Chapter 199: For the First Time.

Four have been dealt with.

Three remain.

There may be more beyond that, but for now, I’ll be facing my Jealousy, my Gluttony, and my Fear.

In terms of mental anguish, these three I’m about to face now were harder than the other four.

When I fought the Curse of Sloth, I obtained the [Healing☆] skill and the [Purification] skill, which changed the direction of my battle with the curses.

From that point on, I was at least able to exchange mana punches.

But against these three, before I got those skills, I was beaten one-sidedly.

I had to endure and endure, hoping for a last-minute reversal.

I had to desperately cling to my unraveling mind without even knowing what was happening to me.

The “me” I’m about to face now is probably the one who broke down after being cornered again and again.

However, since the controller is Makina, it’s uncertain whether it’ll be in the same state as what I faced.

Especially the Curse of Jealousy and Distrust.

Since I’m the type who doesn’t easily feel jealous of others, the Curse of Jealousy took a sneaky approach.

It focused more on distrust than jealousy to torment me.

Makina is not someone who lacks jealousy.

On average, she may not be extreme, but she’s more jealous than I am.

Just like with the Curse of Sloth, she may have walked a completely different path from me.

I started with Yangjae-dong, where I had Mother.

Oh?

Mother is here.

There was a chance she wouldn’t be.

It’s not in the form of Slime Land.

But she’s still operating as a <Slime> factory.

“Hi. It’s Dad.”

Mother looked at me with a suspicious expression.

I know, I know.

The atmosphere must feel quite different.

Still, since I’m me, Mother quickly let down her guard.

So then, Mother.

Can you tell me what happened to the me in this world?

I read the information briefly.

A bit surprising.

My Jealousy (Distrust) walked a path similar to mine.

Just like I did at the end of the Curse of Distrust (Jealousy), he left everything to others and vanished.

But the timing was earlier than when I did it.

So there was no chance for my children to intervene.

Well, Makina does have stronger distrust than jealousy.

She doesn’t even fully trust me, and she’s been running me like this, hasn’t she?

And Makina still hasn’t fully recovered from the shock of the death caused by that fatal failure.

Her tendency to distrust herself must be quite strong.

The Curse of Jealousy has a sly side.

If it means dragging others down, it won’t hesitate to change its own nature.

If it sees a more effective weakness to exploit, it’ll go for it.

So this time too, it wore the mask of distrust.

A mouse hole tucked away in a corner where no one would ever come.

“Hello?”

I greeted the Jealousy (Distrust) version of me inside.

Jealousy (Distrust) me immediately tried to flee.

Still got that habit of running, huh.

I extended a tentacle.

“He. Ling!”

I shortened it so much it’s no longer a resurrection spell but a mythical beast that judges good and evil.

Well, the opponent is weak now, so there’s no risk of messing up the dosage.

Overwhelmed by the power gap, Jealousy (Distrust) me gave up and slumped down.

He can’t win if he doesn’t even trust himself.

“Didn’t you get the [Mind Reading] skill? If you have that, you should be able to trust people. Why are you wallowing in misery here?”

“How do I know the words that [Mind Reading] tells me are real….”

“Oh~.”

So you noticed that.

Once you have it in your hand, you at least have the ability to judge whether it’s gold or trash.

It would’ve been better if you realized that before getting the skill, though.

“If you can’t tell whether what [Mind Reading] says is true or not, you can just ignore it.”

Jealousy (Distrust) me snapped.

“Because I can’t tell the difference between my thoughts and nonsense!”

“Oh dear. That’s severe.”

If that’s the problem, there is a solution.

I detached the [Coexistence+] skill from my body.

Jealousy (Distrust) me struggled to escape from my tentacle.

You don’t want some weird <Slime> injected into you, huh.

That’s what makes you the embodiment of distrust.

“It hurts a bit.”

I injected the skill forcibly, like giving a shot.

The [Coexistence+] skill immediately began to take effect, and Jealousy (Distrust) stopped struggling.

“How is it?”

“This is….”

“It’s properly separated, right?”

The [Coexistence+] skill is a skill that walks together with the curse.

When two or more things go together, that’s coexistence-not when they become completely one.

It’s not the original effect of the skill, but it allows you to separate yourself from the curse.

Once separated from the Curse of Jealousy (Distrust), Jealousy (Distrust) me seemed to regain a bit of reason.

“You’re… the future me, right? The one from a parallel world who didn’t choose [Mind Reading] and didn’t fail.”

He immediately guessed my identity.

“More or less, yeah.”

“Did you come to mock me?”

“No?”

“What do you mean no. You don’t understand why I ended up like this. The trust you gave always got rewarded, didn’t it?”

The voice of my Jealousy (Distrust) carried both anger and hostility.

Whoops, now we’ve got full-blown paranoia.

Is it Jealousy’s turn now?

If Distrust lost, then it should just give up.

Afraid someone might say it’s not Jealousy, huh? How persistent.

“Not really.”

I handed over a collection of the many incidents and accidents that occurred while running Slime Land and Slime Planet.

The expression on my Jealousy (Distrust) self twisted in disgust upon receiving it.

“This is supposed to be human? Not a beast? No, a beast would be better. How can anyone trust others in a world filled with this filth?”

Jealousy was subdued, but Distrust only grew stronger.

“Because it’s worth reaching out first and trusting.”

This time, I handed over a <Slime> filled with memories.

What kind of blessing Gisu had exactly.

The fact that even while harboring such feelings and doubting me, it still managed to endure with small reactions.

I included the history of Makina, who had always supported me.

“There certainly is faith that gets repaid like this.”

I also included other events that occurred while running Slime Land.

“Even if the faith I gave is broken for now.”

The scene where everyone cooperated in the Star Festival event to defeat Lily.

The scene in the Halloween event where, even if the opponent was a monster, they shared friendship and trust.

The scene where total strangers formed bonds after sharing experiences and continued those ties.

I captured all the happiness that can be gained by trusting others.

“The seed of faith I planted grows one by one. A forest blooms as the seeds spread-“

I captured a world that had become even happier.

“Because it’s truly beautiful.”

Faith is something to be given and received.

The faith I gave doesn’t have to come back to me right away.

Watching the world transform beautifully as that faith spreads is deeply rewarding.

And the faith I gave will surely make a full circle around Earth and return to me.

I held out a <Slime> imbued with the [+Faith] buff.

“If you don’t believe me, try it yourself.”

My Distrust (Jealousy) self hesitated for a moment, then accepted it.

***

Next up was the curse of gluttony.

“Puhaha.”

I burst into laughter when I saw Lime’s face on the billboard.

Ad proposals?

Of course, I got tons.

After all, I’m the legendary W-tuber who hit 100 million subscribers in under two years.

Just the ad proposals from people trying to poke at what they can’t have filled an entire email storage limit.

I ignored them all.

But my Gluttony self seemed to have taken a different path.

Putting her face on a billboard, really.

I got information from a passing <Pack Slime> stuck to someone’s face.

What on earth.

It’s just like with my Jealousy self.

Makina the attention-seeker has returned.

She’s using the [Charm] skill very actively.

She’s working hard on her broadcasts and selling <Slimes> like crazy.

Those <Slimes> are imbued with the [Charm] skill.

And yet Gisu didn’t catch her?

Or maybe he just hasn’t come around yet?

It’s still a time when the <Slimes> haven’t spread to the U.S.

As long as she handles Gisu’s incoming call well, she might get away with it.

But even that is only a matter of time.

Who knows when he’ll suddenly show up and burn my Gluttony self to ashes.

Let’s wrap this up quickly and go.

I went to the place where my house is.

Emergency Rations, hi!

You’re going to open the door, right?

I offered cola and popcorn to open the door.

I went inside and ambushed my Gluttony self sitting in front of the computer.

“Do it!”

Do what, you ask?

“You idiot. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. Snap out of it, you idiot.”

Do the act of snapping out of it!

For reference, that line I just said is what Makina told me when I was consumed by the curse of gluttony.

This Slime holds grudges for quite a while, you know.

Huh. Are we live right now?

I smiled brightly, waved, and ended the broadcast.

Oops, that was a broadcast accident.

It’s fine. By now, the world sees me as the god of editing.

A mash-up of all the rumors will surely create a clear answer.

[PengRhyme <Penguin Costume Slime> Release Teaser?]

They’ll probably think something like that.

Now then, what should this Gluttony self do?

The issue I was grappling with at the time was the sense of disconnection between three roles.

Alchemy Slime, praised for selling <Slimes>.

SLimelove, beloved by the people.

And the core self, who couldn’t even take off the mask in her room and barely left the house.

She tried to fill that gap with material things and attention.

She tried to somehow fill the hunger that could never be satisfied.

I had once filled that emptiness with the attention and love given to me by friends and family.

But this Gluttony self seemed unable to do that.

This Gluttony self (ver. Makina) probably had her mind split into four, so the disconnection must have been even worse.

My Gluttony self tried to absorb me.

Figures-she really is a glutton.

Through that channel, I showed her the world after I hit 100 million subscribers.

My Gluttony self stopped trying to absorb me.

Instead, she asked,

“Is this… real?”

“Yeah. My true self can be loved like this.”

My Gluttony self fell into deep thought.

This is what you call financial and subscriber therapy.

It’s a conclusion reached without using loopholes like the [Charm] skill.

“Do you think you can achieve this your way right now?”

Faced with the number 100 million, she couldn’t respond from her 5 million level.

“Even if you do achieve it, can you be proud of it?”

Again, she couldn’t answer.

My Gluttony self is still me.

She just couldn’t resist her desires, but her reason must have been screaming all along.

That this method won’t work.

“And look at this too.”

I showed her my fight with Gisu.

“If you keep acting up like this, Gisu’s going to come kill you, you know?”

The carrot-and-stick approach worked, and my Gluttony self was shaken hard.

In that tremble, the curse of gluttony began to leak out.

I burned it with the flame of the [Purification+] skill.

In the gap left behind by the burning curse, I inserted [+Temperance].

I may not be able to remove the curse of gluttony completely, but this should make things a bit easier.

I released my Gluttony self.

She sat cross-legged on the spot and looked up at me.

“Can I become like you?”

“You can be loved just as you are. The proof is right here, so don’t worry.”

It looked like she regained some motivation.

Time to head out.

Before I left, I added one more thing.

“And one more thing.”

This was something I was saying to myself too.

But also to someone else inside.

Since there are four of us, not three, I should at least offer this much service.

“No matter what form you take, I love you. I promised, didn’t I?”

***

The last one was me, seized by fear.

I went to find the fearful me, trembling in a corner of the room, unable to do anything.

“Not this hideous form!

Wanting to regain my human form-is that really so wrong?!

They’re the sinners who deserve punishment!

Why am I the one being punished instead of them?!

Is it really so wrong to give punishment to those who actually deserve it?!”

Like a thief flinching at his own guilt.

Even though no one said anything, the fearful me began making excuses.

I walked up silently and hugged him tightly.

Being alone is the problem.

Shutting yourself away alone in a room is the problem.

Just having someone by your side is enough to dilute fear.

Drip. Tears fall.

“I-I’m scared…”

“I know, I know.”

“W-what should I do? I know it won’t work! I know!”

I slowly handed over [+Courage].

Even if you have a skill, it’s useless if you don’t use it.

The more you’re consumed by fear, the stronger the temptation of the [Transform] skill grows.

I hope the courage I gave will help resist that temptation.

And one more thing.

I couldn’t leave behind human warmth.

So I left the flames of [Purification+] instead.

I hope this warmth helps overcome the fear.

“Don’t eat people.”

“Okay…”

“It’s okay to confide in your friends and family.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Makina already knows, and the family has accepted it too.

“But don’t let Gisu find out until you’ve built up enough strength.”

“Haha. Of course.”

***

I finished dealing with all the versions of me trapped by curses.

I had planned to leave behind all my resources.

But I had more left than expected.

Is it the final battle now?

I stepped into a new world.

“….”

Just by looking up at the sky, I could tell this world was different from any I’d experienced before.

From the amount of mana in the air and the quality of the atmosphere, I could see this world was on the path to destruction.

No matter what curse I had suffered, if I were alive, I would never have left it like this.

Is this the world after I died?

Gisu probably defeated me.

Judging by the state of the world, it looks like this is before I started selling the <Glutton Slime (ocean sunfish)>.

This might sound a bit old-fashioned, but I need to say it.

I told you! If you leave the dead land alone, it’ll be a disaster!

See! Just because I’m gone, the world is heading toward ruin!

Alright. That felt good.

A prophet who isn’t understood properly always suffers.

Still, I wonder why Makina brought me here.

There’s no version of me left to overcome the curses.

Should I go find my children?

No matter how early I was defeated, Gongdori should still be around.

I spotted a man walking under the dreariest sky imaginable.

I was shocked when I saw him.

No way!

Gisu turned into an old man!

The Gisu in reality isn’t an old man yet.

After all, I’m the same age as Gisu, and I’m not an old man.

“Hey.”

Gisu, who had been walking with his head down, looked up.

When he saw me, he collapsed.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

He apologized while kneeling.

Wow… I’ve never seen Gisu fall apart like this before.

He looks so used to apologizing, it’s kind of eerie. Has he been hallucinating me all this time?

“But I can’t die! If I die…!”

Ah, that makes sense.

The first line of the curse cast by the Elder Lich.

[The one you love most will despair at your miserable death and take their own life!]

In reality, that curse is meaningless now.

Actually, it wasn’t even a real curse-just a bluff.

I dumped all the resources into myself.

But Gisu probably couldn’t ignore it.

[The one you hold most dear will flounder in the Swamp of Despair and meet their end by your hand!]

From Gisu’s perspective, it probably looks like the second line of the curse came true.

And if the second came true, it’s only natural to think the first might too.

He can’t help worrying about what might happen to his mother after he dies.

That’s why, even in the crushing pain of guilt from killing me, he keeps on living without giving up.

That Elder Lich guy.

He really knows how to drive people into despair.

Gisu, still tormented, stood up and drew his sword.

He swung it, wreathed in terrifyingly intense golden flames.

Gisu. Your flames won’t work on me.

I got the proper vaccine.

I pushed through the flames and approached Gisu.

Then I headbutted him straight on.

The impact wasn’t much, but the confusion completely froze his movements.

“Hey. Are you back to your senses?”

“You…”

Realizing I wasn’t an illusion, Gisu began to cry.

“Why are you crying? Are you going through menopause?”

“Shut up…”

Gisu roughly wiped away his tears and asked me,

“How… how are you even alive?”

“I’m me from another worldline. I’m not the one you killed.”

Gisu clenched his teeth.

“…Is that so.”

“Yeah. Still, on behalf of that me, I’ll give you permission. Live on for the both of us.”

I don’t really like telling people to live a life of atonement.

But maybe it’s okay if the person involved gives permission.

Maybe he was thinking the same thing.

Gisu opened his eyes wide, then made an expression as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

Still, if this guy is going to live on, the world can’t stay like this.

Shall I try to create a small miracle?

Drip drip.

Tiny <Slimes> began to drip from my body.

The orbs of the small <Slimes> rolled and spread across the entire world.

The <Slimes> that spread like that will gradually start to take root in the dead land.

They’ll convert their mass into mana and stop the expansion of the dead land.

And one day, they’ll fully resurrect the dead land.

Now that the world is taken care of, I need to leave Gisu with some hope.

I mixed everything I had left around the [Reproduction★] skill and the [Healing+] skill to create Gongdori.

“Take this child with you.”

The blessing inside Gisu activated the moment he looked at Gongdori mk2.

“Don’t tell me you’ll get overwhelmed by the blessing and burn him again.”

Gisu suppressed the flames with strong willpower.

“I’ll never… never lose again.”

“Yeah. Stay strong.”

With those words, I was ejected from the simulation.

And with that, I was left penniless.

The only reason I haven’t been completely ejected from the sea of information is because Makina allows it.

Right now, I’ve become a Slime on the chopping board.

Whether I’m sliced, boiled, grilled, steamed, deep-fried, or microwaved, I can’t resist at all.

I wonder what Makina has prepared for someone like me.

***

It’s blinding.

I tightly shut my eyes and shielded them with my hand, casting a shadow.

Shaking my head, I got up from the bed.

I don’t feel anything particularly strange.

I got out of bed and headed to the fridge.

“Whoops.”

My body staggered.

My head isn’t working properly either.

It feels like I’m suffering from both sleep deprivation and dehydration.

I took out water from the fridge and drank it down.

As the cold water entered my body, I started to feel a bit more awake.

I slowly retraced my memories.

Vacation started right after finals ended.

I played the game I had put off while studying for exams.

I had a goal, so I played pretty late into the night.

Scratching my head, I went to the bathroom.

After doing my business, I washed my hands and looked in the mirror.

The usual messy me stared back.

I’m not going to school anyway, so I guess it’s fine to stay like this.

I sat at my desk and turned on the computer.

Time to keep playing the game I was on yesterday.

If I don’t hurry, my friend will spoil it for me.

Real name, age, gender, face, nationality.

I don’t know a single thing-

Clatter.

A crack ran through the world.