Title: Four Billion Toys
Author: Dominic H. Hugh
Chapter 18: Permission Granted
I glanced up from my notebook as Claudia hunched over my gaming keyboard, her brow furrowed in concentration. The afternoon sun filtered through my freshly cleaned windows, casting a warm glow across my apartment—an apartment that, for the first time in years, wasn’t a biohazard zone. The floors were vacuumed, surfaces dusted, and even my collection of Valheim figurines stood in neat rows instead of their usual chaotic sprawl. I’d been maintaining this cleanliness religiously since Emily had done the initial deep clean, partly out of newfound self-respect but mostly because Claudia spent so much time here now.
“No, no, no!” Claudia laughed, frantically clicking as her character—just a simple blue capsule—nearly collided with its past self. “Shit! I almost created a paradox again. Good thing I wasn’t looking my way...” She bit her lower lip, her dark hair falling across her face as she leaned closer to the screen. “Wait, if I go around this way while my past self is pressing that button…”
I couldn’t help but smile as I watched her navigate through the crude level of my game prototype. Everything was placeholder graphics—simple geometric shapes standing in for characters, plain gray blocks for walls, and bright yellow circles for the two pressure plates that needed to be activated simultaneously. The code was buggy, with occasional glitches causing characters to clip through walls or the time travel mechanic sometimes sending players to random timestamps instead of the intended ones. But despite all that, Claudia seemed genuinely engaged.
“Oh! I got it!” she exclaimed as both her current character and the past version she’d been controlling a minute earlier managed to hit the pressure plates at the same time, causing the door to slide open with a placeholder “whoosh” sound I’d downloaded from a free asset library. “That was so satisfying! Oliver, this is really good. The concept is brilliant—having to work with yourself but avoid yourself at the same time? It’s great!”
I snorted at her food metaphor. “You’re just being nice. It’s a mess...”
“No, I mean it,” she insisted, swiveling in my gaming chair to face me. “The mechanics are solid. Once you get real graphics and fix the bugs, this could be something special. You didn’t command me to love it as far as I’m aware. Right? Right?” She winked, suddenly wondering just that, arousal showing on her face at the thought of me manipulating her feelings.
“No, Claudia. I didn’t,” I said, rolling my eyes.
There it was—the elephant in the room that had been haunting me for the past week. Claudia was constantly encouraging me to use my powers on her and others. I was more than happy to indulge her, our kinks aligning well, but I couldn’t help but wonder how much of the rest of our relationship was genuine or just her binding her time until she could be the subject of another one of my commands. My power over women seemed to make them more... tolerant of my faults. That plus her own interest in using it, well... Maybe she wasn’t actually that into me... I mean, she did seem genuinely interested in me, but...
“Well....” Her eyes drifted back to my monitor. “Then, it really is great, Oliver. I mean it!”
I watched as Claudia played through another level, her fingers dancing across my keyboard with growing confidence. She’d gotten the hang of the time-travel mechanics faster than I expected, navigating her blue capsule character around its past self with only occasional slip-ups. Just as she was about to solve a particularly tricky sequence—one where she needed to coordinate three different time-versions of herself—the screen froze, flickered, and then crashed back to my desktop.
“Aw, come on!” Claudia groaned, throwing her hands up in frustration. “I was so close that time!”
I started to apologize for the buggy code when I noticed her expression shift from disappointment to curiosity. My Discord was open in the background, and the notification counter showed thousands of unread messages and friend requests. The server that had been created to find me—now renamed “The Owner’s Court”—had ballooned to over 200,000 members.
“Holy shit, Oliver,” she said, scrolling through the endless list of friend requests. “You’re like, legitimately famous now. Look at all these people trying to reach you.” Her eyes widened as she clicked into the server and saw the flood of messages in the main channel. “Wait, these guys are getting desperate. Listen to this one: ‘Day 37 without sex. Starting to think The Owner doesn’t care about us mere mortals.’ And this: “Please, Owner, I just wanna be able to kiss my wife again...”
She turned to me, her expression a mix of amusement and concern. “I thought you figured this out weeks ago, after that time at Zoe’s place. Didn’t you say you were going to make some kind of announcement?”
I grunted and ran a hand through my hair, avoiding her eyes. “I’ve been sitting on it. I don’t know what to do, really. How do you even approach something like this? I don’t want to just give global permission, let all the assholes out there start messing with women again.” sighed. “And... Alright, I could tell women they can fuck anyone they want, so it’d be up to them... But...”
“But what? Want to keep us all to yourself?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. There was no accusation in her tone. My status obviously made her consider it a perfectly legitimate course of action. I didn’t have to share my toys...
“I dunno...”
Claudia snorted but quickly sobered. “Look, it’s up to you, but people are going nuts out there. My friend Lucia from work? She told me she hasn’t been on a date in weeks because what’s the point? And men are getting frustrated because they can’t even flirt without feeling like they’re asking to borrow something that isn’t theirs.”
I sighed and slumped onto the couch beside her. “There’s another Discord server trying to track me down now. Some guys were tired of waiting and started their own server to resume their search. I had to nuke all my social media accounts last week because they were talking about using facial recognition on that photo from Le Petit Château. The one where I’m in the background with you… you know.”
“When you fucked me on the table?” Claudia said bluntly, a small smile playing at her lips at the memory.
“No... Well, before that. When you were topless.” I sighed, running my hands through my hair. “They’ve got a few other sightings to work with, too. Thank God no one seems to really give enough of a shit about me to post about their encounters with me, or they’d have found me a long time ago.”
Actually, I wasn’t even as protected as I used to be. People didn’t really care that I owned women, but the growing frustration of being denied sex was boiling over. Articles weren’t written about my status as The Owner, but about the consequences of it. Indirectly, the internet was now talking about me, buzzing with anger at the problems I was causing. Desperate people were desperate, and the protection of whatever curse or blessing I was benefiting from didn’t seem like a hard limit, but rather just a nudge of reality, a push. I had no doubt that, if I didn’t solve the issue soon, some people would find ways to work around that nudge.
“It’s a mess,” I said, feeling my face heat up. “And now I’m paranoid about going out in public too much. What if someone recognizes me?”
Claudia frowned, setting the mouse down and turning to face me fully. “I don’t see why anyone would actually bother you...” She was right. No one was threatening, but people were asking, and I didn’t want to spend my days fending off requests.
“Still,” I said, “it feels like a ticking time bomb.”
“Well, that’s one more reason to figure something out,” she said, gesturing toward the screen where new messages were still popping up by the second. “You can’t just hide forever. These people need… something. Some kind of system, at least.”
I stared at the Discord server, watching the desperate pleas scroll by too fast to read. She was right—I couldn’t keep ignoring this. I had broken the world, and now I needed to figure out how to fix it… or at least make it functional again.
I rubbed my temples, staring at the Discord server’s endless stream of messages. The weight of the situation was finally sinking in—I couldn’t keep ignoring this problem forever.
“Well then… I’ll tell all women they can have sex with whoever they want, whenever they want.” I sighed, turning to Claudia. “That still seems like the simplest solution.”
Claudia nodded, tucking her legs underneath her on the couch. “That makes sense. Women get their autonomy back, but men will still feel like they need permission from the women themselves. It’s like… delegating your authority.”
“Exactly,” I said, feeling a wave of relief that she understood. “Men would still feel like they’re borrowing something that belongs to me, so they’d be more respectful. At least in theory.”
I opened a new text document and began typing, trying to craft something clear and concise. As I worked, Claudia peered over my shoulder, her breath warm against my neck.
“So you’re really giving up your exclusive access, huh?” she teased, poking me in the ribs. “No more being the only man on Earth who can get laid without begging for permission?”
I snorted. “It’s not like I’ve been hoarding all women for myself. I’ve already given permission to some guys.”
“Yeah, but those were specific cases you personally approved,” she pointed out, her tone playful but with an undercurrent of seriousness. “This is different. You’re letting women decide for themselves who they sleep with. That’s a big change.”
She was right, of course. Up until now, I’d maintained tight control over who got access to “my property.” I’d granted permission to Marcus to be with Zoe again, allowed Vanessa to return to her husband, did the same with Veronica a week ago, and made a few other exceptions for people I knew personally. But this would be a blanket permission for all women everywhere.
“Remember,” Claudia added, her hand resting on my shoulder, “you can always rescind this if it doesn’t work out. You still own all women. This is just… a temporary lease agreement.” She laughed at her own analogy.
After a few more minutes of editing, I had a message I was satisfied with:
- To all women:
As your owner, I hereby grant you permission to engage in sexual activities with any person of your choosing, at any time you desire, without requiring further approval from me. Your consent remains essential—this permission only extends to situations where you genuinely want to participate. You may withdraw this consent at any time. This permission remains in effect until explicitly revoked by me.
I read it aloud to Claudia, who nodded approvingly. “Clear, direct, and it covers the bases.”
Taking a deep breath, I posted the message to the Discord server. The response was immediate and overwhelming:
- GamerDude42:
FINALLY! Thank you!
- BeardedBro:
About damn time! Been waiting for weeks!
- LoneWolf77:
Just showed this to my girlfriend and she’s already taking her clothes off lol
- FrustatedHusband:
37 days. It took you 37 days to do this. Thanks I guess.
- AlphaMale2000:
This is bullshit. So it’s still only if THEY want to? What about what WE want?
- BookishBabe:
@AlphaMale2000 Are you seriously complaining that women need to consent? Gross.
- TechSavvyChick:
As a woman, I’m grateful to my Owner for this permission. Thank you for trusting us with this freedom.
- GamerGirl23:
@AlphaMale2000 The Owner just gave us all a huge gift and you’re complaining? Maybe this is why women don’t want to sleep with you.
- AlphaMale2000:
I’m just saying, he owns you all. He could have ordered you to be more accommodating.
- OldSchoolMod:
@AlphaMale2000 He could have, but he didn’t. Too bad. Now that the Owner’s positions on the subject are clear, we won’t tolerate that kind of commentary any longer. Consider this your first and only warning.
- DatingCoach101:
Guys, this is actually better for everyone. Now you just have to convince the woman you’re interested in, not track down the Owner to beg for permission.
- FitMom42:
Just showed this to my husband. We’re celebrating tonight! Thank you, Owner!
- LiteraryLady:
I appreciate this more than words can say. Being unable to be intimate with my partner has been incredibly difficult for him.
- RespectfulGuy:
This is the right call. Thank you for respecting women’s autonomy while still maintaining your position.
The messages continued to pour in faster than I could read them. Some men were jubilant, others seemed disappointed that I hadn’t simply commanded all women to be more sexually available. Women were expressing gratitude, relief, and in some cases, excitement about resuming their sex lives.
“Well, that seems to be going over well with most people,” Claudia observed, scrolling through the responses. “Though there are always going to be assholes like that Alpha guy.”
I nodded, feeling a strange mix of relief and something else I couldn’t quite identify. It felt good to solve a problem that had been affecting so many people, but there was also a twinge of… loss?
“You did the right thing,” Claudia said softly, as if reading my thoughts. She leaned over and kissed my cheek. “And hey, it’s not like you’ve lost anything. You still own all women, including me. You’ve just chosen to be generous with your property.”
I smiled at her, grateful for her understanding. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”