Suddenly, I Became a Slime

Chapter 27: This Is Self-Defense, Right?

“…”

“Uh, um…”

Han Seori looked anxiously at Yoo Kangjik, who was stroking his chin next to her.

It wasn’t because she was particularly interested in him, but rather because the slime girl who went in to measure the danger level showed an unexpected sight.

Currently, the information about 7496-KR, the all-melting slime, was a bit biased.

It was natural in a way, as she didn’t show the usual characteristics of Anomalies that have a strange effect on people’s minds, bodies, or the environment.

Although various things were revealed through Han Seori’s experiments, they hadn’t conducted full-scale experiments yet, so the information was somewhat limited.

Moreover, aside from the fact that she escaped from the sewers, she hadn’t shown any hostile behaviour since then, so they had postponed objectively assessing the danger level.

Once inside, it seemed trivial for her to melt a person, but seeing her spit out harmless mucus, she didn’t appear to be hostile to “humans” for now.

Then they had to find out if it only applied to “humans”.

As usual, Yoo Kangjik, who had put down the slime girl there, decided to follow the procedure for testing Anomalies that exert physical force.

It was to confirm whether 7496-KR’s aggression was only absent towards humans, and at the same time, to gauge the power of 7496-KR, which was presumed to be a physical type.

…It was a bit violent and dangerous method, but he wasn’t too worried as he had some means of control.

Of course, it was a method that couldn’t be used on Anomalies that couldn’t be controlled to that extent.

Yoo Kangjik thought that 7496-KR wasn’t that far gone.

He hoped the cute little slime girl wouldn’t get torn up by the wolf’s teeth.

So the sight before his eyes now made him feel a bit… strange.

Honestly, when the horned wolf first opened its mouth and charged, sweat poured from Yoo Kangjik’s hands.

It seemed like the small slime girl would be torn apart like this.

The moment Yoo Kangjik thought, should he press the switch in his hand to stop the horned wolf?

The slime girl slightly dodged the horned wolf’s mouth with a bored expression.

“…”

The horned wolf, which had lost its prey, snorted and was startled, and at that moment, the slime girl’s punch blasted the horned wolf’s tightly closed snout.

*Splat!*

…With a squishy sound, the slime girl’s soft fist “patted” the horned wolf’s snout.

It sounded like the wind was blowing from somewhere.

It might have been the horned wolf sneering.

At that feeble resistance, the horned wolf instantly opened its mouth and bit off the slime girl’s fist.

*Splat!*

With the sound, the slime girl’s fist instantly disappeared.

The slime girl gets bitten with a slightly troubled look. Her fist regrew with a bubbling sound, but it seemed difficult to land an effective hit. Her body looked too soft for that.

It was curious how such a soft thing maintained a human form, but it seemed difficult to find a scientific basis for it, as she was an Anomaly.

Seeing the two entities attacking each other, Yoo Kangjik stroked his chin and thought.

‘…It seems she’s not unconditionally friendly after all.’

Judging by her immediate counterattack, it appeared that she reacted to harm inflicted upon her, though the extent of her power remained unknown.

They watched the slime girl narrowly avoiding teeth and claws or getting cut off in chunks.

“Ah…!”

“Uh…”

“Sh, shouldn’t we stop it?”

He inwardly sighed as he saw Han Seori making a fuss beside him.

No matter how he thought about it, 7496-KR seemed to have an Anomaly that manipulated the mind, like hypnosis.

Otherwise, there was no way she would make such a fuss, right?

Yoo Kangjik had already erased from his mind the fact that the corners of his mouth had also twitched.

Meanwhile.

*Poof!*

The sound of jelly splitting was heard, and the slime girl was pierced by the horned wolf’s horn.

The horned wolf ran towards the wall with an angry cry, with the slime girl stuck on its horn.

*Splat!*

A sticky sound was heard as the slime girl’s body hit the wall.

Despite the impact, the slime girl, who managed to maintain her form, swung her cotton fists to attack the horned wolf, but it didn’t seem very effective.

At that, the horned wolf, which had thrust its horn into the slime girl, regained its composure and growled.

If it had ended there.

Yoo Kangjik would have pressed the switch to subdue the horned wolf.

Han Seori would have let out a sigh of relief and wiped her head.

However.

As the horned wolf’s horn stirred inside the slime girl’s body, something strange happened.

7496-KR, who had been hitting the horned wolf with her soft fists, suddenly shook her body.

*Bam!*

She struck down again with her fist, but unlike before, a dull sound was heard.

At the sound that even felt heavy, the horned wolf, which had been smugly stirring its horn until a moment ago, staggered weakly.

“Huh…?”

At the sudden situation, not only the horned wolf that got hit but even Han Seori, who had been fidgeting, froze stiff.

As the staggering horned wolf eventually collapsed, the slime girl, looking at it, started to absorb the barely breathing horned wolf into her body with a bubbling sound.

Seeing the horned wolf quickly melting away with a bubbling sound, Yoo Kangjik spoke softly.

“…It seems more dangerous than I thought. And what was that dull sound just now?”

“…Could it be that she figured out how to condense her body…?”

Yoo Kangjik, who scratched his head as if troubled, pressed the button in front of him and opened his mouth.

“You recorded the entire video from earlier, right? I’d appreciate it if you could send it to me.”

After saying that, he looked at Han Seori, who was peeking anxiously beside him and muttered.

“And send it to Dr. Han Seori as well.”

At his mutter, a slightly trembling voice came from the speaker.

"...Understood."

Soon, Yoo Kangjik took his hand off the button and shook his head while looking at Han Seori.

“It seems to be a more dangerous Anomaly than you thought, Dr. Han… Don’t you agree?”

“But, but our child doesn’t bite people… Yes.”

Han Seori muttered unconsciously and then shut her mouth tight. Even she thought it sounded like someone possessed by an Anomaly.

“…But seeing that you realized it yourself, it doesn’t seem to be 7496-KR’s Anomaly?”

“I’m telling you, it’s not like that….”

“Yes, well. If you say so.”

Yoo Kangjik turned his gaze back to the slime girl. There was no trace left of the fairly large horned wolf.

As the traces of the horned wolf completely disappeared, a small, protruding jelly was seen growing on top of the slime girl’s head.

Somehow, it felt like they shouldn’t continue this kind of experiment any further.

“…I think we should end the test here. Judging from the results, it seems we can’t give her a ‘safe’ rating.”

“…I agree.”

“That’s a relief. Let’s do the remaining tests another time.”

The abrupt start of the danger level test ended hastily due to the sudden situation.

The damn dog bastard dared to touch my precious, precious place.

The director outside, who hadn’t taken any action until now, was annoying, but right now, the wolf’s horn that touched my precious, precious place was more annoying.

As if my body had some survival instinct, I felt a sudden hardness in my hand. I swung my fist with all my might. *WHAM!* Unlike before, there was a sickening crunch.

Soon, the wolf that had been sticking its horn inside me and stirring it around staggered and *plop!* collapsed.

It literally collapsed with a *thud* after being hit.

It could have been startling, but somehow, my heart was boiling with rage, so I was relentless.

Not long after, the wolf hit by the blunt force was panting with thin breaths.

It looked happy when it was hunting me, but now it looked miserable.

The fact is that nobody said anything.

It means I can devour this, right?

Bad dog bastard.

It probably never dreamed that it would end up like this.

I immediately pushed it into my body and quickly devoured it like digesting a lump of meat.

The taste of raw meat that I hadn’t had in a long time.

It was a bit… peculiar.

Maybe because it was a creature that didn’t exist on the blue planet I knew, it was difficult to specify what this taste was.

Did I even have memories of eating dogs or wolves raw in the first place?

I experienced it once in the sewers, but honestly, I couldn’t remember the taste I felt then very well.

I didn’t want to recall it even if I tried.

At least I couldn’t feel the rotten smell unique to the sewers, so the taste should be better… I just vaguely thought so.

After devouring the horned wolf like that, a bubbling sound came from my body.

Something protruded from the top of my head.

It looked like something long, like hair had sprouted.

You know that thing.

Commonly known as… an ahoge.

Since I possess a shining intellect, shouldn’t it be called a knowledge pouch instead of an ahoge?

…But.

Why did this grow?

The dullness I felt in my fist earlier, and something… something is happening, but I have no idea what it is.

Even Daesik appeared out of nowhere, so what could I possibly know?

By the way.

Is it still not over?

As I was fiddling with the protruding knowledge pouch, the tightly closed door opened, and the person in the spacesuit I saw earlier entered.

Earlier, he lifted me up without hesitation, but this time, he tried to catch me with a large net-like thing from a distance.

I went in obediently, dumbfounded.

…Did the danger level or whatever go up just because I devoured one horned wolf?

I was obediently caught in the net and taken outside, where I saw the glass container with Daesik and Alice.

As I slid into the glass container, the lid closed.

When I came out, the faces of Han Seori and the director looked quite subtle, indicating that there seemed to be a problem.

Could it be… that the horned wolf was something one-of-a-kind in the world? No, if I wasn’t supposed to eat it, they should have told me.

My first day out in the unidentified facility.

Ended somewhat unsatisfyingly.