107
Ch.107 Hunting Begins
"So it's finally begun."
"I had a feeling Kage would do something like this."
"Wasn’t the master code Kage obtained too low to manage the entire city?"
"He must’ve thought this was better than being manipulated by the politicians until he got all the master codes."
"Tch, I thought we’d buy more time."
At the center of the secret laboratory built beneath the mountain—
A place referred to by those working there as the White Room.
People in white coats held tablets, monitoring the situation in A-City.
"What should we call this? A coup?"
"Well, wouldn’t it be more accurate to call it a coronation?"
"It’s faster than expected. To move this hastily..."
"We would’ve been in trouble if we hadn’t acted in advance."
"Considering E55’s movements, today was the most suspicious day."
"Did he move to avoid that thing? In the end, Kage is still human."
Beep, beep—
The researchers sighed as they each manipulated something on their tablets.
"No. 3, all green."
"No. 7, begin injection."
"No. 2, 30 minutes until awakening. Start countdown."
"Good, contact E55."
As one researcher picked up a phone and left the White Room, the others shared their thoughts on the situation.
"I never thought the day would come when we’d move this openly."
"I don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunate that Meister isn’t in A-City right now."
"It’s for the best. Once we deal with Kage, we can use Meister again."
"The senses of an S-rank Awakener are truly terrifying. Even without knowing our existence, they’ve been interfering with us purely on instinct—and now they’re moving before our preparations are even complete."
"The closer they get to S-rank, the more their abilities border on precognition. A shared trait among those who reach a certain stage... In the end, Awakeners aren’t much different from monsters."
"I’d love to dissect them. Just how is that hyper-sensitivity even possible?"
"Hey, something’s off. Everyone, look at this."
Amid their chatter, a researcher who had been watching something in the corner called out to the others.
What the researcher was looking at wasn’t research data, hacked hero cams, or surveillance footage of A-City—but the lab’s internal security cameras.
"Three cameras at Exit D just went dark. How is this possible?"
"Is it due to aging?"
"No way. This facility should last at least another hundred years—"
Right after those words, cameras in another section also went dark.
Sensing something was wrong, the researchers immediately checked various sensors on their tablets.
"A stray monster?"
"No, the liquid intrusion defense should be working properly."
"Defensive wall status—no abnormalities."
"Three additional monster reactions detected inside the lab."
"What’s their grade?"
"One Terror-class, two Crush-class."
"Just those low-tier monsters made it inside...?"
They had thoroughly prepared for stray monster intrusions.
Yet, the intruders weren’t even Disaster-class—just Terror-class and Crush-class.
The moment all the researchers dismissed it as impossible, multiple cameras began shutting off simultaneously.
"What’s the identity of the monsters inside?"
"They’re not showing up on camera. Are they amorphous types?"
"No, if they were amorphous, it wouldn’t make sense for them to have this level of destructive power."
"Besides, logically speaking—"
Before they could finish, a chilling realization struck them.
Monsters had infiltrated the lab.
Cameras weren’t capturing them.
The cameras were being destroyed before they could even film the monsters.
From this, four things became clear:
1. There were three monsters inside the lab.
2. If they could destroy the walls this quickly, they were definitely not Crush-class.
3. Despite being monsters, they knew what cameras were and were destroying them.
4. Their direction—the center of the lab. The White Room. Where the researchers were.
"...They’re test subjects!"
"Check immediately if any specimens have escaped!"
"Initiate passage lockdown! Flood them with sedatives and anesthetics!"
Reacting swiftly, the researchers activated the lab’s control program. Walls slammed down in the passages being destroyed.
As the mist of chemicals filled the sealed areas, the researchers enlarged the camera feed, spotting the shadow of a test subject that had stopped moving.
[...Ugh... So sleepy...]
"...A human?"
What had appeared to be a large, hulking figure in the smoke was, in fact, a young black-haired girl.
"Don’t tell me Kage already infiltrated this place...?"
"Calm down. There were definitely monster signals. That’s a test subject."
"But we don’t have any that look like that."
"A humanoid? That’s a rare trait even among past test subjects."
[Oh dear, this is bad... Sagugu’s probably asleep by now.]
Then, in another passage captured by a different camera—
Another woman walked out of the mist, her hand resting on her neck.
Again, human—no, not an ordinary human.
"A hybrid...?"
"Why is a hybrid here?"
Half-monster, half-human.
A chimera.
The hybrid flicked her snow-white tail and tapped her foot lightly.
Small black shapes emerged from the ground.
[Sweetie, can you send Sagugu over to me?]
Immediately after, a black void opened in front of the hybrid.
She reached in and pulled out the little girl from the other area.
The girl appeared in front of the hybrid.
The researchers, who recognized the phenomenon, were horrified.
"Spatial manipulation?!"
"How does she have that?! Did they succeed in implanting such a high-capacity ability into a hybrid’s brain?!"
Fwip—
The white-haired woman’s tail stabbed into the black-haired girl.
The girl blinked and stood up.
[Sagugu’s not sleepy anymore?!]
"She neutralized the sedatives?!"
"What the hell is going on...?"
[We really should’ve stuck together... Hm?]
The woman who had effortlessly nullified years’ worth of monster sedatives and anesthetics locked eyes with the researchers through the camera.
For a moment, they froze.
A breathtakingly beautiful woman—a white monster—swung her hand and sliced the camera in half.
[Don’t you know it’s rude to peep at women like this?]
A shiver ran down the researchers’ spines.
They all thought the same thing,
These intruders weren’t random strays.
They knew about the lab. They knew the researchers were here.
They had come deliberately.
"Test subjects from another lab...?"
"Don’t tell me—the ones that escaped during the Romania incident...?"
These were escaped test subjects.
Their goal? To kill the researchers.
"They’ve got some nerve... Failures from Romania, of all places."
"Aside from the two lucky ones, the Romania subjects were all useless."
"Did they come for revenge, thinking themselves victims of experimentation?"
"Wait... You don’t think the Romania lab sent them here deliberately for payback, do you?"
Having deduced the intruders’ origins, the researchers quickly manipulated the internal control system.
Passage connections—open.
Doors—unlocked.
Stimulants—injected.
Excitants—administered.
On the screens, the slumbering monsters began to wake, slowly rising and vibrating their cores.
"It’s not like Moloch himself escaped. The ones that got out back then were only Disaster-class at best. Even if those failures grew stronger, they’d still be Disaster-class."
"Dregs from a fallen lab dare—! Release all the failures and monsters into the passages!"
At best, they were dealing with one Terror-class and two Crush-class monsters.
Meanwhile, the lab had fifteen Disaster-class monsters alone.
The researchers sent every last one into the passages, eager to crush the foolish test subjects.
But soon, they began noticing something strange.
How could mere Terror-class and Crush-class monsters—
Even if they were test subjects—destroy the lab’s walls?
The spatial manipulation ability explained the intrusion, but they had also effortlessly destroyed the cameras inside the walls.
"Huh...?"
Then, on the screen—
The black-haired girl grinned and vibrated her core, demonstrating her spatial manipulation ability.
[You’re all gonna die! This is fun!]
[Hmm? Weird. Why are there only Disaster-class ones?]
The output of her ability—shredding space like crumpled paper—was at least Despair-class or higher.
As the monsters, sensing overwhelming power, tried to flee, the white-haired woman flicked her fingers.
Instantly, the monsters began drooling and spinning in place.
Sensory disruption—
And potent enough to work on Disaster-class monsters effortlessly.
The intruders treated the Disaster-class monsters like toys.
Meanwhile, in the passages where newly awakened monsters and failed subjects had been released—
[Ugh... Gah...!]
[K-Kieeeek...!]
Heads bursting from telekinetic pressure.
Bodies sliced into dozens of pieces by something sharp.
Corpses petrifying and shattering.
The Terror-class monster they’d forgotten about, distracted by the hybrid.
Still unseen by cameras, it slaughtered the lab’s monsters in droves.
The lab’s sensors blared urgent alarms at the absurd power levels.
[How fascinating.]
The monster that had turned Disaster-class entities into minced meat in an instant spoke in a voice as cold as the wind.
[The ratio of monster traits has increased compared to past test subjects.]
Crunch, crunch—
Chewing on the dead monsters’ cores, it deduced everything just from tasting them.
As it said, the newer test subjects had become more monster than human.
Once they failed, they lost all human memories, fully consumed by their monstrous side.
Recent test subjects had parts of their minds eroded to make them obey the researchers.
The ones released into the passages were the most feral—barely capable of understanding commands.
[Now, there’s not a single human left.]
"T-These aren’t normal test subjects!"
"Lock it down! Lock everything down!"
"Even if we lock it down, they’ll break through! This is—this is...!"
It was only a matter of time before the test subjects reached the White Room.
Facing those monsters meant death.
Realizing there was no way to stop them, the researchers turned pale and bolted for the exits.
"Uwaaaaah!"
"Eeek! Eeeek...!"
They scattered, each heading for the escape routes they remembered.
A few stayed behind, trying to alert other labs.
But all external communications were dead.
All civilization in the Age of Monsters relied on Meister’s technology.
Inter-city communication required connecting to a city’s comm tower.
Currently, Kage was purging A-City’s government.
The comm tower was already under his control.
"Of all times...!"
[What?! Why?! Why is this happening?!]
[The door—! How do they know about this passage?!]
[No, no, no, NO!]
Meanwhile, the researchers who had unlocked the sealed passages and raced to the exits using the lab’s equipment were met with despair.
Every passage was blocked.
As they desperately pounded on the crumpled steel doors, something black crept toward their feet.
[...Huh?]
[A... Cat...?]
[Meow.]
The small cats that appeared at all four exits meowed cutely—
Then unleashed their abilities.
Black spikes erupted from their shadows, impaling the researchers instantly.
"Grrrr..."
"Ah."
Finally, the monster tore through the White Room’s door like paper.
Facing the black panther everyone in the lab knew, one researcher smirked unconsciously.
"CXI..."
The monster known as the Black Cat—the beast that protected humans.
Of course. It made sense that it would attack the lab someday.
The question of what kind of monster would do this was finally answered.
In that moment, despite the terror, the researcher felt a strange relief—the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity.
The remaining researchers in the White Room gave up all hope of survival the moment they saw CXI.
The monster, once called a miracle by the lab, burst their hearts simultaneously.
A crimson haze filled their vision.
Yet, they felt a strange sense of relief.
After all, this lab had already served its purpose.
The higher-ups had long since moved elsewhere...
This was the last memory of the researcher I consumed.