A massive exploration vessel, the James Explorer, suddenly appeared over the gently rolling waves of the Hot Chocolate Sea, where warm chocolate waves softly lapped.

While investigating the Pacific, the ship had encountered a powerful and harmful blue mist, which caused it to be sent to the Mini Reaper Garden.

Due to the influence of the blue mist, all the humans and Mini Reapers inside the vessel had lost consciousness.

The peaceful ship, now silent with everyone asleep, drifted slowly across the sea, filled with the sweet scent of hot chocolate.

After some time passed, the vessel was finally carried by the waves to the edge of the dazzlingly white Marshmallow Plains.

At that moment, the Mini Reapers, who had been wandering around the marshmallow plains, appeared near the ship.

“So big!”
“A ship made by humans?”

The Mini Reapers gathered around the ship with curious eyes.

As if wondering what this was, they tilted their heads and looked at each other.

Some of the Mini Reapers stretched their arms wide, as if trying to measure the size of the ship.

“Are there humans?”
“There are humans!”

The Mini Reapers, who had been staring at the ship, soon sensed the presence of the humans inside and rushed toward the ship.

As soon as they reached the deck, the first thing they noticed were the Mini Reapers lying unconscious on the deck.

“They fainted!”
“Wake up!”

Pat pat.

The Mini Reapers patted their unconscious comrades' chubby cheeks, but no matter how much they pat pat, they did not wake up.

Meanwhile, the Golden Reapers, who had infiltrated the ship as ghosts, were startled to find many humans unconscious in one of the rooms.

“Humans!”
“This is bad!”

The Mini Reapers, acting as if something huge had happened, began to move the unconscious humans to the Marshmallow Plains.

It looked as though a great fire had broken out in the Mini Reaper Garden.

After laying the unconscious humans and Mini Reapers on the Marshmallow Plains, the Mini Reapers began to care for the humans in their own way.

“Humans put ice on their heads when they’re sick!”

Some of the Mini Reapers gathered snow from the Milk Snowfield, wrapped it in marshmallow, and placed it on the humans' foreheads.

Learning from watching the humans' actions, they also scooped some hot chocolate into their palms and gently fed it to the humans.

Of course, the amount was so small that it only reached their lips.

“Humans can’t sleep!”
“Wake up!”

Other Mini Reapers pat pat the humans' cheeks with their tiny palms.

<May all the pain go away!>
<Please get better!>

When the humans still didn’t wake up, the Mini Reapers called upon the Blue Reapers to cast healing magic.

Kyuh hing hing.

They also cut up marshmallows to make blankets, and burned the White Agwi to warm up the surroundings.

But no matter how much they cared for them, the humans did not wake up.

“No…”
“Where does it hurt?”

The Mini Reapers sat nearby with downcast faces, looking up at the unconscious humans.

“Mom has to come…”
“Mom…”

And so, the Mini Reapers waited for Mom to return, their faces full of sadness.

I swam toward the twisted foreign entity deep in the ocean.

The surrounding waters were pitch black, and a strange pressure seemed to crush my entire body.

Then, from the twitching eyes of the foreign entity, something shining caught my attention.

It was calling to me like a lighthouse.

Curiosity led me to glance at the light, and in an instant, the environment around me changed.

From the pitch-black deep sea, I was suddenly in the heart of an ancient city glowing with ominous light.

It was a sunken city beneath the sea.

The underwater city, which looked like the sea could pour in at any moment, was strange and eerie.

There were traces of human influence all over the city, but now, only darkness reigned there.

The gas lamps along the streets of the city emitted a blue light from the foreign entity, radiating an ominous energy.

Tap tap.

I walked along the row of gas lamps.

Turning my gaze into an alley, I saw something like black smoke slowly seeping out.

It was the form of darkness that had taken shape through the twisted power of the foreign entity.

At that moment, a whisper reached my ears.

“We understand.”
“We can be together.”
“Let’s become one.”

The voice felt unsettling and terrible.

The psychic waves from the foreign entity were something I couldn’t understand, and honestly, I didn’t want to.

It was like a seed of madness for both humans and objects.

Listening to such a terrible psychic wave made my vision split into two.

One side still showed the deep, dark sea, while the other displayed the bizarre underwater city.

It was just like on the island of the blue mist.

“With us...”
“Forever...”
“As one...”

As before, I didn’t try to choose a clear vision but simply let it be.

...

At that moment, a figure emerged from the darkness of the underwater city.

“!”

I was startled for a moment.

It was a face I knew all too well, one I had seen every day.

"Reaper, we can definitely understand each other."

The voice was unmistakably Yerin’s.

But at the same time, it wasn’t Yerin.

At least, it wasn’t the Yerin I knew.

I immediately sensed that this was a fake, but as soon as I saw the fake Yerin, something stirred inside me.

Heh heh.

Anger? Fear? Or perhaps disgust?

I couldn’t exactly pinpoint the emotion, but it was incredibly intense.

I focused the power of the Halo onto the fake Yerin, channeling my feelings.

"Reaper, why?"

Then, the figure of the fake Yerin began to crumble as it muttered.

Her expression seemed so much like Yerin’s that I wondered for a moment if I had made a mistake.

But the other vision of the deep sea showed me her true form.

A monster that had loosely shaped Yerin’s silhouette by weaving dozens of eyes with cephalopod tentacles.

As the fake Yerin turned into countless star candies and scattered, the power of the Halo began to fill the deep sea.

Golden light spread, piercing the darkness, and everything it touched turned into treats.

I once again looked down at the foreign entity filling my vision and poured all the power of the Halo into it.

My battle with the foreign entity seemed endless.

My golden Halo twisted the world, turning everything into star candies.

The foreign entity in the deep sea, like the "Red Foreign Entity," was distorting everything on Earth.

Tentacles erupted from everywhere, wriggling as time and space became a chaotic mix.

As I continued fighting, I realized something strange.

“Similar.”

Although I and the foreign entity seemed completely different, in essence, we were fighting in a very similar way.

We were both distorting the rules of the world, trying to color each other.

Whenever the Halo pulsed, the foreign entity’s many eyes turned into giant star candies, rising from the sea.

On the other hand, when the whispers of the foreign entity entered my mind, tentacles began to sprout from my right hand.

The only difference was one.

The foreign entity, wanting to become one, charged at me with its numerous tentacles, while I ran from them, trying to escape.

...

“I’m running out of fuel.”

There was about half of my fuel left.

The golden Halo was incredibly energy-efficient, so I didn’t feel like I was running low yet. But the foreign entity didn’t seem to be using much energy, unlike me.

“There must be a way.”

I didn’t want to summon the black giant, so I racked my brain.

Then suddenly, I hit upon the destruction condition.

I immediately looked at the foreign entity with my "eyes."

<Place the part of the god that is twisted and assimilated on the largest eye.>

At that moment, a completely different destruction condition unfolded before my eyes.

“I see!”

Perhaps this meant that the foreign entity was also being drained by this battle?

Heh.

The problem was how to fulfill the condition...

Fortunately, the largest eye was quite clear.

Even though the shape of the foreign entity was blurred and twisted, the eye remained the same.

Moreover, the largest eye seemed to emit tremendous power from the heart, like my fuel.

A part of a god?

In fact, many objects had been called gods.

The foreign entities had been called gods, as had the black giant. I, too, probably had some connection to the black giant.

...

At that moment, I looked down at my right hand, where tentacles from cephalopods had sprouted and were wriggling.

“Could it be? The twisted and assimilated part of a god...”

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I rushed toward the foreign entity.

“We can be one.”

“Let’s become one.”

As I approached the foreign entity, numerous tentacles began flying toward me.

From every direction.

The space twisted, and the tentacles filled all around me.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

With my agility, I couldn’t avoid all the tentacles, and a few of them began to pierce me.

“Ugh.”

Contact with these tentacles seemed incredibly harmful, as every time they pierced me, chunks of my fuel flew off.

40%
30%
20%

My fuel was rapidly depleting.

These evasive maneuvers were something the Golden Reaper was truly amazing at; I should ask to learn it later.

10%
5%

At the last moment, I finally reached the largest eye of the foreign entity.

The tentacles were flying toward me, filling my vision.

In that moment of extreme danger.

“This is the end!”

I swiftly cut my right wrist and placed it over the eye.

At that moment, time seemed to stop.

“We... we are... one.”

All the tentacles began to tremble simultaneously.

The movements of the tentacles slowed down and eventually came to a halt.

And to my amazement, the tentacles began to glow with golden light.

Like the warm sun, similar to the Golden Reaper.

Starting from the tips of the tentacles, the darkness gradually turned into light.

It was as if stars were waking up one by one.

And the golden light from the tentacles grew brighter, eventually turning into multicolored star candies.

Thousands, no, tens of thousands of star candies slowly began to rise toward the surface.

The traces of the fierce battle vanished, and a spectacular scene unfolded, as if the stars of the universe were rising into the sky.

After such a fierce battle, the sight of multicolored star candies rising to the surface was almost comical.

With a tired expression, I closed my eyes and rested on the largest star candy.

“It’s really over now...”

I rose toward the surface, alongside countless other star candies.

When I reached the surface, the sky above me greeted me with multicolored moons and stars.

Looking up at the starry sky from the candy-filled sky was quite a sight.