"Honestly, I think these green viscous fluids look just like the bloodstains left by a slime when it's injured in an animation."
"They look exactly alike!"
"Could it be that slimes really exist in this world? Did it abduct Jin Lian Dai?"
"I think that's impossible. How can monsters from a game appear in reality?"
"Have you guys lost your minds? What kind of fantasy plot are you discussing? This is the real world!"
The crowd buzzed with discussion.
Meanwhile, Jack's mind was racing.
If it really were a slime...
Did I hit it with my car earlier?
And then, it held a grudge because it was injured, found me for revenge?
And finally, brutally murdered Jin Lian Dai?
This logic seemed sound and clear, and the traces perfectly matched the path a wounded slime would have taken while fleeing.
But there was one fatal flaw in this logic: slimes, these creatures, these monsters, were merely creations from games.
Appearing in reality?
Don't be ridiculous!
Jack would rather believe that Jin Lian Dai had fallen off a cliff and died in the mountains.
Than believe in some slime—it would be more believable if it were a monster created by a military research lab that lost control.
Monsters from games are completely unbelievable!
But as everyone walked further and saw patches of gelatinous substance in the forest, and then saw a few gelatinous creatures with a blade of grass on their heads suddenly emerge from beneath rocks and the ground.
Moving gelatinous creatures.
Jack's worldview could no longer hold, shattering in an instant!
"Slimes?"
"Creatures from games have actually become real-life beings..."
"How is this possible? How is this possible?"
It wasn't just Jack who cried out in alarm; Nad, standing beside him, and Bill, who had lost his girlfriend, were equally shocked.
Witnessing such a supernatural phenomenon, their understanding of the world felt as if it had been smashed to the ground and stomped on several times, leaving them emotionally devastated.
Many clutched their heads, trying to reclaim their lost worldview, to solidify their materialistic understanding of reality, but after seeing lively, moving slimes with their own eyes, their worldview was beyond repair.
Monsters from games were now hopping and moving right in front of them, so what was there to their worldview? What nonsense about worldviews?
Hadn't it already been shattered?
"My God! What is going on!"
Bill, who had lost his girlfriend, was the first to scream.
This male student had been desperately trying to find his girlfriend.
In his heart, he had entertained several theories about his girlfriend's whereabouts.
Perhaps she had stumbled and fallen off a cliff while walking.
Or perhaps she had fallen into Crystal Lake and couldn't climb out; such a deep lake, and without diving equipment, they, as students, had no means to ascertain her fate or whether she had fallen in.
Or perhaps she had been kidnapped...
Or perhaps she had been murdered by someone among these classmates.
Yes, Bill was very suspicious, even suspecting an inside job. Had a classmate somehow gotten into a conflict with Jin Lian Dai?
And in a moment of losing control, pushed her into the lake, or even murdered and concealed her body.
Only then could one explain why a living person would disappear without a trace, and why no one could find her—how could a murderer hiding a body allow you to find it so easily?
Bill had watched horror movies; in the endings of those films, the revealed conclusions and truths often pointed to an insider, someone among them causing trouble!
Bill had considered all sorts of possibilities and made all sorts of conjectures.
But before this, he had never imagined that his girlfriend's disappearance could be related to slimes!
What kind of fantastical plot was this!
A group of students on an outing, having a barbecue, and then someone goes missing. Not an inside job, not a murderer, not a serial killer, not a fall from a cliff, not into a lake.
But—done by slimes?
If this were a movie or a TV show, Bill swore he would leave countless negative reviews in the comment section.
But now, in reality, with the appearance of fantastical creatures like slimes.
This fantastical plot was the reality he was experiencing.
Bill's worldview had been completely shattered.
As for his girlfriend's disappearance, was it unrelated to the magical creatures that had appeared before them?
Bill didn't think so. When two seemingly impossible events were discovered at the same time and place, only a fool would believe they were unrelated!
His girlfriend must have been attacked by these slimes!
Bill's worldview was in the process of being rebuilt.
Nad and Jack were also deeply shocked.
In the United States, videos circulated on how to survive encounters with various wild animals, attempting to teach people how to increase their chances of survival during attacks by large beasts.
But there wasn't a single video teaching how to increase survival rates during a slime attack—perhaps there were, but those were game videos, not real-life encounters with dangerous beasts!
Therefore, Jack and Nad realized a fact—they were likely the first people in the United States to encounter such fantastical creatures as slimes!
Now... what should they do?
How could they cope with the current situation?
"Slimes shouldn't be that hard to deal with... aren't they the first type of monster a beginner adventurer fights?"
"We should be able to handle them, right?"
Someone in the crowd said this.
But as they spoke, their voice gradually faded, clearly not very confident in what they were saying.
It was one thing in a game, and another in reality.
The slimes before them were each about the size of a large wolfhound.
Their height was almost a meter.
Even the shortest one was over half a meter.
If this size were translated into a wolf pack, they would be preparing for their funerals by now.
As for which was more dangerous, game slimes or real-life wolves,
Many among the crowd were reluctant to find out—the danger stemmed from their size; these slimes were as tall as half a person.
It was hard to say what abilities they possessed.
Moreover, some people recalled that some slimes in games could use magic.
No matter how weak the magic cast by these low-level monsters might be.
Could they, mere mortals, withstand it? Even the weakest magic?
Even the most optimistic person felt a sense of unease in their heart about this.