Seoul Object Story
Chapter 340: Orb of Wishes (4)

A large hospital in downtown Seoul.

The massive hospital situated in the heart of Seoul had now transformed into a temporary shelter for victims of the Mass Cognitive Impairment Incident.

James slowly entered the hospital, responding to a cooperation request from the Korea Object Council.

Behind James followed staff equipped with all sorts of cutting-edge equipment.

As he walked through the hospital corridors, he sensed a gloomy and sorrowful atmosphere hanging in the air.

‘Even for a victim accommodation hospital, this seems a bit excessive. There’s definitely something strange about this.’

James’s doubts were resolved the moment he entered a room housing cognitive impairment victims.

‘Oh no….’

‘Humans are hurt.’

‘They can’t get better.’

Golden Reapers were sobbing profusely as they looked down at the victims of the Mass Cognitive Impairment Incident.

Crying as if truly aggrieved, they toddled onto the beds and moistened the victims’ cheeks with their tears.

‘Hmm, I see. So that’s why the hospital atmosphere was like that.’

Whether due to the Golden Reapers’ mental contamination or the hospital staff being moved by the sadness, a melancholic mood had spread throughout the entire hospital.

‘Humans are sick….’

Even the Golden Reaper sitting on James’s head, which had been smiling brightly, began shedding tears and hid itself in James’s shirt pocket.

But something caught James’s eye as slightly peculiar.

White Hungry Ghosts were bustling about between the victims, carrying small white lanterns.

And after moving around like that, the White Hungry Ghosts would return to the Golden Reapers, shaking their heads.

‘Can’t find the culprit.’

‘What to do about the humans.’

‘Poor humans.’

At this, the Golden Reapers cried even more pitifully, shedding tears and collapsing face-down on the beds.

‘So that’s the tracking ability possessed by the White Guardians.’

Observing this, James opened his notebook and added a few observations under the White Hungry Ghost information he had heard from the alchemist.

Then, after moving to a different spot, he took out the Golden Reaper that had hidden in his shirt pocket and began feeding it snacks.

Om nom nom.

The Golden Reaper, while still shedding tears, opened its mouth slightly and munched on the snacks.

As the grid-patterned sky shattered, a golden comet plunged towards the ground.

It was the Golden Armored Reaper, wreathed in flames as magnificent and beautiful as a golden comet.

‘How beautiful.’

The short-haired girl was so mesmerized she almost forgot she had been in mortal danger just moments ago.

Thud.

In that instant, a round hole was punctured through the heart of the green reptilian monster.

And like a water bomb, blood burst out in all directions.

The pungent smell of blood filled the air, and fragments of internal organs scattered everywhere.

Simultaneously, the scent of burning flesh stung the nostrils as the golden flames seared the meat.

While the appearance of the blazing golden comet was beautiful, the sight of the Golden Reaper in blood-soaked armor instilled fear in the girl’s heart.

This was despite knowing the Golden Reaper was a beneficial Object.

Her body instinctively reacted, slowly backing away from the Golden Armored Reaper.

Thump.

As the green reptilian monster slowly collapsed onto the ground, its corpse began to pulsate.

Thump. Thump.

And from within the reptilian monster’s belly, an orb was extracted and sucked into the orb the short-haired girl possessed.

“Huh?”

When the girl took out the orb she had been tightly clutching in her pocket, she saw that about 20% of its interior was now filled with a shimmering liquid.

It was a liquid that emanated an extraordinary power.

‘The man in my dream said I needed to gather the orbs of 10 other participants, so is this 20% filled?’

At that moment, a person burst out from the corpse of the green reptilian monster and slowly vanished into space, just like the white-shirted man had before.

Simultaneously, the short-haired girl found herself back in reality.

A reality without the sound-eating fog or the grid-patterned sky.

Instead, it was a place greeted by the noise of the city, warm sunlight, and the sky.

“Are you alright?”

“Try opening your eyes.”

“Someone call 119 please!”

“There’s another person collapsed over here!”

Upon returning to reality, the girl noticed a commotion of people gathered nearby.

At the center of the commotion was the collapsed white-shirted man, with people administering first aid.

“What about that person?”

The man collapsed in the center was the one from the short-haired girl’s memory.

He was the man who had popped out when the vicious monster with saws for hands had died.

“Mmm.”

After a few seconds of the girl watching, the white-shirted man staggered to his feet.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

Though he looked a bit unsteady and dazed, he seemed alright.

‘Thank goodness. So it’s true that even if you eat the orb or die during the festival, it’s okay just like that man said.’

The short-haired girl felt quite relieved seeing the white-shirted man.

Seeing this, the girl immediately made up her mind.

If eating it doesn’t permanently turn you into a monster and dying during the festival isn’t final, I can’t keep avoiding the orb just because it’s unsettling.

It’s scary, but for my sister’s sake!

Just as the short-haired girl was mustering up the courage to eat the orb, the Golden Armored Reaper flew in and blocked her.

It shook its head firmly.

To the short-haired girl, even though the Golden Armored Reaper didn’t say anything, it seemed to be telling her not to eat the orb.

But the girl had no other choice if she wanted to save her sister.

As she tried to put it in her mouth again, the Golden Armored Reaper blocked her once more and stared intently into the short-haired girl’s eyes.

The girl then felt as if she had somehow connected with the Golden Armored Reaper.

‘I’ll fight in your place!’

It felt as if the Golden Armored Reaper was saying something like that to the girl.

Mini Reaper Garden, Marshmallow Plains.

I was sitting there watching the Yellow Reaper’s performance.

When I asked the Yellow Reaper about something I was curious about, it suddenly started a play, but as I watched, it turned out to be quite an intriguing performance.

A Red-Eyed Golden Reaper doll was at the center of the stage, and the Blue Idol Reaper was exuding telepathy like narration.

[There was a Golden Reaper there.]

[A Golden Reaper who secretly bit cheeks and limbs in a place where Mini Reapers were tangled in chaos!]

Then, with a change of curtains, the scene transitioned, and a high platform appeared in the center of the flat stage.

On top of it were angry-looking Golden Reaper dolls holding the Red-Eyed Golden Reaper doll.

[But as they say, there’s no eternal glory.]

[The Golden Reaper, who started biting more and more boldly, eventually…]

[Was caught by the Golden Reapers and brought to the judgment stand.]

The Red-Eyed Golden Reaper doll laughed with an exaggerated tone, ‘Kuk. Kuk. Kuk.’, then exuded its will towards the Golden Reaper dolls gathered below the platform.

‘Biting is.’

‘So much fun!’

The Red-Eyed Golden Reaper left those words and was bitten all over by the surrounding Golden Reapers.

Nom nom nom.

‘Waaah!’

[And this was the beginning of the great Golden Reaper biting game craze.]

With that narration from the Blue Reaper, the curtain fell on the play.

‘This isn’t some cartoon or movie intro….’

I grumbled while watching the stage slowly crumble as the performance ended.

Then, looking down at the Yellow Reaper on my palm, I asked.

‘So you’re saying this whole situation is because of that Golden Reaper?’

As if to show the Yellow Reaper, I lifted one arm, and the Golden Reapers biting the soft parts of my arm came up in a bunch.

The sight resembled squids caught on a squid fishing line.

Nod.

The Yellow Reaper nodded its head up and down, saying yes.

Come to think of it, some of the children biting me have red eyes.

‘Is it possible for eye color to change without the Red Outer God’s energy?’

Curious about this, I tapped them lightly and found that their eyes were covered with crudely cut red glass pieces shaped like Golden Reaper eyeballs.

‘!’

They were color contact lenses so sharp and dangerous that they could easily cut humans, wearable only by physically immune Golden Reapers.

So they all imitated the secret-biting Golden Reaper.

This is troublesome….

For a game this popular, it’ll probably take quite a while to die down.

Usually, if I throw off the attached Mini Reapers, they don’t cling back with dejected expressions, but these vampire Golden Reapers kept biting, which was really annoying.

‘What should I do….’

Thump thump.

As I saw a Golden Reaper thumping around in front of me like that, I suddenly thought of a prank.

‘It’s Mom!’

When I put the wandering one on my palm, the Golden Reaper sat on my palm and giggled.

‘That’s right, that’s right.’

I gently smiled and patted the head of the well-behaved one.

Then I peeled off one of the vampire Golden Reapers stuck to my arm and moved it next to the well-behaved Golden Reaper on my palm.

After that, I pushed the vampire Golden Reaper’s head close to the cheek of the well-behaved Golden Reaper.

Bite.

‘Waaah! It bit me!’

Then the vampire Golden Reaper reflexively bit the cheek of the well-behaved one like an alligator.

I can get rid of these biting ones by letting them bite the cheeks of other Golden Reapers like this.

Hehe.

Just as I was thinking I could remove them all and rest comfortably.

Something started biting my hand with soft teeth.

Looking down, two Golden Reapers were biting my finger.

‘It’s spread!’

The Golden Reaper biting disease had spread like a vampire through biting.

Hing hing.

Late at night.

The short-haired girl was smiling as she looked at the swirling orb.

“It’s already half full. I’ll be able to save my sister soon.”

The short-haired girl said while stroking the head of the Golden Armored Reaper sitting on her shoulder.

“You’re really strong, you know.”

“Thank you for helping me!”

The Golden Armored Reaper enjoyed the petting and smiled softly.

A building in Seodaemun-gu.

James had rented a suitable building in Seodaemun-gu and was using it as a temporary situation room.

Although he hadn’t found any clues at the hospital, he was able to track this far based on a report left by a detective.

Of course, it would have been nearly impossible to find anything based on just one or two fainting cases, but today was different.

As many as 5 fainting cases had occurred.

And among them, they were able to invite one man wearing a white shirt and suit pants who had nowhere else to go.

‘Language ability is fine, and motor skills seem normal.’

Even using various equipment from James Research Institute, apart from not remembering why he came to Seodaemun-gu and looking slightly dazed, he seemed fine.

But the Golden Reaper sitting on James’s crown was crying profusely as it looked at the man through the window.

‘In times like these, the Golden Reaper is more accurate.’

James was convinced that the culprit behind this incident was in Seodaemun-gu.