Ch.125No Money

“Please refrain from speaking in front of people. Everyone’s too excited and it’s getting out of control…”

In a broken building forest within a closed zone near W City.

Starlight flew in to issue a warning, at a distance where citizens couldn’t hear their conversation.

According to Starlight, word had spread that Black Cat was a monster that could speak, causing every organization in W City to go crazy.

A group that started with survivors from D City, called the Mi-ong Faction, was rejoicing that evidence of Black Cat being a savior had appeared.

In W City, the Wae-ong Faction and U-ong Faction, who mainly operated in the “Black Cat Mom Cafe,” were fighting among themselves—some insisting they should wait until Black Cat spoke again, while others argued they should actively approach and befriend Black Cat.

And the Wae-ong Faction members who had come from other cities, despite having different reasons, had united with the goal of somehow getting Black Cat out of W City, growing their numbers.

All of them followed me whenever I entered W City to eat, shouting what they wanted to say so loudly that no alarm was needed.

“They all want you to listen to what they have to say. Even people who think they shouldn’t make such demands of you are raising their voices telling others to be quiet, which leads to louder talking, shouting, and fighting.”

[I am not a monster who does what I’m told.]

“I know, but many humans mistake the ability to communicate as a means to make others do what they want. And those who don’t think that way just like you and want to talk to you.”

Those who don’t want to accept that they’re merely prey for monsters in this monster era.

Those who want to use a monster’s power.

Those who simply want the special experience of conversing with an Annihilation-rank monster.

All of them want Black Cat to listen to them.

“I think I made a similar request before, but the very idea that monsters can communicate is dangerous. I’m less worried about W City residents since they’re now well aware that you’re special… but reports keep coming in about people in other cities who try to talk to monsters instead of evacuating and end up getting eaten.”

[There are many fools.]

“Exactly. So please try not to speak in front of people from now on. There were quite a few witnesses, so it will take some time… but fortunately there’s no video footage of the incident, and we’re taking various measures, so things will eventually quiet down.”

[Understood.]

“Sigh… I’m sorry, I should have warned you earlier, but I’ve been so busy… Oh, sorry to interrupt our conversation. I’ll head there right away.”

Beep-beep-beep, as the alert sounded from Starlight’s wrist, she returned to W City, and a whooshing sound was heard from inside the city.

After Starlight was launched toward A City to eliminate monsters, monster researchers and citizens who had been hiding from Starlight reappeared at the city’s outer wall.

“Black Cat! Please say just one word!”

“Just one word! Communication with a monster!”

“Can you really understand language and speak? Please, just one answer!”

I ignored the loud voices amplified by megaphones and continued what I had been doing before Starlight arrived.

Whoosh, every time I disappeared below the buildings, disappointed sighs could be heard from the wall.

When I reappeared, people cheered wildly at the sight of my head emerging above the buildings.

“So cute!”

“Fighting~! You can do it!”

“Go Black Cat!”

“Keep working hard and come eat again!”

Now everyone had realized I was practicing reducing my size, and they were cheering me on.

They had noticed that every time I shrank my body and appeared in the city, my food consumption decreased.

Citizens cheered whenever my meal portions decreased while the safe zone remained intact.

Some argued that this might mean Black Cat wasn’t eating enough, but even they fell silent when they saw my belly getting full each time.

After I finished eating and left, a market would open in the park selling the food I hadn’t eaten at lower prices than usual.

And when I came to the closed zone to practice body transformation after finishing my daily meal, Gu Seo-ryong would arrive with Sa Gu-gu, loaded with food bought from the market.

“Thanks to you, Gu-gu’s food expenses have decreased lately.”

“Nyaaa… Sa Gu-gu is full… sleepy…”

“Gu-gu? If you keep eating and sleeping like that every day, you’ll get fat. Go take a walk.”

“Sa Gu-gu doesn’t get fat.”

Sitting in a spot hidden from W City by the building forest, Gu Seo-ryong watched me shrink and transform my body, sometimes offering advice about humanization in her own way, and sometimes asking questions about my current body.

“What about splitting into that cat form? Wouldn’t it be easier to transform into human form if you reduced your power to Despair-rank level?”

“It’s possible, but dangerous.”

The ability to split ultimately means detaching my core.

If I were to lose that core by mistake, my power would diminish accordingly.

“Can’t you just transform into one of the smaller monsters you’ve swallowed? I thought you could change your body at will.”

“No, I can’t.”

When I transform my body, I’m not completely changing into that monster, but rather optimizing my physical form to use the monster’s ability.

Therefore, even if I transform into another monster now, I maintain my enormous size to withstand the increased output.

“Then what exactly are you doing?”

“Compression.”

In the end, there’s only one way to reduce my size while withstanding this output.

Suppressing the monster core and compressing my muscles, blood vessels, and flesh tightly enough to withstand the output.

By increasing density through compression, I’ve recently managed to reduce my body to about 1.5 times the size I was before becoming Annihilation-rank.

“This seems to be my limit.”

“How fascinating, it’s like watching the trick of stuffing an elephant into a refrigerator.”

“What’s an elephant?”

I tried a few more attempts, but it’s impossible to get any smaller than this.

Still, if I can just keep suppressing the power of the core that constantly surges within me, a human form…

“Ears are showing?”

“Hmm.”

“Oh my, now a tail.”

“Just like Sa Gu-gu!”

Unfortunately, I still can’t completely suppress the core, so ears or a tail appear.

Still, if I consciously flatten my ears and wrap my tail around my waist like a belt, I look like my former self.

Except for one thing.

“Aren’t you too big?”

“I can’t get any smaller than this.”

If Gu Seo-ryong’s head used to reach about my chest height, now it’s closer to my stomach.

Sa Gu-gu’s head is now closer to my knees than my waist.

I’ve grown much taller.

“I want to undress you, I think other things got bigger too…”

“Shut up.”

“Oh? Why don’t you like that? Bigger is better, isn’t it?”

“Better in what way exactly?”

“Hmm… want me to tell you? Let’s meet here again after Gu-gu falls asleep?”

“Sa Gu-gu not sleepy yet?”

Gu Seo-ryong stuck out her forked tongue and shaped the ends into a heart.

Ignoring the sticky waves of courtship, I picked up a nearby stone.

Just by lightly squeezing my hand, the solid concrete crumbled like a lump of sugar.

I suspected this would happen.

I’ll have to start practicing strength control from the beginning again.

“But why are you so eager to take human form?”

On another day, as I was practicing strength control with various pieces of glass and metal collected from the ruins, Gu Seo-ryong asked while eating.

“I want to eat in peace.”

When eating in monster form, people film me, talk to me, cheer, and even make dishes I don’t particularly want to eat.

Above all, it’s noisy.

“Hmm, that’s a very you-like answer.”

“Then why do you maintain human form?”

“Oh? Well, that’s to avoid those annoying heroes who will chase monsters to the end even if they let villains go, isn’t it?”

When I returned the question I’d been wondering about for a while, Gu Seo-ryong gave a casual answer with light emotion.

With my senses expanded since becoming Annihilation-rank, I could feel there was more to it than that.

“There seems to be more meaning to it.”

“Hmph, if you want to have such deep conversations with a woman, you should at least have one intense roll with her first.”

“Hmm.”

“Oh? What’s this, why… oh my, my, my?!”

Curious, I wrapped my arm around Gu Seo-ryong’s waist and lifted her.

I went to a nearby grassy area where the full-bellied Sa Gu-gu was lying down for a nap, then bent forward and rolled once.

To prevent her from saying anything else, I rolled forward, sideways, and in various directions, accidentally rolling over Sa Gu-gu’s leg at one point.

“Nyaaah! What! Sa Gu-gu was attacked!”

“We rolled.”

“Honey…? The rolling I was talking about wasn’t this… it was this?”

Continuing to roll until Gu Seo-ryong was beneath me, she had a somewhat excited expression as she stroked my stomach with her hand.

As her hand moved progressively lower, I frowned and got up.

“If you mean mating, say mating. Don’t call it rolling.”

“Mating?! Was that just now mating?!”

“I wasn’t particularly trying to deceive you? You misunderstood. Thanks to that, I received an unexpected reward.”

“Mating looks fun! Sa Gu-gu wants to do it too!”

“Gu-gu? That wasn’t mating just now. If you keep saying things like that, there won’t be any new Pipi-kung.”

“Nyaang…”

Leaving Gu Seo-ryong scolding Sa Gu-gu behind, I sat back down and continued practicing stacking glass bottles.

I’m curious about why Gu Seo-ryong is obsessed with human form, but I don’t particularly want to pry.

Even without hearing the answer, I think I have a rough idea.

After I became able to reduce my size sufficiently, I first practiced hiding my appearance repeatedly within the city.

My reduced size no longer drew excessive attention, and I could escape from citizens just as I had evaded Starlight.

When I disappeared, citizens anxiously searched for me, but when they saw that no other monsters appeared even after I was gone all day, they stopped pursuing me.

Even when not visible, I was somewhere in W City.

They could feel this through the existence of the safe zone.

Now, when mealtime comes, people still flock to the park, but heroes skillfully control the crowd.

Inside the park, only those who win entrance tickets through a daily lottery can enter within 1km of my dining area.

Still, anyone can enter the outer areas and the park’s periphery, so when mealtime comes, religious songs, prayers, and megaphone voices demanding Black Cat’s liberation continue to sound without pause.

“It’s actually better that Black Cat is hiding.”

“Yeah, at least there aren’t people making noise and chasing after it.”

Since I stopped showing myself, the streets that were noisy with people following me every day have quieted down.

Always safe, and even quiet except during Black Cat’s meal times—W City.

Most people were quite satisfied with the current situation.

Among the citizens filled with happiness, taking naps on city streets had recently become popular.

“Phew, hmm… how many hours did I sleep?”

“Boss, I’m sorry. I was taking a nap… What? You just woke up too?”

“Wow, this is crazy, absolutely crazy… can we really sleep so carelessly while sunbathing like this?”

Among the people lying on the park lawn, some were even wearing swimsuits and tanning.

All such people had at least one Black Cat-related item somewhere on their body.

Talismans for luck and safety.

“Wow… how many days has it been since the monster alarm last sounded?”

“I’ve been sleeping soundly every day lately. Even at night, I sleep quietly.”

“Even the heroes’ faces look brighter these days.”

Citizens freed from chronic fatigue and nervousness caused by monsters.

Those who had always lived with death were becoming addicted to the continuing peace day after day.

“I want to line up those guys who initially complained about feeding Black Cat and slap them one by one as I walk past.”

“You were one of them too.”

“No, I just said I couldn’t trust it when it was Despair-rank. But there were people who complained we were giving too much even after it became Annihilation-rank.”

“Looking at things now, I just want to feed it more.”

“Even 6,000 portions a day isn’t too much.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if it ate 30,000 portions? Citizens could take turns fasting one day each, it would be like a diet, good for everyone.”

“But isn’t Black Cat really admirable? How does it manage to reduce both its size and food consumption?”

Recently, Black Cat’s daily food consumption was between 1,000 and 2,000 portions.

This was such a small amount for protecting the entire city that all citizens felt apologetic.

And so, in Black Cat Park in W City, where people who liked Black Cat gathered and talked about Black Cat wherever they went.

I was standing in front of a hot dog stand in the park’s outer area, drooling.

“If you’re not buying anything, please don’t block the store and move along.”

In W City’s safe zone created by Black Cat, where monsters no longer appeared, there was no more monster damage.

Naturally, the daily jobs created to repair buildings damaged by monsters also disappeared.

“That looks delicious…”

“Excuse me, I said please leave.”

I have no money.