Seoul Object Story

Chapter 23: Black Butterfly (4)

Yellow Detective POV:

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The military was heavily guarding the parking lot when a peculiar van with a strange pattern engraved on it started entering.

There was something written in Sanskrit on top of the vehicle.

As the driver's door of the vehicle opened, Junior came bursting out and ran towards us, shouting loudly.

"Senior! I'm here!!"

"Okay, I can hear you, so don't shout so loudly."

I couldn't help but smile a little at the familiar sight of Junior.

Since I didn't have much time, I had entrusted Junior with a few important tasks to take care of.

Given the tight time frame, Junior's handling of the tasks was quite impressive.

As the cargo compartment of the van that Junior came out of opened, a thick smell of blood suddenly started wafting out.

What emerged with heavy footsteps was a person of enormous size.

This person was so huge that he could not have fit into a regular van, only in the large cargo compartment.

The giant was nearly 3 meters tall.

What was even more impressive was the massive, bulging muscles all over his body.

Despite the ripped physique, the wrinkled face hinted at his old age.

"The old man has gotten even bigger than before."

In his right hand was a huge staff, in his left a large book, and around his neck a rosary.

His attire made him look like a monk, but he was actually an old man with no relation to Buddhism.

In fact, it was hard to see him as a monk, given the large nails embedded all over his face.

He had driven nails into his own eyes in his search for his daughter.

***

I guided the old man to a place where he could wait.

"Old man, you wait here then."

"Understood."

The old man was one of the key figures necessary for my upcoming plan.

He could be considered an insurance policy in case the search ended in failure.

The Object he possessed, "The Book of Prescience", was dangerous to use, but the old man readily accepted my request.

Perhaps he was helping out of gratitude for the assistance I had provided him in the past when he was searching for his daughter.

The ability of the "Book of Prescience" was simple - it could reveal the location of nearby objects.

In a confined space like this, it would be the perfect Object to use.

The problem was that he had to destroy his eyes with nails to use the book, and there were various side effects, including the monstrous physique he had acquired.

I always telling him to stop using the book if he wanted to live longer, but the old man wouldn't listen.

Of course, my persuasiveness was lacking while I was still carrying Watson.

The 'Book of Prescience' was an inferior Object compared to Watson, but it was necessary for resolving this incident.

I could probably get the answer from Watson immediately if I asked, but I had an instinctive feeling that I absolutely should not request that kind of favor.

I had a strong sense that I must not ask Watson to solve this case.

What if I ignored this intuition and something terrible happened?

***

After that, many more people started arriving.

From freelancers who roamed around Seoul Forest reporting Objects and living off the reward money, to the search team from the Research Institute that primarily conducted exploration work.

I borrowed a hand from anyone I could reach within my sphere of influence.

The only regret was that I couldn't call the guy in the black suit from the Central Research Institute investigation team, as he's been busy with hearings these days.

The plan had two parts, Plan A was the search operation by the expert investigators, and Plan B was use the Object.

Plan A was the camp search operation carried out by the professional investigators. If they managed to find the Object, that would be the best outcome.

Plan A, the straightforward search, was almost certain to fail, but I had to try it nonetheless.

If they couldn't find it, then I would have to move on to Plan B.

The 'Book of Prescience' should be able to reliably locate the item, as its range could comfortably cover the entire camp.

But what if it still couldn't be found?

Would I have to just watch the missile attack, or should I ask Watson for help?

***

Looking down at the camp from the top of the towering walls.

Before the missile attack, I must completely take control of the camp interior and find the Object that creates the butterflies.

But just by looking, the difficulty seemed considerable.

"Wow, is that the refugee camp? The people are stationed there like sentries."

"That's the problem. It's hard to infiltrate."

If I cause a commotion, the 'Daily Object' journalists who are looking for stories around the 'refugee camp' will flock in and start taking photos indiscriminately.

To avoid headlines like "Camp forcibly suppressed," "Oppression of public power," I had to handle this quietly and quickly.

Plan 0 - Capture all the people in the camp as quickly as possible.

Plan A - Have the search team search the interior of the camp.

Plan B - Have the old man find the target Object in the center of the camp through the "Book of Prescience".

"So if Plan Zero doesn't work, we can't do anything?"

Junior was alternately looking at the operation map and the plan, deep in thought.

"But senior, can't we just shoot them all to death? You said there are no survivors anyway, right? There are soldiers, so let's just shoot them all!"

Junior started spouting nonsensical ideas again.

"Ah! If we use guns, the noise will bring the journalists running! And the soldiers said they don't know the details, right? Ugh, what do we do? Is there no way?"

It's clear that the Gray Reaper has some means to suppress the butterflies, but seeing no change in the camp, it seems to be taking a long time to have an effect.

Or does the Gray Reaper have to do something directly?

It's really inconvenient that we can't communicate.

Come to think of it, where did the Gray Reaper who was just here go?

***

Reaper (MC) POV:

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It seems those detectives can't solve the problem without my help.

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If the problem the Central Research Institute faced was 'Lophiomus', this time it could be seen as the "butterfly-infected" ones.

I already know the enemy is not human, but since I can't prove it, I have to treat them as human, which is a sad situation.

Listening to the detectives and their assistant's meaningless discussion, I had an epiphany.

That's right, if I just blow them all up, it will be solved.

It won't be as difficult as with the Lophiomus.

The butterfly-infected ones will just burst if I touch them.

Thinking that way, the seemingly meaningless wall actually had its uses.

***

After crossing the wall through ghostification, what I found at the end was a person who was essentially dead, vomiting blood.

I think they called him a 'Daily Object' journalist?

He seemed to be mumbling something, but what was he saying?

The butterfly-infected ones were gathered around the journalist, feeding him the butterflies.

The man, whose skin had turned leathery, instantly swelled up again and regained human form.

The behavior of the butterflies seemed a little different from what I saw at the Central Research Institute.

They seemed smarter and more horrifying, if I had to describe it.

The speed at which they devoured a person also seemed to have increased significantly.

The butterflies didn't seem to react much to me, as if this was their first time seeing me.

I walked up to them with a big grin and gave them a little tap.

They burst like water balloons.

In the place of the exploded human, only the shredded remnants of skin soaked in blood remained.

The startled butterfly-infected ones, now seemingly understanding the situation, began to scatter and flee in all directions.

Time for a fun game of tag!

***

??? POV:

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Aaaaaaah!

A scream echoed from a distant corner of the camp.

I covered my mouth with both hands and breathed slowly.

I absolutely can't be discovered. Absolutely can't.

If I'm discovered, I'll turn back into a butterfly.

Crunch, crunch.

The sound of soft soles slowly pushing against the sand on the ground could be heard.

"Eek."

I was so startled that I let out a sound of swallowing my breath.

It was clearly far away, but the sound clearly came from the distance!

Thump, thump, thump.

A small and cute knocking sound echoed.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

The knocking sound kept getting faster and faster, and I forgot to breathe and kept praying that the Reaper would just pass by.

Bang-!

The container wall was pierced and a small arm of the Reaper popped out.

"Aaaah!"

Bang-!

Bang-!

Bang-!

The container wall was pierced and the Reaper's arm kept popping out.

I could only scream and tremble.

A huge hole was made in the container, and the Reaper's face popped out.

It was a terrifying Reaper with golden eyes.

The expression was expressionless, but to me it seemed to be saying "I found you!"

"Aaaah! Please save me!"

I clenched my teeth and ran away frantically.

But this camp was a closed space surrounded by walls on all four sides.

There was nowhere to escape.

There was nowhere to escape the monster.

In the end, I was caught and turned into a butterfly, watching my flesh dissolve into bloody liquid.

***

The current place of duty was comfortable, but it was filled with strange things.

It was strange to completely block off the civilian camp with steel walls and monitor it thoroughly.

And the fact that the duty was so peaceful, despite the strict warnings, was also strange.

As usual, when I came down from the watchtower on the castle wall and was boiling ramen with the relief, I heard a strange sound.

"Open up! Open up now! A monster... a monster is coming! Open it quickly!"

A camp resident was banging on the iron gate and talking to us.

According to the briefing I received when I took over this post, such attempts were quite frequent.

They try to draw attention in this way to get the gate opened, and once the gate is opened, they rush in and try to escape outside.

After that, no matter what sound was heard, the manual was to ignore it.

What was strange, however, was that they usually made up an excuse about a patient, but a monster?

That was a ridiculous excuse.

The sound of the banging gradually disappeared, and soon it was all gone.

"As expected, nothing serious, right?"

I tried to speak to my colleague next to me, but there was no response.

When I turned my head to check, I saw my colleague with a pale face, mouth agape, pointing towards the door with his hand.

Looking in the direction he was pointing, a thick bloody liquid was constantly flowing through the gap in the firmly closed iron gate.