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A crack in space appeared right in front of me, clearly inviting me in.

For some reason, I felt that way.

But I was pondering whether I should go in or not.

Having come out of the fantasy, I started to feel like I had already had enough of adventures.

Moreover, I thought there was no need to proceed further in the labyrinth without a Tyrannosaurus.

When I turned my head away from the crack in space and looked at the Black Reapers, they seemed to be having a great time.

They weren’t even fazed by the sudden change in environment.

Just moments ago, it felt like we were in a fierce battle, and now they were frolicking around with bright smiles on their faces as if they had completely forgotten about it.

As the interior of the labyrinth transformed into well-packed sand, the Black Reapers were playing around as if the sandy ground was a ball pit.

They swam through the sand like it was a swimming pool, tossing little grains around as they played.

Well, I could understand.

A ball pit has an irresistible fun and charm.

I thought that the lack of interest in ball pits as adults was just a matter of scale.

If there was a gigantic ball pit that even adults could comfortably play in, everyone would love it, right?

Being a former researcher, my opinion is definitely the right answer.

I should ask the Sehee Research Institute to create a super gigantic ball pit later.

Hehe.

While everyone was enjoying the sand, there was one Black Reaper sitting alone looking gloomy.

It was the Deviant Reaper who had thrown a deviant punch at me.

The Deviant Reaper seemed to be melting away in a dejected posture, possibly worried about the Attached Human Girl.

Sitting morosely next to the girl’s face, the Deviant Reaper awaited her to wake up, staring blankly at the girl, who was still fast asleep.

Then, the Deviant Reaper sitting there with a gloomy expression suddenly seemed to sense something, and lifted its head to look at the girl.

“Ugh… Hmm.”

The voice of the Attached Human was so tiny it was almost inaudible, but once the Deviant Reaper heard it, its eyes widened and it jumped to its feet, rushing toward the Attached Human.

It dashed across the sand and slapped itself against the girl’s cheek with a ‘thud!’.

At that moment, emotions began to bloom within the girl’s body, indicating that the Attached Human, the Deviant Reaper’s beloved girl, was waking up from her slumber.

Feeling that emotion, the Deviant Reaper rubbed its cheek against the girl’s cheek with a happy expression.

Seeing that, I suddenly missed Yerin.

I need to finish up here quickly and head to the Sehee Research Institute.

*

The first thing the girl saw as she opened her eyes was the sky flowing with sand like a river.

And the soft sensation on her cheek.

As she grabbed whatever was stuck to her cheek and pulled it off, she felt a gentle vibration that seemed to say “don’t do that.”

From the warm and soft touch and the responsive movement, the girl felt like she could tell what it was that she held in her hand.

Blinking her eyes, which were still blurry from just waking up, she looked at the small being she had caught, and saw an object staring back at her with a bright smile.

Black skin.

White and yellow shimmering odd eyes.

An expression that couldn’t hide its affection.

It was the Black Sword, her guardian angel, the Black Fairy.

“You were waiting for me to wake up, huh?”

The girl smiled lightly with joy and gently tickled the Black Fairy’s cheek with her finger.

In response, the Black Fairy beamed a bright smile and tightly grasped the girl’s finger with its tiny hand.

After having fun with the little being, the girl slowly stood up and looked around, realizing that the environment was completely different from when she lost consciousness in the labyrinth.

The upside-down eyes and flipped trees were nowhere to be seen, and the chilly atmosphere had turned into a pleasantly warm temperature, just enough to make her sweat a little.

“!”

However, the most surprising thing was yet to come.

“Gray Reaper!”

With grayish skin, glowing yellow eyes, it was a premium object from Korea!

The girl alternated her gaze between the Black Fairy in her hand and the Gray Reaper, and a realization struck her.

The Black Fairy was a Black Reaper.

Now that she thought about it, it resembled the famous Gray Reaper quite a bit; why hadn’t she noticed it before?

But strangely enough, there didn’t seem to be any familiarity between the Gray Reaper and the Black Reaper.

Ah, it must be due to their expressions.

The Gray Reaper bore an expression full of dissatisfaction.

The Black Reaper had a bright, innocent smile that naturally brightened its surroundings.

And the cute point of the Black Reaper, its adorably sharp teeth!

Before seeing the Gray Reaper in person, I hadn’t even considered comparing the two.

By the way, I guess the object of Black Armor was the Gray Reaper.

The black armor had a texture similar to the Black Reaper’s black sword.

A height of about 1 meter.

The disappearing object of the black armor and the Gray Reaper that appeared in its place.

I couldn’t be 100% sure, but there was enough evidence to make a reasonably sound guess.

Moreover, on the sandy floor, numerous Black Reapers that seemed to resemble the black armor were swimming through the sand.

Black Reapers tossing around sandy grains as they played.

Black Reapers swimming in the sand.

And Black Reapers digging up a large person from the sand.

“Oh?”

The armor that the Black Reapers were digging up was a piece of armor the girl remembered seeing.

It was an incredibly old armor hanging in the corner of the Dog Meat Man’s general store.

“Ahjussi!”

When the girl exclaimed in surprise and checked, Dog Meat Man was merely asleep.

She let out a breath of relief.

Having been trapped in a dream herself, she could instantly recognize the ahjussi’s state.

He must be stuck in the fantasy of the labyrinth.

The girl decided to wait for the ahjussi to wake up while watching the Black Reapers play, with one on her shoulder.

Since she had woken up from the labyrinth as a beginner herself, she believed the well-versed ahjussi would wake up soon too.

*

“Guess I have to go in.”

I finally resolved to step into that crack.

This labyrinth object didn’t seem like one hell-bent on killing humans, but it looked harmful enough to be a problem.

Although I easily broke through with the Black Reaper Armor auto-hunting, even the swallows that ventured out in the first floor were way too strong.

It definitely wasn’t something an ordinary person could eliminate just by handing them a weapon.

And just as I decided I had to go in, I shoved my hand into the crack.

The unstable crack wobbled and ripped apart.

It was such a rough passage that even a Mini Reaper would have a hard time getting through.

Checking the state of the passage made me more reluctant to enter.

However, I felt that if I delayed any longer, I would become even less willing to go in, so I pushed my entire body into the crack.

*

Scrape, scrape.

Within the unstable space, my skin with physical immunity was repeatedly torn and regenerated.

Is this what it feels like to be a human caught in a whirlpool?

I bumped and flipped around like a paper boat caught in a rough storm as I advanced through the space.

And once I reached my destination, the flow of that unstable space ceased, allowing me to stand firmly on a solid ground.

A sturdy ground made of sand.

A pitch-black night sky devoid of stars and moons.

Beneath that night sky, a throne placed on a low platform with nine squares.

And mingled with that sandy throne, an elderly man eroded by the sand.

It was the kingdom of sand, eroded by the elements, and that throne was its centerpiece.

And I could immediately tell that the massive presence of the throne and the old man was the key to the labyrinth.

[Have you come?]

At that moment, I felt a force that seemed utterly exhausted from the entire space.

A will imbued with the pain of having run for hundreds of years toward a singular goal without achieving anything.

[Then, let’s begin.]

As that will reached me, the sand filling the desert slowly began to gather and transform into sharp spears.

Then, it aimed at me slowly before shooting toward me at a considerable speed.

‘Whoosh!’

I grabbed the sand spear as it came at me, trying to manipulate the space.

However, my ability to control the space failed, and my hands simply grasped at thin air.

Thud.

The massive sand spear pierced through my abdomen, forcing me to tumble along the ground like a skewer.

Rolling across the coarse sand, countless scars formed on my body.

‘Why?’

Though the hole in my belly and skin wounds quickly closed, countless questions began to rise in my head.

Why couldn’t I cut through space?

Why wasn’t my physical immunity working?

Is my ability sealed like it was with the Leader?

But it felt different from an ability seal.

As I faced this hopeless situation, I instinctively used my “eyes” to confirm the destruction conditions of the elderly man.

<Climb the stairs to stand beside the throne.>

<Die in this world.>

At that, my eyes spat out the two destruction conditions.

As if it were an error-riddled program, the letters overlapped to the point of being barely legible.

Since I had never experienced anything like this, I immediately recognized that one of them must be fake.

And the moment I confirmed the conditions, I started to sprint toward the stairs where the throne was located.

There was one single reason why.

I didn’t even know my own condition for dying.

I had speculated, ‘Wouldn’t I die if the firewood runs out?’ but wasn’t certain about it.

Moreover, the sand spear was powerful, but it took quite a while for the sand to gather.

No matter how small I was and how bad I was at working out, I had plenty of time to step on the nine steps.

With the sensation of my tiny feet pushing against the sand, my body quickly advanced forward.

I had already reached the front of the stairs, yet the slowly moving sand showed no signs of gathering.

I won.

Even if a sand spear flew at me right now, I would be able to climb it!

As soon as I stepped onto the first step, an agonizing pain began to engulf my entire body.

It felt like I was going to be crushed under the weight of that step.

My blackened hands and the red-hot firewood.

Looking up at my head, a shining halo floated above me.

A halo had risen above my head.

So, powerful objects can’t be easily defeated after all?

But this much was bearable.

I gritted my teeth and took another step up the stairs.

As I stepped on the next step up, it happened.

Boom.

I heard something explode.

Ah, aaah.

My eyes felt like they were being ripped apart.

I clawed at my eyes with both hands and opened my mouth wide as if to scream.

Oh, I see now.

My eyes have burst.

Two halos had risen above my head.

My whole body began to shake as if it were about to explode at any moment.

From the empty eye sockets, red firewood continually flowed out like blood.

It hurts.

It hurts, it hurts.

I was on the second step.

Two halos above my head.

And a total of nine steps!

Ha, hahaha.

Nine halos?

Surely that’s impossible.

Indeed, <Die in this world.> was the correct answer.

The weight of the halos pressing down on me only grew heavier.

Standing on the stairs became increasingly difficult.

Would I die if I dumped all the firewood?

I shoved my hand into my heart to forcibly expel the firewood.

At that moment, I felt the firewood burning fiercely with pain.

And just as I pulled out the firewood.

A small voice sounded from atop my shoulder.

Beep-!

It was the Deviant Reaper, who should’ve been playing with the Attached Human beyond the crack.

‘You can’t give up, Mom!’

The Deviant Reaper radiated a strong will and swiftly climbed up my hair to look up at the two halos above my head with a firm expression.

And then, with all its might, it jumped up and grabbed one of the halos above my head, shifting it over to its own.

Though it was an enormously oversized halo compared to the Deviant Reaper, the moment it touched it, the halo shrank to a size suitable for a Mini Reaper.

The little halo now resting on the head of the Deviant Reaper, although its whole body was being torn apart like mine, with blood-like firewood streaming from its eyes, it flashed a bright smile, radiating its will.

‘It’s okay now! Mom!’

 

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