Seoul Object Story
Chapter 260: The Blessing of the Stars (7)

I was sitting in a chair in the containment room, decorated like a concert hall, pondering something while listening to the soft piano music playing.

The subject of my thoughts was the Hungry Ghost Reaper and the golden harmful Object.

More precisely, I was contemplating…

Where does mental corruption come from?

It was about the phenomenon of Objects turning into so-called ‘harmful’ Objects.

In fact, mini Reapers and firewood were immune to this pollution so I didn’t pay much attention, but the mental corruption that affected Objects had some special aspects.

First, the mental corruption that made Objects ‘harmful’ could never be reversed.

No matter how far back in time one went, the mental corruption was already ‘in an infected state’ as if the past had been altered.

If one didn’t carefully remember what they were like before being infected with mental corruption, even my perception would be distorted to feel like ‘it had always been that way’.

Second, the cause-and-effect relationship was unclear.

Like a result that appeared without a cause, it would suddenly be there.

When checked with the Orange Reaper’s ability, there were cases where it occurred even when the probability of occurrence was zero, and cases where it didn’t occur even when it seemed 100% certain to happen.

A jumbled mix of cause-and-effect relationships and the flow of time.

I knew of one phenomenon like this.

It was the reality erosion caused by the Rainbow Universe and the red giant that came from there.

The reality erosion caused by god-like beings from outside, outer gods, felt exactly like that.

Hmm.

Thinking this, I began to carefully examine the blue lizard jumping around on the piano placed in the center of the containment room.

A very faintly felt ‘harmful’ aura.

I could sense a small pollution, to the degree that even Golden Reapers would treat it as just a harmless Object.

Is the lizard strong, so it doesn’t get polluted easily?

In fact, the lizard was quite a strong Object that could revive infinitely and even use cloning techniques, though it had no attack ability.

Well, that means it’s quite powerful at the point where its destruction condition is complex.

I lowered my gaze to look down at the ghost cat cradled in my arms.

I hadn’t checked the cat’s destruction condition, but even roughly sensing it, the cat was a considerably weak Object.

Probably, if one could just break through its ghost form, it could be easily destroyed like a kitten?

But the ghost cat, like the blue lizard, wasn’t severely polluted.

‘Why are you fine?’

The cat, perhaps thinking I was picking a fight for no reason, threw a cat punch at my cheek as soon as it heard those words.

The more I looked into mental corruption, the more it felt a bit like the Rainbow Universe.

If so, wouldn’t there be a way to revive the Hungry Ghost Reaper’s attached Object in the Rainbow Universe?

No, I had a clear intuition that it must be possible.

As my thoughts reached this point, a small clue emerged from my hazy memories.

Come to think of it, I think there was a mini Reaper who had observed energy related to the ‘Rainbow Universe’?

I closed my eyes and started thinking hard to remember who that was.

A giant of light, truly large enough to cover the sky, was looking down at the buildings.

The Purple Reaper curled up as small as possible, suppressing its presence to the maximum to avoid being found by that giant.

Huff.

And it covered its eyes with its small palms, puffing up its cheeks as if holding its breath.

In the Purple Reaper’s mind, it seemed clear that the blue starlight giant was looking for it.

Since it was emitting an aura that drove out all Objects not under the giant’s control, that must be it.

Thanks to that expelling aura, the Purple Reaper’s power was continuously increasing, but perhaps because of that, it seemed the giant was also sensing the Purple Reaper’s existence.

Should I call Mom?

The Purple Reaper started pondering with its eyes still covered.

The desire to continue traveling intimately with its attached human, just the two of them.

The desire to quickly call Mom because its attached human might be in danger.

The feeling that it might be able to fight now that its energy, which had always been lacking, was continuously filling up.

These three thoughts were all mixed up, making it difficult to reach a conclusion.

The giant that had been searching for the Purple Reaper like this disappeared as the morning sun rose.

The giant’s pursuit is getting closer and closer.

What should I do?

The Purple Reaper was repeatedly pondering while preparing breakfast for its attached human who seemed about to wake up.

The man was enjoying a simple breakfast of bread, ham, and strong espresso while decoding the file that had been in storage location 41 left by the old man.

It was an encrypted USB, so decoding took quite some time.

But since it was made with the purpose of being left for the man, it wasn’t impossible to decode or extremely time-consuming.

Beep.

When the decoding was finished on the computer, a light sound rang out.

And its contents began to be displayed on the screen.

<If this file has been passed to you, I must already be dead.>

The document that started with this sentence contained a short story.

That the old man, as a member of the ‘Organization’, had been in charge of the man’s sister, just as he had been for the man now.

What his sister had been investigating.

Along with a map, the location where his sister had last headed was written.

<Lastly, I’m sorry.>

<I should have told you earlier, but I couldn’t.>

And at the end of the writing was an apology for not being able to tell him because it was heartbreaking to see a young person’s life being lost meaninglessly, and a warning about that place.

“Finally…!”

The man tapped the location marked on the map, his voice excited at the thought of discovering his sister’s final destination.

But perhaps because he was too focused on the map, he didn’t notice the shocked expression of the Purple Reaper looking at the map from his shoulder.

The place where the blue starlight giant appears!

The location marked on the map was pointing to the ominous place where the blue starlight giant rose every night.

Lunchtime at Sehee Research Institute.

There was a researcher walking around with a small photo, looking for something.

“Have you seen this Object?”

The photo contained an image of the Golden Hungry Ghost Reaper sleeping on a small cushion.

The researcher was going around asking various people as if looking for a lost puppy.

But no one knew the whereabouts of the Golden Hungry Ghost Reaper.

Worrying about an Object.

It seemed like a completely unnecessary worry, but for some reason, the researcher couldn’t shake off the anxiety.

The reason was simple.

Only a day had passed, but the memories were becoming vague.

The existence wasn’t forgotten, but the cute and gentle appearance was becoming blurry.

It was so cute.

It was so fun.

There were still many things I wanted to do together.

This isn’t natural.

The researcher finally started asking even the mini Reapers lying in the inner courtyard of Sehee Research Institute.

Shake shake.

But the numerous Black Reapers and Golden Reapers in the courtyard just shook their heads with faces that said they didn’t know at all.

“Have you seen this child?”

At the researcher’s question, a Black Reaper shook its head with a slightly gloomy face.

And that Black Reaper watched the researcher’s back as they went towards other mini Reapers with a somewhat regretful expression.

Deep in the mini Reaper garden, at the marshmallow hut.

The Hungry Ghost Reaper, wearing a gloomy expression, had come to the hut where the blue-haired girl was lying and was looking down at her.

Poke poke.

The Hungry Ghost Reaper, sad because the Golden Hungry Ghost Reaper had died, was poking the blue-haired girl’s cheek, recalling old memories.

It was a memory related to a boy and a dog that had died from touching evolution fluid.

Back then, the master had ground up the corpse and made a guardian.

It was a grotesque guardian with the face of a rotten, mushy dog instead of an Hungry Ghost’s face, so that the boy wouldn’t be sad anymore.

Seeing that, it seemed certain that the one inside the lead doll now was indeed the former master.

It’s something I’ve thought for a while, but I wish they would just say they can’t do something when they can’t.

While reminiscing by the blue-haired girl’s side like this, suddenly the door of the hut burst open.

Here you are!

It was the grinning master.

I’ve found a solution, so let’s go quickly!

Looking at the Gray Reaper pulling its hand with a very excited expression, the Hungry Ghost Reaper followed with a mix of big anxiety and small hope.

When he went to the place marked on the map, what greeted the man was an incredibly thick and blue fog.

The fog that suddenly appeared as he passed between buildings was so thick he could barely see his own feet.

It was a sight hard to imagine being in the middle of a city.

Perhaps because of the fog, the Purple Reaper was looking around with a very tense expression.

As the man carefully stepped further into the fog, he recalled the memo his sister had left.

A simple memo that read:

<I need to go to where the star fell.>

Of course, as soon as the man saw that memo, he had gone to the place known as ‘where the star fell’.

Naturally, his target was the park square famous for being where the blessing of the stars began.

But he couldn’t find any trace of his sister there.

It’s clear. This must be the real ‘place where the star fell’.

The deeper he went into the fog, the stronger his intuition became that this was the real ‘place where the star fell’.

The star that drove Objects out of this land and created beings close to Objects called ‘Chosen Ones’.

There was no way the place where that star fell could be as ordinary as that park.

As he went deeper into the blue-tinted fog, increasingly strange phenomena began to occur.

A glowing blue butterfly suddenly appearing, returning to its decayed chrysalis and dying.

The man’s footprints not being left behind, only appearing ahead of him.

…

Unsettling things were happening one after another, enough to make him want to turn back immediately.

As the man slowly advanced like this, he stopped his steps and looked back.

[Brother.]

His sister’s voice, as vivid as if it were whispering in his ear, could be heard.

And deep in the blue fog, he thought he could faintly see a silhouette that looked like his sister.