Dark Matter Slime (2)
Franc spun at the woman's scream. The sight of Hiarid stripping one of them bare startled her, and she rushed to put a stop to it.
"Hiarid! That's enough! What are you doing?!"
Oh. A vision-analysis type, and a body like that? The breasts were full and springy, but the nipples ran dark — deeper pigment, maybe just how her people colored. A shame.
When it comes to nipples, pink is the— eek. Franc was glaring daggers, so I snapped my head the other way, and there was Hiarid, explaining the whole of it to her.
= "This female's clothing is not of ordinary material. She would not remove it, so I disarmed her." =
The ability user had gone rigid with fear at what Hiarid had done, too stiff even to cover herself properly — which gave me a hell of a view. Wait. Not ordinary clothes?
"Ah. This is armor made from byproducts."
I stepped in close and touched a torn scrap lying at her feet. The texture wasn't like ordinary cloth at all. Even the scraps of underwear felt firm and somehow rubbery under my fingers. Not just underwear.
"हम सिर्फ अंधेरे कीचड़ की जांच करने के लिए आए थे, लेकिन यह अधिक है!!"
The woman rattled off something that sounded like Hindi, face full of grievance. I couldn't understand a word of it. You want a conversation, you speak Korean.
Thighs pressed together, both hands covering her chest, she looked thoroughly wronged that none of it was getting through to me.
Wait. Hiarid had understood Korean with no prior knowledge at all. She ought to be able to understand this woman too, right?
"Hiarid, can you make out what she's saying?"
= "Yes. She says, 'We only came to confirm the Dark Matter Slime. Conduct such as this is excessive.'" =
The stripped woman flinched at Hiarid's words. Universal interpretation, as expected. Excessive, though?
"Hiarid. Relay exactly what I say. You've got some nerve, crying foul. If you wanted to protest, you should have put in a proper request for an investigation through your government and come in the front door. You sneak in to spy, and you call this excessive? Want me to show you what excessive really looks like?"
I said it as I got to my feet. Hiarid passed it on, and the woman — pretty enough, with that classic hourglass figure — went ashen and began edging backward.
Just then, several vans rolled up from below the rise. Uniformed ability users inside, government issue. Agents Yeongeun had sent, no doubt.
The spies, frozen too tense even to swallow, looked saved the moment our national agents arrived.
The stripped woman especially clung to one of our female agents with the face of someone snatched back from the dead, eyes welling up.
Our people had come at a run. They trussed every last spy and hauled them off, and as the distance from me grew, some of them looked plainly relieved. Others wore a strangely cocky air.
Trusting their home country's backing, or whatever it was — watching that put a twist in my guts.
Mean as I am, I'd seen a look like that. I could hardly just send them on their way.
"Hiarid, tell them this. If you set foot on your homeland in one piece, I'll come find you myself and erase one of your vertebrae."
At Hiarid's words the spies went pale all over again and turned to look at me.
Now they finally looked like people being dragged away.
Once the government ability users had all gone, I ran Spatial Perception again and swept the vicinity for any Special-type users.
"Hm. Clean."
A few ability users below G Class showed, but most of them were Physical Reinforcement types.
Confirming the nuisances were gone, I released the Space Wall, and the Dark Matter Slime dropped to the ground. I caught it again in a Space Wall shaped like an oil drum, cracked my fingers, and stepped in close.
Time to practice Mental Manipulation.
The black, translucent slime that had hit the dirt with a wet slap squirmed, struggling to push through the drum-shaped wall — but every time it put out strength it was shoved back, its amorphous body rippling. Calling it strength was generous. It was about as much force as a baby lifting a palm and patting the floor.
This one really was built for the counter.
Franc was tense behind me for some reason, Hiarid expressionless. I worked the Mana Sieve, shaped the Phase Power pattern into a Klein Bottle, and stared the Dark Matter Slime down.
"......"
A Mental Manipulation user, they said, could tell whether a target had already been worked on by another.
I couldn't tell. The thing sat there still as a round pudding, and nothing came off it at all.
Probably because the Mental Manipulation I used wasn't an ability gained the proper way. An ordinary ability user awakens and simply knows how to use what they've gained. I didn't have that.
Hoo. Mine is going to have to overwrite Ha Cheolsu's.
Unfortunately, the analysis reports on Mental Manipulation users had no answer for a case like this. All they said was that the only one who could undo what had been laid on a test subject was the one who had cast it.
First I closed my eyes and, as planned, drew obedience up in a ratio of love two, joy three, pleasure five, and set it aside. Beside it I drew out an equal measure of devotion, combined the two, and loaded them into my eyes. Then I steadied the tightness in my chest and looked straight through the Space Wall at the Dark Matter Slime.
...Wait. Where are this thing's eyes?
I searched the body in a panic. Nothing that looked like an eye. No — no internal organs at all.
What? How had that bastard Ha Cheolsu even laid Mental Manipulation on this thing?
"Nngh."
"Is it not working?"
I clicked my tongue, and Franc — more wound up than I was — turned toward me, eyes narrowing. The manipulation was still loaded in my gaze. I couldn't look at Franc.
"Yeah. Figures, learning it the crooked way. The actual how-to leaves something to be— hk?!"
I hadn't taken my eyes off the Dark Matter Slime even while I spoke. Mid-sentence, a vise clamped my skull. The black translucent body flushed gray-white for an instant, and a vast quantity of TP drained out in one long pull.
Like my strength had been yanked out of me all at once. The sensation of having starved so long that I'd die if I didn't eat something this instant — the world tilted.
I checked what Phase Power I had left. A little over four million. 14.22 million — seventy-five percent of my entire Phase Power — gone in a heartbeat. Cold sweat broke out.
"W-what was that just now?"
Franc had seen the Dark Matter Slime flush gray-white, if only for a moment, and turned to ask.
"Huh? Oh. The Mental Manipulation took."
I answered with a frown. What? It took? But why had a hundred percent of the Phase Power it possessed drained out, not fifty?
Had the release and the manipulation gone in at the same time?
Pressure in my head, as if I'd sunk deep underwater, and a mental fatigue along with it. By that sign, the manipulation had landed normally — and it hadn't been released?
I wasn't panicking, but a chill opened in one side of my chest. If I hadn't absorbed every last drop of the Grand Turtle's Phase Power and Ha Cheolsu's, that 14.22 million — more than my own figure would have been — might have vanished, and I with it...
I swallowed hard at how close it had been, and calculated the load I'd taken on after manipulating the Dark Matter Slime.
Mm... A little tight for adding one more Highest-Rank Variant. Grow my mental strength a bit more, and it might be doable.
The weight at the nape was heavier than I'd expected, and I winced. Had my thinking dulled? I ran a simple arithmetic test. About the same as usual. Was this the Mana Sieve and thought acceleration again?
Anyway, the manipulation seemed to have taken. Time to confirm.
"I'm expanding the Space Wall, so both of you get well back."
"Ah, yes!"
= "Yes." =
I drew Franc and Hiarid back, raised a fresh Space Wall of about three square meters, and erased the old one. The Dark Matter Slime went sproing and crept toward me.
"Hey. Stop."
Slosh?
...It stopped. But I couldn't tell whether it had stopped because it understood the order the moment it stuck to the Space Wall between us, or simply because it had hit the wall.
One more order would tell me.
"Back up."
Slosh, slosh!
The moment the words ended, it rippled side to side — the way Yeongeun's breasts did when I flicked them as she lay there — and began inching backward.
"Does it understand commands?"
"Seems so... What should I have it do next, if I want to check how obedient it actually is?"
"I-I couldn't say."
I'd been planning, once the manipulation took, to wear the thing the way Ha Cheolsu had. Now that I was doubting whether I'd even gotten the first step right, it felt somehow unclean.
"...You. Do you understand me?"
Slosh!
Somehow, for a while now, it felt like an exclamation point kept gluing itself onto every little sound the thing made.
I watched the jiggling slime — like Yeongeun's chest after I tugged a nipple and let go — with a distrustful face, then gave another order.
"Don't move. Don't even twitch."
......
The instant the words fell, it went still as hardened pudding. Not so much as a tremor. After that I tried this and that.
"Turn round as a ball. Roll. Jump."
"Whoa... It really does seem to understand Seoha."
Franc marveled at the slime flattening, then popping about ten centimeters into the air. I was just as curious how the thing understood me. Had it picked up something like Hiarid's gift for interpretation?
Dark Matter Slime. Whoever had stuck the name on it, it fit this thing perfectly.
Dark matter.
They called the mass that ought to exist, and yet could not be found, dark matter. This one clearly existed too — and there was no knowing how a life like it could.
No organs. Not even the core a slime was supposed to have. A thing that existed as black, translucent liquid.
Anyway, I stared at the Dark Matter Slime and waited for premonition to force a warning. Nothing. Probably not dangerous.
Ugh. Lose my temper or my head, and I lose every scrap of fear with them — but let me have a spare moment when something actually calls for nerves, and I turn into a complete coward.
I cleared every Space Wall and approached the Dark Matter Slime slowly. Franc and Hiarid pressed in close behind me. The slime, for its part, crept toward me too.
A volume of about two liters. A black body as transparent as the amber Space Wall. The shape of a woman's breast, a risen hemisphere.
The closer I came, the more gently it rippled, and the motion felt like a dog looking at its owner.
...Was I insane? A vicious aberrant that Franc, Hwayeon, and Yeongeun together would have no chance of beating, and it felt like a dog.
Come to think of it, I'd passed the poodle and the Persian cat that survived the Mental Manipulation experiments along to Aunt Hyeryeong and Boss Park Jiwoong. I wondered if they were getting on all right.
I pushed thought acceleration as far as it would go, ready to answer anything that went wrong, then removed the Space Wall standing between me and the Dark Matter Slime. The wall vanished. The slime went slosh...? and crept closer, and I carefully extended a finger toward its body.
And the moment my fingertip brushed it —
Cold and yielding. The feel of poking firm pudding.
Brrrip!
It squirmed as if ticklish, and the way it shook against my finger was just like Yeongeun's— ah. I kept comparing the thing's movements to Yeongeun's breasts. The shape was ridiculously similar, that had to be it.
Size, movement, form — all close enough that the association came on its own.
Anyway, the slime gently dodged my finger, then carefully extended the little nub that had been rising at the peak of its hemisphere and tapped me. Then it began to move onto my hand.
Franc had gone past tense into not breathing at all, eyes locked on the Dark Matter Slime. I was half afraid she'd strike on reflex.
At last it climbed onto the back of my hand, passed the hand, and crept up the wrist...
"Hey! Don't melt my clothes!"
Brrrip?!
The school-uniform sleeve dissolved and vanished the instant it touched the slime. I barked, and the thing went rigid — then, as if embarrassed, tapped the melted sleeve clinging to its own body and slowly climbed up over the uniform instead.
Once it reached my shoulder it sloshed this way and that, stretched itself long, and started nuzzling my cheek. A little cold. Slippery, or maybe velvety — either way, not a bad texture.
Hoo. The manipulation of obedience and devotion had taken properly.
I let the breath of relief out inside me, and Franc — who had been staring at the Dark Matter Slime without daring to breathe — let out a small breath of her own.
"Thankfully, the Mental Manipulation worked."
"Yeah. Shame I can't manipulate one more Highest-Rank Variant. Mental capacity's a little short, but if I train it some, I should be able to take another."
"If you can dominate two Highest-Rank Variants, that will be an enormous help from here on."
Franc smiled wide at that, then looked at the Dark Matter Slime swaying on my shoulder with curious eyes and reached out a finger. The closer her finger came, the stiffer the thing's body got...
"Stop!"
I jerked back and shouted. The Dark Matter Slime and Franc both startled and froze.
"Hey. You don't get to attack just anyone. You attack a target precisely, and only when I tell you to. Got it?"
I poked the rigidly frozen slime with a finger. It went brrrip? and heaved once, like a pump. It didn't seem to grasp what I meant, so I pressed harder.
"You were wary of Franc just now and about to attack her! Don't attack anything without my permission! Got it?!"
B-brrrip...
Pressed hard, it wilted, drooping like a scrotum in a heat wave. Franc forced a smile and drew her finger back.
"Ah. Was I about to be attacked just now?"
I nodded. She hid her hands behind her back, a drop of cold sweat sliding down, and I told her it was all right now, then took the Dark Matter Slime in both hands.
"That was close. Wait a moment. I'm going to teach this one what it's not allowed to do."
Hiarid at least had a human form and a mind of her own, so she hadn't tried to attack indiscriminately. This one felt like it treated everyone but me as an enemy.
Before it caused an incident, I meant to give it a simple education. I looked at the Dark Matter Slime — and found it gone slack as a jellyfish hauled out of water, probably from being yelled at.
Proof it had feelings too? Better to soothe it with a gentle stroke than just scold and punish.
I lifted a hand and stroked it slowly. The spring came back, and soon it had returned to the shape of an overturned rice bowl. It bounced, pleased with itself. I warned it again.
"Hey. Remember what I said. Until I give the order myself, you don't attack anyone. No breaking things, either. Absolutely not. Understand?"
Brrrip. Brrrip.
Told again, it rippled up and down as if it understood. It really understood, right? I lifted it in both hands.
Soft.
Soft, soft.
Soft, soft, soft.
...I-I could get addicted to this texture! If I tore Yeongeun's breasts off and held them in my hands, would it feel like this?
Pleasurable as popping bubble wrap. I couldn't pull my hands away for a moment, then sighed and passed the Dark Matter Slime to Franc, who was fidgeting with the want to touch it. She took it carefully, and the way it wrapped snug into her hands put a look of bliss on her face.
"Waaah. It's so, so soft, and moist, and springy. Even more than I expected!"
Slosh!
The Dark Matter Slime didn't seem to mind Franc's slender, fine hands either.
I texted Yeongeun that I'd tamed the Dark Matter Slime, then brought Franc and Hiarid — neither of them able to let the thing go — back home.
The moment I appeared in the living room by Space Leaping, Choi Soohan, who had been sitting with Miho on her lap while watching little Pporongi, set Miho down on the sofa, stood, and bowed.
"Welcome back, Master."
"Master~! You're here!"
I caught Miho as she bounded into my arms and patted her rear. She buried her face in my shoulder with a happy look and giggled. Then she noticed the Dark Matter Slime in Franc's hand beside us, narrowed her eyes, and started glaring.
"What's that in Fwanc's hand?"
Miho glared at the Dark Matter Slime and poked it with a finger. The slime stretched a protrusion like a whip — how dare you touch me — and smacked the back of her small hand.
Slosh! Smack!
"Ow! ...What are you."
Hit out of nowhere, Miho flinched and pulled her hand back, then started lashing her white fox tails in a frenzy. Whether the slime took that as a threat or not, it kept the protrusion stretched like a whip and began waving it.
I doubted they'd actually fight, but just in case, I spoke to the two of them locked in a staring contest.
"You remember what I said? No one attacks anyone here without cause."
"I knooow!"
Slosh! Slosh-slosh.
"Whaaat? No! I was here first!"
Slosh? Slooosh.
"Nuh-uhhh! You're the baby!"
Slosh!!
"No I'm nooot!"
What was this. Were they talking? Ah — both aberrants, maybe they could communicate. If the two of them had some gift for interpretation, it was entirely possible...
Then could Hiarid understand the Dark Matter Slime too?
I turned to Hiarid, standing quietly behind Franc and me.
"Hiarid. Can you understand what the slime is saying?"
= "Emotional content and intent are intermixed, but there is no difficulty in understanding." =
...Really? If this worked, I could clear up every question I had. A little excited, I caught Hiarid by the arm. She gave the faintest flinch and looked at me.
"What's the slime saying right now?"
= "It declared that Miho's Phase Power is the lowest, and asked how one at the very bottom of the group dared behave so impudently. It said it is only natural that the weakest occupy the lowest rank." =
Slooosh? Slosh-slosh~.
"Grr!"
Whatever she had heard, Miho scrunched her small face, bared her fangs, snatched the slime out of Franc's hand, lifted it, and slammed it into the floor with everything she had.
Splat! Streeetch!
"Huh?"
Spread flat like burst pudding, the slime immediately stretched its body long as a rope, bound Miho's arms and torso together, balled its tip, and started bonking her on the head.
"Ow! Stop iiit! Aaang!"
"H-hey, you two? You mustn't fight!"
Miho, both hands sealed away by the slime, taking blows to the head and starting to tumble across the living room. The slime wrapped around her. And Franc chasing after, trying to pry the two of them apart.
That... wasn't an attack, was it? More like a show of rank, to settle who outranked whom?
The racket the two were raising made it hard to put any questions to the Dark Matter Slime just now.
I'd have to wait until Franc got them apart.