In the midst of everyone falling silent, the phone's loud ringtone rang out, demanding attention.

"What... what should we do?" one of the workers asked, his voice trembling.

"We have to answer it. We can't just ignore it, can we?"

Gulp.

A factory worker swallowed nervously, his hands shaking. It was just a phone call, yet he was terrified.

The worker squeezed his eyes shut, trying to answer the call, but his hands were trembling so much, and with his eyes closed, he struggled to get it right.

Hiding in the worker's shadow, I released my ghost form and pressed down on the worker's finger, sliding it to answer the call.

"Aagh!" the worker yelped, startled, and flung the phone to the ground in fear.

Rubbing his finger nervously, the worker looked around wildly.

Hehe, no matter how much you look around, you won't see me now that I'm back in ghost form!

[There was a loud noise; is everything okay?] The voice came from the phone lying on the ground.

Ignoring the terrified worker, another employee picked up the call.

"No, everything's fine, boss."

[Is that so? I'm in the middle of escaping, and I think I can get out in about a day.]

"So, does that mean the Object in the factory hasn’t been dealt with?"

[That's right, the recontainment failed. Fortunately, that bear is too large to fit into tight spaces, so I'm crawling through the ceiling. I should be able to get out in a day, so we'll deal with it then.]

"So, you don't need immediate rescue?"

[It's actually better if no one comes in and makes a mess. We can discuss the next recontainment plan when I get back.]

"Understood, boss!"

As the call ended, the tense atmosphere in the room relaxed a bit.

"It seems like this really was the boss this time, right?"

"It was his phone number and voice, so it must have been him."

"But wasn’t it the same with the previous call? The only weird part was the mention of B Block."

"Does the ceiling even have enough space?"

"I don't know. Who would climb up there to check?"

The mood among the employees remained uneasy. Even though the boss was alive, the previous call still felt strange.

An odd call from the boss's number and voice but mentioning a nonexistent B Block.

We came here to secure pudding, but it feels like we've stumbled into a mystery drama.

From the Golden Reaper's Garden nestled in the backyard of Sehee Research Institute, a Golden Reaper peeked out.

This Golden Reaper had a pudding strapped to its back.

Even though it knew the Creator wasn’t nearby, it didn’t neglect to check its surroundings.

If it was caught, it could lose the last remaining pudding, so it had to be careful!

The Creator could mask its location whenever it wanted, so the Golden Reaper couldn’t let its guard down.

Those comrades who did?

They all lost their pudding

. No matter how much they mourned, the pudding never came back.

The Golden Reaper couldn’t afford to lose the precious pudding, especially not when it was meant for the poor, beloved human who hadn’t had a single bite of the delicious treat.

A large door blocked its path.

This door separated the backyard from the inside of the research facility.

Normally, the Golden Reaper could easily slip through in ghost form, but that wasn’t an option now.

It had to transport the pudding.

As the sound of footsteps approached, the Golden Reaper quickly hid itself.

It couldn’t let the humans see it either.

If the humans didn’t get their pudding, they’d be sad.

And if the humans were sad, it would hurt.

Hiding in a nearby shadow, the Golden Reaper waited for the moment the door opened, then quietly slipped through unnoticed.

Now, it had to navigate through the human-filled building without being detected and reach its beloved human!

With a determined expression, the Golden Reaper steeled itself for the task.

The situation at the pudding factory was becoming increasingly chaotic.

I felt dizzy.

When I returned to the vehicle, the backseat, which had been empty, suddenly had the Gray Reaper pop up with a poof.

Ah, I knew it—it had been following me around in ghost form.

I lifted the Reaper from the backseat and placed it on my lap, hugging it close.

The Reaper, having become accustomed to being held, relaxed naturally into my embrace.

"Reaper, what do you think? It feels like something serious is happening, but I can't figure out what it is."

Hugging the soft and warm Reaper in the midst of all this confusion helped calm my mind.

The Gray Reaper's expression in the rearview mirror was as blank as ever.

It rested in my arms like a stuffed bear, seemingly without a care in the world.

"There were two calls from the boss. Which one was real? Or were they both fake?"

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure it out.

I decided that until something clicked, I’d keep holding onto the Reaper for comfort.

Yerin’s feelings were as tangled as a ball of yarn.

It was actually a pretty simple problem, but it seemed like she was overthinking it.

As I lay down on the backseat, Yerin, instead of lying down with me, began fiddling with my feet.

She often did this whenever I lay down—was she giving me a massage?

It probably didn’t do much, though.

The two calls during this incident contained completely opposite instructions.

The first call said, "Gather as many people as possible and come rescue me!"

The second said, "Wait for me to escape!"

If the first call was fake, it was likely because someone wanted a lot of people to come in, which is something a luring Object might do.

If the second call was fake, it would be to prevent people from coming in. But since Objects that speak like humans are rare, it was probably a human who made that call.

It seemed like the truth of which call to believe depended on whether the perpetrator was a human or an Object.

Yawn.

Even without lungs, I felt a yawn coming on.

I used to think it was just a leftover habit from my human days.

But seeing the Golden Reapers yawn sometimes made me wonder if it was for a different reason—perhaps we were Objects designed to mimic humans from the start.

A sudden wave of drowsiness washed over me.

Flap, flap.

Not wanting to fall asleep from the massage, I kicked my legs to shake Yerin’s hands off.

At the very least, I needed to resolve the pudding situation before resting.

For the pudding!

Just moments ago, the smart watch James had been using for the call suddenly emitted only static.

"Ah, it’s disconnected."

James, who had been speaking into the smart watch, commented.

"Why? Why did you say those things on the call?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?" he asked, tilting his head.

"The content of the call! You said we could die if help doesn’t arrive soon!"

Bang, bang.

The sound of something smashing could be heard outside the control room.

It was the sound of metal being crushed and shattered with terrifying force.

"What... what is that?"

"The teddy bear has realized that someone managed to make a call from the control room. It’s destroying the control rooms one by one. That sound is coming from the control room in Building 2, I think."

While the translator was terrified, James spoke with a calm voice.

"Now it's clear—if help doesn’t arrive, we’re dead. Eventually, the teddy bear will find its way to this control room, too."

"It’s all over now," the translator muttered, holding his head in despair.

The steel teddy bear was systematically demolishing the control rooms.

The sound of destruction was still distant, but it would eventually reach them.

Thud, thud.

To the translator, the heavy footsteps sounded like those of a predator from a horror movie.

"There’s no need to panic," James continued, still unruffled.

"Based on my route predictions, that cute teddy bear will take about 15 hours to reach this control room. So, you still have plenty of time. You might as well get some sleep on the bed provided here."

"So, if help doesn’t come within 15 hours, we’re dead!"

"Exactly."

"Then why did you make that call like that? B Block? A milling machine? Why didn’t you just say Building 7, Second Floor Control Room… Why did you…"

The translator’s voice trailed off as he slumped to the floor, almost sobbing.

James shook his head, looking at the translator with a mixture of pity and mild frustration.

"You really aren’t the sharpest tool in the shed, are you? Didn’t I tell you? This incident was caused by human intervention."

The translator looked up at James, confused.

James continued to explain, "If I gave our exact location, that teddy bear would definitely come here to crush our heads before help could arrive."

"So, will people be able to find us with B Block and milling machine as clues?"

"Of course. I left hints that the factory personnel could definitely use to find us, but ones that the terrorists wouldn’t recognize."

The translator, hope returning to his face, looked at James.

"The terrorists aren’t stupid. If I left a vague clue, they might look up the old blueprints of this factory."

"That makes sense."

"But those old blueprints don’t mention B Block or a milling machine. When they find nothing, they’ll give up, just like that teddy bear would. Then they’ll choose another method instead of trying to figure it out."

"And then?"

"There’s a hidden story here. There’s a twin factory identical to this one in Busan. If someone compares the blueprints of that factory with our current one, they’ll be able to pinpoint our location in no time."

"Who on earth is going to figure that out!"

The translator, having momentarily forgotten about the killer teddy bear, shouted in frustration.

His face, which had been filled with hope, fell into despair once again as he collapsed back down.

"It’s all over now…."

I gave up trying to figure things out.

Did it really matter which of the two calls was real?

Did I really need to know what B Block and the milling machine meant?

Why should I be the one to figure it out?

I should just go in there and rip that steel teddy bear Object’s head off.

That teddy bear isn’t even part of the pudding factory, after all.

As I finished my thoughts and stood up, Yerin noticed and reacted.

"Are you going into the factory? Then let me come with you!"

She smiled brightly as she followed me.

Together, Yerin and I quietly made our way toward the factory entrance.

Thanks to the boss’s call, there were hardly any guards on duty.

"This feels kind of fun. It’s like playing hide-and-seek when I was little."

Yerin’s enjoyment made me feel a little better, too.

Moving from shadow to shadow, we slipped through the factory entrance.

Inside, we were greeted by a cracked, shattered parking lot and headless corpses.

"Reaper, there’s a body here. Judging by the outfit, it’s probably one of those Object retrieval team members the boss brought in?"

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Yerin’s voice had barely echoed through the parking lot when the heavy footsteps started again.

Nervously, Yerin gripped my hand tightly.

Beyond the parking lot, from the large open entrance of the building, a red glow appeared.

Two points of red light, glowing like the eyes of a beast in the darkness.

Thud. Thud.

With the heavy footsteps, the silhouette of the Object began to emerge from the shadows.

It was the steel teddy bear Object.

The bear locked eyes with me and then, slowly—

Thud. Thud.

Slowly retreated back into the darkness.