The ruler of the Free City Alliance, the massive worm, was in despair.

‘I have to escape.’

The Gray Reaper, who had descended into the underground, looked like a god come to deliver divine punishment.

It was nothing short of despair and the end.

Each time the Gray Reaper’s gaze fell, the children in the tank writhed in agony, coughing up jagged stones from their mouths.

Those stones were formed from the children’s flesh, life, and souls.

It was a truly brutal sight, but the Gray Reaper remained indifferent.

And the comforting darkness that had veiled the underground began to tear apart.

Light poured in through the rips in space, shredding the darkness that had hidden the depths.

Beyond the ruptures, greedy demons awaited.

Tiny hands of demons reached through the cracks, greedily grabbing at the stones made from the children’s souls.

As if they couldn’t bear to let even a single one escape.

The stones seemed like precious treasures to the demons.

Meanwhile, the red tank prepared for raising the children began to fill with an unknown liquid.

This dark brown, almost black liquid was thicker than any poison and stickier than mud.

Unfortunately, the children touched by this liquid had their insides dissolve, vomiting up the black liquid endlessly.

The sight of the suffering children was unbearable to watch.

With each step the Gray Reaper took underground, the core foundations of the facility began to collapse.

The steel and concrete that once supported the massive underground structure were bleaching white, on the verge of crumbling.

The efforts to reach the moon were turning into nothing more than futile dreams.

‘Ahh, my rank is being stripped away.’

Under the gaze of the Gray Reaper, the worms' rank was rapidly declining.

Like the children, the giant worm, too, began to vomit stones as it approached death.

The Gray Reaper’s eyes fell on the massive worm.

Slowly, the Gray Reaper opened its hand.

And then clenched it tightly.

That was the end of the three worms that had ruled the Free City Alliance.

They died in regret, realizing too late that trying to reach such a monster had been a mistake.

Deep underground in the Free City Alliance.

‘Ah.’

As soon as the Object that encompassed the Free City Alliance was destroyed, my rage subsided in an instant.

The ‘death-seeing’ halo that had floated above my head returned to my heart.

Thump thump.

Feeling disappointed, I tapped my chest where the halo resided, but it didn’t respond.

That halo was powerful enough to kill low-ranked Objects with just a glance.

And it was a perfect halo, capable of lowering the rank of even the most powerful Objects, making them easy to destroy without my body splitting or feeling pain.

I stared intently at my chest, trying to recall the sensation of pulling out the halo, hoping I could summon it again.

There was a tingling sensation deep within my emotional energy, so it felt like I might be able to summon it again soon, but not quite yet.

How disappointing.

I clicked my tongue in frustration and looked around.

The underground of the Free City Alliance, once teeming with those grotesque worms, was now a complete mess.

Scattered everywhere were star-shaped candies.

And the golden reapers were greedily gathering them, trying to bring them back to the mini reaper garden.

The liquid inside the tank had all turned into hot chocolate, and the concrete of the underground structure had transformed into marshmallows.

It had basically become the ‘mini reaper garden.’

Well, a mini reaper garden was better than the grim and gloomy underground it used to be.

‘Time to head back.’

Just then, a golden reaper came into view.

It was carrying a star-shaped candy as big as its own body, waddling its way back to the mini reaper garden.

I sneakily snatched the star-shaped candy from its arms and teleported to where the Orange Scion was pretending to be dead.

Hehe.

When I arrived where the Orange Scion had been, I was greeted by a wide-open view.

Various mini reapers were crawling around the room, and a cool breeze blew in through the hole I had made to search for Tyranno.

Through that hole, I could see the cityscape.

The dirty, dark atmosphere that once hung over the city had transformed into something straight out of a fairytale.

The grimy buildings had turned into fluffy white marshmallows, and the neon signs had become colorful lollipops.

In the plaza below, the broken pieces of the mecha Tyranno were being gathered together.

Mini reapers were carrying each piece, one by one.

The small, light pieces were being moved by golden reapers, while the larger, heavier pieces were being carried by the black reapers.

The surviving citizens watched in awe as the mini reapers carried the fragments.

Once they placed the pieces on the pile of wreckage, the mini reapers closed their eyes tightly, as if praying for the dead.

‘May you be reborn as a sturdier snack in your next life.’

Then they placed the star-shaped candies they held on the pile as an offering.

But sadly, Tyranno would never be reborn as part of the mini reaper garden.

There was no glow-in-the-dark snack.

Even if the glow-in-the-dark Tyranno was fragile and lacked regenerative powers, it would always be a glow-in-the-dark dinosaur!

Turning my gaze inside the building, I saw the Orange Scion’s cherished human, who had received treatment from the blue reaper.

The human, who looked relieved, had fallen into an exhausted sleep.

Judging by the look on her face, she must have realized the Orange Scion was alive.

The Orange Scion was securely nestled in her arms, though its appearance had changed slightly.

I had thought the Orange Scion’s rank had decreased and its size had shrunk from summoning the moon...

Could it be because of the moon summoning?

Though its size had diminished, its rank had actually increased.

The golden reapers must have sensed the increase in rank as well, for they gathered around and started showering it with praise.

‘Amazing!’

Surrounded by praise, the Orange Scion began to wiggle its way out of its cherished human’s arms.

Carefully, so as not to wake the sleeping human.

Then, it climbed atop a high rock, crossing its arms with a smug look as it gazed down at the others.

At that, the golden reapers started jumping up and down, cheering even louder.

‘Amazing!’

‘You’re amazing, little one!’

It was a bit funny to see the Orange Scion, which had shrunk to the size of the red reaper, wearing a crown and acting so proud.

I approached the Orange Scion and grabbed the crown atop its head.

‘!’

But the crown didn’t come off.

I had thought it was something it picked up from somewhere, but it had actually sprouted from its head like horns.

A peculiar kind of horn, I guess?

Feeling uncomfortable with me holding the crown, the Orange Scion flailed about before flying off into the arms of its cherished human.

The golden reapers looked on in disappointment.

‘Disappointed?’

As expected, the golden reapers were a bit strange.

They got disappointed when they didn’t have a chance to give compliments when there was something to praise.

I didn’t understand them at all.

As I was pondering the mystery of the golden reapers, a strong wind blew through.

Whooooosh.

The tower was so high up that the wind blew with great force.

Each gust made the marshmallow tower wobble, swaying from side to side.

It felt a bit like being on an unsafe amusement ride, and the golden reapers laughed brightly, enjoying themselves.

Still, it was impressive that the marshmallow tower wasn’t collapsing.

As expected of the mini reaper garden’s Object-made marshmallow.

Poke poke.

As I was lost in random thoughts, a golden reaper approached and poked my cheek.

‘Mom! Windmill!’

At the golden reaper’s request, I turned the marshmallow tower into a giant ‘golden reaper windmill.’

A landmark visible from afar, connected to the mini reaper garden.

The golden reapers who didn’t have a cherished human of their own happily danced and jumped around, laughing about their new meeting place.

Seoul Special City, Songpa District, James Tower construction site.

James was watching a video on the monitor.

The footage looked like it had been pieced together meticulously from various CCTV cameras scattered around.

“This is... completely unexpected.”

Every time the Gray Reaper, covered in red, turned its gaze, the world twisted and transformed.

The halo that floated above the Gray Reaper’s head, resembling an eye, turned everything into snacks wherever it looked.

Concrete became marshmallow, and rivers turned into hot chocolate.

Objects turned into star-shaped candies and scattered everywhere.

The Objects in the Free City Alliance, in particular, looked eerily human, adding to the unsettling atmosphere.

This was the true nature of the ‘special Object’ known as the Gray Reaper, more dangerous than any nuclear bomb.

Thankfully, the mini reapers and humans were completely unaffected.

“Well, that’s a relief. The operation was a success.”

A few days ago, James had been somewhat nervous.

<I hypothesize that if there is an Object danger zone on the Korean news, the Gray Reaper is likely to head there.>

He had worked hard to get the ‘Free City Alliance’ featured on the news, based on that hypothesis.

It had been difficult to get approval for the broadcast, as the Korean Object Association was extremely reluctant to report on international Object incidents.

It was only recently that they had confirmed the Gray Reaper’s tendencies, precisely because of the association’s reluctance.

The association was so focused on concealing and covering up Object incidents...

Still.

It felt like a step closer to saving humanity.

James closed his eyes with an exhausted expression, placing the report he was holding on the desk.

The cover of the report read:

<Human Salvation Scenario ③>

<The Global Mini Reaper Gardenification Scenario and the Predicted Side Effects.>

And scrawled underneath in marker:

<Never mess with the Tyrannosaurus.>