---

As the stone approached my face, I thought, ‘Ah, I’m going to die now!’ when a golden light flickered before my eyes.

The vanished Golden Reaper emerged and knocked the stone away.

“Reaper!”

I shouted in excitement, but the Golden Reaper was still gazing at the chaotic chairman with a tense expression.

A heatwave and swirling sand and stones made it difficult to stand properly.

Researchers who were pierced by stones lay dead, while people trembled behind makeshift tables.

The smell of sunburnt sand filled the air, and I felt the heat radiating intensely.

I had no choice but to grit my teeth and endure, lowering my body as much as possible to dodge the flying stones.

The occasional low-flying stone was deflected by the proud-standing Golden Reaper.

I knew the Golden Reaper was strong, but I didn’t expect it to be this reassuring.

Imagining what would happen if the Golden Reaper wasn’t there sent shivers down my spine.

Crack.

The sound of glass shattering echoed through the air.

Whatever it was, it certainly didn’t sound good.

The Golden Reaper rushed over and clung to my cheek.

Clang!

With the sound of something breaking, space tore apart.

Beyond the torn space, a red moon loomed large, as if watching us.

Along with it, an immense amount of sand and heat rushed in.

I was swept away in the torrent of sand, tumbled around.

Minutes passed.

“Ah.”

As the current stopped, I poked my head out of the sand and took a breath.

I was torn and wounded in several places, but I was still alive.

The Reaper looked at my wounds with a gloomy expression, unsure of what to do.

“It’s okay. I’m not dead from this.”

Saying so, I patted the Reaper’s head.

Cradling the Golden Reaper in my arms, I stood up to find that the Makchisanne Research Institute had vanished, replaced by an entirely new scene.

A vast desert stretched infinitely in all directions.

Every grain of sand, jagged rock, and shifting dune glowed in a burning red hue.

A bright red moon hung in the dark sky.

It was surely dark, like night, yet my skin felt as hot as if touched by the sun’s rays.

The heat saturated the air, clinging to my body like a heavy blanket.

“Ugh, it’s scorching.”

Sweat dripped down in this environment.

It felt like a pitch-black sauna without any lights.

Or perhaps a tiny studio room with a massive heater instead of lighting.

It was an unprecedentedly extreme environment unlike anything I’d ever experienced on Earth.

The Reaper stood on my shoulder, fanning me with a worried look, but its little hand wasn’t really helping much.

“Reaper. What should we do now?”

I sighed, petting the Reaper in my frustration.

In this clear situation caused by an object, how were we supposed to navigate forward?

*

“Young Miss, are you alright?”

Unlike the torn black agent everywhere, the blonde girl appeared perfectly fine.

“I’m okay.”

The blonde girl brushed off the sand clinging to her hair and clothes.

It was a situation where she might have been scared with ten secretaries around her.

But she looked quite calm.

“Actually, it looks like you’re the one who’s really hurt?”

“I have no deep wounds that would impair my activities.”

The black agent shook off the sand, checked his clothes, and started moving.

“First, we should quickly assess the situation. It looks safe for now, but in scenarios like this, speed is of the essence.”

The black agent pointed to the tallest sand dune and began to move towards it.

He minimized his voice and moved slowly, lowering his posture.

“Sir, even though it seems like night, it’s incredibly hot.”

The girl wiped her sweat with her hand as she spoke.

Just that brief movement had soaked her in sweat.

“I’m concerned about that too. If it’s this hot at night, I can’t even imagine how sweltering it will be during the day. Perhaps we should start digging into the ground to hide early.”

Reaching the top of the high sand dune, we looked out over the vast desert.

People were sparsely visible.

And objects were chasing them.

Among them, the most threatening were the cubes made of red sandstone, intertwining and spinning menacingly.

The red rock cubes were nearly the size of an adult male, and the sight of ten of them swirling together was intimidating by their mere presence.

Moreover, they were extremely aggressive.

They roamed the desert, hunting for people, racing forward to crush them.

“Yikes.”

The blonde girl swallowed hard at the sight of a person being squashed.

Normally, the black agent would cover her eyes, but in an emergency, he decided it was better for her to see and understand the situation.

Gasping for breath, the girl regained her composure and said, “Let’s move quickly. We can’t end up like that, right?”

Her bold words.

Yet her face remained pale, as if she were struggling.

“We should find a hideout first. We can’t keep moving in this heat. Waiting for rescue would be wise.”

The black agent and the blonde girl moved cautiously, looking for a safe place.

*

Had it been a mistake to wander carelessly?

I was being chased by soldiers made of red sand.

If it wasn’t for the Golden Reaper, I would have died long ago.

The Golden Reaper charged at the sand soldier chasing me from behind.

With a thud, the headless soldier returned to ordinary red sand.

But beyond the scattered sands, another sand soldier appeared.

No matter how many I killed, the sand soldiers kept appearing and appearing.

“Ugh. Ugh.”

Ignoring the sand crunching in my mouth, I gasped for breath.

The heat was already swiftly draining my stamina, and running continuously was making me dizzy.

Oh no, this is dangerous.

It felt like I might faint at any moment.

Before I knew it, the Golden Reaper was back on my shoulder, looking just fine.

‘Ah, I’m at my limit now.’ Just when that thought crossed my mind, the seemingly endless chase abruptly ceased.

“Huh?”

Breathless, I turned around to see the sand soldiers that had been relentlessly pursuing me now retreating and turning back.

“Wow, I’m alive! Right, Reaper?”

I collapsed on the ground, petting the Reaper while looking back at it.

But the Golden Reaper still didn’t relax.

A low humming sound rumbled.

Upon hearing the noise, the Golden Reaper dashed forward, and at the same time, the sand exploded around us.

I was helplessly tossed into the flow of sand.

Tumbled about, I finally stopped and looked up at the center of the chaos, where something was floating.

It was a cluster of red rock cubes swirling chaotically, all flowing outward.

In the center of this object was a crucial red glass orb that looked important without a doubt.

The Golden Reaper charged toward the orb that was as big as a person’s head.

But in that brief moment, the red rock cubes began to surround me, tightening their grip.

Slowly, but to my eyes, at an alarming speed.

The Golden Reaper couldn’t possibly block such large rocks.

Just when I thought I was really going to die, I heard the sound of glass breaking and the red rocks halted their movements, beginning to fall.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Countless red rock cubes tumbled down.

As the dust settled, I saw the red orb was cracked in half.

Ah, so that was its weak point.

And next to the orb lay the Golden Reaper, motionless.

“Reaper!”

I was startled and rushed over to the Golden Reaper.

The Golden Reaper lay with its eyes closed, one arm missing.

Wha… why?

Thick golden flames dripped from a shoulder that looked crudely torn, like blood.

“What do I do, what do I do?”

Desperately trying to stop the bleeding with my hands, the flames passed right through my fingers like they were nothing and flowed into the ground.

*

The first thing the Golden Reaper saw upon regaining consciousness was Park Seoah’s tears.

Seeing Park Seoah crying made it want to wipe her tears, but the Golden Reaper had no hands left.

Its remaining hand was busy trying to stem the wound.

The Golden Reaper’s firewood was too small; to avoid disappearing, it had to stop the flames seeping from the wound.

“Reaper. Are you okay?”

The Golden Reaper spoke in words that were hard to understand.

But there was concern within those words.

And a careful hand that patted softly.

Struggling through pain, the Golden Reaper forced a smile at the attached human.

But as it smiled through the pain, Park Seoah could only return a sadder expression.

Boom.

With a loud noise, another object made of red rock emerged.

The appearance of the object made Seoah’s face fill with worry.

The Golden Reaper met the worried gaze of the attached human and smiled brightly.

And the Golden Reaper turned to charge at the object.

Don’t worry!

I still have one arm left!