Ch.12Beef

# Enhanced Translation

The night after the press conference, which was more exhausting than fighting monsters.

Yu Anna, who had thrown off her black suit, collapsed weakly onto the sofa.

In her hands were the belongings she couldn’t return to the family despite briefly appearing at Lee Han-yeong’s funeral.

A button that had popped off like a coin, and the field recording camera issued to all heroes.

Official Code Black Cat, an amorphous Despair-rank monster.

The name was given based on testimonies that most of its observed forms contained at least some characteristics of tigers or feline animals.

Equipment to record information about the monster.

Today, Yu Anna informed everyone at the press conference about Black Cat’s dangers.

An unpredictable anomalous entity that constantly changes its combat style due to its amorphous form, making it impossible to predict compatibility with heroes’ superpowers.

Only a purely strong superhuman could face Black Cat… in W City, Yu Anna was the only viable card.

Yu Anna felt extremely frustrated wondering how much citizens who knew nothing about this would understand from this press conference.

But that wasn’t the only reason for her frustration.

The recording file inside the camera showed Lee Han-yeong’s final moments.

Three giant wolves, three Despair-rank monsters, chasing her before catching her, lifting her from the ground as she screamed.

By this point, the camera lens had already shattered, leaving no clear image.

All that remained was sound, and even that was filled with noise, likely from dust that had entered when her power broke as she submerged into the ground.

Lee Han-yeong’s screams as her lower body was bitten, bones breaking, screaming, then weak breathing after giving up.

And then, silence.

With a strange echoing sound, Lee Han-yeong’s mumbling began.

Most of the sound was muffled, as if she was holding the camera tightly with both hands.

But among those words, one phrase was clearly audible.

[Please eat me and win…]

Lee Han-yeong had asked the monster to eat her.

To become stronger by consuming her, and then fight other Despair-rank monsters.

Right after that came the sound of a monster crushing a human skull—a memory Yu Anna wished she could forget.

Then a powerful roar that broke the struggling device.

The monster, Black Cat, ate Lee Han-yeong afterward.

Perhaps what followed was the monster’s characteristic evolution.

Black Cat wreathed in flames was definitely… stronger than the one in Yu Anna’s memory.

Black Cat, a Despair-rank monster without even a proper code, returned to Lee Han-yeong after consuming the core of the wolf monster.

And as if keeping a promise, it tried to finish eating her.

Afterward, it seemed to give up, throwing the corpse away before fleeing.

Casualties: 1 hero, 0 civilians.

It was a miracle hard to believe for a Despair-rank monster’s rampage.

Today she had explained to citizens that Black Cat wasn’t some absurd monster that protected people.

But Lee Han-yeong’s final words left her confused.

Could there really be such a thing as a monster that protects humans?

She almost wished it would just attack people quickly.

Having thought something a hero shouldn’t think, Yu Anna closed her eyes, surrendering to the overwhelming drowsiness from fatigue.

“What exactly are you…?”

#

“Hey! Double! Let’s wrap it up and head back up!”

I stopped the strongly vibrating drill in my hands at the foreman’s voice.

This was beneath W City, an area that had become ruins after a recent Despair-rank monster rampage.

My current job was to gradually break through walls that had melted and solidified like glass.

Leaving the drill behind, I boarded the temporary elevator with the foreman to return to the surface, then sat on nearby ruins waiting for lunch.

Shortly after, a drone dropped a parachute from high above.

Lunch delivery.

“Let’s eat lunch first. Double, you want a double portion, right? Never seen someone hint at wanting more food through their name before.”

“Mm.”

My current name is Double Portion, a splendid and beautiful name.

Though a single bowl barely gives me the feeling of a full stomach, free meals are nothing to complain about.

After half-drinking my delivered food like others might sip coffee during a break, I immediately stood up and went back underground.

“Double! Take it easy!”

“Not tired yet.”

“Ugh… that guy is really something…”

“He’s a monster, a real monster… How can he hold that rock drill for so long? I’m happy with the progress since it’s like having equipment down there.”

Gripping the drill again, I walked through the narrow tunnel in the hardened wall.

The tunnel, just big enough to fit me with arms and legs fully extended, wasn’t very large even by normal human standards.

Such a tunnel stretched endlessly into the distance.

This was the trace left by Yu Anna as she chased me.

Occasionally, special metal pillars appeared in the tunnel.

These strong alloy pillars, which hadn’t completely melted under Yu Anna’s superpower, felt quite solid even to my strength.

These pillars, which probably couldn’t be damaged by anything less than a Disaster-rank monster, are essential in monster-era city architecture.

After monsters appeared in the world, humans gradually adapted by replacing all buildings with modular structures that could be quickly replaced when damaged.

Along with this, they planted large pillars in the underground foundation to reduce damage from monsters continuously emerging from below.

A kind of earthquake prevention device—even if the area next to it collapsed or erupted, the pillars would maintain the axis to minimize damage above ground.

To reassemble the city, these pillars needed to remain intact.

I dropped the issued sensor under a damaged pillar.

It was a special sensor that would respond when scanned from above ground.

Through this, they could remove damaged pillars from above, crush building debris into fine pieces to fill the holes, and install new pillars to restore the foundation.

This work was extremely dangerous.

The tunnel wasn’t properly constructed but merely a trace of superpower use, so it could collapse at any time, and underground monsters could emerge from anywhere.

As such, the pay was very, very lucrative.

With high hazard pay and government subsidies for the construction, the foreman had promised to count me as three workers after seeing me work.

Excited at the thought of finally being able to eat premium beef to my heart’s content, I was working very diligently.

“Hmm?”

Just then, my senses detected monsters.

My now much more sensitive perception identified the monsters’ forms and core sizes.

Earth Dragons emerging from the floor, armored mole-like creatures.

Even a giant centipede monster crawling excitedly through a newly formed passage far away.

Numerous underground monsters—the reason for this job’s high compensation.

All the monster alarm systems in this area were already broken.

In their place, a temporary monster alarm at the bottom of the temporary elevator was operating.

If this went off, work would stop for the day, and all workers would have to hurriedly return to the surface and evacuate.

Once evacuated, that day’s work would end, and they couldn’t work again until heroes cleaned out the underground monsters the next day.

That day’s allowance would only be paid for work completed.

“No, that won’t do.”

I immediately returned to the elevator and turned off the temporary alarm, which was covered with countless warning stickers saying never to turn it off.

It’s still lunchtime, so everyone would come down after resting a bit.

Before others came down, it was time for monster cleanup.

A monster specialized in hunting small monsters in places like this.

The human form suddenly shrinks, becoming like a child.

A form covered in darkness, the tail part of when transformed into a winged black panther.

An anomaly ruling the shadows of night.

In the pitch-black tunnel, my body spread throughout, rooting into the ground, penetrating the monsters’ bodies.

“Shuurururu…”

After carefully piercing each monster with shadow tendrils like thin needles, I expanded them like fireworks inside their bodies, then devoured the monster corpses one by one.

The Homicide-rank and Destruction-rank monsters gave me more satisfaction than the lunch I had just eaten.

Hmm… not a bad taste at all.

I savored the taste of… no, the shadow taste, then gathered my endlessly extended body back into human form.

Shortly after, I reactivated the alarm and continued working. Soon the foreman and other workers came down in the elevator.

“Wow… seriously, it’s like having a small piece of heavy equipment down here.”

“I heard our team’s work speed is seven times faster than others?”

“Double really does work well.”

The workers looked around the tunnel interior, which had progressed significantly in that short time, then grabbed their tools and spread out.

“Double! Drink some water!”

I accepted a 1.5L bottle, gulped down the water, then looked around at the workers.

Since bonuses were given based on team productivity, the workers’ gazes toward me were warm.

“I heard there were lots of monsters so I was scared, but strangely none are showing up?”

“It wasn’t like this before Double came. Maybe the monsters think he’s not human because he’s so big, so they don’t come?”

“Double is just a lucky charm, a real lucky charm.”

#

“Double, is today really your last day?”

“I’ve done enough.”

After working on foundation restoration for a while, I exchanged final greetings with the foreman.

The foreman seemed a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t be coming back.

But it was time for me to leave.

Because I still couldn’t properly control my monster aura, more and more Homicide-rank monsters were gathering underground.

They mistook me for a weak monster living underground and kept flocking to me.

I’d handled them all so far, but if I stayed longer, higher-rank monsters targeting these Homicide-rank monster groups might show up.

Modular roads and buildings were already rapidly rising in areas where new pillars had been installed, and it would be a shame to ruin what we’d just restored.

Until I could perfectly hide my aura, I couldn’t stay in one area for too long.

“Sigh… to think the double pay event is ending… Well, take care wherever you go next.”

The foreman handed me my final wages before giving a light farewell.

The reason I continued this job despite knowing I was attracting small monsters—the thick envelope of cash.

I peeked inside the envelope and felt pleased.

At least I’d achieved my goal.

With this amount, I could eat premium beef to my heart’s content.

“Hehehe…”

After laughing out loud, I quickly got dressed, then jumped onto a restored building where no one could see me.

The shirt I’d bought with my earnings flapped noisily in the wind, but I needed to move quickly now.

The supermarket in the next district would close soon.