Suddenly, I Became a Slime

Chapter 75: Strange Superstition

If I look in the mirror now, I wonder if I’ll see a very dumbfounded face.

And with a good reason.

I was all tensed up as I identified the anomaly… and it turned out to be an electric fan.

It was a sight that couldn’t help but deflate me.

Even if it’s an object called an anomaly.

I mean, it’s just an electric fan…

What on earth could be the identity of the thing causing strange phenomena in this abandoned place?

Could there possibly be another anomaly here?

With that thought in mind, what appeared was just an electric fan.

…My friends, seeing an electric fan for the first time, seemed intrigued by the whirling fan and slowly approached it, starting to poke and prod it.

Even so, it didn’t seem wise to carelessly touch something suspected to be an anomaly.

Even if it was a complete letdown.

I grabbed Daesik and Jungsik, who were poking the fan, and pulled them back.

It wasn’t to take out my frustration but for their safety.

Of course.

Even as I thought that, the idea that the fan couldn’t do anything floated through my mind.

Having pulled back the wriggling guys, I first checked the status of my knowledge pouch.

The twitching pouch was pointing precisely at the whirling electric fan.

No matter where I stood in relation to the fan, the pouch stubbornly kept pointing at the fan.

…Could this really be the cause?

Feeling the absurdity and watching the fan spin on setting 2, a story I heard sometime before vaguely came to mind.

“Korean people believe the superstition that if you sleep in a sealed room with an electric fan on, you’ll die, so if you’re rooming with a KATUSA soldier, be particularly mindful and considerate.”

Apparently, that’s what’s written in the manual for U.S. soldiers deployed to Korea.

I looked it up, and that kind of manual really exists.

Of course, it was written that it’s a superstition… so the manual is more about being kind and considerate.

I also have a vivid memory of hearing such a story from an elderly person.

It was something about the air disappearing and suffocating to death if you close the door and turn on the fan.

I know it’s a nonsensical story.

…I can’t even count the number of times I, in my human body, slept with the door closed and the fan on.

If it really killed me, I wouldn’t have become a slime like this.

But.

What if the fan in front of my eyes actually makes that happen?

It’s a really absurd story, but after seeing my existence, the flying whale, the infinitly multiplying canned food, etc., not believing it wouldn’t be wise…

It would be stupid not to believe.

And since I’m smart, of course, I believe it.

Then does that fan eliminate air in a space deemed sealed… or something like that?

To be honest, I could roughly guess, but I wasn’t really sure what was happening either.

…F-Figuring that out is Han Seori’s job, isn’t it?

Anyway.

Since it didn’t seem to have any other functions, I pressed the button without hesitation.

The stop button, that is.

They abandoned the facility just because you only need to press one button.

Hmm… well, in this world, there are buttons that launch nuclear missiles if you press them, so abandoning one facility might be trivial.

As I pressed the button, there was a *click* sound.

The whirling fan expelled its last breath of air and…

*Poof.*

Turned off.

It was truly an absurdly anticlimactic end.

By the way.

Why doesn’t this have a cord?

…If you could generate electricity with this, wouldn’t perpetual motion be possible?

It seems like it would be woefully insufficient for that.

Thinking those silly thoughts, I picked up the stopped fan.

Wondering if it was over now, I returned to where I had entered.

I put down the stopped fan there and sat on the floor, waiting for the door to open.

But the door doesn’t open this time either.

Is it not time yet?

As I was tilting my head, I remembered the knowledge pouch twitching this way and that.

…No way.

Could it be that there was more than one fan?

My body, having already acclimated to the inside, found it too difficult to tell if the strange phenomenon in this building had ended.

When I thought about it, my body was still bouncing around, so it seemed like the strange phenomenon hadn’t ended yet.

Yeah… there’s no way it would end this easily.

I, with my jiggling slime body, looked around and approached Sosik.

And then I set him down next to the fan.

I pointed to my eyes with my fingers and then pointed to the fan.

Conveying the meaning of always keeping watch.

Seeing that gesture, Sosik halfheartedly nodded and plopped down next to the fan.

…No, I told you to watch in case it suddenly moves, so why are you lying down.

Ah.

Does lying down not matter?

If he sees the world the same way I do, he should be able to see the fan no matter what position he’s in.

Still.

Somehow, my heart felt uncomfortable seeing him keeping watch in such a sprawled-out posture.

Is it like seeing a new recruit assigned to guard duty nodding off in the guardhouse as soon as he was stationed?

…There was no good way to motivate him either, so I just gave up.

I didn’t want to waste energy on just that.

Shaking my head, I left the fan and Sosik behind and moved my feet to search for another fan.

For me who obtained the cheat key of the ventilation duct, a locked door was no obstacle.

Since the knowledge pouch told me the location of the fan, the work proceeded relatively smoothly.

I followed the knowledge pouch to find fans, and when I came across another locked door, I infiltrated through the ventilation duct.

Inside, there was always an emergency release device, so the number of open doors grew one by one.

…And in proportion to that, the number of fans also gradually increased one by one.

The facility I entered was wider than I thought, so while it went smoothly, it took quite some time.

In addition to it being wide, my small body seemed to… play a part as well.

How many fans did I move like that?

Eventually, when I put a fan at the entrance.

There were so many fans gathered that if you kicked them, they would clatter.

Looking at it this way, it feels like I’ve come to a secondhand shop.

With all their different shapes, it really feels like I’ve come to a bazaar.

At that point, I started to feel a bit anxious.

What if I gathered all these fans, and when the door opened, the fans all turned on at once?

Since my body bubbled after the entrance closed, it might be fine, but.

…You never know what might happen.

If Han Seori and Kim Cheonsu, who came down trusting me… experience the same thing I did when I first came here…

Ugh.

I didn’t feel very good.

I didn’t like that.

Feeling anxious, I, being a bit smart, was able to quickly come up with a solution.

If fans operating is the problem.

Then I just need to make it so they can’t operate, right?

Completely destroying them seemed like it might get me in trouble…

There’s only one way to stop fans that spin on their own in a place where electricity flows to other areas.

I called Daesik and Sosik.

When I gestured, Daesik toddled over, showing enthusiasm, while Sosik grumbled as he approached.

I sat the two jellies that approached with unique personalities in front of them and disassembled the fan.

I removed the front panel, turned the connected part to separate the blades, and showed them.

If you reassemble the front panel…

You’re left with one fan without blades to spin and just the blades.

After showing them that, I looked at the guys and pointed to the fan.

Daesik thrust his doll fists forward, showing eagerness, while Sosik predictably showed a look of disgust.

That Sosik is really a spoiled one.

Jungsik wants to but can’t because he’s a whale.

Will the day come when you understand the sadness of wanting to work but being unable to?

…I don’t know about that.

But.

I resolutely pointed to the fan, and Sosik, seeming to think he had no choice, trudged over and started disassembling the fan.

Though he put away his hands and used tentacles, he was doing it, so I left him alone.

The two jellies, perhaps because they take after me and are smart, did a pretty good job of disassembling the fans after being shown once.

Feeling satisfied, I left the fan disassembly factory behind and moved my bobbing steps with Jungsik to collect the remaining fans.

Now, the structure of this building is clear in my head.

It seemed I could wrap up the job of collecting fans soon.

The feeling of adventuring was already gone… but it was still somewhat gratifying.

Because the feeling of solving some bizarre problem still remained.

Even if it was close to a treasure hunt with the answer key visible.

…If I think about wasting time finding where the fans are, it’s a bit terrible.

It would have been easy if I were… just the size of an average woman. But for the small and smart me, this facility was too big.

While going back and forth between the entrance and inside like that.

I finally saw a fan that gave off the strong feeling that it was the last one.

Since it was wedged in the deepest place, this had to be the last one.

If this isn’t the last one…

I don’t know.

I muttered complaints that wouldn’t reach anyone’s ears.

The whirling fan.

I turned off its power.

With a *click*.

As the fan stopped operating.

*Clang!*

*Creaak! Screech!*

Strange sounds began to echo throughout the entire building.