The place marked as a Restricted Zone was… a space that deviated somewhat from what I’d expected.
There weren’t any of those things you imagine when you hear the name Restricted Zone.
Things that shouldn’t be known to the world.
…Of course, it’s possible that I was too busy fleeing to notice, but at least there was nothing among the places I passed through.
That’s only natural, considering there were only passageways leading deeper.
The deeper I went, the less this place felt like somewhere where something precious was enshrined.
In a strange way, it felt abandoned. Not that there was dust piled up or anything like that, but…
It was indescribable, a strange feeling that words couldn’t capture.
The dimly lit, long corridor was quite dark, making it seem like a good place to hide.
It could hardly be called abandoned since no dust was felt underfoot.
That meant someone was taking care of it periodically.
But why did it feel so desolate, then?
Maybe it’s just my mood. Perhaps sitting alone in a room staring blankly, or being exposed to an extreme situation like wandering the sewers for survival, has slightly dulled my senses.
In other words, it’s possible I’m attaching meaning to something meaningless.
I should have come to a place like this sooner.
If my body were as it was before, I might have excitedly moved forward with a racing heart.
…Is it because my body changed like this?
Somehow, I kept feeling restless.
But I couldn’t figure out exactly what was causing that uneasiness.
Could becoming a jelly have opened some new kind of sense in me?
…If anything, what opened is an all-purpose stomach that endlessly consumes food.
Just then,
I began hearing vibrations coming from the corridor I had just passed.
I made an effort to keep the part of me touching the ground as light as possible as I moved farther inside.
It seems my interpretation that this place was for hiding was correct.
If I’d stood idiotically by the entrance, I might have been noticed.
However,
As I hurried deeper inside, a small question arose.
Why are they trying to hide me here?
I recalled the woman who had lifted me up moments before.
She had a rather pretty, intellectual face that you don’t see often.
She acted without hesitation toward me, perhaps because she had dealt with beings like me many times before.
…Just a moment.
Does that mean there are plenty of beings like me around the world?
Then why have I never even heard of such stories throughout my life, in this era?
Oh, well, there isn’t any shiver-inducing sensation because I’m jelly, so I was trembling.
Well, there are even crocodiles that keep resurrecting, so I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised by anything.
It was just surprising that something like me, which interests people to some extent, was hidden to the point that we barely left a trace.
Could that… be possible?
Even if we place the sewers deep down somewhere.
I don’t know.
I haven’t even fully understood or accepted that my body has turned into jelly, so it’s too busy now to comprehend such terrifying truths.
Since the jelly kept fleeing.
Right in front of my eyes,
there appeared a door.
*
“Aha, Dr. Han. I was wondering where you had gone, and here you are.”
“…Director.”
Han Seori looked at the middle-aged man with a fussy appearance who was grinning at her while composing herself.
The man called Director was smiling, but underneath his seemingly curved eyelids, irritation was clearly evident.
Seori tried her best to avoid his gaze as she quietly spoke.
“By any chance, why have you come here? I came to check the singularity in the factory.”
She too had not acted without thought.
…Of course, most of her time was wasted in looking at a small jelly, but she had a legitimate reason.
Was her calm voice displeasing?
The man moved his lips and soon broke into a wide grin.
“I’ve also come to help you. This singularity is important, you see.”
“Is that so…?”
Hmph.
It’s clear you’ve just rushed here because you couldn’t find what you were looking for.
Though Seori scolded silently inside, outwardly she gave no sign of it and applauded lightly.
“Oh my, you didn’t need to come all the way here, Sir Director… Well, anyway… Shall we go?”
“Let’s.”
She feigned composure but was drenched in cold sweat at her back.
‘Is it okay to go inside?’
She had let loose the small jelly that kept moving around the small room, but she was a bit worried about it standing right there at the door.
In the worst case,
‘I haven’t yet quarantined it in the lab, right?’
Still, the small and adorable jelly might now be out of sight forever.
But since Han Seori couldn’t do anything immediate, she thought it was the destiny of the small Jelly Girl what would happen next.
…I hope it’s hiding somewhere.
“Are we not going in?”
“Of course, we should.”
At the Director’s urging, Han Seori placed her ID card on the panel. This time, unlike before when she hurriedly opened it, she slowly… carefully opened the door without showing any signs.
Clack.
All she managed to do was buy a few seconds, so with a mixture of tension and a cold expression, Han Seori looked beyond the door.
‘Ah.’
Fortunately, it seemed the Jelly Girl had dashed off somewhere as Han Seori had hoped.
Han Seori sighed in relief within herself and took a step forward.
As Han Seori walked ahead, the Director silently followed her.
Thud, thud.
Tap, tap.
The different footstep sounds echoed through the corridors.
While walking down the eerily dim corridor, the Director frowned slightly and murmured.
“I always find this place unpleasant when I come here.”
“In that case, it might be fine if you went back.”
“I can’t go back since I’ve come to help.”
…You sure talk well.
Han Seori glanced behind where the man was following closely and turned back around. Worried that the Jelly Girl, “Damn Mucus,” might be hiding somewhere in the dark, she kept her steps moving forward.
Suddenly,
The Director spoke as though something just occurred to him.
“Now that you mention it, Dr. Han, do you know the singularity called ‘Damn Mucus’?”
“…How could I not? It’s the singularity that’s making the lab a buzz these days, isn’t it?”
“That’s right… It’s said it vanished after they were trying to secure it quickly.”
“…Is that so?”
As Han Seori responded in a neutral tone, the Director, who seemed disappointed, licked his lips and stopped speaking further.
Since both of them remained silent, the corridor was once again enveloped in silence.
How much time passed?
Eventually, the two arrived at a new door and carefully went in as it opened automatically.
A ‘pu-hwaak’ sound then emanated and something was sprayed all over them.
Next, a hot gust of wind enveloped their bodies.
‘…If it passed through here…’
It must have shaken.
Han Seori smiled briefly while imagining the cute scene, then quickly returned to her composed expression. Luckily, it seemed the Director hadn’t noticed her fleeting smile since he was squinting due to the intense heat.
Soon, the “procedure” was completed as the door opposite from where they entered opened.
After tidying up her hair, Han Seori took her first step.
Immediately, the Director followed closely behind.
Before them then appeared a massive space.
The area looked like a factory.
A deep-red and massive chunk of meat hung on hooks and kept going somewhere continuously. The meat had recently been slaughtered, evidenced by its bright red flesh that rippled vividly.
It was a scene that might have made a normal person’s heart pound,
But the two seemed unaffected, slowly stepping forward with no apparent emotion.
Han Seori didn’t forget to pull out her notepad as if inspecting.
“The delivery seems to have no issues.”
“That’s right. No report came up indicating any problems, either.”
“…Just a routine check.”
“Who said anything about it?”
…The resentment was palpable in his voice.
She looked at the massive chunks of meat hanging from the hooks while slowly making her way toward the source.
As she approached, a peculiar smell wafted up from the meat into her nose.
But it didn’t bother her as much as it used to, probably because she had become accustomed to it. Her current focus was solely on whether the Jelly Girl had hidden properly.
‘…What if?’
What if she got stuck in one of those pieces of meat and got pulled into the factory?
The late-coming anxiety seeped into her mind, but since it was already too late, all she could do now was to clean up the pieces.
Swish, swish, swish.
A sound of slicing reached her ears.
Then she saw a giant machine.
Countless holes in it emitted a ‘swish, swish, swish’ sound, and chunks of bright red meat were being spliced off and flying out.
The chunks of meat that flew out were then hung on hooks and carried outside.
Swish, swish, swish.
It looked like the flesh of something bloating inside was being sliced off.
As Han Seori looked at the thing that seemed to be spewing great lumps of minced meat, the thought crept in that if the Jelly Girl had entered any of these holes, what would have happened?
Since it was not a scene she particularly wanted to imagine, she quickly shook her head.
“Is there any problem?”
“…No, no problems at all.”
“Good.”
Loosely covering up, Han Seori pretended to inspect around the machine.
Perhaps hoping to find the Jelly Girl and hide her.
Fortunately, she saw no sign of the Jelly Girl.
However, as a result, she started getting slightly anxious.
Would she be able to find the Jelly Girl that had hidden?
It began to worry her.
‘…But she was rather friendly toward me, wasn’t she?’
Would she come if I called her later?
…Don’t know.
Anyway, since I’ve started suffering unnecessarily, let’s endure a bit more.
Suddenly,
A large warning sound began reverberating through the vast space.
Han Seori froze her face rigid.
The middle-aged man called Director frowned, lifting his chin as he tilted his head.
…
