146
Ch.146 Solution
"It's not a normal method."
"But it's quite a clever plan, isn't it?"
It was hard to deny, so Yoo Anna nodded.
The distance from A-City to W-City isn't that far.
By pre-catastrophe standards, walking to W-City would take about 8 hours at a forced march.
Factoring in rest time, it would take even longer.
Moving an entire city's worth of people outside the fortified city for over 8 hours would be suicidal.
But, if they had Black Cat...
"Underground facilities can last up to 10 years even if monsters occupy them. We can move only the essential equipment by train and load the rest onto vehicles for a slow migration. With the current road conditions, it's entirely feasible. All you need to do is send Black Cat to A-City while you're in W-City."
"Wait, let me think for a moment."
Yoo Anna stopped Jung Ho-young, who was pushing the hastily devised plan, and fell into thought.
If this many refugees head to W-City, it might incite refugees from other cities to flee as well, accelerating urban abandonment. But they couldn't just abandon all of A-City's citizens.
The food crisis immediately after migration, the power struggles among the ruling class from merging cities, the political infighting between superhumans and villains—bringing A-City's factions, which were already embroiled in such conflicts, directly into W-City would cause severe side effects.
On top of the refugees running wild, politicians would start seeing Black Cat as a monster that obeys human commands.
The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a temporary fix rather than a fundamental solution.
"...Still, it's doable."
No matter how exhausting and troublesome it might be, dealing with politicians and refugees was better than fighting monsters.
Even if it was tiring, at least people wouldn't be dying immediately.
They had to stop-gap the situation while they still could.
Even a brief consideration made it clear that multiple problems would arise, but the gains outweigh the losses.
"I get that it's worth trying. The problem is Black Cat."
This wasn't so much a request as it was an order.
If the rumors were true and Yoo Anna had tamed Black Cat, maybe it would listen. But would it really go all the way to A-City and bring people back?
From her perspective, she and Black Cat were only on friendly terms. She was afraid that asking for such a troublesome favor might earn her its resentment.
"There's no way it wouldn't notice we're using it."
"We can keep Black Cat happy with food. If everyone migrates, A-City's food factories will have to be temporarily abandoned. We can feed Black Cat all the surplus food we can't take with us."
"You think Black Cat would... well, it does like beef and tuna."
"From Black Cat's perspective, it's just going to A-City, eating some tasty food, and taking a leisurely stroll with humans. It wouldn't refuse."
After saying that, Jung Ho-young lowered his head slightly and muttered under his breath.
"It's a relief that Black Cat hunted the monsters in A-City for us."
"Yeah, thanks to Black Cat, the damage was significantly reduced."
"More importantly, it's clear that Black Cat is on our side. Perfect timing. Let me bring up something important."
What now?
As Yoo Anna glared at him, silently demanding he get to the point, Jung Ho-young motioned to his two secretaries with his eyes.
"You two, wait outside. And soundproof the room, just in case."
"But, Kage-nim. Your condition..."
"I don't need nursing. What I'm about to discuss isn't information you're cleared to hear yet."
The two quietly stood up, left the room, and activated their abilities outside.
Only three people remained in the hospital room: Nam Kyung, Jung Ho-young, and Yoo Anna.
"Honestly, I'd like to send you out too, Meister, but you'll find out eventually anyway. Plus, I could use your ability's help."
"What's this all about?"
"It's about that day. Let me explain... step by step."
‘That day’ referred to the night A-City suffered catastrophic damage.
As Yoo Anna tensed up, Jung Ho-young began explaining the reasons behind that night's events in order.
"First, I planned to eliminate the government's trash and then hand over the position of ruler to you. The purge that day—the one the citizens called the 'Coup in a Cage'—was for that purpose."
"I can't exactly approve of that. Why did you do it?"
"I thought it was necessary. You stubbornly pursue only the 'right' methods, so if someone like you leads, I could handle things by any means necessary behind the scenes without facing public backlash. If I covered the holes in your idealism with reality, we’d have near-perfect governance..."
"That's not what I'm asking."
Yoo Anna also believed that someday, the rotten parts among those who held power in the city would need to be excised. Her methods were just more moderate compared to Jung Ho-young's.
"I understand the necessity of the purge you carried out. But... it wasn't like you."
Jung Ho-young was bold but never reckless.
He always chose the most realistic, least damaging options after careful consideration.
Yet, everything that day had been reckless, rushed, and excessively destructive.
"I ran out of time."
"Why?"
"The moment I caught their trail, I instinctively knew. They were plotting something in A-City."
Was someone chasing him? Jung Ho-young—no, Kage—being chased?
Reflexively, Yoo Anna thought of a certain villain but quickly shook her head.
If that villain or the Villain Association were involved, it would've been a villain, not a monster, who killed Yeo Woon-jae.
"Who are 'they'?"
When Yoo Anna asked who ‘they’ were, the answer made her frown.
"Those who control the monsters."
"What?"
Control the monsters?
***
Click. After closing the hospital room door, Yoo Anna walked down the hallway in silence, leaving the secretaries behind.
She slowly digested the unbelievable things Jung Ho-young had told her.
'I’ve been investigating Yeo Woon-jae’s death since that day.'
How did the monster weaponization experiments start? Were they even possible?
Jung Ho-young, obsessed with his investigation, stumbled upon illegal human experiments happening behind the city's back.
At first, he thought it was just another dirty operation unrelated to Yeo Woon-jae's death—kidnapping newly awakened young superhumans.
But in the process of dismantling it, he noticed something strange.
One of the researchers involved let slip:
There are those who have truly tamed monsters.
At first, he thought it was just an urban legend created by madmen with delusional goals.
But as Jung Ho-young rose to a high political position, his access to information grew, and his perspective gradually shifted.
There’s something here.
'The first red flag was in the analysis data of certain monsters.'
The reason Yeo Woon-jae believed monster weaponization was possible—the data on a peculiar monster that avoided attacking children.
When Jung Ho-young revisited those records, something felt off.
The data he saw now didn’t match the paper documents Yeo Woon-jae had shown him.
Something was missing.
He realized what was missing while hunting monsters rampaging through the city.
The weakness needed to truly kill them.
Their cores were different.
Unlike other monsters, whose cores were fractal structures resembling spheres—proof they weren’t of this world—these monsters had cores resembling human hearts.
The omission of such a critical detail was suspicious. Jung Ho-young recalled the corpses of monsters he’d seen before.
There were more.
'The core of the monster that killed Yeo Woon-jae also looked like a heart.'
Kage combed through his memories and went to the government’s monster research lab to examine previously captured specimens.
Over time, monster specimens decay as their cells die without a host, reverting to ordinary animal remains.
Most specimens were already useless.
'But it’s strange that every specimen with a heart-like core was degraded.'
Someone had deliberately tampered with the specimens and erased parts of the archived data.
Convinced, Jung Ho-young assembled a separate team to analyze monsters he captured himself.
Some of them had identical cells.
Monster cells are like tree rings—records of their evolution.
Just as human fingerprints differ, it’s nearly impossible for monsters to have completely identical cells. Yet, here they were.
These monsters were stronger, more rational, and more intelligent than others of their rank.
'I thought they were artificial.'
Even monsters of the same species only share evolutionary directions—their internals are distinct.
Dissecting a monster pregnant with offspring won’t reveal identical cells, even among siblings.
Jung Ho-young concluded that someone—some group—had injected these monsters with identical cells.
And he believed this was tied to monster weaponization.
That group likely had collaborators within the government.
They might already know how much he’d uncovered.
'I planned to root them out before they could cut ties... but I didn’t expect this.'
They didn’t just cut ties—they destroyed A-City entirely.
The multiple Calamity-class monsters that appeared simultaneously in A-City.
And they used Yeo Woon-jae.
Yeo Woon-jae wasn’t killed by a monster, Owl Bear.
The monster that took Yeo Woon-jae’s heart—Yeo Woon-jae herself—transformed into a monster right before Jung Ho-young’s eyes.
Yoo Anna found it hard to believe, but then Jung Ho-young clutched his chest and left her stunned.
'Right now, my heart is being eaten by those monster cells. Well... I’m somehow holding on.'
Yeo Woon-jae’s heart medication had been laced with monster cells.
Even an S-rank superhuman’s regeneration couldn’t fully repair his heart because of it.
Surgically removing the cells was impossible.
In fact, he was only alive because the cells were partially sustaining his heart’s function—preventing the host from dying.
Nam Kyung used her ability to confirm Jung Ho-young’s theory.
Realizing why she’d sensed something monster-like from him, Yoo Anna accepted the unbelievable truth.
But the next deduction was harder to swallow.
'They might be... using humans as material to create monsters.'
The monster Yeo Woon-jae became—Owl Bear—displayed overwhelming linguistic ability matching its power.
Having witnessed Yeo Woon-jae’s case and now experiencing it firsthand in his own heart, Jung Ho-young believed this group was sacrificing humans to create special monsters.
Monsters that obeyed them—monster weapons.
'Is that even possible?'
Nam Kyung, tears of guilt in her eyes, answered with her ability:
"...It is."
It was the worst possible answer.
Through some unknown method, they were turning humans into monster weapons.
Nam Kyung’s ability couldn’t reveal their full purpose, but one thing was certain: they were committing unforgivable acts.
'The only reason they haven’t attacked A-City again is likely because of the Meister’s safety. Her ability must be incredibly useful to them.'
Guessing why no artificial monsters had been sent to A-City since then, Jung Ho-young emphasized the urgency.
'But if they learn I’ve regained consciousness, they might send more. Five Calamity-class monsters... they really wanted me dead.'
So his honest stance was that they needed to reach W-City as soon as possible—for the citizens’ safety, and his and the Meister’s.
Exhausted, Jung Ho-young sighed after finishing his explanation.
'...The more I think about it, the more Black Cat’s help seems like our best option.'
Hearing that, Yoo Anna was struck by a strange thought.
Black Cat, a monster that understands speech, helps when asked, likes children, protects humans, speaks human language, and enjoys human food.
Really... is Black Cat even a monster at all?