Dummy Slimes

Yo, it's me, the monster in this Monster Panic: the Slime!

My mission is to kill and eat humans, and I'm currently in the middle of massacring the lab staff!

Their gear's been more of a pain than expected… Once you're actually on the monster's side, this is pretty rough.

Killing people in VR already doesn't sit well with me on top of that… Oh well, I'll do it anyway. It's a game.

That said, unlike me, Miitei-chan is going at it with gusto.

She found the servants huddled together in a room and pounced the second she spotted them. That's the level of fired up we're talking about.

"Sorry, Spirit-sama. I went and did it."

"Let's be more careful next time."

In the brief moment before she finished them off, they managed to call for help.

Well, from a Monster Panic standpoint, chasing down panicking prey is more fun than perfect stealth assassinations, so game-wise it's fine.

Since the enemies are pretty tough, we've been getting creative.

For example… we can split apart to create decoys, but detached decoys can't move from where they are, so only two units can actually attack: me and Miitei-chan.

But I devised a workaround. I call it the Dummy Slime Strategy.

We're originally transparent Slimes, but we inflate our tentacles into bulges, paint them red with blood, and float a round chunk of bitten-off flesh inside to look like a core.

And voila! The tips of the tentacles look just like red Slimes!

A nasty little puppet show, in other words. That's the Dummy Slime Strategy.

The main body stays hidden in the ceiling or under the floor while the dummy parts do the attacking.

And since Miitei-chan does it too, we can fake quite the swarm.

We made them red to hide the transparent tentacles connecting back to the main body.

These tentacles can be detached at any time, so even if they get doused with that nasty Gear D chemical, no worries!

On top of that, detached dummies can be left behind as stationary decoys. Since we can reconnect tentacles to reuse them, it must be an absolute nightmare from the enemy's perspective.

Losing dummies does chip away at our volume bit by bit, but we gorged ourselves in the basement beforehand and built up a ton of mass. Not much of a loss.

So the plan is: fake a Slime swarm, ramp up their fear, and pick off anyone who tries to escape to the surface to herd them underground. After that, we just clean up the rest, minus the beastkin, and our Eat 25 Humans mission is complete.

… Yeah, checking the headcount, it comes out to exactly 25.

So the feed kids and Annette-chan were included in the target count from the very start, huh…

Now then.

Time to get back on track and continue dealing with the ones who fled underground!

They shut the doors, but honestly, we can move through ceilings and walls, so that's meaningless against us…

"Spirit-sama, why'd you go out of your way to bust through the door? Couldn't you have just slipped through the gaps?"

"It's called dramatic flair."

"Hmmm?"

Smashing through a sturdy door right when they think they're safe is a classic Monster Panic scene!!

And hiding inside a hazmat suit is another classic move. I rushed to set that up after the alarm went off.

"… Also, the trope where you think you've killed it but it actually survived… that one requires letting them escape, so we'll pass on it."

"Kill 'em all! Kill 'em all!"

"Don't eat the beastkin kids, Miitei-chan. That's our deal."

"I won't attack them! Annette would be sad, right? I don't kill friends!"

Good.

By the way, I already gave Zord-kun a heads-up. They'll probably be used as meat shields against the Slimes, so I told him to charge right in without holding back. I won't eat any of you, and I'll quietly hide you away. That's what I told him.

Unfortunately, you can't put living people into the inventory, so I couldn't stash them away in advance. Plus I'd already eaten all the lockers that could've worked as hiding spots.

But now I can just tuck them away in a room on the second basement floor that the researchers already cleared. Would they bother re-searching a room on the way back that they already checked on the way in, especially with the danger cranked all the way up? Not a chance.

And even rooms they skipped on the way in, they wouldn't suddenly decide to search on the way back. Simple as that.

"Spirit-sama! Zord and the others are here!"

"Oh, they're here? Hehehe. All according to plan."

They must've tried to escape further underground, but I'd already jammed pebbles into the keyhole of the iron gate beyond the fourth basement floor. They had no choice but to turn back.

And if they're coming back, using Zord and the others as shields is the obvious move!

Bwahahaha! Every move they make is right in the palm of my hand!

Come on in, dear prey!

About seven beastkin slaves took the lead, with the rest of the humans following behind.

Six humans total… Huh? The one from the fourth basement floor didn't regroup with them?

A bit off from my prediction. And one of them is holding a red rod.

"… Miitei-chan. Watch out for that red rod, okay?"

"Yeah! If it hits us, we'll go gyahhh, right?"

Alright. Time to devour what's left…! Monster Panic, Act Two: curtain up!