Ch.107The Hunt Begins

“What’s going on suddenly?”

[I can’t explain that.]

On the screen reflected on the wall, the entire central district of A City, including the area where I was, was painted red.

The words at the top read: Operation Zone.

Are they planning something here?

[I’m telling you this after a lot of deliberation. What’s certain is that any superhuman who isn’t a hero could die if they’re in that zone. Of course, since you’re A-rank, you probably won’t die easily.]

“Hmm?”

[It’s a long story. Actually, it’s something I shouldn’t be talking about. Just do as you’re told.]

They must think I’m an A-rank superhuman, yet they’re casually saying someone of this power level could die.

I was curious about this ominous statement, but Baskerville’s Bullet seemed to have no intention of continuing the conversation and disappeared from the wall.

“Why are you telling me this?”

[Personally, I like you, and we’ll need guys like you in the future.]

“You mean me?”

[I mean the guy who just says whatever he wants to say even in front of Cage. Well then.]

With a whoosh, the bullet shot up into the sky and disappeared at high speed.

Alone in the alley, I wondered what could be happening.

Besides a monster attack, what could kill an A-rank or higher superhuman?

[Honey? Can you look at this for a moment?]

Just then, from far away, Gu Seo-ryong tapped her shadow with her toes.

Shifting my consciousness to the cat, I saw Gu Seo-ryong standing in front of a peculiarly shaped door.

Next to the door, which was painted with colors and patterns similar to foliage, I saw something unforgettable.

The lock mechanism I had seen at the laboratory.

The card reader where researchers used to tap their keycards was right in front of Gu Seo-ryong.

[I found the laboratory.]

Gu Seo-ryong had found the laboratory.

Hearing this news I’d been waiting for, I coupled my ability with the cat, preparing to move.

Though I’m curious about what’s happening in the city…

The laboratory takes priority right now.

#

Outside A City, in a closed mountain area near the city’s outer wall.

After jumping through space to join Gu Seo-ryong, I placed my hand on the door and quietly resonated my core.

A quiet yet wide-ranging wave—an application method I’d learned while practicing core control.

A wave similar to that of a homicide-rank monster spread thinly, transmitting the shape beyond the wall to me.

As the wave collided with the wall and spread again, the monster’s senses captured each echo.

The shape of the passage, the structural features, and at its end, the doors, corridors, and wall seams I could sense.

“…It seems to be the laboratory.”

“Whoo-hoo, how about that? Aren’t I amazing?”

“But it seems quite old.”

“Just the door is old. The inside is fine! Even this card reader is only dirty on the outside, but the contents are very clean. It’s being regularly maintained.”

As I removed my hand from the door, Gu Seo-ryong took out her phone and held it against the card reader.

“This might be some kind of secret passage. An emergency exit, perhaps.”

“What are you doing?”

“NFC tool. I’m trying to figure out the card information the researchers use.”

“Speak plainly.”

“I’m hacking to open the door. I could just tear it apart, but if we want to enter quietly… Oh.”

After holding her phone against the device, which made beeping sounds and showed constantly changing screens, Gu Seo-ryong pulled it away and brushed her slightly reddened face with her hand.

“Gu-gu, can you use your space manipulation to connect a passage through the wall? As discreetly as possible.”

“Meow.”

Sa Gu-gu and I easily entered the laboratory interior through Sa Gu-gu’s spatial passage.

“I should have thought of this… This way, there won’t be any door access records either.”

“You’re slow to realize.”

“Is Mommy stupid?”

“It’s only okay because you and Gu-gu use your abilities unnaturally quietly. Normally, alarms should go off. I’m normal, you two are abnormal.”

I shook my head and sniffed, taking in the scent of the sealed interior.

The unforgettable white interior, the soft sound of ventilation fans, and the mixture of chemicals and human scent.

“There are definitely researchers in the laboratory.”

“Good, from now on we need to move very carefully. There were surveillance cameras outside the door, so there must be some inside too. Let’s move slowly, finding mechanical devices, and enter deeper without being detected.”

“Hmm…”

“Will you help? Find the surveillance cameras in the walls and very slowly, just a little bit, turn them sideways. We’ll create blind spots to sneak through.”

I placed my hand on the wall and spread my wave.

The wave spreading inside the wall detected the electromagnetic fields flowing through the mechanical devices, revealing the locations of the surveillance cameras.

“There, there, and over there.”

“Oh my, that was fast? Right, you also have an ability to handle electricity. Good, then I’ll slowly turn them…”

“Wait.”

I stopped Gu Seo-ryong as she was about to target the nearest surveillance camera.

“Are we going to proceed step by step like this?”

“Right? If the lab people notice us and escape, it would be annoying. For now, let’s sneak in like this.”

“And then? What will we do when we reach the researchers?”

“Then… we’ll take care of one or two of them, steal their clothes, and gather information? We can kill them after that…”

“…A City has too many complicated things to worry about.”

“Of course! How disappointing would it be to lose the trail when we’re so close to catching them? There’s so much to consider if we don’t want to be detected.”

“Sigh…”

Slowly, sighing at the tedious path ahead, I glared at Gu Seo-ryong without hiding my irritation.

Cage, heroes, Yeo Un-jae, the laboratory… now that they’re right in front of me, it’s all so frustrating.

And we’re trying to solve it in such a tedious human way.

“I’m sick of this.”

I opened my eyes wide and monsterized.

Then with a loud crash! I swung my claws and tore down the wall section hiding the surveillance cameras in one go.

[I’ve thought this for a while, Gu Seo-ryong. You always think too much like a human.]

“Wh-what are you doing?! If you do this, we’ll be discovered…”

[We are monsters, Gu Seo-ryong.]

I greatly increased my ability output and distorted the area behind our entry point with telekinesis.

With this, one of the emergency exits was sealed.

[We’ll do this the monster way.]

Being careful not to let the researchers escape?

We’ll tear them apart before they can run.

Not killing them to extract information?

Monsters can read the memories of humans they devour.

Beep! Beep! As the laboratory’s internal alarm detected the powerful ability, Gu Seo-ryong burst into laughter.

“…Ahaha! That’s right, we’re monsters!”

Click, thud, crash, crunch—in just four steps, Gu Seo-ryong fully monsterized and swung her tail with a slap! creating a depression in the laboratory’s white floor.

“You’re really violent, honey… Oh my, it makes me want to have your baby♥”

[Let’s split up. I’ll take the center, you take the left, and Sa Gu-gu takes the right.]

“Whoo-hoo, then first, honey, could you crush everything that looks like an exit?”

[Easy and quick.]

Woong! Woong! The powerful wave of ability spread without any attempt to hide it, detecting the presence of all humans hiding underground.

Within a range not even as large as a single district of the city, I found all seven passages leading outside and distorted them with space manipulation, making them inaccessible.

“Still, just to be safe, try not to get caught on surveillance cameras. We’re not escaped experiments looking for the laboratory, but despair-rank monsters that happened to wander in.”

[Will the researchers be a problem?]

“Honey, I’m a despair-rank monster, Code G3. I can kill even if an experiment shows up instead of a human.”

“Meow? Kill?”

“Yes, Gu-gu, you can kill the humans here.”

When Gu Seo-ryong gave permission to kill those here, Sa Gu-gu’s eyes sparkled with joy.

“Meooow! Killing game! This will be fun!”

Using Sa Gu-gu’s monsterization as a signal, I rushed toward the center while Gu Seo-ryong followed, heading left.

With powerful telekinesis trailing behind my tail, I demolished all the narrow passages as I passed through them—too narrow for a monster.

My direction was toward the laboratory’s center.

A place with a familiar scent.

#

The night in A City was unusually quiet.

The waves of ability that normally chased away monsters every hour were not felt, and the heroes who usually bothered citizens had disappeared from the streets.

A quiet city, a peaceful night with nothing happening.

However, the citizens were trembling with anxiety.

It’s today.

It must be today.

Perhaps they had gained a new sense from being hunted by monsters.

Some citizens who felt the killing intent in the cold air couldn’t sleep.

And the moment the alarm sounded throughout the city, they immediately ran out, dragging their acquaintances with them.

[Citizens, please evacuate to the shelters. Repeat. Citizens, please evacuate to…]

“At least that’s fortunate… they’re telling us to evacuate.”

“See, I told you Cage could be trusted.”

“Cage protects citizens…”

“No time to talk, run!”

An unusual alarm, repeatedly telling citizens to evacuate without information about despair-rank or disaster-rank threats.

Among the fleeing citizens, something quickly flashed by.

“Kyaaak!”

“Ugh, kugh…”

“D-darling…! Darling!”

Ping! What quietly pierced the chest of a man running among the citizens was Baskerville’s Bullet.

Then the bullet, flying here and there among the citizens, found another person and tore through their heart.

“Ha… asking me not to touch their families, talking as if I’m the bad guy. Human trash.”

Flap, flap, the sound of paper fluttering in the wind.

On the old-fashioned paper document was a photo of the man who had just collapsed bleeding.

A man with long hair hanging forward, sitting on the ground, examined the documents one by one while greatly increasing his ability output.

“Next hound, go.”

Ping! The bullet that appeared before his eyes bared its teeth and flew away at high speed.

In an instant, it reached the next target and burst their heart.

Trash who kidnapped children and offered them as sex slaves to government officials.

Trash who killed someone trying to avenge their daughter who was beaten to death while supporting an official’s child, claiming it was “silencing” even without orders, to prove their loyalty.

Trash who dissected superhumans under the pretext of research and defiled their corpses.

Trash, trash, trash—thoroughly investigated and cross-verified multiple times by the Hound team.

This is garbage collection.

Baskerville frowned and increased the speed of the bullets roaming the city.

Below the tallest skyscraper in A City, where everything in the city was visible.

Red curves danced beautifully, eliminating monsters hiding among humans.

Things that had been allowed to live simply because they were good at cleaning up after government officials.

“D-damn it! Don’t come near meugh…!”

“Hiek, hiet, hiek! Hieee!”

“Kyaaaa!”

Some superhuman trash who had awakened abilities tried to use citizens as shields, tracking the trajectory of Baskerville’s Bullet.

Trash indeed, using the weak as shields? Disqualified as superhumans.

The bullet curved and penetrated the superhuman’s head, then immediately searched for the next prey throughout A City.

With all citizens out on the streets heading to shelters, finding targets wasn’t difficult.

“Hey! There’s someone hiding here!”

“N-no! I’m innocent! I didn’t do anything!”

“Huh? Look at this guy, are you stupid? If you were hiding when told to evacuate, it means you heard information through government connections!”

“Despite being given so many opportunities, you’re still a superhuman who hasn’t become a hero!”

“Don’t let a single one escape! Don’t leave filth for the coming era!”

Even those in hiding were all caught and killed by heroes spread throughout the city.

Superhumans who gradually realized their danger began to rampage, but that didn’t last long.

Today’s goal wasn’t suppression and arrest, but killing.

Literally, it was cleaning.

[Is the trash collection going smoothly?]

Beep, when a voice came from the modified bullet stuck in the ground, Baskerville touched his forehead, where veins were bulging from overload, and answered.

“This is Baskerville. Cleaning is 50% complete.”

[Excellent.]

“How about your side?”

[Proceeding smoothly.]

In a district where the rapidly swirling bullets didn’t reach.

In the place where high-ranking government officials were hiding, there were people who hadn’t evacuated despite the alarm spreading throughout the city.

Soldiers with guns, tanks and helicopters, old government officials with weapons from a bygone era.

[…As promised, minimize casualties among soldiers.]

“I’ll try.”

Cage, standing before them, tightened the isolation field that trapped everyone and said:

“However, necessary sacrifices are unavoidable.”

“Ugh, aaaaargh!”

Weapons that could inflict fatal damage to some heroes with insufficient power.

As Cage, who had trapped tanks and helicopters in small isolation fields, clenched his fist, the weapons instantly became human-sized lumps of scrap metal.

Blood flowed from the scrap metal.

“Now, let’s begin the pig hunt.”