In a suffocatingly still forest, ancient trees twisted toward a sky they never quite reached, their crowns tangled tight enough to choke out the light.
The air was damp. The earth, soft and swollen.
Rotting leaves lay thick and undisturbed.
No birds. No insects. No wind.
And then—
A blue blur bounced through the undergrowth.
A jelly?
No, an excited slime.
The only fortunate thing was that he had no lungs, no throat — otherwise his laughter would have torn through the forest.
Because finding out he had become a slime?
Mo Ran absolutely could not sit still.
He moved.
He bounced.
He flowed forward, then recoiled, testing the strange elasticity of his body. Each motion felt wrong and yet perfectly natural at the same time. Instead of sight, the world pressed against him.
Texture replaced color.
Pressure replaced light.
He felt the uneven soil beneath him. The tangled roots. The tiny pebbles embedded in mud. The faint tremor when he shifted too quickly.
There were no colors.
Only outlines formed through contact.
And he loved it.
He kept experimenting, stretching himself thinner, then compressing, sliding over a fallen branch and down again, intoxicated by the new sensation of existing without bones or weight.
Then—
A change happened.
[Character Creation Complete.]
[Welcome, Mo Ran.]
[Starter Pack Detected.]
[Do you wish to claim it? Y/N]
The familiar blue notifications floated within his perception, vivid and sharp against his colorless world. They hovered in the void of sensation like a memory from another life.
Mo Ran nearly trembled.
"So it's not just reincarnation…"
The excitement that had settled slightly while he adjusted to his new body surged back, sharper than before.
This wasn't random.
This wasn't accidental.
This was structured.
'But… was there a beginner village like this in the game?'
For a brief moment, doubt slid in.
He didn't linger on it.
Yes.
He chose it instantly.
[You have received Ability: Beginner Qi Sense]
[You have received item: Spirit Dew (Common)]
[You have received item: Beginner Sword]
[You have received item: Storage Ring (Inferior)]
The items were exactly the same as he remembered.
The same starter pack.
No deviation. No surprise.
And that familiarity made his excitement deepen instead of fade.
Yet as he stared at the sword lying on the grass beside the other two items, reality quietly caught up with him.
He was not human.
He was a slime.
Sword?
He didn't have hands.
Storage ring?
Where the hell would he even put it?
Spirit Dew?
Yes, useful. It could restore his health.
But again… where would he store it?
For a brief moment, Mo Ran stumbled.
Not physically.
Mentally.
The absurdity of it almost made him freeze.
Then—
Something shifted.
Unconsciously, he had already started using his new ability.
Qi Sense.
It expanded outward like a ripple.
And when it overlapped with his natural slime perception, the world changed.
He felt it.
Not saw.
Not heard.
Felt.
From deep inside the forest, something vast stirred.
An aura: heavy, ancient, and predatory.
It didn't rush toward him. It didn't roar.
It simply existed.
And that was worse.
The pressure pressed down on his awareness like a mountain lowering itself inch by inch. The soil beneath him felt colder. The air felt denser. Even the roots around him seemed quieter.
His entire gelatinous body rippled uncontrollably.
Not from wind.
From instinct.
Prey: that was the word that surfaced in his mind.
Mo Ran understood immediately.
This forest was not a beginner zone.
Even here — where he had spawned, it was not safe.
So, he needed to move.
Immediately.
He may be a slime, yes.
But as great as he believed slimes are…
Right now?
He was a mortal slime.
Fragile, soft, and easily crushed.
Without wasting another second, Mo Ran flowed toward the three items lying on the grass.
He focused first on the storage ring, probing it with careful intent, trying to establish a connection rather than absorb it.
There was a brief resistance.
Then alignment.
A subtle click in his awareness.
It worked.
Carefully, he guided the sword and Spirit Dew into the ring's storage space.
After that, he absorbed the ring into his body itself, holding it within without assimilating it, maintaining the boundary with deliberate control.
Then—
He moved.
Not bouncing anymore.
Flowing low across the forest floor.
Quieter. Smaller. More cautious than before.
He was slow, and that made him uneasy. If something appeared suddenly, he wouldn't be able to escape in time. Every uneven patch of soil felt like a potential trap.
Luckily, nothing lunged at him.
No hidden predator burst from the undergrowth.
So after putting some distance between himself and that suffocating source of danger, and once the pressure on him weakened slightly, Mo Ran allowed his tense body to relax just a fraction.
But he didn't stop moving.
Instead, he shifted his focus inward.
His status window.
[Name: Mo Ran]
[Bloodline: Ordinary Slime]
[Evolution Points: 0/100]
[Lifespan: 0 / ∞]
[Qi Cultivation: None]
[Soul Cultivation: None]
[Cultivation Technique: None]
[Talents: Physical Resistance, Acid Secretion, Basic Assimilation, Toxin Resistance]
[Abilities: Beginner Qi Sense]
Once again, Mo Ran confirmed that it was the same system he had helped develop.
The same clean structure. The same categories. The same logic.
Only one change.
Where it once said Human under Bloodline—
It now said Ordinary Slime.
And where there should have been a finite number under Lifespan…
There was ∞.
Infinite.
It wasn't something he didn't know.
He had designed it that way.
But seeing it assigned to himself made something inside him stir.
His emotions didn't explode.
They simmered.
Is there really a greater existence than a slime?
He wanted to ask the world that question.
But the forest didn't answer.
It only breathed quietly around him.
So he continued moving.
He passed from the area of impossibly tall trees, their trunks so thick and high they barely felt real, into a more open stretch of forest. The trees were still tall, still ancient, but now within a scale that felt… believable.
He still wasn't tired.
No—
He couldn't get tired even if he wanted to.
His body didn't ache. His breath didn't shorten. His pace didn't falter.
He could keep going indefinitely.
But Mo Ran still stopped.
He slowed until he was completely still, his gelatinous body settling against the damp forest floor.
And for the first time since waking up, he allowed himself to think.
Sudden death. Reincarnation. Becoming a slime. A dangerous forest. Then, the game system.
Too many things had happened in too little time.
If he didn't sort it out now, he would lose control of his own pace.
He needed clarity.
He needed direction.
So he began organizing everything he knew, piece by piece, like laying out files on a desk.
Yet as that calm settled over him, something else surfaced quietly beneath it.
His last moments: the meeting room, his boss, and his team members.
The ridicule. The dismissal. The papers thrown at him like trash.
The calm cracked. Anger rose this time, slow and heavy.
They didn't understand the greatness of slimes.
That was fine.
Ignorance was common.
But mocking them?
Mocking what he believed in?
His body trembled, the surface tightening unconsciously.
Just as his thoughts began sinking deeper into that simmering resentment—
The bushes ahead exploded outward.
Leaves scattered.
Soil sprayed.
The sound tore through the stillness like a blade.
Mo Ran's awareness snapped forward.
And he came face to face with the first native of this world.
Unfortunately, it was not something that could be reasoned with.
Yellow fangs.
Matted fur streaked with dried blood.
Eyes glowing with raw, animal hunger.
The creature was the size of a wolf.
…
It was a rat.
Not the kind seen on Earth.
But a bloodthirsty rat, grotesquely enlarged, easily ten times the size of any normal one.
And it was staring directly at him.