“Hmm…”
Han Seori, who had been staring at the screen with a serious expression, unknowingly curled up the corners of her mouth.
“Cute…”
She felt her weary face loosening up as she focused on the screen.
The screen showed a glob of mucus squirming on the belly of what appeared to be a sleeping Jelly Girl.
From the glob of mucus, jelly-like tentacles extended, starting to prod various parts of Jelly Girl’s body.
It was as if the tentacles were giving Jelly Girl a massage after she had returned from a significant task.
Someone like Kim Cheon-soo might describe the scene as eerie, but to Han Seori, it looked heartwarmingly endearing.
After continuing for a while, Han Seori, wearing a pleasant expression, sped up the playback time.
Since it was a recorded video, it wasn’t a difficult task.
As she adjusted something, time began flowing rapidly on the screen.
Jelly Girl barely moved, as if she wasn’t merely asleep but her consciousness had been cut off.
Even so, the glob of mucus above Jelly Girl behaved as if it wanted something, continuing to repeatedly prod Jelly Girl’s body.
But after quite some time had passed, it seemed to give up, retracting its tentacles and drooping limply.
Han Seori let out a sigh, feeling the stress that had built up slowly dissipate.
‘During the time I was too busy to check…’
It felt like something might have happened.
However, nothing particularly special seemed to have occurred on the screen.
‘Should I speed it up more?’
Just as Han Seori was contemplating this, Jelly Girl suddenly began twitching violently.
“Eh?”
Stopping the screen, Han Seori rewound it to the moment Jelly Girl started twitching, and played it again.
Eventually, Jelly Girl, who had been lying there lifelessly asleep,
BOOM!
Kicked the blanket covering her off with her foot.
The glob of mucus that had been poking Jelly Girl and had previously given up, was swept away and tumbled off the screen.
“Aah…”
Han Seori could not help but burst into laughter at the unexpectedly adorable sight, yet she couldn’t tear her eyes away.
Her years of intuition from observing the Singularity assured her that soon she would understand what had transformed this little glob of mucus.
Meanwhile, on the screen, Jelly Girl was flailing her arms and legs as if kicking something furiously.
Zooming in on the screen, it even looked like she was smiling.
‘…Is she sleep-talking?’
Given that she hadn’t moved until now, it seemed highly likely.
…She’s dreaming.
Even animals dream, let alone a Singularity like Jelly Girl.
Moments later, the glob of mucus that had been flung off the screen returned, its tentacles writhing wildly as it approached Jelly Girl.
This time, it had an almost angry, ominous vibe as it writhed towards Jelly Girl.
While Han Seori sensed something strange,
the glob leaped high into the air using its tentacles.
CHOMP!
It struck Jelly Girl’s belly.
It didn’t seem to have much meaning. The indentation it left vanished as Jelly Girl’s belly bounced back immediately.
However, something strange happened shortly after.
As the small glob of mucus settled on Jelly Girl’s belly, Jelly Girl’s body suddenly started bubbling as if boiling.
The flustered glob attempted to move away, but its body was stuck to Jelly Girl and couldn’t move.
Eventually,
a faint presence from what was estimated to be the center of Jelly Girl, transferred onto the glob of mucus.
Upon receiving this presence, the glob began writhing even more violently than Jelly Girl had.
Like a pot of water boiling over on an induction cooktop, the glob writhed for quite a while before beginning to transform into a familiar shape.
…Into a small Jelly Girl, just like the one Han Seori had observed moments ago.
The newly transformed small Jelly Girl lay listlessly on the belly of the larger Jelly Girl.
…Looking as if she had completely lost interest in the world, she lay still on Jelly Girl’s belly as if asleep.
Around this time, the motions of the larger Jelly Girl stopped as well, creating an image of a large Jelly Girl with a smaller one asleep on her.
And beside them, a doll lay crumpled like an extra.
Not long after, the larger Jelly Girl woke up and appeared confused. She picked up the smaller Jelly Girl and proceeded to observe her.
‘It wasn’t intentional…’
In any case.
After reviewing the footage repeatedly, Han Seori sank into her chair.
It seemed that, not a new entity but an existing one had undergone some sort of transformation.
She had also caught sight of something faint moving from Jelly Girl’s center to the smaller Jelly Girl.
It seemed that Jelly Girl, the glob of mucus, and the smaller Jelly Girl were closely interconnected.
‘If that’s the case…’
Would the smaller ones vanish if Jelly Girl were to disappear?
How about the opposite?
While entertaining these grim thoughts, Han Seori shook her head.
‘What exactly am I thinking about…’
After drinking some water from the table, Han Seori recalled what had just happened.
…Like Jelly Girl had a sort of ‘baby’ and Kim Cheon-soo’s stories about bizarre dreams.
Actually, Han Seori was aware that Kim Cheon-soo had been wronged.
Only at the time, they didn’t know what was happening, and his testimony had been… too meaningful.
…It might have been my stress that I vented on Kim Cheon-soo.
Initially, since it occurred in a dream, it couldn’t have affected reality…
‘…But it could have.’
Since it involved the Singularity, nothing was impossible.
While reflecting on Kim Cheon-soo’s statements, the document to dispose of all retorts caught Han Seori’s eyes.
‘This is… a major issue.’
There were quite a number of them already distributed nationwide.
How could one even put into words the hardship involved?
But that wasn’t her responsibility, so she quickly pushed it out of her mind.
Then,
‘Suppose…’
If I eat a lot of retort pouches, will I see ‘that’ in my dreams?
If I just… save some…
“Hmph.”
With another sigh, Han Seori shook her head.
After all, this event that had occurred probably resulted from someone like ‘Me’ seeking a ‘little’ personal gain.
Well, of course, they had no way of handling the increasing chunks of meat back then, but thinking back now, it felt extremely risky to process and sell them.
That was probably why there were so many former directors like him who had been chased away and disappeared.
Thinking thus, Han Seori felt a little regretful, but realized she could always encounter the actual thing whenever she wanted, so it wasn’t necessary to feel regretful.
The more pressing problem was Jelly Girl, 7496 – KR.
‘It seems… it’s not digesting the Singularity but absorbing it.’
But it wasn’t intuitively clear.
What was certain was that every time she encountered the Singularity, there was always a necessary change.
Antennae sprouted, she birthed the globs of mucus (?), and this time, she had transformed one of the globs into her own likeness.
Additionally, the victims reporting seeing something similar to Jelly Girl in their dreams was suspicious.
Also, the fact that erasing those memories might cause brain overload resulting in someone becoming a vegetable.
Actually, based on all the testimonies received so far… erasing the memory of the ‘blue something’ didn’t seem to cause any significant issues.
It was just Kim Cheon-soo, who had been excessively exposed to Jelly Girl, thus his testimony had been clearer, but reviewing all the reports comprehensively…, it leaned more towards sightings of a blue ‘something’ rather than Jelly Girl.
“Hmm…”
But with the immediate aftermath, her hands were full dealing with other things and hadn’t touched anything related to Jelly Girl.
She had only gone to deliver a meal today because she hadn’t arranged it beforehand.
‘This is tough.’
But, …isn’t my role to figure this out?
‘Firstly… let’s handle the situation.’
Even if Han Seori herself doesn’t go out, with the top director missing, the tasks she has to concern herself with are piled high like Mount Tai.
Once all the work is done… let’s restart the research on 7496 – KR then.
Thinking thus, Han Seori paled significantly upon looking at the amount of documents needing approval.
…
The room where Han Seori was shocked and left, and Kim Cheon-soo turned pale and ran out.
I silently approached the food that had fallen off the serving tray, laying in disarray.
In reality, as it didn’t matter to me whether the food was intact or not, as long as it tasted good…
But perhaps the saying that good-looking rice cakes taste better wasn’t wrong, as I didn’t feel much of an appetite.
I passed the food to Daesik who was patting my leg.
It wasn’t because I didn’t want to eat the fallen food, it was just because I didn’t have much of an appetite.
…Let’s say it’s due to eating the canned food that upset my stomach.
While observing Daesik happily digesting the food,
I noticed Sosik lying on the bed looking at me steadily.
The little guy was clearly staring at me hungrily, hoping I’d hurry and pass him some food.
After gazing at him for a moment, I tossed the food his way, and Sosik, who had been waving his tentacles, got splattered across his face, swallowed the food.
…Is this Sosik I know?
He seems correct since he sometimes retains his tick-tocking habits, yet he’s much lazier and more troublesome…
It’s almost like the canned food I gobbled up.
What exactly happened while I was asleep?
Is this… one of the Singularity’s… effects?
As it’s something a mundane person like me can’t comprehend, I decided to just let it go.
And so, days passed as New Sosik, Daesik, and I continued receiving our regular rations.
I wanted to demand the food I really wanted, but the visitors were busy, leaving the food and immediately departing.
Not to mention Kim Cheon-soo and Han Seori had also disappeared.
Then, one day,
Han Seori came to the room carrying some sort of strange object.
