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A place devoid of light.

With the faint light emitted from her fingertips, the pink-haired girl was slowly walking out.

In every direction, there were no marks to rely on in this space.

The only guiding sign for the girl was the round pipe beneath her feet, glimmering with the faint light.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Perhaps because the pipe was made of metal, the sound of her footsteps echoed like hitting an empty drum.

“It’s dark. I’m hungry. My feet hurt.”

[It’s dark. I’m hungry. My feet hurt.]

“It’s dark. I’m hungry. My feet hurt.”

[It’s dark. I’m hungry. My feet hurt.]

The voice resonated like an echo in the dark space.

The girl, trudging along without energy, let out grumbles from her mouth.

The pink girl wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest, but it wasn’t worth sleeping on a pipe barely wide enough for her cheeks.

Not being able to see the floor, falling while asleep would be a disaster.

“Was it a mistake to recklessly enter a dark place to avoid the starlight ants…”

“Well, naturally, it must be a mistake.”

As she thought inwardly about how she ended up in this situation, she continued walking on the endless pipe.

Yawn.

The pink girl opened her mouth wide and yawned.

“Sleepy.”

In a space with nothing but darkness.

A pipe that required her to walk in a straight line.

Moreover, an entire day had already slipped away.

As she became accustomed to walking the pipe like a tightrope, a summoning force overwhelmed her.

Chomp. Chomp.

So, to wake herself up, the girl took out a pure white petal and began to chew it.

Ew.

The taste was quite bitter, causing the pink girl to scrunch her face and stick out her tongue.

While she monotonously picked out the unappetizing things from her alchemical samples to eat, she discovered a faint light in the distance.

The pink girl opened her mouth and exclaimed, “Ooh!” before beginning to dash across the pipe, as if performing acrobatics.

“Light!”

In an instant, she arrived before the light and jumped towards it.

At that moment when she leaped into the light, the girl was able to escape the dark, enormous building and face the familiar night sky and new scenery.

The solid, sturdy stone floor, unlike the metal pipes.

And a soft layer of white powder covering that stone floor.

The white powder, which engulfed everything in sight, created a landscape the girl had never seen before.

That white powder reflected the starlight descending from the sky and softly glimmered, with the girl’s footprints imprinted upon it.

Looking up at the sky, the familiar curtain filled her view.

An endless canopy of the sky covered everything in sight.

A canopy that had concealed the sky since before she was born.

The sky’s veil was tattered and ragged in places, revealing parts of the night sky beyond.

The sky visible beyond the curtain was a deep, dark black, but the twinkling stars amidst the darkness shone beautifully as if scattered like jewels.

“Now, the moon has disappeared from sight.”

The moons that began disappearing one by one had left only the green moon as its last trace.

“The green moon is also gone.”

The girl muttered with a slightly disappointed expression while looking up at the sky.

Having never seen the sun, she had now also lost the moonlight.

At that moment.

From the empty void, an unidentified being revealed itself before the pink girl.

A transparent blue like water.

Only the size of a palm.

And it was something wearing a large turned-over hat.

*

Deep within the Mini Reaper Garden.

I was comfortably resting on the Marshmallow Plains.

I had ultimately decided to give up on solving the chaotic situation behind the Steel Tower and just laze around.

No matter how much I looked with ‘eyes’, in Seoul Forest, I couldn’t spot an object; only the space was rampaging.

The entanglement of that space felt as natural as a ‘natural phenomenon.’

So I decided to leave it alone.

It didn’t seem related to the Color Universe, so it should be fine.

Even if there were an object as the source, it would only be something like the ‘moon’, and if it pops out, I could just deal with it then.

“I’m tired.”

Maybe because I only slept for 8 hours yesterday thinking about the Steel Tower, I felt like fatigue was clinging to my body.

The Golden Reapers also seemed to sense that I wanted to take a nap, coming together in a cluster.

“Nyam nyam.”

“Mom…”

The Golden Reapers who lay beside me instantly fell asleep, either nibbling on my hair or clinging desperately while calling for ‘mom.’

But unfortunately, I was still wide awake.

Whenever I tried to close my eyes and sleep, the Ghost Reaper would peek out from the corner of my vision.

The Ghost Reaper was holding a soft knife, looking for an opportunity.

I guessed it was planning to poke my forehead again.

When I closed my eyes, it would sneak closer; when I opened them, it would instantly vanish.

Of course, when I fell asleep, I habitually closed my eyes, but the Ghost Reaper too thought that I was seeing things like the other Mini Reapers.

So I started pretending to sleep, squeezing my eyes shut on purpose.

Slowly. Slowly.

At first, it approached me slowly, but as soon as it was convinced I had fallen asleep, the Ghost Reaper zoomed towards me at a speed rivaling teleportation and hovered above my forehead.

“Guuh!”

Then, expelling its will, the Ghost Reaper poked my forehead with its soft knife.

“Pop!”

In that moment, a refreshing sensation spread from the spot it poked, causing all sleep to vanish.

The last time I was poked, it felt unpleasant, but this time it surprisingly felt good.

Was it true filial piety?

I was so stunned by the unexpected effect that I sprang up from my spot and captured the Ghost Reaper.

“Waaah!”

Perhaps it was because I suddenly sat up, the Golden Reapers who had been sound asleep on me tumbled down.

Looking dazed from the sudden roll, the Golden Reapers jumped with bright eyes upon seeing the Ghost Reaper.

“Mom found the ghost!”

Ah, come to think of it, this deviant reaper was the ghost the Golden Reapers had been searching for.

And as the Golden Reapers climbed onto my arms with joyful faces, they began to cling to the Ghost Reaper eagerly.

“Younger sibling!”

“New younger sibling!”

The Golden Reapers rubbed their chubby cheeks against the Ghost Reaper incessantly.

“It seems like they like it oddly more than other siblings.”

As the Golden Reapers began to huddle around the Ghost Reaper, creating a giant ball, I gently placed that giant sphere on the floor.

The Ghost Reaper transformed into a massive lump of Golden Reapers like a moss ball.

Then, several Golden Reapers started to investigate inside the Ghost Reaper.

!

As the Golden Reapers checked the inside, they quickly separated from the moss ball with astonished expressions.

“Is it similar?”

“Similar!”

The separated Golden Reapers gathered and began sharing comments with puzzled expressions.

What on earth is causing that reaction?

Feeling something strange about the Golden Reapers’ reaction, I dug into the moss ball and lifted up the Ghost Reaper’s spectral shell.

“Ah!”

What was revealed was a Mini Reaper that looked very much like me.

A rather small body for a Mini Reaper.

Yellow shining eyes.

Gray skin.

A broken halo shining yellow.

Messy hair covering one eye.

And the Ghost Reaper, now revealed, was smiling shyly with a silly grin, licking its knife.

Other Mini Reapers resembled me, but since their skin color was exactly the same, it felt somewhat strange.

Of course, the Golden Reaper looked the most like me, but their expressions were so different that they didn’t resemble me at all.

“Mini mom sibling!”

“Sibling!”

At that moment, upon seeing the form of the Ghost Reaper, the Golden Reapers began to rush towards it.

The Golden Reapers bit the chubby cheeks of the Ghost Reaper and also nibbled its chubby belly.

“Waaah!”

Buried in the fervent attention of the Golden Reapers, the Ghost Reaper looked at me, seemingly asking for help, but I just chuckled and enjoyed the show.

“No way!”

Thus, the Ghost Reaper was buried deep beneath the mass of Golden Reapers.

*

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Footprints of the golem began to imprint on the pure white snow.

“Alright, that’s the way.”

[Mom Golem walks forward!]

The Blue Reaper, controlling the small mom golem he made alone under the guidance of the pink girl, peeked at the girl beside him and gave a slight smile.

“Attached Human!”

Unlike other Blue Reapers, the Blue Reaper who seldom created attached humans could encounter one in this unfamiliar space.

Hehe.

Perhaps because of that, the Blue Reaper’s happy smile did not fade.

In fact, he wanted to hide and observe the attached human right away, but he couldn’t.

The pink girl looked far too lonely, and this place, filled with the scent of evolution liquid, seemed far too dangerous.

[Mom Golem climbs the stairs!]

Was it a different world or something, it was strangely refreshing that the attached human could understand the strings used by the Blue Reaper.

“Mom Golem!”

The pink girl poked the Blue Reaper’s cheeks, reading along the strings or chattering away non-stop.

“By the way, I feel like I learned something when I was young…”

“The relationship between alchemists and magical books…?”

“The magical book that speaks… was it ‘cute’?”

The pink girl, who seemed to be deep in thought, shouted, “Ah, I don’t know!” and gave up on the thought.

“Attached Human. Looks like their condition isn’t good.”

The attached human was still talking cheerfully, but they were in a terrible state.

Probably malnourished.

It was a disease that the Blue Reaper’s abilities couldn’t heal.

“What’s that?”

As the Blue Reaper looked at the pink girl with worried eyes, a curious voice came from the attached human.

A wall made of transparent glass.

A modern structure built of reinforced concrete.

And on the sign of that structure, it was labeled ’24-hour convenience store.’

“Is that a letter?”

The attached human had already climbed off the golem’s shoulder, exploring the place here and there.

Aside from the impression that it seemed to have been carved with a sharp blade and moved, it was a building very familiar to the Blue Reaper.

Because it was a convenience store near Seoul Forest.