Chapter 139: 'I Am Right.'

[Me: The Great Me descends.

Makina: Absolutely disgusting.

Me: Guhak.

Makina: I just killed something worthless.

Me: Even if you kill me, the 1,068th Me from the second Me will avenge me!

Makina: Absolutely disgusting.

Me: Kuek.]

Real name, age, gender, face, nationality.

I don’t know any of that, but Makina is my precious friend.

Ah, but I do know her birthday.

That’s enough to say I know everything I need.

At regular intervals, we exchange messages like this, chat, and enjoy games together.

Another day spent playing together.

I died from a fatal wound right after saying hello, but it’s fine.

I am a slime.

I have plenty of backups.

Ah, sorry. Did it surprise you when the <Slime> in front of you suddenly collapsed? My bad. Here, have some jelly.

I sent another clone to comfort the startled child.

Thanks to the growth of the [Link+] skill, I no longer have much trouble controlling my clones inside Slime Land even from home.

I can work and play at the same time!

Maybe this is the ability office workers would envy the most.

Or maybe it’s the one they’d hate the most.

Since it means you have to work even when you’re playing.

[Makina: What was that greeting just now?

Makina: Another Slime Land trend like last time?

Slime Land is a cosplayer’s paradise.

The reason it became a paradise is simple.

It’s easy to start, there’s a lot to enjoy, and it’s easy to finish.

It’s easy to start.

Even without spending much, you can easily take care of everything from prop rentals to makeup.

There’s a lot to enjoy.

You can experience settings from novels or anime recreated here.

In some works, through [My Own Story], you can feel like you’ve become a character in the novel.

In [Slime Hunting], you can get gear similar to a character’s abilities and have fun.

It’s easy to finish.

You don’t have to keep your makeup on for hours; you can remove it easily.

As the barrier to entry lowered, more people started cosplaying and roleplaying.

And as more people joined, more started copying even minor characters.

In games, comics, and anime, characters who refer to themselves as ‘the Great Me’ often appear as main or supporting roles.

More people started imitating them.

So, you could say it’s a trend if you want.

But there’s no way I’d ever copy those kinds of characters.

[Me: Isn’t ‘the Great Me’ the perfect way to refer to myself?

Makina: Maybe you should reflect on yourself sometimes?]

Let’s see.

[Me: Perfect today as always.

Makina: Of course you are.]

Today, I am perfect.

Makina agreed.

After a bit more banter, we decided on today’s game.

A game where you raise a nation.

You hire vassals, get married and have descendants, wage wars, and run a country through generations.

It’s quite a tricky game with heavy political elements.

There’s multiplayer, but today we just decided to each raise our own country.

Click click click.

To share my thoughts after playing for a bit-

My game character’s abilities are lacking.

Even when I know there’s a better choice, I often have to compromise because the character’s abilities aren’t enough.

My country grew powerful, but my retainers were terrified, and the people’s happiness was low.

No one dared rebel, but the game character was falling apart.

Even the monarch who inherited the throne was capable, but didn’t seem happy.

More time passed.

A few strokes of bad luck hit, and in the end, my country collapsed.

What can I do about my character’s shortcomings?

With a character who can’t clone, is weak, and keeps getting sick, there’s only so much you can do.

If I could have done it myself, this never would have happened.

Maybe this is how people who enjoy [My Own Story] feel.

[Makina: How was it?]

Makina sent me a screenshot.

[Me: How did you do that.]

While my country was collapsing, Makina conquered the world.

[Makina: Because I wasn’t a tyrant.]

Was I a tyrant?

I guess I was a tyrant.

I used force to get the lacking characters to move.

I can’t just blame my character’s lack of ability, since Makina got a different ending.

[Me: I learned something.

Me: Thanks.

Makina: K.]

I am aware that I’m under the influence of the Curse of Arrogance.

Maybe I’ve just underestimated its power.

I should hurry up and level up.

If I use the [Special Divide] skill to reset my level, the curse’s influence will weaken for a while.

In that state, I need to get things sorted out.

***

The old man looked at the completely changed village and smiled contentedly.

‘Yes, this is the kind of fun I was looking for.’

In this Water Land event, the old man’s role was a trader.

What’s fun about being a trader who always gets robbed by pirates?

The fun of making money.

The fun of seeing his trading company grow.

And the fun of seeing the village grow too.

That’s why he’s a trader.

Traces of an era when trade flourished are revived by his own hands.

Alchemy Slime gifted him that sense of accomplishment.

‘This is what I used to do.’

The old man was the former chairman of a company whose name anyone would recognize.

He’d built the company in a time when there was nothing, running around the world buying and selling goods.

He wanted to stay with the company forever, but youth doesn’t last.

His memory began to fade, his ability to keep up with the world declined, and it became hard to adapt to technological advances.

Feeling that stubbornly clinging to his position was not good, he retired.

Sometimes he went out to play golf, sometimes played go on the computer, or went to the gym and spent his days leisurely.

Occasionally, he would recall the days when he traveled the world, but he dismissed them as old habits and forgot about them.

One day, <Slime> appeared in the world.

After eating <Poison Jelsl>, the fog clouding his mind cleared away.

When he stuck <Pack Slime> here and there, his aching joints stopped hurting.

Since he no longer felt pain, he worked out even harder at the gym, and not only his mind but even his body felt as if he had returned to his younger days.

His hands began to itch.

He wanted to jump back into the front lines of society as he once had.

But there was no way he could push aside his children, who had already established themselves.

If he rejoined as an executive, the board meetings would become extremely awkward.

If he joined as an advisor and started telling them what to do, his children would not appreciate it.

The former chairman joining as a new hire was out of the question.

He could only smack his lips in regret, but then Slime Land opened.

The old man was hooked on the [Adventure Course].

It was a different line of work from trading, but there was a thrill in exploring unknown places.

He also made many new friends.

“Elder. Are you here to trade, not to explore?”

“I’ll have you know, I’ve spent my whole life in the trading business.”

“We’ll join you.”

“Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“Trading with you, Elder, is an adventure in itself.”

The old man first got himself a light and fast boat and traveled everywhere.

Rather than rushing to make a profit, he prioritized gathering information.

There were many differences from reality for the sake of game convenience, but the core remained unchanged.

Take lots of goods to one place, then go sell them where they’re needed.

That was all there was to trading.

It wasn’t about clicking a keyboard and mouse while staring at a monitor.

He went to unfamiliar places, inspected the goods himself, loaded them onto the boat, and transported them.

The old man was reminded of his youth.

“So this is the kind of life you led, Elder.”

“That’s right.”

The young people who followed him also found it fresh and enjoyable.

“If you sell it that cheap, what’s left for you?”

“People are what matter.”

There was no need to seek excessive profit.

In fact, he shouldn’t seek excessive profit.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I can get my workshop running again.”

“Think nothing of it.”

“I will definitely repay this favor.”

Because he could earn trust instead of money.

“This is gear made in the workshop. I assure you it’s of better quality than anything you can get elsewhere.”

That trust turned into money.

“Take a look.”

“It’s true.”

Even just this was fun enough.

“I’ll put it in.”

He placed a stone brought from a distant land into the hole.

Then the ground rumbled and a hidden facility revealed itself.

The facility began to shine and operate.

“It’s a bit annoying that they just reap the fruits without knowing our hardships.”

The pirates thought the facilities opened and new upgrades appeared over time, but that wasn’t the case.

The opening of technology and facilities was the work of the traders.

They brought in the needed resources from afar and restored the dormant facilities.

Each time they sailed back and forth, the village grew more and more.

Seeing your actions produce clear results-

“Isn’t it rewarding?”

“Well, that’s true.”

“And the money they pay goes right into our pockets.”

In exchange for opening the facilities, traders could buy stronger weapons at cheaper prices with the money paid by pirates.

This gear became both a shield and a spear to protect themselves from the pirates.

Fighting pirates with even stronger gear turned out to be a lot of fun.

But it seemed Alchemy Slime still thought it wasn’t enough.

“Really?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

With the new information, the old man boarded the boat.

“Kids! Start the engine!”

Alchemy Slime prepared a core quest for the traders.

The prophecy of the Great Flood.

What was needed to stop it wasn’t combat power.

It was local specialties from all over.

“Let’s go save the world!”

“Yeah!”

***

Tomorrow is the Star Festival.

I’ve prepared a quest fitting for the occasion.

Among the traders, there’s a group that’s been running ahead, and they’ve started the quest.

It’s a quest where the longer it takes to resolve, the greater the damage, but it looks like it’ll end with less damage than expected.

If the damage is small, the overall drop in combat power will be less severe too.

Maybe the Lily Raid will end more easily than expected?

Well, it’s not a big deal since this was one of the possible scenarios.

Right now, there’s something bothering me even more than the Water Land event situation.

Maybe there was something to tidy up since they came all this way.

Hans, the squinting wig-wearing alien, has paused his journey and is staying in Slime Land for the time being.

I thought that might be the case, but he’s often seen with Veronica, the child with gemstone eyes.

I called him Alien Number Two just as a passing thought, but seeing them together like that is a little scary.

I’m starting to wonder if he’s really trying to make Veronica into Alien Number Two.

“Is it okay for you to be hanging out with Hans?”

When I asked this, Veronica nodded.

The children are people to be protected, not my employees.

If they say they want to do something, I have no right to interfere.

In fact, I should be happy they’ve found something they want to do.

The other children, except for Veronica, are gradually regaining their energy.

During the process of brainwashing those children, a curse was used.

The curse implanted made the children afraid of the doomsday cult followers.

If they failed to carry out the follower’s orders, it made them feel terror.

It was a curse designed to make it easier to control the children by instilling fear.

But the flames of [Purification+] mixed with the [Healing☆] skill melted away that curse, and the effects of the brainwashing were also burned away.

Seeing the children regain the smiles they’d lost, I can’t help but think this.

It would be nice if I could bring other early Awakened to Slime Land as well.

But that’s not something that can be done easily.

Early Awakened are promising talents who will grow into Grade A or higher Hunters.

Because they’re valuable human resources, I had to pay a high price to bring them here.

Even this time, Hans was the very person who destroyed the core of the doomsday cult that had thrown the country into chaos by kidnapping him. Even after doing such a thing, I was able to bring those children here by tossing a few <Slimes>.

In places without such problems, it’s hard to bring them over.

It’s funny, isn’t it.

They take children away from parents who can’t properly raise them.

But I don’t think they’re actually raising those children well.

It’s much better to leave them with me.

Am I being too arrogant for thinking this way?

Or is it a reasonable thought?

Let’s reset my level and think again.

[Trait: Slime☆☆☆☆☆ level has increased to 65.]

[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 activate immediately upon acquisition.]

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

Along with a pain like a piece of my soul being torn away.

The energy that broke through my [Barrier☆] skill struck my head.

‘I am right.’

Belatedly, I poured the flames of [Purification+] into the hole pierced in my [Barrier☆] skill.

I finished sealing it afterward, but what meaning does that even have.

The wound was already made by the strike from the curse.

No matter how much I shake my head, the thoughts stuck to me won’t fall away.

The higher the level of the curse, the stronger its influence becomes.

When the level is reset, the curse weakens.

But at the same time, it’s also the moment my [Barrier☆] skill’s level resets.

Anyway, it’s obvious I’m going to choose the [Special Divide] skill.

Instead of fighting with the status window over what skill to give me, it’s as if it’s preparing to land a blow on me.

The moment the skill resets, it might just manage to hit me.

Nothing ever comes easy, does it.

Annoying thoughts have taken root in my head, but all I can do is be careful.

More importantly, it’s this child.

I lifted up the newly born child.

On the earth, there is Mother.

Underground, there is Root.

In the sea, there is Road.

Should I send this child to the sky?

With the [Pressure+] skill, it could keep floating.

No, I’ve thought of something even better than sending this child to the sky.

It might be better to send this child to the sea and send Road to the sky.