Chapter 471
Suddenly, the Sehee Research Institute fell in the middle of a dense jungle.
Thick trees surrounded the research building as if embracing it, and sunlight barely filtered through the massive leaves.
The humid air created the illusion that they were in a tropical rainforest.
The researchers gathered in front of the building, buzzing with confusion.
Some said the communications were down, while others worried that both the electricity and water supply had been cut off.
Fortunately, Sehee Research Institute, with its top-tier facilities, had emergency generators, but it was unclear how long they would last.
“What the heck…?”
“Is this really Earth?”
“It could be mental contamination. I’ll bring the detectors.”
Amid the chaotic atmosphere, Yerim, perhaps feeling anxious, pulled me into her arms like a cat.
“The Reaper is warm…”
I flopped into her arms like a cat, trusting that if it would ease her anxiety, I could endure the discomfort for a while.
However, despite the tense atmosphere, there was one person who seemed unusually calm.
Sehee, who had just woken up, looked as disheveled as if she had just gotten out of bed.
With the curiosity of a child who had discovered a new toy, she looked around with wide-eyed wonder.
Mini Reapers sat perched on Sehee’s shoulders like sparrows on a power line.
Sehee had torn a leaf off a tree that stretched into the institute and was examining it closely.
The leaf looked almost like glass, glowing faintly with a purple hue.
She smiled as she held the leaf up to the sunlight.
“A leaf that looks like glass… How interesting.”
Sehee examined the leaf from every angle before gently tearing it in the center.
A soft light leaked out from the torn spot.
“Does it smell a bit sweet?”
Judging from Sehee’s words, her next action was easy to predict.
As she brought the leaf closer to her mouth with an inquisitive gaze…
Sehee’s attempt was blocked from two directions simultaneously.
“Isehee, Director of the Institute!”
Seo-A’s sharp voice rang out.
However, before Seo-A could reach Sehee, the Mini Reapers perched on Sehee’s shoulder moved quickly.
“No!”
The small golden bodies rushed to cover Sehee’s face in an instant, and the leaf fell from her hands.
“Ah!”
Sehee looked disappointed for a moment, but perhaps due to the fierce expressions of the Mini Reapers, she didn’t try to tear another leaf off.
“Just like Sehee…”
Yerim, who had been watching, let out a small laugh.
Seo-A, who had let out a huge sigh of relief, approached Sehee and began a long lecture.
Watching this, it seemed that the incidents during their business trips weren’t due to bad luck, but entirely Sehee’s fault.
Considering she was still alive, it seemed her luck was actually remarkably good.
Once Sehee’s antics helped relieve Yerim’s tension, I slipped out of her embrace.
I no longer needed to play the cat.
It was time to assess the situation.
I left Yerim and the Mini Reapers behind in the institute and headed toward the forest.
I still didn’t know what kind of place this forest was, and there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
The small footsteps echoed as they followed the path into the forest.
The dense trees made it almost impossible for me to leave a footprint on the ground.
Despite being only 1 meter tall, it was still a struggle to get through the tightly packed trees.
But it wasn’t a problem.
Crack.
With a cut through space, I obliterated the trees blocking my path and advanced in a straight line for hours.
Suddenly, the trees disappeared, revealing an asphalt road.
The boundary between the forest and the road was as clear as if it had been cut sharply with a space-slicing technique.
Beyond the asphalt, I could see a familiar commercial district.
It was the restaurant area near Sehee Research Institute.
‘Has some foreign matter been inserted between Earth’s spaces…?’
I raised high into the sky, clutching onto space itself, and surveyed the surrounding area. The situation became clearer.
It looked like foreign matter had wedged itself into the puzzle pieces of Earth’s space.
From a high vantage point, Earth seemed the same as always, but up close, it was clear that alien spaces were wedged between the cracks.
It was a global-scale spatial distortion.
Just like the forest wedged between Sehee Research Institute and the restaurant area, Earth had been shattered into pieces.
‘It feels like something big is about to happen…’
It wasn’t just isolated people who were the problem.
I had only recently started to feel like Earth itself was my domain, but this incident had once again thrown it out of my control.
I had a feeling that the foreign news sources, which hadn’t appeared recently, would show up again.
After confirming the surroundings, I began to walk toward the restaurant area, and the Mini Reapers flocked to me.
‘Mom’s here!’
‘Mom came!’
Their voices were filled with relief.
‘They must have been anxious.’
Well, it was natural for the Mini Reapers to be anxious.
They didn’t even know where they were, and if they died, they might not be able to return to the humans’ side.
I created a small windmill and placed it in an open space.
Even if I died protecting humans, it would help me return quickly to the restaurant area.
Then, I made a bunch of smaller windmills for the Mini Reapers to carry.
‘Distribute them where needed.’
I had created too many space-bound objects, so the firewood flew in clumps, but it had to be done.
‘Mom!’
At that moment, a Golden Reaper urgently tugged at my pinky finger.
Following the Golden Reaper, I walked toward the forest beyond the restaurant area and saw a massive dome that had encroached upon part of the forest.
Or, to be more precise, I should say it had only appeared in my perception at that moment.
Before I got close, I hadn’t even seen it, let alone sensed its existence.
It looked like a curtain cut from a piece of the colorful universe.
Perhaps it was the power of the colorful universe; I couldn’t sense anything inside the dome.
‘Foreign news…’
I looked at the colorful stars shimmering in the colorful universe and wore a serious expression.
In the middle of the dense jungle stood James Tower.
The towering building, incongruent with its surroundings, looked like the last bastion of modern civilization.
The fluorescent light from inside the tower shone alone in the otherwise dark jungle.
Inside the tower’s operations room, it resembled a battlefield.
Dozens of monitors blinked, and employees ran frantically to deal with the emergency situation.
Some were checking equipment to restore satellite communication, while others were busy confirming the fuel levels of the backup generators.
“Has satellite communication still not been restored?”
James’s sharp voice echoed across the operations room.
Deep lines were etched into his face.
The calm and composed demeanor he usually had was nowhere to be seen.
It was no surprise.
Contact with numerous field agents had been cut off, and the tower was surrounded by a massive jungle that humans couldn’t even approach.
It was impossible to estimate how many resources and time it would take to carve a path through that thick jungle.
Amid this busy operations room, the Golden Reapers were gathered together like little chicks, looking up at the sky.
The Golden Reapers were communicating through the Mini Reaper network with serious expressions.
‘Where are we?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Far.’
‘The Earth got bigger.’
‘It’s the Earth.’
‘I don’t know the way.’
The conversations passing through the Mini Reapers’ network were both pure and filled with concern.
At first, there was clear anxiety.
The Golden Reapers seemed to realize they had traveled quite far from Sehee Research Institute, and there was an unusual seriousness in their usually round eyes.
But that was only for a moment. Suddenly, good news came through the network.
‘Windmill!’
‘Mom gave us windmills!’
‘Mom has as many windmills as her belly!’
With a cry from one of the Mini Reapers, the Golden Reapers wiped the furrows from their brows and began to laugh again.
It was as if sunlight had broken through the clouds, and the worried atmosphere dissipated in an instant.
Just as the Golden Reapers began to smile warmly, something strange appeared in James’s eyes.
The Golden face filled the CCTV of the tower’s exterior.
‘Brought the windmill!’
It was a Golden Reaper carrying a windmill on its back.
Its round face beamed with pride, like a child showing off something it was proud of.
The once dense jungle began to change in strange ways.
The green leaves turned into colorful gemstones, a scene that seemed like a witch’s curse from a fairytale.
If the forest disappeared like this, Mingming would no longer be able to hide the attachment human.
Mingming clutched the attachment human even tighter.
“It’s okay…”
The gentle voice of the attachment human could be heard, but Mingming’s anxiety was not so easily calmed.
Since the Mini Reaper network had been cut off after the white flash, Mingming was relying solely on its own senses.
‘Ming…’
A small sigh escaped as Mingming took another cautious step forward.
While carefully observing a rock covered in green moss, it suddenly began to transform into red crystal.
Mingming quickly retreated.
Above its head, a strange universe unfolded.
The colorful stars sparkled like festive lights, but their beauty only added to the growing fear.
This was undoubtedly the “colorful universe,” the dangerous area the mother had spoken of.
Dangerous energies from much stronger objects were sensed in the surroundings.
Navigating through them felt like walking through a minefield.
‘Miing…’
A small, sorrowful cry escaped.
The confident expression Mingming had worn in the jungle had long since disappeared.
Now, Mingming was nothing more than Mingming.
As the forest continued to morph into something even stranger, Mingming’s camouflage abilities were reaching their limit.
What had once been a confident hiding strategy now seemed impossible.
As the surrounding trees slowly transformed into colorful gemstones, the green camouflage was rendered useless.
‘Miing…’
‘Mom…’
Mingming’s sad cry echoed softly.
