Universe Infinite Canteen

Old Man Zheng stared at Ma Lu for half a minute before he finally took the piece of salted meat and brought it closer to inspect carefully, then put it under his nose for a sniff.

"The quality does seem good, I can offer an additional 50 on top of the original price..."

"50? That's too little, this is a masterpiece from the Cosmic Chef."

"That's true, but you also need to consider the difficulties of transport and selling," Old Man Zheng snorted.

"Besides, not everyone knows the value. Cosmic Chefs are a proud bunch and rarely do such semi-finished products make it to the market. We'd have to spend effort and time explaining it to buyers."

Ma Lu was about to say something else when, all of a sudden, he saw Old Man Zheng's expression change as he turned his head and shouted loudly, "Who's there? Who is that!"

Ma Lu was startled, thinking a Wandering Sorcerer hiding in the shadows had been discovered.

However, when he followed Old Man Zheng's gaze, he saw a small figure emerge from the darkness.

The figure was less than 1m tall, completely transparent, and displayed a tender green color similar to jelly, with large watery eyes, looking quite bewildered and cute.

Ma Lu let out a soft exclamation; he recognized this creature. It was clearly a Slime, the frequent low-level monster from games and animations, nicknamed 'Beginner's Buddy.'

Moreover, the Slime in front of him was cosplaying, wearing something like a Viking Warrior's Bull Horn Helmet, albeit in a tiny version that was less than a fifth of its head size, making it look even more adorable and silly rather than intimidating.

Cute~

Ma Lu took out his phone, instinctively wanting to capture this cute creature, but then he noticed a look of horror emerging on Old Man Zheng's face.

He seemed to be extremely, extremely afraid of this harmless green-skinned Slime.

Then Old Man Zheng didn't care about the deal with Ma Lu anymore and turned to run.

But as he was just about to step forward with his right leg, Ma Lu saw the green-skinned Slime also conjure up a tiny tentacle, pointing at Old Man Zheng.

The tentacle was too small; even when stretched out with all its strength, it was less than 5cm long, nowhere near reaching its target.

However, in the next moment, Old Man Zheng's head swelled up like a balloon and rapidly inflated, then burst with a loud pop, turning into a mist of blood!

Old Man Zheng's head exploded!

His head suddenly exploded without any warning!

The explosion sprayed Ma Lu as well. Now his face, neck, and clothes were covered in bloodstains and bits of flesh, and half an ear stuck to his phone screen.

What the hell?!

All the hairs on Ma Lu's body stood on end! He could never have dreamed that such a ferocious Slime existed in this world.

With just a casual pointing, it could blow up a living person!

After killing Old Man Zheng, one of the Slime's eyes shifted toward Ma Lu, then ripples began to form on its smooth surface as if it was about to conjure up new tentacles.

Ma Lu didn't hesitate and immediately shouted out the three words, "Rosy Sunset Pot!"

In a situation like this, neither the Chef's Knife nor the Black Hole, nor the Treasure Bead given by the Valkyrie People could save him; only summoning the strongest fighter could.

As the last word fell, a familiar crimson flash passed before Ma Lu's eyes, and the figure of the Female Sorceress appeared in mid-air.

Then a fireball landed on the green-skinned Slime, which melted away as quickly as butter.

"Are you alright?" the Wandering Sorcerer descended from the air, looking at Ma Lu with concern.

"It's good you arrived in time, I wasn't hurt," Ma Lu said, wiping the blood off his face, still shaken, then looked down at the headless corpse at his feet.

"Unfortunately, Lao Hei was killed by it. What on earth was that thing?"

"Dimensional Pirates," the Female Sorceress said. "But they generally operate at the junctures of cosmic planes and seldom actually venture onto a planet."

"No wonder Lao Hei was so scared when that thing appeared."

Ma Lu stared at Old Man Zheng's headless body, suddenly realized.

Obviously, Old Man Zheng, or Lao Hei, had already heard the news that the Dimensional Pirates had appeared on Earth, which was why he was so nervous, and why he hadn't answered any of Ma Lu's calls last week.

The meeting this time was carefully concealed and cautious; still, it ended up being targeted and blown up.

Looking at the headless corpse on the ground, Ma Lu felt a bit of a headache.

On the one hand, it was hard to find a channel to exchange surplus ingredients for Star Currency, and now it was gone. On the other hand, Lao Hei's death itself was a big problem, leaving behind a corpse.

Given his previous high-spirited dealings and a good friend like Grandpa Ge, he probably had a legitimate identity on Earth like Yan Wu, blending seamlessly into society.

This means his body, if found by the police, would be treated as a serious criminal case.

Soliciting testimonies from those who ran at night, it would be easy to discover he was the last person seen with Old Man Zheng before his death.
Experience tales at empire

Moreover, the police station wouldn't accept the explanation that Old Man Zheng's head was blown off by a Slime, and then they would have to rely on this arduous facilitator.

Although so far, this facilitator had been very effective.

But this was a criminal case, and moreover a major one, the police would not close the case easily without finding the murderer.

"Sigh." Ma Lu couldn't help but sigh, thinking about this.

He just wanted to sell some surplus ingredients, why had he gotten tangled up in this mess again?

Ma Lu was considering whether to call the police first or pretend he knew nothing and leave when suddenly, the headless corpse on the ground twitched.

Ma Lu's eyelid also twitched.

What just happened, did he see it wrong?!

Encountering a brutal Slime was bizarre enough, could it be he was about to encounter a corpse reanimation?

Being in such a state, the corpse shouldn't be able to move at all by logic.

Just as Ma Lu suspected he was seeing things, the headless corpse trembled slightly again.

Then, the back of the corpse suddenly split open, and a large bug, entirely covered in slime, crawled out.

"Damn!" Ma Lu couldn't help but curse loudly.

Especially when he saw the large bug, which resembled a Facehugger, crawling towards him, he was about to stomp on it when a somewhat shrill voice reached his ears.

"Don't, don't step on me! I mean no harm."

"Do I look like a fool to you?" Ma Lu didn't pay any heed to the bug's sweet talk, continuing to stomp down.

The bug had to use all its might to dodge the crushing blow and dared not approach Ma Lu anymore. Instead, it continued in a shrill voice, "If you kill me, you won't be able to sell your goods."