Outside of Tennessine, in the wilderness where civilization had not yet taken hold, I was accompanied by Neptune and his two impatient orbiters.
In front of the trio, I instakilled a fake Ryota outsider with Repetition.
“How about now?” I asked them.
“Nope. Still eleven stars, I’m afraid. Lil and Ran?”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Same here.”
“Figures…” I sighed. This was my second attempt to remove stars. Yesterday, I’d managed to remove my own stars by killing a fake me outsider. I’d shared this info with Neptune and promised to try and do the same for him the next day. “This really is the worst-case scenario, then.”
I’d devised a few hypotheses and tried them one after another.
Defeating a normal shadow outsider in front of him.
Defeating a fake Neptune in front of him.
Making a new fake me and defeating it in front of him.
None of them had managed to remove his stars. More precisely, since I’d defeated one of each fake, he was down to eleven from yesterday’s reset.
“What about yours?” Neptune asked me.
“All gone.”
To test my own fake, I had to go into Tennessine to make new ones. That had given me the twelve-star countdown again, but it was gone thanks to me killing the fake Ryota outsider.
Neptune and I nodded at each other. As two experienced adventurers, we already knew exactly what this meant.
“So that means you have to defeat your own fake.”
“Seems like it.”
“That’s a problem,” Neptune laughed jovially.
“I’m surprised you can laugh in this situation.”
“What else can you do but laugh, really?”
“…Fair.”
Part of me understood how he felt. The reason he’d come to me in the first place was that floor one of Tennessine’s shadows had turned into Neptune clones, and he’d struggled to fight against the limits of his talent. But to save oneself once and for all, they had to defeat their own imposter.
“Straight back to square one, huh?” I sighed.
“Nah. I disagree.”
“What?” I looked at him, curious.
He was smiling like always. “If not for you, I wouldn’t have known that I have to defeat that outsider there. I’d never have thought to make it into one, and you have to defeat one to make an outsider in the first place.”
“I see.”
“It’s all thanks to you, as usual. I was right to ask for your help. Nobody but you could’ve solved this.”
“Well, that aside…” I forcefully brought things back on topic. “We need you to kill your imposter.”
“Hmm, but how? If I could do that, I wouldn’t have come to you in the first place.”
“I’ll back you up. You’ll only get a split second’s opening at most, so keep an eye out.”
“Got it,” Neptune answered promptly.
When it came to this stuff, he really acted the part of an expert. Since he was always dungeoneering, he knew that a moment’s hesitation could be fatal. He always made quick decisions. No ifs, ands, or buts.
I set up a black watermelon─these now dropped from fake Neptunes, since we’d had a shadow on a different floor attack him in order to reset his stars.
Everyone backed away from it. Once we were far enough, we waited for the fake Neptune outsider to spawn.
After a while, out popped an outsider─
“Let’s do this!” The instant it spawned, I fired an acceleration round at myself.
Before it had even fully appeared, I’d stepped into the accelerated world and charged forth. I thrust both guns forward, having already planned where I would fire, and unleashed a barrage of trash rounds I’d prepared.
The fake Neptune was strong.
The boss of the Neptune Family, spirit-blessed and a top-class adventurer, but boosted to the peak of his potential. He’d become a monster even stronger than dungeon masters.
So I took utmost care. I fired trash rounds at the fake Neptune from all angles, covering him in projectiles that would ceaselessly push into him. An onlooker might think he was wearing lead plate armor.
Trapped by his armor of trash rounds, he was unable to move whatsoever─but I left one open hole in his suit of armor in the very center of his body, where his heart would be.
That spot alone lay bare.
I looked at the real Neptune, but I didn’t tell him that now was the time. I was accelerated, so he wouldn’t hear me─but he didn’t need to hear it in the first place. He’d already gotten into an offensive posture.
Lil and Ran began singing behind him. Two wings sprouted from his back, and he began to charge.
I chuckled.
He came charging. Normally, he would seem fast, but he looked slow to me in this state. That gave me time to read the words on his lips.
Thank you, he had said.
“That’s not necessary.”
I watched him pierce through his imposter with one strike.