Ch.105Drunk Gossip

“Oh my? You want to hear more details?”

Feeling interested in the conversation, Gu Seo-ryong poured more alcohol and drugs, causing the two women to hesitantly tilt their glasses.

“Ah… I shouldn’t be talking about this…”

“But to tell this story, don’t we need to go further back?”

“Slowly, could I hear from the very beginning? I haven’t been a superhuman for that long, so I don’t know much about these stories.”

“By the way, did you put something in this drink? I don’t think this alcohol usually tastes this good…”

“It’s really sweet… give me more!”

“Sure~ just a moment.”

Gu Seo-ryong poured water into an empty bottle and mixed it with her self-created truth serum.

After gulping down more truth serum without restraint, the two began giggling and chattering about past events.

“Hmm… should I talk about before Yeoryeong unnie, back to our student days…”

“Back then, we weren’t students, we were superhuman soldiers?”

In the early days of the monster era, when superhumans first began to appear.

After Yeo Un-jae proved the power of superhumans, humans recognized them as weapons.

Superhuman soldiers, warriors who could face powerful monsters.

These people, half-forcibly drafted into the military organization, were raised as weapons to fight monsters under the command of regular human soldiers.

“Of the superhumans dragged in back then, only four are still alive and have reached A-rank or higher: the two of us, Yu Anna, and Jeong Ho-young.”

“At first, it was truly awful. Regular people knew nothing about special abilities, so they made superhumans do military drills, gave us guns, and told us to infuse our abilities into bullets. Of course, when special abilities mixed with gunpowder, they just exploded in our hands.”

“The superhumans were fine, but the humans around us were bleeding and screaming… and the children were crying.”

“Until Meister created a training manual for special abilities, I still don’t know what we were even doing.”

After some confusion, the superhuman soldiers were reorganized under Yeo Un-jae, with the justification that they were beyond human understanding.

Yeo Un-jae and other superhumans who had already been fighting monsters, along with Meister, taught the superhumans how to use their abilities and survive against monsters.

And among them, the one who stood out the most was Yeo Un-jae’s daughter.

“If she were still alive… she definitely would have become an S-rank hero…”

“Her ability was truly unbelievably powerful.”

“What was her ability?”

“Have you heard of spatial manipulation? Cutting space itself, or changing positions.”

“Whoa?”

At the mention of spatial manipulation, Sa Gu-gu blinked with wide eyes.

It was a rare ability even among monsters, and to think a human possessed it.

“Cage was absolutely not that impressive at first, you know?”

“All that talk about inferior and superior, but if we’re being honest, Jeong Ho-young was the most inferior at the beginning.”

“That’s right, he could only create barriers from a distance. The strength wasn’t bad, but you could just go around them. His evaluation scores were truly terrible.”

“Then Yeoryeong unnie took him under her wing, taught him various things, and he started using his ability to trap opponents… that’s when people realized it was an amazing ability.”

“Sigh… back then, I thought if I lost to anyone, it would be you or Yu Anna.”

“She and I were originally ranked first and second… Yu Anna’s ability was just purely monstrous, so that’s understandable, but losing to Cage was truly because of Yeoryeong unnie.”

“Without Yeoryeong unnie, he would have maxed out at B-rank. But he kept rising and eventually took first place.”

“I see~ If it weren’t for Cage and Starlight, you two would have been first and second. That must be disappointing.”

When Gu Seo-ryong spoke to them like children, the two women suddenly burst into tears.

“Uuugh… Ms. Seoyul, you’re such a nice person…”

“We really were first and second! After all our hard work, citizens on community forums still call us water rockets because we haven’t reached S-rank!”

“Is that what they say to heroes who work hard to protect them? Humans who only need to hide in safe places call heroes water rockets! They can only say such things because heroes are stopping the monsters!”

“When you look at it that way, Cage is right… he’s right, but…”

“Yes, yes, so what happened to Yeoryeong?”

Perhaps affected by the drug, the two couldn’t control their emotions. Gu Seo-ryong released a calming scent from her fingertips.

After drinking more alcohol, the two gradually slumped in their chairs, blinking slowly.

“Yeoryeong unnie died during the experiment subject escape incident.”

“Experiment subject…?”

“Whoa?”

When Sa Gu-gu and I hesitated at the word “experiment subject,” Gu Seo-ryong raised her hand to calm us.

Gu Seo-ryong spoke to them as if she already knew about it.

“You mean the monster weaponization experiments?”

“That’s right. There were monsters that approached quietly and circled around humans, or ones that attacked other monsters that threatened humans, right?”

“The idea was to capture and tame such monsters… what a stupid idea.”

“Regular people can’t sense what superhumans feel from monsters. No matter how much heroes said it wouldn’t work, they pushed ahead.”

“The decisive factor was… Meister concluding that it might be possible.”

“Because of that, the government promoted Meister heavily and treated other heroes as incompetent…”

“Oh, I remember that time. Heroes were treated as simple laborers, as idiots, while government officials claimed they were saving the world with their brilliant policies. It was on the news every day.”

“This doesn’t seem to be the experiment subject story we know.”

“It’s not entirely unrelated either.”

As I was listening, I kicked Gu Seo-ryong’s leg under the table, and she snapped her fingers.

The two were already so intoxicated by the drug that they couldn’t even notice abilities being used right in front of them.

“When I was at the laboratory, I heard people talking about this. Perhaps they secretly tried it as a practical test for monster control? That was around the time researchers were trying to control you somehow.”

“Hmm?”

I thought it was completely unrelated, but maybe not.

Drug-based monster control.

Indeed, it’s identical to the experiments they performed on me.

I know the results better than anyone after being administered countless drugs.

It was a failure.

“Then those government idiots decided to demonstrate the tamed monsters that seemed somewhat obedient in front of people.”

“Like some animal circus, giving commands like ‘hand,’ ‘lie down,’ claiming they could conquer monsters, until the monsters saw the humans and BOOM.”

“When spectators started getting blown apart, government officials ordered protection for themselves while monsters escaped. All the civilians who came to watch died.”

“We needed to quickly capture the monsters spreading through the city, but those government idiots treated superhumans like tanks or helicopters, making us move with slow soldiers…”

“After several days, when they realized they couldn’t solve it this way, they dumped the responsibility on the superhumans.”

“So Meister calculated the strength of the monsters and heroes, and Yeo Un-jae gathered Yu Anna and other heroes to handle the Despair in the west, while Yeoryeong unnie took Jeong Ho-young and us to deal with the Disaster in the east.”

Despair and Disaster were early terms used when monsters first appeared.

They’re saying heroes split up to pursue Despair-rank and Disaster-rank monsters.

“And… by then, the monster had completed its existence evolution…”

From what I understand, one A-rank hero and three B-rank heroes went after the Disaster-rank monster.

That’s more than enough force for a Disaster-rank, but against a Despair-rank monster, it would be suicidal.

“Yeoryeong unnie told us she would buy time alone so we could escape, and we tried to flee.”

“If it had been just Yeoryeong unnie alone, she could have bought time until Yeo Un-jae arrived.”

“If Cage had just escaped immediately as she ordered, she wouldn’t have died.”

Leaving one A-rank hero in front of a Despair-rank monster might seem irresponsible, but considering her spatial manipulation ability, it makes sense.

Used properly, she could nullify even the strongest attacks by opening space, and instantly move elsewhere when pursued.

It’s not difficult if the monster’s attacks focus on just one person.

“Even though he knew it himself… Yeoryeong unnie’s ability was enough to hold out. After seeing her repeatedly dodge the Despair-rank’s attacks, he finally acknowledged it and said he would escape.”

“So why did he go back… he should have just escaped when told to… he knew he was a hindrance, so why didn’t he escape, causing Yeoryeong unnie’s death…”

The reason these two say Cage killed Yeoryeong is because he didn’t leave her alone.

Spatial manipulation consumes tremendous ability output and processing power.

Even I find it difficult to deploy spatial manipulation in multiple places, so it would have been impossible for a human like Yeoryeong.

So if she used her ability to protect others in front of a monster far stronger than herself.

She had no choice but to die.

“At Yeoryeong unnie’s funeral, Cage was sitting there blankly, and when Yeo Un-jae went to comfort him saying it was fortunate he survived, he suddenly slapped her hand away and said it was all her fault.”

“He said Yeoryeong unnie died because she only protected humans and not superhumans, so out of guilt, the teacher supported and promoted everything Cage did afterward.”

“The public thinks the teacher lost her arm and her ability weakened due to accumulated fatigue from fighting monsters. But actually, as Cage grew more powerful, the government tried to check Cage and the teacher, and she got injured by villains while protecting them.”

“Then he should have at least listened to the teacher… at the very least, he shouldn’t have accepted villains as heroes…”

“Oh my, that’s too much.”

As Gu Seo-ryong provoked their emotions, the two emptied their glasses simultaneously and leaned forward over the table with a “puha” sound.

“That’s right! It’s too much!”

“Really, we trusted him… even with all that power, claiming to stand for superhumans… dictator bastard.”

“He changed after tasting power… because even superhumans are ultimately human…”

“Come on, drink! Drink!”

After snatching the bottle from Gu Seo-ryong and taking turns drinking its contents, the two slowly rested their foreheads on the table and continued muttering.

“The most frustrating thing is that most of Cage’s actions are effective… There are serious side effects, but he does solve problems.”

“When he accepted villains as heroes, the overall fatigue of heroes did decrease. Even A-ranks can drink during the day and eat leisurely like this.”

“But the villains who converted to heroes are only behaving because of Cage; behind the scenes, they’re still doing all sorts of terrible things.”

“And Cage always talks about necessary sacrifices, which makes heroes think it’s normal to sacrifice citizens when catching monsters.”

“Cage only makes that choice as a last resort when there truly is no other answer, and he only does it in situations where you really can’t blame him… but now there are idiots who think they’re Cage just because they’re superhumans too.”

“So, superhuman supremacy is honestly somewhat correct… but he keeps dividing humans and superhumans, and now there are even crazy people saying non-awakened humans are parasites living off superhumans, or that humans who haven’t awakened are just livestock.”

“It’s all because of Cage.”

Watching them reminds me of construction workers talking politics while drunk after finishing work.

They suddenly raised their heads and pointed at me.

“Anyway! Mr. Park Deun-deun… you clearly understand that what Cage is looking for isn’t heroes to fight alongside him, but superhumans who will be shields and tools following his orders!”

“Now that Yeo Un-jae can no longer protect him, he’s immediately looking for someone else.”

“If you become Cage’s subordinate, you’ll only get hurt and discarded like Yeo Un-jae!”

“Just try becoming Cage’s subordinate, we won’t let you off easy…!”

“Don’t come to the training room!”