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The room beyond the shimmering black liquid was a dead end with no connecting doors.

Unlike other sections of the building with white walls, this one was adorned with beige walls.

In the corners of the square-shaped, angular room, frames that seemed to have been originally displayed were haphazardly piled up.

Instead, the walls of the room were covered with colorful depictions of hungry ghosts.

Red hungry ghosts, blue hungry ghosts, green hungry ghosts, and so on—various colored hungry ghosts.

These paintings exaggerated the tiny differences of the hungry ghosts in a cartoonish style.

In such a bizarre space, a uniformed hungry ghost turned their head towards the pink girl and the blue reaper, holding a white orb in one hand.

[At last, I can perform my final task.]

The uniformed hungry ghost emitted magic in a slightly anxious tone.

Their expression appeared to be trying to seem as ordinary as possible, but the ghost’s face was gradually contorting with anxiety.

“What’s the task? What does that mean?”

The pink girl had an innocent expression as if she didn’t sense the hungry ghost’s unease at all.

However, the blue reaper tightened their grip on the staff in tension as the ghost exuded a strange atmosphere.

[My final task. It is to show some records to the human who visits here.]

[Would you like to see?]

“Yeah. Show me.”

The uniformed hungry ghost then approached the blocked wall and tapped it in a unique rhythm.

Thud.

Suddenly, the enormous wall opened wide, revealing a hidden room.

It was a room filled with moving mirrors, like an exhibition room of a model academy.

“There are mirrors everywhere here.”

The pink girl followed behind the ghost, scanning the surroundings.

In those mirrors, numerous serious-looking people appeared, shouting and screaming as they spoke.

[For two years now, no life has been born in the tower. What’s the cause?]

[Alchemy is not eternal. The tower isn’t either. It would have been nice if the evolution liquid was too….]

[The seeds in the field aren’t sprouting. There’s enough light, nutrients, and water!]

[Still, I hope the students can eat plentifully….]

[The tower has lost its self-sustaining power. We need to find a way from the outside.]

[It’s daytime. The sun is cursing us.]

[What went wrong? Are we no longer human?]

[Spider, devour the sun.]

[The tower is crumbling.]

[The spider has broken.]

[Why?]

[We must bring matter from the outside, from another space.]

[The experiment was successful. Just one tiny piece of metal, but success is success.]

[Gather all the alchemists in this tower. This tower made of steel will lead us to hope.]

The people in the mirrors were all jabbering away with different voices, making it hard to understand what they were saying.

Yet, there was one feeling that was clear.

The desperate emotions of humans striving to survive.

The blue reaper tried to remember the faces of the poor humans with a sad expression.

But the pink girl, unlike the blue reaper, couldn’t distinguish the jumbled voices popping out of the mirrors.

She simply followed behind the hungry ghost, the murmuring voices serving as background noise.

And the ghost stood next to the mirror left deepest in the room.

Inside the mirror, a video seemed to show the tower viewed from afar.

The video began with a massive disc slowly crumpling and being compressed.

Just listening to it sent chilling sounds through the air.

The enormous yet precarious ‘Tower at the End’ seemed to be screaming.

As the upper part of the tower endlessly crumpled, it eventually clumped together like a gigantic steel stick.

Flash.

At that moment, a flash that began at the top of the tower bathed the screen in white.

As the flash subsided, the revealed sight was that of the tower, now a half, with the crumpled part vanished.

[This concludes my explanation by showing you this mirror. Do you have any questions?]

The uniformed hungry ghost said this while their hand holding the orb trembled slightly.

‘Weird. Something feels off.’

The blue reaper sensed an ominous vibe from the hungry ghost.

“It’s hard to understand the content of these mirrors; can you explain it?”

[My task ends with guiding humans to the mirror.]

“Then, how many people are above this level?”

The ghost seemed anxious yet perhaps a bit hopeful.

The pink girl, oblivious to this aspect, asked her curious question.

[I do not know any information about other levels.]

The ghost’s face was beginning to crumple more like the surface of a walnut.

The hand holding the orb started trembling even more.

“What about that tall statue with long arms but no legs?”

[That is a statue that cannot exist. I do not know it well.]

The ghost unconsciously repeated opening and closing its mouth.

Like it was trying to eat something.

“What about the corpses of hungry ghosts scattered outside the building?”

[Hungry ghosts? Ah, you mean the guardians like me. What an interesting expression.]

[They are all hungry ghosts that have consumed cores. I have taken care of them all.]

[Taking care of hungry ghosts that have consumed cores is also part of my ‘task.’]

Though the pink girl didn’t notice, muscles were becoming prominent on the ghost’s body.

“What about the writings in that room? And what is that black liquid?”

The pink girl pointed to the door at the back as she spoke.

[That’s about something I absolutely cannot name.]

Now, the ghost’s face was completely smashed, turning sinister like a walnut.

Yet the pink girl, perhaps due to her lack of memories with humans, felt nothing strange and opened her mouth again.

“Lastly, what is the ‘long-legged black hungry ghost’?”

The blue reaper sensed something was off and lightly slapped the attached human’s cheek, but the pink girl was already speaking out.

[That cannot be answered either.]

The ghost, now answering with a vividly red face, began bringing the orb to its mouth.

[As this is the end, let me add one thing: There is no ‘black guardian’ in this tower.]

And with that final word, it swallowed the white orb.

[The task is complete.]

[At long last!]

Then, the ghost’s body began to twist and turn uncontrollably.

Creeeak. Creeeak.

It looked like an incredibly painful twist, but the ghost was truly exuding an overwhelming feeling of relief.

[I really wanted to eat it.]

The ghost said this while lifting its head and grinning widely.

Inside its mouth were countless white teeth tightly packed together.

*

Outskirts of Songpa District, James Tower.

I was passing the time by stacking golden reapers made of ‘danjee’ like a tower.

Round. Thump.

Danjee golden reapers.

After playing around stacking squishy golden reapers, I also bowled rolling the danjee golden reapers.

Until the danjee golden reaper transformed back.

And once the golden reaper regained its original form, I lay on the floor and let out a long sigh of relief.

Well, it’s unfortunate that the Golden-Mecha-Tyranno Armor has already disappeared.

As I thought this, I was smiling slightly when the golden reapers came rushing over and started jumping on my belly.

‘Mom, I’m back to normal!’

‘Mom, danjee!’

I protruded my belly deliberately, raising the golden reapers high.

The golden reapers then laughed cheerfully as if it was entertaining.

Having jumped from even greater heights before, it’s amusing how they find joy each time.

As I was spending time like this, thoughts of the Tyranno suddenly crossed my mind.

James would probably take an immensely long time to create dinosaur armor, right?

I’m impatient to wait.

By the way, I succeeded in connecting to the space where the blue reaper went, didn’t I?

It seems that the space the blue reaper went to is related to the Steel Tower, and the space loss also seems associated with the Steel Tower.

If so, there could be the head of Tyranno where the blue reaper is!

The moment that thought crossed my mind, I jumped up from my place.

‘Ugh!’

The golden reapers that were playing on my belly all plopped down onto the floor.

Then I extended my senses and teleported towards the location of the blue reaper.

*

Splash.

As I pulled the string connected to the blue reaper with all my might, I was able to arrive at an entirely different world.

‘Did I teleport too far? I feel so dizzy.’

‘Where is this?’

The first feeling was the scent of evolution liquid that automatically creased my brow.

Well, it’s a world so messy that evolution liquid would pour out just from opening a small passage, so it wouldn’t be surprising.

And the first thing that caught my eye was the beautiful night sky adorning the heavens.

It was truly a stunning night sky, but the fact that it was shrouded in intertwined tents and not a single point of light or moon made me quite uncomfortable.

Looking down, I could see buildings lined with smooth white stones.

A water puddle crafted like a swimming pool, and rounded cute buildings.

It felt like a vacation spot.

At first, I wondered, ‘Could the blue reaper be having fun in a place like this?’

However, the vacation spot was swarming with quite powerful statue objects.

Long arms and legs rooted to the ground.

They looked like objects resembling the ‘Old God’ taken by the black reaper.

Grumble. Grumble.

So many had gathered that the heavy sound of the statues crawling filled the surroundings.

I shook my head to shake off the dizziness and began to prepare for battle, grasping at the air.

Then, I could hear the chaotic intentions radiating from the statues.

‘Returned, have you?’

‘You’re back?’

‘Hungry.’

‘Where are you?’

‘Can’t see.’

‘Liar!’

Unorganized and chaotic wills.

And as those wills began to align, they spoke a single word.

‘Mom?’