The expo grounds were completely sealed off by the military.

Officially, it was to prevent the Objects from escaping, but that wasn’t the reality.

It seemed more like they were trying to prevent anyone from seeing what was happening inside.

"Why are you blocking us from filming with drones?" one reporter shouted, raising his voice in protest at the checkpoint.

"For operational security," a soldier replied. "Step back."

"That's ridiculous…"

The protesting reporter was eventually grabbed by soldiers and dragged away helplessly.

Some journalists ignored the soldiers' orders and launched drones anyway, but the drones were quickly shot down.

After that, jamming devices were installed, and the security became even more stringent.

Some reporters, who were friendly with the military, published articles claiming the measures were to prevent Objects from being provoked and causing damage.

But to other journalists, it seemed the military's true target wasn’t the Objects inside the expo grounds but rather the prying eyes outside.

I gave up trying to wake the man who was being chased by the giant gray reaper from his nightmare.

He kept dying of shock just by seeing me, and no matter how long I kept him alive, the nightmare never ended.

After that, I wandered through countless dreams.

Dreams swarming with ghoul-like creatures, dreams of being chased by unfamiliar Objects, and so on.

Most of the dreams involved people being chased by something.

The problem was that in such dreams, no matter how long they ran, the chase never ended.

Waking someone from a nightmare wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but I didn't expect it to be this difficult.

I left the woman being chased by a herd of deer behind and entered a new dream.

This new dream was incredibly detailed.

Most dreams had blurry corners, but this one was intricately constructed as a complete world.

As I wandered through the dream, fascinated, I heard a familiar voice.

"Reaper, wait a moment!"

This time, the dream was set in a familiar background with a familiar person.

It was Oh Yerin.

Yerin was calling out loudly for me as she chased after a gray reaper that looked just like me.

And the dream reaper was running away from Yerin, dodging her pursuit.

‘?’

Why is this a nightmare?

Aren't they just having fun?

Yerin's expression looked quite joyful too.

"Reaper, come here and take a picture with me! I brought the deer pajamas!"

Yerin was holding a pair of children's pajamas with a deer motif.

When did she even get those?

In this dream that was almost identical to reality, there was one thing that stood out as odd.

The golden tree, which looked ten times bigger than it should have been.

The steadily brightening golden tree had a sinister significance.

I didn't know if it was because of Yerin's vivid imagination, but this expo venue was depicted with precise detail, without any ambiguity.

Except for that tree, which had grown to ten times its size.

It wasn’t long before I understood the meaning of the enormous golden tree.

It was the reason this dream was a nightmare.

As the golden tree grew brighter, reaching the level of brightness it emitted when it released its pulse waves, it fired a beam.

A beam aimed directly at Yerin.

It was a sudden and intense attack, startling me for a moment.

But the beam wasn’t actually aimed at Yerin.

It was aimed at the deer pajamas in her hands.

"No!!!!"

The deer pajamas were engulfed in flames, slowly burning away.

It was a fire that burned incredibly slowly, taking nearly thirty minutes to consume just one pair of pajamas.

But that slow-burning fire was a curse.

A curse that would make Yerin despair and grieve for a long time.

Yerin tried everything to put out the fire, but the flames, like hellfire from a novel, could not be extinguished.

Even when she submerged it in water, the pajamas kept burning.

"No!" "No!!" "No!!!"

In the end, Yerin broke down in tears in front of the pile of ashes that was once her deer pajamas.

And with that, the world began to rewind.

Back to the moment when Yerin, with a happy expression, was chasing the dream reaper.

I was pacing nervously inside the guard post monitoring the expo grounds.

The orders from the top were clear.

Increase the scale of the casualties in this incident.

It didn’t matter if everyone at the expo died.

To carry out that secret order, I had chosen to delay things with every excuse possible.

By stalling, the number of victims would naturally increase, but something unexpected had happened.

The total annihilation of the Objects that could harm humans.

The top brass had hoped for greater casualties and more controversy, but things had gone horribly wrong.

The sudden appearance of the golden reaper had thrown everything into chaos.

When I saw the golden reaper moving somewhere, I thought finally there would be some casualties, but the result was the complete opposite.

Now, just stalling wasn’t enough to accomplish the upper command's orders.

"No choice."

Yes, there was no other option.

"Gather a few soldiers who can keep their mouths shut. We’re going inside the expo. If we kill them with knives, we can blame it on the Objects."

There was no choice but to handle this personally.

"The targets are all sleeping people anyway, so it’s a simple mission. Finish it quickly and get out."

In the deep of night, avoiding as many eyes as possible, we headed toward the expo grounds.

With a small group of soldiers, we infiltrated the sealed-off expo.

The expo grounds, surrounded by high walls.

We set up a makeshift rope and descended, explaining the mission.

Kill as many people as possible, regroup in 30 minutes, and then withdraw.

"Meet back here in 30 minutes."

As the soldiers scattered to complete their tasks, a presence blocked their way.

A golden reaper.

Only one remained from the once numerous golden reapers.

Standing with its hands on its hips, glaring.

Having seen how it had slaughtered the Objects earlier, the soldiers visibly stiffened.

"Spread out now! Ignore it and proceed with the mission!"

Although it was an unknown new Object, the only hope was that it had never attacked a human.

Even if the golden reaper did attack humans, there was no other choice.

Failing to carry out the orders from above would mean death regardless.

As the soldiers scattered, the golden reaper vanished from its spot.

And the soldiers didn’t get far before they died on the spot.

Cause of death: a hole through the chest.

As I looked on, blood surged up my throat.

As I collapsed, endlessly vomiting blood, the golden reaper, soaked in blood, stood before me.

The look of disgust in its eyes was the last thing I saw as I died.

Yerin’s nightmare.

I wasn’t sure if it could really be called a nightmare, but if she perceived it as one, then it was.

Yerin’s nightmare was related to me.

Since it was connected to me, it seemed like it would be easier to resolve than I thought.

First, I walked into Yerin’s line of sight as she was frantically chasing the dream reaper.

"Wow! Reaper."

When Yerin saw me approaching, she smiled brightly and hugged me.

Beaming with happiness, Yerin proudly showed me something.

"Ta-da! It’s deer pajamas! Cute, right?"

She held up the pajamas against me and continued talking.

"Let’s take a picture wearing this. Since we’re at the expo, we should at least take one photo!"

From the moment I saw the pajamas, I had a feeling this would happen.

I don’t usually wear clothes because they’re uncomfortable, but this time I decided to make an exception to dispel the nightmare.

Since it was a dream, the weather had suddenly turned sunny.

A ghostly cat suddenly appeared from the air and nestled into my arms.

In the sky, cloud meat and cloud whales were floating around.

On the green lawn, flowers bloomed in abundance.

With that dreamlike scenery as a backdrop, I stood there in deer pajamas, holding the cat in my arms.

Click.

"Wow! Look at this!"

Yerin squealed in delight as she looked at the picture of us.

She jumped up and down in excitement, but gradually her excitement faded. She turned to me and spoke.

"This is a dream, isn’t it?"

‘Something this happy can’t be real. Reaper wearing clothes…’ Yerin muttered.

"The Reaper would never wear clothes for no reason. This has to be a dream!"

Yerin shook her head violently, then shouted.

With her shout, the world shattered like glass.

I woke up next to the golden tree.

After resolving Yerin's nightmare, I awoke from my sleep.

The golden tree had lost its power and no longer looked like a tree.

Now, it resembled a golden block rather than a tree.

When I tapped the tree, it made a heavy sound and crumbled apart.

Now that I think about it, I couldn’t see the golden reaper anywhere.

Even though the golden reaper was supposed to live for just one day, it still had a few hours left before it would disappear.

Not only the reaper that had been with me, but most of the golden reapers at the expo had disappeared.

Where did they all go?

I went to the only place where I could sense the presence of a golden reaper, and I was greeted by a horrific scene.

The golden reaper, as if waiting for something, was leaning against a corner. When it saw me, it got up and waved.

It waved with a bright smile.

It waved as if saying goodbye until we meet again.

And with that, the last remaining golden reaper turned into flames and disappeared.