Ch.64The Meat Melts

# Enhanced Translation

Day by day, monster attacks decrease. Villains scatter and get arrested one by one after losing their queen, Gu Seo-ryong. Security improves, peace and stability grow.

W City has become so stable that even A City might be envious.

All thanks to heroes who fight monsters and villains without proper days off.

Yet recently, W City citizens’ complaints about heroes have reached an all-time high.

The reason? Heroes have been preventing citizens from approaching Black Cat throughout W City.

Lately, Black Cat has been appearing in various places even without monster alerts.

Black Cat lies down peacefully for naps, as if demonstrating how W City is becoming more peaceful.

Naturally, people who see this want to pet Black Cat.

But each time, heroes rush in from somewhere to stop them.

“No, no, you can’t. Please don’t approach Black Cat.”

“What’s with this every time? Why do you block Black Cat as if you own him?”

“Black Cat… sir? Hey, isn’t this…?”

“Come with me for a moment.”

“W-what?! Let go of me!”

They even interrogate innocent citizens!

Heroes go as far as making emergency arrests of citizens who don’t have W City resident cards.

“What’s going on? Is this how you do your job?”

“We just want to pet Black Cat!”

“Black Cat is a monster. This is all for citizens’ safety…”

“If it’s for our safety, why are you feeding and petting him?”

“Well… we… that’s… ahem.”

What makes W City citizens even more upset is seeing heroes feed Black Cat and pet his head right in front of them.

This behavior—suggesting citizens shouldn’t do it while heroes can—was making people increasingly angry.

[Why the fuck are they monopolizing Black Cat?]

[Why do these hero bastards get to pet Black Cat while we can’t?]

[They feed Black Cat themselves but tell citizens not to? Are they crazy?]

[Honestly, it’s infuriating that they block citizens from approaching but take photos and play with him themselves]

[They claim it’s dangerous because he’s a monster, or that there’s a secret operation, but what kind of secret operation is this?]

[If the secret operation is petting Black Cat’s head, why can’t citizens participate?]

[Black Cat belongs to all of W City! Not just to heroes!]

As the atmosphere grew increasingly hostile, Yu Anna, the representative of W City’s heroes, appeared before reporters.

She briefly explained the current situation and reasons to the dissatisfied citizens.

[As heroes, it’s uncomfortable to admit that Black Cat is helping W City. But we must acknowledge it.]

[We’re currently making various attempts to control Black Cat’s behavior. Citizen participation in this process could introduce variables that might lead to unexpected situations…]

[Additionally, there have been incidents where people from other cities have come to provoke Black Cat, so we’re thoroughly investigating citizens who approach Black Cat.]

After Yu Anna’s explanation, public opinion split exactly in half.

Some believed citizens shouldn’t approach Black Cat carelessly, while others argued that everyone knows Black Cat is safe, so why can’t they pet him?

The no-touch faction and the petting faction called themselves the “Wae-ong Faction” and “U-ong Faction,” referring to themselves as left and right.

[So they’re just trying to win Black Cat’s favor by feeding him? Because he might be upset about the Bad Cats?]

[There are still many people trying to feed him meat laced with paralytics or sedatives, so stopping citizens is right.]

[Since ancient times, it’s been said that cute things should only be looked at, not touched.]

[Black Cat may be W City’s mascot, but he’s still a monster. We should follow what the heroes say.]

The no-touch Wae-ong Faction insisted that people shouldn’t forget Black Cat is a monster and supported the heroes’ attempts to control him.

[Why can’t citizens feed him too?]

[Isn’t Black Cat not attacking us because citizens have been feeding and petting him well until now?]

[What if he starts attacking citizens after only listening to heroes?]

[Citizens have the right to pet Black Cat too!]

[Black Cat needs to feel that all W City people love him to protect us. If he thinks only heroes like him, will he protect us? He’ll become the heroes’ pet cat!]

The touch faction, U-ong Faction, while supporting heroes, argued that if winning Black Cat’s favor was the goal, it would be better if all citizens participated.

“Give us Black Cat! Black Cat belongs to all W City citizens!”

“Citizens have the right to pet Black Cat too!”

“Everyone should be able to experience feeding Black Cat!”

The U-ong Faction, driven solely by their desire to pet Black Cat, began sharing his appearance locations and protesting against heroes who were depriving them of opportunities to pet Black Cat.

After about three days of this…

Black Cat stopped taking naps near citizens.

Instead of parks, bushes, or open spaces, Black Cat now napped on building rooftops, with just his head peeking out.

[We were a bit noisy.]

[Feel kind of sorry.]

[Black Cat ㅠㅠㅠ come back ㅜㅠㅠ]

[Damn, I was planning to see Black Cat this weekend, but if he’s on rooftops, I can’t see him up close.]

The U-ong Faction citizens regretted their actions whenever they saw Black Cat’s head peeking from high rooftops.

But soon, more and more people began to think this wasn’t so bad after all.

[Cats usually prefer sleeping on cat towers rather than on the floor anyway.]

[He’s super cute when viewed from the opposite rooftop.]

[It’s nice that he seems to be watching over us from high places to keep monsters away.]

[Honestly, I was getting annoyed with all the commotion about feeding him meat.]

[Now he openly naps in front of people and Starlight doesn’t even come.]

[It’s not that she doesn’t come, Black Cat just runs away whenever she does.]

Only one person in W City was dissatisfied with the current situation.

“Why does he only refuse to eat meat from me! Why does he run away when he sees only me!”

Yu Anna pouted again today as she ate the grilled meat she had bought for Black Cat.

#

I wondered why heroes suddenly started following me everywhere and throwing meat at me.

I didn’t have to wonder long. The answer came from the heroes themselves, who kept approaching me.

“…Lately there’s been an increase in arrested people who won’t reveal where they’re from.”

“I really didn’t want to believe it, but it seems they really are coming to steal Black Cat.”

“They say those guys are carrying something like a bloody lump.”

“Hey, shh, Black Cat can hear us.”

The heroes knew I could understand conversations.

That’s because Starlight had told everyone about me.

Giving me meat, praising me with words like “cute,” “cool,” and “thank you,” preventing citizens from approaching me—all of this was Starlight’s instruction.

“Does he really understand what we’re saying?”

“Ah, all cat lovers say that kind of thing. ‘My cat understands everything I say.'”

“Senior, how did you end up becoming Black Cat’s mom…?”

“It makes sense. Thanks to the monsters he catches for us, we finally have some work-life balance.”

“True.”

The heroes would chat and share information while I quietly ate meat, thinking I was too distracted to pay attention.

“I don’t know if we can really tame Black Cat, but I definitely don’t want him leaving W City for somewhere else.”

“Isn’t the captain being too sensitive?”

“Well, it’s not bad for us since they’re covering all expenses for Black Cat’s meat.”

“They said they’d even buy a portion for ourselves if we wanted…”

The reason for taking photos was to expense the meat they gave me.

The reason for feeding me was to make me attached to the heroes and W City.

And to prevent me from getting hungry and being lured away by food from others.

“Black Cat~ eat a lot, and if a strange person offers you something delicious and asks you to follow them, don’t go, okay?”

“Remember our faces well, and don’t eat anything from anyone else but us.”

“Wuong-oong-o.”

It seems people from other cities are trying to take me away.

The heroes were worried I might simply follow someone offering delicious food.

They’re probably giving me so much meat to win my favor and keep my stomach full so food luring tactics won’t work.

Now that I understood why they were giving me meat, I decided to accept it without suspicion.

“Oh, right. When taking photos, don’t get too close to Black Cat. I heard that’s why the senior has been in a bad mood lately.”

“Really? She’s jealous?”

“Senior has to take responsibility and subdue Black Cat if Code Red happens, right? Black Cat is already wary of her because of that, so if we have fun petting his head and clinging to him, of course she’d be upset.”

“That reminds me, did you hear the rumor? Apparently, the senior finally bought that thing.”

“Really? Wow… that’s crazy.”

Day by day, the heroes made my presence their resting place.

While I ate meat, they would bring their own snacks to eat nearby, and after taking photos, they would leave without lingering so as not to bother me.

Occasionally, heroes with electricity or fire abilities would grill meat for me.

They weren’t great at it, but it was better than raw.

Then one day.

After I had cleared out almost all the monsters hiding underground in W City, some Homicide-rank monsters that had mistaken my remote spatial manipulation attacks as coming from underground monsters fled to the surface.

I dealt with the entire cluster of Homicide-rank monsters before the emergency monster alert even sounded, and was quietly eating them.

Then Starlight descended before my eyes.

“Huff… huff… huff…”

“Grrrr…”

Considering recent events, this was very unusual.

Starlight would always appear for Disaster-rank monsters, rarely for Destruction-rank, and never for Homicide-rank.

It takes me about 7 seconds to deal with a group of Homicide-rank monsters. Was she nearby?

Starlight, who had flown in during that brief moment, was bowing her head and panting from ability overuse.

“J-ju… just a mo-moment…”

As I was slowly sinking into shadows to escape before getting hit, Starlight hurriedly pulled something out of her bag.

When I saw it, my eyes widened.

“I-I’m sorry… I’m sorry, okay? I’m really sorry… really sorry, Black Cat! Won’t you at least give me a chance to apologize?”

I couldn’t hear what Starlight was saying.

A simple yet elegant box with a price tag, and between Starlight’s mineral-egg-like scent, the rich aroma of meat wafted through.

Special grade, no, Special 1++ grade beef… a box of assorted cuts for grilling!

I’d only heard rumors about such things.

That such things still existed even in this monster era.

“I don’t want to keep changing my attitude like this either…”

“W-woong…”

No, wait, surely she didn’t bring something this amazing to give to me?

I opened my mouth and stared at the beef.

One piece of that could buy 10kg, no, more than 20kg of pork shoulder.

This mythical beef, only available to high officials and top heroes in this era where the government completely controls livestock and food production.

That beautiful appearance with fine layers of snow-white fat.

Drool dripped from my mouth.

“Uh…”

Swish, as Starlight moved the beef to the left, my head followed.

Swish again, as I watched the beef move to the opposite side, Starlight glanced at my straight-up tail and ears and said:

“So… do you want to eat it?”

“Waoong?!”

Is she really going to give that to me?!

As I brightened my eyes, Starlight beckoned me over.

And so, on a deserted building rooftop.

Sizzle… the rich aroma of meat filled the cold air as it grilled.

The meat cooked quickly with Starlight’s fire power.

And before my eyes… the fully grilled meat.

“Woong-ooong…! Ooooong…!”

“W-whoa…! Wait! H-heek!”

Slurp slurp slurp slurp! The moment Starlight held out the meat grilled between her palms, I couldn’t wait and licked her hand.

The flavor, juices, and umami spreading in my mouth.

The meat melts in my mouth with just a slight press of my tongue.

“I-it tickles…! Ah…”

I removed my tongue from the smiling Starlight and held out my front paw for the next piece.

Starlight showed a subtly hurt expression.

Whether she felt that way or not, I waited quietly for her to grill the next piece, and Starlight picked up a pinkish piece of meat and grilled it with exquisite fire control.

“Ooooooong!”

Starlight really is a good person!