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Sehee Research Institute, Yerin Oh’s apartment.

“Alright, I’m heading out. Keep the house safe!”

“Kyu!”

Yerin waved her hand at the White Hungry Ghost sitting on the knee of the Lead Doll and left for work at the institute.

After a while of her absence, the apartment began to get a little more lively.

Kyu.

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Kyu-woo-woo.

White Hungry Ghosts made of marshmallow squeezed through the cracks of the front door and began to filter in one by one.

The Golden Reapers peeked their heads out from the dark room walls, giggling quietly as they looked around.

“Hide and seek!”

Once they confirmed no one else was around, they landed on the floor and darted around like they were hiding behind the legs of the table, making ‘shasha-shak’ sounds.

Just like ninjas!

Their destination was the room where the Lead Doll was sitting.

“Secret game!”

“Secret friend!”

The Golden Reapers didn’t really know why they were hiding from Yerin, but it looked fun, so they were following the White Hungry Ghost.

So, the gathered Golden Reapers and White Hungry Ghosts orderly assembled in the room with the Lead Doll.

And just like puppies waiting for their food, they were looking up at the Lead Doll with eagerness.

“Snack time is coming!”

“!!”

“!!”

When one of the Golden Reapers pulled out a giant cookie they had secretly brought, the Golden Reapers started jumping around and cheering.

Then they gathered around the cookie and began to nibble on it bit by bit.

The so-called Round Table Cookie!

Om-nom-nom.

They pulled off tiny pieces with their little hands, putting them in their mouths and chewing.

The Golden Reapers devoured cookie handfuls like greedy little monsters and then turned their heads to gaze up at the Lead Doll’s face.

The White Hungry Ghost, basking in the warm sunlight streaming through the window, wore a happy expression.

At that moment, both the White Hungry Ghost and the Golden Reapers stood up almost simultaneously and lined up.

“!!”

“Kyu!”

The Lead Doll slowly opened its eyes, radiating a gentle golden light all around.

“Mommy!”

“Kind mommy!”

The White Hungry Ghost and Golden Reapers took turns snuggling into the embrace of the Lead Doll.

“Warm!”

Kyu-hee-hee.

The Lead Doll smiled gently, cradling the White Hungry Ghost and Golden Reapers one by one.

When the White Hungry Ghost first noticed that the Lead Doll was awake, it hardly moved, but after the seven-colored moon rose recently, the Lead Doll was able to hug the ghosts and Golden Reapers on its own.

The Lead Doll responded to the Golden Reapers’ thoughts and desires, but its answers remained vague.

“Do you eat pudding too, mommy?”

“Are you really mommy?”

“Mommy!”

The Lead Doll just laughed and hugged them tightly.

The Golden Reapers hoped that one day they could play together with ‘Mommy mk.2’ as well.

*

Mini Reaper Garden, Marshmallow Plains.

“No way!”

As the delinquent Ghost Reaper tied the sword ‘Disloyalty’ around the ankle of the Mini Hippo, the Ghost Reaper caught in its grasp began to thrash wildly.

Hee-hee.

After playing with the delinquent Ghost Reaper for a while, it started to get boring, so I let it go.

In an instant, the Ghost Reaper vanished.

Super fast.

The sword that had been forcibly tied to the Mini Hippo’s ankle had also disappeared by now.

What should I do now?

While pondering that, I was walking around the Mini Reaper Garden when a Yellow Reaper slowly approached.

“…, done…!”

Turning towards the Yellow Reaper, I saw a pile of dinosaur costumes stacked up high.

Dinosaur costumes in various colors.

All dinosaur costumes with two fingers!

“Great job!”

I grabbed the Yellow Reaper, ruffling its head vigorously.

As I stroked the soft, squishy Yellow Reaper, I felt a tinge of curiosity.

Poke.

I poked the little pudgy belly of the Yellow Reaper with my finger.

The Yellow Reaper jerked as if it was ticklish.

Hee-hee.

Suddenly feeling playful, I began to tickle the Yellow Reaper mercilessly.

“Me too!”

Seeing the mini Reapers sneaking closer to the mountain of dinosaur costumes, they began to climb onto my body, insisting on getting a turn.

“Hee-hee.”

“It tickles!”

As I continued to tickle the mini Reapers, I suddenly realized that many of them had gathered around me.

I stood up and projected my will.

“Alright, let’s all wear dinosaur costumes!”

Suddenly, hundreds of mini Tyrannosaurs appeared in the Mini Reaper Garden.

“Dinosaur bite!”

“Ugh, who bit me!”

“Dinosaur headbutt!”

With the mini Reapers dressed in dinosaur outfits, they began nipping and headbutting each other, creating a ruckus.

And then I projected my will and summoned the Mini White Hungry Ghosts.

“Kyu?!”

“Kyu!!”

The White Hungry Ghosts arrived upon receiving the emergency signal, looking confused, but quickly realized the situation and started to flee.

As soon as the White Hungry Ghosts began to run away, the mini Reapers grasped the essence of today’s game and dashed towards the fleeing White Hungry Ghosts.

Tyrannosaurs breathing fire, Tyrannosaurs using time acceleration, and so on.

Various Tyrannosaurs began to gnaw at the White Hungry Ghosts.

Kyu-hing-hing.

The Mini Reaper Garden was filled with the mournful cries of the White Hungry Ghosts.

Hee-hee.

Watching the perfect reenactment of the dinosaur era, I chuckled contentedly when the Black Reapers came rushing in and began tossing their will around.

“Mom!”

“Big trouble!”

“Steel Tower!”

Upon hearing that will, I immediately teleported with the raucous Black Reapers to near Seoul Forest.

What I saw there was something completely unusual that couldn’t be seen from the Sehee Research Institute.

In the distance, a black beam of light divided the sky.

At the end of that beam of light, a menacing black star loomed.

Something strange happened to the Steel Tower.

*

Late afternoon, Yerin’s apartment.

“I’m back.”

“Kyu!”

When Yerin opened the front door and returned home, the White Hungry Ghost chirped a ‘kyu’ to welcome her.

Yerin hugged the White Hungry Ghost and began to talk cheerfully about her day.

“This morning, the Reaper was gone from the beginning.”

“Instead, Mini Reapers dressed in adorable dinosaur costumes were running around the courtyard. Where could they have gone at such a time?”

Yerin skillfully arranged her bag, turned on the TV, then gently patted the head of the Lead Doll sitting peacefully.

“I’m back.”

Then, Yerin looked down at the Lead Doll, dressed in a pretty dress, with a satisfied smile.

After finishing her shower and coming out to the living room, Yerin found a follow-up report from yesterday’s news on TV.

[There has been a recent announcement from the American Object Association regarding the sudden appearance of buildings and ruins.]

[According to the Association, the object phenomena currently occurring are being observed globally and potentially pose significant risks.]

[Therefore, the Association strongly advises against approaching such phenomena as much as possible.]

[Especially, considering the instances of structures like buildings or ruins suddenly appearing, it is highly likely this is a phenomenon of space replacement or overlapping.]

[Currently,…]

Yerin absentmindedly dried her hair while hugging the White Hungry Ghost.

“Hmm, did the Reaper go solve that incident?”

As Yerin mumbled this, walking towards the sofa, she suddenly felt a strange sensation under her feet.

Crumble.

Something crunched beneath her.

“Cookie crumbs?”

Checking her feet, she found it was crumbs from a cookie she hadn’t even eaten recently.

“?”

When Yerin tilted her head at the unexplainable trace and looked towards the White Hungry Ghost, the White Hungry Ghost was turning away like a puppy hiding something.

*

In the center of Seoul Forest, where the Steel Tower had stood.

Before long, the sun had disappeared, and colorful moonlight began to shine down.

While investigating the spot where the Steel Tower had collapsed, night fell swiftly.

Hing.

When I first arrived at Seoul Forest, it was complete chaos.

I was clearly trying to teleport near the Steel Tower, but I ended up on the outskirts of Seoul Forest.

At the location where the Steel Tower used to be, there was a dark beam of light.

In the sky, an ominous black star.

Moreover, in the forest, Golden Reapers and Black Reapers were rushing around chaotically.

“This is bad!”

“Mom!”

The Golden Reaper running ahead suddenly fell from the sky, and the one falling from the sky popped up from the ground.

‘??’

I couldn’t understand why they were acting like that, but the moment I stepped into the forest, I figured it out.

Taking just a single step resulted in popping up somewhere entirely different.

This space was all jumbled up.

Teleportation wasn’t functioning properly, and the Mini Reaper Garden wasn’t unfolding correctly either.

So I had to run around Seoul Forest, not knowing where I’d pop up with each step, like it was a maze.

Furthermore, with the space distorting in real-time, one could say it was a maze where the paths changed instantaneously.

Thus, another mystery was solved.

The Black Reapers had indeed said that the Steel Tower collapsed ‘late at night,’ yet the Black Reapers had arrived here in the morning.

It appeared that the Black Reapers, due to the spatial distortion, couldn’t return to the Mini Reaper Garden and took a long time to navigate their way through the maze.

If that’s the case, then the Black Reapers who had alerted me about the Steel Tower must have traversed this maddening maze.

“Impressive. Well done.”

Beep—!

I reached out to pat the Black Reapers like that.

“No matter how I look at it, I don’t get it.”

The Black Reapers eagerly told me about the anomaly at the Steel Tower, but in the end, I didn’t uncover much upon investigation.

The only thing I clarified was one fact.

That the Steel Tower had completely vanished.

And aside from the spatial chaos, Seoul Forest didn’t seem all that dangerous after all.

“Hmm, what should I do?”

I began to poke one of the Black Reapers repeatedly, deep in thought.

*

Late night, near Seoul Forest.

A Blue Reaper was flying around the outskirts of Seoul Forest in circles.

The Mini Reapers were blocking off the area around Seoul Forest due to a simple reason of ‘Humans might be dangerous!’

Of course, the Mini Reapers’ ‘mom’ didn’t have such meticulous thoughts.

She simply thought, “Ah, I don’t know! I’ll think about it tomorrow!” and returned to the Sehee Research Institute.

As the Blue Reaper was patrolling the skies, it suddenly picked up an odd sound.

A tiny human voice.

Too far to hear clearly.

“Are humans dangerous?”

Thinking that humans might be a threat, the Blue Reaper began to chase after the sound and entered Seoul Forest.

And the moment it entered, the Blue Reaper arrived in a totally different place.

A gigantic ceiling blocking the sky.

A fake floor where the ground couldn’t be felt.

A dark space with almost no light at all.

A nauseating smell of oil filling the air.

Gigantic pillars rising to heights that seemed to reach the sky.

And a girl with pink hair.

She was the only human that the Blue Reaper could sense.

“Where is this?”

The Blue Reaper tilted its head, staring blankly at the girl.