There it was, one of the Golden Reapers, holding out a handful of pudding.
Did you try the pudding? Isn’t it delicious? Hmm? Hmm? The Golden Reaper seemed to say, staring at me with those baby doll eyes.
“Thank you!” I chirped, patting the Reaper’s head like it was a puppy.
The Gray Reaper’s gourmet pudding journey finally came to an end the moment it discovered a certain imported pudding. It liked it so much that I could tell just by looking at the delight on its usually expressionless face.
But the Golden Reapers? Oh boy, their reaction was a shocker.
After just one bite, they’d scoop up the pudding with both hands and share it with everyone around. At first, I thought they just didn’t like it. But no! They gobbled it up like it was going to turn out.
So, it turned out the Golden Reapers found the pudding so yummy that they just had to share it with humans, letting us have a taste of it.
Hehe! It was the total opposite of the Gray Reaper, who would even swipe the puddings from the Golden Reapers if they passed by.
But there was one concerning thing.
“Jungrwi sunbae. I heard the new batch of pudding still hasn’t arrived?”
“Yeah… Seems like the factory in Korea was taken over by an Object with a level 2 danger rating. Weirdly, every one of the numerous re-containment attempts has failed.”
Ugh, just out of luck! To think the factory that manufactured the Gray Reaper’s favorite pudding was in trouble… I hoped it wouldn’t be too sad about not having any more pudding.
Haha! It wouldn’t sneak into the factory just to get another pudding, right? Right?
A desert had appeared in the middle of Seoul, a desert that was full of blood-red sand.
Such strange phenomena were almost a daily occurrence for the people of Seoul and as a result, this one had also become a source of twisted entertainment for them.
It might be dangerous, as it was related to an Object, but the tourists who had come this far probably didn’t even care about that.
And in the middle of that desert appeared a large woman with tattoos all over her body.
“Unnie, why did you decide to come here all of a sudden?” Behind her, a frail-looking girl—her younger sister—followed closely.
“This place is the famous…”
The large woman, about to say something in a completely different language, stopped herself just in time, and opened her mouth after a few moments.
“Since the ‘Red Moon’ has appeared already, we have to be very careful when calling its name. That ‘Nameless’ is really annoying.”
The large woman turned around and spoke softly to her sister.
“If you ever want to kill me, just tell me, okay? I think of my current life as a kind of ‘bonus’, so even if I were to die a proper death, it would be a blessing.”
“Huh? How long are you going to keep bringing that up?! I don’t want to kill you anymore!” The little sister, embarrassed, continued to talk gibberish. “Even if you are not my real big sister and a completely different person, even then, I like you much better.”
The young girl smiled and recounted her normal actions as if she was bragging about her sister.
“You are kind. You don’t hit me and don’t even curse.”
In fact, the young girl had tried to kill the tattooed woman quite a few times. However, she failed every time due to lack of will.
Then all of a sudden, her attitude changed by a 180 for unknown reasons.
The tattooed woman came to the conclusion that it might’ve been because the young girl was just a mentally unstable kid.
It was especially strange when the young girl just believed without question that she was from another world.
“So, why did we come to see the ‘Red Moon’?”
“Actually, there used to be red moon people living in this desert, but looking at it now, they seem to have disappeared. It would have been good if they were still here…”
As soon as she was sure that there was no one around, the tattooed woman scooped up a handful of red sand and poured a drop of an unidentified liquid from an eye drops container.
The red sand clumped together around the liquid and became a red sphere with a pearl-like luster.
“It’s not magic, it’s just simple alchemy.”
“Okay, okay! Then Alchemy is amazing!”
As soon as the alchemical reaction finished, the tattooed woman carefully placed the round sphere in her bag.
Staring at her intently, the young girl asked, “You are going to make something similar to a bomb with it, right?”
“Yes, it’s a special type of medicine for those who can neither live nor die.”
“Hmm? I’ve never seen these monsters ‘that can neither live nor die.’ Is this really necessary?”
“Yes. Especially now that ‘that guy’ has appeared in this world, it’s absolutely necessary.”
A face appeared in her mind as she let out a growl, a fierce smile adorning her face.
It was the vile face of a man who was called a traitor to humanity. It was the face of a man who currently held the title of 3rd Director at the Trinity Research Institute.
Inside the mansion where one of the three directors who led Trinity Research Institute resided, in a garden filled with black soil and covered in eerie black plants, a middle-aged man, the 3rd director, looked down at the butler who had turned to mud in a corner of the mansion.
“Well, I thought I had successfully recreated the elixir this time around, but It’s another failure. What a shame, really,” he mused, a cold smile playing on his lips. His words spoke of disappointment, but his expression remained chillingly indifferent.
The butler, already melted into a gruesome puddle, struggled and whimpered, his pleas for help barely audible.
The third director looked down at the butler, his eyes gleaming at his mutters for help.
“As expected, my loyal butler. Even in your final moments, you beg to be burned alive rather than buried.”
With a casual snap of his fingers, a small spark flew out and landed on the butler’s stomach. The butler ignited instantly, burning brightly as if he soaked in oil.
“Hmm, seems like thanks to the vegetation being different, the medicine keeps failing by a hair’s breadth. More experiments are needed.”
At that moment, the large man lying next to the burning butler suddenly jolted up.
“Oh, you’ve come to your senses already? It seems those golden horns do make a difference.”
The large man, however, was far from normal. His body, once white, was now completely black, and he was drooling uncontrollably.
Despite the grotesque sight, the third director’s smile only widened. “I was wondering whether to get a new butler, but it looks like I’ve found one already. Welcome, my new butler.”
He welcomed his new butler, patting the large, staggering man on the shoulder.
“Now, clean up that, will you?” He ordered, turning to leave deep into the mansion.
The large man sat down and began chewing on the remains of the previous butler, his mouth splitting into three parts like a monster, as he consumed the dry, stone-hard ashes.
Dumchit-! Dumchit-! Dumchit-! Dumchit-!
Late at night, after the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon, a blonde girl was dancing along to a routine on TV in an officetel, with the window opened.
It was the Gray Reaper dance which was currently all the rage.
After dancing along to the video on the TV for a while, she stopped and looked over at Agent Black.
“Are you hungry?” Agent Black asked, loosening the collar around his neck.
“Eung.” The blonde girl nodded slightly and walked over, biting the agent’s neck.
Once she had her full, the girl let out a hot breath and licked her blood-soaked lips.
Agent Black, unfazed, spoke his eyes fixed on her.
“Wouldn’t it be better to contact the Association’s president? There’s a limit to avoiding his gaze .”
“We absolutely can’t do that. We don’t know what Grandfather might do. He might actually try to dissect me.”
Agent Black, not understanding her thought process, asked again.
“Judging by the unusually quick response from the association, it’s clear the president cares for you a lot, young miss. Do you have any reason to not want to be found by him?”
The blonde young lady thought deeply before answering.
“Hmm… How can I explain it…? There’s something strange about my grandfather. He always says stuff like, ‘I love you, I cherish you,’ yet he never stops me when I want to go to dangerous places.”
“Doesn’t that just mean he respects your decision and freedom, young miss?”
“Who gives that type of autonomy to an elementary school student!!!”
With a stern expression, the blonde girl continued.
“There have been more than a few instances where he felt off. I don’t know why, but sometimes it feels like Grandfather wants me to die in an accident.”
After hearing the young lady’s high-pitched rant, Agent Black decided to drop his opinion.
“Okay miss. Then, I will make a plan to avoid being discovered by the president of the association.”
He began organizing the tasks ahead, such as creating a new identity, etc.
Hungry Golden Reapers were sprawled out on the bed, looking adorable.
All around them, sweets were piled up like a mountain. Yet, despite the sugary feast, the Golden Reapers just lay there on the bed, stretched out and uninterested.
I was also lying on my stomach next to them, watching the news and trying to comfort my sad little heart.
To think the pudding was no longer available…
After going on such a long culinary journey in search of the Ninja pudding I found it, only to end up not being able to eat it anymore…
The most terrible part was that no one, absolutely no one knew when the pudding would return to circulation.
“They say it’s no longer in production, and they also don’t know when it will return… I’m sorry, Reaper!”
Yerin was lying beside me and the Golden Reapers, looking just as lost.
The cold, heartless TV, silently broadcast the news as always.
I heard a sound from the TV that made my ears perk up.
[ According to reports, it is said that a licensed factory in Incheon, which used to produce puddings for famous overseas brands of puddings under license, has been taken over by an Object. ]
Hmm? Objects had taken over a famous overseas pudding factory?! But Objects, huh? The ones who made the factory stop production were Objects? Hehehe~!!