Ch.130Awoooo~

“Listen carefully to our demands!”

“One! Stop calling us the Wae-ong Faction! We are the Black Cat Liberation Army!”

“One! Stop blocking our employment in W City! We have the right to survive too!”

“One! Stop monopolizing Black Cat in W City and share Black Cat with other cities!”

“Free Black Cat!”

As the refugees shouted their grievances like rehearsed slogans, the heroes and police officers surrounding them frowned.

“This is exactly why they’re called the Wae-ong Faction and why discrimination against them grows… sigh.”

“They’re louder than usual.”

“Probably because they’ve got an A-rank superhuman with them now.”

“Did you contact the senior?”

“He said we can subdue them if we can do it without civilians getting hurt. He can’t join us right now. He’s still fighting a Despair-rank monster in A City.”

The tension grew as faint activation sounds of special abilities rippled through the air—vibrations imperceptible to ordinary people that heightened the superhumans’ vigilance.

Even so, the W City heroes didn’t seem to have any intention of attacking yet.

“They were keeping their boundaries until now… but today they’re crossing the line.”

“Keeping boundaries? They’re the ones who got caught putting poison in Black Cat’s food.”

“That was just some of them. Even those guys are discriminated against within their own group.”

“The senior personally found and quietly arrested the main culprits back then. These guys didn’t even resist.”

“Their goal isn’t to terrorize W City but to have their demands met, so they probably won’t attack first.”

One of the heroes gestured with his chin toward a direction.

There, the superhumans who had been whispering to me to come to their city were gathered, amplifying their voices to make strange claims.

“W City! We already know! You’ve completed a drug that controls monsters and you’re monopolizing it! We know!”

“Why won’t you share it! It’s selfishness to keep only W City safe! We won’t stand for it anymore!”

“Black Cat proves everything! Taming an Annihilation-rank monster! You must be hiding something!”

“We know! We know you’ve already tamed other monsters and are hiding them!”

As they continued speaking, conflicting emotions of firm belief and distrust boiled within the refugees.

Even I could see that the claim about W City creating a monster-controlling drug that even the laboratory couldn’t make was nonsense.

The heroes sighed and continued to exchange glances at me while conversing in low voices.

“They make it impossible not to discriminate against the Wae-ong Faction even when we try not to.”

“They’ve come up with particularly creative nonsense today.”

“If we leave them be, more strange conspiracy theories will spread.”

“Alright, let’s subdue them.”

“So the primary target is Park Deun-deun…”

“Wait! No fighting!”

At that moment, a police officer among the heroes raised his voice.

The heroes frowned at the officer’s repetitive warnings.

“We don’t want to fight either. When superhumans clash, it’s ordinary people who get hurt.”

“Those operatives, they cleverly use refugees as shields every time…”

“Now that an A-rank superhuman has joined them, resolving this with just words is impossible.”

“Even in the worst-case scenario, let’s aim to arrest Park Deun-deun.”

“No! Don’t touch Park Deun-deun!”

“You there, what’s your problem? You say you can’t explain why, you claim Black Cat will be taken away, and now you’re saying we can’t attack that person.”

“That person is an A-rank superhuman addition that’s making the operatives act up, right? The most dangerous one is the A-rank, so obviously we should subdue them first.”

“That’s… that person is… aaagh! You really can’t! Something terrible will happen if you attack!”

“Wait, Park Deun-deun…? I remember! He’s Yu Hyena’s bodyguard!”

“What are you talking about?”

As new information emerged among the heroes, the police and heroes busily shared what they knew about the superhuman named Park Deun-deun.

“Was Hyena’s bodyguard off duty today? Someone contact him.”

“That’s right! Park Deun-deun, who now goes by the name Han Mu-ryo. No relation to Gu Seo-ryong, weekend bodyguard for Yu Hyena, eats a tremendous amount of food.”

“So the conclusion is that this person is just siding with them because he’s hungry, definitely not an operative?”

“Yes, that’s right!”

“How hungry must he be to side with operatives just for food?”

“I just want to hit him.”

“Absolutely not! Aaah, I shouldn’t have reported this! I should have tried talking calmly again!”

“But you made the emergency call yourself.”

“What are you talking about?”

A moment later, Iron Might put down his megaphone and approached the heroes, hearing about Park Deun-deun.

“Hmm… if Park Deun-deun is really just hungry, we might be able to end this situation simply.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“There are only two A-rank superhumans here right now—me and Park Deun-deun, right? So, let’s try talking to Park Deun-deun in a voice so small that only A-ranks can hear it. See if he’ll cooperate with us to subdue the operatives.”

“If that works, the power balance would shift dramatically.”

“Right, if two A-ranks move together, we can subdue all the operatives before they can do anything. Then we just need to neutralize the armed refugees…”

“Iron Might.”

Having overheard their conversation, I called out Iron Might’s hero name for him to hear.

“Should I do it now?”

“What? What did you just say?”

While the operatives around me hadn’t yet grasped the situation, Iron Might looked at me with surprised eyes from a distance.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did you just eavesdrop on our conversation from that distance? An A-rank…?”

I had been wondering what to do about heroes and powerless refugees potentially clashing, but that concern was now gone.

I also no longer worried about heroes chasing me as a villain.

All that remained was to escape this noisy, exhausting place.

“Let’s begin.”

“Everyone! Move! Protect the civilians!”

“W-what?!”

“The heroes are charging! They’re coming!”

“So they finally show their true—urk.”

If the opponent is a superhuman, it’s okay to make small mistakes in controlling my strength.

As Iron Might broke from the encirclement, I unleashed part of the memory I had absorbed when I consumed Yeo Un-jae.

Like pulling a book from a shelf, memories that are difficult to fully comprehend just by looking fill my mind like examples.

The principles of knocking out a human body, vital points that can kill instantly, carotid sinus, central nervous system knockout, strikes that cause brain vibration.

“Eck.”

“Eek.”

“Kep.”

Whip-like, I swung both hands to barely graze their chins, knocking them unconscious.

Before the four nearby could even collapse, I moved toward a superhuman who was reacting to the attack and extended my fist to their neck, flicking a single index finger.

The light but precisely placed impact resonated to the bone, and the person who received the forehead flick collapsed as the wave of their activating ability was cut off.

“Wait…!”

Quick reaction—probably upper B-rank.

Using the force from a light foot stomp against the ground, I accelerated quickly and slapped away an ice spear forming in the air with my palm.

Then I extended my hand to touch the superhuman’s stomach, and stopping my foot in place, I projected the impact forward.

“Heck!”

With a whoosh, air escaped from the compressed lungs as the superhuman was lifted into the air, flying toward the heroes.

Meanwhile, electricity formed in another B-rank superhuman’s hand—one of the fastest-forming abilities—and was fired at me.

“There are civilians…!”

Just before it was fired, Iron Might, who sensed the electricity’s precursor while running, slammed his iron-transformed fist into the ground.

Boom, iron powder sprayed up from the ground, conducting the electricity.

He seemed to have a considerable understanding of electrical abilities.

“Eek?!”

Catching some of the leaked electricity with my hand, I reached the electricity-shooting superhuman in an instant and grabbed the man’s arm.

A B-rank superhuman should be able to regenerate from this much.

Crack! I crushed the wrist that had shot the electricity, and the man screamed in agony.

“Aaaaargh!”

Next, I prepared my attack for another superhuman.

Next is the crown, striking the forehead with gathered fingertips, no, the Adam’s apple.

“Stop! Stop it! Sto—whoa?!”

As I was about to move, Iron Might rushed at me.

I reflexively moved my hand to attack Iron Might but stopped just in time.

Instead, I grabbed Iron Might’s arm as he approached to stop me and spun him around.

Iron Might, who was about the same height as me before I became Annihilation-rank, was swung through the air and tumbled on the ground.

“Hmm.”

I almost made a mistake because I was enjoying moving my body while watching Yeo Un-jae’s memories.

Iron Might, sitting on the ground, looked up at me with wide, surprised eyes.

“What… are you? Are you really A-rank?”

I recalled my movements from a moment ago after hearing Iron Might’s words.

Since I was moving to knock people unconscious rather than kill them, my strength and speed were only at the level of a mid-A-rank.

I merely accelerated technically and attacked precisely to appear at a higher level.

I extended my hand to Iron Might who was lying down.

“I am A-rank.”

“No, wow, w-what is this person.”

Iron Might grabbed my hand to stand up and dusted himself off.

Seeing this, the surrounding superhumans all stepped back, and the frozen refugees dropped their weapons.

“Did he kill them? In an instant?”

“Kyaaaah!”

“He didn’t kill them. He just knocked them unconscious, don’t worry.”

Iron Might explained on my behalf, lifting one of the unconscious superhumans and slapping his cheeks a couple of times.

The superhuman who regained consciousness just from that looked around in confusion.

“W-what? Where am I? Eh? I was just… Huh? Iron Might?”

Seeing the superhuman speaking normally, the refugees sighed in relief, and the heroes and police who had followed collected the weapons.

Shortly after the situation was resolved, handcuffs were placed on the arms of the superhumans who had led the disturbance, and they were dragged away by heroes while glaring at me.

“So you’re a W City citizen too!”

“You’re just like Black Cat, only caring about W City!”

“Come on, come quietly. You all crossed the line this time. We’ve been tolerating your quiet protests.”

“You’re the ones who crossed the line first! Heroes rushing in like that!”

After dragging the superhumans to a corner, the heroes handcuffed everyone and put special masks on their mouths.

These were masks for arresting awakened ones, releasing gas that hindered breathing and drained strength.

“This situation is a bit strange.”

Afterward, beyond the police officers who were guiding the refugees who had held weapons, the heroes gathered beside me to discuss the incident.

“We’re not arresting the refugees, right? Just educating them on why this happened?”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s legal for ordinary people to pull kitchen knives on C-rank or higher superhumans.”

“Blades are like toys to us, no more dangerous than bread knives…”

“They’re right that we rushed in first. It must have felt threatening.”

“That’s because that police officer made the Black Cat call.”

“Now that it’s over, it seems Black Cat wasn’t in a dangerous situation as the police claimed.”

“If they really thought this person was siding with the operatives, it would have been threatening enough.”

“The police didn’t do anything wrong. They reported it well before things got out of hand. This gave us a chance to legally arrest the operatives who were just barely crossing the line.”

“But what’s with this person? Not A-rank but S-rank? Can there be an unregistered S-rank?”

“Well, Hyena vouched for his identity.”

Park Deun-deun, an unidentified A-rank superhuman.

As they continued their conversation, the heroes’ attention focused on me.

“Mr. Park Deun-deun?”

“Hmm.”

“Would you mind coming to the station with us? I’m sorry, but we’d like you to cooperate with our investigation. We’re not trying to do anything to you, it’s just for investigating this incident…”

Iron Might politely asked for my cooperation, warning that if I fled now, I might be put on a wanted list.

The heroes didn’t seem willing to let go of me, who had unfortunately become the central figure in this incident.

I wondered when I would be able to eat quietly.

“…Alright.”

To avoid causing more commotion, I obediently followed the heroes.

#

“Mr. Mu-ryo would never do such a thing!”

In a small room at the police station in District 3.

Yu Hyena, who had come to the dark interrogation room, grabbed Iron Might as soon as she saw me sitting there.

“How could someone who can’t even get a job because of the Wae-ong Faction be doing bad things with Wae-ong Faction people! You must have seen wrong! Mr. Mu-ryo is…!”

“Ms. Hyena, please calm down first.”

“Mr. Mu-ryo just doesn’t understand what’s wrong, and he’s a good person! He was just hungry, that’s all! Right?!”

“I was hungry.”

“See?!”

“I know. Park Deun, Han Mu, no, Park… ah! Thanks to this person’s cooperation, the situation was resolved quickly, and although it’s a bit strange, we’ve decided to accept that he was just hungry, based on testimony and witnesses!”

“It’s not just ‘accepting’ it—he really does eat a lot, so he was hungry.”

“That’s right! He was hungry! That’s why you’re still investigating him!”

Iron Might tapped the tablet recording our conversation and read part of the dialogue.

“How did you get your superhuman ID from A City, why is the registration date so recent, how did you get there without a train? And your answer is you walked there to eat something delicious? Does that make any sense?!”

“…He could have walked to A City because he was hungry.”

“No! It’s strange! I was just going to listen, record why this happened, and let him go! But it doesn’t make sense! It’s not normal human thinking!”

“Our Mr. Mu-ryo is not a normal human! I mean, that’s not what I meant…”

I’m a monster, so I’m not a normal human.

When I quietly looked at Yu Hyena who had spoken the truth, she hesitated and avoided my gaze.

“Haah… anyway, we’re not detaining you because we suspect you’re a villain. We’re just waiting for some fact-checking.”

“Fact-checking? What facts are you checking?”

“The senior said he’d verify whether Park Deun-deun really registered as a superhuman in A City, so we’re waiting.”

That’s what Iron Might said on the phone when he left me alone in the interrogation room for a while.

Since I really did register as a superhuman in A City, I was quietly waiting for Starlight to return and confirm my innocence.

Yu Hyena frowned when she heard why I was being detained.

“The senior is coming here? When did she say she’d check?”

“About 10 minutes ago.”

“Isn’t that more than enough time to check? Why are you still holding him?”

“The senior said she wanted to talk with Mr. Park Deun-deun…”

“What?”

At that moment, a familiar sound came from outside the thick soundproof wall.

Whoosh, the sound of fire rapidly burning and fluttering in the wind.

Then, Starlight’s footsteps approaching the building grew closer.