117
Ch.117 Sand Wall
"The Black Cat is asleep?!"
[Yeah! That crazy cat bastard!]
[If you’re going to tame it, you should’ve done it properly!]
The noisy comms, a city in chaos as two Despair-class monsters rampage.
The news that the Black Cat had suddenly fallen asleep left Yoo Anna’s mind in turmoil.
A forced sleep ability? It was hard to believe the Black Cat could be taken down so easily.
A single possibility flashed through her mind, and Yoo Anna’s expression twisted as she burned her flying ability.
“No way…?”
The criteria for a monster’s rank—the moment an irreversible change occurs, transforming them into something entirely different.
Monsters preparing for existential evolution hide their bodies and fall into slumber.
It hadn’t been long since she’d begged the Black Cat not to reach Annihilation-class.
But in the current situation, there was no better solution.
If, even as an Annihilation-class, the Black Cat remained the same as the Black Cat everyone knew…
[We can’t hold out any longer! These bastards don’t even care about Magic Bullets now!]
“You damn flies! This is why I told you not to settle for just catching villains!”
[Ugh…!]
The problem was the immediate void left by the Black Cat’s slumber.
Baskerville, another S-rank hero, possessed an ability designed to destroy human bodies, not monsters.
An superpower human awakened by villain-related trauma, Baskerville had always lived as if monsters were none of his concern, even when given the chance to fight them.
The result was bullets with homing capabilities—deadly to any human, never missing their designated target.
Against powerful monsters, he was barely any better than an A-rank.
If only Electress were here instead—no, maybe not.
If she turned into lightning and let her guard down, she might get taken out in one hit by that monster.
“Hahaha! It’s working, it’s possible!”
“This is insane! Seriously!”
Boom! The monster clapped its hands right in front of Yoo Anna’s solar sphere, momentarily melting them before regenerating.
An interference ability that layered shockwaves, wind, sound waves, and multiple wavelengths—like shattering a glass with resonance from a distance.
A technique Yeo Woon-jae had once called just a theory was gradually being perfected in the monster’s hands.
“Fascinating. Does that technique only work on emission or phenomenon-type energy?”
“Is now really the time for leisurely questions?”
While Yoo Anna’s injuries piled up, the monster kept recovering and growing stronger with its rapid regeneration.
Frustrated, Yoo Anna stretched her arm toward Gu Seo-ryong, taking additional stimulants, regeneration boosters, and doping drugs before thrusting both hands forward.
“Haaah!”
Pulling her arms back, her heart pounded rapidly—Boom!—as she coated her body in high-powered energy and charged at the monster, blasting off one of its shoulders.
Wave interference—firepower overwhelming enough to crush the techniques Yeo Woon-jae had built.
At the same time, a little girl who had opened a portal behind Yoo Anna unleashed her ability toward the momentarily staggered monster.
“Meow!”
A spatial slash aimed at the head and heart—but the monster, reading the trajectory, dodged with a slight tilt of its head and a sidestep.
In that brief moment, its regenerated arm extended with only three fingers spread, firing countless high-frequency sound waves in the form of blades.
The shockwave-propelled wind blades sliced through Gu Seo-ryong’s arms and tail like paper as she shielded the portal, forcing her and the girl to retreat inside.
“Hmm… It’s getting more accustomed to its body.”
“You call that exploiting openings? You haven’t landed a single clean hit!”
“Oh? Maybe you’re just not creating the right openings?”
“Sagugu did nothing wrong!”
The monster no longer grew excited upon seeing spatial manipulation, using its abilities coldly instead.
Even the tactic of drawing its attention with spatial manipulation no longer worked, and the girl named Sagugu, her ability lacked the finesse to land a proper hit.
Gu Seo-ryong’s doping was helping, but rather than keeping her here as support…
“Gu Seo-ryong! Can you take your daughter and reinforce another area?”
It’d be better to send her to fill the Black Cat’s absence and handle other monsters.
At Yoo Anna’s question, Gu Seo-ryong—now fully regenerated—blinked in surprise.
“You trust me? If I leave this spot, I might just run away.”
“What other choice do we have?”
This was the only way to prevent more deaths—not a method to defeat the monster before her, but to save as many lives as possible.
“Well? Can you do it? Can you take down a Despair-class monster?”
“It’s possible. But are you sure?”
“I’ll handle it! Hurry!”
“…You know, I’ve always thought you were reckless and stupid.”
“This aunty is an idiot?”
Under Yoo Anna’s urging, Gu Seo-ryong disappeared into a portal with Sagugu.
“Alright, hang in there.”
The moment they left—Kwaang!—the monster gathered seismic waves from a stomp, amplifying its ability as it charged.
A path cleared of air resistance by wind manipulation, shockwave-enhanced acceleration.
The monster’s palm, moving almost like teleportation, met Yoo Anna’s fist.
After retirement, Yeo Woon-jae—no longer needing to fight—had sat at his desk, meticulously organizing ability theories.
What if I’d done it like this? Could I have been faster? Could I have saved them?
Every one of those techniques now surged from the monster’s body toward Yoo Anna.
“Break!”
“Guh…!”
Interference—burning one side, disrupting the other.
What remained after the offset was mutual bodily shock.
Impact Control—the backlash of colliding forces. Even in a chaotic brawl, Yeo Woon-jae’s damage was halved or negated.
The moment their arms tore apart, the monster regenerated instantly and pressed the attack.
This was the problem.
Both Yeo Woon-jae—now a monster—and Yoo Anna were heroes boasting one-hit-kill abilities.
But the monster’s regeneration was overwhelmingly faster.
Gu Seo-ryong’s stimulants had somewhat compensated for this, allowing Yoo Anna to fight evenly—but with Gu Seo-ryong gone…
The longer this dragged on, the worse it was for Yoo Anna.
[What’s with this woman and this girl…?]
[You—you! When did you return to A-City?!]
[Waaah!]
“Ha…”
Even so, hearing the monster’s pained cries over the comms, Yoo Anna sighed.
Blood dripped only from Yoo Anna’s arms as they both attacked each other.
She cauterized her wounds and steadied her stance.
“Yoo Anna, Yoo Anna… You haven’t changed.”
Mocking her, the monster twitched its fingers, extending long feathers between them.
“Even if you throw yourself into danger, nothing will remain.”
“What’s it to you?”
I chose to do this.
“Haha!”
Sswish! As the monster crossed its arms, countless wind blades shot out in a grid pattern.
The monster that has disappeared with Stampede, and amplified wave due to magnetic resonance, an explosion occur next to Yoo Anna.
The wind blades were just for limiting movement—too wide to dodge.
A charge, a follow-up—it planned to drag this into close combat, exploiting its regeneration for attrition.
As Yoo Anna hesitated slightly, considering every possibility of Yeo Woon-jae’s habits and fighting style, the monster’s eyes flashed crimson.
“Hah!”
Right then, Yoo Anna begins her trick of dispelling her artificial solar satellite—only to reveal the real one, hidden underground until now.
Monsters showed openings the moment they thought they had their prey.
Thud! The monster’s head flew off as the sun struck.
But even with only its lower jaw remaining, its mouth moved.
“Anna.”
In that instant, Yoo Anna’s mind flashed back to sparring with Yeo Woon-jae during their military days.
The words he always said after countering her moves and pinning her down,
‘You think I don’t know what you’re aiming for?’
Even with its head gone, the monster moved as if it knew everything.
Startled, Yoo Anna prepared to dodge—but the monster’s hands, tracking her perfectly, aimed for her heart and head.
Wind blades extended from its fingertips, vibrating at ultra-high frequencies.
‘If you’re going to attack, make sure your opponent can’t escape. No matter what they choose, steer it in your favor.’
A wall of grid-patterned blades closed in from the side, a lethal strike aimed at her vitals in front, and behind—the monster clenched its fist, ready to unleash a point-blank shockwave.
A fatal blow to the head or heart—or being dragged into a battle of attrition with wounds too severe to regenerate.
In that split second, Yoo Anna made her choice.
“Huh?”
Clang! The transparent blade flying toward her shattered against something unseen.
Next, the wall of blades crashed against a semi-transparent barrier.
Before the fatal strike could land, Yoo Anna’s fist—channeling her ability at full force—obliterated the monster’s upper body.
The core’s location, its head—gone.
[Changing tactics.]
“Ah…!”
Before the monster—now missing everything above its chest—a voice cut into the heroes’ comms, sending chills down Yoo Anna’s spine.
[Hit-and-run ends here. Form a ring and focus fire.]
[T-This voice…?]
[This is…!]
The city trembled with the wavelength of an ability—a cubic containment field formed where the Despair-class monster’s cries had been.
[Wring out your abilities until your heart withers. Even disappointments like you should manage that much.]
[Sir Kage!]
[There’s no way Kage could die!]
Finishing his transmission, Kage walked toward Yoo Anna.
“…Still as ignorant as ever.”
“Jung Ho-young!”
“At that moment, are you supposed to have a thought about killing the other person before you die? You’re insane.”
Instead of an ability-armor covering his body, Kage moved with four small barriers floating around him.
Yoo Anna, torn between shock, joy, and relief, twitched at the unfamiliar sensation in Kage’s ability wavelength.
“You… You…?”
She forgot she was fighting a monster, staring in horror.
The wavelength emanating from Kage’s core—his heart—was unmistakably…
“What… Is this? You? What did you do?!”
“Just took some medicine. Hmm… Well, maybe not just some.”
“Medicine?! What is this wavelength?!”
“I’ll explain later.”
“This isn’t something you can explain later!”
“There’s a monster in front of us, Starlight.”
“You… We’re talking about this! Everything!”
Turning back to the rapidly regenerating monster, Yoo Anna bit her lip.
She’d blown its body apart multiple times, yet its regeneration speed hadn’t slowed.
Unlike monsters that relied solely on regeneration, this one had adapted to their tactics, avoiding fatal blows—making it hard to land consecutive decisive hits.
“Jung Ho-young, this monster—”
“I know. Its core isn’t in its chest, is it? For humanoid monsters, it’s usually near the original heart’s location.”
“No, it’s probably Heart Displacement. Yeo Woon-jae mentioned it once.”
“What kind of absurd technique is that?”
“For a brief moment, it lowers its heart. When he was drunk, he once said if he’d been able to do that, his heart wouldn’t have been injured. Now that he’s a monster… It might be possible.”
“That crazy old man.”
Squelch. The monster’s body regrew like vines from the cross-section, fully restoring itself.
When it opened its eyes and saw Kage, it flinched, then spoke in a trembling voice.
“Ah… Ho-young. My son-in-law… I’m sorry. Did it hurt much?”
“Kukuku…”
Staggered by the monster’s words, Kage let out a bitter laugh, barely stabilizing his flickering ability.
“I didn’t mean to. This body… It moved on its own…”
“Disgusting monster.”
Having swallowed Yeo Woon-jae’s memories, the monster tried to exploit Kage’s psyche with its words—Save me, Help me, Forgive me, Let’s be friends—no different from any other monster.
“Yoo Anna, I’ll adjust to you. Focus on attacking. As for defense… I can’t guarantee full protection, so evade if you can.”
Unease crept into Yoo Anna at Kage’s uncharacteristically weak tone as she steadied herself against the monster.
“I’d prefer to kill it myself, but that might be difficult.”
“…Are you okay?”
“Who do you think I am, Starlight?”
Smiling as always, Kage expanded his unstable ability wavelength and raised his hand.
“I’ll hold out until the Black Cat wakes up.”
***
Kill, kill, kill.
Eat, eat, eat.
In the darkness, a cacophony of murderous intent, hunger, and the desire to grow stronger roared like a bassline.
At the moment of death, the dissonance of screams and wails tickled the ears.
Fear, despair, vengeance, sorrow—a sweet swamp of tangled emotions.
At its center, an island of human corpses piled high, whetting the appetite like a river of flowing chocolate.
“…What is this?”
I was just in A-City a moment ago.
Frowning, I opened my eyes in this unfamiliar place.
“What kind of lunatic…?”
Who the hell thinks of something like chocolate meat fondue?