Chapter 279

The ruler of the Free City Alliance, the Giant Worm, was despairing.

‘I need to run.’

The Gray Reaper descending underground looked like a god descending to deliver heavenly punishment.

It was truly despair and the end of all things.

Whenever the Gray Reaper’s gaze touched the children in the tank, they writhed in agony, vomiting bumpy stones from their mouths.

Those stones were crafted from the children’s flesh, life, and souls.

It was a truly brutal scene, but the Gray Reaper paid it no mind.

And the cozy veil of darkness that had concealed the underground began to tear apart.

From the holes ripped in space, light erupted, tearing apart the darkness below.

On the other side of those tears in reality lay countless greedy demons.

Their small hands burst through the gaps in space, greedily clutching the soulstones made from the children.

As if not a single one could be allowed to escape.

It seemed these stones were precious treasures to the demons.

Meanwhile, the red tanks prepared for raising the children filled with an unknown liquid.

The black liquid, tinged brown, was thicker than any poison and stickier than mud.

Unfortunately, the children who came into contact with the liquid saw their insides dissolve, endlessly vomiting the black liquid from their mouths.

The sight of the suffering children was too terrible to behold.

With every step the Gray Reaper took underground, the core foundation of the facility crumbled.

The steel reinforcements and concrete that once sturdily supported the city-sized underground complex had turned white and looked ready to collapse at any moment.

The effort to reach the moon was turning to nothing.

“Ah, my dignity is being stripped away.”

Under the Gray Reaper’s gaze, dignity was fading.

Even the Giant Worm, which was dying while vomiting stones like the children, caught the Gray Reaper’s eye.

The Gray Reaper slowly extended its hand toward the Giant Worm…

Then clenched it tightly.

That was the end for the three worms ruling the Free City Alliance.

Regretfully realizing that reaching for such monstrosities had been a mistake, the worms perished.

***

Deep beneath the Underground City Alliance.

“Huh.”

After destroying the Object governing the “Free City Alliance,” the rage dissipated instantly.

The halo floating above my head that could ‘see death’ returned to my heart.

Thump thump.

I knocked on the log-like area of my heart with regret, but the halo didn’t respond.

That halo could destroy objects of lower rank with just a glance.

It was a magnificent halo that could weaken even incredibly strong objects, making them easy to destroy—just like how the Black Corpse used to devour things.

And what’s more, it didn’t split my body or cause pain—a perfect halo!

I stared intently at the area around my heart and tried to recall the sensation I had when pulling out the halo earlier, attempting to summon it again.

While the inside of the log felt slightly ticklish, giving me hope that I might succeed soon, alas, I still couldn’t pull it out.

Such a shame.

With a sigh of disappointment, I glanced around.

The underground realm of the Free City Alliance, previously infested with disgusting worms, was now completely trashed.

Star candies scattered everywhere.

And the Golden Reapers were greedily gathering them, carrying them off to the Mini Reaper Garden.

The liquid in the tanks had all turned into hot chocolate, and the concrete making up the underground area had transformed entirely into marshmallows.

In essence, it had become a “Mini Reaper Garden.”

Well, this whimsical and cute garden is better than the grotesque and gloomy underground from before.

“I should probably head back soon.”

At that thought, a Golden Reaper entered my view.

Carrying a star candy as large as its torso, the Golden Reaper waddled off happily toward the Mini Reaper Garden.

I stealthily snatched the star candy from its grasp and ate it, then teleported to where the Orange Reaper was pretending to be dead.

Hehe.

***

Upon arriving where the Orange Reaper was, I was greeted by an expansive view.

Inside the room, various Mini Reapers were scurrying about, and a refreshing breeze blew in through the hole we’d made to find the T-Rex.

Through that hole, the entire cityscape was visible.

The once grimy and dark city had transformed into something straight out of a fairy tale.

The dirty buildings had turned into soft, snowy-white marshmallows, and neon signs had become colorful lollipop sticks.

In the square visible from the building, fragments of the Mecha Tyrannosaurus were gathering.

The Mini Reapers were diligently carrying each piece, waddling along.

The smaller and lighter pieces were carried by the Golden Reapers, while the larger, heavier ones were handled by the Black Reaper.

The surviving residents watched this spectacle with curious gazes.

After placing the pieces on the pile of debris, the Mini Reaper closed its eyes tightly, seemingly offering a prayer for the deceased.

“May you be reborn as a sturdy snack in your next life.”

It then placed the star candy it had been holding reverently atop the pile of debris.

But alas, T-Rex would never be reborn as a snack in the Mini Reaper Garden.

Without glow-in-the-dark snacks.

Even though the Glow-in-the-Dark Dinosaur was weak and lacked regenerative abilities, it would forever remain a glowing dinosaur!

Turning my gaze inward toward the building, I spotted the Attached Human who appeared to have been treated by the Blue Reaper.

The human, looking extremely relieved, had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

Judging by their expression, they must have realized that the Orange Reaper was still alive.

Cuddled tightly in the human’s arms was the Orange Reaper, though it looked slightly different.

Thinking it had lost rank during the process of creating the moon, I noticed its size had shrunk…

Or was it because of summoning the moon?

Though its size remained reduced, its rank had actually increased.

The Golden Reapers, sensing this increase in rank, gathered around and began showering praise.

“Amazing!”

Encouraged by the Golden Reapers’ compliments, the Orange Reaper started to wiggle free from the human’s embrace.

Careful not to wake the sleeping human, it moved quietly.

Then, climbing onto a tall rock, it crossed its arms smugly and looked down proudly.

This prompted the Golden Reapers to cheer and jump around joyfully, showering even more praise.

“Amazing!”

“Little brother is amazing!”

The little guy, now slightly smaller than the Golden Reapers and resembling a Red Reaper, was crowned like a king, which made him look somewhat amusing.

Approaching the Orange Reaper, I reached out to lift its crown.

“!”

But the crown wouldn’t come off.

I thought it was something randomly found and worn, but turns out it had grown like horns from its head.

Perhaps some kind of unique horn?

Seeming uncomfortable with me holding onto the crown, the Orange Reaper flailed around, flew into the air, and fled back into the attached human’s embrace.

The Golden Reapers watched this with wistful expressions.

“Wistful?”

Indeed, the Golden Reapers were strange.

They genuinely seemed disappointed when unable to offer praise whenever there was a reason to do so.

I can’t quite understand them.

While pondering the mystery of the Golden Reapers, a strong wind blew.

Whoosh.

Given the height of the tower, the wind was quite strong.

Each gust caused the marshmallow-made tower to wobble and sway, feeling like a ride on a safety-less amusement park attraction.

Oddly enough, the Golden Reapers found this hilarious and laughed joyfully.

Still standing despite being made of marshmallows? Impressive.

Truly worthy of being called Mini Reaper Garden-grade marshmallow objects.

Knock knock.

Lost in random thoughts, a Golden Reaper approached and poked my cheek.

“Mom! Windmill!”

At the Golden Reaper’s request, I transformed the marshmallow tower into a giant “Golden Reaper Windmill,” visible from afar.

A new meeting place connected to the Mini Reaper Garden.

The Golden Reapers without attached humans celebrated the creation of this new meeting spot by giggling and hopping around.

***

Songpa District of Seoul, James Tower construction site.

James was watching a video on his monitor.

It was a meticulously stitched-together compilation of footage from various CCTV cameras spread across the area.

“This is truly unexpected.”

Every time the crimson-hued Gray Reaper turned its gaze, the world twisted and changed colors.

Wherever the eye-shaped halo hovering above the Gray Reaper’s head looked, the world transformed into confectionery.

Concrete became marshmallows, rivers turned into hot chocolate.

Objects transformed into star candies and scattered everywhere.

Especially eerie were the Objects from the “Free City Alliance,” which resembled humans.

This was undoubtedly the true nature of the Gray Reaper—an object classified as extraordinarily dangerous, surpassing even nuclear bombs.

Fortunately, Mini Reapers and humans remained unaffected.

“Still, it’s fortunate. The operation was a success.”

Just a few days ago, James had been somewhat anxious.

[If Korean news reports about dangerous Object zones, there’s a high probability the Gray Reaper will head there.]

Based on this hypothesis, he’d pushed hard to get “Free City Alliance” featured on the news.

The Korean Object Association was pathologically reluctant to broadcast overseas Object incidents, making obtaining approval rather difficult.

In fact, the recent confirmation of the Gray Reaper’s tendencies was also due to the Korean Association’s secretive nature.

Obsessed with hiding and covering up Object incidents… ugh.

Still,

It feels like we’ve taken another step toward humanity’s salvation.

With a weary expression, James closed his eyes and placed the report in his hand on his desk.

The cover of the report read:

[Human Salvation Scenario ③]

[Earth-wide Mini Reaper Garden Conversion Scenario and Predicted Side Effects]

And underneath, a hastily scribbled note in marker pen:

[Under no circumstances disturb the Tyrannosaurus.]