You know what, let’s do a timeskip.

The early days of figuring out how my clones worked was cool and all.

But the real problem came when… other people began to awaken their abilities through their own devices.

Society became crazy, and the government started to hound the ability users.

I had to halt the use of my clones. The dream of being able to live a life without working by myself was short-lived…

There were already talks about the correlation between the victims of the pillar crashes and the acquiring of special abilities. It would be a matter of time before someone knocked on my door.

 

“Even so… we’ve come a long way huh.”

It has been a long few months.

I smirked, as I watched the clones standing before me.

 

Number 1, who had bandages wrapped around his knuckles. He had a fierce gaze.

Number 2, who was wearing an office suit and tie. He had an indifferent look with really bad eyebags.

Number 3, who was wearing glasses and holding a notepad. He was squinting at me.

Number 4, who was fresh out of the shower. He was looking at me curiously.

And Number 5, the newest addition to the family. 

While everyone else had changed considerably, Number 5 was the newest, and thus he still looked just like me. He specialized at nothing, considering how all the clones were ordered to limit their activities.

I had fun with my ability. Made me some money too.

“Good work everyone. I called you all here for a reason that you may have already known for a while. …It’s no longer safe for you to stay with me.”

Number 3 stares at me for a moment, and looks away.

They really felt like my children.

Before I continued, I took a deep breath. Looking carefully at the screen on my smartphone, I saw the proficiency of my ability.

 

『Cloning』Rank 10

Clones created: 5/5

>You are able to create clones of yourself!

>You can share senses with your clones!

>You have reached the full potential of your ability『Cloning』!

>The Tower System will now grant you one of two advancement paths and reset the ability rank to 1.

 

Yes. Rank 10, the milestone that I’d reached finally when the fifth clone was created.

Evolution. It was the next stage of my ability.

Considering how most of the ability users caught on the news were around Rank 1 to 3… I was probably the first in the world to achieve Rank 10. Nay, there might be others who’d gone unnoticed and reached Rank 10 too.

Regardless. I stare at the options.

 

>『Clone Factory』 — Your upper limit of clone creation is increased to 100. Increase your ability rank to raise the limit.

>『Clone Mimicry』 — You can clone other biological beings than yourself. Increase your ability rank to unlock species limitations.

 

“…What’s the point. They’re going to be erased.” I sighed as I scratched my hair wearily.

>Question. Is the Climber concerned about the imminent erasure of ability『Cloning』?

“…”

>Question. Why is humanity so infantile in its decisions? Destroying all Tower Systems with a targeted EMP when the Towers have yet to be cleared, is that not a—

“—Shut up! Who cares about the damn towers! I… damn it. Why am I this sentimental over these guys? I guess… this is it huh. I’ll have to tell them to jump into the sea or something.”

The clones stare at me without a word. And I couldn’t bear to look at these guys who’d I spent months with.

>...Answer. The solution to avoid detection is permanent ability erasure. Permanent ability erasure would mean the deletion of the created clones. However…

>There is another way to avoid detection.

“...Huh?”

>A third choice may be chosen for your advancement path.

 

Without delay, a screen appeared before me.

>『???』 —  Due to the Climber’s desire to preserve the lives of the clones, you may choose to send them to different worlds instead.

>The ability『Cloning』will disappear, and the created clones will be given a final reset by the creator in order to live as that character. They will gain their own will and personality and detach themselves as separate entities.

>Would you like to proceed?

 

“This third option...that is…”

Fine by me. I walked over to my desk, and booted up my laptop.

Transferring my clones to other worlds, what an insane idea. But well… the Tower System was such an entity. It existed only to assist the Tower climbers. Not that I had any plans to climb it in the first place. I wonder if this was even allowed.

I pressed the bridge on my nose, and laughed.

Come to think of it, maybe… it’s not all that bad? Put it into another perspective, I would be reborn into 5 different worlds. 5 different me’s, living different lives.

In a way, I’m granting my own wishes.

These clones of mine, they’ve already grown enough to have their own personalities. Yet they were never truly free, until now.

…I wonder what they would choose to become.

Putting on a smile, I turned to the clones.

“You guys, take turns and tell me what you’d like to be. Starting with you, I guess. Number 1, what do you want to be?”

Number 1 approached me with a strange glint in his eyes. 

“No pressure. Just tell me what you really want to be. I’ll make it a reality.”

He brought a book in hand.

It was a light novel.

“...”

“...”

“I would like to be reincarnated into a fantasy-like world. Please.”