"W-what is this!?"
The master of the room had returned. He was wiping his hands, so he’d apparently been in the restroom.
Incidentally, I—Miti-chan—had already tucked myself away under the floorboards.
"What happened here?! Why is the room empty!? The desks, the chairs, the shelves, the experimental equipment—everything is gone!!"
Thanks for the meal. Well, it was a mission, after all. It couldn't be helped.
I had received SP as a reward for completing that last objective, so I now had enough to learn the Home skill. I had a feeling I’d need my SP for other things right now, so I hadn't taken it yet, but I definitely wanted to acquire it once I made it back safely. For now, I decided to immediately invest some points into the Miniaturization skill.
As I expected, being huge made it a massive pain to hide—or rather, just to move around. Since the skill only cost 10 SP, I’d still have change left over even if I only leveled up four times.
Now then, in a completely empty room, it wouldn't be long before he noticed the hole in the floor. If possible, I wanted to make my escape through the crawlspace, but this place seemed to be a basement.
Beneath the floorboards, there was nothing but piping for the experimental equipment. I wondered if I should eat these, too... Munch, munch. Tasted like metal.
I considered whether I could travel to the next room through these pipes. But then... ah, my Core got stuck. Maybe I had eaten a little too much.
Right on cue, I activated my new SP skill: Miniaturization! Boing! Suddenly, the pipe in front of me looked twice its original size... no, I had just shrunk.
My translucent Slime body was now roughly the size of a basketball. My Core had also shrunk to about ten centimeters in diameter. I could probably squeeze into any hole large enough to fit a mobile device now.
Better yet, it seemed my original volume still applied when I wanted to stretch; it felt like I could extend myself indefinitely, as if I were simply pulling on my compressed mass. This was fun. I felt like I’d become some kind of yoga master.
Well, time to follow the pipes to a different room. That bald guy was already busy ripping up the floorboards behind me!
As I made my way through the hollow interior of the piping, the next objective popped up.
Mission! Attack the Researchers!
...This felt like a trope. It was that classic scene from the movies where the monster ambushes people from the pipes, the ducts, or the crawlspaces.
To think I’d be the one playing the monster... This was going to be a blast, wasn't it?
According to the documents I’d found, this Research Institute was running illegal experiments with the full backing of the state. That basically meant I had a green light to attack everyone in the building, right?
And then, I’d just have to munch, munch everything in sight.
I liked the sound of that. This was getting good.
However, being inside the pipes meant I couldn't see a thing outside, so I had no idea what the situation was. I wanted to get out soon... Oh, right. I had a Map function. Let's see, my current location was... okay, I was inside the wall of a room about three doors down from where I started.
Snap. I poked a hole through the pipe and then bored through the wall.
Time to see what's behind Door Number Three... Oh. It looked like a warehouse. Lucky me—it was an all-you-can-eat buffet!
I widened the hole, wiggled through, and started devouring the contents of the warehouse at random.
Wheat, salt... it was a standard Food Storage area. I even scored some jerky. Score! Natural Meat... though it was rock hard. I figured I’d just dissolve it slowly while sucking on it. It was incredibly salty, too. It wasn't inedible, but it made my mouth sting.
Aside from that, the only vegetables were onions and potatoes. Maybe the vitamin tablets were kept in a different storage room?
Man, there was no way I could finish all of this. I’d just have to stuff some into my Inventory. It felt a bit like a foul move, like bringing Tupperware to a buffet, but this was a game, so it was perfectly legal.
Once I’d cleared out the Food Storage, I felt like I’d grown quite a bit from eating so much... or so I thought, but while I could feel my internal volume increasing, my actual size stayed the same thanks to Miniaturization.
Taking this skill was definitely the right call. Without it, I’d probably be overflowing out of the room by now.
I hit Level 9, too. I figured it was about time to start my attack on the researchers... but then I noticed it was incredibly noisy outside the door.
I flattened my body against the wood to listen to the commotion.
"Emergency! Emergency! An Experimental Creature has escaped! Emergency! Emergency—"
"Enemy is presumed to be a Slime Subspecies! Everyone, equip Special Equipment D! Fire on sight! Are the hatches sealed?! What about the Isolation Protocol—"
"Evacuation of research data is complete! Continuing the withdrawal—"
Ah. They’d noticed. I mean, I’d left that room completely bare; there was no way they wouldn't notice.
That bald Researcher must have sounded the alarm. Well, the damage was a bit too extensive for him to try and hide it.
Suddenly, the door slammed open with a bang, pinning me against the wall with a squish. Since my Core was fine, I took zero damage.
"Report!! The Food Storage has been compromised!!"
"Impossible! How did it get in!?"
A group of guys who looked like soldiers wearing hazmat suits stomped into the room. They were carrying things that looked like rifles.
"Captain! There’s a hole in the wall!"
"So it’s been moving behind the walls... But we've got you now! If it ate everything in this warehouse, it must be massive; the thing has to be stuck! Inject the chemical into the wall and then widen the hole! Be ready for a counterattack!!"
"Yes, sir!"
Following the captain's orders, the soldiers used their gun-like devices to spray a chemical into the hole with a loud hiss. Then, they brought out tools that let out a mechanical grind as they began widening the opening. So that was the Special Equipment D? ...Something involving the Collapse Factor? It looked like it would be bad news if it touched me.
I decided to get out of the warehouse while I still could. I crept slowly up toward the ceiling. Using a Slime's natural stickiness to cling to the surface, I used the noise of their tools to mask the sound of me gnawing a hole in the ceiling, then slipped through into the space above.
Whew. Safe at last.
...Actually, I should have left a Split dummy behind the wall. Too late for that now, though.
They mentioned something about hatches. Does that mean I'm locked in? If there's no way out, things could get hairy. Do I really have to take all of them on...? If they corner me, it's game over.
Mulling it over, I continued to gnaw my way upward until I hit a steel plate.
...I could deal with steel. Sizzle, munch, munch. And just like that, I was through. I successfully moved into the crawlspace of the floor above.
Wow, talk about a half-baked Isolation Protocol. Hahaha!
"I definitely disposed of that Chimera Slime! I administered the Collapse Factor and confirmed the remains myself!"
"Then explain why everything has vanished!"
"Even the glass shards from the flask are gone! This isn't a Slime—it's something else entirely!!"
Shouting voices echoed from above the floorboards. One belonged to the master of the first room. Was the other one a soldier?
...Hmm. This looked like a prime opportunity to complete the mission to Attack the Researchers. I figured I’d take out the soldier with a surprise attack first, then the Researcher... or maybe the other way around? If the soldier had a chance to fight back, it could get annoying.
"H-hey, look! There's a magic circle glowing on the floor right there!!"
"What? Is that your latest excuse? There’s nothing there."
Whoops. I’d been spotted for a second. I pulled back immediately, so it seemed like only the Researcher had caught a glimpse.
Seriously, though—the fact that my Halo can be seen through floors and triggers a detection check has to be a bug.