Chapter 167

“Directions to the lab?
When Ming Hu saw the message, he smiled. Then he began to walk along the new path. As Ming Hu walked inward along the path, he thought to himself.
“What am I working on?
I wondered what was being studied in this lab. The slimes I’d met so far had taken on human forms, so I wondered if what they were researching here was some sort of humanization of monsters. I thought to myself.
“Hmmm…hmmm…”
That’s when I heard the ragged breathing up ahead.
Jab!
Ming Hu stopped walking at the sound of her breathing and listened closely.
“Hmph…hmmph… Hmph…hmph…”
It wasn’t a positive, pleasure-based breath. There was a sense of pain in the breathing. Ming Hu slowly approached the source of the breathing.
Jumbled
As Ming Hu approached the sound of breathing, he soon found the man lying on the ground in agony. The man’s condition looked very serious. For one thing, there was a pool of blood on the ground that appeared to be made of the man’s own blood, and the man’s expression was very unhappy.
‘NPC!
He was bleeding, so he wasn’t a user. He was clearly an NPC.
“Are you an investigator?
Ming Hu wasn’t sure, but he suspected that the man was one of the investigators sent by Vegas, and he began to slowly approach the man.
Sigh
“Huh…huh…”
Letting out a pained gasp, the man heard Minghu’s footsteps, and struggled to lift his head to look at Minghu. The man’s lifeless eyes showed a hint of life.
“This…this…”
The man raised his hand toward Ming Hu as he approached. Ming Hu looked at what the man held in his hand. In the man’s hand was a piece of paper. Ming Hu quickly took the paper from the man.
[You have obtained a piece of paper1 with something written on it].
As I took the paper, a message popped up, and at the same time, the man who handed me the paper shakily continued, “I’m sorry.
“Do, run.”
He was speechless. At the same time, the man’s skin began to twitch. It was the same as when the slime in human form transformed. Ming Hu opened his inventory, inserted the paper, and looked at the man.
-Kueh-eh!
Soon he turned into slime. The slime-turned-slime began to run toward Ming Hu, squealing like a pig. Ming Hu threw his fist at the slime.
Poof!
The slime’s body shattered, scattering in all directions. Ming Hu stomped on the slime’s shattered core and smashed it.
Sigh
“Nothing.”
Then he looked around. Still no dropped items, Ming Hu opened his inventory and checked the item information on the paper he had received from the man who had turned into slime earlier.
<Paper with something written on it1
Something is written.
The item information on the paper was very simple. Ming Hu took out the paper to see what was written on it.
"…Is that a password?"
On a piece of paper, several words were written and connected. But the words didn't connect. He had a feeling it was a code. Unable to get any information from looking at it, Ming Hu muttered to himself as he put the paper in his inventory.
"I think I can take it to Vegas… and then what?"
Muttering to himself, Ming Hu opened the quest window.
<The Strange Cave at Karts Beach
Vegas realized that something was wrong with Count Lawton's change and began to investigate. His investigation led him to a strange cave near Karz Beach. After learning through a communication crystal that someone is in the cave, Vegas wants you to go to the cave and learn more about this mysterious person. Go to the cave and find out who it is!
Difficulty Level: A
Quest Rewards: Tie-in Quest – The Truth Revealed
"It might be on paper. It's better to be sure."
The quest you were given was to figure out the identity of someone in the lab. The identity might be written on a piece of paper, but it might not be. Ming Hu decided to go all the way just to be sure, so he closed the quest window and started walking inside.
Jumbled
"Huh…huh…"
But it wasn't long before he heard the ragged breathing again. Ming Hu paused slightly at the sound of the breathing, then slowly walked inward. This time, it was a woman, not a man, crouching there.
"Hmm…hmm…"
The woman's condition was even worse than the man's. As Ming Hu approached, the woman did not respond, except to let out a pained gasp. When she didn't respond, Ming Hu looked at her hands. Sure enough, the woman's hand was clutching a piece of paper.
"Take it."
Ming Hu snatched the paper out of the woman's hand.
[You have a piece of paper with something written on it2].
As the message appeared, the woman's skin began to shake. Ming Hu placed the paper in his inventory and quickly killed the woman as she turned to slime. He then checked the information on the paper from the woman. As with the paper from the man earlier, it told him nothing.
Jumbled
Ming Hu resumed walking.
"Huh…huh…"
"Not again?
Another ragged breath was heard. Ming Hu hurried over and found the man lying on the ground. Ming Hu quickly snatched the paper from the man's hand.
[You have a piece of paper with something written on it3].
After obtaining the third piece of paper, Ming Hu killed the man who turned into slime shortly after taking it out and began walking back inside.
"…What is it?"
But as Ming Hu walked inward, he was forced to stop. Ahead of him, a man in his mid-30s, presumably an NPC, had fallen. Unlike the other three, he wasn't breathing hard or moving, suggesting he was already dead.
"…You said you sent three?"
Ming Hu looked at the man with a puzzled expression and muttered to himself. Vegas had said that he had sent three investigators, so Ming Hu assumed that the three people he had met earlier were the ones Vegas had sent. But the man's behavior proved him wrong. Ming Hu approached the man and took the paper from his hand.
[You have a piece of paper with something written on it4].
-Kueh-eh!
As expected, when the paper was removed, the dead man quickly transformed into a slime. However, Ming Hu was a bit puzzled by the transformation, as it was quite different from the slimes he had seen before.
"…legs?"
Slimes had legs. Slimes are synonymous with cute monsters, so the idea of them having legs was pretty gross.
-Kuehuehueh!
Screaming, the slime began to run toward Ming Hu on its two legs. Ming Hu frowned at the slime's disgusting appearance and killed it. After killing the slime, Ming Hu walked back inside and thought to himself.
"Isn't there more?
It seemed unlikely that this would be the end. As expected, Ming Hu was able to find the corpse some time later. As he had done before, Ming Hu pulled out the paper, looked at the acquisition message, and watched the corpse transform into a slime. As expected, the slime had legs, but that wasn't all.
"…arms?"
This time, the slime had arms. Of course, having arms didn't mean it was a threat or a problem, so Ming Hu quickly killed the slime and continued walking inward. Heading inward, Ming Hu found three more corpses.
"Eight…"
The inventory contained eight pieces of paper. They weren't the only ones. The eighth slime I had just captured finally dropped an item.
"Well, given the key, I guess that's it."
The item that dropped was a key. With the key in hand, it looked like we would be able to reach our destination soon.
"…I can't believe they built this in a cave."
Soon afterward, as expected, Ming Hu arrived in front of a building of immense size: a cave. Ming Hu was mildly impressed that a building of this size could be built inside a cave, and he made his way to the entrance of the building. As he walked to the entrance, he pulled out a key from his inventory to unlock the door.
"…?"
But when Ming Hu reached the entrance, he could only shake his head. The door he thought would be locked was unlocked. Puzzled, Ming Hu put the key in his inventory and entered the building.
[Dungeon: You have entered the ruined Arpach Institute].
Once inside, a message appeared, but Ming Hu couldn't pay attention to it.
"…What is this."
Inside, there were tons of slimes. The problem was that the slimes had human bodies. Or, to be more precise, they were slimes on top of human bodies.
-spit..mouth..sleep.
-in…to…
-died…is…is
From the way they talked, he had a feeling they were different from the slimes he'd met before. Ming Hu saw the slimes staring at him and muttering, and he quickly cast Blood Puddle.
Poof! Poof! Poof!
A pool of blood appeared, and the slimes in range burst into flames. At the same time, the out-of-range slimes that had been muttering began to run toward Ming Hu. Of course, as soon as they stepped into the pool of blood, they too exploded.
"The nuke… you have to break it yourself."
Ming Hu muttered to himself as he looked at the wreckage of the slimes. Apparently, the cores needed a direct hit. Ming Hu stepped into the pool of blood and began to smash the slimes' cores. After smashing dozens of cores, Ming Hu looked around to see if there were any slimes left. There were no slimes in sight, so Minghu began to look around the lab.
"It can't be…"
But he didn't see anything special. Ming Hu pulled a key from his inventory.
"Surely… I'm sure it's for this."
The item name of the key was "Lab Key". It was clear that it was used here, but I couldn't figure out what it was for.
"Huh?"
Thinking nothing could be further from the truth, Ming Hu searched the lab once more. After a while, he found a passageway leading underground. Ming Hu followed the passage down.
"…Am I here?"
At the end of the passage stood a massive iron gate. Ming Hu pulled on the iron gate. It was locked and wouldn't budge, so Ming Hu took a key from his inventory and inserted it into the keyhole of the gate.
Profit
He turned the key and the gate began to open automatically.
"Mmm… stop! Room 247!"
It was then. The iron gate opened and a voice called out from inside. Ming Hu shivered and turned to see a middle-aged man pointing a spear at him.