Classification of Homies

However, before the curiosity-filled Charlotte Linlin could look into it properly, the massive amount of information contained within Mousse's soul left her dizzy and seeing white.

Mousse's memories had already surpassed those of ordinary people. After eating the Book-Book Fruit, he had absorbed the information from a vast number of books. Even if he was not yet the world's foremost, he was at least among the very few at the top.

How could Charlotte Linlin's simple mind—not her intelligence, but her way of thinking—possibly endure that?

It was quite a while before Charlotte Linlin regained her senses. Her eyes were filled with unwillingness as she looked at her son.

But after gloomily punching the ground, Charlotte Linlin rationally gave up on probing Mousse's soul. Instead, she let Mousse create the Homies himself, while she merely guided and protected him from the side.

Mousse immediately breathed a sigh of relief. He had originally prepared himself for Charlotte Linlin to discover that he was a transmigrator after probing his soul, but now, Charlotte Linlin was basically only responsible for pressing the final "confirm" button. There was nothing to worry about.

Besides, Mousse could gain a deeper understanding of the Soul-Soul Fruit's abilities and the strange creations known as Homies.

But once he actually began, Mousse discovered that creating Homies was far more complicated than he had imagined.

Normally, this would not have troubled Mousse, but he also had to split off his own soul at the same time!

It was like taking the college entrance exam while suffering a sinus headache so severe he wanted to smash his head against a wall. It was agony beyond words.

He could not skip the college entrance exam; if he missed it, he would have to wait another year. And he certainly could not avoid making these Homies now. If he did not, he might not live to see his seventh birthday.

Mousse's fate truly was miserable beyond measure. Fortunately, he was fairly resilient. Back then, he had still gotten into a top 985 university despite that horrible headache, so this naturally could not defeat him either.

Of course, he could not help complaining a little. Deep down, Mousse also found it strange. Charlotte Linlin usually made Homies so easily, so why was it so troublesome when he did it himself?

Could it be that it was easy when a Soul-Soul Fruit user made them personally, but difficult when merely assisting someone else?

But Charlotte Linlin soon told her son that was not entirely the case. "Mousse, it's definitely because this is your first time, so you're not proficient yet. And these Homies aren't like the ordinary ones made casually."

It turned out that the method Charlotte Linlin was teaching Mousse to use this time was the one she had once used to create the three great Homies and the Queen Mama Chanter. Those four Homies were special for more reasons than simply being made from Charlotte Linlin's own soul.

Ordinary Homies were made by Charlotte Linlin directly using the Soul-Soul Fruit's power to crudely split a soul apart, then injecting the severed portion into a base material.

The process was extremely simple, but the separated soul thereafter became an independent individual—thus Mousse called them Independent Homies—and, having lost a true physical body, could never grow stronger again.

As a result, their strength was fixed from the moment they were created. They could never improve for the rest of their lives.

Worse still, after a portion of the original owner's soul was split away, the shortened lifespan was actually manageable. It would be fine once the soul was reclaimed later.

The problem was that the original owner might continue growing, while the separated part of the soul remained stagnant.

Furthermore, an ordinary Homie's lifespan was the lifespan represented by the portion of soul it had received, meaning it effectively aged at double speed.

Over time, even if the original owner reclaimed the soul, the loss would be enormous.

Therefore, Charlotte Linlin never wasted her own soul or her children's souls in such a manner.

Those four special Homies, on the other hand, were more like avatars of their original owner—thus Mousse called them Avatar Homies. The two retained a certain connection rather than being completely severed, so the original owner's growth would not be affected.

At the same time, a special Homie's lifespan matched that of its original owner, and its soul would not age at an accelerated rate.

With those two differences, the original owner would suffer no loss after eventually abandoning the Homie and reclaiming the soul.

Of course, nothing in this world was perfect. Although Avatar Homies avoided the two major harms to the original owner caused by creating Independent Homies, they also had one—or rather, two—significant flaws.

There was no such thing as a free lunch. If splitting off a soul did not reduce one's lifespan, or rather, one's time limit, then what was weakened could only be the soul's strength.

Since soul strength rarely had a chance to come into play, this by itself was not much of an issue. However, the strength of Avatar Homies was heavily limited as a result, because each contained only a small portion of Charlotte Linlin's soul.

For example, the strength of Charlotte Linlin's three great Homies was insignificant compared to her own. With ordinary Homies, even a soul equivalent to only one month's lifespan could possess formidable combat power as long as the base material was good enough—during that one-month "validity period."

Charlotte Linlin had explained this to demonstrate the superiority of special Homies, but after hearing the latter part, Mousse instead formed a different opinion. "Why do I feel that ordinary Homies are actually more valuable? As long as there are enough qualified base materials, Mom, you could completely split one soul into many portions and use them all! Their lifespans may be shorter, but this time, a fierce battle is unavoidable. A long lifespan would actually be wasted. Immediate combat power is more crucial."

Charlotte Linlin merely wagged a finger, indicating that her son was oversimplifying things. "Mamamama, there are no two completely identical people—or souls—in this world, so there cannot be two completely identical Homies either. Otherwise, Mama would have become invincible long ago."

"Is it because souls are 'unique,' so two ordinary Homies as independent individuals cannot exist at the same time? Special Homies are like avatars, so they don't have that limitation?" Mousse understood the logic as soon as he heard it, but then immediately thought of another question. "No, then wouldn't the Homies made using the soul tax of Totto Land's residents only have one month to live?"

Charlotte Linlin actually gave an affirmative answer. It turned out that the Chess Pawns Mousse usually saw had long since been replaced countless times. And he had even remembered quite a few of them, greeting them whenever they met! What a waste of feelings! That was not a figure of speech—he had genuinely wasted his feelings!

But even if only one could exist at a time, Independent Homies were stronger than Avatar Homies in terms of absolute strength.

Especially since Mousse was currently preparing to use a Poneglyph as the base material, which could not be charged with energy. The Homie he created would therefore have fixed combat power, unlike Prometheus and Zeus, who could consume excess energy to unleash powerful attacks beyond their own strength. The gap was even greater because of that.

Moreover, Mousse was not a Soul-Soul Fruit user, so he could not merge with his Avatar Homies like Charlotte Linlin could, temporarily reclaiming their power and gaining some of their useful traits. This made Avatar Homies even less valuable in his eyes.

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