The lonely Sehee Research Institute that the Reaper had left behind.

They were sweating at the site of the Research Institute, which was undergoing an untimely large-scale construction project.

In fact, I wanted to go on a journey to find the Reaper together with the investigation team, but I was rejected by Senior Kim Jungroo.

Seeing them wearing hard hats and hammering nails, no one would think they were researchers.

Even for a small Research Institute, to treat researchers this harshly!

Apparently, they were preparing for some newly acquired Object, but I'm not sure if our Research Institute has the capability to receive an Object that requires such a large construction project.

I thought the Research Institute was just living off the 'Gray Reaper Containment Subsidy', but it seemed like Sister Sehee was considering expanding the Institute.

"Wow, senior. Is that all gold?"

"Yeah, solid gold."

A massive lump of gold was being brought into the Research Institute.

A gold piece that size must be worth billions, right?

"Senior, but what is that?"

"A doghouse."

"Huh?"

"A huge and expensive doghouse."

What did you say?

***

The Songpa-gu refugee camp disaster that struck Seoul was wrapped up faster than expected.

Puffing on a pipe, I watched the memorial service unfolding from a distance.

I had neatly completed the request from the government.

Having taken on a temporary position to carry out the request, now that it was done, I was no longer involved.

After retrieving the corpse of the old man from the site and delivering it to the family, I had completed all my tasks.

However, there was something bothering me, which is why I was watching from afar like this.

The camp was still blockaded.

Even though the incident had ended long ago.

***

At the refugee camp where the horrific murder took place, people in white protective suits were swarming around.

They were researchers from the Trinity Research Institute, a joint institute formed by three research institutes.

They were carefully collecting the butterfly corpses soaked in blood, placing them in sealed containers one by one.

The amount of butterfly corpses they had collected was enormous.

From the blood, they sorted out human skin, personal belongings, and butterfly corpses. The belongings were classified as lost items, and the skin was all burned on the spot.

Nearby, a joint memorial altar was set up to commemorate the tragedy.

Even though only skin remained, the unidentified corpses that even the families hadn't seen were treated like trash here.

Burning the victims' skin right next to the memorial altar showed the precariousness of modern times.

They were extracting data relentlessly from the site, not caring about the destroyed containers in the camp, digging up large amounts of soil.

At one site, they discovered something peculiar.

 <This C-2. We've found something strange.>

 <It looks like a glass shard with no thickness. It only seems to have physical properties in shadows, so it appears to be an Object.> 

<This is A-1. Good work, C-2. That seems to be the Object we were targeting. Preserve the site until the containment team arrives.>

They had discovered a glass shard with no thickness. It would disappear under light and was so thin it could easily be missed.

However, those glass shards were already in pieces, so they could be discovered.

A group of people wearing dark blue protective suits, different from the white ones, headed towards the place where the glass shards were found.

It happened one early morning when people's attention was diverted.

***

The Trinity Research Institute, which became the largest research institute in Korea in name and reality after the dissolution of the Central Research Institute and the merger of three research institutes.

Two men were smoking cigarettes in the smoking room set up inside.

"What are you reading so amusingly?" 

"A discarded report on the Gray Reaper's communication ability. This is kind of funny."

"What's so funny about it?"

"Usually these reports are submitted by the Research Institute, but this one was submitted by a detective. You should take a look too."

<Gray Reaper Communication Ability Report> 

---

<Discarded - Insufficient format. Insufficient evidence.>

<Do not trust the contents of this report.> 

<This report has been discarded for the aforementioned reasons.> 

<The Gray Reaper can 100% perfectly understand and speak human language, at least Korean.>

<But it does not wish to communicate.> 

<If the Gray Reaper does not wish to communicate, what can we do?>

<Whether we feel sorry, get angry, or threaten, we cannot influence the Reaper.>

<Communication with the Gray Reaper will only happen when it wants to.>

---

"It's certainly an amusing read. Seems written by someone who doesn't even know that Objects usually read minds to communicate. As if a petty detective would know that Objects understand Korean? Might as well say it even went to elementary school?"

The laughter of the men chuckling echoed through the smoking room.

***

Detective POV:

---

A small office located on a back road in the outskirts of Seoul.

"Senior! Why do you keep carrying that around? I thought you'd obviously throw it away."

The junior threw out a completely unrelated question while carefully wiping the hammer with a handkerchief.

"What?"

When I turned around to check, Watson, which I had donated to a nearby Research Institute's isolation room, was greeting me.

I figured this might happen, so I locked it up in the Research Institute's isolation room this time, but it ended up coming back again.

I guess a regular isolation room can't contain it.

"I've thrown it away quite a few times. But it just keeps coming back." 

"Wow, what a hassle. I still get a little scared thinking about what happened at the camp, but you can't throw it away either..."

Sighing, I spoke about the plan going forward.

"If it comes back this time, I'll give up and just carry Watson around, so you'll have to get used to it too."

"Huh? Why? If that thing goes berserk, it'll turn your neck into a twisted doughnut!"

"If I can't throw it away, I'll have to make use of it. It'll help us out three times, right?"

"Hiieek, don't use it when I'm around."

The terrified-looking junior turned on the TV with the remote.

The TV was showing the case that the junior and I had solved. 

Since it was such a shocking incident, the butterfly incident was all anyone talked about these days, no matter where you went.

It was a shocking case that the government would have tried to cover up, but it became so big that they had no choice but to disclose it publicly.

Thanks to several other incidents in Seoul that became even bigger topics than what happened at the camp.

When the mirror shattered and the butterflies started dying, I thought, 'Ah, the case is solved now!' but if I had been thinking straight, it was something that could have been predicted.

While I was rejoicing over solving the case, in Seoul, families, friends, and lovers suddenly started coughing up blood and dying. 

It was the butterfly-infected people from other regions dying like that.

However, those who witnessed the corpses coughing up blood and dying had an even more horrific sight.

The fact that those people only had their skin left. 

And the fact that inside was just filled with blood.

And inside was filled with dead butterflies the size of a human head.

Because of such horrific incidents, the TV was repeatedly talking about that story 24 hours a day.

"There's nothing to watch these days."

The junior, who was flipping through channels, expressed a similar sentiment as me.

"Oh right! Senior! What happened at the refugee camp before I arrived?"

The junior pointed at the TV with her finger and asked.

"What are you even asking about?"

"You know, That, A trainee reporter from Daily Object went missing. The president of Daily Object is making a big fuss, claiming it's the work of the Gray Reaper. Don't you know anything about it, senior?"

She made whooshing sounds with her mouth and took a boxing stance.

"From the photos, that trainee reporter looked like a bad character. I bet you didn't just leave him alone, senior. Did you beat him up and make him run away?"

"I knew he was tailing me. But I never even saw that reporter's face."

I let out a deep sigh and placed a document on top of the junior's head, who was idly chattering.

"Why don't you investigate this if you're bored? The pay is quite decent."

The paper the junior unfolded read,

<Investigation on the self-proclaimed pseudo-manufacturers, commonly known as 'Makers' who claim to create objects.>

<Rumors suggest that they collect a large quantity of golden horns.>

<There are multiple suspicions of their involvement in crimes, so caution is advised.>

***

??? POV:

---

It was just 3 days after Lophiomus disappeared beyond the sinkhole, when the butterflies had not yet spread.

The unsightly sound of a cane tapping on the ground echoed through the ruins, still smoldering with smoke here and there from the lingering scars.

Tap. Tap.

At that moment, a silhouette melted into existence in mid-air.

"Finally, finally. I'm back. In Seoul, in Korea, and on this Earth."

The man, holding an antique wooden cane in one hand, was the director of the Central Research Institute.

"It seems Lophiomus has hidden underground. No matter how many times I peek into the future, I can't fathom why Lophiomus fled. Well, that's just one of the many things I have to unravel."

As the director walked away with a cheerful gait, translucent researchers trailed behind him like ghosts.

"Finally! We've finally returned. Come, to our new Research Institute!"

With arms spread wide and an exaggerated grin, the director's face was contorted with an eerie joy. Behind him, the gloomy-looking researchers melted into the shadows.

The director continued walking briskly northward, ever northward with a lively stride.