Deep within the Free City Union, inside a shabby, seldom-visited building.
A silver-haired girl sat perched by the window, gazing out at the scenery beyond.
The building, carelessly expanded, looked unstable as if it could collapse at any mont, and the narrow alleyway—barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through—was a labyrinth of winding paths.
The walls of the alley were covered in a chaotic ss of brightly colored graffiti.
If it were nightti, the blinding neon lights would only add to the disorder.
This was the usual landscape of the "Free City Union," a place outside of governnt control.
So called it freedom, while others would call it lawlessness.
The silver-haired girl stared blankly at the scene before her.
A large man approached her and spoke.
"Cheong, how about you try eating so of this?"
The silver-haired girl, called 'Cheong,' didn’t even turn her head as she responded bluntly.
"Absolutely not."
The man, holding a plate as he approached Cheong, pouted as he popped a caterpillar into his mouth.
"But it’s delicious..."
It was a fist-sized caterpillar, black with red and green stripes.
The insect, with a tallic sheen, looked nacing, as if it were poisonous.
To soone raised in the Free City Union, such a sight might be familiar, but for Cheong, who had only recently arrived in the city, it was an unappetizing al that she would never want to eat.
In truth, the repulsive appearance of the food was only a secondary issue.
The large woman who had been smoking a cigarette laughed as she spoke to the man devouring the caterpillars.
"That thing’s poisonous. Cheong can’t eat it."
That was the real problem—poison.
For so reason, most of the food sold in this city contained toxins that would be dangerous for an ordinary person to eat.
When Cheong first snuck into the city, she nearly died after eating the wrong food.
In fact, if she hadn’t t her companions here, she likely would have died.
As she slowly sipped from a tube of bean paste liquid, Cheong thought to herself.
‘This city is absolutely insane.’
She didn’t have to look far—her companions alone were proof of that.
The woman smoking the cigarette towered over two ters tall.
The hulking man devouring the caterpillars had four arms.
This was a city of lunatics, where people would cut off their own limbs without hesitation for necessity.
It was a city of madness, where they fused unknown objects into their bodies without a second thought.
The water and food were both hazardous and intoxicating, and people replaced their organs with objects to digest the poison.
It was a city filled with air so thick and toxic that it felt like your lungs were being carved out.
Looking at the sky, which was tinted yellow from pollution, Cheong pulled her mask back on.
Still, she understood that the city had no choice but to be this way.
Because of China’s blockade, proper supplies couldn’t enter through legitimate channels.
And without support from the mainland, the "Free City Union" couldn’t sustain itself.
The land was cramped, and the population was too large.
In the end, they had no choice but to rely on objects that seed to defy the laws of physics.
‘Soday, I hope I can leave this city.’
Cheong whispered a small, unlikely wish as she continued to gaze blankly at the sky.
In the Mini Grim Reaper Garden, the Gray Spirit wandered around the Marshmallow Plains.
In its arms, a ghost cat was nestled comfortably.
The ghost cat owed contentedly, seemingly very pleased to be in the Gray Spirit's embrace.
ow.
The ghost cat relaxed and entrusted itself to the Gray Spirit.
Swish, swish.
The Gray Spirit gently stroked the ghost cat’s back with a tender hand.
ow.
Though the Gray Spirit usually paid no attention, as if it had forgotten about the cat, suddenly it was acting familiar, which felt a bit suspicious. But after being showered with affection and snacks, the ghost cat’s wariness had all but disappeared.
Out of the blue, as if the thought had just occurred to it, the Gray Spirit conveyed its intentions.
‘Want to go eat so tonkatsu?’
‘?’
‘It’s supposed to be delicious, you’ll like it.’
They arrived at a building perched atop a massive jelly pig.
The place, filled with mini reapers, didn’t look like a restaurant at all.
ow.
Sensing sothing strange, the ghost cat owed softly, but the Gray Spirit smiled kindly and reassured it.
‘Just a little further.’
The Gray Spirit led the ghost cat into a room that was completely black.
The walls, which looked extrely solid, gave off an eerie sense of pressure.
Occasionally, yellow eyes blinked from the dark walls.
Clunk.
With a heavy sound, the door shut, and the atmosphere of the room grew tense.
It felt like a prison.
ow!
Sensing danger, the ghost cat tried to use its ghostly powers to escape, but its paws were already bound by the Golden Spirits.
‘!’
The ghost cat quickly turned to look at the Gray Spirit, but the gentle smile was gone.
Hehe.
In its place was a mischievous, sinister expression, worn by the Gray Spirit like a mask.
ow!
‘You tricked !’
The cat struggled furiously, but there was no escaping the Golden Spirits’ grip.
Like a helpless cat strapped to an operating table, its legs were bound and fixed to the table.
Approaching with logs in both hands and a wicked grin on its face, the Gray Spirit whispered,
‘Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon.’
As the Gray Spirit ignited the logs to burn the cat,
Awoooo!
A mournful cry echoed through the Jelly Pig Hospital as the ghost cat’s scream of anguish filled the air.
In front of a small grave in the Mini Grim Reaper Garden.
I stood there, looking down at the grave.
Unfortunately, the cat ritual had failed.
It had died.
The ghost cat was too low-tier as an object, so it ended up dying.
I offered a mont of silence in front of the ghost cat’s grave.
‘It wasn’t a cat that would die this easily...’
ow!
Perched atop my head, an angry ghost cat, back from the dead, was furiously batting at for talking nonsense.
This new ghost cat had a halo for a body and its spirit summoned from a blue giant.
But after dying once and having its body changed, was this cat truly the sa as before?
The ghost cat, apparently able to hear my philosophical musings, only hit harder on the crown of my head, annoyed by my ramblings.
Once the furious cat finally returned to Sehee’s lab, I wandered through the Mini Grim Reaper Garden out of boredom.
As I wandered the snowy plains, I found nurous Golden Spirits lying scattered on the ground.
‘What happened here?’
I grabbed the hand of one collapsed Golden Spirit and lifted it, but it was completely limp.
When I shook it, its body wobbled like jelly, lacking any strength.
The limp and squishy feel of the weakened Golden Spirit made it strangely fun to keep touching.
After a while, I asked what was wrong.
The Golden Spirit, barely opening its cloudy eyes like soone dying of starvation, conveyed its thoughts.
‘Adventure...’
It was a faint ssage, but I could tell what had caused it.
The end of their happy adventure.
The Orange Spirit’s lie had been exposed, and the "Legendary Pudding" had been revealed as a falsehood.
The Golden Spirits, who had embarked on the adventure to find the pudding with such joy, were now left without a purpose.
Like children enjoying an adventure in a movie, searching for hidden treasure, they had relished the journey.
But now their goal had vanished.
‘It’s okay, it’s okay.’
I gently stroked the Golden Spirit, gathering up the other limp Golden Spirits scattered around.
As I did, they all clung to , sending thoughts of ‘Kind Mama!’ toward .
There were so many adventure-loving Golden Spirits that I soon found myself wrapped in a cocoon of Golden Spirits.
As I lay there in the soft cocoon, a thought crossed my mind.
The Golden Spirits seed to like as much as they used to.
Maybe it was ti to end "Kind Mama Week."
Hehe.
As my vision filled with the sight of the Golden Spirits, a structure caught my eye through the gap.
It was an ice palace, built on the snowy plains by the Golden Spirits.
A finely crafted and beautiful palace.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that "Kind Mama Week" was drawing to a close.
The Orange Spirit, hiding among the cloud at as it flew, had reached a fascinating place.
A city full of people, yet ruled by harmful objects.
Truly, a city of harm!
In this city, people had replaced their own bodies with objects.
A person with countless eyes, like a spider, covering their face.
A person with three pairs of arms and three faces.
A person with a giant blade attached to their back.
These humans were so foolish, they didn’t even realize that the objects replacing their bodies were filled with malice toward humans.
It was a city overflowing with malice toward humanity, reeking of harmful objects.
A city where no true humans remained, only those who had beco more like objects than people.
Any normal mini reaper would never want to enter such a city.
But within that city, shining like a star, was a girl.
A pure human, untainted by the chaos around her.
The mont the Orange Spirit saw the girl, a sense of curiosity stirred within it.
‘How does that girl survive in a city like this?’ it wondered, with a small spark of intrigue.
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