Chapter 40: Change and…
Chapter 40: Change and…
At the time, Han Seori and the others were packing up everything they needed to pack and withdrawing.
A woman who was watching the scene from a distance with binoculars smiled bitterly and looked at the people who were leaving.
The face hidden in the darkness is revealed in the moonlight, her features etched with a somber beauty.
She was the woman who was with the first victim sacrificed to the anomaly. The owner of the name that the guard desperately called out before his consciousness was engulfed in darkness.
The mastermind behind this commotion.
The woman who lowered her binoculars clicked her tongue with a somewhat regretful expression.
“The director… No, I guess he’s the former director now. What a shame… Anyway, he’s a guy who cares about his own life, so is that why….”
He had already run away. The rat bastard.As expected of the guy who shifted the blame onto her, as soon as things went awry, he pulled his own body out and ran away.
Leaving behind the lives of those he hired as if they were rags, discarded without a second thought.
Jeonghee didn’t seem to mind too much that the former director had run away, as she didn’t expect him to die here in the first place.
Anyway… She had gathered a lot of evidence of the damn guy’s corruption, so even if they didn’t want to deal with it, it would take care of itself.
Thinking there was no need to get her hands dirty, she removed the mask that was covering her face.
As the rather gentle-looking face was peeled off, a woman’s face with dark circles under her eyes appeared underneath, her skin pale from stress and sleepless nights.
Finally, enjoying the wind blowing directly on her face, she heard a vibration coming from her thigh, which hardened her expression.
Carefully taking out her smartphone and pressing the call button, a somewhat ridiculous voice was heard as if it had been modified.
“So, did you accomplish what you wanted to do?”
“Ah, yes… Thanks to you.”
“Then it’s time to pay the price. Can I look forward to it?”
“O-of course.”
“Good. I’ll send you the details separately.”
The woman, who had been politely answering the phone, put the smartphone back in her pocket with a sigh.
The woman, who had been facing the wind, became lost in thought as she recalled the voice she had heard from the other end of the line.
A group that allowed her, a researcher, to do such a thing.
Secretly called… Twilight’s Call. The name sounds like it was made up by a middle school student, but the level is incomparable to that of a middle schooler.
When she received a suspicious call, she was the woman who had lost everything, like a hermit crab without a shell. She couldn’t see anything at the time, but she ended up coming this far.
If asked if she regretted it, she did feel some regret, but now that things have come to a point of no return, it seemed she had no other choice.
…In the first place, aren’t the ones who betrayed and abandoned her after the incident more evil?
The same goes for those who turned a blind eye and left her to suffer alone.
She didn’t know much about it, but it was clear that there would be consequences.
As she thought this, the man who had been persistently talking to her briefly came to mind but quickly disappeared.
Now, she didn’t know if the road ahead of her would be downhill.
Or uphill.
But it was clear that it would not be an ordinary life.
“…Come to think of it.”
She thought of the strange anomaly that had come in a box.
Thinking of the slime girl, she soon left with a bitter smile.
Perhaps because she got involved with a group of lunatics who believe that anomalies should be liberated.
She didn’t feel so bad about the slime girl, who was the reason she ended up like this.
Wow, is this how refreshing it is to sleep?
I was as surprised as a fish out of water experiencing air for the first time.
It was good that I fell asleep due to the sudden drowsiness, but to be honest, I was also anxious.
Don’t they say that people, well, not people anymore, die when they change suddenly?
I had a vague anxiety that I might suddenly drop dead like this…
But what do you know?
As my blurry vision brightened, I felt a refreshing feeling that I had never experienced with a human body.
Maybe I’m making up for not having slept until now.
I wonder if a few days have passed while I was sleeping.
But well… It doesn’t really matter, does it?
Now that I don’t have a company to go to work for, even if I slept for a few days… there might be someone to nag me, but for now, I had nothing to worry about.
As I was spacing out like that, my vision was restored, and then I saw Alice crouched next to me.
From the way she was wriggling little by little, it seemed that Daesik was inside.
Is she pretending to sleep because I’m sleeping?
…Or is she really sleeping?
Anyway.
I felt rewarded for enduring the embarrassment and bothering Han Seori.
Daesik. Is this enough repayment for opening the box?
As I was smiling happily like that. I saw something strange in my field of vision.
Daesik seems to be inside the doll, but isn’t that another Daesik in the corner?
…What the heck is this?
My jelly suddenly got goosebumps.
Startled, I poked Alice, who was sprawled on the floor. Daesik finally stopped pretending to be asleep and got up and toddled around.
If that’s the case, then the one over there is not Daesik.
Who are you…
I approached it and, feeling somehow eerie, didn’t grab it with my hand but extended a tentacle and lifted it up.
It looks no different from Daesik on the outside.
But…
The way the slime wriggled, it somehow seemed to have a bad personality.
Then.
The thing spewed out tentacles like I did.
The tentacles entangled with my tentacles like octopus legs approached me.
After a brief flinch, the tentacles that approached me…
They seemed to envelop my body, then were immediately absorbed into my body.
Having lost its tentacles like that, the creature’s body visibly shrank.
…Cheeky little thing.
I don’t know how it appeared, but it seemed that a clear hierarchy was established between it and me.
To fix the thing’s insolence, I poked it here and there with my tentacles and gave it a ride on the drop tower.
Can you feel it?
The difference in power?
I wonder if the manager who used to bully me felt this way, too. You were the only one enjoying this fun.
But still, I can’t forgive you.
Anyway.
While giving the new family member a lesson on hierarchy.
I realized one more thing that made me uncomfortable.
It was good that I was diligently sorting out the hierarchy.
…But at some point, Han Seori had come in and was looking at me with a strange expression.
She looked at Alice (Daesik) toddling around, me, and the cheeky blob of slime and approached me.
Feeling somehow embarrassed, I retracted my tentacles, and the slime that had been thoroughly beaten fell to the floor with a plop.
Meanwhile, Daesik, who toddled over to it, patted the thing as if comforting a junior who had been beaten by a senior.
Daesik.
You’re making me feel like… such a piece of trash.
Honestly, I didn’t do anything wrong… right? That guy picked a fight with me first.
Han Seori squatted down in front of me to match my eye level and stroked my head as she spoke.
“It seems like a new friend, so what about it bothers you so much…?”
It was as if she was asking why I was making such a fuss over someone who was supposed to be welcomed as a new member of our little group. I felt my jelly welling up with inexplicable anger.
No, it’s not for a petty reason, but because that guy attacked me first!
Unable to convey this anger, I could only wriggle my fingers, and Han Seori, who chuckled, took out a bunch of candies from her pocket and handed them to me.
Then, Han Seori, who had been looking at me with a strange gaze, muttered that she would come back later and left the room.
As if she wouldn’t interfere with the affairs of the slimes like some kind of inviolable thing. Was it something like that?
Although I wasn’t exactly scolded, I somehow felt icky, so I sat cross-legged and called the two blobs of slime, Daesik and the still unnamed one.
They came right over when I gestured.
For now, I decided to be satisfied that the hierarchy had been well established.
I called them over, put the candy between my legs, and tore open the wrapper.
Then I took out the contents and threw it roughly where the mouth would be.
Now that I think about it, there was no need to… shove it in the stomach.
It’s a bit… unsightly.
Anyway.
While feeling the slowly melting sweetness, Daesik, who thought it was time to eat, slowly came out of the doll.
I immediately unwrapped another candy, split it in half, put half in my mouth, and put the other half in Daesik’s body.
Daesik trembled with joy, his jelly quivering with delight.
Next, I put the remaining trash into the cheeky one’s body.
It seemed to wriggle its jelly in dissatisfaction, rippling with annoyance.
…If you’re upset, you do it.
If you hadn’t defied me, I would have been willing to give you a piece.
Isn’t it your own fault?
I wriggled my jelly as I unwrapped another candy.
Anyway.
After being kidnapped, various things that weren’t there before entered this white room.
There are various things, but among them, my favorite is definitely…
The bed.
It seems they brought one in after seeing me sleep, so now I can sleep whenever I want to, which is very good for me, as I have nothing to do.
The only thing is that sometimes, when I open my eyes, the other one, not Daesik, is on top of me.
I’m not sure if this guy is still after me or if he’s just being a brat.
Well, except for the bed, everything else is a toy, so maybe that’s why I’ve become more attached to the bed.
So, I would roll around on the bed, eat when the food came, and do various experiments with Han Seori.
For example… checking how much tolerance I have for cold things.
Or what kind of reaction I show to flames or electricity, and so on.
A series of somewhat ominous-looking experiments continued.
It was as if they were trying to find out what kind of environment I could adapt to.
In between, people came to visit. Whether they came on their own or were brought here, I met a lot of different people.
“Hello?”
…
“Can you melt this? Oh… You can, you can!”
…Seeing what they were doing, it seemed they thought I could roughly understand what they were saying.
That level is a bit… miserable by my standards.
I wonder if they see me as a puppy?
Anyway, one day, while I was living a relatively happy life.
I saw Han Seori coming in with an excited yet bitter face.
Somehow, I had a bad feeling, an ominous chill running through my jelly.