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The inside of the exhibition was quite chaotic due to the soldiers.

When I came to, the mess felt even worse.

I thought I was in the exhibition hall when my consciousness faded away, only to wake up to find a disaster unfolding.

Right now, the soldiers were lining up the exhibition staff and interviewing them one by one.

Yerin wore a gloomy expression.

“Unnie Sehee, I guess this is the end of the exhibition, right?”

“Seems like it. If you look over there, there are a bunch of body bags. It looks like there were quite a few fatalities.”

On one side of the exhibition hall, soldiers were stuffing bodies into bags and moving them around.

With such an incident occurring, there’s no way the exhibition would continue.

From what I heard around, not only were there fatalities, but the loss of objects was beyond imagination.

As the line continued to get shorter, it was finally Sehee Research Institute’s turn.

The interview consisted of simple questions.

They asked whether we had lost any objects or if there were any fatalities among the staff, and so on.

There were many questions related to the Golden Tree.

“Have you ever discovered the Golden Tree before or seen it in another research institute?”

“Do you know any minor rumors or news about the reconstruction of the Bucheon Research Institute?”

It seemed the investigators from the government were looking into the Golden Tree as the cause of this exhibition incident.

Honestly, it was only normal for something that suddenly appears at an exhibition to warrant suspicion.

Once the interviews for the Sehee Research Institute concluded, we were told to prepare for withdrawal.

“Once the withdrawal preparations are complete, please submit your documents at the desk over there. You’ll receive a numbered ticket in the order you submit, and you can leave in that order.”

While Yerin was organizing her things at our booth for the withdrawal, she said with a forlorn voice.

“In the end, I didn’t even get to take a look at the water deer pajamas.”

“Well, who knows if the reaper would even wear the clothes…”

As far as I knew, the reaper had never worn clothes.

The Sehee Research Institute didn’t really suffer any object losses.

The well-behaved ‘cute puppy’ was perfectly fine in the corner of the booth, and of course, the spirit cat was unharmed.

However, the blue lizard, known for drawing attention, had someone eat its head.

Based on previous Central Research Institute data, it was said that if a tail remains, it will resurrect based on the tail, so having just the lower half should be fine.

Gray reaper?

It seemed the reaper was walking around aimlessly, but at some point, it disappeared.

Perhaps it went back to the institute first.

We loaded the objects onto a dedicated isolation truck and sent them towards Sehee Research Institute.

The truck driver was the trustworthy Kim Jungrwi.

The remaining researchers loaded their belongings and boarded the rented shuttle bus.

After loading all the necessary luggage into the vehicle, we departed the exhibition hall for the institute.

Inside the rented shuttle bus cruising down the road, Yerin next to me was fiddling with the empty digital camera data.

“What are you looking for so intently?”

“I felt like I had definitely taken some pictures, so I was checking.”

“Must be a misunderstanding. We never even took the camera out, right?”

“Somehow, I feel like I’ve taken tons of pictures of the reaper wearing the water deer pajamas. But it must be a misunderstanding, right?”

As Yerin stuffed the camera into her bag, she muttered, “Well, I guess something like that could never happen in reality?”

Thus, the Sehee Research Institute’s participation in the first exhibition came to a swift end.

*

The incident at the exhibition confirmed the ‘sad jinx of the zoo’ once again.

Lying in bed, I reached out towards the ceiling.

Crack.

I made a small fist and then opened it.

My usable abilities had increased.

Because I had dealt with the objects at the exhibition.

However, the most puzzling question was the change in the golden reaper.

The duration of the mayfly golden reaper had significantly increased.

It was the first time I had seen an acquired ability grow on its own.

It seemed the objects killed by the golden reaper became a source of power for it.

[Is it even possible that you still haven’t caught the ‘Maker’? After causing such a large incident at the exhibition?]

[The terrorist suspect is walking around openly! What is the government doing?]

The TV was filled with stories about the criminal who stole from the exhibition hall.

It was the story of the criminal known as the ‘Maker.’

At first, all sorts of tales and conspiracy theories were spun.

“This exhibition incident is the gray reaper’s massacre.”

“A new type of gray reaper, it was done by the golden reaper.”

Amidst various opinions akin to daily objects, all such rumors vanished after a certain piece of news spread.

That news was about the disappearance of the ‘indestructible cube.’

It was literally ‘indestructible,’ so it couldn’t have broken or moved anywhere; it could only be theft.

Since the value of the indestructible cube was almost impossible to measure, opinions quickly shifted towards the notion that this incident was solely about stealing that cube.

However, there was much debate about who had committed such an act.

That suspect was confirmed when the materials for the golden tree were revealed.

“The golden tree was artificially created using golden horns!”

It was revealed that the golden tree was indeed an object made from golden horns.

Naturally, that suspect was pointed to as the ‘Maker.’

“A criminal who creates objects with incomprehensible levels of technology.”

“A criminal who makes objects from golden horns.”

“A criminal who has recently begun activities.”

The criminal who travels around making objects with golden horns became the leading suspect.

In fact, I had a few more doubts regarding this incident, but by then, they had already faded from public interest.

‘Why were the soldiers, especially the commander who led the lockdown, dead at the exhibition hall?’

‘Why were there so many dangerous objects displayed at this exhibition?’

Such questions remained.

However, on TV, only the ‘Maker’ was being highlighted.

I switched off the TV, which repeated the same information, and stepped out of the isolation room.

I should test the abilities I gained this time.

*

An abandoned research institute on the outskirts of Gangdong-gu.

After escaping from the exhibition hall, the institute head moved his residence here.

Since an incident had occurred under the name of Bucheon Research Institute, it was obvious he would be discovered sooner or later.

A new experiment by the institute head began at this new research institute.

“Now then, let’s start the experiment.”

A loud signal sounded, and a countdown began.

It was an experiment similar to the ones conducted before.

“Forcefully put a person kidnapped in a sealed room made of golden horns and make the object name itself.”

The only change was that the ‘indestructible cube’ had been placed inside the sealed room.

Before long, a sound erupted like a giant hammer pounding on a steel plate.

‘Name-less’ started to ruthlessly beat the enclosed space.

The sealed room, reinforced by the cube, was showing a strength worthy of being called ‘indestructible.’

No matter how fast and hard it was beaten, the room maintained its shape.

The thunderous pounding that seemed like it could continue forever suddenly stopped.

And then, an entirely different phenomenon began.

A sharp noise filled the research lab.

It was a chilling sound, akin to nails scraping across a chalkboard.

With that sharp sound, ‘Name-less’s’ fingers slowly began to pierce through the walls of the sealed room.

At first, it was one finger.

A little later, up to the wrist.

And soon, the entire arm.

As the chilling sounds continued, the arm of ‘Name-less’ began to stretch out through the wall.

Even though ‘indestructible’ was pierced through, ‘Name-less’s’ arm emerged.

Though ‘Name-less’s’ arm seemed to suffer some damage, dust scattered, but surprisingly, it regenerated almost instantly.

Unfortunately, the sealed room could not regenerate.

“Help me, help me! Save me!”

The man in the sealed room, seeing the arm pushing through, screamed while covering his ears.

He continued to shout for help, just wanting to be saved.

But the man’s wishes, like those of the other victims of experiments, went unfulfilled.

With ‘Name-less’ having fully shoved its upper body inside, it clutched the man and slowly crushed him to death.

As a physical immunity, it was dying slowly and painfully.

In the end, the man was crushed, leaving only pools of blood where a human once was in the sealed room.

“I can’t block it even with the cube. There was a way to pierce physical immunity… Let’s stop the experiment on ‘Name-less.’ It would be a waste of time until another solution arises.”

The head declared, looking angry as he announced the end of the experiment.

“At this rate, I don’t know if we can even start the ‘KR – 897’ research.”

As soon as the director finished speaking, blood splurted from his chest.

“Oh no.”

A bizarre arm that protruded from his chest slowly split the head in half.

The director was bleeding from his mouth and dying, but he didn’t seem too worried.

“Researchers, then, we’ll take a day’s break.”

With those final words, the head was split in two and died.

On the corpse of the head that had turned into a blood splatter due to a slip of the tongue, the researchers shed tears and danced in joy.