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The Reaper wore the usual indifferent expression I often saw. It looked somewhat apathetic, but seeing that familiar face in this situation oddly reassured me.

As it came down the stairs, I furrowed my brow at the giant pig statue directly in front of me. That enormous steel pig, ablaze, certainly had a captivating presence.

After staring at the pig statue for a while, the Reaper began to scan the surroundings and, in the blink of an eye, stood right in front of me.

I knew it was elusive like a ghost around the research institute, but this? It effortlessly ignored distance and obstacles, making the isolation room just a mere formality…

“Reaper, you came!”

I picked up the Reaper, hugging it tightly. It was both a relief and a realization that I was still alive.

Of course, I understood that the Reaper wasn’t the fearsome entity known for guiding souls to death, but I was aware that it had the intelligence to inform the research institute of this place’s location and orchestrate a rescue.

“It was scary, Reaper. Just a few hours ago, someone died. She was a woman who played the violin, and to die in a place like this…”

“Can you hear the screams even now? I don’t know what the ‘Object’ is, but it’s horrifying.”

The Reaper looked up at me, its eyes wide, still in my embrace. Though it couldn’t talk, that made it easier to communicate. Yerin Oh claimed to understand speech, but who knows?

“I think that pig statue is the cause. Just looking at that delicious smell makes it clear it’s a harmful object. If I weren’t locked in a cage, I’d want to run toward that pig statue.”

Even now, if I looked around other prisons, there were many people reaching out with their hands beyond the bars. They ignored the Reaper’s unique presence and just stretched toward that pig statue.

“I should call for people to rescue us, but that pig’s smell is distracting. In the end, I have no idea what kind of phenomenon that pig is causing.”

The Reaper had already shifted its gaze from me to the entrance of the basement, beyond the wall.

‘Is there something over there?’

The Reaper, acting on mere curiosity and unable to express itself, was quite similar to a cat. I’d better call for someone quickly since the Reaper often vanished in the blink of an eye.

“Reaper, bring people here. We need a rescue. You can call the people from Sehee Research Institute, right?”

Despite my earnest plea, the Reaper still stared at the entrance.

“Eep!”

Grrr, grrr. I swallowed at the sound of the heavy stone door grinding open. The old man had arrived! Or is he really an old man?

A strange shadow flickered in the wavering light.

It looked less like a human and more like a giant insect, approaching while making a crunching sound as it walked over the stone dust.

And then the old man’s face emerged. It definitely belonged to the old man who used to come in and out of this basement. But other than his face, he appeared quite unfamiliar.

The old man’s head hung limply from a snake-like neck, looking less like a human’s.

Beyond the neck, which seemed to stretch over a meter, appeared a creature’s body, crawling like a spider with its excessively long limbs.

I hugged the Reaper tightly, forgetting even to breathe.

What is this, what is this!

What do I do, what do I do?

The old man, swinging his neck like a whip, turned to look at me and grinned widely.

Save me!

*

I thought there was a basement and searched the house, but I found a suspicious place I should have discovered earlier.

There were clear scratches on the stone, as if it had been opened multiple times a day. A candle holder showed distinct signs of frequent use as a switch.

As I hung from the candle holder, a grating stone sound accompanied the movement of a heavy statue, revealing a passage leading to the basement.

The underground passage beside the statue looked like a gateway to hell. A dim corridor with the continuous sound of a woman screaming emanating from it. I began to feel certain this was where Sehee had been taken.

I just hoped that scream wasn’t Sehee’s as I stepped cautiously down the stairwell covered in rubble.

The scene in the basement was worse than I had anticipated.

Cells lined up on either side of the gigantic steel pig statue. Near the pig statue, charred bone fragments were piled like a mountain.

The most disturbing thing was the smell filling the basement. While it felt like the smell of delicious food, I couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was.

Usually, pleasant smells are associated with distinct things, like the tangy scent of fruits or golden, freshly baked bread, but this smell didn’t have any specific, pleasant associations.

It was more reminiscent of burning, yet it felt strangely enticing, clearly indicating it was a phenomenon related to the ‘Object.’

There were further signs that this was a phenomenon caused by an ‘Object.’

People who appeared to be out of their minds filled the cells, all with glazed eyes, repeatedly making meaningless gestures toward the pig statue.

Fortunately, Sehee was locked in one of the cells. Seeing Sehee’s face light up with joy at my arrival made me feel she had been through a rough time. As I entered her cell, she darted toward me and hugged me tightly.

Holding me in her arms, Sehee wore a reassuring expression. She then began to recount what had happened and her analysis of the current situation swiftly.

Listening to Sehee, I pondered how to rescue her.

Should I open the bars and lead Sehee out?

If I opened the bars here, Sehee would surely be drawn to the pig statue’s smell. Taking her out would be impossible. Even while talking, I noticed she was occasionally glancing at the pig statue. Without bars, she would have no ability to resist.

But calling people for a rescue?

It was uncertain if the monster, the owner of this house, could truly be defeated. Can we catch a monster with cold weapons in a place like Seoul Forest where we can’t use guns or bombs? Unlikely. Even if possible, it would take too long to bring another ‘Object’ to defeat it.

Perhaps I had taken too long; I could feel the monster entering the house.

Whether it was spending too much time searching the basement or just that the outside thugs couldn’t keep the monster at bay was uncertain.

From beyond the soundproofing in the basement, I heard a faint cry of “A rat has entered! A rat has!”

Seeing the footprints I left behind, it seemed the monster was getting annoyed and would soon come storming into the basement.

As I looked towards the entrance, the sound of stones grinding began to echo in the basement. During our conversation, Sehee suddenly tightened her grip around me, startled by the noise.

Light footsteps echoed on the stairs. Considering the monster was over 3 meters tall, it was surprisingly light.

The monster’s shadow loomed over the basement’s lights. A long neck and limbs, a grotesque figure that resembled a desiccated mummy. The head, popping out unexpectedly from the corridor, was bizarre enough to startle even me, who was waiting for its appearance.

Sehee tightened her grip around me, as if she intended to squeeze the life out of me. It peaked when the monster flashed a horrifying smile and thrust its head toward Sehee.

Looking up from the trembling embrace, I noticed Sehee merely closed her eyes and kept murmuring, “It’ll be alright.”

“Ah, so you’re the rat, huh.”

The monster grinned, showing its sharp teeth like needles.

However, after a moment as it looked at me from Sehee’s embrace, its expression turned to astonishment.

“You!”

Its long limbs and neck, which had seemed to sprout, suddenly shrank back as if trying to hide its head.

“Who are you! Why does an ‘Object’ like you appear in a place like this?”

The monster, now taking on the guise of a normal old man, couldn’t hide its confusion and shouted erratically.

“Is it because of that woman? Did you come because of that woman? If so, hurry and take her away, now!”

Some ‘Objects’ seem to fear me, while others don’t, and this monster appeared to belong to the former. It was the type that, without doing anything, would fear me for no reason.

But this old man seemed too intelligent to just be fearful. He now lay flat on the ground, waiting for Sehee and me to leave.

I decided to turn to Sehee and ask her opinion about this bizarre behavior. Perhaps the initial fear was fading, as Sehee’s eyes were now filled with curiosity.

“Reaper, what’s going on? Why is it acting like that?”

As Sehee babbled, something shifted regarding the old man lying collapsed. The moment I glanced away, its arms and legs began to elongate.

Was it planning an ambush while I wasn’t looking?

The old man’s arms stretched toward me, reaching my feet.

The unsettling sight of its limbs elongating silently was strangely abominable.

Oddly enough, it seemed to mistake me for another human or object instead of behaving as it should.