Seoul Object Story
Chapter 270: Free City Alliance (3)

As all the Scavengers fell, an endless silence descended around the silver-haired girl.

The shotgun, which had been flying relentlessly through the air just moments before, now lay discarded on the ground as if its job was done.

“Ha… Haha.”

Qing’s dry laughter echoed in the clearing, now as quiet as if nothing had happened.

The sound of rain, which had been grating on her ears, now felt incredibly silent.

The flames from the grenade subsided in the rain, which was cold enough to freeze ordinary water.

Except for a slight indentation in the hard ground, all traces of the life-threatening grenade had vanished.

Crunch. Crunch.

At that moment, a bizarre sound cut through the rain.

!

The sound of bones twisting came from the body of the man who had coughed up so much blood.

“No!”

It was a sound that should never come from someone whose body was enhanced with Objects.

Qing pulled a syringe adorned with luxurious silver from the man’s backpack and plunged it into his body.

The moment she pressed the switch, with a ‘click’, a hidden needle pierced

the man’s body.

It was a syringe called ‘Dice’, which acted like a potion in a game.

Dice boasted a considerable price, but its effect was nothing short of miraculous.

It healed minor abrasions instantly, as expected, and could even restore lost body parts like severed arms in a flash.

It was truly a syringe that could save someone as long as they weren’t dead.

But perhaps because the effect was too extraordinary.

Or perhaps because it was too dreamlike a thing to exist in harsh reality.

As its name suggested, Dice, despite its high price, was an imperfect item.

The probability of the effect occurring upon use was only about 1/6.

In the other 5/6 cases, there was no effect at all.

It was truly rolling the dice with life itself.

Moreover, the probability decreased even further with repeated use in a short time.

“Please. Please. Please.”

Was it Qing’s wish that came true, or was it part of the same miracle as the shotgun?

The man’s body, which had been thrashing as if bones would pierce through the flesh at any moment, calmed down, and his wounds began to disappear cleanly.

“Hah, thank goodness.”

Qing, who had been sitting on the ground tense, let her body go limp.

At that moment, the same sound started again.

Crunch. Crunch.

Qing startled and raised her head towards the man, but fortunately, his body looked fine.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

And the sound increased in number, starting to come from all directions.

It was the sound coming from the corpses of the Scavengers, who had died cleanly, almost unimaginably so from shotgun blasts.

One shot through the eye socket into the brain.

One shot penetrating the gap in their enhanced skin into the heart.

The corpses were so clean they reminded her of ‘Night Hawk’, the sniper boasting the most accurate shots in the Free City Alliance.

The pristine corpses of the Scavengers began to twitch.

Like something moving inside dumpling wrappers.

Like bones moving on their own.

Like clay being kneaded randomly.

They twitched with the sound of breaking bones.

And the more they twitched, the more their internal organs seemed to mush, and they began to spew blood and organ fragments from the seven orifices, like holes appearing in dumplings.

Qing covered her ears as if wanting to block out the unpleasant sound, and squeezed her eyes shut as if wanting to avoid the unpleasant sight.

After the disturbing sounds continued for a while, the corpses suddenly stopped twitching all at once.

Shwaaa.

The sound of heavy rain returned.

Qing’s surroundings were once again enveloped in the familiar sound of rain.

In that rain, the moment Qing slightly opened her eyes, the sound of tearing leather was heard, and blood splattered onto Qing’s face.

It was blood as hot as if boiling.

“!!!!”

And like parasites bursting out of abdomens in a famous movie, horrifically shaped monsters began to emerge, tearing through the Scavengers’ skin.

Multiple legs like spiders, an unpleasant pale red color.

Monsters that looked like human spines with multiple human fingers attached.

These were the Objects that had been grafted onto the Scavengers’ bodies.

Like parasites, these Objects were emerging now that their hosts were dead.

Like horsehair worms emerging from crickets.

“#$%$%#$”

Qing squeezed her eyes shut again and spat out every curse she knew.

Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

Why. Why. Why.

Why would someone put those things into their bodies?

Everyone’s crazy.

Everyone’s out of their minds.

Everyone’s an utter moron.

While Qing kept her eyes shut tight and spewed curses, Objects began to emerge sequentially from the Scavenger bodies.

As the ice-cold rainwater touched the high-temperature surfaces of the Objects, thick steam began to billow out.

It was steam mixed with the unpleasant smell of oil and blood.

And those parasite-like Objects began to crawl into the darkness of the city.

As if they knew where they needed to go.

Mini Reaper Garden, boundary between the snowfield and the Candy Mountains.

A secluded place where other Reapers rarely approached.

I gathered the Orange Reapers there and began explaining the prank we would carry out together.

It was a simple plan: go together to the ice palace built by the Golden Reapers and smash it.

Of course, the real plan was for me to sneak away once the Orange Reapers started smashing and tattle to the Golden Reapers.

Hehe.

I added that if we all caused a ruckus together, the Golden Reapers wouldn’t be able to get too angry.

How about it?

I asked the confident Orange Reapers with my expression.

The Orange Reapers clapped their hands with impressed expressions.

Mother, amazing!

Amazing!

I thought they might refuse, but the enthusiastic cheers that returned exceeded my expectations.

Orange Reapers are indeed kind and smart.

My conscience pricked slightly at having to trap such kind children, but I decided to think of it as social studies for the Orange Reapers.

Hehe.

When I chuckled, the Orange Reapers chuckled too.

Strangely, the smiling faces of the kind Orange Reapers felt a bit ominous.

With their eyes closed, the slightly smiling Orange Reapers looked a bit like masterminds.

Well, it should be fine.

I brushed off that feeling and laughed along with them, excited about the prank we would pull together.

The prank with the Orange Reapers seemed to be proceeding smoothly.

When I went to spy on the Golden Reapers to decide the timing for the prank, all the Golden Reapers happened to be gathered in one place.

It was lucky that the irregularly held ‘Golden Reaper Grand Council’ was taking place.

The Golden Reaper Grand Council was often held for utterly pointless reasons like ‘What is the most delicious pudding?’, and it was a long meeting lasting at least three hours.

!

The Orange Reapers fussed, saying it was a great opportunity, urging me to quickly smash the ice palace.

And the Orange Reapers said they would go fill white Hungry Ghost bellies with hot chocolate to attack the ice palace.

Kyuhinghing.

As if prepared in advance, a large white Hungry Ghost was already caught by the Orange Reapers, whimpering.

Roar!

As the Orange Reapers left, I started smashing the ice palace, feeling like a giant dinosaur.

About 10 minutes passed, and the Orange Reapers were taking too long, making me feel a bit anxious.

Could it be…

Strangely, I felt like the Orange Reapers had betrayed me.

As soon as that feeling arose, I tried to hastily escape the ice palace, but…

At that moment, Orange Reapers began flying in from afar, carrying white Hungry Ghosts.

In the hands of those Orange Reapers were white Hungry Ghosts stuffed so full of hot chocolate they looked about to burst.

As expected, the kind Orange Reapers wouldn’t deceive me.

Relieved by the appearance of the Orange Reapers, I spread my hands towards them and conveyed my will.

Quickly pour the hot chocolate!

Then the Orange Reapers opened the Hungry Ghost’s large mouth.

“Kyuhihi.”

Along with the Hungry Ghost’s somehow unpleasant laughter, the Hungry Ghost’s mouth opened, and a golden wave began to pour out.

!

The golden wave bursting from the Hungry Ghost’s mouth was like heavenly judgment descending.

A wave of Golden Reapers filled with anger, as if embodying the wrath of the heavens.

I was swept away by the golden wave pouring down precisely onto my head.

Like being sucked into an endless ocean.

I sank into the deep sea of the Orange Reapers’ betrayal and the Golden Reapers’ relentless beating.

Just before being swallowed by the golden wave, I caught a fleeting glimpse of an Orange Reaper’s face through the wave.

!

The gentle smile usually on its face was gone, replaced only by a wickedness that seemed to whisper…

“Just as planned.”

A girl shining within the harmful city.

As the Orange Reaper watched that girl, it found it strangely difficult to look away.

Could it be… an attached human?

So the Orange Reaper began to secretly hide and observe the girl.

Sometimes it played pranks.

If she looked happy for no reason, it would make her trip over a stone while walking.

It would make the roulette wheel she sometimes spun for fun always land on ‘lose’.

When it played such pranks, the girl became very depressed.

At those times, the Orange Reaper realized that when the girl was depressed, it also became sad.

So lately, it had been making her hit the jackpot every time she went, but she ended up getting banned, which made her depressed too.

Sniff.

Humans were difficult for the Orange Reaper.

And it also secretly ground up grasshoppers and put them into the white porridge the girl strangely ate exclusively.

“Ueeeck.”

Of course, it stopped that prank after seeing the girl vomit blood profusely after eating just a tiny bit of fingernail-sized grasshopper powder.

Her probability of dying skyrocketed from just that, making it quite difficult to suppress that probability.

And it apologized quietly in its heart.

Sorry.

And today, the moment the girl faced mortal danger.

The Orange Reaper decided to reveal itself to the girl.

The sticky rain felt unpleasant, and it wanted to be held in the girl’s arms.

And it felt that this city was dangerous, so it needed to stick close and protect her.

As it stealthily approached the girl like this, a mischievous urge began to sprout.

The sight of the girl with her eyes shut tight and ears covered, as if terrified of the harmful Objects that had torn out of the human bodies.

Somehow, the Orange Reaper found that appearance cute.

The Orange Reaper skewered one of the harmful Objects with a sharp piece of wire lying on the ground, caught it, and slowly flew towards the girl.

Hehe.

And it slapped that Object onto the girl’s face.

“!!!”

The girl, who had been extremely tense, jumped in surprise, then lost consciousness.

It expected her to just be a little surprised, but the reaction was more than anticipated.

Wake up.

The Orange Reaper slapped the cheek of its collapsed attached human, trying to wake her, but she showed no sign of waking up.

At the same time, the man began to stir as if waking up.

Sniff.

It had wanted to be petted extensively by its attached human today, but it seemed it would have to postpone it for the next opportunity.