Daesik grabbed and shattered the horn that was charging towards him.
To be honest, I did briefly wonder if Daesik would die from getting impaled by that, but my body moved before I could think too much about it.
Seeing Alice, who was falling apart, now dispersing a cotton-like substance in a poof, gives me a feeling as if I’ve lost my head.
Maybe the knowledge bag inside the helmet has gone berserk.
Anyway.
After breaking the horn, I followed Jelly, who was holding it, wondering if she had turned into a unicorn… but instead, I saw a grotesque, deep red monster far from being a unicorn.
No matter how you look at it, it wasn’t a unicorn; even with generous imagination, it was just a rhinoceros subspecies at best.
Though it was hideously formed and I couldn’t feel any attachment to it, the sweet scent constantly wafting from it told me it was one of the monsters I had seen before entering the tree.
…It looks like during my time inside, it had somehow fused with something.
So, it was a battle between a giant doll and a colossal monster.
It couldn’t help but ignite the heart of any man, but realizing that the doll was Daesik made Jelly feel uneasy.
What is this discomfort?
Yeah, this must all be the fault of the tree monster, right?
If they had only been hitting each other, I could have relaxed and eaten my popcorn, but why is it fighting Daesik?
While thinking about how preposterous this must sound if anyone were to hear it, I approached the crimson creature.
From within it, I felt the pulse I had sensed deep inside the tree. Perhaps because I had consumed it, this feeling was much clearer.
Upon sensing it, Jelly started to bubble.
When that deep crimson mass first latched onto me, I wondered what it was.
It didn’t seem powerful enough to consume me, and it didn’t actually manage to.
Eventually, instead of eating me, it started to send something… something like memories into my jelly.
That sensation was oddly familiar.
The feeling when I had approached something in a tin can.
And the sensation when I had touched the heart of the Whale.
A strange feeling, as if something was directly speaking to my mind. Although it was unpleasant, I had experienced it enough times to avoid being overwhelmed.
Compared to the overly curious days of the past, one might call this progress.
Anyway.
What’s important is not that.
As the words or memories began flowing into the jelly, they felt… strange.
The moment they started flowing into my mind, I saw a landscape that was both familiar yet alien.
A sky so gray it was impossible to think it could have been the clear blue one I’d seen just moments ago.
Black rain pouring down from pitch-black clouds.
Steel-concrete buildings collapsed, tangled with tree roots.
And amidst them, something that seemed like human remnants, stretched out like food stuck in a tooth.
A scene straight out of a dystopian apocalypse filled with destruction.
While lost in this scene, something suggested that the apocalypse wasn’t complete yet, as humans, armed to the teeth, began approaching from beyond the collapsed horizon.
The sound of what seemed like a tank cannon going “PONG!” was followed by an explosion near my sightline.
Fragments of the familiar-looking tree bark flew everywhere, and the crimson liquid, sweet-smelling, splattered and sprayed wildly like water from a water gun.
Fire erupted from the humans’ equipment, burning the roots tangled around the buildings; soon enough it was also scorching near my viewpoint.
At first glance, it seemed like humans were unilaterally attacking the tree… what I was seeing, or rather my view, which was the tree.
But something felt off.
A sense that something that should be there was missing?
As this uneasy feeling grew, the humans who were emitting fire suddenly became frantic and then vanished as if erased with an eraser.
The surreal feeling deepened.
It felt more and more like footage edited to suit one’s tastes, and just as it occurred to me that something crimson might flail, like in an old comic scene…
An entity, resembling a fusion of a bat and a bird, suddenly burst from the void.
The spectacle was akin to watching a magic show.
And just like speeding up a film, the crimson monsters began hunting humans, who quickly disappeared.
After all the humans were gone,
I saw a small dot in the sky, then the world was bathed in blinding light.
And then, like the water in a toilet being flushed, the world melted away, and the gray sky was replaced with a blue one.
As I gazed at the familiar blue sky, the flow of memories ceased.
Coming to my senses, the mass that had entangled itself with jelly was floating inside me.
Before long, it melted.
Its taste was unbearably sweet, to the point where I involuntarily felt nauseated.
Before I could comprehend its meaning, I sensed an immediate need to ascend from inside me.
This couldn’t possibly be the center of the monster tree. It was too pitiful.
That meant the tree only bought time.
It was likely that if they could buy enough time, they would win.
…But your opponent is me.
Though I lately feel some strange kinship with singularities and try to let them live if possible…
You truly went too far attempting to deceive me while trying to eat Daesik, Alice, and the people.
Even if you showed me what I saw in the memories, it’s not like you could fire a supposed nuclear weapon at me—so I’ll personally have to consume and destroy you.
Then, now…
Farewell.
Unsheathing my sharpened tentacles, I sliced through the enormous monster like tofu. Every time the tentacle sliced through the creature, a sweet scent wafted.
It felt oddly like it was warning that eating this would be fatal—but I’d never had any issues after eating something before, so I didn’t worry.
I don’t know exactly what happened, but the already exhausted monster couldn’t put up much resistance as it was chopped into pieces.
The separated pieces were immediately stuffed into my jelly and digested as quickly as my body could process them.
I could feel them melting almost as soon as they were inside.
It was sickeningly sweet, making Jelly queasy, but it didn’t taste good.
Instead, it reminded me of the scene I had witnessed moments before, leaving a bittersweet feeling.
What were those memories I saw?
Were they just illusions the thing created to deceive me?
Considering the inconsistencies in what it showed me, maybe it distorted its actual experiences…
If so, did what I see really happen somewhere?
If it was using a “nuclear weapon,” doesn’t that mean things truly ended badly?
Even if I didn’t remember being a jelly before, I would have surely felt the nuclear explosion.
Hmm…
Musing over the melted monster inside me, something almost came to mind but wouldn’t fully form.
It’s like when you’re about to sneeze, but the sneeze just doesn’t come.
I wish that thought would just come to mind but it isn’t…
…I don’t know. Maybe it’ll come to me soon.
Anyway, with the help of Electric Scent, I can now discuss things with Han Seori, so perhaps the thought will come during our conversations.
But before that…
“L, Lime destroyed the monster!”
“Did we win?!”
“We already won!”
It seemed like there were a number of things to take care of.
People from the buildings began to cautiously approach me slowly, while the quick-witted jelly creatures immediately started munching on the chunks of the monster I had sliced.
A chunk landed on my helmet with a “thud,” and Little, who knows where he appeared from, nodded and began to slowly consume it.
While Little loaded chunks and approached the fallen spot, the people who had been hesitantly inching closer now cautiously waved at me.
“Wow, you’re really cute.”
“Someone so cute destroying a monstrous thing like that?”
“Are you truly friendly to humans?”
“Thank you for saving us!”
Since the people likely came mainly to see me, they were somewhat overly impressed.
However…
Perhaps because I’ve been rushing away and returning quickly after dealing with singularities so that they’d seem gone…
The reactions in front of my eyes made me… feel quite awkward.
Without realizing it, I started squirming uncomfortably and pressed my helmet down firmly.
I wanted this kind of attention, didn’t I? But now that I’m getting it, it’s…
kind of… quite… embarrassingly overwhelming.
Still, it felt much better than running away hastily.
And…
Seeing the police and soldiers come to send the people away and clean up the area made me suddenly realize… I’ve truly come out into the open.
Thinking about the days of fleeing through the sewers… I really should feel a complex mix of emotions.
“Looks like we have less to do than expected. Anyway, what should we do with this big tree?”
“Hmm, we haven’t received any directives about that yet.”
Ah, the taste of bureaucracy, sweet and sour.
Watching the civil servants, who glance at me but hesitate to approach for fear of getting into trouble, I saw Han Seori and Hwang Bo-yul coming from afar.
Well,
The two will handle the aftermath.
I want to rest for now.
I was also a little worried about what might happen to Alice.
Approaching Daesik and Alice, who seemed to be crying, I heard a voice from beyond the wall of people.
“Could we just take one picture? We’ve been waiting since yesterday.”
“U, please calm down a bit…”
Perhaps coming out into the open isn’t entirely a good thing after all.
Is this what the life of a celebrity feels like?
