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A yellow-suited senior and a massive number of guards walked into my line of sight.

The path to the director’s office was clearly lined with an overwhelming amount of guards.

I managed to get to the corridor leading to the director’s office with my senior, but here I couldn’t find a way to sneak in.

I whispered to my senior, “Is this really passable?”

“….”

For once, the usually confident senior was silent and deep in thought.

Honestly, just making it this far felt like a miracle.

What if I had to come here alone without my senior?

I could confidently declare it would be utterly impossible.

Not to mention, the ability to gauge the guards’ positions without even seeing them was bizarre, and the tools coming out of his pocket were anything but ordinary.

Among them, the top one was the lamp my senior called ‘Watson.’

Of course, it gave off a strangely ominous impression and smelled oddly like blood, making it a disliked object.

There had been more than one occasion where I felt like that shadow named ‘Watson’ disliked me.

But its abilities were undeniably impressive.

In just a short time, the ‘invisibility’ it provided was nothing short of magical.

“Senior, why aren’t you using Watson again? It seems we could slip through if we used invisibility one more time, right?”

“I can’t use Watson for this request anymore.”

“Huh?”

“Watson is helpful, but there’s a catch. If I use it three times, I’ll wither away like a mummy!”

The senior said, tapping his monocle.

Looking at my senior’s somewhat pale complexion, it did seem like he was low on blood—was Watson sucking it away?

Come to think of it, my senior had made three requests of Watson.

Once to cross spaces.

Once to pinpoint the cause of the space blockage.

And once for invisibility to pass the guard post.

If my senior was saying it like that, Watson must be quite a dangerous object, right?

“So what do we do?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. If we wait, an opportunity will arise, don’t you think?”

Even in a highly uncomfortable hiding position, it was impressive how composed my senior seemed.

By the way, where had the Gray Reaper gone? It seemed to be trailing us just a while ago.

*

Feeling the weight of the heavy gas lamp in my hand, I looked over at the deputy director’s office blocking the entrance to the director’s office.

An opportunity would surely come.

I had a strong feeling about it.

However, as they say, a crisis can also be an opportunity, and the chance we were waiting for was also a crisis.

As I continued to quietly watch the deputy director’s office, I could feel the moment I had been waiting for arrive.

A commotion began to spread from the deputy director’s office.

“Junior, get ready.”

The awaited opportunity had come.

The people moving chaotically in the deputy director’s office suddenly rushed out in unison, sprinting towards some direction.

“Run!”

I dashed past the now-empty deputy director’s office and headed straight for the corridor leading to the director’s office.

“Senior? What’s happening all of a sudden?”

The junior looked confused at the suddenly empty corridor.

With a grin at their bewildered expression, I replied, “The final opportunity has come!”

*

The deputy director of the Central Research Institute was lost deep in thought.

How much longer must he wait?

Could it be that the Gray Reaper has already left the institute?

No matter how much he patrolled the staff or lured them in, the Gray Reaper was nowhere to be found.

It had already been over three days.

He had instructed not to overlook even the smallest detail, considering the possibility of materialization, yet the whereabouts of the Gray Reaper remained a mystery.

“Deputy Director! The Gray Reaper has appeared inside the isolation room!”

The moment the Gray Reaper’s appearance was announced, the waiting staff instantly began to escape in an orderly fashion.

Already at the point of initiating plans, everything was in place for a fast escape.

Researchers waiting elsewhere would have also begun evacuating via the nearest routes.

Currently, the location of the Gray Reaper was within the isolation room originally assigned to Reapers, so there was no need to ponder escape routes.

Just before exiting the deputy director’s office, he turned to glance back at the director’s office.

A man who had been seated in the director’s position for 30 years.

A man who had left only his family behind in Gwangjang, Seoul, 30 years ago.

And as he left, thinking of that indifferent man who continued his research even after becoming an object, he stepped into the escape route.

*

I lay comfortably on the bed in the Central Research Institute’s isolation room, organizing my thoughts.

Staying with the detective team had revealed a few facts.

The truth being, I had secretly peeked at their reports.

It looked like the atmosphere of “detectives infiltrating a wicked organization for a monumental purpose!” made it impossible not to want to know more.

The contents of their investigation reports were pretty shocking, even to someone like me who had worked in another research institute.

Concealment of an object that had been killed.

That too, the dangerous object called ‘Hungry Ghost’ being privately hidden.

Processing the death of someone within the institute as a job change to distort statistics.

Especially concerning unknown individuals, it seemed they temporarily hired them, and if they died, they even wiped their records clean.

If the detective’s reports were to be made public, it could lead to a major incident that might dismantle the Central Research Institute.

So this time, I decided to lend a hand to the righteous detectives.

The fundamental reason the detectives were struggling was the existence of the ‘Hungry Ghost.’

In other words, if we directly dealt with that Hungry Ghost, most of the problems would be solved.

The detectives could wait safely for an opportunity to escape, which would be a gain for them.

If the Central Research Institute collapsed, I could take the ghost cat and the piano-playing lizard back to the Sehee Research Institute, which would also be a gain for me!

Creating a world where everyone is happy—a win-win situation.

So there I lay on the bed prepared by the Central Research Institute, waiting for them to summon the Hungry Ghost.

Seeing the institute in chaos, it seemed like I would soon be facing it.

*

With my junior, I dashed across the corridor and kicked open the door to the director’s office.

There, a man quietly scribbling on a report was present.

Or rather, there was an object.

An object shaped like a human.

Breathing heavily, my junior who followed me into the director’s office gently closed the door behind us.

“Senior, could that person be the object?”

“Yeah, that’s definitely an object.”

The man reflecting in my senior’s monocle was certainly an object.

Officially, the position of director at the Central Research Institute had been vacant for 30 years; was that the reason?

[As long as you are the director, the institute cannot be destroyed.]

If it’s truly an indestructible institute, then it’s an incredibly advantageous condition to contain troublesome objects.

In fact, having an institute in the heart of Seoul, if it were an ordinary private institute, it would have faced several object leak incidents and had no choice but to relocate to the outskirts of Seoul.

However, since the institute itself had turned into an object, it could remain in the center of Seoul without major incidents.

“I don’t see any other objects. That means that director is the one blocking our movement, right?”

“So what do we do now? Should we just smash him with a hammer?”

The junior had somehow taken up a sledgehammer in both hands, grinning as he turned to look at me.

Where on earth did such a huge sledgehammer come from?

“At last, you’ve come. You’ve finally arrived!”

Upon hearing the sudden voice, I turned to see the director looking up and shouting.

“You must have come for something you need, right? If you give me what I need, I’d be happy to fulfill your request.”

The object referred to as the director smiled at me with a significant expression.

That smile looked genuinely joyful, which only made it seem suspicious.

“Before that, who are you? I don’t want to make a deal without knowing the other party’s name.”

“Oh, there’s something to clarify first. I am not there. No matter how much you talk to me, I cannot hear you. This doll is merely performing a set motion.”

Our conversation wasn’t lining up.

Whether it was intentional acting or not… I couldn’t tell. I just couldn’t read his expression.

“What we need to do here is just make a deal. If you hand your staff to my right hand, I will help you escape this institute.”

And with that, the object that had taken the form of the director stopped its actions.

“Uh, what do we do now?”

“I don’t know. There are too few clues. It’s uncertain whether making a deal here is the right answer.”

The heavy rumble resonating throughout the institute told me I wouldn’t have much time to think.

I could hear the sound of the released Hungry Ghost rampaging and destroying the institute.

“In those cases, the best course is to just follow your heart.”

Dithering in times like these only leads to loss.

*

Thud thud.

I walked quickly through the chaotic corridors of the Central Research Institute while in a ghostly state.

Inside the institute, emergency lights were flashing, and staff who had lost their way were screaming as they fled.

Tracing back the source of the screams, I quickly met the cause.

An object that could only be found in old newspapers.

In fact, it was the being that had made the existence of objects public in South Korea.

Even against such a well-known object, I felt quite confident.

I could see the opponent’s weaknesses, not to mention being immune to physical damage.

But that confidence evaporated like bubbles the moment I faced the Hungry Ghost directly.

With overwhelmingly powerful objects, often a sense of intimidation overwhelms you.

Before my eyes, the Hungry Ghost seemed to exude a presence akin to or surpassing that of the Steel Tower.

Is this really an object that can be killed?

What kind of bravado did I have to even think of taking on the Hungry Ghost and bringing back lizards and cats…?

If the conditions to kill it were easy, perhaps it would be worth a try, but even those circumstances betrayed me.

[Stone created by the Object of Beginnings]

Ah, this is definitely something I cannot kill.

What on earth is the Object of Beginnings?