Poll World [LitRPG][Reader Polls]

(Paid subscriber poll this chapter)

Gen woke up with Jasper biting her ear. Giving him an exhausted stare, he simply rolled his head and licked his lips.

"Are you seriously hungry?"

Her stomach rumbled as well, and she was forced to assess exactly how eating in the event carried over to reality. It wasn't one-to-one, but it had to be doing something as she hadn't eaten outside the event in days.

Standing, she lifted mini-Jasper to her shoulder and checked her phone. It was 7 in the morning, and she had dozens of unread messages she hadn't taken the time to go through yet.

Jasper had been messaging people on her behalf for several days now, and she honestly had no idea if people were aware yet that it was him or just thought she had lost her mind…

Putting off fixing her social life, she was determined to find sustenance before being whisked off to the event again.

Outside her room, it was mostly quiet with unfamiliar club members milling around or having quiet conversations.

Looking for a familiar face, she saw Aubrey sitting in a cheap chair, busy on her phone. Approaching her slowly, Gen felt weird. The last she'd seen of the girl was her dead body after Aubrey had been hit with shrapnel during the UFO heist.

Gen was a bit disappointed she hadn't gotten to see Aubrey's finger gun ability yet.

"Hello, Aubrey."

Aubrey looked up from her phone and smiled widely, and then her eyes focused on Jasper.

"Is that Jasper!? I didn't get to meet him in the event because of the whole incubation thing, but everyone keeps talking about how much of a hottie he is after possessing you!"

Gen froze and shared a look with Jasper, before smiling weakly, "Yes… I don't know about the hottie part though as it's my own body he's possessing…"

Aubrey scoffed, "Pff, Gen, it's not physical! It's like you know aura! He's got rizz! Let me take a selfie!"

Before Gen could react, the bubbly girl was on her feet and snapping a shot of herself making a peace sign with Jasper in the background.

Trying to regain control of the conversation, Gen asked, "Is there food here by the way? I want to eat before the event, and Jasper is hungry too."

Aubrey nodded and grabbed her arm, dragging her along, "Yeah, for sure! Gen made sure we had a kitchen as a priority! Twen always complains about the cost of the upkeep, though, so he cheaps out on the actual supplies!"

Moving quickly through the drug-den-esque interior, they arrived at a slightly cleaner kitchen. There were breadboxes lined up on the countertop, and a sporadic line of toasters with messy condiments and sandwich materials lined up.

She saw G2n putting peanut butter on toast with a look of intense concentration while several other people were busying themselves with making their own breakfasts.

Aubrey spoke again, "Everything is free to eat here. The bread comes from infinite breadboxes in people's rooms, and we all chip in on the sandwich stuff. It's not fancy, but can't argue with cheap!"

Aubrey's eyes became more intense. "I heard you have a dungeon that awards pasta!"

Gen scratched at her bedhead before taking two slices of bread and putting them into random toasters. With a nip from Jasper, she added a third piece of bread.

Looking back at Aubrey, she asked hesitantly, "Does everyone know about my dungeon…? I wasn't exactly keeping it secret, but it seemed like a big deal."

Aubrey shrugged, "I don't know, like the club is a tight group, so word gets around, probably anyone who wants to know already knows. It's probably not a big deal? If it was Twen would've given us a lecture about it already."

G2n finished constructing his peanut butter toast and joined them.

"The lecture is coming. I was too busy with the event to address it, but now that I've died, it's something we'll have to talk about." He looked at Gen, "The consortium has put an information blackout over the whole thing. I don't know their end goal, but at least for now, it's not common knowledge that you're a dungeon master. Once you die or the event finishes, I would like to discuss more about what you want to do with the dungeon."

He hesitated before adding, "Assuming you want my input, I know you're hesitant about joining the club."

She nodded as the first toaster popped and she briefly conferred with Jasper what type of jelly he wanted slathered on it. The answer was quickly determined to be all of them.

Taking the second piece of toast for herself, she just added a layer of butter.

"I would like your help, I don't really know anything about it, and there are all sorts of normal things I need to learn still. I think technically I still have an orientation class for generated to do as well… my guide got sent on hiatus with everything that happened with the dungeon core…"

G2n nodded, "No problem, the dungeon is too low level to be a huge deal yet anyway. Once the event is done, you can focus on orientation. They likely will have substituted another instructor for your original."

Gen nodded, taking a bite of her toast before trying to figure out how to phrase her question.

"What's up with the clubhouse by the way? Like old Gen is one thing, but from what I've seen of you, I would expect it to be more organized or at least cleaner… no offense."

Aubrey and G2n shared a look, and Aubrey laughed.

She responded, "Believe me, he tries! Some of the members… well, most of them aren't the tidiest people, and he's learned to pick his battles."

G2n pushed his glasses up and added, "Aside from that, the clubhouse is newly acquired, so it's mostly unupgraded. Same as your private room, bases can be upgraded and improved, but the club is lacking in funds…"

Gen nodded and forced the last toaster to release the final slice of bread. It was a bit overdone, but Jasper didn't mind as he eyed it hungrily. He was covered in jelly and somehow had already eaten his first slice. How the food fit inside his mini-body, she had no idea.

After a brief survey of the options, Jasper elected for a large slice of ham being placed on the slice and then drizzled with honey.

Gen finished her bread quietly. Aubrey and G2n were still there, but both seemed otherwise engaged on their phones.

Watching people filter in and out, she considered whether she really wanted to join the club or not. They seemed like good people, but it was a big choice when she still knew so little about the city.

She was happy Francine had found a job, but still worried they were jumping into things too fast.

Unsure, she said her goodbyes to G2n and Aubrey before forcefully cleaning Jasper off in the sink.

It was time for the event.

***

She was used to the disorientation, so when the event resumed, it only took her a second to readjust to being a plastic flamingo.

The previous event day had ended with them mid-meal in a restaurant, and Jasper quickly resumed eating his half-finished dish.

Ding~!

She didn't have time to finish reading the results when she felt a sharp cutting pain as if an invisible razor blade was slashing along her beak.

She recoiled in pain as fleshy lips forced themselves out of the cut and her mouth opened into a scream.

Everyone turned to look at her, and she collected herself. She was still a plastic flamingo, but she could open and shut her beak now, and the edge of her beak on top and bottom was now lined with fleshy human lips.

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Before she could attempt speech, the mascot poll started to resolve.

Similar to when she'd grown hair in her initial scenario, fuzzy pink feathers painfully erupted all over her body. While it had been a slow, painful process last time, this time it was an explosion of floof that made a sound like a cannon blast.

Feeling ill from the pain, she reoriented herself and felt something strange. She could move! Her frozen plastic body had awakened. Her stick legs had bendable knees, her fake wings now stuck out of her sides, and she could even flap them, leaving a trail of floofy feathers.

Overall, she was a fluffy blob of a bird with her lipped beak and feet just barely sticking out from the feathers.

Several people looked freaked out, and she shot them a smile, her plastic-human-flamingo features somehow contorting into an expression that was actually sincere.

The antagonists started to relax and lower their weapons.

She had a feeling that if her viewers had picked a more sinister expression, she might have been shot on sight…

Abruptly, she felt her body twitch, and she lost control of both her movement and voice as if she were possessed.

"I'm Flaaamingen, your fluffy buffy mascot!" she trilled in a painfully chipper voice, as she launched upward in a burst of sparkly smoke and feathers.

Twirling against her will, she became a cyclone of floofy pink until she abruptly halted her rotation and performed her finishing move. Jazz Wings.

Her chipper voice sounded off for a final time, "Go zombies! Go zombies! Go! It's time to rot 'n' roll!"

The possession abruptly ended just as her internal screaming reached a crescendo, and she fell back to the floor with a cushioned impact that sent more feathers flying.

The crowd stared in shocked silence before a couple awkwardly clapped.

Gen felt a rush of embarrassment, but thankfully, people began moving on quickly and gathering more food for the special zombies. Evidently living in a world like this, it was the first bizarre thing they'd seen.

Trying to ignore what just happened and praying it wouldn't ever trigger again, Gen focused on her fluffy body and saw an actual description.

Fluff Suit: Fluffy feathers provide a protective layer of defense against most types of damage.

Unsure how strong of a defense it was, she still felt suddenly more confident as she strutted over to the table Jasper was eating at.

He hadn't reacted to her dance or cheer and was ignoring the pink feathers that had landed on his plate.

Feeling annoyed, she pecked at his plate and stole a chunk of chicken.

He shot her a highly offended expression.

"Get your own sustenance."

Gen swallowed the chunk whole. It was delicious… G2n hadn't slacked off on finding the most tasty restaurants.

Moving her wings experimentally, Gen said, "You know this is the first time we actually get to speak like this…"

Jasper was hunched protectively over his food, still eating, and gave her a questioning look.

"You started talking right as I went mute, so we couldn't talk before, and I figure this is a good chance."

He looked guarded as he questioned, "Discuss what exactly?"

She waved her wings and spun her plastic eyes out of habit, "You know stuff! Like we're buddies, right? I try to interpret you biting me and things outside the event, but it's really hard!"

He shrugged, "Your ability to pick up context clues is simply below average."

She frowned and felt her beak twist in a decidedly unnatural way for a bird.

"Putting my talents or lack thereof aside, could you just answer my questions?"

He nodded as he tore into a piece of steak.

"How do you tell who is a protagonist? It's related to the teamwork augment, right?"

He nodded, "My brethren and I are attuned to the essence of teamwork. This unique sense can tell us who is working against us as well as other things."

"Other things?"

He gulped down another bite, "It's hard to explain to someone without the sense, but let's just say it's the quality of a teammate that is apparent."

She bobbed her head, "How good of a teammate does it say I am?"

He gave her a hard look as he chewed before responding, "You are passable. At the beginning, you were terrible. You saw us as disposable tools and couldn't be relied upon. Now I believe you see us as people and act accordingly."

"Only passable?"

He took another bite. "Yes, you are prone to distraction and reckless behavior, which works against your evaluation."

Her eyes widened. The unique sense the iguanas had was a lot more complicated than she had expected.

"How good of a teammate is Morna?"

"Terrible. She is likely to destroy any team or plan from within and is best left out altogether."

"Twen?"

"Excellent. He works diligently and loyally."

Curious, she tried to think of other names and remembered something, "Violet?"

His eyes got distant, and he stopped chewing.

"Perfect."

Excited, she said, "That's what it was all about! You didn't want revenge, you have a crush on her! Sorry, we didn't get her contact information… I can ask around and see if someone knows her, like we kind of traumatized her, but maybe things could be smoothed over?"

"You are mistaken. She has remarkable attributes, but humans are physically repulsive."

He stood scooting back his chair and leaving his plate unfinished.

Turning away from her, he spoke loudly, "We're moving out!"

Gen stared at his back, "Huh, I didn't peg him as tsundere…"

Running after him, she called, "Give me back my phone by the way! I need to message Hon!"

He cast her a troubled look and tossed the phone to her.

She fumbled the catch only having wings and not hands, and dropped it on the ground.

Quickly calling in her gremlins, which had been shooting random buildings outside, she had them hold the phone and message Hon the poll results.

It was typo-ridden, but it managed to get the message across as Hon gave her a thumbs up in response.

Soon after, he sent her the updated ability list. They'd lost Thermal Lance and I See Dead People as planned.

The lances she hadn't seen in action, so she didn't miss them.

The body detection ability had been useful, but Hon had already collected most of the easily found bodies, so hopefully it didn't slow them down that much in repairing the hatchery.

Updated list

My dad has a gun: The fathership is in orbit and, once per event day, can protect the UFO by activating its doomsday laser on a target within a mile of the UFO

Five finger discount: The UFO can slowly hack mechs and vehicles within one mile. Stolen equipment can be piloted from the new VR capsule chamber

Gen's eyes widened. The doomsday laser was impressive, but the hacking ability was top-notch.

It had been explained to her that the protagonists' mech factory could be upgraded in a variety of directions, and from their last encounter, it appeared they were focusing on quality over quantity, with more and more advanced mechs being produced as the event progressed.

If they could take control of some of the top-of-the-line equipment, then they'd effectively turn all the protagonists' investment against them and leave only the dragon nest to contend with.

Taking a deep breath, she mentally willed the gremlins into another round of texting.

Switching perspective~

***

Irving stared out at his growing horde from his throne. The first batch of baby dragons had already hit the juvenile stage and doubled in power.

With fingers clasped, he considered his next steps. The incompetent protagonist forces had declined his offer of leading their operations before Susan had died, and now that she was eliminated, they were stalling on making a decision.

Why they continued to draw things out, he had no idea. He was from an originator family, and his performance in the event had surpassed even Susan's. He'd eliminated multiple high-level antagonists even before being rewarded his dragon egg, and after hatching it, things had only escalated.

Laying a hand on the flank of the dragon next to him, he stroked the diamond scales. The dragon nest was powerful, but he cursed his viewers for choosing it. It required an adult dragon to be present to serve as the template for spawning more hatchlings, and so he had been stuck waiting in this abysmal cave, waiting for them to mature instead of finishing off the rats outside.

His phone rang and he saw it was his contact at the mech factory. Perhaps those old men had finally decided to bow their heads.

Answering it, a video call projected in front of him, and he saw one of his aides nervously standing in the corner with five figures seated along a table.

Four of the figures he recognized as the remaining top brass of the protagonists, but the central figure was new.

A paltry level 1 woman named Rosalina.

Ignoring her, he spoke, "So what is it? Will you follow my commands? My performance has been exemplary, and with me in the lead, we can clean up the mess Susan left behind and close out this event."

Annoyingly, none of the high-level figures answered, and instead, the woman spoke, or rather, she laughed.

"Damn, pretty boy, they warned me you had an ego." She held up a stack of papers and shuffled through them, "How far up your own ass are you that you call your performance exemplary? Based on these reports, you entered the event with a hundred mercenaries from mommy and daddy's company, and they carried you through the first few days. That's all well and good to use what you got, but quick question, where are the mercenaries now?"

He scowled and felt a vein throb on his forehead, "Who are you!?" Looking at the most familiar face to her side, he addressed a level 5 man named Loquat, "Why are you wasting my time with this wretch Loquat? Is this some kind of joke? I am not amused and I won't be questioned by my lessers."

Loquat looked conflicted and glanced at Rosalina, but didn't say anything.

Rosalina laughed again and waved around a walkie-talkie in her hand, "Listen here, loser. This baby lets me command protagonists, so I'm in charge now. These gentlemen were going to hand you the proverbial reins, but I decided to step in before they messed things up for us. You see, there's a lot of money in this event, and I think it's high time we all start getting a share. I've already switched our mech upgrades back to quantity so that everybody gets one instead of you fancy fucks keeping them all to yourselves and I'm just giving you a courtesy call that if we get word of you fucking with anyone on our side like you stole that dragon egg from your subordinate then your little base will be the second lizard nest I destroy in this event."

Irving was fuming and was about to respond when, abruptly, the call ended, and he was left staring at nothing.

Standing, he cursed and threw the goblet of wine next to him. His mind raced. Should he go kill her? Whatever geass or effect her event item had might end if she died. At the very least, he could loot it off her body.

The minor loss of contribution points from killing a level 1 was meaningless in comparison to what he could gain with an item that could forcibly control others.

Sitting again, he calmed himself as he started planning. She thought she was in control, but even an item like that had limits. Likely level played a key role. Loquat was level 5, and he was level 6, so that was probably the upper limit of its control.

Her words flashed back to him, and he cursed again.

"I didn't steal it. They were under my employ, so obviously I was entitled to anything they obtained. The fact that they didn't hand it over willingly… I'll make sure my father blacklists their future contracts. As for Rosalina, once I finish her in the event, I'll find out who she really is. A level 1 bitch thinks she can disrespect the Edison family."

LEO dissuaded rewarding or punishing event actions outside of the event, but as long as they were careful and indirect enough, LEO wouldn't interfere.

His thoughts of revenge were cut off as one of his remaining aides ran into the room yelling, "Sir! The UFO is approaching the cave!"

Irving smiled and rose, "Finally! I can take a break from babysitting the nest and actually kill something!"

His aide didn't respond as he was busy reading updates on his phone before saying, "It's holding still, hovering about a mile from us!"

Irving shrugged. If they were going to stay still, it just made it easier for him. Using his Leap of Justice, he jumped onto the back of the lounging dragon and prepared to fly. The nest production would stop while they were gone, but this wouldn't take long.

His thoughts were cut off as a beam of pure destruction blasted through the ceiling and obliterated the area.

You have been eliminated.

Switching perspectives~

***

Rosalina felt refreshed as she hung up the call, "See gentlemen, wasn't that hard, just need to assert yourselves to asshats like that."

Loquat was next to her, sweating bullets as he nervously wrung his hands together. Looking around at those around him, he whispered, "He knows we're being forced, right?"

Rosalina rolled her eyes and slapped him on the shoulder, "Stop freaking out, you four are level 5 for gods' sake!"

Turning away, she thought back to how she'd ended up in a room with these imbeciles. Her radio allowed her to issue commands to protagonists level five and lower, but it was limited to controlling five people at a time.

Annoyingly, it only forced them to follow direct and specific commands, like not to attack her or stay in a certain location. Getting them to actually accept her leadership and stop running the operation like spineless nepo babies was another thing entirely. As a result, she liked to keep them where she could see them before they found some way to work around the geass.

After Susan destroyed the hatchery, the hordes of zombie iguanas had finally stopped swarming her mech, and she'd escaped.

She headed for the closest protagonist group, which happened to be the barn tank. It was an impressive piece of machinery, but it was also halfway buried in sludge and going nowhere fast.

The crew had never heard of the sunken cost fallacy and wouldn't abandon the vehicle, but after some liberal use of mind control, she forced them to evacuate and regroup with other protagonists fleeing the newly spawned special zombies.

She was very keenly aware of the irony of convincing others to give up on lost causes while hemorrhaging money on her own failing business.

It had been a bloody and nightmarish day escaping from one headquarters to another, but slowly she had managed to get enough actually useful people on her side to convince them to abandon all the exterior headquarters and retreat to the central mech factory.

When she got there, the head honchos were pissed as hell about the whole abandoning their posts thing, but… well, they underestimated her poll reward and she promoted herself to supreme leader.

From there, she had been trying to find out how controlling the mech factory worked. Ironically, Susan had previously set it to mass production, but after her death, Loquat and his people had switched to making advanced knight models and rewarding them to high-level followers.

She'd gotten them under her thumb just barely, too late to stop them from sending twelve advanced models, each manned by a level 4 actor, off to die uselessly against the fusioncrack special zombies.

She wasn't surprised rich people wanted to keep the cool toys to themselves, but she was dumbfounded that they'd put their strongest actors into mechs that were completely incompatible with their innate abilities.

Like a level 4 actor was usually powerful in their own right, they didn't need fancy mechs, they barely knew how to drive!

The mechs currently being pumped out were a step up from the one she piloted as the factory was higher level now, but they were still cheap enough that they were making hundreds instead of handfuls.

Ignoring the whimpering around her, she pulled out her phone and checked her viewers count again. She'd thought she gained some when she got the previous poll, but it was stuck at zero again when she looked.

You have 30 viewers~

Her eyes widened. Viewer counts fluctuated, but gaining 30 out of nowhere was unusual. She had to talk to someone who actually paid attention to how the viewer system worked after the event…

The door slammed open, and one of the useful people she'd found rushed in.

"The dragon nest exploded! The whole area is devastated! The antagonists used some sort of super weapon! Some juvenile dragons are fleeing, but most of them are dead, and neither Irving nor his primary dragon have been seen since the blast!"

She grimaced, maybe she'd gone too far with Irving… Her bar was sorta fucked already, but his family could mess up her whole life. He wouldn't be that petty, though, right?

LEO's voice began singing in her head.

Dun dun dun!~ Wow, the way you hung up on him! I got chills! As far as whether he'll hold a grudge, spoiler~ The answer is yes! In fact, he's making a call right now! Anyway, here's your reward!

Rosalina let out a loud groan, causing everyone to flinch back from her. She forcibly kept her hands from trembling and looked at the four useless people at the table with her.

If she was going to survive after this event ended, she was going to need to earn one hell of a reward.