Became a Failed Experimental Subject Novel - Chapter 48

Yoo Anna had always known that something like this would happen someday.
Just recently, she had waited for a day she didn’t want to wait for.
And then, at some point, she stopped waiting.
“Ugh…”
[Two Espers are down! B-rank Kim Hyuk-jun, C-rank Oh Cheol-sik dead! Repeat! All Espers below B-rank, evacuate from the scene! Please wait in the safe zone!]
The urgent radio call hitting the night fog made Yoo Anna recall the situation just moments before.
Seven Crushing-class monsters appeared in Sector 8. Espers responded to the alert and reported from the scene.
And then, shocking news echoed inside the building along with the emergency alert.
Black Cat was hunting not monsters, but Espers.
“Why in the world…!”
Could it be that Kim Hyuk-jun and Oh Cheol-sik had been secretly doing something bad?
For a moment, self-reproach washed over her for doubting her comrades, the Espers, instead of a monster, but Yoo Anna wanted to believe that Black Cat hadn’t done this without reason.
There might be some misunderstanding. No, why would Black Cat hunt humans now?
The creature that used to eat beef, why?
Spiky thoughts painfully tore through Yoo Anna’s mind.
It was a foolish thought.
Black Cat was a monster.
“Now, of all times…!”
Yoo Anna bit her lip, accelerating towards Sector 8 with the sonic boom accompanying her footsteps.
It always ends up like this.
Yoo Anna must have known, at least that monsters were creatures like this.
Black Cat, the human-eating monster.
A monster’s deception. It was foolish to be fooled.
She shouldn’t have trusted it.
Yet, Yoo Anna also thought Black Cat was special.
Foolishly, she trusted it.
The Esper who should have been the most threatening to Black Cat in W City had not been wary of Black Cat.
[B-Black Cat… sh-shelter… Ah…]
This was the result.
The sigh of the operator watching the accident scene video.
Just hearing the word “shelter” was enough to know what was happening.
It had found a shelter and was devouring it.
Like a lunchbox filled with human food.
A shelter attacked unilaterally by a despair-class monster like Black Cat could at most last a minute.
To a despair-class monster, a shelter was merely a bothersome fruit peel to remove.
Perhaps, it wouldn’t even take that long.
Because Black Cat had the ability of ‘Floating,’ gained by devouring Espers.
[Life signs detected, current fatalities, correction… Sector 8 Shelter 21, all deceased. Registered individuals… total, 52, 5 children, 47 adults.]
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”
At the radio message in her ear, Yoo Anna screamed and accelerated further.
Self-pity for thinking such a monster was cute, self-blame for people dying because of her, betrayal towards Black Cat.
Betrayal towards a monster? What was she trusting in a monster?
The night sky flashed by. The moment Black Cat landed in front of her vanished like clouds falling far behind.
A monster that protects Espers, a monster that protects children, a monster that protects humans.
A monster that stays still when its head is petted, a monster that cries cutely, a monster that understands when spoken to, a monster that does not attack humans.
Black Cat is a monster.
What was she hoping for from a monster?
Yet, she wanted to believe.
Why, exactly?
Yoo Anna, with Sector 8 in sight, accelerated further towards the distant black shape.
Acceleration, acceleration. Yoo Anna’s signature move, mainly used during first contact with a monster, utilizing her destructive power and flight speed, which were among the best of S-rank Espers.
A fall from the air, Meteor Fall.
Through her blurring vision, the Esper’s senses took in the entire scene she didn’t want to see.
A black cat chewing on several bodies of children with unfocused eyes, half-eaten Esper corpses scattered around, and people who appeared to have been killed purely for fun.
Everyone was dead.
Weak humans were monster snacks. Monsters were human predators, human enemies.
“BLACK CAAAAT!”
“Kyaooooo?!”
CRASH! Yoo Anna, who had fallen, tearing apart the chunks of human flesh, landed a direct hit on the black monster’s body.
The sound of a cat’s cry immediately followed, accompanied by a hollow sensation, as if she had stomped on thin air.
Swoosh, Black Cat, scattered into black mist, reassembled itself in front of Yoo Anna.
“Nyaahaa…”
“You… you…!”
Gritting her teeth. Yoo Anna tried to calm her turbulent mind.
Her clenched fist trembled, and the pure white flames grew larger.
Bang, bang! Yoo Anna, completely engulfed in flames, punched towards Black Cat.
“Now, of all times! You, youuuu!”
If this was going to happen, why did you help me?
No, I know. You’re a monster.
So, now you think you can take me on?
Because you’ve been eating other monsters, you think you can finally beat me now, so this is your chance?
Ultimately, Black Cat started hunting people because Yoo Anna was weak.
These people died because Yoo Anna was weak.
Yoo Anna trusting Black Cat was also because Yoo Anna was weak.
Still weak.
Still.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
Yoo Anna rushed towards Black Cat, which was scattering like mist, covering her entire body in superheated plasma.
Now even more famous by the nickname “Eraser,” this technique melts any monster below despair-class just by approaching Yoo Anna.
Even if an Esper has to destroy the entire city, they must catch a despair-class monster.
Before the despair-class monster kills every human in this city.
Grrrrrrr! Space melted and fell along Yoo Anna’s flight path.
As if replacing the dried tears of betrayal, water vapor rose in the sky, and the ground turned to shimmering glass.
Bang! Bang! Yoo Anna stretched out both hands towards Black Cat, which was using another ability, turning into a shadow mist to escape. This was a further evolved technique, realizing that she could induce plasma-like energy similar to lightning after drawing lightning into her body from Goo Seoryong.
A refined version of a technique created solely with the goal of striking the fleeing Black Cat.
Tracking light bullet. The flash of light fired from Yoo Anna’s hand curved, following Black Cat, which was flickering in the night sky.
“Nyaaaaah!”
Beep-beep-beep! Bang-bang-bang-bang! The hit light bullets exploded immediately within Black Cat’s body, and Black Cat let out a painful scream, twisting its body and clinging to the side of a building.
Black Cat glared at Yoo Anna, baring its teeth, its blade-like tail whipping around, looking ready to pounce at any moment.
When its tail plunged into a window, whoosh!, a hole opened in the night sky behind Yoo Anna, and a blade shot out.
The blade burst in front of Yoo Anna, shwaaak!, spreading into small fragments, and the blade fragments, spread like mist, papatbat, embedded themselves in Yoo Anna’s body.
“Nyahahahaha~”
The cat’s laughter, thinking it had attacked the off-guard Yoo Anna. Yoo Anna scoffed at Black Cat, which was laughing at something so trivial, and let the blade fragments, which couldn’t even penetrate her fiery barrier and melted, fall to the ground.
“Did you really think you could beat me just by gaining this much ability?”
Foolishly, you attacked humans with something like this?
Yoo Anna couldn’t suppress her boiling rage and regret, her voice trembling as she drew a circle in the air.
A circular saw blade glowing like the sun, a new technique she developed while researching ways to further increase the destructive power of light bullets.
The light ring, created to prepare for despair-class monsters other than Black Cat, began to spin rapidly in the air.
“You’re mistaken! You stupid bastard!”
Yoo Anna overlapped two light rings, spinning them in opposite directions.
Small spheres of destruction, like Yoo Anna herself, revolved around her.
Satellite Sun. As she fired small suns in the same way as light bullets, Black Cat seemed to sense something unusual and transformed into shadow mist.
With a shwaaak sound, the spheres creating melted holes in the building continued to chase Black Cat, followed by the curve of a light beam.
Bang, bang! Avoiding the destructive light that filled every direction, Black Cat flickered, bursting black mist in the air, and Yoo Anna appeared in front of it.
“…Die.”
The moment Black Cat’s eyes widened, looking up at the sun overlapping the moon, Yoo Anna’s tightly clenched fist struck the monster’s head.
CRASH! A pillar of fire, piercing through the underground layers, created a vertical tunnel on the ground, its glass surface gleaming.
Above it, Yoo Anna, whose killing intent was growing in the hot steam that had burned even the embers, spread a wave of her ability.
Black Cat was a monster that didn’t fight to the death but fled.
The moment its head burst from Yoo Anna’s punch, it vanished.
If she failed to kill it here and now, W City would suffer from Black Cat’s unilateral war of attrition.
Just as Yoo Anna had only chased Black Cat without catching it, the damage would increase with each repetition of Black Cat’s playful human hunt.
Crumble, crumble… Yoo Anna, gripping her hands until they hurt, realized once again how difficult Black Cat was to deal with and chastised herself for not dealing with it earlier.
She shouldn’t have thought it was cute when Black Cat was letting its guard down, thinking its act was working well.
She would kill it now.
Wooong! Wooong! Wooooong! Yoo Anna, who was spreading waves to find the vanished Black Cat, sensed the monster’s presence on the cracked rooftop of a building and shot up into the sky.
A reaction too faint for a despair-class monster, but this was Black Cat’s characteristic.
Sure enough, when she reached the rooftop, there was Black Cat, its eyes filled with murderous intent.
“Diiiiiiie!”
CRASH! As Yoo Anna extended her fist, Black Cat sank into the shadows, avoiding the attack.
This time, Yoo Anna, now aware of its ability, gazed at the shadow moving smoothly under the horizontal pillar of fire that painted the sky, raised a finger, and pulled up the sun that had been beneath the building.
Wooong! The sun, rising silently, melted and cut off half of the shadow, and Black Cat, in pain, leaped out from within the shadow.
“Grrrrrr…”
Black Cat’s body becoming translucent like clouds obscuring the moonlight in the night sky, its ability to pass through objects.
However, Yoo Anna’s flames burn abilities.
Whoosh. Yoo Anna, who had sunk the sun towards Black Cat sinking into the building, chased Black Cat with the sun, pulling it out in front of her.
“No more! I won’t be fooled!”
CRASH! A pillar of fire, piercing through Black Cat’s lower body, created another hole in the ground.
“No more, you won’t kill!”
Again, again. Black Cat, unable to completely avoid the pursuing suns, showed torn marks on its body.
“Why, why in the world! If this was going to happen, why!”
Rumble! The destructive flames headed towards the ground. Black Cat, its head burst, landed on the ground.
In front of the already unearthed shelter, a bloodied, meaty metal case covered in claw and tooth marks.
Black Cat stopped in front of it, its head half-gone, bowing towards the human flesh and blood.
At that sight, as Yoo Anna was about to unleash the power gathered in her fist, a momentary image of Black Cat smelling beef flashed through her mind.
Was its happy eating all an act too?
“What are youuuuuuu!”
An emotion no Esper should harbor: betrayal towards a monster.
Ashamed of herself for being fooled again after so much suffering, Yoo Anna’s fist, filled with resentment, struck towards Black Cat.
To kill Black Cat in this single strike, the massive pressure of flames covering her entire body enveloped Black Cat.
[Oooooooooh!]
At the same time Black Cat let out a mighty roar, the surrounding space warped.
Just as Yoo Anna had controlled her light bullets, Black Cat, engulfed in flames and wind, created a wall of heat, scattering Yoo Anna’s ability.
A new defensive measure against long-range attacks, learned while being chased by Black Cat.
Just as Yoo Anna was growing, Black Cat was also growing.
But if it was a flame ability unleashed at close range.
Close-quarters combat could still inflict more fatal wounds than before.
[Oooooooooh!!]
“Ugh…?!”
Then, Yoo Anna, who was about to rush towards Black Cat, suddenly stopped her ability as the roar grew louder.
A sound echoing through space, no, an ability overlapping the roar.
The sound itself solidified, carrying its power far and wide.
Spreading the roar throughout W City.
[Oooooooooh!!]
“What… is it?”
Wooong! Wooong! Just as Yoo Anna would when chasing a monster, a massive wave spread from Black Cat’s body throughout W City.
Feeling the vibration, Yoo Anna’s expression hardened with an unknown feeling.
The monster’s wave striking Yoo Anna’s body was telling her.
That Black Cat was angry.