‘Are you ready?’

“Yes!”

The girl concentrated, by closing one of her eyes while channeling the energy into one of her arms. We were in the living room of her huge house.

I have been staying here for a month now and I learned some surprising things.

Turns out this girl’s parent were supper rich and they never come home. This manor had three storages, 8 bathrooms, 8 bedrooms, 3 kitchens, and a two leveled basement filled with all sorts of goodies.

Also, there were robot butlers.

Yep, with the gigas, who are some sort of biological machines, humanity managed to develop sentient technology. Living smartphones, talking cars, metal humans, it was insane.

No wonder this world was off limit, the environment was so different from my own it was poisoning. Literally, the only thing that kept me alive was this woman’s meat suit. If an avatar would have the bad luck of staying outside of its host, it would die and probably evaporate.

Good thing I have been possessing people through bites or injections.

During the night, as we agreed I have been going out, injecting people with my avatars, but leaving them in a dormant state, leaving the host in command and ignorant. Right now wasn’t a good time for doing something reckless, since I still wanted to see what the magic of this world is capable of.

‘Concentrate. Imagination is a fundamental part of magic. Picture a tentacle or an arm and project it towards that garbage.’

I forgot to mention but I switched bodies. Yeah, one night I was careless, and there was a car… Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. Playing as a zombie I somehow managed to bring it back before the avatar in it died, giving a little fright to this girl. It didn1t take long before she found me a new body.

A fat hamster.

My consciousness now resided not only in a teen-aged girl but an over-feed rodent whose name was…Hips.

I was in the body of a hamster called Hips. My self-esteem was slowly crumbling the more I stayed here.

The cane on the table slowly started to shake, before being lifted up in the air…and then with the force of a bullet, it was thrown right into her chest.

I wasn’t worried, this happened before, and her airbags worked pretty well.

I was trying to teach her to use telekinesis, saying that this was a “bonus of being possessed by a demon”.

“Damn it. Why is it so hard?!”

‘Well, you never used it before so it’s not that surprising. It's like killing somebody, the first time is hard but the more you do it the easier it gets.”

The girl looked at me with a disgusted expression.

“I always forget that you are a demon.”

‘I admit that I am not as hellbent on the gory stuff.’

While talking I stud up with some difficulty.

‘Seriously, can’t I have a better body? Anything rather than this thing!’

“I said that you could also go with the canary.”

‘The other overfeed animal who can’t fly. No thanks, that thing is more useless than this thing!’

“Then don’t complain!”

She walked away, leaving me on the table.

‘…Hey! Come back! I can’t climb!’

She didn’t respond, even though I talked directly into her mind.

‘Fuck it.’

I switched back into her mind.

‘Look, I know you are nervous and all, but I’m sure you will pass without any problem. With our combined powers there is no way you won’t be admitted.”

Silence, she continued to ignore me.

‘ …Sigh, fine I’ll go.’

I disconnected from her mind and connected to someone far away from her.

During the month I stayed in this world, I infected multiple people, amongst them was a rich man who owned a huge apartment in the middle of the city. By looking out of the window I could see a castle-like structure not far away from me, which was if I believe the memories of almost hundreds of different people, was the GSC’s academy.

I cracked my neck and went to the counter pouring some alcohol for myself.

Being in different bodies was wonderful, I could experience so much different things without any repercussion. Well, I who resides in them won’t be blamed for it.

“It really feels like I grew up to be called a demon.”

I drank my drink, sighting.

Ever since that madness juice, nothing that I drunk tasted as good.

Need to find a way to make this stuff, after I am done with all these.

“Larva! Bring me the details of the last transaction!”

Soon a door opened, and somebody came in.

It was like a doll made from metal wearing a butler’s uniform. Its head, which was the only thing visible, was a bucket with two glowing circles for eyes.

“Did you ask for me, sir?” It said with a monotonous voice.

“Yes, I will need the contracts of the last transactions I made this past month and put them on the table. And call back those three, it will be soon time for their big day. I gave them enough time to adapt.”

“Yes sir.”

The butler bowed, before leaving.

“Sigh, now to the least pleasant part.”

I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes.

“It’s me, Dealmaker. This is a message broadcasted for all reincarnated. In a week, come to 34 Jance Street, at the huge silver tower. Go up to the 12th floor, there will be a meeting to discuss how we will proceed with our plans.”

*****

Today was the big day. Every kid in a hundred radius gathered before the academy, busting with anticipation.

Today was the day of admissions. No matter who you were, the academy will take you in if you have enough talent. If they somehow manage to be accepted here, then their future is guaranteed to be successful and well paid. But the entrance exam to the academy was a harsh one. Most people fail it and there were never been a question that was asked twice, so cheating was impossible. Supposedly, last year's exam was a fighting tournament, while the one previously was a writing test. it was unpredictable.

“I am so nervous.”

I and the girl were amongst the crowd, that formed at the entrance of the building.

‘Relax. Just go there and do your best. No one will judge you of anything. Well except the jury, since that’s their job and all.’

“Shus! You’re not helping. Just stay quiet.”

‘Why? You have been gazing in the distance for a…Don’t tell me. You are looking for that boy?’

Fun fact, this girl was strange. She worries about his health but when he wakes up, she treats him like garbage. What a mystery!

‘Look, he received some of my power. Meaning, he has now the aptitude to be accepted here. Let him be.’

She said nothing just stared in the distance.

Feeling that this was pointless, I kept quiet while observing.

Before we came here, I called forth several animals that I infested, using the mm as surveillance drones, looking for talents worth converting.

I could safely say that these guys were trash.

Almost no mana and even less madness.

there were some exceptions but in the grand scheme of things, if these were the best, then taking over this world will be a walk in the park.

I was about to laugh about their weaknesses till I sense something.

A huge amount of mana. Big enough to make even me shiver.

Is this one of the teachers? I need to get close.

I made several birds fly closer looking through a window.

I saw a classroom of a sort with several students walking around.

At the back of the class, a group of kids formed a group talking about something that I couldn’t hear.

From one of them, an inhuman amount of magic emanated, making me shiver. Amongst this torrent of mana, I felt something.

Something very familiar.

****

‘Ash, we have a problem.’

“Sorry, guys I have to do something.”

One of the boys exited the classroom and put his phone to his ear as if he was using it.

“What is it, Linda?”

‘I felt somebody looking at us. At me. It has more mana than I and it was filled with malice. I am afraid that I have been found.’

“By who?”

‘I don’t know. Honestly, I made several powerful enemies in my younger days. What I know is that This one is powerful. More powerful than any gigas that we ever meet.’

“…Okay, let's go to meet the-“

‘Behind you!’

The boy threw himself on the floor. He was fats, seconds later, something flew over his head.

It was a crow, big and black dripping of some sort of black substance.

It opened its beak and said a single word.

“Found!”

The bird launched itself to them its beak wide open.

By reflex, the boy took on a stance and with a firm fist, hit the bird with all his might. The force was great enough to not only break his neck but its entire body got blasted into pieces that soon evaporated into nothingness.

“What is happening?”

*****

That was probably that Ash who killed one of the reincarnated heroes.

He was way younger than I expected, making me doubt the efficiency of somebody who was killed by him 3 years ago.

What the hell was that guy doing?

While thinking I disconnected from the entire world, returning in my own body to the throne room.

“Let’s think this through. I sent 3 heavily upgraded heroes there. I also infected about a hundred humans and animals not to mention my surprises. The next thing we need to do sound our at least one homunculus to see if it is able to withstand the effect of that world. I also want to find a gigas, if possible alive. If they are surely living machines, I want to learn how they function. They might open up new avenues to my army.”

I stretched, moving all the muscles in my body.

“Damn it if only I could send my monsters out there then I wouldn’t need to do all this.”

I already tested it, by bringing a variety of beings to that world. The results were…Gory.

They suffocated, due to the lack of mana, before turning to dust. my avatars are fine, but they need a host to function.

“I could try to make monsters out of the habitants of that world, but with the amount of mana they have, the best I could do with them is…wait a sec. What about the potion I injected into that priest? It killed him, but at that time he was filled with mana. Maybe in a mana-poor environment, the mutations will be controlled! I need to test this out immediately!”

I rushed to my lab and commenced the concoction.

“As a first try, I won’t put any monster DNA into this. For now, I will test it to see if this thing kills them or not…Wait I have another idea! Why not send a homunculus out and make him do the injection? This way I can test two things at once! I am brilliant.”

I filed a syringe with the stuff and put it into a small bag.

Ahh man, I’m so excited!

While packing I looked up onto my wall which was filled with notes.

“Damn it I completely forgot.”

Things are…messy around here. Humans making ruckus, food shortage, summoning rituals, it's all super disorganized. No wonder since I didn’t care about all of this.

This world was nothing but a tool. Nothing more.

But I suppose I should continue working, as a reward for their hard work.

I touched the bracelet, making the parameters of the world I was working on appear.

“I already put fresh air and sunlight in it. For now, some forest should suffice. I also need to put some animals in there, like bores and whatnots. It can be solved with some summoning circles, but I need to get there myself. Sigh, door open.”

Before me, the space split apart revealing giving place to a magnifique golden door.

I pushed the door open, entering into space behind it.

Into the world of my design.