Seoul Object Story
Chapter 346: Aftermath of the Orb of Wishes (1)

As the man wearing the Halo was sucked into the wishes, the sun slowly began to peek over the ruins of Seodaemun-gu.

The dawn light was like a signal flare announcing the end of a long night.

‘It’s over.’

The faint beam of light appearing in the eastern sky gradually pushed back the darkness, beginning to reveal the outlines of the ruined city.

The devastated streets had now transformed into an unfamiliar landscape.

Twisted steel structures soared towards the sky like giant sculptures, and broken windows reflected the dawn light, twinkling like stars.

Against the increasingly bright sky, the once-bustling streets had changed into a completely different scene.

Signs strewn across the ground and broken road markers.

Dust particles dancing in the wind.

The faint chirping of birds in the distance.

It was a sight unimaginable when searching for the missing Golden Reaper.

As I surveyed the surroundings, a bench that remained oddly intact among the destroyed facilities caught my eye.

It was the very bench I had discovered while chasing after the missing Golden Pig Reaper.

Feeling a bit of nostalgia, I sat on that bench and picked up the coffee cup, its aroma long since dissipated, to examine it.

At that moment, I saw Golden Reapers approaching from afar.

The Golden Cloak Reaper was trudging along, carrying what appeared to be an unconscious Golden Horned Reaper.

Despite carrying the Golden Horned Reaper, it was easily climbing over piles of broken concrete.

Is the Golden Cloak Reaper’s characteristic that it’s stronger than other Golden Reapers, instead of being a Firewood Pig?

Other Golden Reapers would break even small stones into pieces to move them, so this was quite a difference.

As I watched the tiny creature valiantly crossing over crumbled concrete, I noticed something had changed.

‘It was originally wearing just a cloak, but now it has shoes and gloves?’

The Golden Cloak Reaper was wearing sturdy-looking boots and gloves.

The design of those boots and gloves looked quite impressive, to the point where I might have wanted to steal and wear them if it were full body armor.

‘A bit of a shame.’

Of course, there’s no way I could wear armor sized for Mini Reapers.

When the Golden Cloak Reaper arrived on my knee, I picked up the unconscious Golden Horned Reaper and playfully pressed its charming horns.

Those horns had a strangely addictive charm that never seemed to get old.

Hehe.

As I was playing with the Golden Horned Reaper like that, a forgotten memory slowly approached and whispered to me.

[Swirling White Hungry Ghost Roast.]

As that phrase surfaced in my mind like a mental contamination, I abruptly stood up.

Then, holding the two Golden Reapers from my knee in my hands, I instantly teleported to the Mini Reaper Garden.

As my vision blurred from the spatial movement, I saw the drones that had been filming me scatter in all directions, beginning to capture the ruins revealed under the sun.

Mini Reaper Garden, Marshmallow Plains.

The Gray Reaper suddenly popped out of thin air from the spatial movement, dumped the Golden Horned Reaper and Golden Cloak Reaper on the ground, and rushed off somewhere in a hurry.

Thus, the Golden Horned Reaper and Golden Cloak Reaper fell mercilessly to the ground.

The Golden Cloak Reaper tried to adjust its posture in mid-air like other Golden Reapers, cat-like, but failed to do so properly and landed belly-first on the ground.

Of course, the unconscious Golden Horned Reaper also sprawled helplessly on the ground, rolling around.

‘I can’t fly…’

Perhaps because its armor hadn’t fully regenerated, the Golden Cloak Reaper was in a state where it couldn’t fly.

The Golden Cloak Reaper properly laid down the Golden Horned Reaper and began to trudge off in search of its Attachment Human.

‘….’

After some time passed, the Golden Horned Reaper woke up from its sleep, disturbed by the somewhat noisy atmosphere.

‘Ah! It opened its eyes!’

‘Long time no see!’

‘It’s been a while!’

Suddenly, its vision was filled with numerous Golden Reapers, their eyes twinkling.

The Golden Reapers were exuding emotions of genuine delight.

As soon as they realized the Golden Horned Reaper had opened its eyes, the Golden Reapers began to inch closer, then rushed in all at once.

A giant Golden Reaper cocoon!

Soft cheeks rubbed against each other, and tiny limbs stretched out from all directions.

‘Waaah!’

‘I can’t move!’

‘Ah, someone bit me again!’

After the Golden Reaper-style welcome party ended, only a small number of the oldest Golden Reapers remained, beginning to roll around together.

These were Golden Reapers from the time when their lifespans were so short they couldn’t even last a full day.

‘We’re staying at the Gap Institute!’

‘???’

Meeting after a long time, they shared updates about their recent situations.

‘It’s the Shaved Ice Snowfield.’

‘It’s so white!’

Holding hands, they guided each other through the newly created parts of the Mini Reaper Garden.

After touring the Mini Reaper Garden extensively, the Golden Reapers settled down in the snowfield and began to nibble on sugar fruits.

Om nom nom.

The Golden Horned Reaper, eyes wide at the unfamiliar taste, devoured the fruit vigorously.

While the Golden Horned Reaper was distracted by the snacks, one Golden Reaper trudged over and bit its horn.

Munch munch.

The Golden Horned Reaper giggled as if ticklish, looking up at the Golden Reaper that had bitten it.

It was a meeting of soft teeth and soft horns.

Seeing this, other Golden Reapers got up and rushed over.

‘Me too!’

‘I want to bite too!’

As the Golden Reapers were giggling and rolling around in the snow like that, the Orange Crown Reaper was watching the scene from the sky with a meaningful expression.

Sehee Research Institute, Researcher’s Office.

As lunchtime arrived, the Helmet Researcher took his eyes off the monitor and looked around.

Turning his gaze, he noticed the Sehee Research Institute office, bustling due to lunchtime, seemed to have a slightly excited atmosphere.

In fact, the Sehee Research Institute office was always like this, but today it felt particularly intense.

‘It must be because of the Seodaemun-gu incident from a few days ago?’

The large-scale Object incident that occurred yesterday was receiving considerable attention for two reasons.

The first was the special-grade Object alert and evacuation advisory issued by James Research Institute, followed by the city’s collapse immediately after the evacuation was completed.

Thanks to James Research Institute, it became an Object incident with property damage but no injuries or deaths.

It was a case that truly demonstrated how remarkable James Research Institute was.

The Helmet Researcher was a bit curious about what thoughts went through the minds of those who had resisted until the end but evacuated at the last minute.

The second reason was that it was a properly filmed battle scene of the Gray Reaper after a long time.

A battle scene that was spectacular yet desperate and intense.

The Helmet Researcher thought that the Gray Reaper’s popularity would likely increase significantly this time.

Perhaps this time it could finally catch up to the Golden Reaper’s popularity?

Thinking this, the Helmet Researcher looked down to find a Golden Reaper sprawled out on top of his report, rolling around.

‘Ah!’

The Golden Reaper, lying there, sensed the researcher’s gaze and began to wave its arms and legs, rolling around to prevent him from seeing the report.

‘You can’t work!’

‘It’s break time!’

It had been like this every time since understanding the concept of lunchtime.

The Helmet Researcher smiled softly, picked up the Golden Reaper, and stood up from his seat.

‘No matter what, it would be hard for the Gray Reaper to surpass the Golden Reaper’s popularity, right?’

The Helmet Researcher had such a thought as he looked down at the Golden Reaper giggling ‘hehe’.

‘….’

Arriving at the break room with a simple sandwich and pudding for the Golden Reaper, he saw the Gray Reaper’s battle scene playing on the large TV screen.

It was a scene of the Gray Reaper, its entire body glowing golden, throwing a punch with somewhat awkward movements.

The Golden Reaper sitting on the Helmet Researcher’s shoulder, upon seeing the TV screen, immediately jumped onto the table and began to imitate the Gray Reaper on the screen.

‘Golden Mom Punch!’

The Golden Reaper threw a limp punch with a somewhat awkward posture.

Wobble. Wobble.

Its expression clearly showed how much it loved the Gray Reaper, but its posture looked like it was mocking the Gray Reaper, which was a bit amusing.

Well, it was clear that the Gray Reaper disliked being imitated.

Some Golden Reapers had been caught imitating the Gray Reaper and ended up inflated like ping pong balls.

The Helmet Researcher suddenly felt mischievous and pointed to the break room entrance, whispering softly.

“Look, the Gray Reaper is over there!”

‘Ah!’

The Golden Reaper was startled, covering its mouth with both hands and looking towards the entrance, but there was no one there.

‘You tricked me!’

The Golden Reaper, looking slightly angry, rushed over and threw soft punches at the Helmet Researcher’s cheeks.

The Helmet Researcher chuckled softly as he received the gentle punches.

The man with the Halo was dreaming.

It was a fragment of a very old memory.

A childhood dream.

The man in the dream was extremely angry.

Bang!

The man in the dream was venting his anger, strongly striking a table laden with various alchemy equipment.

[Why!]

The man was watching that past version of himself from a slight distance, as if viewing a play.

‘I see, so this was the beginning.’

This memory was the starting point that led to his continued clashes with the blue-haired girl.

[I am the Last Alchemist.]

[A grimoire being the Chief Alchemist? I absolutely cannot accept this.]

The man in the dream spat out words full of anger with a distorted expression.

However, unlike the man in the dream, the man in the gray torrent who had been defeated saw something new.

‘Such titles from an academy that will soon disappear aren’t even that important…’

‘This is where things started to go wrong.’

As the man had these thoughts, the dream that had been maintaining a solid form crumbled and disappeared into the torrent.

And the man’s consciousness began to grow increasingly hazy.

“So this is my end.”

Feeling his consciousness scatter, the man muttered with a slightly lonely expression.

Just before his consciousness dispersed, the man could see something pitch black within the torrent of wishes.

Something as black as evolution fluid, maintaining a perfectly round shape.