Ch.91Going to City A

# Enhanced Translation

“…So, Meister’s limit for buying us time is about 10 days?”

“Mm.”

“Mom! Look at this! A rhinoceros beetle!”

Area 4, open space.

After having a thorough conversation with Meister, I explained the current situation to Gu Seo-ryong.

Meister agreed to cooperate with me and responded that it wouldn’t be bad to try something called rest this time.

That period would be a maximum of 10 days.

“He says he can definitely stay for a week, and will try to hold out for an additional 3 days somehow.”

“Then it’s right to think of it as a week. Well, I don’t know what to say. You really resolved this through conversation? How did you persuade him?”

“Mom! A stag beetle!”

“Is it because of Meister’s ability? Does he trust you because his question-answering ability, CXI, lets him know that monsters can help humans?”

“Mom! A pill bug!”

“That ability to confirm whether someone can be trusted is truly amazing… Gu-gu, would you please stop putting bugs on mommy’s head?”

After hearing the full explanation, Gu Seo-ryong stood up, brushing off the bugs hanging from her head.

“Good, then we should move right away.”

“You mean right now.”

“We don’t need to waste time deliberating like humans, do we? Especially with a time limit. Gu-gu? Come here.”

“Nyanya.”

“Let’s go now. Is that okay?”

“I’m hungry.”

“We’ll eat when we get there. A City has lots of delicious food.”

With those words, Gu Seo-ryong submerged Sa Gu-gu into her shadow and leaped across buildings, approaching W City’s barrier.

Despite three monsters moving freely within W City, no alarms went off at all.

“Where are we going?”

“If we go that way, we’ll be caught on surveillance cameras, right? It’s better not to be recorded leaving either. Here, this way.”

“What’s different about that direction?”

“Even surveillance cameras have very slight blind spots. Just follow my footsteps.”

Unlike when heading to D City, we slipped out of W City stealthily in human form with Gu Seo-ryong’s guidance.

Even afterward, Gu Seo-ryong’s movements, staying only in positions where surveillance cameras couldn’t capture us, piqued my curiosity.

“How do you know about these things?”

“It’s a smuggling route the Villain Association shares. Would it make sense if I said it’s used by villains who come close to the city by train to throw drugs?”

“I should tell Starlight about this.”

“Do as you please. Even if you tell them, they’ll just create new routes.”

Beyond the undergrowth, garbage, and broken building frames.

After putting sufficient distance between us and W City, Gu Seo-ryong snapped her fingers, and Sa Gu-gu popped out of the shadow and clung to her.

“Sa Gu-gu stayed quiet!”

“Yes, you did well. That’s right, Gu-gu, would you give mommy a ride?”

“Walk!”

Sa Gu-gu, unusually excited today, carried Gu Seo-ryong on her back and plodded along quietly.

Beside them, I also ran at a moderate pace in my monsterized form, conversing with Gu Seo-ryong.

[Is there really a need to ride on Sa Gu-gu’s back? Just monsterize.]

“No way~ I don’t want to monsterize, I told you.”

[Sa Gu-gu is too slow.]

“Isn’t this fast enough? It’s much faster than if I were to monsterize.”

[At this speed, it will take 3 hours to reach A City.]

The distances between cities aren’t that far.

In the past, when all the roads were intact, they say you could get there in 1 to 2 hours by car.

Now, even the trains that travel between cities aren’t very fast, so it takes considerable time.

But that’s travel by human standards.

I can go even faster.

“You might be able to go quickly, but I can’t, you know?”

“Nyanya?”

“Whoa!?”

The monster core’s resonance—I can run faster? Sa Gu-gu conveyed with her eyes.

Meeting her gaze as if to say “give it a try,” Sa Gu-gu increased her speed.

Beside her, I gradually accelerated, turning my entire body into lightning to pierce through the path ahead, and Sa Gu-gu followed, leaping through space.

“W-wait, hey!”

The space-jumping ability couldn’t take Gu Seo-ryong, who was riding on Sa Gu-gu’s back.

Leaving Gu Seo-ryong far behind, Sa Gu-gu and I ran quickly for a long time, playing until we found a riverbank and stopped.

“Running is fun!”

[You’re quite fast.]

“Thirsty!”

[Hmm.]

Slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp. After running, Sa Gu-gu and I lay down by the riverbank drinking water when, after quite some time, Gu Seo-ryong caught up.

“Huff, huff… huff…”

[You’re late, Gu Seo-ryong.]

“Mom is slow!”

“I really hate you guys when you do this… Gu-gu, give mommy water too…”

“Water!”

“Not that, water for mommy… let’s rest a bit before continuing. I’m tired.”

[You’re weak.]

As monsterized Sa Gu-gu held out water in her hands, I opened a spatial portal and pulled out a water bottle.

Gu Seo-ryong, wiping sweat from her forehead with one hand, gave me much to think about.

She maintained her monsterized state even though Sa Gu-gu and I had run ahead.

Is there a reason she needs to go that far?

“Mom! Look at this! It’s a flower!”

“Sometimes when I look at her, and you too, you both do such cute things… Ah~ but this is a plant-type monster. Homicide-rank? Gu-gu, eat it.”

“Meow…”

After Sa Gu-gu devoured the Homicide-rank monster like an insect, other monsters that had been watching cautiously scattered all at once.

Sa Gu-gu, sensing these monsters’ presence, ran around the open space playing.

Having transformed into human form, I quietly watched Gu Seo-ryong playing with Sa Gu-gu again and asked something I was curious about.

“Gu Seo-ryong, why do you want revenge on the laboratory?”

“Oh my? Do you need to ask to know?”

“If I don’t ask, I won’t know.”

“…That’s such a human-like thing to say.”

Gu Seo-ryong sat on an already broken bench, quietly watching Sa Gu-gu running around in the overgrown park amid the ruins.

“I don’t think it’s the same reason as yours… Why do you want to destroy the laboratory?”

“They keep creating experimental subjects.”

“You don’t want to leave them to harm humans? That’s just like you.”

“Is it the same for you?”

“Of course not. I couldn’t care less about what happens to humans.”

Gu Seo-ryong is a villain, as I suspected.

If that’s the case, her desire for revenge against the laboratory stems from a deeply personal grudge.

“It’s a woman’s grudge. I was confident that I was very pretty. I was overflowing with confidence that once I was old enough to leave the orphanage, I could make a living with just my looks, whether as a streamer, celebrity, or whatever. But then, I was suddenly dragged away and turned into an ugly monster. Do you know how awful that feels?”

There was no genuine emotion in Gu Seo-ryong’s voice as she said this.

There’s something else, another reason.

“Is that so?”

“Monsters are cool?”

“Haa, really… this is why cats are impossible.”

“I don’t quite understand, but I can tell you’re lying.”

Still, if she doesn’t want to talk about it, there’s no need to press further.

Having eavesdropped on Gu Seo-ryong’s heartbeat, I decided we’d rested enough and stood up.

Then, Gu Seo-ryong smiled slyly and made a sticky resonance.

“Don’t court me.”

“Oh my, sorry, I couldn’t help it. You and Gu-gu ran ahead first, and I think the drug’s effect wore off a bit from chasing after you.”

With a thrust, Gu Seo-ryong stabbed her claws into her own neck and injected poison.

“Monsters find it hard to resist their instincts, right?”

That’s the poison Gu Seo-ryong had mentioned to me before.

A poison to suppress instincts and maintain humanity.

After injecting enough of the drug, Gu Seo-ryong naturally climbed onto my back.

“Now, let’s go.”

“What are you doing?”

“You’re going to run like that again, right? I’m tired, so carry me.”

“If you want a ride, ride Sa Gu-gu.”

“She dropped me, remember? You won’t drop me, will you?”

Thinking that made sense, I monsterized and bit Gu Seo-ryong’s nape.

“Eek?! Ah, th-this might not be so bad…?”

[Keep your mouth shut. Bugs will get in.]

“Nyanyanya!”

Whoosh, as we accelerated toward A City, cutting through the wind, Sa Gu-gu, who had been playing in the open space, immediately followed behind me.

By now, the sun was beginning to set.

Three Despair-rank monsters arrived at A City’s barrier and quietly exchanged glances from within the undergrowth.

Gu Seo-ryong manipulated her phone to check something, then pointed with her finger to indicate direction.

“There’s a smuggling route in just the right position. Over there, go right below that camera.”

The word “Villainz” displayed on Gu Seo-ryong’s phone.

Probably some kind of secret site for the Villain Association.

Are they using this to identify weaknesses in the cities? Interesting.

“This time too, watch my footsteps carefully and follow exactly.”

As if demonstrating, Gu Seo-ryong approached the wall silently and climbed it, sliding along the surface.

Then, Sa Gu-gu and I opened a spatial portal and entered inside the wall.

“…Oh.”

Gu Seo-ryong’s face turned red.

There was no need to think about moving through camera blind spots from the beginning.

We could just connect spaces and move from positions where we wouldn’t be recorded.

“Right, you both have that ability. Couldn’t you have said something? Why did you follow me earlier?”

“It looked fun.”

“It was fun!”

“Ha, I see… Then, could you open a passage at this location?”

With a voice tinged with exasperation, Sa Gu-gu and I followed Gu Seo-ryong’s instructions, opening spatial portals at necessary positions to move into A City.

Instead of rooftops, we kept moving through corners of alleys between buildings, deserted places, while Sa Gu-gu and I constantly looked around outside the alleys.

“So many lights!”

“Many humans.”

A City certainly looked very different from W City.

First, the biggest difference was the large river cutting through the center of the city.

High, long barriers centered around the river and tall skyscrapers.

If one considers monster damage, such tall buildings would only be risk factors.

Do they have confidence in subduing monsters without destroying buildings?

The citizens within the city don’t seem particularly afraid of monsters either.

Small drones flying above the city center monitoring the entire city, the brightly lit city despite nightfall, the presence of countless humans.

Above all, superhumans filling every gap.

The periodically resonating ability waves send warnings to weak monsters.

That there are many delicious humans here, but coming might mean death.

This becomes an irresistible temptation for strong monsters.

The temptation that coming here means a very delicious meal.

Yet the fact that they’re doing this means they’re confident they can handle those who come.

“Fascinating.”

“What is?”

“It’s very different from W City.”

The first impression is abundance.

Even a quick glance reveals that resources overflow here.

Buildings, food smells, the number of superhumans, surveillance equipment.

The next is bleakness.

Despite such abundance, there’s hardly any sense of happiness from citizens in the city center.

A bland smell—could this also be designed to make monsters feel less hungry?

“Is this your first time in A City?”

“It’s not your first time?”

“Hmm… well, I should say it’s not my first time. I was originally an A City citizen.”

Click, click. Walking to a corner of the alley, Gu Seo-ryong inserted her fingers into a wall blocked by synthetic material boards and ripped them out with a crunch.

“Follow me. Let’s rest here tonight.”

“What is this place?”

“A temporary hideout. It seems no one uses it anymore, so we won’t be discovered.”

Going down stairs to the building’s basement, filled with humid and damp air, an iron-barred door came into view.

Inserting her claw into the keyhole, Gu Seo-ryong opened the iron bars with familiarity and walked into the dark interior without hesitation.

It’s not because she can see in the dark with her monster body.

Gu Seo-ryong’s movements indicate she knows the internal structure of this basement.

“Have you been here before?”

“Huh? Rather than having been here before…”

Squeak, squeak. Mouse sounds came from iron-barred doors stretching left and right along the corridor.

Opening one iron bar, Gu Seo-ryong manipulated something on the wall with familiarity.

Then, electricity came on, filling the basement with red light.

“I was born here.”