Seoul Object Story

Chapter 430

Deep within the Sehee Institute, the lead doll isolation room.

[Hello.]

A strange voice echoed from somewhere.

It was coming from inside the lead doll, directed at me.

Could it be that the lead doll had a sense of self?

I had heard the lead doll speak with a yearning voice before, but I thought it was merely a phenomenon caused by its desires, without any true self-awareness.

But this time, something felt different.

[Hello.]

[Hello.]

[Hello.]

[Hello.]

When I didn’t respond, the voice from inside the lead doll continued to repeat "hello" endlessly.

It was a mechanical voice, devoid of emotion, but each time it spoke, it seemed to lose a little more strength.

If left unchecked, it seemed like it would continue indefinitely, so I sent a will toward the lead doll.

‘Hello.’

At that, the endless repetition of "hello" ceased, and silence began to fill the lead doll’s interior.

It was hard to imagine that just moments ago, this doll had been sending out constant waves of willpower.

What was this? Did it simply want its greeting acknowledged?

I asked again, puzzled.

‘Who are you?’

‘Are you the self of the lead doll?’

But this time, the previously loud voice made no response.

‘...’

Had it fallen asleep?

Thinking about it, repeating the word "hello" so many times seemed like it would be exhausting.

With the lead doll silent, I turned my gaze outward.

Nearby, the White Gobies were still gathered, but they no longer looked as happy as before. Instead, they watched the lead doll and me with wary expressions.

The White Gobies seemed uncertain whether to focus on the lead doll or me.

One of the more cautious Gobies had hidden behind a table from a distance, observing the situation.

I grabbed one and took a bite.

Ehehe.

At that, the White Gobies scattered in all directions, fleeing.

Though they didn’t send out any willpower, their expressions and actions spoke volumes.

If I were to translate it, it would probably be something like, ‘Eek, it’s the Gray Reaper!’

Hehe.

Just as I was about to chase after the fleeing Gobies, a familiar willpower echoed in my mind.

‘Mom! We found it!’

It was a call from the Mini Grim Reapers I had sent to search for the evil gas lamps across the world.

I returned to the body of the Gray Reaper and teleported toward the Mini Grim Reaper calling me.

As I left the isolation room, I thought I heard a faint voice behind me.

[Goodbye.]

The place I arrived at after teleporting was a village surrounded by rocky mountains, with a beautiful scenic view.

But upon closer inspection, the road leading out of the village was blocked by a collapse, and the village had become a complete ruin.

There, a Blue Grim Reaper, who looked slightly upset, was waiting for me.

‘Why are you so upset?’

When I asked, the Blue Grim Reaper pointed at the village with a little finger and wove strings of text in the air.

<There are many dead humans.>

Of course.

The place was filled with the smell of gas lamps and rotting corpses.

I rubbed the Blue Grim Reaper’s brow to ease its frown and said, “Don’t look so sour.”

Thud thud.

I walked with the Blue Grim Reaper toward the village, where a blood-written message was at the entrance.

<Do not enter.>

Written in blood, and with a foreboding message, it was an ineffective warning.

After all, the warning wasn’t in human language, but in object language.

If an ordinary human had reached this village, they wouldn’t have been able to read the writing.

It appeared that the human who wrote the warning had forgotten their original language due to mental contamination.

It was a good thing for me, though.

I could read object language.

If it were in English or something, I wouldn’t have been able to read it.

I passed the ominous blood-written message and slowly entered the village.

Inside the village, the air was thick with the scent of gas lamps and the presence of evil objects.

At the front, I saw objects devouring corpses.

They were twisted human-like objects, dried and warped, like the creatures from Seoul Forest.

The difference was that, unlike the Seoul Forest monsters, these creatures were decayed and smelled foul.

As I slowly walked closer to the monsters, my footsteps blended with the sounds of their chewing.

At that moment, the monsters stopped gnawing on the corpses and turned toward me.

Their mouths, stained with bright red blood.

Clawed, sharp, and elongated fingers.

Flesh and bones, decayed and dried, remaining as their bodies.

And among the monsters, I could see the corpses.

These terrifying monsters, whose forms I couldn’t even recognize, were feeding on the disfigured bodies.

And then, they rushed toward me and the Blue Grim Reaper.

<One hundred needles made of water!>

The Blue Grim Reaper, startled, wove more text into the air.

Needles made of water shot through the monsters at arrow-like speed, but the monsters didn’t care and kept charging.

<!!!>

Leaving the startled Blue Grim Reaper behind, I tore through the monsters’ space.

The monsters, as they were running, broke apart into pieces, rolling on the floor like decayed, shattered bones.

As I watched them, I felt slightly perplexed.

‘They seem too weak for their appearance...’

Before I could fully think it over, the decaying bodies scattered on the ground began to swell unnaturally.

Gurgle.

The swelling bodies resembled bread rising, or perhaps mold spores growing larger.

Watching the objects swell, I suddenly felt hungry.

‘I’m hungry...’

I absentmindedly rubbed my stomach.

<I’m hungry.>

The Blue Grim Reaper also wore an unusually hungry expression.

The bloated bodies of the objects were emitting a powerful mental contamination that triggered an overwhelming hunger.

Could this mental contamination be trying to get us to eat those disgusting, swollen bodies?

The thought alone made me feel like I would vomit, so I spread golden-burning firewood and set the entire scene ablaze, burning everything without leaving a trace.

The monsters were weak, but the mental contamination they carried was immense.

They seemed like objects that would be extremely harmful to humans if left unchecked.

‘I should handle them carefully.’

With that thought, I entered the nearest house by opening the door.

The house appeared to have been unused for a long time, with a fine layer of dust covering everything.

Inside was a corpse, also covered in dust, like the house itself.

The Blue Grim Reaper shed a sad tear as it gazed at the corpse.

Though not sobbing like the Golden Grim Reaper, it had an expression that made me want to cry just from seeing it.

On the table next to the corpse was a journal, which caught my attention.

It was written in object text that I could read.

At first, the journal seemed written in some unknown language similar to English, but at some point, it switched to object language.

<Today, we got plenty of meat.>

<The road was blocked, so we probably didn’t have much food left, but where did it come from?>

<I didn’t eat much, but I’m glad the children were able to eat their fill.>

The journal started with a happy note about the children eating well.

It then progressed with concerns about the children suddenly starting to thin.

Soon, the writer described how one of their arms wasn’t responding and began to wither away.

As the journal continued, the entries became more fragmented.

The last entry read:

<What kind of animal and what part of it was the meat we got?>

I looked again at the corpse lying under the journal on the table.

Its arms were still intact, with sharp claws, but the rest of its body had been eaten, making it almost unrecognizable.

‘...’

I placed the grieving Blue Grim Reaper on my head and began meticulously eliminating the remaining monsters in the village.

As I approached the center of the village, the scent of gas lamps grew stronger.

The presence of the objects also intensified.

On the walls of the houses where monsters emerged, blood-written words could be seen here and there.

<I’m hungry.>

<Meat!>

Finally, when I reached the largest building in the village, a swarm of monsters rushed at me.

Unlike the objects in the village that still vaguely resembled humans, these ones were even more twisted.

They had four arms.

Multiple heads.

Wings.

They had strayed far from human form.

I wiped them out without leaving a trace.

As I entered the building, a large lobby welcomed me.

In the center, a large, swollen mass of flesh resembling cancerous growth awaited me.

The face on the mass looked at me and spoke.

[You came. Are you hungry?]

Then, the voice spoke again, this time sorrowfully.

[My son, I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.]

[We should never have made a contract with an object.]

Tears streamed down, and the voice was full of regret.

The tearful eyes were filled with twisted flesh, making it impossible to see clearly.

‘...’

I looked at the pitiful mass of flesh and squeezed my hands together.

Then, I gave the foolish human who made the contract with the object their final end.

As my hands met, the space quickly twisted and collapsed into black dots.

When the black dots vanished, the huge mass of flesh was gone without a trace.

All that remained was the regret and sorrow of one man.

I then traced the presence of the mastermind behind all of this, entering deeper into the building.

There, in a small room deep inside, I found the lamp I had been looking for.

‘A truly harmful, truly dangerous object.’

I looked down at the antique lamp, then dropped firewood from my palm toward it.

As the golden flame touched it, the antique lamp slowly darkened and began to scatter.

It seemed as if the lamp was showing me just how harmful it truly was, as its brass-like patterns slowly turned to pitch-black powder.

After some time, the lamp turned completely into dust and scattered away.

Next to where the lamp had been, there was a journal.

I wondered if the journal belonged to the village chief.

It was a journal from the isolated village where communication and roads were blocked.

The story inside was about a parent who made a contract with the Lamp Man to feed their starving child.

It was a lamp that could feed its own flesh to the child.

I read the journal in its entirety and then burned it with firewood.

‘...’