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The Blue Reaper found this world, which had suddenly pulled him in, to be somewhat pleasant.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

A world so quiet that the footsteps of Mom Golem could be heard echoing loudly.

With no one around, it felt as if it was just the two of them in this vast structure, a cozy world.

Hugged in the embrace of the Attached Human, it was a world where he could lean back without anyone watching.

With just a little bit of courage, it was a world perfect for staying close to the Attached Human!

The Attached Human was secretly piling snowballs on his hat.

“Hehehe.”

Thinking that he wasn’t aware of her, the Attached Human let out a small, suspicious giggle.

The Blue Reaper pretended not to notice and lifted his head toward the sky, causing snowballs to tumble off the hat.

The Attached Human screamed upon seeing this.

“No…! My white tower!”

Looking up, he saw a canopy that filled the sky.

And through that tattered canopy, a dim light, neither day nor night, could be seen.

That ambiguous brightness was the ‘day’ of this world.

How fascinating.

Besides that, everything in this world seemed intriguing to the Blue Reaper.

‘Who on earth built this tower?’

The tower he was climbing with the Attached Human was a massive structure unlike anything he had seen even in the world where ‘Mom’ was.

The tower was tall enough to touch the sky and wide enough to hold a city.

The most intriguing part was the very structure of this tower.

It looked like a haphazard assembly of round stairs.

Moreover, it was designed so that each floor could see the sky directly.

‘Why was it made like this? After all, even if you look up, all you see is a black canopy and a thin slice of sky peeking through…’

How much time had passed?

The Attached Human, bored by the white-covered fields, grumbled.

“I’m so bored. Everything looks white, so it’s dull…”

And as the bored Attached Human took the Blue Reaper’s small hand and started playing with dolls, the end of the snow-covered plain began to become visible.

Suddenly, a dried field appeared as if forced onto the snow-covered plain.

It looked like the border where winter met summer.

“A field!”

The Pink Girl sat up straight and looked around.

Then, as if she was going to share a secret knowledge, she whispered to the Blue Reaper in a small voice.

“My grandfather told me that when the sun was out, food used to sprout everywhere here. Isn’t that amazing?”

“What kind of food came out from this field? Canned goods? Snacks? Candy?”

Imagining delicious food, the Pink Girl cheerfully giggled and smiled.

“So, I really want to reach the top of this tower.”

The Blue Reaper couldn’t figure out the connection between snacks and the top of this tower, creating a question mark in the air.

“My grandfather said that the very top floor of this tower connects beyond the sky canopy. And above the sky canopy, there’s the sun.”

“One day, I’ll be able to see the sun. And there will also be a ‘field’ where candy grows.”

The Pink Girl giggled as if dreaming.

*

James Tower in the Outskirts of Songpa District.

With incidents happening too frequently, the Situation Room had completely shed the ‘temporary’ title.

Seated in that room, James was watching a live feed.

As soon as he discovered that the ‘civilization destruction’ around Seoul Forest had subsided, he saw the video captured by the drone sent for investigating Seoul Forest.

The footage filmed by the drone was chaotic, flipping his view back and forth multiple times in just a second.

“Hmm.”

It was dizzying footage and showed significant spatial distortion, yet James’s expression was brighter than expected.

‘Even with so much chaos happening around Seoul Forest, the drone seems fine.’

With such rapid and haphazard distortions in space, the drone could’ve been torn apart mid-flight.

With this level of stable distortion, a human entering wouldn’t have to worry about limbs being torn off.

However, even if the risk of immediate death wasn’t there, the entry prohibition still seemed necessary.

If a human were to enter, they would likely become lost in a labyrinth where they couldn’t distinguish between heaven and earth, unable to escape forever.

‘By the way, there are so many Golden Reapers.’

Like crows, the Golden Reapers were perched thickly in the trees.

The Golden Reapers were lined up on fallen leaves, marching in a row.

They were falling from the air like rain due to spatial distortion.

Others were digging through the ground like moles.

The video captured by the drone showed so many Golden Reapers that it looked less like Seoul Forest and more like ‘Golden Reaper Forest.’

Oddly enough, the Golden Reapers wandering in Seoul Forest were holding transparent, refreshing blue fragments that looked like water in their hands.

‘What the heck are those fragments?’

But it was hard to make a proper judgment with the drone’s camera.

To clear his tired mind, James lifted the coffee cup resting on his desk.

‘?’

Noticing that the coffee cup felt a bit heavier than usual, he turned his head to find a Golden Reaper with an awkward expression sticking to the coffee cup.

‘Oh no! I’ve been caught!’

The Golden Reaper was putting a sugar cube into the coffee cup, grinning sheepishly.

‘I somehow thought it was getting sweeter with each sip, but there was this secret.’

Seeing that James didn’t seem too angry, the Golden Reaper added the rest of the sugar cube and stuck its tongue out to lick the coffee.

‘Yuck! Still bitter.’

Then it stuck its tongue out, making a face.

James saw that and lifted the Golden Reaper, lightly patted it, and popped a jelly into its mouth.

Omnomnom.

The Golden Reaper smiled happily, nibbling on the jelly atop James’s hand.

*

Deep Inside Sehee Research Institute, Comfortable Isolation Room.

I was cuddled in Yerin’s arms, playing with the Ghost Reaper.

“Dearest!”

“Waaah!”

The Golden Reaper pricked by the Ghost Reaper let out a giggle and emitted its will.

The game I was playing was to make the Ghost Reaper prick various targets.

Every time the target changed, the knife shape of the Ghost Reaper changed slightly, and its exclamations varied a bit too.

When it pricked me, it shouted, “Honor!”

When it poked the Mini Reapers, it shouted, “Dearest!”

When it pricked an injured object, it called out, “Medicine!”

In this way, it released various wills while poking them.

When the Red Reaper pricked the hot White Hungry Ghost soup, it emitted the will “Tunnel!”—I had no idea what that meant.

So I was bringing various objects and letting it poke at them.

At that moment, Yerin, chewing on my antenna, murmured as she gazed at the TV screen.

“Wow, there are so many Golden Reapers.”

Hearing that, I turned my head to see the TV screen filled with Golden Reapers swarming around the Seoul Forest outpost.

They were packed in so tightly there was no room to step.

Then the TV screen switched, and the voice of the news anchor could be heard.

[The Object Association has issued an emergency statement declaring severe restrictions on entry to Seoul Forest.]

[According to the latest announcement by James Research Institute, caution is advised as ‘spatial loss phenomenon’ is occurring around Seoul Forest.]

The footage showing the area near Seoul Forest suggested that too many Golden Reapers were dispatched to be merely protecting humans.

‘It’s strange.’

Was it just because wandering around the spatial distortion was fun?

Organizing my thoughts, I turned my gaze away from the TV.

And I picked up a fist-sized Mini White Hungry Ghost, presenting it to the Ghost Reaper.

What kind of will would it express while poking it?

Excited and watching, the Ghost Reaper raised the knife high and brought it down.

“It’s a knife!!!!!”

Kyuuhinghing.

As the knife lodged into the plump back of the White Hungry Ghost, it let out a sorrowful cry.

Well, a knife does suit a White Hungry Ghost after all.

Hehe.

*

Crumble. Crumble.

As I moved across the completely dried-out field with no moisture, the sound of sand crumbling could be heard.

The Attached Human, using the crumbling sand as background noise, chattered nonstop.

“My grandfather said back then…”

“They said there was something called pudding…”

Half of it was bragging about her grandfather, and the other half was delicious food stories.

As I listened to the Attached Human talk, time passed, and the faint light streaming down from beyond the canopy began to gradually diminish.

“Wait a second.”

Upon hearing those words, the Blue Reaper made Mom Golem stop, and grotesque monsters began to emerge from the surrounding shadows.

“Object!”

It was a harmful object exuding the scent of evolution liquid.

“It’s a magical book that eats shadows.”

The Pink Girl wore a very tense expression.

<10 needles made of water!>

Seeing the Attached Human’s expression, the Blue Reaper conjured needles made of water and sent them flying, but there was no effect.

It was as if he had punched a shadow.

“My grandfather told me that magical book can’t be killed.”

“But as long as we don’t enter the same shadow, we’ll be fine.”

The Pink Girl was glancing around nervously, looking quite tense.

“If you get caught by the shadow-eating magical book, you’ll lose a part of your shadow and a whole memory.”

“But the only memory I have is of my grandfather. I can’t lose it ever.”

Hearing the Attached Human’s words, the Blue Reaper looked down at her shadow.

‘!!!’

The Blue Reaper was utterly shocked when he saw the Attached Human’s shadow.

And of course.

The Attached Human’s shadow had been gnawed at until it was nearly gone, like a mouse had feasted on it.