Ch.76Aftermath of the Dead City

# Chapter Translation

Infection bodies were being rapidly exterminated, trapped in a place with nowhere to escape.

Now the mound of parasites, crushed up to the nose and knees, resisted with telekinesis and desperately spoke.

“Wait, Cage, if it’s you, you’ll understand me. Join hands with me, help me devour Black Cat!”

“Oh… should I say this monster is talking?”

With an intrigued voice, Cage momentarily paused expanding his isolation chamber by spreading his hands, and the lips formed by the gathered parasites produced a desperate voice.

“In this world, humans must be led by superior transcendents. You must think so too! It must be tiring to lead humans who don’t listen. I can help you.”

“Is that so… Indeed, human domination by parasites. Leading humans who have lost their will would be simple. An efficient management method.”

Cage’s genuine admiration as he quickly understood what the parasite was saying.

Immediately after, the isolation chamber containing the parasite began shrinking faster as Cage clenched his fist again.

“My answer is no, you filthy monster. Humans should be led by superhumans, not non-human transcendents.”

“Kuk, aaaaargh! Why! I! I could make you a god of this world!”

“God is dead in this world.”

“God exists. No, will exist! We will…!”

Crack, crack, crack, the isolation chamber gradually shrank like a can being crushed under high pressure, becoming the size of a ping-pong ball.

Within the monster’s senses, the consciousness of Experiment No. 3 disappeared.

And only a tiny core remained.

“A talking monster, those guys in the research department would be disappointed to hear this sample is gone.”

Cage’s ability completely separated the boundary between inside and outside the isolation chamber.

Unable to activate its consciousness transfer ability, it died.

After confirming the death of the hive mind’s master, I shifted my gaze to follow the core thrown from Cage’s hand.

With a thud, Cage caught the core again and looked at me while drawing up his ability.

“Well then, Black Cat… come at me if you want to fight.”

Cage, looking more solid than when we last met, planted his spear in the ground and stretched his hand toward me.

Ready to form an isolation chamber around me at any moment.

Behind me, Electris, who had fried all the infection bodies, was crouching on the debris of a collapsed building, pulling up rebar.

“I’ve already dealt with telekinesis. It won’t be like last time.”

“This is different from before. A City’s strongest spear and shield… though one is missing, but there are two S-rank heroes from A City here together.”

I see… Cage would trap me in his isolation chamber, and Electris would attack from outside with her railgun.

Until I break through the ability-blocking wall, I’d have no choice but to take hits one-sidedly, and even if I escaped, I’d likely be trapped again.

However, Cage’s ability wasn’t a major threat to me now.

Space manipulation ability, drilling a hole from a higher dimension to connect points A and B in reality, ignoring the current situation.

With that alone, I could freely move in and out of the isolation chamber.

And… I didn’t need to use space manipulation abilities to fight these two S-rank heroes.

Cage with curiosity outweighing his killing intent, and Electris with fear outweighing her will to fight.

Sensing the smell of emotions from within them, I yawned and returned to my usual form.

The monster core, angered by my choice, forcibly suppressed its excited pulsing and raged.

Seeing me return from a form of overlapping monsters to a feline predator, Cage adjusted his stance as if he had somewhat expected it.

“You don’t intend to fight?”

“Hoo, hooo…”

Seeing me just yawning, Cage completely withdrew his killing intent, and Electris exhaled a sigh of relief.

“…As Starlight said, you might really be a monster that can be tamed.”

For an ordinary monster, it would remain vigilant when a hero who tried to kill it takes a combat stance.

Confirming once again that I was no ordinary monster, Cage made a sudden proposal.

“Then, come to A City.”

Perking up my ears at this unexpected suggestion, Cage leaked expectation.

“Look at this situation. You suit A City better than W City.”

Cage spread his arms as if to show the ruins of D City.

“The resolve to kill even humans if necessary, killing to prevent damage from spreading—these aren’t choices an idealist like Starlight would make. You must feel frustrated being there.”

Well, I don’t think Starlight’s ideals are bad.

Striving not to cause even a single casualty—isn’t that what a hero is?

“Aren’t you afraid of no longer being yourself once you become Annihilation-rank? In A City, even if you go berserk, we can surely end you. We’ll give you everything you want… a cat tower fitted for your body, ball toys, beef, even humans if needed.”

“Grrrr…”

What the hell does this guy take me for?

I bared my teeth at his proposal treating me completely like an oversized cat, and Cage smirked.

“A refusal, huh… Hehe, that’s a shame. So you do give Starlight special treatment.”

With a flick, Cage tossed No. 3’s core to me.

“Eat it.”

“Are you out of your mind? Can you just give that away?”

“This is Black Cat’s prey. I merely delivered the final blow to an exhausted opponent. Taking it away would be ungraceful.”

“You’re being ridiculous. You’re making that monster stronger…”

“Are you afraid?”

“A-afraid? Ha! Go ahead! Do what you want!”

I caught the constantly pulsating parasite core and bit into it, wrapping my body in flames.

The parasites spreading in my mouth struggled to take over my body, then burned away.

Even in a core state that was practically dead, it still resisted… truly parasite-like.

If another monster had swallowed it, it would surely have taken over that monster’s body and revived.

After swallowing the core, I slowly opened my eyes, feeling my rank as a monster rise another level.

Rotten and decayed, not in good condition… but it had accumulated a considerable amount of curses, fear, and despair.

Annihilation-rank, I can feel that stage isn’t far off.

While I was swallowing the core, Cage delicately reduced his isolation chamber.

The nature of the barrier changed, blocking only things containing monster fluids, gathering the remaining parasites.

The barrier, which slowly let only me pass through with precise control, shrank to the size of a palm, becoming a transparent square case.

“As expected, it doesn’t commit suicide just by touching an ability. The parasites distinguish between the wavelengths spread by human hearts and monster wavelengths. With this, I’ve secured a research sample for contingencies.”

Cage, who had trapped the parasites that lost their host in a wavelength-blocking barrier, rotated the case full of parasites and said:

“If you’re done in D City, go back, Black Cat. We’re about to investigate what happened here.”

Hearing those words, I scattered an electromagnetic field around, creating a guideline toward the underground facility where survivors were.

Electris was frightened by this—the superhuman hypersensitivity, especially sensitive for an electricity ability user.

“…Indeed, are survivors trapped there? Electris, Black Cat’s detection seems clearer than yours.”

“This thing… completely…”

“Among the traces engraved in the city, there were destruction marks similar to a railgun. It probably copied that too… The direction is toward a government building.”

Was it because I showed the location of survivors, or because I was digesting Electris’s abilities one by one?

Electris looked at me with an expression that said “what kind of monster is this,” then disappeared with a crackle toward the government facility.

Well, I have nothing more to see here, so I’ll return to W City.

I’m hungry after all that rampaging.

I want some delicious meat to wash away the taste of rotten flesh.

“Weaponizing monsters…”

Cage’s muttering voice, the smell of unpleasant and bitter emotions.

I disappeared, leaving the two S-rank heroes in D City.

#

News about the parasitic monster plaguing W City was a topic that citizens of all cities were keenly interested in.

According to W City’s announcement, the number of exterminated specimens of this supposedly mere Homicide-rank monster had already exceeded one hundred thousand.

Transmission through flying beetles as vectors, infection through physical contact, and monsters that were as good as dead the moment they were infected didn’t even trigger alarm systems.

The fear of monsters that could infect you at any moment.

For citizens who just hide in shelters and wait for situations to end when monsters appear, just reading articles about parasitic monsters made them feel more terror than Despair-rank monsters.

However, at the same time, there were those who mocked W City for struggling so much with Homicide-rank monsters.

A level that wasn’t even Homicide-rank, physical strength that even an ordinary human with a hammer could kill, W City’s casualty count was barely two digits.

Among them, many heroes were soaked in superiority as superhumans, seeing that there were no hero casualties.

And all of those people froze when they saw A City’s emergency announcement.

[…D City is gone?]

[1,200 survivors? How many died?]

[Wasn’t D City’s population around 110,000?]

[Insane; Has there been this much damage recently? Even Despair-rank monsters rarely cause over 1,000 casualties these days?]

[Is this really that pathetic monster that’s not even Homicide-rank?]

The Homicide-rank or lower monster they had been mocking had already infected an entire city.

Even S-rank heroes were infected.

Due to the shocking news, anyone who had ever visited D City, whether hero or ordinary person, was urgently quarantined in each city.

[Breaking news. One suspected parasite infection case has been found in B City.]

[Announcement from C City. Citizens are advised to refrain from going out. After citywide disinfection, heroes will visit each home to check. Please refrain from going out.]

[Respected G City citizens, our city is safe!]

Each city suffered from high fatigue just searching for parasites that left no trace.

Finally realizing how troublesome parasitic monsters were, people were busy talking about W City, which had managed disinfection, tracking infected people, and exterminating vectors.

[Has W City been doing this all along?]

[This is so frustrating;]

[Why was my house skipped for food distribution? How am I supposed to eat today?]

[No, this is terrifying; They say if the parasite senses it’s been detected by a hero, it melts away, killing the infected person too.]

[Damn it, G City mayor, is this right? If heroes go around checking each house by spreading ability wavelengths, and if someone is infected, they’re just supposed to die?]

[No cure? I’m scared.]

[Shit, what do I do? The manager at our business partner company melted to death.]

As infected bodies detected in some cities that chose extreme measures melted to death, citizens’ fear reached its peak.

The only consolation was the news that there would be no more parasite proliferation.

After quarantine ended and citizens escaped from fear, they were busy talking about that too.

The reason there was no more parasite proliferation was because W City’s notorious strange monster, Black Cat, had completely destroyed D City.

With such an unbelievable story, public opinion in each city was divided in countless ways.