Deep inside Sehee’s lab, in the gray reaper’s isolation chamber, Yerin was watching an internet broadcast on her phone, holding the gray reaper close to her.

It was a broadcast she had briefly seen during the association doll rampage.

The man who had ended the broadcast now lay wrapped in bandages from head to toe, resting on a bed.

[“Hello, everyone. Honestly, I wasn’t planning on streaming again, but it seems like a lot of people are curious about what happened.”]

Yerin nodded slightly at his words.

Not many people had watched the broadcast, but anyone who had would be wondering what had happened to him.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

Three knocks on the door, in a consistent rhythm, followed by a voice.

["Hey, guy in 405, open up."]

This pattern was exactly like the “dollified” human behavior pattern that James Lab had announced.

Furthermore, the newly established "Object Safety Management Council" had confirmed the research published by James Lab.

The man’s last moments on the broadcast had left a deep impression on the viewers.

The eerie sound of the door handle clicking in the dark, ominous atmosphere.

And the anticipation of what was likely to happen next.

Because of this, his broadcast quickly became a hot topic on the internet, and many people captured and shared it, turning it into memes.

It seemed that a large number of people were curious about whether the man had survived, which is why he had started streaming again.

[“As many of you suspected, it was indeed a trap set by the dolls.”]

[“I turned off the broadcast, moved the wardrobe I had used to block the entrance, and when I opened the door… there were dolls swarming behind the woman.”]

[“At that moment, I broke out in a cold sweat and thought, ‘This is it. I’m dead.’”]

The man on the bed was explaining his story in a calm and composed manner, but Yerin couldn’t concentrate on his words.

It was because of something small, wriggling in the corner of the screen.

A little black face slowly peeked out from behind the bed, only to be startled by its own reflection on the screen and quickly hide again—an adorable object.

It was the black reaper.

Though it tried to hide, its little black fingers still poked out over the bed’s headboard.

It seemed like it was hanging from the headboard, dangling there.

Impatient from waiting, the black reaper peeked out every five seconds.

Because of this, the viewers of the broadcast noticed the black reaper, and the chat started to flood with messages.

[“So just before they caught me, I jumped out the window. It was from the 6th floor, so it was a do-or-die situation, but luckily, I survived. Huh? The black reaper?”]

The man glanced toward the headboard after seeing the chat.

The black reaper, who had just been peeking out, met his eyes and awkwardly giggled before disappearing again behind the bed.

[“Ah, I told it to stay hidden, but it couldn’t help itself.”]

The man reached out, gently lifting the black reaper and placing it on his palm, then holding it up to the camera.

[“I was planning to introduce it after I finished telling my story, but I guess I’ll introduce it now.”]

[“This is the black reaper that saved me when I couldn’t run, with a broken leg!”]

The man proudly introduced the black reaper, gently stroking its head as he spoke.

The black reaper seemed to enjoy being petted, its face radiating happiness.

Then the man brought the black reaper closer to the camera and started boasting.

[“Do you see these teeth here? They’re sharp but kinda cute, right?”]

Watching this, Yerin turned off the broadcast and placed her head on the gray reaper’s crown.

“At least things turned out okay. It’s great that the man survived, and the black reaper saved its companion.”

The black reaper was smiling innocently, unaware of everything. But Yerin could imagine how hard it must have fought to save him.

Just thinking about how it must have struggled to fend off the dolls on all sides made Yerin feel a little overwhelmed.

Enjoying the sensation of the gray reaper’s antenna brushing against her chin, Yerin suddenly recalled something and told the gray reaper.

“Now that I think about it, something strange happened.”

The gray reaper’s antenna stopped moving, as if urging her to continue.

“After the association doll incident ended, I came home to find it in complete chaos. But oddly, there were piles of broken dolls inside the house.”

It didn’t seem like the work of the golden reaper, and the white maw didn’t leave any traces that made sense either.

“What could have happened?”

Hearing Yerin’s question, the gray reaper twirled its antenna in circles, as if to say, "I don’t know either!"

The place where Sehee’s lab met the mini grim reaper garden.

When the purple foreign entity had attacked, this passage had closed off. But now that the foreign entity was gone, the way had reopened.

Similarly, the pinwheels around the world had begun spinning again, allowing mini grim reapers to return to their cherished humans.

The last incident must have been traumatic because mini grim reapers were now stationed at the boundary between the courtyard and the mini reaper garden.

It seemed that if the boundary ever tried to close again, they would throw themselves in to keep it open.

My children had plenty of kindling, so they would be somewhat effective. But I wasn’t sure if they could fend off an interference on the level of a foreign entity.

I lay there, right on the boundary between the bustling courtyard and the mini reaper garden.

Half on one side, half on the other.

Lying like this made me feel a bit strange.

It felt a little unsettling, yet also fascinating.

Maybe it was because the wind felt different on each side of my body.

As I enjoyed the unique sensation of the boundary, I looked over toward the mini reaper garden and saw several spheres floating in the sky.

The black sphere, the Immutable Sphere.

The blue sphere.

And now, a new purple sphere.

However, the purple sphere was semi-transparent, like a ghost, making it invisible to everyone.

Humans couldn’t see it, and even the mini reapers couldn’t see it.

It was also slightly smaller than the other spheres.

It was probably because the purple foreign entity was killed before it could fully manifest.

Because of that, it wasn’t possible to summon a purple giant reaper from that translucent sphere.

I had hoped to gather all the colored giant reapers…

What a shame.

Still, there was something to look forward to.

The purple sphere was slowly absorbing kindling and gradually growing larger.

Though I couldn’t be sure, it also seemed to be becoming more distinct.

It was like a fruit that needed time to ripen.

Once it fully matured, would a giant with dimensional rift powers emerge?

Or would it possess the ability that had strengthened the dolls?

It felt a bit like playing a random gacha game, anticipating the outcome.

In place of the purple foreign entity’s ability that I hadn’t yet obtained, I did acquire one ability from this incident.

Whoosh!

I reached out toward the marshmallow plains, and something popped up.

It was a marshmallow doll, resembling a degraded version of the association dolls!

Its face was smooth and featureless, with no eyes, nose, or mouth, and its limbs were crudely shaped.

The new ability allowed me to summon as many of these ugly dolls as I wanted, using kindling.

The dolls had the power of an average human.

While the ability to create an unlimited number of them was impressive, it wasn’t very useful for someone like me, who could summon waves of golden reapers.

“Doll!”

Unexpectedly, though, the mini reapers absolutely loved the dolls.

Inside each doll’s head was an empty cockpit, perfectly sized for a mini reaper.

Even now, countless mini reapers in the garden were riding the dolls around.

Some were bouncing on the spot, while others raced them at high speed before coming to a stop.

It looked like a group of athletes training for a competition.

No one had given them instructions or explained how to operate the dolls, so how did they know how to pilot them?

The mini reapers were holding triathlon-like races with the dolls.

They would circle the marshmallow plains, swim through the sea of hot chocolate, and make a straight dash to the snowfields!

Then, after crossing the snowfields, they would climb the candy mountains and return to the marshmallow plains to finish the race.

A giant screen, made of water droplets, had even been created to broadcast the races to the other mini reapers in the plains.

The current champion, surprisingly, was the blue reaper!

The blue reapers were incredible at controlling the dolls, probably because the cockpit had so many buttons and was quite complex.

As I watched the mini reapers’ doll triathlon with a marathon-like enthusiasm, something caught my eye.

A golden comet streaked across the sky of the mini reaper garden.

It moved so fast that it was hard to make out, but my greed radar went off.

That’s definitely something cool!

I leapt up from my spot and started chasing after the comet.

Heehee.

On the outskirts of Songpa District, near James Tower.

Alex was trudging back to his home.

He had been tied up in the isolation chamber like an object but had finally been released.

At one point, Alex had been “dollified,” but fortunately, he regained his sanity, unlike other victims of dollification.

“I feel dizzy. I don’t even know what happened.”

Alex had no memory of the events before or after the association doll incident.

It felt as though he had fallen asleep and woken up, only to find himself tied up in the isolation chamber.

It was like being affected by an object with severe mental contamination.

While such things weren’t common, Alex had been trained for situations like this, so he wasn’t too disoriented.

“Follow the mental contamination protocol. Take sufficient rest before returning to work, Alex.”

The only strange thing was the serious expression on Mr. James’ face.

And the slight unease that hung around whenever Alex passed by his colleagues.

Trudging along, Alex finally made it home, only to find his front door smashed.

No way!

Alex ran inside in a panic.

What he saw was his doll, lying in pieces on the floor.

“No!!!”

With a devastated expression, Alex placed his hand on the doll’s face.

But the face, which had always radiated a gentle warmth, was now cold to the touch.

“Elizabeth…”

With his face buried in the doll’s lifeless head, Alex quietly wept.