Chapter 112: Yes. Listen closely.

The FPS gamer, clad in a full-body protective suit, gripped his gun tightly.

Even though it was called a gun, it was quite different from a real one.

It was modeled after a rifle, but the inside was completely visible. You could see the bullets moving inside, but he couldn’t understand how the bullets were actually fired.

The performance wasn’t bad. In fact, it was quite impressive.

The bullets weren’t that fast. You could see them flying through the air.

Yet their speed barely dropped mid-flight. Despite being round, the bullets hardly dropped and weren’t swayed by the wind.

That made it relatively easy to hit distant targets.

As long as you could spot the enemy first.

An orb slime flying in from the left struck the gamer’s left arm. Instantly, the left arm of the protective suit stiffened.

He belatedly turned his body to the side, but he was already riddled with bullets.

[You died]

Miss Yudahee came out to escort him off the battlefield.

All that remained where he had stood were the gun and protective suit he’d been holding.

“I can’t do this.”

The confidence he’d built up in games was completely shattered.

“Can’t you be a little more considerate of beginners?”

Slime Land features a variety of facilities.

The survival game arena was one of them.

From the protective suit to the gun, the arena felt surreal in many ways, but among survival and airsoft gamers, it caused a huge stir.

-Isn’t this way too unrealistic?

-Who cares if it’s unrealistic! As long as it’s not regulated, I’m happy!

With conversations like this, crowds flocked to Slime Land.

They all had different levels of experience.

For first-timers like the gamer, there was no contest.

‘If I had just a keyboard and mouse, I could wipe them all out.’

Moving in real life was completely different from moving in a game.

His body felt far too heavy, and his movements were sluggish.

Even if he detected an enemy’s approach by sound like in a game, his slow body took ages to turn and look.

By then, he’d already been turned into Swiss cheese by enemy bullets.

Even if his eyes spotted enemies quickly, it didn’t help much.

He could aim precisely with a mouse, but when using his arm, the bullets flew off in the wrong direction.

Since the bullets were visible, his position was instantly revealed and he was counterattacked.

Of course, the gamer was also at fault.

The game offered a variety of modes.

The one he’d just played was the most realistic mode.

If you got hit by a bullet, your protective suit stiffened and there was no physical enhancement.

For someone who only exercised his fingers, it was an excessively harsh battlefield.

Relying only on his computer gaming experience and choosing the most realistic mode was his mistake.

‘Should I just quit?’

After several attempts, the gamer wondered if he should give up.

‘Let’s try something else-just once.’

The gamer picked the most unrealistic game mode.

Infinite respawns.

The battlefield was underwater.

Battle royale.

Physical enhancement enabled.

There was a short waiting period until enough people gathered.

In the meantime, the gamer checked out a few things.

The location was underwater. The water was very clear, but the farther you went, the darker it got, and past a certain distance, you couldn’t see at all.

The protective suit now looked much more like a penguin.

‘It’s easy to move.’

He could move freely in any direction-up, down, left, or right-and just one kick of his feet sent him gliding forward.

If he used the wings on his arms, he could spin his body rapidly or accelerate in bursts.

But if he made big movements like that, you could see waves radiate outward from his body.

If something moved nearby, the waves would reach him and turn into sound, drawing his attention.

The game began, and they were transported while clinging to a giant whale.

A map appeared before his eyes, showing his current location. When he got close to a terrain-rich area, the gamer detached from a tentacle.

Swept up in the whale’s current, he shot forward at high speed.

He adjusted his speed with his feet and wings and entered a building.

He quickly looked around for a weapon.

‘A swordfish?!’

The first thing he found was a swordfish.

Before he could figure out how to use it, he sensed vibrations from someone approaching.

The gamer grabbed the swordfish by the tail and swung it.

The swordfish’s sharp upper jaw left a deep wound on the approaching enemy.

But since this was the most unrealistic mode, the enemy didn’t care and charged at him bare-winged.

After a brief scuffle, he somehow managed to win.

‘That was close.’

He finally checked the weapon’s details.

This swordfish was a single-use homing missile.

Not exactly ideal as a melee weapon.

‘I almost blew myself up!’

The gamer slung the swordfish over his back.

After all, it was a good weapon.

The swordfish was a powerful weapon, but as a penalty, he had to carry this highly conspicuous thing on his back.

‘Let’s move quickly.’

There was no time to stand still.

In this game mode, you could respawn infinitely.

The person with the most kills wins.

A single-use homing missile wasn’t enough.

He needed a gun.

The gamer searched for a better weapon.

‘Let’s go to the next area.’

The gamer attached an octopus gun to his left arm, left a conch mine behind, and exited the building.

He fired the octopus gun attached to his left wing at an enemy approaching from above.

The enemy hit by the black ink shot from the octopus’s mouth sank to the bottom.

‘Nice, I can do this.’

He still felt awkward about having to move his whole body.

Still, compared to the realistic mode, he could move much more freely.

The gamer roamed the battlefield in search of better weapons and enemies.

‘This one looks good.’

He even put on a turtle shell helmet.

“Why are there schools of piranhas in the sea!”

Dodging the piranhas, he dove into the now-shrunken battlefield.

“Die, all of you!”

After an exhilarating fight, shooting swordfish missiles and more at the crowded area, he proudly took first place.

“That was fun….”

Until now, the gamer had never understood people who liked to move their bodies.

This time too, he’d only come out of curiosity.

I was a flying ace with a gun in games, but I was a little curious about where I’d rank in reality.

Reality was brutal, so if there had only been the first game mode I tried, I probably never would have come back.

I would have just turned my eyes back to the game world.

But when I played in Unreal Mode, I could actually enjoy it.

‘So this is why people exercise.’

The sense of accomplishment and freshness that comes after moving your body to your heart’s content had a different flavor from games you play on a computer.

‘Should I try it again? But before that….’

The gamer posted something on social media.

He was quite famous in the games he played, so his post drew many gamers to Slime Land.

***

If you play games for a while, you inevitably end up dreaming of virtual reality games.

Games where you put on a helmet or get inside a capsule and move your character with your mind alone.

I’d always thought it would be nice if something like that came out.

So I made it.

Since it was something I wanted to experience myself, I installed a bunch of facilities in Slime Land that could evoke the feeling of a virtual reality game.

[My Own Story] is an RPG.

[Battle Royale] is an FPS game.

There are also action games like [Colosseum] and [Alien].

There are also many other games, like survival games where you gather resources to survive or games where you catch traitors, but listing them all would take a while.

Except for [My Own Story], the rest of the <Virtual Reality Slime> facilities were made with the thought that it would be fine even if there was no demand.

I figured there would be some people who’d want to enjoy them, but not that many.

Because you have to move your own body.

[My Own Story] was sure to be fun for fans of each work, and it didn’t require much movement.

But the others require you to move your body frantically.

The lack of exercise in our country is pretty serious.

It’s not just our country-lack of exercise is a serious issue worldwide.

Looking at the numbers, you might think it’s not that bad, but except for Hunters and aspiring Hunters, the lack of exercise rate skyrockets.

The obesity rate is high, too.

In other words, many modern people can be said to dislike physical activity.

Even if there’s <Virtual Reality Slime>, people who like moving their bodies will enjoy sports like basketball or soccer.

People who dislike moving will probably prefer games played with a keyboard and mouse or a controller.

Even if the protective <Slime> helps you move, there are still limits.

Even if someone who never exercised before can now run around, those who always enjoyed exercise will be flying. Even if you adjust the assistance so everyone’s physical abilities are about the same, there will still be differences.

It’s very hard to enjoy a game you can’t win.

You feel it’s not fun and get bored quickly.

But unexpectedly, the reviews are very positive.

If you like moving that much, why haven’t you exercised until now?

There are so many customers, it makes me want to ask that.

“Was it just that you never found a reason to move until now?”

The effort you pour into something you need to do versus something you want to do is bound to be different.

Even someone who usually hates to take a single step from their chair will walk around energetically if they go somewhere full of things they’re interested in.

So it’s better if exercise is something that happens while doing what you love, rather than something you do just because you have to.

But it’s not easy to find something that’s both fun and gives you exercise.

Even if you do, it’s often hard to keep enjoying it over time.

For example, let’s say you tried baseball and found it fun.

There’s a lot to coordinate, like finding a place to play and gathering enough people.

Since the people you meet are limited, you have to pay attention to relationships.

Relationships can sometimes make things more fun, but you might also meet people you don’t get along with, and keeping a group going means more rules.

Because of certain people or annoying rules, you end up not wanting to participate, and that’s how things often end. It’s also a burden to join a group with established relationships, so the entry barrier is high.

Physical activities that lots of people enjoy, where relationships aren’t fixed, you can go when you have time, the location is convenient, and you don’t need much prep work-those are pretty hard to find.

They’re quite rare.

But if you take ‘physical’ out of those requirements, an online game that you can play in a single session fits the bill.

My <Virtual Reality Slime> is basically an online game with the ‘physical’ requirement added.

I added the ‘physical’ element, but it’s not harsh.

The <Protective Slime> helps your movements and spreads out the physical strain, so it shouldn’t be too tough.

I didn’t plan it this way, but it worked out well.

With <Random Jelly Slime (Mild Flavor)> and <Popcorn Cotton Candy Slime>, I’ve also reduced calorie overload from eating. Thanks to <Virtual Reality Slime>, it looks like I’ll even solve the lack of exercise problem.

At this rate, maybe Korea’s obesity rate will drop by half within a year.

[Trait: Slime☆☆☆☆ level has risen to 55.]

[You can select a new skill.]

[Skill+]

[2. Special Skill: Special Divide.]

[Do you really want to learn the Special Divide skill?]

[The skill will be used as soon as you acquire it.]

[Once you use the skill, you can’t cancel it.]

“Ugh….”

As soon as the new slime split off from my body, it immediately swallowed a Class A artifact.

[The Purification skill evolves into Purification+ skill.]

“Whew….”

Did it work?

After I got the feeling that the curse was blocking the growth of the [Purification] skill, I changed my plans.

The curse gets stronger as the [Trait: Slime☆☆☆☆] level increases.

The more I eat, the higher my level goes, so if I’d failed until now, my chances of success going forward would have been slim.

So I came up with a strategy.

I decided to use [Special Divide] and aim for the moment when my level resets and the curse is at its weakest.

That was the plan, but I kept eating Class A artifacts.

It would be nice if the [Purification] skill evolved along the way.

Even if it didn’t, the fact that eating Class A artifacts wasn’t wasted was proven by the [Evangelize+] skill.

Since there was no downside, I ate up Class A artifacts, which gave more experience than regular monster materials, to level up quickly.

Instead, I saved the Class A artifact most likely to boost the [Purification] skill for last.

The moment my level reset, I ate it.

The [Purification] skill evolved into [Purification+].

I tried to think about this plan as little as possible so the curse wouldn’t catch on, but I wonder how well that worked.

Did it work, since it helped quite a bit?

The [Purification] skill was the one that made the Curse of Sloth give up on a direct confrontation and pass its power to another curse.

The Sloth skill was the powerful one that made the status window curse me out for playing the game so dirty.

Now that it’s evolved into [Purification+], it should keep the Curse of Arrogance from taking over my mind.

Still, let’s use this opportunity to etch it into my mind once again.

-Listen to others’ opinions.

‘Yeah. Listen closely.’

As long as I remember that properly, I’ll be much less likely to be swayed by the Curse of Arrogance.

***

“You didn’t stop it. Too bad.”

Amidst the ever more intense flames.

“Still, I achieved my goal.”

The curse, having taken off the Mask of Arrogance, whispered with a seductive smile.

“Yes. Listen closely.”

Even to my words.