Episode 58:
There might not be that much time. The gathering group decided to split up while making sure no one was too far away from each other.
In the process, stories such as ‘What are you talking about when the manager is in such critical condition?’, but Lee Jae-heon worked hard to resolve it. He also couldn’t remember the farming points exactly, and there were others to collect separately, so there was nothing he could do. It’s a bit unfair to pretend to know that in front of other people.
‘…I said it was on the left side of the leg…’
Isn’t that right? Was it on the right?
Even though his feet were moving faithfully to the left side, Lee Jae-heon was worried.
Of course, Lee Jae-heon’s memory when recalling his past life was quite good, but it was difficult to recall in detail the contents of a novel that he had read once as a courtesy. Unless you have instantaneous memory, you cannot remember where, how, and what the protagonist did.
Unfortunately, Jaeheon Lee’s ability was none other than regeneration.
‘Of course, it would have been great if the brain cells had been regenerated to a post-human level and the brain could be utilized 100%.’
Anyway, I didn’t remember such trivial things. If you’re not really serious about the novel, how can you remember it? Naturally, Jaeheon Lee did not mean it. Because his life was too busy to be sincere about something like a novel.
He frowned as he tried to recall the contents of the novel as much as he could.
‘The trees have grown so strangely that I can’t tell them apart.’
It was fortunate that the green algae monster was no longer visible. I couldn’t even find the way properly, but look at the special green algae vines that appeared here, and five people died in an instant.
‘…Honestly, it’s so strangely quiet that there’s nothing more ominous about it.’
Lee Jae-heon took a step forward while sighing.
The long trunk of the tree had many eyes that looked like they had been painted with fire. Although Lee Jae-heon’s eyes did not move back and forth like he had seen in his dream before, it was also true that the moment he saw it, he would naturally curse. Even if I was standing in the middle of an amusement park haunted house, I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable at all.
As he walked with his limp leg against a tree, he blinked at the long statue that came straight into his field of vision. It was a sculpture that looked like a snake wrapped around a tree and climbing on it.
“…found.”
A voice filled with emotion naturally flowed out. It was a sincere admiration that I would not have shown even if I were to die if the rest of the group had been present, but it was inevitable that my tired mouth would open while no one was watching.
‘No matter how much trouble I’ve had so far.’
Lee Jae-heon, who quickly came to his senses, passed the old, mossy statue and raised his head as if looking at the sky. The pure white light was barely visible, obscured by countless leaves, but what he wanted to check was not that kind of light.
Hanging from the geometric tree branches, as if a loop had been woven by threading a thread through a hole, were none other than glass-colored round beads.
‘Glass apple.’
It was a kind of themed fruit attached to a small lake.
Lee Jae-heon didn’t know the exact name of that thing either. However, when the main character in the story saw that apple-sized glass beads were edible fruits, he himself called them glass apples. I wonder how on earth he could eat something that looks so smooth, but the main character really liked that fruit.
It was said to be as transparent as a pebble beneath the surface of a small lake, but the inside was filled with a light blue jelly. It didn’t sound like jelly, but in fact, it looked like slightly sweet water that had hardened into a rough consistency. Although the skin is no different from real glass, so you have to be careful not to let the fragments splash into the flesh, the main character evaluated the glass apple quite highly because it was not very small and gave a high feeling of fullness.
If I had to think of another description, it would be…
“….”
It may be an embarrassingly sentimental statement, but it was quite beautiful.
“…depending on your taste.”
In terms of the excessive setting, Lee Jae-heon had nothing to say, but the author who created this world was also not particularly sane. How can you put such a beautiful scene into such an insanely cruel world?
The pure white light shining between the leaves of the blackened tree touches the transparent round glass bead, causing the light to flicker as if a haze is blooming from within, and the sight of the distorted light illuminating the four corners of the forest, which should be dark, is fantastic to anyone’s eyes. It was unrealistic.
But it didn’t feel like the strange fear I felt at the small lake. The moment I raised my head, the excessive sparkle that I saw took my breath away for a moment, my eyes hurt, the inside of my nose tingled, and the sensation spread to my entire body, making the tips of my limbs tingle. A horrifying excitement and agitation tormented my brain at the sight of beauty that I could never see in my original life.
If you asked me if it was a positive reaction, I would firmly nod my head, but even if it was an unwanted emotion for something huge, it was a sight that made my heart tremble.
The light that passed through the glass apple filled the shadow created by the leaves like a broken jewel.
‘…all the fruits near the small lake look like that.’
It doesn’t really look like fruit, though.
Thinking like that, Lee Jae-heon finished his useless thoughts.
In the large lake where the green algae monsters live, there are almost no fruits, including other monsters, but there are many edible plants near the small lake that are perfect for collecting. It was easy to eat not only fruits but also flowers, grass, and trees.
Of course, the main characters in the novel did not particularly enjoy such things. How on earth could these people, who were so anxious to breathe and see what was in front of them, be able to enjoy a meal? It wasn’t for nothing that I pulled out the caterpillar from the tree bark and ate it. It’s a shame that Lee Jae-heon has been taking care of these mentally ill people. Normally, they would have been chewing on tree bark or chewing gum.
Lee Jae-heon walked slowly, unable to hold back the sigh that came out when he thought of the younger chicks. I felt like I had to try the glass apple before telling my group about it.
He blurted out the words consciously.
“…There is also something open in the lower part.”
It was some kind of excuse. This is an excuse to not try this strange-looking fruit when it is in the perfect location to pick it.
I swallowed a sigh.
‘I’ll hear it again later, but it’s better than dragging it on in frustration.’
The memory of being beaten from all sides for drinking lake water once tormented Lee Jae-heon, but even so, he had no intention of looking at each other as if they were throwing bombs. Since he was already confident about the glass apple, it would have been better to eat it to make sure it was safe.
Lee Jae-heon lightly removed the glass apple from the branch and hit it against the solid tree trunk.
Clink
“….”
The shell broke easily like very thin glass.
Although it has never been described in a novel, this fruit seems to have juice in its own right, as the liquid drips down at an appropriate rate from between the neatly peeled peels. The juice was as clear as water, like that of a glass apple. The skin was really like glass, so it would be difficult to get it into the mouth, so I looked closely at the outside, but luckily I couldn’t see any skin embedded in the flesh.
‘Did you say it feels similar to an egg?’
He put his finger into the crack and applied force as if opening a clam. Thinking it was a slightly larger egg, he opened it and the shell was neatly split in half. Lee Jae-heon dropped one side on the floor and looked at the flesh.
A strangely sweet scent passed my nose.
“Where…”
The
teeth sank in without a sound.
The texture was really jelly-like.
However, it did not have a hard or springy texture made by filling it with agar or gelatin, but rather a soft texture that was made by mixing those things very lightly in water and just forming a shape. It was a lumpy feeling of resistance at a level that I couldn’t understand how it was maintaining its round shape.
‘The taste is a bit bland.’
Should I say that I can feel the faint starch that I feel when eating potatoes, sweet potatoes, or corn? While the scent coming from the juice was extremely sweet, the sugar you could feel on your tongue was about half a teaspoon of sugar.
When I think about how the main character and his party filled their stomachs with glass apples in the mid to late part… it reminds me of the old yellow crop again.
And to my surprise,
“Oh.”
I felt really full.
‘It’s okay, this is.’
I continued my thoughts as I lightly bit down on the side of my finger covered in juice.
The scent was strong, but it was very soft and the taste was light, so I thought it would go to my liver, but it was quite filling. For no reason, I thought it wasn’t a crop that socialized psychopaths valued highly.
‘At this rate, I think I’ll be fine for the day if I just take a few items depending on the number of people…’
Lee Jae-heon, who was slowly thinking about ‘how can I explain this so that I don’t get criticized’, stopped all his actions when he felt a sign of popularity nearby.
“….”
“What… were you eating?”
“…shit.”
I’m not ready to make excuses yet.
* * *
After receiving a hint from Jeong In-ho, pretending not to notice. So, it was only after about 10 minutes had passed that Jaeheon Lee was able to come up with a proper excuse.
He opened his mouth with an embarrassed expression on his face.
“I had already tried it… so I knew it was safe.”
It was a kind of gabulgi.
Just as it is impossible to give an answer to the frequently used question in society, ‘Don’t you take care of your facial expressions?’, Lee Jae-heon’s past history is still an area that cannot be approached hastily as the protagonist, so there was nothing to refute. Actually, I’m basing my concept on this taste.
In this case, from the protagonist’s perspective, I couldn’t say ‘Don’t begrudge him’ because I didn’t know his past history, and I couldn’t cast ‘You’re fucking with me’ out of politeness as a human being, as it might touch his sensitive memories that are likely to be present. It was the best excuse Jaeheon Lee could come up with right now.
In response, Jung In-ho took off his glasses and massaged his eyebrows a few times, but when he put them on, his smile was simple and sincere, as if it had been repainted.
Although his pitch-black eyes were still cursing.
‘If you look at things like that, there is something similar to being a doctor.’
The other person slowly opened his mouth.
“…If that’s the case, there’s nothing we can do. However, there may have been a new poison, and what is the point of cutting it with a single bite, knowing that the party would be worried? “Don’t you really know how much of a burden it is for the manager to come all the way here with me?”
“Do you know that that worry is nonsense in the first place…? To put it bluntly, it’s like hearing a local guide say, ‘I don’t think you should eat that because it looks dangerous’ while watching them eat home-cooked food.”
“I have a lot of things I want to say, but if I can hold on for a little while, Manager. Even if it is a local guide, I cannot understand the sound of home-cooked food at all. Does this world feel like home?”
“That’s right…”
Lee Jae-heon, who was about to reply, “That’s not true,” slowly closed his mouth.
‘…is not it?’
Is this your home?
‘No, of course the house is a bit of bullshit.’
It almost felt like I had come home. This feeling of risking death every time you eat and having your survival threatened 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Therefore, when I first set foot outside the company office, I felt a familiar trauma, and although I was suddenly reminded of my past life, I had no problem adjusting to the other side of the world.
“….”
To be honest, it felt quite like coming home. It sounds pretty crazy to even think about it, but it does sound crazy.
The protagonist’s expression became confused as to how he interpreted that moment of hesitation.
“…Boss?”
“…No, it’s nothing.”
“I believe that you have not completely adapted to this world.”
“….”
Oh, is adapting also a problem?
‘No, but why even that…?’
A question that he could not hide appeared on Lee Jae-heon’s face.
If you take adaptation away from humans, who are creatures of adaptation, what is left? Even for Lee Jae-heon, who remembers how the main character in the novel adapted to the underworld, it almost felt like he was being told something to do. You can’t do that, you bastard.
Jeong In-ho’s face became increasingly hard at Lee Jae-heon’s reaction. Honestly, if you’re going to show a straight face, it would be nice if you could tell me why you’re showing a straight face.
The main character’s voice was a little subdued.
“…What have you adapted to here that you like?”
“…Humans are animals of adaptation….”
“There are degrees to that too.”
He was trying hard to keep a smile on his face, but judging from his slightly distorted eyebrows and lowered gaze, he didn’t seem to be in a very good mood.
“Just like you don’t have to adapt to fear or pain.”
“….”
Oh really?
Lee Jae-heon, the reincarnated and possessed person, was embarrassed.
‘People here can’t adapt to fear or pain…?’
The brain has become complex.
No, so every time you get sick, it hurts again…? Does that make sense? Is it the same for fear? No but really? If you can’t adapt to that, how on earth will you live? What kind of soft world would we all like to live in?
All kinds of questions swirled inside Lee Jae-heon. If I had to use an analogy, I felt like a native Korean who had heard for the first time in my life that ssamjang was spicy from a foreigner.
‘No, no.’
To be precise, I should say it’s the same feeling I got when I saw the amount of garlic used in foreign garlic rice. Since you guys also use garlic, I thought it would be more than a handful and a half in garlic rice, but it was like seeing them put in less than my dad’s spoonful… To put it simply and simply, it
was a culture shock.
‘Does that make sense? ‘Can’t adapt?’
Even though I knew there was value in pain, this was a bit of a shock.
“Why…”
How on earth do you live like that…? If I live like that, it seems like I’m living a good life, right? Life is like life, right? Isn’t it true that you don’t need to get used to pain if you don’t have to worry about it in your life? Was it really that the whole world was a chick on a cushion?
Lee Jae-heon, who was engulfed in shock, fear, and oblivion, barely came to his senses and opened his mouth.
“…Is everyone like that in the first place…?”
Correction, I wasn’t in my right mind yet.
Lee Jae-heon quickly slapped his cheek once and then spat it out again.
“I’m sorry I lied.”
“…Why the cheeks again….”
“I probably won’t be particularly careful in the future. Like you, I find it frustrating to spend time worrying about getting sick in advance, so I’d rather check myself first in the meantime. “It’s more efficient that way.”
“….”
“No matter how much you think about it, you won’t always be able to make the right choice, right? Anyway, I’m not forcing anyone to eat it, so you don’t need to worry too much. Isn’t it? “I don’t want to be worried about such inefficiency.”
As he panicked, Lee Jae-heon spoke faster than usual, and Assistant Manager Jeong In-ho kept his mouth shut due to the momentum. Those pitch black eyes were so explicit that it was scary.
However, as he prepared excuses every time and thought about nagging, Lee Jae-heon couldn’t just back down.
“Just think comfortably. “Aren’t you saying I’ll get sick instead?”
“…You speak so easily.”
The other person’s voice became stiff, but he continued speaking without noticing.
“I will not die. “At least if I feel like I’m going to die, I’ll spit out everything I know and die.”
“I’m not saying that.”
“…That’s a bit surprising, but yeah. You might feel guilty. You know, there’s no need to be stupid. Do you feel like this is someone’s one-sided sacrifice? “Do I really think I’m such a good person?”
“That’s not true, but”
“Don’t you already know, Jeong In-ho?”
I just spat out the words.
“I’m a really bad person.”
“….”
“Jung In-ho likes good things. “Even if my actions so far had been lies, I wouldn’t have been able to accept myself for doing those things in the end.”
“…Boss.”
“Think about it. When I told you everything I needed to know and then my arms and legs were cut off and I became useless. When I did something so bad that I couldn’t even remember the things that helped me. “When I have no value or anything. When I just become an unpleasant burden.”
“Chief, stop it.”
“What if I die like that?”
He smiled slightly.
“Wouldn’t everyone be more comfortable?”
