Chapter 9 - What Are Doppelgangers? I Hope Their Necks Are Snappable.
Because of the mess they had caused, it created quite a stir at the facility. Han had no choice but to drive Carn home. The air in the car felt heavy with unspoken words as Han was still reeling from guilt over the incident. After a long silence, Han finally spoke up, opening his heart and confessing his thoughts.
"I really thought you were a doppelganger back there. I was convinced some dimensional entity was disguising itself as you."
"Doppelganger?" Carn raised an eyebrow. The term wasn't unfamiliar to him.
Back in the demon lord's army, there was a mimic squad that could disguise themselves as human adventurers. They served as spies for the dungeon, infiltrating adventuring parties to gather intelligence. Using their hivemind telepathy, they would relay their findings to their superiors.
In combat, however, the mimics were less impressive. They lacked stamina and overall physical strength, making them poor fighters in direct confrontations. But where they truly excelled was in assassination missions. They would sneak up on their targets, devour them, take their form, and slip away without a trace. Carn wondered if the doppelgangers in this world were similar to the mimics from his dungeon days.
"What are they like?" he asked, genuinely curious.
"Remember the Mayan Doomsday seven years ago?"
Carn quickly did the math. It was 2019 in this world, which meant Han was referring to 2012. "What happened? I don't really remember."
Han let out a dry laugh. "It wasn't the end of the world, but it almost felt like it. It was the Mayan Rift Incident. About a hundred doppelgangers slipped through a rift that opened in Mexico and disguised themselves as humans. The Mexican government and explorers managed to track down and eliminate all of them but one. It crossed the border into Texas, and in just a single day, it slaughtered 50,000 civilians."
"...What?" Carn was stunned. "Just one doppelganger did all that?"
Han nodded grimly. "Yeah. These aren't just any ordinary creatures. They're incredibly dangerous, capable of blending into society flawlessly until they decide to strike. And when they do… the results are catastrophic."
Carn was speechless. Even in his world, the mimics never managed anything as destructive. They were stealthy and cunning, but to single-handedly wipe out a town in one day? That was a level of efficiency he hadn't thought possible.
Carn thought of the possibilities. If the doppelgangers were that powerful, it begged the question.
What kind of military strength did this world possess to fight them?
His pulse quickened, his lips curling into a subtle grin. The thought of exploring this world's capabilities excited him.
"And how exactly did you defeat them?"
Han's expression darkened as he recalled the brutal methods they'd resorted to. "Initially, it was straightforward. We gunned them down and burned their bodies before they could regenerate. That worked… at first. But the one that escaped evolved. After devouring so many civilians, it became immune to our firearms and explosives."
Carn raised an eyebrow. "So, how did you kill them after that?"
Han sighed, feeling the weight on his shoulders. His fingers also felt sticky from the disgust that the government and the army had done.
"We poisoned it."
"Poison?" Carn echoed, intrigued.
Han nodded slowly, revealing a grim reality. "We had no other choice. We developed radioactive pills specifically designed to disrupt the doppelganger's regenerative abilities. But here's the thing… someone had to deliver the poison. So we had a terminally ill volunteer who swallowed the pills and let himself be consumed by the monster."
Carn's excitement faltered. "You… fed people to the doppelganger?"
Han's voice was quiet, regret seeping into every word. "It was the only way. Its regeneration was too strong. Bullets, fire, none of it worked anymore. But once it ate the volunteer, the radiation did its job. Its bodies couldn't heal, and we finished the survivor off. It was ugly… but it worked."
"…"
A heavy silence settled between them. Carn, for once, found himself at a loss for words. The thought of sending a person to die that way stirred something uneasy in him.
Han stared at the road ahead and deeply exhaled. "It was terrible. I know. The name of that volunteer is engraved on a monument in Texas. People don't talk about it much, but they DO remember."
Carn leaned back in his seat, still processing the brutal nature of this world's warfare. The doppelgangers, the radioactive sacrifice—they painted a grim picture of survival at all costs.
But Carn wasn't one to be easily rattled. After all, he had done far worse in his previous world, which would land him in prison for multiple life sentences if anyone ever knew.
He decided to shift the conversation, though his curiosity about the doppelgangers remained. "So, aside from disguising as people, what kind of powers do these monsters have? Just curious."
Han glanced at him, giving Carn a meaningful look. But thinking back on the incident in the clinic, he slightly shook away his suspicion and taught his son.
"For the regular ones, they're as strong as adept explorers. Like you, they can break bones and tear people apart with their bare hands. They've got four long arms and four legs, but no head. Just a body full of teeth. But the real danger is in their transformation. Once they eat a human, they instantly morph into that person. They can mimic every detail—voice, memories, personality, everything. But if you lose sight of it, it will morph back to its original form and kill you."
Carn nodded thoughtfully. Their appearance sounded different from the mimics he had known in the demon lord's world, where the creatures were initially born as parasitic slimes before evolving into something more sinister. The doppelgangers here seemed more like apex predators, using their ability to blend in as a deadly weapon.
He wondered if he might encounter one of these creatures in town one day. It wasn't an impossible thought, though, from Han's description, it seemed unlikely. The destructive nature of the doppelgangers made them poor candidates for subtle infiltration over long periods. Still, the idea of facing one of these evolved monsters intrigued him.
As they drove, Carn's thoughts drifted back to his own dark past. He had been an agent of destruction himself, once. His hands weren't clean, not by a long shot. Yet here he was, sitting in a world that seemed to have its own set of rules and its own battles.
The more he learned, the more he realized that perhaps this Earth and his former world weren't so different after all.
…
At noon, Han pulled into the parking lot of a bustling shopping mall, bringing the car to a halt. He glanced at Carn, his face lined with the lingering guilt of the day's events, before pulling a crisp $100 bill from his wallet.
"I've got another place to be, and it'll take too long before I can take you home," Han said, handing Carn the money. "Use this for a taxi or a bus home. Whatever's left over, keep it."
Carn nodded in compliance, stepping out of the car and into the midday sun. The shopping mall loomed in front of him, unfamiliar yet oddly recognizable.
Though his memories of this world were hazy, he had a vague sense that the mall was about 20 miles from home. After covering the taxi fare, he figured he might have about $30 left, which was enough for a decent lunch at one of the fancy places inside.
'It's just another 20-30 minutes drive. How busy can you be?' Carn inwardly complained.
Han lingered a moment longer. His expression softened into a bittersweet smile, "We'll talk again tonight, okay? Just don't use your powers. Try not to cause any trouble."
"Alright, Dad. I'll behave," Carn promised, offering a casual wave.
Satisfied, Han gave a small nod before driving off. The car disappeared into the flow of traffic.
Carn watched until the vehicle faded from view, then turned toward the mall. He slipped the money into his pocket and took a deep breath.
A part of him felt strange, almost disconnected from the simplicity of this world. Yet, another part was eager, curious to explore what this new Earth had to offer.
Carn walked toward the mall, thinking only of food and how best to spend his newly acquired cash. As he approached the entrance, the glass doors slid open with a soft hiss, and he instinctively stepped inside.
However, the moment he crossed the threshold, Carn froze.
The mall's interior was shrouded in a thick, dark crimson haze. It blanketed everything, swirling slowly in the air like smoke. The haze was so dense that Carn could barely make out the shapes of the shops ahead of him, and the usual buzz of shoppers seemed muffled, distant.
His heart skipped a beat, not out of fear but excitement. The haze was unmistakably Aether—but not just any Aether. It was so potent that it verged on turning black, the kind of Aether that was hero-graded in his old world, a level far beyond what he expected to encounter here.
Who could have produced such a powerful aura in a mundane place like this?
Carn scanned the haze, trying to sense the source, but it was diffused throughout the entire space. Judging by its intensity, he estimated that this much Aether could be worth at least 500 silver marks—more than enough to power medium spells like teleportation or shapeshifting for days. He couldn't help but feel overjoyed.
But his excitement was tempered by a gnawing sense of caution. Something powerful was at play here, and it might not be from this ordinary world. It took someone extraordinary to produce this kind of Aether—someone like him, or perhaps something far more dangerous.
His eyes narrowed as he considered the possibilities. Pacing forward with a slow step, Carn swept his gaze around, searching for a potential threat. Like a K9 dog, Carn's nostrils flared, using his keen sense to differentiate regular humans, objects, and Aether.
'Hunting time… Where are you, my Aether…'