12
Ch.12 It's beef.
The night after the press conference is more exhausting than fighting monsters.
Yoo Anna, having thrown off her black suit, collapsed weakly onto the sofa.
In her hand was a keepsake she had taken from Lee Han-young’s funeral but hadn’t been able to return to the family.
A button that had popped off like a coin, and a field-recording camera issued to all heroes.
Official Code: Black Cat, an amorphous Despair-class monster.
The name was derived from testimonies that most of its observed transformations bore slight characteristics of tigers, cats, or other feline animals.
Equipment meant to document the monster’s data.
Today, at the press conference, Yoo Anna had warned everyone about Black Cat’s danger.
An aberrant entity with unpredictable behavior, its form itself, is amorphous, meaning its combat style constantly shifts—making it impossible to rely on a hero’s superpower compatibility.
Only purely powerful superpower humans could face the Black Cat… And in W-City, Yoo Anna was the only viable candidate.
How much would the citizens, completely unaware of this fact, understand from this press conference? Yoo Anna felt unbearably stifled.
But that wasn’t the only reason her chest felt tight.
The recording file inside the camera—Lee Han-young’s final moments.
Three giant wolves, three Despair-class monsters. Lee Han-young, fled, only to be caught, lifted from the ground, her voice screaming.
By this point, the camera’s lens had already shattered into pieces, leaving no clear footage.
All that remained was sound, and even that was drowned in noise—perhaps due to the device being submerged as her superpower broke, letting dust seep in.
The sound of Lee Han-young’s legs being chewed, bones snapping, screams, then weak, resigned breaths.
And then, silence.
A strangely echoing noise followed, and Lee Han-young began to mutter.
Most of it was muffled as if she had cupped her hands tightly over her mouth to suppress the sound.
But one phrase came through clearly:
[Eat me… And win…]
Lee Han-young had begged the monster to devour her.
To grow stronger by consuming her and fighting the other Despair-class monsters.
Immediately after—a sound Yoo Anna wished she could forget but couldn’t—the crunch of a monster chewing through a human skull.
Then, a roar so powerful it destroyed the already-struggling device.
The monster, Black Cat, ate Lee Han-young after that.
What followed was likely the monster’s unique form of evolution.
Black Cat, wreathed in flames—it was definitely… Stronger than the one in Yoo Anna’s memory.
Black Cat, a Despair-class monster without even an official code, had consumed the core of the wolf monster before returning to Lee Han-young.
Then, as if keeping a promise, it tried to finish devouring her.
But eventually, it gave up, tossed the corpse aside, and fled.
Casualties: 1 hero, 0 civilians.
A miracle hard to believe for the aftermath of a rampaging Despair-class monster.
Today, she had insisted to the citizens that Black Cat was no benevolent monster protecting humans—that such a thing was absurd.
But Lee Han-young’s final words left her unsettled.
Could a monster that protects people really exist?
I’d rather it just attack humans already.
Yoo Anna, having thoughts no hero should entertain, succumbed to exhaustion and closed her eyes.
***
“What the hell… Are you…?”
“Hey! Gopssi! Time to wrap up and head back!”
Drrrrrrr—
I stopped the violently vibrating drill at the foreman’s call.
This was the underground of W-City, an area recently reduced to ruins by a Despair-class monster.
My job now was chipping away at walls that had melted and hardened like glass.
Leaving the drill behind, I boarded the temporary elevator with the foreman and returned to the surface. Sitting atop nearby rubble, I waited for my meal.
Soon, a drone dropped a parachute from high above.
Lunch delivery.
“Eat up before we get back to it. You’re Go Bongbap, right? First time I’ve seen someone hint at wanting more food just by their name.”
“Mhm.”
My current name was Go Bongbap—a fine, beautiful name.
A single bowl wouldn’t even make my stomach feel full, but free food was free food.
Like others sipping coffee during breaks, I half-devoured the delivered meal before immediately rising and heading back underground.
“Mr Go! Take it easy!”
“Not tired yet.”
“Ugh… This guy’s insane…”
“An absolute monster… How does he handle that rock drill for so long? Not that I’m complaining—progress is progress.”
Drill back in hand, I shattered the hardened walls, advancing through the narrow tunnel underground.
A tunnel just wide enough for me to stretch my arms and legs—small even by average human standards.
Yet it stretched endlessly into the distance.
This was the trail Yoo Anna had left while chasing me.
Occasionally, special metal pillars appeared in the tunnel.
Alloy pillars sturdy enough to withstand Yoo Anna’s superpower—even I found them tough.
Pillars like these, unyielding to anything short of a Disaster-class, were essential in this era of monsters.
After monsters appeared, humanity adapted. Every structure became modular, designed for quick replacement if destroyed.
And to mitigate damage from underground monsters, massive pillars were embedded deep beneath cities.
A seismic defense system—even if the surrounding area collapsed or upheaved, these pillars would hold, minimizing surface damage.
To rebuild the city, these pillars had to remain intact.
I dropped a sensor by a damaged pillar.
A special device that would react when scanned from the surface.
This was how foundation repairs worked: identify broken pillars, crush debris into filler, and then install new pillars.
A dangerous job.
This wasn’t a proper tunnel—just the aftermath of superpowered combat. Unstable, liable to collapse at any moment.
And underground monsters could emerge anywhere.
But the pay? Very, very juicy.
High hazard pay, government subsidies, and the foreman—impressed by my work—promised to credit me for three people’s labor.
With this, I could finally eat premium beef to my heart’s content.
Motivated, I worked tirelessly.
“Hm?”
Then, I sensed it—a monster’s presence.
My heightened senses gauged its form, the size of its core.
Earth dragons, stirred by the drill’s vibrations, armored like medieval knights.
Further away, giant centipede monsters scuttle excitedly through new tunnels.
Countless underground monsters—the real reason the pay was so good.
This area’s monster alarms were already destroyed.
In their place, a temporary alarm beneath the elevator was active.
If it sounded, work stopped immediately—all laborers evacuated to the surface.
No more work until heroes cleared the underground.
And pay? Only for hours worked.
“No way.”
I headed straight for the elevator and turned off the temporary alarm, despite countless warnings against doing so.
It was still lunchtime—everyone would take their time coming back.
Before they returned, it was time for pest control.
A monster specialized in hunting small monsters in places like this.
My human form shrank instantly, turning childlike.
A shadow-cloaked figure—the part that had been the tail of a winged black panther.
A creature ruling the night’s shadows.
In the pitch-black tunnel, my body spread like roots, piercing through every monster in reach.
Shhhhh—
Delicate as needle pricks, my shadows speared each body before exploding outward like fireworks.
One by one, I consumed the lifeless monsters.
Terror-class and Crush-class monsters filled me more than lunch had.
Hmm… Not bad, actually.
I licked my lips—well, my shadows—as my endlessly stretching body retracted, returning to human form.
After reactivating the alarm, I resumed work. Soon, the foreman and others descended via elevator.
“Damn… It’s like having a mini heavy machine down here.”
“Our team’s progress is seven times faster than others’.”
“Mr Go is the real deal.”
The workers spread out, inspecting the tunnel’s progress before picking up tools.
“Mr Go! Drink some water!”
I chugged a 1.5L bottle before scanning the crew.
Their eyes were warm—hazard pay was divided by team output.
“They said monsters show up a lot here, but weirdly, none today?”
“Before Mr Go came, it wasn’t like this. Maybe they think his huge frame isn’t human and stay away?”
“Nah, Mr Go’s just a lucky charm.”
“Go Bongbap, really leaving after today?”
“Did enough.”
After a stretch of foundation repairs, I bid the foreman farewell.
He seemed reluctant—I wouldn’t be returning.
But I had to leave.
My inability to fully suppress my monstrous presence was drawing increasing numbers of Terror-class monsters underground.
Mistaking me for a weak underground dweller, they kept coming.
So far, I’d handled them, but if this continued, stronger monsters might follow.
New pillars were already in place, and modular roads and buildings rising fast.
No point ruining freshly repaired areas.
Until I could perfectly conceal my presence, I couldn’t stay long in one place.
“Sigh… End of the Go Bongbap bonus pay era… Take care out there.”
The foreman handed me my final pay with a light wave.
The real reason I’d kept working despite drawing monsters?
The thick envelope of cash.
I peeked inside and smiled.
Mission accomplished.
This much would buy me all the premium beef I could eat.
“Heh heh heh…”
Laughing aloud, I dressed quickly before leaping onto a rebuilt building, away from prying eyes.
My shirt, now loose from work, flapped noisily in the wind. But I had to move fast—the nearby supermarket would close soon.