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“My clothes are sticky, and it smells weird… Is this really okay?”

As Ageha put on the outfit I had prepared, she couldn’t hide her displeasure and kept making faces, questioning if this was right.

“You really thought I’d come dressed up in a suit to this shabby place? I’ve got details about your appearance and habits on the list, so there was no way around it. Just wear it.”

“I wish I had some deodorant.”

Seolhwa at least stopped at just complaining, but the kids reacted no differently from Ageha. Except for Lapiz.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah. Ugh… Do you think this will pass?”

“It’s vague… but if it’s someone who doesn’t know, they might just buy it. Good job. That’s enough.”

Lapiz kept lowering her voice, desperately trying to sound more masculine.

Soon, she would adjust her voice using the mask she was going to wear later, but since I hadn’t done this kind of thing often either, I asked Lapiz to try to sound a bit masculine.

The only reason she didn’t complain about the outfit was that it wouldn’t touch her skin in the first place.

She planned to attach rocks to her body to make it look like a giant.

We could at least find someone whose figure matched their weight, but finding someone like Lapiz was impossible.

Her weight, made up of metal from her bones and with an impressive density, was beyond what anyone of her build could have.

On top of that, she had horns and a tail, making it impossible to disguise her as anyone with a similar figure.

No matter how much we could alter her face and weight, we couldn’t just cut off her horns and tail. And hiding them wasn’t an option either.

It would be much more reasonable to find a big and hefty ability user and pretend she was them.

If not, we’d have to drag her along as merchandise, which would cause a lot of problems and unwanted attention.

What we were aiming to do was sneak in and gather intel, not get deeply entangled.

And no matter how much it was a mission, I couldn’t just pretend to kidnap a friend with a trauma related to kidnapping.

“Ugh, I’ll have to scrub myself clean when I get home…”

“I won’t say anything about that, and I’ll give you some deodorant later, so just hang in there for now. What can I say? You asked for this.”

“I didn’t expect it to get this serious.”

What the heck did he think infiltration was? Even doubling the preparations we were doing now wouldn’t be enough for a proper infiltration.

“Just to clarify, this is a bit simplified for your convenience. Just keep that in mind; I’m not saying not to question it.”

After saying I wasn’t asking for more questions, I tossed each of them a blob of slime while they were still awkwardly uncomfortable.

Seeing this, it was evident these kids were quite sheltered. Just look at how uncomfortable they were with these outfits.

“Place it on your head and hold your breath. I know what you’re thinking; I’m personally controlling it to not eat you, and this is the best way to look like other humans. Got it?”

Ageha seemed to have had her words taken from her, but trusting me, she obediently placed the slime blob on her head.

“Alright, stay still… It’s not easy to mimic someone else’s face.”

Memorizing the woman’s head in my mind, I slowly covered Ageha’s head with the slime.

She remained still, trembling at the thought of it messing up if she moved. Because of that, I could easily put a mask over Ageha’s head.

“…This feels gross, all wet… Does Miss Blanca feel like this every time she wears that black thing?”

She seemed fascinated by how her face had changed, constantly checking herself with the mask, but covering her body with that leather-like thing made her feel unsettlingly uncomfortable.

“Huh? No way? I feel like I’m within my body, so I don’t really think about it. If I had to describe it, it feels like a second skin.”

“So it’s like a second skin… Well, this might not be the right time to say this, but if that’s the case, does that mean Miss Blanca fights naked…”

“Do you really want to bring that up now?! And I said second skin, not that it’s skin!”

As I got irritated, Ageha panicked and apologized. I would’ve loved to smack her back, but I held back and instructed her to cover the rest of her head with the slime.

“This is weird and wet. And it feels oddly amusing.”

“I don’t really want to touch it, but… what can we do.”

“Who would have thought there’d come a day when I’d cover myself in the slime of a mimic that can kill?”

“It’s dark… like my shadow…”

The kids reacted in various ways as they slathered themselves in slime, but Lapiz was an exception as she was covered in rocks all over her body.

“I’m curious about Blanca’s slime… Can I touch it later?”

That sounded a bit strange, but I didn’t have time to worry about that, so I just brushed it off.

“Heh, heh… I’ll be looking forward to it…”

As the exposed rock arms and head of Lapiz got covered in slime, she murmured that.

Ugh, something about this feels off. Or am I just overreacting?

Trying to ignore the vaguely unsettling feeling, I finally covered my head with slime to finish the disguise.

“You know the order, right?”

“Yeah. But, is this really okay? I mean, it’d be impossible for just Blanca to take down the guards. Wouldn’t it be better if there were a few of us…”

“If we enter together, we’ll draw even more suspicion. Didn’t Miss Blanca explain? Right now, we’re pretending to be complete strangers with no relation.”

Minho, not being the one to come up with the plan, suggested maybe it’d be better to all pile in together, looking a bit uneasy.

But Ageha seemed to trust me enough to go with my plan and reassured Minho’s worry.

“Come in one by one, making sure not to be too obvious. At least keep a 10-minute gap. I think I’ve explained enough, so I’ll go ahead first. Remember, if you stick to the plan, nothing will go wrong.”

After reminding the kids again, I left the building and headed towards the underground market.

As I entered the entrance, the guards glanced at me and, thinking I was just the usual guy, quickly lost interest and told me to make sure to get a pass.

Of course, I had no pass. That couldn’t be done with just slime.

Instead, I pretended to sneeze a lot and secretly spilled some slime. Then I quickly shaped the slime into a spider to cover the CCTV.

“I left my pass behind, but can you help me out?”

“If you don’t have it, go home and get it…”

Looking at me like it was a hassle, I threw some slime at the guards’ faces.

Before the guards could even react, the slime crept into every hole and secured its place in their minds.

“…Huh, fine. Just this once.”

“Thanks.”

After taking control of the guards, I retrieved the spider slime and messaged the kids.

When they ask for a pass, suggest that today they should let us in without one.

Sitting on a nearby chair, I waited and watched the kids come in one by one.

From a distance, they didn’t seem awkward at all, which made me feel a bit relieved. At least I wouldn’t be recognized as looking strange on the way there.

“Hey…”

When Lapiz finally passed through last, she stepped towards me instead of going inside as planned and started talking.

What are you doing, Lapiz? Didn’t I tell you not to act familiar with me?

“What’s up?”

She nagged in an obvious irritated tone, questioning why she wasn’t going in quickly.

“…Uh, I mean, what are you doing here?”

Not getting it, I exaggerated my gestures a bit to encourage her to figure it out for herself.

“What, are you looking for a fight?”

Realizing it was acting, she seemed surprised I’d come at it like this, remarking that there was no need for that.

After getting Lapiz successfully inside, I finally felt like I could breathe again.

Seeing her act like that made me feel that I might have to follow her around to clean up after her… but I could handle that much.

Since I had her involved, it was unavoidable. You know the saying, “You made your bed, now lie in it.”

Grumbling, I followed behind her and headed toward the auction house, but something in the atmosphere felt off.

I wanted to snoop on whispers to find out why, but the slime covering my ears prevented me from hearing properly.

In my frustration, I finally managed to catch some of the nearby guys whispering.

“I heard something crazy is going to come out today… Is that real?”

“Who knows. Everyone here has no clue. But I heard today’s auctioneer isn’t just any employee, but someone higher up, so it shouldn’t be a normal sale.”

Someone higher than an executive… huh?

Just as I had that question, it wasn’t long before I found out the identity behind it.

The leader of the Evil Society and the final boss of the story, Arman, made his appearance at the auction house.

Damn.

Why the hell is he here?

 

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