Chapter 260: Rimuru and the Pork Cutlet Bowl
At that moment, the restaurant was unnervingly quiet. Every patron wore a different expression, but none was more pronounced than Tony Stark's. He was completely frozen, his gaze locked on the blue, gelatinous slime on the floor, his mind utterly blank.
After a long, silent moment, a muscle in Tony's jaw twitched. "I had already braced myself for something completely unreasonable," he said, his voice a low growl. "But I never expected it to be even more unreasonable than I could have possibly imagined..."
The slime on the floor seemed to take in its surroundings, its form jiggling slightly. A surprised, high-pitched voice emanated from it. "Is this a restaurant?! Are you all humans?!"
Ren nodded from behind the counter. "Yes, we are. But how did you know this was a restaurant?"
Hearing this confirmation, the slime's body quivered. Moisture welled up along its surface, like tears from a creature that had no eyes to cry from. "Waaah! I finally see humans again!" the voice cried out, thick with emotion. "It was so hard! You have no idea!"
Everyone stared at the small, surprisingly cute creature, and they could almost feel the deep loneliness and longing radiating from it. Pepper Potts leaned forward slightly, speaking tentatively. "Mr. Slime... Madam... uh..."
The slime, seemingly overjoyed to have an audience, quickly stemmed its flow of tears. "My name is Rimuru!" it announced excitedly. "Slimes don't have a gender, but I feel like I should be male!"
Pepper nodded, trying to process this. "Alright, Mr. Rimuru. But you just said slimes don't have a gender. How do you know you're male? And you seem very excited to see humans."
Rimuru let out a sound that was remarkably like a human sigh. "Because I was a man before I transmigrated..."
Tony Stark nodded absently, his brain catching up a second later. His eyes flew wide. "What?!" he shouted, disbelief coloring his voice. "You're telling me that transmigration is a real thing?! And you got turned into a slime?!"
"Yeah, and my luck is the absolute worst," Rimuru said, his voice laced with helplessness. "You read about it in novels, right? The hero becomes handsome and rich, or gets born into a royal family. Me? I'm not even human anymore! And to top it off, I was dropped into some underground labyrinth. I only just managed to clear it and get out..."
A wave of sympathy washed over the room. Everyone felt that Rimuru had drawn a particularly short straw. His story was a far cry from the power fantasies they were familiar with. At least other transmigrators usually got to keep their species.
Lucifer tilted her head, her red eyes gleaming with curiosity. "And how, exactly, did a single slime survive in an underground labyrinth?"
Rimuru hesitated for a moment before letting out another sigh, this one of relief. "I got lucky, I guess... But what is this place? There are electric lights! And chairs! And your clothes... Did I transmigrate back again?!"
Pepper thought for a moment. "In a sense, you did transmigrate back to the human world..."
"That's great! Wait... but why am I still a slime?! Nooooo!" Rimuru wailed, his body deflating in despair.
Realizing her poor choice of words, Pepper quickly tried to backtrack. "Uh, Mr. Rimuru, I mean... uh... how should I put this..."
Ren stepped in with a gentle smile. "This is a restaurant that exists in another world. So, in a way, you've temporarily arrived at a place that connects to your own world."
Rimuru's form visibly relaxed. "Phew~ That was close. For a second there, I thought I became a being that transmigrated twice but stayed in the same world. Hmm... That sounds very strange, but it also sounds kind of powerful..."
Ren looked at the bouncing blue slime and smiled. "So, Mr. Rimuru, would you like to rest for a while, or would you prefer something to eat?"
Rimuru seemed to ponder this. "Well, I don't have a sense of taste... but... I've been eating nothing but strange things for a very long time. So... Boss! A pork cutlet bowl! With extra salad!"
Ren nodded, watching as Rimuru began to bounce with sudden, irrepressible excitement. "Alright, please wait a moment. Do slimes need to drink water?"
"I don't need to, but I just cried a little, so I should probably rehydrate..."
"A cup of warm water, then?"
"No... An ice-cold cola!"
Hearing the words 'ice-cold cola,' Kasugano Sora's eyes lit up. She saw a kindred spirit. This was definitely a transmigrated human; that choice was unmistakable.
After watching Ren disappear into the kitchen, Rimuru looked around before hopping onto an empty chair at a nearby table. Tony's eyes gleamed with scientific interest. "Mr. Rimuru, what were those 'strange things' you mentioned eating before? Are they specialties from your world?"
Rimuru bobbed in agreement. "That's right. All sorts of weird flowers and plants, stones and jewels, and even some monsters. Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up..."
Kasugano Sora watched Rimuru, who seemed lost in thought, and found his bobbing form rather endearing. Lucifer, however, looked confused. "That doesn't add up. How did you, a slime, fight monsters? Are the slimes in your world that powerful?"
Rimuru hesitated again, but then sighed. "Actually, it's just my transmigrator's cheat ability. I can eat anything, and after I eat it, I gain its skills. So yeah, I'm relatively powerful."
Lucifer nodded, accepting the explanation. Kasugano Sora, however, leaned forward with a hint of curiosity. "Skills? What kind of skills do you have?"
Rimuru considered the question. "Well, there aren't many I can use out here... I'd probably destroy the place..."
As soon as the words left him, Ren's calm voice drifted from the kitchen. "You don't need to worry about that. This place cannot be destroyed."
"Eh?! That's amazing! It's kind of like a fixed respawn point in a game... Well, if that's the case... Wind Blade!"
Several shimmering, razor-sharp blades of compressed air materialized in the space above their table, slicing silently through the air before dissipating. Tony Stark let out a low whistle of appreciation. Rimuru followed this with a gout of flame that danced harmlessly in the air, then a sphere of perfectly clear water that hovered for a moment before vanishing. Then, he demonstrated his shapeshifting, his blue form rapidly morphing into a large, black, multi-limbed spider, which nearly made Kasugano Sora scream in fright.
Rimuru immediately reverted to his slime form and was now desperately apologizing. Kasugano Sora, recovering quickly, just looked a little pale. "So the monsters in your world are all that terrifying...?"
Rimuru bobbed in affirmation. Meanwhile, Tony's mind was racing elsewhere. "Mr. Rimuru, what's the difference between the minerals in your world and the ones from your original world?"
Rimuru thought for a moment. "Oh, there's a big difference. The strength is much higher, and some minerals are even infused with magic."
Tony nodded slowly, a bold idea already taking shape in his mind. If he could use minerals like that to improve the Mark armor... the results, just thinking about it, would be exponentially better than anything he could currently achieve.
Rimuru looked around the cozy restaurant again, a happy sigh rippling through his body. "I'm really looking forward to it... a pork cutlet bowl. Even if... even if I don't have a sense of taste... I'm still looking forward to it!"
He began to bounce gently on the chair, a cheerful, rhythmic chant filling the air.
"Pork cutlet bowl~ Pork cutlet bowl!"
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