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Save me! Save me! Save me!

My mind is a complete mess.

I can’t think straight.

The director of the research institute always needs to analyze situations calmly. It has to be done!

I’m scared, scared, scared.

An old man dragged away a person like he was choosing meat at a butcher shop.

It was a woman who played the violin.

Among the kidnapped, she was particularly terrified.

I force my lips into a smile and try to think.

The old man shoved the woman into the steel pig’s mouth.

From the pig’s mouth, a heap of leftover bones scattered across the floor.

The identity of the mysterious pile of bones on the floor was revealed.

Flames erupted spontaneously from the pig’s mouth, and the previously quiet screams began to rise again.

It was the woman’s voice.

The cause of the screams that filled the basement was also uncovered.

I move my stiff, creaky hand and make a note.

I’m writing information about the “Object.”

I have no idea what kind of expression I’m making.

Was I wearing the confident smile typical of a research institute director? I’m not so sure.

*

“Hey! Install cameras over here too. Be careful not to cross the boundary of Seoul Forest! If you do, you’ll get smashed to bits—be careful!”

The people installing the cameras were meticulously setting them up.

Anything electronic that crosses the boundary of Seoul Forest gets smashed like it was hit with a hammer, so it couldn’t be helped.

The once quiet entrance of Seoul Forest was now packed with people.

They set up a camp for supporting the team going in for internal investigation, and cameras were being installed everywhere to observe the “Object” that might come out of the forest.

The mass die-off incident at Seoul Forest and the traces of the ‘Gray Reaper’ found at the entrance— the synergy of those two events attracted a lot of people.

Especially considering humans’ obsession with ranking, the “most dangerous object managed in Korea escaping from the research institute” would surely cause a stir.

In my position, I hadn’t really done anything wrong, yet somehow I was ranked as the number one danger. It’s not a bad title for living comfortably, so I was accepting it gratefully.

Isn’t it a pretty cool title? The Gray Reaper, the most dangerous object in Korea!

In fact, if I became a little more famous, there might even be a folktale that goes, “The crying child is taken by the Gray Reaper!” Hehe.

Especially when wanting to draw people in, this kind of notoriety was incredibly useful.

There was also a camp created by Sehee Research Institute, where reporters flocked, bombarding them with questions.

“It has been confirmed that the Gray Reaper escaped from the research institute. What are your thoughts on this situation?”

“You’ve put the citizens in danger due to negligence. What kind of compensation plans are you preparing?”

“This die-off incident also seems to have been caused by the Gray Reaper. Is this the first time it has escaped?”

Kim Jungrwi, facing the reporters with a pale face, seemed to struggle to respond somehow.

Yerin Oh, who should have helped him, was nowhere to be seen. I imagined she might have gone outside, knowing something like this would happen.

The line of people heading towards the inside of Seoul Forest was unending. I thought that with such a large-scale search, Sehee would likely be found easily.

Well, to increase the chances of finding Sehee, many people were called in, so I hoped it would help, even a little.

I slipped into the line heading towards Seoul Forest and thought about how much it must have changed since I last visited a year ago.

*

The scenery of Seoul Forest Village looked exactly the same even after a year. Wooden buildings, gravel roads, and streets without telephone poles. It was a landscape resembling a medieval village pasted together.

Seoul Forest Village is known to be the only residential area within Seoul Forest.

Because of reasons like the prohibition of electronic devices and internal combustion engines, it was a village that lived like in the medieval era, but perhaps due to that inconvenience, people living here were often referred to as half criminals.

Thanks to that, it was a place where safety felt pretty unstable, hard to imagine being near Seoul.

What happens if you use electronic devices in Seoul Forest? They just crumble into pieces, for no reason. The previously existing high-rise buildings and roads disappeared just like that.

Personally, I felt that Seoul Forest Village was like a well-made folk village, rich in a sense of life.

Without rubber, plastic, or asphalt, it felt even more so.

Even after a year, that feeling hadn’t changed.

Among that, the most intriguing part was the marketplace, where paper money crumbled, so transactions were made with gold or silver coins.

They weighed the gold coins on a scale, buying and selling goods with those coins, a place where one could experience medieval-style trading filled with haggling and scams.

Food items like snacks were packaged in glass or metal cans, or things like leather.

Just visiting the market was filled with wonders, making me feel like I was in a cultural tourist destination.

Of course, that perspective is from the standpoint of the “Object.”

Uncomfortable beds, inadequate facilities, poorly conditioned food, insecure safety, and an environment without electronic devices. It would be an uncomfortable place for a human who needs to eat and sleep, even if it’s an “Object.”

Even in a place like this, there’s a reason society operates. It’s the presence of the ruler managing this place.

A figure who turned this abandoned land, treated like it should just be disregarded for lacking modern conveniences, into a society of its own.

Han Kangcheol.

The King of Seoul Forest.

Though called the King of Seoul Forest, in reality, he was the boss of a gang ruling this place. A fitting ruler for this lawless land devoid of firearms or electronic devices.

If anything’s going on, I should visit Han Kangcheol at least once. If it isn’t some one-time accident, his organization must surely know something.

Where’s Han Kangcheol located? Probably in the biggest and best building in this town.

Thus, I made my way to Han Kangcheol’s residence, a splendid building that would evoke the image of a medieval mansion.

Upon entering the mansion, it was clear that something was afoot.

Inside the mansion, there were too many injured people, and a tense atmosphere filled the air. However, whether that was related to Sehee’s disappearance was uncertain.

I could easily find out if something happened by asking someone in the mansion, but since there were no living souls to talk to, I couldn’t use that approach.

Writing it down may be possible, but the ‘Gray Reaper’ concept is that it doesn’t understand human speech, so that would be a no-go.

Why is that the concept? It was created for a happy “Object” life. If communication were possible, it would negotiate with humans, but that’s not something I wanted to do, so it was a kind of rule established.

As I floated around the mansion’s walls and ceilings like a ghost, leisurely inspecting each room, I overheard significant conversations.

“Shouldn’t we be asking for outside help for this situation?”

“Are you really suggesting we ask for help over something like this?”

In a corner room of the mansion, Han Kangcheol was having a conversation with several people, and various photos were scattered across the table.

“Already over ten people with their limbs mangled. Over thirty missing. Even if we move in groups of five, we can’t catch it. It doesn’t seem like something we can handle.”

“If we ask for help from outside, will that change anything? We can’t even use guns, so increasing our numbers from outside won’t mean anything. Instead, the government will likely resolve things by clearing out Seoul Forest. Then we would have to cease our business.”

The missing person incident!

It certainly seemed like an incident where Sehee could easily get caught up.

“Since there are suddenly a lot of outsiders, that creature would find it hard to move without being seen. Let’s give it till tonight. Anyway, with so many outsiders around, controlling the information will be impossible from here on out.”

*

The night in Seoul Forest was exceptionally dark. The darkness of a city without electricity. Sounds breaking that darkness echoed throughout the village.

“Catch it!”

“Surround it!”

The gangsters were running all over the place with weapons, chasing after a certain presence.

A monster that looked about 3 meters tall.

A skinny, grotesquely elongated creature that seemed more like a water strider or a spider than a human.

Its physical abilities matched its bizarre appearance. It was so fast that it couldn’t be clearly seen in the darkness, and anyone struck by the monster had their bones shattered.

To think they would try to handle such a creature internally without letting outsiders know—are they out of their minds?

If an outsider witnessed a monster like that wandering around, they could no longer hide it.

In fact, it was more surprising that they had kept it hidden until now.

It was a clue to understand the extent of Han Kangcheol’s grip over Seoul Forest. He had enough power to call himself king.

While the gangsters were busy chasing the monster, I decided to search the house from which it had appeared.

Though humans may have lacked the ability to see in the dark with poor night vision, that creature had dashed out from an inconspicuous little house at one end of the village.

In a place that bore no special features, just a reasonable dwelling typically seen in the village.

‘Hmm.’

And as soon as I stealthily entered that house, what greeted me were the monsters sprawled out on the floor.