119
Ch.119 Annihilation Class
Since we decided not to exterminate the Black Cat, it was only a matter of time before it reached an Annihilation-class threat.
Hoping that the Black Cat, now an Annihilation-class entity, would remain the same as before was nothing more than a naive wish.
The Black Cat, now larger than most buildings, swung its thick, pillar-like tail back and forth, sweeping through the rubble.
Yoo Anna, seeing its hind legs twitch, pushed her already exhausted body to its limits, burning every last ounce of her energy.
As its sharp, steel-like whiskers bristled, the Black Cat’s front paw lunged forward almost the same moment Yoo Anna leaped into the air.
"Wahyaaang!"
"Kkhh—!"
Just the wind pressure from the Black Cat’s passing strike was enough to obliterate the surroundings.
The Black Cat had lost its reason—this was worse than Yeo Woon-jae turning into a monster.
[What the hell is wrong with it?!]
[The Black Cat is attacking Starlight?!]
There was no time to mourn Yeo Woon-jae’s death, no time to celebrate the defeat of the monsters.
Yoo Anna, spotting Kage collapsed on the ground, moved with the resolve to die.
She was the one who had decided not to kill the Black Cat.
The responsibility for this situation fell on her.
"It’s an Annihilation-class monster! I’ll—!"
Yoo Anna’s head throbbed as she calculated the optimal course of action, pushing her abilities to the limit.
The Black Cat was fixated on her, its prey.
If that was the case, she had to keep its attention on her alone.
"I’ll lure it away! Everyone, evacuate!"
[Evacuate? To where?!]
"Anywhere but here!"
Yoo Anna’s body burned brighter as she zigzagged through the air—sudden stops, sharp accelerations, curves, right angles, and acute angles—flying unpredictably.
She barely dodged the massive pillar-like front paws swiping at her in succession before flying toward the outskirts of A-City.
The Black Cat leaped high, chasing after her, and the moment its paw came crashing down—
FWOOOM!
The Black Cat’s paw was sent flying.
"Ooowaaang?"
The flames of annihilation, fueled by Yoo Anna’s dwindling energy, had weakened after blocking the Black Cat’s attack.
The Black Cat tilted its head, puzzled by its missing paw.
"What…?"
That reaction was strange.
It was as if the Black Cat had no memory of her abilities.
Now that she thought about it, it hadn’t used any of its other powers either.
When a monster undergoes annihilation evolution, it sometimes becomes an entirely different entity.
Did that mean it literally lost all its original memories and transformed into something else?
If so, then what stood before her wasn’t the Black Cat—it was another monster that had devoured the Black Cat.
Yoo Anna bit her lip at the thought that the Black Cat, like Yeo Woon-jae, had disappeared from the world.
The only silver lining was that the Black Cat, now an Annihilation-class monster, wasn’t using its countless abilities—it was only fighting physically.
That was pure luck.
Yoo Anna fled, melting the city’s wreckage as she went.
If she could just keep this up, she could lead it safely outside the city.
The moment that thought crossed her mind—
Something grabbed her.
"Ugh?!"
Telekinesis—one of the Black Cat’s frequently used abilities.
The wavelength was crude, as if it were using the ability for the first time, but the output was overwhelming.
CRUNCH—CRACK—
Yoo Anna couldn’t even scream as her body twisted in agony. Above her, a massive pink mass descended.
She tried desperately to defend herself, but she was already at her limit.
A heavy impact struck her, and her vision stretched into a long, distorted blur.
'Ah….'
CRASH—!
Yoo Anna’s body scraped across the cracked asphalt, toppling trees that had broken through the ground.
After rolling uncontrollably from the sheer force, she finally came to a stop. With a broken arm, she struggled to push herself up.
Her vision blurred. Her lungs, compressed, refused to take in air.
'I’m… Dying….'
If her body were intact, she could’ve bought some time.
She needed to hold out until everyone evacuated.
At the very least, she had lured it out of the city.
Her body grew heavier with despair and helplessness. She tasted blood, sharp and bitter in her throat, as she forced her drooping eyes open.
Before her was the Black Cat’s massive head.
THUD—THUD—
The deep, resonant heartbeat, the oppressive infrasound pulsing from the monster core—Yoo Anna realized the gravity of what she had done.
If despair meant there was no way to fight back, then annihilation meant certain death.
Humanity had never once defeated an Annihilation-class monster.
She had thought that as an S-rank, top-tier hero capable of hunting even Despair-class monsters with ease, she might have stood a chance against the Black Cat.
That was a mistake.
This monster was beyond what an S-rank hero could handle.
"Hah… Ha…."
Staggering to her feet, Yoo Anna’s body was seized by the Black Cat’s telekinesis and lifted into the air.
Its maw opened wide to swallow her, drool dripping from its jaws.
She was nothing but prey now.
She should’ve trusted the Black Cat, but never a monster.
A monster that had taken everything from her—everyone she loved—except her little sister.
Her father, her mother, and the firefighter who had saved her from the flames as a child.
That firefighter’s family, the boy who had lived in that house.
Yoo Anna laughed as fragmented memories flashed through her mind.
Ah, so this was what a life flashing before one’s eyes felt like.
Like that firefighter, like that boy—she had helped others.
She wouldn’t let monsters torment people anymore.
She swore in the charnel house that she would erase them all.
And yet, here she was, betrayed by a monster she had trusted.
"...Ah."
Beyond her darkening vision, she saw someone running ahead of her.
The sight hardened her wavering resolve.
At the very least, after devouring her, it would go somewhere far away—somewhere distant from people.
Yoo Anna mustered the last of her energy and fired a single beam of light into the distance.
"Over here… You stupid… Cat…."
But the Black Cat’s eyes didn’t follow the light. They remained fixed on her.
Just as Yoo Anna was about to succumb to despair—
[…What did you just say?]
The Black Cat spoke again.
Its enormous pupils, dilated to the point where its emerald-green irises were nearly invisible, contracted slightly. The paw that had been poised to swallow her snapped shut.
It was a familiar sight—the Black Cat regaining its reason after losing control.
Yoo Anna, overwhelmed by a storm of emotions, spoke uneasily. The Black Cat swallowed the drool dripping from its mouth.
"The Black Cat…? You’re… It's really you, right…?"
[I am not a cat.]
"Ah… Ha… Hahaha…."
Relief washed over Yoo Anna at the Black Cat’s unchanged demeanor. Her body went limp.
Even as an Annihilation-class monster, the Black Cat was still the Black Cat.
It had lost itself for a moment, but it had come back.
[My apologies. I was… Taken over for a while.]
The Black Cat carefully grabbed Yoo Anna by the scruff of her neck as it apologized.
"Taken over…? What do you mean?"
[It’s complicated.]
Something about that felt unsettling, but… Was it really okay?
Carrying Yoo Anna, who couldn’t even resist, the Black Cat turned and trudged back toward A-City.
Its steps were slow, but its massive size made its movement speed deceptively fast.
"...What the hell even happened?"
First, she thought Kage had died. Then Yeo Woon-jae turned into a monster. Five Despair-class monsters had appeared in A-City all at once.
Yoo Anna’s mind threatened to spiral into chaos, but she didn’t have the strength left to question anything.
As the Black Cat crossed the A-City walls and stepped inside, the heroes and citizens who had been desperately fleeing froze at the sight of it—and Yoo Anna dangling from its mouth.
[Everyone, run! Starlight’s been defeated!]
[Starlight was taken down by the Black Cat…!]
"I’m alive, you idiots…."
Yoo Anna barely managed to respond to the noisy comms before her fading vision took in the cityscape.
A-City had been reduced to a silent, concrete wasteland—like a giant cat’s litter box.
Amid the ruins, citizens who had fled the shelters stared up at the colossal Black Cat and Yoo Anna.
The A-City is ruined, but…
They had survived.
Hanging from the Black Cat’s jaws, Yoo Anna finally passed out from exhaustion.
***
"Bring more painkillers over here!"
"We need to operate—is there an open operating room?!"
"No way… This one’s a lost cause."
A-City, ravaged by a total of seven Despair-class monsters, had been completely devastated.
The city once considered the safest of all had suffered catastrophic damage.
Most of its hospitals had collapsed, and the remaining wards—even the hallways—were packed with injured people.
Among them, in a special room originally meant for a single patient but now converted into a double—
Yoo Anna, her entire body wrapped in bandages, lay on a hospital bed, scrolling through her phone.
Today, Baskerville had officially announced Yeo Woon-jae’s death.
Across various city communities, memorial services were being held in his honor.
In this era, it wasn’t unusual for someone you met yesterday to be dead today.
People had grown numb to death, but for a hero who had carried an entire era on his back, everyone took the time to mourn.
A modest funeral with no body—just Yeo Woon-jae’s clothes set aflame as his two disciples wept. Meister, watching the broadcast from W-City, burst into tears.
[Yeo Woon-jae, who continued to train heroes for the future despite injuries sustained fighting monsters and villains, has ultimately…]
[The circumstances of his death are still under investigation.]
No one knew that Yeo Woon-jae had turned into a monster—except for Kage and Yoo Anna.
Even Baskerville only knew that the monster that had devoured him had used his memories.
Yoo Anna, too, hadn’t known the details until she spoke with the Black Cat.
[I’m sorry. Survive.]
'Huh? What’s this all of a sudden?'
[Yeo Woon-jae’s last words.]
'Teacher’s…? Wait, how do you know that?'
The Black Cat explained matter-of-factly about a monster’s ability to read the memories of those it devoured.
'What… Happened to Teacher?'
According to the Black Cat, Yeo Woon-jae hadn’t been taken over by an external monster. Instead, a monster core embedded in his heart had consumed him.
A monster core? Why would something like that be inside Yeo Woon-jae’s heart?
Could it be related to the parasitic monster that had destroyed D-City?
[He also said to tell you that your divination skills still need work.]
'Even in death, Teacher’s still nagging… Thanks for telling me.'
[Are you crying?]
'…In times like these, you’re supposed to pretend you didn’t see anything.'
Questions remained, but since the end result was the same—Yeo Woon-jae had been devoured by a monster—the official statement to the public remained unchanged.
Given that Yeo Woon-jae had already been weakened to the point of struggling against monsters, the citizens accepted that such a thing could happen.
However, the incident that had occurred before—Yeo Woon-jae’s attempt to kill Kage—still left everyone baffled.
[Wasn’t it that parasite from before…?]
[Did you see the post by an A-City hero? They said Gu Seo-ryong was there.]
[Gu Seo-ryong had a grudge against both Starlight and Kage, right?]
[Her ability was mind control, wasn’t it?]
[That crazy bitch did it to get revenge on Starlight.]
[That insane villain bitch…]
Upon hearing that Gu Seo-ryong had been in A-City, the public concluded that she had brainwashed Yeo Woon-jae to kill Kage.
The heroes of A-City remained silent on the matter.
There was no need to defend a villain’s innocence, nor did they want to admit their own incompetence by revealing that they had relied on a villain to defeat the Despair-class monsters.
Even without that, public opinion about A-City’s heroes was already volatile.
[Now that it’s all over, I can say it—A-City’s heroes are insane, right?]
[How could they even think of running away in that situation?]
[But what else could they do? There were seven Despair-class monsters.]
[Speaking as someone from another city, if they had just run away alive, we would’ve welcomed them.]
[At the very least, we should be grateful they chose to fight…]
Some argued that heroes should never even consider fleeing, while others countered that heroes were human and had the right to fear for their lives.
Citizens from other cities also joined the online debate.
Some even began questioning the expectation that heroes should sacrifice themselves as a given.
[After seeing A-City’s heroes try to run, I feel kinda bad for our city’s heroes now.]
[They really do fight with their lives on the line, yet they’re treated so poorly.]
[I used to think A-City spoiled their heroes too much, but maybe it wasn’t excessive.]
[But they tried to run away.]
[Not all of them did. Only some.]
[And what exactly can we do if heroes run away? Nothing. All we can do is be grateful they fight for us.]
[The government’s been conscripting heroes and forcing them to fight for so long that we’ve taken it for granted, but the truth is, heroes sacrifice a lot.]
The fear that heroes might abandon them if they had no reason to stay.
Out of this terror came a newfound respect, and heroes across cities found themselves receiving unexpected gratitude, leaving them in a strange mood.
[When I saw them trying to run, I thought they were pathetic, but…]
[I don’t know what to think anymore.]
[Honestly, the real trash is the government, not the heroes.]
[Sure, there are decent people in the government, but the rot definitely needs to be purged.]
The citizens felt in their bones the need to improve the treatment of heroes and overhaul the government.
Especially now, with A-City’s systems in disarray and the master code for the food production factories lost.
The fact that losing a high-ranking government official could destabilize the entire system that governed their lives was fundamentally wrong.
[Why the hell is it set up like this? Is the master code really necessary?]
[Originally, when Meister first designed it, the system wasn’t like this. The government messed with it.]
[At first, it was just a function to give the person in charge quick access for management, but now it’s just a tool for them to maintain power.]
[Why did Meister let them get away with this…?]
[From what I’ve heard, it’s because if villains got their hands on it, it’d be a disaster, so they made it an unbreakable encryption that even they can’t undo.]
[Fuck, the government’s full of trash worse than villains.]
[If we just replaced them all, the system would actually work.]
[But if we purge them all, there’ll be no one left who knows how to manage the system.]
[We’re screwed.]
[If we leave it like this, it’ll keep rotting. Maybe we should just bite the bullet and wipe it all out.]
[At this rate, Kage might as well stage a coup.]
[Ah… Kage…]
[What are we gonna do about Kage…?]
Yoo Anna, reading the discussions, glanced at the other bed in the room.
Beep—beep—
The sound of a heart monitor, the numerous tubes and machines attached to a motionless body.
Kage, who had collapsed after the battle, still hadn’t regained consciousness.
Tests revealed that over half of Kage’s heart was already gone.
Parts of the ruptured organ looked as if they had been gnawed away.
In this state, neither as an awakener nor as a human could Kage fulfill his role.
Yet, thanks to quick intervention, external machines kept his blood circulating and his lungs breathing.
The public had only been told that Kage was in critical condition and unconscious.
That was better than announcing his death.
"...Haah."
Just what had happened? Why had he done this?
The one who should be explaining everything was in this state.
Still, at least he is still breathing—that was something to be grateful for.
A hero's regenerative abilities were beyond human comparison.
If he regained consciousness, he might not be the same Kage as before, but at least Jung Ho-young could survive.
Maybe.
[Has there ever been a time when this many Despair-class monsters appeared at once?]
[Isn’t it because S-rank heroes proved they could handle them that the monsters started pushing their limits?]
[Some monsters learn and adapt…]
[No, this makes no sense unless someone deliberately released those Despair-class monsters.]
[Wouldn’t that be even more absurd?]
Yeo Woon-jae’s death, the destruction of A-City, Kage’s unconscious state—on top of that, the mystery of the multiple Despair-class monsters appearing simultaneously in A-City.
Amid all this unease, both Yoo Anna and the citizens could only feel suffocated.
[What are we supposed to do now…?]
[If even A-City ended up like this, is there really any safe city left?]
And so, the destination for all the citizens drowning in worry and fear was the same.
Yoo Anna opened the newly established integrated forum on each city’s community page.
After this incident, the attention of all citizens was slowly converging in one direction.
[A safe city? Of course there is one.]
[The city under the protection of the A.N.N.I.H.I.L.A.T.I.O.N..-C.L.A.S.S. monster, Black Cat—W-City!]
[The Black Cat really is our guardian deity now.]
W-City, now self-proclaimed as the city that ‘possesses’ the Black Cat.
At the top of their forum, security footage from A-City played on loop—showing the Black Cat walking away with Yoo Anna in its mouth.
[Damn, when it lunged at Starlight, I really thought it was over.]
[LMAOOOO it was just a cat asserting dominance and bringing her back.]
[But look, it didn’t kill her—it carried her back because it’s attached to her.]
[Aww~ What’s this Annihilation-class nonsense~ I’m just a kitty~]
While everyone else was drowning in grief and despair, why was this place so festive?
Feeling a mix of embarrassment and exasperation at her own city’s citizens running wild on the forum, Yoo Anna clicked on one of the posts.
It was a video of the Black Cat, after carrying her all the way back to A-City, opening its mouth and demanding food.
[Holy shit, A-City’s in ruins and this guy just ate 3,000 servings like it’s nothing.]
[Is our food shortage right now because of the Black Cat?]
[How is that the Black Cat’s fault?]
[An annihilation-class monster wiped out all the Despair-class ones, so if it asks for food, we gotta feed it!]
[Ugh, yeah, fair point.]