Frederick huffed and gasped as he ran, the package in his hands feeling heavier with every step he took. Of all the times for his "ol' reliable" delivery truck to come scraping to a halt, it had to be right at the end of his route. With “only” one package left to deliver, and “only” one mile to reach his final destination, his employers demanded he finish the route on foot.
Frederick was far from overweight or out of shape, but he wasn’t exactly an athlete, either, and the run with a heavy package was wearing on him. His disheveled black hair was starting to drift down in front of his brown eyes, but he couldn’t lose time setting the package down to clear the stray hair out of the way.
He turned a corner, and finally had the house in his sights. Panting, he practically dragged himself across the sidewalk, up the driveway, and onto the porch. He took a second to catch his breath, then rang the doorbell.
A man opened the door, nonchalantly thanked Frederick, signed for the package, took it, and vanished back inside.
He pressed a button on his company tracker, indicating his job was done, and headed back to his truck to wait for a tow.
*
“You're fired.”
“Fired?” Frederick repeated. “But I delivered every package! Despite the truck breaking down!”
“And you delivered the last package five minutes late. We can't afford to keep employees who refuse to give their all on the job. You have fifteen minutes to clean your locker and turn in your ID card at the front desk, otherwise the contents of your locker will become company property, and you will be charged for theft.”
“Fine! Fine, I'm going.” Frederick rushed out the door, heading for his locker. While he knew his boss was looking for an excuse to fire him, he'd never expected the excuse to be so flimsy. He was tempted to go to HR, but, considering the Rainforest Company's merciless reputation, he doubted they'd take his side.
He sighed as he opened his locker, grabbing his car keys, lunch box, water bottle and finally, his smart phone. He saw a notification light blinking on it, and, curious, turned it on.
“Download Complete: Monster Girl Go!”
Frederick did not remember installing any app like that. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time to an app shop to begin with. Having been a teenager before smartphones took off, he hadn’t even gotten into the habit of web browsing with it unless he was out and needed to check something.
He knew it could be a virus, but his curiosity got the better of him. If it could somehow install itself without him doing anything, he doubted merely attempting to delete or ignore it would make much difference, anyway. Might as well see what it did.
The app booted up, and a title screen displayed featuring various anime-style girls and women with animal features waving cheerily at the viewer; a mermaid, a centaur, a cat-girl, and in the center, under the logo, was a dark-skinned woman in a lab coat, colorful, feathery wings spread out behind her, while her legs were replaced with the tail of a snake.
The character designs took Frederick back to high school, reminding him of the cat girl character from an old anime that his friend Brendan had shown him. He’d thought she was kinda cute, but had never really gotten into that show, or anime in general, the way Brendan had. Still these designs were kind of appealing to him, so why not look a little further.
As he made his way toward the front desk, he touched the screen, and a text box appeared.
Welcome to our 2.0 update! This update introduces the new Research Mode, allowing you to unlock new monster girls as you earn Monstrous Magic Points (MMP. While its initial selection is more limited than 1.8’s, the variety of Monster Girls (MGs) available as you gain MMPs more than five times that of the previous updates. For fans that enjoyed the original filter app, without the RPG elements, fear not; a new creative mode, allowing instant access to all current MGs, plus more detailed sliders for height, weight, etc. can be purchased at
The text after that was garbled. He dismissed the box, and the screen turned a cool blue color, before a still image of the winged snake woman appeared on the screen, her gray hair trailing down past the collar of her lab coat. A speech bubble appeared above her.
Well hello there, new recruit. Welcome to the world of Monster Girls! My name is Professor Ophidia.
Our world is just full of mysterious creatures, bridging the gap between humans and monsters. These cute and sexy monster girls are quite secretive, even I, a monster girl of the knowledgeable Quetzalcoatl Descendants (or quetz, for short) have very little knowledge of those outside my own clan.
That’s where you come in: With my special adjustments to your camera, rather than hunt down elusive MGs yourself, we can gather humans with the potential for Monstrous Magic, and fill them with it, awakening their inner power and beauty. After that, just make use of my Capture Cubes for easy storage and conditioning!
As you collect Monster Girls, and complete Research Goals by interacting with them in various ways, you’ll earn Monstrous Magic Points! The more points you have, the greater the variety of monster girls you can make, and the stronger your MGs will get!
I know you can do this! The time has come to meet and bond with Monster Girls, build your collection, and become a master researcher.
You must travel across the land, searching far and wide!
Teach Humankind to understand the Monster Girl inside!”
Frederick rolled his eyes. He didn’t have to be an anime nerd to know what they were referencing here.
For your first MG, I’ll give you temporary access to one of three special, rare MG types to experiment with. Don’t worry, once you’ve earned enough MMP, you’ll be able to form humans into the two you didn’t pick.
Now, it’s time to choose. Find a human, take a picute of them, then drag one of the icons below onto the photo for a preview. If you like what you see, just hit “Transform!” to begin the process! Who will be your first partner? A fierce but loyal dragon girl? An enchanting Alraune? Or a free-spirited Mermaid? (Hydrokinesis mobility bubble included)
Three icons appeared on the screen, depicting a woman with horns, tail, claws, and scales, a green-skinned woman emerging from a large flower, and a woman with a fish tail in place of legs.
By this point, Frederick had made it to the front desk. He took off his ID badge, and handed it to the secretary behind the desk, a blonde-haired woman in a pair of glasses and a purple shirt.
“Looks like I won’t be needing this anymore,” he said. The woman took it quietly.
“Hey,” said another voice. “I heard about what happened, man. I’m sorry they finally got you.”
Turning around Frederick saw it was Keith, one of the workers from the warehouse that regularly loaded his truck.
“It is what it is,” Frederick mumbled. “I’ll be out once I’m sure I’ve got all my stuff.”
“Hope you do okay out there,” Keith said.
Frederick looked back at the phone. He felt a little silly about it, especially after he’d just lost his job, but some part of him actually wanted to try this camera filter game out. And why not on someone he’d probably never see again?