Chapter 100: Curse of Sloth

“This is President Lime, this is President Lime. Can you all hear me?”

At the sudden voice echoing through the deepest part of Slime Land, all employees stopped what they were doing and listened intently.

“Can’t you hear me?”

“We can hear you!”

“That’s a relief. I have an announcement for all employees. At last, next Sunday is the opening day of Slime Land, the land of dreams, tentacles, hope, and slime. Thank you all for your hard work up to now.”

“Uwaaaaaah!”

“To celebrate the night before the opening, we’ll be having a company dinner at Slime Land on May 4th at 7 PM. Attendance isn’t mandatory, but since I’ll be cooking myself, I hope many of you will come. If you missed the broadcast, please ask someone nearby for details. Even if the person next to you doesn’t know, someone will. See you next time.”

Click. The broadcast cut off.

After a brief silence, voices burst out everywhere as if a dam had broken.

“A company dinner?”

“Did she say company dinner?”

There’s no such thing as a company dinner culture at AlchemySlime Company.

No matter how much employees longed to eat with President Lime, she never held a company dinner.

If anyone brought up the idea of a company dinner, she would just send down a card and tell them to spend as much as they wanted.

Slime Land is actually a place packed with employees who would gladly pay their own money just to have a meal with the president.

If it was a dinner with the president, there were plenty who would cancel prior plans to attend.

The very mention of a company dinner was shocking, but what came after was even more so.

“The president is going to cook herself?”

“Will it taste good?”

“Does the taste even matter? She said the president is cooking herself!”

They were used to using <Slime> made by the president, but still, the idea of her personally cooking food felt special.

Even if she was cooking poisonous mushrooms or giant centipedes, everyone was ready to eat it.

“If it’s a company dinner, will she take off her costume?”

The moment someone muttered that, all the chatter around them abruptly stopped.

A chance to see the president’s face, which no one had ever seen.

It felt like opening Pandora’s box-something that shouldn’t be opened.

And of course, Pandora’s box is always tempting to open.

“No way….”

“But she has to eat, right?”

“She eats just fine with the costume on.”

“We’ll get to see the president’s Mukbang in person?”

The employees immediately pulled out their smartphones.

“Sorry. Something important came up for me next Saturday.”

Someone immediately canceled their plans.

Someone else ordered an expensive camera.

Another started looking for the perfect outfit.

Watching all this, Red shook his head and said to Green,

“I bet there’s no other company where a dinner party causes this much chaos.”

“You’re telling me.”

***

[Me: Where on earth did you find a game like this?

Makina: LOL.]

I was playing a game gifted by my mysterious internet friend Makina.

It was the kind of game whose abysmal sales made perfect sense.

It was made excessively realistic.

It’s a business simulation game, but you have to keep double-entry bookkeeping.

You have to account for exchange rates, loan interest, and even taxes.

When expanding your business, how well you understand and use the law changes your tax burden. If you mess up, you might have to pay fines.

If you master this game, you’d feel ready to start your own company right away.

Is the problem that the developer is French?

Naturally, the laws in the game are based on French law.

It’s different from Korean law.

Even if I get good at this game, its usefulness in Korea is halved.

Well, maybe it’s meant to help me get through all sorts of hardships while running Slime Land in the future.

[Me: We decided to open Slime Land next Sunday.

Makina: Congrats, congrats.]

The news that Slime Land’s opening day is May 5th is already out.

It’s become such a sensation that you couldn’t miss it even if you wanted to.

There’s still a week left, but already people are trying to pitch tents in front of Slime Land.

And seeing them like that only made the news burn hotter.

There’s plenty of space, so I told everyone there’s no need for an open-run and chased them all away.

Makina must have heard about this in person too.

Still, telling her myself and getting her congratulations felt like a nice exchange.

[Me: I hope you can come someday.

Me: I made it so that anyone could be satisfied.

Me: I’ll keep filling in the gaps as we go.

Me: You can come quietly and leave if you want.

Me: As long as you enjoy it, that’s more than enough for me.

Makina: If possible.]

That’s all for this conversation.

Pushing any more would be a bad choice.

After telling Makina the news, not long after-

I also got a message from my friend Gisu in America.

[SSS-Rank Hunter: Congratulations.

Me: Thanks.

Me: Want to come visit?

SSS-Rank Hunter: No.]

Figures.

For Gisu, who spends all day training or hunting monsters, a theme park just doesn’t fit.

Just imagining Gisu walking around in a PengRhyme hat makes me laugh.

Honestly, it’d be a problem if he did decide to come.

Slime Land is inside Mother.

Letting a monster-hater like Gisu into the belly of a giant monster that is Slime Land-

His golden flames might just burn up Mother’s insides.

[Me: You’ll be coming to Korea soon, right?

SSS-Rank Hunter: Yeah.]

Like me, Gisu is a filial son with a fire attribute, but he still celebrates holidays and Parents’ Day.

We usually don’t meet up then.

He’s on leave from university right now, but he did attend college.

I’ve got my own schedule, and Gisu only drops by for a quick hello, so it’s hard to match up.

[Me: Don’t burn the <Slime> I sent to your mom.

SSS-Rank Hunter: Like I’d do something like that.]

Besides Gisu, Ash also sprang into action.

[(For real) S-Rank Alchemist: “Slime Land is a place worth visiting in person.”]

[America is shocked, China is stunned, and Japan is brought to its knees by a theme park in Korea?]

[A Korean businessperson who makes the chairman of a world-class company come running out in a panic.]

Ash declared he’d come visit Slime Land himself.

If that’s not a lone wolf, what is.

When he wants to do something, that always comes first.

Thanks to this, a ton of VIPs from various countries now want to come to Slime Land.

I should greet them, too.

With the support of my friends, preparations for the grand opening went steadily.

Time passed, and May 4th arrived.

***

The very first official company dinner for AlchemySlime Company.

The doors to the event hall hadn’t opened yet, so people gathered in small groups in front of it.

The atmosphere was worlds apart from the typical Korean company dinner, where sighs and complaints are swallowed down and everyone looks like they’re suffering from indigestion.

Those armed with Mascot Slime and penguin sets were actually on the ordinary side.

Some people showed up in tuxedos or dresses, as if they were attending a party in a banquet hall.

Others arrived wielding huge cameras like hunters searching for prey.

All of their eyes were sparkling with excitement.

At last, the doors opened and they headed inside.

Everyone gasped at the sight that unfolded before them.

“It’s flower-viewing season in May, right?”

In a field bursting with all kinds of flowers, dozens of identical penguins were preparing food.

It was a scene that could have been scary, but everyone here had passed that terrifying Slime test.

The more PengRhyme there were, the more people cheered-instead of being scared, they were thrilled.

Lee Doa raised her hand high.

“Can I take one with me?”

“Please be satisfied with this.”

The PengRhyme closest to her handed over a tiny doll, only the size of a fingertip.

She just asked on a whim, but actually got a PengRhyme doll!

Most of the people gathered here were veterans of open-run events.

Naturally, a line began to form.

“Can’t be helped. I’ll put the doll on top of the dish for you.”

The PengRhyme started plating the food.

And then they placed a PengRhyme doll on each dish.

“There are all sorts of foods, so line up for the one that suits your taste.”

As Lee Doa scanned the dishes, she noticed something with hawk-like eyes.

‘Depending on which PengRhyme you stand in front of, the dolls are a little different!’

She steeled herself.

‘Even if my stomach bursts, I’ll collect every single doll!’

Sensing the unusual mood, a PengRhyme spoke up to everyone.

“Even if you only eat the zero-calorie foods, you can still collect every type of doll.”

Thankfully, there was no risk of employees’ stomachs exploding.

Slime digests super quickly, after all.

Since there were several PengRhyme offering the same food and dolls, people spread out to collect both.

“It’s delicious!”

“That’s a relief.”

Once doll collecting was mostly done, people finally started enjoying the company dinner in their own ways.

“Are you all the boss?”

“Yes. Look here. See this line? We’re connected and move along it.”

Some people chatted with PengRhyme, who are normally hard to meet.

“Is it really okay to drink this…?”

“Yes. Go ahead.”

There were people sampling all sorts of drinks, from expensive to cheap.

“Hey! Don’t exaggerate!”

“It’s okay to spice things up a bit! You were just-!”

As the drinks flowed, the Mascot Slimes, in high spirits, swapped tall tales and got into little squabbles.

“Aren’t you drinking, boss?”

“I am drinking.”

“How?”

“Right now, PengRhyme number 12 is drinking for me.”

“Go find them!”

The hunters dashed around searching for the PengRhyme doing a mukbang.

Time ticked by happily, and May 4th ended, giving way to May 5th.

Somewhere, a bell chimed twelve times.

Time to wake from the dream.

“Should we wrap this up? Once the sun rises, it’s time to get to work for real.”

At a single word from the PengRhyme, the staff fell silent like well-trained soldiers.

“The real show starts tomorrow. Get plenty of rest and see you then.”

With those words, the Alchemy Slime left the Mother and stepped outside.

Heading to a spot where no one was around, it swallowed a Grade B artifact.

[Trait: Slime☆☆☆ has reached level 50.]

[You can now select a new skill.]

The last thing to do before opening Slime Land.

It was time to resolve the Curse of Sloth.

***

“…What is this.”

In the end, I reached level 50 without any major issues.

I don’t feel like the curse has gotten any worse.

I’m still aware that I’m cursed.

I’m starting to wonder if I’m missing something.

What exactly does this curse do?

“Status window.”

I called up the status window and pressed [+Skill] at the very bottom.

[You can select a skill.

1. General Skill: Luck Lv. 1.

2. Special Skill: Special Divide.]

[Luck Lv. 1.

-Your luck improves.]

Of course, there are things in this world that don’t work out no matter how much you prepare, so luck is important.

But even so, I don’t really want to pick that one.

Maybe it’s just a random urge.

I have no idea what kind of trap lies in the [Luck] skill.

Should I just press [Special Divide]?

Would that end this Curse of Sloth?

I raised my hand.

‘You can get by in life just fine without thinking or acting.

Why bother taking the hard road?’

As if to stop my hand, a languid voice spoke to me.

‘Just leave everything to the flow.

No one can predict what life will bring anyway.

Even if you study hard for twelve years, you could die in a car accident the day before the college entrance exam.

You could spend your whole life working toward one job, only for that job to disappear.

You could wake up one morning and find you’ve turned into a Slime.

Sometimes, a ridiculous disaster ruins your life out of nowhere.

What’s the point of worrying about a distant future?

You know this better than anyone.

Just leave it to luck.

The voice muttering as if to say ‘let it be’ echoes in my head, but it’s not very convincing.

‘There are tons of bad things in the world.

It’s not that someone is bad.

The world itself is just bad.

But people always look for someone to blame.

Even though the world is bad, the more you act, the more you become the cause of the disasters that happen.

They say it happened because of your actions.

They say it happened because you didn’t act.

The more you cause trouble, the more responsibilities you have to bear.

As payment for doing things you didn’t even need to do.

As payment for actions done out of goodwill.

All it does is increase the heavy burden on you.

So, don’t do anything from the start.’

I let out a sigh.

I still can’t understand what this curse is trying to achieve.

“Hey. Are you really planning to do something?”

‘Why? Wasn’t I pretty eloquent?’

“Eloquent, my foot. It just sounded like pointless rambling to me.”

‘Hahaha. Yeah, you’re right. I just blurted it out without much thought. Thinking hard about stuff is just painful, isn’t it?’

“Did you give up because you’re lazy?”

‘The guy in front of me drained my power, so I couldn’t use my strength properly. That guy was weirdly strong, wasn’t he?’

The curse of jealousy and distrust.

That guy was dangerous.

Unlike gluttony, jealousy and distrust weren’t supposed to have such strong personalities.

Was it because he pulled out power that was meant to come later?

‘Because my power was ripped away, I’m all weak and pathetic now. And then, shamelessly, they stab me in my moment of weakness and give me a [Purification] skill. When I stayed quiet, they tried to give me some absurd skill.

I used power I didn’t even have to block it, and in the end, I handed over [Healing☆].

I gave up because I couldn’t push myself any further.

Still, I have to play my role, so that’s why I’m rambling like this now.’

“I see.”

I raised my hand to press the [Special Divide] skill.

‘Ah, that won’t work. Right now, my influence is at its peak.

I’m not going to let you get away with it that easily.

Since I’m so weak, I’ll at least curse you with my words.’

This is incredibly annoying.

It’s not painful, but it feels like something clingy and bothersome sticking to me.

‘So, shall we continue?

You know that what you’re doing harms the world, don’t you?

You know that tons of people lost their jobs because of the Slime you sold, right?

There are tons of people starving right now because of you.

And that number will only increase the more you act.

Right now, you’re just turning a blind eye to the disasters you’ve sown and only looking at the good parts.

Are you saying it’s fine because you’re making other people happy?

That it’s okay if you build something like Slime Land and spread happiness within it?

Do you really think that?

What about the people who’ve fallen into despair because of you?

Are you saying it’s okay to abandon the few for the happiness of the many?’

This time, the words stung a bit.

They’re not wrong.

The time and resources each individual has are limited.

If they’re spent on me, someone else gets neglected.

There are people who were saved because I sold Slime.

But there are probably also people who fell into hell because of it.

‘And who can guarantee that the direction you’re heading in is right?

Even if what you’ve done looks good now, it could turn into a disaster.

You know, the higher a tower is built, the more devastating the damage when it collapses.

The world could end up in chaos because of you.’

The more people rely on Slime, the greater the damage will be if something goes wrong with me.

It’s already like that now, so what happens when Slime penetrates even deeper?

‘So, don’t think.

Don’t act.

Just do nothing and stay still.

That’s the right thing for you.

And for the world.

Don’t you want to do the right thing?

Don’t you want to be a good person?

If you have the Luck skill and do nothing,

The flow of the world will guide you to the right place.’

The curse’s words weren’t wrong.

But I’m not kind enough to be swayed by those words.

“I’m not an adult.”

I’m not an adult who firmly knows what’s right for the world.

I don’t have some noble intention to lead the world down the right path.

“I’m not a God.”

I’m not an omnipotent God.

I don’t have the ability to make everyone happy.

And I don’t even know what happiness means for everyone.

“I’m just a human living day by day, doing my best, believing that a happy ending awaits.”

I just believe I can make the area within reach of my tentacles happy.

And I live my best, hoping that the happiness I spread will reach me and everyone else, becoming an even greater happiness.

I’m a human in the shape of a Slime.

“Don’t try to stop me from doing anything by forcing tasks on me that I can’t handle.”

I shook off the words trying to crush me by burdening me with a load no human could bear.

My hand slowly started to move.

‘Looks like it’s not working after all.’

“Yeah. So, get lost.”

‘Fine, fine. I’ll get lost if that’s what you want.’

Suddenly, the resistance I felt in my hand disappeared.

‘But let me say one last thing.

Your turmoil is strength to us.’

The [Luck Lv. 1] option in the status window faintly changed.

‘I’ve handed over most of my power to the guy who’ll come later.

There’s no point in holding onto something that won’t work, it just tires me out.’

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

[The skill will be used immediately upon acquisition.]

[Once the skill is used, it cannot be undone.]

The skill was acquired on its own.

‘Look forward to the curses to come.’

Something slimy and weak rose up from my chest toward the higher-ups.

“Tch.”

Something without even elasticity fell to the ground.

<Curse Fragment>

-A part of a curse forged from deep resentment.

■■ Most Dear ■■ Swamp of Despair ■■ ■■ ■■■■■ ■ Will meet the end by hand ■■■!

[You have overcome Despair four times.]

[Some of your suppressed traits are partially activated.]