Seoul Object Story
Chapter 321: The World at the End (2)

A dark world where even moonlight had vanished.

The Pink Girl was in an extremely excited mood.

The mysterious building that suddenly appeared was one reason, but the Blue Reaper that seemed to have fallen from the sky was another.

The Pink Girl, who had always been alone, never meeting anyone, endlessly moving upward towards the sky curtain.

The girl had always been incredibly lonely.

The only person she had met in her entire life was the old man she called ‘Grandfather’.

Moreover, even that ‘Grandfather’ had already died by the time she properly began to perceive the world.

The Blue Reaper that appeared before her made her feel as if she had made a friend.

Even though it was only as big as a palm and of a different species, being a ‘Grimoire’ and human, it still felt that way.

“Let’s go!”

The Pink Girl grasped the Blue Reaper in her hand and started running towards the convenience store.

<I-I’m getting dizzy!>

The Blue Reaper’s eyes were spinning as if it was dizzy, but the Pink Girl just kept running with a bright expression.

A part of the convenience store building, cleanly cut as if by spatial slash.

The Pink Girl looked down at the fallen sign.

<24-hour Convenience Store. Seoul…>

The sign was cut off at the back, with the latter part of the text missing.

“Is this… writing? Grandfather never taught me about this kind of writing.”

The Pink Girl frowned, staring intently at the letters, then simply shrugged it off, thinking, ‘Well, I must have forgotten again,’ and walked into the convenience store.

Then she started wandering around the store, her eyes shining as if she was having fun.

“I learned about this. Grandfather said it was food.”

<Stop, please!>

When she picked up a can she found while wandering around and tried to bite into it with her teeth, the Blue Reaper panicked.

“Doesn’t this look kind of like a person shape?”

She giggled at the hole in the wall that looked as if a human shape had been projected onto it.

And she even tried eating a bit of instant coffee powder with her finger.

“Oh!”

“This is delicious. You should try some too.”

The Pink Girl smiled mischievously and popped some coffee powder into the Blue Reaper’s mouth.

<!!!!!!!!!>

Surprised by the bitter taste, the Blue Reaper’s eyes went wide, and it fainted, falling to the side.

Quickly regaining consciousness, the Blue Reaper, with tears in its eyes, started hitting the Pink Girl furiously with its hammer.

Pong! Pong! Pong!

“Ouch, it hurts! I said I’m sorry!”

The Pink Girl ran around, dodging the Blue Reaper flying about swinging its hammer, repeatedly apologizing.

Near Seoul Forest, at the edge of Seoul.

The area, which had always been sparsely populated due to low traffic, was now bustling with various people gathered.

“It’s a non-lethal spatial loss.”

James, investigating at the request of the Korea Object Council, looked up at the incident site.

A building with a circular hole, as if steel, concrete, and ground had been sharply carved out.

A convenience store employee surrounded by investigators, giving a statement.

And nearby, the trace of a wall left in the shape of a ‘convenience store employee’.

All of this indicated the spatial loss phenomenon that had recently begun to be understood by academia.

“There was a flash, and then the building disappeared entirely. Only the wall and shelves behind me remained.”

The convenience store employee, looking extremely confused, was explaining the situation at the time, rambling.

Listening to the explanation, it was clearly a spatial loss phenomenon.

The characteristics of spatial loss were twofold.

First, sharp cut marks like spatial slashing.

Second, no direct harm to people caught up in it.

James looked around the incident site with a worried expression.

‘The frequency and scale of spatial losses are increasing.’

‘However, we can’t deal with the phenomenon of spaces being cut off with current technology.’

‘I guess we need to hurry the design of the spatial loss alarm.’

Rustle.

James turned his head to look at the ground, hearing a sound at his feet.

<…Forest Branch. SEOUL FOREST LIFE 24/7>

There was a half-cut convenience store sign that seemed to have flown from the incident site.

At that moment, a James Research Institute employee with several Golden Reapers clinging to him approached.

“Boss.”

The employee began to report the anomalies to James with a calm face.

The content was that Mini Reapers had started appearing at the entrance of Seoul Forest and that it seemed some changes had occurred in Seoul Forest.

When James turned his head towards Seoul Forest after hearing this, he saw Golden Reapers that had gathered in large numbers.

‘Don’t come in!’

‘It’s dangerous!’

The Golden Reapers, which hadn’t been there until just a moment ago, were lined up as if blocking the path to Seoul Forest, spreading their arms.

When a James Institute researcher tried to pass through the Golden Reapers, they desperately tried to prevent entry by headbutting or pulling on pants.

A headbutt from a Golden Reaper was just cute, and pulling on the hem of pants didn’t cause any hindrance.

But the desperate appearance of the Golden Reapers effectively stopped people trying to enter.

“Okay, okay. I won’t go in.”

“You want to eat pudding together?”

The Golden Reapers’ cute road-blocking and mental contamination combination was quite effective.

While watching the Golden Reapers and people bickering, James’s secretary approached with quick steps, handing over new material.

It appeared to be a video taken by a James Research Institute employee.

The employee, who seemed to have approached not just near Seoul Forest but all the way to the border checkpoint, was filming with Golden Reapers clinging all over his body.

‘Don’t go!’

In the video, Golden Reapers were desperately hindering the employee’s steps, pulling on eyelids, poking the crown of the head, and biting cheeks.

The employee couldn’t say anything because Golden Reapers had even entered his mouth, and just flicked a coin towards Seoul Forest.

‘!!!!’

The coin spinning through the air in the video couldn’t advance beyond a certain point and disappeared as if swallowed by the air.

This was quite a familiar phenomenon to James.

‘The sunlight and dust don’t connect cleanly.’

‘The space is strange. It looks like the space-time distortion of the Indigo Tree in James City.’

As soon as James realized this fact, he gave orders to his secretary.

“This doesn’t look good. Contact the Object Council and request that the lockdown of Seoul Forest be strengthened more than usual.”

“It seems that ‘Golden Reapers’ alone, which can’t harm humans, won’t be enough.”

Saying this, James instructed preparations for additional investigation of Seoul Forest.

Deep within the Sehee Research Institute, in a comfortable isolation room.

Nom nom nom.

I was lying on the bed, slowly eating snacks.

The TV was broadcasting news about the frequent spatial losses happening these days.

[Another spatial loss incident occurred near Seoul Forest at around 4:30 AM today.]

[It has been confirmed that an entire convenience store building disappeared in this incident.]

[According to eyewitness accounts, the building vanished instantly, as if evaporating.]

[The Seoul Object Council immediately dispatched to the scene, controlling the surrounding area and investigating for additional damage.]

[Fortunately, although one part-time worker was caught up in this incident, there were no casualties.]

[Experts point out that while spatial loss phenomena may not directly harm the human body, there are significant concerns about secondary damage such as building collapses or fall accidents….]

The TV screen was showing footage of the area near the accident site, capturing various Mini Reapers wandering around in large numbers.

It felt like the number of Mini Reapers had decreased, but had they all gone there?

When I took my eyes off the TV and looked at the bed, the number of Mini Reapers had clearly decreased.

There were only a few Mini Reapers on the bed, playing with the Ghost Reaper.

The Ghost Reaper, covered in a white sheet, was moving around, poking the Golden Reapers.

‘Waaah!’

The Golden Reapers would either fall down in an exaggerated pose when stabbed by that knife or giggle as if tickled.

The knife the Ghost Reaper used to stab the Golden Reapers looked a bit different from the one used to stab me.

When I asked what it was, they said it was ‘Aedo’….

Does that mean a knife they cherish?

‘They’re playing better with the Golden Reapers than I expected.’

Thinking this, I took my eyes off the Mini Reapers and started watching TV again.

The TV screen showed Blue Reapers flying across the sky.

The Pink Girl woke up in the convenience store, which had become quite messy from playing yesterday.

A soft mass of water embracing her.

The Blue Reaper sleeping next to her with its hat pulled down low.

And the sky that had become faintly brighter.

‘So yesterday wasn’t a dream.’

Yesterday had been so full of fun events that it felt like she had dreamed a long dream.

The girl poked the sleeping Blue Reaper’s cheek repeatedly, as if confirming it wasn’t a dream.

Yawn.

As she kept poking near its mouth, the Blue Reaper bit the Pink Girl’s finger in its sleep.

The Blue Reaper’s tongue moved slightly, making it a bit ticklish.

As the Pink Girl was giggling and observing the Blue Reaper like this, a huge shadow began to loom over the sky.

It was the shadow of a giant spider slowly passing over the sky curtain.

‘The Spider that Devoured the Sun.’

The Pink Girl looked up at that shadow, recalling the name her grandfather had taught her.