Alright, it’s time to go management mode. I’ll choose everyone else's upgrades for first, and then I’ll choose my own then I’ll probably have to repeat the process over again.

I’ll start with Cake first.

‘Cake, upgrade Hardened,’

Cake's speed isn’t as important as anymore. Now that we no longer have to run away from monsters since we have Gothalyn and I want to make sure that if Cake ever gets attacked by a powerful foe she can rely on her shell to protect her.

‘Yes, Meister,’ Cake replies, clearly happy moving her face claws to form a smile.

[Cake has advanced [Hardened] for the mutation Hermine Shell]

Next Kiwi, still trying to murder the calm zombie rats as fast as possible to be able to sleep, since I told her that all the rats needed to be dead for her to go to sleep.

‘Kiwi, upgrade Twitch,’

‘Yes, Maistear,’ Kiwi replies, radiating happiness while dismembering the small rodents.

[Kiwi has advanced [Twitch] for the mutation Prayma Forelimbs]

It was really a toss-up between Twitch and Sharpness. Strength doesn’t really seem suited for Kiwi’s fast speedy attack style, so I threw that one out. I went with Twitch due to the simple fact that Kiwi seems to like doing things quickly, probably so she can sleep some more. I want to try to at least give them things that I think they would want if they had free will. I think that’s a responsible way to look at it.

And last but not least, Cinnamon. I never actually gave her something to upgrade, so she has just been holding onto her all of her Biomass in that weird stomach sack of hers.

‘Cinnamon, use your biomass on your fangs,’

‘Yes, Maifear,’ Cinnamon replies, cheerfully by doing a misty backflip in the air.

They really are happy about me choosing their mutations for them, aren’t they?

“Well, they are being brainwashed by you, so I think they would probably be happy even if you ordered them to jump into a sea of superheated razor blades and lemon juice,” GagOs says.

That is oddly specific? Oh! That’s right, GagOs. I nearly forget because all this rat business happened but why did you leave me with elevator music when I asked you about that time I took over Gothalyn and I didn’t taste any sort of human flavor or anything from her brain.

“Don’t you like elevator music? It’s the most popular music in the world since it’s installed in every elevator and is heard by millions every day for the last decade or so. Based on my calculations it is objectively the most popular music.”

Dodging the question? Tell me why you left out of nowhere.

“No, I was simply answering a part of your question. l only dodge questions that I’m not obligated to fulfill.”

And what would those be?

“Well, since your IQ is at rock bottom, I guess I’ll have to generalize them into three categories. Biology of you and your subjects, the System and things that have a substantial threat to your life; which I have to warn you about if the chances of you dying by something are basically guaranteed if I don’t say anything and I also have to make sure my warning gives you adequate time to prepare for that something. How you use that time is up to you and not my problem."

So that time you said I was in a volcano. You were warning me because I would've died if you didn’t say anything. Along with that other time, I almost voided my contract. Those were both guaranteed deaths if you didn’t warn me?

“Yes, I’m glad you figured that out. I had predicted otherwise, but fortunately, you did. In regards to your ability to not taste that woman, you stuck your disgusting tendrils into to “save” her. I will answer that question with a question to make it a semi-difficult answer easier for your brainless body to understand. Did you eat her; i.e. gain biomass off of her.”

No.

“Correct, now think back on your useless time as a human. Could you taste food without eating it?”

No? So, you are saying I need to eat her for my human-loving taste buds to give me any taste.

“Correct, you can think of that time as merely playing with your food,” GagOs ended off with.

I will actively try to avoid thinking of it like that, actually. What about my desires, why are they getting worse?!

“Humans shed on average about a million skin cells every day. They stick to surfaces including the tips of your draining spikes, so when you stick that in another disgusting monster such as yourself and start to drain its body you are also sucking up the microscopic particles that will tease your human taste receptors with the taste of human flesh, but not fully activate and send a signal to your core. You also keep denying your very own desires causing your weak mentality to falter at times. Think of it like your last romantic partner, all talk and no action causin…”

Mute.

Alright, that’s enough of that. That was a very poor comparison, who doesn’t have urges to “Chat with the Grandmaster”. Nobody! Well, actually probably some people, but almost nobody. I would take that over the urge to eat those walking sticks of ham any day of the week.

God! What am I thinking?! Do they have therapy for people like me? No, of course, they don’t, I’m a fucking monster surrounded by thousands of dead decaying corpses, covered in zombie blood, and having to deal with some extremely strong goth woman and her obsession with my species as pets.

No, I need to be hopeful and look at the bright side of my current life. I have Cake, Kiwi, and Cinnamon — they are all great. I also got isekai’d and given a videogame-like system with the ability to talk to the reject GladOs, a dream for some people, although I would like to debate the benefits of it. I’m also very glad that I didn’t get sent into a medieval fantasy world with only carriages that travel at about 12mph, lack of internet to waste time on when bored, and most importantly probably some type of big war going on that I would be dragged into. Instead in this world, we have big trucks that can travel a large distance on rocky terrain faster than you might think, the internet in all of its weird and wacky glory, and most important of all, not a single war currently going on in between any of the nations. Although, that doesn’t mean that this world is very peaceful, using the internet I learned that usually these countries have their hands full dealing with villains and other evildoers, but some countries have started wars as recently as 10 years ago. Gumtrap apparently used these wars as a way to gain money since they sold equipment and other war necessities to both sides of the war. Another thing that surprised me is that these wars weren’t using normal soldiers but instead were apparently mostly fought by Herons; superheroes who were bought by the government for involvement in a war.

*drip*

*drip*

*drip*

What’s that sound? It’s coming from beneath me? Oh...it seems that the rat I’m puppetting started to melt away due to my radioactive gas pelting it.

I turn off my toxic gas and I feel as if the nuclear engine inside my body turns off and I wait for everyone to awaken.

A Few Minutes Later:

Cake, Kiwi, and Cinnamon all awoke with their new upgrades.

‘Cake focus your biomass on your carapace, Kiwi focus on your carapace too, and Cinnamon continue to spend your biomass on your fangs.’

‘Yes, Meister.’

‘Yes, Maistear.’

‘Yes, Maifear.’

After I was barraged by a torrent of different versions of the same word, Master. I still don’t understand at all why they speak to me like that nor do I care that much. It’s kind of cute in its own sick brain-slave-y kind of way.

‘Oh! Also, I’m going to upgrade myself while I’m puppetting this rat, it might break off the connection when I lose my senses. I doubt it will actually happen but just to be safe — I’m going to move out of this tunnel with Gothalyn. You all continue to eat.’

‘Meister, I propose that I come too for added protection,’ Cake replies.

‘Okay, that’s fine,’ I reply to Cakes suggestion.

Me, Cake, and Gothalyn all move around a few corners to a more secluded spot with zero rats to be found. I can still clearly make out Kiwi and Cinnamon munching on as many rats as fast as possible, due to the expanded vision of my species. I actually had to use Cake to explain to Gothalyn my small precaution since Kiwi was too busy stuffing her face with rat meat.

‘Alright, Cake I’m upgrading now, also tell her,:I’m upgrading now.:’ I tell Cake.

Cake tells Gothalyn and they both cautiously watch over me as I start to choose which mutations to upgrade.

Let’s see I could do more regeneration? Last time it was actually fairly cheap to upgrade my new regeneration upgrade, Deconstruction, instead of regenerations premium pricing. How much would regeneration be now?

[Upgrading Regeneration Gland: Speed to [Very Strong] costs 60 Biomass]

Wait! If upgrading Deconstruction is cheaper than upgrading Speed or Utility, then does that mean that I chose the wrong mutation to advance! Deconstruction would have been slightly worse but so much cheaper! Can I go back and change my decision! I didn’t even think about what a difference in price means, I was so much more focused on Kiwi’s and Cinnamon’s evolutions at the time!

[Policy #2: The System does not offer any form of refundability; any exchange of biomass is binding immediately after purchase.]

Oh! Well, that was new? I wonder if that has to do with GagOs or is this a normal feature of the system that I never knew about? It says #2 so I wonder what #1 is?

[Policy #1: The System may collect or use your inner-consciousness to provide the best user experience for you; if this makes you feel uncomfortable, don’t be. We have never had a security breach.]

I’m not even surprised that all my thoughts are being collected like search data back on Earth. It makes an internet company tracking your search history seem like small potatoes.

Hmm? It seems I went off track a bit! This policy thing wasn’t all that useful, it’s sort of like the terms of service for the System. Probably not something anybody has ever read besides me.

The first thing I plan on upgrading is Spearhead. It’s super useful and powerful although it does use a lot more stamina than a normal attack, it’s still super useful even though it is called extremely weak.

Then my grenades since they do a lot of damage especially if you combine multiples. I can still see that stain on the wall from the rat that swallowed some.

I’ll also upgrade my radiation gas production not to the max but about halfway since I don’t want the gas to be too strong or too much otherwise I might not ever be able to use it unless I’m alone or have prepared some anti-radiation cream for them.

Next will be upgrading my core. I should've done this a long time ago since my core is basically like my brain, and if that takes a hit no amount of regeneration is going to fix it or matter since I’ll probably be dead. I have mostly ignored it due to the fact that since I’m fighting dumb monsters, which can be easily dodged most of the time as long as I’m careful the last thing I will have to worry about is an attack on my weak spot. But, it is better to be safe than sorry. I can also get an upgrade for it, as well.

The last two things I’ll be upgrading is my puppeteering ability and my regeneration speed. Puppeteering has definitely shown its usefulness today and if it increases the chances even if only by a little I can go back to aiming for the head without fear of losing half my biomass. I may have also regretted what I chose to advance for regeneration but it’s still regeneration. I still need it to be as good as possible and I can advance my draining spikes.

[You do not have enough biomass for this order. You currently have 250 biomass to fulfill this purchase you need 253 biomass.]

Oh? Well, I guess I’ll just take one less upgrade for the amount and strength of the toxic gas I’ll be spewing out.

[Confirmed, you have purchased the following mutations:

Flesh Flash: Spearhead: (Extremely Weak) -> (Max)

Flesh Grenade: Explosiveness: (Slightly Strong) -> (Max)

Flesh Grenade: Generation: (Medium) -> (Max)

Toxic Gas Gland: Amount: (Extremely Weak) -> (Weak)

Toxic Gas Gland: Strength: (Extremely Weak) -> (Weak)

Lola Core: Defense: (Medium) -> (Max)

Regeneration Gland: Speed: (Strong) -> (Very Strong)

Draining Spike: Brain Parasite: (Extremely Weak) -> (Max)

Total cost: 249 Biomass]

===

[You have maxed out Draining Spike for the second time; you may choose one mutation upgrade to advance.]

[Draining: (+)

[Breakthrough: (+)

[Brain Parasite: (+)

I already drain stuff pretty fast, so I don’t think I’ll need that as of right now and Brain Parasite isn’t something I do that often, even if the chances may increase from my recent upgrade. So by the process of elimination, I will upgrade Breakthrough for an even stronger spike.

[Confirmed, you have chosen to advance Breakthrough]

[You have maxed out Flesh Flash for the second time; you may choose one mutation upgrade to advance.]

[Distance: (+)

[Speed: (+)

[Spearhead: (+)

I think this is an easy one. The other ones aren’t bad at what I would consider mediocre but spearhead is just too good; it can pierce through metal and cement at its lowest level and I can only imagine what sort of powerhouse it will become if I continue down that path.

[Confirmed, you have chosen to advance Spearhead]

[You have maxed out Lola Core for the first time; you may choose one mutation upgrade]

[Core Translation: Allow for the ability to translate and understand different languages.]

[Spare Core: A brand-new core that will take over if your original has been destroyed; until that moment it will do nothing but sit in your body]

[Diamond Core: Replaces a layer of Lola core to a layer made of diamond; heavily increasing core resilience to physical attacks, however, weakening to non-physical attacks]

[Fluorite Core: Replaces a layer of Lola core to a layer made of fluorite; heavily increasing core resilience to non-physical attacks, however, weakening to physical attacks]

[Shifting Core: Allow the core to move and to be melded into any shape; doesn't change the amount or density of the core and cannot separate one core into two.]

This is a very tough choice except for the first one, that one just makes me mad to think about because I had to pay 250 biomass and use a 50% coupon to be able to translate this worlds' language into my own. AND YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT I COULD’VE DONE THE SAME THING IF I PAID 16 ON MY CORE!!!! No, don’t think about it, Joy. Focus on the good aspect of it and that’s that I can do something else now that I already bought that, even if I was scammed. So! What do I want? I haven’t gotten attacked by too many physical attacks yet, so I don’t know how wary I need to be of them, so I’ll throw that one away due to the unknown about how certain powers and things affect me. Diamond Core gives me a weakness to something that I don’t know if I’m weak to or not, so it’s out due to uncertainty. A spare core is a good backup for an emergency that will hopefully never come. Shifting Core will basically allow me to make it harder for an enemy to hit my core since I could make it like a rod instead of a sphere whole at the same time moving it from the center of my body to somewhere else. I imagine this would be useful when fighting humans aiming for my weak spot but useless when fighting monsters still trying to figure out whether or not a weak spot tastes good or not.

It also doesn’t take a genius to realize that if I ever got into a fight with let’s say Gothalyn as an example. Based on humanity's knowledge of monster cores that I learned from the internet. Some strong monsters have a core in the center of their body, and often when a hero is fighting a stronger monster they will aim for the center to destroy the core; apparently, cores are also highly prized if intact. But, anyway back to the hypothetical fight. All she would have to do to murder me is to quickly stab me in the middle of the body and I’m dead. If I get the Spare one then she has to do that twice instead of once and then I’m dead; I might be able to run away in that time but I also might not be able to. Instead, if I get the Shifting one, I can move it to some random corner where she would never expect it to be and then if she tries to stab me in the center where she thinks my core is, I can instead counter-attack and stab her back and win the fight. I might be able to do the same with the spare one too, but I can only imagine the pain of having all your important internal organs stabbed at once being quite immobilizing.

I can definitely see the benefit of the others, but I think that my best option is to prepare for the worst case scenario where I am heavily out-matched with someone better at fighting than me, I might need that little extra curve to live.

[Confirmed, you have chosen the mutation upgrade, Shifting]

[You have maxed out Flesh Grenade for the first time; you may choose one mutation upgrade.]

[Remote Detonation: As long as you are able to physically view the grenades, you can detonate them at any time; doesn't decrease the minimum time for a grenade to explode only extends it and range can be increased by upgrading it further. If you can no longer view the grenades they will not explode]

[Toxic Gas Grenade: When a grenade explodes, it will emit a large amount of radioactive gas to inhibit vision and melt away enemies as it pellets them with shrapnel]

[Impact Grenade: Grenade will explode on impact immediately after being thrown and touching a surface.]

[Flaesh Grenade: A normal Flesh Grenade in addition to the ability to in a large burst of light and sound causing momentary blindness and deafness to enemies nearby; while they are shredded apart.]

[Proximity Grenade: Allow flesh grenades to be placed and then left anywhere and they will explode when anything that has not been soul-bound to the host travels by; doesn't decrease the minimum time for a grenade to explode and cannot detect movement through surfaces.]

[Cluester Grenade: Grenades no longer explode as normal and upon detonation will instead split into smaller grenades that will explode for extended range and lethality]

[Delectable Grenade: By infusing a grenade with a scent that nothing can resist passing by when nearby. Grenades when thrown will create a distraction to different species of varying degrees of effectiveness. Grenades will also have an increased detonation time.]

I thought the last one was hard to choose! This is so much harder of a choice! Can’t I have them all!

No? Well, I should probably start trying to figure out which one I want then.

I can throw out Toxic Gas and Impact because I already produce Toxic Gas so I can just upgrade that instead and I can imagine if I ever messed up a grenade throw and it blew up on contact I would be in a world of hurt. The flesh grenade one which for some reason is called Flaesh instead of Flash probably because my grenades are called flesh grenades, also doesn’t seem all that useful since its effects are said to only be momentary so that one is out as well.

Remote Detonation and Proximity are both good since grenades can now be turned into long range explosives if I want them to but both have their own ups and downs. I have to be able to see the grenades to explode them with remote detonation, but I have control over when they explode. Proximity, on the other hand, has no set distance where I need to be, but something has to move near them for it to explode, that could be somewhat useless if let’s say a normal rat walks by and explodes it when it was instead meant for a big monster. I personally think that the Remote Detonation one is the better one of the two distance explosives.

Cluestear Grenade clearly is a play on the words Flesh and Cluster and has no downsides unless maybe I wanted a lot of power to go into one specific area instead of being spread around, but I doubt I will run into that problem very often and an increase in the grenades range of attack could be good for killing bigger groups of monsters.

And finally, the weirdest one. The Delectable one. It says it has varying effectiveness, so it could be useless on some monsters that can’t smell and possibly humans since I doubt humans would look at a good smelling grenade any different than a bad smelling one, even if my grenades look very alien, I think humans have enough common sense to not go near an unknown fleshy ball that looks like it’s about to explode whether or not it smells nice.

But, if I was ever surrounded by a group of monsters and I needed a quick distraction this would be the thing to choose while at the same time it would gather them around and blow them up to little pieces. I also assume they will try to eat them as well since it’s called a delectable grenade. This could have the same effect as a Cluster Grenade since more monsters would gather around the grenade before it exploded with the ability to distract them. The only downside I can think of is that my detonation timer will be increased meaning that my grenades might be less useful against opponents who are less affected by the smell.

I think in the end it’s between Cluester, Delectable, and Remote Detonation. Do I want my grenades to be more powerful as a tool to distract and kill monsters but take longer to explode, be able to do more damage over a wider area, or be able to hide a stash of grenades somewhere before exploding them and ambushing whatever I’m trying to kill? Hmmm? I think I'll choose Remote Detonation just because it gets a slight edge over the other two since I can only imagine how cool it would be to explode something just by looking at it and wanting it to explode. On top of it just being a very useful ability, to begin with. I can use it in ambushes, extending a grenade timer, or even as a safety measure to make sure grenades don't blow up to close to me or anyone else they were not intended for. The range can also be extended by upgrading the ability.

[Confirmed, you have chosen the mutation upgrade Remote Detonation]

I lose all my senses after finalizing all my mutation choices as Cake and Gothalyn both watch over me in case I lose my ability to control the rat I was using and I’m just left to think inside my head.

“Did you know that if you chose to mutate your grenades into ones that explode on contact, there is a 92% chance that you would've blown yourself up upon the first test of the ability. You would’ve probably survived with some light physical and psychological damage, including, but not limited to, Core Damage, Regeneration Gland Damage, Loss of Limbs, and PTGD; Post Traumatic Grenade Dismemberment,” GagOs says inside my consciousness while I’m cut off from my body.

Well! That’s nice to know! But, I think I would’ve rather known that while I was choosing not after the fact!

=====

Earlier on the surface:

A pair of plumbers were each enjoying their eighth subsequent drink at a bar called, Tabby’s, that served drinks whether night or day. Which was clearly important for these two plumbers who were drinking heavily while others might have been enjoying a mid-day picnic at the park.

“Hey, Billy!” Bob said, flailing his drink around the wooden bar table.

“Yeah Bob,” Billy said, as he downed his ninth shot.

“I bet you can’t do a handstand and balance that cup on the back of your head at the same time,” Bob said to Billy.

“I bet I can,” Billy said as he got out of his chair and prepared to attempt the daunting task.

Billy grabbed the shot glass and set it on his head and set his hands on the floor lowering his head causing the glass to fall onto the floor.

“See, I told you that you couldn’t do it!” Bob responded in drunken laughter.

“I’ll try again,” Billy said determined as he laid the cup back on his head, this time placing it in the correct position. Billy got back on the ground and kicked his legs up to try to accomplish the handstand. He continued to attempt this a dozen or so times before finally succeeding as a waft of a pungent stench passed by causing his balance to falter and he fell onto his back as the shot glass fell to the ground and cracked.

“What is that smell?! Hey Tabby! What the hell are you making in that kitchen to smell this bad!” Bob responded to the stench.

“I don’t have any customers yet besides you two! So, unless you ordered something I’m ain’t cooking anything! I think it’s coming from the bathroom! Maybe a Zed-Rat died in the toilet or something?” Tabby yelled from the other side of the room.

Both Billy and Bob may have been drunk out of their mind but both of them could still smell opportunity amidst the gut-wrenching stench.

“We’ll fix it! In exchange all you have to do is pay for our bill,” Billy proposed.

“And my tab!” Bob responded.

Tabby glanced over to the two drunk plumbers in overalls then to her watch to check the time until more customers will begin to arrive. She had about three hours until then and if she couldn’t get that darn rat out of the toilet by whatever means necessary then nobody would want to eat or drink here.

“Fine! Just make sure my toilets still work after you're done!”

Billy and Bob jumped from their seats and began to gather tools from their trucks before heading into the bathroom. Both Billy and Bob put on masks to help alleviate the terrible smell coming from the bathroom and they started to check each toilet. However none of the toilets were clogged, so next, they checked the sinks, nothing was wrong, again. At first, they were stumped as to what was happening and both of them really didn't want to pay for all the alcohol they just bought.

“I may be drunk, but I don’t know what’s causing this smell,” Billy said.

“Maybe it’s coming from the sewers? I mean it’s either that or we both pay for all that booze we just bought,” Bob said.

Neither of them had very much money upon entering this bar and after coming here, both of them may as well be penniless, so against common sense, they both decided to crack open one of the specially designed manhole covers designed to keep monsters in the sewers using a special key they were given upon starting their plumber business, however, they were told to never use it unless they had a hero with them.

But, since both of them were far from sober, they both forgot about that tidbit of information.

=====

Name: Joy

[Species: Toxic Myst Lola

[Gender: N/A

[Level:19

[Stats:

[Health: 500/500

[Stamina: 500/500

[Material Storage: 1/250

[Mutations]

[Appendages

-Draining Spike 2+: Draining( Max)

Breakthrough: (Strong)

Brain Parasite: (Max)

-Suction Cups 2+:

Grip: (Max) Power:(Max)

Anti-Grav: (Strong)

[Internal

-Regeneration Gland Speed 2+:(Very Strong)

Usability: (Max) Deconstructive: (Max)

-Flesh Motor: Speed: (Slightly Strong) Usability: (Slightly Strong)

-Toxic Gas Gland: Amount:(Weak) Strength: (Weak)

-Radar Sense 2+ Clarity:(Max) Distance:(Max)

Dimmer: (Strong)

-Lola Core 1+: Defense: (Max) Usability: (Max) Shifting: (Extremely Weak)

(Ability)

-Flesh Flash 2+: Distance:(Max) Speed:(Max) Spearhead: (Strong)

-Monster Egg Latcher: Amount:(3) Progressor: (1)

-Flesh Grenade 1+: Explosiveness:(Max) Generation:(Max) Remote Detonation: (Extremely Weak)

(Perks)

-Tier 1 Mutation Store

-Thrae’en Language Translator

-The Unknown Variable

-Deep Learning