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A deserted beach where the Yellow Reaper and Plaster Doll have vanished.

On the sun-drenched white sandy beach, there was no one left moving, and silence descended.

Only ‘The Old One’ stood alone.

[Finally!]

After a truly long time, ‘The Old One’ was swept away by a tide of joy.

[It took so long.]

Looking down at his stained hands, ‘The Old One’ recalled the many years he had let slip away.

A world stained black.

A land filled with a different black slime that resembled a god.

After wandering for thousands of years, finding the path to the divine, the world was on the brink of destruction.

Just as he finally discovered the way to god, destruction loomed.

Is it true that humans can never become gods?

At the moment he was about to give up thinking that way, a new world opened up.

A true guiding of fate.

Crunch, crunch.

Lost in thought, ‘The Old One’ began to slowly walk along the beach and look down into the pit.

From then on, it was simpler than expected.

The hardest material to obtain in the destroyed world was ‘human,’ but in this new world, humans were as plentiful as cockroaches.

‘So, humans without the influence of external beings thrive so well in this world.’

The two things he was most concerned about were as follows.

The first: the external being whispering with a Red Voice.

The second: the ‘god’ referred to as the ‘Gray Reaper’ in this world.

To avoid hearing the voice of the external being, he did not give up being human.

And all the ‘dolls’ managed by ‘The Old One’ were merely devices of humanity.

To avoid being discovered by the Gray Reaper and their minions, he followed a certain ‘Magical Book’ that thrived in the crumbling world.

‘I will never kill a human.’

To avoid being detected by the Gray Reaper and their minions, he never killed a human, no matter what happened.

They were sensitive to human death.

Humans that needed to disappear from society were dealt with as fake corpses in accidents and then collected on the beach.

After collecting many humans, he succeeded in gaining ‘power’ from them.

Yet ‘The Old One’ looked at the dried human buried in the sand and sighed with disappointment.

[Though I used many people, I still couldn’t reach a form like that of a god.]

No matter how hard he tried, he could not achieve the power akin to that of a god, a proper ‘firewood.’

He could only gain somewhat similar power by squeezing humans buried on the beach.

‘If I can obtain the god’s retinue and conduct research, I might finally reach the god.’

Indeed, the power of the gods could not be achieved by human cognition but could only be attained through imitation.

Thus, ‘The Old One’ executed a risky yet necessary final plan.

The so-called plan to capture the ‘Yellow Reaper.’

It was a plan to lure and capture the Yellow Reaper, who hardly interacted with other Mini Reapers.

Now that he had laid his hands on the Yellow Reaper, the last piece of the puzzle leading to the divine was falling into place.

The time had come to obtain true ‘firewood.’

However, ‘The Old One’ prioritized leaving this place over research.

Though the disguise was perfect, he never knew when the Gray Reaper might appear.

He could not dismiss the potential problems that might occur, no matter how unlikely it seemed.

Using the Yellow Reaper to reach the divine could wait until after it was safe.

‘The Old One’ spread his arms and began to slowly reclaim the beach into himself.

Slowly, so that no one would notice.

*

Beeee—

The clear song of a bird echoed in the early dawn.

The Ashen Girl slowly opened her eyes, hearing that sound.

“Yawn.”

As if sleepy, when the girl opened her eyes, a familiar room came into view.

She was sure she had gone to bed on time last night, yet strangely felt an overwhelming drowsiness.

Shaking her head in an effort to shake off the sleepiness, the Ashen Girl slowly walked to the window.

And she reached for the window handle.

But at that moment, a soft sensation was transmitted through her fingertips.

Curious, she looked down at her hands, and there was a small object grasped in her hand.

“What is this…?”

She peered closely, her eyes filled with curiosity.

In her hand was a small doll dressed in tattered, worn clothes.

The doll’s form looked just like her reflected in a mirror.

The Ashen Girl was enveloped by an eerie sense of familiarity.

It felt as if she had discovered a very precious treasure.

As she gazed at the doll, her eyes began to redden.

A part of her heart ached deeply.

“A doll that resembles me…?”

Clutching the small doll tightly, the girl whispered quietly.

At that moment, a sharp pain filled her head, causing the girl to scream.

Unable to endure, her body fell limply to the ground.

Even as she collapsed, the girl did not let go of the doll.

The strange warmth emanating from the doll felt as if it was offering her comfort.

Like she was desperately clinging to the small warmth, as if trying to find the key to the mystery hidden within the doll.

*

Warm sunlight poured over the girl’s face.

Hmm…

As the Ashen Girl tried to shield her face with her palm, she suddenly sat up in surprise.

“School!”

In the room flooded with the late morning sun, she felt a gentle hand stroke her hair.

“Just lie down a bit longer.”

Turning her gaze, she saw the smiling face of her older sister.

“Sister?”

For some reason, the Ashen Girl felt a sense of discomfort looking at her sister.

The sister was talking about how she was surprised the girl suddenly collapsed, but the Ashen Girl couldn’t focus at all.

Because odd fragments of memory floated up in her mind.

Sad emotions.

A suffocating scent.

A square frame.

And inside the frame, the bright smile of her sister.

It felt like a memory she should never realize, so the girl shook her head vigorously to scatter the thoughts.

“No, I will get up.”

Slowly pushing the blanket away, the girl sat up.

At that moment, looking down, she spotted a small object firmly gripped in her right hand.

It was a doll with ashen hair.

The very same doll she had forgotten until she looked again.

The one that had disappeared into the past of memory.

‘I don’t want to think about it.’

Fearful tremors were laced in her voice.

With trembling hands, the girl tried to pry the doll from her grasp.

But no matter how much she struggled, her fingers wouldn’t budge.

Instead, they tightened their grip even more.

A desperate feeling that she must not let go surged from her fingertips.

‘Sister…’

At that moment, the girl’s mind became a tangled mess like a complex web.

Her vision blurred, and her ears buzzed.

Overwhelmed by pain she could not bear, the girl soon slumped down.

Even in the moment her consciousness was fading, her hand remained tightly closed.

As if she could never let go of the key to the memories hidden in the doll.

*

The girl opened her eyes.

It felt like she had a very sad dream.

A dream of sad cries and a picture frame.

The sound of wind echoed as though a hole had been made in the wall.

The Ashen Girl realized the truth.

She felt like she could lose consciousness.

‘….’

No, the girl wanted to lose consciousness.

‘I’m sorry, sister.’

After reopening her eyes, the Plaster Doll stood up quietly, silently apologizing in her heart, from the skeletal bed.

The Plaster Doll took a step forward with her own will.

And in doing so, the connection that maintained her body was severed.

But she did not care and took another step.

Her left arm completely shattered.

The ‘fake home’ revealed its gaunt skeleton.

Another step, she took.

The right leg that had been supporting her collapsed.

The ‘fake family’ revealed its true nature.

Crawling slightly on the floor, she crawled out.

The ‘fake self’ revealed its true form.

And half of her face crumbled and fell to the ground.

It didn’t hurt.

‘I have to go.’

‘I need to save my friend.’

With her own will, the Plaster Doll slowly moved forward.

She kept moving forward.

*

The search for the ‘Yellow Reaper’ to obtain toys had escalated into an incident.

“The Yellow Reaper has vanished.”

No matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t sense the Yellow Reaper.

Even though my senses could encompass the whole Earth for Mini Reapers.

I asked and inquired the Mini Reapers and found the secret hideout of the Yellow Reaper, but there was no sign of the Yellow Reaper there either.

The only clue left in the hideout was the cluttered items filled with powerful mental pollution.

And that clutter was found in a very suspicious apartment complex.

Buildings revealed their skeletons.

Black dust fluttered.

And Plaster Dolls roamed inside.

When night came, it was a place that would shock anyone, fitting for a horror movie.

‘So, you decided to just leave such a suspicious place alone?’

Filled with anger, I put the Golden Reapers into my mouth and chewed angrily.

‘No way!’

‘Ugh!’

As I stomped into the apartment complex, punishing the Golden Reapers, a peculiar Plaster Doll was slowly crawling toward me.

The Plaster Doll was in a dismal state, with no face and its left arm severed from its shoulder.

Moreover, both feet had also disappeared, yet still, the Plaster Doll persistently crawled forward.

The other Plaster Dolls didn’t even notice its presence.

Upon spotting me, the Plaster Doll struggled to raise its right hand.

In that hand was a well-crafted doll with ashen hair, tightly clutched.

The doll emanated the aura of the Yellow Reaper.

I slowly approached, bending down toward the fallen Plaster Doll.

At that moment, a faint will seeped out from the Plaster Doll.

‘I finally found you.’

A sense of joy and relief seemed to have traveled a long distance over a long time.

Slowly, but with difficulty, the Plaster Doll extended its arm and offered the doll.

As I received the doll, a deep sigh like a release escaped.

‘Now it’s all over….’

It felt like a peaceful ending to a final mission.

But in that moment, the Plaster Doll’s body began to crumble.

Like a sandcastle collapsing, it shattered into pieces and vanished.

Like ashes swirling in the wind, it seeped into the air.

‘….’

I stared blankly for a moment before looking down at the doll with ashen hair.

At first glance, it looked like an ordinary doll rather than an object.

That doll emitted a connection so faint and small that one could not feel it unless it was truly linked to me.

That faint connection stretched out to one of the countless gaps in space.

‘I see you there.’

I grinned ferociously, tearing space apart right then and there.