Seoul Object Story
Chapter 337: Orb of Wishes (1)

A girl lay collapsed in a faint darkness.

Tired-looking eyes, worn school uniform, and neatly trimmed short hair.

In that darkness, the short-haired girl’s eyelids fluttered.

The girl opened her eyes and looked around.

“This dream again.”

She had been having the same dream repeatedly.

A dream that repeated over and over, as if she wished to set foot in this world again and again.

A world where the sun had disappeared.

Instead, a massive ring of light illuminated the world.

Beneath that halo, huge buildings with a religious feel, like temples or cathedrals, soared into the sky as if to pierce it.

“Haa.”

As the short-haired girl sighed, the sticky air that filled this space entered her lungs.

In this strange space, the girl always met a man.

[Young lady, you’ve come again today.]

A deep voice resonated, cutting through the darkness.

The short-haired girl looked at the owner of that voice.

A face much younger than the voice suggested, but his eyes carried the weight of many years.

[The festival to achieve wishes, to seize desires, will begin soon.]

He continued speaking.

[Today, you must make your decision.]

The short-haired girl’s heart began to race.

She knew.

That this moment would determine her fate.

The man slowly extended his hand towards the girl.

On his palm rested a small orb.

Smaller than a candy, it glowed faintly in the darkness.

[This is the key to your wish.]

His voice resonated deeply.

[The choice is yours.]

The short-haired girl’s gaze fixed on that small orb.

Swirling with colors like a captured galaxy, it was indescribably beautiful.

But at the same time, a strange unease welled up in a corner of her heart.

The words the suspicious man had spoken when they first met still seemed to echo in her ears.

‘[The reward of this festival can even resurrect the dead.]‘

‘It’s unsettling.’

The girl bit her lip.

Such things couldn’t be given without a price.

But deep in her heart, an intense desire stirred.

That desperate wish that kept her trapped in this dream.

The man had said that only those who truly wanted to achieve something could come to this place.

In other words, her very presence in this dream was proof of that desire.

[Are you still hesitating?]

The man’s voice resonated once more, cutting through the darkness.

His eyes held understanding, sympathy, and something even deeper.

[Then all the more reason to take this orb. See for yourself with your own eyes.]

The short-haired girl’s hand began to move slowly, very slowly.

In that moment, as if time had stopped, countless thoughts whirled through her mind.

Was this truly the right choice?

But her hand was already reaching for the orb.

The moment her fingertips touched the orb, the world began to spin.

She was gradually drifting away from the dream.

A strange space detached from the world.

Oddly, it looked like a giant funnel, drawing things in like an antlion’s pit.

Breaking the heavy silence of the hospital room, the girl’s eyelids slowly opened.

Under the fluorescent lights, familiar white walls and medical equipment came into view.

It was her sister’s hospital room, where she had been staying for months.

The short-haired girl slowly raised her head to look at the bed.

There lay her sister, still motionless.

It had been months since she was suddenly hospitalized for cognitive impairment.

Time had passed with doctors unable to find the cause.

Realizing she had fallen asleep hunched over by the bed, the girl slowly sat up.

At that moment, she felt something cold in her palm.

The girl opened her hand in surprise.

There was a small, round orb.

It looked exactly like the orb she had seen in her dream.

As if proving that dream wasn’t just a simple dream.

The short-haired girl clutched the orb tightly as she looked at her sister.

‘Sis. There might be a way. I’ll go and see for myself.’

Faint dawn light began to seep through the window.

It was light heralding the start of a new day, but to the girl, it meant something more.

It felt like the light of hope that everything could change now.

Mini Reaper Garden, Marshmallow Plains.

I was wearing the Halo of Word Spirit I had recently acquired on my head, testing its abilities.

[Pudding!]

As I exuded my will as if speaking, pudding suddenly popped out of thin air.

‘Hmm, is this the extent of it?’

In fact, the Halo of Word Spirit’s ability was so clear that I could easily understand its power just by checking it a little.

It was the ability to make word spirits created through speech, text, or telepathy become reality.

But I couldn’t do just anything with those word spirits.

Well, that was to be expected.

If it could do anything, that spider wouldn’t have lost to me.

The problem was that creating word spirits was harder than I thought.

I had to refine my thoughts into clear and concise word spirits, which was extremely difficult for me, who usually had many stray thoughts.

The only successes were summoning cookies and pudding with short words, and a few clear pranks in my mind.

[Become a pig!]

‘Waaah! Mom is bullying me!’

Wearing the halo, I shot a word spirit at a Golden Reaper passing in front of me.

Hehe.

The problem was that remote pigification was also possible with Green Moon’s ability, and making snacks was possible with the Illusion Manifestation Halo.

No matter how I thought about it, it was unclear how to utilize this effectively.

Om nom nom.

I kept thinking as I tore into and munched on the pudding I had created with the Halo of Word Spirit.

[A giant Mom Golem made of marshmallows!]

As the Blue Idol Reaper, wearing the halo upside down on its head, exuded its will, the Marshmallow Plains suddenly rose up and formed a massive golem.

‘Well done!’

I clapped my hands watching that sight.

The Blue Idol Reaper wearing the halo looked quite exhausted, but it didn’t seem to be in pain like when I used it.

It started with simple curiosity.

A simple thought: wouldn’t the Blue Reaper, who originally used word spirits, be able to use the Halo of Word Spirit well?

The experiment was a great success.

The Blue Idol Reaper could use the Halo of Word Spirit excellently.

No matter what halo I wore, my body always hurt the same, but it wasn’t like that for the Blue Idol Reaper.

But unlike me, the Blue Idol Reaper could only use the ‘Halo of Word Spirit’.

Could there be compatibility for each halo?

Thinking of experimenting with other halos, I summoned the Mini Reapers that seemed high-ranking in my memory.

The Golden Reaper First Sword and the Orange Crown Reaper.

‘?’

The Golden Reaper First Sword popped out of thin air as soon as I called, looking up at me with its characteristic expressionless face.

I was slowly patting the First Sword’s head while waiting for the Orange Crown Reaper, but no matter how long I waited, it didn’t appear.

Instead, a faint will flowed in through the network connecting me and the Mini Reapers.

‘Busy.’

A leisurely will that seemed slightly drunk.

Hmm, it doesn’t look particularly busy….

With a suspicious feeling, I told the First Sword to wait and teleported to where the Orange Crown Reaper was.

The place I arrived at was the deck of a massive cruise ship.

And the Orange Crown Reaper was comfortably lying on the railing where warm sunlight was falling.

Seeing that sight, I immediately bit the Orange Crown Reaper’s head.

‘Waaah!’

A large hospital in downtown Seoul.

Due to the recent Mass Cognitive Impairment Incident, this place had become a temporary shelter for those patients.

As the case was transferred from the police to the Korea Object Council, the atmosphere in the hospital lobby was quite different from before.

The spacious lobby was bustling with people constantly coming and going.

Patients and guardians, medical staff, and now Council employees, various people were moving busily with their own purposes.

On one side of the lobby, chairs were lined up for waiting people.

The large TV installed in front of them was quite big objectively, but its presence seemed strangely diminished among the grand scale of the lobby and the densely arranged chairs.

The TV was broadcasting news.

The announcer’s voice was certainly not small, but it was barely audible, buried in the noise created by the mixture of footsteps, conversations, and the characteristic machine sounds of the hospital that filled the lobby.

[We bring you breaking news related to Seoul Forest.]

[It has been confirmed that the Golden Reapers who had been blocking the area around Seoul Forest have withdrawn.]

[As a result of the Object Council dispatching investigators to the scene, an unexpected fact has come to light.]

[It has been observed that the so-called ‘Civilization Destruction Effect’ that existed in the Seoul Forest area has disappeared.]

[Also, the complete destruction of the Steel Tower, which was presumed to have been invisible due to spatial distortion, has been confirmed.]

[In response to these changes, the government has announced plans for a large-scale investigation.]

[However, the government stated that Seoul Forest may still be dangerous and entry will be prohibited until safety is confirmed.]

At that moment, a noise loud enough to completely drown out the TV sound began to fill the lobby.

“The Golden Reapers have appeared!”

“Where?”

Murmuring sounds.

At the center of that commotion were Golden Reapers riding White Hungry Ghost, with expressions as gallant as knights.

These were the Golden Reapers who had searched all over Seoul on the Gray Reaper’s orders and even asked the Purple Reaper and Blue Reaper about the TV content.

‘They say there are sick humans here!’

‘The White Hungry Ghost should be able to track them!’

‘Spread out!’

The Golden Reapers were controlling the Hungry Ghost by holding their antennae like horse reins.

Kyu!

The Hungry Ghost on mission with the Golden Reapers also cried out and ran off with proud expressions.

Above the hospital where such commotion and cuteness coexisted, a Mini Reaper wearing brilliantly shining golden armor was floating.

The gaze of the Golden Armored Reaper floating in the air was fixed on a girl leaving the hospital and melting into the street.

With short-cut hair fluttering in the wind, that girl was walking out of the hospital grounds with seemingly urgent steps.