Slime Abilities and the Second Wave

[Host: Lin Ran]

[Race: Human, Slime (Multiracial Coexistence State)]

[Casanova Level: LV.1 (Experience Required: 350/1000)]

[Status: Healthy]

[Attributes: Strength·7.7, Agility·8.8, Spirit·9.9, Charisma·11, Luck·-11]

[Skills: Cupid’s Abhorrence (LV.MAX), Love Detection Eye, Teleportation Gate (LV.1)]

Lin Ran’s attempt at maintaining his composure utterly failed.

“How did I become a slime? Did Lim infect me? Is this thing contagious through contact?”

[Ding! Detecting strong emotional fluctuations from the Host. The System will now provide an explanation.]

While the system had many flaws, its instant responsiveness was something Lin Ran deeply appreciated.

[Host, this is because you have triggered a Bond Quest with your target, Lim: Reliable Partner!]

“Just cut to the chase!”

Lin Ran recalled that the quest issued after he killed Xia Li was also named [Reliable Partner].

However, the system’s explanation offered no insight into the underlying mechanism, causing him to grumble under his breath.

[Please be kinder to the System. Cultivating a good temper is essential for love.]

“I’m not trying to win you over; get to the point.”

[Simply put, once your favorability with a target reaches a certain stage, triggering this quest will grant you some basic abilities of that target’s race. This is intended to deepen mutual understanding and lay a foundation for more profound interactions.]

Upon hearing this, Lin Ran instantly grasped the crucial implication.

“You mean, whoever I conquer, I gain their abilities?”

[Yes.]

‘This…’

‘If I were to conquer an angel, wouldn’t I grow wings?’

‘And if I conquered a dragon, wouldn’t I be able to breathe fire?’

‘What if I conquered a supreme god…’

[Ding—Host, please acknowledge your Luck value of -11 and abandon these unrealistic fantasies.]

[This System can only assist you in your conquests. The probability of successfully conquering even a cute slime is already quite low.]

“…”

‘Damn it! This -11 luck, doesn’t a certain system bear some responsibility for that too!’

‘Increase all attributes by 10%? So (-10 * 1.1) became -11 luck?’

‘Leaving aside the fact that my base luck was -10, doesn’t your system bear any responsibility?’

Suppressing the urge to physically brawl with the system, he refocused his attention on his newfound abilities.

[Slime Racial Basic Abilities: Body Liquefaction, Corrosive Liquid Spray, Self-Repair, Mimicry.]

Just then, Lim, who had been lost in her shyness, finally noticed something amiss.

“Master… your foot…”

She crouched down, curiously extending a finger to lightly touch Lin Ran’s gelatinous foot.

“Just like Xia Li was a succubus, I must have some kind of ability… it’s just a bit peculiar.”

Lin Ran’s face flushed with embarrassment; he wasn’t sure if slimes understood the concept of a system, so this was the best explanation he could offer.

Yet, Lim paid no mind to his explanation; Lin Ran was simply Lin Ran to her.

Whether slime or human, Lin Ran remained the being she relied upon most.

In fact, possessing slime abilities only made Lim feel even closer to him.

“Master has something the same as Lim!”

Seeing her genuine smile, Lin Ran also offered a slight grin.

Conveniently, he had been planning to test his new abilities and show Lim as well.

Raising his left hand, he concentrated.

His palm visibly lost its bones and muscles, transforming into a wobbling mass of blue gel.

He then attempted to revert the gelatinous hand to its original form, and the process was remarkably smooth.

“Quite convenient,” he muttered.

Lin Ran pondered the practicality of these newfound powers.

‘Body liquefaction would allow him to slip through door cracks effortlessly.’

‘Corrosive liquid spray, while generally weak, might just melt a door lock in a critical moment.’

‘As for self-repair, that was a divine skill in the apocalypse.’

‘And mimicry…’

Lin Ran tried transforming; closing his eyes, several human faces materialized in his mind.

From the vast array of faces, he randomly selected one.

The next second, his body began to reconfigure, his height shrinking, his Adam’s apple disappearing, and a cascade of long hair flowing down.

Opening his eyes, he walked to the mirror, where a face identical to Xia Li’s stared back at him.

The texture of the skin was perfectly human, and even the voice he uttered was an exact replica of Xia Li’s.

This was considerably more potent than Lim’s mimicry, almost a perfect replication.

Of course, mimicry was indeed energy-intensive; he transformed a few more times before collapsing onto the bed, exhausted from playing around.

‘Thinking about it, becoming half a slime in exchange for such formidable powers was an absolute steal!’

As he delved into his new abilities, a group of tiny slime-humans emerged from the Teleportation Gate.

Their hair and eye colors varied, much like their original slime forms, and their height barely reached Lin Ran’s knees.

Over eighty percent of them appeared as little girls, seemingly influenced by their imitation of Lim and their affection for Lin Ran.

The remaining twenty percent were small boys, formerly the stronger slimes, but still endearing.

The little ones filed in, and once assembled, they uniformly gazed at Lin Ran and Lim.

“Master, we’ve all transformed!”

“Walking like this feels so strange!”

“Master, pat us—”

The slimes chattered their reports, all clinging to Lin Ran.

They were all ordinary slimes, so even if they were larger than Lim previously, their current human forms were less than half a meter tall.

According to Lim, this was due to differences in the magical energy stored within their bodies.

As she said this, she seemed rather proud, apparently forgetting that she herself could only mimic a girl’s form.

With all the slimes returned, Lin Ran retracted the Teleportation Gate he had set up earlier.

“Now, there’s one last task. Follow me to the balcony.”

He led the swarm of small slimes and a still-shy Lim to the balcony.

“See this soil and grass? Each of you grab a bit; we’re going to farm!”

And so, on the first night of the apocalypse.

A fantastical scene unfolded on the balcony of the male dormitory.

A male university student, accompanied by dozens of small boys and girls less than half a meter tall, earnestly planted grass on the balcony.

“Yes, spread the soil evenly.”

“That weed, plant it straight, don’t let it be crooked.”

“Ah, you’re the slime who wanted to give me a little flower, no wonder you’re so small. You must take good care of yourself. Hmm? Is this the flower you brought back? Come, learn from me, plant it there.”

Lin Ran, like an old father directing his daughters, felt a surprising sense of accomplishment.

Especially the slime he had saved; whenever it looked at him, it would gradually turn pink and shyly lower its head.

Several times, it failed to maintain its form and reverted to a slime because of this.

Of course, each time, Lim would appear with a face full of black lines (TL Note: A common Asian expression for exasperation or speechless anger), dragging the shy slime to a corner for a ‘heart-to-heart’ with a ‘benevolent’ smile.

****

‘If only life could always be like this.’

Lin Ran also glanced at the dormitory building opposite.

Most dorms had returned to calm, devoid of the previous screams and struggles.

It seemed the first wave of invasion was indeed a ‘welfare stage’ (TL Note: A gaming term for an easy level or bonus stage), with most students passing through safely, albeit with a scare.

After bustling for over half an hour, the balcony was entirely covered with soil, and the planting was finally complete.

Lin Ran clapped the dirt from his hands, leading his formidable “Slime Legion” back to the dorm.

Lying on his bed, he pulled out his phone, intending to check the latest developments.

The freshman group chat, silent for three years, had now exploded, with messages soaring past 999+.

Lin Ran tapped it open, and a deluge of messages scrolled wildly across the screen.

–[Invincible and Overbearing Athlete – Zhang Ba]: “Listen up, brothers, if you dig in the sewers, you can still find some slimes! They’re all experience babies (TL Note: A gaming term for easy-to-defeat monsters that grant experience)!”

–[Student Council Member – Chen Jing]: “@Everyone Please note, killing slimes may drop a type of stone, which we are temporarily calling ‘crystal cores.’ These are likely to be important resources in the future, so please be sure to collect them.”

–[302 – Wang Pangzi]: “Holy crap, I just breathed fire! I just yelled ‘Fireball’ at a slime, and I could shoot fire! But my dorm’s on fire, what do I do?!”

–[Anime Club – Li Hao]: “Are you kidding me?! A super huge slime spawned here! Good thing I had a knife in the dorm; I stabbed it through, or I would’ve been eaten!”

–[Student Council Member – Chen Jing]: “That’s a rare species. Our student council discussions revealed they always drop crystal cores. Search carefully; don’t miss it!”

The group was chatting animatedly when someone posted.

–[Class Seven’s Handsomest]: “When’s the second wave coming?”

–[Lin Ran]: “No goblins, no trolls, no goblins, no trolls! Just cute slimes are fine.”

Lin Ran almost subconsciously sent this message, treating it as a casual complaint to the system.

He no longer wished for dragon girls, angels, cat girls, or elves; he’d even accept a Mimic (TL Note: A monster disguised as a treasure chest).

‘After all, his was a romance system; it should probably avoid high-difficulty challenges.’

The group fell silent for a moment.

–[Anime Club – Li Hao]: “??? Cute? Bro, are you okay? What’s cute about those things? Even I, a veteran otaku (TL Note: A Japanese term for a person with an obsessive interest in aspects of popular culture, especially anime and manga), can’t find any moe (TL Note: A Japanese term referring to a strong affection towards characters in anime, manga, and video games) points!”

–[Invincible and Overbearing Athlete – Zhang Ba]: “Exactly, Lin Ran, you haven’t been scared silly, have you?”

–[Lin Ran]: “You are not a slime; how can you know a slime’s cuteness?”

‘Hmm… strictly speaking, he was indeed a slime himself now.’

‘Moreover… in most people’s eyes, slimes weren’t exactly cute.’

‘Just like the Mimic he’d thought of earlier, it wasn’t an “XP” (TL Note: A slang term referring to a person’s sexual preferences or kinks, derived from ‘experience points’ in gaming) that most people could accept.’

‘Could it be that he really was a weirdo?’

–[Anime Club – Li Hao]: “…Alright, you’re awesome.”

The group chat fell silent once more.

‘The joys and sorrows of humans are not interconnected.’

Lin Ran had no intention of wasting more time; he turned off his phone, ready for sleep.

As night deepened, the campus, bustling throughout the day, finally settled into complete silence.

The little slimes had exhausted their energy, each reverting to a jelly-like form, piling up in a corner of the dorm, sleeping soundly.

Lim, however, was still full of energy, leaning closely against Lin Ran, gazing at him with pitiful eyes.

“Master, it’s late, shall we… sleep?”

Lin Ran yawned, pointing to the round sofa by his bed, which he had bought long ago but rarely used.

It was just about Lim’s current size, making it a perfect bed for her.

“You can sleep there. I’m going to bed.”

Lim’s body swayed, her blue eyes brimming with disappointment.

“Can I… sleep with Master?”

“No.”–

This was Lin Ran’s instinctive reply, but he didn’t voice it.

‘Having a young girl of that size sleeping next to an upright, virile young man would make it unsurprising if ‘Uncle Hat’ (TL Note: A euphemism for the police) appeared the next moment.’

However, after a day of interaction, he already had a general understanding of Lim’s intentions.

‘She just wanted to stick close to him, it was that simple.’

Lin Ran pulled a spare blanket from the closet and spread it beside himself.

“You can sleep here.”

‘Hmm… sharing the same blanket was still a psychological hurdle he couldn’t overcome.’

“Mmm!”

Lim’s mood instantly brightened; she happily rolled around, snugly wrapping herself in the blanket.

Lin Ran lay on the bed, feeling utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally.

The apocalypse, the system, killing, slimes, racial transformation…

The events of this single day were more bizarre than his entire past twenty years combined.

A wave of fatigue washed over him, and he quickly drifted into slumber.

The dorm was silent, save for the breathing of Lin Ran and Lim, and the occasional gurgling sounds from the sleeping slimes.

The screen of his phone, casually placed on his nightstand, suddenly lit up.

The mysterious message in the freshman group reappeared.

[Second Wave Monsters: Dolls, Baku (TL Note: A Japanese mythical creature that devours nightmares)]

[The enemies in this wave possess very special abilities. Please prepare accordingly.]

[Wishing everyone once again, prosperous martial fortune (TL Note: A traditional blessing for success in battle or military endeavors).]

The phone screen slowly dimmed; Lin Ran did not see it, nor did anyone reply.

The entire world seemed to have fallen into slumber.

Regardless of the country, whether it was day or night.

Whether night owls or salarymen chronically deprived of sleep.

Whether sleeping in soft, sprawling beds or mosquito-ridden bridge underpasses.

Everyone, at the exact same moment, fell into a deep sleep from which they could not be awakened.