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A desolate Sehee Research Institute, where the Reaper had left.

The research institute grounds were undergoing a massive renovation unexpectedly.

In reality, I wanted to embark on a journey with the research team to find the Reaper, but it was rejected by Senior Jungloe.

With a hard hat on and hammering away, no one would ever think I was a researcher.

How could a research institute treat its researchers so harshly, even if it was a small one!

I thought we were just a research institute living off the ‘Gray Reaper Isolation Subsidy,’ but it seemed Unnie Sehee was considering expanding the institute.

“Wow, Senior. Is that all gold?”

“Yeah, it’s solid gold.”

A giant golden mass was being brought into the research institute.

Isn’t gold of that size worth hundreds of millions?

“But Senior, what is that?”

“A doghouse.”

“What?”

“A giant, expensive doghouse.”

What did you just say?

*

The disaster at the Relief Camp in Songpa District, which struck Seoul, ended much sooner than expected.

I was standing at a distance, smoking a pipe, watching the memorial ceremony taking place.

The government had neatly wrapped up a request.

Since I temporarily took on a position to carry out the request, I was no longer connected to it now that the task was finished.

By retrieving the old man’s corpse from the site and handing it over to the bereaved family, I had done all I needed to do.

Yet, there was something bothering me, prompting me to watch from afar.

The camp was still sealed off.

Although the incident had long since concluded.

*

In the Relief Camp where a horrific murder case had occurred, people clad in white protective suits were bustling about.

They were researchers from Trinity Research Institute, a collaboration of three research institutes.

They were carefully collecting the blood-soaked butterfly corpses and placing them in sealed containers.

Even the pile of butterfly bodies they had gathered was staggering.

They sorted through human skin, possessions, and butterfly corpses—classifying the belongings as lost items and incinerating the skins right on the spot.

A joint memorial altar had been set up nearby to honor the disaster.

Although only skins remained, it felt like the corpses, unseen by their families, were treated like garbage here.

Collecting and incinerating the skins of the victims beside the altar seemed to showcase the precariousness of modern times.

Ignoring the destruction of containers set up at the camp, they excavated soil and confidently extracted data from the scene.

Then, something unusual was discovered at one of the sites.

[This is C-2. We’ve found something unusual.]
[It’s something like a glass shard that has no thickness. It appears to possess physical properties only in shadows, so it seems to be an object.]
[This is A-1. Good job, C-2. That looks like the object we aimed for. Preserve the site until the management team arrives.]

They had discovered a glass shard with no thickness. When exposed to light, it vanished, and due to its lack of thickness, it could easily be overlooked.

However, the glass piece was already shattered, making it possible to find.

A group of people wearing dark blue protective suits was heading towards the place where the glass shard was found.

It happened one early morning when people’s attention had drifted away.

*

With the dissolution of the Central Research Institute and the union of three research institutes, Trinity Research Institute officially became the largest research institute in Korea.

In the smoking room set up inside, two men were smoking cigarettes.

“What are you reading so funnily?”

“A report on the communication abilities of the discarded Gray Reaper. This is quite amusing.”

“What’s so funny about it?”

“Usually, such reports are submitted by the institute, but this one was submitted by a detective. You should take a look.”

[Gray Reaper Communication Ability Report.]
[Discarded - Insufficient format. Insufficient evidence.]
[Do not trust the contents of this report.]
[This report has been discarded for the reasons stated above.]
[The Gray Reaper can perfectly understand and speak human language, at least Korean, 100%.]
[However, it does not wish to communicate.]
[What can we do if the Gray Reaper does not want to communicate?]
[Whether lamenting, getting angry, or threatening, we cannot influence the Reaper.]
[Communication with the Gray Reaper will only occur at its desired moment.]

“Definitely an interesting read. Seems like a report written without knowing that objects usually read thoughts to communicate. But what would a detective know? An object speaks Korean? They might as well say it graduated elementary school!”

The sounds of the men chuckling echoed in the smoking room.

*

In a small office located on a back road outside Seoul.

“Senior! Why do you keep carrying that around? I figured you’d throw it away.”

The junior was diligently wiping a hammer with a handkerchief while throwing the question out of nowhere.

“What?”

When I turned around, I found Watson, which I’d sent to the research institute isolation room in the form of a donation, welcoming me.

It felt like this would happen, so I had stuffed it in the isolation room this time, but it ended up coming back again.
Is it something that cannot be stopped by a regular isolation room?

“I’ve thrown away quite a bit. It just keeps coming back.”

“This is a real headache. It still gives me the creeps thinking about what happened at the camp, and yet I can’t throw it away…”

Sighing, I spoke about the future plans.

“If it comes back again, we’ll give up and I’ll carry Watson with me, so you’ll have to get used to it too.”

“Huh? Why? If that thing goes wrong, won’t you end up like a twist of fate?”

“If we can’t throw it away, we have to put it to use. It will help us three times.”

“Yikes, just don’t use it while I’m around.”

The junior, looking startled, turned on the TV with the remote.

On the TV, there was a report about the case that I and the junior had resolved.

In fact, it was such a shocking case that wherever I went lately, the topic of the butterfly incident was all anyone talked about.

It was a shocking event that the government would want to hide, but it seemed too sensational to sweep under the rug.

Thanks to the incidents in Seoul eclipsing the one at the camp, it had become even more of a hot topic.

When the mirror shattered and butterflies fell, I had been thinking, ‘Ah, the case is getting resolved!’ But if I’d been clear-headed, it would have been entirely predictable.

While I reveled in the joy of resolving the case, in Seoul, families, friends, and lovers nearby were suddenly dying while vomiting blood from the seventh hole.

Other butterfly-infected individuals in different regions were dying in such gruesome ways.

Yet, those who discovered the corpses, spouting blood from the seventh hole, found themselves facing an even more horrifying reality.

The fact they were left with only skins.
And that those skins were filled solely with blood.
And that within were dead butterflies the size of human heads.

Because of such a terrible incident, the TV was endlessly replaying that story 24/7.

“Nothing’s good to watch these days.”

As the junior flipped through channels, he echoed my sentiment.

“Oh right! Senior! What happened at the Relief Camp? Before I got there.”

The junior pointed to the TV with his finger.

“What are you even asking about?”

“That! That. They said a trainee reporter from Daily Object went missing. The president of Daily Object was howling, claiming it’s the work of the Gray Reaper, but don’t you know anything?”

He made karate sounds with his mouth and struck a pose.

“From the picture, that trainee reporter looked like a pain in the neck, and with your character, you wouldn’t have let it slide? Didn’t you beat him up and make him run away?”

“I knew he was tailing me. But I never even saw that reporter’s face.”

I let out a deep sigh and placed a sheet of paper on top of the junior’s head, who was blabbering out of boredom.

“How about you check this out if you’re bored? The payment’s not too shabby.”

The paper the junior unfolded read as follows:

[Investigation on a cult-like creator, referred to as the Maker, who creates objects.]
[Rumor has it that he collects a ton of golden horns.]
[There are numerous suspicions of connections to crime, so caution is advised.]

*

Just three days after the hungry ghost disappeared over the sinkhole, before the butterflies had erupted,
The remnants still smoked, and an incongruous sound echoed in the ruins.

Tap. Tap.
The sound of a cane striking the ground twice.

At that moment, a figure appeared as if melting from the air.

“Finally, finally. I’ve returned to Seoul, to Korea, and to this Earth.”

The man, holding a vintage wooden cane in one hand, was the director of the Central Research Institute.

“So the hungry ghosts have really hidden underground. Even after seeing the future several times, I can’t grasp why the hungry ghosts run away. Well, I guess that means there are many things we have to uncover, including that.”

As the director walked with a cheerful stride, translucent researchers followed behind him like ghosts.

“At last! We have finally returned. Now, let’s go to our new research institute!”

With arms wide open and an exaggerated smile, the director’s face twisted into a grotesque joy. Behind him, researchers with gloomy, grad student-like expressions were sucked into the shadows.

The director continued to walk north, north, without stopping.