Chapter 59

As the cold cobalt light of dawn faded, the Bucheon Research Institute grounds gradually came to life under the morning sunlight.

The silence of the early morning was broken by the sound of small footsteps approaching.

“Looks like the Smile Theme Park flyer incident has been resolved!”

A blonde girl, her cheeks flushed red from running, handed over a newspaper to a black agent.

[Smile Theme Park Flyer Incident Resolved!]

[The government officially announced at 2 AM that the ‘Smile Theme Park Doll,’ which had been contained by Sehee Research Institute, had been completely destroyed.]

The cheerful girl handed over the newspaper, which featured an article about the resolution of the flyer incident.

With a slight smile, the black agent received the newspaper and spoke while resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

“Truly fortunate, young miss.”

After flipping through the pages, a picture of a rather fierce-looking woman appeared.

A death row inmate who had been inserted into an object to avoid execution.

Though it was something she did to survive, thanks to this death row inmate, Seoul could now rest easier.

“Uncle… Can we really be sure it’s safe just because someone escaped from an object?”

“Normally, it’s difficult to make such definitive conclusions. The escape conditions and destruction conditions are often different.”

“Why is it considered the same this time?”

“It’s because two conditions overlapped. First, after the death row inmate escaped, the related object lost its power and was destroyed. That’s the most important first condition.”

The black agent spread out the newspaper, pointing to relevant data as he explained.

“Here, there’s testimony from the escaped death row inmate. She had to clear nine mechanisms to escape. The harder it is to escape, the more likely the escape condition and destruction condition are the same. Nine missions to clear is quite difficult among escape-type objects. That difficulty is the second condition.”

“Hmm…”

Having listened to the black agent’s explanation, the blonde girl nodded as if understanding something.

***

When I opened my eyes, there was the familiar ceiling.

The ceiling of the isolation room prepared especially for me.

Yesterday, right after returning from the theme park, Sehee and Yerin kidnapped me into the isolation room…

Nomnom.

To my left, Yerin was chewing on my hair.

And to my right, Sehee was hugging my arm as if it were some kind of treasure.

I can’t move…

Should I ghost out? But I decided to just stay still today.

While the theme park was fun, there weren’t enough humans around, so it lacked humanity.

Besides, the bed was warm and comfortable, and the firewood was growing alarmingly fast, so staying a little longer wouldn’t hurt.

This time at the theme park, I obtained a pretty good ability.

An extremely powerful ability.

No, not powerful, but an ability I like.

A Golden Reaper storage facility has been created.

When I close my eyes, I can see a space filled with countless Golden Reapers.

If I were to name it, it would be the Golden Reaper Garden.

It was like Valhalla for the Golden Reapers.

Where pudding and cake feasts were always held, rivers of cocoa flowed, and endless beds stretched out as land where Golden Reapers played.

With a bed canopy sky above and faintly glowing light sources scattered about.

A place always filled with a dreamy atmosphere.

The Garden of Dreams.

A non-material space accessible only through dreams.

As soon as I entered the Golden Reaper Garden, one of the Golden Reapers jumped and clung to me.

In the garden, many humans and Golden Reapers were happily playing together.

People who had fallen asleep and received invitations from the Golden Reapers.

I casually found a spot to sit down and picked up some pudding to eat.

Indeed, it’s a wonderful place.

Soft and delicious food everywhere.

Sehee and Yerin had also been summoned into the Golden Garden while they were asleep.

Each had a Golden Reaper clinging to their cheeks, giving them kisses.

It felt like “Let’s hurry up and play!” punches.

When the two woke up in the garden, they looked around startled but seemed to have accepted something.

They probably concluded it was a dream.

Well, it is a dream after all.

Thinking it was a dream, the two began enjoying the Golden Reaper Garden, each with a Golden Reaper perched on their shoulders.

Rolling around on the bed together, running around, then lying down to rest when tired.

I too rolled around to my heart’s content with the Golden Reapers in the Golden Garden.

***

Looking into the mirror, a strange face stared back at me.

An incredibly tall woman covered in tattoos.

To those who can see spiritual bodies, my face must look different.

A grotesque doll face with its eyes and mouth stitched shut.

A face impossible to overlook for anyone who can see spirits.

It seemed there were either no people in this world who could see spirits, or very few.

Even the “court,” which seemed to play an important role, had no one who recognized me.

That cutting off a woman’s head and replacing it with my doll head could enable such miraculous abilities…

Definitely, the power of the “magic book” knows no bounds.

Or here, they called it an “object,” didn’t they?

After washing my face roughly with water and stepping outside the courthouse, the moon greeted me.

Just one moon instead of seven.

A completely transformed body.

Streetlights illuminating the way without oil, gas, or objects.

Fireflies fluttering around those streetlights, creating shadows.

Unfamiliar music on the streets, strange architecture.

Light leaving trails and flowing like water on the roads.

Everything in this world told me this wasn’t the world where I was born and raised.

What I received upon leaving the courthouse was a slip of paper proving my innocence.

And documents listing unfamiliar “my belongings” and addresses.

Maybe due to the vague memories caused by the object’s influence, it was surprisingly considerate guidance.

Based on the information injected into me at the theme park, I followed the address written on the paper.

“Home.”

It’s been years since I’ve had a home, I don’t even know how long.

The area near the courthouse was completely different from where the address led me.

Dark, dreary, and close to despair.

Somehow, being here felt like coming home.

Knock knock knock.

I knocked on the door listed in the note.

Opening the door was a small girl with a slightly intimidated expression.

“…Sister.”

“That’s right.”

Even though we’re family, I don’t seem to be very welcomed.

It must be because there are too many humans in this world.

If humans were cut into 1/100th pieces in an object, family would be invaluable.

Judging from how she jumps every time I speak, it’s hard to even start a conversation.

Eating unfamiliar food with unfamiliar utensils, lying down in a narrow unfamiliar room.

Thus ended my first day in this other world.

***

When I opened my eyes, my new younger sister was stabbing me with a knife.

“Die! Die! Dieeeee!”

Blood from my stomach and chest soaked the floor.

What did this body do to deserve such hatred?

“Hmm, you won’t kill me that way.”

Grabbing the trembling girl’s hand and guiding the blade to my neck.

“I won’t die unless my head is cut off. Here, this is my neck.”

I may have escaped the theme park, but I’m still an object.

The goal was just to escape the theme park.

Now that I’ve escaped, what have I gained?

A completely unknown world, society, body, and family.

My efforts to destroy the object failed.

My hometown is gone.

Giving myself up to this girl might not be so bad.

The original owner of this body would have never done that, surely.

***

Hahahaha.

“Such a sad reunion after 30 years, my son.”

The director’s grotesque laughter echoed through the ravaged communal graveyard.

The sound made by the man holding a head torn violently from a torso.

“Son. Son. Say it again.”

“That I’m a completely different person?”

“Is it so strange to receive my gift back? I’m a very reasonable person, you know?”

Crack.

The heads on either side exploded like they’d been crushed by presses.

The blood-covered man spoke with a devilish distorted face.

“I’m the director of the Central Research Institute. And… your name… I don’t remember! But compared to research, it’s trivial.”

Hahahaha.

The director started digging up graves with a shovel.

The grave of someone who was once the director’s wife.

When the stone coffin lid was lifted, a woman’s body perfectly preserved as in life appeared.

And the director began hacking apart the corpse with the shovel.

When the coffin was filled with blood and the body was chopped into pieces, the director shouted.

“There it is! My gift!”

Floating from the corpse was a small orb.

“The object that prevents decay and slowly heals wounds… I needed that. Something useless to the dead.”

The director, covered in bullet wounds and bleeding, staggered forward.

Picking up a fallen cane and tapping it twice on the ground, the director disappeared on the spot.

All that remained was the deputy director with a severed head.

And the gruesome corpses of the guards.