124
Ch.124 Said
“First of all, please refrain from speaking in front of people. Everyone is too excited and out of control….”
A forest of broken buildings in a closed-off zone near W-City.
Citizens, unable to hear the conversation from a distance, saw Starlight fly in to deliver a warning.
According to Starlight, rumors that the Black Cat is a monster that can speak have spread, causing all organizations in W-City to go wild.
A group originating from D-City survivors, called the Mioong Faction, is rejoicing, claiming that evidence has emerged proving the Black Cat is the savior.
In W-City, the Waong Faction and Wahng Faction, primarily active in a place called the Black Cat Mom Cafe, are divided and fighting—some insist they must wait until the Black Cat speaks again, while others argue they should actively talk to the Black Cat to become closer.
Meanwhile, the Whyong Faction, from other cities, has united under the goal of somehow extracting the Black Cat from W-City, each for their own reasons, and is growing in numbers.
All of them follow me whenever I enter W-City to eat, shouting what they want to say loudly enough that no alarm is needed.
“Everyone wants you to listen to them somehow. Even those who think they shouldn’t make demands of you raise their voices to tell others to be quiet, which leads to louder arguments, noise, and fights.”
[I am not a monster that obeys orders.]
“Yeah, but among humans, many mistakenly believe that just because communication is possible, they can make you do what they say. Even those who don’t think that way just want to talk to you because they like you.”
Those who refuse to accept that, in the age of monsters, they are merely prey.
Those who want to exploit the monster’s power.
Those who simply want the unique experience of conversing with an Annihilation-class monster.
All of them want the Black Cat to listen to them.
“I think I’ve made a similar request before, but the very idea that communication with a monster is possible is dangerous. The citizens of W-City are now fully aware that you’re special, so I’m less worried about them… But reports keep coming in of people from other cities refusing to evacuate and attempting to talk to monsters, only to get eaten.”
[There are many fools.]
“Exactly. So, from now on, please avoid speaking in front of people. There are quite a few witnesses, so it’ll take some time… But fortunately, there’s no footage from that time, and we’re taking various measures, so it’ll eventually die down.”
[Understood.]
“Sigh… Sorry, I should’ve warned you earlier, but I’ve been so busy… Oh, sorry for interrupting. I’ll go now.”
Beep beep beep—the notification sound from Starlight’s wrist rang out as they returned to W-City, and a whooshing sound echoed from inside the city.
After Starlight was launched toward A-City to subdue a monster, the monster researchers and citizens who had been hiding from Starlight reappeared near the city’s outer walls.
“Black Cat! Just one word, please!”
“Just one word! Communication with a monster!”
“Do you truly recognize language and speak? Please, just one response!”
Ignoring the amplified, noisy shouts, I continued what I was doing until Starlight arrived.
Whoosh—every time I hid my form beneath the buildings, disappointed sighs could be heard from the direction of the outer walls.
When I returned to my original form, they cheered loudly upon seeing my head peeking over the buildings.
“So cute!”
“Fighting~! Hang in there!”
“Black Cat, stay strong!”
“Work hard and come back to eat!”
Now, everyone has realized I’m practicing shrinking my body and is cheering me on.
They’ve noticed that every time I reduce my size and appear in the city, my meal portions decrease.
The citizens cheer whenever the safe zone remains intact, while my food intake shrinks.
Some have expressed concern that this might mean the Black Cat isn’t eating enough, but even they fall silent upon seeing my always-full belly.
After I finish eating and leave, a market opens in the park where the leftover food is sold at lower prices than usual.
Then, when I return to the closed-off zone to practice physical transformations after a day’s meal, Gu Seo-ryong and Sagugu, loaded with food from the market, come to visit.
“Thanks to you, Sagugu’s food expenses have gone down lately.”
“Ungnyanyanya… Sagugu full… Sleepy….”
“Sagugu? If you keep eating and sleeping like this every day, you’ll get fat. Go for a walk first.”
“Sagugu doesn’t get fat.”
Gu Seo-ryong, sitting in a spot hidden by the building forest to avoid being seen in W-City, watches me shrink and transform, offering advice on humanization or asking questions about my current form.
“What about splitting into cats? Wouldn’t it be easier to shift into a human form if you reduce your power to Despair-class?”
“It’s possible, but dangerous.”
The ability to split is essentially detaching my core.
If that core is lost, my power diminishes permanently.
“I thought you could change your body freely. Can’t you transform into one of the smaller monsters you’ve absorbed?”
“No.”
When I change my body, I don’t fully become that monster—I optimize my physique to use their abilities.
So even if I transformed into another monster now, I’d maintain this massive size to withstand the output.
“Then what exactly are you doing?”
“Compression.”
In the end, there’s only one way to reduce size while maintaining this output.
Suppress the monster core and compact my muscles, blood vessels, and flesh densely enough to endure the strain.
After increasing density through compression, I’ve managed to shrink to about 1.5 times my pre-annihilation-class size.
“This seems to be the limit.”
“Fascinating. It’s like watching a magic trick where an elephant is stuffed into a fridge.”
“What’s an elephant?”
I tried a few more things, but shrinking further is impossible.
Still, if I can just suppress the endlessly surging core’s power, a human form should…
“Your ears are out.”
“Hmm.”
“Oh my, now the tail.”
“Just like Sagugu!”
Unfortunately, fully suppressing the core is still difficult, so ears or a tail pop out.
But if I consciously flatten the ears and wrap the tail like a belt around my waist, I can return to my previous appearance.
Except for one thing.
“…Isn’t it too big?”
“I can’t get any smaller than this.”
If Gu Seo-ryong’s head used to reach my chest, now it’s closer to my stomach.
Sagugu’s head, which was at waist height, is now near my knees.
I’ve grown much taller.
“I kinda want to strip you and see if other parts got bigger too….”
“Shut up.”
“Oh? Why the dislike? Bigger is better, isn’t it?”
“What exactly is better about being bigger?”
“Heh… Want me to show you? After we put Sagugu to sleep, wanna meet back here later?”
“Sagugu, not sleepy yet?”
Gu Seo-ryong stuck out her forked tongue, shaping the ends into a heart.
Ignoring the sticky waves of affection, I picked up a nearby rock.
Just lightly squeezing it caused the hard concrete to crumble like a sugar cube.
I expected this.
I’ll have to retrain my strength control from scratch.
“But why do you want a human form so badly?”
On another day, as I practiced strength control by picking up glass and metal scraps in the ruins, Gu Seo-ryong asked while eating.
“I want to eat in peace.”
When I eat in monster form, people film me, talk to me, cheer, and even bring dishes I don’t want.
Above all, it’s noisy.
“Hmm, that’s a very you answer.”
“Then why do you maintain a human form?”
“Huh? Well, to avoid those pesky heroes who’ll chase monsters to the ends of the earth but might let a villain go?”
When I tossed back a question I’d been pondering, Gu Seo-ryong answered casually, but my expanded senses as an Annihilation-class monster detected more to it.
“It feels like there’s more to it.”
“Heh, if you want to have deep conversations with a girl, you should at least roll around passionately with her first.”
“Hmm.”
“Huh? What… Oh my, oh my, oh my?!”
Curious, I wrapped my arms around Gu Seo-ryong’s waist and lifted her.
I carried her to a nearby grassy spot where Sagugu was napping, then crouched and rolled us both in a circle.
To keep her from talking, I rolled forward, sideways, everywhere—even accidentally squishing Sagugu’s leg once.
“Nyyaaak! What was that?! You attacked Sagugu!”
“I rolled.”
“You…? That’s not what I meant by rolling… It’s more like this.”
Still lying beneath me after the roll, Gu Seo-ryong wore an oddly excited expression and slid a hand down my stomach.
As her hand drifted lower, I frowned and got up.
“If you mean mating, say mating. Don’t call it rolling.”
“Mating?! That was mating just now?!”
“I wasn’t trying to trick you? You misunderstood. Thanks to you, I got an unexpected reward.”
“Mating looks fun! Sagugu wants to try too!”
“Sagugu? That wasn’t mating. Keep talking like that, and no more Ppippikung for you.”
“Nyaaang….”
Leaving Gu Seo-ryong to scold Sagugu, I sat back down and resumed stacking glass bottles for practice.
I’m curious about Gu Seo-ryong’s obsession with a human form, but I don’t feel like pressing further.
Even without an answer, I think I can guess.
***
Once I could shrink my size sufficiently, I began repeatedly hiding within the city.
My smaller form no longer drew excessive attention, and I could evade citizens like when dodging Starlight.
At first, the citizens grew anxious and searched for me, but after not seeing me all day, while no other monsters appeared, they stopped chasing.
Even if invisible, the Black Cat is somewhere in W-City.
That alone makes them feel the safety zone is intact.
Now, during mealtime, people still crowd the park, but even that is now skillfully managed by the heroes.
Inside the park, only those who win a daily lottery for entry passes can come within 1 km of my feeding spot.
But the outer areas remain open to all, so during meals, religious songs, prayers, and amplified demands to free the Black Cat still echo nonstop.
“Isn’t it better that the Black Cat is hiding?”
“Right, no more noisy people chasing them around.”
With me out of sight, the streets once filled with clamoring crowds have quieted.
W-City is now always safe, and except during the Black Cat’s mealtime, even peaceful.
Most citizens feel deeply satisfied with this state.
Amid the happiness, napping in the city streets has become a trend.
“Hah… How long was I out?”
“Manager, I’m sorry. I was napping and… Huh? You just woke up, too?”
“Wow, this is insane… I can really let my guard down, sunbathe, and sleep like this?”
Some even lie on the park grass in swimsuits, tanning.
Every one of them has some Black Cat-related item on their body—a talisman for luck and safety.
“Wow… How many days has it been since the monster alarm last went off?”
“I’ve been sleeping so well lately. Even at night, it’s quiet.”
“The heroes look more relaxed, too.”
Citizens freed from chronic fatigue and nervousness caused by monsters are becoming addicted to this unbroken peace.
“I want to line up those who said feeding the Black Cat was a waste and slap them one by one as I walk past.”
“You were like that, too.”
“No, I just didn’t trust an Annihilation-class at first. But some kept saying we were giving too much even after it became clear.”
“Now, I just want to feed it more.”
“6,000 meals a day isn’t even a waste.”
“Honestly, even 30,000 would be fine. Citizens could take turns fasting—good for dieting.”
“But isn’t the Black Cat amazing? How does it reduce its size and food intake at the same time?”
Lately, the Black Cat eats between 1,000 and 2,000 meals a day—a shockingly small amount that makes the whole city feel guilty for being so safely protected.
Thus, in W-City’s Black Cat Park, where fans gather and talk only of the Black Cat, I stood drooling in front of a hot dog stall.
“If you’re not buying, don’t block the stall. Move along.”
In the safety zone created by the Black Cat, where no monsters appear in W-City, monster-related damage has ceased.
Naturally, jobs for rebuilding after monster attacks have vanished too.
“That looks delicious….”
“Hey, I said move along.”
I have no money.