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Light burst forth from the antennae.

My hair, sticking up chaotically above my head, was shining fiercely.

Even covering the antennae with my hands, the intensity of the light was such that it broke through!

Once again, this spiky hair gets special treatment.

I shook the antennae gently from side to side, and the bright light cast a moving shadow down the alley.

As the shimmering antennae danced, the Golden Horn Reaper, who had been clinging to Junior No. 2, jumped onto my head.

Honestly, I thought the ability I gained from dealing with the hungry ghost was something like ‘a lure for Golden Reapers.’

The Golden Horn Reaper leapt around on my head, arms wide open, trying to catch the swaying antennae.

As I teased the antennae, making them sway just out of reach, the Golden Horn Reaper became even more enthusiastic about grabbing my hair.

I had thought it was just a cute ability, like the little lamp of the lantern ghost that let me freely shake my antennae, but now I realized there was a hidden talent.

A hunter’s useful ability.

And it was the ability I had immensely desired since the ‘Black Butterfly’ incident.

The ability to track the main body of an object was now mine!

It seemed that, due to my diluted connection, I could only tell the general direction, but isn’t that still a pretty helpful skill?

Pointing the lantern at the boy’s corpse, I sensed the direction of the object that caused this chaos.

It was about a 120-degree radius in the direction of the alley’s exit.

Once I directed the light toward the boy, the brightness emanating from my hair gradually diminished until it returned to normal.

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to track it multiple times since I had already burned through the light a few times.

Trying to track the main body with just the ‘120 degrees’ clue amidst a city swarmed with people and objects seemed unrealistic…

Hmm, what to do?

As I pondered, the Golden Horn Reaper seized my antenna with its mouth while I was distracted and struggling to control them.

Yerin kept putting her antenna in her mouth too, but whether it was because it was a ghost bait or not, once the Golden Reapers managed to grab onto the antennae, they bit down on them.

As I shook the antennae playfully, the Golden Horn Reaper also floated gracefully in the air alongside them.

The Golden Horn Reaper, swirling with the antennae, looked immensely joyful.

It seemed fun; should I try asking the ghost for something like that later?

In the meantime, a thought struck me about the hungry ghost.

If it was a power gained from catching the ghost, wouldn’t the ghost have something similar?

I killed the tentacle ghost, and although I only had the Marshmallow ghost, they were both ghosts, so they probably had similar capabilities.

Clapping my hands together and stretching my arms to the sides, I summoned a ghost from the Mini Reaper Garden, and an enormous ghost appeared.

However, due to the alley being too narrow, it wasn’t a round ghost but a Marshmallow ghost squeezed to fit the alley’s shape.

Kyuurr…

The unfortunate white ghost made a whimpering noise that sounded sorrowful.

Then, the body of the flattened ghost began to split into numerous round spheres.

The rolling spheres sprouted arms, legs, and tails, transforming into mini ghosts.

It became a white ghost that was twice as cute after shrinking down!

Kyyng!

The mini white ghost cried out adorably.

*

A man was dreaming an old dream.

A dream from the time when his life completely turned upside down.

[How about we make a contract?]

It was a memory of the moment he made a contract with a suspicious object that introduced itself as ‘the Devil of Contracts.’

However, he couldn’t recall the details of the contract, as if they had been erased.

One of the terms was probably forgetting the specifics of the contract.

Yet from the point of signing, the man became entirely different.

The madness that had once plagued his mind vanished, and everything he undertook began to flourish.

Everything he did was always successful, and those who interfered simply disappeared.

As he developed the city, the betrayers who had sought to oust him descended into madness.

The officials who dared to deploy police within the man’s city went missing.

And in the city, lunatics began to appear, tracing red circles made of blood.

At that moment, the man realized.

His madness had not disappeared; it had merely passed to others, and his success was the fruit of someone else’s labor.

With that thought, he twisted his lips into a broad smile.

‘Yes, this is the kind of contract I wanted.’

The collective suicides and large gas explosions in the city.

And the incident where his wife, son, and daughter all committed suicide.

In the end, they were all things done for his own benefit.

He didn’t know the details of the contracts he had entered, but he was certain it was an incredibly favorable contract for him.

How could it be so easy and comfortable, yet have no cost whatsoever!

“Mayor! Please wake up!”

The man awakened from his long-held dream at the urgent call of his name.

In the tallest building at the center of the city, the mayor’s office atop the skyscraper.

The man in a red suit, reclining on a plush sofa in that office, lifted his heavy eyelids.

Still half-asleep in his dream, he saw the frantic face of his secretary framed by sleek furnishings and decorated pictures.

“What’s going on?”

“The city has completely descended into chaos! We need to escape quickly, Mayor!”

The secretary’s eyes were wide with fear as she frantically insisted they needed to evacuate, shaking her hands.

However, the man remained calm, unlike the flustered secretary, rising slowly from the sofa to stand before the window that offered a panoramic view of the city.

What he witnessed was a scene of utter destruction and chaos.

It was a situation that would leave even a man who believed the world revolved around him feeling bewildered.

“How could such… such a thing happen in my city?”

Distorted objects appeared throughout the city, slaughtering people and causing buildings to collapse in explosions.

The man, who had seemed startled, dramatically shifted expressions.

The face filled with shock and disbelief morphed into one of intense rage, and finally settled into a serene smile.

Thinking that this event was also part of the arrangement for him, he felt his mind clearing.

He adjusted his red suit and called his secretary.

“I believe we need to escape quickly. Is the vehicle ready?”

“Yes, Mayor! Hurry this way!”

Beyond the window he left, a massive white mass was wailing.

Kyuwwung!

*

Having commanded the ghost to find the main body of the object, it confidently chirped ‘kyu.’

Then, it began to move slowly, carrying us along.

The soft, fluffy white ghost.

The best mode of transport that tastes great when you nibble on its back when hungry!

The mini white ghosts wobbled their little limbs as they traced the main body of the malevolent object.

Wobble wobble.

However, as soon as we exited the alley riding the mini white ghost, we were welcomed by an ominous explosion and the falling debris of collapsing buildings.

“Aaaah!”

The scream of Junior No. 2, and the tense expression of the Golden Horn Reaper.

But the falling debris was an ‘overwhelming assault’ that the petite Golden Reaper could hardly fend off.

Asking the Blue Reaper to defend against it wasn’t reassuring, as I was unsure if the fragile youngest’s magic could hold up a building.

The moment I spread my hands to consume firewood and widen my magic space, the remaining unoccupied ghosts gathered together, transforming into a giant white ghost that leaped!

The building, colliding with the soft marshmallow ghost, changed its course and fell away from us.

The white ghost that effectively blocked the building opened its mouth wide and howled.

Kyu!

*

In the vicinity of Seoul Forest, a tattooed woman and her younger sister were walking down the street.

“Unnie, this is super heavy!”

They had planned to pretend the colorful guardian was just a doll and carry it around, but the massive guardian was more like a giant rock, too much for her petite younger sister to handle.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Letting out a small sigh, the woman cradled the guardian and led the way.

“Wow, how can you lift that with one hand?”

Her younger sister admired the sight of her unnie effortlessly carrying the massive rock that hardly fit under her arm, making it look almost doll-like.

While out shopping for necessities like food, the woman and her sister stumbled upon a TV screen that displayed an unmissable scene.

The moment where the giant white ghost was wailing.

The quality was subpar, probably due to being filmed on a cellphone, but for them, it was an unmissable sight.

“Unnie, that looks just like the one you made!”

“White Guardian? Was there another alchemist besides me?”

To the woman, the ghost on the screen appeared strangely light for a guardian, but since it was a level she hadn’t reached yet, she brushed it aside.

Then, atop that scene, she spotted a Gray Reaper looking down impassively while gripping the antenna of the ghost.

A Gray Reaper… doesn’t that mean there’s an alchemist at the Sehee Research Institute? I should visit.

As the woman left the TV screen behind, she began to plan a visit to the Sehee Research Institute.

*

A vehicle sped swiftly through the outskirts of the crumbling city.

It was the vehicle of the man who owned the city.

In his hand was a lamp that emanated a sinister smell and burned fiercely.

‘What on earth is going on?’

Every time his enemies appeared, the lamp would ignite, but now it was blazing more intensely than ever.

The scale of the event was unprecedented.

Objects rampaging and the city’s collapse made collective suicides and building collapses seem mundane!

Whack!

However, a vehicle that had been cruising smoothly suddenly had no choice but to come to a halt.

Because it was buried under a gigantic marshmallow.

Looking around, the man in the red suit understood what kind of threat was approaching him.

An object with yellow, burning eyes and a gray body.

Why is the Gray Reaper targeting me?

But it’s fine.

My lamp is invulnerable.

He stepped out of the vehicle, holding the lamp confidently, ready to face his enemy.

*

Junior No. 2 was bewildered.

What on earth was happening right now?

What was supposed to be a simple commission turned chaotic when the client died.

Moreover, now they were racing through a city gone mad, riding on a white marshmallow with the Reapers.

And they arrived right in front of the man who owned the city.

The man in the red suit lifted an old-fashioned lamp.

It resembled the design of ‘Watson’ that Detective Sunbae possessed.

The instant red light burst from the lamp, Junior No. 2’s vision was engulfed in crimson.

The white ghost, Gray Reaper, and the Reaper vanished, replaced only by the eerie air tinted with red.

He couldn’t see anything.

He felt anxious.

I need to draw a red circle.

They’ll come.

I need to hurry and draw a red circle.

The paint was in my belly.

As he trembled, the moment he pulled out a utility knife to stab his stomach.

An indescribable yearning emotion flooded in.

Sad and tender, a feeling that earnestly wished for his well-being.

That feeling seemed to scream ‘Please don’t do it!’

Startled, his eyes caught the faint silhouette of the Reaper.

A struggling Reaper, shimmering with light from its horns.

A Reaper that had stuck to my belly, clutching the blade.

Huh? Why am I feeling this way all of a sudden?

Just as she dropped the knife in surprise, the Reaper also lost consciousness and fell away.

The Reaper she caught in her palm hung limp, eyes shut.