Seoul Object Story
Chapter 335: Epilogue of the World at the End (4)

Silence fell over the courtyard of Sehee Research Institute.

It happened when the Lead Doll suddenly emitted light and opened its mouth.

“To my ears, it sounds similar to the language used by alchemists,” James said with a rather intrigued expression. “Have Objects learned language? Or is this ‘alchemist language’ something special?”

“The Lead Doll spoke!” Yerini exclaimed with an impressed look, then began to stare at me expectantly.

I slowly turned my head, avoiding Yerini’s gaze. Even for Yerini, I wouldn’t speak. Besides, I don’t even know how to talk without lungs. Come to think of it, how did that Lead Doll speak?

“Senior Researcher Kim Jung-roe, let’s secure the CCTV footage first. The security room might not preserve it properly,” Seo-ah ordered Kim Jung-roe to immediately secure the CCTV footage of the courtyard. After all, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Sehee Institute security room deleted all the footage while eating cup noodles.

Scribbling something in a notebook, leaving to secure CCTV footage, hugging me tightly and trying to move my lips - the people gathered in the courtyard reacted to the Lead Doll’s anomaly in their own ways.

At that moment, the Lead Doll opened its mouth again.

[Has that wish been fulfilled?]

The Lead Doll, looking 10 times more expressionless and sleepy than me, tilted its head and expressed doubt.

Did nothing happen? Well, I didn’t feel any flow of power indicating something extraordinary had occurred.

While the other Mini Reapers looked excited, when I glanced down, the Black Reapers wore expressions as if they had expected this.

I grabbed one Black Reaper in my hand and tapped its head repeatedly while asking, ‘Do you know what’s going on?’

The Black Reaper nodded its head vigorously up and down.

‘Not Mom!’

‘?’

Seeing that I still didn’t understand, the Black Reaper exuded its will with a slightly frustrated expression.

‘Because it’s not Mom!’

‘….’

Hmm. I understood for sure. It seems this is a complex kind of problem I could never hear from a Mini Reaper.

I put the cheerful Black Reaper down on the floor and looked towards the Lead Doll. I saw Yerini conducting various experiments, though it looked more like playing with a pet than experimenting.

“Now, right hand!”

When Yerini held out her hand saying ‘Right hand!’, the Lead Doll placed its tiny right hand on Yerini’s palm with a plop.

The Lead Doll also followed orders well to place its left hand, left cheek, or right cheek.

“Well done!”

Yerini smiled contentedly at this and patted the Lead Doll’s head.

‘….’

I didn’t like that sight very much.

Feeling a bit annoyed, I turned my gaze to the side where Seo-ah and James were having a serious conversation.

“That ‘Lead Doll’ Object seems to have a primary behavioral principle of doing what humans tell it to do,” Seo-ah nodded and pointed towards Yerini and the Lead Doll.

“Right now, it could be seen as only listening to Researcher Oh Yerin’s instructions.”

James said let’s do a simple experiment, then approached the Lead Doll and spoke.

“Could you hand over your right hand?”

The Lead Doll placed its right hand on James’s hand with an expressionless face.

“Ah!”

Yerini looked a bit shocked seeing this.

Hehe.

Sehee Research Institute, Researcher’s Office.

Oh Yerin sat at her desk with a slightly gloomy expression, preparing to write a report.

‘It’s time I should be playing with the Reaper!’

The report on the newly discovered Lead Doll and numerous tasks that had been postponed until now had returned.

Yerin turned on her desk computer and prepared a cup of warm black tea.

And instead of milk or sugar, she put a tiny White Hungry Ghost into the black tea.

Kyuhihi.

The laughter of the White Hungry Ghost swimming around in the teacup echoed softly in the office.

Yerin smiled slightly at the sight.

Every time Yerin drank black tea, she would put a mini-sized Hungry Ghost into the teacup like this.

Even without eating the Hungry Ghost, just having it swim around in the hot tea made it adequately sweet.

It was a win-win relationship where the Mini Hungry Ghost enjoyed swimming and Yerin could drink sweet black tea.

Tak tak. Tak tak tak.

As she sat in the office tapping away at the keyboard writing her report, she noticed a confused-looking Black Reaper waddling around in the corner of her vision.

‘Ah, this is the new Black Reaper that the Reaper brought recently?’

Yerin remembered the faces and characteristics of all the Black Reapers, so she could quickly notice it was a new one.

‘There are so many people!’

The Black Reaper kept getting startled every time it saw a person in the Sehee Research Institute office, which had many empty seats.

To Yerin, it seemed unfamiliar with people, unlike the previous Black Reaper.

It was hiding behind a mouse in surprise or secretly peeking at people as if they were something curious.

Yerin carefully approached and lightly patted the Black Reaper’s head.

Tap tap.

The Black Reaper looked up at Yerin and grinned.

‘Mom’s Attachment Human!’

“I’m glad to see you too.”

Yerin waved to the brightly smiling Black Reaper and carefully lifted it onto her palm.

She returned to her seat, stroking the Black Reaper’s head.

Back at her desk, Yerin forgot all about her work and started playing with the Black Reaper.

‘Ah!’

‘Heheh. It tickles.’

After pushing the Black Reaper’s head to knock it over or tickling its sides, she took out a cookie.

“Let’s eat a snack!”

It was one of the ‘Mini Reaper hospitality snacks’ that filled two drawers of Yerin’s office desk.

Om nom nom.

The Black Reaper, seemingly unfamiliar with things like cookies, started devouring the cookie frantically when it was placed in its arms.

Yerin watched this silently, neatly arranging the Black Reaper’s hair.

The Black Reaper, having instantly devoured a cookie much larger than itself, finally lifted its head and exclaimed ‘Ah!’ in surprise.

‘I ate it all by myself!’

Then it looked up at Yerin with a slightly apologetic expression.

“Do you want to eat pudding too?”

Yerin said this with a chuckle.

But the Black Reaper just tilted its head, not knowing what pudding was.

“Play freely on my desk. I’ll go get some pudding!”

Yerin said as she stood up from her seat.

The Black Reaper waved goodbye to Yerin, smiling brightly and showing its sharp teeth.

‘….’

And when Yerin returned with a ‘Gray Reaper Pudding’ from the break room refrigerator, the Black Reaper had vanished without a trace.

It wasn’t in the drawer full of snacks.

It wasn’t in the slime, a toy that Mini Reapers love.

“Where did it go?”

Just then, a small crying sound reached Yerin’s ears.

Kyuhinghhing.

It was the mournful voice of the Mini Hungry Ghost for tea.

“Ah, there you are.”

The missing Black Reaper was in Yerin’s teacup, biting the White Hungry Ghost.

Kyuhinghhing.

Seoul Jungbu Police Station, Detective Division.

Late at night, only a man’s desk was brightly lit in the dark room.

In his hand was a thick file, and his eyes were focused on reading its contents.

Inside the file were several photos attached.

People with different appearances. Their ages, genders, and occupations all varied.

But the look in their eyes was all the same.

Empty eyes staring blankly into space.

According to witnesses, they looked as if their souls had been sucked out.

The man sighed and took out a cigarette.

The lighter’s flame flickered for a moment in the darkness before disappearing.

As the cigarette smoke he deeply inhaled left his mouth, it slowly rose, enveloping the surroundings like fog.

The sight seemed to represent his complex state of mind.

“Still working?”

The man was startled by the sudden voice.

Looking up, he saw his senior gazing at him with concerned eyes.

“Ah, yes. It keeps bothering me for some reason.”

The senior nodded and sat down next to the man’s desk.

“Just let it go anyway.”

The senior said quietly.

His voice carried conviction born from experience.

“That’s definitely ‘Object’ related.”

Hearing those words, the man smiled awkwardly and replied.

“Still, I want to check as much as possible before handing it over to the Council. We might have missed something.”

The senior looked at the man for a moment, then nodded as if understanding.

“Alright, that’s your personality. Be careful then. Don’t dig too deep.”

With those words, the senior got up and prepared to leave.

Before leaving, he turned to the man once more and waved.

“Don’t overdo it. See you tomorrow.”

After the senior left, the office fell silent again.

The man let out a deep sigh and turned his attention back to the report.

He picked up his pen and began noting the commonalities among the victims.

‘Showed abnormal behavior for several weeks before losing cognitive abilities.’

He paused his pen and fell into thought.

The faces of the victims came to mind one by one. They all looked different, but the emptiness in their eyes was the same.

‘It’s hard to pinpoint commonalities among the victims. They span all ages, genders, and occupations.’

‘The only common point, if any, is that they were all energetic and active people.’

The man felt frustrated as he wrote this sentence.

No matter how he looked at it, there was no clear connection.

He picked up the coffee mug on his desk and took a sip.

The bitter taste of the now cold coffee lingered on his tongue.

He flipped through the file again, examining each victim’s photo one by one.

Believing there must be a clue somewhere, he stayed late in the office continuing his investigation.

As the darkness deepened outside the window, the questions in his heart only grew deeper.