Chapter 82: I’m cool |
Round and round.
My knowledge pouch perked up and started spinning round and round like a helicopter propeller.
Kim Cheonsu and Han Seori, who were following behind, looked at it as if they were seeing something amazing.
Han Seori’s eyes were sparkling a little, full of anticipation as if wondering what I was trying to show this time.
Unfortunately… I don’t know why it’s spinning round and round like this, either.
I’m guessing it’s detecting attacking anomaly… But why is it doing this?
I just wanted to know roughly where the thing that attacked the room we were in earlier is.
To say it’s broken… Since it was a part of me, there’s probably another possibility.
For example, the possibility that the thing that made a big hole in the ceiling is so huge that it can be detected in all directions.
If it’s so huge that detecting it at close range is meaningless, that could be possible.
Honestly, I can’t really ask the knowledge pouch, “Hey, do a good job.” So it’s a bit frustrating.
I wondered if this is how Han Seori and Kim Cheonsu felt about me.
Meanwhile, Han Seori was still looking at me with a face that said, “Hurry up and show me something.” At some point, Kim Cheonsu joined that lineup.
Is this the pressure a genius receives from those around them?
When they stared at me like that, I felt like I had to spin the knowledge pouch faster and fly into the sky.
…If I did that now, I would just splatter jelly all over the place.
And,
Expressing my dissatisfaction to the two of them… didn’t seem like a good idea.
The condition of the two who had lost the bonfire was slowly but surely worsening.
I could see their movements getting slower bit by bit, and the red tips of their noses and faces were gradually turning blue.
…I think we need to get to the control room as soon as possible and raise the temperature to be able to do anything.
To preserve their lives at least.
Daesik also seemed to be having a hard time moving.
Judging from the fact that I’m still fine, there doesn’t seem to be a problem with Daesik itself, but the problem is with Alice, the doll Daesik is in.
Seeing the doll’s body stiffening, my heart aches.
The only consolation was that Jungsik and Sosik were still relatively okay.
Then,
I started to see a familiar door ahead.
The door leading to the control room.
Han Seori and Kim Cheonsu must have noticed it, too, as their faces visibly brightened.
Now, they seemed to have lost interest in my knowledge pouch spinning round and round.
Earlier, I felt burdened, but now that they have lost interest again, my feelings are strangely mixed.
…What do they want me to do?
Anyway,
It won’t solve the problem, but for now, being able to keep the two alive is very…
The floor shakes.
Along with the *koo-goo-goo-goo* sound,
The knowledge pouch that was spinning round and round started spinning a little more intensely.
It felt different from when it appeared from the ceiling.
This time, it’s not the ceiling… but the floor.
Of all places, it appeared right in front of the control room.
Soon, Han Seori, feeling the vibration, muttered with a stiff face,
“It would be big trouble if it rushes into the control room… What on earth is it chasing to come all the way here?”
“Not knowing is the problem…”
“Hmm…”
There’s no way I could know what the two of them didn’t.
I wanted to chime in on that conversation, but it was impossible for now.
Feeling the growing vibration, I fell into thought for a moment.
Why is that thing coming here?
Reflecting on the two’s conversation so far… it seemed like an anomaly that was originally near here.
Maybe it couldn’t come here because of that fan.
What could be the reason for such a being to suddenly rush in…
There wasn’t much time to ponder. The sound getting louder and louder meant that the anomaly would soon reach this place.
“…Unfortunately, let’s back off for a bit. Now that we have a general idea of its location, it won’t be hard to find it again. If we stay here and the control room gets destroyed…”
Han Seori trailed off, but both Kim Cheonsu and I knew what she was going to say next.
Of course, I’ll… probably be fine, but I don’t want the two of them to suffer that fate.
Soon, with Han Seori leading the way, we started moving away from the control room.
*Koo-goo-goo-goo!*
Not long after,
Along with a vibration that made it hard to even stand on the floor,
The intact floor rose up like a volcano.
“Eek!”
“Urk…”
From the cracked floor, something huge leaped out. The thing that broke the floor disappeared somewhere, breaking through the ceiling with a loud noise.
I didn’t realize it when we were running away from the bonfire earlier,
But the body of the thing disappearing into the ceiling was very long.
I could see why it went through the floor and out the ceiling.
Is it because its body is too long and thick to do what it wants even if it wants to?
And one more thing,
The body of the being, which I only thought to be a living creature… was literally hard.
It didn’t seem to be made of flesh and blood.
I couldn’t tell exactly because it disappeared so quickly, but I don’t think it’s a living creature.
So… it felt like a giant mechanical snake?
I don’t believe what I’m saying either.
Seeing such a thing was still amazing and exciting,
…But being surprised by the fact that such a thing exists…
Anyway,
Finally,
The place where the thing broke through the floor was not next to Han Seori, Kim Cheonsu, or slimes.
It was next to me.
My jelly that couldn’t dodge in time was sharply sliced off, but this level of injury is nothing to me.
Han Seori and Kim Cheonsu ran over with pale faces, though.
“I, I’m… Ah, I see.”
“…Worrying was a waste, it seems.”
Even if you’re relieved, do you have to say it like that?
Regardless of feeling slighted, it seemed clear what that steel snake was after.
It seemed to be targeting me.
Seriously.
Now that I have this body, my popularity is at its peak…
I don’t really want this kind of attention.
Grumbling to myself, I took in Han Seori and Kim Cheonsu with my eyes.
They had turned so blue that the word “blue” was now fitting.
In this situation where we don’t know when the steel snake will come, how much longer can the two who came all the way here without being able to go to the control room last?
They probably won’t last very long.
Having finished thinking, I put Jungsik on Kim Cheonsu’s head, Daesik in Han Seori’s arms, and Sosik on her back.
I pointed in the direction of the control room.
“…You’re going to be the bait?”
When I silently nodded my jelly, Han Seori sighed but didn’t add anything.
She was going to ask me to take care of it anyway… So, nothing really changes.
Still, the two’s expressions don’t look very good.
But,
As if they thought there was no other way, the two silently nodded and moved their feet towards the control room.
Before that thing comes.
“We’ll come to your aid as soon as we get the facility up and running!”
With those words, watching the two slowly move away, my jelly wobbles.
I didn’t particularly feel like a hero,
But honestly,
Isn’t this… kind of cool?
Maybe… this action came from the confidence that I probably won’t die.
Well… at least I’m taking action, right?
Smirking with my jelly, I picked up a metal pipe that had fallen nearby to draw the steel snake’s aggro.
*Clang! Clang!*
I moved my feet in the opposite direction of the control room, banging here and there.
Steel snake or whatever, come at me!
I feel a groundless surge of confidence for some reason.
And as if reacting to that,
*Koo-goo-goo…*
This time, the ceiling started to vibrate.
[Amid heightening military tensions, the Ministry of National Defense has strongly retaliated against artillery provocations…]
Inside a gukbap restaurant somewhere in Seoul,
A man, eating gukbap, clicked his tongue upon hearing the announcer’s voice on the TV.
“Those North Korean bastards were quiet. Why are they doing that all of a sudden?”
“Who knows, maybe they ran out of rice…”
“It’s not the first or second time, seriously.”
The TV was talking about a loud sound that had come from the border area a few hours ago.
Various stories circulated, but in the end, it seemed that they had fired something from that place in the north.
In the gukbap restaurant filled with commotion rather than chaos at the story that now felt like everyday life, the man pouring kkakdugi soup into his gukbap chuckled and muttered,
“They say they fired artillery, and here we are, eating gukbap.”
“It’s tough for the kids serving at the front lines rather than us.”
“True… I hope nothing serious happened.”
As the two men buried their faces in their bowls, the TV briefly showed footage of something exploding but soon moved on to the next news.
The people sitting in the gukbap restaurant each made a remark, but they didn’t seem to question the situation.
So…
Seoul was safe again today.
…At least for them, that is.
