Chapter 538: The Doubles

Chapter 538: The Doubles

The next day, Oro continued with the same routine as yesterday… When night fell, the bodyguard looked at Oro very seriously. How to put it? Yesterday, he had been somewhat confused, but today, he could be certain. Unless he was blind, Oro had definitely done nothing at all—just played around!

“So, I feel deceived.”

“Ah, indeed you were deceived, because everything that needed to be prepared was already done yesterday. Naturally, not much was done today,” Oro said casually. The bodyguard’s eye twitched slightly. “So, you were fooling me yesterday?”

“Just a tiny bit.”

“A tiny bit, my foot… I’m telling you, if something like this happens again, I’ll… huh!?” The bodyguard paused for a moment, gently rubbed his head, looked around with slight confusion, and then looked at Oro again. “What just happened?”

“…Oh, I don’t know.” Oro reached up and lightly tapped his own head, tossed the writing board beside him aside, stood up, opened the window, and looked up at the sky. “Something strange. The place we’re in seems to have changed.”

Oro wasn’t just saying this casually. On the way back, he had specifically paid attention to the sky. The clouds had changed dramatically. When he returned, he had made a point of observing the cloud formations. Based on the time since their return, the clouds shouldn’t have changed this much. But now, the clouds in the sky had completely taken on another form.

This wasn’t a gradual change anymore; it was a cliff-dive kind of change.

“Changed?”

“Hmm, could be some kind of magic, or perhaps a trick by that Derivative Witch,” Oro said. “Or maybe that dragon has started to act.”

“So what should we do?” the bodyguard asked.

“Simple, just protect me, that’s all,” Oro shrugged. His gaze fell onto the street, and upon seeing a figure, his expression faltered slightly. He then looked back at his bodyguard and revealed a subtle smile. “Hey, I have a question for you. It’s important.”

“What question?” The bodyguard frowned slightly, asking. Oro’s smile made him uneasy.

“If you were to fight yourself, could you win?”

“…”

The bodyguard looked at Oro in silence. First, he nodded, then shook his head. “The opponent I least want to face is myself. That means the fight would be endless!”

Oro didn’t speak, just slightly tilted his chin, gesturing for him to look for himself. The bodyguard came to the window, glanced at the road outside, and his eye twitched violently. “Holy crap, when did this happen!?”

The bodyguard stared in shock at himself on the street. The other’s aura and every other feeling were exactly the same as his own. In other words, the other was him, an inexplicably appearing version of himself. The bodyguard looked at Oro, waiting for his answer.

Oro thought for a moment. “Hmm, this should be the magic to deal with the Derivative Witch. We just need to stay put here nicely… Oh, here he comes!”

The next moment, Oro directly positioned the bodyguard in front of himself. The bodyguard grunted softly, his aura instantly condensing. He threw a punch at the ‘himself’ charging in through the window. The moment their fists collided, the resulting shockwave directly shattered the room to pieces, except for Oro behind him, who remained unharmed.

“Hmph…” the bodyguard let out a muffled grunt. The opponent’s attack was a full-force assault, while he had to spare a sliver of his focus to protect Oro behind him. This put him at a slight disadvantage in this clash.

“Keep an eye on yourself!”

The bodyguard bellowed, forcefully pushing the other version of himself out. Oro looked at the shattered door behind him and lightly rubbed his own head. “This… how am I supposed to keep an eye on myself?”

He had a bit of a headache, because standing outside the door was someone who looked exactly like him. The other even wore a smile that Oro was very familiar with. “So what? I think we should sit down and have a good talk, or go find that dragon to talk?”

“Alright,” the other ‘Oro’ nodded. However, Oro himself couldn’t help but tap his own head. Really, since this change was caused by Zheng Yichen, the person in question was clearly no longer here. The earlier punch between the bodyguard and the ‘bodyguard’ had already almost destroyed this fragile area, including Zheng Yichen’s room. Zheng Yichen’s room was empty.

He had long since run off to who-knows-where. Subsequently, new chaos gradually emerged, because many people noticed a problem: they had unknowingly gained an extra ‘self.’

For the well-trained Church members, after being on guard, they didn’t immediately attempt conflict. For the ordinary people who weren’t asleep yet, this was something very concerning and frightening to them.

Apart from those who were just arguing, most started fighting directly. And both sides were evenly matched, rookies pecking at each other… These doubles identical to those people had nothing special about them. Whether it was physique or other factors, they were completely the same. Once a fight broke out, victory depended more on one’s own luck.

Or the ability to make a breakthrough during the fight.

Breakthrough during the fight?

Oro looked at the other version of himself. “I’m a pacifist. Hmm, how about we play a game of chess?”

The other Oro nodded, looking at the chessboard he brought out, and sat down. “Who goes first?”

“You’re the newcomer, you go first.”

Elsewhere, Zheng Yichen sat in his own room, looking at a transparent ‘ball’ in his hand. This ball contained the souls of everyone in the entire town. Under the effect of the Nightmare magic, those whose souls were pulled out did not die. The magic ensured that soul separation wouldn’t cause them any additional harm.

Hmm… For those unaware, it was just like having slept. This was an improvement Irene made to the Nightmare magic. With ordinary Nightmare magic, people pulled into the Nightmare would inevitably feel unwell the next day, like being mentally drained.

Irene’s version of this magic didn’t have that.

The Nightmare Realm Zheng Yichen constructed was based on the town, which was convenient and quick, requiring no extra thought from him. Although Zheng Yichen wanted to create some special environments, like a plumber-themed environment or something… However, a small problem occurred when using the Nightmare magic. The instant before pulling the Derivative Witch in, using the compass as a guide, she also put up a corresponding resistance.

This resistance left Zheng Yichen, who was using the Nightmare magic for the first time in earnest, no time to construct a more special environment… Tsk, he should have built the Nightmare Realm before pulling people in. Not like now, where it felt awkward and incomplete. Those doubles appearing in the town within the Nightmare Realm were the Derivative Witch’s doing.

When she was pulled into the Nightmare Realm, although she couldn’t resist the pulling force generated by the Threads of Fate connected to the compass, she couldn’t resist the pull but could do other things. She created a large number of doubles… Among these copied existences, Zheng Yichen couldn’t accurately discern which one was the true Derivative Witch assimilation body, or perhaps they all were!

“My goodness, a full half of the people are mixed up together. How am I supposed to tell them apart!?” Zheng Yichen said with a headache, holding the semi-transparent Nightmare Realm. After immersing his attention into it, a body belonging to him appeared within the Nightmare Realm.

Looking at the chaotic town, Zheng Yichen felt overwhelmed. Not to mention the two bodyguard men fighting fiercely over there, even the townsfolk fighting each other made Zheng Yichen helpless. Additionally, there were some other bizarre existences, like Oro playing chess with his other self, and the Church fujoshi exchanging rotten, evil vibes with her other self.

Four of them gathered together playing cards… Why were there so many weirdos among the Church members led by Oro? Well, Zheng Yichen hoped there would be more of such weirdos. Letting out a slight sigh, Zheng Yichen withdrew his attention. The situation in the Nightmare Realm would just have to be for now. That was the space Zheng Yichen had constructed.

Even though many doubles and originals were clashing to the death, and even if one died, it would consume Zheng Yichen’s mana… Yes, his own mana. The Nightmare magic had two sides. The negative side was that if someone ‘died’ within the Nightmare Realm, death at the soul level would reflect on their real body. The dead soul would dissipate within the Nightmare Realm, converting into magical fuel to maintain the Nightmare Realm.

Zheng Yichen didn’t create this form of the Nightmare Realm specifically for that bit of mana. He naturally used the lossless version of the Nightmare Realm. Dying here wasn’t true death; one would just lose consciousness for a period before being revived by the flowing mana within the Nightmare Realm… This would additionally consume Zheng Yichen’s mana.

But it didn’t matter! After all, what Zheng Yichen lacked least was mana. Speaking of which, this method of reviving souls wasn’t a good action either; rather, it was a form of torture. Imagine suffering in the Nightmare Realm, unable to die… it fit the name of this magic well!

Anyway, maintaining this magic for ten days to half a month was a trivial matter, since Zheng Yichen had the mana from the Magic Weapon Summoning Book to sustain it. That thing wasn’t a perpetual motion machine, but its accumulated mana grew daily. Maintaining a high-level magic was nothing. The people inside could die as they pleased; dying eight or ten times wasn’t a big problem. After all, Zheng Yichen saw that the originals and doubles inside were all rookies pecking at each other. The only one requiring attention was that bodyguard.

Aside from him, the rest were all trash!

As for those two bodyguards, Zheng Yichen had nothing to say. They fought just like two Terminators of the same specs. Attacks like crashing through walls or slamming into the ground were easily ignored. The two engaged in intense physical collisions in the most ferocious manner, with DuangDuang sounds never stopping.

The fight looked intense, but in reality, it was just two people wearing 100% damage reduction gear, slowly grinding each other’s HP down, -1HP, -1HP, and the rate of HP loss was even slower than their HP regeneration.

Zheng Yichen felt that if he maintained the Nightmare Realm and even extended the time flow within it, these two could keep fighting forever.

In the real town, even though it wasn’t fully bedtime yet, the town had become utterly silent. On the streets, one could see small groups of townsfolk lying unconscious. Hopefully, they wouldn’t catch a cold when they woke up the next day.

Zheng Yichen took out a strand of dark blue hair—Irene’s hair from the past. Tsk, tsk. He originally thought it would just be a collectible, but it turned out to be useful now. This strand of hair dissolved into pure, dark blue mana. The pure mana attached itself to the magic rune array Zheng Yichen had woven, strengthening this magic. The earlier preparations?

What were those things… They were just useless bait to make the Derivative Witch in the town focus too much attention on them. With the Magic Weapon Summoning Book’s support, Zheng Yichen didn’t need extra preparation to rely on his vast mana to pull everyone in the town into the Nightmare Realm.

As for the remaining preparations, those were all made after pulling the target into the Nightmare Realm.

After the first magic rune array was completed, it quickly expanded and extended, soon covering the entire town area. This magic completely shielded this region for a period. After releasing this magic, most of the supercharged magic power converted from Irene’s hair remained. This portion of mana was intercepted by Zheng Yichen and stored within the Power Core.

For later use…

After preparing all this, Zheng Yichen focused his attention back on the Nightmare Realm. Oro was still playing chess with his double. Both sides were evenly matched. Clearly, half an hour had passed, yet there were very few pieces on the board. Both individuals’ thoughts were the same. One could say that with this way of playing, each move consumed a huge amount of mental energy.

Because they basically both knew what they would do after ‘they themselves’ made a move, and then what the other would do. It was quite like, “I see through your thoughts,” and “I see through you seeing through my thoughts,” then to “I see through you seeing through me seeing through you…” on and on in a cycle…

After these few moves, both Oros were sweating profusely, purely from exhaustion. Before long, both Oros simultaneously put down their chess pieces and looked at each other. “I say, perhaps we should change methods.”

“Hmm, this is too tiring,” the other Oro said.

So the two Oros started playing cards. The cards were in a scattered state, shuffled by both Oros. Although this was also a great test of strategy, since their intelligence was identical, shuffling the cards separately undoubtedly tested luck, because neither knew which part of the deck the cards came from.

After taking out these cards, neither had looked at them, nor did they need to. Oro knew that this existence identical to him shared his memories. Whatever cards he had, the other knew too.

Even if they were messed up and reshuffled, both could still figure out what the shuffled deck was like. So, Zheng Yichen rested his chin on his hand, watching these two Little Moustaches shuffle cards for ten minutes. The cards were almost cut to pieces, but these two still showed no sign of stopping.

Damn, this was even more boring than watching those two meat shields fight!

Zheng Yichen slightly pursed his lips and shifted his attention elsewhere. This was a bit of a headache. If these doubles weren’t dealt with one by one, they couldn’t just maintain the Nightmare Realm forever. If this place lost contact with the outside world for a day, the Church would immediately take notice.

Finally, helpless, Zheng Yichen went to find Irene. Sigh, magical knowledge… he still hadn’t studied enough. Getting messed up by the Derivative Witch’s emergency tactic, he had to seek external help.

“Doubles? You really…” Annie looked at Zheng Yichen with a helpless expression, her demeanor resembling that of looking at a disappointing child.

“Ah~ I know a good hand was played terribly, but there was no choice. After all, that’s a derivative of the Undying Witch; it must have some special traits,” Zheng Yichen shrugged, admitting his mistake frankly. So, please put away that look of looking at a child!

“You’re more special, alright… Forget it, considering you’re only a few years old…”

“Over twenty!” Zheng Yichen emphasized.

“I mean your age in this world.”

“Then there’s nothing to say.”

“Hmm, anyway, it’s normal for someone only a few years old to have such oversight. Compared to others, you’ve already mastered too much. Hmm, actually, the solution isn’t difficult.”

Zheng Yichen showed a listening expression. At that moment, Annie stepped aside and pointed at Irene. “Just ask Irene.”

“…I originally wanted to ask Irene. You just cut in…”

“I’m bored.”

“?”

“My research hit a bottleneck, a bit annoying, so I wanted to find something interesting,” Annie said with somewhat low spirits. The depleted stock of materials had been replenished by Zheng Yichen, but then she encountered a bottleneck here, not the kind that could be broken through immediately, which annoyed Annie somewhat. It’s only a few percent progress, and she hit such a problem.

So, magic involving free transformation related to life… was really difficult. But she just liked this kind of challenging thing. “Let’s not talk about this. Wait until I go back and look through some materials; I should find a solution.”

Zheng Yichen nodded. “If there’s anywhere I can help, don’t be polite; just speak up. So… Irene?”

“She’s encountering obstacles over there, so my own construction can’t proceed normally either,” Irene shook her head. She didn’t blame Annie because of this. After all, although what Annie was doing wasn’t in her own field, she understood the difficulty. “About the doubles you mentioned, dealing with them isn’t hard. You just need to interfere a little with the changes within the Nightmare Realm.”

“Oh? How to interfere?” Zheng Yichen took out the magic book Annie had given him earlier. This magic book contained many annotations, including operations for interfering with the Nightmare Realm. There were many such interference operations. For example, making someone in the Nightmare Realm suddenly feel very strong, or suddenly change from a man to a woman, etc. All could be done, just requiring some delicate manipulation. It was quite miraculous…

After all, those pulled into the Nightmare Realm were essentially dreaming. In dreams, as long as one had sufficient control, one could almost be omnipotent. However, the one who could make beings in the Nightmare Realm omnipotent was Zheng Yichen.

Nightmare Magic… strictly speaking, was a magic that played with souls!

“The specific method of interference isn’t recorded in here,” Irene glanced at the magic book Zheng Yichen took out. “This book was written by me over a hundred years ago. Many parts haven’t been updated. I originally thought this would be enough for you to use…”

As she spoke, she shook her head, making Zheng Yichen feel even more conflicted. This reaction made it seem like he was really disappointing.