Seoul Object Story
Chapter 274: Free City Alliance (7)

Deep within the Free City Alliance, at the hideout where Qing and her companions stayed.

After finishing a mission, Qing often sat on the windowsill, gazing outside.

The air in the Free City Alliance was heavily polluted, making it difficult for ordinary people to breathe, but strangely, the pollution barely obstructed the view.

Should it be called transparent pollutants? Anyway, the fact that the pollution wasn’t visible to the eye made it feel even more annoying.

Air that ‘looked’ clear and clean, like streets after rain.

But if an ordinary person carelessly inhaled that seemingly clean air, their lungs would be damaged, causing them to cough up blood.

Moreover, its transparency seemed to correlate with high permeability, allowing intense, skin-damaging ultraviolet rays to beat down.

Today too, Qing sat on the windowsill, her designated spot, looking out the window.

Can’t see anything.

But today, the pollution was particularly severe, blurring the view to the point where the streets were barely visible.

Days like this happened occasionally.

Days when the pollution was so bad that even people with Object lungs avoided going out.

Even on days like this, the areas controlled by the Families were said to be free of air pollution. How on earth did they manage that?

Various questions surfaced and faded in Qing’s mind.

“Qing, isn’t that uncomfortable? How about installing a proper treatment system in the office?”

The woman, sitting on the sofa watching TV, gestured a mask shape near her mouth as she spoke.

“Mm… It’s fine. Need to save money.”

The equipment the woman mentioned was probably a system that created positive pressure to prevent external pollution from entering.

Even though they had earned quite a lot of money from the Family mission this time, it was an excessive luxury.

Qing shook her head, refusing, then trudged over to the TV area.

Usually, she spent time looking out the window, but since she couldn’t see outside, there was no choice.

Qing sat down on the sofa with the woman and started watching TV.

Actually, Qing didn’t particularly like the TV in this neighborhood.

Perhaps because the Free City Alliance kept shoving Objects into their bodies, their minds had become strange, and the TV had become strange too.

Extremely lewd, or extremely cruel.

At least one of the two.

Taking a simple advertisement as an example, there was a home shopping channel that showed scenes of removing internal organs and replacing them with Objects as if it were an engine swap for a car.

The show hosts, covered in blood and dyed red all over, would flash pearly white teeth and smile. The shock Qing received when she first saw that bizarre scene was still deeply etched in her mind.

Even the lines and poses were memorable.

Holding a beating heart next to her face, smiling brightly, she had shouted, [Order now!].

Ugh, gives me the creeps.

Just as Qing braced herself to overcome her disgust and watch TV after a long time, the sound of the door opening was heard, and the large man began to enter the office.

“I’m back.”

The man entering the office was carrying a lot of luggage using his four large hands.

And as the door closed automatically with a Kwang-!, the impact caused a can of grasshoppers on the shelf to roll off, land on a ladle, spin around, and launch like a slingshot projectile.

It looked just like a baseball shot from a pitching machine.

“Ugh.”

Qing let out a small scream as the can hit her head.

The man put down the luggage and laughed.

“Haha. Qing, you’ve got bad luck lately. Shouldn’t you make a ‘talisman’ with yellow paper or something?”

Qing rubbed the spot where the can hit her head and retorted.

“No way. That occult crap.”

During this, feeling someone staring intently while snickering, she turned her head, but no one was there.

Only the furball was visible.

Could it be?

When Qing caught the furball floating leisurely and met its gaze, she saw pupils rolling around within the Orange Reaper’s closed eyes.

“It was you!”

At that moment, Qing realized, connecting the series of bizarre misfortunes, fortunes, and magic-like phenomena.

“You little prankster.”

Qing, half grateful, half annoyed, began to knead the Orange Reaper’s cheeks vigorously.

Around the time the Orange Reaper’s cheeks became puffy, Qing’s mobile phone flashed, signaling an incoming message.

?

She just finished a mission, so there shouldn’t be anyone contacting her?

Qing tilted her head and picked up her mobile phone.

Sehee Research Institute, the long passage leading underground.

I was leading the Golden Reapers, moving towards the underground hot spring.

The Golden Reapers followed me closely like ducklings.

Thump thump.

Thump thump

In the exact same walking posture as mine.

As I led the flock of ducks across Sehee Research Institute, other mini Reapers began to join one by one.

Arriving at the hot spring located underground, a familiar sight greeted my eyes.

Institute-affiliated attached humans and mini Reapers, stealing company time.

And a giant golden statue that immediately caught the eye.

The Golden Reapers who followed me to the hot spring smiled brightly and rushed into the water.

After plopping into the water, the Golden Reapers began waving their hands towards me, calling out.

Mom!

Mom!

Finding a suitable spot and getting into the water, other mini Reapers followed my example, jumping into the water with splashes.

The one showing the most different reaction was the Purple Reaper.

It looked around with wide eyes as if seeing the Sehee Research Institute mini Reaper hot spring for the first time, then carefully pushed its body into the warm water.

Cautiously, starting from the tips of its feet.

The Purple Reaper seemed to like the warm water, closing its eyes and starting to float leisurely, belly up.

Even letting go of the outfit made of shadows, floating leisurely.

It was enjoying it so much that it didn’t even react when I poked its plump belly.

The Purple Reaper’s attached human would like it if I told them about this habit later.

Thinking this, I turned my head and saw a Golden Reaper swimming at high speed.

Some Golden Reapers, perhaps never tiring, would restlessly swim around whenever they entered the water.

Picking one of them up, the Golden Reaper looked up at me, tilting its head.

And when I slowly lowered it near the water by the scruff of its neck, it began to slowly paddle its arms and legs as if swimming.

The Golden Reaper’s limbs slowed down as they moved away from the water and sped up as they got closer.

Hehe.

Finding this amusing, I repeated lifting and lowering it for 20 minutes, until it grabbed my hand and bit it with an ‘Ang’.

Alright, alright. Sorry.

I petted the angry Golden Reaper until its anger subsided, then put it back in the water.

The Golden Reaper then shot across the water at a speed as if equipped with a motor.

After sending the Golden Reaper off like that, I started watching TV on the monitor installed in the hot spring, covered in clinging, whining Golden Reapers.

Since mini Reapers didn’t like TV, the monitor was installed for me.

[The Chinese government has refused the Korean Object Association’s entry into the Free City Alliance.]

[This decision comes amidst recent mutual cooperation between the two countries and is expected to hinder the tracking of the Golden Horns.]

[The Association seems considerably perplexed by the Chinese government’s refusal, which came without any prior indication.]

Stories about the Free City Alliance were frequently appearing on TV.

It was a bit surprising that they were reporting so intensively on events happening overseas.

I thought the Object Association didn’t particularly like Koreans paying attention to foreign countries.

Watching TV, I remembered that one mini Reaper had entered the ‘Free City Alliance’.

Perhaps because it was a city where quite powerful Objects lurked, I could only confirm that it had entered.

Every time I saw news related to Golden Horns, I felt a bit uneasy, feeling like I should visit at least once.

I should go after the ice palace restoration is finished.

A mobile phone blinking silently.

When Qing slowly approached, picked up the phone, and checked it, there was a short message inside.

[PIG: It’s finished.]

The message was sent by a technician running a small factory, who called himself PIG.

In Qing’s memory, it faintly remained as an acronym for some strange phrase like ‘Prototype Something Genius’.

Hearing the news of completion, Qing put on her outdoor mask and coat with a gleeful expression.

Matching Qing’s preparations, the Orange Reaper floated up and settled on top of Qing’s head.

And as if excited about going out together, it stood on Qing’s head on its two legs, repeatedly sitting down and standing up.

Doomchit doomchit.

Finding that distracting, Qing firmly grabbed it and made it sit down like a hat.

“I’m going to PIG ahjussi’s factory for a bit.”

Hearing Qing’s words, the woman stood up from her seat, adjusted Qing’s clothes, and said with a worried expression.

“That PIG guy is somewhat suspicious, should I go with you?”

The woman’s worried voice, but Qing shook her head.

“It’s fine. You said he was suspicious last time, and the time before that, and the time before that, but it was fine every time.”

“No, even so, there’s no way someone who uses such an Object body is sane!”

Well, even Qing thought he wasn’t sane.

PIG’s body was even more peculiar among the free-spirited bodies used in the Free City Alliance.

Namely, a slug with butterfly wings!

Instead of legs, there was a slug-like wriggling mass.

On top of that long mass, where the slug’s head should be, was the upper body of a bald uncle with a protruding belly.

And finally, large, colorful butterfly wings attached to the uncle’s back completed the look!

That body had zero practicality, and even its aesthetic sense was distorted, so there was no way he could be sane.

Actually, in Qing’s opinion, most people living in this city weren’t sane.

Implanting Objects was strange enough, but what was even stranger was their aesthetic sense.

Even though they could freely modify their bodies, there were almost no beautiful people, only bizarre-looking ones.

If only it were full of handsome and pretty people, Qing might have been able to love this city, at least a little…

“Anyway, I’ll be back.”

Hearing her companions say, ‘Okay, see you later,’ she stepped out onto the hazy street.

In the dark and gloomy back alleys of the city, covered in unusually thick pollution today.

Various harmful chemicals mixed in the air, forming toxic gas.

Yellow, blue, and red pollutants clumped together, swirling and filling the alleys, making it difficult even to breathe.

It looked like oil paints spread on water.

In that foul-smelling air, red lights flickered.

Shadows hidden in the darkness began to move slowly.

They were individuals exuding an aura unfitting for the shabby back alleys.

Their Object skin had optical camouflage technology applied, allowing them to blend perfectly with the surroundings.

They looked like illusions floating in the thick pollution, but their sharp gazes shone clearly even in the darkness.

[Target has exited the building.]

[Alright, commence the operation now.]

Along with the emotionless voice, the red lights scattered to their respective positions.

Their movements were swift and composed, like predators stalking prey.

And as they took their positions, even the red lights they had been emitting slowly faded.