Seoul Object Story
Chapter 287: Doll Expo (5)

The girl had one small wish.

A wish to travel to various places and see many wonderful things.

But her grandfather absolutely forbade the young girl from going outside the house.

Perhaps because of this, the girl dreamed every night.

As if it were her only escape.

These dreams came in three types!

The first, as if reflecting the heart of a girl who couldn’t go out, was a dream of touring Seoul.

Though she couldn’t move freely in that dream, which was a bit frustrating, the discomfort was well worth enduring.

The dream showed her various scenery, as if reflecting her wish.

In her dreams, she could see and feel every corner of Seoul.

Moreover, the dreams were so diverse that they seemed endless.

Though most of the dream’s contents were forgotten upon waking, some scenes remained vaguely in the girl’s mind.

That huge tower appeared in my dreams too. That enormous tower visible from grandfather’s house. I really wanted to go inside it…

But no matter how many times she turned the doorknob in her dreams, the tower’s door refused to open.

Click, click, click.

Only the loud sound of the doorknob echoed.

It never opened.

The second dream was one where her friends visited her in dreams.

The only friends of a girl who had none.

Dream friends who looked exactly like the girl herself.

They would show her mysterious memories.

Memories filled only with truly joyful things.

In those memories, the girl traveled to various places, laughing brightly and having fun.

Though the grandfather in the memories was a bit cold, unlike the real grandfather, he told her to go wherever she wanted freely.

The Object danger zones seemed especially fun to the girl.

Trees that bubbled with soap bubbles.

A lake that emitted such a delightful fragrance it made her head spin.

Stream water that flowed like clear crystal.

A forest where cute kittens as big as the girl played.

In such wonderful places, the girls wore happy smiles.

But such memories always cut off abruptly at some point.

Like watching an interesting cartoon that suddenly stops.

I want to see more.

But no matter how much she begged to see more, the friends who looked just like her would only shake their heads.

The third dream was truly unpleasant.

A dream where sticky red liquid constantly clung to the girl.

Liquid so sticky she could never remove it alone.

Moreover, when the liquid clung to her body, she seemed to hear strange voices.

Though voices shouldn’t have colors, it felt like a red voice.

And just when it seemed she would be buried and sucked into that liquid.

Her only friends would grab her hands with all their might and pull.

And the moment she escaped the liquid, the girl would forget the dream and her friends, waking up.

Every time.

In Oh Muryong’s mansion in central Seoul.

Oh Muryong’s granddaughter sat by the window, lost in watching the beautiful fireworks bursting from the doll expo site in the city center.

As colorful fireworks adorned the night sky, excitement bloomed in the girl’s heart, wishing she could go to that festival herself.

I really want to go there just once…

Just as the girl was lost in imagination, the kind butler who always watched over her approached and spoke gently.

“Miss, I’m sorry, but the Chairman is calling for you now.”

The girl nodded at the butler’s words.

Setting aside her festival fantasies for a moment, the girl curiously made her way to find her grandfather.

The place she arrived at following her grandfather’s call was a space she’d never seen before.

It was filled with unfamiliar machines, and in the center was a tank filled with an unpleasant liquid.

The girl felt strangely cold and ominous, making her shrink back.

Her grandfather, standing beside the tank, smiled slightly and beckoned to her.

The girl approached cautiously, her heart mixed with curiosity and fear.

“Grandfather?”

The slightly anxious girl called out to her grandfather, but Oh Muryong only gave her a blindfold.

The girl did as her grandfather instructed, putting on the blindfold and immersing herself in the liquid.

A slightly warm and sticky liquid.

Though the sensation wasn’t in her memories, it felt strangely familiar.

And strange sounds began to constantly reach the girl’s ears.

The sound of something being ground in a blender, and the sound of pouring that ground something into the liquid where the girl was.

Grinding, pouring.

Grinding, pouring.

Grinding, pouring.

As more ground something was put into the liquid, the liquid began to feel increasingly sticky, as if clinging to her.

What could these sounds be?

The girl wanted to peek through the gap in her blindfold out of curiosity, but strangely, she seemed to hear voices saying she shouldn’t.

We’re fine. So don’t look.

Sorry we couldn’t stay together until the end.

Though she didn’t know who they were, they felt familiar, like friends’ voices.

And the moment she heard the sound of something being ground one last time.

Pain suddenly began to be felt.

Snip snip with something sharp.

Pain that started from her toes was gradually moving upward.

!!!!

Unable to even scream from the unbearable pain, the girl lost consciousness.

When the girl who had closed her eyes like that opened them again, what she saw was a pure white space with blood reaching her ankles.

The place where she always had three dreams.

Stepping into the dream space, forgotten memories found their place again.

A familiar space.

The only difference was that blood filled with nostalgic and warm energy had risen to her ankles.

Remembering the voices of friends she had heard while awake, the girl began running everywhere to find them.

Where are you?

But no matter how much she ran through the white space, she couldn’t see her friends.

After searching for a long while, just as she was about to give up.

Sorry.

We wanted only you to be happy…

A faint voice of friends was heard.

That sound was coming from within the blood filling the floor.

When the girl turned her head to look down at the blood, it began to bubble up.

And the girl’s small hand floated up.

So you were hiding here!

The girl grabbed that hand with a bright face and pulled hard, but her friend was so light that she fell into the blood.

Only the friend’s hand remained gripped in the girl’s hand.

!

From that moment, numerous pieces of flesh began floating up from the blood.

Identical to the girl.

But they were bodies mercilessly cut into pieces.

Why? Why is this happening?

At that moment, red light began descending from the sky.

Red voices began to be heard.

Red and sticky liquid gathered and began to swallow her.

But there were no more friends left to pull her out.

At the doll expo site in Seoul, guard doll exhibition hall.

!

I was waving my hand at the ‘Agwi-grade’ guard doll that seemed to be looking at me while I was using ghost form.

When I waved right, its eyeballs moved slightly right, when I waved left, they moved slightly left.

It really can see ghost form?

It felt a bit strange that the Association, which couldn’t even make spirit photography cameras, had made a doll that could see spirit forms.

Like making a computer without having a calculator, so to speak.

Anyway, that’s how it felt.

And after discovering that the Agwi-grade could see spirit forms, I tried waving at other dolls, but only the ‘Agwi-grade’ guard doll could detect ghost form.

Not much to it.

I had entered the <Great Object Guard Doll Exhibition Hall> with high expectations, but quickly lost interest.

Dolls that were merely fast and strong weren’t interesting at all.

Moving outside the exhibition hall like that, fireworks were still brilliantly adorning the night sky.

Thump thump.

Walking while looking up at the fireworks, something caught my interest.

A parade!

A procession of dolls in elaborate costumes, dancing and singing.

Their tireless energy and precisely measured performances were enough to draw admiration.

I sat on a lamppost doll in ghost form and began watching the parade.

I want to show this scene to the mini Reapers later.

Especially if shown to the Golden Reapers, they would get excited and start imitating it, and I wanted to see a Golden Reaper parade at least once.

Dolls beating large drums and playing trumpets.

A rhythm that naturally made bodies sway.

Though the parade was full of such exciting atmosphere, it began to change strangely.

The marching dolls stopped unnaturally, and ominous sounds were heard.

A sound like something being ground in a blender.

And a girl’s pain-filled moan.

It was so loud that neither the music playing throughout the expo grounds nor the parade music could be heard.

But no one except me seemed to hear that sound.

And the dolls that had stopped began moving again with awkward motions, but they felt creaky and strange somehow.

Moreover, people seemed to perceive those creaky movements as part of the parade.

Dolls showing horrific sounds and bizarre movements.

Though the situation was clearly suspicious, no one seemed to find it strange.

Something’s wrong.

I looked around trying to find the harmful Object causing these anomalies, but couldn’t sense any trace of harmful Objects anywhere.

And when the grinding sounds and girls’ screams stopped.

Thunk.

The dolls stopped again.

And as red light began slowly emanating from the dolls’ eyes, a harmful smell began to emerge.

!

I jumped up from my seat in surprise.

The dolls suddenly becoming harmful Objects!

And the evil parade dolls that began moving again were spreading among the people, pretending to be part of the performance.

Without delay, I grabbed and tore apart the space while looking at the parade dolls.

As numerous dolls were smashed, the air in the doll expo site changed.

As the human-like dolls were torn to pieces, people began screaming and running away.

The dolls that had been playing exciting music now played eerie music.

The dolls that had lit up the expo site like streetlamps now cast ominous red-tinted light.

And all the dolls simultaneously began attacking humans.

There are too many!

To make matters worse, even the dolls that had been reduced to powder by my space cutting were slowly regenerating.