Seoul Object Story
Chapter 320: The World's End (1)

In a place devoid of light.

A pink-haired girl was slowly walking forward, relying on the faint light emitted from her fingertips.

A space with no landmarks to rely on in any direction.

For the girl, only the round pipe beneath her feet, illuminated by the dim light, served as a guide showing the way.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Perhaps because the pipe was made of metal, her footsteps sounded like beating on an empty drum.

“It’s dark. I’m hungry. My feet hurt.”

[It’s dark. I’m hungry. My feet hurt.]

“It’s dark. I’m hungry. My feet hurt.”

[It’s dark. I’m hungry. My feet hurt.]

A voice echoing through the dark space like a reverberation.

Grumbling sounds kept escaping from the girl’s mouth as she walked wearily.

The pink girl wanted to lie down and rest right away, but not enough to sleep on a pipe only as wide as her two cheeks.

After all, it would be a disaster if she fell while sleeping, unable to see the bottom.

‘Was it a mistake to blindly enter this dark place to avoid the Starlight Ants….’

‘Well, of course it was a mistake.’

The girl walked along the endless pipe, inwardly recalling how she had ended up in this state.

Yawn.

The pink girl opened her mouth wide and yawned.

‘I’m sleepy.’

A space with nothing but darkness.

A pipe that required walking in a straight line.

Moreover, a whole day had already passed.

As she became more accustomed to walking on the pipe like a tightrope walker, drowsiness was overtaking the girl.

Chomp chomp.

So to stay awake, the girl took out a white petal and put it in her mouth, chewing.

Ugh.

The taste must have been very bitter, as the pink girl scrunched up her face and stuck out her tongue.

As the girl was in the midst of selecting and eating unpalatable but edible alchemy reagents, she spotted a faint light in the distance.

The pink girl opened her mouth and shouted “Oh!” before starting to sprint along the pipe at high speed, as if performing acrobatics.

“Light!”

Arriving in front of the light in an instant, the girl jumped towards it.

As she leaped into the light, the girl emerged from the massive building filled with darkness and found herself facing a familiar night sky and new scenery.

A solid and sturdy stone floor, unlike the metal pipe.

And soft white powder covering that stone floor.

The white powder blanketing everything in sight created a landscape the girl had never seen before.

The white powder reflected the starlight falling from the sky, giving off a soft glow, and the girl’s footprints were imprinted upon it.

When she raised her head to look at the sky, a familiar curtain filled her vision.

An endless sky curtain covering the entire visible sky.

It was the curtain that had been obscuring the sky since before she was born.

The sky curtain was torn and tattered in places, allowing glimpses of the night sky beyond.

The sky visible through the curtain was deep and dark black, but the stars twinkling in that darkness shone beautifully, as if jewels had been scattered about.

“Now, the moon is no longer visible.”

The moons that had begun disappearing one by one at some point had vanished without a trace, with the green moon being the last.

“Even the green moon is gone.”

The girl looked up at the sky and muttered with a slightly regretful expression.

The girl, who had never seen the sun, had now lost even the moonlight.

It was then.

An unidentified being appeared before the pink girl from the empty air.

A transparent blue like water.

Barely the size of a palm.

And something wearing a large hat.

Deep in the Mini Reaper Garden.

I was lying on the Marshmallow Plains, resting comfortably.

I had given up on resolving the Steel Tower space chaos and decided to just laze around.

No matter how much I examined Seoul Forest with my ‘eyes’, no Objects were visible, only space itself was going wild.

The spatial entanglement felt so natural that it seemed like a ‘natural phenomenon’.

So I decided to leave it be.

It doesn’t seem related to the Color Universe, so it should be fine.

Even if there is an Object causing it, it would be at most as strong as a ‘Moon’, and if it pops out, I can just beat it up then.

‘I’m tired.’

Perhaps because I only slept for 8 hours yesterday due to worrying about the Steel Tower, I felt like fatigue was clinging to my body.

The Golden Reapers, noticing that I was trying to take a nap, had swarmed around me.

‘Nom nom.’

‘Mom….’

The Golden Reapers that lay down following me fell asleep instantly, either munching on my hair or clinging tightly while calling for their mom.

But sadly, I still couldn’t fall asleep.

Every time I closed my eyes to try to sleep, the Ghost Reaper would pop out from the corner of my vision.

The Ghost Reaper was holding a squishy knife that looked like it was made of rubber, waiting for an opportunity.

It probably intended to stab my forehead again.

When I closed my eyes, it would sneak closer, and when I opened them, it would vanish in an instant with a ‘whoosh’.

Of course, I habitually closed my eyes when sleeping, but the Ghost Reaper, like other Mini Reapers, seemed to think I saw things with my eyes.

So I deliberately pretended to be asleep with my eyes tightly shut.

Sneak. Sneak.

At first, it approached slowly, but as soon as it was convinced I was asleep, the Ghost Reaper flew over at a speed rivaling teleportation and stopped above my forehead.

‘Filial piety!’

And as the Ghost Reaper exuded its will, it stabbed my forehead with the squishy knife.

‘Poke!’

At that moment, a refreshing sensation spread from the stabbed spot, and my sleepiness completely vanished.

I felt unpleasant when stabbed last time, but this time it somehow made me feel good.

Was it really filial piety?

Surprised by the unexpected effect, I suddenly sat up and grabbed the Ghost Reaper.

‘Waaah!’

Perhaps because I got up so suddenly, the Golden Reapers sleeping soundly on my body rolled off.

The Golden Reapers, who had been looking dazed after suddenly rolling, saw the Ghost Reaper and started hopping with bright expressions.

‘Mom found the ghost!’

Ah, come to think of it, this unfilial Reaper was the ghost the Golden Reapers had been looking for.

And the Golden Reapers climbed up my arm with happy faces and started clinging to the Ghost Reaper.

‘Sibling!’

‘New sibling!’

The Golden Reapers rubbed their soft cheeks against the Ghost Reaper.

‘They seem to like it strangely more than other siblings.’

As the Golden Reapers started piling up on the Ghost Reaper to form a huge ball, I gently placed that massive sphere on the ground.

The Ghost Reaper had become a giant Golden Reaper cluster like a moss ball.

Then some Golden Reapers started examining the inside of the Ghost Reaper.

‘!’

The Golden Reapers who checked the Ghost Reaper’s interior quickly separated from the moss ball with surprised expressions.

‘Similar?’

‘Similar!’

And the detached Golden Reapers gathered together, exchanging opinions with puzzled expressions.

What on earth could it be?

Finding the Golden Reapers’ reactions a bit strange, I dug through the moss ball and lifted the Ghost Reaper’s ghostly shell.

‘Ah!’

What was revealed was a Mini Reaper that looked very similar to me.

A tiny body, even for a Mini Reaper.

Yellow glowing eyes.

Gray skin.

A yellow glowing broken halo.

Extremely messy hair with one eye covered.

And the Ghost Reaper, whose appearance was thus revealed, was smiling awkwardly and sticking out its tongue, licking its knife.

Other Mini Reapers resembled me too, but having the same skin color made it feel a bit strange.

Of course, the Golden Reaper looks most similar to me in appearance, but their expressions are so different that they don’t seem alike at all.

‘Mini Mom sibling!’

‘Sibling!’

At that moment, the Golden Reapers who had confirmed the Ghost Reaper’s appearance started rushing towards it.

The Golden Reapers bit the Ghost Reaper’s chubby cheeks and its plump belly.

‘Waaah!’

The Ghost Reaper, bitten all over while receiving the Golden Reapers’ fervent attention, looked at me as if asking for help, but I just watched with a grin.

‘No way!’

The Ghost Reaper was thus deeply buried in the mass of Golden Reapers.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The golem’s footprints began to imprint on the pure white snow.

“Yes, that’s the way.”

<Mom Golem walking forward!>

The Blue Reaper controlled the small Mom Golem it had made alone, following the pink girl’s guidance, while glancing sideways at the girl beside it and smiling slightly.

‘Attachment Human!’

Unlike other Blue Reapers, this Blue Reaper, who had rarely made an Attachment Human, was able to meet one in this unfamiliar space.

Hehe.

Perhaps because of this, the Blue Reaper couldn’t stop smiling happily.

In fact, it wanted to hide and observe its Attachment Human right away, but it couldn’t.

The pink girl looked too lonely, and this place full of evolution fluid scent seemed too dangerous.

<Mom Golem climbing stairs!>

Perhaps because it was a completely different world, strangely enough, the Attachment Human could understand the text strings the Blue Reaper wrote.

“Mom Golem!”

The pink girl poked the Blue Reaper’s cheeks while reading along with the text strings or chattering incessantly.

“By the way, I feel like I learned something when I was young….”

“The relationship between alchemists and grimoires…?”

“Talking grimoires are… grimoires are… ‘cute’?”

The pink girl, who seemed to be thinking about something, shouted ‘Ah, I don’t know!’ and gave up on her thoughts.

‘Attachment Human. Body condition doesn’t look good.’

Although the Attachment Human kept talking in a bright voice, she was in a very sick state.

Probably malnutrition.

It was an illness the Blue Reaper’s abilities couldn’t cure.

“What’s that?”

As the Blue Reaper was looking at the pink girl with worried eyes, the Attachment Human’s voice full of curiosity was heard.

A wall made of transparent glass.

A modern structure built with reinforced concrete.

And the sign on that structure read ‘24-hour Convenience Store’.

“Is this writing?”

The Attachment Human had already climbed down from the golem’s shoulder and was looking around.

Except for the fact that it looked like it had been cut out and moved with a sharp blade, the building was very familiar to the Blue Reaper.

After all, it was a convenience store that used to be near Seoul Forest.