“Hmm… how interesting. Indeed, how interesting.” I nod to myself, trying to sound intelligent. “What an unusual occurrence indeed.”

“Can you stop fooling around and take this seriously!?”

“Can you stop fooling around and take this seriously!?”

The two ‘Lauras’ smack me on the head at the same time. They sound and look angry, but I can see it. Hidden behind the furrowed brows and twisted lips, I can see the smile the real Laura is doing her best to hide.

“Make your choice! You’re going to choose me, right?”

“Make your choice! You’re going to choose me, right?”

The two Lauras make a seductive smile, posing for me. Hmm… She’s enjoying this, isn’t she? The real Laura, I mean. The other one is simply copying everything the real one does.

“Alright, alright…” I raise my hands, surrendering to her demands, “I’ll take this seriously…”

Sigh, the things I have to see myself in…

Shaking my head, I scan the two Lauras, starting from the head and going down until I reach the shoes they’re wearing. The two have the same pointed horns, just big enough to not look disproportionate to her head’s size, the same sparkling eyes, bountiful breasts, pointy tail, wide hips and perfectly shaped legs.

““Ain’t I a lot cuter than the mummy hag imitator?”” They say, winking at me.

Uh… no? The way you sound and look is identical. I don’t know how Laura sees it, maybe she sees everything like it is in reality, without any illusions mixed in, but it’s impossible for me, who’s affected by the illusions, to differentiate them by their looks or actions.

As I was saying at the start, it’s interesting. Very interesting. And this time, I’m not trying to sound pretentious. Well… maybe a bit, but I’m not just fooling around.

The fact that I see two ‘Lauras’ is very interesting. Is it Isabella’s skill? Or a dungeon gimmick? A mix of both? Regardless, it’s the first time I’ve seen something like this. From what I can get, I’m under an illusion that makes me see Isabella as if she were a copy of Laura. Furthermore, the illusion has cut me from the outside world, as all I can see other than the two identical succubus is a pink mist.

I’m not sure if Laura sees her as a copy of herself or not, though, but it doesn’t matter, because I can’t differentiate them.

The way the trick works must be like this: Isabella is copying Laura’s movements and voice in real time, so perfectly that no human can tell the difference. If I were an AI, maybe I could spot a tiny lag between the two, but since I’m not, I can’t tell them apart. What’s more, from the way Laura is acting, I’m sure she must have received some information regarding what’s going on, and is trying to convey it to me without telling me directly. It must have happened when I lost contact with Laura’s hand.

Is it a do-or-die choice…? If I chose to stay with the wrong ‘Laura’, will I instantly die…?

If it’s like that, I just have to choose the real Laura and I’ll be safe.

There are instant-death traps in this game, so a moral choice to decide if you die wouldn’t be a stretch, which makes this both very unusual and exciting. But still, it’s the first time I’ve seen a trap this complex.

What fascinates me the most is how an AI is so good at fooling me. I would have never expected it, even if it’s copying a real human. I guess that’s the ‘power of copying’, huh.

I scan the two ‘Lauras’ another time.

““If you choose wisely, I’ll reward you with a night alone with me… You know what I mean!””

The two Lauras wink and send a flying kiss my way, which, for some reason, sends a shiver running down my spine. It must be because one of them is a mummy grandma. Yeah, that must be why.

Taking into account how Isabella is copying every single one of Laura’s actions, it’s pretty easy for me to come up with ideas to know which one is the real one and which one is the fake one.

For example, I could suddenly punch the Laura to my left and observe their reactions. If they don’t react, it means that the one on my left is the fake one: Isabella won’t move unless Laura does. But if both of them avoid my punch, even if there’s no punch coming for the one on my right, it’ll mean the fake one is the right one.

““Mad Rat! You’re going to choose me, right?””

But there’s no need to go that far. And that’s because…

Sigh! Dungeon owner, you made a critical mistake! A monumental mistake! If you wanted this illusion to work, you should have thought about this first and foremost!

“Lily, I choose you!” I shout, pointing at the real Laura.

 

---

 

“Lily, I choose you!”

From the moment Isabella threw herself at me, and the screen explaining the dilemma Andreu was in appeared in front of me, it’s been so much fun. But it all ends when Andreu suddenly points at me and declares I’m the real one. The illusion breaks, Isabella returns to her original aspect, and the ‘pink world’ returns to the original dense pink fog.

Aww… I wanted to play with him some more. This gave me the perfect excuse to seduce him… But I can’t show it to him!

“You took your time, Mad Rat.” I approach him, grab his arm and pull him towards me. “How did you know it was me? Was it my sex appeal? You know me too well to mistake that ugly bitch for me, right?”

“Ugh…”

Andreu turns his head away and scratches his cheek. Hehe, how cute. He’s too shy to answer.

“Or was it… was it when I told you how we could spend our night together?” I send him another flying kiss.

He knows I won’t stop teasing him until he gives me an answer, but he’s reluctant to do it. “I… you know, I knew because…”

“...because of my natural charm?”

“...no. It was because of your HP bar.”

HP bar!? What’s he talking about!?

“...” I glare at him, demanding a proper answer.

“Well, you know… your HP was falling, like mine, while Isabella’s was stable. That’s how I knew you were the real one. It was clear from the start.”

“... Stupid! Jerk!” I punch him in the chest. “Couldn’t you say it was because you fell in love and you’d recognize me regardless of how many fakes there are!? That you’d recognize the smallest of differences because you know me too well!?”

Can’t he follow my roleplay even one single time? Why did he have to give me such a lame reason!?

“But it’s the truth…”

“I don’t want the truth!”

Is he too dense, too stupid, or does he do this on purpose? …It must be the latter. By the way he reacts to my actions, it’s clear he’s conscious of me. So why is he… Agh, screw it! Now’s not the time to think about this.

“You… he, should be… mine…” Isabella, who looks like a mummy once more, points at Andreu.

You’re wrong, he’s mine! …He will be mine, someday.

“If I, can’t… have him… nobody, will…” Following those words, Isabella adopts a battle pose and starts casting a spell.

It would have been fine if Andreu wanted to play with me while the illusion was active. I’d rather have preferred that. But since he didn’t, it’s good he didn’t spend a long time to break it. The pink fog hasn’t drained us too much yet, and Hellfire was deactivated at the same time the illusion started.

Now, it’s time to show that bitch who’s the best girl!

“Die, bitch! Mad Rat, you too. Let’s kill that ugly mummy! Let’s take revenge for trying to woo you!”

“Uh… yeah, sure.”

 

---

 

This is… weird.

*Fwoosh!* I jump backward to avoid the incoming Fireball. It flies right in front of me and lands far away, creating a sea of fire upon exploding. The only victims are a few of the still-coming white worms.

I’ve never seen Laura get so angry before. She has acted all seductive a few times, but she never got like that just because I ignored her.

Could it be? Could it be she isn’t just acting and she’s interested in me? I’ve been actively avoiding her, thinking it was just a facade to get my attention… It’s been like this since that time when my previous…

“Stop daydreaming!”

Laura pulls me away from the black flames before using Blink to get herself out. She then starts healing me. Wow. I didn’t notice… I almost died!

“Take this seriously, Mad Rat. I don’t want to die now that we’ve come this far, and I’m sure you want to win too. Furthermore, I want to kill that succubus imitation…”

“...Thanks.” I smack my cheeks to wake myself up. “Alright, let’s do this! W-whoah there!”

Right after I recover my senses, I notice a semi-transparent membrane appearing below me, barely giving me enough time to jump away before it raises and completely engulfs me.

Woaaah, that’s Bubble Prison!

Now that Isabella isn’t fooling around, she has taken out the big guns! Bubble Prison, when caught inside, is no joke! Its duration and effect are so strong that they call it the ‘player killer’.

…not because it kills the players caught in it, but because, depending on the captured player’s build, its effect isn’t that different from being killed. Removing a player from a fight is, effectively, the same as killing them when it comes to the reduction to battle strength.

When I turn my eyes to Isabella, the one who tried to capture me with Bubble Prison, I realize, in horror, that she’s still absorbing those worms that get close to her while battling us.

“She’s still getting stronger… Didn’t you use Hellfire to stop the worms?”

Now that the battle has officially started, it doesn’t matter if she gets Isabella’s aggro by damaging her. Instead, it’s more important to kill those worms before she can get more powerful.

“You know I can’t keep it up all the time. And this pink mist isn’t helping.”

Yeah… the mist’s constant HP, EP, and MP drain isn’t a good thing. “I guess there’s no choice. We’ll have to end this quickly…”

Between the mist and the worms, the more the fight lasts, the more disadvantage we’re in. But still…

…do I really have to do this? Do I really, really, REALLY have to do it yet another time? Is it just me, or is this getting more and more common, up to the point that it looks like I can’t accomplish anything without me doing it?

“...Lily. Let’s rush at melee range.” Since Isabella is more like a pure spellcaster, it’ll be better for us to fight her in close range. “And keep Hellfire on all the time. I’ll…” I gulp. “I’ll do it.”

Laura tilts her head in confusion. “You’ll… do it?”

“Yeah, I’ll do it. I’ll blow myself up, yet again.”

She opens her eyes wide and twists the edges of her mouth, in a ‘I knew he’d say something like that’ expression.

“Alright, but… don’t let her grab you.”

Oh yeah, that grab skill that can absorb all my vitality, which might or might not exist! “Sure.”

I lead the charge with two Chaotic Beams to get the succubus’ attention, saving just enough MP for my final move. The first one doesn’t seem to apply any status effect, but the second one does, as she stops moving for a very short time. She must’ve been paralyzed.

This short delay gives me ample time to reach her and start ‘staffing’ her. Staffing as in ‘hitting with a staff’. Isn’t this how you call it?

Dark flames surround us, and Isabella starts attacking me too, making my HP fall at a rapid pace. Adding this to the mist and the damage I dealt to myself, I’m about to die…

“W-whoa!?”

Suddenly, a giant water bubble pops from below. This time, I’m too late to notice it and I’m caught in the Bubble Prison. But it doesn’t matter, because I’m about to die anyway.

“...you, came to… me…”

Isabella ‘gently’ extends one hand towards me. She puts her hand inside the water prison and strokes my cheek.

“...my… nourishment…”

The fuck!? I’m nobody’s nourishment! Is this why she was so interested in me!?

This is when the dreaded drain skill should’ve turned me into a mummy, assuming that skill exists, of course. But it doesn’t matter, because it’s too late anyway. Too late for Isabella, I mean.

“Lily!” I warn her to get away and start laughing like a maniac. “Fufufu! Hahaha! Isabella, iiiiiiiiit’s SHOWTIME!”

*BOOOOOOM!* The world turns white for an instant.

 

---

 

As soon as the battle ends, I get on my knees to properly inspect Isabella’s corpse.

This has been, by far, the most life-like monster I’ve ever seen in this game. I’m curious about her AI, but there’s no way to see how it works, so I’ll have to content myself with taking a look at her skills. Maybe, I’ll get a clue on how the illusion trick worked now that Unidentifiable’s effect has disappeared.

“Hmm… interesting. Interesting indeed.”

Laura glares at me, tired of my ‘snob detective’ persona. “...when will you stop saying that?”

Stop? Why should I ever stop? Give me one… no, give me two, three… give me five reasons for me to stop! Otherwise, I won’t!

“Interesting…”

“I swear, if you say that word one more time, I’ll smack you.”

“Hmm… Indeed. Interesting indeed.”

*Smack!*

…Okay. I guess I deserved that.

 

“So the Imp was the one who caused the most destruction with his attacks, up to the point that he almost destroyed the whole school while we were fighting Isabella. He transformed from an Imp into a Pit Fiend… Interesting, interesting indee– Ouch! Can you stop hitting me already!? Y-you’re going to kill m– Ouch! A-ah, I’m dying!”