I was a slime—the monster of a "Monster Panic" scenario!
My mission was to hunt and devour every human in the research institute, and I was currently in the middle of the massacre.
Their equipment was more troublesome than I had anticipated. Honestly, playing the part of the monster was harder than it looked. Even though this was all happening in a VR environment, I wasn't exactly thrilled about the slaughter... but I did it anyway. It was just a game, after all.
However, unlike me, Miti-chan was having the time of her life. She was so enthusiastic that the moment she spotted a group of servants huddled together in a room, she pounced on them immediately.
『Sorry, Lord Spirit. I jumped the gun,』 she said.
『Let’s just be more careful next time,』 I replied.
In the brief moment before she had finished them off, they had managed to send out a distress call. From a Monster Panic perspective, though, hunting down panicked, fleeing prey was more entertaining than a perfect stealth assassination, so it worked for the "game."
Still, since our opponents were fairly strong, I had to get creative. For instance, we could use Split to create decoys, but those decoys were stationary. That meant only two units—Miti-chan and I—could actually move and attack. To fix that, I devised a workaround: "Operation Dummy Slime."
We were naturally transparent, but I would inflate parts of my tentacles into lumps, paint them red with blood, and float rounded chunks of meat inside to mimic cores. And voila! It looked exactly like the tip of my tentacle was a separate red slime.
It was a twisted little puppet show. That was the essence of "Operation Dummy Slime." Our main bodies stayed transparent, lurking in the ceilings or floorboards, while we attacked using the dummy parts. Since Miti-chan did this too, we could simulate a massive swarm.
The red color was specifically to hide the transparent tentacles connecting the dummies to our bodies. I could detach those tentacles at a moment's notice, making us completely safe even if they doused us in that nasty "Equipment D" chemical. I could also leave the dummies behind as stationary decoys. If I reconnected to them later, I could reuse them. To the humans, it must have been an absolute nightmare.
While losing a dummy meant losing a bit of mass, I’d already gorged myself in the lower levels. I had plenty of volume to spare, so the damage was negligible.
By feigning a swarm of slimes, I ramped up their paranoia. I attacked anyone trying to escape to the surface, herding the survivors toward the basement. Once I finished off everyone except the beastmen, the "25-Person Munching Mission" would be a success.
Checking the count now, it was exactly twenty-five. The "bait" children and Annette-chan had been part of the target count from the very beginning.
I shook off the thought and focused on the task at hand. I would continue the disposal of the people who had fled into the basement. They had locked the doors, but that was useless against us—we could just slide through the walls or ceilings.
『Lord Spirit, why did you go out of your way to smash the door?』 Miti-chan asked. 『Couldn't we have just slipped through the cracks?』
『It’s a matter of formalism,』 I told her.
『Hmm?』
The moment people feel safe behind a heavy, reinforced door—BOOM! That’s a classic Monster Panic trope! I’d also made sure to hide inside some protective suits right after the alarm went off. That was another staple of the genre.
『...Usually, there’s an "it’s not over yet" scene where the monster survives just when you think it's been defeated, but that implies letting someone escape, so I think I'll skip that part,』 I mused.
『Massacre! Massacre!』 Miti-chan cheered.
『Don’t eat the beastman children, Miti-chan. That’s our promise.』
『I won't! Annette would be sad, right? I won't kill her friends!』
Good.
By the way, I had already sent a message to Zold. I figured the staff would use the beastmen as meat shields against the slimes, so I told him to just jump right into the swarm when the time came. I promised we wouldn't eat them and would keep them hidden.
Unfortunately, I couldn't store living humans in my Inventory, so I hadn't been able to stash them away beforehand. I’d already eaten all the lockers and containers that could have served as hiding spots, too. But if I hid them in a room on the Basement 2nd Floor—a place the humans had already cleared—they’d never be found. They wouldn't bother re-searching a "safe" room while they were desperately trying to flee a high-danger zone. That was my gamble.
『Lord Spirit! Zold and the others are coming!』
『Ah, here they are. Heh heh heh. Everything is going exactly as planned.』
They had clearly tried to flee further into the facility, but I’d already jammed the locks on the Basement 4th Floor gates with pebbles. Their only option was to turn back this way. And as expected, they were using Zold and the other children as meat shields.
Hah! Their actions were all dancing in the palm of my hand. Welcome, my prey!
Seven beastman slaves were out in front, with the staff following behind. There were only six of them... Wait. The group from the Basement 4th Floor hadn't joined them? My prediction was slightly off. I also noticed one of them was clutching a "red rod."
『...Miti-chan, keep an eye on that red rod.』
『Got it! If it hits me, it goes "gyaa," right?』
Perfect. Now, let’s feast on the rest of them! Monster Panic Part 2—curtain up!