NunuNote: The initial development of the story is a little slow, with plenty of information to deepen the world and develop something more realistic.
Don't expect a protagonist who challenges the world and everyone in a few dozen chapters, or a story full of face slaps with clichés all the time.
For those who like something more realistic and immersive, welcome to Slime Evolution.
-xXx-
In an apartment in the suburbs, the sound of the television was what distracted Lohan from the noise outside.
[A total of 1.5 billion players were registered playing Elysium yesterday, millions of people quit their jobs to invest in a future in this game, including myself, who says goodbye tonight to...]
The image on the screen began to freeze with the presenter's smile showing a joy totally opposite to his life.
On the screen was a clean, white studio with a beautiful, well-dressed woman, while next to the TV screen was the wall of the small apartment, with mold rising to the ceiling and peeling paint hanging down.
He looked away from the TV and stared at the window. On the other side of the glass was a gray sky laden with dark clouds, old and worn buildings with exposed bricks, and people walking down the street wearing protective masks, their shoulders slumped and their faces blank.
Rising cautiously, Lohan staggered slightly to the refrigerator and saw only industrialized nutritional powders there.
He took one of the packages, tore it open into a disposable cup, probably used dozens of times, and turned on the tap. A greenish-brown liquid flowed out, thick and exuding an odor of rust and mold.
When it touched the "water," the powder reacted, bubbling until the smell disappeared, but the taste remained horrible.
He forced the liquid down his throat, leaning his back against the sink as his gaze rose to the rope hanging from the ceiling.
"In the end, you chose this cowardly way out..."
This had been a constant question in Lohan's mind since he arrived in this world a few hours ago, struggling with a rope hanging around his neck in a body that was not his own.
The original memories of this body came in waves as time passed.
[Buy an Elysium Neural Helmet and live the life you deserve!]
[Gold Coins will be purchased at a high price in real life!]
[Become a better version of yourself, be a better person!]
Since Elysium's announcement, several advertisements like these have popped up around the world, promising a better life, a way to escape this endless rat race.
And old Lohan believed it, taking out loans, maxing out credit cards, betting his promising future on a dream.
And for a brief moment, he believed and lived that dream.
Elysium was a world where rain didn't corrode the skin, where breathing clean oxygen was a pleasant sensation, and the sky still had color.
A virtual paradise that sold the poor a reason to keep working and the rich another way to get richer.
But the dream collapsed the first time he opened the Status screen.
[Name: Halon
Race: Slime (Mythical)
Class: Devourer (Mythical)
Level: 01
Experience: 0 / 100]
An eerie silence ensued after that.
He had achieved his dream of becoming a Mythical race... but the most useless one of all.
Guilds offered fortunes to players with rare races such as Elves, Werewolves, and Dwarves, and even unusual races such as Goblins received more than ordinary Human players, but who would want a Slime?
Lohan didn't even expect to receive a Mythic race; even being a human with an unusual class would have been enough for him, as he would still have hope of earning enough money to pay off the debts he had incurred.
But as soon as he called the Guilds offering himself as a Mythical Race Player, when they heard the name of his race, he heard a "click," or an "I'm sorry," and silence returned.
In desperation, the former Lohan tried to fight it, looking for ways to change his class, his race, his luck...
But in Elysium, just like in real life, his race and class were automatically generated when his account was created by an AI, and nothing could be redone.
At some point, he gave up trying...
And despair led him to the rope still hanging in front of him.
But for this Lohan, it still seemed like a foolish choice.
Having spent his entire life stuck in a hospital bed with constantly flashing screens, with tubes connected to his body, needing the help of machines even to breathe...
Throughout his entire life, he had never been able to move even a finger.
He felt like nothing more than a dead weight that others supported out of pity.
Looking at his current hand, feeling the living muscles, the firm fingers holding that disposable cup... Lohan couldn't control himself and smiled.
"Even if this world is in ruins, here I can be someone..." He thought.
Ding, Dong...
The doorbell rang.
Lohan froze. Through the intercom camera, he saw a fat man covered in gold jewelry and a hologram floating over his left eye.
When he saw that man's face, memories came flooding back to him, and Lohan remembered who he was... Oscar, the owner of the apartment where he lived.
Seeing the impatience on the man's face, Lohan quickly opened the door.
"Finally, kid, I thought you were hiding," the man said rudely as he entered the worn apartment without bothering to be polite.
"I was in the bathroom, I came as soon as the doorbell rang." Lohan replied, copying the calm and submissive tone from his memories of how this body acted.
Looking around in disgust, Oscar frowned at the stench and projected a hologram in front of Lohan.
"I don't care, the rent is late."
Lohan looked at the hologram that read: [Rent Payment Due: $300].
Taking a deep breath, he took the old cell phone from his pocket, something only poor people still used, and opened the bank account app.
[Atlas Bank]
Account Holder:Lohan R. Hayes
Current Balance:$ -30,132.84
Available Loan Limit:$368.00]
Gulping at the sight of his negative balance, he still requested another $300 loan to pay the rent, leaving less than $68 of credit available for that month.
[New Balance: $ -30,432.84]
'Increasing my debt from $903 to $912 per month won't change much now...' He thought with a sigh.
Even though he owed more than $30,000, he didn't have to pay that money directly. As long as he paid the 3% monthly interest, the bank wouldn't charge him any loan amortization.
The problem was that even if he paid that $912 monthly, the debt would never decrease. He would need to earn more than that to reduce the amount, and with his current income, that seemed impossible.
Oscar clicked his tongue and commented as he left. "All right, kid, next month's rent will be $310. Get your money ready."
The slamming door made the ceiling lamp sway, which illuminated a box in the corner of the room.
'Luckily he didn't see the box...' Lohan sighed in relief.
Carefully picking up the box, Lohan placed it on the table and read the label.
[Elysium Neural Helmet]
This was the helmet used to send the Players' consciousness to Elysium.
Knowing that this was his only chance to earn enough money to pay the interest in a month, Lohan lay down on the old, worn-out mattress he slept on and put the helmet on his head.
Despite the novelty of having a functional body tempting him to spend the day exploring this sensation, the pressure of knowing that he didn't have enough money to pay off the loan in 30 days made him focus on what was important.
Pressing the start button, Lohan felt a sensation very similar to when his consciousness came into this body.
Lights flashed around him, as if he were traveling through hyperspace, and in the next instant he was in a completely different place.
Lohan didn't need to "open his eyes," because as soon as he arrived, he could already see everything around him perfectly.
A beautiful blue sky with birds flying above, a dirt floor surrounded by grass and trees that looked gigantic, next to it was a blue stream with fish swimming freely, and a few hundred meters away there were dozens of gelatinous blue balls bouncing and rolling freely.
Looking closely, Lohan was surprised by his ability to see 360 degrees.
No matter which direction he was focusing on, he could still see and process everything around him as if he had been born that way!
And although he had never needed to wear glasses in either world, his vision here was even better than in the real world.
But it wasn't all roses. After a few seconds of adjustment, his 360-degree vision captured a curious scene.
The gelatinous balls around him were other Slimes, just like him, but instead of jumping and rolling innocently as Lohan had imagined, those Slimes were actually consuming all the grass in the area.
That's why the place he was in was just dirt instead of grass like the terrain around him, probably where Slimes had already devoured it.
Curious about that situation, Lohan wondered if there were other Players among that group of dozens of Slimes, which could represent risks and opportunities. But after a few minutes of observation, he realized that this was very unlikely.
The way they moved was not human at all... there was no pause, they just rolled, digested the grass, and rolled again instantly.
If a human were controlling any of those bodies, the way they would act would be different, but that was a good thing for Lohan.
"Status," Lohan thought.
[Name: Halon
Race: Slime (Mythical)
Class: Devourer (Mythical)
Level: 01
Experience: 0 / 100]
Looking at the status screen and his Class, Lohan realized that [Devourer] really matched what the other Slimes were doing.
Deciding to test it out, he rolled to a corner where there were few slimes with an ease he didn't think he would have, and stood on top of a small tuft of grass.
Surprisingly, as soon as the grass entered his gelatinous body, a window popped up.
[Organic Matter Detected]
[Wild Grass (Low Purity)
>> Biomass: +0.3 Units
New feature unlocked: [Biomass]
Biomass can be converted into vital energy, used to reinforce the body structure.
Do you wish to absorb?]
"Yes?" Lohan replied uncertainly.
This was his first time doing something like this, since the old Lohan hadn't even tested his abilities before leaving the game and looking for a spot in a guild.
[Starting Absorption...]
When the process began, Lohan felt energy being drained and something changing in his structure that touched the grass, slowly corroding it.
Very slowly...
It took a total of 10 minutes to consume this small handful of Wild Grass, which explained why the other Slimes had moved only a few hundred meters away from Lohan's original Spawn.
'Status.' He thought again.
[Name: Halon
Race: Slime (Mythical)
Class: Devourer (Mythical)
Level: 01
Experience: 0 / 100
Bio-Mass: 0.3]
'Can I do anything with this Bio-Mass?' he wondered.
But there was no option, so he spun around again and stopped on top of another tuft of grass.
[Organic Matter Detected]
[Wild Grass (Low Purity)
>> Biomass: +0.4 Units
Do you want to absorb it?]
This time, instead of answering, Lohan tried to control the energy in his body to repeat the action of absorbing the grass, and although it was a little more difficult, it worked!
In 13 minutes, he completely consumed that tuft of grass and received an additional 0.4 Units of Biomass, increasing his total to 0.7.
Excited, Lohan quickly rolled over to the next tuft of grass and started the process again.
In a few minutes, he gained another 0.3 Units, and his total rose to 1.0!
When the last blade of grass was absorbed, a window popped up in front of him:
[Biological Energy detected.]
[Function: Organic Evolution unlocked!]