Upon waking, I found myself surrounded by a desolate, dark landscape.

Barren, rugged terrain stretched before me, with jagged rocks rising sharply into the air and an ominous, murky sky above.

In the sky, a beautiful green aurora streaked across, but instead of inspiring awe, it only exuded a sense of dread.

Beyond it lay the vastness of space, and between the stars, I could clearly see Earth, large and looming.

The sight of Earth in the sky made it unmistakably clear that I wasn’t standing on Earth.

Where am I?

Looking up at the sky filled me with unease, as if this place would soon plummet to Earth.

I continued staring, trying to shake the strange feeling, and realized the source of that unsettling sensation.

This parched land was slowly, very slowly, moving toward Earth.

I thought of calling on the Mini Reaper Garden, but nothing happened.

In that instant, it dawned on me.

Ah, this is a dream.

The moment I recognized it as a dream, a massive wave of malice began to coalesce in the distance.

It was so large and sinister that I could never forget such a presence.

Although the memory was faint, I was sure I had felt this malevolence once before.

As the malice gathered, a bizarre object emerged, appearing to be a blend of organic and inorganic matter.

The newly materialized object seemed to be made of the same material as the landscape, as if the dark, twisted ground had come to life.

The eerie silhouette looked like a gnarled tree or tangled roots, with a face at the top, staring down at me.

The object had no eyes, yet I could feel its gaze fixed upon me.

For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to look directly at this creature.

Even as I tried to focus, it remained blurry and indistinct.

But the more I stared, the clearer it became.

Tap, tap.

Just as I tried to look at it squarely, someone tapped me on the shoulder.

Turning around, I saw a blue-haired girl with a solemn expression, shaking her head.

The moment I looked at her, I awoke from the dream.

Waking up, I found myself back in the dimly lit isolation room.

Next to me, the Golden Reaper was curled up, asleep, with its firewood flickering softly.

Its light would brighten and fade, much like the gentle breathing of a sleeping baby.

As I idly stroked the Golden Reaper’s cheek, I pondered the ominous dream.

A blue-haired girl and a mysterious object.

It must be related to my “body” or perhaps to me.

Whatever it was, it was definitely connected to me in some way.

I’d ignored it, thinking it was just another dream, but that malevolent presence was too disturbing to dismiss lightly.

The image of that ominous object seemed familiar, yet I couldn’t remember where I had seen it.

It wasn’t from my time as the Gray Reaper.

It must have been from my human days, though I only had a vague sense that I’d seen it before.

I can’t recall.

No matter how hard I tried, the memory eluded me, leaving me frustrated.

To ease my irritation, I lifted the tiny hand of the Golden Reaper, still fast asleep beside me.

Once the Golden Reaper was asleep, it hardly ever woke up, making it the perfect target for a little prank.

I stuck tape to its limbs and fastened it to the wall, like an “X,” watching as the Golden Reaper hung there, still sound asleep. My irritation faded, and I felt a bit better.

Hehe.

It seemed I needed to take that dream seriously and find out what it meant.

But how?

No solution readily came to mind.

The best way might be to gather more moons and eyeballs.

The more moons and eyeballs I collected, the more things seemed to change.

The problem was I had no clue where to find them or when they might appear.

No answer.

“Mom…”

The other Golden Reaper on the bed muttered as it nibbled on my hair, looking blissfully content in its dream.

Just as I was about to tape it to the wall, too, an idea struck me.

“Why not use the Mini Reapers’ adventures to my advantage?”

As the number of Mini Reapers seeking to bond with humans increased, I wouldn’t even need to force them to do anything.

Haha, I really am clever.

All I’d need to do is lounge around Sehee’s lab, eating pudding, while the Mini Reapers brought me moons and eyeballs—a perfect system!

With all my worries resolved, I began to pick up the sleeping Mini Reapers, taping them to the wall one by one.

The wall soon became a gallery of Mini Reapers in various poses, like an Egyptian mural.

Especially the Golden Reaper that had helped me come up with this brilliant idea was given a prime spot in the center.

By the time I had finished decorating, the Mini Reapers that had piled up on my bed were now all adorning the wall.

I stepped back with a proud grin and admired my artwork.

Late in the morning, Ye-rin sat at a table laden with snacks, sipping a warm coffee in the courtyard of Sehee’s lab.

News reports played softly on a tiny TV atop the table.

“The Object Association has decided to leave Mapo as it is.”

“Mapo has now become the first site where coexistence between humans and objects is being tested.”

The news covered the Golden Reapers swarming Mapo.

Ultimately, the Object Association decided not to quarantine or designate Mapo as a restricted area.

They must have realized that they couldn’t contain or eliminate the Objects there.

While the Gray Reaper who caused the Mapo incident paid no mind to the news, it was playing with the Mini Reapers in the courtyard.

Usually, the Gray Reaper would be lounging around, but today, it was actively entertaining the Mini Reapers.

Perhaps it was because I had taped them to the wall like mounted butterflies earlier in the morning.

“Japan has withdrawn its safety rating for the high-level object, the Red Lightning Island.”

“The Red Lightning Island is now being blamed for a string of mysterious disappearances across Japan.”

After the Mapo story, grim news from Japan filled the broadcast.

It was about a terrifying Object capable of consuming thousands of people.

“Japan must have it tough, not having a Reaper around,” Ye-rin thought, casually sharing her pudding with a Golden Reaper.

As the girl looked up at the clear sky, she thought,

“Today’s really an unlucky day.”

In truth, it wasn’t just today that was unlucky.

Ever since she had been abducted to this Object labyrinth island, she hadn’t had a single moment of good fortune.

This Object island had suddenly appeared near the Japanese coast.

Humans couldn’t approach it, nor could missiles or bombs harm it.

For a time, it was deemed harmless due to its inactivity.

Everyone, herself included, believed that.

“A big Object like that has nothing to do with me,” she’d thought.

But here she was, abducted by the Object.

Even now, lying on this bed, she vividly remembered falling asleep back home, but she knew she’d never return.

She wondered if anyone had discovered that this seemingly harmless island was actually an Object randomly abducting people from all over Japan.

If they had, maybe there’d be a chance she could return…

“Sigh.”

Today truly was an unlucky day.

She sighed deeply, gathering up the shattered pieces of her sword.

Earlier that morning, she’d thought it was a lucky day when she bought that sword for a third of its price from a vendor outside the labyrinth.

But the sword was a fake.

It shattered with the slightest force.

Even when she bought adhesive to repair it, she didn’t think it was a completely unlucky day.

To have found adhesive that could repair a broken sword!

She had believed she’d fix the sword and finally become a proper labyrinth adventurer.

But, alas.

The adhesive was fake, too.

She had glued the broken pieces and left them to dry in the sunlight for an hour, as the vendor advised, but nothing changed.

She’d placed it on the flowerpot, thinking perhaps it just needed more sunlight, but deep down, she knew the glue was a scam.

But she couldn’t bear to part with her first weapon, so she just kept drying it.

And the cobbled-together sword had just broken again.

This time, it was shattered by a strange black object that had fallen onto the flowerpot from the sky.

“Sigh. How unlucky.”

She had lost all the money she’d saved up.

Though she felt so miserable that she didn’t even want to take a step, she gritted her teeth and left her lodging.

There was no other choice.

She needed to collect plants from the labyrinth to pay for food and lodging.

As she trudged along, a tiny, swift black object tap-tapped behind her, following her every step.