Defeat. Complete and utter defeat.
"We lose..."
"How can he be so strong...?"
"He's so dreamy..."
"Yeah..." Kaori and Shizuku murmured in unison.
Shizuku, Kaori, and Yue lay sprawled across the massive bed—messy, thoroughly exhausted, yet radiating sheer happiness and a deep, heavy obsession.
Meanwhile, Suzuki stood up, looking as fresh and powerful as ever. It was practically impossible for him to lose a battle of attrition. Thanks to the Ambrosia coursing through his veins, his stamina was quite literally limitless.
Adjusting his clothes, he muttered a familiar refrain: "I am so glad I chose the Merchant class."
The job that everyone in this world looked down upon had turned out to be the most overwhelmingly broken class of all. Then again, there were no useless jobs in the world of Tortus; there were only useless people.
But it was time to set aside his nocturnal victories and focus on the ultimate prize he had just acquired.
Creation Magic.
"This magic is truly ridiculous..."
When Suzuki thought about what the canon protagonist, Hajime Nagumo, achieved with this magic in the original story, he had to admit it was a massive cheat code. Nagumo had somehow managed to bring complex, sci-fi military weaponry into reality—something that logically should have been completely impossible for him.
Why was Suzuki so harsh in his assessment of Nagumo?
It wasn't malice; it was just cold, hard reality. Back in Japan, Nagumo wasn't exactly a stellar student with a high aptitude for mechanical engineering. Instead of studying, Nagumo spent the vast majority of his time slacking off, playing video games, and reading manga.
If someone could become an engineering genius simply by consuming pop culture, then all the people who actually bled, sweat, and sacrificed for their success would be a complete joke! Sure, some might argue that successful people just rely on their parents' wealth, but maintaining generational wealth was incredibly difficult. The second generation often lost everything if they were incompetent. To stay at the top, one had to bleed and endure countless sleepless nights.
Suzuki was living proof of that. Despite being an orphan, he had worked himself to the bone to get into the top university in Japan, excelled in sports, and even managed to secure a beautiful girlfriend. He didn't have superpowers back then. He didn't have a hypnosis app, a time-stop ability, or any of the strange cheat powers popular in Japanese media. He had pure grit.
Nagumo, on the other hand, hadn't worked hard a day in his life until he fell into the abyss. Even with all the fantasy books and magical knowledge in Tortus, was there any logical way an average high schooler could suddenly understand the microscopic combustion mechanics of motorcycles, cars, and advanced firearms?
No way.
All of Nagumo's inventions only worked because Creation Magic literally forced imagination to become reality. All Nagumo had to do was picture the end result, and the system—combined with Creation Magic—did all the heavy lifting to fill in the impossibly complex gaps.
But now? That ultimate power belonged to Suzuki.
So, what should he create?
Frankly, instead of prioritizing heavy artillery, his first instinct was far more practical: he needed to build a smartphone so he could easily stay in touch with his women.
Communication was everything.
While he had been stuck at the bottom of the labyrinth, Kaori and Shizuku were navigating the surface. He had absolute confidence in their abilities, but he still worried about them. He knew exactly how messy, unstable, and toxic his summoned classmates could be. Judging by the girls' exhausted expressions earlier, his classmates were already causing headaches.
With Creation Magic, he could finally coordinate with everyone and set his grand plans into motion.
But it would be a waste of resources if I didn't test it out right here.
Suzuki had to admit, the conceptual knowledge of Creation Magic was staggering. Synchronizing it with the [Manager], he instantly mastered the ancient art. Within minutes, he had crafted three pristine, high-tech smartphones for Kaori, Shizuku, and Yue. He even coded a custom, secure chat app so they could communicate seamlessly, regardless of the distance between them.
How did he bypass the lack of cell towers? Simple. He forged the internal hardware using highly conductive Telepathy Stones.
"...Is this a smartphone?" Kaori asked, her eyes wide.
"...Did you actually make this down here?" Shizuku marveled, turning the sleek device over in her hands.
"Smartphone?" Yue tilted her head, completely confused by the strange glowing rectangle.
"It works like this," Suzuki explained.
"Here, let's set it up together," Kaori said, immediately shuffling over to show Yue the ropes.
Naturally, knowing his audience, Suzuki had prioritized the camera function. Utilizing Creation Magic, he had engineered lenses that easily rivaled professional cameras worth millions of yen back on Earth. Smartphones were, after all, primarily used by women to take pictures.
Though, as he casually scrolled through the incredibly lewd, highly explicit photos the three of them immediately started taking of each other in bed, he was very, very glad he was the server admin with full control over the network's privacy.
Hmm... should I turn this into a monopoly?
If he started selling basic versions of these to the nobility, he could lock them into a monthly subscription fee. He could drain their coffers, trap them in debt, and establish an absolute monopoly on global communications! Once they owed him money and relied on his network, they would be entirely at his mercy~!
In Another World With My Smartphone.
Suzuki chuckled. That would be a fitting title for his life right now.
"I also integrated an AI assistant feature," Suzuki pointed out. "You can ask it anything, and it will pull up information or give you step-by-step instructions."
It was essentially a localized version of ChatGPT or Gemini, powered entirely by his [Manager] skill. The three girls immediately fell in love with how ridiculously convenient it was.
"What's wrong?" Suzuki asked, noticing Shizuku staring at him with a complicated expression.
"Nothing," she sighed, shaking her head with a fond smile. "It's just... I never imagined you would use the ultimate ancient magic of the labyrinth to invent a cell phone."
"If the other girls back on the surface find out about this, they are going to be so jealous!" Kaori giggled.
"Anyway, with these, I can give you instructions on your next moves once we separate," Suzuki said, turning back to business. He paused, tapping his chin. "Should I forge some TWS earbuds, too?"
"Yes, please!" Kaori and Shizuku practically begged. The ability to secretly listen to music or watch downloaded shows during boring church sermons was too good to pass up.
Meanwhile, Yue was already entirely absorbed in her glowing screen, rapidly transforming into a Tortus-born Gen-Z iPad kid.
If he invented a TikTok equivalent, these girls would be completely lost to the algorithm.
[Report. We can easily compile and deploy a short-form video application similar to TikTok. Would you like me to initiate creation?] The Manager chimed in his mind.
...Let's definitely not do that.
Suzuki immediately vetoed the idea. He was genuinely terrified they might start doing trendy dances in the middle of the labyrinth.
Still, looking at the phones, he felt a rush of anticipation. If he could achieve this level of technological dominance with just one labyrinth's magic, what could he do once he conquered the other labyrinths and claimed their ancient magics?
Just as he was about to outline their departure plan, his vision suddenly blurred.
Fwip.
Without warning, his consciousness was violently yanked out of his body. He opened his eyes to find himself standing in the familiar, infinite White Space—the mindscape where he connected with his alternate selves.
However, while he was initially startled, he quickly understood what was happening. Looking around the pristine room, he saw the others: Naruto Suzuki, Tensura Suzuki, JJK Suzuki, and Solo Leveling Suzuki.
But they weren't alone.
Standing before the original group were three completely unfamiliar faces.
"...Are you us?" the new arrivals asked in unison.
Yes. The multiverse had expanded once again. There were now a total of seven of them.