༺ Object Exhibition (8) ༻
The exhibition grounds had been completely sealed off by the military.
Officially, their actions were justified as a means to prevent Objects from escaping. However, it became clear that there was an underlying motive at play—to prevent the general public from seeing what was happening inside.
“Wha? Why on earth are you trying to stop us from filming with a drone?” a reporter protested, raising his voice against the soldiers who were on guard duty.
“It is for the security of military operations. Please step back.”
“That doesn’t make any sense….”
Despite the reporter’s protest, he was eventually seized by the soldiers and forcefully dragged away.
A handful of reporters still disregarded the soldiers’ warnings and attempted to fly their drones, only to have them swiftly shot down. As a result, security measures were tightened, including the installation of drone jamming devices.
Some reporters, who seemed to be on friendly terms with the soldiers, even published articles claiming that the military’s purpose was to prevent the drones from irritating the Objects, potentially causing more damage than what had already occurred.
However, in the eyes of other reporters, it became clear that the military’s focus was not on the Objects inside the exhibition grounds, but rather on the prying eyes of those outside.
***
I gave up on waking up the man who was being chased by a giant Gray Reaper in his nightmare. Just my presence alone seemed to leave him gasping for breath, and no matter how long I kept him alive, the nightmare showed no signs of ending.
After that, I wandered through numerous dreams.
One dream was filled with swarms of Hungry Ghosts, while another had an Object I had never seen before chasing after someone, and so on.
A lot of people were being chased by something in their dreams, huh?
The problem was that these nightmares of being chased like that never ended no matter how long they ran away.
I never expected that it would be easy to wake the humans up from their nightmares, but who knew it would be this difficult.
This time, as I entered a new dream, I left behind a woman who was being chased by a herd of water deer.
This new dream was incredibly intricate. While in most dreams, the corners would be a little hazy, this one was crafted in crisp detail.
As I wandered around the dream to satisfy my curiosity, I heard a familiar voice calling out.
“Reaper, wait a moment! Reaper!!”
The dream that unfolded before me centered around a figure I knew well.
It was Oh Yerin.
Yerin, in her dream, was eagerly chasing after the Gray Reaper, who looked exactly like me, running all around the elaborately depicted exhibition ground, trying to avoid her.
?
Why is this a nightmare?
Aren’t they just having a lot of fun?
Yerin appeared to be quite happy too.
“Reaper! Since we’ve come this far, let’s take a picture! Look, I brought water deer pajamas!”
In Yerin’s hand, was a pair of child-sized pajamas.
Wait, when did she prepare those clothes?
In this extremely realistic dream, there was only one strange part. It was a golden tree that appeared ten times larger than its actual size.
The sight of that huge golden tree growing brighter looked very suspicious.
I wasn’t sure if it was because of Yerin’s vivid imagination, but the exhibition grounds were portrayed with remarkable accuracy.
Except for that tree that had grown ten times larger, that is.
Fortunately, I quickly figured out the meaning of that gigantic golden tree.
That thing was precisely why this dream was a nightmare.
The golden tree gradually became brighter, until it emitted a beam of light when it reached the same intensity as when it shot out the original pulse.
The beam seemed to be aimed at Yerin.
It was so intense that it even momentarily made me flinch.
However, to my surprise, the target of the beam was not Yerin, but something else entirely.
It was the water deer pajamas that Yerin held in her hand.
“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
The water deer pajamas were engulfed in flames, slowly burning away.
The fire, too, burned at a snail’s pace.
It took half an hour for just one pair of pajamas to fully burn.
The slow-burning fire was almost like a curse.
A curse that inflicted more despair and grief the longer it burned.
Yerin tried every possible means to extinguish the fire, but like hellfire from a dark novel, it refused to go out.
Even when submerged in water, it still burned.
“Nooooo!” “Noooooo!!” “Nooooooooo!!!”
When it all had ended, Yerin sobbed uncontrollably in front of the pajamas that had turned into ashes.
The world began to rewind, taking us back to the point where Yerin was happily chasing after the Gray Reaper in her dream.
***
I anxiously wandered around inside the guard post of the exhibition ground.
The orders from above were crystal clear—escalate the damage caused by this incident, even if it meant sacrificing the lives of everyone at the exhibition.
To carry out the secret order, I resorted to stalling tactics, making all sorts of excuses to buy time.
The longer we delayed our rescue mission, the more severe the damage would be, so we took our sweet time.
However, an unexpected turn of events threw a wrench in my plans—the destruction of all the Objects that were a threat to humans.
The higher-ups were hoping for greater damage and a lot more controversy, but instead, it all went haywire when the Golden Reapers suddenly appeared.
When I first saw the Golden Reapers going somewhere, I thought that it would lead to an accident. But to my dismay, the exact opposite happened.
Now, achieving the higher-up’s objective was no longer possible just by stalling for time.
“It can’t be helped.”
That’s right, it really couldn’t be helped.
“Pick some tight-lipped soldiers. We’re heading to the exhibition ground. If we kill them with knives, we can blame it on the Objects.”
I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands.
“Our targets are just the sleeping people. It’s a straightforward mission. Finish it as quickly as possible and get out.”
Under the cover of the night, I made my way to the exhibition grounds with a small group of soldiers in tow. While avoiding people’s eyes as much as possible, we infiltrated the sealed exhibition ground surrounded by high walls.
Once we went down using a makeshift rope, I gathered the soldiers and explained the operation.
The mission was a simple one—kill as many people as possible within thirty minutes.
“We will regroup here in half an hour.”
However, as the soldiers were about to disperse to carry out their mission, an unexpected obstacle appeared in their path.
It was the Golden Reaper.
While there used to be a lot of them before, only one Golden Reaper remained now.
It stood before us, its hands resting on its hips as it glared at us.
The soldiers, having seen the Golden Reaper mercilessly slaughter other Objects not too long ago, visibly tensed up.
“Disperse now! Just ignore it and get on with the mission!”
Although it was a new Object we knew nothing about, we were still hopeful. From what little we had observed, it hadn’t attacked a single human inside the exhibition grounds.
Nevertheless, even if we were wrong and the Golden Reaper turned out to be an Object that could attack humans, we had no other choice.
After all, we would lose our lives anyway if we failed to follow the orders of our superiors.
As soon as the soldiers dispersed, the Golden Reaper also vanished from its position.
Before they could even get far, all of the soldiers died on the spot. A gaping hole had suddenly appeared in their chest. As I looked at their intestines spilling out of the hole, I felt a surge of blood rise in my throat.
As I collapsed while coughing up crimson blood, I saw the Golden Reaper, now soaked in blood, standing before me.
It looked down at me, its eyes filled with disgust. It was the last thing I saw.
***
I wasn’t sure if Yerin’s nightmare could even be called a nightmare, but since she felt it as such, I had no choice but to accept it as one.
Her nightmare seemed to be related to me. Since that was the case, it might be easier to solve than I had expected.
First, I approached Yerin, who was frantically chasing after the Reaper.
“Ah! Reaper!”
Yerin exclaimed, noticing me coming over she hugged me with a big bright smile.
She proudly showed something to me, as if she was showing off.
“Ta-da! It’s a pair of water deer pajamas! Isn’t it cute?”
She continued to talk while slipping the water deer pajamas onto me.
“Reaper, reaper! Wear this and let’s take a picture. Since we’re at an exhibition, we should take a picture at least!”
From the moment I saw the pajamas, I felt something.
Normally, I found clothes to be uncomfortable and chose to not wear them. However, just for this time, I decided to give in, to overcome the nightmare.
Perhaps because it was a dream, the weather turned sunny all of a sudden.
The Ghost Cat suddenly appeared out of thin air and fell into my arms, Cloud fishes and Cloud whales appeared in the sky as well. On top of that, flowers bloomed all at once on the lush green lawn.
With that dreamlike scene in the background, I stood wearing the water deer pajamas, holding the cat in my arms.
Click-!
“Wow! Look at this!”
Yerin squealed in delight as she looked at the scene captured in the photo. She ran around excitedly, but her energy gradually waned.
Eventually, she looked at me and said,
“This is a dream, right?”
There’s no way something this happy could happen. Why would the Reaper willingly wear clothes…?
“It doesn’t make sense that the Reaper would wear clothes for no reason. This is a dream!”
Yerin vehemently shook her head and shouted.
As she screamed, the world shattered into fragments.
***
I opened my eyes next to the golden tree after resolving Yerin’s nightmare.
The golden tree, once filled with power, now looked more like a solid golden block than a tree. When I hit it, it produced a heavy sound before toppling over.
Come to think of it, I couldn’t see the Golden Reapers. Although their lifespan was only a day, there should have been a few hours left before they would disappear. Not only the reaper that was attached to me, but all of the Golden Reaper at the exhibition ground had disappeared.
Just where did they go?
Going to the only place where I could sense the presence of the Golden Reaper, a terrible sight greeted me.
The Golden Reaper was leaning against a corner, as if waiting for something.
Seeing me, it got up and waved its hand, a bright smile plastered on its face.
It waved its hand bidding me a farewell, as if silently saying, ‘Let’s meet again later.’
And just like that, the last remaining Golden Reaper disappeared into flames.
