Chapter 104 [Shiloh]

"Dimension Gate!" Cynthia growled from the crater in the colosseum's wall.

Unconcerned with a counterattack, the woman summoned a wall of purple, warping space, marbling with black behind it.

A white warp gate opened up 100 feet in the air.

Without a time limit, the gate made an insurmountable barrier, protecting the woman unless Shiloh ran from the sides.

It was only a stopgap, but it sealed her fate. Unable to see, Cynthia didn't notice Shiloh collecting pillows at lightning speed.

Shiloh began throwing the pillows into the warp gate with surreal force within seconds.

Once the first one hit the white gate—

Thud!

A small rumble shook the stadium as it sent the elf crashing into the wall.

Once the first pillow crashed into Cynthia's skull, she understood she was done for.

Three more hit her instantly; she tried to dodge, but it was worthless.

Her vision became hazy, and she released the Dimension Gate due to a lack of concentration.

Shiloh closed the distance in a split second and began hitting her head with the pillow.

THUD! Thud! Thud, thud, boom, thud, boom, thud, BOOM!

Everyone watched in shock as the scene unfolded. The fight had only started thirty seconds before, but it was so savage and one-sided it was hard to call it a fight.

Leon closed his eyes. He wanted to stop the match, but he couldn't.

Considering Cynthia couldn't die, he looked away and reviewed everything he had seen, pretending not to hear the impacts.

"STOP THE MATCH!" Someone screamed.

"PLEASE!" Another side.

"Cynthia would hate all of us for life if we let that happen." Leon said calmly, "If you look at Shiloh's face, she also begrudgingly understands that."

Few people were watching the beatdown because it was horrifying. However, when they glanced at the God Display, they could see Shiloh cringing with a strained expression.

"Give up! You're already dead. You got your wish for an honorable death!" Shiloh yelled bitterly.

"Fuck off, cunt." Cynthia laughed.

BOOM!

"You're dead. Your honor won't change when the gods save you!" She growled, "I don't want to hurt you!"

"That's a [you problem], not a [me problem]." Cynthia replied with a bloody cough.

The haremites watched the scene with surreal expressions.

Somehow, the loser was Shiloh, who was frustrated and miserable.

Boom! Thud, thud, boom….

"This isn't a good look for this city!" Shiloh yelled bitterly.

"Then give up." Cynthia laughed, "You showed up uninvited."

"I can't!" The woman screamed.

"Heh. What's your petty excuse?" The elf chuckled.

"I DON'T LOSE GAMES!" Shiloh roared while pulling her pillow back.

BOOOOOOM!

The stadium shook, and a massive explosion of light lit up the stadium.

Cynthia healed instantly and dropped from the crater onto the ground, panting. She had a shit-eating grin on her face.

"What are you grinning about?" Shiloh gruffed.

"You… haha… you just showcased your full strength." Cynthia laughed with smiling amethyst eyes, "In a fight where I couldn't die. Do you think that's winning?"

Shiloh's golden eyes filled with murderous intent, but she had a cool, relaxed face.

"Taking advice from dead people is extremely irrational." Shiloh smiled, "So I think I'll refrain from your lecture. You know, for my health."

"Hah. I'm very much alive." The elf laughed, "Temporary immortality, remember?"

"You say that as if you wouldn't have let yourself die out of irrational honor, Miss Pragmatist." The woman replied mockingly, reminding the elf of her insistence on [rationality].

"Honor drives people to live life with value and respect." Cynthia laugh-scoffed contemptuously, "You know, not treating it like a game."

"That's funny." Shiloh giggled, "I hope people read about your honorable feats in history books.

That way, they'll ignore them and focus exclusively on how you got bludgeoned to death with a pillow."

The elf frowned in disdain. The woman did have a point, and even the members of the Dainty Death Squad sent lukewarm smiles to the battlefield.

Leon let the talk continue to mine information from the strange woman.

"You have a good point." Cynthia replied bitterly, "But this wasn't your game, yes?"

Shiloh frowned at the elf's mocking expression.

"You're here to announce your entrance to Leon. Did this farce help your cause, I wonder?" The elf mused maliciously.

"Or did you just release your secrets while hurting your reputation?

After all, this fight wasn't a good look for Harem City."

Shiloh smiled and glanced at Leon, who watched her with interest, awaiting her reply.

"Knowing how to mitigate your losses is part of playing games." She replied before turning back to the elf.

Their amethyst and golden hazel eyes locked.

"I sacrificed a secret to win and avoid winning the battle but losing the war." Shiloh asserted.

"You sacrificed your life for respect and honor when the action guaranteed humiliation and disgrace instead."

Cynthia frowned with a bitter expression. She was getting grilled mercilessly but deserved it.

"I requested to fight you because your mindset is more twisted than mine is." Shiloh laugh-scoffed.

"You constantly claim you're cold and irrational and scorn humans, but you're irrationally following a human and helping us at every opportunity. It drives me crazy."

"You're right." Cynthia chuckled bitterly, "I lost the battle and the war needlessly. So answer me this; was your admission you've been mixed in with us intentional?"

Shiloh gave the woman grin and looked up at the sky. "I officially request that the live feed get cut temporarily to candidates."

A split second later, everyone got a notice.

—

God's Announcement: Special Event: Leon's Sexy Pillow Fight Night is temporarily paused for candidates. It will resume shortly.

—

Shiloh grinned in satisfaction, then looked back at Cynthia.

Her body morphed from the ground up, twisting and contorting space like oil points mixing until it reached her head.

The audience gasped in shock, and Leon grinned with fascination, satisfied he was right.

"Of course." Regina Rodriguez replied nervously

Everyone stared at the Hispanic woman in shock. She looked completely human and had the voice and accent to match.

"I was getting really bored waiting for you all to realize that I don't have electricity powers." She giggled.

Cynthia's eyes trembled in shock.

"I mean, you put me in charge of the electricity team and let me order people around without showcasing my power." Shiloh continued in Regina's voice.

"Yes, you're busy because Leon won't control people like politicians and leaders are required to, but giving me a leadership role? Come on."

Leon was grinning from ear to ear. The woman was walking around, interacting with him more often than 97% of the haremites, yet he didn't notice either!

He stood up and clapped slowly.

The haremites stared at him in bewilderment.

"Shiloh. I find you extremely impressive. I'm appalled that you infiltrated us [for fun], but that makes it amusing." Leon chuckled.

Shiloh bowed, allowing Regina's hair to fall downward.

Space warped again, marbling the colors until she returned to her normal form.

"I'll forgive your deceptions, but have three questions for you." Leon said slightly sternly, "Answer honestly or I won't forgive you. Do you understand?"

She nodded with a serious expression.

"First, are you a pathological liar?" He asked.

"I lie when I want to, but as you can see, I do tell the truth, yes?" Shiloh smirked.

"Understandable. It's clear you're amused and that you love games." He remarked, "And for your appearance?"

She gave him a wry smile and then looked around and sighed, recognizing the value of being open.

Her form transformed again, and her appearance bewildered everyone.

Shiloh had the same face, body, and eyes—mostly.

She wore a simple black v-neck t-shirt and leggings instead of her fashionable clothing.

Her pixie cut was brown and disheveled, she wore no makeup, and her breasts were b-cups instead of c-cups.

In short, she was the same person but used her illusion magic to dress how she liked and made her breasts a little larger.

A wave of bewildered laughter waved through the audience as she blushed and crossed her arms over her chest bitterly.

Lindy burst into laughter, unreserved in her amusement. Caitlyn and Tricksie still had murder in their eyes, as they already didn't like her.

Reina stared at the woman with a bitter expression.

"I wish I chose a class that brought out my talents instead of choosing a supporting power to latch onto people." She muttered under her breath.

Leon looked back at her and smiled. "What are you talking about? That power makes you far more lethal; if it weren't, she wouldn't have chosen the name [Regina] to challenge you."

Shiloh pouted that he had found her out. She may have the power to change her appearance and voice, but she wasn't as terrifyingly overpowered as she appeared.

Her non-combative class was equal parts knife and Achilles heel.

She had to social engineer a pretext to start a conversation because she had no useful power to present to people, and they wouldn't trust her if she didn't disclose one.

Moreover, killing and impersonating someone doesn't work if you don't know their talking habits, have their routines, and knowledge.

Social engineering at that level takes a comical amount of time, energy, and intel gathering.

By contrast, Reina could join anyone's group because she had a legendary support class.

Watchers knew she had exposed Leon's enemies but didn't know her quirky personality wasn't genuine. However, it was irrelevant.

Everyone would temporarily let Reina join their party [temporarily] to survive an engineered attack.

She had barrier and healing magic, as well as other invaluable skills. As a result, they wouldn't turn her away if they were in need.

Moreover, if someone knew she was a liar, she could expose her [real personality] in any way she wanted.

Reina was a truly terrifying individual.

Compared to the Dainty Death Squad, Shiloh was the least powerful. However, she had something everyone else didn't: the ability to kill overpowered people.

She also had something else under her sleeve.

"I have one last question for you while the feed is cut." Leon announced while looking into Shiloh's eyes.

The woman swallowed nervously. She could feel his vicious gaze in her bones.

"Everyone discloses their power here. What's yours?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

Most haremites fell silent in confusion when Leon asked Shiloh to disclose her power.

Everyone saw her create illusions of her appearance and her voice. So they couldn't understand why their leader was confident that her power wasn't illusion magic.

"Do you believe your eyesight deceives you?" Shiloh asked with a poker face.

"Don't waste my time." Leon replied sternly, "Everyone discloses their power here, and your power has illusion magic; it's not an illusion magic power."

The haremites looked at his stern expression in fascination, hanging onto his every word. They could see the hesitation on the woman's face and were curious.

Shiloh's eyes glided to the left. "I'll tell you, but first, I want you to tell me what you think my power is. Will you do me that courtesy to satisfy this one's curiosity?"

"I think your power is related to playing games with people; you have magic that allows you to play games at a higher level." Leon replied.

Her eyes widened in shock. "Why would you think that?"

"You bludgeoned a woman to death to win a losing game because you're obsessed with winning games." He smiled.

"Despite your delusive philosophies, you'd have accepted the Pyrrhic victory if you didn't have another option.

That level of gameplay is obsessive. There's no way you don't have a game-related power."

Shiloh's filled with fascination at his response.

"That is my power. Loki's [Gamemaster] allows me to make contracts with people when we play games." She smirked.

"You're right, I have magic that makes the games more interesting, and the games result in bounded rewards and losses."

Minx was sitting behind the skybox's door. She wanted to be near Leon but didn't want to face him.

But the minute she heard those words, she flew into the skybox and tried jumping out the window onto the mattress.

However, Leon caught her by the scruff of her neck mid-jump, dangling the cat woman from the skybox window.

For non-superhumans, the sight was truly terrifying and inhumane.

If he had been caught on video without context a week ago, he'd have been deemed a criminal.

New world standards were different. Leon's action was met with laughter, cheers, and a non-terrified but truly mortified expression from Minx.

Shiloh looked at the cat woman with predatory eyes, and the latter returned a narrowed gaze.

A split second later, the Minx's neon glowing eyes disappeared as he pulled her into the skybox.

"This woman doesn't gamble, you idiot." Leon scolded, "You don't have the same power. If you play against this woman, you'll get skullfucked three times sideways."

"I make bound contracts and choose my games too." Minx huffed with an indignant expression.

"Is that so? Does your power increase in potency the more uncertain the bet is?" He mused sarcastically.

She scrunched her face with a bitter expression before turning her face away and pouting.

"It's called Gamble, Minx." Leon laugh-scoffed, "This lady creates the rules and can lead her opponents into traps. You have no chance of winning against her with your mindset."

"Whatever." Minx replied, secretly trying to figure out how to convince him to let her play.

He turned back to the gamemaster. "You have my respect and interest, but if you think you have a chance in hell of joining my harem right now, you're sadly mistaken."

"Right now." Shiloh stated with a slight smile.

"Right now." Leon confirmed dryly.

"Then I'll look forward to it." She replied with a charming bow.

"Me too. So make sure my partners don't murder you, kay?" He countered sardonically.

Shiloh looked at Caitlyn, Lindy, and Tricksie's murderous expressions. However, the person whose gaze frightened her the most was Reina's.

The gamemaster blinked twice to retain a calm expression and then turned around and walked out the gate.

Leon was pleased she left while she was ahead. He found her fascinating; his partners—not so much. They were salty beyond comparison.

Cynthia got up and silently walked out the other gate with a stoic expression.

He wondered if he should check on the woman later.

Shiloh pointed out her behavior and challenge, and Leon figured he should help more. He didn't plan to, but he thought he'd at least learn what he was avoiding.

Leon clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "Okay, sexy pillow fight, then let's get some sleep. Yes?"

One haremite sent out a lone, awkward cheer. Four followed, and before long, everyone was clapping and cheering awkwardly.

"Come one. You've seen hardcore, non-stop displays of Harem City's might. Where are your cheers!?" Leon yelled with his hands high.

The spark set off a cataclysmic chain reaction that shook the airwaves.

"It's time. Competitors of the Sexy Lingerie Pillow Fight take the stage!"

————Update to the Below Announcement————

Sorry for this crazy long update, but it's really important, and I can't delete more than 100 words. I'm pausing writing of HG; you'll learn below. In the meantime, here's an update.

Voting for Playboy Cultivator in the Apocalypse opened for tonight (12 days), so I'm releasing two HG chapters. You can now find it on my novel page by swiping [Nightmare] to the left.

This development doesn't change that I was hit with an expense that's sending me into a financial crisis, and need faith that continuing won't lead to total financial destruction.

If I knew this would happen, I wouldn't have tried writing two novels and releasing [Nightmare]. Unforeseen things happen; life works like that sometimes.

I have 40+ PC chapters completed [before] getting hit with this financial brick I'll be releasing, so please don't think I'm abandoning a monetized novel for an uncontracted novel. I'm not.

I'll release more HG bonus chapters while interviewing in response to positive PC signals that increase my faith in being a professional author. Look for bonus chapters.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you all.

————Important Announcement————

Thank you for your support, everyone. I regret to inform you that I'm taking a break from writing HG.

I've been living on savings for the last six months, and time's running short. It's even shorter because I just got hit with a crushing financial expense.

So I'm pausing HG to search for a job. However, I'll resume if Playboy Cultivator in the Apocalypse is also contracted.

The reason is simple: I'm going broke, and HG [alone] will never reach enough paying readers for me to make a living as a professional writer.

To put things into perspective, 28% of the new readers who began reading PlayCult on Sept 9th are still reading the novel. By contrast, HG has 1.26%. Seems dramatic, yes?

Let me tell you the story behind Harem God.

Six months ago, I started writing because I loved web novels but was frustrated with cliches. So I left work inspired to write stories with meaning, plots, and psychological elements I love.

However, I didn't embrace popular tropes. As a result, the two novels I spent 1000+ hours writing tanked. These failures were my fault, but the pain and frustration I felt became unbearable.

So I wrote Harem God: Leveling Up Yanderes in the Apocalypse.

Here's the filtered review I wrote the day I released the novel.

—

"I wrote this novel in response to an existential crisis. I want to know if my works won't succeed because I'm a bad author or if it's my defiance of cookie-cutter stories.

Well, we're about to find out!

Prepare yourself. I've written the most Webnovel-ie web novel that ever got posted on Webnovel!

Systems, women, overpowered mc, sociopathic behavior, apocalypse, monsters, dual cultivation, bad humor, action, reverse isekai, level up, level up, boobs, boobs, boobs!

Yanderes and tsunderes for days, cat girls and dragon milfs for years!

And a smart sociopathic mc who's not really either but is because I, the godly author, said he is.

To top it all off, I put the entire plot in the title and obtained a highly sexualized image for the cover. I even used small print not to cover the breasts and panties!

It has EVERYTHING—except step-sisters and lolis. Sorry, my standards are low, but I can still reach up to hit rock bottom.

So answer my existential crisis. If you want more chapters, make it rain with power stones and reviews.

Because if this doesn't succeed, I'll just have to admit my writing isn't for Webnovel :')"

—

I didn't plan for this novel to reach this level of readership. I wrote the first 16 chapters without pause in 12 hours without concern for their quality, venting my frustrations with absurdism.

Yet, you, the community, breathed life into this story. You made me want to write and push forward, making this story more than a joke.

I've started writing this novel like I treat my other novels, and I'm thankful you've been loving and receptive.

The more people read my natural writing, the more they love it, and the paid retention rate has skyrocketed. That makes me so happy and immeasurably grateful.

Thank you. It means a lot.

I regret not taking the novel more seriously; otherwise, this story had major potential for livable success.

Since I didn't, it's permanently scarred with offputting decisions I made while venting my frustrations.

So it's not surprising it receives rough feedback, and so many people drop. It's a harsh reality that hurts more every day.

With time running short, I began writing a serious novel for WN, Playboy Cultivator in the Apocalypse, out of [economic necessity].

It openly embraces tropes and cliches for the first time and is geared for success—that's why it's doing well. It's the opposite of my other novels.

However, I love HG. That's why I'm working twice as hard writing a moneymaking novel and pushing to be a professional author, so I can continue writing it.

Otherwise, I'll get another 10/hr a day salaried job and be forced to drop both novels permanently.

Thankfully, it has active readers, many from HG, and high non-paid retention rates that crush HG. It's proof I'm doing things right, and being a professional author isn't a pipe dream.

Despite that, it's been over ~9-10 days, and it still hasn't opened for voting, it isn't shown on my author's page or info page, and it's uncertain where it's getting views.

It feels like the novel is intentionally getting held back. That's extremely discouraging because I need that novel to write this one.

Whatever the reason, writing it is proving pointless, and I'll be homeless soon if I continue writing this novel alone. I need a supporting novel to continue. It's an economic reality, not a choice.

Therefore, this is the last HG chapter I'll be releasing for a while unless I get a contract. I hope I do and can become a professional author, so I can continue bringing this story to life.

-

Please know I write this with a bleeding heart.

The people reading this chapter make me so happy. The negative comments by this point in the story have nearly disappeared, and the retention rate for paid reading is humbling.

I'm writing more naturally; I love that you've welcomed that.

You've made this writer's journey worth it. Thank you.