Near the Sehee Research Institute, in the ruins of the apartment complex.

The Helmet Researcher was on a field trip, overseeing the Mini Reapers.

"The sky... it’s really clear."

He muttered to himself as he fed a small snack to a Golden Reaper perched on his hand.

Looking up, he saw a sky so vividly blue and clear that it almost hurt his eyes. The azure sky was as transparent and deep as a freshly polished glass pane.

The sunlight shimmered and scattered, and fluffy, white clouds drifted across, adding to the refreshing view.

But there was a strange scar in the sky.

It looked as though the sky had been slashed into five long lines, and these scars remained, twisting and distorting the shapes of the passing clouds.

As the Helmet Researcher gazed up at the scars, the Golden Reaper on his hand mimicked a clawing motion towards the sky, as if boasting.

“Mom’s amazing!”

While the Helmet Researcher couldn’t quite understand the Golden Reaper’s intentions, he could quickly pick up on what it meant.

Most likely, it was trying to say that the Gray Reaper had done something cool.

And indeed, it had been impressive, drawing attention from people everywhere.

The scars carved into the sky were so prominent that everyone had noticed them.

With the Golden Reaper on his palm, he looked up again at the sky, where beams of radiant sunlight poured down through the scars etched by the Gray Reaper.

They were beams of light in beautiful, vivid colors.

The space distortion left in the scars twisted the beams like a prism, creating a spectrum of colors as the sunlight passed through and touched the ground.

Looking down at the area where the sunlight landed, he saw a few Mini Reapers positioning themselves in patches of sunlight that matched their own colors.

"Red!"

<Blue…>

The Red Reaper, looking delighted, and the Orange Reaper enjoying the warmth of the sun, along with the Blue Reaper being dragged along reluctantly, basked in the colored rays.

Various other Mini Reapers were also playing and jumping under the rainbow-like light.

Watching the Mini Reapers, he felt an almost cute, bouncy vibe, but shifting his gaze only slightly around him presented a starkly different scene.

Walls coated in soot-like grime.

A skeletal apartment complex.

Broken windows.

And beyond those shattered windows, the desolate insides of the apartments were visible.

The sunlight pouring down cast strange shadows, giving the ruins an eerie and sinister atmosphere, almost like the skeletal remains of a monster.

But this haunting feeling could only be sensed in the lone apartment building standing outside the complex.

Most of the apartment complex was surrounded by an environment that didn’t quite fit with the desolation—or with Seoul.

It was a beach of soft, white sand, emitting a faint glow.

This sandy field, once the focus of attention due to numerous missing persons being discovered there, now lay deserted after all survivors had been rescued.

Scattered across the now-quiet sand were numerous Golden Reapers, slightly plumper than before.

“Daeji…”

Captured by the Gray Reaper, the Golden Reapers had all transformed into this “Daeji” state, for reasons unknown.

“What could have happened?” the Helmet Researcher asked, looking down at the Golden Reaper on his hand. But the Golden Reaper was gone.

“Eek!”

Turning his gaze, he saw that the Gray Reaper had suddenly appeared nearby, holding the Helmet Researcher’s favorite Reaper.

After a moment, the Gray Reaper, wearing a nonchalant expression, placed the Golden Reaper back in the Helmet Researcher’s hand before disappearing again.

“I’ve become Daeji…”

The Golden Reaper sprawled out flat on his palm, looking utterly dejected.

The Ashen Girl was dreaming.

In her dream, she was crawling along an endless road.

She didn’t know the destination, but she clung tightly to a small doll in her right hand and continued forward.

Having realized she was a plaster doll, the girl felt no pain even as her limbs cracked and broke.

However, with each break, her consciousness faded more and more.

“At this rate, I’ll lose consciousness soon…”

But there was something she absolutely had to do.

She needed to rescue her Mini Reaper friend, the Yellow Reaper.

With that single-minded determination, she clung to the thread of consciousness.

Every time she struggled to hold onto awareness, a searing pain shot through her head, but she refused to give up.

Finally, she saw the Gray Reaper.

“Thank goodness…”

She felt relieved she could hand over the doll before she died.

Though her mind was in chaos, and she had forgotten why she needed to deliver the doll, she knew it was of utmost importance.

And with a heart full of relief, she accepted her end.

What she thought was the end of her life, the Ashen Girl slowly awoke from her dream.

Her vision was blurry but gradually became clearer.

She saw the ceiling of a hospital room.

“I survived?”

At that moment, something soft and small pounced onto her face.

“Human…!”

It was the Yellow Reaper, her cherished companion.

The Yellow Reaper clung to her face with a teary expression.

“I’m alive…”

The Ashen Girl smiled faintly and gently patted the Yellow Reaper with her hand, which didn’t move easily.

The Yellow Reaper clutched her frail hand tightly and rubbed his face against it.

Now, everything seemed like it would be alright.

The Ashen Girl smiled softly and slowly drifted back into sleep.

Just before falling asleep, it felt like her sister was smiling at her.

Deep within the Sehee Research Institute, in a cozy isolation room.

I lay on a soft bed, lazily stretching my arms towards the ceiling.

Nothing happened.

“Didn’t get any abilities, huh.”

I had high hopes since the white one I captured was pretty strong, but there was no sign of any new powers, no matter how long I waited.

Was it because the white one’s abilities were all lower versions of my own?

I had wanted to use things like the red flames from his hands or time reversal myself, so it was a bit disappointing.

And that final black halo flash!

It was truly remarkable.

Of course, it couldn’t compare to a genuine halo, but without my ability to nullify powers, it would have been quite challenging to block.

There were also many lessons to be learned from this incident.

It made me think deeply about what people call “harmful objects.”

There was a blind spot in my ability to sense harmful objects.

If an object didn’t intend to kill humans but only abducted them, it didn’t feel exactly like a “harmful object,” even if it was unnerving.

It became clear that I perceived things as harmful only if they had the intent to mentally corrupt, kill, or plan to kill humans.

And this incident confirmed that the Golden Reapers were definitely not human.

Plaster dolls, faceless and crumbling, dragging their feet around the apartment complex.

In a building stripped down to its skeleton, black dust-like mold floated thick enough to obscure vision—wasn’t that suspicious?

Honestly, just filming that scene would look like something straight out of a horror movie.

Well, now that the Golden Reapers have been placed under “Daeji” status, things should gradually improve.

On my bed, the “Daeji” Golden Reapers lay sprawled out, their cute bellies facing the ceiling.

Poke, poke.

I took turns poking the squishy bellies of the Golden Reapers, savoring the feeling.

“Perfect…!”

Just as I started imagining making a bed out of these squishy Golden Reapers, the Yellow Reaper informed me that the dinosaur doll outfit was complete.

It was the Tyranno doll costume I’d asked the Yellow Reaper to make.

The Yellow Reaper appeared wearing the costume, as if demonstrating it, and upon seeing him, the Golden Reapers around me began to jump up in excitement.

“Cute!”

“Cool!”

“I want one too!”

He was a huge hit with the Golden Reapers!

But it wasn’t the costume I’d imagined.

I wanted a real-looking Tyranno doll outfit!

Noticing my disappointment, the Yellow Reaper laughed with a playful “Hehe” and pressed the dinosaur head down.

“!!!”

Suddenly, mental corruption radiated from the costume, and it began to look like a real Tyranno.

A palm-sized, real Tyranno!

Now, if I capture a bunch of white maws and carve them into Triceratops, we could recreate the dinosaur age!

Hehe.

I grinned happily, imagining the Mini Reapers running around to catch the maws and the sorrowful cries of the white maws.

Deep within the Mini Reaper Garden, in the snowy Milk Bingsu Fields.

Though fewer Golden Reapers were out looking for the legendary pudding, a rumor was spreading in the snowy fields, always bustling with Mini Reapers enjoying delicious shaved ice and sugary fruits.

“There’s a white ghost around!”

“It has blood-red markings!”

“It disappears whenever you chase it!”

“It looks like a white cloth ghost!”

A frightening ghost was rumored to be roaming the Milk Bingsu Fields.

And the curious Golden Reapers began heading back to the Milk Bingsu Fields, driven by this rumor.