I don’t like where my life is headed. I used to have problems that I could beat up. Now I'm getting plagued by social problems.

  My team is fractured and now to kick me when I’m down, some unknown race has targeted me for bonding. Can’t they find someone to their own race?

  A quick scan revealed that the pervert was still in my room, probably having charm magic stick everywhere.

  I took out my lost resort; stoneroot. I’ve never used it, but I might have to use it to survive a charm tug of war. If only she went after Greg…

  Greg…

  If I use illusions to swap appearances, the team might approach him, giving him another chance, and I will shake off that Dehlia person! A perfect plan!

  My tails simulated on how to do this. He will still act like Greg, so my team has to be fooled in thinking he’s me but also Greg. and Greg has to think they're treating him like Greg while he looks like me.

  Quite a complicated illusion, but doing things that make no sense is one of my race’s many specialties!

  1 minute is all it took. I needed to expend 2 [Illusionary Daggers] to reflect the strange duality of this situation. It will still be unstable. As long as he doesn’t use widespread magic, it should be fine.

  My tails even came up with an excuse in case I got found out!

  I hugged my tails and noticed 2 pair of eyes staring enviously.

  These tails are mine!

  I ignored envious remarks and justifications why they should enjoy my tails, and teleported out of the room with Nilah.

  What will you go disguised at Nilah? Greg only ever carries his backpack.

  Nilah transformed into a black, edgy sword.

  You want me to go full edgelord? Fine!

  I released the [Illusionary Daggers] near Greg’s door, changed into Greg and attached Nilah the edgesword on my hip.

  Let’s inspect the facilities of this city and ascertain if they match my darkness!

  It had been a while since I fully impersonated Greg. My walk was a bit off, but it got corrected before I left the VIP section of this building. Nilah was giving me mana so I could imitate his edge aura.

  I got some literature out of my dimensional pocket. What’s this? A romance novel? Would it have a situation like mine in it? I doubt it. Let’s see how the protagonist deals with that bullshit.

  It was about some unimpressive man that got transported to another world and magically got extremely attractive. He got a harem by just existing. How is this a romance novel?

  Wait, isn’t this the same for me? I appeared from Hourai, sold some rubies and… well I don’t really have a harem. This guy didn’t even sell rubies! How unrealistic!

  Maybe he has an edge aura like Greg. How do I reverse engineer this? A wimpy aura? I might need Yv’s help with that, as I don’t know anything about auras, only about Greg’s edgy aura.

  Just as in series and games, this guy’s actions have no consequences. Who wrote this crap? Well, no consequences was wrong. He got a woman for everything he did. Isn’t this just shallow attraction? Where's the mention of conversations I have with Giana on a regular basis? Some tension between the push and pull between man and woman?

  This book is so frustrating!

  I wanted to trash it when I felt that I was surrounded.

  Can I help you? This encirclement is quite intimidating.

  “Hey, we’ve noticed you a while ago and… we love your style!”

  “You seem so mature!”

  “What were you reading?”

  Is this what Greg deals with all the time? No wonder he doesn’t have a chick. They don’t know how to attract anyone’s attention!

  I apologize ladies, I have no time for this. The darkness calls me.

  I dusted off my suit and continued walking and reading. I heard some strange sounds behind me. Some of these women are smitten by me and I didn’t do anything. Is Greg the person in this novel?

  I kept reading while admiring how these buildings were put together.

  So even though this guy had a harem, the quantity of his braincells matched how many prawns Raishin has left on his plate after he leaves his guard down; between 0 and 1.

  He was surrounded by women but didn’t notice that they had the hots for him.

  I inspected the cover. Neither the author nor the publisher seemed familiar. I was hoping that it was based off Greg or something.

  I stumbled upon the library. I didn’t want to enter it, but since I’m impersonating Greg, I have to.

  It was hard to move around as there were too many people around me who were all giggling and gossiping.

  Is there a possibility that Greg becomes insensitive to women’s company if he has to continuously deal with this?

  I started to understand him better, just by impersonating him. Maybe this is what I should do! Screw talking to them! People can lie and conceal facts! I will just impersonate them to get to know them better!

  So this ‘Shitty Novel aura’ is an obstacle for Greg to hook up with Yv. What will solve this? [Flour Time Bomb]? Is it the aura that does this?

  I stepped in an elevator and turned the edge aura off. Women kept streaming in and I realised my mistake. I’m stuck….

  The doors closed, the elevator rose and then stopped moving. A light was blinking, indicating that we exceeded the weight limit. I weigh next to nothing, so it wasn’t me…

  Hysteria broke out. Some tried to stay calm, but the others started to freak out. It didn’t help that there was hardly any place to move around.

  Many started to sweat as it was getting quite warm with all the people here. What a clownfiesta… Many men would be happy to be stuck with a group of women like this, but I just want to get out…

  Some took advantage of the situation and pressed themselves against me.

  Is this how I’m going to die? Crushed by hysterical women? No explosion? Nuking a country? Or dragging the world down with me? Oh, hell no!

  Ladies. I want you to calm down and listen, the amount of oxygen in this enclosed space is limited and panicking will deplete it faster. We need to remain calm to prevent immediate asphyxiation.

  I seemingly screwed up as more panic broke out.

  How about this. I will take some time out of my busy schedule and listen to whoever can stay calm the longest.

  Worked like a charm. Now how can I get out of this mess as Greg? An elevator shaft is dark, right? I could [Shadow Meld] them all safely to a different floor. Can I [Shadow Meld] this many people?

  What’s the worst that can happen? Only getting stuck in the shadows for who knows how long. The real Greg can fix this if I mess up. Here goes nothing!

  My shadow connected to everyone and I [Shadow melded] toward the nearest floor. It felt as if dragging an enormous volume of water with me. Nothing special, water Dragonvein is harder.

  Everyone made it to the next floor. I dusted off my suit like Greg always did and tried to walk off.

  “Who won? Who stayed calm the longest?”

  Oh shit, I forgot about that.

  You!

  I said as I pointed at a timid looking woman of about my age, maybe a bit younger.

  Give us some room, she might feel uncomfortable with this many people around.

  The women cleared out but stayed nearby and I still felt surrounded. What a pain in the ass.

  I’m all ears.

  “Uhhm… I like your suit!” She said as she covered her face and ran off.

  What a clownfiesta. Is this how they try to pick up Greg? Is this why he ignores them? This isn’t good. Shitty novel help!

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I flipped the pages and kept flipping. I made sure to keep my reading speed matched to Greg's.

  A whole lot of nothing. This dumbass protagonist kept this stunt up for so long. This dense fucker. Shouldn't his harem get tired of him!

  The women were still thirsty for his attention… he has 12 at this point and he still had the gall to order them around. They're people! Not tools!

  Oh, one died. He acted as if it wasn't his fault.

  I sat down in the section that contained information about machinery and construction. Noelle is the only woman I can think of who would be interested in this.

  But my stalkers had me still surrounded and pretended to read.

  This is insulting, there are things you can and cannot do in front of a 9t. Getting away with this trash tier deception is one thing that I won't accept.

  I created a small illusion, a simple one. Whenever anyone of them blinks, my appearance will swap with a random person, so it will seem that Greg teleport to a random spot whenever anyone blinks. Each person will see something else.

  I will use [Turning Leaf] on someone at one point, swap with them and leave. They will never see it coming!

  Confusion filled the library as my illusion went into effect. They weren't skilled at hiding it. Some even freaked out, screamed and left.

  I took the chance to pretend to be a screaming woman and left the floor, this time with the stairs. Back to the shitty novel.

  So this guy had no skills. Literally and figuratively. He let his harem do the fighting, but the king of the country somehow asked him to defeat the demon king.

  Oh it's this kind of story. Raishin loves these stories.

  This demon king though… he was relatable; the humans took up too much space. He wasn't even invading and killing unnecessarily; he only did such when Wannabe heroes invaded and messed up his land.

  The novel spun it as if the demon king was in the wrong, but he was just defending his land. The humans didn't like that their heroes got killed, so they sent a noob and his harem?

  Huh? Is it me, or does this not make sense? I couldn't finish the thought as I bumped into a troublesome group.

  There you are, Greg! Agnis and I were wondering where you went!

  Agnis, in this case Greg, was partly acting as Greg but also like me. Giana, though… she wasn't near ‘me’.

  Also…

  Raishin came closer and whispered .

  I think Agnis and Giana had a fight. Giana has hardly talked to him, let alone come near him.

  Giana was with Yv a bit further. Noelle had her arms locked with Raishin and was surprisingly quiet.

  I see, Noelle seems silent. Did you anger her again?

  Oh no! Hear this! Noelle becomes quite silent when she's happy! Strange eh?!

  Are you sure she's not mad at you?

  I didn't do anything!

  Yet!

  While Greg was somewhat behaving like me as he thought he was me, I started to wonder why Giana is staying away from him.

  Is she upset because I talked to that Dehlia person? Or because she couldn't sleep in my tails? Although, she doesn't act like this if she's upset.

  Did she notice? My illusion isn't perfect, so it's possible. But why wouldn't she have exposed the illusion?

  I separated from the group as Greg always does and continued to read.

  I got interrupted as Yv approached. Giana had gone over to Noelle to not be alone.

  “H…hey…d…do you have some t…time for me? I…I won't take much of your t…time.”

  Oof this is the worst I’ve seen Yv stutter and what is with this word choice?

  How would Greg respond?

  The answer almost broke my heart. Should I stop? But I also want to find out what Yv could do better. We seemingly can’t get Greg to do better, so we have to help Yv.

  Sure, make it quick.

  I took emotional damage from saying that, but Yv seemed to be happy to hear those words.

  “T…thank you! S…so I've r…read that book you rec…recommended. It was q…quite philosophical. I…I just didn't un.. understand what they meant in the 5th chapter, 31st line.”

  Uhh how do I solve this? I have no clue what she's talking about but… the Greg impersonation doesn't seem to care.

  Rereading the context will reveal the intention of the author. The author is quite consistent in his tone and style, any more questions?

  I feel so bad, what can Yv even do better…

  “T…thank you.”

  No Yv, don't thank him for this… the 9t are supposed to be the toxic ones…

  “H…hey Gregory?”

  And she used his full name…

  “H…have you ap…apologised to Giana for s…sealing her away?”

  My tails and I refused to keep up the illusion.

  Follow me for a bit.

  Yv followed me to a quiet spot, which I covered up in illusions before lifting my disguise.

  Yv… I'm so sorry… I feel so bad. I tried to keep up the Greg impersonation, but I couldn't… it just hurt to say those words to you.

  “A…Agnis? Then who… Is…is that why Giana is acting so weird?”

  I didn't answer, as I felt terrible.

  Yv I'm so sorry… I didn't know it was that bad…

  I dropped my face in my hands. No wonder, she wants to give up on Greg. If every interaction is like this…

  “Hey it's ok… I'm used to it. But than…”

  No Yv… this is not ok. I'm supposed to be the socially retarded one and the asshole, and my heart ached talking to you like that. That says a lot.

  “I appreciate it, but I don't want to cause a scene or this group to break apart.” Yv said as she grabbed my trembling hands.

  How many times have you asked him to apologize to Giana?

  “That is not important… it's important that he will do it at some point. I just have to try harder.”

  Yv, how many times…

  “... only 4 times but… 5th time's the charm, right?” She said as she forced a smile.

  I got up. Nilah, mana please.

  Nilah supplied me mana and I forcefully broke all the illusions and walked over to Greg.

  Greg, apologize to Giana for sealing her away.

  I did what I had to do…

  Greg, I’m serious. Apologize to Giana for sealing her away.

  Greg's edge aura got thicker.

  And for the last time, I did…

  How about you try that again?

  Greg refused to even consider changing his answer. My mana flared, and the pressure suppressed Greg. He looked at me wide-eyed and tried to fight the pressure.

  How about I make this simple for you. That woman over there is important to me, which means that messing with her is like messing with me. Now that that is clear. Apologize to Giana for sealing her away.

  Greg shook his head and went 3t mode to break out of his suppressed state.

  So you have chosen violence. I’m sorry Yv, but you won't see Greg for a while.

  I adjusted the time flow in my [Sealed Cup], used [Elgard Overload] and sealed Greg away.

  Go cool off in this seal. The escape conditions have been changed to taking a bath for 3 hours. Let’s see how you behave after being sealed yourself.

  He couldn't hear me of course, but I said my thoughts out loud for my team to hear. My [Elgards Overload] only lasted 1 minute, so no issues.

  Raishin and Noelle were speechless. Giana was smitten and Yv seemed down.

  I walked over to Yv and handed her the cup.

  You decide when he gets out. I would recommend 3 hours, minimum. I wanted him to apologize to you too but… I might have lost it if he asked ‘what does Yvonne have to do with this.’ so I didn't.

  “T…thank you.” Yv gave me a hug and cried. I still felt terrible.

  Deca, come here, I really need you right now.

  “With pleasure.” Giana came over and I boldly kissed her.

  The terrible feeling subsided as my lips left hers.

  I felt like that novel’s protagonist now. Kissing one woman while another one is hugging me while crying. Maybe I'm a shitty character too…

  follow if the story is interesting enough.

  Moorland Menace