Inside the containment room of The Gray Reaper that had been left behind by the Gray Reaper, I was playing around with the Golden Reapers while hoping that the Reaper would return quickly from Trinity Research Institute.
The Golden Reaper showed their dazzling dance moves to the rhythmic beat echoing inside the room. The lively energy emanating from their small body, which was barely the size of an adult’s palm, filled the containment room.
A Golden Reaper danced happily before falling down to the floor.
Looking at it, I stretched my fingers towards it and stroked its hair.
In response, the Golden Reaper smiled brightly.
Even though it had danced so much, the Golden Reaper showed no signs of being tired, making it more and more obvious that it was an Object.
When I pointed my finger at the other Golden Reapers who was dancing, the Golden Reaper who was sitting down got up and started dancing excitedly.
I laughed out loud when I saw it. The Golden Reaper who suddenly danced just because I made a hand gesture had the cuteness of obedient dogs.
Before I knew it, Sehee unnie had come to the containment room and played with the Golden Reapers.
Sehee unnie seemed to be taking breaks too often. Will our institute be okay?
Sehee unnie was tickling the hat wearing Golden Reaper who was resting stretched out on the floor.
Although it didn’t make any sound, the Golden Reaper laughed and tried to push Sehee unnie’s fingers away.
That looks fun, I should try tickling them next time too.
When I turned my head to look at the Golden Reaper who was sitting on my palm, it looked a little nervous, probably afraid that I would tickle it.
I stretched my fingers and stroked the Golden Reaper.
Sehee unnie, who had been tickling the Golden Reaper, suddenly looked at her cell phone. In the same breath, her expression became serious.
“The news just broke out. The jellyfish that devastated Nanjing, China has disappeared.”
“Are you talking about the jellyfish that was fine even after being hit by a nuclear weapon?”
Sehee unnie’s words were quite surprising even for me, who had no interest in China.
An Object that people tried to get rid of suddenly disappears? I was sure it’s not dead, so has it started moving?
“Now that it has suddenly disappeared, China is in complete chaos. It is an Object that killed a lot of people, so if it moved to another city, it would be a catastrophe.”
“It would be a real pain if it showed up in another city.”
“There’s so many assumptions that it might come to Korea.”
Would it really bother crossing the sea to come to our country?
Deep inside Trinity Research Institute’s hidden laboratory, a man with a hideous appearance was lying.
The man who was the director of the Third Research Institute was now almost unrecognizable, obscured by unidentifiable tentacles.
Strange tentacles, clearly derived from an Object, extended from all across his body. It was fused haphazardly with the skin of the director.
“Director. You were overexerting yourself.”
Standing next to the director was a woman wearing a pure white lab coat. Expression of deep concern etched on her face.
Her eyes, filled with nothing but awe and worry, quickly scanned the director’s form.
After she finished glancing over his body, her expression changed to a more serious expression as she found the director’s state to be unusual.
“There was no need to push yourself , Director.”
From the perspective of the woman, who had found the director collapsed in front of the recovery room door, it was a natural thing to say. If she hadn’t found the director, the tentacles could have torn him completely apart.
At that very moment, a terrible scene was happening beneath the director’s pale skin.
An ominous tentacle-like entity slithered beneath the director’s skin, distorting it in grotesque ways. Every time the tentacles twitched, the director let out a painful groan and contorted his face.
In fact, it wasn’t the skin of the director that the woman was more worried about.
It was the unidentified footprints near the director’s bed. It was tentacle patterns that wriggle as if they are alive.
That was the problem.
There were no records of such a phenomenon occurring in both ‘Evolution’ or ‘Fusion’.
Since the room was filled with intense fluorescent light, darker shadows was casted around the room, further emphasizing the ominous patterns wriggling in the shadows.
The warden responded to the woman’s words as his expression distorted in pain.
“No, I had to prepare to this extent. Even though the evolution fluid is fatal to all Objects, I have to prepare to this extent if I decide to go to fight properly.”
“Still, you are devouring the ‘jellyfish’ that destroyed an entire region of China. Isn’t it an Object that’s evaluated to be much more dangerous than the Gray Reaper?”
A woman expressed her feelings a little more vividly. Her expression slightly flushed.
“Of course Jellyfish is more dangerous. Still, I was going to absorb it sooner or later, so I just pushed it to happen sooner.”
Even though the director was assaulted by pain, he continued speaking in a calm tone, as if to reassure her.
“The stabilization period will end soon. You don’t have to worry that much.”
The director cut the woman off and changed the topic of the uncomfortable conversation.
Although his voice was full of pain, it contained an authority that seemed to prohibit further argument.
“When will the Gray Reaper arrive?”
“It will probably arrive sometime in the morning.”
The woman in the lab coat also changed her demeanour and answered in a calm tone.
As if satisfied by her answer, the director closed his eyes and gave his instructions.
“I can’t fight it right away. You can either wait until I finish the fusion, or handle it yourselves. You guys will be enough anyway.”
“Yes, the preparations are perfect. I will report the results to you as soon as you wake up.”
The woman answered without hesitation, showing her confidence.
It was an expression of confidence that overflowed from deep inside her heart.
“Then, be on your way.”
The woman in the lab coat bowed politely before walking out the room.
The woman left the room, a little nervous. At the same time, she looked excited as her chance to make a splash had finally come.
As I peeked through the window of the Trinity transport vehicle, I realized that I was getting closer to the Trinity Research Institute.
As if to show the influence of Trinity Institute, the buildings of the institute grew taller and the number of people on the streets increased.
But the atmosphere was really, really strange.
A delivery man carrying goods energetically.
A store owner diligently setting up their tent.
Office workers who were busy rushing out on the road.
The streets seemed full of life with people busy preparing for a new day.
At first glance, the place seemed like a typical vibrant cityscape and full of city-specific noise, but it was unfamiliar. It felt very unfamiliar to me.
They were just Objects pretending to be humans.
There had been numerous Objects pretending to be humans until now, but unlike them, the Objects here all had a terrible stench.
Inside those fake humans, black slime that defiled the existence called humans was flowing.
The closer I got to Trinity Research Institute, the more intense the stench became. It was so strong that it reminded me of the unbearable stench of a garbage disposal site.
Perhaps because of the overwhelming presence of Objects dripping with black slime, my senses stretched further than usual.
Somewhere in the distance, I could faintly sense the presence of a real human beings.
Actually, it was too far away for me to detect it normally, but since there were so few people around, my senses were able to stretch that far.
Those negative emotions emanated from the humans in the distance, contrasting sharply with the presence of an emotionless object.
Since the humans seemed to be in quite a dangerous situation, I summoned the Blue Reapers from the Mini Reaper Garden.
Go and protect the humans.
The Blue Reaper dispersed into thin air like a fog with an urgent look on their faces and flew towards the humans.
I was a little worried because the youngest were weak as they had no physical immunity, but I think the Blue Reapers would be better for this mission.
After sending the Bluee Reaper away, I saw a large gate in front of me.
< Trinity Research Institute: 3rd Division >
I had finally arrived at Trinity Research Institute, the culprit behind the black slime.
Upon arriving at Trinity Research Institute number 3, I was taken to a barren containment room. It was a room with nothing in it except for a large table placed in the center of the room.
When I looked at the table, it was filled with my favorite foods.
Pudding, cookies, marshmallows, cakes, and many more.
It was a situation I would have normally liked, but currently, I just couldn’t like it.
After all, the food was emitting an unbearable odor.
The odor was not at the level of adding some black slime to food, but at the level of disguising black slime as food.
In fact, there was a more serious problem than black slime disguised as food.
It was the terrible malice pointed towards me.
I could feel it from beyond the magic mirror located in the containment room.
It gave off a ridiculously concentrated stench of the black slime monsters I had seen so far.
I hear a knock on the magic mirror. Then the door next to the magic mirror opened, and a woman wearing a lab coat appeared.
She was a woman with an expression that seemed to look down on people.
“You’re a pretty smart kid, huh? To think an Object was able to notice something strange about the foods.”
For a slime monster, she was quite strong.
She was roughly 1.5 times stronger than the Hungry Ghost subspecies?
Still, that strength wasn’t enough for her to be so arrogant. So why did she act like that?