"System, you're finally awake!!" Rimuru looked excitedly at the blue spherical system floating in front of him, its edges outlined in purple.
"Yes, Host. system no. 001 has successfully awakened after absorbing a portion of the energy within the host's body," a cold, mechanical female voice responded to Rimuru.
As the system spoke, it pulsed with a soft, non-dazzling light-blue glow.
"Don't call me Host; it sounds terrible. Just call me Rimuru. And don't call yourself 001 either, that's even worse. From now on, your name is Zi Le."
"Understood. Changing address for host... Change successful: Host → Rimuru. Changing name for system no. 001... Change successful: system no. 001 → Zi Le." The cold mechanical female voice echoed throughout the Sea of Souls, then fell silent. After a moment, the system spoke again.
"Rimuru, Zi Le is very happy to be at your service." This time, however, there was a clear hint of human emotion in its voice, though only a tiny bit.
"Zi Le, why did you suddenly fall into a deep sleep before? And why did you throw me into the One-Punch Man world? Wasn't I already in Naruto?"
Looking at Zi Le floating before him, Rimuru used Poway God to casually manifest a pink chair, sat down, and questioned Zi Le.
"The world transfer was incorrect. Initially, the plan was to deploy you to the One-Punch Man world. Due to my previous error which resulted in Rimuru's death, a vast amount of energy was consumed to reconstruct your body into its current form. At that time, I was already somewhat dazed, leading to the opening of the wrong space-time channel."
"Later, while you lived in the Naruto world, I was silently absorbing energy from that world. Once I regained some clarity and realized you were in the wrong world, I consumed all my energy to transport you to the correct one. I then fell into a slumber due to energy exhaustion, only successfully awakening after you consumed so much energy today."
Zi Le explained the situation to Rimuru methodically. After listening, Rimuru nodded. "So that's how it was. I thought I heard a voice say 'Correcting world traversal' before; I thought I'd misheard it, but I guess not."
"So, Zi Le, will you fall into a deep sleep again later?" Rimuru was curious. After all, he had only ever seen systems in novels before; this was his first time actually possessing one, so there were many things he wanted to understand.
But unexpectedly, as soon as he merged with the system, it went into a slumber—and for three whole years at that. Sigh.
"I will not. Rimuru is already on the right track, and I can now absorb small amounts of world energy for daily use."
Zi Le gave Rimuru a definitive answer.
"Due to the system's three-year slumber caused by force majeure, as well as the error during fusion, Rimuru will now be compensated."
"Enhancing Rimuru's overall strength to the level of Rimuru tempest in the anime after using Predator to consume and analyze the Pig-Headed Emperor."
"Compensation: Heart of the Star Dragon King (Currently Unavailable); Complete Inheritance of the Star Dragon King (Currently Unavailable); Complete Soul of the Star Dragon King (Dormant) (Currently Unavailable)."
Hearing the series of prompts from Zi Le, Rimuru was completely stunned, his small mouth hanging open involuntarily. To think he was given so many things related to the Star Dragon King.
One must know that in the world of the anime 'That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime', all worlds and races were created by the Star Dragon King. Of course, some might still be confused, but if you put it another way, you'll understand immediately.
Think of the anime world as the Primordial Chaos, and the Star Dragon King as Pangu who created heaven and earth. Now it's clear, right?
In other words, the compensation Rimuru received was equivalent to the Heart of Pangu, Pangu's complete inheritance, and Pangu's complete soul. Now you know why Rimuru was so shocked.
"Zi Le, why does it say 'Currently Unavailable' at the end?" After being shocked for a good while, a bright smile appeared unconsciously on Rimuru's small face as he snapped out of it.
However, seeing the words in parentheses behind those items, he was a bit puzzled. Currently unavailable? Then when can they be used?
Rimuru divided the Slime's growth into four stages. The first stage was just coming out of the cave, unable to transform into a human.
The second stage was using Miss Shizu's body to become human, devouring the Pig-Headed Emperor, and rapidly developing the nation.
The third stage was the period of becoming an Awakened Demon Lord, and the final stage was the Dragon Species period.
Currently, our protagonist Rimuru was in the second stage of the anime protagonist's journey. If he couldn't use them now, did he have to wait until becoming an Awakened Demon Lord? Or even a Dragon Species??
"At the very least, Rimuru must reach the Dragon Species stage to barely withstand the Heart, Inheritance, and Soul of the Star Dragon King. So please, keep working hard, Rimuru."
Zi Le's answer confirmed Rimuru's suspicion. He let out a long sigh. "Dragon Species, huh... It's a long way to go."
"Zi Le, let me ask you something. What are those silver coins in the bottom right corner of the mall page with a Slime engraved on them? They increase by five every day automatically, and there are already five thousand four hundred and seventy-five of them. Are they useful for anything?"
Rimuru suddenly remembered the items in the system mall and questioned Zi Le.
"Those coins are called Slime Coins. Rimuru, you can change what you call them. Their purpose is to exchange for various items in the system mall."
Upon hearing Rimuru's question, Zi Le answered all his doubts immediately without any hesitation.
"That's right! You've completely awakened, which means the system mall is also fully restored. I can go in and buy things instead of just taking money infinitely without spending anything!"
Rimuru realized instantly, punching his right fist into his left palm. His tone was very excited; he had long wanted to see what could be bought in the mall.
Without even waiting for Zi Le's reply, Rimuru opened the system mall. Sure enough, the mall was also fully restored.
It was completely different from the previous lifeless state where everything was covered in a layer of gray. Now, the whole thing presented a very vivid light blue, with various patterns like those on the back of electronic circuit boards around the edges, full of sci-fi style.
The items inside were also varied. Simple ones included basic things like one, two, and three-tomoe Sharingan, ordinary Byakugan, Ice Spike Technique, Fireball, and so on.
More advanced ones included various sword techniques and spear techniques. Rimuru even saw 'Avada Kedavra' inside. In short, there were many things.
He didn't know if it was because he hadn't seen much or if the things inside were truly cheap, but so far, the most expensive thing Rimuru had seen was the Taixu Sword Sutra, which required five thousand Slime Coins.
"That name is a bit of a hassle. Forget it, I'll just call them rimuru coins from now on. Yeah, simple. Plus, the engraving on the coin is just Rimuru in Slime form, so it fits quite well."
However, Rimuru didn't have anything he wanted to buy at the moment. As of now—or rather, even before receiving the compensation—the various skills he knew could almost be said to sweep through the current One-Punch Man world. As long as he didn't go looking for death by seeking out this world's God, he wouldn't die.
Not to mention he had become even stronger because of Zi Le's compensation. Speaking of which, he seemed a bit unable to control these suddenly increased magicules well.
To a normal person, almost no abnormality could be felt, but if those guys from the Hero Association targeted him... it probably wouldn't be good. Better buy a Miss Shizu mask to wear first.
Firstly, it could hide his identity when going out to do good deeds; secondly, relying on the mask's properties, he could suppress the suddenly increased and somewhat uncontrollable magicules; and thirdly, Rimuru had long wanted an authentic mask!!
Three birds with one stone, awesome!
Without another thought, he began searching for Miss Shizu's mask in the system mall. It didn't take long to find it.
Wait, this mask is actually sold so cheaply? It only costs ten rimuru coins. Buy it, buy it!
Rimuru's finger clicked purchase on the screen. The number of rimuru coins in the bottom right corner decreased by ten, and a pure white mask with a simple but very beautiful pattern appeared in his hand.
After playing with it for a while, he set it aside. Rising from the pink chair, he teased the souls of the Momoshiki, Urashiki, and Kinshiki Ōtsutsuki trio like one would a dog, then stood on tiptoe to touch the face of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's soul before finally returning his consciousness to his body.
In the room, Rimuru suddenly sat up from the bed like a corpse coming back to life, a very bright smile on his face. Hehe! Things are really getting better and better! Now Zi Le has awakened, and the plot is moving along bit by bit. There are more and more fun things to do~
His protesting stomach pulled Rimuru back to reality. "Oops, gotta find something to eat. I hope Old Baldy left me some food; otherwise, I might have to eat snacks to fill my stomach."
Talking to himself, he unlocked the door and walked out of his room.
Due to Rimuru's movement, the Slime sign specially commissioned during the renovation swayed. It said [Rimuru's Room].
Saitama had such a sign too, but it was just an ordinary hanging tag.
Walking straight to the refrigerator in the kitchen, he intended to see if there was anything to eat inside when he saw a sticky note intentionally posted very low.
[I knew you'd get up in the middle of the night to find food. There's still plenty of Sukiyaki on the table. Put it on the induction cooker in the kitchen to heat it up and eat — Saitama]
"Hehe~ I'll call you Old Baldy a few times less from now on." Holding the sticky note, Rimuru's eyes were full of smiles. After whispering to himself, he put the sticky note into the system space for safekeeping and turned to carry the Sukiyaki pot to the kitchen for heating.