---

In the ambiguous time that transitions from day to night, a large man strode purposefully towards the giant mansion located on the outskirts of Seoul.

The mansion he visited, though lavishly decorated, emanated a gloomy atmosphere, as if shrouded in thick shadows.

The large man, sporting a short, blunt, conical golden horn on his head, was a man whose profession involved kidnapping and selling people.

Despite his confident gait, the man’s heart was incredibly complicated.

Usually, requests would come through the mansion’s butler, who contacted him directly to start the work.

However, strangely this time, an unusual request had been made, insisting he see the face of the client beforehand.

It was common to ignore such suspicious requests.

But being a significant player who had made numerous requests thus far, and with the reliable business card of the Director of the Trinity Research Institute, he found it hard to refuse and ended up visiting the mansion.

Bang bang, when he knocked on the mansion’s entrance, the butler appeared as if he had been waiting and welcomed him.

“Your master is waiting. Please follow me.”

It was the same voice he always heard over the phone.

The butler was a thin, elderly man, and he had a strangely tense aura that naturally put one on edge.

The large man followed the butler past the mansion’s main entrance.

Once he passed through, he was greeted by a black garden.

The garden was covered in black soil, teeming with strange black plants he had never seen before.

And it stank of oil.

It was an incredibly unpleasant garden, but the strange atmosphere emanating from the butler made it impossible for the large man to express his discomfort.

Fortunately, upon entering the mansion, the smell of oil dissipated.

The interior of the mansion appeared all the more splendid, thanks to the stark contrast with the unpleasant garden.

In the center loomed the gigantic Trinity Research Institute logo, and the windows were adorned with complex stained-glass mosaics.

Fancy tapestries hung on the walls, and a chandelier decorated the ceiling, pulsing with a gentle light.

Passing through a luxurious lobby, he arrived at a large reception room.

There, a man dressed in a neat suit stood up to welcome the large man.

This middle-aged man appeared to be the owner of the mansion.

“Ah, you’ve arrived. I’ve heard you’ve been working hard for me recently, so I wanted to see you in person.”

The middle-aged man, who stood up from his chair, remarked while surveying the reception room.

On the walls of the reception room hung all sorts of golden horns, displayed like mounted deer heads.

Each one boasted a large and splendid shape.

All of them were golden horns supplied by the large man.

“Thank you for always supplying such excellent horns. As expected, the more complex and larger the golden horn, the more it pleases the eye.”

“Ah, yes….”

From the moment he stepped into this room, the large man felt uneasy.

He couldn’t pinpoint what exactly felt wrong, but it was an undeniable sensation.

Hence, all he could think of was wanting the conversation to end quickly so he could leave.

“Don’t you feel something? I feel at ease when I enter this room. Although research on golden horns is prohibited, there must be some benefits to it.”

The large man responded vaguely while glancing around the room.

“Oh dear, I’ve been talking too much by myself. I called you out of curiosity.”

The middle-aged man strode toward the large man and handed him a round, gem-like object.

The sphere, a mix of apricot and black colors, resembled a combination of pearl and black pearl.

“Uh… What is this?”

“This is a new nutrient developed by our research institute. Give it a try.”

“Do I have to eat it now?”

“Of course! It’s considered highly confidential material at the institute. Come on, hurry up!”

At this point, the large man began to regret accepting the invitation to the mansion.

What on earth does money matter that he must come to such a suspicious place and be forced to consume a dubious substance?

Naturally, the large man had no intention of putting such a questionable drug in his mouth.

However, looking at the middle-aged man’s demeanor, it seemed like something unpleasant would happen if he refused to eat it.

So, the man decided to pretend to eat it while secretly hiding the drug in his pocket.

“I’ve eaten it.”

The middle-aged man merely stared at him intently upon hearing the response.

“If you have nothing more to say, I will take my leave.”

A voice came from behind the man as he turned away.

“How strange.”

The man tried to ignore the words as he began striding back the way he came.

But the butler, who had been waiting outside the reception room, blocked his path.

“You must take the drug, guest.”

The man attempted to shake off the butler’s grip, but he couldn’t budge at all.

The butler’s face was eerily pale, and bulging veins showed through, their color black.

Crack.

“Ahhh!”

The butler’s emaciated arm easily crushed the man’s bone.

As the man writhed in pain, the butler found the drug within his pocket.

“Right, that was suspicious. No matter how compatible it is, it doesn’t make sense for there to be no reaction.”

The middle-aged man, grasping the drug from the butler, forced it back into the large man’s mouth.

“Now, get a good long sleep.”

In the fading vision, he saw the butler who subdued him melting away into black mud.

*

The Mackijisan Conference was quite well organized.

The participating research institutes were some of the more famous ones in Korea, and the government had also prepared thoroughly, allowing the event to proceed smoothly.

“Calm down, don’t be too angry. It’s okay.”

However, I couldn’t concentrate on the presentation at all.

The Golden Reaper was in an extreme state of agitation.

For some reason, it looked both sad and angry.

No matter how much I petted it to ease its frown, it had little effect.

Even giving it lots of candy didn’t help.

At least, I was relieved it didn’t try to escape from my hand.

Instead, it seemed intent on clinging to my neck or head, which I couldn’t figure out.

The cause of the Golden Reaper’s strange behavior was pretty clear.

The Trinity researchers.

They had a mysterious snack that they frequently indulged in, and that seemed to be the root of the problem.

Initially, I thought it was whining because it wanted that snack.

But when I went to get one from a Trinity researcher, the Golden Reaper’s display was ridiculous.

It went thwack thwack, punching to eliminate the snack.

And then it just flopped down looking extremely depressed.

It was an apricot-colored, small cube-shaped snack that looked like tiny cheese.

It had a wonderfully fragrant smell, so why did it dislike it so much?

Feeling curious, I asked the researcher what it was.

“Oh~ this?”

The Trinity researcher examined my attire from top to bottom and continued with a snicker.

“This is a synthetic food we’re experimentally developing at Trinity. All the big-name institutes worldwide are researching this now. Object food. I can’t believe there are still institutes that don’t know about this.”

The man turned around and hurriedly left.

As he departed, he muttered tiny belittlement comments about the Sehee Research Institute.

“Just thieves aiming for government subsidies.”

“Fools too busy with object containment to know how to utilize it.”

It was roughly that kind of talk.

It could have made me angry, but instead, I was sweating profusely trying to stop the Golden Reaper from charging at that man.

It honestly looked like it wanted to punch a hole in him, so calming it down was a struggle.

In the end, the Golden Reaper just didn’t like that snack.

Well, it was a suspicious snack made from Objects, so I didn’t really want to eat it either.

Crunch. Crunch.

As I listened to the sound of the Reaper crunching on the candy, I tried to focus on the presentation.

Crunch.

The sound of candy crunching suddenly stopped.

Had it already finished eating?

Looking down at the Golden Reaper, there was still more than half of the candy left.

The Golden Reaper was staring intently at something while chewing the candy.

And in the blink of an eye, the Reaper suddenly vanished!

Had it ghosted like the Gray Reaper?

At the same time that the Golden Reaper disappeared, a clear sound like breaking glass resonated through the auditorium.

And a scorching gust of wind swept through.

Not only did papers flutter, but even the chairs shook violently.

The air tore apart as if glass had shattered, and from the cracks, red sand poured out endlessly.

And the space began to distort as if seen through a fisheye lens.

In the midst of the absurd situation, everyone was in a panic and raised their voices, but all was drowned out by the howling wind.

And with a ‘bang,’ fist-sized stones scattered everywhere.

These lethal stones easily pierced through people, and one was hurtling directly toward me.

Oh no.

*

In the comfortable atmosphere of the Sehee Research Institute’s Gray Reaper Isolation Room.

Inside, the Gray Reaper was thoroughly enjoying a nap.

As the Gray Reaper slept, the Golden Reapers started popping out one after another with boing boing sounds.

And they began to mercilessly beat the Gray Reaper.

Thwack thwack on the cheeks.

Poke poke on the eyelids.

Jump jump on the belly.

Such acts of beating were also taking place in the garden of the Golden Reapers.

In the garden, the Golden Reapers were beating the sleeping Gray Reaper.

They looked oddly urgent.

It was as if they were screaming for it to wake up quickly!

*

The Black Agent stood at the back of the presentation hall, witnessing the unusual event.

While everyone was flustered, the Black Agent began to flee from the crack while carrying the blonde girl.

His response was remarkably swift as he started running the moment the hot wind blew.

“Uncle, what’s happening?”

“It seems to be an Object-related incident. We should move quickly. At the very least, we need to get out of Mackijisan.”

The Black Agent gritted his teeth and continued running, but it was proving futile.

With the sound of breaking glass came a powerful shockwave, knocking the Black Agent rolling.

And the relentless onslaught of hot wind and sand.

He sheltered the blonde girl in his arms and endured.

When the wind finally calmed down, the Black Agent rose from the sand to find an entirely different landscape before him.

A desert where the horizon stretched out.

An endless red desert.