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Thud thud.

I was walking on mud with a blurry vision.

In a world where everything seemed frozen in time, I was the only one that could move.

In this strange sight, I felt clearly that this was undoubtedly a dream.

The black-stained mud rippled as if it were flowing across the floor at high speed, and in the middle of it all, there stood a bed that clashed entirely with the mud.

A single bed that jutted out on the endless mud.

The bed, sinking into the mud, had a very familiar shape.

A large, fluffy-looking bed.

It was the bed where the body of the Blue Girl lay.

Am I seeing the dream of the Blue Girl because I made a candy house to preserve her and that bed today?

I stepped slowly on the mud, which had hardened like stone in the stopped time, and made my way to the bed.

As I looked down at the antique bed adorned with delicate decorations, a faint voice echoed.

It felt as if ‘a conversation from a moment in time’ had been snipped out of a cross-section of time.

It was the voice of the Blue Girl, speaking with a slightly playful exaggerated accent.

“Humans killed God. And then needed Him again. Though God was cruel, He protected humankind.”

“The problem lies in the term ‘cruel.’ God, being not human, could not understand humanity. Perhaps the very concept of ‘understanding’ might not exist for Him at all.”

“So, humans must become gods.”

With that last word, the bed of the Blue Girl crumbled down like black-dyed mud.

‘Humans must become gods.’

This story strangely bothered me.

As the bed collapsed, another object appeared in the distance.

This time, it was an object with a familiar appearance.

A statue of a man stretching out his clenched right fist towards the sky, gazing up at it.

Though there were slight differences, the figure resembled the leader of the ‘Eye Cult.’

Once again, a voice flowed from the statue.

A calm voice of the leader, untainted by madness.

“Humans cannot become gods.”

“Even those who became magical books went mad, so there’s no way they could become gods.”

“We can only pile up our hardships and wait.”

Then, the statue of the leader turned to mud and crumbled down, just like the bed.

And then, something arose again in the distance.

A perfectly spherical object, indistinguishable from the mud.

[The Unchanging Black Sphere]

As I approached the black sphere, a very small voice emerged.

It was a voice as tiny as the moans of a dying person.

“The book that killed God must disappear for God to return.”

“May my wish reach Him.”

As the voice faded away, my blurry vision gradually began to change from opaque to clearer.

With that, the dream came to an end.

A silence without sound and a bed that warmly embraced me.

Upon waking from the dream, I was welcomed by the Quiet Isolation Room.

As it was still morning, the Sehee Research Institute was quiet, and mini reapers clung to my body, sleeping soundly.

And next to my bedside lay a singular, pure white wrist.

A wrist that exuded a delicious coconut scent.

And behind that wrist, an Hungry Ghost Reaper was staring at me with sparkling eyes.

It seemed to be waiting expectantly, resting its chin on the bed and gazing at me, as if anticipating when it could eat that wrist.

‘Should I eat it?’

I lifted the wrist and sent my will towards it, and the Hungry Ghost Reaper nodded vigorously.

Is it like a cat bringing me mice every morning?

I took a bite of the jelly wrist that looked just like mine, except for the color.

It was indeed delicious.

Somehow, it felt amusing as if I were munching on myself.

As I enjoyed eating the wrist of the Hungry Ghost Reaper, a strange thought struck me.

‘Wouldn’t the wrists of the mini reapers also be tasty?’

With various thoughts racing through my mind, I was eyeing the wrist of the Golden Reaper, and somehow sensing my gaze, the Golden Reaper suddenly woke from its sleep.

Woken from its sleep, the Golden Reaper tried to find the source of its suddenly uneasy feeling, but ultimately couldn’t and tilted its head before snuggling back into my arms to sleep again.

I carefully laid the tiny palm of the Golden Reaper, which was sleeping on my palm, and gently patted it.

‘Should I eat it or not?’

And I kept mulling over this very difficult dilemma.

By the way, the Golden Reaper gives off a really delicious scent, doesn’t it?

*

Piercing through the textured darkness, I found a mysterious city I could see.

A subterranean city created by an Object that I could enter through a hole opened in the park.

The researcher was slowly wandering around the city, which was a chaotic mix of various civilizations.

There wasn’t anything particularly special, but it seemed to possess enough culture similar to the relics that sporadically appeared related to the Object, thus making it worth researching.

Of course, the Object Association advisor ‘Golden Bug’ didn’t seem interested in such things at all.

He used to show his face every day while blocking employee access and transporting mountains of gold from the city, but he hadn’t even shown up to the site for weeks.

Then, perhaps thinking that he had collected enough valuable golden-like items, he permitted the entrance of association employees.

Currently, only a few of his personal guards remained, glaring around as they were merely monitoring to see if anything valuable was nearby.

The researcher affiliated with the association felt deep disappointment as he surveyed a room placed deep within the city.

It was clear that someone had visited before the association’s people arrived.

The dust accumulation and the signs of something being moved were evident, and the traces of where pictures or mirrors had once hung on the walls were also apparent.

Seeing something large as a bed moved, one could think that many people had entered secretly in an organized manner.

The area where the most critical items were likely to have been located was completely empty.

The only remaining items were books written in an unrecognizable script and glass bottles that didn’t seem particularly important.

Nevertheless, having obtained numerous books with entirely new linguistic systems, there was still some harvest to speak of.

With these thoughts in mind, the researcher from the association busily moved the mountains of books toward the surface.

*

A Tattooed Woman was sitting in her workshop, gazing up at the tower that seemed ready to pierce the sky.

It was the James Tower, which had begun construction in Korea.

The James Tower, which was being built by purchasing many inexpensive lands on the outskirts of Songpa District, had brought about a change in the deserted Songpa District.

Maybe because the James Tower was being built, the once barren housing area was gradually increasing in occupancy.

My younger sister was quite pleased that the price of the house they bought cheaply had risen significantly.

From the Tattooed Woman’s perspective, it just felt a bit more comfortable as the nearby shopping area began to become livelier.

However, from the woman’s standpoint, a more direct and significant change occurred than the ‘James Tower.’

Her workshop, which had only been capable of drying and grinding herbs, became a more authentic ‘Alchemist’s Workshop.’

Thanks to the numerous tools brought from the ‘Dead Alchemist’s Workshop’ that appeared in the park.

“Want to try this too?”

My younger sister was sitting in a corner of the workshop, breaking potato chips into small pieces to feed the Golden Object.

Nom nom.

The Golden Reaper was munching on the potato chips with its tiny mouth.

And there was my younger sister, joyfully watching the Golden Reaper.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been right to throw it out immediately from the workshop, but the woman let her younger sister do what she was doing.

The reason was that the topic she was researching was ‘Golden Reaper.’

Since the Golden Reapers, which could vanish in an instant without piquing any interest, couldn’t be helped.

The start of this research began from a painting obtained from the ‘Dead Alchemist’s Workshop.’

It was a detailed depiction of the Blue Girl and the Gray Reaper.

Seeing the image of the Blue Girl, so similar to the Gray Reaper, all the questions she had held up to that point unraveled.

The existence of the Blue Girl explained the appearance of a Guardian that had suddenly emerged in a world unrelated to alchemy.

Perhaps the Gray Reaper was the magnum opus of the once-great alchemist, the Blue Girl.

Indeed, the life saved with the Gray Reaper’s help and the numerous tools brought from the workshop could all be attributed to the ‘Blue Girl.’

Thus, this research began as a means of gratitude towards the Blue Girl.

It was an endeavor to study the Golden Reaper, derived from the Gray Reaper, to create weapons, armor, or potions for the Gray Reaper.

Though it was a study initiated solely for the sake of gratitude, more and more fascinating facts began to pour out as the research progressed.

The Golden Reaper was undoubtedly a magical book, yet it seemed to have undergone alchemical modifications.

It possessed numerous rare abilities, like ghosting and time acceleration.

While there were many intriguing points about the Golden Reaper, the most captivating was ‘energy.’

The energy radiating from the heart of the Golden Reaper wasn’t abundant but was incredibly powerful.

Yet, strangely, the Golden Reaper wasn’t utilizing that energy properly.

At most, it merely shot beams by catching sunlight.

With that point in mind, the Tattooed Woman decided to craft a weapon specifically for the Golden Reaper.

Hence, she named it the Golden Reaper Light Sword!

“Now, let’s start the power test.”

Handing the handle-only sword to the Golden Reaper, it looked delighted as if it received a fun toy.

“Then, get ready!”

No sooner had the woman’s words left her mouth than a sword blade made of golden flames manifested from the handle in the Golden Reaper’s hand.

With a bright smile, the Golden Reaper raised the sizzling lightsaber high above its head.

“Start!”

Then with the shout of ‘Start!’, the Golden Reaper brought the sword down.

As the blade swung, it elongated and effortlessly sliced through the targeted rebar.

Even though it was crafted from the strongest ‘Large Object’ alloy available in Korea, the lightsaber sliced through cleanly without any resistance.

Seeing the rebar being cut, the Golden Reaper jumped around joyfully with a bright grin.

The final test of a weapon created over several months had succeeded.

When the Tattooed Woman turned her head, there were five small weapons created for the Golden Reaper laid out there.

And beside them, there was also the handle of a large sword created for the Gray Reaper.

‘This should suffice as gratitude.’

Looking at the successfully crafted weapons, the woman beamed with a satisfied smile.