Chapter 311

Late afternoon at the Yellow Reaper’s hideout.

The Ashen Girl opened her mouth with an uneasy expression.

“Hey, something really strange keeps happening to me lately.”

From a corner of the hideout where he was making dolls, the Yellow Reaper turned his head toward the Ashen Girl.

“Yesterday, I ate the candy my older brother gave me. It was so sour that I spat it out, and it turned into a wriggling cockroach lump. It was so creepy! But after a while, when I looked again, it was just a normal piece of candy.”

“And this morning when I went to school, the building looked like ruins. I rubbed my eyes and looked again, and it was back to its usual self.”

The girl continued recounting several other strange occurrences.

It was as if something was overlaid on her vision—short hallucinations lasting less than a second.

“Am I going crazy? Or is it mental pollution from the Object?”

Hearing this, the Yellow Reaper vigorously shook his head in denial while closing his eyes tightly and muttering “doridori.”

It was almost like saying, “You’re not going crazy!”

“Thank you. For some reason, I couldn’t talk about this to anyone else. It feels like everything would collapse if I did.”

The Ashen Girl knew the rumor that Mini Reapers didn’t fully understand human speech, but somehow the Yellow Reaper seemed to get what she was saying.

“But I’m still scared. The hallucinations are happening more frequently.”

Pale-faced, the Ashen Girl hugged her knees tightly and bowed her head.

Seeing her distress, the Yellow Reaper was at a loss for what to do.

As if unsure how to console her or approach her.

Then, spotting a doll outfit in the corner, the Yellow Reaper put it on.

Dressed in the Golden Reaper Doll Outfit, the Yellow Reaper flashed a cheerful smile reminiscent of the Golden Reaper and charged straight at the Ashen Girl.

Bang!

Too energetic, the Yellow Reaper failed to stop in time and ended up rolling around after bumping into the Ashen Girl’s feet.

At the sight, the Ashen Girl let out a small laugh.

The bizarre doll outfit with button eyes was amusing.

And the usually so passive Yellow Reaper trying so desperately to cheer her up by wearing such a ridiculous costume was oddly touching.

Picking up the Yellow Reaper dressed as a doll, the girl poked him with her fingers and teased,

“Can you even see through this thing? You’ve got button eyes!”

With that, the Ashen Girl chuckled softly, letting out a breathy laugh.

But upon hearing this, the Yellow Reaper was shocked, his mouth wide open.

“The doll outfit doesn’t work!”

Switching through various doll outfits, the Yellow Reaper played with the now calmer Ashen Girl.

A blue reaper wielding magic.

A red reaper spewing fire.

A purple reaper manipulating shadows.

One after another, the Yellow Reaper showcased different Reaper-themed doll costumes.

As the sun dipped closer to the horizon,

“I’ll go now. See you tomorrow.”

The Ashen Girl turned her back to the setting sun and waved goodbye to the Yellow Reaper.

At that moment, the Yellow Reaper extended a doll he had been working on toward the Ashen Girl.

Button eyes, ash-gray hair, and a tattered school uniform.

It was a palm-sized Ashen Girl doll crafted in her likeness.

“Wow, you made me a doll? Thank you!”

The Ashen Girl beamed brightly as she accepted the gift.

“You really nailed it. Our school uniforms may be fancy and complicated, but it looks exactly like mine!”

Saying this, the Ashen Girl cradled the doll lovingly and began walking away, while the Yellow Reaper watched her retreating figure silently.

***

An overgrown courtyard filled with tiny animals at Sehee Research Institute.

In the midst of this lush grassland, a miniature Jurassic Period had descended.

Enclosed by marshmallow fences, tiny tyrannosaurs gathered en masse.

Chubby T-Rexes.

Feathered T-Rexes.

Quadrupedal T-Rexes.

Lip-adorned T-Rexes.

Fiery-red T-Rexes glowing with heat.

Every imaginable kind of T-Rex thrived in this mini T-rex zoo created by the Green Reaper to manifest their ideal true Tyrannosaurus.

If none of these thirty-plus T-Rex variations were the real deal, perhaps the Yellow Reaper could craft a proper T-Rex doll outfit.

After all, the Yellow Reaper’s doll outfits were powerful enough to fool even me.

Still, among these many creations, luckily, the one I sought stood out as the genuine article.

But the Green Reaper didn’t seem particularly pleased with the “real” T-Rex.

“Ming ming…”

“Not special enough…”

I yanked on the babbling Green Reaper’s leaf-like appendages.

“Mi-ing!”

Turning my gaze from the distracted Green Reaper, I noticed the Mini Reapers gathered around.

Centered around a single red candy, they buzzed excitedly.

Suddenly, a confident Golden Reaper leapt off the Attached Human’s palm.

“Challenge!”

“Brave!”

As the surrounding Mini Reapers cheered, the Golden Reaper lunged toward the candy.

But the valiant attempt ended anticlimactically.

“Kwaang!”

Tasting just the tip of the candy, the Golden Reaper winced and scurried back onto the Attached Human’s palm.

There, sprawled out like a grievously injured warrior, the Golden Reaper stuck out its tongue dramatically.

Adorable though it was, the Attached Human couldn’t resist poking the soft, protruding tongue with a finger.

That candy was way too sour, no doubt about it.

Highly likely it’d get pulled from shelves soon.

Maybe I should stockpile it for future pranks?

While contemplating this constructive plan for the future, I spotted the culprits behind the latest challenge.

The White Hungry Ghost and the Black Reaper.

A rare sight together, they clutched the red candy and kept licking it repeatedly.

Almost instantly, their faces contorted.

Their expressions normalized quickly before they licked again.

Despite the apparent discomfort, they persisted in sitting there, munching away.

If it were me, I wouldn’t dare eat that.

***

The Ashen Girl was plagued by endless dissonance.

“Something’s wrong.”

Whether walking through school, strolling down streets, or lying in bed, the strange feeling wouldn’t subside.

Clearly something was off, yet she couldn’t pinpoint what.

Even the doll gifted by the Yellow Reaper felt odd.

The only thing that felt normal was the Yellow Reaper himself.

*

At the school dining area, the rice grains seemed to squirm like bugs.

As always, blinking hard and reopening her eyes revealed ordinary rice.

But her appetite vanished entirely, so she threw it all away.

*

Walking down the corridor, the floor tiles beneath her feet appeared to be missing teeth, disappearing one by one.

Rushing into the classroom, the corridor returned to normal.

Though seemingly unchanged, the locations of the missing tiles remained vividly imprinted in her mind.

Clutching the pocket containing the doll gifted by the Yellow Reaper, she repeated to herself:

“I’m okay.”

“I’ll be fine.”

*

On a school holiday, stepping outside, everyone wore bizarrely worn-out clothes.

Clothes so tattered they’d make rags blush.

The Ashen Girl gripped the doll given by the Yellow Reaper tightly and squeezed her eyes shut.

When she reopened them, the doll itself was dressed in tattered clothes.

Startled, she tossed the doll aside.

But as soon as it flew, everything reverted to normal.

Apologizing to the doll as she picked it up:

“Sorry.”

*

During dinner, opening the door to call her Older Brother, she saw him lying motionless inside, like a corpse.

He seemed not to breathe.

Blinking again, her Older Brother lay peacefully in bed as usual.

“Am I losing my mind?”

The Ashen Girl longed to see the Yellow Reaper.

*

With a pale face, the Ashen Girl walked toward school.

“I’m okay. I’m okay.”

She clutched the small doll in her pocket and muttered like a mantra.

Someone called her name, and she forced a smile as she turned around.

But instead of a friend, it was the Object.

“Keeek.”

A monster stitched together with tangled wires, covered in white clay to resemble a human.

“Why does this happen only to me?”

Tears brimming, she squeezed her eyes shut.

But opening them revealed nothing had changed.

Objects everywhere.

Here. There.

Surrounded by Objects.

As the Objects emitted mechanical screeches resembling speech, the girl couldn’t comprehend their words.

Growing paler, she dropped her school bag and started running.

Breathless from sprinting so frantically, yet suddenly she wasn’t out of breath anymore.

Looking at her hands, they resembled stone.

Her previously functional leg refused to move properly, dragging along uselessly.

Stopping in her tracks, the Ashen Girl stared blankly at her own body.

Her once beloved, pristine school uniform was now tattered and worn.

Moving her fingers caused white dust to flake off.

Opening her mouth produced no sound.

“Haha… Hahahaha…”

Thinking everything else was strange…

But now, only one worry lingered in her heart:

“I was an Object.”

“Will the Yellow Reaper hate me?”