Back when the slime had turned off its stream at Smartass's request, the Slime Queen had been utterly bewildered.

She had been horrified to hear that the slime would be in grave danger if the magic circle exploded. Then, when a bony hand appeared and smashed the barrier surrounding the slime, she had felt relieved.

But after that skeletal hand kneaded the slime a few times, the stream abruptly ended. She could only stare in confusion.

'What in the world happened?!'

If the stream had ended after showing an explosion, she would immediately have understood that something terrible had happened. Instead, it had suddenly cut out after the slime climbed onto the bones.

Normally, a stream only ended when the streamer turned it off or lost consciousness, such as by falling asleep. This looked more like the former than the latter. There had been no explosion, so the slime had no reason to suddenly lose consciousness.

'Why did my kin turn off the stream?'

The Slime Queen closed the stream window and kept pressing the refresh button on the stream list. Yet even after over an hour of refreshing, she found not a single broadcast that looked like the slime had started streaming again.

'What is going on?!'

Without the slime's stream, she had no way to learn what was happening. All she could do was fret.

'Did someone coax my kin into turning off the stream?'

That was the only likely explanation. If so, who could have persuaded the slime to turn it off?

'One of those viewers, of course! It must have been someone on the Dersia continent!'

Having reached that conclusion, the Slime Queen grew angry. Saving the slime from danger was commendable, but making it turn off its stream and leaving her sick with worry was utterly unforgivable.

Watching the slime's stream had recently become part of her daily routine. Now that something she always watched was gone, her desire for things to return to normal kept growing.

And so, hoping to find even the smallest scrap of news about the slime, she started a stream of her own. Its title was [Anyone Who Knows News of My Kin, Come In!]

Viewers began entering the moment she went live.

▶What's this room?

"Anyone will do! If you know anything about my kin whose stream suddenly ended, tell me!"

[Noblesse Fire]▶Squishy couldn't wait and opened a room already.

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶It seems Squishy Queen doesn't know what happened to Squishy either.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Where could our adorable Squishy have gone?

▶I know.

"Really?! What happened to my kin?!"

▶I know I don't know lmaoooo.

▶[Fun Is Best has been kicked.]

▶Ugh, these damn trolls.

▶They're everywhere. Always right beside you, too!

▶But seriously, where'd Squishy go?

Once the Slime Queen went live, regular viewers of the slime's stream began joining her room. Not one of them knew where the slime was, however, so the conversation naturally turned to the bones that had appeared before the stream ended.

▶What the hell were those bones, anyway?

[Noblesse Fire]▶Hey, Bones. You seriously don't know anything?

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶Claiming that every bone that appears has something to do with me is slander. Though I suppose a shut-in loser of a dragon who only sees what he wants to see wouldn't know any better.

[Noblesse Fire]▶I told you to stop picking fights, you bastard!

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶Do you even know who started this?

▶These old farts never go a day without fighting.

[Slam First Ask Later]▶So does anyone know anything about those bones that look like they'd snap with one bite?

▶Dunno?

▶They did look like human bones, though.

Their clue was the shape of the bones shown in the third-person stream window. The hand that had suddenly emerged from a black space and kneaded the slime several times had looked like a human hand's skeleton.

But even recognizing that wasn't enough to identify its owner.

Noblesse Fire was a fire dragon, Gothic Luxury Bone a bone dragon, Madam Cat's Cradle an Arachne, and Slam First Ask Later Fenrir. Squishy Queen, meanwhile, was the Slime Queen.

Monsters who had used the system for a long time could generally guess who used which username without being told. After all, most of the time, they saw the same familiar faces.

Yet none of those monsters was thought to have human bones. Even the few claims to that effect were nothing more than chat messages declaring, "I'm human," which weren't worth engaging with.

In the end, despite the passing time, the Slime Queen learned nothing about the slime.

'How frustrating! It would be faster to go to the Dersia continent myself!'

With a sea separating the Demon Continent from the Dersia continent, crossing between them was no easy feat. Only monsters capable of prolonged flight or traveling through the sea could manage it.

Slimes, however, were monsters that needed no breath in the first place. If she set her mind to it, crossing the sea to the Dersia continent was not impossible.

That was when it happened.

[Free Spirit]▶Looking for Squishy?

'Smartass!'

The one appointed moderator of the slime's stream. The one whose absence until now had puzzled her.

Smartass had arrived.

"Smartass! Do you know anything about my kin?!"

▶Yep, I do.

"Is that true?! If you lie, you shall be severely punished!"

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Smartass, do you really know where our adorable Squishy is?

[Noblesse Fire]▶That Smartass bastard trolls sometimes. Isn't this bullshit?

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶Jumping straight to suspicion is a bad habit.

[Slam First Ask Later]▶So where's Squishy?

[Free Spirit]▶With me, yep.

'W-what?'

Smartass's statement startled not only the Slime Queen, but the other viewers as well.

"You mean my kin is with you?!"

▶Wait, what? So those bones were Smartass?

▶Come to think of it, we didn't know what kind of monster Smartass was.

▶Ahahaha he was bones all along lmao.

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶I suddenly feel a sense of kinship.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Please show us adorable Squishy~.

▶But why'd the stream stop?

[Free Spirit]▶Just didn't want anyone seeing me. Asked Squishy to turn it off.

▶Lmaoooo.

'Y-you made me worry over something so trivial?! Smartass! Grrrr! How insolent!'

▶Lmao look how mad Squishy Queen is.

▶She's shaking with rage hahaha.

She had set the stream to third-person view from the start, so the Slime Queen's anger was being broadcast in full.

▶Hmm, an angry Slime Queen... would smash.

▶[Yes to Everything has been kicked.]

▶"Would smash," this fucking guy.

The Slime Queen promptly kicked the troll spouting nonsense, then addressed Smartass.

"Now! Turn on the stream right now! Show me my kin!"

[Free Spirit]▶Yep. Hang on a sec. Let me talk to Squishy.

+++

Smartass touched the exercising slime with his skeletal hand and sent it a message through Telepathy. Now that he had the hang of it, he didn't actually need to touch the slime to use Telepathy. He could also have spoken through the private room he had yet to close.

But he liked the slime's soft feel, so he chose this method.

["Squishy, I'm going to start a stream and show you to the other viewers. Is that okay?"]

[Squishy]▶A stream? Can't I turn mine on?

["That would show all of me too, and I'm embarrassed. The other viewers are wondering what's happening to you."]

[Squishy]▶Okay! That's fine!

["Got it. Then I'll close this room and make a new one."]

As soon as the slime gave its permission, Smartass closed the private room and opened one that others could enter. Naturally, he first added the trolls who needed blocking to the block list.

The room's title was [I Want to See! Temporary Stand-In Stream].

[Free Spirit]▶Room's up, yep.

The viewers poured in the moment he announced it in the Slime Queen's stream.

▶That fucking title lmao.

▶Wasn't that the very first title?

▶Can't see anything, though. What's going on?

'Ah, right. They probably can't see very well.'

Almost no light entered Smartass's secret workshop, so viewers unaccustomed to darkness couldn't make out the screen properly.

SNAP!

Smartass snapped his skeletal fingers and used magic to illuminate the workshop. With that, the slime became clearly visible on-screen.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Eeeek! I'm so glad we get to see adorable Squishy again!

[Slam First Ask Later]▶Huh, it was working out.

The stream was in first-person view. Through Smartass's eyes, they could see the slime exercising with its Smartass-made dumbbell, pushing it up with steady effort.

▶What's that? Never seen it before.

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶It's different from the dumbbell you usually lift.

▷I made that one.

[Squishy Queen]▶My kin! You're safe!

[Noblesse Fire]▶Where is this, anyway?

▷My den.

[Squishy Queen]▶What?! Why is my kin in your den?!

'I haven't even had the chance to invite my kin to mine!'

▶Tell. Us. What. Happened.

Watching the slime, Smartass gave the viewers a rough explanation of the situation. The human who had put the slime on the floor had tried to eliminate it. Smartass happened to have an ability that let him travel straight to where the slime was, so he had gone there, rescued it, and brought it to his den.

He also made sure to explain that the slime had turned off its stream because he didn't want his appearance shown on it.

▶He made it turn off the stream because he didn't wanna show himself lmaoooo.

▶Then why'd it take so long to start streaming again?

▷I forgot.

▶Oh for fuck's sake hahahaha.

▶"Forgot," my ass.

[Squishy Queen]▶Do you have any idea how frightened I was?!!!

▷Sorry, sorry.

Now that the viewers had confirmed the slime was safe, their attention turned elsewhere.

▶So is Squishy gonna stay with Smartass from now on?

They wanted to know what the slime would do next.

[Squishy Queen]▶Absolutely not! Living with Smartass forever?! That would be bad for my kin!

[Noblesse Fire]▶Hahaha look how fucking flustered Squishy is.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶As long as I can keep seeing adorable Squishy, that's fine... But honestly, Smartass's room is a little dreary. I don't want to keep looking at it.

▷??? Why are you suddenly trashing my home?

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶But it is dreary, isn't it? It doesn't look like it gets much fresh air, and there's so much dust everywhere.

▶Brutal review lmao.

▶Your room isn't cute, hahaha.

Arachne's unexpected harsh criticism hurt Smartass a little.

'S-should I at least have cleaned up the dust...?'

▶So, Smartass, are you gonna keep Squishy living with you?

When the question came around again, Smartass answered.

▷Nope. I'll send Squishy back outside after a while. Squishy would prefer that too.

▶Whew, boring-ass content successfully dodged.

▶Lmao watching it stay in one place forever would be boring as hell.

▶Smartass's den looks way less fun than a human den, honestly.