“Hahaha, I'm dying! They can't even catch a slime. If it were me, it would've been an EXP pack already.”
“Alright, stop boasting. Everyone's a pro on the internet, huh?”
“To be fair, the streamer actually did pretty well. The other four teammates didn't even react in time.”
“Honestly, I was shocked. I didn't expect a slime to actually run away.”
“666, treating slimes like idiots.”
“Seriously though, even a random mob is this smart? Talk about over-delivering.”
“Slime: 'They're still chasing me!'”
“'That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Got Hunted by Players Right from the Start.' If this isn't in bookstores, I'm rioting.”
“666, Rimuru came to another world and the sky collapsed.”
“Damn! Hurry up and uninstall Tomato Novels! (facepalm)”
“That's Tomato addiction right there.”
“666, luckily I use Red Tomato, or I'd end up like him.”
“That's the exact same damn thing! (blackface)”
“Holy crap, why didn't you say so earlier?”
“Then I'll switch to Red Persimmon Novels. (blue haircut)”
...
Nan Cheng's livestream chat room was bustling with activity.
Nan Cheng glanced at the chat bullet comments, his lips twitching slightly.
Whatever, taking down the slime is what matters.
Ignoring the chat, he looked at his teammates beside him; all of them were panting heavily.
Bruce was already flushed beet-red, breathing heavily like a pair of bellows. Watching the slime hop further and further away, its blue jelly body flashing intermittently through the bushes, he scratched his head in sheer frustration.
Just then, he slapped his thigh and yelled, “Fuck! I forgot I have a taunt skill!”
Right after the words left his mouth, Bruce bellowed toward the direction where the slime was fleeing: “Halt right there!”
The roar transformed into a sharp whistle, precisely hitting the slime just as it was about to disappear into the depths of the dense forest.
Skill activated—「Novice Taunt」!
In the next instant, as if someone had hit the pause button, the slime's round body stiffened violently.
Then, a furious crimson blush flushed over its blue jelly surface. Its terrified “mumu” noises instantly turned sharp. Instead of fleeing, it turned around and bounced fiercely toward Bruce at a speed even faster than before, venting angry “mumu! mumu!” squeaks as it came.
“Holy crap?! Novice Taunt works this well?!”
This was a random starting skill Bruce had rolled. He had assumed it was just a standard aggro-drawing ability, but the results far exceeded his expectations.
“Nice job, Bruce!” Nan Cheng's eyes lit up, and he immediately barked commands. “Quick! Use Vine Entangle to lock it down, then follow up with Fireball for damage!”
As a veteran gaming streamer, his reflexes and quick thinking were top-notch.
Emerald-green vines burst forth from the ground, binding the slime tightly and rendering it completely immobile.
A scorching Fireball followed closely behind. The orange-red sphere hurtled forward with blistering heat, exploding onto the slime with a loud boom and instantly engulfing it in roaring flames.
The slime emitted a pained screech, its body shrinking rapidly amidst the flames. The blue jelly shriveled at a speed visible to the naked eye as its mucus vaporized into white mist, filling the air with a strange, sweetish musky odor.
Meanwhile, Bruce gave a chuckled laugh and rubbed his hands together. “Leave it to me, Bro Cheng! This slime isn't escaping today!”
With that, he tightened his grip on his wooden sword and slashed at the immobilized slime.
The tactile sensation of the wooden sword striking the slime was shockingly realistic. Instead of the usual game sound effects, there was a wet squelch—like cutting open a jelly filled with liquid—splattering cold, slick fluid all over Bruce's hand.
“Holy crap! This texture is way too weird!” Bruce instinctively shook his hand.
As the hidden Sacred Light Siphon activated, the slime's body rapidly shriveled away until it completely lost all vitality, turning into a puddle of dark blue fluid that slowly seeped into the damp soil.
System notification prompts chimed simultaneously in everyone's ears:
“EXP +100”
“EXP +20”
“EXP +20”
“EXP +20”
“EXP +10”
“What? Only 20 points?!” The party's sole Mage player immediately blew up.
“I got 20 points too,” another player replied.
“Hehehe, I got 100 points!” Bruce grinned smugly.
“Huh?”
“Wait, why did I only get 10 points?”
“Maybe because your bad luck is showing.”
“...”
The players babbled back and forth.
“It's probably based on damage contribution,” Nan Cheng mused. His interface also displayed +20 EXP. “The EXP distribution in this game is surprisingly realistic. Just like a party dungeon, it accounts for contribution.”
“Ah?”
“So that's how it is.”
“As expected of a pro.”
“Hiss... still, even though this system is way more reasonable than games that split EXP equally, the EXP yield is way too stingy.”
“Yeah, for real.”
In truth, Iluvia hadn't originally intended to distribute assist EXP. However, considering that it might trigger discontent among players and lower their desire to play, she had added assist EXP distribution.
However, because assist players didn't deliver the killing blow, Sacred Light Siphon could not trigger, meaning no divine power could be harvested. Thus, the assist players' EXP was actually deducted from the EXP gained by the player who made the kill.
Of course, this didn't mean Iluvia took a larger cut of the players' gains. The 70/30 split of divine power remained unchanged; it simply meant the EXP awarded to players was distributed among more individuals.
Bruce kicked at the watery stain on the ground, clicking his tongue in regret. “If I knew EXP was this pitiful, running errands back at camp would've been better. But then again, if we could kill a whole cluster of slimes together, maybe our efficiency would be higher?”
As he spoke, he squatted down and poked the partially dried goo with his wooden sword. “Ideally the kind where one slash mows down a huge group, with EXP popping up like crazy. How sweet would that be?”
“What are you dreaming about? Where are you gonna find that many slimes to kill?” one player poked fun at him.
“That being said, 20 EXP is indeed way too low. Split among five people, we need 5,000 points to level up. How many would we even have to kill...”
Speaking of this, one player groaned in dismay.
“At least 250, if we split it like this every time,” Nan Cheng calculated mentally.
“And that's assuming every single one is killed by us without anyone stealing our kills.”
“Of course, if you get the final hit like Bruce did, you'd only need 50,” he added at the end.
“Hiss? How long is that gonna take to grind...” Bruce stood up, but before he could finish his sentence, his foot suddenly slipped.
He had stepped directly onto the leftover slime goo, losing his balance in an instant.
“Holy crap!”
Bruce let out a cry of panic, flailing his arms frantically in midair, but failed to regain his footing. He fell heavily into a nearby bush with a loud thud, landing face-first into the dense foliage.
“Hahaha! I'm dying!”
“Bruce, are you here for comedy relief?! You slipped just walking!”
“That faceplant on flat ground was top-tier skill, Bruce!”
“Pfft, trying to get intimate with the bushes?”
The teammates doubled over laughing. Nan Cheng couldn't help a smile either. Just as he was about to walk over and pull him up, a deafening “Holy crap?!” erupted from Bruce inside the bush—a voice loaded with shock, wild joy, and sheer disbelief.
“What's wrong? Did you fall and break your brain?” the Mage teased.
Ignoring the dirt and fallen leaves on his body, Bruce scrambled out of the bush and pointed behind it, yelling excitedly, “C-Come look! Quick, come see!” His voice was trembling, his face a picture of stunned excitement.
The genuine shock in his voice was impossible to fake.
The rest of the party froze, exchanged glances, and quickly pushed aside the bushes to peek over.
Nan Cheng's curiosity was piqued as well as he pulled back the branches.
And then—
“Holy crap?!”
“This...”
“My god...”
Rate on N.U.
