A tattooed woman stood on the rooftop of a building overlooking the park entrance, gazing down at the scene below.

Groups of Association soldiers armed with assault rifles were stationed throughout the park, controlling the entire area in teams of three.

It was a stark contrast to the usual casual response to object appearances, where one or two staff members would half-heartedly tell people, "Stay away." This time, the security was on a whole new level.

In fact, the armed presence seemed more threatening than necessary to simply prevent civilians from entering. It made one wonder just how dangerous this park really was.

"Wow, it’s the first time I’ve seen the Association put up such heavy security," the younger sister, who was watching alongside the tattooed woman, remarked with awe.

Hearing her voice, the woman frowned slightly and replied, "Like I said, this could be very dangerous. Maybe you should wait at home?"

"Absolutely not," her sister responded firmly, her expression unwavering.

The woman opened her mouth, as if to argue, but then closed it again without saying anything.

There was no helping it.

Ever since their peculiar meeting, she had felt uncomfortable saying anything too forceful to her sister.

The younger sister might seem fine on the outside, but she knew that wasn’t the case.

"Alright then, just stay close behind me and listen to everything I say."

"Okay," the younger sister responded with a bright smile.

The woman grabbed her sister’s hand, holding it tightly, and they slowly made their way toward the park.

An Object Association temporary camp had been set up in the park, the site of a former terror attack.

Inside the camp, an Association employee limped around with a cane, reviewing some paperwork.

The memo was a command from the Association, ordering all available personnel, including those on leave, to head to the park.

The employee, a researcher who had been injured during the recent golden reaper incident at the Association building, had been dragged out of his vacation as a result.

'They’ve deployed every available person just for perimeter security. There weren’t even any casualties, so this seems excessive.'

The Association’s response to this incident felt strange.

They had often ignored possible mental contamination incidents inside the building, but now they were throwing so many resources at a situation with no human casualties.

Ironically, approaching the critical object itself was prohibited.

Only authorized personnel were allowed near the object, and as such, no one knew what the investigation had revealed so far.

A team had been sent in a few hours ago, but there had been no news since.

The employee felt frustrated by the situation.

The talented people had either left or been fired, while those who remained were mostly incompetent.

The ones who did their jobs well were stuck at the bottom, while the greedy had climbed to the top.

He had held onto hope that if he stayed long enough, the Association would return to normal. But that hadn’t happened.

Now, he realized what was going on.

There was a deliberate effort to ruin the Association from the inside.

But he couldn’t figure out who was behind it or why, making it impossible to act on his suspicions.

[This is Team 2, A-Block. We’re starting the shift change.]

[Copy that.]

As these thoughts swirled in his head, the radio announced the shift change, snapping him back to reality.

The employee began logging the communications and set about his work, pushing aside his distracting thoughts.

The tattooed woman and her younger sister were creeping forward silently, making sure to keep their footsteps as quiet as possible.

The security set up by the Object Association was tight, far too strict for an ordinary person to breach. Yet, the woman found it surprisingly easy to slip through.

As they held hands, the younger sister fidgeted and whispered, "Sis, why didn’t you tell me you had something this amazing?"

"Huh?" the woman responded, not quite following.

"Invisibility powder! You had something this cool all to yourself?"

The two of them were walking along the park’s path, hand in hand, but their bodies were invisible to the outside world.

"It’s not all that useful. It only works well when security relies purely on eyesight, like now," the woman replied, pointing toward the object near the monument.

"Look at that guardian. It’s staring straight at us, isn’t it?"

She gestured toward a white, muscle-bound statue that was indeed watching them intently, unaffected by the invisibility powder.

"Ew, that’s creepy," her younger sister muttered, clearly unnerved by the statue’s muscular physique and the human-like ears attached to its head.

"Sis, your guardians are way cuter than that."

She gently patted the head of the small, multicolored anglerfish creature that the woman was carrying. The little creature made a soft “thunk-thunk” sound as it was patted, flailing its stubby limbs in delight.

"Your anglerfish is cute, Sehee’s lab anglerfish is always sulking, and that muscle anglerfish over there is just gross."

Muttering to herself, the younger sister and the woman stood before the pitch-black hole in the ground.

As the sisters approached, the statues guarding the hole silently stepped aside to let them pass.

However, as the statues moved, they bowed their heads and kept their eyes wide open, staring at them intently.

Being so close to those statues, with their wide, glaring eyes, made the younger sister feel uncomfortable.

She tried to avert her gaze and ignore them, but as soon as her eyes met the statue’s…

It grinned.

Its face stretched into a grotesque smile, exposing rows of sharp, human-like teeth.

The younger sister gasped in shock, quickly covering her mouth to stifle a scream.

If it hadn’t been for her sister’s strict warning not to make any loud noises, she might have screamed out loud.

"Sis, sis! These things are weird!" she whispered urgently, her voice trembling, tears welling up in her eyes from the shock.

The woman, who had been inspecting the entrance to the hole to ensure it was safe, turned toward the statues at the sound of her sister’s panicked voice. The statues simply stood there, gazing at the sisters as though nothing had happened.

But the woman didn’t dismiss her sister’s words.

"What was strange about them?"

"Their… their teeth! They had these gross human teeth, and there were so many of them!" the younger sister stammered, still frightened.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the woman pulled her sister into a tight embrace and leapt into the hole.

As their bodies were swallowed by the thick, tangible darkness, a chilling sound echoed from above.

Click.

It was the sound of teeth snapping shut, as though something had just missed its bite.

I raised my hands toward the sky, soaking in the sunlight, but no matter how hard I tried, the golden beam didn’t fire again.

Sigh.

Even when I asked how they managed it, the golden reapers just giggled and made strange noises.

"Sun!"

"Mom!"

"Beam!"

I just couldn’t figure it out.

How on earth did they fire a beam?

As I puzzled over the mysterious beam, the cloud whale finally reached its destination.

I could feel the unmistakable presence of an object below.

Peering down from the whale, I saw the entrance to a seemingly bottomless abyss, its gaping maw open toward the sky.

With the mini reapers by my side, I leapt toward the entrance of the abyss.

The golden reapers flailed their limbs joyfully as they plummeted through the air, as though swimming through the clouds.

We descended rapidly, entering the darkness at high speed.

As we passed through the gloom and landed on the solid ground below, we were greeted by a pitch-black cave devoid of light.

Though my eyes emitted a faint glow, providing me some visibility, the blue reaper began weaving strings of light in the air.

"Please banish the darkness with starlight."

As the strings of water shattered, a fine mist began to glow faintly like a nebula, swirling around us.

The water particles illuminated our surroundings like starlight.

With the light of the stars guiding us, we began to walk deeper into the cave.

Plod. Plod.

As I led the way, the mini reapers mimicked my movements, happily flailing their limbs and following closely behind me.

They looked a bit like ducklings, which made me chuckle a little.

At the end of the cave, an oddly constructed city awaited us.

The city was a strange blend of the familiar and the unfamiliar, immersed in darkness.

It was a recreation of Yongsan District from my memories.

Yet, alongside the familiar structures were unfamiliar white marble buildings, giving the place a surreal, otherworldly feel.

I wandered through the city with the mini reapers in tow.

From the snack shop I used to visit as a child to countless other buildings, they were all there.

They were all fragments of my memories, as if someone had painstakingly reconstructed my past.

It was a scene that could no longer be found in the real Yongsan District.

'Are you okay, Mom?'

A golden reaper perched on my shoulder patted my cheek, concerned.

'I’m fine.'

I reassured them, continuing my slow stroll through the streets of my past.

Plod. Plod.

As I wandered through my memories, I noticed something white in the distance, watching us.

It was a statue, eerily similar to the anglerfish.

The statue kept its distance, following us with an unsettling expression on its face.

From afar, it looked a lot like the anglerfish. I wanted to take a closer look.

But as I approached, the statue would retreat, maintaining a constant distance.

Was it trying to keep its distance?

I activated my phasing ability and time acceleration, catching up to it instantly.

At last, I could get a proper look at it up close.

It was a statue made in astonishingly poor taste.

Its skin was as white as the anglerfish’s.

It had grotesquely realistic muscles.

Its head was similarly pathetic, like the anglerfish’s.

And the human ears attached to it were the final touch that made the whole thing even more bizarre.

When I summoned my anglerfish to compare, though, I realized they didn’t really look alike at all.

By the way, that statue smelled like blood.

Though there weren’t any bloodstains on it, it gave off the strong scent of fresh blood, as though it had just torn a human apart.

"Bad object!"

The mini reapers, too, glared at it, their expressions fierce.

We should probably kill this bad object.

And while we’re at it, I figured I might as well answer a question that had popped into my mind.

Could my marshmallow-like anglerfish beat a rock-hard statue?

Summoning the large white anglerfish, I ordered it to attack the statue.

With its usual forlorn expression, the anglerfish slowly advanced on the statue.

The mini reapers clapped in excitement, forming a makeshift colosseum around the two.

While the anglerfish looked calm and peaceful, the statue’s face twisted with rage, deep wrinkles forming across its grotesque features.

Suddenly, the statue launched itself into the air, leaping toward the anglerfish.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Each time the statue’s fist connected with the anglerfish, a deep, reverberating sound echoed through the air.

But the statue’s punches merely caused the anglerfish’s soft, marshmallow-like cheeks to wobble.

The anglerfish’s marshmallow-like body absorbed the impact effortlessly, thanks to its unexpected elasticity.

Looking down at the statue attacking it, the anglerfish seemed to decide it had seen enough and sprang forward, slamming into the statue.

The sight of the massive anglerfish sending the statue flying was quite impressive.

"Anglerfish headbutt!"

The golden reapers cheered, punching the air in excitement.

The white anglerfish then opened its mouth and began spitting out mini anglerfish.

The mini anglerfish rolled out of its mouth, their tiny limbs scrambling as they rushed toward the fallen statue.

No matter how many of them the statue managed to throw off, more mini anglerfish piled on, biting and tearing at its stone skin.

The statue’s tough exterior, which seemed like solid rock, began to stretch and tear under the relentless assault of the mini anglerfish, as if it were human flesh.

The fight ended much sooner than expected.

Eeeek!

The statue, caught in the toothless bite of the anglerfish, thrashed around in agony.

It was surprising enough that the marshmallow-like anglerfish could bite the statue, but even more surprising was what happened to the statue itself.

When its neck suddenly stretched out, that had been grotesque enough to startle me.

But when its mouth opened to reveal rows of densely packed human teeth, I was truly shocked.

That thing wasn’t an anglerfish!

Its horrific appearance was enough to make me almost retch on the spot.

As I calmed myself down, I glanced over at the mini reapers, wondering if they were just as startled.

But they seemed completely unfazed.

"Anglerfish strong!"

The mini reapers, it seemed, didn’t care much about appearances, as they continued to cheer for the anglerfish.

In a dimly lit room, illuminated only by faint light from the ceiling, there was a large bed.

On a small table next to the bed were numerous small, round, white beads, each with tiny limbs, tails, and antennae sticking out.

They resembled miniature versions of the white anglerfish.

One of the beads had begun to crack, eventually shattering completely.

Despite the apparent care that had been taken in displaying these little figures—each with its own cushion—the girl lying in the bed didn’t move at all.

The girl with blue hair, covered in dust as though she hadn’t moved in a long time, lay there motionless, as if she were dead.

She didn’t even seem to be breathing, merely resting there in peaceful stillness.