We were getting to the parts why this program had sensual in its name. Logically, something like this could have incredible scientific implications. Just on the top of my head, doing surgery on someone on the other side of the planet could be revolutionary. Even just the technology behind this whole program could change the world. And yet, just like any other tool, it was clear that people all reached the same conclusion: using it for perverted purposes. I understood well because I was the same.
However, it wasn’t like I trusted whatever it said either. Now that I had the opportunity, I should at least try it out for myself.
First, I attempted to hurt myself. Instantly, my finger disappeared from the window.
[Harm intents detected. Stopping the exchange. If this weren’t a test, the full price would be sent to the lender as compensation, and harsh punishment would befall the renter.]
This was incredible. I didn’t even do anything at all. It had read my self-evil thoughts and halted everything before it happened. Talk about secure indeed. But also a bit scary. It was clear this program was so advanced that it could read minds, or at least surface intent.
Or maybe there was no need to keep trembling in fear. Let’s be real. Anyone possessing this level of technology or sorcery or whatever could destroy humanity and Earth anytime they wished. The fact that they didn’t do so was proof that this wasn’t their goal. There was no point in living the rest of my life in fear, either. Plus, judging by the type of program and its mocking tone, it felt like those aliens and whatnots were having tons of fun on their own.
I ran another trial. I rented the same finger while trying to unintentionally hurt myself. This was a lot trickier than expected. As soon as it detected my intent, it stopped everything. Eventually, I managed to do it by understanding the principle. It truly was about randomness. I dragged the window around randomly without having any special negative thoughts. At one point, my finger ran into an involuntary collision course with my desk. Just before the impact happened, the transfer was discontinued, just like before.
[Temporary pausing the exchange due to involuntary harm to the lender’s body part. As the lender, you can temporarily stop and resume the transaction at any time you wish. You can also completely stop it, in which case it won’t be possible to resume it, and no payment will be made due to breaking your side of the contract. As a renter, please be more careful in the future. If these incidents were to happen too frequently, penalties could occur.]
I was glad this was as safe as it said. With this, it truly felt like it wasn’t possible to rent a body part and get it slashed by a psychopath at the other end. Next, I tried exactly what it spoke about. I resumed the transaction, and my finger appeared again. The countdown, which had stopped, also started going down once more. Then, I voluntarily stopped it by thinking about it. It worked perfectly, just as advertised.
Now that my fears were cleared, it was time to try the real thing. However, as if to taunt me, one last message appeared just before I was about to hit the “Back” button.
[Being a dirty, horny, and brainless boy, you didn’t even consider it, but it is still our duty to inform you about these sorts of things. SBPR is 100% safe in terms of sanitization, diseases, and hygiene, unless one wants it to be otherwise. Similarly, it prevents pregnancy with a 100% success rate, unless one wants it otherwise. Have fun trying our program. Don’t forget to give us 5 stars.]
That escalated quickly. But they were right, I didn’t even think about that stuff. I was starting to understand what they meant by situational instructions. It felt more like it was giving me the information that I needed when I felt I needed it, as if it really were reading my mind. And that comment about giving it 5 stars, was it some sort of elaborate insider joke? They kept asking for it even though they knew well I didn’t have access to that universe rating or whatever thingy.
Anyway, I focused on the most important part. I went back to the main menu and clicked on [Rent] again. Unfortunately, there still wasn’t anything available. There was one difference from before, though. At the very top of the empty board, a new message had appeared.
[83/100 users online.]
Did that mean that they successfully recruited 100, but 17 were offline? Or they failed to recruit 17? What did offline mean anyway?
[A user is offline when they have no pending offers and are not currently interacting with SBPR.]
Come to think of it, how do I stop interacting with this? Just as I thought about it, everything disappeared from my view, taking me by surprise. I thought about opening it again, and it reappeared. Very practical.
[82/100 users online.]
One more had “left”. Speaking of which, it was quite late at night. Most people would go to bed or would already be sleeping by now. That still meant 82 people were still here. I wondered how many were women.
[We always recruit a balanced gender ratio of users, 50% male, 50% female, to give everyone a fair chance.]
That made sense. Or did it? What happened if someone were gay? Didn’t that screw up the ratios? What was it again? LGBT-something-something.
[LGBTQIA2S+ in your world, and that isn’t even its final form. Even we have given up on this and decided to go with a balanced, at-birth biological gender ratio. Anything that happens during one’s individual life is out of our consideration for this program.]
It was scary if even aliens found it too complicated. I didn’t even know what most of the words in the acronym were.