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The night sky of San Francisco was no longer shrouded in darkness.

Instead, multicolored worm external beings covered the sky like a living rainbow.

The sight felt horrific, as if witnessing something that should not exist.

The city lights, the writhing bodies of the worm external beings, and the illusions of the blue reapers mixed together, filling the sky with chaos.

I stood atop a skyscraper, gazing down at this entire spectacle.

With every gust of wind, my long hair fluttered like a cloak, and the Hug Reaper tightly wrapped its small hands around my neck from my shoulder.

“Hug!”

The city was now empty.

The streets that used to be filled with people were deserted now.

The moment the appearance of the worms became visible to ordinary people, it instantly transformed into a ghost town.

“Now I can fight as much as I want.”

“Hug!”

The small will I let slip made the Hug Reaper nod in agreement.

As I turned my gaze, I spotted the giant black reaper.

It was trampling around between the towering buildings, tearing apart the worms that had fallen to the ground.

“This looks a bit fascinating from this angle.”

The old god in the form of the black reaper and the mini reaper in the form of the black reaper were still up to their usual antics.

But even though their actions were the same, the feeling was 180 degrees different.

When the old god was destroying San Francisco, it felt like a scene of a monster annihilating human civilization, while the sight of the black reaper wandering around somehow felt more like a playful thud.

The black reaper alone couldn’t keep up with the worm extermination task on the ground.

The speed at which the worms fell from the sky was faster than the speed at which they could be cleared.

I wanted to call upon the giant golden reaper to help with this task, but it seemed unlikely.

The Hug Reaper appeared nonchalant, but it seemed that each time it fused to create a giant mini reaper, there was quite a toll.

Its coloration looked somewhat duller, and the amount of firewood burning inside it had significantly decreased.

“It seems like managing multiple fused giant reapers simultaneously is a bit tough.”

I organized my thoughts as I looked up at the worms in the sky.

The worms up there were descending lower and lower.

They were not descending normally, but appeared to be slowly coming down with some sort of rule in mind.

Perhaps the moment the worms reached the ground, something enormous would happen.

Not just the city turning into a worm-infested area, but a large-scale incident akin to an external being!

I clenched my fist at the sight.

“Are you ready?”

I asked the Hug Reaper.

I felt a small nod.

I tightly closed my eyes and then slowly opened them.

I put strength into my toes and took a step forward.

“Come on, strongest mini reaper!”

Then I summoned two of my highest-ranked children.

Hehe.

*

I summoned the Orange Crowned Reaper and the 1st Sword of the Golden Reaper, holding onto a dream and hope of automatic hunting.

As soon as the 1st Sword appeared, it calmly looked up at the sky.

From its sharp gaze, the aura of the 1st Sword was palpable.

Meanwhile, the crowned reaper seemed to have been summoned from a slumber.

With a sleepy expression, the crowned reaper let out a small yawn and instantly lay down on the floor, using its voluminous hair as a pillow.

Watching the two clearly showcasing their personalities, I commanded the Hug Reaper with its halo.

“Fuse those two.”

“Hug!”

The Hug Reaper’s eyes sparkled, and it spread its small arms wide, exuding will.

Then, the 1st Sword and the crowned reaper were engulfed in a brilliant light, transforming into a huge orb.

A huge orb that’s even bigger than my head.

“What kind of fused reaper will come out?”

I felt a rush of excitement, much like when I used to play lottery games.

Bang!

With time passing, the orb shattered, emitting a fierce light.

As the light faded, the 1st Sword and crowned reaper, looking bewildered, stood in their place.

There was no change at all.

“???”

As I turned to the Hug Reaper with a puzzled expression, it looked up at me, expressing its will.

“Hug!”

The Hug Reaper was conveying that with our current capabilities, fusion wasn’t possible.

It wasn’t entirely impossible, but it seemed that the Hug Reaper lacked the strength to mix multiple colors of mini reapers.

Relieved, that it was a color issue rather than a rank one.

Hmm….

I began to contemplate a new combination for automatic hunting.

Hmm….

I was deliberating as carefully as when choosing pudding for breakfast.

Which of the golden reapers would be suitable to merge?

Something like the 2nd Sword? That seems meaningless.

Gathering a bunch of golden reapers and merging? There’s a high chance it’ll just become a larger golden reaper like the blue reaper.

Golden Horn Reaper? It’s been a rebellious reaper that left home since the beginning, so there’s been no contact at all.

At that moment, a certain image flashed in my mind.

The golden reaper in a cloak made of firewood!

Though it had a lot of firewood, it had an oddly high rank and possessed characteristics that could compensate for the 1st Sword’s downside of having less firewood.

I immediately summoned the Golden Cloaked Reaper.

‘?!’

The Golden Cloaked Reaper, floating in mid-air based on its immense firewood, looked around with a perplexed face.

Seeing the Golden Cloaked Reaper appear to be several times stronger than expected, I smiled.

“Will this time work? Fuse those two!”

“Hug!”

With the Hug Reaper’s strong will, the 1st Sword and the Golden Cloaked Reaper transformed into a golden orb.

Once again, with a flutter of excitement, I waited for the outcome.

When the orb shattered, a new appearance of a reaper emerged from within.

A golden reaper that seemed a bit more mature was flying in the sky.

The presence emanating from its body caused the surrounding air to vibrate.

I gazed at the fused reaper in astonishment.

This Golden Cloaked Reaper 1st Sword, while slightly less than me, possessed nearly equivalent amounts of firewood.

Seeing the fused reaper that looked strong enough to fulfill my dream of automatic hunting, I sent out my will.

“Alright, go chop up those worms!”

As soon as those words left my mouth, the fused reaper soared into the sky at high speed.

The trajectory resembled a golden meteor I felt I had seen before.

And in the next moment, golden sword strikes filled the sky.

With a single swing, it lit up the night sky as if it were daytime.

*

Golden flames were swirling in the sky and on the ground of San Francisco.

It was truly a scene that proclaimed, “This is the 1st Sword, tireless and sparing no firewood!”

It was truly a natural disaster.

To unleash the power of the Golden Cloaked Reaper all at once like this was incredibly strong.

Since the worms on the ground had long since burned away and disappeared, the giant black reaper had nothing to do but cuddle me, looking up at the sky.

I lay atop a massive original hungry ghost, witnessing all this unfold.

I chuckled playfully as if watching a movie in a theater with a bag of popcorn.

Hehe.

Automatic hunting with external beings is really just around the corner.

Although I still had to deliver firewood nearby, I could sense that the completion of automatic hunting was just a breath away.

The multicolored worms covering the sky were changing colors under the assault of the fused reaper.

As they got chopped away and burned in the firewood, their colors grew darker.

Finally, they transformed into a black, tangled color resembling the void.

It felt like they now had a color that matched the discomfort evoked by the worms.

Kiiiii!

As all the worms turned black, a strange sound echoed as the sky suddenly split open with a gigantic mouth.

And from that gap, a colossal tentacle twisted in a spiral form descended from the sky to the ground.

Rumble rumble rumble!

With a sound reminiscent of a giant drill tearing into the Earth, the worm burrowed deep within.

In the process, the distance between the ground and the sky began to shrink, and the surrounding gravity and light twisted in various directions.

The fused reaper desperately unleashed sword strikes in all directions against the second phase of the worm external being, but it was not strong enough to slice through its distorted rules.

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Yet, I couldn’t stop smiling at the sight.

Well, it seemed the external being had exerted quite a bit of strength, revealing its destruction conditions.

[Before the coil descends to the ground, destroy the passage.]

Seeing the destruction condition with my “eyes,” I sent my will to the fused reaper.

“Aim for the orb beneath the ground!”

As the fused reaper’s gaze turned to the ground, the worm external being appeared to react as if startled.

Thick spiral tentacles, resembling pillars burrowing into the ground, gathered around, forming a sphere encircling the location of the orb.

It was a sphere that could not be pierced with the strikes so far.

“It’s about time for me to step in.”

The moment I thought that, brilliant golden light burst forth from the sky.

“Fill the sword with firewood.”

“Keep going, keep gathering until you reach your limit.”

The fused reaper raised the firewood sword toward the sky.

It pushed firewood into itself, even to the point of its own light fading.

That was the signature technique of the Cloaked Reaper that had been shown to me.

And the golden immaterial sword trembled as if it would explode at any moment, slashing through the sky in an exceedingly slow yet beautiful trajectory.

“Void Slash!”

Zzzing!

A sound as if something beyond time and space being cut echoed.

At that moment, my vision shattered like broken glass.

‘!’

Startled, I leaped from my seat, and the severed space vanished without a trace.

But the outcome was clear.

The sphere crafted by the worm was cleaved in half.

And the orb in its center too.

‘…. It really works. Automatic hunting.’

The destruction condition met, the worm external being began to dissolve into dust.

Over the darkened sky, the once-blackened worms vanished as a brilliant golden sun gradually revealed itself.

It was a morning resembling the Golden Reaper.