When I woke up in the morning, a strange sound was echoing through the isolation room.
Keeheehee.
It was the sound of a cotton candy puppy being torn apart by the mini reapers.
Its perfectly round body made entirely of white cotton candy.
Its eyes and nose were crafted from glossy, hard chocolate chips.
The cotton candy dog looked like it had been meticulously groomed, just like a well-kept pet.
For some reason, the mini reapers seemed to be tearing it apart with a slightly angry vibe.
I scooped up the golden reapers who were aggressively munching on the puppy.
“What on earth are you doing?”
Their responses came in a jumble.
Bad dog!
It attacked a human!
Tried to break our golden statue!
As the golden reapers gave their fragmented explanations, I began to piece things together.
Ah, so this is the cute puppy they were talking about….
It quickly became clear why all this was happening. The cute puppy, suffering from anger management issues, had likely lost its temper at some point.
Watching the poor thing get torn apart by the reapers gave me an idea.
Hehe.
Just tearing it apart? How boring.
These kids are still amateurs at punishment.
That won’t do at all.
Standing up, I addressed the mini reapers.
“There’s a much better way to punish the cotton candy puppy.”
The mini reapers tilted their heads but reluctantly backed away from the cute puppy as if sensing my authority.
Picking up the cotton candy puppy and grinning like a maniac, I watched it tremble in fear.
Then I dropped it into a giant bucket of water.
The puppy panicked, flailing around as its limbs started melting almost instantly, preventing it from escaping.
Keehee.
Its front paws barely managed to cling to the edge of the bucket before slipping off and dissolving into goo.
The cotton candy puppy stared at its crumbling legs with a mournful expression before sinking back underwater.
Even though it kept regenerating, the speed at which it melted in the water far outpaced its ability to reform.
The poor thing thrashed about like a half-melted zombie puppy.
Keeheehee.
By the time it barely managed to poke its head above water, only its soggy face remained, whimpering pitifully.
The chocolate chip eyes had started to melt, leaving trails that resembled tears.
“Isn’t this fun?” I turned around, but oddly, the golden reapers were looking at the puppy with sympathetic expressions.
Huh?
At Sehee Research Institute’s conference room, people had gathered for a rare meeting.
On the whiteboard, it read:
<Cute Puppy Emergency Countermeasure Meeting>
This was a discussion on what to do about the dire situation where the cute puppy had transformed into a cotton candy one.
Kim Jungrwi spoke first.
“Fortunately, there has been no damage caused by the escaped ‘cute puppy.’ We’ve also obtained signed confidentiality agreements from the workers.”
Though surely shocked, the workers happily signed without hesitation, much to everyone’s relief.
Jungrwi thought getting signatures would be difficult, but the workers were surprisingly friendly.
“That’s really fortunate. If word got out, public opinion would blow up worse than last time with the Seoul Research Institute incident.”
Sehee nodded in agreement with a sigh of relief.
Flipping to the next page of the report, Jungrwi continued.
“To prevent recurrence, we should prioritize punishing the employees who opened the containment unit.”
Upon hearing this, Sehee frowned uncomfortably.
“Hmm, I don’t think severe punishment is necessary. No lives were lost after all.”
Sehee herself often slacked off, so she wasn’t fond of penalties.
Does she think she might end up on the list of those punished?
“Fine… let’s go with a pay cut…”
Jungrwi reluctantly agreed, but Seoah interrupted.
“Absolutely not!”
Seoah massaged her temples as if suffering from a headache and said,
“We cannot let this slide with just a pay cut. Let’s start over with general security training. We’ll discuss the level of punishment later.”
Then, Seoah brought up a more pressing issue with a grim expression.
“The bigger problem is that the ‘cute puppy’ has disappeared.”
Calmly but darkly, Seoah stated the facts.
“On average, the cute puppy finds five objects per month. If this number drops, it’s obvious the association will send an auditor.”
Although privately managed, the cute puppy was a crucial part of Seoul’s object defense system.
With no solution in sight, silence enveloped the room.
“AH!”
Sehee, who had been scowling in frustration, suddenly brightened up as if struck by a brilliant idea.
“It’s that method we used last time.”
“Do you have a plan, Director?”
Jungrwi asked hopefully, while Seoah detected something odd in Sehee’s tone.
That method from last time?
Was there a similar incident before?
While Seoah pondered, Sehee proudly declared,
“Bring in the cotton candy dog and paint it red!”
“Huh?”
At this absurd suggestion, both Jungrwi and Seoah stared blankly at Sehee, who then shrank into a corner looking dejected.
“Yerin agreed last time!”
“It worked before!”
Though many thoughts raced through Sehee’s mind, the gray reaper audit was confidential, so she sorrowfully clamped her mouth shut.
The meeting dragged on, but no unusual solutions emerged.
Knock knock knock.
Just as they decided to report everything honestly and quickly, a knock sounded at the door.
Yerin entered cheerfully and announced,
“The cotton candy puppy can track objects too!”
Apparently, the cotton candy puppy had barked at objects just like the cute puppy.
And with that, the meeting concluded.
After the ‘cute puppy’ situation was resolved thanks to my news, the institute enjoyed peaceful days.
The reaper didn’t runaway, and other objects within Sehee Research Institute remained safely contained.
How serene.
I lounged in the reaper’s containment room, holding its tiny hand.
Squeeze.
Pressing the squishy palm, the reaper’s fingers curled slightly.
Its small fingers twitched amusingly, making it addictive to keep squeezing.
There were also a few visitors in the reaper’s containment room besides me.
“Well, who gets it next?”
Surrounded by golden and black reapers, a girl held a spoonful of pudding.
She glanced at the mini reapers, who looked like baby birds waiting to be fed, and smiled thoughtfully.
After considering with her finger, she chose a golden reaper and extended the spoon.
Munch munch.
The golden reaper happily ate the pudding with a big grin.
Judging by its enthusiasm, it seemed to be homemade pudding.
Meanwhile, a death row inmate who appeared to be the girl’s older sister poked a white hungry ghost with her finger while taking notes.
Lately, this inmate visited the reaper frequently.
At first, she seemed to talk to the gray reaper, but now she focused on observing and analyzing the mini reapers, the gray reaper, and the white hungry ghost.
However, there was something odd.
The mini reapers liked almost everyone except this inmate.
Especially the golden reaper, who usually greeted strangers with a cheerful smile.
Is it because she’s a death row inmate?
But I heard she wasn’t someone who intentionally repeated killings.
And somehow, the reapers’ attitude felt like they were treating her as an object.
Could this inmate not be human?
Given how the mini reapers unconditionally showed affection to humans, it wasn’t impossible.
*
Lazily watching TV in Yerin’s warm embrace.
Nothing happening was surprisingly boring.
Hadn’t I been perfectly happy lying in the containment room all day until recently…?
Perhaps that happiness was actually burnout?
Exhaustion from endlessly working at Seoul Research Institute and risking my life collecting abilities in Seoul Forest.
Still, something interesting will surely happen soon.
Speaking of which, the golden reaper badly injured in America is still missing.
What kind of attached human could it possibly have found to stay away this long?
Well, it’ll come back when it gets bored.
I occasionally checked the firewood of the runaway golden reapers to ensure they weren’t in danger.
Suddenly, the TV switched to breaking news, showing shaky footage.
A fairly famous park appeared on screen.
And it was a particularly unforgettable park for me.
The site of the Seoul Research Institute bombing.
The park where I died.
The video, seemingly filmed by a drone, showed a massive pit.
A large hole had been dug beneath the grand memorial for the bombing victims.
White marble-like objects were walking around.
They resembled statues of muscular men carved from white marble but had strangely plain faces, reminding me somewhat of the white hungry ghosts.
[Guardians?]
The doll-headed woman watching the TV gasped, muttering “guardians.”
Does she know what these plain-faced marble statues are?
Are they related to alchemy?
This looks fun.
Maybe because it’s happening in a park closely tied to my past, I’m inexplicably intrigued.
