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On a bus cruising through the outskirts of Songpa District.

Yerin opened her phone and was checking the footage from the security camera.

‘So cute, so cute!’

Yerin smiled contentedly as she watched the golden reaper that had appeared on the security camera recording from yesterday.

The golden reaper trotted into the camera view, placed its hand on the front door, and looked around.

Then, noticing no one was around, it giggled and was slowly sucked into the front door.

‘What on earth is that cute reaper secretly up to?’
‘Should I install cameras inside the house?’
‘The number has increased, huh? Yesterday, there were fifteen golden reapers. I hope there’s enough candy prepared for today!’

Yerin furrowed her brow slightly, thinking about the treats she had piled on the dining table for the golden reapers to eat.

Even though the golden reapers moved stealthily like ninjas, they managed to eat all the snacks on the table.

It seemed the reapers had the ability to distinguish between gifts and things that weren’t meant for them, judging by how they found and devoured the treats without touching anything else in the house.

‘Ah, I wonder if I should pretend to go to work on a holiday and sneak back in? I want to join the mini reaper’s party too.’

Yerin smiled happily, lost in her merry thoughts.

*

James was in a car driven by a chauffeur, trying to make the golden reaper memorize a new drawing.

“This drawing shows ‘Mom looks exhausted.'”

The picture depicted the gray reaper ignoring the golden reaper while lying down with a tired expression, illustrated in a deformed style.

It was meant to be a button-pushing image for communicating with the golden reaper.

‘Is Mom always like this?’

But the golden reaper repeatedly tilted its head as if it didn’t understand.

Hmm.

James noted this down in his notebook.

[The golden reaper might not understand the concept of being tired or exhausted.]
[Or, perhaps the gray reaper is showing far less interest in the mini reapers than I had anticipated.]

James then looked out the window, confirming they had arrived at Sehee Research Institute, before closing his notebook.

‘A summon from the gray reaper. I hope it’s good news.’

James straightened his clothing and walked toward the research institute.

*

The marshmallow plains felt a bit deserted after the gray reaper had disappeared somewhere.

The pink girl still wore a puzzled expression.

The soft, plushy landscape was filled with children resembling the blue child accompanying her.

A sweet fragrance filled the air.

Despite feeling a little confused, the sweet and warm atmosphere of this place seemed to calm her mind.

The pink girl sat on a marshmallow, observing the mini reaper garden to soothe her heart.

Could this be the paradise that grandpa spoke of?

Grandpa said paradise had no bad magical books and that guardians and people lived happily.

When the pink girl heard this, she had never seen a ‘guardian,’ so she couldn’t quite grasp those words, but now she understood what a guardian was.

The blue reaper referred to guardians as ‘hungry ghosts,’ so there might be guardians here too.

When the pink girl was suddenly dragged to this strange place, she couldn’t pay much attention to her surroundings, but as her tension wore off, she began to take notice of various things.

As she looked around, she soon spotted a truly white guardian.

‘Oh, there really is a guardian…?’

However, the white guardian she discovered was skewered on a sharp metal skewer and was roasting over a campfire.

Huh…?

Wasn’t paradise supposed to be a place where humans and guardians lived happily together?

Kyuheh.

Yet, it was hard to view the scene as happy, with the white guardian having a truly unjust expression as it was being roasted by the red child.

Well, the ‘red reaper’ roasting the white guardian looked rather blissful.

Poke, poke.

When she turned her head, the blue idol reaper was poking her cheek with a microphone.

[It’s okay.]
[The mini reaper garden is a really safe place!]

The blue idol reaper reassured the pink girl with a gentle smile.

Then, pulling out a bunch of treats she had never seen before, she began to share them.

“They’re delicious….”

These snacks were leagues better than the candy she had occasionally found at the ‘Tower at the End.’

“If this were paradise, I wish grandpa were here too….”

When the pink girl absentmindedly muttered this, the blue idol reaper looked up at her with a slightly sad expression.

“It’s okay.”

The pink girl smiled, gently stroking the blue idol reaper’s head.

‘This must be the ‘top floor of the tower’ I climbed to, right?’

The girl, who always climbed the tower as if chased by something, smiled that way.

*

In the mini reaper garden, where the gray reaper still hadn’t returned.

A huge structure began to fall into the sea of hot chocolate.

It was a transparent candy structure that had become incredibly popular among the mini reapers.

It resembled the ‘Tower at the End’ that had disappeared into the evolution liquid.

And beyond it, a giant loaf of bread was being hauled out, soaked in hot chocolate.

‘Bad bread!’
‘Loaf of bread!’

The golden reapers, wearing very angry expressions, clenched their little fists, radiating determination toward the loaf.

The black reapers had transformed into a gigantic rope to tie the bread spider, while the golden and black reapers tugged at the rope to drag the bread spider along.

Thud.

Thus, the bread spider landed heavily on the marshmallow plains.

The entire thing started with a puppet show from the yellow reaper.

The yellow reaper occasionally performed puppet shows for the mini reapers, but this time it began after hearing a story from the blue idol reaper.

However, the content included tales of a giant spider that used spells, exposing the bread spider’s wrongdoing.

The incident where the bread spider had slashed the blue reaper’s eyes saddened many golden reapers and even made it onto the agenda for the Golden Reaper Conference.

Once the bread spider was secured on the marshmallow plains, the orange reaper floated up, soaking wet.

It squinted its eyes slightly and radiated determination with an extremely joyful expression.

‘Taking everything into account, the Golden Reaper Conference rules as follows.’
‘Through thorough investigation, it has been confirmed that the bread spider tormented the blue younger brother.’
‘The severity of this act is judged to be far graver compared to the past similar incident involving the sugar flamingo.’
‘Moreover, the bread spider concealed this fact and didn’t even apologize.’
‘Therefore, the Golden Reaper Conference sentences the bread spider, who tormented the blue younger brother, to ‘snack form.’

Of course, the judgment from the Golden Reaper Conference simply meant ‘snack!’, but the orange reaper combined the information it heard to create a judgment statement.

The orange reaper grinned maliciously while announcing the verdict.

Once the sentence was pronounced, the mini reapers began to radiate determination recklessly.

‘Snack!’
‘Bad snack!’

The fierce-looking mini reapers swarmed the bread spider, which was as big as the main body of the white hungry ghost, mercilessly biting at it like a swarm of white ants.

And the loaf of bread, thoroughly soaked in hot chocolate, seemed to be quite delicious, prompting them to widen their eyes and devour it even faster.

Some mini reapers tore off pieces of the bread spider and dunked them into the sea of hot chocolate.

The bread spider, with its eyes closed in resignation, accepted its fate.

The white hungry ghosts watched in glee, looking on with delightful expressions.

Laughter from the white hungry ghosts sitting in the sun-filled area served as background music.

Kyuheehee.

*

The courtyard of Sehee Research Institute gradually became bustling with people gathering.

“Wow, my doll is moving!!!”

Most of the commotion was caused by Yerin, who was making a fuss.

“Am I dreaming right now?”

Yerin was so delighted that she even pinched her cheek.

And for reasons unknown, the more Yerin fussed, the more uneasy she seemed.

When I turned my gaze, James was observing the lead doll with a serious expression.

After gathering the nearby black reapers to use as a platform, he sneakily peeked into his notebook, which was filled with something indecipherable written in English cursive.

James then glanced at me and started writing in flowing Hangul.

[The appearance is identical to the gray reaper.]
[I wonder what relation it has with the girl with blue hair from Artifact Number 0?]
[However, it seems she’s not the same object as the gray reaper.]
[Lacking the pressure typical of a premium object. Nevertheless, proper verification is needed.]

Then, James reached out and squeezed the lead doll’s arm, adding more notes to his notebook.

[The texture and squishiness are similar.]

As I pulled my gaze away from James’s notebook, I noticed Yerin was being attacked by Seoah.

“Researcher Yerin Oh! You can’t just keep a dangerous object like this at home without saying a word?”

“A reaper wouldn’t give me something dangerous…”

Yerin shriveled up under Seoah’s attack.

“If it’s related to the gray reaper, you should have reported it even more.”

“Everyone takes mini reapers out too. Mini reapers are also related to the gray reaper…”

“Ugh.”

“Nowadays, there are even lots of hungry ghosts being brought along…”

When Yerin pinpointed the most serious issue at Sehee Research Institute, Seoah’s expression turned awkward.

At that moment, Kim Jungrwi spoke gravely to Yerin.

“Still, unauthorized removal is unauthorized removal. Let’s go to the office and draft a report.”

As Yerin began to be pulled by Kim Jungrwi toward the office, she muttered while looking in my direction.

“No… I don’t want to work.”

I tried to ignore her, pretending not to understand, but at that moment, a golden light began to emanate from the lead doll beside me.

‘!!!’

And the lead doll opened its mouth with an impassive face.

[That wish has been granted.]

Indiscernible murmurs filled the air.

Yet, it unmistakably felt like language.

‘!!!’

Everyone was surprised that the lead doll spoke, but I was startled for a different reason.

I could understand what the lead doll had said.

It felt akin to the hushed murmurs of the lamp’s servants, ‘God was cruel.’

What on earth is that lead doll?