Ch.19Cute…

# Enhanced Translation

[Is Yu Anna crazy? She caught Mirage?]

[Starlight caught the Despair-rank monster that Cage from A City couldn’t catch. Maybe it’s time W City should be called A City now?]

[Star Punch! Star Punch! Star Punch!]

The day after defeating Mirage, the Despair-rank monster that fled from A City to W City.

Reporters flocked to W City’s Hero Association, which had announced to citizens that Mirage had been completely defeated.

Yu Anna, responding to an interview with W City’s local broadcasting station, was explaining the damage caused by Mirage alongside other heroes.

“27 severely injured, 89 with minor injuries, and 0 fatalities. As for property damage, 52 buildings were destroyed…”

[52 buildings? Is this right? Did she mean 52km by mistake?]

[I live in Zone 2 and that’s correct, my house is fine]

[But my house is gone? My house is gone? My house is gone?]

[Breaking news: A City in uproar, people angry after seeing W City’s Mirage damage report, demanding A City heroes be fired]

[Is this really Despair-rank? It seems less destructive than when Black Cat was rampaging with other Despair-rank monsters]

[You should look up how much damage Mirage caused in A City]

[A City Mirage damage: 3 zones completely destroyed, casualties immeasurable. W City Mirage damage: 52 buildings destroyed in 2 outer zones. W City Black Cat damage: 17 orphanage directors, one zone]

[Wasn’t it Starlight who destroyed that one zone, not Black Cat?]

The damage W City suffered from Mirage was miraculously—almost ridiculously—minimal.

Just about 52 buildings, a level that could be completely restored in about a week, plus the human casualties were at an acceptable level.

Considering how many heroes typically get shredded when facing a Despair-rank monster, it seemed like the government might be manipulating information to reassure citizens.

“I have a question! From what I understand, A City’s damage was incomparable to W City’s. Why such different results?”

“It’s because of Mirage’s characteristics as a monster. If you don’t know its true form, massive damage is inevitable.”

In response to the reporter’s question, an association employee turned on a TV and played a video.

“The monster we eliminated, named Mirage for its elusive nature, truly lived up to its name. Related to this, we’ll now release part of the combat footage.”

The image of Mirage captured by the heroes’ cameras showed it constantly changing.

People watching the video were initially impressed by the heroes’ coordinated attacks, but soon felt terror as they saw Mirage instantly regenerating from every attack.

A monster that recovers immediately no matter how much you attack it and keeps crawling forward—how on earth did they defeat such a thing?

As Mirage released a smoke screen and heroes collapsed one after another, viewers could imagine how A City suffered such massive damage.

But then, the video showed Yu Anna grabbing a large shell and one-sidedly beating it.

After such serious footage, this suddenly comical scene confused reporters, who raised their hands wondering if the video had been incorrectly edited.

“Um… that shell, what suddenly…?”

“That’s Mirage’s true form. Everything you saw before was an illusion created by Mirage.”

“What?”

According to the government’s announcement, Mirage was a shell-shaped monster that used its shell to create illusions and the meat inside to generate telekinetic force.

Through this, it could launch physical illusion attacks and disorient humans—what seemed like a charm ability was actually caused by powerful illusions.

Additionally, the shell’s hardness could only be broken by S-rank power… meaning that unless you could find the true body in the massive fog and strike it with tremendous force, it couldn’t be defeated.

At this moment, the reason why A City’s S-rank hero, Cage, had failed to catch Mirage became clear.

He thought he had caught Mirage with his ability, but Mirage had always been mocking Cage from outside his power’s range.

After realizing this fact, the reporters’ interest was no longer directed at Mirage.

“How did you find Mirage’s true form?!”

“What do you think about A City’s S-rank hero Cage, who let Mirage escape to W City?!”

“Was dealing with Mirage easy for you?”

Comparing one S-rank hero with another from W City was always guaranteed to generate clicks for sensational articles.

Having no interest in participating in such pointless games, Yu Anna sighed and had the presentation stopped.

After the government announcement ended, people noisily discussed the incident online.

[Mirage seems like a really tricky monster to catch? How did Yu Anna catch it?]

[Friend, don’t you know what happened to Zone 2? Yu Anna probably just swung her eraser around and caught whatever got in the way]

[Is “eraser” that technique that destroyed Zone 2’s underground?]

[Yu Anna said it’s not eraser but “meltdown”]

[Homeless-maker would be a more fitting name]

[So basically she just beat the crap out of it until she caught the right thing and realized it was the true body?]

[Yu Anna may have demolished Zone 2, but she seems really good at catching monsters]

[Then why can’t she catch Black Cat?]

[Yu Anna beat Mirage, which fooled S-rank hero Cage, but can’t catch Black Cat?]

[But Black Cat spits out whatever monster it’s eating and runs away whenever Yu Anna shows up]

[Maybe Black Cat is afraid of Yu Anna too?]

[Black Cat: If I attack humans, Yu Anna will come kill me meow, I don’t want to die so I’ll just eat monsters meow]

[Aren’t orphanage directors human?]

[Those rumors about them were weird though? If the rumors are true, honestly Black Cat killed beasts, not humans]

[Anyway, the important thing is that W City is safe with Yu Anna~]

Somehow, Yu Anna had transformed from a hero who couldn’t catch Despair-rank monsters and just chased them around, to a hero so strong that Despair-rank monsters couldn’t freely attack people and could only run away.

Public opinion is really something—why did they torment her so much if it could flip so quickly?

Enjoying a rare moment of relaxation on her sofa, Yu Anna browsed communities discussing her and left an anonymous comment.

[Where did all those people who said Starlight was weak go?]

It wasn’t a genuine question but a comment expecting the reaction she wanted.

And sure enough, the responses she hoped for came flooding in.

[Did all those people who called her Firefly instead of Starlight die from Mirage? Why so quiet now?]

[Are the people who insulted Yu Anna actually Mirage? They’ve all disappeared?]

[W City Mirage human casualties: 0]

[W City level lol Is this where we all tell Yu Anna “welcome, we believed in you all along”?]

[Star Punch! Star Punch!]

“Pfft…”

An image of a muscular man photoshopped with Yu Anna’s face repeatedly punching the air—it looked homemade—was posted as a moving comment.

In a good mood for the first time in a while, Yu Anna hummed as she opened the refrigerator.

Maybe she’d make something delicious today, since monster damage had been decreasing lately.

It’s a bit funny, but recently Yu Anna had been becoming more relaxed.

As the only S-rank hero in W City, she had to rush around whenever a strong monster appeared.

But since Black Cat started hunting monsters, W City seemed to have two S-rank heroes.

Either Black Cat had already hunted the monster before Yu Anna could go, or Black Cat was already devouring the monster when she arrived.

This would turn into a Black Cat chase, but since Black Cat didn’t unnecessarily destroy facilities or cause human casualties, the mental fatigue was much lower.

Well… occasionally it would inexplicably tear up expensive items with its claws, but still.

The internet was full of posts from people who suffered the same damage, cursing Black Cat.

[Black Cat cut the communication cable again]

[Black Cat stuck rebar in my building and left ㅠ How do I remove this?]

[Why is my car stuck up there…?]

[Fucking cat bitch, Yu Anna please catch and kill it]

[Star Punch! Star Punch!]

Such posts were often accompanied by what seemed to be a trend—photoshopped images of Yu Anna beating kittens.

I look like some animal abuser, Yu Anna frowned as she thought about Black Cat.

Monster Black Cat, a monster so different from others.

Clearly someone to be wary of, someone she should eventually catch, yet somehow an inexplicable trust was growing.

Even when she found people who were slow to escape while chasing Black Cat, she didn’t have to worry about the monster attacking them.

It would dodge them while flying, and if the wind from its movement might knock someone over, it would change direction even if it meant getting hit by Yu Anna.

At such times, Yu Anna would hold back her punches, as if giving it a pass just this once.

“What is it really thinking…”

Why doesn’t Black Cat attack people?

Yu Anna was increasingly thinking that Black Cat wasn’t trying to deceive humans.

She hadn’t voiced her thoughts publicly for fear of the potential danger—people might mistakenly think other monsters were like Black Cat—but Black Cat truly seemed to have no intention of attacking people.

It even protected heroes from itself, as if… did it see her as a monster who would kill her comrades to catch monsters?

Yu Anna searched for auto-completed phrases in her social media search bar.

Searching for #WCityBlackCat♡, she was flooded with images of Black Cat saving people and eating meat.

What kind of monster was this… if throwing a few pieces of ham could get a monster dealt with, Yu Anna would gladly outsource the job.

Among the photos and videos of Black Cat disappearing after defeating monsters, there were many videos of women screaming with joy while petting Black Cat’s fur.

[Kyaaak! It’s super soft!]

[Look at the shine, wow! What should I do!]

Petting a monster… it was clearly dangerous behavior, but lately Yu Anna was getting tired of being angry about it.

These days, when she saw Black Cat, she wondered what its fur felt like, to the point where she considered petting it just once.

And scrolling down further… there were even more surprising videos.

“Look at this… unbelievable…”

In the video, Black Cat had a slaughtered cow in its mouth.

Was this a theft video? In the video, the monster alarm wasn’t ringing at all for Black Cat.

As she’d noticed before, Black Cat seemed to have developed the ability to hide from alarms.

If other monsters had such an ability, it would be terrifying… but Black Cat’s behavior in the video was just absurd.

The video, titled ‘Black Cat came to my house after I promised it a whole cow!’ was part of a three-video series.

[I gave you what I promised~ If you don’t leave soon, my dad will scold me!]

A girl’s voice from a dark refrigerator, Black Cat taking the beef in its mouth then putting it back, then taking the beef out of the refrigerator as if it didn’t intend to just carry it away.

And shortly after, Black Cat went outside the building and returned with something strange in its mouth.

[What’s this? A gas stove…?]

A portable gas stove… Black Cat pushing the stove with its front paws looked unmistakably like it was asking for the meat to be cooked.

Had someone cooked meat for it before? They say even wild animals prefer cooked meat once they’ve tasted it.

As the girl hesitantly cut a piece of meat and cooked it, Black Cat made a strange “waoongong” sound and ate it.

“It makes cute sounds when eating meat…”

In the final video, it seemed they were eventually caught by someone who appeared to be the girl’s parent, but seeing the monster calmly accepting meat, they all seemed intrigued and started cutting and cooking meat for it.

The video ended with them saying they’d help again if asked, and thanking it for saving them.

After watching the video to the end, Yu Anna immediately contacted the government to have it taken down.

If such videos spread and people approached monsters with familiarity, it could be dangerous.

And after a moment’s thought, Yu Anna saved the video separately before it was deleted.