Seoul Object Story

James Tower, located on the outskirts of Songpa District.

This place, which once served as a refuge for countless people on the front lines of the war against the Association Dolls, was now gradually regaining peace.

Restoration work was in full swing around the tower.

Employees of the James Research Institute bustled around the outer walls, clearing away scattered doll debris.

Around the asphalt and concrete that had been shattered as if by an earthquake, they were setting up barriers and proceeding with restoration work.

The number of defectors in this Association Doll incident is… one. That’s fortunate.

James was in the process of organizing reports related to the Association Doll incident.

Although there had been many dangerous moments, such as the sudden appearance of dolls that couldn’t be destroyed even by Object bullets, they had managed to get through without much damage.

The image of Alex, the former security team leader, flashed through James’s mind.

The sole defector had recently returned to the United States.

He left for home with such a sad face, the doll still packaged. But strangely, there was no mental contamination.

James was lost in thought for a moment.

He attached documents about Alex to the end of the report he was preparing to send to the American Object Association.

He hoped that Alex would return to his original self and be able to resume his position as security team leader.

<Name: Alex>

<Gender: Male>

<Symptoms: Alex shows an obsessive attachment to a specific doll. Whether due to the influence of mental contamination or not, he displays significantly reduced reality testing, placing greater value on relationships with dolls than actual human relationships.>

<Response Plan: As Alex’s obsessive symptoms may make him vulnerable to mental contamination, intensive psychological treatment appears necessary. After reassignment to a position with minimal contact with mentally contaminating Objects, long-term cognitive behavioral therapy is required.>

<Note: As there are no signs of mental contamination, anti-Object treatment methods are not expected to be necessary.>

As he closed the report and looked out the window, he could see people gathered in an open space, playing with the Golden Reapers.

People were offering their cheeks to the Golden Reapers, asking them to ‘pat’ them, while the Golden Reapers wore troubled expressions.

Is this phenomenon due to mental contamination, or is it a normal reaction to seeing something cute?

As James was pondering the thought he always had when seeing the Golden Reapers, something began tugging at his earlobe.

It was a Golden Reaper, the messenger of the Gray Reaper, seemingly saying, We need to make Mom’s gift quickly!

“Alright, I understand. Just wait a little, I’ll start working on it soon.”

James patted the Golden Reaper’s head and placed a purple, sour candy in its mouth.

He watched the Golden Reaper happily eating the candy for a moment, then opened the last remaining report.

The investigation results in that report indicated that almost all escaped Objects had been eliminated by the Golden Reapers.

<Unlike other Objects, the Maker’s escape appears to have had external assistance.>

Except for one, the ‘Maker’, whose whereabouts remained unknown.