༺ Black Butterfly (2) ༻
Inside the director office of Sehee Research Institute, the yellow detective and Lee Sehee sat face to face across a table. Yerin stood behind Sehee, wearing an uninterested expression.
Me? I was of course lying in the middle of the table.
Although I had planned to run around the research institute and chase the butterflies as a preventive measure, Yerin had dragged me by the hand, saying that it had something to do with me.
However, the introduction between the two dragged on for too long for my liking. Therefore, as someone who couldn’t stand the boredom, I decided to lay on the table as a way of protesting and urging them to wrap it up quickly.
“You need to bring the Grey Reaper with you?”
Upon hearing Sehee’s words, the yellow detective straightened up and handed Sehee a business card adorned with gold.
Curiosity got the better of me, so I intercepted the card and read it. Turns out that the detective belonged to some Temporary Object Management Organization.
As I was still reading it, the detective had no choice but to take out another business card and hand it to Sehee.
Seeing the detective’s bewildered expression made me somewhat happy. I mean, who told him to drag all those butterflies here?
“I am currently working on a request from the Temporary Object Management Organization. It is a temporary organization that has taken over the responsibilities of the collapsed association.”
“So why does the organization need the Grey Reaper? As you can see, it’s not easy to control.”
Sehee’s shocking statement startled me, making me turn around toward her, but she wasn’t even looking at me.
“It hasn’t been officially announced yet, but the area around Songpa-gu is in a very dangerous situation. Strange butterflies wander the area, swarming around and covering people.”
The detective then handed me some photos of the incidents. The pictures depicted people being torn to pieces.
There were also a lot of photos showing people being blown up by the butterfly just like what I saw at the Central Research Institute.
“In the initial cases, people who were covered by the butterflies eventually exploded to their death.”
Saying so, the detective pulled out another photo.
It was a photo showing people walking around awkwardly like zombies.
“After some time, instead of simply killing the host, the butterflies started crawling inside their victim’s skin and manipulating their bodies. The biggest problem is that these zombie-like people have not been seen in the past few days.”
With a meaningful expression, the detective revealed another photo showing a person imprisoned in a detention room.
“It looks like they have finished learning. Now, these butterflies wearing human faces don’t appear awkward at all. There’s no noticeable difference between them and a normal human being. The person we took into custody even claims that what we did was illegal confinement and insists that he should be released.”
Sehee placed the photo on the table at that moment.
“You still haven’t told me why you need the Grey Reaper.”
***
“You still have not told me why you need the Grey Reaper.”
I felt at a loss when Director Lee Sehee threw that question at me.
After all, it was purely my intuition that told me the Grey Reaper was needed.
It was clear that the sudden appearance of the butterflies was due to the Central Research Institute, but there were far fewer victims there than expected.
I suspected that something within the institute was actively interfering with the butterflies’s activities, and I believed it was the Grey Reaper.
I opened my mouth, but then thought better of it and closed it again.
It might have been fine if I were still a lone detective, but as a representative of a government agency, I couldn’t simply make a request based on gut feeling.
“You have no particular reason, right? On top of that, there is also the recent case of the Grey Collapse. I don’t think it bode well for public opinion if we were to send the Gray Reaper out. I’m afraid I have to refuse your request to bring it with you.”
As expected, the director’s response was a firm refusal.
Official requests that remained as data had no choice but to follow the field manual; rigorously and strictly adhering to the established principles and rules.
***
‘Hmm’
It felt like the detective had a reason he couldn’t disclose.
However, she couldn’t simply grant him her approval.
Moreover, just because the research institute allowed it, didn’t mean the Gray Reaper would comply..
Forcing it to go somewhere it didn’t want to go?
That was simply impossible.
However, refusing the detective’s request didn’t mean that the Grey Reaper would not follow him.
Sehee smiled at the empty table in front of her.
***
The Grey Reaper was following me.
The reason? I had no clue.
[Uses people’s sadness as strength.]
[Uses people’s grief as strength.]
[Uses people’s pain as strength.]
[Knows the fastest way to kill a target.]
Every time I looked back, those phrases would slowly move to a corner and hide.
The fact that I could see those phrases even though I did not see anything meant that the Reaper was in its phantom form. But, why did it even hide when it was in that form?
Anyway, my initial goal of ‘bringing the Grey Reaper to the scene’ was achieved.
I had already confirmed the Gray Reaper’s ability to disrupt the butterflies.
Watching as it freed me from the butterflies was proof enough.
The only concern I had was whether it was okay to bring along a being that couldn’t be controlled at all?
***
As soon as I climbed into the vehicle, the Grey Reaper appeared proudly in the passenger seat, as if it no longer had any intention of hiding.
Perhaps out of boredom, the Reaper looked at various objects in the car.
According to the latest report from the Sehee Research Institute, the Grey Reaper was an Object capable of understanding speech but unable to communicate, just like The ‘Cute Puppy’.
With that in mind, I took out a coin that I often used.
As soon as I took the Object out, the Grey Reaper whipped its head toward me, clearly intrigued.
The coin was called the ‘Luck Measuring Coin’. When flipped, numbers between ‘1’ and ‘20’ would appear on the sides.
Oddly enough, both sides of the coin displayed the same number.
It was an Object with a simple ability. If it showed a ‘1’, it would be a really unlucky day for the flipper, while a ‘20’ indicated a really lucky day.
Since it hadn’t been flipped yet, both sides were still showing a ‘0’.
Ting-!
After flicking the coin into the air and catching it, I checked the number. It landed on 5.
Not a particularly lucky number.
When I placed the coin in the Gray Reaper’s hand, it gleefully tossed the coin as well.
The number it got was 20.
Was today the perfect day for the Grey Reaper?
Well, it’s good for it to be lucky.
Wouldn’t it help me to solve the case?
***
I had a nightmare.
This couldn’t be real.
Our house, it was gone.
It disappeared, swallowed by the large sinkhole that had formed.
Even though a huge number of people died in Songpa-gu, my family was able to avoid the disaster because we were away on a trip at the time.
Staying in the ‘Songpa-gu Sinkhole Victim Camp’ since we had no home, things seemed fine at first.
After all, I didn’t have to go to school while living there.
But as time went on, things I didn’t like started to appear more and more.
The shelters being made of containers and the people living in them were among them.
Holding my dissatisfaction back, I went through it all, but then something problematic happened.
A gruesome murder occurred.
I didn’t see it in person, but they said the victim’s skin and internal organs were all brutally ripped out.
Soon after, soldiers arrived and placed the entire camp on lockdown.
This lockdown was authorized by the Object Special Act, and no one was allowed to leave.
Subsequently, more similar murder cases occurred.
By then, the atmosphere in the camp had grown as tense as a sharpened blade.
People jumped at the slightest sound, and wandering outside at night became unthinkable.
Suspicions of murder were cast upon each other, and resentment towards the government for confining them intensified.
Adults who strongly resented the government’s lockdown measures took to protesting.
Media outlets from all over the world contacted them and came to take pictures of the scene.
Yet, the lockdown remained in place.
Mom and dad also joined the protests, raising their voices with fervor.
But at some point, they stopped going to the protests.
I could easily guess their reason.
It was because what the protesters said was nothing but bullshit.
They said that the government had spread an infectious disease, or that they were preparing a ritual that would use us as a sacrifice.
Beside those two, more and more stupid opinions cropped up.
My parents, complaining they would never gain sympathy that way, began to gather people who did not agree with the conspiracy theory and said that they should form a separate protest group.
On the night after they did so, something strange occurred.
Awakening to an unfamiliar sound, I opened my eyes, only to see my parents spitting their internal organs out right in front of me.
The shock made me speechless.
My parents, who had become so thin as if all their internal organs had disappeared, looked as though only their skin remained.
Was it because it was such a shocking scene?
I just fainted after seeing that.
“Hyunseok, wake up!”
I opened my eyes to the sound of my parents calling me.
As expected, It was yet another nightmare.
This couldn’t be real.
“We should go to the protest together today. It’s clear that the government’s electromagnetic waves are the cause for the exploding people!”
Mom said extremely strange things, wearing a bright smile.
“You said you have a sore throat, didn’t you? The government has released toxic gas into the camp, so make sure to wet your mask with water and wear it properly!”
Dad chimed in, wearing an equally bright smile.
I was still trapped in a nightmare.
This couldn’t be real.
For some reason, a black butterfly, emanating a strong scent of blood, seemed to flutter around inside the container.
