<859 – Faith Meta (3)>
The existence of women was a distant concept in Mob’s life.
“Puhahaha! Mob. They call you Black Knight among your friends? You’re really something!”
“…Are you teasing me?”
“Oh, no. Men usually like that kind of thing. I’m an open-minded girl, so I understand everything.”
“The title of Black Knight is the embodiment of my hard work recognized as Oknodie’s apprentice.”
“W-Wait, what?”
“Don’t make a joke out of that name again.”
The female student, who had turned twenty of her male classmates into lovesick fools with playful little skinship like slapping shoulders or backs, was openly ridiculed.
“Oh my! Sorry! Are you okay? Isn’t it hot? Hurry and take off your armor. I’ll clean it for you!”
“Forget it. I’m not taking off this armor. It’s magical armor, so it has waterproofing as a basic feature.”
“Does that armor have fire resistance too? If it gets too hot, would you want to stay at my place until it cools down?”
“…Put that flamethrower down right now. Before I slice it!”
Using the excuse of throwing water to give him clothes to change into, the laundry temptress-type female student was blocked by Mob’s iron wall, who absolutely refused to take off his armor.
“I’m late, I’m late… Aah!”
With a toast in her mouth, the female student who came around the corner was knocked down by the activation of the five連結中갑방어술 from her usual training and reflexes, and was carried off to the Medical Building.
The lure of reason.
A friendly attitude.
An approach to evoke familiarity.
Mob couldn’t grasp a single thing.
Instead of garnering affection from the girls, male students were cheering for the foolish chain repel show where he was being humiliated.
“Wow, can you believe there’s someone like that?”
“Forget about gaining points!”
“The million points weren’t just a joke.”
The prideful female students ran off without looking back.
In fact, it was expected that they would have strong pride.
To become a student of Gift Academy, they must have had outstanding family, organizational, and national support.
Outside the academy, each one was an S-rank beauty of the province and the idol of their region, organization, and country, so they couldn’t even imagine clinging to a single male student wearing heavy, ominous-looking armor.
The temptation of a million points could make one close their eyes and let go of their dignity for just a taste, but getting openly humiliated and wanting to smack that tin can’s head while putting on a shameless smile just didn’t seem reasonable.
“Our organization could give you a million points if we pushed to the limit!”
“Cowardly Dark Princess. Trying to crush us with money!”
“In our country, I could take hundreds of those tin knights around with me!?”
The upper-tier female students with higher years, whether in skill, power, or beauty, took the challenge first and got shattered while the remaining female students laughed and nurtured expectations.
If only they studied and relied on their looks, doing awkward seductions would lead them to that shame.
The latecomers even devised an operation plan to be bold and lay down their pride for an attempt to seduce him.
“Isn’t he a virgin?”
“A crazy guy who knows nothing but training.”
“You’re unqualified as a man!”
But there was a fundamental problem with all these attempts.
The cost of the blessings and powers taken by the goddess of love from Mob.
Mob held no feelings now.
Even when given peripheral stimuli, a man who had only ever derived joy from hard work would only find women a nuisance and a bother.
[A certain god highly appreciates Mob’s unwavering pure love despite attacks from women.]
[A certain god gifts the [Enchant Resistance] function.]
[A certain god applauds Mob’s coldness in using women hanging off both his arms as Weight Equipment.]
[A certain god gifts the [Fascination Resistance] function.]
[A certain god praises Mob’s ascetic attitude in lightly ignoring women who try to lure him with money.]
[A certain god gifts 10,000 points.]
For a harem to be acknowledged, Mob would have to be willing too, but for now, he seemed like nothing more than a deeply faithful follower of the goddess of love.
“Mob, come on! If you keep saying you don’t want this and don’t want that, what do you expect? You have all these women sticking to you!”
“…What can I do if my heart doesn’t stir? Forcing yourself to pretend to like someone you don’t only hurts you more.”
“I think it’s more hurtful for students desperately wanting a million points to face your iron wall! But if Mob really doesn’t feel like it, then there’s no helping it.”
This life was doomed.
He disappointed Oknodie once more.
The fact that he liked girls who were not Oknodie in the first place.
How could that happen?
An innocent girl who bestowed him teachings and fervently customized training programs, upgrading his equipment and caring for his functional builds.
Honestly, even the instructors and professors of the academy couldn’t go this far.
Mob, who couldn’t even feel anything for anyone other than Oknodie, was stubborn to the point of foolishness, bound to end this life as a lifelong virgin.
“Sorry, Oknodie. Thanks for taking care of me, but I’ll manage on my own now…”
“Hang in there, Mob! Even if the Faith Meta might crash if the gods siphon too much power or vanish, you can still run rampant until then!”
To relieve his pent-up frustration, Mob revisited the Mirror Dungeon.
As he effortlessly took down doppelgangers, dozens of female students followed him, only to be swept away by the rushing attacks from their respective doppelgängers while screaming kyaaa and kyaaa.
Doppelgangers had their own traits.
Doppelgangers that only replicate visible functions.
Doppelgangers that can gauge and replicate hidden functions.
Doppelgangers that mimic the appearance of equipment.
Doppelgangers that replicate equipment performance down to a certain grade.
Doppelgangers that can copy functional linkages or even develop independently.
Doppelgangers varied greatly in ability and expertise in what they could replicate.
Listening to the screams of female students swept away by the low-level doppelgangers only strengthened Mob’s resolve.
“Yeah. So what if I can’t be by Oknodie’s side until the very end? At least until my time given runs out, I’ll live my life faithfully.”
Suddenly realizing he had entered the depths of the Mirror Dungeon, Mob tried to come to terms.
-Titosso came
-Zhuang arrived faster
-Ishtar came the fastest
Seeing the names of his upper-class peers, Mob felt a surge of strength and thought it may not be all disappointing.
He had reached the depths of the dungeon, a place he could never have dreamed of before, and now he can proudly face the traces of the upper-class students that once felt so distant.
Strictly speaking, Titosso was not in the upper class, but she wasn’t a pushed-down child in the superior special class either.
“Did Titosso’s doppelgangers carry those light stands around, shining light at all the mirrors?”
Just imagining it painted a funny picture.
Doppelgangers cluelessly turning on the lights, becoming dazzled by their own shine, and Titosso, startled by cries from everywhere, bursting out crying, channeling mana to exorcise the doppelgangers and sweeping them away in a panic was quite the mental image.
Feeling empowered by the hilarity, Mob opened the boss room after a short rest.
Boom!
With a heavy thud, a grand and luxurious throne room appeared at the center, where a giant throne fit for a colossal giant was placed.
At the edge of this gigantic chair lounged a little girl, spinning a short wand with her fingertips while casting various spells into the air, looking quite amused.
That height.
That expression, desperate for mischief.
He recognized her at a glance.
“Oknodie?”
“Do you know that girl?”
“…You’re not Oknodie, are you?”
An entity bearing the same appearance as Oknodie, but definitely not Oknodie herself.
Seated atop the throne adorned with a small crown was the Throne of Oknodie.
“I truly like this body. I’ve imitated many forms, but none exist more perfect and powerful than this one.”
“Did Oknodie allow you to exist?”
“I was granted permission to use this body under the condition that I would occasionally attend lectures in her place.”
To think there was such a cowardly method, Mob trembled slightly, realizing the secret behind Oknodie’s 33 credits.
“Heh, so I see. You’re Mob, right?”
“You… know me?”
“Some of that girl’s memories have been replicated as well.”
Memories of Oknodie that the doppelganger had absorbed.
Mob’s heart raced.
“How do you remember me?”
“A dull but diligent apprentice.”
“Is that so…?”
“I’m curious how the gap in skill between the Mob in memory and the actual Mob is.”
“Pretty much the same. I’m also curious about the difference between Oknodie and the doppelganger.”
As Mob charged head-on, he keenly noticed the Throne of Oknodie dispersing in all directions, employing the [Accelerated Afterimage Blade] and [Doppelganger Technique] as its tricks.
That speed, the number of doppelgangers, all quite impressive, just like the real Oknodie.
“Would its weaknesses be the same as Oknodie’s?”
Mob tossed snacks everywhere from his backpack.
The doppelgangers of the Throne of Oknodie rushed after the rolling candy, becoming tangled and knocked over.
Staring with pained faces, devastated by the exploding candy wrappers amid their squabble.
One doppelganger, using illusion magic, deceived the others to enjoy a winner-takes-all victory.
Another Throne of Oknodie approached Mob more deviously, appearing pitifully and extending a hand.
“I too am curious about the taste of sour candy. Would you spare just one for me?”
Mob felt it.
This is love.
[A certain god cannot contain their confusion over whether this counts as a harem or pure love!]
