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The moment the Gray Reaper touched the tree, the sky filled with light.

That light was evidence that the Object, which had been slowly devouring America, was defeated.

Crushed time and space were returning to their original places.

Now I guess I’ll just become a torn-up corpse and lay here.

Still, I’m glad I can close my eyes knowing the crisis in James City is properly resolved.

The Vice Mayor, unable to move properly, turned his head to look at the sky.

His eyes, slowly breaking down, vaguely captured the celestial bodies above.

Beautiful moonlight poured down over the Vice Mayor’s head.

Even in a state where his body was completely shattered, his heart was filled with a sense of accomplishment.

“It was only six hours, but during that time I was able to protect James City.”

With that, the Vice Mayor let go of the last will that had kept his form and spirit intact.

The hand that had tightly gripped the control console loosened as he began to accept his fate.

His body was getting colder, but the Vice Mayor didn’t erase the smile from his face.

As he was freed from the endlessly repeating ghostly time, various emotions swirled within him.

He had fulfilled his duty, protected the city he loved, and now, by breaking free from the shackles of time, he could leave James City safe.

From the corner of his now impaired vision, he saw a golden light flickering.

Seeing that light, the Vice Mayor thought it looked like the flame of an angel coming to take him away.

*

My surroundings were in complete disarray.

Buildings of inconsistent styles and materials were haphazardly mixed together.

A pillar that looked like an ancient temple made of marble shone as if new, rolling across the floor after being cut.

Next to it was the sharply cut section of a fresco depicting a religious scene.

A chunk of ornate iron furniture marked with grand patterns that seemed out of place these days lay nearby.

A once-elegant chair, likely used by aristocrats, was also jaggedly cut in half and sprawled out.

If it weren’t for the gigantic wall in the distance, I would’ve believed I was at a museum explosion site rather than James City.

By the way, who on earth is that girl with blue hair?

She feels strangely familiar yet distinctly like someone I don’t know. It’s odd to feel familiarity with someone who doesn’t exist in my memory.

There were a lot of strange occurrences, but the ability I gained this time was quite pleasing.

The ability to manipulate time.

Like being able to grab and manipulate space, I could now move time a little bit.

Well, since it’s a downgraded version, I can’t mix up or splice time and space wildly like the original.

It’s just the ability to accelerate or decelerate my own time, but I was satisfied.

Now I should be able to move clearly faster than the Golden Reaper, making pranks much easier.

Hehe.

Dabam-dabam-dabam-dabam.

Without even ghosting, just slowly walking around, my movements were fast enough to leave afterimages!

For some reason, I found it amusing to move quickly, and while wandering through the ruins, I felt a presence in thin air.

A person in this brutal space where no one else was around?

Now that I think about it, I was curious when I went to chop down trees, wondering why the firewood kept piling up slowly; it must’ve been that person.

They seemed to be trapped in the rift between time and space, gradually returning to the real world due to the destruction of the trees and the indigo moon.

Looking through the space rift, that person already looked like they were in pieces, as if they were barely alive.

If left alone, they looked 100% likely to die.

I didn’t know whether it was because I could originally manipulate space or if I could do this because I had acquired the time ability, but I somehow felt like I could save them.

Taking my time waiting for Yerin, I gathered up the scattered fragments from the rift.

I should think of it as returning the favor for replenishing firewood when I approached the tree.

Surprisingly, the task was easy.

If it had been 3D shattered pieces, I would have given up long ago, but it was flat like glass, pressed and then broken as if someone had smashed it, so it was more like a puzzle in terms of difficulty.

The fun part was that I could freely place the fragments just by thinking, which made the task surprisingly enjoyable.

It felt like assembling a giant puzzle.

The puzzle was surprisingly to my taste and fun.

When I return to Sehee Research Institute later, I should ask for a proper puzzle.

A puzzle made from beautiful scenery, you know?

The puzzle I’m working on right now has a completion reward of a muscular black man, which I’m not thrilled about.

Realizing that the trees inside the barrier had already disappeared, footsteps of people began to be heard nearby.

Did they confirm it with a satellite? The response time was impressively quick.

Just when people clad in protective gear started appearing sporadically, I successfully completed the puzzle.

A well-dressed gentleman wearing a nice suit fell from thin air.

When I completed the puzzle and checked his face, he was the Vice Mayor, who had been glaring at me.

As soon as the man regained his senses, he stared intently at my face and raised his hands to the sky, shouting.

“God exists!”

He continued, with an even more thrilled expression, shedding tears as he shouted.

“And that god has gray skin!”

The expressions of the employees in protective gear from James Research Institute grew strange upon hearing his words.

Then the employees approached the babbling black man and zapped him with electricity, beginning to carry away the unconscious gentleman.

How pitiful that someone who was supposed to be the Vice Mayor ended up losing his mind and being swept away by the flow of time and space….

*

The small studio apartment of a security room employee injured by the Glass Flamingo.

Through the small window of the narrow yet cozy studio, a gentle light seeped in.

Delicate water particles emerging from the quietly operating humidifier caught the gentle light, revealing a mist-like appearance.

The space was small, but the room was neat and tidy.

Especially, it was hard to find even a speck of dust in the room.

The bookshelf occupying one wall showed no dust in any corner, and neither did the area under the bed or beneath hard-to-move large furniture.

On a small but sturdy table next to the bed sat an apple, cut neatly into a size perfect for eating.

In that well-organized room lay the security room employee and the Blue Reaper on the bed.

The Blue Reaper was slowly moving a cooled towel with her small body by the head of the sleeping employee.

“Hmm.”

As the morning arrived, the employee opened his eyes to find the Blue Reaper moving the wet towel and their eyes met.

The Blue Reaper, with a startled expression, vanished, and the wet towel plopped onto the bed.

The employee picked up the fallen towel and placed it on the table, glancing around, finding the room perfectly cleaned.

Ever since the Glass Flamingo incident, the Blue Reaper had been visiting the room whenever he fell asleep.

The Blue Reaper would come into the room to clean, and sometimes just sit quietly by the bed, watching the employee.

It was a bit of a different kind of attention than the employee had hoped for.

The employee wanted to share pudding and play together like the Golden Reaper while awake.

However, the Blue Reaper’s evasive behavior had grown even stronger.

In fact, it became harder to see her when awake.

Seeing the Blue Reaper escape more nimbly than before, the employee felt unjust about it.

“Weren’t we a bit closer?”

“Why is she acting like this!”

The Blue Reaper was nowhere to be found in the room, leaving only the refreshing scent of her presence lingering softly.

*

With neither the Gray Reaper nor the typically boisterous Yerin around, the isolation room became somewhat quiet.

Having had an old dream the previous night, I came to the isolation room to take a break and carry out some facility checks.

It wasn’t particularly long ago, but I dreamed of something I felt like I experienced long ago.

It was part of the memory of being trapped in the cave of Seoul Forest and meeting the Gray Reaper.

However, the outcome of the dream was slightly different from reality.

In a dream intoxicated by the joy of escape, I returned to the research institute without noticing the Gray Reaper, becoming fainter and more fragility.

And it was a nightmare that woke me to the image of the Gray Reaper, crumbling away, looking at me with reproachful eyes.

Surely, nothing bad has happened, right?

It was hard to imagine the Gray Reaper getting hurt or falling into a crisis, but perhaps due to that ominous dream, I was slightly worried.

Whether my concerns reached the heavens, breaking news started coming in.

[Just in: Breaking news.]

[It has been reported that ‘James City,’ famous for its Object research, has been half destroyed.]

[With ‘James Pudding’ entering the country, it’s expected to affect various leading domestic research institutes that have established cooperative relations.]

And on the TV screen, a video that seemed to be taken from a helicopter began to play.

There was the Gray Reaper standing atop a half-blown building, looking down at the ruined city.

Reaper, what on earth are you doing over there?

*

Sehee Research Institute Sleeping Room.

It wasn’t a busy work environment, and thanks to the well-decorated lounge, it was always a quiet sleeping room, but now many people had gathered.

The cause of the gathering was a strange Object sprouting from the edge of a flowerpot.

In the flowerpot, fresh and cute sprouts were swaying gently.

Except for being indigo, it looked moist and fresh.

Of course, even if it were green, it wouldn’t change the fact that it was 100% an Object.

Surely, under the sprout, there was a face.

A Mini Reaper, identical to the Gray Reaper, was buried in the soil with just its head peeking out, peacefully sleeping.

 

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