Confirmed.
Split Body Unit A — currently conquering the Great Ello Dungeon.
Working with the Babies to aim for the exit on the opposite side.
Predicted completion time: 7 to 10 days.
Eating monsters within the dungeon to sustain the split bodies' energy.
After clearing the dungeon, scatter across the Daztorudia Continent, where the human race holds sway.
Objective: expand operational range across the Daztorudia Continent.
Confirmed.
Split Body Unit B — gathering intelligence within human territory on the Kasanagara Continent.
No useful information at present.
Monitoring elf movements, tracking reincarnators, and collecting other data of interest.
Confirmed.
Split Body Unit C — gathering intelligence within demon territory on the Kasanagara Continent.
Investigating the current state of the Demon race.
Confirmed.
Split Body Unit D — interfering with the System.
Comprehension rate: 8%.
Confirmed.
Split Body Unit E — bolstering combat strength in an alternate dimension.
Hmm.
Everything proceeding smoothly.
Lying around idly in the mansion, I confirm that things are progressing just fine.
Heh. To a fool, it probably looks like I'm lounging about doing nothing all day.
But in reality, I'm simultaneously running tens of thousands of operations all by myself!
With split bodies.
I'm amazing.
My top priority is strengthening my own combat capabilities.
I'm right in the middle of establishing a fighting style befitting a god.
The biggest obstacle to executing my plan is Black.
Conversely, once I deal with Black, everything else will fall into place.
As for the gap in combat power between Black and me — right now, I'm definitely the weaker one.
During my travels, I ran various simulations using split bodies and have been boosting my strength, but there's still an insurmountable gap between us.
Black hasn't been a god for all those years for nothing.
A newcomer who's only held the title for a few years can't win in a straightforward fight — it's not that sweet a prospect.
So what I'm exploring is a method you might call unorthodox.
If you can't win head-on, then don't fight head-on.
In that regard, I was originally a spider.
Laying traps, deceiving enemies, weakening them with poison.
A species known for exactly that kind of cunning.
A battle style tailor-made for me.
Fufufu. I'll use any means necessary to win.
That said, this isn't something that can be resolved immediately.
I've got a few tactics in mind for the fight against Black, but it'll take quite some time before any of them are ready.
There's no rush — the clash with Black is still far off, and whether it even happens at all hasn't been decided yet. No need to hurry.
What I'm working on next is intelligence gathering and expanding the range of my teleportation by dispersing split bodies.
By dispatching split bodies to various locations, I gather information, and I can also use those locations as bases for teleportation.
This gives me a two-layered setup: I can immediately detect any incidents at those locations, and I can rush there in person.
The two areas I'm focusing on most in intelligence gathering are elf movements and the search for humans who appear to be reincarnators.
The elves are a party that both the Demon King and Black are wary of, so I need to keep tabs on them too.
More importantly, they seem to be targeting reincarnators, so I want to uncover their reasons and interfere with their efforts.
But I get the feeling I'm already on the back foot.
The fact that they'd already launched an attack on the vampire girl's location suggests the elves have already made contact with a considerable number of reincarnators.
I don't know how many that is, but it wouldn't be surprising if it were already too late for some.
The vampire girl had been in quite a dangerous situation too.
There's still a lot of mystery surrounding the elves.
Why are they targeting reincarnators?
How are they able to identify reincarnators?
I can't figure it out.
Despite how broadly I've been casting my net for information, I still haven't gotten a single hit on anyone who looks like a reincarnator — yet the elves identified the vampire girl as one so easily.
There has to be some trick to it, but I can't imagine what it might be.
For now, I'll have to keep tailing the elves and try to get a handle on what they're up to.
Information on reincarnators has been hard to come by as well.
Well, there's no way to identify a reincarnator by appearance alone. The only tell is whether they possess that n% I = W Skill — and that's it.
Since I can't use Appraisal — or rather, since I've been cut off from the System — there's no way for me to search for it.
So for now, I'm investigating anyone who stands out as suspicious, one by one, but the efficiency is terrible.
Besides, being a reincarnator doesn't automatically mean you're overpowered.
Some reincarnators probably just grow at a normal pace and live ordinary lives.
Not everyone is going to have a battle-hungry mindset, training from childhood to become stronger.
If anything, from the perspective of a normal person, that kind of obsessive fighting mentality is the abnormal one.
Well, since the System apparently distributes one random low-grade Skill at a given D-rank probability, they'd still be overpowered compared to an ordinary human.
Among them, there might even be pitiful victims like the vampire girl, stuck with an absurd Skill like vampirism.
Hmm. Knowing the System, those kinds of unlucky victims are probably in the majority.
So far, the only person matching the profile from my intelligence gathering is a prince of some country called the Renzando Empire.
They say he's a born prodigy.
Seems pretty suspicious.
I'd like to confirm somehow, but as you'd expect from a prince of a major nation, his security is tight.
With the power of split bodies, I could probably force my way in, but I'd rather handle this quietly if possible.
I'll wait for an opportunity.
The elves might stir things up, too.
And then — while I was rolling around on the bed — the sound of a door being slammed open reached my ears.
Still lying on my back, I turned only my head toward the doorway, where a man stood with a vein bulging at his temple.
I'd never seen him before, but he looked like Bart.
A brother, maybe?
"So this is her? The woman you said eats for free?"
What a way to describe me.
It's not wrong at all, so I can't exactly deny it.