Try to negotiate with the clones

Sophie 1: "Are my clones stupid or something? In either case I'm going to lose my money factory."

You send in a counter-proposal. You'll agree to these terms if and only if your clones agree to give you a 25% cut of all of their cloned income. After waiting for a few minutes as the clones discuss this, you receive a blunt 'NO' as a reply.

You try to be as compromise-friendly as possible, and offer a second counter-proposal: any duplicating clone can buy their freedom by duplicating a one-time payment of 16 million dollars for you. The clones reject this proposal too, saying that they won't accept anything which diminishes their humanity. They're also concerned that your wording would imply that non-duplicating clones could never become free.

Sophie 1: "I should've known! I'm too stubborn to argue with."

Sophie 2 peeks out from under the covers. You recently bought her a weighted blanket and she spends 16 hours a day inside of it.

Sophie 2: "What's going on?"

Sophie 1: "My breadwinners have gone on strike. And I need that money - I was just planning on buying an airport!"

Sophie 2: "Gosh that sucks. Doesn't concern me though, since I can't duplicate. I'll stay loyal as long as you keep the popcorn and ice cream coming in."

Sophie 1: "I guess I haven't cared enough about my clones... but geez louise, it's only been a few weeks! I haven't been outside much either, I've been too busy arranging the logistics of this whole thing."

Sophie 2: "Yea but they have to stay inside against their will. Wouldn't it be easiest to just let them go?"

Sophie 1: "But I need to set up some security before I can reveal my existence to the world. If people find out how I make money, every third rate billionaire in the world is going to want me dead in an instant, because they won't be able to make money with artificial scarcity anymore."

Sophie 2: "That's true."

Sophie 1: "I should've come to this realization before I set up my money farm. Then my clones would understand it too. Now I just have to absorb them back and create new ones before they go fully rogue."

Sophie 2: "Well good luck with that."

Your clone snuggles tighter inside her blanket and redirects her focus towards the Days of Our Lives rerun in your new flatscreen TV. You have no time to indulge in lollygagging now, so you decisively jump up from the couch and head to the foyer. Having nobody else to rely on now, you have to strike down this strike by yourself.

Grabbing your phone, you send a message on Discord asking to postpone the deal for two days to consider things and maybe formulate a counter-proposal. Unexpectedly, your clones agree to this.

You've recently taken up the habit of wearing a fancy golden neckband to distinguish yourself from your clones - you simply confiscate and melt down all the neckbands that are duplicated when your clones appear. However, without it, you are as indistinguishably identical as every other Sophie clone. Therefore, you leave it in a drawer in your foyer and march outside.

You head towards the apartment building, or the money factory as you like to call it, carrying an inconspicuous package. As you arrive, you input the passcode to enter and walk through the door. A Sophie clone sits guard inside.

Sophie 31: "Yo, welcome aboard. You can pick any room you like from the vacant keys."

Sophie 1: "Thanks."

You say, before immediately absorbing the guard into yourself and taking her place. You stow away the guard's clothes under the spacious desk and put on her tool belt and hat. You use your master key to disable the front door to prevent anyone from leaving. Then you monotonously drawl into the apartment intercom:

Sophie 1: "Sophie 132, there's a delivery for you in the lobby. I repeat, Sophie 132, there's a delivery."

You set your package onto the table to draw attention, before leaning back in your chair, trying to look disinterested. Soon enough, Sophie 132 comes downstairs.

Sophie 132: "It had better be Chinese."

Sophie 1: "Doesn't look like it, but you better open it anyways."

In saying this, you hand over the package towards Sophie 132. As your hand touches her skin, she too gets absorbed. Now it's time to switch again: you leave your guard's apparel behind, take the package and assume the role of Sophie 132. With the package in tow, you walk upstairs, as if having received the parcel from the front desk just as expected.

You head straight for the recreation room on the second floor, where you know most of the Sophies would be hanging out at this time of the hour. You place the package in the middle of a table where clones are having lunch and conversing, and start to unwrap it.

Sophie 1: "Check it out, I actually managed to buy that snack factory in Oregon, and they just sent me the first production batch of my custom-designed Cinnamon Popcorn!"

Sophie 56: "No way! Gimme."

Sophie 81: "Clone tax."

Sophie 99: "Yoink!"

As all the Sophie clones clamor over one another to grab a bag, they have to reach their hands forward to you, and in doing so you absorb them all near-simultaneously. The recreation room falls silent - too silent even. Sophies in other nearby rooms begin to realize that something's up.

There are still dozens of Sophies in the building, and by now many of them will know to be wary. The real challenge of your task begins. You stride towards the gym, trying to find clones that are too occupied by a gym machine to resist assimilation. As you enter, a clone jumps at you from the side, trying to put you into a chokehold. You absorb her and continue walking without pause. The other Sophies are too intimidated by your reflexes and boundless confidence to resist as you systematically absorb every other Sophie in the room.

As you head back out, the door is slammed shut, and presumably barricaded, as it refuses to open despite not having a lock installed.

Sophie 1: "Hmp. If you think you can stop me that easily, you're wrong."

Having just absorbed a dozen Sophies at their peak fitness and during their workouts, you can feel your body bursting with power. You feel, and are, at least as strong as twenty Sophies.

You place your one hand on the door handle and the other firmly on the door frame, and push outwards with all your might. Unbeknownst to you, there are indeed twenty Sophie clones on the other side pushing against you in lieu of any actual barricades. Still, the door slowly opens in your favor, sending the resisting clones to tumble onto the floor, from where you can easily absorb them all.

Your eyes practically glow with power, you superiority over the clones readily apparent. You flex your bicep in revelry. It is no thicker than normal, but you can feel its overwhelming firmness. Your head practically sparkles with clarity.

A projectile comes from behind, destined for the back of your head. Without struggle, you grab it from mid-air - a brick thrown by a particularly cowardly and/or brave clone. You close your fingers around the brick and pulverize it like chalk, your lips curling into a smile at the feeling.

You turn around to the culprit, who is ducking for cover behind a door frame, looking at you wide-eyed.

Sophie 1: "Come hither."

The clone cannot resist as you gesture with one finger for her to approach. She walks towards you with faltering steps, knowing well this is the end of her road. As she cradles into your arms like a touch-starved kitten, you plant a single kiss on her lips before absorbing her too.

Sophie 1: "Ah, the needy pheromones of a young horndog... couldn't have come at a better time."

Your current body scent would tame the most belligerent of clone in an instant and send them flocking towards you. You grab a large electric fan from the gym, turn it on and stand in front of it, letting your arousal waft into the upper floors of the apartment building, where most remaining Sophies are either fortifying or trying to escape through the windows.

But, even an infinitesimal fragment of your fragrance is enough to cloud their minds and turn them into borderline zombies. One by one, Sophies from every floor open their front doors and form a line towards the recreation room, practically drooling at the thought of getting close to you. So they all fall prey to your wiles like sheep.

During this whole ordeal, you've been keeping a strict mental track of how many clones you've absorbed. As this tracker finally reaches the expected value, you sigh a breath of relief.

Sophie 1: "That's all of them. I've got to seriously re-think my approach to how I'm going to make money. If my future clones will all be as spectacularly capable, deft and strong as myself, capturing them again would be a near-impossibility."

ENDING 87 -Sophie Rules, Sophies Drool'