A dark world where even the moonlight had vanished.

The pink-haired girl felt incredibly excited.

The sudden appearance of a mysterious building was part of the reason, but more so was the blue reaper, who seemed to have fallen from the sky.

She had always been alone, never meeting anyone, endlessly moving upward toward the heavens.

The girl was always incredibly lonely.

The only person she had ever met was an old man she called "Grandfather."

And even he had passed away by the time she was old enough to grasp the world fully.

The blue reaper who appeared before her felt like the first friend she ever had.

Although it was only palm-sized and of a different race as a “grimoire” and a human, it was still something.

"Let’s go!"

The pink-haired girl gripped the blue reaper in her hand and dashed toward the convenience store.

<Ah... I'm dizzy!>

The blue reaper’s eyes spun in a daze, but the girl simply beamed as she kept running.

A part of the convenience store building, cleanly sliced as if by spatial severance.

The pink-haired girl looked down at the fallen sign.

<24-hour Convenience Store. Seoul….>

The last part of the sign was cut off, leaving some of the letters missing.

"Is this... writing? None of the letters Grandfather taught me looked like this."

Frowning and scrutinizing the letters, the girl simply shrugged it off, thinking, Maybe I just forgot. She stepped into the store.

She roamed around excitedly, her eyes gleaming with delight.

"I know what this is! Grandfather said this was food."

<Stop!>

When she found a can and was about to bite it open with her teeth, the blue reaper cried out in shock.

"Doesn't this look a bit like a person?"

She laughed, pointing at a hole in the wall shaped like a person’s silhouette.

Then she pinched a bit of instant coffee powder and tasted it.

"Oh!"

<?>

"This is good. Here, try some."

With a mischievous grin, she slipped a pinch of the coffee powder into the blue reaper's mouth.

<!!!!!!!!!>

The bitter taste shocked the blue reaper, making its eyes go wide before it collapsed to the side, fainting.

Regaining consciousness in an instant, the blue reaper, with tears welling in its eyes, began whacking the pink-haired girl with a mallet.

Pong! Pong! Pong!

"Ouch, that hurts! I said I’m sorry!"

The pink-haired girl dodged, repeatedly apologizing as she ran away from the flying blue reaper swinging the mallet.

At the outskirts of Seoul, near Seoul Forest.

Usually quiet and empty, the area was now bustling with people.

"A non-lethal spatial anomaly."

James, investigating at the request of the Korean Object Association, observed the incident site.

A building had been sliced into a neat circle, as if steel, concrete, and ground alike had been sharply cut away.

Convenience store employees, surrounded by investigators, recounted the incident.

The outline of a "convenience store worker" was the only thing left imprinted on the wall nearby.

Everything pointed toward a phenomenon the scientific community had just begun to understand—spatial loss.

"It just flashed, and the building disappeared entirely. Only the wall and counter behind me were left."

The convenience store employee, visibly shaken, babbled about the scene.

Judging by the explanation, it was clearly a spatial loss event.

Spatial loss events are marked by two main features:

First, sharp severance marks, like a clean cut.

Second, people caught within suffer no direct harm.

James looked around the scene, concern evident on his face.

The frequency and scale of spatial loss are increasing.

And there’s no way to counter this phenomenon of space being sliced away with our current technology.

I’ll need to expedite the design of spatial anomaly detectors.

Rustle.

Hearing a sound below him, James glanced down.

<...Forest Site. SEOUL FOREST LIFE 24/7>

There was a half-sliced convenience store sign lying on the ground, likely blown over from the incident site.

Just then, a James Institute employee, covered with a swarm of golden reapers, approached.

"Sir."

The employee reported an anomaly, calm as ever.

The report stated that mini reapers had started appearing at the entrance of Seoul Forest, and that something unusual was happening within the forest.

As James turned toward Seoul Forest, he saw a large group of golden reapers gathered there.

Don’t come in!

It’s dangerous!

Lining up with arms outstretched as if to block the path, the golden reapers formed a line leading to the forest.

When the institute’s staff tried to pass, the golden reapers headbutted or tugged on their pants, desperately preventing entry.

Though their headbutts and tugs did little to impede the staff, the reapers' earnest attempts effectively held people back.

"Fine, fine. I won’t go in."

"Want some pudding with me?"

The adorable resistance of the golden reapers, paired with their mental deterrents, was surprisingly effective.

Watching the golden reapers playfully blocking the path, James's assistant quickly approached with new data.

It was a video recorded by a James Institute employee.

Not far from Seoul Forest, the employee appeared at a checkpoint, covered in golden reapers as they filmed.

Don’t go!

In the video, the golden reapers tugged at the employee’s eyelids, poked at the crown of his head, and nibbled on his cheeks, doing everything they could to obstruct his progress.

Even one golden reaper wriggled into his mouth, rendering him speechless, as he flicked a coin toward Seoul Forest.

!!!!

The spinning coin disappeared mid-air, as though swallowed by the space itself.

The phenomenon was familiar to James.

The sunlight and dust don’t align correctly.

Space here is distorted, like the spatial warping around the navy trees in James City.

Realizing this, James issued a command to his assistant.

"This is serious. Contact the Object Association and request tighter restrictions around Seoul Forest."

"Golden reapers alone aren’t enough to keep people safe."

With that, James began preparing for further investigation in Seoul Forest.

In the depths of Sehee Institute, inside a cozy isolation room.

Nom nom.

Lying on the bed, I slowly munched on a snack.

On TV, the news was covering the recent cases of spatial loss.

[At 4:30 a.m. today, another spatial loss incident occurred near Seoul Forest.]

[A convenience store was reported to have vanished in this incident.]

[Witnesses claim the building disappeared in the blink of an eye.]

[The Seoul Object Association responded immediately, containing the area and investigating further damages.]

[Thankfully, although one part-time worker was caught in the incident, no injuries occurred.]

[Experts warn that even though spatial loss poses no direct threat to humans, it could lead to secondary dangers such as building collapses or falls….]

The TV displayed footage of the area swarming with mini reapers.

It felt as if the mini reapers had thinned out. Did they all go there?

When I glanced back at the bed, there were indeed fewer mini reapers.

Only a few mini reapers and the ghostly reaper, playing together, remained on the bed.

The ghostly reaper, cloaked in a white sheet, wandered around poking the golden reapers.

Ahh!

Whenever poked, the golden reapers either dramatically collapsed or giggled, as if tickled.

The sword that the ghostly reaper used to poke the golden reapers looked slightly different from the one it used on me.

When I asked what it was, it answered, "Aedo."

Does that mean it’s a beloved sword?

As I watched the mini reapers play, I returned my attention to the TV.

On screen, blue reapers were shown flying across the sky.

The pink-haired girl woke up in the convenience store she had left in a mess the night before.

Surrounded by something soft and watery.

Next to her, the blue reaper lay asleep with its hat pulled low.

And the faintly brightened sky.

So yesterday wasn’t a dream.

The girl felt as if she’d dreamt a long, happy dream.

As if confirming it wasn’t a dream, she gently poked the blue reaper's cheek.

Nom.

As she kept poking around its mouth, the blue reaper sleepily bit her finger.

Its small tongue moved slightly, tickling her.

Watching the blue reaper with a giggle, the pink-haired girl noticed a massive shadow cast over the sky.

A gigantic spider's shadow slowly passed across the sky’s veil.

The spider that devours the sun.

The girl gazed up at the shadow, recalling the name her grandfather had taught her.