PUHWAHAAK! CHOOOAAAK!
I had an awfully strange feeling. My earlier worry about the door not opening was ironically rendered meaningless as the closed door swung wide open as if welcoming me, inviting me in.
I innocently stepped forward, not realizing it was a trap.
I could do nothing but helplessly watch as a fierce gust of wind battered my body.
It sprayed some strange-smelling liquid while unleashing cutting cold winds.
It was so intense that it felt like my body had been briefly pierced. Thinking about it now still sends shivers down my spine as if jelly is still dripping from me.
Fortunately, just before I turned into a donut, the wind subsided and the opposite door, which was closed, opened.
I hastily moved through the opened doorway.
It wasn’t so much that I feared the door closing—
Rather, I needed to find a place to hide from whoever was chasing me.
The moment I emerged outside, the door slammed shut again.
Somehow, I think there is a device here, some kind of system that filters out non-humans.
A feeling of being in a peculiarly hygiene-obsessed restaurant came over me, but I deliberately turned my gaze away.
What mattered now was figuring out where I was and what I needed to do next.
What caught my sight was…
Red chunks of meat.
They were hooked onto massive hooks and disappearing through a pitch-black passage of indeterminate depth, these chunks of meat.
They must’ve been freshly butchered; their crimson flesh bubbled as though boiling, alive in a grotesque way.
The seething chunks of flesh twitched unnervingly like they were alive, and the sight made me feel quite uneasy. If I hadn’t changed, I might have vomited everything in my stomach just from the sight of it.
…Am I supposed to feel happy about this?
That aside…
There was a peculiarly familiar smell.
Though the slabs of flesh in front of my eyes were unlike any meat I’d seen during my life, a sense of déjà vu still hit me. It felt like I had seen them before, somewhere, and somehow, I seemed to know their taste.
Meanwhile…
Chug-ruck… chug-ruck…
The enormous slabs of meat continued in an endless procession, disappearing into the distance.
I stared blankly at it, and a question struck me.
Why does a place that keeps things like me have a place like this?
A sudden thought pierced through my jelly.
It’s likely some sort of mysterious, secret organization’s base.
Speaking of restricted zones, all it contains are these slabs of meat.
Never-before-seen chunks of flesh.
The pieces all clicked together, and my jelly trembled.
What these slabs of meat represented—that they were from creatures like me—it was clear.
…So all the food they’ve been feeding me… Was it for this purpose? To grow my jelly so it could be harvested like this?
The more I think about it, the heavier my body feels, probably because I’ve been eating everything they’ve given me.
My attention drifted back to the endless line of meat slabs moving before me.
I began imagining my own pale jelly chunks hanging helplessly on hooks, being taken somewhere.
My body feels limp and weak.
Emotions influence my state, and I can feel myself sagging. Some parts have already pooled on the floor, creating an eerie atmosphere.
When I shook my ‘face,’ some parts detached and fell off, no longer part of me.
But as soon as I collected my thoughts, the detached parts reabsorbed into my body.
I want to forget. Forget the fact that I’m no longer human. I hate the situations my mind keeps trying to imprint on me.
Why did this have to happen to me…?
Sadness strikes, yet I can’t cry.
In the midst of wallowing in such despair, forgetting why I even came here in the first place…
[$!($!]
A voice reached me. Though my mind was hazy, I couldn’t make out what it said, but it made me remember why I was here.
…First things first, I need to hide.
I decided to try and think positively. Upon reflection, I seemed to have been overly negative.
How much jelly could even come out of me?
Not nearly as many slabs as they’re producing. My body isn’t exactly high-output.
If I prove I have other uses… Wouldn’t that work?
I recalled the woman who once lifted me with a kind expression, but I shook my head. Then, I remembered the desperate voice I heard earlier. Was that a lie too?
I don’t know.
It would be nice if someone could tell me the answer.
Thinking this, I moved toward where a loud sound was coming from. Something peculiar came into my sight.
It was… a pillar of sorts.
A massive column extending upward from a hole in the floor.
The column had a rather large hole through it, and from inside, a constant, sharp “chew-chew” sound emanated.
As if squeezing pimples, round blobs of red meat would pop out, get sliced, and then hung on hooks to be carried away.
…So the meat slabs I’ve been seeing were all coming out from this pillar.
It was bizarre.
So much so that all my earlier worries vanished.
A stick spewing out raw red meat?
It has an unsettling ring to it.
Except for the notion of it reviving crocodiles in the sewers, it wasn’t technically outside the scope of reality; it was something that existed in my understanding.
But this thing…
[$(!$!#]
At that moment, another voice—or rather, something like a voice—reached me.
It brought with it a peculiar sensation.
It was different from the voices of others I had heard while coming here. It wasn’t spreading through the air.
And the source of the sound…
From the meat.
Chop, chop.
Being sliced from the pillar.
Though I should’ve distanced myself, I was strangely drawn closer, moving toward the pillar where the meat was being cut with an almost hypnotic pull.
The closer I got, the stronger the smell of the meat became, and soon enough, I realized what it was.
It was the smell of Soylent purple co. retort pouches that I used to enjoy eating.
A strange smell I noticed in retort pouches after becoming jelly.
The main ingredient… it was this.
Seeing this peculiar process for the first time, I realized…
…How deeply it had already embedded into my life.
While I was lost in thought, a small sound of footsteps began to approach from far away.
By the time I realized I had lingered, they were already quite close.
I still wasn’t sure what they wanted to do with me, and perhaps it would be wise to hide from whoever’s trying to keep me concealed.
But…
Thinking of the woman who once gazed at me with warmth and concern…
I decided to hide for now.
It wasn’t about her being particularly beautiful or anything.
There’s one problem though.
There’s nowhere to hide.
The pathways themselves are limited, and the only potential hiding spots are the hole where the meat slabs are carried away, or…
Chop!
…the hole where the meat is still being cut.
The dark, seemingly bottomless hollow beneath me is no option; no matter how jelly-like I am, I’d splatter upon hitting the ground with a “thud.”
It’s effectively no choice at all.
The meat-carrying hole is high up; even if I were my original height, I couldn’t reach it.
That means there’s only one place to hide— the hole riddled with openings carved into the column right in front of me.
Looking closely, I noticed there was some space. The meat wasn’t filling the entire hole.
…It may be tight, but…
I’m also wary of the strange noises coming from inside.
“Shipment time—”
Voices are coming closer now.
There’s no other option.
As the blade sliced through the meat, I thrust myself into the hole, aiming to be out of sight before it reached me.
Chop!
The blade swung out as I was halfway through, cutting off a portion of my leg.
Although I didn’t feel any pain, seeing my leg being severed was quite shocking.
Still, as my movement wasn’t hindered, I pressed on, wriggling further inside.
[#@$@$$!]
Another odd sound. They’re right outside now.
As the meat began to inflate, I crouched as low as possible, letting the crimson slabs glide by, pressing against me as they passed.
Chop!
Just as another slab was cut and carried away…
DING! DONG! DONG! DONG! DONG!
An alarm suddenly sounded from the outside.
Startled, I pushed further inside, avoiding the inflation of the new meat slab.
The familiar smell of retort pouches grows stronger.
*
How long had the alarm been blaring?
Han Seori exhaled a sigh after hurriedly fiddling with the panel controls, finally turning off the alarm.
In front of her, the screen displayed the message: “Foreign Object Removal Complete.”
Though she had averted a crisis, her expression didn’t look overly pleased.
Noticing this, the supervisor observed her with a subtle look and commented.
“You seemed to have come for an inspection, so wasn’t it worth it? Why that face?”
“…It’s never nice to encounter problems, is it?”
“Hmm, true. Anyway, what was the issue?”
“…Given that the foreign object has been removed, it seems like something inappropriate was introduced from the factory above.”
“Such. I should stress the need for more caution, huh?”
Han Seori nodded, feeling an ambiguous emotion upon seeing the supervisor’s slightly disappointed face.
…Was this the fate of the jelly girl?
Han Seori, maintaining a composed expression…
Exitted the restricted zone with the supervisor.
She thought it was best to send this visitor off for now.
