Seoul Object Story
Chapter 98: The Pudding Factory: Epilogue (1)

Late at night, the security room of the Sehee Research Institute was unusually crowded.

Typically, this room would be filled with exhausted employees, barely holding onto their consciousness, their eyelids heavy with drowsiness. But tonight, every person in the room had bright, eager eyes.

Of course, it wasn’t because they were suddenly filled with a surge of dedication and were diligently working hard for the sake of the Institute.

No, the real reason was far more whimsical: they were engrossed in watching the CCTV screen, munching on popcorn as if they were tuning into the latest episode of a thrilling TV show.

On the screen, a little Golden Reaper was bouncing around all over the place, carefully carrying a pudding on its back.

The employees observed with rapt attention, much like one would while watching an irresistibly cute cat or dog video.

“Awww!! The Golden Reaper is so cute!!! I want one! Can’t I just take one home?!!”

“Sob! Me too, man, me too.”

As the night wore on, the Golden Reaper trotted through a dark, unlit hallway.

It moved sneakily, its eyes darting around everywhere, hoping not to be discovered.

However, unfortunately for the Golden Reaper, it was well, impossible to hide on a dark night like this. After all, just like the Gray Reaper, the Golden Reaper also emitted a gentle golden light from its body!

The otherwise pitch-black hallway was softly illuminated by its light, making it all the more conspicuous. Rather, it was actually harder to not spot it.

The employees watched with warm hearts as the Golden Reaper’s adventure, which had been smooth until now, encountered an unexpected roadblock.

Yes, The road was—quite literally—blocked!

A large steel wall suddenly blocked the path of the now-baffled Golden Reaper.

Confused and slightly panicked, the Golden Reaper, which had been merrily skipping along, now found itself without a way forward.

It whipped around, searching frantically for another way through, but alas the little reaper was out of luck.

“Aww… I guess it didn’t know that we put up barriers in a few places after midnight.”

“Well, the Golden Reaper tends to fall asleep early in the evening, so how would it know? It’s normally asleep by now?”

The Golden Reaper paced back and forth in front of the closed gate, trying to find even a teeny-tiny possible gap to slip through. But, of course, there was no such gap in the high-security barrier designed to keep out Objects.

If it were the Gray Reaper, it would have simply torn down the barrier, picked up the pudding, and continued on its way. But the Golden Reaper didn’t seem to have any intention of using brute force.

“Umm, should I just open it?”

“Hey, you know that it won’t just end with a pay cut if you get caught, right?”

“But! I feel so bad…”

The Golden Reaper, oblivious to the guards’ debate, continued to wander around near the barrier. It knocked on the metal surface and even tried to climb over it.

After trying every possible method it could think of, the Golden Reaper finally plopped down on the floor in despair, clutching the pudding tightly to its chest.

The high-tech CCTV, installed by Deputy Director Seoah, captured the face of the Golden Reaper in 4K UHD, inflicting even more emotional damage on the guards.

“Ah, whatever. I don’t care anymore! I’m opening it!”

One of the guards exclaimed, finally breaking under the Golden Reaper’s sad puppy eyes.

Rumble-!

With a loud rumble, the barrier slowly rose.

The Golden Reaper fretted as it looked at the slowly melting pudding.

Pudding… Tastes better if it is eaten quickly.

But a large, naughty steel wall stood in its way, blocking the path to its favorite human!

No matter what the little reaper tried, the steel wall wouldn’t let it through.

Despite its considerable power, the Golden Reaper didn’t destroy the wall.

It knew humans got sad when their belongings were damaged—even if it was just a naughty wall. So, it could do nothing but plop down on the floor and wait.

Then, all of a sudden, a miracle happened out of nowhere.

Rumble-!

With a loud rumble, the barrier slowly rose upward.

The Golden Reaper’s face lit up with joy. In an instant, its sadness vanished, replaced by a single thought—getting to its beloved human.

Bursting with happiness, the little reaper dashed toward the now-operating steel wall, its tiny feet moving as fast as they could.

The little reaper was happy.

Soon, It would be with its beloved human.

Although most people had gone home already, I still stayed in the Director’s Office of the Sehee Research Institute and held onto books. It was just like my days as a student.

Ah, goodbye world, I can’t do this anymore… I’m going to die…

This is a test that someone can pass by studying for just three months? Bullshit!

Everyone in this field said that it’s easier to pass than expected, so why the hell is it so difficult?!

Aren’t I also from the same field as them?

I flipped through the pages again as my mouth chanted countless curses toward the ‘Daily Object’ on autopilot.

Those bastards are the root of my suffering, they just had to do utterly stupid stuff and get this law passed. HAHAHAAHAAHAHA!!

As I was focused on cursing studying, a cute ‘Knock’ came from the door. It was a cute knock, completely different from Seoah’s terrifying knock.

Letting curiosity get the better of me, I opened the door slightly, only to see a little Golden Reaper handing me a tasty looking pudding as if it was delivering a pizza.

Finding it cute, I lifted the Golden Reaper onto my palm and accepted the pudding from it.

Oh~ So this is that ‘special’ pudding everyone was raving about.

I thought about trying it, but I was so busy that it completely skipped my mind.

“Aww~ Did you bring me a pudding? Thank you!”

I brought the Golden Reaper closer to my face and stroked it with my cheeks, but surprisingly it also started stroking the area under my eyes with a gloomy expression.

Ah, the dark circles? Is it worried because I look exhausted?

“There, there. Everything is fine. Don’t worry! I’ll just eat the pudding and relax today, okay?”

I opened the pudding container, scooped some of it with a spoon, and gave the Golden Reaper a bite.

Then, I also took a bite.

It’s been a while since I had any rest, it’s so hard studying all the time! But seeing the Golden Reaper’s bright smile made it all go away.

For some reason, I felt confident—though I had nothing to back it up—that I would get a certificate.

It couldn’t be helped.

Hehe! Let’s just eat pudding and sleep today! I’ll work hard starting tomorrow!

I lay sprawled on the factory floor, gazing up at the puddings floating in the sky above me.

“What should I do? I’m in big trouble.”

Yerin was stomping the ground, her face a mix of frustration and disbelief as she watched the pudding bubbles drifting off in every direction.

Was this really something to worry about?

I mean, everyone gets free pudding now! Isn’t that a good thing?

Anyway, today had been really tough.

I’d used up a lot of my flame fighting that pesky Hungry Ghost offshoot hand-to-hand.

I’d also spent a lot of it in expanding the Garden of Golden Reaper that quickly.

And to top it off, I had to use even more of the firewood to crush and kill that offshoot Hungry Ghost through space manipulation.

All of that firewood gone—poof!

It was all a huge waste of my time… Now I was just tired and feeling a bit sorry for myself.

Poke-!

A Golden Reaper poked my cheek, bringing me out of my brooding thoughts.

Hmm? It seemed to be offering me a pudding, poking my cheek insistently as if saying, “Here! Eat this and you’ll be all better!”

As I nibbled on the pudding the little reaper had brought me, I felt a warm, fuzzy happiness wash over me and watched more puddings float into the sky.

The Sehee Research Institute would get even more pudding now, right?

Even though today had been hard, thinking about the delicious pudding I would get to eat in the future made me giggle softly.

Hihihi.

Today, I’d killed two Objects.

The killer teddy bear robot thingy and the offshoot Hungry Ghost.

But I didn’t gain any new abilities from them.

Maybe it was because they were just physical-type Objects? After all, no matter how many of those strong and ripped Objects I tore apart, my muscles never seemed to go bigger.

I really wanted those amazing muscles of the Hungry Ghost offshoot, it would’ve been good if I finally gained a strength-related ability.

But nope, still no muscles.

I couldn’t even open a bottle on my own, you know? Yerin always had to help me with that, which was kind of annoying.

If there was no one around to help, I’d have to use ‘Overlap’ to blow the bottle top off, which was a bit messy.

Om nom nom-!

As I happily munched on pudding with the Golden Reapers, Yerin called out to us.

“Let’s go back to the lab!”

Yawn~ I was too comfy to move, so I just stared at her. She sighed and walked over, and lifted me up by my armpits.

She scooped me up like a kitten and plopped me into the vehicle.

Vrooom~ Off we went!

As the pudding factory faded into the distance, I suddenly remembered something.

There was some of that black goo left in the factory… Sigh, I could use that to accidentally summon another Golden Reaper. But I was so tired, that I’d completely forgotten about it.

What a shame…

Maybe next time.

James stared out of the hotel window, where the first rays of the morning crept over the horizon.

It had been a long day—too long for his taste.

After the Gray Reaper had left the factory, he had been bombarded with a stream of issues to deal with.

First, he had to call the Object Disposal Unit to sweep the factory for any lurking surprises. One never knew what could happen when dealing with Objects after all.

Then, he had to deal with the interpreter who had fainted, and get him to the hospital. He also had to disperse all the nosy people gathered in front of the factory.

And then there was dealing with the whole Bubble Pudding incident… He would have to sit down with his lawyer and make a few well-placed calls to some friendly reporters to spin the story. Damage control was a drag, but he knew how to play the game.

The day was long, but it was far from over.

As James finally sank into his couch to take a breather in his hotel room, his smartwatch buzzed.

The caller was his “friend” from China—a man who led a group of outdated ninjas.

“Hello~ It’s been a while since you last bothered me. What’s the occasion? And emergency?”

[ … ]

“Yes, there indeed was a problem. I had already expected it, but as soon as we set up a factory in Korea… Surprise! Surprise! We get attacked in the guise of an ‘accident’. Sigh… If it weren’t for your request, I wouldn’t have touched Korea with a ten-foot pole.”

[ … ]

“The Gray Reaper? Yeah, we had a little run-in. It wasn’t on my agenda to meet it so soon, but hey, life’s full of surprises. Well, I could confirm one thing. Haha, I’d bet good money that it’s related to artifact number 0.”

[ … ]

“This incident? Who knows. Maybe the timing was just a coincidence. Accidents like these are a dime a dozen here, so it’s hard to say.”

[ … ]

“Alright, catch you later, buddy.”

James ended the call and lay down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

For once, his usually smug expression seemed clouded with a flurry of thoughts.

We finally made it!

After leaving the pudding factory, we finally arrived at Sehee Research Institute’s containment room. What a day!

Snuggled in my arms was the soft and warm Reaper, fast asleep.

I carefully leaned over and plopped down on the bed with it, making sure not to shake it too much.

Reaper was so tired today… It fell asleep in the car without even eating any of the snacks!

After the big fight with the Hungry Ghost, the glow from the flame in its chest also seemed to have dimmed a bit.

It looked so sleepy and peaceful. Aww, how cute!

Snuggled in my arms, the Reaper, had a slight smile on its face. Was it having a happy dream? Hehe.

Anyway, now that I was in the containment room, I could definitely see the difference.

Reaper’s skin tone had become lighter. It happened right after it touched that mysterious book. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but I couldn’t help but worry a little.