I turned around and suspiciously contemplated at the abomination that remained behind me, yet in the swift instant that I taxed my sensor to grasp its appearance, a trembling sensation came from the center of my body.

Warning! Warning! Unknown lifeform approaching, not answering communication… Categorizing as hostile… Suggested course of action: Run!

My body recognized the threat and stirred its engine to abscond without further thoughts, not before having a picture taken for ‘future’ collection, of course. In it, the saggy and round creature that drew near my vision showcased a myriad of protrusions analogous to those of the AI’s system when it was retrieving the previous plant sample. It wasn’t similar to a flagellum but more to a part of its shape-shifting body that squirmed like tentacles. It even made me doubt if I was the one that should be called G00 in such situations.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Despite the fact that I tried to escape by doing a sudden twist and performing a flagellar rotation maneuver, the creature managed to seize my body as I felt its gripping force pulling me to it.

Warning! Contact with unknown lifeform. Suggested course of action: struggle to break free.

I don’t know how I accomplished to do it, but with my only weapon being obvious and even if not perfectly made, I coped to land a hit. The tip of my flagellum somehow managed to strike against the weird creature’s grabbing cilia, it skewered its limb and with a slicing rotation cut the aforementioned like a blender making tomato sauce. The successful attempt allowed me to break free whilst the fragments of goo that splashed over my body squirmed as if still alive. It felt uncanny, like being covered in soap, not that I gave it much attention since escaping this place was a priority.

‘A18 show me the fastest way to the exit!’ I thought with anxiousness as my vision sensor struggled to support my evasive maneuvers inside the cavernous maze.

Yes, my puddle! Calculating an adequate route for escape…~

With an ideal AI-positioning-system helping me to choose the right path, I left my mind to roam in-game freestyle mode while giving precedence to swimming my way out. However, the oversized glob of liquid mucus with attached tentacles followed like a bolt by using a slingshot like movement that transformed to a roll which was then adjusted by its extensions. The weird propulsive action was fast for its dimensions, yet its mutable body thinned out when in contact with the walls, it even raced on some as if it was made of frictionless substances.

My puddle, turn right on the next intersection then quickly turn right again!~

‘This was an opportunity!’ I thought while depicting of doing a quick turn into a specific tunnel to evade the creature.

Nonetheless, before I could get there, a black shade descended over my vision with its grasping limbs as I tried to dodge out of reach of the humongous specimen in failure.

'Bastard!' I thought shouted.

The creature had slapped my body towards another tunnel and sealed the one that the AI knew, which was the only known path towards the exit. Damn! This is not a situation I wished to be placed in! Yet deprived of another escape direction, I advanced through the unfamiliar tunnel nearest to me.

Warning! User went out of the designated route…

My puddle! You are heading in the opposite direction! The current path should be 160 degrees...~

The AI stressed at the thought of me going in the opposite direction, I directed my thoughts and canceled the ‘AIssisted’ navigation.

A18 change of plans! Turn off the previous exit and create a new log since the moment we were thrown to this tunnel. Additionally, tell me if anything I don’t catch occurs in the surroundings.

As you wish my puddle.~

User has changed destination… Free navigation… Creating new log...

The waggling blob of slime or whatever the denser liquid than water was, dashed by the tunnels like a ghost that thrived for a scare. I didn’t want to be its goo nor boo, so I had to squirm faster and hope that my path didn’t go towards a dead end.

While moving, I tried to use different ways to attract its attention, like making sounds or creating sand whilst crushing my flagellum's tip onto the walls. My rotating tentacle's weapon seemed sturdy, although I knew it might be losing part of its sharpness the more I used it.

Wasn’t this losing nanomachines as particles? Is that why the AI told me they degraded?

Whatever it was I had no time for such thoughts as the damn balloon with feelers didn’t even react to the sound created by a rock towards another tunnel. Chamber of secrets strategies only work with snakes, or maybe not, since they sense heat... Dang, if the blob senses heat, then I am done for!

The caverns had tunnels in every axis, they weren’t like those in many stories where you only had the floor and most directions on the same plane. In this one, you could enter tunnels that made you loop and continue in the same tube, tunnels that were below you or at your sides at an invisible angle while you rushed, and tunnels that were short or thinned whilst terminating as dead ends.

This is bad! I thought while paying particular attention to those. I evaded most of my troubles but found myself entering some closed paths. Thankfully, my distance over the bob increased because of a particular advantage that I denoted on my second entrapment. My size was small compared to the tunnels' sizes and the creature that followed me. A property that I used in a way that forced the monster behind me to thin itself like a newly extruded tube of candy. Its diameter decreased in such a way that it took him longer to enter the rooms in which I squirmed with ease.

It took me a while, but this was an opportunity and I wasn’t able to adjourn the situation for a longer time.

A18, how much can we reduce our size? No wait, let me rephrase it. Can we enter that tunnel over there?

Calculating… Yes, my puddle! We can!

Good, suggest me what to do as quick as possible!

Calculating… Please go towards the tunnel at your left at medium speed.

Following the AI’s possibilities, I thrust my engine with expectation towards the small aperture in the walls.

A18, we will do as you wish. Adjust current form and speed when nearing the tunnel!

Adjusting current form…

The whole event reminded me of a movie where an animated tiger—covered in oil—passed through a metal ring of a small diameter. I can’t explain how, but it occurred. I kept gazing in wonder at the other side of the wall which I ‘pierced’. We are safe, there is sufficient space, and there is nothing dangerous in this new chamber; I can try or run away if my idea doesn’t work.

I locked my vision over the tunnel—where I came from—as a sausage-like appendage came out of the small-sized channel. The experiment started as I rotated my tentacle in a rapid motion and at a calculated angle. The rotating tentacle's tip sliced the thing’s appendage with easiness. Pepperoni fragments swirled in the water, becoming unmixable blobs of what once was a monster. It took a while for the whole tentacle to be converted into slimy currency, yet I persevered with determination.

A18, tell me if those pieces can be assimilated.

My puddle the small pieces won’t be able to be assimilated without a digestion structure. ~

Can’t you use the system for that?

It’s not possible my puddle, the system lacks the requirements to resist degradation for most substances. You need specific reagents and safety measures. The system’s utility functions can only work as support, processing, automatization of processing or isolation.~

This is crazy, but it’s impossible for me to understand the NMs and MMs insides without a specialized introspection sensor. Thanks to the AI, I can know most of the things about them, but altering the way the nanomachines store energy needs more studying. That’s why the first approach is to make a battery. Such complex things are very hard to understand in a reduced time-lapse.

Evading my inner dwelling thoughts, I continue to slice at the weird extruding blob. For some reason, it didn’t stop and kept coming through it. This is good because I thought I would need to repeat this strategy until it realized I wasn’t easy prey, yet the ball of liquid hairs didn’t seem to have a high enough intelligence to flee.

Why is it? Does this thing not feel fear of being converted into liquid coins by my flagellar swing technique?

A18, do you have any data on such creature?

My puddle, the creature is unknown, do you want to give it a name and add it to the register? It’s also possible to try and communicate with signals. I am catching a constant output coming from all of its fragments which are similar to the original agglomeration before it was sliced.~

‘Can you translate the signal?’ I asked the female-voiced AI without stopping the flagellar rotation. Well, it was an automatic-assisted system, yet I controlled the direction and speed with my decisions.

Answering my puddle, translation is possible. Do you wish for me to translate it and convert it to audio?~

‘Yes, please do so.’ A nasty thing this is’, were my thoughts upon cutting its limbs while giving an affirmative answer to A18.

Translating signal… Reproducing audio...~

Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke…Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke…Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke…Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke…Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke…Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke…Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke…Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke…Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke… Poke…

Hell nol What hell isis thisthis creature thunking? This is so lewd!

A18, did the signal say that for real?! Is the translation accurate?

The translation is confirmed to be accurate, my puddle. Do you wish to register the translated signal to audio and give it a name?

Fine, call it Poke-poke.

Poke-poke added to the database.

After a while, the whole cavern’s chamber where I was turned out to be covered in the creature’s cloying remains. It wasn’t easy to visualize with my sensor, yet the AI had some systems pre-installed, like the heat sensor (which required touch/contact), and signal the AI used to connect with other things (which should be based on its language or system). It was something that I needed to research later, might be some Bluetooth or WIFI thing. However, it’s possible that I lack the needed tech to check upon it.

Good thing my vision sensor is 99% impeccable and the blob's guts didn't splash over it. However, this experience taught me that I might need to add some cleaning device later. Another thing for the ‘to-do list’ in the future.

A Poke-poke’s body is very soapy, yet the insides are syrupy, it sticks even if you are in water and doesn’t seem to be easily dissolved. The hexagon at the end of my flagellum seems to have taken a bit of damage, but remains sturdy. It is nice that this strategy worked, if not for that I would most probably continue fleeing.

A18, take a sample of it.

My puddle, the system will use 10% energy for storage operation, the remaining energy is at 30%. Shall we proceed?

Oh, nice! You are giving AI recommendations!

Yeah, we will return and leave the next exploration afterward. Please check that they are 'dead' before taking a sample.

Starting system isolation and storage protocol…

Checking for signals from the sample…

Stopping…

My puddle there is an unusual signal coming from the samples. Do you wish to use the system storage?~

Eh, an unusual signal? Can you translate it?

Yes!

Do it then A18.

Translating… Converting to audio…

Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop… Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop… Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop… Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop… Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop… Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop… Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop… Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop… Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop…

Great! The fucking blob knows subliminal messages! That’s just what we wanted!

As I sarcastically commented on the spam-type message, I paused the audio while communicating to my AI, ‘don’t delve on it too much A18, just take the sample and let us leave this place.’

Yes, my puddle!~

Preparing system isolation protocol…~

It didn’t take much and a piece of the killed blob was isolated in a small sphere inside the system.

Alright! Time to get out of this cave.

A18, please give me directions to exit this place. 'Destination known': Home.

Calculating the best path to ‘home’… Using map and log to determine course... Done…~

I adjusted my vision sensor and prepared for a thrust towards the path where I came from. However just before entering the hole.

Warning! There are numerous signals being detected. Creatures signals are compatible with ‘Poke-poke’.

Shit! The dead body called the blob police!

I entered the hole in full thrust as my body accelerated and the AI started to elongate its shape. Luckily, the speed didn’t accelerate from zero to maximum too fast or I would have killed myself while thrusting inside of it.

A18, can you pinpoint the signals?

Negative my puddle, signals need ‘contact with the system’ to be processed.~

Contact? What sort of signal needs contact? Radio waves or some weird frequency? Does it mean that she has an ear or something sensible towards ultrasound? Why wasn’t it shown on the sensor tables?

Not that I had time to delve on that since I should leave this place as quick as possible. So I carried on with a vigorous swinging escape as my trajectory was being shown virtually inside my psyche.

My puddle please turn left at the next intersection. ~

Thank you A18! I’m glad I have you by my side!

My exit plan worked perfectly as I evaded many of the weird blobs that were following. It seems that although they were faster than me, all of them entered the tiny tunnel on that wall. This gave me an opportunity to make it hard for them to follow up by adjusting my direction and doing evasive bluffs. The fast rotations made many of the blobs to strike walls or enter the wrong tunnels.

This was the scene of a movie called the 'one' G00 and the thousand blobs cavernous nights. I was like a tiny speck of dust in a huge sized tube, while all those balls were almost blocking the entirety of an average-sized tunnel entrance.

Turn right on the next corner, the exit is at the end of that passage.~

‘Finally!’ I thought while diving full speed ahead and entering a looping tunnel before turning right in the corner and seeing the entrance at the end. However, the creatures weren’t leaving me alone as if sensing me with a dragon ball radar.

‘Not good!’ Even if I exit the cave they will still follow me outside… I need to find somewhere to hide and escape pursuit or maybe I can close the entrance after exiting.

With such in mind, I searched for ways to complete my absconding. Alas, that was the plan, yet neither A18 nor I could calculate a way to use the flagellum to attack some support structure to close the entrance. We didn’t have a scanning device to determine locations of weak support or structural defects.

That only left us with the second option, hiding inside the weird glowing plants at the cave’s surroundings. The plants weren’t densely packed as compared to their counterparts near the heating mat. These variations of algae were sparse in the area, so I had to choose carefully a group that could serve as a hideout until the firestorm subsided.

I withdrew from the cave with swiftness and hovered above the bizarre plantation fields as I lunged resourcefully towards a cluster of blooming plants behind a petty cliff. I adjusted my position and stared patiently at the cave’s murky entrance. In this spot, I would be able to see the damn things exiting the cave... Yet if they realized where I was… I would have nothing else to do but continue fleeing.

My anxiousness peaked, but without a heart drumming, I felt calmer than what a human would in such situations. At least this body had its benefits, yet while I was thinking… Something poked me!

Warning! Contact with unknown lifeform. Suggested course of action: struggle to break free.

NOOOOOO!

I mind shouted as I felt a slimy sensation squirming at my 'back'… Shit! I am trapped! That was all I could think at such moments. Something caught my flagellum and didn’t want to release it, no matter how hard I tried to struggle. The limb of a monster squirmed and twisted itself all over it like two shoelaces tying themselves together. When I moved my vision sensor towards the knotted place I found that one of the glowing plants was attaching itself to me.

What the?!

My puddle there is an unidentified heat source detected at the flagellum’s tip.

Wait! What?!

The unidentified plant is emitting heating energy while recharging the system.

How is that possible?

The flagellum tip was designed with the heat-sensor and heat absorption cores as its foundation. User input defined the item called ‘weapon’.

Oh, really? So it means that the flagellum’s tip is using the heat-sensor’s and heat-absorber’s core as a weapon and it’s being heated up by the plants below making energy levels rise slowly in consequence?

A18’s revelation caught me a bit off-guard and made me repeat incredulously. Although my body has smaller heat sensors, the ‘core’ or ‘most sensitive heat zone’, was at the tip of the tail. It seems I won’t be able to avoid the need for wireless charging or plugging my tip to energy sources.

It just happens that when designing the flagellum, the tip which I wanted to be a weapon required a resistant material/nanorobot to be used. I choose one from the options the AI suggested as I haven’t studied all of this body’s structure. Like no one would stay put and study little by little with such energy trouble and without having a complete understanding of their entourage. I am not an all-knowing god, so I planned to study it slowly while watching some videos and taking the needed time to understand it.

However, and leaving that aside, this heat sensor seems to be extremely resistant. It has sliced all the things I have met until now, and its sturdiness stayed top-notch. It seems it was a nice hidden choice that what I designed as a weapon and engine, will also help me sense and recharge energy. A multipurpose limb in summary!

'Hm, A18 hasn’t interrupted all that inner delving with an alarm?' This query interrupted my rambling as it was strange nothing had approached me during the long monologue.

A18, what is happening did the blobs re-enter the cave and leave us alone? Are there no signals near us?

My, puddle no signal has approached us, so no warning was triggered. However, there is a strange signal being emitted by the surroundings. The amount of it is extremely high and doesn’t allow for output origin determination or accurate translation.

‘Are they searching for us?’ I thought and moved my vision sensor to the side of the cliff while trying to get a peek at the situation. The AI could perceive the signals and check if the creatures got near, but I had to ‘see’ even if it was in gray-g00-scale.

I scrutinized the plantations and found that the Poke-pokes were apparently examining the plants while dividing themselves into various groups after exiting the cave. None of them were actually coming this way, good!

With a quick movement, I started to rotate and twist counter-side at the plant that was ‘screwing’ me. The knot was quickly undone as the plant didn’t move that fast and its grip was adjusted with time. Like something pulsing or contracting in a certain frequency, like a heart or muscle needing to contract and relax. Most likely an aftereffect of the limiting factors of biological strength.

I didn’t pay much attention to the recharging as this was a chance to leave. I am sure that there is a limit to the signal as the AI can’t perceive them if they are too far away. I lobbed while thrusting and left the quick in a muffled and low-frequency movement, pink panther music playing in the background as I ‘tip-toed’ away.

My puddle two signals categorized as Poke-pokes are approaching!

Great! Can I be more unlucky?!

It was then that I turned around and found one of the blobs being all lovey-dovey with the plants. Even B&W videos weren’t as nasty. I averted my eyes but learned something, these packs of slime were attracted to the plants… And here I was all ‘peacock-style’ showing my plumage in the form of a freshly picked fashion show hat which still retained its attractive glow.

I am a light in the darkness, an easy target… An idiot!

A18, drop the hat that the system is holding and keep an eye at the signals, tell me if we lose them!

Yes, my puddle!

Yes, I quickly adjusted myself and gave the order to leave the fancy hat behind as the system released the apparently dead algae to the ground. Maybe that was the reason why these algae didn’t squirm to me, they were dead. But even in death, they wanted to touch a blob and thus attracted one towards me.

These things might be attracted by light or some other thing like a chemical reaction. So when the plant was gone from my head, I received the expected answers with my cute A18’s voice.

My puddle, no signal is approaching. The signal that approached before is following the ‘drop’. In addition, my puddle is currently going full-commando-mode and needs some clothes! My puddle is lewd!~ (A18 is blushing)

O_O

Welcome to a stop in my thoughts… I mean, first, I didn’t need her to tell me as I could see the blob leaving. Second, when the hell did I design an equipment system with ‘commando-option’?!