Round one began as the show started off with a simple quiz.
Frederick stood there and suddenly summoned some pieces of paper into his hand and read,"What is the GDP of Luxembourg as of 2020?"
Anton stared forward in shock, "I doubt anyone in the studio knows that."
Rex awkwardly rubbed the back of his head and pressed the buzzer, wanting to give an answer,"Actually, I randomly saw that in the news one day and the answer stuck to me. It's 73,26 billion USD."
"You can't be serious!", exclaimed Anton as the screen in the back gave off a happy tune, before displaying "CORRECT" in bold, green letters.
The changes began as Anton's fingers and nails became longer. Especially the nails now were at least ten times their previous size and had become black. He blinked as his eyes twitched, becoming a lighter shade of blue and his pupils turned into slits. He squeaked as he stared at the model of him on the screen.
"You alright?", asked Rex, looking concerned.
"...I guess this isn't the worst change possible. I can just trim those nails", he sighed.
Frederick nodded,"Next question. What is the circumference of the Earth around the equator?"
Rex touched his buzzer first,"About 40075km."
"Correct!"
Anton looked distraught as all his hair fell off in bundles. The skin on the back off his hands grew light blue scales, which slowly spread up to his lower arms, while white scales grew on the inside of his hand.
Anton's comrade immediately went to to comfort him,"Don't worry. You are still more handsome than most people in the audience. Cool claws by the way."
The now hairless man smiled.
"Last question before we do a game!", announced the host as Rex stepped back to his place.
"How do bees communicate? By excreting droplets of honey with certain scents or by dancing?"
"Dancing!", claimed Anton as he hit the buzzer.
"Correct!"
Red fur grew on Rex's hands and his nails became shorter claws, but he took it in stride. "Good job, Anton."
"This is a lot nicer than the the usual slur fest.", told Frederick honestly. "Then let us start up a game.
A strange, rectangular device suddenly appeared between the two men as their buzzers temporarily became buttons and joysticks.
The device suddenly lit up, revealing a hologram displaying two cities with a river and some fields between them. One city contained cute lizard people and the other cute ant people.
"You have actual holograms?!", exclaimed Anton.
The host chuckled,"Magic"
The screen lit up with a bird's eye map of the game.
"In this game you have to destroy each other's cities, while minimizing your own casualties. You can both lose this one at the same time."
The game soon started. Anton had more experience with such games and made some early victories, but eventually lost as he made a bad decision and blew up half of his own city. The audience considered it to be hilarious.
The device disappeared as the joystick and buttons became buzzers again.
The blue scales continued growing along Anton's arms up to his shoulders as his waist carved in and hips widened a bit.
His tongue slipped out for a short moment, revealing it to be forked now.
A gasp coame from him and he staresd in horror as he noticed that his feet had become nothing but stumps. He leaned over his podium as to not lose balance.
He obviously felt bad, so Rex tried to cheer his friend up.
"Hey, your strength and charisma both went up by a point."
Anton looked over at the screen and seeing his stat changes did appear to make him feel better.
"What do those stats even mean exactly?", he asked the host.
"I don't know.", answered Frederick, wiggling his shoulders.
The eyes of the gradually more reptilian man narrowed,"What? You are the host of the show! How do you not know?"
Frederick walked over to him,"Well, we didn't actually create those stats, just make them visible."
"What? Are you implying real life has stats?", asked Rex.
The host smirked before turning around and asking the next question,"There was a random, seemingly pointless number on page 3 of the application for the show. What was it?"
Rex hit his buzzer,"I...think it was a seven?"
"That is...correct."
Anton fell over as his legs became two, blue snake tails before fusing into one, ripping the clothing below his groin. . The scales along his arms grew along his shoulders to his neck and chest, where they were white instead of blue.
Frederick and Rex rushed over, pulling him up.
"Are you okay?", asked Rex full of fear as if Anton had just been shot.
"Sorry!", exclaimed the host, completely dropping the facade. "We should have had a stool to sit on. We never had some straight up lose their legs before."
The half-naga groaned, now having a higher, more androgynous voice. "I am fine. We can continue."
He looked down at his new snake tail. "I hope that thing becomes longer. I doubt I could even stand on that."
And then it surprisingly did grow out another 50cm, allowing him to stand on the stump.
"This show takes requests?", asked Anton surprised.
"I think that was out of pity and apology. I am not quite sure how the transformations actually work though."
They soon would continue after an on site medic made a quick check as the man had hit his head a little.
"Now, then is it a good idea to pour water into a grease fire?"
Anton was too concerned with his new body as too press the buzzer quickly enough, so Rex pressed his first.
"If you wanna die or worse, sure. That would just cause a giant flame to burn down the room you are inside of."
"Correct."
A quiet moan escaped Anton's lips and he stared in embarrassment as the sex indicator on the screen switched to female, confirming the current status of his groin. His features were becoming softer, while his weird snake hips became even wider. The beginnings of breasts started to grow from his chest and the scales had made it up to his neck as his neck lengthened. His charisma and strength increased by one again to six points each as he was actually becoming more muscular, while still noticeably femenine.
"Shit...", he said in his new, rough, femenine voice as his Adam's apple disappeared.
Rex rubbed the back of his head again,"Well, I guess you are pretty instead of handsome now. Nice scales."
Anton blushed as he saw Rex stare at his chest a little too long and went to hide the small breasts. The same blush only intensified as he stared at the audience and noticed that some of the men gave him weird butterflies in his stomach.
The next game was chosen and it didn't go much better for Anton. How was he supposed to focus when he was already two thirds of the way to being a snake woman? The racing game ended as Anton crashed into a wall, his cart exploding and driver dying.
"This is a bit violent for a racing game.", commented Rex. Frederick kind of agreed.
Anton shivered as his neck extended once more. He cringed as his face pushed out into a scaley snout. His nose were left as nothing but two slits above his new predatory mouth and his ears were left as two holes. He felt a strange breeze along his neck as a small cobra hood grew along it upwards to the back of his head. White scales covered his chin and front, while light blue ones grew out of his skin on the back. His tail grew out by another two meters, almost causing Frederick to trip over it, but the host laughed it off, declaring,"Believe me, causing me to trip is far from the worst thing a contestant has done. I still remember the space octopus woman who wanted me to suck her tentacles. It was a horrible day for everyone involved."
Ignoring what had just been said, Rex went over to Anton and booped his snoot." You look so cute!"
The mostly snake looked down bashfully before looking up at the screen.
"C...can I get a larger hood?"
He thought they looked cool and if he was gonna spend his life like this might as well get a body he liked.
Anton did a happy, little snake dance as his hood did get larger. He somehow couldn't stop himself from smiling when he saw Rex stare at his shaking hips.
Frederick smiled at the snake knowingly.
And so the host asked the next question,"Who, as off 2022, is the most overweight person on Earth?"
"Your mom!", answered Anton without pressing the button.
The audience laughed, but soon was silenced as the screen displayed the CORRECT sign.
Frederick frowned as the red fur on Rex's hands traveled up his arms and his toes merged into two claws of chitin each.
"The show doesn't like me today.", told the host as he looked at the next card.
"At which temperature does water boil?"
"100 degrees celsius.", declared Rex as he pressed the buzzer again.
Anton actually smiled a little as his tail grew longer and he actually reached two meters of hight. His blush came back as his hips widened further. His breasts became undeniable as they grew to a reasonably above average size, straining his shirt somwhat. He flicked his tongue as it extended further. There was a strange, pleasant scent in the air, which he could trace back to Rex. Was he always so good looking?
The snake looked at Frederick,"D...does this show do mental changes?"
The host leaned on his cane and nodded,"We do. Especially in cases like yours. We only do things like making you more comfortable and stop you from developing gender dysphoria or body dismorphia. If trans man went to this show, we would always make him biologically male for example. We generally want our participants to feel well unless they are acting like serious assholes, and we have high standards for what a serious asshole is. Again, I only vaguely know how all of this is exactly done."
Anton looked down at his breasts,"Explains why I am not too put off by having two X chromosomes."
"Oh, your people, the naga, actually have three X chromosomes in your women."
The naga's eyes narrowed,"My people? Are there more naga's?"
"Yes, a few. This show changes reality as it changes people. The official reason you are a naga now is actually because one of your ancestors has been retroactively turned into a member of the ancient naga empire by the show and that blood can reappear generations down the line."
"Oh, cool."
And so the next question was drawn, "If Anton loses this one, his transformation will likely be complete. What was the name of the first ever satellite?"
"Sputnik!", declared Rex as the button was tapped one last time.
"CORRECT! Our winner is Rex!"
Anton looked down as the last touch ups were made. He gained some more muscle as his strength stat reached 7 and charisma reached 8. His canines became fangs as his breasts expanded by another size. Due to his height, they looked average though.
What remained of his pants became a short dress, which hugged his curves nicely.
His shirt shrunk as it exposed his white midriff,turning into a short tanktop.
Anton felt rather ok, actually. Being, a strong, female naga could not be that bad. "I...I think I am gonna like this. I actually feel weirdly strong and...pretty. Yes, I...think I am gonna fully accept being a woman now."
She gazed upon herself and did another small dance, meeting eyes with a blushing Rex. Yeah, he was very handsome...maybe she could... .
Frederick went to congratulate Rex and gave him a check for a million TF-Coins, which could be exchanged for a certain amount of any given currency. He also got asked if he wanted to have his partial transformation to be removed. He nodded and his arms and feet returned to being human.
The naga slithered over to him, unknowingly shaking her hips as she did so.
Wow, she had really gotten a lot taller. Her height was at 207cm according to the screen.
Rex looked up at her, thinking about how gorgeous and beautiful she looked now.
She took his hand and both of their hearts started beating harder.
"You have won. I admit...reptiles are better."
He smiled,"How do you feel Anton? I hope this isnt horrible for you...Sorry, but you are a gorgeous woman, my friend. "
She looked down bashfully, before meeting his eyes. "I feel...gorgeous and strong. I actually think I am gonna enjoy being a woman...but there is something else."
"And that is?"
Anton scratched the back of her head,"Today's theme is the other's ideal partner and I think everyone would want their ideal partner to be attracted to them... ."
"... You mean... ?", Rex asked, blushing.
She nodded,"Would you buy a humble woman some drinks and...go to a club with her?"
"Yes!",exclaimed Rex as he jumped her, deeply hugging her waist and pressing his head into her chest, squeezing her breasts, but they didn't hurt as her strange reptile chest was a bit sturdier and actually had more muscle than fat. Having her friend pressed against her chest felt nice.
But after he let go, she took her chance and wrapped herself around him, trapping him in her coils. Every bit of him that touched her caused a strange burning in her groin as she pressed his head deeper into her chest before uncoiling.
The audience cheered as the naga and her human went off-stage.
Frederick announced, "Looks like we actually have two winners today! So, while our contestants go off to have some fun, let's watch an alternate reality, where Anton won."
More cheers.