Ch.143A Story About Me That I Don’t Know

“I hate that one!”

After arguing with Ui for a while, Gu Seo-ryong sat down next to me with a huff, acting like a child throwing a tantrum.

Meanwhile, Sa Gu-gu, who had already finished one lunchbox, was playing with Ui and a Pipi-kung doll.

“She breaks them as soon as I buy them, so what’s the point of getting different Pipi-kung dolls? At least the regular ones are on sale. If I start buying various types, I’ll have to replace each one when she breaks them. What does she know…!”

“Kids don’t understand that.”

Gu Seo-ryong crossed her legs irritably and glared at Ui, who was being dragged around by Sa Gu-gu.

Ui sat in place, raising both hands above her head to become a human Pipi-kung castle.

“I’m already going crazy with her asking for more Pipi-kung dolls after watching the cartoon, and now you’re encouraging her… playing with her like that just makes her want more.”

“Isn’t that just playing nicely?”

“It’s not playing, it’s manipulation! Can’t you see it? She’s trying to addict her to stimulating things and make innocent Gu-gu her ally!”

“Hmm.”

I turned my attention away from Gu Seo-ryong’s arguments, where emotion was starting to override logic, and looked toward Ui and Sa Gu-gu.

I wasn’t sure what game they were playing, but Ui had curled up like a ball and was being kicked and rolled around by a giggling Sa Gu-gu.

“I don’t see it.”

If a researcher had taken over an experiment’s body, it would be best to kill them before they cause trouble, but Ui seems to be becoming more childlike with each passing day.

Is she learning childlike behavior from Sa Gu-gu, or is her true nature simply emerging?

Gu Seo-ryong, who like me couldn’t definitively say what Ui was, sighed.

“It would be easier to just kill her.”

“You don’t seem inclined to do so.”

Gu Seo-ryong clicked her tongue at my question.

When I was at the laboratory, the promise among experiments not to harm children carried multiple meanings.

It was an act of resistance against the laboratory people, proof that we hadn’t completely become monsters yet.

Evidence of humanity remaining in the experiments.

A minimal sense of camaraderie among the experiments who were once children.

“Isn’t there a way to know for sure?”

“Don’t you have one?”

“I can think of a method, but I don’t really want to use it.”

Reading Gu Seo-ryong’s gaze toward Sa Gu-gu, I guessed that her method probably involved using Sa Gu-gu.

Though she calls her a tool, Gu Seo-ryong already cares too much for Sa Gu-gu.

I finished the rest of my lunchbox and handed the garbage-filled bag to Gu Seo-ryong as I spoke.

“Then let’s just ask directly.”

“What? Ask?”

“Whether human nature remains, or if she’s a collection of researchers—can’t we just ask?”

“No, even if you ask directly, there’s no way she’ll give a proper answer…”

Gu Seo-ryong couldn’t hide her bewilderment at my suggestion.

However, she soon closed her mouth, perhaps thinking my method wasn’t so bad after all.

“I don’t like complicated methods.”

Overthinking just gives me a headache.

#

After mealtime and Sa Gu-gu’s playtime ended, I suggested to Ui that we go to the closed area together.

“I have something to ask you. Let’s talk where there are no humans.”

“Sa Gu-gu also has something to ask.”

“Don’t bite.”

“Nya.”

After pulling Sa Gu-gu’s head away from my tail, Ui looked toward Gu Seo-ryong and said:

“If you want to ask me something where there are no humans, it must be about the laboratory, right? Is the test over?”

“Test?”

“I’ll believe you’re an experiment that doesn’t attack humans, since there haven’t been any mysterious disappearances while sleeping among the refugees. Now, tell me about the laboratory… right?”

“When you talk like that, it only sounds like you’ve been deliberately holding back with some other purpose.”

“Oh my, I’ve triggered the suspicious Gu Seo-yul again. But if I don’t speak, you’ll suspect I’m hiding something. What a troublesome personality.”

“Enough.”

I intervened between the two as they started to sharpen their words again.

Ui made a disgruntled expression.

“Fighting with that woman will only make Unus uncomfortable.”

“If you know that, then shut up?”

“Let’s both shut up, Gu Seo-yul. Fine. I’ll come along.”

“Is Ui coming with us today?”

“Yes.”

“Ui will sleep with us too!”

Afterward, the four experiment creatures headed toward a deserted alley, with Sa Gu-gu excitedly running circles around us.

After creating a passage with space manipulation to reach the closed area outside the outer wall, where construction hours had ended and no humans remained, I released my human form.

“Ohhh… this is…”

[Let’s start with questions.]

Seeing Black Cat’s form up close for the first time, Ui admired and examined various parts of my body.

I shook off Sa Gu-gu who sat on my front paws, and without going in circles or dragging things out like Gu Seo-ryong would, I got straight to the point.

[Are you Ui? Or are you a researcher?]

Ui’s expression stiffened noticeably as she immediately grasped the meaning of my question.

“You’re wondering if my self, which has swallowed many researchers, has been consumed by the researchers, or if I’m still firmly in control of my identity.”

When Ui glared at her as if to ask if she had thought of this, Gu Seo-ryong shrugged her shoulders.

Ui sighed and began talking about herself.

“I assume Unus’s question is asking whether I have any humanity left. Morality, sensitivity, reason, love, compassion, empathy, justice, responsibility… Well, I can hardly say any of those remain in me with certainty.”

“My goodness, are you saying you have nothing that could be called humanity?”

“I wouldn’t say nothing. Right now, I am Ui. A laboratory experiment, Dekel X. U. E.”

A monster experiment that is neither human nor researcher.

Ui is clearly aware of what she is.

Her answer showed she maintained enough rationality as an experiment, which somewhat reduced my thoughts about needing to kill her.

[Why are you telling me about the Annihilation-rank? How do you know so much about it?]

“First, fan enthusiasm. I want you, Unus, whom I admire, to become stronger. Second, obviously because I’ve eaten many researchers.”

“Just because you ate researchers doesn’t mean you’d know about Annihilation-rank monsters.”

“Ah, that’s your question. How do I, or the researchers, know so much about Annihilation-rank monsters… hmm…”

After pondering Gu Seo-ryong’s question briefly, Ui tapped her head and said:

“I’m not sure about that either. How did the laboratory know so much about Annihilation-rank monsters?”

“Why are you asking us? You swallowed the researchers, so you should answer.”

“Believe it or not, I don’t know much either. As Unus saw before, I haven’t fully digested all the researchers yet.”

“Huh? This one really just says whatever’s convenient.”

To the irritated Gu Seo-ryong, Ui demonstratively pulled out a memory chunk of a researcher she hadn’t fully eaten yet.

That non-material substance existed as an entangled red sphere, melting like candy.

Gu Seo-ryong frowned at this ability, something even monsters hadn’t seen before.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a memory chunk of a researcher I’m digesting. As you can see, I haven’t fully digested it yet.”

Ui put the rapidly evaporating human memory back into her mouth.

“I’d like to digest it quickly too, but I ate so many humans at once, and the dummy memory issue is quite severe. Ah, if you ate the Alphabets in City B, haven’t you experienced this already?”

[It would take a long time indeed.]

Gu Seo-ryong, already aware that researchers’ dummy memories interfere with digestion, clicked her tongue in understanding.

“If you don’t trust me that much, I could spit out the memories of someone who knew about Annihilation-rank monsters for you to finish digesting instead. You might learn something.”

“Disgusting, you want me to eat what you spit out? And it’s still memories you’ve selected to regurgitate.”

“If you put it that way, I have nothing more to say. Hmm… perhaps the laboratory already had an Annihilation-rank monster?”

“You mean they already had one, not that you are one?”

“Doesn’t that make more sense? As Gu Seo-yul said, even if I were an Annihilation-rank monster, knowledge about crystals embedded in Annihilation-rank monster brains couldn’t be known without dissecting an Annihilation-rank monster, right?”

“So, since you’re alive, you’re not an Annihilation-rank monster, and the laboratory has a separate Annihilation-rank monster?”

“That might be the case. I don’t know either.”

“Then where did that Annihilation-rank monster come from? How did they capture it?”

“Well, perhaps they were lucky enough to find an Annihilation-rank corpse?”

“This isn’t worth discussing anymore. Even Sa Gu-gu wouldn’t believe such—ack!”

After quietly listening to their conversation, I decided they would just keep arguing, so I squashed Gu Seo-ryong with my front paw.

[Let’s stop talking about how you know about Annihilation-rank monsters.]

Whether Ui didn’t want to talk about it or truly didn’t know, continuing would just waste time.

What ultimately matters isn’t what knowledge Ui has, but whether she’s an enemy or ally.

[Why are you helping me?]

“Because I want to be your strength.”

[For what reason?]

“As I said, because I’m your fan.”

[Why did you become my fan?]

At that question, Ui smiled brightly.

“I liked the stories about you that I heard from the researchers.”

I frowned, silently asking what stories she had heard to make her feel that way.

Then Ui began telling me what the researchers had told her about me.

“You are the son of a firefighter who was called a national hero—a man who saved many people in a subway fire before the monster era began, before I was born, and who died after being stabbed while subduing an arsonist.”

My head throbbed as memories that had been torn away were stimulated.

Though not fully consumed yet, I could recognize whose story this was, but it felt unfamiliar, like someone else’s tale.

“And you led many people during a monster attack that occurred while the survivor camp was heading here to City W, after the fortress city construction operation was announced. Even though you were just a child, even though you lost your mother that day.”

“Grrrr…”

As my fragmented memories were continuously stimulated, they played back in disconnected pieces.

That day, after witnessing unforgettable scenes, I grabbed girls I had known since childhood and put them in escape vehicles heading to safety.

Knowing the terrain where City W would be built, I told them directions and painfully fled from monsters with the remaining adults and children.

“When you were taken to the laboratory, you helped most of the children escape.”

After entering the monster containment line created by soldiers, children who lost their parents during the fortress city construction were sent to an orphanage.

When researchers appeared at the orphanage to take the children, I sprayed a fire extinguisher to help everyone escape.

I was caught and beaten by the researchers.

Only I and two or three children boarded the large minivan.

The researchers summoned monsters through unknown methods to erase their traces, and the orphanage was burned down by a monster’s ability.

I frowned as I recalled events that I couldn’t properly remember on my own without Ui’s help.

“You know more details about me than I do.”

“The researchers talked about you every day.”

Through monster senses, Ui silently showed what the researchers had done to the experiments.

The researchers believed the monster I became was due to the special nature of my body.

Therefore, they tried to make other experiments similar to me.

From using experiments of similar age to transplanting cells extracted from my body, creating similar experiences, brainwashing, and memory manipulation.

Through this process, Ui learned about what I had experienced.

“Some experiments blamed you for what happened to them, but I loved hearing about what you went through.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s amazing, isn’t it? You were extraordinary even before becoming an experiment, and after becoming one, you never listened to the laboratory, mauled Romania once properly, and were disposed of. When researchers talked about creating experiments like you, this is what I heard: A monster can maintain rationality, researchers’ words aren’t absolute, and if you watch for openings, you can kill them.”

“I think I understand.”

Gu Seo-ryong, who had crawled out from under my paw, surprisingly nodded at Ui’s claim.

“Even when we were going crazy on stimulants, seeing CXI quietly sitting there with no reaction would bring us back to our senses. Thinking ‘this is nothing, I can endure it’ made it surprisingly bearable.”

“Has Sa Gu-gu heard this before? Unya? What was CXI?”

“How could I not be captivated? In that hellish situation, those researchers were grinding their teeth, telling us there was a human who never became a monster until the end. It made me wonder why I should listen to the researchers at all. Mere humans, things I could easily kill.”

“So you eliminated Romania and the Alphabets. Is that it?”

“I also wanted to confirm the humanity remaining in me as an experiment. Ah, yes. Like you, Gu Seo-yul. It was revenge.”

Ui calmly linked Gu Seo-ryong’s desire for revenge with humanity.

A way of speaking that defined Gu Seo-ryong not as a simple monster but as an experiment, while simultaneously defining herself the same way.

“Did it feel good? Watching the researchers melt away one by one. Seeing them accept death impassively, without any resistance, was quite satisfying.”

As Ui openly displayed hostility toward the researchers, Gu Seo-ryong grew quiet.

The behavioral principles became increasingly understandable, the explanations fitting together.

“…It makes sense.”

Just as Ui was silently laughing at Gu Seo-ryong’s murmur, the smile disappeared from her eyes.

“Who is CXI? Sa Gu-gu is, Sa Gu-gu is?”

“Sa Gu-gu?”

“Unyaaaa… what is Sa Gu-gu?”

“Sa Gu-gu? What’s wrong?”

Sa Gu-gu clutched her head in pain.

As Ui approached Sa Gu-gu in confusion, a startled Gu Seo-ryong picked up Sa Gu-gu and skillfully inserted her fingertips into Sa Gu-gu’s neck.

After receiving the sedative, Sa Gu-gu immediately felt relief and clung to Gu Seo-ryong.

At this sight, Ui’s emotions, which had appeared flawlessly composed to the point of feeling unnatural, were greatly shaken.

“What was that? Just now?”