Ch.48Other Monsters

“Fuck, that monster piece of shit!”

BOOM! An A-rank hero who had just returned from dispatch kicked a trash can in anger.

Understandably so, as this was his fifth dispatch today alone.

Yet despite all these deployments, they hadn’t even managed to catch a glimpse of the monster causing all this trouble, let alone confront it. It would be strange not to be angry.

Black Cat was a Despair-rank monster with the special ability to deceive monster alarm systems.

At the same time, it was a mutant that didn’t hunt humans… or so they had mistakenly believed.

A monster that packaged itself with a friendly attitude until it was confident it could completely shake off any hero stronger than itself.

“Why is Black Cat doing this now?!”

“It’s not just now—we’ve been stupidly deceived all along.”

“It’s not an awakening, but rather revealing its true nature.”

Black Cat was moving around W City at an impossible speed, devouring humans.

It was the third day since Black Cat had begun hunting, and approximately 500 citizens had died in that time.

Even so, this was the minimum damage thanks to Starlight’s quick flights to intercept.

“For a Despair-rank monster that we haven’t been able to catch for three days, the casualty count is still relatively low…”

“It’s still miraculously low for a Despair-rank, but it’ll keep increasing… sigh…”

A shelter can hold a maximum of about 50 people, meaning Starlight had failed to arrive in time on ten occasions.

It takes one minute for a shelter to completely break, plus a little more time to dig deep into the ground.

If Starlight arrives within that timeframe, citizens are rescued with only some injuries.

Then they enter the next shelter… and tremble in fear of death again.

The resentful and fearful gazes of citizens being herded back into shelters had severely damaged the morale of all heroes.

“This isn’t the time for defeatist talk!”

“Then what do we do about that thing? It’s in Sector 2 one minute, then appears in Sector 7 the next, and when you think it’s gone, it shows up in Sector 11?”

“Just when Starlight manages to inflict some damage, it comes back completely fine… We’re one-sidedly losing this war of attrition, so why are we even buying time?”

“If an S-rank hero couldn’t catch this monster until now, what makes you think we can win now…?”

The current situation was like the game of tag between Starlight and Black Cat, once confined to a single sector, had spread throughout all of W City.

Black Cat, now overwhelmingly faster than before, would disappear and reappear in completely different locations, traveling from one end of W City to the other to devour humans.

Because its speed far exceeded Starlight’s movement speed, the A-rank heroes couldn’t even catch a glimpse of Black Cat’s tail.

The heroes’ goal was simply to buy time until Starlight arrived, but even that was becoming increasingly exhausting.

“There’s no way… this is…”

“Can’t do it, just can’t… we’re all going to die…”

Even if they had caught a glimpse of its tail, a few A-rank heroes working together couldn’t possibly catch a monster that even a top-tier S-rank hero couldn’t capture.

There would only be more injuries and deaths.

Heroes were always ready to sacrifice their lives if it meant hunting down a monster, but this was just pointless death.

Even if heroes died fighting Black Cat, Starlight still wouldn’t be able to catch it.

It was too stealthy, too fast.

Black Cat knew humans too well.

It knew exactly how to exhaust heroes and terrify people.

The entire W City had become Black Cat’s hunting ground and playground.

Had there ever been a monster that drove W City’s heroes to such despair?

“Snap out of it, you fools! When S-rank heroes arrive from other cities for support, we can stop it! We just need to hold out until then!”

“Haa…”

“We’re not even holding out… we’re just being dragged around, and so is Starlight.”

Even as an A-rank hero tried to reinvigorate everyone, the demoralized heroes just sighed.

Perhaps the outcome would be the same even if heroes didn’t respond when Black Cat appeared.

People would die, Starlight would chase it, it would flee, and in an instant, it would appear in another sector to playfully kill more people.

Just then, Starlight burst through the door into the waiting room.

“Haa… haa… haa…”

“…Thank you for your hard work.”

Starlight, who had been traveling back and forth across W City dozens of times, was breathing heavily—unusual for an S-rank hero.

As soon as she returned to the waiting room, Starlight went straight to the investigation room.

Seeing this, the other heroes let out sighs mixed with admiration and resignation.

“She’s really amazing…”

“I guess she’s determined to catch it somehow… she must feel the most guilt right now.”

“What guilt? Black Cat is just insane.”

“Damn… if only Cage hadn’t done something weird back then and they had fought together…”

“Everyone to the investigation room!”

“Yes!”

The heroes who had been making dispirited comments immediately jumped to their feet at Starlight’s voice and entered the investigation room.

In the dark room, a large screen displayed footage of Black Cat sightings.

The heroes were investigating Black Cat’s abilities in hopes of somehow hunting down this Despair-rank monster.

“This hole that appears when it shoots its blade-like tail to another location looks just like a wormhole.”

“It might be similar to the shadow movement ability it used before.”

“This is clearly spatial teleportation.”

“The traces left by the blade tail—victims report it’s ice hardened by some ability.”

The blackboard beside the screen was filled with notes about Black Cat’s newly observed abilities and potential countermeasures.

However, there was one ability with no countermeasure at all: the previously observed shadow movement.

“Once it enters a shadow and disappears, it comes out in a completely different sector, making it impossible to counter.”

“This speed… it’s already beyond Despair-rank. It might be approaching Annihilation-rank…”

“AAAARGH! We’re already out of time, and now we have even less! How are we supposed to stop that monster if it becomes Annihilation-rank?!”

“Someone shut him up, he’s been having fits since earlier!”

“How can I not have a fit! There’s no way to stop that monster!”

“You think you’re the only one with a headache?!”

“Quiet! The ones suffering the most right now aren’t us, but the citizens.”

Currently, W City’s citizens had been trapped in shelters for three days.

Unlike Disaster-rank monsters that could definitely be defeated with an S-rank hero present, minimizing damage from a Despair-rank monster—which might never be defeated—required this unavoidable measure.

Citizens hiding from Black Cat, which appeared and disappeared randomly while devouring humans, could only cower in shelters, fearing they might be next.

That sense of helplessness was equal to, if not greater than, that of the heroes who could do nothing.

“When will S-rank hero reinforcements arrive?”

“Two days at the earliest.”

“Shit… thousands more will die…”

“Come on! Stop with the defeatist talk! Let’s try to come up with more strategies!”

“As if there are any strategies left…”

The A-rank heroes, sinking into despair, spoke in gloomy voices.

All their strategies had already failed. When multiple A-rank and B-rank heroes had hidden in one location waiting for Black Cat, it had mocked them by tearing apart nearby shelters. When they spread out to buy even a moment’s time for Starlight to arrive, it only resulted in three more casualties.

The heroes, unable to do anything, naturally turned their gaze toward Starlight, who was at least making Black Cat flee.

Starlight was staring blankly at the screens showing Black Cat.

“…Something’s strange.”

Starlight, Yu Anna, had been feeling something was off while chasing Black Cat.

Three days ago, right after Black Cat had started hunting humans and fled in anger from in front of a shelter.

When Yu Anna arrived at a completely different location where Black Cat had reportedly appeared, she threw a punch at it but thought something was strange.

That day, the Black Cat that had been angry just moments before was now laughing excitedly.

“Too… different.”

At first, Black Cat dispersed like mist when hit by Yu Anna’s fist.

Then, after taking one critical hit, it melted away as it had always done before.

The next time, it dispersed like mist again…

…Different.

No, this is wrong thinking.

This is weak thinking.

Black Cat had finally abandoned its thorough disguise and decided to start hunting.

The game was over; only one-sided slaughter remained.

As if to prove that Starlight could no longer chase Black Cat, it was moving freely throughout W City.

This is what monsters are.

They hide their instincts when they’re weak and follow their instincts when they’re strong.

But… maybe.

Even while worried that her thoughts might be wrong, Yu Anna followed her intuition and moved her hands.

“This is… different.”

Click, click. Yu Anna operated the screen to display all the videos of Black Cat recorded over these three days.

As she organized and divided the footage, the other heroes’ attention turned to her.

Looking at the various Black Cats organized across multiple screens, Yu Anna’s eyes trembled as she spoke.

“This one is different too, and this one… different…”

“…Senior?”

“Different!”

Maybe, just maybe.

Even while thinking it couldn’t be possible, Yu Anna jumped up from her seat and said to an A-rank hero standing nearby:

“Has any hero been injured by anything other than ice blades or spatial manipulation?”

“What?”

“No, the opposite—has any hero been injured by lightning, fire, wind… Black Cat’s previously identified abilities?”

At Yu Anna’s sudden question, the heroes looked around at each other.

When not a single person raised their hand, Yu Anna recalled how Black Cat never counterattacked her attacks.

When it did counterattack, it always used new abilities, never the previously known ones.

As this realization hit her, Yu Anna’s voice began to tremble slightly.

“Amorphous monsters can freely change their form as needed, but why has Black Cat maintained a fixed form until now? Because it thought that form was advantageous for deceiving humans… no, because it looks cute, so…!”

“What are you suddenly talking about…?”

“It doesn’t need to change its appearance! Black Cat’s form is already a perfected disguise!”

With a crash, pushing aside chairs, Yu Anna walked to the investigation room wall and, with flames at her fingertips, began writing scorched letters on the whiteboard filled with text.

“Why, why couldn’t I think of this before?! Me?! Why?!”

“What on earth are you saying…?”

Yu Anna wrote “Black Cat” on the board and listed all of Black Cat’s observed abilities one by one.

Stealth, shadow, floating, lightning, flame, physical, sonic, impact, telekinesis, regeneration.

And then, in a separate space beside it:

“Co-Code… A?”

“Senior, what is that…?”

Code A, a temporary code assigned to newly observed monsters.

Below it, Yu Anna listed abilities like stealth, ice blades, teleportation, then dropped her hand weakly.

“Are you saying this isn’t Black Cat but a different monster?”

“Wait, then this impossible speed…”

“It’s not one monster—we’ve been mistaken all along?”

“Why, why didn’t we notice this?!”

“It would be strange if we had noticed…”

Black Cat was a unique monster that could completely hide from monster alarms.

And now another monster with the same appearance as Black Cat, using similar multiple abilities, was rampaging.

It was so special that no one thought there could be another one.

With this misconception, 500 people had already died, and heroes’ guilt had reached its peak. Then Yu Anna murmured while staring at the board:

“…There might be one more.”

“What?”

Next to it, as Yu Anna wrote “Code B” again, all the heroes froze.

Yu Anna drew an equals sign between A and B, then clenched her fist.

Two individuals with identical abilities—like mating pairs of pack monsters, they might be male and female.

“Otherwise the movement speed makes no sense, nor does the recovery rate.”

“Has Black Cat become Annihilation-rank…?”

“If it were Annihilation-rank, it wouldn’t need to hide! Black Cat is still Despair-rank!”

“Wait, if that’s true…”

Currently, W City had three Despair-rank monsters: Black Cat, Code A, and Code B.

As the heroes held their breath at this even more desperate situation, Yu Anna spoke in a trembling voice:

“If that’s the case, then…”

Perhaps—the thought that flashed through her mind filled Yu Anna with complex emotions as she summoned her ability with a whoosh.

In the investigation room filled with hot air, Yu Anna collapsed into a chair and held her forehead.

If her current thought was correct, then… should she be happy about this, or sad?

To confirm her hypothesis, Yu Anna examined the videos once more.

“…Ha.”

After reviewing the footage again, Yu Anna made an expression that was somewhere between crying and laughing.

“We’ve been interfering?”

“Interfering…?”

In the meticulously organized videos, Black Cat showed two different orientations.

One was facing away from shelters, while the other was facing toward them.

Looking quietly at the footage, Yu Anna hung her head.

Frustration, disbelief, and following them—a floating hope.

This is clearly insane.

If Yu Anna was mistaken… this would go down as an act of stupidity far worse than what Cage had done.

Nevertheless, it had to be done.

There was no other way to reduce casualties.

Having made her decision, Yu Anna looked around at the heroes and opened her mouth.