Seoul Object Story

As all the Scavengers fell, an endless silence descended around the silver-haired girl.

The shotgun, which had been flying relentlessly through the air just moments before, now lay discarded on the ground as if its job was done.

“Ha… Haha.”

Qing’s dry laughter echoed in the clearing, now as quiet as if nothing had happened.

The sound of rain, which had been grating on her ears, now felt incredibly silent.

The flames from the grenade subsided in the rain, which was cold enough to freeze ordinary water.

Except for a slight indentation in the hard ground, all traces of the life-threatening grenade had vanished.

Crunch. Crunch.

At that moment, a bizarre sound cut through the rain.

!

The sound of bones twisting came from the body of the man who had coughed up so much blood.

“No!”

It was a sound that should never come from someone whose body was enhanced with Objects.

Qing pulled a syringe adorned with luxurious silver from the man’s backpack and plunged it into his body.

The moment she pressed the switch, with a ‘click’, a hidden needle pierced

the man’s body.

It was a syringe called ‘Dice’, which acted like a potion in a game.

Dice boasted a considerable price, but its effect was nothing short of miraculous.

It healed minor abrasions instantly, as expected, and could even restore lost body parts like severed arms in a flash.

It was truly a syringe that could save someone as long as they weren’t dead.

But perhaps because the effect was too extraordinary.

Or perhaps because it was too dreamlike a thing to exist in harsh reality.

As its name suggested, Dice, despite its high price, was an imperfect item.

The probability of the effect occurring upon use was only about 1/6.

In the other 5/6 cases, there was no effect at all.

It was truly rolling the dice with life itself.

Moreover, the probability decreased even further with repeated use in a short time.

“Please. Please. Please.”

Was it Qing’s wish that came true, or was it part of the same miracle as the shotgun?

The man’s body, which had been thrashing as if bones would pierce through the flesh at any moment, calmed down, and his wounds began to disappear cleanly.

“Hah, thank goodness.”

Qing, who had been sitting on the ground tense, let her body go limp.

At that moment, the same sound started again.

Crunch. Crunch.

Qing startled and raised her head towards the man, but fortunately, his body looked fine.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

And the sound increased in number, starting to come from all directions.

It was the sound coming from the corpses of the Scavengers, who had died cleanly, almost unimaginably so from shotgun blasts.

One shot through the eye socket into the brain.

One shot penetrating the gap in their enhanced skin into the heart.

The corpses were so clean they reminded her of ‘Night Hawk’, the sniper boasting the most accurate shots in the Free City Alliance.

The pristine corpses of the Scavengers began to twitch.

Like something moving inside dumpling wrappers.

Like bones moving on their own.

Like clay being kneaded randomly.

They twitched with the sound of breaking bones.

And the more they twitched, the more their internal organs seemed to mush, and they began to spew blood and organ fragments from the seven orifices, like holes appearing in dumplings.

Qing covered her ears as if wanting to block out the unpleasant sound, and squeezed her eyes shut as if wanting to avoid the unpleasant sight.

After the disturbing sounds continued for a while, the corpses suddenly stopped twitching all at once.

Shwaaa.

The sound of heavy rain returned.

Qing’s surroundings were once again enveloped in the familiar sound of rain.

In that rain, the moment Qing slightly opened her eyes, the sound of tearing leather was heard, and blood splattered onto Qing’s face.

It was blood as hot as if boiling.

“!!!!”

And like parasites bursting out of abdomens in a famous movie, horrifically shaped monsters began to emerge, tearing through the Scavengers’ skin.

Multiple legs like spiders, an unpleasant pale red color.

Monsters that looked like human spines with multiple human fingers attached.

These were the Objects that had been grafted onto the Scavengers’ bodies.

Like parasites, these Objects were emerging now that their hosts were dead.

Like horsehair worms emerging from crickets.

“#$%$%#$”

Qing squeezed her eyes shut again and spat out every curse she knew.

Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

Why. Why. Why.

Why would someone put those things into their bodies?

Everyone’s crazy.

Everyone’s out of their minds.

Everyone’s an utter moron.

While Qing kept her eyes shut tight and spewed curses, Objects began to emerge sequentially from the Scavenger bodies.

As the ice-cold rainwater touched the high-temperature surfaces of the Objects, thick steam began to billow out.

It was steam mixed with the unpleasant smell of oil and blood.

And those parasite-like Objects began to crawl into the darkness of the city.

As if they knew where they needed to go.