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“Why on earth is the Golden Reaper here?”

The man who suddenly encountered the Golden Reaper tensed up, his body stiff as he cautiously began to open the car door.

Quietly, so there wouldn’t be any noise.

“Now that I think about it, there was a warm scent in the car that resembled sunlight, and I just ignored it!”

Suddenly face-to-face with a top-tier object, the man regretted having overlooked the pleasant aroma filling the car.

Hoo. Hoo.

Taking slow breaths through his nose to avoid panting, he gently pulled on the door handle.

“Got it!”

Just before the car door could swing open, the man felt a triumphant grin spread across his mind.

But at that moment, the Golden Reaper, who had been happily smiling from the glove box, jumped toward him.

“Ahh!”

The extremely tense man reacted as if a snake was lunging at him and burst out of the car as soon as the door swung open.

“Hyung?”

His junior, already outside the car, turned back with a puzzled expression at the sight.

Then, from the passenger seat, the Golden Reaper leaped up like a flea and the junior swiftly caught it with his bare hands.

With the Golden Reaper firmly held in his junior’s large hand, it seemed to smile in awe at how accurately and quickly it had been caught.

“Wow, what an amazing human!”

The Golden Reaper was so large that, aside from its head, its arms and legs were entirely captured, yet it appeared delighted by this unusual situation, grinning broadly.

“You, are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine! As I heard, it really is well-behaved. This little guy.”

The man, who had stumbled and rolled in the gravel after frantically fleeing from the Golden Reaper, wore a flabbergasted expression.

Is it even possible to react like that in front of a top-tier object?

“I heard that the Golden Reapers are quite popular with kids these days. There’s quite a number of fan sites too, didn’t you know?”

Of course, the man was aware to some extent.

He just believed that it wasn’t truly popular or safe.

“The government and the association are deliberately manipulating public opinion to quell social unrest stemming from poor object management, making objects seem less dangerous and more friendly.”

That’s what he thought.

Even now, watching the well-behaved Golden Reaper, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was dangerous.

The reason he held such thoughts was due to one particular photo.

A photograph of numerous corpses with the Golden Reaper shape carved into them.

In other words, this brightly smiling Golden Reaper could at any moment turn into a dangerous creature that could tear humans apart.

“Moreover, I heard that even mommy cafes have started to show interest these days. They say it protects babies or something.”

The man looked at his junior, still rambling on about how popular and safe the Golden Reaper is, with a sympathetic expression.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s say it’s safe. By the way, isn’t that the Golden Reaper that was said to be successfully contained?”

Hearing that, the junior paused his praise for the Golden Reaper and began to scrutinize it closely in front of him.

“Hmm… The Golden Reapers all look alike, so I can’t really tell.”

“Really? Well, I guess we can find out during the next inspection. Now, hurry up and let it go. We need to go see Elder Snake.”

With those words, the junior ambled into the woods and gently threw the Golden Reaper into a soft patch of grass, just like letting out a sparrow.

Boing.

Landing in the grass, the Golden Reaper jumped back up high and landed once more on the junior’s palm.

Hehe.

Resting on the palm, the Golden Reaper looked up at the junior and playfully smiled.

“I have to go meet my Hyung, so let me go now.”

As he kept saying this, he tossed the Golden Reaper back into the grass, but it kept leaping back.

Shaking its head as if refusing to leave.

Throwing it, and it jumps back in; toss it again, and it jumps back.

As this playful tug-of-war went on several times, an idea suddenly popped into the junior’s mind.

Seeing it as a brilliant thought, the junior held the Golden Reaper tightly and shouted at the man.

“Hyung! Elder Snake said he needs an object being contained; could we take this one with us?”

The junior lifted the Golden Reaper high in his hand, and within that grasp, the Golden Reaper was smiling brightly, raising its hand and giving a thumbs-up.

*

Standing in front of the large mirror placed in the corner of the isolation room, I squinted my eyes, trying to see something.

In the full-length mirror, my reflection was visible.

Soft-looking gray skin.

The light of firewood shining through my skin.

Long hair that flowed down to the floor.

Eyes that emitted the same light as firewood.

“I can’t see it.”

Although my reflection still showed the same image of me, what I wanted to see remained hidden.

What I was trying to see was my destruction conditions.

Perhaps using ‘eyes’ repeatedly to try and see my destruction conditions caused all the mini reapers that had filled my isolation room to flee.

With each time I consumed an eyeball, I could feel my power greatly increasing, thinking, “If I’ve gotten this strong, maybe I can see it now?” but still, it remained unseen.

It wasn’t the mirror that prevented it from showing.

I could clearly see the destruction conditions of the mini reapers reflected in the mirror.

So I was pondering a few reasons why my destruction conditions were invisible.

First, I absolutely cannot be destroyed.

In fact, even if I used up all the firewood, I would never die, resurrect, or survive through another means, which is why I theorized it could remain unseen.

It was a comforting hypothesis, but there was no evidence for it, which made it feel a bit off.

Moreover, I’d never seen an object without destruction conditions, so it was odd to think I was the only one.

Second, my ability was designed such that it cannot be used on myself.

This was a plausible guess, but it was still just as impossible to prove.

Third, my ability only works on targets of a lower “rank” than myself.

Whether to call it ‘rank’ or ‘presence’ for objects.

There’s that unique sense of pressure, but I’ve never encountered an object with greater presence than mine.

From the moment I opened my eyes in Seoul Forest, as I struggled with my skin splitting on the grass and my soles sinking into branches.

Since I was in the same rank as myself, it was a pun-like conclusion that my abilities do not activate, after all.

But always, irrespective of combat power, I had a high stance as an object, making it a reasonably plausible hypothesis.

Besides, if I discovered an object of higher rank than myself, it would also serve as a verifiable theory.

Well, I still had no certainties on anything.

Just as I was about to turn my gaze away, something strange caught my eye.

‘?’

Did something like this exist within me?

Something I had never discovered until now was clearly present within me.

Is this a Light Ring?

It blended perfectly with my body and was hard to see, but there was definitely something there.

It was something that infinitely resembled a halo.

*

Even when I forcibly abandoned it, the Golden Reaper happily bounced after me, so the men decided to take it to Elder Snake.

Though the junior said this well-behaved, amiable little one was just like a contamination, the man would never agree.

How many dangerous ones were there among such grinning objects?!

But since it was impossible to shake it off even though it wasn’t properly contained, it was an unavoidable choice.

It would be better to say this top-tier object had intentionally followed them rather than left it behind.

The two men held the blissful-looking Golden Reaper and slowly walked toward the valley.

Upon arriving at the valley, they saw Elder Snake lounging on a large canopy, reclining at an angle and relaxing.

As the men approached, Elder Snake raised a hand slightly while lying on his back, seemingly aware of their presence.

“Oh, you’ve come?”

“Hyung!”

Then, the man and the junior both greeted loudly and respectfully in unison as they stepped up to the canopy.

The junior intended to report on current operations and discuss the Golden Reaper as always, but was unable to as an unexpected turn of events ensued.

“!”

Elder Snake’s expression suddenly turned to one of utter fear as he sensed something.

And standing atop the canopy was the Golden Reaper, glaring fiercely.

“Bad Object!”

The Golden Reaper then raised both hands high and began to bask in the sunlight on the canopy.

Though the Golden Reaper had originally emitted a soft glow, the brighter it received the sunlight in that pose, the stronger its light became.

That light eventually radiated with the brilliance of a flash grenade, filling their vision completely.

Such a strong light, yet a mysterious glow that didn’t hurt the eyes.

And as the light that filled their sight dissipated, only the blackened traces remained atop the canopy.

Elder Snake and the Golden Reaper were nowhere to be found.

“Elder Snake?”

Aside from the scorched mark where Elder Snake had been, nothing was left in that spot.

*

As twilight began to settle on a desolate valley devoid of people.

The red sky flickered as if on fire, dyeing the valley waters below, where a large canopy lay.

It was a somewhat ominous sight, the canopy covered with black soot.

In that quiet twilight, the sound of stones grinding began to resound.

Creeeak. Creeeak.

The pebbles scattered around the water seemed to move as if alive, forming a circle, colliding, and grinding against each other, creating noise.

And as time passed a bit, the self-grinding pebbles neatly outlined countless clean circles.

Simultaneously, the sun that was staining the twilight completely dipped below the ground.

After that came deep darkness and quiet.

From within that, a human figure suddenly emerged.

In the center of the circle stood a bizarre figure made entirely of green jade.

“….”

The jade-skinned man, wearing a shabby cloak, said nothing and silently gazed at the traces left upon the canopy.

As he stared blankly, overcome with emotion, tears began to flow as he murmured.

“Finally.”

“I’ve finally found the vile traces of the god.”

The man was incessantly repeating that it was finally time to fulfill his long-cherished wish, weeping with joy.

 

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