Ch.75Human Pride (4)

Cockroaches are the strongest living beings on Earth.

They simply couldn’t become apex predators because of their small size.

If all creatures on this planet were born the same size, cockroaches would truly be the rulers of this world.

‘If only I had time to reattach my arm! Even just my arm…!’

The cockroach monster, born from the terror of cockroaches—which truly did possess the world’s strongest vitality—had regenerative abilities that allowed severed body parts to reattach simply by placing them against their original position.

But now, the cockroach monster couldn’t even manage that regeneration.

The reason? The endless sharp slashes flying toward it gave no chance to retrieve its severed arm.

“My goodness…! I never imagined such a formidable opponent would be around.”

“……”

“Say something! I’m taking the initiative to speak to you, aren’t I?!”

“……”

The cockroach monster had always used its gentlemanly demeanor against countless enemies it had fought until now.

It possessed the talent of seizing upon every weakness of its opponents, naturally shifting the battle’s momentum in its favor—a gift for verbal combat.

But Zero was a homunculus that merely resembled a human.

A living machine in every sense.

She strictly avoided unnecessary dialogue during combat, and her current actions were simply following what her computer programming dictated.

Slash.

“Guhk?!”

There’s a limit to dodging.

Above all, the monster had been caught off guard by too powerful a surprise attack.

The cockroach monster, now one-armed and bleeding heavily, judged it impossible to defeat an S-class hero in this state.

Unable to find any weakness in this fake human’s relentless counterattacks, it pondered what to do, when—

“Go, big sister! You can do it!”

“…!”

As refugees began fleeing the shelter one by one following Zero’s intrusion, there was a child who looked like an easy target.

“You’re noisy. Ptui!”

It planned to use the child as a shield and spit out one of its teeth like a bullet to distract Zero.

But even this tactic proved useless against this “fake human.”

“No, don’t!”

“M-mommy! Mommy!!”

The tooth that nearly pierced the child’s heart was blocked by the sacrifice of the mother standing nearby.

And Zero, who according to the original plan should have rushed to that spot where she could have easily blocked the attack—

She continued slicing away at the cockroach’s flesh without showing the slightest distraction.

Slash.

“Arrrgh?! Y-you! Are you really a hero?!”

“……”

“I attacked an innocent civilian! Because you didn’t look away, an innocent child’s mother has collapsed bleeding!”

The cockroach monster’s tendons in its legs were now severed, slowing its movements.

Regardless of what words it used to try to shake her resolve, Zero—who lacked a heart to begin with—heard them as mere breathing sounds.

“You call this a hero? This is what passes for a hero…?!”

“……”

“What kind of hero doesn’t try to protect people?!”

Slash.

“Guhk?!”

Zero’s thrust pierced precisely through the cockroach’s solar plexus.

That single strike, like a bee’s sharp stinger, cut through bone and even passed through the heart in one go, delivering a fatal blow even to a cockroach with its tenacious vitality.

“One refugee…”

“…!”

Finally, Zero spoke.

“And approximately one million lives in the shelter.”

“You…”

“Calculation result: recommended not to be distracted by ‘unnecessary things.’ That’s why I pretended not to notice.”

“…Kuk. That answer… I thought something smelled off. That’s not something a ‘human’ would say.”

The cockroach monster’s lower body lost strength.

The scene was so dramatic that even the remaining fleeing refugees turned to look—truly the image of evil succumbing to justice.

Though the reality might be slightly different.

In any case, without even a chance to molt, the cockroach monster instinctively sensed its defeat.

Just before being forcibly sent back to its dimension, without even time to leave final words, as it glared at the fake human about to sever its neck in one stroke—

“I apologize, ‘Monster of Humanity’!!”

“Monster of… Humanity?”

“Thanks to you, I was finally able to return, but it seems I must go back again already!!”

Shouting loudly toward the shelter ceiling, the high-ranking monster that had enabled its return to the human world in just a few days—a feat that would normally take over 100 years—

Mentioned “human” before its neck was severed and it collapsed to the floor.

“…Such monsters are only supposed to appear in ‘myths’ or ‘legends’ recorded by humanity. Well, I decided to just kill it since there’s no compromising with a monster that has taken lives.”

“…Is it over?”

“We really won…”

“I-it’s all over!”

Thus, the cockroach monster—the nightmare of City C—was vanquished.

The lone S-class hero stood in the shelter where sunlight now streamed in.

The refugees, now certain of Zero’s victory, stopped fleeing and realized they had truly survived.

“Oh, ohh…”

“Ohhhhh…”

“Wooooaaaahhhh!!”

One by one, they embraced each other, erupting in tears of joy.

Cheers burst forth from all directions.

“Who is that person anyway?”

“I don’t know. I heard she’s ranked 15th among S-class heroes?”

“Does that mean she knows Carmilla?”

“By the way, I don’t see Carmilla anywhere. Could she have been defeated already?”

“Who cares! Let’s just be happy we survived!”

Do humans rejoice this much when they escape death?

Zero blinked her empty eyes in incomprehension as she looked around at the continuous laughter.

But one scene caught her attention…

“Mommy! Mommy!”

Amidst the celebrating people, a child tightly embraced their already dead mother.

The pitiful sight of a child suddenly orphaned because she hadn’t saved them.

Zero’s eyes met the child’s.

In the child’s eyes, there seemed to be something even more “empty” than in this fake human.

And as she watched the child embrace their mother again and wail—

Throb.

“…? What was that just now?”

Perhaps the tension had eased and put strain on her heart.

Zero felt an inexplicable pain in her chest area—knowledge she hadn’t learned even in the test tube.

She was momentarily confused by this unidentifiable feeling.

…Rumble rumble.

“Huh?”

“…What?”

“!!”

A shadow rising again behind her.

Feeling a presence, she quickly turned around to find the corpse of the monster standing up despite its severed head.

The cockroach monster, surrounded by an unknown black energy, was now emerging from its shell without even molting.

Crack… snap!

“Its arm…”

“It’s growing back?”

Now it was displaying regenerative abilities that even a cockroach shouldn’t possess, like a lizard, growing a new head from where there was nothing before.

“This is impossible. I’ve searched all records of cockroach monster appearances, and there’s no documentation of regenerating body parts without molting.”

“……”

“Moreover, there’s no record of it being surrounded by such an ominous energy.”

“I-it’s not over yet…?”

“R-run away…!”

“It’s not over! Everyone run!!”

As the shelter descended into chaos once more, the cockroach monster, having completed its resurrection, moved past Zero who had quickly returned to a combat stance.

Whoosh.

“Huh?”

Amidst everyone fleeing, it was running toward the lone child still sitting before their dead mother.

The same child it had targeted earlier to exploit Zero’s weakness, only to learn it was futile—now it was charging toward that child again.

Dash.

“It’s going for the child?”

The cockroach monster had become unusually silent.

Zero naturally decided to use this as an “opportunity.”

She didn’t understand why it was targeting this one human child.

But if that was the case, she thought she would slip behind it while it was attacking the child and strike down the monster as it harmed the child.

That was the most ideal method devised by her supercomputer-level brain.

“Mommy! Mommy!”

Throb.

Hurry up and take that child’s life.

So I can take your head again with peace of mind.

…Contrary to her plan, Zero found herself suddenly outpacing the cockroach and stopping in front of the child.

“……Huh?”

It was an action she herself couldn’t understand, despite being the one who did it.

As if affected by some kind of “bug.”

Zero couldn’t comprehend why she had done such a “pointless thing,” but since an attack was coming down—

She tried to deflect the blackened hand strike with her blade, timing it to the incoming blow.

But.

Slash.

“…Huh?”

Just as she had changed, the monster’s actions had also changed.

If her change was internal, the monster’s was external—it seemed to have been resurrected with far greater power than before.

Zero realized this fact as she saw her own abdomen sliced through the sword she had used to try to block.

“Kuhak?!”

“……”

Crash.

Without time to fall, she was grabbed by the hair and thrown toward the shelter wall.

Through the hole she had punctured, all she could see was the cockroach monster that had followed her outside the shelter to trample her—a monster that far exceeded all previous records.

Threat level: probably just Disaster Level 1.

And so, without understanding why she had thrown away her chance at victory moments ago—

Crunch!

“Ku-kuaaaaaaaaahhh!”

Zero became a “meat doll” unable to move, with both legs crushed beneath the monster.