The Jelly Alien Will Save You! Chapter 1

Prologue

 

I know. Surviving day by day on stealing crops isn’t exactly something I find pleasant either.

 

And getting caught doing it is even less so.

 

Right, I just got caught stealing crops.

 

Barely tall enough to reach an adult’s knee, with a round, circular silhouette and a body that felt like jelly to the touch, I was currently tied up tightly with rope, unable to budge an inch.

 

Dangling from a tree, I spun round and round, left and right.

 

Spinning to the left.

 

Spinning to the right.

 

“I-I’m dizzy…”

 

 

“Quiet.”

 

I tried letting out a groan, but the farm owner was cold-hearted.

 

“You’re the one who stole the carrots, right?”

 

“Carrots? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

Feigning innocence, I shook my head with wide, naive eyes.

 

I couldn’t see the expression of the man wearing a gas mask, but I could clearly feel that he was highly suspicious of me.

 

“If you lie, I won’t let you go.”

 

“Actually, it was me.”

 

“I knew it.”

 

Tsk.

 

Since I was already caught anyway, I munched on the carrot still left in my mouth.

 

At my shameless attitude, the farm owner looked dumbfounded, and I rolled my eyes around.

 

“Ugh, I’m so di—dizzy…”

 

“Do you really think that’s going to make me let you go?”

 

I glared at him sharply and complained in a sulky voice.

 

“You said you’d let me go. You’re a bad human if you lie.”

 

“A bad human?”

 

The man let out a small chuckle and, instead of replying, aggressively thrust his shovel into the ground.

 

As if to say, if I really were a bad human, you would’ve been finished in one strike.

 

Hieek!

 

The man narrowed his eyes and gave one of my trembling ears a poke. My long, rabbit-like ear compressed inward before popping back out with a bbok. 

 

The man looked me up and down, then asked in a highly suspicious tone.

 

“Just what exactly are you?”

 

I understood him.

 

Honestly, even I would find it strange if a round piece of jelly started talking. Even I find myself strange right now.

 

So, as for how this happened…

 

I began to recall the moment I became like this.

 

Chapter: I Woke Up as a Jelly Alien

 

Beep!

 

[Emergency Risk Response Protocol Activated]

 

Beep!

 

[Emergency Risk Response Protocol Activated]

 

Beep!

 

[Emergency Risk Response Protocol Activated]

 

[If this notification appears, there is a 99.9% probability that you have crash-landed on an alien planet.]

 

Huh?

 

I opened my eyes at the noisy sound and let out a hiccup while staring at the window floating before me.

 

Emergency?

 

Hic!

 

[Scanning the currently landed planet…]

 

[Current Location: Earth, South Korea, Seoul, Yongsan]

 

[Updating location data…]

 

…Yongsan?

 

Unable to easily believe it, my mouth fell open in a daze. As I whipped my head around, I saw the words ‘Yongsan Station’ written in giant letters on the outer wall of a building.

 

I was standing in front of the completely empty Yongsan Station.

 

The plaza, which would have once been bustling with people, had turned into a grassy field, and the cars abandoned haphazardly on the street were entangled with overgrown vines.

 

It was only natural for Yongsan Station to be empty right now.

 

Because the entire Yongsan area was utterly destroyed and covered in a forest due to a ‘Dungeon Break.’

 

I heard the eerie rustling sound of leaves.

 

Ten years ago, something called ‘Dungeons’ suddenly appeared.

 

Dungeons were sub-spaces inhabited by monsters, and if a dungeon couldn’t be cleared, a ‘Dungeon Break’ (a phenomenon where the corrupted sub-space spills out and swallows the surrounding area) would occur.

 

There were more than just a few regions that had been annihilated because of this.

 

Among them, Yongsan was the number one city that the government, the military, and all sorts of guilds desperately wished to reclaim.

 

To think I actually succeeded in entering Yongsan.

 

“…?”

 

Feeling a strange sense of sentimentality, I tilted my head. 

 

Anyway, what in the world happened?

 

Did my relatives, who wanted nothing more than for me to die, dump me here?

 

It wasn’t entirely impossible, but of all places, it was Yongsan.

 

A place you couldn’t reach even if you wanted to. Meaning it was a place you couldn’t dump someone even if you wanted to.

 

Hic!

 

My hiccups wouldn’t stop.

 

…So I probably wasn’t abandoned. I’m still fine.

 

I calmed my shrinking heart and stared at the notification window floating before my eyes. 

 

Beep!

 

[Emergency Risk Response Protocol Activated]

[If this notification appears, there is a 99.9% probability that you have crash-landed on an alien planet.]

[To ensure your safe survival, the Risk Response Protocol suggests ‘Survival Quests’ tailored to your situation.]

 

Alien planet? Crash-landed? Quest?

 

As I read down the incomprehensible phrases, a chill ran down my spine.

 

Then, suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind.

 

‘<Squishy Squishy! Planetmon!>’

 

It was a game I had enjoyed playing right up until the moment I dropped into Yongsan.

 

Like <Pokémon GO> or <Pikmin>, it was a walking game that required turning on the GPS. When you purified the Planetmons you encountered while walking, they dropped seeds and coins, which you could use to grow a farm.

 

‘I used to walk and exercise every day just to collect those seeds and coins…’

 

It was a bit of a hassle, but I liked it because it was the only game that brought vitality to my boring hospital life.

 

Right. The notification window floating before my eyes right now definitely reminded me of that game.

 

Because the protagonist of <Squishy Squishy! Planetmon!> was an ‘alien who crash-landed on Earth,’ the game’s opening always started like this.

 

Beep!

 

[Emergency Risk Response Protocol Activated]

 

—Just like that.

 

Beep!

 

The window, hovering like a hologram before my eyes, continued to ring out with noisy signals. 

 

I stood up, wobbling like a newborn giraffe. Then, I approached one of the cars parked haphazardly on the street.

 

Squeak, squeak, squeak!

 

Every time I took a step, a squeaking noise followed.

 

“…?”

 

But my confusion only lasted a moment. As I craned my neck forward, the blurry reflection of a strawberry-milk-colored jelly doll appeared in the dust-covered car window.

 

‘A jelly…?’

 

A round body with two long, rabbit-like ears attached, and a very tiny, pouty-looking mouth.

 

No way.

 

It can’t be.

 

I waved my hand and tried baring my teeth in a smile.

 

The jelly beyond the car window copied me exactly.

 

The long, stubby ears attached to its head flopped around.

 

“Gasp!”

 

I covered my mouth with both hands.

 

What do you mean ‘no way.’

 

That jelly is me…!

 

My shoulders started to tremble violently.

 

I had opened my eyes to find that, in an instant, I had become an alien who crash-landed on Earth.