Ch.72Human Pride (1)

# 12 Years Ago

She was the S-Class hero who had once dealt him a humiliating defeat—Yoon Ha-eun.

He was the cockroach monster who had returned to the human world after 12 years to exact revenge on her.

And to him, all other S-Class heroes besides Yoon Ha-eun were merely prime lab rats to test his current strength.

“Die!”

If this were a meal, they’d be the appetizer.

Yes, they were just something to taste before the main dish.

Tap-tap-tap!

The cockroach monster bit through Carmilla’s bullet aimed at the center of his forehead and charged forward at a terrifying speed.

With a more vicious smile than ever before, he was determined to crush Carmilla’s head.

But after taking barely three steps forward…

Beep.

“…Huh?”

A heavy mechanical sound from beneath his feet.

Simultaneously, an explosion incomparable to ordinary human firearms engulfed his entire body in an instant.

BOOM!

“Gah, GAAAAAAHHH?!”

“Oh, did I not mention? I had planted a mine there in advance.”

“That’s so underhanded…!”

“Underhanded? Did you expect me to follow gentlemanly rules against a monster that isn’t even human?”

As if infected by the white flames of a thermite bomb.

The cockroach monster’s entire body was engulfed in flames that seemed like they would burn forever, leaving him unable to even maintain his balance.

And Carmilla wasn’t about to miss this opportunity.

She created dozens of miniguns in mid-air, raining bullet casings from all directions.

“Guh, guh… GUAAAHH!”

It was literally a sideways rain of bullets.

The debris from the collapsed building was pulverized into concrete dust without a trace, and the area where the two figures stood was filled with nothing but swirling gray dust.

“Is, is this what it means to be S-Class…!”

“That’s right. Why? Do you want to go back to the other world?”

“Guh… GAAAH!”

“No need to regret it so much. I’ll personally guide you there.”

The cockroach monster now seemed completely motionless.

Crouched down, emitting only faint groans, he looked almost like a corpse.

But one should never let their guard down until the very end.

Moreover, with this being a cockroach, it seemed like it might revive even when appearing dead.

So, with an RPG—Allah’s magic wand—suddenly perched on her shoulder, Carmilla prepared to deliver the final blow.

“Checkmate!”

She fired a missile capable of creating a small mushroom cloud at the cockroach.

BOOM.

A massive explosion that made the ground shake, if only for a moment.

Only after the gray dust cloud surrounding them had completely dispersed could she finally be certain of her victory.

“Phew… I won!”

The ground where the RPG missile had landed was scorched black around the edges.

In the center of the crater lay what appeared to be a charred black lump that was presumably the cockroach monster.

No matter how resilient cockroaches might be, there was no way it could survive being roasted to that extent.

Having made this judgment, Carmilla was about to rejoice in her first achievement since her S-Class promotion—taking down the infamous cockroach monster.

Crack…

“Huh?”

Crack-crack.

“!!”

Just as she was stretching in celebration, her joy was short-lived.

From the round charred lump before her eyes, a sound like something “breaking” suddenly began to emerge.

Rather than crumbling apart, it sounded more like something gently tearing open the top part to get out.

The smile gradually faded from Carmilla’s face.

And true to her ominous premonition, from what had appeared to be a charred lump emerged the cockroach monster, having successfully molted.

With an even more blackened muscular physique than before, he revealed himself once again.

“Molting successful.”

“…What?”

“Heh. Why so surprised? Before being a cockroach, I’m an insect, you know? And all insects have the ability to ‘evolve’ through molting in moments of crisis.”

“This is absurd…!”

Like all insects, cockroaches in particular had the characteristic of growing stronger with each molt.

As human pest control techniques evolved, they had to endure, persist, and “adapt” through countless molts.

Thanks to this, the cockroach monster clicked his tongue and wiggled his finger as if to say not to be so surprised by something so trivial.

“You’re Carmilla, right?”

“…What about it?”

“Miss Carmilla. At this point, you can no longer defeat me.”

“What did you say?”

“Heh. That’s because I’ve already ‘adapted’ to all your ‘pain’.”

The cockroach monster formed a ‘heart’ with his burly hands as he spoke.

Displeased by the creepy pose and words from this repulsive being, Carmilla figured she just needed to “exterminate” him again.

Click.

“This time I’ll eliminate you for good.”

Shouldering the RPG once more, and with the monster at a distance too close to dodge.

Her plan was to turn him into charcoal again and make sure to completely shatter his shell before he could molt.

“Die.”

Whoosh.

But.

CRUNCH!

“?!”

The cockroach monster bit into the RPG missile flying straight at him, tasting the explosion yet still charging forward unscathed.

Like a single cockroach crawling across the floor at a fierce pace, his “quadrupedal” running was different from before.

“I told you, didn’t I? You can’t beat me anymore!”

Seeing the enemy already in close proximity, Carmilla hurriedly drew the pistols in both hands in reverse grip.

From that Gun Kata stance, she intended to counter-attack and shake the monster’s brain as he charged.

But even that effort was in vain as he twisted his body to avoid a fatal blow and aimed for her jaw.

CRACK.

“…Ah.”

The fist aimed at her jaw shattered along with the gun she was holding.

It was as if the cockroach had developed an “antibody” perfectly tailored to counter Carmilla’s existence.

After molting from death after receiving Carmilla’s attack, she was no longer his “natural enemy.”

“Heh. It was fun, S-Class Hero Miss Carmilla.”

“!!”

“Now, it’s time for you to die.”

SMASH!

A headbutt like a black meteor crashed into Carmilla’s solar plexus, delivered with gratitude to the one who had made him stronger.

“Guhk?!”

She flew through the collapsed building, breaking through layer after layer.

She kept flying as if she might reach the other side of the Earth, with no sign of slowing down.

And even after she disappeared from the cockroach monster’s sight and reached the barrier of City C…

BOOM.

“Wh-what?!”

“What’s going on?”

Carmilla shook the wall with such force that even the soldiers waiting inside the barrier were shocked.

Already unconscious, she bounced back, drawing several parabolas in the air before crashing into the forest of City D.

The distance she had traveled before finally stopping was approximately 100 km from where she had first been launched.

This signified the “complete defeat” of an S-Class hero.

***

I entered City C with Zero and Ms. Song Ha-na.

The urban landscape that greeted us immediately reminded me of that time 10 years ago, leaving me momentarily dazed.

“This is exactly like… City Y from 10 years ago.”

“City Y from 10 years ago… Oh, do you mean the Violence Monster incident?”

“Yes. I was in that city at that time.”

“One positive aspect compared to back then is that the cockroach monster that appeared this time prioritized killing individual humans over indiscriminate destruction, so the city suffered relatively less damage.”

“Less damage… You call this less damage?”

“Yes. Compared to the Violence Monster incident, the damage hasn’t even reached 20% of what happened then.”

Zero analyzed and compared the Violence Monster from 10 years ago with the current cockroach situation, informing us of the present circumstances as if he had calculated it all in his head.

“For reference, this outcome was possible not only because the monster that appeared this time is Sub-1 Grade, lower than Violence, but also because City D has a good hero pool.”

“Hero pool… I’ve heard that the quality of heroes differs slightly from city to city. So it wasn’t just an urban legend?”

“That’s correct. The security rate of Hero Cities decreases in order from City A to City Z.”

The reason why districts closer to City A had better quality heroes.

I didn’t need to ask about that specifically to understand.

Because in <Monster Front>, there was a setting that as the alphabetical order descended, the infrastructure of each city changed accordingly.

This led to severe wealth disparities between districts, with areas below City S being slums where some humans were even worse than monsters.

“Even so, that’s too much! All citizens deserve protection…!”

“Ha-na.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I got carried away.”

Ms. Song Ha-na, confronted with this reality, shouted indignantly while driving from the front seat of the car.

She seemed to calm down after hearing my voice, but was still fuming.

“By the way, is Carmilla safe now?”

Meanwhile, I, currently the strongest hero in City D after receiving a promotion to S-Class, could only pray that she was still safe as I thought about Carmilla.