Neo’s skin was now as tough as iron.

​When the pellets struck his skin, they bounced back, leaving behind only faint lacerations.

Neo felt the pain, but he gritted his teeth and endured it.

​His hand immediately shot out, launching a titanium blade at the attacker, who was a girl with black hair.

Neo didn’t care about gender.

Slice!

The blade severed her hand at the wrist before piercing through her neck. Her head fell with a sickening thud, and her body took a few stumbling, zombie-like steps before finally collapsing to the ground.

​Seeing this, the others let out horrified shrieks. "Ahhhhh!"

​Neo stood there, unbothered by the gruesome display before him. If this had been the previous Neo, before he had chosen Necromancy, he might have felt something. Perhaps he would have felt nauseated after his first human kill. But now, he felt no guilt and no regret.

​Whoosh!

​Holding her golden saber, Zestia stepped forward to defend the rest of her teammates.

She looked alert, her eyes darting between Neo and the titanium blades hovering above him.

​"I understand your pain, Neo," she said. "But I can’t let you harm these three. They did nothing to those slimes. On the contrary, they tried to defend them by risking their own lives."

​Neo replied, "But you weren’t successful, and that is enough reason to kill the four of you."

​"What! Why?" one of the three, a kind-looking young girl, trembled in disbelief.

"You would kill us, even though we’re innocent, just because we were with them?"

​"Yes," he replied, cold and firm.

"Then how are you better, Neo? You’re worse than them," Zestia replied angrily.

​Neo paused. The cold light in his eyes dimmed slightly, yet he remained in full control. He glanced at Zestia, then at the two girls and the nerdy-looking boy. In no way did they look like the type to kill innocents.

​Exhaling lightly, he spoke simply, "Don’t follow me again, or I will kill you!"

​Having finished speaking, Neo turned and started walking, his back feeling heavy. The titanium blades retreated into his body. Only then did Zestia and the others relax, though their backs were covered in cold sweat. It felt as though they had just passed through a storm.

​Zestia looked at the broken remains of Leo, then gazed at Neo’s solitary silhouette. His whole figure radiated a sorrow that followed him like a shadow. She should have felt anger or hate for the killing of her crewmates, but strangely, she could not bring herself to hate him.

​"Captain, what should we do now? If the Landcaster family head learns about Leo’s death, he’ll skin us alive," the nerdy-looking boy said, shaking.

​"He’s right, Leader. Forget about the reward, he might kill us in his anger," another girl added fearfully.

​Zestia quickly made her decision. "Go pack your things. We aren’t returning to planet Goliath. We’re going to Sol-III."

---

​Neo arrived at the base of the large tree where the slime family used to live. The first scene he saw made him vomit uncontrollably.

​The bodies of the little slime’s father and mother had turned into a gelatinous mass, now dried up like blue stains against the tree roots.

A little distance from their remains, he saw Atlas’s dead body.

Slowly, he moved forward and picked up the body with trembling hands, witnessing how brutally the little slime had been stabbed and burned. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

​The cheerfully ambitious little slime had lost all its youthful color.

A teardrop escaped from Neo’s eye.

One might think he was being too emotional, but when he thought about the conversations he had with the slime family the previous night, even this teardrop felt insufficient.

***

​"Master Neo, do you think Earth has big mountains?" Atlas had asked, his gelatinous body bouncing with excitement. "I want to see the highest peak and stand on top of it. I’ll be the first slime in history to see the whole world at once! I want to be someone important, someone you’re proud to have by your side."

​His father had laughed and said, "My son is always so ambitious. As for me, I just want to see a place where the sun doesn’t burn so hot. I want to build a garden for your mother where the flowers never wilt. A place where our kind doesn’t have to hide in the shadows of trees."

​The mother had snuggled closer to them both, saying, "I don’t need much, My Lord. I just want to see Atlas grow. I want to see him become the brave warrior he talks about. If we can just have a small corner of your empire to call home, where we can sleep without fear, that would be my heaven."

​"We believe in you, Master Neo. Because you looked at us like we were people, not just lowly monsters," Atlas had whispered just before falling asleep.

​***

"You were so full of spirit and aspirations, little one. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be there when you needed me the most," Neo said, feeling a wave of irrational anger toward himself.

​"If I hadn’t stumbled into your life, maybe you would have lived a little longer."

​His gaze hardened in self-loathing. "How can I make it up to you now?"

​Necromancy.

​The word resurfaced in his mind almost mysteriously. His eyes regained their spirit instantly.

"That’s right. Necromancy! That might just work! Little one, you might have another chance!" he said happily.

​The little slime obviously couldn’t respond, but unknowingly, a deathly chill began to spread around him.

​Without delay, convincing himself this was the only option, Neo activated his Legendary Unique Talent: [Necromancy].

​Wu... Wu... Wu... Wu...

​As soon as he did, a ghostly symphony, sounding as if it were coming straight from hell, started to echo.

The sky above him turned dark with clouds, creating an even more eerie atmosphere.

Rumble! Rumble!

Soon, thunder began to rumble behind the dark shroud.

​Then, his hands around the little mountain slime began to emit a dark red mist.

It was cold, extremely cold. As if it were flowing directly from the Gates of Hell.

Playing with death and darkness was dangerous work. Even the air began to freeze.

Nonetheless, this dark-red mist seeped into Atlas’s dead gelatinous mass.

​Rumble! Rumble!

​Thunder struck the ground like chaos. However, instead of regular purple lightning, these thunderbolts were crimson, as if the heavens were furious at Neo’s taboo work.

But, he didn’t care about some heavens. He only cared for his goals.

​One worry remained though: would Atlas retain the memories of his past life, or would he become just a mindless slave?