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Warm chocolate waves gently rippled across the Sea of Hot Chocolate, when suddenly, the massive exploration vessel ‘James Explorer’ appeared.

During its investigation of the Pacific Ocean, it unexpectedly encountered a very powerful and harmful blue mist, sending it to the Mini Reaper Garden.

Perhaps due to the influence of the blue mist, the humans and mini reapers inside the exploration vessel were all unconscious.

The silent ship, with everyone asleep, drifted slowly across the sweet-scented Sea of Hot Chocolate.

After some time passed, it finally reached the dazzling edge of the White Marshmallow Plain, pushed by the waves.

At that moment, the mini reapers who had been hopping around the Marshmallow Plain revealed themselves near the exploration vessel.

“Wow, it’s huge!”

“Is that a ship made by humans?”

The mini reapers gathered around the vessel with curious eyes.

They looked at each other, tilting their heads as if to ask if anyone knew what it was.

Some mini reapers even spread their arms wide as if trying to gauge the ship’s size.

“Is there a human?”

“There is a human!”

As they stared at the exploration vessel, the mini reapers soon sensed activity inside and charged towards the ship.

The first thing they discovered upon reaching the deck was their fellow mini reapers sprawled out on the deck.

“They fainted!”

“Wake up!”

Poke, poke.

The mini reapers prodded their unconscious buddies with their chubby cheeks, but no matter how much they poked, they showed no signs of waking up.

Meanwhile, the Golden Reapers who had ghosted into the ship were shocked to see piles of humans all passed out in a certain room.

“Humans!”

“This is a big problem!”

The mini reapers, flapping about in a frenzy, began moving the humans inside the exploration vessel to the Marshmallow Plain as if a great fire had broken out in the Mini Reaper Garden.

Once they laid all the unconscious humans and mini reapers on the Marshmallow Plain, they started taking care of the humans in their own way.

“They say when humans are sick, you put ice on their heads!”

A few mini reapers gathered snow from the Milk Bingsu Snowfield, wrapped it in marshmallow, and placed it on the humans’ foreheads.

Likewise, perhaps having learned from human behavior, they also scooped a bit of hot chocolate into their palms and fed it into the humans’ mouths.

Of course, it was such a small amount that they were just smearing hot chocolate on their lips.

“Humans, you can’t sleep!”

“Wake up!”

Other mini reapers patted the humans’ cheeks with their tiny palms.

[Please let all injuries heal!]

[Heal please!]

Seeing no one awaken, they called upon the blue reapers to cast healing magic.

Hiccup, hiccup.

They also cut some marshmallow to make blankets and burned the White Hungry Ghost to warm up the surroundings even more.

However, no matter how much they cared for them, the humans did not awaken.

“Oh no…”

“Is there something wrong with the humans?”

The mini reapers looked up at the sleeping humans, their expressions gloomy.

“Mom has to come back…”

“Mom…”

The mini reapers awaited their mother’s return with sad faces.

*

I swam towards the twisted external being in the deep abyss.

Around me was pitch darkness, and an eerie pressure seemed to weigh down on my entire body.

Suddenly, I caught sight of something shining in the ominously writhing eye of the external being.

It was beckoning me like a lighthouse.

Drawn by curiosity, as I glanced at the light for just a moment, the surrounding environment transformed in an instant.

From the pitch-black deep sea, I found myself in the midst of a sinisterly glowing ancient city.

It was a sunken city beneath the sea.

Its eerie and ghastly appearance looked as if seawater could burst in at any moment.

The city bore traces of once having human touch, but now only darkness reigned there.

From the gas lamps lining the streets, the blue light of the external being oozed with a foreboding aura.

With a plop, plop.

I walked along the row of gas lamps.

Turning my gaze into an alley, I saw dark smoke creeping out from there.

It was the shape of darkness formed by the twisted power of the external being.

At that moment, I suddenly heard a whisper in my ear.

[We can understand.]

[We can be together.]

[Let’s become one.]

That voice felt incredibly unpleasant and terrifying.

The magic containing the thoughts of the external being was something I simply couldn’t understand and didn’t want to comprehend.

It felt like seeds of madness, whether for humans or objects.

Listening to such dreadful magic, my vision split into two.

One side still showed the deep, dark waters, while the other revealed the bizarre underwater city.

Just like the island of the blue mist.

[Be with us…]

[Forever…]

[Become one…]

I didn’t try to choose a side again like last time; I just let it be.

‘….’

In that moment, a figure emerged from the darkness of the underwater city.

‘!’

I was momentarily startled by the sight.

It was a face that was too familiar, one I saw every day.

“Reaper, we can surely understand each other.”

That voice was undoubtedly Yerin’s.

But at the same time, it wasn’t Yerin.

At least, it wasn’t the Yerin I knew.

I could instantly see through that it was a fake, but the moment I laid eyes on the false Yerin, something stirred within me.

‘Hehe.’

Anger? Fear? Or perhaps disgust?

I couldn’t quite place my finger on that emotion, but it was incredibly intense.

With that feeling in mind, I focused the power of the halo onto the fake Yerin.

“Reaper, why?”

Then, the being resembling Yerin began to crumble and mutter as if it were dissipating.

The expression was so much like Yerin that I almost questioned whether I had been mistaken for a moment.

But in my other view, which illuminated the deep sea, the original form of that fake Yerin became visible.

A monster crudely fashioned from Yerin’s silhouette, with dozens of eyes woven by cephalopod tentacles.

As the false Yerin turned into countless star candies and scattered, the power of the halo began to fill the abyss.

Golden light spread as it pierced the darkness, turning everything it touched into a treat.

Once again, I looked down upon the external being that filled my view and poured out the power of the halo.

*

My battle with the external being seemed to go on forever.

My golden halo twisted the world and turned everything into star candy.

The deep-sea external being was distorting everything on Earth like the ‘red external being’.

Tentacles emerged from all around, writhing as time and space became hopelessly intertwined.

As I kept fighting like this, I realized one strange point.

‘It’s similar.’

Although I appeared to be nothing like the external being, we were essentially fighting in similar ways.

Both twisted the rules of the world, trying to dye everything.

As the halo pulsed, the many eyes of the external being became massive star candies and floated up to the surface.

Conversely, when the whispers of the external being reached my mind, tentacles sprouted from my right hand.

The only difference was simple.

The external being was trying to hug me with many tentacles, urging for us to become one, while I was running away, dodging its attempt.

‘….’

“I’m running low on firewood.”

The remaining firewood was down to about half.

While the golden halo had excellent fuel efficiency and wasn’t in dire straits just yet, the external being didn’t seem to be expending much energy.

“There must be a way.”

I didn’t want to call upon the black giant, so I strained my brain, which I rarely used.

Then, suddenly, I thought of the destruction conditions.

Immediately, I looked at the external being with my ‘eye’.

[Place a part of the distorted and merged god on the largest eye.]

Then, the completely changed destruction condition unfolded before my eyes.

“I see it!”

Perhaps it meant that the current battle had exerted considerable strain on the external being too?

Hehe.

The issue was how to fulfill that condition…

Fortunately, the largest eye was quite clear.

Despite the external being’s blurry form and constant twisting, the eye was always the same.

Moreover, the largest eye was radiating immense power, much like my firewood from deep within.

A part of a god?

In fact, many objects called gods existed.

Those external beings had been called gods, and the black giant was too, and I probably fell under the same category linked to the black giant.

‘….’

While I was pondering, I glanced at my right hand, from which cephalopod tentacles were sprouting and writhing.

‘Could it be? That part of the god that is twisted and merged…’

As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I charged towards the external being.

[We can become one.]

[Let’s become one.]

As I neared the external being, countless tentacles began to fly toward me.

From every direction, the space was twisted and filled with tentacles.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

I couldn’t evade all the tentacles with my agility, and a few started to pierce through me.

“Ugh.”

It must be incredibly harmful even to come into contact with those tentacles; each time one penetrated, my firewood flew away in chunks.

40%

30%

20%

Firewood was rapidly dwindling.

That dodging technique of the golden reaper was something else; maybe I should ask them to teach me later?

10%

5%

In the final moments, I managed to arrive before the largest eye of the external being.

Tentacles filled my vision from all directions.

In that critical moment.

“This will be the end!”

I swiftly sliced my wrist and placed it atop the eye.

At that moment, time seemed to freeze.

[We… We are becoming one.]

All the tentacles began to tremble simultaneously.

Their movements gradually slowed until they finally came to a complete stop.

And amazing enough, the tentacles started to glow with a golden light.

It was a warmth reminiscent of the golden reapers, like sunbeams.

Starting from the tips of the tentacles, darkness transformed into light.

It felt as if stars were waking up one by one.

And the golden light emanating from the tentacles gradually grew brighter until it transformed into colorful star candies.

Thousands, no, tens of thousands of star candies began to slowly float toward the surface.

The traces of our fierce battle vanished, revealing a spectacle resembling stars soaring into the night sky.

After such an intense fight, the sight of colorful star candies ascending to the surface was somewhat amusing.

With a weary expression, I closed my eyes and rested my body atop the largest star candy.

“This is truly the end…”

With that, I began to rise toward the surface alongside numerous other star candies.

When I reached the surface, the sky was filled with a myriad of colorful moons and stars welcoming me.

Looking up at the real starry sky from the candy sky was quite a delightful scene.