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While I was pondering whether to go break the jangseung, a purple light began to shine down from the sky.

A mysterious moon radiating purple light rose above the Ice Throne.

If the color were just peculiar, I could accept it, but this moonlight didn’t create any shadows.

Even under the stones, the moonlight reached.

Light illuminated places where shadows should naturally exist.

Nowhere did shadows appear, making it feel surreal and strange.

The color was purple, making it seem like I was inside a game with a broken graphics card.

However, it wasn’t that there were no shadows; they appeared like smudges scattered about.

Looking up at the sky, those shadows resembled the patterns of the purple moon.

From the start, the light scattered unevenly, resulting in the creation of shadows.

When I ran to touch the curious shadow, it slipped away from me, widening the distance.

The jangseung did the same thing, and now this shadow was too.

What did I do wrong for it to be like this?

I kept running, determined to step on the shadow that had formed on the ground, but the shadow kept fleeing from me.

This chase continued until the sun rose.

After the sun rose, all that remained was a snowfield filled with my footprints.

*

Gasping for breath, I looked at the center of the open lot, where a crumbled jangseung lay uselessly.

The jangseung was destroyed.

Collecting mirrors that didn’t reflect the jangseung to make a giant mirror, I reflected the jangseung back onto the mirror, solving the issue.

The intangible jangseung had revealed its form to reality and was shattered.

Ha ha. Finally.

But it was too late.

Night had fallen.

Night in Dobong-gu was very dangerous.

It was due to the Object known as the ‘Moon of the Snowfield.’

The purple-glowing moon was an Object that appeared wherever ‘Snowfield’ came at night on Earth.

That purple light couldn’t be avoided even inside buildings.

As a result, areas with ‘Snowfield’ worldwide were regarded as places uninhabitable by humans.

However, the conditions for that ‘Moon of the Snowfield’ to rise were unclear.

Sometimes it appeared in places that were clearly not snowfields, and it wouldn’t rise even in assured polar regions.

It was an Object that couldn’t be confirmed until directly observed in that area.

What was certain was that the snow-covered Dobong-gu always had the Moon of the Snowfield rising.

The purple light that penetrated even my eyelids only caused insomnia but didn’t threaten life.

Rather, the more dangerous entity was the shadow that appeared along with the purple light.

“The moon is rising! Everyone gather!”

We formed a circle in the open lot and faced each other.

Then we drove stakes into the ground around us to secure ourselves.

In the center where we gathered, we installed a device that resembled a totem.

It was a device to block mental interference from the object imported from America, but it was merely a temporary measure.

Of course, even being able to create such a thing was impressive.

In Korea, people were hardly aware of what Objects were.

The shadows created by the Moon of the Snowfield were bottomless pits.

If you stepped on them, you’d instantly vanish and disappear somewhere.

Where you disappeared to remained unknown.

Fortunately, the shadows didn’t attack people, but they did attract them.

To put it metaphorically, it felt similar to wanting to fit an odd tile together.

Gazing at the bottomless shadows, they increasingly felt like a perfect hole meant just for me.

Then, an impulse to fill that space with my body emerged.

Few could withstand that impulse without the help of the device.

The night was long.

I hoped we could get through this night safely.

Nearby agents were struggling.

Though we had secured ourselves with stakes, no one could stop those who decided to dart out.

Clenching my teeth, I closed my eyes.

But even with my eyes closed, the purple light seeped into them, and the shadows did the same.

Even with my eyes shut, the hole that fit me perfectly was visible.

Just like the hole in front of me right now.

A hole pierced in the perfect purple world.

If I could just block that hole, everything would be perfect.

‘Why is there such a hole?’

In a frenzy, I began to free the pins securing me to the stakes one by one and got to my feet.

‘There’s a hole up ahead that I must block.’

‘Yes, it’s a hole only I can block.’

Part of my mind knew it was all an illusion.

But I couldn’t endure it. I simply couldn’t.

I walked slowly and reached the hole.

‘Yes, this is the hole! The perfect hole for me.’

As I lightly brushed my fingers along the edge of the hole, the purple light that filled the world vanished, and I could see the morning sun rising far away.

At that moment, I was startled and pulled my hands away from the ground.

I had quite literally escaped death.

During the night, five agents had disappeared.

Fortunately, it wasn’t enough to classify it as a mission failure.

The operation to destroy the throne had not yet failed.

*

Lying atop the high debris after the shadow chase, I felt the morning sun warming my skin.

Hearing a noisy commotion, I looked below and saw people gathering near the throne.

Wasn’t it a chilling minus 100 degrees near the throne? Or was there another place that was minus 100 degrees?

They looked like people who hadn’t slept much at all.

They were installing something around the throne.

The object they were installing was an Object.

It looked like a bomb at first glance.

A bomb that appeared straightforward like a bundle of dynamite.

Since you couldn’t eliminate the throne with something like a missile, were they mobilizing Objects?

But since that throne wasn’t an Object, they were essentially wasting their efforts.

I watched their futile attempts with an intrigued expression.

In fact, you’d think someone might glance in my direction.

But perhaps because they were too engrossed in installing the bombs, no one noticed me.

Boom.

In that moment, I felt the ground pulsating.

Turning around, I saw a tidal wave crashing in from the land.

Buildings crumbled under the waves, and the ground twisted and coiled upward.

The dust flying about in debris pushed forward like a wave.

It was a massive tidal wave made of dust from the land.

Anything that touched the pulsating wave turned to powder and scattered.

Reinforcements of civilization, like concrete or asphalt, disintegrated into powder.

Of course, the Object bombs made by humans disintegrated too.

No way!!!!

A man’s scream echoed through Dobong-gu.

*

“Nooooo!!!!!!!”

I howled at the scattered Object bombs as they dissolved into dust.

Even if I groped around for the scattered bombs, those that had turned to dust wouldn’t return.

Having arrived at the throne after sacrificing several agents, why was this happening!

The storm of dust engulfed the area, plunging it into darkness.

The Ice Soldiers carrying the throne turned to dust, causing the throne to topple.

The tremendous shockwave and wind pressure sent me and my comrades tumbling across the ground.

Crashing to the floor, I looked up and saw yellow light piercing my vision.

In the dust cloud obscuring the sun, a yellow light shone into my eyes like volcanic ash.

“G-g-gray Reaper!”

The Gray Reaper stood high, looking down at us as if mocking.

Did the Gray Reaper have such powers?

All the Object bombs, along with our electronic devices and firearms were reduced to powder and disappeared.

This seemed akin to the phenomena occurring in Seoul Forest.

But we were sufficiently far from Seoul Forest.

This strange occurrence was a critical matter that had to be reported.

The sudden emergence of the Gray Reaper and the phenomena likely orchestrated by the Steel Tower.

Just then, the shockwave destroyed all our communication devices, forcing me to return directly to report.

To report and address future responses, I had to bring as many agents back as possible.

“The operation has failed. We are retreating.”

The agents and I cautiously retreated, keeping our focus on the Gray Reaper.

Thus, we had no choice but to return while swallowing our resentment.

*

The pulsation of the land felt familiar.

Yes, it felt like the Steel Tower.

I could sense the power of the Steel Tower that crushed civilizations.

But the Steel Tower’s domain should be stabilized; what was happening?

This was the first time I’d seen the Steel Tower’s domain pulsating like that.

As the ground dusted away with the pulsations, it resembled a tidal wave of dust crashing in from onshore.

The buildings and asphalt twisted and crumbled like a wave; it was a breathtaking sight.

Interestingly, the Ice Soldiers were helplessly crumbled within the wave too.

So the Steel Tower considered Ice Soldiers as part of civilization?

The pulsations of the Steel Tower ended after only a few minutes.

The further ruined Dobong-gu remained in a more miserable state.

Yet left in the wake of the tidal wave that swept through Dobong-gu was a strange structure.

Deep beneath Dobong-gu were an immense number of holes, akin to an ant nest.

Somehow, I got the feeling.

That down there, the owner of the Ice Throne would be present.

*

Seoul faced a massive crisis.

A drop in temperature beginning in Dobong-gu?

However, the drop in temperature originating from Dobong-gu didn’t quite impact all of Seoul.

It sharply lowered the temperature in some nearby regions before returning to normal.

Attacks from the Ice Soldiers?

That was sufficiently suppressed by the current military efforts.

The problem that drove Seoul into a panic was something else.

“The Expansion of Seoul Forest.”

The area of Seoul Forest had been observed to be gradually expanding.

Throbbing like a heart, it was continually increasing its domain.

The Steel Tower’s territory repeatedly expanded and contracted like a pulse wave.

But anywhere that had briefly been within that territory was reduced to powder, making it hardly different from rapidly expanding.

Korea had been steadily preparing for a battle against the Ice Throne in Dobong-gu but was powerless against the Steel Tower.

That’s because there was simply no way to fight back.