Seoul Object Story
Chapter 71: Gyeyangsan Relief Camp: Epilogue (1)

The dark, dull, and thickly scented atmosphere of the underground clearing had done a complete one-eighty.

Suspicious camp residents were calling our client by different names, and the client didn’t even remember her own name.

Then there were people losing their minds and running around like crazies, ninjas suddenly popping up, and don’t get me started on the shady researchers hiding out in the underground waterways.

Yeah, it was a hot mess of dangerous and weird situations, but then the Gray Reaper showed up and flipped the script.

The vibe shifted to something more bright, cheerful, and… squishy?

It turned into some sort of bizarre, fun playground with cute little Golden Reapers scurrying about.

There was even a Golden Reaper clinging onto the detective’s shoulder while he puffed away on his pipe in the corner of the room. The little thing was poking at his cheek, trying to get some attention, but the detective just found it annoying.

Hammer sunbae, on the other hand, was curled up hugging the Gray Reaper. A warm, fuzzy atmosphere surrounded them as some Golden Reapers and the ghost kitty were also snuggling up to her.

She stroked the head of the expressionless Gray Reaper, while a bunch of Golden Reapers clung to her. From the look on Hammer sunbae’s face, she was about to explode from happiness!

Across the clearing, a bunch of Golden Reapers were clinging to the client’s unconscious younger brother, looking worried. Weirdly, not a single one of them went near the client.

Is it because the client was an Object? Are they only friendly to humans and just indifferent to others?

Even though they were favorable towards humans, it was still a huge red flag.

It was pretty well-established that the closer an Object gets to humans, the more dangerous it could potentially inflict.

Yup, It’s definitely a red flag… It’s common sense to be careful around them…

But for some reason, I didn’t feel the need to keep my distance from these adorable little guys.

They are such good kids!

I looked down at the Golden Reaper holding onto my index finger. It was a cute, warm, and soft Object wriggling in my palm.

I felt this weird sense of kinship with the Golden Reapers, like it was a long-lost family member. Anyone who didn’t fall in love with these cuties had to be seriously broken.

I pulled a lollipop out of my pocket and held it out to the Golden Reaper, and it cutely grabbed it with both hands and started licking it.

Slurp-! Slurp-!

I slowly pulled the candy back while holding onto its body with my free hand. Watching the Golden Reaper stick out its tongue to lick the candy was shooo cute!!

As I kept playing with the lollipop, the Golden Reaper glared at me. Suddenly, It started pouting, it must be angry because I was messing with it too much.

But after I apologized and stroked its head with my fingers, it immediately burst into laughter.

Awawawa… I want to take one home!

I want to keep it with me forever and ever! Wait, couldn’t I secretly stash one in my pocket and take it with me? Hehe, let’s try it!

But to my utter despair, I tried putting the Golden Reaper in my pocket, but I failed.

After I put it in my pocket, it stayed quiet for a bit, but soon after, It climbed out and clung to me again.

In the end, I had to scrap my secret plan to smuggle it home in my pocket.

No! There must be a way! There has to be! Hmm, seems like I need to think about it some more…

***

After I finished cleaning my pipe and stashed it away, I sauntered over to the client, who was fidgeting like a nervous squirrel.

“Is it okay to not check on your little brother? Hmm?”

“Um, a-about that… I’m scared… I can’t get close… Sorry…” She stammered, looing like she’d rather be anywhere else.

I’d heard that Objects were naturally afraid of the Gray Reaper. Maybe that was why she was so uncomfortable around the Golden Reapers?

Well, even if she wasn’t an Object, it would still be enough to freak anyone out. After all, the same cute little Golden Reapers who couldn’t get enough of me and my juniors were stone-cold towards her.

Imagine being in a situation where terrifying Objects appeared out of nowhere and killed a lot of people, but ignored only you while being favorable towards everyone else? Yeah, that’d be pretty unsettling.

I walked over to the chair where the client’s younger brother was slumped on and scooped up all the Golden Reapers that were clinging to him.

Thankfully, they changed their base to my shoulders without much of a fuss. A few of them did tug at my hair and some crawled up my back, but I could tolerate that much.

Only then did the client manage to, albeit hesitantly, approach her younger brother.

“Taehoon…? Taehoon…” she called softly, his hands clutched in hers. “Taehoon… My little boy… Are you awake?”

“Hehe, it’s noona…”

Slurred words flowed from the mouth of a man who looked to be over 30 years old.

While I watched their little reunion from a distance, Junior No. 2 slid up next to me.

“Sunbae… What on earth is this case? What’s wrong with the client, and why is her little brother so… well, old?”

Sigh, I handed the directory from my pocket to Junior No. 2.

“First off, that’s really her little brother and there’s nothing wrong with him… He’s actually thirty-five years old. Sigh… The problem here is the client.”

The client who used to be 165 cm, had shrunk to 150 cm, and now was barely 120 cm tall. As her height shrunk, her clothes and shoes also shrunk with her, so there was no way she was normal.

“If you look at the documents, you will see that this ‘Lee Taehoon’, the supposed younger brother never even had a sister. So, who on earth is our client?”

“Umm, so considering that her height suddenly decreased and she can’t even remember her name, she’s an Object, right?”

“Yes. We have to investigate to be sure, but I think all the camp residents, including our client, are the same type of Object.”

I took out my cell phone and checked for a signal. But… Nope, still no bars.

“Hah… The scene needs to be cleaned up and our client’s “little brother” is in a weird condition… Sigh, we need to head out and call for backup.”

The man didn’t seem to have any major injuries, but there was definitely something off with his mental age. Hmm, his medical records didn’t mention anything like this, though?

I had a hunch it was due to some kind of torture, but we’d need a hospital to confirm the details.

***

Sending Junior No. 2 to go out and call the police or an ambulance, I dragged Junior No. 1, away from her playdate with the Gray Reaper, and made her search the underground facility.

“Sunbae, why did you ask me to search around the underground facility now?” she grumbled, clearly upset about being interrupted.

She seemed more attached than I’d expected. Wait, does the Gray Reaper also have some kind of mind corruption ability?

“There’s something strange about this place, so let’s investigate before the backup arrives.”

In fact, I wasn’t all that confident that I would even find something, but it was also true that quite a lot of stuff about the facility was strange.

“Especially since our client is not a human, but an Object instead, it’s better to do some research beforehand.”

“?”

Well, the camp was strange and the client was strange too, there was nothing clear-cut in this case.

In the basement, an unidentifiable beating sound echoed, guiding us through the maze-like hallways. Creepy didn’t even begin to cover it.

Everywhere I looked, there was a torture chamber, and inside them were corpses of the camp residents, people I remembered talking to… From the nice, chatty butcher to the client’s landlady. It was clear that the director had bought them here.

After passing countless such torture chambers, we discovered a new facility. It was a somewhat unique, large, and surprisingly clean room, with hearts—literal hearts—hanging from the ceiling.

Hearts made of gold pulsating together and connected by rubber tubes that looked like blood vessels.

“Oh… so this is the ‘source of disturbance’ of the camp, huh?”

“Most of the hearts seem to be broken though.”

She was right. Most of the hearts here were damaged, spitting out gold crumbs with every beat. A significant number of them were fully broken even, no longer beating, while the rest looked ready to give out within a day.

“So this is it.”

In the room filled with hearts, only one was still intact. Carefully, I packed the heart up.

“Hmm? Why are you taking that heart, sunbae? Oh, a Souvenir!”

“…no. Sigh. This heart is probably the client’s heart, so I’m just taking care of it in advance.”

“Umm, sorry?”

“Why are you so surprised? You already knew that the camp residents and the client were Objects. What did you think those hanging hearts were, huh?”

“Um… that they were terrible?”

What the? How could she be so stupid? Sigh.

“‘Aha, so that’s it! These hearts must be the reason the camp residents were acting strangely!’ That’s what you should be thinking!”

“Oh, yea, you could totally see it that way. I didn’t think about it like that.”

“And you saw it on our way here. The corpses of the camp residents who were tortured to death. Isn’t it weird that there are corpses of people with the same face both above and underground?”

“Aha… So, these hearts are the medium that created the fake camp residents outside. Oooh!”

Junior No. 1(after much coercion) reached the same conclusion as I did.

“Exactly. So, we need to take care of the client’s heart before the association comes to investigate.”

Having sealed and stored the heart in a glass bottle, I stood up.