The interpreter cursed their past self for thinking, "It’s safer than I thought. I’ll be fine!" while munching on snacks brought by the Golden Reapers and enjoying what felt like a scene straight out of a monster movie.

They should have been thinking about essential survival questions like, "How can I escape from here?" from the very start!

The sky was covered in black, writhing like waves of a sea.

The vast ground was drenched in pitch-black slime.

The line between sky and earth was blurred, creating a disorienting scene where it was hard to tell what was up and what was down.

But the peace within that ambiguity was shattered when an unexpected storm suddenly swept in.

The storm, seemingly summoned by the giant jellyfish, overturned the laws of nature, flipping the sky and the earth in a chaotic frenzy.

Powerful winds lifted people off the white ground and tossed them into the sky, while the black liquid of both the sky and the earth twisted into swirling whirlpools, making it impossible to tell direction.

To make things worse, gravity itself had reversed, and it was becoming harder to distinguish between up and down.

In this chaos, the interpreter had only two things keeping them alive.

The Golden Reaper, with a serious expression, clung to the interpreter's shoulder.

And the water-like shield that enveloped them.

Despite the terrifying situation that made them feel like they would faint, the interpreter forced themselves to stay alert, continuously scanning the surroundings to survive.

One moment they were riding the wind, soaring into the sky, only to plummet downward the next.

Gravity reversed, sending them into an endless freefall—a nightmare where they spun uncontrollably, like being trapped in a massive washing machine, unable to tell which way was up.

Tentacles sprouted from both the sky and the earth, lurking for a chance to strike, while black droplets that could melt human flesh and bone splattered everywhere.

Then, out of nowhere, a white, glowing Agu flew toward the interpreter, flailing its short limbs.

It seemed to be flying in a straight line, targeting the interpreter.

"No, stop! Don’t come closer!"

Even though it had no teeth, the sight of the massive white Agu hurtling toward them was terrifying.

The interpreter imagined that if they collided with an Object capable of fighting the giant jellyfish, they might be lucky enough to die instantly.

But if they were unlucky, they’d end up a broken, comatose body.

As Agu neared, it opened its huge mouth as if to swallow the interpreter whole.

"Noooo! Stop!"

Flailing their arms in a panic, the interpreter lost consciousness the moment they were swallowed.

Agu succeeded in swallowing the last of the humans, including the interpreter.

Initially, the plan was to use the mini Reaper garden to send everyone to Sehee Research Institute, but perhaps because they were inside the jellyfish’s domain, it didn’t work well.

It was easy enough to dig into space, but expanding the scale required too much energy.

Relying solely on the Golden Reapers and the Blue Reapers didn’t seem quite enough, so the Gray Reaper ordered the white Agu to swallow everyone for protection.

The white Agu, surprisingly, didn’t need much convincing and obediently followed orders.

The white Agu is convenient!

And tasty!

Meanwhile, the giant jellyfish was causing chaos, turning the space upside down.

In the midst of all this, the white Agu was flailing its short limbs, flying around, while the Golden Reapers laughed and flew through the air like they were at an amusement park.

The Golden Reapers always seem to be having fun.

Seeing how they even enjoyed being tossed around, they’d probably love being thrown into a washing machine. I’ll have to try it sometime.

A massive storm was raging in a space where the concepts of up and down had lost meaning.

"Silence the jellyfish that can’t speak but talks a lot, then destroy the Night Pearl at the eye of the storm."

This must be the storm that appears after the ‘talkative jellyfish’ dies, right?

Where is the eye of the storm?

Since the giant jellyfish caused the storm, is it the eye of the storm?

Despite the chaos of reversed gravity and everything being flipped upside down, the giant jellyfish remained floating gracefully, maintaining its orientation.

I wish I could just tear the jellyfish and its space apart and be done with it. Maybe that would count as breaking the Night Pearl.

With that thought, I decided to give it a try.

Kyu!

Clenching my tiny fist, I swung it in the direction of the jellyfish.

Where my finger traced, the sky split apart.

The black, foamy sky tore open, revealing a darker void beyond.

And as my finger’s path intersected with the jellyfish, it split into five pieces.

Kiiiieeeek!

With a mechanical, grating noise, the jellyfish flopped limply like a deflated balloon, falling into the black sea below.

Wait, is that it?

But, to my disappointment, the giant jellyfish rose from the sea, fully revived, floating proudly as if nothing had happened.

So that didn’t work.

It seems like you have to meet the exact destruction conditions for an Object.

Even if I tried crushing it with spatial compression, it’d probably regenerate.

I’ll have to test spatial compression on a smaller target next time when I have more energy.

If I consider the jellyfish’s destruction condition, finding the ‘eye of the storm’ is the first step.

As gravity swirled and my body spun uncontrollably in the violent vortex, I spotted one particularly large waterspout.

Among the many waterspouts connecting the sky and the ground, this one stood out—it was much thicker horizontally than vertically, like a fat column.

Since I can’t fly, I decided to burn some energy and grab onto the space, hurtling myself toward the waterspout.

Kyu.

I locked onto the space, not tearing it but launching myself forward.

As I interfered with the space, I could feel the energy burning up fiercely as I shot toward the waterspout at tremendous speed.

Entering the waterspout, I was greeted by a calm, serene space with no wind, no sound, and no gravity.

This space was the complete opposite of the chaos I had just left.

There was no wind, no noise, and it felt like I had entered another dimension, governed by zero gravity.

The space, which looked much smaller from the outside, was actually 100 times larger and filled with stagnant air and silence.

In this distorted space inside the waterspout, both the sky and the sea were vast, pitch-black oceans.

It felt like I was floating between two expanses of darkness.

And there, in that black sea, two reflections of a pure white moon shimmered above and below.

Could that be the ‘Night Pearl’?

There were no actual moons, just two reflected images.

And scattered around were numerous obsidian-like mirrors.

Two moons reflected on an unbreakable surface, with mirrors floating everywhere that seemed to reflect light.

Hmm, it looks like a puzzle.

A rather complicated one at that.

Swallowed by the white Agu, James was surprised at how comfortable it felt inside.

The Golden Reapers were scattered about, glowing softly like ambient lights.

Thanks to their gentle light, James could get a good look inside Agu’s stomach.

It was much larger than expected.

And filled with soft, marshmallow-like balls about the size of fists, it felt like being inside a ball pit.

Upon closer inspection, the balls were miniature versions of the white Agu, with much shorter limbs.

Why are these inside the stomach?

James picked up one of the white Agu balls and squeezed it, producing a funny sound.

Kyu.

A ball pit full of squeezable ‘kyu’-making balls, with Golden Reapers bouncing around happily.

It was a surprisingly cheerful space.

With the interpreter now tossed into the ball pit after fainting, everyone in the group was confirmed to be safe.

While it seemed secure inside, there was no way to check the outside situation.

James decided to relax in the ball pit and reflect on everything that had happened today.

Activating the recording function on his smartwatch, he began organizing his thoughts aloud.

"The Gray Reaper absorbed the 0-level relic."

"The Gray Reaper destroyed Agu and transformed it into the white Agu."

"The ‘jellyfish torture’ performed by the Gray Reaper seemed to be intentional. It didn’t look like something they did for fun."

As various events flashed through James’s mind, he also recalled the Gray Reaper suddenly dancing, and the appearance of the red and blue moons in the sky.

Then, he formed a tentative hypothesis.

"The Gray Reaper can destroy Objects and turn them into its own."

"The Gray Reaper knows how to destroy Objects."

"I need to think of a way to prove this hypothesis."

That’s about all I can think of for now.

After finishing the recording, James dropped his serious expression and started playing with the Golden Reapers that were staring at him expectantly.

Thud.

Floating through the quiet space, I tapped one of the mirrors, causing it to spin and shift its position.

Three other mirrors moved along with it, as if they were all connected by some hidden rule.

There’s no doubt—it’s a puzzle.

I probably need to adjust the mirrors to get rid of the two reflected moons on the surface...

Usually, puzzles like this solve themselves if you mess with them enough, but no matter what I did, it didn’t seem to be working.

It was starting to get annoying.

If I just need to get rid of the reflected moons, then...

I decided to use brute force to save myself from thinking too much.

Lying back in midair, I spread my arms and opened my palms wide.

I grabbed the space containing the vast, black oceans above and below.

Kyu.

Then, I clenched my hands and erased the oceans.

At that moment, the towering waterspout, which had been standing like a barrier, vanished as if it had never been there.

As the barrier disappeared, familiar gravity returned, pulling me downward.

Freefall.

As I plummeted, slicing through the wind, I saw the scene I had been waiting for.

The giant jellyfish, which had once dominated the skies of China and had turned Gwanak-gu into ruins, was now meeting its end.

The giant jellyfish was slowly disintegrating, writhing in pain and screaming, no longer the dignified creature it once was.

Kiiieeeeek!

Its death came with a pitiful wail, filled with deep sorrow.

It didn’t sound like just the last gasp of death—it felt more like a cry of anguish beyond comprehension.

That sound echoed through the air, leaving an indelible mark, as if the very presence of the giant jellyfish had left a scar on the world.

The wail grew fainter, and as it finally disappeared, the dark sky parted, revealing the blue sky above.

As expected, brute force is always the answer.

Heh.

And off in the distance, I could see the helicopters from the news stations.

A large number of helicopters were recording me as I fell.

As I looked toward the helicopters, I realized that this crisis was finally coming to an end.