Chapter 11: Central Research Institute (2)

A glass-walled isolation room. The walls and ceiling are painted white.

I was alone in the empty isolation room.

Unlike the expression of the employee who had put me in this isolation room, as if saying 'You're done for now that you've come this far!', I didn't feel much different in the isolation room of Central Research Institute.

If anything, the gloomy atmosphere was more than I had expected.

The dimly lit atmosphere and the rigid expressions of the researchers were quite unsettling.

The expressions of the lower-level employees directly managing the Objects were even worse than those at the Seoul Research Institute.

Just by their expressions, it seemed like they were the ones being isolated, not the Object.

Beep

A loud buzzer sound accompanied the release of high-temperature steam from the wall. I easily avoided it by ghostifying.

The experiments conducted in this isolation room were all like this.

It started with firearms.

Buzzer sounds and gunfire. Sudden gunfire without the buzzer.

The Central Research Institute was just repeating these useless actions.

Suddenly, bombs would explode inside the isolation room, and various toxic gases were sprayed. Highly acidic liquids were sprayed, and nitrogen was poured in.

Considering the diverse destruction conditions I've seen in Objects so far, these various attempts are not bad methods, but the focus is too much on destructive methods. There could be solutions that seem completely unrelated.

For example, just looking at the destruction condition of the steel pig statue in the Seoul Forest incident, there are clearly destruction conditions that would be difficult to find with this kind of approach. Of course, they don't know that, so they're doing these experiments.

The lizard trapped in the isolation room across from me was one such case.

The destruction condition for that lizard was [to receive a standing ovation from 10,000 people simultaneously].

The front of the isolation room was completely transparent glass, so I could see not only the people passing by, but also the interior of the isolation room across from me, where a lizard was being periodically killed.

It didn't look physically sturdy at all, and it was just a palm-sized little lizard. The only thing that set it apart was its blue color, otherwise it didn't look like an Object at all.

The lizard's true value was revealed in the experiments. A flamethrower reduced it to ashes without leaving a single bone fragment, but about an hour later, blue flames flickered in the air and the lizard was resurrected.

After that, persistent experiments continued. They tried various methods to prevent resurrection, such as dissolving it in acid and burning it, but the lizard kept reviving.

At some point, they gave up on killing the lizard and moved it to another isolation room.

I had hoped to be moved to another isolation room like the lizard, but it seemed they had no intention of sending me to a different place, unlike that blue lizard. What's the difference between me and that lizard?

***

In the place where the lizard had been, a cat was brought in. The person who seemed to be the cat's owner lured it into the isolation room with snacks and toys.

I thought they would torment the cat like they did to the lizard, but surprisingly, they didn't. The cat was a ghost-like, so they just isolated it without even trying.

The ghostly cat, though trapped, seemed quite relaxed.

However, this relaxation was short-lived.

Perhaps that's why the Research Institute corridors looked unusually dark. Black butterflies were densely clustered on the ceiling, and they were occasionally fluttering around.

Now that I think about it, when did those black butterflies appear? About a week ago?

Well, It's nothing serious.

Nothing serious at all.

Come to think of it, there were also a lot of butterflies in the mirror in my dormitory. Is that strange?

Not really strange.

Ah, it stings.

A black butterfly bit me with its sharp teeth.

But wait, do butterflies have teeth?

They might.

The butterflies started to swarm and cling to me.

When did this start? It's been like this since yesterday.

It's nothing serious.

"Hey, why do you have so many bug bites on your arms? It's only early summer, were there that many mosquitoes?"

My colleague's voice sounded strangely distant. Butterflies were swarming so densely that they obscured my vision as they flew down from the ceiling. Were butterflies sitting in my ears, preventing me from hearing properly?

I couldn't see my colleague's face because of the butterflies.

"Hey, what are you looking at? No matter how tired you are, you need to stay alert."

The butterflies were a hindrance. I couldn't even walk properly.

When are they going to get rid of these butterflies?

It's just us field staff suffering like this, the Research Institute always does this.

Amidst the butterfly-filled vision, an intense yellow pierced my eyes.

It was the intense yellow emanating from the Gray Reaper's eyes.

The Gray Reaper was gesturing for me to come over quickly.

Ah, I need to quickly signal that I've spotted the Reaper...

But my body wouldn't move.

Butterflies were clinging all over me, preventing any movement.

And I was too drowsy to even stand.

With the Gray Reaper right in front of me, I lost consciousness.