The pig with bent knees and the staircase descending toward the ground.
It was a series of truly unexpected events.
The Jelly Pig was so large that even with its knees bent, the staircase reaching the ground made it feel like a ladder to the sky.
Toward that staircase, Butler Hungry Ghosts began carrying the Alchemist on a stretcher.
I, too, stepped onto the fascinating Jelly Pig mobile fortress with high expectations.
Following behind the Butler Hungry Ghosts, step by step.
Toward the delicious-looking Snack Staircase, step by step.
As I started climbing, the Alchemist’s Younger Sister and the Golden Reapers also began following, as if curious about something amazing.
Hmm, is this the first time the Golden Reaper has seen this pig fortress?
I felt a bit let down because it seemed like a secret the Mini Reapers had been hiding from me, but it didn’t seem like that was the case.
Poing poing.
The sensation under my feet was slightly strange.
Soft, bouncy, and squishy.
The fluffy jelly and marshmallow staircase was gently propelling my body upward in a peculiar way.
This would be impossible with regular jelly and marshmallows, so it must have involved some Blue Reaper magic.
A cookie railing delicate enough to crumble at a single touch.
Sugar-coated strawberries hanging as decorations on that railing.
Though it looked incredibly fragile, it was surprisingly sturdy.
I tried tearing off a piece to eat because it looked so tasty, but no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t break apart.
Hmm.
Even when the kind-hearted Golden Reapers followed suit and bit into the railing, their powerful jaws couldn’t cause any damage.
Pfft.
I used Spatial Cut while Butler Hungry Ghost wasn’t looking, tearing off a small piece of the railing and starting to munch quietly.
I shared a little with the Golden Reapers, roping them into being accomplices.
At first, the Golden Reapers looked hesitant, wondering if it was really okay, but as I started crunching loudly, they closed their eyes tightly and began nibbling too.
It looks like a cookie, but the texture is unique.
Luckily, the snacks torn from the railing lost their steel-like hardness.
‘!’
The Golden Reapers were clearly enjoying it immensely; their eyes widened, and their antennae shot up toward the sky.
They reacted just like James Pudding eating for the first time.
On the way back, I planned to cut off a big chunk of the railing to bring to the Attached Human.
With that, I occasionally tore pieces of the railing to eat while climbing the long staircase.
It felt like hiking over quite a distance, but the view at the top was worth it.
An endless expanse of marshmallow-covered land.
A sea of hot chocolate surrounding the land.
A black sugar desert visible in the distance.
Candy mountains and stick-cookie forests.
It was a broad, pleasing landscape.
Still, it seems a bit warm, so it would be nice to have a snowy field covered in milk slush.
Would killing objects related to snowfields make one appear?
And when I turned my head, there stood a giant building against the backdrop of such a garden-like scenery.
It somewhat resembled Sehee Research Institute and somewhat resembled a nearby general hospital—a massive structure.
From the entrance made of rice cakes, golden reapers wearing nurse caps emerged en masse.
“Patient!”
“Transfer!”
It was a real hospital after all.
The younger sister chased after her older sister on the stretcher, panting heavily up the tall staircase until she arrived at the Mini Reaper Hospital.
Like a scene out of a fairy tale, the sweet-smelling staircase and building made of candy.
When I first saw it, I wondered, “Is finding the Gray Reaper really the right choice?” It was an untrustworthy sight.
But perhaps the older sister was right.
Seeing the serious-looking hospital facilities, it somehow felt like the older sister could get better.
The building design looked sleek, much like Sehee Research Institute.
Instead of standard hospital gurneys, giant alpaca-shaped hungry ghosts began transporting the older sister.
To minimize vibrations while walking, the alpacas wore roller skates.
Of course, these alpacas weren’t walking or moving like wheeled beds; instead, a nurse-cap-wearing golden reaper led them by pulling on a leash.
The huge hospital had a somewhat unique structure.
It almost felt like a cat-exclusive building.
Next to the large pathways where alpacas and humans walked, countless mini-reaper-only paths lined up.
On the small paths at railing height, numerous mini reapers were bustling about, taking steps.
It felt like a fairy hospital for human patients.
With blue witch hats and white gowns worn over their outfits, the blue reapers, along with nurse-cap-wearing golden reapers, added to that impression.
As we toured the hospital, the alpaca bed carrying the older sister reached what appeared to be the destination.
It was a room where a blonde girl and a man in a black suit lay.
Do those people have the same condition as the older sister?
Just as the older sister entered the room, the hospital became chaotic.
Countless golden reapers holding cookie-shaped truncheons ran somewhere.
Beep! Beep!
Was that the sound of the Black Reaper?
A refreshing sound unsuitable as an alarm rang periodically throughout the hospital.
Did something happen?
Now that I think about it, the Gray Reaper who was always around the younger sister wasn’t in sight.
The more I wandered through the Mini Reaper Hospital, the stranger it felt.
How could I not know about such a massive facility!
Unless someone intentionally hid it, it was impossible for me not to know about a facility of this size.
Suspicious.
Additionally, the building’s structure made it easy to seal off.
It almost seemed like it could dive underwater into the Sea of Hot Chocolate without issue.
Could it normally stay hidden beneath the Sea of Hot Chocolate?
To uncover this mystery, I slipped away from the group using Ghosting.
While wandering inside the hospital, I discovered a very suspicious room.
A room created to look like a Black Reaper, with glowing yellow eyes dotted across it.
Unlike the cookie-made doors of other patient rooms, this Black Reaper door looked extremely sturdy.
Moreover, there was a sign in front of the door.
It had a simple design like a road sign, showing a picture of a Gray Reaper with a red X mark over it.
So this is “Gray Reaper Entry Prohibited,” right?
Mini Reapers making such a room!
A secure facility made of Black Reaper material with restricted entry—could it be a revolution?
For some reason, I imagined a moustachioed Red Reaper might be inside.
With TV making Red Reapers smarter these days, it’s plausible.
“Mothers come and go, but Mini Reapers remain. Only Mini Reapers are eternal.”
I had this feeling that a Red Reaper saying something like that would be inside.
Regardless, there must be some significant secret here that needs to be hidden from me.
I need to catch the scene inside quickly!
But there wasn’t an obvious way in.
Space Cut?
Ripping open your own child feels a bit…
But there was no other way to penetrate the tough Black Reaper door.
In the end, after much deliberation, I chose the Maze Halo as my means of infiltration.
Though extremely painful, it was the most reliable method.
Using the Maze Halo, I twisted reality and created another door.
A cookie door that didn’t clash with the hospital scenery.
Opening the door silently, an unexpected scene unfolded before me.
A cotton candy puppy was viciously biting into a marshmallow-shaped Gray Reaper.
Like a wolf shaking its prey’s neck, the cotton candy puppy mercilessly chewed away.
And the puppy noticed me entering the room.
“…”
“…”
The puppy rolled its eyeballs wildly and then scurried off on all fours to escape.
And I started chasing it to dunk it back into the water.
Then the Black Reaper noticed me and started beeping, and the sound of Golden Reapers running around chaotically began.
Against the backdrop of the commotion, as I sprinted toward the puppy using Time Acceleration, one thought crossed my mind.
Why do the hungry ghosts get to eat it themselves but give special treatment only to this puppy?
*
The hospital, which had caused quite a ruckus, immediately quieted down when the Gray Reaper returned.
There was one change:
The Gray Reaper, who previously had empty hands, now carried a large bucket and a cotton candy dog.
The Gray Reaper repeatedly dunked and lifted the dog in the water, which looked pitiful to the younger sister.
The Golden Reapers seemed to share this sentiment, as they clung to the Gray Reaper, arguing noisily as if trying to stop him.
The younger sister averted her eyes and began staring at her seemingly lifeless older sister and the two patients.
The man in the black suit lay motionless like a corpse, yet strangely, he didn’t seem dead—still alive somehow.
Meanwhile, a doctor-gown-clad Blue Reaper and a Golden Reaper entered the room.
The Blue Reaper held a chart-like paper tightly in his arms, while the Golden Reaper carried something completely inappropriate for a hospital.
Not plastic, but something resembling plastic—a white, blunt bread knife.
The Blue Reaper approached the man in the black suit and began examining him carefully with a meticulous gaze.
His expression was so serious that the younger sister instinctively held her breath.
Then the Blue Reaper pointed at a part of the black-suited man’s arm with his finger.
The Golden Reaper nodded and plunged the bread knife into the man’s arm.
“!”
The younger sister jumped up from her chair in shock.
However, contrary to the expectation of massive bleeding, not a drop of blood flowed from where the bread knife pierced.
“!!!”
The cross-section revealed by the removal of the bread knife looked like a roll cake.
The scene lacked so much realism that it felt like being in a nightmare.
Exhausted by various incidents, the younger sister gradually grew dizzy with the feeling of dreaming and eventually fainted.
