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In the director’s office of the Sehee Research Institute, Seoah and I were staring at the security CCTV footage playing on the wall monitor.

Silence filled the director’s office, with only the occasional sound of paper rustling filled with charts and graphs breaking the tranquility.

But no matter how much we watched, we couldn’t figure out the cause.

Why on earth did the once docile Glass Flamingo escape?

I turned to Seoah and asked.

“What could have suddenly caused the escape? I examined the footage closely, but there were no provocations or attacks from anyone.”

Seoah calmly responded with a pensive expression.

“That’s why we thoroughly analyzed the facilities we isolated before the Sehee Research Institute took over. I found a few suspicious elements.”

“Oh? What were those suspicious elements?”

I tilted my head slightly, showing deep interest in Seoah’s words.

She displayed a series of intimidating-looking photos, reminiscent of a military facility.

In the photos were impressive structures surrounded by thick reinforced walls and explosive devices ready to bury the isolation room underground at any moment.

My impression upon seeing the pictures was simply, “Wow, they really spent a lot of money.”

“It seems the lack of high-security isolation facilities at our research institute was the cause. Perhaps it felt an opportunity to escape and displayed aggression before fleeing. Just looking at its post-escape behavior, it seemed more inclined to run away using the stairs rather than attacking people.”

“So when escape seemed difficult, it pretended to be harmless and took off when it saw an opportunity?”

It somehow felt like the Object looked down on our research institute and escaped, which left a sour mood.

“At least it’s a relief. Such escape acts shouldn’t happen anymore.”

As I turned my gaze towards the corner of the table, a sturdy and cute soldier was standing proudly.

It was a Golden Reaper wearing a helmet made of water and wielding a spear also crafted from water!

With a confident expression and cute appearance, the Golden Reaper was twice as adorable.

After the Glass Flamingo escape, Golden Reapers began roaming around the institute, having somehow acquired helmets and spears from somewhere.

One in the isolation room.
One in the office.
Pitter-pattering in the corridor.
Huddled in front of the pudding in the lounge.

To us, they were just cute, but to the Objects, it seemed different; as Golden Reapers appeared, the aggression of other Objects significantly decreased.

Staff members who frequently encountered the cute Golden Reapers were also extolling their satisfaction!

It was the completion of the safest and happiest Sehee Research Institute in the world.

*

I was savoring a dream-like relaxation at the artificial beach of the water park.

Beneath me lay Yerin, sprawled on a hard plastic bed that did not match the soft sandy beach.

The bed seemed uncomfortable due to its hardness, but Yerin had her eyes closed and wore a pure expression of satisfaction.

I was lying on top of Yerin, letting my body relax in a comfortable position.

And above me, the always lively Golden Reapers were lounging around.

Some rested on my belly, while others were hopping gleefully on it.

Yerin looked happy, and I felt blissful lying on the plush Yerin instead of a hard bed.

It was a perfect paradise, with the Golden Reapers also looking cheerful.

Watching the joyful gambols of the Golden Reapers, I felt my recently dwindled sense of mischief surge back to life.

Come to think of it, I haven’t annoyed the Blue Reaper, whom I hit with the marshmallow hammer.

I should play fair since the Golden Reaper might get sulky.

The youngest was too vulnerable, making it difficult to choose a prank.

I felt like if I tossed it in the washing machine, its limbs might come off like the Golden Reaper.

The joyful Golden Reapers bouncing on the water, the sweet treats, and Yerin munching on my antennae.

Such a peaceful day came to an abrupt end, turning into chaos from a sudden torn spatial crack.

Seeing the space’s layers stretching out, seemingly targeting Yerin’s neck, I was startled and swiftly spread mini reaper gardens around.

Fortunately, the spatial crack couldn’t tear apart the space I controlled and halted in mid-air.

“!”

Due to the sudden situation, perhaps because Yerin was too startled, she forgot to make a sound and hugged her neck while sitting up.

The torn space quickly returned to its original state, but the floor caught up in the spatial cut began to unravel and collapse slowly.

What was happening all of a sudden?

Feeling a bit angry that Yerin almost died, I got up and expanded my senses around.

Most of this disorder would likely be the work of the tree that was consuming that space.

While I was thinking of turning the tree into sawdust, James rushed into the isolation room, holding his phone, looking flustered.

“Why hasn’t anyone been in contact? Everyone out! We need to escape James City right now!”

James appeared to have dashed over excitedly, drenched in sweat.

Seeing the spatial cut slicing through steel walls like pudding, Yerin hurriedly threw on a top over her swimsuit and followed James without any further questions.

As we rode in a cart to escape, the scene of the institute was chaotic.

All the doors were wide open, as if everyone had fled in a hurry, and papers and high-tech equipment were strewn across the floor.

Occasionally, there were dismembered corpses caught up in the spatial cuts.

“I just received a report about the abnormalities in the barrier. We have six hours left, but time could have become chaotic, so I’m not sure. Whether six hours stretches to one hour, one second, or even one year, no one knows. We need to hurry.”

James continued with a tense expression.

“It’s a relief that the barrier is still holding. Back when the tree initially expanded its territory, everyone was too busy fleeing, so the damage was severe.”

James muttered, “I never thought the Vice Mayor would make such a choice.”

As we passed through the internal grounds of the institute and stepped outside, the streets were desolate and devoid of people.

It seemed multiple cuts had swept through the city, tearing it apart.

Tall buildings rarely maintained their shape, and the low buildings appeared on the verge of collapse.

I placed two Golden Reapers above Yerin and James’s heads and jumped out of the vehicle.

“Reaper?”

I turned my head to glance at the retreating Yerin before dashing towards the barrier using ghosting.

Since Yerin’s life was in danger, I had to take revenge.

*

Where am I?

Even when trying to comprehend the surrounding situation, all I felt was confusion.

Right, I was in the barrier control room.

I must protect the barrier.

I need to safeguard the citizens from the dangerous Objects…

Yet the reality I saw was not the control room but a chaotic mess, shattered like countless fragments of a broken mirror.

It was like a mosaic made of incomprehensible moments.

As if submerged deep underwater, even the noise hardly reached me.

All the colors and shapes in my field of view swirled like a kaleidoscope.

My thoughts and the world had fundamentally changed, completely separating from each other.

When I looked down, my palm was gripping the console, anchoring me amidst this storm of chaos.

The console’s timer read 6 hours, then the numbers mixed with one hour, then -30 hours.

The time shown on the console was a complete mess, rendering any sense of “remaining time” utterly meaningless.

Yeah, this is it.

The time error beyond the barrier that I had only read about in recordings.

A world where time doesn’t flow linearly but rolls and twists.

The panel I had my hands resting on was already smashed into several pieces and scattered.

It had long decayed and broken, as if it had existed for thousands of years.

Yet if I looked away even for a moment, it would revert to being whole again.

As if it had always remained intact.

And I, or whatever was assumed to be me, was also mixed in.

I was already dead.

But I was still alive, looking at that corpse.

It felt like six hours had passed, yet it seemed as if time had either stopped or continued endlessly.

I felt like I were forever trapped in this broken time, endlessly repeating this situation.

A labyrinth with no exit where past, present, and future endlessly collided, merged, and looped.

My prison.

*

Pitter-patter.

I walked alone through the once neat and bustling, now deserted and quiet streets.

Each step echoed a solitary rhythm in the silence of the city.

Delicious-looking restaurants, fascinating facilities.

It was undoubtedly a landscape that would’ve been delightful to wander around with Yerin tomorrow.

But the roads and buildings were shattered, and the city was empty, marked only by the traces of hurried escape.

Like a salmon swimming upstream against the current, I began retracing the clues of escape toward my destination.

With each step I took, I felt the ominous tremors of the barrier drawing closer.

The closer I got to the barrier, the stronger the presence of the tree felt.

Like lightning striking on a stormy night, spaces occasionally ripped apart, severing the city.

Upon arriving at the massive barrier, its condition seemed quite dire.

It looked miraculous that it maintained any form at all.

The barrier appeared almost like a jigsaw puzzle hastily patched together.

The gaps in the cracked wall flowed like wounds, from which a grotesque deep blue hue seeped out like blood.

I raised my gaze to the barrier and leaped into its wounds.

*

The world began to align, chaotic and hard to comprehend, like fog scattering, with only the control panel and me clearly visible.

It seemed a powerful Object had started to observe this world.

As I properly lifted my head to look, the sight was still shattered but revealed a different world.

A landscape pieced together by countless disintegrated realities.

A living mosaic world.

The earth was crafted by forcibly joining disjointed land fragments like a puzzle.

A land where vibrant white flowers bloomed in glorious abundance.

A land of ghosts dancing alone in elongated looming shadows.

And at the edge of this puzzle-like land stood a tall tree, its thick roots anchoring the pieces together.

The sky spread above was a chaotic curtain woven from fragments of twilight, dawn, day, and night.

As if time itself had laid out fragments of broken mirrors across the sky.

But the force that ruled over this surreal space was not the tree.

It was the enormous indigo moon that hung high above, pressing down on the tree with a heavy light.