ALL NOVEL The exhibition hall was completely blockaded by the military.
Nominally, it was to prevent Objects from escaping outside, but in reality, it was not the case.
Rather, it seemed like they were trying to prevent outsiders from seeing inside.
"Why are you trying to stop drone filming?"
A reporter was raising his voice in protest at the blockade checkpoint.
"It's for military operational security. Please step back."
"That doesn't make any sense..."
The protesting reporter was eventually grabbed by soldiers and forcibly dragged away.
Some reporters launched drones ignoring the soldiers' warnings, but the drones were instantly shot down.
Afterwards, drone jamming devices were installed, and extremely strict security measures began.
Some reporters friendly to the soldiers reported that it was to prevent harm by not provoking the Objects.
But to other reporters, it seemed the soldiers were monitoring outside eyes, not the Objects inside the exhibition hall.
*** I gave up waking the man being chased by the giant gray Reaper from his nightmare.
Just looking at me made him gasp for breath, and no matter how long I kept him alive, he didn't seem to think the nightmare would end.
After that, I wandered through countless dreams.
Dreams swarmed by Lophiomuses, dreams of unfamiliar Objects chasing, and so on.
Many were dreams of being chased by something.
The problem was that no matter how long you ran away in dreams like that, they never ended.
It didn't seem easy to wake humans from nightmares, but I didn't expect it to be this difficult.
This time, leaving behind a woman being chased by a herd of mountain cat, I entered a new dream.
The new dream I entered was extremely elaborate.
Most dreams are blurry in the corners, but this dream constituted a detailed world.
Wandering around the dream out of curiosity, I heard a familiar voice.
"Reaper, wait a moment!"
The dream that appeared this time had a familiar figure in the background.
It was Oh-Yerin.
In the elaborately depicted exhibition hall, Yerin was calling out loudly, looking for me.
Yerin was eagerly chasing after a gray Reaper in the dream that looked exactly like me.
And the Reaper in the dream was running away from Yerin here and there.
'?'
Why is this a nightmare?
Doesn't she seem to be having fun playing?
Yerin's expression looks quite happy too.
"Reaper, come here and take a picture together! I brought the mountain cat pajamas!"
In Yerin's hand was a child's set of pajamas.
No, when did she prepare those clothes?
In this extremely realistic dream, there was only one strange part.
A golden tree that looked about 10 times larger than reality.
The meaning of that increasingly bright, giant golden tree was ominous.
While Yerin's imagination may be extraordinary, this exhibition hall was depicted accurately, with no ambiguities.
Except for that 10x enlarged tree.
And the meaning of this giant golden tree soon became clear.
The reason this dream was a nightmare.
As the increasingly bright golden tree reached the same brightness as when it emitted shockwaves, it fired a beam.
The beam attack was aimed at Yerin.
It was an attack so intense that it made me flinch for a moment.
However, the beam attack I thought was targeting Yerin was not actually aimed at her.
It was the mountain cat pajamas Yerin was holding.
"No!!!!"
The mountain cat pajamas, engulfed in flames, slowly burned away.
It was an extremely slow-burning fire.
So slow that it would take 30 minutes just to burn one set of pajamas.
But the slow-burning fire was a curse.
A curse that made one despair and grieve for a long time.
Yerin tried every method to put out the fire, but the flames never went out, like the fires of hell in novels.
It even kept burning underwater.
"No!" "No!!" "No!!!"
Finally, in front of the burnt remains of the pajamas, Yerin broke down in tears.
At the same time, the world began to rewind.
Back to the moment when Yerin happily chased after Reaper in her dreams.
***
??? POV:
---
I was pacing anxiously inside the exhibition hall's guard post.
The orders from above were clear.
Increase the damage from this incident.
It doesn't matter if all the humans in the exhibition hall are massacred.
The method I chose to carry out those secret orders was to make all kinds of excuses and drag out time.
If time was dragged out, the damage would naturally increase, so I was dragging out time when an unexpected incident occurred.
The complete annihilation of the Objects that could inflict harm on humans.
The higher-ups wanted greater damage and more controversy, but a big problem arose.
Everything was disrupted because of the suddenly appearing golden Reaper.
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Seeing the golden Reaper moving somewhere, I thought a casualty would finally occur, but the result turned out to be the opposite.
Now, just dragging out time is not enough to achieve the higher-ups' instructions.
"There's no choice."
Yes, there's no other choice.
"Pick out some tight-lipped soldiers, we're going into the exhibition hall directly. If we kill with knives, we can claim the Objects did it."
Now I have to deal with it directly.
"Anyway, the targets are just sleeping people, it's a simple mission. Finish it as quickly as possible and get out."
In the deep night, avoiding people's eyes as much as possible, we headed to the exhibition hall.
With a small number of soldiers, we infiltrated the blockaded exhibition hall.
The exhibition hall surrounded by high walls.
We set up a temporary rope and went down, and I explained the operation.
It was a simple mission to kill as many people as possible and regroup in 30 minutes, then return.
"30 minutes from now, gather here."
There was an existence blocking the soldiers dispersing to carry out their respective missions.
It was the golden Reaper.
Of the many golden Reapers before, only one remained.
The golden Reaper glared at us with its hand on its waist.
Perhaps because we had seen it slaughtering the Objects until recently, the soldiers' bodies were noticeably stiffened.
"Disperse immediately! Ignore it and proceed with the mission!"
It was a new type of Object whose abilities were unknown, but the only hope was that it had no record of attacking humans.
Even if the golden Reaper did attack humans, there was no other choice.
Not following the higher-ups' instructions meant death, all the same.
As the soldiers dispersed, the golden Reaper also disappeared from its spot.
And the soldiers died on the spot before advancing much further.
The cause of death was a hole pierced through their chests.
As I looked inside the hall, blood also gurgled up from my mouth.
As I collapsed, endlessly vomiting blood, a golden Reaper drenched in blood stood before me.
Its contemptuous gaze was the last scene I saw as I died.
***
Reaper (MC) POV:
---
Yerin's nightmare.
I don't know if this should be considered a nightmare, but if she feels it's a nightmare, then it's a nightmare.
Yerin's nightmare was related to me, so I thought it would be easier to resolve than expected.
First, I walked out in front of Yerin, who was mindlessly chasing after the Reaper in her dream.
"Wow! Reaper."
Spotting me approaching nearby, Yerin smiled brightly and hugged me.
Yerin smiled happily and proudly took something out.
"Ta-da, mountain cat pajamas! Aren't they cute?"
She held the pajamas up against my body and continued speaking.
"Let's take a picture wearing these. Since we came to the exhibition hall, we should leave at least one photo!"
From the moment I saw the pajamas, I had a feeling this would happen.
The clothes are too uncomfortable to wear normally, but I decided to compromise just this once to dispel the nightmare.
Perhaps because it was a dream, the weather had suddenly turned nice.
A ghost cat appeared out of nowhere in the air and cuddled in my arms.
Cloud fish and cloud whales flew in the sky.
The green grass field was in full bloom with flowers.
Against that dreamlike backdrop, I stood wearing the mountain cat pajamas, holding the cat.
Click.
"Wow! Look at this!"
Looking at the photo I was in, Yerin giggled happily.
Yerin was excitedly jumping around in joy, but gradually became gloomy and looked at me saying,
"Is this a dream?"
'There's no way such a happy thing could happen. Reaper wearing clothes...' Yerin muttered.
"It makes no sense for Reaper to wear clothes for no reason. This must be a dream!"
Yerin shook her head vigorously side to side and shouted.
With Yerin's shout, the world was utterly destroyed.
***
I opened my eyes next to the golden tree.
After resolving Yerin's nightmare, I woke up from sleep.
The golden tree had lost its abilities and no longer looked like a tree.
Now it looked more like a golden block than a tree.
When I tapped the tree, it made a heavy sound and crumbled down.
Come to think of it, I can't see the golden Reaper anywhere.
Even though the golden Reaper is ephemeral, it should have a few more hours before disappearing.
Not just the Reaper attached to me, but most of the golden Reapers in the exhibition hall have vanished.
Where did they all go?
The only place I could sense the golden Reaper's presence led me to a gruesome sight.
The golden Reaper, leaning in the corner as if waiting for something, saw me and stood up, waving its hand.
Smiling brightly.
It waved goodbye, as if saying see you again.
And so, the last remaining golden Reaper turned into flames and disappeared.
---
T/N: awww, I wanna see more little cute reaper!!!