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Deep inside the Free City Alliance.

It was quite an alien place compared to ordinary cities, but there was a spot that emitted an even more bizarre atmosphere.

Buildings collapsed, leaving only skeletal pillars.

Makeshift structures pieced together haphazardly using scrap materials attached to those columns.

Drum barrels filled with various corpses and waste, burning away.

And a place teeming with monster-like humans who had completely shed their human forms.

It was a gathering spot for scavengers.

Amidst the mingling smells of blood, burning plastic, and rusty metal, there was a place that particularly reeked of blood.

It resembled a slaughterhouse, with people hanging in hooks everywhere.

In that stinking spot of particularly overwhelming blood odor, a man who was once a mercenary for the Free City Alliance was chopping off a human arm in the scavenger den’s slaughterhouse.

“Damn, damn, damn.”

The man was slowly sawing away, suppressing the urge to vomit.

“I have no choice. I have no choice!”

In reality, the man had very few choices.

He had succumbed to a madness.

Most mercenaries who had inserted numerous objects would ultimately die from the madness, but.

He believed himself to be a special existence not fitting in with the majority.

However, regrettably, he was not special.

At some point, his vision turned red, and a voice resounded from the sky.

“Kill the human,” it demanded absurdly.

It was a typical symptom of the madness called ‘Red Eyes.’

Few words had been uttered by those mercenaries infected due to overuse of objects.

In the end, they either went insane and slaughtered indiscriminately before being killed.

Or they committed suicide before succumbing to the red voice.

Or they dabbled in human flesh and fell to become scavengers.

Only about three paths remained.

Curiously enough, after consuming human flesh, the madness completely disappeared, even if just for a moment.

As if it were enough just to kill a human.

And the man chose to survive.

He joined the scavengers to consume human flesh.

As he mindlessly cut through an arm, his senior shouted.

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t kill! We need to sell the arm, so don’t kill it.”

Turning his gaze, he saw the person being butchered frothing at the mouth and convulsing as if they could die at any moment.

But before anything could be done, the convulsions stopped, and the man’s body began to contort grotesquely.

Creak. Creak.

Objects rampaging, the sound of bones shattering.

“Ah, damn!”

The senior threw the saw he was holding onto the ground.

Thud!

With the sound of bursting flesh, the artificial arm that had torn out of the man’s body had already lost its shape.

Transformed into a hideous spider-like monster, the artificial arm quickly crawled away somewhere.

“Haah, this is a disaster.”

The scavenger senior who randomly sat on a nearby table pulled out a cigarette.

Just as the man was about to sit nearby, heavy footsteps began to echo.

Thud. Thud.

Steps that sounded like they weighed hundreds of kilos.

The silhouette looked less like a human and more like a robot or tank.

It was fitting for his nickname ‘Tank.’

The leader of this group of scavengers shouted loudly.

“Everyone, listen up!”

And the following words were simple.

‘The comrades who went to kill the mercenaries and seize the cargo are dead.’

‘So anyone who wants revenge, follow me.’

The leader’s words were long, but when summarized, it was simply a story.

However, it was dangerous and did not sound enticing.

Seeing the scavengers’ expressions, the leader grinned.

“By the way, there’s a ‘pure human’ among those mercenaries.”

At those words, everyone, including the man, stood up from their seats.

‘A pure human!’

Pure humans were a rarity in the Free City Alliance.

Moreover, it was rumored that their flesh not only suppressed the increasingly worsening madness but also increased capacity, allowing for more objects to be merged.

And the following cheers and excitement from the scavengers.

All the scavengers began gathering their weapons and moving out for revenge.

*

Deep inside the Mini Reaper Garden, the Golden Reaper Conference Hall.

Perhaps influenced by the gentle mom of the Gray Reaper, a meeting was being held there centered around the theme of ‘Mom is Kind.’

‘Mom shared pudding with me!’

‘Mom combed my hair!’

‘Mom petted me for no reason!’

It had transformed into a place to boast about how kind Mom had been, rather than an actual meeting.

During this, the black-masked Purple Reaper, who participated as a special guest, exuded determination.

‘In the moment of crisis, Mom led all of us in the garden!’

‘So amazing!’

‘Beloved younger sibling!’

At that, the Golden Reapers were taken aback and began applauding enthusiastically.

And numerous moments when Mom had saved them began flowing forth.

‘Mom is amazing.’

Though they couldn’t properly distinguish the Mini Reapers and seemed uninterested in them.

Remarkably, the Gray Reaper always appeared whenever there was a crisis for the Mini Reapers.

‘Mom is kind!’

And thus began the ‘Mom is Kind!’ voting.

The Golden Reapers sitting in a circular formation stood up in turn, their faces bright with smiles.

‘Kind!’

‘Kind!’

‘Kind!’

And like children before a crosswalk, they raised one hand and exuded determination.

“Kyuhing hing.”

The White Hungry Ghost, secretly lurking in the conference hall, struggled to stand on its two legs and exuded the opposing will, but was dragged away by the Golden Reapers on guard.

An unfair participant in the snack meeting was the Red Reaper, Grilled Type.

The vote participated by the Golden Reapers and the special guest Purple Reaper was unanimous.

“Kyuhing hing hing.”

Only the sorrowful cries of the Hungry Ghost remained in the now-silent meeting hall after the vote.

‘!’

Just as the meeting concluded, the Orange Reapers began soaring in with a giant Hungry Ghost.

The Golden Reapers tilted their heads at the appearance of the mischievous younger sibling, but the news delivered by the Orange Reaper was enough to shock them.

The Ice Palace is under attack by Mom!

Startled, the Golden Reapers began to follow the Orange Reaper’s lead and entered the belly of the White Hungry Ghost.

“Kyuhihihihih.”

And the swollen White Hungry Ghost, as if about to burst, released joyous laughter.

*

In the vast Snowfield located in the Mini Reaper Garden.

I was still caught by the Golden Reapers and unable to return to the Isolation Room.

Hing hing.

I was being mobilized to help build the Ice Palace as a punishment with the Golden Reapers.

‘Mom!’

When a Golden Reaper called, I threw ice bricks at them.

And the Golden Reaper receiving the bricks beamed, saying, ‘Thanks, Mom!’

Even though we were rebuilding a palace that had completely collapsed, the Golden Reapers looked genuinely happy.

In fact, they looked even happier than when we built it the first time, which was truly mysterious.

Usually, if you were asked to repeat what you did before, wouldn’t it be annoying and boring?

It was hard to understand the Golden Reapers.

‘Mom!’

‘Mom!’

‘Mom!’

The Golden Reapers were calling me from all directions.

“Place the bricks down, carve the decorations, pack the snow.”

The Golden Reapers were far more skilled than I was, yet they insisted on borrowing my hands.

Did they really want to torment me that much?

“I’ll go in turn, so wait.”

As I carved the pillars together with a Golden Reaper, they smiled as if happy.

While I roughly patted the Golden Reaper who was staring at me with a wide smile, I was vowing revenge.

On the day the Ice Palace’s construction is over.

I will capture all the Orange Reapers and tie them up for a firecracker display.

And turn the Hungry Ghost into skewers to be sold as eternally burning torches.

I grinned, baring my teeth viciously.

*

In a narrow, enclosed concrete room.

“Gah!”

Cheong startled awake, frantically groping her face.

A calm man’s voice came to her.

“You’ve woken up. Thank you for writing ‘Dice’ for me.”

Seeing the man’s face, who almost died but managed to regain consciousness, Cheong smiled faintly in relief.

“But what’s that fur ball? It looked harmless, so I left it alone. Do you know anything about it?”

The man pointed to the fluffy fur ball clinging to Cheong’s belly with his chin.

Fur ball?

Cheong looked down at her belly with a puzzled expression, and a fur ball with an orange face was gazing up at her.

As their eyes met, it was as if lightning struck Cheong’s brain.

And, as if entranced, she slowly lifted the fur ball.

For some reason, it felt oddly familiar.

It felt like a fateful encounter she could never part with.

Plus, it was warm and fluffy, making its texture quite pleasant.

And like a treasured stuffed toy, Cheong hugged the Orange Reaper to her chest without a word.

At that moment, the woman standing by the window, looking outside, quietly spoke.

“I think we should start moving. There are a lot of scavengers lurking around here. It looks like there’s no answer other than to flee toward the security wall.”

And the woman added, “Just what is this cargo that has attracted so many scavengers?”

“Alright. Let’s hurry. The longer we wait, the harder it gets, right?”

However, just as Cheong said that and prepared to rise, heavy footsteps began to echo.

Thud. Thud.

And at that moment, Cloud Fish began pouring in through the window, filling the room.

‘?’

Seeing the Cloud Fish, which is rarely seen in the Free City Alliance, made it even more perplexing.

The heavy sounds and the sudden arrival of Cloud Fish.

The heavily tensed man stiffened his expression, scanning the surroundings anxiously.

“Something feels off.”

At that moment, the Cloud Fish charged toward Cheong and her companions.

“!”

The man raised his shield to block, but the heavy impact sent them all tumbling to the ground.

It was hard to believe they had been struck by light and airy cloud fish given the weight of the impact.

As the man arose from the floor, ready to retaliate with his shotgun against the Cloud Fish.

A red beam wiped away the location where their party had been.

A flash that seemed it would blind them.

And following that, a scorching heatwave surged like molten skin.

With a red light erupting, the column began to melt away.

As if the concrete were turning to lava, a hole was punched through.

‘!!!’

Had the Cloud Fish not shoved them away, they would have melted away just like that concrete.

Though the shield the man held was strong enough to withstand sniper fire, it wouldn’t have lasted a moment against such a beam.

Huh. Huh.

Startled by the sudden turn of events, Cheong gasped for air, turning her head toward the direction the beam had come from.

There, beyond the gaping hole in the wall, a ferocious-looking scavenger was gazing at the party.

“Oh, you were there. I almost blew it without getting a taste.”

There was hardly a trace of human left, replaced instead by a grotesque creature interwoven with distorted metal and objects.

Looking at that figure, the man muttered in a somber tone.

“The infamous ‘Tank’ has come personally to greet us.”

Cheong found herself choking on the despairing situation and hugged the fur ball tightly.