Ch.66Bug

“Human sausage? Is he giving me this because I’m a monster?”

I continued moving my mouth while examining the man before me.

The man didn’t smell like a villain.

Even the subtle flow of thoughts I sensed from him was remarkably calm.

I almost wondered if he had given me this human meat sausage without knowing what it actually was.

“How is it? Does it suit your taste?”

“…Meow.”

The human sausage the man gave me was, how should I put it… perfectly tailored to a monster’s palate.

The ratio of blood, fat, meat, organs, skin, and brain was just right, creating a rich, melting flavor.

Especially the chewy texture of organ pieces and the soft, fatty brain melted together… it was disturbingly delicious.

After I swallowed the human sausage with satisfaction, I raised my fur, and the man smiled as he took out something else.

“Here, I have more.”

The second thing he offered me was bright red jelly in a sealed container.

Blood scent—this time it was jelly made from human blood and fat.

It was too difficult to refuse… the smell was too intense.

Tangy umami flavor, sweet fat—after eating the blood jelly, I glared at the man and summoned my special ability.

Offering me such things twice meant he must know these foods were made from humans.

Yet strangely, despite offering me such things, the man remained extremely calm.

Sensing a peculiar dissonance—neither human nor monster—I used my ability to speak.

[…What are you? Who are you?]

“Oh, ohhh…! Black Cat is speaking to me… Ah, indeed, Black Cat is truly the messiah spoken of in the prophecy…”

[Where did this meat come from?]

“Would you like more? I’ll give you more.”

At that moment, the man raised two fingers and used his special ability.

Swoosh—a telekinetic blade emerged from his fingertips, aimed at his own arm.

With a quiet slicing sound, he cut off his arm and offered it to me.

“Here, Black Cat… please, as much as you want.”

Startled, I backed away from him.

What is this guy? He doesn’t even have regenerative abilities.

A superhuman with power level between C and B, but too unstable to be considered a hero.

“Black Cat, please.”

[I don’t need it.]

While the blood jelly and human sausage smelled deliciously appealing to my monster senses, I had no desire to eat the freshly severed arm.

When I refused his offering, the man, pale-faced and bleeding profusely, looked disappointed.

“Ah… please, I beg you to eat it. Black Cat…”

[You’re… strange.]

Reading the vague emotions on the surface of his thoughts, I realized what this feeling was.

Worship and reverence—the man was bowing before me, bleeding nearly to death, offering his severed arm and head.

“Oh deity, grant me salvation…”

The words deity and salvation reminded me of what Starlight had said. At that moment, thin white worms began crawling out from the severed surface of the man’s arm.

Parasites—sensing something was wrong, I jumped backward to create distance and threw a fireball at the man.

Whoosh! Engulfed in flames, the man exuded intense emotions of joy as he bowed his head toward me.

He died right there.

I stepped on the incinerated remains.

The texture confirmed it was human.

But… there were too many strange things about this to consider him simply human.

This man felt inhuman in a different way than villains did.

What on earth was he?

#

After killing the man who had offered me human meat, I noticed more and more strange people like him appearing with each passing day.

“Black Cat! Please enjoy this!”

“Wow! Black Cat!”

“Ahhh… Black Cat…!”

Among people who playfully called me “Black Cat,” there was a woman radiating emotions of worship and reverence.

The sausage she threw toward me smelled of human blood.

Eating human flesh this way wouldn’t allow me to consume fearful thoughts or accumulate curses.

It was merely meat that tasted incredibly delicious to a monster’s palate.

When I finally gave in to temptation and took a bite, the person who had thrown me the human sausage leaked intense emotions of ecstasy and joy.

Not just young women, but elderly people, middle-aged women, and men too.

Feeling disgusted by the increasing number of human sausages, I headed back to the rooftop.

Then, the humans who had thrown meat at me began taking their own lives nearby.

Glancing down, I saw numerous people in the alleyways stabbing their necks and cutting off their limbs.

Worms were already swarming in the wounds they had inflicted on themselves.

Seeing the corpses of these strange humans, I summoned flames to burn each one.

And the next day, more strange humans would appear from somewhere.

These strange humans would gather in places where there were no people, only to be attacked by Homicide-rank monsters.

When a monster alert sounded, they would come running from far away. Upon reaching where I could see them, they would take out sausages and blood pudding from their bags, then cut off their own fingers, legs, or wrists.

“Ahhh… Black Cat.”

“Salvation, salvation.”

“Oh messenger of God…”

“Please, eat this.”

“I beg you to eat my body.”

White thread-like worms peeked out from the severed surfaces—disgusted by the sight, I would leave, and they would commit suicide on the spot.

Then worms would swarm their corpses, and sensing something ominous, I repeatedly incinerated both worms and bodies.

After burning the corpses, blood pudding and human sausages remained on the ground.

Blood pudding and human sausages—these were simply foods made from human blood and meat mixed in the perfect ratio.

The fact that this ratio was perfect for a monster’s taste was deeply disturbing.

These people—how many times had they made such things?

How many monsters had they fed humans to, to be able to create such flavors?

Around this time, I realized the flaw in my method of distinguishing humans.

I could identify villains by their murderous intent, malice, and anticipation, but I couldn’t distinguish these strange people who harbored none of these emotions.

And these strange people were gradually beginning to resemble the citizens of W City.

Their smell—the scent of cities other than W City disappeared, and their clothes and smiles began to resemble those of W City citizens.

Someone who was clearly a W City citizen would suddenly go to a corner, take out a knife, stab their own neck, and die.

After burning the swarming worms, another human would approach with a new sausage.

Witnessing these repeated suicides within my sensory range, I became mentally exhausted and decided to refuse all food.

When I started accepting meat only from heroes and nothing else, their appearance locations changed.

Those who had been positioned on various rooftops looked up at me flying in the sky, and committed suicide one by one.

In front of each corpse were neatly arranged human sausages and blood pudding, as if part of a ritual… After they died, small worm-like monsters floating in the sky would swarm the corpses and begin devouring them.

The worms would eat the bodies down to the bone, then return to the sky without attacking other humans.

Sensing something strange, I decided to examine these unusual humans more closely.

“Ohhh… Messiah…”

“Salvation, salvation…”

The intense ecstasy they felt upon seeing me, accompanied by a sense of emptiness.

Seeing humans cutting off their fingers and holding knives to their necks, I grabbed their bodies with telekinesis and asked:

[What are you people?]

“We are… your servants.”

“Your food, lambs born to die for you.”

“Please.”

“Please.”

But even my telekinesis couldn’t prevent them from dying.

Suddenly, their eyes turned red, and they died while bleeding from their mouths.

Had they swallowed poison beforehand? After a while, white thread-like worms emerged from their blood-soaked mouths and severed fingers.

Hearing a buzzing sound from above, I burned their corpses before more worms could gather.

“Oh messenger of God, I am grateful for the reality of being able to meet you.”

[Why do you commit suicide?]

“Because that is the path to salvation. To be chosen by the messenger of God.”

[Where do you come from?]

“We come from the Three Principles Church, your home, the Three Principles Church.”

My home? They continued to say incomprehensible things before killing themselves.

Why on earth would humans take their own lives?

“Salvation.”

“Oh God!”

“Please, choose us!”

Tired of the continuous suicides, I hid underground to avoid them.

Still, the suicides didn’t stop.

As if announcing they were dying here, worm monsters swarmed the corpses of those who had killed themselves.

Then, something tore apart the worm monsters.

“Meow? There are so many worms!”

“Honey, there are some really strange ones gathering here.”

Under the dark night sky, Gu Seo-ryong appeared with Sa Gu-gu.

Sa Gu-gu dealt with the worm monsters swarming the corpses, while Gu Seo-ryong looked down at the shadow where I was hiding and said:

“Why don’t you come up and talk? I came out because these things were causing a commotion around my house too.”

[Hmm.]

I rose to the ground and landed in front of Gu Seo-ryong.

Partially monsterized, Gu Seo-ryong looked down at the half-devoured human corpse and smiled with interest.

“This tattoo, these are definitely Three Principles Church people, aren’t they?”

[You know about them?]

“Of course I do. They’ve been completely insane since four years ago when I first escaped from the laboratory.”

“Meow~!”

While Sa Gu-gu, transformed into a form similar to mine, chased worm monsters playfully, Gu Seo-ryong poked through the mangled corpse with her fingertips.

I transformed into human form beside Gu Seo-ryong.

“They’re lunatics who believe they’ll receive salvation by dying at the hands of monsters. I think their belief was… ‘The monster era is God’s punishment, Har Megiddon.'”

“Har Megiddon?”

“The time of the apocalypse… They believe monsters are God’s messengers and divine punishment, so resisting increases sin while submitting reduces it. Die by a monster, go to heaven; otherwise, hell. That kind of thing? It’s a religious group with surprisingly many followers… But honey? Don’t I smell something delicious?”

“They tried to feed me these sausages, blood pudding, and their own bodies.”

“Oh my? What’s this? It smells like humans? Human sausage?”

“Meow? Meooow!”

Gulp—Gu Seo-ryong swallowed a whole sausage, chewed thoughtfully, and beckoned Sa Gu-gu with her hand.

Beside her, Sa Gu-gu, who had already finished dealing with the worms, ate the blood pudding and her eyes lit up.

“It’s delicious! What is this, some kind of bait?”

“Bait?”

“Monsters can barely resist just smelling this. They’re probably trying to maximize the instinct to eat humans, wanting to be eaten.”

Suddenly, the words “chosen” and “salvation” that they had been shouting crossed my mind.

Being eaten by me means being chosen by God’s messenger. The human sausages and blood pudding they offered were both bribes asking for salvation and tools to stimulate a monster’s instincts.

But why would being eaten by a monster mean salvation?

I couldn’t understand at all—no wonder Gu Seo-ryong called them crazy.

When someone strange calls others strange, they must be extremely strange indeed.

“But honey, you didn’t eat these, did you?”

“I didn’t.”

By “these,” Gu Seo-ryong meant the human corpses.

When I told her I had eaten some sausage and pudding but burned all the worm-infested corpses, Gu Seo-ryong chewed thoughtfully.

“Oh my, that’s a relief.”

With her mouth full of strong acidic poison, Gu Seo-ryong spat it out—poof—dissolving the corpse.

Among the brown mucus of the dissolving flesh, white worms writhed in agony.

“I came all the way here because of these worms.”