I’ll Save You, Jelly Alien!
Chapter : 10
“I’ll buy it. I’ll buy it, so adjust the price instead.”
“Excuse me?”
“No matter how you look at it, it’s an old used item. I can’t pay full price.”
Anything that was being forced on me had to be bought.
Buying it was fine.
But what if I couldn’t afford the price?
Then I could just bargain it down.
Even if it failed, it didn’t matter.
‘If I hold out long enough, my purification power will recharge anyway.’
“Th-that’s…”
“Then I’ll just keep walking around until I find something I actually like.”
I lifted my chin and narrowed my eyes lazily. It was the expression of an unyielding, troublesome customer.
It probably looked like a declaration that I wouldn’t back down until they negotiated.
Cha Hae-eon stared at me like I was ridiculous. As if asking, was that your plan?
Do you really think that’ll work? his gaze seemed to say.
At that moment, the employee spoke as if they had been waiting for it.
“There happens to be a discount event right now. Would you like to participate?”
I shrugged my shoulders while looking at Cha Hae-eon.
See? It worked.
Before I knew it, the employee was holding a large raffle box.
“Please draw one.”
The employee held the box out toward me.
“This is the event?”
“Yes, customer! You can purchase the item at the price written on the paper you draw.”
“I see.”
While I nodded along to the explanation, Cha Hae-eon looked like everything was doomed.
Since there was no way to manipulate a raffle, he probably thought we were completely trapped.
But I looked at the raffle box without much concern.
What were the odds? 1 in 50? 1 in 100? Or maybe there wasn’t even a winning slip at all.
Judging by the employee’s confident tone, that seemed likely.
But who did they think I was?
I boldly reached into the raffle box.
I was an alien from an advanced civilization.
‘Activate Decoration.’
“Decoration” was a feature used in the game to decorate farms—placing fences, changing house exteriors, or applying different skins to Planetmons.
This freedom was possible because, in the game’s setting, Earth’s civilization was below that of aliens.
Therefore—
I pulled out a piece of paper from the box. As expected, it said “Lose.”
But I confidently unfolded it and showed it to the employee.
“Looks like I got a 0% win?”
Changing the text written on paper was child’s play.
Tricks like this were nothing more than products of a lower civilization, easily manipulated with a single finger.
As I smirked, the employee froze.
If they had a visible face, it would probably have been filled with disbelief.
“That… can’t be…”
With those final words, the employee’s body crumbled and disappeared.
I picked up the phone I had obtained for free.
Cha Hae-eon stared at it blankly.
“What exactly are you?”
“A normal alien.”
“….”
Cha Hae-eon seemed speechless.
What, why?
Soon, we gathered a bunch of zucchini, free-range eggs, wine-aged pork, Shine Muscat grapes, and various instant foods, and started moving.
I was a bit tense while passing between the employees, but no one stopped us.
‘Can we really just leave like this?’
We glanced at each other, pretending nothing was wrong, while walking as fast as possible out of the place.
Bbyok bbyok bbyok bbyok.
By the time we reached the stairs in front of Yongsan Station, the sun had already set.
I blankly stared at Cha Hae-eon’s back as he strode down the stairs.
‘…Can I follow him?’
Seeing him walk away without hesitation made me feel a bit guilty, like I had been too selfish in the mall.
But my favorability had increased…
Is it okay to follow him?
Clutching the phone tightly, I shuffled my feet nervously.
Couldn’t we go together somehow? Did I really have to find somewhere else?
As I hesitated, Cha Hae-eon, who had been descending the stairs, turned around.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
He didn’t ask if I could follow.
Afraid he might change his mind, I quickly shouted,
“I’m coming!”
Bbyobyo-bbyok!
Cha Hae-eon really is kind!
I instantly became full of confidence.
“Cha Hae-eon, I used too much energy purifying. Carry me.”
Even if he tried to abandon me now, I’d cling to him like glue.
Instead of carrying me, Cha Hae-eon grabbed both my ears with one hand and carried me dangling.
Still… that’s progress.
That night.
After eating the pork that Cha Hae-eon grilled and patting my full belly, I went out to the wooden floor.
My spaceship sat alone in the middle of it.
I slipped inside and fiddled with the phone I had been holding the whole time.
Cha Hae-eon had looked at me suspiciously for not letting go of it, but when I said I was interested in human technology, he just nodded bluntly.
As if thinking, what could you even do with that?
He subtly looks down on me.
“Hmph.”
Snorting, I pressed the power button.
Why was my phone here? What did it even mean?
“Oh, it turned on.”
Thankfully, there was still some battery left.
The first thing I wanted to check was, of course, <Ppojjak Ppojjak! Planetmon!>.
In web novels, don’t people usually enter the game itself?
Why had I become the game’s protagonist in reality instead?
Countless questions crossed my mind, making my head spin.
I didn’t know if launching the game would answer anything, but maybe I’d find a clue.
I let out a long breath and tapped the game.
Click.
With a sparkling sound, the loading screen appeared.
The familiar game logo showed up, and I held my breath in anticipation.
Since I logged in, the jelly alien should come out and greet me.
But…
[<Ppojjak Ppojjak! Planetmon!> service has been terminated as of xx year xx month xx day.
Thank you for your support, and we wish you all the best in the future.]
Only the service termination message was displayed.
“What?!”
I stared at the screen in shock.
The service suddenly ended?!
‘Then what about my items? My skins? My Planetmons?!’
I quickly opened the inventory, but it was completely empty.
All the items I had gathered with sweat and tears were gone without a trace.
A hollow sigh escaped me.
As I turned the empty window back and forth—
A rainbow light burst from one corner.
‘What’s this…?’
Within the rainbow glow was an egg.
‘A Planetmon egg?’
My eyes widened.
If it was a rainbow-colored egg, then—
‘That’s S-rank?!’
Normally, eggs give random ranks, but a rainbow-colored egg guarantees an S-rank Planetmon.
A real S-rank?!
Excited, I lifted the phone above my head and shook it wildly—then suddenly froze.
‘Wait. This isn’t the time to be happy. Is this… everything?’
For a moment, my gamer instincts had taken over, obsessing over items.
But now, it was all just meaningless graphics.
Wasn’t there anything that could give me a clue about my situation?
I checked the notice from top to bottom, even upside down, trying everything—
Then I sighed deeply and flopped down.
‘It wouldn’t be solved this easily, huh.’
My lips pouted.
The phone screen only showed the egg, enlarged.
The server’s shut down, so why even give me this?
‘Unless it pops out of the screen or something.’
As I thought that and dragged the egg around—
The egg suddenly disappeared from the screen—
—and dropped with a thud inside the spaceship.
“…Huh?”
