Seoul Object Story - Chapter 496 Oku

It has been some time since the invasion of the Red Foreign Entity ended.

The world, which had been completely overturned due to the fusion with the Black Planet, now seemed to have returned to its original routine.

People still woke up in the morning and went to work, and the sweet aroma of coffee rose in cafes.

However, behind this everyday life, many changes were quietly supporting the foundation of the world.

‘Human, hurry up and come!’

‘If you don’t work, what’ll happen?’

People were now escorted to work by Mini Reapers, and they rode on cloud ships operated by the Golden Reaper to get there.

Thus, humanity, based on the Golden Reaper’s logistics service, had perfectly adapted to the scattered Earth.

It almost felt as if the world’s distances had become shorter than they had been before.

The Sehee Research Institute had priced the Golden Reaper’s logistics service extremely cheaply, which helped with this.

The Golden Reaper needed things like pudding or candy instead of large amounts of fossil fuels, so it made sense.

The overseas shipping fees, which once easily exceeded 10,000 KRW, were now replaced by the price of one pudding.

The time it took for local specialties from around the world to arrive on Seoul’s dining tables was only a few minutes.

Fresh croissants from Paris now adorn breakfast tables in New York; it had become a regular occurrence.

The object classification system had also been reorganized.

A new rank called ‘Foreign Entity-Class’ had been added, surpassing the existing special-class.

This term referred to beings from the colorful universe.

Of course, the only Earth-born object in this rank was me.

It wasn’t a huge deal, but strangely, I felt a sense of pride.

Hehe.

So, ‘Foreign Entity-Class’ remained an unofficial term used only at the James Research Institute, but it had now become part of the official classification system.

It seemed that the Doll-headed Alchemist was the first to mention ‘Foreign Entity,’ and since I, too, was calling it that, it felt a bit surreal.

Well, these were beings that twisted rules and consumed space, so it made sense that they appeared god-like to anyone observing them.

Even amidst the great changes, my daily life remained calm.

Inside the comfortable isolation room, the world’s changes felt like faint echoes coming from afar.

Still, there were small changes.

One of them was that the snacks Yerin brought me had become increasingly varied.

Yesterday it was French macarons, today it was Italian gelato.

Thanks to the Golden Reaper’s logistics revolution, delicious items from around the world passed through Yerin’s hands and came to me.

The TV channels had returned to their usual state, so I could once again hear news from all over the world in more detail.

And so, one day, as I was watching the changes in the world on TV…

“Reaper! Reaper!”

Yerin came into the isolation room with an even more excited voice than usual.

Her eyes were sparkling, and her cheeks were slightly flushed, perhaps from the cold.

“It snowed a lot!”

And Yerin, with an overly excited expression, pulled me out into the courtyard like moving a cat.

It was a bit bothersome, but since it was Yerin, I couldn’t refuse…

As we arrived at the Sehee Research Institute courtyard, a truly object-like sight unfolded before us.

Fluffy snowflakes, like cotton candy, were falling from the sky.

Curiously, the snow was only falling in the courtyard.

It was as though a transparent boundary had been drawn, and the snowy landscape was neatly confined to the courtyard.

‘The weather is strange again…’

Since the fusion, such strange weather phenomena had been seen often.

Sometimes it rained on one side, and at times, temperatures completely out of sync with the season appeared.

Is this really okay?

Even with my shallow knowledge, it seemed like this weather could cause problems.

Would it even be possible to farm properly in such conditions?

Whenever I thought about this, I was puzzled by the fact that I had never seen any news reporting an actual problem.

Well, the smart people must have prepared some solution, right?

Or maybe they found areas where the weather changes weren’t so severe.

As I thought about this, staring at the snow falling from the sky, the courtyard scene caught my attention.

The Mini Reapers who resided in the courtyard were each enjoying the winter in their own way.

Those with a talent for handiwork were not making simple snowmen, but creating works of art.

With the magic of the Blue Reaper and the flames of the Red Reaper, as they sculpted the snow, a beautiful ice palace soon appeared.

‘Amazing!’

The internal structure was so well-made that the Mini Reapers were walking around inside, admiring the work.

Meanwhile, among the Black Reapers, a fierce snowball fight was taking place.

They moved as swiftly as professional athletes, passing snowballs to each other.

It was a survival-style game where if you were hit, you were out. The snowballs flew so fast, like bullets, and the Reapers dodged them like action movie scenes.

‘Ugh!’

One Black Reaper was sent flying through the air as though struck by a car as soon as a snowball hit them.

‘It looks more like an ice ball than a snowball…’

This was a brutal snowball fight—survival-style—that only the strong and tough Black Reapers could enjoy.

On a small hill made of packed snow, Golden Reapers were riding sleds, radiating joy.

It looked like they were riding tubes made by the Yellow Reaper or Blue Idol Reaper, holding an Akui in their arms, laughing with bright smiles.

‘That looks fun…’

Watching the Golden Reaper, I suddenly thought that I also wanted to ride a sled.

As soon as that thought occurred to me, I acted on it.

I covered myself with the Circulation Halo and began to stretch the sledding hill endlessly.

The small hill grew larger and turned into a grand ski slope.

Soon, a wide and long slope was created, large enough for humans to ride.

‘Wow!’

At first, the Mini Reapers were bewildered, but once the sled park was complete, they started shouting with excitement.

The little eyes of the children sparkled.

‘Giant sled park!’

‘Mom made the sled park!’

In no time, every Mini Reaper’s attention was focused here.

It was so popular that each of them abandoned whatever game they had been playing and ran to try the sleds.

Once the sled park was complete, I jumped out of Yerin’s arms and tugged at her hand.

‘Let’s go quickly!’

Yerin couldn’t hear my will, but she quickly picked up on my intent and hopped onto a large sled.

As we looked down from the slope, I realized I might have messed up the angle slightly, but I just ignored it.

And so, Yerin and I slid down the slope, which was steeper than 45 degrees.

The cold winter wind brushed past my ears.

The Mini Reapers’ joyful energy, Yerin’s laughter, and the sound of the sled gliding over the snow.

It was a surprisingly satisfying winter pastime.

James Tower, top floor. In the office where the morning sunlight of the city poured in, James sat lost in deep thought.

Outside the window was a clear, cloudless blue sky, but his expression was as dark as the weather could be.

As soon as he opened the newspaper delivered that morning, a shadow of worry passed over his face.

The bold headline on the front page caught his attention like a warning light.

“Mental Contamination That Had Infiltrated Objects Has Vanished!”

The Golden Reaper, sitting on James’s shoulder, didn’t seem to like the stiff expression on his Attachment Human, and it tried to make him smile by tugging at his cheek with its tiny finger.

James briefly smiled at the Golden Reaper’s familiar action, but soon returned to his serious expression.

The warm scent of hot chocolate rose from the ceramic cup on his desk.

James put the newspaper down and took a sip of hot chocolate, letting out a deep sigh.

The sweet scent seemed to relieve some of his tension.

“The announcement was inevitable, but I still don’t know if everything will be alright,” he murmured.

There was a deep sense of worry in his voice.

James’s Research Institute had deliberated for a long time before releasing the news.

But with the contamination measurement methods for the colorful universe already spreading through academia, it could no longer be kept a secret.

The biggest issue was the potential fallout from this news.

While the dangers were emphasized, there was a high chance that the mistaken belief that ‘Objects are now safe’ would spread.

Even though wild beasts are dangerous, beings many times stronger than them could not be without risks.

Moreover, according to the Alchemist’s words, many of the Objects were born from human malice, so even without contamination, there could be other dangers.

“In the end, this will be something that time will solve…” James muttered as he folded the newspaper and pushed it aside, pulling out a new report.

The report contained a photo of a small white giant with a bizarre environment surrounding it.

<Observation Report>

<Target: White Giant>

<Notable Points>

No signs of contamination.No matter how close one gets, the distance from the White Giant cannot be closed.As one approaches, the distance from the White Giant only increases. As this happens, a white flat terrain is observed surrounding the target.

An unmovable Foreign Entity, showing no signs of contamination, simply one that cannot be approached.

It seemed like a harmless Foreign Entity, but James strangely felt a deep sense of foreboding as he looked at it.

James slowly turned the page of the report, focusing on the peculiar observation.

The White Giant, with no apparent contamination and no movement, presented a strange contradiction. Unlike the other Foreign Entities they had observed, which were known to pose clear threats, this one felt eerily passive, almost as if it was waiting. However, the longer James stared at the photo of the creature standing in the white terrain, the more unsettling it became.

He glanced again at the report, noting the discrepancy in how the White Giant’s presence distorted space. While it didn’t seem to pose an immediate physical threat, it was an anomaly that they couldn’t simply ignore.

“Why…?” James muttered under his breath, rubbing his forehead as he tried to make sense of the data. The lack of contamination and the increasing distance as one approached—these were all signs of an entity that defied their understanding of the natural order.

For now, all they could do was observe and document.

“Perhaps… this is not something that can be understood with logic alone,” James said, his voice trailing off as he pushed the report aside. He sat back in his chair, deep in thought, pondering the next steps. The strange unease in his gut wouldn’t subside.

Outside the window, the sunlight continued to shine brightly, a stark contrast to the turbulent thoughts racing through his mind. The balance between the safe world they once knew and the new, unpredictable one was delicate, and there were too many unknowns.

The Golden Reaper, perched on James’s shoulder, tilted its head curiously, sensing its human’s distress. It nudged James gently with its tiny hand, trying to comfort him.

James sighed, a small smile appearing as he scratched the little creature’s head.

“Thank you,” he whispered, though the unease still lingered in the back of his mind.

As he returned his gaze to the window, a sense of foreboding settled over him. The world had changed, and it was clear that they were on the cusp of something much greater and far more dangerous than they had anticipated.