The Jelly Alien Will Save You! Chapter 75

* * *

 

Gong Juwon looked back.

 

He thought he had heard something resembling a cry, but was it just his imagination?

 

Just then, one of his squad members asked in a whisper:

 

“Company Commander. Do you really think we can catch a Calamity?”

 

“….”

 

Juwon sighed inwardly as he looked at the new squad members following behind him.

 

Every single one of them was terrified.

 

Gong Juwon lowered his eyes.

 

A Calamity.

 

Having confronted that immense power multiple times, he knew all too well.

 

With their current combat strength, surviving an encounter with a Calamity would be next to impossible.

 

Naturally, he should have told them it was impossible, but he couldn’t very well crush his squad’s morale, either.

 

Because they were currently on a reconnaissance mission to take down a Calamity.

 

“Do not waste your thoughts on useless things during a mission.”

 

Just as he tried to brush off the question, another squad member grumbled:

 

“The Battalion Commander is being too harsh, honestly. How long has it even been since you returned, sir, for him to throw you straight into a mission…?”

 

At those words, Juwon’s face couldn’t help but harden.

 

Because he, too, had thought he would be able to see his younger sibling as long as he returned.

 

Though he didn’t let it show on the surface, his teeth ground together.

 

During the time he had been missing, command of the base had changed hands.

 

The newly appointed Major looked at him, who had returned alive, with a displeased eye. 

 

“…So.”

 

Major Kang Giseok leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed, looking up at Captain Gong Juwon.

 

“The contamination was completely purified without me even knowing?” 

 

“Yes, that is correct.”

 

“And you want me to believe that?” 

 

Kang Giseok snorted.

 

“You’ve got something, don’t you? What are you hiding?”

 

“No, sir. Nothing at all.”

 

Rising from his seat, Kang Giseok jabbed Gong Juwon’s shoulder repeatedly.

 

“How am I supposed to believe a word you say, huh? How you managed to survive all alone in Yongsan while your entire squad was wiped out, how you dodged the Calamities and stayed alive. Blaming it all on some yellow protective suit or whatever without a shred of evidence.”

 

“I am a witness to the yellow hazmat suit matter. I saw it clearly with my own two eyes.” 

 

“That’s precisely my point. You, Company Commander Gong Juwon, the so-called witness, aren’t trustworthy.”

 

Gong Juwon lowered his head.

 

“Captain Gong Juwon.”

 

“Yes.” 

 

“A soldier speaks through the execution of his mission. You know that, right?”

 

“Yes. I am aware.” 

 

“Good. That’s how it should be.”

 

Chuckling under his breath, Kang Giseok said:

 

“I have an operation in the works.”

 

Kang Giseok spread his arms with dramatic flair as he continued:

 

“We are going to kill Calamity.”

 

“Pardon?”

 

Gong Juwon asked back in a stunned voice. He couldn’t begin to fathom what kind of nonsense he was hearing.

 

“There’s a place where a pond appeared overnight, and there’s a Calamity inside it. According to reports, it bewitches people, but it’s not as dangerous as the others. There haven’t been many casualties.”

 

Gong Juwon’s brow twitched. Just because there weren’t many victims didn’t mean there were none. 

 

However, Kang Giseok spoke as if he didn’t care about such things 

 

“Our unit will be the first in history to bring down a Calamity.”

 

“Battalion Commander, according to my field judgment experience…” 

 

Kang Giseok shushed him, raising an index finger.

 

“Yongsan’s contamination is thinning. You probably wouldn’t know, but ever since that vending machine appeared, civilians have been swarming into the contaminated zone like mad to hunt Calamities. Fearless fools.”

 

Being able to defend against contamination with items from the vending machine was a tremendous merit. At the same time, it was an opportunity to build achievements. 

 

Kang Giseok had no intention of conceding that historic first to civilians—no, to anyone.

 

“I’ll assign you some men, so go scout it out. See with your own two eyes what kind of b*stard it is and report back. Understood?”

 

Snapping out of his reverie, Gong Juwon swallowed a silent sigh and kept walking.

 

* * *

 

For ten thousand years and an entire additional year, the Ten-Thousand-Year Carp, ‘Yeonjam,’ had consumed nothing but the pure, pristine dew of dawn. He had cast aside all greed and accumulated spiritual merit.

 

Thus, he believed he would soon be able to ascend to the heavens, yet…….

 

He looked down at his own blackened arm, completely corroded by contamination.

 

His colossal true body had been swallowed by murky energy in an instant, and an inexplicable compulsion had wrapped around him.

 

The compulsion to drag down and drown everything that moved in the pond.

 

Yet by nature, he was a sacred being.

 

He could not simply allow mere contamination to consume his mind.

 

And so, Yeonjam had barely managed to sever a part of himself from his true body.

 

Even so, he could not entirely halt the contamination. Nor could he stop the tears that fell because of it.

 

As he dwelt upon the cause of his sorrow, his stomach growled once again. His insides were churning uncontrollably.

 

Was this insatiable appetite the doing of the contamination?

 

He had endured it well all this time, but today it proved terribly difficult.

 

Following a scent so delicious it was unbearable to resist, he had found a frog, and before he knew it, he had scooped the frog up and brought it back.

 

Yet when he actually tried to eat it, lingering attachment to ascension remained, so he was merely shedding tears endlessly, but…. 

 

“Do you want to eat more?” 

 

A teardrop trickled down Yeonjam’s smooth cheek.

 

His eyes were glued to the boiled egg, and bits of egg yolk smeared the corners of his mouth.

 

“If you give it, I shall eat.” 

 

At that, the pale-pink creature—as plump and springy as a boiled egg—held out an egg that looked just like itself.

 

The egg was completely untainted by contamination. An offering purer than dawn’s dew in this contaminated world.

 

He couldn’t fathom how such a thing could exist, but rather than pondering the reasons, he wished to fill his belly.

 

“I’ll give you more if you put me down.”

 

At once, the fin wrapping around Dam set her down beside Yeonjam.

 

Yeonjam gazed intently at Dam as she wriggled out of her frog raincoat and squirmed to settle comfortably beside him.

 

Misinterpreting that gaze, Dam held out another egg.

 

“Here, eat some more.”

 

Yeonjam reached out his hand to take the egg.

 

But when their hands brushed, Yeonjam’s shoulders flinched as though struck by an electric current.

 

“Why is your energy so pure?” 

 

As if enchanted, Yeonjam gently kneaded Dam’s hand. Never in all his life had he encountered a being so pure.

 

“Probably because I can purify things.”

 

Dam replied nonchalantly as she clasped his hand tightly with both of hers. Simultaneously, the contamination shrouding Yeonjam began to vanish without a trace.

 

Yeonjam closed his eyes for a moment and relished the invigorating sensation.

 

He inhaled and exhaled deeply, as if taking a breath for the very first time.

 

When the energy eventually receded like an ebbing tide and he slowly opened his eyes, the contamination that had blackened his arm was nowhere to be seen.

 

Once again, tears welled up and fell in heavy drops.

 

To think it could disappear so easily.

 

“Why do you keep crying?”

 

Dam wiped away his tears with the back of her hand.

 

Yeonjam nuzzled his face against the squishy back of her hand. He couldn’t bear the thought of parting from it.

 

Even as Yeonjam inadvertently gripped her hand tight, Dam merely giggled.

 

“….”

 

Yeonjam suddenly felt a different greed welling up instead of an appetite. 

 

I want this pale-pink thing.

 

I want to keep it beneath my pond, cherishing it like gold, treasuring it like jade.

 

Even if it means I shall never reach the heavens….