Chapter 364
At the entrance of the endless dark room, the Golden Reaper sat down, shedding tears.
The soft light emanating from the Golden Reaper’s body was like a candle flickering alone in the darkness.
However, the thick darkness of the room was too deep to be illuminated by a single candle, making it impossible to see even the traces of the walls and ceiling.
“Mom…”
Inside the room, there was a Golden Reaper who looked incredibly sad.
Seeing the Golden Reaper, usually bright and smiling, in such a state made me feel a sudden urge to tease her.
Bouncing along.
I couldn’t suppress my playful impulses and slowly approached the Golden Reaper, poking her cheek as she cried.
As I tormented her like that, she began to cry even more sorrowfully, her expression suggesting a sound of “Waaah!” about to escape.
It was a reaction that looked far sadder than I expected.
The Golden Reaper was so sad that she couldn’t even handle a joke.
“What on earth happened to make her cry so much?”
This curiosity soon morphed into a slight concern, and I decided to examine my surroundings closely.
So, I lifted my head and shone the light from my eyes into the room.
“!”
As the room was illuminated, a shocking sight unfolded before me.
It was a space that resembled an ordinary butcher shop.
However, it was a space magnified several times over.
In that vast space, humans were hanging around like meat.
This sight stirred a complex mix of emotions within me.
In a world where humans and firewood die easily, to see them slaughtered in such a gruesome manner was appalling.
Moreover, to make the Golden Reaper cry over such a heinous event…
“The saddest thing for the Golden Reaper should be when I turned her into a ‘Daeji.’”
This feeling of anger and sympathy pushed the annoyance out of my heart.
I picked up the crying Golden Reaper in my arms.
“It’s okay. It will be alright.”
As I held the Golden Reaper, I gently stroked her and sent her my assurance.
“Still, I can’t bring back the dead.”
“Not for someone who has become an object, at least.”
Then the Golden Reaper started to sob even more and nestled deeper into my embrace.
Hmm.
I had to smash this all up before the others saw it.
I spread my arms wide and firmly grasped the entirety of the room.
Snap.
Then I thrust my hands forward and clapped.
Everything in the room began to crumple and disappear.
The wide room.
The hooks holding the meat.
And all the corpses that were hanging there.
They all vanished.
The Golden Reaper stared blankly at the sight.
And once everything had disappeared, she tightly closed her eyes and sent out her will.
“May there be a Valhalla for humans.”
“So that we can meet again someday.”
It resembled a prayer from a Golden Reaper who didn’t know what prayer was.
I gently patted the top of the Golden Reaper’s head with my finger.
*
Deep within the Mini Reaper Garden, at Marshmallow Plains.
[Mom, no!]
The evolved Mini Sprout Reaper, Mini Flower Reaper, urgently sent out a will toward her mom.
But the Mini Flower Reaper’s desperate will only floated in the air.
Mom ignored the voice as if she didn’t hear it at all, sending Mini Flower Reaper away to the Mini Reaper Garden.
“Mom… This can’t be happening…”
A shadow of worry cloaked the Mini Flower Reaper’s eyes.
And the Mini Flower Reaper thought about the crisis that was about to befall her mom with a worried expression.
But no matter how much she imagined, she couldn’t picture her mom losing.
“If it’s Mom, she’ll be fine.”
“Mom is invincible!”
With that calmness in her heart, the Mini Flower Reaper looked around.
Her gaze stopped at two girls laying down.
The Attached Human with Silver Hair and the Attached Human with Brown Hair, friends.
The two girls looked as if they had just returned from a long journey, trapped in a deep sleep.
Their faces bore the marks of fatigue and the events they had experienced.
“Thankfully, they look okay!”
The Mini Flower Reaper carefully examined the two girls’ condition and, after confirming they were fine, clung to the cheek of her Attached Human and started to enjoy a peaceful time.
But just when that moment was about to stay calm, the silence of the Marshmallow Plains erupted with a golden light everywhere.
“There’s an injured human!”
“Call the Blue Younger Brother!”
“We also need the White Hungry Ghost!”
The Golden Reapers that suddenly appeared to observe the two girls in the Mini Reaper Garden.
With cheerful expressions, the Golden Reapers looked perfectly fine on the outside, but when they saw the Brown-haired girl with a broken bone, they were startled and called for the Blue Reaper and the White Hungry Ghost.
And while examining the silver-haired girl with numerous shallow wounds, the Golden Reapers’ gazes suddenly fixed on one spot.
“A new sibling?”
“An evolved sibling!”
Once the Golden Reapers spotted the Mini Flower Reaper, they began to rush toward her with bright smiles.
“Something on top, how fascinating!”
“So cool!”
The enthusiastic attention from the Golden Reapers was like a storm.
As they rushed forward, close enough to squash one another’s cheeks, the Mini Flower Reaper was extremely flustered and got swept up in the chaos.
Only after a wave of Golden Reaper chaos passed could the Mini Flower Reaper finally catch her breath.
“[Please don’t get hurt!]”
Then the Blue Reaper arrived to heal the silver-haired and brown-haired girls, and the White Hungry Ghost took the brown-haired girl away somewhere.
Now, with the density of Golden Reapers significantly reduced around the Mini Flower Reaper,
a few remaining Golden Reapers looked with envy at the sprouts sprouting from the head of the Mini Flower Reaper.
“…”
The Mini Flower Reaper pointed her finger sternly at the Golden Reapers and shouted [Eek!].
Suddenly, something jumped up from above the heads of the Golden Reapers.
It was a cute sprout, swaying in a deep blue color.
“!!!”
The Golden Reaper touched the sprout that sprouted on their head and, with a giggle, began to bounce.
“Thank you!”
The Golden Reaper smiled brightly.
Of course, other Golden Reapers who saw that also looked at her with envious expressions, hesitating as they wanted to say “Do it for me too!” but couldn’t bring themselves to ask because they might burden their little sibling.
[Eek!]
Seeing that, the Mini Flower Reaper spread her arms wide and released light from her flowers, causing sprouts to start blooming on all the Golden Reapers’ heads around her.
From there, Golden Reapers with sprouts sprouting on their heads began to multiply rapidly.
It was the so-called Sprout Golden Reaper boom!
*
In the middle of the Pacific, an island that suddenly rose.
As James entered that island under the guidance of the research institute employees, the Mini Reapers poked their heads out like meerkats and started to watch.
“A new human?”
“A human who gives out a lot of snacks!”
“Snacks!”
On top of James’s head stood a tiny Golden Reaper, waving its hands toward the meerkat-like Golden Reapers.
“Hello!”
“Hello!”
James slowly descended the side steps of the ship and reviewed the report.
Inside the report were densely packed information about the Mental Pollution Index, patterns, and comparative analyses of the anomalies near the Pacific and the island.
“Hmm, considering this, it would be reasonable to view that there’s no correlation between the islands and anomalies in the Pacific.”
“Yes, I think so too.”
A woman with a Purple Reaper on her head replied in a stiff voice.
As their conversation continued, it abruptly ceased the moment they passed through the cave in the center of the island.
“This is quite something.”
James muttered as he looked up at the starry ceiling.
It was indeed an environment that could only be found within an object.
Object-level scale.
Clear air that felt just the same as the outside.
Mystically shimmering dust particles.
James and company quietly admired the view as they walked toward their destination.
The destination was the facility that resembled a research institute the most.
“It’s just like it.”
Arriving at the entrance of the facility, James was slowly flipping through the report, marveling at it.
“To be discovered in such a remote place after being missing for 36 years…”
The report he was examining contained many very old photos.
Photos depicting a research institute in England that had suddenly disappeared decades ago.
It was a research institute established with the purpose of creating superhumans through the integration of objects and humans before such objects became public knowledge.
Of course, it was secretive information that even someone of James’s level wouldn’t know.
“I heard they got very close to success… didn’t they say a ‘superhuman’ appeared who could enhance abilities by consuming humans?”
James stroked his chin slowly, mumbling in a small voice.
“This incident can certainly be deemed a disaster brought about by humans.”
And rightly so, as in the underground of this facility, there were plenty of traces of humans that had been ‘devoured.’
Moreover, the concentration of kidnapped individuals also being focused on England or Europe further strengthened that belief.
“It must have been the revenge of an experimental subject that became an object. Of course, there’s no way humans who became objects maintained their sanity for 30 years.”
Having finished his thoughts, James closed the report and slowly gazed at the boys and girls being guided by the boat with many thoughts reflected in his expression.
*
In the Mini Reaper Garden, at the Sea of Hot Chocolate.
Kyu-hing-hing.
The White Hungry Ghost floated over the Sea of Hot Chocolate, crying in a sad voice.
The tip of its tail was on fire, and its back looked nicely roasted.
Thus, the White Hungry Ghost jumped into the Sea of Hot Chocolate to put out the flames, but the fire wouldn’t go out easily.
Kyu-hing-hing-hing.
Between the Candy Mountains and the Marshmallow Plains, the White Hungry Ghosts who had lost their last paradise found no solace.
Many White Hungry Ghosts wandered through the Mini Reaper Garden in search of a new paradise, but most of them were burning inside the Incinerator Golem.
The White Hungry Ghost floating on the Sea of Hot Chocolate was one among those dreaming of a new paradise.
As it waded deeper into the Sea of Hot Chocolate, it was suddenly sucked into an emerging hole.
It was a hidden trap in the sea, obscured by the thick hot chocolate that made everything invisible.
As it was abruptly pulled in, the ghost rolled onto the fine sand below.
“!!!”
The ghost, looking up at the sky, could hardly contain its astonishment.
Beneath the Sea of Hot Chocolate was an incredibly vast underground chamber.
The ceiling was filled with sparkling star candies, and the floor was sprinkled with fine powder of blue sugar.
At the end of the ramp where the White Hungry Ghost rolled down were buildings made of crispy wafers.
Kyu-hee.
Kyu-hee-hee-hee.
Kyu-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee.
The White Hungry Ghost lifted its small feet and laughed joyfully.
The ghost felt elated enough to not care about the sugary powder sticking all over its body.
Finally found it!
A new paradise just for ghosts!
The eyes of the White Hungry Ghost sparkled with hope.