Speaking was the 8th head that the Slime had grown just over the past two days. Unlike its other underlings, it always seemed to have a mind of its own.
At that moment, it popped out again, its tone filled with worry.
Yet for the irritated Slime, such words offered no soothing effect whatsoever.
"At worst, we all die together! What?! Are you looking down on me just because you're afraid of death?! You were born from me, believe it or not, I'll shove you right back in right now!"
Number 8 was momentarily at a loss for words, feeling that its boss's phrasing sounded rather strange. Yet knowing better than to touch its reverse scale at a time like this, it could only sheepishly shut its mouth.
As low-level NPCs, they only had a single chance at a berserk state in their entire lives.
Once the berserk state ended, it was followed by a recovery period so long it was hopeless.
In the human world, that was equivalent to burning out and dying.
As for the Slimes thrown back into the Highway Survival Game after their recovery period, even they themselves couldn't clearly say whether that could still be considered truly them.
Unfortunately, the boss had simply locked horns with the likes of Bean Sprout and the others, yet it was only brave at home, always stewing in its own quiet anger, yet never daring to voice its dissatisfaction directly to Bean Sprout and the rest.
"Hmm?"
After a brief silence, Number 8 suddenly spoke up again, striving to lift its head.
Regrettably, the body connecting it to the boss restricted its movements, allowing it only to manage a meager upward stretch.
"What are you doing again?! I'm finding you really annoying! Maybe I should just shove you back in..."
The Slime mumbled and grumbled, expressing its discontent while hurrying along the road.
The other underlings possessed no concept of sibling affection.
No matter what the boss said, they chorused in total agreement, like a pair of unfeeling "like" machines.
Right at that moment, a desolate evening breeze swept straight toward them.
The faint, elusive fragrance of wheat in the air was carried along, rolling toward the Slime.
With that, not only did the Slime halt its boundless grumbling, but the babbling of those brainless underlings cut off abruptly as well.
Every single head was straining to sniff out that exotic scent in the air.
As they drew closer, the aroma grew all the more intense.
The scent carried a slight, smoky pungency, yet it was wonderfully neutralized by the rich aroma of wheat, which, when paired with the enticing, spicy saltiness, instantly captivated the Slime's already meager brain capacity.
"Wait! Boss, this might be a trap!"
The terror of having nearly half its body sliced off by a high-level player earlier helped Number 8 barely steady its wits, though its drool still stubbornly secreted in a frenzy following the aroma.
As it spoke, a suspicious, glistening liquid hung from the corner of its mouth, making its already excessively foolish-looking head appear even more blockheaded at that moment.
The Slime never normally listened to its underlings. At that moment, its heart and soul were completely consumed with investigating the source of the aroma, leaving it without even the slightest response as it forcefully slithered forward until that flash of fire entered its field of vision.
Lin Luyao carefully removed the sliced, skewered synthetic meat from the crude grill.
It was getting dark, making it inconvenient to continue exploring.
With nothing better to do, she had set about exploring new recipes.
To a chef, novel ingredients undoubtedly held immense attraction.
First, she roasted the synthetic meat and the quail-egg-like three-birds eggs to taste-test them.
The synthetic meat was merely palm-sized, featuring alternating layers of fat and lean meat—five layers in total.
The meat had a faint pink hue, while the fat portion carried a slightly yellowish tint.
It felt somewhat sticky to the touch, with a thickness of a full three to four centimeters.
The raw meat smelled devoid of any gamey odor, carrying instead a faint, milky muskiness, somewhat akin to beef.
After roasting the synthetic meat, Lin Luyao took a bite and found it truly bland and tasteless.
Even that faint, milky muskiness had vanished without a trace.
Fortunately, it wasn't dry or stringy when chewed; it simply felt very much like swallowing a mouthful of flavorless foam board, even retaining a crisp, springy bounce.
Lin Luyao then cracked open the three-birds eggs she had boiled in her stainless steel mug.
The eggs appeared translucent, allowing the yolk inside to be clearly seen.
She popped one into her mouth and chewed it carefully. It tasted just like quail eggs, with an even more overbearing sweet fragrance, though it was a bit choking.
This item offered no attribute bonuses; it was simply not cheap for her current situation.
Yet Lin Luyao had just obtained her first primary supply mystery box through exploration today.
If she could utilize the supplies inside the mystery box to explore new recipes, running a food stall on the highway would become an endlessly profitable business with zero risk.
Lin Luyao slowly shifted her gaze to the package of unwrapped sliced bread.
As the Slime drew close to that patch of light, that overbearing wheat aroma abruptly gained an extra layer of spicy breath.
The moment that flavor combined with the wheat aroma, fanned by the heat waves kicked up by the firewood, it drove people to secrete saliva frantically.
Unable to hold back, the Slime inched forward several more steps, and just as it stepped onto the edge of the road, it sneezed from the spicy scent blown in by the wind.
That sneeze not only yanked back its senses—which had been hijacked by the aroma—but also alerted the woman by the campfire to its presence.
Lin Luyao lunged forward, too distracted to mind the notification box that had just popped up after she applied the special sauce. Grasping the Pig-driving Spear, she hurriedly pivoted and aimed it at the silhouette that had suddenly emerged from the other end of the highway.
Looking across the road toward the campfire at the golden chef's nametag that grew increasingly distinct the longer it stared, the Slime found it hard to believe.
High-level chef players actually existed in reality!
So... so what Bean Sprout and the others said was true after all?
Would high-level players really take out their own food to trade so amicably?
They must be tricking the NPC...
The high-level player it had encountered earlier had simply caught a glimpse of it by chance, and without rhyme or reason, had slashed at it from afar.
Seeing it scramble away in a panic, the player had even laughed uproariously, not paying the slightest bit of attention to a low-level NPC like it.
In their eyes, it was merely a toy provided for slaughter and amusement.
If it hadn't just happened to stand at the intersection of the rookie paths, scrambling and rolling to hide inside another beginner path, it probably would have vanished by now.
High-level players were a bunch of arrogant and conceited fellows who looked down most of all on weak NPCs like itself. How could they—how could they possibly be willing to speak nicely to it, let alone exchange food that smelled exceptionally delicious with it...
Drawing on her previous experience interacting with NPCs, Lin Luyao saw that the shadow on the opposite side remained completely motionless, yet she felt no panic. Instead, she tightened her grip on the Pig-driving Spear and carefully observed the movements across the way.
The first thing she noticed was that the Slime's nametag background color differed from those of other NPCs.
Other NPCs' nametags were white or green, but the large creature before her was dark yellow.
[NPC: Slime (Experimental Version); Potentiality Activating]
What did that mean?
Recalling how those four NPCs had previously rushed over hollering after catching the scent, and smelling the overbearing spicy sauce in the air, Lin Luyao guessed that this NPC had also come for a bite to eat. Tentatively, she spoke up: "Are you here to buy something to eat?"
The turbulence in the Slime's heart, which had yet to subside, plunged into chaos once more upon hearing these words, and it subconsciously inched forward another two steps.
Before it could even utter a sound, the heads atop its head began clamoring uncontrollably.
"Yes, yes, yes! Give us food quickly!"
"We want to eat too!"
"Want to eat! Want to eat!"
A crowd of mouths crying to be fed startled Lin Luyao.
Fortunately, the Slime's overall physique was plump and bulbous, possessing a translucent, gelatinous texture.
Even with so many tumor-like round heads growing on its body, it didn't look overly ferocious.
"Ahem, would you like to try today's new item?"