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Inside the research vehicle braving the Arctic chill, James was seated in front of a monitor.

On that monitor, footage captured in real-time by dozens of drones belonging to the James Research Institute was streaming.

The screen displayed a scene of San Francisco, consumed by an object.

San Francisco, where golden flames scorched the sky and the ground.

Right in the heart of that San Francisco, a worm sphere as large as a building split in two in an instant.

Simultaneously, the charred remains of the worms that had darkened the sky began to vanish.

Then, the blue sky and golden sun started to appear.

As the morning sunlight illuminated the empty city, the city’s landscape gradually revealed itself.

Broken buildings.

The Golden Gate Bridge was severed.

Damaged roads and cars.

“Huff.”

A long sigh escaped James’s lips.

It was a sigh of relief that the damage seemed much less than expected.

“When I heard the Gray Reaper wasn’t watching TV, I even considered giving up on the West, but really… I’m so glad.”

At his words, the new researcher standing behind him also nodded.

Relief was evident in her expression as well.

“Yes, boss. It’s a relief. However, the reconstruction work doesn’t seem like it will be easy.”

“That’s true. Plus, the Alexander Group won’t just sit idly by.”

As James spoke, he slowly turned his head, his gaze landing on a clear glass cup resting on the monitor table.

Inside the transparent cup filled with clear water, the Golden Reaper was splashing around.

With a slightly bored expression, the Golden Reaper waved its arms and legs as if swimming in the cup, but upon making eye contact with James, it chuckled.

Seeing that, James let out a small laugh and picked up the plastic lid on the table.

Then he promptly placed the plastic lid over the cup.

“Ah!”

The Golden Reaper looked startled.

Seemingly flustered by James’s unexpected action, it flailed in the cup and then vigorously swam towards the lid.

However, using his firm palm, James pressed down on the lid, preventing it from opening.

“No way!”

The Golden Reaper’s expression became increasingly perplexed.

“I’m trapped!”

Eventually, resigning to its fate, the Golden Reaper began to act exaggeratedly as if playing a child’s game.

It made a dramatic ‘Graaah!’ face and then started to float in the water like a corpse.

And occasionally, it would peek at James with slightly opened eyes.

While James and the Golden Reaper were playing, the new researcher voiced her疑问 in a small voice.

“But, boss. When the Gray Reaper wasn’t watching TV, why didn’t we take any significant measures? There could have been various ways to mitigate information exposure…?”

“No, that wouldn’t be good. We should only engage in actions that naturally expose information.”

James detached his gaze from the cup and pulled out an old report, handing it to the researcher.

On the cover of the report, it read <Gray Reaper Behavior Pattern Report>.

“You haven’t read this report, have you? Under no circumstances should we directly brief the Gray Reaper or provide information through forced methods.”

He then added in a hushed voice,

“Our human race is surviving largely due to the whims of the ‘new god’, the Gray Reaper.”

Didi-di-di.

At that moment, James’s emergency phone began to ring.

“What?”

The news delivered through the emergency communication network was shocking.

[All upper management of the Alexander Group, deceased.]

[A gigantic butterfly causing time distortions, still appearing all over the world.]

After hearing the relevant reports and issuing commands, time slipped away unnoticed.

When James turned his head with a sense of relief, he found the Golden Reaper inside the cup had exhausted itself waiting for him and fallen asleep.

James took the sleeping Golden Reaper out of the water and dried it gently with a towel.

Then, whispering ‘Sleep well’, he laid it down on a bed made just for Golden Reapers.

Click.

The lights inside the research vehicle went out, and a cozy darkness settled in.

*

The crisis of the worm external being had ended, and morning dawned over San Francisco.

Warm sunlight softly beamed down on the wrecked Golden Gate Bridge and the fallen buildings.

The golden morning sky looked peaceful, as if yesterday’s chaos had been a lie.

Yet, the state of the city was in stark contrast to that tranquility.

Shattered glass windows, twisted steel structures, and debris strewn everywhere testified vividly to the fierce battle that had taken place the night before.

I stood atop the palm of the giant black reaper, looking down at all this.

At that moment, the 1st Sword and the Cloaked Reaper, which had split into two, charged toward me.

The evolved Golden Reapers rarely expressed emotions, but on these kids’ faces, I saw both exhaustion and victory’s joy.

“Well done.”

I smiled gently, pulling the children into my embrace and petting them.

The 1st Sword and the Cloaked Reaper closed their eyes, sitting quietly in my arms.

“Hug!”

At that moment, a familiar voice chimed in as the Hug Reaper jumped from my shoulder into my embrace.

As if wanting praise for itself.

“Yes, yes. You did well too.”

I hugged the Hug Reaper as I said that.

In truth, the worm external being seemed weaker than other external beings, but still, handling it mainly with the power of mini reapers was no small feat.

Of course, it wasn’t perfect yet.

I still needed to blow firewood nearby and confirm the destruction conditions.

But could we not consider this nearly automatic hunting?

Once combined with the Golden Horn Reaper, capable of remotely sending firewood!

Hehe.

Then we’d achieve the best possible automatic hunting at our disposal.

Yet, still, there were things I had to do.

The ‘eyes’ to see the destruction conditions.

It was a part that could never be substituted with mini reapers.

I sighed and looked up at the sky.

No matter how I thought, I couldn’t come up with a way to replace the ‘eyes’.

Until the 1st Sword accumulated enough rank to disregard destruction conditions like the Black Giant, I supposed I’d have to be satisfied with this much.

In the peaceful moment, suddenly, a noise slicing through the sky shattered the tranquility.

Bwoooong.

Looking up at the sky, many drones were flying around the city like a swarm of mechanical bees.

Their camera lenses sparkled as they captured the scene below.

And in the distance, news station vehicles and helicopters were rapidly approaching.

Since the crisis had been resolved, people were returning.

With the sudden disaster lifted, humans were drawn here by curiosity and a thirst for news.

“Alright, it’s about time to head back.”

I smiled as I looked around at the reapers.

The Hug Reaper gazed up at me.

The 1st Sword and the Cloaked Reaper sat there, wearing exhausted expressions.

The Orange Crowned Reaper, blissfully asleep without a care in the world.

The Giant Black Reaper looked down at me.

I playfully tapped the Orange Crowned Reaper’s head to wake it up.

“Come on, let’s head back now.”

As my intent reached the world, a passage leading to the Mini Reaper Garden opened in the air.

I slowly walked towards that passage, enjoying the last moments of this walk.

Following silently behind me were the 1st Sword and the Cloaked Reaper.

The Hug Reaper still buzzed around me excitedly.

Finally, the Orange Crowned Reaper floated into the garden with a still sleepy expression.

When I suddenly turned my gaze back, the Orange Crowned Reaper was looking at the Hug Reaper.

A meaningful smile lingered on its lips, as if it had discovered something amusing, filled with curiosity.

*

At the James Tower on the outskirts of Songpa District.

Inside one of the accommodations, a girl with silver hair woke up from her sleep.

“That dream again…”

The girl muttered.

The silver-haired girl had been dreaming.

Just like the dream she saw in the facility, she kept dreaming the same dream.

The only difference was that she could not understand what this dream meant at all.

The dream she had was like a scene from a monster movie dealing with a war between objects.

Black monsters crawled on the desolate land that stretched endlessly, and the sky was filled with gigantic butterflies.

The situation on the ground seemed unfavorable for the monsters.

Tall black monsters wielding only long arms and sharp teeth.

But the giant butterflies could fly and twist time.

Had the black monsters lacked the ability to combine into larger forms, they would have been defeated long ago.

The silver-haired girl sighed and rose from her bed.

Her face showed signs of fatigue due to the restless sleep from the repeated dreams.

“Yawn…”

She yawned widely as she opened the bedroom door.

In the common living room, the brown-haired girl was already watching TV.

When she spotted the silver-haired girl, she greeted her with a bright smile.

“You’re late again today. Still having that dream?”

“Yeah.”

The silver-haired girl nodded in response.

“I’ll shower first.”

She replied in a sleepy voice as she headed toward the bathroom.

At that moment, the video playing on the TV caught her attention.

“!!!!”

The silver-haired girl’s eyes widened in shock.

The monster on the TV screen looked exactly like the one she had seen in her dream.

Black skin, long arms, and legs that seemed rooted to the ground.

There it was, the identical monster from her dreams.

 

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