Chapter 53: Aftermath

The rumor that I belong to the Ribbon cult.

The basis is the video I uploaded on Halloween.

“Isn’t that much allowed on Halloween? I don’t know who’s raising voices of concern, but they really don’t know how to have fun.”

-No, well… There’s that incident in America.

Judging by the way they speak, it sounds like the voices of concern are coming from someone pretty high up.

“They seem like the kind of people who’d say you have to mourn your parents for three years after they pass away.”

-Well….

“They probably think people who do hip hop have bad personalities and problematic beliefs.”

-….

“I can easily deny the delusion that I believe in a doomsday cult, so don’t worry too much.”

-Is that so.

“And about the curse. I think the problem is probably the Class B artifact I brought from Japan.”

-You mean the artifact?

Special move! Blame Japan for everything!

It’s not entirely a false accusation.

When I drank that vitality artifact, I didn’t notice because of gluttony.

But thinking back on the analysis results now, there was a curse mixed in.

“I’m young and healthy, so I have no reason to use a vitality booster. So I put it in the place where I make Slime, you know? As I mixed this and that and watched the reactions, I found out there was a curse mixed in that made you really like women. The curse seemed to enhance the medicinal effect, so it’s ambiguous whether it was really a curse or not. Anyway, I think the curse reacted with the materials I added and created a horrifying curse.”

So, how’s my excuse?

-Alchemy Slime-nim.

Huh. I can sense anger in Counselor Park Taeyang’s voice.

Did he notice I was lying? I tried to mix in as much truth as possible.

-As per your request, Alchemy Slime-nim, I’ve kept cutting off contact, but both Japan and China have sent you invitations several times.

“Aha. So you give me a vitality booster that makes me like women and then invite me over? That’s a honey trap.”

The idea was to call me to their country and tie me down with women.

“But China too?”

-Either the plan leaked or they joined hands.

Alchemy Slime is super popular.

“It’s really awkward to complain about this, isn’t it?”

If you claim the curse is just to strengthen the medicinal effect, it’s hard to argue against.

Even poison can become medicine if used right.

And of course, everyone wants to invite a celebrity.

There’s suspicion but no evidence.

-We’ll think of a countermeasure.

“Okay, okay. And please send me the company list.”

-Understood.

If you try to pull something on me, you’d better be ready for payback.

“And one more thing.”

-Go ahead.

“I think I mentioned this before, but let me say it again. My Slime loses efficiency in cold places. This is an inherent limitation of the Slime and can’t be improved.”

For Slime to perform at its best, it needs mana. In summer, I use the Convert skill to turn heat into mana and replenish energy. Unless you want to freeze people to death or give them a heating bill bomb, you can’t do that in winter.

Cold isn’t energy.

This property of my Slime is written in the instructions for every product.

But how many people actually read that carefully?

The usable time for Insole Slime, Pack Slime, and the Mosquito series will be one or two days shorter than in summer. For the others, since they’re either edible or get food supplied to the Slime, there’s not much difference in lifespan.

Pillow Slime will probably be a real problem.

Anyone can tell that’s a summer product.

If you use it in winter like you do in summer, its lifespan will drop dramatically.

Compared to the Slimes I made in the beginning, the performance of the Slimes I sell now has improved overall.

But it’s hard to notice when something gets better. No one really feels it.

But you notice right away when something gets worse.

“If you don’t want to get bombarded with angry calls about selling defective products, please make a proper announcement. Especially about Pillow Slime. Its lifespan will drop drastically if you use it in cold places. Don’t just post a notice and call it a day-make sure everyone truly knows. Pass this on to the US side as well.”

-Understood.

I said goodbye and hung up.

I managed to get through this curse incident too. Next time, I’ll be sure to lay the groundwork properly before spitting out a curse. Let’s prepare well before I forget that I have to cough up a curse.

By the way, the Halloween video. Was that really such a big problem?

I bit down on Towel Slime and checked the comments.

“Mmph!!! Mmph!!!”

Why do people like this kind of thing!

What’s supposed to be sexy about it!

The people who leave comments after seeing my videos at first are mostly my fans.

The content is pretty positive.

But at some point, the tone of the comments changed.

No matter how famous SLimelove gets, or how many people benefit from the Slimes Alchemy Slime makes,

There will always be people who dislike me, hate me, or want to see me fall.

Comments that take subtle jabs or quietly stir up anxiety started to increase.

-The more you use Slime,

The more your mind gets weird,

And there’s proof you end up believing in the Ribbon cult.

View more

∨312 replies

It exploded in an instant.

After that, the comment section turned into a zoo.

Woof woof, arf arf.

Meow meow, nyan nyan.

Bear bear, roar roar.

I want to jump into the zoo and shout, “Hey! If anyone’s going to bash SLimelove, it’ll be me!” but I have to hold back. That’ll only make things heat up more.

Honestly, I don’t think I need to respond, but the cries of beasts make people uneasy.

There is a way.

But this method has a ridiculous flaw.

I won’t be able to erase my dark history.

Because this method only works if the video stays up to maximize the effect.

Well, if I delete the video, some people will be convinced I ran away because I was guilty, so I can’t delete it anyway.

There’s this kind of thing in ideological verification.

Try calling someone a son of a b*tch.

“That person is an indescribable son of a b*tch!”

Uploading a video shouting like that is way too uncultured.

Let’s curse more elegantly.

A mukbanger speaks through mukbang.

Sugar Slime

-A slime that pretends to be sugar. A bit easier to cook with.

I melted Sugar Slime, colored it, and kneaded it. I mixed the colors to make the fluorescent rainbow sugar dough that’s trendy these days.

Honestly, I think a society where this color is trendy is crazy.

But what can you do? It’s the trend.

I shaped the sugar dough into bones.

Last time I perfectly recreated human bones, but I’m not going to do that this time.

If it’s too realistic, it’s bound to give people chills.

Plus, it’s a hassle.

The forearm has two bones? Just make it one.

Too many little bones in the hand? Just make it one.

Too many bones in the spine? Just make it one.

Our skeleton is all one bone.

Make the skull feel even more packed.

The eyes are X-shaped.

Three-head-tall chibi skeleton character complete.

The fluorescent rainbow reflects the light, making it truly dazzling.

Especially the head.

This isn’t enough, so I should make some flowers to decorate around it.

Maybe a lotus flower.

***

The sound-loving graduate student played the video.

[Warning!

Do not attempt to imitate this under any circumstances.

This video was filmed by a skilled Slime.

If you try to copy it, you’ll most likely die.]

The usual warning passed, and the screen faded to black.

On the screen, the bluish glowing figure of SLimelove appeared.

In front of him, pale as a will-o’-the-wisp, was an altar.

It was the kind of altar a secret cult might use for sacrifices.

On top of it, something was covered with a black cloth.

Pull away the cloth.

“Pfft!”

A brilliantly shining fluorescent rainbow skull!

Around the skull, a bunch of transparent lotus flowers were placed, their stamens blinking.

Each time, the skull’s head sparkled like a disco ball.

As if deciding which part would taste best, fingers moved from bottom to top and snapped a rib clean off.

SLimelove flicked it up with her finger.

Plink.

Leaning back, she let the rib fall into her open mouth.

Crunch. Crunch.

The sound sent a zing down my spine.

‘This is it. This is the sound.’

Crunch. Crunch.

‘This is Lime’s sound.’

After chewing up each bone one by one, only the skull was left.

SLimelove slowly lifted it and tossed it into the air.

Like a seal playing with a ball, she bounced it up and down.

Then she leaned her head back and gulped it down.

Crunch!

‘Lime. You’re back.’

—

[Anyone who called SLimelove a doomsday preacher, show yourself.]

If you watched this video, you’d know the rumors are total nonsense.

If you haven’t, go watch it.

It’s the same for any religion, but there’s nothing more important than rituals.

If you satirize such an important ritual like this, the inquisitors will show up immediately.

Wasn’t it just someone’s headcanon that the ritual SLimelove did in the Halloween video was the same as the Ribbon cult’s ritual?

There’s no reason to get so worked up about this.

-There was no reason for this to catch fire, but the trolls just got lucky.

└Yeah, yeah.

-But it’s true that Yeonseul lost it.

└Isn’t it because of the college entrance exam?

└What does the exam have to do with anything.

└You get insanely stressed before the exam, right?

└But Yeonseul isn’t even taking the exam, so what does it matter.

└Why not? He could take it.

└Why would Yeonseul take the exam when he’s making so much money?

└Maybe he wants to get into a good university.

└Maybe his family is pressuring him about academics.

-I also had 50,000 WTube subscribers and was growing fast in my senior year, but I still took the exam because of my family.

└50,000 is a bit iffy.

└Hit that in just a month.

└You started WTube a month before the exam?

└I can hear your parents flipping out from here.

—

[These days, even Hunters go to college.]

It’s a world where skill is everything, but there’s still subtle discrimination based on education.

They’ll value the opinion of the college grad more, or send him for negotiations.

If your opponent went to a famous school, you can’t help but feel a bit intimidated.

If your skills are a bit shaky, you have to go to college.

If you don’t have skills, you’ll retire early, and if you don’t even have a degree, nobody will want you.

If you want to make a living after retiring, you need at least a college degree.

-If you make as much as Yeonseul, do you still need to go to college?

└If Yeonseul weren’t Korean, he wouldn’t need a degree. There are probably tons of foreign universities that would give him a professor’s job if he wanted to teach. But a lot of elders think that no matter how much money you have, if you don’t have a degree, you’ll get looked down on. And people really do look down on you. Some people won’t use something made by a high school grad.

—

[Proof that Yeonseul is a retaker.]

Yeonseul is living on his own.

No overbearing parent who’s desperate to send their kid to college would let them live alone.

Yeonseul is at least 18 years old.

Otherwise, his parents wouldn’t have signed the consent form, and he couldn’t be a W-tuber or Yeonseul.

Yeonseul has too much work.

Seniors have to keep going to school, but Yeonseul has too much to do, like filming videos and making <Slime>.

So Yeonseul is a retaker.

-Why did it suddenly become a fact that Yeonseul almost took the exam, lol.

-All the reasons are flimsy except one.

***

“What the?”

I checked to see if the fluorescent rainbow sugar skull mukbang really worked.

For some reason, there’s a rumor going around that I’m either a senior about to take the college entrance exam or a retaker.

The most popular theory right now is this:

The family forced Alchemy Slime to go to college, but Alchemy Slime wanted to live as an Alchemist and W-tuber, so she refused. But the family kept pressuring her, and the stress pushed Alchemy Slime to her limit.

Even under extreme stress, Alchemy Slime worked even harder to prove her ability and earned a huge amount of money.

When she showed her nine-digit savings, her family finally acknowledged her and stopped pressuring her to go to college.

Freed from the stress, Alchemy Slime became normal again.

Sounds pretty plausible. Except for the nine-digit savings part.

Well, you have to subtract the cost of ingredients, and if you think about licensed production-

It’s not weird if people think I’m only making 2-5% of my actual income.

A high school senior, huh…

“Hehehe.”

Do I really look that young?

My skin is pretty clear, though.

Anyway, that about wraps up the whole cult controversy.

There will still be believers, but as long as you control the mainstream, that’s enough.

Counselor Park Taeyang sent me a list of the companies that helped send the Class B artifacts.

But most of them were companies that aren’t really worth bothering.

Companies that make insoles.

Companies that make cosmetics.

Companies that make mosquito-repelling machines.

Companies that make pudding.

Companies that make cleaning supplies.

If there’s anything a bit special, it’s travel agencies and airlines?

If I wanted to mess with them, should I make a <Slime Land Slime> and a <Plane Slime>?

Didn’t the scale suddenly get way too big?