<860 – Faith Meta (4)>
Oknodie was rolling a lollipop around in his mouth, crunching down on it.
“The lollipop has a sizzling sizzle and hiss flavor. What a fascinating taste.”
“I’m glad to hear you’re satisfied.”
It was a mob who thought it was fortunate that this special poison, likely not made by Reap, the lollipop manufacturer of Oknodie, was akin to an animal lover always ready to feed their wild encounters.
“Oknodie, would you maybe want to join my harem, if you’re okay with it?”
Oknodie doubted his ears.
“Sorry. Did my ears just process that weirdly? Let me check for safety.”
Oknodie reached into his pocket and unleashed an air bomb that shook the atmosphere, a corruption bomb revealing hidden beings, a mind-cleansing bomb that blasted away parasites, and just for the heck of it, he threw an aircraft carrier-sized paper airplane he wanted to show off because it looked pretty.
After a long apprenticeship under Oknodie and a crush on him, the mob had perfectly understood Oknodie’s tendencies and intentions.
“Wow! That aircraft carrier-sized paper airplane is really cool!”
“Guess you’re quite something, recognizing my intent. But how is this not corruption? Isn’t 11 too young for a romantic partner?”
“Doppelgangers have their own ages, you know.”
“What about the physical age?”
“If it’s just dating, why does age matter?”
In a distant country, it mattered.
However, the Gift Academy was extraterritorial, and they didn’t care about who students were dating or if their partner was a monster.
One of the possibilities of a bad ending was the occurrence of pregnant female students, not that such mishaps happened for no reason.
Of course, even if the mob had malicious intentions, they weren’t that extreme.
Only after Oknodie asked about the mob’s situation and assessed the context did he understand.
“It can’t be helped. If you’re the original’s apprentice, you’re my apprentice too. As a mentor who cares for their student, I’ll accept your feelings for just a moment.”
“…Thanks.”
“Are you crying, mob?”
“I’m not crying.”
The mob was touched.
Even though it was just a doppelganger, such kindness was remarkable.
Indeed, for others, the Dark Princess might be a Dark Princess, but to him, she was an Angel Princess.
“Shall I help you out since you’ve exploited my weakness?”
Oknodie’s doppelganger forms started to gather around the mob.
One Oknodie.
Two Oknodies.
Three Oknodies…
The mob, feeling ready to faint from happiness!
But the divine wrath due to the harem’s innocence didn’t come swiftly.
[A certain god is pleased by the doppelganger harem’s innocence.]
[Declaring safely that the innocence is indeed safe.]
As a broad-minded god of love, Atalaxia acknowledged the doppelganger harem’s innocence!
For the mob, who wanted to lose faith, this was maddening.
“What if the doppelgangers wear different outfits?”
Oknodie got competitive.
From the school uniforms meticulously collected by the Doppels, to the costumes of the pantyhose faction and dolphin shorts faction, club special outfits, and even the maid costumes worn around the academy, the doppelgangers staged a fashion show sporting all kinds of outfits.
Isn’t this still a harem?
Is it still?
Doppelgangers flaunting different outfits!
[A certain god watches the doppelganger harem’s fashion show, overwhelmed with joy.]
[A certain god bestows the ability
The mob and Atalaxia.
Only those two were enjoying it.
Rather, Atalaxia had her enjoyment elevated further by this experience, evaluating the mob’s devotion and giving one more power.
[Oknodie♡Mob]
[Oknodie’s favorability towards Mob: 60]
[Mob’s favorability towards Oknodie: 80]
A whopping favorability of 60!
It was evident that this number was extraordinarily high.
[Rich Build♡West Egg]
[Rich Build’s favorability towards West Egg: -5]
[West Egg’s favorability towards Rich Build: -20]
Ordinary students rarely had a positive favorability.
Even among fellow struggle-mates, it was rare to find cases exceeding +20; through the taxing academy life, what one naturally felt gained was age, worries, sighs, and enemies alone.
[Dolphin shorts doppelganger’s favorability towards Mob: 60]
[Spirit dress doppelganger’s favorability towards Mob: 60]
[Amazon theme park doppelganger’s favorability towards Mob: 60]
It was only Oknodie’s doppelgangers that showed this high stat of 60.
Such pure love once again pleased the god of love.
While the original would have erupted in furious flames, a doppelganger like this, if intended to shed off Mob, could equally get a pass.
“Wait a second! Is that the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ look set from Oknodie’s backpack? Can you even replicate that?”
“No. Magical gear cannot be copied. So, I stole it from the backpack.”
“Stole? Is that even allowed?”
The mob was taken aback, initially hearing about Oknodie stealing but never about being stolen from, creating disbelief!
However, being a self-claimed doppelganger queen, along with her experiences from an easy life, she had amassed various life hacks.
“Where do you think the space of a magical item with spatial expansion magic like a backpack is located?”
“Well, it ought to be near where the bag is, right?”
“Wrong. The Middle Realm is vast, and we don’t suddenly drop into the empty space of the backpack while walking. You only pull out items stored inside when you reach into the bag!”
“That’s… true?”
Then where is that space?
“The answer is that it lies in the phantom space of the God of Void Unknown, one of the 12 Evil Gods!”
“!!”
“By using sorting functions in Unknown’s phantom space to find other magical items, I merely need to extract their contents and transfer them to my phantom space to remove the contents of the spatially expanded magical tool seamlessly!”
The mob was getting slightly frightened.
“Here I thought spatial expansion magical tools were completely safe, but such bizarre thievery works…”
“You don’t have to worry too much. Only I can do this, or at most Oknodie herself and the Darknodi or Professor Bronze, the former warrior Destroyer, the Demon King, Professor Mahabharata, Principal Omoshiroi, interdimensional wanderers, outsiders, seniors trapped in DLC content, elite specters, and the god of sealed imps can do it!”
“That’s way too many?!”
With 12 people able to access that bag, it practically became a shared storage, mere public property.
“Even so, if you get too blatant, the contents might be fully whisked away or security could get tighter, so you typically try to fill in with items that share the same name or shape and pretend you don’t care for less valuable goods, waiting it out.”
“Why are you revealing all this as if I’d go tell Oknodie?”
“Trust me. You like the original, but you like me too, right?”
Oknodie’s mischievous eye smile made the mob bow their head in recognition.
[A certain god sets the stage for ultimate shenanigans, inviting you to snuggle up and do whatever.]
[A certain god bestows
This specific favorability viewing function activates upon accumulating over 1000 observation capabilities, but it’s nearly impossible for a non-player to obtain such knowledge without divine mercy.
[Oknodie favorability 60]
[Child Police Noddy (doppelganger) favorability 60]
[Chef Noddy (doppelganger) favorability 60]
[Observation Eye (Omoshiroi) favorability 5]
[Greatsword Noddy (doppelganger) favorability 60]
[Dual-sword Noddy (doppelganger) favorability 60]
[Academy Specter favorability 12]
[Light Source Noddy (doppelganger) favorability 60]
[Doll Noddy (doppelganger) favorability 60]
[Observation Eye (Darknodi) favorability 80]
[Assassin Maid Yuna favorability -20]
Among them, there were weird things one shouldn’t see, but the mob naturally pretended to see nothing.
Monsters lurking ominously often remain hidden, so long as one doesn’t get caught.
“Hey, Oknodie. Thanks for seeing me favorably and helping, but… it seems all this is useless. My faith isn’t decreasing at all.”
At the mob’s words, Oknodie felt a hint of disappointment.
A doppelganger was ultimately a doppelganger.
No matter how many were created or how many outfits they wore, they could never be treated the same as the real thing.
But what kind of species is a doppelganger?
Creatures that live and breathe to usurp the identities of others.
Let alone, the Doppelganger Queen, who stands at the apex of them.
Oknodie grasped the secret of favorability.
“Hehe. Does the noble god fear that Mob will take away Oknodie? It’s understandable when recalling how gods grind down their rivals when the apostle candidates touch them.”
“Apostle candidate? You mean Oknodie is…”
“Yeah. The god of love has marked the original. Building a harem and garnering women’s affection would likely make them feel better as long as they don’t get the genuine affection from Oknodie.”
Now Oknodie felt competitive.
“Let’s try a different approach then.”
“We’ve already failed the harem operation; is there still a way to be hated by a god and lose faith…?”
“What if we could make Oknodie truly despise the god of love? The person who made her resent the god would surely be overly hated by the god, don’t you think?”
“But… I don’t have the courage to do anything to make Oknodie hate me…”
Having sacrificed so much to maintain a relationship with her as an apprentice, getting hated by Oknodie would only lessen his chances of being near her.
“You won’t be hated for who you are. It’s that she’ll come to hate the god because of you.”
“How do we do that?”
“Quit being Oknodie’s apprentice. Then become my apprentice and grow quickly. That way, with her apprentice taken away, Oknodie will be furious that the esteemed position of mentor has been snatched away. She’ll be immensely enraged at the god of love for ruining her pride!”
Though it sounded appealing, it was a huge risk.
“Do you think you can hasten my growth, which even Oknodie couldn’t?”
“On the contrary, I have training methods available to only doppelgangers. By directly calling upon your physical information to experience it in my body, I can devise a perfect training plan that merges Oknodie’s knowledge with the doppelganger’s info.”
“!!”
This could work. The prospect thrilled the mob’s heart.
“Please. Help me out!”
“Hehe. Don’t worry; I’ll definitely help. Now then… let’s see how diligent Mob has been in training!”
Oknodie briefly stored Oknodie’s appearance in the body transformation storage slot and transformed into the mob’s body.
As he looked down at the changing figure while growing taller and bigger, Oknodie noticed something strange.
“Why is there a bikini underwear line on the chest?”
“?!”
“Did you replicate the outfit info…?”
“Yikes! Ahhh!”
The mob screamed desperately.
A frantic attempt to avoid his critically embarrassing secret!
“Hmmm~? That reaction is amusing.”
Without mercy, Oknodie replicated the outfit information.
The mob’s humiliating secret was exposed to the whole world.
“Oh, ohhhh…?”
It’s wrong.
Oknodie would now think of me as the pervert bikini armor warrior squad.
After all the efforts to help and like me, I wouldn’t see that same aspect of her anymore.
[Oknodie favorability 60]
While the mob despaired, Oknodie returned to her original form and burst into a cheerful laugh.
“Mob really… when did you think I became Oknodie? A doppelganger queen can even steal bits of memories. I’ve known you wore bikini armor since way back!”
Although knowing this, the favorability remained unchanged at 60.
If the mob could see the favorability towards his Oknodie through the favorability detection power, he could guess the number it would show.
That number would certainly be 100.
Yet the thought of wanting to confirm that number never crossed his mind.
What if it wasn’t a 100? He might be disappointed with himself.
The tricky nature of the mob.
Within his heart, the presence of Oknodie grew larger than Oknodie for the first time.
[A certain god furrows their brow.]
[The declaration of innocence starts cracking.]
What was more effective than ten doppelgangers was the sincerity radiating from one.
