In the newly prepared containment room for the lizard, beautiful piano music echoed continuously.

The sight of the small lizard excitedly clapping and playing the piano was always amusing.

I couldn't help but clap along to the lizard's wonderful performance. The lizard's music had a charm that naturally made you want to applaud. If we could rent a plaza and have it perform, it might quickly fulfill the condition of "receiving a standing ovation from ten thousand people at once."

Leaving the lizard’s private containment room, I returned to my own containment room, where the soft sound of the TV and the gentle purring of a sleeping kitten greeted me.

In this incident, I was able to gain two Object friends. I was relieved it wasn’t just one.

After all the trouble of finding it, I would have been a bit sad if the lizard hadn’t regenerated here.

On TV, the hot topic of the day was being discussed.

[Chairman Omuryeong of the National Object Management Association, who has been accused of bribery and other charges, has not appeared due to his age and illness…]

It all started because a detective threw a small stone that caused a huge uproar.

The Central Research Institute and the corruption scandal of the National Object Management Association.

I hadn’t been particularly interested, but something piqued my curiosity, so I was now paying close attention to the news.

A terrorist incident from over a year ago.

It was revealed that the mastermind behind the Seoul Research Institute terrorist attack was none other than the 'Object Management Association.'

At that time, the "Cute Puppy" was an Object that everyone wanted because it was highly profitable.

The director of the Seoul Research Institute had refused to give bribes and fell out of favor with the association, leading to the terror attack, a worsening public opinion, and his own disappearance. In the end, the "Cute Puppy" came under the association’s control.

The association then used that puppy to rake in bribes.

In a way, you could say they were enemies from my human days.

But without needing to exact revenge, they were already collapsing on their own.

Privatization of the Central Research Institute. Deliberate encouragement of private labs to proliferate. Selling Objects for money. Embezzling funds meant for the containment of high-risk Objects.

The list of uncovered corruptions was so extensive that finding something they hadn’t done wrong would be easier. The downfall of the association was inevitable.

Could a case this big drag on in court until it quietly fades away?

No matter how corrupt the country, that wouldn’t happen, right?

I was awakened by a gentle poke on my cheek, and there was Yerin, greeting me with a bright smile.

“Good morning, Reaper!”

But I could only respond with a frown.

Seeing my grimace, Yerin gently pinched my cheek and asked,

“Did something happen?”

Something had happened.

Something very serious.

A small black butterfly perched on Yerin’s shoulder.

It was the same terrifying butterfly that had been at the Central Research Institute.

I lightly tapped the butterfly on her shoulder with my hand, and it fluttered away quickly.

“What? Did something really happen?”

When I gently nudged her shoulder, Yerin just smiled and patted my back.

As dangerous as it was, I needed to destroy it, but the conditions for doing so seemed difficult to meet immediately.

[Break the black mirror.]

No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t seem like a coincidence that Yerin had brought back the black butterfly from the Central Research Institute.

Ignoring Yerin’s invitation to watch TV together, I stepped out of the containment room, and, as expected, the sight that greeted me was troubling.

Black butterflies were fluttering all over the research institute’s corridors.

Lately, the atmosphere at the research institute had been good.

Why? Because every morning, the Reaper had been cheering people on.

Standing at the main entrance, with a stern and serious expression, the Reaper would pat people on the back as they passed through the gate, encouraging them.

It was a great way to start the day for many.

Some got one pat, while others got up to five, but the criteria were still unclear.

“I'm bored.”

But after the morning, the Gray Reaper would disappear somewhere.

Because of that, I couldn't even watch TV with the Reaper and was stuck with continuous work….

Of course, it was better than the security team that had to conduct search operations every time the Reaper disappeared.

Where does it go?

“…”

“If you're that bored, someone is coming for a tour on the first floor soon. Why don’t you go and give them a tour?”

Seeing me writhing in boredom, Senior Kim Jung-rye threw me a task. If I had known this, I would have taken my time with the work.

As I waited in the lobby of the research institute for the visitor who was supposed to arrive for the tour, I began to hear a strange noise.

The sound of a whip cutting through the air? The sound of the wind being relentlessly sliced was coming from the main entrance of the institute.

“Hey, isn’t that person crazy?”

“Where have I seen that person before? Who was it?”

As the murmuring grew, everyone’s eyes turned towards the entrance.

And the sound of the wind being cut grew louder and louder.

‘What on earth is that?’

As soon as the person entered my line of sight, all the noise and commotion made sense.

A madman had appeared!

A man in a neat yellow suit was wielding a flyswatter nunchaku, continuously hitting himself.

“Is Researcher Oh Yerin here?”

With a calm expression, the man started looking for Yerin.

I really, really didn’t want to acknowledge him, but since it was my job, I had no choice but to respond.

When I stepped forward and said, "I'm Oh Yerin," the man returned a polite greeting with, “Hello.” It was a very polite yet somehow not overwhelming greeting.

If only he didn’t have the flyswatter.

“That… uh…”

“Ha ha. Don’t worry about the flyswatter.”

No matter how much I tried to ignore it, I couldn’t, but I forced myself to continue the conversation.

“…You requested a tour?”

“I did request a tour, but that’s not my real purpose.”

“What?”

“I’ve sent multiple requests for cooperation regarding a case, but since I’ve received no response, I had no choice but to come here personally.”

The man, who had lowered his head in a polite bow, looked up with a serious expression.

“The Gray Reaper is needed to solve this case. Could you help us?”

Distracted by the flyswatter, I hadn’t realized it before, but now I recognized this man as a famous figure.

He was the “Yellow Detective,” who had recently gained fame.

Why had his cooperation request been ignored? Was it Sehee Unnie? I hope she didn’t miss another email.

Since cooperation requests were something Sehee Unnie handled, I thought about taking him to the director’s office when a loud thud echoed.

Something had struck the detective on the back, knocking him over.

Behind the fallen detective stood the Gray Reaper, who began kicking him mercilessly.

The situation was serious.

From the Songpa District sinkhole to the research complex, black butterflies were everywhere.

I hadn’t seen anyone with butterflies stuck to them like the man who had died at the Central Research Institute, but I wasn’t an all-seeing Object, so there were probably victims somewhere.

No matter how high up I climbed to survey the area, I couldn’t find any place where the butterflies were particularly concentrated or seemed to be emerging from.

Every morning, after doing pest control at the Sehee Research Institute, I spent the evenings searching for the source of the butterflies, but I still couldn’t find it.

‘It’s probably there.’

There was one place that seemed suspicious.

The deep sinkhole where Agu had been sucked in.

It seemed likely that the source of the butterflies was there.

The problem was that searching such a vast area would take more than a day or two.

And even then, there was no guarantee I would find anything.

If I couldn’t find it when I was at the Central Research Institute, finding it now seemed impossible.

I considered going back early to rest, but when I returned to Sehee Research Institute, it was in complete disarray.

The swarms of black butterflies that I had steadily driven out were now swarming the place.

Aside from the butterflies attached to people, I had driven out every one I saw, keeping Sehee Research Institute butterfly-free, but now there were more butterflies here than anywhere else.

To figure out what was going on, I checked the lobby of the research institute.

There, I found someone covered in butterflies, just like the man who had died at the Central Research Institute.

There were so many butterflies that I couldn’t even see how many people were in the lobby.

Pretending to save the person, I delivered a dropkick.

Of course, I also included the endless resentment I had for spreading those butterflies throughout Sehee Research Institute.

The sight of black butterflies scattering in all directions from the impact was quite a spectacle.

Startled, I rushed to the Reaper.

“Reaper, stop!”

For some reason, the Reaper was kicking the detective with an emotional intensity. When I pulled the Reaper away, the detective got up and looked around.

“Huh?”

“It’s gone! Gone! The Object that was stuck to me!”

The detective, who had been looking around as if searching for something, suddenly roared.

“Oooooooooh!”

“I’m alive!”

Instead of complaining about being beaten by the Reaper, the detective seemed extremely happy.

Watching him toss aside the flyswatter and shout made him seem a little out of his mind.

Did the Reaper kick him too hard and knock something loose?