Ch.147Is It Really a Monster?

“This isn’t exactly a normal method.”

“But it’s quite an ingenious plan, isn’t it?”

Yu Anna, unable to deny it, nodded.

The distance from A City to W City isn’t far.

By previous era standards, walking to W City would take about 8 hours at a forced march.

Including rest time, it would take even longer.

It would be suicidal for a population that once filled an entire city to travel outside the fortress cities for more than 8 hours.

But, if Black Cat were there…

“Underground facilities can be maintained for 10 years even if monsters occupy them. We can move essential equipment by train and load belongings onto vehicles to travel slowly—the current road conditions are sufficient. All you need to do is send Black Cat to A City while you’re in W City.”

“Wait, let me think about this.”

Yu Anna stopped Jeong Ho-young, who was pushing forward with this hastily formed plan, and fell into thought.

If so many refugees headed to W City, it would likely provoke refugees from other cities and accelerate urban flight. But they couldn’t abandon all the citizens of A City.

The food issues immediately after relocation, power struggles among the ruling class when merging cities, political fights between superhumans and villains that were raging in A City—bringing all these factions into W City would have side effects.

On top of the refugees running wild, politicians would start thinking Black Cat was a monster that obeyed human commands.

The more she thought about it, the more this seemed like a temporary fix rather than a fundamental solution.

“…Still, it’s doable.”

No matter how difficult and headache-inducing it might be, dealing with politicians and refugees was better than facing monsters.

It might be exhausting, but at least people wouldn’t be dying immediately.

Even temporary fixes need to be implemented when possible.

Though she could foresee various problems arising, the benefits outweighed the losses.

“I understand it’s worth trying. The problem is Black Cat.”

This was more of an order than a request.

If the rumors were true and Yu Anna had tamed Black Cat, that would be one thing, but would it obey a command to go to A City and bring people back?

Being merely on friendly terms with Black Cat, Yu Anna feared that making such a troublesome request might earn its resentment.

“It’s bound to notice we’re using it.”

“We’ll keep Black Cat happy with food. If everyone relocates, we’ll have to temporarily shut down A City’s food factories. We can feed Black Cat all the produced stock that we can’t take with us.”

“Giving it some beef or tuna would… yes, it would like that.”

“From Black Cat’s perspective, it’s just coming to A City to eat delicious food and taking a leisurely stroll with people. It shouldn’t refuse.”

After saying that, Jeong Ho-young lowered his head and muttered quietly.

“It’s fortunate that Black Cat has been hunting the monsters in A City.”

“Yes, thanks to Black Cat, the damage has been greatly reduced.”

“More importantly, it seems clear that Black Cat is on our side. This works out well. Let’s discuss something important now.”

What could it be now?

When Yu Anna glared at him, telling him to stop being cryptic and just say what he meant, Jeong Ho-young gestured to his two secretaries.

“You two, wait outside. Please activate sound blocking for the room, just in case.”

“But, Cage sir, your condition—”

“I don’t need nursing now. What I’m about to discuss is information you’re not yet cleared to hear.”

The two quietly rose from their seats, left the room, and deployed their abilities.

Only Nam Gyeong, Jeong Ho-young, and Yu Anna remained in the hospital room.

“I’d like to send you out too, Meister, but you’ll find out anyway. Besides, I want the help of your ability.”

“What’s this about that requires such secrecy?”

“About what happened that day. Let me… explain it sequentially.”

“That day” referred to the night A City suffered catastrophic damage.

Seeing Yu Anna tense up, Jeong Ho-young began explaining the reasons behind what happened that day.

“First, I planned to clean up the government trash and then pass the position of ruling superhuman to you. The purge that day, which A City citizens named ‘Coup in a Cage,’ was carried out for that purpose.”

“I can’t easily agree with that. Why did you do such a thing?”

“I thought it was necessary. You’re foolishly committed to doing things the right way, so if someone like you were in front, I could handle things by any means necessary from behind, and it would suppress citizen backlash. If I complemented the holes in your idealism with reality, we’d have nearly perfect politics…”

“That’s not what I’m asking.”

Though Yu Anna pursued much more moderate methods than Jeong Ho-young, she also believed that someday the rotten parts of those in power would need to be cut out.

“I understand the necessity of your purge. But… it wasn’t like you.”

Jeong Ho-young is bold but not reckless.

He’s always carefully considered his options and chosen the most realistic path with minimal damage.

But everything that happened that day was reckless, hasty, and caused too much damage.

“There was no time.”

“Why?”

“The moment I caught their trail, I instinctively knew. They were plotting something in A City.”

Was someone after him? Cage himself?

Reflexively, Yu Anna thought of a certain villain, but quickly shook her head.

If that villain and the Villain Association were involved, it would have been villains, not monsters, who killed Yeo Un-jae.

“Who do you mean by ‘they’?”

When Yu Anna asked who Jeong Ho-young was referring to, his answer made her frown.

“Those who control the monsters.”

“What?”

Control monsters?

#

Sliding the hospital room door closed, Yu Anna walked silently down the corridor, leaving the secretaries waiting outside.

Having heard unbelievable things from Jeong Ho-young, she was slowly processing what she’d been told.

‘Since that day, I’ve been continuously investigating Yeo Un-jae’s death.’

How the monster weaponization experiments began, whether it was even possible.

While conducting an almost obsessive investigation, Jeong Ho-young uncovered illegal human experiments continuing behind the city’s back.

Though he initially thought it was unrelated dirty business—the kidnapping of newly awakened young superhumans—he discovered something strange in the process of shutting it down.

Words from one of the researchers conducting human experiments:

There really are people who have tamed monsters.

At first, he thought it was just an urban legend created by madmen with delusional goals.

But as Jeong Ho-young rose to a higher political position and gained greater information access, he gradually changed his mind.

There was something there.

‘I first noticed something strange in the analysis data of certain monsters.’

The reason Yeo Un-jae believed monster weaponization was possible—information about unusual monsters that refused to attack children.

When Jeong Ho-young tried to review those records again, he felt something was off.

They differed from the paper documents Yeo Un-jae had shown him.

Something was missing.

He remembered what was missing while capturing a rampaging monster in the city.

The weakness needed to kill a monster for certain.

This monster’s core was different from others.

Monster cores typically have a fractal, sphere-like structure unlike normal organs, proving they aren’t creatures of this world.

But this monster’s core resembled a human heart.

Finding this peculiarity missing from the records, Jeong Ho-young recalled every monster corpse he’d ever seen.

There were more.

‘The core of the monster that killed Yeo Un-jae also resembled a heart.’

Cage searched his memories and went to the government’s monster research lab to examine specimens of monsters he’d previously captured.

Monster specimens sometimes degrade over time as the masterless monster cells die off, returning to components similar to ordinary animal corpses.

Many specimens had already lost their scientific value.

‘Even so, it’s strange that all specimens with heart-shaped cores had degraded.’

Someone was deliberately damaging the specimens and erasing parts of the archived information.

Convinced of this, Jeong Ho-young formed a team separate from government facilities to analyze monsters he captured himself.

Among them, some monsters showed completely identical cells.

Monster cells are like tree rings, recording the monster’s evolutionary history.

Just as human fingerprints differ, the scientific consensus was that completely identical cells shouldn’t exist in different monsters.

Yet identical cells were found in monsters with completely different forms and evolutionary paths.

These monsters were all stronger, more rational, and more intelligent than other monsters of the same rank.

‘I thought they were artificial.’

Even monsters of the same species, while sharing evolutionary direction, are internally different.

Even examining a monster carrying offspring or siblings, identical cells don’t appear.

Jeong Ho-young concluded that someone or some group had injected these monsters with identical cells.

And he believed this was related to monster weaponization.

This group likely had collaborators within the government.

They probably already knew how much Jeong Ho-young had discovered.

‘So I planned to draw them out before cutting off their tail… but I didn’t expect it to go that far.’

They went beyond cutting off their tail—they completely destroyed A City.

Multiple Despair-rank monsters appearing simultaneously in A City.

And using Yeo Un-jae.

Yeo Un-jae wasn’t killed by the monster Owl Bear.

The monster that had taken Yeo Un-jae’s heart transformed into a monster right in front of Jeong Ho-young.

Yu Anna thought this made no sense, but her mind went blank when Jeong Ho-young clutched his chest and continued.

‘Right now, monster cells are eating away at my heart too. Well… I’m managing to hold out somehow.’

Yeo Un-jae’s heart medication had been mixed with monster cells.

That’s why his heart was in such terrible condition despite an S-rank superhuman’s regenerative abilities.

Surgically removing the monster cells was impossible.

In fact, he was only breathing now because the monster cells were partially functioning as his heart.

To prevent the host from dying.

Nam Gyeong used her ability to confirm Jeong Ho-young’s hypothesis was correct.

Yu Anna accepted this impossible truth when she learned why she had sensed monster-like waves from Jeong Ho-young’s body.

However, she found his subsequent reasoning hard to accept.

‘Perhaps… they’re creating monsters using humans as materials.’

Owl Bear, the monster Yeo Un-jae transformed into, showed overwhelming linguistic ability matching its power.

Experiencing Yeo Un-jae’s case and what was happening in his own heart, Jeong Ho-young believed this group was using humans as sacrifices to create special monsters.

To create monster weapons that would obey their commands.

‘Is such a thing possible?’

To this, Nam Gyeong, crying with guilt, used her ability to answer.

‘…It’s possible.’

The worst possible answer.

Monster weapons created using humans as materials through unknown methods.

Nam Gyeong’s ability couldn’t determine their purpose, but it was certain they were committing unforgivable acts.

‘They haven’t attacked A City again until now probably for Meister’s safety. Her ability must have been quite helpful to them.’

Having guessed why no additional artificial monsters had been deployed to A City, Jeong Ho-young explained the urgency of the situation.

‘But once they learn I’ve regained consciousness, they might deploy more monsters. Five Despair-rank monsters—they must have really wanted me dead.’

That’s why he wanted to get to W City as quickly as possible.

Not just for the citizens’ safety, but for his and Meister’s as well.

After finishing his explanation, Jeong Ho-young sighed tiredly.

‘…The more I think about it, getting Black Cat’s help is our best option.’

Hearing this, Yu Anna was struck by a strange thought.

Black Cat—a monster that understands speech, helps when asked, likes children, protects humans, speaks human language, and enjoys human food.

Really.

Is Black Cat actually a monster?