Suddenly, I Became a Slime

Chapter 35: Not Worth Pondering Over

The tedious travel seemed to have no end in sight.

The journey from the canned food location to our current shelter took much longer than my trip to the canned food location in the first place.

At first, I ambitiously tried to memorize the route by wriggling my jelly, but my determination soon scattered.

It was too much information for my small jelly to absorb.

I’m not sure if I could have remembered it even in my human body, but now it seems unlikely.

After living a life receiving plenty of offerings… no, tributes, my desire to return to how things were has faded quite a bit.

Just as I was thinking it might be fine to live like this, getting kidnapped again felt rather odd.

Anyway, as I’m swaying my jelly while heading to a different place, I can’t help but think misfortune is deeply intertwined with my fate.

Even when I was human, I preferred poking around for interesting things rather than being cooped up at home.

Seeing myself wandering around even after becoming like this, while I never seriously believed in things like fortune-telling, there might be something to it.

Although I felt good that I was still myself, even in this body.

This time, I have a bad feeling about it.

I’ve already experienced being kidnapped, and now I’m not alone since Daesik is in my embrace, so the situation seemed better.

Come to think of it, my ahoge… no, the knowledge pouch that was twitching earlier now drooped lifelessly.

Perhaps this is the reason.

I couldn’t find the changes that occurred after digesting the guardian totem. Maybe this is the answer?

My guess is that it might be the ability to detect threats.

It twitched before that suspicious person entered, so it seemed like a reasonable assumption.

Saying it like this makes me feel a bit odd as if I’ve completely left my humanity behind, but it’s also kind of fun.

They say if you give up, you’ll be at ease.

As the thought of returning to being human fades, I find myself enjoying this body.

Or maybe it’s just because it’s dark all around, making me think too much.

Anyway.

Is Daesik okay?

Even I struggled to move my jelly, so I can only imagine how tough it must be for the kid buried inside a doll. He seems to have changed a bit after the bad experience he had recently.

It’s enough to make me wonder if he’s assimilated with the doll’s appearance.

Come to think of it, the only thing he’s seen outside is the doll, so it might be natural.

If he took after me, he wouldn’t act like that.

In the meantime, I could feel the air subtly changing.

Until now, we have been outside, but now it seems we’ve entered a building.

If you ask me how I can tell the difference, I’ll say it’s because I can.

I don’t know, it’s just a feeling. How do you explain that?

It’s like asking how you make your heart beat.

Anyway.

I heard muttering voices from quite close by.

I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it seemed the culprit wasn’t alone.

Then.

The cloth lifted slightly, and a pair of eyes appeared in the darkness.

And seeing that, my jelly trembled.

Eyes filled with greed that I’ve never seen before in my life. It was an unpleasant feeling.

I was taken aback to receive such a greedy gaze.

It sent shivers down my spine to have those eyes, brimming with avarice, directed at me. To not even see me as a fellow human being—

Ah, I’m not human right now.

But still, isn’t this a bit much?

I’d prefer eyes that saw me as something beneath them.

Those eyes, which seemed somewhat familiar, disappeared as quickly as they came, seemingly satisfied with my appearance.

I could feel my tensed jelly relax.

It might be odd, coming from a former human.

But humans really do seem to be the scariest.

As the cloth closed, I heard muttering again, and my jelly began to slosh as we started moving once more.

Even though my jelly had relaxed, if I had a heart, it would probably be pounding wildly.

Meaning I still hadn’t fully calmed down.

As I was curled up like that, suddenly, it felt like the sky flipped upside down, and my body spilled out.

*Thud!*

I heard a sound, followed by a woman’s voice.

“Huh? Where did this doll come from?”

But the voice didn’t continue. The woman, as if checking if I was alright, quickly put me into a strange contraption.

I, who had been huddled up, was immediately sucked in.

But Daesik inside the doll was left outside.

Having suddenly become separated, I felt a bit anxious about the doll that was in my embrace disappearing.

For better or worse, the woman, who had been looking back and forth between the doll and me, smiled somewhat contentedly, placed the doll on top of my head, or rather, on top of whatever was confining me, and leisurely left.

Since Daesik didn’t move, she must have thought it was just a hobby of mine or something.

It’s a bit embarrassing to think that way. But it wasn’t just embarrassing, so I was relieved.

One thing is that Daesik is outside. And the other is that the woman didn’t seem to be aware of Daesik’s existence inside Alice.

So, first of all, whatever was covering the box I was trapped in must have disappeared.

I decided to take a look around. It’s hard to say I did it calmly when my jelly was trembling, but I tried my best.

Alice’s hem visible above my line of sight was a bit of a hindrance, but it wasn’t a big problem.

And so, what I saw was…

How should I put it?

It was similar to where I originally was, but the facilities seemed somewhat shabby.

It was quite different from the space, which was so clean that it felt obsessive. It’s like the difference between a luxury hotel and a motel in a back alley.

Basic cleaning was done, but that was it.

At this rate, the room I lived in when I was human would be better.

It also seemed a bit gloomy.

I thought to myself, these guys really aren’t the proper sort.

Putting that aside.

So… what now.

Seeing as they brought me to such a shabby place, it seemed to be a different group from the one that first took me, Han Seori’s group. The fact that they didn’t know about Daesik inside Alice made it more likely.

If life here wasn’t bad… I might not have thought about going back.

But….

Considering the facilities and the greedy gaze that looked at me earlier.

I think it’s better to get out of here.

I looked around again.

Then I felt a bit puzzled. If it were me, I would have installed cameras to monitor something like myself, but I couldn’t see anything like that.

Well, it’s not like I’m complaining.

It was a good thing for me.

Unlike where I originally stayed, there were many holes to escape through here.

Having made up my mind, I tapped Daesik’s bottom, which was sitting dazedly above my line of sight. To be precise, I tapped the lid of whatever was holding me.

After a few taps, Daesik came down to the floor and pointed his eye sockets at me.

As if he was looking at me.

Would it be an exaggeration to say I felt some strange emotion from those eye sockets?

Anyway.

As I looked at him with eyes, saying to take me out, the kid just stared at me blankly.

For a while… quite a while.

Then, as if he finally understood, he leisurely came over and tipped over whatever I was in.

It didn’t open completely, but there was a gap for me to get out, so I oozed out like a real slime.

And… after only my upper body had escaped.

Holding back tears… no, jelly. I closed the lid with my hand, severing my lower body.

It couldn’t be helped.

Not knowing when someone might come in to check, I had to leave something similar inside, right?

As I got out, my line of sight lowered slightly.

I was suddenly scared that I might have cut off too much, but it seemed necessary to avoid being caught.

After coming out, I straightened the strange box and carefully locked it.

Then I gestured to Daesik, who was standing there blankly.

Um… when I waved my hand roughly telling him to come out of there quickly, somehow he understood and came out of Alice with his jelly drooping.

I tried to put Daesik on top of my head, but I felt the knowledge pouch twitching.

If I had to specify the direction, it was pointing to my side… to the wall. It was somewhat strange that it was pointing to the wall, not the entrance where people come and go.

Why the heck was it moving?

I couldn’t figure it out, so for now, I put Daesik on my head and lifted Alice…

And placed her on top of whatever was confining me.

Just like how that woman had put her down earlier.

That meant.

Alice could no longer be with us.

It couldn’t be helped.

It would be too strange if a doll that was there suddenly disappeared. Then, there would be no reason for me to leave a piece of my body behind.

Daesik, on top of my head, must have sensed the farewell, as he kept wriggling, so I tried my best to comfort him.

We can always buy another doll…

I also felt a bit strange leaving her behind when the time actually came.

Anyway.

Not knowing how much time we had, it seemed we needed to move quickly.

Daesik and I, leaving Alice behind, headed towards the ventilation duct I had seen from the inside.

At first, I wondered if we could climb up, but making my body sticky made it easier than eating cake.

It was like becoming the hero in a red skintight suit.

As we sneakily entered the ventilation duct, dust got into my body.

The environment really wasn’t that good.

I want to go back quickly.

As Daesik and I were about to head towards the exit.

The knowledge pouch on my head kept twitching.

This time… it was pointing diagonally downward, not to the side.

In other words, I am assuming there are similar rooms lined up where I am.

I thought there might be something in the room next door.

I wondered what that had to do with me, but the knowledge pouch’s constant reaction bothered me.

I curled up my jelly for a moment, lost in thought.