Haruka woke Akira excitedly in his room. "Aki, a mimic dungeon appeared 120 kilometers away. We can ascend to level 30 now." She shook him vigorously.
"I am awake, stop shaking me," he replied, still half asleep.
"Aren't you becoming lazy?" Haruka asked. "We've been stuck at level 30 for a few days. I want to see my next skill. Quickly, get fresh."
They set out to an uninhabited area. The dungeon was in a mountain area, so not many players came there.
All the players there recognized the duo upon their arrival; most of them admired them and were thankful for their videos.
Akira didn't realize that he made the world a slightly better place by making those videos. He was unaware of the power of accumulation; the video idea he got was from his previous life.
He just copied and pasted the idea without learning the mechanics behind the cost, advertisement, importance of information, and most importantly, how useful those videos were to people.
"Isn't that them? They changed their masks, but I can feel the vibe."
"Did they come to make a video about the mimic?"
"I guess so. This is the only mimic dungeon around Shizuoka. I heard they live in Shizuoka."
One player took the courage and asked, "Excuse me, are you going to make a video here?"
"Yes," Akira replied relatively politely as he was speaking to a stranger.
"When are you going to start the organization you mentioned, Black Bear-sama?"
"It will be soon, maybe in a few weeks," said Akira, "we lack personnel, so we need to recruit some leaders first and discuss our plans."
"What are the criteria for joining?"
"There is none. As long as you are not an abusive person, you can become a member. Our operation style is different. I think players will like it. Don't join other organizations before looking into our organization."
Akira was surprised and happy that players were considering his organization. At that moment, something in him (just his inner voice, nothing mysterious) told him to make it happen, and Akira became firmer about the idea of the organization.
The duo entered the violet portal dungeon. They emerged from a portal into a big city. The buildings were tall but with broken walls covered in vines. The tar and concrete ground had many cracks with tree roots pushed out of the soil due to their growth.
Trees grew inside most of the buildings. "Is this a collapsed civilization?" Haruka asked in wonder and also fear. When she saw those structures, she was scared that a similar fate might befall Earth too.
"Don't let your imagination go wild," Akira said, patting her shoulder, which brought her back to her senses. "We should focus on our task."
"Right."
They both searched the area but couldn't find a single monster. After a few minutes, they came together.
"There are no monsters here," said Haruka, "generally there should be other low-level monsters roaming, right?"
"I guess they are scared of..." While Akira spoke, they heard a scream from a woman.
"Help, somebody help me," the person seemed to be crying in fear.
"Aki, what should we do?"
"We should go there."
"Yeah, but it's obviously a trap. You said that monsters can mimic voices."
"But we still need to confront it. I will start the video; get ready." Akira rushed there while starting to record a video. "Hello everyone, we will find out the weakness of the mimic monster today."
"Please somebody help me. This monster is disgusting." That woman's voice came again.
"It can learn so much?" Haruka was so sure that she started to ridicule the monster for such an obvious trap.
But Akira felt it odd. "I think it actually came from a human."
"What?" That took her off guard. "Then we need to save her. I know I shouldn't say that but I really don't like that perverted monster, so I don't want it to have its way."
They went into a building. As they searched, they found the woman. She was wearing a mask too. She was standing in one place without moving, so Akira stretched his hand to stop Haruka from taking another step towards her.
While they observed in hiding at the turn in the corridor, a long tongue came from the other turn in the corridor and they both saw feet coming on the wall. They were covered in white hair. It slowly came closer, and when the tongue reached the woman, it first went under her gown and started to lick her thighs.
A vibration went through Haruka with creepiness.
"No, don't...lick me." The woman begged while not moving. The monster came closer. It was walking on the ceiling and walls like a lizard. It was 4 meters long and it looked like a sloth. Its skin was covered with thick white hair along with its head. Only its palms, feet, eyes, and nose were not covered.
It had small lips and a wide mouth showing all of its jaw's length, which made it look like it was always grinning. Its teeth were cone-shaped with sharp points. It slowly licked the woman all over her body while she screamed in shame without even moving her hands. She shivered and her face became red due to the mental effects of the saliva.
"Aki, we should save her," Haruka whispered. "If she falls down, the monster will kill her, she looks like she's about to faint."
"No, it will kill her if we attack recklessly. You stay here; I will handle it."
"Can you save her? It seems you are hesitating."
Akira didn't want to say what he was thinking to her. 'I am only worried that this woman won't allow us to upload the video with her in it.' Akira used concealment and slowly walked in the corridor towards the monster.
He waited one meter away from the woman when he reached. The monster slowly started to wrap the woman with its tongue to tear off her clothes. It stretched its tongue fully by that time and Akira decided it was the perfect time and shot a needle from above its tongue, which pierced the wall and got stuck.
Then he dashed below its tongue, and the tongue got cut off due to the string attached to the needle. He was holding the string that was attached to the needle, and it cleanly cut off the monster's tongue.
The woman fell down due to the tongue's weight and the monster fell down too due to blood spraying like a water gun from its tongue continuously. It rolled left and right and eventually died after a few seconds with blood covering the floor for a few feet in the corridor.
Haruka quickly came and opened the tongue to save the woman.
"The mimic's tongue is 6 meters long," said Akira towards the camera, "if you cleanly cut the tongue between 25% of its inner part, it will die in a few seconds. Because its tongue is its main weapon, the mimic's body developed such that its inner 25% tongue was directly connected to its heart.
Keep in mind, that you have to cut off the tongue totally; don't attack it if you are not sure about it. That is the weak point of a mimic monster.
But be aware, if you cut the outer 75%, it is not only ineffective but it will also guard the tongue and never release it again. So you will only have one shot to kill it. Also, it can grow back its tongue in one day if you cut the 75% part."
"Tha...thank you for saving me." The woman was frightened stiff. She couldn't even stand straight at that point without Haruka's support.
"Miss, we took a video to upload," said Akira, "you will be in it too."
"No." The woman declined strongly in a weakened state. "I won't allow it. It is so humiliating."
"But we need that. We saved you, so you must agree to this," Akira demanded, trying to use the trauma to let her loosen a bit.
"Who are you to take my video without my permission? Delete it immediately, otherwise, I will complain to the player association."
Akira sighed while turning away and said, "OK, fine. White, let's go. We don't have time to waste."
Haruka released her and the woman fell down. She crawled and held Haruka's hand. "Wait, don't leave me here."
"What? Do you know what you are saying?" Akira was pissed off. "We need to take videos, lady. You said you don't like being in our videos, so don't follow us."
"So you are just going to abandon me?" The woman asked pitifully yet demanding in a way, which pissed off Haruka.
"You are wearing a mask anyway," said Haruka, "so I don't see any problem letting us upload it."
She quickly understood they were not some pushover to take advantage of.
"Ok fine," she agreed unwillingly, "but take me to the exit portal."
"White, you take her there, I will finish the remaining video."
Haruka nodded and took the woman away.
"Everyone, the mimic is a monster that likes to play with its prey, so when you stop moving, it won't attack you and lick you all over the body. That's why it is called the perverted monster.
But remember this; once it starts to lick you, you are as good as dead if there is no one to help you. And don't help if you don't have concealment skills like me. If you attack it while it is licking someone, it will kill them and it will become more aggressive towards you.
So unless you are confident to cut its tongue at 25% length inside, don't go to mimic dungeons. There is another way to kill this, so let me go and search for the next one."
Akira walked inside the building in search of more mimics. While he walked, he suddenly swung his hand back, and a card appeared between his middle and index fingers, which cut the tongue of the mimic behind him, but the cut was small.
"Damn, I couldn't sense it even with the detection skill. That is the problem with this pervert," Akira saw it close its mouth, indicating it wouldn't take its tongue out again.
Mimics had a strong concealment trick but not a detection skill, so they had to use their eyes to see their prey. But the eyes would be covered by its hair from eyebrows, so they liked to walk on the ceiling and walls instead of the ground and floor to see better.
He knew he screwed up and started running. 'Even I can't cut through its fur right now. Then the second method is the only way.'
While dodging and running, Akira opened the system shop and purchased a skill.
**Skill: electric charge (F)
Discharge electricity at opponents**
"Viewers, I purchased a skill called electric charge. As you already saw the first method to kill a mimic, now let me show you the second and last method."
A few seconds later, Akira found a smooth metal surface in a room. The mimic also entered the room.
Its lips widened, looking at the cornered Akira; Akira knew it was mocking him. That smile made Akira pissed off because it was creepy. He passed electricity through the metal.
When the mimic came closer, the left side of its body felt cold. When it turned to see, its hair was perpendicular to its skin.
Even though the hair was one foot long, it was very smooth, so the static current easily raised the hair.
Previously, its hair was down, so it acted as a shield but now the hair was straight, so Akira stabbed the skin by passing a dagger straight into its skin between hairs.
Its skin was thin and easily pierced. "That's my viewers, how you injure a mimic. Use static electricity to straighten its hair, and then stab it. Its hair is several inches long and strong, so it is nearly impossible to injure it but once the hair gives way, it is just a fragile monster."
He stabbed it many times, which killed the mimic. "Its hair is good but its skin can't hold it, so it is useless to collect it whole. Only the tongue and teeth of the mimic are useful. You don't have to collect anything else. Oh, did I mention Crystal? Take it too.
Now, I will tell you what not to do with mimics. Most important is, that you must never use fire on a mimic. The hair is not at all fire-resistant; it will burn very easily. That is also the reason why you can't make the hair into shields.
If it's just burning, it would have been fine; just don't use a shield against a fire attack. But when the hair burns, it will give out a very poisonous smoke. Five seconds of breath can put you under hallucinations, ten seconds' breath can put you in a coma, and fifteen seconds' breath can kill you."
Later, he showed a few more ways to kill the mimic with Haruka's help.
After that, Akira switched off the recording and sighed with exhaustion. 'The acting cheerful part is more tiring than killing monsters. Why am I doing it again?'