NOVEL NEXT When Gray Reaper tapped the ground three times with its small foot, flames suddenly shot up from the cracked drainage ditches around the vacant lot.
Was the gasoline from the wrecked sports car leaking into the ditch?
The gasoline must have spread out evenly due to Gray Reaper's ability.
A sudden hot wave of heat.
The vacant lot where Gray Reaper and the Lophiomus variant were fighting turned into an arena surrounded by flames.
Grrrrrr-! (rumble)
And the ground began to shake violently.
"Are the underground tunnels collapsing? But they shouldn't collapse from just that level of shock?"
James had an expression of witnessing an unbelievable phenomenon.
"Gray Reaper can do anything! It might even be able to destroy the Earth if it wants to."
She boasted about Gray Reaper's amazing abilities with a full smile on her face.
BOOM!
With a sudden explosion, the ground where Lophiomus was unnaturally sank down.
In Songpa-gu, an enormous sinkhole had occurred.
But this time, it was a cute little sinkhole, scaled down like a customized pit for Lophiomus.
It seemed like a miniaturized version of what had happened in Songpa-gu.
Once the swirling dust cleared, Lophiomus had already been sucked into the hole.
But the ending was different from Songpa-gu.
Thud. Thud-!
With loud thud, the massive monster's hand emerged above the edge of the sinkhole.
The sinkhole couldn't contain the Lophiomus variant.
whackkk-!
The sound of the Lophiomus variant's body bursting out.
The hand that had firmly gripped the ground vanished with that sound.
And then a huge crashing sound shook the ground.
The Lophiomus variant had plummeted back to the bottom of the sinkhole.
The suddenly appeared Golden Reaper had jumped in and eliminated Lophiomus's hand.
Gray Reaper was now surrounded by countless Golden Reapers.
When Gray Reaper stretched out its hand forward, the Golden Reapers swarmed towards the sinkhole and one by one leapt inside.
Each time a Golden Reaper jumped in, a crunching sound of part of Lophiomus's body being destroyed could be heard.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
As the Golden Reapers endlessly fell into the sinkhole, the sounds resembled popcorn popping.
Kwooooooooggghhh-!
Lophiomus's agonizing scream echoed out from inside the sinkhole.
All the confidence it had been feeling vanished, and the sound was filled with terror.
Kwaaaang!
With a huge sound, the Lophiomus variant made a big jump out of the sinkhole.
The airborne Lophiomus variant looked tattered all over its body.
Holes in the shape of Golden Reapers riddled it everywhere.
It looked like a tattered paper made by a paper punching machine.
But the trajectory of the falling Lophiomus variant was strange.
Wasn't its target Gray Reaper?
The Lophiomus variant had actually jumped aiming for us spectating from the outskirts of the vacant lot.
Though tattered, its still massive body weight that could easily crush a person or two was plummeting towards us.
Why suddenly?
"Quickly evade!"
Turning at the sudden shout, James was hurriedly fleeing while carrying an unconscious man on his back.
But.
It was already too late to evade.
***
Reaper (MC) POV:
---
Remembering the fight in Songpa-gu, I tried making a sinkhole, but it was useless as expected.
Why didn't Lophiomus try to escape from the Songpa-gu sinkhole back then?
Did someone smear honey down there or something?
Reenacting the fight with Lophiomus made me realize it had truly become stronger.
This level of combat and regeneration doesn't strain my flame reserves much anymore.
The experiment is over, so I should fight a bit more seriously.
When I summoned the Golden Reapers, countless ones poured out from the Golden Reaper garden.
Some had already charged at the extremely dangerous Lophiomus variant and severed its arm.
I stretched my hand towards the sinkhole.
Commanding the Golden Reapers.
'Hey, there's a harmful object over there for the humans! Get rid of it!'
Tak tak tak~
Hop hop~
The Golden Reapers rushed towards the sinkhole at their own speeds.
And without hesitation, they leapt down into it.
Pop. Pop pop.
The irregularly ringing bursting sounds were pleasant to hear.
As expected, the Golden Reapers were far more fuel-efficient.
Since the Golden Reaper garden was created, almost no flame was needed for revivals.
I could feel the Lophiomus variant's regeneration rate gradually slowing down.
It seemed it would be smoothly dealt with at this rate, but the Lophiomus variant made a final struggle.
For some reason, it attempted an attack towards Yerin.
This variant doesn't understand.
There's no way I'd leave Yerin in danger, right?
I stretched out both arms and summoned the Golden Reaper garden into reality.
When I fully deployed the garden with all my power, the surrounding factory area instantly vanished without a trace.
And what filled the surroundings was,
A vast land of beds, a sea of hot chocolate, and a heaven of snacks and puddings.
“Huh? Suddenly, this is, the Golden Reaper’s house?”
Yerin's surprised voice.
Kwooong-!
And the Lophiomus variant fell at a completely different spot from where Yerin was.
The Lophiomus variant seemed confused by the abruptly changed environment.
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And it didn't seem to understand why its jump had missed its target.
However, the Lophiomus variant didn't give up and started charging towards Yerin again.
A futile act.
***
Yerin POV:
---
"Whoa!"
When Reaper stretched out its arms, the surroundings completely changed into Golden Reaper's house.
"So objects can do things like this too? What should I call this? Space substitution? Spatial transference?"
James had a worried expression.
Grrrr-! The Lophiomus variant stubbornly charged at us, not giving up despite such an abnormal phenomenon.
I was surprised by the Lophiomus's unexpected persistence, but something even more surprising happened.
When Reaper stomped down with one foot, space itself folded up and rose like a wall between the Lophiomus variant and us.
And when Reaper reached out and cupped its hands together, the space the Lophiomus was in started curling up into a sphere.
Inside that curled up sphere of space, the distorted and elongated Lophiomus variant looked like it was trapped in a fish-eye lens world.
Then when Reaper clenched its fists tightly, that spherical cut-off space crumpled inwards and vanished without a trace.
Reaper calmly looked back at us with a composed expression.
"This is... almost like a god."
James' expression went beyond worry and seemed devastated.
"Are you okay, Reaper?"
As usual, Reaper looked expressionless and calm.
But for some reason, the Reaper looked tired, so I ran over and hugged it.
Reaper often felt better when I hugged it, so it would probably feel better this time too.
Fortunately, when I looked down, Reaper's expression had improved considerably.
***
James POV:
---
I don't think I'll be able to forget today's events.
At some point, America, and humanity as a whole, firmly believed they could catch up to and conquer Objects.
But after witnessing today's events, I'm not so sure.
Can humanity really recreate such phenomena?
The fortunate thing was that causing such phenomena also seemed strenuous for Gray Reaper.
Gray Reaper's expression was hard to read, but to my eyes, it looked exhausted to the point of fatigue right now.
The unidentified space that had blanketed reality had vanished as quickly as it appeared, like bursting bubbles.
“Now that the last obstacle in our way is gone, let's go retake the factory.”
I tried to smile and speak in a bright voice.
Passing through the torn door, we were able to reunite with the pudding production Object that Lophiomus had occupied.
“I don't think we'll be able to resume production anytime soon.”
The pudding production Object was in a mess.
Many production facilities were destroyed.
On top of that, the most important rabbit dolls were either destroyed or had escaped.
It's going to be a long time before the factory is back to normal.
***
Yerin POV:
---
Deep inside the factory that the Lophiomus variant had been guarding, there was an Object that looked completely different from what I had imagined.
"Is this the Object that produces pudding? Since it's a pudding production factory, I imagined a larger facility-like Object..."
It looked more like a toy for playing house than a factory.
It was a cute little kitchen with cooking stations and utensils the size of the rabbit dolls that had attacked us.
Compared to the surrounding structures that were torn apart and smashed, some of the mini kitchens were in very good condition.
"It looks fine to this degree, so why is it difficult to resume production?"
"It's difficult because the most important rabbit dolls are gone. It will take quite a while for rabbit doll production, so normalization will also take time. I'm sorry you came all this way just to buy pudding."
Reaper, who had been silently listening to the conversation with James, waddled over and stood in front of the mini kitchen.
Could Reaper be trying to do it directly?
But it's too small for Reaper to fit inside.
When Reaper stretched out its hands, peculiarly shaped Golden Reapers popped out of its palms.
They were cute Golden Reapers wearing chef hats with rabbit ears sticking out.
The Golden Reapers skillfully entered the mini kitchen and took their positions.
"Could they be substituting for the rabbit dolls?"
James looked perplexed.
I was a bit surprised too.
Reaper is just too versatile!
Reaper looked at us with an expression that said it could obviously do it.
"Well then, let's give it a try."
When James placed the book he cherished on some device, golden flames shot up from the book and the mini kitchen started lighting up.
And then some adorable cooking began.
It was a division of labor in the cooking process, but the strange thing was that time inside the mini kitchen seemed to be accelerated tenfold.
The instantly completed puddings were sent through the chimney attached to the mini kitchen, and the puddings floated up enveloped in bubbles from that chimney.
"Wow, the puddings are coming out super fast."
"That's because time is accelerated inside that kitchen. Once we repair the factory and start up the other mini kitchens, they'll come out even faster."
I turned my head, imagining Reaper being happy watching the puddings, but Reaper looked unsatisfied for some reason.
Why the sullen expression this time?
Reaper waddled over, picked up the book, and threw it at James.
Then Reaper made a meaningful expression and placed its hand on the device where the book had been.
Then golden flames shot out from Reaper's body and started getting sucked into the machine.
"Huh? Whoa?"
The mini kitchen then started accelerating little by little.
10x, 100x, 1,000x, 10,000x.
The Golden Reapers were moving so fast, not even afterimages remained.
James yelled "Stop!" but it was too late.
And then puddings enveloped in bubbles blasted out of the chimney like cannon fire.
The torrent of bubble puddings assaulted the factory!!
BOOM!
The pudding torrent broke through the factory ceiling and freely scattered in all directions into the sky.
Wow, the whole world is filled with pudding.
What do we do now? I think I'm really going to get scolded by sister Seo-ah.