A loud bang echoed throughout the Central Research Institute.

With that loud noise, I was thrown straight through an office desk and slammed into the wall.

If it had been regular concrete, the impact would have gone right through it, but the walls of the research institute, made of Objects, remained unscathed without a single crack.

Agu, who had struck me with its tentacles, licked its large tongue and began looking around for another prey.

Its massive mouth drooled, and its body, covered in sticky mucus, was crawling with countless tentacles. It was an Object with an appearance that was hard to like, but I got back on my feet and charged towards Agu again.

It was like a wrestling match where the weight difference was at least 100 times.

But I had no choice but to keep charging.

It was my monster, so I had to stop it.

If I irresponsibly ran away, the employees trapped in the institute would die in vain.

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand the conditions for destroying Agu.

Even though it wasn't my preferred method, I decided to try incapacitating it in another way.

If all those tentacles were cut off, wouldn’t it be as good as dead?

The institute was usually a hellish workplace where the threat of death was constant, but compared to the current situation, it felt like heaven.

Agu was running around trying to eat people, while the Gray Reaper was fiercely attacking Agu.

The sealed Central Research Institute had turned into a battlefield.

The higher-ups, who should be giving orders, had all disappeared, and suddenly Agu, the creature only seen in documentaries about the incident 30 years ago, had appeared.

As I was running away from Agu, which was chasing people, I was saved by the Gray Reaper, who was just as famous as Agu.

It was a collision between the most famous and dangerous Object from 30 years ago and the most famous and dangerous Object of today.

The Gray Reaper charged in bravely but was quickly thrown aside.

I wondered if the Gray Reaper couldn’t handle Agu either, but then the Reaper got up again and charged at Agu once more.

And it kept repeating this over and over.

The scene made it look like the Reaper was trying to save us, who were cornered in the institute and facing death.

Even though that couldn't possibly be the case, the situation made it seem like it.

The Gray Reaper kept charging, charging, and charging again.

It looked like the Reaper would continue to be overpowered by Agu.

But then, something unexpected happened.

The situation, where the Gray Reaper was continuously being beaten, suddenly reversed.

As usual, the Gray Reaper charged at Agu, but with a massive blast, Agu’s agonized scream echoed throughout the institute.

Agu’s large eye had burst as if hit by a bomb, and green blood was gushing out nonstop.

How on earth?

The Gray Reaper’s left arm was gone from the elbow down. The severed part of the arm was burning yellow and slowly regenerating.

The people who had not yet escaped saw this and felt a glimmer of hope.

Please. Please let the slightly less dangerous-looking Gray Reaper win.

The method I just used was a combination of different abilities.

Ghostification, physical immunity, and regeneration. The combination of these three Object abilities.

An Object with the ability to ghostify can use a dangerous technique that overlaps its body with that of its opponent.

It’s very simple.

In ghost form, you overlap your body with the opponent’s, and then you undo the ghostification.

The problem is that both bodies get mixed up, causing fatal injuries to both.

In fact, there are some vicious Objects with ghostification abilities that repeatedly do this, mixing bodies together.

But when you add physical immunity, the story changes.

The one with physical immunity takes no damage while forcing harm onto the opponent.

It’s a method I often used when cutting through metal bars or the like.

But it’s not something you usually use against other Objects.

Why not? Because if the opponent isn’t physically destroyed, both will be wrecked!

That’s where regeneration comes in.

After being wrecked, if you regenerate, it’s painful, but it’s still beneficial.

Well, actually, it’s really painful, so I’d rather not have to use this method.

The flame burning inside my chest flared up fiercely, regenerating my lost body parts.

The fortunate thing was that there were many people watching my fight with Agu. Their emotions of fear and hope greatly fueled my flame, allowing my wounds to heal rapidly as if time was rewinding.

Moreover, it was evident that Agu, probably experiencing injury for the first time, was visibly shrinking back.

Well, how often does an Object with physical immunity get hurt?

For Agu, this might be the first pain it’s ever felt.

And what about me? When I first woke up in Seoul Forest, I was always covered in wounds.

Unlike those weaklings who were born with physical immunity, I’m an Object that’s been hurt and knocked around quite a bit.

The problem was that Agu also seemed to have a slight regeneration ability.

If that regeneration had no limits, it would be impossible to fully incapacitate it.

Now, while fighting Agu with all my might, I had to quickly come up with a way to chase it away or trap it.

Unfortunately, the battle didn’t remain one-sided.

Apparently realizing that it wouldn’t benefit from passively taking hits, Agu started actively countering.

It would push me away with its tentacles or pull back its body the moment our bodies overlapped.

The situation, where it was difficult for either of us to kill the other, dragged on and on, until something unexpected happened.

It was when I exchanged my left arm for one of Agu’s tentacles.

Agu howled in pain, smacking me with its remaining tentacles, sending me flying into the institute’s wall.

Under normal circumstances, I would’ve gotten up from the ridiculously sturdy wall of the institute and resumed the stagnant battle with Agu, but this time, I couldn’t.

‘???’

My body had easily pierced through the concrete wall and rolled out into the institute’s parking lot.

The institute was destroyed! How?

I quickly turned my gaze towards the institute and saw that it was no longer an Object.

From one side of the institute, Agu had broken through the wall and burst out.

The long, drawn-out scream from Agu seemed to express its delight at breathing fresh air for the first time in 30 years.

And with a confident stride, it charged towards me.

What? Did it think the outside world would give it an advantage?

I placed the cane directly into the Director’s hand.

"Senior! Is it okay to do that?"

"We don’t really have a choice here. Considering how the Deputy Director fled in such a panic, it’s clear the Gray Reaper has made its appearance. They’ve probably already released Agu into the institute by now."

"What? Then, aren’t we in danger?"

"That’s why we don’t have a choice. We have to hand over the cane."

Getting eaten by Agu vs. making a deal with a suspicious Object.

In this unreasonable dilemma, I chose to make the deal.

As soon as the cane was placed in his hand, the Director slammed it down on the floor twice, just like I did when using the cane’s power. Then, the Director disappeared on the spot.

My junior stared blankly at the space where the Director had been, looking like a raccoon that had lost its cotton candy after washing it in water, and then she shouted.

"Hey, Senior! Didn’t he just run away with the cane? We shouldn’t have made a deal with an Object! We got scammed, didn’t we?"

I walked over to the window and tapped it with my finger.

The clear ringing sound of glass echoed. Unlike before, it was now definitely an ordinary glass window.

The institute was no longer an Object.

"No, the deal went through. Let’s get out of here. This place is about to become hell."

I snatched the hammer from my junior, who was holding it, and swung it at the window.

If this were the institute from before, this glass would’ve repelled the hammer.

But not now.

Considering the hint given by my monocle, this was the expected outcome.

[As long as the Director remains, the institute is in an indestructible state.]

The Director had left with the cane, so the institute had become destructible.

"Ah! You should’ve let me do the smashing! I’m good at hammering!"

Ignoring my junior’s sudden nonsense, I handed the hammer back to her and hurried out.

"Follow me quickly. Considering the Objects that were isolated in the Central Research Institute, we need to get out of here as fast as possible."

Time was running out.

Now the Objects confined within the institute would start escaping.

And they were the most dangerous and troublesome Objects, the ones that had to be sent to the Central Research Institute.

If you don’t want to die in the chaos caused by rampaging Objects, you have to run for your life.

As we ran, the sound of the institute being demolished echoed behind us.

"If you don’t want to die, run faster!"

It was the sound signaling the start of hell.