Free Web NovelChapter 293: Tests
Since Nerina-sensei went to go get that friend of hers, I ended up all alone on the island. That’s why I decided to try training a few things, and I got some pretty decent results. Right now, I’m up on the roof of the house watching the thousands of copies of my body.
"It seems like as long as I have magic, I can create new bodies indefinitely..." If I simulate my personality in the copies, it’ll become impossible to tell who’s the real one and who’s fake.
After all, I can even make the copies mimic my aura and magic if I want, so they’ll be practically indistinguishable—aside from the obvious fact that they can’t use my powers.
"...Hey!! Hey! No! Bad copy! Bad copy!!! Don’t bite the other copy!!" I yell at one of them that’s trying to pick a fight with another by biting. If I don’t define a personality but I do define movement, it becomes more of a reflex, so they can end up fighting.
And obviously they don’t fight like people. They fight like animals, with bites and clumsy strikes because they’re weak and slow, and they trip over their own tails.
"This is more complicated than it looks..." If I define nothing, they’re just dolls that don’t move. If I define the basics, they only shuffle around like zombies. If I try adding something more complex without giving them actual intellect, they start doing weird stuff.
"..." I use my matter-shaping ability to fuse all the copies into a single giant Evelyn. She’s easily fifty meters tall and kneels down on the ground so she doesn’t wreck anything.
’They aren’t very strong. Without materials, they don’t gain powers, abilities, or even usable spells...’ I dissolve the giant clone back into magic particles. Since I have so much magic, it barely makes a dent.
"Hmmm..." I try something else, shaping only thousands of physical hands. The hands crawl along the ground, grabbing onto trees. The sight is a little disturbing, but it highlights something important: the bodies don’t rely on a brain or any specific body part to move.
’You can’t necessarily classify this as puppetry... but it’s not that far off either...’ I gaze up at the tropical blue sky of this island while the hands work, gathering fruit and materials for me to eat later and to run a few tests. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
The hands are also capable of performing more complex tasks, but the more of them there are and the more intricate the activities they carry out, the heavier the burden on my mind becomes.
’Do they use my intellect to act? So if I know something, they know it too, but if I don’t, then they end up not knowing it either?...’ That’s very different from any puppet.
Puppets can’t do what I know, and I can’t do what they know. We don’t rely on each other to accomplish specific tasks, whereas these hands and empty shells rely on everything I know.
It makes me question things. I’m so strong and so weak at the same time. It’s a weird fact to think about. I have undeniable power, but I’m still beneath so many other forms of power.
It makes me think about the skills I have in my Status. All my recent training has been focused on magic, controlling Hikishin, and my nymph powers, but I can’t neglect the skills I already have.
’Maximum Release of the Final Act... that puppet... it’s apparently the strongest card I’ve got... but how do I use that, and what would I even use it for?’ I open up my status, reading through everything I have.
Even if my strength is undeniable, it’s something I need to learn to utilize better. So I’m using all the time I have to try and discover new ways to use everything.
’There’s also this Little Toy Box of Tragedy... it seems pretty weak... but... what if I consider the rules to be something I just believe to be true?’ If I understood it right, this skill depends on what I believe, right?
It doesn’t have clear rules or limits. Instead, it creates those rules and limits based on what I genuinely think a children’s game is.
Little Toy Box of Tragedy (Description = Nothing like the most beautiful stage of disaster accompanied by childish play. Upon using this skill, the user can manipulate children’s games to always win. After all, isn’t it funny watching the other side try to win when the script itself says they lose?)
"If I always win and the conditions vary... then if I considered death to be a valid childish punishment, would people die if they lost a game against me?" I try to think outside the "box" about what childish means.
And then I can only think of one fact. A "Child’s Game" isn’t a specific game. Different cultures have different games that kids play. So children’s games are whatever kids consider a children’s game.
If a child is taught to hunt animals from a young age and has fun doing it, that’s a child’s game to them. So as long as I consider something a child’s game, it should theoretically apply.
’In theory, that’s how it should be... but theory is just theory. I’d have to test it to see how it really works and prove whether or not it’s true.’
"I need to test it... but how? I don’t have memories... child’s game... child’s game... what could be a child’s game... I got it!" Childish games and rules. It reminds me of one in particular: Truth or Dare. I quickly create a puppet and give it consciousness. It’s exactly like me and has a personality, so it should count as a different person participating in the game.
"Hey, let’s play a game! Truth or Dare!! If either of us lies, the punishment is swallowing a thousand needles!! And if one of us refuses a dare or fails to complete it... we can’t walk for the next few hours!!" In the actual game, those punishments were more symbolic, but what about now?
"Okay! Let’s play, Evelyn!" She accepts competitively and with confidence. We stand face to face to play.
"Alright... so, Truth or Dare?" I ask her. She thinks for a few seconds.
"Truth!"
"Is it true that I’m your creator?" I start with a very obvious question, one that would cause immediate conflict if denied.
"No..." The moment she denies it, she suddenly stops talking. The condition activates. I ALWAYS win, so she was compelled to deny it in order to lose, and since she lied, the punishment materializes.
"G-Ghmmm." She coughs up blood as I watch curiously, noticing that mixed in with the blood are actual needles. The puppet staggers backward, coughing, as I see marks on her throat. fгeewebnovёl.com
’She really got a thousand needles in her body?... Seriously? Is that really how this works?!! What the hell!! This is crazy strong!!’ If I toss aside all ethics and morality and just deduce that something lethal is a fitting punishment for a child’s game, then if a person accepts the game, they’re guaranteed to die.
"Well, I can’t force a person to play... but if someone accepts, I’m guaranteed to always win and always be able to punish the other side... what a broken skill!! I have to show this to Nerina-sensei."
"Or... maybe not..." I trust Nerina-sensei, but who knows? If someday I need her to tell me the truth about my memories and she doesn’t want to, I can force her with this. Yeah, I don’t think I’ll tell her what I discovered.
I’ll keep the true potential of this skill a total secret. It’s better this way. At least I’ll have another card up my sleeve, and the more cards up my sleeve, the better for me.
"...Yeah, I think I’ll keep it a secret for now." I dissolve the puppet. To my surprise, as the puppet fragments, the needles fall to the ground. They don’t vanish.
’Needles... so many...’ I pick up one of the needles from the ground. I don’t sense anything from them, not even Hikishin. It’s as if they’re genuinely real needles and not something generated by magic.
’Strange...’ I look at the pile of leftover needles. It really is strange, actually. I thought the needles would disappear now that the punished puppet no longer exists.
’What are the limits of the effects? Okay, generating needles is cool and all, but they’re just needles. They won’t beat anyone strong... What if the condition was for the person to vanish forever? What would happen then? And if the effect was to completely erase the person from existence, would they really disappear as if they’d never existed?’ That’s the problem.
When a skill doesn’t impose rules, you can’t tell how many limits it has—because maybe it doesn’t have any. There are skills that don’t impose rules precisely because they have no clear limit.
For example, a skill that lets you increase your physical mass. Usually, the skill would have imposed rules or restrictions you’d notice while using it. But if the skill had a very vague description, a person could theoretically increase their mass infinitely.
So the lack of rules isn’t a flaw. It means the skill has a power that can’t be simplified by the system, which always opts to keep the skill description short so it doesn’t help the user.
That’s why there are people with strong skills who don’t even know their skill is strong—because the skill never makes it clear that what it does can go far beyond that.
"Well, it’s not that useful in a fight. I don’t know how to force an enemy to accept a game with me. But still, it’s cool!!" I guess it’s standard. No skill makes me strong even if the skill itself is strong, and I’ve fully accepted that fact.
"Now... another test!!" I leave the needles right there on the ground and run toward the house. There’s something I really want to test out to see how it goes.
