Chapter 373

It seemed as though despair had taken form and surrounded the man.

No matter where he turned his gaze, blue spider web-like objects were spreading across the space.

The sight was unreal yet terrifyingly vivid, much like a scene from a nightmare.

The powerful mental pollution emanating from the blue spider web objects relentlessly threatened the man’s consciousness.

Clutching his teeth, the man struggled to maintain his focus.

Even for a moment, if he let his concentration slip, it felt like he would be sucked back into that illusion.

His younger sister and Cheong still lay unconscious on the floor, completely unresponsive even as the spider webs continued to gnaw at their flesh.

If not for their faint breathing and warmth, they could have been mistaken for corpses.

Even the usually composed Purple Reaper and Orange Crowned Reaper showed clear signs of exhaustion.

The smirk that once adorned the Purple Reaper’s lips had now hardened into a grim line.

The ever-calm expression of the Orange Crowned Reaper was now replaced with a furrowed brow.

The unfamiliar appearances of the Mini Reapers only emphasized the gravity of the situation.

The man’s own condition was no better.

His hands, heavily consumed by the spider webs, were in tatters.

The superhuman shooting skills he once prided himself on had become useless.

He struggled just to grip his pistol, and his trembling hands wouldn’t stop.

He let out a bitter smile.

In this state, aiming properly or even pulling the trigger would be a challenge.

Despite the desperate situation, the man’s resolve remained unbroken.

The Purple Reaper and the Orange Crowned Reaper also summoned their last reserves of strength.

The Shadow Strikes of the Purple Reaper flew in all directions.

Like black flames, these strikes cut through the spider webs, creating a brief pocket of breathable space.

Taking advantage of this opening, the man swiftly ran towards his unconscious younger sister and Cheong.

Though his hands were already shredded, he didn’t give up.

Quickly shedding his long coat, he used it like a rope to awkwardly tie the two onto his back.

Blood seeped out, but the man gritted his teeth.

At that moment, the Purple Reaper and the Orange Crowned Reaper flew above his head and took position.

Simultaneously, a subtle light flickered in the prosthetic eye embedded in one of the man’s sockets.

Familiar sights began to appear before him.

The energy flow used by the objects became visible to him.

It was akin to a torrential current.

Within the thick and seemingly impenetrable flow of power, the man spotted fleeting gaps.

“Over there!”

The man shouted.

In perfect sync with his cry, the Purple Reaper’s strike soared.

Like they were one entity, the strike pierced through the weak points in the flow of power.

In an instant, the wall made of spider webs split apart as easily as paper.

The man’s prosthetic eye read the flow, while the Purple Reaper’s powerful strike cut through it.

Meanwhile, the invisible force of the Orange Crowned Reaper manipulated the probabilities of the spider webs.

This perfect harmony ensured that the spider webs couldn’t even approach the man.

They continued to advance, finding weaknesses in the spider webs and cutting them down as they went.

‘This way!’

The man felt a glimmer of hope.

Just as they reached a bright light shining through the severed spider webs, the Purple Reaper and the Orange Reaper suddenly leapt forward in shock.

Before them stretched a vast open lot, but it wasn’t an escape route.

The floor was covered with rolling eyeballs of various sizes.

And the space was filled with spider webs so dense that there wasn’t even a gap to cut through.

The color drained from their faces.

“Was this a trap…?”

A deflated mutter escaped the man’s lips.

At that moment, the body of the Purple Reaper wavered.

Unable to hold on any longer, she collapsed onto the ground.

From her mouth flowed splinters of firewood mixed with blood.

Despair seemed to have completely enveloped them.

As the man cradled the fallen Purple Reaper in his arms, he was overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness.

Then, the movement of the Orange Crowned Reaper caught his attention.

Slowly raising his head, the Orange Crowned Reaper gazed upward.

On his face was an expression never seen before.

“Mom…”

It was like the pure anticipation and relief of a child who had finally found someone they had waited for so long.

“Really… it’s Mom…”

With an expression that seemed to say everything was going to be alright, he used his hair as a makeshift bed and promptly fell asleep.

The Orange Reaper’s face was now devoid of pain or anxiety, filled only with tranquility.

At that moment, the world began to change.

Suddenly, the ceiling made of spider webs started tearing apart.

Through the cracks, a cloudy sky appeared.

The man stared wide-eyed at the incredible sight.

What had moments ago been a formidable threat was now transforming.

The spider webs were no longer menacing.

Instead, they were turning into something sweet and soft.

Should they be called cotton candy, or perhaps honey threads?

The transformed spider web fragments danced around in all directions.

A relieved smile spread across the man’s face.

The threat of death had vanished in an instant.

He took a deep breath and looked around.

His younger sister, Cheong, and the Purple Reaper all seemed unharmed.

***

Placing a golden halo on my head that converted remnants of the external beings into snacks, the blue spider webs began transforming even faster.

In rhythm with the pulsating halo, the spider webs swayed like dancers.

The transformation began beneath my feet.

The blue spider webs melted away, releasing a sweet fragrance before disappearing.

On the floor remained soft jelly-shaped spider webs.

Lifting my gaze, I saw endless waves crashing over the sea of blue spider webs.

Above this sea of spider webs, white sugar threads erupted into the sky like steam.

Wherever my gaze touched, the spider webs exploded into snacks.

Starting from beneath my feet and stretching to the horizon where my gaze could reach.

Like landmines buried underground detonating in sequence, the spider webs were vanishing.

Hmm.

I caught a floating sugar thread with my finger and popped it into my mouth.

“Sugar.”

Though it reminded me of cotton candy from the start, I didn’t expect it to actually be sugar.

All the spider webs dispersing into the sky were sugar threads.

The spider webs maintaining their shape had turned into sturdy jelly.

The external being’s spider webs were sequentially transforming into snacks.

Tub-tub.

Walking atop the spider webs now turned into jelly, I began removing the remaining webs.

<■ ■ ■ ■ ■>

Although the conditions for destroying the external being weren’t fully visible yet, continuing to turn the spider webs into snacks would eventually reveal them.

As I kept erasing the spider webs, they began attacking me in various forms.

Sometimes the spider webs gathered into massive tidal waves, and other times they summoned blue mist causing mental pollution.

But none of it affected me with the golden halo.

The tidal wave of spider webs disappeared swept away by the halo’s pulse, and the blue mist effortlessly turned into snacks.

After erasing how many spider webs, I don’t know.

Perhaps realizing they couldn’t defeat me, the vast spider webs covering the Pacific Ocean slowly began moving.

At first, it was just a slight tremor, but gradually the vibrations grew stronger.

The glowing blue threads intertwined and writhed like a dance, becoming more intense.

Then a massive whirlpool began forming at the center.

It was a giant spiral-shaped hole swirling like water.

All the spider webs started being sucked toward the center of this spiral.

The whirlpool grew larger and faster.

That spiraling vortex was growing into a colossal whirlpool spanning the size of the Pacific Ocean.

And at that moment, traces of the Mini Reapers and humans scattered across the Pacific began to be felt.

To prevent being swept away by the spider webs escaping into the ocean depths, I gathered all the Mini Reapers and humans to myself.

Thus, countless people sprawled atop the jelly spider webs.

The states of the fallen humans resembled those from the Free City Alliance incident.

From people with parts of their bodies turned into sugar threads to those almost entirely transformed.

Only differing in having sugar threads instead of cake rolls.

Looking around, I spotted the fallen Purple Blindfolded Reaper and the peacefully sleeping Orange Crowned Reaper.

“Those kids were also swept up by this external being.”

I gently patted the fallen Mini Reapers and pinched the cheek of the annoying Orange Crowned Reaper once.

Then I sent all the humans and Mini Reapers to the Mini Reaper Garden.

With all the spider webs having fled, the seawater reappeared in the Pacific Ocean.

Diving into the ocean in pursuit of the fleeing external being,

“…”

The underwater world was filled with unpleasant magical energies.

[We understand.]

[We can work together.]

[Let’s become one.]

And at the bottomless depths of that ominous ocean, I saw a massive underwater city and a twisted giant.

The countless eyes of the giant blinked incessantly, searching the surroundings, and countless tentacles flailed about in the air.

Much like the ‘Red External Being,’ its form continuously changed and remained unclear.

Trying to perceive it clearly was futile.

It was like living paint.

Sometimes it looked like multiple layers of space overlapping, then instantly dispersing.

Grasping its silhouette was impossible.

It was like trying to identify a figure within a fog, only vaguely perceptible.

Moreover, this external being wasn’t merely ambiguous in form.

It was distorting the surrounding reality as well.

The seawater suddenly felt like a void or the sky, endlessly expanding the ocean’s breadth beyond measure.

This external being was warping reality much like the Red External Being.

The only certain things were its colossal size and countless eyes and tentacles.

Those eyes and tentacles were filled with a horrifying degree of mental pollution.

Any human would likely embrace madness just by looking at them, questioning everything they knew.

I slowly swam toward the external being.

[!– Slider main container –]