Seoul Object Story

Chapter 72: Gyeyang Mountain Temporary Camp - Aftermath (2)

Reaper (MC) POV:

---

I was surrounded by golden Reapers with a ghost cat on my belly.

Meow.

'Huh? When are we going back to the Research Institute? If we see the collapsed director being dragged into the Research Institute isolation room, won't we end up not going back?'

The cat, thinking I'm taking too long, punched my belly with its paws repeatedly.

'Well, it seems the detective is trying to call someone, so it will be soon.'

As I was lying down chatting with the cat, the detective and junior who had disappeared somewhere reappeared in the vacant lot.

The detective approached the 'client' Object, and the junior came to where I was lying down.

The junior put her arm under my hands and lifted me up, hugging me again.

From behind, she held me tightly, pressing her cheeks against mine.

Annoying.

I relaxed my body completely, and as I did, Junior lifted me up high.

"Wow, Reaper is as flexible as a cat!"

The junior was delighted, saying "Wow, Reaper got longer!"

The junior was happy, plus having a good time with the crackling flame inside me was a pleasant experience.

***

Yellow Detective POV:

---

The vacant lot we returned to was less hectic than before.

The client's younger brother had fallen asleep, and the gray Reaper had been captured by the junior and was now limp.

The Golden Reapers, who had made the vacant lot most hectic, had gathered and curled up like balls to sleep.

Even while sleeping, they seemed to be still on guard around the director, judging by how they were scattered all around him.

In fact, some of the golden Reapers were rubbing their sleepy eyes while still watching over the director's corpse.

Why do the golden Reapers hate the director so much?

I walked over to my client, who was lying next to her brother, and handed her the golden heart.

"Ah... as expected."

Even without any explanation, the client seemed to understand something.

"I did feel it was strange somehow. The scenery of the camp I remembered, the memories. In all of those places, it felt like I didn't have a place. It was definitely a landscape my brother and I had experienced, but it felt ambiguous, as if the ground beneath me would collapse."

The client looked at the golden heart inside the glass bottle and stroked the surface of the bottle.

"Before I started to feel strange, the camp was such a happy place. An artificial fantasy created by the Object, but still. We were poor, but my brother and I ate and slept together, and all the residents were kind. It was really like a dream. But at some point, I started feeling out of place."

The client let out a deep sigh.

"It would have been better if I hadn't noticed it... I was so comfortable and happy that I ended up feeling the strangeness. When I was struggling with that sense of unfamiliarity, my brother came and made a request. A simple request that would just take a long time. Maybe the brother who made that request knew that the camp and himself were fake."

The client handed the golden heart back to me and said,

"After that, I made the request, and met my real brother like this. I'm the fake one, though. Please keep the heart, detective. It feels right to do it that way. And I should be able to give you the request fee soon, so please wait."

With everything said, the client's expression looked refreshed, and she turned back towards her younger brother.

The heart was still beating inside the glass bottle I had taken back.

I put away the bottle with the heart and turned around.

I guess this wraps up this request completely.

Hmm, for a case involving Objects, can this be considered a happy ending?

***

Yerin POV:

---

The phone installed inside the Sehee Research Institute office made a loud noise.

"This is Sehee Research Institute."

Senior Kim Jungroo answered the phone with a heavy voice.

It seems to be about the Incheon Gyeyang Mountain Temporary Camp, but what's going on?

Our Research Institute doesn't really have much to do with the Incheon area.

Judging by how the senior's brow furrowed more and more as the call went on, it didn't seem to be good news.

What kind of incident could happen at our Research Institute these days...?

The missing gray Reaper!

Ah, the Reaper has finally been found.

Like Pavlov's dog hearing the bell sound, I felt anticipation filling my heart.

I quietly got up and hovered around the senior who was on the phone.

Senior gestured for me to return to my seat, but I stubbornly ignored him and continued to eavesdrop on him.

When the senior finished the call and stood up, I rushed over to him.

"Senior! It's about the gray Reaper, right? They found it at the Gyeyang Mountain Temporary Camp?"

"Yes, so get ready, you'll have to go too."

"Waaa!"

I raised both hands and cheered.

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Finally, Gray Reaper!

I immediately ran back to my seat and started preparing to go out.

***

Yellow Detective POV:

---

A few hours after junior 2 called someone, people started arriving in droves at the Gyeyang Mountain Temporary Camp.

Of course, they weren't the police.

The police were still ignoring the incident related to the Gyeyang Mountain Temporary Camp.

The first to arrive were soldiers exuding an extremely orderly atmosphere.

Since they were the personnel sent by the black guy, they must be soldiers from the association.

I had given junior 2 the black guy's phone number in case the police ignored our request.

As expected, the police ignored our request, and junior 2 asked the black guy for help.

Junior 2 explained the current situation to the black guy and successfully received appropriate support.

The soldiers sent by the association took out a metallic device.

A portable isolation device for isolating Objects.

It was a tool they brought to collect the director.

The association personnel sent by the black guy seemed to be soldiers specializing in Object collection.

Without a word, they carried out their mission silently, exuding a professional atmosphere.

They entered the vacant lot in an orderly fashion and began cleaning up the director's corpse.

They metously scraped the ground, determined not to miss a single piece of flesh. collecting all of the director's remains, they left the vacant lot as quickly and silently as they had arrived.

"Wow, those must be the pros. Definitely different from amateurs like us," junior 2 exclaimed in admiration.

"Well, in my experience, those rigid soldiers tend to die quickly."

"Oh, come on, no way."

Junior 2 looked skeptical, but that's what I've experienced.

The more rigid and inflexible they were, the more often they fell into the traps set by Objects.

The association frequently creates such highly trained professional teams, and there's a reason they keep creating them.

They all end up dying off.

The golden Reapers that had filled the vacant lot also mostly disappeared as soon as the director's corpse was gone.

The golden Reapers, which had been curled up like balls sleeping, strangely woke up when the soldiers touched the director's corpse.

They then stared intently, as if watching over the removal of the corpse.

Once they confirmed the director's corpse safely leaving the vacant lot, the golden Reapers monitoring the corpse melted away into the air and vanished.

Next to arrive was an ambulance.

The medical personnel transported 'Lee Taehoon', the sole survivor of the camp and the client's younger brother, to a nearby hospital.

Of course, the client, unwilling to leave her brother's side, accompanied him as a caregiver.

After that, more association employees began arriving to clean up the gruesome situation at the camp.

And most importantly, personnel from the 'Sehee Research Institute' arrived to take away the gray Reaper.

***

Yerin POV:

---

Looking through the car window, the Gyeyang Mountain Temporary Camp exuded an eerie atmosphere.

A desolate and quiet landscape.

It was clearly a village where people had lived, but the atmosphere felt like a prison camp for inmates.

Corpses were strewn all over the alleys of the camp.

"Senior, this couldn't have been done by the Reaper, right?"

"No, I heard the Gray Reaper wasn't involved. Rather, this massacre was apparently committed by some pseudo-religious group that came over from China. It's hard to get information from overseas, so I don't know much."

Even if the Reaper did it, there would be some reason, but I didn't want the Reaper's notoriety to increase, so it was a relief.

In front of a large underground waterway, big enough for trucks to enter, numerous vehicles were parked.

Following the senior's words that we'd have to walk from here, I hurriedly got out and started walking down the creepy waterway.

A red liquid flowed through the waterway.

The stench of blood all around proved the red liquid flowing wasn't polluted wastewater but bloodwater.

The dark, blood-scented waterway with flowing bloodwater, like a horror movie scene, fortunately didn't have a scary atmosphere.

That's because too many people were passing through this waterway.

A considerable number of association employees were moving blood-stained chairs and tools outside or transporting bags containing corpses.

At the end of the long waterway was a wide vacant lot.

Various people were there, but my eyes saw only one.

Reaper!

The gray Reaper was lying asleep, surrounded by golden Reapers.

"Reaper!"

Hearing my voice, Reaper raised its sleepy head.

Reaper looked so cute rubbing its sleepy eyes!