Chapter 499
The late afternoon sunlight warmly bathed the path leading to the cemetery park.
The detective walked slowly, admiring the peaceful surroundings.
Today’s case was a search for a missing person who had vanished long ago.
Compared to the things he had dealt with, this was a rather trivial task, but to him, such simple yet necessary cases were rather refreshing.
Moreover, finding something was his specialty.
After finishing the assignment and parting ways with his juniors, he hurried toward the meeting place.
Though he couldn’t explain why, he had a strong intuition that it was a place he had to visit alone.
[Hehe.]
A sudden burst of laughter filled with an unusual energy broke his train of thought.
The detective lowered his head, and there, standing with a cheerful expression, was the Lamp Reaper.
The smile on the small face seemed as though it possessed all the happiness in the world.
‘He sure looks in a good mood lately,’ the detective thought to himself.
The Lamp Reaper was already known for his bright personality, but recently, it seemed to have intensified. His constant smiling throughout the day was becoming worrisome.
Unable to resist his curiosity, the detective had asked several times, but the Lamp Reaper only responded with a mysterious laugh and meaningless energy waves.
‘[Human, now we’ll truly be together forever.]’
Well, that was actually true.
The detective and the Lamp Reaper were always connected by chains, so they couldn’t physically be apart.
However, it felt like there was something more hidden behind the energy waves, something different from the usual.
A sudden, eerie feeling washed over him as though he had stepped into an inescapable trap, and he shivered.
“Watson, why are you always laughing?” the detective asked.
[Hehe.]
But the Lamp Reaper just covered his mouth like it was a secret, giggling.
Not long ago, the detective had realized there were more Lamp Reapers than he initially thought, and had given the one before him the name “Watson.”
Naturally, his juniors were in an uproar about the danger, but the detective had proceeded as planned.
He felt that “Nameless” had lost its power, so there wasn’t much risk.
This was a decision made by his intuition, which had saved his life multiple times, so there shouldn’t be any problems.
As these thoughts lingered, he walked on and began to see the cemetery park, which occupied an entire mountain.
Then, Watson’s chain crawled up the detective’s arm and transformed into a necklace.
‘How curious.’
The detective tapped the Lamp Reaper hanging from his neck, contemplating.
Most Mini Reapers had fixed forms, but Watson was different.
From gas lamps to pocket watches, gloves, and now a necklace—it could transform freely.
Perhaps, since a lamp was just an outer shell, that was why.
The giant park that embraced the mountain came into view.
Sunlight filtered through the dense trees, illuminating the park like stage lights.
At that moment, Watson’s quiet energy wave reached him.
[Human, there’s an object up ahead.]
And as though trying not to catch the object’s eye, it hid behind the clouds.
The detective, seeing this, smiled slightly, then turned his gaze toward the cemetery.
He saw a man standing in front of a gravestone, his head lowered, and the detective instinctively checked his wristwatch.
‘That guy’s already here…’
In the silent air, the man’s silhouette stood out as clearly as an old black-and-white photo.
Looking at this scene, strangely enough, he had a premonition that something significant was about to happen.
The detective grasped the necklace that had transformed from Watson and slowly walked toward the man.
The late afternoon sunlight softly embraced the cemetery park.
Between the gravestones, long shadows were cast, and two men stood facing each other.
On one side was the yellow detective, and on the other, the former head of the Central Research Institute.
The detective carefully observed the face of the director, who had come out to Earth after such a long time.
But, being an object, his face showed no trace of nostalgia or change.
Or perhaps, he had always been this way.
“So, now that you’re able to come outside, how do you feel, old man?” the detective asked.
The director glanced up at the sky for a moment.
In his gaze was a complex emotion.
It was as if the moment he had waited for so long had arrived, only to bring an unexpected sense of emptiness.
“Now that I can finally be outside, I don’t feel anything special,” the director replied calmly.
“Maybe the constant desire to come out was just the influence of mental contamination. I should’ve measured it earlier… I regret that a little.”
His words still carried the mark of a researcher.
Even before the James Institute announced the disappearance of mental contamination from the objects, the director had already sensed the change.
It was as if the obsessive desire to see the Earth’s sky, like thirst in a desert, had suddenly disappeared without a trace.
The director’s gaze deepened as he looked at the gravestone.
Here lay his wife and child.
If he hadn’t felt the longing and guilt for them, he might have stayed forever in the darkness of the gap research institute.
Now, he had come not just as a researcher, but as a husband and father to visit them.
The detective silently stood by his side.
The subtle light from Watson’s energy wave gently filled the silence between the two.
And so, the calm of the cemetery park surrounded them both.
As the late afternoon sunlight filtered through the gravestones, casting long shadows, the detective felt that this silence wasn’t merely a time for remembrance.
“So, what’s the reason you called me here?” the detective’s voice cut through the quiet air.
The director, who had been standing before the gravestone, slowly turned his head to look at the detective.
In his gaze was a deep resolve.
“I thought I should tell you, the one who’s helped me all this time,” the director’s voice was low, but firm.
“I’ve started researching the origin of the objects again, after all these years.”
At those words, the detective’s eyes widened slightly.
It was the director’s wish that Watson, who hadn’t been a Mini Reaper, had informed him about—learning the origin of the objects.
And if he learned it, the director would be destroyed.
That was why the detective had been withholding this information from the director.
“The first object, the Black Planet, and the foreign entity…”
The director’s voice carried a faint excitement.
His eyes sparkled, as if he had found the clue to a long-unsolved mystery.
“I feel like I can finally see the end of it.”
Finishing his words, the director glanced up at the sky again.
In the deep part of the Mini Reaper Garden, the firewood orchard.
I was having a pleasant time there, petting each Mini Reaper working diligently.
The happy smiles of the Mini Reapers and the joy of automatic hunting filled the air when suddenly, a frantic message from a Golden Reaper reached me.
‘Mom, there’s a problem! The Immutable Sphere is acting up!’
In that instant, I was struck by a shock, as if I had been struck by lightning.
‘Ah!’
I had finally realized the cause of the emptiness that had been bothering me.
Yes, it was the Immutable Sphere.
The presence that had always weighed heavily at the center of the Mini Reaper Garden had vanished.
Like an undigested stone suddenly disappearing from the stomach, its absence was now painfully obvious.
I immediately teleported to the Golden Reaper.
The scene I encountered was shocking.
The Immutable Sphere was shattered, as if someone had cracked a giant ostrich egg, lying in pieces.
The biggest problem was that the Black Giant’s corpse, which should have been inside, had disappeared without a trace.
When had it vanished?
Looking at the broken shape, it seemed the Immutable Sphere had been damaged during the battle with the Red Foreign Entity.
That was certainly possible.
But the real question was how the Black Giant’s corpse could have disappeared.
The corpse, although it had been slowly drained by my firewood, had no will or ability to move on its own.
Furthermore, strangely, there was a sense of unease that didn’t quite match the idea of the Black Giant disappearing.
Could it be…?
A thought crossed my mind, and I slowly turned my head.
There, standing quietly next to me, was the lead doll, staring at me.
The saying “The criminal returns to the scene” passed through my mind.
‘?’
But the doll simply tilted its head with its usual blank expression.
A golden wave shimmered.
It was a magnificent scene created by the countless Golden Reapers gathered together.
The children stood in a line, holding hands, facing the enormous theme park in front of them. Their round eyes sparkled with excitement.
‘Let’s go in together!’
Following a suggestion from one of the Golden Reapers, they lined up in formation.
As the Golden Reapers stood before the theme park, they all nodded together and took a step forward.
The moment they crossed the boundary of the theme park, the world began to change.
The scenery of the amusement park, which had seemed blurry like looking through frosted glass, gradually became clearer.
Colorful fireworks decorated the night sky, blooming like flowers.
The sparkling fireworks falling seemed like stars dancing in the sky.
The giant Ferris wheel spun slowly, emitting a soft glow, surrounded by twinkling lights hanging in rows.
Various mascot costumes scurried about, creating an illusion of entering a fairy-tale world.
Rabbits, bears, cats…
Giant animal dolls were walking around.
The Golden Reapers’ small eyes shone even brighter.
The children’s round cheeks were filled with anticipation, and their small mouths curled into happy smiles.
Then, it happened.
“Welcome, little guests.”
A deep, resounding voice echoed.
The Golden Reapers’ gazes all turned toward the source.
Before them stood a massive mascot, far larger than the other ones.
It was smiling, but the smile was unnaturally wide.
As if hiding its real expression behind a mask.
The Golden Reapers instinctively sensed the malevolent energy radiating from this giant mascot.
“I will explain the rules,” the mascot’s voice boomed.
At that moment, the fireworks and lights, which had been dazzlingly bright, dimmed, as though in response to the mascot’s words.
The smile on the mascot’s face now seemed eerie.
And the expressions of the Golden Reapers as they looked at the mascot turned sharp, filled with suspicion.
‘Bad object!’
In an instant, the mascot’s body collapsed, riddled with hundreds of holes, and fell to the ground.
