Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

I spent the next month doing nothing of note; I went to practice, ate out with buddies, and had a few interviews with the local newspapers and journalists. All in all, I lived my life in the same fashion that Ashwin would have. The people closest to him were worried about the small nuances of his personality that I got wrong in the beginning, but as I continued to study his mannerisms on the internet and fix any flaws that I could find, my ability to impersonate the man grew. By the end of the first week, not even his best friends could tell that someone had stolen his identity.

The whole reason I bothered to uphold this charade was to ensure that the Trash Matrix thinks that I’ve been fully assimilated. I wasn’t sure how much it was monitoring my actions, but unlike my opponent, I was not taking any chances and assumed the worst. But after an entire month of living as Ashwin, even during my time off, I was as certain as I could be that only a minimal amount of the shitty system’s attention was on me now.

If it’s in the process of usurping Noe’s abilities while also doing all of its other Central-bound duties, then I can’t imagine that it had too many resources left over to bother scrutinizing everything that I’m doing here. Plus, there was a good chance that it simply couldn’t monitor everything in this strange prison dimension, but like I said, I wasn’t taking any chances.

But just because I was living as Ashwin 24/7 didn’t mean I’d been doing nothing to advance my goals. I’ve been making more and more media appearances - nothing that would be out of the ordinary, of course - but I was ensuring that Ashwin was becoming more and more known across the world. Aside from the mainstream media side of the operation, I was also active on the internet.

I endorsed popular streamers and Youtubers, donated money to various causes (it wasn’t like I’d need the money anyway), and even used Noe’s skill subtly to make people trust and like me more than they normally would. Perhaps I couldn’t make an athlete a household name but with every new stunt that I performed, I was continuing to ensure that Ashwin’s presence was felt across the world.

However, just being somewhat famous in a single country wouldn’t be able to do what I had in mind. After all, the second the Trash Matrix figured out that I still retained all of my memories, and more importantly, my abilities, then it’d act. How fast it could do so, I wasn’t sure, and I wasn’t about to take any chances either. The only thing that I had going for me was time; Noe assured me that being stuck in an alternate universe meant that I had no control over how long time passed outside, so it didn’t matter if I spent an hour here or a decade, and I was going to take full advantage of that fact.

Primary Soul Title: Level 13 Popular Xollon Idol [Devourer of Truth]

Progress to next level: 2,120,001/2,500,000

Progression requirements: Have 2,500,000 individuals idolize you

Title Passives:

• Xollon Anatomy Stage 2: Your body has begun to incorporate more of a Xollon’s internal anatomy. Your Xollon mind will filter out all mental pollutants. You take 10% reduced damage from all sources and are unaffected by most poisons.
• Xollon Physiology Stage 2: Your body has started to incorporate more of a Xollon’s external anatomy. You can utilize and extend your primary feelers through your human hands and feet.

I smiled when I saw the progress I’ve made in the last few weeks acting as Ashwin. That idiot system gave me the identity of an already famous athlete and all-around great guy, and it put me in a world with full access to the internet. Just my social media presence and a few rudimentary interviews and videos got me more than a million fans, practically for free to boot since the real Ashwin did all the hard work there, and this was just the beginning.

It took 500 thousand souls idolizing me to level up each time, which it seems to scale linearly, at least for now, so some quick math told me I needed around 6 and a half million fans to get to level 20. The Title said that I’d get quantitative changes with each milestone reached, and if I got my first one at level 10, then it stands to reason the next one will appear at level 20. With a population of over 300 million people to work with, and that’s just the US alone, getting another 5 million supporters seemed like a piece of cake. All I had to do was expedite that process a bit.

Now I wasn’t exactly certain about what rewards I’d get from reaching that goal, but if the first milestone gave me the ability to master the Xollon’s Secondary form, then perhaps it wouldn’t be too big of a stretch to say that other forms could be used as well, even if it’s not in its full capacity. I smiled at the possibilities, especially seeing Xalla in all of her glory.

So that’s exactly why I chose to set up a media interview, my biggest one yet, tomorrow right in the middle of one of the busiest streets of Manhattan, right across from a bank. I even paid to have the biggest influencers and private journalists attend. With Noe’s abilities and a little acting on my part, the people of the world were going to get quite the treat, but I had some things I had to do first.

Now, normally I technically didn’t have the ability to manipulate people’s thoughts, but manipulating emotions came really damn close, and in such a huge city like New York, the number of criminals and gangsters was like a never-ending supply of willing actors ready to do what I needed them to do. I simply sat down with a few groups, finding the most susceptible bunch, and told them just how much money they could get robbing a bank, especially the bank right across from the interview I was planning to give.

And so I found myself explaining my grand plan to my new best friends.

“But…” one of the unsavory men muttered as he took in my words.

We sat in a half-empty Mcdonald’s away from prying eyes, and each of the criminals gathered here was looking at me with dubious expressions. If it were anyone else saying such ridiculous things, they would have probably mugged me and then beaten me to a pulp, but with so much Charisma stacked in my favor, there was no way that normal humans could even fathom the idea that I had ill intentions for them. Still, stats could only go so far when the things I’ve been spewing were absolutely insane.

Normally, anyone with half a brain wouldn’t listen to such a lunatic idea. First of all, why would they risk everything trying to rob a bank in the middle of the day, next to thousands of onlookers, with police, reporters, and not the mention hundreds of recording devices? Well, convincing people’s a lot easier when everything you say, no matter how absolutely ridiculous, was seen as the absolute truth. I almost chuckled when I remembered how effective my speech was when dealing with normal Aspirants, let alone mortal humans.

“You’re looking at it all wrong,” I said, before pumping them with a tiny bit of dopamine to ensure that my words felt genuine; I still needed to limit how much of Noe’s abilities I used, in case the Trash Matrix could pick up on that, but I still needed to use some of my skills here. “I know how insane this sounds, but trust me, I have really solid sources that say that the banks will be on a minimal security detail that day, but only from 4-5 pm, so make sure you act then. My friend’s cousin’s son-in-law’s in the know, and he assured me that’s the case.”

The leader of the gang nodded slowly. “Well… I suppose that makes sense, and your sources seem legit… Yeah, it would be the best time to strike.”

I nodded as well, encouraging them with a kindly smile. “Exactly!” Then I amplified greed a notch. “Can you imagine how rich you would all be? Remember, that cousin’s son-in-law’s sister works for the police and will make sure that you get off with the money. Think about it, you’ll all have millions. I even heard that there’s going to be some big media thing right across the street, that’ll make it so that you can move really easily without being caught. It’s free money!”

More nods from the criminals. “Yeah… you’re right! Hell, we’d all be fucking rich!”

“In fact…” I muttered quietly, “There could be a lot more money to be made if you really want to know, but it’ll be risky. The payoff’s huge thought, you’ll be richer than Jeff Bezos, but it might be too much.”

That got their attention. “Tell us! We’ll decide if it’s too risky!”

I made a reluctant face before ultimately relenting. “Alright, but only because you guys are my best friends.”

“Yeah, it’s what friends would do! We’ll all buy you whatever you want once we’re all filthy rich!”

I smiled. “Okay, well, there’s that olympic athlete doing an interview that day, and his family’s loaded. Like, Oil Baron levels of rich. I heard he’s an idiot who’s too trusting of people, so he doesn’t even have any bodyguards around him. You guys get what I’m saying?”

The eyes of everyone present almost sparkled. They definitely knew what I was hinting at.

“Better yet,” I continued, “This dumbass is planning to give his speech right in the middle of the street with his back turned away from the bank.”

“Ah,” one of the goons said, “That means we can get him real easy.”

“After we snatch the money,” another added quickly.

“Exactly!” I laughed, “Make sure you bring weapons, lots of guns. It’ll make you all look more intimidating, and keep the crowds under control. I can get you guys a helicopter to escape from after. How cool would that be, taking all of the bank’s money, a rich hostage, while going off into the sunset in a helicopter?”

Okay, I’ll admit that I was spewing garbage at this point, even testing my Charisma’s ability to bend the truth, but it seemed like nothing I said, unless it was literally impossible, would be viewed as anything but facts. No matter how outlandish my claims were, how implausible the situations I presented, people believed them, and if it worked on these fine gentlemen, then I couldn’t wait to see how well that ability translates on a bigger stage. I was going to put the beautiful gifts that the piece of shit Trash Matrix gave me through the Ascension process to great use. It was almost fitting to use its own powers against it, like it was using Noe’s against me.

But gathering the needed number of followers was just the first stage of my plan. This would be the theoretically easy part of the operation. The only thing that I wasn’t a hundred percent sure about was how the Trash Matrix would react to the upcoming events. In theory, and from everything that I know about Central’s worthless system, the Trash Matrix didn’t have any understanding of humans, or the culture of any “inferior” lifeforms, at least that’s what my waking self’s memories detailed.

Plus, with this timeline being completely new, it couldn’t check if this was how the real Ashwin would have acted if Central hadn’t invaded the earth. All of that meant that I should be relatively safe as long as events didn’t stretch casualty too much, or too quickly. All I was doing was making Ashwin famous a bit faster, and I didn’t have any doubts that he’d have achieved the same success on his own with a bit of time. The only thing was to test my hypothesis, and I desperately hoped that I was right because the alternative plans were dire.

With everything that I needed to say said, I waved goodbye to my best pals and headed home for the night. I had a big day ahead of me.