Ch.21Strange
by fnovelpia
[“But what if Black Cat gets angry about this and starts attacking people? Won’t W City be destroyed?”]
Yu Anna sighed as she saw a post expressing the same concern she had while browsing the community forum.
Recently, Yu Anna had acknowledged that Black Cat avoided attacking humans, and this was precisely what worried her most.
So far, Yu Anna had consistently failed to capture Black Cat.
What would happen if Black Cat truly went on a rampage?
If Black Cat stopped its unusual behavior and completely turned against humans, W City would be finished.
Today, while chasing Black Cat as it destroyed numerous buildings, she felt this reality more acutely than ever.
“Ahhh… they really have no idea what they’re doing…”
If Black Cat were to fight Yu Anna head-on, if they charged at each other with killing intent, Yu Anna would win.
Or if Yu Anna completely abandoned control of her superpower and fought while destroying the entire city, if she pursued Black Cat by obliterating entire areas regardless of where it hid… then she’d be confident in capturing it.
If she were willing to sacrifice all of W City, she could eliminate Black Cat.
But at this point, that was merely a last resort, a choice to make only if Black Cat started rampaging.
The current Black Cat was, in a way, almost like a hero-in-training, an unusual monster that benefited both heroes and W City as a whole.
That’s why the situation had reached this stalemate, so why were third parties coming to provoke Black Cat?
If they can’t catch it themselves, and if they’re truly serious about capturing it, they should send an S-rank hero.
Though that would never happen, of course.
S-rank heroes are the ultimate weapons assigned to each city.
To use an example from before monsters appeared, they’re like mobile nuclear bombs that a city possesses.
No city in the current era would carelessly deploy their means of protection against monsters to other locations.
Unless a truly powerful monster appeared, like an Annihilation-rank… Very rarely, when a powerful Despair-rank monster needs to be eliminated before it becomes an Annihilation-rank, S-rank heroes might be sent as support, but Black Cat is a unique specimen that doesn’t readily attack humans.
Some major cities with two or three S-rank heroes might have the luxury to spare one… but Black Cat’s threat level is very low for a Despair-rank monster, and sending an S-rank hero to catch something like this would be foolish.
For the time being, as long as troublemakers from other cities don’t provoke Black Cat, this stalemate should continue.
With that thought, Yu Anna continued browsing community reactions when she frowned upon discovering an absurd post.
[A City’s S-rank hero Cage announces he will come to W City to capture Black Cat.]
“…What?”
This must be another ridiculous joke, or perhaps community users writing another delusional post.
However, similar posts began flooding in one after another.
Soon after, the same story appeared on the news.
Complete with an interview from Cage himself.
[Citizens of W City trembling from monster damage, please rest assured. I, Cage, have decided to eliminate Black Cat, the monster threatening your safety.]
Yu Anna grimaced as she watched the blonde, handsome Cage smiling during his interview on TV.
It seemed like W City was about to face even more troublesome issues.
#
A few days after A City’s S-rank hero Cage announced he would hunt Black Cat.
As promised, Cage arrived in W City with his subordinate heroes.
The moment he stepped off the train, countless camera flashes went off and crowds welcomed him. People were extremely excited to see an S-rank hero from A City in person.
“Wow! Iron Fortress! Iron Fortress!”
“Cage sir! Look over here!”
After politely waving to the crowd, Cage shook hands with Starlight who had come to greet him from W City in front of the cameras, then boarded a limousine.
Inside the car, Yu Anna sat down with a thud and crossed her legs, joining Cage and his two aides.
Seeing her demeanor, Cage wiped the smile from his face and spoke in a cold voice quite different from what he showed in front of cameras.
“It seems W City is full of nothing but stupid pigs, oink oink… Unlike A City, they lack class, making such a racket.”
“Tsk.”
Well, he hasn’t changed at all, thought Yu Anna as she clicked her tongue, clearly showing her displeasure.
Contrary to his public image, this was the real Cage.
A severe superhuman supremacist, a man filled with as much superiority complex as his powerful ability.
“It’s been a while, Yu Anna, or should I call you Starlight now?”
“Yes, it’s been a while, Jeong Ho-young.”
Cage, or Jeong Ho-young, looked Yu Anna up and down, then snapped his fingers at the woman sitting beside him.
The woman took out a cigarette from her pocket and placed it between Cage’s lips, while the woman on the opposite side lit it.
Although smoking was prohibited in the car, Yu Anna knew Cage wasn’t the type to follow such rules, so she frowned and opened the window.
“I heard you defeated Mirage and wondered if you’d gotten stronger, but it seems not… I suppose you just defeated a monster that was already exhausted from fighting another Despair-rank monster in this city? How cowardly.”
“What does that matter?”
Yu Anna genuinely couldn’t understand why making two Despair-rank monsters fight each other before capturing one was considered cowardly. After all, this strategy was pioneered by Cage himself.
It was strange hearing such criticism from the very person who had trapped two monsters in his Iron Fortress and eliminated the survivor.
“It matters because you didn’t disclose that fact to the public, making it seem like you defeated it with your power alone.”
Cage’s statement answered her question, making Yu Anna’s expression sour even more.
“Thanks to that, people in A City are saying the most irritating nonsense. That I, Cage, might be weaker than Starlight.”
“Don’t tell me you came to W City for such a childish reason?”
“From the beginning, I didn’t like the fact that you received the same high S-rank evaluation as me. Someone like you who couldn’t even move against me during the exam.”
“I really have nothing to say to that.”
As Cage mentioned, Yu Anna had a history of being utterly defeated by Cage during the hero examination.
Cage possessed an ability specialized in defense, while Yu Anna’s ability excelled in attack and pursuit.
A fighting style that trapped opponents in confined spaces and wore them down gradually was completely incompatible with Yu Anna’s style, and her attacks couldn’t penetrate Cage’s defense.
However, when facing monsters, Cage and Yu Anna’s performance was identical.
This made sense because human versus human combat differs completely from human versus monster combat.
That’s why they received the same rank, but he wasn’t satisfied with that?
“I’ve heard that W City still hasn’t captured its Despair-rank monster… If I catch that creature, everyone will clearly know which of us is superior.”
“Capturing monsters isn’t about proving who’s better.”
“Of course I know that, it’s about making the environment more pleasant for non-adapters.”
“Could you refrain from using hate speech?”
“Oh, would ‘failures’ be more appropriate? Obsolete ones? Unselected losers, poor sheep who need to be led by superhumans?”
“Sigh.”
Yu Anna let out an exasperated sigh at the serious superhuman supremacist’s remarks.
In the current era where monsters had appeared and superpowers had emerged, there were quite a few superhumans who spoke like Cage.
Among them, some became villains, living for their own desires, believing it was strange for superhumans like themselves to take orders from ordinary humans.
However, Cage’s mindset, while close to a villain’s, was coupled with his overwhelming superiority complex that kept him as a hero.
His iron-man philosophy that superior beings must lead the inferior, and his paradoxical pride that he must always present an admirable image to them.
Because of this, even Yu Anna couldn’t criticize Cage who perfectly played the role of a hero.
Despite his words, he was genuinely a hero who worked to reduce harm to people.
While Cage would magnanimously overlook insults from non-awakened people, thinking “inferior beings naturally speak inferior words,” he apparently couldn’t tolerate being compared to another superhuman.
“I’ve already read all the information about this Black Cat. With such limited abilities, it cannot escape my Iron Fortress.”
Cage clenched his fist with a confident expression.
When he opened his hand again, a cubic shape floated in his palm.
“Isn’t this a good opportunity? For me to prove that I am superior to you.”
“Ah, yes… whatever you say…”
Yu Anna didn’t care about such things, so she waved her hand dismissively and looked out the window.
Now that he had arrived, it was a settled fact that Cage would confront Black Cat.
Could Cage actually capture Black Cat?
One thing was certain.
Black Cat would not be able to escape from Cage.
Even if they fought, Cage’s superpower could minimize the damage.
Black Cat was a monster… an enemy of humanity that heroes must eliminate.
“Haah…”
Yu Anna sighed, thinking she would be busy again after Black Cat was hunted down.
Though it was a thought unbecoming of a hero, she felt slightly regretful.
That Black Cat would be captured.
#
I was lifting a vending machine to pick up coins that had fallen into a gap when I heard a sound from far away and put it down.
The monster alert siren blaring from quite a distance.
The rank seems to be around Homicide-rank again… Well, heroes will probably come and take care of it.
With two S-rank heroes in W City now, there’s no need for me to get involved.
Recently, I’ve been stressed by heroes constantly trying to capture me, so I’ve been ignoring monster alerts as much as possible.
Additionally, according to news I’ve heard, an S-rank hero named Cage from A City has come to W City to capture me.
With two S-rank heroes around, they’ll handle everything themselves, and if both of them come after me, I probably won’t be able to escape. So why should I rush into danger?
So I’m ignoring it. The heroes will take care of the monsters.
As I continued to ignore the alerts, they seemed to become more frequent.
More precisely, the monster alerts were lasting too long. Even though enough time had passed to eliminate the monsters, the alerts kept sounding.
It didn’t seem like Yu Anna was responding, and the heroes seemed busy with something?
I’m not hunting monsters, and Yu Anna seems to be on standby, perhaps planning something with the other S-rank hero.
As more time passed, alert sounds could be heard from various parts of W City.
This time, I could even feel the monsters’ infrasound waves, suggesting powerful monsters had appeared.
The presence of monsters could be felt from multiple locations, probably about three Disaster-rank monsters.
It was extremely rare for three Disaster-rank monsters to appear simultaneously, but since I had been hunting other monsters and then disappeared, this area might feel like a territory abandoned by its owner to these Disaster-rank monsters.
With this level of threat, an S-rank hero should appear… but the monsters’ presence didn’t stop.
“…What are they doing?”
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