Chapter 111: [Family Course]

Nearly a month had passed since Slime Land had opened.

There were plenty of people who had been to Slime Land, but the man still hadn’t gone.

“Let’s go next time. We can go to Slime Land whenever, right?”

With those words, he kept putting it off.

Vacation assignments, done the day before school starts.

Exam prep, the day before the test.

Even work, he only finished right before the deadline.

The only thing he did earlier than most was getting married.

But even that was rushed because he caused some trouble, so you could say he lived his life putting everything off until the very end.

Even so, since he’d managed to live just fine, the man had no intention of changing his habits now.

That’s why, even when his child begged to go to Slime Land, he kept postponing it.

After all, they could go anytime.

Then, suddenly, a time limit appeared.

Rumors started to spread that Slime Land might start charging admission.

According to what he’d heard, the quality of Slime Land was exceptional.

There are bad expensive items, but good items are generally expensive.

They might start charging 100,000 to 200,000 won per person.

When you factor in meal costs and such, it would easily cost over 500,000 won for the whole family.

They had to go before that happened.

The weekend arrived, and the man headed to Slime Land with his family.

He was interested in the [Scream Course], but between his wife’s glare and his child’s whining, he chose the [Family Course].

‘Should we just kill some time and leave?’

Not knowing what was there anyway, he used the automatic course selection service.

Without any wait time, they immediately moved on to the amusement ride.

The first thing to ride was a simple dark ride, drifting along a waterway in a boat.

The man, strapped in with a tentacle seatbelt on a large tube-shaped boat, settled into his seat.

Since it was a kids’ ride, the man relaxed.

Everything he saw looked like a colorful fairy tale scene, and the boat’s movement was calm.

[Which way will you go?]

To his surprise, a choice was presented.

The man picked at random.

“You should ask before you choose.”

“What does it matter? It’s all the same, isn’t it?”

Rides like this might look like they offer choices, but they always merge together in the end.

The boat continued on peacefully.

‘Hm? I think there was something odd just now.’

There was something like an abandoned shoe.

His wife and child didn’t seem to notice; they were still happily chatting and enjoying the colorful pictures.

‘Did I see it wrong?’

[Which way will you go?]

Another fork appeared, and the man picked at random again.

His wife pouted but didn’t say much.

The boat kept drifting along peacefully.

There were a few more forks after that, and the man just went with his gut each time.

Then, suddenly.

‘Hold on.’

Something strange caught the man’s eye.

“Didn’t you see something like a discarded doll over there?”

“Maybe someone dropped it?”

“It didn’t really look like that….”

It felt a bit more ominous.

The man started to look around more cautiously.

[Which way will you go?]

Only then did the man realize that these forks weren’t just ordinary forks.

On the surface, there wasn’t much difference.

But on one side, a horned goat was playing, and on the other, there was a sheep.

The man tried to go toward the sheep, but he noticed too late.

The boat drifted automatically toward the goat.

And the boat started to pick up speed.

In the distance, he could hear a melody played on a lyre.

The song itself felt peaceful, but-

‘Isn’t this the song that plays when the ship sinks in that movie?’

Ominous symbols kept appearing.

[Which way will you go?]

“Whoa.”

The boat’s shaking interfered with the man’s choice.

And in the end-

Rumble.

With the roar of water, a spray erupted ahead of them.

“Huh? Huh?”

As they plunged into the mist, it felt like the boat turned ninety degrees.

“Aaaaah!”

The man screamed and covered his face.

The boat dropped for just a moment.

Compared to what had come before, it was only a little steeper-nothing major.

“Hahaha! Dad, were you scared?”

“N-no….”

Embarrassed to look so lame in front of his child, the man’s face turned red.

‘Come on. They’re making fun of me.’

He’d gotten spooked for no reason because of what he saw on the way here.

If there hadn’t been hints of sinking or death, he wouldn’t have reacted so sensitively.

As the man wiped his face for no reason, he saw a mother penguin washing her child’s ankle in the river.

The man lifted his head and looked around more closely.

And then he realized.

There were decorations symbolizing the river of the afterlife here and there.

It seemed like nothing bad had happened, but in the story, they had fallen under the waterfall and died.

What the child saw was a fun fairy tale with a bright, peaceful, and slightly urgent scene unfolding.

But the story he realized too late was about a kidnapped family being sacrificed in an evil ritual.

If you didn’t know, you’d never notice.

It was like a cruel fairy tale packed with metaphors.

A chill ran down his spine.

“Let’s ride this again.”

The child tilted their head.

“Was it that fun?”

“Just because.”

It felt too unsettling to end it like this.

Because his choices had basically led his whole family to their deaths.

The family rode the same amusement ride again.

This time, the man stayed sharp from the start and made the right choices at each fork.

The more choices I made, the darker the story became.

It was no longer just a bright fairy tale; it started to exude a slightly eerie atmosphere.

“Dad, are we really on the right path?”

“It’s okay. Dad will definitely get us all out of here together.”

The boat sped up more and more.

Considering the time we had traveled, the end should be approaching soon.

The path split into two around a massive reef.

“Both sides have problems….”

“Dad!”

“We’re not choosing this one!”

The boat seemed about to crash into the rock wall, but it passed right through.

A peaceful hill with flower petals fluttering in the air welcomed them.

“Awesome!”

The man raised both hands in the air and cheered.

“Dad, you’re amazing!”

Perhaps the courage to choose not to choose at all looked impressive to the child, who smiled brightly and praised their dad.

“Right? Isn’t Dad amazing?”

“Yeah!”

The bored expression that had settled on the man’s face when they first arrived at Slime Land was completely washed away.

“Let’s go ride the next one.”

Arriving at the next amusement ride, the man once again thought hard to choose the path forward.

The story took a very bizarre turn.

It ended with the strange conclusion that the place they were in wasn’t an island but a flying spaghetti in the sky.

“That’s weird.”

The man awkwardly scratched his head.

“It’s because Dad keeps making weird choices!”

The child pouted their lips.

“I want to do it.”

The family rode the same amusement ride again.

This time, the child took the lead, and it ended with a fluffy story of traveling to a country above the clouds.

On the next amusement ride, the wife took the spotlight.

To pass through the door, they had to clear various exams.

“You’re really hopeless.”

“You’re the best, honey.”

“Mom, you’re so cool!”

Seeing her solve the assignments one by one, the man and child cheered enthusiastically and clapped their hands.

The fourth amusement ride was a walking experience, and no one had any complaints about it.

The three of them worked together and safely cleared the ride.

“That was fun, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t believe there….”

Growl.

The child’s stomach made a cute sound.

They had been so caught up in playing that they forgot, but it was already past lunchtime.

“Let’s go eat something.”

The child tightly held onto both Mom and Dad’s hands.

Just riding the amusement rides together made the family feel much closer.

And that wasn’t all.

It was a time to see sides of himself, his wife, and his child that he hadn’t known before.

‘Well-made stories teach lessons even to adults….’

Even more surprising was the fact that they hadn’t even covered half of the recommended course yet.

After thinking for a moment, the man switched to free mode.

He wanted to decide with his family which amusement ride to enjoy next.

***

The gates of Slime Land are always open, but family visitors tend to come mostly on weekends.

Although it was designed as a park-like place you can visit anytime, the perception of a theme park as a place you deliberately go to on special days still lingers.

Normally, theme parks have quite expensive entrance fees, so it’s only natural.

Still, as time passes, someday it might be seen as a close place where you can just ride one attraction and head back.

I hope that day comes soon.

Or is it really a good thing if it comes?

“Hah….”

Realizing you’re cursed is a problem in itself.

If it were a physical ailment, that’d be one thing, but the problem is when it messes with your mind.

I can’t tell if what I want is because of the curse or if it’s truly what I desire.

I can’t act rashly.

After making me suffer so much with the curse of distrust and jealousy, it’s doing this again?

Curses really aren’t something to mess with.

[The level of Absorb+ skill-]

[Purification+] skill gacha is still failing.

They say the surefire way to win a gacha is to keep pulling until you get it.

At this rate, I’ll run out of bullets first.

[Trait: Slime☆☆☆☆ level has risen to 50.]

[A new skill has been created.]

[Repeat skill grows into Evangelize+ skill.]

“Seriously?”

I actually got a new skill before [Purification+].

On top of that, thanks to the points accumulated from devouring a Class A artifact, the skill has grown.

At this point, isn’t it obvious the odds are rigged?

No matter how I think about it, it really feels like the curse is preventing the [Purification] skill from growing.

If I had my way, I’d send a protest three-stage transformation truck, but I don’t know their address to send it.

“Huh? Wait a second.”

The skill name just now felt a bit odd, didn’t it?

“Status window???”

[Trait: Slime☆☆☆☆ Lv. 50

Skills:

–

Evangelize+ Lv. 1.]

[Evangelize].

As in evangelizing a religion?

A religious skill?!

This is dangerous.

It’s not just [Evangelize], but an upgraded [Evangelize+].

There are already people who seem a bit like fanatics, and if a skill that spreads religion is added, a real Slime Church might emerge.

No, wait.

It’s too early to conclude.

The status window has a history of wordplay, doesn’t it?

It could mean evangelize as in falling over, right?

A skill that makes people fall over is much better than one that spreads religion.

It can be used for attack and even for crafting.

If it’s a skill that makes surfaces slippery to cause falls, that means I can adjust friction. There are many places to use it.

I steeled myself and used the [Analyze+] skill to check the [Evangelize+] skill.

[Evangelize+ Lv. 1.

-Transmits and guides.]

Something…. feels subtle.

I looked it up in the dictionary.

Evangelize (Overturn)

1. To fall over or to knock down.

2. The order, position, logic, or values being reversed and turned upside down from the original. Or to make it so.

Source: NeXver Dictionary.

Wow….

It gave me chills.

The meaning of evangelize as falling over was the most dangerous.

Changing values, huh.

It means that in an instant, values could be reversed, turning someone from pursuing people’s happiness to an incarnation of malice that seeks to plunge people into the Swamp of Despair.

It’s a skill that seems likely to appear when a curse reaches its final stage.

If used well, it might be possible to reverse the effect of a curse.

Reversing the Curse of Sloth to become a fool who only knows work.

Reversing the curse of distrust to blindly trust without properly seeing people.

Reversing the curse of gluttony to give away <Slime> for free, destroying all sorts of industries.

…That’s dangerous.

Anything in excess is worse than not having enough.

That’s dangerous in its own way.

If I mishandle that skill even slightly, its sharp blade will stab me.

It’s truly a blessing that I didn’t obtain it.

Good job, Status window.

It doesn’t seem to be evangelize in the sense of spreading religion either.

Evangelize (Conduction).

It’s a word used in terms like thermal conduction, electrical conduction, mana conduction, or superconductors.

Besides this, there are so many homonyms.

Did the word evangelize have so many different meanings?

I picked the best one among them.

Status window, you’re the best.

Especially, it was just a hair’s breadth away from the religious ‘evangelize (Transmission of Doctrine)’.

I can feel the traces of the Status window’s fierce battle.

The [Evangelize+] skill is quite useful when considering its practicality.

Originally, <Slime> was an excellent mana conductor that transmitted mana with almost no loss.

And now, with the [Evangelize+] skill, it can transmit even more efficiently.

When linked with the [Link] skill, it can transmit mana wirelessly with almost no loss.

Moreover, unlike the general definition of ‘transmit and guide,’ it’s ‘transmits and guides.’

Since transmitting and guiding can be applied separately, it feels a bit more flexible.

Huh? Wait a minute.

This could also help in moving objects inside <Slime> more quickly and safely, right?

If I pass this skill to Mother and Root, not only the <Tunnel Slimes> but also movement within the Slime will proceed more smoothly.

Besides quickly moving people and objects, I can also transmit the effects of my skills more effectively.

By transmitting [Healing☆] and [Purification] skills deeper, to remove deep-rooted wounds and curses….

I ignited the flames of [Purification] not only inside my body but also all around me.

Does it feel a little better?

I’m not sure.

It might be like a monk who can’t shave his own head.

Still, let’s bask in the flames of [Purification] as much as possible from now on.

Lately, I’ve forgotten because <Slime> works so instantly, but originally, things done for health tend to show effects slowly.