“Really?...... Craz…….You….”

The Slime Queen heard someone was talking as she was drowsy.

….

“haha, I didn’t know you’re his twin!”

When she finally woke up, the Slime Queen saw the mysterious man was talking with Maka.

“Maka!”

She shouted in joy upon seeing Maka jumping around the man.

Maka quickly jumped into her and hugged.

“I’m glad you two are ok now.”

The man came closer and poured water from a strange looking bottle into a glass and handed it to her.

The Slime Queen did not accept the glass. She stared intensely to the man.

“What?”

“Oh! It’s not poisonous. Look I’ll drink it. See?”

The man was confused at first then he thought the Slime Queen might be insecure about the water, so he drank it and then poured her a new one.

He handed it to her again but she still kept staring at him cautiously.

Maka was looking at both of them and got thirsty. He jumped out of the Queen’s embrace to the top of the glass the man was holding then start drawing it to his body.

“Come on, dude!”

The man quickly put down the glass because he felt weird and ticklish.

The Slime Queen didn’t catch Maka in time. She looked around and found herself in a small cave.

“I don’t know where your den is, so let’s take some rest here before moving on.”

The man handed her his strange long bottle.

“Why are you helping us? Human?”

The Slime Queen asked with serious face but still did not accept the bottle.

“I told you I don’t know what this human you are talking about.”

“Do you mean the creatures like those three?”

The Slime Queen looked at the body of mysterious man and found that although he looked similar to human, some parts were not the same at all. She kept silent because she had no idea and what to say either.

“I guess you didn’t hear me before. I told you that days ago I found one of your kind and his friends came to play with me. I think he was Maka’s twin?”

“Where is he?!?!”

The Slime Queen suddenly asked while pulling the man’s hand.

“I don’t know. I saw what they did to your 9 slimes and I quickly searched for the culprits then I found you were getting attacked”

The Slime Queen let go of the man’s hand and felt crestfallen. The mysterious man saw her watery eyes then put down the bottle and walked away to give her some time.

Maka saw her about to cry then quickly jumped to her shoulder and rubbed his cheek against hers.

The Slime Queen cheered up and smile a little.

“What…did you fed him?”

After a while, she spoke up to the man.

“Water? OH…..that.. it was a potion. I made it.”

“How? What is a potion?”

“Wha- ah..right. How can a slime know about a potion.”

“A potion is some kind of water that can heal a wound.”

The man forgot. The fact that she could speak didn’t mean she got knowledge of modern product. Besides, she barely knew him.

“Woooo… is this a potion too?”

The Slime Queen got closer to the bottle curiously.

“No. That’s just plain water”

…..

“Thank you. For helping me.”

After silence fell for a while, the Slime Queen spoke up and accepted his drink. She assumed that the man gave the bottle which stores all the water to her, it meant that he might not be a bad guy.

“But I can’t let you go to my home. I don’t trust you”

In the end, she couldn’t risk other little slimes even though she’s not hostile to him anymore.

“I understand. But could you tell me about yourself and this place?”

“Why? You are not one of us?”

The Slime Queen was curious and confused.

“No.....one of you?....I am uh- something like…hm..I come from a place very far away!”

The man struggled to tell her that he’s not a person of this planet.

………………………

“Huh? An alien?!?!”

Zeke exclaimed in shock as well as Carl and Adria.

“Yes. It seemed that….you encountered an organism from outside of our world….”

Zeke was contacting with the support team after he checked the mysterious man’s stats.

Carl and Adria told him that you could get information of other persons just like monsters.

Zeke assumed that it’s like PvP, Player versus Player.

But the thing they found strange was that, the mysterious man’s Order wasn’t a human.

“That’s why his strength was superior than me….”

“Wait! How could an alien invade us? And how could an alien even know our language? Not to mention the Slime Queen could too?”

Zeke was confused and asked again.

The support team did not answer anything for a while.

“Hey! Don’t tell me you’re tricking us? Is this even a game? Hello?”

Zeke felt like something must be wrong and far more dangerous than he thought.

At first he thought that he could call the support team anytime if things got too dangerous, and everyone thought the same too. But if it’s not a game anymore it meant they’re unintended lab rats or some kind of soldiers.

The support team still didn’t say anything.

“Fine then! I’m gonna tell everyone! They should know that they’re being used and tricked!”

“No, please!”

Suddenly, a man’s voice answered unlike the usual woman’s voice.

“I am the director of this project. Lee Damien.”

“To answer your questions, well....it’s gonna be a long discussion.”

“Make it short then. I’m pretty busy right now so I can’t meet you.”

Zeke tried to play safe here because if he and the two came face to face with Lee, he might shut their mouths.

“Five years ago, NASA got a strange signal from afar in space.”

Lee let out a long sigh then began to tell the truth.

“The signal was so powerful that they thought it was a small Big Bang at first.”

“When they tried to look into it, they found countless of particles and matters forming into a large planet.”

“The strange thing was that the planet was in the center of nowhere. Not even in a galaxy or any system.”

“Then one day a portal opened on our Earth. NASA investigated and found that the portal is linked to that planet, which is very strange. The planet was very distant. It’s like millions of galaxies away.”

“So you guys just hired people illegally to investigate it huh?”

Zeke felt unbelievable about this tale so he interrupted.

“No. What’s stranger than that is humans have been acquiring supernatural abilities.”

“Supernatural abilities? Pfft! Enough with your BS please!”

As the conversation went on, Zeke felt that this was a total joke.

“You have just awakened your ability haven’t you?”

“Psh-…........ya-yeah…wait! How did you know?”

“You forgot about our devices? That device is an indicator.”

“We got that device from a Chinese young boy who has just acquired his special ability not long ago.”

“That’s impossible…..”

“You know it better than any of us here. Mr.Zeke.”

Zeke disbelieved at first but when he tried to consider it, the proof was actually himself.

“We didn’t just hire every person. The gate that you guys entered was actually a portal. Some people couldn’t enter it. We believe that those who have potential of awaken their special ability or power could pass it.”

“We made the project Cosmic Champion as a game because we would like to restrict people who has special power awakened .”

“If those people use their special power in bad ways or for their own benefits, our worlds would just head to the path of chaos. We sincerely apologize for such actions and trickery.”

…..

“10 millions.”

“What?”

“10 millions and I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

Zeke proposed. He suddenly came up with a new plan; if he didn’t make it to the last boss, at least he should get some money.

“Acceptable. But only one condition: You must finish the game or at least get many information as possible. please rest assure, we're always ready to pick you back anytime."

The device went silent for a while then the director tried to convince.

“Deal! I’m not planning to quit either! I might win the last boss and get more money! Haha!”

Zeke didn’t worry about what they would do to him at all. This situation is a win-win for him. Although he didn’t like being used like a pawn, but now he just got a special power! If they planned something dirty against him, he could just pay them back!

“Oh wait! Actually, it’s 30 millions! Since I have a party now!”

Zeke looked at Carl and Adria then proposed again. He thought that they should have a second plan too. They’re kind people after all.

“30 millions is not a problem. Please keep your promise. Mr. Zeke, Mr. Carl and Miss Adria.”

“Yay!! Thank you Zeke!”

“Even If I lose half way, I won't regret at all! My daughter’s life will be better! Thank you so much Zeke!”

Carl and Adria heard that Zeke cares about them. They thanked him with deepest gratitude and their bonds deepened.

“By the way, what about those stats? Are there anything even real since this is not an actual game anymore?”

“Well, you could say the name and Order are true…oh! The shown skills are the special powers you have awakened.”

“Well.... the things that fake are Attack, Defense, and level I guess?"

"We actually use them to make participants be more careful. If they saw their Attack was lower than Defense they might be more caution."

"what about these boss weapons?”

“Boss weapon? What are you talking about?"

Zeke shown the boss weapon he got from the special event to the device.

“I got this from special event. It wasn’t you guys doin?”

“What?! No! How could we make weapons and gave it to you like that! We don’t even have materials to do so; not to mention about the transportation!”

“Well! It seems to be real too!”

Zeke picked up the hammer with some difficulty and slammed it down the ground making a loud boom noise.

“That’s new discovery! That planet is really mysterious! We’d like to investigate that weapon…....gotta wait until you guys come back then.”

Beep, beep

[Would you like to perform an examination?]

The device on Zeke’s arm rang out. It felt like the device knows about their problems.

“Ha-how…the device is sentient or something?”

Lee was surprised. It seemed everything was getting more and more strangely interesting.

“Examine!”

Zeke moved his arm to have the device faced at the Slime Queen hammer then gave it an order.

[Examining the Slime Queen Hammer.]

[A reward weapon from special event “Defeat the Slime Queen”]

[The hammer is squishy like jelly but elastic enough to transfer and generate forces capable of destroying large rocks and trees easily.]

[Although the hammer is not as heavy as metal, it still requires amount of strength to use it efficiently.]

“Wonderful! I've never known it could do that as well!.......I need to contact Long after this..”

Lee was surprised and impressed of the device then he murmured in the background.

“This is getting more interesting and fun!”

Zeke was even more excited and enthusiastic.

“Alright, please be more cautions. There might be more aliens coming to the planet.”

Lastly, before the director cut off the call, he gave the trio a final warning.

As the fog of mystery thickened, Zeke didn’t afraid at all. In fact, it made him even more excited and felt that things become more and more like a game. He couldn’t wait to continue his journey.

……….....

“What your name? I would like know the name of my saver. My name is ‘Rubaegia’. They call me Slime Queen but I’m not. I just older and stronger!”

The Slime Queen asked the mysterious man his name while introducing herself.

She felt more comfortable with him and tried to befriend.

“D’Atch. I come from N’prin!”

“Dr-Drey arrrch? Neeyy puuuu rion? ....Your names suck”

Rubaegia tried to pronounce his name only for it to end up being difficult.

TheProphet

Hello, I am the same author of Fantasy Slayer, a hiatus novel from many months ago. First, I'd like to talk about it. As I said before, I won't ditch Fantasy Slayer. I felt like I should write this one first (well it's actually a prequel, I could have written it later but I have a feeling I should write this first), so I'd like to apologize for those who's still waiting for that. I promise I'll continue writing after finish this story.

Now, about Cosmic Champion. At first I planned to write it in LitRPG style (Literary Role playing game) but after wrote Ep6-7 I felt that there are too much numbers and notifications to write. I usually just write everything in one go (I used photoshop to make those stats screens), so I'd like to hear your opinions about it. After this I'm planning to have the device narrated only when acquiring skills, getting new weapons, and some crucial events. The attack, defense, hp reporting part will end right here.
The images of Rubaegia was made by Midjourney. I've made several to get that perfect lmao. The common slime doodoo I made it myself.

Lastly, this novel won't be updated each day or each several days like others because I like to write a whole story arc then just publish it in one go. This way you guys won't have to wait or cliffhang. I won't take long to write the next arc, please rest assure. If you have opinions or suggestions I always welcome it. Thank you.

<Images of Rubaegia btw. If you ask me which one is her, I'd say all of them since she could morph into any of these. Also these could be her during a fight with Zeke as well.>

       

 

<Next enemy? or a friend? Can you guess what this is?>