Drowning in Slime

In the end, they decided the researcher must have been seeing things due to some kind of mental breakdown, and he was apparently going to be locked in a solitary cell while they investigated his responsibility. "No, I don't want to die! I won't try to escape, so if you're going to detain me, do it outside this facility!" he'd screamed, but it looked like he was being confined to a cell inside the research facility.

Well, he was the biggest culprit for letting the Slime escape, so it couldn't be helped.

Huh? Don't say that when I'm the one who forcibly broke out? Look, I'm desperately trying to keep Miitei-chan alive here.

Anyway, let me try that plan I thought of earlier — using a Fission dummy to get defeated and let this blow over.

Since they should've concluded I got pretty big from raiding the food storage… I'd need to release a considerable amount of body mass.

Should I go back through the hole to the first room? That'd probably be the most natural place to leave it.

… Ah, but I'd have to go through the storage on the way. Ugh, this is tough.

"It's not here! It's not anywhere!"

"Where'd you run off to, you damn Slime!"

And now the soldiers at the storage had noticed I'd escaped.

Ugh. What should I do about this… ah, right.

Come to think of it, the current mission was "Attack the researchers!"… so the Slime attacking that bald guy who got hauled off was probably a fixed event.

In that case, I needed a Slime to attack that baldy. And that didn't have to be Miitei-chan's main body, meaning me.

In fact, it'd be better if it wasn't me. The narrative: that thing was "the escaped Slime" that "got revenge on the researcher". Yeah, let's set it up that way.

I could complete the mission AND lower their guard. Yep, good idea.

Would Miitei-chan get the experience points if a Fission duplicate killed someone?

Whatever. Let's go to the cell.

I wriggled and rolled through the space beneath the floor, picking up dust that made my throat feel scratchy, and arrived at the cell where that bald guy was locked up.

Locked up, I say, but that's by human standards. Between the small window for monitoring and the pipes for ventilation and plumbing, there were plenty of gaps for a Slime to slip through.

Now then. What was baldy doing in the cell? … Pacing around restlessly, it seemed.

Sometimes he'd clutch his head or cower in fear. "I definitely disposed of the Slime. The room's contents disappearing was definitely the work of an intruder… All the research materials vanished too, how could anyone have done this…" he muttered.

He seemed to be afraid of some invisible assassin. He might not actually be that wary of the Slime.

Now then. How should I kill him?

Truth be told, even though I'd leveled up, Miitei-chan as a Slime had almost no means of attack. Couldn't spit fireballs, launch wind blades, or anything like that.

All I could do was stick to things, move around, and slowly nibble away at stuff. Plus the Miniaturization skill.

I could spend SP to get more skills, but I wanted to get Home and save up.

"Alright. I've decided."

Yes — reverse thinking. The Miniaturization skill. What if I deactivated it? That's right — I'd get big.

Which was larger, this cell or Miitei-chan? I'll crush him with sheer mass!

So I slithered my tentacles out and moved to the cell's ceiling. His pacing actually created blind spots, so sneaking in was easy… Now then, from the ceiling, deactivate Miniaturization aaand SPLORCH!!

"Hm? Hii, ahhh…!! —!! —!!!"

His head was completely buried in my Slime body. His head — no, his whole body was. This was overwhelming mass!

The cell had become a deadly Slime pool!!

Ooh, he was flailing and thrashing. But all that did was churn around inside my Slime body, completely pointless.

Oh, magic? He was trying to use magic… but nope! If I jiggled my body even a little, his limbs got dragged along with it and he couldn't concentrate!

Alright, I really didn't want to do this, but let's pour Slime into his nostrils and mouth too. Time to say bye-bye to oxygen. Farewell, until we meet again.

Gradually, his thrashing weakened until he stopped moving.

People die when they drown in Slime. Learned something new today.

Oh, mission clear and level up at the same time.

… Now then, Fission. I didn't want to reabsorb the part I'd shoved up the old guy's nose, so it could be disposed of along with him as the decoy. See ya.

I split off a considerable amount of Slime body and hid back under the floor.

After that, everything went smoothly — they found the old guy who'd drowned in Slime, killed the decoy while it was still digesting him, and the alarm was lifted.

An investigation to determine the cause began, and after a bit of examination, they apparently concluded "it must have escaped through the pipes" based on the small core in the decoy's body. Exactly right.

And so, the Slime escape incident was resolved—

—or so it seemed. But of course it continues. Because I'm still hiding here.

Still, this was a good stopping point, so maybe I'd call it here for today. It was probably getting late.

I set Auto Mode to "Stay hidden. If danger is sensed, escape covertly."

I thought about having her do Slime squats, but if she moved carelessly and made noise, she might get found.

Anyway, see you later, Miitei-chan.

Logged out of the game. I sank back into my chair while watching the "Kaito a Luise" end screen with its "Adjusting data, please do not turn off the power" message.

"… Phew. Ahh, a human body."

Yes, a human body. It felt like it'd been a while since I was human again.

Even if I reached toward the shelf while sitting, of course I couldn't reach it. My hand didn't stretch. Strangely enough, it actually felt kind of inconvenient.

"… Yeah, this game is seriously weird."

Despite the completely different body structure, I could move it however I wanted. As easily as clicking and dragging with a mouse.

If they applied this to medicine, it'd be incredible, wouldn't it? Like for rehabilitation. Maybe they already had.

"Still, it's inconvenient that I can't access Tria-chan and friend chat is disabled until I clear the second character."

Right. Apparently I couldn't see Tria-chan until Miitei-chan's scenario was finished. If Penpen hadn't told me beforehand, I might've sent a complaint email thinking it was a bug.

After eating so much sandy, gross stuff, I'd wanted to cleanse my palate with one of Penpen's special steaks…

Mmm, oh well. Guess I'll eat some instant rice… Haah. All mushy. Nom nom.