Lin Ran looked at the five free distribution points on Lim’s attribute panel, and almost cried with emotion.
He was so excited, his gaze fell back on that glaring line of stats.
[Intelligence · 2 (Limit is 2)]
He sighed in his heart.
Sigh, forget it.
If the child is a little foolish, so be it.
Being able to eat, sleep, and live happily is more important than anything.
His thoughts quickly returned to the battlefield.
Lin Ran saw the evenly matched standoff between Lim and the Mimic before him and shouted loudly:
“Lim! Hold on! I’ll give you a BUFF!”
He quickly operated on the system screen, allocating all five free attribute points.
[3 points into Strength]
[2 points into Endurance]
[Confirm?]
Confirm!
[Lim – Strength: 13→16]
[Lim – Endurance: 3→5]
Since the path of intelligence doesn’t work, then become a battle girl and solve the crisis at hand first!
Almost the moment the points were allocated, a faint light seemed to rise from Lim’s body.
Lim herself was stunned for a moment, the sudden surge of stamina and strength flooding her body made her a little unaccustomed.
She stretched out her hand and grabbed a tentacle.
The tentacle that would have struggled a few times before was now pulled straight from the fleshy wall in the sky by Lim’s current strength.
The slight fatigue from continuous battle vanished, replaced by boundless energy within her body!
“Ugh…! It hurts!”
The Mimic’s pained cry echoed from all directions, and its attacks stalled.
“Haha! Now you know how strong I am, right?”
Taking advantage of the opening, Lim swallowed all the remaining tentacles floating in the air in one breath.
She then reverted to human form, stood tall, hands on her waist, and spoke proudly.
Even on enemy ground, the Mimic could only submit under Lim’s overwhelming stats.
“I… I won’t admit defeat…”
The voice trembled with tears and unwillingness.
“You’re going to lie to me again! Again…”
Before the words finished, the last tentacle shot out.
It was also the thinnest one.
But this time, Lim couldn’t even be bothered to change form.
She simply stretched out her small, crystal-clear hand and precisely caught the tip of the tentacle.
Then, with a squeeze, the tentacle let out a crisp “pop” and burst apart.
Total domination.
No suspense.
At the same time, the space began to collapse——
The massive flesh-walled space started to disappear, peel away, and disintegrate.
They didn’t fall to the ground as fragments, but vanished into nothingness.
Revealing behind them an endless, empty darkness.
The space shrank abruptly.
Lin Ran and Lim, due to the sudden contraction, were squeezed together.
In their place were the cold wooden box—
And beneath them, a carpet of gold coins.
But Lim seemed quite happy, hugging even tighter.
“Master~ The danger isn’t over yet, hold me tight~”
She snuggled in Lin Ran’s arms, laughter in her voice.
However, Lin Ran just tapped the wood above his head.
“Dong dong.”
It was solid.
The space had really changed.
Then he took a deep breath, braced his arms, and pushed upwards.
The lid of the box flew open.
As expected, what appeared before him was the real world.
They were in the center of a wooden house.
All sorts of snacks were scattered around, and the little slimes had already started eating.
An Mengyue lay on the bed, wearing an eye mask and fanning herself with a fan she’d brought from the convenience store.
She hummed a tune, utterly at ease.
“Was it Vera who brought us back?”
Lin Ran stroked his chin and instantly deduced the answer.
If anyone could move the entire Mimic back to the wooden house after both he and Lim were swallowed, it had to be her.
“That’s right——“
An Mengyue drawled, eyes still closed.
“She said she’d be at ease if Lim was inside, then started commanding the little puppets to move things.”
She answered lazily from the bed.
“Wow!! Is this the Mimic? Master, come look at this—I found it while searching for treasure!”
Lin Ran was still thinking about their next move when Lim suddenly screamed in excitement, completely interrupting his train of thought.
He’d meant to scold Lim for rummaging through the treasure chest so quickly.
But following her cry to the box, Lin Ran’s words caught in his throat.
In the corner of the giant Mimic, a tiny creature lay quietly atop a pile of gold coins.
She looked exactly like the girl from inside the Mimic’s space, even wearing the imitation landmine girl’s clothes.
A barely visible, thin tentacle extended from her back, connecting her to the inner wall of the chest.
However, the difference was…
She was only the size of a palm.
Pathetically small—if Lin Ran or Lim had been a bit less careful earlier, they could have stepped on her by accident.
That explained why neither Lin Ran nor Lim had noticed her in the box.
Moreover, her entire body was covered in wounds, with obvious injuries on all four limbs.
There were multiple corrosion marks on her arms, and her thighs and waist looked as if chunks of flesh had been torn away.
Lin Ran immediately realized—in the battle between her and Lim just now, she’d actually torn apart parts of her own body to shape into tentacles for attack.
And that single Affection Handgun shot must have hit her arm.
In normal condition, her body could probably fill the entire inner wall of the Mimic, forming a massive domain.
But now, aside from a few charred tissues at the connecting point, there were no traces of her body within the chest—only the lingering scent of blood.
“Damn… She really is a landmine girl, even learned to self-harm.”
Lin Ran couldn’t help but mutter.
He hurriedly picked up Vera’s Elixir and carefully poured it over the Mimic.
At the same time, he extended a slime tentacle, patching up her wounds with mucus.
The healing effect was ordinary, but enough to keep her alive.
Then he tossed in some of the more filling snacks, like biscuits and cola.
She absorbed them automatically, just as she did with other living things, without any conscious effort.
Soon, her breathing stabilized.
Her palm-sized body also began to recover visibly, quickly growing to about a meter tall, returning to the form of that girl.
More tissue spread out to cover the Mimic’s inner wall as she healed.
The dreamlike princess’s room also began to slowly rebuild——
The weakened Mimic slowly opened her eyes.
The first person to appear in her confused gaze was Lin Ran, who was leaning over her.
“How are you? Are you okay?”
Lin Ran instinctively asked in concern.
Then…
“Mo…Mommy…”
The Mimic called Lin Ran that.
“Ah???”
…