Splash.

A Trinity Lab researcher tossed a corpse into the lake.

Though it polluted the water source used for drinking, the researcher threw the body into the lake without hesitation.

After all, the researcher didn’t plan to stay in this cave for long, so it was an easy choice.

Instead, his thoughts wandered to more trivial matters.

“If someone comes, I’ll tell them this lake is for drinking water. And when they see the corpse at the bottom, they’ll be so shocked.”

“And when they turn around—ta-da! There I am, transformed into an evolved being.”

“Their expression would be priceless.”

Chuckling inwardly, he meticulously checked and rechecked the area to ensure no corpses were left behind.

Why was he being so obsessively thorough?

It was because a corpse he hadn’t moved had suddenly disappeared.

The girl’s body left on the altar and the man in the black suit—both were gone.

In the place where the girl had lain, only a bloodstain remained.

Where the man had been, only bits of entrails were scattered, but the body had vanished.

And yet, he had no memory of moving them!

It was enough to make him believe in ghosts.

Since then, he had been working with the assumption that he’d simply forgotten what he’d done, so he was being extra careful now.

Thanks to the researcher’s efforts, the cave that had been filled with dismembered bodies until recently was now spotless, without a single corpse left.

All that remained were the bloodstains on the floor and walls and the pervasive smell of blood in the cave.

While the smell might eventually dissipate with time, the bloodstains were there to stay.

“Ugh, this blood smell just won’t go away. This is bad.”

The researcher muttered to himself in frustration, sitting in a corner of the cave, waiting for the next sacrificial victim to arrive.

There was no sign of life anywhere in the sand, no trace of people.

At last, the “Sand Shark” operation had succeeded in driving away everyone lingering nearby.

Now, all that was left was to check if there was anyone inside that cave.

As I approached the area near the red skull, the stench of blood was overwhelming.

The smell of human blood.

“Ugh, this blood smell just won’t go away. This is bad.”

A voice filled with irritation echoed from inside the cave.

Following the voice, I entered the cave, which was drenched in blood.

The floor, the walls, even the ceiling, were all smeared with a dark red.

The texture of the red rocks and the fresh blood was distinct enough to be immediately noticeable.

Uncoagulated blood formed bizarre patterns as it dripped down the walls.

Pieces of human flesh were scattered on the floor as if they were nothing.

And in the midst of this horrific scene, a man sat calmly.

No, not a man—a monster.

He looked human, but he wasn’t.

A grotesque entity, a fusion of human and Object.

Malice toward humanity coursed through his veins.

He wasn’t born an Object; he had been injected with something to become this hideous creature.

Upon hearing my footsteps, the creature’s face lit up as he addressed me.

“Oh, hello! Welcome…”

But when he saw who I was, he recoiled in terror.

“The... The Gray Reaper! Why... why is the Gray Reaper here?”

His face went pale as he stumbled backward.

He’s more scared than I expected.

“B-but you don’t attack humans, right? I’m human! Haha.”

The monster insisted he was human.

But to my eyes, he looked far more harmful to humans than any Object.

I ignored his words and kept walking toward him.

“D-did you find out? The lab said I would never be discovered!”

The man, now pressed against the cave wall, looked utterly desperate.

“No, no, I don’t want to die! Please, spare me! Please!”

As I got closer, he clutched his head, trembling violently.

Then, his clothes burst off as he transformed into a monstrous form.

The stench emanating from him became unbearable.

The foul smell made me wrinkle my nose and step back.

“Y-yeah, I’m strong enough. Even the Gray Reaper isn’t that scary.”

The monster mumbled as if trying to hypnotize himself.

He must have seen my retreat as a sign of weakness.

In reality, he was no match for me.

“I can win. I can win!”

He spun his whip-like arm around and struck the ground with such force that the rocks shattered. The grotesque arm came crashing down toward me.

I phased through his arm and body, becoming intangible, and then solidified.

“Gaaah!”

The monster’s arm was severed in an instant, and he rolled on the ground, clutching the stump.

Soon after, his veins began to thrash wildly as if trying to escape his body.

“No! The balance! Aaaagh!”

The veins tore through his flesh, rampaging like a separate living entity.

His limbs twisted in unnatural directions as he writhed in agony, and then, suddenly, he went silent and died.

His body exploded with a “pop.”

All that remained was a pool of foul-smelling black blood.

Blood created by an act that was undoubtedly harmful to humans.

The stench was so nauseating I wanted to gag.

I had no desire to touch the stuff.

Just for fun, I summoned a Golden Reaper into the pool of black blood.

With a dramatic entrance, the Golden Reaper struck a pose.

But as soon as it noticed the black blood covering it, it shrieked and collapsed to the ground, utterly dismayed.

It lay there, sprawled out, with a look of utter hopelessness.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I repeatedly phased in and out of intangibility. Seeing this, the Golden Reaper quickly realized it could cleanse itself by doing the same and revived itself.

Wow, it caught on fast.

Then it came over and started hitting me furiously.

Thump, thump.

This time, it seemed really angry, and it didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon.

I let it continue pounding on my head as I ventured deeper into the cave.

The cave was covered in bloodstains, but there were no bodies, which had puzzled me. Now I understood why.

The lake inside the cave was filled with corpses.

Ugh, I wouldn’t drink that water.

I had been sitting on top of the red skull, staring up at the crimson moon for some time.

Even though a lot of time had passed, the night showed no sign of ending, and the red moon still hung high in the sky.

Looking down, the horizon stretched endlessly in every direction.

Though I sat atop a fairly high skull, all I could see was an infinite desert.

Shattered pieces of a statue were scattered on the ground below.

When I tried to leave the cave earlier, it suddenly kicked me, so I destroyed it.

One Golden Reaper lay asleep on my head, breathing softly.

Even in its sleep, it occasionally tapped my head—how angry was it?

The reason I was staring up at the red moon was because of the “center of the desert.”

Golden Reapers had already spread evenly across the entire desert.

But I still couldn’t find the center of the desert.

A perfect spherical dome.

But within that dome, my position kept changing.

At first, I thought the desert was flowing like a river, but it turned out the dome was moving.

No matter how much I looked, the area beneath the moving moon seemed to be the center of the desert.

The Golden Reapers were already with all the humans.

Humans are safe now.

There are no people around.

Now it’s time to wake the red skull.

I leaped down from the red skull, summoning the Golden Reapers.

Standing on a sand dune where the massive red skull was clearly visible, I watched it intently.

Behind me, a crowd of unemployed Reapers who hadn’t found their one-to-one match with a human lined up in droves.

Using my “sight,” I checked the conditions for destruction.

<Destruction of the heart.>

As soon as the condition was confirmed, the desert began to pulsate.

Rumble.

Pillars of fire erupted from the sand.

The flames cascaded down onto the red skull like a waterfall.

The rocks attached to the skull melted away, erasing any trace of what had once looked like a cave.

What remained was an ancient red skull, exuding a formidable presence.

As it stood up, the skull’s blazing eyes shone with fiery light.

Where the skull had been lying, only a lonely lake of underground water remained.

Though only its upper body emerged from the sand, it was as tall as a building.

Within its ribcage, a burning heart clung to the bones.

That must be the weak spot.

Thud.

Thud, thud.

The heavy sound of its footsteps echoed.

The skull, with only its upper body above the sand, began to stride toward us, parting the sand as if cutting through water.

The red skull’s fiercely burning eyes fixed on me.

It opened its fleshless mouth wide and spewed fire.

Its sheer size was intimidating, and now it was spewing flames hot enough to melt the sand.

For an ordinary person, this sight would be terrifying.

But to me, it looked like a considerate skull, even lighting its own fire.

Thanks, Skull!

Despite the intense flames turning the surrounding sand into glass, the Golden Reapers and I remained unharmed.

I smiled confidently and pointed at the skull.

That skull is harmful!

It’s very harmful to humans!

The Golden Reapers began their charge from behind me.

The wave of Golden Reapers clung tightly to the red skull like termites devouring wood.

The intense flames that protected the skull were useless.

The skull frantically swung its massive hands, trying to swat them away, but it was a futile effort.

Even when they were flung off, more Golden Reapers would immediately latch onto it.

Finally, one of the Golden Reapers managed to pierce through the burning heart inside the skull’s ribcage.

The heart began to spew flames as if it were a punctured balloon.

A deep, resonant sound echoed across the entire desert as the skull emitted a strange, otherworldly wail.

The red skull, now supporting itself with both arms, halted its movements and remained motionless.

The Golden Reapers stopped their assault and gazed up at the skull.

The faintly flickering flames within the skull's eye sockets seemed to stare directly at me.

Unlike before, its gaze was oddly calm and carried a sense of emotion.

As the heart slowly ceased beating and the flames sputtered out, the red skull began to crumble into dust.

The massive red skull collapsed with a tremendous cloud of dust.

Given its enormous size, it took a considerable amount of time for the dust to settle.

Both the heart and the remaining bones disintegrated into fine powder.

All that was left was the still-burning skull head.

So now, all I have to do is dance on top of it?

I glanced at the Golden Reaper, wondering if it could do the dance for me, but it just stood there with a carefree, innocent smile on its face.

Ugh, how annoying.