It was 1 in the morning by the time that I had everything I could do on my own setup. Now Noe’s abilities might be impressive, but it costs way too much Luck Charges to keep all of her activities on, so I did my best to ease her burden by dimming the lights to the bare minimum and making sure that I had some preexisting props ready. All Noe had to do was slightly alter the Aspirant’s perceptions, and she had assured me that the cost to sustain these changes was minimal. Once the last of Q’s hired help was gone from the building, I finally allowed myself a moment to marvel at what those guys and gals could accomplish in a few hours. Damn, this place was right creepy!

  All in all, my little recreation of all of those shitty Trials I had undergone was perfect! There was a little bit of the hospital with the various discarded and rusted surgical equipment around, some of that creepy decaying aesthetics going on from the Second Trial, and I even added my own flair with a classical underground dungeon feel, fully decked out with chains and restraints! The space wasn’t too large, but some Noe trickery should solve that easily enough, I’m sure the Aspirants won’t notice themselves walking in circles. Now all I had to do was wait for Noel to get the main stars of the show ready.

  I had her place them in separate cages strewn across the basement. Trying to juggle 15 Aspirants and getting them all to do what I wanted might have been challenging, but with Noe giving out the instructions and doing all of the heavy lifting, I’d just have to focus on one of them so that my awesome system has a reference point to use. I was starting to get giddy with anticipation.

  This’ll be fun!

  “Okay little bro, I know you’re excited, but try to wait a bit longer…” Noel said as she dropped off the last of the Aspirants. She glanced around the room and muttered, “Uh… are you sure you don’t have those kinks? ‘Cause this sure looks like one of those clubs I was telling you about before.” She gave me another questioning look before shaking her head. “Like I said, little bro, I don’t judge, some of my best friends were top-notch professionals, and hey, if we’re going back to earth soon…. old Noel here will help a brother out."

  I frowned. How can she still say that? I mean, the leather chains and various medical stuff could maybe look like soft-core torture devices in the right light, and sure, all of that might invoke certain feelings in people, plus the dim, dungeon design lit up by candles probably didn’t help, but…

  “Hold on a sec, Noel,” I frowned even harder and pointed at one of the cages, or more accurately, one of the Aspirants in it. “Why is she tied up like that?”

  She grinned and gave me a knowing pat on the back. “I thought I’d save you some time. I mean, that’s how you like them, right? I had to help out some of those friends of mine before, so I know what I’m doing! Probably not as well as you could do, but hey, I don't have the same practice as you do!”

  I had to suppress a sigh. “That’s… Ugh, never mind! Just… tie them up properly! I want them to feel fear and confusion, not, I don’t know, arousal or something!”

  “Whatever you say, little bro,” she said, giving me a dubious look. “I guess you want the honors of bounding ‘em up tight! Should have known a real prowould want to do it themselves, sorry! The gags are in the bag over there by the way. I think you got everything else ready.”

  “That’s not-”

  “And I made sure that no one else would come in here for the night, just like you said. Super soundproofing as well! You got the whole place for yourself, so go wild!” She chuckled to herself. “Boy, if I knew you were that pent up, I’d have helped out sooner. Just give me a holler if you need me to round up more dudes and dudettes, you know I’m always here to support my little bro!” She turned around and started to walk toward the first cage. “Anywho, give me a few minutes untying them. I’ll let you know in the chat when I’m done, since, you know, this whole place is soundproof and all. Don’t you worry though, I won’t tell the others!”

  I sighed. Yeah, there was no way that I’d be able to explain myself to her. Whatever, let’s just get this over with. “Please do, Noel”

  And off she went. I grumbled to myself and waited for her to finish up. I just hope she keeps her promise and not spread weird rumors about this to the others.

  “This is Noel we are talking about, my Host,” Noe decided to say, “I think it is best that you start thinking of how to dispel these rumors.”

  I slammed my hand on my forehead and sighed again.

  Lady Awesome: All done, little bro! Doors locked nice and tight and no one else is around. Don’t worry, I made sure that Yoona and the twins were already asleep, so go wild! You deserve a little you-time after all the work you've done!

  Walter’s Fine: Thanks…

  Lady Awesome: Just let me know when you want ‘em to wake up!

  Walter’s Fine: Yeah, just give me a few moments.

  Noe, are we all clear now? Noel not spying on us from somewhere?

  “I detect no one watching, my Host,” she answered, “Noel might be many things, but she does not pry into other people’s affairs if asked. She trusts you implicitly, dear Walter.”

  Yeah, I’ll give her that. Thanks.

  Alright, the first part’s done, mostly without incident. I forced the thought of Noel’s inane comments out of my head and called out to Q. I had informed the man that I’d need his assistance when I hired those workers, and the man appeared before me within seconds.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Walter!” he said with a smile. “Good to see you again!”

  I grinned and gave him a friendly hug. “You too. Got the stuff I asked for?”

  “Of course, I think the Site can spare a few defective products,” he opened a dozen portals or and a slew of minions poured out of them, all carrying crates filled with various creatures.

  “Mind you,” Q continued. “They are still dangerous. I can’t guarantee the safety of the Aspirants you’ve captured, and they won’t listen to instructions once released. I’ve put safeguards in place so they’ll only last 12 hours once they’re out, but…”

  I took a cursory look at the things being brought in with my Arbiter Eyes and saw that they were well within the level range that would be manageable. Even the most deadly creature that was being hulled in was under level 70.

  I shrugged. “It’ll be fine, Q. If these guys can’t survive this, then they’re not worth my investment. And the doppelgangers?”

  He snapped his fingers and fourteen vaguely humanoid, grey shapes appeared before him. “They’re only lesser doppelgangers, unfortunately, but they should do for what you have in mind.”

  As if commanded, each of them started to change their bodies until they began to look sort of like myself. It wasn’t a perfect change, but then again, I didn’t need them to be.

  “But they’ve read the instructions?” I asked. “Can they do as I asked?”

  Q nodded. “They can easily enough. I’ve read it myself, and it’s mostly improvisational work. Are you positive that they don’t need to speak at all?”

  “Yeah,” I answered, “And follow the prompts when I speak through them.”

  Well, technically I wouldn’t be speaking through them, since I didn’t have that ability last time I checked. Instead, I’d just have Noe tickle some auditory nerves with her Perception Shard and make it appear as if the Walter-clones were speaking. She’d have to do the same trickery with the doppelgangers themselves as well as the Aspirants, otherwise, Q’s creations wouldn’t be able to hear what Noe was saying, but such a minor adjustment wasn’t going to strain my beautiful system. God, I love having Noe around!

  “And just to double check,” I added, turning my attention to the gathered Walter-lites. “But you know what to do during the last stage of this little performance, right?”

  They all nodded as one.

  “Show me.”

  And they did, in spectacular fashion. It was, uh… it was good enough for my purposes. I’ll have Noe fix some of the smaller issues down the line. And have someone thoroughly scrub these halls once we’re done. I... I wasn't sure if these lesser ones could regenerate like their big cousins, because the one who did the demonstration was still in wiggling pieces. Q frowned and mumbled something under his breath.

  “Alright, that’s all I need,” I muttered, making sure to avoid stepping on one of the clone’s discarded body parts. “And thanks, Q. This is a big help.”

  “Think nothing of it, Walter, you know I owe you one for getting me this gig back, although I must say you've sure gone out of the way for this,” he chuckled softly and shook his head at the mess before him. “But anything for a hobby! Just give me a call when you’re done and I’ll have this place cleaned up. After watching that, I think you’ll have your hands full trying to get things in order again..”

  He nodded again before heading back to the portal, once all of his workers had finished their work.

  He stopped right as he was about to exit. “Ah, one moment.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Lady Malice sent me instructions. Em, let’s see…” He paused and frowned. “She tells you that you are to personally supervise that particular Aspirant.”

  Q pointed at the woman that Noel had tied up weirdly. “I’m not quite sure why, but she says that she will not forgive you if you choose any other individual.”

  “And she didn’t tell you why?” I inquired.

  “No, Walter. Although this is certainly revenge for what you made her do.” Q sighed. "Xalla and I reviewed the footage, and... well, good luck, my friend."

  I winced. “Wait, how’d she even know what I’m doing?”

  Q pointed all around the space. “We are currently being monitored by Lord Babylon’s creations, remember? I am sure that the master Alchemist is more than happy to show his new partner the inner workings of those surveillance systems.”

  I sighed. Yeah, she’s getting some payback now. I don’t know what’s special about this one, but I was willing to bet that I wasn’t going to like finding out. “Alright… Tell her that I’ll stick with that one…”

  “Thank you, Walter,” he said, before pausing again. “Oh, and Lady Malice also says that you better make this good. I’m not quite sure what that entails, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out, Walter. “He stepped back into the portal and nodded. “I’ll be off now, take care.”

  I waved him goodbye and addressed the doppelgangers again, forcing down a sigh. “Alright you lot, you have your instructions. Each of you go pair up with one of the Aspirants, other than that one, and follow the instructions. I don’t think I need to remind anyone that you are not to speak under any circumstances, right?”

  Half of them nodded, while the other half shook their heads, but every one of them looked absolutely thrilled to be here. Great…

  “Good enough,” I mumbled, “Go!”

  And off each of them went…and stumbled into each other in the process. I had to stop a few of them every now and then since they had the tendency to get lost or try to go to an Aspirant that was already paired up. Seriously, why were these things so stupid? I swear it was easier giving instructions to a horde of pigs than trying to organize these things. Who the fuck would ever be afraid of these IQ-deficient idiots replacing them in folklore? They were even tripping over each other trying to fulfill my commands. Was Q just really bad at making doppelgangers?

  I sighed… sorry Noe, but you’ll have to do a lot of work here.

  “It is fine, my Host. There will be enough Charges to go around, I only need to make minor adjustments this time.”

  Thank god you’re around, Noe. Imagine if I tried to wrangle all of those cursed things on my own…

  “It would be best for your mental health if you didn’t, dear Walter.”

  Yeah, fair enough.

  I walked over to my own Aspirant, grabbed some rope, and did a crude job of tying myself up. I sprawled myself out on the other side of the cage after I made sure the entire thing was locked. You know, I probably should have done that before tying myself up, but whatever. I was feeling fatigued already, and I hadn’t even started. Those fucking doppelgangers always did a number on my mentality… Seriously, the first thing I’ll do after this shit is find a way to create my own clones, ones who could replace these fucking set of braindead, goddamn worthless-

  Zen, Walter, Zen…

  I shook my head clear of those distracting thoughts and messaged Noel one last time.

  Walter’s Fine: Alright, I’m good to go. Wake them all up, Noel.

  Lady Awesome: Annnnnnd done! Don’t be too rough on them, little bro!

  Alright, let’s see how bad things can get.

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