NOVEL NEXT Chapter 164: The Cloud Fish: Epilogue (1)
Giggle-!
When I turned my head to look at my shoulder, I could see the Bud Reaper sitting on my shoulder while giggling happily.
When the spirit camera that Director Sehee had insisted on purchasing arrived, I would be able to confirm the identity of this bud.
Was it really a spirit wandering around while its main body was asleep, or was it a hallucination that was caused by mind corruption?
In fact, until today, I thought it was a hallucination 8 or 9 times out of 10, but now I had changed my mind a little.
After all, the Bud Reaper had given me some information I didn’t even know.
At first, it sounded just like a faint sound mixed with laughter.
However, as I was talking about the report that Researcher Oh Yerin didn’t write, Bud Reaper’s sound gradually became clearer. From those sounds, I felt something similar to emotion or will.
It was a method of communication that was clearly different from language.
It was not as clear as language, and it was a method of communication that was mixed and jumbled with emotions, but it was definitely a means of communication and information transmission.If I interpret the Bud Reaper’s emotion into human language, It probably become something like this:
She’s lying.
Along with a pleasant feeling, I felt a will that told me that Oh Yerin was lying.
It seemed like I had found a new way to communicate with the Bud Reaper.
In the end, I was able to get a confession after asking about the ‘sugar flamingo’ that Researcher Oh Y-rin had hid from me.
I placed the Bud Reaper on my palm and rubbed its soft cheeks which felt like a glutinous rice cake.
Hehe.
The Bud Reaper grabbed my finger while laughing as if it found it ticklish.
At first glance, it looked like it was pushing my finger away, but then, a new sensation which felt as if saying ‘Do more’ washed over me.
Rub-! Rub-! Rub-!
While gently rubbing its cheek,
“So this is how you guys communicate huh? It’s hard but a sincere way of communicating.”
I was able to understand a little bit about how Objects communicate with each other.
One of the famous hypotheses about the subject was <Objects don’t know language, they just read thoughts.>.
It was pretty close to the truth. Even though It was closer to feeling emotions than reading thoughts, at first glance, it would seem like they really read thoughts.
If humans also communicated by sharing emotions like this, many misunderstandings would have disappeared…
By the way, if this was the way they communicated, it explained why the Golden Reapers didn’t watch TV much. After all, The Golden Reapers, who didn’t know any language, wouldn’t be able to understand what was being said on TV.
Then, how does the Gray Reaper watch TV?
Tap-! Tap-! Tap-!
The moment my thoughts reached that point, the Bud Reaper started tapping my cheek with its small palm.
When I turned my head while saying, ‘What’s going on?’, the Bud Reaper put its finger on its lips as if telling me to keep it a secret.
I couldn’t help but nod my head in amazement at the strong will I felt from the Bud Reaper.
*********While in my phantom form, I looked at the Trinity Research Institute in Gangnam-gu, which had completely disappeared.
Around me, Cloud Fishes that had turned into cotton candy were floating around.
The Cloud Fishes floating everywhere in the sky were excellent sources of information, and they were the fish I was grateful toward because they had told me who the culprit of this incident was.
Thank you for guiding me.
I thanked the cotton candy fish and took a bite on its body which looked delicious.
‘!’
The cotton candy fish protested, asking why I was eating it when I was thanking them for guiding me.
Of course I ate it because it looked delicious! Probably because they were still fishes at the end of the day, they were not smart at all.
Hehe, as I conveyed my intentions while laughing, the cotton candy fish scattered and ran away.
By the way, the Trinity First Research Institute was destroyed without a trace. It was a research institute that should have disappeared, so it was an ending which befitted them so much.
At Trinity Research Institute, did they call the black mucus ‘evolution fluid’?
In my opinion, that ‘evolution fluid’ was the most harmful substance in the world, so I don’t know why everyone was so eager to utilize it.
Do they really think that there’s a possibility of salvation and evolution for humanity in a liquid that smelled so terrible and was full of malice?
Now that I had destroyed it to this extent, there should be no one who said, ‘Evolution fluid is the hope of humanity!’ anymore.
I slowly walked toward Gwanak-gu, watching the police cars and cars of the association employee rushing in.
Now it was time to get rid of all the remaining ‘evolution fluid’.
*********Today, I went to work with the hope that Reaper might return, but the research institute looked so busy.
The reason for it was the news flash that appeared on the TV. It was news about a very unusual incident; A huge incident where the Trinity First Research Institute, located in Gangnam-gu, disappeared without a trace.
[ This place is where the Trinity First Research Institute located in Gangnam-gu once stood. ]
[ As you can see, the research institute has disappeared without a trace. ]
[ It’s truly an enormous sinkhole. ]
[ It’s smaller than the Songpa-gu sinkhole, but the size of the sinkhole that suddenly occurred is still beyond common sense. ]
As soon as I saw the sinkhole, I had a gut feeling.
Ah! It’s the Reaper’s doing!
In other words, it meant that other people could also easily think that it was Reaper’s doing.
If it’s so, our research institute would be closed since we did nothing when a special Object under our care escaped our containment.
However, Sehee Unnie seemed calm even in this urgent situation.
Did she have some kind of plan?
“Unnie. Will we be okay?”
When I told Sehee Unnie about my worries, she answered with a confident face.
“There will be no problem!”
Since she said I would find the details if I went to Reaper’s containment room, I walked quickly there.
Could it be that the Reaper had already returned?
However, what I found in Reaper’s containment room was completely different from my expectation.
Inside, there was a Gray + Reaper.
Plop-! Plop-!
A Black Reaper which was meticulously painted in gray was walking around the containment room.
It was about 1m tall, with gray skin, and a similar appearance.
It certainly looked very similar to Reaper, except for the sharp shark teeth it had.
Is this really okay?
I put my hands together and prayed to Reaper who must be somewhere.
Reaper, come back quickly before the fake Gray Reaper gets caught!
*********The Black Agent and the blonde girl, who had survived a life-or-death crisis, were sitting on the ground, gasping for breath.
“Thank you for saving me!”
The blonde girl who was sitting on the floor smiled faintly and gently patted the Red Reaper who had protected her and the black agent.
However, the Red Reaper had a pouty expression on its face, as if it didn’t like something.
Looking at that, the blonde girl thought, ‘Does it hate being patted?’ and tried to move her finger away.
But,
Catch-!
The Red Reaper snatched her finger, placed it back on his head, and pressed it down.
The blonde girl smiled slightly as if she had seen something cute before patting the Red Reaper’s head with her finger again.
The Golden Reapers and the Black Reapers who saw it gathered around the blonde girl, asking to be patted as well.
“Okay. Okay. I got it. Thank you for helping me everyone!”
The blonde girl repeatedly thanked each of the mini-reapers one by one.
In the meantime, the Black Agent looked at the girl and thought about the time when he first saw her.
She was the granddaughter of the president of the Object Association, a girl who seemed incredibly happy and bright. However, the beginning of their relationship was when the Black Agent approached her after he felt sorry for her who was always so left out.
The girl who had always seemed anxious despite her wealth seemed to have finally shaken off all that anxiety now that she had lost everything.
After some time passed from the moment she was surrounded by what seemed to be hundreds of mini-reapers, the morning sunlight slowly rose beyond the wall of fog that had disappeared.
The Black Agent quickly opened a large parasol to cover the blonde girl, but the just girl shook her head and put the parasol away.
“It’s okay, Ahjussi.”
With a mischievous smile, the girl spread out both her hands wide and took in the sunlight with her whole body.
Unlike before, the girl’s body did not burn or turn to ash.
The girl who had been enjoying the sunlight with her eyes closed opened them and smiled brightly.
“After being unable to see it for such a long time, the sun is really beautiful.”
The sunlight that had risen above the horizon filled with green trees poured down on the girl’s head. Her sparkling blonde hair shone even more beautifully because of that.
Looking at her, the Black Agent opened his mouth.
“That’s true, Young Miss.”
A faint smile appeared on the Black Agent’s face as well.
The girl who had been enjoying the sunlight with a happy expression turned around with a satisfied expression and said to the Black Agent.
“Ahjussi. I think we should go to Sehee Research Institute.”
The girl added softly that she should meet her new ‘mother’.
*********A certain Golden Reaper who was walking around the empty Garden of the Mini Reapers which was deserted because numerous Mini Reapers had gone out of the garden discovered something strange.
It was a ball of fur as white as a cloud.
The fur ball that was big enough for the Golden Reaper to sink into, shone white in the soft light of the mini garden.
On top of it, It was floating in the air, catching the Golden Reaper’s curiosity.
Youngest?
The Golden Reaper slowly approached and picked up the fur ball, wondering why it felt like its youngest sibling.
Then, the Golden Reaper rummaged through the fluffy fur ball as if it was opening a gift box.
After rummaging through the soft and warm fur ball for quite some time,
A face of an Orange Reaper appeared.
It was an Orange Reaper with its eyes closed with a relaxed expression as if it was sleeping.
Youngest!
The Golden Reaper raised both of its hands in joy at the appearance of the new youngest sibling.