The Banquet of Mimics
After barely managing to shake off the Mirror Ghosts and smashing every single mirror that dared to block my path, I finally reunited with Aram and the rest of the party.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?"
"What?"
"What?"
Why on earth was there a 'something' standing there with the exact same face as me? It was as if it were trying to steal my place...
"What the fuck..."
"What the fuck..."
What the hell is that bastard? Who is it to be standing in my spot... with my party? And looking exactly like me, no less.
'The black shadow that attacked me while I was moving... Was it the one that snatched my bag...? Damn it.'
I furrowed my brows, unable to comprehend the situation, and clenched and unclenched my fists. I was ready to fire off my tentacles and kill the thing right then and there. But the bastard seemed to be thinking the same thing; it mirrored my posture perfectly.
If this thing possessed the ability to copy the skills of its opponent, just like Bai Yu—no, like Meiling—it might even mimic my tentacle projection. 'Can I... block my own skills?' I didn't know. I had never met anyone who used abilities similar to mine.
The tentacles that bound limbs and the Abyss Maw that would suddenly appear to chew off heads or limbs seemed like a nightmare to deal with. So, to prevent my head from being ripped off by an Abyss Maw or my limbs from being bound by tentacles, I decided to use my defensive skill, Distorted Scales, first.
"W-what the..."
"W-what the..."
The bastard used Distorted Scales, too. It was as if it were reading my mind. It made the exact same judgment I did. If I fought this thing, it would be like fighting a reflection in a mirror—we would use the same skills, perform the same actions, and think the same thoughts without a single error.
Cold sweat trickled down my back. I was sure the bastard felt the same. I wanted to ask the Evil Gods what I should do, but their presence felt incredibly faint here. When I first entered the Black Market, the presence of Kashnakas and Indikron had faded, but now that I was on the underground floor, even Botamilli was hard to sense.
'What do I do...'
Soon, the Mirror Ghosts would swarm here because of the stigma branded onto my body. I had to dispose of this fake as quickly as possible and head down to the third underground floor.
"Wait, both of you, stop."
Cheshire intervened. She looked back and forth between me and the fake that was mimicking me, then stepped closer to sniff me.
"Sniff, sniff... Hmm... Because of the smell of rotting ectoplasm... I can't tell you apart by scent. I was suspicious of that Jojun who had been with us the whole time because he smelled a bit different... but now I don't know."
Because of the Mirror Ghost's bodily fluids covering me, it seemed impossible to distinguish the real me from the fake by smell. In the end, there was no one here who could tell who was real. I had to prove that I was me.
'How do I prove it...? Seeing as it used Distorted Scales... it seems to have copied my skills perfectly...'
If so, did it copy all my memories, too? I had to test it. I spoke to the fake.
"Hey. Do you know what Aram ate and threw up at Cheshire's place?"
"Mushroom soup."
"Damn it."
It had even copied my memories. I couldn't call upon the Evil Gods since the connection was too weak, and its skills and behavior were either similar to mine or even more 'me' than I was. As I fell into deep thought, Cheshire pulled a futuristic-looking pistol from her coat. She pointed the muzzle at me and the fake in turns.
"Prove you're Jojun, fast. Otherwise... I'm just going to shoot both of you."
This is driving me crazy. A way to prove that I am me...
"Aram! Raise your right arm!"
I commanded Aram, my slave. Aram raised her right arm the moment I gave the order. Could the fake mimic even this?
"Aram! Raise your left arm!"
"Huh? Both of your commands are working?"
"What is this..."
Aram raised her arm to the bastard's command as well. But in that brief moment, I felt it. When that thing used its skill just now... it channeled it through me. It felt like it was currently parasitizing me. It was borrowing my skills and reading my memories. In the end, it meant that anything I could think of or use, that bastard could follow suit.
With this, I had perfectly deduced that the thing was a fake. I felt the skill being channeled through me when it used the effect of the Slave Brand. The problem was that the moment I realized this, the bastard would copy my thoughts and memories, making it difficult to prove it properly. It would just parrot whatever I said...
'Right, I have to show something only I can use. What could that be... The Jet-Black Beetle. It's the Jet-Black Beetle. I'll summon the Jet-Black Beetle.'
It would be hard to copy a summon that I only had one of. The problem would be if the beetle was summoned to that bastard instead of me. But I realized that when the bastard used a skill, it had to go through me once. If I used it at the same time, I could activate the skill just a fraction of a second faster. Then, the one and only Jet-Black Beetle would be summoned to my side first. Please, let it be that way. If that bastard summons the beetle... from that point on, I'd have to start doubting if I was really Jojun myself.
"Summon Jet-Black Beetle!"
"Summon Jet-Black Beetle!"
The fake summoned the beetle at almost the exact same timing as me. But the beetle did not respond to the bastard's summon. The Jet-Black Beetle appeared right next to me. Whether it recognized its true master, Indikron gave the beetle a hint, or it was just because I summoned it first as I hoped, I didn't know—but regardless, I had proven that I was the real Jang Jojun.
"Ugh, what is that..."
"Ugh..."
"Jo, Jojun... that is."
"Ho, what a unique creature. Did it crawl up from the Abyss?"
Kesia and Kekere gagged at the sight of the beetle, Aila shuddered in confusion, and Cheshire, who was interested in biology, showed curiosity. And Aram...
"That one is Jojun!! Cheshire-unnie!! The one who summoned the Jet-Black Beetle is the real one!!!"
She pointed at me and shouted in excitement. Aram had been surviving with me since the very beginning. And excluding Eunji and Harin, she was the person who had seen the Jet-Black Beetle the most. Thanks to that, she didn't react negatively to the beetle's horrific appearance and was simply happy that she had found me.
"Huh...? H-how... This, this makes no sense!!!"
The fake, not having expected me to summon the beetle first, pointed at me and vented its frustration.
"This is wrong!!! That one is the fake!! What the fuck!!! I'm the real one!!! Aram!! Oppa is the real one!! Cheshire!! No!! Don't believe that guy!! That bastard must have pulled some trick!! Aila!! Kekere!!! Kesia!!!"
The bastard's screams echoed. The fake that wore my face shrieked like a man who had his lover and everything he had built stolen by his own reflection. But everyone already recognized it as a fake. Its desperate gestures and voice were all lies. I didn't know exactly what this entity that mimicked me was, but regardless, it was my victory.
"Well, you all saw it, right? I'm the real one."
I showed everyone the Jet-Black Beetle, which was wiggling its antennae and waiting for my command, to emphasize that I was the real Jojun. Then, Aila, who had been stepping back because of the hideous beetle, quickly threw something at the fake Jang Jojun.
"Bind the sinner."
-CRACKLE!!!
"Gyaaaa!!! What is this!!! Aila!!! That guy is the fake!!!!"
The blue gems Aila threw fell at the fake Jang Jojun's feet and shattered. At the same time, Aila chanted the activation phrase, and a magic circle was generated in an instant. The magic circle bound the fake Jang Jojun with blue lightning, delivering successive electric shocks to prevent it from using any skills.
"Sorry I didn't realize it sooner, Jun."
Once the fake's movements were sealed, Cheshire patted my shoulder, apologizing, and fired the gun she was holding.
-PEW!!!
Blue flames erupted from the muzzle, and the doppelgänger, hit directly by the beam, collapsed with a gaping hole in its stomach. Soon, its body melted into a thick, viscous liquid, and a long, wriggling worm crawled out from within. It was a parasitic worm with a smooth, apricot-colored sheen. Its squirming appearance was like a nematode that eats brains.
"Phew..."
I let out a sigh of relief and stomped the wriggling worm to death.
-SPLAT.
"Uh... Ughhhhh...!!!"
The moment I crushed the worm, a splitting headache hit me, and something began to stream down from my nose. It was like the liquid the worm had melted into. The apricot-colored fluid poured out of my nose like a bursting dam, mixed with blood. My vision twisted, and my legs lost their strength on their own.
"F-fuck... this... what's happening..."
My head is spinning. Why... is this flowing out of my nose? Ah, perhaps these bastards were a pair. One mimicked my appearance, and the other copied my memories or skills from inside my head and sent them over there... No wonder it felt like it was channeling through me when it followed my skills... This must have been why.
-THUD.
I collapsed to the floor. My eyes were slowly closing. Am I really going to die like this?
-Jun!!!
-Oh no!! Jojun!!!
I heard the women calling my name. And...
-CRASH!!
-KREEEEE!!!!
The sound of mirrors shattering and Mirror Ghosts crawling out in droves followed. I had to get up and run, but I had no strength left. I felt myself being carried on someone's back, and then I lost consciousness.
"Run! Run!!!!"
Cheshire carried the collapsed Jang Jojun on her back and sprinted in the direction where no Mirror Ghosts had appeared. Kesia, Kekere, Aila, and Han Aram followed behind her.
"T-ten of them!!"
Aila, who had turned her head to check behind them, was shocked to see ten of them following and shouted. Killing Mirror Ghosts was easy enough, but the problem was what happened afterward. The more you killed, the more they multiplied, until their numbers became so great that you couldn't even navigate the mirror labyrinth. It was something she had experienced several times in the past. That was why they had tried to avoid them as much as possible. Not because they were scared, but because they were disgusting.
"Damn it!! Why are there so many of them!!"
"Huh? Unnies!!! On Jun's back!!"
Just then, Aram, who was following behind, pointed at the red glowing stigma visible through Jojun's torn clothes. There seemed to be at least ten stigmas branded onto Jojun's back.
"This is..."
Aila clicked her tongue at the sight of the dozen or so overlapping stigmas. In her haste, she pulled out a Salpuri Stone and pressed it against Jojun's body. All ten stigmas were transferred to the stone, and soon, the stone began to vibrate as if it were about to shatter.
"Kekere!!! Catch!!"
"Huh? What? Uh?"
Aila decided to sacrifice Kekere to escape the immediate situation. As the Salpuri Stone was thrown at her face, Kekere instinctively stuck out her tongue to catch it. All 'ten' stigmas were transferred to Kekere. And the transferred stigmas were passed on again to the cub of the Slaughter Beast...
-SQUELCH!!!!
Kekere stumbled forward while running and vomited out the Slaughter Beast she had been keeping in her storage stomach. The Slaughter Beast, having received the ten stigmas from inside Kekere's stomach, poured out as if it were being ejected and crawled on the floor. The slime-covered Slaughter Beast began to grow. In an instant, it swelled to three meters in size and let out a roar.
"KRAA!! KRAAAAA!! KREAAAAA!!!!"
The master-servant relationship was reversed. The beast that devoured curses grabbed Kekere and swallowed her whole. Soon, a toad's face emerged on the Slaughter Beast's body. That wasn't all. The faces of the 'things that were once masters' it had devoured until now were plastered all over the beast's body.
"Hoo... the air... is beautiful..."
The Slaughter Beast mimicked the voice and tone of Kekere, whom it had just devoured. Also, because she was the most recently devoured entity, it mimicked Kekere's appearance to some extent. Soon, the Slaughter Beast, now an amphibian beastkin that looked like a cross between a toad and a frog, looked down at its hands. It smiled quite satisfactorily. Having completed its perfect absorption and transformation, the Slaughter Beast burst into wild laughter and began to tear apart the Mirror Ghosts that were rushing toward it.
Aila did not look back. She just kept running forward. She ignored all the sounds of flesh being torn and Mirror Ghosts being crushed coming from behind. She even ignored the laughter that sounded like Kekere. In the end, they had managed to shake off the Mirror Ghosts by sacrificing one of their own.