Andrew said, crossing his arms. "Call him something funny, too."
"Configuring Sergeant Dandy." Argent stated, causing the hero in question to suddenly be wearing a grey tank top, matching ass-flaunting booty shorts, slightly shorter boots with a blue thruster assembly, and nothing else but the sunglasses. "My sense of humor is not necessarily what humans call entertaining. Sorry, it's a work thing. Would you like a compensatory transformation to a more military-fit biovessel?"
Andrew nodded, causing a series of floating configuration panels and a few mirrors to appear around him. Time froze, and his clothes disappeared. Fat sucked in, replaced by significant muscle mass, and a few minor structural adjustments caused him to shake a bit while things formatted correctly. Grey clothes matching Dandy's popped onto Andrew, followed by a bracer on his right arm.
"Basic compensation engaged." Argent stated, this time from Andrew's bracer rather than a formless presence. "Class selected: mobile engineer. Battlefield construction and medical treatment excuses any particular line placement, allowing for maximum supporting character freedom. Jet boots have been provided to help avoid contact with forcible mechanization compounds. Musculature modified to support military-level activity strain. Videogame-style stamina upgrades added to enable extended play in combat conditions, including rendering biological needs optional. Further character customization applies for aesthetic options and plot traits, select now."
Andrew flicked a few choices around, styling his hair into a black faux-hawk and upping his genital sizes for the fun of a showier package. He gave his face a slightly Italian look and darkened his skin tone to an ambiguous medium senna, just to feel more different for the sake of a new world. He tweaked his sweat distribution so he'd get self-lubricating instead of sweaty hands, made himself able to cum as much as he wanted without any refractory period issues, then moved onto game settings.
"Okay, violence is fun and all but with how these bots are set up, everything would be corruptive." Andrew said, flicking around options and willing more complicated things be edited by Argent. "So let's switch it to...we have a holo-barrier thing going on, powered by masturbation and gay stuff, which shoots energy bullets and amplifies firearms, and once that bubble pops we're vulnerable to mechanizing shots and capture webs until it reloads. Once we get completely cyborged and infected enough, we become robot slaves. Course, as player character I'll retain control of everything and then I switch teams to infecting this army, probably with my dick. Once I get bored of that, we'll invent some other transformation with which the army can humanize us again, and then do other fun stuff from there. Sound good?"
"Conditions accepted, easily manifestable." Argent confirmed.
"So let's get ready to rumble." Andrew said, slamming the confirm button with his right hand. He shoved his left hand into his shorts, starting to masturbate. His energy barrier flared, and he floated up into the air and curiously darted around a bit to seek out his next move.