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James Tower stood tall on the outskirts of Songpa District in Seoul.

Inside that massive building, a peaceful scene unfolded in a certain room.

The pink girl, who had come to James Tower due to school issues, playfully poked the chubby cheeks of the blue idol reaper and muttered, “I wonder if something’s going on? He had such a serious face…”

Earlier, the alchemist master, who had come along with the pink girl, had a short conversation with James and then left with a serious expression.

That sight lingered in the pink girl’s mind a bit.

James said to the pink girl, “I’ll be back soon, so wait for me,” and then disappeared.

“There’s no point in worrying, right?”

The pink girl muttered while gently stroking the blue idol reaper, who was a bit sulky after being poked too much.

Omnomnom.

As the pink girl turned her gaze, she saw the golden reaper slowly munching on a huge cookie on the table.

Though James had vanished, the golden reaper he brought remained by the pink girl’s side, leisurely enjoying the snacks that were piled in the room.

Next to them, the color hungry ghost, made by the alchemist master, and the pink hungry ghost made by the pink girl herself were slumped.

Apart from when the golden reaper first met the pink hungry ghost, he didn’t show much interest in the hungry ghosts.

When he first found the pink hungry ghost, he poked it curiously with his finger.

However, upon feeling the pink hungry ghost’s stone-like hardness, he seemed disappointed and turned back to munch on his snacks.

Then, suddenly realizing how delicious the cookie he was eating was, the golden reaper started sharing the treat he had been eating with those around him.

“This is super tasty!”

Soft cookies made with a peanut butter base.

“Thanks.”

The pink girl, while eating a little piece of cookie offered by the golden reaper, patted the golden reaper’s head.

The golden reaper smiled happily at the pink girl’s gratitude.

The golden reaper’s cookie-sharing extended not only to the blue idol reaper but even to the hungry ghosts.

In the midst of this, when the golden reaper handed a snack to the color hungry ghost, he was suddenly taken aback.

“It’s squishy!”

The color hungry ghost, rumored to be as hard as a rock!

The golden reaper’s eyes widened.

‘!’

The golden reaper stared curiously at the color hungry ghost.

“Are you also a tasty ghost?”

“Can I take a taste?”

Receiving the golden reaper’s intent, the hungry ghost nodded slowly.

As the hungry ghost nodded, the golden reaper carefully climbed on top of the color hungry ghost.

Then, he cautiously stuck out his tongue and licked the color hungry ghost.

Was it the expected sweet taste? A satisfied smile spread across the golden reaper’s face.

“Delicious ghost!”

Watching this scene, a warm smile also bloomed on the pink girl’s lips.

*

A beach shrouded in a sinister atmosphere, softly blanketed by blue mist.

In that eerie landscape stood a solitary shack.

Inside the shack, there was a man in a long coat and a woman with a small smile.

The man frowned and slowly shook his head.

“Still feeling dizzy.”

The man had been trying various self-diagnoses to find the cause of his ongoing headache and dizziness.

But he couldn’t be sure if the blue mist was causing his headache or if it was something else entirely.

The man slowly rubbed his temples and looked down at the people who had collapsed on the floor.

“There’s no sign of waking up at all. Do you know something?”

His voice was laced with a mix of worry and suspicion.

It was understandable that his sister and Cheong had lost consciousness, but it was odd that even the purple reaper and crowned reaper had not come to.

The woman smiled at the man and said, “Don’t worry too much. They’ll wake up soon.”

Though her voice was calm, every time the man glanced at her smile, he felt more dizzy.

As if it were a ‘mental pollution.’

The man’s mind was a chaotic mess.

“Is she an object causing mental pollution?”

“Is it reasonable to consider her an object just for a headache?”

Perhaps due to the headache, the man couldn’t conclude anything.

Certainly, he was not the type to hesitate when it came to making decisions about such matters.

Feeling frustrated, the man slowly stood up and exited the shack.

Gazing at the waves rolling onto the beach, he briefly fell into thought.

In the sky, clouds twisted like serpents, and the waves held deep darkness.

Though merely looking at it sent shivers down his spine, paradoxically, the wide expanse of that eerie scene seemed to lighten his troubled heart.

After a moment, the woman approached him and whispered, “Would you like your sister to wake up?”

It was a question that hardly required a response, so the man merely stared silently at the sea.

The woman, gazing intently at the man’s face, slowly returned to the shack.

When the man came back to the shack after staring at the sea for a while, surprisingly, his sister was awake.

“Oh, brother!”

His sister greeted him with a bright smile.

But that sight seemed somehow unnatural to the man.

Especially the way she chatted intimately with the suspicious woman aroused his doubts.

“Something feels off.”

The man was confused.

“Did my sister know her? That can’t be right. I met her after my sister disappeared.”

At that moment, as if she could read his thoughts, the woman suddenly spoke to his sister.

“When did we first meet again?”

“I think we met when we were little? I don’t really remember well.”

At her words, the man became even more confused.

“Was it like that?”

He muttered, but there was no certainty in his voice.

At that moment, the look in the woman’s eyes seemed to flash with a mechanical gleam.

Like the dull eyes of a shark, something that was not human.

But oddly enough, the man soon forgot that scene.

As if someone were twisting his perception.

The questions quickly faded away.

Inside the shack, the atmosphere became increasingly cheerful, but the blue mist seemed to thicken even more.

In that mist, only the woman’s smile shone brightly.

*

In a bizarre world filled with organic matter that resembled spider webs.

The purple reaper was wielding shadows to slash at the rapidly growing blue light-infused spider webs, which seemed both corpse-like and moldy.

Beside him, an orange moon, shining brightly like the sun, set below the orange crowned reaper, who was continuously spewing something resembling bloody firewood from his mouth.

Though the expression on the purple reaper’s face was filled with extreme fatigue, his gaze remained desperate and unwavering.

The orange crowned reaper wiped away his usual relaxed expression, gritting his teeth to endure.

And understandably so.

The slowly creeping spider webs were slowly devouring the attached humans.

And the more they were consumed, the more the attached humans became one with the spider webs.

“No way…”

A sigh of struggling will seeped out among the mini reapers.

The mini reapers were insufficient to remove the massive spider webs.

With ordinary strength, they couldn’t cut through it, and even if they did, the spider webs grew back in an instant.

In a place where even the sky felt like the belly of a monster, it was impossible to see.

“Mom… hurry up…”

The mini reapers waited for their mother.

*

At the center of the twisted island, the village of madness.

I slowly stepped into the village.

The moment I made my first footstep inside, a man’s voice sliced through the mist.

Despite all the noise he made, did he still have more to say?

“Every human here has gone insane, as you can see.”

Ignoring the man’s words, I slowly moved toward the center of the village.

“It’s a real pity.”

There was an open lot just lying there.

“It seems humans need to adapt to look each other in the eye.”

The village’s center felt vacant yet simultaneously filled with some contradictory sensation that surged over me.

As I approached the open lot, my body grew heavier, and moving became increasingly challenging.

[But. You. Don’t. Seem. Like. It.]

As I neared the open lot, the man’s words began to sound strange.

His words seemed to distort as the village landscape began to warp.

The man seemed to still be standing at the village entrance, but at the same time, it felt like he was right next to me.

It became too difficult to move, so I looked down at my hands and was met with an unexpected sight.

‘!’

Gray hands were densely covered in blue spider webs.

In an instant, my vision blurred, and two worlds began to overlap.

[Look. Properly. At. Each Other.]

[Look. At. Each Other. Together.]

[Together.]

[Stay. Together. Always.]

As my vision twisted, the two gazes intertwined.

On one side was the village of madness, filled with blue mist, and on the other was the world covered with horrific spider webs.

From the perspective of the spider web world, gazing at the village’s open lot, a giant eye pulsed with life.

A colossal eyeball staring straight at me.

“Could it be…?”

Was there no ocean where the Pacific used to be, just filled with spider webs?

In that moment, the village’s appearance vanished like a soap bubble.

Unlike the forced removal of the spider web landscape, the scenery of blue mist evaporated in an instant.

Finally coming to my senses and opening my eyes, I was welcomed by a world overflowing with spider webs.

The spider webs surrounded my body, slowly replacing me with their threads.

The sensation felt so horrific that I grasped the space and shot my body into the sky.

Creak.

Thus, I broke through the ceiling with the sound of spider webs snapping.

‘!!!’

But the sight that awaited me above was even more horrifying.

Everywhere my vision reached, to the very horizon, was covered in sticky organic matter.