Chapter 7: Seoul Forest Story (5)

The old man who had been slowly extending his arms suddenly stretched them out at an incredible speed, as if he thought this was enough.

"You let your guard down!"Alll latest novels at novelhall.com

The old man who had grabbed my ankles started to lift me up and slam me down onto the floor.

Boom, boom.

With each slam, the stone floor caved in and fragments scattered around. I could easily escape using my ghostly ability, but I was watching, amused by the constantly changing expressions on the old man's face.

At first, the old man's expression was one of triumphant satisfaction.

"Die! Die! Die!"

The old man kept slamming me without a break, as if trying to pierce through the floor. Seeing this, Sehee's face turned pale as she didn't know what to do.

"Now! Stop! Just die!"

The old man then started to lift me up with both hands and slam me down with all his might. Realizing something was off, the old man's expression of laughter disappeared.

Shouldn't he have realized by now that physical attacks are useless against an Object like me? Sehee seemed to have noticed I was unharmed, and started scribbling in her notebook, probably writing something like 'The Gray Reaper appears to be physically indestructible.'

After a few more slams, the old man seemed to realize it was meaningless, and gently placed me back on the floor, dusting off the debris on my body. Then, he crawled backwards towards the exit.

With a servile expression, the old man retreated at an incredible speed, and the only thing that had changed was the now-ruined floor.

Sehee rushed over and started fussing, brushing off the dust.

"Wow, Reaper, you are tougher than I thought. I've never tested this kind of thing before."

Private research institutes usually only conduct safe tests, as they could be held responsible if an incident occurred with a top-tier Object. Such dangerous experiments are often only done at the National Central Research Institute with special authorization.

"Anyway, do we have to defeat that old man to get out of here? Without a gun, I don't think we have any way to deal with him in the Seoul forest..."

Sehee seemed worried about how to get out of here.

In my opinion, the solution was simple and clear - kill the monster. If I [Destroy the source of the fire-made mochi] all the monster will die.

And the 'source' seemed to be the steel pig statue in front of me. If the monster has hidden it in the basement and fiercely guards the cherished Object, what else could be the origin?

The problem is the condition for destroying the pig statue

[Indigestion]

Uhmmm, what kind of nonsense is this?

***

Leaving Sehee, who was asking me to call for help, I circled around the pig statue, trying to figure out what kind of 'indigestion' a statue could have.

Suddenly, skeletons appearing from all sides began to grab onto various parts of my body, emitting heat.

"You'll burn too!"

"You too!"

As I was unaffected by the heat, the heat felt all around me began to intensify. It was as if there was an endless malice, demanding that I too must burn and die.

The intensifying heat was starting to reach its limit.

The skeletal hands grasping me crumbled into ashes and began to scatter, and the viscera-like inner walls caught fire and started burning.

And then a tremendous sound of a pig being slaughtered was heard, and I was back to the basement.

***

The basement was a mess. The blood-red inner walls of the steel statue had already begun to melt, and the basement visible through the cracks was a scene of smoke and flames.

Jumping down from the pig statue, I saw that it had already melted into a liquid. With no more clues visible, it seems the pig statue had melted due to indigestion.

Seeing the dangerous situation in the basement, Sehee took the lead in breaking down the prison bars to start the escape.

Rushing out of the basement, the scene that greeted us was that of a burning house and the thrashing figures of deranged individuals all around.

The deranged individuals, spewing flames from their mouths and eyes, were simply writhing in agony on the ground. The problem was that the flames were setting the house on fire.

"I-I cannot die like this!"

A towering old man, over 5 meters tall, suddenly sprang up from the burning house and shouted.

"I don't want to die! After all I've been through! After all I've endured!"

The old man screamed as his house burned to the ground, he saw people fleeing, and he yelped.

"I won't die alone!"

The old man's agility was not as sharp as before, but his speed was still considerable.

Exhausted by the thick smoke and intense heat, the people were even more unable to escape his speed.

However, the old man's final attempt was blocked by the interference of other deranged individuals who were trapped in the house.

"How dare you! How dare you!"

The long-limbed, spider-like deranged individuals continued to bite and entangle each other, not stopping the fight until they were completely reduced to ashes.

The fight continued until morning, and I kept watching the scene.