Yi Lin eyes drifted to the blue System screen that was still hovering in his peripheral vision. He squinted at the fine print under the three new missions.
[Mission Duration: 5 Days.]
Yi Lin blinked. He rubbed his eyes and looked again.
[Time Remaining for ALL Active Missions: 4 days, 23 hours, 55 minutes.]
"Wait a second," Yi Lin said, his voice echoing slightly in the metallic room. "System, surely you mean five days per mission, right?"
[All initial startup missions are concurrent. The Slime Rancher initiates must prove their efficiency. Failure to complete all tasks within the timeframe will result in the revocation of the Ranch-Hub and all associated privileges.]
"Revocation?" Yi Lin felt a cold sweat prickle on his neck. "And what happens to me?"
[You will be returned to your previous status as a latrine-cleaner with trash meridians. Also, the Pink Slime Egg will rot.]
"Okay! Okay, I get it!" Yi Lin waved his hands frantically. "No rotting eggs! No latrines! Five days. Fine. I can do this."
He paced around the central platform. "Five days to sell five crystals for ten gold each. That's fifty gold. That's an insane amount of money. And I need to hatch this egg."
He looked at the wobbly pink egg sitting innocently on the pedestal.
It looked like a giant, semi-translucent jellybean.
"System," Yi Lin sighed, running a hand through his messy hair. "I can't do all this alone. I need to be selling, but I also need to be ranching. Can't I get some help? Doesn't a Ranch come with, I don't know, ranch hands? A robot butler?"
[Staffing is available,] the System confirmed.
Yi Lin brightened. "Yes! Hired help! I love capitalism. Who can I hire? A outer disciple? A village kid?"
[The Dimensional Slime Ranch requires high-quality spiritual energy to maintain the delicate ecosystem]
[Therefore, eligible employees must possess a cultivation base of at least Level 10 Qi Refining—locally known as the 'Golden Core' realm or its equivalent threshold.]
Yi Lin froze. "Level 10? You want me to hire a Level 10 cultivator to scoop slime poop?"
[Correct. High-level cultivators emit beneficial ambient Qi. Low-level cultivators are merely breathing contaminants.]
"System, you are an elitist jerk," Yi Lin groaned. "The only Level 10 cultivator I know is Sect Master Chen, and I'm pretty sure if I ask him to be a farmer, he'll turn me into fertilizer. And I can't even unlock the hiring feature until I finish a mission!"
[Complaining consumes valuable oxygen. Suggestion: Hatch the egg.]
Yi Lin gritted his teeth. "Fine. Hatch the egg. How do I do that? Do I sit on it?"
[Please do not sit on the specimen. Use the Vac-Pack. Switch the nozzle to 'Reverse/Output' and channel your low-grade ambient energy into the egg to stimulate the hatching process.]
Yi Lin looked at the gun in his hands. It looked like a cross between a leaf blower and a space-ray. He found a switch near the trigger and flipped it.
"Alright, little guy," Yi Lin whispered, feeling a strange flutter in his chest. "Don't explode on me."
He pointed the nozzle at the egg and squeezed the trigger.
A stream of warm, golden light shot out of the Vac-Pack, bathing the pink egg in a soft glow. Yi Lin felt a slight drain on his stamina, like he was jogging up a gentle hill, but it wasn't painful.
The egg shivered. Then it shook. Then it began to bounce in place.
A small fissure appeared on the smooth surface.
Crack... Squish...
"Come on," Yi Lin urged, pouring more energy into the gun. "You can do it!"
The egg gave one final, violent wobble, and then—POP!
It didn't break like a chicken egg. It burst like a bubble.
Yi Lin flinched back, expecting slime to hit his face. But when he opened his eyes, he gasped.
Sitting on the pedestal wasn't one slime.
There were two.
They were small, round, and the color of bubblegum. They had tiny, simple faces—two black dots for eyes and a wide, happy mouth. They wiggled in place, looking at Yi Lin with pure, unadulterated joy.
"Two?" Yi Lin blinked. "Twins?"
[Rare Occurrence: Twin Hatching!]
[Congratulations. You have obtained two Pink Slimes (Common).]
One of the slimes let out a cheerful "Pop!" sound and bounced straight into the air, landing before jiggling back into shape. The other one simply vibrated with happiness.
Yi Lin felt his heart physically melt. They were the cutest things he had ever seen in his miserable two lives.
"Hello there," he cooed, reaching out a finger.
The bouncing slime hopped forward and nudged his hand. It felt cool and squishy, like firm gelatin.
"I shall call you... Pinky," he said to the bouncer. He looked at the vibrating one. "And you... Brain. No, that's too ominous. Uh... Mochi. Pinky and Mochi."
The slimes seemed to accept their names with a wiggle. But then, the wiggling stopped.
The smiles on their faces inverted. The cheerful "Pop!" turned into a sad, pathetic little whimper.
Their bright pink color faded just a shade.
[Alert: Livestock is hungry.]
Yi Lin panicked. "Hungry? Already? You just justified your existence five seconds ago!"
He looked around the sleek white room.
"System, what do they eat? Do I have food?"
[Pink Slimes are omnivores, but they have a strong preference for fruits and vegetables. Current craving: Carrots.]
"Carrots?" Yi Lin stared at the System screen. "Just... carrots?"
[Affirmative. A hungry slime produces no Plorts. A starving slime becomes agitated. Feed them.]
Yi Lin looked down at Pinky and Mochi. They looked up at him with big, watery, devastatingly sad eyes. Mochi let out a sound that sounded suspiciously like a tiny stomach growling.
"Oh, god, don't look at me like that," Yi Lin pleaded. "I don't have any carrots! I have a pouch of gold and a System that bullies me!"
He checked his inventory. Empty. He checked the corners of the Hub. Clean.
"I have to go out," Yi Lin realized. "I have to go back to the Sect."
He looked at the slimes. "Stay here. Do not... melt. Or eat the walls. Daddy is going to get groceries."
He grabbed the Vac-Pack, realized it was too conspicuous, and shoved it into the Hub's storage locker. He patted his robes to make sure the gold was still there, and sprinted out of the dome.
The sun was beginning to set as Yi Lin tore through the forest. The scary shadows and creepy noises didn't bother him nearly as much this time.
He burst out of the tree line and back into the Broken Blade Sect.
The disciples were busy heading to the dining hall for their evening meal of watery gruel and dry buns.
Yi Lin kept his head down, hugging the walls. He needed to get to the sect's kitchen stores.
He knew the cook, a grumpy old man named Old Liu. Liu would sell him anything for a copper coin, let alone a silver. Yi Lin was prepared to pay a gold coin for a sack of carrots if he had to.
That's how desperate he was to stop those sad slime noises echoing in his memory.
"Just a few carrots," Yi Lin muttered to himself, speed-walking past the Alchemy Hall. "Get in, buy the orange sticks, get out. Feed the blobs. Get crystals. Get rich."
He was so focused on his plan, eyes fixed on the path to the kitchens, that he didn't notice the figure standing perfectly still in the middle of the walkway until he was three feet away.
Yi Lin skidded to a halt in the dirt, his arms flailing to keep his balance.
"Whoa! Watch where you're—"
Standing before him, bathed in the dying light of the sunset, was Sect Master Chen.
But it wasn't the Sect Master Chen from this morning.
This morning, Chen had looked tired, worn down by the stress of managing a failing sect. Now?
Now the man was practically glowing. His skin looked younger. His eyes were burning with a terrifyingly intense light.
Yi Lin gulped. Oh no. The crystal. Did it backfire? Did he explode? He looks like he's about to explode.
"Sect... Sect Master!" Yi Lin squeaked, dropping into a bow so low his nose touched the dirt.
"Greetings!"
Silence stretched out between them.
Yi Lin squeezed his eyes shut. He wants a refund. He realized it was just a pink rock. He's going to kill me.
"You," the Sect Master said.
Yi Lin slowly straightened up, daring to look the man in the eye. "Yes, Sect Master?"
Chen took a step forward. Yi Lin took a step back.
"The... item," Chen whispered. He looked around, paranoid, ensuring no other disciples were close enough to hear. He leaned in, invading Yi Lin's personal space.
"Do you have more?"
Yi Lin blinked. "Huh?"
"The crystal," Chen hissed, his eyes wide and manic. "I absorbed it. It... it was magnificent. The bottleneck... it cracked! I can feel it! Fifty years of stagnation, gone in an afternoon! But it wasn't enough. I need more. I need another one to push through."
He grabbed Yi Lin by the shoulders.
"Tell me, disciple," Chen demanded, his voice trembling with a desperate hunger that matched the slimes back in the ranch. "Where did you get it? Do you have another? I will pay. I will pay anything. I will sell the sect's front gate if I have to!"
Yi Lin stared at the frantic, powered-up Sect Master.
The System's mission log flashed in his mind.
[Sell 5 Pink Slime Crystals - 10 Gold Each.]
And back in the forest, two hungry slimes were waiting to produce those very crystals.
A slow, mischievous grin began to spread across Yi Lin's face.
"Sect Master," Yi Lin said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "You're in luck. My... supplier... just had a new shipment come in. But they're hungry. I mean... the extraction process is expensive."
Chen nodded frantically. "Name your price. I don't care."
"Ten gold coins," Yi Lin said, his confidence returning in a rush. "Same as before. But first..."
He looked toward the kitchens. "Do you happen to know where I can get a really big sack of carrots?"
The Sect Master blinked, the cosmic power around him faltering for a second.
"...Carrots?"
"Yes," Yi Lin said solemnly. "For the... uh... spiritual convergence ritual."
Chen's face hardened with determination.
"I will buy you every carrot in the province."