“You are their Queen.”
That phrase put Kai at a loss for words. Yuni spoke with facts, his only thoughts were in defense of his manliness. He wanted to be a king, but could not win against her argument. From a purely biological point of view, the leader was a queen. However he did have a small exemption card that he had yet to play, he was not a slime and could not give birth. So technically he could not be a queen. Also, he was a conqueror of sorts, or more realistically, a lucky survivor. He did not feel like debating that topic at the moment, so he let it slide. Plus he was now the monarch of a tiny slime society and that made him feel awesome.
He suddenly wished that he had spent more time playing nation building simulation games like Civilization, galactic empire building games like Masters of Orion and real time strategy games like Starcraft II.
The Cibu or civilization building genre of video games focused on starting and growing empires. Players focused on allocating resources to feed the people, build infrastructure, research technology and prepare for war in order to grow their empire. Diplomacy was also a key aspect of the game that developed the players’ negotiation, strategic focus, cooperative, espionage and backstabbing skills. RTS games like Starcraft II focused on tactical movement, fast adaptive development, accelerated technology trees and fast transitions between micro and macro management skills. The one thing that both genres shared in common was the need to manage a large number of units. The size was usually in the order of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of units simultaneously.
All of those skills would be useful to Kai right now. He had over a dozen tiny followers who depended on him and likely wanted him to protect them and help them thrive.
Unfortunately he did not have any clear ideas on how to manage this situation. He knew he was not the greatest at strategic planning. His skills were more tactical in nature and dealt with solving immediate in-your-face problems. Long term strategic thinking was not his thing.
His own gamers skills were honed by fighting individually in battle royales which were usually first person shooter games. FPS games like AHBR only required the player to think about doing things just for themselves and not by making decisions to control and develop a multitude of units. He never realized until now that the skill he lacked might come in handy. There was no point in regretting it. So he decided to learn the skills he lacked, but he was quite unsure as to which skills applied here. He was a solo gamer and not an armchair general. Plus, his childhood friend always kicked his ass in this genre of games so he rage quitted the entire scene once he found his own niche in first person shooters.
Regardless of what he lacked, he had to rule. He killed the old queen and became the ruler. He had to lead the small tribe of slimes and survive on this plane until he was strong enough to enter The Game. He stayed positive and focused on the task at hand even though he really did not know what to do. He was a gamer and good gamers can learn to play any game. Besides he was not alone, he had Yuni on his side. Though this was a hard game, he would learn how to play it and win. And he knew the most important rule. Don’t die.
“After examining the nuclei of the slime queen and the changes that had taken place during your mutation, Yuni was able to modify some of your genetic code to enable communications with the slimes. The slimes use vibrations to communicate with each other and soon so can you. They will learn how to sense your will. They use a type of biological spread spectrum technology which uses multiple communication channels at once to sense vibrations of energy. It is a tough system to decode since it is naturally scrambled. The easiest way to make it work with you was to merge the decoding function into your nervous system with some minor adjustments to your DNA sequence. The likelihood was very low that you needed those recessive genes anyways so the risk was minimal.”
Kai had yet to complete the majority of his engineering classes so he easily became lost by Yuni’s words. Kai tried to weigh the pros and cons of her statement, but then he decided to not worry about it. He had undying trust in Yuni’s ability and given their current situation taking advantage of any method that improved their chance at survival was a risk worth taking.
Soon he would be able to talk to his family of slimes. The slimes had already managed to understand some of his requests. They had found food for him and stood watch. But he wasn’t sure if they performed those tasks in honor of his position like a society or if they were just exhibiting primitive survival instincts that the weak slimes had towards the stronger ones.
He consulted Yuni and they both concluded that they would need to perform a series of experiments to determine the answer. They needed to know what his followers could do, so they planned tests which included comprehending his words, learning how to read and having the ability to do basic math. But first they needed to make a base of operations, a village. Once their home was established, they would run the tests, analyze data and create a path to develop their culture. Or something like that, since that rough plan seemed reasonable to him.
On the following day, Kai led his cohorts through the woods. Initially he walked, but he was soon surprised that the little guys could keep up with him. They bounced and leaped over obstacles easily. When he started to run, they still kept up. Though the slimes looked gelatinous, their bodies could become extremely elastic when needed. They efficiently made use of that fact and changed a portion of their body to act like natural springs. As he ran, his companions effortlessly pogoed their way through the woods.
Along with Kai, the small tribe of over a dozen slimes arrived by a stream located at the edge of a clearing in the woods. He worked with Yuni to find slightly higher ground near the stream bank and decided to set up their village there.
He asked some slimes to find food and had others gather branches and stones. He found a stick and began to draw lines on the ground indicating the borders of the camp and structures. The village needed a dwelling for him and one for the minions. He planned to build more buildings later once things settled a bit.
Once a few returned, he started to set up the village. He set up a stone wall and worked with a few slimes to build the hut. He was surprised that the slimes could dig in the dirt as well as hammer down housing supports.
He also found out that a slime could indeed separate minerals from rock when he tested the capabilities of slimes out of pure anime driven curiosity. He gave it a stone that Yuni said contained metal ore, and sure enough the slime broke down the stone and separated the metal ore.
Once a few slimes helped him build a small kiln and a few pots, he melted down the metal ore and made a few crude nails.
The nails weren’t very strong, but they were stronger than the local wood that they could easily forage.
He did not forge an axe since the slimes showed that they could melt through nearby sturdy trees within a few minutes.
The slime were even capable of creating a smooth two by four of sorts. Once he showed them what he wanted, the little guys delivered. Soon a felled tree turned into planks of wood. To be honest, he was really amazed at what the slimes could do.
By the end of the second day, they finished a basic ten foot by ten foot hut. It even had a wooden shingled roof with clay and straw layered on top of it. He applied the same clay mixture to the outer walls as well. Inside he placed a wooden bed of sorts that he made with the help of the slimes. There was no good material for the mattress so the best they could do was make one out of leaves, vines, and soft wood chips.
Surprisingly, after he let the slimes thoroughly examine his clothing, the little slimes figured out how to transform tree bark into a clothlike material after digesting the hard outer layer and extraneous compounds within it. And if someday he could teach them how to weave and sew then he would have no shortage of clothing materials in the future.
Unfortunately not long after they moved in, they spotted a scout team of Turlong warriors nearby and decided to abandon village #1. It was regretful to give up their village, but saving everyone’s life was more important. And as they left, they dissolved everything that they could not easily take with them. Kai and Yuni did not want to leave any traces of their existence behind.
One day Kai wanted to see if he could teach his minions a few things and sure enough they learned. He was surprised. These were not simple monster slimes found in anime, they were intelligent lifeforms. Now that the slimes were his people he did not want to call them slimes anymore. Thus, he named them the Kylan. Why? Because as the discoverer of a new species he had the right to name it. At least that is what the researchers did on Earth. So he chose to extend that right to here. Thus he proudly named them after himself. He was just following in the footsteps of scientists back home and told himself that it had nothing to do with pride, well at least that is what he selfishly believed.
He then formed another village and tried to cultivate the land. However many other factors such as random large predators, harmful weather, poor resource management and strong enemies soon hindered his plans. Several of his communities had been wiped out and they had moved several times to find more suitable habitats. It exhausted him and he complained to no avail.
But there were some benefits along the way. He taught the Kylan how to read numbers, then addition, followed by subtraction. He was amazed at how quickly they had learned after the initial slow start. However micromanaging every detail of their life took its toll as he found it difficult to manage both his society and find time to improve his control of The Flow. He needed help and Yuni was not preordained with the necessary skills or data in regards to the development and management of a new society of unfamiliar lifeforms.
His competitive drive told him he could win, but he knew he had a problem. This was not just a game. Mistakes could easily take the lives of his minions. As the leader he had to be more responsible with his actions so he tried his best hoping that it was good enough.
On another day, Yuni surprised him with some good news. Droll had found Earth and created a way to contact it. It made Kai wonder how Droll did it, but that guy was really a master hacker of the IPN so when it came to this kind of thing, he was sure Droll could do it. Kai easily imagined him bragging about it as if accomplishing the feat was easier than making instant coffee.
Since Yuni had the coordinates of Earth’s quadrant they had a path for him to get home. As he recollected how he ended up here. He recalled Gimbal’s smug smile. He felt that Gimbal owed him an apology if not a life. He was sure that they would meet once again after he joined The Game. He told himself that the plot of a good story always worked out that way and his story was still unfolding. Next time he would rub the results in Gimbal’s face.
He began to recall it all. His death in The Game, the reincarnation, Droll’s Gauntlet, the lab, Quant, Bekka City, the orb of destruction and now slimes. And to top it all off was the simple fact that he had nothing more to show for it than being a level 1 apprentice mage.
I’m just a level 1 apprentice goblin mage!
He had been through a lot and when everything was combined it felt like it was just too much for him. The reality and frustration of having to deal with the current situation came back to him, so he yelled.
“What the hell is this CiBu RTS RPG? Who would make such an impossible game!”
What he played in this world was a City Building Real Time Strategy Role Playing Game. It was a ridiculously overly complicated game that mashed up too many video game genres together that resulted in the creation of an unplayable game. The Japanese named this notorious class of video games as kusoge, literally translated as shit game. And to top it all off, he played this kusoge with his life and the lives of others on the line. The stress caused him to yell. He had to vent.
“AAAaaarrrgggg!!! Why am I playing the hardest game in the world!”
Then an unapologetic voice calmly attempted to clarify his misunderstanding.
“Kai. You are not playing a game. This is your life.”
