Gloomy.
Oppressive.
Eerie.
The drumbeats seemed to pierce straight through their eardrums, exploding within their minds.
Each strike sent a visible ring of gray ripples spreading from the stone drum's surface, sweeping across the snow and through the air, resonating with the entire world.
The first drumbeat rang out.
The paper chains winding toward the young man instantly froze.
The laughter from the paper money suddenly distorted. It no longer sounded like laughter, but merely the rustling of paper—"shhh, shhh." The paper chains, already transformed into a massive net and less than half a meter from the young man, could no longer advance even an inch.
The second drumbeat rang out.
The sounds from the paper chains vanished completely.
The round paper money suddenly lost its luster, rapidly turning into ordinary yellow paper, before shattering piece by piece in the wind.
It became scraps of paper that drifted through the sky.
The black paper figure let out a piercing scream.
At first, the sound seemed as though it had been clawed from a living person's throat, but it quickly turned into the shrill sound of paper tearing.
Its drawn Paper Face began to warp.
Its features began to shift out of place.
Its eyes slid to where its mouth should have been, while its mouth twisted up to its forehead.
The third drumbeat rang out.
This time, the visible gray ripples swept across the black paper figure's body.
In an instant.
Its paper body began to crack.
First came its enormous head, then its matchstick-like torso and limbs. Cracks spread like spiderwebs, and dark-red liquid seeped from the fissures, dripping onto the snow with a sizzling, corrosive sound.
"Pfft!"
With a soft sound, the black paper figure suddenly broke apart.
It exploded directly.
Paper fragments and dark-red liquid spread across