Ch.87There Was an Important Purpose

After searching through the building for Meister, I finally arrived at the basement. The treatment room in the center gave off an unpleasant feeling just by approaching it.

I hate the smell of medications.

Especially alcohol.

“Meow.”

Perhaps because it was the heroes’ headquarters? There were no guards.

Though the door was locked with a mechanical device, such things are hardly obstacles for monsters.

With my faint ability, slightly split into a cat.

For a moment, I sank into the shadows and slipped through the narrow gap in the door. Inside, I could see the dark treatment room filled with blue light.

In the center was a treatment capsule.

A bed filled with healing liquid supposedly created by Meister.

Meister was lying limply inside it, like fish cake in broth.

After quietly looking down at Meister sleeping like a corpse on top of the capsule, I wandered around the treatment room searching for the bag.

Finding the bag wasn’t difficult.

Amid the alcohol smell, I easily found Meister’s personal belongings box by following the laboratory’s distinctive scent.

I entered the box and grabbed the bag with my mouth from among the clothes, then jumped out.

Good, now let’s open the space.

Just as I was about to couple my ability with the cat…

“Hmm?”

Woong, something forcibly inserted itself into the ability I was spreading.

Forcing one’s way into someone else’s ability is impossible.

Ability coupling is a phenomenon that doesn’t occur unless both parties match.

I had no intention of matching my spatial manipulation ability with anything else.

Yet, betraying my will, my spatial manipulation ability easily permitted the intrusion.

“Nyao!”

“Meow…!”

In front of the small cat appeared a large cat.

Sa Gu-gu had stolen the spatial manipulation passage I was creating and used it to move.

Having descended into the treatment room as stealthily as I had, suppressing her core, Sa Gu-gu transformed into her monster form and snatched the bag from the cat.

“Dakgalbi! Found it!”

“Myaaaa!”

“Mommy’s dakgalbi wasn’t very delicious! Only big brother ate the very delicious dakgalbi! That’s unfair!”

Despite my warning meow that meant “give that back,” Sa Gu-gu roughly opened the bag and began rummaging through it.

However, there was nothing inside.

“Nyat?! No dakgalbi?! Big brother tricked Sa Gu-gu!”

Sa Gu-gu turned the bag upside down and shook it, but nothing came out.

Strange, I could still smell something inside the bag.

Sa Gu-gu must have thought something was off too, as she stuck her head in the bag and sniffed.

“Delicious smell…”

“Mya! Mya!”

When Sa Gu-gu started chewing on the bag, the cat bit her ankle.

As I tried to couple spatial manipulation again to move, Sa Gu-gu interfered by spreading the same ability wavelength around.

Using the repulsion of abilities that can only be used by those with the same type, Sa Gu-gu spoke while making licking sounds inside the bag she’d put over her head.

“The remaining dakgalbi is mine! Big brother already ate!”

“Myaaaa!”

I understand now why Gu Seo-ryong always scolds this disobedient cat girl.

At this distance, I lacked the output to suppress Sa Gu-gu’s ability and connect spaces.

I had no choice but to run across the rooftop toward Zone 0.

Just then, a mechanical sound came from the capsule in front of Sa Gu-gu.

The humming sound of removing the treatment liquid, followed by beeping as the capsule opened.

Perhaps due to Sa Gu-gu’s loud commotion, Meister had awakened.

With a tired voice, Meister rose and looked around with a dazed expression before speaking.

“…Is this a dream?”

“Nyaaang~!”

“Myaaa!”

A monster with a bag over her head.

A kitten being swung around by its tail.

Perhaps finding it difficult to believe this surreal scene was reality, Meister sat dazed before standing up with strange words.

Wearing only thin fabric soaked in treatment liquid, Meister approached Sa Gu-gu with drooping steps.

“This isn’t a dream, there’s no elephant.”

“Unyanyanya…”

“I’m sorry, but could you return the bag?”

“The dakgalbi is mine!”

“Dakgalbi? I’ll get it out for you.”

“Nya?”

At the mention of getting out the dakgalbi, Sa Gu-gu immediately pulled her head out of the bag, revealing her cat ears.

Only then did Meister’s eyes widen, seemingly realizing Sa Gu-gu wasn’t an ordinary person.

When Meister touched the bag, something similar to spatial manipulation appeared at the bag’s opening.

“Unyat?! The same ability as mine!”

“It’s a space-expansion bag. This is my only successful creation… though it has many teeth marks now.”

Meister pulled out dakgalbi churu from the bag and handed it to Sa Gu-gu, who looked confused and tried to put the entire packet in her mouth.

“Ah, that’s not how you eat it. Here, open this lid.”

“Ttakang?”

“I’ll open it for you. Here, squeeze it like this while you eat.”

Meister took the packet back, twisted open the lid, and returned it to Sa Gu-gu, who sniffed it before licking the end.

“Unyanyat?!”

After that, Sa Gu-gu froze in place with wide eyes, licking the human dakgalbi churu. Meanwhile, Meister took out a medicine bottle from the bag.

“I slept too much…”

Meister took out a pill and swallowed it, then lay down on the cold floor and immediately fell asleep.

A sleeping pill? Meister, who had been emitting a faint ability wavelength, woke up shortly after.

“Sa Gu-gu… Experiment No. 499?”

“Nya?”

A dreamy expression, with shock visible on the face.

Meister recognized Sa Gu-gu.

Something’s strange.

I had intuited that Meister had no connection to the laboratory.

But knowing Sa Gu-gu means there’s definitely a connection to the lab.

However, it didn’t seem like Meister recognized Sa Gu-gu right away.

“Experiment, you… aren’t human?”

“You know Sa Gu-gu? Sa Gu-gu doesn’t know you?”

“Ugh…”

As Sa Gu-gu sniffed, Meister leaned against the capsule and closed her eyes again.

Finding something not working, Meister took another pill and collapsed into sleep.

Shortly after, Meister woke up and struggled, showing veins on her forehead.

“Ugh, ability, limit.”

“Dakgalbi hurts?”

Sa Gu-gu approached the suffering Meister and licked her cheek.

Excited by the delicious emotions, Sa Gu-gu wagged her tail.

Sa Gu-gu put the dakgalbi churu back in her mouth and flapped her cat ears with joy.

“Very very delicious! Nyat…”

Having closed the distance sufficiently, I forcibly opened a space and appeared in front of Sa Gu-gu.

I retrieved the small cat that had been caught by its tail and used telekinesis to grab Sa Gu-gu by the scruff of her neck.

Suspended in mid-air, Sa Gu-gu calmly licked the dakgalbi packet she held with both hands.

“Black Cat… no, you are.”

And facing me, Meister muttered with confusion and shock.

“A created monster, CXI…”

I thought Meister had no connection to the lab because she didn’t know me, but she recognized me.

Was Gu Seo-ryong right that Meister is deeply connected to the laboratory?

If that’s certain, there’s no reason to let her live.

Was it an act when she didn’t recognize me in front of Starlight, or was her mind being erased by special drugs?

Then what’s this emotion? Why is she surprised?

I don’t understand what’s going on.

Should I kill her?

The questions that arise can be understood by devouring.

The instinctive impulse of a monster, just thinking about killing made my ability surge on its own, when Sa Gu-gu interfered with my spatial manipulation.

“Give me more dakgalbi!”

“Eh?”

At those words, both Meister’s confused mind and my boiling killing intent stopped abruptly.

Meister took out new dakgalbi from the bag and held it out.

Not one but two… I received them with telekinesis and thought while eating the dakgalbi.

Among people who give delicious food without poison, there are no bad people.

Killing and eating out of curiosity is too monster-like.

I can just ask.

[How do you know about me?]

“A monster that speaks…?!”

“Sa Gu-gu is a monster too! Sa Gu-gu speaks!”

Being surprised about speaking, does she know about me or not?

Looking flustered, Meister frowned and closed her eyes again.

I sent telekinesis to the head of Meister, who seemed to be trying to sleep.

With the strength of what humans call a forehead flick, Meister was hit on the head and opened her eyes, holding her forehead.

“Ah, that hurts.”

[Sleep later and answer my question. Do you know me? Where did you hear the term CXI?]

“That, I didn’t know, I just, heard a little…”

[From whom?]

“Um… from here?”

From someone related to the laboratory? Curious, I asked, and Meister pointed to her own head.

“I have an ability that gives answers when questions are asked.”

[Ability?]

Meister explained her ability without any wariness.

An ability where something unknown answers all questions when asked.

Through this, Meister only knows about me because she asked questions.

“Answer questions? Who answers?”

“That, I don’t know…”

[Strange ability.]

And an impossible ability too.

It answers even facts no one knows, and always tells the truth.

If I had such an ability… finding the laboratory’s location would be simple.

But thinking about it, something’s strange.

If she heard answers that way, why didn’t she know I could speak?

When I asked about this, Meister made a bitter expression.

“The ability is omnipotent, but I’m inadequate…”

[Output shortage, or computational shortage.]

“…Yes. If there’s too much information in the answer, I overload and can’t hear more.”

[Weak body.]

“That’s right, I’m… weak.”

Depressing emotions, mm, delicious.

In the end, Meister knows about me and Sa Gu-gu not because of a connection to the laboratory, but thanks to her special ability.

I thought I made the right decision not killing Meister as I ate the dakgalbi.

“Why are you experiments here? Revenge against humans?”

[No.]

“To eat very very delicious dakgalbi!”

[That could be considered one of the reasons.]

“What?”

Flustered by Sa Gu-gu’s innocent answer, Meister eventually burst into laughter.

“You really are like big cats. Did you like the dakgalbi that much?”

“Delicious!”

[The dakgalbi is delicious, but your depressing emotions are very tasty.]

“My emotions? Ah, I think I’ve read a paper about monsters having a mental hunger that can only be satisfied by consuming emotions.”

Looking at Sa Gu-gu and me with contemplation, I realized something.

This attitude, reaction, emotion, the characteristics of the described ability, and the weak body unable to handle the ability.

Meister doesn’t seem to have reached the information that Sa Gu-gu and I were originally human.

“So, is your purpose just dakgalbi? Or are you looking for other delicious things?”

[No, I have a more important purpose than dakgalbi. That is.]

“Is there something more delicious?!”

“Well, there are other things cats might like.”

The purpose is to learn about the laboratory that created Sa Gu-gu and me.

Just as I was about to ask about the contents of Meister’s bag, Sa Gu-gu threw the empty dakgalbi packet and jumped up.

Then, Meister took out a strange object from the bag.

Brown meat, vacuum-sealed. When opened, an incredibly delicious smell wafted out.

“It’s called smoked tuna…”

Smoked tuna? What is that?

I don’t know what it is, but this amazing smell that even vacuum sealing couldn’t contain.

Drool flowed from both Sa Gu-gu’s and my mouth.