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[Paradise of Mini Reapers. Sehee Research Institute!]

As the Helmet Researcher lifted his head, a huge banner hanging at the entrance of the Sehee Research Institute parking lot caught his eye.

Behind it was a makeshift building made using a tent.

The fabric was colorful and flashy, resembling a circus tent.

“What on earth is this sudden….”

The Helmet Researcher looked up at the gigantic tent that had appeared overnight, wearing an incredulous expression.

No matter how hard he tried to recall, there had been no announcement about such an event.

‘It must be the work of Director Lee Sehee.’

If it had been Deputy Director Park Seoah’s doing, she would have informed them at least a month before.

It seemed this facility was created due to the increased number of visitors to the institute, likely because of the Red Reaper that gathered people from all over the world.

At that moment, the Golden Reaper unexpectedly popped its head out of the pocket of its lab coat and stealthily crawled up onto its shoulder.

Maybe something interesting had appeared at the Sehee Institute, as the Golden Reaper also seemed a bit excited.

“Okay, let’s go in and take a look.”

The Helmet Researcher playfully patted the head of the Golden Reaper as he walked toward the entrance of the tent.

Upon entering, he was greeted by a surprisingly well-decorated interior.

It resembled a museum more than a circus performance venue.

Soft lighting hung from the ceiling, and the hallway leading from the entrance was plastered with photographs of Mini Reapers.

Photos of the Red Reaper soaring through the sky, wielding a scythe and hammer while burning slime.

A suspiciously high-quality photo of the joyful Golden Reaper breaking through the atmosphere.

And the rest were pictures from magazines that the researchers at the Sehee Institute had circulated.

Most were images from the magazine known as [Weekly Mini Reapers!].

This mysterious magazine appeared every Monday morning in the institute’s lounge, with no one knowing who created it.

Researchers humorously speculated that there might be an “Object” hidden within the institute that produced the Mini Reaper magazine.

Moreover, the magazine occasionally featured the Gray Reaper, eyes closed and striking model-like poses, wearing glamorous clothes.

Who could be making it?

If there were photos of the Gray Reaper dressed up, it seemed plausible that a genuine Object was behind the magazine’s creation.

As they passed the hallway filled with photographs, Sehee appeared and handed out pamphlets, explaining today’s tasks.

The tasks were simple.

Distributing pamphlets.

Walking around to manage the event.

Lastly, introducing people without Attached Reapers to Mini Reapers.

With that, Sehee passed him a large paper box, likely meant for holding chicks, and went off somewhere.

Inside the box were Mini Reapers resembling colorful chicks.

“Squawk!”

“Hey, who bit me!”

They made no noise, but the chicks were rolling around noisily.

Playing with the Mini Reapers, time flew by, and soon guests began entering the tent in succession.

Perhaps due to the recent green slime incident, quite a number of guests were arriving.

It seemed to be ten times more than the Helmet Researcher had anticipated.

‘If we hadn’t made this tent, the institute would have been paralyzed!’

As he moved a now-empty paper box and surveyed the event space, he noticed a spot where a large crowd had gathered.

It was labeled <★Mini Reaper Photo Zone★>.

It was a place to take various photos with Attached Reapers or Free Reapers roaming around the photo zone.

There were a variety of props available, similar to those found at sticker photo booths, and many items in the size of Mini Reapers that were hard to find elsewhere.

There was a woman taking a photo with a Golden Reaper.

“Alright, let’s do a V pose!”

The woman in the photo zone raised her fingers in a V shape towards the Golden Reaper, who was cheerfully cheering with arms raised.

However, the Golden Reaper seemed confused, not quite understanding what the ‘V’ meant.

‘Ah, that guy. He looks like a newborn Golden Reaper.’

It’s a rare Golden Reaper that can only be seen for about three days after its birth.

Smaller than other Golden Reapers, a bit expressionless, and doesn’t understand language well.

Even endlessly cheerful Golden Reapers seem to start understanding language a bit better when they are among humans.

Of course, they don’t fully comprehend language, but their awareness improves.

The woman kept trying to explain, but the Golden Reaper tilted its head, still forming a ‘V’ with its finger and looking down.

The puzzled look of the Golden Reaper was so cute that the woman gave up on the pose and just took the picture.

Click!

*

A large hospital near Songpa District.

The only survivor of the James Space Station woke up quickly, maybe because she had slept too much and couldn’t even dream.

“Ah.”

As the woman pressed her throbbing head, she realized something was on her belly just as she was about to get up.

She felt something warm and fluffy.

Looking under the covers, she found a palm-sized Object with green skin coiled up.

Although she had never seen anything like it before, it looked unmistakably like a new Mini Reaper.

And the woman instinctively felt it.

‘Mingming is alive!’

That this child was ‘Mingming.’

Green skin.

Triangular ears that stick out like a cat’s.

Bright yellow eyes.

A cute curved mouth.

Though there were many similarities, the woman could feel beyond those reasons.

That it was definitely Mingming.

Wiping away her tears of joy, the woman carefully lifted the tiny Mingming.

Slowly, so as not to wake it.

And as she brought Mingming close to her face, soft breaths could be heard.

“Meow. Meow. Meow.”

It must have been deeply asleep, producing a rhythmic ‘meowing’ sound.

‘Hehe, so cute.’

The woman smiled gently and poked at Mingming’s large leaf.

“Ah!”

But since the leaf was quite sensitive, Mingming woke up at that moment.

Mingming blinked sleepily, quickly realized the situation, and startled, tried to fly away.

“Ming!?”

The woman desperately clutched at Mingming, who was trying to escape from her grasp.

She felt a peculiar sense that if she let go now, it would be hard to meet again, so she clung to it with all her strength.

Perhaps realizing it couldn’t escape, Mingming curled up and began to emit a green light.

Suddenly, soft grass-like growths started to sprout rapidly from Mingming’s body.

In an instant, Mingming was covered in grass like a moss ball, giving a low sound.

“Meow.”

Although it had shrunk significantly, it still resembled what she had seen on the space station.

Except for being a bit elongated like a caterpillar, of course.

It was probably because the Mini Reaper inside had a human shape.

“You don’t have to do that.”

Gently stroking the soft grass, the woman spoke in a soothing voice.

“I already know. There’s no way I wouldn’t recognize you.”

Puff.

At that moment, the rapidly growing grass fell off its body, and the green Reaper began to look up with a somewhat worried expression.

Seeing that, the woman smiled as widely as she could at the green Reaper.

In response, the green Reaper flew over and cuddled up to her, looking happy.

“Ming!”

It was a moment of reunion between the surviving Object and the human from space.

*

In the depths of Seoul Forest, where civilization and even humans had disappeared.

I was marching in there along with the Mini Reapers.

That place was where I had been reborn as an Object.

Where I obtained ghosting and physical immunity.

And the place where I had nearly died countless times.

As I ventured a bit deeper, ruins of a village turned to ashes came into view.

‘This was the village where the Steel Pig statue used to be.’

I walked through the deserted forest, feeling a bit nostalgic.

As I passed the village, the true Seoul Forest, with almost no traces of humans, revealed itself.

‘There should be a cave nearby where I met Sehee.’

‘Beyond that rock was the area where the Giant Mole was flying around.’

Recalling those memories, I moved through the Seoul Forest.

Thud, thud.

The Mini Reapers followed behind me, removing harmful Objects.

‘Finally, we’re about to tidy up the Objects in the Seoul Forest.’

When I was reborn, I was too weak to clean up, and afterward, it was too vast for me to handle alone, so I had left it.

Moreover, the Mini Reapers wouldn’t come into places where there were no people, so it was only now that the cleanup was happening.

After distributing the Mini Reapers evenly throughout the Seoul Forest, I moved to the most important spot.

The source of the problem in the Seoul Forest, the Steel Tower.

As I stood in front of it, I felt a distinctly different atmosphere compared to when I had seen it before.

The fog that used to fill the open lot was gone.

The tranquility that almost felt sacred had vanished.

Instead of the sacred stillness, a slow crumbling sound filled the open lot.

And on the surface of the Steel Tower, which stood tall in the center of the open lot, black cracks were visible.

‘Was [Nostalgia] indeed referring to the landscape of the seven moons seen from the Steel Tower?’

As I slowly looked up at the crumbling Steel Tower, that thought crossed my mind.

‘Since it’s falling apart, there’s no need to poke around anymore.’

And I decided to check the destruction conditions of the Steel Tower one last time.

However, as I looked at the Steel Tower with my ‘eyes,’ things began to be revealed that had not been seen before.

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Empty destruction conditions.

And above that, a darkened star could be seen beyond the steel tower’s peak, as if reaching the sky.