Chapter 47

The exhibition hall was completely sealed off by the military.

Nominal reason was to prevent the object from escaping outside, but in reality, it wasn’t that at all.

Rather, it seemed like they were trying to prevent the inside from being seen from the outside.

“Why on earth are you stopping drone filming?”

A reporter was loudly protesting at the sealed-off checkpoint.

“For military operation security. Please step back.”

“But that’s ridiculous…”

The protesting reporter was ultimately dragged away forcefully by soldiers.

Some reporters who flew drones despite warnings had them shot down instantly.

Afterwards, drone jamming devices were installed, and extremely tight security began.

Some military-friendly reporters wrote articles claiming it was to prevent the object from being provoked and causing damage.

But to other reporters, it seemed like the military’s surveillance target was not the object inside the exhibition hall, but the outside gaze.

***

I gave up waking the man being chased by the giant Gray Reaper in the nightmare.

He passes out just looking at me, and no matter how long I keep him alive, the nightmare never ends.

I traveled through countless dreams after that.

Dreams of being chased by Hungry Ghosts, unknown Objects… Most were chase dreams.

The problem is those kinds of chase dreams never end no matter how long you run.

Waking humans from nightmares didn’t seem easy, but I didn’t expect it to be THIS difficult.

This time, I left a woman being chased by water deer and entered a new dream.

This new dream was incredibly detailed.

Most dreams are blurry in the corners, but this one was meticulously world-built.

As I wandered around in amazement, a familiar voice called out:

“Reaper! Wait up!”

This dream featured a familiar figure – Yerin Oh.

In the precisely depicted exhibition hall, Yerin was loudly calling for me.

Yerin was enthusiastically chasing after a dream version of me as a Gray Reaper.

And the dream Reaper was dodging her and running around.

“?”

Why is this a nightmare?

Isn’t this just having fun?

Yerin’s expression looks pretty happy too…

“Reaper! Come here and take a picture with me! I brought water deer pajamas!”

Yerin was holding a pair of children’s pajamas.

When did she prepare these?!

The only strange part in this very realistic dream was the Golden Tree, ten times larger than normal.

The increasingly brightening giant golden tree was rather ominous.

Whether it was Yerin’s vivid imagination or not, the exhibition hall was depicted without any ambiguity.

Except for the 10x enlarged tree.

And I quickly understood the meaning of this enormous golden tree.

It was the reason this dream was a nightmare.

When the golden tree reached the brightness level of sleep waves, it fired a beam aimed at Yerin.

It was an intensely violent beam attack that made me flinch.

Only it wasn’t actually targeting Yerin.

It was the water deer pajamas in her hand.

“No!!!!”

The slowly burning water deer pajamas engulfed in flames.

The fire burned extremely slowly – taking about 30 minutes just to burn one set of pajamas.

But this slow-burning fire was a curse.

A curse designed to make one despair and grieve endlessly.

No matter what methods Yerin used to extinguish the fire, it wouldn’t go out – like hellfire from novels.

Even submerging it in water couldn’t stop the burning.

“No!” “No!!” “No!!!”

Eventually, Yerin burst into tears in front of the charred remains of the pajamas.

Simultaneously, the world began fading away,

back to the moment when Yerin happily chased after the dream Reaper.

***

I was anxiously pacing inside the exhibition hall guard post.

The orders from higher-ups were clear.

Increase the scale of damage in this incident.

It doesn’t matter if everyone in the exhibition hall perishes.

To carry out this secret order, my chosen method was making all sorts of excuses to delay things.

Since delaying would naturally increase the damage, I was doing that when an unexpected change occurred.

The complete annihilation of objects capable of harming humans.

Higher-ups were hoping for even greater casualties and controversies, but now a major problem arose.

Everything was ruined by the sudden appearance of a golden Reaper.

Because of the golden Reaper, all plans went awry.

Just when I thought human casualties would finally occur as the golden Reaper moved somewhere, the result turned out completely opposite.

Now, simply stalling won’t be enough to fulfill the higher-ups’ directives.

“Well, can’t be helped.”

Yeah, it can’t be helped.

“Select a few soldiers with loose lips. We’re going into the exhibition hall directly. If we kill with swords, we can claim it was done by objects.”

There’s no other choice but to handle it directly now.

“Anyway, our targets are just sleeping people. It’ll be a simple mission. Finish it as quickly as possible and withdraw.”

In the dead of night, avoiding people’s eyes as much as possible, we headed toward the exhibition hall.

We infiltrated the exhibition hall surrounded by high walls with a small group of soldiers.

Using temporary ropes to descend, I explained the operation.

Kill as many people as possible, gather here in 30 minutes, then return – a simple mission.

“Now, gather here in exactly 30 minutes.”

As the soldiers scattered to carry out their missions, something blocked their way.

The Golden Reaper.

Of all the numerous Golden Reapers, only one remained.

Leaning on its waist and glaring, the Golden Reaper.

Perhaps because they recently witnessed it slaughtering objects, the soldiers’ bodies noticeably stiffened.

The only hope was that there were no recorded instances of it attacking humans.

Even if the Golden Reaper attacks humans, there’s no other option.

Not following the higher-ups’ orders means death anyway.

As the soldiers scattered, the Golden Reaper also disappeared from its spot.

And the soldiers fell dead where they stood before advancing far.

The cause of death was a hole pierced through their chests.

Blood rose to my mouth as I stared at the scene.

In front of me, falling while spitting endless blood, stood a Golden Reaper drenched in blood.

Its contemptuous downward gaze was the last thing I saw before dying.

***

Yerin’s nightmare.

Though I’m not sure if this should be called a nightmare, since she perceives it as such, we’ll call it that.

Yerin’s nightmare was related to me.

Since it involved me, I thought it might be relatively easy to resolve.

First, I walked right into Yerin’s view as she mindlessly followed the dream Reaper.

“Wow! Reaper!”

Upon spotting me up close, Yerin grinned widely and hugged me.

Beaming with happiness, Yerin proudly took something out.

“Ta-da! Water deer pajamas! Aren’t they cute?”

She held the pajamas against my body while continuing to talk.

“Let’s take a picture wearing this. Since we’re at the exhibition hall, we should leave at least one photo!”

From the moment I saw the pajamas, I kind of expected this.

Though the outfit is too uncomfortable to wear normally, I decided to make an exception this time to dispel the nightmare.

For some reason, the weather in the dream became beautifully sunny.

Suddenly, a ghost cat appeared out of nowhere and nestled into my arms.

Cloud fish and cloud whales flew across the sky.

Blue grass fields bloomed with flowers.

Against this dreamlike scenery, I stood wearing water deer pajamas, holding a cat.

Click.

“Look at this!”

Looking at the photo taken, Yerin squealed delightedly.

Getting increasingly excited and jumping around happily, Yerin gradually deflated and looked at me.

“Is this a dream?”

‘There’s no way such a happy thing could happen. The Reaper actually let me dress them…’ Yerin mumbled.

“The Reaper letting me dress them for no reason is absurd. This must be a dream!”

Shaking her head violently from side to side, Yerin screamed.

With Yerin’s scream, the world shattered spectacularly.

***

I opened my eyes next to the Golden Tree.

Once Yerin’s nightmare was resolved, I woke up.

The Golden Tree lost its power and its tree-like appearance.

Now it resembled more of a golden block shape.

When I tapped the tree, a heavy sound echoed and it crumbled.

Come to think of it, I don’t see any Golden Reapers.

Though Golden Reapers are supposed to last only a day, it’s still a few hours until they should disappear…

Not only the Reaper attached to me, but most of the Golden Reapers in the exhibition hall have vanished.

Where could they have gone?

Going to the only place where I could sense the presence of a Golden Reaper, I was greeted by a gruesome scene.

The Golden Reaper standing in the corner as if waiting for something noticed me, stood up, and waved.

Smiling brightly.

Waving goodbye as if saying “see you later.”

Thus, the last remaining Golden Reaper transformed into flames and disappeared.