Ch.89Worse Than a Cat

# Enhanced Translation

“So, it’s not brainwashing, but Yeo Un-jae himself has a connection to the Laboratory?”

The medicine was made by the Laboratory for Yeo Un-jae, and Meister was just being used for his ability.

Either way, what I need to do next is clear.

Traces of the Laboratory are in A City.

Find Yeo Un-jae and ask him about the Laboratory… or kill him.

“I need to find Yeo Un-jae.”

“That’s faster than just sitting here thinking about it. But how are you going to get to A City? You’re not planning to go the same way you went to D City, are you?”

“Is there a problem with that?”

“Nothing but problems! Want me to explain if you don’t know?”

I nodded, and Gu Seo-ryong explained several reasons.

A City is different from D City or W City.

There are many more heroes and soldiers, making visual detection easier, and the alarm systems are constantly being upgraded with the latest technology.

On top of that, an S-rank hero called Electris monitors the entire area with detection abilities far superior to any alarm system.

Since we need to move stealthily without being discovered by the Laboratory people, flying there in monster form isn’t a good idea.

“So, you need to enter in human form. Meister will take the train back, right? You should secretly board that train.”

“Electris is in W City too.”

“What?”

As I recalled Electris in that sticky air at the corner of a deserted building, Gu Seo-ryong tapped her fingers with a click, click.

From what I’ve observed, this is her habit when thinking deeply.

“She came to escort Meister? Then, the only hero in A City who could threaten us would be Cage… maybe Quake if we’re being generous? This is actually a good time to sneak in without being detected, perfect for searching for traces of the Laboratory in A City.”

Gu Seo-ryong stopped her clicking and looked at me.

“Okay, we need to find out why Meister is staying in W City for now. We need to know how long he’ll be here…”

“He’s injured. Meister was in the treatment room.”

“What? Did someone attack Meister? Most villains in W City have already been captured by Starlight, so there shouldn’t be anyone reckless enough to do something like that.”

“Ability overload.”

“Ability backflow? Meister? What happened?”

Gu Seo-ryong doesn’t know that Meister is just a weak person with an ability that doesn’t suit his body.

When I briefly explained what I knew about Meister’s ability, Gu Seo-ryong’s eyes gleamed mischievously.

“What kind of ability is that? It sounds ridiculous! He answers anything you ask?”

“There are many limitations. The output is insufficient, and the processing power is lacking.”

“He could just use drugs to enhance it, right? Even if it eats away at his cognitive abilities and lifespan…”

“He was taking some kind of medicine.”

“Oh my, he’s already taking something? Since when? He might be nothing but an empty shell by now… that would be perfect.”

Gu Seo-ryong raised her sharp nails with these ominous words.

“Ah~ I want to brainwash him. Use him however I want.”

“Do that and you die.”

“If you weren’t here, I really would. But I can’t do anything because I’m scared of you, Black Cat.”

Meister’s body is too weakened to withstand such treatment.

At my warning, Gu Seo-ryong clenched her hand in disappointment.

“So Meister isn’t some monstrous genius, just a superhuman with one impressive ability… how disappointing. It’s like seeing a bearded old man come out of a cute mascot costume.”

“I know what you mean.”

I sympathized, having felt a similar disappointment, and Gu Seo-ryong muttered with a strange expression.

“If Meister really is just that kind of superhuman… that’s impressive in its own way.”

This sentiment seems too human to have come from Gu Seo-ryong.

But she’s right—Meister is impressive because he’s weak.

Power equivalent to only a D-rank hero.

He’s probably been in the treatment room many times due to his own ability backfiring.

Yet with just that meager power, he’s managed to keep humans alive.

He risked his life to save others.

Despite being able to do almost nothing.

Thanks to that weak hero, humans gained a little hope.

Both Gu Seo-ryong and I did.

“By the way, what about that ability? Can’t you eat it?”

This was a typically monster-like suggestion. Hearing Gu Seo-ryong’s proposal, I thought it wasn’t a bad idea.

An ability that eats abilities—if I ate Meister’s ability, I’d have sufficient processing power and output.

But I don’t feel like doing it.

“I don’t need it.”

“Hmm, is that because you’re strong enough not to need it? Or because you don’t want to eat someone who was once a hero?”

“Do I need to answer that?”

“It doesn’t matter. If you don’t want to eat it, then don’t.”

Gu Seo-ryong shrugged and summarized our conversation.

“Alright, let’s reach a conclusion. The best approach now is to keep Electris and Meister tied up in W City while we head to A City. We should cause something that would overload Meister’s ability. Maybe a monster disturbance?”

“Don’t harm civilians.”

“Can’t we sacrifice just a few?”

“If the goal is to overload Meister’s ability, there’s another way.”

“What is it?”

“Just meet him.”

From what I’ve seen, Meister has a bad habit of using his ability first whenever he’s curious about something.

It’s probably a habit developed from experiencing many urgent situations in the monster era, where getting answers quickly was more important than communication.

If we keep stimulating his curiosity about monster experiments, he’ll continuously use his ability to help humans.

“What, are you going to meet him and ask him to stay in W City?”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“Are you serious?”

The reason for causing an overload is to keep Meister in W City.

As Gu Seo-ryong said, simply asking him would be more efficient.

“I’ll handle Meister.”

“Sigh, I don’t get it. Fine, do what you want. We can think about going to A City afterward… Wait, are you just going to leave like this?”

Having decided what to do next, I went to the edge of the empty lot, preparing to jump.

Gu Seo-ryong called out to stop me and approached.

“Do you have more business?”

“I put Sa Gu-gu to sleep so nicely, shouldn’t we spend some time alone? After all that courting, you’re just going to leave? I’m hurt.”

“Sa Gu-gu isn’t sleeping.”

“What? I checked earlier and she was lying in bed…”

I glanced toward the distant rooftop where I could sense Sa Gu-gu running around, and stared at it quietly.

Gu Seo-ryong frowned and jumped up before I could.

“This is impossible to deal with!”

#

Meeting Meister again wasn’t difficult.

The very next day, I went to the hero headquarters and followed Meister’s scent to the basement of the building.

There were no heroes standing guard outside the room near the treatment area—a room positioned where someone could collapse at any moment.

As if they had been cleared away in advance.

“…ugh, hic…sob…”

“Meow.”

Entering the room through a gap in the door, I found Meister crying inside.

Medicines scattered around, bedding in disarray from tossing and turning.

Startled by the cat’s meow, Meister’s eyes widened when I moved from the cat’s position to stand before him.

His eyes were bloodshot from crying, tears still flowing despite being all dried up.

Seeing me, Meister sniffled and smiled.

“I knew you would come…”

A deep sense of despair emanated from his smiling face.

With emotion close to a scream, Meister spread his arms.

“Please… kill me.”

A tired voice, resignation, acceptance, words that suggested he knew about my ability.

He must have used his ability during the night to ask questions about me.

When I remained still, just watching him, Meister tried to persuade me by sharing what he had learned.

“If a human becomes a monster, then a monster that doesn’t attack humans can be created… but that’s not human. It’s not changing monsters either.”

Meister’s original goal: creating monsters that protect humans.

However, what’s created is just a monster made from a human.

It’s not about turning the monsters of the world into human livestock.

“If there hadn’t been monster weaponization experiments, if there hadn’t been such attempts, you wouldn’t have been created.”

This was something I had already suspected when I heard about being asked to improve a medicine presumably made by the Laboratory.

Meister’s ability was used to create me, regardless of her intentions.

“It’s me, it’s because of me… again because of me… I can’t take it anymore…”

The more Meister tries to save the world, the more it breaks.

At first, she succeeded in laying a foundation that no one else could, but that was all.

The more desperate Meister becomes, the more unintended victims appear.

“So please, eat me! Take my ability!”

The viscous emotions and fragments of thought permeating the air in the room.

Like a spark spreading across them, Meister’s intense emotions burst forth.

Through my monster senses, I tasted Meister’s thoughts directly.

It’s my fault, it’s my fault.

If only I had done a little better.

It has to be me, I have to do it.

Even though it’s something I can’t do, no one else can do it either.

Meister is already at her limit.

She’s broken beyond the point of bearing the weight of being a hero.

Yet she tried to endure somehow.

Thinking of the humans she could save with her ability, she gnawed away at her own life with guilt and self-blame.

Sacrificing, atoning, self-harming.

At the end of it all, she found an escape.

A monster who was once human, an ability that eats abilities.

A monster she could pass her burden to.

“Please kill me now. I’m, I’m useless now… I know it. That I’m stupid, that I’m inadequate.”

In the tears flowing down, there was a faint expectation and joy.

Living is pain, yet she stayed alive out of fear that her death might lead to others’ deaths.

Even if she died, she wanted to save others.

Meister is human.

A weak human burdened with the role of a hero.

A human who tried to bear everything alone.

“Take it, my ability, my life.”

“Waoong.”

After slowly chewing and swallowing Meister’s emotions and thoughts, I sighed.

Now I clearly understood Meister’s problem.

This woman really doesn’t communicate at all.

Her direction is right, but she decides everything alone and just believes she’s right—a pitiful fool.

No, she doesn’t even decide for herself, nor does she believe in herself.

Her ability does everything for her.

I delivered a telekinetic flick to Meister’s head.

“Eek?!”

[You’re just like Sa Gu-gu.]

“What…? Ow, ack, ow.”

[Shut your mouth. Think a little. Talk a little.]

With each thump, thump, thump on her head, Meister’s despair gradually turned to confusion.

[Why should I eat you?]

“Ow, ow, if you eat me, like that woman Lee Han-yeong, if you eat me and use it as your power. You can save many humans. My ability would be better in your hands than mine…”

[Did you read my memories with your ability? I’m disgusted that such a thing is possible.]

“I’m, I’m sorry… but.”

[Are you an idiot? Why do you read others’ memories as you please? Didn’t your parents teach you better? Or perhaps, you don’t have parents?]

“What? Well, I don’t… actually…”

[That was certainly behavior of someone without parents.]

“Ouch!”

After flicking her head again, I used telekinesis to restrain Meister as she reached for the scattered medicine on the bed.

[Were you about to ask why I’m doing this?]

“What? Yes…”

[Why do you ask your ability first instead of asking me directly when you’re curious about me?]

“That’s because my ability tells me everything.”

[So you really don’t have parents. If you’re curious about me, you should ask me first.]

“But my ability tells me… ouch!”

[Ask me.]

Has it become too much of a habit? As Meister closed her eyes, determined to use her ability somehow, I delivered a stronger telekinetic flick to her head.

“Why are you preventing me from using my ability? Why won’t you eat me…?”

[Just because.]

“Just because…?”

[Didn’t your ability answer that? Whether I would eat you if you asked me to or not.]

“But, but, Black Cat helps humans, and is a monster that can eat abilities, already using abilities from eating other humans.”

[So that’s what your stupid brain thought. That’s why you’re wrong. Your garbage ability didn’t even tell you the details.]

“It’s because I’m inadequate! That’s why if you eat me! Ouch!”

[Shut up.]

After a series of flicks, Meister shed tears different from before.

[I take back what I said about you being on the same level as Sa Gu-gu. You’re worse than Sa Gu-gu.]