The corpse dog began to run.

It ran fast, faster than it had ever been in its life.

Perhaps after removing the burden of flesh and blood, it became lighter; Maybe it's because after receiving the reinforcement, it becomes powerful.

Or perhaps it's because, after its perception has been enhanced, it has smelled something familiar that frightens it.

Not the fear of being killed in a row.

It's not the fear of being beaten, scolded, and driven away.

But...... It was like the fear of losing something forever.

It followed the smell and ran and ran and finally stopped in one place.

It was a dark grey stone pavement with symmetrical patterns on the slabs, clean and airy, and it looked like it had been washed not long ago.

The corpse dog stretched out its paws to gouge, easily lifting the slate larger than its body.

In the crevices of the sunken pattern, in the dirt beneath the stone slabs, it saw some dark red stains.

It was cleaned, but it wasn't cleaned......

Blood.

The corpse dog was stunned, as if he couldn't believe it, and spun around in place a few times, and suddenly jumped to the bushes next to it, frantically pulling the well-trimmed bushes.

It found what it was looking for.

It was a blood-stained scarecrow doll, beautifully made. The doll is covered with fine animal tooth marks.

It got stuck on the branch at the base of a tung tree, which should have fallen out of the corpse carrier when he fell from the building, and the location of the fall was somewhat hidden, so it was not discovered and cleaned up.

This scarecrow doll was the favorite toy of the corpse dog, the puppy named "Stinky".

It dragged it into its nest and held it, it took it under the bed and hid it, and it took it with it wherever it went, never letting go for a moment.

It seems to really like it.

- That's what everyone thinks, even its owner.

But only the stinky knows, no.

The scarecrow doll was a gift that the corpse carrier received when he was a dentist.

He met a wandering old woman at the door of his clinic.

The old woman had almost lost all her teeth, and her four remaining teeth were decayed, but she begged him not to pull out her last four teeth, for she still had to feed on them.

She didn't have the money to pay for the expensive fillings.

But the corpse carrier agreed.

He used half of his life's experience and technology to remove the decayed parts and fill the holes for the old woman, and then used his salary to fill the medical expenses in the clinic's account.

After the successful operation, he received a gift from the woman - a small doll woven from straw.

The old woman has woven straw all her life, from the scarecrow used to scare birds in the rice field, to the straw toys in the hands of children, each of which is vivid.

But now the village where she had lived all her life was expropriated, and she was forced to leave her homeland and be assigned to work as a "straw weaver" in a big city she had never been to.

But the dolls she made were not so trendy, and the children in the city didn't like them and couldn't sell them, so they could only live in despair day by day, and in the end they couldn't even afford to pay for dental care.

The corpse bearer took it.

…… Even though it was the last filling he had ever had in his life, and even though he had been declared unemployed the day after the incident, he had a smile on his face when he told the story to Stink.

He said that this scarecrow was his most important thing, a testament to the fact that he had lived half his life as a human being.

I don't understand the stink, but it remembers.

So when the corpse carrier tossed and turned in the cold corpse, day by day he was depressed, day by day he was silent, and finally one day, while sorting things out, he threw the once cherished scarecrow doll into the trash.

The stinky and docile stinky suddenly yelled at him, rushed to the trash can, and picked up the doll.

The corpse bearer threw it again.

It picks up again.

In the end, Stink even lost her temper with him, crushing the scarecrow doll under her stomach and glaring at him aggrievedly, as if questioning him why he threw away the most important thing.

People's hearts change.

But dogs don't.

The corpse carrier was silent for a long, long time, and said to Stink, "Well, since you like it, then stay." ”

So the scarecrow doll became Stink's favorite toy, and it carried it everywhere he went.

It has always guarded the most important things of its owner, and even if the owner does not want it, it has always stubbornly guarded it.

But the stink is finally dead.

The corpse carrier has finally lost what is most important to him.

The corpse dog looked at the dried blood under the stone slabs, and at the scarecrow dolls that had been discarded in the bushes like garbage.

There are many images of the past flashing by like a glimpse.

It didn't remember anything, but it still wanted to cry in that moment.

Because at that moment it suddenly understood—

The people it wants to protect, the things it wants to protect......

…… It's all gone.

……

"White Deer."

"I'm here."

"Now, let's start the story all over again."

"Okay, I just broke the control system of the elevator in the dormitory building, so that it stopped between the 38th and 39th floors."

"Hmm." Yan Luge looked at the corpse dog crying silently on the screen.

In its properties panel, I don't know when there is an extra line of words.

He didn't add it, but he came out of nowhere.

This canine corpse, which is obviously not even a spirit and should only exist as a tool, is not only why did it give birth to a wisp of consciousness of its own.

[Behavioral goal: ...... with the owner]

……

It wants to ...... with its owner.

After being born from the corpse, the corpse dog had a purpose of its own for the first time.

Unlike the previous aimless wandering, it was the first time that I wanted to do something seriously.

The corpse dog raised its head and sniffed at the smell that diffused in the air.

The smell of earth, blood, corpses.

…… And what it's looking for, the taste of the owner.

It looks out onto the open rooftop, which juts out between the 38th and 39th floors.

The corpse dog smelled it, and there was a residual smell of the owner.

It was as if he had wandered around that place before jumping off.

The corpse dog maintained a posture with its head up, slightly pressing down on its forelimbs.

Although that rooftop is very high...... But it wants to go up.

When such a thought came to mind, its body leaped to its feet and flew up like a cannonball.

Halfway through, it seemed to have a tendency to fall, but it was only close to the wall, and with a kick of its four paws on the vertical wall, it flew up with ease.

After borrowing strength twice, the corpse dog stood on the rooftop.

This is the highest floor that can be reached by Class D personnel, and it is also the dividing line between Class D and Class C personnel. Further up, there is the single suite belonging to the C category personnel.

The corpse dog is close to the ground, searching for the smell of its owner with its fleshless nose.

It smelled on the railing at the edge of the rooftop, where the owner had spent his last stay.

(End of chapter)