Became a Failed Experimental Subject Novel - Chapter 50

More than ten shelters had already seen their occupants die. The more the monsters consumed humans, the stronger their abilities became. Each of them was still a Disaster-class, weaker than me… but if this continued.

There was no time. The longer this dragged on, the more disadvantaged I would become.

I landed on a rooftop in the empty city, a cold wind blowing, and calmly suppressed my core. To avoid detection by them, and simultaneously, to be able to sense them and leap into action. I was integrating all the monster characteristics—the ability to sense surroundings with body hair, a monster’s natural physical attribute rather than an ability—into my monster form, swelling my thorny fur.

Holding my breath, feeling every speck of dust in the air, I sensed something similar in size to me far away. I immediately relaxed my entire body and leaped towards the ground. Whoosh. I sank silently into the ground, moving as if flowing, and the sweet scent of fear from hidden shelters tickled my nose. The direction emanating the sweetest scent was where they were.

“Kwooooo!”

“Nyaooooo!”

I burst from the ground and immediately charged at the creature. The creature, tearing at the shelter’s outer shell, leaped up as if accustomed to it, then poof, vanished in mid-air, smashing through a building window and clinging to the wall.

“Heeek, hee, heeet…!”

“Heuk, heuk, eugh, heuk…!”

The sounds of people sobbing leaked through the cracks in the broken shelter. A shelter’s outer shell could withstand pure pressure from an Annihilation-class for over 3 minutes, but when a Disaster-class monster used its abilities, it became mere kindling, lasting less than a minute. That brief moment was an alarm indicating the monster’s location. I had to arrive on time, chasing the scratching sounds on the shelter or the monster’s ability fluctuations. I wasn’t late this time… but the real problem began now.

The time limit was 30 seconds from now. If I couldn’t kill that annoying creature within that time, Starlight would arrive.

“Nyahahahaha!”

The creature, having experienced this multiple times, knew this fact and repeatedly vanished with poof, poof in mid-air, only to flee. Even if I leaped in the direction it fled immediately after detecting its core’s resonance, it would create a small rift in nearby space and disappear. Experiencing how irritating it was to chase a fast-moving enemy, I enveloped my body in lightning and swung my claws. Zap! My body, momentarily atomized, tore through space and materialized in front of the creature, slashing with lightning. Then, another one appeared next to the creature struck by lightning and charged at me.

“Nyaoo!”

“Grrrr…!”

Clatter! I landed on the ground, dodging the widely spread tail and claw tips as the torn space rippled. Two monsters clung to the wall, looking down at me. This was one of the reasons I was so annoyed. Not one, but two Disaster-class monsters. They always acted as if there was only one, but if I chased one and a gap appeared, the other would appear from somewhere and attack me.

“Nyahahahahaha!”

“Kwehohohoho!”

The mocking laughter of the two monsters. The chance to kill one of them was already gone. If I chased two Disaster-class monsters, I would be the one to die. However, neither of them could kill me right now either. Starlight would arrive in 5 seconds. Knowing this, they didn’t rashly attack, maintaining a certain distance from me.

“Kyaaaargh…!”

Now was the truly irritating moment. If I left this place first to avoid Starlight, the remaining monsters would attack the shelters. If I didn’t leave to protect the shelters, they would flee far away, hide their presence, and I would be attacked by Starlight. If I got injured, the two monsters would covertly pursue me to hunt me down, and if I managed to escape, they would seek out the next shelter. This was a war of attrition, a cycle involving two monsters hunting me, and Starlight.

The moment I realized this, I attempted to team up with Starlight. Dialogue. Even if talking now would backfire, making the intelligent monsters appear to have deceived humans, it was better than not trying at all. However, the moment I attempted to converse, the monsters used their sound-nullifying ability from afar against me. The result was still Starlight’s attack, as she still perceived me as one of the monsters. If I didn’t retaliate against this attack, would she notice something strange and stop attacking? The moment I got injured, the two monsters would begin their pursuit. This wasn’t good either.

Should I change my form and tell Starlight that I am Black Cat, and they are different monsters? The moment I changed my form, the monsters would split, one engaging me while the other went off to hunt humans. If Starlight then caught me, the monsters would hide their presence and disappear like me, and I would ultimately be attacked again. To pursue them without being detected, I needed to maintain my cat form. Also, to escape safely from Starlight without getting injured. However, the abilities I could use in this form were only those that could be blocked by their abilities. If I was pushed back by them, humans would die. If humans died, they would grow stronger. The stronger they grew, the more I would be pushed back. There was nothing I could do, even with this vicious cycle repeating.

“Grrrr…”

These monsters were strange. Whatever I did, they countered it. As if they had studied ways to deal with me.

“Nyaooo~!”

“Kwoong!”

At that moment, the two monsters that had been glaring at me let out sounds of laughter and quickly vanished into the shadows. Just like when I fled, the two monsters suppressed their core’s resonance. Immediately after, Starlight landed before me like a meteor.

KABOOM! Starlight landed with an explosive sound, her ability pulsing with murderous intent as she stared silently at me.

“Kyaarrr…”

And I, too, prepared to flee from Starlight… then stopped. An intuition, something like instinct, whispered in my ear.

Kill Starlight, devour her.

Then I will be the strongest here.

If killing Starlight was difficult, then what if I devoured humans first, before those monsters, while I was still slightly faster than them? To save more humans, I would have to kill a few. To save humans, I would have to kill humans.

“Grrrrrrrr…”

Chasing ideals yields nothing. I must choose reality to survive. I must choose between the worst and the lesser evil.

No, this isn’t that kind of choice.

Monster, and human….

“…Black Cat.”

As I bared my teeth and gripped my forepaws, ready to move anywhere, Starlight, who had been quietly glaring at me, lowered her ability.

Gulp. Starlight swallowed, exuding the scent of various emotions, and crushed a button on her Esper suit with her hand. Slowly, she extended her other hand. It wasn’t the shape of a hand used for long-range interception techniques.

“Tell me… tell me I was wrong.”

The height of her hand, as if trying to stroke my head. A desperate scent wafted from Starlight as she extended her trembling hand.

“Tell me I was wrong, that it wasn’t… you who attacked the people!”

She pleaded desperately, yet simultaneously ready to strike me down again at any moment.

“Please, I beg you!”

The moment I heard those words, my conversation with Yoo Hye-na flashed through my mind. If you don’t chase ideals when reality is painful, the situation won’t improve. The situation where Starlight, who had attacked me, would first resolve the misunderstanding and approach me, was too ideal for me. Therefore, I didn’t even hesitate. I opened my clenched forepaws and lowered my body again.

[Oooooooooh!]

“Ugh…!”

I let out a loud roar to draw attention, then charged at Starlight. At that moment, Starlight, eyes tightly shut, unleashed a punch she had been hiding behind her back, filled with despair. I clawed past Starlight, gritting my teeth.

“Huh…?”

As I distanced myself, Starlight looked at me, my stomach completely pierced by her punch, her expression a mix of complex emotions.

“Just now… you purposely… missed? Why…?”

“Kroak, kruk, krott…”

“B-Black…?”

The wound wouldn’t regenerate. Blood surged from my throat along with fragments of my ruptured organs. I vibrated my monster core intensely, then sank into the shadows and fled.

Notice it, Starlight.

I vibrated my monster core again, and in response, Starlight emitted a wave of her ability.

That’s it. Don’t lose track of my location.

“Black Cat!”

In the daily cycle of evasion and pursuit, Starlight had become able to track my location through diffuse reflections of resonance, no matter how much I suppressed my core’s vibration. I narrowly regenerated my injured body and swam through the earth, leaving a trail of blood. I circled around, evading the pursuing Starlight, then vanished deeper into the ground, shaking her off. Deeper, gaining distance.

As I descended into the deep underground, I heard the creaking of space in the darkness beneath the earth. Simultaneously, the monster core’s resonance spread through the ground. The creatures were chasing my injured self. Unlike me, who needed to materialize for a decisive strike, they attacked me by tearing space while in their shadow forms.

“Kruk…!”

I attempted to shadow-form and devour them while they were in their shadow forms, but they isolated space to block me. When I tried to devour even the torn space, a grating sound like steel beams creaked, and abilities clashed. Our abilities were of equal output, but they were two, not one. Each time the space was ripped open and erased, leaving a footprint-like void, my spine was torn along with it, leaving wounds. The deepening scent of blood was met by their laughter.

“Nyahahahaha!”

“Kwooo!”

Woosh! I spread a wide wave meaning ‘do not approach further,’ and the two monsters circled beneath the ground around me, accelerating their tearing of space. Like a scream, the wide, wider spreading wave swallowed their resonance, like a small sound drowned out by a loud one. Feeling the reflected ripples return, I rapidly ascended to the surface.

“Grrrr…”

I reappeared in the center of the cold, silent cityscape, where people had hidden in shelters for days. The creatures, rising like smoke from the shadows, similar to me, bared their teeth and laughed at my blood-soaked form.

“Nyahahahaha!”

“Khuhhh!”

Two Disaster-class monsters charged to end my life. The moment a monster was most excited was right before a successful hunt. I instantly regenerated my disguised wounds, turned into a shadow, burst from beneath one of them, and bit its neck. Then, poof, the creature on the verge of having its neck torn off left a black smokescreen and escaped into the air. Immediately after, a large hole appeared in its body.

“Nyat…?!”

The monster’s cry of pain, mixed with the sound of frothing blood, coincided with the moment the hidden Espers simultaneously unleashed their abilities. The presence of humans, psychics, was difficult to detect unlike monsters. Even I wouldn’t have been able to emerge here if Starlight hadn’t deliberately walked into my far-reaching resonance.

“Bad Cats confirmed!”

“These really were different monsters!”

“These goddamn bastards!”

All A-class and B-class Espers, and Starlight, who was rotating a small sun in the center. All of W-City’s Espers’ abilities were fired at the two monsters.

“Kwoooooooo!”

“Nyaaaaaa!”

Direct restraint through telekinesis, pressure through air manipulation, lightning generated by electrical abilities, laser beams, fire, and unpleasant sound waves grating on the monsters’ nerves. I, too, caught in the midst, used powerful telekinesis to hold the monsters in place, preventing them from moving. Yoo Anna plunged into the storm of mixed abilities limiting the monsters’ movement, burning all her powers to create a void where nothing could exist. An absurd flame that would pierce through and inflict immense pain no matter how they tried to block it. A sun that killed monsters. A sphere that swallowed even sound, quietly erasing the monsters’ bodies, headed towards the two.

At that moment, when inescapable critical damage was foretold for even Disaster-class monsters, the monster with the deeper roar bit the injured one and hurled it towards the small sun.

“Nyaooooo!”

“Khuh!”

BANG! With a painful cry and the sound of bursting wounds, the creature used the black smoke like a smokescreen, and the small sun narrowly grazed one side of its body. The injured one abandoned the fatally wounded one and poof, together they exploded from their spot, blinking away from the Espers’ encirclement. A truly monstrous decision to sacrifice an injured monster as bait in a disadvantageous situation and escape.

As I leaped to pursue it, Starlight attacked the remaining one and shouted, “Leave the remaining one to Black Cat! We’ll kill this one here, no matter what!”

Leaving one to Starlight, I chased the now solitary monster through the air. The one that had already been struck by Starlight’s attack had its situation completely reversed, desperately fleeing from me. Its inability to regenerate meant it had sustained a very large wound. An injured monster, the scent of blood. I could catch it. This was the end.

The moment I thought that, the creature, having passed through the city of buildings, landed on a patch of grass and licked its wound, regenerating it. The exact same method I had used to lure them.

[Indeed, is this how you trick and draw them in? Using the monster’s instinct to get excited when chasing blood.]

The moment I realized I had been lured by the creature, its ability mimicked a human voice. It wasn’t a meaningless string of words, but a proper sentence. The monster in front of me was a talking monster.

[I learned something good, CXI.]

A research lab experimental subject.