"Come on, Bessie! It's just a glowing white dome from the future! Nothing to be afraid of!" Yi Lin urged, tugging on the reins.
The horse wasn't having it. She stared at the sleek, alien curves of the Ranch-Hub with the deep, primal suspicion that only prey animals possess. She let out a nervous whinny and backed away, nearly knocking Yi Lin into a patch of thorny briars.
"Fine, fine! You stay here and eat grass. Don't talk to strangers," Yi Lin grumbled, sliding off the saddle. He hefted the two massive sacks of carrots, his shoulders protesting under the weight. "And don't run off! I still need a ride!"
He stumbled toward the Hub, the sacks thumping against his back. The door hissed open automatically, welcoming him back into the cool, climate-controlled air of the sanctuary.
"Daddy's home!"
Pinky and Mochi were exactly where he had left them on the central platform. Well, mostly. Mochi was vibrating intensely near the edge, looking like he was contemplating a leap of faith, while Pinky was trying to chew on the metallic pedestal.
"No! Bad slime!" Yi Lin rushed forward, shooing Pinky away. "That is high-grade plasteel alloy, not a snack!"
Pinky looked up at him, opened its mouth, and let out a sound that broke Yi Lin's heart.
"Okay, okay, I know. You're starving," Yi Lin said, wiping sweat from his forehead. He reached for the carrot sack.
"I got the goods. Top-shelf crunchy orange sticks. Let's eat!"
He reached in, grabbed a fistful of carrots, and prepared to toss them onto the floor.
[Stop.]
The System's blue text slammed into his vision like a brick wall.
Yi Lin froze, a carrot dangling from his hand. "What now? They're hungry! The timer is ticking! You said feed them!"
[Host cannot simply throw food on the floor. That is unsanitary and inefficient. Uncontained slimes are prone to wandering, getting lost, or eating equipment. Before feeding, you must construct a Corral.]
"A Corral?" Yi Lin stared at the screen. "You mean a fence? I don't have wood! I don't have nails! I have a sword and a bag of vegetables!"
[Material construction is obsolete]
[Please access the Ranch Interface. The 'Standard Corral (Starter Edition)' is available in your architectural database.]
Yi Lin blinked. "Oh. Right. Video game logic."
He dropped the carrots and tapped the air where the menu button usually hovered.
A holographic grid appeared, overlaying the floor of the Hub. It showed the layout of the dome, with several empty square plots marked out in glowing green lines.
He selected the 'Buildings' tab. There it was.
[Corral: Basic]
Description: An open-air pen with high-tech energy walls. Keeps slimes in, keeps unwanted things out. Essential for any aspiring rancher who doesn't want to wake up with a pink blob on their face.
Cost: Free (Starter Pack).
"Thank god for starter packs," Yi Lin muttered.
He looked around the room. To the left of the entrance, there was a spacious, flat area of the metallic floor that looked perfect.
He pointed his finger and dragged the holographic blueprint to the spot.
"Confirm construction!" he shouted, feeling a bit like a wizard.
VMMMMMM.
A low, powerful hum filled the room. Four metal posts shot up from the floor at the corners of the designated square.
Yi Lin watched in awe as walls of soft, blue-white light materialized. They rose up from the floor, forming a perfect square enclosure about waist-high.
He could see right through it, but when he tossed a small pebble at it, the pebble bounced off with a zing! sound.
"Okay," Yi Lin grinned, adjusting the straps of his Vac-Pack.
"Playtime's over, boys. Get in the box."
He flipped the switch on the gun to 'Suction'. The nozzle whirred to life.
"Come here, Mochi!"
He aimed at the vibrating slime. The suction caught Mochi mid-bounce.
With a startled thwump, the pink blob was sucked off the pedestal, flew through the air, and vanished into the storage tank on Yi Lin's back.
The tank on the gun lit up.
[Pink Slime x1!]
"Sorry! It's for your own good!" Yi Lin yelled over the vacuum noise. He turned to Pinky. "You too, buddy!"
Thwump.
[Pink Slime x2!]
Yi Lin trotted over to the newly built Corral. He leaned over the glowing energy wall. He switched the gun to 'Output'.
"Bombs away!"
Poof. Poof.
The two slimes shot out of the nozzle, tumbled through the air, and landed on the artificial grass floor. They immediately shook themselves off and looked around, their little bead eyes wide.
"Perfect," Yi Lin said, dusting off his hands. "Now, the main event."
He dragged the heavy sack of carrots over to the Corral wall.
Pinky and Mochi stopped bouncing. They sniffed the air. Their mouths opened wide. They began to jump up and down with frantic, ravenous energy.
"Alright, alright! Here it comes!"
Yi Lin grabbed a carrot and tossed it over the wall.
It didn't even hit the ground. Pinky launched himself into the air, mouth unhinged like a tiny pink snake, and swallowed the carrot whole.
CRUNCH!
The sound was incredibly satisfying.
"Whoa," Yi Lin laughed. "Feisty."
He looked at the System log.
[Pink Slime Diet: 5 Carrots = 1 Pink Crystal.]
[Daily Production Limit: 1 CRide Fast or Die Tryingrystal per Slime.]
"Five carrots each," Yi Lin calculated. "Okay, math I can do."
He started tossing them in like he was feeding ducks at a pond, if the ducks were spherical gluttons from another dimension.
"One for Mochi! One for Pinky! Two for Mochi! Hey, share! Pinky, stop hogging the orange sticks!"
The slimes were in heaven. They devoured the vegetables with a speed that was frankly alarming.
Crunch, munch, gulp. Within seconds, ten large carrots had vanished into their gelatinous bodies.
Yi Lin leaned over the rail, watching intently.
"Okay. You ate. Now... uh... pay the rent?"
For a moment, nothing happened. The slimes just sat there, looking fat and happy, little ripples of contentment passing through their bodies.
"Come on," Yi Lin whispered, tapping the energy wall. "Do the thing. Papa needs gold."
Then, Mochi shivered. A bright light began to glow in the center of his body. It traveled upwards, swirling and condensing.
POP!
With a cheerful sound like a cork being pulled from a bottle, a sparkling, faceted pink crystal shot out of the slime and landed on the grass.
A second later, Pinky did the same.
POP!
There they were. Two Pink Slime Crystals.
They lay in the grass, catching the artificial light of the dome.
"Yes!" Yi Lin cheered, pumping his fist. "Yes! Good boys! Who's the best slime? You are!"
He activated the Vac-Pack again, sucking the two crystals up from the distance. They clattered into his tank. He ejected them into his hand.
Yi Lin was so overcome with relief that he did something impulsive. He brought the crystals up to his face and planted a big, wet kiss on each of them.
"Mwah! Mwah! You beautiful, shiny little life-savers!"
He ignored the fact that they had technically just come out of a slime's rear end. Money was money. And this money was going to keep his soul inside his body.
"System!" Yi Lin called out, shoving the crystals into his pouch alongside the remaining gold coins.
"Can they make more? I have tons of carrots!"
[Negativ,] the System replied, ruining the mood as usual.
[Slimes have a digestive refractory period. They can continue to eat for pleasure, but they will not produce additional crystals until the next solar cycle. Overfeeding may result in lethargy.]
"Damn it," Yi Lin cursed. "Okay. Two crystals a day. That's... twenty gold coins. If I sell them."
He needed to sell five more. He had two now. That meant he needed... well, he needed to deliver these two right now to keep the Sect Master hooked, and then come back tomorrow for two more, and the day after for the last one.
Wait.
If he sold these two to Chen, that would be 20 gold. Plus the 10 he already had. That was 30 gold.
He was actually, genuinely rich. A normal family lived on a few silver coins a month. He was walking around with a kingdom's GDP in his pocket.
"I need to go," Yi Lin realized, adrenaline spiking again. "Chen is waiting. And a waiting junkie is a dangerous junkie."
He made sure the Corral walls were stable.
"Be good! Sleep off the food coma! I'll be back with... I don't know, toys? Do you guys like toys?"
Pinky burped. Mochi was already asleep, looking like a deflated pink balloon.
Yi Lin sprinted out of the Hub, the door hissing shut behind him.
The mare was grazing peacefully near a tree. She looked up as Yi Lin came barreling out of the bushes, his eyes wild and his hand clutching his pouch.
"Let's go, Bessie!" Yi Lin vaulted into the saddle with a surprising amount of grace—mostly because he was terrified of being late.
"We have a delivery to make!"
They thundered through the forest path.
"Just wait, Sect Master!" Yi Lin yelled into the wind, laughing like a maniac.
"I've got the good stuff!"
The trees blurred past. In the distance, the lights of the Broken Blade Sect flickered.
Yi Lin leaned forward, urging the horse faster.
As long as he didn't fall off the horse and break his neck in the next five minutes, everything was going to be perfect.
"YEE-HAW!" Yi Lin screamed, confusing the hell out of a nearby squirrel.