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The old man, slowly extending his arm, suddenly stretched it out at an incredible speed as if he concluded that this was enough.

“You were caught off guard!”

The old man, gripping my ankle, started to lift me and slam me into the floor.

Bang! Bang!

With each slam, the stone floor caved in, and debris scattered around, showcasing just how immense the old man’s strength was. I could easily escape using ghosting, but the continuously changing expressions on the old man’s face during the slams were so amusing that I couldn’t help but watch.

At first, he seemed proud, thinking he had won.

“Die! Die! Die!”

The old man struck down relentlessly, as if determined to break the floor. Sehee, watching this unfold, turned pale and didn’t know what to do.

“Now! Enough! Just die!”

He started lifting me with both hands, pausing briefly to give it everything he had with each slam. Realizing something was off, he wiped the smile off his face.

Shouldn’t he have figured out by now that it was physically impossible to deal with me at this level? How many objects are there that cannot be destroyed physically? Sehee, noticing I was still intact, took out her notebook and started scribbling.

Probably writing something like, “The Gray Reaper seems physically indestructible.”

After a few more strikes, the old man seemed to understand the futility of it and awkwardly smiled as he set me down gently on the floor. He placed me down feet first and brushed off the dust from my body.

Then, lying flat on the floor, he began to crawl backward toward the exit.

With a cowardly grin, he retreated at an incredible speed as soon as a certain distance was established. In the end, the only change before and after his arrival was the now utterly ruined floor.

As soon as the old man retreated, Sehee rushed over, brushing off the dust and causing a ruckus.

“Wow, the Reaper is tougher than I expected. I’ve never done that kind of test before.”

Because if some chaotic incident occurs while testing the highest danger level objects, the research institute would be held responsible, so private institutes typically only conduct safe tests. Such dangerous experiments are often reserved for the National Central Research Institute, which is recognized for having extraordinary authority.

“By the way, do we have to defeat that old man to get out of here? Unless we have a gun, I don’t think there’s a way out in Seoul Forest…”

Sehee looked worried, thinking there weren’t many options to escape from here.

In my mind, there was a very simple and clear solution remaining.

Killing the monster would solve all problems.

[Destroy the source created from fire] If this condition is cleared, all monsters would be killed.

And probably, the ‘source’ was the steel pig statue standing before me. What else could the object the monster cherished and hid in the basement be, if not the source?

The problem, however, was the destruction condition of that steel pig statue.

[Indigestion]

Hmmm. What on earth does that mean?

What kind of indigestion could a statue possibly experience?

Leaving Sehee, who was calling for people, behind, I continued circling around the pig statue while pondering the riddle of ‘indigestion.’

The pig statue was constantly emitting hot heat, accompanied by what sounded like a woman’s scream of tearing agony.

The scream was coming from inside the pig’s belly, and despite opening it up with a handle, all I found inside were piles of bones with no hint of where the scream was coming from. Yet, the scream continued echoing from the pig, and I just couldn’t figure out where it originated.

It clearly sounded like it was coming from the stomach, but the source of that sound remained a mystery.

While I didn’t uncover the cause of the screams, I did manage to discover the origin of the delicious smell filling the basement.

Inside the pig’s belly were orbs made entirely of pure fire.

They were orbs I could hold in my hand, and they weren’t even hot, but they looked just like fire itself, which was quite fascinating. They could be considered a sample of the phenomenon created by the object.

An orb that looked suspicious at first glance, yet everyone seemed to go crazy wanting to eat it. Even the usually calm Sehee seemed a bit crazed whenever I held the fiery orb, her speech reducing while madness flickered in her eyes.

Some people trapped in the prison were yelling for me to hand it over, yet eating this would surely turn them into monsters, so I had no reason to share it.

Eating something that looks delicious and lures you in? That’s the same as asking to die.

Indigestion. Indigestion.

No matter how much I mulled it over in my mind, only one solution seemed available.

I had to enter the pig’s belly myself.

It’s hard to believe that a mere object like the pig statue could harm me, so I figured there wouldn’t be much trouble. In fact, perhaps entering the pig’s belly might actually be the cause of indigestion?

The issue was that the very idea of inserting my body into a statue filled with bones was off-putting, but since I didn’t see any other options, there was no choice.

The steel pig statue was quite large, and its interior height was easily taller than me, so getting inside wasn’t difficult.

I cautiously avoided the bones as I entered, then closed the door, and with a thud, a chilling sound echoed.

The screams that had been sporadically ringing out grew louder, and an unidentified thick liquid began to pour down the pig’s walls. Then flames erupted from all directions within the pig, starting to increase the internal temperature recklessly.

‘Oh?’

And the inner walls of the pig started to stretch further away. No, the interior space was expanding gradually. The steel inner walls had transformed into red skin, and the area that previously seemed like an interior space was now a grotesquely moist and squirming place resembling actual insides.

Then, a figure with melting skin thrust its face toward me. The person’s hair had completely burned away, and their skin was slowly melting like rubber in a horrific manner.

The limbs of the skin-melting person were restrained by the blackened skulls that held them captive.

And that’s when I realized. Oh, that person is the source of the screams. The woman, screaming in agony, twisted her body trying to escape but struggled hopelessly, hindered by the skulls holding onto her limbs.

“You’re going to… die with me…”

As I felt a burning heat on my wrist, I noticed a charred blackened skull tightly gripping it.

“Die die die die.”

Suddenly, skulls appeared from all directions, exuding heat as they began to grasp various parts of my body.

“You’ll burn with me!”

“You too!”

When I remained unaffected by the heat, the heat felt from every direction began to intensify. It was as if I could sense an endless malevolence insisting I should also perish in flames.

The heat grew stronger and soon began to reveal its conclusion.

The skulls gripping me slowly turned to ashes and began to scatter, and the walls that resembled insides burst into flames.

Then, I heard the sound of a giant pig being slaughtered, vibrating the earth, as I was able to return inside the steel statue.

*

The basement I returned to was in shambles. The walls of the statue, now stained a bright red, had already started melting, and the basement visible through the gaps was a chaotic scene of smoke and flames.

As I jumped down from the pig statue, it was already melting into a liquid. Seeing that no more hints were visible, it seemed that statue had melted away due to indigestion.

In this dangerous situation of the basement, I shattered all the prison bars, and Sehee led the escape.

In a hurry, as we dashed out of the basement, the sight before us was that of a burning house and monsters thrashing about in all directions.

Spitting flames from their mouths and eyes, the monsters were merely writhing in agony on the ground. The problem was that those flames were setting the house ablaze.

“I can’t, I can’t die like this!”

An old man, towering over five meters, suddenly emerged from the burning house, shouting.

“I don’t want to die! How have I lived! How have I endured!”

The old man, shouting while destroying his own home, when he saw those escaping, shrieked, “Aaaah!” and rushed at them.

“I won’t die alone!”

Though the dying old man wasn’t as agile as before, his speed was still considerable.

With thick smoke and searing heat exhausting people, they had no choice but to flee.

But the old man’s last attempt was interrupted by the other monsters that were trapped inside the house.

“How dare! How dare you!”

Monsters with long, spider-like limbs clawed at each other and battled relentlessly until they were completely reduced to ashes.

The fight continued until morning, and I remained there, watching the spectacle.