As dusk transitioned into night, a large man strode purposefully toward a massive mansion located on the outskirts of Seoul.

The mansion, though clearly luxurious, exuded a gloomy and ominous atmosphere as if shrouded in deep shadows.

The large man, with a short, blunt, conical golden horn protruding from the crown of his head, was someone who made his living by kidnapping people and selling them.

Despite his confident strides, his mind was in turmoil.

Usually, jobs were initiated by a butler from this mansion, who contacted him directly.

But strangely, this time, there was an unusual request: the client wanted to meet in person before giving the job.

Ordinarily, he would have ignored such a suspicious request.

However, given that this client had provided numerous lucrative assignments in the past and carried the trustworthy business card of the Director of Trinity Labs, he couldn't refuse and had come to the mansion.

When he knocked loudly at the entrance, the butler appeared as if on cue, greeting him.

"The master is waiting for you. Please follow me."

It was the same voice he was accustomed to hearing over the phone.

The butler was a gaunt old man with an unsettling presence that made one feel tense.

The large man followed the butler past the mansion's main gate.

What greeted him beyond the gate was a black garden.

The garden was covered in black soil, and strange black plants grew abundantly.

And there was a strong smell of oil.

It was an incredibly unpleasant garden, but with the butler's eerie presence leading the way, the large man dared not show any sign of discomfort.

Fortunately, the smell of oil disappeared as they entered the mansion.

The interior of the mansion, in stark contrast to the unsettling garden, appeared even more opulent.

A giant Trinity Labs logo was displayed prominently in the center, and the windows were adorned with intricate stained glass mosaics.

The walls were lined with ornate tapestries, and a chandelier cast a soft, luxurious glow from the ceiling.

Passing through the grand lobby, they arrived at a large drawing room.

There, a man in a neat suit stood up to greet the large man.

The man, who appeared to be in his middle years, was the master of the mansion.

"Ah, you're here. I've heard you've been working hard on my behalf lately. I wanted to meet you in person."

The middle-aged man spoke as he looked around the drawing room.

The walls of the room were adorned with an array of golden horns, mounted like deer heads in a hunter's lodge.

Each one was large and elaborate in design.

All of them were horns the large man had delivered.

"Thank you for always providing such excellent horns. You know, the bigger and more intricate the golden horns, the more enjoyable they are to look at."

"Ah, yes..."

The large man had felt uneasy ever since entering the room.

He couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong, but the feeling was unmistakable.

All he wanted was for the conversation to end quickly so he could leave.

"Don't you feel something too? I find this room to be very comforting. Although research on golden horns is prohibited, so there's no data, I'm sure they have some beneficial effect."

The large man responded half-heartedly, glancing around the room.

"Oh, I’ve been talking too much by myself. I called you here because I was curious."

The middle-aged man walked over and handed the large man a round, jewel-like object.

The sphere, which was a swirling mix of peach and black colors, resembled a combination of pearl and black pearl.

"Uh... what is this?"

"It's a new supplement developed by our lab. Go ahead, try it."

"Do I have to take it right now?"

"Of course! It's a top-secret product at the lab. Go on, take it!"

At this point, the large man began to regret accepting this invitation and coming to the mansion.

Why had he allowed himself to be lured to such a suspicious place and pressured into taking an even more suspicious substance? All for money.

Naturally, the large man had no intention of swallowing such a dubious pill.

But judging by the middle-aged man's demeanor, something bad might happen if he refused to take it.

So, he decided to pretend to take it while secretly hiding the pill in his palm.

"I’ve taken it."

The middle-aged man simply stared at him in response.

"If you have nothing more to say, I’ll be on my way."

As the large man turned to leave, he heard a voice behind him.

"How strange."

He tried to ignore the comment and quickly made his way back the way he had come.

But outside the drawing room, the butler was waiting and blocked his path.

"You need to take the supplement, sir."

The large man tried to shake off the butler's grip, but it was impossible.

The butler's face was unnervingly pale, with bulging veins that were an eerie black color.

Crunch.

"Aaargh!"

The butler’s skeletal arm effortlessly crushed the large man's arm bones.

As the man writhed in pain, the butler retrieved the pill from his pocket.

"Yes, it was strange. No matter how compatible you are, there should have been some change."

Taking the pill from the butler, the middle-aged man forced it into the large man's mouth.

"Now, get some rest."

In the fading light of his vision, the large man saw the butler melting away into a puddle of black sludge.

The Kkachisan Conference was remarkably well-organized.

The participating research institutes were some of the most renowned in Korea, and the government had thoroughly prepared, ensuring the event ran smoothly.

"Now, now, don’t get too angry. It's all right."

But no matter what, I couldn’t focus on the presentations.

The Golden Reaper was in an extremely agitated state.

It seemed both sad and angry.

No matter how much I stroked it to smooth out its frown, it had little effect.

Even offering it a handful of candy didn’t help.

The only consolation was that it wasn’t trying to escape from my hand.

Instead, it seemed to be clinging to the back of my neck or head, but I couldn’t figure out why.

The cause of the Golden Reaper's strange behavior was quite clear.

The researchers from Trinity Labs.

They frequently pulled out some mysterious snack, and that seemed to be the trigger.

At first, I thought it was whining because it wanted to eat the snack...

But when I went to the Trinity researcher and got one, the Golden Reaper's reaction was shocking.

It punched the snack out of my hand with a solid thud.

Then it drooped with an incredibly forlorn expression.

The snack was a small cube, peach-colored, and resembled a tiny piece of cheese.

It smelled very fragrant, so why did it dislike it so much?

Curious, I asked the researcher what it was.

"Oh, this?"

The Trinity researcher looked me up and down, then smirked before continuing.

"It's a synthetic food we're testing at Trinity. All the world’s leading research institutes are working on this. Object Food. I didn’t think there were still research labs unaware of this."

The man then turned and walked away without another word.

As he left, he continued muttering insults about Sehee Research Lab under his breath.

"Thieves just after government grants."

"Idiots who only know how to contain Objects, not how to use them."

That was the gist of it.

I could have been angry at his words, but I was too busy holding back the Golden Reaper, who was ready to charge at him.

It was genuinely trying to take him down, and calming it down was no easy task.

So, in the end, the Golden Reaper simply disliked the snack.

Well, considering it was some suspicious food made from Objects, I didn’t particularly want to eat it either.

Crunch. Crunch.

The sound of the Golden Reaper angrily biting into candy accompanied the presentation.

Crunch.

The steady crunching suddenly stopped.

Had it already finished the candy?

Looking down at the Golden Reaper, I saw that more than half of the candy was still left.

The Golden Reaper was staring intently at something.

And then, in the blink of an eye, it vanished!

Did it turn into a ghost like the Gray Reaper?

The moment the Golden Reaper disappeared, the sound of glass shattering echoed through the presentation hall.

Then a scorching hot wind began to blow.

Papers flew everywhere, and the wind was strong enough to lift the chairs.

The air seemed to crack like broken glass, and from the cracks, endless streams of red sand poured out.

The space began to warp as if viewed through a fisheye lens.

Amid the chaos, voices were raised, but they were drowned out by the roar of the wind.

Then, with a loud bang, fist-sized stones shot out in all directions.

The deadly stones pierced through people easily, and one was heading straight for me.

Ah, just great.

In the comfortable isolation room of Sehee Research Lab, the Gray Reaper was enjoying a nap.

Suddenly, dozens of Golden Reapers began popping up around the sleeping Gray Reaper with a pop, pop sound.

They started hitting the Gray Reaper vigorously.

Punching its cheeks.

Flicking its eyelids.

Jumping on its belly.

This assault was also happening in the Golden Reaper's garden.

The Golden Reapers were beating up the sleeping Gray Reaper there too.

The Golden Reapers seemed to be in a hurry.

It was as if they were shouting, "Wake up! Wake up now!"

The Black Agent stood at the back of the presentation hall, witnessing the unfolding chaos.

While everyone else was panicking, the Black Agent quickly hoisted the blonde girl onto his back and began fleeing from the cracks.

He had started running as soon as the hot wind blew, reacting with remarkable speed.

"Mister, what’s going on?"

"It seems to be an Object-related incident. First, we need to get out of here as fast as possible. We need to get out of Kkachisan at least."

The Black Agent gritted his teeth and kept running, but it wasn’t enough.

With the sound of shattering glass, a powerful shockwave knocked the Black Agent off his feet.

Then came the relentless wind and sand.

The Agent shielded the blonde girl in his arms and braced himself against the onslaught.

When the wind finally subsided, the Black Agent stood up, pushing through the sand, only to find a completely different landscape before him.

A desert stretching to the horizon.

A vast, endless red desert.