Slimes covered the mountains and fields, surrounding them on all sides. For a moment, Brother Zhang’s trio thought they were about to be attacked, and their faces turned pale, but thankfully the monsters’ non-aggressive nature hadn’t changed—they only blocked the way forward.
They could only retreat step by step, gradually being herded into a circle formed by the slimes.
“Something’s not right.” He Wuning’s expression was grave. “Focus fire, hurry up!”
Yi Luo was clearly thinking the same thing, and the frequency of their attacks suddenly increased, slowly forcing the giant slime’s health bar down.
—This massive transparent jelly had both high HP and strong defenses, and it could even regenerate. It was the kind of grinding monster that wore players down. But up to this point, it still hadn’t shown any real offensive skills.
Swallowing people was dangerous, yes, but its movement speed wasn’t high. As long as a human with all four limbs intact ran with everything they had, the slime wouldn’t be able to catch up. What’s more, it was now stationary, focused entirely on digesting the milk tea car.
Q-chan shrieked: “Ahhh! Durability at zero! Milk tea car unusable!”
He Wuning didn’t know if monsters received system announcements too, but the moment the car’s durability hit zero, the slime completely lost interest in it. The giant slime stopped feeding and slowly swayed its body.
But its HP also stopped regenerating.
It seemed it could only heal while eating.
After savoring the pink milk tea car, the slime abruptly opened a round hole. He Wuning stepped back cautiously, but it didn’t attack. Instead, it opened its mouth wide and let out a long “Buuurp—.”
He Wuning froze for a second before realizing—that was its mouth?
Yi Luo looked fascinated. “Slimes can make sounds?”
He Wuning said hesitantly, “It might be… burping?”
Only Q-chan wailed in grief: “Wuuuh! My poor car! My poor car!”
The giant slime swayed its body more and more violently. Yi Luo frowned slightly and said, “Don’t you think it’s kind of like a roly-poly toy?”
He Wuning’s gaze grew distant, suspicion flashing in his eyes. Could this giant slime also be a non-aggressive monster? Maybe if they turned and left right now, it wouldn’t even follow…
But just as that absurd thought crossed his mind, the slime suddenly toppled forward like a roly-poly that had lost balance, rolling downhill in a massive meatball blitz straight toward Old Qi and his group.
He Wuning couldn’t help but click his tongue. Yi Luo raised his brows. “Who suddenly pissed you off again?”
“Myself.”
For daring to think for even a moment that this monster wasn’t dangerous.
Yi Luo hadn’t expected someone could be so self-righteous about being angry at themselves, but he quickly followed after him.
“Why are you trailing me? You’re ranged—stay back!” He Wuning barked without turning his head.
Yi Luo looked surprised. “You’re still planning to protect me?”
He Wuning flashed his knife. Yi Luo instantly shut his mouth, afraid that if he said one more word, his hot-tempered partner would send him straight to hell.
He Wuning gave chase, his heart pounding fast—the giant slime’s target didn’t make sense. Its aggro should have been locked on either him or Yi Luo, so why was it going after those two?
His expression darkened. He lowered his body, leaping forward like a swift cheetah, carving a chunk out of the slime’s gelatinous body.
The jelly-like flesh melted into some corrosive goo once severed, and He Wuning carefully avoided it.
The giant slime showed no signs of pain. No matter how he and Yi Luo attacked, it never turned back. Just like with the Stone Giant before—it had locked onto its target.
Maybe it would drop fragments!
He Wuning’s gaze fixed on the two fleeing figures. Who was it after? The terrified older man, or the young man who had “faked a fall” against Yi Luo back in the trading center?
“You can’t outrun it—turn back and fight!”
He Wuning shouted to them. Old Qi looked back in panic at the slime looming overhead, blotting out the sky. Despair filled his clouded eyes. Then, in a sudden motion, he shoved the young man toward He Wuning.
He Wuning caught the youth in one pull. The dull-eyed fool finally showed some reaction—his body twitched, his eyes widening in surprise as he instinctively reached out his hand. “Uncle…”
Old Qi shut his eyes. But the crushing pain he expected never came. Instead, something icy cold flooded his nose and mouth, burning painfully as if he were drowning in boiling water.
He Wuning’s words echoed in his mind: Turn back and fight. Like a warhorn, they rang again and again. This farmer, who had never raised his voice in his life, clenched his teeth and raised his hand desperately.
The next moment, a burst of flames exploded inside the giant slime’s body!
Halfway through his escape, Brother Zhang—blocked by slimes—had to turn back.
“What the hell?! That bastard’s been playing dumb with me all along?”
Yi Luo shot him a glance, and Brother Zhang immediately fell silent, plastering on a fawning grin as he tried to hide behind him. His two lackeys mimicked him, ducking behind Yi Luo like chicks hiding behind a hen.
The giant slime’s HP suddenly dropped by a huge chunk!
He Wuning’s eyes lit up. “It’s weak to fire!”
The giant slime realized it had swallowed a burning hot potato, suddenly opened its mouth, and with a loud “Puh!” spat Old Qi back out.
Old Qi traced a parabola through the air, eyes screwed shut, not daring to look down. The young man suddenly yanked free of He Wuning’s hand, tilted his head back, mouth wide open, and stretched out his arms, running toward the spot where Old Qi was about to fall.
——And then, because he wasn’t looking at the ground, he tripped over a rock and fell flat.
He Wuning nearly knelt down on the spot to worship these two living clowns. Face dark, he yanked the fool up, dodging the slime’s corrosive attack, while tossing a huge wave of items toward Old Qi’s landing point.
With a thud, Old Qi crashed down, sinking straight into a sea of pearls, taro balls, and coconut jelly.
Coughing and spitting out slime, he dazedly grabbed a handful of milk tea toppings that had just saved his life.
He Wuning rushed over: “Don’t just stand there! Keep fighting!”
Old Qi quickly raised his hand, face flushed red, veins popping—then with another thud collapsed straight back into the pile of milk tea toppings, bluntly dumping the mess on everyone else and passing out cold.
He Wuning’s face went completely blank.
“Great, now the lighter’s single-use.” Yi Luo’s voice sounded behind him. He Wuning turned his head and saw Brother Zhang’s trio trembling behind Yi Luo’s massive shield. Yi Luo had somehow come up beside him.
He didn’t look flustered at all. “Looks like it’s still up to us in the end.”
The giant slime had shrunk a fair bit after spitting out a mouthful of slime, but before they could celebrate, the surrounding slimes rolled over to it. Accepting its companions, it quickly rebuilt its body.
Brother Zhang broke down on the spot: “Are you kidding me? This thing brought a whole army of backup health packs?!”
He Wuning, expressionless: “If we call your HQ now and ask them to send over a flamethrower, you think it’ll make it in time?”
Yi Luo, dead serious: “Maybe just in time to collect our corpses.”
He Wuning: “…”
Yi Luo chuckled at his expression, pulled a long bottle-shaped object from his pack, and tossed it to him: “Think you can figure out a way to shove this down its throat?”
He Wuning’s expression grew odd. “What is this?”
Yi Luo explained simply: “Molotov.”
He Wuning fell briefly silent. “…This game drops stuff like that?”
Since Yi Luo had pulled it out of his system pack, it had to be a game item.
Yi Luo smiled softly. Raising his gun, he chambered a bullet. “The game doesn’t drop this. It’s a crafted item from the tech department—science at work.”
He tilted his chin toward He Wuning. “Needs a little teamwork, partner. There’s only one. Help me deliver it?”
He Wuning accepted the Molotov, gave him a glance. “If I just throw it, it’ll get swallowed before it explodes.”
Yi Luo tapped his sniper rifle. “That’s why it needs to be manually detonated.”
“You’d better run fast, otherwise I might have to take responsibility for the rest of your life.”
He Wuning lifted his eyelids. “No need.”
Without hesitation, he dashed forward in one fluid motion. “Testing.”
He tossed a candy box. Yi Luo’s scope tracked its arc, and at the exact moment it entered the slime’s mouth, he pulled the trigger—sending the box flying out. The giant slime froze for a second like someone’s dinner had just been kicked over.
Satisfied with his accuracy, He Wuning zeroed in and hurled the Molotov without hesitation.
Yi Luo’s smile faded, concentration sharpening to the extreme. In his black pupils, the Molotov seemed to float in slow motion.
The trigger squeezed, the bullet flew, sparks burst into a violent explosion—the giant slime looked as if it had swallowed a blazing crimson lotus!
Smoke filled the air. He Wuning ducked low, plunging straight into the giant slime’s body along with the Molotov’s blast.
“He Wuning!”
Yi Luo hadn’t expected the madman not to dodge. His expression changed instantly as he charged into the smoke—only to find He Wuning pulling a dagger out of the giant slime’s body as it finally dissolved into a mass of shimmering data.
He Wuning gave him a casual glance. “Damage wasn’t quite enough. Finish it off.”
Then, as if remembering something, his gaze turned sharp. “What did you just call me?”
Yi Luo froze. In the heat of the moment, he had just shouted his name…
He Wuning narrowed his eyes, clearly in a bad mood, and stepped closer. His clothes were riddled with holes from the slime’s acid, a scrape marked his face, but even in his battle-worn state he carried an arrogant air. “So when there’s trouble I’m ‘Brother He,’ but when it’s nothing I’m just ‘He Wuning,’ huh?”
Yi Luo finally let out the breath he’d been holding, sighing: “I’d even call you ancestor if you want.”
“Just… could you at least give me a heads-up before charging in next time?”
He thought about it—if He Wuning actually did say “I’m going in” beforehand, his heart probably wouldn’t handle it any better. So he shut his mouth miserably. “…Forget it. I won’t push it.”
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The author has something to say:
Mini bonus skit (not canon):
Yi Luo: Anything’s fine, really, I’ll just work on adapting myself.
He Wuning: .
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