Seoul Object Story
Chapter 279: Free City Alliance: Epilogue (1)

The rulers of the Free City Alliance, the giant worms, despaired.

We must escape.

The Gray Reaper, descended into the depths, looked like a god arriving to deliver divine punishment.

It was despair. It was the end.

Each time the Gray Reaper’s gaze swept over them, the children in the tank writhed in agony, rough stones spilling from their mouths.

Those stones were forged from their flesh, their life, their very souls.

A truly cruel sight, but the Gray Reaper paid it no mind.

And the comforting curtain of darkness that had veiled the underground began to tear.

Light poured from holes ripped in space, shredding the subterranean gloom.

Beyond those rifts teemed greedy demons.

The demons’ small hands darted through the gaps in space, avariciously snatching the stones made from the children’s souls.

As if they couldn’t bear to miss a single one.

As if those stones were precious treasures to them.

Meanwhile, the red tank prepared for raising the children filled with an unidentified liquid.

The brownish-black liquid was thicker than any poison, more viscous than mud.

Unfortunately, the children touched by that liquid had their insides dissolve, endlessly vomiting the black fluid.

The sight of the suffering children was almost unbearable to watch.

With every step the Gray Reaper took deeper underground, the core foundations of the subterranean facility crumbled.

The rebar and concrete that once solidly supported the city-sized underground facility turned bone-white, precarious, threatening to collapse at any moment.

The effort to reach the moon was turning to dust.

Ah, my rank is being shaved away.

Losing rank under the Gray Reaper’s gaze.

Like the children, the giant worms were dying, vomiting stones, when the Gray Reaper’s gaze fell upon them.

The Gray Reaper looked at the giant worms, slowly opened its hand…

And clenched it shut again.

That was the end for the three worms that had ruled the Free City Alliance.

And so the worms died, lamenting that attempting to reach such a monster was itself the mistake.

Underground City Alliance, deep underground.

Ah.

Destroying the Object that encompassed the place called the ‘Free City Alliance’, the anger subsided instantly.

The ‘Death-Seeing’ Halo that had floated above my head returned to my heart.

Thump thump.

Feeling regretful, I tapped the area of my heart where the firewood was, but the Halo gave no response.

That Halo killed low-rank Objects just by looking at them.

And it was a magnificent Halo that allowed even very strong Objects to be easily killed by lowering their rank, just like the black corpse had chewed them up.

Moreover, it was a perfect Halo that didn’t split my body or cause pain!

I stared intently at the area around my heart, recalling the sensation of pulling out the Halo, trying to summon it again.

Seeing as the inside of the firewood felt ticklish, it seemed more possible than before, but unfortunately, I still couldn’t bring it out.

A shame.

Smacking my lips in disappointment, I looked around.

The underground of the Free City Alliance, where grotesque worms had teemed, was a complete wreck.

Star candies scattered everywhere.

And Golden Reapers greedily wandering around, trying to gather them for the mini Reaper garden.

The liquid in the tank had all turned into hot chocolate, and the concrete forming the underground had all become marshmallow.

It had essentially become part of the ‘Mini Reaper Garden’.

Well, the Mini Reaper Garden is better than the bizarre, gloomy underground from before.

Time to head back.

My gaze fell upon a Golden Reaper.

It was carrying a star candy as large as its own body.

Thump thump

Walking back towards the mini Reaper garden.

I snatched the star candy the Golden Reaper was holding preciously, ate it, and teleported to where the Orange Reaper was playing dead.

Hehe.

Arriving where the Orange Reaper was, a wide-open view greeted me.

Various mini Reapers were crawling around the room, and a cool breeze blew in from the hole I had punched through to find Tyranno.

Through that hole, the city panorama was visible at a glance.

The city, once dirty with its unique dark atmosphere, had now transformed into something out of a fairy tale.

The messy buildings had turned into white, fluffy marshmallows, and the neon signs into colorful candy canes.

In the square visible from the building, the fragments of Mecha Tyranno’s wreckage were gathering.

Mini Reapers carried each piece.

Thump thump

Moving them.

Small, light pieces were carried by Golden Reapers; large, heavy pieces by Black Reapers.

The surviving residents watched this sight with curious eyes.

After placing a piece on the wreckage pile, a mini Reaper would close its eyes tightly as if praying for the dead and send a wish.

May you be reborn as a sturdy snack in your next life.

Then it placed the star candy in its arms onto the wreckage pile like an offering.

But unfortunately, Tyranno would never be reborn as a mini Reaper garden snack.

Because there are no glow-in-the-dark snacks.

Even if weak and lacking regenerative ability, the glow-in-the-dark Tyranno is forever a glow-in-the-dark dinosaur!

Turning my gaze inside the building, I saw the Orange Reaper’s attached human, apparently having received treatment from a Blue Reaper.

A human deeply asleep with a very relieved expression.

Judging by the expression, she must have realized the Orange Reaper was alive.

The Orange Reaper was held very tightly in that human’s arms, but its appearance had changed slightly.

I thought its size had shrunk because its rank was shaved away while creating the moon…

Was it because it summoned the moon?

Its size remained reduced, but its rank had actually increased.

Perhaps sensing that rise in rank, the Golden Reapers gathered around and began praising it.

Amazing!

Receiving the barrage of praise from the Golden Reapers, the Orange Reaper began to slip out of its attached human’s arms.

Stealthily, so as not to wake the exhausted, sleeping human.

Then it climbed onto a high stone, crossed its arms with a smug expression, and looked down.

The Golden Reapers cheered, even jumping up and down, showering it with praise.

Amazing!

Sibling amazing!

It was a bit funny seeing the creature, now slightly smaller than a Golden Reaper (about the size of a Red Reaper), wearing a crown and acting like that.

I approached that Orange Reaper and lifted its crown.

!

But the crown didn’t come off.

I thought it had picked it up somewhere and put it on, but it had sprouted from its head like a horn.

Is it some kind of unusual horn?

Perhaps finding me holding its crown uncomfortable, the Orange Reaper struggled, then flew away into its attached human’s arms.

The Golden Reapers watched this with disappointed expressions.

Disappointed?

Golden Reapers were indeed a bit strange.

Creatures who feel disappointed if they can’t praise when there’s something praiseworthy?

Incomprehensible.

As I pondered the mystery of the Golden Reapers, a strong wind blew.

Whooosh.

Perhaps because the tower was so high, the wind blew strongly.

Each time, the tower made of marshmallow swayed precariously.

Perhaps because it felt like an amusement park ride without safety features, the Golden Reapers laughed brightly, enjoying themselves.

By the way, it’s amazing it hasn’t collapsed despite being marshmallow.

As expected of Object marshmallow from the Mini Reaper Garden.

Poke poke.

As I was lost in various thoughts, a Golden Reaper approached and poked my cheek.

Mother! Pinwheel!

At the Golden Reaper’s request, I transformed the marshmallow tower into a giant ‘Golden Reaper Pinwheel’.

A meeting place connected to the mini Reaper garden, visible even from afar.

The Golden Reapers without attached humans laughed ‘hehe’ and jumped around, happy about the new meeting spot.

Seoul, Songpa-gu, James Tower construction site.

James was watching a video playing on a monitor.

It seemed to be a video meticulously stitched together from CCTV footage gathered from various places.

“This is truly unexpected.”

Every time the Gray Reaper, dyed red all over, turned its gaze, the world twisted and became stained.

Every time the eye-like Halo floating above the Gray Reaper’s head looked, the world turned into snacks.

Concrete became marshmallow, river water became hot chocolate.

Objects turned into star candies and scattered.

Especially the Objects in the ‘Free City Alliance’, being human-shaped, gave off an even more eerie feeling.

It seemed to be the true face of the ‘Special-Grade Object’ Gray Reaper, more dangerous than a nuclear bomb.

Fortunately, mini Reapers and humans were completely unaffected.

“Still, it’s fortunate. The operation is a success.”

In fact, until a few days ago, James had been feeling slightly anxious.

<If an Object danger zone appears in Korean news, there is a high probability the Gray Reaper will head there.>

Based on that hypothesis, he had pushed things a bit to get the ‘Free City Alliance’ featured in the news.

The Korean Object Association was pathologically reluctant to broadcast news about overseas Objects, so getting broadcasting permission was quite difficult.

In fact, the Gray Reaper’s tendency had only recently become clear precisely because of the Korean Association’s attitude.

Always busy covering up and hiding Object incidents… sigh.

Still.

Still, it feels like one step closer to saving humanity.

James closed his eyes with a tired expression and placed the report in his hand on the desk.

On the cover of the report was written:

And below that, a memo scribbled with a marker pen.