Seoul Object Story

I had to do a double take at the ceiling but, yup. Floating puddings! Floating puddings were indeed floating above our heads.

“Floating… puddings?” I muttered, blinking in disbelief.

It didn’t fit in with the current atmosphere of the factory at all!

The Golden Reapers sprawled out everywhere bawling their eyes out.

Human flesh and entrails scattered all across the cold concrete floor.

A pool of dark, coagulated blood sticking to the floor and glistening under the dim light,

And let’s not forget the decorations and flesh puddings made from humans, that could only be described as having piss poor taste.

And in the middle of that kind of horrible and scary atmosphere, there they were. Floating puddings!

Under the factory’s dim lights, the puddings shimmered with a creamy, custardy glow.

Was it the utterly strange cheerfulness amidst the dark and gloom?

I couldn’t help but smile at the absurdity of it all.

The bubbles encasing the puddings reflected light, sparkling in rainbow colors. At the same time, they twisted and distorted the grim scenes around us, like a cursed funhouse mirror.

As the Gray Reaper and I gawked at the floating desserts, James wandered over and also raised his head following us.

“So there’s still some pudding we couldn’t retrieve, huh?” James spoke in a calm tone as if it was just another day at the pudding factory.

Huh? Really? Are floating puddings normal to him? How?

I stared at him, waiting for my deserved explanation and soon enough he provided one.

“Oh, right! This is your first time seeing it! So, all the puddings produced at this factory come out wrapped in bubbles like that.”

“Why?”

Is there even a need to produce it like that? Try as I might, I couldn’t see the point of producing puddings like that. I mean, who does that?

“Ah! It wasn’t my intention to make the puddings pop out like that. It’s because of the Object that makes the puddings. Well, one of the charms of Objects is the autonomy after all, so losing some control is a necessary sacrifice.”

If an Object decides to behave in a particular way, there’s not really much we can do.

Creating a machine just by inserting intent into an Object was already mind-blowing.

Considering Korea was always quick to either contain or eliminate Objects, it was clear we had a lot to catch up on compared to the United States.

“Well, since they come out in bubbles like that, a bunch of factory workers have to use nets to fish the puddings from the air.”

…Huh. Was it because it was run by Objects? James’ pudding factory was definitely not your run-of-the-mill operation. It was in its own category of weird.

Even after our chat, Reaper hadn’t taken its eyes off the floating puddings.

Does it want to eat that badly?

Hmm?

I noticed the Reaper was clutching a Golden Reaper in its hand, but the way it was holding it made me a tad uneasy.

The Golden Reaper, however, seemed thrilled to be there, grinning up at the Gray Reaper.

Still, the way Reaper was eyeing the puddings and the way it was holding onto the Golden Reaper… Why did it seem like it was about to throw a ball?

Nah… That can’t be it, right?