Chapter 69: Stalemate.

The mountaineer checked the gear.

The gear is different from last year. A few items were excluded from the usual equipment, and <Slime> was added.

No matter how cold the surroundings are, climbing a mountain makes you sweat, so <Pack Slime> was attached inside the clothes.

Inside the hiking boots, <Insole Slime D> was inserted.

After dressing as if for autumn climbing, the penguin set was worn over it.

The penguin set, a collective term for <Raincoat Slime>, <Glove Slime>, and <Boot Slime>.

This penguin set maintains a comfortable temperature whether the surroundings are hot or cold.

The higher you climb a mountain, the colder it gets, but with the penguin set, one outfit is enough.

This reduces the load, and since the clothes are thinner, you can climb with a lighter body. Naturally, the accumulated fatigue is different.

You can reach places that were previously inaccessible.

Some people criticize it as relying on gear, but the mountaineer didn’t care.

Climbing isn’t about suffering; it’s for personal achievement. Comfort is important.

There’s a trend among climbers these days.

Annapurna Penguin March.

Annapurna refers to a mountain range in the Himalayas, famous for its trekking course.

Even if it’s a trekking course, it shouldn’t be underestimated.

After all, the plan is to climb up to Thorong La Pass, which is at an altitude of 5,416 meters.

As a finishing touch, the mountaineer attached <Pack Slime> to the face.

Among climbers, <Pack Slime> is famous for being quite effective in preventing altitude sickness.

It’s widely known that using <Slime> in extreme situations where altitude sickness is a concern shortens its lifespan.

But when thinking about completing the Annapurna Circuit, it doesn’t feel wasteful at all.

Going to the Himalayas and climbing a peak lower than Everest but higher than any mountain in Korea is a brag worth having.

Upon leaving the room, people dressed in the same outfit were gathered together.

This is exactly why Annapurna trekking earned the nickname ‘Annapurna Penguin March.’

Many Koreans have come for Annapurna trekking since long ago. With the penguin set making the difficulty easier, even more Koreans come to travel. Seeing people in penguin sets walking in a line, it can’t help but look like a penguin march.

Naturally, it stood out and became a global buzz. Now, there are many non-Korean penguins as well, making the penguin march even longer.

The start of the roughly two-week journey was mild.

There weren’t any particularly tough moments.

The people who chose this course and came all the way here were seasoned.

With the penguin set and <Humidifier Slime>, the weight of clothes and gear was lighter, making their steps lighter too.

<Raincoat Slime> is impressive, but <Boot Slime> is also something else. Since it prevents slipping in most cases, unnecessary strain isn’t put on the body, and there’s no giving up due to muscle cramps.

As the altitude increased and altitude sickness became a risk, the penguins armed with <Pack Slime> walked on healthily.

Disaster struck on the 9th day.

Perhaps the penguins, who should be in Antarctica, weren’t welcome here.

Suddenly, the weather worsened, and a blizzard started to rage.

The climbers hurriedly headed to a safe place.

Kurururung.

A sound rang out as if the mountain itself was angry.

“An avalanche!”

The mountaineer immediately covered their head and crouched down.

A wave of snow swept over them.

With the sensation of their body floating, the world turned upside down, and their consciousness sank into darkness.

Most of the climbers reached a safe place, but a few went missing.

A rescue team was immediately dispatched to find those who didn’t make it.

Fortunately, the fickle weather acted as if it had never been angry, allowing the search to proceed.

However, finding someone caught in an avalanche is extremely difficult.

Holding onto faint hope, the rescue team used radar and thermal cameras to scan the accident site.

“There’s a spot here with an unusually low temperature!”

Why look for a cold spot when they should be searching for people?

The team leader was about to get angry but checked the screen the team member brought over.

There was an area with a temperature so low it couldn’t possibly be natural.

Digging into that spot, a person was found not too deep down.

“Look for areas with low temperatures!”

Soon after, most of the missing people were found in relatively shallow spots.

The last person who hadn’t been found.

They managed to crawl out of the snow on their own.

“It’s a miracle.”

This story quickly spread worldwide, drawing the attention of mountaineers.

***

If you make just one of these well, you can earn a fortune from merchandise sales.

It draws even those uninterested in rides to amusement parks.

The face representing the amusement park.

Mascot.

Of course, a mascot doll should be in an amusement park.

The mascot of my Slime Land is none other than SLimelove.

Let’s place a large number of mascot suits resembling SLimelove throughout Slime Land.

A true mascot with no person inside?

No uncle popping out to shatter children’s dreams?

An invincible mascot that remains unscathed no matter how much it’s hit?

I absolutely have to make this.

Using skills like [Control+] and others, I created a doll that looks exactly like SLimelove.

Even without my direct instructions, it does move.

The movements weren’t very satisfactory.

Though it had an artificial intelligence level of judgment modeled after me, it couldn’t move like a real creature.

That’s fine.

With the [Link] skill and [Control+] skill, I can control it.

“Not bad.”

I kept increasing the number I controlled.

Once it exceeded three digits, they all started to malfunction.

It felt like drawing a circle with my little toe, a triangle with my big toe, writing my name with my hips, playing Stravinsky’s Petrushka with my hands, singing Schubert’s Demon King with my mouth, and winking all at once.

I tried to control number 1, but number 101 started breakdancing.

When I tried to stop that, number 80 drilled through its own head with its hand.

When I looked over there, number 7 held out number 27’s head as if telling me to eat it.

Aha. So Slime Land was meant to be the stage for a horror game.

“No way.”

If I’m at this level even when controlling them myself, there’s no way Mother can handle it.

Though Mother is growing diligently, it’s still too much.

It feels wasteful to give up like this….

Ah, right.

I can leave only the number Mother can control to her and handle the rest myself, can’t I?

With a bit more practice and raising the skill level, it should be fine.

If I entrust relaying to Mother, I don’t need to be inside Mother’s system.

At least 100.

Deploying these mascot suits reduces the number of people I need to hire.

Yeah.

Not hiring 100 people, isn’t that something?

Not only that, scattering these mascot dolls everywhere allows me to constantly monitor the remaining staff.

“….”

Monitoring all employees, huh.

What on earth are you thinking?

I ate up all the dolls.

I should reset my thoughts a bit.

Should I play a game?

Oh? There’s an update notice for the pixel game Makina told me about last time.

The graphics are impressive, but the story and programming are a mess in this game.

A notice came out saying they will complete the game through continuous updates in the future.

Well, it’s an early access game, so of course, they keep developing it.

Looking at today’s update, it seems the content has increased a little.

There was definitely a good chance for more updates in the future.

Anyway, they’ll probably do a few updates, torture us with hope, sell a few more, and then disappear.

I’ll play it when more updates come out.

I tried the game Makina assigned as homework.

“….”

Why is this a bad ending?

I don’t think I chose any strange options.

The game isn’t going well either.

Should I surf the internet?

[A miracle that happened in Annapurna, Nepal.]

“Wow…. Did something like this happen?”

During winter hiking, an avalanche occurred, but everyone was safe. A few were swept away and went missing, but they were rescued quickly without a single injury.

-It felt as if the <Slime> protected me.

They did protect you.

<Raincoat Slime> was released in winter, but it can be used in summer too. Especially, it was made to be used during typhoons.

The dangerous thing during a typhoon is the objects flying around in the wind.

It was made so that even if you’re hit by a flying signboard, the wearer won’t be harmed.

But there are limits to the amount of impact that thin <Raincoat Slime> can withstand.

Like a car with extremely reduced visibility due to driving rain and wind.

So, if it’s an impact the wearer can’t endure on the spot, it was designed to bounce the wearer away.

An avalanche is certainly an impact that can’t be endured.

<Raincoat Slime> must have lifted the wearer’s body upward.

This worked out well, so they weren’t buried deep in the snow.

It wasn’t designed for avalanches or landslides, but it’s good as hiking gear.

[Penguins discovered on Everest?]

[Penguins aiming to conquer the top of the world.]

[(Real story) World-renowned mountaineer: “The penguin set will save the lives of countless mountaineers.”]

It’s been a while since I saw stories praising <Slime>, so this is interesting.

Should I look for more?

-Is it for real that they’re reusing the subscriber event for the nth time?

Seems like there’s no love left.

Well….

I guess you could see it that way.

It’s a comment completely unrelated to the video, and the number of ‘dislikes’ on it is terrifying.

I can ignore it, right?

Should I stop here for today?

I’m tired.

***

Hello. This is Emergency Rations.

I’m still the house’s spirit living with a terrible owner who doesn’t give me popcorn and cola.

I always watch everything from my place.

Because I have nothing else to do.

Turn on the TV!

Pardon me.

Just like last time, the owner is starting to lose it again.

Making two heads to play with happened often, but it was just for fun.

This time, they started making a Slime that looks like themselves and controlling it.

No matter how you look at it, they started playing with dolls with a serious attitude.

Last time, they made a figure of SLimelove, and this time, it’s the owner’s true self.

I can’t quite tell what they want to do, but if they want to multiply themselves, it’s a failure.

Doing that is just playing with dolls.

Unlike the small Slime from last time, which was made by splitting off a part of their soul.

That thing is just an empty shell.

It can move a little based on faint lingering thoughts, but that’s all.

The owner must know that they can’t multiply themselves.

Or maybe, they don’t know.

What the owner holds inside causes forgetfulness.

The owner’s behavior like this comes from having lost something.

The owner ate up the doll.

It doesn’t feel like they gave up, but rather like they put a brake on themselves.

Watching the owner struggle to hold onto the remnants of something they mustn’t forget makes me a bit sad.

When something good happens to the owner, they regain their senses a little.

Last time, I thought they might come to their senses when hanging out with Birds of a Feather Number 1 and Number 2.

But this time, it seems even a friend’s words can’t penetrate deeply.

This time, it feels like the owner needs something else to happen.

I am the house’s spirit.

Not a holy spirit that can pat their back.

Nor an evil spirit that can grab their neck and shake them.

Just a house’s spirit that can only watch.

All I can do is wish like this.

I hope something good happens to cheer the owner up.

***

Lately, my level isn’t going up well.

Skill levels go up better the more I try new things.

Eating new things makes it go up well.

Making new things makes it go up well too.

So when trading with other countries, I take part of the payment in monster materials. Dungeons differ by country, and the materials you can get are different too.

Making the same thing over and over lowers the efficiency of experience points.

That’s why I’ve consistently developed various new products until now.

But lately, I keep eating the same things.

And making the same things.

Especially eating.

I don’t eat the monster materials I get as payment much, and I focus on food or manufactured goods.

Compared to monster materials, these don’t give much experience points.

I can’t keep stacking up the monster materials I receive, so I feed them to <Glutton Slime> and leave it alone.

Why am I like this?

Has my taste changed?

It’s better to level up quickly.

Should I develop new products?

If I make a new <Slime> and sell it for a while, the overall skill growth will speed up.

But developing new products ultimately means a kind of increase in production volume.

Since it means producing new products without reducing the existing quantity, it’s an increase.

In terms of my ability, I have room to increase production volume.

The problem is that eating hasn’t been going well lately.

Since what goes in is lacking, what comes out is also lacking.

This is troubling.

If I start eating monster materials diligently again, it should be resolved.

Strangely, I’m not in the mood for it.

Could it be because I’m feeling oddly tired?

Riiing.

[Counselor Park Taeyang]

What’s the matter this time?

We had a conversation.

“If the reward is like that, I’ll give it a try.”

It’s been a while since I received a personal request.

And it’s a personal request with a Class A artifact at stake.