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It felt like despair had taken shape and was surrounding the man.

No matter where he turned his gaze, the blue spider web-like objects stretched across the space.

They looked unreal and horrifying, like a scene from a nightmare.

The powerful mental pollution emanating from the blue spider web objects constantly threatened the man’s consciousness.

He gritted his teeth and tried to keep his sanity intact.

If he relaxed his focus for even a moment, he felt he would be sucked back into that illusion.

His younger sister and Cheong were still lying unconscious on the floor.

Even as the spider web gnawed at their flesh whenever it had the chance, they showed no reaction whatsoever.

If it weren’t for their faint breathing and warmth, one could easily mistake them for corpses.

Even the Purple Reaper and Orange Crowned Reaper showed clear signs of exhaustion.

The Purple Reaper, who always maintained an elegant demeanor with a relaxed smile, now had only a stiff line at his lips.

The Orange Crowned Reaper, known for his calm expression, was now furrowing his brow and grimacing.

The unfamiliar sight of the Mini Reapers made the seriousness of the situation all the more tangible.

The man’s own condition was equally dire.

His hands, ravaged by the spider web, were a terrible mess.

What was once his pride—his superhuman shooting skills—had now become useless.

Even gripping a pistol properly was a struggle, with his hands trembling uncontrollably.

He let out a bitter smile.

In this state, accurate aiming was out of the question, not to mention pulling the trigger.

Yet, despite the desperate situation, the man’s will did not falter.

The Purple Reaper and Orange Crowned Reaper also summoned their last bits of strength to bolster their resolve.

The shadow strike of the Purple Reaper scattered in all directions.

Black flames whirled around as the strike cut through the surrounding spider webs, creating a moment’s breathing space.

Seizing the opportunity, the man dashed toward his unconscious sister and Cheong.

His hands were already a wreck, but he didn’t give up.

He quickly removed his long coat and used it like a rope to forcibly tie the two to his back.

Blood seeped out, but he gritted his teeth.

At that moment, the Purple Reaper and Orange Crowned Reaper, who had been flitting about, flew over him and took their positions above his head.

Simultaneously, a subtle light flickered from the artificial eye embedded in one of the man’s eyes.

Familiar sights began to emerge before him.

A world where the flow of energy used by the objects was visible.

It was like the currents of a whirlpool.

Amidst the thick and impenetrable flow of power, the man captured momentary openings as they appeared.

“Over there!”

He shouted.

With his cry, the Purple Reaper’s strike shot forth.

As if merged with the man, the strike precisely pierced the weakness in the flow of power.

In that instant, the wall made of spider web easily split apart like paper.

The man’s artificial eye read the flow, and the Purple Reaper’s powerful strike sliced through it.

Meanwhile, the invisible power of the Orange Crowned Reaper manipulated the probabilities of the spider web.

As these three elements harmonized perfectly, the spider webs could not even approach the man.

They continued to move forward.

Finding the spider web’s weaknesses and cutting through them, they pressed on.

‘At this rate!’

The man held onto hope.

However, as they reached a place bathed in bright light through the severed spider webs, the Purple and Orange Reapers jumped in surprise and vaulted forward.

What lay before them was a vast open lot, but it was no escape route.

A space filled with variously sized eyeballs rolling about.

And a place where the spider web was so dense that it was impossible to cut through.

Color drained from his face.

“Was it a trap…?”

A sense of futility escaped the man’s lips.

At that moment, the Purple Reaper’s body swayed.

Unable to hold on any longer, he collapsed to the ground.

From his mouth, blood-like firewood continually flowed out.

It felt as if despair had completely engulfed them.

The man enveloped the fallen Purple Reaper in his arms, swept up by a wave of helplessness.

Just then, the movement of the Orange Crowned Reaper caught the man’s eye.

The Orange Crowned Reaper slowly raised her head to look at the sky.

An expression not seen before appeared on her face.

‘Mom…’

It was a look of pure anticipation and relief, as if a child had finally spotted someone they’ve been waiting for.

‘Is it really Mom…?’

With a look that signified everything was resolved, she used her hair as a blanket and fell asleep right there.

The Orange Crowned Reaper’s face was devoid of pain or anxiety, filled only with a sense of peace.

At that moment, the world began to change.

Suddenly, the sky that had been covering the man’s head.

No, the ceiling made of spider web began to tear apart.

Through those gaps, the cloudy sky filled with clouds revealed itself.

The man opened his eyes wide and stared at the sight.

It was an unbelievable spectacle.

The powerful spider web that had menaced them until a moment ago was changing as if under a spell.

No longer a threat, the spider web was transforming into something sweet and soft.

Should it be called cotton candy, or honey threads?

The pieces of spider web that transformed into sweet sugar threads seemed to dance and scatter in all directions.

A relieved smile spread across the man’s face.

The threat of death had vanished in an instant.

He took a deep breath and surveyed the surroundings.

His sister, Cheong, and the Purple Reaper also seemed safe.

*

Wearing a golden halo above his head that turned the remnants of the external beings into snacks, the blue spider webs, part of those external beings, began transforming into treats even faster.

Bobbing in rhythm with the pulsing halo, the spider webs swayed as if dancing.

The change began from beneath his feet.

The blue spider webs started to dissolve, releasing a sweet fragrance as they vanished.

What remained on the ground were soft, jelly-like spider webs.

As he raised his gaze to scan the surroundings, he saw an endless sea of blue spider webs swaying violently.

And like an explosion, white sugar threads burst into the sky above the sea of spider webs.

Wherever his gaze fell, the spider webs morphed into snacks, erupting spectacularly.

From beneath his feet to the horizon his vision reached.

It was as if buried landmines were exploding in sequence, causing the spider webs to disappear.

Nibble.

He caught a sugar thread soaring through the air with his finger and popped it into his mouth.

‘Sugar, huh.’

It reminded him of cotton candy from the moment he first saw it, but he never thought it would actually be sugar.

All the spider webs dispersing into the sky were sugar threads.

The spider webs maintaining their form were robust jelly.

The spider webs of the external beings were sequentially transforming into snacks.

Bouncing along.

He walked across the transformed jelly-like spider webs, starting to remove them.

<■ ■ ■ ■ ■>

Although the conditions for the destruction of the external beings were still unclear, if he kept changing the spider webs into snacks, it would eventually become clear.

As he continued erasing the spider webs, bouncing around, the webs began attacking him in various forms.

They surged together into massive waves like a tsunami and summoned blue mist that caused mental pollution once more.

But none of it worked against him, accompanied by the golden halo.

The waves of spider webs vanished, swept away by the halo’s pulse, and the blue mist easily turned into snacks, even more so than the spider webs.

How long had it been since he started erasing the spider webs?

Feeling as though the spider webs had no chance against him, they began to move slowly, filling the vast Pacific Ocean.

At first, it was only a slight tremor, but gradually the vibrations grew stronger.

The glowing blue threads twisted and twirled like a dance, and their movements became increasingly intense.

Then, a colossal whirlpool began to form at its center.

The spider webs spun like a vast spiraling hole.

And all the spider webs started to get sucked into the center of that whirlpool.

The whirlpool grew larger and faster.

The widening spiral was becoming a tremendous whirlpool the size of the Pacific Ocean.

At that moment, he began to sense the presence of Mini Reapers and humans scattered throughout the Pacific.

To prevent the spider webs filling the Pacific from being swept away into the whirlpool, he called forth all the Mini Reapers and humans.

Thus, countless people lay sprawled across the jelly spider webs.

The states of the people sprawled atop the jelly resembled those of the Free City Alliance.

From those whose body parts had transformed into sugar threads to those whose entire bodies had changed into sugar threads.

The only difference was the absence of rolled cakes, replaced by sugar threads.

As he turned his gaze, he spotted the fallen Purple Blindfolded Reaper and the Orange Crowned Reaper, who had fallen asleep in a relaxed posture.

‘Those kids were also swept away by the external beings.’

He gently patted the fallen Mini Reapers, and after playfully pinching the cheek of the vexatious Orange Crowned Reaper,

He sent all the humans and Mini Reapers to the Mini Reaper Garden.

In the Pacific, where the spider webs had all fled, the seawater was visible once more.

He plunged into the sea to chase after the fleeing external beings.

‘…’

The underwater world he entered was filled with unsettling magic.

[We can understand.]

[We can be together.]

[Let’s become one.]

And in the ominous depths of the ocean with no end in sight, a colossal underwater city and a grotesque giant appeared.

Countless eyes all over the giant continuously blinked as they searched the surroundings, and innumerable tentacles flailed in the air.

Like the ‘Red External Being,’ its form constantly shifted, appearing indistinct.

No matter how hard he tried to focus, it was useless.

The form of the external being consistently twisted and morphed.

It resembled living paint.

Sometimes it looked like several layers of space were overlapping, only to scatter away in an instant.

Clearly perceiving that silhouette was impossible.

It felt ambiguous, like trying to discern a shape in the fog.

Moreover, this external being was not merely unclear about its own form.