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A house with newly painted calm-colored walls stood out in a housing area that had narrowly avoided the sinkhole in Songpa District.

In the spacious living room visible through large windows, moving boxes were neatly placed, waiting to be unpacked.

It was the home of two sisters who had moved from Seoul Forest.

Perhaps because it was so close to the sinkhole, the new house’s living room was surprisingly affordable and spacious, where the two sisters were relaxing beside each other.

The tattoo-covered older sister was sitting upright on a soft but slightly worn sofa, staring blankly at the TV screen, and the light emanating from the TV cast a faint shadow across the living room.

The woman was always amazed when she saw this thing called TV.

How could this happen without alchemy or magical books?

However, whether she enjoyed watching TV was another story.

The TV flickered with a relentless barrage of news and rapidly changing scenes, accompanied by reporters’ urgent voices, but it was unclear whether she truly enjoyed this flood of information.

It felt more like an obligation to watch than for entertainment.

She was being forced to watch a little news at her younger sister’s urging to come out of the room.

With a relaxed expression, her younger sister had her head slightly resting on her sister’s lap as she lay stretched out along the sofa.

Without bothering to glance at the flickering lights on the screen, the younger sister looked up at her older sister’s face.

“You said you wanted to watch TV so badly when we were in Seoul Forest, so why are you like this?”

The woman casually asked, surprised to see the person she had called out to watch TV not paying attention to it.

“I’m just resting.”

For some reason, the younger sister giggled as she looked up at her sister’s face.

Feeling slightly pressured by that gaze, the woman covered her younger sister’s eyes with her palm.

[The death of the director of Trinity Research Institute No. 3 has been officially confirmed.]

“!”

At that moment, an unbelievable sound came from the TV.

That man is dead?

“The director of Trinity Research Institute No. 3 is dead? Who killed him? The object shouldn’t be able to kill him!”

“I guess you didn’t know? It was on TV quite a lot. They say the Gray Reaper killed him.”

Gray Reaper?

There was no way the object could overcome the Black Liquid…

The woman thought, after hearing her sister’s words, that it could only be one of two conclusions.

Either the Gray Reaper was something special, or the fact that the Gray Reaper killed him was a lie.

That arrogant man wouldn’t fake his own death, so it was certain he was dead.

He was essentially the biggest culprit in ruining the world, and to die so pathetically like this…

Even now, when I close my eyes, it feels like the scent of the Black Liquid that has tainted the world lingers at the tip of my nose…

“Are you okay, sister?”

Seeing her sister, who seemed to be in a daze, the younger sister wore a worried expression.

*

Crossing the crack in the barrier, an unimaginable sight unfolded before me.

It was a sight so stunning that I temporarily forgot about taking revenge for Yerin.

Every world that my perception touched was moving for me.

Following the path of my gaze, it felt as if the creator of the world was painting chaos solely for me.

Everything was vague and filled with fog, but at the moment my gaze settled, it began to take on a clearer form.

The ambiguous fog drifted beyond the horizon.

The chaos-filled world was stitched back together.

Yet, even this newly created world looked extremely unstable.

The ground and sky were forcefully sewn together.

If such a world were stable, that in itself would be too strange.

I slowly stretched my foot forward to approach a vaguely visible tree.

“!”

At that moment,

One of my feet was swept away by the swirling space, severed without a trace.

Startled by the pain I hadn’t felt in a long time, I hurriedly retreated.

Though I could instantly regenerate from such an injury since I had enough firewood, it hurt too much.

Experiencing it firsthand, I realized how powerful spatial cut was.

The physical immunity that always protected my body was being disregarded so easily!

Not wanting to pass through that twisted space, I checked the destruction conditions for the tree and the Indigo Moon.

The tree’s condition was <"Place your hand on the surface and convey [Well done. You can rest now].">

And the Indigo Moon’s condition was <"Destruction of the tree.">

Fortunately, the destruction conditions were clear despite their powerful nature.

I had thought it might yield very complex conditions, but it was very straightforward, which was nice.

If only I didn’t have to go closer!

This interior was either the Indigo Moon’s territory or a space where the Mini Reaper Garden couldn’t unfold properly, making it very troublesome.

Gritting my teeth, I took a step forward, trying to hold onto the space as best as I could.

Maybe because I managed to grasp the space, I didn’t get chewed up and vanish, but flames burst from all over my body like blood.

One step, my right hand was completely severed.

Another step, my left ankle twisted and disappeared like it was caught in a blender.

If I could have made a sound, I would have screamed loudly.

The wounds vanished in an instant, but the pain persisted like an afterimage, tormenting me.

My ability to manipulate space was as pathetic as a downgraded version and utterly unskilled.

With every step I took, I couldn’t manage to securely grasp more than one area, and I ended up being severed.

One step, the twisted space pierced through one of my eyes.

Another step, my sole was cut like I had stepped on a sharp blade.

Why on earth was I doing this?

Well, it’s obvious; it’s something that needs to be done.

When saving humans, compromising will lead to losing all firewood someday due to an object accident.

I can’t give in under any circumstances.

Once was enough to almost starve to death.

All the firewood on this planet belongs to me.

I grit my teeth and thought of Yerin as I took another step forward.

However, the distance to the tree was long, and my steps were gradually slowing.

The firewood was only decreasing.

*

The Vice Mayor was able to break free from a state that felt like endlessly swimming somewhere between reality and dreams.

It was because something powerful had entered this space.

From the newly clarified world that had shaken off chaos, what the Vice Mayor discovered was the uncontrollable object, the Gray Reaper.

From the Vice Mayor’s perspective, it was infuriating.

“Ha, James. You’ve finally lost your mind. Failing to control objects during an emergency like this?”

However, he secretly held some hope.

If the Gray Reaper, who had removed numerous objects, could resolve this situation, it would be a weak expectation.

But that expectation shattered the moment the Gray Reaper took a step and suffered a great injury.

The Gray Reaper he had analyzed was extremely individualistic and would help people out of whim, but he would never act at his own loss.

But what followed was an unexpected situation.

Even with his skin torn, his limbs flying off, the Gray Reaper kept moving forward.

Gritting his teeth, enduring the pain.

“Could it be that he’s doing this to save James City?”

Even the Vice Mayor, who had spent most of his life dealing with objects, was witnessing the altruistic actions of an object he had never seen before.

Each step the Gray Reaper took was causing a significant change in the Vice Mayor’s perspective.

Having experienced countless object accidents, the Vice Mayor had viewed the essence of objects as evil.

Creatures that deceive, destroy, and throw humans into despair.

Yet, as he observed the Gray Reaper’s struggle, that preconception began to waver.

Perhaps, the Gray Reaper was not a selfish object but rather an altruistic one akin to an angel?

Such thoughts crept into his mind.

The more the Gray Reaper was injured, the more this idea strengthened.

When his ankle was severed and he collapsed to the ground, it was unbearably sad.

When golden flames trickled from a hole in his body, it felt sorrowful enough to draw tears.

Before long, the Vice Mayor found himself cheering for the Gray Reaper.

*

At the end of the path stained with blood and pain, I stood before the tree.

As I arrived in front of the tree, the distortion of space that seemed ready to tear me apart had vanished.

In its place was a sweet and unique fruit scent.

It was a smell I had never encountered before, yet somehow felt familiar.

It’s finally over.

As I placed my hand on the tree, it felt as if the tree was trembling like a puppy.

[Well done. You can rest now.]

Injecting my will into the tree, I saw a scene I had never witnessed before.

Under the vast and dark night sky, the air was filled with the sweet scent of well-ripened fruits.

Yet that scent was being overshadowed by the smell of the Black Liquid’s oil creeping in from afar.

In the center of the orchard, beneath the rising Indigo Moon, stood a girl with blue hair exuding a mysterious aura.

Among them was an exceptionally tall and large fruit tree.

The girl with blue hair touched the tree, which seemed to stretch its branches up as if to reach the stars, and said, “I’m sorry. Just a little more, please.”

As the girl spoke sorrowfully to the tree and turned around, our eyes met.

The girl, whose eyes widened in surprise, soon smiled as if she understood something and looked down at me.

With the girl’s smile, the scenery of the orchard began to shatter like glass.

The sky, patched together like a patchwork, the ground fitting together like a puzzle, and the fragments of space that had been drifting like leaves transformed into light, bursting apart and scattering.

The world was filled with shards of light as if the entire cosmos had been overwhelmed by whiteness.

When everything around felt distant as if muted, the light filling the world slowly began to fade.

As the light diminished, familiar outlines and colors returned, and the surrounding world regained focus.

Before long, the twisted world disappeared, revealing the familiar night sky, albeit slightly altered.

The large moon, the red moon, the blue moon, and the indigo moon.

Moonlight bathed the ground, tinting the landscape in a somewhat different hue than before.

Beneath that moonlight lay debris that looked like it had been haphazardly cut with sharp blades scattered everywhere.

Fragments of buildings of unfamiliar design and unknown objects lay strewn about, cut sharply.

And those debris-filled grounds were rounded by the walls of James City like a horizon.