A man was running breathlessly.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it! It’s definitely their doing!”
Most of the comrades who had followed the boss into battle had scattered in a panic.
All of this began when the boss’s Object, which had been working perfectly fine for two years, suddenly malfunctioned.
Tripping over a rock and having a rebar sticking out of the skeletal concrete pierce your eye?
Possible.
A comrade falling to their death after the cracked concrete floor suddenly collapsed beneath them?
Believable.
The safety pin of a grenade on a comrade’s pack, who had the habit of hitting it with his fist, coming loose and exploding?
Could happen.
Slipping off a rooftop because of the oil-like rain?
Plausible.
But all these incidents happening simultaneously? It wasn’t normal.
Sothing unknown was lurking among them.
Then soone, gripped with terror, shouted loudly.
“It’s a curse! A ghost’s curse!”
So, overtaken by fear, started to flee like mad.
“A curse? A ghost? That’s ridiculous,” the man tried to keep his sanity.
He was certain that whoever their boss had been targeting was behind all this.
Luckily, a few comrades who still hadn’t lost their composure stayed by his side.
They cautiously followed their prey, their faces tense with fear.
“Wait!”
The one leading the group suddenly halted everyone.
“There’s sothing there. Sothing bloodstained!”
In a flash, sothing pale and stained with blood flitted through the alleyway.
“Ahhh!”
One of the comrades scread in terror.
“It’s a ghost! A ghost has appeared!”
He fired his gun wildly down the alley in a panic.
As bullets disappeared into the dark, the sound of crumbling concrete followed, and a strange, ominous vibration started to spread.
“Damn it.”
The man looked around.
The old, decrepit buildings were towering over them, on the verge of collapsing at any mont.
“Stop! For God’s sake, stop!”
The man rushed over to his frenzied comrade and wrestled the gun away from him.
But it was too late.
The tremor from the bullets grew stronger, and part of a building collapsed entirely.
Boom!
Dust and debris filled the air.
By so miracle, the man avoided being crushed, but his comrades weren’t so lucky.
They were buried under the rubble, eting a grueso end.
The man tumbled across the ground as if hit by a car, his bones broken and his skin torn.
Rolling out of the shadows of the alley, he finally caught sight of the people they had been chasing.
“Hah... hah... I survived?”
The man gasped for breath, celebrating his survival, but it wasn’t over yet.
From the shadows of the collapsed building, a bloodstained white mass slowly approached.
It was the figure of death itself, leading him to his demise.
“P-Please… help…”
The man struggled to turn his head and reached out toward the prey he had been chasing.
But at that mont, a massive steel structure ca crashing down from above.
“Oh.”
The man instinctively knew his fate and closed his eyes as the structure fell.
Free City Union Outskirts, Scavenger Territory
For reasons unknown, the scavengers had stopped pursuing them, but Cheong’s group still cautiously navigated through the narrow alleys.
Atop Cheong’s head sat an unknown furry creature.
The furball flattened itself, as if trying to blend in and insist it was a hat.
“Are you sure that thing’s safe?”
The woman carrying a sniper rifle looked at Cheong with a concerned expression.
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
Cheong picked up the furball from her head and hugged it close.
She gently tapped its tiny hands and feet, smiling with satisfaction.
The woman watched her with discomfort, as if seeing soone ntally unstable.
How could she find such a bloodstained, ominous-looking Object so adorable?
She quickened her pace, catching up with the man walking ahead.
“Still haven’t figured it out?”
She whispered to the man.
“Do I look like soone who’s good with machines like Cheong? Give a minute,” he replied, fumbling with a tiny smartphone that looked completely out of place in his large hands as he searched for information on the Object clinging to Cheong.
The man was struggling more than expected to find details.
The Free City Union had limited access to Chinese networks, and even from China, it wasn’t easy to connect to outside networks.
“I found it!”
Finally, after digging through various roundabout thods, he managed to find information on the mysterious Object.
The woman’s eyes widened as she read the information, nearly shouting in surprise.
“Special-Class? It’s a Special-Class?”
Special-Class Objects were rare around the Free City Union, where many Objects could be hunted and used for prosthetic equipnt, making this revelation even more shocking.
“A Special-Class Object? The rcenary manual says we’re not supposed to deal with anything Special-Class…”
“Well, that’s a classification from Korea. Our system might be different. Still, we should tread carefully and not provoke it.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
As the man and woman whispered to each other while glancing at Cheong, the group finally arrived at a massive wall.
“It’s the security wall. Once we get past this, the job’s done!”
Cheong looked up at the security wall with a tired but happy expression.
The “Giant Mother Golem,” now adorned with sparkling starlight, marked the completion of the “Giant Golem Creation” project.
The massive structure stood tall in the Marshmallow Plains, likely intended to be summoned by the Blue Reapers when needed.
The Blue Reapers looked overjoyed to see a giant, shining golem that resembled their beloved “Mother.”
And seeing them so happy made happy too.
I didn’t know why, but the Golden Reapers had granted a vacation.
So, I finally got to return to my isolation room and rest in peace.
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