NOVEL NEXT Deep within the Golden Reaper garden.
In the most secret and dark place of the garden, where even the footsteps of attached humans cannot reach.
A mysterious meeting between the Golden Reapers was taking place there.
It was a meeting regarding the last remaining ninja pudding.
The Golden Reapers had unusually serious faces.
Thump thump-!
Hop hop!
Dori Dori-!
The Golden Reapers hopped here and there, appealing and coordinating their opinions.
They collided with each other, expressing with emotion how much pudding each needed.
Cute gestures and movements that humans cannot understand.
But for the Golden Reapers, it was a most serious meeting.
And finally, a result came out.
The Golden Reaper who was allowed to have the pudding hopped happily.
The Golden Reaper, who was deemed to need the pudding the most, was blessed by all and left with the pudding.
The place the Golden Reaper went, carrying the much larger pudding, was the backyard of the Sehee Research Institute.
There was a passage connected to the garden by the Gray Reaper.
The face of the Golden Reaper carrying the large pudding was full of smiles.
***
3rd Person POV:
---
"Hum, hmm."
James was humming softly as he operated the entrance to the factory control room.
"Mr. James, please be a little quieter. What if we get caught doing that?" said the interpreter behind him in a small voice, poking James repeatedly with an anxious expression.
James looked around calmly and said, "There's no way we'll get caught making a little noise in such a noisy place. You're worrying too much."
As James said, this area was filled with the constant noise of running machinery, plus the unpleasant warning sounds blaring due to the emergency.
Still, the interpreter looked anxious, glancing around the factory with an ominous atmosphere.
It was already too late to escape, and now they were going even deeper into the factory.
It felt like they were doing a stunt of sticking their heads into an alligator's mouth.
The anxious interpreter poked James' back as he worked diligently and said, "Mr. James. But isn't there no reason to come this deep instead of just escaping out of the factory? If we hadn't come here, we could already be outside by now!"
"The reason we came here? Of course there is one. First of all, if we just leave like this, we'll definitely get caught by that cute bear. We're much slower than the bear. The bear is probably moving, thinking we'll try to escape too."
James continued speaking as he tore off the entire panel attached to the control room entrance.
"Plus, this isn't an ordinary Object incident. If we don't act sensibly and intelligently, we'll die in an instant."
"What? You're saying this situation isn't an accident?"
"At first I thought it was an accident too."
James tapped the smart watch strapped to his wrist as he spoke.
"Where is the Object that's jamming communications? And timed perfectly when we came in." "I thought it was because it's a remote factory, so the signal doesn't reach?"
"Then we wouldn't have received the report so quickly when the Objects first occupied it."
It's not an accident, but terrorism.
Moreover, terrorism aimed at murder - at these words, the interpreter started freaking out.
"Why on earth? Who would do such a thing? And in a country like ours, which is known for its clean record with Objects... A terror attack involving Objects..."
"It's good to have patriotism, but there's one thing I need to correct."
James looked at the interpreter with a serious face.
"In my judgment, Korea is the most dangerous country in the world."
"What? How can that be? I heard China has a giant flying jellyfish, and in the US a giant fire-breathing boar destroyed an entire city. At least Korea doesn't have Objects like that, isn't it safe?"
"That's the amazing thing about Korea. The Ice Throne in Dobong District, the theme park, and now this desert that appeared. Objects that could cause tremendous destruction if left alone, but they're naturally suppressed or disappear."
A cheerful mechanical sound rang out from the electronic door, and the entrance to the factory control room opened.
"Ah, it's finally open. Well, I'll talk about how dangerous Korea is another time. For now, we need to analyze this site."
The revealed sight as the door opened was horrific.
When the door opened, all the employees who had been working in the control room were dead bodies.
The interpreter turned away from the sight and tightly closed his eyes.
"Hmm, come here and take a look."
"Absolutely not. I already fainted earlier after seeing that steel bear crushing people, and now you want me to look again?"
"It would be better if you looked, but if you don't want to, I can't force you."
At James' words, the interpreter slightly opened his eyes and directed his gaze towards the corpses.
"Ugh."
The corpses were covered in blood, their heads blown apart.
"Why on earth are you telling me to look at this?"
"Don't you feel anything looking at this?"
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In James' mind, the corpses in the control room were clear evidence.
Evidence of human involvement.
Three control room employees shot and killed.
The Objects currently occupying the factory do not use guns.
"They were shot and killed. And the Objects occupying the factory now don't use guns."
A terror attack using guns in Korea, where gun regulations are not relaxed even when many people die from Objects.
James' expression became serious.
***
Reaper (MC) POV:
---
Yerin pushed me into the car, telling me to hide.
"Reaper, I'll go listen in for a bit. You have to stay hidden properly, okay?"
Then she went alone to where the factory officials had gathered.
Of course, I also came out of the vehicle using ghostification to watch Yerin's performance.
The situation was serious, so the officials' expressions were not good either, but in this situation, Yerin was skillfully extracting information better than expected.
She said things like the Sehee Research Institute was preparing to help with re-isolation, and that they had made this decision because they needed the pudding produced at this factory.
She was mixing truth and lies as she conversed.
Watching now, Yerin is good at lying.
Did she practice to be a swindler?
"Wow, so the isolation failure only happened about once a month?"
"That's right. That's why our Songdo Research Institute even received an excellent institute award last year, but it will be difficult this year."
The researcher from the Songdo Research Institute, which had been managing the Objects currently occupying the factory, sighed heavily with a gloomy expression.
After a long conversation with the Songdo researcher, Yerin also clung to the factory officials and started talking to them.
"Really? So you even called a private Object retrieval company, and the factory owner went in himself? That must have been dangerous."
"Ah, he was really reckless, probably because he's a foreigner."
"So you still can't reach that owner?"
"Even now, the youngest employee over there keeps calling but he's not answering. Probably...."
The man who appeared to be a factory employee gestured slitting his throat, suggesting the owner was likely dead.
"Ah, thank you for kindly informing me!"
"Since it seems hopeless to rescue the owner, if the Sehee Research Institute is going to send an isolation team, make sure you're fully prepared!"
After finishing the conversation with the factory employee, Yerin was writing various things in her notebook.
<The Object currently occupying the factory is a bear-shaped robot>
<It used to escape and evade capture about once a month.>
<However, it was relatively slow-moving, so they were able to recontain it quickly.>
<The factory owner is trapped inside the facility. Status unknown>
As Yerin was organizing the data in her notebook, a phone suddenly rang.
An employee who appeared to belong to the factory picked up his phone and caused a commotion.
"Huh? Oh! This, this is the boss!"
"Why don't you answer right away!"
The employee, who seemed a bit flustered, switched to speakerphone and answered the call.
[Ah, can you hear me?]
"Ah, yes. I can hear you. Boss, you're safe."
[Ah, I'm safe. There was a jammer installed at the factory, so it took a long time to contact you. My current location is the small office built above the milling machine in Block B.]
"Huh? Block B?"
[Since there are many Objects besides the bear that need to be dealt with here, a huge Object retrieval team will be needed. No matter how much money it costs, I'll take care of it all, so call in as many as possible.]
Ppeong-!
The call that seemed like it would continue was cut off with an unnatural sound, and only noise was coming out.
However, the expressions of the factory employees who received the long-awaited call from the boss were not very good.
"That wasn't the boss, was it?"
"An impersonator? Who's playing a prank?"
"Could it be a temptation-type Object?"
Yerin approached the flustered factory employee and asked the reason.
"The boss, who had been missing, is alive and informed his current location and even suggested a solution, but everyone doesn't seem to be reacting well. Why is that?"
"Well, there is no Block B in our factory. And since it's a pudding factory, there are no milling machines either."
"Ah, come to think of it, a milling machine is for cutting metal, right? So you concluded it was an impersonator."
"Or maybe an Object is trying to lure us."
The factory employee seemed a bit scared, perhaps thinking an Object was tempting them.
In the midst of this, the phone started ringing again.
"Huh? It's the boss again."
The people who were noisily chattering all shut their mouths.
In the silence, only the sound of the ringing phone was loud.