In a rarely used emergency staircase, a security staff member sat nervously, waiting for someone.

In his hand, he clutched a "Gray Reaper Pudding," looking somewhat anxious, like someone about to make a secretive deal.

The staff member’s head turned left and right, scanning his surroundings before he smiled brightly at something he noticed.

From behind the pillar of the staircase railing, a small blue hat peeked out.

Seeing the shy Blue Reaper approaching, the staff member’s heart swelled with joy.

He had successfully managed to meet the Blue Reaper on a regular basis.

Ever since he had first seen the Blue Reaper—who quietly cleaned his room like a helpful house spirit—he had worked so hard to make this happen.

The Blue Reaper was hard to find, and feeding it pudding was even harder.

But now, it felt like all his efforts to catch the Blue Reaper’s attention were finally paying off.

Bit by bit.

The Blue Reaper slowly ate the pudding, carefully scooping it up with its tiny mouth.

The staff member placed the Blue Reaper on his palm and gently fed it spoonfuls of pudding.

With the Blue Reaper wearing its hat so low that its eyes were barely visible, the sight of its small cheeks puffing up as it ate filled him with contentment.

There was still a bit of distance between them, but just being able to meet the Blue Reaper regularly was already a great achievement.

He vowed that one day, he would rest in his room with the Blue Reaper, feeding it pudding.

The Blue Reaper ate the pudding much more slowly than the Golden Reapers, and by the time it had finished half of the pudding, a red emergency light began to flash.

Beep! Beep!

A loud, shrill alarm echoed through the staircase, and the ominous red light flickered across the steps.

What on earth was happening?

An emergency at a time like this?

At Sehee Research Institute, the threshold for emergencies was extremely high. For the alarm to go off meant that something truly serious had happened.

It wasn’t the kind of thing that would sound just because a blue piano-playing lizard got angry and started smashing people with its piano…

The Blue Reaper, who had been eagerly eating the pudding, now looked around in alarm.

Ssscccrrreeee!

Suddenly, a sharp cutting noise came from the steel door on the emergency landing.

A transparent bird’s beak began cutting through the steel door.

It was the Glass Flamingo.

A flamingo made of a translucent material that refracted and reflected light like glass.

It was a newly arrived Object.

When it was still, it looked like a delicate, exquisitely crafted statue—so much so that it had been classified as a safe Object with no aggression.

But now, the Glass Flamingo looked wild and full of hostility.

The Blue Reaper stepped in front of the staff member, frantically weaving incomprehensible strings of code.

"Protect us!"

A bubble-like shield formed around the Blue Reaper and the staff member, encasing them in a watery barrier.

But the Glass Flamingo didn’t seem to care about the shield. Its feet clicked on the floor like glass tapping on crystal as it slowly advanced toward them.

The staff member stood cautiously, preparing for the worst.

The Glass Flamingo’s beak, sharp enough to cut through steel, along with its confident, imposing stride, sent waves of unease through him.

The Blue Reaper, looking terrified, shuffled backward, glancing around in fear as the flamingo continued its steady approach.

"Ten water needles!"

Water condensed in the air, forming into sharp needles, and shot toward the flamingo, but they seemed to have no effect.

The flamingo slightly pulled its head back, then lunged forward like a bullet, its beak slicing through the watery shield as if it were paper, aiming straight for the Blue Reaper.

The staff member, clutching the Blue Reaper in his arms, rolled to the side to avoid the attack.

Thanks to his quick thinking, he managed to protect the Blue Reaper from the flamingo’s beak.

But he hadn’t completely escaped.

The flamingo’s beak barely grazed him, yet it left a huge gash in his thigh.

Blood poured from the wound, and a wave of searing pain shot through him.

Looking down at the Blue Reaper in his hands, he saw its wide, shocked eyes, filled with concern.

"Please don’t be hurt!"

"Please don’t be hurt!"

"Please don’t be hurt!"

"Someone, please help!"

Along with the unintelligible code, the pain in his leg began to subside.

It must have been the Blue Reaper’s magic.

The staff member tried to lower the Blue Reaper down the stairs to safety, but the Blue Reaper resisted, digging in its tiny feet as if it didn’t want to leave.

Shaking its head, the Blue Reaper stood in front of the flamingo, its face filled with fear, but also determination.

But the flamingo, seemingly annoyed, simply kicked at the Blue Reaper, shattering it in one swift motion.

The Blue Reaper clutched its stomach in pain, collapsing onto the floor.

At that moment, something golden emerged from the stairwell.

Golden heads.

Golden Reapers were peeking out from every nook and cranny—above the staircase, along the railings, and even on the steps.

Their faces were unusually angry.

The flamingo, seeing the sight, continued walking confidently, but something strange happened.

Although it appeared to be walking forward, it was somehow getting farther away.

As soon as it passed the steel door it had cut through, it turned around and sprinted away at full speed.

And following behind it, like a tsunami, came a wave of Golden Reapers, their faces filled with fury.

Despite the immense size of the Immutable Black Sphere, the interior was claustrophobically small.

It was a cramped space, just large enough to hold a single round table at its center.

The entire area, made of black stone, was oppressive, save for the solitary, plain wooden round table that stood in stark contrast to its surroundings, like an island adrift in a sea of dark emptiness.

At first glance, the wooden table seemed ordinary, but upon closer inspection, each grain of wood appeared to have been deliberately carved, exuding an air of ancient elegance.

Scattered across the table were numerous tiny chairs.

Curious, I picked one up to examine it.

It was so small, it could have been made for a mini-Reaper. It was just the right size.

A quaint table and miniature chairs fit for Reapers.

The black stone walls surrounding this peculiar furniture were covered with strange inscriptions, etched into the surface.

These inscriptions resembled no known writing on Earth; they felt more like cryptic symbols.

The letters were filled with a sense of madness and despair.

Each stroke, etched into the stone as if by a crazed hand, was a testament to the frantic obsession behind them.

The grooves forming the letters were stained with old blood, remnants of whatever madness had transpired here.

"The book that killed the gods must be destroyed."
"The book that killed the gods must be destroyed."
"The book that killed the gods must be destroyed."

The walls, ceiling, and even the floor were covered in the same sentence, written over and over as though by someone with a compulsive, pathological need.

Even beneath the tiny chair I had moved, there were bloodstains, and upon closer inspection, I found more writing etched into the wooden table.

This time, the letters were soaked in a deeper, fresher red.

"May my wish reach the gods."

As soon as I touched the writing with my hand, an overwhelming surge of emotions flooded into me.

Despair. Grief. And hope.

A tsunami of feelings all collided within me, swirling into a torrent of mixed emotions.

The moment all those feelings poured into my very soul, the space around me began to distort and collapse, as if it were being sucked inward.

Before I knew it, I was back at James’s research facility.

The Immutable Black Sphere rippled like water and swallowed the Reaper whole.

Shocked, I looked around, only to see that James, too, was watching in awe, his mouth open in astonishment.

"As I thought," he murmured.

"Is it okay that the Reaper just vanished?" I asked, worried.

James, with a calm expression, answered with another question, "Do you really think there’s a problem?"

"Uh… I mean…"

The more I thought about it, the harder it was to imagine anything truly bad happening to the Reaper.

"Besides, I’ve long suspected that there would be some sort of interaction between the Immutable Black Sphere and the Gray Reaper."

As James spoke, the Immutable Black Sphere suddenly vanished, and in its place, the Reaper reappeared.

It stood there, staring blankly at the spot where the sphere had been.

Thud. Thud.

Slowly, the Reaper turned its head and began walking toward me with a slightly puzzled expression.

It looked as though something felt off. The Reaper repeatedly clenched and unclenched its fists, as if testing out its hands.

"The experiment with the Immutable Black Sphere is a success. The other 0-level relics are still in transit, so in the meantime, let’s begin the James Research Facility tour."

James added with a grin, "We’re all the way in the U.S. You wouldn’t want to leave without doing a bit of sightseeing, would you?"

He turned and began walking away from the now-empty space where the Immutable Black Sphere had once floated.

I gently took the Reaper’s hand and followed behind him.

As we left, a team of researchers arrived with various pieces of equipment, ready to investigate the area where the Immutable Black Sphere had vanished.

Something about all of this seemed a little strange.

Why was James feeding 0-level relics to the Reaper?

James’s research facility was vast, so the tour started with us riding an electric cart.

I sat comfortably in Yerin’s lap, holding onto a large container of pudding, and as we rode, I took in the sights of the research facility.

Snuggled in Yerin’s arms and enjoying the delicious pudding, my once-confused mind began to settle.

After interacting with the Immutable Black Sphere, it felt like I had gained some sort of power.

But I had no idea what it was, and that uncertainty left me feeling uneasy. However, as I ate the pudding, my thoughts became clearer.

Does it really matter if I don’t know?

If I need to know, I’ll figure it out eventually, right?

As James drove the cart up a winding ramp, we finally arrived at the top of the massive wall.

This colossal barrier surrounded James City, its sheer height and overwhelming presence giving off an awe-inspiring sense of grandeur.

At the center of it all, a giant tree loomed, bathed in a dark blue hue.

"If the Immutable Black Sphere was the reason James City was founded, that tree is the reason it continues to exist."

The sight before us was so mystical and beautiful that it was no wonder James had chosen to show us this first.

But despite its beauty, the tree didn’t feel safe.

The wall seemed less like a protective barrier and more like a prison, built to contain the tree within. The countless monitoring devices surrounding the wall appeared to be the physical manifestation of humanity’s fear of the tree.

The tree at the center exuded an ominous presence, both magnificent and foreboding.

The massive, ancient trunk pulsed with a deep blue light, almost like the heartbeat of the earth itself.

The eerie glow of the tree gave off the unsettling sensation that it was somehow connected to the underworld.

"Wow, look at all the glass shards flying around!" Yerin exclaimed in amazement as she observed the transparent fragments swirling around the tree.

Instead of leaves, the tree’s branches were adorned with shards of broken glass, spinning and twinkling like a kaleidoscope as they caught the eerie light.

The shards danced erratically around the tree, reflecting the unsettling glow in a breathtaking display.

But those beautiful shards were nothing more than seeds of destruction.

Fragments of torn space floated around, beautiful but deadly.

Anyone foolish enough to approach would face grave consequences.

That tree was constantly tearing apart the space around it.

And it seemed to be growing larger, a force that no wall could hope to contain.

Is this really okay?

No matter how I looked at it, the tree seemed incredibly dangerous.