It sounded nice on paper, but in reality, the drug numbed soldiers’ sensations. The idea was that wounds, warmth, cold, and so on, would affect them less, making them more efficient killing machines.
And it worked. It even worked a bit too well. As soon as the war ended, the dark truth came to light. The supposed drug was, in reality, no different from a virus. A virus that had time to propagate all over the world. Soon enough, the whole planet’s population was infected.
At first, people didn’t panic too much. The effects were “mild”. It was like a light anesthetic. However, problems soon arose. There was a good reason why being able to feel pain, heat, and cold was critical. These were survival signals, here to help folks notice that something was wrong with their body.
However, the biggest issue of all was that sexual pleasure was mostly gone. This time, people went insane. They could maybe do without feeling a few things, but sex was a no-go.
As such, researchers started looking for a vaccine. Then, World War II happened, and research was stagnant for a long time. It only resumed after the war ended.
Success only came six years later. Finally, they had a vaccine for it. And yet, in a cruel twist of fate, they noticed something new. The vaccine indeed worked, and the virus was eliminated. However, the human genome had somehow been affected by the virus and wasn’t the same as before. Now, the numbness condition didn’t come from the virus anymore, but from human bodies themselves. And worst of all, newborn babies were also the same!
Following these revelations, humanity went through a very gloomy phase. A few more years passed until something managed to give them hope again. A company called Lacos created a device named stimulation recording, or SR for short.
This tool did exactly what it said. It allowed someone to record the physical stimulation they experienced and have someone else go through that experience. In other words, a new type of goods appeared on a completely new market: buying and selling sexual stimulation.
With sexual stimulation being exchanged on the market, it became no different from any other goods. Because it was so hard to produce, and the demand was so high, its value soared through the skies. Soon enough, it became no different from any other payment method since its value was extremely stable. It allowed people who had little money to pay with their time and body.
Back to contemporary times, the technology has evolved a lot. Now, everyone has an SR chip inside their left shoulder. It worked with any type of connection available nearby, be it Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or 5G.
What happened in the convenience store was exactly that. My kiss, or should I say, ‘our’ kiss, was exchanged for the value of my sandwich. The ‘our’ part was important because why only record one side when it’s much more efficient to record both sides? It wasn’t like the kiss felt worse for any of us.
In other words, the value of the exchanged kiss was precisely $4.70. The data for it was sold and stored on a platform owned by Lacos, who then resold it to anyone interested.
‘Holy dark matter! This world is crazy.’
Curious, I went to that platform, which looked like an e-commerce website. There, one section contained all the available offers. It truly had everything. From gentle caresses to absolute hardcore sexual acts. Prices depended on the total stimulation that resulted from the record, and not the act itself.
If I wanted to buy one, it was very easy. I could either pay with money or, yet again, with another record of mine, since “sex”, or stimulation, was money here. It would then be downloaded into my shoulder’s SR, and I could “play it” whenever I wanted to experience that stimulation.
I wasn’t rich by any means, even in this different world, but I couldn’t help wanting to try this at least once. I bought something very cheap, a gentle cheek caress for $1.20. I selected my SR in the options, since it was connected to my computer through the Wi-Fi, and paid. The download started, and I had the data in there.
Next was simple. I could either use a program on my computer or an app on my phone to trigger that stimulation any time I felt like it.
I did it, closing my eyes to try to feel it better. And then, as expected, I started to feel a soft hand caressing my cheek. It lasted for about one and a half minutes and then ended.
‘This technology’s amazing.’
The world was insane, yes, something that only a crazed author could come up with, but the technology was the real deal.
A realization suddenly came to my mind.
‘I don’t think I’m feeling numb in any way?’
I tested a few things, pinching myself, drinking cold water, and jerking off a little bit. Everything seemed normal. As far as I could tell, I was no different from usual.
‘Wait. Isn’t that a great advantage?’
I remembered the man who paid with sex after me. He had to work on Diana’s boobs for a long time to pay for less than $10. As for me? My $4.70 kiss filled the sandwich’s value almost instantaneously. Diana herself seemed surprised by how quickly it ended.
If my guess was right, didn’t that mean I could pay for stuff with sexual acts from now on, and it wouldn’t even take much of my time? Wasn’t this the ultimate dream? Like an infinite money glitch combined with an infinite amount of sex? All of this seemed extremely compatible with my high libido and innumerable kinks.
I calmed myself down, trying not to get too excited. I still needed to try things for myself.
I began yawning when my tension receded a little. Looking at the time, it was already 1 am. Just in case, it was better to continue going to work normally the following day.
I brushed my teeth and went straight to bed. Despite feeling tired, it still took me some time to fall asleep, thinking about my circumstances.
I didn’t know why I had moved to this world, or how it was even possible in the first place. Maybe this wasn’t anything special, and it happened to people all the time. Just, they didn’t say it out loud, and if they did, no one believed them. It wasn’t like anyone could prove they came from a parallel world.
The only hint I had was the terrible migraine from the morning. Could I go back to my world if I experienced another similar headache? But, did I truly want to? This world seemed fascinating, to say the least.
My eyes slowly closed as I was lost in thought, and sleep took over me.