The moment I severed the connection with the corpse and opened my eyes in Yerin’s embrace, a massive body came into view.

The once bright, blazing firewood had died down, and the halo that shone above my head was now gone.

Yet, the sheer size of it radiated an intimidating presence.

As I lay nestled in Yerin's arms and looked up, it felt as though the towering figure could reach the sky.

It didn’t move, but the empty eyes of the corpse seemed to gaze down at me.

The corpse, remaining upright in a strange, unnatural stance as if staring at me, suddenly started being pulled away somewhere.

Much like the "Crimson Creature" that had been dragged into a spatial rift, the black corpse was also drawn into the <Immutable Black Sphere>.

Though the situation and atmosphere were different, the feeling was strangely similar.

Once the entire corpse was sucked in and the <Immutable Black Sphere> returned to its original place in the Mini Reapers’ Garden, I finally felt like it was all over.

For some reason, looking at that corpse made me feel tense.

Was it because it was so massive?

Or perhaps it was because it belonged to an entity of such high stature?

As I was mulling over these thoughts, I noticed that a bunch of bandage-wrapped creatures with tiny feet had gathered around.

They couldn’t see, yet they seemed to sense my presence and ran around in circles, colliding and tumbling over one another in their excitement.

When I jumped down from Yerin's arms to stand on the ground, the bandage-wrapped creatures swarmed around my feet and started bouncing their heads against me.

“Mom!”

“Mom!”

“Mom!”

They were enthusiastically projecting the word “Mom!” with such a playful intent.

Even though the laboratory had been attacked, the Mini Reapers were brimming with excitement, as if the successful defense had only energized them more.

The Black Reapers looked at the bandage creatures—the Golden Reapers—with envy before deciding to join in.

They transformed their bodies into bundles of bandages and started running around as well.

The garden, which was already chaotic with Mini Reapers running and colliding, became even more crowded with the addition of black bandage bundles.

Hehe.

I laughed quietly as I pushed over the big bandage-wrapped Mini Reapers.

Watching them wriggle their legs after falling down made me feel like I was finally back to my everyday life.

In a privately-owned, unofficial lab located in a hidden corner of Seoul.

It was more of a makeshift facility than a real lab—just an ordinary house that had been converted—and the sound of the TV was drifting out.

“[The zombie crisis that swept across Seoul is gradually subsiding.]”

“[Even with the current count, the number of recorded victims is enormous. But the high number of missing persons, whose whereabouts remain unknown, suggests that the toll may rise further.]”

The onslaught of "brain-devouring zombies" that had ravaged all of Seoul was far from being fully contained, even though quite some time had passed.

“Ugh, if it hadn’t been for the 'Golden Reaper'...”

The woman in a worn lab coat shuddered as she recalled the past.

If she hadn’t captured the Golden Reaper, her name might have been among the list of casualties.

There was a time when she was almost 100% sure she would die.

Whether it was by tracking human scent or some other mysterious method, these brain-eating zombies found humans no matter how well they hid.

This woman, who had sensed the looming danger early and holed herself up in her lab, was no exception.

Although not a fully-equipped lab, the makeshift setup was sufficiently isolated. Yet, the zombies had still managed to gather around.

There was no sound, no light, no scent—yet they found their way in.

When the zombies broke through the steel door hinges, she crammed herself into the Golden Reaper’s containment room with a burst of quick thinking.

It was extremely cramped, but as it was made with containment material for objects, she hoped it would hold out for a while.

At least until help arrived, or until she starved to death.

However, the real issue might have been buying the cheapest containment unit from the internet.

Contrary to claims that it could effectively block most physical attacks, the unit began to crack under the zombies’ pounding.

One more hit, and the containment unit would shatter completely.

“This is the end!”

Then came the sight of a zombie’s claws flying overhead.

The woman shut her eyes tightly, anticipating a gruesome death, but no matter how long she waited, she didn’t hear the sound of the containment unit breaking.

Curious, she peeked and saw the Golden Reaper moving at an incredible speed.

With a fierce expression, it was moving so fast it left afterimages, neutralizing the zombies with ease.

“Ah…”

At that moment, she remembered the Golden Reaper’s profile she had once skimmed over.

“<The aggressive capabilities of the Golden Reaper remain unknown.>

<However, objects/subjects attacked by the Golden Reaper were found with Golden Reaper-shaped holes in them.>”

The ‘Object List’ she bought from a bookstore only had ‘profitable information,’ so it lacked details on the Golden Reaper. But the little she knew was enough to understand the current situation.

Zombies, weakened with holes in the shape of the Golden Reaper.

The woman had been captivated by the fierce and impressive figure of the 'Golden Reaper.'

As she turned her head to look at the Golden Reaper, who she had been thinking about while watching TV, she saw it happily munching on some hardtack outside the containment unit.

It was an enormous amount of hardtack she had bought to fill up on calories, being a poor woman with no stable job.

Cheap and virtually tasteless, it was a rock-hard human snack with no real redeeming qualities.

Sensing her gaze, the Golden Reaper beamed, put down the hardtack, and held something in its fist, extending it towards her.

“Delicious!”

Its expression said it all: “This is really tasty, try some!”

Holding a star candy in its tiny fist like a baseball, it reached out to her.

“Oh, so cute.”

The woman, now entirely charmed, took the star candy from the Golden Reaper and popped it into her mouth.

It tasted so much better than usual, and while she enjoyed it, she picked up another star candy and placed it in the Golden Reaper’s mouth.

With its cheeks puffed out from the candy, the Golden Reaper rubbed its cheek and laughed.

Hehe.

It was a joyful day for the Golden Reaper and its human companion.

The bandage bundles, still popular among the Mini Reapers, continued to be all the rage.

The little ones, who loved to munch on anything, were still wearing their mouth-blocking bandages!

“Bandages!”

“Mummy!”

Perhaps there was a Mini Reaper somewhere who knew about mummies, for the little ones were running around wrapped in bandages, playing their mummy games.

The Golden Reaper was gleefully biting the Mini Reapers as it played mummy with them.

Caught up in the atmosphere, the Blue Reaper, who had dropped its hat, roamed around wrapped in bandages.

The Red Reaper, with only its limbs sticking out, crawled around like a spider, bandaged up.

The Mini Reapers were having a blast, wrapped up in various ways, running around and even pretending to bite each other like zombies.

The staff at the Sehee Lab watched this scene with content smiles.

It almost felt like Halloween.

They couldn’t figure out how the Mini Reapers had learned about mummies, considering they didn’t understand sounds from movies or TV shows.

When they tracked down the origin of the mummy story, they found the Golden Reaper.

It was a Golden Reaper who loved watching movies with its human companion. Realizing it couldn’t understand the movies, the human companion had gone to great lengths to explain things.

Even though it was tedious, they were willing to do it for the Golden Reaper.

“Explaining movies to the Golden Reaper so it can understand!”

Despite the hassle, the effort clearly made the Golden Reaper very happy, as it constantly boasted to me.

With its simplicity being one of its charms, the Golden Reaper seemed to be getting smarter!

I began to feel a bit scared, imagining a Mini Reaper smarter than me.

Weaker than the Mini Reapers, and if I wasn’t smart either?

Out of spite, I ruffled the Golden Reaper's hair, who was still boasting about its beloved human.

“?”

The Golden Reaper looked at me, puzzled, with its messy hair and a confused expression.

Leaving the Golden Reaper standing there, I began wandering around the Sehee Lab courtyard.

Pitter-patter.

Despite the chaos caused by the zombie crisis in Seoul, the Sehee Lab was as mellow and soft as ever.

While wandering around, I came across a scene that sparked my inspiration.

A happy human and Mini Reaper were sharing a cookie.

“This is the last cookie!”

The Golden Reaper held out the last Mini Cookie to its beloved human.

“Haha, I’ve had enough.”

The human laughed and graciously declined.

Of course, the Golden Reaper, who could sense emotions, knew the human was lying to make it happy and giggled while happily munching on the cookie.

An amusing prank came to mind.

Hehe.

Pitter-patter.

As I walked through the Sehee Lab parking lot, I was deep in a very important contemplation.

This might be the most crucial consideration of my Object life.

When and to whom?

Since I had thought of a fun prank, I needed to decide when and on whom to pull it!

It was such an important question that I couldn’t find an answer.

While I was deep in thought, something odd caught my eye.

A colorful insect-like creature was pulling a large cart and running toward me.

As it saw me, it perked up its antennae, clearly setting me as its target.

“?”

I tilted my head, wondering, “What on earth is that?”