Slime overpopulation problem (Poll)

[minacia]

Okay, in this fantasy universe, there are a ton of slimes. Like a ton!!! Everywhere you look, there are slimes.​

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The other detail is that slimes are totally sentient. They basically have human thoughts, feelings, emotions, intelligence, and so forth.​

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Slimes can't actually talk (verbally), but if you touch a slime, they can transmit their thoughts and feelings to you. Having a conversation with a slime is really fun! Like you can walk up to a slime and muse about the meaning of life by cuddling with a slime. They're super friendly and not aggressive at all (although some of them are really skittish and shy).​

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Okay, but here's the problem.​

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Slimes reproduce super fast. Every 24 hours, they produce a child (whether they want to or not), so they grow almost like bacteria. If left unchecked, they would basically eat everything (they're vegetarians) and cover the entire planet. A slime has an infinite lifespan and can live forever presuming that they don't get killed. That said, slimes are at the bottom of the food chain and everything/everyone eats them.​

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Recently, your starting isekai village has a bit of a slime infestation...​

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The mayor has called for slime exterminators who will kill off all the slimes.​

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That said, you befriended a bunch of slimes soon after transmigrating to the world (they're quite talkative), and you feel conflicted about the fact that the slime exterminator will come and exterminate all the cute blobs. The slimes have helped you a lot by giving you a lot of advice about this world. If it weren't for your slime friends, you probably would have died on the first day...​

1. What would you do?

2. Is life precious? What about slime lives? What if every slime that you met has their own name/personality/quirks/beliefs?

3. Suppose that you decide to save a handful of slimes that are your closest friends. However, they basically poop out a baby every 24 hours. What would you do? What if your slime friend(s) insisted on protecting their babies?

4. Suppose the exterminator found you and insisted on killing every single slime (including your slime friends). They explain that if a single slime is left alive, it could rapidly lead to another infestation, rendering the entire extermination pointless. What do you say?

5. Suppose that you're in the wilderness... and you're short on food and money. You have a slime companion (who is constantly reproducing). Slimes are edible and their cores can be sold for 5 cents each... would you... do the unthinkable thing?

 

[The_Long_Serpent]

Why do slimes reproduce every twenty four hours? Are they causing a lot of mayhem and enviromental damage? Is there a way to train them to not cause trouble?

 

[AdLeto]

This is the same as rats without diseases that can talk

 

[minacia]

Why do slimes reproduce every twenty four hours? Are they causing a lot of mayhem and enviromental damage? Is there a way to train them to not cause trouble?

It's just their biology and they can't help it... they kind of like oversized bacteria.

As for environmental damage, a handful of slimes don't leave much of a footprint (they eat any kind of plants, grass, etc)... but a swarm of them will strip a field barren and eat all of a framer's crops.

It's possible to reason with slimes (they're intelligent), but they have to eat.

 

[OkuraTsukiko]

Me, an adventurer seeing a bunch of slimes :

"Haha, sword go brrrr"
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.
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I just can't resist my RPG game habit, I see enemy, I exterminate them

 

[minacia]

Me, an adventurer seeing a bunch of slimes :

"Haha, sword go brrrr"
.
.
.
I just can't resist my RPG game habit, I see enemy, I exterminate them

Nooo the poor slimes!!!

 

[UYScuti]

Is this a relatively new problem? Like one day they just started reproducing like that? Because if it’s an ongoing issue, I’d like to thing this problem is being handled in some way. Growing up in a world like that I’d probably become desensitized to their slaughter.

Once again the key to survival and happiness is not talking to anybody or making friends.

 

[The_Long_Serpent]

It's just their biology and they can't help it... they kind of like oversized bacteria.

As for environmental damage, a handful of slimes don't leave much of a footprint (they eat any kind of plants, grass, etc)... but a swarm of them will strip a field barren and eat all of a framer's crops.

It's possible to reason with slimes (they're intelligent), but they have to eat.

Make an island reserve using magic

 

[minacia]

Is this a relatively new problem? Like one day they just started reproducing like that? Because if it’s an ongoing issue, I’d like to thing this problem is being handled in some way. Growing up in a world like that I’d probably become desensitized to their slaughter.

Once again the key to survival and happiness is not talking to anybody or making friends.

Ongoing but you recently isekai’d

 

[Chaos_Sinner777]

1. What would you do?
Train the slimes for combat! With them dealing with other dangerous monsters, the common folk should learn to appreciate them, plus there would inevitably be slimes dying in battle to help control the population. At the very least they wouldn't be dying for nothing. If the humans don't relax, I'll lead the war slimes into a revolution! This, kinda ended up like my previous comment on one of your posts though, huh?

2. Is life precious? What about slime lives? What if every slime that you met has their own name/personality/quirks/beliefs?
I'm not prone to thinking so. Not by default. As for slimes, I am rather fond of them so I would think that their lives are precious. Doubly so since they are sentient.

3. Suppose that you decide to save a handful of slimes that are your closest friends. However, they basically poop out a baby every 24 hours. What would you do? What if your slime friend(s) insisted on protecting their babies?
I would try my best to do so, but I imagine there would be a point at which it would no longer be tenable.

4. Suppose the exterminator found you and insisted on killing every single slime (including your slime friends). They explain that if a single slime is left alive, it could rapidly lead to another infestation, rendering the entire extermination pointless. What do you say?
Pretend to reluctantly accept then stab him in the back of the head and use his corpse as fertilizer for a vegetable garden.

5. Suppose that you're in the wilderness... and you're short on food and money. You have a slime companion (who is constantly reproducing). Slimes are edible and their cores can be sold for 5 cents each... would you... do the unthinkable thing?
I doubt it would even occur to me.

 

[UYScuti]

Ongoing but you recently isekai’d

Ok, well, adapting is the key to survival. And if I’m isekai’d I better getting working on those slimes if I want to level up. Actually, exterminators might be OP.

 

[AryaX]

Do the slimes eat constantly or do they just somehow magically conjure matter into existence from nothing and continue multiplying even without eathing?

 

[minacia]

Do the slimes eat constantly or do they just somehow magically conjure matter into existence and continue multiplying even without eathing?

They eat a lot and they spend a lot of their time grazing

 

[AryaX]

And it is this gluttonous behavior that feeds their crazy reproductive rate?

If so, can't they be convinced/compelled to eat less?

 

[Mephi]

I would use "slime contraception" magic.

 

[minacia]

And it is this gluttonous behavior that feeds their crazy reproductive rate?

If so, can't they be convinced/compelled to eat less?

Well, it’s like asking a cow or a horse to spend less time grazing. They would feel like they are starving.

 

[AryaX]

Cows and Horses don't have human level intelligence... If they can keep their insane reproductive rate in check by showing some self control... Wouldn't it be better than being slaughtered?

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I would keep a few and do some research on birth control options for them. If we can get the slimes on birth control, maybe we can make a case for keeping them alive. Being research subjects might be painful for them at times, so I'll ask for consent before experimenting on them. If they don't want to be experimented on, I'll give them a quick death with as little pain as possible and eat them.

 

[SternenklarenRitter]

I'm gonna assume that this world isn't the only planet in the universe. With my protagonist powers, I first will master wood magic, time magic, and alchemy. Using time magic, I will lock my friends in stasis (claiming they are dead trophies). Then, using wood magic and alchemy, I will create a special algea that can only survive inside living slime. This algea can convert sunlight into energy and uses alchemic pathways to transmute solid rock into the nutrients like sugar, water, and oxygen. When I finally finish this algea, which might be my life's masterwork, I will use my isekai powers to build and launch a spaceship and journey with my friends to the nearest uninhabited planet where we live happily ever after.

 

[CL]

1. What would you do?
They saved me and are keeping me company, not the other way around. I could've been left alone and they would've gone on with their existence like I wasn't even there. They're my companions. My only friends in this strange world. What wouldn't I do for them?

2. Is life precious? What about slime lives? What if every slime that you met has their own name/personality/quirks/beliefs?
I am beginning to see a problem with this world and why I might've been Isekai'ed here. Unlike the stories I've read about evil species being exterminated because they'd do the same, the only thing that these slimes are doing are eating vegetation and not dying off. I believe we (me and the slimes) need to relocate where there are no hostilities (isekai #2?).

3. Suppose that you decide to save a handful of slimes that are your closest friends. However, they basically poop out a baby every 24 hours. What would you do? What if your slime friend(s) insisted on protecting their babies?
We protect their babies. I am really getting the picture here that we are going on an exodus.

4. Suppose the exterminator found you and insisted on killing every single slime (including your slime friends). They explain that if a single slime is left alive, it could rapidly lead to another infestation, rendering the entire extermination pointless. What do you say?
The extermination would be pointless if they'd let us be on our way. "We'll be off now."

5. Suppose that you're in the wilderness... and you're short on food and money. You have a slime companion (who is constantly reproducing). Slimes are edible and their cores can be sold for 5 cents each... would you... do the unthinkable thing?
Not even on my life. If there are gods on this world, they set me here for a reason and I don't believe there is a chance of me going back home. I might as well say my thanks to my companions and keep up this trek while I can. Maybe there will be greener pastures just over that hill?