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As I woke from my slumber, a landscape filled with darkness greeted me.

A barren and desolate terrain.

Jagged rocks stretching far into the distance and a dark, ominous sky.

Yet, across the sky, a beautiful green aurora stretched.

But strangely, instead of a sense of wonder, only a foreboding aura radiated from the aurora.

Above it, the vast cosmos spread out, and amidst the starlight, the Earth loomed large.

The sight of Earth in the sky made it clear that this place was not Earth at all.

Where in the world am I?

Looking up at the sky filled me with an unsettling feeling.

It felt as though I might fall down to Earth.

Still, something seemed off, and as I kept gazing at the sky, I began to realize the source of that falling sensation.

This parched land was slowly, ever so slowly, moving towards Earth.

Should I call for children or something? I thought about spreading the Mini Reaper Garden, but nothing happened.

In that moment, it hit me.

Ah, this is a dream.

As soon as I recognized it as a dream, immense malice started to gather from afar.

It was an overwhelming evil, so large and wicked that it would be impossible to forget.

I can’t recall the details, but I was certain I had felt this evil before.

As all that malice came together, a bizarre object, seemingly a mix of organic and inorganic elements, suddenly revealed itself.

The appearance of this object seemed to be made from the same material as the landscape, as if the dark and twisted earth itself had come to life.

The ominous silhouette twisted roughly, resembling tall trees or tangled roots, and on top of it was a face staring directly at me.

Though the object had no eyes, it was undoubtedly watching me.

However, for some reason, I couldn’t look directly at that monster.

Even when I tried, it only appeared hazy and blurred.

But the more I looked, the clearer the monster became.

Tap, tap.

Just as I was about to focus on the monster, someone touched my back.

Turning around, I saw a blue-haired girl shaking her head with a stern expression.

And the moment I looked at that blue girl, I suddenly woke up from the dream.

*

As I woke up, I found myself in an isolation room shrouded in darkness.

Beside me, the sleeping Golden Reaper curled up, and firewood flickered from their body.

The light would brighten slightly, then fade, repeating like the breath of a sleeping baby.

While I absentmindedly poked the cheek of the peacefully sleeping Golden Reaper, thoughts of the eerie dream danced in my mind.

The girl with blue hair and the unidentified object.

It was definitely connected to my “body” or related to me somehow.

One thing was for sure—it had to be related to me.

I had been ignoring it, thinking it was just a meaningless dream, but with such a menacing presence showing up, it seemed I needed to rethink my stance.

Especially since the eerie object I had seen in the dream felt strangely familiar, though I couldn’t quite place it.

I was sure I hadn’t seen it when I was a Gray Reaper.

It must have been something I saw while I was still human, but oddly, it only felt like a vague memory.

I don’t know.

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t recall, and that made me a bit irritated.

To release that irritation, I grabbed the tiny palm of the deeply sleeping Golden Reaper and lifted it.

Once a Golden Reaper falls asleep, they hardly wake up, making such antics easy to pull off.

I taped the Golden Reaper’s limbs to the wall, fixing them in place.

Seeing the sleeping Golden Reaper stuck to the wall like an X made my annoyance fade and put me in a good mood.

Hehe.

Clearly, I needed to investigate this meaningful dream that seemed to have some connection to me.

What should I do?

Yet, no matter how much I thought, I couldn’t come up with a solid plan.

The most definite method was to gather the moon and eyes.

The more I gathered the moon and eyes, the more I felt something changing.

The problem was, I had no idea where to find the moon and eyes, or where they might appear.

No answer in sight.

“Mom…”

At that moment, another Golden Reaper lying in bed started nibbling on my hair while mumbling in their sleep.

What kind of dream are they having? The Golden Reaper looked incredibly happy, slurping up my hair.

“Ouch!”

Just as I was about to lift the Golden Reaper who was munching on my hair for decoration on the wall, a solution popped into my mind.

“Could I utilize the Mini Reapers’ adventures?” It was such a simple thought.

With the growing number of Mini Reapers seeking natural encounters with Attached Humans, there was no need to force them to do anything.

Hehe, I must be smart.

In the end, if I just lounged around at Sehee Research Institute eating pudding, the Mini Reapers would find the moon and eyes for me—a perfect system!

Having lifted that burden off my shoulders, I started picking up the sleeping Mini Reapers one by one from the isolation room and taping them to the wall.

Various poses of Mini Reapers were arranged on the wall, just like decorating an Egyptian mural.

Especially the Golden Reaper who helped me think of ways to use Mini Reapers, who had been munching on my hair, got placed prominently in the center.

So, one by one, as I stuck Mini Reapers to the wall, I soon managed to stick all the Mini Reapers that had piled up like a mountain on my bed.

With a proud smile, I took a step back to admire my artistic creation.

*

In the late morning at the courtyard of Sehee Research Institute, Yerin sat in front of a table piled with snacks, sipping on warm coffee.

The sound of news flowing from the mini TV on the table resonated softly.

[The Object Association has decided to leave Mapo District as is.]

[Now, Mapo District can be seen as the first place to experiment with coexistence between humans and objects.]

It was news about Mapo District, where Golden Reapers were rampant.

In the end, the Object Association neither isolated nor designated Mapo District as a no-entry zone.

It was likely because the objects were impossible to contain or eliminate.

The very cause of the Mapo District incident, the Gray Reaper, was uninterested in the news, playing with the Mini Reapers in the courtyard instead.

Usually, Gray Reapers preferred to lie down and rest, but today they seemed to be playing quite energetically.

Probably because they had exhibited the Mini Reapers like pinned butterflies in the morning.

[Japan has retracted its safety evaluation of the Special Class Object, the Island of Red Lightning.]

[The Island of Red Lightning is currently being identified as the cause of mysterious disappearances occurring throughout Japan.]

As the story of Mapo District concluded, the news began to shift to ominous tales from Japan.

It was a story about a terrifying object that swallowed up tens of thousands of people.

“Japan must be going through a tough time. After all, there are no Reapers there.”

Yerin thought peacefully as she shared pudding with the Golden Reaper.

*

Looking up at the clear sky, the girl thought.

“Today is really an unlucky day.”

It was a bit much to say today was the only unlucky day.

She hadn’t had any luck since the moment she was kidnapped to this labyrinth object island.

An object island that suddenly appeared in the coastal waters of Japan.

An object that humans could not approach and was impossible to attack with missiles or shells.

Fortunately, it was deemed harmless since it showed no signs of movement.

Everyone thought so, and the girl had thought so too.

“Such a significant object has nothing to do with me.” She had thought that way.

But here she was, being kidnapped by an object.

Even now, as she lay in bed with her eyes closed, the memory of the moment she had fallen asleep at home was vivid, yet she knew she could never return.

Had people discovered that the seemingly harmless island was actually an object that randomly kidnapped people throughout Japan?

If they had, perhaps there would be a chance of returning…

“Sigh.”

Today was indeed a very unlucky day.

With a heavy sigh, the girl began to pick up the shattered pieces of the sword.

Early that morning, she had thought it was a lucky day when she bought that sword for a third of the price from a stall in front of the labyrinth.

But the sword turned out to be a fake.

Even the slightest application of force shattered the counterfeit sword to pieces.

Even when she thought it wasn’t such a terrible day while buying adhesive that could repair weapons, it had turned out to be false luck.

Adhesive for fixing a broken sword!

She thought that with this, she could fix the sword and become a proper labyrinth adventurer.

But of course.

The adhesive was fake too.

As the vendor had warned, after the shattered sword had been glued back together and left to dry in the sunlight for an hour, it remained broken.

She thought maybe it wasn’t fixing due to insufficient sunlight, so she kept it on the flower pot, but deep down, she knew.

That adhesive was a scam too.

But she couldn’t bear to throw away the weapon she bought first, so she kept drying it.

And even that patched-up sword broke apart.

By an unidentified black object falling from the sky onto the flower pot.

“Ugh. So unfortunate.”

The girl lost all the money she had saved.

She felt so depressed that she didn’t want to move a step further, but she gritted her teeth and left the lodging.

No matter how gloomy she felt, there was no choice.

In order to gather plants in the labyrinth, she had to collect food and pay for lodging.

With weak, dragging steps, the girl walked forward, a small, fast black object popped up behind her, bouncing along.