Xia Hunaohad bigger fish to fry, with his eyebrows practically on fire, and no time for the system's incessant babbling. He mentally smacked the system's head, thinking, "Just hurry up and tell me. If I can get you out of here, I'll stuff you into a repulsive slime."
The system glanced at Xia Hunaoh, then at the repulsive slime, and had to admit that Xia Hunaoh, being somewhat peculiar himself, was capable of such things. Fearing some outlandish move from Xia Hunaoh, the system quickly opened the "Clever Plan" it had prepared: "Listen, this artificial creation, while it has strong learning and recall abilities, those strengths have limits. Even a brilliant dream couldn't possibly utilize all its skills comprehensively..."
Hearing this, Xia Hunaoh understood the system's idea. It was like treating the two repulsive slimes before him as decent computers. Such computers might be able to run some programs, but running over ten major applications simultaneously would overwhelm any configuration. Lagging would be a good outcome; a complete meltdown was also possible if they were unlucky.
With this thought, a very strange smile spread across Xia Hunaoh's face. The two repulsive slimes, having not recovered much health and feeling a bit dejected, exchanged glances and then collided. The two globs of sticky substance slammed into each other, wriggling and shifting, finally forming a slime nearly two meters tall, complete with a comically oversized shuriken hat on its head.
Xia Hunaoh silently calculated the stats of this new repulsive slime. The slime, looking at the two-meter entity, was greatly astonished. Truth be told, although he had followed Xia Hunaoh for less than two years, he felt he had seen a lot of the world. But, frankly speaking, this was something he had never encountered before. Even his faster-growing peers were rarely as tall as two meters; seeing one at 1.6 or 1.7 meters was uncommon.
The suddenly two-meter-tall repulsive slime also found things interesting. Though it had no idea how its brain was structured, it was filled with curiosity about its new body. Ignoring Xia Hunaoh and the other slime watching with hawk-like eyes, it began to study itself.
Xia Hunaoh had also never seen anything like it. He was keen to study it further, but time might not permit. So, with a heavy heart, he raised his cleaver, "Guagua, Water Shuriken!"
Xia Hunaoh and Guagua threw a Water Shuriken. The repulsive slime, its research interrupted, was displeased and retaliated with a Mud Shuriken, knocking away Guagua's thrown shuriken and continuing its trajectory, nearly slicing Guagua. Fortunately, Guagua's agility allowed him to dodge aside, and Xia Hunaoh breathed a sigh of relief. This was a-
We all know that what humans are most familiar with and most unfamiliar with is their own bodies. It's likely no different for repulsive slimes. How long would it take for it to fully understand itself?
Fortunately, the repulsive slime didn't keep Xia Hunaoh waiting too long. Perhaps its brain was simply sufficient for the task, or perhaps the repulsive slime got bored of playing. Regardless, it refocused its attention on Xia Hunaoh.
Seeing the repulsive slime shift its gaze to him, Xia Hunaoh pulled out a Poké Ball from his back. "Two-Tail Golem, let's go, you piece of work!"
Two-Tail Golem was utterly confused, being pushed into action by Xia Hunaoh. Hearing Xia Hunaoh's vulgarities, it reacted slightly, then pulled out a ball and threw it.
"I don't care about the Poison Barb anymore, I'll poison you to death!"
Xia Hunaoh's plan was well-intentioned, but the repulsive slime, hit by the Poison Barb and the throw, showed no reaction, as if the debuff and damage were fake. Xia Hunaoh grumbled, "What? It doesn't even fall for this?"
As he was speaking, the repulsive slime collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Xia Hunaoh blinked in surprise. "It's down? If I knew it would be this easy, why would I waste time with it?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he saw the repulsive slime get back up. Xia Hunaoh felt his face flush as if slapped repeatedly. "You didn't have to cooperate with me so much, you know?"
The repulsive slime didn't think so. After getting up, its body contorted, and then, from behind the already disgusting slime, two hands suddenly grew, looking just like Two-Tail Golem's. This sudden change left Xia Hunaoh and the others stunned. "What in the world is that? A chimera?"
Whether it was a chimera or not, this disgusting creature's lethality had indeed increased significantly. Shuriken, which could only be thrown with two hands before, now had doubled attack speed. With four hands celebrating, a barrage of shuriken was launched.
Guagua's Water Shuriken mechanism calculated damage from 2-5 per shuriken, or could be changed to throwing 2-5 shuriken, just like the repulsive slime, or what should now be called the repulsive beast.
Four hands, a critical hit in quantity, nearly twenty shuriken rained down. Xia Hunaoh and the others scattered, heads down. Fortunately, everyone present was agile enough to avoid the worst of it.
Xia Hunaoh couldn't help but ask the system, "System, why does it feel like it's getting stronger and stronger as it learns? Is something wrong?"
The system replied, "Nothing's wrong. It will only get stronger until it hits a bottleneck. But don't worry, it's unlikely to learn six Pokémon."
With the system's assurance, Xia Hunaoh promptly threw out four more Poké Balls. Diancie, Dawn, Shedinja, and Breloom all joined the battle. Six Pokémon launched a full assault on the repulsive beast before them.
Six against one was indeed an advantage. Before long, they had suppressed the unusually strangely-formed repulsive beast. Xia Hunaoh peeked through the gaps between the Pokémon. The repulsive beast's appearance was truly... indescribable.
The upper body of Guagua, with the stone lower body of Diancie, a wolf's claw on the left hand and a fist on the right, two hands growing from its tail, and a halo on its head. Yes, it looked very strange, but Xia Hunaoh found a peculiar cuteness to it. He couldn't help but imagine if Diancie's face were combined with Guagua's legs... That would be a grave offense to Diancie players, you know!
Seeing the repulsive beast suppressed by six Pokémon, Xia Hunaoh asked the system, "No, this doesn't make sense. I've sent out six Pokémon, why doesn't it look like it's about to collapse?"
The system shook its head. "I don't know. It doesn't make sense. I estimated six, maybe its computational ability is too strong?"
Xia Hunaoh looked at the somewhat bewildered system. "Don't you need another system update?"
The system nodded sagely. "I think you're right. My updates might not be keeping up with the imaginative development of humans on Lingyao Star. This is a big problem."
Xia Hunaoh rolled his eyes at it impatiently. "So, what now?"
The system threw up its hands. "You think of something else. I'm going to see if there are any update packages!"
Xia Hunaoh was helpless. Knowing the system was unreliable, he desperately sought help from anywhere, pulling Rotom, who had been watching from the sidelines, and tossing Rotom towards the repulsive beast. "Rotom, what is that thing?"
Rotom only felt the wind whistling past its ears. By the time it came to its senses, the repulsive beast's face was right in front of it. Rotom's reaction was swift, and it unleashed a Thunderbolt on the repulsive beast. "Don't come any closer!!!"
After a shower of electric sparks, Rotom was successfully intercepted by Guagua and Shedinja. The suppressed repulsive beast seemed to have been recharged and began another round of modifications. Xia Hunaoh watched from a distance as the repulsive beast's muscles writhed. "Come on, let me see what other tricks you can pull."
Xia Hunaoh thought the repulsive beast couldn't possibly modify itself further, but it exceeded his imagination. It grew two lightning-shaped wings on its existing frame. Xia Hunaoh was dumbfounded. "Are you kidding me? That's possible too?"
The repulsive beast flapped its wings, attempting to rise. However, before it could float up, it crashed back down again. Xia Hunaoh watched from afar. Having been proven wrong once, he decided not to comment. This time, the repulsive beast seemed truly dead, lying motionless on the ground. Xia Hunaoh breathed a sigh of relief. The system also said, "It seems its brain simply couldn't keep up. The calculation load was too great, and it burned out."
Xia Hunaoh grunted. "Back?"
"Yes, there's a new installation package. I'll update it tonight. But regarding this repulsive beast, my guess is pretty close. Its computational processing power was indeed very strong. It calculated for six Pokémon consecutively, including three major applications like Guagua, Diancie, and Dawn, without burning out. It finally gave out after adding Rotom."
Xia Hunaoh nodded. "Yes, the stronger the computing power, the more it wants to compute. Just like humans, the more intelligent they are, the more they understand their own ignorance."
The system agreed. "You're right. Didn't your human sages say something like that?"
Xia Hunaoh became interested. "What did they say?"
"'My life has a limit, but knowledge has none. To pursue the boundless with the bound is the act of a fool!'"
The system had been very serious, but then it veered off course. Xia Hunaoh listened to the saying, rolling it around in his mouth a couple of times. Indeed, rhyming like that made it sound catchy and a bit catchy.
"System, stop messing around. If human sages had said that, then those ancient texts would be much easier to memorize!"