"Ugaaaaa!!!! Gimme meat-uo!!!!!!"
"Coming right up, coming right up."
"Yum, yum! It's so good! So good-uo!! There’s a flavor other than bitterness-uo!!"
A fragile-looking girl with pink hair had suddenly appeared and was now devouring meat with gusto.
Judging by her tone, she was clearly my colleague. What had she said this girl's name was? Mika? Nike? Right, it was Nika-chan.
"Haa, haa... I’ve finally calmed down-uo."
"Welcome back, Mr. Alto-ssu. How many days was it for you-ssu?"
"............Six months."
Wait, what?
"It was six months-uo... Ugh, it was pure agony-uo..."
"That’s terrifying. By the way, only about an hour has passed back here."
"That’s even more terrifying-uo. Is this a prison sentence-uo? If I hadn't spent my career in sales, I would’ve lost my mind and become a vegetable-uo."
I’d heard stories about those whose prison sentences exceeded their natural lifespans—how they were cyberized and then subjected to time acceleration to ensure they served every day of it. Between the brain rot and the eventual death, people usually said the death penalty was a mercy by comparison.
Well, I’d never actually heard of a case where that was carried out, so it was mostly an urban legend.
"Alto, didn't you say it would take a week?"
"That was... the first week was just the trial period-uo. After that, they had me make preparations in the real world, and the plan was to lock me out of logging out until my character died or I cleared the scenario-uo! It’s a demonic game-uo..."
So, it had taken six subjective months for Alto to clear it. For someone like her to take that long, just how brutal was that scenario?
"Since Nika-chan was such a weakling, I had to be careful not to overdo the strength training-uo... And the only thing to eat was 'Defilement.' If I’d at least had some salad chicken or protein, I could’ve finished it in two months-uo."
She nodded to herself, muttering that food was a vital element in building a body-uo.
As a slime, I completely agreed. Though in my case, I’d just been melting down iron and whatever else I could find to increase my mass.
"Having nothing but 'Defilement' to eat sounds genuinely brutal."
"I eventually broke down and spent SP to get Bitterness Resistance-uo... and even then, it only made things slightly more bearable... Ah, yes, I know. This was Nika-chan's reward-uo. I get it, I get it-uo. Penpen, is there anything sweet-uo?"
"Yes, yes. I checked with Mr. Tria and whipped something up-ssu. It's a fresh apple pie-ssu."
"Then let Nika-chan have it-uo. I'm moving into Alto's body-uo."
"Understood, Lord Spirit! Here you go!"
With that, my colleague shifted into the Alto persona. The glow of her Halo changed in intensity.
"Lord Spirit... this is delicious, so very delicious! Ah, I'm so glad I didn't give up... wait, eh? Is this the kingdom of heaven? D-Did I die?"
"Uo-uo-uo. You’re alive-uo. So eat as much as you want-uo. Penpen, thx-uo."
Nika-chan began sobbing uncontrollably as she bit into the apple pie.
Penpen gently added a scoop of ice cream to the side of the pie. Wait, I wanted some of that too. The combination of piping hot and freezing cold... it was a gift from a god of all things sugary. The Super Sweet God had made its Advent.
"Just how bad was that stuff? That 'Defilement'?"
"Without resistance, you’d writhe in agony until you died-uo. I brought a little back with me, want to try some-uo?"
"I’ve got a bit of morbid curiosity-ssu," Penpen admitted.
Penpen brought over a plate, and Alto let a single drop of Defilement fall onto it.
The plate rotted. The solid white ceramic plate simply decayed.
"...Ah, nope. This is bad. If you eat this, you die-uo."
"How were you even able to swallow that?"
"This plate is ruined now-ssu. Please make sure you don't drop any on the floor-ssu!"
"It seems girls born with natural Defilement Resistance were the ones chosen to be the Priestess-uo. Anyway, I’ll eat this to dispose of it-uo. Open wide... wait, I’m in Alto-chan’s body right now-uo! That was close!"
"Let me taste—"
"Hey, wait!" Before I could stop her, Miti-chan reached out and poked the substance. Immediately after, she detached her finger, letting it fall away. The small portion of slime that made up the finger sizzled, dissolved, and withered into nothing.
"Ugh, so bitter... Lord Spirit, this feels like the stuff those researchers called Equipment D."
"That’s the stuff that melts humans into mush. That’s terrifying. Alto-chan, you almost died just now, seriously."
"That girl’s finger just fell off-uo!? Is she okay-uo!?"
Ah, right. I suppose we should all introduce ourselves properly.
"I'm Slime Miti! I'm going to turn everyone into my little sisters and become the Big Sister King!"
"I'm Nika the Priestess. There are so many angels here... Is this really heaven?"
"I am Ginko, the Silver Wolf Beastman. Please call me Gin-chan. I am a maid."
I had the second characters introduce themselves once again.
I still had no idea what a "Big Sister King" was supposed to be.
"I blew up the research institute and slaughtered every single researcher!" Miti announced proudly.
"Heh, nice," Alto replied. "I ended up wiping out an entire town by the end."
"...I only exterminated a single noble family. Kugh, I’ve been defeated," Ginko muttered.
Their introductions were incredibly violent. I thought these scenarios were supposed to be about saving people from despair, but weren't these girls just creating a whole new brand of despair? Was this really okay?
"My special skill is Split! I can become two people!"
"Um, strength training... I think? Also, my special skill is being able to eat anything?"
"I am skilled at cleaning and laundry."
Miti-chan immediately tried to compete. "I can eat anything and clean up perfectly too! And I’m the big sister!" What kind of logic was that? It was cute, though.
"Nika-chan, you can't eat rocks or iron, right? I can, so that makes me the big sister."
"Rocks and iron aren't even food to begin with. Bring me something humans can actually eat. Being able to eat something and it being delicious are two very different things, you know?"
"I don't think humans are supposed to eat that Defilement stuff either," Ginko added.
Well, at least it looked like the three of them were going to get along.
"Man, to think that Miti-chan, who used to have no sense of self, has become so well-spoken... All those people she ate really paid off."
"And Nika-chan, who had reached such a state of resignation that she’d given up on death and was just waiting to turn into a monster, has finally found such wonderful friends... Strength training really does solve everything-uo!"
"And Gin-chan, who was on the verge of death and couldn't even make a sound, is now so energetic... and so on-ssu," Penpen concluded.
Don't just skip the rest, Penpen. This is the momentous growth of our second characters.
Regardless, our second characters had finally joined up with the main group, bringing our total to six. Now, the question was what to do next. It didn't look like we'd be able to add a third character just yet.
...For now, I suppose we should help out at Penpen's Farm?
Oh, that reminded me—I could finally unlock my own Home as well. That sounded like a good plan too.