144
Ch.144 Refugees Are Coming
“Just in case, everyone should be prepared. I’ve already informed the W-City government…”
“Ah, come on… You really think it’ll happen?”
“If it really does, we’re in big trouble.”
Yoo Anna, already stressed by personal matters, was seized by an uneasy premonition before she could even gather her emotions.
Illegal refugees who had arrived in B-City and G-City within a single day.
This definitely wasn’t the end of it.
[Senior, more refugees are coming from the west…]
[127 additional refugees have arrived in G-City.]
[This time, three heroes from B-City came as refugees. What’s going on?]
[Is… Is this really okay?]
[Southeast! A group of refugees has been spotted! Around 300! We need backup!]
[It’s a villain organization. They’re surrendering—what should we do? Should we accept them for now?]
As expected, it didn’t take long for an increasing number of refugees to begin heading toward W-City.
Thanks to the Black Cat, the heroes who had been resting were now busier than ever, covering a wider area than before.
These were reckless people who had fled their fortress cities just to see the Black Cat, but the heroes had no choice but to save them first and figure things out later.
[What the hell are they doing?!]
[They’re accepting refugees who haven’t even gone through formal procedures, who haven’t even lost their fortress cities!]
Some of the refugees who had settled in W-City used their own phones or videos taken by W-City residents to inform their home cities that they were safe.
Even if they were lying in box houses, the residents who witnessed their former neighbors—people they had lived alongside until just recently—now in W-City with the Black Cat couldn’t help but stir.
Would they dare to relive the nightmarish escape lifestyle of the early monster era just to reach the Black Cat? Or would they stay safely in their fortress cities?
Among them, more and more people began preparing for a life-risking migration.
The daily monster attacks and the ever-increasing death toll.
If they stayed, they’d die eventually anyway.
So why not risk death once and try moving?
And so, countless technicians, ordinary citizens who should have been laboring in their cities, and even heroes began abandoning their fortress cities.
A-rank and B-rank heroes left their cities undefended, heading toward the closed Districts, and many died in the process.
All for the sake of reaching W-City, where the Black Cat was.
[Are they trying to steal our city’s technicians like this?!]
[This is terrorism! Terrorism!]
[Our city’s heroes are leaking out! Three of them even died on the way there!]
Meanwhile, inside the W-City government building, in the mayor’s office…
The city’s leaders were furious at the situation where already scarce heroes were voluntarily throwing their lives away.
Under the glare of the holographic mayors, the W-City mayor laughed as he drank beer with potato chips.
“Heh heh heh, this is quite troublesome.”
[Take action immediately! As mayor, it’s your responsibility to lead the citizens!]
[What the hell is W-City doing?!]
[Do you think having the Black Cat means you can pull this kind of stunt?!]
“Mmm heh heh heh~”
Laughing in a way utterly unfitting for the grave situation, the W-City mayor wiped his greasy, chip-dusted hands on his white hair and sneered at the other mayors.
“Mmm~ Wasn’t it you all who failed to manage your citizens properly and let them flee outside the cities?”
[What did you say?!]
“If you had just eliminated the smuggling routes the villains created in time, this wouldn’t have happened.”
[Do you think that’s as easy as you make it sound?!]
“Or you could’ve deployed police forces strategically. Or made sure the heroes were satisfied enough that they wouldn’t even think of leaving.”
[How many cities even have enough police reserves to do that?!]
[You think W-City’s heroes stayed because you did a good job?! You’re just a lucky old man!]
“Hmph heh heh heh heh~”
At the mention of luck, the mayor grinned widely, drained the last of his beer, and motioned for Yoo Anna to step forward.
Watching this, Yoo Anna sighed to herself.
The W-City mayor was the oldest among all the city mayors—an irresponsible man with no interest in urban development or governance, caring only about living comfortably and eating well.
Ironically, it was precisely because of this that he got along well with the heroes.
The W-City mayor dumped all duties and authority onto the heroes and technicians, sitting idly in his position as mayor and playing around every day.
After the Black Cat became an Annihilation-class, he doubled down on his laziness.
The mayors, aware that much of the city’s authority had already been handed over to Yoo Anna, clicked their tongues and shifted their focus to her.
[Starlight, what exactly are you planning to do?]
[You’re not seriously thinking of continuing to accept refugees, are you?]
“So you’re saying we should turn them away? Send back those who risked their lives to reach W-City?”
[Yes! That’s the only way to stop people from sneaking out of their cities!]
Yoo Anna partially agreed with the mayors and couldn’t immediately refute them.
“That’s not something a human should do.”
But she also couldn’t bring herself to accept the idea of refusing refugees.
[Not something a human should do? Is that really what you’re saying right now?]
[All these refugees exist because of you. If you had just taken proper measures, this wouldn’t have happened!]
“If ‘proper measures’ means leaving citizens who risked their lives to escape their cities to die, then I won’t take them.”
[What did you say?]
“Heroes are people who protect humans, not people who kill them.”
Yoo Anna glared at the holograms of the elderly mayors with her star-fragmented eyes, a side effect of her abilities.
“I only kill monsters.”
At her firm response, the mayors clicked their tongues one by one.
“I will continue accepting refugees who have already left their cities. I don’t want to see citizens die either. Please do your best to manage your cities properly.”
In the end, the reason refugees were fleeing their cities was due to the cities’ lack of management.
If they had just stationed their military and police—kept as private security—in their proper positions, this many refugees wouldn’t have fled in the first place.
As Yoo Anna blamed the mayors for their incompetence, they began hurling insults.
[You talk about protecting humans, yet you’re encouraging citizens to throw themselves into death like moths to a flame.]
[You’re just a girl who got lucky and awakened superpowers. Who do you think you are?]
[They say when a hen crows, the nation falls—old proverbs never lie!]
[You monster of a woman, forgetting your place after being corrupted by that Kage bastard.]
[You insolent brat!]
After the emergency meeting ended amid the mayors’ vitriol, Yoo Anna sent off the mayor (who declared he was going out for drinks) and returned to the hero headquarters.
“How’s the refugee situation?”
“Well… Central Park is already at full capacity.”
“The prisons are full of villains who’ve surrendered after coming here from other cities.”
“Sigh…”
Though she had told the mayors she would keep accepting refugees, W-City was already nearing its limit.
The city was large enough to accommodate more people, but that was all it had—space. Nothing more.
“If people keep pouring in like this, we’ll genuinely run out of food.”
“Forget the Black Cat’s Cat Tower—if we don’t expand the food factories…”
“To expand the factories, heroes need to bring resources from the closed Districts, and we’ll need Meister and her techniques.”
With refugees flooding in from all directions, W-City was once again short on heroes.
The heroes were too busy protecting the incoming refugees to spare any for closed district expeditions.
Bringing Meisters from A-City was also impossible right now.
Even though the Black Cat had become an Annihilation-class and created a safe district, things were still this chaotic.
Yoo Anna clutched her head in her private room, faced with this impossible situation.
“We don’t have enough heroes… Or time… Or resources…”
Muttering the same words Kage always said, Yoo Anna sighed quietly and thought of Kage, who still hadn’t regained consciousness.
If only Kage were here—if there were just one more S-rank hero…
…If Park Deun-deun became an S-rank for them.
Just as Yoo Anna was considering asking Park Deun-deun again to become a hero, given the desperate need for even one more strong hero…
“Come in.”
“Uh, Senior?”
A man knocked on the door of her private office—Iron Might, wearing a complicated expression as he stepped inside.
“What is it? If it’s not urgent, come back later. I’m trying to figure out how to handle the refugee situation.”
Yoo Anna was busy reviewing combat strategies for rescuing refugees approaching W-City, planning how to settle them within the city, and agonizing over the compiled data.
Iron Might clenched his eyes shut.
“Huuuu…”
The long sigh and the ominous feeling it carried made Yoo Anna slowly lift her gaze from the documents to look at him.
Like a steam train releasing pent-up pressure, he tilted his head back and exhaled heavily, over and over.
Iron Might, gripping his phone tightly, only deepened Yoo Anna’s unease.
“I’m really sorry to bring this up at a time like this… But there’s something I absolutely must discuss. Could you spare a moment?”
“What is it? It’s… Not something dangerous, right?”
Was he about to say he wanted to retire?
Was there a problem with his abilities? Was he unwell? Had someone caused an accident? Had someone messed with the Black Cat again?
As Yoo Anna’s mind flooded with worst-case scenarios, Iron Might clenched his eyes shut and slowly flipped over the phone in his hand.
“…Huh?”
On the screen was something Yoo Anna recognized.
An object defined by just two lines.
In this monster era, it was something that deserved even more celebration than before.
“Huh? Wh-who is it? Who among us is having a baby?”
It was a photo of a pregnancy test.
“Well… Yes…”
“Who? Minji? Ju-young? Hye-su? Do-young?”
Yoo Anna rapidly listed the names of female heroes she knew had boyfriends or husbands.
Iron Might sighed silently in response.
His trembling fingertips pointed at himself.
“…Huh? Wh-whaaaaaaat?!”
Yoo Anna was stunned as Iron Might gestured to himself.
“Y-you’re the father?! But you don’t even have a girlfriend! When did this happen?!”
“That’s… The thing.”
“Wow! C-congratulations! How did this happen? Who is it? You’ve been secretly dating someone? Wait, you were just saying heroes don’t have time for relationships! Ah! What about marriage? Oh, so the ‘important thing’ you had to talk about was wedding plans?”
Overjoyed at the news that her most cherished subordinate was going to be a father, Yoo Anna shot up from her seat and gave Iron Might’s stiffened back a hearty slap.
“Who’s the mother? Hmm… Su-jin? Or Jung-hee? You’re close with too many female heroes—I can’t guess! Ah, or is it just a civilian? Though it’s probably better if heroes stick together…”
“Senior! Uh, well, the thing is…”
“So you froze up because you suddenly found out you’re having a baby? Is this what they call a ‘shotgun wedding’? That’s amazing… Don’t worry, just get married! No matter how busy you are, you have to make time for marriage! I’ll cover for you. It’s not like you’re an S-rank—I can fill in for an A-rank no problem!”
“I’m sorry!”
“Huh? Why are you apologizing?”
Iron Might, biting his lip, steadied his breathing several times before—with uncharacteristically shaky hands—dismissing the photo from the screen.
Beneath it was the messaging app where the photo had been sent.
Presumably, this was a conversation between Iron Might and his partner.
Yoo Anna hesitated—was it okay to look?—but silently stared at the screen he held out to her.
Messages from the woman, clingy and desperate: [Can’t you really come to A-City? I miss you.]
Cold replies from Iron Might: [Why are you acting like this all of a sudden? Have you been feeling lonely lately?]
Yoo Anna wanted to smack Iron Might’s head for responding so coldly to a woman saying she missed him—until she saw the most recent exchange.
< What are you going to do? )
( Huh? >
< I’m serious, what are you going to do… )
A message that sounded utterly panicked, followed by the pregnancy test photo.
And right below it, a full-body photo the woman had sent.
Electress, her face tear-streaked and disheveled, cradling her stomach protectively.
“Huh?”
Yoo Anna looked up at Iron Might in disbelief.
No way…? She shook her head slightly, but Iron Might neither nodded nor shook his head—he just sighed.
“Huh?”
Thud. The shock hit Yoo Anna harder than a blow from a Despair-class monster. Staggering, she leaned against the desk, desperately clinging to rationality.
This was real.
When did this even happen? Since when were Iron Might and Electress…?
“Huh? Since when were you two like this? Wh-what’s going on?”
“Well… Sigh, it’s…”
“Ah! N-no, you don’t have to tell me! It’s your private love life! And why are you apologizing? Having a baby is a blessing, not something to apologize for!”
Though Yoo Anna congratulated Iron Might, she couldn’t help but think something unpleasant.
Some heroes could still use their abilities while pregnant, but Electress was a special case.
Her body conducted the electricity she generated—a unique trait of her awakened physiology.
Could a fetus withstand that?
Probably not.
Which meant they were about to lose an S-rank hero in this situation?
A-City’s citizens would be left unprotected. Should she just leave W-City entirely to the Black Cat and go to A-City herself? Would that even work?
No, then managing the refugees would become impossible. If left unchecked, they might turn into another hostile faction like the ones that provoked the Black Cat before.
“Um, Senior. I’m really sorry, but… I think I can use the Hero Cannon. Would it be possible for me to go to A-City for a bit?”
“Huh? The Hero Cannon? You can use that?”
“Maria already asked Meister about it. She said since my ability is special, it’s fine even though I’m only A-rank.”
“Maria? Ah! That’s Electress’s name, right? Right, her name was Maria! Of course it’s fine! Don’t worry! W-City has the Black Cat, after all!”
“Sigh… Thank you. Actually, yesterday she suddenly called me crying and said she was going to… Get rid of the baby.”
“What?! N-no, she can’t do that! I’ll issue the transfer order myself, and you can write a report later—just go! Reassure Electress…”
Electress cried over the phone? Still reeling, Yoo Anna pushed Iron Might toward the door.
After bowing deeply, Iron Might left the room.
Left alone, Yoo Anna stood frozen for a moment before clutching her head and spinning in place.
“Aaaaaah…!”
Why now?! There’s already too much to deal with!
A thought she couldn’t voice aloud exploded silently inside her.
How long had she been standing there, head throbbing, leaning against the wall?
“S-Senior!”
Iron Might, who had said he was leaving for A-City, suddenly burst back into Yoo Anna’s room without knocking.
He had never once entered without knocking before.
“Right now, right now…!”
Startled, Yoo Anna’s eyes widened at the phone screen Iron Might shoved in her face.
After leaving, he must have been messaging Electress again—the screen was filled with new conversations.
At the very bottom, one message stood out:
< Kage woke up )