Chapter 49: MRE

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.

Although Han Seori sometimes did dumb things, like last time, with her intellectual face, she was basically a logical and calm person.

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.

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.