Ch.25The Modern World’s Deadliest Poison (3)

The scariness of human affection.

At first, I was just going to provide some mental care and then return to my human form tomorrow to meet her again.

“See you next time!”

Carmilla waves her innocent hand at me with a bright smile.

Seeing her childlike appearance.

‘Will that smile soon disappear into abuse and violence when evening comes…’

Perhaps it was because I felt unnecessary compassion.

“M-Monster?!”

“This wall is 50 meters high!”

That day, I casually informed the young lady that I would be coming home late tonight.

Then I jumped over the barrier between City E and City C with pure physical strength, following Carmilla’s scent to arrive here.

But what the hell is this?

This fucking scene.

“Ah, mister…”

“Grrrr?!”

‘Carmilla?’

Carmilla, collapsed in the yard, was leaking some unidentifiable black liquid.

And I soon realized that this ink-like black substance was blood.

‘How… how can human blood turn this black?’

I couldn’t understand it.

First, I punched the green-tinged monster who seemed to be the culprit, sending it tumbling down.

Then I knelt on one knee in front of Carmilla, wondering what I should do…

“For your information, I wouldn’t touch her if I were you.”

“Grrrk?”

Should I gently pick her up and take her to a large hospital nearby?

Just as I was thinking that.

“Carmilla has already been ‘irradiated.’ If you carelessly take an infected person around, both you and the child will be hunted down.”

Despite my claim of controlling my strength to minimize damage to the house, the green-tinged monster in human form only bled a little yellow nosebleed before getting up and trudging toward me.

“Grrrrrr?”

‘Who are you?’

I asked the monster.

“Grrrk. Grrrk!”

‘Did you do this to Carmilla? Do you have some grudge against her?’

“Haha. A grudge? I’m hurt. Don’t you really remember me? If we’re talking about grudges, I have the most against you!”

“…Grrrk?”

‘Me?’

The green-tinged monster suddenly claimed to know me.

As I tilted my head in confusion.

“You threw me into a car this morning, you mongrel.”

“…Grrrrrk?”

‘…What?’

Suddenly mentioning what happened between me and Ms. Lajerita, the creature pointed at the seemingly unconscious Ms. Lajerita sprawled behind it.

At the same time, it revealed a shocking truth.

“Still don’t understand? It’s me! Lajerita, the one you beat up at lunch today! I’ve been possessing this woman’s body, pretending to be Carmilla’s mother all this time!”

Cough! Cough!

Strangely, I can’t stop coughing.

While the monster spewed nonsense I didn’t want to understand, my chest felt oddly hot.

The true identity of the mother who beat Carmilla like a dog.

Ms. Lajerita, who never seemed like family, was actually not even family but a monster.

Even I, an outsider, can hardly believe it after hearing this. How much more painful must it have been for Carmilla, who had endured this thing pretending to be her mother?

But before I could question further.

“Oh, by the way, you mongrel. For a monster, you’re unusually friendly with humans?”

It seemed to be rushing toward me.

But then it lightly jumped over me as I was getting into position and aimed a stomping foot at the child hiding behind me.

Carmilla.

BOOM!

“Mis…ter…!”

“Kyahahahaha! I couldn’t believe it, but is a monster actually trying to protect a human?!”

I quickly bent over Carmilla’s body, volunteering as a shield to protect her.

“How embarrassing… a monster taking the side of humans! You’re such an idiot, huh?!”

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

And so.

While the radiation monster persistently targeted Carmilla, the monsterized Kang Janghoon remained curled up, unable to move.

Like a turtle shell protecting its core.

He just kept taking the hits, which was the best opportunity for the radiation monster.

Because with each impact.

Cough! Cough! Cough!

“No, don’t… mis…ter…!”

“Kyahahahahahaha! Do you think even monsters are immune to radiation?! Radiation is deadly poison to all living things!”

Janghoon’s coughing was getting louder.

“Actually, you’ve been irradiated since you entered this field and punched my cheek.”

“…!”

“I am the radiation monster. I can literally spread radiation just by existing. And yet you allowed close combat against me.”

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Know your place, you trash!”

CRACK!

Ah, how refreshing.

The radiation monster felt like it was flying through the sky right now.

A low-level monster I’ve never seen before.

Daring to humiliate me, a high-level monster, without knowing its place.

If we had met in the other world, it wouldn’t have dared to look me in the eye, but its excessive behavior ruined all my original plans.

But so what?

I feel so good right now.

Unexpectedly, I must admit its endurance for withstanding my attacks even after I returned to my true form.

However, radiation doesn’t affect the outside of living beings, but the inside.

Starting from the cells, it’s an extreme poison that slowly rots and decays all life.

“Cough?!”

“No, don’t… mis…ter…!”

“That’s right! Finally, you’re coughing up blood!”

Kang Janghoon, who had been crouched over Carmilla, suddenly spat out some black liquid.

Seeing this, worried voices came from inside, while from the outside came jubilant cheers as if someone had won the lottery.

“Yes, yes! That’s it! That’s what I want!”

“Cough! Cough! Cough!”

“Yes! Keep coughing! All the platelets in your body will be just as damaged!”

“Mister… no, please don’t…”

Carmilla tried to quickly help the monster mister who was shielding her get back up.

After all, she was going to die from radiation poisoning soon anyway.

It was enough that her father, who now knew the truth, was sacrificing his life for her, who had no hope.

So she tried to muster her strength to tap the muscular body above her, but.

“Time for the finishing blow.”

“…!!”

As if not giving time for late regrets.

The radiation monster stopped its kicking and raised one arm high into the air.

Then, an enormous amount of sulfur-colored energy began to gather slowly in her fist.

“If I were to compare the radiation I’ve been spreading so far to the remnants of a nuclear bomb, this one could be described as something incomparably more vicious.”

“More… vicious?”

“Yes, Carmilla. Have you ever heard of ‘solar radiation’ in science class?”

Solar radiation.

If ordinary radiation produced on Earth is poison from artificial fallout and exposure due to nuclear fission.

Solar radiation is the powerful energy itself from natural nuclear fusion.

Theoretically, its power is known to be about ‘240 quintillion times’ that of the first atomic bomb ever created.

“Well, the solar radiation I created doesn’t have that much power…”

“Mi-mister… run, run away…!”

“But it’s more than enough to cause a ‘small nuclear fusion’ inside the body.”

And so.

Swoosh.

Like sunlight naturally passing through a person’s body.

The golden sphere gathered above her palm was aimed at the mongrel.

The radiation monster inserted it into Kang Janghoon’s back as he remained crouched below her.

“Die from radiation poisoning!”

“No, don’t!”

A moment of silence.

It was quiet all around, as if the world itself had stopped.

Then what was heard was.

Cough!Cough!Cough!Cough!Cough!Cough!Cough!Cough!Cough!Cough!Cough!Cough!Cough!

The horned masked monster’s frantic coughing like never before.

Watching Kang Janghoon spitting black liquid from his eyes, nose, and mouth.

“Kyahahahahahaha! That’s right! I’m the best! A Grade 1 monster?! A mere Grade 1 dares to challenge me? I’m ‘Special Grade’!”

Radiation finally seemed certain of victory, repeatedly shouting “Hooray!”

“G-grrrk…”

“Oh! Do you still have something to say before you die?”

“G-grrk, grrk…!”

“Kukukuku. Fine, I’ll listen to your last words since we probably won’t see each other again anyway, so hurry up and speak.”

Perhaps he was trembling from the nuclear fusion currently taking place inside his body?

Radiation looked down at the nearly dead mongrel, and to mock him until the end.

“There, isn’t this easier to speak?”

She knelt down and put her ear close to his face as he lay prone.

Barely holding back laughter that seemed about to burst out at any moment.

“You know, when monsters perish in the human world, they return to the other world, right? Like the reincarnation (輪回) humans talk about.”

“Cough! Cough! COUGH!!”

“And monsters who return to the other world spend decades or centuries trying to come back to the human world. I wonder how long it will take you to return here?”

“Does that mean… mister will disappear?”

Monsters don’t really die.

Like “respawning” monsters in a game, they just return to the human world after some time passes.

However, that time is at least measured in years.

Carmilla swallowed her tears, relieved that the monster mister wouldn’t die, but realizing she might never see him again.

Well, that wouldn’t matter soon since she’d be dead too.

But… if she could survive, she wanted to walk side by side with the mister again and talk.

“Grrk?! Kak, kahak!”

“Kyahahaha! Is this finally the end? Yes! Hurry up and spit out your last words!”

And so, the horned masked monster finally opened his mouth wide as if at his limit.

Waiting for his last words, the radiation monster anticipated the moment she’d been waiting for.

Eventually.

“Kuk…”

‘Sp…’

“Spicy!”

“GRARARARAK!”

‘IT’S SPICYYYYY-!!”

“…Huh?”

With lethal levels of radiation absorbed into his body.

Plus the solar radiation inserted into him, Kang Janghoon’s next words.

Were like someone who had eaten level 5 spicy tteokbokki from hell, with tears and snot streaming down his face as he stuck out his reddened tongue.

“S-spicy, you say?”

SLAP!

“Puhek?!”

Before she could be bewildered, she received an angry slap that knocked teeth out like popcorn.

Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!

“GRARARAK! GRAAK!?”

‘Hey, you bastard?! Even Koreans would get upset if you gave them something sprinkled with capsaicin!!’

“W-wait… let’s talk first…!”

Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!