Seoul Object Story
Chapter 339: Orb of Wishes (3)

A thick festival fog enveloped the streets.

Within it, the faint sound of dragging metal echoed.

The sound-absorbing fog swallowed part of that noise, and the muffled resonance created an even more ominous atmosphere.

The short-haired girl was trembling in fear, hiding her body in the gap between buildings.

The same question kept circling endlessly in her mind.

‘How did it chase me all the way here?’

Her breathing quickened involuntarily, and her heart was pounding madly.

The monster slowly revealing itself from the fog maximized the girl’s fear.

A monster covered in blood from head to toe, standing over 3 meters tall, with both arms severed at the elbows and replaced with saws.

The monster was walking slowly, very slowly towards the girl, with those bizarre arms hanging limply.

Grind. Grind.

The sound of the saws on the monster’s arms scraping against the asphalt grew louder.

Clearer as it got closer.

That noise, approaching slowly but surely, endlessly amplified the girl’s terror.

The short-haired girl covered her mouth with both hands.

She felt like she might burst into tears at any moment if she let go.

Grind. Grind.

The incessant repetitive sound surrounded the girl’s ears. As the Saw Monster drew closer, the girl’s heart pounded more violently.

Feeling like the monster’s saw might come down on her head at any moment, she tightly shut her eyes.

Just as the sound of the dragging saw reached right in front of her, something unexpected happened.

Thud.

Along with a dull yet sharp sound, warm liquid splattered down onto the girl’s head.

Slowly opening her eyes in terror, an unbelievable sight unfolded before the girl’s view.

A sharp, bone-like object was protruding from the Saw Monster’s chest.

‘Eek!’

Seeing this, the girl was so startled she almost reflexively screamed.

Only then did the girl notice another monster standing behind the Saw Monster.

It was the green reptilian monster that had been fighting the Saw Monster in the open space.

This green-skinned monster had no arms, but instead its tail was extended sharply like a spear.

That tail had pierced through the Saw Monster’s chest.

As the Saw Monster collapsed lifelessly to the ground, the green monster began tearing into the Saw Monster’s chest with its mouth.

And from the torn-open chest, it gripped an orb with its mouth and yanked it out.

As it pulled it out, something white and translucent connecting the orb and monster came out with it.

It looked like stretched adhesive or wispy cotton candy threads.

Though it came out so simply and insignificantly, the girl somehow felt those white strands were important.

Once the orb was torn from its body, a human popped out of the Saw Monster’s corpse, sprawled on the ground, and then disappeared as if melting into space.

The last glimpse she caught before it vanished was of a young man in a crumpled dress shirt and slacks.

Thud. Thud.

Then the green monster turned around and slowly began to move away.

‘I… I survived!’

A sense of relief at having survived slowly spread through the short-haired girl’s heart.

‘Now I just need to escape from this mysterious foggy space.’

Thud.

At that moment, the green monster stopped walking and muttered in a voice that sounded like gurgling phlegm.

[The space isn’t disappearing.]

And the monster slowly began to turn back around.

Thump-thump-thump.

Her heart was pounding as if it might burst.

Haa. Haa. Haa.

Breath leaked out from between her hands covering her mouth, as if she was hyperventilating.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The green monster’s footsteps slowly approached the girl, then.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Passed by the gap in the building where the girl was hiding and started to move further away.

Haa. Haa. Haa.

The girl, trying to suppress her unsteady breathing even though the monster had moved far away, slowly got up from her spot.

‘Quickly, I need to run away quickly.’

As the girl barely managed to stand up on her trembling knees, yellow glowing reptilian eyes were looking down at her.

“Kyaaah!”

As the girl screamed in shock, her face turning pale, a tail bone as thick as her forearm and razor-sharp flew towards her.

Seeing the bone flying towards her heart, the girl suddenly had such a thought.

‘Should I have eaten the orb earlier?’

And just as she was about to close her eyes while apologizing to her sister.

A golden comet fell from the sky.

What landed in front of the girl against the backdrop of the shattered lattice sky was the Golden Armored Reaper.

As I was idling in the isolation room, my thoughts suddenly reached the Lead Doll.

‘The Lead Doll granting wishes indiscriminately reminds me of the Old God from the Blue Girl’s dream.’

For no particular reason, I felt concerned and got up to walk towards the isolation room where the Lead Doll was being kept.

Arriving at the Lead Doll’s isolation room, I saw Mini Reapers sitting on the floor waiting their turn, and the Lead Doll sitting demurely on a chair.

I quickly scanned the interior of the isolation room and felt slightly relieved.

‘There are far fewer Mini Reapers than in my isolation room.’

Heh, I guess the fake can’t beat the real thing after all.

When I appeared on the isolation room bed, dispelling my ghostification, the Mini Reapers made a big fuss and started jumping up and down.

‘Ah! Mom came to visit!’

‘It’s Mom!’

Simultaneously, some Mini Reapers began to slyly move closer to me.

The Mini Reapers waddled over and clung to my body one after another.

Of course, I threw the clingy Mini Reapers outside the bed.

‘Waaah!’

Then I started experimenting on the Lead Doll.

Since the Lead Doll moves using firewood as fuel and grants wishes, I tried infusing wishes into firewood and feeding it to the doll.

When I commanded ‘Nod your head up and down,’ it nodded repeatedly even while feeding snacks to the Mini Reapers.

It could perform most commands that could be quickly achieved through body movements.

Even things like making Mini Reapers into ‘Daejji’.

However, difficult commands or those requiring superpowers, like cutting through space, all failed.

‘Put everyone at Sehee Research Institute to sleep.’

‘Teleport Sehee Research Institute to the moon instantly.’

‘Solve the P vs NP problem.’

‘What’s 127 plus 1,452?’

When given such instructions, it would tilt its head or nothing would happen at all.

It seemed the Lead Doll didn’t have the ability to use firewood.

‘Hmm.’

Thinking I had verified enough, I was about to go back when I felt gazes on me.

It was the gaze of the Mini Reapers sprawled under the bed.

The Mini Reapers were looking at the Lead Doll, then turned to stare at me.

Om nom nom.

The Lead Doll was still hugging the Mini Reapers, petting them, and feeding them snacks.

The Mini Reapers’ gazes seemed to be saying, ‘Why doesn’t Mom do that?’

Do they want me to act like the Lead Doll?

Can’t be helped, I guess.

Hehe.

I tried my best to use a solemn tone as I conveyed my will to the Mini Reapers.

‘Your wishes shall be granted.’

Simultaneously, I started pouring firewood into the Lead Doll.

Of course, that firewood was filled with my wishes.

‘Yay!’

‘Kind Mom!’

The Mini Reapers jumped up and down with happy expressions.

And as my firewood reached the Lead Doll, its behavior began to change.

‘Waaah!’

The Lead Doll threw away the Golden Reaper sitting on its lap.

Then it got up and started rolling towards the Mini Reapers.

‘Waaah!’

‘Mom is bullying us!’

‘Liar!’

Of course, I joined the Lead Doll in rolling towards the Mini Reapers.

Their wish for the Lead Doll and Mom to become the same has been granted, so they must be happy, right?

Hehe.

Mini Reaper Garden, Marshmallow Plains.

The pink girl was lying on a hill full of Black Reapers and Golden Reapers, poring over a book that looked like a textbook.

“They say once I learn the language used in this country and some basic knowledge, I can go to a place called school.”

The pink girl looked down at the Blue Idol Reaper with a bright smile.

“School is a kind of academy, they say. My dream of going to an academy might come true!”

Seeing her Attachment Human looking so happy, the Blue Idol Reaper smiled with a similar expression.

The pink girl closed the book and leaned towards the Blue Idol Reaper.

“Don’t you want to learn the language together?”

The pink girl naturally assumed it would join her, but the Blue Idol Reaper shook its head.

“Why? It would be much more fun if we learned together…”

But the answer came from elsewhere.

‘Mom said not to!’

‘Korean? She said don’t pretend to know it!’

‘Blue siblings got scolded for that!’

The Golden Reapers got up and started jumping as they answered.

The Golden Reapers didn’t seem to know exactly what Korean was, but they clearly remembered Mom’s will.

Of course, the pink girl couldn’t understand the Mini Reapers’ will, but the Blue Idol Reaper translated for her.

“I see…”

The pink girl was a bit disappointed, but since it was something the Gray Reaper had done, she had no choice but to accept it.

‘If such an amazing grimoire as the Gray Reaper said not to do it, there must be a very important reason.’

‘Maybe it’s a taboo that could affect the fate of the world.’

The pink girl nodded, convincing herself like that.

At that moment, a commotion started among the Mini Reapers.

‘Ah, someone bit again!’

‘We need to find them!’

‘Bad reaper!’

A Golden Reaper jumping in surprise.

The sound of Mini Reapers walking with their tiny feet.

The sound of Golden Reapers running wildly across the marshmallows to catch the culprit.

But the perpetrator had already vanished without a trace.

On the chubby cheek of the Golden Reaper that had woken up startled from sleep, teeth marks from a Mini Reaper remained.

A world with a latticed sky full of fog.

Until recently, it was a space where monsters had been killing each other, but now it was empty.

Neither the monster with saws for arms,

Nor the green reptilian monster,

Nor the girl who hadn’t eaten the orb,

Nor the Golden Reaper that had come down through the sky.

No one was there.

Suddenly, in the empty air of that vacant place, a man appeared.

The man looked up at the hole in the sky and muttered.

[That face. A Golden Reaper, is it.]

The man slowly walked, looking down at the ground soaked in blood.

Amidst the blood were the corpses of a reptile with a Golden Armored Reaper-shaped hole and the Saw Monster’s body.

[Meeting that face at the end of this great work]

[Is it fate? Or coincidence?]

The man covered his mouth with one hand, spitting out words as if chewing them.

[Surely it must be fate.]

[The Last Alchemist….]