Suddenly, I Became a Slime

Chapter 49: MRE

Hmm…

Honestly, I’m a little… no, very confused.

“Ugh… I don’t want to work…”

Since I had nothing to do even if I woke up, I was wriggling under the blanket when Han Seori entered through the door.

I thought something might be wrong since she left with a sullen face a while ago… but looking at what she’s doing now, it was clear that something definitely happened.

She walked in like a zombie, her footsteps dragging heavily, and suddenly entered the bed I was lying on.

Startled, I moved my body away, but Han Seori hugged me and started muttering something.

“Sigh… I don’t want to work… But why am I doing this…?”

Inevitably held in her arms, I listened to her muttering… and it seemed a bit… foolish.

A person who commonly brings to mind words like cold beauty… or career woman.

But the voice is now mumbling while hugging me. How should I put it?

“Why do people have to work… No, I have to… I have to, but… I don’t want to….”

Should I say she seems like a corporate drone crushed under the weight of societal expectations?

…Well, things like me… what was it called again? Ah, right, an anomaly. That’s what they said.

Not everyone managing anomalies like me may be superhuman… but it felt somewhat out of place.

Somehow, it reminded me of the past and made me feel a sense of kinship.

If it’s really just an exhausted Han Seori seeking a place to rest and coming to me… it might not be bad to accept her while pretending not to know.

It’s not like I’ll lose anything, right?

The story would be a bit different if the one hugging me now was Kim Cheonsu.

However… something was odd.

“Ugh, what am I doing here… It’s warm… Cold and squishy… Should I call it squishy… Mmm… I want to stay like this forever….”

I wonder if she’s gone crazy.

It didn’t seem like she had simply regressed to infancy due to work stress.

…Please don’t ask me how I know.

Anyway.

Like a pendulum swinging between two extremes, her mood keeps changing.

It’s like two personalities are fighting to take over each other.

The original Han Seori fighting the Han Seori who wants to laze in bed.

I couldn’t figure out why she came here to do this, but it was clear that her condition was abnormal.

…It would be nice to keep feeling her silhouette digging into my jelly like this.

But somehow, it felt like Daesik in Alice and Sosik were looking at me pathetically.

So I carefully moved my jelly to gently push Han Seori’s face away.

As my small hand pushed Han Seori’s face away with a squelching sound, Han Seori, who seemed shocked, spoke in a trembling voice.

“Do, do you dislike me… No, ugh… My head….”

As if a sudden headache had hit her, Han Seori scrunched up her face and tightened her arms around me.

Thinking it might help, I covered her forehead with my knowledge pouch, and her scrunched eyes slightly relaxed.

After suffering like that for a while, Han Seori got out of bed, flapping the blanket as if announcing her glorious resurrection. While… still holding me.

“…What the hell is this?”

Muttering in a confused voice, she blinked at me, wedged in her bosom.

“Huh…? Why are you here… Wait? This isn’t my office?”

Holding me and making a dumb voice, Han Seori awkwardly put me down and suddenly turned serious.

Her tightly closed lips were clear proof that she wasn’t in her right mind until a moment ago.

Having returned to the normal Han Seori I knew, she left my room with a serious face.

It felt like a storm had passed.

Somehow, amidst the stinging gazes of the two jellies looking at me, I neatly arranged the blanket Han Seori had left behind.

And just as I was about to get back on the fluffy bed…

The door opened again, and zombie-like footsteps were heard.

This time… it was Kim Cheonsu, the ordinary man, with his arms full of something.

Focusing my gaze. Unlike usual, his arms were full of instant food.

From ramen to canned food… I see a lot of things that require very simple cooking or can be eaten right away.

Among them was the MRE I had eaten before. Presumably, it is the one made from the chunks of meat popping out of the can.

…I shouldn’t eat that.

By the way, it’s already time to eat, huh?

He always brought it on a tray, but today, did he just carry it? Oh well, as long as it tastes good.

As I rubbed my jelly, Daesik came out of Alice, and Sosik wriggled closer.

Kim Cheonsu, who had walked over limply, dropped the food with a heavy thud… and collapsed on the bed I had tidied up, muttering.

“I’m so tired I could die….”

…What’s up with everyone today?

They say in a mad world, the sane man seems insane.

When the only two people who come here act like that, it makes me wonder if I’m the weird one.

Well… I was also lying on the bed feeling lazy until a little while ago…

Rubbing my chin, I poked Kim Cheonsu’s ankle, which was lying on the bed.

Didn’t Han Seori also not come to her senses until she touched my jelly earlier?

But the guy just twitched his ankle at the poke, sighed tiredly, and spoke in a very low voice.

“Why… I brought it for you… Eat it yourself… And you eat the packaging, too, anyway… Ugh….”

He seemed to be in an even worse state than Han Seori.

Anyway.

That was the extent of my kindness.

Although something seems strange… what can this jelly blob really do, cooped up in this white room, rolling around on the bed and fiddling with toys?

…He might be close to resignation.

By the way.

I hope his smell doesn’t seep into my bed…

Wait a second.

Could it be that he knew Han Seori had come and gone…? No way… That can’t be…

As I looked at the ordinary man with a doubtful gaze, I headed to where he had dumped the instant food for a meal.

In front of the food, I saw two blobs of jelly sitting quietly.

Hmm, it seems there are benefits to disciplining them.

If I looked in the mirror, the corners of my mouth engraved on the jelly would probably be turned up in satisfaction, right?

I sat down and examined the things he had brought.

…First of all, I have no idea why he brought ramen.

He didn’t even bring a gas burner… Does he want me to crush and eat it raw?

In the past, I might have been happy with that crunchy texture… but honestly, it didn’t really appeal to me.

I precisely split the ramen in half and sprinkled the seasoning on both sides, then generously divided the ramen between the two jellies that admirably hadn’t eaten without permission.

They seem to melt it well without much trouble, perhaps because they’re also Koreans.

With a satisfied face, I opened a can of spicy tuna, even including the plastic wrap I gave them.

No, I tried to open it, but it doesn’t open well.

So I just put it in my stomach.

As the taste of sucking on the spoon ended, the familiar taste of spicy tuna was felt.

Since there wasn’t much difference, even if I couldn’t chew this, it was somewhat satisfying.

As I ate the food one by one like that, in the end, only the MRE, presumably made from the ‘canned food’ in the underground, remained.

…Why did he bring that?

I don’t want to eat it anymore after eating all I could in my lifetime in the underground.

And it tastes a bit strange, you know?

Hmm.

What about Daesik and Sosik, not me?

They might like it.

To share with the two, I tore open the packaging.

Kim Cheonsu, who was lying on the bed, suddenly sat up.

Kim Cheonsu, who had sat up, cast his shadow over my body and snatched the MRE from my hand.

Dumbfounded by the absurdity, as I blankly stared, Kim Cheonsu tried to put the MRE in his mouth with a happy face.

But he was subdued by those who suddenly barged in through the door and was dragged out.

The MRE he was about to eat was also confiscated and disappeared from the room.

It seemed like… something was happening.

…But it didn’t seem like any of my business, so I carefully returned to the bed and covered myself with the blanket.

When you’ve eaten… it’s the rule to take a nap.

“We have to stop sales, I’m telling you!”

Han Seori, who was yelling at someone in anger, sat down with a weary face, then suddenly got up again.

Coming to her senses, Han Seori scolded the other person again and paced the room, pressing hard on her temples.

It seemed there was a problem, as she thought it was strange from earlier.

After the slime girl brought Han Seori to her senses, she returned to her office and ordered status reports on those in the research center and the branch.

Seeing that Kim Cheonsu’s condition seemed off when he entered the slime girl’s isolation room, she sent someone.

Then, a strange scene was discovered.

The sight of Kim Cheonsu snatching the MRE from the slime girl.

Kim Cheonsu’s face as he took it from the slime girl… definitely didn’t look sane.

‘…Wait a minute.’

If that’s the cause… could it be?

With a pale face, Han Seori manipulated the panel to turn on the news.

[The number of people complaining of sudden lethargy is increasing─]

[A clear cause has not yet been found─]

Something seemed to have gone terribly wrong.

Han Seori immediately set out to handle the situation upon grasping it, but…

‘…How many of those were sold in a year again?’

If she, who only ate it during taste tests, was like this, then what about other people?

Han Seori let out a deep sigh.

It seemed like it would be beyond what she could handle.