The battlefield had turned into a nightmare.

Where once there were chaotic, glitched entities, now stood mirror images—doppelgangers—of every warrior in the arena.

The eerie replicas flickered with unstable distortions, but their forms were unmistakable.

They had copied not just the appearance but also the abilities, techniques, and fighting styles of their originals.

It seemed like they weren’t just stalling for time and fulfilling their sadistic desire to play with their prey. They were observing their opponents, and now that they were done, they changed.

The worst part? They were stronger. Faster.

Woosh!

Alex ducked as his own double’s blade swept past him, slicing through empty air with terrifying speed.

His opponent was relentless, mirroring his every move with uncanny precision.

But it didn’t seem like it could duplicate everything.

‘It can’t copy my physique,’ Alex concluded.

[It’s probably too high a grade for it to be capable of copying it.] Sophie agreed to his words, giving her hypothesis.

Nodding his head, Alex increased his speed using gravity, only to see his doppelganger do the same thing.

But he didn’t care. He knew that he was at an advantage. He just had to make this cheap imitation of himself to use more and more mana. After all, it didn’t have infinite mana like he had.

‘Since they are doppelgangers, does it mean their faces that were revealed earlier were also an imitation?’ Alex suddenly asked as he jumped to the side, avoiding a fireball aimed at his head.

[To answer that question, I would need to tell you everything about these beings, but since we don’t have the luxury of having you think about other things, I will tell you that they weren’t mere imitations.]

Hearing Sophie’s reply, Alex frowned, as she had never told him anything about these things. The same could be said about the novel—it didn’t hold any information on such beings.

It was as if they weren’t supposed to be here.

But as Sophie had said, he couldn’t be bothered by those things right now. After all, the opponent he was facing wasn’t easy.

His unique astral form flickered through the battlefield, clashing evenly against his own imitation, but looking around, he could tell that others weren’t as lucky.

Screams echoed through the Colosseum.

Some warriors, fooled by the illusionary pleas of their doppelgangers, had hesitated, thinking they were saving an ally, only to be slaughtered instantly.

And when an original died, their double would shift its attention—searching for a new target.

Alex gritted his teeth as he parried another attack, his blade clashing against his duplicate with a sharp ring.

‘If this goes on, we will have our numbers decrease exponentially,’ he thought as he saw the weaker ones dying without even being able to put up a fight.

The worst thing was that, for some reason, the VIPs, some of whom had their children or disciples among the group, didn’t seem to be making a move—or maybe they weren’t ABLE to make a move.

Recalling how the academy always pushed their students to their limits, it was possible that they were the ones who were stopping those VIPs.

After all, this academy, being the best out there, had a high death rate because if even one student could reach a new height by the sacrifice of hundreds of children, the academy wouldn’t care.

‘Fucking bastards! They want to see what someone—probably me—is fully capable of!’ Alex growled inwardly.

He was sure that someone from the academy was observing everything, noting his every move.

They were likely trying to see if his strength was what he let out or if he was hiding more.

This, however, made Alex surer about not revealing his complete powers, as he didn’t know what the academy’s purpose was or if they were good or bad.

He focused on his duplicate for now.

It fought exactly like him, used the same skills, and adapted to his movements.

But Alex had one thing it didn’t—endurance. He had infinite mana, and he was used to prolonged fights.

Unlike others, who tried to overpower their copies with raw strength or complex techniques, Alex did the opposite.

He fought with patience.

At first, he only displayed basic swordsmanship, but now, he started to reveal what he was truly capable of, expanding more mana, forcing his doppelganger to do the same.

But then, as it seemed that things were in his favor, something shifted.

A guttural, glitching screech erupted across the battlefield.

The doppelgangers whose originals had been slain froze for a moment—then, as if drawn by an unseen force, they all turned their heads toward Alex.

Their hollow eyes locked onto him before they moved.

One by one, they abandoned their previous targets and lunged at him, their distorted bodies phasing through obstacles as they converged.

Alex barely had a moment to react before being forced to leap back. Using gravity to slow his surroundings, he repositioned himself, landing several feet away, his mind racing.

‘Why me?!’

[Because you’re winning,] Sophie’s voice came through urgently. [They’re adapting. If one-on-one doesn’t work, they’re going to overwhelm you with numbers!]

Alex clicked his tongue. That was a problem.

Before he could strategize, a shadow loomed over him. His doppelganger was already there, swinging down its blade with a ferocity he hadn’t yet seen from it.

Alex barely managed to block, but the impact sent a numbing shock up his arm. The others were getting closer.

‘Damn it, I need to—’

Then, the unexpected happened.

One of the charging doppelgangers—one that had already killed its original—suddenly stopped.

It wasn’t just that one—the others were the same, giving the humans a chance that they didn’t miss, but the one in front of Alex had its glitched form twitched violently as if something within it had broken.

Its head jerked up, eyes flashing with something different. For a split second, its corrupted form flickered—revealing a person underneath.

A student. One of the missing ones.

Then, in a voice that wasn’t entirely its own, it spoke:

“Kill… me… before it… takes everything…”

The student within it seemed to be trying her hardest to stop something, but she seemed to be failing, making Alex frown.

He thought that it was an illusion again, but…

[This is not an illusion.] Sophie’s voice echoed in his head. [She is a real person. We need to do what she’s saying—]

But before she could complete her words, its body started cracking.

It was then that Alex knew: He had to kill it.

He didn’t know why, but his instincts warned him—whatever was happening wouldn’t be something he would like.

However, he was too late, as the body of that girl ruptured, shattering into a stream of corrupted data.

Alex’s eyes turned to the others, only to see the same happening to their doppelgangers. Even the ones with swords plunged into their hearts or heads decapitated were the same.

All of them broke into codes.

What happened after, however, caused the pressure in the arena to increase by folds.

The codes—the remnants of glitched entities—wooshed toward the only doppelganger standing. It was Alex’s doppelganger.

The speed of the codes was so fast that Alex knew that even if he poured every ounce of his strength into his feet and used every ability in his arsenal, he wouldn’t be able to kill his doppelganger, so he turned to the others.

Then, he yelled one word.

“RUN!”

That was all he said.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep