Seoul Object Story
Chapter 292: Doll Expo (10)

In a Seoul apartment complex, the master bedroom of a comfy 3-person family apartment was pitch black.

Lights off, thick blackout curtains blocking even a speck of light.

Looked like someone had dragged a bed to block the entrance, cutting off the outside world.

Boom!

A powerful shockwave rolled in from far across the river.

Crumble.

The shaking apartment sounded like a bombed building in a movie, with bits of stone falling.

“Mom…”

A terrified kid’s voice echoed in the dark room.

“It’s okay. We’ll be fine.”

The mom hugged the kid, patting their back, but looked super anxious.

If the thick darkness hadn’t hidden her face, the kid would’ve been even more scared.

The Association Dolls that were supposed to be so safe going berserk, and intense shockwaves starting just minutes ago.

While mom trembled from all the chaos, dad was peering through the blackout curtains with binoculars.

“It’s done.”

Dad’s low voice echoed in the room.

He gasped because the dolls that filled the streets had vanished without a trace.

Actually, the situation outside looked hopeless, but things started slowly changing with shockwaves from across the river.

It started with a huge increase in Black Reapers.

Giant Black Reapers had gobbled up tons of dolls early in the doll crisis, then stopped moving.

They just sat there with bulging bellies full of dolls.

But at some point, the frozen Black Reapers stood up and marched quickly towards southern Seoul.

When they came back, their bellies were flat, and they started swallowing dolls again.

As Black Reapers rapidly reduced the dolls, other mini Reapers got busy.

Golden Reapers, who seemed too few to handle all the dolls, started searching every nook and cranny, and other mini Reapers poked their heads out too.

Of course mini Reapers are the best companion Objects. Association Dolls always felt off.

Dad started praising mini Reapers, forgetting how his living room got taken over by the doll he bought.

At this rate, the doll rampage will be over soon!

As dad was enjoying the mini Reapers’ action, a huge Golden Reaper face filled his view.

Hehe.

The Golden Reaper wore a slightly mischievous smile.

!!!

Dad jumped back from the binoculars, and there was a Golden Reaper dangling from the end.

Warm sun scent filling the room.

Soft golden light spreading.

Maybe because the room was so dark, the Golden Reaper’s warmth filled the whole space.

That cozy warmth felt like the doll rampage wrecking Seoul would be over soon.

Boom!

When the purple foreign god clapped its huge hands, a fierce shockwave smashed nearby buildings and roads.

I rolled on the ground to dodge, but my reflexes weren’t enough to avoid it all.

Ugh.

One leg touched by the purple shockwave vanished without a trace, then instantly regenerated.

As I stood up, I stretched out one hand and clenched my fist at the foreign god’s hand.

Kyuu.

But the foreign god’s hand was fine even in the crumpled space.

How is this fair?

I can’t even hit the parts affecting Earth?

If this was a game boss, it’d need an emergency patch for balance issues.

Hmm.

Right now, neither of us could really damage each other.

My attacks did nothing to the purple foreign god, and I didn’t need to worry about running out of firewood just regenerating.

Still, I was achieving my goal pretty well.

My aim was ‘stall for time until mini Reapers find the anchor!’

That thing’s getting stronger.

But I couldn’t be too optimistic.

The purple foreign god’s blurry form was getting clearer, and its shockwaves were getting stronger and wider.

Plus, more purple yarn-like stuff was sticking to wounds, so regenerating took more and more firewood.

As the purple foreign god got stronger, reality’s twisting got worse too.

At this rate, the twisting will reach where Yerin is!

Gotta hope the mini Reapers find the ‘anchor’ before then.

Or I’ll grab Yerin and run far away, even if I have to take a million smacks.

A residential area already weirdly tinted purple.

A place where Gray Reaper’s nearby battle sent earthquake-like shockwaves.

And somewhere Golden Reapers had already swept through once looking for the ‘anchor’.

The blonde girl walked through this quiet residential area, relying on a faint sense.

Her sense pointed to grandfather’s mansion, which was where she’d meant to go from the start.

Creeak.

She pushed open the gate making a loud noise, maybe twisted from the shocks.

Finally, finally arrived.

The butler who always welcomed her.

The garden always giving off a calm vibe.

The mansion full of her nostalgic memories now felt unfamiliar.

Creaky dolls stood where well-trained staff used to be, and grandfather’s orchids were all withered yellow.

Whoosh.

She stepped forward, burning dolls in the empty mansion.

One step at a time towards her clone sisters’ painful screams.

The Red Reaper, confused about where the blonde girl was going, tilted its head and asked.

Why are we going here?

Gray Reaper’s order.

Find suspicious Objects.

Golden Reapers already swept through here, so no need to come, right?

“There’s something I have to do here.”

The blonde girl said firmly, then entered grandfather’s room and started working the secret room device.

Opening the secret passage, a smell of death rushed in.

A nose-numbing blood smell.

And the death of many sisters only the blonde girl could sense.

Traces of her sisters’ remaining souls.

The blonde girl saw her sisters torn and dismembered all over.

Sorry.

Sorry for coming so late.

Repeating that inside, she walked towards the basement, and her sisters’ traces slowly burned away in red flames.

And every step the blonde girl took in the mansion turned to flames, starting to burn it down.

!

Each time a sister’s trace burned away, a Red Reaper popped out of thin air.

Red Reapers with somewhat lonely expressions.

The Red Reaper smiled really happily seeing this.

So many little sisters!

As the Red Reaper projected its will and rushed in, the lonely-looking Red Reapers smiled kindly and gently hugged it.

The blonde girl, now leading hundreds of Red Reapers, finally reached the basement.

There she saw her sisters horribly tangled together, and grandfather fused with those sisters.

“Grandfather.”

The blonde girl’s low voice, completely emotionless.

But her voice didn’t reach her grandfather, Oh Muryong.

Oh Muryong, joined to the sphere of tangled sisters, just stroked the twisted sister lovingly.

The blonde girl, to put an end to grandfather’s madness, reached out her hand and snapped her fingers.

She lit a huge flame weaving together all the Red Reaper sisters’ power.

Boom!

A vibration different from the purple foreign god’s shockwaves echoed through Seoul.

A red pillar of fire swallowing Oh Muryong’s entire mansion, rising so high it seemed to touch the sky.

But that fire pillar vanished instantly with a purple wave.

And from inside, the blonde girl flew out, a total mess.

“!!!”

Oh Muryong, lost to madness and even human speech, appeared from within.

The blonde girl felt powerless against Oh Muryong, who radiated strength easily surpassing mini Reapers.

Would she lose again like this?

Her sisters’ painful screams still came from the sphere forming Oh Muryong’s lower body!

At that moment, brilliant golden light like the sun started filling the upscale residential area.

Light?

The blonde girl looked up and saw a huge rock filling the sky.

It was a Golden Armored Reaper holding a rock strengthened by stuffing it with tons of firewood.

We have to run!

It’s dangerous!

The Red Reapers pulled at the blonde girl, seeing the rock about to fall any second.

The startled blonde girl spewed flames from her feet, quickly escaping from under the rock.

As the blonde girl moved away, the Golden Armored Reaper dropped the firewood-held rock onto Oh Muryong.

Thud.

A heavy sound of a huge rock hitting the ground echoed over the empty upscale residential area.

Where’d it get a rock like that?

While I wondered, ability nullification flames started sticking to and burning the foreign god’s skin.

Whoosh.

The anchor’s gone!

The purple thing, having lost its foreign god rank by meeting the destruction condition, not only stopped being a foreign god but couldn’t even be an Object.

It just became a ‘byproduct of Object abilities’ made by the red foreign god, melting in white flames.

Screech!

A painful scream as its whole body melted.

The foreign god’s cry, hidden in a space separate from Earth, now clearly reached Earth.

First, the calm liquid-like surface covering the ground started hardening.

And the surface reflecting the Color Universe cracked like a mirror, then shattered into sharp pieces with a clang.

Those shattered pieces vanished in the Halo’s flames before hitting the ground, like sparks from a bonfire.

The rough space wounds carved in the sky started returning to normal, and the Color Universe that had come so close began retreating.

As the Color Universe retreated, the Association Dolls, the Association’s ambitious project, lost their power and broke down.

As if they were dolls that couldn’t exist under Earth’s rules alone.

The yarn made of twisted elements like oxygen and nitrogen dissolved back into the air when the twisting disappeared.

No way!

Golden Reapers who had wrapped themselves in yarn to save humans cried out in disappointment.

They were Golden Reapers with only legs sticking out of cocoons, like when they had bandages with just legs poking out.

Everything twisted started returning to its place.

And when all the twisting vanished, the sun began rising in the eastern sky.

Golden Reapers cheered at the sun, and other mini Reapers smiled in the warm sunlight.

We took down the purple foreign god that came from the Color Universe, so the Association Doll incident must be solved too, right?

By the way, the expo got ruined again.

Sniff.