Became a Failed Experimental Subject Novel - Chapter 10

Lee Han-yeong placed her hand on her chest, stopping her trembling. At that moment, a monstrous beast, looking down from above, heightened its vigilance, causing the surroundings to tremble. Threatened by the warning, I immediately transformed again, placing Lee Han-yeong beneath me.

“A… good… cat… huh, huh huh…”

Knowing that it was a protecting action, she let out a heartbreaking voice. What need is there to protect a dying human, something no different from a corpse? This is my prey, my monstrous appetite is stimulated, and saliva drips down.

A sense of futility and my beastly instincts; a resistance strong enough to ignore all of that firmly held my will.

“Can you… win…?”

At Lee Han-yeong’s weak utterance, her lips trembling, I looked at the enormous wolf. The overwhelming aura, now that we’ve both transformed, revealing our power… my instincts are aroused. The beast before me is stronger than me. Even a small difference is a fatal one for a monster; I can’t win against it.

[Stronger than me.]

“Then… it can’t be… many people… will get hurt…”

A Esper with insufficient combat ability, a rescue team member, Lee Han-yeong, whom I’ve seen while processing monster corpses, was a good person. She hates seeing people get hurt, wanting to rescue even one more person to give them hope, using her powers excessively to search every corner of the underground. Even if there were corpses, she did everything for the sake of the person who would want them found.

“You’re… a monster…”

As I nodded slightly, the wolves mistook it for a sign of attack and raised their fur. The knowledge of monsters forcibly injected, information that the researchers muttered around me while intoxicated, replays in my memory. The monstrous wolf, Vargr, an aberrant creature modeled after Fenrir, the giant who devours everything. If they reach the Extinction Class, it will undoubtedly be a monster worthy of the name Fenrir. An ability to swallow the sun, to devour everything.

“Fight… please…”

[I can’t.]

As if unable to stand by and watch the monster harm people, Lee Han-yeong reached out to my front paw. As if pleading, begging, I rejected her request.

[It’s stronger than me.]

I don’t want to die. This is where my monstrous instincts superseded my will. When there’s no way to win, running away is victory; survival is winning, the survivor wins, that’s how to become stronger.

[I still want to eat lots of delicious things.]

“Ah, haha… really… ah…”

After stating my reason for not wanting to die, Lee Han-yeong burst into laughter, her face pale. Along with a small murmur about her saliva still dripping, she closed her eyes. Weakly, and from her mouth came a voice not significantly different from usual.

“Even if you… eat me, you can’t win…?”

I couldn’t answer Lee Han-yeong’s question. My appetite, driven to the limit by my monstrous instincts, saliva still dripping from my mouth. If I eat Lee Han-yeong, then I could… but there are two more wolves.

The moment I thought that, I felt a powerful wave emanating from a distance—an Esper. A threatening wave, like that of a monster, a call to alert the monster of its position. A declaration: If you don’t come to me, I will come to you and fight.

Vargr, the giant wolf whose hunt was disturbed, growled unpleasantly and gestured towards the two wolves, as if to say it could handle me even without them. Even so, it’s still wary of its surroundings, checking for variables from other Espers. To Vargr, I’m just prey, not worth cautioning.

Vargr’s judgment was correct. I still can’t beat Vargr. But if Vargr is alone…

[I can win.]

If I eat Lee Han-yeong, I win. When I stated that coldly, Lee Han-yeong smiled brightly.

“Eat… me.”

I… don’t want humans to die.

“Eat me, and win…”

And more than that, to disobey the plea of a dying human…

‘Help people’

It’s difficult.

[…Image it.]

I opened my mouth towards Lee Han-yeong, ceasing my resistance to my instincts.

The research institute that kidnapped me, the food the researchers in the lab fed other test subjects, and the things they said to humans.
Research to intentionally create strong monsters.
[The method to kill that monster, think of the strongest thing you can imagine. Leave it as a curse.]
All monsters grow stronger when they eat humans.
They eat not only the flesh but also the human’s knowledge and thoughts.
Not only images of despair but also images of strong creatures…
They eat the mind.
[I eat your head, your thoughts, and grow stronger.]
Lee Han-yeong, having heard my explanation, slowly clasped her hands together.
“A curse… that’s…”
As if praying, her hands touched, and the smell intensified.
“You…mean you’ll eat my wish and win, right…?”
A smell that strongly stimulates appetite, a human’s heart.
“It’s a wish.”
I opened my mouth towards her, having our final conversation.
“I…have a request. After the fight is over, please…eat my hands…”
There’s no need to eat all humans to gain superpowers.
A monster eating an Esper doesn’t gain the hero’s abilities, and the origin of superpowers is the head, not the hands.
However…Lee Han-yeong’s superpower activated from her hands.
Perhaps this is her unconscious wish for me to completely receive her power.
I found it hard to refuse Lee Han-yeong’s will, expressed as she tightly clasped her hands.
[I promise.]
“Ah…I wanted to eat dumplings…”
[Let’s go eat, after I eat you.]
This weekend, together.
This is a promise.
At my answer, Lee Han-yeong laughed brightly.
And I…
Tore out Lee Han-yeong’s head.
That texture—the intense explosion of flavor across the monster’s tongue.
A crunchy texture, a sweet flavor, a rich taste like bursting chocolate cream.
Ah…this is what a human tastes like to a monster.
Then, thoughts exploded in my mouth.
The address of the dumpling restaurant we wanted to go to, the surprised feelings from the moment she first saw me, the moment I became a monster, the first thing I thought of.
My human form overlaps with the terrifying monster’s appearance, overwhelmed by worries about the Esper.
Hoping they wouldn’t die, hoping they wouldn’t get hurt.
The precious and kind human heart wears away.
The monster’s ability, which dismantles everything, shreds Lee Han-yeong’s thoughts.
Powerful images, methods to become stronger from the memories of a human, dismantled by the monster’s instinct.
The direction of evolution, the destination, the strongest monster, the most feared person, the monster…to the monster, the…strongest…Esper.
Yoo Anna.
An endlessly burning, storm of light.
The strongest being Lee Han-yeong imagined…Yoo Anna.
An endlessly burning blaze, light burning with intense heat.
To face the monster that wants to become a wolf that swallows the sun.
An exceedingly bright…image of the sun.
What emerged was flame, a storm of flames that burns everything.
An immortal phoenix, an endless firebird that burns even death.
I took on that form.
“Kuh, OOOOOOOOOOO!!”
The monster’s core swallows the human’s thoughts and expands rapidly.
The power spreading throughout my body, the omnipotence, the pleasure, the urge to destroy it conveys.
The target of all this is the monster before me, Vargr.
Having become a firebird, I rode the updraft, soaring above Vargr.
He was bewildered, seeing me.
He also knew that his momentum had completely changed from before.
The monster’s instinct before a stronger being makes him recoil.
[Vargr…you wouldn’t know.]
Vargr flees, and I immediately spread my wings in pursuit.
Vargr runs through the buildings to somehow evade my pursuit.
My flame body would melt buildings just by touching them, and that, although a little, would hinder my movements, just as Vargr intended.
[Monsters evolve the most dramatically the first time they eat a human.]
However, I passed through the building.
The ability to freely traverse the boundary of non-physicality, to change what touches my body into a fluid form.
Lee Han-yeong’s superpower, Fluid Swimming.
[That’s human common sense, and…this is monster common sense.]
Did Lee Han-yeong know about my abilities as a monster?
That’s impossible, it was a fortunate coincidence.
Swallowing abilities, endlessly digesting foreign objects.

That was my alias, the one hundred and eleventh test subject, CXI.
[The weak are prey to the strong.]
“Kooooooooo! Kyooooooooooo!”
Before long, Vargr, caught by my burning claws, bit into my body in resistance.
I didn’t dodge Vargr’s attack, I simply offered my body.
Considerable pain, if three had attacked, I would have struggled… but it was only one.
The flames burning my wounds are being regenerated faster.
[Come, swallow me again.]
Vargr, the wolf beast that aims to become Fenrir, the wolf that swallows the sun.
But, the fellow hasn’t become Fenrir yet.
I feel it.
The despair of the beast that failed to swallow the sun.
[Then… it’s my turn.]
Vargr now is not my enemy, but prey.
I opened my mouth towards Vargr.
I was curious anyway.
What the taste of a Despair-class monster is like.
***
“What… is that…?!”
“Code Alpha has a malfunction! Its form… is it, evolving? I don’t know! It hasn’t become an Extinction-class!”
Yoo Anna and the other Espers, subduing two Disaster-class wolves, exchanged communications busily at the sight before them.
Clearly, the beings present were Despair-class monsters identical to the observational data showing Code Alpha and Zero.
Zero, possessing a wolf-like head, and Alpha, shaped like a feline predator.
Suddenly, a burning bird soared into the sky.
The presumed Zero, which seemed to possess two Disaster-class monsters, was being overwhelmed and torn apart by the transformed Alpha.
It was a one-sided hunt, hardly a fight.
The fiery bird devoured even the abilities the wolf fired in resistance. Once it reached the core, the wolf stopped moving.
The spectacle, more akin to a meal than a battle, unfolded in a place visible to all, atop a building.
The damage was minimal, about ten buildings, too insignificant for a fight between two Despair-class monsters.
On the building, the bird that bit into the wolf’s heart transformed into a tiger before everyone’s eyes.
The form of a burning tiger, the sight of it leaping from the building and falling, caused Yoo Anna to spring into action.
“Two Disaster-class! I’ll handle the rest! I’m hunting the remaining Despair-class!”
The two Disaster-class were already in tatters; the remaining Espers were sufficient to clean up the situation.
Watching the falling Despair-class monster, a burning comet, Yoo Anna felt a sense of clarity.
“As expected, it’s an irregular form!”
Then, the previously observed Code Zero and Code Alpha might originally be a single entity, or the wolf monster that appeared this time might be a new species.
Irregular monsters that operate independently, Code Zero, difficult opponents… but they must be dealt with here, surrounded by Esper.
But, flying towards the monster, Yoo Anna felt a continuous sense of unease.
Having already dealt with a Despair-class monster, a worthy opponent and target, it should be rampaging to fill its belly… but the city is too intact.
A Despair-class monster appeared, as if a cat was taking a stroll, lightly stepping over fences.
Yoo Anna recalled the moment Code Alpha blocked her attack.
As if protecting people, throwing its body to defend against her attack.
A black cat, a monster that protects people.
Could such a thing exist?
It was impossible, but if, truly, such a thing existed.
The monster instantly shattered Yoo Anna’s contemplation.
“Grr… grr… grr…”
The monster landed on the ground, eating a human.
The corpse of a woman, her neck severed, lower body gone, only her torso remaining.
Her clothing, rescue team, esper.
With Esper eyesight, the name tag reading Lee Han-young is readable.
Yoo Anna recognized the face of the hero she had met before.
“You… bastard… you piece of SHIIIIIT”