Esper Harem in the Apocalypse

'I actually thought about trying this before but didn't do it as I didn't have time and wanted results as soon as possible without any mess up. I still don't have too much time, but let's try using it. If it works, then voila. And if it doesn't, then I can buy some time by causing a distraction.'

When Rudy reached the balcony again, he looked at the ranking and was surprised to see himself back on #2 with only a tiny gap between the #1.

'I will probably take over in the rest of the minutes.'

Rudy pulled the clothes from all the carts and revealed the gold, but he needed more. He placed his hand on the cart full with ten thousand biscuits and uttered:

"Duplicate."

Duplicate was the ability that allowed him to copy and paste the exact thing, but there were limitations to that ability.

Rudy first needed to analyze and study the thing he wanted to duplicate. It worked with the blood moon tree as Rudy had analyzed the core of the blood moon tree.

Fortunately, Rudy knew the characteristics and properties of gold and how it was produced from raw materials; he had done that himself in space while conjuring gold.

Rudy then walked to the empty cart and covered it with a cloth before muttering, "Duplicate."

The cloth rose as the cart became full of gold.

'It worked!'

Rudy pulled the cloth and checked the authenticity of the gold. Sure enough, it was authentic gold.

His fans below couldn't see anything, but the Under Blades in the chopper saw Rudy's trick and thought it was a magic trick. Although they weren't completely wrong, it wasn't a simple magic trick either.

Rudy had to use the same amount of power he used to conjure the gold as even though he was duplicating the object, he still had to create it. The only difference between conjuring and duplicating was that he didn't need to gather, which saved a significant amount of time.

Rudy made five more carts and patiently waited for his rank to surpass Lu Bela.

Since he was handing out the rewards based on the betting amount, the increase in his fame points and fan numbers were irrelevant to the challenge. He knew that the fame points would increase regardless of what he did, and his fan numbers were bound to increase with his rank.

Within the next five minutes, Rudy did what he had proclaimed to Lu Bela. He had become the #1 and broke every record of the ranking.

"You guys are awesome!" Rudy shouted. "Let's get you rewards!"

Rudy began handing out the rewards, but he suddenly stopped and said, "I forgot to mention one thing."

He furrowed his brow and announced, "If my rank or stats decreased, I would find the one who betrayed me with the help of the Under Blades and get you punished. I am giving you rewards for your faithfulness, so there has to be a punishment for your betrayal too!"

Rudy had purposely left that out when he announced the new challenge. Now, not only had he become the top one, he had marked that spot as his. In the underworld, everyone feared the Under Blades, and no one would raise their voice if they were involved with something.

Rudy was using Lu Bela without getting her help.

"But of course, if someone were to surpass me in ranking without the change in my ranking, there will be no punishment."

'Not that it will ever happen,' he uttered inwardly.

Rudy distributed gold to everyone and asked them to leave once they were done. Slowly, the crowd began to decrease as they left; from one hundred thousand to ten thousand to thousands.

Ultimately, all of them left except a few hundred and the choppers in the air.

"Oh… they are the maids and butlers who work here."

Rudy looked up at the choppers and said, "Thanks for the cooperation. You all did a good job."

Two carts were still left, and Rudy had no idea what to do with them. He grabbed one biscuit and wrote something on it. Then, he tossed it at the Under Blades and said,

"Give this to Lu Bela, and tell her if she manages to answer this correctly, I might forgive her."

After that, the choppers flew away, and Rudy was left alone in between the gold carts.

SIGH!

"This went surprisingly easy. And now that I have become #1 in the underworld, I don't feel anything. I thought I would be happy and satisfied, but nope. I am indeed happy, but I don't feel satisfied.

Gambling is much more fun than this.

The only way to increase the worth in the Underworld ranking was through gambling, and betting on something or someone was a form of gambling. Had I sold the gold in the underworld to someone and gotten money in return, or hadn't proposed a challenge, it wouldn't have been considered betting or gambling. Thus, my worth in the underworld ranking wouldn't have increased."

Rudy hit many birds with one stone. He paid the debt, became #1, and regained everything he had lost.

He went inside and searched for Maria and Lilim, only to find them watching television in the living room of the inner area.

"..."

Suddenly, he had an urge to prank them, so he hid outside the room and played a clip of one of his memories of his adventure with Lilim— on the television.

He used electrification to connect with the television and turned his memory into data to send it as a video file. He accidently created a new ability, which was a living cast device.

Lilim was obviously surprised and embarrassed at the same time, while Maria was confused as to why the television played something like that all of a sudden.

[Aanh~ Mnh~ Yes~ Yes~ Go harder~ Daddy~ Punish me~ Yes~ Harder! Yes~ Aanh~]

"...!"