Chapter 51: Only Me

Chapter 51: Only Me

The reunion with my first kidnapping location was the worst.

No, from the beginning, since I was abducted and brought here... It’s only natural that the image in my head isn’t very good.

But regardless of my personal grudges, the situation didn’t look too good.

In the fairly spacious hallway, people with faces that looked like they’d lost everything dear to them were sprawled about, and the ones who looked relatively fine were busy taking care of them.

*Thud thud!* Hearing a sound, I looked in that direction and saw a person inside a place similar to where I’d been confined here.

They... Right, they have a face similar to Kim Cheonsu’s, who snatched the MRE from me.

...If a zombie apocalypse like in novels or games were to happen, I suppose it would look like this nightmarish scene.

Except their prey isn’t people... but those MREs with that strange taste.

While I was making such observations, Han Seori, her face stiff, silently picked me up and passed through that pandemonium.

My feeling about seeing that uproar was... how should I say... somewhat complicated.

Thinking that the people who ate that all over the country would end up like that gave me the chills.

I was a bit startled that Han Seori chose me, the slime... no, the anomaly to stop that.

I wondered if I could have taken time off work if I was still human... It was a pathetic thought.

It’s a strange feeling.

I’m clearly aware that something huge happened.

But...

Is it because it’s not my fault?

I just... accepted it.

It feels like I’ve become a... psychopath or something lacking empathy.

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not human anymore, but a slime... I’m just confused.

Meanwhile, Han Seori, who ran diligently, opened the door to the restricted area I entered last time.

As the door opened with a mechanical sound... The sight of reddish lumps of meat sprawled here and there came into view.

Looking closely, people in protective suits that looked like spacesuits were holding back the rising lumps of meat over there.

Someone cut the lumps of meat, someone burned them, and someone moved them somewhere.

But it doesn’t look like they’re effectively blocking it. Putting the methodology aside, it just... looks severely short on manpower.

Even I, an amateur, can see that, so... I wonder how those people blocking it must feel.

As I watched them struggling, Han Seori, who put me down, told me again what I need to do.

As I nodded, she patted my head, and a familiar arrow appeared on the floor.

“Fuck, is there an end to this shit?”

“I don’t know! Something that can solve this will come soon, so hold on!”

...The ones who looked quite overwhelmed were apparently waiting for me.

As the knowledge pouch perked up, Han Seori looked at me with a complex expression.

I could read the many emotions in her eyes.

Among them, I felt a bit of guilt, so... I was a little resentful that she made me eat that ‘canned food’... but I could understand a bit too.

They probably really had no other way... so they had no choice but to rely on an anomaly like me.

...I wonder if that canned food is also an anomaly.

The thought of ‘yuck’ was... unavoidable, it seems.

Still, I was somehow excited.

While climbing the wall with my sticky body, I jokingly thought I became like a friendly neighborhood slime in a red skintight suit.

...This really feels like I’ve become that kind of hero.

Well, I don’t know how it’ll actually turn out, but what matters is how I feel, right?

Should I say it’s familiar?

Filled with meat lumps other than the protruding hooks... there were hardly any similarities to the place I knew.

Still, perhaps because it was such a large space, there was relatively more room compared to the outer passage.

As I vacantly looked around,

An arrow appeared in the remaining space, and I saw my knowledge pouch pointing in the same direction.

I was puzzled in the maze, but at this point, there was no way I wouldn’t know what the knowledge pouch was pointing to.

It seems... to have the ability to detect anomalies like me.

Until now, there were confusing circumstances together, so I couldn’t be sure, but now... I was close to certain.

That ability appeared after I devoured the guardian totem... it’s probably its ability.

Hmm, it’s a bit... thrilling.

Don’t men have a thing for dinosaurs and combining robots?

Isn’t this similar to a combining robot in a way?

...There’s a slightly cruel condition of having to eat the target to combine, but anyway, that’s how it is.

While having stupid thoughts for a moment to relieve the tension, I headed in the direction the knowledge pouch and arrow were pointing.

Actually, I thought I could find it even without them.

Wouldn’t I just need to go from where the meat lumps are stretching out in real time?

The last time I came here, I remember it being noisy with loud sounds.

Now... only the sound of the meat lumps moving and the interior failing to withstand it were heard.

It was quiet.

But it doesn’t seem like a pleasant quietness.

*Squish... squish.*

Eventually, I reached the hole where the meat lumps were originally being cut out.

The hole the meat lumps were escaping from had greatly expanded, and the blade that had been cutting them seemed to have broken down and wasn’t moving.

Passing through the passage with the dull blade, I arrived at the space where I fell before, like in the story of Jack and the Beanstalk reaching the giant’s castle in the sky.

I saw meat lumps still stretching far up and filling the long passage.

...Recalling how I almost fell and died last time.

I stuck to the wall to avoid the growing meat lumps.

Last time, I was really lucky that the meat lumps cushioned me, and I survived, but thinking the same luck would happen this time would be a naive idea.

...Still.

I couldn’t help but think when I’d finish going down this high place.

While feeling bored and descending,

[Bother@$%]

A huge voice resounding through the entire space was heard.

The knowledge pouch perked up.

But apart from that, I could instinctively tell.

If I go down a little more.

I could meet the canned food.

*Gurgle.*

My slime bubbled. If I were human, I would have gulped.

...Alright.

Then, shall I go and save the world?