29. Stumbled Into a Slime Nest

Zhong Zemo slammed the puppet to the ground with a shield bash.

Jiang Heyi and Original Flavor French Fries buried their blades into the puppet's body.

Jailer Brother’s fireball struck her beautiful face with a heavy impact.

"Haha, ahahahahahaha!"

"Hero-playing adventurers, do you want to kill me that badly? You're using so much force; you've broken my arm."

"Ow~~~"

"It hurts, it hurts, you're hurting me so much... Just kidding, I don't feel a thing!"

"Use more strength, come on, use more strength, hahahahahaha!"

After attacking with all their might for a long time, everyone was panting.

To be fair, the Magic Fox Puppet did not put much pressure on the Void and Reality Boundary.

Compared to floor guardians like the Frog-Headed Stitch-Monster, which combined magic-state stealth, superhuman strength, and dual forms, its explosive power was quite ordinary. As a creation, the Magic Fox Puppet’s body parts would break off after sustaining a certain amount of damage, causing its movements to become sluggish.

The Magic Fox Puppet laughed madly. Lacking any sense of pain, it launched an attack the moment it was knocked back. After dozens of consecutive exchanges, it eventually lost both arms and half of its head.

Her voice was hoarse and raspy, yet the madness in her bones remained.

"Young and hot-blooded souls, what a pungent aroma, ah~~~"

"It is completely different from the clean and fresh souls of the Purifiers..."

The Magic Fox’s mouth was shattered halfway, her tongue hanging out and dripping with saliva.

Jiang Heyi sighed. Even though it was just a puppet, it was no different from a living creature. The craftsmanship of puppeteers in this worldview was truly impressive; hand-crafting life-sized human figurines was a walk in the park.

"Sigh, are you tired already, so soon?" The puppet staggered closer, dragging its broken legs. "I haven't had enough fun yet, I haven't had enough fun! Come on, let’s play some more~~"

"I understand now. You find this one too broken and intend to switch to a new one, don't you?"

A wisp of hazy white mist rose from the top of the puppet's head.

The uncontrolled Magic Fox shell shattered into pieces on the ground in an instant.

"Wait for me~~ I'll bring back a new one immediately."

For some reason, the tone made Jiang Heyi feel like the puppet’s toy.

"Have you had enough, Naphier!"

A deep, masculine voice resonated from the mist, causing the tense members of Void and Reality Boundary to freeze.

"It will not be too late to play once the Purifier Temple has completely fallen."

The scolded Naphier clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction but did not refute the man. It seemed their status was equal.

The white mist twisted into a humanoid shape, the outlines of eyes traced out, and vertical, purple-gold pupils stared fixedly at the Void and Reality Boundary.

"Hmm, boring. It’s rare to find a few interesting fellows."

Watching the white mist about to dissipate, Jailer Brother suddenly wondered: if he shouted insults at the mist now, could he provoke her to stay and fight to the death?

The thought flashed through his mind, but since he hadn't consulted his teammates, he wasn't impulsive enough to act on his own.

The combat intensity had clearly been low, but for some reason, after the white mist left, the Void and Reality Boundary felt exceptionally exhausted.

Jiang Heyi struggled to steady his breathing—without realizing it, his calm breathing had become rapid, and his heart was beating uncharacteristically fast.

He opened his mouth to ask how the others felt, only to realize with a jolt that he had tinnitus.

A buzzing echo piled up noisily, and no matter how hard he shook his head, he couldn't shake it off.

***

From the others' reactions, Jiang Heyi got his answer.

Everyone had the same symptoms, yet the player panel showed no abnormal status effects.

After recovering, Orange Tea said with lingering fear, "I think... I know who she is."

Facing everyone’s confused gazes, Orange Tea reminded them, "The Whisperer."

Sister Alna had specifically warned them to be careful of this person when they entered the underground temple; she was the mental assassin of the Eternal Night Church.

The moment she locked eyes with the white mist, Orange Tea had vaguely heard a low, blurred echo speaking at an extremely high speed in her ear.

As the duration of her gaze increased, the echo gradually seeped into her thoughts, blurring her vision.

They had thought it would take some time before encountering a core force like the Whisperer, never expecting their first encounter to happen on the third floor.

Without realizing it, everyone had been influenced by her soft murmurs, and they hadn't even noticed it.

This could be considered a high-level experience of a mental-type enemy within the game.

After Naphier’s spirit withdrew from the third floor, Jiang Heyi successfully found two Magic-Suppressing Tablets.

The garrison floor was protected by Alna’s lantern. The red materials were progress-based and were granted simply by patiently searching the entire map, along with some incidental white basic materials. There hadn't been a single decent fight.

It looked like a bonus level, but the more it seemed so, the more he felt the difficulty of the floors below would be staggering.

The fourth and fifth floors of the Purifier Underground Temple were the [Purifier Monastery].

According to information from Alna’s memory fragments, the daily active population of the Purifier Temple was around 800, and these two floors were where the Purifiers rested and lived.

High-level mages among the Purifiers had set up a virtual sun here to deceive the body's senses, simulating sunrise and sunset to synchronize with the outside world.

When the Void and Reality Boundary arrived via teleportation, it was the dead of night, with a bright moon and sparse stars.

In the distance, the monastery dormitories and high towers built against the mountain were outlined in a majestic, blurry silhouette by the moonlight.

Although the second and third floors had yielded a rich harvest, apart from the fight with the puppet controlled by Naphier, it had been too uneventful.

Original Flavor French Fries suppressed the urge to fight and intended to ask Jiang Heyi, their captain, what the plan was.

Receiving no response, she turned around sharply and looked around, only to realize she was all alone; the others were nowhere to be found.

"Teleportation coordinate issue?"

Jiang Heyi had no companions around him either.

In the dead of night, there wasn't a flicker of light around the monastery. Before taking out his lantern, he could only judge that he was in a flower garden by the cold moonlight cast by the false moon.

Subconsciously opening the map to check, Jiang Heyi tapped the projection panel several times, but the screen remained pitch black.

"What does this mean?"

After trying a few more times, Jiang Heyi ruled out a bug.

"This scene... does not allow the use of the map function?"

Taking out a gemstone to record his coordinates to ensure they could all stay together during the next teleportation, Jiang Heyi moved his legs, which had been still for too long.

*Squish~~*

Slippery, elastic, soft—a very strange sensation.

Holding the lantern upward, he tilted the light slightly toward the ground.

The ground around the flower garden was scattered with large amounts of gelatinous clumps, varying in color and shape, as if someone had overturned a giant jelly, shredded it at will, and tossed it everywhere.

The sticky liquid formed large stains, smearing the stone-paved courtyard path.

Jiang Heyi squatted down, pinched a bit with his index finger, and rubbed it. It was very sticky, with a cold texture.

*Sniff~~*

It actually smelled like mint... Ah, it reminded him of a certain disgraceful witch.

Another piece exuded the aroma of red wine.

Wait, why was this one citrus-flavored?

Jiang Heyi was bewildered. Had there been a massive banquet here, and did the Purifiers have a habit of having cake fights with these sticky, cake-like substances?

The path from the courtyard to the dormitory was only two or three hundred meters, yet in that distance, Jiang Heyi had already smelled six or seven flavors of "cake."

Like a slug had crawled over it, a path covered in mucus extended from the wide entrance of the monastery dormitory deep into the interior.

Upon entering the monastery, one could see the destroyed and collapsed statues in the prayer hall. Just like on the previous floors, their faces and bodies had been ruined, making it impossible to identify their original appearance.

The mucus trail continued, passing through the spacious corridor of the main dormitory behind the prayer hall and turning into a corner.

Jiang Heyi peeked around the corner cautiously. The dormitory doors on both sides of the long corridor were all wide open, with many doors hanging askew.

It was quiet—so quiet that Jiang Heyi could hear his own heartbeat and... a slight "plop" sound.

It sounded like the bursting of an air bubble, very faint, like an illusion.

The mucus stuck to his shoes. Jiang Heyi patiently and slowly lifted his foot, "peeling off" the sticky feeling to avoid making any more noise, and inched toward the nearest dormitory door.

At just one glance, Jiang Heyi froze.

The Purifiers were wrapped in "spheres" three times their size. Under their rotted, gray-black clothes, their skin had been corroded and melted into dark red water.

The "spheres" had generated a bubble half the size of the body inside to wrap them up, slowly seeping its own body fluids through various tiny cracks in the bubble to gradually complete the digestion process.

They were slimes, but with a massive size difference compared to the small ones players encountered near Windpod City.

The moonlight streaming in from the windowsill illuminated them—red, green, and blue, perfectly forming the three primary colors.

Overeating had made them tired, and three giant slimes were huddled together, lost in deep sleep.

Having obtained valuable information, Jiang Heyi wanted to leave without making a sound, but this sleeping posture gave him a bold idea.

"Orange Tea isn't here, I'm not asking for perfect results, but how about blowing one of them to bits?"

Holding the [Unstable Combustion Potion], Jiang Heyi muttered to himself while gently rubbing the bottle.

Was this process somewhat similar to soothing a machine spirit?

Since everything had a soul in this worldview, why not let the explosives awaken, too?

"Ignore it, here goes!"

He threw it, turned, and ran—all in one fluid motion.

The sound of the explosion echoed through the quiet monastery. The shockwave tore through the dormitory walls, and tongues of fire spat and flickered.

Almost at the same time, the members of Void and Reality Boundary scattered across the map locked onto the source of the sound.

In a strange map with unknown dangers, everyone was afraid of attracting monsters with noise and was proceeding with caution. Who was so impatient that they had to use Mint’s treasures?

Jiang Heyi’s act of leaning against the wall came back to bite him; the violent tremors left him dizzy.

Supporting himself against the wall, he walked over to the messy corridor and saw the three slimes in the room burning fiercely in the flames, turning into a puddle of viscous liquid. As the fire burned, waves of fruity scents spread out... it was somewhat bizarre.

There was no time to check the loot in the sea of fire; sounds of squirming began to emerge from every corner of the entire floor.

"Ah... this, you've got to be kidding me."