Ch.32I Refuse

“You said there would be delicious rice cakes, but you’re just playing with my feelings like this.”

Gu Seo-ryong smiled at my cold response and slid across the ground toward me.

“If I used the expression ‘nest,’ you should know what it means, right? What it means when a female monster like me guides a male monster like you to her nest.”

“You want offspring.”

“Correct. What do you think? Want to have some? Your child and mine. It would surely be a strong one.”

“I refuse.”

I grabbed Gu Seo-ryong, who was clinging to my arm, and pushed her away with one hand.

Gu Seo-ryong was licking her lips with an excited expression, continuously making her core throb loudly.

In contrast, when she sensed my core maintaining a very quiet state, her expression subtly distorted.

“Hmm… your rejection makes me want you even more, but I’m a little hurt? I can’t believe you’re showing so little reaction.”

“I am not the same type of monster as you. Just because you send out waves doesn’t mean I’ll want to mate.”

“Regardless of that, when a woman undresses and a man shows no reaction, it’s natural to feel bad.”

“If you feel bad, put your clothes back on.”

“Oh my, why? Are you embarrassed looking at me?”

“This conversation is going nowhere.”

“How could it? If you were in my position with a man like this… hehe, well, men never understand women’s hearts, do they?”

Gu Seo-ryong entwined her legs with mine and wrapped her arms around my waist.

Annoyed that she kept clinging to me even after I peeled her off one by one, I grabbed G3’s neck and squeezed it tightly as if about to break it.

“Get off me. You’re annoying.”

“Hehe, CXI, don’t be like that. Why not just mate with me and become mine?”

“No. I’ll leave when the collar arrives, so stop bothering me.”

Gu Seo-ryong manipulated her body again, becoming the same height as me and looking me in the eyes.

“You said you have nowhere to go after leaving the laboratory, right? I can promise you this—if you stay here, I’ll feed you delicious food until you’re full every day, just like today. You can have anything you want, even women… hehe, I’ll specially permit it. If you get bored, you can embrace other women as much as you want.”

“You want me to settle down here?”

“That’s right. With a strong monster like you around, I won’t have any worries, and personally, I like strong men. I don’t think I’ll ever see a male as strong as you again, so naturally I should… hold onto you tightly, right?”

Gu Seo-ryong flicked her forked tongue and wrapped herself around me.

Feeling her half-molluscized body completely pressed against mine, I calmly applied pressure to the hand gripping her neck and said:

“I said I don’t like repeating myself.”

“If I don’t let go, are you going to kill me?”

“Yes.”

“Ahah, that’s fine too! But… can you really kill me? You’re CXI, after all.”

“Sigh…”

Although I didn’t particularly want to kill her since she was a fellow laboratory experiment, Gu Seo-ryong was still a monster.

I applied force to the hand gripping her neck, intending to break it.

But Gu Seo-ryong’s neck melted like ice cream.

“Ahaha! You really tried to break it! You’ve changed a lot, haven’t you?”

Gu Seo-ryong’s head, which had melted like ice cream, spoke as it dripped off the back of my hand.

This wasn’t a special ability like molluscization or body manipulation.

Sensing something was wrong and suspecting an illusion, I immediately tried to monsterize.

“CXI? You won’t be able to monsterize in my room. This room is filled with fixative that I created.”

“Fixative?”

“A drug that prevents you from leaving human form. Hehe… I never thought I’d use it like this.”

When I belatedly focused on my sense of smell, I detected a suspicious fishy odor mixed in with the vapor coming from the humidifier.

The sensation of a human body stiffening after inhaling the vapor was an incomprehensible phenomenon, but what was certain was that I couldn’t monsterize.

At that moment, as I frowned with a question in mind, Gu Seo-ryong spoke as if reading my thoughts.

“Ahah! That expression is so cute~! You must be thinking: Why can Gu Seo-ryong use her abilities? In human form, one shouldn’t be able to use monster abilities. Right?”

“…That’s right.”

“Since you’re answering so obediently, I’ll specially tell you. This room is also my training room! For training to use abilities in human form, to bring monster abilities into a human body.”

Why would she train for something like that? And is such a thing possible just through training?

Suddenly remembering how Gu Seo-ryong had secreted poison from her fingertips, I voiced the question in my mind.

“Are you mixing monster characteristics into human form?”

“That’s right. I call it monsterization. What do you think? Isn’t it attractive? If you apply it well… see, this is also possible.”

Gu Seo-ryong covered her hands and feet with scales, raised her hips, and extended a long lizard’s tail.

Her black hair turned snow-white, and her reddened pupils opened, splitting vertically.

With her sturdy tail binding my waist, Gu Seo-ryong, unlike her simple human form, now restrained my arms with strength similar to my own.

Amazing. To think it’s possible to mix human and monster forms halfway.

Despite being in human form, Gu Seo-ryong was subtly emanating power from her monster core that was close to a full Disaster-rank.

While this didn’t seem efficient enough to make me want to learn it—reaching Disaster-rank this way—it was certainly interesting.

“It doesn’t seem very useful. Why train like this?”

“Because a woman always wants to be beautiful? My monster form isn’t as plentiful or cute as yours, Black Cat.”

When I opened my eyes wide in surprise at the name Black Cat, Gu Seo-ryong, confirming my reaction with a monster’s keen senses, raised the corner of her mouth.

“So you are Black Cat after all?”

“How did you know?”

“I was just guessing, but it’s suspicious, right? CXI is Despair-rank, and this Black Cat is also Despair-rank. Plus, a monster helping humans isn’t exactly normal.”

“You can tell just from that? Interesting.”

“It was just suspicion~ But now, it’s certainty.”

To figure out I was Black Cat with just that much… Gu Seo-ryong must be quite intelligent.

Having confirmed I was Black Cat, Gu Seo-ryong embraced me tightly with her extended tail and said:

“Hmm… now that I know CXI is Black Cat, I’m curious. Why do you help humans? You’re a monster, aren’t you?”

“Are monsters not allowed to help humans?”

“It’s not that they can’t, but it’s strange, isn’t it? We’re instinctively programmed to recognize humans as food. You feel it too, don’t you?”

As she said, when I smell human blood, my mouth waters, and just smelling the scent of dying thoughts makes my core vibrate.

Monsters are natural enemies of humans; humans are food for monsters.

Saving prey goes against the very nature of being a monster.

But.

“I can simply ignore such instincts.”

“Ahah! Ahahahaha! That’s so like CXI! Well, if you were the type to be controlled by instincts, you would have already eaten all the monsters you met at the laboratory and become a true monster! You’re a monster who does what you want! One who absolutely refuses to do what you don’t want to do.”

“I don’t want to mate with you.”

“I’m also a monster who always gets what I want. Even if you don’t want to be on my side anymore, it doesn’t matter. Even if you’re not in my nest, receiving Black Cat’s seed will surely produce a strong child.”

Gu Seo-ryong, emitting pheromones stickier than the humidifier’s vapor, twitched her eyes at my calm voice and raised her poison-tipped nails.

“…But you know, aren’t you being too relaxed? Even though you’re completely subdued by me?”

“Do I need to be tense? You’re too weak.”

Clearly, the power I sensed from Gu Seo-ryong was somewhere between Disaster-rank and Despair-rank, but that was only enough to inflict minor wounds on my body at most.

Gu Seo-ryong couldn’t kill me no matter what she did.

Like a cat overwhelmingly subduing a snake, no matter how much Gu Seo-ryong thrashed before me, it only looked interesting.

Even though we were both monsters, the gap between Gu Seo-ryong and me was too great.

“Hmm… it’s annoying, but also cool? Indeed, the male whose seed I should receive should be at least this strong.”

As if to test me, Gu Seo-ryong drove her poison-tipped nails into my shoulder.

A biological poison produced by the monster’s body itself, separate from special abilities.

After injecting a full dose of paralyzing poison that stiffened the entire body, Gu Seo-ryong knocked me down onto the bed and licked the blood and poison gathered at her fingertips.

“With this much poison, even you won’t be able to move for about a day. How does it feel? It’s been a while, right?”

“Is this a sedative?”

As she said, my whole body felt slimy, like having my arms immersed in industrial grease, and I couldn’t feel properly.

As I frowned at the sensation reminiscent of the sedatives I received daily at the laboratory, Gu Seo-ryong’s finger flicked in front of my eyes.

Tak, tak… tak… the sound echoed, and circular ripples appeared in my vision.

White and black visual information alternated, disorienting my mind and numbing my sense of direction.

“Hooow dooes iit feeeel? Haaaven’t yooou heeeard thiiis ooone befoooore? Iiit’s a teeechniiique speeecialiiized foor mooonsteeers.”

“It’s… somewhat effective… How did you do it?”

I blinked my eyes at the echoing sensation, trying to stabilize my senses.

Like balancing on a rocking boat, my senses would momentarily find equilibrium, seeing and hearing properly, before losing balance and swaying again.

“That’s a secret, CXI. If I teach you, you’ll adapt, right? You shouldn’t adapt yet, so stay still.”

“Hmm…”

Gu Seo-ryong, after clenching and unclenching her hand, drove her nails into my neck once more.

Gulp, gulp, with an unpleasant sound, new poison entered my body.

A sensation that made my mind foggy, excitement, and the vibration of Gu Seo-ryong’s core, similar to club music, spread heavily throughout my body.

As my nerves twitched to the rhythm, reminding me of humans mating in clubs, I looked at the contorting Gu Seo-ryong and said:

“Is the drug sold in clubs made from your poison?”

“That’s right. How is it? I told you I’d make you listen, right? Let’s see how far this composure goes~ Ohoho, you’ll be dying from pleasure soon!”

“Hmm…”

I closed my eyes and focused on my monster core, which was turning as slowly as if submerged in cement.

The level of toxicity… I just need to digest it… If I swallow all of this—this ability, the paralyzing poison, and the effects of the so-called fixative—I can move freely.

However, it will take some time to digest all of this.

“You’re stronger than I thought.”

“Oh my, so I pass? Will you give me your seed?”

“Not to that extent.”

Knowing this fact just as I did, Gu Seo-ryong removed her tail and scales and wore a triumphant expression on top of my body.

“Ahahah! It doesn’t matter. You’re already sufficiently addicted at this level, so I’ll just force it out…”

At that moment, far outside beyond the glass wall window, a comet flew by.

As I frowned at that familiar form, Gu Seo-ryong also hardened her expression and looked outside.

The gradually approaching comet transformed into a human form and stopped in front of the window.

“Ha, shit, what’s this?”

[Kowloon Walled City lord, no, villain organization boss, Gu Seo-ryong.]

Starlight frowned upon seeing me and Gu Seo-ryong through the window, then raised one finger and drew a large circle.

The silently melting glass window slowly pushed and fell, and with the sound of people discovering Starlight amid the club music, Starlight entered the room.

“Bribery of high-ranking officials… murder, robbery, theft, prostitution… what’s the point of saying more?”

Wearing a fierce expression I hadn’t seen recently, Starlight clenched her fist, igniting a snow-white flame.

Whoosh, after blowing out the flame on her fist, Starlight glared at Gu Seo-ryong and said:

“By my authority, you’re under emergency arrest. If you don’t want to die, why not come along quietly?”