The mascot of the wishing shop is a cat.

"you……"

"boom--"

Just as Meros was about to speak, he was interrupted by a sudden loud noise.

"Hmph, what kind of thing dares to ambush me!?(?`?′?)?"

Earl sensed the unfamiliar fluctuations and instinctively erected a red protective shield. The loud noise was the sound of the shield colliding with something unknown.

After the collision, Earl and Meros looked at the thing that was still struggling with the protective shield.

They discovered it was a large, jelly-like object, roughly the size of a children's inflatable swimming pool.

It is entirely black, but it gleams with a multicolored light, making it a perfect example of the colorful black that Party B loves most.

Of course, if you still can't imagine what it looks like, then you can think of it as a black body of water polluted by chemicals. You happen to be passing by, and out of boredom, you pick up a stick, stick it into the water, stir it, and the colorful, slightly metallic sheen that rises to the surface is the color of this object.

When it is still, it is pure black, but when it moves, it is like rippling water, constantly shimmering.

Now, it is lying entirely on the protective shield, struggling to expand and wriggle, seemingly trying to envelop the entire shield. The area where the shield contacts it is making a hissing, corrosive sound.

"Huh? This thing's kind of interesting."

Earl, looking at the thing from inside the protective shield, seemed quite interested. He even increased the energy input to enlarge the shield, wanting to see how big it could go and whether it could corrode his shield.

The slime-like thing was trying to expand its area, and Earl was simultaneously expanding its protective shield, each time only slightly larger than the slime.

"Hehehe, this thing is such an idiot! Hahahaha, it's still growing its body! Doesn't it even notice the problem? (*?wq)"

Earl was overjoyed, like a child who had found a fun toy and was having a great time playing with it.

Meros glanced at them and, seeing that the two fools were having a great time, ignored Earl. He turned and flew to the vicinity of the tumor to examine the rest of it more closely.

Upon closer inspection, Meros discovered that the tumor was not a single, monolithic mass, but rather composed of hundreds or thousands of large and small lumps of flesh connected by blood vessels, breathing together as one.

It feels a bit like grapes, like a bunch of grapes connected by a stem.

"This thing is absolutely disgusting, and it's even more disgusting up close. :("

As Meros changed positions to observe, he muttered to himself.

"what?!"

When Meros looked at the back, he noticed a large pit in the tumor, which looked like a grape had been taken from a bunch of grapes.

Meros flew a little closer, getting closer to the crater that looked like it had been created by man.

"brush--"

Something suddenly jumped out of the pit, and was quickly trapped by Meros's tentacles.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah—"

Once caught, this thing emitted a piercing scream that sent chills down your spine.

"Huh? Meros, what did you grab? (′｀;)?"

The piercing sound instantly attracted Earl, who was happily playing with black slime nearby.

He casually deformed the protective shield, flipping it over to form a sealed sphere that trapped the slime that had been struggling to survive inside. Then, he flew towards Meros like he was leading a balloon.

"Um...it's probably a tongue?"

Meros wasn't quite sure, because apart from its shape resembling a tongue, the thing in front of him didn't look like a tongue at all.

The tongue-shaped thing protruded from the pit. Its top resembled a cow's tongue, covered in sticky mucus, making it even more like a tongue. However, it changed at the tip. Where the tip of the tongue should have been, a slit opened up, revealing something resembling a mosquito's proboscis. It looked as if a bite from this thing could suck an elephant dry within a minute.

"Wait, could this thing be the mouth of this tumor?"

Earl stared at the tongue with some disdain.

"It's very likely, because I haven't seen any other pits elsewhere. To be honest, I thought this thing was just an aggregate, because each tubercle looks independent, you can see they even have their own individual predators. I even thought they were like coral, something formed by tubercles coming together."

As Meros observed the tongue, he pointed to the group of tumors and explained to Earl.

"Ah, it really does look like it! I'll go take a look! (－o⌒) ☆"

Upon hearing Meros's explanation, Earl looked as if he had just realized something, and then, without looking back, he rushed into the hole where the tongue had come out with his "balloon".

"Wait……"

Before Meros could stop him, he saw Earl go inside and disappear from sight in a flash.

……

"Meros! Come quick! There's actually a house inside!"

Five minutes later, Earl's muffled voice came from inside.

Meros glanced at the tongue on the tentacle, then at the unseen pit inside. After thinking for a moment, he tied a tight knot on a small, protruding fleshy growth on the outside with his tongue. Once he was sure he wouldn't break free, he stepped into the pit.

……

When Meros went inside, it wasn't completely dark.

Strange green, flocculent substances clung to the blood vessels on the surrounding sarcoma. They remained motionless on the blood vessels, emitting a shimmering green light as the blood vessels respired, suggesting a symbiotic relationship with the sarcoma.

Surrounded by the same narrow, unchanging passageways, after walking for a few minutes, Meros suddenly found himself in a relatively large open space.

In the center of the open space stood a pillar, its entire structure formed by blood vessels connecting its top and the ground, with bulges of varying sizes all over it. Earl was jumping up and down beneath the pillar, as if he had seen something magical.

“I’m in, Earl. What did you find?”

Meros approached Earl and called out to him.

"Ah, Meros, you're here! Look at this bulge, the one closest to us, there's a squirrel inside! Σ(?д?lll)"

Earl glanced at Meros, then gestured for him to look at the bulge closest to the ground, which was also the closest to them at that moment.

"It was indeed a squirrel, and it looked like it had been dead for a few days."

Meros looked at the bulge and subconsciously made a preliminary judgment based on the squirrel's current state and appearance.

"Yes, yes! Look, here, here, and over there!"

Earl then pointed to another, slightly larger mound containing an Alaskan Malamute, and a further mound containing a Siamese cat.

These are the smaller bulges; there are also larger ones, the largest of which looks like it could fit a person inside. Judging from what's inside these visible bulges, the larger ones are very likely people.

The animal carcasses inside the bulges were motionless, soaked in the mucus of their blood vessels. It was unclear whether they were stored food or nutrients needed to be broken down into tumors; only the liquid could be seen flowing over their bodies.

"These are likely people and animals that have gone missing in the slums or even the safe zone. The people are probably missing persons from the slums, since everyone in the safe zone has a subcutaneous safety locator that sends a message to the central database the moment a person dies, indicating that the person is dead. Therefore, people in the safe zone are generally not hunted, so people in the slums are much easier to hunt."

Melos analyzed the situation without any emotion, after all, these people were not of the same race as them. He felt that if Lin Xiyue were not human, he might have been even more indifferent.

"Really?! I'll go up and check it out!"

Upon hearing Meros's analysis, Earl immediately took off to see if the larger ones were human.

"Um, Meros, it's a bit difficult to fly here. There's a wind coming from somewhere, and it carries a strange smell. The wind makes the air feel a bit sticky, and flying feels a bit like walking in a mud pit."

After Earl flew up, he subconsciously told Meros how he felt. This was a tacit understanding they had developed over the years: he would be the one to act recklessly, while leaving the thinking to Meros and Li Si.

"It's probably because some tiny, viscous impurities have adhered to you. If you change your form, preferably to a flat, smooth liquid, that should solve the problem."

Meros calmly analyzed the situation and then told Earl what he needed to do better.

"Wow! Really! That's amazing! d(′w｀*) Okay, okay, I'm here, let me see..."

After changing its form, Earl flew much more easily and soon arrived at a large bulge that could be seen from afar.

Through the slightly thinner part of the bulge, Earl could see that it was a rather fat person whose clothes were tattered and whose limbs showed some bones, but were generally intact.

"There's someone here! He doesn't have a safety tracking device around his neck, so he should be the person from the slum you mentioned. But can people from the slums get this fat?"

Earl described what he had seen, and then seemed quite puzzled. Logically speaking, how could someone be so fat when people in the slums are struggling to get enough to eat? Moreover, this person was definitely not a wealthy person from the slums, because his face was covered with signs of aging caused by overwork.

"People in slums are actually more prone to obesity because they eat high-calorie junk food. To maintain high-intensity activities, they eat mostly high-calorie fried foods, which makes them fat, but they lack vegetables and vitamins. So their body types are extremely polarized."

Meros explained to Earl, and at the same time, he flew up as well.

"Oh oh oh! (°Д°)"

Earl seemed to have finally gotten his brain working.

"Wait, Earl, what's behind you?"

Meros suddenly frowned and looked behind Earl. He saw something wriggling.

"Huh? What?"

Earl looked back.

"Aaaaaah! How did it get out?!"

Then he realized that the slime he had been playing with like a balloon had escaped and was now frantically trying to touch the pillar formed by the blood vessels.

"Don't stop it, let's see what it's going to do."

Meros stopped Earl from locking the slime up again.

"Oh, okay. (－o⌒)?"

Earl even handed the slime towards the pillar.

Soon, the slime hit the pillar. In an instant, it pounced on the blood vessel like a mouse falling into a rice jar, making a hissing, corrosive sound, and if you listened carefully, you could hear the faint gnawing sounds inside.

"Wow, this thing even has teeth! I never would have guessed! щ(?Д?щ)"

Earl was somewhat surprised to hear the gnawing sound, after all, he hadn't seen this thing use its teeth when it was struggling with the protective shield.

Ten minutes later, Earl and Meros saw the slime gnaw a large hole in the blood vessel, and a viscous, purplish-red liquid gushed out. The slime neither dodged nor avoided it, but instead used its entire body to receive the liquid, appearing to swell and swell as if it were drinking the gushing liquid.

Seeing how easily a hole had been made, Earl curiously conjured a claw and forcefully scratched the blood vessel beside him.

The results showed that only three white marks appeared on the outer skin of the blood vessels.

"This thing has great teeth! (°Д°) I absolutely can't let it go, I'm going to keep it!!"

Earl became even more interested in the slime, thinking that he had to be the first to play with something so cool.

"Follow it, it went inside and went up."

Meros discovered that the slime had completely burrowed in and then began to swim upwards without hesitation, so he quickly called for Earl.

"Are we going to have to crawl in too?! ヾ(??﹏?)??"

Even the most carefree Earl didn't want to crawl into that lousy thing.

“Let’s go outside! Unless you become a wave, how can you keep up inside? This stuff is viscous and has a lot of resistance.”

Meros rolled his eyes and began to fly upwards, keeping a close eye on the direction the slime was heading.

The top was very high, but not infinite, so after flying for an hour, they reached the top.

The slime also arrived here, and then it saw that instead of continuing to flow down the blood vessel, it suddenly began to expand and block the blood vessel.

Soon, a new lump formed here.

However, the difference between this and other lumps is that the others are formed actively, while this one is formed passively.

"Roar!—Ah—"

Less than ten minutes after the lump formed, a roar was heard, sounding full of pain.

……