Became a Failed Experimental Subject Novel - Chapter 36

The virulent poison, gurgling from the tips of the claws that dug in deep, rapidly injected into Yoo Anna’s heart.

Goo Seoryong, who had pulled her hand back and fallen away from Yoo Anna reflexively swinging her arm, taunted Yoo Anna by wiggling her fingers.

“Quite big, huh? What do you say? Want to work at Kuryong Fortress?”
“Ahahaha! Good! Work! Work!”
“I’ll buy it for you! How much is it! Starlight!”
“Ugh…!”

Yoo Anna staggered, feeling dizzy from the poisonous energy quickly spreading throughout her body, and Goo Seoryong didn’t miss the chance, snapping her fingers.

In the sensation of the ground rippling, Yoo Anna felt something approaching and surrounded herself with high-temperature psionic energy.

“Kyaaaah! Help me!”
“Aaaargh! Hot, hot!”

At that moment, the smell of burning skin, along with people’s screams, assailed Yoo Anna’s nose.

The moment she startled and quelled her psionic energy, Goo Seoryong’s fingertips plunged into Yoo Anna’s neck.

“Huff…! Ugh, haa…!”

The screaming people, the smell of burning skin, all disappeared.

Amidst the worsening dizziness, Goo Seoryong’s hand, split into multiple forms, slowly crept up Yoo Anna’s body.

With the sensation of being poked everywhere – legs, toes, hands, stomach, neck – Goo Seoryong, having fully injected the poison into Yoo Anna, along with another Goo Seoryong, caressed Yoo Anna’s jaw.

“Esper-nim, aren’t you teaching me your weaknesses too easily?”
“Get lost…!”
“You don’t want to hurt civilians at all, it’s too easy, isn’t it?”
“This!”
“Aang, not there, here, here.”
“Ugh, ah…!”

As she swung her flame-clad hand at the voice coming from the right, the poison injected directly into her left ear and brain caused Yoo Anna’s consciousness to black out for a moment.

“Oh my? Is it because she’s S-class? She’s not listening properly? What a shame, it would have been better if she had just lost consciousness like this.”
“Kuh, aaaah!”
“Ah~! You’ll regret flying now!”

CRASH! Yoo Anna, who had leaped up creating a thermal blast around her to escape Goo Seoryong’s hand, then fell in an arched curve, hitting her head on the ground.

At the ridiculous sight, villains and civilians alike burst into laughter, mocking Yoo Anna.

“See? I told you you’d regret it! It’s too late to run, Starlight!”
“An S-class Esper running away! Ahahaha!”
“Give up~ If you’re that poisoned, it’ll take even you a long time to recover!”
“Haa…haa…haa…!”
“I said not there~?”
“Ahahaha!”

SMACK! Amidst her senses, completely jumbled by psionic energy and poison, Yoo Anna swung her fist, and from behind, another Goo Seoryong injected more poison.

When she swung her fist, it melted away; when she shot flames, it vanished like sand.

Each time, a poke, a poke, adding more poison to her body. The moment Yoo Anna, hands on her knees, clenched both fists, Goo Seoryong lowered her head and whispered like a demon.

“Even now, if you use your psionic energy with the force to melt everyone, you can escape ♥”
“Ugh…!”

True to her words, if Yoo Anna unleashed her psionic energy at full power like she did against a monster, she could certainly escape this place.

Even if her senses were confused and she couldn’t fly properly, or if she crashed somewhere, she could melt everything and escape, gaining time to recover, or rather, not needing to recover at all.

But, the moment she did that, many people would die from Yoo Anna’s psionic energy.

As Yoo Anna stood still, doing nothing, Goo Seoryong scraped Yoo Anna’s neck with her fingertips and said,

“You live so stiflingly~ You’ll really get caught that way, you know?”
“Ha, just, this much….”
“I can’t kill you, but I don’t plan to just let you go either. I can break you enough that dying would be better.”

Goo Seoryong, who now seemed to have no intention of fighting properly, tugged at Yoo Anna’s hair with a voice full of laughter.

“If I thoroughly drug you from today onwards, you’ll become a truly special commodity, won’t you? Not just W City, but every city will try to find you. Even if you’re not in your right mind, Kuryong Fortress will be the only place where you can embrace an S-class Esper for a price.”
“You…!”
“Hahahaha! An S-class Esper looks pathetic!”

At the humiliating words, Yoo Anna shook her head and kicked, but Goo Seoryong dodged the attack, overturned the ground, and made Yoo Anna fall.

At the sight of Yoo Anna rolling on the floor, the villains clutched their stomachs and laughed, mocking her.

As if to toy with her every attack, Yoo Anna stopped moving amidst the worsening dizziness and wrapped herself in flames.

In a complete defensive stance, Yoo Anna, squatting with her hands on the floor and one fist clenched, blinked her eyes within the flames that enveloped her entire body, silently gazing at the flickering Goo Seoryong.

“You… what exactly are you? This body, this poison, since earlier…?”
“Hmm~ This body? Pretty, isn’t it? My subordinates call it ‘Dragonification.’”
“Our Lady is a special person! She awakened her second psionic ability, that’s what it means!”
“Starlight! They said S-class, but you’re nothing special! Goo Seoryong is the strongest!”
“Dual awakening…? Hmph, spit!”

Yoo Anna spat out the thick saliva that had pooled in her mouth and examined Goo Seoryong closely.

Unlike the other villains who kept their distance, unleashing their psionic energy cautiously, Goo Seoryong’s perfectly intact hands and feet, despite direct contact with the flames in close combat, proved that this was no ordinary psionic ability.

Dragonification, could it be a body-modification type of psionic power? Even without Goo Seoryong’s known psionic ability of sensory confusion, his physical strength was enough to be considered a strong A-class psychic.

It had to be a villain, and what’s more, the most troublesome one, with this rare dual awakening, and a significantly powerful psionic ability at that.

Two psionic abilities, close-combat skills different from what was known, physical enhancement manifested through dual awakening, durability that could withstand Yoo Anna’s psionic energy for a moment, regeneration? Or just a hallucination?

This was more than just two psionic abilities; it made no sense to use so many different powers with just one ability called Dragonification.

To say it wasn’t possible, Yoo Anna herself was achieving similar effects, using several abilities with just one of her own.

“To have even a dual awakening, and what you’re doing is… sigh, villainy….”
“To become an S-class psychic, and what you’re doing is being a slave to civilians~ how pathetic.”

Yoo Anna forced a bitter smile at the situation, where nothing was going her way.

Too many variables… Goo Seoryong’s psionic ability was sensory confusion, and if it had only been that as per the information, she could have gradually burned and dealt with whatever the remaining villains tried with her psionic energy.

But the villains, who only knew their own power, weren’t systematically combining their strength like Espers; civilians, even while fighting villains, weren’t running away, but instead were drugged and just watching; weapons and explosives that should be in military bases were being smuggled out in such large quantities; the villains’ attacks, which should have had little impact, were even thrilling; and what had the police and government consumed that they weren’t sending reinforcements?

She had decided to come and cut them off now, thinking that preparing further would only waste time, and seeing how much they had prepared, she was glad she had come to nip it in the bud.

At the same time, she felt resentful, wondering why she had to bear all of this alone.

“Ha, this is really annoying….”

Still, she had to do it.

Because she was an Esper.

This job never goes easy, no matter what.

Yoo Anna kept talking to Goo Seoryong to buy herself time to recover.

“Hmph… huff… You villains, why do you gain power and then live by harming others?”
“Hmm~? It’s the law of nature for the strong to exploit the weak, isn’t it? We’re predators, have you ever seen a lion worry about its prey? You, on the other hand, why do you have power and live helping those who have none? Foolishly?”
“Because someone has to do it.”
“Hmm?”
“If someone has to do it, then it’s right for someone with enough power to do it.”

Hearing that, Goo Seoryong and the villains denied Yoo Anna’s words, scoffing.

“That just sounds like what powerless kids say to try and leash powerful ones and drag them down, doesn’t it?”
“If someone has to do it, then it’s right for the powerless bastards to order it, why should the powerful ones do it!”
“We are special beings! Chosen! Victors!”

Well, that’s villains for you… Yoo Anna took a deep breath, closing her eyes to minimize unnecessary sensations.

It felt like listening to bugs in a dark room. Yoo Anna felt something approaching and reached out her hand. Goo Seoryong, whose arm was seized, opened his eyes wide in surprise.

“Gotcha…!”
“Oh, caught me?”

And then, the surprised Goo Seoryong melted away, and another Goo Seoryong appeared from behind her, plunging her fingertips under Yoo Anna’s jaw.

“Kuh, aaah…!”
“If you come that close, I’ll bite! Of course, I’d be wary if you just stood there, right~?”

Instantly, Yoo Anna bit her lower lip at the sensation of boiling heat transmitted to her brain, then half-opened her closed eyes, twitching, and reached out with both hands.

CRACK! Yoo Anna, who had clutched at empty air, fell to the ground, staggering as she braced herself with both hands.

“Wow, like a baby deer, how cute~ Are you okay?”
“Hahahaha! Cute! Starlight! I’ll cherish you, so quit being an Esper and join me!”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“Hello~? Can you hear me? Aren’t you too drugged? Your eyes are unfocused!”
“Hahahahahahahahaha!”
“Huff, huff, huff….”

Amidst the echoing laughter, click, click, the ceaseless sound of snapping fingers, like a ticking clock.

Through her increasingly distorted senses, a voice from Yoo Anna’s memory emerged.

[That’s an ideal, it’s not realistic. If you try to do that, even a superhuman will be ground to dust.]

One day, a conversation with Cage after a disaster-class monster attack.

Cage’s judgment, that it might be necessary to agree to a trade of sacrificing some lives to a monster if it could prevent greater damage, clashed with Yoo Anna’s judgment, that all damage must be eliminated.

[Instead, more people will survive. Superhumans recover quickly even if they’re ground down, right?]
[Abandon that sense of mission, you fool.]
[What’s wrong with an Esper having a sense of mission?]
[Do you not know the meaning of the word ‘sense of mission’? It’s a responsibility so great that you’re willing to sacrifice your own life. If an Esper dies because of that, even greater damage will occur. The value of one Esper is hundreds, even more, than those who have been culled.]
[Don’t talk like that.]
[Cherish your life, Yoo Anna, if you die like that, it’s a dog’s death.]

Cage’s back as he walked down the corridor, leaving Yoo Anna behind. The poison churning in her brain dug into even older, blurred memories.

[…Even if it meant civilian casualties, we should have dealt with it right there and then.]
[No one expected the monster to evolve its existence at that moment, it couldn’t be helped.]
[No! Everyone knew, monsters get stronger the more they eat humans! Once you let it escape, it comes back even stronger! So why couldn’t you defeat it right there? Emergency escort? High-ranking government officials? My senior! An A-class Esper died just to save those 20 pieces of trash!]
[Jeong Hoyoung….]
[3,800 civilian casualties! 34 psychics died! The idiotic citizens call the dead psychics incompetent, and they don’t even know how to be grateful! My senior’s honor has been defiled! This is the price for saving 20 pieces of trash! If we had sacrificed those worthless people, everyone could have been saved! If only it weren’t for those who used Espers as their tools! If only it weren’t for psychics bowing their heads to such people!]

If it’s certain that sacrificing a few can prevent harm to many, then the few must be sacrificed.

Even if they are civilians, sometimes, even if they are fellow psychics.

It can’t be helped.

Superhumans are not gods.

So, they must choose.

“Haa….”

The ground beneath Yoo Anna’s feet slowly melted.

Not an illusion, but the vitrification of the ground by high-temperature psionic energy.

The moment she was about to unleash her suppressed psionic energy to its limit, the poison boiling in her brain delved into an even more distant, hazy memory.

[I’m so sorry, because of my child, I’m truly sorry.]

A pure white hospital room, a tear-blurred, swaying vision. In the sunlight distorted by tears, a man sitting on the bed waved his hand.

[No, no, it’s actually fortunate. Is your daughter okay?]

A sudden sensation of floating, then getting onto the bed. The man, bandaged all over, smiled brightly and reached out his hand.

At the man’s touch, stroking her head, a whimpering voice automatically escaped her.

[Are you… okay?]
[Yes, I’m fine.]
[Still, ugh… ugh….]
[Dad!]

Half-chased out by the man’s family entering the room, she stopped at the entrance. Because her parents had temporarily left, she stood by the door and overheard the conversation inside the hospital room.

[You’re retired now, aren’t you? If you had waited, someone else would have helped, why did you go in unarmed?]
[I wasn’t unarmed, I went in covered in water.]
[Darling, please don’t ever do this again. Just leave it to someone else.]
[If I had, that child would be dead by now.]
[You retired because of such an incident, and you still want to help people?!]

Silence hung in the hospital room, only the man’s voice seemed to wander through it.

[Someone had to do it, right? Then, the person who can do it, should.]
[If you get hurt like this again without equipment!]
[I just get hurt, I guess.]
[Honey!]
[Hey, I didn’t die~ huh? Ow! I’m a patient!]

SMACK! The sound of a slap on the back. Afterwards, her parents, holding a hospital receipt, returned to the room.

As the memory faded again, Yoo Anna opened her eyes, looked ahead, and laughed.

“Heh heh….”

An Esper wouldn’t make such a choice.

The option of sacrificing civilians to defeat a villain doesn’t exist for an Esper.

Even if the path is difficult and long, they will do their best to save everyone.

Yoo Anna lowered her head, slowly calming her psionic energy.

Seeing this, Goo Seoryong frowned and snapped her fingers.

“What is it? Did the drug hit you too hard, or have you lost your mind? Why are you calming your psionic energy?”

If she hadn’t lost her mind, she wouldn’t have become an Esper.

Yoo Anna chuckled emptily and plunged her fist into Goo Seoryong’s face as she approached.

Her face melted. Yoo Anna, who had expected this, then swung the edge of her hand in the direction she sensed, slicing off Goo Seoryong’s wrist.

Another CRASH! Half of Goo Seoryong’s upper body flew off from the punch, and she frowned, returning to her original form, coiling her tail around her severed wrist to pick it up.

Now, she couldn’t distinguish if this impact was an illusion or reality.

“Tsk….”
“At this rate, you’re worse than a B-class Esper?”

Goo Seoryong seemed puzzled but didn’t miss the opportunity, plunging the fingertips of her severed wrist into Yoo Anna’s stomach.

She then jabbed at Yoo Anna’s neck, continuing to inject poison. Yoo Anna only flinched and didn’t attack further, causing Goo Seoryong to slowly lower her guard.

As Yoo Anna relaxed her body and slumped against Goo Seoryong, the villains and spectators cheered.

“Our Lady’s victory! We won!”
“Woooaahh!”
“Goo Seoryong! Goo Seoryong! Goo Seoryong!”
“Lady! As you promised, Yoo Anna is to be our shared property!”
“Boss! When does the auction start!”
“Shit! I shouldn’t have gone to the casino today!”
“…Ugh.”

Goo Seoryong smiled at his noisy subordinates, continuously injecting poison into Yoo Anna’s body without letting his guard down.

It was impossible for an S-class Esper to be so slumped after just this much.

Playing dead? Was she waiting for the moment people would leave Kuryong Fortress, or for the pleasure induced by the drugs to reach its limit and make them collapse?

Was she planning to pretend to be unconscious and burn the poison with her psionic energy?

“What are you thinking, Starlight?”

Starlight was a beast, a monster who could instantly wipe out all the villains here if she weren’t restrained by the leash of civilians.

Even after being pushed into a thoroughly prepared trap and pressured this much, Yoo Anna had not a single scratch on her body.

Of course, her opponent was the despair of monsters, an S-class Esper.

So, the goal wasn’t the impossible task of killing Yoo Anna, but rather to break her mentally.

Espers were ultimately human; no matter how strong, their minds were weak.

Goo Seoryong used her psionic ability to create a vision of her stabbing Yoo Anna.

Yoo Anna, who had already been injected with a lethal dose of poison, trembled, her eyes unfocused.

Even in this situation, a subtly chilling murderous intent was palpable. She was clearly aiming for something, but she wasn’t moving.

Goo Seoryong wouldn’t let her guard down.

Even if she pretended to be unconscious, neither her psionic energy nor the poison would stop.

If she couldn’t break Starlight’s spirit using all means this time, there would be no next chance.

Let’s see how long she can patiently endure if she’s aiming for something else.

Goo Seoryong curled the corners of his mouth and flicked his long tongue, speaking loudly enough for all of Kuryong Fortress to hear.

“Anyone who wants to take Starlight, shout! The one with the loudest voice gets first pick!”

“Woooaaaah! Me! Me! Me!”
“Meee! Meee!”
“Building 102, Room 304! Building 102, Room 304!”

A thunderous roar of cheers. The entire Kuryong Fortress seemed to shake, as men’s shouts echoed deafeningly.

Of course, she had no intention of dangerously handing her over to anyone until she was completely drenched in drugs.

Goo Seoryong, as a special service, placed her claws on Yoo Anna’s Esper suit.

“A little more~ You need to shout louder~?”
“Wooooooah!”
“Waaaah!”

Could an Esper who had been humiliated by the very civilians she protected continue to protect them to the end?

Goo Seoryong, smiling, slowly began to tear at the suit.

[Ooooooooh!]

A mighty roar, overpowering the shouts of the entire Kuryong Fortress, followed by an intense wave of energy.

Everyone who was shouting abruptly stopped at the infrasound wavelength that stimulated human fear.

Everyone’s raised gazes converged towards the direction of the spreading shockwave, gathering towards the black silhouette sitting on the apartment rooftop, silhouetted against the moon.

“B-Black, Cat…?”
“Karrrr….”

Yoo Anna uttered a weak voice, looking up at Black Cat.

BEEP! BEEP! Amidst the violently wailing monster alarm, Black Cat opened its mouth.

Goo Seoryong’s expression hardened at the intense wave of energy gathering within its maw.

“Wait… w-wait…!”

PING! A thin beam of light shot towards Goo Seoryong, then WHOOSH! the beam expanded into a blinding white light.

KABOOM! A pure white explosion descended in the form of a pillar.