Ch.85The Chicken Galbi Was Delicious

# Enhanced Translation

The food packs alone might make you think the laboratory is just selling inventions to make money, but the fact that their smell is present suggests some kind of connection.

However, the mere presence of the smell implies their relationship isn’t that deep.

Researchers know they’re saturated with chemical odors, so they do everything possible to wash away the smell.

Probably to avoid detection by the experiments they’ve released into the city.

Only monsters would have senses keen enough to detect these smells.

It’s hard to imagine Meister being a careless researcher who would let me catch his scent.

To be more certain, I rubbed my head against him and sniffed closely, discovering something more.

The source of the smell wasn’t Meister himself, but his bag.

There’s something related to the laboratory inside the bag.

Without opening it, I can’t learn anything more.

Meister is heavily protected in Zone 0.

To find out anything in this situation would require excessively aggressive action.

Perhaps I should wait for when he comes outside again…

I left one cat behind and departed.

As I was heading to another zone to hunt more monsters, Sa Gu-gu appeared before me.

“Meow? It’s big brother!”

I quickly glanced around, but only Sa Gu-gu was visible.

In Zone 5… Having landed on the rooftop in human form, I grabbed Sa Gu-gu’s head as she was pulling out her cat ears.

Sa Gu-gu is still clumsy with her human transformation.

Ears appearing in places where humans are present is not good.

“Your ears are showing.”

“Ah! Mom will scold me! Thank you? I said thank you!”

Seeing her sparkling eyes and expectant look, I understood what she wanted and praised her.

“You said thank you well.”

“Sa Gu-gu is a good girl! When I’m grateful, I say thank you!”

“Where is Gu Seo-ryong?”

“Mom is taking a shower! I came out because I’m hungry!”

“Aaaah really! Sa Gu-gu! How many times have I told you not to go out on your own…!”

Just then, Gu Seo-ryong landed on the rooftop with a thud in her monster form.

Still with foam in her hair and wearing only a shower gown, Gu Seo-ryong was startled when she saw me and covered her face.

“Oh, my! Deun-deun, what are you doing here? Are you wandering around looking for monsters again?”

“Big brother wanders around every day! Ack!”

“Come here, seriously, why do you keep trying to leave lately?”

After roughly drying her hair with the gown and touching her lips, Gu Seo-ryong punched Sa Gu-gu’s head and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.

With just that, Sa Gu-gu went limp, blinking her eyes as if sedated.

“Is that a drug?”

“Huh? It’s not a drug, it’s just that when you grab a cat by the neck… Oh, wait, honey, can I touch your neck?”

“Don’t touch me.”

“Come on, just once, okay? Ouch.”

When I knocked away the hand approaching my neck, Gu Seo-ryong’s wrist bent.

“You’ve gotten stronger? Is it because you ate the host of that parasite monster?”

“It wasn’t a monster, it was an experiment.”

“…What?”

When I casually mentioned the true identity of the monster that had settled in D City, Gu Seo-ryong’s face wrinkled intensely.

“What are you suddenly talking about? Can you explain in detail? Honey?”

“Hmm… Alright.”

Hearing Gu Seo-ryong’s serious voice, I sat down on the rooftop and told her about what happened in D City.

The numbering as Experiment No. 3, the monster’s characteristics, and the strange things it said.

“The goal of monsterization experiments…”

“Do you know about it?”

“Until now, I thought their goal was to create monsters that would obey them and use them as weapons, but considering what No. 3 said, that doesn’t seem right? He spoke to you as if he was already close to achieving their goal, right?”

“That’s right.”

“No. 3 completely took over D City but didn’t absorb humans, just left them as infected… Could their goal be coexistence between monsters and humans?”

“The infected are not human.”

“True, but the fact that they deliberately maintained human form suggests they wanted them to remain human.”

“Hmm…”

Wanting them to be human, maintaining human form.

As I sat there feeling a strange sensation, Gu Seo-ryong tapped her fingers habitually.

“No matter how I think about it, it’s strange. Monsters and humans can never coexist. The laboratory must know that. They communicate with monsters too, right? Even if they keep them heavily sedated.”

“If they knew about monsters’ instincts, they wouldn’t think about coexistence.”

“The fact that No. 3 was outside the laboratory is itself a problem. The laboratory releases failed experiments to gather data, right? So No. 3 is a failure. Considering the numbering, the goal… could it be the laboratory’s initial objective? Tsk… if I had known what was in D City was an experiment, I would have gone myself.”

“Are you investigating the laboratory?”

“Of course! Aren’t you? Don’t tell me you’re not interested?”

Seeing her deeply contemplating the laboratory, I asked, and Gu Seo-ryong raised her head sharply to answer.

“Don’t you want revenge? They dragged you from the orphanage and turned you into a monster.”

Revenge, was that why Gu Seo-ryong built a nest and was growing her power among humans?

“Revenge…”

My former self would have felt only emptiness at that word.

Finding them is nearly impossible.

Even if I found them, what I’d face wouldn’t be them but their experiments.

“I don’t intend to go out of my way to find them.”

“Why?”

“Even if I chase after them, all I’ll end up facing are experiments. They hide thoroughly and leave no scent.”

To find such people, I’d have to tear through the city, and what about the human casualties that would result?

If they appeared before me, I’d tear them all apart, but considering the human damage that would occur while dealing with those monsters…

Unless I strike at the head, experiments will just keep being consumed.

“I’m still not strong enough to catch them. I’d need to surpass Annihilation-rank at least to face them.”

“That damn Annihilation-rank, is it even possible to reach? Even the laboratory said they couldn’t create monsters above Despair-rank.”

“It would be difficult inside the laboratory to accumulate that much despair and fear.”

“What does that mean?”

“Doesn’t your core tell you? That the despair and fear of the humans you’ve devoured is insufficient.”

“What?”

Her reaction suggests she’s hearing this for the first time. There seems to be an information gap between Gu Seo-ryong and me.

Perhaps Gu Seo-ryong hasn’t reached that level yet and doesn’t know?

I looked at Gu Seo-ryong with pity.

“You’re weak, to the point where your core doesn’t speak to you.”

“No, it’s not that I’m weak… you’re the strange one here. The core speaking? What are you talking about? As if the core is a separate entity…”

“It doesn’t literally speak. The sensation felt through the core…”

“That’s what I mean, it’s strange. Is this some kind of metaphor?”

“Big brother is strange? Core is core, doesn’t it speak?”

Could I be the strange one?

That can’t be. I’m the stronger one.

These weak barely-Despair-rank creatures must be mistaken.

“You’re weak, Sa Gu-gu.”

“Meow!”

“Fine, there must be sensory differences between monsters. Let’s stop talking about things we don’t understand. The important thing is… while you’re waiting to become Annihilation-rank before making a move, the laboratory will also grow stronger.”

“Hmm.”

Monsters get stronger if not caught quickly.

This rule applies to the monster laboratory as well.

The enemy won’t wait for us to grow.

If you want to kill them, you must do it quickly, even if it’s risky.

I learned this by eliminating various monsters in advance and then killing the parasite monster.

“You’re right. If we want to kill them, we need to find and kill them quickly.”

“You’ll naturally become Annihilation-rank as you hunt. What do you think? If you want revenge, why not join me? You owe me for losing all the villains I was using to find the laboratory because of you.”

“Was that what Kowloon Walled City was for?”

“Not exclusively, but basically, yes.”

“It looked like nothing more than a human mating ground to me.”

“Mating?”

“Could you watch your language in front of the child? Besides, when a group grows larger, its original purpose tends to change.”

Is that so? I’m not sure.

I’ve never created a pack, so Gu Seo-ryong, who built a nest, must be right.

“Then we need to investigate the laboratory.”

“Yes, digging up deeply hidden information isn’t easy, and it’s dangerous even for me, but with you and Sa Gu-gu, I could be more aggressive…”

“Meister seems to have connections to the laboratory.”

“What?”

“I need to look into it more, but the connection is certain. The food packs Meister gave me are the same as those used in the laboratory. And the smell from his bag…”

“Honey? How do you know these things? Meister? Is it the same Meister I know?”

“Yes.”

“Explain to me, what’s going on?”

I explained about Meister to the bewildered Gu Seo-ryong.

How Starlight suddenly brought Meister, how he fed me delicious dakgalbi, and the smell I detected.

When I mentioned that while he didn’t seem to be a researcher, he carried the laboratory’s smell, Gu Seo-ryong clutched her head with both hands, looking dizzy.

“Meister, right, the genius of the century… it’s not strange that she would be involved in such an absurd experiment… but she’s a hero among heroes? The possibility that the information is fabricated…”

“What’s dakgalbi?”

“It’s a very delicious food.”

“Very delicious? More delicious than just delicious?”

“Hmm, do you know about Churu?”

“Churu? Cute name!”

While Gu Seo-ryong was muttering intensely, I told Sa Gu-gu about the delicious food I had eaten.

Tasting the emotions leaking from me as I recalled the flavor, Sa Gu-gu was already drooling.

“Churu is also very delicious. What Meister gave me was Churu dakgalbi.”

“Is very delicious very very delicious?!”

“Shut up! You cat brats! Mom is trying to think here!”

“You’re being noisy while we’re talking about dakgalbi, Gu Seo-ryong.”

“That’s right! Mom is noisy!”

Gu Seo-ryong frowned and fled to the corner of the rooftop, while I continued telling Sa Gu-gu about Churu dakgalbi.

A moment later, Gu Seo-ryong returned, having finished her deliberation.

“Alright, let’s kill Meister.”

“Why that conclusion?”

“She’s in W City now, right? The fact that she came without any notice suggests she came here secretly. It’s a good opportunity, isn’t it? We kill her and see how the laboratory reacts.”

Still thinking like a monster, Gu Seo-ryong only sees humans as food or tools.

“Why kill rather than extract information?”

“Because keeping her alive is dangerous? She’s Meister, the genius of the century. A monster of that caliber can’t be a mere underling of the laboratory. She must be at least one of the several heads of the laboratory.”

“I object.”

“Why? If we don’t kill her right now, she’ll definitely become a threat later. She’s the monster who protected humans against all monsters.”

“That’s very different from what I saw.”

The Meister I saw was very passive, fearful, full of regret and terror, an empty hollow shell filled with tears.

Completely opposite to the emotions I sense from researchers.

Such a weak human couldn’t possibly face monsters.

Even if she did in the past, she’s now just a spent husk that has used up all her power.

“Is dakgalbi Meister? We can’t kill dakgalbi!”

“I agree with Sa Gu-gu. We shouldn’t kill dakgalbi.”

“You two aren’t opposing me just because you want to keep getting fed dakgalbi, are you?”

“That’s right!”

“No.”

I swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth.