Ch.41At Least We Have Black Cat

# Chapter Translation

“You didn’t press it by accident! That’s why I told you to take a break from volunteering for a while…!”

[Nothing happened thanks to that person!]

The morning after the weekend ended, Yu Anna immediately called her younger sister after receiving reports from the heroes who had been escorting her.

[And sis, is that something a hero should say? What about the people who would starve without me?]

“I know, I know, but it’s dangerous right now! There’s this villain named Gu Seo-ryong…”

[I know that too. Can we stop talking about this?]

“We’re talking about your safety here!”

[Safety? Have you ever listened to me even once? You kept being a hero despite the dangers and even rose to S-rank.]

“That’s not what we’re talking about right now…”

[Forget it. I have to work. Bye.]

“Hello? Hye-na? Hey! Yu Hye-na! Seriously!”

Click. Yu Anna put down the disconnected phone with a sigh and leaned back on the sofa, furrowing her brow.

“Hah… what’s all this fuss about just one villain…”

Currently, a significant number of heroes in W City were being deployed to escort high-ranking officials and heroes’ family members.

The real garbage cleanup that began after eliminating Kowloon Walled City, the growing anxiety about retaliation while cleaning up the villains in Section 9, and the ongoing pursuit of Gu Seo-ryong who still hadn’t been caught.

Although nothing had happened around the heroes yet, fleeing villains were causing harm to ordinary citizens.

They were catching those villains one by one, but it was by no means a safe situation.

“At… at least we’re fortunate to have Black Cat.”

“Hey.”

“…Sigh.”

Yu Anna shot a sharp glance at her subordinate hero’s comment, but then sighed, thinking it was true.

Indeed, as he said, if Black Cat hadn’t been there, disaster would have struck long ago.

Currently, the Despair-rank monster Black Cat was seamlessly filling the gaps in hero coverage caused by the escort assignments.

If it weren’t for this creature hunting monsters all over W City 24 hours a day like an additional S-rank hero, civilian casualties from monster attacks would have snowballed.

“That’s right, we are fortunate to have Black Cat… it’s quite a peculiar creature.”

Though it wasn’t something a hero should say, reality had to be accepted.

Within W City, among heroes, Black Cat’s danger rating had already been lowered to Disaster-rank, one level below its actual classification.

When Black Cat appeared, most heroes felt relief rather than tension.

The problem was that heroes weren’t the only ones thinking it was fortunate to have Black Cat around.

This time, the high-ranking officials of W City had pulled the Black Cat card when demanding protection.

“Monsters are being handled by Black Cat, so what have the heroes been doing? At least properly prevent villain attacks and escort us.”

It was irritating that they spoke that way without ever having fought monsters themselves, but what was more annoying was that they weren’t wrong.

Currently, the best strategy was to leave monsters to Black Cat and minimize damage from villains.

Yu Anna needed to find Gu Seo-ryong as soon as possible.

Before his poisonous hands reached her younger sister.

“…Show me the camera footage.”

“Ah, yes.”

Yu Anna received a small button from the hero assigned to escort duty and inserted the chip from inside it into her phone.

After checking the reported time and playing the video, a somewhat familiar man appeared on screen.

Wild, bushy hair and tall stature, with a well-balanced muscular upper body that didn’t seem artificially inflated.

“This person is…”

With an appearance hard to forget once seen, the man who had saved her sister was the same man who had been in Gu Seo-ryong’s bedroom.

Yu Anna pulled out the file recording testimonies from villains captured from Kowloon Walled City.

That day, Gu Seo-ryong had taken a man to her bedroom… the man’s name was Park Deun-deun.

“Park Deun-deun…?”

Is that really a person’s name? What kind of name is that?

What on earth? Were the testifying villains playing a prank? This document only contained information cross-verified through multiple testimonies.

Could he be Gu Seo-ryong’s subordinate? Was he brainwashed by her ability? Was he planning to kidnap Yu Hye-na by making them lower their guard?

If so, this would have been the perfect opportunity, but instead he helped her? Why?

Understanding nothing, Yu Anna frowned as she continued watching the footage.

The more she watched, the more confused she became.

“Is this person in the registered database?”

“…Facial recognition shows no matches.”

“He seems to be at the highest B-rank or early A-rank level, but he’s unregistered…”

A physical enhancement ability user of this caliber would have been a valuable card for Gu Seo-ryong to use against Yu Anna.

Is he Gu Seo-ryong’s subordinate, or perhaps even her lover?

Wondering what his scheme might be, Yu Anna watched all the footage of the man to determine his identity.

And then, a moment later.

[Yari-kiri!]

[Waaaah! Yari-kiri!]

Yu Anna weakly stopped the video.

“What on earth is this…”

“I think he might be… mentally unwell.”

“His physique is truly impressive. He fights frighteningly well and seems to have extensive experience in combat against people… but his mind.”

“Intelligence, perhaps? He’s like a large child.”

“In any case, he doesn’t seem like someone approaching with ulterior motives.”

He looked like someone whose brain had been affected by Gu Seo-ryong’s poison.

Just a strong fool—probably a victim whom Gu Seo-ryong had drugged and dragged to her bed because he had a manly appearance and strange charm.

Feeling somewhat relieved, Yu Anna thought briefly before speaking to the two heroes.

“This man seems to be coming just because he wants to eat, based on the video. Please suggest that he can eat as much as he wants if he stays in the park from the beginning to the end of the volunteer service.”

“Are you planning to use him as your sister’s escort?”

“He doesn’t seem like a bad person.”

“…Should we suggest he register as a hero?”

“No, registering as a hero might actually reveal information to other villains, so let’s leave him as is… he doesn’t seem to be obeying Gu Seo-ryong either, so he’s perfect as a guard dog.”

If she could place a powerful superhuman around her sister, food was a small price to pay.

Just as she was thinking how lucky this was, BEEEEP! An alarm sounded throughout the government building where the heroes were stationed.

[Section 6! Four Disaster-rank monsters appeared! Repeat, four Disaster-rank monsters appeared!]

The alarm pattern indicated Disaster-rank. Heroes reflexively rose from their seats, preparing to leap out the window, but slowed their steps at the subsequent announcement.

[Continuing report from Section 6, Black Cat has appeared! Black Cat has appeared!]

“Ah.”

“Well, that should be fine then.”

“What do you mean fine! They said there are four of them! Do you know how much building damage there’ll be if even one gets away!”

“I-I’m sorry!”

Yu Anna, who had already placed her foot on the windowsill, paused despite her anger and returned to the room.

“I’ll go! The rest of you stay on standby! Watch out for villains who might take advantage while the alarm is sounding!”

“Yes!”

Thinking this much should be fine, Yu Anna grabbed her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and accelerated rapidly into flight.

It took only one minute to fly from Section 1 in the center of W City to Section 6.

Just then, Yu Anna spotted a Disaster-rank monster fleeing through the air and charged toward it.

“Kieek?!”

BOOM! With a spray of blood, Yu Anna shattered the lower body of the Disaster-rank monster, landed on a rooftop, and thrust her fist toward the monster falling to the ground.

WHOOSH! A massive, swelling fist-shaped flame engulfed the monster.

Lightly jumping back into the sky, Yu Anna grabbed the monster, which was now reduced to just a head.

“This is Starlight. One Disaster-rank monster eliminated. Type: Storm Bird.”

CRUNCH. She crushed the head with both hands, breaking the monster core and burning it.

Having defeated a Disaster-rank monster with just two attacks, Yu Anna felt herself growing stronger.

Had she grown from chasing Black Cat? Yu Anna flexed her hands while approaching Black Cat, who was stepping on another Storm Bird’s corpse on the ground.

“Grr… grr… grr…”

“…Remaining Disaster-rank monsters, all eliminated by Black Cat.”

Storm Bird corpses were scattered around… Black Cat, who had grown even stronger, had torn apart three Disaster-rank monsters like snacks.

To hunt Disaster-rank monsters as easily as if they were Homicide-rank or Destruction-rank—he certainly wasn’t this powerful when she first saw him.

If he keeps growing like this, he might become Annihilation-rank. Then, would he still be the Black Cat I know?

Just thinking about it gave her a strange sense of unease.

Noticing Black Cat chewing on a Storm Bird’s core, Yu Anna rushed toward him.

THWACK! Her hand, not wrapped in her ability, struck Black Cat’s head, but he didn’t budge and continued chewing the core.

“Hey! Don’t eat that! Bad! Bad!”

“Kyaooo…!”

“I’ll give you beef! Beef!”

“Woongo?”

Black Cat, who had been stubbornly chewing the core, approached Yu Anna with the core still in his mouth at the mention of beef.

Can a real monster be like this?

Eating monster cores is a monster’s instinct—they want to eat humans and other monsters to grow stronger, yet he prioritizes beef over instinct?

“Here, give me that, and eat this instead.”

“Woongangyangyang.”

After throwing a grilled piece of beef to Black Cat and receiving the core in return, Yu Anna destroyed the core with both hands.

It seemed he had already eaten the cores of the other two Storm Birds, but this was better than nothing.

Sighing, Yu Anna grilled pieces of beef one by one from her bag full of meat and tossed them to Black Cat while saying:

“It’s really fortunate that you’re such a strange creature…”

“Waongoongoongo.”

“Is it delicious?”

“Waong.”

Seeing his cute behavior made her feel it was worth preparing the refrigerator, bag, and meat in advance.

As she thought this, Yu Anna sighed at the sudden feeling of emptiness.

Is this appropriate for a hero? No matter how docile Black Cat is, he’s still a monster, but he helps too much to be called just a monster… still, it’s true that we’re benefiting in many ways because of him.

“Haaah… huh?”

Yu Anna, whose head ached from various problems, let out a stress-filled sigh.

Suddenly, Black Cat rubbed his head against her leg.

“Oh? What, what is it? Are you trying to cheer me up?”

“Waong.”

“Ah, right, you want more grilled beef…”

Seeing him open his mouth wide, she thought “of course” and grilled another piece. Yu Anna suddenly wondered if it might be okay to reach out since he was approaching so closely.

Black Cat’s sleek, shiny fur—even as she carefully extended her hand toward his fluffy head, Black Cat remained focused on chewing the meat.

Could it be, today, really? Swallowing nervously with anticipation, Yu Anna’s hand touched Black Cat’s head.

“Ah, ah…”

“Grrrr…”

Swish, as she stroked him and he calmly kept his head there, Yu Anna felt a chill run down her spine.

The videos circulating in the community that she had secretly envied—whoosh, as various videos flashed through her mind, Yu Anna screamed internally.

I’m petting Black Cat too!

“Kyaaaaa…!”

“Woong, aong…! Kyaaak!”

“Ah! Aaah…!”

As Yu Anna rubbed Black Cat’s head with both hands, scritch-scratch, scritch-scratch, Black Cat gulped down the beef and fled into the shadows.

Did I pet too roughly! I should have been gentler! With a regret-filled breath, Yu Anna wiggled her fingers, savoring the lingering sensation.

“Uh, uhehe…”

She felt like all her stress had melted away.

#

“…So, if Mr. Han Mu-ryo is agreeable, how would you feel about staying here during the weekends?”

“If possible, we were thinking you might help with the volunteer work.”

The utopia of free, all-you-can-eat food disappeared just last week.

Nevertheless, two superhumans made me an offer when I returned to this paradise of free meals.

Would I wait at this free meal center every weekend and help if villains came again?

If so, they would feed me as much as I wanted, just like when I first came.

“Hmm, I refuse.”

After casually refusing, I continued eating my meal, but the superhuman annoyingly addressed me again.

“Of-of course, facing villains must be frightening, but we’ll fight alongside you. It won’t be a big burden…”

“I’m busy.”

After finishing my meal, I need to take a nap, search for good restaurants, and roll around aimlessly in the empty lot by the river.

To spend my precious time smelling food I can’t eat?

Are they planning to torture me?

“Excuse me… Mr. Mu-ryo, are you understanding this as ‘no food unless villains come’?”

“Isn’t that right?”

“Um, no… even if villains don’t come, if you wait here, you can eat… eat until you’re full…?!”

CRASH! I jumped up from my seat, pushing the chair back, and shoved all the food I had been savoring into my mouth.

Going back to the serving counter and getting a heaping plate of food, I returned as Yu Hye-na blinked blankly and said:

“…So you’ll do it?”

“Mm.”

“Th-thank you, Mr. Mu-ryo.”

I gave a thumbs-up, delighted that the utopia of delicious free all-you-can-eat food actually existed.

Indeed, even if clouds temporarily cover it, the sun is always there.

“You are equal to Yari-kiri, no, even better.”

“Ah, yes…”

“From now on, I will call Yari-kiri Yu Hye-na.”

“Please, I’m begging you, don’t do that…”

Yari-kiri, such a good name…