"Ah! F*ck, I died again."
The centipede that had reached the realm of a Great Demon Beast had been killed by a cultivator of the human race at the Foundation Establishment Realm.
―Heh heh. This will make good material for a magical artifact.―
"Ah. Fuck. This game's translation feature is pointlessly good."
The character he had raised had been killed by a Chinese player who had dumped money into the game.
"Well, it's just a character. I can make a new one."
He felt no attachment to the character that had died.
He could always make another one.
Raising a Demon Beast or even a Demon had been easy enough.
You could even use the auto-hunt function.
It took no time at all to raise one.
As one would expect from a Chinese game, the demon race grew extremely quickly.
A few days of auto-hunting were enough to reach the mid-grade Demon stage.
Then, hunting players of the human race at the Qi Refining Realm in the beginner zone was surprisingly entertaining.
The Chinese players' curses made the game even more fun.
Being told that he played like a fucking asshole was the highest praise he could receive.
Taunting the players he killed was immensely satisfying.
This was a Chinese-made game.
Progression was extremely fast at the beginning.
Later on, however, the difficulty rose to a vicious extreme.
The game was unplayable unless you spent money.
It shamelessly pushed players to pay.
But when they did, the rewards were undeniable.
They could climb to ever-higher realms and massacre casual players.
After burning about 100 million won and advancing to the Core Formation Realm, even a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator who had seemed like a god back when the player was at the Qi Refining Realm.......
They could crush that cultivator underfoot to their heart's content.
It was just the sort of thing Chinese people would enjoy.
There were surprisingly many rich people in China.
Plenty of rich men and lunatics would readily dump 100 million won into a game if it meant trampling over someone else.
"So what? As long as I'm having fun. Ha ha."
Games like that survived because there were players who spent nothing.
All he had to do was choose the demon race and mess around.
Since they were so easy to raise, it did not matter if they died.
The demon race could grow quickly simply by using Devouring on its own kind.
Using Devouring on a cultivator of the human race was even more effective.
Eating one cultivator of the human race at the same realm was vastly more effective than eating ten members of the demon race.
After quickly raising a member of the demon race and then devouring a member of the human race.......
He could enjoy the game to some extent without spending any money.
That was why players of the demon race rushed into the territory of the human race once they became Demons or stronger.
To the demon race, members of the human race were like medicinal pills.
A member of the human race at the Foundation Establishment Realm was no different from a Foundation Establishment Pill.
If they were lucky enough to devour a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Realm.......
They could easily advance as far as Great Demon.
Once they reached that level, they could sweep away players of the human race at the Foundation Establishment Realm who had spent only a middling amount.
That was why players who spent no money generally chose the demon race.
Poor Chinese players and Korean players who did not want to spend money on a game played as members of the demon race.
In contrast, the chinks who spent money on the game chose the human race.
The human race grew slowly at the beginning.
But unlike the demon race, their difficulty did not rise sharply later on.
Most importantly, spending money produced clear results.
"You'd have to be an idiot to spend money on the demon race."
The demon race's balance was a luck-based shitshow.
With poor compatibility and bad luck, one could suffer an absurd defeat against someone at a lower realm.
Getting beaten by a free player after spending money would make anyone curse.
If someone was going to spend money on a demon, they had to go big and burn hundreds of millions of won to reach Demon King level.
Demon Emperor level cost several billion won.
A handful of Chinese players actually did that.
The safest option was to spend money on a member of the human race and raise their realm.
A member of the human race could reach the Core Formation Realm after burning 100 million won.
Spending several billion would take them to the Nascent Soul Realm.
If someone was going to burn money, members of the human race were better than the uncertain, gambling-like demon race.
"What should I start as this time?"
He had tried nearly every kind of character from the demon race.
He had played hundreds of species from the demon race already.
He had experienced all kinds of animal and insect species from the demon race, including snakes, centipedes, spiders, and rats.
He had even played as a crucian carp and a stone.
This Chinese game had thousands of species from the demon race.
"Nothing really grabs me."
Even if there were thousands of species.......
There was little difference between a crucian carp and a common carp.
Broadly categorized, there were only dozens or hundreds of truly distinct types.
"A slime in a xianxia game?"
This Chinese game seemed like someone had mixed black-bean noodles with spicy seafood noodle soup.
It had a strange flavor.
It seemed the developers had initially tried to make a fantasy game.
Then they had skinned it as one of the xianxia games that were popular these days.
They brazenly presented a slime from a fantasy game as a mud monster.
They had even helpfully labeled it a mud slime right beside that.
The game's setting had been crudely stitched together like a patchwork quilt.
"Well, it's not as if there are only one or two games like that, is there?"
Xianxia was popular.
Countless existing games had been reskinned as xianxia.
"This is surprisingly fun, though."
For an unemployed shut-in, even a game like this was something to be grateful for.
He was satisfied that he could enjoy it without paying.
He never met anyone and had no one to talk to.
A game like this, where he could make his own fun all by himself, was the greatest gift he could ask for.
It did not matter whether a character he had raised died and became a magical artifact of the human race.
Or a medicinal pill.
"Who gives a shit? If you worry about that, you can't play."
To play this game, a person had to become an omnivore capable of swallowing anything.
There were a great many people like that in the world.
This game was extremely popular.
The world was full of unemployed people with time to kill, along with people who could casually burn several billion won in the name of fun.......
"There are a lot of stupid chinks out there."
Anyone who spent money on the game was a chink.
Anyone who did not was simply Chinese.
"How should I put it? I'm a cool webnovel loser who laughs at this unfair world. Heh heh."
The frog-faced shut-in snickered in his room.
"Huh? This looks better than I expected?"
The mud slime's basic ability was Devouring.
[Devouring: The more you eat, the stronger you become.]
It was simple and straightforward.
There was no need to think.
All he had to do was eat to grow stronger.
Most members of the demon race had a similar tendency, but.......
This one did not require him to use his brain at all.
It was the perfect character for turning off his mind and playing.
"Won't I unlock special abilities if I eat enough?"
Webnovels were full of things like that.
A character no one else had spared a glance for.......
Might have a hidden ability lurking within.
Or a pathetic loser might secretly be hiding overwhelming strength.
Or everyone might mistake a nobody for a great expert.
Or people might adore someone unconditionally for no reason at all.
Some protagonists made money merely by breathing.
"Becoming a Great All-Encompassing Immortal with Devouring. Ha, that's a good title. I like it. Heh heh."
Snickering, he selected the mud slime and started the game.
"Uh, uhh. What is this?"
The moment he started the game, he felt the world spin around him.
The world became the game.
'What the hell? Did this chink game drag me inside because I refused to spend money?'
[Bingo! You refused to spend money. Until you become a Great All-Encompassing Immortal... survive inside the game!]
[Warning: If you die in the game, you will randomly become another character, and the cycle will repeat forever.]
'Status window! Status window!'
In this sort of situation, it had to be the status window.
[This game does not support a status window.]
'Fuck off!'
What a fucking world. What a fucking game.
'No. This might actually be a good thing.'
Once he thought of it simply.
This situation did not seem so bad.
It might be better than his aimless life as an unemployed shut-in.
There was nothing to worry about and no need to think.
'This is fucking sweet. Heh heh.'
There was no need to agonize over it.
He decided to live as a mud slime in the ancient underground waterways.
'All right! I'm going to devour this entire world.'